BJP today thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for scrapping 32-year-old government's decision, banning the visit of 212 Sikh Non Resident Indian families to India. These families were never given visa to travel to any part of the country after the operation Bluestar in 1984. The then Congress government had black listed these families in order to keep away pro Khalistan elements that had fled to the United States, Canada and UK after the operation Bluestar. Incharge of Foreign Affairs in BJP Vijay M Chauthaiwale said that it was the need of the hour and those families should be given permission to visit their own country. A committee headed by Additional Secretary of the Home Ministry had examined the blacklist, from which 212 cases of a total of 324 were removed from the list, sources said. Sources also said that the rest of the cases were also being examined by the ministry and those could also be removed from the blacklist. The decision to lift the ban on their visit to India was taken after the Prime Minister's visits to the UK and Canada where he had seen several representations from Sikh NRI groups asking for reconsideration on the issue. UNI XC SHK 1845 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0105-896135.Xml
Responding to allegations that the Government of India's policy on Kashmir has changed and shifted to Balochistan, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Saturday said there is no question of change in police on Kashmir. "The people of Jammu and Kashmir should be empowered and brought into mainstream development, and we are constantly working for it," he told reporters. "In the last 25 months, Kashmiri youth joined the mainstream of development very fast, and an environment for peace and harmony was created, which the enemies of peace did not like. And definitely, these enemies of peace are having backing from across the border, and they keep on doing such things to deteriorate the environment," Naqvi added. Speaking on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Balochistan reference in his Independence Day Speech, he said, "As far as Balochistan is concerned, India is the biggest supporter of human rights and democracy; if democracy is being murdered and human rights are suppressed in its neighbourhood then it becomes India's moral responsibility to apply a balm on the wounds of the suppressed people." Earlier, asserting that both the state and the Central governments have failed in finding a solution to the soaring violence in the Valley, leader of opposition in the Jammu and Kashmir assembly Omar Abdullah said here that the problem in the state is a political one and cannot be handled administratively. Speaking to the media here after submitting a memorandum to President Pranab Mukherjee, Omar said that this is the first time in memory that initiatives that should have been taken by the government, are actually being taken by the opposition. "This afternoon a delegation of opposition parties that had previously met in Srinagar, called on his Excellency the President to present him a memorandum and to apprise him of the situation currently prevailing, particularly in Kashmir valley, but also showing signs of spreading to Pir Punjal, Chenab valley region of Jammu and Kargil part of Ladakh as well," he said. Omar added that their meeting with the President, which cuts across party lines, symbolised the deep concerns that they have for the prevailing situation and also their disappointment at the way the matter has sought to be handled, both by the Centre as well as the state government. (ANI)
President Pranab Mukherjee has said India attaches the highest priority to its relations with Nepal and remains strongly committed to further strengthening this age-old relationship. Mr Mukherjee, during his meeting with Bimalendra Nidhi, Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister of Nepal, who called on him at Rashtrapati Bhavan yesterday, said the long-term peace and stability of a united Nepal is in India's interest. "India will work with Nepal towards this common goal,'' he added.The President said Indo-Nepal relations were firmly embedded in shared geography, history, culture, civilisation and close people-to-people ties. The President congratulated Mr Nidhi on his appointment as the Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister of Nepal. He wished Mr Nidhi every success in promoting national cohesion and reconciliation in Nepal. The Nepalese Deputy Prime Minister reciprocated the President's sentiments and conveyed on behalf of President of Nepal Bidhya Bhandari, an invitation to visit Nepal.UNI AR CJ RJ 2008 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0092-896378.Xml
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh today lashed out at Pakistan for projecting the terrorists of Kashmir as martyrs. He also repeated the assertion that the present state of unrest was sponsored by Pakistan. He asked the Pakistan to refrain from testing the nerves of India and desist from sponsoring cross border terrorism in India otherwise it may have to pay a heavy price. Without naming the recent killing of a Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Burhan Wani in Kashmir by the security forces, Rajnath Singh said, ''Terrorist in one country cannot be the national hero of another nation''. He was addressing a public meeting as part of the `Tiranga yatra' here. The Yatra is the nationwide campaign launched by the BJP to commemorate the 70th year of India's independence. He said Kashmir was inseparable and integral part of India and no power on earth can separate it from India. He said India was willing to discuss only Pakistan occupied Kashmir (POK) with Pakistan and the question of discussing Jammu and Kashmir with Islamabad does not arise. On the present spell of violence in Kashmir valley, Rajnath Singh said, ''The people of Kashmir are as dear to us as people of any other part of India and we want to retain the people as well as the land of Kashmir". He said the Kashmiri youth should have pen and computer in their hands rather than stones or other things. He warned Pakistan that it should not test India'a patience, otherwise they will have to pay heavy price for it. He warned Pakistan about its habit to promote instabilities in the valley and said all Indians including Muslims will shed all their bloods to fight the evil designs of Pakistan. Pointing out Pakistan's efforts to manipulate Kashmiri youth and conspiring to divide the country, home minister said that Indian youth irrespective of caste, creed and religion will sacrifice self for his motherland India. "I want to see pen and computer in hands of Kashmiri youth" he added. "Whether it is Pakistan or China, our countrymen are united to give them a befitting reply like our great freedom fighters Ram Prasad Bismil and Ashfaqulla Khan. Both natives of Shahjahanpur were hanged to death by the Britishers following their conviction in Kakori train dacoity case. Paying rich tributes to the great freedom fighter Ram Prasad Bismil and Ashfaqulla Khan, Mr Singh said its now responsibility of the youth to protect the independence, unity and integrity of the country. Later, he garlanded the statues of Ram Prasad Bismil, Ashfaqulla Khan and Thakur Roshan Singh and said that the BJP has started Tiranga Yatra to pay tributes to all great freedom fighters across the country.UNI MB PR SHK 1947 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0105-896256.Xml
Newly appointed Reserve Bank of India Governor Urjit R Patel, who is going to succeed Raghuram Rajan next month, has an outstanding academic and career record. Dr Patel knows his job well as he has spent a long time with the Reserve Bank of India itself and has experience of International Monetary Fund (IMF) too. He is familiar with working with government as he has been in various high-level committees and panels of the central governments.He has been a Deputy Governor of Reserve Bank of India since January 7, 2013. As Deputy Governor of RBI, Dr Patel looks after Monetary Policy, Economic Policy Research, Statistics and Information Management, Deposit Insurance, Communication and Right to Information. Dr Patel also served as the Chief Policy Officer at IDFC Limited. He has experience of more than 17 years in financial, energy and infrastructure sectors. He was also advisor of the Boston Consulting Group. Not only with the government functioning, he is familiar with the working of the Indian corporate sector as he has served various Indian conglomerates, including Reliance Industries. He also served as Director of Gujarat Petroleum Limited and National Housing Bank. He has been a Director of State Bank of India since February 6, 2013. On January 11, 2013, fifty-three-year-old Dr Patel was appointed as Deputy Governor of RBI for a period of three years. He took over charge of the vital Monetary Policy Department, succeeding Subir Gokarn to the post. He also served as a consultant to the Ministry of Power, Department of Economic Affairs, New Delhi from 1998 to 2001. He also served at International Monetary Fund (IMF). In fact, from 1995 to 1997 he was a Consultant to RBI on deputation from International Monetary Fund, providing advice on banking sector reforms and development of foreign exchange market. Dr Patel, who holds a Doctorate (PhD) in Economics from Yale University and is a graduate of the University of London and Oxford, was a consultant to the Department of Economic Affairs in the finance ministry from 1998-2001. He has also worked in the private sector with assignments such as president (business development) at Reliance Industries and executive director and member of the management committee, Infrastructure Development Finance Company (IDFC).Between 2000 and 2004, he had served several central and state government high level panels, including Task Force on Direct Taxes, Advisory Committee (on Research Projects and Market Studies), and Competition Commission of India. Dr Patel obtained his BA from the London School of Economics, MPhil degree from Oxford University in 1986. He joined IMF as a Kenyan citizen. He was at IMF India desk during the 1991-1994 transition period. After obtaining his PhD, Dr Patel joined the International Monetary Fund in 1990 worked on the US, India, Bahamas and Myanmar desks at IMF till 1995. Thereafter he went on deputation the IMF to the Reserve Bank of India, where he played an advisory role in the development of the debt market, banking sector reforms, pension fund reforms, targeting of real exchange rate. After the two-year deputation with RBI, Patel became a Consultant to the Government of India in the Ministry of Finance, Department of Economic Affairs - a position he held from 1998 to 2001.UNI ADP SW AE 1938 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0429-896277.Xml
After the sensational road hold-up in Bulandshahr, in which a woman and her daughter were gangraped, now criminals struck on train, when they not only robbed a 24-year-old Engineer girl, but also threw her from a running train, just after she resisted their attempt.The incident was reported yesterday morning and the girl was now battling for life in a private hospital at Bareilly. Surprisingly, the police officials concealed the information today and blamed the family members of not reporting the matter to them. After 24 hours, the case was registered with the Government Railway Police (GRP) Station in Bareilly and efforts were made to identify the miscreants through Close Circuit Television (CCTV) footage.Reports here today said that the engineer undergoing training in a multinational mobile company was travelling on Lucknow-Kathgodam Express between Izzatnagar-Kichcha railway stations, when some miscreants boarded train at Bhojipura railway station.The miscreants snatched the purse of the girl, so she resisted and tried to foil the attempt. However, the miscreants attacked her and to make a safe escape, they pushed her out of the compartment, in which the girl was seriously injured.The incident occurred just after the train started moving from Bhojipura railway station. The train was stopped by passengers by pulling the chain and the victim was rushed to Bhojipura Primary Health Centre by the RPF, from where she was taken to SRMS Medical College hospital, Bareilly, in a serious condition. The miscreants, however, escaped. The victim is a resident of Shastri Nagar locality here and was on her way to Rudrapur (Uttarakhand) to join on her duty.UNI MB CJ RJ 2045 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0105-896444.Xml
The Uttar Pradesh Congress today organised several programmes, particularly a 'Bheem Bhoj' to celebrate the 72nd birth anniversary of late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. UPCC president Raj Babbar garlanded Rajiv's statue and asked the Congressmen to take pledge that they all will follow the path shown by the former prime minister. He said that every Party leader should be ready to devote his life for welfare of common man and not even hesitate to sacrifice their lives just like Rajivji or Indira Gandhi had done to safe guard communal harmony of the nation. Babbar also attended Bheem Bhoj (community feast) organised by the Party to have lunch with Dalits. Remembering the former prime minister here today, former state president, Dr Rita Bahuguna Joshi, described Rajiv Gandhi as an efficient administrator and a far sighted politician who gave a new direction to the country. "Besides bringing about a revolution in the field of information technology, the former prime minister also took very significant steps towards implementation of development schemes at the rural level by vesting more powers in panchayati raj institutions," Joshi said while remembering Rajiv ji on his birth anniversary. It was Rajiv Gandhi who for the first time linked the country's youth to the political mainstream by granting them voting rights at the age of 18, she said. Meanwhile, in Amethi, a seat which Rajiv Gandhi represented in the Parliament from 1981 till his assassination in 1991, Congress activists paid rich tributes to the former Prime Minister on his 72nd birth anniversary. Congress activists led by Chandra Kant Dubey, Yogendra Mishra (president of district unit of party) and spokesman Anil Singh joined the 'Prabhat Pheri' in different parts of the constituency and garlanded the statue of Rajiv Gandhi at Sagra Tiraha in Amethi town. They also held meetings at block levels to pay tributes to the departed leader Tamil Nadu while campaigning for his party.UNI MB CJ RJ 2232 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0105-896433.Xml
The police surrounded a house in South Yarmouth on Friday and ordered 31-year-old Shaun Miller suspected of drug trafficking, out.

He walked outside in disguise and when they realised the "elderly man" was actually who they were looking for, they arrested him.

"Upon further investigation, officers determined that the 'elderly man' was in fact Miller," CNN quoted Yarmouth police as saying in a statement.

"At that point, officers pulled off Miller's realistic disguise and placed him under arrest," the statement said.

Two loaded weapons and almost $30,000 in cash was seized from Miller.

Miller is scheduled to appear on August 31 at US District Court in Boston, CNN added.

--IANS ksk

( 141 Words)

2016-08-20-09:20:01 (IANS)
Karzai, who is on a visit to India, told reporters that India has every right to respond to Pakistan's provocations, reported the Khaama Press.

He was of the opinion that India has no intention to go conduct a proxy war in the region as it has a tradition of peaceful co-existence.

Prime Minister Modi, in his Independence Day address, had thanked the people of Balochistan, Gilgit and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir for the goodwill they have shown towards him.

He had last week in an all-party meeting on Kashmir said the "time has come that Pakistan shall have to answer to the world for the atrocities committed by it against the people in Balochistan and PoK".

His statement about atrocities in Balochistan has hit a nerve with Pakistan, who has now voiced that it would raise the Kashmir issue at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). (ANI)
Making a direct appeal to black voters, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump urged them to abandon the Democratic party with a question, What do you have to lose by trying something new? Speaking at a rally in Dimondale, Michigan, Trump argued that Democrats, including his rival Hillary Clinton, have taken advantage of African American voters and their votes for granted. "Tonight, I'm asking for the vote of every single African American citizen in this country who wants to see a better future," the Guardian quoted Trump as saying. He then presented the crowd with a start question, "What do you have to lose by trying something new, like Trump?" "You're living in your poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs, 58% of your youth is unemployed, what the hell do you have to lose?," he added. Trump then made a bold prediction and said that at the four years, he would 95 percent of the African American vote. Latest polls show Trump trailing Clinton significantly among black voters. Not missing out any opportunity to hit out at the former secretary of state, the New York billionaire once again accused Clinton of bigotry, claiming she sees African Americans only as votes, not as human beings worthy of a better future. Meanwhile, the Clinton campaign on twitter responded, "This is so ignorant it's staggering." Bashing out at Trump, Clinton campaign's Marlon Marshall said, "Donald Trump asks what the African American community has to lose by voting for him. The answer is everything from a man who questions the citizenship of the first African American President, courts white supremacists, and has been sued for housing discrimination against communities of color." (ANI)
Turkey's parliament approved a reconciliation agreement signed with Israel in June which has brought to an end a six-year rift between the two regional powers, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said today.Relations between the two countries crumbled after Israeli marines stormed a Turkish ship in May 2010 to enforce a naval blockade of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, killing 10 Turks on board.Israel, which had already offered its apologies for the raid, agreed under the deal to pay out $20 million to the bereaved and wounded in return for Turkey dropping outstanding legal claims.Both countries are to appoint ambassadors under an agreement which is partly driven by the prospect of lucrative Mediterranean gas deals.The accord, signed on June 28, was a rare rapprochement in the divided Middle East, also driven by mutual fears over growing security risks. Two weeks afterwards more than 240 people were killed in an attempted coup in Turkey.Under the deal, the naval blockade of Gaza, which Ankara had wanted lifted, remains in force, although humanitarian aid can continue to be transferred to Gaza via Israeli ports.Israel says the Gaza blockade is needed to curb arms smuggling by Hamas, an Islamist group that last fought a war with Israel in 2014. Hamas, which won Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006, is designated as a terrorist organisation by the United States and European Unions.REUTERS PS PR1540 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0421-895849.Xml
The Muslim national, who has been detained for undisclosed reasons, was served processed ham in a meal on the evening of August 3, and has been on a hunger strike since then.

People of Islamic faith are forbidden to eat any kind of meat from pigs.

The man is currently only consuming water and nutritional supplements and immigration officials said his health is not in any danger, the Japan Today reported.

A similar incident occurred in August 2015 where another Muslim man was served a salad with bacon pieces for which the Yokohama area immigration apologised for the administrative mistake.

A human rights group safeguarding the rights of foreigners approached the immigration department this week for taking appropriate measures to prevent an occurrence of any other incident of such kind in future.

The immigration office has the responsibility to provide meals keeping the religious customs in mind, and we request that this doesnt happen again, said a representative of the group.

In response the immigration department said, We regret that this has happened and we are swiftly investigating the cause.

--IANS ss/rn/bg

( 221 Words)

2016-08-20-16:30:01 (IANS)
Turkey's government has sent German authorities requests for 40 searches and three extraditions linked to supporters of Fethullah Gulen, the US-based Muslim cleric it blames for last month's attempted coup, magazine Der Spiegel reported today.Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan accuses a network of schools, charities and businesses led by Gulen, and built up in Turkey and abroad over decades, of infiltrating state institutions and orchestrating the failed coup.Authorities in Turkey have arrested or suspended tens of thousands of police, troops, officials, judges and civil servants because of their alleged links to Gulen's movement.Citing classified documents, Spiegel said Turkey's secret service had asked Germany's foreign intelligence agency (BND) for help in rounding up Gulen supporters in Germany.The magazine said the Turkish secret service wanted the BND to use its influence to spur German lawmakers into taking action against Gulen supporters and extraditing them to Turkey.A spokesman for the BND said the agency only reported on the operative aspects of its work to the German government and the responsible authorities in the lower house of parliament.A Turkish presidency official said: "It's not our policy to comment on intelligence operations. However, we expect all our friends and allies to assist Turkey's efforts to hold FETO operatives accountable for their crimes." FETO is an abbreviation standing for the "Gulenist Terror Group" which is how Ankara refers to Gulen's movement.Germany is home to a three-million strong Turkish community and concern is growing that tensions between Erdogan backers and Gulen supporters are spilling over onto German soil.Erdogan backers have demonstrated in several German cities since July's attempted putsch, shops have been boycotted by political rivals and hate mail has been sent to anti-Erdogan politicians.Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Saturday Ankara would put its domestic and external intelligence operations under an umbrella structure to allow better coordination and help prevent another coup attempt.REUTERS PS PM1854 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0421-896199.Xml
US Justice and State Department officials will fly to Ankara to discuss government accusations against Fethullah Gulen, the exiled cleric Turkey accuses of masterminding a failed military coup, according to a Justice Department official.President Tayyip Erdogan has demanded the United States extradite Gulen, who lives in Pennsylvania, over the July putsch in which more than 200 people, including civilians, were killed. Turkish officials have suggested refusal to repatriate Gulen for trial would seriously strain ties between the two NATO allies.Gulen, described by Erdogan as a terrorist, denies any involvement in the coup attempt, which has led to large-scale purges of the military, civil service, judiciary and academia."US officials, including representatives of the Departments of Justice and State, have offered to consult with the Turkish government," the Justice Department official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity."We can confirm that a delegation (with) representatives of the Department of Justice and State will visit Turkey," the official added, but declined to give any date for the visit.Yesterday, Bloomberg news reported that the US Justice Department would dispatch a team to Turkey in the coming days to pursue the allegations.REUTERS AKC VN2020 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0432-896422.Xml
JUBA, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- The UN relief official for South Sudan on Friday called for an end to impunity for violence against aid workers in Africa's newest nation and called for their protection.

Acting Humanitarian Coordinator for South Sudan, Ahmed Warsame said the humanitarian situation in South Sudan is worsening due to continued violence and restrictions on delivery of live-saving assistance to people in need, calling on the government to urgently open relief corridors.

"The situation is not getting better. We have seen increased dependency on humanitarian aid, malnutrition is on the rise, diseases outbreaks are common, and access to people in need of humanitarian aid is becoming extremely difficult and sadly aid workers are being targeted day in and day out," he told journalists in Juba.

He was speaking during an event to mark the World Humanitarian Day where UN workers held lit candles and observed a minute of silence to honor their colleagues killed or harmed by violence in South Sudan.

The silence pays tribute to colleagues who have lost their lives in humanitarian service, as well as to those who are staying and delivering assistance, and those affected by attacks against aid workers.

Since the conflict in South Sudan began in December 2013, at least 59 aid workers, most of whom are South Sudanese, have been killed. In the first seven months of 2016 alone, there were more than 470 humanitarian access incidents reported and humanitarian compounds, supplies and convoys were attacked and looted across the country, including in Pibor, Leer, Malakal, Raja and Juba.

During the July fighting in Juba, millions of dollars' worth of aid was looted, and a compound housing humanitarians was stormed by armed men in uniform, with one aid worker killed and others raped and beaten.

Warsame said Juba authorities must investigate reports of violence committed against aid workers and punish those responsible for the killing of 59 aid workers since 2013.

"Impunity must come to an end and public accountability must be preserved at all levels. Women and girls including female humanitarian workers must be protected at all times and at any cost. End this war and end impunity," Warsame said.

Allegations of violence against aid workers operating in South Sudan have drawn international condemnation following escalation of violence last month.

The UN peacekeeping mission (UNMISS) also accused armed groups of committing sexual violence on more than 100 women and girls in Juba during four days of fighting between rival army factions last month.

The UN World Food Program South Sudan Country Director Joyce Luma said the death of aid workers will not deter aid agencies from helping the people, adding that the government and aid agencies need to restore cooperation.

"This world humanitarian day calls for global humanity to stand together for everybody affected by crisis and unite to continue serving the people despite the difficult situations," Luma said.

World Humanitarian Day is marked every year on Aug. 19 to pay tribute to aid workers who risk their lives in humanitarian service and to mobilize people to advocate for a more humane world.

In South Sudan, humanitarian organizations have reached more than 2.8 million people with vital humanitarian assistance and protection in 2016.

The UN says violence in the world's youngest nation has displaced 1.6 million people internally and over 900,000 others fled into neighboring countries. Another 4.6 million are severely food insecure.
WASHINGTON, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- Paul Manafort, the chief of U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's campaign, has resigned following the campaign's major shakeup two days ago, the New York billionaire announced Friday.

"This morning Paul Manafort offered, and I accepted, his resignation from the campaign," Trump said in a statement.

"I am very appreciative for his great work in helping to get us where we are today, and in particular his work guiding us through the delegate and convention process. Paul is a true professional and I wish him the greatest success," said Trump.

The statement, however, offered no explanation for departure of the veteran Republican campaign strategist who joined Trump's campaign in March. Manafort has played a vital role in Trump's sweeping victory during the Republican primaries.

The move comes two days after Trump appointed conservative media executive Stephen Bannon as campaign chief executive and veteran Republican pollster Kellyanne Conway as campaign manager.

A New York Times investigation reported last week that according to related documents, more than 12 million dollars in cash payments were secretly earmarked for Manafort from a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine between 2007 and 2012.

If it's true, Manafort may have violated U.S. laws requiring lobbyists to register as "foreign agents" with the Justice Department if they work with other governments.
UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations has "a moral responsibility to the victims of the cholera epidemic" and for supporting Haiti in overcoming the epidemic and building sound water, sanitation and health systems, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said here Friday.

The statement was prompted by a decision handed down Thursday by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York which upheld a lower court's decision the United Nations cannot be sued in U.S. courts. However, the decision could be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

A class action suit was brought on behalf of victims of a cholera outbreak in Haiti contending UN peacekeeping forces from Nepal brought the disease to the island nation following a massive earthquake in January 2010, which killed more than 220,000 people and displaced 1.5 million. There had been an outbreak of cholera in Nepal.

The secretary-general noted the decision "upheld the immunity of the Organization from legal proceedings ... in accordance with the UN Charter and other international treaties," Farhan Haq, the deputy spokesman, said while reading a prepared statement.

"The secretary-general deeply regrets the terrible suffering the people of Haiti have endured as a result of the cholera epidemic," the statement said.

The secretary-general noted there has been a 90 percent reduction in the number of cholera cases in Haiti since the peak of the outbreak in 2011 because of "sustained efforts by national authorities and the international community," the statement said.

But he said repeated appeals to the international community have left the effort "seriously underfunded."

"The secretary-general urges member states to demonstrate their solidarity with the people of Haiti by increasing their contributions to eliminate cholera and provide assistance to those affected," the statement said.

"The secretary-general is actively working to develop a package that would provide material assistance and support to those Haitians most directly affected by cholera," the statement said. "These efforts must include, as a central focus, the victims of the disease and their families."

"The United Nations also intends to intensify its support to reduce, and ultimately end, the transmission of cholera, improve access to care and treatment and address the longer-term issues of water, sanitation and health systems in Haiti," said the statement.

A day before the U.S. court's decision in the suit, Haq said, "The UN's been heavily engaged in cholera eradication since the 2010 outbreak, but over the past year, the UN has become convinced that it needs to do much more regarding its own involvement in the initial outbreak and the suffering of those affected by cholera."

"A series of options have been under consideration," Haq said Thursday.

He called a draft report and its recommendations from a human rights rapporteur recently received "a valuable contribution to the UN as we work towards a significantly new set of UN actions. The new response will be presented publicly within the next two months once it has been fully elaborated, agreed with the Haitian authorities and discussed with member states."

Haq said the United Nations had "tried a number of things" to battle cholera in Haiti. "We keep trying to figure out how to go about the right way of resolving this. And that's what we've been doing in these last months, as well," he said.

"I think it speaks to the attention that the secretary-general's paid that, one way or another, over the last six years, we have continually reviewed what we've been doing to make sure that we can be doing the right thing, and that's what's going on right now," he said.
This file photo taken on June 7, 2016 shows a Miami-Dade mosquito control worker dumping a barrel of standing water that can incubate the Aedes aegypti mosquito larvae at a home in Miami, Florida. (AFP/RHONA WISE)

WASHINGTON, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. coastal state of Florida, home to popular tourist destinations like Walt Disney World, on Friday identified a second Zika transmission area in Miami, a development that signals a local spread of the virus and prompted federal officials to issue a new travel advisory immediately.

Florida Governor Rick Scott announced in a statement that state officials have confirmed five individuals as cases of local transmissions of Zika in the tourist-attracting Miami Beach area.

"This is the second area that has been identified as a location where local transmission is occurring and is just under 1.5 square miles (3.9 square kilometers)," he said.

Previously, Florida health officials believed that local Zika transmission was limited to a small area in north Miami, called Wynwood.

So far, Florida is the only U.S. state that has reported local Zika transmission by mosquitoes. The total number of local Zika cases in the state is 36.

Scott said he has directed state officials to provide educational materials and offer mosquito spraying at no cost to hotels, restaurants and attractions to fight Zika.

"Tourism is a driving force of our economy and this industry has the full support of our state in the fight against the Zika virus," he said.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) quickly issued a new travel advisory, telling pregnant women to avoid the designated area of Miami Beach, in addition to Wynwood.

"We're in the midst of mosquito season and expect more Zika infections in the days and months to come," said CDC Director Tom Frieden. "It's difficult but important that pregnant women make every effort to avoid mosquito bites and avoid going to areas where Zika is spreading."

Frieden said that it's difficult to predict how long active transmission will continue and that it's possible that other neighborhoods in Miami-Dade County, where both Wynwood and Miami Beach are located, have active Zika transmission that is not yet apparent.

As of August 17, 2,260 cases of Zika had been reported in the continental United States and Hawaii, including 529 in pregnant women, according to the CDC. These cases also included 22 believed to be the result of sexual transmission and one that was the result of a laboratory exposure.
BUCHAREST, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- The Romanian judicial authorities on Friday sent a request to Britain for the hearing of three journalists from the British Sky News channels, in connection with a news story about alleged arms trafficking in Romania.

Prosecutors with Romania's Directorate for Organized Crime and Terrorism Investigation (DIICOT) made the move after having started on Wednesday the criminal investigation of the British journalists who took part in the reporting about alleged arms trafficking in Romania, over the offence of communication of false information.

In the report aired on Aug. 7, Sky chief correspondent Stuart Ramsay met with two masked men who offered a range of weapons for sale. One of them told the journalists that sales of AK-47s had "rocketed" in the past two years and he didn't care about his guns falling into the hands of extremists if he got the money.

The report drew widespread criticism from Romanians on social media, as well as from the political circles, with Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos saying on Aug. 11 that "one cannot denigrate a country without having evidence."

Three Romanian citizens presented as arms traffickers in the Sky News video footage were soon detained on charges of complicity in communicating and spreading false information that puts national security at risk, after the Sky News aired the news feature. They risk jail sentences of up to five years.

According to local media reports, the so-called gun smugglers are hunters, and the guns, legally-held, were not military weapons but hunting rifles and they stated that they had been given a script by Ramsay and paid 2,000 euros. One of the three arrested, Aurelian Mihai Szanto, the fixer between British journalists and the alleged two firearm dealers, claimed he had been tricked into taking part under the understanding that the filming would be presented as fictional.

Yet, the Sky chief correspondent wrote on Twitter that "Story is true. Nobody paid. Nobody scripted. Weapons real."
RABAT, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- Morocco and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) reiterated Friday their will to work together to fight climate change and guarantee the success of the upcoming climate conference.

Conference of Parties to the UN framework Convention on Climate change climate (COP22) will be held from November 7 to 18 in Marrakech, Morocco.

After a meeting with the UAE Minister for Climate Change and Environment Hani Ben Ahmad Al Zeyoudi, the Moroccan foreign minister Salaheddine Mezouar stressed the views the two countries on climate change issues, expressing Morocco's gratitude to the UAE for their continued support to the COP22.

The UAE minister said that the COP22 is a very important step to map out a plan for the coming years and to implement the agreements on environmental protection and the fight against climate change.

He also emphasized the significant role of private sector and civil society in the success of this meeting and the global implementation of environment-related agreements.
UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- Anthony Lake, the executive director of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), on Friday called for an urgent action to help more than 100,000 children who are currently "trapped in the horror" in the Syrian city of Aleppo.

Lake's statement was prompted by a photo story of a five-year boy, identified as Omrah Daqneesh, who was pulled from a damaged building after an airstrike in the northern Syrian city.

"What human being can see the stunned suffering of Omran Dagneesh, the small boy rescued from a destroyed building in Aleppo, Syria, and not feel an overwhelming sense of empathy?" Lake said.

"Can we not extend the same empathy to the more than 100,000 children also trapped in the horror that is Aleppo? They are all suffering things no child should suffer -- or even see," he said.

"And empathy is not enough. Outrage is not enough. Empathy and outrage must be matched by action," he said.

"Children of Omran's age in Syria have known nothing but the horror of this war waged by adults," he said. "We all should demand that those same adults bring an end to the nightmare of Aleppo's children."

At least 51 people were killed Saturday as a result of rebels' shelling and airstrikes in Syria's northern city of Aleppo, reports said early this month.

At least 45 civilians were killed in Aleppo and to the west of the city, and another 22 died in neighbouring Idlib province, reports said early this week.

Aleppo, Syria's largest province and once a thriving economic metropolis, has witnessed intensified violent battles lately as both the Syrian government troops and the opposition fighters have stepped up their game in the hope of achieving more gains in that key province.
NASA astronaut Kate Rubins seen in quarantine behind glass during a crew press conference at the Cosmonaut Hotel in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, July 6, 2016. Picture taken July 6, 2016. (NASA/Bill Ingalls/Handout via Reuters)

WASHINGTON, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- Two U.S. astronauts on Friday ventured out of the International Space Station and successfully installed the first of two crucial docking ports that will enable future arrivals of American commercial crew spacecraft.

Jeff Williams and Kate Rubins from the U.S. space agency NASA concluded their spacewalk at 2:02 p.m. EDT (1802 GMT) after spending nearly six hours installing the ring-like equipment, known as an international docking adapter (IDA).

It's "a significant milestone in NASA's work to return crew launches to U.S. soil," the agency said in a statement.

Since NASA retired its space shuttle program in 2011, the only vehicle to ferry humans to the space station is Russia's Soyuz spacecraft.

NASA created the commercial crew program in the hope of ending the U.S. reliance on Russia. It has awarded contracts to Boeing and SpaceX to build commercial spaceships, with their first flights slated for 2017.

The IDA arrived at the space station July 20 on a SpaceX Dragon cargo resupply spacecraft. It's a ring weighing more than 1,000 pounds (454 kg) that will provide a standardized connection point for Boeing and SpaceX crew spacecraft to automatically dock with the station.

Another IDA was expected to be launched in 2018.

This is the fourth spacewalk in Williams' career and the first for Rubins. It is the 194th spacewalk for the space station.
BAGHDAD, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- The influential Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Friday called for a complete cabinet reshuffle, and expressed his discontent with the latest partial reshuffle after months of political row.

In a statement by his office, Sadr criticized the latest replacement of five cabinet members, as two were said to be independent technocrats while the other three were believed to be affiliated to leading political parties.

"The political blocs cling to their political gains and leave behind the people interests. This makes the reform plan called by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi almost impossible," Sadr said.

"I don't think that any of the politicians can sacrifice a few of their gains because their chairs are more precious than their homeland, or even their religion and faith," Sadr added.

He also called for prosecuting all the corrupt politicians for all the years after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Sadr reiterated his demand to replace the cabinet ministers with independent technocrats.

On Monday, the Iraqi parliament approved five cabinet members under a reshuffle presented by Abadi, as part of his reforms aiming at fighting corruption.

The lawmakers voted for the ministers of oil, water resources, construction and housing, higher education and transport, but they failed to vote for a candidate for the ministry of trade.

The five new ministers were sworn in at the session that was attended by 210 legislators out of the 328-seat parliament.

The reshuffle was part of Abadi's efforts for comprehensive reforms, including a cabinet reshuffle to replace ministers, who were chosen to balance Iraqi parties, ethnic and sectarian factions, with technocrats, in order to end corruption and provide better services.

Months of protests by Iraqis as well as legislators from various parties demanded an end to the quota system, which was created following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq to control and divide Iraq's resources among political parties.

Some political blocs and politicians apparently have been resisting the reforms because there is a lack of trust among the political parties who see that such reforms, or part of them, are marginalizing their factions from the political scene which was originally built on power-sharing agreements.

A series of failed reform measures have paralyzed Iraq's government as the country struggles to fight the Islamic State (IS) militant group, which seizes parts of territories in northern and western Iraq, and faces an economic crisis sparked in part by a plunge in global oil prices.
RIGA, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- A public campaign calling for empathy with refugees has upset officials from Latvia's Defense Ministry as they find some of its elements insulting to Latvian soldiers and home guards, local media has reported.

The Defense Ministry has sent the Foreign Ministry a letter, asking the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees(UNHCR), which launched the campaign, to remove the offensive elements from the campaign titled "We would do the same".

The Defense Ministry's state secretary Janis Garisons argued that the public awareness campaign was misguided, because rather than highlighting the refugees' humanitarian plight, it claimed both implicitly and explicitly that Latvians themselves would rather flee than fight for their country, which in the ministry's view is insulting to the Latvia's professional armed forces and especially home guards, the volunteers who devote their spare time to military training so they can be prepared to defend their country if necessary.

"It is the will of Latvia's people to defend their country that will keep us from ending up in the situation where people have to flee from their country," said Garisons.

Zoran Stevanovic, a senior spokesman for the UNHCR's Regional Representation for Northern Europe, told LETA news agency that the UNHCR has noticed the Latvian Defense Ministry expressing its concerns about the campaign on Twitter but declined to comment on the tweet as it was not an official statement.

Stevanovics explained that the public awareness campaign was intended to show that the refugees fleeing war need protection.

"They are people just like us. They are fleeing conflict, they run to save their lives," the UNHCR representative said.

The UNHCR campaign, which will continue in the Baltic states from August to December, was launched in Latvia last week to promote empathy and greater openness towards the asylum seekers in Latvia's society. The campaign's videos and posters feature real asylum seekers currently living in Latvia. Each of them explains in a single sentence why they have had to flee their country. Alongside with them, there are pictures of residents of Latvia who admit that they too would flee in a similar situation.

Latvia has already admitted several dozen asylum seekers under an European Union-wide relocation scheme and is expected to take in more than 500 people over the next two years.
SRINAGAR, Indian-controlled Kashmir, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- Authorities Friday imposed strict restrictions and curfew to stop the separatist march in restive Indian-controlled Kashmir.

The restrictions were enforced by thousands of police and paramilitary men, who were seen deployed on roads in full riot gears carrying automatic rifles. These men blocked roads by laying down coils of concertina wires and steel barricades.

Clashes broke out at over two dozen places across the region after protesters defied restrictions and took to roads to stage anti-India demonstrations. Police and paramilitary troopers used shotguns to fire pellets and teargas to disperse protesters. Reports said at least 40 civilians were injured, some of them critically during the day-long clashes.

Friday's lockdown was strengthened to disallow march to Aripanthan village of Budgam district, where four civilians were killed and 15 others wounded on Tuesday. Senior separatist leaders Syed Ali Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq were detained soon after they come out of their residences to lead the march. Authorities fear their participation in marches would mobilize huge crowds.

Authorities for the sixth consecutive Friday kept Jamia Masjid (grand mosque) in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir, out of bounds for the general public. The government forces did not allowed Friday afternoon congregational prayers in the other central mosques also. Reports pouring in from other places said people offered prayers in smaller mosques and took out protest demonstrations at several places.

Large-scale protests against New Delhi's rule are going on in the Muslim majority areas of the restive region since July 8. The protests broke out following the killing of a top militant commander of Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) Burhan Muzaffar Wani.

Despite prolonged curfew and restrictions to clampdown on protesters, clashes and protests seem to be intensifying on Friday. The death toll of civilians in the standoff has gone up to 62, besides injuries to thousands of civilians and hundreds of government forces personnel.

Anti-India sentiment runs deep in the psyche of majority of Kashmiris. Irate residents defying curfew and restrictions took to roads at several places and clashed with police. The youth threw stones and brickbats on contingents of police and paramilitary, who responded by firing tear smoke shells, pellets and bullets, which often proved fatal.

Meanwhile, Indian army has appealed for calm in the region.

"Cycle of conflict and violence has been going on for more than 40 days now and no one is going to get away from it unhurt," a top Indian military commander, Lt Gen D S Hooda told reporters. "My appeal is for calm. We have to sit down, put our heads together and see if we can find a way out of this situation."

The shutdown and restrictions have affected normal life in the region, with people complaining dearth of essentials and eatables. A shortage of medicines has been reported in the region.

On Thursday evening, an ambulance driver was wounded after a paramilitary trooper fired upon him. The ambulance was ferrying a patient through old part of Srinagar city.

Health officials said the driver managed to drive the ambulance to hospital, where he himself was later admitted.

A separatist movement and guerrilla war challenging New Delhi's rule is going on in Indian-controlled Kashmir since 1989.

Prior to this, in 2010, a similar wave of violence hit the region and claimed over 100 lives during clashes that continued for months together.

Kashmir, the Himalayan region divided between India and Pakistan, is claimed by both in full. Since their Independence from Britain, the two countries have fought three wars, two exclusively over Kashmir.

The weeks of turbulence in Indian-controlled Kashmir has added a new confrontation in the already strained relations between the two countries.
Athletes compete during the women's semifinal of Cycling BMX at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Aug. 19, 2016. (Xinhua/Li Ga)

RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- Colombian cyclist Mariana Pajon won the women's BMX title for the second time at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games here on Friday.

With the grandstands overflowing with Colombian fans, the London 2012 Olympic Games champion won all three of her semifinal runs before pacing to victory.

"I would like to dedicate this gold medal to my country. This proves that anyone can achieve great things. It doesn't matter from where you come from, or your background. If you dedicate yourself and work hard, your dreams can come true," said Pajon.

Pajon become the first person from Colombia to win two Olympic gold medals, in London 2012 and Rio 2016.

"The first medal was incredible, and the second medal was more emotional. I can notice more attention around me. Being a South American, this is a medal for everyone," added Pajon.

American Alise Post snatched the silver, while the bronze went to Stefany Hernandez of Venezuela.

Later on, Connor Fields awarded the United States its first gold medal in BMX after winning the men's final.

Fields was just as jubilant after racing to the front and holding off Dutch rider Jelle van Gorkom at the finish line to take the gold.

"It is a moment that I dreamed about since I was 15 years old. To finally hear the words Olympic champion and then my name, it honestly feels like a dream. But tomorrow I am going to wake up, and it is going to be real," said Fields.

There was a photo finish for third, with Carlos Ramirez Yepes of Colombia just edging out American Nic Long for the bronze.
RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- The Russian Paralympic Committee's (RPC) appeal against their ban from Rio 2016 will be heard on Monday (August 22), 24 hours later than originally planned, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) announced on Friday.

The RPC officially launched its appeal last week to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), whose ad-hoc Division will deliberate over the case in the Brazilian city.

A verdict was due to be revealed on Monday but the decision will now be published a day after on Tuesday (August 23), two days after the Closing Ceremony of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

"The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, has scheduled the appeal for Monday and a final decision will be announced by the CAS by noon CEST on Tuesday, 23 August," the IPC confirmed in a statement.

The IPC decided to impose a blanket ban on Russia on August 7 following the release of the McLaren Report, which alleged the presence of a state-sponsored doping scheme in the country.

The Canadian lawyer revealed what he described as the "disappearing positive methodology" - where positive samples were switched for clean ones - in the explosive report.

A total of 35 "disappearing positives" were found in Paralympic sport, according to the report, although only 21 of these were within the IPC remit.

Since then, another 10 such cases have been brought to the attention of the IPC.

Russia was always likely to contest the decision of the IPC, which has been criticized in the country and by various organizations and International Federations, including the Association of National Olympic Committees and World Archery among others.

The Rio 2016 Paralympics will run from September 7 to 18.
RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- The president of the Irish Olympic Committee, Patrick Hickey, was jailed on Friday in Rio de Janeiro for allegedly forming an illegal ring to sell Olympic tickets.

Hickey, 71, was first arrested on Wednesday but spent two days in hospital after complaining of health problems.

According to Brazilian police, the Irish Olympic Committee hired a company, Pro 10, to sell tickets in Brazil. However, these tickets were then transferred to another Irish company, THG, whose director Kevin James Mallon was arrested earlier in August, after around 1,000 tickets were found in his Rio hotel.

The police alleges that this ring was selling tickets for up to five times their face value. This included selling tickets to the Opening Ceremony for up to 8,000 U.S. dollars and for the Closing Ceremony at up to 15,000 U.S. dollars.

Hickey was taken to the prison of Bangu in Rio de Janeiro as his case continues.

Hickey has temporarily resigned his position with the Irish Olympic Committee, as well as other positions with the European Olympic Committees and the Association of National Olympic Committees.
LIMA, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- India is looking to Peru's healthcare market with a business delegation set to explore the country's pharmaceutical and medical needs, a top Indian diplomat said on Friday.

Sandeep Chakravorty, India's ambassador to Peru, said a delegation of 20 pharmaceutical companies will visit Peru to take part in a business forum with their Peruvian counterparts as part of Iphex-Latam 2016, from Aug. 22 to 23.

Peru imports about 800 million U.S. dollars worth of medications yearly, presenting an attractive market for pharmaceutical giants such as India, which merely sells 37 million U.S. dollars worth of medicine to Peru annually.

According to Chakravorty, India has also developed treatments for cancer, AIDS and heart-related ailments at more cost-effective prices than other countries.

Heart bypass surgery, for example, can cost about 10,000 dollars in India, while in Peru it can cost some 100,000 dollars, he said.

India is also willing to cooperate with the Peruvian government to expand healthcare services to the South American country's remote and marginalized regions, he said.
Domestic and foreign experts attend a press conference following the China Special Symposium of the 26th International Congress of the Transplantation Society held in Hong Kong, south China, on Aug. 18, 2016. (Xinhua/Wang Shen)

HONG KONG, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- Prestigious international experts have slammed allegations that 60,000 to 100,000 organ transplants are performed in China each year using organs from so called "prisoners of conscience," dismissing the claim as "ridiculous and adsorb."

Such lies spread for political purposes are vulnerable when confronted with statistics, Huang Jiefu, chairman of China's National Organ Donation and Transplantation Committee, said at a press conference following the China Special Symposium of the 26th International Congress of the Transplantation Society on Thursday.

China performed a total of 10,057 organ transplants in 2015, accounting for 8.5 percent of the world total. The fact can be easily confirmed by the amount of immunosuppressive agents, a traceable must-have drug for patients after their transplant surgeries, used by China annually, said Huang.

Elaborating on the figure, he said China consumed 8 percent of the drugs used worldwide, which matches China's 8.5 percent share in global transplant surgeries, with all human organs coming from citizen donation and live organ donation from relatives of the patients.

Some ill-intentioned groups are treating the sacred cause of saving lives as a political game and demonizing China, but statistics never lie, he said.

Francis Delmonico, former president of the Transplantation Society and professor of Harvard Medical School at the Massachusetts General Hospital, said the persons behind the rumor should be challenged to present their evidence.

Experts at the conference suggested that China ignore the rumors and move forward.

China banned the use of organs from executed prisoners in 2015.

Michael Millis, professor of Surgery and chief of the Section of Transplantation of the University of Chicago Hospitals, said the truth is being told.

Michael Millis, professor of Surgery and chief of the Section of Transplantation of the University of Chicago Hospitals, speaks to media at the press conference held in Hong Kong, south China, Aug. 18, 2016. (Xinhua/Wang Shen)

"It's being told that the use of executed prisoner organs is no longer tolerated. That is the truth. The truth is we have a voluntary citizen-based organ donation system in China that is working and growing," he said.

Jose Nunez, medical officer in charge of global organtransplantation at the World Health Organization, said China is now on board with the international community in the field of organtransplantation.

"We are all in the same train because we share the same principles, the same ethical practice... we have to work together in that line," the officer said.

The experts also applauded China's accomplishment in organtransplantation reform in recent years.

Nunez said he believes that in no more than two to three years, China will be leading the world in the area of human organtransplantation.

His words were echoed by Millis, who said China has made great achievements in the past decade in organ transplantation. The growth, especially in the last year, has been tremendous and very gratifying and rewarding, he said.

"It (China) has the population and the need to make the strides that we have been unable to do in the rest of the world. So I look forward to continue academic interactions (with China)," said Millis.

Statistics show that China now has the most organ donations per year in Asia and the third highest number globally. In addition, it is performing the second highest number of organ transplants in the world after the United States.

By the end of June 30, 2016, a total of 7,711 cases of organdonation after the death of citizens were recorded in China, with 21,346 large organs donated.

In 2015 lone, 2,766 donation cases were recorded, more than the total number in 2013 and 2014 combined.

In the first half of this year, 1,795 cases of donation were completed in China, an increase of 45 percent compared to the same period of last year.
PHNOM PENH, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- At least 160,872 immigrants in about 46,516 families have been living in Cambodia, according to a report of the National Police website on Saturday.

"Of the figures, more than 95 percent of them are Vietnamese," said Gen. Sok Phal, chief of the Cambodia's General Department of Immigration, citing the preliminary result of the census on foreigners.

According the report, since the General Department of Immigration was established in April 2014, some 10,787 illegal immigrants in 68 nationalities, including 9,217 Vietnamese, had been deported to their home countries.

Those deportees had no valid documents such as passports, visas or work permits.
HAMI, Xinjiang, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Embroiderers in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region are learning to turn their traditional handiwork into a modern, thriving business.

More than 300 products, from pillows, bags, and gloves to car accessories and even embroidery-covered headphones and books, were on display at an exhibition that kicked off on Thursday in the city of Hami.

"I never thought embroidery could be used in so many ways," said Kateerh Rahman, a local farmer who manages an embroidery team of over 100 people in Hami.

The market has responded well to their products. "We simply can't meet the demand," he said.

The most popular of his designs is the headphone cover, which he said makes customers feel "soft and warm" while wearing the ordinarily cold electronic devices.

His designs were inspired by the "Xinjiang Hami Traditional Craft Workshop," a project supported by the Ministry of Culture.

Launched in March, the project was jointly established by the government of Hami Prefecture, the Academy of Art and Design of Tsinghua University and the Shenzhen-based Artron Art Group.

Hami Uygur embroidery was listed as an intangible cultural heritage of China in 2008. Featuring colorful patterns, it is mainly seen in traditional Uygur clothing. While China is working to preserve this tradition, local embroiderers are trying to revive ethnic craftsmanship by improving their skills and expanding the market.

Deputy cultural minister Xiang Zhaolun said the workshop has promoted cooperation in embroidery training, improved the skills of local craftsmen and introduced them to business opportunities.

"The workshop can turn traditional textiles into a fashion trend and open the doors to the world for embroidery craftsmen living in remote farming and herding regions," he said.

Rahman is among 50 local embroiderers organized by the workshop to attend intangible cultural heritage training in south China's Guangzhou City. He was also invited to Shanxi Province to learn to integrate modern fashion and traditional embroidery as well as modern design techniques.

Artron Art Group, one of the organizers, sent three teams to help local craftsmen expand markets for embroidery.

"They help us gain customers and bring us orders," he said.

Guldas Tursun, who started learning embroidery at age 10, said embroidery products used to be sold only in and near Hami, but now, thanks to the Artron teams, sales channels have expanded.

She just secured an order for 830 products with a total value of over 36,000 yuan (5,400 U.S. dollars) from a Shanxi company through the recommendation of the workshop.

"Now I need to recruit more people," she said with a smile. She already employs 130 workers.

Liu Kuili, an expert on cultural heritage protection, said, "The training, product design and marketing channels offered by the workshop have promoted the revitalization of the craft."
MEXICO CITY, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- The Mexican military has captured the chief financial operator of a drug cartel, the National Security Commission said on Friday.

The suspect, identified as Sergio "N", was detained in the early hours Thursday at a residential estate southwest of Guadalajara, the capital of the western Mexican state of Jalisco, said Renato Sales Heredia, commissioner of the National Security Commission.

Sergio "N" is the chief financial operator of the Jalisco Nueva Generacion cartel, according to commission.

The sate government of Jalisco has blamed the cartel for the kidnapping of Jesus Alfredo Guzman, a son of Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, together with five other men, in the seaside resort of Puerto Vallarta on Aug. 15.

Sergio "N" was on the priority list of 122 criminals pursued by the Mexican government, according to Heredia.

"His capture is expected to significantly affect the operating and financial structure of the criminal organization," he said.

Sergio "N" has financial connections with a criminal organization that operates between California in the United States and Jalisco, according to the National Security Commission.

He has a long crime history going back to the 1980s when he was a member of a gang which assaulted a bank in the municipality of Lagos Moreno, Jalisco, in its biggest sting, according to federal officials.

Before becoming a financial operator for the Jalisco Nueva Generacion cartel, Sergio "N" was in charge of managing the production of synthetic drugs for a criminal organization. He was also implicated in the murder of a state judicial officer.
by Xinhua writer Dan Song

MELBOURNE, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- China has a very important role to play in the global governance landscape against the backdrop of a faltering global growth, a Sydney-based partner at the accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) told Xinhua in an interview ahead of the upcoming G20 Summit in Hangzhou, China.

Andrew Parker, who is also director of China Matters, an independent not-for-profit entity focused from a policy perspective on China's rise and how it matters to Australia, said he is optimistic about the first G20 summit chaired by China.

"This is an opportunity for China to step into the leadership role that I think it both deserve and crave on the global stage. The Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), the BRICS bank and of course the 'One Belt One Road' initiative, these are the important plans to help the global economies to achieve critical objectives," he said.

"China today is the second-largest economy in the world, and more importantly, the No.1 emerging market economy which contributed around one-third of the global growth last year. China's contribution to global growth is extremely important," he added.

However, considerable institutional and political inertia remain challenges for China during its G20 presidency.

Parker said the G20's proclaimed objectives have seen slow progress in recent years, something China hopes to change.

"The forum's central mandate has been, for a few years, strong, sustainable and inclusive growth. Back in November 2014 in Brisbane, the G20 ministers all agreed to lift global growth by two percentage points by 2018 over the IMF's 2013 forecast," said Parker.

"But the achievement against its objective has been patchy. I think it would be fair to suggest that growth has definitely not being strong, the global economy is certainly not sustainable. I would argue that the growth has not been particularly inclusive either," he added.

Referring to the Beijing-led push to upgrade the G20 from a crisis response mechanism to a long-term governance platform, he regarded a lack of execution mechanisms as one of the significant impediment to the G20's endeavors.

"This has long been a criticism of the G20. The fact that matters is G20 doesn't have a secretary and it doesn't have any enforcement mechanism, so it relies on what you might call political will or leadership to make progress on the issues," he said.

At a time of sluggish global growth, he said that collaboration is needed to stimulate growth.

"If you look at 2016, the forecast of global growth is pretty flat. We are heading to the IMF's 3 percent line under which generally a global recession is considered to be in progress," he said.

For Australia and China, two major economies in the region, "it is absolutely vital that both China and Australia find common ground and work together towards that development of the region," he said.

Parker is the lead author of PwC's landmark report "Passing us by" released in 2014, in which he revealed some insightful and ground-breaking points of view on the significance of engaging with the world's engine of economic growth.

"Our world is changing, China is changing. Australia's economy has been heavily reliant on a resources and investment boom that was largely driven by China's industrialization and its growth," said Parker. "There is no question in my mind that a well-implemented 'One Belt One Road' program will deliver significant benefits to the region, to Australia and of course to the Chinese economy."
BEIJING, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- A total of 14,500 Chinese Muslims will perform the Hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia, this year, China's State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA) said Saturday.

As of Friday, China has sent 37 charter flights to carry Chinese Muslims to the Middle East for the Hajj, and a total of 11,000 Chinese pilgrims have arrived in Mecca, the authority said.

A further group set off from Beijing on Saturday morning.

As they left, Zhang Yantong, vice head of SARA, said the Communist Party of China had always paid high attention to the Hajj.

SARA has worked with relevant authorities to make arrangements for medical services, security precautions, accommodation and transport for those making the journey.

Zhang told people making the pilgrimage to take good care of themselves and display a positive image of Chinese Muslims.
PANAMA CITY, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- The administration of the Panama Canal (ACP) announced on Friday that it has begun a reforestation program covering 83 hectares in the province of Darien to compensate for the recent expansion of the Canal.

The reforestation is part of a campaign that will re-forest 1,243 hectares nationwide at a cost of 3 million U.S. dollars, the ACP said in a statement. A total of 937 hectares of land have already been reforested.

"We are very proud of the benefits that the canal expansion has brought to this part of the country, especially as this is the first restoration project by the Canal in Darien," said Ilya Espino de Marotta, the ACP's executive vice-president.

Hermel Lopez, regional director for the Ministry of the Environment, said the project is highly important for the province, given the reduction in its forest cover.

The ACP reforestation program includes planting coffee and cacao trees as well as native species, such as the cocobolo.

The ACP has committed itself to planting two hectares of trees for each hectare which was affected by the canal expansion works.

The initiative will take place over one year of active planting and four more years of maintenance, carried out by local contractors.

According to Panama's National Association for the Conservation of Nature, Panama has lost 65 percent of its original forest cover due to a deforestation rate of around 20,000 hectares a year.

The government has teamed up with Ancon to reforest 1 million hectares in 20 years.
NANCHANG, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- A 21-year-old Chinese university student from eastern China's Jiangxi Province has twice donated her stem cells to save a patient in Belgium.

In February, Jiang Minlin, a student in Shangrao Normal Institute of Jiangxi, donated 227 millimeters of hemopoietic stem cells (HSCs) to a patient with a blood disease in Belgium, whose human leukocyte antigen (HLA) type matched Jiang's. On August 8, Jiang donated another 65 millimeters of lymphocyte cells to the same patient to help her fight rejection of the initial cells.

Both donations were made at the Air Force General Hospital in Beijing.

Jiang signed up to be a stem cell donor with the China Marrow Donor Program (CMDP) in 2014. Her stem cells was found to match the Belgian patient's in December last year.

The success rate of stem cells matches is extremely low -- somewhere between 0.01 percent and 0.25 percent .

"The donation staff told me that the recipient is about the age of my mother. I'm really happy to help save a life," she said.

There are over 2.2 million potential donors registered with the CMDP in China.

In 2006, a volunteer from Shanghai became China's first stem cell donor. Since then, China has performed HSC transplants for over 5,000 patients at home and more than 200 overseas.
KUNDUZ, Afghanistan, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Taliban militants seized control of Khan Abad district in Afghanistan's northern province of Kunduz on Saturday as sporadic clashes were continuing around the district center, officials said.

"Dozens of armed militants overrun the district bazaar early Saturday morning. Sporadic clashes were continuing around the district's office buildings as security forces were trying to repel the attack," Qudratullah Safi, district executive officer, told Xinhua.

The district is located some 25 km east of the provincial capital of Kunduz city. A main highway connecting Kunduz to the neighboring Takhar province passes through the district.

The Kunduz province and neighboring Baghlan and Takhar provinces have been the scene of heavy clashes over the past couple of months as Taliban has been trying to challenge the government forces in the once relatively peaceful region.

The militants seized Dahna-e-Ghori district of Baghlan after a coordinated offensive earlier this month.

The Taliban-led insurgency has been rampant since early April when the militant group launched its annual rebel offensive in different areas of the country.
MANILA, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is expected to declare a ceasefire on Saturday to reciprocate a week-long truce that the communist rebels announced, presidential communication secretary Martin Andanar said.

Andanar told ABS-CBN News Channel in an interview that Duterte has "expressed his willingness to reciprocate" the ceasefire that the rebels announced on Friday night.

"As to the official announcement we should be expecting it within the day," said Andanar, adding the details of the government ceasefire will be announced later.

"As to the date, the schedule and how long the ceasefire will be (are) still under discussion" between Duterte and Presidential Peace Adviser Jesus Dureza and Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana," he said.

Andanar said Duterte "has already walked an extra mile for peace."

"He is glad that the (communist rebels) showed a similar gesture of goodwill as a sign of sincerity to the peace process days prior to our talks in Oslo, Norway," Andanar added, referring to the formal peace talks between the government and the rebels that will start next week.

"We therefore feel optimistic that the mutual efforts of both sides would lead to fruitful negotiations that could pave the way for substantive discussions in the hope of putting an end to one of Asia's longest-running insurgencies," he said.

The Communist Party of the Philippines declared on Friday a seven-day unilateral ceasefire ahead of the resumption of the peace in Oslo that starts on Monday.

The rebels said the ceasefire will take effect 12:01 a.m. on Aug. 21 and will last until 11:59 p.m. on Aug. 27.

"This ceasefire declaration is encouraged by the (Philippine government's) facilitation of the release of the nearly all National Democratic Front of the Philippines consultants who are set to participate in peace negotiations in the course of the next several months," the rebels said in a statement.

The formal talks will kick off on Aug. 22 and will continue until Aug. 26.
An Afghan security force member takes position on a military vehicle outside the Khan Abad district of Kunduz province, Afghanistan , Aug. 20, 2016. Taliban militants seized control of Khan Abad district in Afghanistan's northern province of Kunduz on Saturday as sporadic clashes were continuing around the district center, officials said. (Xinhua/Ajmal Kakar)

KUNDUZ, Afghanistan, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Taliban militants seized control of Khan Abad district in Afghanistan's northern province of Kunduz on Saturday as sporadic clashes were continuing around the district center, officials said.

"Dozens of armed militants overrun the district bazaar early Saturday morning. They also stormed the district center and seized government office buildings after security forces made a tactical retreat to outer sides of the district after dawn," a provincial security source told Xinhua anonymously.

The district is located some 25 km east of the provincial capital of Kunduz city. A main highway connecting Kunduz to the neighboring Takhar province passes through the district.

"The provincial security officials were meeting to prepare for a counterattack. The security forces will soon kick the militants out from Khan Abad," Qudratullah Safi, district executive officer, told Xinhua.

Zabiullah Mujahi, a purported Taliban spokesman, twitted that Taliban also seized weapons and security forces' vehicles after capturing security checkpoints following Saturday's clashes.

He said the Taliban also overran several troops' security posts in the neighboring Ali Abad district.

The Kunduz province and neighboring Baghlan and Takhar provinces have been the scene of heavy clashes over the past couple of months as Taliban has been trying to challenge the government forces in the once relatively peaceful region.

The Kunduz city has been facing a severe power cut since Thursday when several electricity towers were destroyed during the clashes. The destroyed power pylons had been transmitting imported electricity from neighboring country of Tajikistan, according to officials.

The militants seized Dahna-e-Ghori district of Baghlan after a coordinated offensive earlier this month.

In Kabul, one army soldier was killed and another officer was wounded after a roadside bombing struck an army vehicle in Qala-e-Zaman Khan locality of the city earlier on Saturday.

The Taliban-led insurgency has been rampant since early April when the militant group launched its annual rebel offensive in different places of the country, which had claimed hundreds of lives including militants, security personnel and civilians.
COLOMBO, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- A Sri Lankan Airlines flight from Frankfurt to Colombo was unable to leave Frankfurt on Friday due to the "unavailability of a flight crew member," the Airlines said in a statement on Saturday.

"One of the crew members was suddenly unwell which is why the flight could not leave as scheduled," an Airline official said.

In the statement, Sri Lankan Airlines said that the airline expects flight UL554 to depart on Saturday once Frankfurt airport reopens after the scheduled night time closure.

All passengers affected by the delay have been provided with meals and accommodation and they will also be compensated as per EU regulations, Sri Lankan Airlines said.

The national carrier, which is currently facing a staggering loss, is expected to suspend its operations to Paris and Frankfurt from winter 2016.

Accordingly, the last flights between Frankfurt and Colombo will be operated on Oct. 30, while operations between Paris and Colombo will conclude on Nov. 6.
MANILA, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte declared on Saturday a ceasefire to pave the way for the peace talks with communist rebels in Oslo, Norway next week, Presidential Peace Adviser Jesus Dureza told a news conference.
Iranian protesters hold portraits of (from L to R) US Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, US President Barack Obama and Bahraini King Hamad, most adorned with jihad-style beards and a slogan reading "is Daeishian" (Daesh is Arabic acronym for Islamic State), during a parade marking al-Quds (Jerusalem) Day in Tehran on July 01, 2016. (Xinhua/AFP Photo)

KHARTOUM, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- The Arab forum on the role of media in fighting terrorism concluded its sessions in Khartoum Friday and issued "Khartoum Declaration" which called for necessity of confronting terrorism phenomenon.

The declaration recommended the need to disseminate the Islamic values, invest the cultural reserve of the nation, include materials in the curriculum focusing on tolerance, justice, peace as well as criminalization of injustice and renunciation of violence.

The declaration directed the Arab media to highlight the tolerance of the Islamic religion and how it upholds the values of virtue and renunciation of terrorism, extremism and violence, urging the member states to work to establish centers for the training of Imams and preachers to correct the religious discourse in a manner that suits the spirit of the time.

It further urged the countries to concern with the youths and resolve the issue of unemployment by enhancing the work opportunities, lessening poverty and achieving social justice and equality.

In the meantime, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who attended the forum's concluding session, received the recommendations of the forum and vowed to work with his Arab counterparts to implement them.

Addressing the session, al-Bashir reiterated Sudan's commitment to work with its Arab and African surroundings to confront the terrorism phenomenon.

"Sudan, at the regional and international levels, will never hesitate to contribute with whatever it has to combat the terrorism phenomenon," said al-Bashir.

He noted that the Sudanese Armed Forces are fighting inside and outside Sudan to support legitimacy and defeat terrorism.

Arab League (AL) Deputy Secretary General Ahmed Bin Hali, for his part, said that the document of Khartoum Declaration would be one of the important references in field of the Arab joint action to combat terrorism, just like the previous decisions bearing the name of Khartoum.

The activities of the two-day Arab Media Forum on Terrorism started in Khartoum on Thursday and was jointly organized by Sudan's Information Ministry and the AL.

The participants at the forum discussed three working papers on role of the religious discourse in combating terrorism, the national efforts in combating terrorism and the joint Arab strategy in combating extremism and terrorism phenomena.
File photo taken on Feb. 23, 2016 shows Afghan security force members stand guard at the site of a blast in Kunduz province, Afghanistan. (Xinhua/Ajmal Kakar)

KUNDUZ, Afghanistan, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Taliban militants seized control of Khan Abad district in Afghanistan's northern province of Kunduz on Saturday as sporadic clashes were continuing around the district center, officials said.

"Dozens of armed militants overrun the district bazaar early Saturday morning. They also stormed the district center and seized government office buildings after security forces made a tactical retreat to outer sides of the district after dawn," a provincial security source told Xinhua anonymously.

The district is located some 25 km east of the provincial capital of Kunduz city. A main highway connecting Kunduz to the neighboring Takhar province passes through the district.

"The provincial security officials were meeting to prepare for a counterattack. The security forces will soon kick the militants out from Khan Abad," Qudratullah Safi, district executive officer, told Xinhua.

Zabiullah Mujahi, a purported Taliban spokesman, twitted that Taliban also seized weapons and security forces' vehicles after capturing security checkpoints following Saturday's clashes.

He said the Taliban also overran several troops' security posts in the neighboring Ali Abad district.

Photo taken on Aug. 14, 2016 shows fighters of a splinter Taliban group take part in a gathering in Zabul province, south Afghanistan. (Xinhua/Manan Arghand)

The Kunduz province and neighboring Baghlan and Takhar provinces have been the scene of heavy clashes over the past couple of months as Taliban has been trying to challenge the government forces in the once relatively peaceful region.

The Kunduz city has been facing a severe power cut since Thursday when several electricity towers were destroyed during the clashes. The destroyed power pylons had been transmitting imported electricity from neighboring country of Tajikistan, according to officials.

The militants seized Dahna-e-Ghori district of Baghlan after a coordinated offensive earlier this month.

In Kabul, one army soldier was killed and another officer was wounded after a roadside bombing struck an army vehicle in Qala-e-Zaman Khan locality of the city earlier on Saturday.

The Taliban-led insurgency has been rampant since early April when the militant group launched its annual rebel offensive in different places of the country, which had claimed hundreds of lives including militants, security personnel and civilians.
A supporter with the Hezbollah logo painted on his face poses for a picture during a rally marking the 10th anniversary of the end of Hezbollah's 2006 war with Israel, in Bint Jbeil, southern Lebanon August 13, 2016. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

BEIRUT, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Lebanon asked the country's mission to UN to file a complaint to the Security Council about Israel's incursions in the southern towns of Ghajar and Shebaa Farms, the National News Agency (NNA) reported Friday.

Bassil sent a letter to the mission in New York about Israel's violations which he said are "violating UN resolution 1701, the people's rights and the Lebanese sovereignty," the NNA said.

"Since the Israeli occupation forces persist to violate Lebanon's sovereignty and fail to comply with the international resolutions particularly 1701, we hereby ask you to inform the concerned authorities in the United Nations, particularly the UN Security Council, of Israel's offenses in both the occupied Lebanese part of Ghajar and the Shebaa Farms," Bassil added.

Israel imposed new rules, regulations and taxes in the occupied parts of the Ghajar town and established new settlements while it began in the occupied Shebaa Farms construction works to open new roads and other infrastructure activities.

On Thursday, Hezbollah condemned Israel's practices and called on the Lebanese state to "practice its normal role of defending Lebanon's sovereignty" and to "take the necessary measures in the face of the rejected Israeli moves."

Israel fought a devastating 33-day war in 2006 against Hezbollah that ended with the UN Security Council issuing resolution 1701 that called for a cessation of all hostilities.
MANILA, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte declared on Saturday an indefinite ceasefire to pave the way for resumption of peace talks with communist rebels next week, said Presidential Peace Adviser Jesus Dureza.

The peace talks are scheduled for Aug. 22 in Oslo, Norway.

President Duterte has "restored the effects of the unilateral ceasefire with the Communist Party of the Philippines and the National Democratic Front effective 12 midnight tonight, Aug. 21," Dureza told a news conference at the international airport before leaving for Oslo with the government panel.

"The duration of the ceasefire will last for as long as necessary to bring peace in the land," he said.

Duterte declared a unilateral ceasefire on July 25 but scrapped it six days later after the rebels failed to reciprocate and attacked and killed a militia man.

"The enabling environment brought about by this 'silencing of the guns' will hopefully go a long way in bringing about an expeditious and early resolution to our differences and aspirations that have long divided us as a people," said Dureza.

He said the restoration of the ceasefire came a few days after Duterte has released from detention about 20 prisoners who are needed in the peace negotiations.

"As we speak there is continuing efforts to make available in Oslo peace talks resumption as many of them as possible," Dureza said, referring to the remaining political prisoners that will take part in the talks as "consultants."

The Philippine government released from jail on Friday two communist leaders, Benito Tiamzon and his wife, Wilma, to allow them to participate in the Oslo talks.

The Tiamzons are the highest-ranking communist leader in detention after they were arrested in 2014. The government said Benito Tiamzon was the chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines while his wife Wilma was the secretary general.

A few hours after their release, the Communist Party of the Philippines declared a seven-day unilateral ceasefire that will take effect 12:01 a.m. on Aug. 21 and will last until 11:59 p.m. on Aug. 27.

"This ceasefire declaration is encouraged by the (Philippine government's) facilitation of the release of the nearly all National Democratic Front of the Philippines consultants who are set to participate in peace negotiations in the course of the next several months," the rebels said in a statement.

The Oslo talks are expected to tackle "social and economic reforms, political and constitutional reforms, end of hostilities and disposition of forces, ceasefire, joint security and immunity and release of political detainees," according to Dureza.

The Duterte administration is trying to forge peace with the communist rebels. Talks between the government and the rebels began in 1986, but failed to lead to a resolution over the years.

The communist rebellion began in 1969 and reached its peak in 1987 when it boasted 26,000 armed guerillas. However, the movement has since dwindled due to differences in strategy and tactics and the arrests of many of its top leaders in the late 1980s.

The military estimates the current number of communist armed rebels to be around 4,000. Enditem
ADDIS ABABA, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Ethiopia and China have expressed their keen interest to cooperate on the development of tourism sector in the East African country.

The Chinese Embassy in Ethiopia on Friday organized a half-day Dialogue on China-Ethiopia Tourism Industry Cooperation on its premise in the capital Addis Ababa, to explore ways of collaboration between Ethiopians and the Chinese in the industry.

The event has been an opportunity for Ethiopians and the Chinese to discuss ways of attracting more Chinese tourists to Ethiopia and also ways of cooperation in the sector between the two sides.

In his opening remarks, La Yifan, Chinese Ambassador to Ethiopia, noted that Ethiopia's rich natural and historical heritages coupled with the government's heavy investments in infrastructure presents the country's huge potentials for tourism development.

Ethiopia's landscape, wildlife, flora and fauna as well as its diverse cultures, and the infrastructure developed over the past two decades is the potential to tap the tourism sector in the country, said the Ambassador.

He stated that the Chinese could participate in Ethiopia's tourism both as tourists and investors to cooperate with Ethiopians and jointly promote and develop the industry.

"Last year, the total number of outbound Chinese tourist reaches 120 million, making us the largest outbound tourist of all the countries in the world," he said.

"I have realized that there is a growing interest from the Chinese business sector to be exposed to the development of Ethiopia's tourism sector because they are the number one builder in the world, they build best roads, the best airport, the best electricity facilities, the best running water facilities in the world," said the Ambassador.

Tadelech Dalecho, Ethiopian State Minister of Culture and Tourism, noted on the occasion that China and Ethiopia are countries with very strong and solid relationship.

With a long-standing diplomatic tie, the two countries are enjoying strong relations at the levels of government to government, business to business, and also people to people, noted the State Minister.

She reiterated that Chinese investors are doing great jobs in Ethiopia, especially in the construction sector.

The Dialogue is another window for the Chinese investors and also to create partnership among the Ethiopian business community and Chinese business people in the tourism and hospitality sector, said Tadelech.

"Hospitality and tourism is one of the sectors growing very fast in Ethiopia for the past few years. Ethiopia has very unique tourism potential for leisure tourists, for business as well as conference and different types of tourism targets," she said.

"Currently, the government of Ethiopia is giving great attention to transform the tourism sector in the country. There are different packages of incentives provided for investors in hotel and tourism sector. The investment policy and the environment overall is very encouraging for foreign direct investment and for all tourism areas," noted the State Minister.
Photo taken on July 20, 2015 shows caterpillar fungus against the background of a snow mountain in Tibet Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Chogo)

BEIJING, Aug.20 (Xinhua)-- At a grocery store in Beijing, the most commonly eaten mushrooms go for about 1.50 U.S. dollars a kilogram, while black truffles from Yunnan in southwest China cost about 470 dollars.



One gram of caterpillar fungus, however, sells for at least 12 dollars. That's 12,000 dollars a kilo.

Photo taken on Aug. 12, 2016 shows caterpillar fungus. (Xinhua/Zhang Rufeng)

The yellowish caterpillar fungus is about five centimeters long in average and weighs less than one gram, but a tiny stalk is worth more than gold even in the town nearest to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau where it grows.

Photo taken on Aug. 12, 2014 shows caterpillar fungus. (Xinhua/Chogo)

The rare fungus is known in Tibetan as "yartsu gunbu" and in Mandarin as "dongchong xiacao", or "winter-worm summer-herb". As the name suggests, the ancient Chinese believed it could transform between herb and worm, and had the power of rejuvenation.

Photo taken on Aug. 12, 2014 shows caterpillar fungus. (Xinhua/Purbu Tashi)

This fungus actually leads a parasitic life. It hijacks and feeds off the bodies of ghost moth larvae on the plateau 3,000 to 5,000 meters above sea level.

When winter comes, the infected caterpillar burrows into the alpine soil, getting ready for the pupa stage. But the fungus is digesting it from inside.

The caterpillar, once consumed, retains its form. In the spring, the fungus erupts out of the head and spreads its spores.

Dealers from other provinces buy caterpillar fungus on Sept. 14, 2014 in Tibet Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Chogo)

The evolution process suggests nothing delicious nor nutritious, but the fungus is a cure-all in traditional Tibetan medicine, and people believe it can help fight cancer and the aging process and boost the immune system.

Locals gather to sell caterpillar fungus on Sept. 22, 2013 in Tibet Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Purbu Tashi)

It is a cash cow for Tibetans, who,women and children included, join the rush for the "worm herb" every year. Even schools are closed in May and June so that students and teachers can join the harvest.

Experts exam caterpillar fungus on Aug. 12, 2016 in Tibet Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Zhang Rufeng)

People in Tibet's Nagchu even hold competitions: who can make one jin, a basic Chinese weight unit that is equivalent to 500 grams, with the fewest pieces of fungus. This year, the winner made it with 670 "worm herbs", and the single biggest weighed 1.1 grams.

The winner holds a "caterpillar fungus" trophy on Aug. 12, 2016 in Tibet Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Zhang Rufeng)

However, digging the fungus also means environment deterioration, mostly damage to local soil. Nagchu produced no more than 20 tons of caterpillar fungus this year, less than half of last year's harvest.

Locals gather to dig caterpillar fungus on July 10, 2013 in Tibet Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Purbu Tashi)

The fungus may die out in China in two decades, as a result of overexploitation on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, experts have warned.
Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks at a national meeting on health held from Aug. 19 to 20 in Beijing, capital of China. (Xinhua/Ma Zhancheng)

BEIJING, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for full protection of the people's health, stressing that public health should be given priority in the country's development strategy.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, made the remarks at a national meeting on health held in Beijing Friday through Saturday.

"The all-round moderately prosperous society could not be achieved without people's all-round health," Xi said, urging efforts to promote healthy lifestyles, strengthen health services, improve health protection, build healthy environment and develop health-related industries.

Premier Li Keqiang also gave a speech at the meeting. Other senior leaders including Zhang Dejiang, Yu Zhengsheng, Liu Yunshan, Wang Qishan and Zhang Gaoli attended the meeting.
PYONGYANG, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said Saturday that Deputy Ambassador to Britain Thae Yong Ho has reportedly defected to the South to escape punishment for committing crimes.

Thae was accused of embezzling state funds, selling state secrets and raping a minor, said a commentary released by the official news agency KCNA.

The DPRK had recalled him in June to put him under investigation, and on July 12, the country's Central Procuratorate decided to start a probe, the KCNA added.

The commentary also slammed South Korea's coverage of the incident and blamed Seoul for using the case to tarnish the DPRK's image and step up anti-DPRK campaigns.
NEW DELHI, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- On the southern bank of river Ganga in Patna, capital of the eastern Indian state Bihar, an industrial park has recently received a Chinese business delegation looking for investment opportunities.

The industrial park is the largest in Bihar, a populous Indian state with a rich Buddhist heritage and a long history as a center for power and culture.

In contrast to the generally drab village scenes along Ganga, the industrial park, comprising mostly family-run businesses, appears to be a delightful change: workshops are spacious and neat -- signs that they are well managed.

However, their products are almost all limited to daily necessities like bread, soft drinks and children's food. The surrounding areas are mainly agricultural farmland and villages.

This kind of economic structure is quite common in the Hindi heartland of India, which is very rich in history and culture, but lags behind in technology and industry compared with some coastal areas and big cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore.

With the G20 summit due to open in the Chinese city of Hangzhou next month, many Chinese investors are again showing interest in projects in India, which has a huge market and great potential in growth and development.

Being a founding member of the Asian Infrastructure Development Bank (AIIB), India has been drawing investment from China to tap its largely undeveloped human and natural resources, with substantial results over the past few years.

Success stories include Tebian Electric Apparatus (TBEA), which set up its first overseas production and research base in India two years ago.

The project, launched in June 2014 in Baroda of Gujarat state in western India, has been recognized by both sides as a success of pragmatic economic cooperation.

TBEA is also a pioneer foreign investor in Gujarat, the home state of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Its business portfolio in India now includes solar energy.

"We are using the Baroda base as a starting point to build closer relations with our partners in India and elsewhere. We are also using the project to help India develop green energy, save energy and tap reusable energy with our best technologies while sharing research outcomes," said Zhang Xin, CEO of TBEA.

Another success story of Chinese entrepreneurs in India is the Guangxi Liugong Group, which started producing heavy equipment in India in 2009 in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.

Liugong India started to make profit in 2016. It is now providing heavy machinery to meet India's ferocious demand for such equipment amid an infrastructure boom.

While many Chinese enterprises are seeking investment opportunities in India, Chinese banks are also helping finance industrial and infrastructure projects in the South Asian country through low-interest loans.

For example, the China Development Bank has been collaborating with Indian banks to finance projects such as power plants, which are contracted to Chinese builders.

Meanwhile, the Bank of Industry and Commerce of China has been operating in India for years, while the Bank of China is also waiting for official approval to open a branch in India.

India has shown interest in closer cooperation with China and other Asian countries, and leaders of the two countries have agreed to collaborate on projects that improve the livelihoods of their people and reduce poverty.

The upcoming G20 summit in Hangzhou, under the theme "Toward an Innovative, Invigorated, Interconnected and Inclusive World Economy," could really reverberate with what's going on between China and India, said Ramesh Chopra, a veteran strategic analyst based here.

India and China have their respective advantages in innovation and the two economies are both showing great vigor, with intergovernmental and people-to-people interactions at an unprecedented level, said Chopra, adding that these aspects jointly point to a bright future of bilateral cooperation.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) meets with Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari in Johannesburg, South Africa, Dec. 4, 2015. (Xinhua/Pang Xinglei)

ABUJA, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese government has offered 24 Nigerian students scholarship awards to pursue various degree programs in Chinese universities, as the two countries seek to enhance educational exchanges and cooperation.

The scholarship is part of the China-Nigeria Bilateral Education Agreement (BEA).

Qin Jian, charge d'affaires of the Embassy of China in Nigeria, said at a pre-departure ceremony held for the beneficiaries in Abuja that education is one of the important areas of cooperation between the two countries.

"It is not only a demonstration of the close people-to-people exchanges between China and Nigeria, but also a great inspiration for deepening our bilateral exchange and cooperation in educational field in the future," Qin said late Thursday.

He urged the awardees to seize the opportunity to study hard while getting to know China well and enhance friendship.

"In an environment of different language, culture and life in China, I hope you will overcome any difficulties and challenges with courage, make full use of time, acquire professional knowledge, and strive for excellent results so as to live up to the expectations of your parents and your mother country," he added.

Nigeria's Permanent Secretary for Information Ayotunde Adesugba expressed gratitude to the Chinese government for extending another scholarship opportunity to excellent Nigerian students this year.

She said the consideration was well-appreciated by the government and people of the West African country.
Fire fighters watch the fire at the site of burning ivory and rhino horn in Nairobi, Kenya, on April 30, 2016. The country torched at least 105 tons of ivory and 1.3 tons of rhino horn to reinforce its commitment to eradicate the menace of poaching. (Xinhua/Sun Ruibo)

NAIROBI, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- The Kenyan government will lobby for a total ban on ivory trade during the 17th meeting of conference of parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) to be held in Johannesburg from Sept. 24 to Oct. 5.

A statement from Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) said this week that Kenya will lobby the international community to back its proposals on putting an end to trade in trophies during the high-level summit.

"Kenya remains committed to playing its rightful role in ensuring that international trade in endangered species does not threaten survival of wildlife species like elephants," read the statement.

It added that Kenya has prepared comprehensive proposals calling for total ban on ivory trade to be presented at the CITES meeting.

"It is critically important that parties to CITES adopt Kenyan proposals calling for decisive action to ban trade in elephant tusks in order to save the giant mammals from imminent extinction," said the statement.

Kenya is a member of the African elephant coalition that has lobbied the international community to support a ban on ivory trade ahead of CITES meeting.

The coalition will submit a set of proposals at the meeting, calling on governments and multilateral agencies to strengthen protection of elephants through outlawing trade in trophies.

Likewise, the coalition has pushed for closure of domestic and international market for ivory, and prohibition of the export of live African elephant to foreign zoos.
MANILA, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- The spokesman of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said on Saturday that international representatives are not welcome to probe the alleged spate of drug-related extra-judicial killings in the country.

Reacting to a tweet by UN special rapporteur on summary executions Agnes Callamard, presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella said the Philippine government has not sent out invitation to any third party to look into the Philippines' state affairs.

Abella said in a statement that Duterte "finds the pronouncements from certain bodies as unwelcome meddling in national matters."

"The drug situation is being responsibly addressed by Philippine authorities, and so-called investigations by third parties are objectionable interference in the household affairs of a nation whose citizens welcome the change that the president and his people friendly policies and programs being set in place," Abella said.

Abella's statement came in the wake of Callamard's statement that she had accepted the challenge posed by Duterte's chief presidential legal counsel Salvador Panelo to see for herself the drug situation in the country.

But Abella stressed there was no invitation for Callamard or any representative from a third party has been sent out.

International human rights groups have voiced concern over the spate of killings of suspected drug suspects in the country. The media have tallied nearly 700 killings since Duterte took over the presidency since June 30.
PYONGYANG, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said Saturday that Deputy Ambassador to Britain Thae Yong Ho has reportedly defected to the South to escape punishment for committing crimes.

Thae was accused of embezzling state funds, selling state secrets and raping a minor, said a commentary released by the official news agency KCNA.

The DPRK had recalled him in June to put him under investigation, and on July 12, the country's Central Procuratorate decided to start a probe, the KCNA added.

The commentary also slammed South Korea's coverage of the incident and blamed Seoul for using the case to tarnish the DPRK's image and step up anti-DPRK campaigns.

The incident was exacerbated by the fact that Britain, in disregard of international extradition practices, ignored the DPRK's request to send Thae back, but instead handed him over to South Korea, which is keen on North-South confrontation.

South Korea's Unification Ministry said Wednesday that the DPRK's deputy ambassador to Britain has defected to South Korea with his family. If it is true, Thae would become the highest-ranking DPRK diplomat who has fled to Seoul.
NEW DELHI, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Opposition leaders in Indian-controlled Kashmir led by former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Saturday sought Indian President Pranab Mukherjee's intervention to end the ongoing crisis in the region.

The leaders strongly criticized the local and federal governments for, as they described, mishandling the situation in the restive region.

"We have requested the President to impress upon the central government to initiate a credible and meaningful dialogue process with all stakeholders to address the political issue pertaining to the state," Abdullah told media after the meeting.

The 20-member delegation held an hour-long meeting with Mukherjee at the Presidential Residence in New Delhi.

"The failure of the central government to acknowledge that the issue in Kashmir is largely of a political nature has worsened the already volatile situation," Abdullah said.

Abdullah has backed the Indian army's call for dialogue among stakeholders.

A top Indian military commander, Lt Gen D S Hooda on Friday appealed separatists and all other players in Indian-controlled Kashmir to help restore peace and normalcy in the region.

"I feel sad that what we wanted to hear from our political leadership is unfortunately coming from Army leadership. Northern Commander today thinks that there should be talks with all people who have a different mindset. So the question is, why our political leaders could not do this," said Abdullah.

Large-scale protests against New Delhi's rule are going on in the Muslim majority areas of the restive region since July 8.

The protests broke out following the killing of Burhan Muzaffar Wani, a top militant commander of separatist group Hizbul Mujahideen (HM).

Despite prolonged curfew and restrictions to clampdown on protesters, clashes and protests seemed to be intensifying on Saturday.

The death toll of civilians in the standoff has gone up to 62, besides injuries of thousands of civilians and hundreds of government forces personnel.

Anti-India sentiment runs deep in the psyche of majority of Kashmiris. Irate residents defying curfew and restrictions took to the streets at several places and clashed with police.

The youth threw stones and brickbats on contingents of police and paramilitary, who responded by firing tear smoke shells, pellets and bullets, which often proved fatal.

The shutdown and restrictions has affected normal life in the region, with people complaining dearth of essentials and eatables. A shortage of medicines has been reported in the region.

A separatist movement and guerrilla war challenging New Delhi's rule is going on in Indian-controlled Kashmir since 1989.

In 2010, a similar wave of violence hit the region and claimed over 100 lives during clashes.

Kashmir, the Himalayan region divided between India and Pakistan, is claimed by both in full. Since their independence from Britain, the two countries have fought three wars, two exclusively over Kashmir.

The weeks of turbulence in Indian-controlled Kashmir has added a new confrontation in the already strained relations between the two countries.
Myanmar's State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi visits the Museum of Terra-cotta Warriors and Horses of Qin Shihuang, in Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Aug. 20, 2016. Aung San Suu Kyi began a five-day official visit to China on Aug. 17. (Xinhua/Li Yibo)

XI'AN, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi visited the Emperor Qin's Terracotta Warriors and Horses Museum in northwest China's Shaanxi Province on Saturday.

The state counselor arrived in Xi'an Saturday morning in her second stop during her five-day visit to China.

The army of Terracotta Warriors was built to guard the tomb of China's first emperor, Qin Shi Huang.

Praising the Terracotta Warriors as beautiful and inspiring, Suu Kyi said she "especially loved the beautiful horses," when leaving a message in the visitors' book.

She also visited the Famen Temple in the afternoon.

China is the first country that Suu Kyi has visited out of the ASEAN, since she took office in April.
Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks at a national meeting on health held from Aug. 19 to 20 in Beijing, capital of China. (Xinhua/Ma Zhancheng)

BEIJING, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for full protection of the people's health, stressing that public health should be given priority in the country's development strategy.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, made the remarks at a national meeting on health held in Beijing Friday through Saturday.

"The all-round moderately prosperous society could not be achieved without people's all-round health," Xi said, urging efforts to promote healthy lifestyles, strengthen health services, improve health protection, build healthy environment and develop health-related industries.

Premier Li Keqiang also gave a speech at the meeting. Other senior leaders including Zhang Dejiang, Yu Zhengsheng, Liu Yunshan, Wang Qishan and Zhang Gaoli attended the meeting.

Xi said health is a prerequisite for people's all-round development and a precondition for economic and social development. It is also a common aspiration of all people.

Since its founding, the CPC has paid great attention to the correlation between people's health and national independence and liberation, he said.

The president expressed his respect and thanks to the service and dedication of health workers nationwide in protecting the people's health.

However, he pointed out that facts such as industrialization, urbanization and an aging population, combined with changes in the environment and people's lifestyles, have put the health of Chinese people under multiple and complicated risks.

"China is facing health problems that occur in developing countries as well as developed countries," the president said.

"If these problems are not effectively addressed, people's health may be seriously undermined and economic development and social stability will also be compromised," he said.

Xi stressed that work to ensure people's health should focus on the grassroots and use reform and innovation to create momentum.

He urged the inclusion of health in government policies, to ensure that all people enjoy the health benefits of policies.

Xi called for an improved system and quality of basic medical services so that the public can enjoy accessible and continuous health services which cover prevention, treatment and rehabilitation.

The government should perform its duty in basic medical services, and the market should be vitalized in the fields of non-basic services.

Xi stressed prevention work in the health sector as well as efforts to provide relevant services for people through their entire lives.

Health for young children and young students in the country's less-developed areas should be emphasized alongside the need to provide proper nutrition for their growth, he said, pointing out the need for care of other key groups such as pregnant women, infants and senior citizens.

Xi said a sound environment is the cornerstone of the people's lives and health, stressing that green development must be implemented and the "strictest system of environmental protection" should be adopted.

He noted that reform of the country's health and medicine systems had entered a difficult stage, calling for breakthroughs in modern hospital management, medical insurance, medicine supply, comprehensive supervision, and a diagnosis and treatment mechanism based on the severity of illnesses.

The president particularly stressed the role of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in promoting people's health, underlining innovation as well as coordinated and complementary development of TCM and Western medicine.

"Efforts should be made to boost the salary and treatment, development space, professional environment and social status of health workers so as to make them more active," Xi said, adding that they should be better cared for both physically and mentally and society should be guided to respect them more.

While urging health workers to stick to professional rules and ethics, Xi ordered a severe crackdown on health-related crimes, especially violence targeting health workers.

According to Xi, local governments are encouraged to draft their own health development plans based on their own situations, and all policies and projects should be "systematically evaluated" to gauge their influence on people's health.

"We will actively participate in research and discussion concerning the making of international standards and criteria for health-related fields, and improve our country's work mechanism to offer assistance in major international public health emergencies," Xi said.

In particular, he vowed to strengthen health cooperation with countries in areas involving the Belt and Road Initiative.

During the meeting, Premier Li urged the devotion of more health resources to rural and impoverished regions, with greater insurance support to relieve the medical spending of patients.

Li called for efforts to support cutting-edge medical research, prevent excessive prescription and treatment, boost medical capacity at grassroots level, encourage health investment from social groups and individuals, reduce medicine costs and relax rules on market entry and talent exchanges.

Calling for "stable and sustainable" investment in health, Li said the government will guide financial institutions to offer greater support to the health industry and strive to make it a pillar industry in the national economy.
ISLAMABAD, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan on Saturday deported a "blacklisted" American national two weeks after he was arrested in Islamabad, officials said.

Matthew Barrett was blacklisted and expelled in 2011 for his suspicious activities in Pakistan, according to the Interior Minister.

Barrett was questioned by the police about his arrival in Pakistan. The Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said last week that the U.S. national will be expelled as he is not welcomed in Pakistan.

"Matthew Barrett was deported from the city of Lahore Saturday morning," officials said.

The interior ministry had suspended two immigration officials at Islamabad's Benazir Bhutto International Airport for allowing the blacklisted man to enter Pakistan on Aug. 6.

The Interior Ministry has also sought clarification from the Pakistani consulate in Houston of the United States for issuing him the visa.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) meets with Myanmar's State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi in Beijing, capital of China, Aug. 19, 2016. (Xinhua/Rao Aimin)

BEIJING, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Achieving peace and unity among different peoples in her country is the most important aim, Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi said in Beijing.

Suu Kyi made the remarks when meeting with the press at the Diaoyutai state guesthouse on Friday, during her visit to China

Suu Kyi is on a five-day visit to China at the invitation of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang. China is the first country that Suu Kyi has visited outside of the ASEAN, since she took office in April.

She said that peace and unity among different groups of people is what Myanmar needs most.

"Without peace, there can be no sustained development," Suu Kyi said.

Ethnic armed groups have existed in Myanmar since the country gained independence in January 1948. The Myanmar government started ceasefire talks with several ethnic armed groups from November 2013, and a nationwide ceasefire accord between the Myanmar government and eight ethnic armed groups was finally signed last year.

The Myanmar government formed an 11-member National Reconciliation and Peace Center (NRPC) on July 11 this year, led by Aung San Suu Kyi.

Myanmar will hold a meeting called "the 21th century Panglong meeting," which aims to bring more ethnic armed groups to sign the ceasefire agreement and to participate in the peace process.

"The peace process, of course, is our process and the people of Myanmar must build peace in our country," said Suu Kyi, adding that Myanmar believes that China is a good neighbor and will do every thing possible to promote Myanmar's peace process.

Regarding Myanmar's economic development in the future, Suu Kyi named job creation, national plans for energy and construction, and a new way of developing agriculture.

"With high unemployment in the country, Myanmar needs to create jobs for people so that they can use their own ability to earn a living and live a dignified and secure life," she said.

In addition, Myanmar has to develop its agriculture sector because the great majority of its people -- about 70 percent of the population -- depend on agriculture for their livelihood.

While answering a question about her father General Aung San's legacy, Suu Kyi said, "It was the idea of honest leadership that aimed at serving the people rather than exploiting them."

"Unity among different ethnic groups of the country is greatly desired," she added.

"This is what my father would have desired and what we all desire, not because it is part of his legacy, but because it is what we need for our country," Suu Kyi said.
BEIJING, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- After drastically prolonging people's lives, and slashing infant and maternal mortality rates, China is poised to become healthier as it is building a moderately prosperous society in all respects.

The goal was crystallized as the Healthy China strategy in the 13th Five-Year Plan proposal (2016-2020). Enlisting the backing of the central leadership, the goal of Healthy China looks more than achievable.

Nothing is more telling of China's progress in the health sector than the sweeping improvement in three main public health indicators.

Average life expectancy in China surged from 35 during the early years of the People's Republic of China which was founded in 1949, to over 76 in 2015.

The infant mortality rate dropped from 20 percent right after the PRC was founded to 0.81 percent last year, while the maternal mortality rate dropped from 1,500 of every 100,000 in 1949 to about 20 of every 100,000 in 2015, according to statistics released by the National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC).

Li Bin, head of the NHFPC, attributed the success to government commitment and leadership in protecting and promoting the health of the general public.

The government has mobilized all departments and social forces in implementing their duties, borrowing state-of-the-art concepts and techniques from abroad, Li added.

GROWING ATTENTION

Chinese President Xi Jinping has underscored the significance of Healthy China on different occasions over the past years.

In the face of an outbreak of H7N9 avian flu in 2013, Xi called for efforts to conduct epidemiological studies of the disease, strictly control infection sources, promote public awareness of disease prevention and accelerate the development of vaccines.

During an inspection tour in eastern Jiangsu Province in December 2014, Xi said that there would be no all-round well-being without health for all the people.

In addition, the central leadership has attached great importance to food safety. During a tour of north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in January 2014, Xi asked food enterprises to produce high quality products to ensure food safety for all the people.

While meeting the World Health Organization (WHO) director-general Margaret Chan in July, Xi said that enabling all Chinese people to access quality medical and health services is a significant part of China's Two Centennial Goals -- to build an all-round moderately prosperous society by 2020 and to build a modern socialist country by the middle of the 21st century.

DEEPENING HEALTH REFORM

The country is still held back by structural problems in its medical system, such as lack of affordability and other issues that put stress on the country's public hospitals.

China launched a new round of medical reforms in 2009. The reforms have navigated uncharted waters, and there are many more complicated challenges ahead.

However, the current leadership has faced challenges head on. The Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee plans to comprehensively deepen reform in order to address deep-rooted structural problems and systematic constraints.

In April 2015, the 11th meeting of the Central Leading Group for Deepening Overall Reform endorsed new guidelines on public hospital reform.

According to the guidelines, public hospitals should operate for the public good instead of for profit.

China launched pilot medical reforms in public hospitals in 17 cities in 2010, and the guidelines stipulate the reforms should cover all public hospitals by 2017.

In December 2015, the 19th meeting of the Central Leading Group for Deepening Overall Reform adopted a document to merge China's two medical insurance schemes for urban and rural residents in a bid to guarantee equal access to basic healthcare.

China has three separate medical insurance schemes -- basic medical insurance for urban employees, the new rural cooperative medical scheme, and basic medical insurance for city dwellers not covered by the first two schemes, mainly the underage and unemployed.

In March 2016, the 22nd meeting of the Central Leading Group for Deepening Overall Reform approved a document on strengthening child health care.

The document said the number of medical personnel should increase and their service quality should be enhanced to address shortages in child healthcare resources.

In April, the 23rd meeting of the Central Leading Group for Deepening Overall Reform approved guidelines on the promotion of family doctors. It was agreed that establishing such a system would move more medical resources to grassroots levels and help achieve the goal of providing basic health services for everyone.

The elderly, patients with chronic diseases and mental health illnesses, expectant mothers, children and the disabled will be among the first to have their own contracted family doctors, according to the meeting.

Health is not solely determined by medical care capacity, but also involves lifestyle, the environment and many other issues, Li Bin said, adding that as the CPC Central Committee underscores Healthy China as a national strategy, the health of over 1.3 billion Chinese will be better guaranteed with better systems and improved public services.
RIYADH, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Saudi Interior Ministry announced Saturday the arrest of three members of Islamic State (IS) militant group in connection with the murder of a retired senior Saudi officer, Saudi News Agency reported.

The three suspects, two Yemenis and one Saudi, shot dead a retired Brigadier, Ahmed Al Asiri, several months ago in Saudi-Yemeni border city of Jazan.

The police have found the murder weapon at one of the suspects' house. They admitted that the killing was under directives from IS.

This murder was one of a series of terrorist crimes, including blasts and shootings, that targeted policemen and civilians by IS sleeping cells in recent years.

Many parts of the country have adopted strict measures to prevent its nationals from joining militant groups in disturbed areas such as Syria and Iraq.
BEIJING, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- China's major telecom operators have announced plans to cancel domestic roaming charges as they are instead turning to 4G services as a major source of profit.

China Mobile Communications Corp, the country's largest telecom operator, recently said they will stop charging domestic roaming fees by the end of this year.

Since July, they have stopped selling new service packages that include domestic roaming charges on cross-province phone calls.

Mobile users are currently charged 0.6 yuan (9 cents) to 0.8 yuan per minute for the roaming service under different payment schemes.

This nearly doubles costs for subscribers, which angers consumers. Industry regulators have also urged operators to gradually abolish fees.

With 4G services developing rapidly, China's major telecom operators saw their net profit grow at remarkable pace in the first half of this year thanks to fast growth in 4G subscribers.

In July, China Telecommunications Corp, China's third largest mobile telecommunication provider, announced it will cancel roaming fees this year. On Thursday, China Unicom, another telecom heavyweight, said it will scrap such fees from October.

Analysts said that eliminating roaming fees will not incur big losses for operators, as the data flow business has become a major source of profit for them.
Cao Wenxuan attends an awarding ceremony in Auckland, New Zealand, Aug. 20, 2016. (Xinhua/Tian Ye)

AUCKLAND, New Zealand, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- "I am a recognizable one among my peers, without a doubt, meanwhile I am not a typical children's literature writer," Cao Wenxuan, who is set to receive the Hans Christian Andersen Award here on Saturday evening, portrayed himself in a way one can find hard to argue.

Cao has been in the spotlight since April when he was announced the winner for the 2016 top award of children's literature at Bologna Children's book fair in Italy. It was the first time that a Chinese writer was voted the winner by the panel of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY).

"I start to feel somehow a little excitement, not only for myself, but for the recognition of Chinese literature as a whole," the 62-year-old literature professor in Peking University, told Xinhua in an exclusive interview.

Cao sees himself as a writer, not for children in particular, but for upholding literary and aesthetical texture."While writing, I don't have a target reader in mind, perhaps in the sub consciousness there might be one. When writing begins, the target actually fades away."

Truthfully, some of his works, including the latest Dragonfly Eyes, have been awarded by mainstream literature journals in China and reviewed and commented by critics not specialized in children's literature.

"When it is published by a literature journal, it is for readers of adulthood; when it is done by a children's magazine, it is for the children as well," he explained.

"When children read my stories, they would not say this is not for me to read."

In his opinion, literature can be categorized, but irrelevant to readership.

However, Cao always chose a child's perspective to observe the world, which may be the reason most of his works were defined as children's literature. He insisted that the perspective of a child is a choice without struggle that satisfied his pursuit of aesthetics.

He is stubborn on a dialogue with children as an adult in his works, revealing a true world or real human condition to his readers regardless of age, refusing to sugarcoat the pains and miseries in life, but never giving up on reflecting on the precious qualities of humanity.

He would not agree with the"kneeling down" perspective in his writing, echoing his long standing belief that reading on tiptoe brings upmost pleasure.

His works raised some controversial comments by critics as some pointed out his deep rooted romantics in his works failed to exemplify a real world. Others say his ruthless reveal of vulnerabilities of life failed to reflect on a happy childhood.

Cao clarified that romantics is the basic color of his works though he would not to hide what life and humanity really are to his readers, of whom two thirds are children.

He attributed his award to his peers and his country as he deems himself as one of a few Chinese writers who shared the same view that aesthetics is the gene of literature and source of its charm.

He repeatedly stated that he has been writing stories that can only occur in China, a country that has undergone drastic changes for the last century offering inspirations in abundance to a writer.

"What a big fool you would make yourself of, if you turn away from this treasury,"he asserted, adding he was fortunate to be a writer with Chinese background.

"I think I simply offered a human story the IBBY panel never read before, and they decided to give me this award."
ISTANBUL, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Saturday that his country will play a more active role in helping address the Syrian crisis within the next six months.

"Turkey supports the territorial integrity of Syria and will do its best to prevent the country from being ethnically divided," Yildirim told the foreign press in Istanbul.

He said Iran, the Gulf countries, the United States and Russia can make joint efforts to end the war in Syria and set details over a transition period in the country.

The premier added that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad could be accepted as an actor during the transition period but he has no place in Syria's future, as he would not be able to keep the integrity of the country in the long run.

On Wednesday, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus described Ankara's policy on Syria, under which al-Assad's ouster had been insisted upon, as "a source of many sufferings for Turkey today."

Kurtulmus was referring to repeated terror attacks and the influx of Syrians into Turkey, among others.

Turkey and Russia have moved toward ending the Syrian war after they started in late June to repair bilateral relations battered over Ankara's downing of a Russian warplane in November last year.
ISTANBUL, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Turkey has been joining efforts to make the G20 summit a success, which is slated for early September in Hangzhou, China, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Saturday.

Turkey, host of the last G20 summit last year, has been working hard under the leadership of Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek to make the Hangzhou summit a success, said Yildirim in meeting with the foreign press in Istanbul.

He noted that leaders of the world's major economies will discuss on G20, among others, the slowdown in global trade and growth, tax evasion, money laundering and IMF quota reform.

The root causes of tax evasion and money laundering have to be revealed and the defects have to be fixed to prevent the illegal acts, he said.

"The taxes have to be dragged to the acceptable levels rather than to keep them high in order to increase production and boost economic prosperity," Yildirim said.

On China-Turkey relations, Yildirim said the two countries have been working together on common projects as part of the Belt and Road Initiative.




Cao Wenxuan (C) attends the awarding ceremony of the Hans Christian Andersen Award in Auckland, New Zealand, Aug. 20, 2016. Cao Wenxuan, one of China's most popular authors of children's fictions, received the Hans Christian Andersen Award here on Saturday, becoming the first Chinese writer for the most distinguished international honor for children's literature. (Xinhua/Tian Ye)

AUCKLAND, New Zealand, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Cao Wenxuan, one of China's most popular authors of children's fictions, received the Hans Christian Andersen Award here on Saturday, becoming the first Chinese writer for the most distinguished international honor for children's literature.

Cao shared the prize, handed out every other year, with German illustrator Rotraut Susanne Berner who was absent from the grand prize-giving ceremony was attended by some 300 readers, publishers and members of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY).

"Cao Wenxuan's books don't lie about the human condition," Patricia Aldana, president of the Hans Christian Andersen Award jury told the audience, "They acknowledge that life can often be tragic and that children can suffer."

Except for Cao, other shortlisted competing writers are from Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and the United States. He has won all the hearts of 10 jurors and was voted unanimously the winner of this year's prize.

"Cao writes beautifully about the complex life of children facing challenges. He's a deeply committed writer whose own child life has been deeply influential on his writing," she said.

The host of the event, New Zealand TV presenter Miriama Kamo pointed out a coincidence that Margaret Mahy, a New Zealander writer received here Anderson Award a decade ago in China while a Chinese writer receives one for the first time in New Zealand.

Chinese writers have been involved with Anderson Award decades ago when another writer Jin Bo was nominated for the prize in 1992. A few others have been nominated afterwards, but none has won the prize.

Zhang Xiaonan, chief editor of China's leading publication group of children's literature recalled that insufficient application materials were to blame at the time.

IBBY president Wally De Doncker lauded efforts by Zhang and her China Children's Press and Publication Group, which launched special program to promote better translation and overseas publishing of Chinese authors' works.

Cao, one of the best of his peers in China, sailed with wind and anchored his merit in history with a strong belief that the best authors and their works in China can speak for the best literature in today's world.

"As a matter of fact, we have been there for some 15 years," he told the press after receiving the award. "The world had just not realized it then."
An international symposium in commemoration of the 1650th anniversary of the Mogao Grottoes is held in Dunhuang, northwest China's Gansu Province, Aug. 20, 2016. Over 150 experts and scholars attended the symposium Saturday. (Xinhua/Fan Peishen)

LANZHOU, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Over 150 scholars and researchers on Saturday attended a two-day seminar in northwest China's Dunhuang City to commemorate the 1650th anniversary of Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang.

The attendees from more than 10 countries and regions including China, France, Germany, Japan and Iran will discuss archaeological findings, studies of Dunhuang documents, grotto art, and the role of Dunhuang in the history of Silk Road.

The Mogao Grottoes are home to a huge collection of Buddhist artworks -- more than 2,000 colored sculptures and 45,000 square meters of frescoes -- in 735 caves carved along a cliff by ancient worshippers.

The first cave was excavated by a monk called Master Yue Zun in A.D. 366. After over 1,000 years of construction, the Mogao Grottoes has become a Buddhist pilgrimage and was China's first UNESCO World Heritage Site, inscribed in 1987.

Dunhuang Academy as a guardian of Mogao Grottoes, will continue to explore its historical, artistic and scientific values, expand domestic and international cooperation, and preserve and develop world cultural diversity, said Wang Xudong, president of the academy.

Using its expertise and technology in preserving ancient frescoes, the academy has also been repairing frescoes in other parts of China, including Xinjiang and Tibet.

An accumulated 8,800 square meters of murals in landmark buildings in Tibet, including the Potala Palace, have been repaired over the past 14 years, according to the academy. ' The seminar is a part of the first Silk Road (Dunhuang) International Cultural Expo scheduled to open one month later.
A Syrian man covered with dust carries pieces of metal on a street cluttered with rubble following a reported air strike on the rebel-held neighbourhood of Sakhur in the northern city of Aleppo, on August 15, 2016. (AFP/Xinhua)

ISTANBUL, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Saturday that his country will play a more active role in helping address the Syrian crisis within the next six months.

"Turkey supports the territorial integrity of Syria and will do its best to prevent the country from being ethnically divided," Yildirim told the foreign press in Istanbul.

He said Iran, the Gulf countries, the United States and Russia can make joint efforts to end the war in Syria and set details over a transition period in the country.

The premier added that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad could be accepted as an actor during the transition period but he has no place in Syria's future, as he would not be able to keep the integrity of the country in the long run.

On Wednesday, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus described Ankara's policy on Syria, under which al-Assad's ouster had been insisted upon, as "a source of many sufferings for Turkey today."

Kurtulmus was referring to repeated terror attacks and the influx of Syrians into Turkey, among others.

Turkey and Russia have moved toward ending the Syrian war after they started in late June to repair bilateral relations battered over Ankara's downing of a Russian warplane in November last year.




Cui Yuying, deputy director of China's State Council Information Office, speaks at the forum in the Chinggis City, Mongolia, Aug. 20, 2016. Chinese and Mongolian media representatives gathered on Saturday in the Chinggis City, capital of Mongolia's Khentii province, for the forum with the theme of "deepening media cooperation and creating a bright future." (Xinhua/Zheng Chuang)

ULAN BATOR, Aug 20 (Xinhua) -- An annual China-Mongolia press forum that is now in its seventh year has helped the people of the two countries better know each other, giving a boost to the bilateral relations.

Chinese and Mongolian media representatives gathered on Saturday in the Chinggis City, capital of Mongolia's Khentii province, for the forum with the theme of "deepening media cooperation and creating a bright future."

Addressing the forum, Cui Yuying, deputy director of China's State Council Information Office, called on the media organizations from both countries to boost their exchanges and cooperation.

"We have had frequent exchanges of visits at the high level between our two countries. We have had close cooperation in economy and trade, and we have had robust people-to-people exchanges," she said.

"The friendly cooperation between our two countries is now at its best," she added.

The forum gathered more than 90 representatives from some 30 Chinese and Mongolian media organizations, including those from the People's Daily, Xinhua News Agency, China Radio International, as well as Mongolia's national news agency Montsame and its national broadcaster.

Cui called on the media organizations of the two neighboring countries to work together to lead the bilateral relations in the right direction, tell great stories of the bilateral cooperation and deepen the practical cooperation between them.

Held annually since 2010, the China-Mongolia media forum has now grown into an important channel to help the peoples of the two countries better know each other. It has led to a number of practical cooperation projects with win-win outcome, and the cooperation mechanism has been upgraded as the cooperation was expanded and enriched over the years.

Munkhtuul Banzragch, editor of Montsame, said that Mongolian and Chinese journalists have been sharing their experience and views at the forum and that the media organizations have strengthened their cooperation as the cooperation between their countries expanded enormously over the past decade.

She said some media organizations have agreed to cooperate with each other and conduct public survey.

"This is very important step for uplifting the cooperation between the media organizations of Mongolia and China," she said.

The forum this year is also part of the "Feel China" project, which is held under the framework of a China-Mongolia cultural cooperation agreement signed between the governments of the two countries.

Bilateral cooperation between China and Mongolia have expanded in recent years with win-win outcome. Observers said that there is still great space for the two neighbors to further expand their cooperation and that more robust people-to-people exchanges can be a boost.

The "Feel China" project is co-sponsored by China's State Council Information Office, the government of China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the Chinese Embassy in Mongolia and Mongolia's Ministry of Culture to help Mongolians better understand its southern neighbor.
A team of Libyan experts and military engineers dismantles a rocket under the supervision of the United Nations, in Tripoli, Nov. 11, 2012.(Xinhua/Hamza Turkia)

COPENHAGEN, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- The Danish parliament on Friday approved a decision to send two ships as part of an international operation to move its remaining chemical weapons out of Libya.

All Danish political parties voted in favor of the contribution that consists of a civilian transport ship, a warship and more than 200 staff.

"We will undertake a leading role in an important operation to remove the remains from Libya's chemical stockpile, which otherwise risk falling into the wrong hands," Foreign Minister Kristian Jensen said in a statement.

Denmark said it had been asked by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and the United States to contribute to the operation.

The mission is expected to cost Denmark about 12 million Danish kroner (1.8 million U.S. dollars).

Danish Defense Minister Peter Christensen said the safety of the more than 200 staff is not at risk, though there is fear that the weapons risk ending up in the hands of extremists like the Islamic State.

"We believe that the threat level is low in relation to the actual task to sail in, get the containers on board and sail out again," Christensen said.

In July, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution to ask the international community to assist Libya in destroying its chemical weapons.

The 15-nation council has authorized member states to acquire, control, transport, transfer and destroy chemical weapons to eliminate Libya's stockpile "in the soonest and safest manner."

The resolution came after the OPCW made its decision to help Libya develop a modified plan on chemical weapons destruction.
by Xinhua Writer Shuai Anning

BRUSSELS, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- One blowpipe, two furnaces and several moulds, those are all it takes to make a crystal art piece. It is a craftsmanship that has been passed down through generations, and is still applied in Belgium's oldest crystal factory, Val Saint Lambert.

To make a crystal piece, first the glassblower takes a blob of liquid glass out of the furnace that has been heated to 1,400 Celsius degree, then blows the liquid through a blowpipe into a bell. Then by repeatedly heating, moulding and blowing, the glassware gradually forms the shape.

When the shape is set, the crystal will be cut and polished by the cutter.

Different cutting techniques determine the specific light reflections and the appearances of the piece. The finishing work -- engraving, etching, sandblasting, enamelling, etc. gives the final character of the work.

Such craftsmanship has been handed down through generations in Val Saint Lambert since it was founded in 1826. All the procedures are done by hand, which is very time-consuming. A vase with exquisite cuttings could take a whole day to complete.

The exquisiteness of crystal art piece made it one of the most popular luxury items at the end of 19th century and the beginning of the 20th: From the wine cups of Russian czars to the chandeliers in the Gwalior maharajah palace in India, Val Saint Lambert has made its appearances in many prestigious occasions and settings.

But the two world wars and great depression strongly hit the crystal industry. Declining as a luxury product, the crystal ware became more functional.

Nowadays, in an era of machinization and mass production, the production of crystal art piece is also available now by machines. But Val Saint Lambert is not going to follow the trend.

There is still a lot of work can't be done by machines, said Pierre Grivegnee of Val Saint Lambert.

Proudly pointing a crystal vase about 1.5 meters high with delicate cuttings, Grivegnee said: "We are probably the only factory that can produce a vase at such size".
AMMAN. Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Jordan is in talks with several international groups to secure finance for its nuclear power plant, the state-run Petra news agency reported on Saturday.

Jordan started discussions with Chinese, German, Russian, Czech and Japanese companies to secure finance for the 10 billion U.S dollars project, said Khaled Toukan, chairman of the Jordan Atomic Energy Commission.

Russia and Jordan, partners in the project, will secure 3 billion dollars in financing equally, while the remaining 7 billion dollars will be attracted from partners and others, he said.

"There are positive steps being taken and if we secure finance by end of 2017, we will have the first reactor ready by 2025," he said.

Under the agreement between Jordan and Russia, Jordan will build a nuclear plant with two reactors. Each reactor will have a total capacity of 1,000 megawatts.

Jordan, which imports about 97 percent of its energy needs annually, is working on several energy projects, including nuclear, to meet energy needs.

Toukan added that Jordan is also going ahead with a project to explore and mine uranium in Jordan.
TEHRAN, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad-Javad Zarif said on Saturday that Iraq is on the front line of the fight against terrorism and Iran stands by the Iraqi nation and government in anti-terror campaign, official IRNA news agency reported.

"We are confident that the Iraqi government and nation have been successful so far in the fight against extremism and terrorism," Zarif was quoted as saying.

Zarif, who was meeting with the visiting Iraqi parliament Speaker Salim al-Jabouri, praised what he called political stability in Iraq.

He expressed the hope that Iraq's struggle against the issues of terrorism and extremism could create unity among all Iraqi ethnic groups, tribes and followers of different religions in the country.

For his part, al-Jabouri thanked Iran for the support for the Iraqi government and nation in the fight against terrorism and called Iran an influential and important state in the region.

The Iraqi speaker said that terrorism is the most important and immediate threat to the entire region and, thanks to the national unity, the Iraqi government has achieved significant victories in the fight against terrorism.
NAIROBI, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Communal violence in South Sudan has been ignored after the December 2013 violence and yet it mildly drives and feeds off the ongoing fighting in the oil-rich impoverished country, experts have said.

The under reported internal violence has tended to take on an intra-ethnic and inter-ethnic violence triggered by historical rivalry over grazing land, water, child bride abductions and cattle raiding fanned by powerful elites.

In restive states like Jonglei, Lakes and Pibor, people have experienced deadly violence involving youth from the Lou-Nuer, Dinka and Murle communities.

This explains the existence of various guns in the hands of vigilant youth protecting cattle camps like the White Army made up of Nuer community - that went on to back ousted first vice president Riek Machar against troops loyal to president Salva Kiir in the ongoing conflict.

Experts, say hundreds of lives have been killed in what they termed as the 'silent cancer' hitherto kept out of media reach due to the concentration of much of the fighting on the periphery.

They add the long decade civil war of independence from Sudan that birthed South Sudan in 2011, left the civil population awash with guns, hence arming various communities with already violent culture initiated in the minds of the youth.

Philip Aguer, the governor of Jonglei state told Xinhua on phone in an interview on Friday from Bor town, that people are involved in cattle raiding for economic reasons.

Something he explained is prevalent in the dry season usually from December-April, but as of now its rainy season as cattle keepers have unlimited access to water and pasture.

However, Abraham Awolich a Juba-based political and security analyst says this violence is legendary and stems from the culture of traditional initiation of young men into warriors.

"I know of many Nilotic communities when they are being initiated they are trained like soldiers, they are warriors. There are books written from 1900 of Dinka, Nuer, Zande, Murle, Lotuko and Toposa warriors. We are raising armies to fight our neighbors. The young men are told to protect interests of their clans and communities," Awolich said.

Zacharia Diing, senior policy analyst at the Sudd Institute, a think tank, says the violence is fanned by the militarization of the mindset resulting from long decade of civil war.

"I don't think education is a big problem. It is something to do with control of resources, some politics which could happen between the intra and inter -communal violence. But overall it's the military mindset, people have guns and guns are associated with power, especially if you have difficult economic conditions," he explained.

He added all these are related to the inability of the state to extend its monopoly of violence and enforce law and order.

"In the past this was not an issue because people did not have guns but guns are now available. If today you want to buy a gun in Juba you will buy just with your money and intention," he said.

And his views are corroborated by Awolich, when he says in the past rival communities used arrows and clubs, but now with the civil population awash with guns, two people with AK 47 rifles can terrorize a community.

"There has always been communal violence in South Sudan. We are a violent society we have to be honest with that. Look at how our young people are initiated traditionally," Awolich disclosed.

He added that political elites hoodwink and manipulate the unsuspecting population in a bid to negotiate power.

"This social structure is how they (politicians) negotiate power. If one is from a particular community and not considered on merit for a position. The person will say "our" community has been ignored. If it is personal qualifications one is easily dismissed but now with the community backing the calculation is different," he revealed.

But Diing explains that some of the violence is driven by unsettled injustices at community level.

"They are linked to the efforts for peace and stability. They are not necessarily related to the conflict in the country but they are symptomatic indicators of what is gone wrong," he said.

He added: "And to have laws there is need for a system of justice that addresses injustices because weaknesses in the institutions are contributing factors to these."

Awolich advocates for peace education to be inculcated into the education curricula and law enforcement agencies to be equipped to handle the problem rather than involvement of the army.

"What makes it more like it is getting out of control is exposure to media. It used to happen to Rumbek, people in Juba could not know because there was no media," he said.

"Our education system must change these mindsets through integrating peace education for these young people. They should know they are not warriors but engineers, lawyers," Awolich added.

He added that several numbers of unaccounted deaths in the streets of the capital Juba is due to either blood compensation or community rivalry spill over.

"This is a major part of what makes South Sudan unsafe, insecure and this is why the international community is scared," he noted.
SYDNEY, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- China's technology hub Silicon Dragon is slowly becoming a force to be reckoned with as some of its tech companies are delivering revenue growth that could give Google and Facebook a run for its money, a columnist said.

Fairfax Media columnist Michael Smith said on Saturday the hub based in Shenzhen near Hong Kong was its version of Silicon Valley, adding that Australia was "dinosaurs in comparison" to the Chinese progress in technology.

This is evident as five of the world's 14 privately-owned tech companies valued at more than 10 billion U.S. dollars were now based in China, Smith said quoting figures released by PwC.

"There is a real hunger here (in China) that Australia does not have. The Chinese look at Australians and think you are fat and lazy by comparison," an anonymous Australian working in the Chinese tech sector was quoted as saying.

A Huawei executive James Peng said the Chinese government's willingness to give incentives such as tax breaks coupled with its western-style market economy were the other reasons behind Shenzhen's success.

"You will see government efforts to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship. What a lot of business people here like is that Shenzhen is a city where there is a recognition that businesses will do well but that some will fail. Failure is okay here, whereas Chinese provincial governments can't have companies failing," an unnamed Australian government official said.

Simon Lance, managing director of the China operations for global recruitment agency Hays, said Chinese tech firms like their counterparts in Silicon Valley, also find it challenging to recruit the right talent and have to offer pay rises of up to 25 percent and a career progression plan to get new employees on board.

"The thing that really strikes me about China is that it makes long-term plans ... 10-year plans ... you can set up an industrial park working on virtual reality or artificial intelligence almost overnight. Australians touring here are surprised at how high-tech the facilities are becoming," said Lance, an Australian who moved to China 15 years ago.

Drone maker DJI executive said the ability of Chinese companies being able to move fast and adapt was another reason for its success.

"Chinese tech companies used to copy what western firms were producing but then they started improving on it and now they are breaking new ground on their own," the unnamed executive was quoted as saying.

Even local banks in China were cashing in on the innovation fun.

Recently HSBC, one of the few foreign banks in China, launched a WeChat banking app which will let its customers transfer money to each other in two seconds.

In conclusion, Smith in his column titled "China's tech sector leaves Australia in its wake" believed that it was almost impossible for Australia to compete with China progress in the tech space.

"While there will be opportunities to utilise Australian talent and skills in China, the decision by Uber to pull out of China last month shows how difficult it is for foreign multi-nationals to get a slice of the action," Smith concluded.

Smith recently travel to China as a guest of the Australia-China Relations Institute.
NAIROBI, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Chinese firm, China Wu Yi's Building Industrialization Research, Development and Production Base and Supermarket project will help Kenya achieve its industrial goals, a senior government official said on Saturday.

Cabinet Secretary in the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Cooperatives Adan Mohamed said that when the 101 million U.S. dollar investment is completed, it will revolutionize the construction sector.

"It will reduce both the cost and time of construction of buildings by 50 percent and hence increase the number of low cost houses constructed annually," Mohamed said during the ground breaking ceremony in Athi River which approximately 30 kilometers south of Nairobi.

Mohamed said that China Wu Yi will help to industrialize the building industry by introducing a new method of production.

He noted that the project is aligned to Kenya's National Development blue print, Vision 2030 that aims at transforming the country into a middle income country.

The CS said that the plant will help to fill in key gaps in the construction sector, which is key driver of the country's economic growth.

According to the 2016 Economic Survey, Kenya's building and construction sector grew by 14 percent in 2015.

Mohamed added that the investment comes at an appropriate time when the construction sector is experiencing rapid growth.

China Wu Yi Chairman Qiu Liangxin said that his firm began conducting a feasibility study and an environmental impact assessment study for the facility in early 2015.

"After all this restless work, China Wu Yi is now generally prepared for the construction of the project," Qiu said.

The project, which is expected to go into operation in June, 2017, will use advanced construction industrialization technology and equipment for the manufacturing of the varied precast concrete panels.

According to China Wu Yi, the facility will also provide local people with 500 to 800 jobs annually.

Qiu noted the facility will produce 150,000 square meters of building material or 1,500 sets of buildings annually which will meet the Chinese, European and Kenyan standards.

The chairman said that construction industrialization is a new technology that has been used in Europe and America for the past 80 years and will have a positive impact on Kenya's construction sector.

"We will bring to Kenya high-quality, low-cost, and environment-friendly housing products that will bring revolutionary changes to housing construction in Kenya and even East Africa," he added.

Counselor of the Chinese Embassy in Kenya Yao Ming said that it has been three years since Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta visited China.

"While in China, he signed a comprehensive cooperation agreement with China that has been the blueprint for future direction of China-Kenya cooperation," Yao said.
BAGHDAD, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Kurdish regional authorities on Saturday said the Kurdish security forces, known as Peshmerga, will abide by the agreements concluded with the Iraqi federal government in Baghdad and the international coalition about liberating the city of Mosul, the capital of Iraq's Nineveh province, from the Islamic State (IS) militants.

A statement by the presidency office of the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan said the Kurdish region is seeking for a future political accord among all parties over the administration of Mosul and the whole province of Nineveh after driving out the extremist militants.

"The Kurdistan region remains committed to the previous agreements between the region, the government of Iraq and the coalition forces, in addition to any other future agreement between those three parties," the statement said.

Liberating Mosul would have humanitarian and political consequences on Iraq, Middle East region and the whole world, the statement warned, adding that such consequences should be taken into consideration.

"There ought to be a political agreement among the parties (Baghdad, Kurdistan and anti-IS U.S.-led coalition) in regard to the administration of the city of Mosul and the Nineveh province," the statement said.

Such political agreement over Mosul is aimed at preventing tragedies from recurring against members of the ethnic and religious communities of the Nineveh province and to provide complete assurances to those communities, according to the statement.

The Kurdish statement came to clear up doubts declared earlier by Baghdad when Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Wednesday called on Peshmerga to stop its progress in the Nineveh province under the pretext of defeating IS, amid accusations that the Kurdish forces are attempting to seize land as much as they can before declaring their independent state.

"The Peshmerga should stay where they are now, and they should not expand their presence even if they help the Iraqi army," Abadi said.

Later, the Kurdish government spokesman Safeen Dizayee rejected Abadi's call, saying "the Peshmerga will continue their advances and will not retreat from the areas they have recently liberated from the IS militants in Mosul."

The Iraqi army and the Peshmerga are now fighting to seize back positions around Mosul amid a major offensive to liberate the whole city.

Mosul, the second largest city in Iraq, has been under the IS control since June 2014, when the Iraqi government forces abandoned their weapons and fled, giving opportunities for the IS militants to take control of parts of Iraq's northern and western regions.
by Chris Dalby

MEXICO CITY, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- No country appreciates being turned into a political punching bag.

Mexico has been systematically victimized by U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who has accused the country of sending rapists to the United States, is planning to build a border wall, and to stop remittances being sent to Mexico. These reasons have all made most Mexicans eager supporters of his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton.

However, the issue of free trade may become Mexico's largest concern in the presidential race of the United States, a country that has pioneered the global economic model.

Both candidates have openly spoken out against the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the world's largest free-trade agreement (FTAs) signed in 2015 between 12 countries, including Mexico, the United States, Australia and Japan.

For decades now, Mexico has made free trade a cornerstone of its economic and foreign agendas. It has more FTAs with 45 countries, the most of any nation in the world, and much of its economic development has come from rivaling the likes of China and Vietnam as a manufacturing destination.

Its North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) treaty, signed with the U.S. and Canada in 1994, also anchored Mexico's competitiveness by being arguably the only developing economy in the world with such privileged access to these markets.

The unexpected body swerve away from free trade by both Clinton and Trump may well have Mexico spooked. At a one-day summit with President Barack Obama and Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in June, this Mexican preoccupation was made clear.

In his address, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto said Mexico "is now a country that jealously protects its macroeconomic strength."

For Pena Nieto, this strength is based on free trade. "The partnership Canada and Mexico have with the United States is on track to make North America a much more competitive and productive region."

Trump's slogan "Make America Great Again" screams of cheap jingoism but it also strikes at a desire to bring jobs back and rebuild America's manufacturing heartland. Interviewed by CNN, Raul Benitez Manaut, a Mexican researcher on North America at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), said "NAFTA has been heavily criticized by Democrats and Republicans alike for two decades. No matter whether it is Clinton or Trump, it will surely be revised and updated."

"Trump has been very aggressive and put in doubt the future of the TPP, which involves Mexico," he said, adding that Clinton would probably be friendly toward free trade overall, as Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton have all been.

However, Benitez Manaut's confidence about this may not be certain. Clinton's track record indicates an openness toward free trade. Her husband was in office when NAFTA was signed and she also supported FTAs between the United States and Oman, Chile and Singapore while in the Senate.

Despite that, she has been markedly careful at towing a line between supporting the idea of free trade yet providing few specifics as to what pro-trade measures she would support.

In an interview with CBS in April, Clinton said that "any trade deal has to produce jobs and raise wages and increase prosperity and protect our security. We have to do our part in making sure we have the capabilities and the skills to be competitive. It's got to be really a partnership between our business, our government, our workforce, the intellectual property that comes out of our universities, and we have to get back to a much more focused effort in my opinion to try to produce those capacities here at home so that we can be competitive in a global economy."

There is no doubt that will play well with the American electorate but it was not what Mexico wanted to hear. Far from being content with simply assembling American cars or packaging pre-produced goods, Mexico is actually looking to move up the value chain.

The country produces over 130,000 engineers a year, many of whom aim to work for American companies. Ford has an R&D lab in Mexico, designing parts for the new Ford Fiesta, among others. Should policy arguments about free trade lead to protectionist policies being passed by Congress, such companies would face a very difficult time.

News website, Economia Hoy (Economy Today) speaks of the irony of how Trump "has used NAFTA as cannon fodder", promising protectionism and to "eliminate any regulation which annihilates jobs" while his free trade opposition would harm both the U.S. and Mexico.

However, American Ambassador to Mexico Roberta Jacobson said that she doubted any move away from FTA would actually materialize.

"We feel that trade between the two countries, worth 1.6 billion U.S. dollars a day, means that it is one thing to say we want to separate and another thing to actually do it. We are so integrated that I do not think it is possible to make any quick changes," said Jacobson in an August interview with Mexican daily, Excelsior.

For Jacobson, since NAFTA was signed over 20 years ago, all the administration share the understanding that this is a very important, fruitful relationship for the U.S.

In this, the ambassador is probably right. Presidential candidates might campaign in poetry but they must govern in prose when reality kicks in. Railing against free trade may play well in Rust Belt states, which have undoubtedly suffered from jobs being exported, but the U.S. is too dependent on the benefits of free trade.

Trump has spoken of renegotiating NAFTA and of slapping 35 percent tariffs on goods imported from Mexico. That would not be a renegotiation of NAFTA at all, that would mean throwing it out and starting a trade war. Companies who still make finished goods in the U.S. would be punished for importing parts and raw materials. This would be passed on to customers, who would see prices spike on everything from foodstuffs to freezers.

This is where protectionism often falls apart. The world is too interconnected for countries to make such radical changes to their trade policies, without paying a stiff price, as the UK is now feeling after Brexit.

Politicians find it very difficult to undo broad legislation once enacted. As pointed out recently by Alberto Barranco, a political columnist for Mexican daily, El Universal, the TPP is a rare area where Obama and many Republicans agree. The president has stated that he wants Congress to ratify the TPP before he leaves office. If House Speaker Paul Ryan obliges him, and Mexico also ratifies it as planned, neither government will have the stomach for a renegotiation.

Jacobson says she cannot foresee a future for U.S.-Mexican relations without NAFTA or TPP. "We may have a fight ahead with TPP but I think all countries will ratify it, including the U.S.," she stated confidently.

At the Canada summit, Pena Nieto expressed his agreement. "The TPP revitalizes the NAFTA agreement, by putting it on another scale and at another level."

The free flow of goods across borders is the grease that keeps the global engine of growth turning. For years, this was drilled into Mexico's head by its northern neighbor. For all its social and economic problems, Mexico learned this well. Since NAFTA was signed, far more complaints were filed against Canada than against Mexico. The country has a real commitment to open markets and to global fair trade rules. It is the exemplary pupil of the global economic model pioneered by the United States.

It would now be a real shock if the pupil surpassed the master.
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim delivers a speech during a press conference after a Turkish-Israeli meeting, at the Cankaya Palace in Ankara, on June 27, 2016. (AFP/Xinhua)

ANKARA, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- The Turkish parliament on Saturday approved the normalization deal reached with Israel last month, ending a six-year rift and paving the way for the restoration of full diplomatic ties, Daily Sabah reported.

The parliament voted to approve the pact early on Saturday before it closed for a summer recess.

Relations between Turkey and Israel declined in 2010 following an Israeli naval raid on a Turkish aid ship en route to deliver humanitarian aid to the blockaded Gaza Strip, which left 10 Turkish activists killed.

According to the new agreement, Israel will pay 20 million U.S. dollars in 25 days as a compensation for lost lives during Mavi Marmara flottila raid and Turkey will drop all cases against the incident.

Israeli soldiers will be exempt from legal and criminal responsibility and individual Israeli nationals also would not be held criminally or financially liable for the incident.

The deal was already approved in the Israeli cabinet earlier this year.

Also on Saturday, Israel lauded the Turkish parliament has approved the bilateral reconciliation agreement.

"Israel welcomes the Turkish parliament's decision, and looks forward to the next steps of its implementation," said a statement from the Prime Minister's Office.

It added Israel expects the future exchange of ambassadors.
SANAA, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Millions of people from all Yemeni territories crowded Saturday at the center of the Yemeni capital Sanaa to show support and bless the formation of a new ruling political council presided by the Houthi rebels and their allied powerful party of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The unprecedented massive march took eight hours - from dawn till noon - to walk the roads and settle at Alsabeen Square, the largest, vast empty square of almost 70 square kilometers.

The huge crowds held banners carrying two messages to the international community, reading "We support and bless the formation of new ruling political council."

The other one says "We are the owner of our homeland, and we are the owner of our political will," in reference to their choice to back the new ruling authority to fill the long political vacuum left after exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

"The Houthis and ex-President Saleh are not rebels, but our brothers, relatives and our major partnership of this soil," 45-year-old demonstrator Ahmed Abdulkarim told Xinhua.

"We are similar to all world's peoples, we want this mess and long political vacuum to be ended," he said.

Saddam Hizam, a tribal chieftain in his 40s, said "I came from my faraway village to tell the world we will never ever surrender, we will not handover our rifles and flee our lands after those refused peace and partnership."

"We are the origin of this land and the surrender will not going to happen," Hizam referred to the recognized government's decision which stipulated the Houthi group and Saleh's party to obey the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2216 in order to end the civil war.

National flags are everywhere, in the streets, above the buildings, at the gates of commercial shops and even paste on the foreheads and chests of the old, young people and children who took part in the rally.

It is really hard to find a foothold in this vast square at the center of the capital despite that warplanes from Saudi Arabia-led military coalition kept flying overhead, but that didn't intimidate the huge demonstrators.

Soon after the arrival of president of the new ruling political council, Saleh al-Sumad, the Saudi-led fighter jets bombed the main gate of the presidential palace, which locates about 500 meter from the platform where al-Sumad and his team stood in to welcome the people.

"Within the upcoming days, we will declare the formation of a new national government to work to achieve the people's aspirations and to prepare for holding general elections," the Houthi-controlled official Saba news agency cited what it called "President al-Sumad" as saying in his speech to the nation.

Last week, the Yemeni parliament unanimously ratified the "Higher Political Council" to unilaterally rule the country, lifting the power and legitimacy of the internationally recognized exiled president Hadi and his government, according to the Houthi-controlled state TV.

Internationally recognized President Hadi warned the parliament of taking such a step, threatening to hold them accountable and subject them to punishment.

The ruling council was declared and formed on Aug. 6 between former President Ali Abdullah Saleh's party and Shiite Houthi armed group following the breakdown of peace talks with their foes in Kuwait.

It is made up of 10 senior officials, who dominate the decision making in the country, and was declared in a ceremony in the presidential palace in the Houthi-held capital Sanaa.

Senior Houthi leader Saleh al-Sumad was elected as council president and Kasim Labuzah of former president's General People's Congress party as vice-president, according to Saba news agency.

They said the council's next mission is to form a new "national government" very soon.

The escalating move came after the UN-sponsored peace talks with their foes of internationally recognized government of President Hadi in Kuwait collapsed after over three months of fruitless negotiations to end years-long civil war.

Saudi Arabia intervened in support of President Hadi and his government in March 2015 after the Houthis and Saleh forces expelled them to Riyadh, the Saudi capital.

However, Saudi-led military coalition has failed to bring back exiled President Hadi or his government to the office in Sanaa.

Sanaa and most of northern and southern provinces have been under tightened control of Houthi and Saleh armed forces since September 2014 when they stormed the capital and other major cities.

The ground battles and airstrikes of Saudi-led military coalition against the rebel Houthi and Saleh's supporters have killed over 6,500 people, mostly civilians, and displaced more than two other millions.
Yemeni's wave the national flag during a gathering in support of the Huthi-led parliament, in the capital Sanaa on August 20, 2016. (AFP/Xinhua)

SANAA, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Millions of people from all Yemeni territories crowded Saturday at the center of the Yemeni capital Sanaa to show support and bless the formation of a new ruling political council presided by the Houthi rebels and their allied powerful party of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The unprecedented massive march took eight hours - from dawn till noon - to walk the roads and settle at Alsabeen Square, the largest, vast empty square of almost 70 square kilometers.

The huge crowds held banners carrying two messages to the international community, reading "We support and bless the formation of new ruling political council."

The other one says "We are the owner of our homeland, and we are the owner of our political will," in reference to their choice to back the new ruling authority to fill the long political vacuum left after exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

"The Houthis and ex-President Saleh are not rebels, but our brothers, relatives and our major partnership of this soil," 45-year-old demonstrator Ahmed Abdulkarim told Xinhua.

"We are similar to all world's peoples, we want this mess and long political vacuum to be ended," he said.

Saddam Hizam, a tribal chieftain in his 40s, said "I came from my faraway village to tell the world we will never ever surrender, we will not handover our rifles and flee our lands after those refused peace and partnership."

"We are the origin of this land and the surrender will not going to happen," Hizam referred to the recognized government's decision which stipulated the Houthi group and Saleh's party to obey the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2216 in order to end the civil war.

National flags are everywhere, in the streets, above the buildings, at the gates of commercial shops and even paste on the foreheads and chests of the old, young people and children who took part in the rally.

It is really hard to find a foothold in this vast square at the center of the capital despite that warplanes from Saudi Arabia-led military coalition kept flying overhead, but that didn't intimidate the huge demonstrators.

Soon after the arrival of president of the new ruling political council, Saleh al-Sumad, the Saudi-led fighter jets bombed the main gate of the presidential palace, which locates about 500 meter from the platform where al-Sumad and his team stood in to welcome the people.

"Within the upcoming days, we will declare the formation of a new national government to work to achieve the people's aspirations and to prepare for holding general elections," the Houthi-controlled official Saba news agency cited what it called "President al-Sumad" as saying in his speech to the nation.

Last week, the Yemeni parliament unanimously ratified the "Higher Political Council" to unilaterally rule the country, lifting the power and legitimacy of the internationally recognized exiled president Hadi and his government, according to the Houthi-controlled state TV.

Internationally recognized President Hadi warned the parliament of taking such a step, threatening to hold them accountable and subject them to punishment.

The ruling council was declared and formed on Aug. 6 between former President Ali Abdullah Saleh's party and Shiite Houthi armed group following the breakdown of peace talks with their foes in Kuwait.

It is made up of 10 senior officials, who dominate the decision making in the country, and was declared in a ceremony in the presidential palace in the Houthi-held capital Sanaa.

Senior Houthi leader Saleh al-Sumad was elected as council president and Kasim Labuzah of former president's General People's Congress party as vice-president, according to Saba news agency.

They said the council's next mission is to form a new "national government" very soon.

The escalating move came after the UN-sponsored peace talks with their foes of internationally recognized government of President Hadi in Kuwait collapsed after over three months of fruitless negotiations to end years-long civil war.

Saudi Arabia intervened in support of President Hadi and his government in March 2015 after the Houthis and Saleh forces expelled them to Riyadh, the Saudi capital.

However, Saudi-led military coalition has failed to bring back exiled President Hadi or his government to the office in Sanaa.

Sanaa and most of northern and southern provinces have been under tightened control of Houthi and Saleh armed forces since September 2014 when they stormed the capital and other major cities.

The ground battles and airstrikes of Saudi-led military coalition against the rebel Houthi and Saleh's supporters have killed over 6,500 people, mostly civilians, and displaced more than two other millions.
BEIJING, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang on Friday exchanged views by phone with U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew on economic relations between the two countries and issues of common concern.

Wang and Lew have held several phone talks so far this year on bilateral ties, issues of common concern and the upcoming summit of the Group of 20 (G20).

This year's G20 summit is scheduled to be held in east China's Hangzhou city on Sept. 4-5, the first time for China to host the event.
BEIJING, Aug. 19 (Xinhuanet)  Ten sci-fi themed activities have been presented since the start of the 2016 Chengdu International Science Fiction Film Week, such as writers' presentation, science fiction work show, innovation and entrepreneurship fair, and carnival.

Chengdu therefore is making its name as "capital of science fiction" and leading the development of innovation.

The province Sichuan is having even higher honor in certain way. The evolution of Sichuan's science fiction development is ultimately an integration of imagination and innovation.

In the mid-1950s, swept by the tide of "marching towards science", China's science fiction novels reached its first peak as science fiction writers of Sichuan made their presence in the science fiction circle.

In the late 1970s, spearhead by Sichuan, China's science fiction ushered in the second climax, which in turn, helped Sichuan blaze a new trail of science fiction creation.

The mid 1980s witnessed a twist and turn in China's science fiction development, while science fiction in Sichuan picked up the slack and bucked up as the top three bases for science fictions, together with Beijing and Shanghai. Sichuan's science fiction even emerged as a debutante in the world stage. Sichuan was selected as the destination for the world science fiction novel annual meeting in 1991, a glory that made its remarkable science fiction industry known to the world.

Nowadays, Chengdu, the capital city of Sichuan, is a hub for spat of resources and energy. It boasts outstanding team of science fiction writers, decent output mechanism for science fiction works, efficient marketing system for science fiction chains.

On top of this, Sichuan is also a harbor for "Science Fiction Postman"--a cutting-edge agency operating science fiction industry, theMilky Way China Science Fiction Awardand the Nebula Award.

Combined and integrated, these resources become a benchmark for Chinese science fiction writing as well as a window, through which the imagination and creativity of Chinese people are shown to the world.

The development of science fiction in Sichuan is only an epitome of its long-standing imagination and innovation. Its profound and magnificent culture is the cradle of people's imagination. From the discovery of Sanxingdui pre-historical site to the building of the world famous Dujiangyan Irrigation System, Sichuan people have never been eclipsed in terms of innovation.

People in Chengdu are never in lack of the courage to confront challenges and changes coming around. Chengdu has welcomed 265 of the Global 500 with their innovation seeds rooted in this amazing city. Chengdu is emerging as a pivotal of Belt and Road Initiative, thanks to its more than 80 international airline routes across geographical boundaries.

In the spirit of "strive to be the first", Chengdu initiates innovation-driven reform and gathers momentum through entrepreneurship. In February, 2015, Chengdu became the pioneer in putting in place the "Entrepreneurship in Tianfu Plain, with several proud records of "No.1" and "only one" in innovation and entrepreneurship; Chengdu implemented the strategy of innovation-driven development and launched the "most forward-looking reform"--reform in the ownership of the scientific and technological achievements, which pushed forward the building of talent pool, and the commercialization of research findings; Chengdu is the only city in China to host "China Chengdu Global Innovation and Entrepreneurship Trade Fair, which greatly fueled the development of Chengdu and Sichuan.

Chengdu has developed into the scientific, technological, commercial and financial centre as well as the transportation and communication pivotal of SW China, thus making itself a foundation for innovation and entrepreneurship.

There is no end of imagination and innovation. Chengdu, an imagination-based city, with most sparkling and engaging minds, will bring 2016 Chengdu International Science Fiction Film Week plenty of incredible surprises and prove its innovation-centered soft power to the world.
By James Lee

BEIJING, Aug. 20 (Xinhuanet) -- Autonomous driving is making significant headway in the automobile industry, where multiple players, such as traditional automakers, parts makers and IT firms, have invested heavily in the R&D and manufacturing of self-driving cars. While companies in various sectors are jostling for automated driving technology, the stakes are essentially growing higher and higher for some countries eager to set the rules.

Japan and major European nations will compile common standards for self-piloting cars that could take effect in 2018, according to Nikkei Asian Review. Meanwhile, Japan and its European partners are cooperating to urge the US, which is ahead of other countries in developing driverless cars, to adopt their common standards.

But would all parties concerned reach consensus on self-driving technology standards, given the fact that they failed to find common charging standards for new-energy vehicles despite years of efforts? In a scramble to establish standards, who is going to be the ultimate winner?

From Corporate Competition to State Rivalry

In recent years, high-tech giants and EV behemoths in Silicon Valley have made investments in autonomous driving technology. Data from Google Self-Driving Project suggest that it has self-driven more than 1.5 million miles since it began testing the technology in 2009. By the end of 2015, Teslas Autopilot system has already been installed on some of its EVs.

The rivalry between high-tech firms and automakers has resulted in a debate about who should dominate driverless technology. But for now at least, its hard to see which side gets the upper hand.

Unfortunately, a Model S car made by Tesla Motors recently made news when it crashed while in driverless mode. The accident once again necessitates unifying standards for self-driving cars.

The auto magnates have realized from early on the importance of common technical standards to series production and commercialization of autonomous cars, hence breeding a variety of cross-industry collaboration. Earlier last month, BMW, the worlds largest luxury carmaker by sales, declared to team up with computer chip maker Intel and collision detection specialist Mobieye to define an open platform for autonomous driving.

Establishing common standards on self-driving cars is looming large on the horizon, extending far beyond the corporate arena. Japans joining forces with the European countries is just an attempt to set rules for self-driving cars to be adopted globally.

Standards to Be Unified?

Even Google and Tesla have not yet shown, at least so far, any sign of developing common standards. So on the corporate front, the chances of unifying standards seem to be quite slim in the near future.

But at the state level, its easy to see the progress in the making. Japan and the EU attempted to give full play to the role of the United Nations, which has set up an expert panel working on compiling common standards for autonomous driving technology. The panel members include representatives from Japan, South Korea, Germany, France, Britain and the European Commission.

The UN expert panel is expected to reach a broad agreement within months before Japan and the European countries create domestic certification and other systems.

The year 2020 is seen by many industry insiders as a watershed in the course of self-driving capability development, when autonomous driving technology will be much more sophisticated and some highly-automated driving cars will hit the road. But would unified standards for self-driving technology arrive ahead of 2020? Lets just wait and see.
Kandyss makes strides in business technology

Now 25 years old, Trancoso is said to be a serial entrepreneur, philanthropist and an occasional blogger. Having attended Northeastern College, she remembers being involved in many extra-curricular activi- ties, such as music.

However, she admitted, I also had a burning desire to have a more lasting impact on my community in ways that would prove beneficial. She further stated, At age 17, I was inspired by my uncle, Learie Hercules, who I consider a genius at technology. His passion for innovation and his creativity had a very positive impact on my life at that time. Trancoso, together with her sister Petriann, the first female national winner for ICT (information and communications technology) and Maximisation, formed the business Royalink Ltd. with the goal to marry technology and entrepreneurship by building an ecosystem of training, mentorship and venture. We enhance businesses efficiency and reach by building websites, mobile apps and developing brands through digital media marketing, Trancoso said.

We are currently bootstrapping operations and have volunteer mentors and instructors for students. Growing up in a small community in Sangre Grande, Trancoso said that there is a supportive environment. Her family played a significant role in her journey and helped her as she had to manage her business while studying in another country.

I see the similarities of my small community in Sangre Grande to this hyper connected tech world, she said.

Information is shared freely and breaks through all geographical, social and cultural barriers which allows us to learn about our similarities (and) our differences while fostering the opportunity to work together. Trancoso has worked on numerous projects that include the youth.

She started working with them at the age of 14 by starting the youth group, Dvine Expression, and Royalink started a school tour to give back to their past schools. Through the mentorship programme, they also provided a support network for students.

Being an entrepreneur, in the true sense of the word, is not for the faint at heart, Trancoso said. Using my trials and circumstances as learning tools and stepping stones, I overcame many of my challenges. She added, Follow your dreams. This may sometimes entail going where there is no path (but) press on and leave a trail. I can say without a doubt, (this) formed the essence of my existence, and my blessed hope for tomorrow.
Operation Charlotte a success

Jacob made this statement while accompanying Port-of- Spain Mayor Keron Valentine on a tour of the busy shopping street yesterday.

Jacob told Newsday he noted that for a period of time Charlotte Street had been the epicentre of crime in the city.

Since the implementation of Operation Charlotte in April, crime on the street has been reduced by 40 percent, Jacob said.

He also said the authorities were aware of several taxi stands on the street being preyed upon by criminal elements and offenders escaping into the Nelson and George Street areas.

Recognising this, Jacob said officers of the Duncan Street Police Post were more visible in the area and this contributed to a reduction in criminal activity.
Boat and engines stolen in Cedros

Fishermen from the Ste Marie Co-operative in Cedros are appealing to the authorities to come to their assistance as they say thieves have stolen three boat engines valued over $100,000 in the past two weeks. They say the thieves have now become emboldened since no action appears to have been taken either by the police or Coast Guard and so, last week, they stole a fishing boat valued over $55,000. The thieves also stole two large containers with gas.

The fisherfolk say they are now fearful for their lives as they feel they are under threat from the thieves.

Cedros police have confirmed reports of the stolen engines and boat but say there were no witnesses and the engines are difficult to track as opposed to a car because the serial numbers are not engraved on to the body but stuck on using a sticker.
Police detain four as more ammo found

Police also found inside the bag, one 16 gauge shotgun and one round of 16 gauge ammunition.

According to a police report, at about 11 am on Thursday, Sgt Joseph and PCs Calliste and Ramdhanie of Southern Division Task Force, acting on information, went to Nice Street in La Romaine in a bushy area where they found the bag.

At about 5.30 am yesterday, led by Head of Southern Division Snr Supt Pesnel and including ASP |Ramdeo, Insp Gajadhar along with Sgts Teeluck, Ramroop, Cpl Bacchus, PCs Williams, Noel, Sam and Ragoonath, officers locked down Lawrence Street San Fernando and conducted a search of the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) apartments and environs. Nothing was found however four men ranging in ages between 23 to 28, were detained as persons of interest in connection with gun-related crimes including shootings and robberies in the division.

PC Ramdhanie is continuing investigations.

It was only on Monday evening that officers found over 1600 rounds of assorted high-powered ammunition hidden in two crocus bags at St Joseph Street, San Fernando.

The bags, which were hidden in some overgrown bushes on an abandoned lot, had Spanish writing on them. Two weeks ago, police raided two homes in Piparo and found 6,800 rounds of assorted high-powered ammunition. A man and his nephew have since been charged with the offence.
Building a legacy for oral traditions

The group has been using spoken word at its annual festival to reach out to vulnerable young people and the public since 2013, Solwazi said at the St Judes Home for Girls in Belmont where a group performed last week.

The performers spoken word contributions focused on the ills of social media and its negative impact on person-to-person interactions; issues of freedom with respect to mental and cultural slavery and addressed the prevalent lack of self-worth and how to cultivate it.

While using poetry to affect social change, the group has been using the festival to open up opportunities for cultural exchange.

International performers, including Brazilian Emerson Alcade, and Australian Abdul Hammoud, were present throughout the weeklong event. Alongside them, local poets shared their thoughts including Michael Logie and Shineque Saunders, who represented TT in July at the 19th Annual Brave New Voices International Poetry Slam in Washington DC.

The spoken word artistes also took their craft to the Youth Training Centre (YTC), Nalis Library, Abercromby Street and Woodford Square, Port-of-Spain during their campaign from August 8 to 13. They visited Pamberi Pan Yard in San Juan for the Word in de Yard session, where the international performers experienced pan music, traditional cultural characters such as midnight robber and pierrot grenade, as well as rapso.

Aside from spoken word, theatrical showcases were conducted by English poet, Kat Francois.

The festival ended with a concert at the Ambassador Hotel, Long Circular Road, where the feature artiste, Amir Sulaiman from the USA delivered a powerful message.

I drees Saleem of the 2 Cents Movement also performed.

By next year, the Roots Foundation hopes to host a conference here. According to Solwazi, it will be the 2.0 to the South North Griot Summit of 2015 in Toronto, Canada.

The conference will seek to bolster spoken word as an art form and career option.
BYE ELECTIONS

It was a bitter-sweet victory for the United National Congress, which, in presenting the petitions on September 22 of last year, alleged that it was an illegal decision by the Elections and Boundaries Commission to grant an additional hour for voting in Trinidad at last September 7 general elections because of bad weather conditions.

The UNCs political leader, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, who was among the team of attorneys who argued the petitions before Justice Mira Dean-Armorer in June, claimed victory in the courts decision yesterday, while so too did Attorney General Faris Al Rawi, whose San Fernando West constituency was also challenged in the courts.

The UNC intends to appeal Justice Dean-Armorers decision and will lodge its appeal after its legal team has had an opportunity to digest the courts ruling.

In her 53 page decision, the judge found, Torrential rains and flooding on the 7th September 2015, may have impelled the EBC to issue the directive which they did. Nonetheless, the uncontrollable weather conditions did not confer the EBC the power to direct that the law be broken. The EBC, itself a creature of statute, ought at all times to abide by the clear dictates of the law and ought not to purport to dispense with those dictates even if faced with an apparently insurmountable problem. Accordingly, it is my view and I hold that the extension of the polls on the 7th September 2015 was illegal and election officers who failed to close the poll at 6 p.m. acted in breach of section 27 (1) of the Election Rules. She further contended, In my view, an examination of the authorities suggest that, in assessing whether or not there was substantial compliance, the Court should have regard not only to the number of polling hours but to what was achieved in the given time, that is to say how many persons were permitted to cast their votes. In my view there is no evidence to suggest that the conduct of the election was other than free or fair according to the first Woodward test. There was no allegation of intimidation or of the unavailability of election material such as ballot paper or ink. There was no evidence of trickery or fraudulent counting of votes or false declaration by election officers. In the five constituencies being challenged, all won by Peoples National Movement candidates, the margin of victory were: 1,633 votes (St Joseph); 3,615 (Tunapuna); 2,822 (La Horquetta/Talparo); 533 (Moruga/Tableland); 3,310 (San Fernando West) and 3,904 (Toco/ Sangre Grande).

In their defence of the petitions, the PNMs attorneys urged the judge to reject the petitions, saying that the UNC had failed to prove the extension materially affected the outcome of the election.

The PNMs attorneys said the five candidates would still have won the election even if all the votes cast during the extension were subtracted from their totals and elections were only invalidated in circumstances where persons intentionally attempt to pervert their outcome.

Lawyers for the Elections and Boundaries Commission argued that the commission had no choice but to extend last years general election by one hour to ensure that citizens were able to exercise their democratic right to vote.

In her ruling yesterday, Justice Dean-Armorer said while it was her finding that there was undoubtedly a breach of the Election Rules which pervaded the entire island of Trinidad, the consequence of such was not sufficient to invalidate the results.

She noted that Section 35(3) of the Representation of the Peoples Act did not positively empower the court to invalidate the election. By its plain and ordinary meaning, it is a saving provision.

This subsection prohibits the court from declaring an election invalid where the court finds the occurrence at a breach or breaches of an official duty or of the election Rules and it appears to the court that the breach did not materially affect the election, she held.

The judge also noted that although the UNC asked that the court look beyond the number game and give regard to the evidence, she said it would have left the court having to speculate on how many persons were affected by the extension and how many would have turned out to vote.

I have, in these petitions, strove to hold the balance to protect the will of the majority while ensuring that the patent mistakes have not reduced the election of 2015 to a mere sham. For reasons stated, it has been my view that the election of 2015 in Trinidad and Tobago was substantially in accordance with the prescribed law and does not appear to me that the breaches affected the results.

It is therefore my view and I hold that the petition should be and is hereby dismissed. She also cited a lack of evidence on the part of the petitioners to show where supporters of the losing party had dashed their hopes of taking advantage of the extended polling hour.

In my view, an examination of the authorities suggest that, in assessing whether or not there was substantial compliance, The Court should have regard not only to the number of polling hours but to what was achieved in the given time, that is to say how many persons were permitted to cast their votes. The Courts have also placed great weight on whether a majority of voters were disenfranchised, she noted.

According to the judge, it was clear that the majority of voters had exercised their franchise before the illegal extension and no one was prevented from voting.

I hold that there was substantial compliance with election laws, she said, as she added that she would not be justified in declaring the election void under the common law of Parliament.

Dean-Armorer observed that, in performing the test of the ordinary man, it was recognised that the poll was conducted peacefully throughout the day and the only obstacle presented was that of inclement weather, over which election laws had no control. My assessment of the view of the ordinary man is strengthened by the reflection that the election was challenged in only six of the 34 constituencies in Trinidad, in spite of the fact that the very widespread multiple breaches took place through the island of Trinidad. From this undisputed fact, I have inferred the electors in 28 out of 35 constituencies were satisfied that the election was not a sham or travesty. Speaking yesterday, PNM Tunapuna MP Esmond Forde said he was happy that the petition was no longer hanging over his head.

Vocal UNC supporters, who were at the Hall of Justice in Portof- Spain, were heard expressing their bewilderment with the courts ruling. How can the race be wrong but the outcome right? They were, however, supportive of the party: Even when they lose, they win. The UNC was ordered to pay the PNMs cost of defending the petitions while no orders were made against the party for paying the EBCs costs.

A sixth petition, challenging the results in the La Horquetta/ Talparo constituency, held by Public Administration and Communications Minister Maxie Cuffie, was thrown out by the appellate court in May.

The petition challenging Cuffies seat, which he won by 2,822 votes, was struck out and as there is no right of appeal to the Privy Council on election matters, there was no challenge of the results in that constituency.

The UNC petitioners were represented by Timothy Straker QC, former prime minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, SC, Anand Ramlogan, SC, Kent Samlal, and Jayanti Lutchmedial while while Russell Martineau, SC, Deborah Peake, SC, and Ravi Heffes-Doon appear for the EBCs Returning Officers.

Appearing with Douglas Mendes, SC, for the five PNM MPs are John Jeremie, SC, Michael Quamina, Ravi Nanga, Celeste Jules, Vanessa Gopaul and Elena Araujo.
Rowley: Im ready for 18 bye-elections

He spoke to Newsday at Balisier House last night as he arrived to screen PNM candidates for the 14 electoral districts of the San Juan/Laventille Regional Corporation for the upcoming Local Government election.

I welcome the fact that in TT, any person who feels aggrieved about any matter can approach the court and have the matter adjudicated upon, Rowley said. The court ruled that the actions of the EBC (Elections and Boundaries Commission), in attempting to facilitate voters, was in breach of one of the clauses of the Act, but the Constitution also makes it very clear that if anything happens in an election to the extent that it does not materially affect the outcome, the elections have been ruled by the court to be free and fair. We always expected that kind of ruling from a court that is free and fair.

However, our opponents intend to appeal on the ground that the ruling is an illegal act by the EBC has been determined.

Well, we now are going to prepare for 18 bye-elections for the seats that they now hold because we expect that this illegality will now cause them too to be vacated.
Mayor Valentine warns Charlotte Street vendors

Port-of-Spain Mayor Keron Valentine, issued the warning to vendors during a tour of Charlotte Street with other officials of the Port-of-Spain City Corporation, and Senior Superintendent McDonald Jacob of the Port-of- Spain Division.

Valentine said, If this project cannot work, if we cannot bring this project to some level of order, decency and cleanliness, then the programme will have to be shut down. Attempting to get a scope of the issues facing vendors and also making observations of his own about the vending programme, Valentine noted complaints by the Downtown Owners and Merchants Association (DOMA) with regards to vendors blocking the entranceway of stores in the city.

He said numerous complaints have been made about the state of the nations capital and it cannot be ignored. Valentine continued, There will not be business as usual if the problem isnt dealt with. The City Corporation will meet on Monday and review all the information we have accumulated thus far to decide on a way forward for the programme. When asked about the Salvatori Building vendors, Valentine said, The Minister of Housing, who was treating with the building on Independence Square South, was changed and I am yet to meet with the new Minister whose remit the building falls under. I know there have been continuous conversation with the administrative arm of the co-operation and the administrative arm of the HDC, he said.
Yellow fever vaccine only for high risk

At a news conference held at the Ministry of Health, Park Street, Port-of-Spain, Sundaraneedi said the ministry adopted the one-dose policy of the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunisation which, in 2013, concluded that a single primary dose of the vaccine would provide lifelong protection. The experts said re-vaccination every ten years was no longer necessary for the general public. However, he noted that there was the high risk group, which consists of haematopoietic stem cell transplant recipients and HIV-infected persons, who would need to be given booster doses of the vaccine. Meanwhile, the United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended postponing travel and yellow fever vaccination for pregnant women and also nine months after delivery.

If a pregnant woman is travelling to, or transiting through, areas where a vaccination certificate is required for yellow fever, but it is not currently a threat, the CDC advices carrying a physicians waiver on the immunisation record.

Although the last yellow fever case in Trinidad was in 1979, Sundaraneedi reiterated that Trinidad and Tobago remains endemic because of the presence of the Red Howler monkey population which carries the yellow fever virus that can still be found in forested areas.

Agricultural personnel who frequent forested areas, hunters, forest workers, hikers and campers are among the list of persons who are eligible for yellow fever booster doses.
Fish samples to be tested at international lab

This according to a media release issued by the Environmental Management Authority (EMA) yesterday.

According to the release, the Ministers decision came after a meeting with officials from the EMA, Institute of Marine Affairs (IMA) and the Caribbean Industrial Research Institution (CARIRI), and based on a report made by these agencies, the chemical COREXIT, algal bloom and internal parasites were ruled out as being responsible for the initial incident of dead fish. It was determined that dumping of bycatch was responsible for the first occurrence of dead fish, which included herring, mullet and catfish.

In order to provide further assurance to the general public, the Minister has consulted with Minister of Health, Terrance Deyalsingh, and the Chief Medical Officer to engage officials within the public health sector to undertake the required surveillance and quality monitoring of fish supplies. The Minister of Planning and Development has expressed grave concern about the continuing impacts on the livelihoods of all affected.

Earlier this week, Cocorite fishermen expressed their dissatisfaction with the level of investigation conducted into the reported fish kill by environmentalist and Secretary of Fishermen and Friends of the Sea (FFOS), Gary Aboud, and accused him of fear-mongering.
TT-born driving instructor dies in US crash

Davenand, 52, hails from the popular Gualbance Driving School family of Libertville, Rio Claro. The school was established in the 1970s According to Davenands uncle, Sam Gualbance, his nephew was the front passenger in a vehicle when it skidded off a highway in Orlando and crashed into a tree.

He and a friend had gone fishing and were returning home when the accident occurred.

Davenand died on the spot.

The driver of the vehicle is still critical at a hospital in Orlando.

Davenands body was flown to Trinidad and his funeral, attended by hundreds, took place on Sunday.

Sam, a well-known Trinidad- born philanthropist who lives in Canada, and has been donating for several years - books, clothing, food items and sporting equipment to the children of the Biche Presbyterian School and their families, said that it was very unfortunate that the family had lost one of their sons in a vehicular accident. Davenand lived both in Rio Claro and Orlando.
Kamla claims victory in spite of ruling

Persad-Bissessar spoke to the media in front of the Hall of Justice in Port-of- Spain after the court dismissed the United National Congress (UNCs) election petitions.

She said the party brought the matter to the court to protect the democracy of the people. Upon further announcing victory as the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) was found guilty of breaching election laws, she was also of the firm view that illegal actions must not be allowed to persist.

She said there must be consequences for such actions, therefore the illegal actions on the part of the EBC has resulted in an unfair result.

The EBC has breached the election rules, but the judge is saying the result is legal, she stated.

She used Jamaican star sprinter Usain Bolt as an example to emphasise her point saying, We cannot appear to be saying I am Usain Bolt. I am running in the Olympics but when they test they find drugs in my system illegally, and at the end of that you say you can keep the gold medal. Persad-Bissessar also announced that her party will be appealing the judgment.

I am of the firm view now, that the EBC acted illegally and the results coming out of a breach of the law are also illegal results and should also be set aside. She reiterated that the judgment was the peoples victory. She also had a message for the Peoples National Movement, telling them, You are sitting in seats that very soon will be declared null and void. She expressed her hope that the EBC will organise themselves accordingly for the upcoming local government election.

Persad-Bissessar maintained that the party will continue its fight and will do so as the party prepares for the Local Government Elections. The UNC launched their local government campaign last night in Couva.
AG: Elections were free and fair

Speaking with reporters outside of the Hall of Justice after Justice Mira Dean-Armorer delivered her judgement on the five petitions, Al Rawi said, We are extremely pleased at the outcome and we are elated that there was merit in our position and that the judge found that was the case. Al-Rawi said Dean-Armorer found there was a breach of the election rules when the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) decided to extend the voting time from 6 pm to 7 pm in Trinidad on September 7, due to inclement weather which caused flooding in several parts of Trinidad.

However Al-Rawi said Dean-Armorer did not find this was a breach that, would have vitiated the election. He explained that the judge found, there was a complete fairness in the process...

that there was no denial of any right as it were...there being no strict express right to vote...but she looked at the position... and considered it was a full and fair election. Asked whether there would be amendments to the law regarding the EBC arising out of yesterdays judgement, Al Rawi said Dean-Armorer recognised the experience in 1961 and the EBCs report in 1963, which spoke to circumstances where there is an extension of hours. Al Rawi said the judge referred to the process whereby Cabinet, has the authority to deal with the rules that govern the process and she said it wouldnt be her to speak to what should happen next. He said Government would await the final decision of the Court of Appeal in this matter before further consideration is given about what ought to be done or not be done in terms of shoring up any deficiencies that may be apparent. Al Rawi also said the judge ruled that the UNC petitioners would have to pay cost to the five PNM successful candidates for San Fernando West, Tunapuna, Toco/Sangre Grande, St Joseph and Moruga/Tableland.

Al Rawi said those costs would have to be assessed by the court.

Tunapuna MP Esmond Forde said, I am happy that this situation is now over. Forde, who is also Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, said he was also happy to be able to continue to work as an MP without this little burden. on his back. Toco/Sangre Grande MP Glenda Jennings-Smith was also present for the judgement but did not speak to reporters.
US and Finance Ministry sign FATCA agreements

FATCA is part of US Federal Law which targets Americans living within and outside the US to report on their Non-United States financial accounts. Imbert and US Ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago (TT), John Estrada, signed a Model IA Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) at the Finance Ministry, Eric Williams Financial Complex, Independence Square, Port-of-Spain shortly before 10 am.

The objective of this IGA is to improve international tax compliance through mutual assistance in tax matters based on an effective infrastructure for the automatic exchange of information. The IGA will also facilitate the implementation of FATCA, which was enacted in the US in 2010.

This was surely great news for the Bankers Association of Trinidad and Tobago (BATT), whose members held a joint press conference in late June to warn of the negative consequences of failure to become FATCA compliant.

This included the imposition of a 30 percent withholding tax on US dollars flowing into the TT banking system from the US.

The Finance Ministry yesterday described the IGA signing as another milestone in the relationship between both countries on tax matters and brings to an end approximately three years of negotiations occurring between the two countries on the Agreement. The ministry added that the signing is also timely as it was completed before September 30th, 2016, the deadline set for the exchanging of information between TT and the US.

TT and the US will now move to bring the IGA into force. This would allow for the automatic exchange of information between both countries and also ensure that foreign financial institutions, including local banks and insurance companies, will not be subjected to a thirty percent withholding tax.

To bring the IGA into force, [Imbert] will take to the Parliament the necessary legislation, among other things, to provide for the automatic exchange of information by the Board of Inland Revenue to the United States Inland Revenue Service, the ministry stated.

Foreign and CARICOM Affairs Minister, Dennis Moses, was present for the IGA signing yesterday morning.
Citizen engagement and response critical for Government Communication

New Delhi, Sat, 20 Aug 2016 NI Wire

Social Media shaping the communication narrative: Col. Rathore

MoS I&B inaugurates workshop for Effective Use of Facebook for Government Communication

Workshop organized by PIB in collaboration with Facebook

Minister of State for Information & Broadcasting, Col. Rajyavardhan Rathore has said that citizen engagement and two way communication were the critical inputs for the Government communication approach in the current media scenario dominated by instant communication and multimedia platforms. In this context, Social media as a communication platform emerged as a cost effective and powerful tool in the Government which focussed on maximum Governance. Regarding its power and influence, Col. Rathore said that today deliberations and debates in the countries across the world were shaped by the responses and reactions on social media. The emerging perspective dominated other media platforms also.

The Minister stated this here today while inaugurating the Workshop on Effective Use of Facebook for Government Communication at National Media Centre. Secretary I&B, Shri Ajay Mittal, Director General PIB, Shri Frank Noronha, officers from Ministry of Information & Broadcasting and other Ministries/Departments , Ms. Ankhi Das, Policy Director for India, South & Central Asia and Ms. Katie Harbath, Global Director for Politics and Government from Facebook were also present on the occasion.

The Minister further stated that the challenge before the Government was to reorient and recalibrate its approach and strategy in communicating with the citizens with the right content and knowledge so as to empower them. This was important in view of the rising demand for quality and precise information and social media being a dynamic medium of communication where views were instantly formed with regard to critical issues. In this context, the capacity building initiatives taken by the Press information Bureau would not only strengthen institutional capacity of the Government but would also enable the Government to mainstream a 360 degree communication strategy across social media platforms.

Citing the example of the communication approach undertaken for the budget, the Minister said that there was a need to communicate with the citizens in a timely, sustained, personalized, creative and interesting way. For this purpose, infographics and creative graphics were designed to simplify budget provisions so that people could understand them in a simple manner and could take benefits from the schemes and initiatives of the Government.

Speaking on the occasion Secretary I&B said that it is important for the Government to learn to make communication interesting and engaging. In the communication space there is a need for creative and innovative ways of delivering messages and reach out to diverse target audience. Speaking about the need for new tools during crisis situations he said that Facebook Live could play a critical role during disaster situations to reach out to people.

Speaking on the occasion, Director General, Press Information Bureau said that social media has increased the capacity to communicate instantly with the people. Underlying the social media focus, he said that it is the philosophy of the Government that rather than expecting citizens to knock at our door, we go and engage with them where they are. He also said that there is a need to study and learn from best practices in communication across the world and to improve our capacities as communicators.

The Workshop was a joint endeavour of Press Information Bureau, New Media Cell and Facebook. Over 250 officers from various Ministries and Departments of the Government participated in the workshop.

Source: PIB
Film 'A Flying Jatt' Starcast in the Capital

Bollywood, Sat, 20 Aug 2016 NI Wire

Tiger Shroff, Jacqueline Fernandes and Nathan Jones flew down to Delhi to promote their upcoming film 'A Flying Jatt'.

Where all the television stars and people are posting their dancing videos on 'Beat pe Booty', the starcast too wooed their fans by showing their amazing moves on the song..

Tiger Shroff is undoubtedly an amazing dancer and the actor will be seen saving the lives of the people from fire in his upcoming film. The actor told that he refused for the body double and did all the stunts in the film on his own.

Wrestler turned actor Nathan Jones will be making his Bollywood debut with 'A Flying Jatt' and said I got to perform more action in this film than the 'Mad Max:Fury Road'

Produced under the banner of Balaji Motion Pictures, 'A Flying Jatt' is directed by Remo D'Souza and will hit the theaters on 25th August.

A Flying Jatt Trailer Tiger Shroff, Jacqueline Fernandez and Nathan Jones

View More :'A Flying Jatt'
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Nokia (News - Alert) recently completed the largest home location register modernization project in the world for Vodafones (News - Alert) SuperNet in India. An HLR is a database of permanent subscriber information for a mobile network. The new HLR will bring 200 million subscribers under a single database, lower the number of database hosting nodes from 42 and 12, and expedite new service provisioning, according to the companies.





Speaking of Nokia, China Mobile (News - Alert) has selected the company to handle 30 percent of its optical network build this year and next. The 100G optical network will help support the growing needs of the mobile subscribers on China Mobiles 4G network, which is expected to serve more than 300 million subscribers.

A new report from the Global Mobile Suppliers Associate offers an update on LTE network deployments. The report discusses LTE (News - Alert), LTE-Advanced, and LTE-Advanced Pro technologies. There are now nine live LTE-Advanced Pro networks, the association says, and at least 28 percent LTE operators have commercially launched LTE-Advanced networks. Seventy-four cellular service providers launched LTE in the last year.

Meanwhile, a study by OpenSignal provides a view into mobile speeds and coverage by country. The study, which sampled 822,556 users, indicates that South Korea has the fastest mobile speeds, at 41Mbps. Singapore is in second place, with 31Mbps. Hungary (26Mbps), Australia (25Mbps), and Denmark (at around 23Mbps) are next.

Interestingly, major world powers didn't even crack the top 10, Next Generation Communications contributing writer Steve Anderson explained in a Aug. 17 article about the study. The United States averages around 12.3Mbps, while the U.K. comes in at about 13.7Mbps. Vaunted mobile powerhouse China comes in at around 18Mbps, and none of these are even enough to beat No. 10 ranked Sweden.
Who says you need to travel to Egypt to visit the Pyramids? Suki, Lisa and Meisha found some in Edmonton Alberta! Watch their super adventures in the videos below!:Follow Carlos, Suki, Lisa, Meisha and Jesse as they travel across Canada and attempt to complete some of the wildest and wackiest tasks including Bungee Jumping, Paint Balling, Surfing and Zip Lining!Watch all your favourite Nickelodeon shows on YTV and Nickelodeon Canada!
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The United Arab Emirates has pledged to extend all support possible, including financial support, to Morocco to ensure a successful organization of the COP22 in Marrakech.

The pledge was made by visiting UAE Minister for Climate Change and Environment, Hani Ben Ahmad Al Zeyoudi, during talks he held in Rabat with Foreign Minister and President of the COP22 Steering Committee, Salaheddine Mezouar, and Minister for Environment, Hakima El Haite.

At the meetings with the Moroccan officials, the UAE Minister voiced his countrys readiness to become more involved in the success of the Conference of Parties to the UN framework Convention on Climate change (COP22) to be held in Marrakech in November 7 through 18, and discussed with them the terms of the financial support the UAE will grant Morocco.

They also discussed the possibility to organize, on the occasion of the world gathering, joint events on various climate-related themes. The environment ministries of the two countries also agreed to work together on several issues related to COP22.

Mezouar told reporters after his meeting with the UAE official that discussions focused on the ongoing preparations for this important global meeting. It was also an opportunity to launch several joint and concrete initiatives, Mezouar said.

The UAE Minister for Climate Change and Environment on his part said that COP22 is a very important step to devise an action plan for the coming years and to implement the agreements on environmental protection and fight against climate change.

The UAE official underscored the significant role of the private sector and civil society in the success of this meeting and the global implementation of environment-related agreements.

The UAE officials visit was also marked by the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the Moroccan Ministry of Equipment, Transportation and Logistics and the Emirates Driving Institute (EDI.)

Under the MoU, the two sides will carry out joint projects, coordinate actions and share experiences in road safety and transportation.
The oil export terminals in eastern Libya are subject of fierce rivalry between the warring factions in Libya. The infantry brigades of General Khalifa Haftars Libyan National Army (LNA) which entered the town of Zueitina on August 14 are likely to continue their advance to the oil terminals controlled by the rival militia of the Petroleum Facilities Guard (PFG) that pledges allegiance to the UN-backed Government of National Accord in Tripoli.

We will enter the ports of Zueitina and Es Sider and Ras Lanuf, Abdulrazak al-Nazhuri, LNA chief-of-staff told Reuters.

The three ports are occupied by the PFG, which signed the deal with the GNA at the end of last month to enable the Tripoli authorities to restart production, a major step toward asserting its control across the country.

Six Western countries  Germany, Spain, the U.S., France, Italy and the U.K.  on Aug. 8 called on all parties to avoid any damage to oil infrastructure at Zueitina.

The turmoil in the eastern coastal areas has taken a toll on Libyas oil production which is currently about 200,000 barrels per day (bpd), a fraction of the 1.6 million bpd the OPEC member was producing before the 2011 uprising that toppled Gaddafi.
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Synthetic drug flakka. Photo: Broward Sheriffs Office/AP Photo

On Monday night, police found 19-year-old Florida State University student Austin Harrouff trying to bite off part of the face of a man hed allegedly just stabbed to death. It took four sheriffs deputies and a police dog to subdue the shirtless Harrouff, whod also apparently stabbed the mans wife to death at their home in Jupiter, Florida. Theres no evidence that Harrouff knew the victims and he had no criminal record. Hes currently on a respirator in life-threatening condition.

While the Martin County Sheriffs office is still awaiting full toxicology results, they suspect that Harrouff overdosed on the drug flakka, because he exhibited some of the telltale signs, like abnormal strength, removal of clothing, and making animal sounds. But what even is flakka? Basically its like bath salts, but worse.

Flakka or gravel is the synthetic stimulant Alpha-PVP, a more potent form of the drug known as bath salts, and it is highly addictive. Its small clear or pink crystals can be snorted, smoked, injected, or eaten. Flakka can cause a users core body temperature to shoot up to 104 or 105 degrees and make them tear off their clothes while also providing an adrenaline boost that results in high pain tolerance and superhuman strength.

It tends to cause euphoria and hallucinations, but taking even just a little too much of the drug  which costs about $5 a hit  can lead to aggression, paranoia, psychosis, heart problems, and death. Also, apparently, face-eating. Its so cheap and causes such debilitating mental side effects its sometimes called $5 psychosis. Drug-treatment professionals say it can take days for first-time users to return to a normal state of mind, and as long as two weeks for repeat users.

Law enforcement officials have found it in Ohio, Chicago, and Houston, but South Florida has been a hotbed for the drug, where its been around since 2014. In the first three months of 2015, seizures of flakka overtook those of cocaine in Florida. Dealers used to be able to purchase the drug online from China, where it was legal until October 2015. Police have been arresting people importing large quantities of Alpha-PVP into the U.S., including people in Wisconsin and Minnesota, and a Hunter College student in New York.
unreleased is probably Children Of The Bad Revolution, Paradise, National Anthem (Demo), Damn You, Never Let Me Go, Backfire....there's too many

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noir

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If it's not Life is Beautiful THEN I DON'T GIVE A FUCK >:O



(i'm lying, i'm about to add these to my collection)

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me rn lol

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This is a no brainer: Backfire. That one is better than her entire last album.

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She's such a problematic fave for me lol deep down I identify with this aesthetic

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I understand you

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I understand you x2

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i don't think she tries to be problematic. she's just not very smart.



love her tho and IA

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never let me go is my everything

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same

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Def my fave of her unreleased songs.

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love it

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mte, i'm so glad the demo has a finished product level of production too.

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My favorites are Serial Killer and Ridin' with A$ap



God she has so many unreleased demos I don't even care enough to listen to all of them because I wasn't a fan of most of it tbh**



I meant most of the demos I did hear



Edited at 2016-08-20 02:39 am (UTC)

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omg yassss serial killer is my jam.

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Yas girl high five to ur great taste!!!

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i forgot SK is a demo leak and not a bonus BTD track, i've listened to it so many times

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ikr

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That's the thing I'm most concerned about



not concerned about I mean curious



im drunk lol



Edited at 2016-08-20 02:44 am (UTC)

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she records on the titanic tbh

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lol she's prolific i'll give her that..and she reuses lines and melodies so much! But a lot of her songs are cute thou!

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idk, but it seems that she has written about 10,000 songs. And they tend to sound similar.

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I just don't understand why she leaves these songs unreleased. Honest to God, I don't get it.

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girl that got away sounds like melanie martinez trash

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Sotp

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Beautiful Player >>

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I'm greedy and I want a new album

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Saaaame ugh. I saw her at Outside Lands 2 weeks ago and it was amazing



She's working with her old collaborator from Born to Die and said she's going for something more upbeat and not as ~dreamy~ as her last two albums. Idk about you but I am so fucking excited for that because BTD/Paradise were my faves from her

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I'm seeing her soon! how was she live?



omgggggg I didn't even know. same tho, BTD/paradise were my faves from her too. I'm listening to gods & monsters as we speak~ lol. honeymoon took me forever to get into bc as gorgeous as the music was, it was just so....slow idk? I love her slow music but damn Idk. I enjoyed it while on Xanax tho lmao.

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I need more Off to the Races-style bops from her

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Fuck yes to all this!

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plus, she's like fucking dancing and shit in her performances now and even has back up dancers so i can't see her NOT going for a less slow route for the new record.

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we've been so spoiled when it comes to her esp. with the leaks, i think it's natural.



however she is actually working on a new album and i'm praying for to go tap into her unreleased dynamic and stop over thinking her ~aesthetic~

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"Serial Killer" is good too.



Also "Lolita" when layered is so good and reminds me of a James Bond movie opening.







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Raise Me Up (Mississippi South), Jump, and Go Go Dancer are my favorite if i really had to choose



I can't believe she still has more demos out there, and so many of them are fantastic. If she ever properly released them I'd be more than happy to buy them

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raise me up is one of those songs i kept skipping and then i finally listened to it and wound up playing it on rpt for like a week straight

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raise me up is my definite favorite from aka

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The latest

Featured chef: Ben Barger of The Pasta Tree

Ben Barger is a full-time engineering student at UW-Milwaukee and one not only with ambition, but with success in his field already. So, it hardly comes as a shock that he's brought the same passion and drive -- and results -- to his first love: the culinary arts.
The following is a special message from Milwaukee Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Darienne Driver concerning last weekend's events in Sherman Park:

Over the past week, our city has faced events that push us all to the limits of our comfort, and each of us must determine how we will lead in times of great challenge and injustice.

As I have reflected on the week and on the actions and reactions of our community, it is clear that people are hurting. These events have brought to light decades of unmet needs and will require more than conversations to truly understand and solve them.

I am fortunate enough to spend time with our wonderful, talented young people in schools and in our community. I believe in our students. I believe in our young people. And more than ever, I know that they hold the solutions for moving forward as a city.

The words of one of our students reinforce for me the optimism, hope and expectations of our young men and women in Milwaukee. Kalan Haywood II is a senior at King International High School and the president of the Milwaukee Common Council Youth Council. In a message on social media, Kalan spoke to his peers and to us:

"I also issue a special challenge to Milwaukee's youth: I ask you to think before you act. I encourage you to think of what outcome you want to see and ask yourself if the action you are about to partake in will yield that result. Trust me, as your peer I understand that screaming voice that yells from deep inside your gut that tells you that no one is listening.

"But I also know that if we lead by example, everyone will take notice. We have to be the change we want to see."

It is our responsibility as educators to create a space where our young people can be heard and can be part of real decision-making that impacts their lives. We must build relationships and seek to understand their needs and life experiences.

To that end, we recently met with school leaders to discuss our role and ways to address the concerns of our community. We are preparing staff to provide Culturally Responsive Practices and Social-Emotional Learning in every classroom. We are committed to equity, access and inclusion for every student and staff member.

We have also reached out to youth and community leaders to come together to listen to each other as we move forward to secure peace and justice. This work will be uncomfortable, but it is not impossible. We are strong, resilient and committed to our city and our young people.

Together we are part of the solution. I ask our local media to put as much effort into telling the stories of the rebuilding, healing and work to solve issues that will take place over the next few weeks, as it did to the unrest of last weekend.

The issues we face are not new globally, nationally or in the history of our city. This is a critical time for us that will shape the future of our community for decades. Most importantly, this work is necessary to ensure that equity and access are a reality in Milwaukee for the young people we are honored to serve today and for generations to come.

Let us join in this effort of recovery and healing together, working with our young people to be the change that must emerge from our community.
Vladimir Putin delivered a speech and answered questions on October 24, 2014. He made clear his concern over the disappearance of the balance of power between the United States and Russia. The United States is surrounding Russia with missiles, officially aimed at Iran, but really at Russia. The range of these missiles can be increased at an instant notice to target Russian launchers without Russia knowing anything about it. Once the American deployment program is completed in 2020, the balance of power will be gone and Russia will be vulnerable. Hence, Putin's concern. What will the United States do then? Will it blackmail Russia into subservience? What will happen if they do? Nobody knows. But, one thing is clear tension is rising between the two countries.

Having looked into the abyss during the 1962 Cuban crisis, Americans and Russians endeavored to lower tension between them through treaties, exchange of information, regular high level contacts, etc. George W. Bush shook up this growing trust by withdrawing from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty unilaterally. NATO's enlargement, in violation of an American commitment, further knocked it down, greatly worrying the Russians. The building of missile bases in Eastern Europe is the last straw that breaks the camel's back. The trust is gone. Knowing the United States' strategy may lead to nuclear confrontation, Russians are at a loss to understand what the Americans are up to.

Russia is no threat to the United States. The American strategy is irresponsible, tantamount to Russia installing missile bases in Mexico. Tension is on the rise and with it the risk of an unexpected nuclear war. In his book, "My journey at the Nuclear Brink", William Perry, former U.S. defense secretary, warns his compatriots (and the world) of the danger. In his opinion, only by chance did the world avoid a nuclear confrontation during the Cold War -- at the time both the United States and Russia were taking steps to reduce tension. In a tense environment, the risk is magnified.

Even if one disregards the risk, the likelihood of a nuclear confrontation remains. The United States' policy aims at isolating Russia, economically, militarily and politically. To counter this policy, Russia has three traditional allies: Germany, India and China. Germany is an American vassal state. It cannot be counted on. India conducts naval exercises with the United States since 2012. It signed a Ten Year Defense Framework Agreement with the United States in 2015 and The US-India Joint Strategic Vision for the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean Region this year. It will not come to Russia's defense. China's economic future is irrevocably linked to the West. Coming to Russia's rescue would endanger this relationship. Russia is quarantined. As time goes on, the pain on the Russian population will grow. At one point, it will become intolerable.

Vladimir Putin will be confronted with a choice: submit or respond. If he gives in, Russia becomes a vassal state. If he does not, he will react with the only mean at his disposal: nuclear missiles. In his October conference, he gave reporters an inkling of his likely response: "the world is being pulled in an irreversible direction". Sensing he was not heard, he repeated the message in Saint Petersburg on June 17th, telling them: "You people" do not have a sense of the impending danger." Weary, he added: "I don't know how to get through to you anymore".

Putin will not submit. Why not listen to him?
Reprinted from The Guardian

I'd long known I was a woman. But it was the height of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," so I hid my true self. Then, one day on leave, I decided enough was enough

The first time I passed as a woman in public was on leave in the US from my deployment to Iraq in February 2010.

I'd long known I was a woman, but I'd been afraid, and a bit embarrassed, to appear publicly as myself before this. Not only was I worried that I could lose my already-tenuous connections with my family, but I was terrified that I could face administrative, or even criminal, charges from the military. It was the height of "Don't Ask Don't Tell," and we in the queer and trans community lived in fear on a regular basis.

Then I went to Iraq, where death was all around me. It made me realize just how precious and frail life really is. I decided I wanted to take the plunge, and do something that I wanted to do, for once. For myself.

I remember nervously shopping for the clothes I wore that day. I had decided to go into a department store and buy a gorgeous casual business outfit. I walked into the store and snuck over to the women's section. I was wandering around for 10 or 15 minutes looking at many outfits in many different sizes. I realized that I didn't know where to start.

It was then that one of the sales associates walked over.

"Can I help you?" she asked.

"Yes, actually, you can," I replied with a catch in my throat. "I am trying to buy a professional outfit for my girlfriend for a job interview. She's never really worn business outfits before, so she wasn't able to give me any guidance."

"Oh absolutely," the saleslady said brightly. "I can help you with that. What are her sizes?"

I paused. "I don't remember," I said, thinking fast. "But she's about my size, except she has a B cup."

It was her turn to pause. "This might seem a little odd," she said, "but can I just measure you real fast?" So she did, while I explained deceptively that my girlfriend was two inches taller than me.

"That doesn't change the size at all," she said, pulling out some options. I joined her -- once I knew what sizes to look for, I could start picking out things I liked right away. I felt more comfortable mixing and matching things together rather than being too coordinated, and she and I were able to put together a nice outfit quickly. I bought a casual gray business suit jacket and skirt with a white blouse and black tights.

I walked out of the store, moving with purpose. I ran to my car. Where to now?

The next stop was a high-end cosmetics store and then a discount outlet to buy a nice coat, since it was cold. This time, I wasn't as clueless. I knew cosmetics pretty well already, as I had purchased and worn makeup many times before. I had figured out my coat size with the nice sales lady in the department store. I found a faded purple coat and bought it.

I ran to my car and went home to get changed. I already owned a natural looking wig, bought during a previous, private cross-dressing episode. It was golden blond and flowed over my shoulders. I put on the wig over my military regulation buzz cut.

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Iceland, beautiful nation, wonderful people, is far more than ice

(Image by Moyan_Brenn) Details DMCA



A small land situated between the North Atlantic and the Arctic Ocean, Iceland minds her own business and minds it very well. I was so impressed by what I saw and learned in a recent and my first visit there with my family that I decided to write this short piece as a tribute to her people and their history. Iceland has a lesson that needs to be learned and practiced by the greatest troublemaking nation of all time during only 240 years of her existence, namely, The United States of America. The USA is a nation forever at odds with herself, constantly preparing for and engaging in war, and a nation that world opinion tells us is the greatest threat to peace in the world.

Iceland and America: Some Stark Differences

Iceland and the USA are two nations that are mostly at the opposite ends of the important dimensions of life. Iceland is at the positive end; America at the negative end.

In my book, America's Oldest Professions: Warring and Spying, I coined the term "sadtistics" as a summary for America's mostly negative standings on those dimensions. For this article I am coining another term, "gladtistics", as a summary of Iceland's positive standings. What follows is a very brief side by side summary of the two nations' standings.

Socioeconomics . Iceland stands very positively on income equality, employment, poverty level, and homelessness. America doesn't.

Health and Health Care Services . Iceland has universal single payer health insurance. America doesn't and, furthermore, has the most expensive health care system providing substandard health care. Icelanders live longer than Americans. Iceland's infant mortality rate is much lower than America's.

Environmental . Iceland, thanks partly to its geothermal energy supply is the least polluted of all nations. Not so, America. She caters to the fossil fuel industry and its captivated politicians.

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From Greg Swank, 12-4-2 You are about to read a list of 45 goals that found their way down the halls of our great Capitol back in 1963. As...
In the part of the world that often makes headlines because of religious strife, ethnic divides are no lessand perhaps even moreconsequential for political stability and socioeconomic wellbeing.

Members of minority ethnic groups, who are often marginalized politically and economically, differ from members of the ethnic majority in their assessment of interethnic relations and their prospects, according to a new study by Victor Agadjanian, a University of Kansas Foundation Distinguished Professor of Sociology, in the multiethnic nation of Kyrgyzstan, a nation in Central Asia and formerly part of the Soviet Union.

Soviet leaders many decades ago arbitrarily drew administrative borders in Central Asia, placing a large portion of Uzbek-populated areas within Kyrgyzstan, rather than Uzbekistan, where Uzbeks are the majority. In addition to Kyrgyz, Kyrgyzstan's largest ethnic group, and Uzbeks, its largest native ethnic minority, Kyrgyzstan's population includes ethnic Russians and members of other groups of European origin whose ancestors were encouraged or forced to relocate there during the Soviet rule.

Agadjanian analyzed data from a nationally representative survey that he designed and directed in the country in 2011-12, a year-and-a-half after a major outburst of ethnic violence that targeted primarily ethnic Uzbeks.

His research on what he defines as "ethnic optimism" found that representatives of the titular ethnic group, Kyrgyz, demonstrated greater optimism about the future of interethnic relations and the collective prospects of their ethnicity than did members of two main minoritiesUzbeks and those of Russian and other European descent. Yet, at the same time, Uzbeks were not very different from Kyrgyz in their expectations for future overall economic trends in the country. In contrast, Russian and other Europeans were consistently least optimistic than members of the two native groups with regard to the nation's and their households' economic future.

"The results illustrate both the importance of the majority-minority divide and substantial variations across minority groups. As a native group to Kyrgyzstan, Uzbeks don't have anywhere to go, especially because neighboring Uzbekistan is not very welcoming to them," Agadjanian said. "They have to think about their future in Kyrgyzstan, even despite the experience of overt violence, which may help them suppress some of their anxieties about the future. In contrast, ethnic Russians, even though some of their families had lived in Kyrgyzstan for generations, are always aware of their 'historic motherland,' Russia, to which they can 'return.' Their enduring emotional and, often, practical orientation beyond Kyrgyzstan's borders may influence their views of that country's future."

The findings could provide insight for governments and non-governmental organizations that seek to navigate and mitigate challenging ethnic tensions because they help situate ethnic group experiences and perceptions within a historical context, he said.

"Ethnic tensions are not just pervasive. They tend to exacerbate in a context of major societal transitions, such as that experienced by post-Soviet Central Asia," Agadjanian said. "But different ethnic minority groups may experience these tensions and project them into their vision of the future differently, depending on their historical background and circumstances."

Agadjanian will present his findings at the 111th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association (ASA).

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After September 11, issues of immigration and terrorism merged, heightening surveillance and racializing Latino immigrants as a threat to national security, according to sociologists at The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin).

Latino immigration in the United States has long sparked passionate debates, with Latinos often racialized as 'illegal aliens' posing an economic threat. But following the al-Qaeda-led terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, the fear of another attack, coupled with Islamophobia, streamlined immigration agendas with anti-terrorism rhetoric, policies, and institutional efforts, racializing Latinos in a new way, the researchers said.

"Neither contemporary political rhetoric, nor policy, nor institutional change in regards to immigration and terrorism can be properly understood in isolation without taking into account how these issues are brought together at specific moments," Amina Zarrugh, a UT Austin sociology alumna who will be an assistant professor of sociology at Texas Christian University in the fall. "In fact, the endurance of certain political agendas is made all the more powerful through their connection with other important agendas, each of which reinforces the other."

Using government reports and media accounts, Zarrugh and UT Austin sociology PhD candidate Luis A. Romero, who will present their paper at the 111th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association (ASA), analyzed political rhetoric, immigration policy, government reports, and non-governmental evaluations to explain how Islamophobiaor the extreme and irrational fear of Muslims and Islamis deployed against Latinos to garner political support, create fear, and justify increased surveillance and immigration enforcement.

Citing examples of politicians blaming "porous borders" for "enormous problems," a commercial which paired images of terrorists with images of Latinos crossing the border, and fabricated rumors of a terrorist training camp at the U.S.-Mexico border near Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, the researchers concluded that political rhetoric in the aftermath of the attacks mobilized popular fear.

"Increased surveillance and security were an easy sell," said Romero. "People were more afraid of threats, real or perceived. Politicians fed on this fear, encouraging people that security was key in this new era. The call to enforce the U.S.-Mexico border became a rallying point in the push for greater security."

Rhetoric then became policy, which dictated how government agencies were created and operated. "Policy began to shape this us versus them sentiment in new ways," Zarrugh said.

New systems of surveillance were established, as a result of legislation such as the USA Patriot Act, and the U.S. began to take a more aggressive approach to border security. Since 9/11, deportations have increased dramatically. From the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in 2003 through 2013, there was an average of 334,000 deportations per year, and each year there were at least 211,000 deportations, a number never reached in U.S. deportation history pre-9/11. In addition, the Department of Homeland Security absorbed the Immigration and Naturalization Services and united 22 federal agencies under the DHS umbrella, one of the first examples of state resources merging to combat undocumented migration and terrorism as a single issue.

"The primary goal of the Department of Homeland Security, is just that: security," Zarrugh said. "It was created to prevent future terrorist attacks and while undue attention was directed toward Muslims as a result, they were not the only ones who came under direct scrutiny."

The paper, "Linking Immigration and Terrorism in the Post-9/11 Era," will be presented on Saturday, Aug. 20 at the American Sociological Association's 111th Annual Meeting.

Explore further Study indicates immigration not to blame for terrorism
Death and mourning were largely considered private matters in the 20th century, with the public remembrances common in previous eras replaced by intimate gatherings behind closed doors in funeral parlors and family homes.

But social media is redefining how people grieve, and Twitter in particularwith its ephemeral mix of rapid-fire broadcast and personal expressionis widening the conversation around death and mourning, two University of Washington (UW) sociologists say.

In a paper that will be presented at the 111th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association (ASA), UW doctoral students Nina Cesare and Jennifer Branstad analyzed the feeds of deceased Twitter users and found that people use the site to acknowledge death in a blend of public and private behavior that differs from how it is addressed on other social media sites.

While posts about death on Facebook, for example, tend to be more personal and involve people who knew the deceased, Cesare and Branstad say, Twitter users may not know the dead person, tend to tweet both personal and general comments about the deceased, and sometimes tie the death to broader social issuesfor example, mental illness or suicide.

"It's bringing strangers together in this space to share common concerns and open up conversations about death in a way that is really unique," Cesare said.

The researchers used mydeathspace.com, a website that links social media pages of dead people to their online obituaries, to find deceased Twitter users. They sorted through almost 21,000 obituaries and identified 39 dead people with Twitter accounts (the vast majority of entries are linked to Facebook or MySpace profiles). The most common known causes of death among people in the sample were, in order, suicides, automobile accidents, and shootings.

Cesare and Branstad pored over the 39 feeds to see how users tweeted about the deceased, and concluded that Twitter was used "to discuss, debate, and even canonize or condemn" them.

Among their findings:

Some users maintained bonds with the dead person by sharing memories and life updates ("I miss cheering you on the field").

Some posted intimate messages ("I love and miss you so much"), while others commented on the nature of the death ("So sad reading the tweets of the girl who was killed").

Others expressed thoughts on life and mortality ("Goes to show you can be here one moment and gone the next").

Some users made judgmental comments about the deceased ("Being a responsible gun owner requires some common sensesomething that this dude didn't have!").

The expansive nature of the comments, the researchers say, reflects how death is addressed more broadly on Twitter than on Facebook, the world's largest social networking site. Facebook users frequently know each other offline, often post personal photos, and can choose who sees their profiles. By contrast, Twitter users can tweet at anybody, profiles are short, and most accounts are public. Given the 140-character tweet limit, users are more likely to post pithy thoughts than soul-baring sentiments.

Those characteristics, the researchers say, create a less personal atmosphere that emboldens users to engage when someone has died, even if they didn't know the person.

"A Facebook memorial post about someone who died is more like sitting in that person's house and talking with their family, sharing your grief in that inner circle," Branstad said.

"What we think is happening on Twitter is people who wouldn't be in that house, who wouldn't be in that inner circle, getting to comment and talk about that person. That space didn't really exist before, at least not publicly."

Traditions around death and dying have existed for centuries, the researchers note. But increased secularization and medical advances in the 20th century made death an uncomfortable topic for public conversation, they write, relegating grief to an intimate circle of family and close friends.

Social media has changed that, they say, bringing death back into the public realm and broadening notions about who may engage when someone dies.

"Ten, twenty years ago, death was much more private and bound within a community," Branstad said. "Now, with social media, we're seeing some of those hierarchies break down in terms of who feels comfortable commenting about the deceased."

Twitter use is still evolving, the researchers point out, making the site fertile ground for studying how social media is used for mourning in the future.

"New norms will have to be established for what is and isn't appropriate to share within this space," Cesare said. "But I think the ability of Twitter to open the mourning community outside of the intimate sphere is a big contribution, and creating this space where people can come together and talk about death is something new."

Explore further Twitter eases process for verified accounts
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One of my favorite Woody Allen lines is, "I'm not afraid of death. I just don't want to be there when it happens." Death ...
Douglas V. Gibbs is a proud member of the American Authors Association

Douglas V. Gibbs is a proud member of the Military Writers Society of America.
QUEENSBURY  Two Glens Falls residents were arrested on robbery charges Thursday in connection with a shoplifting incident at the Target department store at Aviation Mall, police said Friday.

Ciara E. Vannier, of 20 Grand St., and Shaniah A. Sanders, of 51 Sherman Ave., both 20, were charged with third-degree robbery, a felony, according to the Warren County Sheriff's Office.

At 4:50 p.m. Thursday, police said Vannier and Sanders acted together to steal several items from the store. When confronted by the store's loss prevention personnel, the two resisted apprehension and used physical force against a store employee, authorities said.

Police said the suspects then fled the store, entered a vehicle and left the scene. Both were later apprehended and taken into custody, the Sheriffs Office said in a news release.

Vannier and Sanders were arraigned in Queensbury Town Court. Both were released on their own recognizance and are scheduled to return to court on Sept. 12.

The case was investigated by sheriff's Investigator Edward Affinito and sheriff's Officer Dana Leonardo.
LAKE GEORGE  The Adirondack Pub & Brewery will host its 11th annual Oktoberfest Brewfest for charity. This years festival will be held from 1 to 5 p.m. Oct. 15 at the brewery.

Oktoberfest Brewfest will feature all New York state beer, with guest breweries to be announced at a later date. The Adirondack Brewery will showcase its fall seasonal, Oktoberfest Lager. This Festbier is hopped 100 percent with hops grown in New York state from Mosher Farms, located in Bouckville.

This years festival benefits Adirondack Mountain Club. For more information, visit www.lakegeorgeoktoberfest.com.

The brewery will be running a special $35 ticket promotion until Sept. 1. After that, tickets will be $40 in advance and $45 at the door. Tickets are available at www.adkbreweryoktoberfest.brownpapertickets.com.
SCHUYLERVILLE  At long last, contractors will start pouring the foundation for the new regional visitors center on Monday.

Work on the foundation was delayed for more than two months while officials waited for a $250,000 Aid to Communities state grant.

The delay has impacted both stages of the Timber Framers Guilds construction of the building, which the guild members are doing by hand. They had planned to raise the first level last week and have a huge, community event raising the rest of the building in September.

Instead, the raising will be in November, at the earliest.

The raising cant happen until the foundation is built, and Saratoga National Historical Park Superintendent Joe Finan simply didnt have the funds for it until now. Finan is overseeing the project, a Dutch barn-style building that will become the first stop for tourists in the region. From there, they will be directed to historical sites, festivals and events.

In addition to the Aid to Communities grant, the project is supported by a Canal Corporation grant, but that $191,000 grant is still in flux. After the project won the grant, Canal Corporations parent agency switched from the Thruway Authority to the Power Authority. That has led to more confusion.

The Canal Corp. one is hung up slightly, Finan said.

With both grants up in the air this summer, he didnt dare hire workers. Now that the Aid to Communities grant is being processed, he was able to get started.

The projects moving forward, he said.

Starting Monday, contractors will drill about 30 micropiles into the bedrock. Then, they will pour the concrete slab and place the concrete-grade beams. The concrete should be cured by Oct. 31.

However, the Timber Framers Guild will be ready for the building raising by Sept. 15.

They will work from Sept. 5 to Sept. 15 to get all of the timbers ready for the raising. Members of the community can still join them by emailing info@tfguild.org, but they must register in advance.

Were still looking forward to the workshop, Finan said. Itll be pretty much the same workshiop, but we wont be raising the building. Well spend a little additional time on instruction.

They will do a demonstration on how the raising will work, he added. But nothing will be able to be placed at the site, so they will store all the timbers.

And then theyll gather the community for the big event when the foundation is ready.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency may pay to make it harder for floods to hurt Washington County.

Town officials are working with grant consultant Tetra Tech to develop hazard mitigation plans. The goal is to come up with ways to avoid damage from natural disasters. Thats what FEMA wants, which is why it will give out millions of dollars in prevention grants.

FEMA has realized we are fixing these things again and again and again, said consultant Jonathan Raser at a meeting with the Board of Supervisors. FEMA has set aside grant money to mitigate these risks.

Among the focuses is the White Creek streambed in Salem, but Salem isnt the only town that could benefit from a FEMA grant. Raser is working with every town in Washington County, gathering information on everything from culverts to land-use decisions.

On Sept. 14, FEMA will hold a workshop to help officials identify ways to protect their towns and help them figure out the best solution for each asset at risk. FEMA can pay to elevate an often-flooded house, raise a road or clean out a stream so it can take on more water before overflowing.

Raser urged all supervisors to work on plans and to get the public and department heads involved.

Its really important communities actively participate, he said.

Right now, theyre gathering information.

The next step gets interesting, because thats where we start talking about solutions and what is grant-funded and what is not, he said.

Among the items that usually arent funded: equipment to handle an emergency, even if its shared among towns. Easton Supervisor Dan Shaw had hoped some large equipment might be funded by FEMA, but Raser said its not likely.

FEMA rarely funds equipment, except backup generators, he said.

Another often-mentioned idea, creating a pedestrian walkway when the Archibald Street bridge is removed, would probably not be funded, Raser said.

Theyd say, thats nice but ... were spending taxpayer dollars here, he said. Youve gotta be realistic, too.

He is already reading the White Creek flood study and there are many proposals in there that FEMA could fund, he said. Removing boulders, dirt and other debris from the creek could win funding.

They will find projects like that, he said. You can (also) harden stream banks. It has to be very carefully done.

FEMA will evaluate grants not only on their merits for the immediate community, but on whether the work would hurt communities downstream.

You dont want to push your problems downstream. People would do concrete banks and rush the water past and it takes out the next town, Raser said.

Elevating houses to get them out of the way of White Creek is also a possible solution. FEMA grants can be used for private property if the owner agrees.

We have a lot of FEMA money for elevations, he said. And they may extend a bridge, raise a bridge. You can elevate a road if you have a section thats low.

FEMA will, of course, also consider projects for other disasters. But Raser knows residents in Washington County are thinking about floods, and that comes as no surprise. He said the biggest hazard in most of the Northeast is flooding.
John Salvador read from The Federalist Papers to make a point about the length of Queensbury Town Board members terms, but we think Goldilocks and the Three Bears would have made for a better reference.

Salvador, who does not want the terms of Town Board members extended from two to four years, asserted that the authors of the Federalist Papers (Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay) were concerned about that issue, which they referred to as tenure.

But Rachel Seeber, who is not on the Town Board but sits on the county board as a Queensbury supervisor at-large, made the point that the length of the terms is inextricably connected to the number of terms allowed. She would like to see the number of terms limited.

We agree that, to arrive at the just right length of time in office, both the length of terms and the maximum number of terms allowed have to be considered.

It makes sense to extend the Town Board terms from two years to four, because it is a distraction for board members to have to run for re-election every two years. They are barely given time to settle into office when they have to start campaigning again, and with such a short term, they have to worry with everything they do about how it looks to voters.

A four-year term would give Town Board members more time to relax in the job and also give them more freedom to vote as they think is best for the town, free from political considerations.

A switch to four-year terms makes the prospect of public service more appealing, because it offers candidates enough time in office, but not too much. Few candidates are likely to be satisfied with a single two-year term, but for some, four years in office could be just right.

But how many four-year terms should a Town Board member be allowed to serve? We are not advocates of unlimited terms in office. Its healthy to get fresh ideas and energy and different points of view into local leadership positions on a regular basis. The model adopted for the U.S. presidency  and closer to home, for the Glens Falls mayoralty  is two four-year terms.

Eight years in public office should be enough for anybody. We dont want these jobs to become second careers; we want them to be temporary stints served by a variety of people who also do other things. We especially dont want a core group of long-serving Town Board members to get so used to each others preferences and personalities that all town business gets accomplished in the smooth, easy fashion of old friends engaged in a game of cards.

Politics requires some conflict. Town Board members who are faithfully representing their constituents will clash at times, and the process of airing differences and reaching compromises is healthy. Local politicians are less likely to make getting along with their fellow board members more important than doing what is best for their constituents if their time on the board is limited.

So we, too, like Hamilton, Madison and Jay, are concerned about tenure. But extending a single term from two years to four does not automatically make a Town Board members tenure too long. Like Goldilocks with the chairs, porridge and beds, we want a tenure that is just right, and thats what two four-year terms is.
The Tamale airport has been upgraded to international standard to accommodate large airplanes to facilitate international trips as well as support the Savanna Accelerated Development Authority in its export of perishable goods.

Beyond facilitating the movement of people from one destination to the other, this airport will also support the SADA in its program to enhance the export of perishable goods especially fresh agricultural products, he said.

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According to the president, the airport expansion was well thought-through, aiming at accelerating growth and development in the Northern Region.

"The decision to upgrade the Tamale Airport to an international one is a well thought-through program aimed at extending opportunities to the people of the North for accelerated growth and development of our people, President Mahama said.
READ ALSO: Biomedical laboratory scientists declare strike

A statement signed by the President of GABMLS, Ignatius Awinibuno, accused the Health Ministry of disregarding their needs by refusing to show up at a planned meeting which was to address the stalled implementation of the policy.

The Minister of Health is not interested in improving and strengthening medical laboratory services for better quality health care in the country, the statement said.

We therefore call on all our membership across the country to withdraw their services at the various facilities starting from August 22, 2016 until you are otherwise advised, it added.

But the Public Relations Officer of the Ministry, Tony Goodman said his outfit has no record of having received an invitation from the National Labour Commission as claimed by the Association.

Every meeting with the Labour Commission is confirmed in writing by them. It should be noted that once the Labour Commission is seized on an issue it is illegal for a strike to be called by any group of persons, Tony Goodman said in a statement.

He, however, indicated that some entrenched positions being taken by parties involved in the policy document are delaying its implementation.

Below is the full statement from the Health Ministry:

MINISTRY OF HEALTH- PRESS RELEASE

MOH CALLS ON GHANA ASSOCIATION OF BIOMEDICAL LABORATORY SCIENTIST TO RESCIND DECISION ----------------------------------------

The Ministry of Health has read with dismay a press statement making the rounds in the media regarding an intended strike action by the Ghana Association of Biomedical Laboratory Scientist.

The Ministry for Health has no record of having received an invitation from the National Labour Commission as claimed by the Association.

Which has always being the case before we attend on the Commission. Every meeting with the Labour Commission is confirmed in writing by them.

It should be noted that once the Labour Commission is seized on an issue it is illegal for a strike to be called by any group of persons.

The Ministry of Health will work to address any misunderstanding that exist between the Association and the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons.

On the 20th July 2016, the Ministry of Health and the Ghana Association of Biomedical Laboratory Scientists were invited to appear before the National Labour Commission.

The purpose of the invitation is for the Hon. Minister to explain why the Ministry of Health has not launched three documents which have been prepared by the Ghana Health Service with the support of the Centre for Disease Control (CDC).

At the meeting, the Hon. Minister of Health asked for a four week grace period to enable him do some more consultation with the two main parties ie the Ghana Association of Biomedical Laboratory Scientist (GABMLS) and the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons.

This request was in view of the entrenched positions being adopted by the parties.

The College is contesting portions of the document making its launch difficult for the Ministry of Health.

The Hon. Minister subsequently constituted a three man management Sub-Committee made of(i) The Director, HRHD(ii) The Director, General Administration and(iii) The Director, Legal to hold further consultations with the parties and report back.

The Subcommittee after discussions with the two parties found out that the parties have taken entrenched positions and recommended that an independent Committee be formed comprising of

(i) A Consultant and representatives from(ii) Health Service Workers Union ( a Laboratory Scientist )(ii) The Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons and(iii) The Ministry of HealthSince then, invitations have been sent to the parties to submit nominees to form the Committee.

The decision to form an independent Committee was also discussed with the parties which they agreed to.

It is therefore strange that the Biomedical Laboratory Scientist have decided at this moment to embark on strike.

The Ministry is therefore calling on the Association to rescind its decision and join hands with the Ministry to find a lasting solution to the matter.

Thanks you.
A brief sod cutting ceremony was held to mark the start of the project which will be financed by the Forestry Commission and a private partner Aikan Capital Limited.

The eco-park will be inside the Achimota Forest Reserve which has over the years been heavily polluted by the dumping of waste and encroachment by estate developers.

When completed, the park will have a museum, an amusement park, orchards, an arboretum safari expeditions among others. There will be no disruption to the historic use of the Achimota Forest Reserve for worship purposes as there will be the creation of a spiritual enclave. One million trees are expected to be planted to improve forest cover.

According to the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Nii Osah Mills, the Nairobi National Park in Kenya serves as a good example for Ghana to learn from.

The Accra Eco-Park development has, therefore, been conceived to provide a unique opportunity to demonstrate to the business community and the public that ecotourism is a viable, environmentally friendly, employment-creating, sustainable income-generating venture, he said.

Nairobi National Park alone contributes eight million dollars in revenue to the Kenyan purse.
"The president said I was sleeping, I thank him.

The people in the Western Region and all those who use those roads there will know the one who is peddling falsehood. If the roads were good, would they have included it in their projects?

Let me ask you; do you see anything near good roads? Do you see that most of the roads are in good shape? We should not be deceived by these falsehoods."

President John Mahama on Tuesday said Akufo-Addo did not see good roads during his five-day tour of the region because he was sleeping, prompting a furious response from his spokesman, Mustapha Hamid, and the Acting General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party, John Boadu.

They both accused him of using "unpresidential" language.

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On Friday, president Mahama revisited the issue of roads in the region, saying Akufo-Addo should enquire from his personal drive who will attest to the good nature of the roads in the region.

Addressing a rally in Secondi as part of his re-election campaign bid, the president also said he intends to complete all roads construction in the region if his mandate is renewed.

He said: "I have never said anywhere that I have completed all roads in this region but from what we have done so far when I am giving another mandate, will be able to finish all the roads here.

"He came here and he said he didn't see any good roads. I told him he was asleep while on tour. Let him ask his driver if the roads are good or bad.

"The driver does not sleep when he is driving. He sees everything so he cannot tell his boss about the good roads.
If you are a government that have had the mandate of the people of Ghana for the past nearly eight years, and then you come and launch a campaign to ask for four more years, we would expect that you will provide us a solid record of achievement for the past eight years because a ruling government fight election on it record, Not necessarily on manifesto," Hamid said on Saturday.
Mr Afoko has been in court challenging a suspension handed down to him by the NPPs Disciplinary Committee for alleged misconduct.

The suspended Chair had earlier described his suspension as unconstitutional and a breach of natural justice.

But the Human Rights Division of the Accra High Court on Monday, August 15, 2016, dismissed the suit.

According to the judgment of the presiding judge, Justice Anthony Yeboah, the suspension of Mr. Afoko was just, lawful and fair.

He further added that the procedure used for the suspension was right and was not breached in any way by the NPP.

Responding to the dismissal of the suit against the NPP on Multi TVs Newsfile on Saturday August 20, Mr Amaliba said Afoko should defect to the NDC.

Amaliba believed the suspended NPP Chair "is not liked in the NPP. A lot of things were said about him before he became the national chairman of the NPP.

Meanwhile, Afoko had earlier said that even though he respected the decision handed down by the court, he disagreed with it.
The call was made at an event to launch guidelines for the inclusion and participation of persons with disability in the December polls. The event brought together representatives from GFD, the Electoral Commission, the National Commission on Civic Education and the various political parties.

The guidelines included challenges faced by the disabled in accessing accessibility to polling stations, information about the elections and social inclusion.

READ ALSO:

Most importantly, it presents critical issues affecting PWDs in the country.

Despite PWDs constituting a significant section of the countrys population, they are often not consulted or side-lined in the formulation of policies and the decision-making process.

According to Mohammed Abdul Aziz of the GFD bemoaned the treatment of the disabled and called for improved policies and actions that address these problems.

We need jobs, we need equal opportunities for education, as well as the right to participate fully in all democratic processes.

On his part, the Coordinator of Star-Ghanas 2016 Election Project, Mr Joshua Makubu urged the EC to do more to ensure the inclusion of the disabled in the electioneering process.

The EC and other stakeholders must factor the plight of disabled persons into their plans. For instance, how can political parties hold their meetings in offices located on high-rise buildings, which are not disability-friendly, and expect PWDs to be part of it?

There are some persons who are visually impaired or hard of hearing. In view of this fact, political parties ought to present their campaign messages in the form text with large font size, audio, and video to meet the need of all persons- he reiterated.

The Convention People's Party has elected Ivor Greenstreet as its presidential candidate, to become the first PWD to lead a major political party.
He also accused President John Mahama of blatantly distributing goodies and bribing voters to buy their votes on Newsfile Saturday.

The NDC has a certain mindset that says impoverish the people, do not empower the people, dont make them capable of fending for themselves and during elections, you can come and put GHC20 note in matches box and then you go around and distribute themand people can vote for you.

And so the president is going around blatantly distributing goodies and bribing voters to actually vote for him.

He is doing so openly and if you want unapologetically, and I think that it is not good. A president ought to be the person who leads the ethical moral crusade, Mr Hamid said.

His comments follow president Mahamas distribution of outboard motors to fishermen in the Western Region.

READ MORE

The president has come in for criticism from the Ghana Integrity Initiative, the local chapter of Transparency International and the Centre for Democratic Development for vote buying.

But a member of the NDC legal team, Mr Abraham Amaliba, said defended the distribution of the outboard motors, saying it was contained in the NDCs 2012 campaign pledge.

According to him, the distribution is not new, wondering why NPP is making issues out of it.

"He [President Mahama] has not told them [beneficiaries of the outboard motors] that these are NDC sponsored items.
According to him, the youth must stop such moves and rather get to the electorates and convince them to vote for the party in the general elections.

Mr. Awuku made this known at the Youth Wing Conference of the Ashanti Regional branch of the NPP held at the Georgia Hotel in Kumasi on Wednesday.

Party stalwarts such as Dr. Boakye Agyarko, Ayisi Boateng, Nana Bee, among others were present at the event, which was aimed at energising the youth for victory on December 7.
During a recent interview with The Cable, the music producer cum CEO Supreme Mavins Dynasty disclosed that American artistes might call him for jobs but usually end up backing out because they are not comfortable with his type of sound.

Speaking during the interview, he said:

"Most of these American artistes would call you, they believe you have something that they like, so they call you to come and try something out. A bunch of people that I have tried to work with or have tried to work with me chicken out at the end of the day because they arent really ready for the music change; they want me to tweak it till it gets back to their sound. I can give you your sound, but then, you called me for something and then I try to give to my sound and I want you to do your thing on top of it which would give the sound a wider recognition but they say they arent ready for this switch drastically. I think they are still scared

Don Jazzy described the essence of the Nigerian music using its skill for uplifting Nigerians in these troubled and difficult times.

Everyone is struggling; we all have a problem in the country but there are sometimes when we need that peace of mind.

While some people are consciously trying to make you aware of what is going on in the struggle, there should be other people that would keep you happy when you are going through the struggles and that is where we come in.

ALSO READ: Mavin artistes pictured together with Jay Z
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``I am confident that the economy of the country, under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari, will change for good because our president is focused, Akiolu told newsmen in his palace.

The royal father, who spoke during the celebration of the Isese Festival in Isale Eko area of Lagos Island, said that the present hardship was a prelude to a better tomorrow.

``Let us cooperate with the government. Do not take laws into your hands and always inform the security agencies wherever there are criminal activities, Akiolu said.

He appealed to the Niger Delta Avengers to stop bombing oil facilities and put their grievances on the table for the government to address.

``I want to use this medium to appeal to the Niger Delta Avengers to give peace a chance.

``I agree to some extent with them that certain things have to be done for them, but they just have to give peace a chance and things will work for them.

``They should stop and put their grievances on the table and the government will address it. It is not too late to mend, `` Akiolu said.

On the festival, Akiolu said it was an inherited custom and tradition which he does not joke with.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Isese festival featured diverse cultural activities to enhance interaction and promote harmony in the state and the country at large.
In a statement signed by one of its members, Muhammad Labo, on Friday, August 19, the group said the demonstration is capable of undermining efforts of the government to rescue the girls unharmed.

Labo noted that playing politics with the kidnapped Chibok schoolgirls is unhelpful and embarrassing to the government and counterproductive to the silent efforts of the military to rescue them.

He said the government will take serious exception to the mobilisation of the parents of the kidnapped girls to score political advantage or exploiting the tragedy to play to the gallery.

Labo said dragging the parents of the victims to Abuja for endless demonstrations will only compound a bad situation, and give them the impression that a rescue mission "is as simple as abc."

According to him, the group should not claim monopoly of patriotism and humanity over the government by seeking to undermine the silent efforts of the military to map out strategies to safely rescue the girls.

The statement said: "The terrorists have no rules of engagement and therefore, would not mind killing all the hostages if the Nigerian military attempts any rash action.

"Any rescue attempt that leaves the kidnapped girls dead would not worth it.

"Our armed forces have been working hard on plans and strategies of how to rescue the girls but don't have to publicise their plans because absolute secrecy is needed.

"The primary objective of any rescue mission is to get the hostages alive and unharmed."

Labo advised the group to support the government in its efforts to deal with the challenge rationally.
Buratai spoke with newsmen at Kachia after he fired some shots in a mock war as one of the concluding exercises for graduating cadets.

``They must be up to date, not necessarily getting the basic military training only, they must be up to date in terms of current affairs and in terms of global trend.

``They must be current in Information Communication Technology and I am sure they will go places, Buratai said.

He said the exercise, otherwise known as ``Battle Inoculation, was good for the cadets as it would make them have war experience, especially what troops were facing in the North-East.

On his participation in the mock war, Buratai described it as great and recalled that he engaged in such exercise more than 33 years ago, while graduating from the Nigeria Defence Academy.

``The standard is still being maintained and I give kudos to the commandant, instructors and administrators of the NDA.

``I am happy that the standard is still being maintained and we will continue to improve on that, he said.

Earlier, when he addressed the 60 cadets of the 63rd Regular Course of the NDA, Buratai commended them for showing discipline required of soldiers in war situation.

``This is the culmination of the totality of your experiences that you have gained from the various military books.

``What you have put into practice here today is fundamental to winning battles. You are as good as battle tested, he said.

In a welcome address, Brig.-Gen. Okwudili Azinta, the Director of Army Training, said the exercise was for cadets of the Army in their final year at the NDA.

``It is designed to test the cadets understanding of operational, administrative and logistical concepts which they have been taught throughout their stay in the academy.

``It will also enable the commandant to access their suitability for commission into the Nigerian Army, Azinta said.

According to him, at inception, the cadets were 84, consisting of 76 males and eight females.

``However, out of this number, five cadets were at various times sent to military academies in U.S, UK and Brazil to complete their training.
Damuna, who is also the Speaker of the state House of Assembly, said that three of the intending pilgrims were discovered to be pregnant, while the fourth was disqualified on health grounds.

He said that officials of the state medical team discovered the pregnant intending pilgrims during their final screening.

Damuna said that the other pilgrim barred on health grounds was seriously sick.

``She was seriously sick and was also barred from boarding the aircraft conveying third and fourth batches of the state pilgrims on health ground, he said.

The speaker said that the third batch of the pilgrims from the state consisted of those from Misau, Shira, Zaki and Bogoro Local Government Areas.

He said that the fourth batch was made up of intending pilgrims from Itas Gadau, Ningi and Jamaare Local Government Areas.

The deputy Amiral Hajj commended the management of the State Carrier, Fly Nass, for their commitment in the airlift of pilgrims to Saudi Arabia as scheduled.
The ODA President, Chief Peter Oyinloye, made the appeal at a press conference in Omu-Aran on Friday on the continued suspension of operations in the town by the First Bank, Union Bank and Ecobank since May 2013 over violent robbery attacks on them.

Oyinloye said that the continued closure of the banks had virtually paralysed commercial activities in the town which is the headquarters of Kwara South Senatorial District.

He said that it had been a harrowing experience for students, workers, traders and businessmen in the town who now daily travelled to Offa, Ilorin and neighbouring towns in Ekiti and Osun states for basic banking services.

Oyinloye said that since the incident happened, the association and the paramount ruler of Omu-Aran, Oba Oladele Ibitoye, had made many representations to the banks and the state government without positive response.

He said that since the banks suspended operations, the community had supported the Nigeria Police Force logistically through provision of two new Hillux patrol vans and building of an office for the Police Area Command.

In addition, he said, that the community was now building three additional police stations in the three wards of the town and financing local vigilance groups to aid police anti-crime operations.

The community leader said the efforts of the community deserved recognition and appreciation by the both the police and authorities of the affected banks by re-opening the closed branches in the economic interest of the more than 40 towns and villages which they were serving.

Chief Oyinloye assured that the community would continue to support the banks and security agencies for better protection of lives and properties in the domain.

Meanwhile, a coalition of the Olomu-in-Council, ODA and the Omu-Aran Youth Forum (O.Y.F) has mobilised residents and management of the Landmark University and the more than 15 colleges in the town for more effective neighbourhood security operations to expose all men of the under-world in their midst.
As'ad's Bio

As'ad AbuKhalil, born March 16, 1960. From Tyre, Lebanon, grew up in Beirut. Received his BA and MA from American University of Beirut in pol sc. Came to US in 1983 and received his PhD in comparative government from Georgetown University. Taught at Tufts University, Georgetown University, George Washington University, Colorado College, and Randolph-Macon Woman's College. Served as a Scholar-in-Residence at Middle East Institute in Washington DC. He served as free-lance Middle East consultant for NBC News and ABC News, an experience that only served to increase his disdain for maintream US media. He is now professor of political science at California State University, Stanislaus. His favorite food is fried eggplants.
Briefing journalists on Friday at Bonny, Rivers, Capt. Mustapha Hassan, the Commanding Officer of the Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS) Nwamba, who led the rescue operation, said the 13 foreigners were rescued unharmed.

Hassan said the crew members, including the ships captain, were of mixed nationalities consisting of seven Philippinos, two Romanians, one Russian, one Polish, one Indian and one Croatian.

On Aug. 17, MT Vectis Osprey, a British ship, was attacked by sea pirates about 20 nautical miles off the coast of Bonny Island Fairway Bouy in Rivers.

We got a distress alert from the operations centre at the naval headquarters which dispatched NNS Nwamba with NNS Okpabana to shadow the operation.

On getting the distress call, we immediately set course to intercept and rescue the merchant ship from hijack by sea pirates.

On arrival, the special forces attacked the nine heavily armed pirates who jumped into the sea and escaped, apparently due to superior gunfire and tactical awareness of troops.

``The operation was largely successful as all 13 foreign crew members, including the captain, are safe and unhurt while cargo onboard the ship is intact, he said.

Hassan said that troops were unable to apprehend the pirates due to poor visibility partly caused by torrential rain on the day of the rescue.

He said that the navy under the Chief of the Naval Staff, Vice Adm. Ibok-Ete Ibas, remained committed to the safety of the nations waterways and maritime environment.

Hassan added that the rescue was successful due to ongoing operation code-named Tsare Teku II which sought to tackle oil theft, illegal bunkering and pirate attacks on the waterways.

This operation launched on July 23 by the CNS has drastically reduced the spate of sea piracy and robbery attacks in our maritime environment while improving our response to distress calls, he said.

Also speaking, the Captain of MT Vectis Osprey, Mr Sobol Evgeny, a Russian, said the pirates sailed on a blue boat and were fully armed with AK-47 assault rifles.

Evgeny said that his crew members used every laid down procedure but couldnt prevent the pirates from boarding their vessel.

On realising that we couldnt stop the pirates from boarding our ship, we immediately locked ourselves inside the ship citadel (safe room) and thereafter sent distress calls to the Nigerian Navy.

The navy responded promptly and rescued us - and if not for their quick response, we would have been taken hostage or worse killed, he said.

Evgeny urged the navy to escort merchant ships to between 30 nautical miles and 50 nautical miles away from shore, adding that the pirates would not be able to launch attack on such distance.

The merchant ship (MT Vectis Osprey) registered in Britain came into Nigeria from Malabo on Aug. 10 with general cargo.
The Turkish government revealed that Nigerians, who were students of the private universities that were closed as a result of the failed coup have been transferred to public universities and will either study for free or pay small amounts as tuition fees, Daily Trust reports.

ALSO READ: More than 27,000 dismissed from education sector since failed coup

The new development was made known by the Turkish Ambassador to Nigeria, Hakan Cakil during a meeting with Nigeria's minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu in Abuja.

Cakil disclosed that the Turkish Deputy Director, Press, Federal Ministry of Education, Ben Bem Gong recently released a statement saying all students affected by the closure have been moved to public universities nearest to them.

The Turkish Ambassador told the minister that no Nigerian student would be allowed to suffer due to the closure.
The monarch spoke on Saturday in Lagos at the 3rd festival colloquium of the 50th anniversary of Lagos State with the theme: "Tourism Potential in Yorubaland: Landmarks, Culture and History.

Ogunwusi said that culture, tradition and tourism were tools for fostering development, eradicating poverty and emancipating the down trodden in the society.

"Culture and tradition bound us more than religion and it is important that we keep them for our heritage to be known and told.

"Gradually, we are losing the values of these culture and tradition because they have been misconstrued in so many ways.

"Contrary to many assumptions, traditionalists and our fore fathers are not idol worshippers.

"Traditionalists give glory, honour and adoration to God the Almighty which the Yorubas call "Olodumare".

"Olodumare is the Supreme Being and we have the lesser gods who are messengers, Angels of the almighty.

"These facts should be told to our upcoming generation," he said.

The monarch commended the organisers of ``Lagos at 50 for bringing culture, traditions and the heritage if the Yorubas alive.

The Ooni said that in spite of its cosmopolitan status, ``Lagos is a custodian of culture and tradition of the Yoruba race.

He said that Lagos was founded in the 15th century by a prince of Ile Ife named Olofin Ogunfunminire in company of his wife, Yeyelofin Olomu.
Ebelechukwu voiced her concern at a ceremony at Afor Igwe Market, Umudioka, Idemili North Local Government Area of the state where she inaugurated a modern toilet facility for use of the traders.

She said that arbitrary levies collection from hapless market women by touts was wrong and not supported by any laws of the state.

The wife of the governor warned those who indulge in the act to desist henceforth or be prepared to face the law.

According to her, the practice is in contravention of the state revenue collection procedures and laws.

She said the governor was worried over reports of the unsavoury activities of some sponsored touts who indulge in the act as it undermined the genuine intentions of his government.

She called on mothers to warn their sons who indulge in such nefarious activities to desist and let peace reign in the state.

According to her, my husband is committed to the development of Anambra in spite of the dwindling resources, Anambra does not discriminate against anybody in spite of different political leanings.

``He is creating the enabling environment for investment to attract our sons who are developing other parts of Nigeria to come home and develop our state, such acts should not continue among our sons, she appealed.

Ebelechukwu called on women in the state to register with her pet project ``Caring Family Enhancement Initiative (CAFE) to be trained in skills that would empower them to be productive.

She urged them to make use of rehabilitated primary health centres across the state to minimise children and maternal mortality rate, and warned them against self-medication to avoid complications.

Also at the occasion, former Minister of Women Affairs, Mrs Josephine Anenih, said she was in the state to witness the beautiful things the governors wife was doing in support of the women.

She expressed satisfaction with the performance of the governor, and described him as ``the working governor.

``This is not about political party. I am a member of PDP but I must say that when we see what is good for our people we should support it and it is clear to all that Obiano is doing well for our people, Anenih said.

Member Representing Dunukofia at the Anambra House of Assembly Lawrence Ezeudu commended the governor wifes good initiative of the market toilet.
Osinbajo spoke at the World Humanitarian Day with the theme " One Humanity" organised by National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) at International Conference Centre, Abuja on Friday.

He was represented by Dr. Femi Oke-Osanyintolu, Special Adviser to the Vice President on Monitoring and Evaluation of IDPs programmes.

The vice president said the Federal Government had put in place several measures to reduce the adverse effects of the crisis by producing a guild for the restoration of the region.

"Federal Government has further put in place several measures aimed at reducing the adverse effects of the crisis in the North-East through safe schools initiative, the Presidential Initiative for North- East and Victims Support Fund.

"All these are aimed at supporting victims of Boko Haram insurgency and ensuring their speedy recovery from the crisis."

Osinbajo said that the National Assembly was working toward setting up a North-East Commission which was expected to pull resources from government and other sources for sustainable recovery.

He said Nigeria was consulting with governments of Cameroon, Chad and Niger on the speedy recovery of the area with assistant from international organisation.

In his remarks, the NEMA Director-General, Muhammadu Sidi, said the theme "One Humanity" was aimed at inspiring people around the world to demand greater global commitment and support to humanity.

Sidi said the event was part of the ongoing dialogue initiated during the World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul, Turkey, in May 2016 which emphasised on awareness creation.

He said the theme was appropriate and relevant considering the humanitarian challenges encountered in the North-East, especially Adamawa, Borno and Yobe.

The director-general said the theme brought to fore the compelling need to mobilise resources, exhibition of humanitarian care and demonstration of sympathy.

According to him, this will relieve victims of crisis of their psycho-social trauma and increase their resilience to post-conflict life situation.

"This also calls for working together in providing support to the teaming IDPs in the North-East and other crisis prone areas in Nigeria."

Sidi said the huge number of IDPs had overstretched camp facilities and the resilience of the host families, which calls for more assistant from local and international humanitarian actors.

He said that humanitarian dashboard in the North was gradually shifting from emergency relief intervention to sustainable rehabilitation, reconstruction and recovery of the people.
As the energy conglomerate celebrate its 20th anniversary on August 23, 2016, Cole revealed the humble beginning of the institution that has become globally renowned with operations and assets in Utilities, Farming, Infrastructure Development and Real Estate spanning across Nigeria, Cote D'Ivoire, Ghana, Benin Republic, United Kingdom, Singapore, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates and Angola.

He said: I remember back then in our days of little beginnings, we made complimentary cards without titles, it just had our names and address. We were burning with ideas for change and showing off titles wasnt on our front burner. We just wanted to be success stories and we were ready to pay the price through hard work and positive impact.

When Sahara Group started out as Sahara Energy Resources Limited in August 1996, it was a business idea that was poised to fill a gap in the oil sector and lay a foundation for an enduring and profitable venture in the sector.

Speaking further, Cole said, Starting up, we came up with ideas that the older generation might not have had an idea of as at then. We brought in newness and freshness, it was a field that was then dominated by foreigners and we were young but focused on what we wanted to achieve. We dared to tread on uncommon grounds and today we look back and are grateful for how far God has brought us.

And 20 years after, the energy group has not only filled the gap but also expanded to become a conglomerate that deals in oil exploration and production; crude oil trading; aviation supply; storage and warehousing and energy.

One thing that has remained an intrigue in the success story of the founders of the Sahara Group is the bond that has kept the trio's partnership a global benefit.

For 20 years, the trio of Tonye Cole, Tope Shonubi and Ade Odunsi have managed to successfully manage and sustain their partnership without a partner moving to move on with some parts of the business empire or another threatening with litigation to get his piece of the conglomerate's vast assets or another itching to turn the table upside down and destroy their years of toil, grits and gains.

To this end, Bethel Obioma, Head, Corporate Communications, Sahara Group said, "The Sahara Group is passionate about becoming a practice model for other organisations and this can be seen from the relationship among the heads to the module of business. We believe in providing platforms for individuals, businesses and nations to pursue and realise their ambitions."
Umahi, who announced the suspension when he declared open the ITF programme in Abakaliki on Saturday, also disbanded the states Committee on Employment

He said that the suspension was with immediate effect, adding that his administration would not tolerate any action that would take the state back to the dark ages.

The governor, however, did not give reason for the commissioners suspension.

``The Commissioner for Local Government is hereby suspended from office effective from now, the highest officer, a civil servant, should take over and be attending Exco until further notice.

``This administration from day one has been built on the principle of justice, equity and fairness.

``In some of our programmes, we do equality of local governments, but in this kind of empowerment, we do equality of wards.

``So, what I expected to see here would have been for them to borrow a leaf from what we are doing to empower about 3,000 of our women and youths.

``We are doing this and everybody is happy. We are called to build Ebonyi State where nobody will say I am from North or South or Central.

``I think we are succeeding. Anybody that is going to take us back to the dark ages will be resisted, Umahi said.

He, however, said that his administration was committed to develop the capacity of the youths to become self-reliant and employers of labour.

He called on the youths of Ebonyi that were jobless in other parts of the country to return home and find something meaningful to do under his governments youth-oriented programmes.

He said ``every Ebonyi youth in other parts of the country, especially Lagos, should please come back home; we are ready to create jobs for them.

"A day is coming when nobody will be willing to seek political office because of the current reality.

``One day, there will be no kobo from the Federation Account, so, it is high time we started thinking outside the box.

The governor said his administration would create over 100,000 jobs for the youths and women, especially in the agriculture sector.

He said the state currently would focus mainly on mechanised system of farming, noting that agriculture without technology was death.

Umahi promised the trainees of financial assistance to enable them set up their businesses after acquiring necessary skills from the programme.

Earlier, the ITF Area Manager, Enugu and Ebonyi, Mrs Linda Egbonu, said the programme was organised to develop the mindset of the youths in areas of entrepreneurship and skill acquisition.
According to a statement issued on Friday, August 19, Gbajabiamila said he was part of those who took the decision to sack Abdulmumin Jibrin as the Chairman of the of the house committee on appropriation.

Following his removal, Jibrin had accused Speaker Yakubu Dogara and other principal officers of the house, except Gbajabiamila, of illegally inserting constituency projects worth billions of Naira into the 2016 budget.

The house leader, who said he has been accused of collaborating with Jibrin, cleared the air on the matter.

ALSO READ: Budget Padding - Dogara secretly meets Buhari again

He said: I returned from the United States just yesterday after a three-week break. I called the speaker a day before my return to urgently fix a principal officers meeting so we could address the several allegations made by Hon Jibrin.

At the meeting Speaker Dogara, Deputy Speaker Lasun , Chief Whip, Hon Ado Dogwa and Minority Leader, Hon Leo Ogor passionately and vigorously clearly stated their innocence.

A prepared text was read and we all agreed to sign. For me as the leader of the house, I felt it was important to give them the benefit of doubt which in any case is what our constitution says.

The decision to relieve Hon Jibrin was indeed a collective decision of which I was a part of.

However, I gave a caveat before the press release was signed, I made it clear to my colleagues in the leadership that because somehow my name had been sullied in all of this and fake documents and publications had been put out there in traditional and social media, which stated I was also involved in the so-called padding of the budget, that I would need to clear my name and that even though no petition was filed against me by Hon Jibrin and no invitation was extended to me by the police, I would be submitting myself on my own volition to the police for investigation.

This is important to me as insinuations have been made from many quarters that I along with others was sponsoring Hon Jibrin. I have just this afternoon met with the police authorities for a proper and thorough investigation of my role if any in this whole bizzare episode.
Ogbulafor told the News Agency of Nigeria ( NAN ) in Umuahia on Saturday that the Appeal judgment, ``to me, is great, simply and fantastic.

He said that the judgment, which set aside the June 27 judgment of Justice Okon Abang sacking Ikpeazu from office ``has restored the integrity of the judiciary.

``It reaffirmed the common adage that the judiciary is the last hope of the common man," he said.

He said that many Nigerians and PDP members were alarmed by the verdict of Abang.

Ogbulafor, who is an advocate of power shift to Abia south senatorial district in the 2015 polls, faulted Abang's judgment.

According to him, ``a sound judgment should have many tripods upon which it could stand, such as ``fairness, unity of the people, equity and justice.

He argued that the judgment that sacked Ikpeazu, who was elected in the spirit of ``equity, fairness, justice and continued unity among the people, did not consider the tripods.

Ogbulafor also decried the speed with which the Independent National Electoral Commission issued the Certificate of Return to Dr Uche Ogah.

He said, ``and to worsen the case, INEC gave a certificate of return to somebody who did not contest the primary, without waiting for the mandatory 21days for Ikpeazu to appeal the judgment.

He said that the series of suits challenging the election of the governor since his assumption of office had distracted him from providing the dividend of democracy to the people.

Ogbulafor said that the PDP committee set up to reconcile aggrieved aspirants back to the party after the primaries made entreaties to all the aspirants, including Ogah.

As the chairman of the reconciliation committee, he regretted that the advice to some of the aggrieved persons did not yield the desired result.

``I even used myself as an example, when I told them how I contested the governorship election twice and lost.

``And when my bishop and other prominent Abia indigenes came to me to withdraw my suit challenging the election of Chief Orji Kalu, I did so without collecting a dime.

``I remained calm and God later elevated me to become a minister and national chairman of PDP," he said, pointing out that ``power comes from God.

Ogbulafor, who is a member of the Board of Trustees of PDP, expressed the confidence that the party would get over the current leadership crisis at the national level before 2019.
He said: Three or four other of us from different part of the country got together and said to ourselves what do we do?

We said what is the problem with us and why are we still not growing. We got talking and knew we needed to do something.

What do we need to deal with for this Nigeria of ours to become what God has created it to be? A land flowing with milk and honey, that is the intention of God for creating Nigeria, the former president added.

Obasanjo maintained that Buhari had not disappointed Nigeria adding that "he will overcome the challenges facing the country."

The ex-president however said Nigeria needed to get its acts right in the area of politics, governance and leadership for the country to develop.
The APC Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, said this on Saturday in Abuja during a meeting to settle all disputes and allay the fears of the aspirants.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the gubernatorial aspirants had accused the party chairman in the state, Chief Isaac Kekemeke, of adopting, endorsing an aspirant and tampering with the delegates' list.

NAN recalls that the party members in the state promptly suspended Kekemeke.

Assuring the aspirants of fair play, Odigie-Oyegun paid tribute to all the aspirants for promptly responding to the call for the peace meeting.

''It indicates quite clearly your commitment that Ondo state returns to the fold of progressive party.

''We have had extensive, frank discussions and have reached some very basic and fundamental understanding that will guide the process in Ondo primary.

''We have accepted that there is nothing wrong for any member to endorse any of the aspirants.

''We have also accepted unanimously that there will be no attempt to impose any aspirant on any party member or the electorate.

''The party at national level has no preferred aspirant and is not going to endorse any aspirant.

''They are all equally members of the party who have entrusted us with the management of the affairs and with that sacred trust it is our responsibility to be as impartial as is humanly possible.

''By the same token, the state branch of the party must not also be seen to be attempting to impose any aspirant and cannot endorse an aspirant.

''This is because they have the sacred trust to be even handed to all the aspirants because we are blazing a new trail of internal democracy.

''To make it clear, the party has no preferred candidate either at national or at state level.''

Odigie-Oyegun said that the party would make available a ''clean copy of the delegates list'' to all aspirants by August 24 and assured that it was in safe custody.

''I am particularly happy with the commitment of all the aspirants that once a free, fair primary can be assured, they will rally round whoever is chosen by the delegates as the candidate of the party,'' he said.
Bakare stated this on Friday, August 19, after a secret meeting with the President at the Presidential Villa which lasted for about an hour.

He was said to have arrived the Villa at around 2:45pm local time and went straight to the Presidents office for the meeting.

Speaking of Buhari's performance so far, he said the current administration inherited a bastardised economy.

ALSO READ: Government has made corruption official  Pastor Bakare says

He said: Pain is part of gain. No pain without gain. Yes of wastage and all that we have done wrong had finally caught up with us.

All we are praying for is wisdom for this government to do the right things so that gradually we can begin to come out of the woods.

It is too quick and too soon to begin to judge. If there is anything I know about the President, he has a good heart and loves this country. He wants this country to run well.
ALSO READ: Turkish govt demands closure of 17 schools in Nigeria

The Deputy Director, Press, Federal Ministry of Education, Mr Ben Bem Gong, made the disclosure via a statement the Ambassador of Turkey to Nigeria, Mr Hakan Cakil, revealed during a meeting with the Minister of Education, Malam AdamuAdamu in Abuja, yesterday, August 19, 2016.

The statement revealed that students whose private universities were closed due to the incident would be transferred to public universities closest to them, to study for free or pay token sums as tuition fees.

Ambassador Cakil went on to assure the minister that no Nigerian student would be allowed to suffer as a result of the schools' closure.

He added that any student who returned to Nigeria would be doing that as a choice and not out of necessity.

In response, Minister AdamuAdamu expressed gratitude to the Turkish Government for paying special attention to the welfare and security of the Nigerian students studying there.
The protest dubbed #BoycottSchoolFees was organised by Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) who presented a petition to the resident minister ahead of the new school term early next month.

The protest, involving about 2,000 women, follows about a dozen protests in the past two months over a series of issues, including the planned introduction of controversial bond notes to curb a long-running cash shortage crisis.

"We want government to honour its constitutional obligation to provide education for all," Jennie Williams, WOZA coordinator, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

According to parent associations, thousands of children have been thrown out of classes around the country for failing to pay tuition at a time when millions are without jobs in the country.

Labour unions estimate that up to 90 percent of Zimbabwe's 14 million people do not have jobs but there is no clear data on the jobless rate with so many Zimbabweans working in the informal sector.

UNICEF said in a recent report that regular monitoring continued to show a downward trend in terms of school attendance but it did not have exact figures on numbers in classrooms.

However the Zimbabwe Vulnerability Committee reported last month that up to 15 percent of rural school children were out of school because they cannot afford tuition fees.

The march came as pressure mounts against 92-year-old President Robert Mugabe amid the continuing economic crisis.

Police have arrested more than 100 protesters across the country over the past two months during which Zimbabwe has witnessed almost weekly protests, some which have ended in clashes with police, against economic hardship.
Pahrump Town Manager Susan Holecheck has lots of questions, most involve the future of the town board and ongoing town projects as the county takeover looms.

Pahrump Town Manager Susan Holecheck has lots of questions, most involve the future of the town board and ongoing town projects as the county takeover looms.

Another, though, involves her own office and the curious nature of a former town manager.

Head scratching town officials have collectively been asking themselves lately: What is former town manager Dave Richards up to?

Richards, according to Holecheck, has requested to review all of the internal memos between she and town board members since she was hired roughly a year ago.

On Monday, Holecheck said the timing of Richards request was puzzling.

Im not quite sure why he wants them and I think its interesting because this is my one-year anniversary month and Ive not seen him at any meetings lately. Its been a year, so why all of a sudden now does he want my memos? It all seems very unusual to me, she said.

The town manager said she has complied with Richards inquiry after he agreed to file a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request per standard procedure.

However, she also said she is not bound by any laws to provide such materials, which is normally used to keep board members apprised of internal town business.

He wanted them within five days and we provided those to him within four days, but Im not really required to do it. The memos are something that I give the board because I dont always see them every week. I just dont want them to have to wonder what Im doing, she said.

On Thursday, Richards said his inquiry was merely an exercise in freedom.

I just wanted to make the point that this town managers activity reports are not confidential and its defined by the NRS, but I had to file a FOIA request. The issue is are her reports confidential or not? Im pleased that she responded in a timely manner to my FOIA request and provided the material that I requested without objection. Im not satisfied that she wouldnt answer my question regarding the confidentiality of her reports, he said.

Town board member Amy Riches said this week that the memos provided by Holecheck are a valuable tool for the board and even she is not sure why they are of interest to Richards.

Its strictly for the town board on things that keep us up to date on what shes doing, the progress that shes making on things she is working on. Dave Richards requested them from her and she has given them to him. I dont know why anyone who is not on the town board would want them, she said.

Additionally, Riches said there are times when the memos contain information that should remain confidential as prescribed by Nevada Revised Statutes, and should not be disseminated by anyone who is not a board or staff member.

Sometimes these memos deal with very delicate issues of human resources and employment. I do know that the memos were given to Dave Richards, but the parts about employees and other sensitive issues were redacted. Thats why I was shocked by his request. I dont think they are for the general public. We never voted to make them public, she said.

Board Vice Chair Bill Dolan said on Wednesday that hes not exactly sure what Richards motives are, considering his history with the town.

Why did he want his job back a year ago when he abruptly resigned from the town in 2007? In 2008, Bill Kohbarger came on a month before I was appointed to the town board by the governor. A lot of the towns housekeeping items that needed to be taken care of, were direct problems from previous town boards and town managers. What is his motive? I dont know. He has either resigned or been not renewed by every municipality he has been in since, he said.

Town Board member Dr. Tom Waters said Holecheck has complied with every request made by Richards.

He was also at a loss on the former town managers designs.

I sent a message to him saying just that. He made a request, it was taken care of. Why is he still complaining? Susan has not ignored any request under the Freedom of Information Act. If he can undermine the town manager, it may be an opening somewhere for him in the future. I really dont know because he never explained it to me. I know he did that to Bill Kohbarger because he wanted to come back in as town manager, but if were not going to have a town manager position, I dont know what it is hes looking for, Waters said.

Richards, meanwhile, suggested hed do pretty much anything to make a living rather than assume his former position.

The last job I want is the town manager of Pahrump but they dont know that. They dont know I dont want the job anymore than they know I want it. Ive never had a conversation with them about that. Any suggestion on their part is pure conjecture. Ill say it again, the last job I want is to be the Pahrump Town Manager, Richards said.
Carrie Paschke never aspired to own a business or even run a company, but hours spent volunteering in a Chinese foster home holding orphaned children have put her on that very path.

Paschke is the founder and creator of Furnish Out, a Quad-City based business that sells handcrafted furniture and accessories made by artisans in China. Launched last year, the company has an unusual mission: to raise money for a charity that assists orphaned children in China and support Chinese artisans by selling their creations here.

Rather than a traditional retail store, Furnish Out sells the furniture and household decor at weekend sales held twice a year. The next sale will be from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 27, and Sunday, Aug. 28, at Cumberland Square, Bettendorf.

Furnish Out, which she co-owns with her husband Dan Paschke, then donates 100 percent of the sale's profits to China Hope Foundation to aid its critical work with orphans.

"I'm not an entrepreneur. I didn't take one business class in college," said Paschke, a 37-year-old mother of three. "If somebody else was looking to start this business, they wouldn't hire me."

But after seeing first-hand the poverty and the needs of the orphans while living in China, she said, "I knew I had to try (to help) and if I failed I can live with that. But if I don't try it, I can't live with that."

To date, her new venture has donated more than $20,000 to China Hope, a nonprofit organization that supports orphaned children.

"I don't say how to use the money,'' Paschke said. "I trust they will use the money wisely. As it happens, our money has helped three orphans with life-saving, life-changing surgeries."

The business' roots

From 2011 to 2013, the Paschke family lived in Beijing, China, when Dan Paschke was assigned there with his job in Deere & Co.'s forestry division. While there, Carrie Paschke fell in love with the hand-crafted furniture that she now brings home for sale.

She also got to personally know two artisans, George Hong and John Wang, and later Jennifer Yang. She now buys merchandise from the three to sell at her Furnish Out sales.

Paschke not only had furnished their home there with their handcrafted pieces  made by hand mostly of reclaimed wood  but she said nearly every visitor from the United States they had could expect the artisans to be one of their first sight-seeing stops. "They're very skilled at what they do," she said.

At the same time, she had begun volunteering through her church at a foster home and learned about the vulnerable population. Conservative estimates, she said, suggest at least 1 million children in China are orphans.

How it began

"When we came back to the United States, we wondered what can we do to help now? We don't have feet on the ground," recalled Paschke, a Texas native now turned Quad-Citian.

It was important to her that her family not forget the lessons they learned in China or the culture. In fact, their three children  sons Micah, 11, and Cameron, 9, and daughter Kinley, 5  also are involved in Furnish Out in small ways especially on sale days. Dan Paschke handles the finances and other business aspects.

When the couple committed to Furnish Out idea, Carrie Paschke said she knew they needed startup money to be able to have the first sale, including costs to travel to China and buy the inventory. So she turned to her family, friends and strangers to raise money through an online fundraising site. "I raised $30,000 and went and bought enough to fill my first shipping container," she said.

She returned with 273 pieces of all sizes to sell, but no place to store or sell them. So her first sale was in her garage. "After one day, I sold 75 percent of the merchandise."

Impact overseas

Walking around the actual storefront donated for the cause, she hoped Furnish Out's support was helping the artisans and their teams with the bottom line. "It feels good to be able to pay a fair price for someone's work."

In an email, John Wang said his Last Style Furniture business opened in 1996 with 50 workers and Paschke has given the business "new vitality and new meanings."

"We are very lucky to meet Carrie... especially with her persistent passion and strong conviction to be dedicating to the charity project  helping the disabled Chinese babies without parents," he wrote.

Wang added that her involvement "enlarged our business more in the social meanings than the sales. It made us to realize that we are doing our bit to helping the poor babies."

George Hong shared similar impressions, saying he was "deeply moved" by her work. "It is not only a help to my business, but also helps the orphans as well. It is great for social society both in China and the U.S.," he said in an email.

Help from Q-C and beyond

Dan Paschke said Furnish Out also has found support here in the Quad-Cities from businesses such as Bob Walters Homes and Mel Foster Co., both of which have donated space for the previous sales. "This allows a sustainable income stream to help fund China Hope's activities," he said, adding that keeping cost low generates more profits.

His wife also credited three Quad-City businesses that have, free of charge, stepped in to make any repairs necessary due to the shipping process. They are J.M. Kata Handyman Services, Bob Nelson of Nelson Wood in Images, and Don Kistner of Kistner Reclaim Services.

Apex Logistics, the global company that transports the furniture from China, also joined the cause when they learned of Furnish Out's mission, Carrie Paschke said, adding that Apex offers its services at cost.

"We are excited about the possibility for Furnish Out to be able to continually help better kids' lives in China, pay Chinese artisans a fair price for their work, while providing a great product to the people of the Quad-Cities," she said.
The beer Allan Hamma had stashed under the Centennial Bridge for a month tasted lousy. But it helped with the shakes.

The drink kicked off another binge. The 51-year-old U.S. Army veteran, born and raised in Davenport, curled up in a cubbyhole at All Saints Catholic School to pass out.

I had to quit lying to myself, he said in hindsight.

Hamma lives at Christian Care homeless shelter at 2209 3rd Ave. On a recent evening, another resident greeted him as he returned from an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.

Remember, brother, anything in Christ is a new creature, the resident said. Youre not a recovering alcoholic. Youre not an alcoholic.

Hamma knew better.

Theres a lot of junk because of the lifestyle Ive lived, he said. Ive tried to suppress it so I wont have to face it. But I want to face the junk so I can be free.

More than 30 days sober, Hamma is enrolled in a veterans program at Christian Care through which he hopes to secure permanent housing in the near future. He also recently got a job with Advertising to Go, which is a few blocks' walk from the shelter.

Hamma walks to work every day with another resident, Tim Schnuriger, who served in the Army National Guard in Texas. Addiction underlines both of their stories.

Schnuriger spent his childhood bouncing between family both in St. Louis and Corpus Christi, Texas. He moved back to St. Louis after leaving the Guard, met a woman and had a boy and a girl.

He drank in high school and admitted that drinking runs in the family. But, he said, it wasnt until his rocky relationship with his childrens mother that he began to struggle with alcohol.

Thats what I chose to do when I couldnt live on lifes terms, he said. I run to the bottle.

After separating, Schnuriger moved to Springfield, Illinois, where, he said, he was battling alcohol the whole time. This included stints in and out of treatment centers over the course of 16 years.

He alternated between having his own place, which, he said, would last a short period, and living with friends. He found work as a waiter, painter and in sales.

The Salvation Army Adult Rehabilitation Center in Springfield hired him as a dispatcher for the trucks that picked up donations.

I tried to hang on as long as I could, Schnuriger said.

He relapsed while working as a dispatcher and was encouraged to find a new location. So he moved to the Quad-Cities in 2015.

The 47-year-old has stayed at Christian Care for the past several weeks and said hes doing better. But after a year in the Quad-Cities, he already has been through medical detox twice for alcohol and has experienced hallucinations and seizures.

Its time for me to grow up, Schnuriger said.

The new job is a start for both of them. Hamma described what it was like going in for the interview.

"I was reading the pitch to them," he said. "You could tell in my voice I'm nervous."

Hamma said he's "had over 100 jobs" in his life.

He's had trouble settling at any one place for long. When he was a teenager, he moved with his family to Wisconsin. He's been back and forth between Wisconsin and Iowa multiple times since, blaming substance abuse for causing burnout at many of the places he's lived.

"My life's a ping pong ball, man," Hamma said.

Schnuriger said a person at Goodwill Industries helped him write his resume through a program that helps veterans. Now he's making $8.25 plus commission with plans to save up money to help pay for rent and utilities on an apartment or a house one day.

"I was like, 'OK, cool. One thing done,'" he said. "That's a start."
CEDAR RAPIDS  As he seeks a seventh term in the U.S. Senate, Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley continues to see public service as the best way to help improve our society.

Its an opportunity to make a better country, he told members of the Cedar Rapids Daybreak Rotary when asked why he is running for re-election.

Its not the only way to contribute, but the difference about government, I suppose, is when you make a decision you have a wider impact, Grassley said.

Thats true, said Sam Roecker, spokesman for Grassleys Democratic challenger, Patty Judge.

Thats why its so unfortunate that hes single-handedly keeping the Supreme Court vacancy open and failing working families in Iowa by playing political games instead of doing his job, Roecker said. Patty Judge has always worked to build consensus and do the right thing for Iowa. Sadly, Chuck Grassley has changed and hes not working for Iowa anymore.

Grassleys visit to the Rotary wasnt a campaign event, but the election figured in a number of the questions Grassley fielded in about 35 minutes with the Rotarians. In one case, he was thanked for blocking President Barack Obamas appointment of another liberal judge to the Supreme Court.

Well, since he didnt ask a question, and its very controversial, Ill move on, Grassley said, eliciting laughter from his audience.

When asked about what differentiates him from Judge, Grassley noted one policy difference and one more philosophical.

He contrasted his opposition to WOTUS  the Waters of the United States  with Judges support for additional regulation of waterways. He said under WOTUS, which has been blocked by a federal court, 97 percent of Iowa land would be subject to EPA rules.

A mud puddle would qualify as a navigable waterway, he said.

Grassley also suggested that Judge would follow the philosophy of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton that the solution to any problem is more taxes, more regulation, more spending. That inhibits risk-taking and investment, resulting in a stagnant economy, he said.

In responses to questions, Grassley, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, called for constitutional protections for gun ownership and against law enforcement seizures of civil assets, such as cash and vehicles.

He thinks at least 51 senators would have supported legislation to ban people on the Department of Homeland Securitys no-fly list from buying a gun as long as there was a constitutional due process approach so people would know why they were on the list and be able to challenge that designation. However, there were not 60 votes to end debate and vote on the legislation.

Reforming civil asset forfeiture laws is part of his sentencing reform legislation he hopes to get passed before the end of the year. Current laws allow law enforcement to sell seized assets and keep the proceeds.

We cant have the government seizing anything they want, Grassley said. There has to be a judicial process.

Grassley also visited Rockwell Collins and ITC Midwest, where he had question-and-answer session with employees at both places before hosting a roundtable discussion on foster child care Friday afternoon.
MAQUOKETA, Iowa  Maquoketa Municipal Electric Utility Board members gave Cedar Falls government officials a month to decide whether they want to join an alliance of eastern Iowa cities to form a fiber network.

Utility board members said they are ready to get the Iowa Fiber Alliance going with a feasibility study to see whether the cities could support a fiber network to offer data and video to their communities. But to make the alliance work, Cedar Falls has equipment needed to get it started, Maquoketa board members said.

"We need to send a message to Cedar Falls that we want them to be a part of this," board member Jan Kahler said.

Three communities, Charles City, Bellevue and New Hampton have signed agreements with the intent of being part of the project. The deadline to submit agreements was Aug. 15. Maquoketa utility Manager Tom Gaffigan said the group hopes to have 11 to 13 communities involved to bring costs of operations down.

Curtis Dean, president of Smart Source Consulting, is helping the group get started. Dean told board members this week that he thinks Cedar Falls is interested in the proposal but has several projects under way. After the board meeting, Dean said he received a text from a Cedar Falls official who said he was in Rio de Janeiro watching his sister run track. Dean said that was likely the reason for the delay.

One of the reasons Cedar Falls is key to the new organization is that it already has head-end equipment for the fiber system.

"I hate to throw this out. It's a great thing for us, but it may be a smaller group," Gaffigan said. "The bottom line is Cedar Falls has to be involved. I don't think we should go it alone."

Board members agreed and unanimously approved an agreement setting the deadline for Cedar Falls.

Board members said they were pleased with the turnout at the original meeting to talk about a fiber system. Dean hosted Facebook and YouTube sites on the topic.

There were several questions on the sites, and commenters urged the Maquoketa utility to explore its options.

Dawn Paul, board member, said she was glad to see younger people interested.

"They rely on internet for their jobs," she said.
SPRINGFIELD  Gov. Bruce Rauner signed an executive order and a pair of bills Friday aimed at providing normalcy for the 16,000 children in the care of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.

The executive order requires that the department no longer use the terms ward of the state or ward of the department to refer to children in its care. Instead, theyre to be called youth in care. Changing the phrase in state law will require follow-up legislation.

Names matter, Rauner said ahead of signing the order and legislation in the governors tent on Futures for Kids Day at the Illinois State Fair. Words matter.

Rauner said the issue came to his attention earlier this year during a meeting with members of the departments youth advisory boards. Those who attended told him about the stigma attached to the word ward, he said.

It was one of the most emotional but uplifting and inspirational discussions Ive ever had in my life, Rauner said.

Mostly, they just wanted to be treated like any other kid, he said.

To that end, the governor also signed a bill that will make it easier for kids in foster care to participate in extracurricular activities or even go to sleepovers at their friends houses with permission from their foster parents. Currently, those things require approval from the department.

We expect youth in care to grow up to be normal human beings and normal adults, Children and Family Services Director George Sheldon said, and yet we do all these kind of nonnormal things to them. We even use nonnormal words.  Kids are kids.

The new law will empower foster parents to make age-appropriate decisions for the children in their care, Sheldon said.

Jesse Modjeski, 17, of Chicago is a member of the departments youth advisory board in Cook County. He thanked Rauner for taking the actions.

Without these laws and without these bills being passed and I start to be seen as an actual youth, nothing starts to change, said Modjeksi, who hopes to attend Northern Illinois University and, eventually, law school.

Rauner signed another bill that expands the definition of fictive kin to include foster parents with whom a child has lived for at least a year and has established a significant and family-like relationship. This will allow them to play a more permanent role in the childs life, officials said.

The governor also signed a half-dozen other bills dealing with adoption and child welfare.
Cathy Jordan says she wont stop until shes offered every homeless veteran in the Quad-Cities a helping hand.

The Humility of Mary Shelter veterans outreach coordinator has made it her mission to find homes for those who answered the nations call.

They deserve our help, Jordan said. They served our country.

Jordan runs the VALOR program out of the shelter at 1016 W. 5th St., Davenport.

VALOR, or Veterans Accessing Long-Term Opportunities and Resources, is funded by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The money pays for case management to help with substance abuse, mental health treatment, employment and housing.

The VA sponsors 13 beds at Humility of Mary, which has the capacity to house 60 homeless individuals. The VA also sponsors six of the 36 beds at Christian Care, a homeless shelter for men at 2209 3rd Ave., Rock Island. There are waiting lists to get into both programs.

Rosina Boddicker, a resident services manager at Christian Care, helps veterans who struggle with substance abuse, which she sees as a leading cause of their homelessness.

Its hard to watch someone you work closely with relapse, she said. You put effort into something and have no control over the results.

In addition to those discharged honorably from the military, the VA-funded programs accept veterans whose discharge from service was deemed other than honorable.

The Quad-City outreach effort that began in 2011 came out of the promise VA made to Congress to make every effort to end homelessness among veterans. Local agency leaders say progress has been significant.

Weve not physically moved everybody off the streets into housing, Jordan said. Ending homelessness in a community also means knowing whos out on the streets and whos talking to them. When we start having that engagement regularly, then the community can capture that homeless population.

There are 344 homeless people in Scott County, officials say. Of that, 6 percent are veterans.

Local VA staff such as Karen Abendroth, health care for homeless veterans supervisor, use information from the annual counts to apply for U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development vouchers.

In five years, 93 vouchers have been handed out through local programs such as Humility of Marys VALOR.

Weve literally taken people off the streets and put them into housing, Abendroth said.

The voucher program aims to put people into homes first and then address issues that may have caused their homelessness, including mental illness, substance abuse, job loss or financial stress.

Until recently, the VAs homeless outreach and intensive outpatient services used to operate out of separate offices in Rock Island. Earlier this month, the services relocated under one roof at 415 Perry St., Davenport, to make them more centrally located. The new office, called the Community Resource and Referral Center, also will include suicide prevention staff.

The grand opening for the center is Thursday.

Its sad that we have some homeless veterans with chronic addiction issues, Abendroth said. Sometimes, they need to come back for treatment. Its nice to have it all under one roof, so we can coordinate our care a little bit better.

Jordan said she can offer services, but veterans do not always respond, especially not at first.

Veterans are very proud individuals, she said. Theyre tough old codgers.

A military culture of being independent and pulling yourself up by your bootstraps sometimes gets in the way, she said.

Fighting that military culture is part of what I have to do, Jordan said. Thats why its important in our community to have outreach. Ill keep asking  the first time, second time, third time. I wont stop. Eventually, theyll come around.
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LeShawn Townsend still acts like a class clown.

The 45-year-old sported a droopy cap while doing karate kicks in the backyard of a Rock Island homeless shelter recently, joking that he ought to star in a Hobo Fight Club spinoff movie.

But behind Townsends playful demeanor lurks an insecure U.S. Navy veteran estranged from his family, trying to escape a childhood saturated with domestic violence. Tying self-worth with career success doesnt help.

Townsend strives to reach his own high bar, but hes constantly falling short. Alcohol has been his self-sacrificing vice of choice for more than two decades.

He has been one class short of a masters degree for 10 years. While attending classes at University of Illinois-Springfield, the straight-A student who was studying to become a substance-abuse counselor was getting into bar fights and skirmishes with the law.

At one point, he scored an internship working with people struggling with substance abuse as he all but hid his own problem. Although the graduate student eventually was hired on to a paid position, he became disillusioned by what he thought was the changing nature of social work.

I stopped believing in people, he said. I became pessimistic, and I let myself go. The alcohol picked up.

What began was a stint of homelessness, he said.

He went from renting an apartment to renting a hotel room. He ended up in a homeless shelter in 2009 and, he said, has been institutionalized ever since.

I come to a place, I get straightened out, and then Im falling again, Townsend said. It gets a little worse each cycle.

The first cycle started when he was growing up in public housing in Chicago. He knew when he saw the gravy stains on the ceiling that his step-father had been beating his mother.

You hang around the stuff, it gets in your skin and soaks in, he said.

One of seven children, Townsend was surrounded by drug and gang activity even as education was highly valued by the adults in his life. He graduated from DuSable High School on Chicagos South Side, where Nat King Cole had attended in the 1930s.

He hid his smarts by acting out in class, he said.

Townsend entered the Navy in 1989, both as a personal challenge and a clean escape from his violent upbringing. He served as an electrician's mate aboard an aircraft carrier during the Gulf War.

But, he said, he had trouble adjusting to the military lifestyle, so he went AWOL, was hauled into a bench trial and given an other than honorable discharge in 1992.

He still regrets his behavior.

I had an image of myself being a good guy, a good soldier, he said. A lot of that shame sat with me for many years. I dream of being back on the ship, of being given a chance to redeem myself.

Townsend saw another way at age 25. He enrolled in a pre-medicine program at Western Illinois University-Macomb, hoping the toughest job he could come up with would correct his failure with the military and send him on a forward trajectory. He transferred to Southern Illinois University-Carbondale and graduated in 2000 with a bachelors degree in psychology, but he did not go on to medical school.

He worked in social services in Peoria, Illinois, when he was charged with driving under the influence on his way home from a party with coworkers. The shame and guilt bubbled up, and a drinking habit he started while on leave from the military graduated to fits of self-directed anger.

Without a license, he lost his job, which required him to transport children. He was about to lose his apartment when someone recommended he enroll in graduate school.

The cycle repeats.

Some stuff you cant out-think, Townsend said. I should be clever enough to out-think alcoholism, depression and anxiety. Im not. No one is.

Townsend first moved to Davenport in 2013 to enroll in the Salvation Armys adult rehabilitation program. For a long time, he refused to accept military benefits, saying he didnt think he served correctly.

His stay later at the Humility of Mary Shelter was the first time he took advantage of the perks of being a vet, he said. The Davenport homeless shelter was considered home for a year and a half until another relapse found him living on the streets.

Townsend heard about Christian Care through word of mouth. He now is one of 10 veterans staying at the 36-bed homeless shelter for men at 2209 3rd Ave., Rock Island. Six of the veterans' care, including Townsend's, are being sponsored by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Now his goals include getting a job and paying down student loans. With large chunks of time missing on his resume, he realizes the job search will be difficult.

Im trying to get my drive back up there again, he said.
Early Friday morning, I visited a story on qctimes.com about a man who was stabbed and beaten in LeClaire Park the night before. The victim was rushed to the hospital but succumbed to his wounds. It was in a public park, right after sunset. The park was full of people playing Pokemon Go and enjoying the riverfront.

At the end of every story, we provide a place for comments. Its supposed to be a forum where people can debate the issues presented in a story or editorial, where they can connect with each other or grieve together. Or, in the case of a violent crime like the one in LeClaire Park, the space could be used to check in with concerns about public safety.

Instead, heres what happened.

Below the LeClaire Park story was a growing string of comments  a veiled racist remark about Democratic voters, a derogatory comment about police, then something about Hillary Clinton taking our guns away.

There were mixed-race jokes posted on a story about a burglary, and on a story about a police standoff in Davenport there was a string of comments about what an idiot President Obama is with questions about his citizenship.

Ive been watching this for years at newspapers across the country. It's not unique to the Quad-City Times, though the prejudices vary by region. Every once in a while, I see a lively, on-topic debate. In a sea of ridiculousness, hate speech and online bullying, I occasionally read thoughtful perspectives I hadnt considered. Unfortunately, that isnt the norm and its been a very long time since I believed in the dream media companies once had about providing a town square for the community to meet and use our journalism as a launching pad to connect, debate and bring about change.

Im sick of it. Im shutting off the online comments on qctimes.com.

This is not a rash decision, nor one made lightly. Ive been debating this for months. Ive floated it to people I respect in the Quad-Cities -- longtime readers and subscribers, people who enjoy news, debate and dialogue. Weve talked about it internally again and again, weighing the pros and cons. This move has the full support of Publisher Deb Anselm, who moved here from Northwest Indiana where the newspaper shut off online comments long ago in an effort toward civil discourse.

Today, if you want to comment on an article, you wont be able to post anonymously on our website. Youll need to use one of the other forums we provide. We have a robust and thoughtful Letters to the Editor section in print and online. Just email your thoughts to letters@qctimes.com. We also love to see our readers on Facebook, sharing and commenting on articles. Every reporter, editor and photographer in this newsroom is on Twitter, if youd like to interact with us that way. Theres a list of everyones Twitter account online at qctimes.com/ontwitter. Follow us.

Online commenting has also been used as a way to point out possible errors in stories and concerns about our judgment. Please continue to share those. Email them to me at aphillips@qctimes.com.

Im not breaking any ground here. By shutting off online comments, the Quad-City Times joins a long line of media companies doing the same. This past October, Wired magazine published an article, A Brief History of the End of the Comments. The first domino, they wrote, was probably Popular Science magazine in 2014, followed by CNN and the Chicago Sun-Times that same year, citing concerns over quality. National Public Radio is ending comments later this month.
The Islamic State hasn't had much success yet in recruiting militants among the vast Muslim populations in Southeast Asia. But what happens when the caliphate's capitals in Syria and Iraq are destroyed, and hundreds of foreign fighters from Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines try to go home?

Experts here in Australia see the counterterrorism challenge as a regional problem, rather than simply an affliction of the Middle East and North Africa. They fear that a potentially dangerous new phase may lie ahead, as the jihadists look for new sanctuaries.

Governments in Southeast Asia have been working quietly with the U.S., some for more than a decade, to monitor and disrupt radical Islamist groups, and they've had considerable success. The U.S. helped train an Indonesian police unit known as "Detachment 88," for example, which has largely destroyed Jemaah Islamiyah, the al-Qaida affiliate responsible for the 2002 Bali bombing that killed more than 200 people.

But the prisons, slums and youth gangs of Southeast Asia provide an ecosystem where terrorism could fester anew, experts say. Islamic State operatives in Syria have tried to reach out to these potential jihadists, as in the bombing this past January in Jakarta that killed eight people, for which Islamic State claimed credit.

The vast majority of Southeast Asian Muslims reject such violence, but to plot mass-casualty attacks, it takes only a tiny fringe. "We have more activity among jihadi groups than at any time in the last ten years," warned Sidney Jones of the Jakarta-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict in a speech in April in Australia.

The would-be catalysts for violence are the jihadists who traveled from Southeast Asia to Syria and Iraq. Experts estimate that this foreign-fighter network includes as many as 500 to 600 Indonesians, 110 Australians, about 100 Malaysians, and a small number of Filipinos. This Southeast Asian contingent is far larger than the number who traveled to Afghanistan to join al-Qaida before Sept. 11, 2001. And in Iraq and Syria the volunteers have fought and killed.

"We haven't yet seen the worst" in Southeast Asia, argues Aaron Connelly, a research fellow at the Lowy Institute, a foreign policy think tank in Sydney that arranged my visit to Australia.

Experts worry about three risk factors that could expand the currently small terror network in Southeast Asia: declaration of an Islamic State affiliate in the lawless jungles of the southern Philippines; recruitment of new Islamic State volunteers in the Malaysian army; and a jihadist push by released prisoners in Indonesia.

Islamic State fighters from Southeast Asia proposed a Philippines caliphate in a video that was released in June. This region could be a haven for jihadists; a Muslim revolt against the Catholic-dominated government has been simmering there for a century.

"Kill the disbelievers where you find them and do not have mercy on them," urged Abu Abdul Rahman al-Filipini in the video, recorded in Raqqa, which was translated by the SITE Monitoring Service.

In Malaysia, the army has been a worrying source of recruits. The country's defense minister told parliament last year that at least 70 former members of the military volunteered for the Islamic State. Malaysian authorities long wary of Western help have been working closely with the U.S. and Australia since last year to contain such jihadist activities.

In Indonesia, police have campaigned aggressively against jihadists, killing or imprisoning many leaders. But as in Iraq and Syria, the prisons have been a breeding ground for extremism. Based on her research in Jakarta, Jones argued in a recent study: "The prison system -- where plots are hatched, travel arranged and [Islamic State] supporters recruited -- needs urgent attention." Experts worry that as many as 200 former jihadists are due to be released from Indonesian prisons soon.

The U.S. for nearly 15 years has been quietly funding counterterrorism efforts in Southeast Asia. A study published last year by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point noted that the U.S. had provided $441 million in security assistance to the Philippines, mostly for its military, and $262 million to Indonesia, mostly for its police. Police efforts appear to be a better bet: Terror attacks increased in the Philippines by 13-fold between 2002 and 2013; attacks declined 26 percent over that period in Indonesia.

The Islamic State may lose its caliphate in Syria and Iraq. But there could be a boomerang effect -- a bigger jihadist threat in countries to which the fleeing fighters return.
Thumbs up to Iowa Board of Regents for, finally, righting the long secretive process of selecting university presidents.

The issue reached a critical mass this past year, when the regents plucked businessman Bruce Harreld to run University of Iowa. The process reeked of political patronage and irked faculty and lawmakers.

Now, University of Northern Iowa is short a president and several lawmakers sought a more transparent process. Regents President Pro Tem Katie Mulholland responded with a proposed timeline and assurances that finalists would visit campus prior to final selection. Mullholland also pledged to adhere to accepted guidelines for selecting a university president.

The regents has work to do if it wants to restore public trust. Mullholland's response is a good start, so long as the board follows through.

Thumbs down to Illinois Democrats for disingenuously linking every Republican to bombastic presidential nominee Donald Trump.

The trend continued Thursday, with the likes of Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan likening Rauner's "extreme" agenda to Trump's xenophobic, nationalistic rhetoric.

A lot of things can be said about Rauner and his "Turnaround Agenda." On Friday, we criticized his veto of a would-be expansion of voter registration initiatives. However, Rauner has never even flirted with the culture war waged by his party's nominee. The same goes for U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk, by the way.

Criticizing policy positions is one thing. Being downright dishonest is another.

Thumbs up to Quad-Cities Growers Market, which offers local growers a spot to sell their produce on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River.

Davenport's popular farmer's market does a fine job at providing fresh fruit and vegetables from throughout the Midwest. The Grower's Market limits itself to an even closer radius from the Quad-Cities.

As a pair, the two markets serve our health-minded community members well.
It's stated five times in the first account of God's creation of our world, in the biblical story of Genesis.

"And God saw that it was good."

But it's such an inadequate phrase to describe the fullness of God's artistry. It doesn't begin to express the delight and joy found in the colors, sounds, textures and smells in our natural world.

From the beautiful fertile Midwest, to the harsh deserts of our Western states, to the warm sandy beaches in the South and the rocky, cold coastlines of our Northeastern coasts, variety declares itself a constant of creation.

Surely we should find value in God's artistry.

Explore these links and google searches, and share the exuberance of this variety.

Google search "colorful bird photos." Google search "leafy sea dragons."

One hundred years ago, President Teddy Roosevelt understood the value of maintaining pieces of our unique and fragile places for our children, and their children to experience.

How sad it is to see his political descendants trying to dismantle all of his work to create our national parks.

Laura Twing

Tipton, Iowa
I read the recent story about the zip lines in the Times and how there are over 200 zip lines in the U.S. Then I thought about Davenport's "sky bridge to nowhere."

Wouldn't it be cool to have a zip line from the sky bridge across the Mississippi river to Illinois?

While I would still like to see a restaurant atop the bridge as Davenport decides what to do with that land, either with or without said restaurant, the zip line should be a real economic boon for Davenport. Customers could return to Iowa either by a shuttle boat, shuttle across Government Bridge or stay in Illinois.
DES MOINES  A stream of grievances from Iowans frustrated with the states divorce and custody laws left one state lawmaker thinking the issues lie beyond policy.

Iowa Sen. Jason Schultz, R-Schleswig, and the advocacy group Family United Action Network hosted a meeting Friday at the Iowa Capitol, during which Iowans were encouraged to state their displeasure with and propose changes to Iowas divorce and custody laws.

Roughly a dozen Iowans gave testimonials, sharing their dismay with how they were treated through divorce or custody proceedings.

Some of the stories left an impression on Schultz.

One of my surprise takeaways was the level of damage being done and anger are more visceral and more base than I expected, Schultz said. I thought we were going to talk a little bit about some policy changes, and theyre actually talking about abusing citizens under the current system we have. Its hard to even get to changing policy when youre hearing such dramatic instances of actual abuse or mishandling.

Schultz noted no representatives of state agencies, law enforcement or the courts were present to defend against the allegations made at Fridays meeting.

Nicholas Dreeszen, who started Family United Action Network three years ago, said the group advocates for changes to state law, including 50/50 shared parenting as a default custody arrangement unless proven it is harmful to the children.

Current law authorizes judges to award joint physical care in custody arrangements but does not require it.

Legislation that would require joint physical care passed the Republican-controlled Iowa House this year but was not taken up by the Democratic-controlled Iowa Senate.

Some of the speakers also called for legislative oversight of the states child protective services program.

I think we can all agree (the system) is broken right now, and if we dont try anything new, we know what were going to get, Dreeszen said. Im so glad were talking, but we need action.

Travis Grassel of Johnston said the current custody system is too adversarial and reform would be in the best interest of children of divorce. Grassel is divorced with two sons.

Too many children are growing up without both parents, and they need access to both parents, Grassel said. Our system is broken. Youve heard that from a number of people. Please fix it.

Schultz said his reaction to the meeting was that the system requires more than just legislative repair.

I think (oversight) should be happening alongside and parallel with the shared parenting (law change), with policy changes, Schultz said. Im somewhat taken aback by some of the stories that were recited here.
DES MOINES  Opponents of an underground oil pipeline being built in Iowa asked a judge Friday to halt the project until a dispute is resolved over whether a private company can use government-sanctioned eminent domain powers to condemn and seize privately owned farmland along the proposed route.

Bill Hanigan, a Des Moines attorney representing owners of 15 parcels in seven counties, asked District Judge Jeffrey Farrell to issue a temporary stay on Dakota Access Bakken oil pipeline, which will cut diagonally across Iowa, until their lawsuit challenging the project can be heard. The lawsuit argues the pipeline developer shouldnt be allowed to force landowners to sell easements by condemning the land against their will in a way that runs contrary to a 2006 Iowa law.

However, Bret Dublinske, a Des Moines lawyer for Dakota Access LLC, a unit of Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners, argued the landowners claims are without merit and the company should be able to proceed under a state permit and eminent domain authority granted by the Iowa Utilities Board.

He also asked the judge to impose a bond of up to $10 million for the landowners to defray losses the company will incur if the Iowa leg is delayed as part of a $3.8 billion, 1,168-mile underground pipeline expected to carry up to 570,000 barrels of crude oil daily from North Dakota's Bakken region to a distribution hub at Patoka, Illinois. The project will place 346 miles of pipeline in 18 Iowa counties, crossing the state on a diagonal from northwest to southeast.

Hanigan argued during Fridays three-hour hearing that state regulators made a mistake in granting a permit to an out-of-state company that does not qualify as a utility seeking to build a pipeline that does not constitute a public benefit qualifying for state police power of eminent domain to take private property in return for fair-market compensation.

We believe that Dakota Access is not too big to be stayed, Hanigan told the judge, in countering company claims it stands to lose hundreds of millions of dollars if the project cannot stay on track to be completed by years end and has to make route changes, move around equipment and alter contracts because of legal hurdles.

Dublinske countered that Dakota Access meets the standards set out in Iowa law, that the challengers have failed to exhaust their administrative remedies and purposefully delayed bringing legal action to create a false emergency under bogus claims that landowners constitutional rights are being violated.

They have shown no good cause to halt a project that Dublinske contended is 50 percent completed and is crucially important to Iowa and Iowans who are totally dependent on oil refined outside of their borders. He also told the judge that the landowners in the pipelines path are making an extraordinary stretch to build a case they face irreplaceable harm if the project proceeds.

Iowa Utilities Board legal counsel David Lynch told the judge the board was staying neutral in the court proceedings because the matter might come back to state regulators for reconsideration if the challenge in Polk County District Court proves successful. He said the process likely would take at least a couple of weeks if the judge issues a temporary stay so petitioners can further challenge the board's action.

Dublinske said time is of the essence because construction crews likely would be ready to begin clearing, grading and other work in the contested counties.

You cant operate a pipeline with 15 holes in it, he told the judge in arguing Dakota Access would face a stand down cost of $1.3 million or move around costs of $535,000 at each of the 15 parcels at issue in the lawsuit.

Im going to work on getting a decision out on this as quick as I can, Farrell said at the close of a hearing that attracted more than a dozen pipeline workers wearing orange shirts and a like number of landowners and pipeline opponents.
DES MOINES  The revolving doors at state prisons saw about the same number of offenders admitted in fiscal 2016 as were released into Iowa communities.

Iowa Department of Corrections officials say the 8,207 count of male and female offenders held behind bars at state prisons in Anamosa, Clarinda, Fort Dodge, Mitchellville, Oakdale, Fort Madison, Mount Pleasant, Newton and Rockwell City at the end of the fiscal 2016 was down 10 from the previous years total.

Were maintaining a stable prison population, said Lettie Prell, the departments director of research.

The prison system admitted 5,561 offenders during the recently completed fiscal year, with 1,933 representing new court commitments for criminals convicted and sentenced for felony offenses and 3,034 returning for parole or work release violations as well as probation revocations, according to the department's yearly figures.

New court commitments are hard to predict, said Sarah Johnson of the state Department of Human Rights criminal & juvenile justice planning division, which tracks prison population trends. Those things are kind of out of anyones hands. We cant really control who commits crimes or who gets convicted.

Meanwhile, the Iowa Board of Parole in conjunction with corrections analysts paroled 2,142 inmates in fiscal 2016, a 6.4 percent increase. Another 1,515 offenders were granted work releases, a 13.3 percent increase, while 1,068 inmates saw their sentences expire in the past fiscal year. That brought total releases to 5,571, the most since fiscal 2009, according to corrections data.

Every year, Iowa sees a fluctuation in our prison population, said Ben Hammes, spokesman for Gov. Terry Branstad. However, it is the close collaboration between the Department of Corrections and the Iowa Board of Parole that enables the choosing of the best candidates for re-entry based on thorough risk analysis and data-driven rehabilitation programs.

While there will continue to be many variables that impact the overall admissions and releases, the efficient and effective use of taxpayer dollars by the Department of Corrections with a focus on public safety remain the highest priorities.

Iowa has seen a slight surge in the prison population since the new fiscal year began July 1, with Fridays institutional count standing at 8,319 inmates, a figure more than 14 percent over the systems current capacity of 7,286 beds. Another 30,311 offenders were under the supervision of the DOCs community-based corrections system.

The ethnic makeup of Iowas prison population changed slightly in fiscal 2016, with 5,364 white inmates making up 65.4 percent of the overall count. Meanwhile, 2,076 African Americans constituted a disproportionate 25.3 percent of the offenders who were incarcerated. The remaining inmates were 7 percent Hispanic, 1.5 percent American Indian and 0.8 percent Asian during the 12-month period ending June 30.

Iowas prison count is down significantly from the record of 9,009 inmates held behind bars in the states correctional system on April 9, 2011. Prison overcrowding grew to 122 percent of design capacity that fiscal year.

Prell credited the lower overall prison count in recent years to the departments violence and victimization instrument that measures and identifies offenders who are at greater risk for committing new violent crimes or victimizing people when released from prison.

Those are the crimes of concern that we want to identify and provide appropriate treatment to target so that when its time for these people to leave prison  and 95 percent of them will leave prison  wed like them to be less of a risk than when we first got them, she said.

Johnson said short-term projections suggest that Iowas prison population will remain relatively stable, but the long-range estimates call for the inmate count to grow to 10,058 by June 2025, or about 23 percent over the 10-year period if no major sentencing or policy changes are enacted.

However, those projections made last December likely will be modified in future years after lawmakers last session passed legislation to address mandatory-minimum sentences and give judges more discretion in granting paroles or releases to offenders convicted of some drug-related crimes.

We do expect that those will have a correctional impact reducing the population but the extent of that decrease, were going to have to wait and see what it does, Johnson said.
NATION

3 die in boating accident

Three men died and another was injured after a boat ran aground and overturned on the Allegheny River, authorities said Saturday.

Officials in Clarion County, Pennsylvania, said the 21-foot boat apparently ran onto the riverbank at about 1:30 a.m. Saturday below Phillipston.

Coroner Terry Shaffer said the boat "ran up on the bank and flipped a couple of times and turned upside down." Emergency officials were called at about 6:30 a.m. Saturday when someone reported a boat upside down in the river, authorities said.

Vet, 93, ends run across America

It took him nearly three years, but 93-year-old Ernie Andrus has made it across America.

The World War II veteran dipped his toes in the Atlantic Ocean on Saturday morning after jogging across the country to help raise money to return a WWII-era ship in Indiana to Normandy, France, for the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landing. Andrus was a medic on a similar ship during the war.

Local media reports Andrus was surrounded by hundreds of people including family members and friends who have joined him at different parts along his journey.

He began his trek in California on Oct. 7, 2013 and finished on a beach on St. Simon's Island in Georgia. He turned 93 on Friday.

WORLD

Former Somalia leader dies

A former Somalia prime minister who lost a long U.S. court battle over accusations of killing and torture has died, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud announced Saturday.

The president called Mohamed Ali Samantar a "genius" who had done a lot for his country.

Samantar died in Virginia at age 85. The cause of his death was not specified.

He served throughout the 1980s under dictator Siad Barre as prime minister, vice president and defense minister before the regime was overthrown in 1991 by warlords, plunging the Horn of Africa nation into decades of conflict.

Thousands march to support rebels

Hundreds of thousands of Yemenis marched on Saturday in support of Shiite Houthi rebels and their ally, former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The march in the rebel-held capital, Sanaa, was in support of a new combined governing council the rebels and Saleh announced late last month, but which was immediately rejected by the internationally recognized government and the United Nations. Saleh was forced to step down in 2012 amid Arab Spring protests after more than three decades in power.

Yemen's war pits troops and militiamen loyal to the government, backed by a Saudi-led coalition, against the Shiite rebels and Saleh loyalists. The Houthis captured Sanaa in 2014, and the U.S.-backed coalition began its offensive against them in March 2015.

Later in the day, coalition airstrikes hit the presidential palace in Sanaa and other areas in the city, leaving an unknown number of casualties, security officials said. Saudi Arabia's civil defense directorate said that the Houthis had launched a missile over the border into the Najran region, killing a Saudi and wounding five Yemenis and a Pakistani who were residents there.

Peace talks collapsed earlier this month, and the Saudi-led forces resumed heavy airstrikes shortly thereafter.

Kerry heading to Africa

Secretary of State John Kerry will be in Africa on Monday for talks in Kenya and Nigeria on countering terrorism before visiting Saudi Arabia to discuss the conflict in Yemen.

Kerry first meets with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta on regional issues including the upheaval in neighboring South Sudan and security in Somalia, where homegrown, al-Qaida-linked extremist group al-Shabab continues to launch deadly attacks in the capital.

On his last visit to the region in May 2015, Kerry became the first secretary of state to set foot in Somalia two decades after dead U.S. soldiers were dragged through the streets of its capital, Mogadishu. It was a symbolic visit to show support for the Horn of Africa nation's fledgling government.

Somalia faces key parliamentary elections next month and a presidential election in October. The country has been trying to rebuild after establishing its first functioning central government since 1991.

Kerry on Tuesday and Wednesday then visits the cities of Sokoto and Abuja in Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation of about 160 million people and one of its largest economies.

He will meet with President Muhammadu Buhari on the oil-rich country's worsening economy and its efforts to fight corruption. Kerry also will meet with leaders from the country's largely Muslim north, where extremist group Boko Haram was formed several years ago and continues to carry out attacks.
Following a canvass of votes from last weeks Municipal Special Election, Jessica Carmichael took her seat as Ward 1 Council Member during Monday evenings Belle Fourche City Council meeting.

Mayor Gloria Landphere gave the nayors report that included several items that are in the proposal stage.

First of all she acknowledged that the council was working diligently on the budget. There have been several meetings and she hopes that within the next two weeks the budget will be finalized. The first reading of the budget is planned for Sept. 6.

The mayor is setting up plans to have a Fall Mayor-Council Retreat. Its still in the planning process, she said.

We can talk about issues and everybodys views, she said, along with plans for 2017, she added.

The Eighth Avenue project is moving along. There are still several meetings before the final public meeting and no date has been set for that meeting.

She also reported that the Corps of Engineers has been spoken to concerning the placement of the Vietnam Memorial.

Landphere said she received information about a grant writing presentation in Newell on Sept. 13. She encouraged all members and department heads to attend the presentation.

The public was invited to bring concerns before the council members following the Mayors report. Autumn Hart brought her unease surrounding the stop sign and lack of traffic control at the intersection of Tenth Avenue and State Street.

Basically, she said, my concern is safety. There are cars that can come from two sides that do not have to stop, and that creates a dangerous intersection, she stated.

Mayor Landphere told Hart that she would take the matter to Public Works to address the matter. She said that there had been some visibility issues, but they had been taken care of, however, the matter will be pursued at next Mondays meeting.

Bronc Pride will be evident during Homecoming on Sept. 23. The Center of the Nation Business Association will present three awards to the top Bronc Pride windows of Belle Fourche businesses.

The museum and visitor center continues to have a busy summer. Director Kristi Thielen reported that over 3,000 people representing 27 countries and all 50 states visited the museum in July.

There were family fun-days that included Beautiful Butterflies and two outer space sessions. A butterfly pavilion can now be seen at the museum. A family of ten butterflies has been raised at the center and was recently released at the monument. Another family of five is also part of butterfly exhibit; the last butterfly was born this morning.

Three new discovery boxes have been added, including Native American Tribes of South Dakota, sunflowers, and cows. Thielen said she encourages children to come and visit the boxes.

Several fundraisers are planned by museum staff beginning with a Fall Fundraiser Tea.

Plans for Manufacturer Week, slated for Oct. 4-6, are in full swing, reported Holly Stalder, director for the Belle Fourche Development Corporation. Stalder reminded council members that the governor will attend the celebration Oct. 6.

Next Tuesday there will be an open house to view a house built by high school students. It will be an opportunity to acknowledge the students, teachers, and partners that helped to make the project a reality.

Police Chief Scott Jones read a letter from a visitor commending Police Officer Ryan Cherveny for his genuine concern and care while they were stranded in this area. The letter went on to say that in this day and age it is nice to know that the human hasnt been taken out of the servant.

Councilperson Kate Satzinger questioned Assistant City Engineer Steve Nafus with her concerns for city property becoming ADA compatible.

Nafus assured her that several things were being checked on and a plan was in the process. He said that ADA regulations were at the top of the list and would be tackled.

In other business:

*It was approved that the High School Homecoming parade route to go from Round-up St. and 5th Ave to Herrmann Park starting at 2:30 p.m. Sept. 23.

*The liquor and malt beverage license was transferred from Marvin & Kight, L.L.C. DBA Mulligans Bar & Grille to Belle Fourche Country Club.

*The final payment on the BFACC Gym Floor was approved in the amount of $2,667.92.

*The city approved the submission of an application for financial assistance in an amount not to exceed $2,300,000 from the South Dakota Board of Water and Natural Resources for improvements to sewer and water systems. This will include, but is not limited to 8th Avenue Sanitary Sewer Interceptor Line Project.

*Indian Street between the library and St. Paul's Church will be closed Aug. 27 for the annual Parish Festival.

*The library fascia and pillars will be repaired at a cost of approximately $20,229.44.

*Payment of $203,646.53 was approved for Industrial Siding Track Construction to Sheps Welding. Total for the project is approximately $1,275,000, which is about $75,000 less than budgeted.
For a while, it seemed like the old Ford Tri-Motor airliner might have been feeling its age on a cool and wet Friday morning.

Pilot Colin Soucy needed a couple of tries to get the first of three air-cooled Pratt & Whitney engines to fire for an inaugural demonstration flight of the 1920s-era airliner for members of the local media and other passengers at Rapid City Regional Airport.

The left engine finally coughed to life, with the remaining two engines, one directly in front of the cockpit and the third mounted under the right wing, also sputtering to life reluctantly.

Since this is the first flight of the day, well sit here and let the engines warm up for while. That means your flight will be about 10 minutes longer, Soucy told passengers sitting two-by-two in the cramped passenger cabin just behind the cockpit, where co-pilot Harry O'Nan, of Charlotte, N.C., also busied himself with pre-flight tasks.

The Ford Tri-Motor, nicknamed the Tin Goose, is considered the first luxury passenger airliner. The aircraft in Rapid City this weekend made its first flight on Dec. 1, 1928.

It carried passengers for Transcontinental Air Transport (TAT), Transcontinental and Western Air (TWA) and for sightseeing tour services with Grand Canyon Airlines and Boulder Dam Tours in the 1930s.

The Tri-Motor then was sold to airlines in Nicaragua and Mexico and then went through a succession of private owners, including being a part of massive automobile and aircraft collection owned by casino magnate William F. Harrah in Nevada.

In 2014, the aircraft was acquired by the Liberty Aviation Museum in Port Clinton, Ohio, which leases the meticulously restored Tri-Motor, now nicknamed The City of Port Clinton, to the Experimental Aircraft Association for demonstration flights around the country.

Soucy, of Annapolis, Md., said the vintage plane, equipped with wooden steering wheels from Ford automobiles, requires what pilots call seat-of-the-pants flying.

Its like driving a Corvette with a stick shift. If you know what youre doing, you get better performance out of it. If you can fly or drive it well, you get a big smile on your face, Soucy said.

Inside, the Tri-Motor offered state-of-the art luxury for its time, with leather passenger seats, hardwood paneling and window curtains.

Soucy said one flight attendant, also required to be a registered nurse, would serve meals on longer flights.

Air travel in the late 1920s and especially in the Depression years of the early 30s was considered a luxury.

People used to come out really dressed up because airline tickets back then were not cheap. It was a fortune in money to ride on one of these, Soucy said.

Had Fridays early morning flight taken place in western South Dakota in the late 1920s, South Dakota pioneer aviator Clyde Ice would likely have been in the pilots seat.

Ice, a member of the South Dakota Hall of Fame for his aviation exploits, flew Tri-Motors on passenger runs and barnstorming flights for Rapid Air Lines, flying out of pasture airfields springing up in small towns as aviation spread its wings across the country.

Ice flew from an airport east of Spearfish that now bears his name and also from Rapid Citys Halley Field, located roughly where North Middle School sits now.

Once Tri-Motors gave way to Boeing 247s in the mid-30s, the Fords continued to be popular for bush pilots flying in and out of remote locations. Soucy said the aircraft's rugged landing gear suited it for grass runways.

I hate landing on concrete, Soucy said. This airplane likes to land into the wind, and that means big, soft, square open fields.

Tim Van Pelt of Piedmont is a fan of vintage Fords, old Model As and Model Ts that he and his dad, Thom have rebuilt into hot rods.

Van Pelt and friend Kellan Buchholz didnt hesitate to buy tickets when a chance came to fly on another of Henry Fords creations.

Its a Model T with wings, Van Pelt said.

Van Pelt marveled at the Tri-Motors short landing field capability, readily evident Friday. Once Soucy throttled up on the runway, the plane was airborne in no time.

It seemed like we didnt need more than about 150 yards, and we were off the ground, Van Pelt said.

Thursday's high winds and Friday's heavy rain and low cloud cover curtailed all but one demonstration flight through mid-afternoon Friday.

Tickets for flights lasting about 20-25 minutes will be available for purchase at WestJet Air Center north of the main airport terminal during Saturdays Regional Airport general aviation open house. Sunday the Tri-Motor will be flying from Rapid Fuel, next to Dale Aviation at the end of Airport Road.

Hours for flights both days are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Walk-up tickets are $75, with tickets booked online available for $70, $50 for children age 17-under.
The man accused of the only known murder in Rapid City so far in 2016 pleaded not guilty to the charges against him at the Pennington County Courthouse Friday.

Mark A. Heinen, 33, is facing a charge of second-degree murder and its alternative count of first-degree manslaughter, in the death of 23-year-old Kiawe Walker on June 17. Heinen was also charged with commission of a felony with a firearm.

His charging document says he killed Walker without premeditation, and that it happened during a drug distribution.

A Rapid City police report says the shooting happened during a drug deal between the two men in a storage facility on the city's northeast side. Walker was hit once in the left rear shoulder.

He died after seeking help for his wound at the East North Street Burger King restaurant not far from the shooting site. Walker had collapsed by the time emergency responders arrived, and they were unable to revive him.

Heinen is facing a mandatory minimum of five years in prison and up to mandatory life on his various charges.

After Heinen entered not-guilty pleas Friday morning, his defense lawyer asked the court for time to evaluate the case material.

Weve got more than 50 recorded interviews to wade through, said attorney John Murphy.

Heinen, detained at the Pennington County Jail on a $1 million cash-only bond, is scheduled to return to court in October. He was arrested in Thornton, Colo., a week after the shooting and extradited to South Dakota.
Apparently, South Dakota leaders think they can still effectively manage the federal EB-5 investment-for-visa program that has created scrutiny as a state-managed program. Or rather, unmanaged.

Control of the EB-5 program pretty well switched hands in 2009 when the state allowed the newly formed private company SDRC Inc. to run it with little to no oversight.

That led to several investigations, lawsuits, at least one failed project, a death and a mess of money that wasn't necessarily used for its intended purpose.

Now, when most South Dakotans hear "EB-5," the most common response is something along the lines of an eye roll.

It's pretty much become the state's scarlet letter. Now it's time to let go.

The Daugaard administration is trying to overturn a federal decision to strip state government of its status as an EB-5 immigrant investor center. A law firm representing Gov. Dennis Daugaard filed the state's response Monday with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

The federal notice of termination in 2015 reflected actions of the Aberdeen-based SDRC Inc. and its President Joop Bollen, who ran EB-5 for South Dakota.

Instead of walking away from the program, the Daugaard administration wants a reprieve to continue fostering EB-5 for other investments around the state.

In American News reports over the years, we have learned that South Dakota is unusual in having the state itself designated a "regional center" for the administration of the EB-5 program.

In most other states, private businesses (such as SDRC) with no ties to government help other businesses get these investment dollars  up to a million per green card investors.

Anyone reading this can essentially function as a "regional center." If the state doesn't run this program, someone else can.

Relinquishing control  letting go  is not an admission of guilt. It doesn't scream that the state cannot do it, rather that it chooses to opt out.

Then the state can still share the possibility of participating in the program with potential foreign investors or those trying to form larger projects within the state. It can do that without being the agency holding the cards. It isn't game over. It's taking the bench.

Additionally, experts have said that EB-5 is the last mechanism for projects that can't get traditional funding. These are high-risk ventures that need cash fast.

Why, then, does South Dakota want in after all we have learned?

The response the state filed Aug. 8 makes sure to point out that "there is no evidence that the (Governor's Office of Economic Development) directed, authorized, or knew of such diversion" (of funds).

But shouldn't the government have known? Yes.

What would be different from one administration to the next? Is the state any more equipped to run EB-5, or be transparent in its handling?

EB-5, under South Dakota or the company the state privately contracted with, has run its course. Trying to keep the state's hand in the program continues to waste the time of officials who likely have other things to focus on.

You can do better South Dakota.
Russian businessman seeks $622 million from Lithuania

MOSCOW, August 15 (RAPSI)  Russian businessman and former co-owner of the Lithuanian nationalized bank Snoras, Vladimir Antonov, has filed a lawsuit with the Moscow Commercial Court demanding to recover over 40 billion rubles ($622 million) from Lithuanias Justice Ministry, according to court records.

Antonov seeks to collect from Lithuania more than 20.2 billion rubles ($314 million) in compensation for property damage and over 19.9 billion rubles ($309 million) in business reputation damage. Moreover, the plaintiff demands to declare illegal information distributed by the countrys president Dalia Grybauskaite, who had criticized performance of Snoras managers before nationalization of the bank, and published in online media in 2011, the court papers read.

The court will consider the claim on September 22.

Snoras was part of Antonov's Convers Group. The Convers Group held 68.10 percent of the bank and another 25.3 percent was held by Baranauskas.

In addition, the government of Latvia also announced that the Krajbanka bank, currently on the verge of bankruptcy and 60% owned by Antonov, would be nationalized.

Antonov has been charged by Lithuanian authorities with EUR 565 million embezzlement, forging documents and fraudulent accounting and put on the European wanted list. Antonov and his partner Raimondas Baranauskas, were arrested on November 24, 2011 in the United Kingdom and put in detention but later they were released on bail. Antonov left the United Kingdom trembling for his life. He could face up to 10 years in Lithuania's prison if convicted.
A Ravalli County jury on Friday convicted a Hamilton man whod been accused of sexually assaulting two girls.

After listening to four days of testimony, it took the 10-man, two-woman jury two hours to find Randall Walker guilty in the case that involved four charges.

Walker was initially accused of assaulting an 11-year-old girl on Valentines Day in 2015 after a day care worker notified the sheriffs office when the girl told her about the incident.

During the investigation, allegations arose that Walker had previously assaulted another girl over a four-year period until she was 12.

That woman, now 27, told the investigator that she never told anyone about the abuse when she was a child because she wasnt sure who to tell, and that she thought what she was doing was wrong, and worried that people would think she was a bad person, according to an affidavit filed in the case.

Both the younger girl, now 13, and 27-year-old testified at the trial.

These young ladies were extremely courageous, said Ravalli County Attorney Bill Fulbright.

Fulbright said the 27-year-olds testimony was the first time that she had told her story in public.

Walker will be sentenced Oct. 26.

On the charge related to the 11-year-old, Fulbright said Walker will be sentenced under the guidelines set by Jessicas Law, which requires a mandatory prison term of 25 years without the possibility of parole.

Montanas Jessicas Law is modeled after a Florida law that passed following a 9-year-old girls kidnapping, rape and murder in 2005. It requires the 25-year minimum prison term for adults convicted of various sex crimes against children under 13.

On the other three charges, Walker faces up to 100 years or life on each charge.
Sen. Pat Connell was recently presented with the Montana Farm Bureaus Golden Windmill Award.

The award is presented to legislators who have a 100 percent voting record on issues the Farm Bureau deems important.

Its something we decided to do to recognize the people who support Farm Bureau policies, said Montana Farm Bureaus executive director John Youngbird.

This year the bureau presented about 10 of the awards, Youngbird said.

Connell was the only legislator from Ravalli County to make the cut.

The legislative issues that were considered important ranged from bills focused on Reserved Water Rights Compact to legislation focused on sage grouse and bison.

The bills we focused our report on were pretty widespread, Youngbird said. They had to have been voted on in both houses. We wanted everyone playing on an even playing field.

Connell said he knows that agriculture in the state is facing challenging times due to the changing demographics in the state.

We now have a plurality of districts that are urban, Connell said. Those folks unfortunately dont always know where their shrink-wrapped meat or milk in jugs comes from.

Connell said his career was spent working in forestry, which I consider to be an agricultural effort. He now makes a living spraying herbicides in support of agriculture.

The ag industry is one of those places where your handshake can still be your contract and your word is your bond, he said.

Youngbird said Connell has always been excellent when it comes to working on agricultural issues.

I thing the nice thing about Pat is that when you have an issue, you can sit down and talk with him, Youngbird said. Hes not one to lock you out of his office if he disagrees with you.
America must return to conservative principles of less government,reduced taxes, less spending and a balanced budget! Cut,cap and balance!
Guwahati, August 19 : Three hardcore militants of NDFB(S) were killed in a gun fight with security forces in Assam's Sonitpur district along with Arunachal Pradesh border on Friday and security personnel destroyed a camp of the outfit group.

Sonitpur District SP Sanjukta Parasar said that, following a tip-off, police CRPF-Cobra and army had jointly launched operation at Moinaashree Paharpur area along with Arunachal Pradesh border where a militant group

was hiding.*

When the troops reached the area, militants started fire and bullets were exchanged for half an hour, in which three militants killed on spot,'A the police official said.

Other militants of the group were managed to flee from the encounter site.

The slain militants were identified as NDFB(S)'s platoon commander Raikhoo, section commander Gothal and Aranga.

Security forces recovered three pistols, two grenades, eight round of live ammunition, five mobile handsets and other war like stores from the area and destroyed a camp of the outfit group.

NDFB(S) militants had killed 14 civilians in Kokrajhar district on August 5.

*(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)*
File a Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are seen inside Oxitec laboratory in Campinas, Brazil, on February 2, 2016. Photo: Reuters

MIAMI/CHICAGO: Federal health officials on Friday warned pregnant women not to travel to trendy Miami Beach after Florida confirmed that the mosquito-borne Zika virus was active in the popular tourist destination.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also suggested that pregnant women who are especially worried about exposure to Zika  which has been shown to cause the severe birth defect known as microcephaly  might consider avoiding all of Miami-Dade County.

The new warnings represent a challenge to Floridas multibillion dollar tourism industry, with Miami Beach accounting for nearly half of visitor stays in the Greater Miami area. They also heighten concerns over Zikas spread in the continental United States.

In a press conference, Florida Governor Rick Scott said state health officials had identified five cases of Zika believed to be contracted in Miami Beach.

This means we believe we have a new area where local transmissions are occurring in Miami Beach, he said, noting that the state had already stepped up pesticide spraying efforts in this area.

The new transmissions come as Miami-Dade continues to battle Zika in the Wynwood arts neighborhood of Miami, the site of the first locally transmitted cases of Zika in the continental United States. For a graphic of Floridas Zika outbreak, click here: (tmsnrt.rs/2b3VUp3)

In Miami Beach, the state believes Zika transmission is confined to a 1.5-square-mile area located between 8th and 28th streets in the popular South Beach neighborhood. For a graphic of map, click here, (tinyurl.com/hdl6mxs)

Miami Beach resident Steve Ehrlich, 30, said news of the five cases transmitted somewhere in the blocks around his home was not surprising, but that did not make it any less concerning.

You knew it was going to intermingle all over the place, he said.

And though Ehrlich said and he and his wife Caroline did not have any immediate plans to have more children, any thought of doing so has been indefinitely shelved.

Current CDC guidelines recommend men wait six months after being infected with Zika before trying to have children to avoid passing the virus to a pregnant partner through semen. The recommendations are based on observations that the virus can live in semen as long as 93 days after an infection, but a recent report in the journal Eurosurveillence described two cases in which the virus lingered in semen six months after a person was infected.

The CDC is giving recommendations for how long to wait before you get pregnant, but it seems like no one has a clear grasp on just how long it stays in your system, Ehrlich said. Thats scary for us because we eventually want to have more kids.

Travel expert Henry Harteveldt, founder of travel consultancy Atmosphere Research Group, said the Zika outbreak in South Florida could jeopardize travel in the area.

Even if 1 percent or 2 percent of potential travelers decide not to go to Florida, whether its for leisure or for business, there could be a multi-million dollar hit to the local economy, he said.

In a conference call with reporters on Friday, CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden said there have been at least four other independent instances of mosquito-borne Zika transmission in Miami-Dade county. These were individual cases and did not represent local transmission.

Frieden said it is difficult to determine if cases are locally acquired and whether cases are related. As a result, there may be a time lag in reporting the spread of disease locally.

Given that, Frieden said there could be transmissions that have not been identified throughout Miami, which is why the CDC has advised pregnant women and their sexual partners who are worried about potential exposure to consider avoiding travel to Miami entirely.

Of the five new cases in Miami Beach, one person is a resident of New York, one person is a resident of Texas and one person is a resident of Taiwan.

All three of these people traveled to Miami, Scott said.

Frieden said battling Zika-carrying mosquitoes in this neighborhood will be especially challenging because the areas high rise buildings will prevent pilots from flying low enough to drop pesticides in aerial spraying campaigns.

The inability to use aerial spraying there means well be limited to using ground-based techniques like backpack spraying, he said.

Frieden said aerial spraying continues to be successful in the Wynwood neighborhood, where experts have seen substantial but not complete knockdowns of mosquito populations.

Scott said Florida has requested more support from the CDC.

LAWMAKERS URGE MORE FUNDING

Reporters pressed Scott on the timeliness of the announcement, which was first reported in the Miami Herald on Thursday and was confirmed by many other news outlets on Thursday, including Reuters.

We recognize the desire for information quickly, but it is important that we conduct our interviews and investigations pursuant to epidemiological standards, Scott said.

Reporters charged Scott with underplaying Zika transmission and delaying confirmation to minimize the effect on tourism in the state.

Scott said the state was taking every measure to ensure the information they provided to the public was accurate.

In a press conference later on Friday, however, Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine expressed frustration with Scott and the states health department for keeping him and other elected officials in the dark about the island-citys five locally transmitted Zika cases.

Levine said mayors across Miami received the information at the same time as media.

Its backwards, Levine said.

Levine said he and tourism promotion officials have also sought to get ahead of a panic that could cut into hotel reservations.

Between our efforts and the countys spraying efforts the last thing Id ever want to be is a mosquito on Miami Beach, Levine said.

US Senator Harry Reid, a Democrat, said the transmission of Zika in Miami Beach is the most alarming development yet in the rapidly growing threat of Zika in the United States.

Both Reid and Florida Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican, renewed calls for lawmakers in the House and Senate to return to Washington to authorize funding to help public health officials fight the spread of Zika.

President Barack Obama in February requested $1.9 billion to fight Zika but Congressional efforts to approve part of the funding deadlocked before lawmakers adjourned for the summer.

Earlier on Friday, US health officials published a study estimating that as many as 270 babies in Puerto Rico may be born with the severe birth defect known as microcephaly caused by Zika infections in their mothers during pregnancy.

A public health emergency was declared in the US territory on Aug. 12 after more than 10,000 laboratory-confirmed cases were recorded, including more than a thousand pregnant women.

The condition, in which infants are born with abnormally small heads and underdeveloped brains, is estimated to cost $10 million over the lifetime of one child.

The connection between Zika and microcephaly first came to light last fall in Brazil, which has now confirmed more than 1,800 cases of microcephaly that it considers to be related to Zika infection in the mothers.
Kathmandu, Nepal: Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) and Minister for Finace Krishna Bahadur Mahara returned home on Saturday wrapping up his five-day official visit to China.

Upon his arrival at the Tribhuvan International Airport Mahara claimed that his China visit was successful in meeting the set objectives.

I updated the Chinese leadership about the governments plans and policies and I got that Chinese side is committed to implementing all previous agreements.

All the agreements reached between the Nepal and China in the past will be implemented despite the change in government, Mahara said while briefly talking to the media persons.
BUTWAL, Aug 20: In an unusual occurrence, a 'dead' man at Deupar in Sainamaina Municipality-9 in Rupandehi district has come back to life, only to be declared dead later.

A local Jokhu Chaudhary, who was bitten by a snake at his house on Friday evening, was immediately rushed to Lumbini Zonal Hospital at Butwal for further treatment but the doctors pronounced him dead upon his arrival.

As the family members of the deceased were preparing for the final rites of Chaudhary, the corpse started making movement in hands and feet as well as the dead body started sweating.

Upon Chaudhary's revival, he was again immediately rushed to a medical college in Bhairahawa where the doctors kept him on ventilator.

And in an hour, he was again pronounced dead by the doctors, this time for the final.

According to CPN-UML's local leader Nara Bahadur Thapa, Chaudhary showed amazing symptom which the doctors attending to him have termed 'Rigor Mortis', a condition of the body that is stiffened after the death and movement in the dead body occurring usually after two hours of the death.

Since the metabolic activity continues in the muscle after death, Lumbini Zonal Hospital Superintendent Dr Bikas Devkota explained such cases occur as an exception and Chaudhary became a case in this point.

The Hospital is to probe into this rare occurrence, said Dr Devkota. RSS
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Over at least the last year, no single issue has dominated the U.S.-China bilateral agenda more than that of the South China Sea (SCS). Though the United States and China have no inherently incompatible official positions on the issue  unlike China, the United States is not a claimant to any territory or water in the South China Sea and takes no position on the merits of the disputed sovereignty issues  the two countries nonetheless have seen bilateral tensions ratchet up markedly as a result of a seemingly inexorable tit-for-tat dynamic. The Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitrations (PCAs) July 12 announcement of its decision on a case brought by the Philippines challenging Chinas claims in the South China Sea  a decision in which the PCA sided emphatically with the Philippines, ruling that Chinas expansive claims in the South China Sea are without historical basis or legal merit  and Chinas principled and categorical rejection the validity of that verdict (and the very process that generated it) have cast into further relief the evident intractability of the South China Sea dispute. While the United States and China have both taken steps in recent weeks seemingly designed to generate at least a modicum of de-escalation , most observers believe that the South China Sea issue will figure prominently on the U.S.-China agenda (as well as on the East Asian and Southeast Asian foreign policy agendas) for years, if not decades, to come; and indeed, some regard the South China Sea as a crucible for possible major international conflict and even world war

Given that the United States and China have no inherently incompatible claims (as a matter of declared policy) in the South China Sea, a question arises: on what, precisely, do the two countries disagree? The United States, for its part, has never officially challenged Chinas claims, as such, vis-a-vis the five other claimants; from a position of declared neutrality on the merits of the cases, the United States has merely urged China (and the other five claimants) to resolve the existing disputes peacefully and in compliance with international law, so as to maintain peace, stability, and freedom of navigation across a body of water that is a conduit for about $5 trillion in annual international trade, including vital energy flows. China, meanwhile, has repeatedly stated that it has no intention or desire to hamper freedom of navigation in the South China Sea and that it is likewise committed to the peace and stability of the area. More broadly, the United States has made it clear that it welcomes a strong and prosperous China, while China, in turn, has publicly expressed appreciation for the U.S. presence in the Asia-Pacific region and the United States unique and vital role in maintaining stability therein.

This evident broad confluence of doctrine and declared positions, however, masks a less harmonious reality: namely, that there exists a substantial and arguably widening gap between the United States and China in the two countries strategic perceptions of virtually all facets of the South China Sea issue. These divergent perceptions, as much or more than any specific actions taken or statements issued by the United States and China, seem to account for the issues apparent stuck-ness in the U.S-China bilateral context. Any meaningful effort to resolve the South China Sea dispute  or perhaps to put it less ambitiously and more realistically, at least to generate a more stable and sustainable stalemate, in lieu of the steadily deteriorating status quo evident in recent months and years  might fruitfully begin with a mapping of divergent U.S. and Chinese strategic perceptions of the various components of the South China Sea issue. This paper, drawing from, among other sources, a number of high-level U.S.-China track 2 convenings organized by the EastWest Institute (EWI) in recent months, seeks to lay out a number of the most notable divergent perceptions. [1]

Chinas Nine-Dash Line

Perhaps the most fundamental perceptual gap between the United States and China revolves around the actual definition and level of clarity of Chinas claims in the South China Sea. From Chinas perspective, its claims in the South China Sea  broadly delineated by what China refers to as the nine-dash line, which reportedly encompasses about 86 percent of the South China Seas entire surface area  are firmly grounded in history and clear-cut to the point of being self-evident and indisputable.

In contrast, the United States (along with many other countries, claimants and non-claimants alike) perceives Chinas nine-dash line claim  whatever its historical and legal merits  to be ill-defined and ambiguous. U.S. officials are often unclear, for example, as to what, exactly, the Chinese purport to be claiming: e.g., the entirety of the territory and water within the nine-dash line [2] ; all land features within the nine-dash line, plus the maritime swaths that those features command under the terms of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) (e.g., in certain cases, 12-nautical mile territorial seas and 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zones); only the land features but not the adjacent waters; only the UNCLOS-claimable land features, but not certain other land features or waters; or some other configuration of land and/or water. As long as these very basic questions remain unanswered (at least in the mind of one of the two parties, to say nothing of the other claimants), it is hard to imagine the realization of a lasting U.S.-China common understanding on the South China Sea issue writ large.

History vs. Law (UNCLOS)

Another fundamental perceptual rift between the United States and China pertains to the legitimate basis, in principle, of any current sovereignty claim. China takes the view that history is ultimately dispositive and that history trumps contemporary international law in instances in which the two are in conflict. China made that point very clearly when it issued signing statements in 1996 (upon ratifying UNCLOS) and again in 2006, effectively grandfathering its own historical territorial and maritime claims where those claims might be viewed by others as being incompatible with the terms of UNCLOS; and, respectively, rejecting key dispute resolution stipulations under UNCLOS. [3]

The United States, though not a ratified party to UNCLOS, nevertheless adheres to its terms as a matter of established U.S. policy dating back to the Reagan presidency; and more fundamentally, the United States generally regards ratified international law (e.g., law to which a country has chosen to be bound  in this case, UNCLOS) as outweighing historical considerations in determining the validity of these types of sovereignty claims. In sum, China sees its claims in the South China Sea as being exempt from full-fledged UNCLOS jurisdiction on the basis of history, while the United States sees the competing claims in the South China Sea as being subject to UNCLOS governance, irrespective of history. This perceptual divide, too, accounts for a substantial amount of the friction between the two countries over this issue.

Intentions, Objectives, and Motivations

There is a deep perceptual divide regarding each countrys strategic intentions, objectives, and motivations. China sees U.S. statements and actions (and in particular, U.S. freedom of navigation operations, or FONOPS, which the Chinese regard as sharply escalatory) as bespeaking a desire on the part of the United States to surround China, to contain China, to limit Chinas ability to project power in the waters off its southern coast, to bolster U.S. hegemony or primacy in the East Asia maritime space, and to tilt to U.S. allies and partners in the region, such as the Philippines. Though China does not consistently articulate these sentiments and perceptions at the official level, they are not far under the surface and they color Chinese strategic thinking. In sum, China sees U.S. behavior in the South China Sea as being aggressive and designed to thwart Chinas ambitions  in essence, the operationalization of the principles of the U.S. pivot or rebalancing to Asia, which China views in similarly adversarial terms. China, meanwhile, characterizes its own actions in the South China Sea as entirely benign; for example, Chinese officials explain Chinas efforts in the South China Sea as being motivated only by a desire to enhance its humanitarian assistance capacity in the Sea, to advance its scientific and meteorological research, and so on.

Here again, the United States sees the situation entirely differently. The U.S. perceives Chinas actions not as benign, but as assertive, even aggressive. In the U.S. view, China, through these assertive actions (e.g., a bold and aggressive land reclamation effort, the militarization earlier this year of at least one of the Spratly Islands China controls, and so on) in the South China Sea, is trying to achieve a number of objectives: to project its growing military power into waters vital to international trade; to bolster and strengthen its claims and ultimate access to the South China Seas abundant resources (e.g., fisheries, energy and minerals); to create strategic depth in the waters off its southern coast; to intimidate smaller neighbors, such as Vietnam and the Philippines, as well as, to a lesser degree, Malaysia, Brunei, and Taiwan; and to check or at least complicate U.S. efforts to operate militarily in the close-in waters off the coast of southeastern China; among other goals. At the same time, the United States views its own motivations as benign and focused exclusively on twin legitimate policy objectives: to ensure that freedom of navigation in the South China Sea is maintained and to ensure that the SCS disputes are addressed peacefully. The United States forcefully denies that its actions are motivated by any desire to contain China or thwart its ambitions; it also rejects the idea that the United States is doing anything qualitatively new in the South China Sea (e.g., the United States has always undertaken FONOPS in this body of water).

Who is the Instigator in the South China Sea?

the United States, like every nation, has a national interest in freedom of navigation, open access to Asias maritime commons, and respect for international law in the South China Sea (emphasis added); and, more recently, U.S. freedom of navigation operations which have brought U.S. naval vessels into waters claimed by China as territorial (e.g., within 12 nautical miles of Chinese-claimed sovereign territory). Chinese interlocutors thus lay responsibility for recent SCS-related bilateral tensions virtually entirely at the feet of the United States (as well as other players, such as the Philippines and Vietnam; more on this below). In contrast, China views its own actions as benign and largely consistent with recent past practice. There is a major perceptual disconnect between the United States and China over the question of just who is provoking whom  that is, who is playing the instigating role? Here, the two countries look at (largely) the same set of facts, but see them in utterly different ways. China believes that it is the United States, not China, that has upset the precarious balance (basically, the mostly stable stalemate that has obtained for some decades, up until recent years) with new, irresponsible, provocative and destabilizing pronouncements and actions. As examples, the Chinese often point to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clintons 2010 statement that , open access to Asias maritime commons, and respect for international law in the South China Sea (emphasis added); and, more recently, U.S. freedom of navigation operations which have brought U.S. naval vessels into waters claimed by China as territorial (e.g., within 12 nautical miles of Chinese-claimed sovereign territory). Chinese interlocutors thus lay responsibility for recent SCS-related bilateral tensions virtually entirely at the feet of the United States (as well as other players, such as the Philippines and Vietnam; more on this below). In contrast, China views its own actions as benign and largely consistent with recent past practice.

The United States has a diametrically opposed view. U.S. officials have stated that U.S. pronouncements and actions have been in direct response to, and indeed proportionate to, Chinese policy departures and provocations and that the United States, not China, has been in reactive mode. They point to actions such as (but not limited to) Chinas placement in 2014 of an oil rig (accompanied by a sizable armada of ships, including military vessels) in disputed waters off the coast of Vietnam and, of course, Chinas massive land reclamation efforts on, and even recent apparent militarization of, land features within the Spratly Island archipelago; they also point to what they regard as dangerous Chinese maneuvers in the air and on the sea that have created some very close calls and near collisions. In short, each side firmly believes that the other side has been the instigator of recent tensions; both the United States and China believe they have been reacting to the provocations of the other side.

The Role of the Philippines and Vietnam

China and the United States have similarly sharply divergent perspectives on the roles of the Philippines and Vietnam in recent South China Sea developments. China views both countries as instigators and trouble-makers in the South China Sea. It portrays both countries as the real aggressors  the countries that have been most active in altering and upsetting the status quo to their advantage, all while China has demonstrated great restraint in the face of their provocations. China characterizes the Philippines and Vietnam as irresponsible, reckless, and manipulative; and it characterizes its own recent actions (such as its land reclamation efforts) as a late effort to catch up with similar efforts made years ago by these two countries.

With respect to the relationships of these two countries with the United States, Chinese interlocutors frequently invoke the tail wagging the dog metaphor, meaning that smaller and weaker players are managing to influence the choices and behavior of the much larger and more powerful United States (an ally of the Philippines and increasingly important partner  and indeed military partner  of Vietnam). By the same token, China sees the United States as being manipulated by these countries and critiques the United States for over-emphasizing its relationships with these two relatively inconsequential countries (in Chinas view) at the expense of the U.S. relationship with the much more important regional and world player, China. At times, Chinese speculate that the United States is either wittingly or unwittingly egging on the Philippines and Vietnam, giving these two nations greater confidence to undertake irresponsible and provocative actions in the South China Sea, thereby fueling tensions.

The U.S. perspective on the Philippines and Vietnam is quite different. The United States views its ally (the Philippines) and emerging partner (Vietnam) less as provocateurs and more as SCS claimants that have been bullied by a much larger and more powerful neighbor and fellow claimant (China). The United States recognizes that both countries have reclaimed land in the South China Sea and even militarized islands, but it sees the scope of the Chinese efforts in these regards as far eclipsing, by orders of magnitude, that of the earlier Filipino and Vietnamese efforts. The United States sees China, and not the Philippines or Vietnam, as the principal destabilizing force in the South China Sea in recent years. Moreover, the United States regards itself as having been a force for restraint in the region, not an enabler, as the Chinese sometimes posit, of irresponsible and reckless actions on the part of the Philippines and Vietnam. Finally, the United States perceives that it is possible to have robust relationships with these two countries at the same time as the United States engages China in a substantial and productive way; it rejects the zero-sum/either-or framing implicit in Chinas assessment of the geopolitics of the South China Sea.

The July 12 Ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration

There is a yawning rift between the United States and Chinas perceptions of and positions on the recent (July 12) ruling of the Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration. As noted above, the ruling thoroughly repudiated Chinas long-held legal claims of sovereignty in the South China Sea and awarded the Philippines, which brought the case in 2013 after the Chinese navy seized control of the Scarborough Shoal off the coast of the Philippines, an important, if effectively only symbolic, victory. Chinas key views and perceptions of the PCA case are that the Philippines were not within their rights to bring the case in the first place; the PCA had no proper jurisdiction over the issues at hand; and the PCAs July 12 decision is null and void and [of] no binding force owing to what China regarded as the illegitimacy of the process (as distinct from merely the content of the verdict [4] ).

The United States perceived the case very differently in all of these regards. Though itself pointedly neutral on the merits of the various SCS sovereignty claims, as noted above, the United States regarded the Philippines as being within its rights to bring the case and regarded the PCA as having due jurisdiction over the matters raised in the case. Moreover, the United States perceived the PCA award as valid and legitimate, stating on July 12 (through a press briefing at the U.S. Department of State), it is a legally binding tribunal decision, and our expectation was before it was made and is now after its made that all claimants are going to abide by it. (It should be noted, however, that the United States, for its part, does not have a pristine record of complying with similar decisions .)

Conclusion

Clearly, the United States and China perceive the South China Sea issue in starkly different terms. The two countries are looking at largely the same set of facts  and, at times, seemingly different sets of facts, as well  through very different perceptual lenses. Where Beijing sees restraint and magnanimity on its part, Washington sees aggression and bullying; where Washington sees consistent adherence to established policy on its part, Beijing sees a major and destabilizing departure from the earlier U.S. posture; and so on. This perception gap is exacerbating, and in some cases causing, tensions between two countries whose more fundamental national security interests, at least as officially declared, are not actually in inherent or direct conflict in the South China Sea.

Recent confidence-building measures undertaken by both the United States and China are certainly welcome and represent positive steps in the right direction. But a more enduring resolution of the South China Sea disputes  and more specifically, a more lasting mitigation of the SCS issues deleterious impact on the overall U.S.-China relationship  needs to be predicated on each side recognizing that a big part of the problem are the divergent strategic perceptions on both sides, not just certain actual actions. After all, the same action can appear very differently depending on the perceptual lens applied.

The United States-China relationship is too consequential to be unduly bogged down in any one issue  especially when that issue is one on which the two nations declared interests are generally in accord. With the PCA decision behind us and some modest efforts now being made by the United States and China to de-escalate tensions, now is the time for the two countries to explore more deeply and critically their mutual strategic perceptions  and recommit to finding a positive way forward on a vitally important issue that need not be in the future the U.S.-China trust-drainer that it has been in the recent past.

David J. Firestein, a former career U.S. diplomat, is the Perot Fellow and Senior Vice President for Strategic Trust-Building and Track 2 Diplomacy at the EastWest Institute
Intro

Greetings! I am a political scientist , specializing in International Relations , my research and teaching focus on ethnic conflict and civil-military relations . I watch way too much TV, and I like movies as well so I tend to write about both and find IR stuff in pop culture. I rant alot about American politics and sometimes about Canadian politics. I like to take ideas I once learned a long time ago and apply them to whatever strikes my fancy.


Here's where to get a pumpkin in central Kansas for fall

Local farms are preparing for the upcoming pumpkin harvest. Here's where to go pumpkin picking in the greater Salina area.
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The story of the female Muni bus driver who claimed she was assaulted last weekend by a male driver in a road-rage incident in SoMa has grown more complicated, and the SFMTA's response to the incident prompted a protest Friday outside SFMTA headquarters. As KRON 4 reports, members of the advocacy group United Public Workers for Action (UPWA) are protesting what they say is unjust treatment of driver Carla Romero, who they say is now being punished for speaking out to the press about the incident.

The story has been complicated in the ensuing days by news that both Romero and the driver in the incident filed assault charges against one another, and the driver claimed Romero was the aggressor, according to CBS 5.

UPWA member Steve Zeltzer is calling for a public release of surveillance video of the incident, saying "there is a record of harassment, of bullying of San Francisco Muni transit workers in San Francisco. Many have been harassed and bullied for making health and safety complaints."

The incident happened on the morning of August 13 when Romero says received a call to return her bus, a 30-Stockton, to the yard for repair. She stopped the bus on Third Street below Mission in order to switch the trolly polls so that she could switch the bus's direction, and it was at that point that the man got out of his car to confront her.

According to Romero's account, initially given to the Examiner, the man in the vehicle was taller than her, about 5' 9", and in his mid-50's. She says, "He put his hands on me, he pushed me back," and she admits she threw a punch in her own defense and landed one on his nose. Romero was photographed with scratches on her face.

The SFPD is currently in possession of the surveillance video, and is still investigating the incident.

Meanwhile, as KRON 4 reports, "Muni has launched a campaign in conjunction with the Transport Union Workers Local 250-A aimed at the public to educate them about the dangers drivers often face." Bus and train ads will be rolling out in the next month discouraging people from assaulting Muni operators, with the hashtag #Keepthemsafe.
40-year-old Tami Joy Huntsman will be facing the death penalty when she goes to trial in February for the abuse and murder of 3-year-old Delylah Tara and 6-year-old Shaun Tara in November 2015. As KRON 4 reports and as you can see in the video above, Huntsman appeared in Monterey County Superior Court this week alongside boyfriend Gonzalo Curiel, 18, and she collapsed in her chair distraught when Deputy District Attorney Steve Somers announced that they would be pursuing the death penalty. Curiel, who is also charged with the children's murder, is not eligible for the death penalty because he was 17 at the time of the alleged crime.

The children, who were initially believed to be Huntsman's niece and nephew but may be some other relation, were in Huntsman's and Curiel's care last November in a Salinas apartment along with their older sister, a nine-year-old who was later found severely abused but alive in an apartment in Quincy, California. Sometime on or after November 27, the two smaller children were killed, and it's believed that Huntsman and Curiel traveled with their bodies as well as the nine-year-old to Plumas and Shasta Counties, where on December 13 the two children's remains were found in a storage facility in Redding.

As CBS 5 reports, both defendants have pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, torture, child abuse, conspiracy, and special circumstances allegations.

Prosecutors say the children's father will testify in the case, as will three child witnesses, including, presumably, the nine-year-old sister. She was discovered first by authorities, in what was reportedly a severely abused state, on December 11, and she may have led authorities to the storage unit in Redding.

An earlier report in the Salinas Monterey Herald explained that the children had come to live with Huntsman at the request of their father after their mother was killed in a car accident in December 2013. Huntsman has four children of her own, but further questions were raised about the culpability of Child Protective Services, who had previously had to remove Huntsman's 12-year-old twins from her care. Both the six- and nine-year-old were enrolled in home schooling as of August 2015, and therefore had not had regular contact with teachers or others.

She had, according to neighbors, taken up with then 17-year-old Curiel in January 2015 after filing a restraining order against her ex-husband. Huntsman also has a son who is 15 or 16 years old.

Disturbingly, as this case broke last December we learned that Huntsman is the sister of Wayne Allen Huntsman, who pleaded guilty this past April to arson for singlehandedly starting the 100,000-acre King Fire in 2014 in El Dorado County. He is now serving a 20-year sentence.

Tami Huntsman is scheduled for trial on February 6, and prosecutors may still decide to try Curiel separately.
With the real estate market showing consistent improvement during the first half of this year, an exceptionally large number of people have joined the National Association of Realtors as home selling agents or investment specialists.

This was noted by Jonathan Smoke, chief economist for Realto.com. "Total home sales are up 5 percent compared to the first half of 2015 and median existing home prices are up 5 percent as of June, setting a new record. Also, a rise in equity for home owners may encourage them to consider selling."

Yet, Smoke doesn't expect the strong market to stay this strong in the second half of the year.

"All ages have been tempted by near-record lows in mortgage rates prompted by global economic weakness and instability driving investors toward U.S. bonds, but even with all that demand, the market can grow only so much, because of the limited inventory of homes for sale. At today's pace of sales, existing home inventories would be used up in 4.6 months."

"Eventually, without substantial growth in existing and new-home inventories, sales growth will probably flatten and even decline - despite strong potential demand," Smoke says.

"As long as mortgage rates do not increase substantially in a short period of time (such as 100 basis points over the next six months), the real estate market should remain strong," Smoke says. "After all, the underlying reason for higher rates is a stronger economy; so the benefits of that will offset the impact of marginally higher rates.

"A stronger economy, more jobs, lower unemployment, and higher wages will power demand. Higher rates will also likely help loosen credit. Those positive conditions coupled with demographic tailwinds from millennials and boomers will keep the U.S. housing market healthy and strong for at least two more years."

Questions from readers

Question: What is the meaning about all the affordability indexes we hear about?

Answer: An interesting report on affordability indexes was recently released by the Mortgage Bankers Association:

"The Research Institute for Housing America (RIHA) released a new report, The Affordability of Owner-Occupied Housing in the United States: Economic Perspectives, which looks at four major forms of affordability indexes, compares their methodology, and tests their validity in predicting current and historical features of the housing market.

"The study was authored by Donald R. Haurin, Professor of Economics, Emeritus, Ohio State University.

"Many analysts comment on the extent to which housing is affordable. However, the precise meaning of 'affordability' is hard to pin down. And existing affordability indexes do not seem to predict housing variables of interest," said Lynn Fisher, RIHA's Executive Director and MBA's Vice President of Research and Economics.

"Taking a critical look at these indexes, Dr. Haurin finds that consumer expectations about future house prices are an important variable to consider. If home prices are expected to increase, it effectively lowers the cost for a homebuyer purchasing today, because they will benefit from that capital gain. "

Q: Are mortgage applications rising?

A: No, applications are decreasing. They fell by 3.5 percent during the past week, at last report.

Q: Are prospective home buyers spending more time checking homes listed on real estate websites?

A: Apparently so. Buyers now spend an average of 55 minutes per day on visits to those websites, according to the Google site.

Q: Are mortgages becoming more available?

A: Yes. Here's a report from the Mortgage Bankers Association:

"Mortgage credit availability increased in July. Starting this month, MBA has updated its methodology to better measure credit availability and has released a new historical series based on this updated methodology.

"As part of this change the Conforming and Jumbo MCAIs have been updated to only include conventional, non-government loan programs. More information about these changes is available at www.mba.org/MortgageCredit.

"The MCAI increased 1.0 percent to 165.3 in July. A decline in the MCAI indicates that lending standards are tightening, while increases in the index are indicative of loosening credit. "
SOUTH SIOUX CITY | A man was stabbed and a woman was injured in a South Sioux City apartment complex Friday afternoon.

Around 4 p.m., police were called to the incident at 220 E. 12th St.

South Sioux City Police Sgt. Steve Heide said the woman was taken to the hospital by personal vehicle with hand injuries after she broke a pane of glass in a first-floor window. The man who was stabbed was still at-large Friday evening, Heide said.

Colby Logue said he was the one who contacted authorities after he heard a commotion coming from a broken window.

"I walked up closer (to the window,) and I noticed that there was blood there. I started inspecting from the outside, a black female comes banging from the window and screaming, 'Help me,'" he said. "And she breaks more window out, so I called 911."

Louge said while he was on the phone with police, the man and woman involved left the building together.

"I asked the guy, 'Why are you attacking her?" Logue said. "He lifted up his shirt and showed me a stab wound ... then they got into a car and took off."

Heide said the woman was dropped off at UnityPoint-St. Luke's hospital in Sioux City.

Logue said he is the maintenance man for the building where the incident occurred.
SIOUX CITY | Shelby Houlihan didn't medal in the Olympic 5,000-meter final Friday night, but she earned gold in community support.

Hundreds of "Houilfans" packed into the Sioux City Convention Center to watch their hometown hero's 11th place finish in a time of 15:08.89 in Rio de Janeiro.

Hosted by the Siouxland Chamber of Commerce -- with many community sponsors -- the crowd erupted whenever Houilhan, 23, was shown on the 11-by 17-foot mega-screen placed in front of the fans.

"This is a great tribute to Shelby and the community's support of her. But I also believe it is a tremendous tribute to this community that turned out, showing their support for one of their own," Chamber President Chris McGowan said. "That makes me proud to be from Sioux City."

Houilhan was the only American in the 3.1-mile race, and she is the first female Olympian ever from Sioux City.

"It's too bad she didn't do as well as we hoped. But she is still a great runner, and a great asset to Sioux City," Steve Shook, of Sioux City, said.

The watch-party brought together family, friends and people who didn't even know East High's eight-time state track champion.

"She could have walked by me last week and I wouldn't even have known who she was. But when I saw they were going to have this on the news, I had to come." Daniel Ford, of Sioux City, said. "This just shows awesome community support. For people to come out and have a celebration for her. Just to get to the Olympics is really a one out of a million chance for that to happen. For us to recognize that, it was an awesome touch. I hope Shelby feels that touch."

Vivian Cheruiyot of Kenya won the race in an Olympic record of 14:26.17. She was followed to the line by fellow Kenyan Hellen Onsando Obiri for silver in 14:29.77. Almaz Ayana of Ethiopia took bronze in 14:33.59.
BOYDEN, Iowa | An Orange City, Iowa, man was injured Friday evening in a single-vehicle rollover crash in rural Sioux County.

The crash occurred at 8:16 p.m. Friday on 350th Street approximately 3 miles southeast of Boyden.

According to a news release from the Sioux County Sheriff's Office, 32-year-old Daniel Barrera was driving a 1998 Chevrolet Trailblazer east on 350th Street when he lost control of the vehicle. Barrera's vehicle entered the south ditch and rolled over.

Barrera was transported to Sanford Sheldon Medical Center for treatment of his injuries, the release said.

The accident remains under investigation. Alcohol is believed to be involved, according to the press release.

Assisting the Sioux County Sheriff's Office were the Boyden Fire Department and Ambulance.
DES MOINES | Sioux City officials are considering multiple options for a second hotel as part of the citys $72 million reinvestment district project, including making a renovated downtown hotel part of the project and using the formerly planned hotel space for parking.

Renae Billings, economic development specialist for Sioux City, updated the states economic development board Friday in Des Moines.

Sioux City is requesting $13.9 million in tax incentives from the state to assist in the downtown project, which calls for an upscale convention center hotel, an agriculture and expo learning center and Ho-Chunk Inc.s Virginia Square development.

Billings told Iowa Economic Development Authority board members that Sioux City has secured an Iowa-based developer for the proposed 150-room hotel that would connect to the convention center and a new parking ramp. The city is finalizing a development agreement with the unidentified firm, which she said is "very anxious to get started."

The developer will partner with a top-tier hotel brand, which she also declined to identify.

City officials also are considering multiple options for a secondary hotel: a new hotel at the ag and expo learning center site, or a renovated hotel near the ag center, envisioned for the site of the former John Morrell pork plant.

We have proposed a hotel next to the ag and expo center  on land that the city owns adjacent to the center, Billings said. Our other option is to work with an existing hotel and developer that is looking to make renovations.

Billings declined to say which hotel is being renovated, but she said it is near the downtown location.

Billings said if the city proceeds with the renovated hotel, it would use the other site for additional parking for recreational vehicles.

(The unnamed developer) is renovating it and then we would use the former site we proposed for additional RV (recreational vehicle) parking, Billings said.

Billings also updated the board on project fundraising for the ag center. She noted Woodbury County has pledged $1.5 million over 10 years, the project received a $1 million grant from Missouri River Historical Development, and the projects fundraising committee has generated more than $3 million in pledges.

Its made a lot of progress over the last couple of months, so were getting very excited. Were very happy about the progress weve made, Billings said. We hope over the next month to finalize a lot of the details.

The state has given preliminary approval for $8 million in tax incentives for the Sioux City project. Once new funds became available when plans for a Quad Cities project were scrapped, Sioux City reapplied for $13.9 million in assistance.
SIOUX CITY | The murder trial for a man charged in a fatal Sioux City stabbing has been continued after he received new legal counsel.

District Judge Steven Andreasen set the trial for Isack Abdinur to a time to be determined.

Abdinur, charged in Woodbury County District Court with first-degree murder, had been scheduled to stand trial Tuesday for the June 23, 2015, death of Cornelia Stead.

Assistant Woodbury County Attorney James Loomis had requested the recent continuance after Andreasen on Aug. 2 appointed the State Public Defender Special Defense Unit to represent Abdinur, who had refused to leave his jail cell and meet with his previous attorneys. Loomis said in his motion for a continuance that he did not believe that Abdinur's new counsel would be able to prepare to go to trial in such a short amount of time. Loomis also said he had been unable to conduct the deposition of a witness because of the change in attorneys.

Abdinur, 36, is accused of stabbing Stead, 43, at her apartment at 521 W. 16th St. after the two got into an argument. According to court documents, Stead locked herself in a bedroom during the argument, but Abdinur allegedly forced open the door and punched her in the face before getting a knife from the kitchen and stabbing her multiple times.

Police have said that Abdinur and Stead were romantic partners.

Abdibur's trial was previously continued while he awaited a mental health evaluation.

If found guilty as charged, Abdinur, a native of Somalia whom police characterized as a transient, would face a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole.
WASHINGTON | If you thought the old Donald Trump campaign was wild and crazy, just wait for the new Trump campaign now that Breitbart's Steve Bannon has taken over as chief executive.

The new leadership -- with Bannon and pollster Kellyanne Conway displacing Paul Manafort of the Ukrainian Connection at the top of the heap -- is likely to steer Trump even more in the direction of the European far right. It also tells you something that Bannon sees Sarah Palin, about whom he made a laudatory documentary, as a model for anti-establishment politics.

Bannon is close to Nigel Farage, the former head of the right-wing UK Independence Party, who offered "massive thanks" to Breitbart News for supporting the party's successful campaign on behalf of Britain's departure from the European Union. "Your UKIP team is just incredible," Bannon told Farage during an interview after the June Brexit vote.

Judging from Bannon's history, Trump's campaign will become even harsher in its attacks on Hillary Clinton and work hard to insinuate anti-Clinton stories into the mainstream media. Bloomberg Businessweek's Joshua Green quoted Bannon proudly declaring in mid-2015: "We've got the 15 best investigative reporters at the 15 best newspapers in the country all chasing after Hillary Clinton."

And count on Trump to ramp up his appeals to Bernie Sanders' supporters and the left. Pushing his anti-Clinton film "Clinton Cash" in May, Bannon said he wanted progressives to "understand how the Clintons, who proclaim that they support all your values, essentially have sold you out for money." In his conversation with Farage, Bannon expressed great interest in the role played by left-of-center voters in Brexit's victory.

A Trump press release Wednesday bragged about the headline on Green's important Businessweek article describing Bannon as "the most dangerous political operative in America." The new CEO poses dangers not only to Clinton, but also to Republicans like House Speaker Paul Ryan who have been tiptoeing around their party's nominee by simultaneously criticizing him and endorsing him. Bannon has no use for Ryan. A December piece Bannon co-authored began: "Paul Ryan's first major legislative achievement is a total and complete sell-out of the American people masquerading as an appropriations bill."

Bannon could thus speed the defection of longtime GOP officeholders, while Senate and House campaigns are likely to become even more distant from Trump. In his past endeavors, Bannon targeted not only Clinton but also Jeb Bush. Trump's relations with the Bush wing of the party could hardly be worse, but Bannon is likely to make them impossible.

There is much good news but one piece of bad news for Clinton in the Trump shakeup. The bad news is that she is likely to have to play more defense, especially if Bannon builds on his success in enticing reporters at non-conservative media outlets to work on stories damaging to her.

The good news is that Trump seems determined to fight through the campaign on his own terms. This reduces the chances that he will drop out of the presidential race, which, in turn, means that Clinton is more likely to avoid what would be the biggest blow to her chances: a Trump withdrawal and the naming of a new GOP candidate.

Trump's campaign is also likely to look more extreme, which cannot help the flailing candidate in the suburban, highly educated precincts in states such as Pennsylvania, Virginia, Colorado and North Carolina where he is hemorrhaging more upscale Republican votes. Bannon's fascination with Palin, who turned off many such voters to John McCain after he chose her as his running mate in 2008, could aggravate rather than ease this problem.

And if the theme of this latest bit of Trump court intrigue is a return to the "Let Trump be Trump" philosophy, Clinton's operatives will only cheer. Trump being Trump is precisely what led him to this crisis point.

Bannon's rise dramatizes the catastrophe GOP establishmentarians brought upon themselves by imagining that they could use the far right for their own purposes while somehow keeping it tame. Bannon's European interests suggest he is far more impressed by right-wing third parties than by traditional Republicanism. He believed the anti-establishment rhetoric that Republican politicians deployed but never really meant when they were attacking President Obama. Now, the GOP faces the possibility of a real split.

It fell to Palin in her January endorsement of Trump to tell the party establishment off: "We are mad, and we've been had. They need to get used to it." They are unlikely to get used to Bannon.
Building a successful business is a constantly changing process. So you need to be able to adapt and keep up to ensure long term success. Members of our small business community have had to navigate plenty of changes and updates. Check out some top tips for moving your business toward future success in the list below.

Be Useful for Mobile Shoppers

If you want your business to be successful going forward, you need to focus on mobile. And if you sell products, that means you need to provide an experience that is useful for mobile shoppers. Colin Williamson of Reef Digital shares some tips for doing so in this post.

Get a Headstart With Instagrams Latest Update

Social platforms like Instagram can be great tools for businesses. But theyre also constantly changing. So you need to keep up with updates like Instagrams newest feature, Stories, in order to be successful in the future. Ben Marshall explores how to use Instagrams latest update in this Studio Culture post. And the BizSugar community also discusses the post here.

Protect Your Business From Crashing and Burning

There are all kinds of disasters that can happen to businesses. And while you cant necessarily anticipate all of them, you can use processes to protect your business from some common issues. Benjamin Brandall details how processes can help in this Process Street post.

Maximize Your Marketing Efforts With Statistics

Building your own marketing strategy can be sort of a gamble. But if you take a look at the facts and statistics behind things like social media marketing, like the ones shared in this RightMix Marketing post by Chris Flores, you can improve your odds of being successful.

Consider the Past, Present and Future of SEO

SEO is one of those concepts thats always changing. So if youre going to use it for your business, you need to keep up with all the changes. Jasmine Sandler outlines some of those changes along with what might come next for SEO in this Search Engine Journal post. And BizSugar members share thoughts on the post too.

Bring Your Team Together With Fun Office Activities

Having a strong team can help your business deal with pretty much any situations that come your way. But in order to bring your team together, you might need to get a little creative. Ivan Widjaya has some suggestions for fun office activities in this SMB CEO post.

Engage Employees With Summer Rewards

You can also keep your employees engaged by providing some kind of rewards system. And summer is a great opportunity to offer some fun rewards to your team, as Stephanie Galioto shares in this Marketing Innovators post.

Design the Perfect Twitter Campaign

If you use Twitter as part of your content strategy, you may need to do more than just post the occasional promotional tweets. Using actual Twitter campaigns can be beneficial when done correctly, as David Lowbridge of Two Feet Marketing explores here. You can also see conversation surrounding the post over on BizSugar.

Write a Blog Series

You likely already know about the potential benefits that blogging can bring to your content strategy. But some entrepreneurs still struggle with getting people to read their blogs on an ongoing basis. Thats where blog series can help. Megan Hicks shares how to start a blog series in this post on the Social Marketing Fella blog.

Keep an Eye on These Gadget Trends

If you want your business to be successful well into the future, you need to monitor upcoming trends. Whether you run a tech business or not, gadgets and tech trends can have a huge impact on how you run your business. And Stephen Moyers outlines some upcoming gadget trends in this post on the SPINX Digital Blog.

If youd like to suggest your favorite small business content to be considered for an upcoming community roundup, please send your news tips to: sbtips@gmail.com
WASHINGTON

(Aug. 20, 2016)The U.S. Department of Defense recently announced the following contract awards that pertain to local Navy activities., is being awardedfor modification P00029 to a previously awarded cost-plus-incentive-fee contract (N00019-13-C-0135) for design and development of a controlled breakpoint (CBP) for the aerial refueling (AR) program in support of the E-2D Advanced Hawkeye (AHE) program. The E-2D CBP will be a line replaceable assembly integrated onto the AR probe forward mast assembly to mitigate the hazard of potential foreign object damage to the E-2D during air-to-air refueling operations. The contractor will be responsible for the design, development, test, documentation, and integration of the CBP into the AR baseline. Work will be performed at Melbourne, Florida (52 percent); Wimborne, United Kingdom (39 percent); Bohemia, New York (7 percent); and St. Augustine, Florida (2 percent), and is expected to be completed in January 2019. Fiscal 2016 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $2,600,000 are being obligated on this award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The, is the contracting activity., is being awardedfor modification P00012 to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract (N00019-15-D-0028) to procure additional AIM-9X Sidewinder repairs for the Air Force, and Navy, and the governments of South Korea, Singapore, Finland, Denmark, Switzerland, Poland, Oman, Netherlands, Australia, Kuwait, Morocco, Belgium, and Turkey under the Foreign Military Sales program. Work will be performed in Tucson, Arizona, and is expected to be completed in September 2018. No funds will be obligated at time of award. Funds will be obligated on individual delivery orders as they are issued. This contract combines purchases for Air Force ($2,973,100, 41.39 percent); Navy ($2,556,866; 35.59 percent); and the governments of South Korea ($302,312, 4.21 percent); Singapore ($301,052, 4.19 percent); Finland ($252,274, 3.51 percent); Denmark ($155,551, 2.17 percent); Switzerland ($138,174, 1.93 percent); Poland ($98,816, 1.38 percent); Oman ($81,439, 1.13 percent); Netherlands ($81,439, 1.13 percent); Australia ($79,346, 1.10 percent); Kuwait ($74,112, 1.03 percent); Morocco ($32,031, .45 percent); Belgium ($32,031, .45 percent), and Turkey ($24,704, .34 percent). The, is the contracting activity., is being awarded amodification to a previously awarded advance acquisition contract (N00019-14-C-0067). This modification provides for long-lead parts and efforts associated with the manufacture of two full-rate production 4 Lot 8 P-8A Multi-mission Maritime Aircraft for the government of United Kingdom under the Foreign Military Sales program. Work will be performed in Seattle, Washington (82.6 percent); Baltimore, Maryland (6.2 percent); Greenlawn, New York (4.2 percent); North Amityville, New York (3.5 percent); and Cambridge, United Kingdom (3.5 percent), and is expected to be complete by July 2017. Foreign military sales funds in the amount of $68,409,026 are being obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The, is the contracting activity., is being awarded aone year, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for the repair of various parts on the V-22 aircraft. Work will be performed in Fort Worth, Texas (80 percent); and Ridley Park, Pennsylvania (20 percent). Work is expected to be completed by December 2017. No funds will be obligated at the time of award. Fiscal 2016 working capital funds (Navy) will be obligated through individual delivery orders as they are issued; none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was a sole-source pursuant to the authority set forth in 10 U.S Code 2304(c)(1). Naval Supply Systems Command Weapon Systems Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is the contracting activity (N00383-16-D-951N)., is being awardedfor modification P00009 to a previously awarded, cost-plus-incentive-fee, fixed-price-incentive-firm-target contract N00019-14-C-0004 for additional long lead items in support of the F-35 Lightning II low-rate initial production (LRIP) Lot XI procurement. This modification provides for delivery of long-lead items for the LRIP Lot XI effort for the Navy/Marine Corps, Air Force, international partners, and foreign military sales (FMS) customers. The long-lead items include group hardware supporting 48 F135-PW-100 propulsion systems for the Air Force; group hardware supporting 14 F135-PW-600 propulsion systems for the Marine Corps; group hardware supporting four F135-PW-100 propulsion systems for the Navy; and group hardware supporting 51 F135-PW-100 and three F135-PW-600 propulsion systems for international partners and foreign military sales. This modification also provides for procurement of afloat support packages/deployment spares packages for the Marine Corps. Work will be performed in East Hartford, Connecticut (67 percent); Indianapolis, Indiana (26.5 percent); and Bristol, United Kingdom (6.5 percent), and is expected to be completed in August 2018. Fiscal 2016 aircraft procurement (Navy, Air Force); international partner; and FMS funds in the amount of $17,382,523 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract combines purchases for the Navy/Marine Corps ($15,261,025; 87.8 percent); Air Force ($398,624; 2.3 percent); international partners ($1,656,437; 9.5 percent); and FMS customers ($66,437; 0.40 percent). The, is the contracting activity., is being awarded aindefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for the design and production of the Technical Insertion 2016 Ship Self Defense System upgrades to be installed in various carrier and amphibious ship classes. Technical Insertion 2016 (TI-16) is a planned technical insertion and refresh to the Ship Self Defense System hardware which improves the performance and sustainability of the equipment. TI-16 also introduces a high degree of electronics component commonality with the Aegis Combat System, and capitalizes on improved computer processing, networking, and data storage. TI-16 also introduces the potential of reducing and/or consolidating the number of computers required to meet certain Integrated Combat System requirements. Work will be performed in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and is expected to be completed by August 2020. Fiscal 2016 other procurement (Navy) in the amount of $969,095 will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured and received three offers via the Federal Business Opportunities. The, is the contracting activity (N00178-16-D-3001).
More than 100 dignitaries from the worlds of politics, the U.S. Navy and the San Francisco LGBT community gathered on the Great Lawn at Treasure Island, a small island in between San Francisco and Oakland, on August 16 for the historic naming of an about to be built U.S. Navy supplies ship  the ship has been named after the late Harvey Milk.

Milk was one of the first openly gay elected officials in U.S. history. He served as a Supervisor in San Francisco for only 9 months when he and Mayor George Moscone were assassinated at City Hall in 1978.

Attendees included San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, and San Francisco Supervisor Scott Wiener, who authored the resolution which resulted in the naming of the ship after MilkMr. Wiener currently occupies the seat once held by Milk on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Also present was Harvey Milk's gay nephew Stuart Milk, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi (D-California), Harvey Milk campaign manager Anne Kronenberg, Carol Ruth Silver, who served on the Board of Supervisors with Milk, longtime gay activist Cleve Jones, and Mayor Kevin Faulconer of San Diego CA. The ship will be built at San Diego's naval port.

The ceremony opened with a performance of the Star Spangled Banner by the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus.

Ray Mabus, Secretary of the US Navy, was the keynote speaker and officially named the ship the USNS Harvey Milk. The ship, which is expected to be completed in 2021, is the first Navy vessel to be named after a member of the LGBT community.

"It's important to recognize and honor Milk," Mabus said as he addressed the crowd. "He was a person who stood for, and was killed for, justice, equality and freedom. His assassin tried to silence that voice, but even after death his voice still spoke."

Mabus also recalled Milk's service in the U.S. Navy.

Related: The Legacy of Harvey Milk

"Aren't we proud?" asked Congresswoman Pelosi as she took to the podium. "This ship is another deeply powerful sign of how far we've come. We must acknowledge the role that President Obama played in all of this--without his leadership this would not have happened."

Other speakers acknowledged the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell, the former federal law, which forced LGBT service members to remain closeted, and the more recent lifting of the military's ban on transgender service members.

Paula Neira, who served in Iraq prior to transitioning, took to the podium in tears. "This is not about me," she said. "I am just the person selected to represent the LGBT heroes who served our nation."

Mayor Lee, who is Asian, said that he did not think he could have become mayor if Harvey Milk had not sacrificed his life. "We mourn his loss but celebrate his life," the Mayor said as he spoke to the audience. "This ship is part of the legacy of Harvey's unfinished work."

The ceremony concluded with a performance by the Gay Men's Chorus of Never Ever from NakedMan, an original suite commissioned by the chorus in 1996. After the ceremony, dignitaries posed for photos in front of a drawing of the finalized design for the Harvey Milk ship.

Attendees were jubilant about the ship naming.

"Being a part of this will remain with me for the rest of my life," Supervisor Wiener SFGN after the ceremony.

"Harvey would have loved it," said Carol Ruth Silver."It does say how far we've come--we still have many leagues to go in the world."

"This is a momentous day," added Anne Kronenberg. "I think Harvey is dancing a jig--I asked Secretary Mabus to paint the side of the ship Lavender. He smiled and didn't say no."

Stuart Milk smiled throughout the afternoon. "Harvey's legacy is a global message of visibility," he said. "This ship represents kids in playgrounds and people in corporate boardrooms who endured homophobic remarks. This is the legacy of my uncle."
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  On Thursday, TEPCO issued a report on the projects progress stating that 99 percent of their thermometer readings showed that the walls temperatures are at or below the freezing point, proposing to embed in concrete the remaining one percent of the barrier which compromises the success of the project.

"The plan to block groundwater with a frozen wall of earth is failing. They need to come up with another solution, even if they keep going forward with the plan," panel member Yoshinori Kitsutaka said on Friday, as quoted by the Asahi Shimbun newspaper.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  President of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte declared a new unilateral truce with the New People's Army (NPA), the armed wing of the country's Communist Party, on Saturday ahead of the Oslo peace talks, a statement issued by the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process revealed.

"Today, the President restores the effects of ceasefire declaration precisely at this strategic time when we are all at the onset of the formal resumption of peace talks that had previously stalled for the last four years. The operational guideline of the said ceasefire declaration for the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the Philippine National Police and other security units are also hereby restored," the statement says.

The previous ceasefire was introduced on July 25, but was withdrawn at Duterte's request five days after it was declared in response to the rebels' attack on soldiers.
Earlier this week,, Seoul announced that the diplomat and his family had legally emigrated to South Korea.

"Amid fear of his crimes being unmasked and fear of punishment in accordance with the law, he portrayed despicable farce with the flight to South Korea with his family. The runaway stole large sums of public funds, sold state secrets, and was engaged in sexual abuse of minors, as well. To investigate all these crimes, he was sent a recall in June," the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in a statement.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  According to the findings of France's National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies, the decline dynamics was more moderate in June. The reason behind that, according to the researchers, is UEFA Euro 2016, which France held on June 10-July 10.

France has witnessed a series of deadly terrorist attacks over the past year, with a multiple terrorist attacks in November killing 130 in Paris and 84 people being killed in a July attack in Nice.
"It is planned that the convoy will consist of over 70 vehicles that will deliver over 600 tonnes [metric tons] of humanitarian cargo [to Ukraines southeast], most of which will be food, medicine and school textbooks," the spokesperson said.

Ukraines southeast has been severely affected by Kievs special military operation, launched in the southeastern Donetsk and Lugansk regions in April 2014. The operation was a response to local residents' refusal to recognize the new coup-installed government in the country.

Russia has sent over 63,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid to Donbass since August 2014.

Russia is considered to be one of the world leaders in providing humanitarian relief.

According to the Russian Emergencies Ministry, the country has carried out about 400 humanitarian operations in various part of the world since 1993, of which over 80 were carried out since the start of 2015, bringing more than 90,000 tonnes of aid to 18 different nations.
Welp, with the upcoming possibility of nexit I shall only say to Netherlands people  stay strong and think deep. #notonexit  Viktorija (@viktori12544909) 19  2016 .

Speaking to Sputnik, Konstantin Voronov of the Institute of World Economy and International Relations in Moscow noted that the Party for Freedom remains the third-largest political force in the Netherlands and enjoys growing voter support.

@LeaveEUOfficial @JoKer33817736 now the Netherlands needs to follow. NEXIT as soon as possible  kennith van santen (@kennith1980) 13  2016 .

He said that it is still unclear whether a national referendum will be held in the Netherlands, but that the very fact that the party has put forward this initiative is very symptomatic.

"After Brexit, many wondered if it was a [one-off] or a pan-European phenomenon which may finally change the configuration of the EU as a result of a so-called 'domino effect'. As for the Netherlands, the country is at the forefront of these tendencies, which have intensified in the EU," Voronov said.

According to him, many in the Netherlands have already realized the fact that the EU project had come to a standstill and that some Dutch voters are displeased with the EU's format.

"The British referendum was followed by a process of reviewing the European integration project. The Netherlands was the founding country of the European Union, and I think that now they have come to the conclusion that the project has stalled," he said.

Voronov added that in addition to the restrictions imposed by Brussels, the EU countries are now going through a whole array of crises, including those related to migration, the economy and the euro, and experiencing dysfunctions related to the integration of the EU institutions.

"Against this background, countries that have a particular specialization in the international division of labor feel that they might as well do without the integration association. Problems [related to] the 'four freedoms'  free movement of goods, services, capital and people  can be solved within the framework of the European Economic Area," he said.

Party for Freedom leader Geert Wilders, meanwhile, said that "Brussels should not dictate who we can have economic and political relations with" and that "restoring ties with Russia is a priority direction for the traditionally trade oriented country which is what the Netherlands has always been."

"For centuries our countries have benefited from bilateral cooperation despite conflicts. And today lifting the anti-Russian sanctions is a mandatory condition for our positive future," Wilders told the Russian newspaper Izvestia.
LUGANSK (Sputnik)  Head of the self-proclaimed Lugansk Peoples Republic, Igor Plotnitsky, urged Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Saturday to release all war prisoners on the territory of Ukraine in exchange for detainees in Lugansk.

"If Ukraine is a democratic and European state, [Poroshenko] should do it, he should release all the detained [prisoners] he has. I assure you, we on our side will let all free the next day," Plotnitsky said.
The trace of the US in plotting the coup attempt in Turkey is only too clear. And Erdogans decision to block the base, from which, as he claimed, the aircraft of the coupists took off from, is blackmail, he said.

The expert explained that by such a move Recep Tayyip Erdogan is both ensuring his life and threatening the US. And his possible message is: if the Americans do not drop their idea to topple him militarily or otherwise, he will seize the nuclear arsenal.

And with the nuclear arsenal he would become an extremely serious figure, said Manoilo.

It is not a bluff, he told Sputnik.

Erdogan could easily capture the NATO air base. He understands perfectly well that Washington has already convicted him. And if he doesnt take some action, and Washington is not afraid of him and is not in need of him, sooner or later the Americans will repeat their coup attempt, said the political analyst.

He further suggested that Erdogan has nothing to lose through this blackmail, and he sees it as one of the last guarantees of his immunity.

He is not lifting the blockade and this could only mean that Erdogan is trying to apply a policy of containment towards the US, Andrei Manoilo concluded.

Earlier this week the Brussels-based online paper EurActive.com reported citing its own sources, that the United States had started transferring its nuclear munitions in Turkey to the Derveselu air base in Romania.

The Romanian foreign ministry firmly denied the information that the country has become home to US nukes.
In an interview with Sputnik, Pristina-based political analyst Berat Buzhala said that it is unclear how "the people of Kosovo will react to such a move by Edi Rama," and that he is very much concerned about the fact that Edi Rama moves to speak in Belgrade on behalf of Kosovo."

He added that he wants the Kosovo authorities to continue negotiations with Belgrade, and that the venue of the talks should not be moved to Tirana.

"I think that Tirana must not represent Kosovo anywhere in the world. Issues under discussion are not the problems of relations between Albania and Serbia. These are the problem of Kosovo and Serbia. And I would very much like their early resolution, but without Edi Rama," Buzhala said.

He described Kosovo as a full-fledged state, saying that only Kosovo's own leaders are authorized to negotiate with Belgrade and resolve internal problems.

In the meantime, Kosovar Serbs see Rama's participation in the upcoming economic summit in Belgrade as a sign that Serbia is signaling its readiness to recognize Kosovoa as an independent state.

Momcilo Trajkovic, chairman of the Serbian Resistance Movement from Kosovo and Metohija, told Sputnik that he is not surprised about the latest events on the matter.

"The Kosovo authorities are gradually begin to open checkpoints in Central Serbia, and they are looking for a way to justify it. All this may slowly but surely lead to the recognition of Kosovo's independence by Belgrade," he said.
The Ukrainian military has been making preparations for a large-scale military parade in Kiev dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the country's independence, celebrated on August 24. Unfortunately, according to a local agency charged with maintaining and repairing the city's streets, the army's negligence and lack of professionalism have resulted in the parade rehearsals seriously damaging the road surface in the center of the capital.

The agency, known as 'Kievavtodor', complained about what's going on in its official Facebook page, writing that "the asphalt in the streets where military equipment has passed has faced tremendous damage."

According to the road authority, the damage occurred "as the result of elementary negligence, a lack of professionalism and indifference, despite repeated assurances that the military equipment would be transported on special vehicles, with their tracks fitted with special rubber or propylene plates."
PRAGUE (Sputnik)  Prague plans to allocate one million Czech korunas (approximately $42,000 at the current exchange rates) to train Libya's coast guards in order to tackle undocumented migration by sea, local media reported Saturday.

Prague could spend the above-mentioned sum to deal with the migration flow from Libya to Italy, the Czech EuroZprvy news website said.
In his interview with the radio station, Melnyk urged German authorities to give Ukraine weapons. "What we are asking for is defensive weapons; for example, if we had artillery detection systems, it would reduce the risk of further escalation, because the separatists would have to think twice about shelling, knowing that they would face an immediate, precise, devastating response," he said.

But in a post-interview commentary, Melnyk interviewer Sabine Adler suggested that Ukraine already has an enormous armory, and is fully capable of creating the weapons systems it requires for itself.

"If there is something Ukraine has an abundance of, it is armaments," the journalist wrote. Accordingly, she added, Berlin should refuse to deliver such weapons, not only in the interest of preserving the fragile peace in the east of the country, but "because Kiev's desire for them is simply incomprehensible."
BELGRADE (Sputnik)  The Serbian police prevented the smuggling of 38 migrants and arrested two individuals, who allegedly organized their illegal transportation, the Serbian Interior Ministry said in a statement on Saturday.

"The police found three minibuses with migrants from Afghanistan in a parking lot near the town of Majdanpek. S.N., born in 1965, and policeman D.P., born in 1986, were detained at the scene. Another two men, suspected of illegal border crossing and smuggling of people, have been put on a wanted list," the statement reads.
Ultimately, Galkin warned that Ukraine's leaders presently find it absolutely vital to make it seem that Russia is preparing to invade the country. "Obviously, this will require an escalation of tensions in the Donbass. Moreover, Poroshenko does not need to hold on to a war footing for very long. He needs to bring down the growing social protest, and for this it is necessary to make protest activity impossible for two-three months. After that, it can be declared that thanks to the decisive actions of the authorities, it was possible to prevent Russia from implementing its aggressive plans."

Still, the analyst also noted that the introduction of martial law would disrupt the Minsk peace process, causing resentment among Kiev's Western benefactors, and "dramatically enhancing Russia's foreign policy positions. Poroshenko knows this, and therefore there are serious reasons to doubt that things will move beyond propagandistic statements designed to intimidate Ukrainian society."

For his part, Ukrainian political scientist Alexander Dudchak suggested that Poroshenko's comments amount to political "panic."

"Time is not on the side of Ukrainian authorities. They have had zero successes. None of the promises made during the Maidan 'revolution' have been fulfilled; Crimea left, the Donbass was lost; the economy is in ruins. The war in the Donbass has led to material losses for Europe. The West's interest in Ukraine has declined dramatically. No one wants to assist the country even with loans. Debts must be repaid."

Effectively, Dudchak too suggested that while Poroshenko may temporarily benefit from the imposition of martial law, he has to realize "that such a decision will radically narrow his opportunities for political maneuver."
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  According to Dehghan, the use of Hamadan air base is the result of mutual cooperation at Syria's government request.

"Reception of Russian aircraft at the airbase in Hamadan is carried out in the framework of mutual cooperation and the fight against terrorism at the request of the Syrian government," Hossein Dehghan said as quoted by the Tasnim news agency.

Tehran Has No Plan to Acquire Russias S-400
This point of view is echoed by The New York Times, which says that Russia now has the ability to strike from virtually all directions in a region where it has been reasserting its power  from Iran, from warships in the Caspian Sea, from its base in the Syrian coastal province of Latakia and now from the Mediterranean.

The newspaper however notes that the decision to fly the long-range bombers from Iran rather than from Moscow is even far more important militarily: if it continues, this could result in a more devastating air war over a long period of time.

The outlet explains that while both Russia and the US say they share the goal of defeating the Islamic State group (Daesh) in Syria, they are waging parallel but separate wars against the militant group while simultaneously backing opposite sides in the conflict between Russias ally, President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, and his other opponents, including rebels backed by the US.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The normalization agreement, according to the Haaretz newspaper, requires Israel to transfer $20 million to Turkey within 25 days for a 2010 raid on a Turkish flag-bearing vessel that killed ten Turkish activists.

Relations between Israel and Turkey deteriorated after the Freedom Flotilla incident in May 2010, when a convoy of six ships, including one sailing under a Turkish flag, tried to approach the Gaza Strip with humanitarian aid and activists on board. The flotilla was blocked and stormed by Israeli forces.

Turkey responded by expelling the Israeli ambassador from the country, recalling its ambassador from Israel and demanding a formal apology from Israel, as well as compensation for the victims' families.


MOSCOW (Sputnik)Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil has called on the countrys mission to the United Nations to submit a complaint about the Israeli incursions in the occupied southern towns of Ghajar and Shebaa Farms, the National News Agency (NNA) reported.

"These attacks are a clear violation of resolution 1701 [aimed at ending the hostilities in Lebanon], the rights of people and the sovereignty of Lebanon," Bassil said in a letter to the mission, as quoted by NNA on Friday.

The move coincided with the day residents of southern Lebanon entered Shebaa Farms to raise their state's flag to protest the construction of a road in the area for the use by Israel's military.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Yemeni Houthi rebels are planning to work on the creation of a new government in the near future, the head of the so-called Supreme Political Council formed by the Houthis, said on Saturday.

In August, the UN-brokered talks in Kuwait ended with the government and Houthi rebels failing to come to an agreement. As the talks broke down, the hostilities intensified in Yemen, and the rebels formed the Supreme Political Council with a prospect of ruling the country.

"We will work on the creation of the government in the coming days and the promotion of national reconciliation," Saleh Ali Sammad said, as quoted by the Al Manar television channel.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Ankara is implementing reforms to restructure intelligence services, such as the National Intelligence Agency (MIT), following a thwarted coup attempt in July, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim confirmed on Saturday.

On August 1, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said that country's authorities were considering the possibility to restructure intelligence units.

"We are doing new efforts regarding MIT. Due to the developing communications technologies and world conditions, intelligence agencies should be renewed July 15 showed us that protective measures and preventive intel are very significant. I wish that the coup attempt would be prevented even if we didnt receive any intel. We will restructure the intelligence as domestic and foreign," Yildirm said, as quoted by the Hurriyet newspaper.
He also stressed the significance of the agreement in terms of contributing to regional security.

"As far as the Middle East region's peace and stability are concerned, the agreement could help Russia, Turkey and Israel cooperate in order to tackle Daesh (ISIL/ISIS/Islamic State) terrorism," he said.

He added that additionally, the reconciliation deal will almost certainly add considerably to developing trade and economic ties between Israel and Turkey, including in the oil and gas sector.

In history we don't like to ask what ifs. However, if Israel+Turkey relations had not gone bad, how different would Middle East look now?  Louis Fishman (@Istanbultelaviv) 20  2016 .

Relations between Tel Aviv and Ankara soured in 2010, after Israeli forces attacked a Turkish humanitarian aid ship as it headed to the Gaza Strip, which as blockaded by Israel.

At the time, Ankara ruptured most of the relations with Israel and demanded certain condition for the normalization of ties.

IsraelTurkey relations were formalized in March 1949.[1]Turkey was the first Muslim majority countryto recognize the State of Israel.  Mohammed Ali Minhaj (@ali_minhaj) 19  2016 .

Under the reconciliation deal, Israel will pay compensation worth twenty million dollars to the families and relatives of those killed on the relief ship Mavi Marmara during the May 31, 2010 Gaza flotilla raid within 25 days.


MOSCOW (Sputnik)Akbar said that India was ready to offer assistance to the Syrian government and people, suffering from the war as well as to contribute "effectively" to the reconstruction works and the development processes in the Arab republic, according to the Syrian SANA news agency.

Syrian President Bashar Assad and Akbar held a meeting in Damascus earlier in the day. Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem and high-ranking Syrian officials were also present at the meeting. The sides discussed the situation in Syria and the threats of terrorism in the world, the media outlet added. The Indian official also stressed the importance of cooperation with Syria in the fight against terrorism.

Syria has been mired in civil war since 2011, with government forces loyal to Assad fighting against a number of opposition factions and extremist groups. On February 27, a US-Russia brokered ceasefire came into force across Syria. Terrorist groups such as Islamic State (IS, also known as Daesh), as well as Jabhat Fatah al Sham (also known as Jabhat al-Nusra, or Nusra Front) are not part of the deal. Both groups are banned in Russia and a range of other countries.
CAIRO (Sputnik)  The delegation of Yemeni rebels who participated in the peace talks, has rejected a new meeting with UN Special Envoy for Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, in protest against the actions of the Arab coalition led by Saudi Arabia, a source in the delegation told Sputnik Saturday.

The UN-brokered talks to end the Yemeni conflict started in Kuwait on April 21. The talks ended in early August, with the government and Houthi rebels failing to come to an agreement. As the talks wrapped up, the Houthi delegation flew to Oman for consultation with local authorities. From there, they tried to return to the Yemeni capital Sanaa, but failed over the government ban.

"[They refused to meet the UN envoy] in protest against the refusal of the Arab coalition led by Saudi Arabia to let the Oman plane, on which the delegation had to return to Sanaa more than ten days ago, pass" the source said.
"It just remains to come to an agreement with Erdogan that we get the NATO base Incirlik as [our] primary airbase," Senator Igor Morozov, a member of the upper houses committee on international affairs said reports the British newspaper The Times. He explained that the development would enable the Russian air force to engage in "constant bombing" of Daesh and other jihadist groups to bring the conflict to a resolution faster.

"Youll see, the next base will be Incirlik," he told Izvestia after the Kremlin revealed this week that its bombers had started flying out of Iran to launch attack on Syria. "This will be one more victory for Putin."

Another Senator, Viktor Ozerov, told RIA Novosti, "Its not certain that Russia needs Incirlik, but such a decision would be seen as a real willingness on Turkeys part to cooperate with Russia in the war against terrorism in Syria."
Gareth Jenkins, an Istanbul-based Nonresident Senior Fellow with the Silk Road Studies Program at John Hopkins University, told Radio Sputnik that while economic relations between the countries had not been affected by the rift, the deal is politically significant.

"(With) this deal, Turkey has accepted Israel's right to blockade Gaza, which is quite a big step back by the Turks," Jenkins said.

"There is still quite a lot of suspicion and distrust of Turkey inside Israel, particularly of President Erdogan, so I don't think this is going to lead to any really big changes in the region."
On August 15th, the US-backed coalition, Saudi-led coalition, that had already been accused of conducting "indiscriminate bombings", conducted an airstrike that obliterated a Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF) hospital in Hajjah Province of Yemen. At least 15 people were killed during that strike.

According to Adam Stump, "At no point did U.S. military personnel provide direct or implicit approval of target selection or prosecution."

U.S. Representative Ted Lieu believes it is Riyadh who is to blame for high degree of civilian casualties.

"When it repeated airstrikes that have now killed children, doctors, newlyweds, patients, at some point you just have to say: Either Saudi Arabia is not listening to the United States or they just don't care," he said.

The comments from Riyadh aim to create an impression that no damage to military cooperation has been done.

"The relationship between the kingdom and the US is a strategic one. If true, this move reflects something at a tactical level," spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, Brigadier General Ahmed al-Asseri told reporters. "The US may move its assets, but that doesn't have any impact on the bilateral relationship between the countries."
Saudi-led coalition fighter jets struck the Yemeni capital of Sanaa during a massive demonstration that attracted over 100,000 pro-Houthi rebels and supporters of the former President Abdullah Saleh.

Tens of thousands rallied in Sanaas central square in a dynamic display of democratic power in favor of the Shiite Houthi rebels with demonstrators proudly cheering a recently established Supreme Political Council including members of the Houthi movement.

But then the powerful moment of human dignity and expression turned tragic as fighter jets began bombing Yemens capital, including the area near the Presidential palace where protesters were assembled according to AP. The strike resulted in an unknown number of casualties according to the news agency although eyewitnesses say that at least three civilians were killed and dozens were wounded.
"Lockheed Martin has been awarded [a] contract with a not-to-exceed ceiling of $10,020,000,000 [to] support the C-130J production program, " the release stated on Friday.

The C-130J is an upgrade from the C-130E Hercules and includes new engines, computer systems and heads up displays for the pilots.
The IG report focuses on the US Army's General Fund, the larger of its two primary accounts. The assets of the General Fund are thought to be in the neighborhood of $282.6 billion in 2015. But no one knows for certain, as much of the required financial data was either lost or was simply not recorded, the report says.

A. Franklin Spinney, a retired military analyst for the Pentagon and critic of DoD planning, asked reporters, "Where is the money going? Nobody knows."

An accurate accounting is likely to reveal much deeper problems within the culture of spending at the DoD. The DoD total annual budget is currently estimated to be some $573 billion, more than half of the entire United States budget. If DoD accounting errors are fully revealed and the whole scale of financial fraud is discovered, the consequences for the entire US military will be significant.

Spinney suggests that the lack of record keeping is not just improperly balanced books. He pointed out that both US presidential candidates have called for an increase in military spending, justifying it by intensifying conflicts and tensions around the globe.

Congress has now put the DoD on a September 30, 2017, audit deadline. Many doubt that the US military will meet that deadline.

The IG report also notes that the Defense Finance and Accounting Services (DFAS) have made unjustified changes to their budget figures.

According to the report, when DFAS computers show different numbers for ammunition or, say, missiles, they simply insert a false "correction" to make the numbers match. With over 16,000 financial data files vanished from the DFAS computer system, the patchwork budgeting is not only necessary, it's life-saving, especially for the expensive weapons programs that keep the military vital, the report says.

According to Jack Armstrong, a former Defense Inspector General, the accounting problem was a known issue as far back as 2010.

"They don't know what the heck the balances should be," Armstrong said.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  According to the US navy, no personnel was injured in the incident which is currently being looked into by authorities.

"The ballistic-missile submarine USS Louisiana (SSBN 743) and a U.S. Navy Offshore Support Vessel collided while conducting routine operations in the Strait of Juan de Fuca off the coast of Washington state on August 18, 2016," the statement published Friday local time reads.

Both ships returned to ports in Washington under their own power, the Pacific Fleet added.
Furthermore, Fang recalled that many experts remain "unconvinced that Russia poses a direct military threat. The Soviet Union's military once stood at over 4 million soldiers, but today Russia has less than 1 million." Meanwhile, "NATO's combined military budget vastly outranks Russia's  with the US alone outspending Russia on its military by $609 billion to less than $85 billion."

"And yet, the Aerospace Industries Association, a lobby group for Lockheed Martin, Textron, Raytheon, and other defense contractors, argued in February that the Pentagon is not spending enough to counter 'Russian aggression on NATO's Doorstep'. Think tanks with major funding from defense contractors, including the Lexington Institute and the Atlantic Council, have similarly demanded higher defense spending to counter Russia."

These groups aren't limiting their hopes to contracts from the US military, either, and argue for everything from providing lethal aid to Kiev for its war against the rebellious eastern regions, to the granting of lucrative contracts to US allies in Eastern Europe in their efforts beef up their capabilities against Russia.

Nor are the contracts limited to conventional weapons, with lobbyists, officials and pro-arms industry media successfully advancing projects such as the Aegis Ashore missile defense installation in Poland (a contract recently awarded to Lockheed Martin), along with new shipbuilding, fighter jet and anti-tank weapons elsewhere.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The Russian army will receive the first samples of advanced Pantsir-SA air defense systems designed for the Arctic region by the end of 2016, the Aerospace Forces' deputy commander-in-chief said Saturday.

"Before the end of this year, first samples of a new Pantsir-SA self-propelled anti-aircraft complex, designed for combat in the Arctic conditions, will become operational in the Aerospace Forces and the Northern Fleet," Lt. Gen. Viktor Gumennyy told Russia's Life broadcaster.

He added that Russia's army was also receiving Pantsir-S and Pantsir-S2 systems.
Speaking at the Space and Missile Defense Symposium, Adm. Cecil Haney, the commander of US Strategic Command (STRATCOM) focused in on this perceived military challenge.

"Hyper-glide vehicle research and development are also challenging our planning," said Adm. Haney. "The ability to find, fix and track and hold these types of capabilities are becoming increasingly more difficult. Hyper-glide vehicle technology can complicate our sensing and our defensive approaches.'
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  At the same time Yildirim added that there were no need in Moscow's use of the base, because Russia possessed facilities located in Syria that was not far from Incirlik.

"This information is not correct, but if necessary the Incirlik base could be used," Yildirim told reporters, answering a question about Moscow's alleged request for use of the base, as quoted by the Turkish Anadolu news agency.

Russia has been conducting an aerial campaign against terrorists in Syria since September 30, 2015 at President Bashar Assad's request. The majority of operations is conducted from Russian air base Hmeimim in Syria, while country's Aerospace Forces are also conducting sorties from Russia and from Iran's Hamadan base.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The Russia-US brokered ceasefire regime in Syria came into force on February 27. The Jabhat Fatah Al-Sham, formerly known as al-Nusra Front, and the Daesh terrorist groups, which have been outlawed in Russia, are not part of the ceasefire deal.

"The ceasefire has been observed in most provinces of the Syrian Arab Republic. Within last 24 hours, seven ceasefire violations have been registered in the Damascus (6), and Latakia (1) provinces," the ministry said in a daily bulletin posted on its website.

Total of 439 Settlements Have Joined Syrian Ceasefire
Yesterday, on August 19th, Foreign Policy published an article, named "No, the the U.S. Is Not Moving Its Nukes From Turkey to Romania." The article quotes a nuclear weapons expert Jeffrey Lewis, calling the information unlikely. According to Lewis, Romania lacks the required infrastructure needed to store the weapons safely. Unfortunately, Foreign Policy did not provide any official confirmation or denial for the message.

On August 20th, World Bulletin published an article citing Amy Woolf, a researcher for nuclear weapons policy for the U.S. Congressional Research Service. According to Woolf, the nuclear weapons at Incirlik cannot be used, because they required a massive bomber that could drop them.

On August 20th, the Prime Minister of Turkey Binali Yildirim said that Russia could possibly use country's southern Incirlik Air Base if it becomes necessary. He also added that up to this point, Russia had no need for this base.

What's really going on at Incirlik?

While it's clearly impossible to say for sure, there are some more publications on the Web that drop hints at what may be happening.

There are reports on various websites citing a Tweet posted on August 16th by Ibrahim Karagul, a chief editor of Turkish newspaper Yeni Safak, saying "Nuclear weapons at Incirlik should be transferred to Turkey. Or Turkey should take these weapons into its own hands."

While this is solely a personal opinion of a particular Turkish citizen, it is interesting in connection with another publication.
UPDATE: The death toll from the terror attack that struck the Turkish city of Gaziantep has risen to 30 dead with 94 civilians wounded according to the city's Governor reports Sputnik News Wire. The attack targeted a wedding on Saturday night with the purpose of creating mass civilian carnage. Parliamentary deputy from the ruling AKP Party, Samil Tayyar, said that he believed that the Daesh terror network was behind the attack, not the PKK.

Samil Tayyar (@samiltayyar27) August 20, 2016

Journalist Mete Sohtaoglu, the former editor at CNN Turk, confirms that authorities believe at least 8 are dead and more than 30 others have been wounded in the attack based on preliminary information. Video from the scene corroborates the violent nature of the attack featuring images too graphic to republish.

Mete Sohtaoglu (@metesohtaoglu) August 20, 2016

Ambulances continue to race to the scene as authorities attempt to get a handle on the carnage that has resulted from the strike.
Gulen is currently living in the US city of Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania, Earlier this month, Turkey officially requested the United States for Gulens extradition. Anklara said that it had collected the necessary materials for the extradition of Gulen even before the coup, and later worked out and enlarged them.

"The United States has a reputation in the world as a country that upholds the rule of law. So I trust they will follow the proper procedures. Of course, it is possible for the US authorities to be deceived as well. Technically there is a possibility although I dont consider that a significant likelihood," Gulen told Al Arabiya in an interview.
Earlier this week, Maduro said he would act much tougher than his Turkish counterpart in case of a coup attempt in Venezuela.

On July 15, a military coup attempt took place in Turkey. It was suppressed the following day. Over 240 people were killed during the coup attempt and an estimated 2,000 were wounded. Over 13,000 people have been detained during the crackdown launched after the coup attempt.

Ankara has accused dissident Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, who has lived in the US state of Pennsylvania since 1999, and his followers of playing a key role in the coup.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  Biden met with Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic during a visit where he emphasized the starting of a new chapter in the US-Serbian relationship that he described as sometimes painful.

Yesterday, we reached a new extradition treaty, Biden said on Friday, adding that the treaty will enable much more effective cooperation between our countries on law enforcement.

The United States led NATOs 78-day bombing campaign of Serbia, then part of Yugoslavia, in 1999.
"Children of Omrans age in Syria have known nothing but the horror of this war waged by adults. We all should demand that those same adults bring an end to the nightmare of Aleppos children," Lake stressed.

Syria has been mired in civil war since 2011, with government forces loyal to President Bashar Assad fighting against a number of opposition factions and extremist groups. On February 27, a US-Russia brokered ceasefire came into force across Syria. Terrorist groups such as Daesh, as well as Jabhat Fatah al Sham (also known as Jabhat al-Nusra Front) are not part of the deal. Both groups are banned in Russia and a range of other countries.

On Friday, Syrian Gen. Hassan Hassan told the Russian Izvestia newspaper that the Russian Sukhoi Su-24M2 aircraft provided to Syria are being successfully used in the fight against terrorists in the Aleppo area.


MOSCOW (Sputnik)Yildirim's meeting with CHP's Kemal Kilicdaroglu and MHP's Devlet Bahceli will take place in his official residence, the Cankaya Palace, in Ankara for the second time since July's coup attempt, the Hurriyet newspaper said.

"We will discuss the issues of terror, constitution, Syria and Turkeys future. We will talk about the things that need to be done after the coup attempt. The President [Recep Tayyip Erdogan] said in Yenikapi [Istanbul's square] that nothing will be the same anymore. We are continuing on that road," Yildirim said at a meeting with foreign correspondents, as cited by the Turkish daily.

On July 19, Yildirim held two separate meetings with Kilicdaroglu and Bahceli at the Cankaya Palace in Ankara. On August 1, the prime minister met the CHP leader at the party's headquarters and the MHP leader at the parliament to discuss the decree-laws under the declared state of emergency after the attempted coup.
Furthermore, the analyst noted, the world's transformation from a bipolar to a multipolar system of power in the past quarter century "have weakened the ties between the member states, offering them a host of alternatives" to NATO as a source of security. At the same time, a series of events, including the US-led invasion of Iraq, and the protracted conflict in Afghanistan, which has undermined NATO's prestige, has only further damaged the alliance's unity.

The 2003 invasion of Iraq in particular, which France and Germany refused to participate in or even endorse, led to further divisions, according to Sulc, with Turkey siding with the Europeans and refusing to provide Washington with the use of its bases for the initial invasion. In return, Ankara may have expected from the Europeans the possibility of membership in the EU, something it soon became clear wasn't going to happen. "To a certain extent, this humiliated Turkey's secular elites. Erdogan's position, on the other hand, was strengthened; Turkey changed, with a neo-Ottoman politics forming."

What's more, Ankara's ambitions were only strengthened following the string of uprisings throughout the Middle East known as the 'Arab Spring', that is, in a region which was once part of the former Ottoman Empire. "These problems provided opportunities which Turkey has used, and will use, for their purposes. And they often do not coincide with the policy of the alliance," the analyst suggested.

Taking note of a point once made by Robert D. Kaplan in his book 'The Revenge of Geography', Sulc noted that as the memory of the bipolar world of the Cold War fades into history, Ankara, together with Tehran, have been becoming more and more involved in the Arab World.

At the same time, the analyst suggested that Turkey's importance to the alliance is fading, "Today, after Romania and Bulgaria's accession into NATO, access to the Black Sea can be ensured even without Turkey, which is also no longer directly adjacent to Russia [despite having bordered the Soviet Union]." Combined with Ankara's pursuit of its own interests in the region, and its increased activity in the Arab world, this factor makes it possible "to question the significance of Turkey to the alliance, due to its unpredictability."
Referring to Russia's alleged plans to reorient its forces in "various spots to potential areas of conflict," some US-based analysts have admitted that the moves "don't necessarily indicate imminent military activity," Marson and Grove noted.

Indeed, amid a series of NATO joint military drills in the Black Sea this July, Moscow announced that it would deploy its S-400 Triumf cutting-edge air defense systems to Crimea in August, thus bringing the peninsular defense to "a whole new level."

Still, it wasn't the so-called Russian "military buildup" that aggravated tensions between Moscow and Kiev. The recent Russo-Ukrainian controversy has been sparked by a failed act of sabotage in Crimea.

On August 10, Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) reported that it had prevented a series of terrorist attacks in Crimea plotted by the Ukrainian Defense Ministry's intelligence services and stamped out a spy ring in the peninsula.

"The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation prevented terrorist acts in the Republic of Crimea, prepared by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense's Main Intelligence Directorate," the FSB's official statement read.
Commenting on Pillar's remarks, Boris Dolgov, senior fellow at the Center for Arab and Islamic Studies at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Science, noted that Russia has indeed returned to the Middle East.

"In Soviet times the Middle East was regarded as an ally [of the USSR]. Now the situation is different. But Russia has returned to the region. As for [Russia's] allies, Syria is [Moscow's] traditional partner," Dolgov told Svobodnaya Pressa.

Russia has its own interests in the region, the Russian academic pointed out.

Moscow is now restoring relations with Turkey which has never been regarded as Russia's traditional ally. On the other hand, the Kremlin maintains closer ties with Iran, Dolgov remarked, referring to the recent deployment of Russia's Air Force at Hamadan.

However, the Russian academic does share Pillar's stance on Russia "willing to do business with anyone" in the region.

"Russia has its own agenda [in the Middle East]," Dolgov noted.

"What is of ultimate importance is that Russia has returned to the Middle East and that it is actively pursuing its goals there," he underscored.
Several things are wrong with this picture. First, contrary to the claims of pundits including Maddow, Yanukovych was not a 'dictator'. He was elected with a plurality of the popular vote in a runoff election against former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko in February 2010, after former pro-Western President Viktor Yushchenko was thrown out of the running with just 5% of the vote in the first round.

By early 2014, Yanukovych's popularity was slipping, thanks to political mismanagement and allegations of widespread corruption, but he did remain the internationally recognized president of Ukraine, before being forced out of office in an unconstitutional putsch known as the Maidan revolution.

But what's even more important to point out is that while Manafort's service as an advisor to the Ukrainian president is well documented (as has his career advising other foreign leaders from around the world), the claim that Yanukovych was "Putin's guy" is a stretch of the imagination so painful as to give political scientists who actually remember his presidency a headache.

Yanukovych, it should be remembered, did not change Ukraine's strategic course toward Russia, and only slightly modified his pro-Western predecessor's policy of seeking to integrate with the European Union and NATO. He gladly signed on to his predecessor's 2008 US-Ukraine Charter on Strategic Partnership, a document affirming Kiev and Washington's intent to be "strategic partners."

Shortly after his election in 2010, Yanukovych distanced himself from Yushchenko's policy aimed at joining NATO, but praised Kiev's relations with the alliance as "well defined." He even teased alliance officials, saying that Ukrainian membership in NATO could "emerge at some point, but we will not see it in the immediate future." Kiev and NATO continued their cooperation, including joint military exercises, throughout Yanukovych's term in office.
Cartwright evaded the question refusing to say that Hillary Clinton did not lie or that there were not classified documents, but instead proceeded to try to explain, it seems, why the inaccurate statements made by Hillary Clinton regarding the presence of classified information may have been made unwittingly.

"What were talking about is we have three emails that had little cs buried in the text someplace," said Cartwright attempting to downplay the incident. "I had the manual, and I showed Director Comey the manual, and the manual for classifying documents makes it very clear, that if youre going to classify something, there has to be a header that says 'Top secret,' or 'Classified,' or 'Confidential.'"

Of course, while what Congressman Cartwright refers to may be a best practice by the originator of a classified communication, the presence of a classification marker is sufficient to deem a document worthy of protecting and, in addition, many files are deemed to be "born classified" because of the sensitivity of their content whether or not they are appropriately marked with officials tasked with deciphering such.

Hillary Clinton testified before the Benghazi Committee that there were no documents marked classified, either sent or received, that passed through her private email server with the campaign arguing that, even if not true, the Secretary was not aware of the falsehood of the statement at the time.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte gestures while delivering a speech during the 115th Police Service Anniversary at the Philippine National Police (PNP) headquarters in Quezon city, metro Manila, Philippines August 17, 2016. [Photo/VCG]

MANILA - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte declared on Saturday an indefinite ceasefire to pave the way for resumption of peace talks with communist rebels next week, said Presidential Peace Adviser Jesus Dureza.

The peace talks are scheduled for Aug 22 in Oslo, Norway.

President Duterte has "restored the effects of the unilateral ceasefire with the Communist Party of the Philippines and the National Democratic Front effective 12 midnight tonight, Aug 21," Dureza told a news conference at the international airport before leaving for Oslo with the government panel.

"The duration of the ceasefire will last for as long as necessary to bring peace in the land," he said.

Duterte declared a unilateral ceasefire on July 25 but scrapped it six days later after the rebels failed to reciprocate and attacked and killed a militia man.

"The enabling environment brought about by this 'silencing of the guns' will hopefully go a long way in bringing about an expeditious and early resolution to our differences and aspirations that have long divided us as a people," said Dureza.

He said the restoration of the ceasefire came a few days after Duterte has released from detention about 20 prisoners who are needed in the peace negotiations.

"As we speak there is continuing efforts to make available in Oslo peace talks resumption as many of them as possible," Dureza said, referring to the remaining political prisoners that will take part in the talks as "consultants."

The Philippine government released from jail on Friday two communist leaders, Benito Tiamzon and his wife, Wilma, to allow them to participate in the Oslo talks.

The Tiamzons are the highest-ranking communist leader in detention after they were arrested in 2014. The government said Benito Tiamzon was the chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines while his wife Wilma was the secretary general.

A few hours after their release, the Communist Party of the Philippines declared a seven-day unilateral ceasefire that will take effect 12:01 am on Aug 21 and will last until 11:59 pm on Aug 27.

"This ceasefire declaration is encouraged by the (Philippine government's) facilitation of the release of the nearly all National Democratic Front of the Philippines consultants who are set to participate in peace negotiations in the course of the next several months," the rebels said in a statement.

The Oslo talks are expected to tackle "social and economic reforms, political and constitutional reforms, end of hostilities and disposition of forces, ceasefire, joint security and immunity and release of political detainees," according to Dureza.

The Duterte administration is trying to forge peace with the communist rebels. Talks between the government and the rebels began in 1986, but failed to lead to a resolution over the years.

The communist rebellion began in 1969 and reached its peak in 1987 when it boasted 26,000 armed guerillas. However, the movement has since dwindled due to differences in strategy and tactics and the arrests of many of its top leaders in the late 1980s.

The military estimates the current number of communist armed rebels to be around 4,000.
The pitfalls for Donald Trump in his bid to the White House are perhaps too many to name, but perhaps his most controversial statement came the day he announced his candidacy referring to Mexicans as "murderers and rapists" who are bringing drugs and crime across the border  a measure that left many political analysts to conclude early on that his candidacy was dead on arrival having alienated some 17% of the US electorate who are of Latino heritage.

The situation for Trump cascaded further, in recent weeks, following his public feud with the Gold Star family of Humayun Khan who died tragically rushing in front of a terrorist vehicle to prevent it from breaching the perimeter of an American military base  an act some say may have saved the lives of hundreds of other soldiers.
"All the followers of Gulen movement will be identified. The investigation in relation to it is in progress. The inquiries show that the Gulen movement has links with opposition groups in the country. But all attempts to destabilize the situation in Azerbaijan will be suppressed," Novruz Mammadov said, as quoted by the Trend news agency.

Approximately 26,000 people have been arrested since the July 15 attempted overthrow of the Turkish government that led to over 260 deaths. Ankara has requested the United States to extradite Gulen, who denies the accusations of masterminding the plot, to face charges in Turkey.
President Putin accused Kiev of resorting to terrorism in its hyper-nationalist campaign to reclaim Crimea and hinted that he might not talk to his Ukrainian counterparts on the sidelines of the G20 summit early next month. Sensing that the situation had markedly deteriorated, Germanys Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier urged all sides to refrain from taking any steps that could lead to the situation escalating further.

Amidst the latest spike in tensions, Vice President Biden also called President Poroshenko and asked him to do his part to avoid escalating tensions.

Boris Volkhonsky, Head of the Asian Section at the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies (studio guest) and Jan Van Benthem, Foreign Affairs Commentator at the Nederlands Dagblad (The Netherlands Daily) joined us to discuss the issue.
In an article titled Russia uses Iranian airbase for first time in Syria campaign, written by Saeed Kamali Dehghan and carried by The Guardian, the journalist brought up the interesting historical fact that:

Hosting Russian jets on Iranian territory is a departure for Tehran from its hitherto history of covert operations in regional conflicts. It is believed to be the first time Russian warplanes have been deployed in Iran in at least half a century.

Dehghan quoted Morad Veisi, an expert on Irans armed forces, who analyzed that:
In an interview with Izvestia, Dmitry Kornev, an editor of the website Militaryrussia, described the principle behind the Kornet-EM's operating process as "quite simple". According to him, as the system's launcher directs a laser beam at the target, the missile's target seeking device 'sees' it and hits the target, following the laser beam.

"The missile launcher is equipped not only with an infrared thermal imaging camera, but also with an automatic target tracking system, which independently keeps the target in the laser beam until it will be destroyed," he said.

Kornev added that due to its very high speed and the precision of the Kornet-EM's laser illumination system, as well as a Kornet-EM missile moving at a speed of more than 320 meters per second, the Kornet-EM is capable of destroying not only a tank, but also high-speed combat helicopters and drones, which are characterized by high maneuverability.

"The Kornet-EM's technical ideology is simple enough and pertains to a very 'smart' launcher and a 'stupid' but powerful and high-speed missile. This solution is characteristic of the scientific school of Academician Arkady Shipunov, founder of the Tula Instrument Design Bureau," he said.

He was echoed by Andrey Frolov, chief editor of Eksport Vooruzheny (Arms Export) journal, who was quoted by Izvestia as saying that the Kornet-EM's armament includes a spate of rockets with anti-armor, explosive and thermobaric warheads, something that he said will help the Kornet-EM cope with a wide range of tasks.
Last week, Russias Federal Security Service (FSB) said it thwarted terrorist attacks in Crimea allegedly mounted by Ukraines Defense Ministrys intelligence directorate. Two Russian soldiers were killed in the cross-border raid according to Russian officials.

"I think its obvious that Kievs current authorities are not seeking ways to solve problems through negotiations, but have turned to terrorism," said Putin who described the incident as "alarming."

"Were not going to cut our relations, despite the reluctance of the current authorities in Kiev to have full diplomatic ties at ambassador level," he told members of the Security Council in Sevastopol. "We nevertheless will create opportunities for the development of contacts and their support."
"The short term issue that needs to be addressed will be the problem in getting the message out from the government through professional PR tools, especially given Putins own professional smear campaigns," said the US Ambassador.

George Soros responded, "Agreement on the strategic communications issue  providing professional PR assistance to the Ukrainian government would be very useful."

Pyatt seemed open to the idea of guiding Ukraine towards a decentralization of power just short of Lavrovs recommendation for a federalized Ukraine, but George Soros pushed back stating that a federalization model would result in Russia gaining influence over eastern regions of the country which the Hungarian billionaire disapproved of.

The Ambassador noted that Secretary of State John Kerry "would be interested to hear George Soros views on the situation directly, upon return from his trip" raising the question why one wealthy foreign individual, neither from Ukraine nor Russia, had such access to influence American policy.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  A US court granted a stay out of execution to a Texas man who was sentenced to death over a deadly robbery in which he did not kill anyone, local media reported.

Jeffrey Woods attorney objected to the sentence on eight claims, including the ones that the sentence was based on false testimony and false scientific evidence, the Time Warner Cable News said.

"After reviewing applicant's subsequent application, we find that his third and fourth allegations satisfy the requirements Accordingly, we remand those two claims to the trial court for resolution, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals said Friday, as quoted by the news outlet.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  At least two people were killed and two more were injured in a Saturday shooting that took place at a nightclub in a Los Angeles' neighborhood, local media reported.

The deadly shooting occurred at 4:30 local time (12:30 GMT), the Los Angeles Times reported, citing local police department officers.
"The whole purpose of the ICTY in my mind is threefold," he said. "It's to demonize the former government of Yugoslavia and make it look like they're a bunch of criminals. It's to justify the attack on Yugoslavia by presenting a false history of events during that time, which is all false propaganda. And thirdly, it covers up the role of NATO and their crime."

According to Black, the Yugoslavian government surrendered in June 1999 after it received a message from the US that, "unless you surrender, the Americans intend to carpet bomb Belgrade," killing some 500,000 people. The capitulation was based solely on the desire to end the killings.

"Bill Clinton was responsible for this aggression against the European stateMassive destruction was caused, thousands of people were killed, tens of thousands wounded. Yugoslavia disappeared; one of the founding members of the non-aligned movement was just crushed."

And now the wife of Bill Clinton, who is "responsible for one of the greatest war crimes of the 20th century" is the Democratic candidate for this year's presidential elections in the US, Black noted.

"That's how evil these people are. So Bill Clinton is one of the most evil people on the planet, and his wife knew all about that I'm sure," he said. "We have the choice in the United States, of a clown like Trump or criminals like the Clintons."
MOSCOW, August 20 (Sputnik)  According to the Khaama Press news agency, the improvised explosive device was planted in the army vehicle before it exploded in the Qalae Zaman Khan district of Kabul.

The Taliban extremist group has already claimed responsibility for the attack on the military convoy.

Afghanistan is experiencing significant political, social and security-related instability, as radical extremist organizations, including the Taliban, continue to stage attacks against civilian and state targets. The Taliban now controls more territory than at any time since 2001, according to the United Nations.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The Turkish intelligence urged Berlin to detain and bring back to Turkey several Gulens supporters who have fled to Germany, the Spiegel newspaper said.

According to the media outlet, Turkey has sent 40 search and three extradition requests to Germany since the July 15 coup attempt.

German regional authorities have not yet acted on Turkeys request to keep watch on supporters of the Islamic preacher in 11 German states, including North Rhine-Westphalia, Hesse and Saxony, the German newspaper added.
Earlier this week Deputy Spokesperson for the Department of the State, Mark Toner confirmed that several groups in Afghanistan are now affiliating themselves with Daesh (the Islamic State/ISIS/ISIL).

Weve continued to see an effort on the part of ISIL  weve seen it in Libya and elsewhere, frankly  for it to expand or to reach out its tendrils, if you will, into different places that are ungoverned spaces, and certainly thats true for Afghanistan, Toner said during his daily press briefing on Wednesday.

So were monitoring the presence of ISIL-affiliated groups very closely in Afghanistan. Were actively engaged with the Government of Afghanistan and our partners in the region to prevent that from taking place. We dont want to see them gain safe haven or material support from the Taliban or anyone, he said.


MOSCOW (Sputnik)The Turkish Coast Guard had already captured 918 migrants off the country's western coast in a series of operations, the Anadolu news agency reported, citing security officials.

The number of boat migrants captured by the coast guards in both the Aegean and the Mediterranean seas was 538 in June and 881 in July, the agency added.

Europe has been beset by a massive refugee crisis, with hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants fleeing their crisis-torn countries in the Middle East and North Africa to escape violence and poverty. The majority of them cross the Mediterranean Sea and arrive in the European Union using southern EU nations as transit points.
The documents recently released and published on the National Security Archive suggest that the US planned nuclear deployments in Iceland.

However, part of that planning implied that the US put nuclear weapons in Iceland without telling Iceland about them.

During the Cold War the United States never deployed nuclear weapons in Iceland but a recently declassified State Department record shows that US government officials debated whether they should do so, including through secret deployments, says the note on the National Security Archive website.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Moscow is seriously concerned with the situation in Yemen and calls on the parties to the conflict to return to the negotiating table, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Saturday.

The UN-brokered talks to end the Yemeni conflict started in Kuwait on April 21. The talks ended in early August, with the government and Houthi rebels failing to come to an agreement. According to UN Special Envoy for Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, the parties are expected to return to the negotiating table no sooner than in a month. Following the failed talks, hostilities intensified in the country, with the Houthi rebels aiming to create their own government.

"During the lengthy conversation, the current military, political and humanitarian situation in Yemen has been discussed in detail, with emphasis on the need for a speedy and peaceful solution to the crisis in the country. At the same time, the Russian side expressed deep concern with the recent escalation of hostilities in Yemen and called on all the parties involved in the conflict to return to the negotiating table under the UN auspices," the ministry said in a statement, issued after the talks between Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov and Yemeni Foreign Minister Abdel Malek Mekhlafi.


New Delhi (Sputnik)Dmitry Rogozin, Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi. A statement released after the meeting says, "the Prime Minister described Russia as a time-tested and reliable friend and reaffirmed the shared commitment with President Putin to expand, strengthen and deepen bilateral engagement across all domains."

Dmitry Rogozin's visit is being seen as a precursor to President Putin's BRICS trip in October.
Black Broadway, a bargain acquisition due to an unsightly and potentially dangerous medical condition, justified her connections faith in her when she pulled off a stunning 20-1 shocker in a stake-fastest and career-best 1:53.1 in Fridays Pennsylvania Sires Stake for three-year-old filly trotters at The Meadows.

The stake, known as the Meadow Bright, was contested over three divisions, with Miss Tezsla and Lookin Sharp taking the other splits. Corey Callahan enjoyed a PASS double behind Black Broadway and Lookin Sharp.

Black Broadway developed a hematoma at two and was sent back through The Meadowlands sale after a pair of qualifiers. There, trainer Michael Eaton purchased her for $9,000 for himself and co-owner Robert McHugh.

She won a qualifier in 1:59.1, so we thought wed take a chance on her  $10,000 was our limit, Eaton said.

Although the daughter of Broadway Hall-Sly Fox was winless in 11 previous outings this year, she came first over near the three-quarters and overtook last years divisional champion, Broadway Donna, defeating her by two and three-quarter lengths. Spicedbourbon girl was third.

I got excited when I saw Corey pull her, Eaton said. I figured that meant she had enough trot. She gets better and better.

Miss Tezsla also saved her brush for the stretch as she cruised past Womans Will to triumph in 1:53.3 for David Miller, trainer Jimmy Takter and owner Miss Tezsla Stable. Goodtogo Hanover, who suffered her first defeat in 10 outings this year, shot the Lightning Lane for second, one and a half lengths back, while Womans Will saved show.

Her last few starts show shes on the way up, said Takter of the daughter of Andover Hall-Filly At Bigs. I trained her mother  she was a really good filly for me. That was a good mile tonight.

Lookin Sharp worked out a pocket trip behind Kathy Parker, then blew by in the lane to score in 1:55.2, two lengths better than Haughty. Kathy Parker saved show.

Shes definitely improved, Callahan said. She won her first start here this year, then had a couple bad goes. But shes always shown a lot of talent, and today she got the right trip.

John Butenschoen conditions Lookin Sharp, a daughter of Andover Hall-Warrawee Krisp who extended her lifetime bankroll to $242,913, for William Wiswell and M&L Of Delaware.

The sub-feature on Fridays card, a $40,000 Pennsylvania Stallion Series event, featured another upset, as South Side Hanover poured from the pocket to score at 12-1. Ameliosi captured the other $20,000 division.

South Side Hanover released Glidinthruparadise to the lead early and enjoyed a pocket trip thereafter. Nevertheless, trainer/driver Todd Schadel wasnt sure the daughter of Cantab Hall-Sharise Seelster would have enough pop in the lane.

I know my filly has a big brush coming home, said Schadel, who owns the filly with Roger Hammer, but I had to use her a good bit getting out of there. I thought the filly on the front end was the best in there. I would have been happy for second.

But South Side Hanover had plenty, defeating Glidinthruparadise by a neck in a career-best 1:55. Keystone Taylor completed the ticket.

Ameliosi made it look easy on the front end, triumphing in 1:55.3, a lifetime mark, for Yannick Gingras. Twill Be Done finished second, half a length in arrears, with Casey T third.

She doesnt have a whole lot of stakes left; Im not sure shell make it to the final of the Stallion Series, said Jenny Melander, who trains the daughter of Explosive Matter-Amelia Hall for John DeVito and Rocco Manniello. Other than that, she doesnt have a whole lot.

Live racing at The Meadows resumes Monday, when the card features a $100,000 PA Stallion Series event for two-year-old filly trotters. First post is 1 p.m.

(With files from The Meadows)
Er is iets heel griezeligs aan de gang in Nederland. Dat wij geleidelijk aan in een totalitaire 'democratie' wegzinken wordt steeds ...
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA  After going through its worst drought in 50 years, Ethiopia is again seeing rain. In fact, in some places, it's falling too hard and has set off floods.

So while the number of people requiring food aid has dropped slightly from 10.2 million in January to 9.7 million, according to the latest figures, there is a new threat of disease in a population weakened by drought.

Measles, meningitis, malaria and scabies are on the rise. And most seriously, there has been an outbreak of something mysteriously called "AWD, according to the Humanitarian Requirements Document, issued by the government and humanitarian agencies on Aug. 13.

"There is a high risk that AWD can spread to all regions with high speed as there is a frequent population movement between Addis Ababa and other regions, it warned.

[1 in every 113 human beings is forcibly displaced from their home right now]

The letters stand for acute watery diarrhea. It is a potentially fatal condition caused by water infected with the vibrio cholera bacterium. Everywhere else in the world it is simply called cholera.

But not in Ethiopia, where international humanitarian organizations privately admit that they are only allowed to call it AWD and are not permitted to publish the number of people affected.

The government is apparently concerned about the international impact if news of a significant cholera outbreak were to get out, even though the disease is not unusual in East Africa.

This means that, hypothetically, when refugees from South Sudan with cholera flee across the border into Ethiopia, they suddenly have AWD instead.

[South Sudanese civilians fear the U.N. cant protect them from a massacre]

In a similar manner, exactly one year ago, when aid organizations started sounding the alarm bells over the failed rains, government officials were divided over whether they would call it a drought and appeal for international aid.

Police break up anti-government protest in Ethiopian capital Play Video 0:57 Hundreds of protesters on Saturday clashed with police in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa after campaigners called for nationwide protests due to what they say is an unfair distribution of wealth in the country. (Reuters)

The narrative for Ethiopia in 2015 was a successful nation with double-digit growth, and the government did not want to bring back memories of the 1980s drought that killed hundreds of thousands and left the country forever associated with famine.

"We dont use the f-word, explained an aid worker to me back in September, referring to famine.

Like many of its neighbors in the region, Ethiopia has some issues with freedom of expression and is very keen about how it is perceived abroad. While the country has many developmental successes to celebrate, its current sensitivity suggests it will be some time before this close U.S. ally resembles the democracy it has long claimed to be.

Ultimately, the government recognized there was a drought and made an international appeal for aid. The systems put into place over the years prevented the drought from turning into a humanitarian catastrophe  for which the country has earned praise from its international partners.

In the same manner, even though it doesnt call it cholera, the government is still waging a vigorous campaign to educate people on how to avoid AWD, by boiling water and washing their hands.

Yet this sensitivity to bad news extends to the economic realm as well. Critics have often criticized Ethiopias decade of reported strong growth as being the product of cooked numbers. The government does seem to produce rosier figures than international institutions.

After the drought, the International Monetary Fund predicted in April that growth would drop from 10.2 percent in 2015 to just 4.5 percent in 2016.

Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, maintained, however, that growth would be a robust 8.5 percent, despite the falling agriculture productivity and decreased export earnings.

In the political realm, news of unrest and protests is suppressed. During a weekend of demonstrations on Aug. 6 and 7, the Internet was cut, making it difficult to find out what happened.

Human rights organizations, opposition parties and media tried to piece together the toll from the deadly demonstrations, which according to Amnesty International may have been up to 100.

The United Nations has called for international observers to carry out an investigation in the affected regions, which the government has strongly rejected even as it has dismissed estimates of casualties without providing any of its own.

"That is one of the factors we are struggling against with this government, the blockade of information, complained Beyene Petros, the chairman of a coalition of opposition parties. "Journalists cannot go and verify. We cannot do that.

Local journalists are heavily constrained, and as Felix Horne of Human Rights Watch points out, Ethiopia is one of the biggest jailers of journalists on the continent.

"Limitations on independent media, jamming of television and radio signals, and recent blocking of social media all point to a government afraid to allow its citizens access to independent information, he said.

Foreign journalists do not fare much better, especially if they attempt to venture out of the capital to do their reporting.

In March, the New York Times and Bloomberg correspondents were detained by police while trying to report on the disturbances in the Oromo Region.

They were sent back to Addis Ababa and held overnight in a local prison before being interrogated and released.

In a similar fashion, a television crew with American Public Broadcasting Service was detained on Aug. 8 south of the capital trying to do a story on the drought conditions.

They and their Ethiopian fixer  an accredited journalist in her own right  were released after 24 hours, and they were told not to do any reporting outside of Addis.

In both cases the journalists were all accredited by the Government Communication Affairs Office, with credentials that are supposed to extend the breadth of the country but in practice are widely ignored by local officials.

The government spokesman, Getachew Reda, has dismissed the allegations about the information crackdown in the country and in recent appearances on the Al Jazeera network he maintained that there are no obstacles to information in Ethiopia.

"This country is open for business, its open for the international community, people have every right to collect whatever information they want, he said.






The Somali National prosecutor's Office issued warrant for the arrest of several people including manager of the Dahabshil's branch in Mogadishu,Abdullahi Nur Awdiinle and others of the branch. The office ordered CID to immediately bring them in front of the court.

The Head of the CID General Said Ahmed Kadiye told Waagacusub media that the ,Abdullahi Nur Awdiinle was accused of terrorist activities including murder against journalists,innocent people, and bombings yet to succeed his arrest.

The arrest of the Dahabshil's manager and the individuals named in the list with him is very good but It's very difficult to arrest and get them (Dahabshiil's staff) in front of the justice because they bribe the government officials, including the Security Minister,said former NISA. But If wanted to prevent more terrorist attacks it should respected the order of the Somali National prosecutor amid to be arrested those listed in the letter to bring them justice.

Dahabshil CEO did not send a feedback when we asked about the warrant issued to be arrested his staff in Mogadishu.

However, the first arrest warrant issued by the prosecutor's reads:











The office of the Attorney General issued arrest warrant for men involved in criminal activities





To: head of Criminal Investigative department (CID) Mogadishu





Objective: Arrest Warrant





According to a letter reference to Sum: XXIG/172/2016 dated: 16/2/2016, which its objective was filing a criminal charges, and noticed by the head of the CID.





Therefore, we are asking the head of the CID to:





(A) arrest those accused individuals:





1. Abdullahi Nure Awdiine (Head of Dahabshiil Company).

2. Hassan Yusuf Kamanas

3. Yahye Ali Omar





(B) who are accused of the article: 496 and 502 X-C-S





(C) And call them to the court.





(D) Bring them in front of the prosecutor office and the court that has authority to implement the decision.





Please see previously attached file





Good implementation
The man shot by a Kelso patrolman Wednesday morning at the Flying K gas station in West Kelso was Omer Ismail Ali, a 27-year-old Sudanese immigrant and Spokane student, according to Cowlitz County Sheriff Mark Nelson.

On Friday, the Cowlitz County Coroners Office ruled his death a homicide by a gunshot wound to the chest. He also had a gunshot wound to the neck and jaw.

Ali had been contacted by several law enforcement agencies at least five times starting Aug. 13, after hed spent several months in jail in Whatcom County. Nelson didnt know why Ali had been jailed.

Nelson said Ali appears to have been traveling alone through the state. He also had two misdemeanor warrants out of Spokane and Blaine, Wash., a city on the U.S.-Canada border.

Alis ID lists him as being a refugee who immigrated in September 2013. Jeffry Finer, a Spokane lawyer who has agreed to help Alis family gather information about his death, said Ali was a student at the Spokane College of English Language.

On Aug. 13, someone complained to the Skamania County Sheriffs Office that Ali was possibly intoxicated at Swift campground, but he left prior to deputies arriving. The same day, he was arrested by a Cowlitz County sheriffs deputy while driving westbound on Lewis River Road. He was arrested and booked into the Cowlitz County Jail on suspicion of driving with a suspended license. The rental car he was driving was stolen out of Whatcom County.

On Aug. 15, he was released from jail but trespassed by Longview police from a home on the 1600 block of Eighth Avenue.

At 12:30 a.m. Wednesday, he spoke from the jail intercom system outside the jail and talked to the duty sergeant, though its unknown what about. Ali left walking towards Allen Street, and arrived at the Flying K about 1:10 a.m.

According to Kelso Police Chief Andy Hamilton, Ali had tried to purchase food but his card was declined and he wanted officers to fix the problem.

Hamilton said Ali, dressed in all black and sandals, was carrying a wooden plank described 1 inch thick, 5 inches in width and 30 inches in length. Hamilton said the plank wasnt the same object police say he used to strike a clerk, customer and Kelso police officer during the fatal encounter later Wednesday morning.

Asked whether the officers observed any mental health or drug-related problems, Hamilton said the officers reported that Ali seemed perturbed. It will be several weeks at least before toxicology tests on Alis blood are completed.

Just after 2 a.m., Ali was contacted again outside the jail by jail personnel and Longview police, Nelson said.

Hamilton said Kelso officers  Sgt. Rich Fletcher and officer Ken Hochhalter  contacted Ali later that morning at 302 N. Fourth Ave. Someone had called police around 5 a.m. to report that Ali was standing in a yard, looking into windows, according to dispatch records. When Fletcher and Hochhalter arrived at the scene, they asked Ali to drop the wooden plank. He did and the officers seized it.

At 8:01 a.m., he returned to the Flying K and attempted to shoplift. When a clerk insisted he pay for the items, he made some threats to the clerks and left walking west. Kelso police were called and officer John Johnston arrived, according to Nelson.

At 8:15 a.m., while Johnston was viewing store videos in the back of the store, Ali assaulted the clerk and a customer with a 4-foot-long, 1.5-inch thick staff. When Johnston tried to intervene, Ali struck the officer in the head, and Johnston shot him, the sheriff said.

Nelson said he hopes to have a report prepared for the prosecutors office by the middle of next week. The prosecutors office will decide whether Johnstons use of lethal force was justified.

Finer, the lawyer, said hes meeting with Alis family Monday.

Faculty of that (Spokane) program, his teachers were just devastated, Finer said Friday by phone. Local friends of the deceased were stunned that this happened and had reached out to civil rights organizations to assist the family to put the pieces together.

Finer said he will encourage the family to open a probate in order to handle Alis affairs and get access to autopsy reports and other evidence.

Anytime someone dies in custody or while law enforcement is trying to take someone into custody, it may be a justifiable or it may not be, but it often takes more than a quick review to figure it out, Finer said. Well see what we find.
Neighboring property owners are protesting plans to build a recreational marijuana facility on Bunker Hill Road west of Longview, and the business owners are learning just how difficult it is to find an acceptable location to raise and sell pot.

Cowlitz County planners are reviewing 3 Stars LLCs proposal to build a 48-by-120-foot pole barn on the 5-acre lot at 350 Bunker Hill Road for indoor production and packaging of marijuana. More than 40 households wrote in opposition to it.

Were all pretty upset about it, said Marcus Truesdale, a pastor at the Abernathy Assembly of God, located at 702 Abernathy Creek Road, about a mile from the proposed pot business. I got children. I understand that its legal, but were kind of a rural community. To have a business like that ... we have a lot of concerns.

The pushback is part of a statewide problem for marijuana businesses: Voters in 2012 legalized recreational marijuana production and use, but the industry still faces a stigma. And local laws and regulations restrict where it can be sold and grown. Proposed marijuana businesses have run into opposition recently in Rainier and Kalama, too.

This is our livelihood, said 3 Stars co-owner Jenny Tsugawa. I just want to make it very clear that we are not doing anything wrong. We are following every Washington state rule and every rule with Cowlitz County. We are 100 percent in compliance with what it is that were doing.

She and co-owner Roy Spady said they originally wanted to locate the business in Clark County but ran into a brick wall of regulations. The state (which issues marijuana business licenses) gave them a limited amount of time to find a new location.

Bunker Hill citizens have listed concerns about odor, diminished scenery and tranquility, increased traffic on a damaged rural road, decreased property values, and the increased use of water. The Bunker Hill Cemetery Board of Directors also sent a letter opposing the facility. The board contends the nearby site would discourage people from purchasing burial sites at the cemetery.

The county allowed comments for the facility until Wednesday and sent out nine notices to property owners within 300 feet of the lot. But in response, Lou Mckinley, who lives on Bunker Hill Road, said she collected more than 40 letters from citizens.

The smell is so bad, said Mckinley, who owned her property on Bunker Hill Road for three years. We moved up here for the fresh air and the rain. ... Its going to affect the environment here.

Cowlitz County code would require that the marijuana be produced indoors and that no odor or smoke be detectable at or beyond the walls of the facility.

About 400 retail licenses and 1,000 licenses for producing and processing marijuana have been issued across the state, according to the Liquor and Cannabis Board.

Moratoriums in the area have made it difficult for Spady and Tsugawa to locate their business. Clark County currently has a moratorium, as does Woodland and other small towns nearby.

Lara Kaminsky, interim executive director of Cannabis Alliance in Seattle, said processors and producers statewide have struggled to find locations

If you think about it, theyre small farmers and theyre being treated very differently than any other industry, Kaminsky said. Theyre working really hard to get their businesses off the ground. This is a new industry thats trying to get started with very little support.

For areas that dont have moratoriums, licensed marijuana facilities are required to be farther than 1,000 feet from properties that include elementary or secondary schools, public parks, child care centers, recreation centers or libraries.

Jason Lugo, from Cowlitz County Planning and Building, said the regulatory process will address specific concerns from the community, and he said he wont comment on the next steps until the department reviews all comments received.
Workers at the Family Health Center voted to unionize Tuesday and Wednesday following an unrelated rash of labor complaints earlier this year.

Support staff employees in the centers behavioral health division organized through the International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers.

Matthew McKinnon, grand lodge representative at International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers, said they unionized in response to unfair treatment from management, explaining that some people in leadership roles yelled, screamed and berated employees.

Its outrageous and the workers are just tired of it, he said, adding that there are also concerns about inadequate pay.

They will be negotiating a new contract with the health center. Dian Cooper, CEO of the health center, said the center will bargain in good faith, though she said she doesnt consider the allegations to be truthful.

However, we are now in the phase where we will be bargaining, she said. Obviously it diverts resources that could otherwise be used to serve our community in terms of time and energy.

She said about 22 people on the centers support staff, which includes cooks and office assistants, voted in support of unionizing. Ten voted against it. Itll take 10 days for the National Labor Relations Board to certify the results.

Chemical dependency professionals and trainees voted not to unionize.

Im glad they took that opportunity to vote, Cooper said.

The employees that unionized earlier this week are separate from those who filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board against the health center in May, citing that the employer laid off three union employees one month before advertising an open position similar to one that was eliminated.

McKinnon said two of the three people laid off were later rehired to higher-paying positions. However, the third was rehired to a position that paid less. The job opening closely resembled the former job of the third employee, though it had extra education requirements, McKinnon said. He added that the third employee was a steward for people of the workplace.

Arbitration will take place in November, during which a to-be-determined third party will make a decision on the matter.
MERS or Middle East Respiratory Syndrome  the deadly cause of common cold in human, is sourced from camels; a newly discovered scientific fact stated this. Scientists recently held a research on the virus of common cold and found that the source of cold virus MERS spread all across the world potentially came from camels.

According to the research, the first human caught common cold was sourced from a camel, and this has brought up the huge possibility of camels ground this deadly virus called MERS virus. This research was held by a group of scientists at the University Hospital of Bonn in Germany who had been examining the MERS virus and its ground when this startling fact comes to the forefront.

MERS was first found in 2012 in human and caused a number of fatal infection and scientists have found that this was caused by a camel.

Professional Christian Drosten, one of the researchers of this group, said that: In our MERS examinations, we analyzed around 1,000 camels for coronaviruses and were surprised to discover pathogens that are identified with HCoV-229E, the human normal cold infection, in just about six percent of the cases.

During the research, scientists took the sample of a camel for a cross-checking human cold reason, and it shows the high potentiality to infect the body system of a human. However, there are no certain serious issues of this new cold endemic because the immune system of human body is already outlined against this virus.

Now after coming across this surprising fact, scientists of World Health Organization have highly recommended not to drink fatal Camel urines as it can source the infection. However, since yet, this virus has not been found in many human beings and doesnt spread globally until now.
The team of archaeologists that consist of 18 members from Saudi Arabia and France are on an expedition to learn Saudi culture and heritage, they are working on the agreement that was signed between the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage and the French authorities in September 2011.

Archaeologists discovered a mosque at the Yamamah site in Al-Kharj near Riyadh and 80 km south of the Saudi capital in Saudi Arabia. It is predicted that it was in existence from first to fifth century Hijri. The mosque appears to be one of the largest mosque in the Arabian Peninsula with an open hall, two mihrabs and three roofed halls.

According to the Saudi newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat, the experts explored Bana settlement and five more sites between Riyadh and Wadi al-Dawasir including mountains of Mawan Valley and Ain Farzan near Al-Kharaj and found many old farms, architectural establishments, antiques and utensils from the Abbasside era. Pottery and bracelets made of glass are likely to be used in the period when Islam just came into existence. A sword made up of silver have been extracted from Ain al-Delai site, which is 56 centimetre long.

The traces show that humans were settled in that area some 5000 years ago that is referred to as Old Stone Age by experts. Many more sites are yet to be discovered and the ones that have been discovered needs to be understood properly. And therefore the mission will continue this year.

Dr. Abdulaziz Al-Ghazi, professor of archaeology at King Saud University and head of the Saudi team in the mission reported that the mission started in 2013 and it is first of its kind. His Royal Highness Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Abdul Aziz, the chairman of the Saudi authority met the team and praised their work as the country will learn more about their civilization and that how they settled down.

While digging in Saudi Arabia, the team of researchers have also recovered oldest human bone which is believed to be 90,000 years old. The bone is the middle part of the middle finger of a human being. Read complete article here.
Scientists at the NASA have set a new Guinness world record by firing most number of rocket engines on a single flight. For the record, the team of scientists launched 44 rocket engines from Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia on September 16, 2015.

The Charged Aerosol Release Experiment II, or CARE II, studied the effects of dusty plasmas  charged particles that can occur naturally in the mesosphere  and the bulk of the rocket engines were burned to form an exhaust cloud of dusty plasma used for the experiment. Only three of the CARE II engines contributed to launching the rocket. Another four engines were spin motors, which are used to reduce the impact dispersion of the rocket. The remaining 37 engines provided the exhaust cloud.

CARE II was led by Paul A. Bernhardt with the Naval Research Lab, or NRL, in Washington, DC, and conducted from the Andoya Rocket Range in Norway

Although the rocket carried an NRL experiment, Wallops had a big hand in the mission. The team implementing the NRL concept for the multi-rocket-motor dust release module and leading the construction of CARE II are at Wallops.

Phil Eberspeaker, Office Chief for the Sounding Rocket Program, said, Being recognized by Guinness World Records for this achievement is icing on the cake for the entire team. To successfully carry out this mission required great planning from everyone involved.

NASAs sounding rocket program provides a fast, cost-effective way of conducting science through suborbital missions. Each sounding rocket carries a payload with a very specific experiment. Science conducted and instruments flown may be used in the development of other space science missions.

With a combined vehicle and payload weight of nearly 6 tons, the Black Brant XI vehicle carried the CARE II payload and its multiple scientific instruments into the ionosphere, 186 miles above Earth. In a mission lasting only 10 minutes, scientists were able to generate the dusty plasma they wished to study by rapidly injecting dust particles made of aluminum oxide and other compounds into the ionosphere. This dust was then charged, producing plasma particles moving at hypersonic velocities. The resulting ionospheric disturbances were detected with in situ plasma instruments and recorded using ground-based scientific radars.

Chuck Brodell, Sounding Rocket Program vehicle manager, said he doesnt anticipate Wallops breaking this record again in the near future, but you never know whats down the pike.

CARE II is a follow-on to the CARE I rocket experiment conducted in September 2009 at Wallops. The NASA sounding rocket portion of both the CARE I and II missions were funded by the Department of Defense Space Test Program, which is charted to fund spaceflight for experiments.

NASAs Wallops Flight Facility launches approximately 20 sounding rockets every year. Launches are routinely conducted from Wallops, Poker Flat Research Range in Alaska, White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, Esrange in Sweden and the Andoya Rocket Range.

NASAs Sounding Rocket Program is conducted at the agencys Wallops Flight Facility, which is managed by NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. NASAs Heliophysics Division manages the sounding-rocket program for the agency.
Automobiles chief Bajaj Auto Ltd on Friday announced about an epic search mission for 1971 India-Pakistan war idols of INS Vikrant. On 19th August, Sumeet Narang, Vice President Marketing Bajaj Auto Ltd released an official journal about commencing a search mission for the heroes of INS Vikrant who served in 1971 Indo-Pak war.

Bajaj Autos V, produced using the metal of the strong INS Vikrant named this search mission as Mission Vikrant 1971 and this mission will work on hunting down the 1300 conquerors and mariners who served in 1971 Indo-Pak war. Through a digital initiative, Bajaj will operate mission Vikrant 1971, and this digital program will work on recognizing and sharing details of those 1300 war legends that served on the INS Vikrant and kept their bravery story for their successors.

For this hunting mission, a keen micro-site has been requested to the friends, families, and relatives of the warriors of 1971 warfare who served on INS Vikrant. The received details will help Bajaj to locate and connect with those brave heroes and explore more about their life journey and war experience on INS Vikrant four.

Speaking on this search operation, Sumeet Narang said, As far back as we disclosed the Bajaj V on Republic Day; several requests are coming for getting information about the past INS Vikrant. With respect to this, Bajaj has taken the initiative to commence a search missio1300 bereave heroes who served on INS Vikrant. For this, Bajaj also had made a documentary clip named as Son of Vikrant which caught stories and encounters of senior maritime officers who served on INS Vikrant. And now, Bajaj is pleased to disclose a search mission called Mission Vikrant 1971 which is the greatest ever countrywide quest for the 1971 Vikrant war veterans. Through the digital initiative, Bajaj will record the stories of those conquerors for posterity, and will represent it in front of the nation.
tech2 News Staff

Samsung is all set to release the successor to the On7 in the form of the Galaxy On7 (2016) according to GSMArena. The On7 (2016) is a different phone from the On7 Pro that was announced earlier this year.

The On7 (2016) getting a certification by China's TENAA was leaked by GSMArena earlier this month. Now there are more details emerging from an FCC certification, which confirms the presence of a 3300mAh battery capacity.

Not many details are leaked in the US regulatory agency's procedure, but the devices dimensions - 151.5 x 74.9 x 8 mm - along with the fact that it will come with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and 4G LTE.

From the TENAA listing the specifications of the Galaxy On7 (2016) include a 5.5-inch Full HD display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 SoC which has an octa-core processor clocked at 2GHz, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of storage which is expandable using a microSD card slot. 13MP rear camera and an 8MP front-facing camera. It runs on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow.

Samsung is all set to release its Galaxy Note 7 in the Indian market soon. The 5.7-inch QHD display sporting phone with Exynos 8890 chipset inside, an iris scanner, 12MP camera and more is expected to go on sale from 2 September onwards. Pre-orders placed between 22-30 August will also get the chance to buy the Galaxy GearVR at Rs 1990.
Master plan for development of 16 new unions

Reza Mahmud :

Master plans are underway for development of 16 new union parishads under two Dhaka City Corporations, but residents of those unions are worrying of taxes instead of services.

The unions are Doniya, Matuail, Sharulia, Manda, Shyampur, Demra, Dakkhingaon, and Nasirabad in Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC), while Beraid, Satarkul, Badda, Uttar Khan, Dakkhin Khan, Horirampur, Vatara and Dumni under Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC).

The National Implementation Committee for Administrative Reforms (NICAR) on May 9 decided to unify these unions with Dhaka South and North City Corporations. Officials, however, say it may consume one more year to execute the development work.

But with the extension of the tenure of the Union Councils' Chairmen and Members six more months, and with the presentation of DNCC budget before merging of eight new unions, the drafting of the development work may be delayed.

The authorities are now working about recruitment of new manpower, creation of new words, delimitation, preparation of development plans on priority basis, fixation of taxes and construction of infrastructures.

"The two city corporations have no sufficient manpower to deliver expected services to the new unions. But the recruitment of new manpower looks uncertain," said an official of DNCC. About it, a DSCC official said, it might take one more year to start

full fledge development work.

Contrarily, residents of the merged unions said, "We are worried about the increasing level of taxes in various service sectors under the City Corporation. We do not think that our life standard will sharply rise." Businessman Atik Ahmed, a resident of Matuail union, said, we shall wait to see what we get. However, we hope for the best."

Meanwhile the officials of both city corporation said, they are surveying and taking preparations to begin development work in those areas.

"We are preparing a master plan to start development work in the newly merged unions. We are sitting together repeatedly about the issue. The development work will start soon," said, Khan Mohammad Billal, the Chief Executive Officer of Dhaka South City Corporation.

Sources said, the Dhaka WASA and other service provider bodies would start their work in those areas soon. Shortly, the roads of those areas will be illuminated.

Officials of two city corporations said, the Local Government and Rural Development has also plans to deliver necessary services there. Recently the officials of Local Government Engineering Department, (LGED), Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE), Dhaka WASA, Tejgaon Development Circle, two Dhaka City Corporations and Dhaka District Administrations sat together to draft a detail work plan for the 16 new unions.

They discussed about constructions of drainage systems, Ward Commissioners' offices, trade license fees and holding taxes, among other issues.

The DSCC has allotted Tk 20 crore for necessary work for its added areas. City Mayor Sayeed Khokan held a meeting with the Chairmen of those unions to discuss the issues.

On the other hand, the DNCC did not allocate any budget for the new unions, because the budget was presented before the publication of gazette.


Turkish Parliament approves deal to normalise Israel ties

Demonstrators rally in Istanbul to mark the 6th anniversary of the the 2010 raid by Israeli commandos on a Gaza-bound Turkish aid ship that left 10 Turks dead

AFP, Ankara :The Turkish parliament approved a deal to normalise ties with Israel after a delay caused by last month's attempted coup, state-run media reported Saturday.Lawmakers ratified late Friday the agreement to restore relations between the two former close regional allies after a six-year rift, before parliament was due to go into summer recess. Under the deal, Israel will pay Turkey $20 million (17.7 million euros) in compensation for a botched Israeli commando raid on a Gaza-bound Turkish aid ship in 2010 that left 10 Turks dead, state-run Anadolu news agency said.Israel will hand Turkey a "lump sum" within 25 working days of the agreement coming into force, the agency said, which families of the victims will receive in due course.Under the terms of the deal, both sides agreed individual Israeli citizens or those acting on behalf of the Israeli government would not be held liable-either criminally or financially-for the raid, Anadolu said.Israeli cabinet ministers approved the deal with Turkey in late June but Ankara did not send it to parliament because of time pressure following the July 15 attempted putsch by a rogue military faction.Israel was quick to give its support to the Turkish government in the aftermath of the coup bid, condemning it while repeating its faith in the reconciliation process between the two countries. Now the deal has been approved, the two countries are expected to begin the process of exchanging ambassadors to fully restore diplomatic ties.The agreement also involves an easing of the naval blockade on the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip allowing Turkey to deliver humanitarian aid to Palestinians there via Israel's Ashdod port. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has previously spoken about the economic advantages of improved relations, discussing the possibility of a pipeline to Turkey to export Israeli gas.The rapprochement between the two countries came after secret talks held in December 2014 with two more rounds in February 2015 in Geneva and April this year in London.Turkey appears to be willing to return to its previous "zero problems with neighbours" foreign policy after the country also normalised relations with Russia. Relations were damaged after Turkey shot down a Russian jet in November last year.
KISHOREGANJ: Students of Kishoreganj Girls\' High School brought out a procession in the town yesterday protesting assaulting of their Headmaster and teachers.
"ICE AGE" starts operation in Dhaka

Ejab Foods Ltd. a sister concern of Ejab Group brings ICE AGE to Dhaka, a Thai brand, specializing in Italian gelato and sherbet. Chairperson of Ejab Group, Nahar Ahmed formally inaugurated the parlor recently in the city\'s Banani area.

Economic Reporter :

Ejab Foods Ltd. a concern of Ejab Group brings ICE AGE to Dhaka, a Thai brand, specializing in Italian gelato and sherbet along with many other dessert items, a press release said.

The parlor promises to serve exotic flavors some of which is yet un-tasted by the Bangladeshi populace.

First outlet of Ice Age ice cream was opened in Banani Road 11, Dhaka on Friday.

Chairperson of Ejab Group, Nahar Ahmed formally inaugurated the parlor where dignified guests were present. Among others, Managing Director, Eshtiaque Ahmed spoke in the occasion about the various flavors of ICE AGE ice cream and how it was always a dream to offer customers best quality ice cream an affordable price.
Journalists formed a human chain in front of the Jatiya Press Club in the city on Saturday in protest against militancy and communalism.
Mustafiz returns home tomorrow

Sports Reporter :

'New Sensation' Mustafizur Rahman will return home tomorrow from London. Mustafizur Rahman was scheduled to come back in the city on Friday last. But he could not return home as the aeroplane ticket was not available. At last he got the ticket of Sunday. Mustafizur Rahman will start his journey from London from 9.30 pm and will arrive in the city on Monday night.

Mustafizur Rahman consulted with his surgeon Andrew Wallace on Wednesday. After examining him Wallace did not get any complications. So, he gave permission to Mustafizur Rahman to return home.

Physician of BCB Dr Debashis Chowdhury, who is now staying with Mustafizur Rahman in London, said, " After healing of post operation and as his other condition is good, Andrew Wallace gave him permission to return home. Wallace gave him a plan for rehabilitation. Mustafizur Rahman will work according to his suggestions after return home."

Wallace said, " If Mustafiz follows the suggestions of him, he will return to the net practice within three months."

Debashis Chowdhury said, " Mustafiz will take at least five months for his total fitness from his shoulder injury."
Protect Sundarbans

Sit-in at Shaheed Minar

Leaders and activists of National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Power and Mineral Resources staged a day-long programme at the Central Shaheed Minar on Saturday protesting Rampal Power Plant near the Sundarbans.

Staff Reporter :

The leaders and the activists of various left-wing parties staged a daylong sit-in protest at the central Shaheed Minar on Saturday and called the government to cancel the coal-based Rampal Power Plant near the Sundarbans for protecting the country's only mangrove forest.

Engineer Sheikh Muhammad Shahidullah, Convenor of the National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports inaugurated the programme.

The participants of the programme demonstrated placards with slogans "Rampal Chukti Chhure Felo, Sundarban Rakkha Karo" (Through away the Rampal deal into dustbin and save the Sundarbans).

The leaders vowed to prevent implementation of the Rampal coal-fired power plant.

Expressing solidarity with the programme, Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) President Mujahidul Islam Selim said, "If this project is implemented, the Sundarbans will be destroyed.

There is sufficient evidence to prove this. Our struggle is not against the power plant, but to protect the Sundarbans."

"This power plant at Rampal (in the southern district of Bagerhat) will have to be stopped. The movement we had started cannot be silenced. I request the government to measure the consequences of the project," he said.

"We will continue our movement for the interest of the people. Please keep that in your mind," he added.

General Secretary of Bangladesher Samajtantrik Dal (BSD) Khalequzzaman said, this project protects the interest of local and foreign looters only. They are giving empty promises of development. Experts on their payroll say the Sundarbans will not be harmed.

Columnist Syed Abul Maksud said that a few people only among the country's 160 million will support this project. The deal is a conspiracy against the nation. Those people who are involved with this conspiracy will find themselves accused of crimes against humanity after 10 to 15 years.

A blank canvas was placed beside the Shaheed Minar for people to write their comments. Bangladesh signed a deal with India to set up the 1,300-megawatt thermal power plant in Bagerhat's Rampal.

The two countries will have equal partnership in the venture styled Bangladesh-India Friendship Power Company Ltd.

Environmentalists and locals say that the coal-fired power plant will threaten the ecological balance of the Sundarbans.

The government, however, insists that proper measures will be taken to protect the environment from pollution.
Tahmid sent to jail after remand

Staff Reporter :

A Dhaka court has sent Gulshan attack suspect Tahmid Hasib to jail after rejecting his bail prayer.

Metropolitan Magistrate Delwar Hossain on Saturday passed the order when Sub-Inspector of Counter Terrorism and

Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit and also investigation officer Humayun Kabir produced Tahmid before the court with a plea to send him in the jail until the investigation of Gulshan Cafe attack case is finished.

Canadian university student Tahmid Hasib, who was arrested Under Section 54 on suspicion of having links with the Gulshan attackers, was sent to jail after completion of his 14-day remand in two phases.

On August 3, police said that both of them had been arrested Under CrPC Section 54 in relation to the Holey Artisan attack. Later, eight-day remands had been granted for both.

On July 1, the Holey Artisan Bakery in Gulshan was taken over by militants. After a night-long hostage situation, military commandos stormed the bakery on July 2, rescuing 13 people. 20 people, including foreign nationals were killed in the militant attack.
Memories of bloodbath

S M Mizanur Rahman :

People will painfully remember the tragedy of August 21 as on this day in 2004 grenade attack was launched on an anti-terrorism rally organized by the Awami League in city's Bangabandhu Avenue killing 24 people and injuring over 500.

The grenade assault was carried out to kill the then leader of the opposition in parliament and incumbent Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina during the rule of BNP-Jamaat alliance government aiming to eliminate the AL leadership.

Marking the day, the ruling AL, its associate bodies, its left-leaning allies and other political parties, socio-cultural and professional organisations have chalked out different programmes across the country. President Abdul Hamid yesterday paid rich tributes to the memory of those killed in the barbaric grenade attack on the Awami League rally.

"I express my deep respect to the memory of those killed in the August 21 grenade attack and convey my heartfelt sympathies to the injured," he said in a message on the eve of the day.

Terming the August 21 attack as a black chapter in our national life and mourning day, the President said 24 leaders and activists of AL, including Mahila AL President Ivy Rahman, were killed in the heinous attack.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and leaders of AL, its associate and likeminded bodies and other political parties, socio-cultural-professional organisations will pay glowing tributes to the martyrs by placing wreaths at a temporary memorial erected in front of party central office at Bangabandhu Avenue on Sunday.

Sheikh Hasina and other front ranking leaders of the party escaped the carnage narrowly. But 24 other leaders and workers, including late president Zillur Rahman's wife Ivy Rahman, were killed and over 500 others suffered splinter injuries, many of them became crippled for life.

Many wondered and still wonder how could it happen? It's a month that brings to mind the memories of a past bloodbath. It was a long dark plot to assassinate Sheikh Hasina.

AL leaders, including the then mayor of Dhaka City Corporation late Mohammad Hanif, saved their party president forming a human shield.

Though Sheikh Hasina narrowly escaped the attack, she lost her hearing ability due to the impact of the repeated grenade blasts near the truck-dais of the huge public rally.

After the grisly carnage the then BNP-led-18 party alliance government had made a Joj Miah drama to divert the incident.

Talking to journalists, Public Prosecutor Advocate Mosharraf Hossain Kazol dealing with the case said the nation is going to see the long expected verdict in the August 21, 2004 grenade attack cases in three months time as the prosecution said the trial is now at the final stage.

"Verdict in the trial in August 21 grenade attack case will be delivered with the completion of cross-examinations of two investigative officers (IOs) and it requires two to three months," he said.

BSS adds; Nineteen charge-sheeted accused in the August 21 grenade attack cases are still on the run while the nation is set to observe the 12th anniversary of the barbaric carnage carried out during the rule of BNP-Jamaat alliance government in 2004.

"A total of 52 people were accused in separate charge sheets in two cases - one for murder and another under explosives acts," Public Prosecutor Advocate Mosharraf Hossain Kazol dealing with the cases said, adding that 19 of accused were shown fugitives.

One of the key accused in the cases, former minister and Jamaat-e-Islami secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed was hanged to death in a case of crime against humanity during the War of Liberation in 1971 while eight are on the bail and remaining others are now in different jails, he noted.

The list of the 19 fugitives has been forwarded to the Interpol seeking help to capture them as they are believed to be hiding in different countries.

Of the 19 fugitive accused, Tarique Rahman is now staying in London while Shah Mofazzal Hossain Kaikobad is living in Bangkok, owner of Hanif Enterprise Mohammad Hanif is in Kolkata, Maj Gen (retd) ATM Amin in America, Lt Col (retd) Saiful Islam Joarder in Canada, Babu alias Ratul Babu in India, Anisul Morsalin and his brother Mohibul Muttakin in an Indian jail and Maulana Tajul Islam in South Africa, intelligence sources said.

Militant leaders Shafikur Rahman, Mufti Abdul Hai, Maulana Abu Bakar, Iqbal, Khalilur Rahman, Jahangir Alam alias Badar, Maulana Liton alias Zobair alias Delwar, the then deputy commissioner (east) and deputy commissioner (south) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Md Obaidur Rahman and Khan Syed Hasan respectively are also staying abroad, the sources said adding that most of them are believed to be in Pakistan.

But there is no trace of another accused Harris Chowdhury. Of the fugitives, Maulana Tajuddin and Babu are brothers of the detained former deputy minister of the BNP government Abdus Salam Pintu, who is also a charge sheeted accused in the August 21 grenade attack case.

During the last caretaker government's tenure, the first two charge sheets in the August 21 cases - one for murder and another under explosive act - were placed before the court on July 11, 2008 accusing 22 people, including former deputy minister of BNP-Jamaat alliance government Abdus Salam Pintu and 21 Huji leaders and workers.

Later on July 3 in 2012, Criminal Investigation Department (CID) submitted two separate supplementary charge sheets in the cases against 30 people after a fresh investigation into the matter. With the 30 accused, the number of charge accused in the cases rose to 52.

During the BNP-Jamaat regime, the investigators were trying to divert the probe to a wrong direction to save the real culprits. Media reports on the cooked-up story of Joj Mia were brought to public attention by the then CID officials' to derail the investigation.

The visible attempt to frustrate the case by the then BNP-led regime prompted the subsequent interim government to order a fresh investigation into the case.

Of the 52 charge-sheeted accused, former BNP's state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar, former deputy minister Abdus Salam Pintu and Harkatul Jihad chief Mufti Abdul Hannan are now in jails.

Former inspector General of Police (IGPs) Ashraful Huda, Shahudul Haque and Khoda Baksh Chowdhury and three former investigation officers of the cases, former SP Ruhul Amin of CID, former ASPs of CID Atiqur Rahman and Abdur Rashid are on the bail.

Meanwhile, AL presidium member and Health and Family Welfare Minister Mohammad Nasim on Saturday said trial of the August 21 carnage case would certainly be completed during the tenure of this government.

"The trial in Bangabandhu Murder Case and the prolonged trial of the war criminals were held due to firmness of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The trial of the August 21 carnage case would surely be completed soon," he told journalists after a 14-party alliance meeting.
Two bullet-hit bodies found in Jessore

UNB, Jessore :

Police recovered bullet-hit bodies of two unidentified young men in a short time span from separate places of the district town early Saturday. Officer-in-charge of Kotwali police station Sheikh Elias Hossain said informed by locals, a team of police rushed to Poura Park area and recovered the body of a young man with bullet

injuries at about 2:30am. A motorcycle without any number plate was also recovered from there. Besides, the same police team informed by locals recovered bullet-wounded body of another youth from Natun Haat area on the Jessore-Benapole highway fifteen minutes later.

The bodies were sent to Jessore Medical College Hospital (JMCH) morgue for autopsy.
JMB recruiting affluent, educated men

51 leaders given death sentence, 178 life-imprisonment, 245 jailed

Md Joynal Abedin Khan :The Neo Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) outfit is recruiting affluent and educated people, including physicians, engineers and technologists, by using encrypted apps to make 'squad team' to establish its ideological belief, detective sources said. They added the JMB outfit makes recruitment and communications using encrypted apps and operates through sleeper cells as law enforcers had long struggled to get a clear concept of its network and leadership. Apart from training in explosive-making and shooting, the Neo JMB has been providing to its members radical motivation, they said.According to sources, it has more than 8,000 members in the capital and other parts of the country. The organisation operates its activities by three types of members -- Shurah member (policy maker), Ehshab (commanding worker) and Gayer Ehshab (general member). Besides, it has more than 300 'suicide squad members', like Isba (attak) and Dayee (publicity) in the country, mainly in cities and 16 northern districts.The JMB members are active in guise of businessman, job holder and hawker as well as photostat machine shop, cosmetic shop, mobile retailer agent and flexi load, they said.They conduct their organizational activities along with leaflet branch, hand bills branch, explosive branch and IT branch, the sources added."JMB outfit, who became inactive after Mawlana Saidur Rahman took over as the chief following Abdur Rahman's execution in 2007, has formed the Neo JMB," said Monirul Islam, Chief of Counter Terrorism and Transitional Crime (CTTC) unit. Stirred by the activities and more radical views of the Neo JMB, a good number of activists from the original JMB, who had become almost inactive after Saidur's arrest in May 2010, also joined the faction, the CTTC chief said.Monirul Islam said that with several of its activists arrested and killed in Gulshan, Sholakia and in Kalyanpur, the Neo JMB has been weakened.They have already busted several trainging camps which were oeparated in the name of research center and general residence in last few months, he said, adding they used to meet at the camps to communicate with the international terror group Al-Quaeda. "The Neo JMB has a few hundred leaders and activists," a high official of Police Headquarters, who deals with militancy, told The New Nation. The present leaders and activists are commited to train-up the new members for underground training, information technology (IT), militant attacks and fund collection, the police official said.They are nurturing the new members as they become far more radicalised and fearsome during target attaks across the country, he added.Although the original JMB carried out terrorist activities to establish Shariah law, the Neo JMB believed in establishment of a 'caliphate' -- a state governed in accordance with Islamic law by a 'caliph', he opined.The Neo JMB, as called by law enforcers, is now inspired by the ideology of Islamic State (IS), skilled in modern technology and equipped with sophisticated firearms, Police Headquarter sources said. The Neo JMB emerged in 2014 after IS burst onto the international scene. Shaykh Abdur Rahman established JMB in April 1998 and it was banned in 2005.Earlier, the old JMB on August 17, 2005 struck terror across the country almost simultaneously detonating 459 bombs in 63 out of the 64 districts.After the synchronised attacks, a total of 160 cases were filed across the country. Police have completed probe into the cases.They have submitted final reports in 17 cases and charge sheets in 143 cases. In the charge sheets, 1,157 JMB leaders and activists have been made accused, according to an estimate of the Police Headquarters.An official record shows between 2007 and 2014, 478 JMB men were tried in 177 cases. Of them, 51 top leaders of JMB were sentenced to death, 178 got life imprisonment and 245 were jailed for different terms.On March 29, 2007, JMB leaders Abdur Rahman and Bangla Bhai were executed for killing two Jhalakathi judges.
Guardians worried

Pvt varsity authorities role after terror attacks may lead to admission crisis

M M Jasim :

The private universities are likely to face students crisis in the upcoming session as the guardians of the admission seekers are in anxious after the discovery of militancy link in some varsities by the law enforcement agencies.

The guardians blamed the private university authorities for negligence in performing their duties as the authorities are doing business in the name of higher education. They also alleged that the authorities do not work to improve the education system, but work for increasing tuition fees and other expenditure.

They are also worried about the future education of their children and urged the government to monitor the activities of all the private universities properly so that the young minds do not fall victim to the brainwashing of militant operatives.

The guardians' anxiousness has increased after the terror attacks in Gulshan cafe and Sholakia Eidgah where the law enforcers found involvement of some students of private universities, mostly of North South University (NSU), Brac University and Manarat International University. Even seven of the eight convicted killers of blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider were NSU students.

More worrying is the fact that law enforcement agencies have also come up with claims about the brainwashing of a good number of students from different private universities.

Yousuf Chowdhury, a resident of Bhola town whose son passed for this year's Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) examination, told The New Nation on Saturday, "The militant groups target the private university to collect their new members. Some of the universities knew the matter but did not take any initiative to combat the militancy. Now we cannot depend on the private university authorities."

Afzal Hossain, a guardian of Old Dhaka, said, "My son will first try to have admission to any public university. If he cannot, he will enroll in a degree programme under the National University. But, I will not allow him to get admitted to any private university."

Another guardian, Shamsunnahar, also from Gopalganj, said his son would try for Jahangirnagar University first, and then for a suitable programme in a college of the district under the National University.

Shahin Alam of Narsingdi town also expressed his concern over the admission of his son, as the involvement of private university students in militant activities and deadly attacks on innocent civilians keep coming at the back of his mind.

"I have a long-cherished dream of getting my son admitted to a reputed university in Dhaka. But, the situation is not in favour of keeping him in any mess-house for study. Besides, I do not have relatives in the capital where my son can stay," he said.

Shahin said he is yet to decide what to do with his son regarding the admission at the graduation level. "If my son fails to get enrolled in any public university, I'll, perhaps, be compelled to admit him to a private university for a good career. But, I'll have to live with worries always."

Another guardian, Ramzan Ali, said that he would have sent his son abroad for higher studies had he had the financial capacity. He hoped that the law enforcement agencies would increase monitoring in private universities so that teachers, students and employees there cannot get involved in militant activities.

Another guardian, Habibur Rahman, said the government, after the two recent terrorist attacks, increased vigilance in private universities and demanded the government continue it with more efforts which will help the guardians of graduation aspirants to regain confidence in private universities.

He also suggested increasing the control of the University Grants Commission (UGC) over private universities.

The officials of the University Grants Commission (UGC) said the private universities are running their academic activities by the hired teachers. "The private universities also do not follow the rules and regulation of the UGC properly.

The government is going to appoint a supervisor under UGC in the trustee board at all private universities to monitor the policy making, academic activities and to check militancy.

The UGC has also formed a three-member committee to monitor all public and private universities and colleges across the country whether there are any militant activities.

UGC Chairman Professor Abdul Mannan said, "We directed the private universities to follow the direction of the Commission. We have also asked them to take steps to combat militancy from their institutions. If they implement our notice they can stay on the race. Otherwise the UGC would take stern action against them," He also said a bad impact has creased in the guardians' mind about the private universities. The authorities have to probe that the academic atmosphere of the universities is good and no chance to increase militancy here, he said.

Chairman of the Association of Non-Government Universities of Bangladesh (ANUB) Sheikh Kabir Hossain, said "We held several meetings and asked private universities to take various anti-militancy programmes. We have taken steps to monitor students during their stay at the universities. Guardians should also monitor their children."

He said the ANUB also directed the universities to introduce extra-curricular activities and counseling for both the new and the old students.

The ANUB Chairman also mentioned that they had directed the private universities to take cautionary steps while recruiting teachers. Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid said private universities have to take their own measures to regain confidence of the guardians.

According to the UGC annual report-2014, some 121,194 students against 235,002 seats were admitted to 75 private universities across the country. A total of 129,765 students against 214,369 seats were admitted in the private universities in 2013.

It may be mentioned that a total of 899,150 students passed the Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) and its equivalent examinations-2016. But most of the students will try to admit at public universities and government colleges.


Illegal billboards make city only ugly looking

DHAKA North City Corporation (DNCC) Mayor Annisul Huq on Friday said, as reported in the press, that the City Corporation would take legal action against those who put up unauthorized billboards and posters in the capital. Huge number of unauthorized billboards have made the city skyline ugly all around and are causes of constant concern of the city dwellers because of the danger they pose to public life and property. Many billboards were set up in an unplanned way, in many cases illegally, and for lack of proper maintenance, these structures are becoming dangerously unsafe.

The DNCC in last October formulated a draft guideline proposing ban on billboards at turnings and crossings in Dhaka city area but no effecting step is seen yet. Though large number of billboards and posters are used to advertise commercial products and services but using billboards and posters for self-propagating by ruling party men are now the most dominating fact. For a safer and clean Dhaka, the DNCC (and also DSCC) should establish rule of law, meaning nobody would be spared regardless their purpose.

According to news reports, at least three people were killed and 14 hurt in billboard collapse in the city since 2009. Insiders said that in Dhaka South there are about 900 legal billboards against some 1,500 illegal ones. Dhaka North has now about 1,500 approved billboards and some 1,200 illegal ones. It sounds bold when the DNCC Mayor says "don't force us to conduct drives along with magistrates". But his firm stance against commercial publicity through illegal billboards and posters would not brush up the city's cleanliness till the embargo imposes on the ruling party-men who are frantically trying for drawing attention of high-ups through billboard displays. As per rules, anyone putting up a billboard or a poster or any other such materials in the city must take prior permission from the respective City Corporation.

The DNCC has become vibrant this time as the High Court on Thursday asked the two City Corporations to explain what actions they have taken for removing unauthorized billboards, banners, posters and other publicity materials from the city. In response to the Court direction, the DNCC removed 200 banners and billboards amidst the countless numbers of new banners, posters and festoons marring the city. But, the Mayor admitted that political and government billboards will always remain there and the DNCC will always give permission for setting them up. That is at the end of the day, there will be no real change -- it will remain 'business as usual.'

Both City Corporations should reasonably allow commercial billboards by ensuring road safety and city's beauty. Along these, political use of billboards and gluing posters in self-propaganda -- by the party activists all over the city -- should be limited by the City Corporations. As Metro City, Dhaka should have a decent look.






Timely printing of primary schools text books not certain

PRINTING of 11.50 crore text books for primary students has already been delayed for a month this year and this delay may go further. Thus it will be rather impossible to supply books to the primary students in time in next academic calendar. A Bengali daily reported on Saturday, citing sources in the National Curriculum and Text Book Board (NCTB) and concerned publishers that in the past years work order for printing text books used to be given to the printing establishments in July. But this year, the work order is yet to be given. This delay is caused by the World Bank. Free distribution of text books to the primary students is a government programme funded by loans from the World Bank.

According to terms of the loan, it is obligatory for the NCTB to send list of selected printing establishments to the World Bank ahead of July. Consequent upon their approval NCTB issues work orders. This year NCTB called tenders in 98 lots for printing 11.50 crore text books. One Indian firm was selected as lowest bidder in 55 lots. But later it was found that the Indian firm made forgery in their submitted documents. So, their selection was cancelled. Perhaps, it is assumed, the World Bank became unhappy about this decision. Normally, World Bank clears the files sent to them by NCTB within 2/3 days. But this year they delayed the process for one month and affirmative decision was given by them only for 63 lots. It seems that they are still lobbying for that very Indian establishment.

Due to unfair interference of the World Bank it has already become uncertain to distribute text books free of cost to the primary students in schedule time, i.e. first week of January, 2017. How this complication will be solved is still unknown. The World Bank has worldwide negative reputation as they often interfere in projects funded by them. But our government should not bowdown to undue pressure from any donor agency by crossing the line of due process. Last year NCTB surrendered to pressure of the World Bank and that resulted very poorly in distributing books. If the authority concerned surrenders once again to any undue pressure to serve external interest, then corruption will be internationalised centering Bangladesh, which is not acceptable at all.

It is against our national dignity. So, no compromise should be made in this regard. Already time is lost from the schedule time frame to provide books to the primary students. If the NCTB can hold strongly their rightful stand, then probably there would be no problem in the future.
The Undead Archives

I have finally salvaged my pre-Blogger TDR archives and added them into Blogger. They are almost totally in the form of one giant post for each month. And the formatting strayed from the originals. Sorry. But historians everywhere can rejoice that this treasure trove of my thoughts is restored to the world.
Looking for the vulture assist with Neolithic burials

2 years ago
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If you are looking for the new Immoral Minority posts, you should know that they can be found here at our new home Please stop by to get caught up on politics, join the conversations, or simply check out the new digs.
Pre-purchase property inspection is a relatively new thing in the United Kingdom. Its not something that most people have heard about, but it has become increasingly popular over the last few years with the rise in property prices and increased demand for high quality homes.

What are the benefits of pre-purchase building inspection? What can you expect to find out when you pay someone else to inspect your home before you buy it? And what should you look for during an inspection?

Many people want to know if theyre buying a house thats been well maintained or if its had any serious problems. If youve found a place on the market that seems attractive, but then discover some issues after moving in, you may not be as excited about buying it as you thought you were.

Its important to do your due diligence when looking at properties. A lot goes into making a property appealing to potential buyers, from the landscaping to the flooring to the kitchen appliances. The same applies when inspecting a property  there are many things that need checking over to make sure everything is running smoothly.

Here are some of the benefits of performing a pre-purchase inspection:

You get to see exactly what will happen to your money

When you go shopping for a new car, youll probably be shown several different models. You might even be shown one that looks like a great value, but doesnt fit around all of the extra features that you want. When it comes time to actually buy the vehicle, however, you wont have seen how your money will be spent on it once you drive it off the showroom floor.

Likewise, when you shop for a new home, you dont really know what youre getting yourself into until you move in. In order to get a feel for whether the home youre considering is what you want, you normally have to spend quite a bit of time inside it. This allows you to learn more about everything that youre going to be spending your hard-earned cash on.

A pre-purchase building inspection gives you much the same kind of experience without having to spend thousands of dollars. Since youre paying for the service, you can expect to see exactly what youre paying for, instead of just seeing a vague idea of what you might end up with.

You find out about potential major repairs

Some buildings are very expensive to maintain, which means that owners often neglect them for the sake of saving money. While youre paying for a building inspection, youre also paying for a professional who knows how to spot signs of trouble and repair work that needs doing.

If you notice that a particular area of your new home needs fixing right away, you can call in an expert to take care of it quickly. If you find that theres something wrong with your boiler, you wont have to wait weeks for a plumber to come over and fix it. Instead, youll have access to a solution immediately.

You can save hundreds of pounds by finding out about potential problems early on

One of the biggest expenses when you first buy a home is the cost of moving in. Many people dont realize this until its too late. Buying a home involves not only paying for the actual house, but also for moving costs, furniture, and other items that have to be moved along with the home.

Having a good idea ahead of time of what youre likely to encounter can help you avoid these kinds of costs. If you know youll need to replace the plumbing system, for example, youll be able to put together a budget for the expense and plan accordingly.

You can protect your investment by finding out if the homes been well cared for

While there are plenty of people who think that houses always look better when theyre newly built, youd be surprised at how well maintained older residences can still look nice. Sometimes, though, those homes need some additional maintenance to keep them looking their best.

This could involve repairs that arent so noticeable or small improvements that you wouldnt consider otherwise. Even worse, some houses have fallen into disrepair without anyone noticing. This is why having a professional perform a building inspection prior to purchasing a home is such a big benefit.

Not only will it give you insight into the state of the property, but it will also give you peace of mind knowing youre not getting taken advantage of. As long as youre aware of the potential pitfalls, youll have less reason to worry about the state of your new home.

You can use information gathered during a building inspection to negotiate a lower price

If youre worried about buying a home because you suspect that it may need extensive renovation work, you may already have a rough idea of how much work youll need to do to bring it up to scratch. That knowledge can come in handy if you decide to buy the home.

You can use all of the details that you gather during a building inspection to present a realistic picture of what the home is worth to prospective buyers. If a potential buyer thinks that the home is worth more than what you paid for it, you can try negotiating a lower price.

You can sell your home faster and for more money

If you decide to list your home on the market soon after buying it, youll need to price it accurately in order to attract buyers. But if youve already done a thorough building inspection, youll know exactly what work is needed and what the current market conditions are.

In other words, youll be able to make a more accurate estimate of the amount of money youve invested in the home and how much its worth. If you find that youre selling your house for close to its full market value, you can use this information to convince the potential buyer that your home is worth the asking price.

Even if youre planning to stay in the home for a while before you decide to sell, the fact that you did a thorough building inspection will give you more confidence when listing it. Prospective buyers will know exactly what theyre paying for.

Your home will hold its value longer

As mentioned earlier, the value of a home depends heavily upon the condition of the building itself. If your home is in bad shape, potential buyers wont be interested in buying it. On the other hand, if youve performed a thorough building inspection and know what sort of repairs are necessary, you can offer your prospective buyer a compelling reason to invest in your property.

When you buy a home, youre essentially agreeing to have it inspected periodically to ensure that it stays in top shape. Not only does this allow you to avoid expensive repairs down the road, but it can also increase the value of your home.

You can make smart decisions about property investments

Buying real estate isnt as simple as just driving a couple of minutes to pick up a house. There are lots of considerations involved, ranging from location to cost. The same is true when youre investing in property.

If you find a house that meets all of your requirements, youll want to make sure that you have a solid understanding of where it stands with regards to the rest of the market. If you havent spent enough time researching the area, you could inadvertently end up with a bad deal.

There are lots of resources available online that can help you determine the overall level of competition in your area. They can also help you figure out if there are any properties that meet your requirements that you didnt know about.

If you own rental property, you can use the information to identify tenants who might cause damage

If you own rental property and youve noticed that certain tenants consistently cause damage, you can use the results of a building inspection to identify them. You can then contact them directly to let them know that youre watching them closely and that you dont appreciate the problem theyre causing.

They might start taking better care of their homes, which would be good news for everyone. It could also be the case that youll find out that theyre responsible for previous damages that werent caught during a previous visit.

You can make smarter decisions about hiring contractors

If youve hired contractors to build or repair your home, you might want to ask them for references. However, unless you perform a thorough building inspection, you might not know exactly what to look for.

For instance, maybe you only checked the roof for leaks or the walls for cracks. You might not have looked underneath the foundation for anything that could cause a future issue. By performing a building inspection, you can ensure that you hire reputable contractors who will be trustworthy with your money.

You can avoid purchasing a home thats in poor condition

Of course, the main benefit of structural inspections perth is that it helps you avoid purchasing a home thats in poor condition. Before you make the decision to buy a home, you should do whatever you can to find out about the state of the building.

You can also ask your realtor about what sorts of inspections are typically recommended. Some agents say that its standard practice to check the heating system, the roof, the electrical wiring, and the floors. Others will tell you that they recommend that you check the entire structure.

Either way, if you choose to hire an inspector, youll find out exactly what needs to be fixed and how much it will cost to do so.

As a result, it can be concluded that a pre-purchase building inspection is highly important for the buyers because it provides transparency regarding the current conditions of the structure. Additionally, the building owner is made aware of any upgrades or repairs that are required, which could lead to a fair deal throughout the purchasing and selling process.
The sextoy market is growing quite rapidly in India right now.

Although it is not a big trend, it is a hot topic on the internet as it is secretly expanding its market.

In this article, we will focus on sextoy and introduce recommended sextoy for Indian beginners of sextoy by gender.

India, the birthplace of the Kama Sutra, is very strict about sex.

Also, premarital sex is basically not allowed. Therefore, there are many people who are sexually restricted.

But what happens when you continue to be sexually restricted?

Frustration may build up and you may end up taking your sexual stress out on your partner.

If you are able to adopt sextoy in a timely manner, you can get rid of those problems.

I want to have more exciting sex than Im having now.

I want more variation in masturbation

I want to get even stronger pleasure than I do on my own.

If you have any of these problems, please stay with me until the end.

What is sex toys for Indian?

Sextoy, as the name implies, is a toy used during sex and masturbation.

It is a generic term for vibrators, Egg-vibrators, Electric massagers, dildo, handcuffs and condoms.

They are used to make regular sex more exciting or to make masturbation more pleasurable.

Because sextoy is very stimulating, it can help you to get rid of the problems and frustrations of being in a rut of sex with your partner for a long time, or if you are unhappy with the lack of pleasure in sex with your partner.

The ability to satisfy your desires with movement, texture, and size, which cannot be done by a normal human being, can help you to be satisfied with sex and, as a result, improve your relationship with your partner.

It is also said to help improve sexual dysfunction (inability to get an erection or ejaculate) and difficulty in feeling during sex (insensitivity), which is attracting more attention than in the past.

In recent years, the demand for sextoy has increased due to the spread of smartphones and the Internet and the increasing number of people using online shopping.

Even those who are concerned about the appearance of sextoy (and find it difficult to purchase) can now easily obtain it by using mail order.

In the case of online shopping, most of the stores have taken steps to ensure that the contents of the products delivered to you are not revealed, so you can purchase them without your family members knowing.

Until a while ago, you had to go to the store where the adult goods were sold to buy them, so it was quite a hurdle to overcome.

Also, many people may have an image that sextoy is somehow embarrassing to own.

But nowadays, some of them are so stylish and cute that you cant believe they are sextoy at a glance.

More and more people are using them for travel and outdoor use because they are not too bulky and are suitable for carrying around.

Sextoy situation in India

Before introducing the recommended sextoy for Indians, lets talk about one of the sextoy situations in India in recent years.

In India, due to the high concentration of population, the following six cities have particularly high sales of sextoy in India.

Mumbai

Kolkata

Bangalore

Delhi

Chennai

Hyderabad

These cities account for roughly 70 percent of sextoy sales in India.

In the future, the percentage of sextoy use will gradually increase in other cities in India as well.

If you never talk about sextoy publicly, that girl in your neighborhood might be a sextoy user too.

If you are interested in sextoy, you dont have to suppress your desire for it.

What are Sextoys for beginner?

Among all sextoys, sextoy for beginners are vibrators, dildo, masturbators, Sex Lubricants, and condoms.

Sex Lubricants and condoms, which are familiar to people who have had sex, are also a great beginners sextoy.

I will explain the details of each toy later, but there are many sextoy products that are painful to use and can only be used after some anal expansion.

I assume that the Indian readers of this article are people who have not had much experience with sextoy.

If such people use professional sextoy suddenly, they are at risk of injury or trauma.

Therefore, to introduce sextoy, you need to start with a beginners version and gradually become familiar with it.

Advantages of using sextoy for Indians

There are three advantages of using sextoy for Indians

You can masturbate in a wide variety of ways.

Can have stimulating sex

Can develop new sexual zones

If you try to masturbate with your own fingers or hands, it tends to be a pattern.

However, with sextoy, you can easily masturbate in a variety of ways.

You will definitely be fascinated by the attraction of new stimulation.

Also, your daily sex life will be more exciting than ever.

There are many things in sextoy that are visually stimulating and give you a strong and intense feeling of pleasure.

This allows you to see your partners promiscuity in a way that you wouldnt normally see it.

When you are in a relationship, sex with your partner may become a pattern, but it can also eliminate these problems.

It can also lead to the development of new sexual zones (which is the training of sexual stimulation to allow you to feel orgasms).

For more information on the development of new sexual zones, see the following articles

[Women's Erogenous Zone]How to find and develop, 7 hidden sexual zones !![In India] In this issue, we will dissect the female erogenous zone! ..." Many of you may be like that. Men, in particular, shou...

Thus, the use of sextoy can only be a good thing for the men and women of India.

Sextoy for beginner men in India

So, lets continue with the recommended goods for Indian sextoy beginners.

For ease of understanding, we will introduce them by gender. Lets start with the men!

The following five goods are recommended for novice Indian sextoy men

Masturbator

Cock rings

Love Doll

Sex Lubricants

Toys for the prostate

Lets check each one in detail.

Masturbator

The masturbator is a sextoy for men that elaborately reproduces a womans vagina, mouth, and anus, and is one of the most popular sextoy products.

It is used by men to masturbate, and it is popular because it provides stronger stimulation and pleasure more easily than using hands.

Most are made of good quality silicone, and their softness is something that cannot be achieved with ones own hands.

They can provide stronger pleasure than a real womans vagina, so be careful not to overuse them. (You wont be able to have an orgasm in a womans vagina anymore.)

Again Male masturbators are a wonderful toy. I do not need any favourite timing, bothersome bargaining. You do not have to worry too much.

Revolutionize your masturbation time! ! !

Made in Japan is a wonderful kinky toy.#sextoysindia #SexToyIndia #Japanhttps://t.co/4k70QGzoTP pic.twitter.com/tRVdxTKPpa   SEXToys India PR  (@SextoysIndia) November 12, 2018

Some of them are disposable, while others can be washed and used over and over again, so its fun to buy a few to use depending on your mood.

If you want to know more about masturbator, please click here

Really pleasant male masturbation and how to do it Are you in a rut with your daily masturbation routine? I'm going to show you five ways men masturbate that you might ...

[For Beginners] How to choose and use a male masturbator without fail Gentlemen.Have you ever used a masturbator? The person who sees this article is probably the one who has not experien...

Cock Ring

A cock ring is literally a ring-shaped sextoy that is worn on a mans penis.

It maintains an erection by binding the penis with a ring of rubber and blocking blood flow.

It is sometimes used as an accessory to be worn on the penis, and may be made of metal or plastic as well as rubber.

In some cases, cock rings have parts or vibrators attached to them that stimulate the vagina, so they kill two birds with one stone, giving a woman pleasure while maintaining an erection.

Cock rings are also sometimes used to treat erectile dysfunction.

It can help with erectile dysfunction, where the penis doesnt get hard when you get an erection or doesnt last long when you try to insert it.

Men who are prone to breakage or who are unsure of the hardness and size of their erections can use a cock ring to increase the size of their penis and maintain an erection for a longer period of time.

Cock rings vary in price from around RS700 to over RS2000 with a vibrator function.

Some of them do not fit your penis, so you should check the size of the cock ring before you buy.

You should know the size of your partners or your own penis when it is erect.

[Penis enlargement] What is a cock ring? Types and usage Cock rings can make your penis bigger and harder. It also makes sex with women more fulfilling and increases your sat...

Love Doll

Love dolls, also known as Dutchwives, are dolls with the appearance of a woman who can experience simulated sex.

There are dolls that look like a woman, but they have no face and only have their breasts and lower torso cut off, and some dolls are so realistic that they can actually be mistaken for real women.

Some expensive dolls can cost more than 1 million yen, and the quality of the doll is easily influenced by the price.

The higher the price, the higher the quality of the doll will be, the closer it will be to the real woman, and the cheaper the doll will be, the less elaborate it will be, making it look like a real doll! Something is wrong! That is also true.

You cant go wrong if you choose a balance between price and taste.

There are stores that allow you to make custom-made love dolls, so you can create a girl of your choice.

You can make a girl of your choice. You can start with inexpensive love dolls at first, and once you get used to it, you can try custom-made love dolls.

If you want to know more about Love doll, please click here

Thorough explanation of the charm of sex dolls! Have you ever heard of sex dolls that are used primarily for pseudo-sex purposes? It is a doll that is quite close to...

Sex lubricants

Sex lubricants are used as a substitute for lubricating fluid during sex or as a lubricant for men to use masturbator rules.

It is not uncommon for women to have difficulty getting wet, depending on their physical condition, or to have difficulty getting wet due to their constitution.

Forcing the penis into the vagina at such times can cause painful intercourse.

There are various types of Sex Lubricants, some with a warming effect, some with a cooling effect, and some with a scent.

Changing the Sex Lubricant used during play is recommended as a good sex accent.

If you want to learn more about Sex Lubricants, click here.

What is sex lubricant?Explain the difference and usage of each ingredient The word "sex toy" may seem like a hurdle to overcome, but lotion is actually one of the most familiar sex toys. Many...

Toys for the Prostate

Another sextoy for men is prostate toys.

The most famous prostate toys include Enemagra, which was originally a prostate massager developed by an American urologist to treat an enlarged prostate line.

Modern prostate toys are imitations of Enemagra that have spread as sextoy for men.

Many people think of prostate toys as being used by gay men, but in fact they are often used by straight men.

What is the prostate?

The prostate is an organ found only in men. It is a walnut-sized organ located deep in the pelvis, just below the bladder, and its primary role is to protect and nourish sperm.

You cannot touch the prostate gland from outside the body, but you can touch it by inserting a finger or sextoy through the anus.

By inserting a finger or sextoy through the anus and touching the prostate and developing it, you can feel intense orgasms.

Orgasms felt in the prostate are mainly dry orgasms, which are orgasms that do not involve ejaculation. (You can also feel orgasms with ejaculation through prostate stimulation.)

The prostate is called the male G-spot, and dry orgasms can be much more intense than ejaculation.

Therefore, men who are able to develop a prostate can become addicted to the pleasure.

sextoy for beinner women in India

The following are the recommended goods for Indian women who are new to sextoy.

The following three are recommended for use by women who are new to sextoy.

Vibrator.

Dildo

Electric Masserger

Lets check out what each one is in detail.

If you want to check out womens toys, click here.

[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.
PYONGYANG - The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said Saturday that Deputy Ambassador to Britain Thae Yong Ho has reportedly defected to the South to escape punishment for committing crimes.

Thae was accused of embezzling state funds, selling state secrets and raping a minor, said a commentary released by the official news agency KCNA.

The DPRK had recalled him in June to put him under investigation, and on July 12, the country's Central Procuratorate decided to start a probe, the KCNA added.

The commentary also slammed South Korea's coverage of the incident and blamed Seoul for using the case to tarnish the DPRK's image and step up anti-DPRK campaigns.

The incident was exacerbated by the fact that Britain, in disregard of international extradition practices, ignored the DPRK's request to send Thae back, but instead handed him over to South Korea, which is keen on North-South confrontation.

South Korea's Unification Ministry said Wednesday that the DPRK's deputy ambassador to Britain has defected to South Korea with his family. If it is true, Thae would become the highest-ranking DPRK diplomat who has fled to Seoul.
BENTON  State Sen. Gary Forby, D-Benton, and some other state legislators blasted Gov. Bruce Rauner on Saturday for his veto of a bill that would have re-opened the Hardin County Work Camp.

The camp closed in January of this year, sending more than 60 employees to other parts of the state, creating an economic deficit in that area, according to the news release. The work camp opened in 1980. In June 2015, the governor announced the closing of the work camp as part of budget cuts, saying it would save $1 million annually and save on $9.8 million worth of repairs that needed to be done to keep it open, according to past articles.

In a news release, Forby and the others expressed their disappointment.

Am I disappointed? Yes. Am I shocked? No, Forby said. This governor doesnt give a lick about Southern Illinois. Hes just another snake oil salesman from Chicago. Closing down state facilities in parts of the state that truly need an economic boost just doesnt make sense."

Forby said this bill received bipartisan support because lawmakers on both sides of the aisle understand the importance of the work being done at the camp and the economic impact to the surrounding communities.

"The only explanation I can come up with is, hes just a terrible governor," Forby said.

Also sharing his surprise was State Rep. Brandon Phelps, D-Harrisburg.

I was shocked that Governor Bruce Rauner single-handedly closed the Hardin County Work Camp, after Democratic and Republican lawmakers urged him to keep the facility open, Phelps also said in the statement.

Phelps said he worked with fellow legislators in both parties to pass legislation to re-open the facility.

"By vetoing the bill, our billionaire governor from Chicago once again demonstrated he doesnt care about communities in Southern Illinois and showed everybody how much is at stake in the November election and in 2018 when he is on the ballot again," Phelps said. "Southern Illinoisans will not forget.

State Rep. John Bradley, D-Marion, accused the governor of using his money to buy "legislative lapdogs" who would not defend the interests of Southern Illinoisans.

"Rauner's veto was a result of his obsession with annihilating organized labor and hurting union members, like those who worked at the Hardin Camp," Bradley continued. "Rauner hates unions because they fight for fair wages, decent benefits and safe working conditions for everyone, and in the private sector they demand that workers receive a fair share of the profits, which means less money for people like Rauner."

He went on to say that Rauner made his fortune at an investment firm that owned companies that profit from privatization of prisons and the probation system.

"Rauner may well be trying to dismantle and privatize our criminal justice system to financially benefit himself, his former business partners, and the wealthy individuals who fund his political activities," Bradley said.

A spokeswoman with the governor's office called the closing "a difficult but necessary decision."

"The Department was spending $3.5 million a year to keep the facility running, and the closure will save taxpayers $1 million annually," spokeswoman Nicole Wilson said in a statement. "No employee lost their job as a result of the closure, and the Department can continue to cut down on excessive overtime expenses."
South Carolinas ports will be the focus of an economic summit and forecast breakfast next week.

The keynote speaker for Tuesdays event will be S.C. Ports Authority President and Chief Executive Officer Jim Newsome.

Orangeburg County Development Commission Executive Director Gregg Robinson said the summit is aimed to inform attendees about the role the Port of Charleston plays in Orangeburg County's economy and the role the county has to play for the port.

"It is tied to the construction of the dredging and expansion of the Navy terminal that greatly impacts companies locating in our area and the advantages of Orangeburg to the port," Robinson said. "We have available land and available buildings."

The Orangeburg County Economic Development Partnership's economic summit and breakfast is scheduled for 7:30 a.m. Aug. 23 at the Orangeburg Country Club.

Newsome became president and CEO of the S.C. Ports Authority in September 2009 and is the fifth leader in the history of the organization.

He was previously president of Hapag-Lloyd (America), which is part of the worlds fifth-largest ocean shipping company.

A Savannah native, Newsome received a bachelors degree in transportation and logistics in 1976 and an MBA in transportation and logistics in 1977 from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

Individual tickets for Tuesdays event are $25 and a table of eight is $200.

Registration will begin at 7:30 a.m. with the program beginning at 8 a.m.

A question-and-answer session will be held at 8:45 a.m.

The summit's presenting sponsor is Husqvarna and gold sponsors are the Alzheimer's Association, South State Bank and Claflin University.

The event is being hosted by the South Carolina Ports, Orangeburg County Development Commission and the Orangeburg County Chamber of Commerce.

Individuals are asked to contact Candice Roberson with the Orangeburg County Chamber of Commerce at 803-534-6821 or croberson@orangeburgsc.net to register for the event.
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Iranian-Russian block fighting against terrorism, more specifically, against the so-called Islamic State (IS) in Syria, contributed to increasing penetration of radicals from around the world into the region. The US and the West havent had success in the fight against the IS, either.

Syria has currently become a kind of training ground, where Sunni radicals are at a war with Hezbollah (Shi'a Islamist militant group and political party based in Lebanon) and government forces, as well as among themselves.

All these groups, with the exception of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), consider the West and the US their main enemies.

Thus, it is much more profitable for many countries that these groups continue to fight among themselves, away from those countries borders. This tactic, of course, could be considered ideal, if mainly civilians didnt die as a result of military actions.

Protraction of the conflict in Syria also springs from the ethnic and religious composition of Syrias population, which includes mostly Sunni Arabs, Kurds, Turkomans and Alawites.

On the other hand, settlement of the Syrian crisis is delayed because almost all players in the region  the West, including the US, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey and Russia  have for five years tried to solve the problem solely within their interests.

It is not a secret that without Turkeys participation, none of the parties, in particular, Iran or Russia, can solve this problem.

Turkeys Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said Aug. 18 that Turkey, as other countries, was not successful in its policy towards Syria. Thus, Turkey criticized itself for the first time for its Syria policy.

Today, it is not a secret that there is a necessity to introduce new mechanisms of cooperation for solution of the Syrian crisis, since almost all of the steps, taken previously, failed.

Earlier, Russia and Iran declared that Turkey can play an important role in resolving the Syrian crisis. Ankara also has a positive attitude towards this issue. This was confirmed by the statements of Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, when they indirectly admitted that only Russia, Turkey and Iran can solve the Syrian conflict.

It is not excluded that Turkey can give Russia an access to its military bases. Military bases in Turkeys eastern provinces of Mus and Bitlis can be among such facilities.

Given this, it can be noted that a new format of trilateral cooperation between Turkey, Russia and Iran can be created in the region in order to resolve the Syrian conflict.
By

Armenias armed forces have 17 times violated the ceasefire on the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops over the past 24 hours, said Azerbaijans Defense Ministry Aug. 20.

The Armenian army was using large-caliber machine guns.

The Armenian armed forces stationed in the Paravakar village of Armenias Ijevan district opened fire at the Azerbaijani positions located on nameless heights of the Gazakh district.

Positions of the Azerbaijani army located in the villages of Kokhanabi, Munjuglu and Garalar of the countrys Tovuz district also underwent fire from the Armenian positions located in the nameless heights and the Chinari village of Armenias Berd district.

Azerbaijani positions came under fire from the positions located in the Goyarkh village of the Terter district, Merzili village of the Aghdam district, Garakahnbayli village of the Fizuli district.

Azerbaijani positions also took fire from the positions located on nameless heights of the Goranboy, Khojavand and Jabrayil districts.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
More than 3,700 projects worth around $400 billion are currently ongoing in Dubai, UAE, according to a new report.



A large number of these projects, with an estimated value of over $100 billion, are in advanced stages of construction, said the BNCs Dubai Construction Market 2016 study, according to an Infrabuddy report.

The study was commissioned by The Big 5, the largest construction industry event in the Middle East.



However, approximately 21 per cent of them of the projects are on hold, the report said.



Commercial and residential units, education, health care and hospitality buildings, leisure and recreation facilities, religious buildings, retail facilities and mixed-use urban developments make up approximately 77 per cent of all projects in Dubai, with a value amounting to almost $320 billion.



A growing population, the tourism sector, strategic government investments like the Dubai Plan 2021 and the Dubai Expo 2020 are fuelling the local construction industry, Josine Heijmans, event director of The Big 5, said.



The report estimated that the total spend on infrastructure projects related to Dubai Expo 2020 might reach up to $18 billion, with estimated development costs of the Dubai South area between $8.1 billion and $8.7 billion.



Taking place at the Dubai World Trade Centre from 21 to 24 November, The Big 5 2016 is expected to host over 3,000 exhibitors, attracting approximately 75,000 visitors.



The 2016 edition of The Big 5 will welcome attendees with a brand new floor plan, said organisers, dmg events Middle East, Asia and Africa.



The new layout with dedicated product sectors will make it easier for visitors to navigate the show and find the products they are looking for, said Heijmans.
Modul University Dubai, a subsidiary of Dubai Investments and Austrias leading international private university in the Middle East, recently organised a special information event for students and their families at its new campus in Dubai.



The campus is spread across 25,000 sq ft at One JLT, Jumeirah Lake Towers.



During the preview, students interacted with Modul University Dubais team of advisors about the curriculum and scholarships on offer, ahead of the official opening of the university in September 2016.



Modul University Dubai offers European undergraduate and MBA degrees in the areas of international management and tourism and hospitality.



The university is also hosting an open day on September 2 at its campus.



Dubai Investments is a leading investment company listed on the Dubai Financial Market with over 19,800 shareholders and a paid-up capital of Dh4 billion.



Modul University was established in 2007 in Vienna, Austria, focusing on social and economic development, particularly in the areas of tourism, new media information technology - TradeArabia News Service
Lulu Group, the Abu Dhabi-based international retailer, is developing its second Lulu Shopping Mall, a hotel and an international convention centre in Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of Indian state of Kerala.



Spread over 19 acres of land located on the National Highway in Akkulam, this will be the second biggest shopping mall in the country after the Lulu Mall in Kochi.



Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan laid the foundation stone for the mixed-use project in a glittering function presided over by the leader of opposition Ramesh Chennithala and other prominent personalities including ministers, MPs, MLAs, said Yusuff Ali MA, managing director of Lulu Group.



Being built at an estimated cost of Rs2,000 crores ($300 million), Lulu Mall will have a built-up area of more than 2 million sq ft in four floors. The project is the largest private investment in Kerala in recent times, said a statement.



Slated to open by early 2019, it will house a Lulu hypermarket as anchor store and will include some of the best brands in fashion, cosmetics, home furnishing and jewellery.



Other attractions include a family amusement centre, a food court with a capacity of 3,500 guests, restaurants, coffee shops and a nine-screen multiplex.



The project also includes a 150-room luxury hotel which will be adjacent to the mall and an international convention centre.



The mall, designed by UK-based Design International consultants, will have parking for 3,000 cars with easy access from all main roads and will adopt latest traffic management system. The shopping mall will be environment-friendly and will adopt Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (Leed) certificate specifications, the statement added. - TradeArabia News Service
Bull trout numbers in the Flathead River drainage crashed so fast in the 1990s, they wound up on the Endangered Species list.

Their populations havent recovered, but the amount we know about a fish considered the grizzly bear of the freshwater world has zoomed upward even faster. Thats good news for the consortium of communities charged with keeping bull trout around.

The recent Northwest Power and Conservation Councils meeting in Missoula got an update on the range of efforts to protect bull trout, from commercial netting of its chief rival in Flathead Lake to tinkering with the water temperature coming out of Hungry Horse Dam.

Bull trout are really our salmon of the Columbia Basin, said Les Everts, who manages fisheries programs for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. This is a good place to do conservation measures and invest in the future of these fish.

NPCC advises the Bonneville Power Administration, a federal agency overseeing hydropower production across much of the Pacific Northwest. In July, it was named in a federal lawsuit by environmental groups challenging the way dam managers consider the welfare of bull trout in their operations. Last weeks updates were to advise the council members on work BPA has done to help the fish.

The construction of Hungry Horse Dam in the 1950s eliminated about 40 percent of the Flathead drainages bull trout production, removing an estimated 200,000 fish a year from the system. A man-made ecological change in Flathead Lake in the early 1990s allowed non-native lake trout populations to explode, and those predators nearly wiped out the native bull and cutthroat trout, as well as the kokanee salmon stocks, in a few years.

By law, BPA has to try to repair those problems. Thats taken two forms: CSKTs focus on reducing lake trout numbers in Flathead Lake through fishing derbies and commercial netting, and habitat restoration projects that make it easier for future populations of bull trout to thrive.

We know this will go on indefinitely, CSKT fisheries biologist Barry Hansen told the commission regarding the tribes fishing efforts. Were trying to find ways to make lake trout pay for themselves.

The twice-yearly Mack Days fishing derbies pull about 50,000 lake trout annually, but that tool has reached its capacity, Hansen said. The Tribal Council last year authorized a commercial netting program to remove another 143,000 fish a year  the estimated number needed to force lake trout back toward balance with the rest of the lakes ecosystem.

That in turn has spawned a marketing program to handle lake trout meat. The tribes have invested in a processing plant that can fillet the fish for market.

But the Flathead Lake work only covers part of the effort, because bull trout spend only part of their lives in lakes. And in the past five years, biologists have learned a lot they didnt know about that life cycle.

What everybody thought they knew proved to be not exactly right, Brian Marotz said of the complicated progression of bull trout. The Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks hydropower mitigation program manager explained that the basic story of the fish goes from birth in tiny mountain streams, to juvenile growth in rivers, to maturity in lakes, followed by migration back to those natal streams to lay a new generation of eggs.

Radio and satellite tracking of bull trout revealed a different picture. Some grow to adulthood in rivers, and skip the lake stage entirely. Some never leave those natal streams. Some mature fish take an all-of-the-above approach, living in a lake before one spawning and then spending years in a river before the next spawn.

Figuring that out matters because it helps fisheries managers know how to protect bull trout from lake trout looking for lunch. And thats where fiddling with water temperatures comes in.

Hungry Horse Dam used to flush extremely cold water out of its generators, drawn from the depths of its reservoir. Lake trout liked that cold water and would swim up from Flathead Lake in summers, where they would find juvenile bull trout in the South Fork of the Flathead River.

Marotz said by installing a selective withdrawal system in the dams penstocks, technicians can pull water from different depths and adjust the temperature. Releasing warmer water from the dam discourages lake trout from coming out of Flathead Lake, and provides optimum conditions for little bull trout to grow.

Fish do most of their growing in between 50 and 65 degrees Fahrenheit, Marotz said. Before the dam, the river would only get in that temperature for maybe 30 days. Now we can keep the water in that sweet spot for three months. By winter theyve had a season to grow, and theyre more savvy around predators.

BPA has concentrated much of its fisheries recovery effort on the Flathead watershed, because its one of the Pacific Northwests largely intact ecosystems. About a third of it has special protection from national park or federal wilderness status. Since bull trout work started in the late 1990s, BPA has protected 51 kilometers in multiple streams and restored 11,296 acres of riparian wetlands.

If you need a hedge against climate change, looking to 2050 and beyond, theres going to be places in the Flathead Basin where bull trout have a really high chance of persisting, Marotz said. This is a great place to invest in this type of work.
A Casper man should spend time in prison for taking part in an attempted robbery related to a December shooting that injured one person, a judge ordered Friday.

Natrona County District Court judge Catherine Wilking sentenced Taylor Whiting to two to four years behind bars. Taylor Whiting previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit robbery. Whiting, 25, told Wilking he knew a group of people were planning Dec. 4 to rob a man selling marijuana. Whiting was then going to buy some marijuana from them.

However, the robbery went awry and a man tasked with being the lookout, James Haga, was shot in the arm and hip. A friend drove him to the hospital.

He really takes no responsibility for his role in a robbery that led to one of his co-defendants being shot, said prosecutor Dan Itzen. Mr. Whiting simply does not understand the gravity of the situation.

Wilking said Whitings lengthy criminal history and the seriousness of the crime required he serve a prison term.
CHEYENNE  Supporters of an effort to get Green Party presidential candidate Dr. Jill Stein on the November ballot in Wyoming are more than halfway to the needed amount of signatures.

And with about a week left until the Aug. 29 deadline for independent candidates to file, supporters are making the last push to get those autographs.

Stein would be on Wyomings ballot as an independent, rather than as a Green Party candidate, because the deadline for party access to the ballot was June 1.

Some of the petition supporters are former or current Democrats who supported Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders for the Democratic nomination and think Stein aligns more closely with their political beliefs.

Others are people who think having more parties on the ballot is better for democracy.

Matthew Link, one of the leaders of the petition, was a Sanders supporter who began supporting the Green Party in light of the nomination of Hillary Clinton.

He ended up being a delegate from Wyoming to the Green Party National Convention in Houston earlier this month.

So far, he said, about 2,600 people have signed the petition in Wyoming, and he hopes to aim for 5,000 signatures.

Wyoming requires 3,302 signatures of voters for statewide ballot access.

Democracy is about having choices, Link said. Its about having a say in choices that affect you.

Most of the petitions efforts have been in Cheyenne and Laramie, but signatures have come in from around the state.

Melody Nielsen, a Democratic committeewoman in Cheyenne, is also helping with the petition to get Stein on the ballot.

Nielsen also was a Sanders backer, and said she felt slighted by the way the state and national Democratic parties and the Clinton campaign treated Sanders and his supporters.

She said she wants a presidential candidate who more closely aligns with her views, and she sees that in Stein.

Her sentiment doesnt mean she wont vote for Democrats in other offices, though.

Nielsen said she sees value in having multiple candidates. She lived for more than two decades in Germany, a country that has a multi-party system, which she felt was very democratic.

When Nielsen returned to the United States in 2012, she was struck by the number of people working two jobs and people having less time to spend with family.

She said she decided she wanted to help move the country forward.

For my grandchildren, Id like to make a change, she said.

Nielsen has no interest in voting for Clinton or Republican Donald Trump, even though minor-party candidates have little chance of winning.

At least Ill be able to say I didnt vote for them, she said.

Stein supporters will be out at events during the next week, including todays farmers market in Cheyenne.

Those who wish to sign the petition in Cheyenne can email Link at mathlink1825@aol.com or call Nielsen at 307-630-4463.

Cheyenne residents and others statewide can email wyominggreenparty@outlook.com or message the Wyoming Green Party on Facebook at www.facebook.com/WyGreenParty.
The University of Wyoming at Casper is anticipating a boost in enrollment for the fall semester that begins Monday.

The new director of the UW program at Casper College, Jeff Edgens, said the increase was one of his first priorities after taking over the job in May.

Im proud to say we are accomplishing exactly what we set out to do, which is our enrollment numbers right now are about 15 percent above where they were last year at this point, Edgenst told the Natrona County Commission at a recent meeting.

Its just a start, he added. Its not where I want it to be ... we wanted to prime the pump.

He attributed the rise to a strengthened marketing campaign that focused on Casper College students as well as the community. It is also common for college enrollment to go up in a down economy, as people seek other employment prospects.

Edgens told the commission he is seeking to bring in some new programs and highlighted three degrees that are part of an educational cluster developing around the medical field.

One is a medical lab sciences program for clinical technicians working in a doctors office or hospital.

That is a program that is unique to the University of Wyoming and is solely delivered by the University of Wyoming at Casper, so the students would be coming to us, Edgens said.

We will be going through national accreditation for that program in the spring, Edgens continued, noting there were only a handful of schools in the country with that certification.

Another new program for UW Casper is a masters degree in mental health and school counseling. Edgens said the school has hired two new faculty members and was successful in meeting its goal of registering 24 students.

We think its extremely important. One of the statistics that Wyoming carries  that we are not proud of, of course  is the level of suicides and mental health issues, Edgens said. So, we think this will be a huge issue that will help us train future counselors for the state of Wyoming.

Edgens role includes serving as an associate dean of the UW Outreach School, and he spoke of an online course being offered both statewide and nationally for a masters degree in health services administration.

It is designed for a working person to complete the program within two years, Edgens said. We want to be attuned to the fact that people dont have all day to be on campus, or the rest of their lives, to complete the credentials that they need.

Edgens also acknowledged the budget cuts at the University of Wyoming.

Institutionally, we all know that there are budget issues with UW, Edgens said. We are moving toward trying to figure out how to operate UW-Casper and be able to do more with less.

Edgens noted UW-Caspers collaboration with the Casper Area Economic Development Alliance.

We are working closely with CAEDA to identify additional academic programs  we want them to have an economic development focus to them, so that students and citizens attending can pick up a program that is going to help them in their career advancement, No. 1; but, No. 2, we want them to remain within the state of Wyoming, Edgens said.

UW Casper already has oversight of the Casper Area Innovation Center, which originated as a CAEDA undertaking to assist startup companies.

Commissioner Rob Hendry asked about offering programs related to the oil, gas and mining industries and the possibility of starting students here, then transferring them to Laramie.

Edgens said the Casper program is not that large, and does not have facilities like the School of Energy Resources in Laramie offers.

UW Casper operates with nine staff and 16 full-time faculty and currently serves around 650 students.
The Great American Trump Freakout is just getting started, in which anything Trump says that can be misinterpreted as evil will be.

Liberals are readily convinced Trump saying Second Amendment supporters could do something about Hillary appointing Supreme Court judges who oppose the Second Amendment was talking about assassination.

Of course, he said no such thing.

On MSNBCs Morning Joe, they edited Trumps statement to say, Hillary wants to abolish, essentially abolish, the Second Amendment. By the way, and if she gets to pick if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I dont know. But Ill tell you what, that will be a horrible day.

OMG!

That makes it sound like it will be a horrible day when Second Amendment people get hold of her, doesnt it?

Wait. Theres more.

Heres what MSNBC and others cut from Trumps speech:Hillary wants to abolish, essentially abolish, the Second Amendment. By the way, and if she gets to pick if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I dont know. But Ill tell you what, that will be a horrible day if Hillary gets to put her judges in.

... that will be a horrible day if Hillary gets to put her judges in.

Oh. Is that what he said?

Yes.

Editing out those words make it quite different, doesnt it?

Wild-eyed left-wingers at Alternet wrote,How do you report a story about a candidate for president implying that people with guns might want to consider killing his opponent? Yes, I know, that isnt what he actually said but it is clearly what he meant or what he wanted his supporters to hear. That was his dog whistle.

Dog whistle.

Its the dog whistle the far left, the Clinton campaign and their cronies want to hear.

What they do not want to hear is Hillary Clinton saying in Omaha, Nebraska, at a rally on Aug. 1, ... were going to write, fairer rules for the middle class and, we are going to raise taxes on the middle class!

They say she misspoke or, like NBC, they post the video and ask, What did you hear?

She said it, unedited, loud and clear.

And because national media reporters choose to believe she misspoke, it did not become a five-day story, regurgitated through columns and talk shows.

If it were Trump, youd be reading analyses from politically oriented economists deciphering how his economic plan would certainly raise taxes on the middle class.

Hillarys platform includes government-subsidized child day care, truly an enormous burden on families.She plans to tax the rich, who, along with the middle class, are already being taxed to pay for your free health insurance or the health insurance that costs $2,500 a year less than the plan you had a couple of years ago.

Oh, it doesnt cost $2,500 less? Your deductible is higher?

Dont worry. This time itll really work.

Perhaps analysts might want to explore how she will fund this without raising taxes on the middle class.

However, journalists should approach only economists and financial analysts whose research accurately predicted President Obamas Affordable Care Act would not be affordable.

What liberals do not want to remember is John Kerry yukking it up with Bill Maher in 2006 when Maher led Kerry into a joke by asking where Kerry took his wife for her birthday.

Maher set it up, saying, You could have went to New Hampshire and killed two birds with one stone.

Kerry rejoined, Or, I could have gone to, 1600 Pennsylvania, and, killed the real bird, with one stone.

Cue the laugh track.

The media didnt voice outrage for days on end, liberals didnt say Kerry was unfit, and inside-the-beltway Democrats did not turn on Kerry.

Oh, and Trump said he was talking about motivated Second Amendment supporters voting.

And so we await the next Hillary-National-Media-Left-Wing Trump Freakout.
Editor:

Something is seriously wrong. Liz Cheney is claiming victory in the primary and she received 40 percent of the vote. The rest of us Republicans, 60 percent, voted for someone else. It is just crazy that someone with a minority percentage will be on the ballot. Again, the voters are faced with a less than agreeable choice. At the national level it is a choice between bad and worse. And now we have no choice at all in Wyoming.

The funding for Liz Cheneys campaign came from donors outside Wyoming. Yes, a few were residents, but the planning, advertising, and manipulation was from elsewhere. The plan was to flood the ballot with lots of candidates, so the vote would be split and a person without a majority could claim victory. The pattern is a repeat of what Dick Cheney did to be the VP nomination. He bought a house in Jackson Hole so that he would not look like a resident in Texas. Now Liz has a house in Jackson so she looks like a Wyoming resident. She has lived on the east coast for most of her life and I resent that she claims to be a person to represent Wyoming. People are saying that Wyoming is a cheap buy for a national office.

The Republican Party is in disarray at the national level and private interests with big bucks are funding state elections to control the government. It is becoming clear that the party is abandoning Trump and private groups are concentrating on state elections.

I am asking those who ran against Liz Cheney, to come together and choose one person to run on the Independent ticket so that we have a choice in November.
Tucson-based NuvOx Pharma says it has been allowed an investigational drug application by the U.S Food and Drug Administration to test a drug candidate for stroke.

NuvOx, which is headed by University of Arizona radiology professor Dr. Evan Unger, says the FDA action allows its oxygen-carrying drug, NVX-208 or dodecafluoropentane emulsion, to be tested in a Phase Ib trial in stroke patients.

The trial will be performed at the University of Arkansas Medical System in Little Rock, under the direction of Dr. William Culp, the Jonathan Fitch distinguished chair in stroke.

Culp said in a news release that pre-clinical studies found that the drug decreases the brain damage from stroke by more than 80 percent and extends the period of efficacy of the only approved drug to treat stroke.

The planned trial will determine the recommended dose of NVX-208 in stroke patients so that it can be tested in a randomized study of patients, Culp said.

NuvOx already is conducting a Phase Ib/II clinical trial of a related drug, NVX-108, in patients with brain cancer. That drug is designed to reverse a low-oxygen state of tumors to make them more vulnerable to radiation treatment.

The company also has an active investigational drug application for sickle cell disease for another version, NVX-508.

Unger is a UA professor of radiology and biomedical engineering and a member of the UA Cancer Center.
The local gaming group Dice & Decks has been gathering at Cartel Coffee Lab for several years now.

This isn't a chess and checkers crowd. The D&D crew prefers a mix of classic and contemporary board games that take players to new worlds with a roll of the dice. Games with titles like Ticket to Ride, Homesteaders and Pandemic.

The evening, which runs from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturday, is free at Cartel Coffee Lab, 2516 N. Campbell Ave. Participants are encouraged to bring their favorite tabletop games. Find out more about the group on its Facebook page.
A yad or pointer is used to keep the place of the reader as they read a 200 year old Torah at the University of Arizona. Beth Nakhai, an associate professor in the Arizona Center for Judaic Studies, received the scroll in 2009. On Feb. 10 and 11, a rabbi will do restoration work on the document. Photo taken: Tuesday February 03, 2015.
When a neighborhood lays claim to being the first Tucson suburb it would seem to suggest that a good amount of the citys history and identity emanated from the vision of the prominent residents who became the citys first suburbanites.

At least thats the theory when the West University Neighborhoods current residents list the historically Tucson names that have been a part of the neighborhood over the years.

This is where all the power players were, the sheriff, the judges, the mayor. This was the tony place, said neighborhood resident Chris Gans, pointing out just two of the most prominent names in Tucsons history  Drachman and Ronstadt  that have had a presence in the neighborhood. Gans moved into the neighborhood in 1977 and is the current president of the West University Neighborhood Association.

West University was officially listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. But as much history as has taken place in the neighborhood since was established in 1890, it is making new history with the bustle of development going on around and through the neighborhood bordered by East Speedway on the north, Sixth Street on the south, North Stone Avenue on the west, and Park Avenue on the east.

Note the privately owned, modern high-rises for University of Arizona student housing that hover over the northeast section of the neighborhood near Speedway and Park, which alone signal the transformation taking place in the area. The Main Gate area near the entrance to the campus at Park Avenue and University Boulevard is busy throughout the year, not just while school is in session. And Tucsons streetcar now cuts a path through the middle of the neighborhood with development along the way toward a revitalized downtown.

It all adds up to a neighborhood that is much different for Ford Burkhart than it was when he moved there as a 4-year-old immediately after World War II.

Burkhart, a longtime journalist and former UA journalism professor who is now a freelance writer, has lived in the neighborhood on and off since 1946, and currently lives there with his wife, the author Carolyn Niethammer. Though hes lived in other places over the years wherever his employment took him, his house, a two-bedroom California bungalow on East First Street has been in the family since 1946.

Aside from the bedrooms, there was only a kitchen, a bath, a dining room and living room, adding up to about 800 square feet when the house was built. The couple has added on to the west end of the north-facing house where the carport was located. When Burkharts grandmother would stay with the family, he said, she would sleep on a cot in the dining room.

Niethammer said she thinks the house was built around 1917 in the midst of the neighborhoods development. The city of Tucsons Historic Preservation Office says the neighborhood was built out between 1890 and 1930 with a mix of architectural styles ranging from Transitional to Art Deco, with about half being Craftsman Bungalows.

Its a museum of architecture, Burkhart said of the neighborhood. It was developed during the age when America was really becoming this great place for the middle class, where the middle class could suddenly live well.

Its an eclectic neighborhood, Gans added. This is not a subdivision in the sense that everything looks the same. Theres nothing like this. We have the most diverse architectural palette of all the (historic) neighborhoods.

With nearly 70 years in the neighborhood, Burkhart has a strong sense of its history. He believes that mixed within the various architectural styles are a number of Sears Catalog homes  possibly one next door to his house  which could literally be ordered from a catalog, delivered in a kit, and then built on a lot.

According to its online archives, Sears, Roebuck and Co. started selling the homes in 1908 with a starting price of $452 to just under $3,000. The kits would be shipped via railroad. With West University sitting just north of the Southern Pacific Railroad it was an easy hop to get it to the building site, Burkhart said.

There were thousands of them all over the country, he said. You would just tell them how big your lot was and then everything would come on the railroad  plans and materials.

In fact, many of the design aspects of his own house are similar to what was found in the Sears catalog homes, including wood-framed French doors throughout the house, the peaked roof, and the style of front and back porches.

Burkhart said he recalls playing with his toys in the shade of the carport where the family car was usually parked. Small plastic army men were popular right after the war, he said, and so, apparently, were marbles.

I can remember in 1946 I used to go out and play with my little trucks and everything and it was just like a magic world because we had come from Albany, New York, where it was cold and snowing, Burkhart said. I would just pick up a couple of toys and go sit in the shade all winter.

Decades later, the telltale signs were still there when Burkhart and Niethammer moved back to the home in 1977.

When we first came, we did a lot of landscaping, she said. As I dug up both in the front yard and the back yard I would find lots of marbles and lots of army men that he lost. So that was kind of fun.

As the neighborhood aged, the residents did as well, said Barbara Tanzillo, the former costume shop manager at the Arizona Theater Company who was in the seventh grade when her family moved to West University in the early 60s.

Our mortgage was $125 a month, she said with a laugh. But here we are, a family of nine, and there were no kids in the neighborhood. It seemed like they were all older folks or people without kids. I dont remember having kids next door.

As the universitys enrollment grew, so did the number of students living in the neighborhood, creating a mix of residents including professionals working downtown and on the UA campus that until recently remained relatively predictable.

The effect of the current development has been interesting to the residents. Though the neighborhood fought the approval of the height of the new towers for the students  one of many battles the neighborhood association has fought over the years to preserve its sense of place  it seems to have had the effect of consolidating the students in one area.

When they did the main gate development, we were not opposed to development there, said Gans, the neighborhood association president. What we were opposed to was the path they (city planners) were taking. They were going much too quickly.

I think they felt a lot of pressure from the streetcar coming in and they had to have development near the streetcar. In that process, the mayor and council promised to leave the area west of Euclid alone. The heights and development styles remained what they were when the historic neighborhood was established.

Burkharts observation  not remotely scientific  is that the neighborhood has or is becoming an enclave where students have been replaced by young couples and more professionals.

There used to be students in all the houses around us, he said. We just had a little gathering a week ago and there was not a single student. They were all young couples.
Capt. Lippincotts Pet Dog Leaves Home to Answer Call to Arms

Fie on This Peaceful Life, Barked Jack, and Went to Border

When Captain Lippincott, commanding Company K of the thirteenth cavalry, known as the hero of Parral, arrived in Tucson this week to visit his wife, who resides at 141 South Fifth avenue, he did not see Jack, his favorite Boston brindle bulldog.

Captain Lippincott would certainly have regretted this loos of his pet very much more than he did but for one reasonthat the absence of Jack is due to his canine feeling of patriotism. Jack did not know any other way to express it except that of going to the front.

When Captain Lippincott was ordered to Mexico he decided that Jack would be quite a useless member of the expeditionary force under General Pershing, and so, coldly disregarding the mute appeal in Jacks eyes, he shipped Sir Jack back to Tucson to stay with Mrs. Lippincott.

Jack was a sorrowful dog. He strolled about the streets of Tucson and eyed the civilian dogs with undisguised contempt. He missed the familiar sight of the khaki clad soldiers and the martial strains of the bugle, and the appetizing dainties the Mrs. Lippincott set out daily for him to ear did not seem to remove the deep-seated gloom that had taken possession of him.

Then came the call for troops and the first California battalion of cavalry came through the city. Jack journeyed down to the depot with the other dogs to see what the matter might be, but while other dogs anxiously watched the Red Cross contingent feed sandwiches and coffee to the troopers, the scene had a deeper call to Jack.

He made the acquaintance of some troopers and when the train pulled out Jack was with the troops, happy again to be with the boys in khaki and see the familiar sights once more.

Friends of Mrs. Lippincott visited Nogales within a few days but were unable to find Jack. A story was told to them of a dog very much like Jack that was the pet of a battalion, but they were begged not to investigate further and they came away, leaving Jack with the boys at the front.

Naturally Captain Lippincott feels badly over the loss of his dog, but he is happy to know that he is doing his duty according to his canine lights.

The captain has only a five days leave of absence and will leave today for Mexico to rejoin his command. On account of his position in the army Captain Lippincott does not care to discuss the operations of the expeditionary force in Mexico, but his work at the battle of Parral when his command was attacked by Mexicans is well known to everyone. While in the city Captain Lippincott was made the guest of honor at a number of social functions.
The owners of a northwest-side massage parlor that is the subject of a prostitution and sex trafficking investigation are asking for their two homes, cash and other property, which authorities seized, to be returned to them.

Also, newly obtained court records described what investigators said was a criminal operation that brought in sex workers from other states to work at the massage business for 15 days at a time while being housed in one of the couples residences.

Earlier this week, Charles and Wenjuan Krause, the owners of Tui-Na Massage, 2840 W. Ina Road, filed a claim in Pima County Superior Court, asking for property and money seized in the criminal investigation to be returned to them, the documents show.

In May, Tucson police arrested the Krauses, who are married, following a monthslong investigation into their business, according to court records.

On May 23, a state grand jury indicted the couple on charges of money laundering, operating a house of prostitution, transporting persons for the purpose of prostitution and receiving the earnings of prostitution  all felonies.

In July, the state seized two properties and two vehicles identified in the investigation after Tucson police served search warrants at Tui-Na, and the couples two homes, located in the Marana and Oro Valley, according to court records.

Investigation details

Tucson police and federal Homeland Security agents began investigating Tui-Na last fall, after detectives learned that multiple women who worked at the business were performing sex acts for money, according to a court document filed by the Tucson Police Department.

Through the investigation, it has been observed that the client base for Tui-Na consists of only males who are mainly 40 years of age or older, the document says.

Investigators learned the couple used the house in Marana as living quarters for the rotating cast of Asian females that work and perform massage/sex acts at Tui-Na, according to the document.

Many of the women have prior arrests for prostitution in Arizona and other states and workers interviewed by police said they traveled from Mesa and Los Angeles to work at Tui-Na for 15 days at a time.

At the end of the 15 days, the women received a check from the Krauses and returned to their homes outside of Tucson, the report states

While conducting surveillance on multiple occasions, investigators saw Charles Krause and an unidentified person drop off three women at Tui-Na in the morning, then take them home at 11 p.m.

Undercover officers visited the business twice and received massages from employees, during which the women offered sexual services, the TPD complaint shows.

Although the officers were able to use credit cards to pay for the $60 massage, the women said the sex acts cost $40 extra and could only be paid by a cash tip.

An interview with the owner of a nearby business revealed it was common knowledge that Tui-Na provided sexual services. He also told police that a customer of his walked into Tui-Na by mistake and saw a naked women standing inside the business, the police document said.

After he was arrested, Charles Krause told police he is the business bookkeeper, and deposits the previous nights earning at a bank each morning. The money was deposited into the business account, but later transferred to Wenjuan Krauses personal accounts, the documents state.

Charles Krause also told investigators he was aware that prostitution took place at his business, and that he monitors reviews on websites used by escorts to advertise, and Johns to review their prostitution experiences with specific females.

A seizure warrant filed in court July 14 values the two homes, two vehicles and money that was seized at nearly $550,000.

The Arizona Attorney Generals Office is prosecuting the criminal case against the couple in superior court. The office was unable to comment on the case, since it involves an ongoing criminal investigation, said spokeswoman Mia Garcia.

A status conference is set for September, and the Krauses attorneys, Jeff Rogers and David Lipartito, have filed a motion to send the case back to the grand jury.

Rogers is representing Charles in both the civil and criminal case, while Lipartito is representing Wenjuan.

Lipartito said that he expects a good result in both cases.

The discovery shows no evidence that the Krauses knew what was happening in their business, Rogers said.

Requesting property be returned

On Aug. 15, Rogers and Lipartito filed a claim in Pima County Superior Court, asking that the couples homes, money and cars be returned.

None of the property was the fruits, instrumentality, or locus of a racketeering offense or any criminal act  that would allow its seizure, according to the claim.

It goes on to say the homes and cars were acquired before the alleged criminal activity began and from lawful proceeds.

In addition, the undisclosed amount of money that was taken from his bank account in May had been acquired since the criminal charges were filed and after Tui-Na closed and the end of any activity alleged to be illegal by the state, the claim said.

This is one of the most abusive cases of civil forfeiture Ive seen in my career, Rogers said. Virtually every asset in the case was purchased before the business was opened.

A search of the Arizona Corporation Commissions website shows that Tui-Na was registered by the Krauses in 2008.

According to the claim, the Krauses purchased the house in Oro Valley in December 2014. The Marana house was purchased by Charles Krause in 2006.

Our case (to get the property back) is pretty solid, Rogers said. I dont see any reason that it wouldnt be returned.
How to give year-round Credit-card donations: azsendakidtocamp.org/donations Send checks, payable to Sportsmens Fund, to: Send a Kid to Camp, P.O. Box 16141, Tucson, AZ 85732-6141. For more information: Senior Editor Debbie Kornmiller at 573-4127 or dkornmiller@tucson.com On Facebook: Arizona Daily Star Sportsmens Fund Send A Kid to Camp

The Arizona Daily Stars Sportsmens Fund Send a Kid to Camp program raises money so children from low-income households and military families can attend overnight YMCA, Boy Scout and Girl Scout camps for little or no cost to their families.

This year we added Camp Tatiyee, a weeklong overnight camp for school-age children and older teens with special needs. Our $5,000 commitment helped pay for 15 kids from Pima County to attend this camp in the White Mountains. In addition, readers contributions to the Sportsmens Fund helped send 89 boys and girls to Boy Scout camps, 160 girls to Girl Scout camp and 380 kids to YMCA camp.

We spent $190,982 to send those 644 children to camp. So far this year weve received 1,284 donations totaling $154,883.

Since 1947, the Arizona Daily Star Sportsmens Fund has helped pay for 38,551 children to go to camp. Were one of the oldest 501c(3) charities in Arizona. Your contribution qualifies for the Arizona tax credit of up to $400 for donations to qualifying charitable organizations.

Donations are welcome throughout the year.

Recent donations include:

Martin and Eva Bacal, in memory of Harry and Elizabeth Bacal, $250.

Cranston family, in memory of John H. Ornella, $100.

Donald Crowell, $250.

Charles Hotchkiss, $400.

Lynn Hurst, $50.

Charles and Wanda Hutchison, $100.

Janice and Al Kivel, $250.

Marion Manemann, $100.

Dorothy Maxon, in memory of Bill Maxon, $100.

Helen Nazzaro, in loving memory of Janet Corey, $50.

Jeanne Porter, $200.

William Ratcliffe, in memory of Marguerite and Walter Ratcliffe, $100.

Mr. and Mrs. Vernon Reeb, $50.

Elinor Rose, $50.

Elizabeth Rowe, $100.

Byron Snyder, $100.

Mrs. J.E. Thompson, $200.

Joy Thompson, $100.

Norman Weber, $50.
After a special meeting held in executive session today, the Arizona Board of Regents announced it would hire an outside expert to review concerns about the University of Arizona's medical schools.

The regents board, which is the governing body for the state's public university system, called the special meeting to get legal advice and discuss the UA's two medical schools, which have been under increasing scrutiny in recent months.

The outside expert will compile information and review and evaluate concerns raised pertaining to the UA colleges of medicine and submit a report to the boards general counsel and to the board, regents chair Greg Patterson told reporters today.

Patterson said he'd like the outside review to be done as quickly as possible, and he confirmed it would be complete before the end of the year.

Patterson was not specific about the "concerns raised," but at a regents health affairs committee meeting in Tucson Aug. 12 regents president Eileen Klein referred to concerns about the spending of public money.

"Information has been brought forward that raises questions about the ethics of leaders, the use of public monies, the accuracy of information documented in public records and the workplace culture and treatment of employees," Klein said at the beginning of the Tucson meeting.

In June the Arizona Medical Association took a vote of "no confidence" in the executive leadership of the medical schools.

The 4,000 member association of physicians and medical students also called for an independent investigation into why six top leaders at the UA College of Medicine Phoenix, including dean Stuart Flynn, left the school earlier this year. The association also expressed concern that the departure of so many top leaders could affect the school's attempt to see full accreditation, a process that is ongoing.

The association asked for exit interviews with the departed deans and publicly called on the Arizona Board of Regents to initiate an investigation into, "any U of A organizational impediments or policies that contributed to the departures of the well-respected and quality team that was in place."

Patterson said the review that the regents are doing appears to meet all the requests that the medical association made, and more. The review will include exit interviews will all six leaders that left the Phoenix medical school.

UA president Ann Weaver Hart attended the meeting and is happy about the board's decision, spokesman Chris Sigurdson said.

Dr. Joe G.N. "Skip" Garcia, who reports directly to Hart and earns $870,000 per year, oversees all of the UAs health colleges  the UA College of Medicine-Tucson, the UA College of Medicine-Phoenix, the UA College of Pharmacy, the UA College of Nursing, and the UA Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health. The total health sciences budget is $595 million per year.

Last year, the Liaison Committee on Medical Education wrote a letter to the Phoenix medical school saying changes would be needed in order to secure full accreditation.

The accrediting body expressed concern about the recent academic affiliation between Banner Health and the UA. But the Phoenix medical school has since been granted provisional accreditation, which puts it on pace for full accreditation in 2017, UA health science officials say.

The medical schools in Tucson and Phoenix are in better shape than ever to attract top-flight students and give them a world-class medical education, Garcia said this week.

Garcia also defended himself against public criticism over his travel costs, which have included chauffeur-driven limos between Tucson and Phoenix. The Arizona Republic earlier this month did a story analyzing three years of Garcia's travel costs, which included 56 trips between Tucson and Phoenix at a cost of $475 or more per day.

Garcia said he was maximizing his time as he needs to work during those trips, and says that hiring a driver was suggested by Hart. He also said he'd be willing to re-think how he travels if there's a more effective and cost-efficient way to do it.
OPINION: "My original thought was, 'Why would anybody vote for Kari Lake, or any other candidate if they had no faith in our election system?' Now I understand. Because nobody wants to be a loser. And, with her or the others they cant lose," writes Oro Valley resident Ray Lindstrom.
PHOENIX  The governing body for the states public university system will hire an outside expert to review concerns about the University of Arizonas medical schools.

After an executive session that lasted more than an hour Friday, the Arizona Board of Regents announced it would instruct the boards general counsel to hire an outside expert to review and evaluate concerns that have been raised about the UAs medical schools in Tucson and Phoenix.

Chair Greg Patterson said the outside expert would submit a report to the boards general counsel and the board. Patterson said hed like the review to be completed as quickly as possible. When asked whether that means before the end of the year, he said yes. While the review will be independent of the regents, the regents will be hiring the expert.

Its going to be a broad look at whats going on, he said. Were doing a comprehensive evaluation, so its going to be full 360s of management style, structure, etc. Everybody is concerned with how public money was spent, and we have no reason to believe it was spent inappropriately.

Patterson said no when asked whether Phoenix-based Banner Healths relationship with the UA is expected to be part of the review.

The separately accredited medical schools, both governed by the same leadership at the UA, are at the moment the only two allopathic medical schools in Arizona and considered a valuable resource, particularly given a current and projected doctor shortage.

Patterson was not specific about the concerns raised, but at a regents health-affairs committee meeting in Tucson on Aug. 12, regents President Eileen Klein talked about use of public money and other issues.

Information has been brought forward that raises questions about the ethics of leaders, the use of public monies, the accuracy of information documented in public records and the workplace culture and treatment of employees, Klein said at the beginning of the Tucson meeting.

The regents board called Fridays special meeting to get legal advice and to discuss the UAs two medical schools, which have been under increasing scrutiny .

In June, the Arizona Medical Association took a vote of no confidence in the executive leadership of the medical schools.

The 4,000-member association of physicians and medical students also called for an independent investigation into why six top leaders at the UA College of Medicine Phoenix, including dean Stuart Flynn, left the school earlier this year. The association said the departure of so many top leaders put into question the schools stability and attempt to get full accreditation, a process that is ongoing.

Among the associations requests was for exit interviews with the deans who departed. The association publicly called on the regents to initiate an investigation into any U of A organizational impediments or policies that contributed to the departures of the well-respected and quality team that was in place.

Patterson said the review the regents are doing appears to meet all the requests the medical association made and more. The review will include exit interviews with all six leaders who left the Phoenix school, he said.

We chose the word outside expert and I think thats the most accurate way to say it. Most outside experts in this are either HR (human resources) or law, Patterson said.

UA President Ann Weaver Hart attended the meeting and is happy about the boards decision, spokesman Chris Sigurdson said. Hart plans to conduct a climate survey in all of the UAs health-sciences colleges and will also, through a third party, conduct exit interviews with the departed deans.

Earlier this week, Hart also called for a separate outside probe, without any UA or regents involvement, to get to the bottom of Kleins comments made at the Tucson meeting.

Dr. Joe G.N. Skip Garcia, who reports directly to Hart and is paid $870,000 per year, oversees all of the UAs health colleges  the UA College of Medicine Tucson, the UA College of Medicine Phoenix, the UA College of Pharmacy, the UA College of Nursing and the UA Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health. The total health sciences budget is $595 million per year.

Last year, the Liaison Committee on Medical Education wrote a letter to the Phoenix medical school saying changes would be needed in order to secure full accreditation for the school.

The accrediting body expressed concern about the recent academic affiliation between Banner Health and the UA. But the Phoenix medical school has since been granted provisional accreditation, which puts it on pace for full accreditation in 2017, UA officials say.

The medical schools in Tucson and Phoenix are in better shape than ever to attract top-flight students and give them a world-class medical education, Garcia said this week.

Garcia also defended himself against public criticism over recent reports of his travel costs, which have included chauffeur-driven limos between Tucson and Phoenix. The Arizona Republic this month published a story analyzing three years of Garcias travel costs, which included 56 trips between Tucson and Phoenix at a cost of $475 or more per day.

Garcia said he was maximizing his time as he needs to work during those trips and that hiring a driver was suggested by Hart. He also said hed be willing to rethink how he travels if theres a more effective and cost-efficient way to do it.

At the root of some of the criticism, he told the Star, could be ongoing rivalry between Tucson and Phoenix. He says its in the UAs interest for both medical schools to be successful.

The UAs College of Medicine in Tucson is the more established medical school. It was founded in 1967, has a class size goal of 115 students per year and a budget of $365 million per year.
PHOENIX  A former Phoenix Rescue Mission employee has been sentenced to 3  years in prison for stealing Social Security benefits from the homeless.

The Arizona Attorney General's Office says Sergio Solozano also was ordered to pay more than $61,000 in restitution.

Solozano had pleaded guilty to an attempted fraud scheme, theft and taking the identity of another.

He will serve two probation terms after his release from prison.

Prosecutors say Solozano was indicted after an investigation determined he stole Social Security benefits from three different homeless men that lived at the mission from January 2013 to October 2015.

Solozano had been an employee of the Phoenix Rescue Mission since 2002.
Kari Lake claimed in an interview on Sunday that new abortion restrictions could lead to locking up a lot more rapists. But exactly how that would happen is unclear, and critics say the idea is utter hogwash. Lake, the Republican nominee for governor, made the assertion during a televised interview by KTAR radio host Mike []

The post Kari Lake says Arizonas strict abortion laws will put more rapists in jail. Critics say thats nonsense. appeared first on Arizona Mirror.


Its bridal wars in TV land and it just got very dirty.

Seven has trumped Nines plans to return Married at First Sight on Monday nights by launching Australias Cheapest Weddings this Monday at 9pm following the premiere of Zumbos Just Desserts.

It will now hold a replay of the Closing Ceremony until 10pm (originally due at 9pm).

Seven counter-programmed after Nine revealed their hand and gives it gives it a one week advantage over the return of Married at First Sight, due at 8:40pm on Monday August 29.

Last year networks promised they would not be copy-catting shows. We didnt believe them then.

Standby for Have You Been Paying Attentions Tom Gleisner wearing a bridal veil? Over to you, promo dept.

Photo: Stock image.
Help India!

By IANS

Islamabad : A jet aircraft of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) has crashed near Sargodha in Punjab, killing its pilot.

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Pakistan Air Force announces with great sorrow and grief that a Mirage fighter aircraft, while on a routine operational training mission, crashed 30 km south east of Sargodha, said a PAF press release.

The statement said that the pilot of the aircraft, Wing Commander Azhar Ismael, was killed in the crash that occurred Friday evening near the Sargodha air force base.

No loss of life or property was reported on the ground, The News said.

The crash apparently occurred due to a technical malfunction. A board of inquiry has been ordered by Air Headquarters to determine the cause of accident, the newspaper added.
Help India!

By TCN News,

Patna: It was eighth blood donation camp by Al-Shifa Blood Donors Club in Patna on Sunday February 7 where Muslim women also turned up along with men to donate blood for the needy poor. In total 34 people donated their blood. According to Shaukat Ali, Convenor, Al-Shifa Blood Donors Club, the club was set up in 2005 and it has since organized such camps at regular interval.

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This camp was held at Dr. Arif Abdullah Nursing Home situated at Sharif Colony in Patna. In total 34 donors donated their blood, among them were two ladies. Rizwan Ahmad Islahi, Patna unit president of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, and patron of the Club appreciated the workers for successful organization of the camp.







Al-Shifa Blood Donors Club is run by JIH, Patna.
Help India!

By IANS,

New Delhi : The Congress and Lok Janshakti Party Friday welcomed the governments decision for a 4.5 percent reservation for minorities, but the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) dubbed it as a poll stunt and the Communist Party of India of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and the Samajwadi Party termed the measure inadequate.

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The quota decision, taken at a cabinet meeting Thursday, has been hailed by Congress leaders in Uttar Pradesh as fulfillment of an election promise.

The party, which is making a detemined effort to unseat the Mayawati government in the state, is expected to highlight the quota decision to woo the Muslims during its campaign for the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls.

Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh, who is in charge of the partys affairs in Uttar Pradesh, supported the minorities quota decision and rejected the oppositions allegation that it was a poll stunt.

He said reservation was otherwise not proving beneficial for minorities.

They have been given a fixed quota so that the backward Muslims will get 4.5 percent out of the 27 percent reserved for backward castes. Earlier, they were left out of the benefits of quotaIt was a poll promise which we have fulfilled, Singh said.

The BJP dubbed the move as a pre-poll stunt and said the party rejected the idea of religion-based reservation.

There is a decision for a quota within quota, which is wrong, BJP leader Ananth Kumar told reporters.

We are against a religion-based quota. The backward castes should get social justice and such religion based quota in not right for social equality, he said.

Another BJP leader, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said the move would divide people on basis of caste and religion.

This step is a cheating with our constitution. The kind of step this government has taken, they want to cause a civil war in the country in the name of caste and religion, Naqvi said.

Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav termed the governments move a betrayal and demanded that reservation should be given in accordance with population of Muslims in the state.

It is betrayal. It should be 18 percent, Yadav said, while also indicating that OBC reservation should be increased.

CPI-M leader Prakash Karat said the decision of the cabinet to provide 4.5 per cent reservation for minorities within the OBC quota was inadequate.

He said the decision would not yield any major benefits to minority communities.

It is inadequate. The Ranganath Mishra Commission report had recommended 10 percent reservation for Muslims and 5 percent for other minorities based on the socially and economically backward criteria, he said.

LJP chief Ramvilas Paswan, however, welcomed the decision.

It is not appeasement. It should have been done earlier. Even if it has been done in view of elections (in Uttar Pradesh), it is good. We should welcome it, he said.


Help India!

By IANS,

Baghdad : Iraqs Kurdish region has received up to 9,000 Syrian refugees looking to flee their homeland following ongoing violence, Xinhua quoted a Kurdish official as saying.

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The camps, which prepared for Syrian refugees crossing the (Syria-Kurdistan) border, continue receiving increasing numbers of refugees, Mohammed Abdullah, head of the directorate of Immigration and Immigrants of Kurdistans Duhuk province, said Saturday.

Till today we have received 9,000 of them, he added.

The Kurdish regional government in cooperation with international and some local humanitarian organisations are offering various aids to the refugees who are mostly Kurds coming from Syrias Kurdish cities adjacent to the Iraqi Kurdistan region.

On Friday, the central government in Baghdad expressed its inability to receive Syrian refugees because of the poor logistics and security situation in the Iraq.

Syria has been wrecked by bombings and violence against civilians since March 2011, when anti-government protests began. The unrest has claimed thousands of lives.


Help India!

By IANS/EFE,

Buenos Aires : The government is working with the private sector to develop wind energy projects in Argentina under a plan that could create 10,000 jobs and produce 1,000 MW of electricity within eight years, the industry ministry said.

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Wind farm developers, other companies involved in the sector and financial institutions have been asked to work on the development of the plan, the ministry said in a statement.

The wind energy industry has announced plans in recent months to invest $335 million in projects in Argentina, the ministry said.

The Industrial Projects and Capital Goods Engineering Association has created the Argentine wind cluster, which brings together companies dedicated to developing wind energy projects, the ministry said.

The companies involved in the project expect to substitute imports valued at $1.75 billion annually, developing 500 domestic suppliers for the industry, the ministry said.

Argentine industry has the capacity to supply between 70 percent and 80 percent of the necessary inputs demanded by the domestic market, Sica Metalurgica Argentina executive Jorge Simonutti said.


Help India!

Aizawl:Normal life was affected in Mizoram Monday as six NGOs and student groups called for a three-day shutdown and boycott of the April 9 election to the lone Lok Sabha seat from the state to protest postal ballot facility to its refugees living in Tripura, officials said.

A police spokesman said that though normal life was affected, there was no untoward incident anywhere in the state, bordering Myanmar and Bangladesh.

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The shutdown affected the movement of polling officials ac ross the state, said an Election Commission official.

Offices, shops, markets and other institutions remained closed in the capital city Aizawl. Most vehicles, except those of security forces, were off the roads, police said.

Six voluntary organisations and students groups led by the Young Mizo Association (YMA) called the 72-hour state-wide strike and urged people to boycott Wednesdays polling.

We launched the agitation as the Election Commission ignored our demand not to allow tribal refugees in Tripura to cast their votes in relief camps through postal ballot, YMA spokesman J. Lalsailova told reporters.

Of over 36,000 Reang tribal refugees living in seven camps in Tripura for the past 17 years after fleeing their villages in Mizoram, 11,500 were on electoral rolls in Mizoram and 71 percent of them voted through postal ballot.

In view of a threat given by NGOs in Mizoram to obstruct counting of postal ballot papers in Aizawl, the Election Commission has decided to count them in Kanchanpur (north Tripura) May 16, Kanchanpur Sub-Divisional Magistrate Nantu Das told IANS.

The Reang tribals  locally known as Bru  fled their villages in Mizoram and took shelter in neighbouring Tripura in October 1997 after an ethnic conflict broke out with the majority Mizos over the killing of a Mizo forest official.


Help India!

By Soroor Ahmed, TwoCircles.net,

The parliamentary election in Bihar is heading towards an interesting finish. Though different opinion polls show that the BJP-LJP-RLSP alliance may end up winning as high as 25or even moreseats out of total 40 in the state, yet the constituency-wise analysis does not sketch such a rosy picture for the lotus-brigade.

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Now that the names of candidates have been finalized by the political parties for all the 40 Lok Sabha seats there is likelihood of much more closer finish. As the election in parliamentary democracy is somewhat different from the presidential form of government, some surprise in the results can not be totally ruled out.

If elections are held in the presidential form, as it happens in the United States, than BJPs prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi, may win as Barack Obama did when polls were held on November 6, 2012.

But interestingly, when the electorate in the United States voted for 435-member House of Representativeswhich is like our Lok Sabhaon the same day in 2012 it was not Obamas Democratic Party but Mitt Romneys Republican which won 234 seats leaving 201 for its main rival.

Curiously the Democrats lost in the House by 33 seats notwithstanding the fact that they got 48.3 per cent votes against 46.9 per cent by Republicans.

Since most of the surveys have been done well before all the candidates had actually filed their nomination papers their results had the presidential overtone.

As elections in Bihar still have much to do with the caste and community equations the presence of candidates sometimes do matter.

Besides, there are serious incumbency factors against some sitting MPs, even if they belong to the ruling Janata Dal (United) and the Bharatiya Janata Party, which is projected to do much better. These two parties won 32 out of 40 Lok Sabha seats when they fought unitedly last time.

Selection of candidates and choice of alliance by different parties also matter much. For example, many upper castemen are not showing too much interest in the election in the constituencies where Lok Janshakti Party or Rashtriya Lok Samata Party candidates are in the fray though their choice for the prime minister is certainly Narendra Modi. That is one reason why even the Lok Janshakti Party supremo Ram Vilas Paswan, his son, Chirag Paswan, and Rashtriya Lok Samata Party chief, Upendra Kushwaha, are not very sure of their victory. In contrast the BJP candidates are in more comfortable position.

Similarly, many Muslimsand to some extent Yadavs tooare not so much inclined towards the Congress candidates than towards its ally, the Rashtriya Janata Dal, nominees.

There are some other fascinating features of elections. For example, Sadhu Yadav has jumped into the fray against BJPs Janardhan Singh Sigriwal, Prabhunath Singh of RJD and Manoranjan Singh Dhumal of the Janata Dal (United) from Maharajganj seat. Though he still swears by Narendra Modi, whom he met in Ahmedabad last year it is to be seen whether Sadhu cuts into the votes of BJP or RJDas he is the brother in law of Lalu Prasad Yadav.

A similar situation emerged more than a decade back when a Yadav candidate of a rival party campaigned in his Assembly constituency with the slogan Lalu Yadav Zindabad, when the fact was that he was actually fighting the candidate of the RJD.

Since the pre-poll surveys were done before the battlelines were actually drawn, sometimes they tend to give a different picture. As the electoral battle hots-up the scene starts changing.
Help India!

By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter,

Guwahati: The 18th Annual General Meeting of the Minority Welfare Society (MWS) was held with a daylong programme in Guwahati on Sunday. The meeting started with the recitation from the Holy Quran followed by paying homage to those members of the Society who passed away during the preceding year.

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Thereafter, Abdul Waris Chowdhury, General Secretary of MWS, presented the Annual Report of the Society for the year 2013. During the year 2013, MWS organised several programmes for felicitation of outstanding students belonging to the community, hosted an iftar party during the month of Ramzan and assisted about 25 unemployed persons extending them microfinance to the tune of Rs 5 lakh for taking up productive enterprise. Chowdhury also informed that during the year in question, MWS organised felicitation functions for senior citizens  separately for both men and women. The Society donated an aggregate amount of Rs 1.38 lakh to 18 needy students and ailing patients to enable them to pursue their courses and take care of medical treatment respectively.





Abu Saleh Najmuddin (L), former Minister Assam, handing over the first Sahidul Alom Choudhury Memorial Award to Abul Hussain Mazumdar Saberi at the MWS Annual General Meeting in Guwahati on Sunday.



In the pre-lunch session, Abdul Malik, former State Election Commissioner and Abdul Hoque, Commissioner Law, Assam formally unveiled the second volume of MWS journal Barak. The highlight of the current volume is that it contains write-ups by NRI Barak Valley residents now living in faraway places such as Australia, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Germany, and USA.

In the Seminar that followed, women members deliberated on Role of Education in the uplift of the Society which was presided over by Nilofar Mazumdar and participated by Raina Khanam Mazumdar, Kaniz Fatima Laskar and Burhana Chioudhury.

Kausar J Hilaly ACS, Registrar, national Law University & Judicial Academy Assam, spoke and exhorted the young generation to work hard and achieve excellence to face the competition of modern day work successfully. Hafiz Rashid Ahmed Choudhury, Sr Advocate of Gauhati High Court lauded the Society for its yeomens service to the community over the years.

Abu Saleh Najmuddin, former Minister Assam, handed over the first Sahidul Alom Choudhury Memorial Award to Abul Hussain Mazumdar Saberi for his outstanding achievements in the fields of academics, literature, and journalism. Saberi is adept in Arabic, Assamese, Bengali, English, and Urdu languages and has several books and publications in these languages to his credit.

Helal Uddin was complimented for his pioneering work in mobilising a lot of volunteers from the community to come forward to donate blood to needy patients whenever such occasions arose. Winners of prizes in childrens qirat, art, quiz and extempore speech competitions held earlier in the day were awarded prizes at the conclusion of the programme. Muktar Hussain Ahmed Choudhury, President, MWS made the concluding remarks and offered the vote of thanks.
Help India!

By Shilpa Raina, IANS,

Jaipur: Pulitzer Prize winner Jhumpa Lahiri said Saturday she was pleasantly surprised at the number of translated works in Italy, where she has now relocated, against the US, where she once lived.

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I moved to Italy two years ago and I was surprised to see when they came out with the 10 best books of the year, seven of them were translations of works from different countries. I have lived in America and was exposed to Anglophone literature like many of you. But it was freeing to see such kind of recognition given to other works in other countries, the 46-year-old told a packed audience Saturday during a session on The Global Novel at the Jaipur Literary Festival.

It is shameful that there is lack of translation in the American market. I know I am making a judgment, but I guess that is what it is. Living out of the US gives you a completely different perspective, she said, adding that she was now reading Italian to overcome her superficial knowledge of literature in that language.

The author of The Lowland was joined on stage by American author Jonathan Frazen, British writer Jim Crace and Chinese author Xiaolu Guo, who also writes in English.

Xiaolu was born in a village in south China and moved to London in 2002. She too, like Lahiri, dismissed American literature and called it massively overrated.

Our reading habits are transformed by mainstream and to be frank, I find American literature massively overrated, she said, as the audience laughed.

All of the speakers agreed, however, that as link language, English allowed the reader to be exposed to different cultures.

English is a tricky passport to reach out to more people, said Guo, whose books have been translated into English.
Help India!

By TCN News,

Washington DC: Taking note of the excessive use of force by the Indian army against the civilian protesters in the Kashmir valley, the Association of Indian Muslims of America (AIM) has sent an appeal to the President of India.

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AIM that represents a large number of Indian Muslims living in North America sent an appeal on Friday to Pranab Mukherjee demanding to contain army in Kashmir.

In the last five weeks 65 civilians have been killed in Kashmir due to the ongoing turmoil. The army is consistently using pellet bullets and has so far fired about 1.3 million pellet bullets or 1 pellet for every 10 people of Kashmir. The army has also been raiding the houses of civilans at night in the villages, dragging them out and beating them viscously. Many have died or become disabled from that excessive violence. Many have died in the custody of the army and police.

Kaleem Kawaja, the Executive Director of the Association said that the Association opposes the demands for freedom from India of those Kashmiris who are holding protests or throwing stones as it considers the state of Jammu & Kashmir a part of India. However the Association condemns excessive use of lethal force against the civilian Kashmiris that has resulted in such grievous loss of life and injuries.

The Association appealed to the President and Prime Minister of India to restrain the army units in Kashmir from using excessive force to control the protest rallies and to restore peace in the Kashmir valley as soon as possible.
By TCN News,

Jeddah: In a unique way of commemoration, a section of the Indian community living in Saudi Arab celebrated Indias 70th Independence Day by donating blood and pledged to do it on a regular basis.

On Friday around 250 members of Tamil Nadu Thowheed Jamaath (TNTJ), a social organisation from the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, gathered at the King Fahad Hospital and donated 205 units of blood.

The campaign started at 2 pm and ended by 7 pm. This was the 12th such blood drive of this nature organized by TNTJ in Saudi Arabia.

Mohamed Munaf, president of TNTJ, Jeddah Region said, We marked our countrys 70th Independence day in a unique style by organising a massive blood donation camp in Jeddah. We did that to Honor the heroes of Indias freedom struggle.

On behalf of our 70th Independence Day, TNTJ is conducting worldwide blood donation camp. In Tamil Nadu TNTJ has conducted more than 30 donation camps and extending its wings to neighbouring states of Andhra and Karnataka. Overseas donation Camps will also be organized soon in Dubai, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and Oman to mark this auspicious occasion, he added.

Mustafa, working with a company and a TNTJ Blood Camp Organiser, said that the organisations members decided to celebrate the countrys Independence Day in a meaningful manner and express patriotism in a way that could help others and save lives. We wanted to set an example to follow to other fellow Indians that instead of engaging themselves in cinema, dance, music and other cultural activities during Republic days and Independence days, as a dutiful citizens of India, even when we are away from India, we wanted to donate blood and save lives of the people who are in need.

A large number of expatriates mostly from Tamil-speaking community pledged to donate on a regular basis. The voluntary donors of more than 250 included Pakistanis, Sri Lankans and Bangladeshis in addition to the Indians from Kerala, Andhra, West Bengal and Karnataka. Saudis also participated in this drive.

Dr. Imad Saigh, Director, Lab and Blood Bank said, that a good number of Hajj pilgrims who suddenly fall ill or meet with accidents require blood and this contribution will go long way in helping such section of the pilgrims. Arrangements will be made with the hospital to dispatch the collection to be sent to blood banks in Makkah.

Dr.Majid Al Hardi, Director, King Fahd Hospital, Ghazi Al Gamdi, Deputy Director, Sami Al Johari and Blood Bank team informed that these kind of camps has created awareness among local Saudis and expatriates.
Help India!

Jakarta : A group of 177 Indonesians were detained in the Philippines on Saturday after attempting to board a flight to Saudi Arabia for the annual Haj pilgrimage using fake Philippine passports.

The Indonesians were reportedly about to board an early morning flight on Friday to Medina when they were apprehended by immigration personnel at Manila International Airport, who discovered that the group were unable to speak any Philippine language or dialect, EFE news reported.

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An official at the Bureau of Immigration said that investigations into the identities of the Indonesians and the source of their fake passports was underway.

The official added that the detainees were expected to be deported in the coming days.

According to local media reports, five Filipinos who were supposed to accompany the group on the trip were also arrested.

Initial investigations suggest the detainees were given Philippine passports to enable them to join this years Haj pilgrimage, expected to run from September 9 to 14, using the quota reserved for Filipino pilgrims by the Saudi government.
Colombia was once a country known for Pablo Escobar, cocaine,corruptionand has battled a 30 year war. Over the last 10 years the country has been trying to shake this reputation, with the biggest breakthrough happening earlier this year with a Peace treaty being signed.

Biodiversity

Colombia is one of the most biodiverse countries in the world, with only Brazil succeeding it. Colombia is a country which has everything, beautiful Caribbean beaches, the Andes mountain range, amazing countryside, deserts, plains, Pacific coastline, tropical Amazon Rainforest and much more.

Colombia is also home to some of the world's most endangered species, animals in all climates and the Amazon is home to a large number of species which are still being discovered. Colombia's biodiverse environment and year round temperature provides the perfect place for growing crops and different kinds of food; fruits and vegetables are offered all year round due to Colombia having no seasons.

Caribbean

Colombia is home is spectacular beaches, Cartagena, Tayrona, Santa Marta and Palomino being the most established. Cartagena is the largest city in Colombia's caribbean coast, a city unique with an old city surrounded by a wall, previously used to keep invaders out and a new city skyline with hotels and shopping centres.

Perhaps one of Colombia's best features is it's Caribbean Islands; Islas del Rosario, San Andres, Providence and Islas de San Bernado. Many of these islands are uninhabited providing perfect unspoilt tourist destinations.

Cities

Colombia's main cities; Bogota, Medellin and Cali are all lively South American cities steeped in culture, historic buildings and Colombian flair.

Bogota is the second highest city in South America with an altitude of around 2,700m above sea level. Medellin was recently voted one of the most up and coming cities in South America, with cable car transportation and is quickly becoming a tech hub.

Amazon

Colombia is home to around 10% of the Amazon Rainforest, providing a gateway to the rest of the Amazon.

Colombia's Amazon boarders both Peru and Brazil, with the Amazon River running between the boarders. The Amazon is an incredible place to visit, with the opportunity to visit indigenous communities and discover how they live.

Colombia is on it's way to becoming a booming tourist destination with flights from the states and the UK increasing all the time, making it easier to travel to Colombia. Colombia has the best of everything and once people start moving away from the media stereotypes and seeing the country for what it is, they will discover how amazing it is.
Usain Bolt remains the fastest

In Rio Olympics 2016 Usain Boltwon another Olympic Gold Medal and added a World record of winning three consecutive Olympic Gold Medals by any individual. With the Jamaican's last win Usain Bolt ended his Olympic career with the total of 9 Gold Medals. At the age of 29, Bolt successfully added all this to his basket, keeping him as the fastest human living on the globe.

Spy caught while New Zealand National Rugby Union Team's pre-match meeting was on the go

Rugby scandal went viral after becoming the Public. All Black (New Zealand's National Rugby Union Team) was staying in a hotel where they held a pre-match meeting.

A listening spy device was found in a chair. It all happened before the match of New Zealand's All Black and Australian Wallabies. Investigation is ongoing after the team manager informed authorities.

Trump's appeal to Black Voters

In his speech in Michigan Trump addressed white voters asking what would Blacks lose if they elect Clinton instead of him?Trump tried to convince black voters with his argument that Clinton would prefer giving a job to a refugee and not to an African-american who have become refugees in their own country. Trump added that blacks are intelligent enough to consider who would be their most likely well-wisher.

Australian PM criticized for giving 5$ to a beggar

On thursday, Mr.Turnbull (29th and current Prime Minister of Australia and leader of Liberal Party) shook hands with and gave 5$ bill to a beggar on streets of Melbourne.

The photo taken at the same time went viral on social media causing a controversy for Mr.Turnbull. Daily Mail Australia tagged him as 'Miserly Mal' as he is a rich manand he only gave a 5$ bill plucked from a cube of cash.

Amber Heard donates $7 M divorce settlement to charity

Amber Heard charged Jhony depp for throwing a cell phone at her during an argument.

While Depp denied allegations, the moneyshe donated to two charities are Working for Woman rights and Ill children. Heard stated that money does not means anything to her and all she wanted to do is to help those who cannot help themselves.
Daily Beast has details about the end of Gawker as we know it.

Gawker broke the Rob Ford, crack-smoking-Mayor of Toronto story so it is fitting that they were able to release the entire, extremely damning video.

Lyft is back.

ART is on, the stay has been lifted, construction will resume.

Even I will admit this cryptic sighting is an old man with a bad limp.

This 2016 Hell's Angels' Bash sounds kinda boring but these vintage prints by Dave Mann depict a wilder time.
I have been reading the Manosphere for about the last six months. Before then I had never heard of it. But there is nothing in it that hasn&...
The most severe manifestations of prostate biopsy complications are bacteremic infections. These complications are increasing alarmingly.

A retrospective cohort study of 17 183 transrectal prostate biopsies performed at the Helsinki and Uusimaa hospital district in southern Finland during 2005-2013. Biopsies were linked to a database of positive blood cultures, yielding 111 bacteremic cases, and yearly bacteremia rates were determined. By multiple regression analysis, demographic risk factors of the whole biopsy cohort for developing bacteremia or fluoroquinolone (FQ)-resistant bacteremia were studied. Clinical risk factors for bacteremia caused by an FQ-resistant organism and for serious bacteremic outcomes were studied by univariate and multivariate analyzes.

The average bacteremia rate was 0.7% (111 of 17 183 biopsies) and an increase was observed from 0.5% in 2005 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.3-0.9) to 1.2% in 2012 (95% CI 0.8-1.8); 53.2% were caused by an FQ-resistant organism. In univariate regression analysis, previous biopsy sessions and increasing calendar year of biopsy associated with the risk of developing bacteremia (odds ratio (OR) 1.232, 95% CI: 1.020-1.488, P=0.030 and OR 1.164, 95% CI: 1.079-1.255, P<0.001, respectively), but only increasing calendar year of biopsy remained statistically significant (OR 1.155, 95% CI: 1.070-1.247, P<0.001) in multivariate analysis. Foreign travel within 3 months was associated with FQ resistance in multivariate analysis (OR 7.158, 95% CI: 1.042 to infinite, P=0.045). The study failed to show any significant clinical risk factors for serious bacteremic outcomes (requiring intensive care, developing deep infection foci or death).

The postbiopsy bacteremia rate doubled during the study period and half of the cases were caused by FQ-resistant organisms. Recent foreign travel increased the risk for FQ resistance. Future research efforts should be aimed at better identifying risk factors, targeted prophylaxis and reducing the need for biopsies.Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Diseases advance online publication, 16 August 2016; doi:10.1038/pcan.2016.36.

Prostate cancer and prostatic diseases. 2016 Aug 16 [Epub ahead of print]

K Lahdensuo, A Rannikko, V-J Anttila, A Erickson, A Patari-Sampo, M Rautio, H Santti, E Tarkka, M Vaara, K Huotari

Department of Urology, Meilahti Hospital, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland., Department of Infectious Diseases, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland., Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM), Helsinki, Finland., Division of Clinical Microbiology, HUSLAB, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland.

PubMed http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27526964
China concerned about Australia's rejection of Chinese bids Updated: 2016-08-20 10:54 (Xinhua)

BEIJING -- China's Ministry of Commerce (MOC) on Friday voiced its concerns over the Australian government's latest rejection of an investment application from two Chinese companies.

On Friday, the Australian Department of the Treasury made a final ruling to block the sale of electricity distributor Ausgrid to China's State Grid and the Hong Kong-listed Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings.

Ausgrid is a state-owned company whose shareholder is currently the New South Wales government. The two Chinese companies had offered to buy 50.4 percent of Ausgrid under a 99-year lease.

The actions by Chinese companies were normal business activities in line with market principles, MOC spokesman Sun Jiwen said, adding that they had followed international bidding procedures and cooperated in Australia's security inspection.

China respects the Australian safety inspection for foreign investment based on its laws, but blocking the sale in the last stage of the public bidding process revealed uncertainty in the Australian investment environment, Sun said.

The rejection will "severely hurt the willingness of Chinese companies to invest in Australia and exert negative influence on Sino-Australian economic and trade relations," Sun said.

He added that China hopes Australia will use caution when adopting security inspection practices in order to create a fair, equitable and transparent environment for foreign investors.

It was not the first rejection by the Australian government of Chinese investment. Earlier this year, Australia blocked the sale of a cattle company to a Chinese consortium, citing Australia's national interests.
Lydia Soh (middle) in the middle of a culinary class at Food Playground. [Photo provided to China Daily]

From Peranakan food, to curry fish head, the island nation's culinary offerings are linked to its immigrants

"The history of food in Singapore is inextricably linked to the country's immigration history," says Allan Lim, a Singaporean entrepreneur.

Lim was sitting at Indocafe - the white house, a restaurant located at 35 Scotts Road which specializes in Peranakan food, developed by the offspring of 15th century Chinese immigrants and the local island population.

"According to legend, a Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) princess Hang Li Po was sent by the then Ming emperor to marry the Sultan of Malacca around the mid-15th century," says Lim.

"After that, Chinese immigrants arrived in Indonesia and Malaysia, blending in with the locals through marriage. Their descendants were known as Peranakan Chinese - boys were called Baba and girls Nyonya - and the hybrid culture they spawned is referred to as Peranakan culture."

These days the word Peranakan has an antiquated ring to it. Yet, for those who are interested, there's one place where the tradition is alive and well outside of a museum. It's on the menu.

"Cooking to satisfy two unique and distinct cultures is an art. Nyonya cooking demands a mother's love and constant tweaking of each ingredient's proportion to ensure perfect taste," says the restaurant's website.

Diners can sample the rich flavors and fragrances by ordering steamed "Chawanmushi" egg custard with fish fillet seasoned with coconut milk, herbs and spices.

Another highlight is slow-cooked wagyu beef cheeks in a special blend of spices, ground using traditional mortar and pestle.

With Singapore being an island country, seafood dominates the menu. Worth trying are the stir-fried fresh squid with a sambal spice blend, as well as crispy "Top Hat" pastry cups with shredded turnip, served with prawns and crabmeat.

The dining experience is enhanced with a beautifully crafted ambience complete with mood lighting, plush furniture and a wall display of the restaurant owner's collection of Peranakan antiques, including authentic Nyonya clothing whose accentuated femininity has been embraced by Singapore Airlines in dressing their own stewardesses.
Strong GP network vital for healthy China Updated: 2016-08-20 09:38 By BERNHARD SCHWARTLANDER(China Daily)

Cutting-edge healthcare system possible A nurse measures body temperature of patients at a medical center in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. LONG WEI / FOR CHINA DAILY

When I first arrived in China, I was worried for my Chinese friends whenever they said they were sick and "going to the hospital". Where I'm from, going to the hospital is serioususually involving a serious or life-threatening emergency or a pre-booked specialist service like surgery. Generally people prefer to see a local doctor.

The National Health Conference is taking place this weekend to discuss the next steps for a "Healthy China". China's healthcare reform aims to provide basic medical services to the entire population and reduce impoverishment caused by healthcare costs. At the heart of this project is the creation of a tiered healthcare system-based on general practitioners or GPs and community health centers as the first point of contact with the healthcare system.

As China's healthcare challenges increasing rates of cancer and cardiovascular diseasescontinue to mount, with an aging population, so too will the demands on its healthcare system, along with the costs. And a healthcare system that relies on hospitals cannot meet these challenges. Of course, hospitals are neededto provide medical care for the seriously ill, and for specialized services like surgery and radiotherapy. But hospitals are expensive to run, and not especially pleasant or convenient for patients.

Since online and telephone booking systems are not always reliable, the sick (or their family members) must queue up at the hospital either the night before or early in the morning to secure an appointment (gua hao), then sit in awaiting room until their name is called. When the doctor is finally ready to see the patient, the consultation is likely to last only a few minutes-a symptom of the enormous patient load and pressure which doctors in China face every day. But this is not how things should be in a well-functioning healthcare system.

Globally, healthcare systems in which community medical services are rendered by well trained GPs and primary care professionals in neighborhoods is the most effective and efficient way to provide quality healthcare for the people. In this model, people develop a sort of bond with GPs, who get to know their patients and their medical needs better. In the majority of cases the care people need can be provided in the community clinic. If not, the staff can refer patients for the specialist care they need.

China is already taking steps in this direction and the signs are encouraging. However, such a massive transformation will not take place overnight. GPs and nurses must be given special training and decent salaries for that. And people have to stop going to the hospital when their medical needs can be taken care of by a GP.

Premier Li Keqiang has said health is at the root of happiness. Similarly, the GP is at the root of aw ell-functioning healthcare system. During her recent visit to Beijing, World Health Organization Director-General Margaret Chan discussed her "Chinese dream" with President Xi Jinping: when she retires back to China, she will have close to her home a well-trained GP who will help her to manage her health, look after her medical needs, and, only if it is needed, navigate her way through hospital care.

Realizing the vision of a "Healthy China"where all people in need can access healthcare services close to homeand at an affordable costwill not be easy. But with the same pragmatism and determination with which China has faced so many health challenges in the past, it is possible. And it will set China on a path to a healthier and more prosperous future.

The author is WHO representative in China.
Overuse makes antibiotics anti-health Updated: 2016-08-20 10:11 By SHAN JUAN(China Daily)

Song Chen/China Daily

Imagine you have bacterial infection and all the antibiotics prescribed by doctors in the hospital cannot cure it. This is no science fiction scenario about "superbugs"; it is actually happening worldwide. Improper or overuse of antibiotics is proven to be the leading cause of public health problems.

China accounts for half of the antibiotics consumed worldwide, half for humans and the rest for food animals. Antibiotics for long have been available in the country's hospitals to prevent post-surgery and other infections. They are also available over the counter at drugstores which people use for self-treatmentfor conditions like cough or a running nose.

Public health experts say the more antibiotics a person has taken the greater the risk he/she has to be infected by superbugs, and urge for strengthened and coordinated government efforts to stop the misuse and address the challenge.

The Review on Anti-microbial Resistance (AMR), published in the United Kingdom this year, estimates that by 2050, AMR (including antibiotic resistance) could cause 1 million premature deaths a year in China.

China's decision-makers have recognized the looming crisis and decided to take coordinated action to prevent it. A State-level action plan on AMR prevention and control will be issued this month by more than 10 departments, including the National Health and Family Planning Commission, the Food and Drug Administration, and the education and agriculture ministries.

Xiao Yonghong, a professor at the Institute of Clinical Pharmacology at Peking University, says the long overdue initiative shows the government's determination to tackle the issue head on.

Previously, the health authorities largely initiated the measures to fight AMR, which included stricter control of antibiotic usage at medical facilities. For instance, last year East China's Jiangsu province became the first province to issue a blanket ban on the use of intravenous antibiotics on outpatients. And provincial health authorities say the ban is working with public awareness about overuse of antibiotics increasing. Other provinces like Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Anhui are likely to follow suit soon. But that's far from enough.

The misuse of antibiotics in the agricultural sector is still widespread, which has been noted by many Chinese experts and even in the UK report on AMR.

To prevent infections in and boost the growth of food animalsmost of them reared on feces-filled, cramped farms operatorsregularly feed them antibiotics. This has turned the farms into fertile breeding grounds for drug-resistant pathogens that could also threaten humans.

Remember a joint China-US study in 2013? It found "diverse and abundant antibiotic-resistant genes in Chinese pig farms", which could contaminate the soil and water and migrate to humans through food. So the fight against AMR cannot be won without the active involvement of the agriculture sector, for which the use of antibiotics in food animals must be drastically curbed.

Other stakeholders like the environment and education authorities, too, have to join the fight by monitoring the antibiotics contamination level and helping raise public awareness.

There's still a long way to go and the expected government action plan would be a good start to the all-out war on AMR in China. That will also help China fulfill its international responsibility in public health.

Previously, cross-border medical tourism was blamed for the spread of New Delhi Metallo-beta-lactamese-1 (or NDM-1, a bacteria-resistant enzyme) after a British national visiting India for surgery because of the lower cost carried the superbug home. But some non-medical American tourists also carried the superbug home from India.

Be that as it may, but with one-fifth of the world's population, China has to be part of the global fight against AMR. And the global war on AMR cannot be won without China.

The author is a senior reporter with China Daily. shanjuan@chinadaily.com.cn
Taliban captures district in northern Afghan province Updated: 2016-08-20 13:48 (Xinhua)

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KUNDUZ, Afghanistan - Taliban militants seized control of Khan Abad district in Afghanistan's northern province of Kunduz on Saturday as sporadic clashes were continuing around the district center, officials said.



"Dozens of armed militants overrun the district bazaar early Saturday morning. Sporadic clashes were continuing around the district's office buildings as security forces were trying to repel the attack," Qudratullah Safi, district executive officer, told Xinhua.



The district is located some 25 km east of the provincial capital of Kunduz city. A main highway connecting Kunduz to the neighboring Takhar province passes through the district.



The Kunduz province and neighboring Baghlan and Takhar provinces have been the scene of heavy clashes over the past couple of months as Taliban has been trying to challenge the government forces in the once relatively peaceful region.



The militants seized Dahna-e-Ghori district of Baghlan after a coordinated offensive earlier this month.



The Taliban-led insurgency has been rampant since early April when the militant group launched its annual rebel offensive in different areas of the country.
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The office of Gameloft, a French video game developer, in Viet Nam. Enterprises from the EU remain optimistic on the business environment in Viet Nam.  File Photo

HA NOI  Enterprises from the European Union remain optimistic on the business environment in Viet Nam, with many of them planning to increase investment, according to a Business Climate Index (BCI) survey for quarter 2, 2016, conducted by the European Chamber of Commerce in Viet Nam (EuroCham).

Accordingly, the majority of European enterprises acknowledged that the countrys macroeconomic stability will likely continue, with 56.3 per cent of respondents forecasting stabilisation and improvement and just 9.4 per cent of respondents expecting deterioration and 34.4 per cent think that it will not change.

The chamber revealed that about 49 per cent of the respondents expect the number of orders or revenue to increase slightly in the next quarter while 15.6 per cent of them were even more optimistic. Therefore, when they were asked about investment and personnel development plans, responses were also positive, consistent with the expected business orders. Specifically, 43.8 per cent of respondents answered that they would increase investment, while 43.7 per cent expected an increase in headcount.

A very small amount of respondents said that they would reduce their headcount (4.1 per cent), while 50 per cent would maintain the same level. This result was similar regarding investment plans, with 40.6 per cent of the surveyed businesses responding that investment will be maintained at the same level for the next quarter.

The trend is considered a good sign for the implementation of the European Union-Viet Nam free trade agreement (EUVFTA), which is expected to boost business and investment activities by foreign enterprises in Viet Nam.

Statistics from the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) showed that two-way trade between Viet Nam and the EU reached US$21.2 billion in the first seven months of this year, up 9.05 per cent compared with the same period last year.

Of this figure, Viet Nam shipped $16.2 billion worth of goods to the EU, a year-on-year increase of 8.68 per cent while importing over $4.97 billion worth of goods, up 10.28 per cent against the same period in 2015.

Tran Ngoc Quan, deputy head of the EU Market Department under the MoIT said in the countrys export strategy to 2020, with a vision to 2030, the EU was considered one of the key trade and economic development partners, but in order to make the most of the preferential treatment offered from the EUVFTA, the local business community should take the initiative in all spheres, including market orientation, partnerships, manufacturing renovation and business culture.  VNS
HCM City  The State Bank of Viet Nam has warned people using online banking services to be vigilant since many frauds have occurred recently.

Customers should follow banksguidance and regulations and pay more attention to certain security measures, it said.

Firstly, they must keep information about online banking services like username, password and one-time-password secure, not revealing them to anyone, even bank staff, through telephone, email or social network.

Secondly, they should protect their mobile phone and other devices used for online banking by installing anti-malware software and using password or fingerprint authentication.

Thirdly, the passwords should not be easy to guess or saved for the next transaction and should be changed often.

Fourthly, customers should not use public computers or wifi to access online banking services.

Fifthly, customers should directly type the banks URL instead of choosing links.

Criminals often take advantage of customers credulity and carelessness to steal individual information and then take money from their banking account, an SBV spokesperson said.

There are three common methods of fraud.

The first is a phishing attack. Criminals set up a fake website that looks like a bank or e-commerce website and send an email to people asking them to log into the fake website for some normal transaction like checking the account balance or changing the password.

If a customer does it, their private information is stolen.

The second is social engineering. Criminals make a phone call or send a message to people claiming to have won a big prize or pretending to be their relatives or friends and asking them to provide information about their bank account, card or OTP.

The third is malware attack by persuading people to enter into fake websites or email messages that include malware.

The malware will then worm into that persons computer or smart phone and send all private and secured information to criminals.

Earlier this month a Vietcombank customer in Ha Noi lost VN500 million (US$22,500) from her banking account.

The bank managed to retrieve VN300 million ($13,550), but the woman lost the remaining VN200 million ($8,950).

Soon afterwards banks informed customers about the fraud and reminded them to keep information secure and not provide any information through telephone, email, social networks or unknown links.

Yet, another person in HCM City was duped into providing OTP information and lost money.

Vietcombank tightens OTP service security

The Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Viet Nam (Vietcombank) on August 16 announced on its official website changes to activation methods of smart OTP services.

The changes to smart OTP services are aimed at improving security.

Accordingly, customers who have already used smart OTP and wish to continue using the services on their existing devices must re-activate the service via Vietcombanks Internet banking service.

Those who have not registered for smart OTP services or those wanting to change their devices, will have to go to Vietcombank branches to register and get the service activated.

OTP subscribers are encouraged to download the latest smart OTP application from Google Play Store and Apple Store.

Further investigations are ongoing.

Banks also urged customers to be alert against cyber-attacks.  VNS
HA NOI The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) will no longer grant licences for seafood shipments from exporters blocked by the European Union (EU) for using banned substances in their products.

According to a ministry decision which took effect earlier this week, the disqualified exporters could regain their licences if they submit to inspections on the banned shipments.

They also need to pass tests conducted by Viet Nams National Agro-Forestry-Fisheries Quality Assurance Department (NAFIQAD).

Minister Vu Van Tam said the exporters had ceased seafood exports to the EU till there is an announcement from NAFIQAD.

In addition, businesses were required to provide their products for tests on each shipment.

Ngo Hong Phong, NAFIQADs deputy director, said the department would update information on warnings from the EU Commissions Directorate General for Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE) and provide documents to exporters.

NAFIQAD also asked seafood processors exporting to the EU to review their quality management programmes as well as build solutions to control banned substances.

The DG SANTE wrote to Nafiqad on August 2 saying that the EU had decided to remove a Vietnamese seafood exporter, whose name remains undisclosed, from the list of exporters allowed in the EU. The sanction was made after antibiotics were found in the companys shipments to the EU.

In late April, the directorate issued a warning against several seafood shipments of four Vietnamese exporters, saying the products did not meet EU food safety requirements.

The four exporters include Mekong Delta under Can Tho Export-Import Seafood Joint Stock Company, Southern Fishery Industries Co Ltd, Foodtech Joint Stock Co and Khang Thong Joint Stock Company.  VNS
HA NOI  The construction ministry is drafting a project on management of the property market through six measures to support transparency and stability, Minister of Construction Pham Hong Ha said.

Ha said at a meeting with property developers -- held by the Viet Nam Real Estate Association last week -- that the property market in the first seven months of this year was stable and that no unusual developments were seen.

However, there were potential risks to which special attention must be given.

Ha said the imbalanced developments in supply and demand of luxury projects and housing projects for low-income earners were a problem, adding that oversupply of the former and shortage of the latter had been forecast from the beginning of 2017.

Viet Nam needs 10 million square metres of social housing, but currently has only 30 per cent of that. In addition, there is a severe shortage of housing projects for lease.

Promoting social housing developments would be the focus, and policies would be prepared to encourage property developers to invest in this segment, Ha said.

The concentration of the credit flow in high-end projects or a minority of developers was another risk, although outstanding loans in the property sector remained at a safe eight per cent of the total outstanding loans, he said. Ha said property developers should tighten management of their own projects to ensure liquidity and be prepared for credit tightening policies.

Ha said while there was some speculation in some projects, it had not become a widespread phenomenon.

The ministry would closely watch the market developments to ensure sustainable growth and efficient and cost-effective use of resources, Ha said, stressing the importance of the real estate market in macro-economic stability.

Ha said financial resources for property development played a key role. Its time Viet Nam eyed new capital sources such as from real estate investment trusts, Ha said. Capital for property development in Viet Nam main comes from developers, banks and citizens.

In the draft, the ministry is seeking to prepare policies to accelerate the capital market for property development. Improving the transparency of the property market is also an important measure.

Ta Van To, general director of the CEO Group, said the ministry should hasten the simplification of administrative procedures.

President of the Viet Nam Real Estate Association Nguyen Tran Nam said detailed instructions for transactions in unfinished property projects were needed, together with tighter management to ensure compliance.

Nam said the construction ministry should work with relevant ministries and agencies to publicise areas where foreigners would not be allowed to buy houses or apartments.

Nam said the association expected to jointly work with construction authorities in building a market database that was necessary to boost the development of the real estate market.  VNS
Trade revenues between Viet Nam and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) are expected to increase to US$10-12 billion by 2020, after a free trade agreement between the two sides takes effect this year.  Photo thuongmai.vn

HA NOI  Trade revenues between Viet Nam and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) are expected to increase to US$10-12 billion by 2020, after a free trade agreement between the two sides takes effect this year.

News website ndh.vn reported, citing a Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) estimate, that this triples total bilateral trade revenue of roughly $4 billion in 2014. Viet Nams exports to the union alone are expected to grow by 18-20 per cent per year.

The MoIT said in a statement this week that the Viet Nam-EAEU FTA will become effective on October 5, following confirmation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The union consists of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia an Kyrgystan. The related countries have ratified the agreement after signing it in Kazakhstan on May 29, 2015.

After the agreement takes effect, Viet Nam and the union will establish a joint committee, along with a committee on trade of goods, and a sub-committee on goods origin regulations.

MoITs Europe Market Department Director ang Hoang Hai told a conference in Ha Noi last month that Viet Nam, as the first FTA partner of the union, would improve the competitiveness of its export goods.

The agreement covers a market of almost 183 million people and accounts for 3.2 per cent of global gross domestic product.

Viet Nam and the union will cut about 90 per cent of their lines of tariff.

They will slash the rate for nearly 60 per cent of tariff lines to zero per cent immediately after the agreement becomes effective.

Viet Nam will immediately lift import duties for EAEU products such as salmon, which is taxed by 10 per cent; and tilapia and tuna, now seeing tariff rates of 15-20 per cent.

The EAEU will apply a zero per cent tariff for Vietnamese products such as uncondensed milk and ice cream with no sugar and sweet substance, which has an import tax of 15 per cent; and fresh chestnut and turkey meat, which are subject to import duties of 5 per cent and 20 per cent respectively.

Hai said Viet Nams major exports such as garment and textile, footwear, farm produce and seafood will have opportunities due to the tax cuts.

The content of the agreement can be seen on the website of MoIT, https://www.moit.gov.vn.

The EAEU-Viet Nam FTA, initiated in March, 2013, was signed after eight official rounds of negotiations.  VNS
Vietnamese businesses in supporting industries need to become more competitive to enter the global supply chain, a forum heard in HCM City on Thursday.  Photo cafef.vn

HCM CITY  Vietnamese businesses in supporting industries need to become more competitive to enter the global supply chain, a forum heard in HCM City on Thursday.

Truong Thi Chi Binh, director of the Supporting Industry Development Enterprise Centre, told the Nepcon Vietnam Forum that the number of Vietnamese firms in the sector remains modest, with most of them being small or medium-sized enterprises.

Only a few of them are part of the production chain of multinational companies, according to Binh.

Poor production and trading competence and lack of market information are the main factors that prevent domestic firms from entering the global manufacturing chain.

But with the free trade agreements the country has signed, more and more foreign investors would come to Viet Nam, providing them opportunities to do so.

Japanese companies are the largest auto suppliers to the US and Canada, but most of their factories are based in China.

Many people think Japanese auto firms would shift their factories in China to Viet Nam or open new factories here to take advantage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

"The question is whether Vietnamese firms can capitalise on this opportunity," Binh said.

She urged local firms to improve their technologies, management and foreign language competence and promote their products better.

Pham Tuan Anh, deputy general director of Division of Heavy Industries, said supporting industries provided the foundation for key industries by supplying components.

A countrys industrial sector cannot develop if its supporting industries are not developed since the latter determines production cost and value addition for finished products and thus their competitiveness, he said.

"Though the Government has policies in place to boost the development of supporting industries, the rate of locally sourced parts remains modest at just 10 per cent," he said.

Luu Hoang Long, chairman of the Viet Nam Electronic Industries Association (VIEA), said the electronics industry developed strongly in recent years with exports rising year after year.

"But most of the exports are by foreign-owned firms with a low rate of local sourcing of parts," he said.

According to studies by the Viet Nam Development Forum and National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, raw materials, parts and components are the decisive factors in production costs, generally accounting for 80 per cent, while labour only accounts for 2 per cent.

"Therefore, the development of supporting industries is an important element in the development and competitiveness of the electronic industry," he pointed out.

Speakers at the forum, which was organised by Thailand-based Reed Tradex, VEIA, and the Viet Nam Association of Small and Medium Enterprise, also spoke about the basic contents of the new-generation FTAs and the Governments support policies for supporting industries.

The forum was held as part of NEPCON Vietnam, an exhibition on SMT, testing technologies, equipment, and supporting industries for electronics manufacturing to be held in October.  VNS
No wild animal is traded more around the world than the poor pangolin.

When authorities catch people with pangolins, they take them away from these people.

Often the pangolins die from stress.

Now, twenty of them that were taken away from traders have been returned to the wilds where they belong.

NINH BINH  The Carnivore and Pangolin Conservation Programme (CPCP), a collaboration between Save Vietnams Wildlife (SVW) and Cuc Phuong National Park, released 20 endangered Sunda Pangolins to a safe and undisclosed location in Viet Nam on Wednesday.

The critically endangered pangolins were rescued from the wildlife trade and rehabilitated at SVW/CPCP in Cuc Phuong National Park in the northern province of Ninh Binh.

The released pangolins were among 21 pangolins confiscated by the provincial Forest Protection Department (FPD) in June. Pangolins normally do not survive well in captivity and yet of the 21 pangolins, 20 survived.

This successful release and high survival rate of the rehabilitated pangolins is in large part thanks to the co-operation of Ninh Binh FPD which enabled us to release the animals quickly and avoid the high mortality that pangolins normally experience due to captivity stress, said the manager of the CPCP, Tran Quang Phuong.

The pangolins were given health checks to ensure they had fully recovered from the injuries they sustained in the illegal wildlife trade and were micro-chipped, allowing them to be identified in future.

Executive Director of Save Vietnams Wildlife, Nguyen Van Thai, said This year we have released 95 Sunda Pangolins confiscated from the wildlife trade back to safe locations in the wild. While this is good news, these pangolins represent only a fraction of those illegally traded each year in Viet Nam. We need to do more on enforcement and awareness otherwise these precious mammals may become extinct in our lifetime.

Pangolins are the most traded animals in the world. Viet Nam has two species (Sunda Pangolin and Chinese Pangolin), both critically endangered, meaning they are in imminent threat of becoming extinct in the wild.

Save Vietnams Wildlife (SVW) is a national non-profit organisation founded to provide more effective solutions to secure a future for Vietnamese wildlife.

At the core of SVWs programme in Viet Nam is a partnership with Cuc Phuong National Park to support the Carnivore and Pangolin Conservation Programme (CPCP).  VNS





GLOSSARY

The Carnivore and Pangolin Conservation Programme (CPCP), a collaboration between Save Vietnams Wildlife (SVW) and Cuc Phuong National Park, released 20 endangered Sunda Pangolins to a safe and undisclosed location in Viet Nam on Wednesday.

A carnivore is a creature that eats only meat.

A collaboration means a project that involves working together with others.

The critically endangered pangolins were rescued from the wildlife trade and rehabilitated at SVW/CPCP in Cuc Phuong National Park in the northern province of Ninh Binh.

For the pangolins to be rehabilitated means for them to be brought back to how they were before they were harmed.

The released pangolins were among 21 pangolins confiscated by the provincial Forest Protection Department (FPD) in June. Pangolins normally do not survive well in captivity and yet of the 21 pangolins, 20 survived.

If pangolins are confiscated, they are taken away from whoever has them because they are not allowed to have them in the first place.

If animals are kept in captivity, they are kept in cages and pens and are not free to roam around in the wild.

This successful release and high survival rate of the rehabilitated pangolins is in large part thanks to the co-operation of Ninh Binh FPD which enabled us to release the animals quickly and avoid the high mortality that pangolins normally experience due to captivity stress, said the manager of the CPCP, Tran Quang Phuong.

Co-operation means working together.

Mortality means death.

While this is good news, these pangolins represent only a fraction of those illegally traded each year in Viet Nam.

A fraction of something is a piece of it.

Viet Nam has two species (Sunda Pangolin and Chinese Pangolin), both critically endangered, meaning they are in imminent threat of becoming extinct in the wild.

Something that is imminent is about to happen.

WORKSHEET

Find words that mean the following in the Word Search.

A type of pangolin that lives in Viet Nam. A name for any animal that eats only meat. The number of pangolins out of the twenty-one that died. A word that describes an action that is against the law. The status of an animal when it is gone forever and no longer exists.

s d o l a w r g u j b i e u d l n s g r e p e l p x n h k c p o i s v l t n w d a u i u j o k e e g i r a g a s x b w g m e n b v n k s n t s a e x t i n c t e l y a l e n d h z w r f e b r n r b c u v s n n c h p j c a r n i v o r e u p o

ANSWERS:

 Duncan Guy/Learn the News/ Viet Nam News 2016
President Tran ai Quang asked the Air Defence  Air Force Service to continue intensifying national defence and safeguarding the country while visiting the unit yesterday on the 71st August Revolution and National Day (September 2).  VNA/VNS Photo Nhan Sang

HA NOI  President Tran ai Quang asked the Air Defence  Air Force Service to continue intensifying national defence and safeguarding the country while visiting the unit yesterday on the 71st August Revolution and National Day (September 2).

He requested the unit implement resolutions and instructions of the Party, State, Central Military Commission and Defence Ministry.

Political building and close co-ordination with other forces were key to increasing strength and protecting the nation, he said.

The Air Defence  Air Force Service should apply scientific and technological advances in training, use existing weapons effectively, and pay more attention to protecting national secrets in the context of more cyber crimes, he suggested.

The State leader urged the armed force to intensify its relationship with people and participate in social welfare programmes and search and rescue activities.

He also expressed his hope that the unit would increase its vigilance and military readiness and overcome all challenges to gain further achievements.  VNS
The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) has suggested the State Bank of Viet Nam clear, reschedule or put off debts for farmers who have been affected by the worst drought and saltwater intrusion in Viet Nam in almost a century.  Photo dantri.com.vn

HA NOI  The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) has suggested the State Bank of Viet Nam clear, reschedule or put off debts for farmers who have been affected by the worst drought and saltwater intrusion in Viet Nam in almost a century.

This is a part of the ministrys recommendations to the Government and nine other ministries on actions to boost the countrys exports in the second half of this year.

For the first time in 10 years, Viet Nam has seen negative growth in agriculture when the agriculture growth rate dropped 0.18 per cent in the first half of this year.

According to the ministry, the serious drought and saltwater intrusion occurred from the middle of March until May in the southern part of the central regions, Central Highlands and Mekong Delta region.

The Department of Agricultural Economy under the Ministry of Planning and Investment, which conducted an assessment of the drought, said the historic natural disaster had taken a heavy toll on agricultural production. Thousands of hectares of fruit, rice and sugar crops have been destroyed.

It is estimated that nearly 250,000 hectares of paddy fields have dried up, and Viet Nams rice output is likely to fall this year for the first time since 2005.

The Mekong Deltas winter-spring output fell 10.2 per cent from last year, but total production could fall by just 1.5 per cent to 44.5 million tonnes this year.

In the Central Highland region and south-eastern provinces, 16,000ha and 28,000ha, respectively, of industrial crops like rubber, coffee and pepper suffered water shortages.

The drought and saltwater intrusion has cost Viet Nam an estimated VN15 trillion (US$670 million) so far this year in agricultural losses, according to a government report in late May.

The MoIT also brought up the massive fish death environmental incident in the four coastal central provinces of Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Quang Tri and Thua Thien-Hue, that froze almost all fishing activities, aquaculture trade and tourism.

The ministry said that financial incentives for disaster-hit farmers were urgent at this time. About 60 per cent of Viet Nams workforce and households work in agriculture and face major difficulties including small production size, low productivity and being vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and natural disasters.

In particular, the ministry proposed that the State Bank offer lower interest loans for farmers to re-cultivate coffee.

Simplified procedures are also needed so that borrowers can access bank loans more easily.  VNS
From a start-up with two cows, and after several serious economic losses, ang Ngoc Phong, from a poor farming family in the Mekong delta province of ong Thap, now owns a large cow farming business.  Photo thoibao.today

ONG THAP  From a start-up with two cows, and after several serious economic losses, ang Ngoc Phong, from a poor farming family in the Mekong delta province of ong Thap, now owns a large cow farming business.

The 35-year-old owner said he inherited his parents love of labour and hard work. During his childhood, the familys economy was miserable as it was based mostly on small-sized farming and pig breeding with poor technology in Tan Phu ong Commune, Sa ec City.

When he grew up, Phong had a dream to develop a business to fully look after his parents. Taking guidance from a friend, he borrowed money from his parents to buy two traditionally breed Vietnamese cows, but the venture failed. He then went on to buy six cows of different breeds from an An Giang neighbours farm.

He recognised that the cows were growing slowly due to a lack of natural forage. He decided to grow grass on his family-owned 2,500sq.m of farmland, aiming to ensure a supply of cattle feed throughout the year.

It really is a process of difficulties and hardships. Sometimes I fail and totally collapse. Phong said. However, I continue standing up for my family and because of my passion for cattle breeding.

Phong learned about the technology from books, newspapers, a local agriculture department-organised training course, and especially through trial and error himself.

In 2011, Phong developed his own farm by breeding new cows from Vinh Long Provinces Ba Tri District and HCM Citys Cu Chi District.

He said the beef from two cow breeds was of high-quality and had less diseases, so met the demands of domestic consumption. And he also provided young cows to local farms at a cost of VN15-20 million (US$650-900) each, all of which has brought a good stable income for Phong over the last five years.

Success and know-how

In 2015, Phong was awarded an excellent farmer certificate by the ong Thap Provinces Youth Union.

At present, Phongs farm has a 70sq.m ox breeding area with 20 different-breed cows. Good technology, a source of feed, and disease prevention measures, he said, were supporting the cow herd to grow well. A fully grown cow can expect to weigh 1-1.3 tonnes.

He said the farm used to have 80 cows during the rush period in late 2015.

High quality cattle feed, good hygiene in the cow house and know-how is the source of Phongs business success.

Grass, fodder, maize and bran are used as cattle feed throughout the year. A drainage system was built separately to remove animal waste, requiring much investment.

He also actively utilised the feed from his 9,000sq.m of grass growing area.

Phong joined in Tan Phu ong Communes cow breeding co-operative in 2013 in order to have a professional business environment, share experiences and create more jobs for local labourers.

All of Phongs 10 employees are local young people who are qualified for grassing, cattle feed processing, feeding and taking care of the cow herd.

Luong Ngoc Nam, deputy secretary of the local Youth Union praised the cow breeder, saying Phong was a successful example of a job start-up in the province.

Besides his individual business, Phong also participates in supporting other social activities, Nam said.  VNS
The Ministry of Education and Training has encouraged schools across the country to voluntarily continue applying the new model of learning and teaching, called the Viet Nam Escuela Nueva (VNEN).  Photo thcsluongkhanhthien.phuly.edu.vn

HA NOI  The Ministry of Education and Training has encouraged schools across the country to voluntarily continue applying the new model of learning and teaching, called the Viet Nam Escuela Nueva (VNEN).

The encouragement was given after the ministry recognised shortcomings of the model in several localities.

VNEN was designed to make students more engaged in class with teachers serving as facilitators, and parents as well as other community members more involved in making learning relevant to children.

The VNEN project, worth about US$84.6 million, funded by the Global Partnership for Education, was run in more than 2,300 primary schools and anout 1,000 secondary schools between January 2013 and May 2016.

In a document sent to heads of localities nation-wide on Thursday night, Minister Phung Xuan Nha said although the model created a friendly education environment, it had shortcomings.

Nha said applying the model in schools with few teachers and poor infrastructure was ineffective.

Therefore, after the project ended, applying the model was made voluntary, he said.

Schools that had yet to apply the model were encouraged to use the models plus points in their teaching, he said.

Recently, several localities asked the ministry to suspend the application and mutiplication of the teaching model.

Tran Ngoc Ha, head of Party Committees Propaganda-Instruction Department of Vung Tau City, said the city decided not to widely apply the model for the 2016-17 school year.

For schools using the model previously, this school year if parents and students did not wish to continue applying the model, schools were allowed to suspend it, he said.

The Peoples Committee of northern mountainous Ha Giang Province directed its education sector not to use the model this year.

Vu Van Su, director of the Provincial Education and Training Department, said the model was suspended due to the unequal capability of teachers and inadequate infrastructure.

Thoi bao kinh te Viet Nam (Viet Nam Economics Times) reported that an online forum named We are primary teachers, of more 65,000 primary teachers throughout the country, had given reasons to halt the model.

Under the model, a class was divided into groups with 3-4 students per group. A student will be assigned to lead the group; he or she will read textbooks following the teachers instructions and relay the content to other students.

Teachers, especially in big cities, often struggled to manage students using this method in large classes. The model was, however, effective with hard-working students, the forum said.

Central Ha Tinh province had 129 of 267 schools running the model and recently proposed suspending it for same reasons as Ha Giang and Vung Tau. VNS
The police will investigate an extremely serious shooting in this northern mountainous province even though the two victims and a shooter were dead, Major General ang Tran Chieu, director of Yen Bais Police, said.  Photo tuoitre.vn

YEN BAI  The police will investigate an extremely serious shooting in this northern mountainous province even though the two victims and a shooter were dead, Major General ang Tran Chieu, director of Yen Bais Police, said.

The investigation  part of a legal proceeding  would be launched to explore the motive behind the shooting, and identify any accomplices of the killer, if there are, and matters related to the crime, the police officer said on Friday.

Chieu said the decision was made as the documents and evidence collected by authorised agencies showed signs of a murder as stipulated in Article 93 of the Penal Code.

If the investigation found no other individual involvement in the shooting, the probe would be halted, the major general added.

At about 7am of Thursday, o Cuong Minh, head of the forest ranger unit of Yen Bai Province, came to the office of Secretary of the provincial Party Committee Pham Duy Cuong and shot him in the forehead.

Minh then went to the nearby office of Ngo Ngoc Tuan, chairman of the provincial Peoples Council and Head of the provincial Party Committees organisation board, and shot him in the chest.

After that, Minh shot himself in Tuans office.

The shooting occurred right before the opening of a regular meeting of the provincial Peoples Council.

The shooter, 53, was appointed head of the forest ranger unit of Yen Bai Province in 2014.

One of the victims, Cuong, 58, the provinces party secretary since 2010, was re-elected to the position in 2015. He had served in a number of posts, such as director of the Yen Bai Cement Factory and of the provincial planning and investment department. The other, Ngo Ngoc Tuan, 52, was elected as chairman of the provincial legislature in June.

Shortly after the incident, the two provincial officials and Minh were rushed to the General Hospital of Yen Bai. However, Cuong and Tuan were pronounced dead at 1:05pm while Minh died at 3:26pm the same day.  VNS
N K Minda-headed UNO Minda Group is consolidating all its under an umbrella company to achieve greater operational flexibility and economies of scale.



Thus, will have a total of 17 under its fold, 12 of which are already under it. Consolidating the remaining five will be complete by March 2018, said a senior executive of UNO Minda.



S K Jain, chief financial officer of UNO Minda, said: "We would be requiring Rs 50-60 crore to complete this plan. We engaged KPMG for this restructuring who worked on it for 1-1.5 years."



has raised stake in Minda TG Rubber to 51 percent and in MJ Castings, it has increased its stake to 98 per cent from 50 per cent. While in Kosei Minda Aluminum Company it raised stake to 30 per cent from naught.



"There could one or two cases where we will take the buy-out route, we are seeing how we can do this  by cash or preference issue", added Jain.



The group aims to attain a turnover of Rs 10,000 crore by 2020. Minda Industries, a listed entity, recorded a turnover of Rs 2,500 crore in the last financial year, whereas the Group recorded a consolidated revenue of Rs 5,500 crore.



The group has planned a capital expenditure of Rs 70-80 crore for the current financial year which would be spent on existing facilities. Minda Group have bagged new orders from Maruti Suzuki and Honda Cars India.



In March, Minda Industries had announced an acquisition of the global lighting business of Spain based Rinder Group that manufactures automotive lamps  head lamp, tail lamps and small lamps. The enterprise value for the total deal is about Euro 20 million (Rs 152 crore).



The acquisition includes 100 per cent equity holding in Rinder India and Light Systems and Technical Center, Spain along with 50 per cent equity holding in Rinder Riducu, Colombia. The deal will be financed through internal accruals and the debts.



"We have an internal cash accrual of Rs 200 crore which go up by 25 per cent this year. The capex (capital expenditure) will be funded by these accruals", added Jain.
Tata Steel has dropped plans to set up a ferrochrome complex at Gopalpur in Odisha but will build a plant with a capacity of 55,000 tonnes at the same place.
Anil Agarwal-led today said that Cairn Indias oil and gas assets are expected to ramp up production only after 2018 and till then both investors and the company see value coming only from the zinc business. This, after the merger happens between the two .
Unequal Budget funding for the Yes vote wont give Australians equal say If you seek to ensure not all Australians get an equal say in the debate about an enshrined voice, then dont be surprised when millions of them cry foul about the integrity of the result.

Heartbreaking family update after mother-of-six was killed in horror crash Hannah Fraser's father and stepmother are trying to make it from the United Kingdom to Australia in time for their daughter's funeral.

Firefighter unions latest message to Andrews Government More than a hundred fire trucks in Victoria will carry pointed messages about the Andrews Government as part of a union campaign in the lead up to next month's state election.

Family of Aboriginal teen who died in apparent suicide after sexual abuse back calls for inquiry Police believe 15-year-old Layla Leering took her own life after being raped in the Northern Territory community of Bulla in 2015.
WATERLOO  Both prosecutors and the defense agree the 2015 shooting death of Donald Harrington was a tragedy that should have been avoided.

But when it comes to how it could have been avoided and where responsibility lies, they differ.

There are restrictions on how you can take a life, and this scenario isnt it, said Assistant County Attorney Brook Jacobsen.

Harrington, 43, of Waterloo, was shot in the chest outside the Locust Street home where his wifes family lived following an argument over fruit snacks allegedly deposited in the yard.

Steve William Fordyce, 38, of Denver, whose sister lived next door, is charged with first-degree murder. His attorneys argue he acted in self-defense and was defending his sister. A bench trial in the case wrapped up with closing arguments Friday.

Many of the facts in the case arent disputed, although they are open to interpretation.

According to testimony, Harrington had become angry over the fruit snacks, and when Fordyce left his sisters home with his twin children in the cab of his truck, Harrington extended his middle finger. Fordyce stopped, and Harrington approached the truck and tried to open a door.

The encounter ended when Fordyce drove off, but he returned a few minutes later and parked on the lawn of his sisters home.

Fordyce would later tell police he was going to warn his sister about what had happened, and his sister and his nephews girlfriend walked over to the porch were Harrington and his wife were, and yelling started. Fordyce followed and remained toward the back, but Harrington saw him and left the porch to approach him.

An open cell phone line recorded audio of what happened next. Harrington said hed kill Fordyce, Fordyces sister said her brother had a gun permit, and Harrington responded do it. Four shots were fired, and Harrington, who hadnt touched Fordyce, suffered wounds to the chest, back shoulder and left hand.

Fordyce later told police Harrington came at him, and he felt threatened.

He wanted to fight an individual over fruit snacks, defense attorney Christopher Kragnes said.

Fordyce, who had a permit to carry weapons, had a fractured foot at the time and was on blood thinning medication, which placed him in danger of uncontrollable bleeding if assaulted, Kragnes said.

One blow to the head could cause him death, Kragnes said.

Fordyce was 5 feet, 10 inches tall and weighed about 220 pounds; and Harrington was about 6 feet, 2 inches and 282 pounds, according to measurements at autopsy. Kragnes said Harrington also had been a meth user and had a reputation for violence.

Kragnes said Fordyce was standing on the parking, which is public property, and was near his sisters driveway when Harrington left the porch and approached him.

Prosecutors pointed out after the initial confrontation in the truck, it was Fordyce who went to Harringtons location with two other people.

They brought the fight to the Harrington property, said Jacobsen, who noted Harringtons sister had been assaulted by a member of Fordyces family before.

Prosecutors said self-defense doesnt apply if the defendant started the incident or doesnt try to withdraw from the confrontation.

Assistant County Attorney Brad Walz said Harrington was holding his phone, not an object a person would be holding if they were getting ready to fight. He questioned whether Harrington was going to assault Fordyce or was just flailing his arms because he was upset.

He said Harringtons verbal threat to kill was an empty threat.

You have words versus a .40-caliber Glock, Walz said.

Fordyce earlier waived his right to a jury. Judge David Odekirk gave both sides up to 10 days to submit written briefs on the case before he delivers his ruling.
CEDAR FALLS  Immanuel Lutheran Church will hold a community-wide open house in its new church building at 4820 Oster Parkway from 1 to 3 p.m. Aug. 27.

In existence since 1878, Immanuel sold its property on the corner of Highway 63 and Franklin Street in Waterloo to CVS Pharmacy. The church was torn down during the summer of 2012 and the congregation has worshipped in a temporary location on South Hackett Drive in Waterloo for the next four years.

Immanuel broke ground on phase one of the new church on Oster Parkway in late October 2014 and dedicated the building on April 27.

The first phase is approximately 12,000 square feet and includes classrooms, office space, a preschool room, kitchen, gathering area, and sanctuary.

The community is invited to stop by and take a look inside the new facility and meet some of Immanuels members, while enjoying the music of Proud Image Chorus.

For information, call the Rev. Dr. Gerald Kapanka, 260-2000.
CEDAR FALLS  The University of Northern Iowas Suzuki School is now accepting registrations for the 2015-16 academic year, including music lessons for all ages, including adults, on the violin, viola, cello or guitar.

The school will host an open house for new families from 2 to 3 p.m. Aug. 20 in the lobby of Russell Hall.

Individual lesson packages include group lessons, two recitals per year, an annual spring concert, outreach performances, theory curriculum and special events.

Beginning classes for three- to seven-year-olds are also available, with a trial session offered in September.

Auditions are required for the Northern Iowa Junior Orchestra for string students grades five through eight and the Northern Iowa Youth Orchestra for music students grades nine through 12. Both orchestras will meet on Fridays from 5 to 7 p.m.

Verismo Chamber Music is available for 8- to 18-year-olds, and an audition may be required. The Cedar Falls Community Orchestra for adult string players meets on Thursday evenings, and no audition is required.

To register, go to www.uni.edu/music/suzuki/registration.
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The dog days of summer are here, marked by the rising of the star Sirius in the morning sky, the star they give the name of Orions Dog, which is brightest among the stars, and yet is wrought as a sign of evil and brings on the great fever for unfortunate mortals. On August 13, Sylville Smith was killed by a Milwaukee police officer. In the following two nights, eight businesses and numerous cars were burned, rocks and bottles were thrown at the police, and guns were fired on multiple occasions, resulting in at least one hospitalization. Meanwhile, the FBIs National Gang Intelligence Center has alleged that the Black Guerilla Family (BGF) prison gang may be planning to kill correctional officers and Aryan Brotherhood gang members in commemoration of Black August.

Black August originated in the 1970s following the August 7, 1970 deaths of Jonathan Jackson, James McClain and William Christmas during a prisoner liberation and hostage-taking at the Marin County Courthouse and the August 21, 1971 death of George Jackson during a prison rebellion in San Quentin.

Prisoners participating in Black August wore black armbands on their left arm and studied revolutionary works, focusing on the works of George Jackson. The brothers did not listen to the radio or watch television in August. Additionally, they didnt eat or drink anything from sun-up to sundown; and loud and boastful behavior was not allowed. The brothers did not support the prisons canteen. The use of drugs and alcoholic beverages was prohibited and the brothers held daily exercises.

Black August also commemorates numerous other significant moments in black history including but not limited to the Haitian Revolution, which began on August 21, 1791 and was preceded by the Vodou ceremony at Bois Caiman on August 14, the slave rebellions led by Gabriel Prosser on August 30, 1800 and by Nat Turner on August 21, 1831, the founding of the Underground Railroad on August 2, 1850 and the Watts rebellions in August, 1965. In their article on Black August, the Malcolm X Grassroots movement writes, if we stand tall, it is because we stand on the shoulders of many ancestors. Like a flowering branch nourished by roots wrapped around the decaying bodies of the dead, the visible manifestations of revolt are supported by a vast invisible network of spirits and subterranean traditions.

A New Birth, At Once Into Life and Into Death

In his study of The Traditional Chinese Mourning Categories, anthropologist David K. Jordan notes that mourning is characterized by two indicators: distinctive mourning clothing and the requirement to avoid normal activities, sometimes even subsistence activities. We see the same two indicators in the black armbands worn by prisoners during Black August, and in their avoidance of a wide range of normal activities, including fasting.

The need to mourn the deaths of George and Jonathan Jackson was also seen clearly by both James Baldwin and Jean Genet. The friendship of the two writers and their writings about the Jacksons are analyzed in Bdan: journal of queer time travel. In No Name in the Street, Baldwin compared the grief of Georgia Jackson, Jonathan and Georges mother, to that of the Virgin Mary:

George Jackson has joined his beloved baby brother, Jon, in the royal fellowship of death. And one may say that Mrs. Georgia Jackson and the alleged mother of God have, at last, found something in common. Now, it is the Virgin, the alabaster Mary, who must embrace the despised black mother whose children are also the issue of the Holy Ghost.

Jean Genet also wrote about Georgia Jackson, but in his half-waking dream that he experienced a few hours after [George] Jacksons death, George and Jonathan were reborn from a different womb:

Jonathan and George violently came out of the prison, a stony womb, on waves of blood. [] It was not their mother who gave birth to them that night, for she was there, upright, impassive but alert, looking on. If it was a new birth, at once into life and into death, who but History was delivering the two black men covered, as with every birth, in blood.

In a strange parallel, Baldwin declared that an old world is dying, and a new one, kicking in the belly of its mother, time, announces that it is ready to be born. This birth will not be easy, and many of us are doomed to discover that we are exceedingly clumsy midwives. He prophesied that there will be bloody holding actions all over the world, for years to come: but the Western party is over, and the white mans sun has set. We are still seeing the bloody holding actions today, and we have indeed proven to be exceedingly clumsy midwives, but these struggles are nothing new.

Dance Groups or Associations Which Foster an Esprit de Corps

The Vodou ceremony at Bois Caiman on August 14, 1791 also served as a kind of bloody Caesarean birth, for the Haitian Revolution began exactly one week later. The ceremony was first written about by Antoine Dalmas, a French doctor who fled to the United States and then wrote a report in 1794 based upon the interrogation of prisoners. That Dalmas portrayal of the ritual is unsympathetic is an understatement that should go without saying, but nonetheless, it is the first written account of the ceremony:

[They] celebrated a sort of feast or sacrifice in the middle of a wooded untilled plot on the Choiseul plantation, called le Caiman, where a very large number of Negroes assembled. An entirely black pig, surrounded by fetishes (fetiches), loaded with offerings each more bizarre than the other was the holocaust offered to the all-powerful spirit (genie) of the black race. The religious rituals that the negroes conducted while cutting its throat, the avidity with which they drank of his blood, the value they set in possessing a few of his bristles, a sort of talisman which, according to them, was to render them invulnerable, all serve to characterize Africans. That such an ignorant and besotted caste would make the superstitious rituals of an absurd and sanguinary religion serve as a prelude to the most frightful crimes was to be expected.4

Later accounts, such as that of the French abolitionist Civique de Gastine in 1819, would add further details such as the renunciation of Christianity as the religion of their masters and a collective oath to perish rather than return to slavery, but these writers were much further removed from the actual events in Haiti in 1791. It is, however, telling that the second Haitian president, Alexandre Petion, in 1814 prohibited the gathering of all dance groupsor associations which foster an esprit de corps.5 In other words, it is indisputable that subaltern religious organizations were seen as a threat by those who gained power after the revolution, which speaks to their significance and power during the revolution itself. A quick survey of cross-cultural and historical comparisons shows that rituals intended to grant invulnerability were also associated with the Chinese Boxer Rebellion, Chinese spirit mediums in general, the Native American Ghost Dance, and the mainads of Dionysos written about in Euripidess Bakkhai: against the mainads, sharpened weapons drew no blood at all.6 While Euripides was a playwright and may be accused of poetic license, the historical record shows that Dionysian worship was seen as a serious threat in Rome. Like Petion in 1814 CE, the Roman Senate in 186 BCE banned all Bacchic cults not approved by the praetor urbanus, declaring that henceforth they shall not form conspiracies among themselves, stir up any disorder, make mutual promises or agreements, or interchange pledges; no one shall observe the sacred rites either in public or private or outside the city, unless he comes to the praetor urbanus. The fear of conspiracies, disorder and oaths is obvious in the senatus consultum de Bacchanalibus, and even more so in Livy. Just like Dalmass claim that Bois Caiman was a prelude to the most frightful crimes, Livy associated the Bacchic rites with criminality and violence: With the added liberation of darkness, absolutely every crime and vice was performed there. The men had more sex with each other than with the women. Anyone who was less prepared for disgrace and slow to commit crimes was offered up as a sacrifice. To consider nothing wrong was the principal tenet of their religio. Men, as if insane, prophesied with wild convulsions of their bodies, married women in the dress of the Bacchants with streaming hair ran down to the Tiber carrying burning torches, which they dipped into the water and brought out still alight. Like Dalmas, Livy was clearly an unsympathetic narrator, but the disapproval and disgust of these reactionary writers merely goes to show how seriously dance groups or associations which foster an esprit de corps have historically frightened the ruling classes. The Chaplains Corps of the War on Slavery Rebelliously-inclined religious organizations were present in the Antebellum Southern United States as well, some of which are written about in Neal Shirley and Saralee Staffords Dixie Be Damned: 300 Years of Insurrection in the American South. For example, one of the leaders in Gabriel Prossers rebellion testified at his trial that he was sent to recruit the outlandish people who were supposed to deal with witches and wizards,7 and thereby recruit the sorcerers as well. Furthermore, the early black nationalist Martin Delany (18121885) wrote of a council of conjure men and women known as the Head located within the Great Dismal Swamp of southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina. The Head performed rituals in a cave in the swamp, where they also kept a large sacred serpent. The Head played a major role in the initiation of new conjure men and women: in order to be ordained as conjure men or women, non-maroons were forced to (at least temporarily) escape their bondage and find the council.8 This initiatory escape, even if temporary, served to forge ties between the maroons in the swamps and the rebels on the plantations. The Head was involved in numerous slave insurrections and considered themselves to be the chaplains corps of the war on slavery. The Head deeply revered the memory of Nat Turner, and claimed to have been associated with his effort. As young conjure men they had fought alongside General Gabriel and took pride in that action forty years later.9 By venerating the ancestors of the struggle and keeping their memories alive, the Head contributed to future revolts as well. Shirley and Stafford argue that the maroon communities that were rooted in the Great Dismal Swamp were crucial to the exceptionally high number of large uprisings that broke out in the Tidewater region of Virginia and North Carolina, and that diverse and syncretic spiritual practices were an inherent and central part of maroon social organization.10 Like the Eolh-sedge of the Anglo-Saxon rune poem, the maroon community is mostly to be found in a marsh; it grows in the water and makes a ghastly wound, covering with blood every warrior who touches it.



Let the Crops Rot, Betray the Whites

These are but a few of the stories and ancestors invoked by Black August. And even after August 31, the memory of previous uprisings guides the struggles of the present. On September 9, the 45th anniversary of the Attica prison uprising, prisoners are calling for a general strike of prison labor across the United States:

Slavery is alive and well in the prison system, but by the end of this year, it wont be anymore. This is a call to end slavery in America. This call goes directly to the slaves themselves. We are not making demands or requests of our captors, we are calling ourselves to action. To every prisoner in every state and federal institution across this land, we call on you to stop being a slave, to let the crops rot in the plantation fields, to go on strike and cease reproducing the institutions of your confinement. This is a call for a nation-wide prisoner work stoppage to end prison slavery, starting on September 9th, 2016. They cannot run these facilities without us.

While the prisoners address their fellow prisoners directly, solidarity actions proliferate outside the walls of the prisons. But the conditions of imprisonment extend beyond the facilities themselves, as Milwaukee demonstrates clearly. Jean Genets words after the death of George Jackson ring as true today as they did in 1971:

We must look closelyat all imprisoned blackswhether in jail or the ghettowho are in danger at every moment of being assassinated like George and Jonathan Jackson or of being wasted away by the white world. In fact, we must learn to betray the whites that we are.11

Genet, despite declaring George and Jonathan two black Gemini, eschewed the language of mythology and instead called this task a human labor directed against the dense and sparkling mythology of the white world. Nonetheless, I maintain that the war is waged on all fronts simultaneously, and that the spiritual realms are inseparable from the social and the material.

Footnotes

Homer, Iliad 22.29-31, translated by Richmond Lattimore. Quoted in Bdan 110. Quoted in Bdan 111. Quoted in Elizabeth McAlister, From Slave Revolt to a Blood Pact with Satan: The Evangelical Rewriting of Haitian History 9. Ibid 8. Euripides, Bakkhai, translated by Anne Carson 40. Quoted in Dixie Be Damned 43. Ibid 44. Hugo Leaming, quoted in Dixie Be Damned 44. Ibid 21. Quoted in Bdan 111.

* * *

This column was made possible by the generous underwriting donation from Hecate Demeter, writer, ecofeminist, witch and Priestess of the Great Mother Earth.

The views and opinions expressed by our diverse panel of columnists and guest writers represent the many diverging perspectives held within the global Pagan, Heathen and polytheist communities, but do not necessarily reflect the views of The Wild Hunt Inc. or its management.
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28 Apr (3) 14 Apr - 21 Apr (1) 31 Mar - 7 Apr (3) 24 Mar - 31 Mar (6) 17 Mar - 24 Mar (5) 10 Mar - 17 Mar (1) 3 Mar - 10 Mar (3) 24 Feb - 3 Mar (2) 17 Feb - 24 Feb (5) 10 Feb - 17 Feb (3) 3 Feb - 10 Feb (2) 20 Jan - 27 Jan (3) 13 Jan - 20 Jan (1) 23 Dec - 30 Dec (3) 2 Dec - 9 Dec (1) 25 Nov - 2 Dec (2) 18 Nov - 25 Nov (2) 11 Nov - 18 Nov (2) 4 Nov - 11 Nov (1) 21 Oct - 28 Oct (4) 14 Oct - 21 Oct (5) 7 Oct - 14 Oct (2) 30 Sep - 7 Oct (1) 23 Sep - 30 Sep (1) 9 Sep - 16 Sep (4) 2 Sep - 9 Sep (1) 19 Aug - 26 Aug (1) 12 Aug - 19 Aug (4) 5 Aug - 12 Aug (6) 29 Jul - 5 Aug (2) 22 Jul - 29 Jul (1) 15 Jul - 22 Jul (3) 8 Jul - 15 Jul (4) 1 Jul - 8 Jul (1) 24 Jun - 1 Jul (1) 17 Jun - 24 Jun (3) 10 Jun - 17 Jun (5) 3 Jun - 10 Jun (3) 27 May - 3 Jun (5) 20 May - 27 May (6) 13 May - 20 May (6) 6 May - 13 May (1) 29 Apr - 6 May (5) 22 Apr - 29 Apr (4) 15 Apr - 22 Apr (6) 8 Apr - 15 Apr (4) 1 Apr - 8 Apr (4) 25 Mar - 1 Apr (3) 18 Mar - 25 Mar (3) 11 Mar - 18 Mar (3) 4 Mar - 11 Mar (4) 25 Feb - 4 Mar (3) 18 Feb - 25 Feb (1) 11 Feb - 18 Feb (4) 4 Feb - 11 Feb (5) 28 Jan - 4 Feb (6) 21 Jan - 28 Jan (1) 14 Jan - 21 Jan (4) 7 Jan - 14 Jan (2) 31 Dec - 7 Jan (7) 24 Dec - 31 Dec (2) 17 Dec - 24 Dec (3) 10 Dec - 17 Dec (1) 3 Dec - 10 Dec (4) 26 Nov - 3 Dec (3) 19 Nov - 26 Nov (2) 12 Nov - 19 Nov (1) 5 Nov - 12 Nov (4) 22 Oct - 29 Oct (3) 15 Oct - 22 Oct (4) 8 Oct - 15 Oct (4) 1 Oct - 8 Oct (1) 10 Sep - 17 Sep (2) 3 Sep - 10 Sep (2) 27 Aug - 3 Sep (1) 20 Aug - 27 Aug (6) 6 Aug - 13 Aug (4) 30 Jul - 6 Aug (1) 23 Jul - 30 Jul (5) 16 Jul - 23 Jul (3) 9 Jul - 16 Jul (5) 25 Jun - 2 Jul (5) 18 Jun - 25 Jun (2) 11 Jun - 18 Jun (6) 4 Jun - 11 Jun (1) 28 May - 4 Jun (5) 21 May - 28 May (2) 14 May - 21 May (4) 7 May - 14 May (4) 30 Apr - 7 May (4) 23 Apr - 30 Apr (3) 16 Apr - 23 Apr (3) 9 Apr - 16 Apr (1) 2 Apr - 9 Apr (3) 26 Mar - 2 Apr (2) 19 Mar - 26 Mar (3) 12 Mar - 19 Mar (3) 5 Mar - 12 Mar (2) 26 Feb - 5 Mar (3) 19 Feb - 26 Feb (2) 12 Feb - 19 Feb (2) 5 Feb - 12 Feb (6) 29 Jan - 5 Feb (5) 22 Jan - 29 Jan (1) 15 Jan - 22 Jan (8) 8 Jan - 15 Jan (7) 1 Jan - 8 Jan (4) 25 Dec - 1 Jan (3) 11 Dec - 18 Dec (3) 13 Nov - 20 Nov (4) 6 Nov - 13 Nov (2) 30 Oct - 6 Nov (1) 23 Oct - 30 Oct (1) 16 Oct - 23 Oct (1) 9 Oct - 16 Oct (1) 2 Oct - 9 Oct (2) 25 Sep - 2 Oct (1) 18 Sep - 25 Sep (4) 11 Sep - 18 Sep (2) 4 Sep - 11 Sep (1) 28 Aug - 4 Sep (4) 21 Aug - 28 Aug (1) 14 Aug - 21 Aug (2) 7 Aug - 14 Aug (4) 31 Jul - 7 Aug (6) 24 Jul - 31 Jul (3) 17 Jul - 24 Jul (6) 10 Jul - 17 Jul (3) 3 Jul - 10 Jul (6) 26 Jun - 3 Jul (3) 19 Jun - 26 Jun (4) 5 Jun - 12 Jun (5) 29 May - 5 Jun (1) 22 May - 29 May (1) 15 May - 22 May (1) 8 May - 15 May (5) 1 May - 8 May (5) 24 Apr - 1 May (1) 17 Apr - 24 Apr (2) 10 Apr - 17 Apr (3) 3 Apr - 10 Apr (2) 20 Mar - 27 Mar (2) 13 Mar - 20 Mar (4) 6 Mar - 13 Mar (1) 28 Feb - 6 Mar (2) 21 Feb - 28 Feb (1) 14 Feb - 21 Feb (1) 7 Feb - 14 Feb (3) 24 Jan - 31 Jan (2) 17 Jan - 24 Jan (3) 10 Jan - 17 Jan (2) 3 Jan - 10 Jan (1) 27 Dec - 3 Jan (1) 20 Dec - 27 Dec (1) 13 Dec - 20 Dec (3) 6 Dec - 13 Dec (2) 29 Nov - 6 Dec (2) 22 Nov - 29 Nov (2) 15 Nov - 22 Nov (1) 8 Nov - 15 Nov (5) 1 Nov - 8 Nov (2) 25 Oct - 1 Nov (2) 18 Oct - 25 Oct (1) 11 Oct - 18 Oct (4) 4 Oct - 11 Oct (1) 27 Sep - 4 Oct (3) 20 Sep - 27 Sep (2) 13 Sep - 20 Sep (1) 6 Sep - 13 Sep (3) 30 Aug - 6 Sep (5) 23 Aug - 30 Aug (6) 16 Aug - 23 Aug (1) 9 Aug - 16 Aug (1) 2 Aug - 9 Aug (3) 26 Jul - 2 Aug (2) 19 Jul - 26 Jul (1) 12 Jul - 19 Jul (5) 5 Jul - 12 Jul (6) 28 Jun - 5 Jul (4) 21 Jun - 28 Jun (7) 14 Jun - 21 Jun (5) 7 Jun - 14 Jun (2) 31 May - 7 Jun (5) 24 May - 31 May (3) 17 May - 24 May (5) 10 May - 17 May (3) 3 May - 10 May (1) 26 Apr - 3 May (1) 19 Apr - 26 Apr (5) 12 Apr - 19 Apr (5) 5 Apr - 12 Apr (2) 29 Mar - 5 Apr (1) 22 Mar - 29 Mar (5) 15 Mar - 22 Mar (9) 8 Mar - 15 Mar (6) 1 Mar - 8 Mar (10) 22 Feb - 1 Mar (5) 15 Feb - 22 Feb (5) 1 Feb - 8 Feb (2) 25 Jan - 1 Feb (1) 18 Jan - 25 Jan (4) 11 Jan - 18 Jan (1) 4 Jan - 11 Jan (3) 28 Dec - 4 Jan (3) 21 Dec - 28 Dec (3) 14 Dec - 21 Dec (4) 7 Dec - 14 Dec (2) 30 Nov - 7 Dec (3) 23 Nov - 30 Nov (3) 9 Nov - 16 Nov (3) 2 Nov - 9 Nov (5) 26 Oct - 2 Nov (3) 19 Oct - 26 Oct (8) 12 Oct - 19 Oct (6) 5 Oct - 12 Oct (3) 28 Sep - 5 Oct (5) 21 Sep - 28 Sep (4) 14 Sep - 21 Sep (1) 7 Sep - 14 Sep (4) 31 Aug - 7 Sep (1) 24 Aug - 31 Aug (2) 17 Aug - 24 Aug (2) 10 Aug - 17 Aug (7) 3 Aug - 10 Aug (3) 27 Jul - 3 Aug (3) 20 Jul - 27 Jul (3) 13 Jul - 20 Jul (4) 6 Jul - 13 Jul (1) 29 Jun - 6 Jul (5) 22 Jun - 29 Jun (2) 15 Jun - 22 Jun (4) 8 Jun - 15 Jun (2) 1 Jun - 8 Jun (2) 25 May - 1 Jun (8) 18 May - 25 May (4) 11 May - 18 May (1) 4 May - 11 May (3) 27 Apr - 4 May (4) 20 Apr - 27 Apr (2) 13 Apr - 20 Apr (6) 6 Apr - 13 Apr (2) 23 Mar - 30 Mar (4) 16 Mar - 23 Mar (2) 9 Mar - 16 Mar (2) 2 Mar - 9 Mar (2) 23 Feb - 2 Mar (2) 16 Feb - 23 Feb (1) 9 Feb - 16 Feb (6) 2 Feb - 9 Feb (1) 26 Jan - 2 Feb (2) 19 Jan - 26 Jan (1) 12 Jan - 19 Jan (1) 29 Dec - 5 Jan (1) 22 Dec - 29 Dec (2) 8 Dec - 15 Dec (2) 1 Dec - 8 Dec (1) 24 Nov - 1 Dec (4) 17 Nov - 24 Nov (4) 10 Nov - 17 Nov (1) 3 Nov - 10 Nov (4) 20 Oct - 27 Oct (2) 13 Oct - 20 Oct (4) 29 Sep - 6 Oct (1) 22 Sep - 29 Sep (2) 15 Sep - 22 Sep (3) 8 Sep - 15 Sep (1) 1 Sep - 8 Sep (6) 25 Aug - 1 Sep (7) 18 Aug - 25 Aug (9) 11 Aug - 18 Aug (6) 4 Aug - 11 Aug (4) 28 Jul - 4 Aug (3) 21 Jul - 28 Jul (8) 14 Jul - 21 Jul (4) 7 Jul - 14 Jul (5) 30 Jun - 7 Jul (8) 23 Jun - 30 Jun (8) 16 Jun - 23 Jun (4) 9 Jun - 16 Jun (7) 2 Jun - 9 Jun (7) 26 May - 2 Jun (8) 19 May - 26 May (7) 12 May - 19 May (5) 5 May - 12 May (5) 28 Apr - 5 May (11) 21 Apr - 28 Apr (6) 14 Apr - 21 Apr (5) 7 Apr - 14 Apr (6) 31 Mar - 7 Apr (7) 24 Mar - 31 Mar (4) 17 Mar - 24 Mar (4) 3 Mar - 10 Mar (6) 24 Feb - 3 Mar (3) 17 Feb - 24 Feb (3) 10 Feb - 17 Feb (5) 3 Feb - 10 Feb (3) 27 Jan - 3 Feb (6) 20 Jan - 27 Jan (1) 13 Jan - 20 Jan (6) 6 Jan - 13 Jan (2) 30 Dec - 6 Jan (2) 23 Dec - 30 Dec (1) 16 Dec - 23 Dec (3) 9 Dec - 16 Dec (2) 2 Dec - 9 Dec (1) 25 Nov - 2 Dec (1) 18 Nov - 25 Nov (3) 11 Nov - 18 Nov (5) 4 Nov - 11 Nov (2) 28 Oct - 4 Nov (6) 21 Oct - 28 Oct (9) 14 Oct - 21 Oct (9) 30 Sep - 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Authorities say a 16-year-old is in custody after the body of a young woman was found in a wooded area in western Michigan.

The Kent County sheriff's department says in a statement the death of 18-year-old McKenna Elizabeth Hilton of Grand Rapids is being investigated as homicide. An autopsy was planned Friday.

Officials say the person in custody, also from Grand Rapids, knew the victim. The Grand Rapids Press reports a judge ordered the teen held without bond during an afternoon hearing while prosecutors determine whether to charge him.

The sheriff's department says Hilton's body was found Thursday near a trail that's near Emerald Lake in Grand Rapids Township, but likely was killed elsewhere.

Investigators say she appeared to have died within the last day.
Canl Bahis siteleri sektoru son derece onu ack ve farkl ozelliklere sahip bir sektordur. Elbette bahis secenekleri arasnda yuksek kazanc getiren alan kuskusuz canl bahistir. Peki, canl bahis nedir?

Canl Bahis Nedir?

Canl bahis adndan da anlaslacag gibi devam eden musabakaya bahis yapmaktr. Bu bahis musabaka devam ederken de yaplabilir olmasdr. Basta futbol olmak uzere voleybol, tenis, hentbol, basketbol, buz hokeyi ve masa tenisi gibi spor organizasyonlarna canl bahisler yaplabilmektedir. Canl bahis siteleri bu oyunlarn hepsine yuksek oranlara bahis yapmanza imkan tanr. En fazla tercih edilen futbol canl bahisleri diger alanlara gore daha fazla on plandadr. Siteden siteye degisen sartlar ve uygulama esaslar soz konusu olsa da kurallar sabittir.

Canl bahisi populer klan ve heyecan katan en onemli ozellikle musabakann basladg ana dek bahis yapabilmedir. Canl bahis icerisinde yer alan secenekler kazanma sansnz da dogrudan arttrmaktadr. Ilk korneri kim kullanr, ilk tac, gol, sar kart, krmz kart gibi futbol musabakas icerisinde olabilecek hemen hemen her seye bahis yaplabilmektedir. Normal bahisegore de son derece yuksek oranda olmas avantajl yonlerini ortaya koymaktadr. Nitekim dogru secenek ksa surede kazancl ckmanza etki edecektir.

Strateji ve dogru analizle 90 dakika gibi bir surede anaparanzkatlayabilirsiniz. Tabi bunu basarabilmek icin mutlaka musabakaya dair ayrntlar iyi degerlendirmek gerekir. Soz konusu musabakann detaylarn inceleyip, cezal, sakat oyuncu veya performans dusen takm oyunu gibi detaylar bilmek canl bahiste kazanc belirleyen onemli unsurdur. Guvenilir Canl bahis hem heyecanl zaman gecirmeyi hem de musabakalar takip ederken para kazanmay saglamaktadr.

Canl Bahis Nasl Oynanr?

Bahislerinizi guvenilir sitelerden gerceklestirdiginiz zaman herhangi bir sekilde para cekme de sorun yasamazsnz. Guvenilir bahis siteleri tespit edip sonrasnda da uyelik islemlerini tamamlamanz gerekmektedir. Belirlenen uyelik sartlarn yerine getirip hesabnza da paray aktardktan sonra bahis islemlerini sorunsuz yapabilirsiniz. Peki, canl bahis nasl oynanr?

Oncelikle bahis konusunda mutlaka dogru site arastrmas yapmalsnz. Yapacagnz arastrma neticesinde buldugunuz site uzerinden canl bahisislemlerini gerceklestirebilirsiniz. Bunun icin uye olup, hesaba para atp, canl bahis bolumune girmelisiniz. Sonrasnda dahil olmak istediginiz musabakann saatini ogrenip, gerekli analizleri yapmalsnz. Tahminlerinizi belirledikten sonra karsnza ckacak olan bahis sayfasndan istediginiz hamleyi yapmalsnz. Bahis tutarn belirledikten sonra musabaka baslayacaktr.

Canl bahis diger normal bahis esaslarna gore farkllklar icermektedir. Bunlardan en onemlisi musabakann gidisatna gore islem yapabilir olmaktr.Ayrca musabakann 2. Yarsna gore hamle yapp ayr bir bahisin soz konusu olmas da ciddi avantajdr. Dogru hamle ile sizde istediginiz bahisi yapp kazanc elde edebilirsiniz. Nitekim canl olarak yapacagnz bahis icin mac oncesi raporlara gore hareket etmek onemlidir. Cunku takmlarn durumlarn analiz etmek tahmin gucunu arttracaktr. Misal tamnn en iyi oyuncusu sakat ya da kart cezals ise takmn performansnda dusus yasanacaktr. Buna ek olarak takmn deplasman performans ile evinde ki performans ayr olacaktr. Burada da takmn musabakay nerede yaptgna bakmak gerekir. Bu ayrntlar da iyice analiz ettikten sonra bahsinizi yapp kazanmann keyfini yasayabilirsiniz.

Canl Bahis Siteleri

Son derece yuksek getiriye sahip bahis sektoru uzun zamandr faaliyet gostermektedir. Cok ciddi rakamlarn soz konusu oldugu bu sektor zamanla sanal ortamlara donusmustur. Elbette guvenli ve bir o kadar da avantajl olan bu siteler cok yonlu frsatlar sunmaktadrlar. Canl iddaa siteleri gerek yeni uyelere gerekse de hali hazrdaki uyelerine bolca bonus frsatlar vermektedir. Yatracagnz tutara gore belirlenen bonuslar site icerisinde rahat hareket etmenizi de saglayacaktr.

Canl bahis sitelerini kullanmadan once mutlaka guvenli olup olmadgna goz atmalsnz. Zira baz kullanclar guvenli olmayan sitelerden yaptklar islemlerden dolay magdur olmaktadrlar. Nitekim guvenli ve sorunsuz hizmet sunan yurt ds site tercih etmek en dogru secenektir. Sektorde uzun yllar faaliyet gosteren siteleri tercih edebilirsiniz. Bu alanda yer alan yabanc siteler musteri memnuniyetine onem vermektedir. Oncelik site kullanclarn sorunsuz sekilde bahislerini yapabilir olmasn saglamaktr. Bahis sitelerinde amac hem daha fazla kullancya hizmet vermek hem de sektorde emin admlarla ilerlemek onceliklidir. Dogru site tercihi ile sizde canl bahislerinizi sorun yasamadan gerceklestirebilirsiniz. Sizler icin hazrlams oldugumuz canl bahis siteleri listesi su sekildedir;

Mobilbahis Tempobet Bets10 Bahigo 1xbahis Betboo Youwin Superbahis

Sralams oldugumuz bu siteler sektorde basarl islere imza atms sitelerdedir. Canl bahis konusunda beklentileri karslayacak olan bu siteler sizlere kolaylk sunmaktadrlar. Bol bonuslu secenekle de sizlere farkl bahis yonlerini sunacaklardr. Sistemsel etki icerisinde her zaman etkin sonuc alabilmek icin surekli olarak faaliyet icerisindedirler.

Canl Bahis Taktikleri

Bahis sektorunun en fazla dikkat edilmesi gereken hususu dogru taktik ve dogru tahmindir. Elbette dogru tahmini yapabilmek icin analizi cok iyi yapmak gerekir. Canl bahis taktikleri arasnda ilk sra analiz gelmektedir. Analiz yapamadgnz zaman basarl tahminlerde bulunmanz pek de mumkun degildir. Cunku bahiste onemli olan konu musabakann analizini cok iyi yaplmas gerektigidir. Canl bahisin ozelliklerini iyi bilmek ve nasl bir hamle yapacagnz bilmek gerekir. Ozellikle riskli maclarda yaplacak degerlendirmeler cok daha onemlidir.

Canl bahis yapacaklarn takip edecegi degerler takmlarn durumlar ile alakal olmaldr. Performans uzerine kurulu bahis sisteminde takm degerlendirmesine iyi bakmak gerekir. Iki takmn son 5 macta nasl bir sonuc ortaya koyduguna bakarak hareket etmek onemlidir. Ayrca hangi takm evinde daha iyi performans sergiliyor diye de ayrca bakmak gerekir.

Analizlerle alakal puan durumlarna da goz atmak cok onemlidir. Puan degerlendirmesinde oncelikle takmlarn ihtiyaclar ile dogru orantl hareket etmek gerekir. Cunku olusturulan performans takmn da durumunu ortaya koymaktadr. Nitekim istenilen sonucu elde edebilmek icin tum ayrntlar bilmek gerekir. Takm ici duzenden tutunda da takmn son durumuna kadar her ayrnt onemlidir. Iki takmn birbirleri arasnda ki sonuclar da incelemek gerekir. Burada dikkat edilecek detaylarn basnda maclarda kac gol oldugu ve gollerin hangi dakikalarda atldgdr. Cekismeli gecen musabakalarda bazen goller ilk yarda daha fazla olurken baz maclarda da ikinci yarda daha cok gol olmustur. Iki takm arasnda ki maclarda gollerin cogunlugu ilk yarda geliyorsa buna gore bahis yapabilirsiniz.

Canl Bahis Siteleri Bonuslar ve Kampanyalar

Bahis yapanlar veya yapmay dusununler sitelerin sunmus olduklar frsatlar merak etmektedirler. Cunku siteler daha fazla kullancya erismek icin her donem kampanyalar duzenleyerek kullanc odakl hamleler yapmaktadrlar. Canl bahis bonuslar ve kampanyalar oldukca populer olup, siteler bu konuda adeta birbirleri ile yarsmaktadrlar. Birbirinden farkl ozelliklere sahip olan kampanyalar size frsatlar sunmaktadr. Daha cok kazanma ihtimalinizi arttran bu bonuslar daha cesur olmanza da dogrudan etki edecektir. Nitekim bonuslar sitelerin cekiciligini ve avantajlarn arttrmaktadr. En cok kazandran canl bahis siteleri bedava bonuslar ve kampanyalar icin http://www.milano2018.com/canli-bahis-siteleri-2022/ linkinden yardm alabilirsiniz.

Hos geldin bonusu ile baslayan ve sonrasnda para yatrdkca bonus veren cok sayda site bulunmaktadr. Canl bahis bonusu veren siteler yeni uyelere sunduklar frsatlar farkl kampanyalarla mevcut uyelerine de sunmaktadrlar. Hali hazrda siteyi kullananlarn da bonus frsatlarndan yararlanmalar icin donemsel kampanyalar olusturmaktadrlar. Boylece baska sitelere gidisler olmayacag gibi site de daha keyifli zaman gecirmek mumkun klnmaktadr. Bu tur eklentiler yapan sitelerde musteri memnuniyeti daha fazladr.

Bahis siteleri ozellik ve uygulama bakmndan farkllklar bunyelerinde bulundurmaktadrlar. Verilen bonuslarn olusturulmas ve kullanclar aktarlmasnda yatrlan para miktarlar belirleyici olmaktadr. 1.000 TL yatran bir kullanc yuzde 20 bonus frsat olan bir kampanyadan 200 TL bonus kazanabilmektedir. Yatracag tutar 10.000 TL oldugunda bu bonustutar 2.000 TL olabilmektedir. Gerceklesen ve uygulanan esaslar tamamen donemsel olarak yaplan kampanyalarla alakaldr. Iyi Canl bahis siteleri bonuslar ve kampanyalar icin sitelerin vermis oldugu oranlar takip edebilirsiniz.

Canl Bahis Siteleri Para Yatrma

Online Canl bahis yapacaklarn merak ettigi konulardan bir digeri de para yatrma islemleridir. Oldukca onemli olan bu konuda hata yapmamak cok onemlidir. Canl bahis sitelerine para yatrma islemi sanlann aksine son derece basittir. Oldukca basit ve uygulama esas dogru etki olusturan bu yapda sizde islemi rahatca tamamlayabilirsiniz. Para yatrma konusunda su yolu izleyebilirsiniz.

Guvendiginiz ve herhangi bir sekilde aklnzda soru isareti kalmayan bahis sitesine uye olmanz gerekmektedir. Uyelik islemini sorunsuz sekilde tamamladktan sonra para yatrma islemine gecebilirsiniz.

Kullanacagnz siteye uye olduktan sonra karsnza kullanc ad ve sifresini gireceginiz yer gelecektir. Buraya giris yaptktan sonra site icerisine islemlere devam edebilirsiniz.

Sitede yer alan para yatrma sekmesine tklayp sonrasnda karsnza gelen sayfay inceleyebilirsiniz. Para yatrma bolumunde yer alan ksma ne kadar para yatracagnz yazp devam tusuna basmalsnz.

Yatrmak istediginiz tutar girip sonrasnda da devam tusuna bastktan sonra karsnza kart bilgilerinizi gireceginiz sayfa gelecektir. Kredi kart kullanarak para gondermek isteyenlerin tercih ettigi bu sayfa tum bilgiler girilip islem onaylanmaldr.

Canl bahis sitelerine para yatrma islemini gerceklestirmek icin hesaba havale secenegini de kullanabilirsiniz. Site icerisinde musteri hizmetleri ile iletisime gecerek banka hesap numaralarn ogrenebilirsiniz. Belirtilen IBAN numarasna istediginiz tutar havale edebilirsiniz. Havale ederken acklama ksmna yazlacak bilgilere dikkat etmelisiniz.

Kredi kart veya banka havalesi ile gerceklesen para yatrma islemi sonucunda site hesabnzdan bakiyenize bakabilirsiniz. Bakiyenize gore dilediginiz sekilde bahislerinizi gerceklestirebilirsiniz.

Canl Bahis Siteleri Para Cekme

Canl bahiste dogru hamleler ve dogru tahminler sonucunda kazandgnz bedeli geri almak isteyebilirsiniz. Kazanclarnz istediginiz banka hesabnza cekebilmek icin uymanz gereken kurallar soz konusudur. Oncelikle bahis sitelerinden para cekebilmeniz icin uye olurken dogru bilgi paylasmnda bulunmanz gerektigidir. Cunku canl bahis sitelerinden para cekme islemi icin kullanc hesab ile talep edilen banka hesap bilgilerinin ortusmesi gerekir. Yani uye olurken verilen bilgi ile banka hesab kime ait ise o bilgiler ayn olmaldr. Bu uygulama sitenin hem kullancsn hem de kendisini guvene alma politikasdr. Ayrca frsatclarn onune gecerek yeni bir uye olusumunun da onune gecmek amac gutmektedir. Uye olan kisi farkl para cekilme talebi verilen hesap farkl oldugunda para cekme islemi gerceklesmeyecektir.

Bahisleriniz sonucunda kazanc elde edebilir ve bu kazancnz da hakknz olarak almak isteyebilirsiniz. Burada son derece basit uygulama soz konusu olurken siteler aras farkl gorunumler soz konusu olabilir. Fakat yine de tum sitelerde uyenin site icerisinde para cekme bolumune girmesi yeterlidir. Burada cekilecek olan tutarn belirlenmesi ve hesap numarasnn girilmesi ile birlikte islem onay gerekecektir. Para cekme taleplerinde sizden gerekli bilgiler istenmekte ve havale islemi istenilen bilgiler esliginde yurutulmektedir. Dogru bilgi paylasmak sorunsuz para cekebilmeniz en onemli kuraldr. Istenilen bilgiler girildikten sonra site sorumlular gerekli kontrolleri yapp herhangi bir sorun yoksa ksa surede hesabnza gerekli paray aktaracaklardr.

Canl Bahis Sitelerinden Para Cekmek Icin Istenen Belgeler

Bahis sitelerine uye olduktan sonra baz kullanclar para cekme taleplerinin karslanmadg konusunda sikayetlerde bulunmuslardr. Bu sikayetlersektorde uzun zamandr bulunan guvenilir bahis siteleri de yer almaktadr. Fakat sikayetlerin dayanaklarna bakldgnda ise islerin tamamen farkl oldugu gorulmektedir. Yasanan bu durum kullanclarn hatal bilgi girmesi ve uyelik bilgileri ile banka bilgilerinin uyusmamas ile dogru orantldr. Birde canl bahis para cekmek icin istenen belgeler eksik ya da hatal olarak sunulmus olabilir. Ortaya ckan karsklar neticesinde para cekme talebinde bulunan kisi istedigini alamadg icin sikayetci olmaktadr. Oysa ki istenilen bilgiler dogru ve istenilen evraklar eksiksiz sunulsa para cekme islemi sorunsuz olacak.

Sitelerin para cekme konusunda dikkatli hareket etmesi hilelerin ve illegal faaliyetlerin onune gecmek adnadr. Cunku baz kullanclar farkl bilgiler vererek ikinci hesap acabilmektedirler. Bazen de bilincsizce hatal bilgi girilebilmektedir. Hatal islemlerin cozumu konusunda islem yaptgnz sitenin musteri temsilcileri ile gorusebilirsiniz. Talepleriniz dogrultusunda para cekme islemlerinde ki sorunlar giderilecektir. Canl bahis para cekmek icin istenen belgeler listesi su sekildedir;

Kullanc bilgileri ile banka bilgilerini karslastrmak icin kimlik fotokopisi

Banka hesap bilgileri

Ikametgah ve kisiye ait herhangi bir fatura.

Kacak Iddaa

Turkiyede dogrudan bahis yapmak icin resmi kanallar kullanlabilmektedir. Fakat tercih edilen ve oran olarak cok daha fazla frsatlar sunan kacar iddaasiteleri bulunmaktadr. Bu siteler kanunlara aykr sekilde yaplmakta olup, yasal bir dayanag yoktur. Elbette bu sitelerin kurulus merkezi Turkiye olmayp, ds ulkelerdedir ve faaliyetler belirlenen siteler uzerinden yaplmaktadr. Kacak Iddaa oldukca riskli olup, cok dikkatli olunmas gerekir.

Kacak Bahis

Kanunlar cercevesinde istediginiz gibi bahis yapamayabilirsiniz. Bahis yapabilmek icin ya kanuni olarak sorun olmayan ulke dsnda ki kumarhanelere gitmeniz veya kacak bahis sitelerinden islem yapabilirsiniz. Zira bu durum tehlikeli olsa da cok sayda site guvenli sekilde bu alanda hizmet vermektedir. Kacak bahiste oldukca fazla secenek bulunurken yuksek oranda kazanc sunuyor olmas da ragbeti arttryor.

Illegal Bahis

Bahisin bircok alanda yasak oldugu Turkiyede bu alanda cok sayda yabanc merkezli siteler hizmet vermektedir. Illegal bahis sektorunde faaliyet gosteren siteler guvenli hizmet anlays ile kullanclarna frsatlar sunmaktadr. Yurt ds merkezli bu siteler sorunsuz sekilde hizmetlerini surdururken bulunduklar ulkelerde kanunlara uygun sekildedir. Elbette faaliyet noktasnda bulunduklar ulkelerde sorun teskil etmese de Turkiyede faaliyet gostermeleri kanunin yasaklanmstr.

Yasads Bahis

Gerek olusturulan etkenler gerekse de ortaya konulan riskler yasads bahis de oldukca tehlikelidir. Kanunlarn mudahil olduklar bu alanlar da hem kullanclar hem de populer bahis yaptranlar tum riskleri goze almaktadrlar. Fakat yasaklardan uzak sekilde guvenli hizmet sunan siteler de bulunmaktadr. Takipler neticesinde kapatlan sitelerin muhakkak alternatifleri kurularak yollarna devam etmektedirler.

Canl Iddaa Siteleri Nelerdir?

Dunya genelinde kabul gormus cok sayda guvenli hizmet veren populer bahis siteleri bulunmaktadr. Elbette bu siteler dunyann bircok ulkesinde faaliyet gosterse de Turkiyede yasaktr. Sektorde yer alan cok sayda legal iddaa siteleri bulunmaktadr. Herhangi bir kanunsuzlugun olmadg bu sitelerden hzl ve guvenli islem yaplabilmektedir. Tabi bu sitelerde uygulanan oranlar yasal olmayan sitelere gore daha dusuktur. Illegal sitelerin tercih edilme sebeplerinin en onemli etkeni de olusturulan oranlardr. Peki, Iddaa siteleri nelerdir? Faaliyetleri ve uygulama esaslar nelerdir?

Turkiyede faaliyet gosteren yasal iddaa siteleri listesi su sekildedir;

Iddaa

Bilyoner

Tuttur

Birebin

Oley

Nesine

Misli

Iddaa

2004 ylnda hizmet vermeye baslayan Iddaa Spor toto tarafndan kurulmus olup, ilk etapta bayilik seklinde calsmaya baslamstr. Elbette zamanla gelisen teknolojiye ayak uydurarak internet uzerinde de populer bahis severlerin hizmetine sunulmustur. Kuruldugu donemde devletin resmi kurumu olarak faaliyet gosterirken gelinen yeni donemde ozellestirilmistir.

Bilyoner

Turkiyede faaliyetine 2006 ylnda baslayan Bilyoner ilk ozel yasal bahis sitesi olma ozelligine sahiptir. Guvenilir bahis siteleri Turkiyede bunlardr. Ksa surede populer olan site halen faaliyetlerini sorunsuz sekilde surdurmektedir.

Tuttur

Ksa surede adndan bahsettirmeyi basaran Tuttur 2009 ylnda faaliyetlere baslamstr. Guvenilir bahis siteleri arasnda yerini almstr. Gunumuze dek bircok alanda populer bahis yapanlara frsatlar sunarken avantajlar ile de begeni toplamstr.

Birebin

Kullanc odakl calsmalar surdurse de 2011 ylnda sektore giren Birebindiger sitelere gore daha az ragbet gormektedir. Bahis oynamak ise bu sitede oldukca kolaydr. Elbette farkl yaklasmlara sahip olmasndan dolay ilerleyen sureclerde adndan sklkla bahsettirecek gibi gorunuyor.

Oley

2009 ylnda Dogus yayn gruplarnn istiraki olarak kurulmus olup yasal olarak herhangi bir sorunu olmayan sitelerdendir. Bahis siteleri arasnda hzl cks yapms bir sitedir. Oley yapms oldugu yenilikler ile kullanclarn da dikkatini ksa surede cekmeyi basarmstr.

Nesine

Birbirini takip eden surecte Nesine de yine 2006 ylnda hizmet vermeye baslamstr. Yasal bahis siteleri arasnda yerini almay basaran firma ksa surede sevilen ve ragbet goren bir site olmustur.

Misli

2009 ylnda sektore cok hzl giris yapan Misli cok sayda reklam filmi ile on plana ckmay basarmstr. Internet uzerinden hem yasal hem de sorunsuz hizmet veren bahis sitelerinden bir tanesi olmustur.

Canl Bahis Siteleri Kayt ve Uyelik Islemleri

Her zaman populerligini koruyan ve surekli gelisim gosteren canl bahis gun gectikce daha da gucleniyor. Bahis oynamak icin ise sitelere uye olunmas gerekir. Yuksek getirisi ve begeni toplayan faaliyetleri ile cok sayda site bu alanda faaliyet gostermektedir. Elbette sorunsuz sekilde uye olmanz ve faaliyetler gostermeniz de oldukca kolaydr. Canl bahis siteleri kayt ve uyelik islemleri dakikalar icerisinde gerceklestirilecek yapya sahiptir.

Uye olacagnz siteyi belirledikten sonra siteye girmeniz gerekmektedir. Girdiginiz sitenin ana sayfasnda uye ol ya da kayt ol bolumu bulunacaktr. Siteler arasnda degiskenlik gosteren bu alanda temel unsurlar bulunmaktadr. Elbette farkllklar olsa da temelinde benzer bilgiler uye olmak isteyen kisilerden talep edilmektedir.

Uye ol bolumune tkladktan sonra karsnza uyelik bilgi formu ckacaktr. Bu formda sizin kim oldugunuzu ogrenmek ve sitenin guvenligini saglamak adna islemler yaplmaktadr. Uyelik formunda yer alan ad soyad bolumunu eksiksiz ve dogru sekilde doldurmalsnz. Sizden bu formda istenen bilgilerin tamamn girmeniz istenecektir. Istenen bilgiler mutlaka dogru ve eksiksiz sekilde olmaldr. Eksik veya hatal bilgi uyelik islemlerinde sorun teskil edebilir. Yine de yanls bilgi girisine ragmen uyelik islemleri tamamlanabilir. Fakat boyle bir yol izleyenler sonrasnda buyuk skntlarla karslasabilirler. Bu skntlarn basnda da para cekme islemlerinde yasanan sorunlardr.

Uyelik islemleri dikkatli ve ozenle doldurulmas gereken yapdadr. Canl bahis siteleri kayt ve uyelik islemleri gerceklestirilirken verilen bilgiler site yonetimi tarafndan muhafaza edilmektedir. Herhangi bir sekilde 3. Sahslarla paylaslmas gibi bir durum soz konusu degildir. Bu faaliyetleri surduren sitelerin guven unsurlar arasnda bu nokta onceliklidir.

Bahis sitelerine uye olurken hatal bilgi paylasmnda bulunmak size faydadan cok zarar verecektir. Diyelim ki bilgileri hatal girdiniz ve uyelik onayland. Uyelik tamamlandktan sonra siteye para yatrdnz ve kazanc elde ettiniz. Kazancnz sonrasnda hesabnza almak istediginizde karsnza banka bilgileri bolumu gelecektir. Para cekme talebi gerceklestikten sonra site uyelik bilgileri ile banka hesap bilgileri ortusmez ise paranz alamazsnz. Boyle bir durumla karslasmamak adna bu hususa ayrca dikkat etmelisiniz.
PROVIDENCE, RI, August 20, 2016 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Providence-based outsourced sales and marketing firm, DMG Co. have been rewarded for their recent results on their energy campaign with an-all-expenses paid trip to Las Vegas. Campaign managers, Pani Verma and Megan Dynow will be traveling to Las Vegas for an action-packed weekend on September 11th. The management duo will be accompanied by top performing employee Angelina Andreoli, who was also recognized for her work on the energy campaign by generating tremendous results.



About DMG Co.: http://www.dmgco.com/about-us.html



The Las Vegas trip will provide an opportunity for DMG Co. to interact with fellow sales and marketing professionals from around the country who also conduct marketing campaigns on behalf of their energy client. Having the chance to build networking connections during this trip will prove to be advantageous in the future.



Since DMG Co. launched their energy campaign things have gone from strength to strength for the sales and marketing firm. Although still in its initial stages, the new project has proved to be a catalyst for success. Results on the energy campaign have been phenomenal since day one and DMG Co. were recently recognized as a leading marketing agency; their client announced them to be among the top three best performing firms in the country working on the project.



"It's always nice to be recognized for the work that you do. We are extremely fortunate to work with some incredible clients and earn some awesome incentives and rewards as a result," said a spokesperson for DMG Co.



Moving closer to the last financial quarter, DMG Co. have high hopes for 2016 and believes that with the momentum they have built over the last couple of months, it will be a record breaking year.



DMG Co. is an outsourced sales and marketing firm based in Providence, Rhode Island. The firm utilizes a variety of mediums to represent their clients professionally, whether it's customer service, sales or event coordination. Their portfolio of satisfied clients consists of some of the largest companies in the world, from Telecommunications and Energy Providers to Charities. Their teams have developed new programs to meet targets time and time again. Their energy campaign is still in its early stages, however it has been a tremendous start and the firm are looking forward to finishing the year strong.



Find out more by following @DMGCompany on Twitter, or by 'liking' them on Facebook.



# # #
Contact Information: Tim C. Holleman Phone: 228-863-3142 Website: http://www.boyceholleman.com

GULFPORT, MS, August 20, 2016 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Attorney Tim C. Holleman announces 15th Anniversary of having been recommended by peers and selected by Martindale-Hubbell for their highest possible rating: the AV Preeminent rating. Less than 1% of lawyers have achieved this impressive milestone.



The Martindale-Hubbell AV Preeminent rating is the highest possible rating for an attorney for both ethical standards and legal ability. This rating represents the pinnacle of professional excellence. It is achieved only after an attorney such as Tim C. Holleman has been reviewed and recommended by peers: members of the bar and the judiciary.



For more than 130 years, only lawyers had access to Martindale-Hubbell attorney ratings. Lawyers relied on the AV Preeminent Rating while searching for their own expert attorneys. Now, thanks to websites such as martindale.com and Lawyers.com anyone can use this trusted rating as an important part of the process in choosing the right attorney for their needs.



About Tim C. Holleman; a short profile by and about the honoree:



Tim has practiced law for over 35 years serving the people of Mississippi. He has handled serious auto accidents, 18 Wheeler accidents, product liability actions, dram shop actions, drunk driving accidents, and catastrophic injury cases all over Mississippi and the around the United States. He is also a noted criminal defense attorney in both State and Federal Court.



For more information on this Martindale-Hubbell AV Preeminent Rated attorney, please visit Tim C. Holleman's profile at martindale.com.



LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell's Peer Review Rating and Client Review Services commented on Tim C. Holleman's anniversary: "Being honored by your peers and ultimately selected for the AV Preeminent Rating is a significant achievement for any attorney - only achieved by about 5% of lawyers. Tim C. Holleman has joined an even more exclusive group by maintaining this rating for 15 years. This is an achievement certainly worthy of special recognition.

Congratulations!"



To find out more or to contact Tim C. Holleman of Gulfport, MS, please call

Phone: 228-863-3142

or visit

Website: http://www.boyceholleman.com



This press release was written by American Registry, LLC and Martindale-Hubbell with approval by and/or contributions from Tim C. Holleman and was distributed by PR Newswire, a subsidiary of UBM plc.



Martindale-Hubbell and martindale.com are registered trademarks. Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review Ratings is a trademark and Lawyers.com is a service mark of Reed Elsevier Properties Inc., used under license. Copyright 2015. All Rights Reserved.



Peer Review Rated lawyers and law firms may use the Ratings Marks and Icon Marks in a manner that is consistent and compliant with the then current rules and regulations governing lawyer advertising in the state/commonwealth/jurisdiction in which the marks are to be used, subject to the Martindale-Hubbell Use Guidelines here: http://www.martindale.com/Products_and_Services/Peer_Review_Ratings.aspx. It is the obligation of the rated lawyer or law firm to ensure compliance with the most current rules and regulations regulating such usage. Learn more at http://www.martindale.com.



American Registry, LLC, recognizes excellence in top businesses and professionals. For more information, search The Registry at americanregistry.com.



# # #
Aug 20, 2016 | By Benedict

Chinese sound technology company helloear has unveiled the worlds first mass-producible, customized, 3D printed, full-metal earphones, which are suitable for live stage monitoring. A platinum helloear Monet headset costs 16,999 ($2,500).

Back in the 1990s, sound engineer Jerry Harvey altered the course of live music forever when he invented a customized in-ear monitoring headset while touring with rock band Van Halen. Harvey was approached by Alex Van Halen, the bands drummer, who complained that the sheer volume of the high-power on-stage monitors was damaging his ears. In response, Harvey found some tiny Japanese electrical components and created a tiny in-ear headset which could receive wireless signals from Harveys mixing desk via a small receiver. The device worked perfectly for Alex, and other musicians soon wanted headsets of their own. Two decades later, and the in-ear monitoring system is now commonplace in many genres of live performance.

Despite the widespread use of customized headsets, some users complain that the plastic casing of such devices provides insufficient sound quality. However, to create a metal headset that is tailor-made for a users ear is no mean feat. The necessary process involves 3D scanning, model reconstruction, metal 3D printing, and post-processing. The difficulty of the model reconstruction phase has even caused some industry professionals to doubt whether a full-metal customized headset could be feasible for mass production.

Alex Van Halen / Image: Ludwig Drums

Flying in the face of the cautious words of the industry is Chinese sound technology company helloear, which has now launched an all-metal custom headset suitable for mass production. Its Wonderland series of products uses an all-metal 3D printing process, with the main body made from an antioxidant silver alloy containing 92.5% pure silver, coated with either allergy-safe platinum or rose gold. The metal shell not only adds a smooth texture to the customized headphones, but also eliminates potential sound distortion caused by lower frequenciessomething plastic earphones are vulnerable to. The company claims that its 3D printed earphones produce a more accurate sound than any plastic alternative.

After several rounds of testing, the 3D printed metal 'Wonderland' earphones are now ready for consumer use. Although the new earphones use similar sound technology to helloears existing plastic models, the 3D printing process used to create each metal headset gives an accuracy of up to 0.016 mm (16 microns), much finer than the standard 0.2 mm (200 micron) precision of consumer-level plastic 3D printers. Better still, the 3D modeling process reduces the weight of each metal earpiece to just 15 grams.

Since 2014, helloear has accumulated exclusive patents for its custom headset design, as well as over 30 domestic and international patents for various technological innovations. The company received 10 million ($1.5 million) in seed funding in early 2016, which enabled it to complete R&D of its new products.

The platinum Monet headset costs 16,999 ($2,500) and the rose gold Gaugin 24,999 ($3,750).

Posted in 3D Printing Application

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Jackie wrote at 8/29/2016 7:13:27 PM:Got these earphones I got these earphones...




Sarah Coolidge at The Quarterly Conversation:

We might look at Argentine literature as a breaking down into two camps. On the one hand theres Borges: sophisticated, yet playfully ironic, and drawn to labyrinthine twists and turns. On the other theres Julio Cortazar: a blend of Edgar Allen Poe and the French surrealists, with a bent for jazz-inspired improvisation. These writers are the big two in Argentine literature, celebrated on an international level, and yet both describe Argentina as outsiders looking in, having left their homeland for Europe. But then this dichotomy is disrupted by a third figure, not as well-known outside of Argentina: Roberto Arlt. A contemporary of Borges, Arlt is firmly part of the Argentine canon, having detailed life in Buenos Aires with an intimacy that neither Borges nor Cortazar ever achieved.

The son of Austro-Hungarian immigrants, Arlt grew up in an impoverished barrio of Buenos Aires, living in close quarters with the kinds of sketchy characters that would later appear in his novels. His formal education ended when we was only eight years old, at which point he quit school and began working a series of odd jobs around the city. He was a true autodidact, reading voraciously throughout his youth, and he eventually found his own language for tackling profound themesa crude and colloquial language peppered with inconsistencies and spelling mistakes. Compared to the polished prose of Borges, Arlts writing comes off as the work of an incessant inventor, a welder and dock worker from a rough neighborhood who assembled his vocabulary from novels, manuals on engineering, and street slang. Naturally, this made him an easy target for critics who dismissed him as a bad writer.

more here.
11AAA semis will be awesome and more from HS football quarterfinals

The Class 11AAA high school football playoffs should be awesome, and 11B and nine-man teams also offer plenty of excitement.
The fifth annual ABurlyQ! Burlesque and Sideshow Spectacular returns to Albuquerque with two nights of local, regional and national performers . Friday, Aug. 19 , is the Hellraisers! show, featuring Burlesque Hall of Fame's 2016 Duchess of Burlesque, Sweetpea. Saturday, Aug. 20 , is the Glitterati! show, featuring ABurlyQ's Best Performance winner 2015, Madeline Sinclaire. Throw in vaudeville, sideshow, belly dance, drag and aerialist acts, and you've got one knockout of a weekend. (Devin O'Leary)

Belly dancing, drag artists, aerialists and more. Performers include Sweetpea and Armitage Shanks.

Pabst Blue Ribbon and Gumption Cider present...

ABURLYQ! BURLESQUE & SIDESHOW SPECTACULAR

Friday Night Showcase: "Hellraisers"

Featuring: BHoF 2016's Duchess of Burlesque, Sweetpea (MN)

Master of Ceremonies: Armitage Shanks, The Carny Preacher (WA)

Sponsored by HoldMyTicket, Ten Penny Tattoo LLC, The Recognition Place, & more TBA

Friday Night, 8.19.16

Doors and Cocktail Hour at 7:00pm, with show at 8:00pm

Live at The African American Performing Arts Center Theater

Located in the NM Fairgrounds (NOT the outdoor pavilion)

310 San Pedro Dr. NE, ABQ

www.aburlyq.com

Ticket prices:

Pre-sale- $15 (General) & $18 (VIP)

Night-of/ Door: $17& $20

Two Night package: $25 GEN & $30 VIP *Only available online until 8/18/16

Friday Night Tickets: https://holdmyticket.com/tickets/250981?tc=hmt

Saturday Night Tickets: https://holdmyticket.com/tickets/250982?tc=hmt

Two-Night Pass: https://holdmyticket.com/tickets/251480?tc=hmt

Or visit www.holdmyticket.com

***Don't miss Saturday night's showcase, "The Glitterati"!***

New Mexico's only festival to honor Burlesque, Vaudeville, Sideshow, Belly Dance, Drag Artists, Acrobalance, Aerialists & more! Now in it's fifth big year!!

Friday Night, 8.19.16

*Featuring: Sweetpea

*Master of Ceremonies: Armitage Shanks

*Performers:

Annie O'Roar and Ave Machina (NM)

Bang Bang Von Loola (CO)

Bender Flames (CO)

Connor MacLoad (OR)

Dee Dee Derrierre (CO)

Dr. Bones (CO)

Egypt Blaque Knyle (CA)

Evangeline Cain (CO)

Ferryman (ID)

Jiji DeLuge (CO)

Joy Coy (NM)

Kate E. Gaga (ID)

Match Stickmon and Lynn Lightly (NM)

Mena Domina (NM)

Perla Foxxx (NM)

Penny Ruffles and Roxxy Reckless (TX)

Polka Dottie (CO)

Punchy Muffle: Peggy Tulane and Alexis Scissorlegs (CO)

Sophia Sunday (MD)

Trixie Paprika (WA)

Trixy Rene (CA)

Competition Categories:

Most Entertaining

Best Boylesque

Best of the Sideshow Arts

ABurlyQ! was conceived in early 2010 as a way to return the Sideshow and Vaudeville arts to their rightful place on stage alongside burlesque, as it was done around the turn of the Twentieth Century. Now, we're back and bigger than ever in our fifth year of incredible performances from across North America!

Once again, we're bringing two huge shows, each one unique, to two big nights at the African American Performing Arts Center Theater, plus pre- and post- parties, brunches, and much more! For complete show information including the Saturday Night Showcase, performances, competitions, pre- and post-parties, brunches and more, please visit www.aburlyq.com, or find us here on Facebook.

Presented by the fine folks at Pabst Blue Ribbon and Gumption Cider, and sponsored by our friends at The Recognition Place,Gilded Cage Burlesk, Ten Penny Tattoo, and more TBA. See you all soon for the really big shows!!
A drunken off-duty New Mexico State Police officer who tried to get help at Bernalillo Countys alcohol and drug detox center is facing a DWI charge after he crashed in the parking lot, according to Albuquerque police.

Officer Morgan Ortiz, 32, tried to admit himself to the Metropolitan Assessment and Treatment center Aug. 12 but got into an argument with employees there, Albuquerque police spokesman Tanner Tixier said. They refused to treat him and shut down a part of the facility because he was so aggressive, according to a police report on the incident.

So he apparently got in his car to leave  but didnt make it far. He crashed into a nearby parked car, prompting a call to Albuquerque police.

Tixier said Ortizs blood alcohol content at the drug treatment center was 0.28 percent  more than three times the states presumed level of intoxication, which is .08 percent.

After the crash, an ambulance immediately took him to the University of New Mexico Hospital, where he refused to submit to DWI-related tests, according to the police report.

Lapel video from an Albuquerque police officer released Friday shows Ortiz was belligerent at the hospital and put in leg and arm restraints. The video also showed that officers found a closed bottle of Wild Turkey whiskey in his truck.

Ortiz was not booked into jail, but was issued a summons on misdemeanor driving while intoxicated charges, as is standard practice when the hospital wont immediately release intoxicated patients, Tixier said.

We didnt give him preferential treatment because hes a State Police officer, he said.

Ortiz was convicted of misdemeanor DWI in two different cases, one in 2003 and one in 2005, both before he was a police officer.

In both cases, he was not yet 21 years old, New Mexico State Police spokeswoman Elizabeth Armijo said.

Despite his past, Ortiz was able to get a job as an officer last year.

Armijo said applicants for officer positions are not automatically disqualified if they have previous DWI misdemeanor charges.

In Ortizs case, Armijo said the officials who decided to hire him found he had a stable life with no serious issues in the decade preceding his application to be an officer.

He came with very high references, very well recommended, Armijo said. He was able to show that he was stable.

Ortiz was only nine months into the job when he was charged last week. He was put on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of an internal investigation.
At least one officer with the Ruidoso Police Department shot and killed an armed man after responding to a domestic violence call on Carrizo Canyon Road on Thursday night, according to a spokeswoman for the New Mexico State Police.

Sgt. Elizabeth Armijo said witnesses told police David Klassen, 29, had been intoxicated and violent and was threatening others with a rifle. She said when officers arrived at the scene around 11:30 p.m. they were able to get 15 people safely out of a house.

Klassen remained inside, holding a .308 caliber rifle, Armijo said.

Officers gave repeated commands to Mr. Klassen to drop his rifle, she said. Shots were fired by at least one officer, striking Mr. Klassen.

Klassen was taken to the Lincoln County Medical Center and then to the University Medical Center in El Paso, where he died, Armijo said.

The New Mexico State Police Investigations Bureau is investigating the shooting. Armijo said the names of the officers will be released after interviews have been conducted.
Copyright  2016 Albuquerque Journal

Mayor Richard Berrys administration is free to start building the Albuquerque Rapid Transit project, following an order by the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The 10th Circuit on Friday lifted an injunction that had barred the city or its contractors from tearing up the roadway and beginning work.

The timing is good for the city. The Berry administration had told the court that it wanted to authorize the general contractor, Bradbury Stamm, to begin construction next week, though its possible work might not actually start until Sept. 3.

One more potential hurdle remains: Congress has not yet granted final approval for a $69 million grant thats necessary to pay for the project.

But the city says it does have federal approval to begin spending money to get started, with reimbursement to come later.

In a written statement, Berry said the project will promote redevelopment along a key city corridor.

I am pleased that the Appeals Court has allowed construction to begin on this catalytic project, the mayor said. The design team and our community have worked diligently for years to ensure that ART is a world-class project that will bring opportunity for Central Avenue and the people of Albuquerque.

The $119 million project would create a nine-mile network of bus-only lanes and bus stations in the middle of Central Avenue, between Louisiana and Coors.

Opponents argued in court that the Federal Transit Administration improperly exempted the project from a detailed environmental study and that the city misled the FTA in its application.

A federal district judge sided with the city and FTA about three weeks ago, and opponents immediately appealed to the 10th Circuit.

Fridays order simply lifts a temporary injunction that prohibited the city from starting construction. The appeals court hasnt yet ruled on the merits of the case itself.

It could still side with opponents and bring the project to a halt again.

But the decision issued Friday declared that opponents hadnt met the burden necessary to stop the project while the appeal plays out.

Jean Bernstein, co-owner of Flying Star restaurants and a member of the coalition opposing the project, said the fight isnt over, even if the city can begin construction.

The 10th Circuit Court is still deliberating/considering (our) case, she said in an email.

Mayor Berry has made the project a priority. He and other supporters say ART will provide fast, reliable mass-transit service in a crucial city corridor and encourage economic revitalization along what was once Route 66.

Central Avenue is filled with major employers and other important destinations, such as the University of New Mexico, they say.

As for the legal argument, the city and FTA contend they have followed the appropriate environmental laws. Almost all of the construction work, for example, will take place within the sidewalk-to-sidewalk boundaries of Central Avenue.

The new bus lanes would generally occupy the center of Central in what is now the median. To make room, there will be one lane fewer for general traffic in each direction throughout much of the corridor.

Opponents say the project will damage the car-friendly character of the old Route 66 and choke traffic, steering drivers  and potential customers  away from businesses and restaurants.

Berry and a bipartisan majority of city councilors support the project. It won approval on a 7-2 council vote earlier this year, with councilors Dan Lewis and Klarissa Pena in opposition.
SANTA FE  Adrian Nasafotie had Santa Fe Indian Market in mind when he started working on a sculpture he calls Purification months ago.

Although the Hopi artists elaborate cottonwood root carving is delicate, he wasnt going to make anything that he couldnt transport from his home in northern Arizona to Santa Fe.

I wouldnt even attempt anything like that if I didnt know how to get it here, Nosafotie told the Journal Friday. Theyre really expensive, and you want the piece to get where theyre destined to.

Nasatofie, from Moenkopi, Ariz., said he made a custom box to transport the carving, which took about six months of work, to Santa Fe for this weekends 95th market.

The arrangement paid off for Nasafotie, as his depiction of Hopi kachinas  one of them with wings and suspended above the others, soaring into the sky  won Best of Show at the 2016 Indian Market award luncheon at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center on Friday. The piece also won the top prize in the woodcarving category.

The market, which features hundreds of artists, attracts tens of thousands from around the globe.

I probably wont sleep tonight, Nasafotie said with a huge smile after being awarded the top prize. It hasnt really kicked in yet. Im just surprised that some of my pieces get ribbons.

Top prizes after Best of Show were for best-ofs in nine classifications, including pottery, textiles, paintings, basketry and textiles, along with many ribbons handed out for various subcategories during Fridays awards ceremony.

Dallin Maybee, chief operating officer of the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts, which organizes Indian Market, said an army of about 45 judges splits into groups and picks the winners. There are often heated debates over who should be named, he said.

While Nasafotie accepted his awards with a subtle smile, others had a harder time containing their emotions. Berdina Charley, a Navajo weaver from Blue Gap, Ariz., needed a few moments to collect herself and fight back tears after her piece, The Fall Wedge, won the award for best textile. The room was dead silent as Charley struggled to find her words.

I never thought Id win an award here at Indian Market, Charley finally said.

Charley said she worked on her rug seven hours a day for six months and experimented with her techniques this time around. She told the Journal that she didnt expect it would earn her first Indian Market award.

All this is new, what I did on that rug, Charley said. I took a chance, and I just wanted to see where it would take me and how it would turn out if I did it this way.

Others shedding tears were mother-daughter duo Joyce and Juanita Growing Thunder Fogarty, who won the award for best beadwork.

Its an honor to work with you every day, Mom, Juanita Growing Thunder Fogarty told her mother during their acceptance speech.

Albuquerques Ed Natiya, a 44-year-old Navajo artist whos originally from Crownpoint, won the award for best sculpture with The Red Men, a highly detailed depiction of three Iroquois warriors coming ashore for battle.

Natiya said his metal sculpture of the Iroquois, who he said used some of the stealth techniques that special forces units still use today, is historically accurate.

Part of the fun is doing all the research into how they would dress, what accouterments or weapons they would use, and to study those things in depth, Natiya said.

Natiya spent about a year working on the sculpture, and although hell likely sell it by the end of the weekend, he said hell never forget the red men he spent so much time working on.

It really is one of your children, he said. There are some pieces that have a special place in your heart, and this piece definitely has a special place.

If you go

What: Santa Fe Indian Market

Where: Santa Fe Plaza and nearby streets

When: Today, 7 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sunday, 8 a.m.-5 p.m.

How much: Free

More info: swaia.org Santa Fe Indian MarketSanta Fe Plaza and nearby streetsToday, 7 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sunday, 8 a.m.-5 p.m.Free

Top artists

Best in Class winners at the 2016 Santa Fe Indian Market are:

Benson Manygoats (Navajo)  Jewelry

Al Qoyawayma (Hopi)  Pottery

Jason Garcia (Santa Clara Pueblo)  Painting/Drawings/Graphics/Photography

Adrian Nasafotie (Hopi)  Pueblo Wooden Carvings

Ed Natiya (Navajo)  Sculpture

Berdina Charley (Navajo)  Textiles

Leonard Gene (Navajo)  Diverse Arts

Joyce & Juanita Growing Thunder Fogarty (Assiniboine/Sioux)  Beadwork/Quillwork

Kelly Church (Odawa-Ojibwe)  Basketry
Growing up, I watched a lot of Westerns. In addition to the cowboy hero, the town sheriff was almost always a model of integrity. He stood for law and order against bank robbers, cattle rustlers and horse thieves all trying to disrupt the peace.

A contemporary and real-life version of those fictional characters is Sheriff David Clarke of Milwaukee County, Wis.

Clarke has been trying to restore law and order after several nights of rioting following the shooting death of 23-year-old Sylville Smith by a Milwaukee police officer.

Smith had a lengthy criminal record, longer than some peoples resumes. He should have been in prison.

Sheriff Clarke has appeared numerous times on the Fox News Channel, but not so much in other media.

On Monday, The Washington Post carried a story about the riots and ignored Clarke, choosing instead to quote Milwaukees chief of police, Edward Flynn. I suspect thats because Sheriff Clarke speaks some hard truths, which many liberals do not want to hear.

In an appearance Monday on Fox, Sheriff Clarke, who is African-American, offered his explanation for the major cause of riots in Milwaukee and other cities: You know what encourages this? The growth of the welfare state. These are underclass behaviors. Seventy percent of the kids born in Milwaukee  are born without an engaged father in their life. So I look at the progressive policies that have marginalized black dads. They push them to the side and say youre not needed. Uncle Sam is going to be the dad, hes going to provide for the kids, hes going to feed the kids  Uncle Sam has been a horrible father. Uncle Sam does not love these kids. He might keep a little food in their mouths and that is about it. But we all know the importance of an intact family, what it can do to shape the behavior of kids.

Sheriff Clarke called progressive policies a total disaster, not only in Milwaukee, but in Chicago, Baltimore, New York and elsewhere.

These progressive policies have hit the black community like a nuclear blast and until we reverse this government dependency, thats what creates all of this and it encourages it by the way, along with some questionable lifestyle choices, he said.

His answer? Until the black community does a self-evaluation and until they begin to self-criticize about some of the lifestyle choices they are making, this stuff is going to continue to fester.

A young African-American man found by a TV camera during the weekend riot said: The rich people, they got all this money, and they not  trying to give us none.

Really? All of that tax money spent on anti-poverty programs for the last 50 years never trickled-down to him?

This poisonous attitude has been promoted by progressives and has not helped the poor rise above their circumstances.

This young man should talk to Sheriff Clarke about changing his attitude. Some self-evaluation and an internal re-adjustment would do more for him than any anti-poverty program the Democrats could dream up.

Why do African-Americans continue to vote for liberal Democrats who have done little to help them and, in fact, often cause more harm than good?

Again, Sheriff Clarke gets it right: Until we push back against this progressive ideology, this dangerous ideology that has been very destructive to the black community  and thats what Im trying to do  its job one right now in terms of messaging  this thing is only going to get worse.

Email: tmseditors@tribune.com; copyright, Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
WASHINGTON  The fight against the Islamic State may get the headlines. But its the military threats from Russia and China that most worry top Pentagon officials  and are driving a new arms race to deter these great-power rivals.

This question of how to deal with Russian and Chinese military advances has gotten almost no attention in the 2016 presidential campaign. But it deserves a careful look.

The programs begun in the waning days of the Obama administration could potentially change the face of warfare, in Americas favor, but they would require political support and new spending by the next president.

A drive to build exotic conventional weapons may sound crazy in a world that already has too much military conflict. But advocates argue that strengthening U.S. conventional forces might be the only way to avoid escalation to nuclear weapons if war with Moscow or Beijing began.

Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work argued for the new deterrence strategy in a presentation this month to the bipartisan Aspen Strategy Group, amplifying comments he made to me in an interview in February. The approach, awkwardly named the third offset strategy, would leverage Americas technological superiority by creating new weapons that could complicate attack planning by an adversary.

The premise is that as Russia and China modernize their militaries, America must exploit its lead in high-tech warfare. In the world envisioned by Pentagon planners, the U.S. could field an array of drones in the sky, unmanned submarines beneath the seas and advanced systems on the ground that could overwhelm an adversarys battle-management networks. Like the two previous offsets, battlefield nuclear weapons in the 1950s and precise conventional weapons in the 1970s, this one would seek to restore lost U.S. military dominance.

The concerns prompting the new strategy were previewed by Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at his Senate confirmation hearing in July 2015: If you want to talk about a nation that could pose an existential threat to the United States, I would have to point to Russia. And if you look at their behavior, its nothing short of alarming.

China worries some Pentagon officials even more than Russia. A recent study by the Rand Corp., titled War with China: Thinking Through the Unthinkable, warned: Improvements in Chinese military capabilities mean that a war would not necessarily go the way U.S. war planners plan it. Whereas a clear U.S. victory once seemed probable, it is increasingly likely that a conflict could involve inconclusive fighting with steep losses on both sides.

Top Pentagon officials say that because of Russian and Chinese advances, the U.S. militarys overmatch has diminished. Planners can no longer guarantee a president that the U.S. could prevail in the early days of a conventional conflict; they fear that the U.S. might lose escalation dominance  meaning, basically, the ability to call the shots  in a future confrontation.

Deputy Secretary Work urged European allies in a speech in Brussels in April: Its time for another doctrinal and conceptual reawakening. He argued that to cope with an incredibly lethal modern battlefield, the U.S. must maintain a healthy margin of technological superiority, because an erosion  might ultimately undermine our conventional deterrence, contribute to crisis instability, and greatly raise the potential cost of any future U.S. military operation.

A glimpse of what could lie ahead, if the next president continues the projects begun by the Obama Pentagon, came in a provocative 2014 study, Toward a New Offset Strategy, by Robert Martinage of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.

Martinage recommended a dizzying new arsenal that would include: a new fleet of unmanned subs; a new array of undersea sensors; seabed payload pods that could hide drones underwater until they were needed in a conflict; electromagnetic rail guns and directed-energy weapons; high-energy lasers that could blind enemy sensors, and a range of other new technologies.

These initiatives would contribute to an effective offset strategy by affordably restoring U.S. power projection capability and capacity, bolstering conventional deterrence  and imposing costs upon prospective adversaries, Martinage wrote.

Pentagon officials say they decided over the last year to reveal some formerly top-secret weapons programs because the disclosure would complicate Russian and Chinese military planning. But they say they have concealed other programs to preserve warfighting effectiveness in any future conflict.

U.S. officials contend that this push to offset Russian and Chinese gains will have a stabilizing effect in great-power relations, rather than a destabilizing one. But in an unsettled world, this issue deserves broader debate during the presidential campaign.

Email: davidignatius@washpost.com. Copyright, Washington Post Writers Group
Clever wordplay or insensitive marketing tool?

An Albuquerque restaurant owners Black Olives Matter slogan has drawn attention worldwide for its takeoff on the Black Lives Matter organization.

Rick Camuglia of Paisanos Italian Restaurant says the slogan, posted on a sign in front of his restaurant recently, struck a nerve and has drawn overwhelming support. He is now selling T-shirts and hats with the slogan, and they are so popular that he says he will have to hire an extra employee to keep up with demand.

But Camuglia is also getting sharp criticism from those who say the merchandise is insensitive and makes light of a deeply serious problem: the number of black men who are shot by police officers.

If you really think about how those T-shirts will be used  its to make fun of something a large percentage of people feel strongly about in the African-American community, said Ken Carson, owner of Nexus Brewery & Restaurant in Albuquerque. I can see how he did it innocently, but after he finds out what the impact is, I think it would be best to withdraw.

Carson was referring to the Black Lives Matter organization, which has been holding protests around the country in response to police shootings that have killed blacks.

Cecilia Webb, who heads the Albuquerque section of the National Council of Negro Women Inc., says the Paisanos merchandise is particularly insensitive because of the timing, when the police shootings are so fresh in peoples minds.

I understand the side that the restaurant is coming from, she said. However, the fact that so many lives are associated with Black Lives Matter  people have been hurt or died.

Thats what makes  Black Olives Matter so insensitive. We dont feel that they should take that on as a play on words, she said.

Camuglia says he never meant the slogan to be political or offensive, and he removed it from his sign after about eight hours.

When we saw it hurt some feelings, we took it down, Camuglia said. Im not political. I dont want to alienate customers. We thought it was a clever way to sell 15 pounds of fish.

But by then the slogan had gone viral, and the phone started ringing.

Calls and emails from all over the country came in requesting a jar of black tapenade or marinara sauce or anything else that had a label imprinted with the black olive slogan, Camuglia said.

Paisanos, which has been at the same location for 42 years, is not in the business of shipping food, so it turned to merchandise imprinted with the slogan instead, Camuglia said.

He says he now has orders for 2,000 T-shirts and 250 hats that have come from all over the country, plus Kuwait, Afghanistan, England and Canada.

Its all about business, he says.

My father always told me if you want to be successful, give people what they want, and thats what weve done, Camuglia said.

Finnie Coleman, a University of New Mexico professor who will be teaching two Black Lives Matter classes this year, says what Camuglia is doing is cashing in on this discord  clearly not caring whether he offended anyone or not.

I think its unforgivable to say, on the one hand, you dont mean to be offensive, but then to capitalize on offending someone, Coleman said.

Camuglia says he received overwhelming support, with 50 positive comments for every one that is critical. Those responding are backlashing against the people who were offended, he said. This is fascinating.

Black Lives Matter has drawn controversy from some who say it is divisive and racist.

Camuglia has won praise from some people on social media for creativity and for having a classic American sick sense of humor, which we could all use a little of.

However, he also has drawn comments from people who are saying all manner of horrific things about black people in America, said Cathryn McGill, founder/director of the New Mexico Black History Organizing Committee.

For example, some people posted comments under a KOAT-TV story on the controversy that include a mockery of Black Lives Matter  Black Lives Splatter  and another that says Blacks invite the police to shoot them by their actions.
Copyright  2016 Albuquerque Journal

Albuquerques Police Oversight Board will review the internal police investigation into the shooting of 19-year-old Mary Hawkes with an eye for policy violations and the quality of APDs investigation.

The case will mark the third police shooting reviewed by the civilian board, which looks at police shootings and serious use-of-force cases as well as complaints against officers. The board also is tasked with making policy recommendations to the department.

The Hawkes shooting occurred in April 2014, and the District Attorneys Office hasnt announced whether Jeremy Dear, the officer who shot and killed Hawkes, will face charges or whether his actions are deemed justified. But the civilian board looks at different matters than the district attorney.

It could be anything related to the incident. Its the event, not just the officer, said Joanne Fine, a member of the board. Our job is to look for any policy violation and give our opinion.

Edward Harness, executive director of the Civilian Police Oversight Agency, told board members at a meeting earlier this month that the district attorney didnt object to the civilian board beginning its review of the administrative investigation prior to the completion of the criminal case.

Albuquerque police have released their criminal investigation into the shooting, which has been submitted to the district attorney. Police havent released any details of the administrative investigation. It has been requested by the Journal and others.

A lawsuit has been brought against the city by Hawkes family in connection with the shooting.

The oversight board will get access to those investigative reports and other materials that are not public records, such as Garrity statements, which are compelled statements that public employees are required to give during internal investigations, according to the ordinance the board operates under. Those types of statements cant be used against a person during a criminal trial.

The Police Oversight Board has reviewed and made recommendations after reviewing administrative investigations into two shootings so far this year.

The board examined the shooting of undercover Detective Jacob Grant by Lt. Greg Brachle. The board found Brachle violated numerous policies and recommended that Brachle be fired. The lieutenant retired days before the recommendation was made.

The board also announced this month that it had finished its review of the fatal shooting of Alfred Redwine by officer James Eichel. Redwine was armed with a gun and fired two rounds into the ground in front of police before he was shot.

The board found that Eichel didnt violate any policies and commended an on-scene sergeant for trying to de-escalate the situation.

They did, however, recommend that police investigate why an on-scene supervisor had a young child in a police vehicle on scene at the time of the shooting.

And board members were critical of some aspects of the police investigation: Investigators didnt do a gunshot residue test on Redwines hands or collect all the bullets fired during the encounter.

The quality of the investigation could have been better even though we agreed with the outcome, Fine said.
Central New Mexico Community College announced the formation of a partnership with Sandoval County to reopen the New Mexico Innovation Laboratory, less than a month after it had been temporarily shut down when it lost its space at Intel.

Were very excited to bring a digital media lab to the Rio Rancho campus, Samantha Sengel, CNM chief advancement and community engagement officer, told attendees at the Sandoval Economic Alliance quarterly luncheon on Tuesday.

The lab formally opened in March and originally was led by Dr. Rod Sanchez.

It will now be staffed by a CNM instructor and housed at CNMs Rio Rancho campus, Sengel said. It will expand its capabilities through collaborations with CNM Ingenuity and the CNM STEMulus Center in Albuquerque.

This Innovation Lab is going to align with our business and information technology school, said Sengel, adding that it will give CNM an opportunity to teach emerging IT technology and support small business in Sandoval County.

CNM will also combine the labs features with the expertise of its FUSE Makerspace community center, which allows students and community members to design, prototype and create manufactured works, with 3-D printing and electronic fabrication equipment, as well as other tools related to robotics, electronics, screen printing, welding and metalworking. The FUSE Makerspace also supports students with a hackerspace environment to refine and promote projects.

Sengel added that CNMs IGNITE Community Accelerator will help contribute abilities to launch and grow small businesses.

County spokesman Sidney Hill confirmed the county and CNM are working on an agreement to house the lab at the CNM Rio Rancho campus.

That is all I can say until the agreement has been completed and signed by the appropriate representatives for both parties, Hill said.
If her appointment is confirmed by the Rio Rancho Governing Body on Wednesday, Jennifer Flor said, her years of experience as a civil engineer in the private and public sectors will shape her time as a city councilor.

I see a lot of opportunity here, she said. Since Ive come here in 2006, Ive seen it grow, Ive seen a lot of great things added to this city and I want to be a part of what makes this city great.

Flor was appointed by Mayor Gregg Hull earlier this month to fill the District 5 city council vacancy created by Shelby Smiths departure on July 31. Flor would fill the remaining two years in Smiths term.

Smith in March announced his intentions to step down to help take care of his parents in Phoenix.

Flor, a native Californian, discovered Rio Rancho over 10 years ago on a cross-country road trip with her soon-to-be-husband.

We came to Rio Rancho on our road trip and we saw the opportunity here and we thought we could maybe make a life here, Flor said. We explored the opportunity  one thing led to another, I got a job and we moved out here.

Shortly after their move in 2006, Flor began work as a civil engineer for Wilson & Company, where she stayed until 2012. While there, she helped with the technical design for drainage-related projects and managed a team of employees for numerous projects.

Flor, 34, worked for the City of Rio Rancho Public Works Department from October 2013 to September 2014, working as a project manager on transportation and water-related infrastructure projects, including the recycled water tank and booster station constructed in District 2. She also was also one of two city representatives on the Mid-Region Council of Governments transportation planning task force.

I think I bring to the table a unique understanding of what both (private and public sector) sides are going to face when trying to bring projects and ideas to reality, so I think Ill be able to give input and try to streamline some processes and make things happen in this city, she said.

Flor said she plans to continue Smiths role as a promoter of public safety, as well as promote infrastructure and job growth in her district.

If her appointment is confirmed, Flor will give the governing body its first female majority.

I think I can provide a viewpoint about issues that people my age and my generation face and I feel like that will give a nice, well-rounded view of our city, she said. I think its great to have different viewpoints from every perspective  male, female, young.

I think its a good idea to diversify so you represent all the people in the city, and they all have a voice through us.
Treasurer Laura Montoya and Sandoval County commissioners clashed during Thursdays regular Board of Finance meeting as they discussed responsibilities and interpersonal communication, with Chairman Darryl Madalena later calling the treasurers behavior belittling and uncooperative.

A Rio Rancho woman whose husband, Wesley Bassett, was to be honored at the 6 p.m. regular commission meeting left without recognition as the treasurer argued at length with county employees and the board during the meeting, causing it to run over an hour longer than scheduled.

Presentations were given by Montoya, county financial adviser Rob Burpo and County Manager Phil Rios. Montoya also introduced the new vice treasurer, Richard Young.

Rios proposed changes to the Sandoval County Investment and Deposit Policy in the section concerning the investment committee.

The investment committee is an advisory group created by the county commission. Rios said it does not make financial decisions or interfere with the treasurers duties, but is supposed to work as a team with the treasurers office to provide the commission with financial insights.

This committee is not my committee, Rios said. This committee is the board of finances committee.

Rios said he has been attempting to follow his duties as directed by the commission, but has been unable to do so because of the treasurers lack of cooperation.

The policy changes were based on those used by Class A counties, Rios said. He said he adopted clear, but not stringent, language to define roles and duties of the treasurer, board of finance and the investment committee.

Some changes regarded mandatory attendance at investment committee meetings and transparency.

Another change regards an appointment to the committee. The policy calls for an ordinary county citizen experienced in investment and deposit issues to participate as a member of the investment committee.

That position, which was supposed to be filled by an appointee of the treasurer, has been vacant since November 2015, according to county spokesman Sidney Hill. The changed policy allows the citizen member to be appointed by the Board of Finance.

Montoya objected to the proposed changes.

Rios provided evidence of Montoyas repeated absences from meetings. He read aloud an email she sent him, in which she stated she was not required to attend investment committee meetings or participate. He also said Montoya has not provided him critical financial information he needs to present to the board.

Montoya denied the accusations. She claimed she was unable to attend the meetings due to other commitments. She also said she sent representatives from her office to attend in her place.

I have an open-door policy but no one has walked through it, she said.

She suggested Rios and Burpo attend meetings led by her instead.

Commissioner Nora Scherzinger said she was unsure whether a power struggle was taking place and that the commission is not getting the information it needs.

Burpo said Montoyas lack of cooperation is preventing him from presenting accurate financial analyses to the board.

Montoya left her seat during his presentation, rolling her eyes at one point and laughing while he presented the analysis.

We cant usurp each others authority and thats exactly whats going on right now, said Montoya at one point.

When Commissioner Don Chapman later addressed Montoyas concern that the commission was trying to usurp her authority, Montoya denied saying it. That led to a sharp exchange in which Montoya repeatedly interrupted Chapman.

When Madalena criticized Montoya for rolling her eyes, she accused him of being disrespectful and launched into an attack on his office.

I am an elected official by the entire county. You were elected by one fifth of it, she said.

Just one fifth? Exactly. And thats the one fifth that has been here for many years, retorted Madalena, the only Native American commissioner.

I didnt say just, Montoya argued, interrupting him.

Madalena ordered Montoya to be respectful of Rios, Burpo and others present.

Commissioner James Dominguez cast the first vote to pass Rioss policy changes. Dominguez, who is on the investment committee, cited a discrepancy in Montoyas claims to have sent representatives to attend meetings.

He said the representatives who attended did not have necessary financial information and called it negligence on Montoyas part.

The commissions vote to recommend the changes was unanimous.

I believe that cooperation is indeed in need in this commission, said Dominguez at the conclusion of the meeting, and we need to move forward.

Montoya left immediately as the meeting adjourned.

I believe she was just making a political statement and just trying to make a farce of this whole meeting, Madalena told the Observer.
The Rio Rancho Public Schools Board of Education voted unanimously against a proposed charter school for minority youth recently but suggested that it seek endorsement from New Mexicos chartering authority.

Former state Rep. Ray Begaye brought his request to open First Nations Preparatory Charter School in June and made several appeals to the board over the summer.

Cost was a critical consideration at the board meeting.

RRPS does not currently charter any schools. The ASK Academy and Sandoval Academy of Bilingual Education, the two charters in the city, are controlled by the New Mexico Public Education Commission. Legally, districts and the PEC both have the authority to grant charters.

RRPS administrators projected they would have to hire at least two people to handle one charter school because the state and federal compliance issues are so complex.

Albuquerque Public Schools charters 21 schools and has about a dozen staff dedicated to assisting them.

I dont know if we can generate the funding we would need for that (the hires), Gary Tripp, strategic planning and engagement officer, told the board.

Several board members said the PEC is in a better position to support First Nations and any other charters that would like to come to Rio Rancho.

Begaye countered that the district will lose money if First Nations opens with a state charter because each student who leaves RRPS to attend his school will take some funding with them.

First Nations would benefit Rio Rancho and local families, Begaye said, by providing culturally sensitive curriculum for Hispanic and Native American youth.

Rio Rancho has quite a few Navajo students, said Begaye, a Shiprock resident who has taught Navajo classes. How much attention is paid to them?

But board member Martha Janssen was concerned about the school model because it separates minority youth from others.

I think we have a nice melting pot in our district, she said.

Other questions centered on the schools structure and oversight.

Board member Ramon Montano felt that he did not have enough information about First Nations curriculum to back it. He requested that the board create more detailed processes for evaluating charter schools.

Board president Don Schlichte had the deepest concerns about charter schools in general, saying that he supports choice but thinks the states funding formula gives the charters too much money at the expense of districts.

We are stealing from Peter to pay Paul, he said. The charter system is hurting the public school system.

Begaye stressed that he wants to maintain a positive relationship with the board and said he will now approach PEC for a charter, a process that can take up to a year.

He said he had hoped RRPS would give his school a green light because he wants a collaborative relationship, not competition.

You can ask state charter schools, Do you communicate with the district? They dont communicate, Begaye said.
Rio Rancho Public Schools continues to outpace most of the state on PARCC, though English scores dropped slightly compared to 2015.

Overall, 29.2 percent of RRPS students reached the benchmark in math and 38.3 percent in English, compared to 19.9 percent and 27.7 percent, respectively, for New Mexico as a whole, according to data released by the Public Education Department on Thursday.

But the district saw a decline in English, dropping 3.67 percentage points compared to 2015, and only gaining 1.72 percentage points on math.

Of the 89 school districts in New Mexico, 57 improved in English and 77 in math.

The average increase statewide was 1.3 percentage points across all grades for English and 2.5 percentage points for math, with some districts jumping as much as 8 percentage points.

Carl Leppelman, RRPS associate superintendent of curriculum and instruction, attributed the decline to the test delivery method.

Third- and fourth-graders took the PARCC exam on paper in 2015, but switched to computer in 2016. They saw significant drops in English, which demands keyboarding skills to fill in responses.

Last year, 37.9 percent of the districts students met benchmarks in third-grade reading, but that number fell to 27.4 percent this year. Similarly, fourth-grade reading dropped from 44.1 percent proficiency in 2015 to 32.7 percent in 2016.

We anticipated there would be some decline, we didnt know to what degree, Leppelman said. You see that nationwide with a switch to computer.

Happy Miller, RRPS accountability chief, noted that the third- and fourth-graders pulled down the districts English average, but sixth- and 10th-graders actually earned better scores in the subject.

I think it is misleading to say the whole district went down (in English), she said.

RRPS spokeswoman Beth Pendergrass said the scores reinforce the districts emphasis on teaching computer skills.

This past spring, the district purchased a new English curriculum that blends digital components and hard copy text, in alignment with Common Core standards.

In neighboring Albuquerque Public Schools, kids also stumbled on English.

APS students scored slightly above the state average  20.4 percent were proficient in math and 28.1 percent in English  but they fell 1 percentage point in English compared with 2015 and only saw a 1 percentage point improvement in math.

The worst decline for APS was also third-grade English: 21.4 percent met reading standards this year, a 10-point drop over the past year.

The results do show that both as a district and as a state the need to do more to help students achieve at a higher level, APS Superintendent Raquel Reedy said in an emailed statement. Proficiency rates below 50 percent are just not acceptable and we will be working with students, teachers and families to address deficiencies. We are committed to putting resources at schools and redesigning teaching and learning so that more students succeed.

Las Cruces improved by about 3 percentage points on math and English, reaching 19.6 proficiency and 27.5 percent, respectively.

Santa Fe dropped below the state average in both English and math, hitting 25.7 percent proficiency and 16.5 percent proficiency, respectively. Los Alamos again was a standout  over 50 percent of its students met or exceeded expectations on many tests.

New Mexico Secretary of Education Skandera highlighted successes in Farmington and Gadsden, which she said have embraced reforms and tracked data to make instructional changes.

The two rural districts are performing better than most of the state and saw large gains. Farmington went up more than 8.5 percentage points in English to 36.3 percent proficiency.

If you push to improve, the skys the limit, Skandera said.

But the secretary stressed that New Mexico still has a long way to go on education.

We established the baseline last year, and were on our way with good improvements, she told the Journal. We have never seen this kind of improvement across grade levels in our recent history.  We need to keep pushing for where we want to be next.

Skandera praised the high participation rate in the controversial test, which drew protests and walkouts in 2015, the first year it was administered.

Ninety-seven percent of New Mexicos students in grades 3-11  217,000 kids  took PARCC in 2016, compared with 95 percent in 2015.

But American Federation of Teachers New Mexico President Stephanie Ly said the overall results prove that PARCC is not working for students.

With the release of this years scores, Secretary Skandera is now championing minimal gains in PARCC scores, she said in an emailed statement. Despite small increases, the fact remains that across the board, New Mexico students are not proficient, according to PARCC.

Eleven states administer PARCC, which stands for the Partnership for Assessment and Readiness for College and Careers. The computerized exam is designed to align with Common Core and raise standards.

How they rate PARCC Performance Levels

The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC, divides students into five levels, from 1 to 5, based on test performance. On its website, the PARCC consortium defines each level as:

Level 1: Student did not meet expectations.

Level 2: Student partially met expectations.

Level 3: Student approached expectations.

Level 4: Student met expectations.

Level 5: Student exceeded expectations.
Mary Blecha stood with a group of people, right hand raised, taking the Oath of Allegiance to become a U.S. citizen in a Friday ceremony at the Loma Colorado Main Library in Rio Rancho.

Loud applause broke out as Amy West from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service told the group, You are now officially United States citizens with all the rights therein.

Blecha, who would only give her age as north of 65, was older than most of the group of 28 people, the youngest being 14. For a long time, she thought she already had all those rights therein.

She came to the United States from the Netherlands when she was 7 and her parents became citizens when she was 13. She always thought of herself as a U.S. citizen and for a number of years as an adult she even voted.

It wasnt until she decided to go back to college full time to get a degree that she was informed that she was not technically a citizen, and that I could be prosecuted if I voted, she said.

I went to four different lawyers and all but one told me I was not a citizen. Blecha got permanent resident status about 10 years ago but what she really wanted was the paperwork that said what she already knew in her heart  that she was as American as apple pie.

Im delighted to get this over with, finally, she said. Now I can apply for a passport, and vote  again.

Among the other countries the new citizens come from are China, Cuba, Germany, Honduras, India, Iraq, Mexico, Peru, Philippines, Saint Lucia, United Kingdom and Vietnam.

Huy Nguyen, 14, an eighth-grader at Jefferson Middle school, came from Vietnam one year ago. I am so happy to be one of the American people, he said. Yesterday I was Vietnamese, today I am also American.

Irving Coronel Estrada, 15, lives in Juarez but will be moving to the U.S. to be with rest of his family and attend school in Albuquerque. I am very happy and thankful for the opportunities of a good school and a career, he said. More doors will open for me here than in Juarez.

Sisters Fernanda and Mariana Jimenez came from Portales to take the oath. They have been in the United States for more than eight years. Their mother is a U.S.-born citizen and their father is from Mexico.

Not everyone gets to do this and for me its a wish come true, said Fernanda, 16, a student at Portales High School. It means I can vote when Im old enough and Ill be able to help other people become citizens. I feel like my heart is pumping really hard. Im so happy.

Mariana, 18, a student at Eastern New Mexico University, also said becoming a citizen was important to her. Im looking forward to voting.

Asked if she had a preference in the upcoming presidential election, Mariana laughed nervously and said diplomatically, Oh, Im not sure.

The one thing she is sure about is what lies ahead. Im excited and hopeful to do something big, something good with my life. I feel like, if I try hard, I will have a good future.
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz.  Dozens of prairie dogs in northern Arizona are being relocated to make way for a 10,000-square-foot shooting range.

Elise and Rob Wilson plan to build a giant indoor range on their property in Timberline just west of U.S. Highway 89.

Elise Wilson, a self-professed animal lover, that she wanted to avoid killing the prairie dogs that live on the land, according to the Arizona Daily Sun (http://bit.ly/2bA6u3O).

The couple has been working with Flagstaff nonprofit Habitat Harmony for the past few weeks to safely capture and relocate them. Volunteers and Arizona Game and Fish employees have gotten and translocated 26 so far. They have trapped the animals either by spraying soapy water into their burrows, forcing them to surface, or baiting them with sweetened grain.

According to the group, there is evidence that up to 125 prairie dogs live in burrows on the Wilsons land.

The animals will be moving to Petrified Forest National Park. Andy Bridges, a park biologist, said prairie dog populations there have been declining since the 1990s because of sylvatic plague. The rodents will have 90,000 acres of grasslands to make their home. They will first be put in abandoned burrows that park staff have cleaned up, Bridges said. The goal is to establish enough colonies so that the park could reintroduce endangered black-footed ferrets too.

Were trying to maintain these lands in a state thats functioning naturally, but development and changes in climate are hard to keep up with if we have missing species, Bridges said.

The Wilsons property is not as beneficial since the animals are squeezed into a smaller area by roads and development, said Game and Fish urban wildlife planner Hannah Griscom.

The entire undertaking will cost $7,000, according to Habitat Harmony board member Emily Renn. Arizona Game and Fish as well as Coconino County are offering support for the move.

Think of other animals, Renn said. Birds would never be destroyed the way a prairie dog colony would be by developers.

___

Information from: Arizona Daily Sun, http://www.azdailysun.com/
Lekki Lagos, February 1st 2019. Rilla Web Hosting, one of the top players in domain registration and web hosting has announces its full ...
The challenge of advancing and innovating towards a better livelihood while shielding the earth's natural resources has confronted governments, policy makers, environmentalists, corporates and communities for years. Though an inclusive global agenda is in place, namely the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, Arabia CSR Network has for years focused on correlating these to regional initiatives.

The 7th cycle of the Arabia CSR Forum is to be held under the patronage of the League of Arab States on 19th and 20th October 2016 at Steigenberger Hotel in Business Bay, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. A number of high profile speakers will be a part of the 2016 Forum bringing forth their insights and perspective on CSR and Sustainability. Esteemed speakers will join from United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), The League of Arab States, The Earth Institute at Columbia University and UNEP-ROWA, to name a few. It is expected to result in an important guidance to achieve the unification of Arab interests and a synergy of commitment in the region.

The theme this year is Accelerating the Arab Sustainable Development Agenda through Innovation and Collaboration. Mrs Habiba Al Marashi, Chairperson of Arabia CSR Network, pointed out that the Forum will address four sessions. The first will focus on the current state of sustainability in the Arab world in the wake of the Millennium Development Goals, and what are the most pressing development priorities in light of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The second session will dwell on partnerships for the SDGs; enhancing Corporate Social Responsibility for policy coherence and resilient collaborations. The third session will concentrate on interdependencies and disparities between private, public and civil society collaborators. Finally, the nexus of youth, innovation and social enterprise will be addressed in the fourth session.

The Arabia CSR Forum 2016 is a unique opportunity open to corporates and individuals to meet great minds, talk to stalwarts and network with peers on the latest trends and developments in CSR and Sustainability.

Editors note:

The Arabia CSR Network is a professional multi stakeholder organization established in the UAE in 2004. It is devoted to advancing the principles and practices of Corporate Social Responsibility in the Arab region. It facilitates networking, learning and sharing experiences and knowledge in matters of CSR. The Arabia CSR Network was the first GRI certified training partner for the Arabic speaking Middle East countries. The Arabia CSR Network promotes, encourages and recognizes responsible business practices through services and offerings including trainings, research and best practice, advisory services, third party assurance and a Pan-Arab acclaimed award initiative known as the Arabia CSR Awards. The Arabia CSR Forum, organized annually, is the Arab regions premier knowledge sharing, dialogue and networking event. For information, please visit www.arabiacsrnetwork.com.

*Source: ME NewsWire

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160820005001/en/

Arabia CSR Network

Pritika De Noronha, +971-4-344-8120

admin@arabiacsrnetwork.com
Since an Ebola outbreak was declared in Uganda on 20 September, health assistant Nyangoma Kirrungi has been on the frontline of the countrys response day in and day out, working as a contact tracer in Madudu sub-county, one of the areas affected by the outbreak.








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A couple in Paris, France were terrified when they encountered alien activity in the night sky over Paris. A video of this incident was posted by Best UFO Sightings YouTube channel, This report has been obtained from a report published by Britains Express.

The report talks about the movement of the UFO as seen in the video.

In the clip a huge light can be seen zig zagging over the streets of Frances capital.

It tells us that the alien orb shines brightly before vanishing a few seconds later. It further tells us that the orb has been claimed to be a UFO.

The red orb shines brightly in the sky before it vanishes in the dead of night a few seconds later. It has been claimed the orb, which first appears to be a red traffic light, is a UFO.

The report then tells us that when the witnesses zoomed in on the light, it became clear that the object was not a traffic light. It then tells us that the video of this sighting has left alien hunters baffled.

However when the couple zoom in on the light, it becomes clear the object is flying high above any nearby signals. The video was posted on social media yesterday and it has left alien hunters baffled.

The YouTube Channel that posted this video claims that it tries to reveal conspiracies and find out the answers behind them where others have failed.

The report then tells us that NASA was accused of covering up the existence of aliens by UFO hunters and talks about why the UFO hunters made this claim about them.

The startling footage comes after NASA has been accused of covering up the existence of aliens by conspiracy theorists. UFO hunters made the claim after a photograph filmed lying on a NASA employees desk during an interview showed buildings on the moon.

Do you believe that NASA is covering up the up the existence of aliens? Why do you think they are hesitant about revealing information about the existence of aliens?





Source: Britains Express
August 18, 2016

The Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art (TMoCA) is considered to have the most valuable collection of Western modern art outside Europe and North America. Tucked away in the museums 40-year-old treasure vault are such masterpieces as Picassos "Artist and His Model," Francis Bacons "Two Figures Lying on a Bed With Attendants," Andy Warhols "Suicide," Vincent van Goghs "At Eternitys Gate, Jackson Pollocks "Mural on Indian Red Ground" and many, many more treasures.

Work is underway to showcase all of the artwork housed at the museum on its website. However, until this process is complete, there will be no permanent displays of the pieces due to what has been described as a lack of space as well as cultural issues. There have also been numerous reports in the Iranian media during the past year about some art being stolen but eventually returned.

The idea for the impressive art collection at TMoCA came in 1966 from Farah Pahlavi, the former queen of Iran. The museum itself was designed and built by Kamran Diba  a prominent architect and a cousin of Pahlavi  and inaugurated in 1977. The galleries were designed in such a way that light enters through windows that are reminiscent of the famed wind-catchers in the ancient city of Yazd.

In an interview with Al-Monitor, Bahram Dabiri, an Iranian painter and artist, said, The key factor about the purchased pieces was that not only did they have the signatures of famous and distinguished artists, but they were among those artists most recognized pieces. For instance, there were works by Rene Magritte, Henry Moore, Pablo Picasso and more.

The artwork was displayed at TMoCA up until Irans 1979 Islamic Revolution. The pieces were then moved to the museums basement for safekeeping, but a portrait of Farah painted by Andy Warhol as well as a nude by Iranian painter and sculptor Bahman Mohassess were destroyed by the revolutionaries.

The museum's director was said to have provided the revolutionary forces with an inventory of all the artwork kept at TMoCA. However, neither this list nor any other inventory of the vault has ever officially been released.

Nearly 38 years have passed since the revolution, and during that time, the museum has seen repeated changes in management, governments and the scope of its own activities in line with changing cultural policies. Yet through it all, the collection in the vault has managed to remain intact. Dabiri told Al-Monitor, If untouched, it is a valuable treasure that Irans artistic community has concerns about.

In 2015, the head of the Culture Ministry's Visual Arts Department, Majid Mola Norouzi, confirmed rumors of the theft of 27 contemporary pieces from the museum. After their successful return, the stolen art was put on public display at a gallery in Tehran to remove any doubts about its safety. The pieces included works by Mohassess, calligrapher Reza Mafi, painter Farideh Lashai, painter and sculpture Charles Hossein Zenderoudi and illustrator Ardeshir Mohasses, among many others.

Speaking to Al-Monitor, Amir Rad, who directs the museums new media center, highlighted TMoCAs high security. He said, The museum vault is like a large box that is very safe. The bureaucracy seen in everyday dealings in Iran is even more intense at the museum. Removing or bringing in any work of art from the museum requires several rounds of communication and numerous permits. I think the vault is an untouched treasury.

Rad added that such concerns have always existed  concerns that he and other officials at the museum hope will be alleviated once the digital versions of all the artwork are put on virtual display. Rad, who is heading the project, said, The plan is to eventually upload all the pieces onto the website along with up-to-date information. We are also thinking of offering special services to researchers and curators. As of now, 60 art pieces by foreign painters have been uploaded to the website.

Some of the work currently deemed unsuitable for display will remain so. These include "Gabrielle With Open Blouse" by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Bacons "Two Figures Lying on a Bed With Attendants" and other paintings by Picasso and other artists that contain nudity. Rad said, Of course, we will put them on the website, but the parts that are not suitable for public showcase will be faded out. After all, the museum is part of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance and has to abide by certain policies. I should mention that there are no more than 20 such pieces, and only four or five of them are famous.

The TMoCA is finding new life with its impressive collection of art now being put on temporary display. There is also a tentative agreement with the German government to send 60 pieces from Tehran  30 Western and 30 Iranian  to Berlin for a three-month show this winter.

According to Rad, such exhibitions could be a way for the government-owned museum to generate income  earnings that under Iranian law must be directly deposited into the governments treasury. He said in this regard, The museum has a lot of financial problems. Thats why the techniques used for preserving the art are based on the standards of 40 years ago. These standards are good, but because they have not been updated, they lag behind global standards. Our plan is that in return for holding exhibitions such as the one in Berlin, we will receive services that will help improve the quality of our preservation, such as improving the ventilation system at the museum.

The treasures held at the TMoCA are said to be valued at around $3 billion, and there is no more space for new artwork. Many art experts in Iran are of the view that 40 years after its establishment, the museum's collection is not just contemporary, but modern  a view Rad shares. By establishing different centers at TMoCA and holding exhibitions, we are trying to bring it closer to the contemporary art movement. This means that from now on, contemporary works will be [displayed] using contemporary media [such as digital], he said.
Frank Sinatra.jpg

A fundraiser this Sunday in Birmingham will recreate the music of singer Frank Sinatra, shown in this 1990 photo.

(AP Photo/Mario Suriani)

The Birmingham Holocaust Education Center will have its L'Chaim fundraising event Sunday, Aug. 21, in the Sirote Theatre at the Alys Stephens Center.

Pianist and vocalist Ray Reach will perform Frank Sinatra songs.

Betty Allenberg Goldstein will be honored for her ongoing commitment to raise awareness of the importance of Holocaust education in Birmingham.

"Anyone who knows Betty Goldstein knows that her energy and enthusiasm are boundless," said L'Chaim Co-Chair Joel Rotenstreich. "Betty is a giver, doer, goer, helper, and more. She is all heart, and the first one there."

Betty Allenberg Goldstein will be honored Sunday by the Birmingham Holocaust Education Center.

When she attended the groundbreaking ceremony for the Alys Stephens Center in 1993 with Morris Sirote, her significant other for many years, Goldstein suggested that he consider endowing one of the performance venues in the new center. He followed her advice and endowed the 350-seat theatre that bears his name, the Morris K. Sirote Theatre.

The music of Sinatra was Goldstein's choice for special music at L'Chaim because it brings back happy memories of her years with Sirote. Reach on piano will be joined by a jazz combo and Cantor Jessica Roskin.

The L'Chaim program will also feature scenes from I Never Saw Another Butterfly, a play about the children of the Terezin concentration camp performed by drama students from Benjamin Russell High School in Alexander City. "You can tell that children have really learned the lessons of the Holocaust when they create art, poetry, and performances that tell the stories," said Goldstein.

Pianist and vocalist Ray Reach will perform Frank Sinatra songs at the fundraising event on Aug. 21, 2016.

The L'Chaim event will be Sunday from 2:30 to 4 p.m. A dessert reception will follow the program. Tickets are $50 and are available at www.2016lchaim.eventbrite.com. All proceeds from the fundraising campaign are used to advance the mission of the Birmingham Holocaust Education Center, to keep the history and lessons of the Holocaust alive.
A Jefferson County sheriff's deputy received minor injuries in a morning crash.

The deputy, whose name hasn't been released, was traveling southbound on Interstate 459 about 5:30 a.m. while responding to a call, said Chief Deputy Randy Christian.

He lost control of the cruiser and hit the side of a flatbed truck that was driving alongside him. The patrol car received major damage, but the deputy suffered only minor injuries and was taken to the hospital. The driver of the truck wasn't injured.

Christian said the accident is being investigated by the Bessemer Police Department.
Authorities are investigating after more than 80 potentially fraudulent applications for absentee ballots for the Brighton municipal elections were received by the city on Thursday.

All of the applications asked for the ballots to be mailed to the same address, said Bill Veitch, district attorney for Bessemer Division for Jefferson County. That address is the residence of one of the candidates.

"This is a significant number (of ballots) for a city the size of Brighton," he said. "Eighty could make a difference in the election."

Veitch said there were at least two applications for the same voter.

According to the Alabama Secretary of State's Office, voters can request their absentee ballot be sent to their residence, another location where they regularly receive mail or drop the ballot off themselves at their election office.

"We are investigating it to see what is what, to see if this is fraud or if it is an honest mistake," Veitch said.

Veitch declined to release the name of the candidate whose address was listed on the applications.

Brighton mayoral candidate Brandon Dean contacted AL.com saying he is the candidate being investigated.

He said he wasn't trying to do anything illegal with trying to have the ballots sent to his residence, which is also his campaign headquarters.

Dean said he was just trying to make sure residents were able to get their ballots.

The Secretary of State's Office OK'd ballots being mailed to a public place, according to Dean. Dean said he then suggested having the ballots mailed to his home.

The applications for the absentee ballots were mailed in, he said, before he heard back from the Secretary of State's Office that having them all mailed to his home wasn't legal.

"We weren't in the position to recall (the applications)," Dean said.

Dean did admit that he received three absentee ballots at his residence which were then delivered to the registered voters.

Hazel Williams, Brighton's chief election official and city clerk, said she contacted the city attorney after noticing the "discrepancy" on the applications. She said all of the applications were mailed in to the city and received at the same time.

If there is evidence of voter fraud or forgery, Veitch said the evidence will be forwarded to the Secretary of State's Office for further investigation.

He said his office's investigation is still in the early stages.

"I don't know if this was an honest mistake," Veitch said. "I don't know if this person didn't know the law, but maybe they did, and that is why you do an investigation."

Updated on Aug. 20 with statement from mayoral candidate Brandon Dean.
A sulfuric acid spill into the Mulberry Fork this week appears to have been caused by an open valve in a containment tank, according to the Alabama Department of Environmental Management.

Approximately 900 gallons of sulfuric acid mixed with stormwater was released into the Mulberry Fork Wednesday at the American Proteins chicken rendering plant in Hanceville.

ADEM spokesman Jerome Hand said the investigation is still ongoing, but they believe they know how the spill happened.

"The release occurred when a supply line from one of their outside storage tanks leaked into, basically a tank containment system, and that failed because it had an open valve," Hand said. "It's early in the investigation, and I hate to say it was a one-time thing, but we think we know the reason.

"It's still under investigation, that's just what we've found out so far. We'll continue to look into all aspects of the spill."

Hand said the release happened around 4 p.m. Wednesday and the department was notified by American Proteins at 5:51 p.m. He said ADEM contacted the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, which was investigating the effects on wildlife.

"We were out there that night taking samples and we're still waiting for the results from the lab on those, so it's still under investigation," Hand said.

The Mulberry Fork and the Locust Fork converge to form the Black Warrior River at the Bankhead Reservoir.

Messages left by AL.com Friday at American Proteins were not returned. However, the plant's general manager Jason Spann told the Cullman Times newspaper that the spilled material contained about 150 gallons of sulfuric acid, mixed with about 750 gallons of storm water.

He said the company was cooperating with ADEM and other state agencies in the investigation and would take steps to "ensure that this type of spill does not occur in the future."

American Proteins is a poultry processing plant, rendering offal, organs or other parts of the chicken not desired for human consumption into pet food and high-protein livestock feed. According to The Cullman Times, American Proteins is the largest such operation in the world and its 600-acre Hanceville plant employs roughly 230 people and can process 36 million pounds of offal per week.

Nelson Brooke, of environmental group Black Warrior Riverkeeper, surveyed the scene on Friday, photographing the large numbers of dead fish in the river after the spill.

"This sort of accident is inexcusable, and totally preventable," Brooke said. "Proper housekeeping, maintenance, spill control planning should keep something like this from ever happening."

Brooke also said that the American Proteins facility had experienced issues in the past, citing a 1.6 million gallon spill of wastewater in 2011.

"We expect American Proteins to be held fully accountable by state regulators," Brooke said. "[The Department of Conservation and Natural Resources] counted the fish yesterday, and can - and should - levy a fine based upon their investigation expenses and the economic valuation of the dead fish.

"ADEM can - and should - fine American Proteins for spilling 900 gallons of sulfuric acid into the Mulberry Fork, to encourage better housekeeping and to deter future mishaps."

Unusual release

The release of that much sulfuric acid into a flowing river is very uncommon and leaves state agencies and environmental groups somewhat out of their element in determining the next steps.

"This is the first time I've heard of a spill of this since I've been at ADEM," Hand said. "We're concerned any time something gets in the water that shouldn't."

Hand referred questions about potential health affects of sulfuric acid to the Alabama Department of Public Health, which did not immediately respond to messages left Friday afternoon.

According to a Centers for Disease Control fact sheet, sulfuric acid is highly corrosive to skin and eyes and can cause severe burns, blisters, redness or pain. The recommended treatment for exposure is to remove contaminated clothing, remove contact lenses in eyes, rinse skin thoroughly with clean water, and seek professional medical attention.

Sulfuric acid can also form harmful vapors during chemical reactions, though it's unclear whether that is of concern in an outdoor environment. The CDC notes that sulfuric acid is harmful to aquatic organisms.

John Kinney, enforcement coordinator for Black Warrior Riverkeeper, said he also hadn't heard of a sulfuric acid spill of this magnitude in more than a decade of working or volunteering with the Riverkeeper group. He also noted the spill location in the Mulberry Fork was relatively shallow with a low flow rate compared to other parts of the river, so the chemical may not dilute as quickly into the water.

Early reports of the spill included recommendations that people avoid all recreational contact with the water, which Hand said was an overstatement of their recommendations.

"We didn't really say that [people should avoid the water]," Hand said. "We just want people to know that there's been a spill and we advise caution on any recreational activities on the Mulberry Fork, at least through the weekend."

Hand said American Proteins had put up a sign near the sight of the spill to warn recreational water users.
Sen. Jeff Sessions

Sen. Jeff Sessions speaks Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016, to the Madison County Republican Men's Club in Huntsville. (Paul Gattis/pgattis@al.com)

Donald Trump campaign merchandise was available for purchase at the Madison County Republican Men's Club meeting. (Paul Gattis/pgattis@al.com)

Donald Trump is recovering from a series of campaign setbacks over the past few weeks, Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions said Saturday.

Sessions, a member of Trump's inner political circle who made the formal nomination for the GOP presidential candidate at the Republican National Convention last month, gingerly acknowledged the difficulties in the Trump campaign while speaking to the Madison County Republican Men's Club.

"Trump went through a tremendously damaging pounding for the last 10 days or two weeks after the Democratic Convention," Sessions said. "He's back on the right track."

Sessions spoke for about 23 minutes to an audience of more than 300 people at a packed gymnasium at Trinity United Methodist Church. The speech went lite on Trump fare, focusing on the problems facing the nation in general and citing polls that indicate about two-thirds of the people believe the nation is headed in the wrong direction.

Even if Sessions didn't spend his entire speech talking Trump, you could still purchase "Make America Great Again" caps and t-shirts at the meeting.

The only reference to the Trump campaign staff shake-up this week was about newly-hired campaign manager Kellyanne Conway, who Sessions described as a "great political thinker."

Sessions also discussed the Democrats' immigration policy and Hillary Clnton's plan to further expand the influx of Syrian refugees into the U.S. Sessions described the Democrats' immigration policy as "political correctness run amok."

"We're heading into an election and we've got a candidate who is talking about the issues that the average working American cares about," Sessions said. "He's communicating with them and he can put us over that 50 percent margin.

"He's standing up to the politically correct crowd. They're throwing spears and clubs and rocks and bricks and everything at him they can to knock him down. And he's not down. His poll numbers are coming back up again and they're going to keep coming up."

Sessions gave no specifics on the poll numbers, though Clinton's post-convention bump appears to be fading even as virtually every national poll has her leading Trump. A Real Clear Politics average of national polls since Aug. 4 have Clinton leading by 5.5 points.

"These polls, it's still very early," Sessions told the audience.

He alluded to the 1988 presidential race when Democrat Michael Dukakis led George H.W. Bush by 17 points following the Democratic National Convention. Bush went on to win the White House in an electoral college landslide by carrying 39 of the 50 states.

"This is a grass-roots movement to take our country back from this establishment that's lost contact with the American people who are not doing well, who are hurting, who feel like we've got a corruption of American values and principles," Sessions said.
Jeffrey Hazelwood, the man accused of killing two Georgia teenagers, recounted how he stalked and killed the pair outside a Publix in Roswell on Aug. 1, a detective testified on Friday.

Roswell police Detective Jennifer Bennett testified that Hazelwood, 20, told investigators he watched Natalie Henderson and Carter Davis, both 17, even climbing to the top of the store at one point, before he killed them, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

Hazelwood later opened a door of Henderson's SUV, where both of the teens were sitting, and confronted Davis, the detective said. Davis attempted to fight off Hazelwood before he was shot in the head.

Bennett said Hazelwood told investigators he then forced Henderson out of the vehicle and made her take off her clothes. He allegedly sexually assaulted her and then shot her in the head.

Hazelwood's attorneys claim he suffers from biopolar disorder and schizophrenia.

Bennett claimed Hazelwood stole the alleged murder weapon from his grandfather. He was living with his grandparents until they recently threw him out, according to the report.

Hazelwood is charged with two counts of murder. He is being held in the Fulton County Jail without bond.
The WARonWALL exhibition brings the war in Syria to the heart of Germanys capital.

Berlin, Germany  This past weekend marked 55 years since construction began on the Berlin Wall. Having stood as a symbol of division for 28 years, whats left of the Wall today serves as a stark reminder of past mistakes and the value of human rights and freedom.

This rich symbolism makes it one of the most powerful places in Europe to highlight the atrocities being committed against the Syrian people today.

The west side of the Wall is currently displaying an exhibition, WARonWALL by Kai Wiedenhofer, a Berlin-based photographer who studied Arabic in Damascus in the 1990s.

He began documenting the war in 2012, and over the course of a year, photographed Syrian civilians who had fled the country and were now among the thousands of dsiplaced people living in towns or refugee camps in Lebanon and Jordan.

He also visited the Kurdish city of Kobane in northern Syria twice in 2015, and his images show the devastation after heavy fighting.

I wanted to transport an experience to show what war does to individual people, Wiedenhofer, 50, told Al Jazeera.

The wall is a democratic structure that stands as a memorial and somewhere to reflect, so its the perfect place to show whats happening in Syria.

Once 155 kilometres long, less than two kilometres of the three-metre-high wall is left standing today. The sheer size of the 24 panoramic images of Kobane takes a passer-by into the middle of the war zone. Rubble, weaponry and lone figures in the street are on display, revealing scenes of an obliterated town that many people viewing  unless they are Syrian  wouldnt have seen before.

The human hell

The images are not dissimilar to what Berlin would have looked like after World War II  a link Wiedenhofer mentions  and could help put the conflict in context for a European audience.

Many people in Europe only started paying attention to what was happening in Syria after the attack on Charlie Hebdo and after seeing images of Aylan Kurdi [the Syrian child who drowned in the Mediterranean Sea last year]. People have been trying to push it away, but now its coming to their doorstep.

The exhibition includes 42 images of Syrians who have been injured in the war  stories that Wiedenhofer says arent given enough prominence in the mainstream media.

The media have an addiction to the terror narrative and are influenced by the movie industry. Theres so much focus on the big explosions. What does it mean to show all this cinematography? All it does it take away from the human hell.

He quotes Joseph Stalin: One dead person is a tragedy; one million people is a statistic, explaining that people relate to a story much more than a number.

The individual stories Wiedenhofer wants to tell are of those who have lost their families, their homes and even parts of their bodies. Those who will continue to suffer even after the last guns are laid down.

Stories like those of 11-year-old Sundus, who lost her parents, three brothers and 11 members of her uncles family when a barrel bomb exploded, and who now bursts into tears six or seven times a day.

Wiedenhofer calls her story super catastrophic and adds that she has had to return to Syria because it was too expensive for her to remain in Jordan.

Its a situation, Wiedenhofer says, in which many Syrians find themselves. Other stories include that of 40-year-old Iman, who was paralysed by a snipers bullet and now fears that her husband will leave her because of her disability.

Impact of war

According to the UNHCR, more than four million people have left Syria since the start of the conflict five years ago, and it is one of the biggest factors contributing to the refugee crisis. Wiedenhofer is hoping the exhibition will give people a better understanding of why people are being forced to flee their homeland.

In the three months, until September, more than 400,000 people are expected to visit the exhibition.

I found the exhibition profoundly moving, especially as it is at such a symbolic place. The refugee story hasnt been covered in this way in Poland and this tells a deeper version of the story, one visitor, Joanna Wojtarowicz, a 37-year-old anthropologist who recently moved from Poland to Berlin, told Al Jazeera.

Gaia Jualtieri, 14, an Italian tourist who is visiting the city with her family, said: When it comes to this war, the news is filtered, so its important to see images like this. The pictures of Kobane could be from Berlin after World War II  we must learn from our mistakes.

It has been 71 years since the end of World War II, and more than 50 years since the wall that divided Europe started to become a reality. Germany today is one of the worlds economic powerhouses, with Berlin its cultural centre. It remains to be seen what will become of Syria, and whether Germanys recovery offers any hope to Syrians who have made it out safely.

Shoshi  who didnt want to give her last name  is a 27-year-old writer from Damascus who moved to Berlin nearly three-and-a-half years ago. The conflict has taken war games to a whole other level. A big part of that is propaganda and social media, she told Al Jazeera.

Whereas before, war was fought by the generals and soldiers, and we were all just observers, now we can participate, Shoshi noted. Im against the insurgency and see it as a full-on attack by the West against Syria. I stand with my army and my president and think we should do everything in our power to stop this. But hope? Ive lost too many friends and family to feel hope.

Wiedenhofer agrees that individual action is key. We recently commemorated the 100-year anniversary of the Battle of the Somme. We mark so many historical war dates, and we can keep on doing so, Wiedenhofer said.

But it doesnt make any sense if we dont transfer any of this into action. This war must stop.

In pictures
Its hard to see Clinton giving up the opportunity to secure her presidency with hawkishness.

Bina Shah is an award-winning Pakistani writer from Karachi. She is a contributing opinion writer for the International New York Times and writes a monthly column for Dawn, the biggest English-language newspaper in Pakistan.

The United States stands on the brink of history with the nomination of its first female presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton. Paradoxically, electing a woman president for the US will not advance womens rights around the globe.

This is because Clinton will immediately feel the need to demonstrate her power in a world that operates by traditionally male-dominated statecraft.

That world will not allow her to redefine the US national interests, and consequently its foreign policy, in a way that will truly empower the worlds women, particularly in Muslim countries where safety and security is needed the most.

Clinton and sexism

This year Clinton hopes to capitalise on the womens vote by making equal pay, affordable childcare, fighting violence against women, womens reproductive rights all a major part of her platform.

Yet, US politics is still a long way from gender parity. Clinton is the first woman to make it this high in a power structure which until 1920 did not allow women to vote.

As a former senator, Clinton is one of 46 women who have been elected to the Senate since 1922.

Only 20 women senators are serving in this Congress year out of a house consisting of 100 members, meaning that the Senate does not have 50 percent representation of women members.

In the House of Representatives, the number of women is at almost exactly the same percentage: 20 percent out of 435 elected members are women.

In her pursuit of the presidency, Clinton faces sexist attacks which hinge on an historical mistrust of women in power in the US.

Clinton has the chance to make history, but as the US' first woman president, will she continue to serve a male-dominated establishment, or will she choose to redefine national interests in a way that promotes women's rights and the security of women and girls around the world? by

While the country is arguably the most powerful nation on earth, that power rests on a supremely male vision of power: military strength, hawkish strategies, muscular diplomacy and the ability to apply hard and soft power to create what Joseph S Nye calls smart power.

The military, the arm of the US government which functions as an extension of its foreign policy, continues to be a male bastion, both in numbers (85 percent male) and in culture and psychology, as cases of sexual harassment in the military continue to prove (PDF).

Hegemonic masculinity

This gender gap in the US politics extends to other countries  women leaders around the world have struggled with these dilemmas in different ways.

In South Asian countries, women heads of state are judged  partially accurately  as ineffective figureheads. Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan, Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh, Sri Lankas Sirimavo Bandaranaike were the female continuation of male-dominated politics, with all its corruption and in-fights.

Women leaders are seen as strong and effective  Israels Golda Meir, Britains Margaret Thatcher and Indias Indira Gandhi  only when they enact unforgiving domestic policy, tough foreign policy and go to war as ruthlessly as men do.

OPINION: Hillary Clintons faux feminism

This runs contrary to the commonly held belief among feminist circles that more women leadership would result in the reduction of global conflict and violence, as well as a concentration on social democracy and the uplift of poor and marginalised women.

In reality, the worlds power structures continue to operate under RW Connells concept of hegemonic masculinity, so women find it hard to ascend the male hierarchy in international relations unless they are willing to espouse the militarism that it favours.

A woman leader favouring peacemaking and diplomacy over war and conflict could be labelled as weak because of her gender, rather than using a legitimate part of her leadership capabilities, policies and choices.

A feminist foreign policy?

If there are hopes that Clinton will enact a solely feminist foreign policy, the way Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom tried in 2015, they can also be abandoned now.

Foreign policy is enacted through institutions, not individuals, and they operate on the doctrine of necessities, not on principles  something that Wallstrom forgot, in championing gender rights abroad and attempting to bring Saudi Arabia to task over its human rights record.

She tried to make the principle of gender equality a top priority in an arena that neatly ignores the safety and security of women when it comes to war, arms deals, peace-making and defence treaties.

For all Swedens progressiveness, its own male-dominated military-industrial complex, hungry for foreign money from arms sales, rejected her feminist overtures in foreign policy in the end.

Clinton is characterised as hawkish in her foreign policy, a warmonger who green-lighted policies that compounded the devastation of Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Libya.

OPINION: Can Hillary Clinton beat Donald Trump?

Her pro-Israel stance worries Muslims in the Middle East and other Muslim countries. Her pro-Saudi stance has had the same effect.

Clinton may be progressive at home, but abroad, she is regarded as pro-establishment, pro-Wall Street and pro-military-industrial-complex.

If elected, as the first American woman commander-in-chief, she will continue to expand on her style of leadership in order to distinguish herself from Obamas style  more muscular as Ryan Grim wrote in the Huffington Post.

Will she conform?

US foreign policy flirts with feminism, but only when the it wants to soften up Muslim countries, and to advance womens rights as part of the export of democracy.

Women ambassadors are sent to those Muslim countries, and so are programmes to promote women as entrepreneurs or girls education abound.

But when the US national interests of economy necessitate dealing with a regressive countries, or war and invasion of Muslim countries such as Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan or Libya, those ideals are thrown out the window.

For all Clintons talk about gender equality, the US wars have devastated the lives of countless Muslim women.

Clinton has the chance to make history, but as the US first woman president, will she continue to serve a male-dominated establishment, or will she choose to redefine national interests in a way that promotes womens rights and the security of women and girls around the world?

Its hard to see Clinton giving up the opportunity to secure her presidency with a hawkishness that puts her up in the echelons of power with the big boys.

For her, conforming to the US traditionalist, androcentric vision of global might may be the key to her political survival  and the continued suffering of women in conflict areas around the world.

Bina Shah is an award-winning Pakistani writer from Karachi. She is a contributing opinion writer for the International New York Times and writes a monthly column for Dawn, the biggest English-language newspaper in Pakistan.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy.
The announcement is described by ambassadors of 18 nations, supporting UN-backed negotiations, as unconstitutional.

The head of a newly formed council in Yemen has vowed to establish a full government in the coming days, a move described by ambassadors of 18 nations, supporting UN-backed negotiations, as unconstitutional.

Saleh al-Samad, chairman of the Supreme Political Council, made the announcement on Saturday in an address to tens of thousands of people who rallied in the capital Sanaa calling for an end to the 16-month conflict.

At the rally, Samad outlined the councils plans for running the war-ravaged country, following the breakdown of the peace talks earlier this month.

Economic affairs will be the priority of our work in the coming period, he told the crowd who waved Yemeni flags and chanted slogans against the war at Sanaas Sabeen Square.

The announcement of the planned government triggered a response from a group of 18 nations ambassadors, who condemned the decision as unconstitutional and unilateral actions in Sanaa.

The Group of Ambassadors repeats its concern that actions taken by elements of the General Peoples Congress and the Houthis, as well as their supporters, are making the search for a peaceful solution more difficult, the group said in a statement posted on Facebook.

Yemen: Saudi-led coalition regrets MSF withdrawal

The 10-member Supreme Political Council, which was formed in July, is composed of rebel Houthis and allies loyal to former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Last week, the Houthis convened the countrys parliament for the first time in two years, angering President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who called it a violation of the countrys constitution.

In an interview with Al Jazeera, Hakim Al Masmari, editor-in-chief of the Yemen Post, said that the new government could be headed on a direct collision course with the government-in-exile of President Hadi.

Collision course

This could devastate the chances of peace talks. But it could also make it easier, as both sides would give in to their authority, and then create a unified government, where elections will take place in six months, and then a new Yemen in formed, Masmari said.

As the rally was under way on Saturday, three air strikes targeted the presidential compound in Sanaa without causing casualties, residents told Reuters.

Further north, rockets launched over the border from Yemen killed one person and injured five others in the southern Saudi Arabian city of Najran, Saudi state television reported.





Houthi-run Al-Masirah television said the rockets had targeted a Saudi air force base.

Fighting also escalated on Saturday for control of Yemens central bank, as President Hadi made plans to relocate the institution outside Sanaa, and appoint a new board of directors, sources in his government told Reuters.

The central banks governor dismissed the reports of new board appointments as groundless in an emailed statement.

A spokesman for Hadis government could not immediately be reached for comment.

The central bank has been considered the last bastion of the impoverished countrys financial system, paying salaries to state employees on both sides of the front lines and guaranteeing food imports.
Promises made by Republican presidential nominee to lift black people from poverty criticised as racist and ignorant.

With polls showing Donald Trump receiving hardly any support among black voters, the Republican presidential nominee made a new pitch to them: What the hell do you have to lose?

Speaking to a nearly all-white crowd at a rally in Dimondale, Michigan, on Friday, Trump promised Americas more than 35 million African Americans a better life if they voted for him.





Look how much African American communities are suffering under Democratic control.

To those I say the following: What do you have to lose by trying something new, like Trump? he said.

Youre living in poverty. Your schools are no good. You have no jobs  What the hell do you have to lose?

Marlon Marshall, a senior member of the Democratic nominees campaign, criticised Trump as painting the entire African American community as living in poverty with no jobs.

African Americans have overwhelmingly identified as Democrats since the 1950s.

Almost no support

Trumps presidential bid has seen black voter support for the Republican party sink to new lows.

Polls taken since last months party conventions show him with only 1 or 2 percent support among blacks.

Many cannot forget Trumps insistence during the 2012 election that President Barack Obama, the nations first black president, was foreign-born and therefore unqualified for the White House.

Obama provided his birth certificate, showing he was born in Hawaii.

No group in America has been more harmed by Hillary Clintons policies than African Americans, Trump said on Friday.

If Hillary Clintons goal was to inflict pain on the African American community, she could not have done a better job. Its a disgrace.

After the speech, Clinton took to Twitter and wrote: This is so ignorant it is staggering.

Trump promised in the speech that if elected in November, he will receive over 95 per cent of the African American vote when he runs for re-election in 2020.

Here are some responses to Trumps attempt to gain support from black voters in run-up to Novembers election:

I'd love to chat with Trump about how black people are all "living in poverty" but I can't decide which of my houses we should meet at.  George Wallace (@MrGeorgeWallace) August 19, 2016

'What do you have to lose?' To vote Trump? Black folks? Any people of color? Anyone? Your damn mind. https://t.co/NGYTT5aLtx  Jeffrey Wright (@jfreewright) August 20, 2016

https://twitter.com/MarlonDMarshall/status/766781271871672321

Trump does know that most black people aren't in poverty Right?  (((Harry Enten))) (@ForecasterEnten) August 19, 2016

Trump's "Black outreach" so tone-deaf & condescending, his "Hispanic outreach", (eating a taco bowl), suddenly not that bad & stupid.  Ana Navarro-Cardenas (@ananavarro) August 19, 2016
Human rights monitors say Allied Democratic Forces have been involved in killing more than a thousand civilians.

A military court in the Democratic Republic of Congo has begun the trial of 215 members of an armed group accused of killing hundreds of civilians in and around Beni town in the countrys northeast.

Eighty accused members of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) from Uganda, Congo, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania and Sudan, were present in court on Saturday in Beni, North Kivu province, where they face charges of massacring civilians, prosecutor Kumbo Ngoma told the DPA news agency.

The remaining suspects will be brought from prisons elsewhere in the country to face trial.

Six suspects who took the stand on Saturday were accused of participating in the killing of 51 people with machetes near Beni town last weekend.

Appearing at the public hearing in blue and yellow prison shirts, the six were charged with participation in an insurrectional movement, crimes against humanity for murder and terrorism, said Colonel Jean-Paulin Esosa, who presides over the military court.

The accused admitted at the hearing to having been at the service of the Allied Democratic Forces, AFP news agency reported.

The ADF was founded in Uganda in 1995 and later moved to Congo where it is one among dozens of armed groups seeking control over territory and mineral resources in the east of the country.

Severest punishment

One survivor of last weekends attack, Eve Kahambu, told AFP she wanted to see the murderers receive the severest punishment.





Human rights groups put the number of ADF victims at more than 1,000 over the past two years.

Many of the massacres have taken place around Beni and have been blamed on the ADF, although independent observers have also blamed government troops.

Four people were killed on Wednesday around Beni following protests by thousands of people who accused the government and UN peacekeepers of not protecting them from the ADF.

Security forces clashed with the protesters, who burned an effigy of the countrys president, Joseph Kabila, as well as flags of his ruling Peoples Party for Reconstruction and Democracy.

One protester was shot dead. Protesters then stabbed and killed a soldier in revenge, Beni Mayor Nyonyi Bwanakawa Masumbuko told the DPA news agency.

Protesters also set two people on fire after they were accused of belonging to the ADF.

More than 140 protesters were arrested.
The Ethiopian government says it will investigate allegations that security forces killed hundreds of protesters.

The Ethiopian government has said it will launch an independent investigation into the killing of protesters by security forces during anti-government demonstrations in recent weeks.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, government spokesperson Getachew Reda insisted, however, that police violence in the country was not systemic.

There are cases of off-grid police officers who sometimes take the law into their own hands, he said. The government takes such allegations very seriously.

INSIDE STORY: What is triggering Ethiopias unrest?

According to Human Rights Watch, Ethiopian security forces have killed at least 500 people since anti-government protests began in November. Thousands of people have also been arrested and detained, the US-based rights group says.

Earlier this month, security forces killed nearly 100 people across Ethiopia in three days of violent protests, according to Amnesty International. Security forces opened fire on protesters, activists said.

Anti-government protests that started among the Oromo, Ethiopias largest ethnic group, have spread in recent weeks to the second most populous group in the country, the Amhara.

Both groups are demanding more political and economic rights.

The ruling party won 100 percent of federal and regional parliamentary seats in last years election, Al Jazeeras Charles Stratford, reporting from the capital Addis Ababa, said.

The opposition protesters say the party is dominated by a minority ethnic group that has been in power for more than 25 years and is ignoring their constitutional rights.

The Ethiopian government blamed the opposition in and outside the country for organising what it called unauthorised protests by anti-peace forces.

We welcome the decision

Ethiopia has previously dismissed a plea from the UN to allow international observers to investigate the killing of protesters by security forces.

Ravina Shamdasani, a spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), said he welcomed the Ethiopian governments decision to launch an independent probe.

We urge the government to ensure that the investigation has a mandate to cover allegations of human rights violations since the unrest in Oromia began in November 2015, Shamdasani told reporters in Geneva on Friday.

She went on to stress that the probe should be indeed independent, transparent, thorough and effective, with a view to establishing whether the use of excessive force occurred and with a view to bringing to justice the perpetrators of any human rights violations.

The government has repeatedly said that security forces who have committed abuses or bear any responsibility for the killing of innocent protesters will be punished, said Al Jazeeras Stratford.

But so far, publicly at least, no one has been called to account.
Fighters to be drawn from local population where Iran is involved in conflict, says a retired Iranian commander.

A previous version of this story identified Mohammad Ali Al Falaki as the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). That was incorrect. Mohammad Ali Al Falaki is a retired IRGC commander.

Iran has reportedly formed what it calls the Liberation Army whose units will be deployed in Arab countries, according to a news website.

Currently, Iran is involved in a number of conflicts where Shia and Sunni Muslims are locked in a power struggle, notably Syria and Yemen.

Mohammad Ali Al Falaki, a retired commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said in an interview published on Thursday by Mashregh News that Iran is fighting on three fronts: Iraq, Syria and Yemen.

Iran created the Liberation Army in Syria under the leadership of Qassem Soleimani, said Falaki, who leads forces in Syria.





Soleimani is the head of the Revolutionary Guard Corps elite Quds Force.

It was not clear how large the so-called Liberation Army would be.

The forces that belong to this army are not Iranians only. In any place where there is a fight, we organise and supply the army from the people of the area, said Falaki.

With regard to Syria, he said: It is not wise for our Iranian forces to be directly thrown into war in Syria. Therefore our role should be limited to train, supply, and prepare the Syrians to fight in their areas.

In January, Al Jazeera reported that Iran was recruiting tens of thousands of Afghan Shia fighters to step up the countrys efforts in the Syrian war, offering them salaries to join the war on the side of the government of President Bashar al-Assad.
Pyongyang says Thae Yong-ho embezzled state funds, raped a minor and spied for South Korea in exchange for money.

North Korea has accused one of its most senior diplomats, who defected to South Korea, of being a criminal involved in embezzlement and other serious offences, in an effort to discredit him.

Pyongyangs Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said that Thae Yong-ho, whom they described as human scum, had embezzled state funds, raped a minor and spied for South Korea in exchange for money.

The report did not name the diplomat who fled his mission in London but it was apparently referring to Thae, who defected while in Britain.

Hidden state: Inside North Korea

Thae is one of the highest-ranking North Korean diplomats ever to defect to the South, gifting Seoul a major propaganda coup at a time of rising tension on the divided Korean peninsula.

Any defection by a ranking member of an overseas North Korean mission would make waves, but London is considered a particularly prestigious posting that puts Thaes flight on a whole different level.

KCNA also criticised Britain for handing over Thae and his family to South Korea, saying that Pyongyang had previously told London of his crimes and requested his extradition.

Fugitive

The news agencys comments mark Pyongyangs first public response to the high-level defection, which is a rare and damaging loss of diplomatic face for the North.

Seoul said earlier this week that Thaes defection reflected a loss of faith among North Koreas elite in Kim Jong-uns leadership.





Thae had become disillusioned with the Pyongyang regime, admired South Koreas free and democratic system, and was concerned about his familys future, the Souths Unification Ministry said after the defection.

KCNA said Thae had fled for fear of legal punishment for his crimes, adding that the South had brought the fugitive to Seoul to use him in its anti-Pyongyang smear campaign.

He deserved a legal punishment for his crimes, but he took to flight, betraying his country and parents and other kith and kin, KCNA said.

The defection is likely to strain already-fraught relations between South and North Korea. The two sides are officially still at war since the Korean War in the 1950s ended in a truce rather than a peace deal.

Many North Koreans flee the country each year because of famine and repression. Most cross the border into China or travel via other countries to South Korea.

In April, a group of 13 North Koreans who worked in the same restaurant in an unspecified country defected to South Korea.
The truce paves the way for resumption of peace talks, which will take place in Norway between August 22 and 27.

The Philippine government and communist rebels have reached a truce, ahead of the resumption of peace talks in Norway, and just a week after President Rodrigo Duterte abruptly called off a unilateral ceasefire.

The restoration of the governments ceasefire would take effect on Sunday and last for as long as necessary to bring peace in the land, Jess Dureza, a top government negotiator, said on Saturday.

The enabling environment brought about by this silencing of the guns will hopefully go a long way in bringing about an expeditious and early resolution to our differences and aspirations that have long divided us as a people, he said.

Duterte first declared a unilateral ceasefire with the communist rebels on July 25 but withdrew it six days later after the rebels killed a member of a government militia.





Meanwhile, the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, the political arm of the communist rebels New Peoples Army, declared that their ceasefire would begin on Sunday and last for the duration of the Oslo talks between August 22 and 27.

The communist rebels said the governments reciprocation of their declaration was a show of all-out determination to move forward with peace negotiations.

Dureza assured the rebels that the Duterte administration was willing to walk the extra mile for peace.

Our citizens deserve no less. They wish to live peaceful lives bereft of the costs and tragic consequences of conflict and violence, he said before leaving for Oslo.

On Friday, two senior communist leaders were released on bail so they could travel to Oslo for the talks.

The peace negotiations had been suspended in 2012 after former president Benigno Aquino rejected rebel demands to free political prisoners.

The rebels have been waging an armed rebellion to seize power since 1969 and tens of thousands of people have died in the conflict

The military estimates the current strength of the rebel fighters at about 4,000, significantly down from more than 26,000 at its peak in the late 1980s.
Jamaican sprinter bids farewell to the Olympics after grabbing a ninth gold medal, his third at Rio 2016.

The streets of Jamaica witnessed a carnival-like atmosphere as its favourite son, Usain Bolt, claimed the unprecedented feat of a triple triple, signing off his Olympic career with his third gold in the Rio Games.

With Jamaica winning the mens 4x100m relay gold, Bolts ninth Olympic gold, the sprinter bid farewell to the Olympic Games, declaring himself the greatest.

Victory was not guaranteed when Bolt took the baton for the anchor leg, but he powered down the straight to cross in 37.27 seconds before soaking up the acclaim from an adoring crowd.

A surprise Japan quartet came second, followed by the US, who were disqualified to give Canada bronze.

A third straight 100m, 200m and 4x100m clean sweep put Bolt alongside Carl Lewis and Paavo Nurmi on nine track and field Olympic golds.

Bolt, who said at the start of the week that he would be an immortal if he claimed the triple triple, had no doubt that he deserves more acclaim.

There you go. Im the greatest, said the Jamaican, who kissed the finish line as he played to the crowd and the cameras. I hope Ive set the bar high enough that no one can do it again.

In the eight years since Beijing, the 11-time world champion has become one of the best known sportsmen on the planet and, with the triple triple, has a legitimate claim to the title of greatest Olympic track and field athlete ever.

I told the guys [relay team], dont give me too much work to do, make it easy, Bolt said.

And they did exactly that. I had no work to do, just to run to the line.

On the streets of Kingston, the party had started well before the athletes took their marks on the track.

As Bolt roared past the finish line, the streets erupted.

Its more than words can express now, said one excited fan.

You will never see another man like this for the next couple of decades, said another.
Justice departments reported move follows pleas for extradition of man accused of orchestrating failed Turkish coup.

The US Department of Justice will dispatch a team to Turkey in the coming days to pursue allegations by the Turkish government of criminal activity by Fethullah Gulen, according to a US media report.

If true, the move, first reported on Friday by Bloomberg News citing a US administration official, would mark the first sign of progress in Turkeys attempts to have the Pennsylvania-based Turkish-born religious leader extradited.

The government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused Gulens network of being behind a coup attempt last month, a charge he has strenuously denied.

Sooner or later, the US will make a choice. Either Turkey or FETO, Erdogan said last week, referring to Gulen.

However, the Washington Post newspaper, quoting an official at the US justice department, reported on Friday that the extradition request refers only to alleged activities before the failed coup attempt.

READ MORE: How will the military shake-up affect Turkeys future?

Its actually tied to allegations of certain alleged criminal activities that pre-date the coup, the official said.

At this point, Turkish authorities have not put forward a formal extradition request based on evidence that he was involved in the coup.

US officials are working alongside their Turkish counterparts to make sure we understand everything contained in the evidence, according to the justice department official.

If there is probable cause for extradition, ultimately a court will determine whether the evidence is sufficient.  We are still a way down the line from even knowing whether thats possible.

US officials have said that even if the justice department decides extradition is warranted, a court case and possible appeals could take several years.

Arrests in Azerbaijan

In another development on Friday, officials in Azerbaijan said they had arrested four men over suspected ties to Gulen.

The four are accused of an abuse of power while working for a mobile phone company for having passed on private information about subscribers and their call history, Azeri prosecutors said.

During a search of the home of one of the accused, investigators discovered religious literature, disks, brochures containing speeches by Fethullah Gulen and other documents, they said in a statement.

A close ally of Turkey, Azerbaijan earlier this week opened a criminal investigation into supporters of Gulen.

Azerbaijan last month shut down a private television channel over plans to broadcast an interview with Gulen, in order to avoid provocations aimed at damaging the strategic partnership between Turkey and Azerbaijan.

Reports from Denmark

The Azeri move came shortly after Danish media reported that hundreds of Turks in Denmark had withdrawn their children from schools with alleged links to Gulen.

A document circulating on Facebook listed 14 private schools in Denmark as being linked to Gulen and urged parents to Save your children from Fethullah Gulens terror organisations schools, according to a translation from Turkish by broadcaster TV 2.

A total of 366 students had been pulled out of the schools after the summer break, the broadcaster said.

Gulens Hizmet organisation has affiliated schools around the world, including in the former Soviet Kazakhstan, normally funded by wealthy Turkish businessmen.
Just days after fall of key district in Baghlan, Khanabad, which links Kunduz to Takhar, slips from government control.

After days of heavy fighting, the Taliban has taken control of another of the five districts in the northern Afghan province of Kunduz, according to local authorities.

The fighters seized the district of Khanabad, which connects Kunduz to Takhar and other northern provinces, on Saturday morning, with heavy clashes reported in several other districts.

The Taliban attacked the district from different positions and we resisted for hours but we received no support. The district fell to the Taliban, said Hayatullah Amiri, the Khanabad chief.





The Taliban has intensified its attacks in Kunduz and also carried out raids in other key districts in the province in the past weeks.

The reports that I have by talking to people in Kunduz is that the district fell into the hands of the Taliban without any combat or conflict, Habib Wardak, who campaigns for good governance, told Al Jazeera from Kabul.

It looks like the capture of Khanabad will have severe repercussions on the socio-economic, political and security situation not just in Kunduz but the entire northern part of the country.

The fall of Khanabad comes just five days after the Taliban captured a district in neighbouring Baghlan province, seizing a number of government forces vehicles and ammunition.

The fighters launched a coordinated attack on Dahana-e-Ghori on August 12, leading to heavy clashes in the area until the fighters took control of the district on August 15.

Fighting has escalated in Afghanistan as the Taliban campaign spreads from its traditional strongholds in the south and east of the country to once peaceful regions in the north.

Political crisis

The security problems facing Afghanistan are being compounded by a growing political crisis within the Kabul government.

Abdullah Abdullah, Afghanistans chief executive, recently criticised President Ashraf Ghani for failing to work collaboratively and deemed him undeserving to serve the government.

Despite air support from US and Afghan warplanes, government troops are struggling against the Taliban, with senior government officials saying the fighters are becoming better trained and equipped.

READ MORE: Afghanistan political crisis: Entitlement vs democracy

It seems like the morale of the Afghan national security forces is quite low in Kunduz. There is a lot of political disagreement among our political leaders in Kabul, and this is having a severe impact on our forces on the ground, Wardak, the activist, told Al Jazeera.

It looks like the government is yet to get its act together in the fight against the Taliban. The only thing that offers hope to the Afghan security forces is the commitment of the international community, with a lot of aid and support flowing in from the US military.

Taliban strongholds

The provincial capital, Kunduz city, fell to the Taliban for the first time in September last year, in one of the biggest victories for the fighters since they were toppled from power by US and coalition forces in late 2001.

Fighting has also escalated in other Afghanistan provinces.

Fierce Taliban assaults have targeted Baghlan and Helmand, where the Taliban has encircled the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah.

READ MORE: Afghanistan: Surge in civilian, children death tolls

The Taliban government collapsed after the US invasion of 2001; since then, the groups control over parts of Afghanistan has fluctuated wildly.

NATO officially ended its combat mission in December 2014, but US forces were granted greater powers in June this year to strike at the Taliban as President Barack Obama pledged a more aggressive campaign.
Youssef Chahed has appointed a new finance minister but kept the previous foreign and defence ministers in their posts.

Tunisian Prime Minister-designate Youssef Chahed has named his new government, appointing a former investment official as finance minister and keeping the foreign and defence ministers in their posts.

Our country is in a very delicate phase and we do not have the right to deceive the Tunisian people. I call on all Tunisians and the parties to support this government, Chahed told reporters on Saturday at Carthage presidential palace.

Chahed, named premier after his predecessor was dismissed by politicians in a no-confidence vote last month, had been in talks with the main secularist, leftist and Islamist parties over cabinet posts.

A senior member of the secularist Nidaa Tounes and ally of President Beji Caid Essebsi, Chahed promised a cabinet capable of delivering the economic reforms that had evaded past prime ministers, but critics say he may not have the political capital to succeed.

His cabinet line-up must now go to parliament for a vote of approval.

Tunisia: Nobody can perform the miracles we need





Tunisias transition since a 2011 uprising overthrew Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali has been hailed as a model for the Arab world.

But the North African state has struggled with armed groups and slow progress on economic reforms needed to create growth and jobs.

The new cabinet is inclusive, with members hailing from Nidaa Tounes, Islamist party Ennahda, and smaller parties as well opposition figures, independents and ministers close to the powerful UGTT labour union. The selection is likely an attempt to win backing for reforms.

Marouane El Abassi, a World Bank representative for Libya and economist educated in France, had been touted as new finance minister. But Chahed named Lamia Zribi, a former official for investment and development and a state bank director.

OPINION: Tunisias security first approach

Keeping their posts in the cabinet were Interior Minister Hedi Majdoub, Defence Minister Farhat Horchani and Foreign Affairs Minister Khemais Jhinaoui.

Chahed also nominated Mohamed Trabelsi as minister of social affairs and Abid Briki, a former union official, as minister of public functions. Both men have close ties to the UGTT, which in the past has resisted austerity measures.

During his nearly two years in office, previous premier Habib Essid failed to overcome political infighting and carry out reforms, including public spending cuts and improvements to laws to attract foreign investment.

Chaheds cabinet faces a tough start.

Three major attacks by armed groups last year badly hit tourism, forcing job cuts in an industry that accounts for 8 percent of the economy. Unemployment is already at 15 percent, with the rate far higher among the young.
Turkish prime minister said Ankara will play a more active role in Syria and repair its ties with regional powers.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim has vowed that Ankara will play a more active role in the next six months in efforts to end the five-year Syrian civil war and work towards normalising its relations with its neighbours in the Middle East.

Yildirim said in a news briefing on Saturday that Ankara would step up efforts to reduce instability in the region.

We say the bloodshed needs to stop. Babies, children, innocent people should not die. Thats why Turkey will be more active in trying to stop the danger getting worse in the next six months, compared with before,

Yildirim told foreign reporters in Istanbul.

No role to play in Syrias future

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad can remain temporarily during a transition period as he is one of the actors today no matter whether we like it or not, Yildirim said.





But the premier stressed that Assad has no role to play in Syrias future.

We believe that the PKK, Daesh and Assad should not be in the future of Syria, he added, referring to the Syrian Kurds and the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant group (ISIL, also known as ISIS) in the war-torn country.

Yildirim said instead that Turkey, Iran, Russia and the United States must work towards a solution in Syria.

That is our objective. We are not pessimistic. We have even left it late. Therefore, as Turkey, we will work more because the instability there pains us.

Turkey wants to repair ties with old allies

Since last months failed coup attempt , Turkey has been unhappy with the Wests muted response to the incident and frustrated with continued criticism of its human rights record.

As a result, it sought to work with Iran and Russia on Syrias future and solving the crisis.





Although Russia and Iran are Assads main allies which put them at loggerheads with Turkey, this month Erdogan met with Russian President Vladimir Putin while Tehrans Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif came to Ankara.

Prime Minister Yildirim told reportes on Saturday that Turkey wants to normalise relations with other old allies, like Israel and Egypt.

Turkeys parliament approved a reconciliation agreement signed with Israel in June which has brought to an end a six-year rift between the two regional powers, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said.

Relations between Israel and Turkey crumbled after Israeli marines stormed a Turkish ship in May 2010 to enforce a naval blockade of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, killing 10 Turks on board.

READ MORE: Will the Turkey-Israel deal end Gazas siege?

Israel, which had already offered its apologies for the raid, agreed under the deal to pay out $20 million to the bereaved and wounded in return for Turkey dropping outstanding legal claims.

Under the deal, the naval blockade of Gaza, which Ankara had wanted lifted, remains in force, although humanitarian aid can continue to be transferred to Gaza via Israeli ports.

Yildirim also said that Turkey wants to repair its ties with Egypt, after relations soured over the deposing of President Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

Morsi, a Muslim Brotherhood leader, had been a close ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogans ruling Justice and Development Party-led (AKP) government.

We think we need to develop economic and cultural ties with Egypt as countries that use the two sides of the Mediterranean, Yildirim told reporters.

OPINION: What Egyptians can learn from Turkeys failed coup

However, he sounded a note of caution that high-level relations would not be repaired overnight.

We think we need to start from somewhere, he said.

Regional powerhouse Saudi Arabia, one of the main backers of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, is keen to see the two countries reconciled as it grows increasingly close to Turkey.

US is a strategic partner not an enemy

Yildirim also insisted that the United States was Turkeys strategic partner, not our enemy despite Ankaras anger at Washington for failing to extradite Fethullah Gulen, whom it blames for last months failed coup.





There can be ups and downs in the two countries relations [but] we need to remove elements that harm our relations, Yildirim told journalists in Istanbul, referring to the Pennsylvania-based cleric.

Ankara has for years accused Gulen of running a parallel state in Turkey and it blamed him for ordering the failed coup attempt of July 15.

Ankara had previously suggested that any failure to deliver Gulen would severely damage bilateral ties and Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said it was up to Washington to extradite him to prevent anti-US feeling in Turkey turning into hate.

OPINION: Could Turkey turn its back to the West?

The White House has confirmed that US Vice President Joe Biden will visit Ankara next week in the highest-ranking visit to Turkey by any Western official since the coup.

Yildirim also confirmed a technical delegation would arrive on August 22 for talks with Turkeys judicial authorities ahead of Bidens visit.

I hope this process will be finalised in a way favoured by both countries, and [that] questions in the minds of Turkish people about America will be removed.
Pregnant women told to avoid tourist area as Florida confirms five new cases of virus spread primarily via mosquitoes.

US health officials have warned pregnant women to avoid Floridas Miami Beach area after receiving confirmation that the Zika virus is active in the international tourist destination.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday said that pregnant women who are especially worried about exposure to Zika might also consider avoiding all of Miami-Dade County.

The virus generally causes mild symptoms in adults, but can cause severe birth defects in the children of pregnant women who become infected with the virus.

Rick Scott, governor of Florida, said state health officials have identified five cases of Zika believed to have been contracted in Miami Beach.

This means we believe we have a new area where local transmissions are occurring in Miami Beach, he said, noting that Florida had already stepped up pesticide-spraying efforts in this area.

READ MORE: Zika facts you need to know

Of the five new cases in Miami Beach, one person is a resident of New York, one person is a resident of Texas and one person is a resident of Taiwan.

All three of these people travelled to Miami, Scott said.

In Miami Beach, officials say, Zika transmission is confined to a 1.5sq mile area located between 8th and 28th streets in the popular South Beach neighbourhood.

The new warnings represent a challenge to Floridas multi-billion-dollar tourism industry, with Miami Beach accounting for nearly half of visitor stays in the Greater Miami area.

The virus, spread primarily via mosquitoes, has seriously affected Latin America in recent months.

Challenge to tourism

Reporters charged Scott with underplaying Zika transmission and delaying confirmation to minimise the effect on tourism in Florida.

Scott responded that Florida was taking every measure to ensure the information they provided to the public was accurate.

Speaking later on Friday, however, Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine expressed frustration with Scott and the states health department for keeping him and other elected officials in the dark about the five locally transmitted Zika cases.

He said mayors across Miami received the information at the same time as media. Its backwards, Levine said.





Senator Harry Reid, a Democrat, said the transmission of Zika in Miami Beach is the most alarming development yet in the rapidly growing threat of Zika in the United States.

Both Reid and Florida Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican, renewed calls for legislators in the House of Representatives and Senate to return to Washington DC to authorise funding to help public health officials fight the spread of Zika.

President Barack Obama in February requested $1.9bn to fight Zika but Congressional efforts to approve part of the funding deadlocked before legislators adjourned for the summer.

Puerto Rico study

Earlier on Friday, US health officials published a study estimating that as many as 270 babies in the territory of Puerto Rico may be born with the severe birth defect known as microcephaly caused by Zika infections in their mothers during pregnancy.

A public health emergency was declared in Puerto Rico on August 12 after more than 10,000 laboratory-confirmed cases were recorded, including more than a thousand pregnant women.

The condition, in which infants are born with abnormally small heads and underdeveloped brains, is estimated to cost $10m over the lifetime of one child.

The connection between Zika and microcephaly first came to light last autumn in Brazil, which has now confirmed more than 1,800 cases of microcephaly that it considers to be related to Zika infection in the mothers.
What does the Facebook  ad blocker battle mean for news outlets? Plus, we take a look at Globo, Brazils media giant.

On The Listening Post this week: Why is Facebook on warring terms with ad blockers? And how will this evolving relationship manifest for the user? Plus, an inside look at Brazils media giant Globo.

Facebook vs ad blockers: Its all about the money

Facebook has declared war against ad blockers and says protecting revenues for media outlets was a key motivating factor. We take a look at what the Facebook vs ad blocker battle means for users, publishers and for Facebooks own business model.

Talking us through the story are: Ben Williams, PR manager, Adblock Plus; Justin Schlosberg, lecturer in journalism and media at Birkbeck University; Lara OReilly, senior editor at Business Insider; Raghav Bahl, founder of Quintillion Media.

On our radar:

The media story in Turkey just keeps getting bigger. This past week, another newspaper was shut down, one of the countrys best-known editors resigned and numerous Twitter accounts have been blocked.

Journalists in India, who recently published an expose on a political group with close ties to the countrys ruling party, have found themselves exposed and are now under investigation.

Gawker, the New York-based news site known for its click-bait journalism and its scandal sheet style, is being shut down by its new owner.

Globo: Brazils media behemoth

Rede Globo isnt just dominant in Brazil, its Latin Americas biggest media network. We profile the media giants history, politics and power to influence the national agenda. The Listening Posts Paolo Ganino reports.

Talking us through the story are: Paulo Henrique Amorim, journalist (formerly Globo); David Miranda, The Intercept; Silvio Caccia Bava, editor-in-chief, Le Monde Diplomatique Brasil; Gregorio Duvivier, actor and writer.
We travel to Mexico to find out why so many Mexican children drop out of school to join the countrys workforce.

Education for everyone has been a popular slogan since the Mexican revolution more than 100 years ago.

But according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, eight out of 100 Mexican children who enroll in elementary school do not show up for classes.

Twenty percent of our public spending is spent on education. But every year, we see that billions of dollars are diverted from education ... So schools aren't getting in the first place what they need. We have a system where about one out of every four public schools doesn't have a bathroom ... where kids don't have chairs. by Jennifer O' Donoghue, Mexicanos Primero

While barely 50 complete middle school, 20 graduate from high school, 13 get a bachelors degree, and only two become graduate students.

A study released by UNESCO last year says the children who dont attend school are mostly working. The report reveals that at least 21 percent of all Mexican youth between the ages of seven and 14 drop out of school  thats around 651,000 children.

That means Mexico has one of the largest child labour forces in Latin America, second only to Colombia.

Many of Mexicos youths who dont attend school work in plantations.

Talk to Al Jazeera travelled to the coastal state of Veracruz to meet some Mexicans who have traded classrooms and pencils for sugar cane fields and machetes.

Sixteen-year-old Albino was just 12 when he became a plantation worker. He has spent the past four years in different areas of Mexico following the harvest of fruits and vegetables.

Albino sees his family every 20 days. He gives them half of his salary. He says he regrets leaving school, but is proud that he can help his parents with money.

You just devote yourself to work and youre proud that you no longer play with small children, he says.

We also met 14-year-old Fernando, who dropped out of school two years ago because he was bored.

On most days I get up at 5am and work until 6pm There were days when Id have preferred to have been at school, when I regretted quitting. After my first day at work, I didnt want to go back. I regretted having left school, but I am fine now. I like working in the fields now, Fernando says.

Fernandos father, Pablo, says he wanted to finish school himself, but he had to work to support his family. Hed always wanted Fernando to have the education he couldnt have. But when Pablo realised his son wasnt committed to his studies, he wanted to ensure that Fernando at least wouldnt be lured into a gang.

He says he wanted his son to develop a work ethic and learn to support himself. So the two of them travel across Mexico  from one harvest to the next, toiling side by side.

READ MORE: Child labour and the perils of a lost education in Mexico

One of the ways Mexico has tried to keep children in school is through the so-called Prospera programme. It was launched in 1997 and offers what NGOs call conditional cash transfers.

The payments are an incentive for parents to keep their children in school and, in exchange, the families have to meet certain requirements and attend workshops including sex education and family planning.

Single mother Reynalda Barragan Pastrana says the Prospera programme changed her three daughters lives.

[Before we joined the programme] we were all living in one room that was five by five metres, which was made out of tinfoil and cardboard. We didnt have a floor, it was just earth. Once we began getting support from the programme, we were able to improve our home and my daughters started going to school, she says.

However, the Mexican children who remain in school arent doing well when compared with students from other member states of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Overall, Mexicos students score 81 points below the OECD average in subjects such as mathematics.

Like many aspects of life in Mexico, corruption plays a role in its education system.

Jennifer O Donoghue, who works for a civil society organisation thats dedicated to improving education in Mexico, says the misuse of money meant for schools and poorly trained teachers are two of the reasons why Mexicos public schools are failing children.

Its the responsibility of the state to guarantee that those children are there in the school. So its not about school drop-out, its about school systems that exclude young people  Individual children are lost in a system that sees them as numbers, she says.

In 2013, Mexico introduced education reform with the aim of improving the system through teacher evaluations, professional development, and more federal oversight over budgets.

Long-held practices of ghost teachers collecting salaries or handing teaching positions from one family member to the next were expected to disappear.

But the reform hasnt been implemented due to opposition. There have been months of violent protests and school closures over the proposed reforms  and negotiations are continuing.

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of Mexican children drop out of school every year to join the countrys workforce.
           2005     ..        
WASHINGTON  The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency appears willing to consider the creation of a federal fintech charter, but one group is raising a red flag: state regulators.

Bank supervisors in several states, which already oversee many examples of tech firms that provide financial services, say a federal charter could provide regulatory favor to still-unproven firms. They also worry that a national charter could weaken states' own established authority to enforce consumer protection and licensing laws for tech companies in the financial sphere.

"We believe a federal one-size-fits-all framework for fintech is neither possible nor appropriate," said Maria Vullo, New York State's superintendent of financial services.

Fintech firms have pressed the OCC to develop a limited-purpose charter so they can be governed by a single regulatory framework rather than have to comply with all the different sets of rules that exist in the states they operate. In several pronouncements, OCC officials have indicated the agency is exploring the idea.

But state regulators say a federal charter could be seen as validating business models on a national basis before they have proven they can withstand a crisis. They also raise concerns reminiscent of the federal preemption battles before the 2008 financial crisis, saying that a federal fintech charter could undermine state authority.

"A federal charter is likely to preempt state laws on interest rates, impairing states' ability to tailor their laws to their consumers," said Ray Grace, the North Carolina banking commissioner.

Massachusetts Commissioner of Banks David Cotney also said a federal charter could trump state consumer protection and licensing rules, which would be "the beginning of a race to the bottom."

He said state regulators have observed the evolution of fintech companies long before debates over regulating financial technology came to Washington, and noted that it is too soon to say if they are sustainable or similar to past innovations that ultimately failed.

"While the federal government is talking about what to do about fintech, the states are already acting in this space," Cotney said. "We see things early, and our legislatures and state regulators have the flexibility to act quickly."

"We have not been through a complete cycle with some of these fintech companies," he said, adding, "We saw some examples of innovation that led us down a dangerous path in the past."

Yet advocates for a nationwide fintech chartering system say a state-by-state licensing system is not a good solution either, and that it could be holding back the innovation and sustainability of new firms.

"The cost of inefficiency [in] having to comply with 50 different sets of rules makes it really hard to roll out any kind of national new financial services model," said Alex Acree, a managing director at the venture company Fenway Summer who regularly advises fintech companies.

Many also disagree that a federal fintech charter would result in softer regulation for firms than what they face at the state level.

"If there is a national charter, it won't be easy to get it," said Jo Ann Barefoot, a consultant who has worked on this issue with both fintech companies and regulators. And, she added, "It's going to be a select group of fintechs that will apply for it."

OCC officials have suggested that the high frequency of bank charters granted to banks in the years leading up to the financial crisis looms large in their ongoing analysis of what a fintech charter might look like.

"The sanctity of the charter was something that in large-bank supervision we needed to reflect on after the financial crisis," Maryann Kennedy, the OCC's deputy comptroller for large-bank supervision, said during a forum on responsible innovation held by the agency in June.

But state regulators say they are also worried about the viability of their own authority to charter companies and set rules of the road.

"A federal fintech charter is likely to eliminate that local responsiveness and imbalance the allocation of power between the federal and state government," Grace said.

New financial technologies, he added, "can and should continue to develop within the existing regulatory framework before regulators attempt to create a 'charter' to specifically ease the licensing process."

The concerns raised by state regulators recall tensions that had brewed between states and the OCC over the federal preemption powers of national banks.

Yet much has changed since those battles, including provisions passed in the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act that sought to limit preemption. Also different is that the current comptroller, Thomas Curry, is a former state banking regulator from Massachusetts.

"It's a fairly complex calculus to determine the degree to which a federal charter preempts consumer protection law," said Cliff Stanford, a partner and chair of Alston & Bird's Bank Regulatory Group. But, he added, "I don't think the OCC would have wiggle room to expand preemption for fintech companies."

Stanford added that Curry's background as a state regulator "quite possibly would temper" the type of authority the OCC would seek in a fintech charter. "The comptroller will have due respect, deference and appreciation for the dual banking system," Stanford said.

Yet state regulators argue they are better positioned to deal with the issues that come up with regulating fintech firms, including a broad purview and responsibility to oversee both safety and soundness and consumer protection laws.

"We have the market, the consumer and the institutional perspective all rolled together as regulators," said Margaret Liu, the senior vice president and deputy general counsel at the Conference of State Bank Supervisors. "We bring a really different perspective to regulation."

One of the common complaints from fintech firms is how different states all have different sets of rules. But state officials say they have worked to standardize certain facets of fintech oversight.

Through the CSBS, they have implemented a unified portal for money transmitter licensing, which is commonly required of online lenders for each state in which they seek to operate.

Originally created for mortgage companies, the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System is now a money transmitter licensing application portal in 35 states.

States are also working on creating greater consistency in their laws. The Uniform Law Commission, a Chicago-based nonprofit that develops model state laws, is in the process of drafting a virtual currency bill.

"We've been working together and try to identify how we can work together better so that we don't need to recreate the wheel in each state," said Cotney, whose state passed a virtual currency bill just last month.

Cotney added that taking away states' authority to regulate fintech would not solve the problem of the limited resources some of his counterparts face in dealing with new types of businesses.

"If you ask any state or federal regulator, they'll always tell you we could use more resources," he said.


Russian warplanes took off this week from Iran to hit targets in Syria. Russia has used Iranian bases for refueling and resupply in the past, but this is its first bombing mission from the Islamic Republic -- it is also the first foreign military operation to take place from Iranian soil since the 1979 revolution. Irans National Security chief said Iran and Russia enjoy strategic cooperation in the fight against terrorism in Syria, and share their facilities and capacities to this end.

Whether temporary or serving longer term Russian interests, the increasing breadth and capability of the Russian military in the region -- allied with the State Departments number one designated state sponsor of terror -- presents problems for the United States. The Obama administration, however, appears oddly unconcerned.

A State Department spokesperson said, We have nothing to announce at this time. We speak regularly with Russian officials about ways to strengthen the Cessation of Hostilities, improve humanitarian access and bring about the conditions necessary to find a political solution to this conflict.

Another spokesperson called it, unfortunate, but not surprising or unexpected.

From the Pentagon, As we understand it, they hit three areas in Syria. One area had ISIS fighters in it, and we have hit there ourselves before. The other two areas do not have ISIS concentrations.

The area that did not have ISIS fighters had anti-Assad rebels. Does the State Department think Russian bombing will help find a political solution to the conflict? What does the U.S. think a political solution should look like?

There is no easy side for America to take -- if we take any. On one side is a war criminal, whose allies are Russia, Iran, and Hizballah (a U.S.-designated terrorist organization). On the other is the opposition, a collection of fighters including Jabhat al-Nusra -- until last week calling itself an arm of al Qaeda -- the Free Syrian Army, ISIS-affiliated rebels, and groups with acronyms previously unknown. Some will fight ISIS. Some are ISIS. Some will fight only Assad. Just about all are Sunni Islamists supported financially by Americas erstwhile allies in the Gulf plus Turkey. Among the Kurdish groups, some are Assads allies; some are Americas allies. All are the enemy of Turkey, a NATO member.

Our allies have their own agendas, as do our adversaries.

The Iran-Russia axis anchors the ends of the Shiite Crescent from Iran across Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon, ending in the Mediterranean. The Crescent is an Iranian goal that threatens a variety of countries on its periphery, including Israel and Turkey. Russias goals include 1) maintaining a friendly government in Damascus that will permit Russian bases at Tartus and Latakia, 2) broader military access to the region, and 3) status as go to power as the United States withdraws its influence. Partnership in the Shiite Crescent ensures all three.

Washington has been trying to find a way to cooperate with Russia in Syria without acknowledging that Russias goals, and Irans, are inimical to the presidents insistence that Assad has to go. The Washington Post reminded its readers this week of Mr. Obamas words in 2012. With allies and partners, we will keep increasing the pressure, with a diplomatic effort to further isolate Assad and his regime, so that those who stick with Assad know that they are making a losing bet.

Has the president changed his mind? Does he now believe the Russians and Iranians together can impose some sort of brutal stability on the region, and their dominance would be in our interest?

The longer the fighting goes on, the more casualties there will be -- including civilian casualties. In a country where an estimated 470,000 people have already been killed, the numbers are horrific. The United Nations believes 1 in 10 Syrians have been killed or wounded since 2012; the American equivalent would be 32,400,000 people.

In 2014, President Obama snippily informed Israel that it must do more to protect Gaza civilians, while Hamas was using those civilians as shields for its fighters, weapons, and rocket launchers. But Syrians are dying at a horrific rate and by horrific means -- chemical weapons, barrel bombs, starvation and more -- while the United States tries to coordinate with Russia and Russia coordinates with Iran.

This is neither a call for the U.S. to send more troops to Syria nor support for any particular faction. But with more than 7,000 American troops already fighting there and in Iraq, it is past time for the United States to decide how to block Russian and Iranian neo-imperialism and secure the interests of our regional allies and ourselves.
On Saturday August 6, I was privileged to attend the unveiling of the memorial to American airmen who fought in World War II at the Wings Over the Rockies aviation museum in Denver, Colorado. Created by Major Frederic Arnold (ret.), an artist who flew P-38 Lightnings in the Mediterranean theater of the war, the monumental sculpture depicts a pre-flight briefing, with the squadron leader at the mapboard explaining the mission plan, while the men of the squadron and the pale ghosts of their fallen comrades listen on.

American airmen suffered a horrific casualty rate during World War II, with over 88,000 being killed in action. Of the 14 men in Arnolds squadron, 12 were killed in six months of combat. Arnold and the other survivors vowed to memorialize their fallen comrades. Now 94, Arnold has finally fulfilled that vow.

Here are some views of the sculpture.

At the front, we see the squadron leader explaining the mission.

Here we see the pilots listening, both the living pilots in bronze khaki, and the pale ghosts of their fallen friends. Halfway through the tour, nearly half of the original squadron has already joined the spirits.

Each of the sculptures represents not a particular individual, but a particular character type, and has a nickname to go with it. For example, in the photo above we see a pilot named Montana, a young rookie fresh from the states who is raising his hand to ask a question. Next to him, with his arms folded, we see a veteran pilot, named Lucky Strike. Hes heard it all before -- promises of good weather, light opposition, etc. -- and hes not buying it. To his left we see Eager Beaver, writing the mission instructions on his wrist -- WWII fighter pilots were not allowed to carry maps which could fall into enemy hands, while in the rear, Speed synchronizes his wind-up watch, the key instrument used to coordinate mission operations.

Here are a few more views from various angles.

Note Handsome sitting relaxed with a cup of coffee at the edge of the bench in the photo above. A veteran flier, he chooses to wear stylish saddle shoes instead of regulation combat boots. A ghost sits close behind him, mournful in the knowledge that his pal will be next to die.

Frederic Arnold flew 46 combat missions, then was shot down over Sicily and taken prisoner. He escaped, and after rejoining his unit, completed his tour of duty of 50 missions. He then returned to the States, and became a test pilot and the author of the pilots manual for the P-47 Thunderbolt, the P-51 Mustang, and the P-80 Shooting Star, Americas first jet fighter. He has also written a memoir of his combat experiences. Titled Doorknob Five Two, it is a real gripper.

Frederic Arnold in his P-38 Lightning in 1943.

In recent decades, a number of rather sterile memorials have been erected to U.S. war veterans, mostly by professional artistes, who, in my view, have been more interested in displaying their personal virtuosity as practicioners of the avante garde than in honoring their subjects. In Lest We Forget, U.S. airmen are fortunate in having a deeply meaningful memorial that is actually to them, done by a real artist who was, and is, truly one their own.

I was born in 1952. In my youth, they were everywhere. My father was a World War II veteran, so were all of my uncles, and the fathers of all my friends. Now they are nearly all gone. It is fortunate that this monument was completed in time to give at least the few that remain what may be their last salute.

But the memorial was not meant for them alone. It was also meant to speak to us, and those that will follow us, so that, as a great man once said regarding the fallen of an earlier conflict, that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion  that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom; and that this government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

The monument will remain at the Wings Over the Rockies Museum in Denver for the next six months, after which it will be transferred to the World War II Museum in New Orleans.
According to the leftists who dominate politics in Austin, Texas, it is outrageously offensive to tell young people to get an education and a job, and do something useful and produce something in your society so you dont have to live off others.

Austin City Council member Don Zimmerman is currently experiencing vicious criticism for this sound advice. KXAN television reports:

During Austins Thursday City Council meeting many students spoke up from several city-funded groups asking for continued support. It was what Austin City Council member Don Zimmerman said after the group of students addressed the council in Spanish that is sparking a lot of reaction on Twitter. The students were asking for funds to help their after-school program. Id ask for everyone here, including the children, when you grow up, I want to ask you to pledge to finish school, learn a trade, a skilled trade, get a college education, start a business, do something useful and produce something in your society so you dont have to live off others. Thank you. Zimmerman said. Shortly after he made this comment boos could be heard reverberating throughout the audience. Council member Delia Garza spoke an estimated two hours later saying, Earlier council [member] Zimmerman said something that was really offensive and it happened really quickly and now Im hearing from members of our community that they are disappointed that more of us didnt stand up and say something. And I want our community to know that we do not condone what he said. And we have your back. A 20-second applause followed Garzas statement.

The fact that Zimmermans advice followed a group of Hispanics speaking and asking for taxpayer money is being used to claim he is racist. But in fact, Zimmerman has said similar things to other groups, and that demonstrates that he is not.

What really seems to be at the heart of the outrage is reflected in this tweet from a Hispanic city council member:

@ndhapple @cbrendonriggs it was worse than that. he implied that those that rely on, & ask for, public programs are nonproductive citizens.  Gregorio Casar (@GregCasar) August 19, 2016

I am sorry to break it to Mr. Garza, but those who live off the work of others are not productive; they are parasitical. Some parasites are very benign. After all, we all started off as helpless babies and then children, who cannot provide for themselves. That is a natural thing, for in nature, creatures mature and provide for themselves, and eventually for others  the children that they produce, and their parents when they are no longer able to provide.

But creatures that are fully capable of providing for themselves but make choices that keep them dependent on extracting wealth from wealth-producers (via the government tax collectors) are not productive. Not until they get it together enough to take care of themselves.

Lets not pretend otherwise.

Hat tip: David Paulin
The New York Times, via Christopher Drew, reported on August 19, 2016:

Matt Bissonnette, a former member of Navy SEAL Team 6 who wrote an account of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, agreed on Friday to forfeit $6.8 million in book royalties and speaking fees and apologized for failing to clear his disclosures with the Pentagon, according to federal court documents. Mr. Bissonnette also recently forfeited $180,000 in fees for consulting work that he did for military contractors while he was still on the SEAL team[.] ... If approved by a federal judge in Alexandria, Va., the royalty settlement would bring an end to more than two years of civil and criminal investigations into Mr. Bissonnette, who won several awards for valor in Iraq and Afghanistan before writing "No Easy Day," his best-selling book on the Bin Laden raid, under the pen name Mark Owen.

We have a decorated hero, who was involved in killing Osama bin Laden, responsible for killing over 3,000 Americans on September 11, 2001, pursued by the federal government, both civilly and criminally, because he did not clear his book with the Pentagon.

Yet Hillary Clinton, who used a private email server that endangered our national security, destroyed over 30,000 emails, and lied that she did not use her server for classified information, skates from any criminal prosecution.

Hillary is the beneficiary of the Comey Standard. She walked because of her positon as the Democratic presidential nominee.

Hillary has also used her position as secretary of state to get donations from foreign governments to the Clinton Foundation, and to earn speaking fees of up to $500K per speech for herself and her "husband," Bill.

Hillary did not clear her use of private email and lied when caught. The feds go after a war hero and allow Hillary to run for the presidency and keep all her money.

Why is it that a war hero is punished, but Hillary walks away with her money and no indictment?
For months, Hillary Clinton had been stonewalling Judicial Watch, who wanted to depose her in their FOIA lawsuit seeking information on her emails and private server. J.W. wanted to interview her in person and under oath.

Now a federal judge has ruled that Clinton must answer questions under oath posed by J.W., but she can do it in writing.

Fox News:

U.S. District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan issued the order as part of a lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch. The group had sought to question Clinton under oath and in person, but the judge ruled she would only have to answer questions in writing. FBI Director James Comey announced last month that the agency would not seek criminal charges against Clinton after an investigation into her email use, although he concluded she been "extremely careless" in her handling of sensitive material. Judicial Watch's Director of Investigations Chris Farrell said that while they would have preferred to have Clinton answer questions in person, the decision represented a victory for the organization. Judicial Watch will get Clinton under oath regarding the set-up of her outlaw server  something no other person, organization or agency has been ableto do, to date," he said. We believe it is a victory for law and order to get Hillary Clinton under oath answering questions about the server setup and why she did it, he said. Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon said the campaign was glad that the judge had allowed Clinton to answer questions in writing. "Judicial Watch is a right-wing organization that has been attacking the Clintons since the 1990s," Fallon said. "This is just another lawsuit intended to try to hurt Hillary Clinton's campaign, and so we are glad that the judge has accepted our offer to answer these questions in writing rather than grant Judicial Watch's request." Judge Sullivan said Judicial Watch must submit its questions to Clinton by Oct. 14 and gave Clinton 30 days to respond -- a timetable that could push Clinton's answers past the November election unless Judicial Watch sends its questions earlier than mid-October.

Obviously, her written answers are going to be as unresponsive as she can get away with. With every word vetted by her lawyers, it's not likely we're going to learn anything new.

But Clinton has had trouble explaining why she set up the private email server in the first place. She told the FBI that Colin Powell had suggested it to her over dinner, but Powell says he doesn't recall any such conversation. If she changes that story, she can be arrested for lying to the FBI  a crime that sent Scooter Libby to jail. If she sticks with it, J.W. will no doubt depose Colin Powell and expose her lying under oath.

Hillary and Bill have been in tight spots like this before and have always been able to wiggle free. It's probable that her legal team will find a way for her to avoid the legal traps being set by Judicial Watch.
The Department of Justice filed a friend of the court brief in the case of an indigent Georgia man who spent six days in jail for public intoxication because he couldn't afford bail. The DoJ believes that all poor people should be allowed release on their own personal recognizance if they can't afford the bail.

NBC News:

Justice Department's civil rights lawyers said in their brief that courts must consider a person's indigence and look at other ways of guaranteeing an appearance in court. "Fixed bail schedules that allow for the pretrial release of only those who can play, without accounting for the ability to pay," the government said, "unlawfully discriminate based on indigence." A federal judge in January ruled in Walker's favor, ordering the city to let those arrested on misdemeanor offenses be released on their own recognizance and to make other changes in its post-arrest procedures. In appealing that order, the city said the preset amounts of the city's bail schedule are tied to the seriousness of each offense and are specifically allowed under Georgia law. Related: Reformers Seek to Undo Growth of New 'Debtors' Prisons' "A system of unsecured recognizance bonds," the city said in its appeal," greatly reduces the incentive for defendants to appear." The city is supported by the Georgia Sheriff's Association and by a group representing the nation's bail bondsmen. They argue that the Constitution does not guarantee bail, it only bans excessive bail. "It thus simply cannot be that any defendant arrested for any crime must be immediately released based on a bare assertion of indigence," the group said in its court filing. Barry J. Pollack, president of the National Association of Criminal Defense lawyers, said Friday said he applauded the Justice Department's for making "critically important arguments."

Bail is meant to ensure the appearance of a defendant in court. But it also has the practical effect of taking someone off the streets who may be a danger to others. That apparently is not a criterion for releasing a prisoner, although you would think a serial killer or someone arrested for murder for hire would be an exception.

But what about a gang-banger who can prove no income and is arrested on drug or weapons charges? Ostensibly, he would be able to walk out of the courthouse a free man in the afternoon and participate in a drive-by shooting that evening.

I can see the idea of no bail for all defendants  rich or poor  in many misdemeanor cases. But great care should be taken when adopting new rules on bail when it comes to serious felonies. Put bluntly, I don't trust the do-gooders to get it right, and we're liable to see many defendants who belong in jail released unnecessarily.
In April of this year, Target jumped on the "inclusivity" bandwagon with both feet with its radical, but ever so politically correct, policy for restroom use. The company's stated policy was, "We welcome transgender team members (employees) and guests (customers) to use the restroom or fitting room facility that corresponds with their gender identity." This was done to be compliant with the transgender movement.

Of course, Target was being deceitful here in the use of the phrase "gender identity." In today's mixed up world, "gender identity" is not objective or scientific. It has little to do with biology. It's all about how people feel about their sex or what they imagine their gender to be. Accordingly, a man can claim to be a woman and a woman can claim to be a man under the dictates of "gender identity."

Target's transgender policy was viewed as an affront to traditional sensibilities and a potential risk to women and girls using the store's facilities. As a result, some groups instituted a boycott of Target. One group, the American Family Association, got over 1.3 million people to sign an online petition to boycott Target.

The boycott seems to have had an effect, although the management of Target is loath to admit it. On August 17, Target announced that it will spend $20 million to expand restroom options at all its stores. This will be accomplished by having a third, single-toilet restroom, which can be locked, installed in all of its 1,800 stores. Presumably this means that the only females can use the women's restrooms and only males can use the men's restroom. (Don't bet on that, however.)

Left undiscussed is the matter of the fitting rooms.

Target financial officer Cathy Smith said this move to a third restroom is in response to feedback from customers who voiced displeasure with the company's transgender restroom policy. She then added that this customer discontent hadn't materially impacted sales.

But the facts may be otherwise. At the same time Smith made her announcement, Target also reported a decrease in customer traffic through its stores and that sales have dropped for the first time in two years. In the second quarter, sales are down 1.1%, and according to management, that has stalled out the company's turnaround effort. Target further projects even lower sales for the rest of the year.

Yes, it is hard to tell at this early stage if the boycott of Target is working. That's because all retail stores are under pressure from internet sales. Still, in this soft environment for brick-and-mortar stores, Target is foolish to antagonize its customer base.

Target is not an upscale retail chain. It isn't even in the same league as Macy's. Target is like Kohl's and Walmart. It offers nothing unique in the retail industry. The segment of the retail market that Target is in is saturated. The company could disappear tomorrow, and consumers overall would not lack for substitutes.

And then there's the matter of Target's customer base. It is strictly middle-class. And it is the middle class whose sensibilities are most offended by Target's transgender policy. Talk about shooting oneself in the foot.

I myself did not sign any boycott petition of Target. But I and my family bypass Target as a matter of principle and will continue to do so on into the future. Taking down arrogant Target a peg or two would be a small win in the culture war, where victories for tradition and common sense are hard to come by.
Editor's Note: The author is a physician who recently tried to submit a letter to the editor for publication to three major US medical journals on the issue of gender v sex and clinical applications in the practice of medicine and it was rejected by all three.

The gender definition and distinction from sex was actually made by the World Health Organization, yet many doctors do not know this, bet the patients do.

If the medical profession cannot get this issue straight and use correct terminology then who can?

Over the past 20 years, there has been an increasing tendency to use the words "gender" and "sex" interchangeably. It is important for physicians and the editorial staff of medical journals to recognize that these words are not synonymous and that incorrect or inconsistent use in patient interaction and risk stratification and treatment tools that include sex as a criterion could have adverse medical consequences.

Sex is an objective descriptor of the biological characteristics that differentiate males from females. Sex is described by the nouns male and female.

Gender, however, is, by definition, a subjective state of mind, a psychosocial construct frequently used to designate discordance with sex; thus the commonly heard term "gender identity." Historically, gender has been a grammatical taxonomic term in Indo-European languages to describe nouns by the adjectives masculine, feminine, and neuter. The word gender was never used in reference to persons until recently.

Non-historically conforming usage of the word gender began in 1955, when sexologist John Money used it to describe one's state of mind and behavior, encompassing self-identity, societal expectations, and assumed sexual roles in society.

In the 1970s and 1980s, the word gender began to appear in feminist literature in reference to the social construct of masculinity and femininity. The word sex continued to be used to designate biological differences between males and females. But this changed in the 1990s, when Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg began using gender synonymously with sex in reference to persons. It was she who popularized the term "gender discrimination."

In 1993, the FDA began to use gender in place of sex. This misuse in terminology began to appear in the medical literature, as reflected in titles such as "Influence of gender on ICD implantation for primary and secondary prevention of sudden cardiac death," in Europace in 2007 (1).

In 2011, the FDA reversed its previous substitution of gender for sex and began to use sex as a biological classification and gender as a psycho-social classification, "a person's self representation as male or female, or how that person is responded to by social institutions based on the individual's gender presentation." This was consistent with the following distinction made by the World Health Organization in the same year: "Sex refers to the biological and physiological characteristics that define men and women. Gender refers to the socially constructed roles, behaviors, activities, and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for men and women."

But in spite of this clarification, the substitution of gender for sex has persisted, as reflected in the titles of articles appearing in the medical literature, such as "Impact of gender on the prognosis of patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation," in The American Journal of Cardiology in 2014 (2), and "Gender differences in anticoagulation and stroke outcomes in atrial fibrillation," in Circulation in 2015 (3). Given that gender is, by definition, a psychosocial construct and not a biological reality, it is important for the medical literature to reflect that definition and for physicians to use correct terminology in documentation, as failure to correctly distinguish the differences between a state of mind and a biological reality could result in serious untoward consequences in patient care.

The CHADS-VASC score, a conventional tool used to determine the risk of stroke in association with atrial fibrillation, uses sex as one criterion (4). A failure to differentiate gender from sex could result in an overestimate, or underestimate, of the risk for stroke, leading to a treatment decision in favor of, or against, anticoagulation. The ramifications of this could be serious either way, and legal defense in the event of litigation could be compromised.

While it is appropriate to document gender in the psychiatric and social history of a medical record, the objective segments of medical documentation should, in compliance with the traditional SOAP format, indicate sex, and treatment decisions that differ for the sexes should be based upon sex and not gender.

Because most patients with sex-gender discordance are aware of the difference between the words gender and sex, questionnaires should not request gender in lieu of sex, nor should physicians transpose the terms in conversation.

This distinction should also be appreciated and used by the editorial staff of medical journals to avoid publication of articles as mentioned above.

REFERENCES:

1. Davis, Tang, et al. Influence of gender on ICD implantation for primary and secondary prevention of sudden cardiac death. Europace. 2006; 8; 12:1054-2956

2. Inoui, Atarashi, et al. Impact of gender on the prognosis of patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation. The American Journal of Cardiology. 2014; 113; 6: 957-96

3. Kassim, Qin, et al. Gender differences in anticoagulation and stroke outcomes in atrial fibrillation. Circulation, 2015: Abstract

4. ClinCalc.com Cardiology CHADS2-VASc calculator for atrial fibrillation.
After enduring nearly a week of questions about why the president was not going to visit the flood-ravaged areas of Louisiana, the Martha's Vineyard White House announced that the president would drop by Baton Rouge on Tuesday.

Is it coincidence that Donald Trump called out the president for not showing solidarity with the victims of the flooding less than 24 hours earlier and paid his own visit to the disaster areas?

The connection is inescapable.

Here's the statement by the president:

While in Martha's Vineyard, the President has received updates on the situation in Louisiana, including from the DHS Secretary and the FEMA Administrator, who took separate trips there. The President today directed his team to coordinate with Louisiana officials to determine an appropriate time for him to visit, and together they have determined that the President will visit Baton Rouge, Louisiana on Tuesday, August 23rd. Additional details will be announced in the coming days. The President is mindful of the impact that his travel has on first responders and wants to ensure that his presence does not interfere with ongoing recovery efforts. He is also eager to get a first-hand look at the impact of the devastating floods, hear from more officials about the response, including how the federal government can assist and tell the people of Louisiana that the American people will be with them as they rebuild their community and come back stronger than ever.

And what did Senator Obama have to say about the response of President Bush to the Katrina disaster?

"Indeed," he said, "if there's any bright light that has come out of this disaster, it's the degree to which ordinary Americans have responded with speed and determination even as their government has responded with unconscionable ineptitude." Campaigning for president a few years later, he slammed Bush for flying Air Force One over the floods. "We can talk about what happened for two days in 2005 and we should. We can talk about levees that couldn't hold, a FEMA that seemed not just incompetent but paralyzed and powerless, about a president who only saw the people from the window of an airplane instead of down here on the ground."

For him, the president couldn't go because it would interfere with first responders, but for President Bush, a double standard. Amazing that the mainstream media hasn't picked up on the hypocrisy.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump's visit raised the spirits of victims and will probably lead to a big jump in donations to the Red Cross and disaster relief agencies.

Fox News:

The Republican presidential nominee, with running mate Mike Pence at his side, stopped at the home of Jimmy and Olive Gordan in Denham Springs, where the couple was still sweeping out floodwaters from their home. A ruined couch, chair and bedroom furniture were piled on their lawn, and Jimmy Gordan told Trump he spent his 79th birthday on the roof of his house. "I just don't know what we'll do," the man told Trump. "You're going to rebuild, Trump told him as the two hugged. It's going to be so beautiful." Trump and Pence received a warm reception as they toured a heavily-damaged portion of East Baton Rouge Parish. A crowd of supporters near a local Baptist church where volunteers have gathered to feed flood victims cheered the pair. "Thank you for coming, Mr. Trump," one woman screamed. "We knew you would be here for us!" another shouted. The candidate also met with Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council. Perkins own home was flooded. The prominent Christian conservative says he wants Trump to "let the country know" about the extent of the damage.

And what of Mrs. Clinton? She is reportedly at home "resting." But she expended a little energy by picking up the phone:

Clinton called Gov. John Bel Edwards to discuss the relief effort, and posted on Facebook that her "heart breaks for Louisiana." But Clinton said visiting the state amid the damage and ongoing relief effort would be a "distraction."

The shameless, hypocritical double standard employed by the media when it comes to the actions of Democrats and Republicans has never been clearer.
It doesnt matter how careful you are with your number. Whether its by acquiring it from somebody or hitting your number on a random generator, or even obtaining your number illicitly, youve likely been called by a robot before. The typical robocall is initiated automatically and has the user talking to a recording, which eventually gives the option to either jump to another menu or talk to a human. With there is varying degrees of disdain against robocalls, the FCC made the final call not long ago and decided that robocalls werent worth the annoyance, then promptly began fighting against them. The continuance of that fight will apparently involve a pretty long list of names from both the telecom and tech sectors.

The newly formed Robocall Strike Force consists of various tech and telecom companies, who will be working with the FCC in various capacities toward the goal of ending robocalls once and for all. The group, which consists of big names like Alphabet, AT&T, Apple, and Verizon, had its first meeting on Friday, where they discussed the scourge that they were up against, with FCC chairman Tom Wheeler leading the charge. The groups discussion for the first session mostly consisted of assessing and setting goals, as well as talking about a comprehensive play book for all of us to go execute, according to AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson.

The full list of companies taking part in the Robocall Strike Force is quite large, and includes a number of big players like Microsoft, LG, BlackBerry, and T-Mobile US. While they have not yet announced a definitive meeting schedule or action plan, they are set to report publicly to the commission on October 19. Presumably, at that point, the strike force will be revealing their tools, tactics, plans, and other such details. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler stressed the obnoxiousness of robocalls in the initial meeting, citing them as the number one type of complaint that the FCC receives. While it may sound simple to just criminalize robocalling, there are multiple controversies and complications with that approach. Right now, individual providers and independent parties are creating apps, standards, and plans to block out robocallers, but they ultimately will roll on for the time being.
One of the benefits of Chrome in general is that it is available on a wide selection of platforms including Android, Windows, Mac, Linux and of course, Chrome OS. Which does mean that many apps have also now made their way to the various platforms. While Android is an entity onto itself, the rest of the platforms make use of Chrome apps, ones which are web-based in principle, but offer extended functionality through the Chrome browser on those platforms. However, that is going to change soon as Google has now confirmed that they are completely dropping support for Chrome apps (not themes or extensions) on Windows, Mac and Linux.

For those who do use Chrome apps, there is not going to be any good news here really, as the apps are going with no real replacement or alternative being offered. However, one silver lining for those users, is that the ending of support is going to occur slowly, with the eventual full closure of Chrome apps expected to take place in early 2018. Until then, there will be a systematic dismantling of the support for Chrome Apps, which will begin later on this year when newly-published or released Chrome apps will not be accessible by any of the mentioned platforms. This will however, not affect already-existing Chrome apps, which will remain accessible by users and able to be updated by developers. Following which, in the later part of 2017, the Chrome Web Store will stop displaying Chrome apps on the various platforms. This will be in preparation for the eventual ending of support via Windows, Mac, and Linux, which Google states will occur in early 2018. At which points Google notes users on these platforms will no longer be able to load Chrome apps.

In terms of why Google is doing this, it seems there are a few reasons, although they do somewhat overlap. Firstly, Google notes that approximately 1% of users on Windows, Mac and Linux actively use Chrome packaged apps. For those wondering what a Chrome packaged app is, this is a type of Chrome app that many will be more-familiar with as they are apps which emulate a normal desktop app. In contrast to hosted apps which are entirely web-based. So actual user numbers seems to be playing a major role in this decision. However, Google does also go on to explain that there were certain experiences the web couldnt provide, such as working offline, sending notifications, and connecting to hardware. An issue that Google points out is not so problematic anymore with the evolution of web apps. While the last reason is a very simple one with Google explaining that as they continue to try to simply Chrome, they feel it is time to begin the evolution away from the Chrome apps platform.

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It is of course, worth pointing out that none of this will affect the actual Chrome OS platform in any way, shape or form, as this seems to be the one platform which will retail full access to both new and existing Chrome apps for the foreseeable future. Which makes sense as Chrome OS does primarily make use of these apps as their main routes to functionality, in spite of some Chromebooks recently gaining access to Android Apps. To some, this news wont come as a total surprise as it has seemed as though Google was winding down non-Chrome OS support for Chrome apps, with various changes including the removal of the Chrome app launcher earlier this year. That all said, if Googles numbers are correct, then this wont actually be a change which affects that many users on the various soon-to-be not-supported platforms.
Samsung smartphones have become quite popular over the past few years and are some of the best devices available on the market. Samsungs flagship devices typically come packed with top-of-the-line hardware and many useful features. One common point of frustration and confusion, however, is their set of built-in apps. While some of the apps that come preloaded on their devices offer useful features, they often duplicate the functionality of Googles preloaded apps, taking up unnecessary space and providing users with more options than they may want. Samsung seems to realize this, at least when it comes to their music service, Milk Music, and will be retiring it in the U.S. on September 22 of this year.

The service, which has been around for a couple of years now, offers some of the same features as other popular music options, such as personalized stations and access from many different types of devices, as well as offline playback for premium users. However, with so many great options available for streaming music, competition is high and the service has struggled to gain the level of popularity of alternatives such as Pandora and Spotify. The decision to shut the service down may not come as much of a surprise, as earlier this year Milk Music was discontinued in Australia, and there were rumors that they planned to do the same in the U.S. According to an official statement from Samsung, they have decided to work with partners to provide the best music experience for their customers, though they did not specify which company or companies they plan to partner with going forward.

Those who have grown fond of Milk Music may be disappointed by this decision. Fortunately, they will be able to find many similar services that offer a lot of the same features. One of the most practical options is Google Play Music. Like Milk Music, it offers automatically generated radio stations, offline playback and music recommendations. The premium service can also be purchased on either an individual basis or as part of a family plan, and a web-based music player is available to listen to music on the PC. And one of the most convenient aspects of Google Play Music is that it comes preinstalled on current Android devices, so your music collection will be there from the first time you sign in without the need to download and set up an additional app. Although those who use Milk music may be sorry to see it shut down, it is nice to know that Samsung is focused on providing the best experience possible, even if that means using another service in favor of their own.
Samsungs Galaxy Note 7 has officially launched today and is currently on sale at all four major U.S. wireless carriers as well as multiple online retailers both in the U.S. and around the globe, and while many people pre-ordered the device there are likely just as many if not more that are currently waiting in line at retail stores or placing their order online to grab the latest and greatest from Samsungs Galaxy Note line. There is much to love about the Galaxy Note this year, including the refined design of the outer body, but more so because of the new features added.

The Galaxy Note 7 carries one notable feature that stands out above any other that it has, and thats the iris scanner. While not all users who purchase the device will be looking to use or will use the iris scanner, there are plenty of users who will see the benefits in it, and it is arguably pretty cool to have. Of course, there are other worthy new features and changes to the Galaxy Note 7 which werent present on the Galaxy Note 5 from last year, not the least of which is the new and improved S Pen which now features a waterproof rating just like the phone itself. The Galaxy Note 7 also houses a display with curved edges just like the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, allowing users to access the edge features from whatever side of the screen suits them best. While these are all great features, some will favor things like the USB Type-C or the now expandable storage option. With so many features that make the Galaxy Note 7 a worthy choice for a new or upgraded phone, which feature of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 is your favorite?

[socialpoll id=2382296]
PLEASE NOTE!

Due to the March 23, 2020 NM DOH Public Health Order, These Event Listings Are Not Accurate!

All non-essential businesses are closed, public gatherings are prohibited!

(One day some of these events will be rescheduled or will resume, but they are not happening now!)
Culture Kalash: Pakistani tribe doesnt like Muslim migrants

There is trouble in Pakistan. The Kalash tribe is threatened:

Hidden up in the mountains near Pakistans border with Afghanistan, the Kalash tribe loves homemade wine and whiskey, dances for days at colorful festivals, and practices a religion that holds that God has spirits and messengers who speak through nature But over the past century, Muslims from modern-day Pakistan and Afghanistan began moving in. Now villagers say their Kalash culture and religion are threatened by forced conversions, robberies and assaults.

New arrivals not wanted by locals. The BBC says the Kalash was founded by settling armies of Alexander the Great. Adding:

Unlike most of Pakistan, where even eye contact between unrelated men and women can be taboo, the Kalash express themselves freely. Children of both sexes play together and women breastfeed in public.

Right-on!

CNN has more:

Loveless liaisons hold no appeal for the spirited Kalasha women: We choose our husbands, and if they dont treat us well, or it doesnt work out, we can leave and find a new partner, says Gul, as her two friends, teenage mothers Farida and Asmar, nod and blush.

Back to the issue:

We are scared, said Yasir Kalash, the manager of a hotel here in Pakistans northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. They capture our lands, our pastures and our forests, and sometimes take our goats and women  We are afraid in the next few years we will be finished.

In 2009, the Telegraph reported:

While Sikhs, Hindus, and Christians were slowly driven out of Pakistans North West Frontier Province by Muslim militants, the Kalash were free to drink their own distilled spirits and smoke cannabis. But the militant maulanas of the Taliban have finally caught up with them.

If you need to forcibly convert anyone to your beliefs, you are wrong.

Time to revisit Christopher Hitchens 10 Commandments for 21st Century living:

I: Do not condemn people on the basis of their ethnicity or color.

II: Do not ever use people as private property.

III: Despise those who use violence or the threat of it in sexual relations.

IV: Hide your face and weep if you dare to harm a child.

V: Do not condemn people for their inborn nature.

VI: Be aware that you too are an animal and dependent on the web of nature, and think and act accordingly.

VII: Do not imagine that you can escape judgment if you rob people with a false prospectus rather than with a knife.

VIII: Turn off that fucking cell phone.

IX: Denounce all jihadists and crusaders for what they are: psychopathic criminals with ugly delusions.

X: Be willing to renounce any god or any religion if any holy commandments should contradict any of the above.

Amen.

Anorak

Posted: 20th, August 2016 | In: Key Posts, Reviews Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
(ANSA) - Naples, August 19 - Three divers drowned Friday in a very deep underwater cave at Palinuro near Salerno which is not normally visited because, at 45m, it is too far down.

The three, whose bodies were found in a Palinuro cave, were named as Mauro Cammardella, the owner of a local diving centre; Mauro Tancredi, another local man; and Silvio Anzola from Milan.

The three, who were among eight divers, were reportedly on a training dive. The other five resurfaced safely.

Rescue services located the bodies after a four-hour search. They had failed to re-emerge after the dive at around 10 o'clock in the morning.

Because of the depth of the cave, speleologists from the fire brigade are assisting in efforts to recover the bodies.




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Asghar Fakhrieh Kashan, deputy minister for international affairs at the ministry of road and urban development, said the 100-seat MRJ will be purchased as part of a deal on behalf of domestic carrier Aseman Airlines.

A number of deals have been announced informally by government ministers in the past  sometimes to the surprise of the airlines. It is not clear yet how solid this latest order can be.

According to Kashan the deal will be concluded in December when there will be an official visit from Iran to Tokyo. Some 20 of the new MRJ are said to be required.

The regional jet  a joint venture between Mitsubishi and Toyota  was first announced in 2007. The prototype first flight was in November 2015, and deliveries are scheduled for 2018

Iran has already signed a $27bn draft agreement with Airbus for the purchase of 118 jets. These include 45 A320 single-aisle aircraft, 45 A330 wide-bodied aircraft, 16 A350 twin-aisle aircraft, and 12 A380 jets.

Again, there is some doubts about whether all of these will actually be taken.

Reuters reported that Iran has signed draft deals with Boeing and Airbus worth around $50bn for the purchase of about 200 new aircraft. ATR and Embraer have also been named as beneficiaries of the national fleet modernization, following the lifting of certain economic sanctions against Iran.




For writing read Google and you have much of the burden of current worries about how use of the internet may be degrading our minds. Writing itself is just as much an external prosthetic technology (characters which are no part of themselves, as the Egyptian king complains) as the internet is. Writing is also a tool of extended cognition. The difference is that we have had thousands of years to get used to it. The truth about the question of whether our reliance on modern electronic prostheses is better or worse for us is that its simply too early to tell.
The word Arkancide , probably coined by the website Arkancide , refers to potential witnesses to the Clintons dirty dealings in Arkansas suddenly committing suicide by shooting themselvesArkansas police and coroners, notably medical examiner Fahmy Malak who answered to then-Arkansas governor Bill Clinton, automatically called these shootings suicides. After Bill Clinton became President the phenomenon moved to Washington D.C., most notably when Hillary Clintons ex-lover Vincent Foster was found dead on a D.C. park bench and declared to also have committed suicide.Now that Hillary is pursuing the presidency, Arkancides have resumed, including these recent cases:On August 9, 2016, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange intimated that Democratic National Committee (DNC) staffer Seth Rich , who was shot dead in Washington, DC, was the source for thousands of hacked DNC emails that expose the DNC as the corrupt arm of Hillary Clinton WikiLeaks released the emails to the public, to the DNCs embarassment. See:WikiLeaks also obtained thousands of then-Secretary of State Hillary Clintons supposedly-deleted emails, which WikiLeaks has been releasing piecemeal to the public. (See, for example  Hillary aide talks about animal sacrifice to demon Moloch in WikiLeaks email )Assange promises that emails especially damaging to Hillarys presidential ambitions will be released right before the November election for maximum impact.All of which makes WikiLeaks a thorn in the sides of Hillary and the DNC.On August 15, 2016, WikiLeaks sent out a Twitter alert about another Arkancide  the strange suicide by train of, a prominent British human rights attorney.Neil Tyson reports for The Sun that(Assange, 44, has been holed-up for four years in the Ecuador Embassy in London, after the Swedish government tried to extradite him for questioning on rape charges.)A spokesman for British Transport Police (BTP) said it was called to West Hampstead rail station in north London, April 18, after. The spokesman added that the man was pronounced dead at the scene.A file will be prepared for the coroner.The man wasBy all indications, Jones had everything to live for. He was only 48 years old, a successful, well-regarded attorney who lived in a 1.5 million home in Hendon, north London, with his beautiful and accomplished wife, 40-year-old Dr. Misa Zgonec-Rozej, director of an international law consultancy, and their two young children., alongside Hollywood actor George Clooneys wife Amal. He specialized in extradition, war crimes and counter-terrorism, taking cases from the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Lebanon and Cambodia. At the time of his Arkancide, Jones was trying to save the lives of Colonel Gaddafis son Saif and Libyan spy chief Abdullah al-Senussi. Both had been ordered before a firing squad in Tripoli, but Jones was trying to divert their case to the war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Holland, which does not have the death penalty.Doughty Street said in a statement: John was a brilliant and creative lawyer admired and appreciated for his amazing sense of humour, professionalism and deep commitment to justice. His death is a huge loss.Another recent Arkancide is the death of the father of a physician alleged to be treating Hillary for dementia . More on this in a post to come!See also:~EowynDr. Eowyns post first appeared at Fellowship of the Minds
The Burmese State Minister is in Beijing from August 17. Yesterday she met with President Xi Jinping. China ready to play "a constructive role in promoting the peace process in Myanmar". Talks also on Myitsone dam project and $ 3.6 billion suspended in 2011 after strong protests.

Beijing (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Trade agreements on hydropower, exploitation of natural resources and finance and the strengthening of diplomatic relations with the biggest investor in Myanmar. These are the cornerstones of Aung San Suu Kyi's official visit, in her capacity as Burmese Minister of Foreign Affairs, to China on August 17. After being welcomed like a head of government, the Nobel Laureate met Prime Minister Li Keqiang two days ago, while yesterday she held talks with President Xi Jinping.

The trip, which ends tomorrow, is the most important visit to a foreign country made by the leader of the League for Democracy after the party's election victory. Xi Jinping expressed satisfaction with the choice of Aung San Suu Kyi, stating that "China attaches great importance to development of relations with Myanmar". The Chinese president said that Beijing wants to play "a constructive role in promoting the peace process in Myanmar and efforts to ensure stability on the Sino-Burmese border". Many analysts consider this visit a sign that, despite the democratic process in action in the country, Myanmar is forced to remain in the orbit of China rather than the US.

With $ 15.4 billion in loan approvals in Myanmar, China is by far the largest foreign investor in the country, although the democratic elections have increased Western interests. Beijing is especially interested in oil and gas reserves, dams and mines that are on Burmese territory. In recent months a number of Chinese companies have won lucrative contracts.

A major topic of discussion between the two countries concerns the $ 3.6 billion Myitsone dam project (the northern state of Kachin), uspended in 2011 by the former president of Burma Thein Sein to the great wrath of Beijing . The junta's decision had come after several protests denouncing hardships for the population living near the dam. Even Aung San Suu Kyi had advocated in favor of the closure of the project.

The reopening of the dam is a priority for Beijing, as it would benefit from 90% of the energy generated by the facility. Several Burmese civil society organizations are concerned that the current visit will lead to a revival of the project. Some 60 groups have written an open letter to President Xi Jinping and delivered it to the Chinese ambassador, in which they call for the permanent closure of project.

Song Junying, an analyst at the China Institute for International Studies, believes that "among all the possibilities, the reopening of the dam is the least likely. The project was stopped a long time ago and is considered a democratic victory of the Burmese people. It is likely that Yangon will choose to liquidate the Chinese side and open other sites for the Beijing dams".
A study examines the terrorist attacks between 2002 and 2015. The data includes the attacks of individuals and groups, inspired by or openly declared to have allegiance to IS. Daesh militiamen have carried out 13% of terrorist activities on a global level causing 26% of all fatalities.

Baghdad (AsiaNews / Agencies) - More than 33 thousand people have died at the hands of the Islamic State (IS) and organizations affiliated to the jihadist movement, over a period of time ranging from 2002 to 2015. This data is contained in a report published by Maryland University's Consortium for the Study of Terrorism And Responses to Terrorism (Start). The survey, the work of a group of US experts, also shows that militants have launched at least 4900 attacks worldwide.

The Daesh militiamen [Arabic acronym for IS have carried out 13% of terrorist acts ton a global level duriong the period covered by the investigation; with regard to the number of deaths, 26% of the total is due to the self-styled jihadist Islamic Caliphate.

For researchers October 2002, and the assassination in Jordan of US diplomat Laurence Foley at the hands of a small group led by Abou Moussab al-Zarqawi, marked the first attack by what was then a relatively small group, destined to grow over time. It evolved to reach the current structure and took the name "Islamic State" in 2013, now known today worldwide.

The investigation is based on data from the Global Terrorism Database, which registered attacks by individuals and groups prior to IS (formerly Isis), those faithful to the same Isis, inspired jihadists or perpetrated by the men of the Caliphate . In this list there are 30 organizations such as Boko Haram in West Africa, Tehrik-e-Khilafat in Pakistan and Bagsamoro Islamic Freedom Movement in the Philippines.

Along with 33 thousand dead, over 41 thousand people were injured in the attacks and more than 11 thousand were abducted.

From May 2013 to the end of that year IS has made an average of 46 attacks per month. The figure grows in 2014 to 104 attacks per month and 102 the following year. The most serious and bloody attacks according to the study took place in Iraq in June 2014, with the seizure of about 1600 regular army recruits, almost all executed.

In 80% of cases the attacks  out of about 150 thousand terrorist attacks in total since 1970 - perpetrated by the Islamic state have occurred through the use of explosives; 16% instead were carried out with firearms.

The findings in the research also show some correlation in the methods used by terrorist groups. For example, the precursors of the Islamic state between 2002 and 2013 attacked and hit almost exclusively in Iraq. From 2014 on, the attacks have reached a global scale.
by Sumon Corraya

The Nuncio George Kocherry delivers the "Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice" cross to Dr. Benedict Alo D'Rozario and the widow of the jurist Promod Mankin. It is the first time that two Bangladeshi laity receive this honor, the highest recognition granted by the Vatican. Their commitment "was of enormous impact for the Church and for Bangladeshi society."

Dhaka (AsiaNews) - The Vatican's nuncio in Bangladesh was awarded for the first time in the history of the local Church with two "Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice" crosses to two lay people who - with their commitment - have "changed the country and society".

The recipients are Dr. Benedict Alo D'Rozario, historic leader of Caritas, and the deceased jurist Promod Mankin, for years engaged in politics in favor of minorities.

The Cross is awarded to those lay people (men and women) and to those clerics who are distinguished for their service to the Church and the person of the Roman Pontiff. The award ceremony was held at the headquarters of the Episcopal Conference, attended by eight bishops and two archbishops as well as 60 representatives of the Catholic community.

Dr. D'Rozario told AsiaNews: "This recognition inspires me even more in my service to the Church and the country. I will do everything possible to ensure that mI do my best to serve the community until the end of my days".

His career began with the passing of examinations of the civil service, a coveted post that opens to doors to positions in government. Instead, he chose to work in the Bishops' Commission for Justice and Peace and then in Caritas. Until 2015 he headed the "charitable arm" of the Catholic Church in Bangladesh.

Instead, the award for Promod Mankin was received by his widow. The member of parliament, who died a few months ago, was for years president of Catholic institutions and regional director of Caritas Mymensingh. After this first phase of his life he entered politics, being elected deputy for several mandates. He always used his role to help minorities in the country.

The president of the Bangladesh Episcopal Conference , Msgr. Patrick D'Rozario, commented at the end of the award ceremony: "These two figures have made an outstanding contribution to the Church and society of the country, which they have helped change for the better. That's why we honor them, respect them and are grateful for their contribution".
by Melani Manel Perera

In August the shrines of Thalawila and Madhu are crowded with pilgrims, both Catholic and non. On August 7, the feast of the Mother of Our Lady was celebrated with three days of spiritual retreat. August 15, Madhu celebrated the Assumption of Mary.

Colombo (AsiaNews) - Hundreds of thousands of people, both Catholic and non Catholic this month have flocked to the nation's Marian shrines to celebrate the feasts of St. Anne and the Assumption of the Virgin Mary.

About 400 thousand people headed on a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Anne of Thalawila, in Puttlam District (northwest Sri Lanka). There, August 7th they celebrated the feast of Our Lady's mother with a solemn Mass presided by Msgr. Valence Mendis, Bishop of Chilaw, and by Msgr. Emmanual Fernando, auxiliary bishop of Colombo.

Vincent Fernando, an activist for the rights of fishermen, was present at the Thalawila sanctuary on the feast days: "As every year - he says - there were three days of spiritual retreat for all the faithful at the shrine. This year, there were also catechesis for the children, young people and married couples, led by Fr. Jeewantha. There was a big crowd and almost 5 thousand people have followed them".

The annual pilgrimage, said the activist, is a valuable occasion for the family because "we can get together and pray for one another. Despite the hardships of the journey and the difficulties in the camps (sanitary facilities, sleeping on the ground, etc.) we have endured all this to pray".

August 15 is the most important day for the Madhu shrine of Wanni, one of the most famous and popular in the country and located in the diocese of Mannar (North West Province). The feast began with a Mass presided by Msgr. Malcolm Rajith, archbishop of Colombo, along with three other bishops.
Our PMV from Germany took about 8.5 months (Dec. '14 - Sep. '15), we applied for the 820 on 24th May and are still waiting, so coming up to 3 months. Some people have had them granted within days or weeks, others much later.



If your partner needs to leave Australia before the 820 is granted, it depends on what visa she has. If the PMV is still active then I think she can freely leave and return, as long as she's back before it expires. Once the PMV expires she will be on a Bridging Visa A until the grant of the 820. This does NOT allow you to travel in and out of the country so she would have to apply for a Bridging Visa B before travelling in order to re-enter Australia.



From reading on here, obtaining the Bridging Visa B seems to be a fairly quick and easy process and some people have even had their 820s granted instead of the BVB (perhaps Immi has wanted to make life a bit easier for them?) so there is a way to travel, it just takes some extra planning and bureaucracy.
I've read a few threads on this and it feels like some countries they don't seem to care as much about a lot of evidence but others they do. I'm from the U.S. originally and for my application we submitted:



Medicals and Police checks

Photos of us together (just the two of us and at family events)

888s from his parents (we only used two)

Printouts showing we have linked bank accounts (same bank but we maintain our own accounts but we can transfer back and forth)

Relationship statements

Identity documents (passport bio data page, birth certificates, his 18+ card)

Printout from his Centrelink account showing me as his de facto partner



In my relationship statement I just wrote about the history of our relationship and the things we do and have done together. Involvement in community (volunteering, attending ANZAC Day (I had uploaded photos of this too) to show my commitment to Australia and its culture). I think maybe membership cards for our local club.



In his parent's 888s they talked about me and my relationship with their son and how they see me as a daughter and how I fit in with their family etc.



Maybe you just have some really anal CO :/

But I would try to show how your wife contributes to the household, and how you transfer finances back and forth, etc. Does your wife work? If not explain how she helps around the house or other things she does. If she does work, try printing out and highlighting transfers between your accounts to show if she has contributed to any major purchases (white goods, household bills etc).
Hey everyone,



Can anyone shed some light on whether certifications such as Six Sigma Green Belt and Certified Supply Chain Professional help in obtaining more points for PR?



Thanks in advance
The latest perk in Floyd Mayweathers life is the expenditure of just about $2.5 million on the first example of one of the most intriguing cars ever made. Dubbed kode57, the red-painted supercar with reverse-hinged scissor doors is the sweat and blood of acclaimed car and industrial designer Ken Okuyama.Okuyama is a former asset of Pininfarina, the company that designs the body shells for the best name in the business for a living - Ferrari . The Japanese designer is the mastermind behind million-dollar projects such as the awe-inspiring Ferrari Enzo , as well as the overseer for cars such as the Ferrari P4/5, the 599, and the Maserati Quattroporte. Although unconfirmed by Okuyama, the kode57 is probably built on a Ferrari 599 GTB chassis.This assumption comes from the displacement of the engine and the get-up-and-go available at the press of the loud pedal. Under the hood of this outlandish four-wheeled art form, youll find a freely aspirated 6.0-liter V12 with 611 horsepower and 448 lb-ft of torque, a.k.a 599 GTB figures.The transmission is an electrohydraulic automated manual with six ratios, exactly the same setup as youll find in the Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano. Coincidence? I think not. But then again, the 599 is a perfect building block for this crazy contraption bestowed with an even crazier name.Okuyama highlights that the engine and suspension can be tuned to suit the owner's tastes thanks to a collaboration with German specialist Novitec Rosso. If the tuning company can pull off the same stunt it did with the 599 GTB Fiorano, then the Novitec Race Bi-Compressor package can hike the V12s output up to a mind-boggling 836 horsepower ( 848 PS ).These said, what do you make of the unearthly kode57?
HP

The French brand went there at the time to mark the launch of the beautiful Renault Dauphine in the United States of America. Back on September 5, 1956, the Renault Etoile Filante clocked up a speed of 308.9 km/h (192 mph) and established four new world records, out of which two still stand today.The Etoile Filante (it means shooting star in French) was an experimental car built on a tubular structure and fitted with a polyester body and a turbine engine. We are not referring to a turbocharged motor, but to a small turbine unit like those used by some helicopters.At the time, the Etoile Filante project was managed by Fernand Picard, with the aid of engine specialist Albert Lory, and driven by test driver and engineer Jean Hebert.The turbine engine was developed by Turbomeca, a company that specialized in this sort of thing, and the one used by the Shooting Star delivered about 270The record-setting attempt included reaching 192 mph (308.9 km/h) over a kilometer (0.6 miles), as well as the same speed over five kilometers (3.1 miles). While the 0.6-mile record was broken, the second one, for 3.1 miles, still stands. We find it curious that nobody attempted to break it.As some of you already know, turbine technology was being tested by several automakers at the time, but it never caught on because of the heat it generated. Moreover, its massive lag at low driving speeds was an upsetting problem that could not be overcome. Renault wanted to celebrate the old record by bringing a classic, race-ready, Dauphine to the Bonneville Salt Flats . The French brand scheduled the visit during the famous Bonneville Speed Week, held from 13-19 August this year. During a run, FIA Formula E driver Nicolas Prost, hired by Renault e.dams, set a new class record for 123.1 km/h (76.5 mph).You are probably thinking that driving 76.5 mph is nothing , even for a car built in 1956. However, we are writing about a class record, set for the CGC group with engines of capacity between 754 cubic centimeters and 1,015 cubic centimeters. Since the Renault Dauphine has a 956-cubic centimeter engine, it fits the class entirely.The group also has the  Classic  particle, meaning that you cannot break the record with a smart fortwo or something, as the vehicle must have been built between 1928 and 1981. The record-breaking run was clocked in the morning of August 14, 2016, and was scrutinized by race officials at 76.541 mph.
20 August 2016 15:20 (UTC+04:00)

Armenia is a frontier province of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), and it has turned into a dead end, Armenian political observer Hakob Badalyan said.

At the ministerial meeting of the EEU in Sochi, an exception of the unions general rules was made for Armenia, thus allowing the country to open a free trade zone on the border with Iran, in Syunik province, Badalyan wrote in his article on lragir.am.

It is unlikely that this move required great effort from Armenia, since as a member of the EEU Armenia is of no interest to other members of the union.

Badalyan said that Armenia doesnt need free economic zones but a free competition, when the government doesnt interfere in business and fights corruption.

This is while a free trade zone in Armenia means only legitimization of lack of freedom of other zones and economy in general, including criminal and oligarchic strata, he said.

The need for legalization has increased due to the tightening of challenges, both internal and external ones, Badalyan said. This is both an issue of responsibility and deoffshorization (requirement for return of foreign assets of local companies to their home country) and different exposures of the financial activity of Armenian officials.

Armenian criminal oligarchy is trying to save the exported billions, and, on the other hand, it is moving closer towards the need to maintain at its own expense economic stability in Armenia, he said. In this case, free economic zones become a salvation.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Orlandos ABC affiliate reports:

First responder Gerry Realin worked nearly round-the-clock after the Pulse terror attack on June 12. But now, because of the PTSD that followed that tragic night, his family could lose everything, Realins wife said.

Jessica Realin said a loophole in state law lets police departments off the hook when their officers get PTSD. They said a Florida statute doesnt recognize PTSD as a work-related injury and therefore, workmans compensation will not cover his treatment. Now the family is pushing to close a loophole in the state law.

Right now, the police officer cant even drive by Pulse without triggering his PTSD. Gerry Realin was one of the small group of officers who helped move the 49 people who died inside the club.

When he got home, 2:30 the next morning, he came in very quiet, was different, looked at both of our kids, then went in the shower and just lost it, Jessica Realin said. And he didnt stop crying. The next day, it was on and off. And its just been really hard.
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The public can share its thoughts about Kern Countys 2016-2017 budget 6 p.m. Monday in the Kern County Board of Supervisors chambers on the first floor of 1115 Truxtun Ave. in Bakersfield.



Supervisors will consider adopting the final budget 9 a.m. Tuesday, also in board chambers.
Erin Peterson raided mailboxes in Bakersfield to feed her crystal methamphetamine addiction for about five months until she was caught in Dece
The Cedar Fire damaged several structures Monday in the Spear Creek area of Tulare County as it continued to consume acreage almost a week aft
Hardin County constable Tim Moody was indicted Thursday on a misdemeanor charge of abuse of official capacity, officials said.

Moody turned himself in at the Waller County jail Saturday morning and was released on a $5,000 bond.

He said Friday he intends to plead not guilty.

"I don't have nothing to hide and I'm not guilty," Moody said "I'm looking for my day in court. I'm ready for it."

Hardin County Sheriff Ed Cain said the Texas Rangers investigated the allegations. Cain anticipated an arrest warrant to be issued Friday, if it hadn't already been done.

Moody, 53, is an investigator in the county attorney's office who is serving his second term as constable in the Saratoga area. Moody did not draw a primary- or general-election opponent this year, so it's presumed he will begin his third term Jan. 1.

County Judge Wayne McDaniel said he was asked in February to appoint a special prosecutor. McDaniel said he selected Jasper County District Attorney Steve Hollis, who could not immediately be reached for comment.

It wasn't immediately clear if a visiting judge had been appointed.
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Mayor of London Sadiq Khan in front of a new Night Tube logo at Oxford Circus underground station, ahead of the launch of the Night Tube service in London.

London's Night Tube got off to a smooth start with more than 50,000 travellers taking advantage of the first run of the service, Transport for London (TfL) has said.

Mayor Sadiq Khan, who was on board the first Victoria line service in the early hours of Saturday morning, said you could feel "the buzz" and excitement as he met passengers.

Oxford Circus was one of the busiest stations, with 6,500 people tapping in, while 4,250 people tapped out at Stratford station, according to figures released by TfL.

Around 100 British Transport Police (BTP) officers are patrolling the network, which operates through the night on Fridays and Saturdays.

Superintendent Chris Horton, the officer responsible for policing the Underground, insisted there was "no reason" why passengers would not be as safe as during the day.

He said the force would focus on "being visible" and ensuring it was "able to intervene in places that are likely to see significant issues".

A spokeswoman for the force said it had been called to just four incidents on the first run of the Night Tube, which was "in line with what we would expect to see on a Friday night".

"At this stage we are not aware of any crimes being committed," she added.

All-night services also started on parts of the Central line, where previously some passengers had to get their last train before midnight, while t he Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines will follow in the autumn.

London Underground (LU) expects 50,000 people to use the Night Tube each weekend, rising to 200,000 once all five lines are open.

Mr Khan chatted to passengers using the first train, which departed from Brixton, south London at 12.34am w ith passengers ranging from boisterous revellers to calm groups and individuals.

"You're making history," he told one couple.

Speaking as the train made its way towards north London, Mr Khan told the Press Association: "You can feel the buzz, you can feel the vibe. People are really excited.

"What's important is we got the detail and the planning right. I'm really pleased that 100 days or so after becoming the mayor we've got that right."

Mr Khan's predecessor, Boris Johnson, announced in September 2014 that the service would begin on September 12 2015, b ut a bitter dispute with the rail unions delayed the project.

The driver of the first train said the service was "great for London" and insisted he would be able to adjust to working through the night.

Asked if he was concerned about feeling tired, Daniel George, 28, from Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, said: "No, you change your sleeping pattern to work around that sort of thing."

He continued: "It's great for people not having to worry about the last train. It's a shame I have to be driving the train and not taking advantage of it but I know it's great for London."

A recent study by business membership organisation London First estimated the Night Tube could be worth 77 million each year to the capital's economy by 2029.
Ask any discerning dater and they'll tell you, Bumble is where it's at. The app, which was created by one of the founders of Tinder, requires women to send the first message, thereby discouraging the kind of creepy guys who make Tinder an increasingly depressing place to try and find a date.

And Bumble's not the only app putting women's needs first. Ciao (www.ciaodate.com) is a new dating platform - with one crucial difference to the likes of Happn (which uses GPS to show exactly how many metres you are from other users and how many times you've crossed paths): it removes the geolocation aspect, allowing users to zoom into areas on a map to find potential matches.

"When it comes to dating apps and, indeed, modern technology, personal safety is the public's number one concern - and rightly so," explains Ciao founder Alex Ziff.

"Many dating apps have the ability to reveal the individual's location to other users on that app. We're keen to reassure people however that Ciao Date does not track, or locate, people in any way through their phone."

The focus, instead, is on the date itself, so users specify the location and kind of activity; be it sushi, cocktails, or something outdoorsy, and you can even decide before you meet how you're going to split the bill, because gone are the days when the person who instigated the date was automatically expected to pay for everything.

Away from dating, Zipskee (zipskee.com) connects globetrotters with locals who can show you around and help you discover the tastiest tapas in Barcelona or the coolest clubs in Berlin.

The idea came about after CEO Evan Hung had a chance encounter with an Austrian in Denver who was doing a medical placement.

The two ended up hanging out, then a year later, Hung visited his friend in Innsbruck and found himself alone during the day.

"I explored the city by myself since he had to attend classes - and experienced the similar challenge of not knowing anyone local. I have always loved learning about new cultures through the lens of local people and desired the ability to easily connect with them. It was these circumstances that led to the birth of Zipskee."

The site matches users by language and interests and, because it has a star rating and review system, lone female travellers can feel safe connecting with people all over the world.

Whether you're looking for romance, friendship, or just advice that you won't find in guide books, it's never been easier to link up with people, near or far, but sexism and abuse are still all too common.

It's encouraging to see, though, with the arrival of Ciao and Zipskee, that the tech world is wising up to the challenges women face online.
Revellers in Belfast looking the worse for wear on the same night as A-level results were released

Revellers in Belfast looking the worse for wear on the same night as A-level results were released

Revellers in Belfast looking the worse for wear on the same night as A-level results were released

Revellers in Belfast looking the worse for wear on the same night as A-level results were released

Revellers in Belfast looking the worse for wear on the same night as A-level results were released

A-level students across Northern Ireland hit the town on Thursday night to celebrate their exam results - but the partying proved too much for some.

One picture taken by the Belfast Telegraph showed a young couple on Royal Avenue, lying slumped on the pavement as crowds gathered on the street.

Outside the SSE Arena, a young woman was left sitting alone on the ground with her head in her arms.

A further drunken scene saw another young woman helping her friend, who had only one shoe, stay on her feet.

Elsewhere in Belfast, four police officers were seen detaining a young man who was wearing no shirt.

The SOS charity bus was at the SSE Arena with 21 volunteers ready to help late-night revellers in need.

Joe Hyland, chief executive of the SOS bus, stayed out until 3am on Friday.

"There were 12 or 13 youngsters that needed our help on board the bus - and some of them were in quite a bad way," he explained.

"But their mums and dads were very grateful when they came to collect them.

"My advice is, boys and girls put 20 in your shoe, so that if you lose your purse you can still get home.

"If you're going out with your friends don't leave them - look after each other."

UUP councillor Jim Rodgers said: "It's most unfortunate for young people who have their life in front of them.

"I know that young people like to celebrate once they get their A-levels, but it can be highly dangerous to get themselves intoxicated in an area where they can get themselves injured or beaten up.

"It's not good for the image of Belfast. I know this happens in quite a few cities and towns, but I would certainly appeal to any young person who wants to enjoy themselves after working so hard that there's other ways to do it besides getting blocked out of your mind, when people can take advantage of you."

Alliance councillor Carole Howard added: "We have a lot of tourists visiting Belfast, so we don't want to be seen as a city that is rowdy and has our young people lying on the street with no one to look after them.

"I would also say to bar owners who see a young kid who has obviously had too much to drink, don't continue to serve them. Joint responsibility is needed here - from the kids themselves, their parents, the police, the council and the bar owners."

SDLP councillor Declan Boyle added: "For the students out celebrating, the key message is to mind their alcohol consumption and not be walking home alone.

"They've worked hard all year, maybe two years, and now they're seeing the fruits of their work. They will be full of exuberance, but still they must remember to be safe.

"It's important for students to stay together and to get taxis to bring them straight to their door."
The funeral of Gerard Lively takes place at St Johns Church in Hilltown, Co Down, yesterday

Nearly 800 mourners gathered in Hilltown yesterday for the funeral of father-of-two Gerard Lively.

The 60-year-old was described as "an excellent father and husband" to his wife MaryRose and children Steven and Ashling.

He died on Monday after his tractor was in collision with another vehicle at 6pm on the Bryansford Road in Hilltown.

Yesterday afternoon his remains left his family home on the Leitrim Road for Requiem Mass at St John's Church in Hilltown, with burial in the church's cemetery.

Parish priest Jarlath Cushenan, who conducted the funeral service, said Mr Lively was always willing to lend a helping hand to his friends.

"There were big numbers from everywhere, the church was packed to capacity and he would have been well known of course," he added.

During the service, Mr Lively's brother Eugene made a scripture reading.

For the homily, Fr Cushenan told mourners: "He was very good to his family and an excellent father and husband.

"He was very good to his elderly mother, who lived on her own close by.

"He was great friends to everybody really and would have been willing to give a hand when it was necessary for anything."

The priest added that a short time before Mr Lively's death, he had been "helping to bring hay in from the fields".
The owners of Hank the dog yesterday revealed they had split up months ago as they outlined their plans for spending the money raised to save their beloved pet from death row.

Hank's seizure from his east Belfast home by council dog wardens on suspicion of being a pit bull-type breed sparked a global campaign for his release.

The case reopened the debate on breed-specific legislation, which has been condemned as "flawed and archaic".

Hank's story made headlines around the world, including in French publication Le Monde and the Washington Post.

He even gained celebrity support in the form of X Factor host Dermot O'Leary, boxer Carl Frampton and celebrity dog trainer Victoria Stilwell.

An assessment concluded that although Hank was a pit bull terrier-type breed, the pet could be placed on the council's exemption register, thus saving him from being put down.

As part of his release conditions, Hank is to be kept on a lead and muzzled in public.

His owners, Joanne Meadows and Leonard Collins, have remained in the spotlight following his safe return.

They found themselves with a huge social media presence as thousands of people backed their fight. As part of the campaign to save Hank, they raised almost 19,000 to help pay for legal costs in fighting the case.

However, with the dog safely back at home, there has been much interest in what they intend to do with the money. They revealed yesterday they plan to take a step back by closing their social media page.

Leonard, posting on Facebook, wrote that while they would be "forever indebted" to the media for getting Hank back, he felt he and Joanne had been misrepresented as still being a couple.

"We separated last year and remained friends," he wrote. "Hank was both of ours and neither of us wanted to deprive the other of spending time with him.

"I kept from mentioning this on the Save Hank page as I didn't want to invite that sort of scrutiny into our private lives. We have both moved on and are seeing other people, so please don't be surprised if you see pics of this."

The pair also unveiled a breakdown of what they were planning to spend the funds on once they were released.

Leonard and Joanne said they had decided to give the money to individuals fighting to get their dogs returned, rather than to a charity.

They added that the money would be spent as follows:

2,701 will go on solicitors' fees - a figure that they believe could increase;

An unknown amount will be spent on vet's bills and training for Hank. They expect this to cost more than 1,000;

A donation of between 2,000 and 3,000 to a campaign to save Coco the dog;

A donation of around 3,000 for a campaign to save Zane, another dog;

A donation of around 3,000 for the campaign to save Blitz, a third dog.

Leonard said: "The general consensus from the community is to give these funds to individuals fighting to get their dogs returned, rather than a charity.

"These donations will be (made) as soon as we have access to the funds, and the actual amount will depend on what their needs are at that time.

"We are committed to making sure that these families hit their targets. More donations will follow shortly.

"In case I have not made it clear enough - we still have no access to Hank's funds, and all the excess monies are being donated."

A rally organised by Hank's owners against Northern Ireland's controversial dog laws has been postponed until further notice because of the large number of people expected to attend the march.
Powers allowing MI5 to collect huge amounts of electronic information helped foil dissident attacks and put suspected perpetrators in court, a major review has claimed. Picture posed by model

Powers allowing MI5 to collect huge amounts of electronic information helped foil dissident attacks and put suspected perpetrators in court, a major review has claimed.

Telephones belonging to members of anti-peace process groups were identified, leading to the recovery of explosives and the arrest of an individual committing a terrorist offence before harm was caused, the report said.

Bulk powers are among the most controversial tactics set to be covered by new UK surveillance laws.

They are used to access communications data - the who, when and where of an email or text message but not the content - in large amounts.

Terror laws watchdog David Anderson QC wrote: "Bulk capabilities are essential to understanding the plans of resilient, experienced terrorists and stopping their attacks".

The secret services acquired the information in large volumes and used it to generate intelligence about threats not easily obtained otherwise.

But some privacy campaigners have raised concerns.

The techniques were seen in a recent operation to identify phones linked to a dissident attack here, Mr Anderson's report indicated.

The information helped lead to the arrest and charge of an individual with terror offences. Phones not previously known to MI5 were also identified.

The report insisted: "It would have taken more time and been considerably more resource-intensive to discover the telephones without (the use of) bulk acquisition data."

The method was used in 2014 to identify a mobile phone being used by a dissident.

It was intercepted and police were able to arrest the individual while he was committing an offence. He was later prosecuted.

It would have been possible to identify it without bulk data, the report claimed.

It added, however: "The alternative method would have involved significant collateral intrusion in the form of gathering information about many telephones - all but one of them of no intelligence interest.

"This method would also have taken longer and so carried the risk that the correct phone might not have been identified in time".
Dawn Purvis (pictured) and Colum Eastwood are both supporting the action

Dawn Purvis and Colum Eastwood (pictured) are both supporting the action

Lawyers in Northern Ireland have launched a legal challenge to Brexit on behalf of a group of local clients from the worlds of politics and the voluntary sector

Papers were lodged with the High Court in Belfast on Friday seeking leave to apply for a Judicial Review.

Former justice minister David Ford is among the array of politicians and human rights activists whose lawyers wrote to Prime Minister Theresa May and other Cabinet members.

Those supporting the action include Green Party leader Steven Agnew, SDLP leader Colum Eastwood, Sinn Fein MLA John O'Dowd, former head of the PUP Dawn Purvis, former Equality Commission member and disability rights activist Monica Wilson OBE and the Committee on the Administration of Justice human rights group.

The individuals and groups involved claimed that before the Government can trigger Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union, a number of criteria must be overcome, including:

l parliamentary legislation is required;

l the consent of the Northern Ireland Assembly is required;

l an equality impact assessment under Article 75 of the Northern Ireland Act is needed;

l the triggering of Article 50 must comply with EU law;

l even if legislation is not found to be required, all reasonable alternatives must be considered before using Royal Prerogative.

The law firm Jones Cassidy Brett Solicitors said it received an inadequate response from the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union David Davis and from the new Northern Ireland Secretary of State James Brokenshire.

Speaking to the Belfast Telegraph last night, Fiona Cassidy of Jones Cassidy Brett said that the issue was likely to come before the courts in the autumn.

Victims' campaigner Raymond McCord was also granted legal aid earlier this week to set in motion his own challenge to the vote to leave the EU.
The sister of one of the people killed in Londonderry on Bloody Sunday said it was with a sigh of relief that she received the news that all of the paratroopers involved have been questioned by the police.

In total, eight soldiers were quizzed, but not under caution, and the interviews took place in England after the High Court ruled the troops should not be arrested or brought here.

Seven former paratroopers took the action after Soldier J, who lives in Northern Ireland, was arrested and taken to Antrim police station for questioning about the deaths of William Nash, John Young and Michael McDaid and the shooting of Alexander Nash, who was among the injured.

Police have finished their interviews with the former military personnel and are compiling a report for the Public Prosecution Service.

Detective Chief Inspector Ian Harrison, from the legacy investigation branch, said: The families have been informed of this and we will continue to keep them updated in relation to developments.

Kate Nash, whose brother William was killed and father Alex was wounded during the civil rights march in Derry in 1972, said: We have been thrown many hurdles along the way of this investigation, but we have passed them all and it was with a sigh of relief that I was given the news that all of the soldiers have now been interviewed.

We can look ahead now to the day when the soldiers are in court facing prosecutions over the deaths of our loved ones.

People Before Profit MLA for Foyle Eamonn McCann, who is a former head of the Bloody Sunday Trust, said the news marked a milestone for the families and also called for a speedy resolution for the relatives.

He added: The interviews were completed last month. The families shouldnt have to hang on any longer.

The PSNI had estimated that the current investigation would take four years. Four years have already passed.

The end of the Bloody Sunday saga may not be near, but it is at last in sight.
Gloria Hunniford has said she felt violated after a 'lookalike' conwoman managed to swindle 120,000 from her savings by posing as the star.

The Northern Ireland-born TV and radio star said she was still in shock after learning that the imposter, who is currently on the run, was able to add a fake grandson as a signatory to her Santander account in order to perpetrate the fraud.

And the 'Rip Off Britain' presenter also slammed the bank's security checks for falling far short of what customers should expect by not "double-checking the facts".

Cashier Aysha Davis (28) said the fraudster told her she had "a few bob" in her account and had come to add the teenager as a signatory because she had been ill.

They filled in paperwork to access the account, including photocopying their passports, and within days had stolen more than 120,000 from the celebrity.

Ms Hunniford (76), a 'Loose Women' panellist who regularly appears on 'This Morning' and 'The One Show', said it was very difficult to believe what had happened.

"If my husband or one of my two sons went into my bank and said they wanted to be a co-signatory I'd expect very thorough checks," she said.

"But in this case somebody was able to go to the bank with a copy of a driving licence or something.

"I didn't understand it from the off. I felt completely violated. These were my savings. You expect your money to be safe in a bank, but it is not."

The stylish, sophisticated, veteran journalist, who presents BBC One's consumer series 'Rip Off Britain' alongside Julia Somerville and Angela Rippon, said she had lost her faith in banks.

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"I am left with no trust. You think anybody can walk into a bank pretending to be someone else and get it all signed over," she said.

"Banks are going to have to step up their security with staff and systems. If someone can be scammed as easily as this, they have to up their game."

The Portadown native, whose work with Rip Off Britain has given her an insight into scammers' methods, also said it was time for the financial institutions to up their game to protect clients.

"There's no way I could have foreseen this," said Gloria, who now lives in Kent.

"In this case, a bank official took them on their word and did not, in my opinion, double-check the facts.

"It was such a shock. You keep your savings where you feel they are safe. What else can you do with them?

"Banks give out advice all the time on scamming, but the one piece of advice I think they need to pick up on is that their own security checks have to be stronger."

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The Hunniford 'lookalike' was believed to be so unconvincing that Ms Davis was initially suspected of being part of the fraud, but she was acquitted yesterday by a jury who believed she genuinely didn't know who Gloria was.

Police are still hunting for the pensioner fraudster and her bogus daughter, while stand-in grandson Alan Dowie (18) escaped jail to go to university.

Reylon Dillion, also aged 18, who laundered some of the cash from the scam, is due to be sentenced on September 7.

Dowie and Dillion were snared by a bank fraud task force set up by the Met and City of London Police.

Ms Hunniford - who has previously spoken of her devastation at the death of her daughter, Blue Peter host Caron Keating, in 2004 from breast cancer - was reimbursed by Santander once the scam was discovered.

The incident happened on June 3 last year when a plump elderly woman - whom a judge described as a 'look not very much alike' - presented herself at the Croydon North End branch, saying that she was Ms Hunniford.

The con-artist showed personal banker Aysha Davis ID and a bank card in the name of Mary Winifred Gloria Hunniford and said that she wanted her grandson to become an extra signatory on the account.

An Old Bailey jury yesterday cleared Ms Davis - who denied conspiracy to defraud - of helping the fraudsters to pull off the scam.

She was acquitted after less than 30 minutes of deliberation after telling a court she took the imposter at her word because she didn't realise Ms Hunniford is in fact a famous television star when she fell into the gang's trap.

Giving evidence, she said she had never met Dowie before he walked into the bank and she said she had to Google Ms Hunniford to find out who she was.

Police yesterday released CCTV images of the two suspects still at large, in a bid to catch the rest of the gang.
A woman died in a freak accident when she fainted and landed on top of a glass of water, a court has heard

A woman died in a freak accident when she fainted and landed on top of a glass of water, a court has heard.

The death of Dawn McGookin from Carrickfergus, was described as a terrible tragedy for the family circle.

She passed away on October 26, 2015 at her home after falling onto a glass tumbler which smashed as she landed on it, severing arteries and jugular veins in her neck, her inquest was told.

The 40-year-old was found the next morning by her boss, who had come to check on Dawn as it was very unusual she had not turned up to work that Monday.

During the inquest at Laganside Court, Coroner Patrick McGurgan found that Dawn's death was due to a "tragic accident, with no suspicious circumstances".

He also said Dawn was a much loved sister and daughter and that the accident had a dramatic impact on the family.

Dawn had been enjoying a get-together with the family of her boyfriend, John Brady, and afterwards had complained of not feeling well.

Around 6pm that evening Dawn vomited twice and complained of pains in her stomach. John had suggested Dawn stay at his house that evening, but she wanted to return to her own house.

Dawn then drove her car from John's house to her own, but then decided to visit her sister, Reah Rose McGookin, who is a doctor.

She only attended her sister's house for less than five minutes and in that time Dr McGookin prescribed some medication for her stomach pains and to help her sleep, the court was told.

John then took Dawn home and waited around 45 minutes with her while she got into bed before going to his own home.

At approximately 9pm, Reah called her sister to see how she was. Dawn reported that she was feeling better and Reah advised her to put a glass of water beside her bed in case she got dehydrated.

Reah called her sister again in the morning but there was no answer to calls or texts, the inquest heard.

Dawn had gone downstairs to get some water and was dressed in her pyjamas, a dressing gown and fleece type bed socks.

As she was leaving the kitchen she is believed to have fainted and fell on the glass which shattered, severing arteries in her neck, the court was told.

The following morning when Dawn did not turn up for work, her boss at Prestige Insurance in Carrickfergus was so concerned that she went to her house to see what was wrong. When Shirley Dallas arrived at the property on the Monday morning she noticed the door was locked and Dawn was lying face down in the hallway in a large pool of blood.

She immediately called the emergency services and a neighbour who forced open the door to gain entry.

The investigating officer who arrived at the scene was Constable Henderson, who told the court there was no sign of a disturbance at the property.

He described Dawn's position as looking like 'a fallen soldier' with her arms under her body.

Pathologist Marjorie Turner told the court that Dawn died as a result of a haemorrhage and a sharp force injury of the neck.

"Glass was recovered from the left side of the neck and from her right hand," she said.

"The glass had cut arteries and jugular veins in her neck resulting in heavy blood loss. But I can add she was unconscious when she fell."

Dawn's parents, James and Reah McGookin, said they both missed her very much and that they loved their daughter a lot.

James said: "We used to go to church together every Sunday and she would then come to our house for dinner, but that particular Sunday she had went with her boyfriend to a family celebration. It is comforting to know that Dawn did not suffer."
Hillary Clinton must answer questions about her email use, a judge ordered (AP)

Hillary Clinton has been ordered by a US judge to answer questions in writing from a conservative legal advocacy group about her use of a private email server during her tenure as secretary of state.

US District Court Judge Emmet G Sullivan issued the order as part of a long-running public records lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch.

The judge's decision is only a partial victory for the group, which had sought to question the Democratic presidential nominee in person and under oath.

Republicans have pressed to keep the issue of Mrs Clinton's email use alive after the FBI closed its investigation last month without recommending criminal charges.

Judicial Watch is among several groups that have sued the government over access to records about Mrs Clinton's service as the nation's top diplomat between 2009 and 2013.

The judge said Judicial Watch must submit its questions to Mrs Clinton by October 14 and gave her 30 days to respond.

The timetable could push Mrs Clinton's answers past the November presidential election unless Judicial Watch sends its questions earlier than mid-October.

In a separate development, another former secretary of state, Colin Powell, said he sent Mrs Clinton a memo about his use of a personal email account for work-related messages after she took over in 2009.

Mr Powell said he emailed Mrs Clinton describing his use of a personal AOL account for unclassified messages while leading the state department under President George W Bush.

The Republican said he told Mrs Clinton his use of personal email "vastly improved" communications within the department, which at the time did not have an equivalent internal system.

On the campaign trail, Mrs Clinton's rival Donald Trump again made a direct appeal to black voters, urging them to abandon the Democratic Party and give him a chance.

Speaking at a rally in Dimondale, Michigan, an overwhelmingly white suburb, the Republican nominee argued that Democrats, including Mrs Clinton, have taken taken the votes of African-Americans for granted.

"Tonight, I'm asking for the vote of every single African-American citizen in this country who wants to see a better future," Mr Trump told the crowd.

"What do you have to lose by trying something new, like Trump? You're living in your poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs, 58% of your youth is unemployed - what the hell do you have to lose?"

He also made a bold prediction: "At the end of four years, I guarantee you that I will get over 95% of the African-American vote. I promise you."

Most polls show Mr Trump trailing Mrs Clinton significantly among black voters. President Barack Obama won roughly 93% of black voters in his re-election campaign in 2012.

But Mr Trump once again accused Mrs Clinton of "bigotry," claiming she sees African-Americans "only as votes, not as human beings worthy of a better future".

The Clinton campaign's Marlon Marshall said: "Donald Trump asks what the African-American community has to lose by voting for him.

"The answer is everything from a man who questions the citizenship of the first African-American president, courts white supremacists, and has been sued for housing discrimination against communities of colour."

AP
Inevitably there will be wry amusement in some quarters at the news that someone managed to scam 120,000 from Gloria Hunniford's bank account. After all, she is one of the presenters of the television programme Rip Off Britain. It is the sort of material any comic would dream of.

And to add insult to injury the bank teller who fell for the con-woman's story admitted in court that she didn't even know who Ms Hunniford was. This is a woman who has been a star of television since the 1970s and who makes appearances on the high-profile daytime show Loose Women as well as her Rip Off Britain series.

To those of us in Northern Ireland who are proud of our television stars it seems inconceivable that anyone would not know her.

While Ms Hunniford has been recompensed by her bank for the money, that does not mean that she didn't lose anything. For one thing she has lost her faith in the security of banks.

She, like the rest of us, believed that the safest thing you could do with you money is to put it in the bank. We are constantly bombarded with advice not to keep money at home, but put it in a bank account.

Yet in this case someone who did not bear the slightest resemblance to Miss Hunniford was able to spin a yarn to her bank and gain access to her account.

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There are stories in the media every week of how people are scammed out of their hard-earned cash through all sorts of subterfuges, but it is even more concerning that someone can simply walk into a bank and make off with a substantial amount of money that didn't belong to them.

Little wonder that Ms Hunniford felt violated - it was as if someone had burgled her home.

Clearly, there is a lesson here for banks and other financial institutions to learn - to ensure that their customers' money is as well-protected as possible and that proper checks are made on people to make certain they are who they say they are.
There are different ways that people try to make a case for Christianity. Some people use scare tactics: If you arent a Christian, you cant go to heaven. Or something along those lines. Frankly, I dont know who is going to heaven or what the entrance requirements are. And you know what? Its none of my business. Heaven and its entry requirements are Gods business, and I try not to stick my nose in Gods business whenever possible.

Others argue that Christianity is the only true religion. I cant be sure of that either. There are lots of Jews, Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists who seem like awfully nice people to me. If God has a religious preference, He hasnt mentioned it to me. So as far as I am concerned, His preferred religion (if He has one one) is His business. And again, I am keeping my big nose out of it.

Here is my simple case for Christianity, that has nothing to do with the arguments above: It works. If you actually follow the teachings of Jesus, you will be a happier person. How do I know this? Personal experience. When I try to apply the teachings of Jesus to my life, it runs smoother. When I dont do so, I have problems.

The beauty of Christianity is that it gives me a blueprint for my life. If I choose to follow the teachings of Jesus, my life is very simple. I am not going to judge others. I am going to turn the other cheek instead of lashing out. I am going to treat others as I would like to be treated  with compassion, kindness and patience. These are simple, though not easy life principles to follow. But if I try to follow them, in my own imperfect way, somehow my life is better as a result.

What I also know is that when I stray from the teachings of Jesus, I end up creating problems for myself and others. When I look back on my own life, my greatest regrets are the times that I did not act in the way that God would have wanted. I regret the times that I failed to be patient. I regret the times when I was judgmental, instead of remembering the log in my own eye. And I regret the times that I failed to speak up on behalf of another person, instead of being a champion of justice and fairness.

My case for Christianity is that the teachings of Jesus save us from ourselves. We each are our own worst enemy. If every time we wanted to succumb to our baser instincts, we instead thought WWJD, our lives would be significantly better. This week, take some time to read the Gospels. Consider how following the teachings of Jesus could impact your life. Think about the dramatic change that might occur if you submit your life to God, and let the teachings of Jesus dictate all that you do.
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The Loeries Creative Week currently well underway in Durban, South Africa, is giving local and global industry opinion leaders the chance to network and share their views on best practice and the state of the industry.

If the Loeries DSTV Seminar of Creativity, which took place yesterday, is anything to go by, it seems that despite challenges, the greater communications ad industry machine is in a strong position.

Always the darling, ginger-bedreaded MC Tim Horwood  AKA the blackest white man in Africa  introduced speaker Susan Credle as being like the character Peggy Olson out of the retro TV series Madmen. The fictional copywriter Olson works her way up to a corporate position unheard of in the 1960s, but not exactly commonplace even 40 years on if the estimate of 3% of women in management positions worldwide is to be believed.

Credle in action at the seminar.  Photo by Alistair Nicoll/2016 Loerie Awards on Gallo Images.

As worldwide chief creative officer of FCB, Credle  having been honoured with among others accolades, Chicago Adwoman of the Year 2013 and Advertising Ages 100 Most Influential Women  is an important industry voice to whom we should be listening, regardless of gender.

Who better than the ad industry to provide short-form content for current platforms?

She surprised with her opening statements that she is tired of being part of conversations where the term advertising is no longer allowed. Citing examples of how Cannes Advertising Awards shifted its title to Cannes Festival of Creativity, how it is not fashionable to refer to ads anymore, but rather to use terms such as branded content. In this regard she questions sustainability, saying she believes there is just not enough time for every one of our brands to exist on long-form content platforms. Who better, she asks, than the ad industry, who have specialised in short-form (30- and 60-second, to be precise) branded communication for decades, to provide the engaging episodic content that current platforms and audiences now require?

Nobody reads ads, people read what interests them and sometime theyre ads

The presentation is peppered with quotes from a real life ad practitioner from around the Madmen era of the 1950s, Howard Luck Gossage (1917-1968). The largely unheard-of Gossage, apparently known as the Socrates of San Francisco, was prophetic in his statements. You can just hear him saying: Nobody reads ads, people read what interests them and sometime theyre ads.

The captive audience

Susan mentions the much-bemoaned demise of the captive TV audiences once enjoyed by advertisers, but counters that just because we no longer have captive audiences doesnt mean our advertising shouldnt be captivating and worthy of attention.

The highlight of the presentation shows 1970s classic TV advertising footage illustrating how the advertising images she had been exposed to in her youth had been life-changing, even going so far as to inspire a career in the industry.

I wanted to share the Fantasy

Serving up vintage gems from the heyday of TV advertising, such as Chanel No 5 Share the Fantasy, Susan shares with us that the images from the commercial  of bronzed models in a Hollywood-proportioned pool the likes of which could never have been imagined by an impressionable South Carolina teenager  have ensured she has remained loyal to the Chanel brand to this day.

It is these kinds of experiences that no data can anticipate or track, she says. Mass market ads by their nature are served to unspecific or even wrong target audiences or demographics, but cannot track their lasting emotional impact. Susan mentions she is surprised that one of the industries as yet undisrupted by social media is Testing. Social media can help the industry by allowing audiences to tell advertisers what we should put more money behind.

Yes, I want to live in that world

Psychedelic animation as practiced by futurists of 1960s illustration such as Peter Max took Levis advertising to new heights and for Susan and many like her, may have been the first exposure to the craft of animation, which would burgeon in years to come.

There are few who will not remember Coca Colas iconic Id like to like to teach the world to sing commercial, which at the time captivated the spirit of a new utopian altruism and diversity, which societies and suburbs segregated for centuries had never seen, unwittingly inspiring and predicting new hope and society.

To be loved, the ad industry first has to love itself

With all the ability of advertising as a powerful influencer, Credle makes a valid point that the worst thing the industry ever did was to brand themselves as an irritant, with the Skip this ad in 6 secs >> wording.

The above broaches the topic of ad-blocking and the fact that perhaps it is not so much that people dont dislike advertising at all, but that they dislike the sheer bulk of too much and trash advertising.

Credle joined FCB Global in January because she loved the work being done there. Campaigns for client Nivea show how the best advertising simply nails human truths. The fact that mothers never relax on the beach because they are afraid of their kids wandering off is solved by a perforated smart tab in a magazine ad format, which can be applied as a wristband to a child and which is linked to a location-based app, ensuring they dont get lost!

The other truth, that children dont like putting on sunblock at all, is solved by dolls made of UV-sensitive material that turn red, and a brilliant local example shot on Camps Bay beach in Cape Town, which sees water-based sunblock sprayed out of a waterslide and in so doing succeeding in covering 100 kids every hour with sun protection.

Dont look at the likes

It is too easy these days, says Credle, to just be relying on Likes as indicators of the success of our communications. We should focus instead on what people are sharing, loving and are prepared to become advocates for, and in so doing investing in advertising of lasting worth.
Prior to Angela Merkel's visit to Prague, Czech politicians have condemned her pro-refugee policy

20. 8. 2016

cas cteni 2 minuty





The German chancellor Angela Merkel will visit Prague for a few hours on Thursday for talks with the Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka. Prior to her visit, a number of top politicians from Czech mainstream parties have demanded that PM Sobotka should express a strong disagreement of the Czech Republic with Merkel's pro-refugee policy.

"President Milos Zeman wants to discuss Brexit and its impact on the EU and the migration crisis and terrorism which is associated with it," said his spokespersom Jiri Ovcacek.

Andrej Babis, the Czech Deputy PM and Finance Secretary, has called on Angela Merkel "to give up her political correctness and to begin to act". According to Babis, Merkel should close the external border of the European Union. "In return for billions of euros, she should make sure that Greece and Turkey completely stop the arrival of refugees in Europe. Otherwise, it will be her fault what happens to the European population. Unfortunately, Mrs. Merkel refuses to see how serious the situation is in Germany and in other EU nations. Her attitude is really tragic."

"Islam is not part of modern Europe and its traditions. Radical islam is a threat. Uncontrolled masses of refugees do constitute a security threat," said Petr Fiala, the Chair of the right-of-centre Civic Democratic Party (ODS).

"I do not agree with Merkel's slogan We can manage this.' Europe cannot manage the arrival of several million migrants over the next few years. It is a cultural and social problem and a security issue. Already, the immigrants are being given preferential treatment, which is wrong," said Jan Bartosek, the Chair of the Czech People's Party. "We still remember the Soviet occupation and hence we want to be able to make free decisions about the future and the security of our citizens," Bartosek added.

Social Democrat Jaroslav Foldyna said that Mrs. Merkel's statements were "misguided". "Czech Republic will act wully in line with the V4 countries. We are willing to contribute to the building of refugee camps in safe countries. But we will not accept large numbers of refugees."

"No one can take seriously Merkel's assertion that there is no connection between refugees and terrorism. Cooperation between different civilisations of the world must be equal, one civilisation must not find itself on the defensive against another. We will not be bearing the brunt of the impact of the wrong decisions made by the government of the Federal Republic of Germany," said Vojtech Filip, the Chair of the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia.

Source in Czech HERE

There are stories like this in the Czech Republic every day that never make it to the outside world because of a lack of translation. You can support us and help reveal what's happening in Central Europe today. Please make a contribution today on www.paypal.com and send your donation to redakce@blisty.cz. We fully rely on crowdfunding in our work. Thank you.

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Next month, Brandons own Brad Lawson will be dropped off on a remote Manitoba island  and cant return home until he raises $50,000.

Lawson, along with seven other brave Manitobans, willingly signed up for the task  a major fundraising event for STARS air ambulance.

Because I live, work, travel and play in the rural communities of Manitoba I have decided to accept this challenge, states Lawsons STARS profile. STARS is a great cause that has saved the lives of so many. Every minute counts in an emergency event, if I am able to raise enough to contribute to saving one life I will consider this challenge a success.

The fourth annual Rescue on the Island has a goal of raising $400,000 this year  $50,000 for each participant.

Lawson is the owner of Clarks Poultry in Brandon and said he has heard from clients who have been impacted by the STARS organization.

Theres people alive today that wouldnt be alive, he said. As of Friday afternoon, Lawson had reached 55 per cent of his fundraising goal.

Im really pleased where Im at, at this stage with about four weeks to go in the campaign, he said. I hope I can keep my momentum up in terms of the fundraising and look forward to the challenge of finishing it off.

To support Lawson visit rescueontheisland.ca. Other participants include Winnipeg philanthropist Louis Trepel, La Broquerie fire Chief Alain Nadeau, Kevin Comte of Enns Brothers, Justin Swandel of Winnipegs Terracon Development, CJOB talk radio host Richard Cloutier, John Oades of Winnipegs Beaver Trucking and Anupam Kothari, owner of Hampton Inn.

Im thrilled that rural Manitobans have access to a service like this that plays such a vital role in life-saving, its basically a mobile trauma room, Lawson said.

Rescue on the Island has raised $750,000 in its first three years.

On Sept. 16, all eight participants will be dropped off in a remote secret island location. They will experience an Amazing Race style blend of survival and medical challenges while on the island, said Cam Heke, STARS Manitoba spokesperson.

There will be sponsored prizes for each of those, and if they win, it goes towards their fundraising goals.

The participants will have one important tool  their cellphones  which they will be using to seek donations from their business and personal contacts.

Brad  is already well over the halfway mark, and he hasnt even got to the island yet. He might actually make it off the island, lucky guy, Heke joked.

We have a big appreciation for everything Brads doing for STARS and really, this is him doing something for the community as well. For all those people were able to help in the Brandon area, its thanks to people like Brad.

Last year, STARS, which stands for Shock Trauma Air Rescue Service, responded to 34 calls in Brandon.

Earlier this month, STARS responded to a call in Brandon when a man fell about 100 feet from a tree he had been trimming. In another incident this summer, STARS was called to a near drowning of a three-year-old girl at Elkhorn Resort. Another young child was taken by air ambulance from Brandon to Winnipeg after falling into a fire pit.

Across the province, STARS responded to 568 calls in 2015.

We anticipate that number being higher than 600 missions this year, Heke said. When that heli-pad opens (at the Health Sciences Centre), we could be seeing over 700 flights a year because were able to get patients to the care they need even faster at that point.

Every flight has a critical care nurse on board, as well as a flight paramedic.

Approximately 50 per cent of the calls are for rural hospitals, often dealing with traumatic injuries or medical emergencies.

Theres different reasons STARS gets involved, the level of care, the speed of the aircraft, and also the access to a patient, Heke said.

The helicopter can land in very tight landing zones, and can access remote rural areas. Heke explained they can even do hover exits, if the helicopter is unable to land.

The medical staff will actually exit the aircraft without it actually landing and they can start providing care to a patient, he said. They can perhaps move the patient to an area where the helicopter is able to land.

STARS is a Canadian Prairie operation, with bases in Calgary, Edmonton, Grand Prairie, Regina, Saskatoon and Winnipeg. There are 11 helicopters in total. It is a non-profit, charitable organization that relies on community support.

We do receive government funding and thats always going to be a part of this, but were similar to a hospital foundation, in that that community support really allows us to reach towards excellence in what were doing, Heke said.

 jaustin@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @jillianaustin
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This article was published 20/08/2016 (2261 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Despite being mostly forgotten, a local landmark continues to play an important role in defining treaty relationships in Canada, according to a Brandon University researcher who is working on a documentary about the Grand Rapids of the Assiniboine River.

BU Archivist Emeritus Tom Mitchell said the rapids, including the landing downstream and the crossing upstream, were natural landmarks in an era before railroads stretched across the Prairies. The crossing became a key marker in delineating the borders of Treaty 1 and Treaty 2, which includes the city of Brandon.

Now, with Aug. 21 being the 145th anniversary of the signing of Treaty 2, Mitchell hopes that resurfacing the memory of this once-essential prairie waypoint can help modern understanding of the political and geographic realities of the time.

History can add perspective, texture and colour to our present, Mitchell said in a BU press release. Its valuable for us to revisit the past, and anniversaries in particular are an opportune time to do that.

Chris Lagimodiere, BU director of the Indigenous Peoples Centre, said that the importance of the treaties continues to reverberate today.

Recognizing this date in history is a great opportunity for Canadians to reflect on the relationships of indigenous peoples and the Canadian government, Lagimodiere said. It is important to understand the historical and current significance of treaties and what they mean to all Canadians. Reflecting on the signing of Treaty 2 reminds us all of the harms and mistakes of the past and allows our country to move toward reconciliation.

On maps from the 1800s, pre-dating the founding of the city of Brandon, Mitchell points out that the Rapids are marked clearly, one of the most obvious features in the region, a natural crossing point on the Assiniboine River about midway between where it is joined by the Little Saskatchewan and the Souris.

As fur traders and European explorers followed the traditional aboriginal and later Metis trails across the Prairies, they also adopted many of the same landmarks, including the Grand Rapids.

With low banks, a gentle gravelly incline from prairie to river, and generally shallow water, the stretch of land immediately above the rapids was a natural crossing site, Mitchell said. For a long time, and for a lot of people, the crossing marked a gateway to the southern Prairies. Thats why it was selected for the treaties  because it would have been well-known to everybody involved. And thats why its so astonishing that nobody has any historical recollection of the crossing now.

But while the Grand Rapids were prominently marked on maps for decades, when it came time to film his forthcoming documentary, Mitchell had to do some sleuthing to track down the actual location of the crossing.

Luckily, members of the Canadian Geological Survey and Hudsons Bay man John Rae recorded precise details of their journeys through the area, including directions and distances to and from other landmarks (such as Portage la Prairie) and co-ordinates of latitude and longitude. These furnished data to fix the location of the crossing.

No bison or cart trail leads to the crossing these days, but there is still the gentle slope and shallow water that makes for a natural crossing above the rapids. Although Mitchell notes that much of the landscape has changed  including portions of the river  theres much that is still very much the same as it was for generations.

And the crossing above the Grand Rapids retains its importance as a border marker for the two treaties.

Treaty 1, Mitchell explained, includes a boundary from a point on the west shore of Lake Manitoba that is defined as thence in a straight line to the crossing of the rapids on the Assiniboine; thence due south to the international boundary line, and Treaty 2 includes the same border but encompassing lands on the western side, including the current city of Brandon, and stretching to Moose Mountain in southeastern Saskatchewan.

That makes the precise location of the Crossing of the Rapids on the Assiniboine River of more than historic and academic concern, he said.

The numbered treaties, which transformed property relations in Canada, continue to govern the relationship between the Crown and indigenous people, Mitchell said. Perhaps the rapids crossing deserves to be a site of remembrance to commemorate the significance of the site in prairie history.

He said even a simple cairn, with information and a map that he would be happy to provide, could bring attention to the significance of the site, and could provide valuable perspective to visitors while also hopefully piquing their curiosity to learn more.

 The Brandon Sun
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This article was published 20/08/2016 (2261 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For the fourth time in three weeks, a record-keeping oversight has led to a mistaken arrest, prompting a local lawyer to ask: Whos accountable?

Brandon Legal Aid supervising attorney Ryan Fawcett described such errors as unacceptable and said authorities need to ensure records are current and correct.

These are innocent people who have just been taken off the street and put in jail because of something a computer says, and that information in the computer is based on an error that somebody made or an omission, Fawcett said.

The latest case came on Friday, Aug. 12, when Danny Joseph Bunn was arrested by Brandon police under the mistaken belief that Bunn was breaching a bail order by possessing or drinking alcohol.

It turns out that the bail order related to an assault charge out of Winnipeg had previously been dropped in that city.

Bunn appeared in custody in court last Monday, where Crown attorney Rich Lonstrup informed court that the bail order should have expired in 2015 when the charge on which it was based was dropped.

Court records indicate that the assault charge was dropped about a year ago, in July 2015.

There is no tangible basis for keeping him in custody, Lonstrup said, asking that the breach charge be dropped.

Judge John Combs apologized to Bunn.

Mr. Bunn, another case where there needs to be an apology to you because it appears you may be in custody for no good reason, Combs said, assuring the accused that he would be released immediately.

Combs said that he was at a loss as to why the mistake happened. The judge advised that if Bunn wanted to pursue the matter further, he could consult a lawyer.

Bunn seemed to wave off the suggestion as he walked out of the courtroom, as though he thought it no big deal.

Combs expressed concern, however, and asked Lonstrup if the mistaken arrests were being brought to the attention of authorities so the problem could be fixed. Lonstrup told Combs he would do that immediately.

As in two other recent cases, the problem was that the Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC) was out of date.

Police use the national database to quickly access information that includes criminal records and any court orders that citizens are bound by.

In Bunns case, it appears, for some reason, CPIC wrongly recorded that his bail order was still in place  a piece of misinformation Brandon police had based the mistaken arrest on.

In general, police agencies update CPIC based on records provided by court staff.

As the original charge and bail order originated in Winnipeg, the Winnipeg Police Service took ownership of the mistake that ultimately led to Bunns arrest.

The WPS is responsible for entering and updating dispositions daily upon being notified by the courts, WPS Const. Jason Michalyshen said in an email. This particular situation is an anomaly and we are currently up to date with entries.

Michalyshen said police currently work with paper records as they update the system, but the force is working with Manitoba Justice to make the system more efficient so mistakes like this dont happen again.

Bunns arrest marked the fourth time in about three weeks that Brandon police made an arrest based on inaccurate CPIC info.

A 14-year-old boy pleaded guilty on July 21 to charges, which should have erased his bail order. However, that same evening he was arrested for breach of recognizance.

The boy was released the next morning and the Crown dropped his new charges. However, he was arrested again on Saturday, July 23, and held in jail for the rest of the weekend.

A 14-year-old girl was arrested on July 22, based on a bail order that had expired the day before, and she too was held in jail for the weekend.

In those cases, the problem was within the Brandon Police Service. Police had received the youths updated court information on July 22, the day after the youths dealt with their charges.

However, the forces CPIC clerk was backed up and she didnt get to them by the end of that Friday, leading to the teens weekend arrests.

The Crown said policy has been introduced to prevent such mistakes from happening again.

As the national police force, its the RCMP who administer CPIC, and previous media reports have detailed problems with the criminal-record database.

In March 2015, the CBC reported that the RCMP acknowledged the system is backlogged. The system is moving away from paper records to electronic ones, but it was expected the backlog wouldnt be fixed until 2018.

In Brandon, out-of-date CPIC records have been noted during bail hearings and sentencings in Brandon provincial court.

Crown attorneys use CPIC to provide criminal records to judges during those hearings. However, lately its common for Crowns to provide a CPIC record supplemented with handwritten updates because the system is out of date.

Those handwritten entries are based on a courts record system updated by court clerks after every court docket.

That allows Brandon Crown attorneys to update criminal records for matters dealt with in Manitoba courtrooms, but not proceedings in other provinces.

Rarely, local Crowns get updated information from an offence detail report taken from the Police Reporting and Occurrence System used by police.

Brandon police and the RCMP use PROS, but Winnipeg doesnt.

Outdated CPIC information isnt just a problem for accused, Fawcett said.

The system is used to provide criminal background checks to employers, and U.S. border officials use CPIC information to deny entry to their country.

This should be a cause for concern for everyone out there, Fawcett said. In theory, there could be child sex offenders applying for work involving children and it doesnt come up on a criminal record check.

He also wondered whether people wanted on warrants have managed to slip through police fingers because of poor information.

Fawcett said that the justice system is based on accountability. Those responsible for updating CPIC need to ensure that its done every day, he said.

He questioned whether the public will ever know if those responsible were held accountable for the errors.

However, he believes those who are wrongfully arrested due to CPIC errors could sue the government or police, although theyd have to demonstrate damages.

Taking an innocent person off the street and depriving them of their liberty, for however long, I think is something actionable, Fawcett said.

 ihitchen@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @IanHitchen
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This article was published 19/08/2016 (2262 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For Ryan Smith, a vintage Volkswagen bus brings about fond memories  hes brought back to a trip to British Columbia in the early 90s when he was picked up by modern-day hippies.

You see one on the highway and it kinda takes you back a few generations ago  a nostalgic piece of Americana, he said.

Smith has become a VW enthusiast and has restored his own 1974 bus  and also bought his wife, Nadine, a 1964 Beetle last year.

Smith will be joined by an estimated 75 other Volkswagen enthusiasts this weekend, as the third annual Dubs at the Lake returns to Killarney Beach. Participants will be coming from Ontario, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Minnesota and North Dakota.

The weekend kicks off this evening with a barbecue and cruise, followed by the Show n Shine on Saturday at 10 a.m.

Well have everything from a 1949 Beetle right up to a new modified GTI Jetta, Smith said.

The car show will raise funds for the Killarney Parent Advisory Councils new playground project. The event will also raise funds for the Shamrock Drive-In, which was destroyed in a storm earlier this summer.

The Shamrock hosted a movie night the last few years for Dubs at the Lake, so the participants wanted to do what they could to help out.

This year were going to end up out at the drive-in for another show and shine, and thats going to be open to all cars, makes and models, Smith said.

The VW procession will cruise through the town and park at the Shamrock at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday.

It was the process of restoring his 1974 van that sparked the idea for Dubs at the Lake. Throughout the process during the winter season of 2013-14, Smith was in touch with other Volkswagen experts online and through different clubs.

I thought it would be nice to meet some of these people that had been helping me out, he said.

The first one drew 50 people or so, and I figured  this is awesome, were meeting as a group of like-minded individuals. Everybodys got a love and a passion for all things Volkswagen.

 jaustin@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @jillianaustin
Opinion

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As David Suzuki once said, he is in the twilight of his life  the death zone as he calls it  so he has little fear in challenging the establishment. The aged scientist and television host, in his never-ending quest to support a cleaner environment, launched a movement to integrate ecological and environmental change. That movement sought to drive governments to strive for cleaner water, improved air quality, safe food and a stable climate.

Founded out of that messaging was the Blue Dot Movement, a group of like-minded individuals who take their name from the thought our planet, when photographed from deep in space was a mere pale blue dot. Noted author and astronomer Carl Sagan said it best when he so poignantly shared that our responsibility to earth was to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot (Earth), the only home weve ever known.

Sure Sagan may have sounded a tad utopian in his musings on our planet, but the essence of what he was hoping to accomplish speaks volumes to where we are at, when it comes to nation-building, our relationships, and most of all our connection with the environment. It should have been an easy sell to municipalities and governments nationwide, and for the most part it has been.

If we enshrine the need for environmental rights into our constitution, then Canada becomes one of more than 100 countries worldwide who have said they were positioned, by government decree, to do more for our environment. The problem is Brandon City Council voted down joining in the movement for global change.

After a frustrating and long-winded debate over Coun. Lonnie Pattersons (South Centre) request to have the city come on board, the movement was voted down 7-4. Many other centres  both urban and rural  across the country chose to recognize the movement and share that their city would be a philosophical champion for change on the environmental front. Cities like Montreal, Vancouver, Toronto and Ottawa have all signed declarations that they were prepared to embrace that change, and again I reiterate the sad fact that we voted it down 7-4.

In choosing to grandstand on this issue, our council looked and sounded quite amateur. Sure, municipal governments are designed to debate issues of importance, but even Mayor Rick Chrest seemed somewhat bewildered that so many of his fellow members would seek this moment to draw a proverbial line in the sand. It was especially embarrassing that it happened on the same evening that we as a city recognized the work of Brandons Environment Committee, which, I might add, recommended to the members of council to support the movement.

The committee has to be smarting a bit after this vote, as it clearly undermines the mandate council has given them in making recommendations. Its very similar to the previous councils continued challenge to Renaissance Brandons sense of purpose.

In Carl Sagans work Pale Blue Dot, he warned society of the arrogance that comes with disregarding bigger picture issues such as this. By choosing such a backwards stance on a matter of mere philosophy, it reflects a tinge of that arrogance.

Some council members deemed the movement a slippery slope as they feared asking lawmakers to enshrine the need for items like clean water into the constitution would become problematic. It is a bit far-fetched to fear that philosophically supporting something like the Blue Dot Movement would begin the slide down to litigation or environmental anarchy in this country.

Clearly, a fear of the unknown was weighing heavily on the minds of the council members who chose to vote it down. We have long feared that unknown and remain comfortable in the mindset that if something may cause us to think differently, it runs the risk of being wrong. It is a dangerous ideology to adopt as a city. It causes councils to quickly become parochial and refuse to act on the grassroots global change that often begins at a municipal level.

Coun. Kris Desjarlais (Rosser) said it best when he commented that his peers were over thinking this decision.

Ultimately, Desjarlais and fellow council members Chaboyer, Paterson and Mayor Chrest were on the wrong end of the vote this time around. In the bigger picture, though, this is a blow for the image of the City of Brandon. I have a great deal of respect for this council, but in a time when we could have looked progressive and forward-thinking, we instead chose to position ourselves on what is likely to end up being the wrong side of history.
Opinion

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This article was published 20/08/2016 (2261 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Its always exciting when businesses have the opportunity to rebrand themselves.

The local Giant Tiger store has done just that in the last few months and store manager Curtis Keber said the changes are exciting for both their employees and their customers.

After 11 years in business in Brandon, it was time for a facelift for the all-Canadian family discount store. Keber said they started renovations back in June and are now putting the finishing touches on the interior and exterior upgrades.

On the inside, youll find a new colour palette as well as a reorganization and re-merchandising throughout the store.

We have a lot more wall displays, so it opens up the store and gives more customer space, it appears bigger even though we havent expanded. Weve always been a bit crowded, because we just have 14,000-square-foot space. Its quite a big change  it appears like theres more space, its cleaner and a lot more open, Keber said.

In addition, the corporate logo has been revised so new signage, along with a new paint job, rounded out the exterior renovations.

Giant Tiger, at 2626 Victoria Ave., carries a mix of goods including fashion for the entire family, groceries, housewares, toys and seasonal items.

Keber said they are introducing new brands of fashion for women, have some great clothing lines for kids and have expanded the menswear. In addition, the grocery department has also grown.

We are now carrying fresh meat including beef, pork and chicken. Plus, we expanded the produce department and replaced all the refrigeration in the store. We really encourage everyone to come check out the new store experience, Keber said.

Giant Tigers grand reopening takes place today from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. There will be bouncy houses, a free barbecue with the Brandon University Bobcats mens volleyball team, special promotions and the Giant Tiger mascot will be there as well.

Giant Tiger was founded in 1961; they have more than 200 stores in eight provinces. Visit the local store or gianttiger.com for more information.

New look

I definitely have a bit of a theme for this weeks column. Across the city at the Corral Centre, the Ashley Furniture Homestore recently went through a rebrand as well.

Suzanne Rowley, the store manager for the Brandon location, said they are now called Ashley Homestore, and theres a new look and feel to the newly revised logo.

We call it our grown-up look. Weve rebranded our image and have moved to a more refined, urban look and moved away from the really colourful 90s logo, Rowley said.

So far, the biggest change in terms of the rebrand is the new signage, as they still carry the same great selection of furniture (for every room in the home), mattresses, home decor, plus rugs, lighting and bedding.

Rowley said consumers were a bit confused and concerned that the store was closing when the signs were down for a week or so.

She assured me, however, that is certainly not the case and its business as usual. She did indicate as well though, that customers may see a few more changes in the future as they are also considering interior renovations for next spring. Exciting news, indeed!

Ashley Homestore opened in Brandon in 2007; visit them at 925 18th St. North or at ashleyfurniturehomestore.com.
Opinion

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This article was published 20/08/2016 (2261 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Mailboxes being neglected

Regarding our wonderful mailboxes. I do recall they are supposed to look after them. Well some of them the grass is terrible. They have not looked at them all summer. One would think the mail carrier would see this. It is bad enough not getting door-to-door service anymore. And now we have to look at this. So much for looking after them.

Government, not doctors, need to be educated

According to a recent B.C. study More family doctors should be trained to help drug-addicted patients, Aug. 17. I disagree. More wasted taxpayer dollars  in fact, its like spreading gasoline on a fire. What we really need is to train and educate our government and politicians who are now promoting and legislating drugs, like marijuana, to start using what is left of their minuscule brains, in the realization that, like smoking tobacco cigarettes, it is a costly and addictive health hazard. Period.

What is killing downtown?

Recently some friends from North Dakota were visiting. When I suggested we go out for supper they said Lets go to that pizza parlour downtown, we love their pizza. The one they were referring to is on the 100 block of Ninth Street. Upon arriving at 5:30 p.m., I noticed only one other couple inside and no one else came in the hour we were there. This is a place I remember as full every time I was there. Last night, our son from Alberta wanted to go to his favourite pizza joint when he lived here (same place). Same result  we were the only ones in there the whole hour (5:30-6:30 p.m.). Today I read the Brandon Sun editorial about the amount of assaults, robberies, fights, etc. in this immediate area and now understand why this business is suffering horribly. This status of people not going downtown because of the fear of crime is out of this business control. Will customers ever come back or will this business shut its doors because of lack of traffic? Obviously fear of crime is killing downtown.

Thanks for the smooth ride

As a regular commuter on Highway 10 south from Brandon, I just want to say what a great job on the preservation coat. It is as good or better than the original black top. Thank you, Manitoba highways department.
A "hard Brexit" by the UK from the European Union would pose an "existential threat" to Gibraltar's economy, the territory's chief minister has warned.

Fabian Picardo said an agreement which saw a complete exit from the single market and no arrangements for the continued free movement of labour would have huge consequences for the British overseas territory.

"A hard Brexit would be really an existential threat to the Gibraltar economic model," Mr Picardo told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

"What might be a disastrous exit for the United Kingdom would be an existential threat to Gibraltar's current economic model."

Gibraltar, which relies upon thousands of Spanish workers crossing into the territory every day, voted overwhelmingly to remain in the EU in the June 23 referendum.

The Gibraltar government is already in discussions with Scotland - which also voted strongly for Remain - about what kind of arrangements they could have with the EU once the UK finally leaves.

Mr Picardo said one possibility could be to do a "reverse Greenland" - a self-governing territory which is part of Denmark but which left the EU in 1985 following a referendum vote.

"We have been talking about this possibility of what has been described as a 'reverse Greenland' which envisages one part of a member state leaving the European Union because it chooses to do so and other parts of the member state remaining, with access to the single market and freedom of movement being the things that matter most to us," he said.

"What Gibraltar is looking at is what type of participation we can have in the European Union or with the European Union, once the United Kingdom has decided what its Brexit looks like."

Mr Picardo strongly rejected suggestions that it would have to concede some form of joint sovereignty to Spain - something it has long opposed - if it was to continue to enjoy unfettered access to EU markets and labour.

"We are not worried because we have seen this sort of bloody-minded attitude before," he said.
One Cork familys cherished pet was recently abused, leaving him with severe disfiguring burns and gaping wounds.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) have placed a bounty of up to 2,000 on the head of the person who carried out this act.

However, the dogs family has received the veterinary bill and it has amounted to more than they are able to afford. They have set up a fundraising page to help with the bill. You can find it HERE.

The family said: We received the final bill off the vet and it has amounted to 1,336 and we simply cannot afford to pay it. We hope this will help with the bill and we thank everyone for your help, donations and prayers.

PETA Foundation Director Elisa Allen has said that it is imperative this behaviour is stopped: "It's imperative that any community faced with a cruel and callous act such as this take measures to find the culprit and bring him or her to justice."

"Animal abusers are a danger to everyone  they take their issues out on whoever is available to them, human or non-human  and must be caught before they act again."

Anyone with information on this case is encouraged to contact the Garda Confidential Line on 1800666111.
An "elderly man" found at a house in Massachusetts in the US was actually a 31-year-old fugitive wearing a disguise.

Police went to a house on Cape Cod on Thursday looking for Shaun Miller, of Hyannis, who had been a fugitive since April when he and several others were charged with heroin distribution.
SAN FRANCISCO: US tech titans looking to the future are seeing growth take a beating in the face of foreign...
By Kayla Alphonse

Aug. 13 was a day of celebration for the inaugural class of the Haiti Theological Training program, Ecole Theologie de la Mission Evangelique des Eglises des Freres DHaiti. The graduation ceremony witnessed 22 graduates walking across the stage to receive diplomas and shake hands with professors and guests of honor.

The day marked the finish of a 12-session 3-year training cycle that began in Aug. 2013. Each session centered on biblical knowledge and practical ministry skills with classes such as Practices and Beliefs of the Church of the Brethren, Church Finances, Old Testament and New Testament Survey, and Pastoral Leadership.

Each graduate received two gifts during the ceremony. The first gift was a small battery-powered tea light to encourage the student to carry the light of Christ wherever they go. The second gift was a Bible commentary, a useful yet hard to acquire tool to aid ministers in their study of the Bible.

During the ceremony, the students had an opportunity to express their gratitude to the professors and the staff. They also expressed their appreciation for all who have supported the training program with their time, talents, and funds.

This November, a new class of students will began the theological training cycle. Continued prayers and support are requested for this ministry in Haiti. For more information about the Haiti Theological Training program, contact the Global Mission and Service office of the Church of the Brethren at 800-323-8039 ext. 388.

 Kayla Alphonse serves in Haiti with Church of the Brethren Global Mission and Service.
The Church of the Brethren is planning a series of workcamps in Nigeria, as part of the new effort to rebuild churches of Ekklesiyar Yanuwa a Nigeria (EYN, the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria). Nearly 70 percent of EYNs churches in northeast Nigeria have been destroyed in the Boko Haram insurgency. A Nigeria Church Rebuilding Fund has been developed to help provide support to EYN congregations who are working to rebuild.

Global Mission and Service executive director Jay Wittmeyer reports that of EYNs 458 churches, which are called LCCs, 258 have been destroyed. (These numbers do not include the hundreds of additional preaching points in EYN.) Wittmeyer hopes to be able to start out by providing $5,000 to selected EYN congregations to re-roof their church buildings.

Church of the Brethren congregations and districts in the United States are invited to consider sponsoring a new roof for an EYN church. Gifts to the Nigeria Church Rebuilding Fund are received online at www.brethren.org/nigeriacrisis/church-rebuilding.html or by mail at Nigeria Church Rebuilding, Church of the Brethren, 1451 Dundee Ave., Elgin, IL 60120.

Workcamps

The series of workcamps in Nigeria will take place over the next six or seven months. The first is set for Nov. 4-23. Subsequent workcamps are scheduled for Jan. 11-30, 2017, and Feb. 17-March 6, 2017.

Participants will need to raise about $2,500 to cover the cost of transportation, food, and supplies. Those who apply for a workcamp are warned that they will face extreme heat in northeast Nigeria, as well as intense sun, and the rigors of life in a developing nation. As members of the Church of the Brethren, we say that our motto is to live peacefully, simply and together. This opportunity presents a real chance to live this out! said an announcement of the new workcamps.

Express interest in a workcamp by contacting the Nigeria Crisis Response at crhill@brethren.org or 847-429-4329.
If there's one group that can match the enthusiasm of coin collectors, it's Holden supporters.

The two groups of hobbyists became one on Saturday, lining up in the rain outside the Royal Australian Mint to get their hands on the Holden Heritage Coin Collection.

Michael Catanzariti with his 1968 Holden HK Monaro and the matching 50 cent piece at the Royal Australian Mint. Credit:Rohan Thomson

The collection of 11 colour-printed, uncirculated 50 cent coins each feature a classic car from the Australian manufacturer, from the 48-215 (FX) through to the Commodore.

A bonus 12th coin was available for those who bought the entire collection as a set.
A man has died after falling over on a busy Brisbane street and being hit by a taxi on Saturday night.

Police said a taxi travelling along Caxton Street in the inner city suburb of Petrie Terrace struck a man trying to cross the road who had stumbled and fallen.

Paramedics were not able to save a Victorian man in his twenties, after he was hit by a taxi while crossing Caxton Street on Saturday night.

The Victorian man in his twenties was treated by paramedics, but died at the scene.

The road between Hale and Castlemaine Street was closed for about three hours following the accident.
Thor fans got a glimpse of what is in store for the upcoming film on Saturday, as Mary Street was closed for construction of the set.

Security was tight, with a black screen covering most of the work for the third instalment in the franchise Thor: Ragnarok, but that didn't stop some fans from venturing into the city to have a look.

Disney has confirmed its Marvel and Lucasfilm franchises will be moving to its own streaming platform.

While there was no chance of seeing any of the film's stars on Saturday, there will be on Monday when the hammer-weilding God himself arrives in Brisbane from his base on the Gold Coast.

"I might skip out on school just to come check all of the actors at work and hopefully get a glimpse of good old Thor," fan Ayden Dawson said.
Saba Abrahams knows a thing or two about the troubles refugees can face as they adapt to life in Australia.

Almost a quarter-century ago, Ms Abraham fled Eritrea, in the midst of a bloody battle for independence with neighbouring Ethiopia.

Saba Abraham has trained more than 140 people through her West End restaurant, Mu'ooz. Credit:Bradley Kanaris

She had found herself on the wrong side of the authorities and came to Australia as a political refugee in 1992.

And while she has found a safe haven, Ms Abraham never forgot her past.
A critically endangered swamp tortoise belonging to one of the world's rarest species has been seized from a Perth home by Parks and Wildlife officers after an unrelated police raid on the house.

The animal was identified as a male tortoise that was captive-bred at Perth Zoo in 1990 and is the most endangered species of Australian reptile.

The western swamp tortoise is Australia's most endangered reptile. Credit:Parks and Wildlife

The tortoise was released to Twin Swamps nature reserve near Bullsbrook in the mid 1990s and records show it lived there until December 2010, when its monitor stopped providing information.

- AAP
Istanbul: A suicide bomber thought to be as young as 12 killed at least 50 people when he blew himself up among people dancing in the street at a wedding party in southern Turkey.

The attacker was a child between the ages of 12 and 14, President Tayyip Erdogan said.

In comments shown live by broadcaster NTV, Mr Erdogan also confirmed that 51 people had died in the blast, and 69 were wounded in the attack on the Turkish city of Gaziantep, about 40 km from the Syrian border.

Seventeen of the injured were "heavily" wounded, Mr Erdogan said.
When the door to the house opened, what appeared to be an elderly man emerged, walking forward in a hunched manner.

31-year-old Shaun "Shizz" Miller (left) and in the mask he was arrested in (right). Credit:Twitter/ATF

Police surrounded a house in South Yarmouth, Massachusetts, in the search for Shaun "Shizz" Miller, wanted in connection with drug trafficking charges. The 31-year-old Miller was ordered to surrender himself.

A suspected heroin dealer tried to evade police capture by wearing a $US2000 mask - but was caught nonetheless.

After questioning the man, police realised Miller was wearing an expensive mask to make him look like an older man.

Miller apparently wore the mask frequently to avoid detection.

Miller was arrested and a search of his house turned up two loaded weapons and $US30,000 ($39,300) in cash.

The US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms said Miller's charges relate to the Nauti street gang.

The gang has its origins in Nautical Road in Hyannis, Massachusetts, according to the Cape Code Times.
Phillies complete comeback with 10th inning HR to win Game 1 of World Series

Philadelphias catcher hit a go-ahead solo home run in the top of the 10th after his team had rallied out of an early 5-0 deficit.
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Leading steel producer Mideast Integrated Steel Ltd (Mesco Steel), the flagship company of the $4-billion Mesco Group, has reaffirmed its commitment to expand steel output at its facility at Kalinganagar (Odisha).
on Saturday announced the launch of a business intelligence (BI) research and development lab in New Delhi and said it plans to create over 500 jobs by 2018.
Kalanithi Maran-owned Sun Television Network (Sun TV) said that it is confident on receiving approvals from the Centre for its FM radio business, in which company invested around Rs 620.20 crore. Earlier, the Ministry of Broadcasting of the Government of India has refused to accept its applications and the issue was a matter of dispute in various courts.

The Group have earlier submitted applications to migrate their existing FM Radio licenses including six expired on March 31, 2015 and others expiring on various dates in 2016-17, from Phase II to the Phase III licensing regime along with applications for participating in the e-auction process for new FM Radio frequencies in the Phase III licensing regime.
has fast emerged as the research hub for global technology firms such as Google, Microsoft, Uber and Apple, thanks to its unique blend of opportunities  a massive domestic market and cheaper highly-skilled workforce.
About 361,00 children were seen in US emergency departments between 1990 and 2010 for injuries sustained while riding in a stroller or carrier, according to a new study.
Prime Minister on Saturday extended an invitation to new Prime Minister of Nepal Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' to visit India at the earliest while expressing commitment to strengthening traditional bonds of friendship and kinship.

Modi conveyed this to Bimalendra Nidhi, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Home Affairs of Nepal, when he called on him here.

During the meeting, Modi conveyed his greetings and best wishes to the new government of Nepal led by Prachanda and extended an invitation to him to visit India at his earliest convenience, a PMO statement said.

Nidhi briefed the Prime Minister about developments in Nepal where the new government took over recently.

Modi said the relations between India and Nepal were not merely between the two governments but between the people of the two countries and that India is committed to strengthening these traditional bonds of friendship and kinship with the people of Nepal.

The Prime Minister also said that India is fully committed to support the government and the people of Nepal in the post-earthquake reconstruction efforts.

Relations between India and Nepal went through a bad phase last year and the two countries are hoping to make a new beginning after the new government took over in Kathmandu.
Long-term peace and stability of a united Nepal is in India's interest and New Delhi will work with it to achieve this goal, President has said.

He made these comments when Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister of Nepal Bimalendra Nidhi called on him at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Friday.

"The President said long-term peace and stability of a united Nepal is in India's interest. India will work with Nepal towards this common goal," a statement from Press Secretary to the President Venu Rajamony said.

It said the President conveyed to the visiting dignitary that India attaches highest priority to its relations with Nepal and remains strongly committed to further strengthening this age-old relationship.

"India-Nepal relations are firmly embedded in shared geography, history, culture, civilisation and close people-to-people ties," he said.

The statement said the President congratulated Nidhi on his appointment as the Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister of Nepal.

"He wished Mr Nidhi every success in promoting cohesion and reconciliation in Nepal," it said.
More than 550 litres of country liquor, which was buried under the earth, was recovered during a search operation launched in Khajurwani ward of Gopalganj town where 16 persons died in a suspected hooch incident early this week.

Search operation in which JCB machines are being used to dig the earth for hidden plastic containers of "mahua" (country liquor) is continuing today, District Magistrate Rahul Kumar told PTI.

Meanwhile, Lalbabu Passi, said to be the main accused in the suspected hooch tragedy has been arrested by Deoria in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh, Officer In-charge of town police station Santosh Kumar said.

Passi had fled to Deoria after the incident.

The Gopalganj DM said he has sought proposal from the Excise department for imposition of "collective fine" on residents of Khajurwani ward where as media reports suggest liquor trade continues despite total prohibition.

The DM said there are 56 households in the Khajurwani and the Excise department has been directed to survey households involved in preparation of country liquor so that a collective fine could be imposed on them as per provisions of new Liquor law, 2016 of .

Principal Secretary Excise K K Pathak who paid a visit to Gopalganj in the wake of the incident has said that if hooch is confirmed, the property of the culprits would be attached as part of stringent provisions of the new Liquor law.

The Gopalganj DM discounted soaring figures presented by media in Wednesday's tragedy and said officially the death toll stood at 16.

Meanwhile, Madhepura MP and chief of Janadhikar Party Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav slammed Nitish Kumar government over Gopalganj tragedy before leaving for the place to meet the families of the victims.

Talking to reporters in Patna, Pappu Yadav described the new Excise law as a "black law" and said within two weeks he would file a writ in the Supreme Court against it.
Bezwada Wilson, Magsaysay award winner for 2016 and national convenor of the Safai Karamchari Andolan, speaks to Nitin Sethi and Kumar Akash on the visible Dalit anger in India today and his own struggle to end manual scavenging in India. Excerpts:



Why do we see the Dalit protests and anger in Gujarat today? Dalit oppression is not a new phenomenon.


Recent modifications in the Food Safety and Standards Act have opened the market for over 2,200 products that were awaiting approvals since 2014. While some 2,500 products were awaiting pre-market approval from the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) for the past two years, the recent regulatory changes have done away with the requirement for such approval by about 90 per cent of the product categories, said Pawan Kumar Agarwal, chief executive officer, . This means that these items can be launched in the market without any regulatory hassle.
With the tax incentives nearing an end in the hilly states and the Goods and Services Tax (GST) paving way for an uniform tax regime across the country, manufacturing hubs like Gujarat have started gearing up to woo investors to the state. For starters, Gujarat is planning to set up a pharmaceutical park in its flagship industrial hub Sanand, about 30 odd kms from Ahmedabad under the Cluster Developement Programme of the Centre.Plans are afoot to house a medical devices park near Sanand as well and a detailed project report (DPR) has been sent to the Centre. As for the pharmaceutical park, already around 50 hectares of land has been identified. According to a senior government official, Land parcel near Sanand has been identified, and a proposal has been sent to the Centre requesting funding assistance. The park would have a common facility center and ready to move in infrastructure, which might lure small and medium sized companies.Sanand too is located near the manufacturing belts of Changodar, Bavla which houses units of big companies like Cadila Healthcare, Intas, Claris Lifesciences operate their units. The government believes that this would provide a favourable eco-system for SMEs.States deputy chief minister Nitin Patel too had recently said that with the tax incentives nearing an end, Gujarat is keen to attract fresh investments in the pharma manufacturing space. The state already has over 3000 formulations and active pharmaceutical ingredients (bulk drug) manufacturing facilities, and therefore, it has an established eco-system of vendors, machinery, packaging units, logistics, as well as trained manpower.Gujarat houses nearly 135 licensed medical devices manufacturers in the country, of around 240-250 such companies in the whole country, informed H G Koshia, commissioner, Gujarat Food and Drug Control Administration (FDCA). Experts like Sunil Parekh, strategic advisor to corporate houses such as Cadila Healthcare and Jubilant Group, feel that Gujarat definitely would have an edge over other states when it comes to drawing fresh investments in pharmaceuticals.Most of the units that had gone to the hilly states lured by tax concessions are catering to the domestic market. It is difficult to get regulator approvals for these units to export to regulated countries as the eco-system is not well evolved there and companies have faced issues like retaining quality manpower, he said.Add to this the advantage of port connectivity, which helps both in importing bulk drugs and export of formulations. Almost 60 per cent of the formulation requirements of the country is imported from China, and hence logistics here would play a key role, Parekh said. Gujarat, on the other hand, has over 200 WHO-GMP certified units. This is a significant number given that only about 10-15 per cent of the manufacturing units in the country have WHO-GMP certifications.Meanwhile, Gujarat FDCA has also started work on training its inspectors on Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) for medical devices and drugs in line with the training imparted to USFDA inspectors.

Even before the state government started making efforts to improve pharma manufacturing infrastructure in Gujarat, many small and medium companies have started scouting for land here.
Seeking better tax compliance, Union Finance Minister on Saturday said the government can usher in lower tax regime only when more and more people pay taxes and tax evasion is down.
State Bank of India on Saturday said the ongoing merger of five of its associate and Bharatiya Mahila Bank will add $120 billion to its assets and will create a banking behemoth with global scale.

The bank also said the merger of State of Bikaner & Jaipur (SBBJ), Travancore (SBT), Patiala (SBP), Hyderabad (SBH) and Mysore (SBM), and also of Bhartiya Mahila Bank, a bank for women set up in November 2013, will lead to a 36 per cent increase in the SBI's total assets at $447 billion.

The mergers will dwarf ICICI Bank assets to just one-fourth of and will also catapult the bank into the top 50 globally, the bank said. The combined entity will have network of over 24,000 branches with 2,70,000 employees and 58,000 ATMs serving serving over 50 crore customers.

This Thursday, the board of had cleared the merge plan and had finalised the share swap agreement under which an SBBJ shareholder will get 28 shares of (Re 1 each) for every 10 shares (Rs 10 each).

Stated differently, the ratio is 1:2:8. Similarly, SBM and SBT shareholders will get 22 shares each of SBI for every 10 shares they hold.

In the case of Bharatiya Mahila Bank, 4,42,31,510 shares of SBI will be swapped for every 100 crore of the BMB share having a face value of Rs 10. The other two unlisted subsidiaries are fully owned by SBI.

Abizer Diwanji, partner and national leader for financial services at EY which advised the share swap deal for SBI, said, "the ratio will be acceptable to all shareholders."



Last month, the Cabinet had cleared the merger plan.

SBI has close to 16,500 branches, including 191 foreign offices spread across 36 countries, while the five subsidiaries have around 6,800 branches.

The mergers will allow the SBI to leverage its operational synergies, reach out to new clients and improve market share by ensuring a better reach through enlarged presence, the bank said in a statement.
Mr. Bimalendra Nidhi, the Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister of Nepal called on President Pranab Mukherjee at Rashtrapati Bhavan yesterday (August 19, 2016)..

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The President congratulated Mr. Nidhi on his appointment at the Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister of Nepal. He wished Mr. Nidhi every success in promoting national cohesion and reconciliation in Nepal. .

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The President said India attaches highest priority to its relations with Nepal and remains strongly committed to further strengthening this age old relationship. India-Nepal relations are firmly embedded in shared geography, history, culture, civilization and close people-to-people ties. .

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The President said long-term peace and stability of a united Nepal is Indias interest. India will work with Nepal towards this common goal. .

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The Nepalese Deputy Prime Minister reciprocated the Presidents sentiments and conveyed on behalf of the President of Nepal an invitation to visit Nepal..

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Mr. Bimalendra Nidhi, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Home Affairs of Nepal calls on PM

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Mr. Bimalendra Nidhi, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Home Affairs of Nepal called on Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi today. .

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The Prime Minister congratulated Mr. Bimalendra Nidhi on assuming office as the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Home Affairs of Nepal. The Prime Minister also conveyed his greetings and best wishes to the new Government of Nepal, led by Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda. .

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Mr. Bimalendra Nidhi briefed the Prime Minister about developments in Nepal. .

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Stating that the relations between India and Nepal were not merely between the two Governments, but between the people of both countries, the Prime Minister reiterated that India is committed to strengthening these traditional bonds of friendship and kinship with the people of Nepal. .

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The Prime Minister said that India is fully committed to support the Government and the people of Nepal in the post-earthquake reconstruction efforts. .

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The Prime Minister also conveyed an invitation to the Prime Minister of Nepal to visit India at his earliest convenience. .

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Mr. Dmitry Rogozin, Deputy Prime Minister of Russia calls on Prime Minister

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Mr. Dmitry Rogozin, Deputy Prime Minister of Russia called on Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi today..

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He conveyed President Putins greetings to Prime Minister and briefed him on the progress in ongoing projects between India and Russia. .

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Prime Minister described Russia as a time-tested and reliable friend and reaffirmed the shared commitment with President Putin to expand, strengthen and deepen bilateral engagement across all domains. He recalled his recent meeting with President Putin in Tashkent in June and via video-link for dedication of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant Unit 1 at the beginning of this month. Prime Minister conveyed that India is eagerly awaiting President Putins visit to India..

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The Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, in association with the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation and Department of Youth Affairs, Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, today organized a National Convention of Gram Pradhans in Alaahabad, with the support of the Government of Uttar Pradesh.The objective of the National Convention was to rally Gram Pradhans of 1651 villages in 52 districts and 5 States situated along the banks of the river Ganga, to work together and make their villages Open Defecation Free (ODF) to meet the goals of the Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) as well as the Namami Gange programme. .

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The day began with the Minister, Rural Development, Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water and Sanitation, Shri Narendra Singh Tomar, and the Minister, Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation, Ms. Uma Bharti paying tributes in front of the statue of Shri Chandrashekhar Azad at the Company Bagh, Allahabad. The Minister also administered a Swachhta Pledge to all the Pradhans, regarding making their villages ODF and sustaining the status. .

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Moving to the venue for the Convention, the United College of Engineering and Management, Naini, Ms. Uma Bharti began the proceedings of the convention by reading out a message on the occasion from the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi. Excerpts from the Prime Ministers Message were as below: .

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It gives me immense pleasure that the representatives of all the Gram Panchayats situated along the banks of the river Ganga have assembled today at the Holy Sangam of Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati Allahabad with the shared aim of making their villages Open Defecation Free. This beginning is an imperative to make the densely populated villages along the banks of the Ganga Swachh in true sense, to make our rivers pollution free, and to maintain the ecological balance in this area. .

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For all-round development of the nation, it is critically important that our health is sound, our mothers and sisters live with safety and dignity, and our environment is clean, safe and attuned to community-wide health. Becoming Open Defecation Free ODF is the first step in this direction. Keeping the river Ganga clean and pure is our collective responsibility. .

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By coming together like this on one platform, you will not only help make the dream of all villages along the Ganga becoming ODF, but also inspire villages along the banks of other rivers in the country, and ultimately, all of rural India, to become ODF and, in true sense of the word, Swachh." .

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Ms. Uma Bharti explained the concept of Namami Ganga and appealed to all the Pradhans to clean up Ganga ji. She mentioned that besides ODF, solid and liquid waste management was also important and villages must be made swachh in a comprehensive sense. .

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The Minister, Drinking Water and Sanitation, mentioned that Swachh Bharat has to be achieved by the Centre and the States working hand in hand. He also underlined the importance of freedom from open defecation in making the villages clean and brought out the convergence between Swachh Bharat and Namami Ganga. .

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The Secretary, Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Shri Parameswaran Iyer, delivered the welcome address, in which he spoke about the need for making all villages along the Ganga ODF and the resultant health impact and symbolic impact. .

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Shri Raj Kishore Singh, Minister, Uttar Pradesh welcomed the efforts of Central Government in priotitising Swachh Bharat and assured full support of the State Government. .

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The pradhans of ODF villages were felicitated on the occasion. .

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SNC
The Union Minister of State for Minority Affairs (Independent Charge) & Parliamentary Affairs Shri Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi held a review meeting with officials at Haj House, Mumbai last night to take stock of preparations for Haj. Shri Naqvi said that the Minority Affairs Ministry and other concerned departments are very serious about arrangements, facilities and safety of Haj pilgrims. .

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Shri Naqvi said that the Minority Affairs Ministry has been sending senior officials to Saudi Arabia to take stock of arrangements, facilities, safety and to help about 1 lakh 36 thousand Indians proceeding for Haj yatra this year. .

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Shri Naqvi also attended a training camp organized for Haj pilgrims, where he welcomed a large number of people who have been going for Haj. Besides briefing regarding Haj, disaster-management training was also provided to those going for Haj in the training camp. .

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Shri Naqvi said that 10 per cent of total Haj applicants applied online this year and it will be encouraged on large scale for next Haj pilgrimage. .

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With prayers for peace, prosperity and harmony in our country and the entire world, Shri Naqvi wished a successful Haj pilgrimage. Shiv Sena MP Shri Arvind Sawant, BJP MLA Shri Raj K Purohit, Haj Committee CEO Shri Ataur Rehman, Haj Committee Member and Gujarat Coordinator Shri H B Kazmi and other dignitaries were present in the training camp. .

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Earlier, training camps for Haj pilgrims have also been organized in various states. .

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About 4,500 Haj pilgrims will proceed to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia for Haj pilgrimage from Mumbai this year from August 27. First batch of Hajis left from Delhi on 4th For Haj 2016, about 1,00,020 Haj pilgrims are being facilitated from 21 points across India through Haj Committee. Apart from this, 36,000 Haj pilgrims have been proceeding through the private tour operators. .

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Making a direct appeal to black voters, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump urged them to abandon the Democratic party with a question, What do you have to lose by trying something new?

Speaking at a rally in Dimondale, Michigan, Trump argued that Democrats, including his rival Hillary Clinton, have taken advantage of African American voters and their votes for granted.

"Tonight, I'm asking for the vote of every single African American citizen in this country who wants to see a better future," the Guardian quoted Trump as saying.

He then presented the crowd with a start question, "What do you have to lose by trying something new, like Trump?"

"You're living in your poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs, 58 per cent of your youth is unemployed, what the hell do you have to lose?," he added.

Trump then made a bold prediction and said that after four years, he would get 95 per cent of the African American vote.

Latest polls show Trump trailing Clinton significantly among black voters.

Not missing out any opportunity to hit out at the former secretary of state, the New York billionaire once again accused Clinton of bigotry, claiming she sees African Americans only as votes, not as human beings worthy of a better future.

Meanwhile, the Clinton campaign on twitter responded, "This is so ignorant it's staggering."

Bashing out at Trump, Clinton campaign's Marlon Marshall said, "Donald Trump asks what the African American community has to lose by voting for him. The answer is everything from a man who questions the citizenship of the first African American President, courts white supremacists, and has been sued for housing discrimination against communities of colour.
India is not engaged in any proxy war in Afghanistan and has been sincerely carrying out reconstruction work there, former Afghan President said on Saturday even as he slammed Pakistan for "encouraging" radicalism and not containing terror groups operating from its soil.

Karzai also appreciated Prime Minister Narendra Modi for raising the issue of Balochisthan in his Independence Day address, saying Afghanistan understands the problems being faced by the people of Pakistan's southern province.

In an interactive session on Regional Power Play and Rise of Radicalism in Afghanistan, he identified terrorism as the single biggest challenge facing the region and called for a united fight to defeat it.

Karzai, who was president of Afghanistan from 2001-2014, said China has been a good neighbour to Afghanistan and its military and security assistance to his country was very recent. At the same time, he said that Afghanistan's ties with China is not as deep as it is with India.

"But the overall relationship between China and Afghanistan is of course very good," he added.

Asked about criticism in some quarters that India and Pakistan were engaged in a proxy war in his country, Karzai retorted by saying, "India is not engaging in any proxy war in Afghanistan...Training thousands of Afghans is not a proxy war, it is empowerment."



India has supplied four Mi25 helicopters to Afghanistan besides providing training to Afghan security forces.

Welcoming Modi's comments on Balochistan, Karzai said, "The issue of Balochisthan is something we understand and therefore we appreciate the remarks of Prime Minister Modi."



In his Independence Day speech on Monday, Modi had talked about the situation in PoK, Gilgit and Balochistan and said people from there have thanked him for raising their issues.

Karzai attacked Pakistan for encouraging spread of radicalism. "Unfortunately, in our region there was use of radicalism to a purpose," he said.

About spread of dreaded terror outfit Islamic State, he said IS is a "sinister" tool, adding tomorrow it will be against the ones using it. He said Afghanistan and all its neighbouring countries must work together to combat IS.

"Today I can use it, tomorrow I can discard it. That's a very dangerous strategy," he said, while asking Pakistan to deal with terror groups firmly.

He said religion and aspirations to be a democratic country have nothing to do with one another.

In an apparent reference to Pakistan, he rejected promotion of religion as an "instrument of foreign policy". He also sounded critical of the US for its role in the region.

Karzai appealed to Pakistan to join hands with Afghanistan in addressing various problems "without use of radicalism.
Pakistan has closed one of its main border point with Afghanistan after a group of Afghans staged a protest and tried to attack the crossing in the troubled Balochistan province.

A large number of people had gathered near Friendship Gate at Chaman in Balochistan to celebrate Afghanistan's national day on Friday.

During the event, some Afghans attacked the gate and burnt a Pakistani flag in the evening, prompting authorities to deploy additional security troops and shut down the gate for indefinite period, an official said.

Another official said the Afghans belonging to border town of Spin Boldak protested in favour of India after Pakistan protested against the remarks made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi regarding Balochistan.

They also chanted slogans against Pakistan, threw rocks at the gate.

The closure resulted in long queues of trucks and lorries on both sides of the border. The traders suffered on both sides as fresh supplies of essential items have been badly interrupted.

Pakistan had closed Torkham border crossing in the north- west region in June after deadly clashes with Afghan forces. It was later reopened after talks between high officials of the two countries.
Taliban militants have captured a district in Afghanistan's Kunduz province on Saturday, officials said.

"Dozens of armed militants overran Khan Abad district early Saturday morning. Sporadic clashes were continuing around the district's office buildings as security forces were trying to repel the attack," Qudratullah Safi, district executive officer, told Xinhua news agency.

The district is located some 25 km east of the provincial capital of Kunduz city.

The main highway connecting Kunduz to the neighbouring Takhar province also passes through the district.

(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.)
Turkey's prime minister says his government wants the US to speed up procedures for the extradition of US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Turkey accuses of orchestrating last month's violent coup attempt.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim told foreign media representatives today that Turkey and the United States have an extradition agreement and the process should not be delayed.

He says "we want the process to be accelerated ... This man was the leader of the coup. What are we waiting for? The agreement between the two countries is clear."



Washington has asked for evidence of Gulen's involvement and says the regular extradition process must take its course.

The cleric has denied involvement in the July 15 coup that killed more than 270 people.
The military has slashed the number of intelligence advisers directly supporting the Saudi-led coalition's air war in Yemen, the Navy said on Saturday.

The reassignment of personnel, around June, occurred because "there was not the same sort of requests coming in for assistance" from the Saudis, Fifth Fleet spokesman Lieutenant Ian McConnaughey told AFP from Bahrain.

Saudi Arabia has faced repeated criticism from rights groups over civilian casualties in its 17-month-long campaign against rebels in Yemen.

officials have regularly urged their major Middle East ally to avoid harming non-combatants in Yemen.

But McConnaughey said the US reassignment of personnel does not affect their ability to support the Saudis and is a more efficient allocation of resources.

"That's the main reason behind it, and it's based on the amount of requests that we receive from the Saudis."

He said the United States now has "a limited number, less than five, that are working directly on the advisory cell that we have here."

That number is down from about 45, in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, at its peak. The joint cell was established around the start of coalition operations in March last year, McConnaughey said.

The Arab coalition began air raids and later sent in ground forces to support the internationally recognised government of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi after Houthi rebels and their allies overran much of Yemen.

Saudi Arabia says the rebels are backed by its Shiite regional rival Iran.

The coalition has told AFP that it uses highly accurate las er and GPS-guided weapons, many of them supplied by the US, and that it verifies targets many times in order to avoid civilian casualties.

Yet allegations of strikes on civilian facilities have continued. Paris-based Doctors Without Borders (MSF) on Thursday accused the coalition of "indiscriminate bombings" and said it had lost confidence in the alliance's ability to prevent fatal attacks on its facilities.

MSF decided to withdraw staff from six hospitals after 19 people died in an air strike Monday on an MSF-supported hospital in Yemen's rebel-held northern province of Hajja.

That was the fourth and deadliest attack yet on an MSF facility during the war, the charity said.

US State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau expressed deep concern after reports of the hospital strike.
A two-day meeting of BRICS women parliamentarian's forum began today in Jaipur.

In her inaugural address Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said that government has chosen the path of removing poverty by empowering the poor.

She said women are most vulnerable and, therefore, are most at risk from climate change. The Lok Sabha Speaker called on the BRICS countries to strengthen cooperative mechanisms and to innovate new institutional means for meeting the needs of the member countries.

Earlier, T.R Modise, the chairperson of the Council of Provinces, South Africa said, this forum will help to have one voice as women Parliamentarians to organise, mobilise, motivate and advance women.

A total of 43 Parliamentarians from BRICS countries, including 28 MPs from Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, are participating in the meeting where sustainable development goals are being discussed.

BRICS is a five-nation grouping of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

Theme of the second session, to be held on the second day on August 21, will be 'Containing Climate Change - Imperatives of Global Cooperation'.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje will deliver the valedictory address and the Lok Sabha Speaker will give the concluding address on the second day.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Government on Saturday appointed Urjit Patel as the new Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor.

Patel, who is currently serving as the Deputy RBI chief, will succeed Raghuram Rajan as the RBI chair once he steps down on September 3 after his term comes to an end. Patel will India's 24th RBI Governor.

"The Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC) has approved the appointment of Dr. Urjit Patel as Governor, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for a period of three years w.e.f. 4-9-16," the press statement issued from the finance ministry said.

"The appointment has been made based on the recommendation of the Financial Sector Regulatory Appointments (FSRASC) headed by Cabinet Secretary," the statement added.

The committee undertook an extensive exercise to suggest a panel of names to the ACC. One of the RBI's four deputy governors, Patel, 52, was reappointed in January for another three years. He has run the central bank's monetary policy department since 2013.

Patel obtained his BA from the London School of Economics [LSE, University of London], M. Phil. degree from Oxford University in 1986. He received his doctorate in Economics from Yale University in 1990. He joined IMF as a Kenyan citizen.

He was at IMF India desk during the 1991-1994 transition period. He was posted to IMF country mission in India 1992-1995. He has also been a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution since 2009

Dr Rajan's term ends on September fourth, after he surprised everyone with a letter to RBI staff announcing his decision to return to academics and not be available for a second term.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Delhi Police on Saturday sought maximum punishment for all the three convicts in the 2009 murder case of IT executive Jigisha Ghosh.

Delhi's Saket court will pronounce the quantum of sentence for the three convicts on August 22.

The three accused in the case---Amit Shukla, Baljeet Malik and Ravi Kapoor---are also accused in the killing of TV journalist Soumya Vishwanathan, who was shot dead on September 30, 2008, while returning home in her car from her office in the wee hours.

Defence lawyers, however, sought a lenient punishment for the convicts citing their family situation.

During the argument, defence lawyer for Ravi Kapoor said that he was only 27 years old, is suffering with life threatening disease, having two small children.

Meanwhile, Amit Kumar, defence lawyer for Baljeet Malik said during the argument on quantum of sentence, they requested the court to give minimum punishment to the accused, considering their ages and previous conduct.

"Considering their (accused) tender ages, there are chances that they should be allowed to come in the mainstream. On basis of that, we have requested for minimum punishment prescribed under Section 302 of the IPC," Kumar told ANI.

On the other hand, Savita Ghosh, mother of Jigisha, said the accused have committed a cold-blooded murder and, therefore, should be given death sentence.

Jigisha, 28, who was working with Hewitt Associate Pvt. Ltd as operations manager, was abducted and killed on March 18, 2009, after she was dropped near her home in Vasant Vihar area of South Delhi by her official cab around 4 a.m.

The trial had begun on April 15, 2010 with examination of her father as the first prosecution witness.

The court had framed charges against the accused under IPC and Arms Act, dealing with murder, criminal conspiracy, abduction, robbery, forgery and using firearms.

The recovery of the weapon allegedly used in the murder of the IT executive had led to the cracking of the murder case of Soumya.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting M. Venkaiah Naidu will today visit southern parts of Tamil Nadu to pay homage to freedom fighters.

As per the announcement made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Independence Day address, the union ministers are asked to visit the places connected with freedom fighters so as to create awareness among the youth about freedom struggle.

Naidu will visit Pancahalan Kurichi Fort connected with Veera Pandya Kattabomman, who fought against the British.

He will also pay homage to freedom fighter V.O. Chidambaranar in Ottapidaram.

Later, the Minister is scheduled to visit the home of patriotic poet Subhramanya Bharati in Ettayapuram.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
North Eastern Electric Power Corporation Limited (NEEPCO), a state run 'Mini Ratna' under the Ministry of Power claimed that it facing a loss of Rs 40 lakh daily since August 2013 as ONGC (Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd) has failed to supply the committed gas to its 101 Megawatt power project at Monarchak in Tripura set up at a cost of more than Rs 1000 crores.

Samar Ranjan Biswas, Head of the Monarchak project said, "Even after completion of the project of 100 MW size, and in all respect the project was completed in August 2013 unfortunately ONGC could not give us gas and it has remained unutilized. We had generated power only for few months and that too during non-operational of one unit of Palatana plant (power plant of ONGC) they could have given us the gas. After that it was again suspended and till now it is under suspension."

According to officials initially in the year 2001, NEEPCO had a plan to set up a gas based 500 MW combined cycle power plant and with the approval and allocation of 2 MMSCUMD (Million Metric Standard Cubic Meter Per Day) of Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MOP and NG).

But in 2003 the gas allocation for the project was reduced to half and accordingly NEEPCO established all infrastructure for a 280 MW power plant.

Meantime, ONGC during the end of 2005 had come with proposed for setting up its first power plant of 750 MW at Palatana in South Tripura and on view of which the MOP conveyed to NEEPCO to abandon its 280 MW Monarchak project.

However, under the pursuance of the government of Tripura and NEEPCO by the end of 2007 again MOP&NG had asked ONGC to provide gas but this time only 0.5 MMSCUMD (i.e, one fourth what was committed) and according again the DPR for the project was changed to 101 MW and got approval from the CEA (Central Electricity Authority of India).

In July 2010 the Project Investment Board (PIB) approved the project followed by the approval for setting up of the project by Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), then headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in February 2011.

In this delay the sanctioned project cost of Rs 623.44 crores after the revise had almost doubled and gone up to Rs 1007.57 crores.

In spite of all these hurdles including the transportation of the over dimensional cargo (ODC) of the turbines and its parts in record 36 months and by the mid of 2013, NEEPCO completed the work of the gas turbine followed by the steam turbine and intimated about its readiness to the MOP&NG.

Finally it became a 101 MW project and of which 63 MW would be generated by gas turbine while 38 MW by steam turbines.

Accordingly ONGC on intermittent basis and as per availability first supplied gas in February 2015 though it failed to supply full contracted quantity and expressing its inability assured to supply by March 2016.

Later only for a short period of two months (from 24 December 2015 to 28 February 2016) ONGC continuously supplied 0.5 MMS gas and during which both the gas and steam turbine operated, but now again ONGC has intimated that only by December 2016 it will be able to supply gas to the Monarchak project.

The non supply of gas is a big loss for the NEEPCO and now official say that they are not sure about the fate of the project as ONGC has been giving date after date for supplying gas and without which the entire investment will be of no use.

"We do not know what will happen to the plant, it is definitely a loss, a loss to the corporation and the nation. However, we have taken up the matter with the government of India and they have taken it with ONGC and others. Now we have got a commitment form the Ministry of Petroleum that gas will be resumed by December 2016 and in that case I think that we will be on stream with effect from January 2017. Daily loss is around Rs 40 to 45 lakhs and so yearly we shall have a loss of Rs 100 crore. Investment is Rs 1000 crore and we have a loan from Stat Bank of Singapore," informed the Head of the Monarchak project.

Along with this there are additional losses as the turbines and machineries which have already been used shall also gradually get rusted without use beside the staff and engineers those engaged with the project getting demoralized.

N Bhuiya, a senior manager, said, "See we are losing around 40 lakhs a month and not only losing money but now we people - the engineers who are posted here are becoming ideal and that is also loss of your manpower and resource. So that way we are losing, revenue wise we are losing and see this is an internal combustion gas turbine and when already firing has taken place inside the gas turbine and definitely if it is a continuously process it is good. When we stop for eight to nine months again the whole process we have to start because from cleaning the gas pipeline, cleaning the steam turbine, pipelines whole activity again we have to do. So this is a loss in whole all the way, in terms of revenue, manpower and man resource."

The ambitious combined cycle electric power project of NEEPCO at Monarchak is all ready but ONGC has again expressed inability to supply gas till the end of this year. Now only time will say if NEEPCO shall be able to start its more than Rs 1000 crores project or shall have to bear the loss, a loss to the entire nation especially when India is starving for power and without which the wheel of development cannot run.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Finance Ministry is likely to announce the next governor of the Rerserve Bank of India (RBI).



As incumbent RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan's exit date, which falls on September 4 nears, speculations about his successor have been doing the rounds for the past few weeks.

Former deputy governor Subir Gokarn and current deputy governor Urjit Patel are in the race for the top job.

The other names doing the rounds are that of Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian, NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Arvind Panagariya, Former RBI Deputy Governor Rakesh Mohan, SBI Chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya and Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das.

To discuss the same, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday met Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for over an hour.

Officially, there was no confirmation, but according to sources, the discussion on the possible choices and the announcement took place in the meeting.

Dr Rajan's term ends on September fourth, after he surprised everyone with a letter to RBI staff announcing his decision to return to academics and not be available for a second term.
The Pakistan-Afghanistan border at Chaman has been shut by the authorities after reports surfaced yesterday that a large number of Afghan demonstrators attacked the Friendship Gate and disrespected the Pakistani flag.

The incident that took place on Thursday evening and now has led to suspension in the movement of trucks involved in trade shipments between the two countries, reports the Dawn.

"The Friendship Gate at the Pak-Afghan border has been closed after the flag burning incident," the Dawn quoted a senior security official, as saying.

He said that the border with Afghanistan will remain closed for an indefinite period.

"We will not open the gate until orders to do so are received from the high command," officials deployed at the gate said.

According to reports, large number of Afghan nationals, celebrating the 97th anniversary of their country's Independence Day had gathered near the Friendship Gate after marching through the streets of the Spin Boldak town across the border.

During the march they carried placards and banners inscribed with anti-Pakistan slogans.

The Afghan demonstrators later started pelting the Friendship Gate with stones, smashing windowpanes of the building.

The Frontier Corps personnel avoided taking any action against the Afghan protesters who marched to the gate after seeing Pakistanis who had staged a protest against Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's remarks on Balochistan the same day.

Reports suggest that Afghan demonstrators snatched the national flag from a Pakistani protester who stood close to the Friendship Gate and set it on fire.

Meanwhile, hundreds trucks, carrying NATO supplies and goods for Afghanistan and Pakistan, have been stranded on both sides of the border.

Every day around thousands of traders from both the countries cross into Chaman and Vesh Mandi in connection with their business in the border towns.

Following the incidents, security has been stepped up at the border after more Frontier Corps personnel had been deployed.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
New Delhi, Aug. 20 (ANI) India remembered former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on the occasion of his 72nd birth anniversary today. It has been 25 years since Sri Lankan terrorists in Tamil Nadu assassinated the youthful leader. Rajiv Gandhi was a reluctant politician and yet, once responsibility was thrust upon him, he had a clear vision of how he wanted to change the way India functioned.

I was witness to the circumstances under which Rajiv Gandhi became the Prime Minister. I interacted with him during the Asian Games in 1982 in New Delhi and later during the Non-Aligned Summit in 1983 also in New Delhi, when he took an active interest and helped his mother Indira Gandhi in organising the two events. I was entrusted with the responsibility of organising communications at both events and interacted with him. Rajiv Gandhi had an eye for detail and gave precise and concise instructions.

But his internship did not last long. On October 31, 1984, Sikh bodyguards assassinated Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Her son Rajiv was in Calcutta. I was working as Director (News Services) at the All India Radio. We were aware that she had been shot and the first reports were that she would not survive. But we did not go ahead with that news. Reports had started coming in that there were outbreaks of violence in Delhi and elsewhere. The political decision had been taken that Rajiv Gandhi would be sworn in as Prime Minister. Everybody was curious whether the young man had it in him to lead the nation of almost a billion people with little or no political experience and virtually no administrative experience. Moreover, he was facing the enormous tragedy of losing his mother in such a violent manner.

But a stoic Rajiv Gandhi arrived in New Delhi and went straight to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences. The world did not see him weep. If he cried, it was in the solitude of his home. None of the Gandhis shed a tear in the days that followed the assassination. Rajiv and his young family went through the last rites and as soon as they were over, he got down to business. Delhi was in the throes of terrible rioting, which was spreading to other parts of North India. Did Rajiv delay in cracking down on the violence is a subject of much debate. He called in the army to quell the violence. Subsequently, he held talks with Sikh leaders and concluded the Rajiv-Longowal Accord.

In his initial months as Prime Minister, a young Rajiv had a child like optimism about the functioning of the government. I was appointed as Principal Information Officer to the Government of India during his tenure. His brief to me was clear and concise, to facilitate the media and disseminate information in a fair manner.

The media was eating out of his hands. Despite the anti-Sikh riots of '84, the media was soft on the young Prime Minister. He too had an easy and comfortable relationship with the media. Rajiv knew many editors on a first name basis, he would chat with photographers about lenses and angles, as he was keen on photography.

As the spokesman of the Government of India during Rajiv Gandhi's Prime Ministership, I recall I did not have much convincing to do in informing people that the new Prime Minister had a modern vision of India in the 21st century. Rajiv wanted India to be a modern and a technologically advanced nation. It was an idea that faced some resistance from the old guard of his own party and some in the government who were skeptical about his new ideas.

Rajiv Gandhi told the nation repeatedly that India had missed the Industrial Revolution, but it could not afford to miss the Technological Revolution.

Rajiv Gandhi set up the Informatics Centre, made it easier to import computers, and set up Technology Missions that today provide communication to each village across the country, make available drinking water to millions of villagers, promote literacy, provide healthcare and ushered in a White Revolution.

If Jawaharlal Nehru was the architect of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), Rajiv Gandhi worked for strengthening peace in South Asia and helped in establishing the SAARC. He visited Bangladesh when it was under strain following floods there, and signed the India-Sri Lanka Accord in 1987. In spite of Pakistan's role in promoting a proxy war in Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir, he visited Pakistan when Benazir Bhutto was its Prime Minister, and hoped to open up a new chapter in bilateral relations between the two countries.

Rajiv Gandhi also took steps to improve relations with China. In spite of the incidents along the border, which made India give a strong response, he visited China and tried his best to improve bilateral relations with that country. Deng Xiaoping, the paramount leader of China extended support to the initiatives taken by Rajiv Gandhi and the firm handshake that he extended on December 22, 1988 in Beijing will be remembered forever.

Rajiv Gandhi established close relations with the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev. Rajiv Gandhi's address to the United Nations on nuclear disarmament in the world is still remembered as an important document.

Rajiv Gandhi made mistakes too, which cost him dearly. The amendment of the Constitution to annul the judgment in the Shah Bano case, which provided relief to a Muslim woman divorcee, was the first one. The attempt to have the Defamation Bill passed by Parliament, which put the onus on the defender, was the next one.

And, looking back, his reaction to the allegations that Rs. 64 crores had been offered to someone close in the government in the Bofors deal, gave rise to a controversy that never died down, and he lost the general elections in 1989.

Finally, his dealing with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, which played a negative role in the implementation of the India-Sri Lanka Accord, eventually cost him his life. Even his most critical opponents felt that Rajiv Gandhi had learnt from the mistakes that he made in the second half of his term. Had he lived longer, he might have been a better prime minister in his second term and would have seen the 21st century that he was so looking forward to.

Mr. I. Ramamohan Rao is a former Principal Information Officer to the Government of India. He can be reached on his e-mail: raoramamohan@hotmail.com.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
New Delhi, 20 August (ANI): Traditional tattoos were once considered marks of beauty, valour, pride and belief where one could identify a person through lines and tattoo patterns.

But now in some parts of the country, indigenous people have forgotten that they were once a tattooing community, while some communities' abandoned the practice of tattooing 50-60 years ago because of the advent of a new religion or a new way of life without really understanding the importance of it.

Aiming to revive India's indigenous tattoo traditions and planning to take it forward to give indigenous tattoo craft a deeper meaning, a young Naga tattoo researcher and revivalist, Moranngam Khaling, alias Mo Naga, has launched country's first conceptualized tattoo studio tilted 'Godna Gram-The Tattoo Village' in New Delhi.

This new mission and a new venture came through after an intensive four years of research and travelling which took him mostly to the interior villages bordering Myanmar to search for the dying tribal tattoo art of the northeastern states, says Mo Naga.

The studio will project itself as a one-stop centre to build a global connect and also invite tattoo artists from other parts of the country to practice and promote their art.

"Godna Gram is for the whole of India. So, we will encourage and train artists. We will help them set up studios and help them to do research and revive their tradition in different parts of India but at the same time, we will always have a space for them to come and promote their art in the capital city of India," added Mo Naga.

Trained as a fashion designer at the National Institute of Fashion Technology in Hyderabad, his true calling for recreating the art and culture of indigenous people through contemporary renditions of traditional patterns and responsible tattooing happened in the year 2002.

"If Nagas identify and differentiate themselves with the pattern of cloths, then tattoos were there before that. So, the more I started study and research, the more I realized that this is where I can contribute to society as an artist, as a cultural enthusiast, as a person who loves their people. So, that's why I started and became a full time tattoo artist," Mo Naga said.

After years of practice as a professional tattoo artist, he left New Delhi in 2013 and set up his first tattoo studio 'Headhunters Ink' in Guwahati-the gateway city to Naga homeland which later re-located to Nagaland.

The first studio was born out of his love and passion to study, preserve and promote the unique identities of Nagas through art and design culture.

His work for attempting to restore the vanishing tattooing convention of different tribes of Nagaland and Nagas as a whole makes him the only Indian to feature in the "Tattoo Masters Flash Collection". He was also featured as one of the top 100 artists of the World in "The World Atlas of Tattoo".

The ethnic significance of Mo Naga's work has intrigued and inspired many from the country as well as across the globe.

"I really liked it, especially the idea about the research he has done that this is something which is not there before and doing this called Neo Naga through arts. So, he's implementing his own ideas in the existing traditional tattoos which are taken from the tribes and also implementing from some patterns from wood carvings and so on," added Daniel, a German client.

Henceforth, with knowledge, creativity, hard work and plenty of talent, Mo Naga plans to bring about great innovative change in reviving India's fading ink.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Calling on China and Japan to pursue the right direction in bilateral ties, top Chinese political advisor Yu Zhengsheng has asked the duo to eliminate disturbances to achieve continued and stable improvement of the bilateral relationship.

Yu,who is also the chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee, made the remarks in his meeting with Takeo Kawamura, chair of the Japanese House of Representatives Committee on Rules and Administration at the Great Hall of the People.

He asserted that Beijing has always attached great importance to ties with Japan and promoted building ties on the basis of four political documents between the two countries in the spirit of taking history as a mirror and looking toward the future, reports Xinhua.

Pointing out that though ties between the two countries have improved in the past few years, he said that momentum is still fragile, adding, both sides need to pay close attention and handle matters properly as there are various complicated and sensitive elements.

He also urged both sides to make joint efforts toward a shared goal, pursue the right direction in bilateral ties and remove disturbances to promote the continued and stable development.

Meanwhile, Kawamura talking about the bilateral ties said that Japanese leadership fully understands the importance of the relationship between Japan and China and is willing to forge ahead.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Asserting that both the State and the Central government have failed in finding a solution to the soaring violence in the Valley, the Jammu and Kashmir opposition parties led by Conference chief Omar Abdullah said here on Saturday that the problem in the state is a political one and cannot be handled administratively.

Speaking to the media here after submitting a memorandum to President Pranab Mukherjee, Omar said that this is the first time in memory that initiatives that should have been taken by the government, are actually being taken by the opposition.

"This afternoon a delegation of opposition parties that had previously met in Srinagar, called on his Excellency the President to present him a memorandum and to apprise him of the situation currently prevailing, particularly in Kashmir valley, but also showing signs of spreading to Pir Punjal, Chenab valley region of Jammu and Kargil part of Ladakh as well," he said.

Omar added that their meeting with the President, which cuts across party lines, symbolised the deep concerns that they have for the prevailing situation and also their disappointment at the way the matter has sought to be handled, both by the Centre as well as the state government.

"This is the first time in our memory that we have found that initiatives that should have been taken by the govt are actually being taken by the opposition. Whether it is at the central level, where if any discussion was initiated in the parliament, was initiated because of the opposition. Similarly, if any moves have been made in the state government, it only followed from opposition pressure and not as an initiative of the government," he said.

Asserting that the unrest in the Valley stemmed from a political problem, Omar said that the situation cannot be handled administratively or by creating a humanitarian crisis.

He also alleged that people who are undergoing their 43rd day of restrictions and curfew are having further restrictions placed on them, increasing their misery.

"With the sale of petroleum and other products being banned, with the movement of ambulances to hospitals being affected, with stringent curfew measures being enforced, all that is happening is that more and more people are being driven out onto the streets and the problem is getting worse," Omar said.

In the memorandum, the opposition has requested the President to get the Government of India to acknowledge that the root cause of what is happening in the Valley, lies in the of Jammu and Kashmir, and the solution also must be found politically, not administratively and not through the use of force.

"This is what the position of all political parties took with the president and we do hope that there will be a positive outcome from our visit here," Omar added.

Lashing out at the Mehbooba Mufti-led government for its sheer failure in managing to at least contain the volatile conditions in the state, Omar stated that the Chief Minister was directly responsible for the deteriorating situation.

"We did not raise the point of Governor's rule with the President. We have not come here to overthrow the government, even though the Mehbooba Mufti government is responsible for the deteriorating state. Her ruling has continuously failed and so has her ability to deal with the situation. It's administrative anarchy in JK. One ruling is announced in the morning and by evening, another,"

Further stating that it was ridiculous to blame Pakistan completely for the Kashmir unrest, he added that Islamabad was partially responsible in fanning the flames, but they were not solely to blame.

When asked about the Centre's active involvement in the tense conditions in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK), the NC chief stated that the former should first focus on dousing the flames in his 'own house'.

Talking about the controversy over the usage of pellet guns by the security forces which has resulted in serious injuries and also people losing their eye sight, Omar said that the problem was that the guns were being given to people who did not know how to use it, ergo causing serious and fatal injuries.

"I'm stunned that 1.3 million pellets were used against our people. If such power and force had been used in any other state in our country, would people remain silent? When such things happen in JK people don't seem to care. Not only is the problem with the use of the pellet guns, the problem is that those guns are being handed over to those people who are not adequately trained in the use of weapons," he said.

"That is why you are seeing injuries on an unprecedented scale. It is not just the use of the weapon. Any weapon is a lethal weapon. It depends on how you use it," Omar added.

Earlier, the Congress expressed concern over the current state in the Valley saying that the situation is sliding into 'total chaos' and called for a solution by the opposition.

As many as 65 have been killed and thousands of civilians and security personnel reported injured in protest-related violence following the encounter of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani on July 8.
Indonesian police have arrested a British man and an Australian woman from Bali for their alleged involvement in the murder of a police officer.

David Taylor and Sara Connor were arrested on Friday in connection with the death of Wayan Sudarsa, whose body was discovered on Kuta beach on Wednesday with deep wounds on his head and neck, EFE news agency reported.

Connor's driving licence, ATM card and handbag were reportedly discovered near the body, while a smashed beer bottle at the scene is suspected of being the murder weapon.

Taylor and Connor were brought for questioning on Saturday, but police are yet to state whether they are suspects,

Each could face a maximum of 15 years in prison if they are found guilty of second degree murder.

Police said the duo have confirmed their presence on the beach at the time of the murder, but have denied any involvement in the crime.

Connor has claimed that she was drunk and unable to remember all the events of the night.

Conner's family said she travelled to Bali for a holiday to meet Taylor, a British-born DJ who had lived in Byron Bay until recently.

--IANS

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The airstrike that destroyed the home of five-year-old Omran Daqneesh who was photographed after being pulled from the rubble has claimed the life of his brother.

Ali, 10, died from his injuries in hospital on Saturday. The boys' father received mourners at his temporary home after news broke of the death, the Guardian reported.

Ali was not with his younger brother at home but playing with friends out in the street when the bomb fell on Wednesday. While his family sustained minor injuries when their home collapsed he was more seriously hurt in the blast.

Kenan Rahmani, a Syrian activist wrote online: "Omran became the 'global symbol of Aleppo's suffering' but to most people he is just that -- a symbol. Ali is the reality: that no story in has a happy ending."

There is growing frustration in rebel-held Aleppo that grief at the plight of Omran has not been accompanied by rage at those who dropped the bomb.

The image brought renewed global focus to the suffering of civilians in the eastern part of Syria's largest city, living under near-siege conditions.

"All Syrians, and me, thank the world for their feelings of sorrow, but why don't you help us to find peace," asked Aisha, a mother of two who fled the city after barrel bombings intensified but who still lives in the countryside near Aleppo. "The cause of this is Bashar al-Assad," the Guardian quoted her as saying.
After leading a delegation of opposition MLAs of Jammu and Kashmir to meet President Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday, former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said the violence-hit state is faced with a political problem that can't be handled administratively.

"Jammu and Kashmir is a political problem. It cannot be handled administratively," Omar told reporters after the meeting with the President

The National Conference leader said the situation that went out of control after the July 8 killing of Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani was "due to our own mistakes".

Earlier, Omar led the Jammu and Kashmir MLAs delegation to the President and apprised him of the situation prevailing in the Valley, where curfew has been imposed for the last 43 days. The delegation also submitted a memorandum to the President.

"Pakistan has been trying to destabilise peace in the Valley for the last 25 years. But if you ask me if the situation created after Wani's killing was due to Pakistan, I will have to say 'no'," the NC leader said.

He said Pakistan undoubtedly tried to fuel the situation and succeeded too to some extant. "But the immediate turmoil was due to our own mistakes."

Omar said it is for the first time that the initiatives that should have been taken by the government are being taken by the opposition.

The death toll in violence in the Kashmir Valley has risen to 67, triggered a day after the July 8 killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani.

--IANS

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Dozens of Filipino communists marched through the streets of Manila on Saturday in support of the upcoming peace talks between the Philippines government and the National Democratic Front (NDF).

The peace talks will be held in Oslo on Monday.

Around 30 young communists participated in the rally shouting slogans in support of the New People's Army (NPA), the military wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), Efe news reported.

The around two-kilometre march saw participants hand out leaflets and graffiti on walls espousing their support for the NPA. They also carried communist flags and signs bearing slogans such as "Youth, join the New People's Army" and "Fight neo-liberal rules of education."

Since 1969, the NPA has been waging one of Asia's longest running insurgencies in the country, with some 40,000 lives reported to have been lost in the conflict.

The protest followed the release of two top communist leaders, Benito and Wilma Tiamzon, on Friday who were granted temporary bail so they can participate in the talks.

The Tiamzon couple, alleged top leaders of the CPP, were arrested in Cebu, a Philippines province, in March 2014 over charges of crimes against humanity.

The CPP's political arm, the NDF, has argued that the pair are their consultants and are covered by the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) that grants them safe conduct during peace talks with the government.

--IANS

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A 15-year-old Dalit boy was allegedly beaten up late on Thursday evening by two men in Bhavda village of Daskroi taluka in Ahmedabad district ostensibly because his father refused to dispose off cattle carcasses in the village, police said on Saturday.

Two persons were arrested after the boy's father, Dinesh Parmar, lodged an FIR against them. Kanbha police station officer Govindbhai Parmar told IANS that a case has been registered under the Prevention of Atrocities (Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) Act, besides other provisions of the Indian Penal Code.

Complainant Dinesh Parmar told the police that his son Harsh, a standard 10 student, was sitting with a friend in their colony Vankarvas when the two accused -- Sahil Thakore and Sarvarkhan Pathan -- from the same village went there.

They started abusing Harsh for his father had refused to remove the carcasses in response to a call by Dalit organisations protesting the July 11 flogging of four youths in Una in Saurashtra.

Dalits in many villages in Gujarat have stopped cleaning up cattle carcasses after the Una incident as part of a pledge to do so. "Removing carcasses was our traditional work but after the Una incident, I took a pledge to give it up. I now depend solely on the daily wages I earn for a living," said Dinesh Parmar.

PSO Govindbhai Parmar said the two accused persons had an argument with Harsh and his friend, following which they thrashed him. "It was a minor scuffle, but we still took Harsh to the hospital for a first-aid check," he said.

The incident left Harsh traumatised and he was sent to his aunt's house in Vastral area in Ahmedabad. "My son was traumatised by the incident and he was not ready to stay in the village. So I had to send him to my sister's place," said Dinesh Parmar.

--IANS

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North Korea on Saturday said Deputy Ambassador to Britain Thae Yong Ho defected to South Korea to escape punishment.

Thae was accused of embezzling state funds, selling state secrets and raping a minor, Efe news reported.

North Korea had recalled Thae in June to put him under investigation and on July 12 Central Procuratorate decided to start a probe, a report said.

North Korea also slammed South Korea's coverage of the incident and blamed Seoul for using the case to tarnish Pyongyang's image and step up anti-North Korea campaigns.

The incident was exacerbated by the fact that Britain ignored North Korea's request to send Thae back, but instead handed him over to South Korea.

Seoul's Unification Ministry said on Wednesday that North Korea's deputy ambassador to Britain has defected to South Korea with his family.

If it was true, Thae would become the highest ranking North Korean diplomat who has fled to Seoul.

--IANS

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"Chin up, keep your back straight and don't try to act cool." Models often get to hear these words from choreographers of fashion shows. But are they okay with the rule to put their phones down during rehearsals?

Before the second edition of the North East India Fashion Week (NEIFW) took off here on Friday, about 30 models were seen perfecting their walk on the stage at the multipurpose cultural centre here.

Amidst the loud music, Opang Jamir, who is directing and choreographing over 20 shows at the three-day event, was heard telling the models to keep their phones away. He even barred them from taking selfies.

"Phones hamper practices. You can't concentrate on your walk with your phones constantly ringing. Models have to listen to the beat of music and feel the music. That's why I always tell them not to use phones. After practice, they can use their phones," Jamir, who represented India at Mr International 2012 in Bangkok, told IANS here.

Durlave Kakati, a model from Assam, agrees with him.

"Opang treats us well. He himself is an established model. So, if he tells us to stay away from phones for a while, it's okay. We need to respect other models and designers," said the 22-year-old, who watches FTV to learn the nuances of the ramp walk.

Sila Likha from Arunachal Pradesh shares a similar sentiment.

"It's fair. We need to concentrate on our sequence. If our mentor is suggesting us to do something for our own good, then we should do it. It maybe a small thing, but it's the small things that help people to succeed in life," said Likha, who wants to be India's top model some day.

Jitika Devi, from Assam, failed to clear the model auditions conducted by the prestigious Lakme India Fashion Week last month in Guwahati. So when she got to know that Jamir is choreographing the shows of the NEIFW, she was thrilled.

"He is known nationally and has the experience in the field. So, he knows what he is doing and saying. I think we should have such rules (putting phones away during rehearsals)," she said.

"You need to pay attention on your walk. Once you are free, you can use your phone. I am sure we all can live without our phones for an hour or so," she added.

Fashion stylist and groomer Siddhartha Barman also gave a thumbs up to the rule.

"It's absolutely fair. Models keep checking their WhatsApp or Facebook during rehearsals. That's not right. Apart from disturbing others, some of them end up sharing too much information about the show by posting photographs or videos online," he said.

"There are times when designers want to keep certain things under wraps. Posting photographs after the show is fine, but while practicing, it's not the right thing to do," he added.

NEIFW is hosted by designer Yana Ngoba Chakpu, who hails from Arunachal Pradesh and is based in Guwahati, Assam. The fashion gala, which will conclude on Sunday, is an attempt to promote the weavers and designers of northeast India.

(The writer is in Itanagar at the invitation of the fashion week's organisers. Natalia Ningthoujam can be contacted at Natalia.n@ians.in)

--IANS

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Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday congratulated economist and banker Urjit R. Patel after the government named him the next Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to succeed Raghuram R. Rajan.

"Congratulations to @UrjitPatel_ on being appointed as Governor of RBI," Jaitley tweeted.

The Finance Minister also hoped that Patel would successfully lead RBI.

"I'm sure he will successfully lead the Reserve Bank & contribute to India's economic development," he said in another tweet.

Patel, 52, a Deputy Governor since January 2013 and on a three-year further term since January this year, will take over as the 24th chief of India's central bank on September 4.

--IANS

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Saturday said that India was fully committed to the reconstruction work in Nepal after the devastating April 2015 earthquake.

He was speaking to Nepalese Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Bimalendra Nidhi, who is visiting India as a Special Envoy after the installation of a new government in the Himalayan nation and who called on him here.

This is the first high-level visit from Nepal to India after the new Maoist-led government headed by Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal "Prachanda" took charge in Kathmandu earlier this month.

"The Prime Minister said that India is fully committed to support the government and the people of Nepal in the post-earthquake reconstruction efforts," the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said in a statement.

India is the largest donor to Nepal's post-earthquake reconstruction efforts.

"Stating that the relations between India and Nepal were not merely between the two governments, but between the people of both countries, the Prime Minister reiterated that India is committed to strengthening these traditional bonds of friendship and kinship with the people of Nepal," the PMO statement said.

Nidhi briefed the Prime Minister about developments in Nepal.

Modi congratulated Nidhi on assuming office as the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Home Affairs of Nepal.

He also conveyed his best wishes to the new government of Nepal under Prachanda.

Nidhi, who is on a four-day visit to India, on Friday called on External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Home Minister Rajnath Singh.

Sushma Swaraj assured Nidhi that India would work closely with the new Nepali government.

Nidhi called on President Pranab Mukherjee and reiterated President Bidya Devi Bhandari's invitation to visit the Himalayan nation.

After coming to power, the new Maoist-led government said Nepal wanted to further strengthen bilateral relations with both India and China.

While Nidhi from the Nepali Congress was deputed to visit India as special envoy, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Krishna Bahadur Mahara of Prachanda's Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist-Centre) visited Beijing earlier this week.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
An Indo-Canadian Sikh Cabinet Minister Bardish Chagger, was sworn in as the new leader of the government in the House of Commons, becoming the first woman to hold the position in the Canadian parliament, the media reported.

"This is a tremendous opportunity. I have been involved in the political process for basically my whole life," Chagger was quoted as saying, after her swearing-in ceremony at Rideau Hall in Ottawa, by cbc.ca on Friday.

Chagger, 36, replaces House leader Dominic LeBlanc.

"I know what democracy should look like. Democracy should be engaging Canadians. That is the leadership of our Prime Minister," Chagger added.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed his confidence that Chagger will be "a worthy successor."

Chagger, who is a rookie MP and is one of the four Sikhs -- Harjit Sajjan, Navdeep Bains, Amarjeet Sohi being the other three -- was elected to Trudeau's cabinet in 2015,in a move that drew worldwide attention.

Chagger had a brief and unremarkable stint as small business and tourism minister.

She will retain that portfolio in addition to her new position.

Chagger was born and raised in the Waterloo region, attending the University of Waterloo where she was the president of the Young Liberals.

After graduating with a Bachelor of Science she worked as an assistant to former Kitchener-Waterloo MP Andrew Telegdi for four years before becoming a community organiser in 2009.

Chagger also worked as a volunteer on Trudeau's leadership campaign in 2013.

--IANS

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Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai has lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi's remarks on the human rights situation in Balochistan, saying that there was extreme suffering in the region at the hands of "extremists promoted by state structures of Pakistan".

"Afghanistan and India have been very reserved in their comments on Pakistan from a very long long time. Of course, we need to talk because we are on the same platform," Karzai said in an interview to NewsX news channel.

"In Balochistan, there is extreme suffering at the hands of extremists promoted by state structures in Pakistan," he added.

Karzai also said that India had approached the issue concerning Afghanistan with some caution.

"Yes, India approached the issue with caution and we understood it. There are considerations of Pakistani sensitivities which we of course disagree with," he said.

Modi, in his Independence Day address from the Red Fort, had referred to the situation in Balochistan, Gilgit, Baltistan and said people from these regions had thanked him a lot over the past few days for support.

--IANS

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in the two and a half years in office, has travelled abroad on fewer occasions than his predecessor Manmohan Singh, BJP national president Amit Shah said on Saturday, and added that the former Prime Minister would muddle up his speeches when abroad.

Shah took potshots at Singh, referring to him as 'mouni baba' or 'silent sage' even as he said that India under Modi's regime had a pride of place in the international arena.

"Kamal Nath has made a statement that Modi ji goes abroad very often. Kamal Nath does not know facts. In the two and a half year regimes of Manmohan Singh and Modi, Singh has gone abroad on more occasions than Modi. Kamal Nath does not know this, he cannot be blamed, because earlier our PM was a Mouni Baba, you know Mouni baba right?" Shah said to cheers from the Goa Bharatiya Janata Party poll booth workers.

Further mocking the former United Progressive Alliance government Prime Minister's functioning, Shah said that Singh's international visits were lacklustre and that the former Prime Minister used to muddle up his speeches.

"When he (Singh) used to go abroad, no one would know about it. No one, either in India or abroad, would know about his foreign visits. He would take two sheets of paper with English text on it. He would simply read out the content printed on the two pages and return to India. Sometimes, the sheets would get mixed up and he would read about Malaysia in Indonesia and about Indonesia in Malaysia," Shah said.

The BJP national president said that Modi had been successful in altering the perception of India in the international arena in a mere two and a half years.

"Now when Narendra Modi became Prime Minister of India, whenever he travels abroad, be it Nepal, Bhutan, (Sri) Lanka, China, US, England, France thousands of people are ready to welcome him. Therefore everyone knows now when Modi travels," Shah said.

"Narendra bhai has given India a pride of place internationally in two years. Mr. Kamal Nath, if you do not realise it, it does not matter. When the PM addresses the UN in Hindi, Indian hearts swell with pride," Shah said.

--IANS

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Tearing into the Centre over the recent rationalisation of Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSSs), West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday dubbed the Narendra Modi government "dictatorial" and wondered if there was a presidential form of government in India.

Mamata called the recommendations made by the "BJP-dominated" sub-group of chief ministers on the CSS rationalisation as "unilateral" and an "attack on federalism", and said the situation under the Modi government was worse than that during Emergency.

"The Centre has sent a letter declaring that the recommendations have been implemented. Citing cooperative federalism, they are actually bulldozing the states and democracy. This is nothing but dictatorship."

"I want to know if they are running a presidential form of government in the country," a fuming Banerjee told media persons while waving a letter by the National Institution for Transforming India (Niti) Aayog.

The Union Cabinet earlier this month accepted the major recommendations of the sub-group on CSS rationalisation, including limiting the total number of schemes to 30 and changing the sharing pattern between the Centre and the states.

She called the Modi government "the most arrogant" and said the Centre's Kashmir policy and diplomacy were "disasters".

"This is the most arrogant government I have ever seen. This is the reason behind Jammu Kashmir issue turning into a disaster. Their diplomacy is a disaster. Pakistan issue has become worse because of the Centre's failure.

"In the name of external affairs, you have only foreign trips."

"Modi went for a surprise visit to Pakistan on their prime minister's birthday. But only bad things happened after that," said Banerjee while referring to the January terror attack in Punjab's Pathankot city that came days after Modi's dramatic visit to Lahore in December 2015.

Continuing her attacks, she questioned why the schemes be named after leaders of the ruling party at the Centre when the states have to pay "most of the funds".

The Chief Minister said that except for finance, railways, defence and external affairs, there was no need for any other central ministry.

Banerjee said the motive behind the move was to deprive states where the BJP was not in power and expressed strong reservation over the "union government's bid to monitor the state treasury".

"They have formed a public financial management system whose purpose is to the track the expenditure made by the states. Why do they want to monitor the state treasury? From media to education, the Centre is trying to control everything. They are trying to take control of an elected government," she said.

Banerjee, who is the Trinamool Congress supremo, said President Pranab Mukherjee's intervention would be sought against the Centre's arbitrary action.

"Modi is running a dictatorship; the country's people have lost their independence under him. This is a dangerous red signal to stop democracy. The situation is worse than Emergency.

"We will seek the President's intervention against the Centre's continuous attacks on democracy and federalism. If the Centre does not correct its course, we will be forced to hit the streets," added Banerjee.

--IANS

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Nepalese Deputy Prime Minister Bimalendra Nidhi, who is visiting India as a special envoy after a new government came into power in the Himalayan nation, called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi here on Saturday.

"Engaging the new government in Nepal. Deputy PM Bimalendra Nidhi calls on PM @narendramodi," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup said in a tweet along with pictures of the two leaders.

This is the first high-level visit from Nepal to India after the new Maoist-led government headed by Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal "Prachanda" took charge in Kathmandu earlier this month.

Nidhi, who is on a four-day visit to India, on Friday called on External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Home Minister Rajnath Singh.

Sushma Swaraj assured Nidhi that India would work closely with the new Nepali government.

She emphasised that India attached the highest priority to its relations with Nepal, and offered full assistance and cooperation for the country's economic development.

Nidhi, who is also Nepal's Minister for Home Affairs, called on President Pranab Mukherjee and reiterated President Bidya Devi Bhandari's invitation to visit the Himalayan nation.

After coming to power, the new Maoist-led government said Nepal wanted to further strengthen bilateral relations with both India and China.

While Nidhi from the Nepali Congress was deputed to visit India as special envoy, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Krishna Bahadur Mahara of Prachanda's Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist-Centre) visited Beijing earlier this week.

--IANS

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A Pawan Hans helicopter on its way to Agra made a forced landing on Saturday in a farm in Ghaziabad district of Uttar Pradesh after developing a technical snag, police said here.

The helicopter was piloted by Captain S. Kumar and had three passengers onboard, S.K. Sharma, Krishna Kumar and Jadhav Thar, said Superintendent of Police (Rural) R.K. Pandey.

"The police control room received information from Air Traffic Control (ATC) that some technical snag has developed in the chopper. The ATC asked us to assist the crew," he said.

The pilot landed the chopper safely in a field, Pandey said.

"We have deployed a police force around the helicopter. It is still parked in the field under police guard."

--IANS

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The militant group has condemned the targeted killing of many Afghan nationals in Pakistan.

The group claimed that the slain individuals were religious clerics, Khaama Press reported on Saturday.

According to group spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid, at least three clerics were killed in the past few days in different parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

They were identified as Mawlavi Hazrat Sahib, Mohammad Hanafi and Qari Syed Murad.

Calling the killing of the individuals as "cowardly", Mujahid said they were refugees and called on Pakistani authorities to ensure the safety of clerics in the country.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the killings.

This was not the first time that individuals with specific links to the group have been killed in Pakistan.

This comes as Afghan officials said the Taliban group leadership as well as the notorious Haqqani terrorist network leaderships were based in Peshawar and Quetta cities.

The Afghan officials have long been criticising Pakistan for not acting against the leadership councils of the Afghan militants on its soil which they use to plan and coordinate attacks in Afghanistan.
Three of the four people undergoing treatment at a government hospital here have lost their vision after consuming spuriouis liquor that claimed 16 lives in Bihar's Gopalganj district, officials said on Saturday.

Of the six people referered in a critical condition from Gopalganj Sadar hospital to the Patna Medical College and Hospital (PCMH) on Wednesday, two Munna Kumar and Nasir Alam, died on Thursday, while the rest suffered vision loss.

"After examination of their retina, it is clear that three of them -- Mohd Zahir, Anil Kumar and Bandhu Ram -- have permanently lost their vision," PMCH Head of Department (HoD-Eye) Umesh Prasad Sinha said.

Sinha said doctors are trying their best to treat them but it will be difficult for them to regain their vision.

He, however, appeared hopeful for a fourth patient, Dhananjay Kumar, whose eyes are showing signs of improvement.

Sinha said that vision loss is one of the most common side effect of methyl alcohol.

The Gopalganj hooch tragedy was reported on August 16.

On Friday, the District Magistrate Rahul Kumar had said that he planned to impose a collective fine on Khajurbani village where this hooch was produced.

Gopalganj Superintendent of Police Ravi Ranjan Kumar had also suspended 25 police personnel, including the Station House Officer of Gopalganj, for failing to effectively impose the liquor ban in the state.

This is first such action against police personnel following the worst hooch tragedy after total prohibition on liquor was enforced in Bihar on April 5.

The district administration has lodged an FIR against 14 people, including Nagina Paswan, a known kingpin involved in illicit liquor trade. Paswan was recently released from jail and has been absconding after the Gopalganj hooch tragedy on Tuesday.

--IANS

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Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has made a direct appeal to African-American voters, saying "What do you have to lose?"

Speaking on Friday night in Dimondale, Michigan -- a predominantly white suburb -- Trump lamented the collapse of American manufacturing and criticised free trade deals as he laced into rival Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party, saying they were taking black voters for granted, CNN reported.

"You're living in poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs, 58 per cent of your youth is unemployed -- what the hell do you have to lose?" Trump asked the audience in an unscripted moment from a speech in which he otherwise stuck to his teleprompter.

He promised to "produce" for African-Americans where Democrats had failed.

"If you keep voting for the same people, you will keep getting exactly the same result," BBC quoted Trump as saying.

Trump also predicted he would receive 95% of the African-American vote if he went to on to run for a second term in 2020.

President Barack Obama, historically the most popular president among African-Americans in US history, received 93 per cent of the black vote in 2012, the BBC said.

Trump has suffered from dismal support among African-Americans.

Current polls showed about 2 per cent of black voters say they will vote for the New York real estate developer.

Friday's speech follows major changes in Trump's campaign. Earlier in the day, campaign chairman Paul Manafort resigned, and on Wednesday, Trump announced a new campaign manager and CEO, CNN added.

--IANS

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Union Home Minister on Saturday lashed out at Pakistan and accused it of involvement in nefarious activities against India.

Addressing a gathering in Shahjahanpur, around 175 km from the state capital Lucknow, the minister said it was unfortunate that Pakistan was stoking violence in Kashmir.

Singh, who flagged off the 'Tiranga Yatra' of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Shahjahanpur, said Pakistan will never succeed in its evil designs against India.

Referring to violence in the Kashmir Valley, the minister said the Narendra Modi government wanted the youth there to have pens and laptops in their hands rather than stones.

He also praised the initiatives of the Democratic Alliance government in trying to solve the country's problems and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi's initiative of 'Swachh Bharat' was a path-breaking effort which was finding acceptance across the nation.

Earlier, he visited the Shaheed Udayan park and paid floral tributes at the statues of freedom fighters Thakur Roshan Singh, Ashfaqullah Khan and Pandit Ram Prasad Bismil.

He said these great freedom fighters were an inspiration for the coming generations.

Later, he addressed a public rally at Khirnibagh Ramlila grounds and apprised the people of the aim of the 'Tiranga Yatra'.

Singh said the Centre's schemes like the Pradhan Mantri Crop Insurance Scheme, Swachh Bharat and skill development mission were aimed at the all-round development of the country.

later flew to Lucknow where he was given a rousing reception by party workers and leaders.
Ten per cent of total Haj pilgrims applied online this year and this trend will be encouraged on a large scale for next year's pilgrimage too, Union Minister of State for Minority Affairs (Independent Charge) and Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said here.

He was speaking at a review meeting with officials at the Haj House, Mumbai yesterday to take stock of preparations for the pilgrimage.

The Minority Affairs Ministry and other concerned departments are very serious about arrangements, facilities and safety of Haj pilgrims, Naqvi said.

The Minority Affairs Ministry has been sending senior officials of the Ministry to Saudi Arabia to take stock of arrangements, facilities, safety and helping for about 1.36 lakh Indians who have been proceeding for Haj yatra this year, he said.

Naqvi also attended a training camp organized for Haj pilgrims, where he welcomed a large number of people who have been going for the pilgrimage.

Besides various information regarding Haj, disaster-management training was also provided to those going for Haj in the training camp.

With prayers for peace, prosperity and harmony in the country and the entire world, Naqvi wished a successful Haj pilgrimage to the devotees. Shiv Sena MP Arvind Sawant, BJP MLA Raj K Purohit, Haj Committee CEO Ataur Rehman, Haj Committee Member and Gujarat Coordinator H B Kazmi were present at the training camp.

Earlier, training camps for Haj pilgrims were also organized in various states.

About 4,500 Haj pilgrims will proceed to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia for Haj pilgrimage from Mumbai this year from August 27.

For 2016, about 1,00,020 Haj pilgrims have been facilitated from 21 points across India through Haj Committee and around 36,000 pilgrims have also been proceeding through the private tour operators.

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The UN has used World Humanitarian Day to plead for help for Libya, saying millions of Libyans and migrants were engulfed in a worsening crisis.

"More than 2.4 million people in Libya are in need of humanitarian assistance," Martin Kobler, the UN secretary-general's special representative for Libya, said in a statement yesterday.

"They lack medicines, vaccinations and suffer from poor hospitalization services. Almost 300,000 children are out of schools and almost 350,000 Libyans are displaced within the country."



Kobler also noted the predicament of more than 270,000 migrants who fled their home countries and are stranded in Libya.

"The humanitarian needs created by the crisis in Libya are enormous and this should serve as an incentive for us to do our utmost to give hope to the people, particularly those in urgent need of humanitarian assistance," he added.

The ouster of Moamer Kadhafi in 2011 plunged Libya into chaos, with rival militias jockeying violently for power.

The latest fighting is centered on the coastal city of Sirte, where pro-government forces are pressing an assault against the jihadist Islamic State group.

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A local court today sentenced three persons, including a woman, to life imprisonment in a murder case.

Additional District Sessions Judge D C Singh held Ajay, Arun and Anuradha guilty under section 302 of IPC (punishment for murder) and sentenced them to life in prison for the murder of Dinesh Sharma. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 35000 each on them.

Sharma was murdered on August 06, 2013 at Behsuma town in Meerut after he refused to pay extortion money of Rs five lakh to the accused.

Earlier, the Allahabad High Court had shifted the hearing of the case to Muzaffarnagar court on the request of the victim's family.

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At least four people including chairman village council were killed and three others injured when armed men ambushed their car in the restive northwestern tribal region of Pakistan, police said today.

Chairman of a village council and a father alongwith his two sons were gunned down in Shakardara area, Lachi Tehsil of Kohat District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Unknown armed men opened firing at their vehicle, police said, adding old enmity might be the cause of the killings.

Meanwhile, in another incident four people including a girl child were killed and five others injured in ahead on collision between two carson Daraban road in Dera Ismail Khan district bordering South Waziristan Agency.

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Nearly 50,000 excited travellers were hosted by London Underground on its Night Tube service on the inaugural night with Mayor Sadiq Khan taking the very first train - almost three years after the plan was first announced.

The first night went without a hitch.

The beginning of the overnight subway services has put the British capital in league with other major cities around the world offering a 24-hour underground transport network.

The service is likely to come as a boost for revellers, tourists and shift workers who on weekend nights will be able to travel on the network at any chosen hour.

Khan said the night service will come as a "huge boost" for the British capital. "You can feel the buzz, you can feel the vibe. People are really excited," he said.

"What's important is we got the detail and the planning right. I'm really pleased that 100 days or so after becoming the mayor we've got that right," he said as he took a ride on the first train on the Victoria Line Underground last night.

The plan to run services beyond the midnight deadline was announced in November 2013 and was to kick-off in September last year. After a number of missed start dates, the first night Tubes - finally started this weekend.

Transport for London (TfL), which is in-charge of London's transport network, said there was a "huge demand" as passenger numbers on weekends had soared by 70 per cent since 2000.

TfL said 50,000 people used the Night Tube last night. The numbers are expected to reach 200,000 once all five lines are open, BBC reported.

Night Tube services are expected to add 6.4 billion pounds to London's economy by 2030, creating 500,000 jobs, it said.

The plan was first announced by former London mayor Boris Johnson but faced delays as workers' unions staged a series of strikes during July and August last year before anagreement was reached on pay in March this year.

"Boris Johnson deserves credit for talking about the Night Tube, but it was important to get the details right. I'm really pleased and proud that finally it's going to happen," his successor, Khan, noted.

London Underground appointed Mark Wild asmanaging directorto launch the services considering his experience of launching a similar service in Melbourne, Australia, earlier this year.

"What happened there is what I expect will happen here. It's not just for revellers. It's for the night-time economy: people working in hospitality, shift workers, nurses. We expect a nice mix of people who enjoy the fantastic nightlife of the city, but it's also a lot about giving people mobility," Wild said.

There are also plans to expand the service to parts of the Metropolitan, Circle, District, and Hammersmith & City lines after modernisation and on parts of the London Overground in 2017 and the Docklands Light Railway by 2021.

Around 100 BritishTransport police officers will be on patrol across the network on Friday and Saturday nights.

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Around 50 companies including global banking institutions, like the World Bank, Deutsche Bank and Barclays, have expressed eagerness to be associated with the Centre's postal payments bank initiative, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said today.

"We will begin postal payments banking service from September 16, wherein 1.3 lakh postmen will be given hand-held devices, a moving ATM to provide banking services, insurance, money-order, as well as third-party service," Information Technology Minister said after inaugurating an incubation centre at the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) here.

"Some 50 companies, including World Bank, Deutsche Bank, Swiss Bank, Barclays, want to be associated with us," said the senior BJP leader.

The Union Cabinet in June had cleared the proposal for postal payments banks with a corpus of Rs 800 crore. The proposal is to set up 650 branches of postal payments banks.

Prasad said his ministry is taking up several initiatives to use IT and related services to improve the services, and asked IT experts to use government services through the STPI to innovate in this direction.

"We will also begin virtual classroom facility so that we can use technology to offer better education through virtual classrooms. As a pilot project, 3,500 government schools will be given the facility, of which 770 schools are from Gujarat," Prasad added.

The minister also spoke about the government initiative to set up BPOs in smaller centres in the country.

"We have started BPO scheme to encourage small centres for call centres, BPOs. We started 48,000 call centres/BPOs and will provide subsidy of Rs 1 lakh for call centres in smaller centres. We are creating a platform across the country for that," Prasad said.

"IT applications will be used for pensioners, distributing scholarships. We want to make India the IT power hub of the world," said the minister.

Prasad later visited Bardoli from where freedom fighter Sardar Patel had started his historic 'Satyagrah' against the British rule.

The minister took a dig at the Congress for delaying by 41 years to confer Bharat Ratna on Sardar Patel.

"Sardar Patel died in 1950, and was conferred Bharat Ratna in 1991. Rahulji (Rahul Gandhi) and Soniaji (Sonia Gandhi) must answer as to why they took 41 years for this. Neither has a single family made India independent, nor has a single family been behind taking the country forward," he said.

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Seven members of a family were killed when their house was razed to the ground by huge boulders that rolled down the hill following a cloudburst in Pauri district of Uttarakhand today.

The cloudburst occurred at around seven in the evening at Marchula village of the district following which pebbles and boulders rolling down the hillside fell over a house razing it to the ground,Pauri District Magistrate Chandrashekhar Bhatt told PTI on the phone.

Seven persons of the family were killed on the spot and two were injured, he said.

The injured were taken to Pauri for treatment, he said.

The house was inhabited by 75-year-old Dipak Singh and the families of his two sons, the DM said, adding that further details were awaited.

The Pauri-Srinagar highway was also blocked due to the cloudburst, officials said.

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At least nine terrorists were killed today and their hideouts destroyed in aerial and ground operations by the army in Pakistan's restive northwestern tribal region bordering Afghanistan.

Six terrorist hideouts were destroyed in the raids in Khyber Agency's Rajgal Valley that also killed nine militants, according to a statement issued by the Inter Service Public Relations (ISPR).

Large dumps of arms and ammunition were targeted in air raids and ground operations in the treacherous terrain, the statement added.

The operation was part of Khyber-III, launched on Tuesday, which targets terrorists holed up in the area beyond Tirah Valley, right on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

On Wednesday, 14 terrorists were killed in air strikes in the high-mountainous region where the proscribed Tehreek-e- Taliban Pakistan had a strong presence, the Express Tribune reported.

The toll from three days of the military operation so far stands at 27 dead, including two soldiers.

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has never involved itself in any kind of anti- activities, Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara said on Saturday, even as it faced sedition charges over an event held by it here in which anti-India and anti-Army slogans were allegedly raised.

"Amnesty International is not new to Bengaluru; this organisation has been functioning here for a long time. I don't know nor I have heard in the past about it (Amnesty) or anyone from it involving in any anti- activities," he said.

"They (Amnesty) had organised a programme about Army's excesses in Kashmir. They had called a few families (from Kashmir) to console them and give them some sort of mental support, in which certain incidents took place about which an FIR has been registered," he said.

Amnesty International had on last Saturday organised the event as part of a campaign to seek justice for "victims of human rights violations" in Jammu and Kashmir, which took an ugly turn with heated exchanges and alleged raising of pro-Kashmir 'Independence' and anti-Army slogans.

Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) activists had submitted a CD containing video recording of the event after filing a complaint with police, who have registered an FIR against Amnesty International, including on sedition charge.

IPC sections 142 (being member of an unlawful assembly), 143 (whoever is a member of an unlawful assembly), 147 (rioting), 124A (sedition), 153A (promoting enmity betweendifferent groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony) have been invoked against Amnesty.

Criticising Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and ABVP for holding protests, Parameshwara said now that an FIR had been registered, ABVP were holding protests on the streets.

"What is your culture? What are you trying to do? What kind of society are you trying to build?"



"They (protesters) are students, they are not aware of anything, those who had gone for classes are being brought forcefully (to protest), this is BJP's culture," he added.

ABVP activists have been staging protests, demandingthe arrest of those who allegedly raised anti-India and anti-Army slogans at the event organised by .

During one such protest in front of office here on Friday, police resorted to a mild lathi charge during which a few students were injured.

ABVP on Saturday intensified its agitation by launching a day-night protest here.

Several state BJP leaders and party's women's wingalso staged a protest here condemning police action against ABVP activists and demanding arrest of those involved in alleged anti-Army sloganeering.
The Monsoon session of Andhra Pradesh Legislature will be held in Hyderabad in the first week of September during which the Constitution amendment Bill paving the way for introduction of GST will be ratified.

"We will notify the exact dates of the session shortly. Since construction of the new legislature building at Velagapudi, the state government's transitional headquarters, in Guntur district is not complete yet, we will hold the monsoon session in Hyderabad," Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu said after a Cabinet meeting here this evening.

While other legislative business will also be on the agenda, the Constitution (122nd Amendment) Bill, 2014 that paves the way for introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST) across the country will be ratified during the session.

Earlier this week, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley wrote a letter to Naidu requesting that the state legislature immediately pass a resolution ratifying the GST Bill.

Under the Reorganisation Act, 2014, Hyderabad will remain the joint capital of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana for 10 years. Andhra Pradesh is building a new capital Amaravati near Vijayawada.

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With an aim to tightening the noose around criminals, Andhra Pradesh Police today launched DNA Index System (DIS), the first-of-its-kind initiative that allows generation of DNA profiles from live samples like saliva and blood stains.

The system uses the latest DNA technology tool called RapidHIT developed by IntegenX of USA.

The DIS allows generation of DNA profiles using buccal swabs, blood stains, saliva and other live samples in less than two hours.

Generation of a DNA profile takes two or more days with the technologies so far available.

The AP Police launched a pilot, to test the efficacy of the DIS, to generate DNA profiles of a batch of convicts and suspects involved in various crimes, a release from the Chief Minister's Office said.

"DNA profiling plays a crucial role in solving crimes and also has the potential to link a series of crimes by placing the suspects by linking them with the crime scene. It could also help the suspects prove their innocence," the release added.

"Our aim is to make AP a crime-free state and the DIS is a proactive policing measure using the latest technology in forensic labs," Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu said on the occasion.

Deputy Chief Minister N China Rajappa, Director General of Police (in charge) N Sambasiva Rao, Forensic advisor to government P C Gandhi, IntegenX CEO Anand Gupta, former official of Florida Police Department Roy Swiger and other officials were present on the occasion.

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Pune police today claimed to have seized a large cache of ammunition and arms including four pistols, a revolver and 68 rounds from an alleged member of the Ravi Pujari gang.

The ammunition was manufactured by the Ammunition Factory Khadki (AFK), police said.

"We have arrested the sharp-shooter identified as Sadiq Bengali and his aide Rihan Sayyad, both residents of Lonavala," Sunil Ramanand, Joint Commissioner of police said.

Acting on a tip-off, police nabbed Bengali and Sayyad from Swargate area of the city and upon search, arms and ammunition were seized from them, he said.

Bengali has several cases registered against him and he was also allegedly involved in an incident of firing on film-maker Mahesh Bhatt in 2006.

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A British-Australian man has been detained in Dubai for highlighting the work of an Afghan refugee charity on social media, a campaign group and his brother has said.

Scott Richards, 41, was arrested on July 28 and has been held at Al Murraqabat police station ever since, without being charged and without access to a lawyer, according to UK-based support group Detained in Dubai.

The father-of-two is accused of breaching a new law on promoting foreign charities, according to the support group's founder, Radha Stirling, who is also a long-time friend of Richards.

"The police have said that they're investigating him for breaching the charity law by sharing information about a charity registered outside the United Arab Emirates on Facebook," she told AFP yesterday.

Brett Richards said his brother had also mentioned the name of the US-registered "Keep Qambar Warm" charity, which supports the Charahi Qambar refugee camp near Kabul, in an interview with local media.

"He pointed to their website on his social media and talked about it in the press, about the conditions in the camp. That was his crime, apparently," Brett Richards told AFP.

He added: "It came as a shock to everybody. I'm sure he didn't think what he was doing was illegal. Not for a second.

"It wasn't an act of defiance. He was just trying to help people."



Stirling said the detention of Richards was "a breach of international human rights standards".

"He's been denied bail on three occasions. We're waiting for them to drop the case or at least go to court so we can defend it," she told AFP.

She said Richards was "not doing well".

"He's concerned that he'll be at the police station for the next year. The fear of that is difficult to live with.

"And the conditions are horrible. He's becoming more desperate as time goes on."



There was a brief court hearing on Thursday, when a judge approved his continuing detention, Stirling said. Richards has applied to be transferred to a normal prison.

Richards grew up in Adelaide in Australia and then lived in London, before moving to Dubai about eight years ago, she said. He is married with two boys aged 14 and three.

He came across the charity during a visit to Afghanistan, where he has worked as an economic development policy adviser for the government, according to his brother.

A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office in London said: "We are providing support to a dual British/Australian national detained in Dubai.

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The Central Administrative Tribunal bench here has ordered revocation of the suspension of senior IPS officer Pramod Kumar, noting that a criminal case filed by CBI against him in a forex scam had been closed last year after the Supreme Court set aside the proceedings.

A bench comprising judicial member G Rajasuriya and Administrative Member R Ramanujam revoked the May 2, 2012 order suspending the officer in connection with Paazee forex scam handled by him during his earlier tenure as the Inspector General of Police (West zone) based in Coimbatore.

The scam related to alleged cheating of thousands of investors to the tune of Rs 800 crore by Paazee Forex Trading India Private Limited in 2009. Pramod Kumar was included in the case as an accused by CBI during investigations.

The bench noted that the Supreme Court had set aside the proceedings against the officer following which the trial court had passed a separate order in October, 2015 closing the case.

Observing that the investigation in the scam admittedly was dormant, the bench in its August 9 last order on a petition by the officer ruled that further continuance of Kumar's suspension was 'unwarranted'.

"...Accordingly we revoke the order extending his suspension. We direct the authority concerned to reinstate him in any of the non-sensitive post," it said.

Kumar's batchmates have become Additional Directors General of police (ADGPs) with effect from February 25, 2014, and he too has sought promotion with all consequential benefits.

The officer was IG of armed police in Coimbatore at the time of his suspension, which had been extended nine times since then. Since his suspension was not revoked despite the case against him being closed, he had moved the CAT to declare the action against him as null and void.

The CAT bench said an official should not be kept under suspension unnecessarily for a long period as that would be counter-productive.

"Without extracting any work from him if his suspension is prolonged and he is paid subsistence allowance, then that would be an unnecessary burden on the exchequer. It would also cause unnecessary mental agony to the individual if suspension is unduly prolonged pending departmental proceedings or pending criminal investigation or trial," the bench said.

Revoking the suspension, it said the officer could file a representation for withdrawal of the chargesheet issued by the state government before the appropriate authority who should pass a detailed order on it within eight weeks.

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CBI has taken into its custody three accused in the case of rape of a woman and her minor girl in Bulandshahr last month.

CBI sources refused to disclose the identity of the accused who were taken into custody by it but said they would be produced in the fast-track court-2 of Bulandshahr on August 23.

Uttar Pradesh Police had arrested six persons, including the prime suspect, in connection with the rape of the woman and her 13-year-old daughter while they were travelling from Noida to Shahjahanpur on the intervening night of July 29-30.

The case was transferred to CBI on the instructions of the Allahabad High Court. The agency had registered a case yesterday and sent a team of forensic experts and DIG-ranked officer to the crime scene.

UP Police, which received flak from the Allahabad High Court, had claimed to have solved the blind case within nine days of the incident with arrest of Salim Bawariya, the head of a gang from Rajasthan.

On the basis of his interrogation, two other gang members -- Zubair and Sajid -- were arrested by the Special Task Force of UP Police. Later, three more accused -- Naresh (25), Bablu (22) and Rais (28) -- were arrested.

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Central Electricity Authority (CEA) has given conditional clearance to the Rs 4,500-crore 1,000 mw Turga Pump Storage Hydel Power Project in West Bengal's Purulia district.

"We have cleared the project and it is now pending environmental clearance," CEA Chairman S D Dubey said here today.

"We want more such projects in the country for better grid stability," he said on the sidelines of CII organised Energy Conclave.

State Power Minister Shobandeb Chatterjee said the formal letter has not arrived.

The approval is conditional for want of some more land which will be sorted out in due course, government official said.

The state was planning to feed the pump storage hydel project with 1,200 mw solar power. Initially, both solar and the power plant was integrated but due to certain reservations on funding they were segregated.

Bengal government was seeking grant from clean energy fund to part finance the project for the 1,200 mw solar plant.

Chatterjee said state has sought relaxation in 25 mw restriction of solar power project to get access to the fund.

Meanwhile, West Bengal government was planning to introduce a new solar policy soon encourage solar investment in the state.

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Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaih today said it was a challenge to bridge the gap between growth of industry and the quality infrastructure in the city.

"Bengaluru is facing infrastructure problem and it is really a challenge to bridge the gap between industry growth and the quality infrastructure in the city," he said.

Speaking at the first meeting of 'Vision Group' (Industries) held here, he said government is not keeping quiet and doing best to add sheen to the charisma of "Brand Bengaluru" by achieving effective convergence of the grants given to the city through different institutions.

Pointing out that since 2013-14, his government had provided Rs 5,606 crore for the BBMP (civic body) for creating and upgrading infrastructure, he said to give further fillip to the city in the current budget, Rs 5000 Crore has been made available under the Chief Minister's special package for creating various infrastructure facilities.

The 'Vision Group' meeting was attended by Industries Minister R V Deshpande, IT Minister Priyank Kharge, Biocon Chief Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, industry leaders, senior government officials among others.

Stating that infrastructure is the backbone for industrial development and top priority was being given for creation of comprehensive infrastructure facilities across the state, he said "Government is pushing investments to tier-II and III cities in order to develop these potential cities."



All the required infrastructure facilities would be created to attract investors to such locations, he said.

Speaking about the initiatives taken by his government for skill development, he said it was proposed to create a separate ministry for skill development in the state.

Noting that his aim is not only to maintain the present leading position of Karnataka but to improve the status in the coming years, Siddaramaih said his final agenda was to make the state as number one with respect to industry and business in the country.

He suggested five separate sub-groups on infrastructure development at the state level- Infrastructure development- Bengaluru, Manufacturing, including automobile and aerospace, Textile and Garments, Electronics and E-Commerce -could be constituted to speed up the process.

These sub-groups comprises members within the Vision Group and work out action plan for short-term measures required for further growth of these sectors, which could be taken up within a period of five to six months, he added.

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China and Myanmar today vowed to forge closer ties as "blood brothers", as Myanmar's iconic leader Aung San Suu Kyi wrapped up her visit here aimed at balancing ties with the giant neighbour to ensure success of peace process with rebel outfits.

A joint statement issued at the end of her visit here said both the countries would strengthen trade and enhance cooperation on issues along the border, the scene of sporadic fighting between the Myanmar military and rebel groups.

The joint statement made no mention of the China funded USD 3.6 billion dam project in northern Myanmar which was stalled since 2011 due to protests from local people.

During his meeting with Suu Kyi yesterday Chinese President Xi pledged that China will continue to play a constructive role in promoting Myanmar's peace process and work with Naypyidaw to safeguard peace and stability in their border areas, state-run Xinhua agency reported.

On her part, the Myanmar's leader who was kept under house arrest for over one and half decades under the Beijing-backed military regime said "we do believe that as a good neighbour China will do everything possible to promote our peace process."



"China, as a neighbour which shares a very important border along which there are many ethnic armed groups, is important in its goodwill," she said.

While seeking China's help, Suu Kyiduring her talks with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang August 18 hinted at addressing China's concerns over the dam.

Her visit came ahead of Myanmar's long-planned conference with armed ethnic groups later this month.

China-Myanmar share long volatile borders and Beijing has deployed military at the border last year after five people were killed several others wounded in firing from a Myanmar jet reportedly while pursuing Kokoang rebels rebels.

She said that peace and unity among different groups of people is what Myanmar needs most.

"Without peace, there can be no sustained development," Suu Kyi said.

Ethnic armed groups have existed in Myanmar since the country gained independence in January 1948.

The Myanmar government started ceasefire talks with several ethnic armed groups from November 2013, and a nationwide ceasefire accord between the Myanmar government and eight ethnic armed groups was finally signed last year.

The Myanmar government formed an 11-member National Reconciliation and Peace Center (NRPC) on July 11 this year, led by Aung San Suu Kyi.

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Bogota has pushed for the United Nations to supervise Colombia's ceasefire with the FARC rebels, even before the country votes on a peace deal to end the long-running civil war.

The government and the country's biggest rebel force, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), laid the groundwork for a full peace deal when they signed a definitive ceasefire in June.

That deal will be followed by a full peace accord only if the agreement is approved in a referendum in the coming months.

"We need the mission to deploy as quickly as possible," Sergio Jaramillo, Colombia's high commissioner for peace, told reporters yesterday.

Jaramillo said that when the referendum is held, the ceasefire mission should be already on the ground, giving "guarantees to Colombians that they can vote freely."



The first group of observers, of which there will eventually be 450, primarily from Latin America, has arrived in Colombia to verify the disarmament and monitor the ceasefire.

"From what I understand, at the latest in three or four weeks they should be able to be there in full force," Jaramillo said.

Their recruitment "took a bit of time to get going but now the numbers seem to be there," he added.

After the UN's onsite visit last week, the international organisation and Bogota "have a much better idea of what happens on the ground," Jaramillo said



UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on yesterday delivered a report on the practical technicalities of the mission to the Security Council, which is expected to discuss it on August 26.

Ban confirmed that the UN mission will have about 450 observers, in addition to some civilian staff.

The mission will operate in 40 "widely dispersed locations," he said.

The ceasefire will be monitored by a three-party body manned by the government, FARC and the UN.

Ban's report highlighted the "positive reaction of the civilian population" and said conditions "show that preparations are on track not only from a technical viewpoint but also from a political perspective."



But he pointed out that only 80 observers had been recruited.

"Important issues remain on the table" in Havana, where the talks were held, the UN chief said.

The sustainability of the peace agreement depends on "the implementation of a reliable program of reintegration of the FARC-EP combatants," he said.

The government and the Marxist rebels are still in the final phase of four years of peace talks aimed at ending more than half a century of conflict.

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: Karnataka State Commission for Protection of Child Rights Kripa Alva today expressed grave concernover rising drug abuse in Dakshina Kannada (DK) district andsaid that the area had become a hub of drugs.

Speaking ata review meeting at the DeputyCommissioner's officehere, she saidthe situation atpresent was critical with a large number of youth becomingvictims of substance abuse.

Drugs had become easy accessiblefor youth in petty shops and hotels, she said.

Pointing out that there had been several cases wherein police had seized drugs and arrested drug peddlers, Kripasaid that in a recent instance they had confiscated 51 kgof ganja which was being smuggled from Kerala to DakshinaKannada.

She recalled several incidents where youths were involved in peddling ganja and said it may either be due to peer pressure or influence of Western culture.

"Both smugglingand consumption of drugs is an offence," she said and urgedthe departments concerned to put a check on the menace.

DCP Shantharaju said the Police Department was conducting awareness programmes on drug abuse for collegestudents.

Petty shops close to educationalinstitutions are being raided and public should be vigilantand responsible to curb drug abuse in the city, he added.

The meeting was informedthat so far under NDPSAct, 12 kg of Ganja was seized in 2014, 16 kg in 2015 and 84Kg in 2016, while 21 cases were registered in 2014, 49 cases in 2015 and 121 cases in 2016.

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Congress today attacked Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for his criticism that Nehruvian economics had held the country back, saying his remark was "subjective and partisan" and that he should instead explain why the NDA government was unable to sustain the growth rate "inherited" from the UPA dispensation.

"I am surprised, I can understand that BJP as a party in the present dispensation is averse to the achievements made by (Jawaharlal) Nehru in India's development after its independence. Jaitley's comment is more subjective and partisan and not based on facts.

"The growth rate is flat today. They have changed the methodology, let the old series GDP numbers with the new methodology come, the true picture will come out," Congress' senior spokesperson Anand Sharma said.

Earlier today in Mumbai, Jaitley dubbed former Prime Minister Narasimha Rao as "not a great reformer" or a "big liberaliser" and said that he initiated reforms out of "compulsion" due to failure of Nehruvian economics which held India back while its Southeast Asian neighbours marched ahead.

Sharma said the BJP-led government had inherited a very sound economy and criticism by Jaitley is "unfair and politically motivated".

"India became the first country in the world during the one decade of UPA rule to quadruple the GDP. They have not been able to sustain that," he said, adding that while the Congress-led government was able to create jobs in the manufacturing sector and no investment is taking place now.

Sharma said Nehru was a great builder of institutions and the Finance Minister needed to be reminded of this and that it was because of Nehru that India has been empowered.

"How can the Finance Minister be ignorant of India's achievements," he said, adding that it is due to it that in the 1980s and 1990s, India was able to gallop forward and catch up with the new technological revolutions.

The Congress leader said if the strong foundations were not laid by Nehru, Indian industry, whether public or private sector, would not have been in a position to compete.

JD(U) spokesperson Ajay Alok also rubbished Jaitley's remark and said it was "not palatable".

"There is absolutely no merit in it, we can may be political opponent, but just to ridicule one's thought and ideology and say that in last 60 years Nehruvian thought has not done anything in the country cannot be taken and I don't think it is palatable to anyone," he said.

"How can you just forget everything, just to say that no government has done anything in the last 60 years. This is something dangerous," the JD(U) leader said.

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Asserting that Punjab has the "sole right" over Chandigarh, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today accused Congress of doing "grave injustice" with the state by "snatching" its capital.

On the sidelines of a state-level function to observe death anniversary of Harchand Singh Longowal here today, he said "There was hardly any parallel to it that the parent state has been devoid of capital as in case of Punjab".

He said despite announcing the handing over of Chandigarh to Punjab in Parliament, the then Prime Minister "backtracked" from it.

Badal alleged the state was also "divested" of Punjabi speaking areas and its legitimate share in river waters by the then Congress government.

"Nobody can deny this fact that being the parent state Punjab has the sole right on its capital city of Chandigarh" he said.

Badal said MLA from Amritsar Navjot Kaur Sidhu was "like his daughter".

He said the allegations leveled by her regarding non-execution of development works due to political interference were "completely baseless" and "totally irrational" as massive development was going on in the state.

Earlier, addressing the public, the Chief Minister squarely held the Congress party responsible for martyrdom of Longowal.

He said the Congress party "back stabbed" Longowal by not fulfilling the accord made with him.

Badal cited the non-implementation of "terms and conditions of accord led to his killing."



Earlier, in his address, Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal while launching a scathing attack on Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) said that "naxalite" elements have infiltrated in the party and comprises of "outsiders who are trying to capture power in Punjab at any cost".

AAP only believes in "confrontationist" ideology and if it comes to power then neither the wheat nor paddy of the Punjabi farmers would be lifted because it wants to exploit Punjab only as a base to spread its wings in other states, besides keeping the pot of confrontation with the Union Government boiling, he said.

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A Delhi Police constable was injured when he tried to prevent an accused from escaping while he was being ferried to Tihar Jail from a court in east Delhi, police said today.

Sushil, held in an assault case, was being taken to the jail from Karkardooma Court at around 5.30 PM yesterday by two constables, according to police.

They were standing at Karkardooma traffic intersection, waiting for an auto, when Sushil tried to escape by pushing the constable away. He also threw a stone at constable Chetram, who sustained a head injury.

Chetram then ran after Sushil and caught him. The accused was then taken to Tihar Jail, police said.

The injured constable was discharged from hospital this afternoon after treatment.

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A 23-year-old dance instructor was stabbed to death allegedly by two of his troupe members, days after he had thrashed one of the duo over some issue, in south-east Delhi's Jaitpur area.

Gaurav was killed by Manoj and Deepak, with a 'khukri' yesterday afternoon, a senior police officer said, adding the two accused have been arrested.

He was stabbed in the thigh and arm by Deepak, the officer said.

The two accused had yesterday gone to Gaurav's house at Hari Nagar in Jaitpur area and called him outside to have a chat. They allegedly stabbed him with the 'khukri', the cover of which was recovered by the police from the spot, the officer said.

The accused were arrested today from their homes in Molarband Extension area in Badarpur.

Deepak and Manoj were part of Gaurav's dance troupe that used to perform at events across the city. Deepak and Gaurav had an argument few days ago, after which Gaurav and his friends allegedly thrashed Deepak, the officer said.

Deepak then planned to teach Gaurav a lesson and involved Manoj in his plan to kill him. They fled the spot after stabbing him, leaving the 'khukri' cover behind. A shopkeeper, then made a call to PCR, police said.

Gaurav was then rushed to AIIMS where he died due to excessive bleeding last evening, they said.

An FIR against the accused has been registered at Jaitpur police station.

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CPI leader and Rajya Sabha MP D Raja today criticised the way in which the BJP-led government was handling atrocities against Dalits in the country and asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to firmly deal with such forces.

Referring to Modi's statement in Hyderabad last week that "If you have to shoot, shoot me, but not my Dalit brothers",he said "this is not the way the Prime Minister has to speak" on the issue. Instead he should act as per law against such "manuvadi" forces targeting Dalits and women in the country.

"Modi should say the law of the land will be upheld. The law of the landis the Constitution. The Constitution will be upheld.Whoever maybe the person, whatever may be the organisation, if they act in violation to the Constitution, they will be taken to task," he told reporters here.

Raja said "Dalits and women feel insecure" under BJP rule as "Hindutva forces are trying to impose Manuvad ideas" on them.

"This is a kind of fascism. This has to be fought. This has to be resisted," he said.

Making an emotional appeal, Modi had asked people to protect and respect Dalits who have for long been neglected by society.

His comments came at a time when the NDA government is facing flak over incidents of violence against Dalits and Muslims by cow vigilantes in various states, including Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.

Modi had asked what right the perpetrators had to exploit Dalits and said unity in society should be priority.

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Delhi Tourism Minister Kapil Mishra will host a mohalla sabha on closing a liquor shop in his constituency next week, days after the government cleared a proposal to empower people to shut the existing vends in their neighbourhood if there are complaints of nuisance.

"Mishra will host the first mohalla sabha for the citizens of Khajoori in Karawal Nagar on the fate of a liquor shop in the area. This mohalla sabha will be hosted on August 28 at 10 AM," a senior government official said.

The official also said 5,000 voters will be invited at the mohalla sabha.

Announcing the AAP government's decision earlier this week, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had said the process to decide on shifting a liquor shop to another area, with prior approval, will be initiated once 10 per cent voters of a mohalla sabha submit a written complaint in this regard.

The national capital has around 380 government-run liquor shops (L6) while 87 are run privately (L7). New licences have not been issued in the last 10 years. The restrictions will cover L6 and L7 shops although L10 licences for liquor shops in malls will be granted.

The mohalla sabhas will decide on the location of a liquor shop in their residential areas. Quorum will be at 15 per cent of its members and 33 per cent women participation will be mandatory.

As per the government's decision, no new liquor shops except in malls, will come up in Delhi in the current fiscal.

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Stressing that development at the cost of culture is not sustainable, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan today highlighted the age-old traditions of water conservation and sustainable use of water resources in Rajasthan, saying these practices have virtually made it a drought-free state.

"Our past tells us how civilisational strengths may steer us through the contemporary challenges. It is important that we evolve our own indigenous ways of achieving sustainable goals," Mahajan said at the inaugural session of the meeting of the Women Parliamentarians' Forum here.

"Development at the cost of culture is not sustainable," she stressed before the women parliamentarians from member countries at the session in Rajasthan Assembly.

She highlighted the traditions in the desert state of Rajasthan in water conservation and sustainable development.

"Rajasthan receives scanty rainfall. The society here nurtured a strong tradition of water conservation and sustainable use of water resources derived from the teachings of leaders such as Shree Guru Jambeshwar Bhagwan, who preached preserving biodiversity and sustainable natural resource management in order to peacefully co-exist with nature," she said.

She said this resulted in acommunity-driven effort in the field of rainwater harvesting, water conservation and watershed development, makingRajasthan virtuallya drought- free state.

Mahajan mentioned Laporiya village in the state, saying the village did not require a single water tankeras it had developed a unique dyke system called the 'Chauka' and other traditional water conservation methods.

She said one of the first environmentalist movements inspired by women was the 'Chipko' movement (women tree huggers) started in the early 18th century in the state.

"Women risked their lives to protect the forest trees from being felled," she added.

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: Puducherry Lt Governor Kiran Bedi has called upon college students in Karaikal district to devote one day every week to achieve 'Clean Karaikal' mission.

She also urged government servants to keep abreast of technological advancements to serve the people well.

As part of her two day review camp in the district, Bedi had organized a town hall programme separately for college students and government servants on Friday evening.

Addressing over 2000 college students from Medicine, Engineering, Agriculture, Education, Arts and Science streams, she stressed the need to keep the well being of society in mind and dwelt on the power of the student community.

She suggested that students devote one day every week to make the Karaikal district clean.

The students volunteered to work on Saturdays towards 'Clean Karaikal' mission and as a start, decided to undertake a cleaning campaign at the temple town Tirunallar today.

Agriculture Minister R Kamalakannan, who was present,came forward to coordinate the campaign.

Later, addressing Government staff, Bedi stressed that they should engage themselves in a continuing learning mission.

"You should keep abreast of technological advancements, particularly Information Technology. This will make the Government machinery effective and efficient," she said.

She also heard grievances of government servants.

Karaikal is an enclave of the union territory of Puducherry.

Bedi visited Tirunallar today and offered worship at the Lord Saneeswara temple.

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Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) today said a draft notification on formation of new districts will be issued on August 22.

KCR, who chaired a state Cabinet meeting at the Secretariat here, told reporters that the draft notification will be issued on August 22 on the proposed new districts and suggestions from public will also be taken, who can submit them at the offices of district collectorate.

The Chief Minister, who had this afternoon convened an all-party meeting on district reorganisation, said all parties welcomed decision on forming new districts and some parties gave suggestions.

"We will provide comprehensive information on the proposed new districts and mandals (in the draft notification)," Rao said adding if required, another all-party meeting will be held before a final notification is issued on formation of new districts.

He reminded that his party the Telangana Rashtra Samithi had promised creation of new districts in its (election) manifesto.

"New districts will come into existence from Dasara. If required changes will be made in the draft notification based on the objections and suggestions of the public," Rao added.

The next session of state Legislature will begin from first week of September, he said.

Telangana government is maintaining cordial relations with its neighbouring states and will very soon sign agreements with Maharashtra on water sharing, said the Chief Minister.

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A sanitary inspector has been suspended for dereliction of duty after garbage was found spread outside a 'dhalao' during a recent inspection by East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) authorities.

V S Yadav, sanitary inspector of ward no. 244, has been placed under suspension with immediate effect for dereliction of duty, EDMC said.

Deputy Commissioner of Shahdara (North) Zone conducted an inspection of Sunder Nagri area in east Delhi's Shahdara a few days ago and suspended him after monitoring the condition in his area, East Delhi Mayor Satya Sharma said.

"During inspection of the area, garbage was found spread outside a 'dhalao'. The attendant of the 'dhalao' was not present during the inspection," EDMC said.

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An elderly couple were injured when security forces fired pellets at them after they resisted the arrest of their son in Tral area of south Kashmir's Pulwama district, official sources said here today.

Abdul Qayoom Bhat and his wife Nazira Begum were admitted to a local hospital in Tral area with multiple pellet injuries sustained late last night, the sources said.

They said the security forces fired pellets at the couple as they tried to resist the arrest of their son Noor Mohammad in Kamla village of Tral.

While Nazira's condition is stated to be stable, Bhat was shifted to a hospital here for specialised treatment, the sources said.

The security forces had raided Bhat's house to arrest his son Shabir Ahmad alias Falahi, who is a member of Jamaat-e-Islami. As he was not at home, they took into custody his brother Noor Mohammad, prompting resistance from the elderly parents, they said.

Police officials have so far refused to comment on the incident.

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Former Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy today met Tollywood actor and Jana Sena Party chief Pawan Kalyan at his residence here.

The meeting comes ahead of the release of Kumaraswamy's son Nikhil Gowda's debut Kannada movie "Jaguar".

Both the leaders maintained that it was just a "courtesy" meeting.

"We are friends and I am also a fan of him. This meeting is not for any political issues. We are very close friends since last eight years. My son Nikhil Kumar is also entering Telugu film industry. I wanted to take his blessings for Nikhil," Kumaraswamy said.

"Actually my son wanted to move into Telugu (film industry). Personally, I wanted to request my brother (Kalyan) to treat him as his own brother and give all cooperation and blessings to him and for that I came here," he said



The Janata Dal (Secular) leader said no political issues were discussed in the meeting. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka states are like brothers.

"It is only a courtesy call. I know Kumaraswamy since 2008. His son is featuring in a new film," Kalyan said.

Asked if any political discussions took place during their meeting, he said,"...Nothing like that".

Kumaraswamy also showed teaser of his son's upcoming movie to him.

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Experts taking part in a conference today sought a uniform action plan to prevent road accidents in the country and suggested putting in place an integrated licencing system.

The two-day event, which concluded here, saw experts brainstorming on a range of issues related to road safety and providing timely help to accident victims.

Briefing the media on the deliberations, Andhra Pradesh Transport Minister Sidda Raghava Rao said many suggestions came to the fore with regard to reduce the number of accidents and facilitate safe driving in the country.

A major part of the discussion veered around the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill that is with the Standing Committee and likely to be taken up by Parliament in the ensuing session, he said.

Suggestion to increase penalties for violating road safety norms and cancellation of driving licence for repeat offenders was discussed prominently, Rao said.

Experts mooted the idea of formulating a uniform action plan to prevent road accidents, which take thousands of lives in the country every year, he said.

Participants sought a lead agency on road safety for states and districts with members drawn from police and revenue departments, among others, which could monitor development of the transport system, the minister said.

Kerala was a pioneer in this aspect and floated Road Safety Authority five years ago. The experts said the same model could be adopted at the national level, Rao said.

A majority of speakers suggested adding trauma care centres to private hospitals located close to the national highways.

Yunus Khan, Chairman of Group of Ministers set up by the Union Transport Ministry to suggest reforms in the sector, said the department should focus on improving road safety and fill up all vacant posts, he said.

Another road safety measure, "no helmet no petrol' was also discussed at the meeting, he added.

"Under a uniform licencing system, personal details of drivers can be checked anywhere in the country."



Suggestions made by the experts e event would be sent to the Union Transport Ministry for appropriate action, Rao added.

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Calling her the pride of the nation, Amitabh Bachchan, Rajinikanth, Salman Khan and AR Rahman, among other celebrities have congratulated Indian woman shuttler PV Sindhu on winning a silver medal at the Rio Olympics.

Bachchan in his message for Sindhu said she played her heart out and made her country proud.

"#PVSindhu you played your heart out ! All of India is so so proud of you.. Thank for giving us that moment of pride !!!," the "Piku" star wrote.

In another post he mentioned, "#PVSindhu.. Look what you did.. You had 1.25 billion people rooting for you !! That is no mean achievement ! Proud of you !!."



Rajinikanth said he has become a great fan of the 21-year-old badminton player.

"Hats off to you #PVSindhu.... I have become a great fan of yours... Congratulations!," he wrote.

Salman posted a picture of himself with Sindhu on Twitter and captioned it, "Saw the finals on tv with my mother and told her I have a picture with Sindhu. Proud."



Rahman said, "Congrats, Sindhu Very well done."



"Just 21 & all eyes were on her! Sindhu almost did it for India but lost to World #1 Marin. She's not empty handed, she's got the Olym silver," actress-politician Hema Malini posted on Twitter.

Actress Vidya Balan said, "What a girl! What a game! Truly inspiring... Godbless Sindhu!!"



Farhan Akhtar congratulated Sindhu and said that the silver medal is just a start for her career.

"Congratulations #PVSindhu.. So happy for you and your corner.. This silver medal is just the beginning.. Shine On!! #Olympics2016," Akhtar tweeted.

Actress Anushka Sharma praised the sportsman spirit of Sindhu and lauded her performance in the match against Spanish woman shuttler Carolina Marin.

"What a game! Congratulations @Pvsindhu1 on the Silver. Much much respect for your spirited performance and sportswomanship #PVSindhu," she wrote.

Actor Hrithik Roshan said, "I was on the edge of my seat. What a game & what an athlete. PV Sindhu! You have won our hearts. #proud."



"Jeete RIO. God Bless! P.V.Sindhu. Badminton. Women's. Silver," Rishi Kapoor tweeted.

Lyricist Javed Akhtar tweeted, "Congratulations and thank you Sindhu."



Filmmaker Prakash Jha posted, "We like silver ! And we love you Sindhu!! What an achievement @Pvsindhu1.

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A lecture exploring links between Mahatma Gandhi's ideals of self-reliance as well as autonomy and media has been held in Durban, the place where he was thrown out of a train over racial discrimination.

The 8th annual Mahatma Gandhi Media Lecture at the Durban University of Technology focussed on "Gandhi's Charkha: Self Reliance and Modern Media" and noted that Gandhian ideals of self-reliance and autonomy are being implemented all over the globe by individuals and organisations through various media projects.

Elaborating on separate and diverse case studies of modern participatory community media in Canada, India, and South Africa, speaker Professor Aashish Kumar from the L Herbert School of Communication at New York's Hofstra University said this trend towards media autonomy was in line with Gandhi's call for self-reliance as a means to seek independence and social justice.

He articulated many of these ideas quite effectively through print media, Kumar said, referring to the 'Indian Opinion' newspaper started by Gandhi during his tenure in South Africa at the turn of the last century.

Kumar added: "Journalism for Gandhi was a way for the Indian community to represent its grievances to the South African government, to share the lived experiences of the Indian diaspora, but also to turn inward and speak about the ills prevalent within the Indian community."



He cited two examples of organisations becoming self- reliant despite oppression in India.

The first was training by American media and communication consultant Martha Stuart in Gujarat in video production workshop for the members of the Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA).

"Over the span of the next two decades, SEWA would grow from a core group of 20 women who received the initial training to becoming Video SEWA, a provider of simple appropriate and modern technology available to its membership," Kumar said.

The second example he mentioned was of 10 women from a rural Dalit background who formed a community media trust, going from village-to-village recording interviews, live events, and instructions on how to sustain bio-diversity.

Other examples of suburban renewal projects in Toronto and the plight of migrant sex workers in Johannesburg further highlighted how the modern-day media technologies, especially social media, have further evolved the Gandhian ideas of self-reliance, he said.

However, indirectly lamenting at the misuse of such media as well, Kumar concluded by saying had Gandhi been using social media today, he would probably have closed his account.

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Goa can show way for the entire world in terms of sustainable mining, Delhi Chief Minister and AAP's National Convener Arvind Kejriwal said today.

"AAP is not against the mining industry. In Goa, we can develop world class model of sustainable mining. We can show the world how mining can be done," Kejriwal said during his interaction with the mining affected people at Usgao village in North Goa.

The Delhi Chief Minister is in the coastal state on a two-day visit ahead of Legislative Assembly polls slated next year.

"We can have environment friendly mining. It is an undeniable fact that mining is an important economic activity in the state," he said.

During the meeting, people discussed problems faced by them after closure and recent resumption of the iron ore mining activity in the state.

He also heard grievances of drivers working on mining trucks, who are left out of the schemes introduced by the BJP-led state government.

Ajitsingh Rane, the union leader of truck drivers who joined AAP today, alleged that the Goa government had completely ignored the demands of truck drivers.

Kejriwal appealed the truck drivers to suggest what can be done to help them, which would be implemented once AAP gets power in Goa after the 2017 polls.

The AAP leader would be meeting tribal and women groups in two separate events in South Goa tomorrow.

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Keeping its promise to provide succour to refugees from neighbouring countries, the NDA government has approved additional facilities for members of minority communities living in India on long-term visa that include opening bank account and power to purchase properties.

The Home Ministry in a statement today said that the central government has extended certain facilities in last two years to persons from minority community of Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians staying on Long Term Visa (LTV) in India are allowed to submit affidavit in place of renunciation certificate, granted LTV for five years instead of two years and facilities for education and employment.

In order to provide them fair opportunities for a more comfortable living and hassle-free movement and pursuit of economic activities within the territory of India, government has decided to extend additional facilities to this class of LTV holders.

The additional facilities include permission to open bank account, permission for purchase of property for self occupation and suitable accommodation for carrying out self-employment, permission to take self-employment, issuance of driving licence, PAN card and Aadhar number.

Allowing free movement within the State/UT where they are staying, transfer of LTV papers from one state to other, reduction of penalty amount to Rs 100, Rs 200 and Rs 500 instead of existing amount of USD 30, USD 130, USD 230 on non-extension of short-term Visa/LTV.

The refugees are also allowed to apply for LTV from the place of present residence when the applicants have changed place without permission.

Ever since the Narendra Modi government came to power, several concessions have been offered to the persecuted Hindus and Sikhs of the neighbouring countries.

Besides, the Home Ministry also organised special camps at district level in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana and NCT of Delhi for granting LTV and citizenships.

Children of refugees on LTV are allowed to take admission in schools/ colleges/ universities/ technical and professional institutions under foreigner quota without permission from the state government/UT administration.

State governments/ UT administration are empowered to grant permission to such people to engage themselves in employment of purely private nature.

Modi had, during the Lok Sabha poll campaigning in 2014, made a distinction between Hindu and Muslim refugees from Bangladesh arguing that the former should be accommodated.

"We have a responsibility towards Hindus who are harassed and suffer in other countries. India is the only place for them. We will have to accommodate them here," he had said.

(Reopens NRG-8)



Meanwhile, an organisation of PoK refugees said that the Centre's Rs 2000 crore relief package was not an end in itself but merely a step forward after years of continuous struggle.

"This meagre relief of Rs 2000 crore has not come overnight. It is the outcome of years of continuous efforts of SOS International. The relief which has become a talk of the town is not a success but just a beginning to reach towards our ultimate goal",SOS International chairman Rajiv Chuni said.

Chuni, who was addressing a rally in Rajouri, said,"If this process of providing justice carries on at this momentum, I don't think it will be accomplished in next two generations".
Four years after three Dalit youths were killed in a firing incident at Thangadh in Surendranagar district of Gujarat, the state government has decided to form a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate the case.

Chief Minister Vijay Rupani decided to form the SIT after receiving several representations from Dalit leaders requesting the same, a government release said on Saturday.

"Chief Minister Vijay Rupani took the decision following representations from Dalit leaders including cabinet minister Atmaram Parmar, former minister Ramanlal Vora, and Rajya Sabha MP Shambhuprasad Tundiya," the release said quoting Minister of State for Home Pradipsinh Jadeja.

The government has also decided to form a special designated court and appoint a special public prosecutor to expedite the case, it said.

It also announced an additional Rs 2 lakh compensation to the nearest kin of each of the victims over and above what was decided earlier.

The issue of Thangadh Police firing came in focus after the Una town Dalit flogging incident.

In a rally held by Una Dalit Atyachar Padkar Samiti, which organised a march from Ahmedabad to Una, Dalits leaders have demanded for justice to victims of Thangadh firing.

Family members of victims of Thangadh were also sitting on hunger strike in Gandhinagar, demanding judicial probe in the incident.

Rajkot city police commissioner Anupam Singh Gehlot, Surat city DCP Zone -2, Parikshita Rathod, and Porbandar Superintendent of Police Tarun Kumar Duggal will be members of the SIT, the release said.

On the intervening night of September 22-23, 2012, three Dalit youths, Pankaj Sumra, Prakash Parmar and Mehul Rathod, were killed when police opened fire to disperse a violent mob to control a clash between Dalits and OBC Bharwad community members at Thangadh town in Surendranagar district.

The government had earlier ordered a probe into the incident and a report was submitted to it by the then principal secretary of social justice and empowerment department, Sanjay Prasad. The report has not yet been made public.

Later, the State CID investigation into the matter also remained inconclusive after the state probe agency filed a C-summary report. No chargesheet has been filed yet into the incident.

Thangadh is around 65 kms from Rajkot, and is famous for the annual Tarnetar fair which is held eight kms from Thangadh town near the temple of Trinetwshar Shiva temple.

Seven members of Dalit community from Mota Samadhiyala village of Una tehsil of Gir Somnath district were brutally assaulted by some self-styled cow vigilantes for skinning a dead cow on July 11.

The incident sparked wide-spread protests after videos of the beating went public. Several political leaders like Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and BSP supremo Mayawati had visited the families of the victims.
The Bombay High Court has imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on the father of a minor boy, who drove his family car without having a licence and met with an accident in the city last year injuring his minor friend sitting behind.

After the accident on November 14, 2015, the injured boy was hospitalised and a case of negligent driving was filed in Versova Police Station against the boy who was driving the car which had crashed against a road divider in Lokhandwala area of suburban Andheri Versova.

However, parents of the both the children later came to a settlement and jointly filed a petition in the high court seeking to quash the FIR.

"In the normal circumstances, we would have allowed the parties to get the FIR quashed without imposing cost or on a payment of nominal cost. But the facts of this case are disturbing in nature," observed a bench headed by Justice Naresh Patil in a recent order.

"The owner of the vehicle i.E petitioner's father allowed his minor son to drive a four wheeler due to which minor son of the respondent suffered very serious injuries. We share concern of the public prosecutor that message must go to the society at large. In such a situation even a by-passer or any other third party could have suffered serious damage or injuries. Fortunately that did not happen," the bench said.

The bench quashed the FIR on condition that the father of the petitioner Rajesh Dholay pay Rs 50,000 costs and deposit the money within two weeks with Tata Memorial Hospital and Cancer Research Institute in Mumbai.

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A helicopter en route to Agra from Safdarjung airport in Delhi today made an emergency landing in the agricultural fields in Niwari village here due to a technical snag.

A chopper of Pawan Hans Limited today made an emergency landing in the fields of Firozpur Kaithwari at about 11.27 AM, Superintendent of Police (Rural) said, adding it was carrying staff members S K Sharma, Kirshna Kumar and Raj Kumar Jadhav.

The captain S Kumar observed some technical flaw in the chopper near Modinagar area and he immediately contacted the air traffic control and sought permission for emergency landing. After safe landing, engineers of the company reached the spot to repair the fault, he said.

At about 5.30 PM, the helicopter took off safely, he added.

Curious villagers rushed to the spot after the reached to them.

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Delhi Police constable Anand Singh who was shot dead by miscreants while he was chasing them after they had robbed a woman in Shahabad area, was paid homage by his colleagues and dignitaries today.

The AAP government announced Rs 1 crore to Singh's family as per its policy, which states personnel of police, armed forces, paramilitary and other uniformed forces, who are citizen of the national capital, killed on duty will be given this compensation by the city administration.

A number of teams of Delhi Police's specialised units including Special Cell and Crime Branch have been formed to arrest the three accused who shot dead the constable.

Anand was chasing the three unidentified miscreants who had snatched money from a woman street vendor at Sector five Bawana industrial area last night when he was shot at, a police official had said.

He sustained bullet injury on the chest and was rushed to a nearby hospital where doctors declared him dead.

"We have zeroed in on the suspects who will nabbed very soon," a senior police officer said.

A ceremony was held at New Police Lines ground, Kingsway Camp, where wreaths on behalf of the Union Home Minister and the Lt Governor of Delhi were laid on the mortal remains of the constable.

Delhi Cabinet Minister Gopal Rai laid a wreath on the behalf of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Delhi Police chief Alok Kumar also laid a wreath on the body of the constable.

A native of Sonipat in Haryana, Singh had joined Delhi Police in 1988. He is survived by his mother, wife, a 22-year-old daughter and a 19-year-old son.

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Congress and BJP legislature parties will hold separate meetings here tomorrow to chalk out their floor strategies for the monsoon session of Himachal Pradesh Assembly which begins on August 22.

The six-day session will have five sittings.

The government is likely to ratify the Constitution Amendment Bill on GST during the session, besides introducing the Town and Country Planning (Amendment) Bill which seeks to regularise unauthorised structures on "as is, where is" basis.

The session is likely to be stormy as BJP has already announced that it would raise issues like activities of various mafias, deteriorating law and order situation and failure of governance.

Parliament Affairs Minister Mukesh Agnihotri has appealed to the opposition for cooperation for a smooth session and said the government was prepared discuss all the issues.

(REOPENS NRG61)



Later Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh said in Palampur that the cases against him were the result of conspiracy hatched by the "cricket mafia" active in the country.

He alleged Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitely and BJP MP Anurag Thakur were behind the move.

He said Jaitley had been the president of Delhi & District Cricket Association (DDCA) for a long time and suspended BJP MP Kirti Azad had levelled serious allegations of corruption against him.

Thakur is at present the president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the son of leader of the opposition P K Dhumal.

Singh said that CBI had given him a clean chit when the issue was raised in the Assembly ahead of 2012 polls, but after the change of government the case was reopened.

Defending the decision of the Speaker to not allow the discussion on the cases against him, he said that as the matter was sub-judice, it could not be discussed in the House under rules.

Reacting sharply to the decision of the Speaker and comments of the chief minister, Dhumal said that an attempt was being made to throttle the voice of opposition.

He said when it suited the government, matters even under consideration of the Supreme Court were discussed in the House but when it came to the discussion relating to corruption cases against the chief minister, rules were being quoted.

He said BJP would not allow this partisan attitude and continue to protest.
The shooting of an imam and his assistant near their New York mosque has unnerved Muslim residents of the Ozone Park section of Queens.

Police are still investigating a motive, but some residents say they are sure the killings were a hate crime aimed at the Bangladeshi Muslims who have moved into the neighborhood alongside longtime Hispanic residents.

Many Ozone Park residents say the imam's death shouldn't be taken as evidence of a rift between the culturally diverse groups that share the streets.

Neighborhood resident Sumona Kazi says Ozone Park's various immigrant groups are a united family.

Danny Perez says when Bangladeshis first started arriving in the neighborhood, teenagers from both sides would get into fights.

But he says those old tensions are a thing of the past.

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Indian expats in the UAE celebrated the festival of 'Raksha Bandhan' at the Indian Consulate here.

The Indian People's Forum chose to showcase the secular spirit during the event held at the Consulate. Representatives from the Hindu, Bohra, Christian and Sikh communities attended the event, the Khaleej Times reported.

"The feeling of safety - one filled with love, and all of which is intertwined in one sacred thread, is the main message of this festival. We all are brothers and sisters," Chidanandapuri, a native of Kerala who attended the event yesterday said.

Mohammed Khomusi representing the Sharjah Bohra community said that Raksha Bandhan is a festival that has a message for every community.

"In India, all festivals are celebrated by people across all religion. And this is the beauty of India that makes all our festivals secular. Such bonding forms the very basis of our country and it will continue," he said.

Priest Aji K Chacko of a church in Sharjah said the 'bond of protection' is very important.

"As the gender issues and atrocities are growing, it is in this view that this festival - the bond of protection - is very important for all of us," he said.

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The Indian community in Singapore should acquire a working knowledge of conversational Mandarin to communicate with the Chinese majority in the city-state, Indian-origin Singaporean diplomat Gopinath Pillai has said.

"You can't expect the majority to come and talk to you in a language you know. It is up to you to talk to the majority in the language they know," Pillai said at a book launch here.

The book titled '50 Years of Indian Community in Singapore' chronicles contribution of the community to early Singapore and the country's economy as well as visual and performing arts scene. It also documents the history of groups such as the Parsis and Pakistanis.

Pillai, who is one of the book's editors, observed tension between the old and new Indian diaspora in Singapore.

He said the tension is largely because of some Indian expatriates might have the perspective that they are superior, having entered the country successfully (in recent years), compared to local Indians who arrived in the country as labourers in the early days of Singapore.

He believes it is a matter of time before the issue is remedied and that the situation is improving. "Everybody has to show a little bit of tolerance," he said.

Singapore's Ambassador-at-large Tommy Koh noted that the Indians here have "outperformed their ratio" in the general population.

The book highlighted that 35 per cent of the Indians in the city-state had tertiary education, higher than the national average of 22.6 per cent, and up from just 4.1 per cent in 1990.

It also adds that there are many Indians in high-ranking positions such as in the legal and public sector.

Many are also government leaders, Koh added.

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Portugal has said it may take diplomatic action after the twin sons of the Iraqi ambassador were arrested on suspicion of savagely beating a 15-year-old boy.

The incident happened in the pre-dawn hours Wednesday in Ponte de Sor, central Portugal, following a brawl between local people and pupils at a nearby flight school where one of the twins is enrolled, the Portuguese media said yesterday.

A source close to the inquiry said the 17-year-old twin sons of the Iraqi ambassador in Lisbon, Saad Mohamed Ridha, were arrested but then released because they had diplomatic immunity.

The boy suffered a fractured skull and other extensive injuries and has been placed in an artificial coma, local media said.

Amid rising anger at the attack, the foreign ministry yesterday said the incident was "a case of great seriousness."



The ministry will take "the necessary and appropriate measures... If the judicial authorities request it," the ministry said, pointing to the brothers' diplomatic immunity.

The Iraqi embassy could not immediately be reached for comment.

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Israeli authorities have extended by three months the detention without trial of a Palestinian journalist who had been due for release on Monday, a Palestinian NGO said today.

The Ramallah-based Palestinian Prisoners Club said it had been informed by Omar Nazzal's lawyers that the senior journalists' union official would not now be released at the end of his current term, on August 22.

"Israel is intensifying its policy of administrative detention and increasing the extensions of administrative detention," prisoners club spokeswoman Amani Sarahneh told AFP.

"In particular it made this choice in the case of Omar."



His wife Marlene Rabadi posted on Facebook: "We were informed today that Omar's administrative detention has been extended by three months."



Israeli officials could not immediately be reached for comment on Saturday, the Jewish sabbath.

Nazzal was arrested on April 23 at the border between the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Jordan, from where he had been due to fly to a European Federation of Journalists gathering in Bosnia.

A military court ordered at the time that he be placed for four months in administrative detention, an Israeli measure allowing suspects to be interned for indefinite periods without charge.

Israel accuses him of "participation in a terrorist organisation".

Its Shin Bet security service said in April that Nazzal, 54, served in a top position at Falestine al-Youm television in Ramallah, which Israel forcibly closed on accusations of incitement to violence.

Nazzal had left the broadcaster several months before his arrest, which Palestinians say is an Israeli attack on the freedom of the Palestinian press.

He has been on hunger strikes since August 4 in protest against his detention, and international organisations have called for his release.

Israel says Nazzal was detained for "his involvement in terror group activities", and not "because of his activity as a journalist".

The Palestinian journalists' union says that another 19 Palestinian journalists and students of journalism are in Israeli prisons, one of them for more than 20 years.

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Jharkhand Urban Development Minister C P Singh, who was in Delhi, today claimed that he received calls on his mobile phone asking him to meet an officer at the Prime Minister's Race Course Road office but when he reached there it turned out that no such meeting was scheduled.

The minister told PTI over phone from Delhi that he had lodged a complaint at Vasant Vihar police station in this connection.

Singh said he received the calls from two separate numbers in the morning. The callers asked him to reach the Prime Minister's office in evening and meet an officer.

When the minister reached there, he was told that no such meeting was fixed and that the said officer has been on leave for the past 20 days.

Later the phones were found switched off, he said.

Singh was in Delhi to attend a programme of a media organisation.

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Kerala is an investor friendly state, but more investments are needed for future growth, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said here today.

"Kerala is happy to welcome new investors. We are an investor friendly state, but need more investments for future growth," he said.

The Chief Minister was speaking after laying the foundation stone for the second Lulu Shopping Mall in Kerala at nearby Akkulam, developed by Abu Dhabi-based international retailer Lulu Group.

The Lulu Mall, consisting of a hotel and international convention centre, with an investment of Rs 2,000 crore is coming up in around over 19 acres at the National Highway at Akkulam.

This will be the group's second shopping mall after the one in Kochi.

Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala, state ministers Kadakampalli Surendran, E Chandrasekharan, BJP Leader and MLA O Rajagopal, IUML MLA P K Kunhalikutty were among those present on the occasion.

Company Chairman and MD M A Yusuff Ali said they have planned to complete the work by August 2018 and the hotel complex by March 2019.

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Automobile manufacturer Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd today signed an MoU with the Indian Army to construct a state-of-the-art hostel building for 30 students of the Army Institute of Management Kolkata as part of its CSR initiative.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the Army and the private company today at the Fort William here.

Established in 1997 by the Army Welfare Education Society,Army Institute of Management Kolkata (AIMK) conducts AICTE-approved state-of-the-art management programmes for wards of Army personnel and also under the open category.

In 2002, the institute was affiliated to Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University of Technology.

Ranked as an A++ category B-School, the institute has produced more than 1500 successful alumni.

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Hitting back at West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over her charge that the Modi government was "bulldozing the federal structure of the country", BJP today accused her of "presiding over an anarchist government" for the last five years.

"Mamata Banerjee has presided over an anarchist government for 5 years in Bengal. She has not spared even a farmer, student and cartoonist for criticising or questioning her. Therefore to call the Modi government dictator is far from truth," BJP national secretary Siddharth Nath Singh told PTI.

"Mamata Banerjee should be grateful for Modiji's belief in federal structure for which Bengal will get Rs 3,59,406 crore under the 14th Finance Commission which is Rs 2,52,206 crore more than that given by 13th Finance Commission," he claimed.

To change the name of central schemes is a sign of disrespect towards federal structure and is termed as a rule of dictator, he said.

"If she wants to disband the central schemes' names and show disrespect then that is termed as dictator rule. There are many central schemes like Ujjwala, PM Suraksha Bima Yojna, PM Jeevan Jyoti Yojna, PM Kisan Fasal Yojna, PM Gramin Sadak Yojna which are for poor farmers and labourers. If Mamata Banerjee wants confrontation on these schemes then it will prove that she is not only anarchist but anti-poor also," Singh added.

Launching a frontal attack on the Narendra Modi government, Banerjee today accused it of bulldozing the federal structure in the country and said she would seek the President's opinion on the issue.

"Modi government is bulldozing the federal structure and violating Constitution. It is interfering in the functioning of the state governments. We will seek the opinion of the President," Banerjee told reporters at the state secretariat.

The state government, she said, had received a letter from the Centre during the day saying that centrally-sponsored schemes are being rationalised.

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A 32 year-old man was killed and two



others of his family injured when his father, an ex-serviceman, today opened fire in Kanjha village following a row over the former's drinking habit.

Prem Prakash Dubey opened fire on his son Manish after he created a ruckus in an inebriated condition, ASP, Sunil Singh said.

Dubey was upset with Manish's alcohol addiction and had objected to his drinking.

Manish's sister-in-law and aunt, who rushed to save him, were also injured in the incident, the ASP said, adding that the man succumbed to injuries while being rushed to Varanasi hospital.

The injured were admitted to district hospital here, the ASP added.

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BJP President Amit Shah was today shown black flags by members of an outfit led by Goa RSS chief Subhash Velingkar which has been rooting for regional languages as medium of instruction in primary schools and seeking stoppage of government grants to English medium schools in the state.

The incident took place when Shah was on his way to address a meeting of BJP workers near here.

Bharatiya Bhasha Suraksha Manch (BBSM), an outfit led by Velingkar, has been demanding withdrawal of government grants to English medium schools.

The organisation, which wants regional languages to be medium of instruction (MoI) in Goa's primary schools, has launched statewide protests. BBSM is at loggerheads with Goa's BJP-led government which has formed a committee to look into the MoI issue.

When Shah's convoy reached the Goa University Road on way to Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Stadium where he was to address booth level workers' meeting, activists of BBSM waived black flags at the BJP chief amid presence of police personnel.

Earlier in the day, Velingkar told PTI the protests had been planned not to condemn Shah but to urge him to intervene in the MoI issue.

"We want Shah to correct the blunder committed by former Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar (during whose tenure the MoI issue started)," he said.

Parrikar and Goa Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar, who also passed by the road to attend the function, too, were shown black flags.

Shah was in Goa to launch BJP's election campaign for the Assembly poll due in the first half of 2017.

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West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today tore into Narendra Modi government, accusing it of bulldozing the federal structure and running a Presidential form of government, drawing sharp reaction from BJP.

"Has Presidential form of government started in India? This is a very sensitive and important question. It happens in Russia, China, America. If they (BJP) want to do that then change the Constitution. Ours is a federal structure," Banerjee told reporters here.

The state government, she said, had received a letter from the Centre during the day, saying the Centre -sponsored schemes are being rationalised with effect from the current financial year.

"This is being done by force without taking the states into confidence. Only BJP-ruled states and some other smaller states have agreed to the recommendations of the sub-group of chief ministers in this regard," Banerjee said.

She pointed out that state subjects like law and order, fisheries, agriculture, public health, sanitation, irrigation have been brought under the ambit of national development agenda as per a circular of Niti Aayog.

"Modi government is bulldozing the federal structure and violating Constitution. It is interfering in the functioning of the state governments. They talk about cooperative federalism. They don't know what is cooperative federalism," she said.

The chief minister said the Centre is trying to monitor expenses of the state treasury, giving direct orders to district magistrates and leaving no space for state schemes.

"I will protest before the President. We will seek his opinion if this is constitutionally valid. We will speak with him and write a letter. Other states must also protest," she said.

Sharply reacting to her remarks, BJP accused Banerjee of presiding over an anarchist state government for the last five years.

"Mamata Banerjee has presided over five years of an anarchist government in the state. She has not spared even a farmer, student and cartoonist for criticising for questioning her. Therefore, to call Modi government dictator is far from truth," BJP national secretary Siddharth Nath Singh told PTI.

"Banerjee should be grateful that it is Modiji's believe in federal structure that state of Bengal will get under 14th Finance commission Rs 3,59,406 crores which is more by Rs 2,52,206 crore than that given by the 13th Finance Commission," he said.

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The monogrammed suit donned by Prime Minister during his meeting with US President Barack Obama in New Delhi last year, which had kicked up a controversy, entered the Guinness World Records as "the most expensive suit sold at auction".

The suit had gone under the hammer in February last year and was purchased for Rs 4.31 crore by Surat-based diamond trader Lalji Patel, who owns Dharmananda Diamond Company.

"It is a matter of happiness and pride that the suit has found a place in the Guinness Book of World Records. We had applied for the world record around five months back on the suggestion of our company's HR management team. Within a couple of months, we received a certificate acknowledging that it was the world's most expensive suit sold at an auction," Hitesh Patel, son of Laljibhai, said here on Saturday.

The suit, which has stripes with the name 'Narendra Damodardas Modi' woven into it in glittering gold letters, has been placed inside a glass cabin at the reception of the Dharmananda Diamond Company for visitors to view it, Patel said.

The suit was reportedly prepared at a cost of Rs 10 lakh and was auctioned at a base price of Rs 11 lakh.

The Guinness World Records acknowledges the suit as the "most expensive suit (clothing) sold at auction is Rs 43,131,311 and was bought by Laljibhai Tulsibhai Patel (India) in Surat, Gujarat, India on February 20, 2015."



The money raised from the auction of the suit has been earmarked for the Centre's clean Ganga mission.

After successfully bidding for the suit, owner Laljibhai Patel had told the media that he wanted to do something for the country and this auction gave him a chance.

"I always wanted to do something in the interest of country. This event gave me a chance to do something in interest, in this case for Clean Ganga Mission. I never thought that this incredible suit will finally come to me," he had then said.

The suit, which Modi had worn during Obama's three-day state visit to India in January last year, had kicked up a political row with opposition parties accusing the PM of 'narcissism'.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had latched on it to accuse Modi of heading a "suit-boot ki sarkar" which worked only for the rich.
A 35-year-old nominated member of Municipal Council of Gonda was shot at and seroulsy injured by unidentified, police said today.

Vaibhav Singh was shot late last night by motorcycle-borne assailants in Nagbaba lane near Ramlila Maidan when he was on his way to home, police said.

The locals rushed him to the district hospital from where he was referred to Lucknow hospital for treatment, they said.

Singh is said to be a close aide of state's agriculture minister, Vinod Kumar Singh alias Pandit Singh.

SP Sudhir Kumar Singh has transferred a Circle Officer following the incident.

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Union Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu today slammed Congress, claiming that its leaders were speaking in different voices on Kashmir and Pakistan.

"Former external affairs minister Salman Khurshid says something, former home minister P Chidambaram says something (different), former HRD Minister Kapil Sibal says something, then Congress party says it is their personal views," he told reporters at the airport here.

"Is this the way a party which is most matured speak... in double voices that too on matters of national interest?" he asked.

Khurshid had been critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for raking up the issue of Balochistan in his Independence Day address while Chidambaram had accused Modi and his top ministerial colleagues of "exacerbating" the crisis in Jammu and Kashmir. But later, Congress had distanced itself from the remarks.

Naidu said the central and state governments were working together to bring back normalcy in Jammu and Kashmir.

The senior BJP leader was on his way back to Delhi after a visit to Tuticorin and Tirunelveli Districts in southern Tamil Nadu to pay homage to freedom fighters from the region.

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Union Minister and senior BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu today paid homage to three legendary freedom fighters from Tamil Nadu, saying the NDA government wanted to remember the sacrifices made by such people unlike importance given only to "a bunch" of leaders earlier.

Naidu, who paid homage to Veerapandiya Kattabomman, V O Chidambaram Pillai and revolutionary national poet Subramanya Bharathi at their memorials in Tuticorin and Tirunelveli districts, said he undertook the visit as per the instruction of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"The purpose of my visit is Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) told us to celebrate 70 years of Independence and remember the great sacrifices made by such leaders.

"After Independence only a bunch of freedom fighters were given importance. This government wanted to bring the stories of many such freedom fighters," he told reporters in Chennai on his return.

Earlier, Naidu paid homage to Kattabomman, 18th century chieftain, at his memorial in Kayathar in Tuticorin where he was executed by the British.

Kattabomman was executed by the British in 1799 after he opposed the British and refused to pay tax to them.

Naidu said the country was seeing development only during the last two years as barring the NDA regime the country had witnessed 'misrule and corruption'.

Paying tributes to Chidambaram Pillai at his birthplace Ottapidaram, Naidu said he would discuss with the Railway Minister the possibility of naming Tirunelveli Railway Junction after the freedom fighter.

Pillai, a prominent lawyer and a trade union leader, floated Swedeshi shipping company to compete against British ships in 1906. He was later charged with treason and imprisoned for several years.

Naidu also garlanded a statue of Subramanya Bharathi, a contemporary of Pillai, at Ettayapuram.

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North Korea said today that a senior North Korean diplomat who recently defected to South Korea is a criminal and "human scum," in its first official response to the defection.

The official Korean Central Agency also accused Seoul of using the defection of Thae Yong Ho, formerly a minister at the North Korean Embassy in London, for propaganda aimed at insulting the North Korean leadership.

It also denounced the British government for ignoring international protocol by rejecting what it said were demands to have Thae extradited back to the North and instead handing him over to the South.

KCNA said North Korea had ordered Thae to return to the North in June to be investigated for a series of crimes, including embezzling government funds, leaking confidential secrets and sexually assaulting a minor.

It said that Thae "should have received legal punishment for the crimes he committed, but he discarded the fatherland that raised him and even his own parents and brothers by fleeing, thinking nothing but just saving himself, showing himself to be human scum who lacks even an elementary level of loyalty and even tiny bits of conscience and morality that are required for human beings."



In announcing the defection, Seoul's Unification Ministry said Wednesday that Thae was the second-highest North Korean official at the embassy and the most senior North Korean diplomat ever to defect to South Korea. In 1997, the North Korean ambassador to Egypt fled but resettled in the United States.

The ministry said that Thae decided to defect because of his disgust with the government of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, his yearning for South Korean democracy and worries about the future of his children.

The Unification Ministry didn't immediately respond to a request for comment about North Korea's claims on Saturday. More than 29,000 North Koreans have defected to South Korea since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, according to the South Korean government.

Many defectors have said they wanted to leave North Korea's harsh political system and poverty. Pyongyang often accuses the South of deceiving or paying its citizens to defect, or claims that they have simply been kidnapped.

In April, 13 North Koreans working at a North Korean-operated restaurant in China defected to South Korea. It was the largest group defection since Kim took power in late 2011.

Later in April, South Korea also revealed that a colonel in North Korea's military spy agency had defected to the South last year.

Most South Korean analysts say it's premature to take the defections of Thae and other senior officials as indicators that the unity of North Korea's ruling elite is starting to crack because there are no significant signs that Kim's grip on power is weakening.

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A 17-year-old youth from Arunachal Pradesh, studying at the Government Polytechnic here, was allegedly attacked by four to five persons in the college premises, police said today.

Police has registered a non-cognisable offence against unidentified persons on August 18.

Takam Todo, a diploma student of civil engineering at the insititute, told PTI that the incident took place on the evening of August 14 when he and a couple of friends were chatting near the hostel.

"Some people were sitting nearby, presumably having a liquor party and I accidentally flashed a torch light on them, which irked them. Four to five guys came running at us and threw a stone at my head. I started bleeding. They also beat my friend and the moment we started shouting, they fled," he said.

He and his friends then rushed to the Chaturshringi police station to report the incident.

When asked why the non-cognisable offence was registered only on August 18, senior police inspector Dayanand Dhome said when Todo came to the police station, the duty officer handed him a memo and asked him to go to the Sassoon Hospital and come back with a medical report.

"The complainant thought his complaint had been registered and never came back to register the case. We later registered the case and are trying to find out who were the assailants," Dhome said.

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Odisha Chief minister Naveen Patnaik today distributed laptops among the meritorious students and felicitated college girls trained in self-defence.

"Laptops will help the students to go tech-savvy which is required for development. Development of a country is impossible without technology," Patnaik said.

Higher Education Minister Pradeep Kumar Panigrahi said as many as 15,000 laptops would be distributed free of cost among the meritorious students this year.

While felicitating the girls, Patnaik said this was part of the government's effort to empower women under the state's youth policy.

The state government had launched the youth empowerment programme in 2013.

Recalling his father, former chief minister Biju Patnaik's, contribution towards youth empowerment, Patnaik said, "Biju Babu had reposed trust on youth power. His contribution to the youth is really commendable."



He also said his government has always given priority to women empowerment.

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on Saturday said the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation has expressed "deep concern" over the Kashmir situation and reaffirmed its support for the right of self-determination for the people there.

Secretary General of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Iyad Ameen Madani, who is here on a three- day visit from August 19-21, conveyed the grouping's concerns to the Pakistani side, the Foreign Office here said in a statement.

Claiming that Madani's visit to was aimed at discussing the situation in Kashmir, it said, "discussions during the meeting (between Madani and Prime Minister's Advisor on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz) focused on a number of challenges facing the Muslim world, particularly on the situation" in Kashmir and peace in Afghanistan.

Madani expressed "deep concern over the killing of innocent civilians" in Kashmir and sorrow at the "indiscriminate use of force and gross violations of human rights" in Kashmir by the Indian forces, the statement said.
As the unrest in Kashmir entered the 43rd day, leaders of opposition parties from Jammu and Kashmir led by Omar Abdullah today knocked at the doors of President Pranab Mukherjee, requesting him to urge the Centre in finding a solution "politically".

With no signs of peace returning to the Valley, Omar, working President of National Conference and former Chief Minister, hit out at the Modi government for its "failure" to acknowledge that the issue in Kashmir is largely of a political nature.

The opposition delegation while seeking the President's intervention also submitted a memorandum and apprised him of the "worsening" situation in the state.

Omar said the delegation also requested the President to use his "influence" on the state as well as the Centre "to stop the use of lethal force against civilians in the Valley".

"The failure of the central government to acknowledge that the issue in Kashmir is largely of a political nature has worsened the already volatile situation," Omar told reporters after an hour-long meeting with the President.

"We have requested the President to impress upon the central government to initiate a credible and meaningful process of political dialogue without any further delay involving all stakeholders to address the political issue in the state," the NC leader said.

The 46-year-old former Chief Minister, who had held a meeting of all opposition parties in Srinagar earlier this week, said the situation cannot be handled administratively or by creating a humanitarian crisis.

"You see, we are having curfew for last 43 days. Now sale of petrol has been stopped which means it will also affect movement of ambulances. With stringent curfew measures being enforced, more and more people are being driven out onto the streets and the problem is getting worse," Omar said, adding having further restrictions placed on them only increases their misery.

The delegation, which also comprised CPI-M MLA M Y Tarigami, Congress MLAs led by its PCC Chief G A Mir and independent MLA Hakeem Yaseen, has also sought time from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss the situation.

It would also be meeting leaders of other political parties including Vice President of Congress Rahul Gandhi and CPI-M General Secretary Sitaram Yechury.

Omar said the continued refusal of the Centre to deal with the situation through a political approach "is disappointing and can have serious long term implications on peace and stability in the state".

"I wonder when would they wake up as the situation is grave," he said, alleging that the state and central governments were trying to "crush the agitation by using administrative measures".

Blaming Mehbooba Mufti-headed PDP-BJP government for having failed on all fronts to normalise the situation, Omar said the Chief Minister was directly responsible for the deteriorating situation.

The former Chief Minister, who was also accompanied by senior leaders of NC including provincial Presidents of his party Nasir Wani and Davinder Rana, Ali Mohammed Sagar and A R Rather, said, "The fire that has been raging in Kashmir Valley has already started spreading across Peer Panjal and Chenab Valley in Jammu region and Kargil area.

Omar said the meeting with the President, which cuts



across party lines, symbolised the deep concerns about the prevailing situation and also their disappointment at the way the matter has sought to be handled, both by the Centre as well as the state government.

"This is the first time in our memory that we have found that initiatives that should have been taken by the government are actually being taken by the opposition. Whether it is at the central level, where if any discussion was initiated in the Parliament, was initiated because of the opposition.

"Similarly, if any moves have been made in the state government, it only followed from opposition pressure and not as an initiative of the government," he said.

Omar warned that a "continued delay to engage with the people of the state through a comprehensive and sustained political initiative will further deepen the sense of alienation in the Valley and cast a shadow of uncertainty on its future generation".

He said the delegation also requested the President to use his "influence" on the state as well as the Centre "to stop the use of lethal force against civilians in the Valley".

Omar, however, made it clear that there was no demand for imposition of Governor's rule. "We have not come here to overthrow the government, even though the Mehbooba Mufti government is responsible for the deteriorating state.

"Her administrative capabilities have continuously failed and so has her ability to deal with the situation. It's administrative anarchy in the state. One ruling is announced in the morning and by evening, another," he said.

Asked whether blaming Pakistan for the current crisis in the state was correct, Omar said, "look what happened immediately after killing of Burhan Wani (Hizbul Mujahideen militant on July 8) had nothing to do with Pakistan which stepped in later only to pour more petrol in the fire that was raging in the Valley."



To a question about the Centre's assertion to bring back areas of Kashmir under illegal occupation of Pakistan, he said, "if they can, let them. I am not here to comment on the foreign policy of the government.

(REOPEN DEL 24)



"I am here because my house (Kashmir Valley) is on fire and I need immediate attention before this fire spreads."



Flagging the issue of use of pellet guns that resulted in grievous injuries to people, he said problem was that the guns were being given to people who did not know how to use it.

"I'm stunned that 1.3 million pellets were used against our people. If such power and force had been used in any other state in our country, would people remain silent? When such things happen in Jammu and Kashmir, people don't seem to care.

"Not only is the problem with the use of the pellet guns, the problem is that those guns are being handed over to those people who are not adequately trained in the use of weapons," he said, adding "it is not just the use of the weapon. Any weapon is a lethal weapon. It depends on how you use it."



Tarigami told the President that there was an uprising in the Kashmir Valley and if it was not handled with care, it will not only engulf the entire country, but the entire subcontinent.
A possible outbreak of the Congo fever in Pakistan's Sindh province has triggered fear among residents and health officials ahead of next month's Eid festival after five people died due to the virus in a month.

The most recent death happened on Friday when a cattle trader from Bahawalpur died of the Crimean Congo Haemorrhagic Fever (CCHF), commonly known as the Congo fever, in Karachi.

The CCHF is a tick-borne viral disease.

Allah Ditta, 22, had come to Karachi to sell animals for sacrifice during the Eid ul Azha festival next month. His was the fifth death in Karachi due to the virus in the past month.

Ditta was admitted to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre on Wednesday and died on Friday while he was being treated. He had high fever for seven days with gum and nose bleeding, and bruises on his hands for two days.

Following Ditta's death, Karachi administration has issued notices to the Deputy Commissioner, Malir town, and the supervisor of the animal market on Karachi's outskirts to get all animals screened for deadly ticks that carry the virus.

A Sindh government spokesman said all animals in the market will be screened before being cleared for trading.

The animal market is considered the biggest in Asia with hundreds of thousands of sacrificial animals brought from all over Pakistan by traders and dealers ahead of Eid-ul Azha.

Dr Zafar Mehdi, of the government facility for prevention of naegleria and CCHF, said Ditta's was the third death due to the virus in the past three weeks.

A week before that, a 65-year-old man from Afghanistan died while a doctor from Bahawalpur has also died. The doctor contracted CCHF while treating a patient in Bahawalpur.

The provincial health ministry has asked authorities to cordon off the market area where Ditta had put his livestock.

Authorities have begun setting up isolation wards at all government and private hospitals following Ditta's death.

The CCHF, endemic in Africa, Balkans, the Middle East and Asia, and is commonly known as Congo fever.

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A local court today remanded suspected ISI spy Nand Lal who was caught by intelligence sleuths in Jaisalmer to police custody till August 24.

The 26-year-old was caught from a hotel on Thursday by CID on a tip off with classified information about defence installations.

"He was produced before a local court where the magistrate remanded him to police custody till August 24," a senior official said.

"He is being jointly interrogated by intelligence agencies here," he said.

The Pakistani national arrived India on visa on August 5. His visa was for Jodhpur but he went to Jaisalmer in violation of the visa norms and stayed at a hotel.

"He was in touch with some local anti-social elements and smugglers in the border areas and used to collect information from them," the officer said.

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Accusing Pakistan of sponsoring subversive activities, Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi today said Prime Minister Narendra Modi's tough stand on terrorism has isolated the neighbouring country at the global level.

He also said Modi embodies the visions enunciated by Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Patel.

"There will be no soft approach towards terrorism or separatism. Today, Pakistan, a sponsor of terrorism, has been isolated at the global level due to the Modi government's strong policy on national security," he said.

The Minister of State for Minority Affairs was speaking here in Kheda district at an event organised to mark 70 years of independence.

He praised Modi for taking India on the path of becoming a "Vishwa Guru" (world leader).

"The entire nation will remain indebted to Gujarat for giving Mahatma Gandhi (who led the freedom struggle), Sardar Patel (who unified the country) and Narendra Modi, who has led India on the path of becoming a 'Vishwa Guru'."



The BJP leader said Modi's vision was a combination of Gandhiji's concept of empowering the poor and Patel's policy for unity of the country.

"When Modi was Chief Minister, the world used to talk about 'Gujarat model of development,' and when Modi has become Prime Minister, the world is now talking about Indian model of development," he said.

He said the Prime Minister's thrust on "corruption-free and development-oriented" system has made "liaison offices operating at the times of Congress rule down their shutters".

"Previous governments (led by Congress) were indulging in a loot. But after Modi took over, power brokers had to down the shutters of their liaison offices," he said.

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Globally acclaimed economist Jagdish Bhagwati today hailed the appointment of Urjit Patel as the next RBI Governor as "terrific choice", saying he is an ideal person to head the central bank.

"Dr Urjit Patel is a terrific choice. A student of the great Indian economist, Professor T N Srinivasan, and also a macroeconomic expert trained at Yale, Patel will be an ideal Governor who can take over with distinction and continuity from Dr Raghuram Rajan," Bhagwati told PTI.

He is Professor of Economics, Law, and International Relations at Columbia University.

"With the brilliant Arvind Panagariya continuing as his chief economist, and Urjit Patel at the RBI, Prime Minister now has the world's finest economics team, augmented by Bibek Debroy and Arvind Subramanian, that promises continuing reforms beyond the politically skilful passage of GST," Bhagwati added.

Hopefully, he added, "the days of anti-reform, anti-growth advisers that undermined our economy in the UPA-II years will now be strictly behind us".

Government in a statement today announced the appointment of Patel as the next governor of Reserve Bank of India for three years with effect from September 4, 2016. He will replace Raghuram Rajan.

Patel is presently the deputy governor of RBI and is holding this assignment since 2013.

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The Patna High Court today granted interim bail to suspended RJD MLA Raj Ballabh Yadav, who has been charged with raping a minor girl.

A bench of Chief Justice Iqbal Ahmad Ansari granted interim bail to Yadav till September 5, 2016 to attend his father's 'shraadh rituals'.

The court passed the order while hearing Yadav's plea for bail for the purpose.

Yadav, 50, MLA from Nawada, had surrendered before a court if Nalanda district on March 10 this year.

He was accused of raping a 15-year-old schoolgirl studying in class X on February 6.

The local court had on June 6, 2016 framed charges against the RJD MLA and other accused persons in connection with the case.

The court framed charges against Yadav under various sections of IPC including 376 for raping a girl, besides Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO Act) 2012.

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The Philippine government and communist guerrillas have agreed to ceasefires from tomorrow, both sides said, ahead of crucial peace talks next week to end one of Asia's longest insurgencies.

Both sides said a break from the fighting will create a conducive environment at the negotiations next week in Norway, which are aimed at reaching a political settlement after 30 years of failed talks.

The Communist Party of the Philippines declared a seven-day unilateral truce hours after President Rodrigo Duterte's decision to free its top jailed leaders yesterday.

The government responded by saying it will restore a unilateral ceasefire that was declared in July but abruptly withdrawn by Duterte just days later after a rebel ambush.

"The... Ceasefire will last for as long as necessary to bring peace to the land and also to provide an enabling environment for the success of the peace negotiations," Duterte peace adviser Jesus Dureza told reporters Saturday.

Dureza said he and at least six of the freed rebels were set to fly to Oslo today for the talks that kick off Monday.

The government estimates the 47-year-old rebellion has claimed 30,000 lives and impoverished vast swathes of the South East Asian nation.

The talks, which Norway has acted as an intermediary for, broke down in 2013 after Duterte's predecessor Benigno Aquino rejected the communists' demand to free all imprisoned guerrillas.

Dureza said the government expects to reach an "interim negotiated ceasefire" as soon as possible to put in place mechanisms to avoid renewed conflict, something the unilateral truce declarations do not provide.

The communists said their own ceasefire would only last until August 27, but a rebel statement said they were willing to discuss a longer ceasefire with Manila.

However, this would only be possible after the government freed "all political prisoners", it said, referring to 550 guerrillas detained by the government.

The rebel army is believed to have fewer than 4,000 gunmen left, down from a peak of 26,000 in the 1980s, when a bloodless "People Power" revolt ended the 20-year dictatorship of the late president Ferdinand Marcos.

But the movement retains support among the poor in rural areas, and its forces regularly kill police or troops while extorting money from local businesses.

After winning a landslide election victory in May, Duterte declared a unilateral ceasefire last month, but ended it five days later when a rebel ambush killed a government militia member and wounded four others.

Duterte had enjoyed relatively good ties with guerrillas operating around Davao, the southern city which he led as mayor for more than 20 years.

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Russia is a "time-tested" and "reliable friend", Prime Minister Narendra Modi said today and expressed shared commitment with President Vladimir Putin to expand, strengthen and deepen the bilateral engagement across all domains.

He made the remarks while receiving Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin who conveyed Putin's greetings to the Prime Minister and briefed him on the progress in ongoing projects between India and Russia, according to a PMO statement.

Modi recalled his recent meeting with Putin in Tashkent in June and via video-link for dedication of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant Unit 1 at the beginning of this month.

The Prime Minister conveyed that India is eagerly awaiting the Russian President's visit here, the statement added.

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: City based Gem Hospital and Research Centre today launched its free cancer screening and treatment program for benefit of poor people in South India.

Under the project "care for life," initially three cancer surgeries will be performed in a week, with free hospital charges, drugs and consumables supplied by Rotary Clubs and Gem Medical Trust, Dr C Palanivelu, Chairman of the Hospital said, at the launch.

Selection for free surgeries for any one from South India would be done by a committee comprising those from GEM Doctors and Rotary clubs, he said.

Stating that laparoscopy is not available in Government hospitals, he said free treatment will be provided to the poor and underprivileged, with the most advanced cancer care.

A separate bank account 'Care for Life' has been opened and any person or clubs can support this noble cause,which can be done in the name of their parents or of their choice,he sai



Patients would be informed about their sponsors, who can visit them during surgery, Palanivelu said.

The Care for Life Trust, started with a deposit of Rs 50 lakh, Palanivelu said.

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A citizens group in Bangladesh today held a day-long protest here demanding that the government cancel the proposed 1,320 megawatt Indo-Bangla joint venture power plant near the Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove forest.

The National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports asked the Bangladesh government not proceed with the Rampal power plant project as it will cause severe harm to the Sundarbans.

It announced to hold several rallies in Dhaka and divisonal and district headquarters throughout September, October and November in support of their demand.

The protesters plan to submit an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi after holding a protest march infront of the Indian High Commission in Dhaka, the Daily Star online reported.

Its member Anu Muhammad announced to hold "Cholo, Cholo Dhaka Cholo" protest march soon to press home their demand.

It will hold a grand rally in Dhaka on November 26.

Earlier in the day, the committee started the sit-in programme demanding cancellation of all projects - including the power plant - that will cause harm to the Sundarbans.

Eminent personalities of the country attended the protest.

"Among the 16 crore people in this country, not even 1600 people are in favour of the Rampal power plant. The government ought to cancel this project," columnist Syed Abul Maksud told the gathering.

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Former Army chief General Shankar Roy Chowdhury has said the real conspirators and perpetrators of Srinagar violence are sitting across the border.

"One thing we must remember, the real conspirators and perpetrators of Srinagar street violence are sitting across the border. Our central police forces (CRPF) are combating the situation and so far my knowledge goes the army has not been involved," he told PTI on the sidelines of a symposium here last evening.

"Yes there had been reports of army having gone to search an area on specific tip-off, in a hostel but these are exceptional cases," he said.

"Barring certain exceptional situations where violence cannot be controlled first by the police and central paramilitary forces, then Army may be called only as the last resort," he said.

Asked about the situation in Kashmir, he said, "Since my days and till this date and in future as well the avowed principle and policy of this country has been, is and will be not to allow any division and we will all unitedly fight any bid to effect another partition. That will not be allowed," Chowdhury said.

The former army chief spoke at the symposium on Japanese thinker Dr Daisuku Ikeda's 2016 peace proposal 'Universal Respect for Human Dignity: The Great Path to Peace'.

"There had been instances of attack on human dignity as everyday reports flash in papers and it happened in my country, right in my city where I grew up. It has in many cases affected me and people of my generation," he said.

Chowdhury said his education in value system of human beings fortunately had been shaped with his stint in Indian Army.

Curfew remained in force in Srinagar district today and two south Kashmir towns even as normal life in the Valley was paralysed for the 43rd day today due to unrest in the wake of killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani on July 8.

As many as 64 persons including two cops have been killed in the clashes that began on July 9.

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Syrian government warplanes were again in the air over the mainly Kurdish-held city of Hasakeh early today despite a US warning against any new strikes that might endanger its military advisers, a monitor said.

It was not immediately clear whether the aircraft, which were in the skies throughout the night, had carried out any bombing runs as there were heavy artillery exchanges on the ground, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Deadly clashes erupted between pro-government militia and the US-backed Kurdish forces on Wednesday. The following day, the regime launched its first ever air strikes against the Kurds.

The unprecedented strikes against six Kurdish positions in the northeastern city prompted the US-led coalition to scramble aircraft to protect US special operations forces advisers deployed with the Kurdish forces.

It was the first time the coalition had confirmed deploying warplanes against the Syrian air force.

Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis warned that "the Syrian regime would be well-advised not to do things that place them (coalition forces) at risk."



The Observatory said there was no let-up in the fighting on the ground which has left 39 people dead since Wednesday, 23 of them civilians, including nine children.

"There were heavy clashes, artillery fire and rocket attacks throughout the night and ongoing in the morning," Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

Around two-thirds of Hasakeh is controlled by Kurdish forces, but the rest is in the hands of pro-government militia.

The regime and Kurdish forces share a common enemy in the Islamic State jihadist group, which controls most of the Euphrates valley to the south, but there have been tensions between them in Hasakeh that have sometimes led to clashes.

The Pentagon said no coalition casualties were reported in yesterday's strikes by two Syrian SU-24s, and US special operations advisers had been moved to a safe location.

He said coalition aircraft were now carrying out additional combat patrols in the region.

The Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) are a key US ally in the fight against IS.

Washington regards them as the most effective fighting force on the ground against the jihadists in Syria and has provided them with air cover and military advisers.

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Locals and tourists in large numbers are expected to throng Divar island across Mandovi river on August 27 to witness a carnival like ambience for the age-old Bonderam festival.

The festival, set in the picturesque island from Portuguese era has been an annual affair which sees riot of flags, traditional dances, float parade and games.

Goa tourism minister Dilip Parulekar said the festival is being promoted as a major tourist attraction and it is one of the most unique festivals of the state celebrated on the fourth Saturdayof August every year at Divar Island, near Panaji.

"Such festivals imbibeunity and a reason to celebrate with bliss and harmony. It is a very popular monsoon festival and draws huge crowds from all parts of Goa and world over. We are expecting a large number of visitors to come and experience the festival this year," he said.

According to villagers, the history of the festival stems out of the blood-soaked past of this island.

The name 'Bonderam', revolves around the involvement of flags which in itself is an interesting story. Frequent disputes which occurred between two wards (section of the village)over property matters often led to bloody duels, and sometimes death.

Subsequently, the Portuguese introduced a system of demarcation of boundaries with flags of various nations.

"The rival groups, however, knocked down the flags sometimes with stones. Several years down the line, the gun fight has now turned into a joyful fight between villagers using a locally made bamboo gun, called 'Fotash," they said.

Today, in a parody of the past, the mock fight is commemorated with a "Fotash" flight (toy weapon of bamboo stem) and berries are used as missiles between rival groups to knock down an offending flag.

Sharing more details of the festival, Parulekar said the gaily coloured floats accompanied by colourfully dressed youngsters, make a pretty picture along withrevellers.

"Each ward of the village sends a float to the parade and no efforts are spared to outdo each other. The parade is marked by joyous celebrations accompanied by loud music and live band performances," he said.

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The results of 2017 Goa Assembly elections will lay the foundation of party's victory in the 2019 general elections, BJP president Amit Shah said today.

"2017 is very important for the party. There are elections in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur and Goa. Through these elections we want to bring transformation in the country ... We should be in power from panchayat to Parliament," Shah said.

He was addressing a gathering of booth-level BJP workers near Panaji, kicking off the party's campaign for Assembly.

"Results of Goa Assembly elections will lay foundation for party's victory in 2019 Lok Sabha elections under the leadership of Narendra Modi," he said.

"If we win all the states in 2017, then no one can stop BJP's victory in 2019 elections," he said.

Shah expressed confidence that BJP on its own will win 27 seats (out of total 40) in Goa Assembly elections.

"Congress has lost in all the states in the recent past. Now they are eyeing Goa ... How will they win in Goa after losing in all the states," the BJP president said, alleging that corruption to the tune of "Rs 12 lakh crore" took place during the Congress regime.

Responding to former union minister Kamal Nath's criticism of the Prime Minister Modi's foreign visits, Shah referred to Modi's predecessor Manmohan Singh as "Maunibaba".

"Even Maunibaba used to visit the foreign countries, but no one knew about them, not even the countries he was visiting. But when Modi travels abroad, thousands of people wait to receive him. The reception is not for Modi alone, it is for the BJP and citizens of this country," Shah said.

"When Modi addressed the UN in Hindi, the country was proud of it," he said.

(REOPENS BES37)



Meanwhile, Shah apologised to the party workers for not being able to meet them at the Goa airport as he was "pushed into the vehicle by security officers".

"The security officers push me just the way they push you all (workers). They kept on pushing me and took me to the vehicle and made me sit and we went from there," Shah said referring to the incident at the Goa Airport when he arrived.

"I know a few of you had come to meet me at the airport. I wanted to talk to you. But could not do so. I apologise to you for that," said the BJP chief.

"I would commend the Goa party organisation for building such a mass base of booth level workers who have arrived here. The foundation and strength of BJP is in booth level workers," he added.
Shakti Sinha, private secretary to former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, has been appointed as director of Nehru Memorial Museum & Library (NMML).

"Shakti Sinha has been appointed as the new director of the premier institution," a source said.

The official announcement on the appointment would be made soon, the source said.

The post of director at NMML is lying vacant since last year after UPA appointee Mahesh Rangarajan stepped down after the ruling NDA described his appointment as "illegal and unethical".

An IAS officer of 1979 batch from AGMUT cadre, Sinha was considered as a highly influential joint secretary in Vajpayee's PMO in the late 1990s. He had also served as private secretary to Vajpayee.

He had taken voluntary retirement in 2013 when he was serving as Finance secretary in Delhi government.

The advertisement issued for the director's post was also reportedly modified at the last moment to accommodate Sinha.

Controversy erupted over the appointment of NMML director after a prominent member of its Executive Council (EC) Pratap Bhanu Mehta quit allegedly over shortlisting of Sinha, who reportedly until a few days ago was a director in India Foundation, a think tank aligned to RSS.

Besides renowned political scientist Mehta, there were five others in the selection committee, headed by Minister of State for External Affairs and vice-chairperson of NMML's EC M J Akbar who is also on the India Foundation board.

A strong dissenting voice also came from Nitin Desai, economist and former Under Secretary General of the UN, at a meeting last week over two names -- Sinha and Indira Gandhi National Open University academic Kapil Kumar.

It was, however, widely speculated that government may scrap the whole process of the selection, taking note of the dissenting voices and start the process afresh.

Established in the memory of India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, NMML is an autonomous institution under the Ministry of Culture.

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Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal today questioned 25 cement companies about the reasons for a reported price hike and asked them to cut the rates immediately.

"The rise in price of cement has an impact on the common man. The state government is committed to bringing in much desired stability in the price of all commodities," Sonowal said in a meeting with cement manufacturers here.

Cement companies reportedly hiked the prices by Rs 40-50 per bag in Assam recently.

According to an official statement, he said the rise in prices of cement has affected the market and asked the companies to take steps to put a tab on price rise.

"If the price of cement is inordinately high in Assam in comparison to other states, there has to have a repercussion in our state. In a such a situation, the government cannot play the role of a mute spectator but will act to impress upon the companies to stabilise their price," Sonowal said.

The Chief Minister asked the cement companies to find out the reasons attributing to price hike of the construction material.

The company officials present at the meeting assured Sonowal that they would do the needful for curbing the price rise.

They also apprised the chief minister of the reasons for widening cement price difference between Assam and other states.

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Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal today thanked SpiceJet for enhancing its air frequency to the state and Aizawl by starting new daily flights connecting the North Eastern region with Kolkata.

SpiceJet has decided to launch new daily flights connecting Silchar with Kolkata and Guwahati, and Guwahati with Aizawl from October 4, 2016.

"Your decision to enhance air connectivity between North East and other parts of the country will serve as a fillip to the tourism potential of Assam and other North Eastern States," Sonowal said in a message to SpiceJet Chairman and Managing Director Ajay Singh.

The Chief Minister also urged other airlines to increase the frequency of their services in Assam and North East.

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Dale Steyn, playing in his first Test match in more than eight months, struck two early blows for South Africa before rain prevented any play after lunch on the second day of the first Test against New Zealand here today.

New Zealand were 15 for two, 248 runs behind South Africa's first innings total of 263, when play ended for the day.

Steyn, who had failed to complete the only two Tests he had played in South Africa's last eight matches because of groin and shoulder injuries, had Tom Latham caught at first slip by Hashim Amla for four off the second ball of his fourth over.

Bowling in helpful, heavily overcast conditions, he followed up in his next over with a full in-swinger which trapped Martin Guptill leg before wicket for seven.

Steyn took two wickets for three runs in six overs.

Latham added only one run after being dropped off Vernon Philander, also returning from injury.

Guptill survived an appeal for leg before wicket off Steyn's fourth ball of the innings when he was on two.

Umpire Richard Illingworth turned down the appeal and South Africa decided not to ask for a review. Replays showed the ball was clipping leg stump in the 'umpire's call' area so a review would have failed.

Three overs later Latham edged Philander low to second slip where Dean Elgar spilled a relatively straightforward chance.

Although Steyn had the better figures, Philander also looked close to his best form after missing South Africa's most recent seven Test matches because of an ankle injury.

In the last over before lunch he twice beat Ross Taylor with balls that swung sharply away from the bat.

It took New Zealand ten overs to take South Africa's remaining two wickets after rain delayed the start by 50 minutes.

Tim Southee struck with the eighth ball of the day when he bowled Steyn before South Africa had added to their overnight total of 236 for eight.

Kagiso Rabada and Dane Piedt added 27 runs for the last wicket despite New Zealand taking the second new ball, which enabled Southee and Trent Boult to gain extravagant movement in the overcast conditions.

Rabada, who was dropped by Southee at third slip off Boult when he had 16, battled his way to an unbeaten 32 before Piedt was last man out, caught behind off Boult for nine.

Boult finished with figures of three for 52.

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Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan today called upon the BRICS countries to present a united front for successful implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, saying their success will be heavily dependent on the outcome in these nations.

Delivering the inaugural speech at the meeting of BRICS Women Parliamentarians' Forum here, she said India's development agenda is mirrored in the SDG and the country has chosen the path of removing poverty by empowering the poor.

"We have chosen the path of removing poverty by empowering the poor. Initiatives have been launched by India for promoting inclusion and social advancement," Mahajan said.

"The BRICS countries together comprise 43 per cent of the world population, contributing 37 percent of the world GDP. The success of the SDGs will be heavily dependent on their successful implementation in the BRICS countries. So with agreement reached on the 'what' we have to get on with the 'how'," she said.

The Speaker also laid stress on strengthening cooperative mechanism among the member countries.

"The implementation of the SDGs will be successful only when we present a united front. In order to leverage our position with regard to issues of global concern, especially the SDGs, the BRICS countries need to strengthen cooperative mechanisms and to innovate new institutional means for meeting the needs of the member countries," the Speaker said.

Mahajan said the setting up of the New Development Bank (NDB) by the BRICS countries can be instrumental in filling the massive gap in investment in infrastructure and sustainable development resources in emerging and developing economies.

Acknowledging the role of women parliamentarians from the BRICS countries in achieving the SDGs, she called upon them to ensure the implementations of the goals.

She said despite being a relatively young group, BRICS



has taken impressive strides beginning froma forum for consultation on economic issues of mutual interest to evolving intoa group which now has various topical global issues on its agenda.

"The agenda for cooperation in addressing global and multilateral issues of mutual interest has been carried forward in the last seven summits and several ministerial meetings," she said.

The Speaker laid stress on concentrating on the most fundamental and core issues of development. Highlighting the role and importance of women, she said, "It is she who holds the world together".

"Women are the fountainhead of life, natural caregivers and are the first providers, first educators,the first resource allocators in the family and society.

"As women parliamentarians from the BRICS Parliaments, we are here to make a forceful statement that we have a pivotal role to play in ensuring that all these happen in our respective countries," she said.
Syrian government warplanes took to the skies again today over the flashpoint northeastern city of Hasakeh, despite a US warning against new strikes that might endanger its military advisers.

In another escalation of the five-year war, regime planes this week bombarded positions held by US-backed Kurdish forces in the city fighting the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said the raids showed Damascus was starting to see the Kurdish attempt to consolidate territory in northern Syria as "a threat".

He pledged to play a "more active" in the next months in putting an end to the conflict.

Ankara sees Syrian Kurdish militia as an offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) that has waged a bloody campaign against the Turkish state since 1984.

The unprecedented strikes prompted the US-led coalition to scramble aircraft to protect its special operations forces helping the Kurdish fighters.

It was apparently the first time the coalition scrambled jets in response to regime action, and possibly the closest call yet in terms of Syrian forces wounding American or coalition advisers.

Regime warplanes were in the air above Hasakeh throughout the night and into the morning today, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group.

It was unclear whether the aircraft had carried out bombing runs.

Fighting erupted between pro-government militia and the US-backed Kurdish forces on Wednesday and continued into the morning today, leaving a total of 41 people dead including 25 civilians, the Observatory said.

A delegation of Russian officials from the coastal Hmeimim military airport arrived in Qamishli to the north to hold talks between the two sides, a senior Syrian government source told AFP.

A journalist in Hasakeh said this afternoon that the clashes had abated.

Around two-thirds of the city is controlled by Kurdish forces, while the rest is held by pro-government militia.

The regime and Kurdish forces share a common enemy in IS, but there have been tensions between them in Hasakeh.

The vitriol between the two sides escalated today, as the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) pledged to "protect areas from the terrorism of the regime.

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Construction and heightening of a check dam across Palar river in Andhra Pradesh, which has been opposed by Tamil Nadu, was being done under a system in place in the country, Minister of State for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences Dr Y S Chowdary said today.

"The check dam is being heightened by following the system in place and within the parameters of the River Management Board. This system is being followed all over the country for water management. If it were not in place Tamil Nadu would not have received Cauvery water also," he told reporters here.

On July 18, Tamil Nadu government had moved the Supreme Courtto restrain Andhra Pradesh from building check dams or raising theheight of present check dams across Palar river.

Earlier this month, Jayalalithaa had strongly protested over Andhra Pradesh raising the height of a check dam from five to12 feet at Perumballam.

She had written to her Andhra Pradesh counterpart Chandrababu Naidu,urging him to bring down the check dam's height toits original 12 feet and not store additional water in it.

She had said that the dam at Perumballam village across Palar in Chithoor district near the Andhra Pradesh-Tamil Nadu border is on an inter-state river covered under the Madras-Mysore Agreement of 1892.

Asked about the current crisis in Kashmir, Chowdary said the issue had already been discussed by the Prime Minister with all parties and a solution would be found soon.

The MoS was here to release a Technology Road map on Manufacturing (Technology Vision 2035).

"I don't think so," he said when asked if continuation of his party TDP in NDA was linked to grant of special status to Andhra Pradesh.

On P V Sindhu winning the silver medal in Olympics, Chowdary, who also hails from Vijayawada, said it was the 70th Independence Day gift given by her to the nation.

"However, I am very much disappointed for her missing the gold," he said.

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The Taliban seized a district today in the northeastern Kunduz province, where the insurgents briefly overran the provincial capital last year before being driven out by a counteroffensive, an official said.

Mohammadullah Bahej, spokesman for the provincial police chief, said the insurgents launched attacks from different directions on the district headquarters in Khan Abad.

He says security forces are planning an operation to retake the area. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed that the fighters captured the entire district along with weapons and military vehicles.

Mohammad Yusouf Ayubi, head of the Kunduz provincial council, said hundreds of civilians have fled the fighting and warned that "if the central government does not pay attention to Kunduz, the Taliban will overrun Kunduz city as they did last year."



Afghan security forces are currently battling the Taliban in at least 15 of the country's 34 provinces, according to the Defense Ministry.

In Kunduz the insurgents are threatening areas near the provincial capital of the same name. The Taliban seized a district in the northern Baghlan province last week, and heavy fighting is underway in the southern Helmand and eastern Nangarhar provinces.

In the capital, meanwhile, a soldier was killed early Saturday by a sticky bomb placed on his vehicle, Kabul police said.

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Supreme Court judge Justice R K Agarwal today said collection of tax is necessary to meet the needs of welfare schemes as well as to provide facilities of the Centre in a developing country like India.

Inaugurating a two-day National Tax Conference here, Justice Agarwal said tax practitioners have an important role in tax collection and function as a chain between tax payers and tax officials to ensure that tax payers pay their due taxes as per law and within a stipulated timeframe.

"They (tax practitioners) are a link between tax payers and tax officials to ensure that tax payers should pay their due taxes as per law and within a stipulated timeframe," he said.

Special Guest on the occasion, Vinod Poddar, Advocate General of Jharkhand, advised that tax practitioners should have thorough knowledge on the subject and should suggest clients properly so that there should not be any unnecessary burden on them.

National President of All India Federation of Tax Practitioners, Dr M V K Murthy regretted over increasing number of pending cases in the country and advocated that efforts should be made to fill up vacant posts in Supreme Court and High Courts for fast disposal of the cases.

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Actor Tom Holland surprised children at an Atlanta hospital dressed up as Spider-Man.

The 20-year-old actor, who will reprise his role as the Marvel superhero in "Spider-Man: Homecoming", was inspired after he surprised ailing youngsters at Egleston Children's Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, reported Female First.

Alongside a picture of himself meeting a patient, he wrote on Instagram, "Meeting you all today was such a wonderful experience and you're all such little inspirations. We're proud of you and we love and we hope to be back soon and thank you for having us Egleston Children's hospital. (sic)"



Holland was joined by his co-star Jacob Batalon, who portrays Ned Leeds in the forthcoming movie, who was also thrilled to put a smile on the children's faces.

Sharing a photo of Holland cradling a baby, he wrote, "It was amazing to meet the kids today. They inspire us and their smiles are brighter than the sun. We love you (sic)."



Holland follows in the footsteps of fellow actor Johnny Depp, who is known to turn up unannounced at hospitals dressed as his "Pirates of the Caribbean" alter-ego, Captain Jack Sparrow.

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The transport organisations, ferrying essential supplies in Jammu and Kashmir, today began an "indefinite strike" and halt supply of commodities in the state including to security forces alleging attacks on their trucks in the Valley.

"From today onwards we have decided to proceed on an indefinite strike across the state," President of All Jammu and Kashmir Truck Drivers and Conductors Union, Kharudin Wani, said.

The All Jammu and Kashmir Oil Tankers Association too has decided to call for an indefinite strike, stating that 14 oil tankers were attacked and damaged in Kashmir.

The Transport association has also decided to stop supply to the security establishments including Kashmir, Jammu and Ladakh region. The strike would threaten oil supplies to the Siachen glacier.

This is for the first timetruckers and oil tankers have decided to stop essential supplies of security forces in Jammu and Kashmir.

"14 of our tankers were damaged by the stone-pelting mob and two of our drivers were seriously injured in the attack," President of the All Jammu and Kashmir Oil Tankers Association, Anan Sharma, claimed.

He said that the oil supply including, petrol, diesel and kerosene would be stopped which would affect all the petrol stations across the state.

"We have had enough, for the past 40 days we have been doing our bit, but we have become easy targets, we have time and again appealed to the authorities to provide security to our drivers, but now we have decided to proceed on with the strike," Sharma said.

There are around 1800 oil tankers in Jammu and Kashmir which supply fuel to various petrol pumps and security establishments across the state.

The transport union presidents say that they will call off their strike only when the government agrees to provide security to them.

"We will resume our services only after the government provides security to our drivers, free treatment to those injured and compensation to the tankers and trucks damaged by the stone pelting mob in Kashmir," he said.

Yesterday, the Chamber of Commerce and Industries Jammu (CCIJ) decided to defer their Jammu Bandh call indefinitely after it did not get support from other quarters.

Several political, religious and business associations had decided against extending their support to the Bandh call given by the CCIJ.

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A little-known foreign policy adviser of Donald Trump had praised Russian President Vladimir Putin during a meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi had with US experts and think tanks here in June, according to a media report.

Such a meeting between Modi and top American foreign policy experts and think tanks representing both the Clinton and Trump Campaigns was held at the Blair House when the Prime Minister visited Washington DC in June.

According to The Washington Post, which reported about this of-the-record meeting earlier this month, such a remark by a US foreign policy expert in a meeting with a foreign leader stunned those present at the Blair House.

"In early June, a little-known adviser to Donald Trump stunned a gathering of high-powered Washington foreign policy experts meeting with the visiting prime minister of India, going off topic with effusive praise for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Trump," the daily said.

"The adviser, Carter Page, hailed Putin as stronger and more reliable than President (Barack) Obama, according to three people who were present at the closed-door meeting at Blair House -- and then touted the positive effect a Trump presidency would have on US-Russia relations," it said.

A month later, Page dumbfounded foreign policy experts again by giving another speech harshly critical of US policy -- this time in Moscow, the daily said.

The Clinton Campaign yesterday used 'The Post' story to allege that members of the Trump campaign have connections with the Putin regime in Russia.

"Carter Page, Trump's pro-Putin foreign policy adviser, built his career on deals with Russia's state owned gas company, Gazprom, and travelled to Moscow just last month," the Clinton Campaign alleged in a lengthy statement issued after the Trump Campaign chairman Paul Manafort resigned amid reports of his alleged links with pro-Russia elements in Ukraine.

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Aiming to make a dent in the support base of his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has urged the African-American community, which had steadfastly backed the former in primaries, to join his campaign for a "better future".

"Tonight, I am asking for the vote of every African-American citizen in this country who wants a better future," Trump yesterday said at an election rally in Michigan during which he alleged that Clinton has done "nothing for them".

"No group in America has been more harmed by Hillary Clinton's policies than African-Americans. If Hillary Clinton's goal was to inflict pain on the African-American community, she couldn't have done a better job," Trump said.

Latest polls suggests that Clinton has support of over 90 per cent of African-Americans, while Trump has little or negligible support in the large community where unemployment rate is very high and so is poverty.

"Look at how much African-American communities are suffering from democratic control. To those I say the follow, what do you have to lose by trying something new like Trump? What do you have to lose?" he asked amidst huge applause from the audience.

"Look, what do you have to lose? You live in your poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs, 58 per cent of your youth is unemployed, what the hell do you have to lose? And at the end of four years, I guarantee you, that I will get over 95 per cent of the African-American vote, I promise you; because I will produce for the African-Americans," Trump said.

The Clinton campaign was quick to criticise Trump over his alleged past history against the community.

"Donald Trump asks what the African-American community has to lose by voting for him. The answer is everything from a man who questions the citizenship of the first African-American President, courts white supremacists, and has been sued for housing discrimination against communities of colour," said Hillary for America Director of State Campaigns and Political Engagement Marlon Marshall.

"Trump painting the entire community as living in poverty with no jobs continues to show he is completely out of touch with the African American community," Marshall said.

In his speech, Trump alleged that the Democrats have just taken advantage of their votes. "And once the election's over, they go back to their palaces in Washington and, you know what, they do nothing for you, just remember it," he said.

"So you have nothing to lose, one thing we know for sure is that if you keep voting for the same people, you will keep getting the same, exactly, the same result. My administration will go to work for you as no one has ever done before - we will work. We will bring back jobs. We will work," he insisted.

"By contrast, the one thing every item in Hillary Clinton's agenda has in common is that it takes jobs and opportunities away from African-American workers. It takes jobs away from all workers, because your companies are leaving Michigan, your companies are leaving every single state in our union. They are going to Mexico; they're going everywhere but here," Trump noted.

"Hillary Clinton supports open borders, which means many things, but it means people pour in and take your jobs, whether you like it or don't like it, they take your jobs. Her fierce opposition to school choice; you need choice. You have to get your children into good schools. You do that through competition. You need choice," he said.

Trump said America must reject the bigotry of Hillary Clinton, who sees communities of colour only as votes, not as human beings worthy of a better future.

"Hillary Clinton would rather provide a job to a refugee from overseas, than to give that job to unemployed African-American youth in cities like Detroit, who have become refugees in their own country," he said.

"It's time to get our country back to work and that includes an all-out effort to help young African-Americans get the good paying jobs that they deserve," Trump said.
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim vowed today Ankara would play a "more active" role in the next six months in efforts to solve the five-year Syrian civil war.

Yildirim -- whose foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, made a surprise visit to Iran this week -- said Ankara will step up efforts to reduce "instability" in the region.

"We say the bloodshed needs to stop. Babies, children, innocent people should not die. That's why Turkey will be more active in trying to stop the danger getting worse in the next six months, compared with before," Yildirim told foreign reporters in Istanbul.

Yildirim said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad can remain temporarily during a transition period as "he is one of the actors today no matter whether we like it or not".

But the premier stressed that Assad has no role to play in Syria's future.

"We believe that the PKK, Daesh and Assad should not be in the future of Syria," he added, referring to the Syrian Kurds and the Islamic State group in the war-torn country.

Yildirim said it was "out of the question" for Turkey to talk with the Syrian leader, and said regional countries Turkey and Iran as well as Russia and the United States must work toward a solution in Syria.

"That is our objective. We are not pessimistic. We have even left it late. Therefore, as Turkey, we will work more because the instability there pains us."



Turkey is on the frontline of fallout from the civil war, hosting over 2.7 million Syrian refugees at a cost of USD 12 billion (10.6 billion euros), Ankara says.

After Syrian regime jets pounded US-backed Kurdish forces in northeastern Syria for a second day yesterday, the Turkish premier said Damascus understood that Kurds in northern Syria have become a threat.

"This is a new situation... It is clear that the (Syrian) regime has understood the structure Kurds are trying to form in the north (of Syria) has started to become a threat for Syria too," he added, referring to the Syrian Kurds' bid to join up regions under their control.

Turkey is opposed to Syria's division along ethnic lines and the future government should not be based on an ethnic group and instead all groups including Arabs, Kurds and Alawites should be represented, Yildirim noted.

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A conference on innovation and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) pertaining to the information and communication technologies (ICT) kicked off here today.

The two-day international conference is being organized by Jindal Initiative on Research in IP and Competition (JIRICO) and Jindal Global Law School (JGLS) of O P Jindal Global University.

As a run-up to the global conference, a pre-conference interaction was held between academicians,legal practitioners, lawmakers and industry experts at the Taj Mahal Hotel.

M V Rajeev Gowda, Rajya Sabha member and adjunct faculty of IIM Banglore, chaired a panel discussion yesterday.

"The current government is quite focused in this direction and has come up with a national IPR policy, but that's not enough. We need a research-favorable culture in institutions and an ecosystem where innovative start-ups can flourish," Gowda said.

"We need a proper IPR framework, transparent legal systems and a supportive policy environment. And most importantly, an innovation culture that abstains from plagiarism and shortcuts," he added.

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Odisha government has alleged that some vital points raised by it at the July tripatite meeting in New Delhi over Mahanadi river water were missing in the minutes.

"Some of the views of the Government of Odisha as presented in the said meeting and some points mentioned by OSD, MoWR, RD & GR who chaired the meeting have not been incorporated properly in the minutes," secretary to the water resources department P K Jena wrote to the under secretary to the union ministry of water resources, river development and Ganga rejuvenation.

In his letter Jena said, "Therefore, it is requested that the points mentioned by the Odisha govenrment may kindly be included and the revised minutes of the meeting be issued without diluting the same."



The letter was sent yesterday and released to the press today.

Apart from Jena, Odisha Chief Secretary A P Padhi too attended the joint meeting chaired by secretary of MoWR at New Delhi on July 29, 2016. The senior officials of Chhattishgarh government also attended the meeting.

The meeting was held in the backdrop of Odisha's allegation that Chhattishgarh government had been unilaterally constructing several projects on upstream of Mahanadi.

"Our chief secretary had demanded that the master plan of Chhattishgarh government should be shared with Odisha government. In that master plan, Chhattisgarh had plans to use 88 per cent of Mahanadi water. However, the information on the master plan of Chhattisgarh is missing in the minute book of the tripartite meet," Jena pointed out.

"We had thought that since the chief secretary had demanded that the report be shared with us, the matter will be mentioned in the minutes. Surprisingly, there is no mention about our demand," Jena said, adding that the Odisha government had also objected to Kelo dam project on Mahanadi.

"We had also raised an objection over a meeting of technical advisory committee of the Central Water Commission (CWC) not being convened to discuss Mahanadi water issue.

"But the minute book has no mention of the objections raised by Odisha on the Mahanadi row during the tripartite meeting in Delhi," he said.

Odisha government had also apprised the CWC on the adverse impact of Arpa-Bhaisajher project undertaken by the Chhattisgarh government and seven other integrated projects. "Nothing is mentioned about the four vital issues raised by Odisha," he said.

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The West Bengal unit of Congress was today left red faced after a controversial comment made by Rajiv Gandhi following 1984 anti-Sikh riots was posted from its the official twitter handle on the former prime minister's birth anniversary, but the party claimed its account was hacked.

The tweet on WBPCC twitter handle said, "When a big tree falls, the ground shakes #BharatRatnaRajivGandhi." It was later removed by WBPCC.

Rajiv Gandhi had made the comment following the anti-Sikh riots which broke out after the assassination of Indira Gandhi in 1984. The comment had created a major controversy.

When contacted, the state Congress President Adhir Chowdhury claimed that the official twitter handle has been hacked and the comment has been posted with an intention to malign Rajiv Gandhi and Congress.

"This tweet was not posted by anyone from the Congress who handles our twitter account. Somebody hacked the official twitter handle and posted this tweet. This is being done with the intention to malign Rajiv Gandhi and Congress.

"We condemn such attempts and we have decided to lodge a police complaint against hacking of our account," state Congress president Adhir Chowdhury told PTI.

The nation today remembered Rajiv Gandhi on his 72nd birth anniversary with President Pranab Mukherjee and other leaders paying tributes to him at his memorial in New Delhi.

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A woman engineer was battling for life after being thrown from a running train here by some miscreants when she resisted their attempt to rob her bag, police said today.

Jagrati Sharma was chasing the bag-snatchers who pushed her out of the compartment of the Lucknow-Kathgodam express late last night when the train had started moving from Bhojipura railway station here, they said.

The train was stopped by passengers by pulling the chain and the victim was rushed to Bhojipura Primary Health Centre by the RPF, from where she was taken to SRMS Medical College hospital, Bareilly, in a serious condition.

The miscreants, however, escaped.

The victim is a resident of Shastri Nagar locality here and was on her way to Rudrapur (Uttarakhand) where she works in a company, police added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Women parliamentarians should proactively pursue with their governments issues related to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a South African leader Galina Karelova said at a BRICS meet here.

"It is our responsibility to interrogate intentions, efforts and progress made by our governments in achieving the 17 SDGs and their 169 target areas," Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces, South Africa, Karelova, said today.

The two-day meeting of the BRICS Women's Parliamentarian Forum started here today in which 42 delegates from member countries are participating.

She said that the participation of women in public life has increased in South Africa and in Africa in general.

"Despite this, women are still not adequately represented in politics, economy and other important centres of power- security, financial, energy and market.

Until an acceptable representation is achieved at the strategic decision making structures, the contributions towards the decision taken will not reflect the interest of the people.

"If we really wanted to, we could argue about the legitimacy of decisions that are taken without consulting the majority of people," she said.

Karelova, the head of the South African delegation at the Forum, said that eradicating poverty in all its forms is only possible with a much more complex transformation of the entire global economy, the environment and social structures.

She insisted a closer cooperation between the executive and legislature in achieving the targets set by the world leaders.

She also suggested that the member countries should undertaken programme to educate the ordinary citizen of BRICS nations on what SDGs are and what they intend to achieve.

Karelova said that parliament has a crucial role to play in contributing to uplifting the status of women.

Narrating the initiatives taken by the South African Parliament, she said it has taken steps in support of SDGs through daily parliamentarian work.

"Both select committee, the portfolio committee and the women multi-party caucus in both Houses dealing with women matters are directed to fast track issues that have a bearing in making sure that the SDGs work," she said.

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According to a regulatory filing, JPMorgan will collect the cash payment from the estate of Washington Mutual Bank, for which the FDIC acts as receiver.

In exchange, JP Morgan, the largest U.S. bank by assets said it will drop its more than $1 billion in claims related to the Washington Mutual (WaMu) purchase.

JPMorgan also said Deutsche Bank, the trustee overseeing 99 trusts holding residential mortgage securities backed by soured WaMu home loans, will have a claim against the estate.

JPMorgan had filed lawsuits seeking to force the FDIC to indemnify it on claims relating to the WaMu purchase, in which it also assumed some of the thrift's liabilities.

Deutsche Bank had filed a $10 billion lawsuit against the FDIC and JPMorgan over losses stemming from alleged defects in WaMu's mortgage underwriting.

JPMorgan said the settlement requires court approval, and would end four WaMu-related lawsuits involving the bank and the FDIC, and pending in the federal court in Washington, D.C.

The bank and the FDIC have long fought over who is liable to investors for claims arising from Seattle-based WaMu's collapse.

WaMu had been nation's largest savings and loan before the FDIC seized it on Sept. 25, 2008 and sold its banking operations to New York-based JPMorgan for about $1.9 billion. The parent holding company of WaMu filed for bankruptcy protection.

FDIC spokesman David Barr and Deutsche Bank spokeswoman Oksana Poltavets declined to comment. The FDIC's full name is the .

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

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Javelina alumni to be honored

The Javelina Alumni Association at Texas A&M University-Kingsville announced five university alumni will be honored at the school's annual Homecoming celebration in October, officials said.

Four have been named Distinguished Alumni for 2016 and one has been named the year's Rising Star. Distinguished Alumni Awards are presented to individuals whose personal and professional accomplishments have brought honor and prestige to the university, officials said. The Rising Star Award recognizes graduates of Texas A&M-Kingsville who have experienced professional success and who are within 15 years of their graduation.

Larry R. Busby, Class of 1969, George West; Dr. Jose Angel Gutierrez, Class of 1966, Arlington; Harold Leroy Hees, Class of 1961, Aransas Pass; and Alvaro Hinojosa, Class of 1977, San Antonio, will receive the Distinguished Alumni Award. The Rising Star is Veronica Ancona, Class of 2005, Weslaco.

The Javelina Alumni Association's annual Distinguished Alumni Awards, presented by IBC Bank, will be at 5:30 p.m. Oct. 14 in the Grand Ballrooms of the Memorial Student Union Building.

Del Mar students receive USDA grants

STEP UP to USDA Career Success grants were awarded to Del Mar College students, officials said. Four years ago the college was awarded over $350,000 as part of the original Science, Technology and Environmental Programs for Undergraduate Preparation for United States Department of Agriculture Career Success with lead funds awarded to Texas A&M University-Kingsville.

Since then, Del Mar College has supported summer internships. However, the college also awarded $19,000 in scholarships so that Natural Sciences Department students could continue their studies this summer, officials said.

The 14 students who received varying STEP UP to USDA Career Success scholarships to attend summer courses include Taylor Cummings, chemistry major; Andrew De La Paz, geographic information systems (GIS) major; Amanda Escobar, chemistry major; Andrew Holstad, GIS major; Lannel Mendez, chemistry major; Reavelyn Pray, biotechnology major; Reynaldo Rivera, GIS major; Dalilah Rodriguez, GIS major; Monica Ruiz, chemistry major; Amanda Siler, chemistry major; Christina Stehno, chemistry major; Danielle Tamez, biology major; Andrea Taylor, chemistry major; and Samuel Trevino, chemistry major.

Dean of Arts and Sciences Jonda Halcomb was named a co-project director of the grant, along with representatives from other institutions that include South Texas College, Texas State Technical College and the University of Texas Pan American (UT Pan Am).

STEP UP to USDA Career Success engages students in experiential learning and focuses efforts on recruiting and retaining underrepresented students of South Texas for careers with USDA agencies. STEP UP focuses on creating a seamless transition for students completing associates degrees from the three community colleges toward earning baccalaureate degrees in the agricultural and biological sciences from A&M-K or UT Pan Am.

Students named to honor roll, dean's list

About 250 University of Dallas students, including Corpus Christi residents Carlos DeLaRosa and Christian Villegas were named to the spring 2016 honor roll for earning a semester grade-point average of between 3.0 and 3.49.

Also, more than 400 University of Dallas students, including Corpus Christi resident Brian McCutchon and Benavides resident Raymond Pendleton, were named to the spring 2016 dean's list for earning a grade-point average of 3.5 or higher.

A&M-CC, NASA to work together

For the first time, the Lone Star UAS Center of Excellence and Innovation at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi will be able to monitor a NASA unmanned aircraft system flight as it is happening across the country, officials said. A recently completed agreement between the A&M-CC center and the NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, will create new opportunities for university researchers to directly participate in NASA's secure information network and exchange unmanned aircraft system flight data.

The A&M-CC center has been working under a funded contract with NASA to document and improve information security practices as well as secure an Interconnection Security Agreement. The agreement establishes important guidelines for connecting information technology systems that are owned by two different organizations. This agreement will also open doors for continued research partnerships in unmanned aircraft and data simulation with the NASA Ames Research Center.

As an example, NASA and the A&M-CC center could conduct unmanned aircraft system flights across the country from each other, but both flight trajectories could be displayed in real-time on a moving map in The A&M-CC center's Mission Control Center. The agreement is the first step toward the center achieving a strong connection to NASA's network through an Authority to Operate. That permission would benefit researchers across the university by opening new ways of collaborating with NASA and other federal agencies. It would also give University researchers an advantage in competing for grants and other opportunities.

The A&M-CC center has prioritized connecting its mission control center to NASA since initial discussions highlighted the possible opportunities for collaboration within the two networks. TheA&M-CC center, one of the six federally designated unmanned aircraft system test sites around the nation, has the only mission control center with software that allows for transmission and manipulation of unmanned aircraft system data. As such, they are planning for the safe integration of unmanned aircraft into the national airspace.

The Island University's Division of Information Technology was instrumental in the network enhancements. Lionel Cassin, information security officer, led efforts to develop secure procedures for the A&M-CC center and said this process would benefit information security across campus.

Compiled by Natalia Contreras
Paul Iverson/Special to the Caller-Times John Valls (from left), scholarship recipient Joseph Martinez, Rosie Gonzalez Collin and Dr. Gilda Ramirez

SHARE John Valls (from left), scholarship recipient Kristen Moore, Rosie Gonzalez Collin and Dr. Gilda Ramirez Paul Iverson/Special to the Caller-Times Kristen Moore (left) and her mom, Denise Moore Paul Iverson/Special to the Caller-Times Richard Martinez (from left), Nora Martinez, scholarship recipient Joseph Martinez and Dr. Gilda Ramirez Paul Iverson/Special to the Caller-Times Scholarship recipient Victoria Morales (center) and her parents Albert Morales and Connie Morales

Celebrating the future was the order of the day at a reception for 10 Mano A Mano Empowerment Scholarship recipients Aug. 10 at Corpus Christi Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in Heritage Park.

The chamber and Bridge Credit Union co-sponsor the scholarships in partnership with Del Mar College, TExas A&M University-Corpus Christi and Texas A&M University-Kingsville. The sponsors provide $1,000 to each recipient, which is matched by the college and universities.

This year's scholarship recipients include Alicia Bejaran, Caitlin Bautista, Ruth Cruz, Katarina Euresti, Oscar Lara, Joseph Martinez, Rudy Medina, Kristen Moore, Victoria Morales and Briana Perez.

Hispanic chamber officials said the scholarship program will continue after the chamber joins with the Corpus Christi Chamber of Commerce in September to form the United Corpus Christi Chamber of Commerce.

Staff reports
SHARE GEORGE TULEY/SPECIAL TO THE CALLER-TIMES Before retired Army Sgt. Christopher Lloyd threw out the first pitch at the Hooks game Saturday, Aug. 13, 2016, the veteran, who received a Purple Heart, posed with his service dog Daisy at Whataburger Field in Corpus Christi. GEORGE TULEY/SPECIAL TO THE CALLER-TIMES Retired Army Sgt. Christopher Lloyd throws out the first pitch as a Chevrolet Everyday Hero on Saturday, Aug. 13, 2016, at Whataburger Field in Corpus Christi. GEORGE TULEY/SPECIAL TO THE CALLER-TIMES Retired Army Sgt. Christopher Lloyd reacts after being told that he was receiving a new Chevrolet Cruz because he was the Chevrolet Everyday Hero on Saturday, Aug. 13, 2016, at Whataburger Field in Corpus Christi. GEORGE TULEY/SPECIAL TO THE CALLER-TIMES When retired Army Sgt. Christopher Lloyd (right) understood he was being given a free Chevrolet Cruze, he protested that he didn't need it but Phil Neessen (from left), president of the Coastal Bend Chevrolet Dealers, and Doug Bailess, with the Military Warriors Support Foundation, convinced him to take the car on Saturday, Aug. 13, 2016, at Whataburger Field in Corpus Christi.

Retired Army Sgt. Christopher Lloyd thought the extent of the honor he would receive at the Aug. 13 Hooks game as the Chevrolet Everyday Hero would be the special duty of throwing out the first pitch and hearing the crowd cheer for him in thanks for his military service as part of the Hooks' Chevy night. Instead, he got the surprise of a lifetime when the Coastal Bend Chevy Dealers and Military Warriors Support Foundation gifted him with a payment-free 2016 Chevrolet Cruze.

After Lloyd threw out the first pitch with his service dog Daisy and Doug Bailess from the Military Warrior Support Foundation by his side, Phil Neessen, president of Coastal Bend Chevy Dealers, met him on the mound with a giant cardboard car key, while the Hooks announcer told the crowd Lloyd would be getting the Cruze.

Lloyd was so surprised by the new car that he initially tried to turn it down, saying he didn't need it. Once it sank in, Lloyd hugged Bailess, Neessen and other Chevrolet employees who had joined him at the mound.

"Everybody who had a hand in this event, the spectators, the Military Warriors (Support Foundation), Chevy, everybody, just, thank you for what you've done," Lloyd said later in an interview. "It could help me out now, especially with (my) car kinda going down hill."

Lloyd also thanked everyone for supporting the military.

Lloyd, a Connecticut native, was chosen to be recognized because he served in Afghanistan and was wounded in combat while supporting combat operations. He received several military honors, including the Purple Heart for being wounded in combat. Now that he is retired from the Army, he plans to spend the rest of his life giving back to other veterans.

Staff reports
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Manuel Gonzalez (left) and Eddie Zapata were close friends. When Zapata died of a heart attack, Gonzalez received his kidney.

SHARE CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Eddie Zapata's lungs, liver and second kidney saved three other people.

By Fares Sabawi of the Caller-Times

Eddie Zapata and his friends went to the beach Memorial Day weekend. Manuel Gonzalez III would have been there, but chronic kidney disease left him feeling fatigued.

Gonzalez, 62, has battled the disease for the past decade. Zapata expressed a desire to help him while at the beach, Gonzalez learned later."(Eddie) said 'Man, that's sad. I wish there was something I could do,' " Gonzalez said.

Zapata died in Corpus Christi nearly two months later on July 20 at age 50. It was in death that Zapata fulfilled the wish he made at the beach. His kidney went to Gonzalez.

Three other people received his lungs, liver and other kidney.

Eddie Zapata's son Alex Zapata was devastated when he lost his father to a heart attack. The 25-year-old said he prayed to God for a miracle, for his dad to recover.

While Eddie Zapata ultimately succumbed to the blockage in his heart, his son said God still granted him a miracle.

"He answered my prayers," Alex Zapata said.

Alex Zapata and his younger brother, Derrick, were approached by Southwest Transplant Alliance representatives about possibly donating their father's organs. The eldest son was hesitant to agree, but his little brother talked him into it.

"Once you pass away, why wouldn't you seize that opportunity to help out other people?" Derrick Zapata asked.

When the brothers agreed to the transplant alliance's proposal, their uncle Arnold Zapata thought of Gonzalez. Without hesitation, his kids agreed.

"It was Manuel's kidney before any of us even knew it was his," Alex Zapata said.

Gonzalez had learned the day before Eddie Zapata died that he would likely have to begin regular dialysis because his disease had progressed.

His need for a transplant had grown more serious.

In what felt like a stroke of destiny, Zapata's organs met the requirements for transplant despite only having a one-percent chance of viability because of his cause of death, transplant officials told Alex Zapata. Then, his tissue type tested as compatible with Gonzalez's.

Still, there were more hurdles to clear.

Doctors originally told Alex Zapata that the kidney transplant to Gonzalez wouldn't happen. Gonzalez said doctors found a spot on his left kidney that they thought could be cancer.

More extensive tests eventually ruled cancer out, and Gonzalez was told the transplant would happen after all. That's when he called Alex Zapata and left him a voicemail.

"Doctor just walked in and told me we're a match ... I just wanted to thank you and give you my blessings," Gonzalez said in the message. "Tonight I'm going to get Eddie's kidney. I'm going to change my name to Zapata ... Zapata-Gonzalez. Thank you for giving the gift of life to me brother. God bless you."

Gonzalez and his wife Darline heard that voicemail on Thursday for the first time since he left it before his transplant. Both were brought to tears.

"I don't even remember calling," Manuel Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez spent the past few weeks recovering from the surgery. The transplant has made the bond between Gonzalez and the Zapata family closer.

"The beauty is that now we're family," Darline Gonzalez said.

To pay for the expenses for Eddie Zapata's funeral and to honor his love for barbecue, the family is selling $7 barbecue plates Saturday at the Corpus Christi Professional Firefighters Association building at 6014 Ayers St.

Twitter: @Caller_Fares

if you go

What: BBQ plate sale for Eddie Zapata

When: 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday

Where: Corpus Christi Professional Firefighters Association building, 6014 Ayers St.

Cost: $7

how to become an organ donor

To register by visiting www.donatelifetexas.org or indicate that you would like to be an organ donor when applying or renewing your driver licence at any Texas Department of Public Safety office.

Facts about organ donation

125,000

men, women and children who are waiting for organ transplant

80

percent of people on list who need a kidney*

13

percent of people on list who need a liver*

8,000

patients who die waiting for an organ transplant

*a living donor is an option for these patients

Source: DonateLifeTexas.org
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Due process is due process and the accused is innocent until proven otherwise. That said, enough is known about the incident between former Corpus Christi Hooks player Danry Vasquez and his teenage fiancee  thanks to video and statements  to make some informed observations about a dangerous situation.

The video captures an incident of physical abuse  Vasquez backhanding his fiancee repeatedly, at one point causing her to fall down some stairs at Whataburger Field. A more complete picture emerged from the statements made in court by the victim in desperate defense of her attacker  he didn't mean it, he's sorry, he loves me, I feel safe with him, I miss him, I know he was frustrated, it won't happen again.

Her words are Victimology 101  classic symptoms of an abusive relationship. They contradict the notion that the incident on video was a one-time thing.

Enough has been seen and heard already to conclude that she needs to be rescued and Vasquez needs an intervention. The pattern she fits is of an individual who won't rescue herself. And the pattern she and Vasquez fit as a couple suggests that her situation will only worsen. It's a safe assumption that on some level, Vasquez doesn't want to be the cause of that.

Vasquez has lost his job and probably his career because of his actions caught on video. The Houston Astros organization did the right thing in deciding to release him. The Astros' message  that this is the consequence of that behavior  needed to be sent.

But, according to Victimology 101 and Abuser 101, we can expect Vasquez to blame the victim and the victim to blame herself. The loss of a livelihood that is the stuff of boyhood dreams is a stressor that didn't exist in the relationship previously.

What did exist previously was her dependence on him  another classic symptom of Victimology 101. She is 19, a Venezuelan immigrant with limited options. He is her provider. Her attachment to him is a survival mechanism. It's one of the main reasons victims stay with abusers  another being the legitimate fear that the abuser will come after the victim. With such simple, well-established answers, it's a wonder that so many people persist in asking why a victim doesn't just leave  and why they persist in blaming victims for not having done so.

The municipal judge hearing the case, Young Min Burkett, did the right thing in denying the victim's request to modify the conditions of a 31-day protective order keeping the couple separated. This is not a private matter between Vasquez and his fiancee. It became a communitywide concern when the first blow landed. The victim's own assessment of what's in her best interest is unreliable. The judge acted in the best interest of the victim, Vasquez and the community. It reinforces that this kind of behavior isn't acceptable, anywhere.

The conduct of two court security guards did not reflect nearly so well on the community or themselves. One showed off an autograph she obtained from Vasquez and the other complained that she should have obtained one for her, too. It's vexing, to say the least, that they see Vasquez as a celebrity first and an abuser second, if at all.

The priority in this case should be the victim's safety. If that seems too obvious to be in need of pointing out, consider the behavior of the security guards. We're doing our small part for the victim and, frankly, for Vasquez by calling attention to the situation. We encourage law enforcement, the prosecution and social services in whatever they in coordination can do. And we encourage everyone else to recognize that an uncooperative victim needs their compassion, not their condemnation.
Friday, August 19, 2016 at 9:27PM

Screencap: Ubergizmo

In the coming months and year, Google will slowly be phasing out support for Chrome apps on other platforms outside of its own Chrome OS platform. This means, Windows, Mac, and Linux users will lose access to them. By the second half of 2017, these apps wont show up on the Chrome Web Store. Newly-published apps coming out at the latter part of this year will only be available on Chrome OS. By early 2018, users can no longer load these apps. What will be remaining there are the extensions and themes.

And while it seems like a big deal, it would seem only a small number of users are using Chrome apps. According to Google, Today, approximately 1 percent of users on Windows, Mac, and Linux actively use Chrome packaged apps, and most hosted apps are already implemented as regular web apps. And with the advancements in open web, Google feels like there isnt a real need for these apps. Google is encouraging developers to migrate their Chrome apps to the web or help out Google with new APIs to fill in gaps left by the Chrome apps.
The minister and the operator are complaining about the way Icasa invited applications for spectrum licences for wireless broadband services.

Earlier in August the minister, Siyabonga Cwele, said he was suing Icasa was usurping the governments policy-making role by calling the auction without consulting him.

Now reports from South Africa say Telkom is also considering legal action.

Local media have quoted Telkom spokeswoman Jacqui OSullivan saying that Telkom has some fundamentally different views about the approach Icasa has adopted on the matter of spectrum.

She added, according to Business Day: We are currently considering the legal merits of Icasas approach and are exploring our own potential legal action with regard to the Icasa process.

Cwele, who is Minister of Postal and Telecommunications Services, complained in early August that the government was preparing a white paper on open access spectrum, but Icasa decided to call an auction on 700MHz, 800MHz and 2.6GHz bands without consultation and prior notification to government as the policy maker.

The minister added: A further concern is the haste with which Icasa is proceeding to dispose of the spectrum given that this spectrum will not be immediately available.
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.
Hard as it may be to imagine now, with its extensive lineup, a quarter century ago Mercedes didnt offer any four-seat convertibles  just the solitary two-seat SL-Class roadster  and hadnt in some 20 years.



But the German automaker rectified that with the launch of the original E-Class Cabriolet, which now celebrates its 25th anniversary.

Though it wouldnt adopt the E-Class name for another two years, Mercedes launched the 124-series cabrio at the 1991 Frankfurt Motor Show, ending a two-decade gap that had seen the previous 280 SE Cabriolet end production in 1971.

The 124-series E-Class Cabriolet remained in production until 1997, by which point Mercedes had built 33,952 examples: 15,380 with four-cylinder engines and 18,572 with six  including the rare E36 AMG convertible, of which only 68 examples were made, before Daimler took controlling interest in the Affalterbach-based performance workshop in 1999.

Mercedes replaced the E-Class Cabriolet with the CLK in 97, which lasted for two generations before the model line was reabsorbed into the E-Class family in 2009 with the current model. By now the E-Class is available in four bodystyles and the Mercedes convertible lineup is bolstered by drop-top versions of the C-Class and S-Class, as well as the SLC and SL roadsters.

Dont be surprised to see more follow as the German automaker seems bent on offering the largest array of convertibles in the industry.

Photo Gallery
You could have the missing piece of the puzzle that will help the RCMP put someone behind bars. Here is a recent crime that Central Okanagan Crime Stoppers hope you can help solve by calling our anonymous tips line at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477), visit our website at www.crimestoppers.net or text to CRIMES (274637), keyword Ktown.

CRIME: LOST RINGS

DATE: August 1, 2016

RCMP FILE: 2016-47015

Have you seen this ring set? A woman lost her wedding ring in Kalamoir Park located on Collens Hill Road in West Kelowna on August 1, 2016. Extensive searches were conducted by friends and family but the rings were not recovered. The ring is white gold with an emerald cut diamond in the centre and diamonds on either side. Two wedding bands were soldered to it.

Photo: Crime Stoppers

You can help catch these suspects and qualify for a reward by calling Crime Stoppers anonymous tips line at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477), visit our website at www.crimestoppers.net or text to CRIMES (274637), keyword Ktown.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.
Photo: Castanet Staff - File Photo

One man is in custody after a woman was apparently held against her will last weekend in Peachland.

Police were called Saturday morning to investigate a report of forcible confinement, which happened the previous evening.

The victim in the case apparently met a man through an online dating site. They had met a few times in person prior to the incident.

During the meeting Friday night, the suspect allegedly confined the woman to a vehicle and drove her around for several hours before releasing her.

She received non-life-threatening injuries during the incident.

"The ongoing police investigation followed several leads, as investigators worked tirelessly to positively identify, locate and arrest their suspect," said Const. Jesse O'Donaghey.

"On Aug. 18 at 10:28 a.m., with the assistance of Southeast District RCMP Air Services' fixed wing aircraft, the man was arrested without incident when police located him in his vehicle in Peachland."

The unidentified 36-year-old man faces charges of forcible confinement, assault and uttering threats.

He remains in custody with a court appearance expected sometime this afternoon.

The man was driving a silver 2000 Dodge Durango bearing Alberta licence plates and alleged to have travelled in the Peachland, West Kelowna, Kelowna and Lake Country areas over the course of several hours during the alleged incident.

Anyone who may have witnessed anything suspicious involving such a vehicle is asked to call Const. Denise Bendfeld of the West Kelowna RCMP General Investigations Section (GIS) at 250-768-2880.
Photo: emergency.med.ubc.ca Mills Memorial Hospital

A special investigative unit has been called in following the death of a man in Terrace from a police taser.

According to the RCMP, police received a call from a woman at about 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, who stated a man was walking towards her with an axe and that he could try to hurt himself  suggesting that the man was suicidal.

The incident occurred on the grounds of Mills Memorial Hospital in Terrace

Police attended, secured the area and attempted to negotiate with the male in an effort to de-escalate the situation, said Staff Sgt. Rob Vermeulen, E-division's senior spokesperson.

A Conducted Energy Weapon (CEW) was deployed and the male was apprehended but had suffered injuries for which immediate medical care was provided. Unfortunately, the male later died in hospital.

Police said no one else was hurt.

The Independent Investigations Office of British Columbia has been deployed to Terrace.

The scene and evidence have been secured, with the assistance of resources from North District Regional GIS, said Vermeulen.

No further information was released.
Photo: CTV

Wildfire crews are working hard to stamp out a blaze in an extreme fire zone in Chilliwack.

Two dozen firefighters are fighting the flames, which started Friday near Ryder Lake. Two helicopters and an air tanker are hitting it from the sky.

By 3 p.m., it was about one hectare in size.

This weekend is expected to be a very dangerous time for fire because of the heat and wind.

 with files from CTV Vancouver
Re: Who's paying for all of this?



The example quoted you have not provided enough information to ascertain whether or not your assumptions are correct. However, your hypothetical scenario is correct in so far as how much each child can get in Canada Child Benefit, (you can get up to $6,400 per year for each child under the age of 6 and $5,400 per year for each child aged 6-17) but it fails tell us the ages of the 11 children so we are unable to ascertain their benefit levels. Furthermore, I would question the statement that a family of 13 can live comfortably in Mississauga Ontario on $60,000 a year.



Canada has a tradition of humanitarian action; our compassion and fairness are a source of great pride.



These values are at the core of our domestic refugee protection system and our Resettlement Assistance Program. Both programs have long been praised by the United Nations Refugee Agency.



Refugees are people who have fled their countries because of a well-founded fear of persecution, and who are therefore unable to return home. Many refugees come from war-torn countries and have seen or experienced unthinkable horrors.



A refugee is different from an immigrant, in that an immigrant is a person who chooses to settle permanently in another country. Refugees are forced to flee.



Canada resettles refugees to save lives and to provide stability to those fleeing persecution who have no hope of relief. Canadas resettlement programs are respected internationally because they provide permanent residence as a long term solution.



If you have any other questions about the Canada Child Benefit, please visit (http://www.esdc.gc.ca/en/canada_child_benefit.page ) to see how our new benefit can benefit you or visit our Refugees and Asylum website to learn more about Canadas roll in resettling refugees.

Stephen Fuhr CD MP

Kelowna-Lake Country
Photo: Contributed

Residents west of Prince George are being told to be ready to run at a moment's notice.

A wildfire was reported at 1:30 p.m. in the Norman Lake area, about 30 kilometres west of the city. It's since grown significantly enough to warrant an evacuation alert.

BC Wildfire Service crews are on scene fighting the fire.

"Residents in the alert area are asked to prepare themselves in the event that an evacuation is required," says a news release from the Regional District of Fraser-Fort George.

They've been asked to gather important papers, make arrangements for pets and livestock and prepare a 72-hour emergency kit.
Transcript for CDC Telebriefing: Zika Virus Update  August 19

Press Briefing Transcript Friday, August 19, 2016, at 2 P.M. EST Audio recording media icon [MP5.6 MB] Please Note:This transcript is not edited and may contain errors.

OPERATOR: Welcome and thank you for standing by. All participants will be able to listen only until the question and answer portion of todays conference. To ask a question, please press star 1. I would now like to turn your conference over to Michelle Bonds. Miss, you may begin.

MICHELLE BONDS: Thank you, Julie. Thank you all for joining us today for the briefing on Zika in Florida. Joining us today is Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the CDC. Ill now turn the call over to Dr. Frieden.

TOM FRIEDEN: Thank you for joining us. CDC is working with the state of Florida every day to monitor the spread of Zika in real time and give updated guidance to the public as we learn more. On July 29th, we first reported local transmission of Zika in the United States. Soon after, the Florida health department identified an area in the Wynwood neighborhood of Miami where Zika was being spread by mosquitos.

CDC has been working closely with Florida public health officials to investigate these cases, monitor for new cases, and control mosquitos there as completely as possible. CDC and Florida have issued travel, testing, and other recommendations for people who traveled to or lived in the Wynwood area on or after June 15th, 2016. Thats the earliest known date that one of the people there could have been infected with the Zika virus from local mosquitos.

Although the state of Florida with CDCs assistance has mounted and continues to mount an aggressive response, the mosquitos are persistent and we wont know for at least another couple of weeks if these aggressive control measures have worked. In recent weeks the Florida health department has also identified and investigated at least four other independent instances of mosquito-borne Zika transmission in Miami-Dade County. These are individual instances and do not represent spread throughout the area, but rather, are single cases.

Over the past 24 hours, however, a new area of active Zika transmission has been identified in a section of Miami Beach. As a result, we now recommend the following. Pregnant women should avoid travel to the designated area of Miami Beach, in addition to the designated area of Wynwood, because active local transmission of Zika has been confirmed. Pregnant women and their partners living in or traveling to the designated areas should be aware of active Zika virus transmission and do everything they can to prevent mosquito bites. Those who live in or have traveled to the designated area of Miami Beach since July 14th, 2016, should be aware of active Zika virus transmission and people who have a pregnant sex partner should consistently and correctly use condoms to prevent infection when they have sex. Pregnant women and their sexual partners who are concerned about potential Zika virus exposure may also consider postponing nonessential travel to all parts of Miami-Dade County.

More broadly and not just with respect to Florida, all pregnant women anywhere in the US should be evaluated for possible Zika virus exposure during each prenatal care visit. These evaluations should include an assessment of the symptoms of Zika virus disease such as fever, rash, arthralgia, and conjunctivitis, their travel history, and their potential partners exposure to Zika virus. Women with Zika should wait at least 8 weeks after symptoms start before trying to get pregnant. Men with Zika should wait at least 6 months after symptoms start before couples try to get pregnant. And women and men without confirmed Zika who traveled to areas where Zika may be spreading should wait at least 8 weeks before trying to get pregnant. Women and men who live in or frequently travel to areas where Zika is spreading, and this includes now the two confirmed zones in Miami-Dade County, and who dont have signs and symptoms of Zika, should talk to their health care provider to inform their decisions about the timing of pregnancy.

There are undoubtedly more infections that were not aware of right now. Most people, perhaps four out of five with Zika infection, dont have any symptoms. It can take up to 2 weeks for those who do have symptoms for those symptoms to appear after infection. And investigations into local cases can take days to weeks. It is not quick or easy to determine if cases are locally acquired and if theyre related. Because of this, there may be a time lag between the spread of disease locally and the recognition of that spread. That is one reason we would advise everyone living in or traveling to Miami-Dade County to be aware that Zika could be spreading there and to enhance their efforts to avoid mosquito bites. And as indicated previously, pregnant women and their sexual partners who are concerned about Zika infection might consider postponing nonessential travel to Miami-Dade County.

We cant predict how long this will continue, but we do know that it will be difficult to control. Even for the small six-block area in the Wynwood neighborhood, it has been difficult to control the mosquitos that spread this disease. State officials continue to quickly implement effective mosquito control programs and conduct enhanced case monitoring in these areas.

Zika spreads by the movement of people. For example, by someone who goes to one area anywhere in the world where Zika is spreading and then travels to another and may be bitten by an Aedes Aegypti mosquito. That infected mosquito after about a week can bite people within about 500 feet and potentially start a new cluster.

While clusters like this are anticipated, its not an indicator that Zika is spreading throughout an area such as the county of Miami-Dade. We do understand that this is concerning, especially for pregnant women. Decisions to update our recommendations and our guidance are made on a real time basis. Based on the information that we have well continue to update the public with what we know when we know it so people can make the decisions they need to to protect their health. We also remind pregnant women that Zika continues to spread in countries around Latin America and the Caribbean and that map is updated continuously on our website.

Avoiding mosquito bites is hard. But were encouraged by the poll released today that found that many Floridians are taking steps to protect themselves. This is particularly important for pregnant women.

The bottom line here is that theres a new area of active transmission of Zika in Miami-Dade, in Miami Beach in Florida, and there have also been several other instances of Zika being spread by mosquitos which have been isolated and dont appear to have continued. Its important that pregnant women in areas that do have Aedes Aegypti mosquito presence take steps to protect themselves against mosquito bites as well as the sexual transmission of Zika. CDC continues to have an emergency response team working hand in hand with the excellent public health staff in Florida and continues to do what we can to support the staff and the state and the communities that are affected.

MICHELLE BONDS: Thank you, Dr. Frieden. Julie, we are ready for questions. Also joining Dr. Frieden in answering the questions is Dr. John Jernigan.

OPERATOR: Thank you. If you would like to ask a question please press star 1 and you will be prompted to record your first and last name. Please unmute your phone when recording your name and to withdraw your question press star 2. Our first question comes from Betsy McKay, Wall Street Journal. Your line is now open.

BETSY MCKAY: Hi, thanks very much. Dr. Frieden, I wanted to ask, you said there have been other instances. How many other possible clusters are there or have there been at this point? And then secondly, have mosquitoes tested positive in Miami-Dade or any neighboring counties, positive for Zika?

TOM FRIEDEN: So in response to your first question, there were initially two different investigations of individual cases. Both of those investigations included by the Florida health department included community surveys and did not identify any additional cases. There are two additional cases that appear to be isolated, where there does not appear to be ongoing or persistent transmission.

So we do expect that we will see occasional cases of local transmission. The way this worked in chikungunya and in dengue in Florida, were that for every nine or so one-off cases, where there was a single case of transmission that was locally mosquito borne, there was one cluster. But the vast majority of the local transmissions hit a dead end after one or two people in one household. And thats what we would anticipate seeing here. Weve now seen two instances where there is documented spread, and those are the two areas where we are urging pregnant women not to travel to and where if there are pregnant women in that area, were asking them to do everything possible to prevent mosquito bites. We are not aware of any mosquito pools that have tested positive in Miami-Dade or elsewhere for the Zika virus. Its quite difficult to find the mosquitos that specifically spread Zika, because the rate of infection seems to be fairly low, given the mosquito population size.

BETSY MCKAY: Okay. Thank you.

TOM FRIEDEN: Next question.

MICHELLE BONDS: Next question?

OPERATOR: Our next question comes from Maggie Fox with NBC News. Your line is open.

MAGGIE FOX: Thanks. I just wanted to clarify the dates. I think in the written release CDC said anyone whod been in this particular area of Miami Beach since July 14th should consider Zika. I think Dr. Frieden, I heard you say June 15th. Can you just update what that date is and can you tell us was it one person who tested positive and was there at that date or how did you come up with it, please? Thanks.

TOM FRIEDEN: So the way we do this, is we basically count back 2 weeks from the first patient for Wynwood, thats June 15th. For Miami Beach, thats July 14th. Okay?

MICHELLE BONDS: Next question, please?

TOM FRIEDEN: Next question, please.

OPERATOR: Yes. Our next question from Julie Steenhuysen with Reuters. Your line is open.

JULIE STEENHUYSEN: Yeah, hi. Thanks for taking my call. So, Dr. Frieden, in his announcements today Governor Scott was saying he requested an additional 1,000 Zika prevention kits, and he said hes repeatedly called on the federal government for additional kits and has not received them. Whats the delay on that, and also, he mentioned that he has asked for a detailed plan on how to work with FEMA. Does there need to be a declaration of a state of emergency before, what is the trigger for working with FEMA? Thanks.

TOM FRIEDEN: Thank you. First off, when I was in Florida with Governor Scott on August 4th he asked us for 10,000 Zika prevention kits. What we did was rapidly provide 10,000 products of DEET for use there. The Zika prevention kits contain many products, not all of which are necessarily useful in that context. We also advised the state that we had sent them funds, and weve sent the state of Florida more than $35 million for Zika and other emergencies to respond and that includes to purchase the other the products they might want in a Zika prevention kitovernor Scott, today, asked us for 5,000 Zika antibody test kits. We heard that response, that request in his press conference today, weve already arranged for them to begin shipping and they will arrive Tuesday so were able to meet their response for that. Were also able to provide the kind of laboratory support that is needed. Weve provided expert advice. The Florida public health labs are doing an excellent job of testing for Zika virus. Theyve actually been at the forefront of some of the innovations in Zika virus testing, and weve been able to provide them with some technical input on that. In terms of FEMA, I think that is something that would have to be addressed to the broader U.S. government for response.

MICHELLE BONDS: Next question, please.

OPERATOR: Out next question comes from Pam Belluck with the New York Times. Your line is open.

PAM BELLUCK: Hi, Dr. Frieden. The way that you issued this advisory includes an advisory for pregnant women not to travel to the designated area but a sort of strong suggestion which you repeated a couple times that if anybody whos pregnant or their partners are concerned, they might consider not going to Miami-Dade at all. And that was done, if Im correct, because Florida has to request the area that CDC is able to warn people to travel, not to travel to. Right? So Florida designated that area as the only area to be included in the travel advisory and then did CDC then say, well, we need to do more here so were going to include this language that says consider postponing non-essential travel? To the whole Miami-Dade County?

TOM FRIEDEN: Florida is following the CDC recommendations for defining a risk area. The area that includes a buffer zone of at least a mile around an area where theres confirmed Zika transmission. What were doing is stepping back and saying there have been now multiple instances of individual transmission. Its a large county. More than 2 million people live there. More than 20,000 pregnant women. So there are obviously many different parts of it with different ecological components, but we will always err on the side of providing more information to the public so that people can make more informed decisions about what they want to do to protect themselves. And thats why weve highlighted that while were quite concerned about these two areas, where we know there has been spread of Zika through local mosquitoes, were mentioning the fact that throughout Miami-Dade County there is the possibility that there could be transmission that hasnt yet been identified so that people are aware of that, and then women living there can take steps to protect themselves, as the state of Florida has encouraged them to do as well, and people who are considering traveling there can factor that into their decisions.

MICHELLE BONDS: Next question, please.

OPERATOR: Our next question comes from Daniel Chang with the Miami Herald. Your line is open.

DANIEL CHANG: Hi. Thank you for taking my call. Dr. Frieden, I wanted to ask if there was a possibility that todays zone in Miami Beach could have been announced sooner? Perhaps even yesterday. The governor announced that there were two new local cases that were mosquito borne, the health department announced that both of those cases were outside of the Wynwood area that had previously been identified and today we learned there are five people at least who have contracted the virus including three tourists, one from Texas, and one from Taiwan, who were both in the area in late July, early August. I heard what you said earlier about how its complicated and it takes a long time to go from confirmed case to announcement, but it seems like they had at least two cases within that square-mile diameter that had been confirmed, and Im just wondering could this have been announced sooner?

TOM FREIEDEN: These are very complex investigations. They involve identifying individuals, confirming their diagnosis, interviewing them. Seeing if they went to other places where there might have been spread of the virus. Seeing if they may have had sexual exposure to Zika, and then when transmission is confirmed, figuring out what makes sense in terms of the exact boundaries to be drawn. So Im appreciative that the state has drawn those boundaries, and we reiterate them as these being the two areas with confirmed transmission in Miami-Dade where we really need to focus on both the mosquito control and the information and support to people living there to reduce their risk of mosquito bites.

MICHELLE BONDS: Next question, please.

OPERATOR: Our next question comes from Eben Brown with Fox News. Your line is open.

EBEN BROWN: Thank you very much. Thanks, doc, for taking the call. You know, when were talking about Miami Beach and we look at the map that the Florida Department of Health put out with the outline were talking specifically about South Beach. Its a lot higher of a population density, and a lot more transient population, due to the high amounts of tourism or people who either live in the South Beach area for a part of the year and then live outside this nation for the other part of the year. How does this add to the public health challenge in terms of tracking and controlling and, you know, one of the warnings people were given about the Wynwood situation was, well, if you use bug repellent and cover up, youll be safer. Asking people to cover up in South Beach seems like its a bit difficult. I dont mean to be funny about that, but its known for a lot of skin and skimpy bathing suits for both men and women.

TOM FRIEDEN: Yes, we dont think our advice to wear a long-sleeved shirt and long pants is likely to be widely followed in some of these areas, and this is one of the things that makes control more complicated. In addition, because of the high-rise buildings its not an area where aerial spraying can be applied. So each of the areas where disease is spreading needs to be handled individually and differently, but intensively, to try to knock down the mosquito populations, and to control, and to protect the individuals who are there. Covered skin is safer than uncovered, but uncovered skin with DEET on it is also safe. So getting mosquito repellent widely used is important, but because of the large numbers of people there, we do anticipate that there may well be other travel-associated or locally-identified cases that we determine are present. As we look for individuals, we will undoubtedly find individuals who had infections without symptoms. We generally find about four people without symptoms for every one with symptoms. So we do anticipate that additional infections will be documented. The question is going to be for the Wynwood area, do those infections continue after controlled measures were put into place? And thats what were looking at, at this point, monitoring for very intensively. For the Miami Beach area, Florida state, the county, ourselves, are looking very carefully with the hotels and the community there with what can be done to maximally reduce the risk of Zika by controlling the mosquito population and protecting people through things like the use of mosquito repellent such as those containing DEET.

MICHELLE BONDS: Next question, please.

OPERATOR: Our next question comes from Brady Dennis with Washington Post. Your line is open.

BRADY DENNIS: Hi, Dr. Frieden. Thanks for the call. I just wanted to try to confirm something about the transmissions in both of these areas. It sounded as if, you know, given the information that we have of where people who are infected live, that most if not all of the people who have picked up Zika in the Wynwood area were Florida residents, even though they lived in nearby counties, some of them. This one in Miami Beach certainly seems to involve some tourists. Are you able to shed light on that, that whether there were tourists in any of the Wynwood cases? And certainly sounds like there are this time in Miami Beach.

TOM FRIEDEN: Yes. You know, Miami Beach obviously attracts many more international tourists, and tourists from around the U.S. and because its a very specific area where people go and stay and are only there, its fairly easy to pinpoint when somebody, a traveler, comes back and said, I was only here and I have Zika. So the existence of Zika in travelers to that area and the recognition of the cluster through the diagnosis of travelers is the kind of thing that we do see, and anticipate with many different infectious disease processes, where when you see something unusual in a traveler, you can basically deduce where it came from. So often its somewhat easier to rapidly come to determination of whats happening through people who have left an area and are in areas that are not at risk for that disease from any other means, especially if theyve had limited travel while they were there.

MICHELLE BONDS: Next question, please.

OPERATOR: Our next question comes from Rob Stein with National Public Radio. Your line is open.

ROB STEIN: Thanks for taking my question. Im curious what your thoughts are on whether it will be harder, easier, about the same to control this outbreak in this part of Miami as it was in Wynwood? How this part of the city compares with Wynwood. And, also, curious what, how would you compare this outbreak so far with what youve seen in the past with dengue and chikungunya.

TOM FRIEDEN: Well, first off, comparing the two areas, Miami Beach does have a series of characteristics that make it particularly challenging. The inability to use aerial spraying there means that well be restricted to ground-based technologies like backpack spraying. The large number of people, and the high turnover of people means that there could be ongoing people who are exposed, and the amount of exposed skin also makes it harder to reduce the risk of infections there. So we think this will be a challenging area, and this is one reason why were monitoring very intensively. In the Wynwood area we have seen substantial but not complete knock downs in the mosquito populations, and we continue to monitor rigorously every day to see whether additional cases arise after intensive mosquito control was started. In terms of comparing this with other diseases such as dengue and chikungunya one of the things that is constant now and before is that these are localized incidents. They are not incidences where the disease spreads throughout an entire area. Theyre diseases that spread through mosquitoes that dont fly more than 150 meters and theyre spread by people moving from place to place and then getting bitten by new mosquitos that then start another localized instance of this. However, we did not have, that we know of, outbreaks of chikungunya or dengue in highly populated cities such as Miami-Dade County. So that is a different characteristic and something that were working very closely with the state and county on now.

MICHELLE BONDS: Next question.

OPERATOR: Yes, the next question comes from Jennifer Kay, the Associated Press. Your line is open.

JENNIFER KAY Hi, Dr. Frieden. Can you explain why you cant use aerial spraying over Miami Beach? And are you, do you now believe that the aerial spraying is less effective than you might have thought it was when you were visiting here in Miami a couple weeks ago?

TOM FRIEDEN: So we continue to be quite impressed by the effectiveness of the aerial spraying in Wynwood. Were seeing consistently more than 90 percent of mosquitoes in traps killed during each spray event, were seeing very substantial reductions in the number of mosquitoes there. Were just impressed by the resilience of this mosquito. Its a tough mosquito to kill. In terms of why it cant be used in Miami Beach, the aircraft that spray ultra-low volumes of the products fly very low on the order of 100 feet above the ground. So they cant really do that around high-rises. In addition, aerial spraying with ultra-low volume can only be done when theres not much wind so that it can be very directly targeted to where its needed. And thats something that may be very difficult to do in that kind of environment.

MICHELLE BONDS: Next question, please.

OPERATOR: Our next question comes from Robert King, Washington Examiner. Your line is open.

ROBERT KING: Hi, Dr. Frieden. Thanks for taking my call. My first question is, has this outbreak exceeded the CDCs initial expectations or projections? I know that CDC officials previously said earlier this year that they expected limited outbreaks. Has the amount of cases that have happened in Florida over the past few weeks of local transmission, has that exceeded those estimates or anything, or is this in mind with what you expected?

TOM FRIEDEN: So far what were seeing is really what we anticipated. That there would be multiple instances of transmission and some cases of clusters of transmission. Weve seen about two dozen infections, about 17 of them symptomatic in the Wynwood area. Thats pretty much on the mark in terms of what we would anticipate. We may see more here in Miami Beach simply because its a more populated area.

MICHELLE BONDS: Next question, please.

OPERATOR: Our next question comes from Lisa Schnirring with CIDRAP News. Your line is open.

LISA SCHNIRRING Hi. Thanks for being available to take questions today. I just wanted to ask you a little bit more about the challenges with the mosquitoes. I know there was some concern in Puerto Ricos outbreak with mosquitoes that were resistant to some of the insecticides. Do you have any worries about that so far with what youre seeing there in the Miami area? Thanks.

TOM FRIEDEN: Were always concerned about the possibility of resistance. The more than 90 percent knock down with the product being used, Naled, is encouraging. In fact, the product has been so effective that its been difficult to collect mosquito eggs to do resistance testing. So that will take some time to occur. But we know that there is, as far as we know, no natural resistance to the BTIsarvacide being used. The challenge with this mosquito is it can breed in a bottle cap full of water, it can hatch its eggs. The eggs can last for more than a year. They live indoors and outdoors, and eliminating standing water in a place where it rains every day, where there are bromeliad plants and many containers is just extraordinarily difficult. This is truly the cockroach of mosquitoes and very difficult to get rid of.

MICHELLE BONDS: We have time for one more question.

OPERATOR: Our last question comes from Robert Lowes with MedScape Medical News. Your line is open.

ROBERT LOWES: Yes. Thanks for taking my call. Dr. Frieden, what is your advice for women who are considering getting pregnant as far as travel to Miami-Dade County? If theyre worried about potential exposure, should they also consider postponing non-essential travel? In other words, the advice you have for pregnant women, do you also, should that be applied to women who are thinking about getting pregnant?

TOM FRIEDEN: This is something that women should discuss with their physician, and what weve said consistently for, certainly for areas such as Miami Beach and Wynwood area and areas around the world where Zika is spreading, is that there are a series of protocols that we recommend for the time to wait after returning, and thats very much a decision that individuals have to make that will factor into play what theyre going for, how important that is to them, when theyre planning to become pregnant, and what their reproductive plan is.

So I want to thank everyone for participating in this briefing. We appreciate your coverage of this. Its important that people understand the key priorities here, which are that pregnant women avoid travel to places where Zika is confirmed to be spreading that includes countries throughout the hemisphere map or our website as well as these two very specific areas within Miami-Dade County. Were also providing openly and transparently information on whats going on as it happens so that people can make informed decisions about what they want to do about their travel. Were also fully supportive of the excellent work that Florida is doing to identify and respond to these outbreaks, and to prevent further outbreaks and were supportive of them in that effort. Were also concerned about people living in these areas. We know thats very stressful and we want to make sure that women who are or may become pregnant do everything possible to prevent mosquito bites. Thank you all very much.

MICHELLE BONDS: Thank you, Dr. Frieden, for joining us today as well as reporters. For follow-up questions please call the press office, 404-639-3286 or send an e-mail to media@CDC.gov. Thank you for joining us. This concludes our call.

OPERATOR: Thank you for your participation. You may disconnect at this time.

###

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Katy Kaspari and Erin Englerth prepare birds on July 27, 2016. Hidden away in a room at the Field Museum, dedicated volunteers of all ages help prepare dead birds to be catalogued and studied. (Nancy Stone, Chicago Tribune)

Dave Willard arrives at the Field Museum of Natural History every weekday morning by 4:30, even though he retired from there four years ago.

On Wednesdays, the bird collection manager-turned-volunteer expects plenty of company. He goes to the freezer and retrieves 150 to 200 dead birds, then lays them on a table to thaw.

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Around 6:30 a.m., volunteer Peter Lowther joins him, and by midmorning six or seven others have arrived. The Wednesday crew, avian enthusiasts of all ages, perch on stools around the table. They converse quietly but obviously enjoy each other's company as they remove feathers and skin from the partially thawed bird carcasses.

This is the first step in preparing bird skeletons for science.

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"It's not real exciting and it's kind of messy, but it's important," Lowther said. "It isn't for everyone."

But it's for them. The Wednesday regulars plus 15 or so other volunteers  some doing messy jobs and some on computers  are a large part of why the museum on Chicago's lakefront boasts one of the largest bird specimen collections in the world, according to Ben Marks, the museum's manager of bird and zoological collections.

More than a half-million bird specimens representing 90 percent of the bird species in the world are stored above Bird Hall, the part of the museum that visitors see. Marks said the Field's collection is eclipsed only by the British Museum, the American Museum of Natural History in New York and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

There are about 20 volunteers, ages 17 to 77, who help a small staff in the bird collections area of The Field Museum prepare bird specimens for current and future research. (Nancy Stone / Chicago Tribune) (Nancy Stone / Chicago Tribune/Chicago Tribune)

The specimens  whole body skeletons, stuffed birds (known as study skins) and "pickles" (birds in jars of alcohol)  are crucial to scientific research that happens not only in Chicago but also around the world.

"We prepare over 4,000 bird skeletons annually. Because of that, birds that used to be swept into gutters in the early-morning hours to get them off the sidewalks are now available for research and education," said Marks, 44, of Chicago. "There's no chance that would be possible without the volunteers. We are very much committed to and in debt to our volunteers. Their work is very valuable to us."

Volunteers say the dedication goes two ways.

Erin Englerth, a punk model from Chicago's Roscoe Village community, has a life-size tattoo of a rose-breasted grosbeak on her forearm memorializing the first bird she processed.

"It can be gross, but it's also pretty interesting," she said of her Wednesday work. "How else could you get this close to a bird to study them?"

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There are plenty of birds here to study and more will be coming during the fall migration, Marks said.

Between 6,000 and 7,000 dead birds are added to the museum's collection each year. The majority are brought in by Chicago Bird Collision Monitors, a group of 100 volunteers who work in teams before sunrise, making daily treks through downtown during migration season to pick up injured and dead birds that have hit the windows.

Injured birds are usually taken to Willowbrook Wildlife Center, a rehab and education center in Glen Ellyn. Dead birds, ranging from 1 to 300 on the most extreme days of spring and fall migration, go to the Field, said Annette Prince, director of Chicago Bird Collision Monitors.

The Field collection began to grow about 35 years ago when Willard started a salvage program. He and a few other employees and volunteers began picking up dead and injured birds around McCormick Place in the predawn hours, before crows and gulls got them, Marks said. In 2003, the Chicago Bird Collision Monitors started their rescue and retrieving efforts, adding more birds to the collection.

At the Field, the dead birds are immediately stored in a freezer, where staff and volunteers say "a bird can live forever." Staff members take a muscle sample, look at what's in the stomach and record data, including measurements and when and where the bird was found. The bird is tagged and assigned a number  a number that is now more than 500,000.

The when and the where are particularly valuable.

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"Without that info, it's of no use to science," Marks said.

Field Museum research covers a variety of topics, including birds and their pathogens and parasites, assessing body size changes in common migrant species, bird conservation in South America and Central Africa, and more.

The information provided by these birds isn't just valuable to Field researchers. About 150 requests for specimen loans come in from universities and scientists around the world each year, he said.

Jerome Fuchs, curator of birds at the Paris Museum of Natural History, said his institution has borrowed specimens from the Field that help to understand the evolutionary relationships of species, genetic differentiation among populations and the distribution limits of those populations.

"The Field Museum's biodiversity program is undoubtedly among the best in the world," said Fuchs, who added that Marks and other Field ornithologists are considered world experts on DNA analyses.

Once they are inside the Field, all birds are treated the same.

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"Even if we have thousands of white-throated sparrows, we are not going to throw the next away," Marks said. "They're all individuals and could potentially provide information for research."

The same could be said of the volunteers.

Marks himself was once a volunteer in the bird collection. The volunteers he now works with are among more than 650 throughout the museum, according to Megan Bradley, volunteer manager at the Field.

Among them are Glenn Gabanski, 68, of Darien, an 11-year volunteer, who is a retired math teacher. He recently spent his morning removing wings from American woodcocks for a research project on how the age of a bird can be assessed by studying the plumage.

And then there's Lowther, 68, of Homewood, who retired from a tech job at the museum in 2010 but came back as a volunteer in 2011. He has a doctorate in ornithology.

"I guess a chance to look at the birds in the hand is a nice opportunity," Lowther said. "But I also see the value in why this is done.

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We're creating a lot of potential for future research and we're learning a little bit, too. The value of doing this overcomes whatever unpleasantness there might be."

Willard, of Hyde Park, has been fascinated by birds since watching them as a child. "Basically I was paid here for my hobby for 35 years. Now I just enjoy my hobby."

Englerth, 27, has worked in taxidermy and also volunteers on Mondays at the Field making study skins. She volunteered in the mammals area before coming to bird collections.

"I feel like I learn 100 new things every time I'm there," she said of the bird collections area where she began volunteering last October. "The people are wonderful. We're such an eclectic group, but we have so much in common."

There are also college students, artists and a part-time bike messenger at the Wednesday table, and others who spend their free time helping out. Some are truly behind the scenes.

Back in a quiet corner, Joanna Hosteny and Aaron Mercer choose their own hours, but spend many of them numbering each bone of the cleaned skeletons that come their way, then put them neatly in boxes that will be labeled by another volunteer.

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Hosteny, 75, a calligrapher, began volunteering as a docent in the Bird Hall but now prefers this solitary work. She prints minuscule numbers on each bone of birds that are crow size or larger. Smaller bird skeletons are stored in boxes like puzzle pieces.

"I enjoy making a contribution," said Hosteny, of Chicago. "I'm getting pretty darn good at bird bones. It's a kick."

Other volunteers transcribe handwritten data, file materials, sort tissue samples and assist in public programs among other things, Marks said.

Kayleigh Kueffner, a volunteer later hired as a collections assistant, creates study skins. She removes almost all of the insides and replaces them with cotton, leaving a bird that is lying on its back with the wings folded.

"It's pretty fascinating to me but definitely not stomached by everyone," she said, while removing a woodpecker's brain. "It is exciting though to be a part of the whole research effort."

Lowther said he has made two study skins, but it's not for him. It is a difficult job that requires hours of training. He prefers "roughing"  removing feathers and skin. He can do a songbird in 2 1/2 minutes.

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One of his tablemates remembers how long it took to rough a goose. Another recalls a swan they worked on. And still another, a sandhill crane. They continue on their individual birds while they talk.

Then Gabanski plays the trump card, recalling when he and another volunteer roughed an albatross that covered the entire table.

"It took hours," he said.

Peggy Macnamara, the museum's artist-in-residence who works around the corner on the third floor from where these "more science-minded people" are, said she loves just listening to them.

"It's a heavenly place up here," Macnamara said. "They're in there eating doughnuts together and ripping birds apart and having nice conversations."

Said Willard: "Maybe it's just luck that we have personalities here that mesh so well. I haven't met many bird people that I haven't liked. But this is a particularly fun group."

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Joan Cary is a freelance reporter.
The Chicago Tribune reached out to KFCs parent corporation, Louisville-based Yum! Brands, with questions regarding our stories. A company spokesperson provided these answers over email:

1. Are the 11 herbs and spices listed above [we sent them the recipe] the ingredients for Colonel Sanders' Original Recipe Kentucky Fried Chicken?

There are only a few people in the world who know the Original Recipe.

KFC is an iconic brand that all started with a world-famous recipe more than 70 years ago. In the 1940s, Colonel Sanders developed the original recipe chicken to be sold at his gas station diner. At the time, the recipe was written above the door so anyone could have read it. But today, we go to great lengths to protect such a sacred blend of herbs and spices. In fact, the recipe ranks among Americas most valuable trade secrets.

2. Am I interpreting the answer regarding the recipe correctly: that KFC/Yum is not willing to specifically address whether the recipe the Tribune provided is indeed the original recipe? A "yes," "no" or "no comment" would be helpful.

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Lots of people through the years have claimed to discover or figure out the secret recipe, but no one's ever been right.

3. Where is the Original Recipe for KFC kept, and what safeguards are in place to protect it from getting out?

We have a high-tech home for the Colonels handwritten Original Recipe from 1940 here in our headquarters in Louisville, KY. Its stored in a secret vault in a digital safe that only a few people have access to and no one person can access it alone (yes, we are that serious). The vault is monitored with a 24-hour video and motion-detection surveillance system.

4. Does KFC Corporation use multiple suppliers to produce and mix its Original Recipe blend so that no one entity is privy to the recipe?

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To ensure the secrecy of the recipe, KFCs 11 herbs and spices are prepared by two different suppliers before being combined together and packaged for our restaurants. As we said, there are only a few people in the world who know the Original Recipe.

5. Does KFC continue to use the Colonel's Original Recipe to make its fried chicken, or has the recipe been modified over the years?

Kentucky Fried Chicken serves incredible tasting chicken made the hard way and The Colonels Original Recipe is still at the heart of our business in every one of our nearly 20,000 KFC restaurants in more than 125 countries.

We have cooks in every one of our restaurants who hand bread and freshly prepare chicken all day every day. The chicken is prepared the same way Colonel Sanders first made it in the 1940s  we dont take any short cuts. It takes 25 minutes start to finish to prepare for our customers.

What some people may not know, is that in the 1970s we added an additional recipe  Extra Crispy Chicken. Extra Crispy is double breaded by hand with a unique mix of herbs and spices then it is open fried. By comparison, Original Recipe uses the 11 herbs and spices, is hand breaded once and pressure fried in Colonel's unique method.

6. Does KFC Corporation use MSG to make its fried chicken?

All of our major menu item ingredients are listed on our website, as well as certain ingredients you would like to avoid.

7. Is there MSG (flavor enhancer) in the Original Recipe chicken now served at KFC stores?

Yes, there are trace amounts of MSG in Original Recipe chicken, which we disclose on our website in our menu item ingredients.

 Jay Jones, Chicago Tribune

Jay Jones is a freelance writer.
This is the south view of the new Jeanne Gang-designed City Hyde Park tower at 1501 E. Hyde Park Blvd. (Nancy Stone / Chicago Tribune)

Architect Jeanne Gang's buildings invariably are experiments, as intriguing for the ideas behind them as for the buildings themselves. Her latest, City Hyde Park, a 14-story high-rise, is billed as a reinvention of the urban apartment building  a building type that typically suffers from tight budgets and visual monotony.

At the commercial corner of Hyde Park Boulevard (51st Street) and Lake Park Avenue, the $119 million project is Gang's first completed high-rise since her celebrated 86-story Aqua Tower and its undulating balconies opened to acclaim in 2009.

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City Hyde Park can't match Aqua's lyrical gracefulness, but it's still one of the bright spots of the current building boom, achieving a strong urban presence that's true to the "city" in its name.

The developer, Eli Ungar of New Jersey-based Antheus Capital, wanted a design with cache, one that would justify rents (around $2,000 a month for a one-bedroom) that approach downtown levels. That's a specialty of Gang, whose Chicago-based Studio Gang architects boasts a portfolio of eye-catching skyscraper designs that stretch from New York to San Francisco.

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At City Hyde Park, she tweaks the conventional format of a bland residential tower atop a base housing a parking garage. Two levels of parking are shunted underground. The base contains a Whole Foods Market and other stores, energizing the sidewalks. A colorful tile mural, representing trees in the four seasons, wraps around the podium.

City Hyde Park is the new Jeanne Gang-designed tower at 1501 E. Hyde Park Blvd. in Chicago. The tower has rental units and several businesses on the ground floor anchored by a Whole Foods Market. (Nancy Stone / Chicago Tribune)

Some Hyde Parkers can't stand it. I think it's fine, weaving City Hyde Park into the fabric of the colorful, decorated masonry buildings nearby.

The upgraded streetscape, which builds on the success of the deftly planned Harper Court office, hotel and retail complex two blocks south, helps to justify the city's tax-increment financing subsidy for the project. So does the fact that 20 percent of City Hyde Park's 180 apartments rent at below-market rates.

The real experimentation is upstairs. There, Gang worked with structural engineer Magnusson Klemencic Associates to develop a unique arrangement of stacked concrete panels that replaces conventional columns. The setup resembles a house of cards, but it's structurally stable and functionally sound.

On the building's zigzagging north side, which is solid but hardly stellar, the arrangement yields greater-than-normal spans between columns and makes interiors more spacious. On the more intricately composed south side, narrow trapezoid-shaped balconies project out from the stacked panels like leaves coming off a stem. Some of the balconies are intimately scaled, framed by ceilings one floor above. Others offer views upward to three stories of uninterrupted space, as if the facade were a canyon. Here, City Hyde Park rises above the ordinary.

The balconies' animated effect breaks down the deadening standardization of typical, form-follows-function apartment high-rises. Syncopated rhythms and sculptural projections, so different from Chicago's current crop of glass-sheathed minimalist towers, deliver a quirky energy that suggests individualism, not mass man. The design recalls an earlier attempt to reinvent apartment living  Habitat, architect Moshe Safdie's spectacular stack of prefab units at the Montreal world's fair of 1967.

The north side of the new Jeanne-Gang designed tower at 1501 E. Hyde Park Blvd in Chicago. The tower has rental units and several businesses on the ground floor anchored by a Whole Foods. (Nancy Stone, Chicago Tribune)

Gang's hope is that the balconies will be social as well as visual, inviting an apartment-dweller on one of them to converse with a neighbor on another. The idea is an accrued beauty, one in which ordinary human activity  people sitting on chairs, reading books, talking to one another  adds to, rather than detracts from, the building's allure.

It's too early to tell if that dream of an "inhabited facade" will come true. Gang had the same idea at Aqua, but not everybody wants to hang out on a balcony 800 feet above the sidewalk. City Hyde Park's lesser height may create greater opportunities for interaction. So far, the approach seems to be working in the marketplace. The one-bedrooms that line the south facade are renting more quickly than the two- and three-bedrooms to the north, the leasing agents report.

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In contrast to Aqua, where Gang was responsible only for the building's exterior, she had full control at City Hyde Park; the integrated design shows it. The trapezoidal geometry of the balconies is echoed on door handles, plaques for individual apartments, even a white pattern on glass balcony walls that's supposed to prevent bird crashes.

The balconies offer "borrowed space" to the small apartments, making them seem larger than they are. The interiors are open-plan, simply furnished, with flow-through kitchens. You either like their oddly shaped configurations or you don't. Those in search of privacy can always draw shades.

The tight budget has produced some obvious drawbacks. The long corridors are straight-shot visual bores despite a stab at creative ceiling lighting. There is no rooftop deck, as in many downtown apartment towers, and the lone outdoor deck is relatively small.

Nevertheless, Ungar reports that the building is more than 50 percent leased; tenants are said to include University of Chicago faculty, employees at University of Chicago Hospitals and graduate students. Lively 53rd Street is a short walk away, as is a nearby Metra commuter rail stop. Despite its shortcomings, then, City Hyde Park simultaneously reflects and expands upon the allure of a rising South Side neighborhood.

bkamin@tribpub.com

Twitter @BlairKamin
The AeroShell Aerobatic Team performs at the 58th annual Chicago Air and Water Show on Aug. 21, 2016, at North Avenue Beach. (Michael Tercha / Chicago Tribune)

If you waited until Sunday to hit the Chicago Air and Water Show, you're in for a bonus: Better weather, if the forecasters are right, and a chance to see recently retired Chicago Bear Charles "Peanut" Tillman tandem jump with the popular Army Golden Knights parachute team whose hotly anticipated act was scuttled by Saturday morning storms.

Sunday's show, which begins at 10 a.m. and runs through 3 p.m., will feature not only Tillman and the Golden Knights jumping from an aircraft at 12,500 feet, but also other top military and civilian flight teams in the country, including the headlining Air Force Thunderbirds, who will fly with Chicago police Sgt. Ernest Spradley, who was named a Hometown Hero by the flying squad for bringing dozens of fellow officers to the bedside of a dying South Side girl who'd dreamed of being a cop.

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If you've parked yourself on North Avenue beach  the main viewing area  or some other spot near or along the lakefront you'll get a look at the sleek, new F-35, the military's most advanced fighter jet that will replace aging F-16s and A-10 jets.

"It looks like we got a full show. We're going to have great weather tomorrow, 70s and sunny, so we are going to run a full, good, hard show and make a lot of happy people," said John Trick, who manages the two-day air show that typically draws 2 million people each year.

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Sunday's forecast called for mostly sunny skies with a 20 percent chance of showers after 1 p.m. The skies will be mostly sunny, with a high near 76 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.

Organizers opted to delay Saturday's start as storms lingered along the lakefront and Northwest Indiana corridor from where some of the air show aircraft take off.

Show organizers work in heavy coordination with local emergency managers and the Federal Aviation Administration, who participate in daily briefings with local airports and pilots to ensure that visibility is optimal, cloud cover is low and that flying conditions were safe, Trick said.

When storms move in and ground the aircraft, contingency plans kick in and ultimately it means that the whole show won't go on.

That's because they can only use Chicago's air space for so long. Downtown skies must be cleared by the scheduled 3 p.m. end time to make way for overseas commercial flights arriving at O'Hare International and Midway airports, Trick added.

Bill Parrot, an aviation professor for Lewis University in Romeoville who spent more than 40 years in the aviation industry, said the show is like adding more cars on a roadway.

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"I flew out of O'Hare for 21 years with an airline and I know that every time Air and Water Show is moving, that does affect the flow in and out of O'Hare," Parrot said.

Despite Saturday's shortened show, the rain did little to dampen the enthusiasm of some spectators like Victoria and Paul Eggerstedt, who braved the morning storms to watch the aircraft in action.

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"It's a nice day to be out on the beach. We like to people watch before the show starts and once the show starts, it's non-stop action," Victoria Eggerstedt said from a spot on Oak Street Beach. "We enjoy it every year."

Her husband, Paul, an Air Force veteran, looks forward to watching the Thunderbirds.

"I was a jet mechanic so I'm familiar with some of the airplanes that are still flying," he said. "And I enjoy seeing a lot of the new technology. It brings back some good memories."

nmoreno@chicagotribune.com

wlee@chicagotribune.com
Whether Melissa Calusinski gets her murder conviction overturned seems likely to come down to a heavily disputed set of X-rays.

In the second day of testimony Friday in Calusinski's quest for a new trial, the focus remained on posthumous X-rays of Benjamin Kingan, the Deerfield toddler Calusinski was convicted of fatally injuring at a Lake County day care center where she worked.

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Transferred back to Lake County for the hearing from a downstate prison, Calusinski sat next to her attorneys in a Waukegan courtroom for a second day Friday, while her family shared the front row of the gallery with Benjamin's parents.

Judge Daniel Shanes, who oversaw Calusinski's 2011 trial and later sentenced her to 31 years in prison, agreed in June to hear what her lawyers say is new evidence, something prosecutors refute.

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Calusinski confessed to investigators on video after Benjamin's 2009 death that she intentionally slammed his head to the ground. But her lawyers have long contended that she was manipulated and coerced by police, even citing what they referred to at her trial as her low verbal IQ.

Calusinski's lawyers say the 16-month-old boy died from a previous head injury and not the skull fracture that prosecutors say he suffered at Calusinski's hands.

The hearing that started Thursday, but isn't due to resume until mid-September, has focused primarily on the X-rays of the toddler's skull.

About two months before Calusinski's trial, her lawyers were given a set of difficult-to-read digital X-rays that came with a brightening tool. Then last year, long after Calusinski was convicted of first-degree murder, her lawyers announced that a second set of X-rays, which undermine the state's theory of how the boy died, had been discovered in the Lake County coroner's office. Coroner Thomas Rudd then announced that he was changing the determination of Benjamin's death from homicide to undetermined.

Prosecutors have countered that the supposedly new X-rays were just a brightened version of the original set, and that the skull fracture could be seen and felt during the boy's autopsy.

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On Friday, prosecutors called Matthew DeMartini, a former assistant state's attorney who helped prosecute Calusinski's case.

DeMartini testified that, before Calusinski's trial, he went to the coroner's office seeking help in making the X-rays more legible but that efforts were unsuccessful. He said he never spoke with Calusinski's attorney about the X-rays, adding, "I would've told him he had the same tools we did."

Eric Stauffacher, a software engineer for the company that sells the X-ray imaging program, testified that the X-rays taken by the coroner's office appeared to be of poor quality and overexposed.

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"Too (little) radiation and it'll be too light. Too much and it'll be too dark," he said.

Stauffacher demonstrated using the program's brightness and contrast editing features. He said an original X-ray image is automatically saved and can be reverted to, but that users can save changes made to an X-ray as a duplicate. Stauffacher said two of the five X-rays in Benjamin's file appeared to be copies, based on their dates.

tbriscoe@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @_tonybriscoe
More than 35 years ago, the Illinois Supreme Court determined that common-law marriage would not be recognized in the state when justices ruled against a woman who sought property from a man she'd had children with, but never married.

The court's reasoning in 1979 was to uphold a "policy of discouraging cohabitation between unmarried parties and disfavoring nonmarital children," an Illinois appeals court wrote of the case years later.

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The state's highest court weighed in on the issue again this week, in a lawsuit against a Cook County judge who sought part ownership of her longtime partner's medical practice after the couple broke up.

This time around, the Supreme Court acknowledged that societal norms and attitudes about unmarried people living together are far from what they were in the 1970s.

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Despite that change, and factoring in the legalization of same-sex marriage, the court ruled that unmarried domestic partners still have no right to the other's property if they break up.

"Today, the court does not share the same concern or characterization of domestic partners who cohabit, nor do we condone such comparisons," Justice Lloyd Karmeier wrote.

Setting aside the moral judgments of the 1979 case, the judge wrote that the court's earlier "core reasoning" on the issue remains sound.

"Since marriage is a legal relationship that all individuals may or may not enter into, Illinois does not act irrationally or discriminatorily in refusing to grant benefits and protections ... to those who do not participate in the institution of marriage," Karmeier wrote.

Though same-sex couples have won the right to marry in Illinois, some said they were disappointed in the ruling. They hoped the case would change the old law, calling it an archaic policy that discriminates against all unmarried couples, gay and straight.

"I'm shocked," said Shannon Minter, attorney for the National Center for Lesbian Rights, which helped represent Eileen Brewer, the Cook County judge who brought the suit. "It's a devastating setback for unmarried couples, and is so far out of line with current legislative policies in Illinois and the rest of the country."

Brewer and Dr. Jane Blumenthal, a successful gynecologist, moved in together in 1981 and over more than 25 years raised three children together, according to court documents.

After they split up, Blumenthal asked to have their two-story home in Kenwood and properties in Michigan and Mexico sold to divide the proceeds.

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In contrast, Brewer sought sole possession of the house, arguing that she had been a stay-at-home mom when the children were little, that the couple's commingled funds had helped pay for the house and that she had paid for the mortgage after the breakup.

Brewer also sought a share of Blumenthal's medical practice, Gynecologic Specialists of Northwestern, which Brewer said she helped buy an interest in. She argued that the couple's relationship was identical to that of a married couple. They exchanged rings, put their money together and executed wills and trusts with each other as beneficiaries and executors.

When the couple failed to come to terms, Blumenthal sued Brewer, a case that was sealed by a judge. Brewer later filed a countersuit.

But because Brewer and Blumenthal had never married, divorce law and its guidelines for dividing property did not apply to them.

Since 1905, Illinois law has not allowed common-law marriage, which recognizes rights for people who've lived together as couples.

Following the precedent of the Supreme Court ruling in the 1979 case known as Hewitt v. Hewitt, a trial court judge ruled in the doctor's favor. Equity in the house, valued at $1 million, was divided and Brewer bought out Blumenthal's share.

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The Illinois Appellate Court overturned that ruling, arguing that the Hewitt case was obsolete, in consideration of many recent changes in the law regarding marriage.

Among those changes are no-fault divorce, child support for nonmarital children and laws allowing civil unions and gay marriage.

In his opinion, Karmeier emphasized that state lawmakers, who are "far better suited to declare public policy," had the opportunity to change the law for unmarried couples, and have not done so.

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In a dissenting opinion, Justice Mary Jane Theis, joined by Justice Anne Burke, called the majority ruling "an oddly myopic and moralistic view of cohabitation."

Theis wrote that the Hewitt ruling "is outmoded and out of touch with contemporary experience and opinions on cohabitation," as well as with changing law.

Reuben Bernick, the doctor's attorney, said the ruling merely ensures each person can keep whatever property he or she brought into the cohabitation.

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While this case involved two relatively wealthy people in a same-sex relationship, most of those affected are unmarried straight couples who in some case are stuck with debt, said Chicago family law attorney Richard Wilson. Among those most affected may be cases in which one spouse has title to the home, and the other who is left with nothing.

Lawmakers did substantially overhaul the state's marriage and divorce law effective this year. Wilson, who helped work on those changes, said lawmakers may be receptive to addressing this overlooked part of the law.

rmccoppin@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @RobertMcCoppin
A 10-year-old boy spent the summer taking photos around the city before gunfire erupted in front of his Lawndale home, striking him as he tried to go through his front door.

In response to the shooting, the program Tavon Tanner has participated in for the past two summers, Early Exposures, is selling the students' prints to raise money to help pay for the boy's medical expenses. The prints range from $10 to $30.

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Tavon was playing on the porch on Aug. 8 in the 3900 block of West Polk Street, when as many as nine shots were fired in front of his home, police said. A bullet hit Tavon's back.

He is one of at least 29 children 13 and under who have become victims of gun violence this year in the city, according to data collected by the Tribune.

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Tavon remains hospitalized at Mount Sinai Hospital. His mother, Mellanie Washington, said a bullet remains lodged between her son's chest and shoulder.

In the past two weeks, Tavon has undergone surgery and other medical procedures. Washington said he has been drifting in and out of sleep, occasionally asking her if the person who shot him has been caught.

"I tell him they will soon," she said. "They will."

As of Friday, detectives continued investigating the shooting. No one was in custody.

Alexis Ellers, an educator for Early Exposures, said the shooting has been difficult for the students who she described as close-knit group. Many of the students are related to each other. One student, Taniyah, is Tavon's twin sister. Another student lives next door to him.

She described Tavon as a leader in the program who other boys looked up to when they weren't sure what to do.

The students meet once a week to take photographs around the city. They also travel to the library to view their online photo blogs.

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One photo taken by Tavon shows a boy climbing a tree at the Garfield Park Conservatory. Ellers said Tavon seemed to most enjoy taking portraits during a studio visit.

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"He seemed to really like taking portraits," Ellers said. "He was just goofing off."

Washington said the twins use relatives' cell phone cameras to take photos. They also like posing for photos of themselves.

Early Exposures had their exhibition last week to mark the end of the program, an event Tavon missed because of the shooting.

Ellers said this was the first time one of the program's students was seriously injured.

"It was very upsetting," she said. "Just how scary it must be for him and (for) his twin sister to witness. My concern is for the long-term effects it's going to have and his care."

Anyone interested in purchasing a print or making donations can visit, http://www.earlyexposures.org/support-for-tavon.html.
Illinois joined a handful of states and the city of Chicago in repealing a so-called "tampon tax" as Gov. Bruce Rauner approved a bill that exempts feminine hygiene products from the state sales tax.

Currently, tampons and sanitary napkins are taxed by the state of Illinois as "luxury items" at 6.25 percent. The new law, which takes effect Jan. 1, removes that tax by putting the products in the same category as necessities like shampoo.

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Earlier this year, the Chicago City Council and Cook County commissioners voted to exempt the products from their sales taxes. The change comes amid a campaign by advocates for women's issues to end the tax in U.S. states and abroad.

"This is just the start of a conversation about the unfair 'pink taxes' women face as they buy products priced higher than similar ones marketed to men, or in this case, as they have to spend on products that men don't," said state Sen. Melinda Bush, D-Grayslake.

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The governor's action came as he signed, vetoed or rewrote more than three dozen bills on Friday. Among them:

*Rauner approved legislation that will require companies to allow their employees to use up to half of their sick time to care for ailing family members.

*He signed a bill that sets limits on administrative fees charged by municipalities when they tow cars. That bill also prohibits impounding a vehicle for illegal parking unless it's been parked for more than 48 hours or has been an obstruction during an emergency.

*The governor approved a measure that tasks his budget office with producing a yearly report with a four-year budget forecast that explains how the governor will plan to remedy a shortfall if spending is expected to exceed what the state takes in from taxes and other forms of revenue.

"This bipartisan proposal will require the state to plan years in advance, instead of continuing to kick the can down the road year after year," said sponsoring Sen. Laura Murphy, D-Des Plaines.

*Rauner rejected a bill that he said would allow the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority to issue $293 million in bonds to replace the loan it used to fund construction of a second hotel by McCormick Place. The governor reasoned that it would "increase the risk to the state of having to cover any shortfalls needed for the higher bond debt over the next 50 years."

"The state is not in a financial position to accept this additional risk," Rauner wrote in his veto message.

*The governor rewrote a bill that would allow the state to give $1 million to a non-profit organization to help food stamp recipients access fresh fruits and vegetables at farmers markets.

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Rauner said he was concerned that up to 40 percent of the money could be spent on administrative costs, and changed the language to say that all of the money has to be distributed to farmers markets. He also slashed the grant amount in half and said it should be treated as a trial program "while we study its effectiveness and ensure that the funds are used to achieve the desired outcomes."

*And Rauner vetoed a bill that would have made it clear that Cook County can take hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue from its higher sales tax and contribute the money to its pension fund  as it's already doing.

The veto came after the county objected to the wording of the bill. Both county officials and the governor have agreed to keep working on the issue.

"We do plan to return with a comprehensive bill that addresses objections and is one which we are involved in drafting," said Frank Shuftan, spokesman for County Board President Toni Preckwinkle.

Lawmakers will get the opportunity in the post-election session to decide whether to try to override the governor's vetoes and rewrites.

Chicago Tribune's Hal Dardick contributed.

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Prison guard Sgt. Edward Bradley holds a painting by serial killer John Wayne Gacy, who was convicted in August 1982 in the sex slayings of 33 men and boys. (Charles Bennett / AP)

Gov. Bruce Rauner on Friday used his amendatory veto power to rewrite a bill that would have ended the state's growing practice of suing prison inmates to recover the costs of their incarceration  effectively killing the legislation, according to the bill's two sponsors.

The bill from state Sen. Daniel Biss, D-Evanston, and Rep. Kelly Cassidy, D-Chicago, now goes back to the General Assembly with Rauner's addition of a financial threshold that would be determined by officials at the Illinois Department of Corrections. Inmates who have less than the threshold in their bank or prison accounts would be shielded from the controversial lawsuits.

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The General Assembly can accept Rauner's rewrite, override it or let it die. Biss and Cassidy said Friday they likely do not have the votes to override the veto.

"The bill is dead now because of the governor's actions, and that is a travesty," Biss said Friday, noting that the bill had passed the Senate and House with a narrow margin. "He killed a bill that would have eliminated a wasteful and immoral program."

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Rauner, in a message with his veto, said that while he recognized that the lawsuits could make it more difficult for some inmates to rejoin society, he wanted to prevent offenders  particularly violent offenders with "significant assets"  from profiting from their crimes.

He pointed to John Wayne Gacy, the serial killer who tried to sell his paintings before he was executed in 1994, as an example.

"While I agree that this power should be used sparingly and judiciously," Rauner said, "there are circumstances when it is warranted."

Cassidy, though, said state law already prohibits inmates from profiting from their crimes, making Rauner's rewrite of the bill unnecessary.

Cassidy said that if anybody should be able to sue prison inmates for their assets, it should be crime victims and not the state.

"He said he wants to eliminate wasteful programs and he wants to reform our criminal justice system," Cassidy said of the governor after she learned of the amendatory veto. "This runs counter to that. ... This has nothing to do with criminals profiting from their crimes."

Illinois is one of at least 43 states that allows officials to try to recoup what often are called room-and-board fees from prisoners and parolees. Critics say such lawsuits recover little money, are overly punitive and make it more difficult for prisoners to get back on their feet after their release. And a Tribune story in November showed the lawsuits often targeted inmates with little money and few prospects.

Attorney General Lisa Madigan, whose office filed the lawsuits following referrals from prison officials, supported the legislation, saying the lawsuits raised little money and raised difficult moral questions. The corrections department took no position on the measure.

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An IDOC spokeswoman said it was premature to comment on Rauner's move before legislators have a chance to act on the change.

The law that allowed the state to sue prisoners and parolees for the cost of their incarceration dates to 1982. Corrections officials do not appear to have used it much until last year, when the number of lawsuits jumped from two each in 2012 and 2013 to 11 in 2015.

Among the cases the Tribune focused on was that of Johnny Melton, who served 15 months for a drug conviction. Prison officials targeted Melton after he received nearly $32,000 from the settlement of a lawsuit over his mother's death in a nursing home, according to records. When he was released from prison early last year, Melton was forced to go to a homeless shelter and applied for food stamps.

He died in June destitute, according to his family.

In other cases, the state sued prisoners who received relatively modest sums of money, whether through an inheritance, a trust fund or, like Melton, a wrongful death settlement. The state has recovered more than $500,000 since 2010, but about $415,000 of that was obtained from just two prisoners. The amount the state recovered was a fraction of the prison system's $1.5 billion budget.

smmills@chicagotribune.com

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Twitter @smmmills1960

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Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke was one of the few black speakers at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland in July. (Dominick Reuter / AFP/Getty Images)

Reporting from Milwaukee  As riots raged in Milwaukee, the county sheriff took to Twitter.

"Black LIES matter," David Clarke wrote to his quarter-million followers, ridiculing the Black Lives Matter movement.

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The protesters, he tweeted later, were part of a "culturally dysfunctional underclass" and were responding to "inane provocation."

His taunts stood in sharp contrast to the message being sent out by the Milwaukee police chief. Speaking on local television, Edward Flynn laid out the facts of the shooting that had ignited the unrest, then said he was heading to a meeting with local black pastors to plead for their help.

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It was "very important that those people that are in the neighborhood are constantly giving a message of peace and civility," Flynn said. "Nothing is being accomplished through acts of violence."

In racially charged Milwaukee, the two most prominent law enforcement officials  whose jurisdictions overlap  are proving that race is anything but simple. Clarke is black. Flynn is white.

Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn speaks at a news conference Oct. 15, 2014, about the fatal shooting of a mentally ill black man, Dontre Hamilton, by a white officer. (Mike De Sisti / Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)

They have clashed with each other for years over the roots of mistrust between police and black residents and how to quell increasing violence in a city with some of the deepest racial inequalities in the country.

Clarke, a conservative, argues that downtrodden blacks are largely to blame for their own plight and that "black-on-black violence" is a bigger problem than mistreatment of blacks by police. In turn, he has taken a get-tough, lock-em-up approach to policing, including the use of military equipment.

He has blamed Flynn for increases in violent crime in Milwaukee, saying the city's police force should hire more officers to crack down harder on crime. Clarke has also encouraged citizens to arm themselves.

Flynn, a liberal, sees the anger of the black residents as a product of poverty and decades of official neglect and believes the biggest gains will come from increased cooperation between officers and the community. He has belittled Clarke's proposals and argued that allowing people to carry concealed weapons has increased deaths from gun violence.

Their disagreements have come to a head on a national stage this week as Milwaukee grapples with the aftermath of the police killing of a 23-year-old black man, Sylville Smith, a case that itself complicates the narrative that has dominated a national debate over policing and race.

Authorities say Smith had taken off on foot after a traffic stop and turned toward an officer while raising a gun. Mayor Tom Barrett says he has seen a photograph showing that Smith was armed. Smith's family says he sometimes carried a gun but doubts that he would have raised it at an officer.

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The officer who fired the fatal shots was also black, and according to Smith's family, the two men knew each other from high school.

He's not from here.  Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke, on city Police Chief Edward Flynn

The state justice department is investigating the shooting and plans to release a video from the body camera of the officer, according to a spokeswoman, though she said there was no timeline for making it public.

In interviews, the two law enforcement leaders had little nice to say about each other.

"He's not from here," Clarke said of Flynn, calling him "political" and "arrogant."

"Nobody has got more to say about law enforcement and less to do with it," Flynn said of Clarke, calling him a self-serving man who seeks "celebrity."

Clarke, who describes himself as the "people's sheriff," rarely leaves home without his cowboy hat and likes to ride his horse through the city.

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A frequent guest on conservative talk shows and a Donald Trump supporter, he was one of five black speakers at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, where he denounced Black Lives Matter as "anarchy."

On the day Smith was killed, Clarke tweeted that the reaction was overblown and misguided: "Four murdered, 9 shot in Milwaukee Fri night/Sat morning. Silence. 1 cop kills an ARMED black guy & riots break out?"

The son of an Army paratrooper-turned-postal-worker and a secretary for the city's public schools, Clarke grew up in one of the two black families in a white community about a 12-minute drive from Sherman Park, the black neighborhood where rioters burned buildings and smashed police cars over the weekend.

Nobody has got more to say about law enforcement and less to do with it.  Milwaukee Police Chief Ed Flynn, on county Sheriff David Clarke

He joined the city's Police Department at 21 and rose through the ranks for more than two decades to become the head of its intelligence division, earning a reputation as being loud and flashy.

Clarke left the city police after the governor appointed him sheriff in 2002 to fill a vacancy. With wide support from the mostly white, mostly Republican Milwaukee suburbs, he has kept the job through four elections.

Now 59, he oversees about 350 deputy sheriffs and 500 corrections officers in a jurisdiction that stretches 1,190 square miles and includes about a million people. His deputies are responsible for patrolling county parks, highways and the airport in the city of Milwaukee. A sheriff would typically oversee everyday policing in unincorporated areas. Milwaukee County has none.

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Clarke called poverty a "major issue" in Milwaukee but blamed liberal politicians, social welfare programs and black people for it.

Flynn, in contrast, expressed empathy for blacks who say they are angry about police shootings and living conditions. "The neighborhoods that depend on us the most" and where officers end up the most, he said, "are also the ones that have been the most historically ignored."

The son of a paralyzed World War II veteran and a library worker, Flynn was 23 when he joined the police force in Hillside Township, N.J. He went on be police chief in several East Coast cities and later served as secretary of public safety in Massachusetts.

He arrived in Milwaukee in 2008 after being recruited by a Democratic-appointed city commission. His responsibilities include street policing, traffic enforcement and responding to crime across the 96-square-mile city of 600,000 people.

Community members react Aug. 14, 2016, after several buildings in Milwaukee were destroyed during protests a day after a fatal police-involved shooting. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune) (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune)

The 68-year-old chief pointed to large racial disparities in income and education levels and suggested that such factors, coupled with loosened gun laws, played a role in a rising homicide rate. There were 145 murders in the city last year, a 69% increase over 2014 and the most since 1993.

"If you are a city police chief, you know all racial and social classes commit sin at the same rate," he said. "But public violence belongs to the poor."

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While the animosity between Clarke and Flynn has largely been a war of words, it spilled over this week into heated debate over how to respond to the riots.

Clarke asked the governor, Scott Walker, to call in the state's National Guard. Flynn, who said he was offended he wasn't consulted, pushed back. He worried that a military presence in the city would increase tensions between protesters and police.

The guard was not deployed, but 123 guard members were in the region this week awaiting commands. On Wednesday, Clarke told the governor to send them home.

Clarke also drew scorn from Flynn for his decision to close a popular county-run park near the protests. Clarke said rioters were using it as a staging area. Flynn said the move alienated the community.

With Flynn's agreement, Clarke had already sent 100 deputies to the neighborhood, joining 150 city police officers already there.

The differences between the two leaders were evident on Tuesday night. Some of Flynn's black officers were out chatting with residents who attended a vigil, while Clarke's deputies patrolled the streets in armored trucks.

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Many black residents express disdain for Clarke. Flynn gets better reviews, but he has also faced serious criticism for the deaths of several black men in shootings by his officers or in their custody. The best-known case involves Dontre Hamilton, a 31-year-old mentally ill man who was shot in a park in 2014 by a white officer, who was later fired but not prosecuted. His death has become a rallying point in the Black Lives Matter movement.

As the rioting subsided this week, residents gathered in Sherman Park to mourn and talk with each other about how to improve a neighborhood where conflicts with law enforcement had become common.

Gary Conner, who is 28 and was friends with Smith, said he would start by reducing the police presence.

"This is our neighborhood," he said. "If we are not causing violence, why are you here bothering us? If there's none of that, you don't need to be in the neighborhood."

jaweed.kaleem@latimes.com

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HARTFORD, Conn.  A Navy sailor was sentenced Friday to a year in prison for taking photos of classified areas inside a nuclear attack submarine while it was in port in Connecticut.



Kristian Saucier, of Arlington, Vermont, appeared in federal court in Bridgeport, where a judge also ordered him to serve six months of home confinement with electronic monitoring during a three-year period of supervised release after the prison time. He pleaded guilty in May to unauthorized detention of defense information and had faced five to six years in prison under federal sentencing guidelines.



Saucier admitted to taking six photos of classified areas inside the USS Alexandria in 2009 when it was in Groton and he was a 22-year-old machinist mate on the submarine. The photos showed the nuclear reactor compartment, the auxiliary steam propulsion panel and the maneuvering compartment, prosecutors said.



Saucier took the photos knowing they were classified, but did so only to be able to show his family and future children what he did while he was in the Navy, his lawyers said. He denied sharing the photos with any unauthorized recipient.



"It was a foolish mistake by a very young man," his lawyer, Greg Rinckey, said after the sentencing. "It's a very sad case because Kristian Saucier is a fine young man. We don't believe this was really his true character."



Saucier is expected to receive an "other than honorable" discharge from the Navy next month, Rinckey said. He is to report to prison on Oct. 12.



Saucier did not speak during Friday's court proceeding.



Federal prosecutors said the FBI and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service were never able to determine if the photos had been distributed to unauthorized people because Saucier destroyed key evidence including his laptop computer, a camera and a memory card after an interview with the FBI in 2012.



Prosecutors asked U.S. District Judge Stefan Underhill to send Saucier to prison for five years, saying his conduct put national security at risk.



The investigation began in 2012 when a waste station supervisor in Hampton, Connecticut, found Saucier's cellphone with the submarine photos on top of a pile of demolition trash and showed it to his friend, who was a retired Navy chief and brought the phone to the NCIS, according to court documents.



Saucier, who grew up in Cape Coral, Florida, had asked U.S. District Judge Stefan Underhill to sentence him to probation. In court filings, he compared his case to Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server when she was secretary of state. The FBI declined to charge Clinton for her handling of classified information while using the server.



Saucier's lawyers also said two other Alexandria crew members were caught taking photos in the same locations as Saucier, but were not prosecuted  only disciplined by the Navy.



Associated Press
DIMONDALE, Mich.  Republican Donald Trump again made a direct appeal to black voters Friday night, urging them to abandon the Democratic Party and give him a chance.

Speaking at a rally in Dimondale, Michigan, an overwhelmingly white suburb outside of Lansing, the GOP nominee argued that Democrats, including his rival Hillary Clinton, have taken advantage of African-American voters and taken their votes for granted.

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"Tonight, I'm asking for the vote of every single African-American citizen in this country who wants to see a better future," Trump told the crowd.

"What do you have to lose by trying something new, like Trump?" he asked them. "You're living in your poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs, 58 percent of your youth is unemployed  what the hell do you have to lose?"

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He also made a bold prediction: "At the end of four years, I guarantee you that I will get over 95 percent of the African-American vote. I promise you."

Most polls show Trump trailing Clinton significantly among black voters. President Barack Obama won roughly 93 percent of black voters in his re-election campaign in 2012.

This is so ignorant its staggering. https://t.co/t2fZl9sqKs  Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) August 19, 2016

But Trump once again accused Clinton of "bigotry," claiming she sees African-Americans "only as votes, not as human beings worthy of a better future,"

And he painted a dismal role of life for African-Americans in the workforce, declaring that, in cities like Detroit, they "have become refugees in their own country."

On Twitter, the Clinton campaign responded, "This is so ignorant it's staggering."

The Clinton campaign's Marlon Marshall added in a statement: "Donald Trump asks what the African-American community has to lose by voting for him. The answer is everything from a man who questions the citizenship of the first African-American President, courts white supremacists, and has been sued for housing discrimination against communities of color."

Marshall said, "Trump painting the entire community as living in poverty with no jobs continues to show he is completely out of touch with the African-American community."

Associated Press
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump greets the crowd as he arrives to speak at a campaign rally in Fredericksburg, Va., Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016. (Gerald Herbert / AP)

FREDERICKSBURG, Va.  Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said his party must do a better job appealing to African-American voters and that he wants the GOP to become their political home as it was in the era of Abraham Lincoln.

"I fully recognize that outreach to the African-American community is an area where the Republican Party must do better, and will do better," Trump said during a rally in Fredericksburg, located between Richmond and Washington in the critical battleground state of Virginia.

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In spite of past fiery rhetoric that alienated many minority voters, Trump said that he wants "an inclusive party." He noted that the "GOP is the party of Abraham Lincoln" and said, "I want our party to be a home of the African-American voter once again."

Trump has been working in recent days to boost his appeal among African-American voters  declaring Friday that he could win 95 percent of the black vote at the end of his first term in office, if he is elected.

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Trump's new minority outreach efforts followed a shake-up in his campaign management in the face of falling poll numbers that quickly prompted noticeable changes to his campaigning tactics. In Fredericksburg, he spoke with the aid of a teleprompter, as he has at rallies all this week, and the result was a more measured delivery that lacked the rants and tangents that marked many of previous speeches.

Earlier Saturday in New York, Trump met with his new National Hispanic Advisory Council for Trump, which will work to help him focus his message, as well as provide assistance with the campaign's Hispanic outreach.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump holds a Hispanic advisory roundtable meeting in New York, Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016. From left are, Trump, Jovita Carranza, former Small Business Administration Deputy Administrator and Joseph Guzman, president of American Society of Hispanic Economists. (Gerald Herbert / AP)

Polling shows Trump lagging significantly behind Democratic rival Hillary Clinton among minority voters, partially due to some of the more wayward comments he has made since entering the race. He launched his campaign last year with a speech that accused Mexico of sending rapists and criminals across the border, and has since vowed to deport all of the estimated 11 million people living in the U.S. illegally.

Helen Aguirre Ferre, director of Hispanic communications for the Republican National Committee, called the Hispanic outreach meeting a "game-changing" opportunity.

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said in a statement that the group's participation "is just one component of our expansive effort to engage the Hispanic community, and their contributions will help us compete for every vote in every community all the way through Election Day."

Trump also met Saturday with officers and detectives in the Stafford County Sheriff's Office in Stafford, located just north of Fredericksburg.

Associated Press
A Cook County judge is off the bench for allegedly handing over her robe to a lawyer and allowing them to hear cases. Aug. 17, 2016. (CBS Chicago)

It was a scene right out of Bring Your Kid to Work Day.

Except that the visitor who slipped on Cook County Circuit Judge Valarie Turner's robe wasn't a kid, and wasn't just pretending to preside over the courtroom. Attorney Rhonda Crawford, a law clerk in the Markham courthouse, ruled from the bench on at least two cases Aug. 11 during what's been described as a "job shadowing" session.

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Word got to Chief Judge Timothy Evans, and now Turner is assigned to administrative duty and Crawford is suspended without pay. The defendants in those cases will have to return to court to appear before a real judge.

The state's Judicial Inquiry Board and the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission are no doubt investigating, though of course they won't say so. The Cook County state's attorney is looking into whether any laws were broken.

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Not everyone thinks this is a big deal. Turner didn't let her friend preside over a murder trial, after all. One defendant was ticketed for driving without insurance, the other for driving on a median. And Crawford isn't just a wannabe judge, she's a gonnabe judge. She's unopposed in the 1st Judicial Subcircuit race on the Nov. 8 ballot.

But voters should have had reservations about Crawford before now. She got a unanimous "thumbs down" from a dozen local bar associations before the March primary. That's because she refused to participate in the rigorous evaluations conducted by the Chicago Council of Lawyers, the Chicago Bar Association and others.

There are always a handful of candidates who don't seek the bar associations' stamp of approval. Why? They're not qualified, so they won't get it. Or they've been clouted onto the ballot, so they don't need it. Or both.

If they get past voters the first time, they're generally home free. Every six years, they stand for retention. It's been 26 years since a sitting judge failed to get the 60 percent "yes" vote required to stay on the bench. So if you think Evans ought to just go ahead and fire Turner for her ethical lapse, think again. He can't.

And voters probably won't. They've given judges a pass over far more egregious behavior. In 2012, Judge Cynthia Brim was retained even though she was banned from the courthouse and awaiting trial, charged with battering a deputy sheriff outside the Daley Center. She pleaded insanity and was found not guilty. In 2014, the Illinois Courts Commission removed her from the bench.

Bar associations had recommended a "no" vote for Brim in 2000, 2006 and 2012. Voters retained her every time.

There are more than 400 judges in Cook County. But unless you have reason to appear before one of them  say, for a traffic ticket  then you likely know little about their fitness for the job. You know even less about a first-time candidate like Crawford. That's why the bar association ratings are so valuable. A candidate who ducks them doesn't deserve your vote.

Here's what we do know about Crawford: She's been a lawyer since 2003 and has clerked for the judges in the Markham courthouse since 2011. She got 47 percent of the vote in a three-way Democratic primary, ousting the judge who'd been appointed to the vacant seat two years earlier by the Illinois Supreme Court.

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She's following the path of her mentor. Turner skipped the bar association screenings in 2002 and still managed to collect 57 percent of the primary vote, beating two others, including an experienced and highly respected associate judge. Republicans, as usual, didn't field a candidate. So Turner coasted through the general election unopposed.

Voters, pay attention: This is not the way to fill a $188,000-a-year job. That's what Turner makes for presiding over a municipal courtroom. It's what Crawford, who currently earns less than $57,000 a year, will make once she's sworn in.

So yes, she's eager to rap that gavel. It's a little late to wonder if she's fit to do so.

Join the discussion on Twitter @Trib_Ed_Board and on Facebook.
The Falcon family's entry in the Fox Valley United Way's cardboard regatta displayed a replica of a mobile smart phone meant to poke fun at the "Pokemon Go" craze. (Linda Girardi / The Beacon-News)

The Fox Valley United Way cardboard boat regatta got off to a soggy start in Aurora's Phillips Park Saturday. A batch of storms that drenched the watercraft delayed the start of racing on Mastodon Lake.

"We were hesitant to cancel the race knowing people put so much effort into building their boats," said Mike Meyer, United Way chief executive officer.

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The "What Floats Your Boat Race," the kickoff to the Fox Valley United Way's annual fundraising campaign, challenges participants to build creatively themed cardboard boats that serve a dual purpose of offering a fun and unique race and raising awareness for the 63 social service agencies that benefit from United Way donations.

When the rain eventually moved off, Aurora Mayor Tom Weisner was at the helm as the official race starter. Weisner said it's crucial for United Way to have a successful fundraising year given the state's current political "turmoil" that's resulted nonprofit agencies not being able to depend upon state funding to exist.

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"The agencies that make sure our city stays healthy depend on the generosity of you and our corporate entities. This is an important kickoff for fundraising," the mayor said.

As for the spirit of the races, Weisner said, "the worst that can happen are a few bruised egos."

The 29 maritime contraptions, many representing businesses, United Way agencies and governments, competed in nine heats, with spectators from the shoreline cheering them on.

Caterpillar workers built a mega Cat-a-tonic for the annual cardboard boat races Saturday in Phillips Park in Aurora. (Linda Girardi / The Beacon-News)

Aurora mayoral candidates Rick Guzman and Richard Irvin both had entries in the "Racing for Aurora" division.

"This event has always been about fun and supporting the people who make the community work," said Guzman, Aurora assistant chief of staff. He piloted the "Guz-Cruise" with daughter, Josie, 4, leaving a life-size cutout of himself on the dock.

Irvin, an at-large alderman, agreed.

"Sink or swim, it's all about raising awareness for United Way and the organizations they support," said Irvin, who paddled "The Irvin Train" with his teenage son, Quinn.

Ryan Dowd, executive director of Hesed House homeless shelter, came decked out as Marge Simpson, complete with signature towering blue hair, from the animated television comedy, "The Simpsons."

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"Every year but one race I have worn a dress so people kind of expect it. It's becoming really hard to find a character (with which) you can wear a dress and still have a beard. The hair makes it clear who I am," Dowd said.

Dowd said he appreciates the impact United Way contributions have on filling financial gaps where they exist.

"They are not unrestricted but United Way is flexible with their funding, which is important for nonprofits, particularly with the state in trouble," Dowd said.

Ryan Morris and Brian Flamand, of Aurora-based beverage distributor PepsiCo, capsized their watercraft while competing in the business division but didn't seem to mind.

"We want to give back to the community and show our support. Unfortunately, we didn't last long in the boat but it is all about the cause," Morris said.

Oswego High School sophomores Jake Blocker, Landon Boone, Jake Frances and Jared Pavlik, representing "Celebrate Differences," had to swim to shore after their boat went down and the cardboard disintegrated into pieces. "They gave a great effort," Jake's mom Janie Frances said.

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The Falcon family returned for their 13th consecutive year, this time sporting a boat with a timely theme.

"We decided to grab onto the Pokemon craze," Penny Falcon said of the 4-foot-by-8-foot entry that looked like a mobile smart phone with an image of a pocket monster walking around Mastodon Lake.

Meyer said he was grateful for everyone who joined them for the event, especially now that United Way Fox Valley has merged with St. Charles-based United Way Central Kane County, adding eight communities to their service jurisdiction. Their fundraising goal this year is $1.4 million.

"We now have 63 partner agencies that benefit from financial support from United Way. It's not easy to raise money and the economic conditions of the state are not strong. Everything these agencies receive does help," Meyer said.

Linda Girardi is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
Three candidates for mayor of Aurora have criticized a fundraising dinner for one of their fellow candidates, state Rep. Linda Chapa LaVia, D-Aurora, on Friday night by Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago.

Ald. Richard Irvin, at large; Ald. Michael Saville, 6th; and Rick Guzman, assistant chief of staff in the mayor's office, issued a joint statement calling the dinner a "blatant attempt by Speaker Madigan to buy control of the next Aurora mayor."

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"We have no doubt that the politicians in Springfield and its special interest groups will pour money into any candidate they believe can do their bidding  as state Rep. Chapa LaVia has done for Madigan for the past 14 years," the statement said.

It went on to say that campaign material coming to Aurora voters in the coming months will have "been paid for by the same politicians that have plunged our state into debt and dysfunction."

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The statement also asked people to sign an online petition at Change.org that called on Madigan to "stop trying to buy local mayoral races."

The $1,000-a-plate dinner at Petterino's restaurant in Chicago also caused a stir on social media and spawned a group that said it would protest the dinner.

Steve Brown, a spokesman for Madigan's office, called the statement "a disgraceful cheap shot" by the three candidates and said Chapa LaVia has served with distinction in the Illinois House of Representatives.

"I think the speaker thinks she has done a great job in the legislature, and I think the speaker thinks she would do a great job as the mayor of Aurora," Brown said. "She has a great resume. It'd probably be news if he did nothing."

Nick Daggers, Chapa LaVia's campaign manager, said neither Chapa LaVia nor the campaign would comment on the statement from the other candidates.

The election for Aurora mayor is in April 2017, and because petition filing to be on the ballot does not start until December, there are no official mayoral candidates yet. Aurora Mayor Tom Weisner has announced he isn't running for re-election

But Chapa LaVia, Irvin, Saville and Guzman have all announced their intention to run and have set up campaign committees. Other candidates could come forward between now and the December filing date.

Chapa LaVia is also running for re-election as a member of the House in the November election.

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slord@tribpub.com
A Cook County judge set bail at $100,000 Friday for a Chicago social worker accused of carjacking a Lyft driver after a free ride to Western Springs.

Lionel Carter, 32, is charged with aggravated vehicular hijacking, aggravated battery and burglary, according to Cook County prosecutors. Carter appeared Friday afternoon in front of Judge Steven Rosenblum inside his Bridgeview courtroom.

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Prosecutors said Carter begged his way into a cab ride on July 31 at 115 Bourbon Street, a bar located in Merrionette Park, that was ordered by three people he didn't know, and then attacked the driver when the others were dropped off in the western suburbs. He was arrested Aug. 18 at an area hospital, where he was attending the birth of his second child.

Carter claimed he did not have any money and pleaded for a ride from the three others and the driver, prosecutors said.

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During the ride, the others took a photo of Carter and got his phone number, prosecutors said.

When the Lyft driver arrived at the Western Springs address, Carter became aggressive with the driver, prosecutors said. He allegedly grabbed with one hand the neck of the driver, who was still inside the car. Carter then dragged the driver out of the car and grabbed him by the neck with both hands before driving off in the car.

Burr Ridge police found the car weeks later with a flat tire and the driver's wallet still inside but with $700 missing from inside, prosecutors said.

Carter has a master's degree in social work from DePaul University and has worked with youth and student services in the past, according to his defense attorney. Carter is due back in court Sept. 15.

Nick Swedberg is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
Itasca firefigher-paramedic Bryan Hand and nurse Cathy Olson used an AED to revive a priest who collapsed after a Mass at St. Thomas More Catholic Church in Elgin. (Mike Danahey / The Courier-News)

Parishioners at St. Thomas More Catholic Church in Elgin credit proper equipment and training for their role in helping to save a priest who collapsed from a heart episode after celebrating a weekend Mass.

The incident exemplifies why people should learn CPR and why public places should have automated external defibrillators, said worshipers who stepped in to help at the scene.

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"I was just about to leave the church when I was told the priest had collapsed in the lobby," said Elgin fire Lt. Chris Clausen, who was still wearing his work uniform during that 5 p.m. service Aug. 6 at the west side parish.

Someone tapped him on the shoulder for help, and Clausen hurried from his pew in the front of the church back to the lobby, where the priest collapsed. The priest, who is retired and was filling in that morning, remained in the hospital late last week.

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"I recognized what happened and started CPR right away," Clausen said. "It was probably within 30 seconds of him collapsing."

Emergency nurse Cathy Olson and Bryan Hand, who is a firefighter-paramedic for Itasca, also were at the Mass and jumped in to assist, Clausen said.

"The priest had stopped briefly to talk with (Clausen) on his way down the aisle just before all this happened," Hand said.

Hand said Clausen tried to find a pulse and began chest compressions. Hand called out to see if anyone had dialed 911, which they had.

Olson is a veteran emergency nurse who worked at Sherman Hospital in Elgin before taking a job with the Emergency Nurses Association in Des Plaines as the director of its Institute for Quality, Safety and Injury Prevention.

"I was playing piano at the front of the church and had just finished the last hymn and had closed the piano when I heard someone yelling for help," Olson said.

Olson quickly worked her way through the congregation to find Clausen and Hand assisting the fallen priest.

Knowing that the church had an AED nearby, Hand retrieved the device, unhooked its pads and turned on the machine. At the same time, Olson was helping by keeping the area clear of concerned parishioners.

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Clausen stopped CPR so that Hand could place the paddles onto the priest to run a test to see if there was a heart rhythm. The machine advised the makeshift team to shock the priest, so the caregivers cleared from around the priest for Hand to administer the jolt.

"We let the machine do its thing by giving a shock, which brings back an organized heart rhythm," Olson said.

Olson said she took over doing chest compressions. Within two minutes, the team had a pulse and a heart rhythm, and, though still unconscious, the priest had started to breathe.

"He seems to be improving but remains very sick," said St. Thomas More's pastor, the Rev. Rich Rosinski.

The pastor believes this was the first time anyone has used the AED equipment at the parish.

"I am grateful to God that our parishioners were there to help," Rosinski said. "It just happened that people with such skills were there present to help father. The reason we have the AED is for these unknown emergencies."

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Hand and Olson said a family practitioner attending the Mass was not directly involved with the resuscitation but was present to oversee and evaluate the priest's condition.

"I pray for him every day, and I was glad we could all be there to assist," Olson said.

Within a few minutes of the 911 call, a team of Elgin firefighter-paramedics arrived at the scene to continue care protocols and to bring the priest to Presence St. Joseph's Hospital in Elgin.

Clausen, Hand and Olson all said this was the first time they had done something like this outside of their jobs. While the three noted that the priest was fortunate to have medical professionals attending Mass that night, they all also noted the incident as an example for everyone to learn CPR and the value of public places having AED equipment handy.

"The church having an AED  that's the story there," Clausen said.

"It was a gratifying feeling to do what we did," Hand said. "I thanked the church for having the AED. It made a big difference."

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"I'm using what happened as an example when telling people why they should know CPR and why they should be aware of where the AED might be in a public place," Olson said. "You never know when you might need to use them. And the sooner you start the help someone needs, the more likely a positive outcome. Every second counts."

St. Thomas More has an AED in its church and in its school because of a donation by retired Elgin fire Deputy Chief Bill Freiberg in honor of his late wife, Kathy, who died in 2013.

Freiberg said he was moved that the donation helped revive the priest. Freiberg said he and retired Huntley fire Chief Jim Saletta were part of a committee from the Elgin United Civic Association that convinced the City Council to approve funding for AED devices to be given to nonprofit social clubs in the city.

"They (AED) are invaluable," Freiberg said. "We just have to work to remove the fear people have of touching them. They are designed so that most anyone can use them to save a life."

"I hope this encourages other areas of public gathering to equip themselves with AEDs, because studies have proven that early CPR combined with AED use saves lives," Clausen said.

mdanahey@tribpub.com
The city of Elgin added a "transparency" page to its website Friday, with the intention to make it easier for people to gather typically requested public information. (Mike Danahey / The Courier-News)

The city of Elgin added a feature to its website Friday that officials hope makes it easier for people to find and request public information.

The transparency page at www.cityofelgin.org is based on community feedback and the Elgin City Council's direction, Elgin multimedia specialist Molly Center said. It is designed to help residents quickly and easily find commonly requested public information and to reduce staff time involved with processing Freedom of Information Act/ requests, she said.

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"The development of this page was requested by the City Council. While the majority of the information listed on the page was already available on our website, the city now has a one-stop shop for this commonly requested information," City Manager Rick Kozal said.

The page contains links to financial documents, quarterly reports, ordinances and resolutions, and salary and benefit information, in addition to other categories, Center noted. The data categories utilize the Illinois Policy Institute's guidelines for transparency and also draw from other communities' transparency pages.

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The linked documents are presented in downloadable and searchable PDF or TIFF format. When clicking on the various categories, users will notice that more than one document management system is being used, Center said. These systems will be consolidated as the city's movement to cloud-based storage continues.

"Transparency is a vital part of the city's technology road map," Center said. "The availability of data has become a basic expectation of residents and other stakeholders. The City Council's investment in technology has provided staff tools that will allow for a much more robust and functional transparency portal over time."

Center said she worked with staff in the city manager's office and Senior Management Analyst Aaron Cosentino to put together the page.

The city's website is hosted by CivicPlus, Center said. As the city continues to consolidate its technology systems onto a single platform, Elgin also will be making its website more interactive and easier to use.

"These changes are ongoing and will continue for the next several years," Center said.

Other changes are in store for the site and how it can be viewed through mobile devices.

"While the city's website is available on mobile now, most images do not show up," Center said. "In the short term, we are working on creating a more mobile-friendly site. This is planned to occur over the next year."

Already, with the city's mobile app, users are able to link directly to the website for additional information, according to Center.

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"For example, the 'Stay informed on 2016 construction projects' Elgin Today item on the app links directly to the construction website. We are able to link Elgin Today items to any URL, sometimes a Facebook post and sometimes a web page," she said.

"The page is a perpetual beta, and we are hoping to continually enhance its offerings through feedback from the community and the City Council," she added.

mdanahey@tribpub.com
Martin Lyons, chief financial officer for the city, addresses Library Board members on Aug. 17 about the status of the city's fundraising campaign for a new Robert Crown Community Center. (Bob Seidenberg / Pioneer Press)

A new Robert Crown Community Center is a special fundraising committee's first choice, with renovation or a project done in phases secondary choices depending the level of funds that come in, a city official told Library Board members on Aug. 17.

Martin Lyons, the city's chief financial officer, who is spearheading the project for the center, located at 1701 Main St., said the campaign has raised $1.9 million in its first three months, with half of that amount coming as a match from an anonymous donor.

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Community Consulting Service, the city's consultant on the project, has set an initial goal of $5 million for the project, whose costs have been estimated at $18 million for renovation and $30 million for a new building.

The Crown Center was built in 1974 for roughly $2.4 million. Barely 10 years into its existence, criticism was being raised about the deficiencies of the facility, considered the city's busiest with an estimated 100,000 to 125,000 visitors annually. Studies of the center, which has the city's only ice rink, have highlighted the center's crammed space, inadequate changing facility, and lack of adequate ice space.

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"While renovation isn't off the table, there is no concern over what we are designing. We are designing a new facility," Lyons told the board. "There are all sorts of contingencies down the road, but right now we're moving forward with (the new building vision)."

He said if the fundraising campaign falls behind in its goals, phased project construction may be considered.

The Library Board has been an early supporter of the project, committing to build a 5,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art library at the location.

"We need a library presence on the west side," Library Board President Michael Tannen said. "Our surveys and polling has talked about it for years. We want it."

If phasing is the ultimate choice, "we want to be (constructed as) part of phase one,'' Library Director Karen Danczak Lyons, no relation, said. She has served on the Robert Crown Center fundraising committee.

Tannen, who also has served on the committee, also spoke of the timing of the project. The library's budget is almost entirely reliant on property taxes. If officials decide on a phased approach, then the library will have to know well ahead of time to work that in its budget, he said.

bseidenberg@pioneerlocal.com

Twitter@evanstonscribe
Inmates struggling with addiction will have the opportunity to begin a drug-treatment program to help curb cravings prior to release from the Lake County Jail under a new program being offered through the jail and the Lake County Health Department.

The program will give qualifying inmates the opportunity to begin treatment with Vivitrol, a nonaddictive drug that helps reduce cravings for alcohol and opioids, according to Health Department officials.

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Vivitrol is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of both alcoholism and opioid addiction. It works by blocking opioid receptors in the brain, reducing the pleasurable effects of alcohol and opioid drugs, officials said.

"It's another tool in our toolbox," said Undersheriff Ray Rose, who has taken a lead role in helping create specialty programs for those with drug and mental health programs in an effort to reduce recidivism and provide prison diversion options.

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Rose said the willingness of Lake County officials to work together to create programs such as Drug Court and Mental Health Court, along with training officers in crisis intervention, is increasing the odds of keeping people out of prison and reducing repeat offenders.

The Vivitrol pilot program is part of the Health Department's newly expanded medication-assisted treatment program, which recently received a grant of $325,000 from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration.

Rose said the results of the program will be carefully monitored to provide data as to whether it will be effective in the long run.

"We began researching Vivitrol as a treatment option for opioid- or alcohol-addicted inmates last summer, using Winnebago County as one of several models," Rose said. "We were impressed with their program's success in combining Vivitrol with intensive addiction treatment."

The new local program will also allow and require participating inmates to take advantage of professional addiction treatment along with the use of Vivitrol.

"Recent changes in Illinois law offer coverage for Vivitrol treatment, and a partnership with the Lake County Health Department to deliver medication-assisted treatment makes sure inmates who want to break the cycle of addiction are provided the resources to do so," Rose said.

By the end of August, inmates who are opioid- or alcohol-addicted will have the new treatment option available to them, officials said.

Those who voluntarily express an interest in the Vivitrol program will undergo an assessment and education process to determine if they are appropriate for the program, according to the Health Department. Those eligible will begin receiving addiction treatment services through the Health Department both in the jail and after they are released.

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Armor Correctional Health Services, the medical provider for the jail, will administer an injection of Vivitrol prior to the participating inmate's release. The Health Department has committed to treating 15 inmates over the next six months.

"Former inmates are at high risk for death from drug overdose, especially in the immediate post-release period," Mark Pfister, the Health Department's interim executive director, said in a news release this week. "Research has identified that there is higher risk for overdose immediately following release which can be attributed to a change in drug tolerance while incarcerated.

"Once released, these individuals may not realize that their tolerance has diminished and can accidentally overdose."

Pfister said he agreed with Rose that "collaborations with community partners are helping us address the growing problem of opioid addiction in Lake County. This partnership with the jail enables us to begin to treat people while they are still in jail and continue to treat them once they are back in the community. We believe this approach will help them stay on course with their recovery and reduce their likeliness of going back to jail."

The population of residents in need of substance-abuse services has substantially increased in Lake County for decades. In 1998, the county had 30 deaths that were attributed to substance abuse. By 2010, that number had more than tripled to 92. Opioid-related deaths in 2008 were 47 and increased in 2015 to 58, according to the Health Department.

The Lake County Health Department/Community Health Center has for decades been the primary provider of substance-abuse services for residents in the county. Its services include screening, brief intervention and referral to treatment (SBIRT); in-patient detox and rehabilitation services; outpatient substance-abuse counseling; medication-assisted treatment; and women's residential services.

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The department established an Outpatient Substance Abuse Program in the 1970s to address a growing population of residents with substance-abuse concerns. The program, at 3004 Grand Avenue in Waukegan, provides both drug-free treatment as well as medication-assisted treatment using methadone and Suboxone to treat opioid addiction.

jrnewton@tribpub.com

Twitter @jimnewton5
U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk accepted a national award Friday during a Naperville Area Chamber of Commerce lunch, where he also promoted his small-business bill of rights.

The Spirit of Enterprise Award was presented to Kirk at the event held at the Hilton Lisle/Naperville.

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"Sen. Kirk is a true champion of the business community," said Justin Lumadue, the U.S. Chamber's executive director for congressional and public affairs. "Each year we give legislators a score related to how much they help business, and Sen. Kirk has a lifetime score of 88."

In addition to his work bolstering Illinois tourism, Kirk was touted for co-sponsoring a bill to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank, which supports more than 200,000 jobs and 244 Illinois small businesses, and for helping pass an expanded visa waiver program that eases travel restrictions to increase international tourism, spending and jobs, Lumadue said.

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Kirk used the luncheon to discuss his 10-point small-business bill of rights, an agenda containing two co-authored items already passed into law.

In 2011, the Patent Reform Act provided expedited assistance to small businesses throughout the federal patent approval process, and 2015 legislation removed duplicate regulations on small-business investment companies.

"I love Sen. Kirk's small-business bill of rights," said Nicki Anderson, president and CEO of the Naperville chamber. "He's taking a look at that regulation and making sure that we're not oversaturating and unnecessarily covering the same bases in eight different ways. I think that deregulation is what's really important so we can let business owners do their jobs and do them well."

Kirk, who is facing a re-election challenge this fall from U.S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth, D-Hoffman Estates, spoke to the more than 100 people in attendance about his recent experiences helping small business.

"I got a phone call a while ago from Bob Johnson, who is the chair of Baxter health care," Kirk said. "They were knocked out of China because of claims there was PVC plastic in their IV bags."

Kirk said he worked with a Chinese premier and was able to smooth over the situation for the Deerfield-based company.

He also recounted an exchange with the chairman of United Airlines in which he was asked to help bring the company out of bankruptcy by securing access to Terminal 1 of Shanghai's Pudong International Airport terminal.

Kirk, co-founder and chairman of the U.S.-China Working Group, said, "I ran around to their top level of government and got them access."

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Lisle Mayor Joseph Broda said he liked Kirk's small-business bill of rights.

"I think it's interesting because small businesses sometimes are overlooked," Broda said. "Small businesses are the backbone of the community. Without them, we wouldn't have much."

"I am very interested in any type of model that's going to help promote a strong business climate," said Naperville Mayor Steve Chirico. "Clearly, we need to attract more businesses. As a state, we're losing jobs, and we've got to figure this out."

The other eight points on Kirk's agenda include terminating or renewing federal regulations on small business every seven years; providing tax breaks to grow businesses in underserved areas; allowing the immediate tax deduction of startup costs; eliminating the 'death tax' on family businesses and farms; limiting lawsuits related to health care costs; providing tax credits for energy efficiency; instituting 10-year small-business capital gains tax exemptions; and aiding compliance with immigration laws.

"Is his bill of rights going to help? Yes, at the national level," said Harry McCabe, a Naperville small-business owner. "At the state level, we still have work to do. The fees for LLCs currently are the highest in the nation."

Chirico called Naperville an "oasis" for business in Illinois.

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"We're lucky," he said. "We have a strong and diverse economic base with a college, a hospital, a new hotel coming in, our restaurants and the automotive businesses. We're very lucky we've been able to continue to be successful within a state that has not been so competitively successful."

Gary Gibula is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.
Students and parents meet with exhibitors at the 2013 DuPage NAACP college fair held at Naperville Central High School. (Jack McCarthy / Special to the Tribune)

Organizers of the DuPage County NAACP's college fair say they are using their experience from the past five fairs to make this year's event even better than the rest.

Event co-Chairwoman Joy Bowling said what makes the sixth annual College & Career Fair different from others is that it is inclusive. "We draw students from 12 to 19 different school districts," she said.

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"Last year at Waubonsie Valley High School, we had 800 online registrants and more than 300 that did same-day registration. We hope to have at least 1,200 students and parents attend this year's fair," Bowling said.

The DuPage County NAACP tries to move the fair around the Fox Valley to allow families throughout its service area of DuPage, Kane, Kendall and Will counties to attend. This year it is hosted by Glenbard Township High Schools District 87 from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Aug. 27 at Glenbard South, 23W200 Butterfield Road, Glen Ellyn.

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The event gives students and their parents the opportunity to meet with recruiters from major Illinois colleges and universities  Northwestern University, University of Chicago, Northern Illinois University and North Central College  as well as representatives from historically black colleges and universities.

District 87 Superintendent David Larson said the one-on-one contact with a college recruiter helps students in their search.

"Some students will have the opportunity to visit four or more colleges and universities prior to making a selection, but many students simply will not have that opportunity," Larson said.

"Bringing multiple colleges and universities to the students provides a unique opportunity for students to hear firsthand from an expert why they would be a great fit for a particular college or university. The student also has the opportunity to discover through individual conversations why a particular college or university may not be a good fit. This is the kind of revelation that happens one on one."

In addition, the fair will feature a series of presentations targeted for students in both middle school and high school.

Mike Childress, president of the DuPage County NAACP, said this year several major corporations will participate in a new workshop on corporate paid internships.

"We added this because we have a number of students who are not aware that post their freshmen year in college, if their GPAs are strong, many corporations offer summer internships so that the organization can see and experience the available talent for possible future employment," he said.

Participants also will get the chance to learn about international careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics from two scientists in their fields.

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"We are very fortunate to have as presenters from the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory, world-renowned neuroscientist Dr. Bobby Kasthuri and physicist Dr. Maria Chan. Both will discuss the twists and turns that led to their extraordinary careers, which has taken them around the world many times over," Childress said.

He said the seminar on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, also known as FAFSA, was absent last year due to a technical error; this year two representatives will attend the fair.

The most popular break-out session for parents in the past has been on the topic of scholarships, said Tamar Patterson-Ovedje, DuPage County NAACP Youth Works chairwoman.

"About 600 attendees were in this session last year. It is such a strong draw that we use it to kick off the workshops," she said.

This year's session presented by Northwestern University and United Negro College Fund will focus on 400 available scholarships.

Patterson-Ovedje said students also are drawn to the workshops where college students talk frankly about their college experience and what it takes to be successful. She said for prospective college students, the session helps take away the anxiety and mystery of college life.

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"This session is always packed, so this year we plan to put it in a larger venue which holds 300," Patterson-Ovedje said.

Event co-Chairwoman Maria Curry-Nkansah suggests children begin conversations with colleges when they're in middle school.

"My recommendation to parents is to start the process at least by the eighth grade so that their child understands why they need in some instances to take honors and AP classes as well as get involved in clubs and sports," said Curry, a member of the school board in Indian Prairie School District 204 and chief operations officer for the physical science and engineering directorate at Argonne National Laboratory.

"I started looking at colleges and universities with my daughter when she was in the seventh grade with visits to University of North Carolina and University of Michigan. The information that she heard on those visits about academic and social requirements helped her to be deliberate in her selection of high school courses and extracurricular activities," Curry said.

With her daughter now in her senior year, Curry said they've visited four additional schools and that her daughter is confident about which school she wants to attend.

For more information about the fair, contact Bowling at 630-605-4576 or joybowling@att.net.

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After the fair, DuPage County ACT-SO/Junior ACT-SO will host an orientation session from 2 to 4 p.m. to introduce students to the Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics. It is an academic mentoring and enrichment program that provides career exploration and a competition in 27 categories encompassed by the sciences, humanities, business, performing arts and visual arts.

Interested students should go to www.dupageact-so.org to register and obtain more information.

subaker@tribpub.com

Twitter @SBakerSun1
Early voting, which occurs Oct. 24 through Nov. 7, will be offered at the Maine Park Leisure Center, 2701 W. Sibley St. in Park Ridge. (Jennifer Johnson / Pioneer Press)

A Park Ridge Park District facility will serve as an early voting site for the November general election.

Early voting, which occurs Oct. 24 through Nov. 7, will be offered at the Maine Park Leisure Center, 2701 W. Sibley St. in Park Ridge, according to the Cook County Clerk's Office.

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Open to all voters who reside in Cook County, early voting will take place at Maine Park from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Oct. 24 through 28, and on Oct. 29, Nov. 5 and Nov. 7. It will be offered from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Oct. 31 through Nov. 4, and from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Oct. 30 and Nov. 6, according to the county.

Maine Park is the second Park Ridge location selected to host early voting since Cook County ended the service at City Hall last year. In the spring, early voting was offered for the first time at Maine Township Town Hall on Ballard Road.

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James Scalzitti, a spokesman for the Cook County Clerk's Office, said the location was changed to the Maine Park Leisure Center "because this location is more central and more easily accessible to voters of Park Ridge."

Park Ridge Park District spokeswoman Margaret Holler said the Clerk's Office approached park officials, asking to use a facility for voting purposes.

"The park district did not seek it out, but we are happy to provide a place," Holler said.

Park District Executive Director Gayle Mountcastle told the park board on July 28 that voting will take place in the board's former meeting room at the leisure center.

Park board commissioners discussed whether the park district should commit to hosting early voting long-term and develop an official policy, but they appeared divided during an Aug. 18 meeting.

"It's not in our mission," Commissioner Jim O'Brien said. "I don't think we should do it. If [Cook County] wants to rent rooms, they should rent them like everyone else."

Commissioners Cindy Grau and Board President Jim Phillips said they were not in favor of the park district setting a policy on hosting early voting; Commissioners Joan Bende and Richard Brandt suggested early voting be tried.

"We are a public body. We should provide the facilities," Brandt said.

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Mountcastle noted that Maine Park may not be able to accommodate voting in the spring due to plans to remodel portions of the building for program space now that board meetings and administrative offices have relocated to Prospect Park. She also told the board that a park district program may need to be eliminated during the time when early voting is taking place due to the space needs.

Park Ridge City Clerk Betty Henneman said she has not been contacted by the Cook County Clerk's Office since they withdrew interest in City Hall, where early voting was offered since 2006.

"I don't see [early voting] returning in the future, not with the letter they sent," Henneman said.

Gail Weisberg, manager of voter services for Cook County, wrote to the city in January that the "number of voters has outgrown the space" provided at City Hall, 505 Butler Place.

Henneman said the county wanted to use the city council chambers for voting, but the need to secure the machines at night, combined with the need for meeting space during the week, made that impossible.

A complete list of Cook County suburban early voting sites for the November general election can be found at www.cookcountyclerk.com/elections/earlyvoting.

jjohnson@pioneerlocal.com

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Twitter: @Jen_Tribune
Signs put up by the EPA warn residents in the West Calumet Housing Development not to play in the dirt or mulch. (Joe Puchek / Post-Tribune)

As cleanup work continues at the West Calumet Housing Complex in East Chicago, the Environmental Protection Agency might consider amending the federal documents defining the remediation work's scope, according to a source familiar with the situation.

"We're talking," but nothing has been formalized, the source, who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, said.

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Rachel Bassler, press officer with Region 5 of the EPA, said the agency is now focused on cleaning the apartments in the West Calumet complex and isn't in a position to talk about any changes to the documents.

Amendments to the remediation plans are partially based on what the city decides to do with the site, Bassler said.

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"We just don't know what this is all going to look like," Bassler said.

The city and the East Chicago Housing Authority have considered demolishing the residential units in the West Calumet Housing Complex because of the contamination issues at the site.

East Chicago Mayor Anthony Copeland told residents at a public hearing earlier in August that the Department of Housing and Urban Development would provide them with relocation vouchers, giving them the chance to move out of the lead- and arsenic-contaminated properties.

"This is about the safety of your children and you," Copeland said during the hearing.

Bassler said if changes to the document are necessary, the EPA would amend its record of decision  the document that defines the scope of a project.

A consent decree is an agreement between the EPA and potentially responsible parties, and amending the record of decision would require public meetings conducted by federal officials, the source said. The EPA would solicit public comment from stakeholder groups, which would include the city, members of the public and other interested parties.

The U.S. District Court for Northern Indiana, in 2014, approved a consent decree between the EPA, Department of Justice, state of Indiana, the Atlantic Richfield Co. and E.I. du Pont De Nemours regarding the cleanup of the U.S. Smelter and Lead Refinery site. The agreement covered only zones 1 and 3 of the site.

Zone 1, which includes the West Calumet Housing Complex and Carrie Gosch Elementary, runs from McCook Avenue to the Indiana Harbor Canal, with 151st Street on the south and 148th Street on the north. Zone 3 includes the land between East Huish Drive and Parrish Avenue, with Chicago Avenue on the north and 149th Place to the south.

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Based on the agreement, the two companies would cover roughly $26 million in cleanup costs, according to the EPA.

Some of the remediation steps outlined in the agreement included excavating and removing close to 2 feet of soil and replacing it with clean dirt, according to the agreement, and reseeding or resodding the soil. The EPA estimated, at the time of the agreement, that 723 residential yards would be cleaned.

EPA teams at the West Calumet Housing Complex are in the process of cleaning individual residential units. The teams are washing walls, floors, furniture and some of the residents' belongings, according to the EPA, and cleaning ventilation and air conditioning systems.

The efforts to relocate tenants at the housing complex started after the EPA began finding lead levels in the soil that far exceeded safe levels. During testing, the EPA found some parcels where the lead levels were above 5,000 parts per million, the Post-Tribune reported in July, and the standard level is 400 parts per million.

"When I say you are in harm's way, I cannot multiply enough times the irreparable danger to your children (living in West Calumet)," Copeland said.

Residents who still want to have their residences cleaned can visit the EPA trailers on McCook Street within the housing complex.

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clyons@post-trib.com

Twitter @craigalyons
Resident environmentalist Sandy O'Brien stands next to an interpretive dispaly at Fred Rose Lakeshore Park in Hobart. (Karen Caffarini, Post-Tribune)

Some residents are urging the Hobart Park Board to protect Fred Rose Lakeshore Park as a conservation area as the board works on its new master plan.

"I hope there will be a conservation easement and a resolution to take to the City Council," Beth Dixon told the board at a recent meting.

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Dixon said she and a group of residents she represented were hoping to get assurances from the park board regrading the conservation aspect of the park, which is located on Lake George. Putting it in the master plan would assure its future, she said.

Board member Jason Spain said he had met with Dixon and others and explained the process to cement the conservation of Fred Rose Park.

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"It (the dedicated conservation area) needs to be part of the master plan, if that's what the public wants," Spain said.

Park board President Thomas Ehrhardt said City Planner Sergio Mendoza is scheduling focus groups and community involvement this fall on the master plan. The plan must be completed and submitted by Jan. 15.

"I'm not opposed to having boundaries and easements. The question is, how do you do that." Ehrhardt said.

He added that there needs to be an understanding about maintenance at the park.

Some local conservationists, including Dixon, a teacher with the School City of Hobart, have expressed concern over the department's mowing of the natural area at the Lakeshore portion of the park. Traditionally, they say, mowing was limited to two feet on either side of a walking trail, but parks Superintendent John Mitchell has extended that to as much as five feet in some spaces. The conservationists say that mowing is potentially destroying some rare native plant species.

Spain said he believes the park board wants to make sure the natural area of the park is protected as a conservation area, but added, "the devil is in the details. We would have to work out where the exact [mow] line is." .

Dixon said she would like to add an educational aspect to the park, which also is home to several species of wildlife.

Karen Caffarini is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
The Gary Common Council has approved a resolution urging support for multiple measures meant to reduce the amount of gun violence across the country.

The council unanimously voted this week in favor of a resolution based on a measure from the National League of Cities that calls for, among other things:

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* Federal funding for local crime prevention programs addressing gun violence,

* Strengthening existing laws to prohibit firearm sales to mentally ill people,

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* Requiring registration of all handguns in this country,

* Reinstating a ban on automatic and semi-automatic assault weapons, high-capacity gun magazines and armor-piercing bullets,

* A 30-day waiting period for purchase and transfer of all firearms,

* Lifting of laws that restrict the federal government's ability to share trace data and other information with local governments.

The resolution was introduced and immediately brought up for a final vote with no discussion.

Councilwoman Linda Barnes-Caldwell, D-5th, said she became aware of the league's measure when attending a conference earlier this summer, and thought Gary should show its support by backing it.

Councilwoman Ragen Hatcher, D-at large, said she believes that all urban communities have a special perspective on such violence and ought to be pushing for stricter laws against firearms use.

"Whether we're talking about Gary or a place like Chicago, we all have the same issues with guns," she said.

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Councilwoman LaVetta Sparks-Wade, D-6th, said she realizes people in more isolated parts of the country don't share the same concern about firearms and violence, but it's relevant to Gary because of its location.

"I think this is extremely important to a place like Gary because we're so close to Chicago," she said. "So close that many people get around local gun restrictions there by coming here (to Indiana) to purchase guns."

Gregory Tejeda is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
Artist Felix Maldonado is waiting to find out where in downtown Gary he will paint a mural. (Jim Karczewski / Post-Tribune)

Felix Maldonado is an East Chicago native who says he's familiar enough with the spirit of Gary to design a mural for the downtown area.

Maldonado, who also goes by the street name of "Flex," has been chosen by the Gary Redevelopment Commission to create a mural somewhere in the vicinity of 5th Avenue and Broadway. A specific site hasn't been decided upon, but Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson said there are several possibilities in the 600 block of Broadway.

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Commission Executive Director Joseph Van Dyk said Maldonado was selected based on the quality of work he submitted for the design of Art House: A Social Kitchen. That project converted a onetime soul-food restaurant into an art gallery with kitchen facilities.

Freeman-Wilson said Maldonado stood out in that competition by being the only local artist to enter. Even though he didn't win, the mayor said, "I thought it would be nice to have someone from Gary included in our efforts to make the downtown look more beautiful."

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As it turns out, Maldonado is from East Chicago but said he thinks he gets what Gary is all about because his father worked at the U.S. Steel plant located just north of downtown.

Maldonado also worked briefly at the plant as a boilermaker. A graduate of East Chicago Central High School and the American Academy of Art in Chicago, he operates a company that does murals, airbrushing and signs for hire.

Terms of his professional services contract have yet to be negotiated. And Maldonado said details won't be set until it is first decided where a mural will be located.

"I don't know if they're going to ask me to fill 10 feet of space or 50 feet," he said. "Once I know that, I'll be able to say what the mural will depict."

He's done public murals before, in Hammond, Lafayette and South Bend, along with the one depicting the Jackson 5 musical group on Lake Street in the Miller Beach neighborhood of Gary.

He expects whatever images he chooses for the mural will reflect the theme of a resurging city  which is how he perceives 21st-century Gary.

"A lot of people think of Gary as a run-down, broken-down city that has run out of gas," he said. "But I beg to differ.

"I see a resurgence, evidence that (Gary) is turning a corner," he said. "I think there is hope" for the city.

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Gregory Tejeda is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
China's Ministry of Commerce (MOC) on Friday voiced its concerns over the Australian government's latest rejection of an investment application from two Chinese companies.

On Friday, the Australian Department of the Treasury made a final ruling to block the sale of electricity distributor Ausgrid to China's State Grid and the Hong Kong-listed Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings.

Ausgrid is a state-owned company whose shareholder is currently the New South Wales government. The two Chinese companies had offered to buy 50.4 percent of Ausgrid under a 99-year lease.

The actions by Chinese companies were normal business activities in line with market principles, MOC spokesman Sun Jiwen said, adding that they had followed international bidding procedures and cooperated in Australia's security inspection.

China respects the Australian safety inspection for foreign investment based on its laws, but blocking the sale in the last stage of the public bidding process revealed uncertainty in the Australian investment environment, Sun said.

The rejection will "severely hurt the willingness of Chinese companies to invest in Australia and exert negative influence on Sino-Australian economic and trade relations," Sun said.

He added that China hopes Australia will use caution when adopting security inspection practices in order to create a fair, equitable and transparent environment for foreign investors.

It was not the first rejection by the Australian government of Chinese investment. Earlier this year, Australia blocked the sale of a cattle company to a Chinese consortium, citing Australia's national interests.
For foreign pilots looking for sky high salaries maybe Chinese airlines are the answer.

32 year old Giacomo Palombo is a former United Airlines pilot. In an interview with the financial media company Bloomberg, he revealed he was being bombarded every week with offers to fly Airbus A320s in China. Regional carrier Qingdao Airlines is offering as much as $318,000 a year. Sichuan Airlines, which flies to Canada and Australia, is pitching a salary of $302,000 each year. Both airlines offer to cover his income tax bill in China.

Today he works as a consultant for McKinsey & Co in Atlanta, but he says  if he is ever tempted to go back to flying - he will definitely consider the lucrative offers from Chinese airlines.

The average annual salary for senior pilots at major U.S. airlines such as Delta is only $209,000, according to the latest data from KitDarby.com Aviation Consulting.

The demand for experienced pilots in China is colossal. Recruitment agencies often ask carriers how many pilots they need, to which the answer is almost always, "as many as possible".

China's booming aviation market and a shortage of experienced domestic pilots have contributed to the large demand, and consequently the fat paychecks foreign pilots can receive.

That rampant aviation market is fuelled by the rapid rise of the Chinese middle class, who have increasing amounts of money to spend on luxuries such as tourism.

The numbers of airlines cashing in on this growth in China has also increased by 28% to 55 in the past 5 years. The number of aircraft they operate has also tripled in the past ten years to reach 2,650, according to Civil Aviation Industry Statistics Report.

China's cabinet, the State Council, has also promised to build 500 and more general airports across the country by the year 2020. The number stood around 300 in 2015.

Experts say that air traffic over China is expected to almost quadruple in the next two decades, and it's estimated Chinese airlines will need to recruit almost 100 pilots a week during that period.

The low-cost airlines sector is also expanding rapidly. These airlines favor smaller single-aisle jets such as the A320, which can seat about 180 people. With a growing number of travelers, carriers are having to schedule a greater number of flights to handle the demand, which in turn requires more pilots.

The lack of domestic qualified pilots has also been blamed on an immature pilot-training process, with many airlines falling over themselves to pay top wages in the scramble to employ the most experienced piloting professionals from overseas.
A court in central China's Hunan Province on Friday sentenced a former official of the province to 12 years in prison for corruption and abuse of power.

The Chenzhou City Intermediate People's Court also deprived Ma Yong, former deputy Secretary General of the Hunan provincial committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), of his personal assets of one million yuan (150,000 U.S. dollars) after he was convicted of accepting bribes of up to 3.68 million yuan.

According to the court, Ma accepted 100,000 yuan and a 100-g gold bar valued at 33,000 yuan from relatives of defendants in murder cases in 2012 and 2013, when Ma served as the CPC chief of Yiyang City, Hunan. In exchange, Ma asked court personnel to give light sentences to the defendants, the court said.

He was also found to have arranged for 5.8 million yuan in land transfer revenue to be returned to property developers, causing great loss to the country, the court said.

Ma admitted to the crimes and confessed in court.
Chinese universities will have the autonomy in transferring the intellectual property from scientific research and shall keep all the earnings, a government document said.

According to a circular released by the Ministries of education, and science and technology on Friday, no less than half of the net earnings from transfers shall be rewarded to researchers.

Major contributing researchers and faculty members should take no less than 50 percent of the total rewards, said the circular.

China has created a series of policies to encourage scientists to translate their research into commercial products.

The State Council in March issued a regulation that provides detailed measures for academics and inventors on how to commercially exploit their work, as the country pushes for innovation-driven development.

Authorities are also encouraging research institutions and technical personnel to transfer or licensing their achievements or to invest with them as trade-ins.

Performance in translating scientific outcomes to products will be considered in the overall evaluation of research and higher learning institutions, according to the policies.
Chinese police escort Li Huabo (C), the second suspect from China's "100 most wanted economic fugitives" list, upon his arrival at the Beijing Capital International Airport in Beijing, capital of China, May 9, 2015. [Photo: Xinhua]

The confession written by Li Huabo, one of China's most wanted economic fugitives, has just been made public.

The former local official from east China's Jiangxi Province, was the first of China's "100 most-wanted economic criminals" to be repatriated from Singapore as part of operation "Sky Net" on May 9, 2015.

The 55-year-old was suspected of embezzling 94 million yuan (around 15 million US dollars). He also funneled 29 million yuan (around 4 million US dollars) through Singaporean banks before fleeing to the country in 2011.

In 2012, he was sentenced to 15 months behind bars by a Singaporean court for "dishonestly accepting stolen property".

In his confession, Li Huabo expressed his regret about what he had done and apologized to his parents, wife and his daughter.

He writes about his life in Singapore, the country he fled to from China, saying that even if he was somehow able to escape punishment, he felt he would be dragging out an ignoble existence.

Li writes of his relief after deciding to come back to China and turn himself in.

The "Sky Net" campaign broadens the scope to bring more government departments on board, including not only party organs and law enforcement agencies, but also the central bank and diplomatic services.

It follows the "Fox Hunt" operation, which targeted corrupt officials and suspected economic criminals who have fled the country.

So far this year, a total of 409 different types of fugitives who fled the country have been arrested or repatriated to China as part of the "Sky Net" and "Fox Hunt" campaigns.
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A 21-year-old Chinese university student from eastern China's Jiangxi Province has twice donated her stem cells to save a patient in Belgium.

In February, Jiang Minlin, a student in Shangrao Normal Institute of Jiangxi, donated 227 millimeters of hemopoietic stem cells (HSCs) to a patient with a blood disease in Belgium, whose human leukocyte antigen (HLA) type matched Jiang's. On August 8, Jiang donated another 65 millimeters of lymphocyte cells to the same patient to help her fight rejection of the initial cells.

Both donations were made at the Air Force General Hospital in Beijing.

Jiang signed up to be a stem cell donor with the China Marrow Donor Program (CMDP) in 2014. Her stem cells was found to match the Belgian patient's in December last year.

The success rate of stem cells matches is extremely low -- somewhere between 0.01 percent and 0.25 percent .

"The donation staff told me that the recipient is about the age of my mother. I'm really happy to help save a life," she said.

There are over 2.2 million potential donors registered with the CMDP in China.

In 2006, a volunteer from Shanghai became China's first stem cell donor. Since then, China has performed HSC transplants for over 5,000 patients at home and more than 200 overseas.
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A file photo shows the logo of Alipay. [Photo: sxdaily.com.cn]

Chinese tourists in Europe will soon be able to use the Alipay payment app to make purchases.

The Paypal-style system is being made available to Chinese travelers thanks to a deal signed between Alipay and the French-based global leader in seamless payments, Ingenico Group.

The agreement allows Alipay to deepen its mobile-payment push into Europe.

Ingenico says the new partnership would allow Alipay to be embedded into Ingenico's in-store payment gateway.

A QR code can be shown on the user's device which the merchant can scan. [File Photo: mydigit.cn]

The Alipay system will recognize where its Chinese users are in Europe and send notifications about where they can spend their money. QR codes or barcodes will be shown on the users' devices which the merchant can scan, just as in China.

As one of China's biggest payment services, Alipay is massively popular among Chinese consumers. It is used to pay for items in-store and for goods and services online, such taxis, food delivery, and also in restaurants.

Currently, Alipay has over 450 million active users. Its parent company Alibaba is hoping that they will continue to use the app abroad allowing it to tap into the spending power of an increasing number of Chinese tourists traveling overseas.
You are here: Home

 Flash

A 21-year-old Chinese university student from eastern China's Jiangxi Province has twice donated her stem cells to save a patient in Belgium.

In February, Jiang Minlin, a student in Shangrao Normal Institute of Jiangxi, donated 227 millimeters of hemopoietic stem cells (HSCs) to a patient with a blood disease in Belgium, whose human leukocyte antigen (HLA) type matched Jiang's. On August 8, Jiang donated another 65 millimeters of lymphocyte cells to the same patient to help her fight rejection of the initial cells.

Both donations were made at the Air Force General Hospital in Beijing.

Jiang signed up to be a stem cell donor with the China Marrow Donor Program (CMDP) in 2014. Her stem cells was found to match the Belgian patient's in December last year.

The success rate of stem cells matches is extremely low -- somewhere between 0.01 percent and 0.25 percent .

"The donation staff told me that the recipient is about the age of my mother. I'm really happy to help save a life," she said.

There are over 2.2 million potential donors registered with the CMDP in China.

In 2006, a volunteer from Shanghai became China's first stem cell donor. Since then, China has performed HSC transplants for over 5,000 patients at home and more than 200 overseas.
 Flash

Paul Manafort, the chief of U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's campaign, has resigned following the campaign's major shakeup two days ago, the New York billionaire announced Friday.

"This morning Paul Manafort offered, and I accepted, his resignation from the campaign," Trump said in a statement.

"I am very appreciative for his great work in helping to get us where we are today, and in particular his work guiding us through the delegate and convention process. Paul is a true professional and I wish him the greatest success," said Trump.

The statement, however, offered no explanation for departure of the veteran Republican campaign strategist who joined Trump's campaign in March. Manafort has played a vital role in Trump's sweeping victory during the Republican primaries.

The move comes two days after Trump appointed conservative media executive Stephen Bannon as campaign chief executive and veteran Republican pollster Kellyanne Conway as campaign manager.

A New York Times investigation reported last week that according to related documents, more than 12 million dollars in cash payments were secretly earmarked for Manafort from a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine between 2007 and 2012.

If it's true, Manafort may have violated U.S. laws requiring lobbyists to register as "foreign agents" with the Justice Department if they work with other governments.
The man who threatened to skin Bai

Fengju alive.

(Photo: China Aid)

China Aid

Reported in Chinese by Qiao Nong. Translated by Carolyn Song. Written in English by Brynne Lawrence.

(Nanyang, HenanJune 24, 2016) Ill skin you alive if you dare to complain again, an official told a Christian in Chinas central Henan province as a demolition team reclaimed his property on June 12.

A gang hired by government officials seized a three-acre soybean field on June 12 belonging to Bai Fengju, a local Christian, in order to build a Buddhist temple on the site. A week earlier, they forcibly took the land only to later return it, offer him 2,000 Yuan (U.S. $304) in compensation and personally apologize after another Christian posted pictures of the bulldozed field on social media. However, despite the apparent reconciliation, the gang returned and resumed digging trenches, building walls for the temple and destroying crops.

When Bai confronted an official, the man said: Go home and wait in your room. Ill find you and skin you.

Additionally, Bai noted that the demolition team spoke rudely to him, and the construction carried on into the next day.

China Aid exposes abuses, such as those experienced by Bai Fengju, in order to promote religious freedom and rule of law in China.

China Aid Media Team

Cell: (432) 553-1080 | Office: 1+ (888) 889-7757 | Other: (432) 689-6985

Email: [email protected]

For more information, click here
A worker from State Grid repairs power transmission facilities in Zhoushan, Zhejiang province. [Yao Feng/For China Daily]

BEIJING -- China's Ministry of Commerce (MOC) on Friday voiced its concerns over the Australian government's latest rejection of an investment application from two Chinese companies.

On Friday, the Australian Department of the Treasury made a final ruling to block the sale of electricity distributor Ausgrid to China's State Grid and the Hong Kong-listed Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings.

Ausgrid is a state-owned company whose shareholder is currently the New South Wales government. The two Chinese companies had offered to buy 50.4 percent of Ausgrid under a 99-year lease.

The actions by Chinese companies were normal business activities in line with market principles, MOC spokesman Sun Jiwen said, adding that they had followed international bidding procedures and cooperated in Australia's security inspection.

China respects the Australian safety inspection for foreign investment based on its laws, but blocking the sale in the last stage of the public bidding process revealed uncertainty in the Australian investment environment, Sun said.

The rejection will "severely hurt the willingness of Chinese companies to invest in Australia and exert negative influence on Sino-Australian economic and trade relations," Sun said.

He added that China hopes Australia will use caution when adopting security inspection practices in order to create a fair, equitable and transparent environment for foreign investors.

It was not the first rejection by the Australian government of Chinese investment. Earlier this year, Australia blocked the sale of a cattle company to a Chinese consortium, citing Australia's national interests.
Gree President Dong Mingzhu speaks at an auto expo in Wuhan, capital of Hubei province.[Photo/China Daily]

Acquisition of car producer Zhuhai Yinlong will help diversify business, sustain market growth

Gree Electric Appliances Incone of China's major air conditioner makerssaid it is stepping into the fast-growing new-energy vehicle market by acquiring Zhuhai Yinlong New Energy Co Ltd, a local electric-vehicle producer, for 13 billion yuan ($1.81 billion).

The home appliances giant, which has suspended trading in its shares for nearly half a year, is planning to issue 835 million new shares at 15.57 yuan per share to all shareholders of Zhuhai Yinlong New Energy, Gree announced on Thursday.

Gree is diversifying its business in order to sustain market growth, and branching into the electric-vehicle market is one of its ambitious expansion plans. At present, 86 percent of its revenue comes from air conditioner sales.

The company's revenue fell 1.9 percent to 49.2 billion yuan in the first half of the year, Gree reported. Its revenue slumped 28 percent to 99.8 billion yuan for last year, amid China's economic slowdown.

Zhuhai Yinlong, which started manufacturing batteries for electric vehicles in 2009, was China's seventh-biggest electric-car maker last year, receiving 7,000 orders and producing more than 3,000 electric buses, according to its official website.

The group had established production facilities in Zhuhai in Guangdong province, Wu'an and Shijiazhuang in Hebei province by the end of 2015, with an annual capacity of making 33,000 electric buses and 100,000 electric SUVs.

Gree plans to broaden its product range to smartphones and new-energy vehicles from its core air conditioners and white goods operations, Gree President Dong Mingzhu said at a seminar last month.

The company released its second-generation smartphone in June.

"Gree is making efforts to seek new business growth points as production and sales of home appliances are saturated," said Zhang Yanbin, assistant director of All View Cloud, a Beijing-based consultancy specializing in home appliances.

He said it would be impossible for the traditional appliances industry to see a 20 to 30 percent growth in the future.

"In contrast, the new-energy vehicle industry is very promising, boasting huge growth potential, along with support from the authorities," Zhang added.

Statistics from market research firm China Market Monitor Co Ltd showed that sales of air conditioners reached 25.2 million units in the first half of the year, down 1.7 percent year-on-year.

Zhang expressed optimism for Gree venturing into the electric-vehicle market, and said he believed Gee would do much better than in its move into smartphone field because the competition in that area was fiercer.

Other appliances companies are also looking for transformation. For instance, Midea Group recently bought German robotics maker Kuka AG to enter the industrial robotics industry.

China has designated new-energy vehicles a strategic industry, as part of a broader push to upgrade its manufacturing sector. The government expects that cumulative sales of new-energy vehicles to reach 5 million units by 2020.

Xu Yanhua, deputy secretary-general of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, said many enterprises such as home appliances manufacturers and internet companies were diving into the electric-vehicle sector while eyeing huge opportunities in the emerging industry.
A potential buyer reads advertisement for Bellamy's organic baby formula. [Photo/China Daily]

Strong demand from China for its organic baby formula boosted sales in the mainland for food and beverage company Bellamy's Australia Ltd, which soared in its full year to end June by 331 percent on the previous year, the group reported on Friday.

Revenue from China last year totaled more than a quarter of global revenue, said the company, formerly known as Tasmanian Pure Foods Ltd.

The Australian baby formula makerwhich is also a producer, supplier and marketer of organic baby foodsaw revenue from China climb to $62 million last year, according to its annual report for 2016, released on Friday.

Sales in Australia, its biggest single market, surged 67 percent year-on-year to $179 million. Its home market took up 79 percent of the company's total revenue, but the company said many products sold in Australia made their way to China eventually.

Total group revenue for the year came in at $245 million, a 95 percent increase on the previous year.

The company posted gross profit margins of 45.7 percent, compared with 32.9 percent for the previous year, boosted by price rises in the domestic market and a positive impact from its e-commerce flagship store in China.

Bellamy's said the growth of its Chinese business came from an ongoing shift toward online sales of imported infant formula products from third-party website platforms such as Tmall, JD and VIP, with delivery to consumers through free trade zones in China and local Chinese providers.

In the bricks-and-mortar side of the business, the company has more than 30 distributors with its products stocked in more than 2,000 stores across China.

The brand has less than 1 percent of the overall China market but had about 3 percent of the online business at the end of June.

CEO Laura McBain said the group started a brand building partnership with BabyTree, a leading parenting website in China, to improve its brand awareness and penetration. The plan is to increase marketing investments to further build its brand and distribution presence in China.

McBain said the company's strong branding relied on organic milk, which has less than 1 percent of the global milk supply market.

She said the company will further expand its organic product offerings in China.
Rows of Chinese automobiles are lined up in Lianyungang Port, Jiangsu province, in January, waiting to be shipped to Brazil. [Photo/China Daily]

China's full-year exports are likely to see a bigger drop than last year as downward economic pressures remain in place, a senior analyst at a government think tank said on Friday.

"Besides weak external demand, the country is suffering a hard time now," Long Guoqiang, deputy director of the Development Research Center of the State Council, told a news conference in Beijing.

He indicated traditional advantages enjoyed in previous years, such as relatively low-cost labor-intensive manufacturing industries, were losing traction in a weaker global economy while emerging advantages from expansion of the country's high-tech sector are still evolving.

"Export growth will remain slow in the coming years," Long said.

China's exports dropped 1.8 percent last year to 14.14 trillion yuan ($2.14 trillion), while imports plunged 13.2 percent to 10.45 trillion yuan, according to data from the General Administration of Customs.

That was the first time China saw declines in both exports and imports since 2009. In the first seven months of the year, exports were down 1.6 percent and imports decreased 4.8 percent.

An economist said that seasonal trends, shown in the GAC data, indicate that total yearly exports will be down even more in the remaining part of the current year.

In the January-July period, foreign trade was 3 percent lower than a year earlier.

Long said, however, the structure of China's foreign trade was getting better and the long-term outlook was promising.

Long said the development of new business formats such as cross-border e-commerce and buying from international markets, as well as the increasing number of exports with independent intellectual property rights, all showed structural upgrades.

Assistant Commerce Minister Zhang Ji told the news conference that China still retained its global leading position on trade in goods, with a rise in the global market share of its exports from 11.2 percent in 2013 to 13.8 percent in 2015.

"After three decades of high-speed growth, we should treat the issue more objectively and rationally," Zhang said.
Chinese consortium negotiating buying portion of future production for as long as 30 years

China Investment Corp, the $814 billion sovereign fund, is leading an investor group in talks for a multibillion-dollar iron ore supply deal with indebted Brazilian miner Vale SA, people familiar with the matter said.

The Chinese consortium is negotiating the potential purchase of a portion of Vale's future iron ore output for as long as 30 years, two of the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is private.

Vale could fetch about $9 billion in upfront cash from the sale, one person said. No agreements have been reached, and the talks may not result in a transaction.

Some Chinese companies and Japanese trading houses have also held discussions with the Rio de Janeiro-based company about possible deals, including acquiring a minority stake in Brazilian iron-ore assets owned by Vale, the people said.

Vale has joined global miners Freeport-McMoRan Inc, Glencore Plc and Anglo American Plc in selling assets after its net debt swelled to about $27 billion as a commodity rout eroded earnings. Chief Executive Officer Murilo Ferreira raised the prospect of selling some of the company's most prized assets in February, after the miner reported its first year of losses since 1997.

The world's top iron-ore producer has exited coal mines in Australia and is in talks with US fertilizer producer Mosaic Co to sell its South American potash and phosphate assets, which may fetch about $3 billion, people familiar with the matter said. Vale said it wants to raise about $10 billion through next year.

CIC is also part of a group alongside Brookfield Asset Management Inc and Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC Pte that is close to buying a stake in a Brazilian natural gas pipeline network from state oil company Petrobras for nearly $6 billion, people familiar with the matter said in June.

Vale's Samarco mining joint venture with BHP Billiton Ltd, whose operations were halted last year after a dam spill, is seeking a standstill agreement on about $1.6 billion in bank loans as its owners refuse to cover debt payments until mining resumes, people with knowledge of the matter said this month.
Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks at a national meeting on health held from Aug 19 to 20 in Beijing, capital of China.[Photo/Xinhua]

BEIJING - Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for full protection of the people's health, stressing that public health should be given priority in the country's development strategy.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, made the remarks at a national meeting on health held in Beijing Friday through Saturday.

"The all-round moderately prosperous society could not be achieved without people's all-round health," Xi said, urging efforts to promote healthy lifestyles, strengthen health services, improve health protection, build healthy environment and develop health-related industries.

Premier Li Keqiang also gave a speech at the meeting. Other senior leaders including Zhang Dejiang, Yu Zhengsheng, Liu Yunshan, Wang Qishan and Zhang Gaoli attended the meeting.

Xi said health is a prerequisite for people's all-round development and a precondition for economic and social development. It is also a common aspiration of all people.

Since its founding, the CPC has paid great attention to the correlation between people's health and national independence and liberation, he said.

The president expressed his respect and thanks to the service and dedication of health workers nationwide in protecting the people's health.

However, he pointed out that facts such as industrialization, urbanization and an aging population, combined with changes in the environment and people's lifestyles, have put the health of Chinese people under multiple and complicated risks.

"China is facing health problems that occur in developing countries as well as developed countries," the president said.

"If these problems are not effectively addressed, people's health may be seriously undermined and economic development and social stability will also be compromised," he said.

Xi stressed that work to ensure people's health should focus on the grassroots and use reform and innovation to create momentum.

He urged the inclusion of health in government policies, to ensure that all people enjoy the health benefits of policies.

Xi called for an improved system and quality of basic medical services so that the public can enjoy accessible and continuous health services which cover prevention, treatment and rehabilitation.

The government should perform its duty in basic medical services, and the market should be vitalized in the fields of non-basic services.

Xi stressed prevention work in the health sector as well as efforts to provide relevant services for people through their entire lives.

Health for young children and young students in the country's less-developed areas should be emphasized alongside the need to provide proper nutrition for their growth, he said, pointing out the need for care of other key groups such as pregnant women, infants and senior citizens.

Xi said a sound environment is the cornerstone of the people's lives and health, stressing that green development must be implemented and the "strictest system of environmental protection" should be adopted.

He noted that reform of the country's health and medicine systems had entered a difficult stage, calling for breakthroughs in modern hospital management, medical insurance, medicine supply, comprehensive supervision, and a diagnosis and treatment mechanism based on the severity of illnesses.

The president particularly stressed the role of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in promoting people's health, underlining innovation as well as coordinated and complementary development of TCM and Western medicine.

"Efforts should be made to boost the salary and treatment, development space, professional environment and social status of health workers so as to make them more active," Xi said, adding that they should be better cared for both physically and mentally and society should be guided to respect them more.

While urging health workers to stick to professional rules and ethics, Xi ordered a severe crackdown on health-related crimes, especially violence targeting health workers.

According to Xi, local governments are encouraged to draft their own health development plans based on their own situations, and all policies and projects should be "systematically evaluated" to gauge their influence on people's health.

"We will actively participate in research and discussion concerning the making of international standards and criteria for health-related fields, and improve our country's work mechanism to offer assistance in major international public health emergencies," Xi said.

In particular, he vowed to strengthen health cooperation with countries in areas involving the Belt and Road Initiative.
China's full-year exports are likely to see a bigger drop than last year as downward economic pressures remain in place, a senior analyst at a government think tank said on Friday.

"Besides weak external demand, the country is suffering a hard time now," Long Guoqiang, deputy director of the Development Research Center of the State Council, told a news conference in Beijing.

He indicated traditional advantages enjoyed in previous years, such as relatively low-cost labor-intensive manufacturing industries, were losing traction in a weaker global economy while emerging advantages from expansion of the country's high-tech sector are still evolving.
It is quite common nowadays to see experienced talents heading back to the classrooms. [Photo/China Daily]

The proverb "you are never too old to learn" quite aptly reflects the current situation in China where an increasing number of individuals are taking a sabbatical from work to further their studies overseas.

"I firmly believe that I've made the right decision to return to school. This is a place where I can be calm and clearly think about my future plans following this second overseas study stint," says Pan Li, who is studying finance in Oxford University in the United Kingdom.

Pan, who already has a bachelor's degree in human resources management from the University of Chicago, was in the workforce for about four years before joining a Global 500 company in Shanghai last year.

However, disenchanted with having to "work like a robot all day", Li decided to quit after just three months in order to further her studies.

"It is quite common nowadays to see experienced talents heading back to the classrooms. People like us have a clearer objective in doing so. I am studying again so that I can obtain a higher-paying job," says Pan.

The 30-year-old is not alone as an over-aged student in the university. She has already found a group of fellow Chinese white collar workers who have similarly decided to expand their knowledge in their respective fields of expertise.

According to statistics by EIC education, more than 4 percent of their clients who have successfully applied for their courses in 2013 were aged over 25 years, and this percentage has continued to grow over the years.

"The increase in the number of applicants who have working experiences represents a natural change in attitudes among more ambitious Chinese young people who are seeking better jobs with higher salaries," says Lu Jie, an overseas study consultant at EIC Education.

Research results from EIC Education, which boasts more than 20 years of experience in the overseas education sector, also showed that the quality of overseas students will continue to increase as more universities set higher standards and requirements for applicants.

"Well-educated and experienced applicants have clearer plans in mind as compared to their teenage counterparts. They are usually more independent and keen to take up business management courses such as an MBA," adds Lu.

The research also revealed that most of these older students will return to China to put their knowledge into practice following the completion of their studies.

One such individual is 34-year-old Wen Jing, who is currently pursuing her PhD in architecture design in Sheffield University in the UK. Formerly a graduate of the China Central Academy of Fine Arts who majored in landscape design, Wen believes her second education stint marks a turning point in her life.

"I think it is the right time for me to leave behind the busy work life and rediscover my passion for architecture. All the lecturers and readings in university now are helping to keep me focused on my craft," says Wen, who has seven years of experience as a landscape architect.

"Of course I will go back to China after this refreshing one-year experience. I believe it will help me with creating more innovative ideas in launching my own projects in my home country which is full of opportunities."
An increasing number of midcareer Chinese are seeking greener pastures by furthering their studies overseas, but life has not been all fun and games for some of the spouses who have tagged along

For Zhang Dida, her new life in the United States is a stark contrast to the one she had back in Shanghai where she was constantly bogged down with work.

One of the many Chinese citizens who hold onto the F-2 dependent visa, meant for spouses and children of F-1 student visa holders, Zhang was presented with the opportunity to take over her family business but decided that she would instead follow her husband, who wanted to pursue a master's degree in Business Administration at Boston University. The couple arrived in the US city last August.

Zhang says that she is now able to enjoy a slower pace of life which has allowed her to spend more time doing what she is fond of. She has taken up English lessons, joined a dance team, cooked for her church members and participated in volunteering work. She and her husband are also expecting a baby in August.

"I wanted to show support for my husband who was keen to further his studies in order to secure a promising future for us, and that's why I decided to come and start a new life," says the 29-year-old.

"It is actually quite common to see fellow Chinese walking through the campuses in the US, which is the top choice of my husband and his course mates who harbor strong ambitions to achieve more in life."

Her husband is planning to find a job in the US following the completion of his studies and Zhang says that she is also contemplating whether to follow in his footsteps.

"My dream would be to stay home and raise the kids while my husband holds onto a stable job. He could drive us out of the city for short trips on weekends and we will also adopt a dog and let it be a companion for our children," says Zhang.

Over in Texas, Vincent Ye's five years in the country has been filled with more pressure than excitement. Ye has resorted to being a driving trainer in the day and a restaurant waiter at night as his wife is still a PhD student in traditional medicine.

F-2 visa holders are only eligible for enrollment in vocational or recreational courses and are prohibited from working in the country.

Ye and his wife plan to settle in the US and will start looking for jobs after the latter graduates later this year.
A train runs on a track in Huangshan, taking visitors to the picturesque valleys. [Photo by Hu Yongqi/China Daily]

In 1990, the area was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list and it was also named a Global Geopark in 2004. Hu Yongqi visits Huangshan, the scenic spot in Anhui province, to check out the attractions Hu Yongqi

As the cable car goes up to another peak, the mist covered Huangshan Mountain does not allow a clear view of the pines and rocks in the valley. The mountain is like a shy girl unwilling to show her face to visitors in the rainy season.

However, this view still eye-catching as the breeze pushes away the mist to show the beauty described by Xu Xiake, a famous travel writer from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

The area is known for its pines, rocks, clouds and all-season hot springs.

In 1990, Huangshan Mountain was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list and it was also named a Global Geopark in 2004.

After a recent trip to the heritage site, I could not agree more with Xu's famous description: "One doesn't want to visit other mountains after returning from Huangshan Mountain."

Burdened with a tight work schedule, I could not find the time to visit the area in the prime season from August to October. But for four days in late June, my girlfriend and I were amazed by the mountain in my home province of Anhui in East China.
New military equipments are seen at the shooting range near the village Divichky of Kiev, Ukraine on April 27, 2016. The president of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko took part in the transfer of the modernized and new military equipment to the troops.[Photo/VCG]

KIEV - The Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) said on Thursday it has recorded a presence of heavy weapons, which is banned under a current ceasefire deal, near the frontline in the eastern regions.

"The SMM observed numerous weapons missing from storage sites and the presence of weapons in violation of withdrawal lines, quite often in or near residential areas," the SMM said in a report.

In particular, last week, the OSCE monitors observed the presence of multiple rocket launchers on both sides of the contact line, the document said.

The report came amid an escalation of hostilities between government troops and independence-seeking insurgents in the restive area that started in May 2016 as the sides failed to find common ground on local elections in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions in eastern Ukraine.

Over the past day, three Ukrainian servicemen were killed and six others were wounded in the fighting, according to government military spokesman Olexandr Motuzyanyk.

The insurgents have not commented on their casualties in the past 24 hours.

More than 9,500 people were killed and 22,000 were injured since the conflict in eastern Ukraine started in April 2014.

The government and the rebel forces were meant to withdraw all their heavy weaponry from the combat area and place it into OSCE-monitored storage sites under the peace agreement reached in the Belarusian capital Minsk in February 2015.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte attends the 115th Police Service Anniversary at the Philippine National Police (PNP) headquarters in Quezon city, metro Manila, Philippines August 17, 2016. [Photo/VCG]

MANILA - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is expected to declare a ceasefire on Saturday to reciprocate a week-long truce that the communist rebels announced, presidential communication secretary Martin Andanar said.

Andanar told ABS-CBN News Channel in an interview that Duterte has "expressed his willingness to reciprocate" the ceasefire that the rebels announced on Friday night.

"As to the official announcement we should be expecting it within the day," said Andanar, adding the details of the government ceasefire will be announced later.

"As to the date, the schedule and how long the ceasefire will be (are) still under discussion" between Duterte and Presidential Peace Adviser Jesus Dureza and Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana," he said.

Andanar said Duterte "has already walked an extra mile for peace."

"He is glad that the (communist rebels) showed a similar gesture of goodwill as a sign of sincerity to the peace process days prior to our talks in Oslo, Norway," Andanar added, referring to the formal peace talks between the government and the rebels that will start next week.

"We therefore feel optimistic that the mutual efforts of both sides would lead to fruitful negotiations that could pave the way for substantive discussions in the hope of putting an end to one of Asia's longest-running insurgencies," he said.

The Communist Party of the Philippines declared on Friday a seven-day unilateral ceasefire ahead of the resumption of the peace in Oslo that starts on Monday.

The rebels said the ceasefire will take effect 12:01 am on Aug 21 and will last until 11:59 pm on Aug 27.

"This ceasefire declaration is encouraged by the (Philippine government's) facilitation of the release of the nearly all National Democratic

Front of the Philippines consultants who are set to participate in peace negotiations in the course of the next several months," the rebels said in a statement.

The formal talks will kick off on Aug 22 and will continue until Aug 26.
Chinese-chartered merchant ship Cosco Shipping Panama crosses the new Agua Clara Locks during the inauguration of the expansion of the Panama Canal in Colon, 80 km from Panama City on June 26, 2016 on June 26, 2016. [Photo/VCG]

PANAMA CITY - The administration of the Panama Canal (ACP) announced on Friday that it has begun a reforestation program covering 83 hectares in the province of Darien to compensate for the recent expansion of the Canal.

The reforestation is part of a campaign that will re-forest 1,243 hectares nationwide at a cost of 3 million US dollars, the ACP said in a statement. A total of 937 hectares of land have already been reforested.

"We are very proud of the benefits that the canal expansion has brought to this part of the country, especially as this is the first restoration project by the Canal in Darien," said Ilya Espino de Marotta, the ACP's executive vice-president.

Hermel Lopez, regional director for the Ministry of the Environment, said the project is highly important for the province, given the reduction in its forest cover.

The ACP reforestation program includes planting coffee and cacao trees as well as native species, such as the cocobolo.

The ACP has committed itself to planting two hectares of trees for each hectare which was affected by the canal expansion works.

The initiative will take place over one year of active planting and four more years of maintenance, carried out by local contractors.

According to Panama's National Association for the Conservation of Nature, Panama has lost 65 percent of its original forest cover due to a deforestation rate of around 20,000 hectares a year.

The government has teamed up with Ancon to reforest 1 million hectares in 20 years.
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Juicy Details of Ayesha Currys Love Story With Stephen, Her Family Members and Recent Pursuits When your husband is one of the greatest basketballers that the NBA has ever seen, then it bestows on you the status of a celebrity wife  and may not even demand that you do anything extra to maintain that status. However, Ayesha Curry, the wife of multiple NBA champion, Steph Curry, is not one ...

What Is Tarek el Moussas Ethnicity, Why Did He Divorce His Wife and Who Is He Dating? Tarek El Moussa has made himself one of the most recognizable men on reality television, especially to fans of HGTV. Thanks to his expertise in the world of real estate, Tarek has become a national star. But even to his hardcore followers, there are questions about Tarek El Moussa that remain unanswered, such as his ...

Fun Facts About Natalie Beckers Lonely Childhood and Eventual Career Success Natalie Becker is an actress of South African descent who became famous for her appearance in films like The World Unseen and The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior. A multitalented individual, Natalie is also a television/radio presenter. She is also a co-founder of the Thought Leader Global Media which she runs together with ...

Top 3 Female CNN News Anchors You Didnt Know Were Africans CNN is one of the leading news agencies in the world. The satellite and cable news network was founded in 1980 by Ted Turner and has been one of the best sources of news for a number of years. It also boasts of the best journalists and presenters all around in media broadcasting. The company is a ...

Channels That Aided Katie Pavlichs Growth as a Journalist and All About Her Marriage To Friedson If you have ever come across any Fast and Furious featuring Barack Obama, it is the handiwork of Katie Pavlich. The book which claims to have exposed Obamas bloodiest scandal and the shameless cover-up thereof, has been earning Pavlich much praise and fame ever since it was published in 2012. Nonetheless, Pavlich is more famed ...

Is Oprah Winfrey Married? Husband, Children, Biography, House, Facts Oprah Winfrey is a billionaire philanthropist, talk show icon, producer, actress, and writer. The media icon famously dubbed The Queen Of All Media owns and hosts the highest-rated television program in the media circle. Read more about the powerful television star below. Oprah Winfrey Biography Oprah was born as Orpah Gail Winfrey on January 29, 1954, to a ...

Who Is Arsenio Hall, What Happened To His Talk Show and Why Do Fans Think He Is Gay? He is one of the funniest beings to have graced the comedy constituent of the American entertainment industry. Arsenio Hall has a reputation for the rib-cracking disposition always portrayed in his comedy roles. He is not just a comedian; he is also an actor and a former talk show host for his popular show, The ...

What Is Woah Vicky Famous For and Who Are Her Family Members? Like most social media celebrities in this digital era, Woah Vicky is one of those stars that have utilized the internet as a powerful tool to propel themselves to instant fame. The social media space, such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, etc., offers lots of people the right opportunities and potentials to become superstars overnight. Not everyone achieves ...

Where Is Michael Strahan Since His Retirement From The NFL and Who Is His Partner? Michael Strahan is a retired American football player turned media personality. He played the defensive lineman position and holds the record for most sacks in a single NFL season. He also only played for the New York Giants throughout the entire 15-year professional career that saw him win a Super Bowl ring. In February 2014, ...

How Wendy Williams Went From Being a College DJ to Having Her Own Talk Show and More About Her Divorce Wendy Williams is a former radio personality, now talk show host, who is known for her outspokenness and brash no-nonsense attitude. She gained fame and notoriety for her on-air clashes with celebrities before moving on to host her own talk show. Since 2008, Williams has hosted the nationally syndicated television talk show, The Wendy Williams Show. ...

Who is Sunny Hostin? Her Husband, Family & Net Worth Sunny Hostin is no ordinary Latina  American lawyer but also a successful columnist, multi-platform journalist, and social commentator. A happily married woman and mother of two, Hostin is the Senior Legal Correspondent and Analyst for ABC News and co-host of ABCs popular morning talk show, The View. She is a legal expert popularly known as a former ...

Who Is Robert Costa and Is He Married, Who Is His Wife? Robert Costa is a political analyst for NBC News and MSNBC who is regarded as being part of Americas next generation of journalists. The University of Notre Dame graduate, who is of Italian/Portuguese descent, has been lauded for his fresh political perspectives in an industry full of old heads. In addition to his work listed above, Costa ...

Team Valor Pokemon Go  7 Key Facts You Need To Know Team Valor Pokemon Go  The craze of the new game Pokemon Go is one that took the gaming world by storm sending teenagers and adults alike into a frenzy and one of its teams Team Valor, has proven to be instrumental in making it so. Before the game was created, Pokemon was a cartoon ...

Sheryl Underwood  Husband, Family & Net Worth She is known for her trademark smile which can be described as the brightest and broadest smile ever seen on planet earth. She is none other than Sheryl Underwood the comedian, actress, and TV host whose funny wits has left America in great awe. Although Sheryl has risen to become an important personality in the industry, ...

Team Mystic Pokemon Go: 7 Facts You Need To Know And Signs You Are One Team Mystic of the break out game Pokemon Go is a team that is full of sass and chivalry. With an enchanting monicker, Team Mystic stands out from the rest of its counterparts and deserves to take the crown as champion in the Pokemon gaming-verse. To be a member of this exceptional team of Pokemon battle ...

Exploring Guy Beahms Dr Disrespect Persona, Wife and Why He was Banned Permanently From Twitch Guy Beahm who is popularly known by his online alias  Dr DisRespect, is an award-winning Twitch.tv streamer. He has leveraged on the Twitch platform to become an internet personality that is quite widely known. His online success is just more proof that anyone who is good at what they do can attain celebrity status ...

Critical Facts About Lee Ann McAdoo  The Infowars Anchor Lee Ann Mcadoo is a conservative journalist and television host whose interests in conspiracies and astrology has established her as a famous American reporter. Often referred to as Wonder Woman, McAdoo is a reporter who works for InfoWars.com, a controversial right-wing website run by radio show host, Alex Jones. Who Is Lee Ann McAdoo? Lee Ann McAdoo was born on 7 ...

Millie Weaver  Age, Husband & Infowars Career Millie Weaver is an American model, journalist, political activist, and social commentator. The young and beautiful journalist rose to fame working as a reporter for a controversial right-wing website InfoWars.com. Also known as Millennial Millie, Weaver is a social media influencer with over 100,000 subscribers on her YouTube channel and over 35,000 followers on Twitter. Who Is Millie Weaver and What Is ...

Is Jessica Tarlov Married? What Are Her Height & Weight? Jessica Tarlov is an American political consultant, strategist, and analyst whose influential and regular TV presence has made a popular figure. A good example of beauty with brains, Tarlov has appeared on various TV networks, mostly the FOX News Network where she is known for her liberal views on political analysis and insights. She is also the senior director ...

Who Is Kelly Rebecca Nichols  Alex Jones Ex-Wife? Kelly Rebecca Nichols is the ex-wife of controversial American radio show host, Alex Jones. She got nationwide attention following her divorce and subsequent custody battle with her estranged husband. Nichols, who worked with PETAs public relations department, was herself no stranger to controversies as she was involved in several publicity stunts of the non-profit animal rights ...

Who Is Bree Morgan  Cole Sprouse Ex-Girlfriend And What Is She Up To Now? Although Bree Morgan became famous through the Instagram, she also sapped some dose of popularity from Disneys sweetheart, Cole Sprouse of the Sprouse brothers. She is not only an Instagram star but also a YouTube vlogger whose popularity has long exceeded the ordinary level. Bree is conspicuously prominent on the internet and has her digital savviness ...

Does Vanna White Have Husband or Children, What Is Her Net Worth / Salary? For over three decades, Vanna White has been a household name, famous as the co-host and letter turner of the iconic NBC game show Wheel of Fortune. The talented and beautiful television personality is also an actress with several TV series and films to her credit. Since making her Wheel of Fortune debut in 1982, she has become one ...

Liz Wheeler  Biography, Husband & Net Worth Liz Wheeler is the kind of girl who sets the room on fire whenever she comes around. In this situation, however, she sets our screens on fire each time she appears as the host of One America News Tipping Point. She is, therefore, a presenter, publisher, consultant and a member of the Board of Zoning ...

Betty White  Net Worth, Children & Husband The entertainment industry will remain indebted to personalities like Betty White who brought something extra to the table and kept the world entertained for donkey years. The comedienne, actress, and writer graced the big screens in the early 50s as a show host and has been a delight since then. She is the queen of ...

Is Bill Nye (The Science Guy) Dead or Alive, What Are His Net Worth & Education? Everyone will always remember Bill Nye as the Science Guy. Besides his TV show Bill Nye the Science Guy, he is well-known for his Netflix show Bill Nye Saves the World which started airing in 2017 as well as his appearances in many famous media projects as a science educator. The star studied mechanical engineering ...

Is Cesar Millan Dead, Who Is The Wife & What Is His Net Worth? Cesar Millan is the famous dog whisperer who often stirs up mixed emotions. The Mexican-American is precisely speaking, a dog behaviorist; he has been in the game for over 25 years. His Emmy-nominated television series, Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan further pushed his method and tactics into the limelight. The series was produced from 2004 ...

Is Thomas Sanders Gay and Does He Have A Boyfriend? By the time Vine was shut down in January 2017, Thomas Sanders was already popular within and beyond the internet community for his heavy involvements on the online video hosting platform. After the tragic shutdown of Vine impacted on the growing career of the multi-talented personality, he immediately switched over to YouTube where he continued to upload ...

Is Shepard Smith Gay, Who Is The Boyfriend & What Is His Net Worth? There are only a few media personalities who are as bold and confident as Shepard Smith. Apart from his impressive stint at Fox News Channel which includes but not limited to his classic news delivery, upfront stance on virtually every issue and much more; he loves his job as much as he loves his personality. Smith ...

Is Milo Yiannopoulos Gay? His Husband and Net Worth Milo Yiannopoulos is a popular writer, journalist, polemicist, public speaker, and political commentator who is also known as the founder of The Kernel, an online blog. He has been said to be among the list of 100 weird and influential people in the United Kingdom. He appeared on this list as a result of personal beliefs and ...

Does Ryan Seacrest Have A Wife Or Girlfriend, What Is His Net Worth? From radio to television, Ryan Seacrest is a household name and a force to be reckoned with in showbiz. The radio personality, television host, and producer is best recognized as the host of the popular TV talent search contest American Idol. Heres how the media personality who always knew what his lifes ambition was and diligently pursued ...

Is Anderson Cooper Gay, Who is The Boyfriend or Husband? For many, the thought of becoming a millionaire by writing and talking about other people appears unachievable but this is the reality of the prominent American journalist Anderson Cooper who gathered millions of dollars for conducting accurate political analysis and other vital reports on TV. He is the main anchor of the CNN news show Anderson ...

Is David Muir Gay or Does He Have A Wife, What Is His Salary? David Muir is an Emmy Award-winning journalist who works for the ABC broadcast-television network and anchors the ABC World News Tonight with David Muir program while also co-anchoring the magazine program 20/20. The Ithaca College graduate, whose show has become the most-watched newscast in America, has covered stories from all across America and the world; reporting ...

Joel Osteen  Divorce Rumors, Net Worth & Family Members Joel Osteen is an American Televangelist, Senior Pastor of Lakewood Church based in Houston, Texas, a husband and a father of two. He is an author of many books, seven of which are New York Times Best Sellers and his televised sermons capture more than 7 million viewers per week and 20 million every month ...

Who Is Todd Chrisley? What To Know About His Children, Gay Rumors & Net Worth Premiered on the USA network in 2014, Chrisley Knows Best is one of the most watched family reality TV shows in the U.S. The series which is currently in its sixth season is centered around U.S real estate mogul Todd Chrisley and his family. The show reveals Todd the patriarch of the Chrisley family as a strict dad who rules ...

Who Is Shannon Bream Of Fox News? Her Husband, Children & Net Worth Shannon Bream who hosts the iconic primetime program started her journalism career in the late 1990s debuting as the evening and late-night news reporter for the CBS affiliate, WBTV. The beauty from America currently works for the Fox News Channel and she is best known for anchoring the primetime program. She also hosts Americas News ...

Is Troye Sivan Gay, Who Is His Boyfriend and What Is His Net Worth? Troye Sivan is an Australian singer and songwriter best known for songs like Happy Little Pill, Youth, Heaven (with Betty Who) and The Boyfriend Tag (with Tyler Oakley) which have all garnered him different awards and ranked on the Billboard Charts. Sivan, who was born in South Africa but now resides in the United States, is ...

Did iDubbbz Have Cancer, Is He Gay and Who Is His Girlfriend Now? iDubbbz is one YouTuber who has made a career out of courting controversy. Renowned for his absurdist channels and comedy video series, the Los Angeles based personality is the owner of two channels, iDubbzTV, and iDubbzTV2, as well as the brains behind comedy video series such as Content Cop, Kickstarter Crap, Gaming News Crap, and ...

Inside Greg Gutfelds Love Story With Wife Elena Moussa and Why Fans Thought He Was Gay Greg Gutfeld is a seasoned American television producer whose career in the media industry has spanned over a decade. He is a man of many talents who makes extra income through comedy, journalism, and editorial works. Gutfeld regularly appears on Fox News Channel as a panellist and co-host of the political talk show The Five ...

Works That Made Bo Burnham A Household Name and How Much He Is Worth Now One of YouTubes first viral stars and the worlds most exciting young comedian, Bo Burnham, has always amazed critics and comedy aficionados alike. Often regarded as the Justin Bieber of comedy, thanks to his fresh looks, floppy blond hair and hoodies, he has a multi-faceted career bigger than many comedians twice his age. It wouldnt ...

Is Louie Anderson Gay And What Is His Net Worth? Louie Anderson has one of the most abstract faces in the industry and equally knows how to use it to his advantage. He is not only a stand-up comedian but also an actor and television host who is known for his distinctive comic wits. Some of his notable projects include Family Feud, where he was ...

Is Don Lemon of CNN Gay, Who is His Partner and What Is His Salary? Don Lemon has risen to become one of the most recognizable faces on CNN over the past few years. The fiery journalist, who anchors CNN Tonight with Don Lemon, is liked and somewhat disliked for his strong and candid opinions on a variety of matters that do not just include politics but also race, significantly, matters that ...

Is Rachel Maddow Gay, Who is the Wife and How Much Does She Earn in Salary? Rachel Maddow is an award-winning American journalist, political commentator, and television news anchor. She is best known for hosting the popular nightly TV show The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC. Prior to this, she hosted a talk radio program on Air America Radio from 2005 to 2010. As of now, the TV sensation co-anchors MSNBCs ...

Demystifying Pokimane  Her Real Name, Ethnicity & Boyfriend Like most social media celebrities in this digital era, Pokimane Thicc is one of those stars who took advantage of the internet to make a name for herself. Given the unlimited potentials which the social media space offers, many people have been instantly propelled to fame just by posting creative online contents. Not only has ...

A Breakdown of Kris Jenners Net Worth, Sources Of Income and Relationships Over The Years Standing outside and looking in, Kris Jenner looks like the oil that greases the wheels of the entire Kardashian/Jenner machine. She has been dubbed a momager and rightfully so because she seems to have had a part to play in the trajectory of each and every one of her daughters individually and the Kardashian brand ...

Pursuits That Brought Liza Koshys Fame To its Zenith and Her Love Life Since David Dobrik Liza Koshy is an American actress who has leveraged YouTube as a platform to promote her comedy while also serving as a television host on occasions. She is talented and funny and has gathered a lot of fans from around the world. Koshy started on Vine in high school and was able to get millions of ...

Alex Aiono Biography  Inside The Life Of The American Singer Not everyone who started from the streets has attained the heights where Alex Aiono is currently. His story could be referred to as the perfect definition of rising from Grass to Grace. He came into the limelight after he started out as a YouTuber, singer, and producer. One fascinating thing about the young YouTuber is ...

Virginia Vallejo Biography And Her Love Story With Pablo Escobar Virginia Vallejo can be referred to as one of the oldest whistleblowers in history after her involvement with Pablo Escobar which made her famous. Over the years, many questions have been raised about her relationship with the drug lord and why she endangered her life to be with him despite his notorious acts. The death ...

Princess Love Bio  Ethnicity, Real Name & Parents For many people, Princess Love is simply Ray Js wife but there is so much more to this feisty lady than meets the eye. She is a star in her own right and has many feathers on her cap. Princess Love is a reality TV star, a model, video vixen, and fashion designer. She and her ...

Who is Papa Franku Also Known As Filthy Frank or Joji, Where is He Now? The social media as we all know today has given people the opportunity to be creative and innovative and at the same time, make something of themselves. YouTube is one of the known social platforms we have today that makes it possible for people to express their God-given talents and post videos they created to ...

Who Is Molly Qerim, How Did She Become a Famous Sports Anchor and Who Is Her Husband? Molly Qerim is an American sports anchor popularly known for moderating First Take, a highly rated sports talk show, on ESPN. Prior to joining ESPN, Qerim hosted Fantasy Live and NFL AM on NFL Network. It is quite obvious that the widely acclaimed television personality is in a class of her own when it comes ...

Safiya Nygaard  Height, Parents & Net Worth Safiya Nygaard is an American YouTuber, writer, content producer, and director who is popular for posting makeup, beauty and fashion videos on YouTube. Her videos regularly top at least one million views, thanks to her lively character as well as her willingness to experiment with outrageous outfits and different beauty products. Here are the things to ...

The Rigors of Sunlen Serfatys Career Journey Until CNN and Fun Facts About Her Personal Life CNN correspondent, Sunlen Serfaty is an Emmy Award-winning journalist known for covering a broad range of breaking news stories, national news, and Washington politics. She has been able to garner widespread recognition for herself which even goes beyond the sphere of her work. Her profile also increased with the extensive work she did in covering ...

Demystifying Jazz Jennings Real Name, Boyfriend & Family Of One The Youngest Transgenders Jazz Jennings is an unusual personality who became famous as a transgender activist and was recorded as the youngest documented public figure to be seen as transgender. She is also a YouTube personality and spokesmodel for brands, her fans, and other transgenders. She fought for acceptance in her high school with her super supportive family for over ...

Inside Fred Armisens Life  Ethnicity, Romantic Relationships and Gay Rumors Fred Armisen is an award-winning American comedian, he is also a writer, an actor as well as a musician. He was a cast member of the legendary comedy show, Saturday Night Live for 13 years and also one of the brains behind the successful satirical show Portlandia. Find out more about this incredibly talented guy ...

Ed and Lorraine Warren Biography: Cases, Kids, and Family Life Have you ever woken up with fear you could not explain, or felt a strange presence that made the hair at your nape rise or even experienced strange occurrences around you? Well, these were some of the promptings that made the well-known paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren delve into trying to explain the ideas ...

Truth About Tony Romos Wife, Kids and Life Since His NFL Retirement Tony Romo grew from the field as a quarterback to the screens as an American Football Analyst. He was a quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys in the richest football league in the world (NFL) before retiring. As a junior, he was honored as an All-Ohio Conference Member, an Ohio Valley Conference Player of the Year and ...

Who is Brittany Venti, The Controversial Game Streamer and YouTuber? In recent times, many people live stream themselves playing video games. This has become a popular pastime on the internet and many highly skilled gamers have become internet celebrities through this means. However, some of them rather than becoming renowned for their gaming skills and great commentary, have become controversial and infamous. A good example ...

Rob Dyrdeks Family: His Kids And Relationship With Wife Bryiana Noelle Flores A multi-talented star and an elite pro skateboarder, Rob Dyrdeks success story began at a remarkably young age. Yet another proof that schooling doesnt always correlate with success, Rob has established himself not just as a phenomenal sportsman but also as a successful entrepreneur. Besides perfecting his skill as a natural talent on the board, ...

xChocobars  Biography and Everything You Should Know About Her Having distinguished herself and recorded massive successes in an industry notably dominated by men, it is very safe to say that Xchocobars deserves all the attention and cash she makes from her career. A household name on Twitch (a smart live streaming video platform), the online-gamer is popularly known for streaming classic games such as Stardew ...

Everything To Know About Mary Padian, Her Boyfriend and Net Worth Mary Padian is a famous American television reality personality best known for her involvements on the Reality show Storage Wars. She also has her own shop called Mary finds where she displays her antique collections. Since her childhood, Padian has been a creative learner. At the time, she used to create new items out of reusable ones and ...

Betsy Woodruffs Family Life: Is She Married or Related To Bob Woodruff? An old name in the world of journalism, Betsy Woodruff has warmed her way into the hearts of many with her impressive talents. Through hard work, Woodruff has carved a niche for herself in a very competitive field. Betsy has strong family and work values and is also an advocate for equal opportunities for everyone ...

Matpat (Matthew Patrick)  Wife, Height & Net Worth As far as internet business is concerned, Matpat remains one of the most dynamic and seasoned figures. He boasts a wealth of experience that has helped him in growing his business from one level of greatness to another. Like most successful people, MatPat started out small but today, he makes millions of dollars from his ...

Facts About Ricegum  His Girlfriend, Real Name & Net Worth Ricegum is an online gamer and YouTube sensation who ditched college; took advantage of the digital era, and made a name for himself on the internet. Though he began as a gaming YouTuber, Ricegum soon gained recognition as a controversial internet star following his many diss tracks. Here is everything you need to know about the youngster ...

Joy Taylor Once Married MLBs Richard Giannotti  Inside Look At Her Love Life and Family The erosion of the sexist idea that women have no business in sports broadcasting created a host of women celebrities who attained fame outside of modeling and acting. One of them, Joy Taylor, a radio personality and TV host for Fox Sports 1, has been in the industry since 2009, becoming one of the most ...

What To Know About Conan OBriens Wife, Kids & Family Today The name Conan OBrien is one that jumps right at you almost immediately you start talking about the most popular television hosts in the USA and this is no surprise because the man behind that name has risen to become one of the most admired men in the business. Known for hosting the late-night talk ...

David Letterman  Net Worth, Wife & Son In all of American, one man whose face has been seen frequently by late night TV talk show lovers is none but David Letterman. The comedian and TV show veteran has been hosting late night talk shows for more than three decades. His Late Night with David Letterman show began on February 1st, 1982 aired ...

Demystifying Sssniperwolfs Family Background And The Boyfriends Shes Had Since she launched her eponymously named channel in 2013, Sssniperwolf has been on the rise when it comes to video game influencers. She is one of the biggest names in the online gaming subgenre of YouTube videos. Real name Lia Shelesh, she started with Call of Duty: Black Ops II but has diversified with other ...

Lester Holt  Wife, Family & Net Worth Lester Holt is a multiple award-winning journalist, newscaster, reporter, and actor who has worked for notable media houses like WCBS TV, CBS, MSNBC and among others. His remarkable feat in journalism has endeared him to the hearts of many and earned him some awards and recognitions. Read on to get acquainted with his biography, ethnicity, ...

What Is Louis C.K. Doing Now, Where Are His Family And How Much Is His Net Worth? It is not easy to make it in comedy. It takes more than a funny bone and the ability to elicit a few giggles from a listening audience. For all the complexities that go into making a successful career in comedy, Louis C.K, the Washington D.C-born comedian, did it. For years, he was at the ...

The Progression of Hoda Kotbs Career, Her Ancestry and Family Life Hoda Kotb gained fame as a television host and news anchor for NBC. She anchors the shows signature show Today, and it has been an excellent vehicle for her skills in front of a camera. Kotb has won several awards, including Daytime Emmys and Peabody Awards. Simply put, she is one of the most successful ...

Jerry Seinfelds Family: All About The Amazing Comedians Wife and Kids Apparently one of the highly important entertainers in America, Jerry Seinfeld is a man of many talents. A very funny man, he is considered to be one of the most successful comedians in the USA who has been in the business as a professional rib-cracker for more than 40 years. As an actor, he has ...

The Rigors Of Sarah Silvermans Rise To Prominence And Rundown Of The Men She Has Dated A comedian, writer, and actress, Sarah Silvermans art and craft is as unique as you would ever find. Her poignant use of comedy to discuss social issues such as race, sexism, politics, and religion has gained her an impressive following. As unorthodox as her style is, so is her life experiences. She previously suffered from epiglottitis ...

Who Is Hannibal Buress, Does He Have A Wife or Girlfriend & Why Was He Arrested? Making people laugh when they are tense or not in the mood is a tough order and to ply the trade, it must indeed take some guts and expertise, this is what the humor maker, Hannibal Buress has been able to achieve and sustain after his inital teething process. The African-American is a screen writer, stand-up ...

The Success of John Mulaneys Career Efforts Since His Work On Saturday Night Live and Facts About His Wife John Mulaney had been working as a professional comedian for years before Saturday Night Live changed his status for life and like many who are now his fans, you probably did not know of him then. However, that changed when he joined the sketch comedy show in 2008. Since then, he has been one of ...

Jeff Dunham  Wife, Children and Net Worth Ventriloquism is a very subtle method of making an inanimate object (like a puppet, doll or dummy) appear to be saying words which are actually coming from the person (holding the inanimate object). In effect, the individual throws his/her voice to the puppet and can even appear to be having a conversation with it. Not ...

Ellen DeGeneres  Net Worth, Wife  Portia de Rossi & Parents Ellen DeGeneres is an American female standup comedian who has proven that whatever a man can do, a woman can also do. Since her journey as a standup comedian started in 1981, she has held swirl as one of the finest comedians America and the world at large has seen. She is often referred to ...

Revisiting Joan Rivers Death  The Daughter, Husband & Net Worth She Left Behind Joan Rivers was a renowned American comedian, TV host, writer, and actress. Her brand of comedy consisted of scathing one-liners and no individual or topic is spared. She hosted her own talk shows in the 80s and 90s and was a pioneer for women in stand up comedy. She was the first woman to host a late night ...

The Struggles of Margaret Chos Childhood, How It Influenced Her Career Growth and Love Life Margaret Cho is best described as a comic star who knows how to maneuver everything related to life into a rib-cracking joke. She is also known to criticize every social and political problem, especially those involving race and sexuality. Apart from her talents as a comic actress, she does amazingly well as a singer and ...

Where Is Eric Bolling Today? Who Is His Son & What Is His Net Worth? Eric Bolling who was once a notable figure on Fox News, is an American TV personality, an author, and versatile Journalist. As a political and financial analyst/commentator, he anchored discussions bothering on finance for Fox Business Channel. Here is everything there is to know about his career, family, and allegations that led to his exit ...

Who Is Chelsea Handler and Does She Have A Husband or Boyfriend? Chelsea Handler is one of Americas top female comedians. She is also an actress, writer, television host, producer, and activist. She is known to be very outspoken even with things that are very personal. In separate interviews with The New York Times, Handler revealed that she had an abortion twice when she was 16. She has authored five books ...

How Did Laura Lee Achieve Fame, How Much is She Worth and Who is Her Husband? Laura Lee is a popular American YouTuber, make-up artist and beauty blogger. From posting videos of her makeup routines on Instagram, Lee has transformed into a beauty influencer and a YouTube sensation. Today, her YouTube Channel has over 630 million views and 4.5 million subscribers. Asides having millions of followers across all social media platforms, ...

Madison Gesiotto Bio  Ethnicity, Parents & Measurements Madison Gesiotto is no ordinary woman; although she excelled in quite a number of pageants and competitions while she was in school, it is her views on politics and issues in America that has made her name known to most people. She possesses beauty and intelligence in a seemingly equal measure and has been able ...

Who Is Lil Tay? Parents, Brother, Sister, Age, Net Worth, Ethnicity Child stardom is nothing new in the entertainment world. With the advent of social media, we have seen more stars made from the internet than ever before, and Lil Tay is one of them. Her uploaded rap videos trademark is cursing, swearing, cash-throwing, and use of obscene languages. Her fame went wild after she dropped ...

What To Know About Tig Notaros Wife, Kids and Family Today Tig Notaro is an American stand-up comic star, writer, actress, and radio analyst. Since she started her career in 2001, she has become one of Americas best comedians, particularly when it comes to observational comedy. One prominent aspect of her routine involves her family, which includes a wife and two children. Interestingly, Tig Notaro is part ...

Who Is Chantel Jeffries? What To Know About Her Age, Ethnicity & Net Worth Chantel Jeffries is a lady of many talents. Beyond being celebrated as a DJ, she has fared well as a model, an actress, musician, and as an artist. She first rose to fame on Instagram where she has a large following. However, in recent times, she has hit the spotlight for her rumored relationships with some ...

Is Ellen DeGeneres Married, Who Is The Brother  Vance DeGeneres and Family Members? Ellen DeGeneres is one of a kind celebrity in todays world as she has used her wealth for the greater good for many people. She has served a host of famous awards shows like the Grammy, Primetime Emmy and Academy Awards. Moreso, she is probably one of the most decorated entertainment personalities around the world and ...

Carli Bybel Bio  Height, Boyfriend & Net Worth Video blogging is now on the rise and YouTube is the place where most of it happens. If you are a lady who cares about her looks or a guy who likes to help his woman out with her looks, then one person whose name rings a bell when it comes to giving beauty tips ...

Who Is Lexy Panterra? What To Know About Her Ethnicity, Boyfriend & Net Worth Lexy Panterra is one of the YouTube personalities whose breakout came through the Twerk dance videos she posted on her social media handles and YouTube which has so far generated over 13 million views for her. From there on, she created her LexTwerkOut workout program in 2014. She is sure very talented as she as moved ...

Who Is AnneMunition? What Is Her Ethnicity & Does She Have A Girlfriend or Boyfriend? AnneMunition is a professional gamer and content creator of American origin. She is one of the most sought-after streamers on Twitch  a popular online platform for watching and streaming videos, especially video games. AnneMunition has almost half a million followers on Twitch and her channel has accumulated at least 13 million views. Her favorite games ...

Norm MacDonald  Former Wife, Son & Net Worth Recently, 59-year-old former Saturday Night Live stand-up comic Norm MacDonald caused a not-so-funny stir when he expressed his personal opinion about the #MeToo movement speaking in defense of Louis CK and Roseanne Barr. Following the backlash of his actions, he is diligently doing damage control for his questionable opinion by posting a public apology on ...

Inside Iliza Shlesingers Life With Husband and How Much She is Worth Now Witty, spontaneous, and truly humorous, Iliza Shlesinger is an American comedian who is clearly proving that the stereotypical claim that women are not really funny is not only incredibly wrong but completely outrageous. Having been in the game for more than 10 years, Shlesinger has grown bigger with each step, stunning fans with her incredible ...

Who Is Nessa Diab? Details of her Parents, Ethnicity & Relationship With Colin Kaepernick Nessa Diab has gained more fame as the girlfriend of different footballers than in her career. She is currently with the popular National Football League (NFL) player, Colin Kaepernick, and has stood by his side during his most trying times. Also known for her mononym, Nessa, she recently engaged in a tweet battle with the ...

Samantha Bee  Inside the Life of Full Frontal Comedian and Presenter We have over the decades seen various brands of humor and personalities who have walked the ropes. One of the formidable forces in the world of comedy is no other than the iconic Samantha Bee of the Daily Show who now runs her own television show on TBS channel. She is a Canadian-American political commentator, ...

What Happened To Jessica Williamss Boyfriend And Which Are Her Best Works? Jessica Williams is a woman who has a lot of feathers in her cap  and keeps acquiring more. The former senior political correspondent of the comic Daily Show, who is also a comedian and actress whose recent movie appearance include starring as a playwright just recovering from a recent split with her boyfriend, Damon, and ...

Who is Nicole Byer? Here are 5 Facts You Need To Know About The Comedian Nicole Byer, an American comedian, actress, and writer, made a name for herself after she played supporting roles on MTVs prank show Ladylike and the reality show Girl Code. The latter was a series that featured comedians who analyzed in minute details, all the issues that young women deal with daily, from period to dating, to weird friendship dynamics and questions about sex. Currently, ...

A Closer Look At Bart Kwans Ethnicity, Height & Personal Life Bart Kwan is one of few Asians who is known for being successful in the comic industry at an international level. His fame broke out after the YouTube channel which he created with his close pal Joe Jo garnered up massive followings. The talented duo has been running the channel since 2007 and their success ...

Heres How VanossGaming Achieved Fame Online, His Worth and Other Facts About The Gamer For many years, the decision to drop out of college to pursue an online career was considered to be foolish and self-destructive by conventional wisdom. It was no different when Evan Fong, popularly known as VanossGaming, dropped out of college to pursue a YouTube career. However, that radical move paid off, and he stands shoulder to ...

Desi Perkins  Ethnicity, Net Worth & Husband YouTube is littered with videos of makeup tutorials by different people but if you are interested in learning how to do your makeup like a pro, there is just one person on that platform who you must follow. She is none other than Desi Perkins! She is a popular make-up artist, Instagram star, and vlogger. Desi, ...

The Phases of Casey Neistats Pursuits and His Love Story With Candice Pool YouTuber, vlogger, filmmaker, and creator extraordinaire; these are just a few hats that Casey Neistat wears and the story of how he got here is incredible. A native of Connecticut, Neistat started out by making refreshingly-authentic short films and videos that featured content that was based on everyday life and called attention to serious issues. He ...

Connor Franta  Inside The Life of American YouTuber YouTube has produced a lot of young celebrities in modern times and Connor Franta happens to be one of them. Apart from being a YouTuber, the young American is also an entrepreneur, entertainer, and writer. His journey to fame began almost a decade ago when he started a self-named YouTube channel where he uploads content ranging ...

Rhett and Link  Bio, Who are Their Wives, Net Worth and Family Facts Rhett and Link refer to an American comedy duo who are very popular on YouTube. They are known for their comic songs, viral commercials, skits and the daily show, Good Mythical Morning. Good Mythical Morning is the most watched daily show online, averaging 100 million views in a month. The show has featured guests such ...

A Walk Through The Maze of Ryan Higas Career Pursuits And Relationship With Arden Cho Ryan Higa is not only celebrated as a YouTube star, but he is also famed for appearing on television screens as an actor and comedian. Nigahiga, his Youtube channel, has gathered over 20 million subscribers and billions of views with his different comic acts, short films, and music videos uploads. With the rise in his career, ...

What to Know About The Shows That Made Craig Ferguson a Star and His Family Ties Rising to the top of your profession can sometimes be a hard and difficult process. It requires days and nights of working consistently hard to be better than what you were yesterday. It requires not giving up when all of your experiences seem to be pushing you to quit. It is because of these challenges ...

David Dobrik Married Liza Koshy for One Month  Inside His Family and Relationships David Dobrik is a YouTube sensation who has garnered fame not just for his vlogs but his love life too. Given his career as a YouTuber, his channel is one place where he shares his romantic escapades. With a cute boyish look like his, this Slovakian young man is definitely a good catch, and not ...

Merrell Twins Bio  Ethnicity, Parents & Boyfriend One of the beautiful things about modern life is social media. As rudimentary as it might seem, it could turn out to be the greatest thing that would be invented in the next 50 years because of its impact on human life. Very few tools have revolutionized human behavior and culture as much as social ...

Who Is Bunny Meyer, Is She Married & What Is Her Net Worth? Bunny Meyer is a YouTube celebrity who has amassed over 8.8 million subscribers with 1.5 million viewers on her channel. She is popularly known as Grav3yardgirl and is one of the highest-paid YouTubers in the world. She initially started out as a fashion designer and later chose the path of a YouTuber. Grav3yardgirl has used her knowledge on fashion, makeup, ...

Ninja  Inside The Life of The American YouTuber and Internet Personality Ninja is a talented video game player known for his mastery of Fortnite and other seemingly difficult games he plays with ease. The video gamer made a career out of what is ordinarily the hobby of many people and has since then amassed a huge online following. Find out about him here, including the controversies that ...

What Is Eva Gutowskis True Sexuality and How Did She Rise So Fast As an Influencer? Ever since Eva Gutowski joined YouTube in 2011, it has been an interesting journey for her, moving from one milestone to the other. Backed by an army of young women and teenage girl fans known as Evanators, she has risen to become one of the most-talked-about personalities in the digital stratosphere. She has also leveraged ...

Emma Chamberlain Biography  Age, Height & Net Worth Before now, people in the entertainment industry could only achieve popularity after many years of dedication and hard work but since social media came into the scene, massive success and overnight popularity became possible. That is the story of Emma Chamberlain who encountered fame as a fifteen-year-old. Emma is one of the many young people who became ...

Anna Akana  Ethnicity, Boyfriend & Net Worth There is a new crop of YouTubers known by their different contents with a very strong uniqueness that stands every one of them out, some upload video games, some fashion while some others have comedy video contents to showcase on their channels. Anna Akana has used her platform to showcase her comedy contents to the ...

Revealing Truths About Lilly Singhs Ethnic Background, Family and Her Relationship With Yousef Erakat Lilly Singh is an Indian-Canadian YouTube personality, actress, and comedian also known as Superwoman. She kicked off her YouTube career in 2010 with the launch of her channel IISuperwomanII and followed it up with a vlog channel in 2011. This paved the way for her fame and success which led to a world tour. The ...

Who Is Andrea Constand, Is She Married and What Is Her Connection With Bill Cosby? Many people got sexually molested but could not voice out due to the stigma victims suffer and what will become of them thereafter. Very few of the victims danm every consequence to seek justice and bring the perpetrator to the book, like Andrea Constand. She never got any media buzz, not until her friend cum molester; ...

Who Is Lazarbeam (Lannan Eacott)? Here Are Facts You Need To Know Lannan Eacott became a person of interest after his YouTube channel, LazarBeam pulled him to the limelight. Initially, he started with uploads of Madden Challenge videos before deciding to build his own channel in January 2015. Within the space of three years, his YouTube channel had gathered over 7 million loyal subscribers. Today, he has not ...

Puzzling Facts About Wengies YouTube Success and More About Her Fiance Among the many YouTubers who have succeeded in winning the hearts of millions of people is Wengie. She is a Chinese-Australian YouTube personality, vlogger, singer, and voice actress. Wengie is famous for a lot of things, from her simple life hacks, DIYs, craft ideas to fun experiments, tricks and pranks. Her content portfolio also includes hair tutorials, diet & fitness tips, lookbooks, ...

Is Jeffree Star A Billionaire and How Much Does He Make On YouTube? If looks can be deceptive then theres no other person who proves this maxim better than Jeffree Star. A quick look at Stars pictures would likely leave you wondering whether or not to tag him a male or female. But who says being controversial has to be a curse? For Star, his looks have caught ...

The Place of Rosanna Pansinos Career Hats In Her Rise To Fame and Facts About Her Personal Life There are a few phrases that could summarize Rosanna Pansinos rise to fame. None of them can do it better than the famous axiom, no knowledge is lost. Her popularity YouTube comes out of her foray into other professions, specifically acting. Although acting now occupies one of the major professional hats in Rosannas resume, it was ...

Muselk (Elliott Watkins) Biography  Age, Girlfriend and Net Worth The new and best in-thing in terms of career is video gaming and we have over time seen young men and women make massive income from an activity that was purportedly designed to serve as a hobby or a relaxation activity. One of such individuals is the Australian-born YouTube Celebrity and Twitch streamer, Muselk, whose ...

PopularMMOs Biography: 5 Interesting Facts You Need To Know We have over the years seen social media millionaires, especially on the YouTube social platform. These celebrities cum millionaires have made names for themselves after carving out niches on the internet, and a typical example of one of such exciting media personality on the YouTube is American Minecraft gamer and YouTube star, PopularMMOs whose channel ...

Jason Nash Once Married Marney Hochman  What To Know About His Ex-Wife and Kids The now-defunct video-sharing app Vine was the path that led Jason Nash to fame. With it, he built an audience of over two million followers, which he parlayed into a significant YouTube career. That move has seen him become one of the most popular personalities on the internet, with the cash income to go with ...

Where Does Dantdm Live? What Do We Know About His Net Worth, Wife and Brother? Most parents buy video games for their kids to occupy their time leisure, while other parents frown at their kids when they play video games. Despite the disparity, every parent would be proud of their child if he/she eventually turns a celebrity or millionaire through playing video games like Dantdm. Biography of Dantdm Dantdm was born Daniel ...

LaurDIY  Biography: 5 Facts You Need To Know About The YouTuber LaurDIY is the YouTube channel of Lauren Riihimaki which she created on December 1, 2011, when she was still a college undergrad with the sole aim of giving Do It Yourself (DIY) as well as practical fashion and beauty tips to her followers. She has used the channel to establish herself as a YouTube personality ...

Lachlan Ross Power  Bio And Family Life Of Australian The YouTube Star It is amazing the varied sources of income that the internet has made possible in this day and age. Internet fame can get its holder a whole lot of monetary and social benefits, but it must be noted that it does not come easy or cheap. For those who desire fame, content is the sacrifice ...

Alfie Deyes  Bio and Net Worth: Everything You Need To Know Alfie Deyes is one internet personality you definitely would like to know about. He boasts of over 10 million subscribers on three of his YouTube channels and has three bestseller books to his name. He is probably the most renowned young personality on YouTube today and his vlogging empire continues to grow by the day. ...

Colleen Ballingers Love Story With Husband Erik Stocklin and How Much She Is Worth Now Colleen Ballinger is an American comedian and YouTuber who is a very funny, adventurous, and highly talented woman. She is also an actress, singer, and writer. Collen is widely known for her work on YouTube where she posts content on her channel, Miranda Sings. The comedian has gained many subscribers over the years and has ...

Who Are The Dude Perfect Members and How Much Are They Worth? Entertainment in the 21st century can be digested in many forms and with platforms like YouTube, the creators and purveyors of entertainment have been democratized. Today, one of the most popular platforms to exhibit ones creative talents is YouTube, even though there are other platforms like Twitter, Facebook, who suffer in comparison to YouTube because ...

Who Is Rudy Mancuso, What Is His Earning Power and What Do We Know About His Girlfriend? Rudy Mancuso started his internet journey on Vine. He would later transition to YouTube where he solidified his place among the internets most beloved comedic creators. He is now regarded as one of the renowned internet personalities in the world, with a presence in mainstream TV and film projects like Comedy Centrals Drunk History and ...

Vsauce (Michael Stevens) Biography and Net Worth: All You Need To Know The advent of YouTube and the internet as a whole revolutionized how human beings consume information. With each passing year, the percentage of learning that is done in a traditional classroom decrease as a seismic shift to internet-based learning happens in our education industry. From open courses online to YouTube classes and videos, there are ...

How did Jake Paul Make His YouTube Big Break and Who is His Wife? One of the most interesting Social Media personalities of the 21st century is the young and popular Jake Paul whose elder brother is the famed Vine star, Logan Paul. Jake has utilized the power of the internet to bring himself to the limelight with a channel named JakePaulProductions that has amassed up to six billion ...

5 Facts You Need To Know About Reaction Time (Tal Fishman)  The American YouTuber Before 2015, the leading meaning of reaction time was the amount of time it takes to respond to a stimulus, until Tal Fishman started his channel, Reaction Time on YouTube and the dominant meaning changed. Today, a google search of Reaction Time would deliver Tal Fishmans videos and YouTube channel link with a few physics ...

Grace Helbig  Net Worth, Boyfriend and Family Life of The YouTuber Grace Helbig is an American internet personality, comedian, actress, and writer. She became popular due to her daily vlog series, DailyGrace, which ran on My Damn Channel from 2008 to 2013. Helbig is also popular for her own indie series on YouTube, ItsGrace, which she launched in 2014. Her vlogs which feature random stuff such as ...

Mark Wiens Bio  Ethnicity, Wife and Parents Food is a great way to connect with people. We all love to eat, if not for the pleasure of food, the satisfaction of quenching hunger, and the very process of providing and sharing that food is part of the strongest bonds that bind humanity together. Maybe it is our historical connection to food, where ...

Is Filthy Frank Dead, What Happened To Him and How Much Is He Worth? As George Kusunoki Miller, he was a nobody. However, as Filthy Frank, George was one of the most famous internet personalities on the planet. The Filthy Frank Show, a sketch series on his YouTube channel, TVFilthyFrank, was one of the platforms most influential creations. He is the reason a crazy dance song, Harlem Shake, made it ...

CaptainSparklez Bio  Net Worth, House and Cars of The Famous YouTuber Sometimes, what society wants from its citizens is quite different from what the citizens want for themselves. This is evident in the life and career of video blogger and American YouTube personality, Jordan Maron famous for his YouTube channel CaptainSparklez. He dropped out of school after discovering his talent in playing an online game called Minecraft. ...

Who is Simply Nailogical (Cristine Rotenberg)? Here are Facts You Must Know Canadian Youtube personality, Simply Nailogical (Cristine Rotenberg) originally started out polishing and designing nails even before it became a trendy culture in the social media. Simply Nailogica started out her showbiz career in her early days as a child actress, acting in commercials for game and toy companies. Aside from acting, she is blogger, vlogger, specializing ...

5 Interesting Facts You Need To Know About Huda Beauty In the world of entrepreneurship, it is interesting when an individual has a mentor who he/she looks up to, this yield more productivity on the part of the individual. The iconic and rich American beautician and makeup artist Huda Kattan nicknamed Heida is the founder of the Huda Beauty blog which is number one Instagram beauty blog ...

Is Dino MasterChef Gay? Details About His Ethnicity, Girlfriend, Where He Is Now Food, for the better part of the early years of human life, was nothing more than what we needed for survival. There was no artistry or curation to the method of cooking. The scarcity of food left no room for artistic expression until we figured out agriculture and we could make as much as we ...

Who Is Gabbie Hanna And How Did She Become Famous? As the world shifts to digital media and depends more and more on streaming services for its news and entertainment content, YouTubers have become one of the leading creators in the new media world. Their understanding of the online audience: how to create, maintain, and increase followers, are all handy skills that have primed them ...

Jacksepticeye  Height, Girlfriend & Net Worth Jacksepticeye is a YouTuber and actor who gained popularity with a series of gaming videos he uploads on his channel to the delight of millions of his subscribers. He is Known primarily for his comic video game series titled Lets Play and his vlogs. His channel was formerly ranked 46th in the list of most subscribed ...

Chris Heria Personal Details: About His Wife, Height & Ethnicity Background In this generation, keeping fit has become one of the major criteria for being hale and hearty. In fact, most occupations these days are majorly concerned with ones body mass, weight and looks. Unlike the past where most people have to register in a gym to keep fit, social media has made it quite easy ...

Everything You Need To Know About Game Grumps Gaming is becoming incredibly popular on YouTube these days with game vloggers make millions of dollars out of them yearly. One of the most popular up-coming gaming YouTube channels is Game Grumps. The Lets Play series was created in 2012 and celebrated its fifth anniversary on July 18th, 2017. In six years of its existence, the ...

Daithi De Nogla Biography, Girlfriend and Net Worth YouTube has created an avenue for many to make wealth and become famous from the comfort of their homes while having fun. Many have built a career out of the platform, uploading numerous videos that have earned them the admiration of viewers across the globe. For Daithi De Nogla, he is loved for his humorous commentary on ...

Does Phoebe Robinson Have A Boyfriend or Husband and What Do We Know About Her Family? Phoebe Robinson is a New York-based comedian, writer, and actress. She is best known as the co-creator and co-host of the WNYC Studios podcast 2 Dope Queens. Just like some other female comedians, she never had any original plans of becoming a stand-up comedian even though, according to her, she took a class on a whim at Carolines on Broadway. After ...

Who Are Lex and Alana from Listed Sisters? What Is Their Ethnicity & Is the Show Cancelled? America is a country built on diversity. Everywhere you look all over the country, a countless number of immigrants or children of immigrants have become an integral part of the fabric of the country. From entertainment to business, immigrants are creating a niche for themselves and climbing to the summit of their respective professions. One ...

Riveting Facts About Danielle Lombard And What She Is Best Known For The American entertainment industry is one that provides many avenues for aspiring hopefuls to express their talents and become famous. From films to television shows and game shows, there is no shortage of ways for men and women who desire fame to pursue and earn it in the United States of America. Another tested medium ...

Unearthing New Details About The YouTube Success And Personal Life of Alex Burriss of Wassabi Productions Wildly hilarious and truly audacious, Alex Wassabi is an American YouTuber who has become a very popular face on the video-sharing platform after having garnered millions of subscribers over the years by keeping people glued to his channel with his witty parody video releases. If you have always loved parody videos, there is every chance ...

Everything You Need To Know About H2O Delirious H2O Delirious whose full birth name is reported to be Jonathan Gormon Dennis has successfully kept himself mystified by hiding his face behind the masks leaving his loyal fans speculating who he really is for many years. The American YouTube star is easily identified by the Jason Mask Style with make-up which he wears on his ...

Who Is HolaSoyGerman and What Happened To Him? German Garmendia has certainly seen it all when it comes to internet success. His channels, HolaSoyGerman and JuegaGerman are in the top twenty most subscribed channel on YouTube. The Chilean YouTuber found a way to tap into one of the worlds greatest inventions and make a living from it. He has been able to build ...

Who Are Glenn Becks Family, What Is His Net Worth And What Happened To Him? The American political commentary space is filled with different personalities. A few of them, through their rhetoric, charisma, and resources have been able to build a large following of men and women who listen to them for insight and direction for various political and social issues in the United States. For Conservatives, the story is ...

Following Charissa Thompsons Rise Through The Ranks Of Sports Casting and All About Her Boyfriend Superstar TV host and sportscaster, Charissa Thompson, has been hailed as one of the highest-profile women journalists in America, and the reason is there for all to see. She has worked for popular establishments such as Versus, Yahoo! Sports, ESPN, GSN, and Big Ten Network. She currently hosts the popular pre-game show, Fox NFL Kickoff, ...

Is Chris Kattan Gay or Does He Have A Wife? What Is His Net Worth? Chris Kattan is a popular American comedian and actor. He has appeared in several comic movies and TV series such as The Middle, A Night at the Roxbury and Bunnicula. Kattan is, however, most popular for his six-year stint as a cast member of Saturday Night Live. During his time on the legendary show, he ...

Everything You Should Know About the Rise of Insta Star Claire Abbott and Why She Gave It All Up A lot of young Americans have shot into the limelight for uploading different kinds of videos on YouTube. Some of these young stars include Connor Franta, Desi Perkins, Emma Chamberlain, the Dolan Twins (Ethan and Grayson), and Claire Abbott. The latter became a social media celebrity for uploading sexy bikini pictures of herself on social media. Apart from ...

5 Facts You Need To Know About The YouTube Channel  h3h3Productions H3h3Productions is a YouTube channel that specializes on Comic responses or reactions of other contents or trendy stories. The celebrity couple that created the channel has over time racked up sizable views for their commentaries and contents. Even though they had their own fair share of copyright cases, thankfully they scored an unprecedented victory in all ...

Lilypichu Bio  Height, Brother and Love Story With Albert SleightlyMusical Chang Like most popular internet celebrities, Lilypichu is one of those Twitch streamers who spend their lives on camera. From daydreaming about the possibility of becoming a full-time professional streamer, she grew to live out her dreams on the popular live streaming platform where people play games, make crafts, and showcase their day-to-day activities. Given the rise of ...

KSI  What To Know About His Girlfriend, Brother  Deji Olatunji & Net Worth Assuredly, when Internet inventors Vint Cerf and Bob Khan created the technological masterpiece, they probably did not know how massive the creation will be harnessed by many for different purposes including as a platform for earning money through content creation. One of such person who smiles to the bank regularly today for spending time creating ...

The Interesting Progression and Highlights of Carrie Keagans Career as a Host and Actress Carrie Keagan has garnered huge fame through her various stints on television. She is not just your regular TV host but one with a difference. Keagan has hosted several high profile events and TV shows, including VH1s Big Morning Buzz Live and Fox News Channels Red Eye with Greg Gutfeld. However, not many know she ...

The Gist On Elise Jordans Marriages And Her Rise To Prominence Political commentaries tend to be boring when it is handled by someone who does not have a knack for it. However, when you see the likes of Elise Jordan run the same commentary, you will have a lot of reasons to look forward to watching her again as the journalist is well-versed in the field ...

What Is Timmy Thick Best Known For and How Successful Is The Star? Thanks to the internet, many people whose talents would have ordinarily gone unnoticed have become famous. A very good example of this modern-day internet celebrity is Timmy Thick, an American social media star. He became popular on Instagram due to his penchant for posting raunchy pictures of himself. He also often posted videos of himself ...

What Does Heather Storm Do For a Living and Who Is She Dating? Reality Television is a great way to make a name for oneself as well as amass a fortune. Heather Storm can attest to this as she is one of those who have made a name and earned a lot from reality TV. She made her name appearing on shows like Car Fanatics, Awesome Autos, and, ...

Matt Carriker Biography  Net Worth, Wife & Height Unlike your regular veterinary doctor next door, Matt Carriker chose to spice up his noble profession with the unusual. Though he is known to many as a medical practitioner, Carriker is better renowned as a YouTube star and an animal lover. Having recorded huge successes on his various YouTube channels, the vet doctors name and ...

Jillian Mele of Fox News Career Achievements, Husband & Measurements There are quite a good number of presenters on radio and television who listeners and viewers may never wish to miss any of their shows because of their sensational golden voice, beauty or the special way or artistry they anchor their shows. Jillian Mele is one of such. She has been at the top of ...

Who is Gillian Turner of Fox News? Her Fiance or Husband and Net Worth Gillian Turner is well-known as a news correspondent for Fox News Channel but before she became a TV personality, she built an intimidating resume working for different institutions, including the American government. She served in different capacities at the White House National Security Council during the administration of former US Presidents  George W. Bush and Barack Obama. ...

Gloria Govan Bio  Age, Ethnicity & Height Even as Gloria Govan is famous as an American actress, author, a TV host, and reality television star, shes more popular as the wife of the former NBA player, Matt Barnes. She became known after appearing on the Florida version of the reality television series, Basketball Wives and later, Basketball Wives: LA  after Matt was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers. Sadly, ...

Michael Fishmans Interesting Start as an Actor and Why He Divorced His Wife of Many Years When one door closes, another one opens. As silly as that axiom may seem, it is the story of the resurgence of Michael Fishman, who plays D.J Conner on the popular show, Roseanne. Having played the character for several years as a child actor into his teenage years; when the show originally ended, Michael did ...

Who Is October Gonzalez  Tony Gonzalezs Wife? All You Need To Know October Gonzalez is a popular American TV host and media personality. Additionally, she is also a model. Gonzalez has hosted several TV shows such as Beat Shazam, Entertainment Tonight, and Rachel Ray. She has also featured in several reality TV shows. Gonzalezs fame is not just due to her profession but also because of her ...

Who Is Tony Berlin  Harris Faulkners Husband: His Children and Family Facts Tony Berlin is a popular American media guru. He has variously worked as a reporter, anchor, and producer for some of the biggest TV networks in America. They include CNN, CBS, NBC, and ABC (where he hosted the popular Good Morning America). Berlin has now diversified into public relations and owns his own PR firm. ...

The Progression of Gianna Tobonis Journalism Career and Details About Her Marriage to Kyle Buckley Gianna Toboni may not be your ideal newscaster but her unusual reporting is what made her a household name. The American journalist is renowned for her hard-hitting and authentic reportage. A motivator and activist for total press freedom, Gianna loves to explore pervasive cultural issues. Not only does this unique and ambitious journalist call for all ...

Dog The Bounty Hunters Family Including Details of His Late Wife and Kids Popularly known as Dog, a name which he got from the television series, Dog The Bounty Hunter, Duane Chapman, an American bounty hunter, and one-time bail bondsman, went from being convicted for a felony to being a reality TV star. He was brought to the limelight following the capture of the convicted criminal, Andrew Luster in 2003 and this eventually made ...

Vicky Karayiannis, Chris Cornells Wifes Bio, Children and Family The world of showbiz is made up of different people who serve different roles, and function in a variety of capacities, and one of the most important people are those in the background. Publicists are undoubtedly one of these background people yet they are vital to the life and fame of most of our favorite ...

Joe Rogan Has A Step-Daughter and 2 Other Kids With Wife Jessica Ditzel  Meet His Family Joe Rogan is a popular American stand-up comedian and TV host. His journey to stardom began in the late 80s and has seen him host several shows, the most popular is the game show titled Fear Factor. The exciting show dares contestants to face some of their greatest fears and embark on challenging stunts. The ...

Josh Gates and Wife Hallie Gnatovich Have 2 Kids But Who Has the Higher Net Worth? Best known for his explorations and adventures, Josh Gates, is a television presenter with a voracious appetite for seeing the world and the beauties in it. Some of that beauty, however, is in his home, in the form of two children he shares with his wife, Hallie Gnatovich. Not excluded is their marriage which has lasted ...

Holly Sonders Wiki, Plastic Surgery & Why She Divorced Her Husband  Erik Kuselias After trying everything within her capacity to have a low key wedding, Holly Sonders was drawn to the public because of her husbands controversy at his workplace. Well, the two are rumored to be divorced but the article below will give more light on how true these rumors are. Meanwhile, Holly Sonders is yet to ...

Nadeska Alexis Bio  Age, Boyfriend & Net Worth Journalism is one diverse profession that allows the practitioners to choose their area of specialty, build a career on it by reporting the truth and facts which in the long run will distinguish them as deserving commendation and recognition among their peers. Some choose to specialize in political journalism, while to others it is sports ...

Media Platforms Charlamagne Tha God Has Explored and All The Controversies He Has Courted Charlamagne Tha God is an American on-air personality, radio presenter, and more recently, author. He is popularly known as a co-host on New York radios nationally syndicated show, The Breakfast Club, a program he has been hosting alongside DJ Envy and Angela Yee since 2010. However, his early years had no connection to his current career ...

A Look At Jimmy Fallons Net Worth and Family Including His Wife & Kids Sometimes, a childs passion for something is a pointer to what he/she would become in the future. As a child, Jimmy Fallon was literally obsessed with watching the late-night comedy program, Saturday Night Live (SNL). Then, his parents would tape the clean parts for him to watch and later, he and his sister would re-enact sketches from the ...

Kay Adams Biography  Does The Sportscaster Have A Husband or Boyfriend? When you hear the phrase sports enthusiast, women are hardly the first group that comes to mind. Well, thats changing pretty fast. Especially with the rise of female sports analysts and broadcasters like Kay Adams who is famed for knowing more about sports than most men do. And why not, shes paid handsomely for it ...

Ben Shapiros Family  Meet His Wife, Kids and Sister Who is Popular for the Wrong Reasons A multi-talented man, Ben Shapiro is a man of controversial nature, an attribute that has made him an unusual public figure. An intellectual whose career path was clearly defined even before he became a man, the Jewish conservative commentator has always had his way with words. He became popular by sharing his critical and often ...

QVC Shawn Killinger Bio  Husband, Net Worth & Facts To Know Shawn Killinger is a prominent TV personality who has worked her way to the top. Though not initially a journalist by training, she defied the odds and today has established herself as a household name, as well as, worked alongside some industry legends. More than just being a reporter, newscaster, and anchor, heres all you ...

Liv Lo  Dissecting the Ethnicity, Parents and Personal Life of Henry Goldings Wife While many are aware that Liv Lo is the better half to Crazy Rich Asians star Henry Golding, only a few understand why his beautiful wife appears increasingly endearing to fans. A former model turned TV personality, and fitness star, Liv has an impressive resume which when combined with that of her statuesque spouse is considered a perfect ...

Stpeach Age, Husband and Other Facts About The Twitch Streamer Lisa Vannatta, famously known by her online alias, STPeach is a Canadian video game streamer cum vlogger who has garnered fame through her appearances on different video-sharing/social networking platforms such as Youtube, Instagram, Twitch, Reddit, and Twitter. The beautiful lady got her career to a start in August 2015 when she joined the live streaming video platform, Twitch. She rose to ...

Insights into Seth Meyers Wife, Family and What His Net Worth Is Celebrities are mostly remembered and known for the work they do. For Seth Meyers, his career as a comedian, writer, actor, TV host, and producer is his biggest identifier. He was on Saturday Night Live SNL show as a head writer and cast member for more than ten years during which he built a reputation ...

Who Is Jessica Gadsden  Age, Net Worth & All About Charlamagne tha Gods Wife Jessica Gadsden is an American fitness coach as well as a personal trainer. She is better known as the spouse of popular American media personality, Charlamagne Tha God. Charlamange Tha God is a well-known TV and radio personality in the U.S. He has featured in several shows (both on the radio and TV) and is ...

Who Is Collins Tuohy  Michael Ohers sister ? Her Wedding, Husband & Net Worth Collins Tuohy is an American entrepreneur, philanthropist, blogger, and social media personality. She is also better known as the adoptive sister of NFL player, Michael Oher, whose life story inspired the Hollywood blockbuster The Blind Side. The Blind Side tells the true life story of Oher who grew up in an impoverished background consisting of a ...

Eye-Popping Facts About The Personal Life And Career Success Of Sportscaster Heidi Watney Heidi Watney is a media personality who has created a niche for herself as a sportscaster. Starting out as a radio presenter, the brilliant young lady has gone on to work for several prominent sports networks, and currently, she is with the MLB. The sportscaster is also known to have been an avid sports lady right ...

Marty Lagina Bio  Siblings (Martina and Rick Lagina), Net Worth and Wife Marty Lagina is an American engineer and businessman who has risen to fame as a reality TV star. This is thanks to his involvement in the adventure TV series, The Curse of Oak Island. The Curse of Oak Island is a long-running TV series which airs on the history channel. The show aims to solve ...

Is Jordan Schlansky Just A Character or a Real Life Person and What Does He Do? The world of late-night television is an interesting one. Shows during that time are geared towards giving viewers comedic relief from a long day at work through interviews and comedy sketches. The often charismatic host of this show requires the balancing talent of a producer whose primary job is to deliver great episodes. It is ...

Heres How Wealthy Jimmy Kimmel Is From All The Phases of His Career, Marriages and Sons Health Jimmy Kimmel is a renowned late-night talk show host known for his charm, wit, and the A-list guests he features on his show. As the host of Jimmy Kimmel Live! On ABC, Jimmy has been serving comedy to television viewers for years which played a pivotal role in launching him into mainstream fame and enabled ...

Natasha Bertrand Biography  Is She Married? Who Is the Husband & What Is Her Age? Natasha Bertrand is not just a young prominent journalist but a first-rate investigative reporter. With her natural beauty and smile, Natashas sharp, insightful political commentary also makes her a thorough reporter. Her sound political perspective and coverage in the country have made her a force to be reckoned with in the profession. Renowned for her ...

What Happened to Shane Kilcher? His Injury Update, Net Worth and More Shane Kilcher is well-known thanks to the Discovery Channel series Alaska: The Last Frontier. It is a show that documents the daily lives of the extended Kilcher family, people who live without plumbing or modern heating. The episodes follow their routines as they rely on hunting and farming for their nutritional needs as well as ...

Is Stephanie Gosk Gay or Lesbian, Who is the Wife or Partner  Jenna Wolfe? In August 2013, NBCs Today viewers were greeted with two shocking news. Today weekend anchor, Jenna Wolfe, announced that she was as a lesbian, introducing her partner as NBC News correspondent Stephanie Gosk, and said the two are expecting their first child. A long time has passed since then and certainly, a lot of things ...

Nikki Mudarris  Bio and Net Worth: 5 Interesting Facts You Need to Know Nikki Mudarris, also known as Miss Nikki Baby, is a reality television star, model and fashionista. Shes best known for VH1s reality TV series Love & Hip-Hop: Hollywood. Her entrepreneurial skills enable her to create and run a successful lingerie line Nude by Nikki. Not only that, but Nikki has also successfully run the Las ...

5 Interesting Things You Need To Know About Kelly Nash Ever heard of the lady who gained national prominence for taking a selfie with a dangerous ball just a few inches away from hitting her? Its no other person than Kelly Nash, an American sports broadcaster currently working as host of The Rundown show which airs on MLB Network every weekday at 2 pm ET. ...

Understanding The Height of Fame John Oliver Achieved With The Daily Show and How He Met His Wife Without knowledge of who he is and his exemplary career, John Oliver cuts an unassuming figure of a regular man but he is one of the most influential personalities in America, especially on television. Since he began his career in 1998, he has been a loud and unapologetic agent of change, using his wit and ...

Why Did Big Chief Leave Street Outlaws, Where Is He Now And Why Did He Divorce His Wife? Justin Shearer, otherwise known by his professional name Big Chief is a famous street racer and television personality. He is famously known for being one of the main characters on the racing reality television series, Street Outlaws. Justin, who had been a significant part of the show since its premiere in 2013, appeared in a ...

Who is Josina Anderson of ESPN? Her Husband and Family Facts There has been a gradual paradigm shift in the world of sports which has today produced the likes of Serena Williams, Naomi Osaka, and other female athletes that are pulling great feats in different sporting fields. Their achievements have also been followed by the emergence of female sports journalists such as Jillian Mele, Eboni Williams, ...

Is Brittany Wagner Married, Who Is The Husband, How Old Is She? Brittany Wagner has been an inspiration to a lot of sports youngster. She has won the hearts of many athletic students with her role as a life coach and an academic counselor. She is well groomed in her career and has worked over a decade for The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and The National ...

Tati Westbrook Bio  Age, Husband & Net Worth With five videos dished out every week, alongside running her own brand, beauty guru, and YouTube superstar Tati Westbrook has proved to the world that theres utterly no impossibility or limit to whatever one is passionate about. Tati is best known for being the owner and manager of the worlds most-viewed beauty and lifestyle YouTube channel, ...

Cathy Areus Long Road to Becoming a Freelance Journalist and What to Know About Her Kids An American freelance journalist, news analyst, and author, Cathy Areu has built a lasting reputation for herself on cable television. Popular for her skillful and sassy presentation of professional views on varying topics including cultural and feminist issues, Cathy is an inspiration to many women across the globe. In addition to being a journalist, she ...

Tucker Carlsons Love Story With Wife Susan Andrews, their Children and Net Worth Today On the TV screens, Tucker Carlson is that fiery fellow who passionately dishes out his conservative and often controversial views on issues of national importance. Such brazenness has fetched him many enemies, especially on the left-wing, but it has also helped him cement a reputation as one of the foremost broadcast journalists in America. His ...

Paige Wyatts Net Worth, Boyfriend and Where She Is Now Paige Wyatt became popular after the Wyatt family began running the reality television show, American Guns. The Wyatt family comprises Rich Wyatt (father), Renee Wyatt (mother), Paige and Kurt Wyatt (children). Rich Wyatt originally ran a gun shop, the Gunsmoke Guns in Wheat Ridge, Colorado which is outside of Denver. The business which he ran together ...

The Progression of Howard Sterns Career As A Media Personality And Why He Divorced His First Wife Howard Stern is a legendary American radio host, who has also done some notable work as an actor, producer, author, as well as photographer. The radio personality achieved worldwide fame as a result of his self-titled radio program, The Howard Stern Show. As a professional radio personality, he has worked in different radio stations. Since 2006, ...

Lisa Joyners Biography  Ethnicity, Net Worth and Other Key Facts Lisa Joyner is an American Journalist, TV talk show host, and actress. Some of her well-known works are her correspondences for the Los Angeles based TV KCBS, inFANity show, Find My Family Show including her film and television appearances in Brimstone, American Sweetheart, The Bold and The Beautiful among others. Lisas passion for reconnecting people with their biological families ...

Amanda Balionis Rise Through the Ranks of Sportscasting and the Identity of Her Boyfriend Amanda Balionis is an American sportscaster currently working as a golf broadcaster for CBS Sports. Among so many of her works in the field of sports reporting, Amandas PGA Tour coverage seems to be the most popular so far. She covered the Super Bowl working with CBS Sports social media team in Atlanta, where she ...

Dissecting Charles Paynes Sexual Allegations, Its After Effects and More About His Wife Charles Payne had a respectable career as an analyst on Wall Street before he made the transition to television and became a contributor and later a host on Fox. In that time, his expertise has come under scrutiny, and he has been at the center of at least one major controversy. The major controversy in question ...

Erik Asla And Tryra Banks Split: Everything You Need To Know Tyra Banks and Erik Asla have called it quits! The couple, who began dating in 2013 and have a son named York Banks Asla, has decided to end what everybody taught was the perfect relationship. Neither person has come out to give a reason for the breakup, but what is obvious right now is that ...

What to Note About Dr Terry Dubrows Qualifications, TV Works and Marriage to Heather Kent In the realm of people that we expect to see regularly on our screens, medical doctors are closer to the bottom of the list. Aside from the fact that their work has little correlation with TV, they are presumably too busy to pursue life as TV personalities. Yet, a few of them have usurped this ...

Jessica Goch  Bio: 5 Things You Didnt Know About Ninjas Wife Jessica Goch is the Schofield-born American Social Media Influencer who has worked as a model but is now better known as a host and interviewer of prominent Electronic sports celebrities at popular gaming events/tournaments. The screen queen also serves as the manager of her famous husband Ninja aka Tyler Blevins whose exploits on Twitch and Fortnite has ...

CNNs Chris Cuomo Biography  Wife, Family & Net worth Chris Cuomo needs no elaborate introduction as he has starred graced many prominent Television cable networks and his voice has been heard through acknowledged radio shows. He is a television journalist and Lawyer who has previously worked for ABC News as Chief law and justice correspondent as well as a co-anchor on 20/20. If you still ...

Neil deGrasse Tyson  Family, Religion & Net Worth Neil deGrasse Tyson is a distinguished American astrophysicist and author who has been able to achieve so much after falling in love with astronomy at the age of 9. He has since attended and become an alumnus of prestigious universities such as Harvard, Princeton, and Columbia, and also recorded numerous achievements in his field of ...

Is Simon Cowell Gay? Does He Have A Wife or Girlfriend and Why is He Famous? Simon Cowell is a well-known talent show judge, TV producer, entrepreneur and one of the most popular TV personalities that Britain has ever produced. In conjunction with his company, Syco, Cowell is the brain behind hugely successful talent hunt shows such as The X-Factor UK, The X-Factor US, Britains Got Talent, Americas Got Talent and ...

Everything To Know About Joanna Gaines Life With Chip Gaines, Their Business Pursuits and Kids Joanna Gaines and her husband Chip Gaines became celebrities after their television show Fixer Upper began airing back in 2013. The show which was about home renovation and decoration ran for about 6 seasons with a total of 79 episodes before the couple bade farewell to it in April 2018. Apart from their appearances on ...

Who Is Larry The Cable Guy? What To Know About His Wife And Net Worth Larry the Cable Guy is a self-professed country kid renowned for his trademark Southern accent and sensational catchphrase Git-R-Done! The famous comedian who talks about anything under the sun has gone on to become one of the most memorable characters in comedy history. Join us in unearthing lesser-known facts about the former on-air-personality, standup comedy superstar, movie ...

Who Is Patrick Starr, What Is His Net Worth and Gender? The make-up industry over the years has grown to become a billion dollar industry not just because there are probably more women wearing make-up but because a whole lot of men, especially the young ones, have become bold enough to wear it unlike before. A few of these men, like Patrick Starr, have even gone ...

How Did Chris Jansing Become a Senior Correspondent at MSNBC and Who Is Her Husband? An award-winning American television news reporter and journalist, Chris Jansing has succeeded in carving a spectacular niche for herself in the field of TV journalism. Outstanding for not just her excellence in journalism, Chris is also cherished for her incredibly gorgeous looks post 60! For close to four decades, Jansing has continued to soar in her ...

Jaclyn Glenn Biography  Age, Height & Ex-Boyfriend American Youtuber, Jaclyn Glenn, rose to prominence through her self-titled YouTube channel Jaclyn Glenn. She has remained an acclaimed atheist and continues to air her views on hot issues from politics, religion, animal rights, to atheism. During the heated 2016 US Presidential elections, Glenn featured in Hump Trump: Official Donald Trump Song. Her parallel acting career ...

Is Pat Sajak Married to a Wife or is He Gay With a Partner? Pat Sajak is one of the most popular TV game show hosts in America. He commenced his career as a radio disk jockey as well as a TV weatherman before being tapped to host Wheel of Fortune, the longest-running syndicated game show in the United States. Sajak has hosted the popular game show from 1983 ...

Nayyera Haqs Bio  What To Know About Her Husband, Parents And Family Nayyera Haq can take anyone on political debates as well as discussions on social issues affecting many. Her ability to masterfully deliver her stance on every issue or political debate has made her a regular face in morning and evening news media platforms. This is not a common feat especially for someone from her kind ...

Inside Guy Fieris Family With Wife, Kids and Sister Who Died of Cancer Over the years we have seen men dominate the kitchen and churn out amazing delicacies from it. Some do it way better than their female counterparts and one of such men is Guy Ramsay Fieri  an American TV host, celebrity chef, restaurant owner, bestselling author of four culinary books, and game show host. His ...

Meet Phil Mudd of CNN  The Former CIA and FBI Exec, Is He Married, Who Is The Wife? When it comes to discussing issues surrounding terrorism, American Counterterrorism and National Security Expert, Phil Mudd, occupies a globally significant position. He has voiced his interest in the fight against terrorism and insecurity on many popular media platforms, both print and broadcast, such as CNN, BBC, CBS, MSNBC, al-Jazeera, ABC, NBC, Fox, The New York Times, ...

Jim Hoffer: Biography, Wife  Mika Brzezinski, Children and Net Worth Jim Hoffer is an Emmy Award-winning journalist who works as an investigative reporter for Eyewitness News, New York City. In his over two decades of investigative journalism, Hoffer has been at the front lines of several crucial stories from the 9/11 attack to the crash of American Flight 587 to the 2003 Blackout. On top of ...

The Ups and Downs of Erin Mcpikes Journalism Career and Other Facts About Her Personal Life Erin McPike is a journalist working for the Independent Journal Review (IJR) as a White House Correspondent but she gained widespread recognition for her coverage of general news. Whether its breaking news or some mainstream story, McPike has a reputation of baring the facts. As a journalist, her work as a White House Correspondent for Independent ...

Bert Kreischer Is Married To LeeAnn Kreischer With 2 Kids  Meet His Family Those familiar with Bert Kreischer mainly have the image of a large-bellied party man whose college life inspired the National Lampoon film, Van Wilder. It is an image that one would not naturally associate with a wholesome family. The standup comedian still maintains his wild party animal image on stage. But, back at home, he is ...

How Brendan Greene Became a Game Designer to Look Out For and Facts About His Failed Marriage The name Brendan Greene may not easily ring a bell in the larger society but for gaming enthusiasts, he is considered a god and this is because of his invention of the video game, Player Unknowns Battlegrounds, also called PUBG. Based on the popular last-man-standing/battle royale concept, Greenes creation has taken the gaming world by ...

WFAAs Sonia Azad Bio  Does The Reporter Have A Husband Or Boyfriend? Emmy Award-winning journalist and Health & Wellness reporter Sonia Azad is on the news segment News 8 Daybreak for the television station WFAA-TV in Dallas, Texas, a channel which she joined in October of 2015. Besides her time on the news, Azad is also a marathon runner and a certified yoga instructor. She has covered major news ...

This Is Everything You Should Know About Caroline Heldman, Her Career Portfolio and Other Facts Love it or hate it, there is no escaping the fact that feminism has come to stay in our world. The movement has continued to garner momentum over the years and this is due to the sustained push by several women, and even men, including the likes of Caroline Heldman. A Professor of Politics at ...

Understanding The Enigma That Is Gavin McInnes, The Controversies He Has Stirred and All About His Wife Gavin McInnes is a polemical English-born writer and TV personality, who is best known for his racist and fascist ideologies, as well as his co-ownership of Vice Media and Vice Magazine. He is also an actor a
A man was shot near the corner of North Fulton and Seymour streets in Auburn Saturday morning. A handgun was recovered at the scene, but no arrests have been made.

State troopers and Auburn police responded to reports of shots fired at 3:20 a.m. Saturday. According to Capt. Mark Schattinger of the Auburn Police Department, a man was shot in the "back end" on North Fulton Street. The 24-year-old, whom police did not identify, was transported to Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse for treatment of injuries police described as non life threatening.

State police stopped a vehicle on Nelson Street shortly after the shooting and detained five people, but the APD said in a news release that they questioned the group and made no arrests in connection with the shooting. The APD said that the five people were turned over to state police on charges related to the traffic stop.

The Auburn Police Department requests that any witnesses to the shooting contact detective Chris Cooper at 255-4706 or detective Meagan Kalet at 255-4702.

"We're not certain of the motive," Schattinger said, "but there have been numerous issues in that general area that we've responded to before."

The APD said it was assisted in this investigation by the New York State Police and the Cayuga County Sheriffs Office.
(Photo : YouTube) The basic model of the Lenovo IdeaCenter Y710 Cube costs $1,300.

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Lenovo recently unveiled its newest creation, a portable all-in-one gaming computer that is capable of rendering virtual reality. Dubbed the Lenovo IdeaCenter Y710 Cube, the main idea behind the device is to cater to gamers who prefer portability.



As far as portability is concerned, most gamers would usually pick a high-end gaming laptop. However, with the new IdeaCenter Y710 Cube, Lenovo said that gamers can easily "transport between gaming stations."



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According to Giz China, cramped into the small Lenovo IdeaCenter Y710 Cube is a sixth generation Intel i7 processor, a GeForce GTX 1080 graphics card, 32GB of DDR4 memory, and 256GB of SSD storage space. A model with 2TB of hard disk drive is also available.



Optional perks for the PC are Dolby Audio, an Xbox One controller, an Xbox One wireless receive that can support up to seven additional controllers, and high-end Wi-Fi. The Lenovo IdeaCenter Y710 Cube can easily handle the virtual reality requirements of the HTC Vive or the Oculus Rift.



Lenovo will also release the IdeaCenter Y910, an all-in-one personal computer built specifically for gaming. It has a 27-inch borderless monitor with 2560x1440 resolution, 144Hz refresh rate and 5ms response time. The Y910 shares the same set of specs as its mobile Y710 Cube sibling.



The basic Y710 Cube model costs $1,300. The Y710 Cube with a Nvidia GTX 1070 costs $1,900. The basic Y910 costs $1,800, while the model equipped with a GTX 1070 costs $2,500.



According to Engadget, the basic Y710 Cube model will be released this month. The VR-ready Y710 and the basic Y910 will be released in September. The high-end VR-ready Y910 will hit the market in October.



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TagsLenovo, Lenovo gaming PC, PC, IdeaCenter, IdeaCenter Y710 Cube, IdeaCenter Y910
(Photo : Twitter) Homtom is yet to confirm the official price and release date of the HT20.

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Chinese smartphone manufacturer Homtom is gearing to release a new model of its HT line of devices. Dubbed the Homtom HT20, the upcoming smartphone is marketed by the company as a cross between rugged and business centric phone.



Based on the photos released by Homtom, the HT20 will look more like a business phone, rather than a rugged outdoor device. despite its business design, the HT20 is equipped with features that will surely appeal to users who prefer a rugged and outdoor lifestyle.



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According to Giz China, the Homtom HT20 has an impressive IP68 certification. This means that the smartphone is resistant to dust, water, and humidity. With the HT20, Homtom decided to ditch the rubber materials that it usually uses for most of its rugged phone designs. Instead, the HT20 is constructed using a new vacuum technology, essentially making the phone sealed inside a case with a study and compact chassis. With this unique body design and IP68 certification, Homtom claims that the HT20's camera is capable of taking decent underwater photos.



The Homtom HT20 is also made from military grade materials making the smartphone fall resistant. The metal alloy used on the phones chassis has an impressive high density score and falls into the same category as those materials used in aviation.



In terms of specs, the Homtom HT20 has a 4.7-inch display with 1280x720 resolution. Powering the device is the MediaTek MT6737 chipset with a Cortex A53 processor and Mali T720MP1 graphics processor. It has 2GB of memory and 16GB of storage space.



The Homtom HT20 runs on Android 6.0 Marshmallow and has a 3500mAh battery pack. The smartphone has a 13-megapixel Sony IMX219 rear facing camera, and an 8-megapixel front facing shooter. The smartphone is available in three colors: White, Black, and Army Green. Homtom is yet to confirm the official price and release date of the HT20.



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TagsHomtom, Homtom HT20, Homtom HT20 specs, Homtom HT20 price, Homtom HT20 news, Homtom HT20 update, Homtom HT20 smartphone, Homtom HT20 new specs
(Photo : Getty Images) Chinese censors are set to release new laws for digital news and website content.

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China has some of one of the world's strictest regulations when it comes to information being exchanged over the Internet. Lately, Chinese censors have announced plans of further tightening the rules that govern the distribution of digital news and website contents.



China's Internet censorship arm, the Cyberspace Administration of China, held a meeting earlier this week with state-owned news websites and major commercial firms. The main topic of the meeting was the new rules which are about to be implemented.



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According to China Tech News, the new Chinese censorship guidelines will add nearly a dozen new requirements that affect digital information aggregators as well as distributors in the country. Among the new rules is a requirement for the creation of an editor-in-chief position and the establishment of the 24 x 7 work shift schedule.



The new rules state that the editor-in-chief must assume responsibility for all the news contents that are published on a specific platform. On the other hand, the introduction of the 24 x 7 work shift schedule will make sure that site administrators will be able to block illegal contents being published on the website 24 hours a day, seven days a week.



Additionally, Chinese censors are also encouraging websites to improve their respective user registration management standards. Websites have been cautioned to publish only factual news that came from authorized and official sources.



In a speech delivered in April, President Xi Jinping said that websites must take proactive roles in terms of managing and monitoring online news content to make sure that the contents being published online reflect the will of the people.



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Tagschina, Internet rules, Chinese internet censorship, Internet censorship, China internet rules, censorship
(Photo : Getty Images) Chinese President Xi Jinping met Myanmars de-facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Friday in Beijing. This is Suu Kyi's first official visit to China since her party won a landslide victory in Myanmars general election last year.

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Chinese President Xi Jinping told Myanmar's de-facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Friday that China wants the bilateral ties between both nations to progress in the "correct direction."



The meeting between the two leaders was dominated by the controversial dam project, Reuters reported.



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"The people in Myanmar stand at a new starting point for a splendid future of the country," Xi told Suu Kyi. "We should adhere to the correct direction, to push for new progress in bilateral relations and to bring tangible benefits to the two peoples."



President Xi did not make any mention of controversial dam project while speaking to reporters after the meeting. However, reports suggest that the issue was discussed during the meeting between two leaders. The issue has overshadowed Suu Kyi's first visit to China since her party won a landslide victory last year.



Work on the $3.6 billion Myitsone dam project, completely funded by Beijing, has been stalled for five years. Former Myanmar President Thein Sein ordered the suspension in 2011 after widespread protest on environmental grounds.



Experts say that the Myitsone dam project will truly test Suu Kyi's diplomatic skills. Suu Kyi had supported the decision to suspend work on the dam in 2011. She was then under house arrest.



However, Myanmar's leader may now have to make the unpopular decision to revive the controversial project in a bid to assuage China. It is important for Suu Kyi to be in good terms with China as Myanmar is dependent on China's generous economic aid.



Several experts have noted that Suu Kyi may need China's help in resolving Myanmar's ethnic minority problem, which has been brewing on the China-Myanmar border for many years.



Meanwhile, a group of 60 civil groups from Myanmar's largest city, Yangon, dispatched a letter to President Xi via China's embassy on Thursday. The letter calls on China to lend a proper thought to their concern before arriving making any decision on the Myitsone dam project.



"We believe the People's Republic of China will take into serious consideration the fact that the opinion of Myanmar's people has never been sought extensively enough since the Myitsone project was first conceived," the groups said in their letter.



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Tagschina, China and Myanmar, Suu Kyi, Suu Kyi China Visit
(Photo : Getty Images ) Indian officials claim the Chinese military entered into Arunachal Pradesh twice last month.

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The Indian government on Friday said that the Chinese military intruded into India's territory in Arunachal Pradesh last month.



Junior Home Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said that there were two incidents of transgression by China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) into Arunachal Pradesh in July.



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"One incident was reported from Kibithu area in remote Anjaw district on July 22 and another at Thangsa in Tawang district in the same month," Rijiju said.



Rijiju, however, made it clear that the incidents involving PLA troops entering the border areas of Arunachal Pradesh state were transgressions and not incursions. "We cannot term it as incursion, but transgression as the Chinese army just crossed the perceived area along the Line of Actual Control," he said, Press Trust of India (PTI) reported.



In another incident of the PLA's transgressions into Indian territory, Chinese troops entered into the border district of Uttarakhand state in July.



Last month, Indian defense minister Manohar Parrikar informed the country's parliament that there were 400-500 acts of 'transgression' by Chinese troops every year. However, he pointed out that the incidents of transgression are declining year by year.



India and China have been engaged in a bitter territorial dispute for more than five decades. Both countries are building up military infrastructure on the both sides of Line of Actual Control (LAC).



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TagsIndia, china, Chinese military, PLA, Transgression, Arunachal Pradesh
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced Friday the start of a statewide crackdown on drunk and impaired driving that will last through Labor Day weekend.

The state and federally funded effort is part of a nationwide Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over campaign that aims to reduce deaths and injuries caused by impaired driving. The crackdown period will last through Sept. 5, during which time state police and local law enforcement will up their monitoring of impaired driving.

"Every year there are needless tragedies and a wake of victims left behind because of the decisions made by impaired drivers," said George P. Beach II, the New York State Police superintendent, in a press release. "Through campaigns like Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over, we remind people of the dangers of drinking and driving."

Crackdowns such as this one occur several times a year. They're timed to coincide with holidays and events thought to draw more impaired drivers out onto the road, such as Independence Day and the Super Bowl.

Last year, 41 New York counties participated in the Labor Day crackdown, yielding over 260 arrests on charges related to driving while intoxicated or impaired.

"Impaired driving is a reckless and dangerous crime with potentially fatal consequences," Cuomo said in the release. "I urge New Yorkers to drive responsibly to avoid senseless tragedies."
(Photo : Getty Images.) Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen said that the island nation's unofficial communication channels with China are still open.

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Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen said on Saturday that unofficial communication channels with China are very much intact despite Beijing suspending official communication channels with the island nation earlier this year, Reuters reported.



"While the official mechanism of communication has not been restored, unofficial communication channels with the mainland remain available," Tsai told reporters. "We hope both sides maintain stability, so there won't be any misunderstanding or misjudgment on either side."



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The Chinese government suspended its official communication channels with Taiwan in June after President Tsai failed to acknowledge the "One China" principle. Tsai apparently made her stance clear on the contentious issue after she conspicuously omitted any mention of the "One China" principle in her inaugural speech.



According to the "One China," China and Taiwan are one nation. However, Tsai and her pro-independent the Democratic Progressive Party fiercely oppose this principle, claiming that it impinges on Taiwan's sovereignty.



China has been on a diplomatic offensive against the island nation ever since Tsai won a landslide victory in Taiwan's presidential election in January. Tsai's staunch pro-independent views have made her immensely unpopular in China. Chinese leaders have repeatedly issued warnings to Taiwan's new government not to stroke any freedom and insurgent movement against China.



China considers Taiwan as a breakaway region that is waiting for unification with the mainland. Taiwan separated from China in 1949 following a prolonged civil war. Since the bitter separation, ties between the two countries has been marked by hostility and suspicion.



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Best performance over last five years with over a quarter of grades at A* or A (L-R) Peter Lovatt (Geography Bristol) A* A A, Lucy Hull (History Durham) A* A A, George Tomkins (Sports Journalism Brighton) D* D* D* D* Ladan Moalin (Medicine UCL) A* A A A* EPQ Hope McDonald (English Bristol) A* A A Participate Chiswick School Is 'On The Way Back' Says School Head Chiswick School To Expand Sign up for our weekly Chiswick newsletter



Comment on this story on the Chiswick School has seen a strong performance in its A Level results with the highest percentage of students achieving A*, A and B grades achieved at any time over the last 5 years. With 100 students picking up results in Year 13 7% of all grades achieved were A* grades, 26% of all grades were between A*/A, and 56% were between A*/B. 79% of all grades achieved were between A* and C and the school achieved an overall pass rate of 99%. The success was not limited to A Levels with students recording record pass rates at the highest grades achievable of Distinction* or Distinction in BTEC Level 3 vocational courses (this at 79% this year compared to 63% last year). There were notable successes in Mathematics (48% of all grades achieved at A* or A), History (47% of all grades achieved at A* or A), Politics (47% of all grades achieved at A* or A), and English where 39% of all grades were at A*/A. Every student entered for Sport BTEC achieved either Distinction or Distinction*. These results provided some really happy faces with the majority of students achieving their first choice university place and a smaller number achieving places through the UCAS clearing system. (L-R) Alisa Musanovic (Oxford History) A*, A, A, Laura Finn A, A, B, Evie Chalmers (History Leeds) A* A A Tony Ryan Headteacher stated: These are a very impressive set of results and I am delighted for the students who worked so hard to achieve these grades. It was so lovely this morning to see young people delighted to be moving to the next stage of their life, many to the University of their Choice. I wish them all the very best for the future and cannot thank them enough for what this year group gave to the school. I cannot and should not forget the wonderful staff at Chiswick who have worked tirelessly in what at times has been a difficult year for the school, to make sure that our students achieved to and beyond their potential. In the borough of Hounslow there were improvements across all the higher grades at A-level this year with A*-B, up 2.7% to 51.3%, and A*-C, up 1.3% to 78.6%. While 7% of this years students achieved the highest grade of A*, an increase of 0.8% on last years results. Councillor Tom Bruce, Cabinet Member for Education and Childrens Services, Hounslow Council, said: I would like to congratulate each and every one of our students for their fantastic results. A lot of hard work has gone into these achievements, not only from students themselves, but from the schools, teachers, parents and families who support them through what is often a stressful time." Latymer Upper School in Hammersmith has achieved its best ever A Level results with 75% at A*/A and over 31% at A*. Across the board, over 95% of grades were at A*-B. 17 students were awarded an A* in every subject: nine pupils gained at least 4 A*s and 25 at least 3 A*s. 22 students won places at Oxford and Cambridge and 13 secured places for Medicine or Veterinary Science. Head David Goodhew said, "I am elated for the Class of 2016, who have worked so hard and achieved our best ever A Level results. They richly deserve their success, and I am sure would join me in thanking my colleagues who did so much to support and inspire them. St Augustines Priory, Ealing Catholic independent day school for girls, has also enjoyed a record year for A Level results. 37% of A Level grades were A* or A and nearly 20% of all A Level candidates achieved at least 2 A*s, with 60% of all candidates achieving grades A* - B. 71% of the total grades achieved in A Levels were A* to B. Students at St Benedict's are also celebrating excellent A level results. There were record numbers of A* grades and nearly  of grades were A*-B. Director of Sixth Form, Stefan Scicinski said This is a very important day for our A level Upper Sixth students as the culmination of two years of hard work. I have been very impressed with the way this years group has studied  they have worked extremely hard, many of them often staying long hours after school to study in our new Scriptorium, which has proved to be a superb new working space."

August 20, 2016
SoCal Harvest, one of the largest evangelistic events in the country that is also known as the Harvest Crusades, will be taking place from August 26 to 28 for the 27th year at the Angels' Stadium in Anaheim.

Led by pastor Greg Laurie of Harvest Christian Fellowship, the three-night event has generally drawn tens of thousands of people each night. Earlier this year in March, Laurie hosted another evangelistic event called Harvest America in Arlington, TX, which drew some 82,000 people.

"Most church services are designed for worship, Bible study, or spiritual growth. We wanted to do an event that was designed, beginning to end, for a nonbeliever, so we could present what it is to be a Christian, who Jesus is, what he said, and how to come into a relationship with him," Laurie told the Los Angeles Times regarding when Harvest Crusades first began.

This year's Socal Harvest will feature performances from musicians including Phil Wickham, for King & Country, Chris Tomlin, tobyMac, and others, and messages from Greg Laurie on questions such as "What is the meaning of life?" and "What happens when we die?"

More than 5.6 million have attended Harvest events since its beginnings in 1990, the organizers say, and over 470,000 have made professions of faith.
home Sports Abbey D'agostina says 'God prepared my heart' after she stops mid-race to help up, encourage fellow athlete to finish race

It was an emotionally charged moment that resounded loudly across the globe. The Olympic spirit was in full display as Christian runner Abbey D'Agostino committed an astonishing selfless act during a qualifier for the 5,000-meter race. However, she has said it was a natural gesture of goodwill that God had prepared her to do.

Described as one of the most decorated Ivy League athletes, D'Agostino, 24, of Topsfield, Massachusetts, had all eyes on the finish line as she ran by the 2000-meter mark. But in a split second, she found herself tripping over someone and falling to the ground. Instinctively she got up but did not continue running like most athletes may be inclined to do, instead she turned around and stopped to lend a helping hand to her fallen rival, Nikki Hamblin, and encourage her to finish the 5000-meter qualifying race together.

D'Agostino said to Christian Today, "Although my actions were instinctual at that moment, the only way I can and have rationalized it is that God prepared my heart to respond that way. This whole time here, he's made clear to me that my experience in Rio was going to be about more than my race performance a and as soon as Nikki got up, I knew that was it."

The American Olympian didn't have it easy after stumbling and helping a fellow athlete, USA Today News said. D'Agostino tore her ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) when she fell, yet she hobbled for more than a kilometer to the finish line with Hamblin, who helped her in turn when she fell along the way due to her injury.

Both athletes finished in the bottom two but given the circumstances and their amazing example to the world of the Olympic spirit, officials included their names as qualifiers for the final race. Unfortunately, D'Agostino was unable to run the Final due to her seriously damaged knee, but the example she set for millions of eager young athletes around the globe will reverberate for years to come.

"We just thanked each other. I think we were both speechless at the fact that we were able to share a moment like that. We both realized it was about so much more than our performance that day," D'Agostino said after the incident.
home World Asylum seekers to be accommodated by Australian state leaders

The head of Western Australia state would accommodate asylum seekers following Australia's decision to close off government-funded detention centers where 1,350 refugees reportedly live in dire conditions.

Western Australian Premier Colin Barnett, a member of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's Liberal Party, took a stand against his conservative party's position on the government's widely criticized detention policy.

"We would certainly accommodate a number of them in Western Australia and we'd certainly support them as a state government," Barnett reportedly told the Australian Broadcasting Corp on Wednesday night.

A spokeswoman for New Zealand Prime Minister John Key followed this up by reiterating their previous offer to accept 150 refugees.

Australia's zero-tolerance policy towards asylum seekers aims to discourage migrants by intercepting their voyage and sending them off to the detention camps of Nauru and Manus in Papua New Guinea, never to be held eligible for resettlement in Australia.

Both countries announced Wednesday their decision to close the center on Manus Island, holding 960 asylum seekers after Papua New Guinea's Supreme Court declared the offshore detention center as illegal. However, they did not indicate when the center would be closed and what would happen to the refugees.

"It's never been about tearing down the fences, it's about what to do with the people trapped behind them," Daniel Webb, Human Rights Law Center's director of legal advocacy, told Reuters. "There's absolute clarity about what should happen but no clarity whatsoever about what will happen."

Human rights advocates charged Australia of gross human rights violations through its handling of detention centers, where refugees suffer from physical and sexual assaults. They also lacked basic necessities such as toilet paper and running water and consequently contracted diseases of malaria and typhoid.

"Everybody is tired, people think this news will make us happy but everyone is same like before," said Benham Satah, a Kurdish Iranian refugee in the Manus Island. "I want to believe there is something good happening but I can't. I just focus on seeing tomorrow."
home World Muslim Fulani Herdsmen slaughter 7 Christians in Nigeria

The machete-wielding Muslim Fulani herdsmen attacked once again and killed seven Christians in northeast central Nigeria on Saturday night.

The attackers struck the Golkofa village in the Kaduna state of Jema'a Local Government Area and killed five Christian members of the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) and two other Christians, cousins of one Golkofa resident named Sunday Saleh.

Saleh identified the victims as his 40-year-old cousin Thomas Maimasara, his 25-year-old cousin Sabo Boyi, and the church members as 18-year-old Bobo Okocha, 24-year-old Monday Hamza, 17-year-old Waje Rubutu, 20-year-old Linus and 19-year-old Julius.

"The Christians were killed in their homes," Saleh told Morning Star News. "Some of the victims were shot while others were cut with machetes."

The massacre in Golkofa follows the recent violence in two other villages in the Kaduna state. The Islamic extremists attacked the villages of Gada Biyu and Ninte three weeks ago and killed 13 Christians. The deadly attacks also sent three pastors of different churches fleeing away for safety.

"These attacks on Christian communities are senseless and uncalled for," said Rev. Dr. Sunday Ibrahim, secretary of the state chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN). "Why carry out attacks on communities without provocation? The Nigerian government needs to stop these killings by these Muslim herdsmen."

The Fulani herdsmen also burned down the Christian villagers' homes in Gada Biyu on the night of Aug. 3, incidentally the same that the Nigerian militant group Boko Haram, with its new leadership, issued new threats of burning down all churches and "killing all of those (Christians) who we find from the citizens of the cross."

Bishop Charles Hammawa of Jalingo warned that Boko Haram buoyed the Muslim herdsmen's attacks against the Christians after losing substantial grounds.

"It appears to be a strategy to deliberately populate areas with Muslims and, by the sheer weight of superior numbers, influence political decision-making in the region," Bishop Hammawa told ChurchMilitant.com.
home Sports Michael Phelps dubbed 'Purpose Driven Swimmer' by Pastor Rick Warren

Michael Phelps, the world's most decorated Olympian also gets named by Pastor Rick Warren as a "Purpose Driven Swimmer" after revealing how the Christian book saved his life.

The 62-year-old megachurch pastor turned out to be a fan of the 31-year-old competitive swimmer as Pastor Warren took to Facebook on Sunday and congratulated Phelps for winning his 23rd Olympic gold.

"Saw Michael Phelps, #PurposeDrivenSwimmer, win his 23rd gold! I've prayed for you each day in Rio. God has a great future for you!" wrote the senior pastor and founder of Saddleback Church.

ESPN revealed two months ago that the Olympic champion battled an identity crisis two years ago to the point that he even contemplated ending his life.

"I thought the world would just be better off without me," ESPN quoted Phelps as saying. "I figured that was the best thing to do a just end my life."

Phelps finally decided to check himself to rehab at The Meadows in Arizona back in October last year and became known as "Preacher Mike" to fellow patients whom he read the Pastor Warren's best-selling book "The Purpose Driven Life" every start of the day.

"I'm proud of @MichaelPhelps for his victories even before the Olympics begin. Excited he'll be carrying the flag for the US," wrote the pastor, also a New York Times best-selling author, after learning about this trivia.

Phelps amassed a total of 28 medals, including 23 golds, after grabbing five golds and one silver at the Rio Olympics 2016.

He maintained that this would be the culminating part of his career as he's finally prepared to move on from swimming and that this decision made him especially eager to give his best at Rio.

An ideal headline to sum up his games in this year's summer Olympics "would say something along the lines of, I finally gave 100 percent," shared Phelps.

"Or I'm happy to turn the page to the next chapter. I'm happy to move on from my swimming career and go out how I wanted to," he told TODAY host Matt Lauer in an interview back in April.
home World Pope Francis meets with French President Francois Hollande, express brotherly sentiments

The Roman Catholic Church leader and the agnostic leader of the secular French Republic both expressed brotherly sentiments as they met three weeks after the Normandy church attack.

French President FranAois Hollande visited the Vatican on Wednesday and shared a private meeting that lasted roughly 40 minutes with Pope Francis, whom he expressed gratitude for showing solidarity with the French people.

"The pope's words were very comforting," France24 quoted Hollande as saying. "He confided in me that he felt like a brother at the side of the French people."

According to Vatican Radio, Hollande and Pope Francis spoke on the phone for 20 minutes the day two teenage local extremists attacked a Catholic church in Saint Etienne du Rouvray near Rouen, which happened to be Hollande's birthplace, and slew the 85-year-old French Catholic priest Fr. Jacques Hamel. Hollande told Pope Francis "when a priest is attacked all of France is wounded"

The Argentine pope thanked Hollande for contacting him like "a brother" during his flight to Poland.

"Both of us, at our own level, have a vocation to protect Christians in the Middle East. Logically, the pope knows the role Christians play in keeping the equilibrium in the region," the French leader told journalists after his visit to the French National Church, San Luigi dei Francesi, according to Crux.

Hollande made his first stop at the church, which hosted a chapel as a place of pilgrimage to honor the victims of terrorism that include the 130 dead from last November's Paris attacks, the 84 dead in Nice during the Bastille Day celebration and Fr. Hamel.

The agnostic leader, who clashed with the Catholics over his gay marriage legislation and appointment of an openly gay French ambassador to the Vatican, shared that he wanted to discuss the issues of migrants and refugees as well as religious protection regardless of faith.

"French secularism's message is one which unites, not one that wounds," said Hollande. "The Republic must defend the right to believe and also to not believe."

Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin and British Archbishop Paul Gallagher joined Hollande and Pope Francis after their private meeting. The Vatican did not disclose what they talked about but said that the two leaders both gave each other gifts.
home World Accusations that World Vision has been funding Hamas is just part of a 'political game', source claims

Charges that a Hamas supporter infiltrated the Christian organization World Vision to steer funds for its military wing in Gaza might only be Israel's political subterfuge, sources say.

A non-governmental organization staffer based in Israel cast doubts that the allegations hurled against Mohammed el Halabi, the international humanitarian aid group's operations manager in Gaza, could be possible considering the stringent accounting practices NGOs must follow.

"From personal experience I know the good work they are doing, and I think that's why it touches me personally; because you kind of feel that if an organization like that is attacked there's a greater political game behind the scenes," the staffer, who spoke in anonymity, told The Christian Post.

Employees of international relief organizations reportedly suspect that Israel's accusations aim to undermine its critical opponents.

Steve Haas, vice president and chief catalyst for World Vision U.S., posted an essay on the Lausanne movement last year that supporting Israel meant supporting "the largest and longest occupation of another people group in modern history, an oppressive Israeli legal system which [Archbishop Desmond] Tutu and many other church leaders have called 'apartheid on steroids.'"

Israel's daily newspaper Haaretz also reported last week that Palestinian sources noted two factors that possibly led to the groundless accusations. The first depicted a possible retaliation from a former World Vision employee whom Halabi previously fired. The second stemmed from the reports that Halabi might have been extorted to confess.

Halabi's attorney Mohammed Mahmoud pointed out that the fact that it took 55 days for the investigation proves the charges unsubstantial.

Israel's Shin Bet security service arrested Halabi June 15 but only announced the indictment Aug. 4. They accused Halabi of being a member of the Islamist militia Izzedin al-Qassam since 2004 and purposefully joined World Vision in order to funnel the money to the armed group. Halabi allegedly transferred up to US$50 million from the funds.

"World Vision's cumulative operating budget in Gaza for the past ten years was approximately US$22.5 million, which makes the alleged amount of up to US$50 million being diverted hard to reconcile," posted an online statement by World Vision International CEO Kevin Jenkins on Aug. 8.

He added that Halabi operated at a cap of US$15,000.
home US Wyoming judge may lose bench for refusing to perform gay marriages

Municipal judge Ruth Neely may be relieved of her position when she told a local newspaper that she would not perform same-sex marriage ceremonies because of her religious stance.

Wyoming's judicial ethics commission recommended that Neely be relieved as magistrate of Pinedale, Wyoming. According to NBC News, she wrote the commission a letter that stated: "Homosexuality is a named sin in the Bible, as are drunkenness, thievery, lying, and the like. I can no more officiate at a same-sex wedding than I can buy beer for the alcoholic."

Douglas W. Bailey, Luke Goodrich and Daniel Blomberg, lawyers of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, submitted a brief that stated Neely is being punished for her beliefs and that her removal would violate her constitutional rights. It also pointed out that the commission is saying Neely cannot function as a judge because of her beliefs, even if her position is not authorized to perform marriage ceremonies.

Neely's lawyer, James Campbell of the Alliance Defending Freedom, said in a CNS News report that the case has significant First Amendment issues. He added that Neely only expressed her opinion about marriage and had not shown any bias or prejudice.

According to Campbell, Neely was not the only one who expressed opposition to same-sex marriage. He said many are even prominent judges and members of major religious organizations.

This was countered by the commission's lawyer, Patrick Dixon, who said that although Neely has a right to stand on her belief, the judge must be removed from office because she violated the code of conduct. The code prohibits all state judges, including Neely's seat as magistrate, from expressing bias against people because of their sexual preference, be it in words or in action.

The Wyoming Supreme Court reportedly rejected the filing of the "friend of the court" briefs that support Neely. These were submitted by a group of Wyoming legislators and big religious organizations.
'Compassionate' priest encouraged by Pope Francis to fight cancer dies at 35

A young priest who Pope Francis called by phone and encouraged to fight cancer has died. He was 35.

Chilean priest Francisco Rencoret passed away on Aug. 13 after battling cancer. Rencoret, who was ordained in 2013, was studying Canon Law at the Gregorian University in Rome when he was diagnosed with the disease.

He returned to Chile for treatment.

Rencoret's chances of recovery were high in recent weeks based on test results showing that there was improvement in the sarcoma with metastasis in his lungs, the Catholic News Agency reported.

However, his brain tumours eventually caused his death.

Pope Francis called Rencoret in June. The priest said the Pope learned about his disease and called him to "find out about my health and to tell me that he was praying for me, to give me a lot of support, encouragement and the love of the Church."

Rencoret told Pope Francis that "I am offering some of my sufferings for your vocation, difficulties and sorrows" and that they were "very much in communion because in fact God is merciful."

Father Mauricio Valdivia, his friend and fellow student at the Santiago Pontifical Major Seminary, said the priest's aim was not to be cured but be saved.

"I believe that (he) was able to understand in one way or another, not without difficulty, that God gave him the gift of this time to prepare himself, and I believe the time was ripe for him to meet the Lord," Valdivia said.

He added, "He experienced such a radical self-surrender since he said that he wanted to be saved more than he wanted to be cured, and from that perspective he experienced it as a privileged opportunity. He always looked very peaceful."

Before his death, Rencoret prepared his family by conveying to them peace and strength, Valdivia said.

"(I even) had the opportunity to go with him to the clinic, I stayed once overnight there with him and we talked about a lot of things and heard each other's confessions, in that gift of priestly friendship, with that tranquility of the heart of knowing how to seek God's will," he added.

Valdivia described Rencoret as someone who was very compassionate towards the needy.

"There was no beggar in the parish who didn't know Pancho. He helped a network of street people," he said.

He recalled that Rencoret brought clothes and things to a man who was bedridden, a selfless act that he did for others as well.

"His friendship was a blessing to me," Valdivia said.

Rencoret's wake was held at the Saint Vincent Parish in Santiago.
Nicaragua to implement stricter policies for entry of foreign pastors

The Nicaraguan government is planning to implement stricter policies in allowing foreign missions into the country in a bid to ensure that these missions are not used as a front for illegal activities.

According to Pastor Guillermo Osorno, founder of the Nicaraguan Party of the Christian Path, who also serves as a legislator with the opposition Constitutionalist Liberal Party coalition, these measures are meant to protect "the sovereignty and security of Nicaraguans."

Based on the latest measure, the government will implement a stricter process in the application for foreign missions to ascertain that applicants are really entering the country for the specific purpose of evangelisation and outreach.

"Unfortunately, there are people who claim they're religious leaders but behave the wrong way. Because of just a few of them, all of us will pay the price," Osorno lamented.

Upon the implementation of the new policy, foreign pastors would have to apply and register first and wait for formal authorisation before they can enter Nicaraguan territory to allow for a proper screening prior to approval of their application.

While there are some opposition to the measure, Osorno said it was designed t to deter questionable individuals from possibly engaging in illegal practices in the country like money laundering and other criminal activities.

Besides, he said this will be fairly implemented across all religions and denominations whether it be for Evangelical pastors or representatives from the Catholic Church.

Nicaragua is a predominantly Catholic country with approximately 73 percent of the population belonging to the Roman Catholic church. Roughly 15 percent are affiliated with evangelical churches while the rest are divided among the Moravian Church, the Episcopal Church, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons and Amish or Mennonite, Protestant, Jewish and Muslim beliefs, according to data from Nicaragua.com.
Responding to the face of horror

Staring out of the front page of our newspapers on Friday morning was Omran Daqneesh, a dazed five-year-old coated in dust, a crescent of blood adorning one eye. He was "Syria's unwitting poster child" to the International York Times, "A symbol of Assad's war" for The Times, and "The face of horror" according to Spain's El Periodico.

It was not the first time that the photographer, Mahmoud Rislan, had cried while filming a traumatised child.

"Omran's affected me because he was silent," he explained. "He didn't cry. He didn't say a word. He was shocked."

Rislan hopes that photos of all the child victims of Syria's war go viral. "If people knew what it was like maybe the war will stop, the bombing will stop," he observed.

There is little doubt that the photo has elicited an emotional response, at least on social media, where people have voiced shock, horror, and pity. Many comparisons have been made to the image of Alan Kurdi, another small Syrian child, drowned in September while attempting to cross the Mediterranean with his family. Some commentators have vented their frustration with the response. Why this picture and not the many others captured daily? How long before the world moves on? Will anything actually change? "They are not dolls to cry over and then move on," wrote Zaher Sahloul, a Syrian-American doctor, in the Guardian. "That is the worst thing, everyone is looking at these pictures, but who will do anything?"

The reality is that most coverage of Syria goes unread. In an article entitled "You probably won't read this piece about Syria", Barry Malone, an online editor at Al Jazeera, described how the site's coverage of the five year anniversary of the conflict failed to attract readers. Since 2012, with the exception of "occasional spikes", mostly related to ISIL barbarity, there has been a "stagnation" in traffic to Syria stories. "The twisted steal the attention," he wrote. "And the people we should pay attention to fade into the background, bit players in a narrative wrongly and unfairly dominated by the grotesque."

While it is tempting to accuse the public of apathy, parochialism or a lack of compassion, my sense is that people avoid reading stories about Syria because of an overwhelming sense of powerlessness. The emotions aroused by stories of children dying are powerful, but where is the outlet? What can we do? Tony Benn used to talk about combining the flame of anger against injustice and the flame of hope that it's possible to build a better world. Without the latter, is is tempting not to feed the former any fuel.

With this in mind, here are some ways in which to respond to the plight of Omran Daqneesh, and all Syria's victims.

1. Pray

Prayer has to be our first response. We pray to a just God of infinite compassion. Pray for wisdom for those charged with negotiating peace. Pray for the many millions in need of aid, including the 4.8 million forced to flee the country. Pray for those trying to reach them. Pray for hearts and minds to be changed. In this moving episode of Desert Island Discs, the British surgeon David Nott describes performing life-saving surgery on an ISIS fighter in Aleppo. Challenged about this, he explains: "Maybe he might have changed his mind about things... He may find out that he was operated on by a Christian surgeon in hospital, and I hope he does find out." I also recommend watching this film from May 1940. It shows the response to King George VI's call for a national day of prayer: a queue of the faithful, snaking around Westminster Abbey. I would love to see us out in force for the people of Syria.

2. Give

The extent of the need in Syria, and in those countries hosting Syrian refugees, is overwhelming. The UN estimates that there are 13.5 million people in need of humanitarian assistance. Only a third of its appeal has been funded. Lebanon, a country half the size of Wales, is hosting more than a million Syrians: one in three people in the country is a refugee. I met some of them in February, visiting children attending a World Vision project that gives them a few hours of fun every day  a chance to make flowers out of cardboard, draw their homes back in Syria, and race each other with balloons. The country-wide appeal is just 19 per cent funded. I believe that choosing which charity to find is an important personal decision but would personally recommend Medecins sans Frontieres (working within Syria) and Embrace the Middle East (working with refugees outside Syria). I'm a trustee of the latter.

3. Advocate

In his appeal to Guardian readers to fund the UN's refugee agency, written after his visit to a camp in Jordan, the author Neil Gaiman wrote that it was "rare that you know that you have picked the right side". Much of the commentary on Syria has emphasised the complicated nature of the conflict. "I can't hear this word any longer, especially from the religious leaders," one Syrian priest told me. He fears that it translates into "I don't want to do anything about it.". Ideas have been proferred. The late MP Jo Cox, a long-time champion of the Syrian people, called for a no-fly zone. This was echoed this week on Channel 4 News by David Nott. Jo Cox also called on the UK to airdop aid to besieged civilians. As a member of the UN Security Council the UK should be pushing it to enforce the resolutions already passed, including those demanding an end to attacks on civilians, the abandonment of sieges, and unimpeded access for aid deliveries, including operations from neighbouring countries without the consent of the Syrian government. Resolutions are going ignored. Write to your MP to demand the UK exert diplomatic pressure.

4. Bear witness

We are not terrorists," a Syrian man, Faisal, told me, shortly before I left his temporary home in Jordan. "That is what everyone thinks. We just care about our children's future. That is all." I truly believe that one of our duties as Christians is to try as hard as we can to learn the truth about what is happening in Syria. That is not always easy. There are competing narratives, claims and counter-claims about where blame lies, and deliberate attempts to conceal and deceive. But one of the most chilling themes in Samantha Power's book A Problem From Hell, her Pulitzer-prize-winning book about genocide, is the failure to believe testimony. "Alarming reports of atrocities are typically met with scepticism," she observes. I've seen first hand the passion with which Syrian refugees want to convey what they have endured. The father who told us how he had lost his mind in a detention cell; the woman who had escaped ISIS in the back of a cattle truck. Photographers like Mahmoud Rislan are desperate for the world to know what is happening inside Syria.

Articles that I have found helpful include:

This New York Times long read on The Assad Files.

These New Internationalist article on "Syria's Good Guys".

Jo Cox's speech on the vote on airstrikes and her call for a strategy.

I have found that the more I have read, the more passionate I have felt about giving and praying. I have also discovered amazing stories of bravery, including that of the civilian defence force ("White Helmets") that rescued Omran Daqneesh, and that of Mohammed, a 16-year-old who has just finished second from top in the entire country of Lebanon, in his secondary school exams. He spent six or seven hours every day doing his homework, translating it for his brothers and sisters. He is Syria's future. There is evil afoot in Syria, but there is also great good. Let's pray, give, and advocate until it triumphs.

Madeleine Davies is deputy news editor of the Church Times, writing in a personal capacity. Follow her on Twitter @MadsDavies
Sold as a sex slave and forced to convert to Islam: One Christian woman's extraordinary escape from Islamic State

On the night of June 2, 2015, gunmen blocked a highway on Libya's northern coast and stopped a white truck speeding toward Tripoli, the capital. The men trained their assault rifles on the driver. Three climbed aboard to search the cargo.

Ruta Fisehaye, a 24-year-old Eritrean, was lying on the bed of the truck's first trailer. Beside her lay 85 Eritrean men and women, one of whom was pregnant. A few dozen Egyptians hid in the second trailer. All shared one dream  to reach Europe.

The gunmen ordered the migrants off the truck. They separated Muslims from Christians and, then, men from women. They asked those who claimed to be Muslims to recite the Shahada, a pledge to worship only Allah. All of the Egyptians shouted the words in unison.

"There is no god but God. Muhammad is the messenger of God."

"Allahu Akbar," the gunmen called back.

Fisehaye realized then that she was in the hands of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. Her captors wore robes with beige camouflage print  clothes she had not seen on other men in Libya. Most of them hid behind black ski masks. A black flag waved from one of their pickup trucks.

"We were certain that they were taking us to our deaths," recalled Fisehaye, a Christian who wears a black-thread necklace to symbolize her Orthodox faith. "We cried in despair."

Her captors had another end in mind.

As Islamic State battles to expand in Libya, it is rewarding its warriors by exploiting the great exodus of African migrants bound for Europe.

Since the group emerged in Libya in late 2014, some 240,000 migrants and refugees have traversed the war-torn country. Over the past 18 months, Islamic State fighters have abducted at least 540 refugees in six separate ambushes, according to 14 migrants who witnessed the abductions and have since escaped to Europe.

The fighters then enslaved, raped, sold or exchanged at least 63 captive women, nine of whom described their ordeal in detail to Reuters. Their stories comprise the first corroborated account of how Islamic State turns refugee women into sex slaves using them as human currency to attract and reward fighters in Libya. It is the same blueprint of abuse it employed on Yazidi women in Syria and Iraq.

Because of its proximity to southern Europe, and its shared borders with six African nations, Libya is Islamic State's most important outpost outside Syria and Iraq. It is territory that the group is fighting hard to defend.

In August, US fighter jets bombed Sirte  the stronghold of Islamic State in Libya  in an attempt to wrench the city from the group's control. The airstrikes have revived a stalled military assault that Libyan brigades launched earlier this summer.

Sirte is strategically important for Islamic State. The city sits on a highway connecting two hubs of Libya's people-smuggling trade  Ajdabiya in the northeast, where migrants stop to settle fees with smugglers, and fishing ports in the west, where boats depart for Europe every week.

From this bastion, Islamic State has found numerous ways to profit from the refugee crisis, despite the group's declaration that migration is "a dangerous major sin" in the September issue of its magazine, "Dabiq."

The extremist group has taxed smugglers in exchange for safe passage and has used well-beaten smuggling routes to bring in new fighters, according to Libyan residents interviewed by phone, a senior US official and a UN Security Council report published in July.

Brigadier Mohamed Gnaidy, an intelligence officer with local forces mustered by the nearby town of Misrata, says Islamic State has recruited migrants to join its ranks, offering them money and Libyan brides.

It has also extracted human chattel from the stream of refugees passing through its territory, according to the accounts of Fisehaye and the other survivors who were interviewed. Five of six mass kidnappings verified by Reuters took place on a 160-km stretch near Sirte in March, June, July, August and September of last year. The sixth occurred near Libya's border with Sudan this January.

This story is based on interviews with Fisehaye, eight other women enslaved by Islamic State, and five men kidnapped by the group. Reuters spoke to the refugees in three European countries over four months. Two women agreed to speak on the record, risking the stigma that besets survivors of sexual violence. Reuters was unable to reach the Islamic State fighters in Libya or independently corroborate certain aspects of the women's accounts.

Better shot than beheaded

Before she left Eritrea, Fisehaye felt trapped in her job as a storekeeper for a government-owned farm. Like most young Eritreans, she was a conscript in the country's long-term national service, which lasts well beyond the 18 months mandated by law. She could hardly get by on her meager wages of $36 a month. But she also felt she could not quit and risk angering the state, which is often accused of human-rights violations.

Fisehaye, a petite woman whose smile easily takes over her entire face, decided to take a risk. In January 2015, she walked across the border into Sudan with a cousin and two friends, her heart set on Europe.

In Khartoum, Sudan's capital, Fisehaye spent four months raising the $1,400 she needed to pay a smuggler for a trip to Libya. She tried and failed to find a lucrative job. So, like thousands of refugees before her, she called on relatives abroad to pitch in. She talked to recent emigres and found an Eritrean smuggler whose clients gave him a glowing review.

Before setting off into the desert, she heard stories about armed outlaws who rape women in Libya. She paid a doctor for a contraceptive injection that would last for three months.

"Once you leave Eritrea, there is no going back. I did what any woman would do," she said.

The first leg of her journey went off without a hitch. In May, her convoy crossed the Sahara and reached Ajdabiya in northeast Libya. Fisehaye believed the worst was behind her. Though no one counts migrants who die from sickness, starvation and violence in the desert, refugee groups say more may perish there than drown in the Mediterranean Sea.

"No one stopped us in the Sahara... and the smugglers told us we shouldn't worry about Daesh," she said, using an Arabic acronym for Islamic State. "I never expected to see an organised state like theirs in Libya."

She was wrong.

On the night of the kidnapping, the armed Islamic State fighters ordered Fisehaye and the other Christians back onto the truck. The men climbed onto the front trailer and the women, 22 in all, onto the back. They drove east, threading the same road they had driven hours earlier. A pickup truck with a mounted machine gun trailed close behind.

A half hour later, the truck turned right onto a dirt road and the soft glow of a town's lights shimmered ahead. A few male captives had seen videos of Islamic State beheadings. Realising the gunmen belonged to the group, the men jumped off and ran into the flat desert. Gunfire erupted. Some fell dead, others were rounded up. A few got away.

"We thought it would be better to get shot than beheaded," Hagos Hadgu, one of the men who jumped off the truck, said in an interview in Hallsta, Sweden. He wasn't caught that night and made it to Europe two months later. "We didn't want to die with our hands and legs bound. Even an animal needs to writhe in the hour of death."

The fighters deposited the migrants at an abandoned hospital perched in a scrubland near a desert town called Nawfaliyah. They searched the women for jewelry, lifting their sleeves and necklines with a rod, and hauled them into a small room where a Nigerian woman was being kept.

The next morning, one of the fighters' leaders, a man from West Africa, paid the women a visit. He brought a young boy, one of at least seven Eritrean children Islamic State had kidnapped in March, to serve as his translator.

"Do you know who we are?" the man asked.

The women were silent.

"We are al-dawla al-Islamiyyah," the man explained, using the Arabic for Islamic State.

He reminded the women that Islamic State was the group that had slain 30 Eritrean and Ethiopian Christians back in April, filmed the massacre, and posted the video online. The caliphate would spare their lives because they were women, he assured them, but only if they converted to Islam.

"Or we will let you rot here," he warned.

Fisehaye found conversion an unholy thought. Along with the other women, she fired a volley of questions at the man: Can we call our families and tell them where we are? Can they pay you a ransom for our freedom? Can you tell us what you did to our brothers? Our husbands?

The man offered few answers and no solace.

Three weeks later, in the first week of Ramadan in June, fighter jets bombed the abandoned hospital compound and some of the buildings collapsed. It is difficult to determine who was behind the attack. Both the US military and western Libyan groups have claimed raids on nearby towns around that time.

In the ensuing chaos, Fisehaye and the other women sprinted past the debris and ran barefoot into the desert. The hot ground seared their feet. The captive men, who had been held in the same compound all along, ran ahead.

Before long, the fleeing captives made out the silhouettes of a pickup truck and men with assault rifles ahead of them. The armed men waved for the migrants to stop then opened fire. The women stopped. Most of the migrant men escaped, but eleven were rounded up and flogged. Their whereabouts are unknown.

The airstrikes continued through the week. Eventually, Islamic State fighters moved the women to the abandoned quarters of a Turkish construction company in Nawfaliyah, two hours away.

The makeshift prison housed graders and dozers from road-work projects of the mid-2000s, their metal bodies rusting under the intense heat. Itinerant workers had scribbled their names and countries on the compound's walls. Fisehaye and the other women stayed in a small room where the drywall sweated when temperatures rose. A Korean family  a pediatrician, his wife and her brother  were jailed in another room.

It only took a week for Fisehaye and the other women to attempt another breakout. Nine escaped, but not Fisehaye. Instead, she was brought back to the makeshift prison and whipped for days. The Korean doctor tended to her wounds.

A few weeks later, in early August, 21 other Eritrean women joined Fisehaye's group. They too had been kidnapped along a stretch of highway in central Libya. One woman came with her three children, aged five, seven and eleven.

Conversion

Throughout the summer, Islamic State consolidated its hold in central Libya. In Sirte, Islamic State fighters crushed a Salafist uprising by executing dissenters and hanging their bodies from lampposts. In Nawfaliyah, they paraded decapitated heads to silence dissent.

Then, in September, the group's emir in Libya, Abul-Mughirah Al-Qahtani (more commonly known as Abu Nabil), advertised his domain's "great need of every Muslim who can come." He summoned fighters, doctors, legal experts and administrators who could help him build a functioning state. He levied hefty taxes on businesses and confiscated enemy property, just as his group had done in Syria and Iraq.

The ranks of Islamic State fighters swelled. At its peak, the group may have had 6,000 fighters in Libya, based on the US Army's estimates, although the Pentagon drastically cut that estimate this month to a thousand fighters in Sirte.

The single men, most of whom flocked from other parts of Africa, needed companions, and Islamic State enlisted older women in Sirte to help. The women, called 'crows' because they dressed in black, visited townspeople's homes and registered single girls older than 15 as potential brides, says Brigadier Gnaidy of the Misrata forces.

As the group's ambitions grew that summer, so did its need for women. Islamic State's take on sharia permits men to take sex slaves. The kidnapped women, unprotected and far from home, became easy targets. In mid-August, more than two months after Fisehaye was abducted, Islamic State fighters moved the 36 women in their custody to Harawa, a small town they controlled some 75 kilometers (46 miles) from Sirte.

As Fisehaye and the seven other women Reuters interviewed describe it, life in Harawa was almost quotidian at first.

There were no air strikes, beatings or threats of sexual violence. The captives  the Eritreans kidnapped in June and August, including Fisehaye, two Nigerians, and the Korean couple and their relative  lived in a large compound by the town's dam. In the next few weeks, they were joined by 10 Filipino medical workers kidnapped from a hospital in Sirte, a Bangladeshi lecturer taken from a Sirte university, a pregnant Ghanaian captured in Sirte, and an Eritrean woman captured with her 4-year-old son on the highway to Tripoli.

It was here that Fisehaye bonded with Simret Kidane, a 29 year-old who left her three children with her parents in Eritrea to seek a better life in Europe. She was among the women kidnapped in August.

Kidane befriended one of the guards, Hafeezo, a Tunisian mechanic turned jihadist in his early 30s. Hafeezo helped the women navigate their new life in captivity. He brought them groceries and relayed their demands to his superiors in Sirte. He comforted them when they cried. He counseled them to forget their past lives and embrace Islam. That way, he promised, they may be freed to find a husband among the militants. They may even be allowed to call home.

The women asked for religious lessons, and Hafeezo brought them a copy of the Koran translated into their first language, Tigrinya. He also brought a small Dell laptop and a flash drive on which he had uploaded religious texts and lessons on the lives of fallen jihadists.

Fisehaye succumbed first. In September, after three months of captivity, she converted to Islam and took on a Muslim name, Rima. Her conversion had a domino effect across the compound; Kidane and the others followed suit a month later.

"I could see no other way out," Fisehaye said. "Islam was one more step to my freedom. They told us we would have some rights as Muslims."

After their conversion, Hafeezo brought them black abayas and niqabs, loose garments some Muslim women wear to cover themselves. He kept his distance and refused to make eye contact. Instead, he supervised their piety from afar.

Another guard, an older Sudanese fighter, taught them to pray. He recited verses from the Koran and made the women write down and repeat his words. When the guard moved to a new job in Sirte, Hafeezo brought a flat-screen TV and played them videos of religious lessons and suicide missions. As promised, Hafeezo allowed the women to call their families.

In December, frequent gunfire punctured the relatively quiet life in Harawa. Food became scarce. Hafeezo was often called to the frontline and disappeared for days. One day, he took Kidane aside and told her to prepare for what was to come. The leadership had changed  Islamic State's emir in Libya had died in a US airstrike a month earlier  and the women's fate along with it.

"You are now sabaya," Hafeezo told Kidane, using the archaic term for slave. There were four possible outcomes for her and the other women, he explained. Their respective owners could make them their sex slaves, give them away as gifts, sell them to other militias, or set them free.

"Do not worry about what will happen to you in the hands of men," Kidane says Hafeezo told her. "Concern yourself only with where you stand with Allah."

Kidane did not share this detail with Fisehaye or the other women, hoping to save them from despair.

Later, one of Hafeezo's superiors came to the compound to take a census. He wrote the women's names and ages on a ledger. He asked them to lift their veils and examined their faces. He returned a week later and took two of the youngest women, aged 15 and 18, with him. On December 17, he sent for Kidane. That day, he gave her to a Libyan member of an Islamic State brigade in Sirte. Despite her repeated pleas, her new owner refused to reunite her with Fisehaye.

Kidane and the teenage women escaped and are now seeking asylum in Germany.

Sabaya

In late January, a stomach ulcer confined Fisehaye to her bed. Stress made matters worse. Returning from a hospital visit one afternoon, she witnessed a child, no older than nine, shoot a man in the town square.

Soon after, she and the remaining female captives moved to a warehouse in Sirte where Islamic State stored appliances, fuel and slaves. A group of 15 Eritrean women, who had been kidnapped in July, and three Ethiopian women kidnapped in January joined them that week.

The warehouse became, to the women, a last frontier of defiance. As new Muslims, they argued for better healthcare and the abolition of their slavery. They absorbed beatings in response.

Resistance proved futile. An Eritrean fighter called Mohamed, who had often dropped by to survey the women, purchased Fisehaye in February. He never said how much he paid for her. But he seemed gentle at first, asking after her waning health and her past life in Eritrea.

"I was confused. I thought he was going to help me. Maybe he had infiltrated Daesh. Maybe he wasn't really one of them. I started harboring hope," Fisehaye said.

Instead, he raped her, repeatedly, for weeks.

"No one ever showed us which part of the Koran says they could turn us into slaves," Fisehaye said. "They wanted to destroy us...so much evil in their hearts."

She plotted her escape but could not find a way out.

Then her owner lent her to another man, a Senegalese fighter. Known by the nom de guerre Abu Hamza, the Senegalese had brought his wife and three children to the Libyan frontline. Fisehaye was to work, unpaid, in Abu Hamza's kitchen.

The work was busy but bearable, until one night in mid-February when Abu Hamza brought an Eritrean woman from the warehouse. He raped the woman all night.

"She was screaming. Screaming. It tore my heart," Fisehaye recalled. "His wife stood by the door and cried."

The next morning, Fisehaye convinced the battered woman to run away with her. They left the city behind and ran into the desert. No one stopped to help them and they were caught by religious police on patrol outside the city.

The police returned both women to captivity. The battered Eritrean woman went back to Abu Hamza. Mohamed took Fisehaye to a three-story building in Sirte that he shared with two other fighters.

Fisehaye moved in with a 22-year-old Eritrean woman and her four-year-old son, both of whom belonged to a Tunisian commander named Saleh. Another 23-year-old Eritrean lived down the hall with her two-year-old son and a daughter to whom she gave birth while in Islamic State custody. That woman and her children belonged to a Nigerian fighter who called himself al-Baghdadi.

Fisehaye's roommates said the men raped them on multiple occasions. They told their stories on condition of anonymity.

"There was no one there to help me. So I kept quiet and took the abuse," the Eritrean mother of two later said. "I stopped resisting. He did as he pleased with me."

Escape

In April of this year, Libya's nascent unity government stationed itself in a naval base in Tripoli. Separately, rival factions  the Petroleum Facilities Guard in the east and brigades from towns in the west  plotted to attack Islamic State from opposite flanks.

In Sirte, meanwhile, Fisehaye and her roommates learned that one of them, the mother of two, would soon be sold to another man.

The revelation pushed them to plot an escape. They pretended to call their relatives but talked, instead, to Eritrean smugglers in Tripoli. They studied their captors' schedules. They surveyed their surroundings whenever the Tunisian commander Saleh, in a cruel prank, left the house keys with his slave but took her son with him.

Finally, on the early morning of April 14, the women grabbed 60 Libyan dinars, about $40, from Saleh's bag and broke out of the house through a backdoor. But Sirte looked ominously deserted in the early morning and, fearing they would be caught, the women returned to the house.

They ventured out again, hours later, when the city came to life. They walked for hours before a cab stopped for them. Fisehaye negotiated with the driver in halting Arabic. She told him they were maids who had been swindled by an employer. She gave him a number for an Eritrean smuggler in Tripoli.

The driver negotiated with the smuggler over the phone. He agreed to drive them for 750 dinars ($540), to be covered by the smuggler once the women arrived in Bani Walid, five hours away.

In the end, it took the women 12 hours to get to Bani Walid. As promised, the Eritrean smuggler paid for their escape and took them to a holding cell. There, they shucked off their niqabs and cried with joy. They prayed for the dozens they had left behind.

Fisehaye borrowed the smuggler's phone and called her father in Eritrea. Soon, word of her escape spread among her friends and relatives. They settled her debt and paid the smuggler another $2,000 to get her on a boat to Europe.

In May, during a month when 1,133 refugees drowned at sea, Fisehaye crossed the Mediterranean. Her 10 months of captivity had come to an end.

She traversed a path trod by many refugees, across Italy and Austria, and reached Germany a month after her escape. She is now seeking asylum there.
Texas halts execution of man who didn't kill anyone

Christian campaigners have welcomed the halting of the execution of Jeffery Wood, who was convicted as an accomplice to a murder he did not commit in 1996.

Shane Claiborne, an activist who has campaigned to end the death penalty in the US, wrote on his Facebook page: "Thanks to all who worked so hard to try and stop his execution. May we continue to work together to stop EVERY execution. Prayers and love go out tonight to Jeff on his birthday, to his legal team and his family, and to all the victims of violence and execution.

"May God show us a better way of doing justice than killing to show that killing is wrong."

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals announced on Friday that the execution, which was scheduled to take place on August 24 by lethal injection, would be halted.

Wood's sentence had raised questions about how the state applies the death penalty.

The 43-year-old was convicted of taking part in a 1996 convenience store robbery during which clerk Kriss Keeran was fatally shot.

In its decision, the appeals court asked a lower court to review his sentence and claims from Wood's lawyer that it was obtained in violation of due process because it was based on false testimony and false scientific evidence.

Wood's layer questioned a witness for the prosecution, forensic psychiatrist Dr. James Grigson, who told a court in the 1990s Wood would commit future acts of violence and was a threat to society.

Grigson, nicknamed "Dr. Death" for his willingness to testify against people facing the death penalty, was expelled from the Texas Society of Psychiatric Physicians and the American Psychiatric Association for ethical violations: making diagnoses of capital murder defendants without first examining them.

"The court did the right thing by staying Mr. Wood's execution and authorizing his claims related to Dr. Grigson's false testimony during the sentencing phase to be considered on the merits," said Jared Tyler, Wood's lawyer.

Wood was unarmed in a vehicle outside the store when it was robbed. Prosecutors have said Wood knew the clerk might be shot. Wood's lawyers said he was unaware that a robbery was underway.

Wood's roommate at the time, Daniel Reneau, was convicted of pulling the trigger and executed on June 13, 2002.

"I am not aware of a case where a person has been executed with so minimal culpability and with such little participation in the event," Tyler said in an interview.

Under Texas' "Law of Parties," a person can be charged with capital murder even if the offense is committed by someone else.

After he heard a shot, Wood entered the store to help Reneau steal a cash box, safe and security video system.

Ten people have been executed as accessories to felony murder since the United States reinstated the death penalty in 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, which monitors capital punishment.

Five have been in Texas, which has executed more people than any state since the death penalty was reinstated.

In an article for Religion News this week, Claiborne branded Texas "the death state".

"It blows my mind and breaks my heart that we continue to trust our very imperfect government with the ultimate and irreversible power of life and death," he said.

"It is time to end the death penalty in America. In the name of Jeff Wood. And in the name of another executed man ... named Jesus."

Additional reporting by Reuters
US withdraws staff from Saudi Arabia dedicated to Yemen planning

The US military has withdrawn from Saudi Arabia its personnel who were coordinating with the Saudi-led air campaign in Yemen, and sharply reduced the number of staff elsewhere who were assisting in that planning, US officials told Reuters.

Fewer than five US service people are now assigned full-time to the "Joint Combined Planning Cell," which was established last year to coordinate US support, including air-to-air refueling of coalition jets and limited intelligence-sharing, Lieutenant Ian McConnaughey, a US Navy spokesman in Bahrain, told Reuters.

That is down from a peak of about 45 staff members who were dedicated to the effort full-time in Riyadh and elsewhere, he said.

The June staff withdrawal, which US officials say followed a lull in air strikes in Yemen earlier this year, reduces Washington's day-to-day involvement in advising a campaign that has come under increasing scrutiny for causing civilian casualties. A Pentagon statement issued after Reuters disclosed the withdrawal acknowledged that the JCPC, as originally conceived, had been "largely shelved" and that ongoing support was limited, despite renewed fighting this summer.

"The cooperation that we've extended to Saudi Arabia since the conflict escalated again is modest and it is not a blank check," Pentagon spokesman Adam Stump said in a statement.

US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the reduced staffing was not due to the growing international outcry over civilian casualties in the 16-month civil war that has killed more than 6,500 people in Yemen, about half of them civilians.

But the Pentagon, in some of its strongest language yet, also acknowledged concerns about the conflict, which has brought Yemen close to famine and cost more than $14 billion in damage to infrastructure and economic losses.

"Even as we assist the Saudis regarding their territorial integrity, it does not mean that we will refrain from expressing our concern about the war in Yemen and how it has been waged," Stump said.

"In our discussions with the Saudi-led coalition, we have pressed the need to minimize civilian casualties."

A spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, Brigadier General Ahmed al-Asseri, declined to confirm details about the positioning of US military personnel, but played down such moves.

"The relationship between the kingdom and the US is a strategic one. If true, this move reflects something at a tactical level," Asseri told Reuters. "The US may move its assets, but that doesn't have any impact on the bilateral relationship between the countries."

Hospital strike

Since the campaign began, the US military has conducted an average of two refueling sorties every day and provided limited intelligence support to the coalition. That assistance continues, officials said.

Still, the Pentagon has long distanced itself from the Saudi-led coalition's decisions on targeting.

"At no point did US military personnel provide direct or implicit approval of target selection or prosecution," Stump said.

The JCPC had also largely wrapped up an earlier effort to advise the Saudi-led coalition on steps to prevent civilian casualties, the Pentagon said.

An annual UN report on children and armed conflict said the Saudi-led coalition was responsible for 60 percent of child deaths and injuries in Yemen last year. Saudi Arabia has said the report is based on inaccurate information.

On Tuesday, a coalition air strike hit a hospital operated by medical aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres in Yemen, killing 19 people and prompting the group to evacuate staff from six hospitals. MSF cited a "loss of confidence in the Saudi-led coalition to prevent fatal attacks."

US Representative Ted Lieu, a Democrat from California and a colonel in the Air Force Reserve, said he believed such strikes could help galvanize votes for limiting arms transfers to Saudi Arabia.

"When its repeated air strikes that have now killed children, doctors, newlyweds, patients, at some point you just have to say: Either Saudi Arabia is not listening to the United States or they just don't care," Lieu said.
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The outgoing head of the Harris County Flood Control District has urged federal officials to remove decades of industrial, toxic runoff submerged in the San Jacinto River near Channelview.

Executive director Mike Talbott recently wrote the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that regulators should dig up and haul away the toxic sludge of the San Jacinto River Waste Pits Superfund site.

"The highly toxic waste at the site, in this major river's floodway and subject to extreme forces of flood flow, tides and storm surge, should not be allowed to remain there," Talbott wrote in an Aug. 9 letter.

The EPA is expected to make a proposal in the near future on what to do with the waste pits.

A $9 million temporary armored cap was placed over the sludge to keep it from seeping off the site, and one option is to keep such a cap in place and contain the waste.

Another option is to dig the waste out and move it out of the area. Removal has long been a preferred option of many at the communtiy level, said Jackie Young, a local environmental advocate who has long fought for removal of the pits.

"We do not want to push this on to our future generations," Young said.

Texas officials discovered the waste pits in 2005 along the river, between Channelview and the small town of Highlands. The EPA determined that tugboats pushed barges of waste sludge from a Pasadena mill to the pits for offloading and storage in the 1960s.

The agency identified several hazardous substances in the pits, including dioxins  carcinogens linked to numerous potential health effects, including birth defects.

In 2008, the EPA designated the area a Superfund site, which applies to the country's most contaminated land and environmental emergencies.

Harris County filed a lawsuit five years ago to try and hold three companies accountable for pollution from the waste pits that had partially submerged over the years, seeping toxins into the brackish water.

The county settled part of that lawsuit, and a $10 million chunk of that settlement will fund park improvements, wetland restoration projects and boating infrastructure upgrades near the San Jacinto River.
Flagstaff classical musicians are invited to participate in The Arizona Project, an event designed to increase awareness of the necessity of art and music in our community.

Sarah Walder, who grew up in Flagstaff and graduated from Coconino High School, initiated the project in mid-July, performing impromptu concerts at various unusual and un-artistic locations throughout Flagstaff. Walder attended conservatory in Ohio and then moved to the Netherlands, where she works as a musician and as a physical therapist for musicians.

During the course of the project, it occurred to her that it would be wonderful to use this platform to raise the visibility of all of Flagstaffs classical musicians and strengthen the musical community. To this end, she is inviting all of Flagstaffs classical musicians to join her in performance on the morning of Saturday, Aug. 27.

Musicians will meet at Wheeler Park at 9:30 a.m. before splitting up to perform solo in several of Flagstaffs commercial neighborhoods between 10 and noon. Classical musicians of any kind (including classical guitar and voice), are welcome and high school students are also encouraged to participate. Musicians can choose which classical selections to perform.

As long as musicians do not impede the flow of traffic (street or sidewalk) and are not trespassing on private property, the City of Flagstaff does not prohibit this kind of activity. For the purposes of this project, Walder doesnt accept money and encourages other participants to do the same.

Musicians are encouraged to wear silly formal wear and hats. Walder plays barefoot and encourage others to do the same. The idea is to be as visible as possible. Afterward, musicians are invited to meet afterward at Wheeler Park for a social hour  bring your own picnic.

To see pictures from this years project, or to learn more, visit sarahwalderazproject.weebly.com, call 853-6874 or email slwalder@xs4all.nl.
PHOENIX -- Foes of an initiative to hike the minimum wage to $12 an hour have no legal right to challenge whether the signatures were gathered by people who were unqualified, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Joshua Rogers ruled Friday.

In his decision, Rogers acknowledged various claims by the Arizona Restaurant Association that some of the people who circulated the petitions had not complied with all of the requirements of state law. That includes registering with the secretary of state's office, not having been convicted of felonies, and providing an Arizona address where they could be contacted if necessary.

In fact, the judge said, based on those requirements, he would have thrown out "a score'' of petitions circulated by those people, potentially leaving initiative backers with insufficient signatures.

But Rogers did not do that for one simple reason: He said challengers waited too long to file suit. And that means any and all of their claims are legally void.

Arizona law does allow any person to challenge the registration of circulators. But Rogers said there is a caveat.

"A challenge may not be commenced more than (ITALICS) five days (ROMAN) after the date on which the petitions for which the circulator is required to be registered are filed with the secretary of state,'' he pointed out. And Rogers said the lawsuit was not filed within that period.

Rogers specifically rejected the contention of attorneys for the challengers that the measure should be read to mean "five business days'' which would exclude Saturday and Sunday from the count -- and would have meant the complaint was filed in time.

"Courts are to interpret a statute according to the ordinary meaning of its terms unless a specific definition is given or the context clearly indicates that a special meaning was intended,'' the judge wrote.

Steve Chucri, executive director of the Arizona Restaurant Association, said paperwork already has been filed to take the issue to the state Supreme Court.

"We believe that there is a valid argument to be made on that portion of the ruling,'' he said.

More to the point, Chucri contends that if the high court concludes the lawsuit is filed in time, the rulings already made by Rogers about unqualified petition circulators will leave initiative backers with fewer than the 150,642 valid signatures they need to put the issue on the November ballot.

If that happens, it could be close.

Backers submitted nearly 272,000 signatures. But after a preliminary review, Secretary of State Michele Reagan struck many of the names, leaving the measure with just 238,937 signatures.

And that is even before individual counties do their own verification.

But Tomas Robles, who chairs the Arizona Healthy Working Families initiative, expressed optimism that the voters will get the last word.

"This initiative is about giving our fellow citizens a chance to empower themselves and decide what is best for our state,'' he said in a prepared statement. "Who cannot see the positive in that?''

Voters adopted the first minimum wage law in 2006 when Arizona employers were subject only to the federal minimum wage of $5.15 an hour. The measure, approved on a 2-1 margin, boosted it immediately to $6.75, with a requirement for annual adjustments based on inflation that has pushed the figure to $8.05.

Backers of this measure submitted more than

This measure, if approved, would hike that immediately to $10 next year, hitting $12 by 2020, with future inflation-indexed increases. It also would mandate at least three days of paid sick leave a year, with five days for employees of larger firms.

Chucri said such changes would be devastating to his industry which operates on low margins. He also said it could hurt many of the people it intends to help, with many operations deciding they can no longer afford as many employees as they now have.

If the Supreme Court refuses to disturb Rogers' ruling and the measure remains on the ballot, much of the debate is likely to be the question of who would be affected.

Business interests have characterized the minimum wage as more of a "training wage'' paid only to teens and new employees.

But Robles said figures from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics show that about 770,000 Arizonans -- close to a quarter of the labor force -- are making less than $10 an hour and would get an immediate boost.

He also estimated about 934,000 Arizonans are in jobs where employers provide no paid sick leave.

What is not in dispute is that $8.05 translates out to $16,744 a year.

For a single person, the federal government considers anything below $11,880 a year to be living in poverty. That figure is $16,020 for a family of two and $20,160 for a family of three.

That's part of what has driven similar living wage efforts elsewhere in the country. But Chucri said the idea of a $12 minimum won't sell with voters here.
A Texas veterinarian who killed a cat by firing an arrow through its head and posted a picture of the dead animal to Facebook could see her license to practice suspended for a year, if a state board agrees with an administrative law judges' proposed decision.

Documents filed with the Texas State Board of Veterinary Medicine said state administrative law judges recommend a five-year suspension for Kristen Lindsey, but that four years be probated, meaning her license would be suspended for just one year and she could return to work on a probationary status.
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.
Beatrice High School students have two new fields to choose from in signing up for classes, including those for college credit.

Law enforcement and business are the newest career academy programs available to BHS students starting this year.

Each academy includes classes that students can take for high school credit or for college credit, at the high school or at Southeast Community College. Classes taken for college credit cost BHS students half the rate of SCC tuition, a discounted rate of $30.75 per credit hour.

Classes are also available to BHS students in the following career academies: agriculture, early childhood education, education, health sciences and nursing assistance, information technology, manufacturing and green energy, and manufacturing and welding.

The high school began offering the program, which is part of the Southeast Nebraska Career Academy Partnership (SENCAP), at the start of the 2013 school year.

College and career readiness is a big focus at our school, Principal Jason Sutter said. We think there is a desire from the students to be college and career ready and weve seen an interest from the community. NGage has told us that factories and other industries need more interest from young people.

College and career readiness is a well-established buzz phrase within school districts in Nebraska and other states, as well as the Nebraska Department of Education, the U.S. Department of Education and affiliated organizations. BHS and SENCAP are examples of one school and one program that aim to prepare high school students for post-secondary education and careers.

Classes available in the criminal justice academy this year are Introduction to Criminal Justice, which six BHS students are signed up for, and Police and Society, which seven BHS students are signed up for, Sutter said.

Its great to see that number of kids signed up in the first year that this is available, he said.

The classes are each one semester long and are taught by SCC instructor Keith Mabon at the school's Beatrice campus. A portion of those classes are taken online in a classroom at BHS, Sutter said.

Business classes pulled in much larger numbers and are taught by BHS teacher Ben Brink, who is certified through the career academy program. Sutter said 70 students are signed up for Introduction to Business this semester and 11 are signed up for Introduction to Entrepreneurship this semester, with an additional 21 students signed up for the second semester of the class.

Sutter said mostly juniors and seniors sign up for the classes because transportation to SCC is not offered.

BHS counselors said part of offering the new programs is helping students meet a wider range of goals. On orientation day, incoming freshmen list their short, mid-range and long-term goals. That data is filed in the schools system and is accessible to all staff, which counselors said is a tool to help keep the students on track.

We want to make sure we dont pigeon-hole kids into four-year colleges, Sutter said. We make a concerted effort at the high school to talk to our students about four-year universities, two-year colleges, trade schools. ... We try to help students achieve their goals, whatever they may be.
AKRON, Ohio - Joining dozens of other police departments in Ohio, Akron police officers will carry the drug commonly known as Narcan in every cruiser, to counteract the growing heroin epidemic.

While the Akron Fire Department and EMS have carried naxalone among their advanced life support drugs for more than 20 years, Akron police officers will be trained Aug. 22-23 to learn to administer the drug, which can block or reverse the drowsiness, slowed breathing and loss of consciousness of an overdose of opioid drugs, such as heroin and fentanyl.

The city said in a statement it's working with the Akron Regional Hospital Association to supply EMS and Akron police with the Narcan to save more lives.

"This is a simple next step to the onerous fight against this epidemic," Mayor Dan Horrigan said in a statement. "Statistically, EMS arrives before the Akron Police Department the vast majority of the time, yet in those crucial first responder moments when APD does arrive first, I want our officers to be able to save a life."

Summit County, like many communities across the country, has had increasing heroin and opioid overdoses and deaths in the past few years, but this year the numbers have risen drastically.

"No one could have predicted the introduction of fentanyl and especially now carfentanil and the damage they both could cause," Horrigan stated. "It's imperative that we continue to work closely with our county partners and local elected officials to find effective solutions."

From Jan. 1 to Aug. 18, Summit County hospitals have treated 1,243 overdoses.

Akron's overdose totals captured the attention of Massachusetts nonprofit Heroin is Killing My Town. The group urged supporters to come to Akron last week, drawing about 800 people to Lock 3 for an anti-drug rally.
CLEVELAND, Ohio - Colorful plastic sculptures of oversized snails, frogs, birds and other creatures by the Cracking Art Group of Italy have invaded the city's renovated Public Square, blending art and landscape in the heart of downtown.

They're part of a public art project announced earlier this year by the non-profit LAND Studio, which managed the $50 million renovation of the square.

But that's not all that's happening in the six-acre civic space in the historic center of the city.

On Friday, the non-profit Group Plan Commission announced a detailed calendar of events scheduled through Friday, Sept. 30.

The commission also launched the new Public Square website.

The offerings in the calendar are more detailed than in a previous announcement at the end of July.

The home page of the new Public Square website.

The schedule includes everything from yoga and kite-making to drum circles, adopt-a-pup gatherings, walking tours, a United Way pancake breakfast, lots of live music, and other events aimed at building an audience for the city's freshest public space, and building community.

Friday's announcement coincided with a political tug-of-war over whether bus service should resume on Superior Avenue, which bisects the square.

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson has said he'd like to see the square entirely closed to traffic. The square's designer, James Corner, concurs.

The city agreed with the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority to gather data on how buses have been affected since the square was closed in March, 2015, for reconstruction before making a decision on whether bus service should resume on Superior Avenue.

But on Tuesday, the Federal Transit Administration put the city on notice that barring buses from the square could violate the 2004 funding agreement in which the federal government agreed to pump $142.2 million into the $200 million Euclid Avenue bus rapid transit HealthLine, which began service in 2008.

The renovation of the square, designed by James Corner Field Operations of New York, removed the two-block section of Ontario Street that ran north-south through the square, and narrowed Superior Avenue, which runs east west through the space, from 77 to 48 feet in width.

The design was predicated on removing cars from Superior Avenue, but allowing RTA to use Superior Avenue. The HealthLine, which extends from downtown east to University Circle and East Cleveland circulates around the square, not on Superior Avenue, which is used by other bus routes.

While the bus debate continues, the Group Plan Commission, formed by the city and Cuyahoga County, wants to provide a robust schedule of events, paid for through private funding.

The programs have been coordinated by Sanaa Julien, CEO of the square's marketing and community relations, and a loaned executive from Cleveland Metroparks, where she serves as chief marketing officer.

The schedule is designed to draw people into the square for organized events while also allowing time for visitors to enjoy moments of tranquility and solitude.

"We've been conscious to make sure places stay pristine, quiet and calm at different points in time," Julien said in July. "It is a big space, and it gives us the opportunity to do things so the square can be enjoyed concurrently by different people with different needs."

Here are the latest listings announced for the square:

Friday, August 19

11AM - 5PM American Cancer Society Relay for Life Fundraiser

7:30PM - 10:30PM PechaKucha. Ten speakers present a variety of topics on local projects

including visual art, architecture, technology, food, film, music and more!

Saturday, August 20

9 AM - 10 AM Yoga on the Green - Pose Cleveland Yoga

10 AM - 2 PM Kite Making/Flying Kids of all ages can decorate their own kites, fly them

on the Square and take them home! Also learn about different kinds of

kites.

11:30AM - 1:30PM DJ Arthur Henke

11:30 AM - 1:30 PM Adopt a Pup; Adoption event with Friends of the Cleveland Kennel and

adorable adoptables! Take your puppy home right from Public Square. Not ready to take one home, come on down and cuddle for a few minutes on your lunch break.

4 PM Cleveland's John Adams will host a Drum Circle on the Square to teach

kids a song on the drums! Kids are encouraged to bring drums, buckets, pails...we'll provide the sticks!

Sunday, August 21

9 AM - 10 AM Yoga on the Green - Pose Cleveland Yoga

11 AM - 7 PM Bocce Ball

11:30 AM - 1:30 PM Adopt a Pup; Adoption event with Friends of the Cleveland Kennel and

adorable adoptables! Take your puppy home right from Public Square. Not ready to take one home, come on down and cuddle for a few minutes on your lunch break.

Monday, August 22

11:30 AM - 1:30 PM Live Music - Diana Chittester

4 - 6 PM Live Music - Ryan Manthey

6 PM - 7 PM Yoga on the Green - Inner Bliss Yoga

Tuesday, August 23

11:30 AM - 1:30 PM Tricks and Trucks - Food Trucks and Magic Show

11:30 AM - 1:30 PM Live Music - Alexis Antes

5 - 7 PM Live Music - The Faction

Wednesday, August 24

11:30 AM - 1:30 PM Adopt a Pup; Adoption event with Friends of the Cleveland Kennel and

adorable adoptables! Take your puppy home right from Public Square. Not ready to take one home, come on down and cuddle for a few minutes on your lunch break.

11:30 AM - 1:30 PM Live Music - Paul Christensen

6PM- 7PM Yoga on the Green - Inner Bliss Yoga

7PM - 8:30 PM Jazz on the Green; pack a picnic or visit Rebol, bring a lawn blanket and

enjoy the beautiful music

Thursday, August 25

10:30 AM - 1:30 PM North Union Farmers Market

5 PM - 7 PM Live Music - Charlie Wiener

Friday, August 26

11:30 AM - 1:30 PM Live Music - Mike Petrone & Amy Arida

5 PM - 7 PM Live Music - Gringo Stew

Saturday, August 27

9 AM -10 AM Yoga on the Square - Groundswell Yoga

10 AM Cleveland Public Library Director Felton Thomas hosts a Walk and Talk

on Public Square. Topic: Can the Transformation of Downtown Branch Out to the Neighborhoods?

4 PM - 6 PM Live Music - Alternavox

Sunday, August 28

9 AM - 10 AM Yoga on the Square - 3Sisters Yoga

11 AM - 7 PM Bocce Ball

5 PM - 7 PM Live Music - That 80's Band

Monday, August 29

11:30 AM - 1:30 PM Live Music - Alexis Antes

4 - 6 PM Live Music - Avril & Ron Duo

6 PM - 7 PM Yoga on the Green -ViBE@the9 Yoga

Tuesday, August 30

11:30 AM - 1:30 PM Tricks and Trucks - Food Trucks and Magic Show

11:30 AM - 1:30 PM Live Music - Diana Chittester

5 PM - 7 PM Live Music - Humble G

Wednesday, August 31

7 AM - 10 AM Annual United Way Pancake Flip returns to Public Square

11:30 AM - 1:30 PM Live Music - Brent Kirby

6 PM - 7 PM Yoga on the Green - Groundswell Yoga

7PM - 8:30 PM Jazz on the Green; pack a picnic or visit Rebol, bring a lawn

Thursday, September 1

10:30 AM - 1:30 PM North Union Farmers Market

5 PM - 7 PM Live Music - The Attraxxion

Friday, September 2

11:30 AM - 1:30 PM Live Music - Alexis Antes

5PM - 7 PM Live Music - Rocker and the Blackjack Gypsies

Saturday, September 3

9 AM - 10 AM Yoga on the Green - Pose Yoga

10AM- 11AM Fit City Workouts led by Flow Fit

10 AM - 12PM Miniature airplane making/flying: Stop by on your way to the Air Show

and make and fly your own mini wood airplane.

12PM-2PM DJ Arthur Henke

12PM-2PM CityBreaks Breakdancing: Stop by and watch or jump in for a quick

breakdancing tutorial.

Sunday, September 4

9 AM - 10 AM Yoga on the Green - Pose Yoga

12PM-2PM CityBreaks Breakdancing: Stop by and watch or jump in for a quick

breakdancing tutorial.

4PM-6PM Live Music - Second Hand Dogs

11 AM - 7 PM Bocce Ball

Monday, September 5

11:30 AM - 1:30 PM Live Music

4 - 6 PM Live Music - Ryan Manthey

6 PM - 7 PM Yoga on the Green - Inner Bliss Yoga

Tuesday, September 6

11:30 AM - 1:30 PM Tricks and Trucks - Food Trucks and Magic Show

11:30 AM - 1:30 PM Live Music - Mike Petrone & Amy Arida

5 PM - 7 PM Live Music - Jul Big Green

Wednesday, September 7

12PM- 1PM City Club Forum at Noon on Public Square. Events are free with advance

registration. Pre-order lunch from Rebol or enjoy lunch from local food trucks.

6 PM - 7 PM Yoga on the Green - Inner Bliss Yoga

7PM - 8:30 PM Jazz on the Green; pack a picnic or visit Rebol, bring a lawn blanket and

enjoy the beautiful music

Thursday, September 8

10:30 AM - 1:30 PM North Union Farmers Market

5 PM - 7 PM Diane Chittester

Friday, September 9

11AM Cleveland Museum of Art Chalk Art - CMA professional Chalk Artists

will demonstrate and decorate with this washable medium. Kids are encouraged to participate in the art-making by helping decorate the Square.

11:30AM - 1:30PM Live Music - Alexis Antes

5PM-7PM Live Music - The Agenda

8 PM Movie Night in the Square - Inside Out

Enjoy a big screen experience outdoors on the Green

Saturday, September 10

9AM - 10AM Yoga on the Green - GroundSwell Yoga

10AM-11AM Fit City Workouts led by Flow Fit

12PM-2PM CityBreaks Breakdancing

4PM- 6PM Live Music - Big In Japan

Sunday, September 11

Soldiers and Sailors Monument 9/11 - A Day of Remembrance and Community

9AM - 10AM Yoga on the Green - 3Sisters Yoga

11 AM - 7 PM Bocce Ball

Monday, September 12

11:30 AM - 1:30 PM Live Music - Paul Christensen

4PM- 6PM Live Music - Ryan Manthey

6 PM - 7 PM Yoga on the Green - ViBE at the 9 Yoga

Tuesday, September 13

11:30 AM - 1:30 PM Tricks and Trucks - Food Trucks and Magic Show

11:30 AM - 1:30 PM Live Music - Tom Todd

5PM - 7PM Live Music

Wednesday, September 14

11:30 AM - 1:30 PM Live Music - Alex Bevan

6 PM - 7 PM Yoga on the Green - Groundswell Yoga

7PM - 8:30 PM Jazz on the Green; pack a picnic or visit Rebol, bring a lawn blanket and

enjoy the beautiful music

Thursday, September 15

10:30 AM - 1:30PM North Union Farmers Market

5 PM - 7 PM Live Music

Friday-Sunday, September 16 - 18

The Cleveland Oktoberfest - Fall festival with food, beer and music

FRI: 12PM - 11pm

SAT: 12pm - 11pm

SUN: 9AM - 4pm

Monday, September 19

11:30 AM - 1:30 PM Live Music - Paul Christensen

4PM- 6PM Live Music - Ryan Manthey

6 PM - 7 PM Yoga on the Green - Inner Bliss Yoga

Tuesday, September 20

11:30 AM - 1:30 PM Tricks and Trucks - Food Trucks and Magic Show

11:30 AM - 1:30 PM Live Music

5PM - 7PM Live Music

Wednesday, September 21

11:30 AM - 1:30 PM Live Music - Alexis Antes

6 PM - 7 PM Yoga on the Green - Inner Bliss Yoga

7PM - 8:30 PM Jazz on the Green; pack a picnic or visit Rebol, bring a lawn blanket and

enjoy the beautiful music

Thursday, September 22

10:30 AM - 1:30PM North Union Farmers Market

5PM- 7PM Live Music

Friday, September 23

4pm - 10pm WIXY 1260 Radio 50

Rock Oldies, WIXY Jocks, Cleveland Radio Authors, Classic Cars

Saturday, September 24

9AM-10AM Yoga on the Green - 3Sisters Yoga

10AM-11AM Fit City Workouts led by Flow Fit

11:30AM-1:30PM DJ Arthur Henke

1pm - 3pm Live Music - Top Hat Black

5pm - 7pm Live Music - ONE U2 Tribute Band

In honor of U2's 40th year

8 PM Movie Night in the Square - Space Jam

Enjoy a big screen experience outdoors on the Green

Sunday, September 25

9AM - 10AM Yoga on the Green - 3Sisters Yoga

3 PM - 7 PM Salsa Dancing - Dance Class and Party

7 PM - 9 PM Live Music - Monica Robins and The Ninja Cowboys

11 AM - 7 PM Bocce Ball

Monday, September 26

11:30 AM - 1:30 PM Live Music - Paul Christensen

4PM- 6PM Live Music - Ryan Manthey

6PM - 7 PM Yoga on the Green - ViBE at the Nine Yoga

Tuesday, September 27

11:30 AM - 1:30 PM Tricks and Trucks - Food Trucks and Magic Show

11:30 AM - 1:30 PM Live Music

5PM- 7PM Live Music

Wednesday, September 28

11:30 AM - 1:30 PM Live Music - Diana Chittester

6 PM - 7 PM Yoga on the Green - ViBE at the Nine Yoga

7PM - 8:30 PM Jazz on the Green; pack a picnic or visit Rebol, bring a lawn blanket and

enjoy the beautiful music

Thursday, September 29

10:30 AM - 1:30PM North Union Farmers Market

5PM - 7PM Live Music

Friday, September 30
PTOPIX Deep South Weather

Residents survey the flood water on Old Jefferson Highway at Bayou Manchac in Prairieville, La. near Baton Rouge. Rivers and creeks were still dangerously bloated in areas south of Baton Rouge as people filled sandbags there to protect their houses, bracing for the worst as the water worked its way south. In one area, Ascension Parish, officials said some small towns have already been inundated.

(Max Becherer AP)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- AT&T announced Friday that its wireless customers can text a $10 donation to a flood relief fund created by the Baton Rouge Area Foundation to aid victims of the nation's worst weather disaster since "superstorm" Hurricane Sandy in 2012.

More than 40,000 homes in 20 parishes, or counties, have been damaged by flood waters that quickly rose when 31 inches of rain fell over five days. At least 13 people have died in the floods.

Most of those homes will have to be gutted, according to state officials. More than 95,000 people have so far applied for federal disaster relief, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The American Red Cross said 8,400 people were still in emergency shelters on Thursday. Nola.com earlier this week estimated that 20,000 were in temporary shelters.

The Red Cross estimated that the flood damage will amount to at least $30 million.

Here's how AT&T's donation system works: Text "RELIEF" to 80077 and $10 will automatically be donated to the foundation's flood relief fund.

The donation will appear on your next wireless bill, or will be deducted from your prepaid balance. No text message fees will apply.

Click here for more information about what AT&T is doing for its customers in the region and its efforts to restore service.
The head of the FBI has characterized Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton as "extremely careless" in handling sensitive - even classified - information on her private email server when she led the U.S. State Department. Still, FBI Director James Comey generated controversy in July when he concluded that "no reasonable prosecutor" would charge Clinton with a federal crime. One former federal prosecutor, Campbell University assistant law professor Zachary Bolitho, discussed Comey's conclusion with Mitch Kokai for Carolina Journal Radio. (Click here to find recent CJ Radio episodes.)You heard the FBI director spell out this case, or lack of case, against Hillary Clinton. What was your first impression?Well, my first impression was that the entire press conference itself was very odd and unusual in the sense that the FBI director, or the FBI in general, doesn't announce, publicly, recommendations as to charges. So the fact that the FBI director is having a press conference to announce what normally would be a secret communication between the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office, or the U.S. Department of Justice, itself was very strange - something I'd never seen and something some former colleagues of mine, who've been DOJ lawyers for a long time, have never seen. So right away, that struck me as odd.And it colored the whole, entire press conference because the role of the FBI is to find facts and gather information. The role of the U.S. attorney or the U.S. Department of Justice is to look at those facts and make a determination, whether, under the law, there is a case to be brought before the grand jury, and if the grand jury indicts, whether you will go forward to trial.Here the FBI director was basically making the decision or announcing his decision of what should happen with the prosecution. Just very strange.Now as a prosecutor, had that been done in one of your cases, would you have said, "Hey, wait a minute, that's my job"?I would have been very upset because, in a sense, the FBI director has boxed DOJ into a corner because he has come out and publicly said his recommendation. He doesn't think there's a basis for a prosecution. But he says that ultimate decision is up to the Department of Justice and its prosecutors. But now, if you're sitting there as a Department of Justice prosecutor, you've had the FBI director say he doesn't think there's a case. And so what are you going to do at that point? So it's painted you into a corner.And also, to be honest, it's bowling outside of his lane. If I'm a prosecutor, I would think, "You find the facts. You read the documents. You come up with the investigative report. Let me do the work of determining if a prosecution is appropriate or not. I don't tell you how to investigate the case. You don't tell me whether I should prosecute it."For those who were watching or listening to this news conference - who aren't attorneys, who aren't federal prosecutors - I think most people heard the first two-thirds ... of it, and said, "Wow. She did all of these really bad things, and it sounds like she's in real trouble." And then, near the end, "Oh, but no. No one should do anything about this." Did we get the same sense that someone who does know the law gets from this?I have the same sense. In fact, I think you could view that first part of the press conference as almost a prosecutor's opening statement as to why this was a proper forum for prosecution, why this was a proper case to be brought. And then there was kind of that unforeseen left turn that left me shaking my head as to how the first part of that press conference squared with the end.Now, another key element of this discussion from FBI Director Comey was the notion that, even though there was what he described as "extreme carelessness," and that there was a possibility that some of these emails got into the wrong hands, that there was no intent from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to harm the United States - to do anything wrong, to break the law. And because there was no intent, that was one of the reasons a prosecutor is unlikely to go forward with the case. From some of the commentary I've been reading, in this particular type of crime, intent is not an issue.Intent is not an element of the crime. There are two federal statutes that the FBI was looking at. The first one is Title 18 United States Code, Section 793 (f). All that it requires is that you are an individual who's been entrusted with national defense information, and that through gross negligence, you have either removed or caused that information to be removed from its proper place. So nowhere in those elements is there an intent to cause harm to the United States or an intent to violate the law. The standard is gross negligence and not an intentional crime.So in this case, the particular crime that they were looking at, intent is irrelevant?Intent is irrelevant. And in fact, in the law sometimes, as prosecutors, we would refer to - when a defense had created an argument that really had no bearing on the actual issue to be decided - we would call it a "straw man." We would say that, "The defense, ladies and gentlemen, the defense has just stood up before you, and they've created a straw man. And then they've beat it down. But what they just said has nothing to do with what the judge is going to instruct you the law is."And in fact, if I was giving a rebuttal to FBI Director Comey's press conference, I would stand up and say, "That's all well and good. Of course, ladies and gentlemen, when the judge instructs you on the elements of this crime, he's never going to use the word 'intent.' All of the stuff about intent is irrelevant. We don't have to prove intent."This is not your case. You've not spent a great deal of time looking at all the evidence. Given what you know, though, and given what the FBI director spelled out, if this were dumped in your lap as a prosecutor, what would you be looking at to see whether there should be a case that would go forward?Of course, I'm not privy to all of the information. I don't know what the investigators saw. But just based upon his statements at the beginning - that there was evidence of extreme carelessness, and I think he even says there was evidence of criminal activity that occurred here - if I'm looking at that, I'm first taking the elements that I just laid out, I'm looking at those elements, and I'm saying, "What evidence do I have on element No. 1? Where is that evidence going to come from? Is it going to come from a credible source? What are the weaknesses of that particular evidence?" And I'm going to do that with each element to assure myself that I can prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, to 12 citizens that the crime has been committed.So I think that, of course, this case has a lot of atmospherics, contextual factors, that would have to be considered by DOJ as well. If you're a prosecutor, you don't prosecute everybody who has technically violated the law. You have to use discretion. And those are case-by-case determinations based upon circumstances and the context of the case.Some people who've been looking at this say, "It looks as if it's putting into play a situation where the normal person would probably get charged with something like this, but the politically connected people can get away with it." Based on what you know about how the process works, is this an example that would [lead] people to think this?I certainly understand how that perception could be conveyed to individuals. I'd like to think that that's not the way the system really works. I didn't see it work that way. Of course, this case just has a lot of other things going on that lend itself to that. But what I think is, if you're trying to convey the message that, "We handled this the way that we would have handled everything else," then handle it the way that you would handle everything else.Don't go out and give a press conference as the FBI director. Send your recommendation privately to the Department of Justice, along with your investigative report. Let the prosecutors there do their job, reach their decision, in the way that you normally do. When you add all these other things that make it look abnormal, I think it just adds to the perception that this has been treated in a different way.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A Cleveland man faces a federal drug charge after a police investigation showed that he sold doses of heroin and fentanyl that caused a Lakewood man's fatal overdose, according to a court filing.

Mark A. Price, 28, sold $100 of heroin to James Dawson, a criminal complaint unsealed Friday says. Dawson, 38, was found dead Aug. 2 in his Robin Street apartment, and the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office's preliminary findings show that he died of a mix of heroin and fentanyl.

Price was arrested Aug. 4 at the Rapid station on West 117th Street after police set up a buy with a cooperating witness, the complaint says. Prosecutors say Price, who has a 2009 drug-trafficking conviction, has sold drugs for several years and was high himself at the time of his arrest.

The U.S. Attorney's Office took over the case this week, charging with him with distribution of heroin and fentanyl. The case currently carries a "death specification," and if convicted, he faces at least 20 years in federal prison.

Price made his initial appearance Friday in front of Magistrate Judge Thomas Parker in Cleveland. He will next be in court Wednesday for preliminary and detention hearings.

Jeffrey Saffold, Price's attorney, did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.

According to the affidavit:

Dawson's neighbor found the man when he went into the apartment to feed Dawson's cat.

The Lakewood police officer who first arrived found Dawson face down on his left side with a pool of blood coming from his nose and mouth. The officer found medications, two marijuana plants and a pink and tan powder substance on the kitchen table.

The neighbor told police that Dawson struggled with addictions to heroin and prescription pills.

A search of Dawson's phone showed text messages with a woman only referred to as "T." She was known to Lakewood police as a drug dealer.

The text messages showed that she was acting as a middle man for Dawson to buy drugs from Price.

Police searched "T's" house and found heroin, fentanyl and two cellphones. She admitted to arranging for Dawson to buy heroin from someone she only knew as "Bam." She said Dawson paid her $100 for the heroin and that she used some of the heroin Dawson bought.

She then agreed to buy heroin from Price while police watched.

Upon arrest, officers said Price had a glazed stare and believed he had just taken a dose of heroin. Price was put on the ground and given a dose of Naloxone. Paramedics who later came to the scene found a plastic bag in Price's mouth with pink and tan residue.

If you would like to comment on this story, please visit Friday's crime and courts comment section.
CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio -- A flood trumped powerful storms Saturday morning when loyal customers surged into Zagara's Marketplace to offset the financial damage of an Aug. 9 power outage.

Third-generation owner John Zagara said 179 came in between 8 and 9 a.m., more than three times the number a week earlier.

"Normally we just have two checkout lanes open on Saturday mornings," said a beaming Zagara. "We're treating this like a holiday crowd."

That meant six lanes to serve the self-described cash mob organized by Heights resident Justin Alcorn.

Previous Plain Dealer story:

The lingering loss of power from the previous week's storms forced Zagara's to throw out more than $90,000 worth of perishable food that sat unrefrigerated for 12 hours.

At 7:30 a.m., there was no suggestion that the store on Lee Road would be mobbed. The parking lot was nearly empty except for a Heights police cruiser and the cars of a few employees. About 15 minutes later, there were four women lined up outside the entrance.

Ruth Tracy of South Euclid said she and the others "hope people get out of bed and get here."

Patty Young of Cleveland Heights called Zagara's "a great neighborhood store, it's part of what makes this a great neighborhood."

Fanny Lang clearly agreed, because she drove all the way from Strongsville.

By 10 minutes until opening, the crowd had swelled to 20, and Zagara came out to personally thank each one, and to hand out fliers about specials. Within minutes, the crowd grew to 50, then 70, then more than 100 stretching along the entire face of the store.

Virginia Maver of University Heights sat in her convertible walker waiting to do her part. The business started in 1936, and she would only say "years" when describing how long she had been a patron.

A bit after 8, Susan Alcorn, mother of the organizer, entered and told Zagara that the store "runs in your family and it runs in my family, too."

As he left a checkout line, Justin Alcorn said, "I'm just glad people understand that Zagara's is something special.

"On a Saturday right now, I would normally be saying 'I wonder if I should get of bed.'"

The surge tapered off after 9, and checks outs were down to two lanes.

The current store was built in 2002, across the street from Cain Park. For years, an older iteration stood a block south, and much earlier it was at the corner of East 70th Street and Kinsman Road. Taken together, they form a triptych that charts one family's progress from inner city to suburb.

"I was shaking people's hands and they were giving me money," John Zagara said. "I kept pushing it back, and

they

pushed it back, saying 'no, you take it!'"

He said he'd received more than $200 by noon, intended to offset the store's deductible and other expenses growing out of the storms.
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."
The organization, Priorities USA Action, reported it had $38.7 million on hand at the end of July, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission. It spent about $11.4 million for the month.

A super PAC backing Hillary Clinton 's presidential bid raised nearly $10 million in July, getting a $3 million chunk from hedge fund manager Donald Sussman.

The PAC is separate from the Democratic presidential nominee's campaign committee and cannot coordinate with it. But it has funded pro-Clinton ad campaigns and other efforts.

Sussman, the president of Paloma Partners Advisors, has now given $8.5 million to Priorities USA Action. Paloma is a $4 billion hedge fund based in Connecticut that had an 11 percent return in 2015, . He has a history of giving to Democratic candidates and groups.

The PAC also received $3 million in July from Daniel Abraham, the founder of Slim-Fast.



Clinton's ties to big-ticket donors and the investing community have opened her to criticism from both her opponent Donald Trump and the progressive wing of her party.
By helping to propel an airplane around the world recently, solar power took what some would consider a quantum leap into the future  one that includes less use of fossil fuels.



The flight of Solar Impulse 2, which this week completed a 25,000 mile journey across Europe, Asia and North America, captured the public's imagination and raised a tantalizing question that has long been the source of mere speculation. If the sun can play a role in aerial circumnavigation, can it live up to its billing as a large-scale energy source?

The answer, according to some, appears to be yes.

After years riddled with false starts and high-profile failures, it appears the sun is indeed beginning to shine on solar power, as even oil and other fossil fuel intensive companies ratchet up their investment in sustainable energy. A recent study by Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy said worldwide government spending on clean energy topped $10 billion per year as of 2015.

Numerous plans are already underway to bolster the power and reach of sustainable energy  the largest being China's $50 trillion plan to create a global electricity network that will curb carbon emissions.

The idea of a global energy grid  long considered a holy grail of sorts by conservationists  has been bandied about for years. In fact, a number of alternative energy initiatives are underway, given new impetus by last year's global climate accord as well as trends that favor the use of renewables. At last year's climate accord in Paris, 20 countries pledged to double their investment in clean energy within five years.

In the current environment, "it's less about making additional technological breakthroughs, but about taking what's out there and pairing it up" with existing initiatives, Ulrich Spiesshofer, president and CEO of ABB told CNBC in a recent interview. ABB's solar division was one of the companies that contributed to Solar Impulse 2's flight around the world.

Moves to improve solar efficiency  including concentrated solar power, a method that allows sun rays to be stored for use even at night  have the potential to produce "a paradigm shift," Spiesshofer said.

The former management consultant added that it was possible to "decouple growth" from activities that frequently create a Hobson's choice between economic feasibility and safeguarding the environment.

"Renewable power generation is becoming very much attractive economically and is effective," Spiesshofer told CNBC. "The combination of solar with hydro power and [increased storage capacity] is really starting to change the world," he said.
Plans to make college "free" may attract more students who are at the margins academically and need expensive remedial education.

Considering that Hillary Clinton, from the recently concluded email investigation, is charged with gross negligence, dereliction of duty, was recommended that she lose her security clearance, while pathologically lying to congress, the press and the American People; and even though she was not referred for indictment because she is a Clinton: Will you? 11.84% Vote for Hillary 78.78% Vote for The Donald 9.39% Vote for none of the above 245 total vote(s) Voting has Ended!

During her primary fight with Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton argued that his "free college" promise went too far. She merely advocated that students should be able to graduate "free of debt."Now, however, Clinton has come out with a plan to make public colleges and universities free for families who earn less than $125,000 annually.But because the president can't order states to comply, under her scheme the federal government would pay states for their cooperation if they charge no tuition to students from "poor" families.Suppose a state decides to adopt Clinton's free college plan. What would the consequences be?First, some students who previously concluded that the cost of college (even at the already highly subsidized public institutions) was greater than the expected benefits would now decide differently and enroll. Even though most students and their families don't attempt a precise cost/benefit analysis on going to college, if tuition suddenly were reduced to zero, that would certainly induce some to say, "Now it's worth a try."That would mean at least a modest increase in enrollment, but it would come mainly from the most academically marginal students. The colleges and universities that gained in those enrollments also would find a need to increase remedial programs.Even so, luring in more academically weak students will mean an increasing dropout rate, a metric that schools fear because it hurts their rankings. More students would be a mixed blessing.Another adverse result from making college tuition free would be that many students would devote less effort to their courses. People have a tendency to put more of themselves - to feel more "invested" - when they have to pay for education (or any other good or service) than when they don't.In a 2004 study, Federal Reserve Bank of New York economist Aysegul Sahin concluded,Therefore, while the Clinton plan might "produce" more college graduates, it would probably reduce the overall level of learning. This is another of those cases where government action leads to visible benefits but at the expense of greater but hidden costs.Another likely effect of the plan would be increased federal control over state university systems.With a greatly increased inflow of federal dollars into those systems, U.S. Department of Education officials and Congress (particularly if the Democrats have control) would have more leverage than ever to dictate policy and curriculum. The prospect losing even more control over their university systems could cause some governors to say "no thanks" to the Clinton proposal.Finally, how would this plan affect private colleges?Many small schools already find it hard to stay afloat and if some students who might have enrolled in them instead decide that attending a state university free of tuition is a better deal, those schools will be in much greater peril. Then we'd probably get another federal program to help save endangered private colleges.Clinton also has released a new loan forgiveness idea. She wants to allow budding entrepreneurs to defer payments on their student loans for up to three years, along with any student loans held by "their first 10 or 20 employees."This idea obviously is crafted to appeal to tech-savvy young people, but is another instance of misusing educational policy to advance an economic objective.These new campaign proposals show how much further the Democratic nominee will go to keep the higher education bubble inflated.George Leef is director of research at the John W. Pope Center for Higher Education Policy.
The Ninth Annual All Euro Car Show organized by the Porsche Club of America's Absaroka Region chapter is Saturday.

Registration begins at 9 a.m. at Veteran's Park. The show begins at 10 a.m.

European cars have a unique body style and the quality makes them even more fantastic to look at, said Stephanie Haider, Porsche club president.

"Last year we had a Riley, which is made by an English manufacturer," Haider said. "It's just a sedan, but it isn't seen at most car shows."

Food vendor Raven Cafe d'art, which is normally run out of the Yellowstone Art Museum, will be at the event. Metric Wrench will provide free Wilcoxsons ice cream.

Participants pay $10 to show their cars, which goes to a scholarship fund for mechanical student attending City College at Montana State University Billings.

Some of the funds also go to the Caring Hands program at Bench Elementary School in the Heights. The club has given out about $7,000 to the college students and about $500 to the elementary school since they began collecting the funds.

Absaroka Region Porsche Club of America was chartered in 1978, Haider said, and still maintains members who were there when it was began.

The club has a monthly breakfast meeting and arranges road trips for its members. Haider joined the club six years ago after she bought her first Porsche. The 1991 Porsche 911 series convertible is "fast and fun," Haider said.

"Oh man, driving up the Beartooth Highway, it hugs the road so sweetly," she said.

This year's featured car is the Volkswagen, Haider said. All European models are welcome at the show.

Awards will be given out at 2:30 p.m., and the show ends at 3 pm.

Those wishing to get involved with the club can contact Haider either by email, snowgse@bresnan.net, or phone, (406) 672-4815.
Chrissy Edwards, who attended high school in Ashland, lost her home, her car, and most of her possessions in the Louisiana flooding. A benefit will be held Sunday at Rose Music Hall to help her and her two children recover.
Boone County high school football district scores and roundup

Heres who survived and advanced, and who finished for the season, on Friday.
Allenbrooke Nursing and Rehabilitation Center

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By Kevin McKenzie of The Commercial Appeal

A Shelby County jury has awarded a $30 million judgment against a Memphis nursing home where poor care led to a residents death, attorneys said Friday.

The Circuit Court jury verdict includes $28 million in punitive damages against Allenbrooke Nursing and Rehabilitation Center LLC, as well as its two owners in New York and related companies.

The case was filed in 2010, by the family of Martha Jane Pierce, a woman in her early 80s who was a resident of the Allenbrooke nursing home in 2008 and 2009, said Cameron Jehl, a Memphis lawyer who represented the family with fellow Jehl Law Group attorney Carey L. Acerra.

Pierce was living in a shared room with her husband, William Pierce, when she developed pressure sores on her right foot that went to the bone, her attorneys contended. The sores became infected with fecal bugs and required her leg to be amputated in October of 2009. She died two months later.

After a trial that lasted about five weeks with Judge Donna Fields presiding, late Thursday the jury returned its verdict finding Allenbrooke liable for negligence, violations of the Tennessee Adult Protection Act including fraudulent records of her care and medical malpractice, the familys attorneys said.

The jury awarded $1.9 million for negligence, $129,000 for violations of the protection act. The $28 million in punitive damages are made up of $2 million each for four companies and $10 million each for the owners, Donald Denz and Norbert Bennett, they said.

Allenbrooke was represented by attorneys with Baker Donelson, who were not available for comment near the close of business on Friday. An Allenbrooke employee said no executives there were available for comment. The other companies named in the lawsuit are based in Orchard Park, New York, said attorneys for the family.
August 19, 2016 - (From left to right) Shon Lin, 36, Chao Lin, 29, First Vice President of Bank of Bartlett, and Dana Lin, 36, take a tour of the Nineteeth Century Club at 1433 Union Ave. on Friday. The Lins are opening up a new restaurant called Izakaya at the location. The Nineteeth Century Club was built in 1908. (Yalonda M. James/The Commercial Appeal)

By Thomas Bailey Jr. of The Commercial Appeal

Izakaya aspires to earn its place in the pantheon of elegant, atmospheric restaurants in Memphis like Chez Philippe, the old Justine's and Four Flames.

That's the vision of restaurateurs Shon and Dana Lin and their Bank of Bartlett bankers Harold Byrd and Chao Lin (no relation) who on Friday led an informal tour of the historic space.

The former Nineteenth Century Club Building at 1433 Union may need only 10 more weeks of renovation work before Izakaya opens.

The Lins' aspirations for the Japanese/French restaurant are as high as the ornate ceilings, soaring windows and fireplaces add texture to each room.

"Once we get in here, it's really beautiful,'' Dana said of the historic, 107-year-old Roland J. Darnell House that will shelter their two-story restaurant of multiple dining rooms, bars and lounges.

"And with all the conflict, we think about it's really better to keep it. Because we really love it, too,'' she said.

They hope to open by early November. "We see how the construction goes,'' Shon said. "You never know.''

The Archer Custom Builders crew continued sawing, painting and staining in fidelity to LRK Architects' renovation designs as the Lins zigzagged from one dining room to another.

Counting the $550,000 they paid for the property at auction, the Lins, both 36 years old, are spending about $3.7 million to open Izakaya.

Every dining room and lounge has its own fireplace. Natural light pours into the massive windows.

Despite fears that much of the finest millwork and architectural detail was pilfered while the building stood vacant, Archer has salvaged or recreated 90 percent of anything missing, said Keith Griggs, field supervisor for the construction firm.

"Like the missing spindles on the stairs, we re-made those,'' he said.

The challenge has been keeping everything historically correct while "putting in all new electrical heating and air, which it never had before,'' Griggs said. "Putting in all the sound systems and keeping the walls' integrity. Getting everything from one floor to the other, redoing all the plumbing, all that's been quite a challenge.''

The herculean restoration project changed the Lins' image among local preservationists from heretics to heroes.

The Roland J. Darnell House is a historic and architectural jewel. On the National Register of Historic Places, the mansion is one of the few remaining large homes that once lined Union Avenue.

"This could be the most magnificent restaurant not only in the region but in the United States of America,'' said Byrd, who's bank loaned $2 million to the venture. "This is truly unique.''

Entrees should average $35, Shon Lin said.

The front porch overlooking the lawn and Union Avenue will have about a dozen tables for dining and drinks. The grand entry room houses a sushi bar with high-top tables. Just east of it will be a cocktail bar and lounge area.

The central downstairs area is ringed by several intimate dining rooms, with space for about a half dozen tables each.

Anchoring the second floor is a long lounge and bar that faces Union and stretches from the west wall to the east wall. Ten tall windows lets sunlight inside. The south half of the upstairs features several conference rooms.

In part because Roland Darnell was a prominent lumberman at the turn of the 20th century, he built his family a beaux arts/colonial revival mansion comprising "fine American woods, as well as arched windows, double front doors, exposed beams and a grand entry hall, with a dramatic, double cantilever staircase,'' states historic-memphis.com.

It was sold in 1926 to the Nineteenth Century Club. The women's cultural and philanthropic organization made good use of the mansion for a lifetime, but in 2011 listed it for sale for $1.5 million because the club could no longer afford the upkeep.

When two different real estate companies failed to find a buyer, the club sold it at auction in January 2013. The Lins, bidding as Union Group LLC, bought the property.

In the first half of that year, newly severed power lines and sightings of a salvage company on the grounds raised concerns from preservationists that the new owners planned to demolish the mansion.

And July 2013, the Lins' attorney confirmed their initial intentions to demolish the house.

Midtown Action Coalition and Memphis Heritage staged protests outside the building. Preservationists pressed a lawsuit in Chancery Court alleging the Nineteenth Century Club made procedural errors in the way it decided to sell the house. Shelby County Chancery Court upheld the sale in 2013.

By August 2014, some interior features of the mansion had been stripped by vandals, Memphis Heritage officials said at the time.

But that same month, the Lins made an about-face, announcing they would restore the building for a restaurant instead of tearing it down.

The Lins own other restaurants, including two Redfish Sushi Asian Bistros, Kublai Khan, and New Hunan. And Shon Lin's family also owns an Asian food distributorship in Arkansas.

In June 2015, the Lakeland couple borrowed the $2 million from Bank of Bartlett, with whom they have banked for seven years, to renovate the building for an upscale restaurant.
A friend and former co-worker of mine wrote a critique on religion. He says religion corresponds to a certain level of social unity  based on the words and deeds of those who claim a given faith.

He thinks few people really cherish or live up to the ethos and mandates of their religion. He also finds many religious behaviors to be exclusionary or inconsiderate. Thus to be a decent person one does not need religion. Religious terms and practices vary with time and place, he writes, so religious self-identification is obsolete and useless.

My friends article highlighted Christianity, Islam and Judaism, but he applied his remarks to all religions. I will respond from my Christian faith, starting my friends points I found convicting.

I think my friend legitimately opines on Christianity based on Christians  to an extent. Scripture affirms that our light should shine before men and that the world will know us by our love for one another. Lukewarm faithfulness or obedience is not an option for Gods people. Is this what my colleague has seen in Christians, or in me?

Further, my friend may have observed indecency or snobbery in Christian circles. Sometimes we forget to do all things without complaining and disputing (Philippians 2). Or we neglect James 3: Wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. Has my co-worker sensed me failing in these areas?

Fortunately for my friend and myself, the Bible puts more emphasis on the perfection and power of Christ than on the fickleness and failings of his followers. In fact, a unique and pivotal reason for trusting the accuracy and authority of the Bible is that it discloses its own heroes iniquities, like murder, adultery, betrayal, infidelity and fear. Can you picture the Quran calling Mohamad a coward, or Buddhists attributing murder to the Dalai Lama, or the Book of Mormon identifying Joseph Smith as a traitor? The Bible shows only God  Father, Son and Spirit  as being perfect.

Two rebuttals I offer my colleague.

First, he strives to be nice to people, but that is not good enough. Jesus commands, Be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect (Matthew 5). This of course is impossible, but that is the whole point. Most religions require you to do your best, and hopefully that will be enough. But the biblical bar is untouchable because Gods holiness literally cannot stand evil. In his integrity, he either justly eradicates sin or mercifully atones for it. Either way, the story is about God, not us: We love Him because He first loved us (1 John 4).

So by denouncing Christianity because of the mistakes of Christians, my friend has missed what Christians themselves try to remember in Romans 8: There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. God always demands righteousness, but only his righteousness gives us purpose and promise.

Second, consider a short analogy about your favorite chair. What do you do each time you sit on it? Consciously or not, you assume it will hold your weight. Only a clear flaw or a warning from someone would cause you to doubt your assumption.

Now ponder your reaction to Christianitys central claim: Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died on a cross for sinful people then rose from the dead. If you disbelieve this, entertain for just a moment how different the world would be if the statement actually is true.

What would its implications be for you? Romans 10 answers clearly: If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Biblical Christianity begins at the cross and ends at the empty tomb. Nothing else works. In fact, the Bible says, If Christ is not risen, your faith is futile [and] we are of all men the most pitiable. But now Christ is risen from the dead (1 Corinthians 15). This is what my friend must accept or deny.
Photos by Yalonda M. James/The Commercial Appeal August 17, 2016  Timmy Vester, left, completes a To-go order, while Suga Tard, owner of Suga's Diner, takes a break during the workday in Stanton on Wednesday. Many West Tennessee businesses and leaders have pinned their economic futures on the Memphis Regional Megasite, which could produce 34,244 jobs. "I think it's a good idea because if it brings more economics to the town and more jobs, you know, things that people could do, I think it'll be a great idea," Tard said. " We've been waiting on it 'cause we want to see the town grow and I believe this will make the town grow. It will probably prompt more people to move here to Stanton and maybe bring some housing and other good things here that we don't have now."

SHARE August 17, 2016  The water tower in Stanton recently had "Memphis Regional Megasite" painted on top of the structure. Many West Tennessee businesses and leaders have pinned their economic futures on the Memphis Regional Megasite, which could produce 34,244 jobs.

By Tyler Whetstone, Jackson Sun  USA Today Network

STANTON, Tenn. -- The Memphis Regional Megasite was purposely named after the blues capital of the world to its west, but this patch of West Tennessee cotton land is roughly 40 miles from Beale Street.

It does, however, lie right at the doorstep of little Stanton, a sleepy West Tennessee town marked by a rusty water tower and a cotton gin.

And like most sleepy West Tennessee towns, Stanton has been waiting expectantly for industry to come to the 4,100-acre site ever since the state took it over in 2005 for a car assembly plant that never came.

Now news reports have stirred excitement here. Century Tire Americas, a Chinese tire manufacturer, apparently has listed the Megasite and a site on the Georgia-Alabama state line as possible locations for its first North American manufacturing operation.

For residents and officials alike the potential of a company like Sentury and at least 600 new jobs can't be overstated. It would change everything.

Officials in West Tennessee hope for the kind of project that Middle Tennessee has in Hankook Tire, a South Korean manufacturer opening a 1.5 million-square-foot plant in December in Clarksville. Hankook's $800 million factory looks to employ up to 1,800 people once it is fully operational.

"That's a huge deal. That, and obviously the ability for the spinoff that could come from this and other companies to service this facility," Clarksville Mayor Kim McMillan said. "Now, is it a Nissan where you have other suppliers? Maybe not, but it paves the way for other companies [similar to] Hankook and other businesses to come that are similar."

According to Haywood County Mayor Franklin Smith, Hankook visited the Memphis Megasite three times, but ultimately chose Clarksville. Now, many West Tennessee residents are hoping for a better result with Sentury. Haywood County, home to about 19,000 people, by 2014 had lost nearly a third of the 6,300 jobs in place in 2007.

At the nonprofit Stanton Feeding Haywood, Linda Jones collects food for the hungry people of Stanton and stores it in the back of Town Hall, a small building across from the cotton gin and the railroad tracks. A U.S. Census report shows 23.1 percent of the county's residents lived in poverty in 2013.

On an early August morning she sits at a table inside and dreams about what a handful of new factories would mean for the town she has lived in for 64 years. Four plants in the county closed with the recession.

"People perhaps had good jobs," she said about the people she serves. "They might have worked at Firestone and business went out and they had to transition to something else. It would be awesome because it would allow them the privilege and opportunity to provide for their families, to get better housing, a [better] life itself and to be able to pour back into society and give back what has been given to them."

Jones said Stanton once boomed, but has lost the drugstore, a grocery store, a bank and the Dairy Queen.

"It's going to just mean a lot for this community spiritually, physically and mentally," Jones said. "It's just going to be great. It's a real big deal.

"No disrespect to that little town in Georgia, but I'm praying the Lord will show us favor and that the town picked will be Stanton," she said laughing.

Richard Turner has worked at the Stanton Cannery since it opened in 1973 and he's been the operator since the county took it over in 1980. He said people in Stanton look for jobs, but jobs can't be found.

"They're on food stamps and unemployment and they wouldn't have to be on food stamps if they had their own jobs," he said. "If they had a job, they could help themselves. They wouldn't need the government to help them."

Haywood County's unemployment rate in June was 6.9 percent.

According to a study released by the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development, the Memphis Megsite could eventually land 34,244 jobs, including more than 10,000 jobs generated by businesses locating at the Megasite and more than 24,000 jobs generated by other supporting factories that would open in the region. The state has spent $140 million on the site and will have to invest another $75.3 million to get the entire property ready for industry.

Bringing in 32,000 new jobs would exceed the entire population of Haywood and next door Crockett County, which has officials in Greater Memphis and Jackson, 32 miles west of the Megasite, anticipating local residents would commute to the jobs.

Not all Haywood County residents are excited for a tire plant. Nick Crafton owns 668 acres outside of Stanton and dislikes how the site has been handled.

Crafton, a chemical engineer and industrial consultant, has spoken at public meetings and written letters to the state and interested companies explaining his displeasure. His biggest complaint is the Megasite wasn't meant to be sold off in smaller chunks.

"That is a mission creep. That is completely different from what was pitched," he said. "The reason [for it] to exist is a completely different mission than what the General Assembly planned."

Crafton is appealing the permits used for the reroute of Highway 222, which cuts through the middle of the site, to the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation. Crafton said the state used the wrong kind of permits.

Crafton also said the site will compete against other industrial sites in the county, which he said is unhealthy, and he is afraid the addition of a tire plant will cause the area to fail an air conservation limit.

At the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development, chief operating officer Ted Townsend doubted a tire plant would bring emission concerns. He said manufacturers must adhere to strict federal standards.

"Would it (a tire plant) be my preference?" said Smith, the Haywood County mayor. "No, but I'm certainly not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. We need the jobs. The people who know this better than I do say it won't hurt anything."

ECD Commissioner Randy Boyd said having a smaller company come to the Megasite first would not disrupt the state's ability to market the site to a larger company.

"In the end, if a company comes and brings lots of jobs and lots of investment and they've got the financial resources to do it, then I don't think we're in a position to start being terribly [picky]," Boyd said. "We're going to be selective, but as long as it is a strong, substantial company we'll be excited to welcome them here."

Haywood County still lacks the infrastructure that thousands of jobs would require. Smith has promised to work with the county to build fire, police and EMS substations near the Megasite, but the county has had to raise property taxes each of the last two years to hold off a rising tide of costs. More importantly, the county no longer has a hospital, and the closest emergency room is 35 miles away by ambulance.

Boyd expressed confidence a deal would be worked out and police, fire and EMS services will be ready when plants open. Amy New, assistant commissioner for rural development, said the state is working with federal and state officials to form a regional partnership that could help carry the burden.

Tyler Whetstone can be reached at (731) 425-9629.
August 18, 2016  (Left to right) Construction workers Nereo Mate, Hunereo Moreles, and Victor Colin work on walls for the Carter House at Habitat for Humanity's Carter Work Project at 1010 N. 3rd St. on Thursday. According to habitat.org, the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project helps raise awareness of the critical need for decent and affordable housing. (Yalonda M. James/The Commercial Appeal)

Marandow Montgomery will turn 40 later this year, which means he was born in 1976.

That's the same year a Georgia pecan farmer and missionary started a homebuilding ministry called Habitat for Humanity.

That's the year a Georgia peanut farmer and Sunday school teacher was elected President of the United States.

That's also the year the United Nations held its first international conference on housing, called Habitat I.

Some might call all of that coincidental, but Montgomery, who married a preacher's daughter, is inclined to see it as providential.

How else to explain that he and his wife, Amanda, are getting a new Habitat for Humanity house this year?

Or that former President Jimmy Carter is coming to Memphis Sunday to help them build it?

Or that Habitat International's CEO says its work for the Montgomerys and Memphis illustrates its larger global strategy?

"I'm overwhelmed, man," Montgomery said last week as he marked the seventh anniversary of being clean and sober. "I never thought I'd be where I am today."

Or where he will be next week, working alongside the Carters and 2,500 other volunteers in the Bearwater Park neighborhood just north of Uptown.

The weeklong Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Work Project starts Monday. Volunteers will be building 19 new Habitat homes on lots donated by Hope Presbyterian Church's Oasis of Hope ministry. They'll also complete six repairs for elderly homeowners, and 10 beautification projects.

The massive Memphis project will highlight Habitat's changing mission from single homebuilder to neighborhood revitalizer and global developer.

Habitat, a Christian ministry, uses donated or low-cost land and materials, and volunteer labor, to build homes for low-income families.

The homes are sold without profit. Buyers pay no interest and their mortgage payments are used to build more homes.

Habitat has become America's largest private homebuilder, but 95 percent of the people it serves live overseas.

Since 1976, Habitat has helped more than a million people in more than 100 countries build, improve or maintain their homes. Much of that is done through Habitat's microlending programs.

Jonathan Reckford, CEO of Habitat International, said the fundamental need for housing hasn't gotten the same attention as such other global needs such as food, medicine and security.

"One of the reasons housing is invisible is that most of the people in positions of power grew up in decent housing. It's not visceral," he said. "But if you've ever talked to somebody who lived in substandard of poverty housing, you don't have to explain (that). It's fundamental to them."

In October, Habitat International will play a key role in the UN's Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development, or Habitat III.

Habitat I took place in 1976, inspiring Millard Fuller to name his new, Georgia-based housing ministry Habitat for Humanity.

After Habitat II in 1996, Habitat for Humanity's international board of directors affirmed the right to adequate and affordable housing for all.

Not only to provide families with safe, decent and affordable shelter, but stability that improves a family's chances for better health, education and long-term prosperity.

"About 80 percent of the world's families live in slum conditions, with no access to home loans," said Reckford, who will join the Carters in Memphis.

"We want to be religious about our principles, but not our tactics. Memphis is a good example of how Habitat for Humanity has evolved. What Memphis is doing is aligned with our global strategic plan."

What Habitat for Humanity of Greater Memphis is doing is revitalizing.

Over the past two years, the nonprofit has leveraged a $4 million Plough Foundation grant into a $6 million Aging in Place program, with partners Service Over Self and MLGW.

By year's end, the program will have helped more than 300 low-income senior homeowners with critical repairs.

It also has leveraged a $100,000 grant into a $12 million neighborhood revitalization program in the Uptown area, with partners Wells Fargo and the Community Redevelopment Agency.

By year's end, there will be 32 new homes in Uptown and 21 more in Bearwater along with repairs on 50 others.

Habitat is also working with Le Bonheur Children's Hospital to remove structural asthma triggers in at least 150 homes where children have been sent to the ER.

"We're trying to be more creative about finding ways to help stabilize families by stabilizing and revitalizing neighborhoods," said Dwayne Spencer, Memphis Habitat president and CEO. "That takes more than new construction. That takes community development."

Montgomery never thought he'd be part of a local or global plan to provide safe, decent and affordable housing for the world.

He always hoped he'd be part of God's plan. He grew up in church. He married a preacher's daughter. His sons are named Josiah and Nehemiah. He knows his Bible.

He sure knows the biblical significance of the number 40  used frequently to symbolize a period of testing, trial and tribulation.

Forty days and nights of rain. Forty years in the desert. Forty days in the wilderness.

Montgomery can't put a number on the days, nights or years he wandered in a wilderness of drugs and crime, relapse and recidivism.

"I did all the things God said not to do," Montgomery told his fellow members of Community Bible Church last month. "I put myself in dangerous situations. It was like I didn't care."

He cares deeply now. He's been married for four years, a father for nearly three. He works full-time as a restaurant manager and part-time for the church.

And now he's working with a faithful former president and a global faith-based organization to build his own home.

"I'll be able to provide for my family and give back to help other families provide," Montgomery said. "We'll have our own house, but God opened the door."
We had a front-page story Tuesday about the annual Candlelight Vigil marking the anniversary of Elvis Presley's death, which, from a news event standpoint, was hijacked a bit by protesters representing various aspects of the Black Lives Matter and other social justice movements.

At a news conference earlier this month announcing that protesters would be at the vigil, Al Lewis, a member of the Memphis Coalition of Concerned Citizens, said, "Why Graceland? Because Graceland represents the tremendous disparity of what works for a few and what doesn't work for the many."

He and other speakers emphasized economic issues such as high poverty rates, low wages, the use of temp agencies, and local government's PILOT (payment-in-lieu-of-taxes) tax-break program for businesses. In a flier, the coalition posted that Memphians are "broke, overpoliced and undereducated ... It's not by accident. We deserve better."

Also Tuesday, The Commercial Appeal had a story on the front page of its Local news section about event planner and fashion designer Pat Kerr Tigrett launching her new event, the "Ol' Man River Moonshine Ball," on Friday, Sept. 16, at the Gibson Guitar Factory.

Tigrett hosted the Blues Ball, which ended its run last year, for 22 years. The Blues Ball honored the people who made Memphis music. She said the Ol' Man River Moonshine Ball will honor "great things happening in Memphis."

"What I want to do is shine a bright light on Memphis because everything is in such an uproar now. All the political ranting. The crime. The police efforts. The black and white race relations," she told The Commercial Appeal's Michael Donahue.

So, who has the correct perspective of what is happening in Memphis? Both Tigrett and the Memphis Coalition of Concerned Citizens.

There are a lot of great things happening in Memphis on a host of quality-of-life and economic-development fronts.

The concerned citizens coalition has a valid complaint. Our 30 percent poverty rate is abysmal. There are too many failing schools in the inner city. There are too many low-wage jobs and jobs gained through employment services that do not provide the income, long-term employment stability and benefits, a situation that keeps families mired on the edge of poverty.

We also have to change the mindset of some of our elected and economic development officials who believe a $9-an-hour job is better than no job. There is bit of truth to that, but should not the goal be higher? Our inner-city schools, although improving, still have a long way go in adequately educating children.

And, while this city has initiated or partnered with the private sector on some great economic development projects, the economic benefits of those projects do not trickle down to our poorest citizens.

There has been a lot of chatter about the Black Lives Matter and social justice protesters by whites and African-Africans. The protesters have been adamant that the movement has no designated leader.

Critics, especially some African-Americans, ask how a leaderless movement can be effective. Others question the effectiveness of protests, opining that it is better to work within the system to bring about meaningful change.

Protesters are publicly expressing the frustrations of people who have been shut out of the system. They are frustrated with the generational poverty. They are frustrated with long-serving African-American elected officials, who, in their minds, have been ineffective in bringing about change.

They want to be heard, and the protests are the only way to get the community to pay attention. Why protest the Elvis vigil? It provided protesters with an international stage to let their voices be heard.

This segment of Memphis deserves to be heard.

Let's be honest. Those of us who live in the nice homes in the nice neighborhoods have a hard time relating to what it is like to live a life in which poverty's tentacles squeeze nearly every aspect of everyday existence.

Too many of us say "these people made their own beds." That is correct to some extent, but let's not forget this important fact: Most of us who are doing well grew up in households occupied by parents who served as good role models, who expected their children to do well in school, stay out of serious trouble and to be successful adults.

When it comes to generational poverty, those role models (life instructors) and expectations are lacking generation after generation. So, the question is: How do you break that cycle and who should take responsibility?

Frankly, it should start in the home, but since that is not happening in too many cases, it is up to schools, the business community, elected officials, philanthropic organizations to work together to come up with effective intervention strategies to make a difference.

For those of us who live in the nice neighborhoods, there are plenty of mentoring programs that could use our help.

And, here is a question for the protesters. You made your point. You have been heard. What is your next move beyond demonstrations to bring about meaningful change?
July 12, 2016 -- Antonio Cathey (center) and others with the Black Lives Matter movement chant during a rally outside Graceland last Tuesday afternoon. About 70 people gathered peacefully outside the gates of the famous tourist destination on Elvis Presley Boulevard in Memphis. (Mike Brown/The Commercial Appeal)

Black Lives Matter activists sent readers to their computer keyboards. Lets take a look at some emails about motherhood, procurement and delayed gratification:

Single mothers

Mr. Evanoff, one of the main complaints coming from the black activists in Memphis and elsewhere seems to be the need for economic parity with whites. No where do I see any of these groups, the political & religious leaders and writers on the Commercial Appeal actively address perhaps the biggest cause. Until people stop having children.

Memphians repeatedly say its tough to grow up and thrive in a family without both a mom and dad at home. Some readers insist economic disparity is impossible to root out in Memphis because so many children are raised in one-parent homes.

This made me one wonder: How many married couples with kids live in the region?

I checked the U.S. Census data base. In 2014, one in four families in the big city were married couples with children at home  thats about 112,400 households in Memphis proper.

Tossing in all the suburbs, the entire metro area (including Memphis) contains a larger share of couples with kids than the big city, but not as many as I had thought.

Throughout the metro area, one in three homes contained mom, dad and kids  thats 206,500 homes. What exceeded this was the number of homes headed by a single female.

In the metro area, this amounts to almost 259,000 homes  better than four of every 10 families are headed by a woman. In Memphis proper, its almost five of 10 families  188,000 homes.

If you do the arithmetic and back Memphis out, one in three homes outside the big city is headed by a female. Which suggests to me this is an American trend common in families of all colors.

Minority procurement

A reader says: Most CEOs and Mayors arent saying dont do business with minorities, but they also arent making it a priority within their organizations so staff people maintain the status quo. In many cases, Memphians that make purchasing decisions are passing over qualified fellow Memphians.

This last point  about the fellow Memphians  gets to the idea that local firms use suppliers located outside the metro area. Redirecting spending to local minority companies could bring a wave of money into the city.

What I wonder about is the larger idea raised by African American leaders. Memphis enterprises, they say, ought to allocate a share of spending to minority suppliers as a matter of course even if it means shifting spending away from established, white-owned suppliers in the metro area.

Lets say the established supplier is an accounting firm. If 2 percent of its revenue is lost when the client shifts spending to a minority accountant, presumably the firm might range out and pick up more business in Oxford or Jonesboro and not have to idle anyone.

But what if it is, say, a lawn care service or other small firm without a marketing staff. It loses sales, cant drive as far as Oxford and make money, so has to cut prices and edge out local rivals or lay off a couple of workers.

The point is the minority firm hires two workers, and this is good for the black neighborhood, but if the suburban firm lays off two workers we are as a region no better off economically.

What we really need is an expanding economy that creates more demand for services so we add more jobs rather than just shuffle where those jobs are located.

Fix it now

Writes a reader: To fix the problem of poverty, a solid family unit is needed followed by a good education . The problems will take years to fix because it took decades to create them. Thats the thing BLM refuses to accept. BLM wants everything given to them.

I asked African American real estate executive Darrell Cobbins why he thought the Black Lives Matter activists had zeroed in on jobs now when the topic was just as relevant in 2010. Cobbins said the activists are giving voice to a longstanding issue because they have the attention of the entire city and its leaders, white and black.

There was a time I think when the pastures were greener, Cobbins said, and we were probably not as focused on the economy. But ever since the recession in 2008 that cloud has hung over us economically. In a prolonged economic downturn, especially when Census data comes in and the newspaper reports on it and sheds light on your position, you begin to start to dissect the situation. You see economic growth has been stagnant and minority businesses are not doing well. You start putting the pieces together and realize something about our model of economic growth has to change.

The reality is metro Memphis was devastated in the 2008 recession and has only slowly climbed back. Memphis is the only large metro area in the state that has fewer payroll jobs filled now than before the recession.

Memphis proper, the big city, is bearing the brunt of the jobs deficit.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Dimondale, Mich.. Friday, Aug. 19, 2016. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

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By Michael Collins of The Commercial Appeal

WASHINGTON  Susan Williams left the Republican National Convention in Cleveland last month feeling optimistic about Donald Trump's chances of winning the White House.

"I listened to his acceptance speech  he stayed on script, and it was good, I thought," said Williams, former chairwoman of the Tennessee Republican Party. "He set the tone for what he should be talking about  trade problems and terrorism and immigration issues, all of those things that have gotten him the nomination."

Then things quickly went awry.

A succession of missteps and off-the-cuff remarks by Trump sent his poll numbers crashing. Prominent Republicans abandoned their nominee and encouraged their party to do the same. More signs of turmoil came Wednesday when Trump reshuffled his campaign staff for the second time in two months to regain his footing.

Given all the turbulence in the month since the convention, Williams and other Tennesseans say the hopes they had for a possible Trump presidency have morphed into questions about the state of his campaign.

"He really needs  quickly  to get back on the message that got him the nomination," Williams said. "Whether he can do that or not remains to be seen."

U.S. Rep. Phil Roe, R-Johnson City, said he also is concerned by Trump's downward spiral. Trump now badly trails Democrat Hillary Clinton in most national polls and in many of the swing states he would need to win the presidency.

But Roe cautioned it's not unusual for a candidate to see up-and-down swings in polling during a presidential race. Trump still has time to turn his campaign around before Election Day, he said.

"Do I like where we are right now? No, I don't," Roe said. "But it's not Nov. 8 either."

Trump's die-hard supporters  those who have been with him since the beginning  reject the notion that his campaign has veered off course. They remain as passionate about the nominee and his message as they were during the slog through the GOP primaries.

"I approve of what Mr. Trump is doing, and I'm excited about the direction that his campaign is taking," said Charlotte Bergmann of Germantown. "I could just shout hallelujah I'm so excited."

Trump's problems are not a reflection of the candidate's shortcomings but are instead the product of a biased media that pounces on his every misstep  no matter how trivial  while ignoring Clinton's sins, said Terry Roland, chairman of the Shelby County Commission.

"Anybody that's supporting Trump knows it's a full-court press by the media to make him look bad," Roland said. "But it's having a different effect. It's making us work harder."

U.S. Rep. Scott DesJarlais, one of the first sitting members of Congress to back Trump in the primaries, also attributes much of the candidate's problems to "a very biased media."

"I don't think I've ever seen a campaign where the media has so negatively focused on everything one candidate says and makes a story out of it whether it is or isn't (newsworthy)," said DesJarlais, R-South Pittsburg.

Regardless, some Tennessee Republicans think Trump's political problems have been exacerbated by his own behavior.

Former Knoxville Mayor Victor Ashe said Trump's wounds have been largely self-inflicted. "There needs to be more self-discipline," Ashe wrote in an email.

Williams, of Knoxville, said Trump needs to do a better job staying on message and "quit trying to crack jokes that don't work." Several of the comments that got him in trouble  like his suggestion that "Second Amendment people" might stop Clinton from appointing liberal judges  were obvious attempts at humor that fell flat, she said.

"He's from New York  he's got a sarcastic sense of humor, and I get his sense of humor," she said. "But you can't do that in a presidential campaign and get away with it. He ought to realize that by now."

To win, Trump also needs to find a way to generate enthusiasm among establishment Republicans who were not with him at the start of the campaign but are backing him now because they don't want to see Clinton in the White House, Williams said.

"There is nothing in my DNA that would allow me to vote for Hillary Clinton because I know what kind of president she would be," said Williams, whose first choice for the GOP nomination was Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

"Trump might surprise me  he might be a good president," Williams said. "He didn't get to be successful by being stupid." But, "he needs to give us a reason for us to support him other than the fact that we don't like Hillary."

Part of Trump's appeal to voters is that he's not a traditional politician and isn't afraid to say "colorful" things that other candidates would not, said Edward Phillips Jr., a Republican from Rutherford County.

But Trump also needs to show more substance on the issues, like he did last week when he laid out his strategy for defeating radical Islamic terrorism, Phillips said.

"We need to have a little bit more idea of how he's going to achieve his goals," he said.

Trump has come a long way by being direct with voters, but "there's lots of room for improvement and there's lots of work to be done," said Julie Hannah, chairwoman of the Williamson County Republican Party.

Shaking up his campaign staff last week was a start, she said, and "I'm hoping that Mr. Trump will allow the professionals that he has put in different positions to do what it takes to win and to keep the focus on putting Americans first."

"We're 80 days away" from the election, Hannah said. "It's getting down to crunch time."
Memphis Police Department Director Michael Rallings (Stan Carroll/The Commercial Appeal File)

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By Daniel Connolly of The Commercial Appeal

Memphis Police Director Michael Rallings said Friday that he opposes a City Council proposal to loosen penalties for small-scale marijuana possession, and urged audience members at Heartsong Church in Cordova to come to council's meeting Tuesday and oppose it.

"We're devastating people's lives, and I can't be part of that," Rallings said.

City Council member Berlin Boyd said this week he would present an ordinance to a council committee that would let police officers choose whether people caught with a half-ounce or less of marijuana should be charged with a misdemeanor or fined $50 with the possibility for community service.

Advocates for looser marijuana laws argue that the criminalization of the drug causes more harm than the drug itself.

Rallings made his statement on the proposal Friday during a forum on heroin use, immediately following testimony by Bethany Morse, who described herself as a former heroin addict whose son had been born addicted to drugs. Morse said that after quitting heroin, she had gone back to using marijuana, thinking it harmless.

"I refused to connect it to the fact that I eventually ended up back on IV drugs ... But I always ended up back with a needle in my arm," she said.

Heroin overdoses can be deadly  Rallings said there have been 64 deadly heroin overdoses in Memphis alone this year.

"We had to create a new unit within organized crime just to keep up with the number of heroin overdoses," he said.

While homicides in Memphis mostly kill African-Americans, most of the heroin deaths are among white people, Rallings said. "We both have to champion both of these because it's devastating our community."

He also called for increased spending on drug courts and drug treatment.

Reached late Friday, Boyd said you can't compare marijuana to heroin. "That's like comparing an apple to an orange," he said. "Two different fruits."

He said minor marijuana arrests stain African-Americans with criminal records and drain law enforcement resources. "Why are we tying up our court system dealing with such small, minor amounts of marijuana?" He said law enforcement should focus on major crimes like robbery and murder.

"It seems as if any time you propose any legislation that will benefit and help the African-American community in Memphis, you always have so much opposition," Boyd said.

Pam Kiestler of the Memphis Fire Department said the entity is giving increasing numbers of doses of Narcan, an antidote for drug overdoses.

The forum was hosted by Oxford Treatment Center, a for-profit organization in Mississippi that offers inpatient and outpatient clinics to addicts.

The talk reflected a national issue. Sam Quinones, a Los Angeles journalist and author, says opiate addiction now kills more people nationwide than auto accidents.

He said opiate addiction has spread for two reasons. First, pharmaceutical companies promoted powerful painkillers and doctors overprescribed them, which has created addicts. "Number two, we have now extraordinarily cheap Mexican heroin which was not the case the last time heroin was a very big deal, in the 1970s."

His 2015 nonfiction book "Dreamland" describes how drug dealers from one area in Mexico's Nayarit state developed a business model that involved serving black tar heroin to mostly white addicts. Addicts could phone their dealer and get a dose delivered to their home like a pizza. The drug dealers' business model spread throughout the nation, including to Tennessee.

One of the most poignant moments of the forum came during the question and answer session. One woman said she has three sons addicted to heroin: one in recovery, one an active user, one in jail. She asked Rallings if he could speed up investigations and put heroin dealers in prison.

Rallings expressed sympathy, saying he couldn't imagine being in her shoes. He said investigations take a long time and thanked her for not giving up on her sons.
By Katie Fretland of The Commercial Appeal

A jury on Friday found a Bartlett police officer guilty of two counts of reckless driving, a misdemeanor offense, but not on more serious charges, after a fatal car accident at a major intersection in Bartlett.

Lucas Hines, 34, was found guilty of reckless driving in the Oct. 12, 2014, crash at Stage Road and Bartlett Boulevard that killed 49-year-old Michelle Sloyan and her friend, 63-year-old Danny Floyd.

Hines had been charged with two counts of vehicular homicide, but the jury also considered lesser charges. Sentencing is set for Sept. 23.

"While my client is happy with the jury's verdict, this case is extremely sad," Hines' attorney, Arthur Quinn, said after the verdict was returned. "We have to remember that two lives were lost."

According to the Tennessee Highway Patrol, the police officer was speeding, and Floyd failed to yield to oncoming traffic when he tried to make a left turn that afternoon onto Bartlett Boulevard from Stage Road. Assistant District Attorney Billy Bond said the state's evidence is that Hines' traveled up to 83 mph before the crash, did not have emergency lights or sirens activated and was not in pursuit of a fleeing felon.

A witness, Michael Owen, a contractor who was driving in Bartlett, said he saw the crash that killed Floyd and Sloyan, and said it was "horrific." Owen said neither lights or sirens were activated on the police car.

In restaurant security footage about 0.3 miles from intersection of the crash, Hines' lights and sirens are on, Quinn said. That would be about 12 to 13 seconds from the intersection at the rate of speed the prosecution said Hines was driving, Quinn said.

The crash followed an encounter Hines had with a blue Volkswagen with a Florida tag that Hines tried to stop for traveling 44 mph in a 30-mph zone near Woodlawn and Old Brownsville. Near a stop sign, Hines stood in front of the car with one hand up and his other hand pointed toward Woodlawn, where he wanted the car to pull over.

"He turned his wheels to my left as if he was about to go that way, but then he accelerated and came toward me instead," Hines testified Thursday. "So I threw my hands out in front of me telling him to stop. He kept coming at me. So I had to basically put my hands on the car and push myself away from him."

The driver of the Volkswagen then fled, according to testimony. Hines said he went to look for the car, thinking that the person in the Volkswagen needed to be stopped to prevent the driver from hurting someone. He could hear over his radio that the driver he was looking for went on to run lights and hit a vehicle.

Jurors began deliberating at about 2 p.m. Friday and returned a verdict about 9:15 p.m.
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By Aaron Blake

In January, Iran released five American prisoners it had been holding. That same day, we have come to find out, the American government sent $400 million in cash to Iran.

It isn't hard to draw conclusions based on the proximity of those two events. Yet, the Obama administration repeatedly sought to separate them from each other, even as Republicans have almost universally accused it of paying a "ransom" for American "hostages."

The administration's task in denying that allegation is now much more difficult.

In response to a report in the Wall Street Journal, the State Department on Thursday acknowledged that the money was used as "leverage" in the prisoner-release negotiations. The money was already due to Iran as part of a settlement over a decades-old failed arms deal  also reached in January  but State Department spokesman John Kirby confirmed it was withheld until the prisoners had left Iran.

"With concerns that Iran may renege on the prisoner release, given unnecessary delays regarding persons in Iran who could not be located  as well as, to be quite honest, mutual mistrust between Iran and the United States," Kirby said, "we of course sought to retain maximum leverage until after American citizens were released. That was our top priority."

Asked whether Kirby was saying the payment was contingent upon the prisoners being released, he responded, "That's correct."

How does this square with what the Obama administration said before?

On Aug. 3, after the Wall Street Journal revealed the $400 million payment, Kirby said the two matters were "completely separate." The money was the first installment of the $1.7 billion settlement reached at The Hague, and he said the negotiations were handled by a separate team.

The administration had announced in January that Iran would receive $400 million plus $1.3 billion in interest to settle the outstanding claim. But it said nothing about the timing, including that the initial payment had already been made simultaneously with the prisoner release.

"As we've made clear, the negotiations over the settlement of an outstanding claim at The Hague Tribunal were completely separate from the discussions about returning our American citizens home," Kirby said at the time. "Not only were the two negotiations separate, they were conducted by different teams on each side, including, in the case of The Hague claims, by technical experts involved in these negotiations for many years."

White House press secretary Joshua Earnest said that same day that the ransom allegations were meant to undermine the administration's deal to rein in Iran's nuclear program.

"We would not, we have not, we will not, pay a ransom to secure the release of U.S. citizens," Earnest said. "That's a fact. That is our policy, and it is one that we have assiduously followed."

State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Aug. 5 that the administration was aware of "the optics" of the cash transfer and had moved to "address it upfront."

"The president spoke to this settlement. Secretary (John) Kerry spoke to the settlement at the time and tried to say, 'Look, guys, I know (what) it looks like, but there's no there there,' " Toner said.

The administration is indeed walking a very fine line here. And reporters at Thursday's briefing clearly felt like they, at the very least, hadn't gotten the whole story from the State Department about the cash transfer.

Kirby's assurance that the two negotiations were "completely separate" is hard to square with the fact that the $400 million was contingent upon the prisoner release. While the negotiations over the prisoners and the cash might have been separate, the resolutions clearly weren't.

Of course, the money was already due to Iran  at some point  for an expressly different reason than the prisoner exchange. The Obama administration announced it in January, at the same time it reached a deal on the prisoner exchange and began implementation of the nuclear deal. The proximity of those events also makes it harder to separate them. But the cash transfer wasn't news; the timing and contingency were.

Robert Baer, a former CIA case worker in the Middle East who is now an author, might have said it best earlier this month.

"Technically, the State Department may be right," Baer told The Washington Post. "But given the archaeology of our relations with Iran, it looks very bad. They take people. They get money back they think is theirs."

Appearing on Fox News on Friday morning, Kirby acknowledged the increasingly bad optics of the situation and said he gets why people might see it as a ransom. "I understand why people would say that ... I get that. But that doesn't change the facts."

Thursday's revelation does indeed look bad for the administration, as did the after-the-fact revelation of the $400 million transfer made to Iran, and they both breathe life into Republicans' long-standing allegations that this was a quid pro quo in which prisoners were released in exchange for cash. There's a reason such things are avoided; they risk putting overseas Americans in danger of being held in exchange for money.

Expect plenty of parsing in the days to come.

Aaron Blake covers national politics for the Washington Post and writes regularly for the Post's daily political blog The Fix.
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By James Hohmann

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump each reluctantly backed down Thursday night on major things that threatened to derail their campaigns.

The Clinton Foundation announced it will no longer accept donations from corporations or foreign entities if Hillary is elected president. Bill Clinton told foundation staff that the final meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative will be held next month, and he announced that he will stop giving paid speeches. "The former president, who turns 70 on Friday, said he will resign from the board, and the foundation will only accept contributions from U.S. citizens and independent charities," according to the AP's Ken Thomas, who broke the story.

Meanwhile, Trump expressed remorse for the first time since he got into the race 14 months ago. "Sometimes in the heat of debate, and speaking on a multitude of issues, you don't choose the right words or you say the wrong thing. I have done that," the Republican nominee, reading from a teleprompter, said during a rally in Charlotte. "And believe it or not, I regret it. I do regret it, particularly where it may have caused personal pain."

Both candidates are extraordinarily reluctant to ever acknowledge wrongdoing, even tacitly, because they believe doing so projects weakness. This is why Thursday night was so remarkable and may represent a true pivot point in the race.

Think about Clinton's evolving explanations for her private email server through the 2016 cycle and her defense of her support for the Iraq War during the 2008 race (it took her until 2014 to say a 2002 vote was a mistake).

There are literally dozens of examples of Trump hurting himself by refusing to admit that he went too far. Think about his attacks on Gold Star parents Khizr and Ghazala Khan, John "not a war hero" McCain, Judge Gonzalo Curiel and Ted Cruz's father Rafael (whom he claimed was with Lee Harvey Oswald shortly before John F. Kennedy's assassination). He also declined to express regret after mocking a reporter with a disability and calling Mexican immigrants rapists.

Hillary has now implicitly acknowledged that the Clinton Foundation is a major liability to her campaign, regardless of her campaign's spin and inevitable denials. "The decision comes amid mounting criticism of how the foundation operated during her tenure as secretary of state, potentially allowing donors to seek special access through her government post," The Washington Post's Abby Phillip and Rosalind Helderman report.

Trump, a former donor to the group, often accuses Hillary of engaging in "pay-to-play" practices. In particular, he says the $25 million the foundation took from Saudi Arabia undercuts his opponent's rhetoric on women's rights.

But he's inconsistent about his messaging. He also often levels unsubstantiated charges that overshadow any accurate lines of attack and make it easier for the Clinton war room in Brooklyn to push back by muddying the water.

A traditional GOP opponent, running a disciplined campaign and spending meaningful money on negative TV ads, could probably more effectively use the Clinton Foundation as a bludgeon to depict HRC as a shady shakedown artist who looks out more for her rich cronies and deep-pocketed foreigners than working-class Americans struggling to catch a break.

Message testing and focus groups, including those conducted by Democrats, have shown there are some particularly potent (and totally true) lines of attack. Among them:

 The Clinton Foundation accepted millions of dollars in money from foreign governments while Clinton was secretary of state.

 The Clintons promised transparency but did not always follow their own rules. One foreign government donation was not properly submitted to the State Department for approval.

 One-third of Clinton Foundation contributors who gave more than $1 million were foreign governments or other entities based outside the United States, according to a February 2015 analysis by The Post's Roz Helderman, Tom Hamburger and Steven Rich.

According to a batch of emails released just last week through a public records lawsuit, a foundation aide asked State Department staff to arrange a meeting on behalf of a foundation donor, a wealthy Nigerian businessman of Lebanese descent who had donated between $1 million and $5 million.

"There is no evidence that Hillary Clinton or her top aides completed ethics training when they started at the State Department, as required by federal law," McClatchy's Anita Kumar reported Thursday. "State Department records show only three of nine top Clinton aides took the mandated training for new employees. Records also suggest that none of seven top aides required to take subsequent annual training completed it. No records indicate whether Clinton herself took any training. Many of the aides still work for Clinton.. . . Clinton's campaign did not respond to questions. . ."

Clinton has been getting hammered in the court of elite opinion. The Post's Editorial Board lamented "the porous ethical wall" between the foundation and the State Department in a Sunday editorial: "As secretary, she pledged to keep her official world and her family's foundation separate, and she failed to keep them separate enough. Such sloppiness would not be acceptable in the White House." A Tuesday editorial in the Boston Globe that went further, calling for the Clinton Foundation to shut down altogether, went viral.

"It'd be impossible to keep the foundation open without at least the appearance of a problem," former Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell, a close Clinton ally, told the New York Daily News last week.

Back to Trump's speech in Charlotte:

Thursday night showed that campaign manager Kellyanne Conway is now calling the shots. She is a pollster who specializes in helping conservative men reach out to women. In early July, she told The Post's Danielle Paquette that she didn't like Trump's name-calling and said she really wants him to avoid criticizing people's looks and mental capacity. "Maybe," she said, "it's just the mother in me."

A lot has been written about the push by new campaign CEO Stephen Bannon to let Trump be Trump, but clearly Conway is trying to talk some political sense into the candidate and explaining how much his insult-laden approach has damaged his standing with the women who will decide this election.

But there are many reasons to doubt the sincerity of Trump's 11th-hour conversion. He's clearly desperate to turn around his sinking campaign, and he did not specify Thursday night what he was apologizing for, or to whom. And just like the man who faux apologizes to his wife by saying "I'm sorry you're mad," Trump at one point couched his penchant for divisive rhetoric by saying, "Sometimes I can be too honest." Was he being "too honest" when he laced into McCain, Curiel and the Khans? Trump has until very recently refused to express any regret for what he said about them. What changed?

It also was the third time in the past four days that Trump read a speech off a teleprompter, a practice he once routinely mocked. He clearly did not write the words he uttered. The language and tone sounded nothing like him.

How long can this last? We still believe that the 70-year-old is, at heart, fundamentally incapable of changing. It is hard to imagine him going on some kind of apology tour and becoming self-disciplined in a sustained way. He seems happiest when he's feuding with someone and putting down others.

James Hohmann is a national political reporter for the Washington Post.
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By Sheldon Whitehouse and Elizabeth Warren

For years, ExxonMobil actively advanced the notion that its products had little or no impact on the Earth's environment. As recently as last year, it continued to fund organizations that play down the risks of carbon pollution. So what did ExxonMobil actually know about climate change, and when did it know it?

Reasonable questions, particularly if ExxonMobil misled its investors about the long-term prospects of its business model or if the company fooled consumers into buying its products based on false claims.

So now the attorneys general of Massachusetts and New York are investigating whether ExxonMobil violated state laws by knowingly misleading their residents and shareholders about climate change. Those investigations may be making ExxonMobil executives nervous, and their Republican friends in Congress are riding to the rescue.

House Science, Space and Technology Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, and his fellow committee Republicans have issued subpoenas demanding that the state officials fork over all materials relating to their investigations. They also targeted eight organizations, including the Union of Concerned Scientists, the Rockefeller Family Fund and Greenpeace, with similar subpoenas, demanding that they turn over internal communications related to what Smith describes as part of "coordinated efforts" to deprive ExxonMobil of its First Amendment rights.

Take a breath to absorb that: State attorneys general are investigating whether a fraud had been committed  something state AGs do every day. Sometimes AGs uncover fraud and sometimes they don't, but if the evidence warrants it, the question of fraud will be resolved in open court, with all the evidence on public display. But instead of applauding the AGs for doing their jobs, this particular investigation against this particular oil company has brought down the wrath of congressional Republicans  and a swift effort to shut down the investigation before any evidence becomes public. So far, both AGs and all eight organizations have refused to comply. We say, good for them.

Let's call this what it is: a master class in how big corporations rig the system. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Smith has received nearly $685,000 in campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry during his career. Now he is using his committee to harass the investigators and bully those who dare bring facts of possible corporate malfeasance to their attention. Undoubtedly, the oil industry wants no further attention, much less court-supervised discovery, into whether it has spent decades deliberately deceiving the public about the harms associated with its product. So here come Smith and his Republican colleagues with threats of legal action designed to sidetrack state investigations and silence groups petitioning the government to address potential wrongdoing.

There's plenty for the AGs to investigate. The Union of Concerned Scientists, for example, issued a 2015 report, "Climate Deception Dossiers: Internal Fossil Fuel Industry Memos Reveal Decades of Corporate Disinformation," and a 2007 report, "Smoke, Mirrors & Hot Air: How ExxonMobil Uses Big Tobacco's Tactics to Manufacture Uncertainty on Climate Science." Both reports document how the industry has protected its bottom line by funding front organizations and scientists to put out junk science contradicting what peer-reviewed scientists, and even the industry's own experts, were saying about how its products affected the environment. Union of Concerned Scientists President Ken Kimmell rightly dismissed the committee's request, saying, "Mr. Smith makes no allegation that UCS violated any laws or regulations, and his claim, that providing information to attorneys general infringes on ExxonMobil's rights, is nonsense."

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey and New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman are also fighting back. In separate letters, they told Smith that they have no intention of complying with the committee's request. "The Subpoena brings us one step closer to a protracted, unnecessary legal confrontation which will only distract and detract from the work of our respective offices," Schneiderman wrote.

Smith is not the first fossil-fuel-backed Republican in Congress to come to the industry's defense. In May, Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., recipient of $1.8 million in oil and gas industry contributions since 1989, called the state AGs' investigation a "misuse of power" and "politics at its worst." The greater abuse comes when congressional committees appear to operate at the behest of the industries they are meant to oversee.

Congressional investigations and hearings have a unique ability to focus a nation's attention and bring facts of public importance to light. As committee chairmen, Smith and Inhofe can direct their committees' authority as they see fit, but using that power to stifle lawful state investigations doesn't advance the First Amendment, it tramples on it.

So we have an alternative suggestion. If Chairmen Smith and Inhofe are concerned about the First Amendment rights of ExxonMobil, they should each call a hearing, ask ExxonMobil executives to testify, and give them the opportunity to set the record straight. A committee chairman could do little more to protect any person's right to speak freely than to give that person the chance to testify before Congress. We would love to hear what they have to say.

The writers, both Democrats, represent Rhode Island and Massachusetts, respectively, in the U.S. Senate. They wrote this for the Washington Post.
The Rev. Eda Lorello is among a tiny minority of Roman Catholic women who have been ordained as priests.

The 2013 ceremony was performed through Roman Catholic Womenpriests, an international movement of women who have been ordained in defiance of canon law, at the risk of excommunication.

On Thursday evening, she will host a screening of Pink Smoke over the Vatican, a 2011 documentary about Catholic women who have been ordained. And she will participate in a Q&A with her audience.

Lorello has never been one to shy away from living out her convictions. The lifelong Catholic partially credits that to her parents.

My mother taught me prayer, my father taught me justice, and both (attributes) have been extremely helpful in my life, Lorello said Wednesday in a telephone interview from her home in Long Island, N.Y.

Lorello, who has been a peace activist, has engaged in civil disobedience. But shes always seen that as a final option.

I didnt get up and say I think Ill be arrested today,' she said. Thats a last resort, otherwise it contributes to the violence youre trying to prevent.

Lorello, 83, has masters degrees in theology and pastoral counseling. Both aided her in her lay parish ministry over the years.

Much of her work was in adult formation, at one church teaching precepts of the faith, especially in the aftermath of Vatican II. Then she moved to another parish and took on other roles, but mostly in the teaching area.

She earned a certification in spiritual direction and another as a midlife/long-life directions consultant.

I did workshops on personal and spiritual growth in midlife and beyond not only locally but in other states, Lorello said. I even went to Ireland.

Lorello, the mother of seven, has nine grandchildren, one great-grandson and another great-grandchild on the way. She never felt pulled toward the more traditional path for women  becoming a nun.

Lorello has many friends in different religious orders who are dedicated to their work, for whom she has tremendous respect. But it wasnt for her.

My call centered on bread, wine, oil and water, Lorello said. And those are the sacramental elements.

The desire first arose in childhood. She struggled for a time not because of the call, but I had doubt if this what God wanted me to do.

Lorello put the thought aside during her teenage years. The turning point came while she was in college and she was given The Seven Storey Mountain, an autobiography by Thomas Merton, a Catholic monk.

The book focused on his journey through life in search of a faith, his conversion to Catholicism and his acceptance into the Trappist order. As Lorello read it, the book touched her soul on a very personal level.

And even though she never met Merton, who died in 1968, through his writings he became her mentor. It was after a visit to the Abbey of Gethsemani, where Merton lived, that Lorello finally knew the course she should take.

It convinced me that my call was indeed a call from God for the priesthood, she said.

Lorello called Roman Catholic Womenpriests and asked for an application, which she promptly put into a drawer. A year later, she submitted the paperwork, and she was ordained in 2013.

Lorello knew her ordination went against canon law, which states, A baptized male alone receives sacred ordination validly.

Ecclesiastically, thats an unjust law, she said. According to Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi, an unjust law is no law.

Lorello knew that her actions meant she would no longer be allowed to work in a Catholic parish. But she viewed the choice as a different kind of civil disobedience, a last option.

Ive waited through five popes and Im going to be ordained as a last resort, to do the sacramental work I was called to do, Lorello said.

She is among the more than 200 women who have been ordained since 2002.

"We're not a schismatic group," Lorello said. "We're about reforming the church, bringing inclusivity, bringing equality."

Lorello presides over a weekly house church. She also teaches spiritual direction, visits the sick, and conducts baptisms and wedding ceremonies.

She was pleased that Pope Francis recently called for the creation of a commission to study the possibility of allowing women to serve as deacons in the Catholic Church. It is uncertain what that study will conclude, but Lorello views it as a positive step.

I wont see it in my lifetime, the church ordaining women, she said. But its going to come, and this is a step in that direction."
Valjibhai Rathod (extreme right) on dharna in Gandhinagar



"Mevani and his colleagues never met Balubhai Sarvaiya and their four sons before returning to Ahmedabad", one of the family members has been quoted as saying. After the Una rally on I-day, all of us moved to go to our village, Mota Samadhiyala. However, we were forced to return to Una following attack from non-Dalits. We were sitting in the Una police station to demand protection to go home.

The family member, Vashrambhai Savraiya, added, Mevani came to the police station, but went away without meeting us. Nor did he visit our residence. According to eye-witnesses, Mevani and colleagues reached the police station soon after the rally, which ended at 12.30 pm. However, they left Una at 2.00 pm when the attacks on Dalits were still on.

This was followed by a senior activist, especially Leena Patel, who was in Una, frantically taking exception to the way Una rally leaders disappeared ignoring the Sarvaiya family, which got police protection to return home at around 8 pm following intervention by Mumbai film maker Anand Parwardhan, CPI-M activists and their Gujarat supporters. Earlier, Mevani and his colleagues has come the Sarvaiya family, tho which the four Dalit youths who were flogged belong. Coming from Mota Samadhiyala village, the Sarvaiya family has reportedly taken strong exception to Mevani and others not meeting them before leaving Una for good on August 15."Mevani and his colleagues never met Balubhai Sarvaiya and their four sons before returning to Ahmedabad", one of the family members has been quoted as saying. After the Una rally on I-day, all of us moved to go to our village, Mota Samadhiyala. However, we were forced to return to Una following attack from non-Dalits. We were sitting in the Una police station to demand protection to go home.The family member, Vashrambhai Savraiya, added, Mevani came to the police station, but went away without meeting us. Nor did he visit our residence. According to eye-witnesses, Mevani and colleagues reached the police station soon after the rally, which ended at 12.30 pm. However, they left Una at 2.00 pm when the attacks on Dalits were still on.This was followed by a senior activist, especially Leena Patel, who was in Una, frantically taking exception to the way Una rally leaders disappeared ignoring the Sarvaiya family, which got police protection to return home at around 8 pm following intervention by Mumbai film maker Anand Parwardhan, CPI-M activists and their Gujarat supporters.

Following successful completion of the Independence Day Dalit protest rally in Una, sharp questions are beginning to the raised about whether the Dalit rebellion, which began in protest against the despicable act of flogging four Dalit youths in the town on July 11, would at all sustain. While expectations have started to run extremely high from the new Dalit leadership, especially Jignesh Mevani, following the huge success in the Una rally, not only are Dalit rights activists across Gujarat, but victims of families suffering from atrocities, too, have begun criticizing Mevani and others from "failing" to stand by them in time of need.The latest in the series of sharp criticisms of Mevani has come from the families of Thangarh firing victims, sitting on a dharna for the last one fortnight in Gandhinagar, the state capital. Talking with newspersons, Valjibhai Rathod, father of one of the three persons shot dead on September 22-23 in Thangarh, said, Mevani has not cared to come to the spot where we sit on dharna in Gandhinagar.As Rathod said this on Friday afternoon in the Ahmedabad office of Navsarjan Trust, a Dalit rights NGO, Mevani, attached with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), is was in the Jawarharlal Nehru University to address students in order to expose the Gujarat model of development, which led to atrocities on Dalits.Rathod was talking with newspersons on the proposed rally of August 21 in Gandhinagar in protest against the refusal of the Gujarat government to bring to books the culprits responsible for police firing. The rally is being organized by the auspices of the Gujarat Anusuchit Jati (scheduled castes) Atyachar Sangharsh Samiti, Gandhinagar.Major demands, for which the rally is being held, include instituting a CBI inquiry into the incident, releasing the report prepared by IAS official Sanjay Prasad, who had inquired into the incident in 2013, and reopening of the police firing case, which has been shelved by filing a closing report.
A ballot issue to create a Montana Biomedical Research Authority that could request up to $20 million a year for 10 years through state general-obligation bonds survived a Supreme Court challenge to knock it from the general election.

Initiative 181, which would raise medical research funding using bonds paid off by taxpayers, will appear on the Nov. 8 ballot as planned. Opponents of the initiative, who say the way the money is spent is unconstitutional, were unable to persuade the Montana Supreme Court to weigh in.

In a 5-0 decision, the justices said they wouldnt rush to consider the constitutionality of the initiative, nor would they treat I-181 as if it were law. Let the voters decide, the justices said. If the initiative becomes law, then it can be challenged. The ruling was not unexpected.

Ive been a lawyer for nearly 40 years. Ive learned most good judges dont decide things that dont have to decide, said Max Davis, of I-181 organizing group Montanans for Research and Cures. The other thing is, most judges dont like things being dumped in their lap at the last minute.

Opponents to I-181 filed the lawsuit July 28. The Montana Taxpayers Association and other plaintiffs in the case argue that I-181 is unconstitutional because it commits public money to a private group not under control of the state. The initiative would commit Montanans to providing $20 million in bonds each year for 10 years for medical research. A research board would determine who received the money. The state would not receive ownership in any successful research done by private companies who used the state funding.

We believed, and still are confident, that this initiative is structurally unconstitutional and sets a bad precedent that would allow deep pocketed special interests to determine Montanas budget policy through the initiative process, said Al Ekblad, executive secretary of Montana AFL-CIO, a plaintiff in the lawsuit. Our petition was denied without prejudice so if this initiative becomes law we will challenge it again.

AFL-CIO and other plaintiffs worry that the $200 million bond commitment will make it difficult to raise state bonding for roads and schools. Bonds are how Montana pays for public infrastructure projects. If taxpayers are already committed to paying for research bonds, legislators will be reluctant to add the burden of infrastructure funding on top of it, plaintiffs said..

And I-181 opponents dont like that the initiative lets a non-elected board decide how the money is spent. The Montana Constitution that reads, No appropriation shall be made for religious, charitable, industrial, educational, or benevolent purposes to any private individual, private association or private corporation not under the control of the state. The state Constitution also prohibits bond money from being used to benefit private individuals and entities not under the states control. I-181 opponents say the initiative violates those constitutional requirements.

Montanans for Research and Cures is primarily funded by Great Falls-based McLaughlin Research Institute for Biomedical Sciences, a private business. MRI research concerns Alzheimers, Parkinsons and other brain illnesses. The research group has put up half of MRIs roughly $80,000.

The initiative is not breaking trail by leaving it to a non-elected commission to decide how the money is spent, Davis said.

We got all kinds of non-elected boards that spend money  the Board of Regents, Davis said. But, the money is controlled by the Legislature. It has to appropriate it, to the commission. There are all kinds of boards appointed by the governor that spend money. Thats a nonissue.

What would be new ground is spending taxpayer money on private research that doesnt directly give Montanans a return on their investment. The research funded by taxpayers became a money-making success, Montanans wouldnt get a share of the profits.

However, Davis said there would be indirect benefits. The research money would be spent in Montana, stimulating the state economy. Any medical discovery useful in treating conditions like Parkinsons, or Alzheimers, could benefit Montanans with those conditions, Davis said.
Barun Kashyap

In a scary incident which has sent a shock wave in Mumbai, a middle-class writer and director associated working in a communications firm was harassed by what he terms as self-proclaimed cow protectors just because he happened to carry a leather bag. The incident is particularly important, as it comes close on the heels of Prime Minister Narendra Modi calling 80 per cent cow vigilantes as fake and anti-social, asking them to shoot him instead of killing a Dalit brother or sister.Posting on his Facebook timeline, Barun Kashyap points out how, on Friday, morning, like everyday, he started off from his home to work in an auto and how he was sought to be harassed on way by the auto driver in alliance with a few cow protectors.The autodriver, says Kashyap, got suspicious on seeing his long hair. I must say the autowala was quited curious and intrigued by my long hair and nose piercing right from the beginning. He asked me in english where do I hail from, Kashyap says on Facebook.He adds, It took him a moment to locate Assam in his mind map, later confirmed it as the state near Bangladesh. At a traffic signal, when all vehicles stopped, he turned around again and saw my leather bag.Things did not stop here. The auto driver leaned to touch his bag and concluded that it was made of cow leather. I refuted and said it;s made of camel leather which I got from Pushkar, Kashyap says.The answer didn't satisfy him, Kashyap says, adding, As the traffic light turned green, the auto moved forward and so did his remarks on how because of people like me cow slaughter is encouraged. I asked him to mind his own business and drive me to the destination.To my horror, Kashyap says, the auto driver stopped the auto near a small temple on the way to my office. Before he could say anything, he saw the auto driver signaling at three men sitting in front of the temple smoking.All three men with red Tilak mark worn on the forehead approach the auto and start conversing in Marathi which I could not decipher, Kashyam says.When I protested, the three men asked me to step out of the auto which I refused, Kashyam notes, adding, When I was busy protesting, one of the guys came to the other side of auto and started checking my bag.One of the guys then asked my name... 'Barun' I replied, Kashyap notes, adding, the guy further asked him full name was the next question. This made Kashyap to say it was ''Barun Kashyap Bhuyan''.The guy looked at the other two and said something in Marathi out of which I could only understand the word ' Brahmin'. Maybe hearing Kashyap, they thought I am a Brahmin, Kashyap says, adding, They left the site after bidding farewell to the autowala, the fellow cow protector.At the next signal, Kasyap says, he got off from the auto, noted the number of the auto, and asked for his phone number of the auto driver, which he proudly gave to me saying 'aaj toh bach gaye'.The Facebook post ends with the remark, Planning to go to the police station once done with work, with commentators seeking the number of the auto so that it could be avoided. One of his Facebook friends commented, I am just thinking, what if your name was Mohammad!
Its hard to tell if Danny Hill is a preacher or a teacher when hes talking about the Power of ICU, the student support structure he pitched Friday in Laurel.

Some schools have already joined the flock; Laurel has used the program for several years, and schools from Glendive to Elder Grove have signed on for this school year. Others, like Will James and Lewis and Clark middle schools, are checking it out.

ICU, short for Intensive Care Unit, is perhaps best known for using a database that sends automated text messages to students parents if they dont turn in an assignment, but thats the part Hill talks about the least.

We love it when people dont see the database as a quick fix, he said.

Hill, a former teacher and principal from Tennessee, talks about school culture like its as tangible as brick-and-mortar and rails against the effects of student apathy. He roamed Laurels high school auditorium, wiggling between seats, peering out from over the top of his glasses.

One of the biggest school culture shifts ICU calls for is reducing the emphasis on homework deadlines. Hill argues for more grading that reflects final student knowledge, which is often test-heavy, and for giving students multiple chances to show what theyve learned, like retaking a test if they bomb the first time.

Thats a bedrock change for many teachers, and Hill is blunt about it.

Every change effort is met with resistance, the 62-year-old said. He uses the term status quo with something near contempt, and he adopted a nasally voice to represent those opposing change, repeating, the world is flat.

Dannys not teaching responsibility, he said in the same voice.

Laurel spotlight

Pat Cates is long-over that complaint. When he started as Laurel Middle School principal in 2014, the school had already adopted ICU, but Cates was ready to hop on board.

You dont have classes in college about teaching responsibility, he said.

Laurel credited the ICU approach with helping fuel an astronomical increase in graduation rates since 2011, and Hill has specifically lauded the middle schools lunchtime homework program, naming Laurel a spotlight school. If students are missing an assignment, a staff member  a lifeguard, in ICU terminology  helps corral those students into extra schoolwork sessions.

The Laurel program was enough to convince a Skyview math teacher to bring ICU to his school, where Skyview used it on a teacher-by-teacher basis. Castle Rock Middle School adopted the program part-way through the school year, and the new Medicine Crow Middle School plans to use it.

This year, the program seems to have spread like a wind-driven prairie fire. Hill was in Fairview on Wednesday and Glendive on Thursday. Lockwood and Elder Grove are planning to implement the program this year, and educators from schools from Belgrade to Colstrip attended Fridays event.

Part of the idea behind ICU is that grades arent a motivator for many students, so if they get a zero, theres no real accountability. It sets up a dynamic of teachers making empty if-then threats, Hill said.

We say to them, if you dont start doing work, youre going to be (held) back in the seventh-grade, he said. Theyre apathetic, they dont care, so youre threatening the wall. We try to be nice, but its still a threat.

Bringing in graduation or career prospects often doesnt resonate any better with students. Instead, Hill advocates for beeps  frequent, consistent, even-handed reminders for students to do their work, akin to dinging in a car with an unbuckled seat belt.

What (kids) hear is, dadgummit, theyre gonna bug me to death, Im gonna do it right the first time,' he said.

Its definitely a shift in teaching, said Will James English teacher Becky Hatler. But what were doing isnt always working with every kid.

A major source of those beeps are parents. The ICU database sends automated emails and text messages to parents if students dont turn in an assignment.

More consistent parent involvement is an appealing component of ICU, said Will James sixth-grade teacher Trish Herring.

A few teachers asked questions about parents who didnt like the notification, of which Hill said theres usually a small percentage.

Id much rather have a parent complaining that they know too much of their childs education than they dont know enough, said Elder Grove superintendent Justin Klebe.

Sales pitch

Hill is insistent that ICU isnt a system or a program  hes prefers the term approach. And if he makes a large-scale sales pitch, he positions himself as an anti-salesman.

You dont expect the text and email to fix everybody, he said. It wont.

He touts his education chops  I was was in the room with kids all day long  and apologizes for being overly animated.

He repeats that unless schools are willing to go all-in, he doesnt want them to purchase the database. But he believes his product works better than adapting other tools like Microsoft Excel or Google Docs.

The database costs $1,999 for the first year and $999 for each subsequent year, according to the ICU website.

Stephen Schreibeis, who worked at Laurel for the districts first ICU year before becoming principal at Glendives Jefferson Elementary, said that many small schools lack the technical expertise to create their own system.

You dont have a lot of people with the time or skills to do that, he said.

Hill also emphasized the need for staff at a school to buy-in.

Lockwoods Eileen Johnson Middle School principal Gordon Klasna said that its important to have teachers invested in initial implementation.

I had teacher-leaders that came to me, he said. This is not a top-down type of thing for us. Were lucky that way.

Thats not a guarantee every teacher gets on board, he said.

If we have to, we can have individual conversations with teachers, he said. We just keep talking about it. Its not going away.
Charles Michael Cooper, wanted in Oklahoma on suspicion of first degree murder, first degree arson and first degree burglary, was arrested in Laurel late Friday afternoon by the Montana Violent Offender Task Force.

A warrant for Cooper's arrest was issued Tuesday, Chief Deputy U.S. Marshal Rod Ostermiller said Saturday afternoon. Cooper, 26 of Byng, Okla., was apprehended at around 4 p.m. in the parking lot of a Laurel business without incident, Ostermiller said.

"He tried to burglarize the home of a neighbor of his," Ostermiller said. "He murdered the person in the home and tried to set the home ablaze."

According to the Ada News, a newspaper in Ada, Okla., the neighbor, 55-year-old Cindy Allen, was found dead in her residence on Tuesday. Firefighters called to the home found Allen's body in a bedroom.

The cause of death, the Ada News reported, was strangulation. Fire damage was found inside the home.

Cooper is being held at the Yellowstone County Detention Center while awaiting extradition back to Oklahoma.
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United Airlines Fares to Europe from $527 roundtripThis sale includes flights to Germany, Switzerland, Ireland, France, the UK, and more. Book this travel deal by August 19 for travel from October 30, 2016 through March 31, 2017.

Let us know if you find any better deals out there, and check back every day for the latest deals our shopping partner, DealNews, published for you to check out.
STRATFORD  The case of a teachers aide accused of sexually assaulting two teenage boys has caused a constitutional clash between victimss rights and those of criminal defendants that threatens to upend the states plea-bargain process.

The state Appellate Court is being asked, in a case that could have a national effect, to decide whether crime victims have the right to participate directly in plea-bargaining discussions.

We claim we have a right to be in there, said James Clarke, of the Victims Rights Center of Connecticut.

But James O. Ruane, president of the Connecticut Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, said such a right could have a chilling effect, on a judicial system in which up to 97 percent of criminal cases are resolved through plea bargains.

Both sides said it is the first time that an appeals court has been asked to decide this issue.

Kyle Damato-Kushel, a former teachers aide at Wooster Middle School in Stratford, is awaiting trial, charged with having a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old boy beginning when she had been the boys preschool teacher. She also is accused of molesting the boys 16-year-old friend.

Clarke, a former New Haven prosecutor, represents the 15-year-old boy. He filed a motion early in the case to be present during any plea bargain negotiations in the case.

Under the states decades-old practice, criminal defense lawyers meet privately with prosecutors and judges sometimes on numerous occasions to discuss possible plea bargains in cases. The discussions are kept private.

Superior Court Judge Robert Devlin, the states chief criminal administrative judge, denied Clarkes motion to be present at the discussions in the Damato-Kushel case.

The confidential nature of these discussions is a key component to their efficacy, the judge ruled. This is why neither defendants nor victims have a right to attend them. Moreover, the state has an obligation to keep the victim advised of the progress of the case and any potential disposition that may be the result of the plea negotiation process.

Damato-Kushels lawyer, Richard Meehan Jr., who objected to Clarke being present during plea bargaining, now finds himself defending the judges decision.

This is a constitutional clash between the defendants right to have his or her case fairly adjudicated and what the Legislature intended when it drafted the Victims Rights Amendment to the Connecticut constitution in 1996, said Meehan, who has filed a legal argument with the Appellate Court in the case.

The alleged victim in this case has not been deprived of his voice and has not been deprived of his right to attend a sentencing hearing and address the court, he said.

Meehan continued that the private discussions with the prosecutor and judge are very important part of the judicial process.

Clarke agreed the process is important and said that is why he has filed the appeal of Devlins decision to the Appellate Court.

Thats where all the negotiating goes on, Clarke said.

He said Bridgeport States Attorney John Smriga does a good job speaking to victims and keeping them up to date on the proceedings following the plea bargaining sessions.

But he cant possibly know as much about my victim and what he wants as I know. We arent claiming we have a right to go in there (plea bargain meetings) and say anything  we just claim we have the right to be there, Clarke said. I cant properly advise my client on how to properly exercise his constitutional right to comment at sentencing if I dont know what went on.

Smriga declined comment on the case.

Ruane, a Shelton lawyer, has filed a friend of the court or amicus argument in the case co-authored by the University of Connecticut School of Law legal clinic.

During these pretrial discussions the state often acknowledges weaknesses in its case and the defense provides an honest evaluation of its case, Ruane said. Its a hallmark of how our Connecticut judicial system works and allowing a lawyer for the victim to be there would impede this process. Defense lawyers and prosecutors take great pains that the information that comes out of these pretrial discussions isnt made public but there would be nothing to stop a lawyer representing a victim from releasing what they heard.

Meehan also questioned what courts would do with victims who arent represented by lawyers.

Would the judge have to appoint them an already overburdened public defender? I just dont think there is a way this would work, he said. But I would like to see a ruling here because it is a pretty important issue.

State Victim Advocate Natasha Pierre cautiously supports Clarkes appeal. She said there are a number of judges around the state who, on their own discretion, now allow the lawyers for victims to attend plea bargaining sessions.

She said she is concerned that an appeals court could rule against Clarke and prohibit all judges from doing it.

Victims should be in the plea meetings so that they can tell their story at the beginning of the process, Pierre said. We are waiting to see what (the appeals) court says if they rule in favor of victims we will be very happy with that.
The 7th District Milwaukee Police station at 3626 West Fond Du Lac Ave. on this sunny weekday morning looks like Fort Apache, a besieged outpost in hostile territory.

The hostile territory is the north side of this American city.

Yellow crime-scene tape rings the entire compound. The police have parked black-and-white squad cars barricade style, blocking all entrances to the property. At the moment, it is an urban war zone.

This is not what brought my wife and me to Milwaukee, but here we are on the north side of this city of 600,000. Its the morning following a second night of shooting in the Sherman Park neighborhood after a black police officer  a product of this neighborhood, by the way  fatally shot a black man from the neighborhood. By all accounts, the victim had a gun.

No, wed come to Milwaukee to spend some time with our oldest daughter, Tara, a professor at Marquette University, to help out with a few things and to see this city for the first time. It was road trip, with a stay in Cleveland on Saturday night. Midway on Sunday, we heard the first radio report of the shooting, rioting, brick-throwing and burning in Milwaukee on Saturday night.

And so, the strangeness began when we visited the Marquette campus on Monday and, shortly after noon, stood with 250 other people on a spacious lawn outside the Alumni Memorial Union, praying for peace and something approaching brotherhood. It is quiet. A stray siren warbles miles away.

Marquette is a Jesuit university and, by all accounts, its students are true to the ideals of social justice and volunteer in neighborhoods like Sherman Park.

Tara lives on the east side of the city, a block from Lake Michigan. It is a lovely neighborhood. Spotlessly clean. The Milwaukee Art Museum , with its spectacular Quadracci Pavilion by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, is in the neighborhood. In this part of the city, had you not been watching TV or listening to the radio, you could have been totally unaware of what was going on on the other side of the city.

What can I say. I needed to see what was going on. You can safely go most anywhere in any city in the morning. Troublemakers generally stay up late and sleep in. So we headed for Sherman Park.

Milwaukee is 96.8 square miles  Bridgeport is 16  so it takes some time to wend to the north side.

It was somewhere west of Interstate 43 that the city changed in a flash. Window treatment goes from Levelor to plywood. Checks cashed signs hang over storefronts. Loans, they add. At mid-morning, young black men mill idly on corners, the waists of their pants in gravity-defying slouch.

This may technically be Milwaukee, but it is a different city. It is an African-American city. Block after block after block of grim poverty.

Just past the Martin Luther King Library and Martin Luther King Drive, a man waits to cross the street. He shoulders a clear plastic bag almost as big as him loaded with empty beer and soda cans.

A little further down Fond Du Lac Avenue, the brightly painted facade of a child day care center was a rare splash of color and a reminder that yet another generation is beginning life in this thoroughly segregated community. Milwaukee is 40 percent black. The majority of them must live in this neighborhood.

The streets and sidewalks on the north side are filthy. Compared with the rest of the city, at least to an outsiders eye, the neighborhood is forgotten. The plastic bags, cans, cups, remnants of old Milwaukee Journal Sentinels, milk containers, roll and swirl in a desultory breeze.

Sure, the residents have something to do with it, but I also wondered when might have been the last time a street-sweeper or a public works crew came through here.

Some reports have declared Milwaukee the most segregated city in the country. I dont know if thats so. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has done fine reporting on the tragedy of Sherman Park. One of their reports said Some wondered why it happened. Others wondered why it didnt happen sooner.

This continuing segregation is a festering stew in too many American cities.

Michael j. Daly is editor of the editorial page of the Connecticut Post. Email: mdaly@ctpost.com.
Tasha Adams: I still sometimes feel like I released him out into the world. I think of him like a grenade where I was always putting the pin back in."
Orange Police Department photo

A Milford man has been arrested in what police say was an unruly restaurant patron who refushed to pay his bill at the Puerto Vallarta Restaurant on the Boston Post Road in Orange.

Orange police say that on Aug. 9, Christopher Weiner, 36, of Brooklawn Drive, was reported to be disturbing restarant guests. Restaurant employees asked him to calm down and be quiet, Orange police posted on their Facebook page on Friday.
CultNews101.com: news, links, resources. Cults101.org: resources about cults, cultic groups, abusive relationships, movements, religions, political organizations and related topics. CultMediation.com: offers resources designed to help thoughtful families and friends understand and respond to the complexity of a loved ones cult involvement. Intervention101.com: to help families and friends understand and effectively respond to the complexity of a loved one's cult involvement. CultRecovery101.com: assists group members and their families make the sometimes difficult transition from coercion to renewed individual choice.
Hettick was shot in the abdomen shortly before 6:30 p.m., according to public information officer Brenda Bassett. The shooting occurred at a home on Kensington Avenue.

The incident remains under investigation by the Missoula Police Department. On Friday, Detective Sgt. Jim Klawitter said while an early report indicated the shooting was accidental, police must complete their investigation before issuing a final determination. He said whether the shooting was self-inflicted or not is also still under investigation.
CASPER, Wyo.  Voter turnout fell on average in Wyoming, according to numbers released by the county clerks office and the Wyoming Secretary of State.

Statewide, 116,254 voters took part in the election. That number is down from 120,023 in the last primary election two years ago.

"Although this is the best primary election turnout Wyoming has seen in a presidential election year since 2004, I think we still have a lot of work to do as a state," Wyoming Secretary of State Ed Murray said in a statement Friday.

Before ballots were tallied Tuesday, Murray told Wyoming Public Media that 2014 turnout was only 27 percent and thats nothing that Im particularly proud to beep.

Wyoming does not have a presidential primary; the state uses a caucus system. On March 1, Republicans put their support behind U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz. The Democrats selected U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders on April 8.

But those candidates lost their parties' nominations. Donald Trump received the GOP nomination on July 19, one week before the Democratic Party selected Hillary Clinton.

The general election will take place Nov. 8.

This was the first election Wyoming allowed centralized polling places where voters from different precincts could all cast ballots. The move coincided with the closure of many neighborhood polls.
Section of GAP closed during bridge work

"The last time the bridges were re-decked was in 1995. They have become almost unsafe to be used," said Lindsay Baer.
Check it out: Fun things to do this weekend in Lake County
"The Dakota Access Pipeline project is harmful. It will not just be harmful to my people, but its intent and construction will harm the water of the Missouri River.

-- Standing Rock Sioux Chairman Dave Archambault

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It is unfortunate that there are those who will put the lives of others in jeopardy. We are constructing this pipeline in accordance with applicable laws, and the local, state and federal permits and approvals we have received. This is an important energy infrastructure project that benefits all Americans and our national economy. We look forward to the pipeline being complete by the end of the year.

-- Vicki Granado, a spokeswoman for Energy Transfer Partners, on the Dakota Access Pipeline

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"On my own hay acres, the yield is down about 50 percent. Ranchers are looking for anything they can get."

-- Jim Honeyman, the district director for the Farm Service Agency, on low yield of hay in many areas

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"You feel a really bad feeling in your stomach that someone would have the nerve."

-- Diane Zainhofsky, executive director of the Abused Adult Resource Center, on money stolen from jar at Seeds of Hope

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We as Native people have heard the stories of historical trauma and are still suffering from not only the traumas that have affected our ancestors, but also the traumas that are daily occurrences on the reservation."

-- Kathryn Eagle-Williams, CEO and quality care director of Elbowoods Memorial Health Center in New Town

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"There is an erosion issue on Hay Creek .... There is a vertical slope along Hay Creek. The creek is migrating into that bank over time. The only thing holding it together is the trees and vegetation."

-- Michael Gunsch, advisory engineer for the Burleigh County Water Resource District

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The Strong Heart Warrior Society condemns these traffic checkpoints and any interference of the rights of way of Lakota persons from traveling across their traditional lands for any purpose .... The state of South Dakota and the United States government are in violation of these legal covenants and mass stops of Native persons is criminalization without due process, racial profiling and illegal. These stops must end now."

-- Strong Heart Warrior Society spokesman Canupa Gluha Mani

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Even though the oil companies might have the money, they cant subdue the message. This is our stand. We all depend on water.

-- Cody Hall of Eagle Butte, S.D., spokesman for the Red Warrior Camp, while at a protest of the Dakota Access Pipeline crossing the Missouri River held along Boulevard Avenue Thursday in Bismarck

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"No way can we fight big tobacco dollar for dollar. We will focus on education efforts. Increasing tobacco taxes is a proven strategy for decreasing tobacco usage. That's the reason they are fighting this."

-- Kristie Wolff, tobacco control manager for the American Lung Association in North Dakota on ballot measure to increase tobacco taxes
Omran Daqneesh, aged five, who was pictured looking dazed and bloodied after an airstrike on Aleppo in Syria

Normally, Im not one for crying. But I sobbed this week while watching TV images of that small and bloodied Syrian boy called Omran being pulled from rubble and bundled into an ambulance after his home was destroyed by bombing in Aleppo.

He was just the latest casualty in the seemingly endless siege of Syrias second city.

Im sure that millions of others welled up at the sight of that shell-shocked five-year-old wiping away what he thought was a tear, only to discover it was his own blood.

Looking petrified, he was clearly worried about the fate of his mother and father, two brothers and sister after their home had been hit.

Of course, the events in Syria are so horrific and intractable it is easy to turn the page or switch TV channel when confronted by the latest atrocity. But for me, it feels like a personal tragedy because Ive met children like Omran Daqneesh.

Before the war began, I spent one of the happiest weeks of my life in Aleppo. Yes, the country was ruled by dictator Bashar al-Assad, but the people were welcoming and graceful.

Smartly dressed children walked hand in hand in pairs to school, then played happily in the streets as dusk fell over the citys ancient skyline or helped out at their parents stall in one of the many souks.

They always greeted foreigners with a cheery Good morning  in English. Such courtesy as warm as their smiles. Indeed, education was treasured by Syrians. It was the main path available to offer children a better life.

One night when I was lost in Aleppo, I asked for help from a woman who was leaning out of her front door. I showed her the map in my guidebook and pointed to where I needed to go.

She beckoned a little girl from inside her home and the youngster took my hand and led me to my destination, giggling and talking in broken English. She couldnt have been much older than poor little Omran.

Omrans plight is soul-wrenching, but compared with so many others, he is one of the luckier ones

When I offered her money as a thank-you, she looked slightly indignant and refused. After bowing and giving another beautiful smile, she turned and went home. I never asked her name. Now, I will never even know if she is still alive.

Before the war, Aleppo had a population of more than two million  now, thousands of its people have been killed or fled.

Omrans plight is soul-wrenching, but compared with so many others, he is one of the luckier ones.

Even so, I fear that he will never again experience the joy of waking up in his once magnificent home city  or walk hand in hand with his friends to school.

I dearly hope I am wrong. If the pictures of Omran dont force the men and women charged with brokering a truce to end five years of civil war, I hope they rot in hell.

Caring Carey's age concerns

British actress Carey Mulligan became a global ambassador for dementia and Alzheimers sufferers after watching her grandmother succumb to the illness.

My Nan has dementia and I have experienced how devastating it can be, she said. Its so important that everyone affected by the condition is treated with the respect and dignity they deserve.

Mulligan recalled an incident when an elderly woman tried to use the wrong ticket on the London Underground and none of the ten people behind her in the queue offered to help.

Actress Carey Mulligan, who has become a global ambassador for dementia and Alzheimer's sufferers

Sadly, such insensitive and unhelpful behaviour has become widespread.

Perhaps people would be more sympathetic if they stopped for a second and considered that the old person they see struggling could be their own mother.

Its always the little things about people that reveal most about their true character.

Take, for example, the fact that the shameless tax exile wife of disgraced tycoon Sir Philip Green employs 40 crew on their 100 million superyacht  one of whom has to walk her dog.

How typical of the delusional world of the EU  one which, thankfully, Britain is escaping  that Brussels bureaucrats bent on creating a European superstate have produced an Olympics medals table lumping all 28 member nations together under the EU flag.

This folie de grandeur means the EU leads the medal table  above the U.S.! Whats more, it is doubly bogus since more than a quarter of the EUs golds were won by Brits  representing a nation whose people cant wait to leave such an arrogant and unaccountable organisation.

Ever heard of Kaia Gerber? I hadnt until I read the 14-year-old had been on the cover of fashion magazine POP.

There is a clue to why someone of such a super young age  her words  was chosen. Her mother is the model Cindy Crawford (pictured with her). This is wrong on so many levels. First, it seems like brazen nepotism.

And Cindy ought to know better than to launch her daughter into the dreadful world of modelling at such a tender age.

Teenager Kaia Gerber pictured with her former supermodel mother Cindy Crawford in Malibu

Strictly silly girls dancing

How absurd for BBC Breakfast presenter Naga Munchetty to say she wants to dance with a woman when she appears on Strictly.

Perhaps she is pandering to her politically correct bosses, who seem to be in thrall to the concept of gender fluidity.

Or shes making a one-woman protest against the BBC being hideously heterosexual like its then director-general Greg Dyke once accused it of being hideously white.

Stylist Trinny Woodall  who admits having regular Botox, micro-needling and derma-rolling  has shared another beauty tip.

Its a weird stick-on Cherry Lip Gel Patch to help get a perfect pout. Good for her for being so honest when most celebrities fib and claim their young looks are based on nothing more than a smear of Nivea Creme.

Gregg's love recipe flops

Masterchef presenter Gregg Wallace, 51, allowed pictures of his fourth wedding to be plastered over 12 pages of Hello! magazin

Masterchef presenter Gregg Wallace, 51, allowed pictures of his fourth wedding to be plastered over 12 pages of Hello! magazine  presumably in exchange for a fat cheque.

Fast forward a few weeks and the couple are snapped by paparazzi on honeymoon. He looked like a cooked lobster and his wife  shes 21 years younger and they met on Twitter  seemed bored out of her mind.

Cynics fear Greggs fourth marriage will soon be described with the same caustic judgment he once made on Masterchef of a failed Eton Mess  perfect meringue or not, he said it was instantly forgettable.

All hail Winifred Peel, the 77-year-old superfit granny who grabbed a Romanian thug trying to rob her at a cashpoint and smashed his head into it.

Her generation, which lived through World War II, deserves better than to be attacked in the street by foreign yobs taking advantage of this countrys generosity and the EUs much-abused freedom of movement laws.

Depp-th charges

The short and tumultuous marriage of Johnny Depp and Amber Heard has ended with a 5 million pay-out for her.

During their toxic divorce, she accused the actor of being a serial wife abuser, while his friends said she was a gold digger.

Yet in a joint statement so sickly sweet it could have been created on Bake-Off, they said their volatile relationship was always bound by love and Amber would be donating financial proceeds from the divorce to a charity.

The short and tumultuous marriage of Johnny Depp and Amber Heard has ended with a 5 million pay-out for her

Regardless, I advise the recipient charity not to expect a big sum after Amber has calculated how much she needs to cover her 33,500 a month expenses, which includes holidays, eating out, healthcare, fees for public relations, her agent and lawyers, and pet supplies.

Westminster Wars

Jamie Oliver is deeply saddened that cowardly ministers have watered down sensible plans to tackle childhood obesity.

But they are not solely to blame. Parents who let their children guzzle sugar-laden fizzy drinks and gorge themselves on fatty takeaways and convenience foods are also at fault.

Often grossly obese themselves, they hypocritically whinge that schools and supermarkets must do more  instead of looking at their own behaviour.

The big fat lie about childhood obesity is that its the states responsibility. However, the truth is that nanny state intervention is not the answer. Change must start in peoples homes  crucially, with parents taking responsibility.

Jeremy Corbyn who failed to recognise TV presenters Ant and Dec when shown a photo of them during a TV discussion

While Jeremy Corbyn failed to recognise TV presenters Ant and Dec when shown a photo of them during a TV discussion, his smartypants leadership rival Owen Smith quickly did.

But I bet that if people in the street were to be shown a picture of Smith, 100 per cent would not have a clue who he was.
Rather than toys, the website provides

When Sara Eastwood became a mother, she quickly realised her two daughters were accumulating plenty of toys they didnt need.

Each Christmas or birthday would see a new doll or stuffed animal added to their collection, and more often than not, they would stick to playing with their old favourites.

The realisation led the Sydney mother-of-two to start an online business that revolutionised the gift industry for children.

Mumpreneur: Sydney mother of two Sara Eastwood has launched an online website offering experiences for children

Game changer: Mrs Eastwood, pictured with her daughters Mila and Sophie, said the experiences are changing the way we give gifts to kids

Her business, MyBestGift.com.au, allows parentS to buy their child an experience, rather than a toy.

When you think about the memories you have from being a kid, its things youve seen or done rather than the stuff that you had, she said.

Not many people remember the toy they had at Christmas at six years old, but they remember the holiday or first time they learned to surf.

Making memories: She said you remember the experiences you had and places you visited, rather than the toys you were given

Making it easy: The experiences on offer are sorted by age group and location

Adorable: Children can have a birthday to remember with experiences like an animal farm party

MY BEST GIFT EXPERIENCES Whale Watching Formula 1 Harley Ride Inline Skating Horse Riding Toddler Music Cake Smash Photography Jet Boat Party Trampoline Park Aerial Skills Party Advertisement

The online marketplace provides experiences such as skateboarding lessons, barista courses, whale watching tours or bike rides.

Gifts are sorted by age group and location, and cater for babies to 18 year olds.

There are also experiences for parents and their children to do together and party packages.

Spending big: On average Australian families are spending more than $1,000 per child per year on toys

An article by The Telegraph shows Australians spend more than any other country on toys each year.

On average, Aussie parents are spending a staggering $1017 on toys per child, per year.

Its crazy, and yet when you speak with any parent they dont want more toys, Mrs Eastwood said.

Even for my own kids I would love for them to see more and do more and experience more than have more toys.

Trying something new: Even for my own kids I would love for them to see more and do more and experience more than have more toys,' Mrs Eastwood said

Try it out: The most popular experiences so far are skateboarding and ballet lessons

My Best Gift was launched six weeks ago and currently caters for the Sydney market.

A Melbourne extension of the site will open next month, and by Christmas, there will be sites available for Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide.

Mrs Eastwood said businesses were willing to come on board to offer their experiences, as it could lead to continued business for them.

So far, skateboarding and ballet lessons have been the most popular.

Going national: While the experiences are currently only available in Sydney, they are launching soon in Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide

As the site continues to grow, more experiences such as trips to the cinema and wildlife parks will be added.

Mrs Eastwood - who has two daughters Mila, four, and Sophie, one - said balancing her business with motherhood was a constant balancing act.

But being her own boss gives her the flexibility to work the hours that suited her.

'It's been suck positive feedback in terms of the suppliers and parents,' she said.
There are some on-screen deaths you just aren't prepared for, so you never quite get over them. Bambi's mother for instance. Tiffany from EastEnders, mown down by Frank Butcher's car on New Year's Eve 1998. Who saw that coming? Matthew Crawley's car crash on Downton Abbey. That one spoiled Christmas.

But if you're of a certain generation, the death of Rachel Bradley from Cold Feet, played by Helen Baxendale, trumps them all.

One minute she was living every thirtysomething's dream  a glossy-haired new mum happily hitched to Adam Williams (played by James Nesbitt). Then, out of nowhere, that lorry smashed into her car and Rachel was toast. A whopping 9.4 million people tuned in to watch the episode in 2003, with many reeling at how a supposed comedy could pack such an emotional punch.

Friends reunited: The Cold Feet stars today, from left: John Thomson, James Nesbitt, Fay Ripley, Hermione Norris and Robert Bathurst

The man to blame, writer Mike Bullen, is reflecting on what is widely regarded as the pinnacle of his career, and admitting that it could so easily have been another cast member who croaked it.

'I'm actually surprised we managed to keep it secret that Rachel was going to die,' he admits. 'It was known we were going to kill someone off  the Daily Mail ran odds on who was going to get it.

The original plan had been to kill Adam off, with cancer, but it proved too tricky because he'd already had testicular cancer in the show and when we consulted medical people they said, 'Oh no, that wouldn't be likely to kill him,' and we thought it would be too messy in terms of the plot to introduce a new cancer.

'At the same time I got a letter from a woman in Halifax. She'd lost her husband and said watching Cold Feet was the only thing that made her and her 16-year-old daughter laugh. She wrote, "Please don't kill off Adam." It's daft, but I remember thinking, 'I don't want to kill Adam.' I felt this responsibility.'

Cold Feet creator Mike Bullen has finally revived the hit show

Quite what that poor woman in Halifax must have felt when she saw Rachel get squashed by a lorry instead is anyone's guess, but James Nesbitt must be thanking his lucky stars at how things panned out  because he's heading the line-up of the much-talked about return of Cold Feet 13 years on with a brand new eight-part series.

The original, which ran for five series from 1997, followed three couples experiencing the ups and downs of romance. Adam and Rachel dated, married and had a baby son, but their journey wasn't without its troubles.

After a rocky start, the pair reconciled in series two when Adam was diagnosed with testicular cancer. Together they faced the agony of infertility, tried to adopt and experienced the pressures of redundancy.

Pete and Jenny Gifford (John Thomson and Fay Ripley) were a married couple who struggled with the challenges of parenthood, including the miscarriage of their second child.

Their on-off relationship suffered adultery, separation and eventually divorce when Jenny left for a job in New York. Then Pete's second marriage to Australian Jo Ellison (Kimberley Joseph) also ended in divorce.

Karen and David Marsden (Hermione Norris and Robert Bathurst) lived an upper-middle-class lifestyle, employing a nanny and holding dinner parties with friends.

Soon after the arrival of their twins in series three, David began an affair and not even marriage guidance counselling could save them from divorce. They then went through a bitter custody battle where David attempted to use Karen's alcoholism against her.

And now, bar Rachel, they're back. But why so long?

'I could have done it earlier but it wouldn't have worked. We went out on such a high and at the time there was a feeling that there was nowhere to take it. I remember one meeting where we said, 'Should we make David gay?' We were getting desperate.'

He's turned down several requests to bring the show back before, mostly because he wasn't convinced that rejoining the characters at an earlier stage  ie when they all had young children  would be compelling.

The cast back then (with Helen Baxendale, far left). Mike says the success of Cold Feet came because everyone identified with one of the characters

'When you have young kids, life becomes about them, and I didn't want to write a programme about kids. Outnumbered had done that. But now all the characters are embarking on a new chapter. Their kids are older, and they're starting to think "What now?" They're on the cusp of change again.'

Karen and David Marsden (Hermione Norris and Robert Bathurst) lived an upper-middle-class lifestyle, employing a nanny and holding dinner parties with friends. Soon after the arrival of their twins in series three, David began an affair

The big question was how the show could return without Rachel.

There were rumours that she would return, but how? The prospect of a Bobby-Ewing-in-the-shower farce loomed large.

'She definitely isn't in it,' confirms Mike. 'And her death is absolutely the reason we're coming back. If we hadn't killed Rachel, if it hadn't gone out on such a high, I'm not sure there would be the same interest in Cold Feet coming back.

'I did actually write her in, as a ghost in Adam's head, but when Helen Baxendale read the script she said, "I don't want to do it. It doesn't feel right." It was a huge disappointment  my biggest regret is that Helen isn't in it, and I was really sentimental about the thought that she had to be  but ultimately she was right, she did us a favour.

'Obviously her and Adam's son Matthew is there, but she's present only in the way that a dead person is present in our lives. That works, I think, because it's how it is in real life when you lose someone you love.'

He's curious about what Helen will make of the series.

'I'd love to know what she thinks. It must be odd for her. I remember her being in tears when we had the read-through for the episode where she dies and I thought it was an overreaction, but I suppose that character was central to who she was at the time. And I have to say I can't watch those scenes myself without crying.'

Mike Bullen is Cold Feet. He may have gone on to other projects  he had success with family drama Life Begins with Caroline Quentin and Alexander Armstrong, less so with Rik Mayall in the sitcom All About George ('it wasn't very good,' he says. 'I'd burned out'), and also wrote a novel, Trust  but it's Cold Feet that dominated his life.

The new Cold Feet will live or die on the strength of whether viewers identify with the older, not-necessarily-wiser characters

He based Adam on himself as a younger man ('or the me I would have been if I was braver'). The famous episode which featured Adam wooing Rachel naked, save for a red rose held in his bum cheeks, was based on something that happened to Mike. 'I once went to Southampton to see a girl and presented her with a rose. It wasn't in my bum, though. That was poetic licence.'

He says the success of Cold Feet came because everyone identified with one of the characters  but that the true genius was that it was a fluid arrangement.

'I probably started off as Adam, then, when I had kids, I became more like Pete. Later, when I started getting more success, I was more of a David.'

Obviously the new Cold Feet will live or die on the strength of whether viewers identify with the older, not-necessarily-wiser characters.

'It's a big risk for ITV,' says Mike, admitting to crippling nervousness about viewing figures. 'It's an expensive show, and the nature of TV viewing has changed now that we're in the era of the box set. If we don't get the figures I'll carry the can. The actors won't  Jimmy Nesbitt will continue to get lead roles, whatever  but I'll never work again.'

One reason Cold Feet was such a hit was that it wasn't written for either men or women. Mike says he hates 'shows that are held up as for women'. A particular bugbear was Sex And The City

What of persuading the actors  mostly unknowns when the show started  to return?

'I like to remind Jimmy that we made him a star. Is he grateful? Not a bit,' he laughs. 'But to be fair he was always going to be a star. He'd just done Hear My Song and we were fortunate to find him when we did.'

Hilariously, he says there's a 'nod' to Jimmy's high-profile hair transplant in the new version.

'We couldn't ignore it, could we?' he laughs.

Intriguingly, he says they nearly discovered another Hollywood star. The Australian actress Naomi Watts was offered an early role on Cold Feet, but couldn't do it because she got a film part at the same time.

Presumably the Cold Feet lot were more expensive this time round?

'Oh hell yes,' he laughs. 'And they had us over a barrel because we needed them. We certainly couldn't have done it without Jimmy. Adam is the hub. The others revolve around him. Perhaps we could have pressed on without him, but I wanted them all. None of them would commit without seeing a script, so it was a nervous time.'

Helena Baxendale was going to appear in the new series as a ghost but the actress declined saying it didn't feel right

Was it odd being back on the set as the cameras rolled?

'For about ten minutes, then it just clicked. It was like coming home.'

No divas among the cast this time round?

'Actually, it was a lovely atmosphere. We've grown up.' He admits that last time round there were tensions as the show grew and grew.

'You always get that  not necessarily just with the actors but with crew. You live in each other's pockets for so long there's that sense, like with families, that people feel they aren't the favourite. Any successful show has to deal with that. I suppose if we're successful,' he adds, presumably meaning if the series is recommissioned, 'it could become a nightmare.'

One reason Cold Feet was such a hit was that it wasn't written for either men or women. Mike says he hates 'shows that are held up as for women'.

A particular bugbear was Sex And The City.

'It was awful. I despised Carrie, the lead character. She was a doormat. How was that inspiring?

Fifty Shades Of Grey? 'I love the idea of women being sexually liberated but it was about male fantasies. The women I meet are like men, strong and flawed, but mostly strong.'

There's a sense he feels he has something to prove with the new series. He says he wants to translate the middle-age experience onto the screen, yet his own experience of middle age hasn't been a laugh a minute. The success of Cold Feet led to a difficult time, mainly because he couldn't replicate it.

'When I emerged from it I was young and arrogant and thought my whole life was going to be like that. But my career went like that,' he says, drawing a plunging trajectory in the air.

Part of the problem was that, after the last scenes of Cold Feet had been filmed, Mike and his family emigrated to Australia. He was convinced (naively, he admits now) that he could be an award-winning writer from anywhere in the world. But he struggled to get commissions, suffered a crisis of confidence and at one point had a breakdown, which sounds as traumatic as it gets. 'It was about my declining career,' he says.

'I thought it was over for me. I'd been asked to do a pilot for an Australian show but I got stuck. I was diagnosed as depressed and there was a period when I stared over the abyss. It wasn't a prolonged thing, but it was scary. Everything just stopped. I couldn't make decisions. I couldn't think straight. I couldn't get off the sofa. My wife was so patient  she got me through it  but I remember going round the shops and I couldn't let go of her hand. I was clinging to her.'

Mike doesn't think the show would work with the characters raising young children as 'Outnumbered have done that'

He says he was never suicidal, but 'I understand how someone would be'. That passed, but he's had hints of a recurrence since. 'It's something I'm mindful of and I don't think I'm alone in that. Depression is relevant to this stage of life. In some ways I think middle age is bleak. Life is bleaker when you're older.'

He's happily married with two children and a good career but he says it's never a breeze. 'To have a long-running marriage is heroic. It's easier to say 'I'm off' than to work it out. But I think what I miss is the carefreeness of youth. I watched a young couple on a train the other day and she flung her legs over his. My wife and I are going to take a gap year. We'll be on a train like that, but I don't suppose she'll throw her legs over me like that. I miss that carefreeness.'

All these complex feelings about life, love and getting older will be incorporated into the script of Cold Feet  but will it be a misery fest? He laughs.

'The old Cold Feet was seven shades of light to three shades of dark. I'd say this one is 6/4.' And will we get through the revamped version without anyone going under a lorry? 'You'll have to watch and see,' he says.
ALEXANDER  Abandoned campers from across the Bakken line up end to end in a McKenzie County salvage yard.

The RVs, some burned or damaged and others with kitchen supplies still in the cupboards, were once in demand for oil boom workers who needed housing.

But as oil activity slowed and many workers left the area, the discarded campers wind up at TJs Salvage along U.S. Highway 85.

Were still getting lots of campers and its gradually getting worse, said owner Tom Novak.

The yard north of Alexander continues to get about five to six campers each week as private landowners seek to get rid of discarded campers. In some cases, the RVs are no longer needed because affordable housing has become available.

Theyre kind of a nuisance. But they were an epidemic that we knew was going to happen, Novak said. Why would you drag some piece of junk with you back home 2,000 miles when you can just leave them behind and walk away? So were left cleaning up the mess.

The salvage yard has had as many as 250 campers at one time, forming a perimeter around the yard thats highly visible from the highway.

Some say the salvage yard is an eyesore, but Novak said he also hears positive comments because without his business the campers would be scattered throughout the Bakken.

The business wont pick up campers, but will accept the RVs for $150, a lower fee than other facilities charge, Novak said. The campers are then crushed along with other vehicles.

The Williston landfill used to get one or two RVs or trailers each month, but now gets very few because the landfill will only accept them if theyve been stripped and broken down, said Williston Public Works Director David Tuan.

Salvage yard workers are often surprised at what the residents leave behind, ranging from baby toys to cosmetics to irreplaceable items like photo albums.

If they lose their job and theyre broke, theyll just take their personal belongings, pack one bag of clothes and theyll leave, Novak said.

Occasionally campers are in good condition, but others are beat up. The salvage yard avoids accepting RVs with signs of drug use.

We get some that are really nice and clean and never been touched almost and we get ones that you could turn a pig loose in them and hed turn his nose up because its so bad, Novak said.

The campers have little in terms of salvageable material and the parts are a hassle to try to sell because theyre often no longer working. Novak would rather concentrate on his main business, selling vehicle parts.
An adhesive patch that houses wafer-thin electronics to monitor the pulse may help save wearers from one of the most common causes of sudden death.

The gadget is worn on the skin for 24 hours a day over two weeks and could save the lives of people who suffer from heart-rhythm problems that can cause blackouts, breathlessness, palpitations, stroke, and even sudden death.

The condition  arrhythmia  often goes undiagnosed and its effects can come on without warning.

More than two million people in the UK suffer from some kind of heart-rhythm problem. Up to now, diagnosis has relied on detecting an abnormal rhythm with an electrocardiogram (ECG) machine.

An adhesive patch that houses wafer-thin electronics to monitor the pulse may help save wearers from one of the most common causes of sudden death

This uses electrodes attached to the skin connected to a machine that records electrical activity emitted by the pulse.

But rhythm problems may be transient, meaning that patients might have to be attached to an ECG for hours at a time in hospital, and often must attend repeated appointments before an episode is detected.

The new Zio patch enables patients heart rhythm to be recorded for a full two weeks, collecting detailed information about the hearts behaviour. Fitting the patch requires only a single visit to a hospital, after which it is kept on even in the shower and during moderate exercise.

The device provides continuous monitoring and can help diagnose a range of arrhythmias, which are typically caused by faulty nerve impulses around the heart muscle, including supraventricular tachycardia  episodes of quickened resting heart rate  and Atrial Fibrillation (AF).

AF is the most common arrhythmia, suffered by about one million Britons, and patients are up to five times more likely to have a stroke.

The oval-shaped Zio patch is effectively a mini-ECG, housing two electrodes that monitor the heartbeat through the skin.

The wireless device also houses electronics that record the data and a small button which the patient can press to record symptoms such as palpitations, feeling dizzy or blurred vision.

After two weeks, the patch is sent back to manufacturers iRhythm in California, who collate the data and send it to the patients cardiologist for interpretation and diagnosis.

An American study found that the Zio patch was significantly more sensitive in detecting irregular heart activity than an ECG, which uses multiple wires and typically can only be tolerated by patients for up to 24 hours.

Dr John Foran, consultant cardiologist at Spire St Anthonys in Cheam, Surrey, where the treatment has been launched, said: The system is more effective than shorter periods of ECG monitoring in terms of detecting a wide range of heart-rhythm disorders.

We are able to detect a greater number of rhythm problems and this leads to recognition and treatment of what may be significant heart problems that the patient is not aware of.

Earlier this month, The Mail on Sunday reported on the tragic death of Alexandra Reid, who died in her sleep aged 16 from suspected sudden cardiac arrhythmia.

The condition  arrhythmia  often goes undiagnosed and its effects can come on without warning

Her parents, John and Heather, believe her death may have been prevented if she had undergone an ECG, and their call to introduce cardiac screening of those under 40 has been backed up by leading cardiac specialists.

One of the first British patients to benefit from the Zio patch is Vincent Brooker, 57, an electronic technician from Wallington, Surrey, who had suffered heart arrhythmia symptoms such as palpitations for more than a decade.

Despite ten years of investigations, no monitor had been able to provide a definite cause and he went undiagnosed.

He said: I can go quite a period of time without symptoms but I was becoming increasingly aware the episodes were happening more regularly and lasting hours.

Not only was I really concerned, I felt exhausted after some of the longer periods of palpitations.

Ive worn monitors before but they were cumbersome and, worryingly, after one week they didnt show anything so I was sent away undiagnosed.

After Mr Brooker had worn the Zio patch for two weeks, earlier this year his doctor was able to use the data to diagnose him with AF, and treat him for the condition.
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Sister Act

The Curve, Leicester Touring until 2017 2hrs 45mins

Rating:

Hallelujah! Praise the Lord. Director-choreographer Craig Revel Horwoods inspired approach of casting terrifically talented actor-musicians in all the roles works like a prayer on the musical adaptation of the popular 1992 Whoopi Goldberg movie.

Put a saxophone, a violin, a trumpet or an accordion in the blessed hands of a stage nun and instead being of a camp musical cliche she becomes a sweet swinging sister, effortlessly bringing out the gospel and the soul  as well as the Seventies disco, funk and the sheer fun  in composer Alan Menkens original tunes.

It brings a holy wholesomeness entirely missing from the coarse, brash Broadway production at the London Palladium some years ago.

Alexandra Burke as Deloris Van Cartier has got the triple X-factor: a sassy stage presence, comic timing and a powerhouse voice

Even Alexandra Burke, as the wannabe disco diva Deloris Van Cartier, gets to shake a tambourine. Shes got the triple-X factor: a big, bold and sassy stage presence, nifty comic timing as well as that fabulous powerhouse voice.

This production is staged beneath a set of arches, neatly doubling  thanks to brilliant lighting  as the shows tacky nightclub and its convent, but the slow start slightly tests ones faith. Deloris sees her sleazeball gangster boyfriend (unscary Aaron Lee Lambert, upstaged by his afro wig) shooting an informer. Being a witness puts her next on his hit list, so she seeks sanctuary in the local convent.

Put a saxophone, a violin, a trumpet or an accordion in the blessed hands of a stage nun and instead being of a camp musical cliche she becomes a sweet swinging sister

It is only when she gets into the habit, and helps the caterwauling sisters to hold a tune and shake a leg, that the show takes off and becomes a tale of mutual salvation.

Hard-bitten Deloris finds the soul (and the Motown) in the sisters voices and discovers the voice in her own soul.

As does Jon Robyns diffident cop in I Could Be That Guy and Sarah Goggins young postulant, Sister Mary Robert, who takes us to heaven with The Life I Never Led. Go, sisters, go.

sisteractuktour.co.uk

Groundhog Day

Old Vic, London Until September 17 2hrs 40mins

Rating:

Who needs yet another musical of a hit film? I was actually rather looking forward to kicking a pointless retread of the much-treasured 1993 movie of the same name written for that deadpan actor of genius Bill Murray.

The big surprise here  and the shows greatest triumph  is that you dont miss him for a second.

The lead guy in this, Andy Karl, is fabulous, and the makers of the musical Matilda have done something totally fresh with this staging.

Andy Karl as weatherman Phil with Carlyss Peer as Rita balance each other out well on stage, with Rita's sweetness making up for Phil's lack of couth

The plot, though, is just the same. Cynical, burned-out weatherman Phil Connors goes to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, to report  with coiffed hair and fake folksy smile  the annual appearance of the towns resident marmot, a critter that its said can predict the coming of spring.

Snowbound on this stupid assignment, Phil wakes up in his B&B next morning on the same day. For him, tomorrow never comes. Every day is February 2. Same lousy coffee, same goofy couple in furry hats, same everything. Stuck on a treadwheel of gathering despair, all Phil can do is try to improve his strategy for getting his attractive producer Rita into bed.

Composer and lyricist Tim Minchin is here immeasurably aided by director Matthew Warchus and writer Danny Rubin, who was also responsible for the screenplay for the film. Karl gives us a Phil who is a very funny but deeply unpleasant jerk, behaving as cruelly as he likes, knowing the daily slate will be wiped clean.

Scrooge-like, this story movingly charts the slow transformation of a withered soul into spring, captured brilliantly by Andy Karl's performance

And every morning the components of Rob Howells ingenious toy-town design come miraculously together to form the waking nightmare of Phils bedroom.

Minchins music  soul, R&B, bluegrass and even skiffle  is perfectly in tune with the smalltown Americana that the evening satirises, and his rhyming wit helps obscure the fact that the songs themselves are not particularly memorable. But thats no matter: all is in service to the plot, which includes a bleak musical catalogue of suicide attempts and a gorgeously drunken car chase.

As Rita, Carlyss Peer has just the right note of sweet sincerity, in contrast to Phils lack of couth. Excellent, too, is Andrew Langtree as the insurance salesman whose private tragedy is hidden behind an annoyingly bouncy benevolence.

Scrooge-like, this story movingly charts the slow transformation of a withered soul into spring  an emotional journey that, here, is much more than just a saccharine parable.

All musicals these days batter your ears to death. The overamplification of the music here drowns several of the songs. But you never feel let down

The great composer Stephen Sondheim apparently gave up trying to make a musical of the film, sensibly saying it couldnt be improved. But this big-budget comedy is so thrillingly inventive and so utterly involving, I am not at all sure Sondheim was right.

Robert Gore-Langton

Peter Pan In Scarlet

Oxford Playhouse Until September 4 2hrs 25mins

Rating:

This stage adaptation of Geraldine McCaughreans 2006 novel  an official sequel to Peter Pan  produces a lively family show but its so convoluted youve a job knowing whats going on.

Basically, the Darling children are grown up and living in 1929. But they are all haunted in their sleep by night-time thoughts of Neverland, so they dress as children and return.

Theresa Heskins directs her own adaptation  an over-crammed narrative but with the curious heartlessness of J M Barries original intact.

Despite a crowded narrative, the play has vibrant visuals, lots of fun rope-swinging and the soundtrack of a bluesy jazz band

Peter Pan (Isaac Stanmore) wears Captain Hooks scarlet tunic and takes on the pirates villainous ego. Theres a circus, a creepy ringmaster and old Hook  in disguise  laments his happy days at Eton.

The show is awash with rather undeveloped themes of role- reversal, scuppered privilege and unassuaged grief.

Children will enjoy Michael Hugos bad-tempered fairy, Firefly (rather upstaging Tinkerbell), and Rebecca Killicks sweet-voiced Wendy.

If it doesnt work as a yarn, there are some lovely stage effects, lots of rope-swinging and a bluesy jazz band to keep the spirits up.

Robert Gore-Langton

Our Ladies Of Perpetual Succour

Dorfman stage, National Theatre Until October 1 1hr 50mins

Rating:

A choir of six girls in school uniform  kilts, baggy cardies and DMs  sings Mendelssohns Lift Thine Eyes with moving solemnity and sincerity. A sacred sound, angelic almost.

Then they stop, and instantly profanity takes over as they all start swearing for Scotland, snarling and bitching raucously with and about each other, and about who did what sexual favours for whom and how, with no lewd or crude detail spared.

Lee Halls vibrant adaptation of Alan Warners novel The Sopranos is a day in the lives of these 17-year-old pupils at a Catholic convent in Oban  they call it The Virgin Megastore  off on a bus to Edinburgh for a singing competition, on the loose and on the lash.

It might not quite be a play, but that doesn't stop it packing high-spirited, hilarious and exhilarating performances

Theyve got hooch in a Whites lemonade bottle and a ready-made killer cocktail (a word they swill, with the emphasis on the first syllable). Ive got two years worth of pocket money, says fragile Orla, cured from cancer in Lourdes. And a packet of condoms. Lets go mental.

Which they proceed to do, to the tune of fantastic rearrangements of Mr Blue Sky, Sweet Talkin Woman and Dont Bring Me Down by ELO, Judy Tzukes For You, a soaring rendition of Bachs Agnus Dei, and finally wrapping up with Bob Marleys No Woman, No Cry, a reassurance that everythings gonna be all right.

If its not quite a play, its nevertheless a high-spirited, hilarious, exhilarating and poignant portrait of essentially good, naive girls having a reckless stab at being bad and being brave, eager to experience everything life can throw at them and discovering important stuff about themselves and their friendships in the process.
Edinburgh Fringe Comedy

Radio Active Pleasance Until August 28

Rating:

Jonathan Pie Pleasance Until August 28

Rating:

Daniel Sloss Edinburgh Int. Conf. Centre Until August 28

Rating:

Phil Nichol Assembly Check Point Until August 28

Rating:

The last time the comedy collective of Angus Deayton, Geoffrey Perkins (RIP), Helen Atkinson-Wood, Michael Fenton Stevens and Philip Pope played the Edinburgh Fringe, there was no internet, no Premier League, no Eurotunnel and no such thing as a mobile phone, unless you were some kind of Alan Sugar big shot.

In 1979 the quintet put on a sketch show as The Oxford Revue and within a year Radio Active was born, their spoof radio station ruling the air waves for seven years on Radio 4 before becoming KYTV for three series on BBC2.

Of course, Deaytons career has never recovered from the scandal that saw him lose the anchor gig on Have I Got News For You in 2002, but its a treat to see him back in the saddle in Radio Actives stage show and a reminder that theres no better deadpan voice in comedy.

Angus Deayton, Philip Pope, Helen Atkinson-Wood and Michael Fenton Stevens make up the seventies comic quintet

Here the four surviving members perform two of their classic scripts from behind their radio mics, reacquainting a partisan audience with fading host Mike Channel (Deayton) and original foodie Anna Daptor (Atkinson-Wood).

Theres a distinctly dated feel to the genteel material, but in one of their pop parodies theres something quite reaffirming about three greying fiftysomethings thrashing air-guitar to Status Quids Boring Song, with Fenton Stevens particularly committed to giving it the full rock god, while another of their songs, Meaningless Songs (In Very High Voices) from the Hee Bee Gee Bees, justifies its reputation as a minor classic.

Comedy revivals can be tricky beasts but the Radio Active crew just about gets away with it.

Coming right up to speed with the modern age, Jonathan Pie was barely a twinkle in unemployed actor Tom Walkers eye this time last Fringe. Now, more than 50 million online views later, Pie the angry news reporter graduates to the stage, where he finds himself humiliated at having to stand in for John Barrowman on a live Children In Need feed instead of getting on with the serious business of news (which, incidentally, he hates with a passion).

A direct descendant of Chris Morriss Brass Eye anchor, Pie (who looks like a young Bill Turnbull) is aghast at having to swap his war-zone flak jacket for a panda costume and descends into apoplectic off-camera meltdowns while swigging from a bottle of vodka and hectoring the studio audience.

Jonathan Pie was barely a twinkle in Tom Walkers eye this time last Fringe, but now Walker has racked up more than 50 million views online as the angry news reporter

Walkers performance as Pie is spot-on, but if he wants to turn him into a political Alan Partridge he needs to work on the laughs and tone down the partisan ranting.

Where all around are Festival japes, stunts and hype, Daniel Sloss offers a welcome hour of deliciously dark stand-up in a more traditional vein. At just 25, the Scottish comic is ridiculously experienced, presenting his ninth consecutive Fringe show since making his debut as a preternaturally confident 16-year-old.

Mocking comedy with an agenda, he complains, Im white, middle-class and straight. Where are my struggles? Ive not even been molested, before going on to tear strips off Facebook vegans and alternative medicine.

Daniel Sloss first performed at the Fringe at just 16 years old. Nonetheless, his confidence lets him serve his dark and mocking humour with a sting

Possessed with a vicious streak and a knack for conjuring up a twisted punchline, he reflects on trying to hate less. I used to really hate Justin Bieber but now I think, Whats he done wrong? So he spat in his fans faces. Who doesnt want to spit in Justin Biebers fans faces?

Brutally honest to the point of audience-gasping, Sloss is enjoying a career trajectory that continues to head skywards.

Phil Nichol is a Fringe legend (anyone remember musical trio Corky And The Juice Pigs?) who won the Edinburgh Comedy Award in 2006 and is celebrating 20 years of shows by distilling them all into one super-manic hour of jokes, music, mime, theatre and jazz ballet.

A super-manic hour of jokes, music, mime, theatre and jazz ballet - what more could you want from the Fringe?

Born in Scotland, the Canadian comic zooms about the stage like a deviant dervish, switching from graphic anecdotes (including one very odd one involving a monkey at a safari park) to songs including the climactic Im The Only Gay Eskimo, which morphs in style from Elvis to Dylan to Morrissey.

Its impossible not to enjoy an act where the party piece is licking a bald mans head and trying to guess what he had for lunch. A compelling, albeit exhausting watch.

Louis CK Eventim Apollo, London

Rating:

Louis CK is probably the most famous comedian youve never heard of. Holder of six Emmys and two Grammys, the American is best known for Louie, a superb semiautobiographical comedy about the unappealing life of a standup. Yet unlike many of his peers, he has not given up on his first love, live performance. After a stint at the Edinburgh Fringe, he played three dates in London  one at Wembley Arena, two at Hammersmith Apollo.

A quasi-nihilist, Louis CK mines the bleakness of existence for blindingly funny nuggets of truth. What you get from Louis CK is a masterclass in misanthropy

And despite his dour outlook, the wry grin that accompanies his blackest material keeps you on board. Suicide, death, divorce, misery and sloth have never been this side-splitting.

Hes especially brilliant at zeroing in on the flipside of life: the human race is comprised of people who didnt kill themselves, while he might abandon his daughters at any minute. I could leave the house and theyd never find me. As a purveyor of comic philosophy, hes sublime. Love + time - distance = hate is not a quote youll take home from a Michael McIntyre gig.
His new thriller imagines an Isis plot to blow up the Royals. no wonder the ex-SAS hero writes under a pen name. well, Chris Ryan admits to Event, its also because I hate being called by my real name  Colin

'Im surprised there hasnt been an attack on this country on a greater scale yet, says Chris Ryan, the former SAS soldier turned thriller writer, with a grim look on his face. Its a matter of time. The biggest danger were facing is if they get a professional bomb-maker into Britain who can produce something with up-to-date electronics.

Ryan, whos sold more than 4.5 million copies of his high-octane books, knows what he is talking about, having worked as a security adviser and kept close links with the SAS since he left as a hero a couple of decades ago.

Chris Ryan, whos sold more than 4.5 million copies of his high-octane books, knows what he is talking about, having worked as a security adviser and kept close links with the SAS since he left as a hero a couple of decades ago

He won the Military Medal for the most extraordinary escape in the regiments history, as immortalised in Bravo Two Zero by the patrol commander, Andy McNab, and in his own book, The One That Got Away.

His new novel, Bad Soldier, is faster-paced, more thrilling and more topical than ever before  featuring an Islamic State plot to blow up the Royal Family on Christmas Day with explosives hidden inside concrete blocks used during renovation work far in advance of the day. Isnt it dangerous to write books that might give terrorists ideas?

These guys exist  they have been well trained by the Russians, the Iranians or even the Americans in the past, he insists. There are things you cant write  you cant get too much into the tactics and procedures were using against them  but its well known they are using these concrete blocks with composites out in Iraq and Afghanistan and making them look like a rock on the side of the road. Or it can be anything: a Coke tin or a dead animal.

My brother is still serving in the regiment. He has done several tours of duty over there and seen the devices become more elaborate to catch our boys out.

Ryan speaks in short, staccato sentences with a Geordie accent and hes dressed like an off-duty James Bond in desert boots, sandy chinos and a dark-blue polo shirt.

Chris Ryan is not his real name, of course, but the one he was given when his former SAS general, Peter de la Billiere, wrote the first book about the Bravo Two Zero mission and gave pseudonyms to all involved.

These days he calls himself Chris Ryan to protect himself, his wife and daughter from those who might cause harm. Up to now, nobody has tried to have a go at me in public, physically, but there is always a risk they might try. Scotland Yard contacted me last year to ask what public events I had coming up, because there had been a threat.

He is confident enough to let slip that hes really called Colin, unfortunately in his eyes. Colin is a rubbish name, not least because in America they call me Colon.

A counter-terrorism police exercise on the Thames

Flowers laid at the Bataclan Club in Paris after last years attack

Its hard to imagine anyone doing that to his face, especially if theyve read the details of his harrowing escape from Iraq in 1991.

Three men died and four were captured when a covert special forces mission behind enemy lines went disastrously wrong, but Ryan managed to escape after making the longest escape and evasion by a British soldier.

He trekked more than 190 miles across a hostile desert without food or water, losing nearly 17kg in weight, pursued by heavily armed forces, evading or killing those who tried to stop him, until he got to safety in Syria.

Its only when you get back and everything relaxes that you think of the guys who didnt come back, he says with a faraway look in his eye. Does he mean those he killed and saw killed? Both. Wondering where their families are. But thats when your mind is going off into dark, dark areas. At the time youre fighting, its all very black and white.

This stocky former soldier in his mid-50s looks like Action Man all grown up, with a square jaw and close-cropped silver hair. You might have seen him in camouflage with a blacked-up face in survivalist television shows like How Not To Die and Hunting Chris Ryan, in which he was pursued through the jungle by alleged experts who failed to catch him.

A shot from the cover of Ryans first book

The name Chris Ryan has also been on over 50 books since he left active service, from an SAS fitness manual to the Alpha Force series for teens and his biggest hit, Strike Back.

Isnt it inflammatory to write about terrorists smuggling themselves into Europe on refugee boats as he does in Bad Soldier?

No, I dont think so. There are more Muslims killed by Muslim terrorists than people of any other faith. Those guys, they rule with fear. Islamic State are barbaric. Theres nothing in the Koran to support the way they kill innocent people of their own religion and the way they treat women is shocking.

Why does he think we have escaped a major attack for so long? Its probably down to our security services and GCHQ at Cheltenham being the best in the world, bar the Americans, at getting on top of these people.

According to his book that means using any technique necessary, including waterboarding in a secret black camp in Cyprus. Does he really believe British forces are involved in such things?

Probably not British forces, but certainly British personnel. If youve got a black camp extracting information there will be members of the British security services present and maybe prompting questions or listening in to what is going on.

Colluding in torture?

I would imagine so, yes.

Does he know that or is he just guessing?

Well, I couldnt say 100 per cent that I know, but put it this way Id be shocked if we werent.

And is he OK with that?

Absolutely. If there is hard evidence that theres going to be an attack then you do whatever you can to make yourself safe.

As for the ability of the SAS to save us from harm in the event of an attack on British soil, his assessment is alarming. The regiment could take down any type of terrorist attack, but the trouble they have is in reacting to it quickly. They are based in Hereford and have no idea where its going to go down. They have the skills to stop an attack but it will be done and dusted by the time they get there. They are always over-worked and under strength.

There are around 300 members of the Special Air Service and its marine equivalent the Special Boat Service, he says, but half of those are tied up in the training teams, support staff or command structure.

You think of guys that are deployed out to Iraq or Afghanistan and other parts of the world and youve only got maybe a squadron of men left here. That could be down to 40 guys. Thats split in two, so you have one team that reacts within 30 minutes and the other has a three-hour reaction time. Theyre spread thin.

He writes about the Royal Family in the new book and admits that he struggled when he saw Prince Harry in Afghanistan at the same time as his own brother was serving there with the SAS.

My opinion is the Royals shouldnt be anywhere near the front. If you take his first tour of duty, the footage of him operating a machine gun was ridiculous  it was clear he didnt know how to use it. I know there was fast air support from jets and a helicopter on stand-by and a team of SAS guys looking after him, so he has taken four guys away from operations to look after him for a PR stunt.

He had a personal interest in what was going on. My brother was out there at the time  they were coming under contact and he had guys whod lost legs and arms. They called for a helicopter to take out the injured but there werent any available.

Ryan admits to letting others do most of the writing in his books, but he comes up with the stories and authentic details. The soldiers in his books call the people they are fighting ragheads, animals and worse, so isnt there a risk that he is demonising all Muslims?

Oh yeah, totally. Because not every Muslim is a terrorist. Ive been pulled up on this, in terms of using the word raghead.

But Ryan insists he is just portraying the way real soldiers think. If I was going to war now and I didnt demonise the enemy, I wouldnt be able to take them on.

Some soldiers do get lost in that way of thinking, he says. There were some psychopaths in the regiment. Very few, but they had no emotions. We used controlled aggression, but they couldnt turn it off.

Ryan suffered post traumatic stress disorder after leaving the SAS, although it took him a long time to admit anything was wrong. His marriage suffered, but did it survive? Were on speaking terms. Thats the trouble with the regiment life: its the families who suffer, they take the brunt of everything. They have to put up with all the c**p.

However troubled the world gets, men and boys in particular never get weary of hearing about tough heroes like Danny Black, who saves the world again in Bad Soldier. Some become very devoted fans indeed.

I meet guys all the time who are obviously mentally ill because they say they served with me when they didnt. Ive had serious stalkers. One was a paranoid schizophrenic. He was convinced he was the real Chris Ryan.

Ryan has distanced himself physically from the regiment in recent years. I moved away from Hereford because its unhealthy. You see all these old guys wandering around the streets lost, hanging on the new guys, wanting to hear stories about whats going on now. Youve got to move on.

But he smiles as he realises what he has said, because hes no fool. Ryan has done very well out of writing about the SAS, and that mission shows no sign of ending any time soon.
Ive always assumed that my passion for larger phones was a macho thing  like how Americans feel compelled to drive cars the size of tanks.

But as I hold my phone at arms length, squinting at its huge screen, Im increasingly convinced its the tech equivalent of reading large-print books. Lord only knows what size of phone Ill be using by the time Im drawing a pension.

The Note 7 is designed to be big  with the bezel-less screen meaning it doesnt stretch your pocket quite as much as you imagine, and the glossy, metal-and-glass finish looking as smooth and glamorous as a grand piano

Samsungs 5.7-inch Galaxy Note 7 is comfortably the best plus-size phone ever made. When I say this sort of thing out loud, people look at me with wide (or pitying) eyes and say: What, even better than iPhone? Short answer: yes.

The larger iPhone 6S Plus feels like an inflated version of the smaller one  like a stretch limo, and about as dignified.

The Note 7 is designed to be big  with the bezel-less screen meaning it doesnt stretch your pocket quite as much as you imagine, and the glossy, metal-and-glass finish looking as smooth and glamorous as a grand piano (and about as prone to picking up greasy fingerprints).

Apple has taken its foot off the accelerator on iPhone and seems happy to coast with gradual, almost imperceptible upgrades. Not so Samsung. This is loaded with gimmicks. You can unlock it using your eyes (using a sci-fi-style iris-scanner) and its entirely waterproof, so you can use the stylus to write a shopping list at the bottom of the sink. Ive done this, although Im not sure what I gained from the experience.

The screen alone is worth the (steep) entry price. Its light years ahead of Apples, with a gorgeous, entirely pointless curved edge and Ultra HD  a new resolution that is only just arriving in British television sets, four times as sharp as normal full HD. Does any sane person need this on a gadget smaller than a paperback? Of course not. But you find yourself wanting it anyway.

The other gimmicks are even more loopy. I found myself taking my glasses off and winking flirtatiously at the gadget to trigger the iris-scanner and unlock the screen  a process far slower, and infinitely less dignified, than using the built-in fingerprint-scanner.

I found myself taking my glasses off and winking flirtatiously at the gadget to trigger the iris-scanner and unlock the screen

The waterproofing is sensible (and should really be standard)  but the stylus? Pretty daft. I cant really imagine what Id do with it beyond scribbling shopping lists. The people in Sainsburys must think I am the most awful poseur.
Lara, The Untold Love Story That Inspired Doctor Zhivago

Anna Pasternak

William Collins 20

Rating:

The poet W H Auden once wrote that any marriage, happy or unhappy, is infinitely more interesting than any romance, however passionate. Anna Pasternak takes a different view. She has built a literary career on romance.

Her first book, Princess In Love, was a highly charged account of the affair between Diana, Princess of Wales, and her riding instructor, Captain James Hewitt. Her later publications include Call Off The Search, a self-help book on finding love, co-written with her second husband, the New Age therapist Andrew Wallas.

Now she has turned her attention to another grand passion: the affair between her great uncle, Boris Pasternak, and his lover, Olga Ivinskaya, who became the inspiration for Lara, the heroine of his novel Dr Zhivago.

Olga Ivinskaya, Boris Pasternak's muse, aged 25 in Moscow, 1937

Olga with her daughter Irina as a baby in 1939

Boriss parents, the painter Leonid Pasternak and concert pianist Rosalia Kaufman, had a notably happy marriage. His mother, a child prodigy, gave up her career to support her husband  a sacrifice that seems to have provided a marital ideal for Boris.

In 1922, aged 32 and already a feted poet, he married Evgeniya Lurye. Evgeniya, an artist, was not a natural housewife. Boriss fellow poet, Anna Akhmatova, noted disapprovingly that Boris had to make soup for all the family, and by 1930 he had fallen in love with the more domestically competent Zinaida Neigauz, the wife of his close friend, the pianist Genrikh Neigauz.

Life under Zinaidas house-proud regime was better organised than Evgeniyas haphazard housekeeping, but Anna suspects that a crucial element was absent: Zinaida may have been a dab hand in the house, she writes, but for a man as impassioned as Boris, she was not the champion and soulmate he yearned for.

It would be another 12 years before Boris, aged 56, at last met his ideal woman. Olga Ivinskaya, a 34-year-old editorial assistant at the literary periodical Novy Mir, was already a fervent admirer of his work, and her first meeting with him was one of those life-changing moments when she felt the axis of her world tilt.

Boris Pasternak with his muse Olga, and her daughter Irina in Peredelkino

I was simply shaken by the sense of fate when my god looked at me with his penetrating eyes, Olga later recalled. The way he looked at me was so imperious, it was so much a mans appraising gaze that there could be no mistake about it: here he was, the one person I needed more than any other, the very one who was in actual fact already part of me. A thing like this is stunning, a miracle.

Miracle or not, she put up a spirited initial resistance to the poets ardent courtship. When he declared his love, she wrote him a confession, detailing her turbulent life story. She had been married twice before and had two children, a daughter, Irina, and a son, Mitya. Six months after her first meeting with Boris, their affair was consummated. Afterwards Olga, in a rare fusion of eroticism and laundry, took great pleasure in ironing Boriss crumpled trousers.

Ironing may have been the key to Boriss heart, but to Olgas chagrin it wasnt the route to wedlock. She was to suffer grievously for her intimacy with him but he obstinately refused to marry her. Every time he planned to separate from Zinaida, he just could not get out the words that he had rehearsed over and over about how he wished to leave her.

Julie Christie as Lara in the 1965 film Dr Zhivago

He was less careful of Olgas feelings. In 1949, while Boris was writing Dr Zhivago, she was arrested by the KGB, miscarried his child and was sentenced to five years in a labour camp for close contact with persons suspected of espionage. On her release after Stalins death in 1953, Boris asked Olgas 16-year-old daughter, Irina, to tell her mother that their liaison was over.

Their relationship survived that setback and Olga remained at Boriss side during the furore over Dr Zhivago, which was initially published in the West in 1957, to the rage of the Soviet authorities, who expelled Boris from the Writers Union, forced him to reject the Nobel Prize and attacked him with such venom that he proposed a suicide pact with Olga.

The reward for her loyalty was to be barred from Boriss deathbed by his wife and family. As he lay dying, she wept outside on the veranda of his dacha. After his death in 1960, she was overtaken by the fate that she had often predicted: denied the security of the Pasternak name, she was arrested with her daughter and sent once more to a labour camp, from which she emerged in 1964. She died in 1995, having failed to retrieve from the state archives the Pasternak manuscripts and letters that the KGB had taken from her.

IT'S A FACT

Dr Zhivago was shot in Spain under the Right-wing regime of Franco. During one scene, which called for a crowd chanting Marxist slogans, police turned up thinking a real revolution was happening. Advertisement

Historically, Anna writes, Olga and her daughter, Irina, have received a bad rap from my family. If so, this account is a generous redressing of the injustice  though not exactly the untold story that the books subtitle claims.
Delhi Police will be the first security agency to implement the common emergency number - 112 - before the end of this year.

This integrated number will help people reach out to the police, ambulance and fire service departments immediately, a senior officer said.

Implementation of the emergency number is part of the pilot project and eventually it will be replicated in other cities as well.

Delhi Police is working with the MHA & telecom ministry to make all services available under one emergency number.

Once the hardware is procured by the Ministry of Home Affairs, (MHA) the trial run will begin.

Trial run soon

We have agreed with the architecture of the project. We will be the first city to implement 112. This will run parallel to the existing response systems in place  police (100), fire brigade (101), ambulance (102) and Emergency Disaster Management (108), said a senior Delhi police officer.

Single emergency number 112 would be similar to the 911 all-in-one emergency service in the US.

The service will also be accessible in SIMs and landlines whose outgoing call facilities have been stopped or are temporarily suspended.

As per the plan, a person in distress will only need to call 112, which will direct the call to the concerned departments and help will come immediately.

In Delhi, theres much confusion related to emergency services with each department having a different helpline number.

Several states have initiated helpline numbers for other instances as well, like - women in distress (181-Delhi), missing children/women (1094-Delhi), crime against women (1096-Delhi), etc.

Delhi police is working with the MHA and telecom ministry to make all of these services available under one emergency phone number.

The trial run of the project will begin by the end of this year, following which the existing numbers will get scrapped, a year after the service is fully functional.

112 will work as a one-stop number for all the emergency services. The number will be initially set up outside police headquarters in ITO as existing emergency number (100) operates from here. But, as the trail run is completed and helpline is matured it will be shifted to headquarters, an officer said.

Without giving a timeline, he said that as numbers like 100, 101 and 102 are popular, scrapping of these numbers will take time.

Existing numbers will continue to be functional, till the time the software for the new emergency number 112 is matured. During the testing period, we will encounter several technical glitches, which will eventually be fixed, the officer said.

MHA has identified the vendor for the hardware and it will be bought by them.

Buying the hardware is an easy process, but the real challenge lies in integrating all these numbers through the software and considerable time will be needed to test the software, he said.

Central agency Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT) and NIC is working on the technical end of the project.

Once the purchase formality of hardware and other permissions are taken care of, the trial run will begin.

The process is expected to take three months of time and service may begin before the end of this year.

It will be a bigger set-up than existing control room as demands of Delhi has grown by many folds, he said.

The user can communicate even through SMS and the system will learn about the location of the person and share it with the nearest help centre.

Telecom operators have already been asked to direct all emergency calls to 112. The process of directing calls made on 112 to concerned departments is being worked upon, the officer said.

The emergency service calls will also be supported through a call centre-like facility, which will have representatives speaking in Hindi, English and local languages.

One helpline number in Haryana too

Inspired by the USA, Haryana government has decided to come up with one common helpline number for the convenience of people in emergency situations.

Haryana Minister for Disaster Management Captain Abhimanyu has given the nod to Haryana Institute of Public Administration (HIPA) to study the situation in all the 21 districts and submit its report to the ministry at the earliest.

At present, Haryana has separate helpline numbers for emergency services.

This is an ambitious project of Haryana government and once completed, Haryana would be the first state in the country to have such a facility. (Photo for representation only)

For instance, 100 for police, 101 for fire department, 102 for ambulance, 1077 for disaster management, 1091 for women cell and 1078 for highway accidents, among others.

These numbers are not easy to remember especially when someone is trapped in an emergency. These numbers confuse people more than helping them. Theres just one emergency number (911) used in the USA and the move has been highly successful. We have to implement this in our state too. It will be easy for everyone to remember, HIPA director General SP Gupta said.

He says that all the emergency services will come under one umbrella once the project comes into effect.

This is an ambitious project of Haryana government and once completed, Haryana would be the first state in the country to have such a facility.

The state government has sanctioned a budget of Rs 15 crore for checking the feasibility of the measure and it could take six to seven months for its completion, said Abhay Srivastava, the head of disaster management, Haryana.

If an accident takes place in Sirsa district and if the caller dials up the emergency common number, it would immediately alert the nearest available ambulance so that it can reach the venue in least possible time and rescue the victim, he added.

The department of disaster management has also floated a tender for companies and specialists in the fields of IT and skills in operating satellites.
The CBI is probing a possible test-rigging scam in selection of government employees following a complaint from the Staff Selection Commission that recruits for several posts in ministries and departments at the Centre.

After registering a case on June 28, the Central Bureau of Investigation arrested four contractual SSC employees allegedly involved in manipulating answer sheets.

While Mahender and Dharmendra were arrested on August 18, Anil and Yograj were taken into custody on Saturday.

CBI had registered a case on June 28 after a complaint that candidates in Combined Graduate Level Examination 2015, Tier II had intentionally left answer sheets blank or partially filled to be later filled by some evaluators at the SSC.

Some candidates in the Combined Graduate Level Examination 2015, Tier II, had intentionally left their sheets blank or partially filled, which would be filled with the correct answers by some scorers (daily wage employees) in the SSC at the time of the evaluation of the OMR sheets, the FIR says.

Mukesh Saroja, counsel for one of the accused, said his client is being targeted as he is a temporary employee.

The act cannot be committed without the involvement of regular staff and police must probe this, the lawyer argued.

The Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) technology scans a printed form and reads predefined positions and records where marks are made on the paper.

This mechanism is useful for applications in which large numbers of hand-filled forms need to be processed quickly and with great accuracy, such as surveys, reply cards, questionnaires and ballots.

A common use is in the bubble sheets for multiple-choice tests.

A candidate has to answer a question by filling in the corresponding bubble.

SSC chairman A Bhattacharyya said in his complaint to the CBI last November, that he received a message on his phone tipping him off about the dubious methods being used for money to help the aspiring candidates.

The informer provided three roll numbers for verification.

In the investigation so far it has come out that the four men arrested are not earning more than Rs 15,000 but had huge amounts, up to lakhs, in their bank accounts and even had properties in their name, a CBI officer said.

We are trying to find the mastermind behind the act.

The complaint was marked to the secretary, department of personnel and training.

The commission found in an internal inquiry that from the three roll numbers, two OMR sheets had only been partially filled and in one answers were marked against all the questions.

The SSC then examined the answer sheets of the same candidates for the Combined Graduate Level Examination 2015 Tier  I and discovered that there was a difference in the ink colours used to mark answers.
A Navy sailor was sentenced to a year in prison for taking photos of classified areas inside a nuclear attack submarine despite his pleas that it was similar to how Hillary Clinton used a private server to send classified emails.

Kristian Saucier, of Arlington, Vermont, appeared in federal court in Bridgeport, Connecticut on Friday where a judge also ordered him to serve six months of home confinement with electronic monitoring during a three-year period of supervised release after the prison time.

He pleaded guilty in May to unauthorized detention of defense information and had faced five to six years in prison under federal sentencing guidelines.

Kristian Saucier, above, was a 22-year-old sailor on the USS Alexandria when he took photos of classified areas in the sub, he said to show them to his kids one day

Saucier was prosecuted more aggressively than other sailors caught doing the same thing, probably because he destroyed the evidence

Saucier admitted to taking six photos of classified areas inside the USS Alexandria in 2009 when it was in Groton and he was a 22-year-old machinist mate on the submarine.

The photos showed the nuclear reactor compartment, the auxiliary steam propulsion panel and the maneuvering compartment, prosecutors said.

Kristian Sauciers attorneys tried working a Hillary Clinton angle, arguing that the Democratic presidential nominee had been 'engaging in acts similar to Mr. Saucier' with information of much higher classification, according to US News.

Saucier was sentenced to one year in prison - his lawyers wanted probation

The filing said it would be 'unjust and unfair for Mr. Saucier to receive any sentence other than probation for a crime those more powerful than him will likely avoid,' attorney Derrick Hogan wrote, according to the outlet.

Saucier took the photos knowing they were classified, but did so only to be able to show his family and future children what he did while he was in the Navy, his lawyers said.

He denied sharing the photos with any unauthorized recipient.

'It was a foolish mistake by a very young man,' his lawyer, Greg Rinckey, said after the sentencing. 'It's a very sad case because Kristian Saucier is a fine young man. We don't believe this was really his true character.'

Saucier is expected to receive an 'other than honorable' discharge from the Navy next month, Rinckey said. He is to report to prison on October 12.

Saucier was sentenced to one year in prison and a $100 fine, along with six months home confinement, 100 hours of community service and a ban on owning guns, his legal team says.

The pictures were taken aboard the USS Alexandria, showing the nuclear reactor compartment, the auxiliary steam propulsion panel and the maneuvering compartment

Despite the seemingly harsh sentence, Rinckey said 'We're very pleased.'

But he added, comparing the outcome to that of Clinton's, 'It could be argued here that depending on what your name is, that's the type of justice you get in the United States.'

A former sailor who worked with Saucier, Gene Pitcher, told Politico, 'I just dont think its fair. In reality, what [Clinton] did is so much worse than what Kris did. ... I think its just a blatant double standard.'

Experts have said that Saucier was prosecuted more aggressively than he would have been if he hadn't destroyed evidence, including a laptop, camera and memory card

He added that he had seen other sailors get in trouble for taking photos, but that they usually just lost pay or rank, and Saucier is the only one he's seen prosecuted.

'Felony charges appear to be reserved for people of the lowest ranks. Everyone else who does it either doesnt get charged or gets charged with a misdemeanor,' Edward MacMahon, a Virginia defense attorney not involved in the Saucier case, told Politico.

A big difference in the two cases, experts point out, is that Clinton's material was not marked classified when she sent it, whereas Saucier admitted he knew the places he photographed were classified, said the outlet.

Part of the reason Saucier may have been treated so aggressively is the way he handled being found out - initially denying he'd taken any pictures, and then destroying his laptop computer, a camera and a memory card after an interview with the FBI in 2012.
A federal judge on Friday ordered Hillary Clinton to respond in writing to questions about her use of a private email server when she was secretary of state.

US District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan granted conservative legal advocacy group Judicial Watch a partial victory after they sought to question the Democratic nominee in person and under oath as part of a long-running public records lawsuit.

Judicial Watch must submit its questions by October 14, giving Clinton 30 days to respond in a timetable that could push her answers past November's election.

The State Department will also have to release any emails recovered by the FBI's probe into Clinton's server by September 30, according to the court order.

US District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan ordered Clinton to answer questions from Judicial Watch in writing. The conservative legal advocacy filed a public records lawsuit against the State Department

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell (pictured in 2008) said he once sent Clinton a memo touting his use of a personal email account for work-related messages

Judicial Watch pushed for an in-person testimony to better follow up on Clinton's responses, but the presidential nominee argued a deposition would be 'unnecessary', according to Sullivan's memorandum opinion.

She conceded that she could provide information in writing rather than 'repeating her prior statements or stating that she has no knowledge of certain topics.'

Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, said: 'We will move quickly to get these answers. The decision is a reminder that Hillary Clinton is not above the law.'

Judicial Watch has also been granted a sworn deposition from John Bentel, who was formerly in charge of IT security issues at the State Department.

In a 2010 meeting with Bentel, a staff member raised concerns that messages sent or received using the private server could contain documents that needed to be preserved under federal regulations.

Bentel told the staff member that State Department legal staff had 'reviewed and approved' the server though the inspector general's review found no evidence such a review had ever occurred.

Bentel directed the staff members to 'never to speak of the secretary's personal email system again.'

Clarence Finney, a State Department employee responsible for managing records and FOIA responses, was excused from giving a deposition.

Judicial Watch is among several groups, including The Associated Press, that have sued the State Department over access to government records from Clinton's tenure as the nation's top diplomat between 2009 and 2013.

Republicans are pressing to keep the issue of Clinton's email use alive after the FBI closed its investigation last month without recommending criminal charges.

Powell (left) said he told Clinton his use of personal email 'vastly improved' communications within the department, which at the time did not have an equivalent internal system

In a separate development Friday, former Secretary of State Colin Powell said he once sent Clinton a memo touting his use of a personal email account for work-related messages after she took over at the State Department in 2009.

Powell said he emailed Clinton describing his use of a personal AOL account for unclassified messages while leading the State Department under President George W. Bush.

Powell, a Republican, said he told Clinton his use of personal email 'vastly improved' communications within the department, which at the time did not have an equivalent internal system.

Clinton has used Powell in her public defense of her behavior - which she now says was a 'mistake' - but only as an example of a previous secretary who relied solely on private email to conduct government business.

Powell, a retired Army general and former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he used a secure computer on his desk at the State Department to manage classified information.

Powell relied on a commercially available service to host his personal email account, while Clinton's private server was located in the basement of the New York home she shared with her husband, former President Bill Clinton.
Jeffrey Wood's execution was put on hold on Friday, his 43rd birthday

A man on death row received news on his 43rd birthday that his execution had been shelved.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled 7-2 on Friday to put Jeffrey Wood's execution on hold just five days before he was scheduled to receive a lethal injection.

Even though Wood was waiting in a car when his friend Daniel Reneau shot dead a Texaco store during a 1996 robbery, he was convicted of capital murder.

Under Texas' 'law of parties', accomplices are just as guilty as the actual perpetrators.

The case drew widespread attention and highly unusual opposition from Republican lawmakers.

In a two-page opinion, the appeals court said Wood's death sentence was based on false testimony and false scientific evidence given by a since-discredited psychiatrist who asserted that Wood would certainly pose a risk to public safety.

Wood's attorney Jared Tyler said 'the court did the right thing' in halting the execution and returning the case to a state district court in Kerrville, Texas.

Wood and his friend Daniel Reneau were convicted in the death of a 31-year-old store clerk during a robbery two decades ago.

He and Reneau had planned to rob the store's safe, but Wood backed out and asked his friend not to bring his gun when they went to the store that day, his then-girlfriend testified.

Wood was waiting in a car when his friend Daniel Reneau (pictured) shot dead a Texaco store during a 1996 robbery. Reneau was executed in 2002

Wood was convicted of capital murder under what's known as the Texas law of parties, which makes a participant in a capital murder case equally culpable

But Reneau allegedly brought the gun without his knowledge, and shot store clerk Kris Keeran with a .22-caliber handgun.

Wood was convicted of capital murder under what's known as the Texas law of parties, which makes a participant in a capital murder case equally culpable.

Reneau was executed in 2002.

'Justice is not served by executing Mr. Wood, who was outside the building when it happened and who had no criminal history,' Tyler said in a statement Friday.

Despite supporting capital punishment, Republican state representative Jeff Leach formally asked the Texas Board of Pardon and Paroles to recommend commuting Wood's death sentence to life imprisonment.

Texas state representative Jeff Leach opposed Wood's execution

He is part of a Republican-controlled legislature that has blocked efforts from Democrats to abolish the death penalty in Texas.

But Leach told the Texas Tribune: 'I simply do not believe that Mr. Wood is deserving of the death sentence.

'I cant sit quietly by and not say anything.'

Earlier this month, 16 Roman Catholic bishops in Texas wrote to state governor Greg Abbott, imploring him to grant a stay of execution to Wood.

'Mr. Wood has never taken a human life in his own hands.

'He was not even in the building at the time of the crime.
Wenxia Man (pictured), 45, of San Diego was sentenced to four years in a federal prison in Miami after conspiring to send military equipment to China

A California woman has been sentenced to more than four years in prison for illegally conspiring to export U.S. military gear to China, including jet fighter engines and a $50 million drone aircraft.

Court records show a Miami federal judge imposed the sentence Friday on 45-year-old Wenxia Man of San Diego.

According to the sentencing judge, Man had two motives for sending the equipment: earning a $1 million commission and helping China match U.S. military equipment and technology.

U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom said Man, a U.S. citizen, was communicating with an undercover agent from Homeland Security Investigations when she attempted to send the equipment but had she really been engaged in a genuine conspiracy, she would have threatened national security of the United States.

Man allegedly told the undercover Homeland Security Investigations agent she worked with a spy who helped the Chinese military copy items from other countries.

Man allegedly told an undercover Homeland Security Investigations agent she worked with a spy who helped the Chinese military copy items from other countries. She allegedly attempted to send technology, including a $50 million Reaper drone (stock image, pictured)

A jury convicted Man in June of conspiring to export and actually exporting military equipment without the proper license.

Man claims she is innocent.

'There is hardly a more serious case than as case such as this that involves some of our most sophisticated fighter jet engines and unmanned weaponized aerial drones.

'The potential for harm to the safety of our fighter pilots, military personnel and national security which would occur had the defendant been successful is immeasurable,' prosecutor Michael Walleisa said.

Federal prosecutors say evidence in the case showed Man conspired with a person in China to export engines used in F-22 and F-16 fighter jets as well as an MQ-9 Reaper drone aircraft capable of firing Hellfire missiles.

Federal prosecutors say evidence in the case showed Man conspired with a person in China to export engines used in F-22 (stock image, pictured) and F-16 fighter jets also

Bloom ordered Man - a naturalized citizen with two young children - to mental health treatment during her four year sentence.

She must also receive treatment after her release, according to the Sun Sentinel.

Her lawyer, Alex Strassman, told Bloom his client has a 'significantly reduced mental capacity'.
and then fled the scene of the crash, police said

Two pedestrians, including a child, were rescued by a group of Good Samaritans after they had become trapped underneath a car that struck them on a crosswalk in downtown Boston, police said.

The quick-acting bystanders rushed to the scene of the busy intersection on Thursday and worked together to lift the car off the victims, who included a woman and a boy, before dragging them to safety, ABC News reported.

Witnesses said the boy was trapped near a tire while the woman was pinned beneath the bumper of the silver Mercedes-Benz.

A total of three pedestrians were taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries after being struck by the car, according to police.

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Two pedestrians, including a child, were rescued by a group of Good Samaritans after they became trapped underneath a car that struck them on a crosswalk in downtown Boston, police said. The frantic scenes of the dramatic rescue are pictured left and right

Witnesses said the boy was trapped near a tire while the woman was pinned beneath the bumper of the silver Mercedes-Benz

At the time of the crash, the pedestrians were taking part in a history tour on the Freedom Trail.

The crash occurred on Thursday afternoon when driver Shantiqua Steele, 25, ran a red light and struck the three pedestrians, partially trapping the woman and boy under the car, police told ABC News.

Steele, who police said did not have a driver's license, briefly exited her car and fled the scene of the crash at Washington and School Streets, authorities said.

Witnesses said had it not been for the throng of quick-acting bystanders who rushed into the street and stopped the woman from driving, she would have run over the boy.

'A bunch of people just got around in front of the car, like 200 people, they came from everywhere and just surrounded the car and wouldn't let her drive,' one witness told CBS Boston.

The dramatic rescue quickly unfolded as bystanders rushed to the scene of the accident and helped free the pedestrians, according to witnesses.

'I turned around when everybody started screaming, and there was a lady holding onto the bumper and she put up her knees and the car kept going on top of her,' witness Richard Holland told WCVB.

One woman who witnessed the crash told CBS Boston the boy and woman looked 'severely injured or pretty bruised' and that people at the scene were frantic.

A crowd of bystanders rushed to the scene of the crash. A total of three pedestrians were taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries after being struck by the car, police said

The crash occurred on Thursday afternoon when driver Shantiqua Steele, 25, ran a red light and struck the pedestrians, partially trapping the woman and boy under the car, police said. Witnesses helped police locate the woman inside a nearby Chipotle

Witness Robert Kearns recalled when the group of good Samaritans came running over to the scene of the crash to rescue the victims.

'There was a group of people from the crowd,' he told the station.

'They lifted up the vehicle and pulled them out from underneath.'

Witness Brett Fisher told the Boston Herald that around 10 people lifted the car while two men pulled the woman, who he said appeared to be knocked unconscious and was bleeding from her nose, from underneath.

'Everybody was screaming at the top of their lungs,' he said.

Richard Holland, 70, a colonial tour guide, told the Boston Herald that bystanders jumped on the hood pf the car and yelled, 'Stop, stop.'

He said he opened the driver-side door, which was when Steele took off running, and he put the car in park and started lifting the car.

When officers arrived at the scene, the victims were found lying in the street while being tended to by several witnesses, according to police.

Witnesses also helped police locate the driver inside a nearby Chipotle where she was taken into custody.

'The lady took off running,' Holland told WCVB.

'She ran into the building on the right. Someone pointed that out, so I took the police into the building and told them who to look for.'

Steele was issued several moving violations and was set to appear in court on Friday to be arraigned on several charges including leaving the scene of a motor vehicle accident resulting in personal injury.
Government borrowing fell during and immediately after the EU referendum campaign, figures revealed yesterday.

The Office for National Statistics said borrowing was 3billion lower from April to July than in the same period last year.

Before the June referendum, George Osborne claimed Brexit would punch a 30billion hole in the public finances, requiring an emergency budget of tax rises and spending cuts within weeks.

Treasury chief secretary David Gauke said the figures showed Britain is well-placed to deal with any economic turmoil

But the latest figures show borrowing fell by 3billion to 23.7 billion. The figures are largely based on data from before the referendum but Treasury chief secretary David Gauke said they showed Britain is well-placed to deal with any economic turmoil.

The figures also reveal the Treasury recorded a 1billion surplus in July, which is traditionally a strong month for corporation tax receipts.

This represents a slight fall on last years July surplus and is lower than the 1.6billion forecast by economists. But Mr Gauke said the surplus means the British economy starts from a position of strength in the face of any incoming economic turbulence.

He said: As we keep working to cut the deficit, we are well placed to handle any challenges and seize the opportunities as our economy adjusts. The new figures are the latest to suggest that any post-Brexit slowdown may be less severe than the doom-mongers claimed in the run-up to the referendum.

Official figures released this week showed retail sales rose 1.4 per cent in July despite predictions that consumers would tighten their belts.

Chancellor Philip Hammond has also ditched his predecessors fiscal targets, reducing the risk that a so-called Brexit budget will be needed in the autumn. The latest figures came amid continuing speculation about the shape of any post-Brexit trade deal with the EU.

Chancellor Philip Hammond has also ditched George Osbornes fiscal targets, reducing the risk that a so-called Brexit budget will be needed in the autumn

City sources told the Financial Times they had given up hope of Britain staying in the EU single market after talks with ministers. A group led by former Labour Treasury minister Shriti Vadera is looking at whether Britain could strike a Swiss-style trade deal with the EU to preserve lucrative links in financial services.

The Swiss deal gives some sectors, such as life insurance, full two-way access to the single market in return for EU regulation.

Swiss banks do not benefit from the same access but leading City figures believe the size of Londons financial sector means there is the prospect of an enhanced deal.
A former member of SEAL team six will have to pay the government nearly $7 million in proceeds from his book detailing the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

Matthew Bissonnette, who wrote 'No Easy Day', which was published in 2012, reached a settlement with the U.S. Justice Department after agreeing to turn over all past and future proceeds from the book.

Courts estimated the amount to be $6.64 million.

Bissonnette also issued a formal apology for publishing the book without submitting the manuscript to authorities for review.

Matthew Bissonnette, who wrote 'No Easy Day', reached a settlement with the U.S. Justice Department after publishing the book about the Osama Bin Laden raid that he helped carry out

'I acted on the advice of my former attorney, but I now fully recognize that his advice was wrong,' Bissonnette's apology said. 'It was a serious error that I urge others not to repeat.'

In 2012 the demand for information about the Bin Laden shootings was at an all-time high.

Using the pen name Mark Owen, Bissonnette wrote the book about the raid, which killed one of the most notorious terrorists in the world.

However, as a member of SEAL team six and with 14 years in the military, Bissonnette had signed documents in which he agreed to protect national security secrets.

The government said he failed to seek clearance for the book and at least half a dozen speeches he gave, for which he earned more than $100,000 NPR reported.

The government said Bissonnette did not get clearance with them to publish the book. He agreed to give them all past and future proceeds from the book, which totaled $6.64 million

The case had stretched on for four years and Bissonnette's agreement finally ended the legal battle.

He did not face criminal charges.

Bissonnette penned the book under the name 'Mark Owen' in 2012 when there was a demand for information about the Bin Laden raids

'This enforcement action does not discredit Mr. Bissonnette's military service, but reinforces that it is important for our service members and individuals who have been assigned positions of trust and granted access to classified information to comply with the obligations set forth in their non-disclosure agreements to protect classified information after leaving the U.S. military and government in an effort to protect our nation's national security,' Justice Department spokeswoman Nicole Navas said Friday.

Bissonnette's lawyer Robert D. Luskin said that his client is the only person out of many people who talked about the raid who has had to literally pay for his actions.

'The government has a right to keep its secrets and to enforce procedures that are designed to protect them from inadvertent disclosure.
During this summer of sensational world events, you will be forgiven if you have missed the story that prisoners in Romania have rioted because they claim jail conditions are intolerable, with chronic overcrowding and poor sanitation.

Why should this concern us? Well, it is one of the countless reasons foreign criminals  or rather, their Legal Aid-funded lawyers  are using, as they try every trick in the human rights book to avoid being extradited from Britain.

The fact is that, barely a few years ago  before the great migration surge  this country had little use for extradition courts. In 2004, for instance, our police forces took just 46 people into custody using European Arrest Warrants.

With 330,000 new migrants arriving last year, and our border controls and vetting process so woefully inept, it's hardly surprising that our judiciary is being overwhelmed (file image)

These are the mechanism by which foreigners wanted in connection with significant crimes are extradited between EU member states to face prosecution or to serve a prison sentence for an existing conviction.

Any extradition hearings that resulted were easily dealt with by courts that handled domestic crimes. However, according to the National Crime Agency, the number of extradition cases sky-rocketed last year to a record high of 2,041. That is an astonishing 44-fold increase.

It has created such a huge workload that Westminster Magistrates Court has set aside five of its eight chambers exclusively for extradition proceedings. Though these courts sit six days a week, they still cannot cope with the huge flood of cases.

As a result, the Crown Prosecution Service has had to commandeer two other London courts, in Hammersmith, to clear the backlog.

During August and September, these so-called blitz courts will cram in as many hearings as possible in the hope that they might clear the extradition log-jam.

The dictionary definition of a blitz is a sudden or intense attack. Yet, these costly proceedings  paid for by taxpayers, of course  are the complete opposite. They are often painfully slow and laborious.

To get an insight into this largely unknown aspect of the migration crisis, I have spent several days in these courts. And what I found was deeply disturbing.

One case involved a Romanian named Nicosur Ilie, 33, who had jumped bail in his home country and fled to Britain in 2013.

He had appealed against a two-year jail sentence he received in Romania for driving without a licence. Today, he lives in Bolton, according to his Legal Aid-funded lawyer, where he now has a girlfriend and baby, and worked until his arrest in a restaurant.

It is a much more agreeable life than languishing in a hell-hole cell in Bucharest, so it is hardly surprising that he is fighting, tooth and nail, to stay in Britain.

Westminster Magistrates Court has set aside five of its eight chambers exclusively for extradition proceedings. Though these courts sit six days a week, they still cannot cope with the huge flood of cases

As part of his claim to remain here, as a fugitive from justice in his homeland, Ilies lawyer cited Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which grants all citizens the right to family life. Thus he was hoping to rely on the much-abused article of the Strasbourg-controlled convention, which was notoriously incorporated into British law by the Blair governments Human Rights Act.

In the years since, foreign criminals have repeatedly tried to exploit the article to stay in Britain, arguing that they have wives or girlfriends here, and were raising children with them, and that to extradite them would be a breach of their right to this settled new life.

Such cases have led to endless demands for the Government to end rampant abuse of Article 8.

According to MPs, not only are convicted foreign criminals cheating deportation but they are taking up valuable court time and taxpayers money fighting claims that are often blatantly ludicrous. It is said that many are indulging in a try it on culture at taxpayers expense.

In the case of Romanian Ilie, his lawyer argued: Here you have a person who was gainfully employed and has a young child to look after.

The judge, Richard Inyundo, said he would also have to consider Article 3 of the convention, which protects people from inhumane and degrading punishment. So, the issue of whether or not Romanias prisons currently fit into this category  following this summers protests about poor conditions  will be a key factor in determining whether Ilie will remain in Bolton or be sent home to jail.

But it will be some time before we discover his fate, because, as happens with so many cases, arcane legal complexities mean it was once again adjourned.

With 330,000 new migrants arriving in Britain last year, and our border controls and vetting process so woefully inept, it is hardly surprising that our judiciary is being overwhelmed.

Another egregious case involving a Romanian hit the headlines this month. The man  who we cannot name because he suffers from anxiety  had been jailed for 12 years in his homeland after beating a 70-year-old man to death with a hammer.

He was granted early release in 2008 after serving only seven years in prison, and then travelled to the UK the following year, and was allowed to stay as a student.

But in 2014, the Home Office learnt about his murder conviction and began deportation proceedings  holding him in Dovers Immigration Removal Centre. However, a High Court judge ruled that his detention was unlawful  meaning this convicted murderer could claim tens of thousands of pounds in compensation. To add insult to injury, the Romanian  a recovering alcoholic  has also won the right to remain in the UK.

I fear it will take more than a summer blitz to clear the great extradition backlog (file image)

Why? Yes, you guessed it  his lawyers successfully argued that deportation would breach his human rights. And yesterday, the Mail reported how a Pole on bail as he faced extradition proceedings, with convictions for burglary in his home country, stole irreplaceable mementoes of a young girl who died of leukaemia.

Meanwhile, at Westminster Magistrates Court  recently modernised at a cost of 50 million  the extradition merry-go-round continues.

Each morning, an unsavoury procession of characters files through the security scanner, emptying phones and other gadgetry from the pockets of their baggy tracksuits and bomber-jackets (the standard attire of foreign criminals, it seems) before waiting to be called.

On a recent Wednesday, expected to be a quiet day because it is the summer holidays for many staff  25 cases were listed for the five extradition courts. Among those pleading their right to remain in Britain were men and women from Hungary, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Romania, Portugal, and Spain. With 14 Polish names on the lists, I felt I could have been in Warsaw.

Most names were pronounceable only by the huddle of interpreters hired to help  also at taxpayers expenses, of course.

For interpreters are a vital  and very costly  cog in the extradition wheel. Without them, few cases can go ahead. Among the translators was a Lithuanian, two Romanians and four Poles.

I tried to find out how much taxpayers pay for these on-call interpreters. Most were reluctant to discuss their fees, but a Bulgarian woman said she received 22 an hour from the agency that supplies court interpreters.

A nice little earner, especially as she was often required to wait for several hours for a defendant to be brought to court. The rate rises to 36.80 when she works directly for the police.

At Westminster, which has, in effect, become Englands clearing-house for the detritus of foreign criminals washing up on our shores, cases are heard by a pool of three dozen specialist judges. The men and women who face them, from a dock protected with shatter-proof glass, range from small-time villains to rapists and murderers.

They come in many guises. Some have been convicted of offences in their own countries and fled to Britain. Others are, as yet, only suspects. They may have fled here to avoid arrest.

Their detention by British police and immigration officials can happen in a variety of ways. For example, their criminal record might have come to the authorities notice when they committed another offence in Britain. Or someone might have shopped them.

Most plead to be released on bail while their case is being prepared. Of course, there is a high risk that if they are freed, they might abscond.

Nevertheless, some are given bail. Indeed, to my amazement, when I sat in one court, those bailed included a Latvian farmer accused of fracturing a mans skull with a cudgel.

He was said to have been living on the run in Britain for seven years. Yet the judge allowed him to return to Lincolnshire, where he is a seasonal farm-worker, because the alleged offence took place nine years ago and she felt satisfied he would not abscond. He looked as though hed won the Lottery as he walked free.

I was told by one solicitor (who was on the going rate for Legal Aid lawyers of 50 an hour) that the number of extradition cases is growing exponentially.

Easily topping the shameful extradition league table is Poland. There are two main reasons for this. First, among Eastern European countries whose citizens have used EU freedom of movement rules to come legally to Britain, Poles constitute the biggest number  with at least 850,000 working here.

Also, the Polish authorities, unlike others, demand that criminals are sent home  thus requiring extradition proceedings  even for relatively minor offences.

As a result, 995 Poles were arrested here last year  compared with 175 each from Romania and Lithuania, 94 Czechs, 88 Hungarians and 79 Latvians. However, those who were caught are merely the tip of the European criminal iceberg.

It is estimated that for every foreign villain arrested here, there are many times more who remain free to walk our streets.

Typical of these is Avni Metra, a double murderer from Albania who posed as a Kosovar refugee in order to live in Britain, until he was tracked down a few weeks ago  not by the hard-pressed police, but the Mail.

As we report today, a judge yesterday ruled that Metra, who arrived here in 1998, should be extradited back to his native Albania. She said the fugitives life in Britain had been based on a lie, and rejected his claim that extradition would breach his human rights.

Metra, who was sentenced in Albania to 25 years in his absence, fought to stay in the UK despite being entitled to be retried in Albania. He argued, through a state-funded lawyer, that he wouldnt get a fair trial.

The wider question now is whether Britains exit from the EU will stem the tide of foreign criminals using Britain as a refuge. On this thorny question, expert opinion appears to be divided.

One veteran extradition court lawyer thinks not. On the basis that we will remain reliant on large numbers of foreign workers, he says that the law of averages means they wont all be law-abiding.

However, a colleague disagrees, arguing that Brexit will allow us to regain control of our borders if the Government introduces tough criminal records checks on foreigners wanting to enter the country  as happens in America.

With a look of exasperation, he explained: The volume of Polish cases is now so big that I hear theyve stopped using passenger aircraft to take their nationals back, and stack them into military planes.

If these people have committed crimes in their own countries, its not uncommon to offend here, too. Wherever they live, their character doesnt change.

I was staggered by the inventiveness  and downright cheek  with which foreign criminals, in cahoots with taxpayer-funded lawyers, sought to exploit the Human Rights Act

Then there is the huge financial burden for British taxpayers.

According to the Home Office, it cost 13,000 to process each of the 2,041 European Arrest Warrants issued last year so the total bill was 26.5 million.

However, as this sum was not broken down into constituent parts, it is not clear whether it includes court staff salaries, Legal Aid bills, interpreters and the price of keeping defendants in custody for months.

Is it money well spent? Of course it isnt worth it! one lawyer told me. This money could be spent on schools and A&E departments. In any case, the cost could be avoided if we stopped allowing just anyone to come into Britain without being vetted. This is refreshing honesty from someone who makes a very good living on the back of this gravy train.

Inevitably, reform of this rotten system has to involve changes to the European Convention on Human Rights, the instrument of justice drawn up after World War II, when a vast diaspora needed its protection, but which is now out-dated and exploited by criminals.

Observing the conveyor-belt of cases during my week at a London magistrates court, I was staggered by the inventiveness  and downright cheek  with which foreign criminals, in cahoots with taxpayer-funded lawyers, sought to exploit the Human Rights Act.

Since prison conditions in many European countries are much worse than ours, the current vogue seems to favour Article 3  covering inhumane and degrading punishment and detention. Clearly this is open to wide interpretation. In one case, I saw a young Lithuanian accused of a 10,000 mugging being granted bail and sent back to the comfort of his digs, in Peterborough, after his lawyer said the prison back home where he would probably have to serve his sentence was below the acceptable standard.

As well as Article 8 (the right to a secure home and family life), Article 10 (political oppression and freedom of speech) is often cited to stop criminals being deported.

Not surprisingly, it takes much protracted  and costly  legal argument to establish if the cases are covered by these articles. In addition, cases are frequently delayed by procedural hitches and inefficiency.

While at Westminster Magistrates Court, several listed cases failed to go ahead.

One involved a suspected drug-dealer who claimed he did not have enough money to travel to court. His lawyer said his mother was due to arrive from Hungary to pay his 118 train ticket (was he planning to go First Class, I wondered?) but not until the following day.

Another involved a Polish woman accused of fraud and living on benefits. She had forgotten to fill in her Legal Aid form, so her solicitor declined to represent her. Just another, typical, example of the waste of time and money.
This is the sickening moment a man 'peacefully' protesting the closure of a church knocks a bystander out in a seemingly unprovoked attack.

Footage of the horrific knock-out punch was captured by an apparent sympathiser of the group protesting the demolition of Saint Rita's Church in Paris, France.

The video shows the Catholic fundamentalists praying in the street when a bystander walks up behind them to watch.

The group of people were protesting the demolition of Saint Rita's Church in Paris, France

He doesn't appear to say anything, but one man in the group appears to take an instant disliking to him and jumps to his feet before punching him in the face.

The victim, who doesn't see the sickening blow coming, hits the ground with a thud as a woman jumps out the way in horror.

The unconscious man is then attacked again by the same protester, who grabs hold of his clothes and appears to pull him onto the road.

The shocking footage was posted to YouTube along with a description, which apparently explained the incident.

The video shows the Catholic fundamentalists praying in the street when a man walks over

One man in the group apparently takes a disliking to the bystander and jumps to his feet

The video maker alleges that the victim of the attack had been disrupting the group by 'playing loud music on his mobile phone'.

The description adds that the man was then 'chastised for his rudeness' by a 'soldier of Christ'.

It is not clear whether the victim suffered any serious injuries as a result of being attacked. There were also no reports that any arrests had been made.

Saint Rita, built in 1900, had been the sanctuary of Gallicans, traditionalist Catholics who profess to practice the faith as it existed in medieval times, celebrating mass in Latin, but they are not recognised by the Vatican.

Suddenly the 'peaceful' protester punches the man in the face and knocks him out cold

A woman is seen jumping out the way in horror after the unconscious victim hits the ground

The church's owner, the Association of Catholic and Apostolic Chapels, had decided to replace the structure with a housing development, and it was shut in April 2015.

It was recently the site of chaos after riot police were seen brutally dragging a priest in ceremonial dress outside as he - along with 20 others - protested its demolition.

Police arrived with batons and helmets to forcibly remove the congregation on August 2.

It happened just hours apart from the funeral of Father Jacques Hamel, who was knifed to death by ISIS-inspired attacker in his church in Normandy as he celebrated Mass.
Heads are to lobby the government to allow teenagers to train as teachers on the job as soon as they leave school.

The Teaching Schools Council wants the first teaching apprenticeship scheme for 18-year-olds, which would see them go straight into the classroom.

Currently, all teachers must either have a general degree or a specific teaching qualification  but school leaders say this may be locking out disadvantaged youngsters.

The scheme could see the trainees teaching in the classroom alongside experienced qualified teachers, as teaching assistants currently do.

Currently, all teachers must either have a general degree or a specific teaching qualification

The training would allow A-level students to join the profession without going to university, but would result in a degree qualification and qualified teaching status.

Supporters said yesterday it would help youngsters in deprived areas who want to become teachers but do not want to amass student debt by gaining a degree.

Teaching Schools Council member Stephen Munday, who is chief executive of Cambridgeshires Cam Academy Trust, told the Times Educational Supplement that the apprenticeship may recruitment in more disadvantaged areas.

He said: I can see how for some parts of the country this could be a very positive route-way for youngsters who might not necessarily take seriously the possibility of a degree.

And for schools where recruiting is tough, they would see it as a positive.

There is a serious win-win here.

The apprenticeship would be the first school-based teacher training route available to participants straight after A levels.

The scheme could see the trainees teaching in the classroom alongside experienced qualified teachers, as teaching assistants currently do

If given the go-ahead, the new apprenticeship scheme would mean that prospective teachers could be paid while they trained and worked towards a degree, which would drive down the cost burden of qualification.

Earlier this month, Department for Education figures revealed that the proportion of students qualifying for free school meals who had gone on to university had started to fall after tuition fees were tripled to 9,000 a year in 2013-14.

The apprenticeship is expected to be submitted for government approval next month by a partnership of training providers led by the Teaching Schools Council.

Sir Andrew Carter, chief executive of South Farnham School in Surrey, who is leading the apprenticeship bid on behalf of the council, said: There seems to be a great appetite for some apprenticeship route into teaching.

About 50 schools have contacted me  some are teaching schools representing alliances.

A teaching assistant apprenticeship is already being developed but this would be the first apprenticeship for teachers.

Schools could apply for funding from the apprenticeship levy introduced next year to help pay for the training under the scheme.

Schools would have to pay for the salaries for their apprentices.

Earlier this month, Department for Education figures revealed that the proportion of students qualifying for free school meals who had gone on to university had started to fall

Details of classroom responsibilities for the proposed apprenticeships have yet to be drawn up.

But Sir Andrew said that an apprentice should work alongside a teacher, as teaching assistants do.

Once they gained experience, they could take lessons under supervision as with other trainee teachers.

It will be an all-graduate profession, he said. It wont change that, but some could join at different points.

This is meant to be an additional route into teaching.

It is not intended to replace current routes into teaching.

It is meant to make a route in for different people, for some people who need to work.

There are no students loans involved in this.

Schools will need to recognise the apprentice route will brings some costs, but the benefits are that it will bring in employees a little earlier than perhaps before who could work at an apprentice level in the school.
Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation is investigating the shooting

Police Chief Nate King said the shooting was 'more than justified'

Officers try to revive him while EMS are en route but Rollice later died

They then open fire and Rollice drops to the floor, groaning in pain

Officers demand he drops the hammer but he refuses to put it down

A police chief in Oklahoma says the fatal shooting of a hammer-wielding man was 'necessary'.

Tahlequah police on Friday released a video of the August 12 shooting death of 49-year-old Dominic Rollice of Park Hill by Lieutenant Brandon Vick and Officer Josh Girdner.

In the more than 15-minute-long body cam video, officers Vick and Girdner are seen pointing their guns at Rollice. Officer Chase Reed points his taser.

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Tahlequah police on Friday released a video of the August 12 shooting death of 49-year-old Dominic Rollice

In the more than 15-minute-long body cam video, officers Vick and Girdner are seen pointing their guns at Rollice. Officer Chase Reed points his taser

Rollice (pictured) walks away from the officers and pulls a hammer off the wall behind him

It is Reed's body cam filming the events unfolding.

The officers repeatedly tell Rollice to drop the hammer he's holding and each time he says 'no'.

He tells them, 'I have done nothing wrong. I'm in my own house.'

Tahlequah Daily reported that although he Rollice said it was his house the home actually belonged to someone else - allegedly his ex-wife.

The ex-wife had called police saying Rollice was in the home and refusing to leave.

'Hey, can I get somebody to come over to my house? My ex-husband is in the garage. He will not leave. He's drunk and it's gonna get ugly real quick,' she said in a 911 call, according to News On 6.

The officers repeatedly tell Rollice to drop the hammer he's holding and each time he says 'no'

He tells them, 'I have done nothing wrong. I'm in my own house.' However, the house is actually believed to be his ex-wife's home

As officers command him to drop the hammer, Rollice then cocks his arm backward and police open fire shooting him six times.

He drops to the ground and appears to crouch after a series of shots.

The officers continue to tell him to drop the hammer, which he is still holding.

Then he falls backwards and drops the hammer.

Rollice is rolled over and cuffed as he groans loudly in pain.

The officers appear to be after Rollice's ex-wife and Reed volunteers to stay with Rollice while the others go outside.

Rollice continues groaning on the floor and it is unclear if he is conscious.

After a minute on the ground he begins to gurgle with each groan.

As officers command him to drop the hammer, Rollice then cocks his arm backward. Tahlequah Police Chief Nate King said the move indicated a possible intent to attack

Police open fire shooting him six times. King said the officers' reaction was 'necessary, not just justified'

Reed rolls him over and says, 'Stay with me, buddy. Stay with me, Dominic. EMS are on their way. Stay with me.'

After about seven minutes, Reed begins preforming CPR and telling Rollice to 'keep breathing' and 'stay with me'.

After approximately ten minutes EMS arrive and say they can feel Rollice's pulse.

The EMS asks Reed to get the cot out of the ambulance while they work on Rollice.

The video ends after officers put Rollice on the cot as EMS rolls him away. His eyes appear open and he has stopped moaning or moving.

Tahlequah Police Chief Nate King said the move indicated a possible intent to attack.

King said the officers' reaction was 'necessary, not just justified'.

'Mr. Rollice reached for a hammer and all three officers heard him say, "One of us is going to die tonight",' King said.

The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation is investigating the shooting and will provide a report to the district attorney, who will decide whether the shooting was justified.
RICHARDTON -- Though they may look like snowdrifts that somehow survived into the summer, the humongous white plastic bags that are appear on the southwest North Dakota landscape during harvest are full of very valuable commodities.

The 300- to 500-foot grain storage devices, which can hold anywhere from 12,000 to 34,000 bushels of wheat, are being used more than ever by area farmers who want cheaper and easier methods of storing their product once its off the field.

Theres no way in the world I could farm that many acres without doing the bagging, said Craig Fisher, who farms around 17,000 acres near Richardton and sells grain bagging machines through his business, Antelope Farm Supply.

Fisher started using grain bags in 2010 and jokes that a couple years later he was roped into selling them for Loftness, a Hector, Minn.-based company that builds the grain bagging machines.

Fisher said his sales doubled from 2014 to 2015 and have gone up another 25 percent this year.

He said many farmers are now using the bags in fields theyre harvesting, which cut down on truck transport.

Theres always that lull when farmers quit hauling and theyve got to keep grinding, Fisher said. Those bags really give you that flexibility, if you can manage the labor to do it.

Keith Witte, who farms throughout central Hettinger County, has been using grain bags instead of adding extra bin space for the past three years. The Regent, N.D., farmer said he has been impressed with the bags durability and the amount of money he has saved.

He has filled eight 12,000-bushel bags so far this summer and plans to fill three to four more.

It does save me more, short-term, Witte said. Bins are long term and would be wonderful to have. But at the price, its not as feasible as this.

Fisher said he sells three different bags, a 12-by-500-foot bag that holds 34,000 bushels of grain, a 10-by-500-footer that holds 22,000 bushels, and a 10-by-300-footer that hold 13,000 bushels. The smallest bag is the most common, he said.

Ben Hetzel, manager of Southwest Grain in Lemmon, S.D., said his elevator has been using the bags the past four years to help manage the volume of grain it takes in during harvest.

Because Lemmon is not on a major rail line and only has around 1 million bushels of storage capacity in bins, it was often faced with turning producers away during harvest after its bins filled up.

Since the elevator started using grain bags, however, Hetzel said it has been able to add about another 1 million bushels in storage capacity through their use of the 500-foot bags.

Not having a lot of big space to hold grain for a few months, weve relied heavily on that to get us through harvest, he said.

This year, the elevator has put around 700,000 bushels of grain in bags, and has used them as transitional storage beginning with winter wheat in early harvest. Hetzel said once bin storage space is cleared, they transfer the grain out of the bags. Once that happens, more grain will come in. That product is then put in bags and the process starts over.

In order to do what weve done, wed have really needed about a million bushels of space (in bins), he said. Even if you go cheap, thats a $3 million-plus project. We might have total right now of 10 percent of that invested in this, and over 50 percent of that is something you can recoup your investment out of it.

Hetzel said while using the bags has been profitable for his cooperative, the tool has been divisive among producers.

The guys who hate them had a bad experience and wont go there again, he said.

Fisher and Hetzel said some farmers were scared off the bags because they arent impervious to large hail. Thunderstorms that ripped through the Mott and Regent area this summer brought large jagged hail and poked hundreds of holes in grain bags owned by farmer Alan Honeyman.

Hetzel said that also happened in Lemmon and created a little nightmare, though the bags still served their purpose.

Witte said the only issues he has had is the bags can attract wildlife if holes are poked in them.

You have to do a great job of cleaning up any spills or anything around the bag. Dont let the wildlife find it as a food source, or youre out of luck. Theyll eat it, he said with a laugh. If a pheasant starts to poke on it, theyll come back.

Fisher said the bags are not supposed to be a long-term storage solution like grain bins. He suggests keeping grain in the bags for, at most, two years.

Weve had luck with them, but we empty them out in a timely fashion, he said.
Sixth formers who have done better than expected in their A levels could be given the automatic right to switch their university place for a better one, under plans being considered by Ucas.

The university admissions service is examining a number of recommendations about how to improve students experience of clearing.

Among them is a proposal to allow youngsters to release themselves from a university place if their exam grades are better than those predicted.

The university admissions service is examining a number of recommendations about how to improve students experience of clearing (stock image)

This would allow them to enter clearing  the process which matches students with the places still available  in order to find a place at a better university with higher entry requirements.

Currently, students who achieve their predicted grades can only enter clearing with the permission of the university they are holding an offer from.

If adopted, the move would mark another shift away from clearings bargain basement image, as it would see highly capable students trading up rather than down.

The proposal is one of many recommended by a panel of admissions experts who work with universities around the country.

The clearing working group, convened by the Academic Registrars Council, has also recommended that applicants should be able to reactivate offers that they had previously declined once they have got their exam results.

The proposals could make it harder for universities to predict and prepare for the shape of their annual undergraduate intake.

Currently, students who achieve their predicted grades can only enter clearing with the permission of the university they are holding an offer from (stock)

But the working group believes that clearing needs to change to reflect how it is no longer a last-chance saloon for students who do not achieve their predicted grades.

Many of the UKs top universities, including most of the Russell Group, now offer places through clearing.

And a record number of students, 49,100, were placed last year via clearing after failing to win a place in Ucas main admissions scheme, while a further 15,200 students were enrolled after applying directly to clearing, up 10.2 per cent.

This means that about one in eight students who were placed in 2015 came via clearing.

Another of the working groups recommendations is that clearing should be given a new name, as many in the sector believe that has negative connotations.

The panel says that students who have selected an unconditional offer as their firm choice should be able to look at other options via clearing if they are unhappy with their decision, and that the current practice of telephone offers should be replaced with formal offers being made online.

Another of the working groups recommendations is that clearing should be given a new name, as many in the sector believe that has negative connotations (stock)

Stewart Harper, associate registrar at Leeds Beckett University and the chair of the working group, said that the changes were needed to reflect how clearing was no longer seen as a second-choice scheme.

He told Times Higher Education magazine: All higher education providers want to make sure that students are making the right choices for them, not just for us.

We are designing systems that allow them to exercise those choices.

Ucas has already acted on one of the working groups recommendations, to bring forward the start time of clearing: this year it was due to open at 3pm on results day, not 5pm as was the case previously.

Helen Thorne, UCAS Director of External Relations said: Clearing has matured into a respected application route, with around one in eight students now accepted to university that way.
A man who teaches modern and classical languages at Missouri State University was arrested after he allegedly stabbed a retired professor to death.

Edward M Gutting, 43, is accused of entering 66-year-old Marc Cooper's home in Springfield at 7.30pm Wednesday before chasing him through the house with a large knife,KSPR reported.

Gutting told Cooper's wife Nancy it was between him and her husband, according to a probable cause statement.

Nancy sustained numerous stab wounds in an attempt to stop the assailant, but she is expected to survive, police said.

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Edward M Gutting, 43, (left) who teaches modern and classical languages at Missouri State University, was arrested after he allegedly stabbed retired professor Marc Cooper (right) to death

Cooper was found dead in his living room when Springfield police arrived at 635 East University Street (pictured) on Wednesday night. His wife Nancy Cooper sustained non-life threatening injuries

Courtesy KY3

Cooper, an emeritus professor who had worked at the university's history department for 34 years, knew Gutting, but friends said they weren't close, the New York Daily News reported.

Cooper, Gutting and Gutting's wife Angela Hornsby-Gutting all worked together for three years until the 66-year-old retired, a Missouri State spokeswoman told the News Leader.

Cooper was found dead in his living room when Springfield police arrived at 635 East University Street on Wednesday night.

Nancy told police the attacker entered their home through the back door and repeatedly stabbed Cooper as her husband ran from the kitchen to the living room, KSPR reported.

The assailant knocked Cooper to the ground and continued to stab him as he told Nancy it was between him and her husband, according to the probable cause statement.

He also told her he didn't want to kill her, but would if he had to, the statement said.

Gutting (pictured at the scene in handcuffs) is held on $1million bond and charged with second-degree murder, assault, burglary and armed criminal action

Cooper, Gutting (left) and Gutting's wife Angela Hornsby-Gutting (rigt) all worked together for three years until the 66-year-old retired

Nancy was stabbed several times in an attempt to save her husband, but eventually ran from the house to call for help, according to the statement.

She did not recognize the intruder who attacked her husband, but later picked Gutting out as the suspect.

Police arrived on the scene to find Gutting on the street outside the home, covered in blood although he was not found with a weapon on him.

He surrendered and could be seen sitting on the ground in handcuffs.

Gutting is held on $1million bond and charged with second-degree murder, assault, burglary and armed criminal action.

Captain Vance Holland of Springfield police, said: 'We do believe we understand what happened. But we are still piecing together the why.'

Missouri State University issued a statement that recognized Cooper's work as a scholar for 34 years.

After Cooper retired in 2014, he remained an active figure in the school, working in public affairs while developing online courses.
A man miraculously escaped serious injury after falling onto the tracks at a Sydney train station on Saturday morning.

The man, believed to be in his early twenties, was understood to be heavily intoxicated when he fell onto the tracks at Sydenham station from platform six about 1am, reported the Daily Telegraph.

He fell in front of a Cronulla/Waterfall line Tangara train, which is said to have stopped just a few metres behind him.

A man aged in his twenties (pictured) miraculously escaped serious injury after falling onto the tracks at a Sydney train station on Saturday morning

NSW Police confirmed to Daily Mail Australia that it was a 'misadventure' and they attended the scene with NSW Fire and Rescue and paramedics.

The man was rescued from the tracks and transferred to a stretcher.

He was taken to hospital by ambulance as a precaution.

A spokesperson from Sydney Trains told Daily Mail Australia there were delays to services in both directions on the T4 Illawarra Line as trains were diverted around platform six until 1.15am.

Two services were cancelled at Sydenham and customers from these trains were transferred to other services.

He was understood to be heavily intoxicated when he fell onto the tracks at Sydenham station from platform six about 1am. He was taken to hospital as a precaution
Monroe did this project pro-bono and said: 'This has been an amazing opportunity for me as an artist to ... get my name out there'

They were made with 300 pounds of clay and silicone and also appeared in Seattle, San Francisco, LA and Cleveland

INDECLINE reached out to artist named Joshua 'Ginger' Monroe, 36, known for creating monsters for horror films, to make the sculptures

The artist who created the naked statues of Donald Trump that popped up in major cities across the country said that when he started the project, he supported the Republican presidential candidate.

The statues, were the brainchild of anarchist collective INDECLINE, who brought on Joshua 'Ginger' Monroe to actually create them because of his expertise in the 'horror' genre.

'The objective was to source an artist who could accurately and skillfully capture both realistic and grotesque human attributes,' said INDECLINE, the self-described 'anonymous activist collective' that assigned Monroe his task in a statement Thursday, DNA Info reported.

'Working exclusively in the 'horror' genre, 'Ginger' maintained a familiarity with creating monsters that translated perfectly when tasked with creating Donald Trump.'

INDECLINE, which was founded in 2001, commissioned Monroe back in April to create the five life-size, nude states of Trump for a project called 'The Emperor Has No B***s'.

These naked statues of Donald Trump, the brainchild of anarchist collective INDECLINE, popped up across major US cities on Thursday morning (pictured in San Francisco)

The statues were made by a Las Vegas-based artist named Joshua 'Ginger' Monroe, who specializes in making monsters for horror films and haunted houses

The completed works appeared in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Cleveland and Seattle on Thursday morning, before authoritative figures in each city called for them to be taken down.

Monroe told Newsweek that he only ever met two of the dozens of artists apart of INDECLINE.

When Monroe started working on the statues, he was a Trump supporter.

'When I started this, I was going to vote for Trump,' Monroe said.

But by the time he finished the statues, Monroe's opinion of The Donald changed.

'The different times he's said just horrific things has made me raise an eyebrow,' he said.

When Trump imitated a New York Times reporter with a congenital joint condition, Monroe stopped supporting him, though Trump denies doing such a thing.

'I actually have family members who are disabled and when he did that, that just showed his true character, and I've never been so disgusted with a candidate in all my life,' said Monroe.

INDECLINE said the project was inspired by The Emperor's New Clothes, a Hans Christian Andersen tale of a vain ruler who is tricked into wearing nothing at all

The 36-year-old, who has worked previously for horror productions and movies, did this project pro-bono.

'This has been an amazing opportunity for me as an artist to not only get my name out there, but to get millions of people to see my work,' he said.

'That's something that an artist would have to pay to do, so I was very willing to invest my time.'

He invested roughly $6,000 in materials and hired a model with a similar build as Trumps.

In addition, he worked on the statues around his full-time job and estimates that he slept about three hours each night.

Monroe, who signed the statues as 'Ginger', didn't expect the statutes to stand in the specific areas they were placed in for long. INDECLINE didn't either.

The group said: 'Each of the pieces would have a limited amount of time before the city or the police covered or removed them completely.'

The statues, dubbed The Emperor Has No B***s, feature one missing part of the male anatomy and another that is microscopic in size

The group also wanted to suggest Trump's similarities to past dictators who would erect monuments of themselves in public squares for all to see

The group felt as though when the statues would fall or be removed, they would leave behind, the 'embodiment of the ghastly soul of one of America's most infamous and reviled politicians,' and represent his 'failed and delusional quest to obtain the presidency.'

Monroe, who is based out of Las Vegas, also said that he's not nervous to be affiliated with INDECLINE for the project.

No, thats why we have first amendment rights," he said.

"I have freedom of expression as an artist. Again, Im just the artist who was commissioned to make the statues  I was not the one to install them.

INDECLINE said the project was inspired by The Emperor's New Clothes, a Hans Christian Andersen tale of a vain ruler who is tricked into wearing nothing at all.

The group also wanted to suggest Trump's similarities to past dictators who would erect monuments of themselves in public squares for all to see.

'Like it or not, Trump is a larger-than-life figure in world culture at the moment,' an INDECLINE spokesman told The Washington Post.

One of the naked Donald statues appeared in New York's bustling Union Square

The statue stood tall for only two hours in New York before it was removed by workers with the Department of Parks and Recreation

'NYC Parks stands firmly against any unpermitted erection in city parks, no matter how small,' the department said in a hilarious statement on Thursday

'Looking back in history, that's how those figures were memorialized and idolized in their time - with statues.'

'Trump is just yet another monster, so it was absolutely in my wheelhouse to be able to create these monstrosities.'

Monroe used 300 pounds of clay and silicone to mold and shape his version of Trump, complete with a pot belly and hair down there that is just as golden as the locks on his head.

The hands are clasped together and a Masonic ring is on Trump's hand, meant to symbolize his privilege and wealth, according to Monroe.

But it was Trump's derriere that gave Monroe the most trouble.

'If somebody were to look at my browser history, it would be a little disturbing,' he said.

'Turns out there's not too many Google results for 'saggy old man butt''.

And Monroe paid special attention to the Donald's mouth, wanting to give him a 'constipated look'.

'He has a very distinct little mouth,' Monroe said. 'The way his chin meets the jowl, it had to look right.'
They are being marketed as the healthy alternative to margarine and butter.

But popular avocado spreads may not be as good for us as we think, experts warn.

A leading nutritionist says unhealthier oils in the dairy-free product outweigh the beneficial ones and claims shoppers might be better off sticking to unsalted butter.

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They are being marketed as the healthy alternative to margarine and butter. But popular avocado spreads may not be as good for us as we think, experts warn. Stock image

In a bid to capitalise on the nations love of the green fruit, Tesco first launched the dairy-free avocado spread in May at a cost of 1.20 for a tub. It also launched a coconut oil version for the same price.

It came after figures showed avocado sales hit a record of 128m in the 12 months to March this year  up nearly 40 per cent on the year before.

The firms spreads buyer Dean Rawlinson said: With this, the UKs first ever avocado spread, our product developers have created a new and exciting way for shoppers to benefit from the excellent health credentials of avocados in even more ways.

Now Waitrose has followed suit with its 1.25 versions of the spreads, while Asda has launched similar products at 1.20 a pot.

A leading nutritionist says unhealthier oils in the dairy-free product outweigh the beneficial ones and claims shoppers might be better off sticking to unsalted butter. Stock image

However, food expert Caroline Farrell had reservations after researching Tescos own brand spreads including ones containing avocado and coconut.

She said: Avocado is very popular in the UK at the moment and this spread is rich in mono-unsaturated fat, which is great for the heart. But the unhealthier oils make up more of the spread than avocado oil, and while its marketed at having vitamins A and D, these are actually added rather than naturally present.

I would recommend just mashing up avocado and using that as a spread instead. Miss Farrell, founder of food clinic Essential Nutrition, said the coconut spread was largely made up of rapeseed oil and was fattier.
The group will form alliance with others to fight against the Assad regime

The group rebranded last month to become Jabhat Fateh al Sham

Australian Jihadist talks about being the leader for new militant group

A wanted Australian terrorist who is also on a US kill list has spoken to British media about his split from al-Qaeda in Syria to fight President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

Sheik Mostafa Mahamed, a former senior sharia leader for al-Qaeda's Jabhat al-Nusra group, spoke about the groups rebranding last month to become Jabhat Fateh al Sham.

Mahamed, also a former Sydney preacher, declared he had severed all ties al-Qaeda to form alliance with other rebel groups that otherwise would not have seemed possible.

Sydney preacher is the face of a new militant Islamic group, Jabhat Fateh al Sham, in Syria

'It's certainly not something temporary,' Mohamed told Sky news UK from Aleppo, Syria.

'It's a necessary step forward in order to achieve the very much needed reunification of ranks in Syria and one of the core reasons of Jabhat al-Nusra initially was disbanded and we created then JFS, was to remove any potential obstacles that may impede the success of a merger  like unnecessary affiliations.

'This was the most high-level co-ordinated collaboration between all of the Syrian major players on the ground.'

Mahamed claimed the new establishment which was a necessary step forward is what helped break the recent siege in Aleppo.

But this attracted air strikes and shelling from the Russian forces which are currently working alongside Assad.

Smoke and flame rise after what fighters of the Syria Democratic Forces (SDF) said were U.S.-led air strikes on the mills of Manbij where Islamic State militants are positioned

Fighters of the Syrian Islamist rebel group Jabhat Fateh al-Sham cheer on a pick truck after a Russian helicopter had been shot down in the north of Syria's rebel-held Idlib province, Syria

The jihadi also refuted claims that the new group Jabhat Fateh al Sham is the same as al-Qaedas Jabhat al-Nusra, just with a different name.

By extension [western governments] theyre trying to infer that our ideology and objectives are completely alien to the general masses of the Syrian population and we totally reject that claim, Mahamed said.

If western governments are expecting us to come out and say that we want a Western, liberal democracy, secular democracy, they have to understand that as a Muslim society our core beliefs and values define all spheres of our lives.

The 32-year-old Egyptian-born terrorist, also known as Abu Sulayman al-Muhajir, was raised in Sydney and gave lectures in Sydney's west calling on young men to fight in Syria.

His interview with British media comes after he taking to Twitter to ask his followers to keep suicide bombers and foreign fighters in their prayers during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Appearing in propaganda videos he explained why Australians must go to Syria and aid 'Muslims against the world's aggressors'.

Sheik Mostafa Mahamed was a former senior sharia leader for al-Qaeda's Jabhat al-Nusra group




Hotel manager said they are working through what caused the lift issue

A group of people have been rescued from a hotel elevator in Queensland after being trapped between floors for more than 20 minutes.

The Mantra on Mary Street hotel in Brisbane's city centre reported the lift failure about 10am on Saturday morning.

James Reedy, general manager at Mantra on Mary told Daily Mail Australia a group of hotel guests and hotel residents were trapped inside the lift for approximately 30 minutes.

A group of people have been rescued from the Mantra on Mary hotel elevator in Brisbane (pictured) after being trapped inside for more than 20 minutes

Mr Reedy confirmed there were four lifts in total in the hotel and one initially stopped working.

'The incident occurred around normal checkout time and there was heavy foot traffic coming in and out of the building, with all the remaining lifts in operation being used,' Mr Reedy said.

Because of the volume of people using the elevators, a second lift stopped with the hotel guests trapped inside, and a third lift became non functional.

Hotel manager James Reedy told Daily Mail Australia the incident took place about 10am on Saturday morning during a period of heavy foot traffic, and they were investigating what had caused the lifts to stop operating in the hotel (pictured)

Mr Reedy said the situation was reported to the hotel first and shortly after the Queensland Fire and Rescue Service and Queensland Ambulance Service were on site.

Emergency services used the fourth lift to move equipment up and down between floors and facilitate the rescue.

Mr Reedy said he couldn't comment on any health issues suffered by guests as a result of the incident, but 'the hotel staff dealt with the situation as best they could'.

Queensland Fire and Rescue Service and Queensland Ambulance Service attended the scene and rescued the group from inside the lift

One of the men trapped inside the lift suffered from claustrophobia and hypertension, reported the Sydney Morning Herald.

Mr Reedy said people were distressed but that was normal and would be expected given the situation. As far as he was aware none of the hotel guests were hospitalised, but he couldn't confirm it.

Mr Reedy said the hotel was working through was caused the lifts to stop.

The 43-storey inner-city hotel has 367 self contained apartments.
Stephen O'Brien (pictured), 47, was caught on camera allegedly kidnapping a one-year-old boy from a grocery store in Boston

A man was caught on camera allegedly kidnapping a one-year-old boy from a grocery store in Boston, according to officials.

On August 12, cameras caught Stephen O'Brien, 47, inside the South Shore India Market in Braintree, south of Boston.

He is seen shirtless in the store with a child slung over his shoulder.

CBS Boston reported that the child had just started walking and this was the first time his parents had put him down and let him walk in a store.

'This gentleman walked in, without a shirt, grabbed the kid,' Mehtab Ahmed told CBS Boston.

The suspect walked to the store's backdoor, followed by the one-year-old's father.

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In survelliance footage, O'Brien is seen with the child slung over his shoulder as he walks to the back of the store

The parents said at first they thought O'Brien was a store employee playing with their son. The father approached the suspect and he handed the child back without incident

Without incident, O'Brien is seen handing the boy back over to his father.

The parents said at first they thought O'Brien was a store employee playing with their son.

The father returned inside and asked Ahmed to call the police.

O'Brien struggled with police but was eventually taken into custody and charged with kidnapping.

O'Brien was arraigned on Monday and is being held on a $100,000 cash bail.

The father returned inside and asked a store clerk to call the police, who later arrested O'Brien
A 31-year-old fugitive wearing a disguise to look like an elderly man was found at a Massachusetts home, authorities said.

Police went to a house on Cape Cod on Thursday looking for Shaun Miller, who had been a fugitive since April when he and several others were indicted on heroin distribution charges.

When officers ordered a man inside to come outside, an elderly-man emerged who did not initially match Miller's description, police said.

Fugitive Shaun Miller, 31, (left) was found at a Massachusetts home wearing a disguise as an elderly man (right), police said

Nearly $30,000 in cash and two loaded guns hidden in a laundry basket were found inside the home, according to police

But once officers realized the man was Miller, they pulled off his 'realistic disguise' and placed him under arrest, according to the U.S. Attorney's office.

Nearly $30,000 in cash and two loaded guns hidden in a laundry basket were found inside the home.

Miller, who is from Hyannis and is also known as Shizz Miller, is being held pending a detention hearing on August 31 in federal court.

The mask worn by 31-year-old fugitive Shaun Miller who was disguised to look like an elderly man

Miller, who is from Hyannis and is also known as Shizz Miller, is one of 12 who have been indicted on firearms and drug trafficking charges

The Yarmouth Police Department said Miller is one of 12 who have been indicted on firearms and drug trafficking charges.

He is indicted on a charge of possession of heroin with the intent to distribute as part of a larger criminal complaint into the Nauti street gang, according to police.
Malcolm Turnbull has condemned domestic violence as a 'disgrace.'

The Australian Prime Minister called on boys to 'respect their mothers and sisters' as he defended new domestic violence guidelines for judges, which include repeated silence or withdrawing affection as emotional abuse, The Daily Telegraph reported.

Mr Turnbull declared fathers and grandfathers need to teach their sons and grandsons respect because all violence against women starts with disrespect, he said.

Mr Turnbull declared fathers and grandfathers need to teach their sons and grandsons respect because all violence against women starts with disrespect, he said

'One of the most important things we can do as parents, and indeed as grandparents, is make sure our sons respect their mothers and their sisters, that they respect the women in their life.'

The prime minister insists the new 'bench' guidelines don't change the law.

'They're there for guidance and I think it's important that we don't take them out of context,' he said on Friday.

Attorney-General George Brandis released the online resource, saying it would promote best practice in domestic violence court cases.

The guidelines define as emotional and psychological abuse verbal attacks, stalking, threatening to divorce or kill the victim and monitoring the victim's whereabouts.

Mr Turnbull said it was vital to stop men disrespecting women.

'Domestic violence is a disgrace,' he said.

'Violence against women and children is always wrong.'

Malcolm Turnbull has condemned domestic violence as a 'disgrace' (stock image)

The guide includes repeated angry verbal outbursts, staring, silence, ignoring and withdrawal of affection as emotional abuse.

For example, in one case of abuse against a female, a man insisted she slept outside and asked her children to refer to her by derogatory terms.

'Generally treating her in a humiliating and abusive manner, including attempting to persuade her to engage in a sexual act with a dog,' the guideline example states.

There is no single family violence law in Australia and judges can rely on a range of legal responses to deal with domestic violence cases.
DEVILS LAKE -- A North Dakota agencys report on a Devils Lake jails move to fire its top official two years ago details evidence of gender discrimination against her.

Its unclear how Denny Deegan, who was fired in August 2014 as the Lake Region Law Enforcement operations director, plans to proceed after the North Dakota Department of Labor and Human Rights found evidence her employment was terminated because she was a woman.

The evidence shows (Deegan) was discharged from employment, in whole or in part, because of her sex, as demonstrated by Commissioner (Ed) Browns comment, an Aug. 1 report regarding the Labor Departments ruling stated. The evidence also shows (The LECs) allegation concerning (Deegans) performance is pretext to discrimination as alleged.

Brown, who represents the Ramsey County Commission on the LEC board, has told the Herald he cannot comment on the matter because of pending litigation.

Deegan also claimed a hostile work environment, that she was retaliated against for firing Capt. Daniel Kraft and that her firing was based on a disability pertaining to a doctor-ordered medical leave, though the Labor Department found no evidence to substantiate those claims. The LEC also has denied these claims.

The Labor Departments report states she has made a settlement offer to the LEC, a multi-jurisdictional jail that serves five counties, but that part of the document was redacted.

The LEC Board went into executive session Wednesday to review administrative proceedings and possible litigation regarding the reports findings, and it has until Monday to accept, counter or reject Deegans offer.

The boards attorney, Howard Swanson, has advised board members not to comment on the case and previously told the Herald it wasnt likely they would respond to questions from the media.

Swanson was unavailable Friday, and he did not immediately reply to an email requesting comment. Messages left for state Commissioner of Labor Troy Seibel were not returned Friday, and representatives with the Labor Department did not know if the LEC or Deegan had taken action in the matter as of Friday.

Deegan has retained an attorney and said she could not speak on how she would proceed.

When asked how she felt about the Labor Department making a decision on her claims, Deegan said she was pleased that people are finally going to know what the LEC and the board members who voted to fire her are all about.

We need a man

The Labor Departments ruling is a response to a discrimination complaint filed by Deegan in September 2014 after the LEC Board voted 5-3 during an Aug. 21, 2014, special meeting to terminate her employment. Board members who voted to dismiss her, including Ramsey County Commissioner Mark Olson, said she was not performing her job properly and the LEC under Deegans leadership had money and overtime problems as well as a huge help turnover, according to the Labor Department report. LEC Board member Lowell Haagenson, a Benson County commissioner who also voted to dismiss Deegan, told Labor Department officials the jail was losing good employees and the place was falling apart.

Olson and Haagenson did not immediately respond to a messages left by the Herald seeking comment.

Deegan has claimed Brown made several sexist remarks, including one during the special meeting during which she was fired. Brown allegedly said we need a man to run this place, according to Tanya Wieler, who was a human resources consultant for the LEC when Deegan was fired.

Brown told investigators he doesnt believe he said those words, and several board members interviewed by the Labor Department said they did not recall the comment being made.

Investigators listened to audio from the meeting but were unable to hear Commissioner Brown make the alleged comment.

Wieler said she discussed the inappropriateness of the comment with Brown and other board members. She also said he has made other inappropriate comments.

When contacted by the attorney (Swanson) that represented the LEC  I went on the record again stating that I felt (Browns) comments were very inappropriate, Wieler wrote in an email to the Labor Department. The attorney had no further interest in visiting with me.

Reasons behind firing

Not everyone on the board agreed with the decision or reasoning. Board member Jeffrey Pfau, an Eddy County commissioner who voted against the dismissal, told Labor Department investigators he did not agree with the reasoning behind Deegans firing.

Its a witch hunt, Pfau said during an Aug. 3, 2014, meeting in which board members voted down a motion to fire Deegan.

Rick Morse and Dale Robbins, Devils Lake city commissioners who sat on the LEC Board, also voted against Deegans firing Aug. 21, 2014.

Pfau said he could not comment on the matter, citing Swansons advice not to speak due to pending litigation.

Wieler also disagreed with the boards reasoning behind terminating the LEC directors employment. A memo published in the labor report indicated turnover from July 2013 to July 2014 -- the LEC lost 20 employees during that time -- was slightly higher than the jails yearly average of 18. She also said staffing has been a longtime concern.

Wieler also cited lost revenue from the termination of the federal juvenile program due to low numbers and state orders to not allow any juveniles to be detained at the facility.

Wieler said in the memo the events Deegan had to deal with would be stressful for a seasoned director and more so for two new administrators.

Im going to be very frank -- the impression I have received from a handful of individuals was that I would discover grave concerns regarding the current administrators, she wrote in the memo. I have not found this to be true.

The Labor Department also found Deegan was qualified for and performing her work in a satisfactory way, according to the report. It also noted a man, Ramsey County Sheriff Steve Nelson, had been appointed to fill Deegans position in the interim as basis to investigate gender discrimination. Tom Rime was ultimately hired as Deegans long-term replacement.

A request submitted to the LEC regarding Deegans yearly reviews was being processed as of press time, LEC Director Rob Johnson said.

No notice

Wielers email also states there was no documentation in her files regarding Deegans termination.

The decision was made in a board meeting, as you know, without any consultation with me prior to making the decision -- or after, for that matter, Wieler wrote. The board did not ask me to notify (Deegan) or conduct an exit interview or involve me in the process at all.

Deegan told the Herald Friday there was never a time in her 20 years of employment at the LEC that she did not notify an employee under her supervision that he or she had been fired. She said exit interviews werent part of the LECs policy until the board approved it in April 2014, but she never participated in one regarding her dismissal.

The only reason I became aware of it was because my husband was there at the meeting, she said. I was not notified of my termination.

Deegan said she was on medical leave beginning in July 2014 in New Mexico, adding board members knew about the leave.

The LEC Board denied it was aware Deegan was on medical leave, a claim with which the Labor Department agreed.

Requests to the LEC for any documentation regarding Deegans dismissal had not been met as of Friday but were being processed, Johnson said.
An Australian woman and her British boyfriend have been charged with the murder of a Bali policeman who was allegedly bashed to death with a beer bottle on Kuta Beach.

The charges against Sara Connor and David Taylor come as details emerge about a heated exchange between the pair and the victim shortly before his death.

Ms Connor's lawyer Erwin Siregar has revealed her client has a bite mark on her inner thigh, but it is unknown where the mark came from, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Denpasar Police chief Hadi Purnomo said the pair admitted they had clashed with Wayan Sudarsa shortly before he was found dead with 17 head wounds, thought to be caused by a beer bottle.

Sara Connor is escorted by police officers as she was arrested over the alleged murder of a police officer in Bali. Ms Connor and her British boyfriend David Taylor have been charged

The charges against Sara Connor (pictured) and David Taylor come as details emerge about a heated exchange between the pair and the victim shortly before his death

Ms Connor's lawyer Erwin Siregar has revealed her client has a bite mark on her inner thigh, but it is unknown where the mark came from

British national David Taylor is escorted by police officers as he was arrested over the alleged murder

The altercation reportedly began when Ms Connor asked for help over her missing handbag.

'Sara (Connor) said that she clashed with the victim at the beach gate. They had pulled each other,' Mr Purnomo told The Daily Telegraph.

'Sara said because her bag was gone she asked for help from the victim but then they pulled each other.'

Mr Taylor told police the victim had bitten him on his finger during an altercation, and that he had later tried to help the dying man, according to the publication.

Ms Connor, pictured, and her British boyfriend David Taylor admit to being at the scene of the crime on Kuta Beach, but have not admitted to any involvement in the murder

On Friday Mr Taylor was hauled away in Bali after he and Ms Connor turned themselves into police

Sara Connor (pictured), from Byron Bay on the NSW north coast, and British man David Taylor were taken into custody in Denpasar on Friday

Mr Siregar, who also represented convicted drug trafficker Schapelle Corby, said Ms Conner will face three alternate charges of murder, manslaughter and assault causing death.

Mr Taylor is understood to be facing the same charges. If convicted of murder the pair could face a maximum sentence of 15 years.

Mr Siregar said Ms Conner is exhausted and misses her two children, nine and 11.

'She's sad, of course, that's normal. She's tired,' he said.

Despite reports Ms Connor said she was too drunk to remember the incident, her lawyer insists she was not intoxicated.

The night the officer was killed the couple had gone to a restaurant and had some beers before going to the beach where they began 'kissing'.

During that time, Ms Connor said she lost her purse and wounded her arm and leg, but it remains unclear how those injuries occurred.

Ms Connor and British man David Taylor (pictured) have been taken back to the beach where a police officer was murdered in Bali

Briton David Taylor is escorted by Indonesian in Denpasar with a black mask covering his face

Sara Connor is escorted by Indonesia police officials at a station in Denpasar on Indonesia's resort island of Bali

Hours later, Mr Sudarsa's sand-covered body was found. He had significant wounds to his head and leg, and his shirt was unbuttoned and bloodied.

A smashed beer bottle was found near his body.

Earlier, a hotel security guard heard screaming and went down to the beach where he allegedly saw five people, including a woman, with the policeman.

Thinking the group was 'just fooling around', he went back to the hotel.

The body was discovered about an hour later.

Blood from Mr Taylor and Ms Connor was reportedly found at the murder scene.

Ms Connor's black leather purse, her driver's license and a credit card were also found near the body.

Police searched what is believed to be Ms Connor's hotel room on Thursday and claimed to have found blood on the bed, doors, walls and floor.

Indonesian police have detained David Taylor, pictured, over the brutal murder of a policeman on a popular Bali beach

The hotel room Ms Connor (pictured) was staying in allegedly had bloodstained walls and floors

It is believed Mr Taylor, pictured, had been living with Ms Connor in Byron Bay

A towel was also found in the hotel with a blood stain on it, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Ms Connor and Mr Taylor were arrested near the Australian Consulate-General in Denpasar on Friday after police put out an immigration alert in a bid to stop the pair from leaving the island.

After spending their first night in custody in Bali, the pair were taken to Kuta Beach at dawn where they were asked to carry out a re-enactment.

'We wanted to find out the suspects' position during the incident and the suspects admitted that they were there,' Police Chief Purnomo said.

They were also taken to the nearby Kubu Kau Beach Inn - the hotel where Mr Taylor was staying before heading to Trijata Hospital in Denpasar.

On Friday Mr Taylor was hooded and hauled away after he and Ms Connor turned themselves into police.

Security guards discovered the body of Insp Sudarsa (pictured), 53, who police believe was hit in the head with a beer bottle

Insp Sudarsa had wounds to his forehead and leg, while his shirt was unbuttoned and bloodied (pictured)

Tourists walk past the site where an officer was murdered on Wednesday

'They're being interrogated. I did the interrogation myself,' Bali Provincial Police Chief Sugeng Prayitno told reporters shortly after the couple were arrested.

Police claimed Ms Connor said she was too drunk to remember the incident, while Mr Taylor refused to answer questions and was waiting for his lawyer.

'According to female suspect, she admitted that she was drunk at the time. She couldn't remember all the events that night,' Mr Prayitno said.

The community of Ms Conner's hometown Byron Bay on the NSW north coast has rallied around the mother-of-two and released a statement shortly after news spread of her arrest.

'Sara is a very honest, reliable and generous person; she is a great organiser and is very supportive in bringing people together and looking after her friends,' the statement read.

'The accusations laid against her are totally out of character for this beautiful person.'

Police searched what is believed to be their hotel room (pictured) on Thursday after the couple checked out

Officers claim to have found blood on the bed, doors, walls and floor (pictured)

Insp Sudarsa's motorcycle was parked in the Pullman Hotel car park and his walkie talkie and hat were found 20 metres away

The victim's brother Putu Yudi Krisna said the victim had been a policeman for 35 years.

'He's a kind person, loving his family and living modestly. He had two children and so far, he had no enemies whatsoever. We're very shocked,' he said.

Mr Sudarsa's family are making preparations for his cremation, which is expected to take place on Sunday.

'We leave it all to the police to catch all the perpetrators and to reveal what happened,' Mr Krisna said.

He said he was contacted by the Australian consulate on Friday night.

This picture shows an entry gate cordoned by police line at the site where the policeman was killed

A security officer at the Pullman Hotel told police he heard screaming at about 1.15am on the Wednesday and went down to the beach (pictured)

This picture shows a police cordon at the site where a policeman was killed

A security guard allegedly saw five people, including a woman on the beach with the policeman

The Department of Foreign Affairs said it was 'aware of media reports of a tourist or tourists possibly being implicated in the death of a Balinese policeman in Indonesia.'

'We stand ready to provide consular assistance, in accordance with the Consular Services Charter,' it said in a statement.

Authorities initially told reporters they were looking for Ms Connor along with a man called Thomas Schon.

But late on Friday it appeared they had given out the wrong name and they were then looking for a man called Mr Taylor.

Mr Schon told Fairfax Media he was in Europe and 'had never been to Bali in his life'.

Mr Taylor is believed to have entered Bali on July 29 while Ms Connor came on August 16.

David Taylor, pictured, was taken into custody on Friday over the murder of police officer Wayan Sudarsa

Ms Connor's black leather purse, her driver's license and a credit card were found at the crime scene (pictured)
Two sorority sisters at Pennsylvania State University could be sharing both a courtroom and housing, after roommate drama escalated causing one girl to file a federal lawsuit.

Rachel Lader is claiming in a breach-of-contract and defamation lawsuit that the parents of her Alpha Sigma Alpha sister Molly Brownstein, used their influence and position as active donors to the university to encourage a disciplinary investigation against Lader that resulted in her being put on academic probation, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

The rift between Lader and Brownstein, who will be forced to live together starting Monday, started when they were studying abroad and living together in Barcelona, Spain last spring.

In a memo filed with the university, Brownstein, who will be a senior this fall, and her parents claim that Lader bullied her throughout their international stay in Spain.

Clash: Alpha Sigma Alpha sorority members are pictured in 2013 - but none of the girls in the above photo are implicated in the lawsuit

The rift between Lader and Brownstein (pictured above left with her sister), started when they were studying abroad and living together in Barcelona, Spain last spring

Brownstein along with her parents, whose father is CEO of the Center City ad agency the Brownstein Group, contends that bullying brought her to contemplate suicide.

'Rachel bullied me to the point where I had to leave in the middle of the night in an area where people get stabbed outside my building,' Brownstein wrote in a memo that Lader, who is a rising senior and plans to be a lawyer, included in her lawsuit.

'Whenever I think about it, it brings me to a full on terrible place and makes me completely depressed.'

In the memo, Brownstein and her parents allege that Lader brought a male back to a shared hotel room on a trip to Prague that forced Brownstein to find another place to stay, played music too loudly in their Barcelona apartment and dumped a colander full of pasta onto Brownstein's bed.

In an eight-page memo titled 'A Mother's Perspective', Brownstein's mother claimed that Lader actively attempted to leave behind her daughter and even excluded her on a trip to Copenhagen.

Brownstein's mother filed the memo with the university.

'In the sorority, it is generally understood that you do not cross Rachel Lader  better to pretend to be her friend, than be her enemy,' Brownstein's mother wrote in the memo.

'The other girls were frankly scared of Rachel.'

In a memo filed with the university, Brownstein, who will be a senior this fall, and her parents (above) claim that Lader bullied her throughout their international stay in Spain

Brownstein (above) wrote in a memo: 'Rachel bullied me to the point where I had to leave in the middle of the night in an area where people get stabbed outside my building'

Lader denies the claims in the lawsuit and argues that she was the actual target of an attack to ruin her academic record - claiming that the Brownsteins used their connections to do so.

Back in March, the university started an investigation while both girls were still in Barcelona at the request of Mr and Mrs Brownstein, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

Lader added that the allegations against her from the Brownsteins caused her to suffer migraines, anxiety and colitis which led her to be hospitalized for five days last month.

She is asking a federal judge to erase the disciplinary charges against her and award damages for defamation and subsequent emotional distress.

'This willingness of Penn State to acquiesce to the inappropriate and harmful demands of a large money donor shocks the conscience,' Maurice Mitts, Lader's lawyer, wrote in court filings earlier this week.

'Similarly, the extent to which Marc A. Brownstein is willing to pervert his power and influence as a large money Penn State donor for the purpose of intentionally harming Rachel [Lader] is equally disturbing.'

In addition, Lader claims that Brownstein excluded herself from being around the other roommates in their apartment.

She adds that the male she brought back to the room they shared in Praque was a friend from high school who happened to be locked out of his own apartment.

Lader says the male slept on the couch during his stay.

Brownstein (above) and Lader signed a contract last year to live together this fall, but it's unclear if that will happen

In terms of the colander full of pasta being dumped on Brownstein's bed, Lader denies doing so. But she admitted to putting an empty colander in her bed to suggest that Brownstein was not doing her share of housework.

'The alleged conduct complained of by Molly Brownstein is without any merit and is nothing more than slander and harassment by [her]and her mother to have me thrown out of school,' Lader wrote to Penn State earlier this year.

Unluckily for both girls, they signed a lease last fall to share an apartment together this school year.

Penn State's apartment market forces students to establish and solidify their off-campus housing plans roughly a year in advance.

Emails filed in Lader's lawsuit show that Penn State offered to drop the investigation if she agreed to break her lease this fall, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

But Lader refused to do so and was charged with harassment.

Classes are scheduled to start Monday, and neither girl has broken the lease yet for the new apartment.

It's unclear if anyone has moved in it yet.
The wife of Australia's richest man has vetoed his latest construction project, saying the 61-storey skyscraper would block other people's views.

Harry Triguboff was planning a 61-storey building at Broadbeach on the Gold Coast, at the site of his existing development Pegasus serviced apartment towers, reported the Gold Coast Bulletin.

However, his wife Rhonda put her foot down on the project, telling her husband that the tower would 'look horrible'.

Harry Triguboff (left) was planning a 61-storey building at Broadbeach on the Gold Coast, but his wife Rhonda (right) has vetoed the plans

The construction for the skyscraper with 293 apartments, which was approved by the Gold Coast City Council in June, was due to start before Christmas

The construction for the skyscraper with 293 apartments, which was approved by the Gold Coast City Council in June, was due to start before Christmas.

The project for the third Pegasus tower and Broadbeach's tallest building won't be going ahead however, at the assertion of Mr Triguboff's wife, whom he married in in 1980.

'I told Harry I won't go up there (to the Gold Coast) any more if he builds it and that he'll have to sell Silverpoint (their penthouse at Main Beach),' she told the Gold Coats Bulletin.

She added that the height of the tower would have blocked the view and sunlight of nearby residences.

Harry Triguboff and his wife Rhonda have been married since 1980

Mr Triguboff said he was comfortable with the Pegasus decision, despite the loss of the time and effort involved.

'As Rhonda says, it's not like I need the money.'

According to Forbes, 83-year-old Mr Triguboff is worth an estimated $10.1 billion.

The Sydney-based developer has built nearly 20 towers on the Gold Coast since the early 1980s.
A 13-year-old girl with links to Melbourne's notorious Apex gang left children as young as three terrified during a year-long spate of carjackings on family vehicles.

The 'wild child' and gang mates used stolen cars to box in vehicles in the city's south-eastern suburbs, before threatening drivers with weapons and terrorising young passengers, a court has heard.

A magistrate bailed the teenage girl on Friday despite her pleading guilty to 41 charges including attempted armed robbery, burglary and drug possession.

According to the Herald Sun, the troubled youngster wants to distance herself from the gang, but fears the consequences of doing so.

A 13-year-old girl who is a member of Melbourne's Apex gang has pleaded guilty to 41 charges including counts of armed robbery,burglary and drug possession. In July, Daily Mail Australia spoke to leaders of the gang (pictured) about their formation

The girl was described as a 'wild child' and had frightened children as young as three during carjackings on family vehicles in the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne

'Half of her wants to distance herself from these people who she sees on a daily basis,' the girl's lawyer told the court.

'She certainly has expressed to me that she's trying to get out of this situation but she's finding it difficult to do so. It just keeps seeming to draw her back in.'

The girl - who lives with her uncle and aunt, not her mother - was described as a 'wild child' by her uncle, but said he hoped she was close to leaving the gang behind.

Victoria police urged the magistrate not to release the girl, saying she had a track record of disregarding court actions.

In June, the troubled girl was bailed by the same court over more charges of attempted carjackings and home invasions.

But after being granted bail following that court appearance, the youngster used a credit card and stolen car to escape to her mother's home, despite being bailed to her aunt and uncle's.

The gang started in 2013 in Hamilton Park in Melbourne's south-east - not on Apex Street like the name suggests

Police urged for the teenager to be detained, but she was bailed for the second time in two months. The girl supposedly wants to escape the gang but is scared of what may happen if she does

On August 6 police arrived at the house to arrest the teenager, with the mother telling them she was not home.

They eventually found the girl hiding in a bedroom cupboard, before both the girl and her mother became aggressive towards officers.

In sentencing the girl to a 12-month youth supervision order on Friday, the magistrate told of the heightened concern of the public towards the gang.

It comes as a Victorian Liberal MP called for Federal police intervention to stop the Apex gang, saying the state government hadn't dealt with the problem.

Jason Wood, the member for Victorian seat of LaTrobe and a former police officer, suggested bikie task forces be deployed to break up the troublesome gang, the Herald Sun reports.

Mr Wood has discussed the proposals with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and believes the move could bring an end to the violent crimes committed by the 400-strong gang.
Police have charged the wife of a man thought to have died of natural causes with his murder after unveiling an alleged poison plot.

Sam Abraham, 33, was found dead in his Epping home in suburban Melbourne in October last year, but this week it has come to light that police believe he died of cyanide poisoning at the hands of his wife.

After months of thorough investigations they have this week arrested Mr Abrahams wife, Sofia Sam, and her friend Arun Kamalasanan, 34, over an elaborate cyanide plot, reports Herald Sun.

Police believe a Melbourne husband thought to have died of natural causes was poisoned by his wife

The Melbourne Magistrates Court heard police intercepted months of phone calls to be translated for the case and the brief of evidence will also include CCTV footage and DNA.

Three months before his death, Mr Abraham stabbed by a man who was hiding in his car sporting a balaclava. The attack is now being described as an attempted murder by his wifes friend.

Cable ties, material scraps and handcuffs were later discovered in the car, in what has been deemed a horror movie scenario by police.

Ms Sam and Mr Kamalasanan have been incarcerated to reappear for a committal mention on February 13 next year.
While rom-coms often draw in the crowds at the cinema, perhaps none are as moving as this marriage proposal conducted via a Lego stop-motion animation.

Ben, from Birmingham, asked 16-year-old filmmaker Morgan Spence to create the romantic film in order to pop the question to his girlfriend Kirsten.

The short film - which was shown instead of the regular movie trailers at the Electric Cinema, Birmingham - features the couple as miniature Lego figures and tells their story from when they first met to the present day.

Ben, from Birmingham, decided to use a Lego stop-animation movie to propose to girlfriend Kirsten. It told their story from when they first met

After the short film, Ben got down on one knee. Kirsten said 'Yes', to the delight of other cinema-goers at the Electric Cinema in Birmingham

The animation is narrated by Ben, who begins: 'Hi Kirsten, it's me, Ben. Just before the film starts, I wanted to tell you just how happy you make me.

'I wanted to share some of the good times we've had together. Do you remember how we met? I couldn't believe my luck.

'Our first date at the King Charles. After a terrible ice-breaker, we had such a fab evening.

'After agreeing to see me again, how could I possibly forget our first kiss in their rain.

'And we've done so many great things together since then.'

After going through some of his favourite memories, including their recent adventure in Thailand, the Lego version of Ben continues: ' If you'd like to stand up, there's something I'd like to ask you.

The animation is narrated by Ben, who begins: 'Hi Kirsten, it's me, Ben. Just before the film starts, I wanted to tell you just how happy you make me

The animation documented special moments in their lives, including their first kiss

'I realise I'm so, so lucky and I was wondering: will you marry me?'

Footage shows how Ben then got down on one knee in real life - and to the delight of other movie-goers, Kirsten said 'Yes'.

Spence, from Glasgow, said he was contacted by Ben, who had been impressed by his work, in June.

He said: 'H e explained that he had a plan to propose to his girlfriend Kirsten in his local movie theatre and asked if I could help him out.

Ben decided to contact filmmaker Spence after being impressed by his work

The short film shows how the couple initially met online, with Ben saying in the film: 'I couldn't believe my luck'

It showed snapshots of the couple's life together, including on nights out

'His request was for me to create a film that explains how the couple met, their first dates and some of the special moments which they have shared together, all in Lego featuring miniature figures of the couple.

'The finished film would go on to be shown in the theatre, much to girlfriend Kirstens and the rest of the movie goers surprise.

'At the end of it, Ben then asked Kirsten to marry him. She said Yes and everyone was delighted.

'It was a great project to work on and was unlike anything Id ever had the opportunity to create as a film-maker.'

The Lego animation also shows the couple together on a recent trip to Thailand
A man posing as a doctor snuck into a large public hospital on several occasions this year and wandered through different wards, hung out in the doctor's lounge and checked patient's charts.

Staff at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in Perth became suspicious after seeing the man repeatedly visiting the hospital and using areas restricted to hospital employees, according to the West Australian.

Security guards questioned the man after being alerted by staff and he has not been seen at the hospital since, but the incident has called into question the hospital's security risk.

A man posing as a doctor snuck into Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital (pictured) in Perth for several months this year

A spokesman for the hospital said they were aware of the man but claimed that he stayed in non-clinical areas and didn't appear to try and interact with patients.

It would not be difficult to sneak into a hospital if 'you look like a doctor or like you know what you're doing,' Australian Medical Association WA spokesman Dave Mountain told the West Australian.

'It is pretty easy to access wards, anyone can get up there, and even the ED is not that difficult to access if you know your way around the hospital,' he said.

'If I go up to a ward I will sometimes get asked who I am, so it's not like strangers can wander around without being queried. But it is a worry someone would be doing this, as we've had thefts and we have drugs on the wards.'
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Tragedy has hit Britain's beaches as three people including a mother and her seven-year-old son were left dead after getting swept out to sea in two separate incidents in less than 24 hours.

Three people, understood to be a mother and her two sons, got into trouble while playing in the water off the coast of Aberdeen in Scotland. The 37-year-old woman and her son later died in hospital.

While in Cornwall the man, his wife and their child - three members of a family-of-five - came into difficulty after being washed into the water by big waves.

It has also emerged that a windsurfer has died in an accident off the Essex coast after high winds battered the seas.

The victim, a Colchester man in his 60's, was pulled from the sea and flown by air ambulance to Colchester Hospital six miles away from Mersea Island but was sadly pronounced dead on arrival.

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A person has died after a mother and two children got into trouble while playing in the sea off the coast of Aberdeen

The mother was rescued by an RNLI jetski while the father and daughter were taken aboard lifeboats by lifeguards

Newquay Coastguard Rescue Team and two RNLI lifeboats were dispatched into the water for the rescue, pictured

North of the border, officers from Police Scotland rushed to the busy beach boulevard at around 4.45pm as members of the public put themselves at risk by jumping into the sea and pulling family to shore.

The woman and two children were said to be playing on a flat stretch of sea wall that runs the length of the beach when they encountered difficulties.

A 13 year-old boy, 25 year-old woman and 28 year-old man remain in hospital for treatment. Officers are currently liaising with the next of kin; further information will be issued once they are fully informed.

Chief Inspector Stewart Mackie said: 'This is a very tragic incident which has resulted in a woman and young boy sadly losing their lives - it will undoubtedly bring shock and sadness to the entire city of Aberdeen and further afield.

'As we work with partners to establish the full circumstances of today's events, we urge anyone who witnessed the incident or perhaps have information that could assist, to make contact with Police via 101'

'Given the recent weather conditions we'd urge members of the public to take care, especially when near coastal or beach areas.'

Witnesses described the weather conditions as 'squally' with gusts of wind battering the coast and the tide fully in.

Inspector Lorna Ferguson, who coordinated the beach front rescue mission, said: 'We got called down about 4.45pm after reports of three persons in the water at the beachfront in Aberdeen.

'It appears that all three were possibly playing in the water. It appears to be a mother and two boys.

Inspector Ferguson said it was not a 'typical' day for people to be playing in the water due to the weather conditions and that they were making enquiries as to what had happened in the lead up to the trio getting into trouble.

RNLI crews deal with the scene at Aberdeen as police paramedics arrive on the coast to help those involved

Choppy waters crash against the sea wall at Aberdeen where the family got into trouble while playing in the sea

Paramedics and members of the public gather at the scene of the tragedy at Aberdeen earlier today

Witnesses described the weather conditions as 'squally' with gusts of wind battering the coast and the tide fully in

One of the children is believed to be aged around six or seven with the other youngster described by police as 'slightly older'.

The inspector added: 'We are speaking to witnesses and reviewing CCTV at the scene.'

She also said anyone with any information that could help establish the lead up to the beach front drama should get in contact with officers.

Inspector Ferguson said: 'There are a lot of business premises and restaurants down on the seafront and we have officers going round them all.

'We are appealing for anyone who may have witnessed how these people came to be in the water to come forward to us.

'We are just trying to piece everything together at the moment.'

In Essex, the West Mersea lifeboat was launched just before noon today (Saturday) after a 999 emergency call about concerns for a man in the water out in the estuary.

The father and daughter were then airlifted to hospital but he later died of his injuries, the coastguard confirmed

A spokeswoman for Essex Police said: "The man is believed to have been windsurfing. Next of kin have been contacted and police enquiries are continuing to establish the events leading up to his death."

Better known as a yachting centre, Mersea Island has in recent years become a hub for wind and kitesurfers as the Blackwater estuary widens out into the North Sea.

The Met Office issued a yellow "high winds" alert for the East Anglian coast today warning that winds could gust at more than 50 miles an hour.

Lifeboat crews launched off Fistral Beach in Newquay, Cornwall at 5.20pm on Friday after receiving a 999 call.

Lifeguards rescued the woman using their jetski while the man and child were recovered from the water by an RNLI lifeboat.

The man and toddler were airlifted to hospital where the man later died.

The girl is believed to be fighting for her life in hospital after she was rescued from the water along with her parents. Two other children managed to get back on the rocks sustaining only minor injuries.

The family of five from Surrey had been confronted by treacherous conditions, according to the Falmouth Coastguard.

Weather conditions at the beach, which is a surfing hotspot in Cornwall, made for large waves yesterday evening

James Instance of the Falmouth Coastguard told BBC Radio 4 news: 'The conditions were extreme. We went through a 24-hour period where the waves went from half a metre to three to four metres.

'You are probably looking at 10 foot breaking waves in this area. People swept in to the sea, very close to rocks.

'I think eventually that when they were found they were 50-60m off in what were absolutely treacherous conditions.'

Newquay Coastguard Rescue Team, two RNLI lifeboats, a Coastguard helicopter police and paramedics attended the rescue.

The conditions were treacherous according to the coastguard at Falmouth, who said the region was hit by 13ft waves and 10ft breaking waves.

The spokesman said the rescue had involved a 'significant response' team including helicopters, lifeboats and police.

An RNLI spokeswoman said: 'They were on rocks when there were big waves.'

The mother appeared to be conscious as she was brought ashore but her condition remains unknown

The rescue operation began at around 5.20pm yesterday after a 999 call was made by witnesses to the tragedy

A spokesperson from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency said: 'The UK Coastguard received a 999 call at 5.20 pm last night reporting that a family of two adults and one child had been washed into the sea off Fistral Beach and were in difficulty.

'RNLI lifeguards rescued a woman using their jetski and a man and two-year-old child were recovered from the sea by an RNLI lifeboat.

'The child and man were taken to hospital by the Coastguard helicopter and the helimed helicopter. The man, sadly, has since died in hospital.'

The man and child were airlifted to a local hospital, believed to be the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Treliske, in two separate helicopters.

Writing online, eyewitness Grant Purvis said: 'This was heartbreaking to watch this afternoon. Goes to show the real power of the water we all love.

High winds and huge waves, pictured, battered the Cornish coastline this weekend with seas still rough as the rescue took place

Two different helicopters were used to airlift the father and daughter to hospital after they were taken ashore

Warnings have been put in place along the beach urging holidaymakers not to go into the water

'Huge mention and respect to those involved in the operation, they were so quick on the scene and did all they could.'

It comes as high winds and huge waves batter the Cornish coast this weekend.

In spite of the tragedy, locals have reported seeing people ignoring red flags and braving the raging waters.

Writing on Facebook, Ros Kenn said: 'Just back from walking the dog down Mawgan Porth.

'One sole person in at 9.30am body-boarding in the raging sea there despite lifeguards red flag up from yesterday.

'Lifeguards not there til 10am and a young family were going to go in bodyboarding too but fortunately they had more sense.'

Emergency services were quickly on the scene and their efforts have been praised by onlookers

Paramedics treated the father and daughter at the scene before taking them to hospital via air ambulance

Onlookers took to social media after the incident to pay tribute to the emergency services involved in the rescue

Ana Taylor Garcia said: 'I was on Tolcarne and people were just ignoring the red flag and the advice from the lifeguards.

'We need to understand that the water is dangerous and she deserves our respect.'

People have been spotted entering the rough sea this morning, despite red warning flags telling people not to swim.

Onlookers took to social media after the drama unfolded to praise rescuers.

Chris Hanbury wrote: 'Just witnessed the amazing @NewquayRNLI and other emergency services workers making several rescue attempts in #Newquay. #Heroes.'

Becs McNeill added: 'Huge respect for @NewquayRNLI and @MCA-media seeing them in action today. Everyone in our prayers #Newquay.'

Witnesses gathered outside restaurants in the area after the air ambulance landed and the rescue operation unfolded

The incident occured at Fistral beach in Newquay, pictured, after '13ft waves' struck the rocks

Next of kin have not yet been informed and formal identification has not yet been carried out on the man.

Police have launched an investigation into the circumstances of the incident and are appealing for witnesses.

Anyone with information is being asked to attend Newquay police station today (Sat) between 2pm and 4pm, and tomorrow between 10am and 2pm.

Investigating officer Detective Constable Jarrod Yewen, from Newquay CID, said: 'This is a tragic incident and our thoughts are with the family at this difficult time.

'We are investigating the circumstances of the incident and we would like to speak to anyone who was on the beach at the time.

'We are asking people to attend Newquay police station today or tomorrow to enable them to talk to us in person about this incident.'

Anyone unable to attend the station is asked to contact police via email at 101@dc.police.uk or by telephone on 101, quoting log number 681 of 19/08/16.

A photograph showing two people in the waves off Fistral Beach around the same time the family were swept off the rocks was taken by a passer-by. This was a separate incident.
A British farmer has been shamed on Facebook by his former daughter-in-law for shooting an elephant, a buffalo and a zebra on a hunting trip to South Africa and posing with the animals' carcasses.

Ian Evans, 62, from Newton Stewart in Scotland, was accused by Helen Winters of revelling in the killing of wild animals.

She also accused of him of killing five of her pet geese which she had left at his farm in Wigtownshire while caring for her daughter Faye, 20, who was injured in a horse riding accident in Cambridgeshire.

Mr Evans said: 'I cried when I shot the elephant because it was the first time I'd ever done it. It was a unique moment'

Ms Winters wrote on Facebook: 'I returned a week ago to find that my ex father in law had shot them so not only does he trophy shot elephants and other big game he's taken the life of my pets at such a difficult time in my life.'

Asked if he felt remorse for killing the animals, Mr Evans, a dairy farmer, told the Daily Mirror: 'If I told you the truth, I would get so much crap back about it.

'But I cried when I shot the elephant because it was the first time I'd ever done it. It was a unique moment.'

This photograph of Mr Evans was published on Ms Winters' Facebook page but he says he is not ashamed and claimed the images had been on Facebook for six years

He declined to comment on claims by Ms Winters that he had a large collection of tusks and elephant skins at his farm.

The outing of Mr Evans as a big game hunter has made him toxic on social media.

Chloe Flanagan tweeted: 'You make me ashamed to be part of the human race.'

But a statement on his website said the elephant was killed as part of a conservationist cull seven years ago and added: 'There are 900 elephants in this reserve (expanding at a rate of 7% a year, which is unsustainable). The cull is part of the management of the reserve.'
An RAF squadron leader accidentally sent a topless selfie to an entire Dutch military college when she tried to send the raunchy picture to her boyfriend.

Helen King, 42, was visiting the Koninklijke Militaire Academie in Breda when she stripped down to her knickers and strode a wool rug before taking a provocative selfie.

The high-flying officer then sent the image to her boyfriend. Unfortunately, Helen tagged the military college in the image, meaning anyone who accessed their Facebook page could see

Squadron Leader Helen King, pictured, accidentally sent a topless selfie to a military college

At the time of the incident, Helen was based at RAF Cranwell in Lincolnshire

Thousands of soldiers at the college as well as fellow RAF officers could have accessed the image.

Helen, who is a former deputy chief of staff at the RAF Cranwell officer training school, removed the photograph as soon as she realised her blunder.

According to The Sun, Helen's friend Karl Tearney subtly pointed out her mistake. He wrote: 'Hmmm did you really mean to upload this one Helen, best take it down quick  nice rug by the way.'

It is understood she received words of advice from a senior officer following the mistake, although she has since been promoted and is running a military training programme at RAF Oman.
carrying drugs and was arrested at the scene

The driver of a stolen Mustang has allegedly rammed a police car in a desperate bid to avoid arrest after a brazen burglary which saw seven luxury vehicles stolen from a Melbourne dealership.

Thieves made off with seven top-of-the-range cars from a yard in Frankston in the city's south-east in the early hours of Saturday morning, including the Ford Mustang.

A 22-year-old man was arrested on Saturday afternoon after a member of the public saw the car driving erratically in the nearby suburb of Lyndhurst and alerted police.

The driver of a stolen Mustang (pictured) has rammed a police car in a desperate bid to avoid arrest after a brazen burglary which saw seven luxury vehicles stolen from a Frankston dealership in Melbourne

In a desperate bid escape, the driver of the Mustang allegedly slammed into a police car when it became stuck in traffic.

Police said the man, who was arrested at the scene, was carrying drugs and was in the possession of the proceeds of crime.

He has been charged with numerous offences including car theft, burglary and drug possession.

Three Ford Territories, two G6E Ford sedans, the Mustang and a Ford Ranger were stolen in the burglary.

In a desperate bid escape, the driver of the Mustang allegedly slammed into a police car when it became stuck in traffic

Thieves made off with seven top-of-the-range cars from a car yard in Frankston (CCTV footage)

The Mustang and two other cars which were discovered dumped in Frankston have been recovered, while the four others are yet to be found.

The manager of the Frankston dealership Paul Beresford said the thieves came to the car yard well-prepared.

'Still a little bit in shock, dumbfounded. Who knows why they've done it, what for, but obviously it is a well planned job,' he told 7News.

The manager of the Frankston dealership Paul Beresford (pictured) said the thieves came to the car yard well-prepared

Mr Beresford said the crooks used crow bars to smash open a safe which held the keys to the luxury cars.

'They've arrived with the equipment to go about the business and obviously crow bars to get into the safe as well.'

The 22-year-old man was remanded to appear at Melbourne Magistrates Court on Sunday.
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Walkers planning a coastal stroll this weekend are being urged to avoid taking 'storm selfies', with Britain expected to be battered by strong winds and rain.

Gusts of about 60mph are expected along exposed coastlines in the south and west, bringing a blustery end to the recent sunny spell.

Campers and those hoping to enjoy a weekend outdoors have been warned to be careful amid 'unseasonably strong' winds and travellers are being warned of possible disruption to transport.

Gusts of about 60mph are expected along exposed coastlines in the south and west, bringing a blustery end to the recent sunny spell. Pictured is a surfer riding the waves in West Bay, Dorset

Winds are expected to reach 40mph to 50mph inland as a low-pressure system moves in from the west. These windsurfers glided through the choppy waves in Portland Harbour, Dorset

A fisherman appears almost oblivious as a massive wave crashes onto the harbour wall at Newhaven in East Sussex

Waves pound the seafront at Porthcawl, South Wales. The good weather of the last week is predicted to end violently this weekend

Huge waves pound the seafront at Towan beach in Newquay, Cornwall last night. A man was killed on nearby Fistral Beach after being swept off rocks by a huge wave

The warning comes after a man died and his two-year-old daughter was taken to hospital after they were swept off rocks into the sea off Fistral Beach near Newquay, Cornwall yesterday.

The conditions are expected to be accompanied by 'heavy, thundery, showery rain', said the Met Office.

The forecaster has issued a yellow weather warning across most of England and Wales, with winds expected to reach 40mph to 50mph inland as a low-pressure system moves in from the west.

The Environment Agency said today members of the public using coastal paths and promenades, particularly in the South West, will face increased risks.

The wind has been causing havoc with people's hair today...if you're lucky enough to have hair

Strong winds and rough sea hit the English Riviera but holidaymakers are not discouraged and hit the boardwalk at Torquay (pictured)

Today will be wet and windy and, after some respite tomorrow, more wet and windy weather is forecast for Monday

Despite the warnings plenty of intrepid extreme sports fans were out surfing today in Cornwall (left) and Dorset (right)

The Environment Agency said today members of the public using coastal paths and promenades, particularly in the South West, will face increased risks.

Severe coastal weather has seen thrill-seekers taking photos and filming themselves in treacherous conditions while videos of people getting swept along by waves have gone viral online.

Craig Woolhouse, flood risk manager at the Environment Agency, said: 'Strong winds and large waves will combine with high tides on Saturday and local minor flooding is possible across parts of the north Devon coast.

'We urge people to stay safe on the coast and warn wave-watchers against the unnecessary dangers of taking "storm selfies".'

People watch the stormy seas at West Bay in Dorset. The South West is particularly prone to windy weather this weekend

Temperatures are expected to drop from a high of 28C (82F) earlier this week to the low 20s (68F) or high teens in many parts this weekend.

It's a low-pressure system passing through, it's not the end of summer Nicola Maxey, Met Office

Warmer weather should return from the middle of next week, just in time for the August Bank Holiday.

Nicola Maxey, from the Met Office, said: 'Autumn has not arrived with this bit of wind.

'There's certainly some more sunshine around for next week depending on where you are in the country.

'It's a low-pressure system passing through, it's not the end of summer.'

The wet and windy weather was not daunting music lovers at the V Festival at West Park near Stafford today

Umbrellas were at the ready and wellies de rigeur at the V Festival amid dire weather forecasts

The wind was a blessing for windsurfers and kitesurfers in Portland harbour in Dorset (pictured)

A surfer waits for waves in extremely dangerous conditions at Towan beach in Newquay, Cornwall yesterday evening

Waves pound the seafront at Porthcawl, South Wales earlier today

A boy struggles to stand in the winds by the stormy seas at West Bay in Dorset
He was one of this country's most notorious serial killers, tying up, torturing, and murdering 10 people in the city of Wichita from 1974 until he was arrested in 2004.

And now it has been revealed that Dennis Rader, who dubbed himself the BTK killer for his method of 'bind, torture, kill', had planned an 11th killing but was caught before he could carry it out.

Rader says he had picked out a woman to be his 'magnum opus' and planned to mutilate her in her own home before hanging her upside down and burning the place to the ground.

Dennis Rader, who killed 10 people in Wichita during a 30-year reign of terror, has told of how he picked an 11th victim but was arrested before he could kill her

The deranged killer even claims to have made it to the woman's back door and knocked, but was scared away when a street crew turned up to do work outside.

Police have admitted that they were aware of the proposed crime at the time, but suppressed the details to spare further trauma to the proposed victim.

The dramatic claims are revealed in a new book by Katherine Ramsland, a professor at DeSales University, entitled Confession Of A Serial Killer: The Untold Story of Dennis Rader, The BTK Killer.

All proceeds from sales of the books will go to the victims' families trust fund.

Ramsland worked with Rader on the book from behind bars, where he is serving ten life sentences because Kansas did not have a death penalty when he was convicted.

Lust and a desire for fame and power drove Rader, a seemingly ordinary married father-of-two who worked for a security company, to murder, the book claims.

Wichita police detectives who captured Rader in 2005 told the Wichita Eagle they are incensed with the pride he exhibits as he goes into detail about the tortures he planned to inflict on the 11th victim.

Joesph Otero (left) was Rader's fist victim, strangled to death in 1974 inside his home alongside his wife Julie (right) and two of their five children

Joey Otero was just nine years old when he was killed by Rader in his bedroom, while sister Josephine was hanged in the basement

'For him to reveal this information now is cruel,' said Tim Relph, a former BTK task force investigator.

Relph and fellow task force investigator Kelly Otis said the book allows Rader to carry out one more act of horror.

Rader wrote three and a half pages of the book about his plans for his last kill.

'This was supposed to be my opus, my grand finale, and to make it different, I would set the house on fire using propane canisters,' he wrote.

He said he got into the woman's backyard and knocked on her door, but aborted his plan when a city street crew showed up unexpectedly to work outside the house.

He planned to kill her the following spring, but was arrested in February 2005 after a desperate urge for public attention led police to him.

Kathryn Bright (left) was attacked by Rader in 1974 with a knife and tried to fight him off, but died later from her wounds. Shirley Vian (right), was strangled to death in 1977

Rader broke into Nancy Fox's home (left) in 1977 and waited for her to come home before strangling her. Marine Hedge (right), who lived on the same street as Rader, was strangled to death in 1985 before Rader posed for pictures with her body in a church basement

Otis said the problem with Rader's testimony is that most of it is fantasy, although police found that a street crew did show up outside her house on October 22, 2004.

Police said they suppressed most of the details of the planned murder for 11 years because they feared what the shock of a public revelation might do to the woman.

But authorities did inform the woman after finding out that defense attorneys for Rader had hired investigators who might contact her.

'She's a pretty tough lady, but this shook her up quite a bit,' Relph said.

Rader's daughter, Kerri Rawson, told the newspaper that her father cooperated on the book because he's proud of his murders.

Rader got into Vicki Wegerle's home (left) in 1987 while posing as a repairman before strangling her to death. Dolores Davis (right) was strangled to death in 1991

Rader also posed with Davis's body, placing a mask over her face (pictured). He often left calling cards at the scene of his crimes, and sometime masturbated over the bodies

She said the book feeds his ego and his narcissism, and disputed some of the accounts of his family life in the book.

'He's a psychopath,' she said. 'You can't take anything he says as truth.'
An Australian navy officer is alleged to have told his teenage daughter's friend that she had 'been a very naughty girl' only moments after apparently sexually assaulting her.

The 39-year-old man allegedly hugged and tongue-kissed the teenager on June 8 last year, during a boozy sleepover at his Sydney home.

The Parramatta Bail Court heard on Saturday that the girl had been coerced into having her first ever drink of alcohol just hours before the incident, despite stating that she didn't want any.

Later that evening the sailor apparently put his arm around the girl and made sexual advances, with his daughter reportedly 'laughing' at her friend after the incident.

An Australian navy sailor allegedly sexually assaulted the teenage friend of his daughter during a sleepover at this Sydney home. The 39-year-old man hugged and kissed the girl before telling her that she had been a 'very naughty girl'

The girl apparently raised concerns about the man's behaviour with his daughter, however the court heard that she just 'laughed' at her. Hours earlier the girl had her first ever drink of alcohol while having dinner with the man after being convinced to try it by her friend

It is also alleged that after the incident the father messaged the girl on Facebook, telling her that he'd had 'sexual relations with other 16-year-old girls before'.

The court heard that the girl, who is in Year 9 with his daughter at a Sydney high school, had already slept two nights at the home and was preparing to leave when her friend insisted she stay another night

At dinner time the man's daughter requested alcohol but the friend declined because she had never had any before.

The daughter encouraged her to drink and her father refilled their glasses multiple times.

Police allege he took photos of the girls making 'funny faces', then sat down and wrapped his arms around them.

The teenage guest told her friend she felt uncomfortable but was told 'it was okay and it was just the alcohol', the documents state.

Police allege he later poured the girls two large pink champagne glasses and, while the daughter was in the bathroom, kissed the friend.

The court documents state the girl pushed him away and ran to tell his daughter what had happened, but she laughed and said 'not to worry'.

The sailor was arrested on Friday and appeared in the Parramatta Bail Court on Saturday where he was granted bail

The friend tried to text someone about what had happened but the daughter 'snatched' the iPad from her and threw it under her bed.

Police allege the father groped and tongue-kissed the friend again, before whispering 'you've been a very naughty girl' in her ear.

The friend pushed him away and told the daughter about it, who again was 'dismissive', the documents say.

He was arrested at his home on Friday and charged with grooming and three counts of indecent assault.

On Saturday at Parramatta Bail Court police prosecutor Lachlan Kirby opposed bail for the man, saying he was a risk to the community.
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A notorious high-security prison in Colombia allowed 17 of its inmates to get married yesterday to their long-term girlfriends.

The mass ceremony at the Carcel Villa Hermosa prison in Cali, Colombia saw the happy couples sign up to spend the rest of their lives together, once their husbands have completed their jail terms.

The 17 brides, all dressed in white, entered the prison and made their way through a series of barred gates before entering a large hall in the prison.

The 17 brides were escorted into a common area in the centre of the prison where the ceremonies took place

Social workers believe the jail weddings will help the men to make the right decisions when they are released

One of the inmates had been planning to get married in April, but suddenly became indisposed after his conviction

One of the inmates who married his bride in the prison was confined to a wheelchair

The jail, which is among the most notorious in Colombia is in the troubled north western city of Cali.

One of the inmates Oscar Ivan Henao, 39, had planned to get married to Magda Gonzalez, 31, after she fell pregnant. The couple were ready for the ceremony in April until Henao became suddenly and unexpectedly indisposed after being convicted of 'attempted extortion'.

He was jailed for 18 months for his crime. So, when he got married on Friday, it was also his first chance to meet his 16-day-old son.

Now he hopes prison authorities will allow him to complete the remainder of his sentence under house arrest, enabling him to spend time with his infant son.

The marriage event is part of social work in the jail. Prison authorities hope that by getting married, the men will be able to reintegrate into society.

The jail itself is horribly overcroded with more than 6,200 crammed into a space designed for 1,500.

Families of the criminals and their new wives were invited into the prison for the unusual ceremony

Unfortunately for the inmates and their new wives, there was not enough time to consummate their new marriages

However, it is understood that the men and women will be entitled to a conjugal visit within the next two weeks

Some of the men hope their new wedded bliss will entitle them to an earlier release date

The jail has about 6,500 inmates, far in excess of its of the maximum capacity of 1,500
Dr Barry was known as a 'brute' with a 'fierce' temper and strength of will

Her secret was discovered after her death in London in 1865

Dr James Barry, pictured, inspector general of military hospitals, was actually a woman named Margaret Bulkley

He was a pioneer in the world of medicine who was respected for his ability and feared for his bad temper.

But there was another reason why people should be astonished by Dr James Barry - one that shocked 19th Century Britain so much it was immediately hushed up.

For the inspector general of military hospitals who was described by Florence Nightingale as a 'brute' was unmasked on his deathbed, in 1865, as Margaret Ann Bulkley.

It technically made Dr Barry the first woman in British history to practice medicine.

Dr Barry rose from beginning as a hospital assistant to become one of the most highly respected surgeons of her day and the highest ranking doctor in the British Army, reaching the rank of lieutenant colonel.

She was known as a zealous reformer who served in garrisons from South Africa to Jamaica.

Among her other accomplishments, Dr Barry performed one of the first successful Caesarean sections in medical history and was even summoned by Napoleon to treat the son of his private secretary.

Dr Barry also instigated a series of reforms, including campaigning against poor sanitation and overcrowding in prisons, and better care for lepers as well as the soldiers that she looked after.

The only clues to her true identity were her 'feminine features' and 'a most peculiar squeaky voice and mincing manner', the latter according to one ambassador's daughter.

But when the undertakers received her body they found 'the genitals, the deflated breasts and the hairless face' of the body were 'unmistakably female', with evidence that she had given birth to a child some years before.

Her fierce temper is likely what cast aside any suspicions as to her true gender - with Nightingale describing Barry as 'the most hardened creature I ever met throughout the Army'.

New research among a cache of letters, accounts and legal documents has helped to make sense of the extraordinary life of Dr Barry and just how she kept her secret so safe.

Dr Barry, left, pictured with her dog Psyche and servant John, right, while in Jamaica in 1862

A range of conditions, including that she was a hermaphrodite, have since been suggested to explain how she began life as a female but still managed to convicne everyone she was a man.

But in reality she was simply a woman, born in Ireland as Margaret Ann Bulkley sometime in the 1790s, the daughter of Mary-Ann and Jeremiah, a greengrocer from Cork.

In 1803, Mr Bulkley was sent to prison over his debts and his wife turned to her brother, famous artist James Barry, to help ease the family's financial burden.

Barry was part of a progressive and liberal who were keen believers in women's rights and education, and when he died in 1806, leaving some money to the Bulkleys, his influential friends took Margaret and her mother under their wing.

The Bulkleys moved first to London, where Margaret began to take lessons from the physician Edward Fryer.

She proved an able pupil and before long hatched an ambitious plan for her future.

At that time, women were not permitted to enter university, so it was decided that she would masquerade as a man and train as a doctor.

In 1809, Margaret - assuming her uncle's name - sailed from London to Edinburgh where she planned to enrol at the university as a medical student, and she and her mother intended to portray their relationship as aunt and nephew.

'It was very useful for Mrs Bulkley to have a gentleman to take care of her on board ship,' Barry wrote to one of her sponsors.

Margaret and her mother isolated themselves from anyone who might not be trusted to keep this darkest of secrets.

The pioneering surgeon and doctor was known for a 'squeaky voice and mincing manner' but managed to keep her secret until her deathbed

She wore an overcoat to disguise her womanly curves, and fibbed about her age as a means of explaining her smooth chin and high voice.

Margaret graduated three years later, moved back to London for a six-month stint as an apprentice surgeon at St Thomas's Hospital and, in 1813, joined the Army.

Standing less than 5ft tall, she wore stacked heels and had to have 3in soles fastened to her boots to make her appear taller.

But luckily for her disguise, the effeminate and flamboyant male fashions styles of the time helped her blend in.

By 1816 Dr Barry was posted to the colony on the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, where she took on a black manservant who would stay with her for 50 years and would lay out six small towels each morning which she would used to hide her curves and broaden her shoulders.

She rapidly became known as an eccentric, sleeping every night with a black poodle called Psyche, riding about in dress uniform wearing a cavalry sword and taking a goat everywhere so she could drink its milk.

Dr Barry also acquired a reputation as a ladies' man, believing it would give her a better cover.

Her story was also likely aided by friend Lord Charles Somerset, governor of the colony, who may even have been her lover.

His friendship meant she had a powerful ally who could help quash any rumours that developed about her, with her famed 'strength of will' doing the rest.

Then came 1819 and a year long disappearance for the rising medical star, which is believed by some historians to be a time that she fell pregnant and gave birth to a stillborn baby.

She returned and went on to further establish her reputation, becoming a master surgeon by 1826.

Dr Barry also had a famous run-in with Florence Nightingale during the Crimean War, with the latter branding her a 'brute'

It was in this year that, despite knowing that no woman in Britain had ever survived the procedure, she conducted an emergency Caesarean on a woman on her kitchen table - and saved both mother and child's lives.

Dr Barry remained in South Africa until 1828, when she embarked on a series of postings to Mauritius, Jamaica and St Helena, among other places.

By 1845 Barry was serving as principal medical officer in the West Indies, where she contracted a terrible bout of yellow fever.

Convinced she was not going to survive, she laid down strict instructions that her unexamined body should be left in a nightshirt and wrapped in a winding sheet.

But she did recover, and when the Crimean War broke out she demanded to be sent to the front line.

Her request was refused and, instead, she was stationed in Corfu to tend to the wounded when they had been shipped out there.

Dr Barry found a way, however, and used her leave to go to the Crimea anyway, which is where she met Nightingale.

But what could have been a firm friendship between two reformers ended up becoming something more like a feud when Dr Barry's outspoken nature prompted a furious row between the pair.

In 1857 Barry was sent to Canada and promoted to the post of inspector-general of hospitals, but failed to adapt to the freezing winters due to her life in the tropics.

She suffered with flu and bronchitis and was forced to retire.

Dr Barry returned to London and eventually succumbed to a diarrhoea epidemic that eventually killed her.

Even in death she fought to keep her secret to the very end, requesting no post-mortem be carried out on her body.

Her life has been immortalised in a new biography, Dr James Barry: A Woman Ahead of Her Time, written by Michael du Preez and Jeremy Dronfield and available for 18.99.
A fishing went trip horribly wrong when an angler impaled himself with a speargun between his arm and neck .

Gruesome footage of the accident, believed to come from Russia, shows the injured fisherman standing in a hospital with a harpoon protruding from his neck.

The video was shared on social media, where it was met with a flood of shocked responses.

Vision shows a fisherman who impaled himself between his arm and neck with a speargun

The fisherman appears calm throughout the vision as a doctor examines the spear firmly implanted in his neck.

The extent of the man's injuries and the circumstances that led to the accident are unclear.

The video was shared on a fishing Facebook page under the less-than-sympathetic title choose your spearing buddies wiselyhope all is well with this spear.

There have been a number of spearfishing fatalities in Australia which prompted calls for a safety campaign on the dangerous sport.

The fisherman appears calm throughout the vision as a doctor examines the spear firmly implanted in his neck
Doctors are taking the parents of a boy with brain cancer to court for the second time in a bid to save his life.

Oshin Kiszko, six, from Perth, was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumour in November 2015 but his parents opposed the treatment recommended by doctors due to the side effects.

A court ordered Oshin to undergo chemotherapy treatment in March but doctors at Princess Margaret Hospital want the young boy to undergo another session, as well as introduce radiation therapy, according to WA Today.

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Perth doctors are taking the parents of Oshin Kiszko (pictured), six, who has terminal cancer, to court for the second time because they believe the young boy should undergo more chemotherapy and radiation treatments

Oshin's parents, Angela Kiszko (left) and Colin Strachan (right), who declined treatment for their son because they didn't want his brain 'fried with radiation' are now asking that their son live out his last days

A court order in March forced Oshin (pictured) to receive chemotherapy but doctors at Princess Margaret Hospital want the young boy to undergo another session, as well as introduce radiation therapy

Oshin's cancer is now diagnosed as terminal and his parents, Angela Kiszko and Colin Strachan, are requesting that he enjoy his last days without the intensive treatment.

The couple will reportedly fight for palliative care in court instead for Oshin.

Ms Kiszko said Oshin completed his last chemotherapy session 11 weeks ago and has since regained his strength.

She told Perth Now in June that she wants her son's quality of life to be considered.

During his rounds of chemotherapy, Ms Kiszko said Oshin developed ulcers in his stomach, can barely eat or use a toilet, and was lashing out at his family to avoid treatment.

She said she believes he'll be 'treated until death'.

Family Court Chief Judge Stephen Thackray admitted the chances of Oshin surviving more than five years even with treatment were slim when he sided with doctors earlier this year.

'I acknowledge Oshin's parents, who have done what they thought was right,' he said.

Oshin (pictured) was diagnosed with medulloblastoma in November last year. Now, after receiving chemotherapy, he is weak and 'lashing out' at his family

He had originally been given a 50-60 per cent chance of surviving five years if he began both chemotherapy and radiotherapy

The parents have kept up their objections, despite Oshin's mother (left) admitting in a 60 Minutes interview last month she 'didn't understand' chemotherapy

The court's decision to order treatment was delivered a week after it was reported Oshin's chance at survival had already declined due to delay in treating him with chemotherapy and radiotherapy, WA Today reported.

He had originally been given a 50-60 per cent chance of surviving five years if he began both treatments immediately.

Because of the delay, a Princess Margaret Hospital doctor told the WA Family Court combining treatments would give Oshin just a '40 per cent chance of survival'.

The doctor said he was not convinced that treatment alone could save the boy and recommended radiotherapy.

The parents had expressed concern over the possible side-effects of chemo and radiotherapy, which can carry high long term risks of intellectual disability in medullablastoma patients, particularly young children.

Ms Kiszko said she didn't want her son's brain 'fried with radiation'.

She said she would have preferred to treat him in an alternative clinic in Asia, despite the facility having no scientific backing.

'I don't want my son's brain fried with radiation, the effects are too harsh, too damaging, and I find it really difficult to even call it a treatment,' she told the program.

'As parents we know our child better than anyone.'

'I would like to offer Oshin peace, love and some fun times while we still can,' Oshin's mother said

Oshin's (pictured) parents are seeking legal advice about his treatment

Ms Kiszko (pictured) said she did not want to put her son through the treatment after seeing what it had done to her mother and step-mother - both of whom died of cancer

Professor Brian Owler, a neurosurgeon from the Australian Medical Association, said the risks of the treatment were present, however, many children 'survive not only the tumour but get treatment and go on and live happy and fulfilled lives.'

'Children with medulloblastoma go through years of what I see as torture, medical treatments, relapses, just to get this  maybe  five years,' Ms Kisko told the Sydney Morning Herald.

She told the newspaper: 'I would like to offer Oshin peace, love and some fun times while we still can.'

Ms Kiszko said she did not want to put her son through the treatment after seeing what it had done to her mother and step-mother - both of whom died of cancer.

'I have watched and learned what all these children and their families go through and it is nothing short of toxic hell,' she said.

'The children are not really alive, they are completely drugged and exhausted and on the verge of death.

'It almost feels like Nazi Germany and I am honestly sickened by the treatment of all these children.'

The courts had been called in when the ethics committee of Princess Margaret's Hospital split on whether they could support palliative care.

'I have watched and learned what all these children and their families go through and it is nothing short of toxic hell,' Ms Kiszko (middle) said
The Government is falling short on its pledge to take in 20,000 Syrian refugees by 2020, MailOnline can reveal.

A measly 61 migrants fleeing the war-torn country were rehomed in the UK in January.

The number increased to 192 and 264 the following months but it is still less than half the target figure of around 1,200 for the first quarter this year.

Former Prime Minister David Cameron promised to resettle 20,000 Syrians by 2020

Only 517 Syrian refugees have been resettled in Britain over the first three months of 2016

Those seeking to move to the UK will be vetted before being offered a place on the scheme

Human rights campaigners condemned the effort as 'pitiful' and 'woefully slow'.

Announcing the resettlement scheme in Parliament in September last year former Prime Minister David Cameron said Britain had a 'moral responsibility' to do more to protect orphans and vulnerable children.

He vowed to resettle 20,000 people - brought directly from refugee camps in the Middle East to Britain  in five years.

But official Home Office figures obtained by MailOnline suggest the promise is not being fulfilled.

In the first seven months of the plan, the number of Syrian families given a new life on our shores was 1,615  still well short of even the six-month target.

After an encouraging month in December when 640 refugees arrived from camps in Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey, numbers have dwindled considerably this year.

Labour Party contender Owen Smith condemned Theresa May over the slow response

As France and Germany prepare to tighten their borders, Amnesty international said our figures showed the response since Cameron's pledge had been 'woefully slow'.

Refugee Programme Director Steve Symonds said: 'While leading on financial aid to Syrian refugees in the region, the UK government's willingness to share responsibility through resettling those fleeing Syria's brutal conflict has to date been pitiful.

'Last September's commitment to resettle 20,000 refugees by May 2020 is a woefully slow response from one the richest countries in the world  so far less than 2,000 have arrived.

'This commitment is also far too low. There are around five million Syrian refugees in the world, the vast majority in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan.

'Many families are living in squalid and crowded conditions, largely because these countries are being asked to host refugee populations wholly disproportionate to their size and wealth as compared to richer countries like the UK.'

Fears the measures would fail mounted this week when new PM Theresa May scrapped the post of Syrian refugees minister  a move that sparked cross-party anger.

Labour leadership contender Owen Smith said: 'At a time when men, women and children are still drowning in the Mediterranean because of the ongoing refugee crisis, it is utterly disgraceful that the Tories have chosen to axe this important post.'

The Government plans to revive the scheme by calling for sponsors to fund the 20,000 Syrians they agreed to re-settle.

The plan will see churches, charities, faith groups and businesses provide housing and support for Syrians and refugees from other countries in the Middle East and North Africa.

Organisations will provide housing for refugees and help them integrate into life in the UK, gain access to medical and social services and arrange English language lessons.

Refugee Council Head of Advocacy Dr. Lisa Doyle said: 'The number of Syrian refugees the Government has pledged to resettle certainly isn't an unmanageable one and its deadline is still a number of years away so there is ample opportunity for the Government's commitment to be fulfilled.

'An appetite remains among local communities up and down the country to welcome Syrian refugee families. The Government must work closely with local authorities to ensure that this eagerness to help is translated into practical action.'

Under the VPR scheme, refugees will be granted five years' humanitarian protection, which includes access to public funds and the labour market, as well as the possibility of family reunion, if a person was split up from their partner or child when leaving their country.

After those five years they can apply to settle in the UK.

Mr Symonds said: 'It is vital the UK places itself on the right side of history by agreeing to share far greater responsibility. The UN Summit on 19 September provides the perfect opportunity to do just that.'

According to the Home Office, 1,854 Syrians in need of protection have been provided with refuge in the UK.

A spokesman said: 'More than 160 local authorities have already signed up to accept refugees via the vulnerable persons resettlement scheme, on a voluntary basis.
Questions have been raised over Vladimir Putin's new right-hand man just a week after he was appointed the Russian President's chief of staff.

But rather than people querying his suitability for the role, the most puzzling matter is whether Anton Vaino is the inventor of a device that could tap into the global consciousness and 'register changes in human activity'.

Estonian-born Vaino, 44, has had a steady rise through the Russian hierarchy, previously working as a diplomat, apparently gaining a master's degree in economics along the way and also contributing to scientific journals.

Anton Vaino,(right), has been appointed Vladimir Putin's (centre) new chief of staff

It is thought Vaino, pictured, may be the same person who wrote an article in a scientific journal detailing an invention called the 'nooscope' which can 'tap into global consciousness' and 'interpret and manage world events'

The article includes complex diagrams like this, pictured, which have left many in Russia scratching their heads over what it actually means

But it is thought he may be the same person as an 'AK Vaino' who wrote a complex article in the Economic and Law publication in 2012 which describes a new invention - the 'nooscope'.

Award-winning economist Viktor Sarayev, who has co-authored a number of articles with the mysterious AK Vaino, told the BBC the device supposedly 'scans transactions between people, things and money' and compared its importance to the microscope.

Some academics say the article by Vaino has 'no science' in it

But there is little evidence on whether it exists or on what it actually does - with the article suggesting it is needed to 'interpret and manage world events'.

The article and device have bemused many in Russia this week due to the complicated text and bizarre diagrams that supposedly outline new ways of understanding society.

But what appears to be some form of flow chart is incredibly difficult to follow, leading some political commentators to claim it is a form of 'spin'.

Academics have also hit out at the article, claiming there is 'no science' in it.

Prof Vitaly Kourennoy, of Moscow's Higher School of Economics, told the BBC: 'If we evaluate this article by its meaning, then without doubt it's a cause for concern.

'It represents a utopian idea which has no connection to science. It's propounding some kind of all-embracing system of government that has to be enforced by top officials.'

Prof Kourennoy added the article was 'suggesting a way of building a better tomorrow' without understanding what things are 'really like'.

Vaino replaced Sergei Ivanov, a long-time friend and ally of Putin's after meeting him while they both served in the KGB in the 1980s.

The 63-year-old was removed from his position during a meeting with Putin and Vaino which was broadcast on television.

Vaino, right, with Putin, replaced the President's longtime ally Sergei Ivanov

Ivanov, 63, is the latest to have been sidelined in what analysts are describing as the Russian leader's attempt to bring in a new, younger entourage.

A former deputy prime minister and minister of defense, he has now been downgraded to a role as special envoy for transportation and the environment.
Farah Dan, 49, was jailed for five years by Kingston Crown Court for stalking two men

A socialite once dubbed 'London's most dangerous woman' has been jailed for five years for stalking a church warden after contacting him through an online site.

Farah Dan, also known as Farah Damji, 49, threatened the man and his family after he spurned her sexual advances.

Dan, whose father is a multi-millionaire property developer then tried to destroy the name of her victim who is an engineering director and volunteer church warden.

Dan, first came to public prominence after she admitted having a kinky affair with Guardian columnist William Dalrymple. She also had a high profile affair with a senior executive at The Guardian.

Kingston Crown Court heard Dan met her first victim, who is in his 40s, after contacting him through an online site in October 2013.

A notorious socialite once dubbed 'London's most dangerous woman' was jailed for 15 months today for a 17,500 housing benefit fraud.

Dan and the victim met to discuss her social housing firm. Following their meeting Dan, initiated a sexual encounter, but an agreement was made between the two to limit their relationship to a business level.

In December 2013, Dan invited the victim to her company's Christmas party, where she again attempted to seduce the man.

The victim, who is a married man with children rebuffed the advance which prompted a campaign of harassment.

The court heard that between December 19, 2013 and January 5, 2014 Dan, using a number of false identities, made 186 silent or hoax calls and texts to the victim's mobile.

She also tried to plant stories in the media about the company where the man's company.

She even sent sexually explicit texts and made silent calls to her victim's 16-year-old son.

At one stage, she even went to the boy's school to talk to his deputy head teacher about the 'affairs'.

Later, she emailed her victim's wife using a false profile claiming she had compromising photographs of him with a number of women.

Dan also advised her victim's wife 'to look after her children'.

Some of the more disturbing messages included threats of sexual violence against members of the victim's family including his six-year-old daughter.

As she continued her campaign against the victim, Dan contacted the local vicar and made a string of false allegations.

She then attempted to contact the press and plant a false story about her victim claiming a married church member was using online dating sites to hook up with women.

The court heard Dan demanded her victim issue her with an apology and resign from all church activities before undergoing counselling for sex addiction. She claimed she would publish the allegations unless he agreed to her demands.

She then set up another false identity and claimed she was pregnant by the victim, before creating further fake Facebook accounts to accuse the man of being a sex pest and having several affairs.

She then accused the victim's vicar of covering up the story.

Police tried to arrest Dan on January 5, 2014 at her home in south west London. She handed herself in on January 9 and was charged with stalking.

The following day she was granted bail at Wimbledon Magistrates' Court and continued her stalking campaign.

She contacted business associates by email and blogged about domestic abuse. She even filed a police report expressing concern about the safety of the victim's children.

Later, she wrote to MPs and other high-profile figures attempting to cause further problems for her victim.

Police arrested Dan on March 28, 2014 and charged her again with stalking.

On April 2, 2014, while on bail for the earlier stalking charges, a man in his 50s reported Dan for harassment.

Dan started stalking this man after he had made a statement to police which had led to her bail being revoked.

She tried to discredit this second victim with business associates, accusing him of domestic abuse and fraud.

Investigating officer Vincent Chan said: 'This has been an extremely complex case of stalking with Dan using a number of aliases via multiple social media accounts and mobiles in a planned and co-ordinated effort to utterly destroy the home, social, religious and work life of one of her victims.

'The victim in his 40s lost his employment and his social and home life has been severely affected. Dans sentence is a reflection of how seriously the judicial system, and more importantly, society acknowledge such criminal behaviour

'The amendment to the harassment laws in 2012 was designed precisely to acknowledge and recognise this style of severe and malicious behaviour to disrupt a victims day-to-day life.

'The legal system understands the psychological impact of such campaigns of stalking as much as the more obvious forms of violence and physical threats. The Metropolitan Police Service is fully committed to investigating the perpetrators in such cases.'

'The Metropolitan Police Service takes all forms of harassment seriously and encourages all victims to come forward and report to the police as soon as possible. Crime prevention and personal safety advice is available from the Mets website at www.met.police.uk.'

In 2006, Dan escaped from Downview Prison in Surrey while serving a three-and-a-half year sentence for fraudulently spending 50,000 and stealing a credit card.

Dan was allowed out of the jail on temporary release to attend a university course, but went on the run instead.

Writing in her blog she said: 'Seems I am the cause for great consternation because I have apparently absconded. I don't think you can call it that.'

In January 2010, she was jailed for 15 months for a 17,500 housing benefit fraud.
An Indian man has undergone life-saving surgery after swallowing 40 metal knives - because he liked the way they tasted.

Jarnail Singh, 42, was admitted to The Corporate Hospital in Gurdaspur, India, a few days ago with complaints of abdomen pain and weakness.

A team of surgeons were astonished when they discovered he had swallowed not one, not two, but 40 knives over the last two months because he liked the way they tasted.

Doctors were amazed to find 40 knives inside Jarnail Singh, 42, after he swallowed them over a two-month period

Staff at the hospital in Gurdaspur, India, said it was the 'most dreadful' surgery in the past 20 years

Singh had swallowed the knives because he 'liked the taste of them' and somehow survived the ordeal

One of the five surgeons on hand, Dr Jitinder Malhotra, branded it as the most dreadful surgery he had seen in the last 20 years of practicing.

He said: 'When we began diagnosis, we found the cause of the pain puzzling. We did an ultrasound, which revealed some solid mass in his stomach, shaped like cancer.

'The patient then told us he had an uncontrollable urge to eat knives. What is astonishing is that he had been eating knives since the past two months.

'This was very unnerving, I have not witnessed something like this in my career as a doctor.'

After five hours of surgery, Jarnail was somehow successfully treated and will be discharged from hospital in the next few days.

The surgery took five hours and Singh will recover and is expected to leave hospital in the coming days
Raymond Jackson (pictured) was arrested and charged with murder on Friday in the death of 58-year-old Enayatolah Khorsand

A 62-year-old man has been arrested and charged with murder in the beating and decapitation of a Houston auto-parts shop owner.

A police statement says Raymond Jackson was arrested and charged with murder on Friday in the death of 58-year-old Enayatolah Khorsand at his shop in southern Houston.

The horrific crime was reported to homicide police shortly before 9pm on Thursday.

Witnesses said Khorsand's decapitated body was found lying on the floor of his shop. Investigators determined that Jackson was a regular visitor to the shop.

Houston Police said the shocking incident was caught on camera, which it says shows Jackon beating and killing the 58-year-old.

'He's caught on camera decapitating and beating this man to his death,' an investigator told the Houston Chronicle.

'It was brutal.'

Friends of Khorsand - also known as Andy Kord - said the shop owner had been helping Jackson, who was homeless, for years.

Police say security footage from inside the shop shows Raymond Jackson (pictured) beating and decapitating Khorsand

The horrific crime was reported to homicide police shortly before 9pm on Thursday

'He was homeless and Andy decided to feed him, help him, and give him a job, give him food, give him whatever he was able to do,' family friend Connie Castillo told KHOU.

'That was him. That was Andy. He always tried to help others.

'He was always there for me. He was my best friend.'

Police do not yet have a motive for the killing.

Police are seen standing in front of a sign that says there is a recording device in the store, which they believe filmed the graphic killing
A mother who was found dead with 16 stab wounds and her throat slit in 1970 went on a blind date with the man who is now accused of raping and killing her, her daughter has revealed.

Loretta Jones was 23 years old when authorities found her lying face down near a coffee table in the living room of her home in Price, Utah, naked from the waist down, with her shorts and underwear next to her body.

Her four-year-old daughter, Heidi, was the one who alerted a neighbor after seeing her mother and realizing she was dead.

Authorities arrested and questioned a man named Tom Egley at the time. But he walked free after a court found the evidence against him to be lacking.

The case stayed dormant for decades but Heidi kept fighting to bring her mother's killer to justice.

Egley, now 76, confessed on Tuesday and said he had 'slit Loretta's throat' because she had denied him sex, according to court documents.

Heidi, who is now 50 years old, told the DailyMail.com that her mother had gone on a blind date with Egley after friends set them up.

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Loretta Jones (pictured left with her daughter) was 23 years old when authorities found her lying face down near a coffee table in the living room of her home in Price, Utah. Tom Egley (right), now 76, is accused of raping and murdering her

Heidi (pictured at her mother's grave shortly after Loretta's death) was four years old when Loretta died. She was the one who found her mother's body and alerted a neighbor

'He was set up on a date by some friends with my mom. My mom did not care for him,' Heidi said.

She had met Egley before her mother's death - although he wasn't there 'constantly'.

'Tom was an acquaintance of my mom,' Heidi said. 'My mom knew him. He was somebody that my mom knew, that I knew.'

Egley had a pregnant girlfriend at the time and lived with her, Heidi added.

She knows the couple who set up Loretta and Egley but hasn't discussed the case with them. The situation, she said, is 'awkward'.

Loretta (pictured with her daughter) raised Heidi as a single parent. Heidi remembers going for ice cream with her and standing next to Loretta while she did some ironing

Heidi (pictured as an adult next to her mother's grave) tried to get her mother's case reopened once before, in 1989. She gave it another go in 2009

Loretta raised Heidi as a single parent before her death in 1970. Heidi remembers going for ice cream with her, getting in a car with her, and standing next to her while Loretta did some ironing.

Heidi also remembers getting up one morning in July 1970 and looking through the keyhole on her bedroom door to see something lying on the floor.

'When I opened the door, it was my mom's body. There was blood. There was a lot of blood. There was blood everywhere. She was lying in a pool of blood,' Heidi said.

'At that point I knew she was dead and I went outside to go get help.'

The four-year-old girl found her neighbor, a boy aged nine or 10.

'I told him I thought my mommy was dead. He ran next door and got his mom,' Heidi added.

After Loretta died, Heidi (pictured as a baby with her mother) went to live with her grandparents, who adopted her and raised her

Heidi still has this drawing, which she made when she was a child. It shows her mother's grave with flowers on it and 'God' next to 'my mom'

She remembers sitting in the kitchen, waiting for her grandparents to get her. Her grandfather, Parley, and her grandmother, LuDee, formally adopted her over the next couple of years.

They became her parents and Loretta's five sisters and three brothers became Heidi's own siblings.

Parley and LuDee did their best to keep their daughter's case on the authorities' radar. But Parley died in 1974 of a heart attack that doctors said was caused by stress.

'Once my grandpa died it was too much for my grandma to even pursue,' Heidi said. 'She was mourning the loss of her daughter, then her husband. It was easier to tuck those memories away in her heart.'

Heidi tried to get her mother's case reopened once before, in 1989.

'I had this binder of newspaper clippings, things I got on my own. I was writing to the authorities that had worked on my mom's case, trying to get some answers, but I kept hitting brick wall after brick wall,' she said.

Heidi studied business and accounting in college, taking after Loretta, who at the time of her death was taking correspondence classes to become an accountant.

She eventually moved from Utah to California in 1986 and spent 20 years in San Jose, working in real estate.

Heidi came back to Utah in 2006 to be closer to her family - especially her grandmother, whose health was declining.

Moving back stirred up her desire to get her mother's case back on the radar once again.

Heidi had nightmares as a child but never flashbacks - even though she wished for them.

'I wanted to remember more. I wanted to remember what I couldn't remember,' she said.

'Maybe there was something that was buried in my brain that, if it came out, could help solve this case quicker. Maybe there was something I needed to remember.'

Egley (pictured right being escorted by Price City Chief of Police Art Poloni) was arrested and questioned in 1970 but walked free due to a lack of evidence against him

Finally, in 2009, Heidi struck up a conversation with a detective at an art festival in Helper, Utah.

'I briefly told him about how my mom was murdered and he said: "OK, give me a call on Monday." And that I did.'

Detective David Brewer, of Carbon County, began working on the case again. But it wasn't until 2015 that the investigation made real progress.

Heidi's grandmother died in May 2015. She had always supported Heidi's efforts to have Loretta's case reopened, but had been very protective of Loretta's belongings, making it hard to use them in the investigation.

Down in her grandmother's basement, Heidi found the coffee table and the stereo that were in Loretta's living room on the day of her death.

She also made the decision to have her mother's body exhumed, something her grandmother had not approved of.

When authorities exhumed Loretta's body this spring, Egley asked his neighbor Lisa Carter how long DNA evidence and semen could last, according to court documents.

He decided to 'come clean' to investigators after talking more with her, the affidavit states.

Heidi still has in her possession some items from her mother's youth. Pictured is a page from Loretta's diary, which she kept between 1961 and 1965 without missing a day

Loretta (pictured at her high school graduation) was taking correspondence classes to be an accountant at the time of her death

Carter arranged for Egley to meet with Carbon County investigators at his home in Rocky Ford, Colorado.

Investigators had received an anonymous phone tip in 1970, leading them to Egley.

At the time, Egley admitted to being in Price on the night of Loretta's death but denied visiting her and could not get anyone to confirm his alibi, court documents state.

Egley was arrested in 1970 in connection to the case. An archive photo published by the Sun Advocate shows a younger Egley being escorted by Price City Chief of Police Art Poloni.

Earlier this month, Egley told authorities that he had 'slit Loretta's throat', court documents state.

He gave a further confession on Tuesday, according to the charging documents.

'I was there for sex... I was turned down for sex... [It made me feel] like shit... she went to the kitchen or something after that... and when she came back I stabbed her... in the living room. She fell... in front of the couch,' Egley said according to investigators.

He told authorities Jones was still alive when he 'had sex' with her, the court documents state. Egley then cut her throat and left, according to the account of his confession.

Loretta's daughter still has memories of her mother (pictured left and right as a little girl). She remembers going with her for ice cream and standing next to her while she ironed

Heidi was in the next room when her mother died. Pictured, Carbon County sheriff Albert Passic (left) and Poloni examine blood on the floor of the crime scene in 1970

Egley will have an extradition hearing Monday to bring him back to Utah, where he will face murder and rape charges.

'It's like a dream come true. After 46 years and telling my story over and over again - finally, not only is he caught, he confesses,' Heidi said.

'I've known it all my life. I've always known it. My story has never ever changed.'

Heidi, who visits her mother's grave every month in Elmo, plans to attend every court session she is allowed to witness.

'Every single chance that I can be there, I will be there. I'm gonna get to every court session that I possibly can. I will make him not want to see my face,' she said.

'I couldn't wait to see his mugshot and now I cannot wait to be in court with him.'

Heidi says the case will not be over for her until the sentencing hearing.

'I want to be in his face as much as possible to remind him of what he did to my mom and why he's sitting where he's sitting,' she said.
A Good Samaritan has been praised after he helped a teacher buy school supplies for her underprivileged students.

Lester Brown, 39, from Manor in Texas, paid teacher Sabrina Drude's $97 bill at a Wal-Mart store near San Antonio, Texas, after he noticed her going through the checkout with lots of school supplies but no children.

Drude, 23, explained that she was buying them for her students who come from an underprivileged area and often cannot afford supplies, at which point Brown offered to pay for them.

Sabrina Drude, 23, a teacher from San Antonio, Texas, praised Lester Brown, 39, a former minister, after he paid for school supplies she was buying for underprivileged students

Drude said she burst into tears after Brown approached her at the cash register in Wal-Mart to ask why she was buying so much stationery, then offered to pay for all of it

The teacher thanked Brown for his kind gesture, but said she would not feel comfortable accepting his money.

Drude ran her shopping through the till and was going to get her purse out as $97 flashed up on the display, but Brown got there first.

'He said "put your wallet away" and I just started crying,' Drude told CBS News. 'That's the sweetest thing I've ever heard.'

When she asked him why he was being so kind, Brown responded: 'Because teachers dont get the recognition that they deserve.'

Brown, who is a former minister and is currently a crisis worker, told KENS5: 'It was the right thing to do. Its what God said to do and its that simple.

Brown said that he had been carrying a $100 bill around in his wallet waiting for an opportunity to give it to a worthy cause, 'and God said to respond'

Drude said she chooses to buy equipment for her students because she doesn't want them to suffer the embarrassment of not being to afford it

'I remember I had this hundred-dollar bill with the intention of responding to something in need, and God said to respond.

'I challenge you, whatever it is you can afford, to volunteer at a school, help a family. You want people to live better, love thy neighbor.

'Love thy neighbor means do your part.'

Drude said that while it is not a requirement for teachers to supply their pupils, she does so out of her own pocket so they don't have to deal with the embarrassment of their parents not being able to afford it.

She added that she will be telling her students about Brown's kind act in the hope it inspires them: 'This is exactly the type of person I want to influence my kids to be.
Two Irish women travelling to the UK for an abortion are live tweeting their journey in a campaign to repeal anti-abortion laws in Ireland.

The hashtag on Twitter 'Two Women Travel' has documented the women's 48-hour trip to a British abortion clinic - a journey hundreds of Irish women make every year as a result of Ireland's strict abortion laws.

Women are only permitted to terminate their pregnancy if the life of the mother is in danger, with abortion illegal in cases of rape, incest or fatal fetal deformity.

Two Irish women travelling to the UK for an abortion are live tweeting their journey in a campaign to repeal anti-abortion laws in Ireland

The hashtag on Twitter 'Two Women Travel' has documented the women's 48-hour trip to a British abortion clinic

Photos posted from Dublin airport at 5am, to catching a train and then two sparse waiting rooms track the journey of the Irish woman supporting her pregnant friend.

'Now a waiting room,weighted by bated breaths. We could be home by noon in another world,' they write in one tweet, followed by an unexplained taxi ride to a second clinic.

'@EndaKennyTD waiting room no. 2. Feel might collapse from exhaustion.No sleep. Friend calm.Brave. #twowomentravel'.

Each tweet tags Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny - with one pointedly asking him where he's watching the Olympics, while they are 'out for a tense lonely lunch. No sleep, no food.'

Hundreds of Irish women make the journey every year as a result of Ireland's strict abortion laws.

Women are only permitted to terminate their pregnancy if the life of the mother is in danger, with abortion illegal in cases of rape, incest or fatal fetal deformity

Each tweet tags Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny in a bid to raise awareness of the issue
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A series of spectacular underwater images have revealed what is left of a 600-foot long American luxury liner-turned troop ship that was sunk in World War II.

The stunning shots show the vast 13,000 tonne wreck of the SS President Coolidge at the bottom of the Pacific, and intrepid divers overcame the dangers of deep sea wreck diving by venturing inside the hull.

The massive boat was sunk during the conflict after running into ocean mines.

Some of the luxurious interior is still visible under huge layers of silt while shells were pulled from the wreckage as well as ordinary everyday items, including bottles and pots left untouched since she sank off Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu in October 1942.

The images were captured by Canadian photographer Christopher Hamilton.

'I suppose I value these things, wrecks, artifacts, these difficult to access treasures, because they are relics from a fascinating period in history,' he said. 'Because they will not be around forever they are worth preserving in a photograph, at least.

'The tanks, the artillery, the shells are all fascinating but these simple day-to-day objects that have been sitting there gathering debris for so many decades are often the most interesting.'

The SS President Coolidge was completed in 1931 and ran between San Francisco and Manila and some around the world voyages.It was aimed at holiday makers seeking sun in the Pacific and Far East.

Coolidge became a troopship in 1941 and helped evacuate 125 critically injured naval patients from Hawaii after Japan attacked Pearl Harbour. The ship was sunk after it was by two mines upon entry to the US military base on Espiritu Santo.

No one had informed the Captain of the mines and he sailed right into them.

A series of spectacular underwater images have revealed what is left of a 600-foot long American luxury liner-turned troop ship that was sunk in World War II

Divers are seen exploring near the guntub of the SS President Coolidge off an island near Vanuatu

The stunning shots show the vast 13,000 ton wreck of the SS President Coolidge at the bottom of the Pacific

A diver inside the sunken vessel is seen examining military helmets inside one of the ship's many rooms

An intrepid team of divers overcame the dangers of deep sea wreck diving by venturing down to the sunken hull

A diver in seen swimming around the outside of the ship (left), while another disappears inside the troop carrier

A diver swims into the dark hallway of the boat that was sunk by mines in the Pacific Ocean during World War II

Hundreds of U.S. troops are seen racing off the SS President Coolidge in Espiritu Santo Harbor after it hit a mine and started to sink

The SS Coolidge is seen on the ocean before it was sank by ocean mines during World War II

The images of the sunken luxury liner were captured by Canadian photographer Christopher Hamilton

'I suppose I value these things, wrecks, artifacts, these difficult to access treasures, because they are relics from a fascinating period in history,' the photographer said

Some of the items that were on-board the ships when it sank have been preserved, including a class drink bottle

'The tanks, the artillery, the shells are all fascinating but these simple day-to-day objects that have been sitting there gathering debris for so many decades are often the most interesting,' Canadian photographer Christopher Hamilton said

A diver is seen in the open outside of the 600-foot long boat that was a luxury ocean liner before it was turned into a troop ship

The SS President Coolidge was completed in 1931 and ran between San Francisco and Manila and some around the world voyages

Coolidge became a troopship in 1941 and helped evacuate 125 critically injured naval patients from Hawaii after Japan attacked Pearl Harbour

Some of the luxurious interior is still visible under huge layers of silt while huge shells were pulled from the wreckage

A diver swims towards the deck of the massive ship that sank while carrying troops during World War II

The ship was sunk after it was by two mines upon entry to the US military base on Espiritu Santo

A school of fish is seen swimming past the hull of the SS Coolidge, which sank in the Pacific Ocean near Vanuatu

The insides of the luxury American ocean liner that is now at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean can be seen

A diver is seen looking at ordinary everyday items, including bottles and pots left untouched since she sank off Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu in October 1942

The ship sank after no one had informed the Captain there were mines in the area and he sailed right into them

'Because they will not be around forever they are worth preserving in a photograph, at least,' photographer Christopher Hamilton said
The future of cars for the one per cent is a sleek electric-powered timeless classic you'll hand down to your children - but not before you've taken the pleasure of driving it yourself.

This is the latest offering from Mercedes-Benz - the Vision Mercedes-Maybach 6, so named for its six meter length - a measurement more frequently associated with a speedboat.

And while Google pushes forward with self-driving cars, Mercedes-Benz insists this is a car you'll want no help to steer.

The future of cars for the one per cent is a sleek electric-powered timeless classic you'll hand down to your children - the Vision Mercedes-Maybach 6, according to the designer

while Google pushes forward with self-driving cars, Mercedes-Benz insists this is a car you'll want no help to steer

Mercedes executives said it is meant to evoke 'emotion and intelligence, hot passion and cool rationality'

'This is a car you want to drive yourself,' said Gorden Wagener, the Daimler AG head of design, said at the launch in California on Friday.

VITAL STATISTICS Horsepower: 750 Length: Six metres Acceleration: 60 mph in less than four seconds Charge: 62 miles in five minutes Advertisement

'We see a big movement in analog things, and they are sustainable'

'This is something you pass to your children, like a Leica camera or a chronograph watch. Driving has been a pleasure since 130 years and will stay that way another 130 years,' Bloomberg quoted Mr Wagener as saying.

The engine, can achieve 750 horsepower; the car will hit 60 mph in less than four seconds and can charge 62 miles in five minutes with the average phone charger.

The engine, can achieve 750 horsepower; the car will hit 60 mph in less than four seconds and can charge 62 miles in five minutes with the average phone charger

The front windscreen has a transparent display that lights up to show driving-related data

According to the designers, the extended, round 'boat tail' of rear of the car is inspired by a luxury yacht

According to the designers, the extended, round 'boat tail' of rear of the car is inspired by a luxury yacht.

The front windscreen is a transparent display which can be controlled by 'gestures' and the doors and dashboard are made of the 'traditional wood trim'.

'Our glamorous coupe, the Vision Mercedes-Maybach 6, represents the ultimate in contemporary luxury. It is hot and cool', states Gorden Wagener, Head of Design at Daimler AG.
The BBC has dismissed claims that Sir Steve Redgrave will be dropped after he walked off set in anger during a live broadcast from the rowing lake.

The five-time Olympic champion rower was said to be furious when he found out through his earpiece that the BBC would be showing only part of Helen Glover and Heather Stanning's women's pair semi-final.

Sir Steve, 54, thought it should have been shown in full and went missing for the rest of the afternoon, leaving presenter John Inverdale to complete the two-hour show without him.

The BBC has denied claims that Sir Steve Redgrave will be dropped after he walked off set in anger during a live broadcast from the lake

It was initially thought Sir Steve had stormed off following a row with Inverdale  the pair are said to have a strained relationship.

But it was in fact the former rower's belief that the race on Friday of last week, in which the British women won gold, should have been given greater prominence that prompted the walkout the day before, the Daily Telegraph reported.

A BBC spokesman told MailOnline the corporation is 'strongly refuting' claims Sir Steve had been sacked.

The broadcaster added in a statement: 'There is absolutely no issue between the BBC and Sir Steve Redgrave and Steve will be part of our team for our concluding Olympics review programme on Sunday.

'We would never discuss future contracts of any of our talent.'

Sir Steve, 54, thought the women's pair final should have been shown in full and went missing for the rest of the afternoon

Sir Steve is employed by the BBC to provide expert analysis during rowing events. He also knows many current British rowers and has a good rapport with them, hugging them and getting emotional when they win.

The rowing at Rio has finished but Sir Steve is also sometimes used to comment on other events, such is the high regard in which he is held as a sportsman. But he is unlikely to be used again by the BBC, it was reported. Instead, the corporation may draw on a new generation of Olympic rowing medallists to replace him as an expert.

Some BBC staff are said to be resentful of celebrity presenters being given special treatment and not having to meet the same professional standards as full-time employees.

The five-time Olympic champion rower left presenter John Inverdale to complete the two-hour show without him

The BBC dismissed any rift with Inverdale after Sir Steve walked off.

Rumours of problems between the two men surfaced after viewers thought Inverdale had angered Sir Steve by comparing him to the James Bond villain, Oddjob. Sir Steve then seemed to take revenge by shaking a wet umbrella over Inverdale's head.

Sir Steve is one of Britain's most recognisable sportsmen. He won gold at five successive Olympics, was named as one of 100 British heroes in a BBC poll and is popular with viewers, so any decision to drop him would be controversial.
He also had a cake made out of frozen beet, carrot and apple juice

Bei Bei, who now weighs 70 pounds, tasted honey for the first time

National Zoo threw a traditional Chinese ceremony for his first birthday

Giant panda cub Bei Bei was born on August 22, 2015 in Washington, DC

The youngest giant panda cub at Washington, DC's National Zoo celebrated his first birthday with a traditional Chinese ceremony and the sweet taste of honey.

Bei Bei was born on August 22, 2015 to mother Mei Xiang and father Tian Tian. First Lady Michelle Obama and the First Lady of the People's Republic of China Peng Liyuan named Bei Bei one month after his birth.

Now that Bei Bei has turned one, the National Zoo drew from Chinese tradition for his first birthday party Saturday.

But Bei Bei fell asleep during the celebration, leaving his mother to eat his birthday cake, the Washington Post reported.

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Bei Bei (pictured), the youngest giant panda cub at Washington, DC's National Zoo celebrated his first birthday with a traditional Chinese ceremony Saturday

But Bei Bei fell asleep during the celebration, leaving his mother Mei Xiang (pictured) to eat his birthday cake

In China, people traditionally hold a Zhuazhou to honor a babys first birthday.

Several objects are placed in front of the baby during the ceremony. Each one of them has a special meaning regarding the baby's future.

The baby chooses an object without help from anyone. Depending on the baby's choice, those in attendance can make a prediction regarding the baby's destiny.

The National Zoo tweaked the ceremony's principles slightly for Bei Bei's birthday bash.

Bei Bei's mother Mei Xiang was pictured feasting on the special panda cake, which was dyed using beet juice, carrot juice, apple juice and food dye

Mei Xiang (pictured) picked a poster with a traditional Chinese red knot on it during the ceremony, symbolizing friendship and luck

They placed three posters painted with symbols in Bei Bei's yard. One had peaches on it, a symbol of longevity.

The second poster was painted with bamboo, representing good health and habitat for pandas.

The third one had a traditional Chinese red knot, symbolizing friendship and luck.

Bei Bei's mother Mei Xiang picked the third poster on his behalf. Zoo officials see it as a sign of the collaboration between scientists at National Zoo and their counterparts in China.

Bei Bei went back indoors and fell asleep as thousands of visitors still waited to see him. Pictured, a crowd waits to see him on Saturday

Both countries have worked on giant panda conservation since the 1970s.

Bei Bei got to try honey for the first time during his birthday bash - and liked it so much he went back for seconds, WTOP reported.

But Bei Bei then went back indoors and fell asleep as thousands of visitors still waited to see him, according to the Washington Post.

All they could see through a glass window was the cub's back - and zookeepers couldn't even wake him up to eat his cake.

Instead, Mei Xiang was pictured feasting on the special panda treat, which was dyed using beet juice, carrot juice, apple juice and food dye.
Fire continues to threaten some 34,500 homes and other structures in communities northeast of Los Angeles

Former owner says he is 'sick to his stomach' over news of the fire

Aside from the loss in property and nature, the wildfires that have ravaged sections of Southern California have also claimed a historic landmark  a diner visited by cultural icons Elvis Presley and Clint Eastwood.

The Summit Inn, which sits on the iconic Route 66 highway and is a two-hour drive from Los Angeles, was a charred shell of itself on Friday.

'It makes me sick in my stomach,' Cecil Stephens, who owned the diner for decades, told CNN.

'It's awful, 'cause I know every button in that restaurant that was there, every light switch, every pipe. After 50 years, you've had to repair half of that stuff.'

The Summit Inn was severely damaged by the Blue Cut Fire, which has been raging over three days and has left nearly 36,000 acres destroyed

'It's awful. It's a bad feeling now to see it all burn up,' said Stevens, who owned the diner for nearly 50 years before recently selling it.

'We've had a lot of fires and a lot of accidents in this area, but we always managed to get out of it without being hurt, but this time it's different. It's over.'

Stephen said that Presley once entered the diner and noticed that its jukebox didn't carry any of his records, prompting him to half-jokingly admonish the owner.

Almost immediately, he bought Elvis records and made sure to have them in the jukebox.

Stephens told CNN that he sold the Summit Inn a month ago to Katherine Juarez.

Juarez said that the diner is insured, and she plans to rebuild the landmark with all the attendant memorabilia.

Firefighters gained ground on Friday against the wildfire which has been burning in a Southern California mountain pass and has forced tens of thousands of residents to flee and destroyed about 100 homes, officials said.

Film star Clint Eastwood (left) and music legend Elvis Presley frequented the Summit Inn diner, just two hours northeast of Los Angeles

The Blue Cut fire, named after a narrow gorge near its origin in the Cajon Pass about 75 miles (120 km) northeast of Los Angeles, has blackened 37,000 acres of drought-parched heavy brush and chaparral after breaking out on Tuesday.

The blaze has destroyed 96 single-family homes and 213 outbuildings, according to a preliminary assessment from teams in the field, fire information officer Lyn Sieliet said by telephone.

Officials said firefighters were able to carve containment lines around 40 per cent of the blaze as of Friday night, despite dry, hot and windy weather conditions and treacherous terrain.

An air tanker makes a fire retardant drop in Lebec, California as rescue services work to contain the wildfire that erupted on Tuesday

The intensely burning blaze, which has produced cyclone-like whirls of flame, continued to threaten some 34,500 homes and other structures in communities including the ski resort town of Wrightwood, fire officials said.

More than 80,000 residents were told to evacuate their homes on Tuesday. Since then, some people have been allowed to return home, Sieliet said, but she could not say how many.

While many residents opted to stay put, the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Office said deputies arrested three people suspected of attempting to loot abandoned homes.

Transit authorities on Thursday reopened Interstate 15, the primary traffic route between greater Los Angeles and Las Vegas, Nevada, after it was closed for two days by the fast-moving blaze.

Firefighters took the offensive on Friday, making significant gains even though the fire still threatens communities like this one near Wrightwood, California

The Blue Cut fire is one of nearly 30 major blazes reported to have scorched hundreds of square miles in eight Western states this week, in the midst of a wildfire season stoked by prolonged drought and unusually hot weather, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho.
An Ohio lawyer who was sentenced to five days in jail for refusing to remove a Black Lives Matter button in court has filed a federal lawsuit, claiming that her free speech rights were violated.

Andrea Burton, 30, of Youngstown, sued Youngstown Municipal Court Judge Robert Milich on Thursday after he sentenced the attorney for contempt of court when she refused to remove the button.

In her suit, she also claims that her 14th Amendment rights of due process and equal protection under the law were violated.

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Andrea Burton, 30, of Youngstown, Ohio, sued Youngstown Municipal Court Judge Robert Milich on Thursday after he sentenced her to five days in jail in July for contempt when she refused to remove the Black Lives Matter button

Milich said he cited her on July 22 because of a US Supreme Court decision banning political buttons in courtrooms.

Black Lives Matter is a movement protesting the killing of black people by police officers.

Milich, who is white, stayed the order after Burton, who is black, agreed to follow the dress code, pending appeal of the order, according to the Youngstown Vindicator.

Along with Milich, Burton also sued the city of Youngstown and Milichs colleague, Judge Elizabeth Kobly.

On July 22, Milich asked Burton to take off the Black Lives Matter button while in chambers, but she refused.

When they returned to open court, he again asked her to take off the button and she again said she would not.

Milich (left) said he cited her on July 22 because of a US Supreme Court decision banning political buttons in courtrooms. Burton also sued the city of Youngstown and Milichs colleague, Judge Elizabeth Kobly (right)

'He indicated to me he didn't know if I was trying to seek attention from the news or whatever the case was, but that legally I wasn't allowed to wear it and I deferred and said that I'm respecting my First Amendment right,' she told WFMJ.

'That I'm not neutral in injustice, and to remain neutral becomes an accomplice to oppression.'

Milich told WKBN that his opinions about Black Lives Matter had nothing to do with his decision.

'A judge doesn't support either side,' he said. 'A judge is objective and tries to make sure everyone has an opportunity to have a fair hearing, and it was a situation where it was just in violation of the law.
Authorities in Pennsylvania are investigating a boating accident which left three people dead and another injured on Saturday.

The incident took place on the Allegheny River just south of the western Pennsylvania town of Phillipston.

According to Clarion County officials, the 21-foot boat is likely to have washed up on the riverbank after midnight on Friday.

A county coroner, Terry Shafer, told the Associated Press that the boat 'ran up on the bank and flipped a couple of times and turned upside down.'

Emergency crews were alerted late Friday that a boat had overturned on the Allegheny River. The 21-foot boat is believed to have hit the riverbank, causing it to overturn

The authorities were alerted to an incident at 6:30 a.m. on Saturday, AP reported, when a witness notified them that a boat had flipped over in the river.

Pennsylvania officials did not release the names and ages of the victims.

A local television station, WTAE, is reporting that two of the dead are father and son.

The survivor of the incident, a man in his 70s, was found pinned underneath the boat. He was conscious and alert when rescue crews discovered him. They then rushed him to a hospital in Pittsburgh.

'He was in the front of the boat where there was an air pocket, apparently. The others were underwater,' Shaffer told the Associated Press.

The Erie County coroner's office has scheduled autopsies for the fatalities on Monday.
Theresa May was dragged into the Tatler Tory scandal after a video emerged of her endorsing the activist at the centre of sex, blackmail and bullying claims.

The Prime Minister can be seen slapping smiling Mark Clarke on the back and praising his work for the Conservatives at a boozy rally  with one of Clarke's mistresses in the audience.

An uncharacteristically excited Mrs May tells Clarke: 'What you are doing is absolutely tremendous. Road Trip 2015 is great. Thank you Mark for all you are doing.'

The Prime Minister can be seen slapping smiling Mark Clarke on the back and praising his work for the Conservatives at a boozy rally

She leads a round of applause for him and even acts as Clarke's cheerleader, stirring up activists in a series of chants as he basks in reflected glory.

The embarrassing disclosure comes days after the party was accused of a 'whitewash' over an inquiry into Clarke, set up after the suicide last year of Conservative activist Elliott Johnson, 21, who claimed he was bullied by Clarke.

An inquiry by lawyers Clifford Chance said the party had been repeatedly warned Clarke, 39, was a menace  but exonerated senior Conservatives, including former chairman Lord Feldman. However, The Mail on Sunday can also reveal that:

- Mrs May has given a top No 10 job to one of Clarke's Tory associates, Jimmy McLoughlin, son of Tory chairman Sir Patrick McLoughlin. McLoughlin Jnr took part in a Clarke campaign to try to save ex-Tory MP Aidan Burley who took part in a Nazi-themed stag party;

- Sir Patrick grilled Clarke over allegations of misconduct as long ago as 2010  but Clarke talked his way out of trouble;

- Tory Minister Robert Halfon, who faced an alleged blackmail threat by Clarke over an illicit love affair, asked Feldman to give a job to Clarke around the time he was sleeping with Clarke's former mistress.

Elliot Johnson with Mark Clarke and Marina Muttick. The Tatler Tory affair erupted after the suicide of activist MrJohnson, 21, who claimed he was bullied by senior election aide Mark Clarke

The revelations are a setback to Mrs May's hopes that she would avoid being caught up in the Tatler Tory scandal. She believed last week's inquiry, together with the post-Brexit resignation of David Cameron's friend Lord Feldman  blamed by Elliott Johnson's parents for not taking tougher action against Clarke  would avoid her Government being tainted.

NICE WORK, SON...HOW CLARKE'S PAL GRADUATED TO MAY'S INNER SANCTUM Jimmy McLoughlin, Theresa May's newly appointed No 10 aide with his father, Tory chairman Sir Patrick McLoughlin, photographed at a launch party for Boris Johnson's book on Churchill in October 2014. McLoughlin Snr tried and failed to rein in Clarke, while McLoughlin Jnr helped Clarke try to save disgraced ex-Tory MP Aidan Burley. Advertisement

Instead, Mrs May is likely to face further questions about her Rochester double act with Clarke; her decision to appoint his associate Jimmy McLoughlin as her Downing Street business adviser; and the role of new party chairman, McLoughlin's father Sir Patrick, who let Clarke off the hook six years ago.

In a further twist, the May-Clarke video was taken when Mrs May joined one of Clarke's Road Trip campaign trips during the 2014 Rochester by-election  which is at the centre of a major Tory election expenses row.

The video of Mrs May's vote of confidence in Clarke was made in November 2014 when they joined forces at the by-election, won by Tory Ukip defector Mark Reckless.

It was four years after Clarke had been kicked off the Tory candidates list after claims of misconduct when he was a parliamentary candidate in the 2010 election. And it was just five months after ex-party chairman Grant Shapps made Clarke a Tory 'director' with a campaigning role in June 2014  despite reviewing his Tory HQ file which reported his alleged 'aggressive and bullying behaviour' in 2010.

Clarke's reputation was an open secret in senior Tory circles for years. Yet senior figures, including Mrs May, queued up to fete him on campaign trips. The timing of the May-Clarke Rochester rally in November 2014 is significant.

Elliott Johnson with Mark Clarke, who allegedly bullied him before the young activist committed suicide

The 13 complaints against Clarke, including six of a sexual nature, highlighted in the Clifford Chance report, relate to precisely that period, the 18 months before Elliott Johnson's death  March 2014 to September 2015.

PM TOASTS ROAD TRIP BULLY...AS HIS LOVER LOOKS PROUDLY ON Theresa May thanks Mark Clarke for his now notorious Road Trip campaign visits when she joined him at Rochester in 2014. Unknown to her, one of Clarkes mistresses  India Brummitt  was in the audience, as was Paul Abbott, a Tory HQ aide and former ally of Clarke who later helped Elliott Johnson complain about him. Advertisement

Some Tories say Clarke's endorsements by Shapps, May, Halfon and other senior Ministers were a key factor in the Tatler Tory scandal.

'He was already an arrogant, predatory bully, but the support from the party hierarchy in the 2015 Election went to his head,' said one. 'It gave him even more power over young activists who looked on him with awe. They were terrified to complain.' Clarke flaunted long-time mistress India Brummitt on Road Trips  she appears in the audience at the Rochester event, joining the applause.

Another key figure in the Tatler Tory scandal, Paul Abbott, ex-chief of staff to Grant Shapps, is clearly visible in the video, drink in hand, close to Clarke and Mrs May.

Abbott was involved in the fateful decision in June 2014 to make Clarke a Tory director  despite telling Shapps of Tory HQ reports that he was 'dangerous'  but later fell out with him and encouraged Clarke's victims, including Elliott Johnson, to complain about him.

In a further twist, the May-Clarke video was taken when Mrs May joined one of Clarke's Road Trip campaign trips during the 2014 Rochester by-election

Like many of Clarke's rallies, the Rochester event took place in a bar. Drinks at such events were often free  paid for with Tory HQ money put behind the bar by Shapps.

They often ended in wild parties with Clarke as ringmaster. Mrs May also faces questions over the Tatler Tory links of Sir Patrick and his son Jimmy.

On her first day as PM, she sought to distance herself from David Cameron's 'chumocracy' by promising that 'when it comes to opportunity, we won't entrench the advantages of the privileged few'.

But in a little noticed announcement last week, Jimmy McLoughlin was appointed as Mrs May's special adviser on business on an estimated 60,000 salary. McLoughlin, 30, has known Clarke for years after meeting through the party's youth wing.

McLoughlin was on a Clarke campaign trip in January 2014 when he led an audacious bid to save his friend, Right-wing Conservative MP Aidan Burley. The Cannock Chase MP faced the axe after The Mail on Sunday revealed his role in a Nazi-themed stag party.

Clarke, whose mistress Brummitt worked for Burley as a Commons aide, timed the Cannock Chase trip to coincide with the publication of Tory Party investigation into Burley.

McLoughlin was among young activists on the Cannock Chase visit. Clarke emailed Tory pals: 'I've organised a whopping campaign day for Aidan. Was asked to help by CCHQ [Tory HQ] as I'm friends with Aidan. I've got transport, beer and curry and p*** up all paid for.'

The bid to save Burley failed  he announced he was quitting as an MP two weeks later. McLoughlin took part in another political stunt with Clarke, Brummitt and Clarke crony Andre Walker in 2013 when they were reportedly part of an attempted 'Right-wing coup' of the City of London Corporation.

Lord Feldman (left), Grant Shapps and Mr Clarke (right) pose next to the Conservative Party battlebus in April 2015

The pair stood for election in the City, along with other members of the Right-wing Young Britons Foundation, where Clarke was also accused of preying on women. None of the YBF candidates was elected.

McLoughlin worked for Tory lobbyists Bell Pottinger and the Institute of Directors before joining Downing Street last week. His father knows all about Clarke's record. In 2010, Sir Patrick, then Tory Chief Whip, summoned him to his Commons office after complaints about Clarke's conduct as the party's Parliamentary candidate in Tooting, South London.

McLoughlin, accompanied by Eric Pickles, then party chairman, were made fools of by Clarke who exploited a mix-up over the date of one alleged fracas, letting him off the hook. Clarke told them he was in church on the day in question  and later scorned 'clueless' McLoughlin and Pickles.

Hapless McLoughlin told him: 'We have heard very negative reports about you.' Clarke: 'What reports?' Pickles: 'They say you are rude, drink too much and you have a poisonous relationship with your local association.' Clarke said it was all lies. Sir Patrick also supported YBF events, where Clarke was a powerful figure. Curiously, despite his longstanding knowledge of Clarke's reputation, and his powerful new position as Tory chairman, Sir Patrick is not mentioned in the Clifford Chance report. The report also revealed new details of Clarke's links to Education Minister Robert Halfon. This newspaper revealed last year how Halfon faced an alleged blackmail plot involving Clarke after the Election.

Halfon confessed to an illicit affair after informing No 10 he had been told Tory activist Sam Armstrong, acting on Clarke's behalf, intended to film him and his lover, a prominent female Conservative activist  who was also a former lover of Clarke  leaving the East India Club in London, where they met for trysts.

Halfon said he first learned of the alleged plot to gain political favours in a text message from his lover. The Clifford Chance report reveals that on May 12, 2015  the day after Halfon was promoted to deputy party chairman in the post-election reshuffle  he asked Feldman to give Clarke a job at Tory HQ. No job offer was made. It is believed Halfon's affair ended in May 2015.

Halfon was later furious to discover Armstrong works as a Commons aide to Tory MP Craig Mackinlay. Halfon asked Feldman to sack Armstrong. Feldman declined  Armstrong still holds the post.
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At least 51 people have been been killed and nearly 100 injured after a child suicide bomber ripped through a wedding party in Turkey.

Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan said it was likely that ISIS was behind the attack which saw the bomber, a boy, thought to be aged between 12 and 14, blow up among people dancing in the street at a party in the city of Gaziantep last night.

Erdogan added the blast near the Syria border 'was the result of a suicide bomber who either detonated (the bomb) or others detonated it'.

The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party, or HDP, said in a statement that the wedding was for one of its members, and women and children had been among those killed.

Hundreds gathered for funerals this afternoon, with coffins draped in green flags. But security sources said some ceremonies will have to wait because many victims were blown to pieces and DNA tests would be needed to identify them.

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Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek said the 'barbaric' attack in the city of Gaziantep, near the border with Syria, appeared to be a suicide bombing

People wait close to empty graves during funerals for the dead after a bomb attack on a wedding party last night in Gaziantep in Turkey

Other officials said it could have been the carried out by either Kurdish militants or Islamic State group extremists

Hundreds gathered for funerals of the 51 dead this afternoon, with coffins draped in green flags

Security sources said some ceremonies will have to wait because many victims were blown to pieces and DNA tests would be needed to identify them

One person who witnessed the attack said: 'The celebrations were coming to an end and there was a big explosion among people dancing. There was blood and body parts everywhere.'

Another added: 'It was carried out like an atrocity. We want to end these massacres. We are in pain, especially the women and children.'

The bride and groom - Besna and Nurettin Akdogan - were rushed to hospital but were not seriously wounded.

According to the state-run Anadolu news agency, the bride was released from hospital, saying as she left: 'They turned our wedding into a bloodbath.'

She later returned to hospital after repeatedly fainting, Anadolu reported.

Erdogan said in a statement that there was 'no difference' between the group of US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen who he blames for the failed coup bid, the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) 'and Daesh (ISIS), the likely perpetrator of the attack in Gaziantep'.

'Our country and our nation have again only one message to those who attack us - you will not succeed!' he said.

Funerals for many of the victims took place on Sunday with an AFP photographer saying that some covered relatives' coffins with the Kurdistan flag.

Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek said the 'barbaric' attack in Gaziantep, near the border with Syria, on Saturday appeared to be a suicide bombing

Mourners carry a coffin at a funeral for one of the many victims of the bomb blast in Gaziantep in southeastern Turkey

The funerals of some of the victims took place, with feelings running high in the town of Gaziantep near the Syrian border where hundreds gathered following Saturday's bombing

Shouts of 'shame on you, Erdogan' rang out as others threw water bottles at police, amid anger at the president for not doing more to prevent the attack

Funerals for many of the victims took place on Sunday with an AFP photographer saying that some covered relatives' coffins with the Kurdistan flag

As hundreds waited to say their final goodbye, some voiced anger at what they perceived to be the government's failure to prevent the attack.

Shouts of 'shame on you, Erdogan' rang out while others hurled water bottles at police who kept their distance from rowdy crowds for fear of violence.

One distraught mother wailed: 'I lost my children, now I will never see them again.'

'The aim of terror is to scare the people but we will not allow this,' said Deputy Prime Mehmet Simsek, who also represents Gaziantep in the Turkish parliament.

'It is barbaric to attack a wedding,' he told Turkish television.

Simsek later traveled to Gaziantep along with the country's health minister to visit the wounded and inspect the site of the attack.

'This is a massacre of unprecedented cruelty and barbarism,' he told reporters in Gaziantep. 'We ... are united against all terror organizations. They will not yield.'

He told reporters it was too soon to say which organisation was behind the attack.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim condemned the bombing that turned 'a wedding party into a place of mourning' and vowed to prevail over the 'devilish' attacks.

At least 22 people have been killed and 100 people injured after a suspected ISIS suicide bomber ripped through a wedding party

The city's governor's office said 22 people had been killed and 94 people had been injured

Gaziantep governor Ali Yerlikaya said the explosion in the city centre was due to a 'terror attack', state-run news agency Anadolu reported

'No matter what this treacherous terror organisation is called, we as the people, the state, and the government will pursue our determined struggle against it,' he said.

A brief statement from the Gaziantep governor's office said the bomb attack on the wedding in the Sahinbey district occurred at 10.50pm.

Governor Ali Yerlikaya told Anadolu Agency the attack took place in Akdere neighborhood of Sahinbey district on the southern outskirts of the city.

He added that it was the type of attack that could have been launched by ISIS or the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

'The explosion took place during a wedding. According to initially available information, the ceremony was being held outdoors,' the official said.

As well as refugees and opposition activists, there have long been fears it was home to a significant jihadist presence

Deputy Prime Minister Simsek said, 'This was a barbaric attack. It appears to be a suicide attack. All terror groups, the PKK, Daesh, the (Gulen movement) are targeting Turkey. But God willing, we will overcome'

In Gaziantep, police sealed off the site of the explosion and forensic teams moved in. Hundreds of residents gathered near the site chanting 'Allah is great' as well as slogans denouncing terrorist attacks

It was not clear who was responsible for the explosion. Turkish MP Mehmet Erdogan said there was a high possibility it was a suicide attack

The Dogan news agency said the explosion, which went off at 7.40pm local time, had caused injuries and fatalities

Just north of the Syrian border, Gaziantep has become a major hub for Syrians fleeing the civil war in their country's civil war.

But as well as refugees and opposition activists, there have long been fears it was home to a significant jihadist presence.

Turkey has already been hit by a bloody year of militant attacks in its two biggest cities that have left dozens dead.

Kurdish militants have twice struck in Ankara in deadly attacks, while IS suicide bombers have twice killed tourists in the centre of Istanbul.

The blast in Gaziantep came on the day Yildirim vowed Ankara would play a 'more active' role in the next six months in efforts to solve the over five-year Syrian civil war.

The blast in Gaziantep came on the day Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim vowed Ankara would play a 'more active' role in the next six months in efforts to solve the five-year Syrian civil war

Just north of the Syrian border, Gaziantep has become a major hub for Syrians fleeing the civil war in their country's civil war

Turkey has already been hit by a bloody year of militant attacks in its two biggest cities that have left dozens dead

ISIS carried out a suicide bombing against a police station in the city in May 2016

In a sign that Turkey's position was becoming gradually more aligned with Russia and Iran, he added that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad could remain temporarily during a transition period.

Iran and Russia are the main allies of Assad whereas Turkey has always insisted his exit was a precondition for the end of the conflict.

Turkey was long accused of turning a blind eye to or even abetting the rise of ISIS in Syria, claims it vehemently denies, but has taken a tougher line after the jihadist attacks on its soil.

The United States condemned the attack and said Vice President Joe Biden would discuss the fight against terrorism during a visit to Ankara this coming week.
Turkey wants the United States to speed up procedures for extraditing US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom it accuses of orchestrating last month's violent coup attempt.

'We want the process to be accelerated,' the country's Prime Minister, Binali Yildirim, told press on Saturday. 'This man was the leader of the coup. What are we waiting for?'

He added: 'The United States has every kind of information on the incidents this terror organization and its leader have been involved in. Our request is clear: that he be temporarily detained and then returned.'

The demand comes days before a delegation of US Justice Department and State Department officials are due to arrive in Turkey to discuss the issue. Joe Biden is also set to visit next week.

Fethullah Gulen, who has lived in voluntary exile in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania since the late 1990s, says the failed military coup looked like a 'Hollywood movie'

Turkey's Prime Minister Binali Yildirim has expressed anger that the US hasn't yet extradited Fethullah Gulen, but US says it must go through whole extradition process

Washington has asked for evidence of Gulen's involvement and says the regular extradition process must take its course.

Yildirim said Turkey had sent Washington 84 files on Gulen before the coup and four other files after it.

After Gulen was blamed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for last month's failed coup, thousands of his alleged supporters have been purged from the army, police, judiciary and academia.

Gulen, who lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania, has denied knowledge or involvement in the coup attempt that led to more than 270 deaths.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoga is surrounded by his personal security and local officials after Friday prayer at Marmara University Theological School mosque in Istanbul on Friday

The Turkish government has declared a state of emergency and launched a massive crackdown on Gulen's supporters in the aftermath of the coup, raising concerns among Turkey's allies and human rights groups.

Some 35,000 people have been detained for questioning and more than 17,000 of them have been formally arrested to face trial, including soldiers, police, judges and journalists.

A hearse passes outside Marmara University Theological School mosque as Turkish policemen patrol in Istanbul on Friday

Tens of thousands more people with suspected links to Gulen have been suspended or dismissed from their jobs in the judiciary, media, education, health care, military and local government.

Yildirim said the coup has prompted a restructuring of Turkey's intelligence services, adding that both its domestic and foreign intelligence services will be strengthened and placed under one umbrella organization.

Turkish prosecutors have issued arrest warrants for 84 university academics suspected of links with US-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen.

Police launched an operation in 17 provinces , including Konya in central Anatolia, a conservative bastion of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Thousands of people have been purged since the failed coup, including these fugitive commandos pictured being taken into custody earlier this month

Twenty-nine academics have been detained, said the Dogan news agency.

A large majority of the suspects were from Selcuk University in Konya, including the university's former rector, Professor Hakki Gokbel.

Turkey has pressed ahead with a vast crackdown on alleged coup plotters in the wake of July 15 military action seeking to oust President Erdogan from power.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said this week more than 40,000 state employees had been detained in the purge, with 20,335 remanded in custody.

Gulen, a former Erdogan ally, has a powerful network of influence in institutions such as the judiciary and police as well as the media and has long been accused of running a 'parallel state' in Turkey.

The reclusive cleric, who has lived in self-exile in the United States since 1999, has vehemently denied he was behind the coup attempt.

Earlier this month Gulen described the uprising as 'like a Hollywood movie'.

Fethullah Gulen, who has lived in voluntary exile in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania since the late 1990s, was initially an ally of Erdogan but the pair fell out over a massive corruption scandal in 2013 that cost the country $100billion.

After a military coup last month, Erdogan believes his former ally - now sworn enemy - was the mastermind behind the failed bid to topple his government and has called on President Obama to arrest and extradite him.

But Gulen has strenuously denied the allegations, even suggesting that Erdogan himself could have staged the coup in an attempt to crackdown on critics.

Supporters of President Erdogan wave flags to show solidarity for the Turkish leader following the failed coup

He said: 'Some people staged a scenario, then someone who is seemingly a fan, has led some people into this.

'It looks more like a Hollywood movie than a military coup. It seems something like a staged scenario. It is understood from what is seen they they prepared the ground to realise what they have already planned.'

Supporters known as the loosely organized group Hizmet, meaning 'service', started 1,000 schools in more than 100 countries, including about 150 taxpayer-funded charter schools throughout the US.
The true scale of serious crime is revealed in a controversial new method of ranking offences that is changing how police patrol Britains streets.

Under the new national Crime Harm Index disclosed by The Mail on Sunday today, robbery is considered worse than child abduction and bike theft more serious than drug possession.

Now, chief constables are using the same approach to focus on offences deemed to cause the public most harm, including putting more effort into deterring dangerous drivers and less into catching shoplifters.

SEEN FOR THE FIRST TIME: NEW LIST OF POLICE PRIORITIES The new Crime Harm Index developed by the Office for National Statistics tries to make police figures more meaningful  by giving more importance to some offences than to others. Rather than treating every crime recorded by police, from murder to shoplifting, on an equal basis, it gives them each their own individual weight. These are derived from the proportion of offenders jailed for each offence and the average number of days criminals spend in jail for them. The harm index is then calculated by multiplying this weight for each offence by the number of offences each year, allowing researchers to see if serious crimes are going up or down. But a number of apparent discrepancies emerge, which could skew police priorities. Advertisement

The new analysis by the Office for National Statistics shows that serious crime has been on the rise for the past two years, despite politicians and police insisting the country is becoming safer.

Peter Neyroud, a former chief constable who has pioneered development of a harm index at Cambridge Universitys Institute of Criminology, said last night: A crime harm index will help us  police, politicians and citizens  to understand crime and the harm it causes to victims and communities better.

It helps police to target serious crimes more effectively, exposing crimes like child sexual exploitation, rape and domestic violence more starkly.

'All crimes are not equal. We all know that a minor theft and a murder cause a different level of harm, yet our traditional crime recording systems count both as one crime.

But questions are being raised about the ranking of crimes, which is based on jail sentences handed out by judges but, for example, misses out fraud. There are also fears the new system may again tempt police officers to fiddle the figures.

Experts told the ONS at a recent meeting they were sceptical about the value of an index and concerned about possible perverse incentives for officers to downgrade recording of serious offences.

Marian Fitzgerald, visiting professor of criminology at the University of Kent, warned it could mean that less serious crimes are no longer investigated.

HOW CAN BLACKMAIL BE ON PAR WITH CHILD ABUSE? Aftab Khan was jailed for seven years after running a gang that forced a 14-year-old girl was forced into prostitution The Crime Harm Index ranks blackmail as slightly more serious than abuse of children through prostitution and pornography. It gives blackmail a weight of 566, representing the average number of days offenders serve in jail for the crime, compared with 563 for taking advantage of teenagers for sexual reasons. Many observers would consider the latter to be the more serious crime, particularly in the light of the horrific abuse carried out by grooming gangs around the country that has been exposed in recent years. In one notorious case, a 14-year-old girl was forced into prostitution by a group of men after being picked up in a Rochdale nightclub and plied with alcohol. Police said the vulnerable teenager was used as a commodity by the gang, who forced her to have sex for money before she escaped their clutches. Ringleader Aftab Khan was jailed for seven years. Advertisement

She said: Large sections of the public will increasingly find that the police may record the crimes they report to them, but will not even go through the motions of following up these reports since they are now officially sanctioned not to take any action.

Michael Levi, professor of criminology at Cardiff University, said it was deeply regrettable that fraud is being left out of the first index, to be published in the autumn, even though it is now the most common crime reported to police, with some six million cases last year.

If youve got some categories that are excluded, they are automatically left out of the polices priorities, he said.

SURREY: 19% RISE IN SERIOUS CRIME Advertisement

Currently, the ONS publishes two sets of crime statistics  one based on all offences recorded by police in England and Wales and another based on a survey of victims.

The latest figures published in July showed 4.5 million offences were recorded by police in the year ending March 2016, an annual rise of eight per cent. Part of the increase is believed to be down to a surge in reported sex offences dating back decades in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal, but homicides have also risen to a five-year high.

The credibility of crime figures has been undermined in recent years by growing evidence that police had grown skilled at fiddling them to meet targets.

HOW CAN ROBBERY BE TWICE AS BAD AS KIDNAPPING? Jeremy Forrest was jailed for five-and-a-half years in 2012 for running off to France with a 15-year-old pupil Robbery is deemed twice as bad as child abduction under the index. The theft of personal property is given a weight of 480 in the controversial list, compared with 211 for child abduction. The maximum sentence for robbery is life imprisonment, although under new guidelines judges can jail offenders for as little as a year if they do not use force. By contrast, the maximum for child abduction is just seven years  to the consternation of the courts and campaigners. In a 2011 Court of Appeal case, three senior judges said in a judgment: We recommend the maximum sentence for child abduction should be increased. The Law Commission has also called for the maximum sentence to be doubled to 14 years. In a case that gripped the nation, teacher Jeremy Forrest was jailed for five-and-a-half years in 2012 for running off to France with a 15-year-old pupil and having sex with her. Advertisement

MPs heard claims that officers persuaded victims to withdraw reports or wiped cases from the books. Two years ago, police-recorded figures were stripped of their gold standard status by the UK Statistics Authority.

Now the ONS is preparing to reopen the debate about the purpose and meaning of crime statistics by publishing the experimental crime harm index alongside the traditional quarterly figures for the first time.

Papers seen by this newspaper show the ONS obtained actual sentencing data from the Ministry of Justice in order to work out the severity of individual crimes, following similar approaches used in Canada and New Zealand. The resulting table gives a weight of 5,393 to homicide, based on the average number of days in jail offenders serve, followed by 3,338 for attempted murder.

MERSEYSIDE: 18% RISE IN SERIOUS CRIME Advertisement

Preliminary results show the harm index rose 7.8 per cent between April 2013 and March 2015, while the traditional measure of recorded crime remained stable, indicating that although the volume of crime showed little change, there was an increase in the severity of the crime recorded.

The ONS said this was down to large increases in violent and sexual offences, reflecting better recording practices, alongside a large decrease in theft offences, which are seen as less serious. Merseyside showed an 18 per cent rise in its crime index score in the past two years and Surreys increased 19 per cent, while South Wales remained the same and the Metropolitan Polices index score actually fell over the same period.

Experts say the new crime index will help police and politicians to understand crime and its effects on communities (file photo)

FORCE NOW TARGETS SPEEDING DRIVERS OVER THIEVES One force is now targeting speeding motorists ahead of thieves because chiefs believe that car crashes are a major source of harm. Leicestershire Police is one of the first forces to change the way it operates after studying the Crime Harm Index. Bosses say it allows them to devote more resources to the offences that affect residents the most, and also to better identify the most dangerous local crooks. Chief Constable Simon Cole has identified road traffic accidents as a high harm category, even though they may not always be classed as crimes or lead to anyone being jailed. The force now carries out more operations that target drivers not wearing seatbelts, using mobiles, speeding and drink/ drug driving, known to be risk factors for crashes. This new focus on high harm offences inevitably means that others will be treated as less important. At a public meeting recently, concerns were raised that the type of persistent bad behaviour by groups of yobs would be overlooked in future. A record states: It was noted that anti-social behaviour was a type of offence where if the harm index was strictly followed then it would not be prioritised. Nevertheless, it was still intended to allocate resources to tackle anti-social behaviour. Leicestershire Police said: We take all reports of crime seriously. The harm index has helped us focus on the types of crime that cause the public harm. Advertisement

Senior statistician Roma Chappell said: Current police-recorded crime figures treat all offences as equally serious, so ONS is looking at the possibility of a crime index where more serious crimes count more heavily. This could allow people to understand better the crime profile in their areas.

Forces are already looking at how their priorities change if they judge crime by seriousness rather than volume. Leicestershires new approach meant that the top offender locally was no longer a shoplifter who had committed 89 shop thefts, but a mugger who had committed five robberies in two days. West Midlands officers are hoping to use the harm system to make better use of automatic number plate recognition technology, by targeting the cars of the most dangerous suspects.

Last night, Keith Vaz MP, chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, told The Mail on Sunday: Any new method of assessing crimes in order to give guidance to police priorities is welcome. However, we should take care to ensure there should be no downgrading of the ratings of serious crimes.

Forget lists... just put police back on streets: JONATHAN FOREMAN looks at the odd and disturbing aspects of the proposed new 'crime index'

There's no question that measuring crime using a weighted harm index offers some useful advantages to both the police and the public. It can add a degree of clarity to crime statistics that are often crude and misleading.

It also makes it easier to tell if a much-trumpeted decrease in overall crime actually masks an increase in violent crime, or if an increase in overall crime reflects merely a rise in some minor form of lawbreaking.

It would certainly be a good thing if the adoption of a harm index made the UKs police forces less prone to basing their use of resources on public relations concerns  as in the belated pursuit of aged celebrity sex offenders.

There are some odd and disturbing aspects of the proposed index, not least the fact that it excludes computer and financial fraud (file photo)

But there are some odd and disturbing aspects of the proposed index, not least the fact that it excludes computer and financial fraud.

It is also odd that it treats harassment as a more serious crime than smashing up someones car or house.

Nor is it reassuring that the list gives such a high priority to threats to kill which at No 19 ranks above arson, assault with injury, car theft, and handling stolen goods. This could turn out to be an excuse for the UKs constabularies to waste even more time and resources policing social media  and limiting free speech  than they do already.

There is also reason for dismay at the sight of possession of cannabis at the bottom of the list.

While there may be quite strong and popular arguments for legalising cannabis, the fact is that the UKs parliaments and voters have not chosen to do this. If a police force doesnt enforce an existing law, it foments disdain for the law in general.

But perhaps the most troubling aspect is that it takes so little note of the proven effectiveness of broken windows policing.

This commonsensical approach to law enforcement is based on the idea that if police dont enforce laws against minor crimes like vandalism in a particular area, then that place is likely to experience more serious crimes.

Its not a popular approach in many UK forces because its a proactive one that requires police to get away from their computer screens and back on the streets.

But it does work and it makes people feel safer than any configuration of crime statistics.
Police are investigating after a teenager celebrating her A-level results was reportedly raped at a Pokemon party in a Kent nightclub.

The alleged attack took place in the early hours of Friday during the event, held to coincide with this summers Pokemon GO mobile phone game craze.

Organisers offered those attending the celebration at MooMoo nightclub in Tunbridge Wells the chance to capture some of the 600 figures hidden around the venue, some of them with special prizes.

An 18-year-old girl was allegedly raped at the MooMoo nightclub in Tunbridge Wells, Kent

The party was based on Pokemon with guests told there were 600 toys hidden in the venue

Police are scrutinising CCTV footage from the three-floor venue. The attacker is described as a white man with brown hair who was wearing dark jeans and a short-sleeved T-shirt.

A Kent Police spokesman said: We are appealing for information after receiving a report of rape at MooMoo nightclub in Newton Road. It is said the incident occurred in the toilets of the club.
An uncertain market requires forthright action. That explains why buyers and sellers are increasingly using an alternative sales technique: the Open House.

On paper, this tactic, imported from the U.S. and Australia, sounds simple. When a home goes on sale the owner does not wait nervously for random viewings over several weeks from potential buyers, but instead gets the estate agent to organise a one-off sales event.

It is normally arranged for a weekend and can last a whole day or, in extreme cases, just one hour, with all those considering buying the house or flat viewing at the same time.

Open House: When all those considering buying the house or flat view it at the same time

Estate agents particularly like Open Houses for homes that are likely to attract a large number of inquiries, visits and offers anyway  this gets them done in short order.

Potential buyers known to the estate agent will receive personal invitations while details of the event are also posted on the agencys website, property portals such as Rightmove and Zoopla and in the local press.

The sellers and their family may join the estate agents team at the house to ensure belongings are secure while pushing through the maximum number of viewers. The squeeze is put on buyers when its made clear that the seller will consider any offers shortly after the end of the Open House period.

Agents say most Open Houses attract a dozen or so viewers, but in London, before the market dipped ahead of the Brexit vote, some attracted more than 50 potential buyers in just two hours. If that sounds like a potential bear pit  well, it can be.

But agents say this method minimises inconvenience for sellers, gives buyers a chance to size each other up and forces people to sort out their finances so they can submit an offer there and then if they wish. And, of course, creating a sense of competition between buyers means offers are likely to be more numerous and higher.

We sold a property through an Open House in Bristol, on the market at 900,000. Ten offers were received. The home ended up being sold far above its guide price, says Andrew Marshall, of Hamptons International estate agency.

ON THE MARKET.... JOIN THE THRONG Greater London: This four-bedroom semi has a modern interior and two reception rooms. Its in the peaceful residential location of Woodford Green, on the edge of Epping Forest. Open House: Saturday, September 3. Foxtons.co.uk, 999,999 Exeter: English Heritage led the renovation of four-bedroom period property The Old Stables. It has a dual-aspect master bedroom which overlooks King George V Park. Open House: Saturday, September 10. Eastofexe.co.uk, 595,000 Kent: This beautifully restored Georgian townhouse in Sandwich has three bedrooms and three bathrooms, plus a patio and walled garden. Open House: Saturday, October 8. Struttandparker.com, 750,000 Advertisement

Another agency, Strutt & Parker, holds bi-annual national Open House days where several of the properties it is selling are open at the same time. When it did this in February, its properties attracted 1,600 viewings and 32 homes were sold as a result.

Karen Jamal, a shop owner from Caterham in Surrey, went down the Open House route. I bought my home and sold my old one through an Open House. When we bought, there were 20 of us viewing over two hours. It was friendly enough, but made us feel we had to make an offer straight away, she says. When the home we were selling had its own Open House, we went away for the day and left the agent to it. When we returned, we had three offers from which to choose.

But while the Open House can sound straightforward, some buyers who decide to stay for viewings find it nerve-wracking to see purchasers measuring up their dream home for curtains in front of them.

Research by online estate agency easyProperty discovered 73 per cent of buyers who had been to an Open House found it stressful. You may not have the full attention of the vendor nor the time to ask all the questions you want, says Linda Jeffcoat, of Stacks Property Search & Acquisition, a buying agency. She also warns that people visiting multiple properties in just a few hours can get confused and make an offer they may later regret.

On the other hand, she says buyers who are well prepared can use Open Houses to their own ends, especially if there are several in the same area on the same day.
Our obsession with cinema is at an all time high, with hoards of people headed to theaters to watch films, folks sharing Netflix subscriptions, and trying to find that film that speaks to you. Well, I'm here to share with you some of my favorite films that have inspired me, made me cry, had me contemplating the meaning of life, and aspiring to make something that one day has as much meaning to others as these following films have to me.So if you want to be friends, talk about films over some pu-er tea and cookies, let's do it.Director and writer Alice Wu's 2004 indie dramachanged my life. As I watched this love story between Wil (Michelle Krusiec) and Vivian (Lynn Chen), it was one of those cathartic moments of seeing other Asian Americans experience the crap that my parents put me through. Seeing them try to set me up with their friends kids, misunderstanding racial relations, and always trying to put up this front to save face.This film brought me to a place where I understood that in order to grow up, you have to be honest with yourself and be ready to get hurt, be uncomfortable, and love yourself. Watching this on the big screen made me realize, that as Asian Americans we can make these big films, that get people talking, change lives, and really get our stories out.In this epic four-hour film by Edward Yang (R.I.P), one of the visionary directors of the New Taiwan Cinema movement, the story takes place in post Chinese Civil War Taiwan. It follows the lives of a family living in Taipei in the 1960s amidst this confusion of identity, country, adolescence, family, and so much more. The film brims with energy of the tumultuous times of being a teenager, trying to fit in and find the right path in one's life.One particular scene where the parents of the family start questioning their parenting skills and try to take on the blame for some bad decisions made by one of their sons, hits home real hard for any kid, like myself, who caused too much trouble as a teen. Also, this film is Chang Chen's acting debut, and he's always been talented and grew up to be a stone cold fox.If you're going to watch this film, I recommend trying to watch it on the biggest screen possible, because if you don't, you might miss some of the best cinematography, acting and story telling I'd ever seen. The subtlety is paramount.If you ever watchedand loved it, and were like damn, I wish there was a gangster version of this, say no more,is it.Wong Kar Wai's epic film of an assassin trying to get through his days, trying to find the meaning of life in what he does. All the while his associate tries to find a way for the two of them to fall in love, and then mixed in with a secondary plot line of a mute young man trying to find his purpose and place in the world.One thing Wong Kar Wai does beautifully is use music that just matches the mood so well, so when the breakup scene comes about, and Shirley Kwan's, classic hit song,  (forget him), comes on, as you watch Michelle Reis' character break down, it hits you so damn hard.As with most Wong Kar Wai films from his Christopher Doyle collaboration period, they were visually awe inspiring and made you see this visual neon cacophony of beauty that is Hong Kong. This film changed the way I saw life, pushed the envelope on the ideas of sexuality, and gave new meaning to what unrequited love is.That's just three of the films that have really impacted me and helped shape me as a storyteller and the type of director I want to be. There's plenty of other films that also inspire me, but that's for another time.Would love to hear from you, and talk cinema and about your favorite films. Holla at your boy!Love, An Rong
The first thing to know about white-water rafting on the Pacuare, Costa Ricas most scenic river, is that you should not look at the souvenir T-shirts.

These reveal the unsettling names given to its rapids, ranging from Class I to IV, and include Pinball, Rodeo  and Cemetery.

The second is that the water isnt the dangerous bit: most injuries result from being whacked with a paddle by your neighbour.

Adrenaline hit: Ride Costa Ricas rollercoaster rapids on the Pacuare river are a must-visit

Remote: The Pacuare Lodge is an eco-hotel where virtually every guest rafts in and out

Finally, the secret of survival lies in teamwork. You will most likely be rafting with strangers, so it helps that my motley crew includes a silver-haired English couple and two young Irish honeymooners.

Both arrived the night before on the new direct BA flight from London to San Jose, the capital of this most welcoming of Central American countries. We thought of going to the Maldives and flopping on a beach, explains the bride, but I fancied doing something exciting well never forget.

Settle in: With its hammocks and plunge pools, Pacuare Lodge isa blissful hideaway

Exquisite: This 18-room lodge achieves a romantic vibe in the middle of the rainforest

This is not in doubt as we set off in a 14ft, six-passenger inflatable raft that seems woefully small for our 17-mile rollercoaster ride down this mighty river. At the first rest point, Max, our trusty guide and helmsman, makes us jump off a rock into raging water, then desperately swim to grab his paddle.

Later, we stop at a waterfall to escape the 30c heat and enjoy a natural massage in its thundering deluge. I soon become accustomed to being smashed in the face by waves, and learn not to fear our near-crashes with the oncoming rocks.

After 90 minutes of paddling for our lives, soaked and bruised but exhilarated, everything stops for time out at Pacuare Lodge, a remote and luxurious eco-hotel, where virtually every guest rafts in and out.

With its hammocks, plunge pools and exuberant nature, this blissful 18-room lodge sings of romance.

If you need more action, theres canyoning, ziplining and strenuous hikes to visit the indigenous Cabecar people.

Caw of the wild: Costa Rica has more species of birds than the whole of Europe

Costa Rica has more species of birds than the whole of Europe. As we breakfast on slices of luscious mango and papaya, squadrons of chestnut-headed oropendolas criss-cross the Pacuare like some avian Battle of Britain.

If the rain comes (and most afternoons it will), theres a delightful riverfront spa, where therapists wearing gumboots soothe your paddle-weary muscles.

During the evening, the great frog chorus starts up, while howler monkeys bark and growl like MPs at Prime Ministers Questions. When you head to bed, your suite is lit with more than 40 candles.

After two nights of rainforest heaven, its time to raft back to civilisation on a three-hour ride battling through 16 rapids.

This time, my companions include two Indian brothers and their mother, who cant believe they made her leave her Gujarat comfort zone to face the perils of Double Drop and Devils Armpit. Im scared! wails Mama, as we don our helmets and lifejackets.

Unlike in Africa, Costa Rica doesnt permit its rafting companies to ride the truly wild Class V rapids, which means you get the thrills without the spills  though there are hairy moments when we find ourselves pirouetting down one rapid and later get stuck on a midstream boulder.

Spliced between these adrenaline-fuelled encounters are interludes of astonishing serenity as we glide through the 300ft-high forests.

Blue morpho butterflies flutter by in the thick heat. Yellow-throated toucans flap past, weighed down by their magnificent beaks.

A machaca fish jumps, grabbing a quick lunch of purple orchid blooms floating on the tea-coloured water.

I feel like an explorer dreamily floating through an enchanted canyon of emerald trees and silvery waterfalls  until Max suddenly cries: Paddle now! and were off again, bouncing around like a sock in a washing machine as the Pacuare roars and pours its way down to the Caribbean Sea. Finally, we turn a bend in the river and return to the real world.

Our brave little raft passes beneath a huge concrete bridge laden with trucks transporting the bananas, pineapples and tropical fruits for which Costa Rica is renowned.

Will you go white-water rafting again? I ask Mama. Oh, yes! she replies with a grin as we raise our paddles in a final, jubilant high five. Me, too.
Theres no better place to have your cake and eat it than Sweden  the home of fika (coffee and cake). Its a bit like the British concept of afternoon tea, except that it happens in the morning, too.

In Sweden, the law says workers must have a break twice a day, and this usually involves an accompaniment of coffee, cake, sweets or biscuits.

Fika, which can be used as a noun or a verb, comes from 19th Century Swedish slang. You can fika by yourself or with others. And if youll forgive the coffee pun, its a relaxed way to take a break from the daily grind.

In Sweden, the law says workers must have a break twice a day, and this usually involves an accompaniment of coffee, cake, sweets or biscuits

Theres even something called gofika  a superior version more likely to be encountered on a Friday and that includes something extra-creamy such as chocolate or princess cake instead of a cookie or cinnamon bun.

Although Swedens lack of a pub culture is given as one reason for the popularity of fika, its actually been a Swedish institution for centuries.

The so-called capital of fika is Alingsas, just under 30 miles north-east of Gothenburg. In the Middle Ages the town became home to the people of nearby Nya Lodose after invading Danes burnt it down. The Swedes have never quite forgiven them.

Today Alingsas is home to many patisseries, enabling the town to celebrate the fika concept with guided tours in English, which include wonderful selections of cream cakes, cinnamon buns and even prawn sandwich cakes. Many of the cafes here are mentioned in Swedens leading restaurant guide, The White Guide.

The so-called capital of fika is Alingsas, just under 30 miles north-east of Gothenburg

But my favourite, Conditori Nordpolen (the North Pole patisserie), was in Vara, a further 30 miles up the road towards Vanern, the largest lake in Sweden and the EU.

Run by Per Larsson, Conditori Nordpolen commemorates the heroic age of polar exploration after the sensational crash landing in 1894 of a hydrogen balloon at nearby Onum.

It was a sort of dress-rehearsal for an expedition three years later to the North Pole which ended in tragedy. Three explorers crashed on the deserted Kvitoya (White Island) in Svalbard, and although they were not badly injured, they eventually died there. No one knows how, and the fate of the expedition remains one of the unsolved riddles of the Arctic.

All this made for a fascinating if unlikely contrast with the Conditori Nordpolens delectable array of classic Swedish princess cakes  light sponge covered with green marzipan and topped off with a pink marzipan roses that Larsson was so skilled and speedy at creating.

Needless to say, the coffee he offered us to go with the generous slices was delicious: the Swedes, like the Italians, take their coffee very seriously. When I provocatively joked to one group of fika fans that I could do with a cup of instant instead, they all but snarled at me as if I were an invading Dane!
I first visited Corfu a few years ago for a TV travel programme and loved it so much that I vowed to return one day for a proper holiday.

My husband Richie had never visited the island before, so we decided it would be the perfect destination for a sunshine break with our four-month-old son Ernie before I set off for the Rio Olympics and my stint presenting the swimming events.

The Greek isle is well known among two groups of holidaymakers. The resort of Kavos is popular with youngsters keen on its lively nightlife, while more thoughtful travellers are attracted to the island described so memorably by Gerald Durrell in his book My Family And Other Animals, which was recently adapted for TV.

The beachside MarBella Corfu Hotel has an 'amazing' selection of food on offer to guests, as well as being in an idyllic location

Olympics presenter Helen Skelton decided to return to Corfu after first visiting when filming a TV travel programme

My first trip to Corfu was largely restricted to Corfu Town in addition to a quick visit to one other resort: as is the way with TV travel programmes, we were there only a couple of days, looking at a typical package-tour stay and trying out the sorts of things people do on holiday.

It was very much a flying visit that involved a lot of driving here, there and everywhere. This time I was there entirely for pleasure, enjoying our first-ever fly-and-flop trip together as a family.

Before Ernie was born, Richie and I would fly to a destination and, rather than choosing to stay in one place, wed travel around (in my time on Blue Peter I was something of an action woman). Last year, for example, we flew to Miami, hired a car and drove all around Florida.

The pools at the MarBella allowed Helen Skelton to try out what she has been reporting on this summer - swimming

Nap time: After a day in the Corfu Sun, the bedrooms at the MarBella offer clean luxury

Richie is a professional rugby league player who currently plays for the Catalan Dragons. He is not very good at just sitting on a beach. Ask him to sunbathe and he gets restless. Im the same: I want to be doing things, so when we travel, I buy a guidebook and we set out to see as much of a place as we can.

On this trip, though, with a young baby to look after, we took a different approach. We checked in to our hotel, took off our watches and powered down our mobile phones  the first time weve ever done that! It was just so lovely to get away from everything.

When we told people we were taking Ernie on a four-hour flight from the UK to Greece, many of our friends thought we were mad.

Fortunately, he was a dream. Ernie slept for the entire journey, which was a relief to us  and, I suspect, to the other passengers.

We were also slightly worried about how guests at a luxury hotel might feel about having a baby in their midst, but many of the people we met were doting grandparents who couldnt get enough of him. Several guests came over to us and said: Oh, my daughter has just had a baby the same age as yours. It was a nice way to break the ice.

There was a Greek restaurant called Comodo, an Italian (pictured), and a beach cafe, so Helen and her family didnt have to go to the buffet every night

We stayed in the MarBella Corfu Hotel (Im not entirely sure why a hotel called MarBella  a resort on Spains Costa del Sol  is in Corfu!) but it was ideal for our stay.

It had a pool where we spent most of our time, taking it in turns to mind the baby while the other cooled down in the water. And down by the beach, there was lots of decking and little cabanas where Ernie could doze out of the sun.

The food at the hotel was amazing. Our holiday was all-inclusive, so we knew to expect a classic holiday buffet at some point, but the resort offered so much more. For example, there was a Greek restaurant called Comodo, an Italian, and a beach cafe, so we didnt have to go to the buffet every night.

The menu at the Greek restaurant in particular was delicious, and the Italian was much more than a pizza and pasta place  it was more like fine dining.

The hotel is situated on the islands east coast, and our one excursion was a trip north into Corfu Town. It was a simple trip  we took the bus there and used a taxi for the journey back to the hotel.

Helen Skelton recommends the MarBella as an excellet place to stay when visiting Corfu

Corfu Town is a bustling centre that offers much in the way of restaurants and bars

We had a really great day strolling round, visiting the old fort and a few other places. Other than that, we stayed in the hotel  a new holiday experience for us both. I felt really proud of Ernie and how he behaved throughout the trip.

Before we left Britain, all my friends who are mums were saying: Oh my goodness, you know that taking a baby so young will be very hard work.

However, I took the view that the younger he is, the less he needs. We took milk, a steriliser, and the travel cot. When Ernie is toddling around, thats when I will worry about him walking too close to the edge of the swimming pool or falling down steps.

There were no problems on our trip  it was brilliant and I would totally recommend it to anyone.

It was the break we needed. When youve just had a baby, your house becomes a bit like Piccadilly Circus  everyone descends on you for a visit, including friends and family you havent seen for years. It turns out to be almost as exhausting as giving birth.

At last, after the birth and all the visitors, we were finally able to get away and just spend some time together as a new family.

We had quality time, which is what holidays should be all about.
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Airline food doesn't always have the best reputation - especially if you're travelling in economy or with a budget carrier. But for one man, the joy of flying is all about the food served on board.

For the last four years, Australian ex-pat Nik Loukas has hopped on hundreds of flights just to sample their culinary offering. Along the way, he's eaten everything from steak and lobster to satay and sushi - and he can certainly tell you which airlines have the best, and the worst, food.

Now, the airline food addict is looking to make a documentary about the subject.

Nik Loukas flies around the world just to try airline food. For just 14 (12.12), Loukas received 'the best chicken schnitzel at 35,000ft' on FlyNiki, which was served with parsley potatoes and came with a side salad and a mousse au chocolat

Singapore Airlines is Loukas' absolute favourite airline to fly for food. With Singapore Airline Suites, he tried a lobster thermidor and it was 'amazing'

On a one-hour flight from Izmir to Istanbul with Pegasus Airlines, Loukas enjoyed a steak with grilled vegetables, potato bake and Turkish salad before rounding off the meal with a chocolate cake

AirBaltic, which will feature in the documentary that Loukas is making, served him a simple Caprese salad, chicken with grilled seasonal vegetables and a chocolate cream cake on a flight from Riga to Brussels

Speaking to MailOnline Travel, Loukas said that his passion began in 2011 when he moved from Australia to Europe.

As he worked in the airline industry, around 30 per cent of his time is spent in the air for work.

He started collecting menus and soon built these into his website, www.inflightfeed.com, where he now catalogs his own flights as well as news from the industry.

Since the blog was founded in 2012, he's taken over 400 flights, tallying up to more than 400,000 miles - or 17 times around the world.

The Dublin-based frequent flier told MailOnline Travel: ' I love everything about airline meals. I wanted to show passengers what they could eat in the air.

Not every meal is gourmet though. On a flight from Paris to Copenhagen with SAS, which Loukas says usually does very good food, he had a rather terrible experience with a pizza

On a Delhi to Paris flight with Air India, Loukas was disappointed to find that the second meal of the journey was a meagre croissant. Although it did come with fresh fruit and a chocolate brownie

 Slide me 

 Slide me  On another flight with Air Asia, from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur, Loukas tried a chicken satay and a sweet and sour rice

On a Norwegian Air operated flight from New York to Oslo, Loukas tried an 'ok' tasting beef with mashed potato and brocolli

'Airline food doesn't have a good reputation. I just want to show people that there are interesting choices out there.'

An example of this was a pre-ordered meal on FlyNiki, an Austrian-based subsidiary of Air Berlin.

NIK LOUKAS' FAVOURITE AIRLINES FOR FOOD Singapore Airlines

Aegean Airlines

Japan Airlines

FlyNiki

Turkish Airlines Advertisement

For just 14 (12.12), Loukas received 'the best chicken schnitzel at 35,000ft', which was served with parsley potatoes and came with a side salad and a mousse au chocolat.

An alternative option on the flight, for the same price, was an Italian antipasti platter featuring Prosciutto di Parma with a simple version of a Caprese salad, grilled Mediterranean vegetables and a tiramisu for dessert.

On another occasion, when he flew with Japan Airlines, he was served a snack from KFC as one of his meals.

The KFC meal was a seasonal offering that followed the Japanese tradition of having KFC for Christmas.

Loukas flew from Paris to Taipei just to try the Hello Kitty kids meal on EVA Air, which featured pasta and meatballs served with a potato salad, fresh fruit, chocolates and a chocolate brownie.

On a trip from Tokyo to Seoul, Loukas flew on Asiana Airlines and wasn't disappointed with their very traditional breakfast offering on board

On a domestic flight in Japan with Peach Aviation, a budget airline that allows you to buy food on board, Loukas tried a Japanese pancake that came with five different condiments

On another occasion, when Loukas flew with Japan Airlines, he was served a snack from KFC as one of his meals

Loukas, who says that he travels and collects these menus, and now photographs, for fun, spends a substantial amount of his savings on the flights but also takes advantage of his frequently flier points for business and first class upgrades.

The airline food enthusiast said: 'Sometimes I travel to a destination just to sample the food. Recently, I flew from Paris to Taipei with EVA Air just to try their Hello Kitty meal.'

That offering, he said, was very memorable - not least because it was designed for children and his fellow travellers were more than a little baffled by his meal option.

He said: 'Everyone was staring at me and I just wanted to fall through a hole in the cabin.'

However, the meal turned out to be rather good, although 'there was a lot of chocolate' considering it was a children's option.

On another recent trip he travelled all the way to India for just four days and most of the time there was spent in the air, sampling the food offered on board some of the local airlines.

Loukas said LATAM was his favourite airline in South America. He flew on the Madrid to Frankfurt segment of a flight that was travelling on to Chile and saw a big focus on Chilean food on board, including balsamic vinegar from the country

Another option on FlyNiki was an Italian antipasti platter featuring Prosciutto di Parma with a simple version of a Caprese salad, grilled Mediterranean vegetables and a tiramisu for dessert

While travelling from Kunming to Bangkok on Thai Airways, Loukas enjoyed a meal featuring pork with noodles, a salmon salad and plenty of fresh vegetables

On another flight with Singapore Airlines, Loukas was delighted to find that the dessert was Haagen Daz - and you get a choice of flavours

Now, around 50 per cent of the flights that Loukas takes is centred around food and he would also travel with a specific airline just to try their food.

He said: 'My partner is always complaining that I'm always going somewhere.'

There's constant innovations in the airline food world that Loukas wants to explore.

For example, he admits that he hasn't really flown on any African airlines and wants to try Ethiopian Airlines.

He's also heard that South African Airways have just changed their caterer so that's another one to add to his list.

According to Loukas, the USA is about to see an airline food revolution as some carriers are looking to reintroduce meals to flights where catering had previously been scrapped.

Delta in particular, he says, is looking to improve their gourmet appeal in a big way, especially with collaborations with chefs.

Loukas is so fascinated by the world of airline food that he's decided to make a documentary on the subject, which he is currently crowdfunding for on Indiegogo.

Aegean is another one of Loukas' favourite gourmet airlines. While travelling from Brussels to Athens in business class, he started the gastronomic experience with a chicken salad

On the same Aegean flight, he also had the grilled fillet of chicken with Lyonnaise potatoes, green beans and turkey bacon with lemon thyme sauce

To finish, Aegean served up a selection of Greek pastries with an Illy coffee, which was Loukas' favourite coffee

He said: 'Airline take nine to 10 months to plan a meal, it's not just something that chefs decide to whip up.

'There's a lot of logistics and there's a lot of testing.'

Those behind-the-scenes aspects of airline meal planning are the sort of subjects that he hopes to cover in the documentary.

Loukas and the team behind UK-based Rainbow Trout Films have already started filming some of the documentary.

He told MailOnline Travel that while there might be an opportunity to pitch the idea to a TV network down the line, the funding will help them to make the documentary and release it to DVD.
Only 8,000 people are allowed to visit each day and ahead of its opening many visitors queued overnight

The bridge in Zhangjiajie park, central China's Hunan province, officially opened to tourists on

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If you're addicted to heights, China's latest glass-bottomed bridge is a thrilling spot that's not to be missed.

The structure, which was officially unveiled to the public for the first time on Saturday, crosses two peaks in the mountains of Zhangjiajie - the same ranges that inspired the American blockbuster Avatar. It's said to be the world's highest and longest glass-bottomed bridge.

But would-be visitors beware - thousands of tourists queued up for the grand opening of the bridge and as the first pictures show, the attraction became so busy that you can barely see the sheer drop below.

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The new glass-bottomed bridge crosses two peaks in the mountains of Zhangjiajie - the same ranges that inspired the American blockbuster Avatar

While 8,000 people are allowed to cross the bridge each day, many tourists queued up overnight to be the first to visit the attraction. The site became incredibly busy in a short amount of time

Those who cross the bridge earlier in the day were treated to views of the spectacular 984ft sheer drop underfoot

The bridge spans approximately 430 metres (1,400 feet) across two peaks and is suspended 300 metres (984ft) above a sheer drop.

It crosses a canyon that divides two mountain cliffs in Zhangjiajie Park, in China's central Hunan province.

The structure is six metres (19ft8in) wide and made of some 99 panels of clear glass.

It can carry up to 800 people at the same time, an official in Zhangjiajie told China's state news agency Xinhua.

Tourists can walk across the bridge, designed by Israeli architect Haim Dotan, and the more adventurous will be able to bungee jump or ride a zip line.

Tourists can walk across the bridge, designed by Israeli architect Haim Dotan, and the more adventurous will be able to bungee jump or ride a zip line

Having fun? Tourists will have to book their tickets a day in advance, at a cost of 138 yuan (15.94)

Following an alarming glass bridge cracking incident at the Yuntai mountain in northern Henan in 2015, authorities in Zhangjiajie were eager to demonstrate the safety of the structure

According to Huanqiu, many tourists started queuing to be the first to go on the bridge the night before.

The first of those to get on the bridge were seen lying down and doing splits.

Later on in the day, the bridge became incredibly crowded and you can barely tell that the structure has a glass bottom.

Wang Min, who was visiting the new structure with her husband and children, said: 'I wanted to feel awe-inspired by this bridge. But I'm not afraid - it seems safe!'

Lin Chenglu, another visitor who had come to see the bridge with his colleagues, said: 'It's crowded today and a bit of a mess. But to be suspended 300 metres in the air, it's a unique experience.'

Following an alarming glass bridge cracking incident at the Yuntai mountain in northern Henan in 2015, authorities in Zhangjiajie were eager to demonstrate the safety of the structure.

Cameras and selfie sticks are banned, according to Xinhua, although it seems that some of the first tourists are already flouting the rules

No fear: The structure is six metres (19ft8in) wide and made of some 99 panels of clear glass

They organised a string of media events, including one where people were encouraged to try and smash the bridge's glass panels with a sledge hammer, and another where they drove a car across it.

Only 8,000 people each day will be allowed to cross the bridge and only 600 at any one time, Xinhua said,

Tourists will have to book their tickets a day in advance, at a cost of 138 yuan (15.94).

Head for heights: Aerial view photo shows the glass-bottom bridge at Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon

People were encouraged to try and smash the bridge's glass panels with a sledge hammer, and another where they drove a car across it in tests before it opened to the public

Cameras and selfie sticks are banned, and people wearing stilettos will not be allowed to walk on the bridge, Xinhua said.

Local authorities have said that one of the summits in Zhangjiajie Park inspired the floating mountain which appears in the American blockbuster Avatar.
A brightly coloured seaside shack in Dovercourt, Harwich, has taken the title for the best Beach Hut of the Year for 2016.

It beat quirky contenders from other parts of the country, including Essex, Kent and Hampshire.

The winning property, known as 'My Happy Hut', was picked by 'Location, Location, Location' presenter Phil Spencer for its 'delightful decor' and the way that it brought its owner and the local community joy.

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Anna Davies, the owner of My Happy Hut and Phil Spencer pictured together outside the winning property

The owner, Anna Davies (pictured), originally bought My Happy Hut to inject some joy into her and her children's lives

The front drops of the hut down to create a decked area (pictured), making it perfect to use all year round

The colourful hut is painted pastel blue and coral with polka dots adorning the front.

Its tiny interior has just enough room for a kitchenette, sofa and table and chairs.

There's a set of glass double doors and windows behind what its owners call the 'drawbridge'.

The front drops of the hut down to create a decked area, making it perfect to use all year round.

Anna Davies enjoying a cup of tea and cake with Phil Spencer after she received the award

The charming decor features framed pictures that showcase typical seaside themes

TOP 10 BEACH HUTS IN BRITAIN FOR 2016  The Bohol Hut  Hove Esplanade, East Sussex  Hut 279  Hove East Sussex  Hut 303  Brightlingsea, Essex  No 31  West Bay, Thanet, Kent  No 14  Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex  No 65  Calshot, Solent, Hampshire  My Happy Hut  Dovercourt, Essex  Serenity-on-Sea  Bournemouth, Dorset  Millie  Walton-on-the-Naze, Essex  Buggleskelly  Glyne Gap, East Sussex Advertisement

Anna Davies, the owner, originally bought My Happy Hut to inject some joy into her and her children's lives.

The single mother was forced to move to Harwich after a tragedy and her story has inspired the panel of judges, which included Phil Spencer, historian Dr. Kathryn Ferry, beach hut designer Pete Samson, journalist Charlotte Vowden and previous winner Jane Ashmore.

Phil Spencer travelled to Harwich to meet the winner on Friday to award her the 1,000 prize plus a year's free beach hut insurance from the organisers of the awards, Towergate Insurance.

She also received a commemorative plaque to hang in the hut.

Anna Davies said: 'I am genuinely shocked and excited that "My Happy Hut" has been crowned beach hut of the year!

'Its a wonderful acknowledgement of how much love and hard work we have poured into our hut, so to receive this accolade, and of course meeting Phil Spencer, is just wonderful.

My Happy Hut, was picked by 'Location, Location, Location' presenter Phil Spencer for its 'delightful decor' and the way that it brought its owner and the local community joy

'I love the beach hut community spirit and once a year we go on a Dovercourt beach hut crawl enjoying food and drink at every hut we visit along the way.

'This hut has been my salvation and continues to bring myself and my family joy every summer.'

The local beach hut association in Harwich and Dovercourt beach hut also received 500 as part of Davies' prize.

Entrants this year included a hut in Mersea, Essex, with a delightful seaside theme featuring a mermaid on the wall, and one at Haylind Island which has decorative maps on its ceiling.

Its tiny interior has just enough room for a kitchenette, sofa and table and chairs (pictured)

The top 10 was announced on 19 June and the public then voted for their favourite.

Phil Spencer said: 'I have fond memories of summers spent whiling away the hours at my family's beach hut and the way this competition continues to grow and capture the hearts of seaside lovers clearly shows our affinity with beach huts in the UK is increasing.

'I think it gets tougher each year to select a winner as the standard of entries is truly incredible and we were spoilt for choice with an array of unique and fantastic designs.

'However, "My Happy Hut" was chosen for its delightful decor and for bringing joy, not only to Anna and her family, but to the beach hut community. '

The entrants included a hut in Mersea, Essex, with a delightful seaside theme featuring a mermaid on the wall

Pink is the theme of this inviting beach hut in Dovercourt, Essex, which has a sink and hob

Yellow features in the interior and exterior of this beach hut, called Lazy Sunday, at Sheringham, Norfolk

This colourful interior is found at the Boho Beach Hut at Hove Esplanade, East Sussex
Shes the jet setting model that has walked the runways for top fashion houses including Marc Jacobs and Victoria Secrets, while balancing her successful cosmetics range Luma on the side.

So it's probably safe to say when Jessica Hart donned two Klorane contour eye patches for her flight back to Australia, she knew what she was doing.

A picture of the natural beauty was posted on Instagram on Friday with the caption flying in style with Hart wearing two giant semi-circle patches underneath her eyes.

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En route to Australia!': Jessica Hart, 30, donned Klorane contour eye patches for a flight back to Australia to avoid nasty black circles after weeks traipsing across the Meditteranean

En route to Australia! Flying in style with the one and only airline @qantas, she revealed.

Usually seen dressed in chic couture or runway attire, the sandy blonde opted for a more casual look wearing a comfortable long sleeved shirt and a simple chain with a stone pendant.

Her luscious hair was pushed back out of her face with the help of some chunky black headphones while rocking a make-up free look with nude lips.

Just six days earlier, Hart threw her arms behind her head to soak up the summer vibes in a blue and white gingham bikini with a large grin on her face.

'Summer vibes': Just six days earlier, Hart threw her arms behind her head to soak up the sunshine in a blue and white gingham bikini with a large grin on her face

Working out: The 30-year-old model has been exploring Italy and posted a snap earlier this week as she climbed the mountain of Stromboli, an island off the north coast of Sicily

The 30-year-old has been traipsing across the Mediterranean posting snaps exploring Italy and the surrounding islands.

One post captioned Attempting to climb Stromboli saw the Sydney-born model explore the mountain with a backdrop of the glistening ocean.

She also posted a picture of herself lounging in the sunshine with her bare breasts obscured from view by a friendly pooch hiding her modesty, captioned with: '@theadventuresoffloyd and me.'

Cheeky: Hart posted a racy snap lounging in the sunshine with her bare breasts obscured from view by a friendly pooch hiding her modesty

Fashion forward: In May Hart wore a similar pair of eye patches while travelling to Nice for a Fashion show for amfAR - the foundation dedicated to ending AIDS

In May, Hart wore a similar pair of eye patches while travelling to Nice for a Fashion show for amfAR  the foundation for AIDS research dedicated to ending the epidemic.

The eye patch craze has become a favourite among celebrities and female bloggers with shock-jock Kyle Sandilands also giving the bizarre beauty product a go.

In July, his girlfriend Imogen Anthony posted a picture of Kyle sitting back in a chair and relaxing with a couple of eye patches pasted to the bottom of his eyes.

Couple dressed: In July girlfriend Imogen Anthony (right) posted a picture of shock-jock Kyle Sandilands (left) sitting back in a chair and relaxing with a couple of eye patches

Beautiful craze: In April Australian model Simone Holtznagel (pictured) also snapped herself wearing the expensive eye mask created by Australian company Lonvitalite

Imogen later posted a picture of herself using a pair of 24 karat gold eye patches and a lip mask.

In April, Australian model Simone Holtznagel also snapped herself wearing the expensive eye mask created by Australian company Lonvitalite.

English model/actress Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and countless beauty bloggers also posted pictures of themselves wearing the eye mask praising the quirky product.
She is known for her unique and glamorous sartorial choices.

But Pettifleur looked slightly less elegant on Friday as she donned a fluorescent 80's inspired workout outfit.

She posed alongside retired AFL player Campbell Brown in a 'behind the scenes' shot as the two ripped up the otherwise empty dance floor for charity.

Let's get physical: Pettifleur (right) dons 80's aerobic gear with retired AFL player Campbell Brown for charity

Campbell showed off his muscular arms in a rainbow Lycra leotard paired with a purple sequinned cap.

Pettifleur had a more elaborate outfit, wearing bright green full-length tights with high-waisted hot pink bottoms over the top, teamed with lime green sweat bands and a black crop top.

The skintight lycra material revealed her trim and toned physique.

Charitable chums: Pettifleur is taking part in a celebrity fundraiser for Jake Edwards (right) who will trek 250 kilometres across Cambodia to raise money to care for children who have experienced or witnessed serious violence

Brave: Campbell Brown is one of a group of celebrities taking part in the fundraiser, where people are invited to offer financial incentives to the charity for their celebrity to take part in a filmed dare

Pettifleur and Campbell are raising funds for former AFL footballer Jake Edwards, who is gearing up to embark on a 250km trek and cycle across Cambodia for charity.

Others supporting Jake include Nova's Jaben Ryan, Pettifleur's Housewives co-star Susie McLean and women's AFL players Briana Davey and Abbey Holmes amoung others.

Working it: Pettifleur was able to show off her toned stomach and muscular arms in the picture

Helpful housewives: Susie (pictured second from left) will also take part in the fundraiser

Jake Edwards was de-listed after just four years playing AFL. In 2014 he attempted suicide, and has since rebuilt around a dream of mentoring young players and helping others battle problems with substance abuse and depression.

He will complete the 250 kilometre trek in November to raise money for the Alannah and Madeline Foundation which helps to keep children safe from violence, and his famous friends are helping with the fundraising.

Using a free app called VDROP, ordinary people are encouraged to offer the participating celebrities donations in return for the completion of a filmed dare.

According to the Foundation's website, challenges so far include a dance off, an AFL training session and a rap off.
Australian PR queen Roxy Jacenko says she has 'no intention to participate' in the development of an unauthorised biography titled 'Blonde Ambition - Roxy Jacenko Unfiltered.'

Speaking to Daily Mail Australia on Saturday, the 36-year-old mother-of-two said she knows 'very little' about the book being penned by columnist Annette Sharp, who Roxy has previously called 'quite ill informed.'

Published by Melbourne University Press, the biography was initially intended to be written by political journalist Margot Saville, while former Vogue writer Alexandra Spring is said to have been the second choice.

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Not getting involved: Australian PR queen Roxy Jacenko says she has 'no intention to participate' in the development of an unauthorised biography titled 'Blonde Ambition Roxy Jacenko Unfiltered'

'I know very little about the apparent "unauthorised" book,' Roxy told Daily Mail Australia on Saturday.

She added: 'And [I] have had little to no contact from any of the enlisted writers since being made aware of the book and publisher's intentions some two months ago via a media enquiry about my thoughts regarding it unbeknownst to me!

'I have no intention to participate.'

The biography is already available for pre-purchase for $32.99 in paperback form, with the publisher's website describing Roxy as a 'PR maverick. Relentless self-promoter. Perfumed steamroller. "Force of nature". Momager (sic)'.

Publication in question: The biography is already available for pre-purchase for $32.99 in paperback form, with the publisher's website describing Roxy as a 'PR maverick. Relentless self-promoter. Perfumed steamroller. "Force of nature". Momager (sic)'

Writer: The biography will be penned by controversial columnist Annette Sharp

The book is believed to follow the PR maven's incredible career journey, as well as her personal battles including her recent breast cancer diagnosis, and husband Oliver Curtis' insider trading conviction.

Meanwhile it was just back in May when Roxy slammed columnist Annette Sharp, after an article published in The Daily Telegraph suggested Francesca Packer Barham's mother Gretel hoped her daughter's split from Kelli Holland would make it easier to pry her away from Roxy.

At the time Roxy told Daily Mail Australia: 'It appears that Daily Telegraphs Annette Sharp is quite ill informed'.

She added: 'Regarding my work with Ms Packer Barham, we enjoy a lovely working relationship and have done for some 12 months and any malicious gossip is just that and not something I will buy into nor entertain furthermore,' the publicist added.

Meanwhile in terms of the unauthorised biography mentioned, last month it was reported that political journalist Margot Saville was to pen the book.

'Ive been following Roxys career for a while, because I think shes an interesting person,' Margot told The Daily Telegraph at the time.

Previously: Last month is was reported that political journalist Margot Saville was to pen the book

Personal torment: In June Roxy's husband Oliver Curtis was sentenced to two years in prison following an insider trading conviction

Health scare: In July the mother-of-two revealed she had been diagnosed with breast cancer - pictured with daughter Pixie and son Hunter

'It's unauthorised, but Im hoping to speak to her.'

The author had also hinted the book would offer a mixture of professional and personal revelations about the image-conscious PR guru.

'Ive been researching her and ringing around. Im interested in talking to people who do know her professionally and personally and finding out what her modus operandi is,' she said.

The Sydney Morning Herald's PS column reported on Saturday that Margot had pulled out of the project, telling the publication 'she had more pressing family matters to attend to'.
It looks like Keira Maguire's admission that she finds fellow Bachelor contestant Sasha Zhuralyova 'so hot,' has only strengthened the bond between the two stunners.

On Friday the 29-year-old account manager enjoyed a night out in Melbourne with 31-year-old Sasha, hours after she admitted the rose-eating brunette would be her pick if she were to pursue intimate relations with one of the bachelorettes.

Taking to Instagram, outspoken Keira shared a snap of the pair sitting on a double bed in a luxurious hotel room, dressed to impress in sleek and sexy black attire.

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Sizzling: It looks like Keira Maguire's admission that she finds fellow Bachelor contestant Sasha Zhuralyova 'so hot', has only strengthened the bond between the two stunners, as they posed on a bed in a Melbourne hotel room on Friday night

'Weekends with this babe @sashazhuravlyova #bachbesties ...These @scanlantheodore boots are everything (sic),' the Lara Bingle lookalike captioned the image.

Keira also shared some Snapchat videos of the pair's fun adventures.

'Oh my god, guess who I'm with. My favourite girl from The Bachelor, Sasha. Remember the one that ate the roses,' Keira initially told her Snapchat followers.

Keeping close: Keira also shared some Snapchat videos of the pair's fun adventures

Dressed to impress: Both reality stars work sleek black ensembles

The next video showed the pair ready to hit the town, with Keira saying: 'So I'm so excited to be in Melbourne with my girl, we going to be hitting the club tonight yo.. just joking but we are going out (sic)'.

While enjoying some pre-drinks in their hotel room, Keira took the opportunity to praise the executive assistant, telling her fans: 'Follow my girl Sasha, she's more fun than me. I mean I'm pretty fun'.

Sasha responded, 'no you're the fun one', before running her hands through Keira's blonde hair.

Close connection: On Friday morning Keira admitted she would 'hook up' with fellow contestant Sasha (R) if she had to choose one of the bachelorettes

On Friday morning Keira dropped quite the bombshell after being eliminated during Thursday night's episode.

Appearing on KIIS 106.5 FM's Kyle and Jackie O show, she revealed she hasn't had sex since March, and that there were times during her stay in the mansion where she felt she needed 'some sort of action'.

The outspoken blonde also admitted fellow contestant Sasha would be her pick, if she were to pursue any intimate relations with one of the bachelorettes.

'She's so hot': 'Out of the girls, Sasha... I love her!' Keira revealed her chosen lady

Shock jock Kyle Sandilands didn't hold back when asking Keira the question: ' Did you want to hook up with any of the chicks in the house?'.

And it looks like Keira was very sure of her intentions, as she responded without much hesitation.

'Look there was a moment where I was like "Okay, I need some sort of action going on",' she laughed.

Cosy: The pair were very close in the mansion - pictured with contestant Rachael (L)

Romantic: Sasha made a name for herself on the show after she was seen eating roses during the first cocktail party

'Out of the girls, Sasha... I love her!' Keira revealed her chosen lady, and the gushing didn't stop there.

'She's sot hot. I love her!' she reiterated.

Meanwhile radio presenter Jackie O was slightly surprised by Keira's choice, admitting she had forgotten who Sasha was.

'Sasha's the rose-eating one,' Keira clarified, which instantly jogged Jackie's memory back on track.

Bored in the mansion? 'Look there was a moment where I was like "Okay, I need some sort of action going on",' she laughed

In regards to any intimate behaviour with any males out of the Bachelor mansion, Kyle enquired: ' Have you had any penis since you got out of the show?'.

'You know what, I haven't,' she giggled.

'I haven't had any action since March. Just because I don't know,' she continued, before adding, 'I can't believe I told you that'.

Maintaining her strong stance of being honest, she also confessed: I feel like I've forgot what it's like'.

Sassy personality: Keira was quickly labelled the 'villain' of the series due to her jealousy, frequent clashes with other contestants and arrogant manner

It looks like Sasha also holds a great level of respect for Keira, telling Nova 100's Chrissie, Sam & Browny earlier this month: 'I absolutely love the chick'.

The 31-year-old continued: 'Shes crazy, shes outgoing, shes very loud but at the same times shes a great chick, I absolutely love her.'

Keira was sent home during Wednesday night's episode, after Richie Strahan realised he couldn't see a future with the blonde beauty following their yoga-themed single date.
She is known to share racy selfies in provocative poses on Instagram.

And on Friday, Caitlin Stasey caused a social media meltdown after she showed off her burgeoning belly in a photo taken in the backseat of a car.

Lifting up her pink silk dress, the 26-year-old revealed her swollen stomach in a pair of grey coloured underwear.

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Caitlin Stasey causes social media meltdown after she uploads a picture of herself showing off burgeoning bump in grey panties

'Ttw ur [sic] pretty sure ur [sic] gonna piss yourself for the first time in 20 years,' she captioned the image.

And while some of her 175,000 followers were quick to assume that the former Neighbours star is pregnant, all was not as it seemed.

One follower wrote: 'Omg congrats you'll be a great mother.'

Another added: 'Wooo! Welcome to motherhood xoxo.'

Rule breaker: This photo was later deleted from the image-sharing website along with other content which breached Instagram's community guidelines

As a result of the comments, Caitlin had to re-edit her image, writing: 'Holy s**t you guys never cease to amaze with totally missing the context. NOT pregnant NEED to pee.'

But others were not convinced with her response and still claimed the former Sleep Over Club member was with child.

One social media user wrote: 'When you actually get pregnant you'll quickly find out that peeing yourself is very much within the context.'

Others questioned if she simply ate too much food.

Weeks earlier, she posed topless in support of the 'Free the Nipple' campaign against Instagram's 'sexist' nudity policy.

Lovely view! Days earlier, Caitlin posed topless in support of the 'Free the Nipple' campaign against Instagram's 'sexist' nudity policy

Caitlin has been a longtime advocate of the movement, which argues women and men should be granted the same rights to share nude photos online.

Standing on top of a parked car in the desert, Caitlin is shown proudly flashing her bare chest to the camera.

The photo was later deleted from the image-sharing website along with other content which breached Instagram's community guidelines.

Meanwhile, last month it was reported her Bumble dating account was suspended because she used a topless photo as her profile picture.

And it seems possible that Instagram could be following suit.

According to the The Sun, an Instagram insider claimed Caitlin 'keeps pushing it' by uploading semi-nude photos.

Testing the limits: According to the The Sun, an Instagram insider claimed Caitlin 'keeps pushing it' by uploading semi-nude photos

'Her photos get removed but she just posts a replacement,' the source reportedly said. 'She takes no notice and will not follow rules.'

According to Instagram's community guidelines, nude images may not be published regardless of 'whether they are artistic or creative in nature'.

This includes all types of visual content that shows sexual intercourse, genitals, and close-ups of bare buttocks.

Photos of post-mastectomy scarring and women breastfeeding are allowed, however.
TOWIE favourite Chloe Sims was launching her latest clothing range on Friday night.

So naturally the creme de la creme of reality TV were out in force to support the blonde beauty, who turned heads in a black bodycon dress as she partied at DSTRKT nightclub in London.

The 33-year-old opted for a Goth inspired ensemble as she hit the town with a gaggle of her pals, rocking head-toe-toe black.

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Woman of the hour: TOWIE veteran Chloe Sims was joined by a host of her reality star friend sas she celebrated her clothing launch at DSTRKT nightclub in London

Chloe slipped into a black bodycon dress in a bardot style, showing off her slim figure.

She kept her outfit coordinated, carrying a black leather clutch and sporting sheer, peep-toe ankle boots.

The single mother went all out with her make-up, highlighting her eyes with a liberal amount of dark, smoky shadow.

Eye-catching: The single mother went all out with her make-up, highlighting her peepers with a liberal amount of dark, smoky shadow

Rock 'n' roll vibes: Chloe slipped into a black bodycon dress in a bardot style, showing off her slim figure

She kept the rest of her beauty look neutral, toning down her statement peepers with nude lipstick and wearing her hair in tousled curls.

Chloe was joined by a host of pals including her cousin Frankie Essex, who was looking slimmer than ever in a bright red dress.

Geordie Shore's Chantelle Connolly was also in attendance, opting for a flirty and feminine white lace dress.

Show of support: Chloe was joined by a host of pals including her cousin Frankie Essex, who was looking slimmer than ever in a bright red dress

Looking good: Frankie looked slimmer than ever, sporting a bright red dress that highlighted her recent weight loss

Close pal: Vas J Morgan turned up to congratulate his former co-star Chloe

Ex On The Beach's Charlotte Dawson was hard to miss in her scarlet number as she cosied up to Big Brother's Sam Giffin for the second night in a row.

Chloe has been enjoying the single life and has proved not to be too fazed by her ex Elliott Wright's engagement to Sadie Smith after just 10 months of dating.

In her Star magazine column, she recently responded to reports, saying: 'Danielle [Armstrong] told me Elliott is engaged to Sadie. I don't have any feelings about it at all.

Lovely in lace: Geordie Shore's Chantelle Connolly was also in attendance, opting for a flirty and feminine white lace

Strike a pose: The feisty star ensured her pert posterior was the centre of attention

Party pals: Ex On The Beach's Charlotte Dawson posed up a storm with close pal Sam Giffin

Lady in red: The daughter of late comedian Les Dawson strutted her stuff as she made her grand arrival at the club

'If the love of my life had just got engaged I would be absolutely choked, but it was like hearing an old friend was getting married.

'When we were on and off, he told me the next girl he met he'd settle down with, so I was expecting it anyway. Good for him.'

She also spoke of her whirlwind union with Elliott, which came to an abrupt end when Wright moved to Spain, to This Morning hosts Eamonn Holmes and Ruth during a recent appearance on the show.

Chloe, who dated Elliott on and off for over a year between the summers of 2014 and 2015, added: 'I cant be moving unless Im a hundred billion per cent sure and at the time I wasnt. So I chose to stay in Essex.'

Joining forces: Chantelle and Charlotte got better acquainted at the bash

Hell for leather: Vas was coordinating with Chloe in an edgy all-black ensemble

Lady in red: Ex On The Beach's Charlotte Dawson was hard to miss in her scarlet number as she cosied up to Big Brother's Sam Giffin for the second night in a row

Edgy: Vas J Morgan and Chloe Sims looked stylish in black coordinating outfits

White on white: Imogen Townley and Chantelle Connelly both opted for white outfits

Belle of Essex: Frankie turned heads, matching her pedicure to her dress
She's the stunning actress who's busy filming commitments for Home And Away during the week.

But Pia Miller makes the most of her weekends as she spends quality time with her two children.

The 32-year-old beauty took to Instagram on Saturday morning to share a delightful snap of herself with her sons, 13-year-old Isaiah and nine-year-old Lennox, as they snuggled up together in bed.

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'Sleepy heads': Pia Miller shared a sweet family snap with her sons Isaiah and Lennox as they snuggled in bed together on Saturday

'Sleepy heads,' the television actress captioned the candid shot and added a heart-shaped emoticon.

Flaunting her flawless makeup-free complexion, Pia was seen sporting a case of bedhead as she wrapped her arms around Isaiah and Lennox.

The doting mother-of-two proved she's just like any other typical mother when it comes to showing off their kids on social media.

Flashback: The 32-year-old actress proved she's just like any other typical mother as she shared an old photo of Isaiah as a baby

Last week, the Chilean-born beauty shared a flashback photo of Isaiah dressed up as rapper Tupac Shakur when he was just a baby.

The bub looked adorable in denim overalls and a blue bandana as he flashed his big eyes for the camera.

She also shared a second photo of Lennox when he was a toddler with big long curls.

Adorable: The Home And Away star also shared a second snap of her youngest son Lennox

Isaiah is from one of Pia's earlier relationships, while Lennox's father is former AFL player Brad Miller.

The actress married the ex-sportsman in 2007 and the couple announced their split in October last year.

Pia opened up about the breakdown of her marriage, saying it was due to her struggle to balance family life with her filming commitments for the Channel Seven soap.

Loved up: The Chilean-born beauty is currently dating 27-year-old film producer Tyson Mullane

'I'd shoot all day, jump on a plane, race home and make dinner - it was like I was working full-time in both places,' she told Marie Claire in May.

'I was trying to do everything and it took a toll on me physically, I think it took its toll on everything.'

Meanwhile, the former model has moved on with film producer Tyson, whom she was first pictured with last November.

The actress confirmed the romance after months of speculation with an Instagram post on Valentine's Day.
She's the globe-trotting model with a killer body.

And Shanina Shaik made the streets of New York her catwalk on Friday as she headed out for the night.

The 25-year-old simply stunned in a black jumpsuit which featured an open back, to show off her toned torso.

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Back to basics: Shanina Shaik flaunted her incredible figure in a backless jumpsuit as she headed out on Friday night

With her back to the camera, the Australian stunner captioned the snap: 'New York Nights.'

Shanina's raven locks were worn up in a neat bun as she strutted the streets in sky-high stilettos.

Earlier in the week, the IMG model turned up the heat in a red leather dress as she attended The W Hotel's new Dubai property in New York.

Red hot: The 25-year-old model stunned in another backless number as she attended a party earlier this week

The Victoria's Secret stunner put on a leggy display as she posed for photos with fellow models.

Arriving at the party solo, Shanina later posed for a supermodel line-up with Hannah Ferguson, Chanel Iman, Joan Smalls and Nina Agdal.

Meanwhile, the mixed-race beauty is currently in wedding planning mode as she prepares to wed DJ Ruckus, whose real name is Gregory Andrews.

Entourage: Shanina arrived to the party solo and later posed for a supermodel line-up with Hannah Ferguson, Chanel Iman, Joan Smalls and Nina Agdal

Shanina, who is of Lithuanian, Pakistani and Saudi Arabian descent, previously said she wants the couple's nuptials to be small and intimate but admits it would be impossible with the amount of friends they have.

'The guest list is going to be difficult,' she told KIIS FM's Kyle and Jackie O.

She explained: 'I want a small wedding but conjoined with Ruckus and I, it's not going to be unfortunately.'

Wedding planner: The mixed-race beauty is currently planning her wedding to DJ Ruckus, revealing she has picked a designer for the dress

The model also confirmed she has picked a designer for her gown, but remained tight-lipped on who it is.

As for the location, the Melbourne-born beauty revealed the wedding won't take place in Australia, but considers the Caribbean as a 'maybe'.

The runway star announced her engagement to her beau in December after the DJ popped the question during their holiday in the Bahamas.
Kim Kardashian West Snapchatted a cute encounter between her daughter North and a Mariachi band during her Mexican holiday on Friday.

The barefoot three-year-old was whimsically dressed in whale-print pyjamas and a pair of purple sparkly fairy wings.

The privileged tyke showcased her energetic moves as the three-piece band played La Bamba in the lobby of their hotel Casa Aramara.

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Future violinist? Kim Kardashian West Snapchatted a cute encounter between her daughter North and a mariachi band during her Mexican holiday on Friday

The beachfront luxury retreat happens to be the only five-star private estate located in Punta Mita.

In her typical fashion, the 35-year-old reality star - who boasts 156.6M followers - managed to crop out little Nori in her Snapchat selfies.

The Keeping Up with the Kardashians stunner spent the evening at a masquerade-themed 29th birthday party for her gal pal Hrush Achemyan.

Kim made sure to match her lacy mask with her slinky white tank dress as she celebrated the Armenian-born make-up artist (who was actually born July 19).

Weee! The barefoot three-year-old was whimsically dressed in whale-print pyjamas and a pair of purple sparkly fairy wings

Slave to the rhythm: The privileged tyke showcased her energetic moves as the three-piece band played La Bamba in the lobby of their hotel Casa Aramara

Shake it! The beachfront luxury retreat happens to be the only five-star private estate located in Punta Mita

Sorry not sorry: In her typical fashion, the 35-year-old reality star - who boasts 156.6M followers - managed to crop out little Nori in her Snapchat selfies

After a fancy catered dinner, the Selfish author and her friends took turns batting a pinata shaped like (what else?) a massive derriere.

Aside from her ongoing obsession with all things butt-related, Kardashian indulged in a tamarind margarita, which 'looked really gross but it's really good!'

Meanwhile, the Calabasas socialite's eight-month-old son Saint with third husband Kanye West likely slept through Friday's festivities.

Belated bash: The Keeping Up with the Kardashians stunner spent the evening at a masquerade-themed 29th birthday party for her gal pal Hrush Achemyan (2-R)

Incognito: Kim made sure to match her lacy mask with her slinky white tank dress as she celebrated the Armenian-born make-up artist (who was actually born July 19)

Kimoji inspired? After a fancy catered dinner, the Selfish author and her friends took turns batting a pinata shaped like (what else?) a massive derriere

Party time: Aside from her ongoing obsession with all things butt-related, Kardashian indulged in a tamarind margarita, which 'looked really gross but it's really good!'

The 39-year-old designer/rapper will kick off his 39-concert Saint Pablo Tour next Thursday at the Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

According to Page Six, the 21-time Grammy winner will also perform at Harper's BAZAAR ICONS party happening September 9 at the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan.

Catch more of the former sex tape star and the rest of her fame-hungry family on the 12th season of KUWTK, which airs Sundays on E!

Little man: Meanwhile, the Calabasas socialite's eight-month-old son Saint with third husband Kanye West likely slept through Friday's festivities (pictured Thursday)

Hitting the road! The 39-year-old designer/rapper will kick off his 39-concert Saint Pablo Tour next Thursday at the Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis (pictured June 5)

In demand: According to Page Six, the 21-time Grammy winner will also perform at Harper's BAZAAR ICONS party happening September 9 at the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan
Could she have worn a more fitting hat?

Kris Jenner escaped to a tropical island getaway on Friday just as her cyber stalker was charged back in Los Angeles.

The 60-year-old shared a handful of photos from her idyllic Caribbean bolt hole.

Do not disturb: Kris Jenner escaped to a tropical island getaway on Friday and shared this shot of herself with Dee Ocleppo, model and wife of Tommy Hilfiger

In one the momager reclines on a deckchair on an abandoned snow-white beach, sipping a cocktail.

Her face is completely obscured by her floppy sunhat, which aptly reads: Do not disturb.

Beside her Dee Ocleppo, model and wife of Tommy Hilfiger, sits in a matching chair, with a matching drink and matching hat.

'#DoNotDisturb #youcantsitwithus #heavenly @mrshilfiger #friendship.' the KUWTK creator captioned.

Targeted: Meanwhile back in LA, California woman Christina Elizabeth Bankston was charged with cyber-stalking Kris and hacking her iCloud and social media accounts

The others show the wing of her aircraft skirting over crystalline waters, the stunning view from her room, and a tiny runway seemingly in the middle of nowhere.

Meanwhile back in LA, a California woman was charged with cyber-stalking Kris, hacking her iCloud and social media accounts and threatening to release a supposed sex tape.

Christina Elizabeth Bankston, 36, of Newark, was arrested at her home on Thursday morning.

Stunning: Kris shared a handful of pics, including one of the wing of her aircraft skirting over crystalline waters as it came in to land

Bankston, a nurse's assistant, was indicted by a grand jury in Los Angeles.

She is accused of bombarding the Kardashian family matriarch with explicit messages and emails using the name 'Troy.'

According to the federal indictment, Bankston asked to meet Jenner in person because she claimed to have had a sex tape of her, which she had sent to a news website.

She allegedly sent a series of explicit messages, which included the phrases 'can I eat you out' and 'you can't block me forever love.'

Wow: Another showed the breathtaking view from her bedroom

Bankston was charged on 15 counts related to hacking one of Jenner's online accounts, impersonating her former spouse, Caitlyn Jenner, and sending her illicit and threatening text messages, federal prosecutors said.

Each count of cyber-stalking and hacking carries a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison.

She is charged with hacking Jenner's iCloud account and then resetting the password, which she then used to impersonate her to friends and family members.

Tight: A final pic showed a tiny runway seemingly in the middle of nowhere

Prosecutors say she harassed Jenner and her family between March and September 2014.

They also allege she impersonated Kris Jenner to authorities to get them to respond to a false emergency at her home.

She allegedly claimed that one of Jenner's family members was committing suicide.

Bankston is due to make an initial court appearance on Friday.

It was unclear whether Bankston had an attorney.
They announced the end of their decade-long relationship last month.

But Diane Kruger and Joshua Jackson packed on the PDA as the former Dawson Creek actor dropped off the leading lady to LAX airport on Friday.

The former couple were spotted tenderly embracing as Joshua, 38, lifted the 40-year-old stars luggage to the pavement in Los Angeles.

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PDA: Diane Kruger and Joshua Jackson packed o the PDA as the former Dawson Creek actor dropped off the leading lady to LAX airport on Friday

Sending her on her way, the two looked closer than ever as they held each other before she entered the terminal.

The outing for the former couple appeared to be emotional as they looked at each other affectionately as Joshua rested his hands on Diana's tiny waist.

As they bid farewell, the pair coyly smiled for a moment before she left for her flight.

Looking stylish, Diane donned high-waisted denim jeans that displayed her svelte figure.

Bon voyage: The former couple appeared to be emotional as they looked at each other affectionately as Joshua, 38, rested his hands on Diana's, 40, tiny waist

Sending her on her way: The two looked closer than ever as they held each other before Diane entered the terminal

Teaming her denim look, the actress worked a skin-tight grey body suit with cut-out detail on the side as she worked a black baker boy hat as she carried a large black tote.

Sweeping her golden locks into a low messy ponytail, Diane looked fresh faced as she wore a pair of kooky oversized sunnies.

Meanwhile, Joshua sported a black tee that hung onto his muscular physique - matching his ensemble with beige shorts and Adidas trainers.

MailOnline have contacted their reps for comment.

Their appearance comes after they were spotted earlier in the week strolling around the City of Angels.

Long goodbye? The pair, who announced their split after ten years together last month, longly embraced

Helping hand: Joshua lifted the blonde beauty's luggage to the pavement at LAX

Handsome: Joshua sported a black tee that hung onto his muscular physique

Last month, reps from both the stars confirmed the news of their break-up to People.

'Diane Kruger and Josh Jackson have decided to separate and remain friends,' a spokesperson told the website.

The pair had been plagued by rumours of relationship problems in the months leading up to their split.

Diane started dating Josh after she split from her husband of five years, French director Guillaume Canet.

Stylish: The actress worked a skin-tight grey body suit with cut-out detail on the side

Fashion forward: The Sky star worked a black baker boy hat as she carried a large black tote

In March, Diane revealed she had moved to New York to be with Joshua while he was appearing in off-Broadway play Smart People, but admitted she was unsure about tying the knot again.

Asked if she would consider marrying again, she told Net-A-Porter: 'Welcome to my dilemma.

'I just moved to New York. I need to unpack and buy some house stuff, like candles and books.

'[Moving here] was a major commitment. That's a big step into adulthood for me, to allow that time for someone else out of my time.'

Leaving on a jet plane! Diane looked fresh faced as she wore a pair of kooky oversized sunnies going through the terminal at LAX

Chic: The Hollywood star sweeped her golden locks into a low messy ponytail

Earlier this month, Diane spoke of how she's doing at the moment during an interview with People.

'It's all good ... all good,' she said.

The Disorder actress also revealed that she's single, but is open to the idea of dating.

'If you have a suggestion, let me know?' she said jokingly.
We're more used to seeing them glammed up on the red carpet for the latest film premiere or charity bash.

But George Clooney, 55, and wife Amal were in more casual mode on Friday, taking a spin on his motorbike around Los Angeles.

George sported a blue polo shirt, jeans and a blue helmet as he motored his 38-year-old wife along Mulholland Drive in his jet black Harley Davidson.

Easy rider: George Clooney took wife Amal for a spin on his motorbike along Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles on Friday

Even the glamorous Amal was dressed casually - sporting a tight blue T-shirt and ripped jeans for the ride.

But trendy sunglasses and towering wedge boots provided a concession to fashion, with the the human rights lawyer still managing the difficult feat of looking sophisticated while wearing a bike helmet.

The glamorous couple, who have homes in England, Italy, Mexico and Los Angeles, seemed to be enjoying some down time together after recently hosting a fundraiser at his Lake Como villa to raise funds for the African region of Darfur.

Chopper time: George and Amal were in casual mode for their sun soaked ride

Loving touch: Amal lovingly held on to her husband for their spin around town

Enjoy yourself: The pair have a whirlwind jetset life so were clearly enjoying some down time

The crisis in Darfur - which has roared on between Sudanese government forces and the indigenous population since 2003 is an issue which has been close to the actor's heart.

George, who has starred in two films this year, will next direct film Suburbicon from a Coen Brothers script.

According to The Wrap, the film is set in the quiet family town of Suburbicon and describes the plot as: 'When a home invasion turns deadly, a picture-perfect family turns to blackmail, revenge and betrayal.'

The film stars Matt Damon and Julianne Moore and will also be produced by George whose directing credits include Monuments Men, Leatherheads, The Ides of March, and Good Night and Good Luck.

Motoring on: The duo powered on through Mulholland Drive

Happy together: George and Amal celebrate their second wedding anniversary together next month

Directing time: George will next helm a Coen Brothers film

Meanwhile, George and Amal will celebrate their second wedding anniversary next month.

The pair famously tied the knot in a romantic ceremony at George's Lake Como villa on September 27 2014.

Wedges: Amal sported towering wedge lace up shoes and oversize sunglasses for a fashionable touch

Wild ones: George is a big fan of motorbikes, and is often seen taking his Harley out when he's in LA




She recently returned from a blissful summer break in the South of France.

But on Friday it was back to work for busy actress Isla Fisher, as she headed to a business meeting in Beverly Hills.

The stylish star dressed to impress for her appointment, looking gorgeous in a chic little black dress.

Post holiday blues? On Friday it was back to work for busy star Isla Fisher, as she headed to a business meeting in Beverly Hills

Looking fab: The stylish star dressed to impress for her appointment, looking gorgeous in a chic little black dress

Isla, 40 showed off her toned legs in the lace number which featured a full, flirty skirt.

She teamed the pretty dress with sky-high heeled sandals and a chain-length shoulder bag.

The finishing touches were a pair of statement shades and perfectly styled locks.

It's been a busy time for Isla, who has just finished work on two new movies, Nocturnal Animals and Keeping Up With The Joneses.

Off to work: The Wedding Crashers star had a serious expression as she looked down

Nocturnal Animals tells the story of an art gallery owner is haunted by her ex-husband's novel, a violent thriller she interprets as a veiled threat and a symbolic revenge tale.

While the latter revolves around a suburban couple who become embroiled in an international espionage plot when they discover that their seemingly perfect new neighbors are government spies.

Shades on a sunny day: The redhead had on black sunglasses that matched her dress

Earlier this month, Isla enjoyed a family holiday in the South Of France with her husband Sacha Baron Cohen and their children Olive, eight, Elula, five, and 16-month-old son, Montgomery.

The trip follows Isla's recent promotional tour for her new children's book, Marge In Charge.

Isla previously told The Bookseller: 'Now that I have children of my own I see the joy and magic in their everyday lives and books are a crucial part of this. I hope together we can introduce Marge to as many family bedtimes as possible.
Tom Hiddleston has spent time away from girlfriend Taylor Swift recently while filming Thor: Ragnarok in Queensland, Australia.

But the English actor, 35, didn't seem too lonely on Friday night, as he enjoyed dinner with a male friend on the Gold Coast, amid rumours he's set to make his red carpet debut with Taylor at the Emmy Awards.

Tom cut a low-key figure in dark jeans and a sweater with rolled-up sleeves as was spotted leaving an Italian restaurant.

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A Loki approach? Tom Hiddleston dressed casually as he was spotted leaving an Italian restaurant with a friend in Queensland, Australia on Friday night

Red carpet official? Tom's outing comes amid rumours he's set to make his red carpet debut with Taylor at the Emmy Awards

He accessorised simply with a classic black watch and finished off his casual look with a pair of brown shoes.

He looked in happy spirits while smiling and laughed with his friend and even waved to passers-by.

Meanwhile, his companion wore grey trousers with button up white shirt, and tucked a pair of sunglasses into his neckline.

Cracking jokes: The English actor, 35, was joined by a male friend

Good times! Tom and his companion appeared in happy spirits during the evening stroll

Tom is back in Australia filming the third film in the Thor superhero franchise, alongside Chris Hemsworth and Cate Blanchett.

It has now been alleged that Tom and pop princess Taylor will be attended the Emmy Awards together on September 18, where Tom is nominated for his role in The Night Manager.

A source told The Sun: 'Tom normally doesn't like his public life overlapping with his private life but he is so happy with Taylor that it's the perfect time.

He must be jet lagged! Tom was only recently in the United States visiting his girlfriend Taylor Swift, People reported

'While the Emmys may be about celebrating the best shows on television, the organisers that weekend are looking for just one show - Taylor and Tom.'

It would seem The Night Manager star was only recently in the United States.

Tom was spotted flying to Rhode Island in Taylor's private jet last week for a romantic weekend away, reported People.
She turned heads with her performances on Strictly Come Dancing.

But Ola Jordan has been attracting attention off the floor as she got wet and wild during a weekend car wash.

The Polish beauty, 33, showed off her stunning figure with hotpant dungarees and a white cami as she polished her Nissan GTR outside her Kent home.

Gleaming: Ola Jordan showed off her stunning figure as she washed her Nissan GTR

Her husband James joined her for the job and things escalated quickly as he soaked her with a bucket of water and even threw a sponge at her.

The couple laughed hysterically as they frolicked on the drive and Ola winced as Ex-CBB housemate James turned on the power hose, drenching her from head to toe and making her clothes very see-through.

But the blonde hit back, launching a full bucket of water over James before tickling him with a towel.

Sexy: The dancer climbed on top of the bonnet to clean the windscreen outside her home in Kent

Stretch: Ola had to stand up on her tip toes in order to reach the middle of the windscreen

Reach: As she cleaned the screen of her car she showed her pert posterior in hot pants

Ola dressed for the sunshine in a skimpy pair of denim dungarees.

The shorts showed off her tanned and toned legs, while she added a strappy white vest top which flashed her ample assets.

Tying her blonde locks back, and adding makeup, Ola was ready to work.

Scrub: Ola then moved around the front of the car to clean the bonnet with a hand towel

Having fun: Ola seemed to be enjoying the summer sun as she cracked a smile

Thorough: Ola scrubbed the car to make sure she got every last speck of dirt off

Splash: Her husband James joined her for the job and things escalated quickly as he soaked her with the pressure washer

No James! Ola winced as her joker husband fired up the pressure washer in a bid to drench her

Ola and James have been married for 13 years and have both starred on the BBC's Strictly.

When it comes to keeping the spark alive they recently explained brutal honesty is the best policy - revealing the truth has provided their marriage with a solid foundation for success.

Speaking to new! magazine, the former Strictly professional explained the secret to her happy relationship was simple, saying: 'We're not afraid to say things to each other. We're honest.'

Wet: The splash from the washer sprayed over Ola as she got soaked from head to toe

Revenge: Ola threw a towel at James to get him back after he splashed her with the hose

Glowing: Ola's white cami became VERY see through after the drenching, revealing her boobs

Revenge is sweet: The Polish dancer got her husband back by soaking him with a bucket of water

No escape: There was nowhere for James to hide as he was soaked by his loving wife

Playful: She tickled him in the face with towel as he attempted to wash the car with the hose

And the honesty that Ola and her husband abide by appears to have helped them no end - even with the prickly subject of weight.

Following her exit from Strictly and a nasty accident on series two of The Jump, Ola was forced to rest and recuperate, but had to dismiss pregnancy rumours after piling on the pounds.

But after ten years on Strictly, putting her body firmly in the limelight, the dancer admitted she was used to the 'criticism' over her looks.

Hey you: She pointed at James to tell him that the fight wasn't over

Companions: Before the water fight, the pair caught eyes and shared a joked together

Kiss and make up: After drenching each other they shared a kiss to say sorry

Sticky: James' T-Shirt stuck to his back, revealing his ripped physique

Speaking of the attention her fuller figure recevied, Ola explained:

'I had to tell people I wasn't pregnant, I was fat!'

She admitted although she's used to her weight and looks coming under scrutiny, she found it difficult to to deal with the scrutiny following her accident.

Beauty: The Polish beauty, 33, showed off her stunning figure with hotpant dungarees that refused to stay on both shoulders

Polished: She cleaned her Nissan GTR with her Land Rover parked in the drive

Joyful: Ola could not hide her glee as she enjoyed herself in the glorious summer sun

Focused: Ola bent down to wipe the wheels as she continued her diligent cleaning

And James was no exception, as he explained he was the first to encourage his wife to lose weight before her last appearance on Strictly - with the outspoken dancer referring to Ola as a 'chunky monkey'.

However the pokes and prods about her extra pounds came from a good place, as Ola explained her husband knows she is always happier when she cuts a 'trimmer' figure.

Reach: She leaned over her car to reach the top of the bonnet, displaying her derriere
She posts regular racy snaps to her Instagram page showing off her model figure.

And even on a casual coffee run in Los Angeles on Friday, Emily Ratajkowski was flaunting that body.

The stunning star wowed in a simple but chic nude dress as she picked up a drink ready for the day ahead.

Work it: Even on a casual coffee run in Los Angeles on Friday, Emily Ratajkowski was flaunting her figure

Emily, 24, stood out in her dress, which emphasised her toned curves to perfection.

The model turned actress showed some skin thanks to the strappy design, while she kept her footwear casual, ditching the heels in favour of a pair of battered sneakers.

She added a touch of bling with two pretty necklaces, while a pair of shades kept her cool in the California heat.

The brunette beauty tied back her long locks and sported minimal makeup to highlight her gorgeous features.

Casual but chic: The stunning star wowed in a simple but chic nude dress as she picked up a drink ready for the day ahead

Emily picked up a cold drink during her drinks run, before strolling through the bright sunshine.

The talented star has expanded her career to include both modeling and acting.

She is expected to appear in two upcoming films, with one set for release this year and the other at a date not yet announced.

Emily will star in the romance film, Cruise, and the thriller, In Darkness.

The latter will include Natalie Dormer and is a thriller set in London, while Cruise, which Emily is currently filming, is an 80s set tale of a young Italian-American from the 'wrong side of the tracks' who falls for a Jewish girl from Long Island.
Lisa Wilkinson has become an unlikely fashion figure, known for her flattering and often affordable wardrobe.

And her appearance on the red carpet at chef Matt Moran's dinner to kick off Hamilton Island Race Week proved her style credentials.

On Saturday night, the Today co-host cut a chic figure in a floor-length burnt orange gown, paired with a gold clutch and strappy heels.

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What a beauty! Australian TV star Lisa Wilkinson cut a stylish figure in a full-length orange dress at a dinner celebrating the start of Hamilton Island Race Week on Saturday

She wore her sleek brunette hair loosely and opted for natural look make-up.

Lisa, who was hosting the event, finished off her evening look with a pair of drop earrings and several bracelets.

The 56-year-old was joined on the red carpet by The Mentalist star Simon Baker and his wife Rebecca Rigg.

A-list guests: The Mentalist star Simon Baker (R) and wife Rebecca Rigg (L) also attended

Simon rocked a casual look, wearing a navy blazer over an all black outfit and accessorised with black-rimmed glasses.

Rebecca, a retired actress, looked toned and tanned as she posed next to her husband of more than 20 years.

The 48-year-old stunned in a flowing black dress cinched in at the waist and also wore a pair of hoop earrings.

Suave: Australian actor Richard Roxburgh posed on the red carpet before the soiree

Best buds! Vincent Fantauzzo, host Matt Moran and Richard Roxburgh looked in good spirits

Get to work Matt! Celebrity chef Matt Moran posed with his friends before he cooked dinner for his A-list guests

Australian actor Richard Roxburgh also posed for photos at the Coca Chu restaurant.

The Rake star, 54, cut a relaxed figure in a black suit over a button up white shirt.

He was joined by renowned portrait artist Vincent Fantauzzo, the husband of Offspring star Asher Keddie.

Picture perfect: Offspring star Asher Keddie (R) and her artist husband Vincent Fantauzzo (L) as posed for photographs on the red carpet

What's wrong Asher? The Offspring star looked uncomfortable posing for photos on her own, with her arms laying limp by her side

Vincent opted for smart casual in a tailored blue suit over a black T-shirt and a pair of scruffy sneakers.

Asher, 42, showed off her ample assets in a plunging black dress and matching stiletto heels.

The gown featured lace detail on the neckline and hemline and delicate cut-outs across the waist.

Fashion icon Nadia Fairfax also attended the dinner, putting on a leggy display as she showed off her slender limbs.

The style blogger wore a floral print dress with an eye-catching ruffle, and paired the outfit with leather peep-toe booties.
Sofia Vergara is known for her ageless beauty and incredible figure.

And the 44-year-old did not disappoint when she shared a throwback photo of herself to her Instagram Thursday while sporting a low-cut top.

Earlier this week, the actress spoke to People magazine about balancing work and family; she said: 'It's very difficult for women to be entrepreneurs, even more difficult than men because we have to deal with more.'

Blast from the past: Sofia Vergara shared a throwback photo of herself to her Instagram Thursday while sporting a low-cut top

In the flashback photo, the Modern Family star wowed in a fitted yellow tank top, revealing her ample cleavage.

Sofia, who is a natural blonde, sported nude lipstick and kohl liner beneath defined brows.

The mother of one captioned the stunning picture: 'Tbt #youngandplump.' It's odd that she called herself 'plump' as her curves look just right.

The ABC star is set to launch her latest fragrance this week, called So Very Sofia by Sofia Vergara by Avon.

Strike a pose: Earlier this week, the actress spoke to People magazine about balancing work and family; pictured at her Tempting perfume launch earlier this summer

The beauty is mom to 23-year-old son Manolo with ex husband Joe Gonzalez; she tied the knot in November with actor Joe Manganiello, 39.

Earlier this week, Sofia spoke to People about the key to balancing her busy career and family.

The Hot Pursuit star said: 'You have to surround yourself with people who help and support you. It's impossible to do everything - and do it right - if you are doing it by yourself.'

Happily ever after: She tied the knot in November with actor Joe Manganiello, 39

Adding: 'It's very difficult for women to be entrepreneurs, even more difficult than men because we have to deal with more.'

Sofia continued: 'We are more involved with our houses. We are more involved with our children. And then if we're working, we need to be there, so we have a lot more to handle than men.'

The Colombian-born actress also touched on her daily beauty routine, which includes putting sunscreen on her face and chest.

She told People: 'In my 20s, I started to use sunblock on my face. I wish I had put it on my chest too. I do it now. I think it's too late, but what can I do?'

Fun: Sofia spoke to People about the key to balancing her busy career and family; pictured on the set of Modern Family with co-stars Ed O'Neill and Jesse Tyler Ferguson
They are the most glamorous double daters in the world.

And on Friday evening George Clooney and his wife Amal were at it again as they joined their attractive best friends Cindy Crawford and Rande Gerber for a night on the town.

The four were spotted leaving their sushi dinner at Nobu in Malibu side by side.

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BFFs in the 'Bu: On Friday evening George Clooney and his wife Amal joined best friends Cindy Crawford and Rande Gerber for a sushi dinner at Nobu in Malibu side by side

A listers laughing it up: George pulled a face while Cindy smiles as they walked to their cars

George kept it simple in a brown button-down collared shirt with acid washed jeans and black motorcycle boots. The Oscar winning actor wore his salt and pepper hair to the side and sported a matching goatee.

His attorney wife Amal went more glamorous in a black sleeveless tank top that revealed some very toned arms - she must life free weights when not in the court room.

A pair of long, wide-legged slacks that came in at the ankle in black with white swan prints added sophistication.

Blue platform heels looked a bit offbeat.

No tux tonight: George kept it simple in a brown button-down collared shirt with acid washed jeans and black motorcycle boots

The legal eagle wore her long raven locks down and she added red lipstick, a black clutch and held onto a white cardigan.

Cindy held her own in a sheer polka dot white blouse with tight McGuire Denim jeans that flaired at the bottom. A beige belt and gold platform heels with a white clutch made the 1980s supermodel look polished.

A long necklace gave off an elegant old fashioned look. The Vogue favorite wore her highlighted locked down and wavy, Gisele Bundchen style.

Swan song: Amal went more glamorous in a black sleeveless tank top that revealed some very toned arms - she must life free weights when not in the court room

Boyish style: Rande, who owns tequila company Casamigos with the Oceans Eleven actor, looked like he wanted to fly below the radar in a blue bomber jacket with worn-in jeans and Converse sneakers

Rande, who owns tequila company Casamigos with the Oceans Eleven actor, looked like he wanted to fly below the radar in a blue bomber jacket with worn-in jeans and Converse sneakers.

Amal and Cindy looked to be best friends as they chatted and laughed while strolling side by side.

George and Rande followed and also looked to be in conversation.

Me and my boo on the hog: This comes after George was seen taking his lady love out for a ride in Los Angeles on Friday afternoon on the back of his black Harley-Davidson motorcycle

This comes after George was seen taking his lady love out for a ride in Los Angeles on Friday afternoon on the back of his black Harley-Davidson motorcycle.

The two looked perfectly matched in dark blue T-shirts with dark jeans and matching H-D helmets.

The glamorous couple, who have homes in England, Italy, Mexico and Los Angeles, seemed to be enjoying some down time together after recently hosting a fundraiser at his Lake Como villa to raise funds for the African region of Darfur.
In light of the recent flooding in Louisiana, Tara Reid did her part in assisting those affected by the tragedies.

The Sharknado star signed autographs at Geek'd Con in Shreveport on Saturday.

The actress reportedly donated a portion of her $30 ticket price to help those affected by the national tragedy.

Her effort: Tara Reid, 40, is donating a portion of her $30 autograph ticket sales to aid relief efforts for those affected by the Louisiana floods

To prep for her event, the Marriage Boot Camp: Reality Stars standout took to Instagram on Thursday to announce her relief efforts.

The 40-year-old shared a news clip on Instagram from 99x The Rock Station.

'Please pray for the #louisianaflood2016 victims,' wrote the star.

Making it known: To prep for her event, Tara took to Instagram on Thursday to announce her relief efforts

Hollywood greetings: Several fans came out to the Shreveport Convention Center in hopes to meet the star

Which one? Those attending were able to choose from several pictures of the actress

Several fans came out to the Shreveport Convention Center in hopes to meet the star.

Those attending were able to choose from several pictures of the actress.

Some fans came with chainsaws and sharks, in honour of Tara's appearance in the Sharknado films.

Cool items: Some fans came with chainsaws and sharks, in honour of Tara's appearance in the Sharknado films

For those not able to land an autograph while also donating to the flood victims, money is being accepted through the Red Cross.

Interested parties can call 1-800-REDCROSS, or text the phrase LAFLOODS to 90999.

Ten dollars is the donation amount, according to NOLA.com.
She causes a stir wherever she goes.

But Zoe Saldana surpassed herself when she stepped out at the Star Trek Beyond premiere in China on Saturday - where she was mobbed by fans.

The brunette beauty caused quite a stir at Jinyi Cinemas Fuli Haizhu Shopping Mall in Guangzhou, but she seemed to love every minute.

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Centre of attention: Zoe Saldana was mobbed by fans at the Star Trek Beyond premiere in Jinyi Cinemas Fuli Haizhu Shopping Mall, Guangzhou, China, on Saturday

The 38-year-old actress opted for a sexy denim dress, which was given added flare thanks to some floral detailing.

She paired it with a jewel-encrusted belt, while the jagged hemline deftly displayed her toned legs.

Adding to her professional chic look, Zoe wore a pair of wrap-around heels and sported sleek, centre-parted hair.

Selfie-esteem: Always keen to entertain her fans, the acclaimed performer was more than happy to indulge her fans in selfies and autograph sessions

Always keen to entertain her fans, the acclaimed performer was more than happy to indulge her fans in selfies and autograph sessions.

Posing up a storm with excited cinema-goers, she oozed class at the bash. Not that she was the only celeb there, of course - she was also joined by co-stars Zachary Quinto,Simon Pegg and Chris Pine.

Zoe - who is married to Marco Perego - wore her wedding ring on her mint blue manicured nails.

The couple have been married since 2013 and raise two twin boys, Cy Aridio and Bowie Ezio, who are both one.

Looking good: The 38-year-old actress opted for a sexy denim dress, which was given added flare thanks to some floral detailing

In good company: Not that she was the only celeb there, of course - she was also joined by co-stars Zachary Quinto,Simon Pegg and Chris Pine

The mother-of-two recently told People Magazine how difficult it was to return to work after the birth of her twins in November of 2014.

'The first week back at work, I think I cried every day in my trailer', she explained.

The star said she didn't let it disturb her enthusiasm for acting, however.

She told the publication: 'But I remember as soon as they would tell me, "Were ready for you on set," I would still skip to set. I love what I do. You do need to rest, you do need to have a moment to yourself, but right now this is my life as I know it.'

Strike a pose: A few days earlier, Zoe shared a very sassy selfie of herself from NYC




Teresa Giudice has had a comeback since checking out of prison in Connecticut in December after she was hit with fraud charges.

The 44-year-old Bravo beauty has not only penned a best selling book, but she's also returned to The Real Housewives Of New Jersey. But it seems that she still needs to make even more money.

Now the mother of four hopes to compete on Dancing With The Stars, according to a report from US Star magazine.

Ready to Rumba: Teresa Giudice wants to compete on Dancing With The Stars, according to Star magazine; here she is seen in February

Needs a paycheck? 'Teresa is scrambling for cash so a Dancing With The Stars gig -and the paycheck that comes with it - would be a huge help,' a source told the publication

'Teresa is scrambling for cash so a Dancing With The Stars gig -and the paycheck that comes with it - would be a huge help,' a source told the publication.

Teresa and husband Joe have been hit with a $551,563 tax bill in recent weeks, it was added.

They have been struggling in the past year to pay back creditors and to keep their sprawling New Jersey mansion.

Money crunch: Teresa and husband Joe have been hit with a $551,563 tax bill in recent weeks, it was added. They have been struggling in the past year to pay back creditors and to keep their sprawling New Jersey mansion

Doing the Cha-Cha on DWTS could earn her a steady salary if she is able to stay on the show.

Several other reality stars have done the ABC show, including Kim Kardashian from Keeping Up With The Kardashians, Kim Zolciak from The Real Housewives Of Atlanta and Kate Gosselin from Kate Plus Eight.

'Teresa is trying to act casual about it, telling friends that it would be fun and that she'd be in great shape,' said a source.

She was game: Several other reality stars have done the ABC show, including Kim Kardashian from Keeping Up With The Kardashians; here Kim is seen with Mark Ballas in 2008

She was up for it too: RHOA vet Kim Zolciak competed in 2015

'But everyone knows the truth: she's desperate to get on the show because she doesn't have a dime.'

Giudice would even rehearse in New Jersey so she could be closer to her children, Gia, 15, Gabriella, 11, Milania, 10, and Audriana, aged six.

This report comes just before Teresa plugged her RHONJ show with UsWeekly, telling the publication what's in her bag.

She could commute: Giudice would even rehearse in New Jersey so she could be closer to her children, Gia, 15, Gabriella, 11, Milania, 10, and Audriana, aged six; here she is seen in July

'On my key chain, I have a red Italian hand with the pinkie and the index finger up [a mano carnuto]. It wards off the evil eye. I dont have a house key  I always go through the garage,' she said.

The beauty added: 'I throw a bottle of water in my bag. Im very healthy right now, so I have carrots, raw almonds and a Kind bar.'
Guitarist Matt Roberts, formerly of 3 Doors Down, has died at age 38.

The cause of death was an apparent overdose.

His father Darrell, who had stayed in a hotel room adjoining the guitarist's the night of his demise, told TMZ that the reputed overdose was connected to prescription medication, and suggested his death was accidental.

Tragedy: On Saturday, TMZ reported that former 3 Doors Down guitarist Matt Roberts had died at age 38 from an overdose his father attributed to prescription drugs; here he is seen in 2011

Roberts, who left 3 Doors Down in 2012 citing health concerns that included trouble with blood circulation, had spent Friday evening working, in TMZ's words, 'just outside Wisconsin'.

He rehearsed until 1:00am Saturday for a forthcoming booking at a charity event. His father last saw him after rehearsal concluded, whereupon they retired to their hotel for the night.

Around 9:00am, detectives informed Darrell Roberts of his son's death during the night.

Final sighting: Darrell Roberts last saw his son at 1:00am Saturday after the latter finished rehearsing for a forthcoming booking at a charity event

Music industry figures have been expressing their condolences. The official Twitter account for iHeartRadio posted: 'Our thoughts and prayers go out to Matt Roberts' family & friends. Former 3 Doors Down Guitarist Dead at 38'.

Zach Myers, founder and frontman of The Fairwell, once toured with 3 Doors Down as a guitar tech and tweeted Saturday: 'My heart goes out to Matt Roberts and family .... 3 Doors Down will always be my family and people I care about. What a tragic loss ....RIP'.

Roberts was one of the three founding members of 3 Doors Down, alongside Brad Arnold and Todd Harrell. After acquiring Chris Henderson as guitarist, they released a now multi-platinum debut album called The Better Life, known for such singles as Kryptonite and Duck And Run.

The band currently consists of Arnold, Henderson, Greg Upchurch, Chet Roberts and Justin Biltonen and is touring through the United States.

The source of the title: Roberts (left) was one of the founding members of 3 Doors Down alongside Todd Harrell (right) and Brad Arnold

In a press release announcing his 2012 departure, Roberts had written: '3 Doors Down will always have a special place in my heart and it saddens me to take this time off, but my health has to be my first priority.'

A year later, the band excised another member after Harrell was charged with vehicular homicide, and then a DUI, in Nashville.

According to The Tennessean, he knocked a pickup truck over the guard rail of the Interstate 40 whilst driving 101mph. The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department reported he had oxycodone and alprazolam in his system and 36 pills in his sock.

In 2015, after pleading guilty to multiple charges - including counts of vehicular homicide and possession of a controlled substance - he was sentenced to two years in prison.
Kenyan Cheruiyot trumps Ayana for 5000m gold

Two-time former world champion Vivian Cheruiyot of Kenya rained on Ethiopian Almaz Ayana's bid for an Olympic distance double, kicking with two laps to run to seal gold in the women's 5000m.

Cheruiyot, who won silver in the London Games four years ago, timed a new Olympic record of 14min 26.18sec, with team-mate Hellen Obiri taking silver in 14:29.77.

Ayana, who set an amazing world record to win the 10,000m earlier in the week, had to be happy with bronze.

Kenya's Vivian Cheruiyot (R) and Hellen Obiri celebrate after taking gold and silver respectively in the women's 5000m Eric Feferberg (AFP)

"Almaz got ahead but then I thought 'she's not moving'. I went past her," said the 32-year-old Cheruiyot.

"Almaz is such a great athlete, we thought she would win again.

"It was my fourth Olympic Games and I had not had gold.

"Almaz can go fast for 400m, then slow it down. Today I said, 'I am going to follow her. I am not going to lose her'. I'm so happy."

Obiri added: "Ethiopia were very strong. We decided to go for teamwork.

"We already knew that Kenya was going to win the gold! It was just who would it be."

Japan's Miyuki Uehara set the early pace at the Olympic Stadium, Ayana sitting comfortably in second, with Cheruiyot and Obiri on her shoulder.

With eight laps to go, Ayana surged, immediately splitting the field as the eventual Kenyan medallists, team-mate Mercy Cherono and Kenyan-born Turk Yasemin Can battled to stay with the Ethiopian.

Ayana timed 7:39.8 through the halfway point, but suddenly flagged.

Cheruiyot duly reeled her in and took the lead with 800 metres to run.

The Kenyan turned the screw and belted through the final lap, followed by Obiri, as the tiring Ayana held on for the final podium spot.
Philippines, rebels declare ceasefire ahead of talks

The Philippine government and communist guerrillas have agreed to ceasefires from Sunday, both sides said, ahead of crucial peace talks next week to end one of Asia's longest insurgencies.

Both sides said a break from the fighting will create a conducive environment at the negotiations next week in Norway, which are aimed at reaching a political settlement after 30 years of failed talks.

The Communist Party of the Philippines declared a seven-day unilateral truce hours after President Rodrigo Duterte's decision to free its top jailed leaders on Friday.

Philippine rebels have decided to observe a truce after President Rodrigo Duterte freed their top leaders Ted Aljibe (AFP/File)

The government responded by saying it will restore a unilateral ceasefire that was declared in July but abruptly withdrawn by Duterte just days later after a rebel ambush.

"The... ceasefire will last for as long as necessary to bring peace to the land and also to provide an enabling environment for the success of the peace negotiations," Duterte peace adviser Jesus Dureza told reporters Saturday.

Dureza said he and at least six of the freed rebels were set to fly to Oslo Saturday for the talks that kick off Monday.

The government estimates the 47-year-old rebellion has claimed 30,000 lives and impoverished vast swathes of the South East Asian nation.

The talks, which Norway has acted as an intermediary for, broke down in 2013 after Duterte's predecessor Benigno Aquino rejected the communists' demand to free all imprisoned guerrillas.

Dureza said the government expects to reach an "interim negotiated ceasefire" as soon as possible to put in place mechanisms to avoid renewed conflict, something the unilateral truce declarations do not provide.

The communists said their own ceasefire would only last until August 27, but a rebel statement said they were willing to discuss a longer ceasefire with Manila.

However, this would only be possible after the government freed "all political prisoners", it said, referring to 550 guerrillas detained by the government.

The rebel army is believed to have fewer than 4,000 gunmen left, down from a peak of 26,000 in the 1980s, when a bloodless "People Power" revolt ended the 20-year dictatorship of the late president Ferdinand Marcos.

But the movement retains support among the poor in rural areas, and its forces regularly kill police or troops while extorting money from local businesses.

After winning a landslide election victory in May, Duterte declared a unilateral ceasefire last month, but ended it five days later when a rebel ambush killed a government militia member and wounded four others.

Duterte had enjoyed relatively good ties with guerrillas operating around Davao, the southern city which he led as mayor for more than 20 years.

A self-described socialist, the 71-year-old has since appointed two left-leaning personalities to his cabinet and even initially vowed to form a coalition government with the rebels should the peace talks succeed.

Hours after the release of guerrilla chief Benito Tiamzon and his wife on Friday, police said they had arrested another senior rebel leader, Amelia Pond, accused of double murder, in the central city of Cebu.
Turkish parliament approves Israel deal

The Turkish parliament has approved a deal to normalise ties with Israel after a delay caused by last month's attempted coup, state-run media reported Saturday.

Lawmakers ratified late Friday the agreement to restore relations between the two former close regional allies after a six-year rift, before parliament was due to go into summer recess.

Under the deal, Israel will pay Turkey $20 million (17.7 million euros) in compensation for a botched Israeli commando raid on a Gaza-bound Turkish aid ship in 2010 that left 10 Turks dead, state-run Anadolu news agency said.

Demonstrators rally in Istanbul to mark the 6th anniversary of the the 2010 raid by Israeli commandos on a Gaza-bound Turkish aid ship that left 10 Turks dead Ozan Kose (AFP/File)

Israel will hand Turkey a "lump sum" within 25 working days of the agreement coming into force, the agency said, which families of the victims will receive in due course.

Under the terms of the deal, both sides agreed individual Israeli citizens or those acting on behalf of the Israeli government would not be held liable -- either criminally or financially -- for the raid, Anadolu said.

Israeli cabinet ministers approved the deal with Turkey in late June but Ankara did not send it to parliament because of time pressure following the July 15 attempted putsch by a rogue military faction.

Israel was quick to give its support to the Turkish government in the aftermath of the coup bid, condemning it while repeating its faith in the reconciliation process between the two countries.

Now the deal has been approved, the two countries are expected to begin the process of exchanging ambassadors to fully restore diplomatic ties.

In a statement, the Israeli government welcomed the Turkish parliament's approval of the deal and said it looked forward "to the next steps of its implementation, including the return of our respective ambassadors."

- Policy of reconciliation -

The agreement also involves an easing of the naval blockade on the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip allowing Turkey to deliver humanitarian aid to Palestinians there via Israel's Ashdod port.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has previously spoken about the economic advantages of improved relations, discussing the possibility of a pipeline to Turkey to export Israeli gas.

The rapprochement between the two countries came after secret talks held in December 2014 with two more rounds in February 2015 in Geneva and April this year in London.

Turkey appears to be willing to return to its previous "zero problems with neighbours" foreign policy after the country also normalised relations with Russia. Relations were damaged after Turkey shot down a Russian jet in November last year.
US cuts military advisers to Saudi-led coalition in Yemen

The US military has slashed the number of intelligence advisers directly supporting the Saudi-led coalition's air war in Yemen, the US Navy said Saturday, following concerns over civilian casualties.

The reassignment of personnel, around June, came because "there was not the same sort of requests coming in for assistance", Fifth Fleet spokesman Lieutenant Ian McConnaughey told AFP from its base in Bahrain.

Saudi Arabia has faced repeated criticism from rights groups over civilian casualties in its 17-month campaign against rebels in Yemen.

A Saudi F-15 fighter jet lands at the Khamis Mushayt military airbase Fayez Nureldine, Fayez Nureldine (AFP/File)

US officials have regularly urged their major Middle East ally to avoid harming non-combatants.

But McConnaughey said the US reassignment of personnel does not affect their ability to support the Saudis and is more efficient.

"That's the main reason behind it, and it's based on the amount of requests that we receive from the Saudis."

He said the United States now has "a limited number, less than five, that are working directly on the advisory cell that we have here" in Bahrain.

That number is down from about 45, in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, at its peak.

"If the need arises," the team directly assigned to coalition cooperation could be increased, he said.

The joint cell was established around the start of coalition operations in March last year, McConnaughey said.

- 'Repeated violations' -

The Arab coalition began air raids and later sent in ground forces to support the internationally recognised government of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi after Shiite Huthi rebels and their allies overran much of Yemen.

Saudi Arabia says the rebels are backed by its Shiite regional rival Iran.

The coalition has told AFP it uses highly accurate laser- and GPS-guided weapons -- many supplied by the US -- and verifies targets many times to avoid civilian casualties.

Yet allegations of strikes on civilian facilities have continued.

Human Rights Watch said Friday that US Secretary of State John Kerry should raise concerns with Riyadh about "repeated violations of the laws of war by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen that have killed many civilians".

Paris-based Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has accused the coalition of "indiscriminate bombings" and said it had lost confidence in the alliance's ability to prevent fatal attacks on its premises.

A US Defence Department spokesman said Saturday Washington's support for the coalition was not a "blank check".

"The cooperation that we've extended to Saudi Arabia since the conflict escalated again is modest and it is not a blank check," Adam Stump said.

"At no point did US military personnel provide direct or implicit approval of target selection."

The coalition stepped up air strikes this month after UN-mediated peace talks between the rebels and the internationally backed government were suspended.

The rebels have retaliated with cross-border attacks.

Rockets fired into the southern Saudi city of Najran on Saturday killed a civilian, the kingdom's civil defence agency said.

- Huge demonstration -

Seven civilians were killed in shelling in the same city last Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the rebel-controlled Saba news agency reported three civilians killed in a coalition raid on Saturday near the Huthi-held capital Sanaa.

It also said there was a huge demonstration in Sanaa in support of the rebels and their allies, forces loyal to ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

It called the demonstration "the most imposing in the history of Yemen" and said millions of people attended, a figure difficult to verify independently.

Protesters chanted slogans in favour of a new council appointed by the rebels and their allies to run the country.

Salah al-Sammad, head of the council, called on the international community to "respect the will of the Yemeni people".

MSF decided to withdraw staff from six hospitals in Yemen after 19 people died in an air raid last Monday on a hospital it supported in the rebel-held northern province of Hajja.

That was the fourth and deadliest attack yet on an MSF facility during the war, the charity said.

US State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau expressed deep concern after reports of the hospital strike.

A coalition team is conducting "independent" probes into the strike and an air raid two days earlier on a Koranic school that MSF said killed 10 children.

McConnaughey said US cooperation with Saudi Arabia mostly involves "imagery that allows them to better assess the situation on the ground, and then advice and assistance".

The Fifth Fleet spokesman said intelligence is still being provided to the Saudis who are the ultimate decision-makers.

"The final decision on targets is up to them," he said.

A member of the Yememi government forces in the back of an armed vehicle in Zinjibar on August 16, 2016 Saleh al-Obeidi (AFP)

Tens of thousands of Yemeni civilians are said to be caught in the fierce and protracted battle for Taez Ahmad Al- Basha (AFP/File)
Syrian warplanes fly over flashpoint city despite US warning

Syrian government warplanes took to the skies again Saturday over the flashpoint northeastern city of Hasakeh, despite a US warning against new strikes that might endanger its military advisers.

In another escalation of the five-year war, regime planes this week bombarded positions held by US-backed Kurdish forces in the city fighting the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said the raids showed Damascus was starting to see the Kurdish attempt to consolidate territory in northern Syria as "a threat".

A fighter from the Kurdish People Protection Unit (YPG) monitors the front line in the northeastern Syrian city of Hasakeh Delil Souleiman (AFP/File)

He pledged to play a "more active" in the next months in putting an end to the conflict.

Ankara sees Syrian Kurdish militia as an offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) that has waged a bloody campaign against the Turkish state since 1984.

The unprecedented strikes prompted the US-led coalition to scramble aircraft to protect its special operations forces helping the Kurdish fighters.

It was apparently the first time the coalition scrambled jets in response to regime action, and possibly the closest call yet in terms of Syrian forces wounding American or coalition advisers.

Regime warplanes were in the air above Hasakeh throughout the night and into Saturday morning, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group.

It was unclear whether the aircraft had carried out bombing runs.

- 'Right of self-defence' -

Fighting erupted between pro-government militia and the US-backed Kurdish forces on Wednesday and continued into Saturday morning, leaving a total of 41 people dead including 25 civilians, the Observatory said.

A delegation of Russian officials from the coastal Hmeimim military airport arrived in Qamishli to the north to hold talks between the two sides, a senior Syrian government source told AFP.

A journalist in Hasakeh said on Saturday afternoon that the clashes had abated.

Around two-thirds of the city is controlled by Kurdish forces, while the rest is held by pro-government militia.

The regime and Kurdish forces share a common enemy in IS, but there have been tensions between them in Hasakeh.

The vitriol between the two sides escalated Saturday, as the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) pledged to "protect areas from the terrorism of the regime."

And in an apparent concession to Ankara, a Syrian military statement and Hasakeh's governor began referring to Kurdish security forces for the first time as the PKK, which has taken up arms against the Turkish government seeking an independent state for Kurds.

Thursday's government raids were the first time the regime bombarded Kurdish positions from the air.

Washington's decision to scramble its fighter jets "was done as a measure to protect coalition forces," Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said.

"We will ensure their safety and the Syrian regime would be well-advised not to do things that place them at risk," he said, stressing that the US has the "inherent right of self-defence."

- Air strikes 'a message' -

The coalition is conducting additional air patrols in the area after US advisers were moved to a safe location without suffering any casualties, Davis said.

The Observatory said thousands of inhabitants had begun to flee the city, where bread was running out and electricity has been cut.

A government source in Hasakeh told AFP that the air strikes were "a message to the Kurds that they should stop this sort of demand," after Kurds called for the dissolution of a pro-regime militia.

Washington regards the YPG as the most effective force against IS in Syria and has provided them with air support as well as the military advisers.

US special operations forces were based around six kilometres (nearly four miles) north of Hasakeh and reinforcements arrived Friday "from inside and outside Syria, accompanied by military helicopters", Abdel Rahman said.

Separately, two Russian ships in the Mediterranean launched long-range cruise missiles for the first time since December against jihadist targets in Syria on Friday, the Russian defence ministry said.

The targets were linked to the former Al-Nusra Front, now Fateh al-Sham Front, it said.

More than 290,000 people have been killed since the conflict erupted in March 2011.

A surge in violence in Syria's second city Aleppo has left 333 people dead since July 31, the Observatory said Saturday.

The toll includes 165 killed in opposition fire on the city's government-controlled west, and another 168 in air strikes and bombardment on the rebel-held east.

In central Homs province, 20 civilians including five children died overnight in suspected regime air raids and artillery fire on a cluster of towns and villages, the Observatory said.
Turkey PM says Syria regime starting to see Kurds as threat

Damascus has understood that Kurds in northern Syria have become a threat after regime jets pounded US-backed Kurdish forces in the country's northeast late last week, Turkish premier Binali Yildirim said Saturday.

"This is a new situation... It is clear that the regime has understood the structure Kurds are trying to form in the north (of Syria) has started to become a threat for Syria too," Yildirim told foreign correspondents in Istanbul, referring to the Syrian Kurds' bid to join up regions under their control.
Turkey wants to repair ties with Egypt: PM

Turkey wants to repair its ties with Egypt, after relations soured over the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Saturday.

Relations between Ankara and Cairo took a nosedive after the Egyptian military deposed Morsi on July 30, 2013.

Morsi, a Muslim Brotherhood leader, had been a close ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party-led (AKP) government.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim speaks during a meeting of his Turkish ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) at the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM) in Ankara on August 9, 2016 Adem Altan (AFP/File)

Erdogan repeatedly condemned the ouster as a "coup d'etat" against Morsi, and in a show of solidarity at rallies he has often flashed the four-finger "Rabaa" hand salute -- seen as a symbol of the Muslim Brotherhood.

"We think we need to develop economic and cultural ties with Egypt as countries that use the two sides of the Mediterranean," Yildirim told reporters at a briefing in Istanbul.

However he sounded a note of caution that high-level relations would not be repaired overnight.

"We think we need to start from somewhere," he said.

It is not the first time Yildirim has expressed hope for improved relations with Egypt.

In June, he said he did not want to see "permanent enmity" with countries such as Egypt and Syria.

Regional powerhouse Saudi Arabia, one of the main backers of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, is keen to see the two countries reconcile as it grows increasingly close to Turkey.

After the July 15 failed putsch in Turkey by a rogue military faction aiming to oust Erdogan from power, Egypt's presidency remained mum.

However, the foreign ministry released a statement on consular efforts to help Egyptians in Turkey.
More than 300 civilians dead in recent Aleppo violence: monitor

More than 300 civilians have been killed in a three-week surge of fighting and bombardment in Syria's devastated Aleppo city, a monitoring group said on Saturday.

The battle for Syria's second city has killed 333 civilians since July 31, when rebels launched a major push to break a government siege of districts under their control.

The toll includes 165 civilians -- among them 49 children -- killed in opposition fire on the city's government-held western districts.

Smoke billows following air strikes by regime forces on rebel positions during intense fighting in Aleppo on August 18, 2016 George Ourfalian (AFP/File)

Another 168 civilians died in Russian and regime air strikes and shelling on its rebel-controlled eastern neighbourhoods, the Observatory said.

Russia has been carrying out air raids in support of President Bashar al-Assad's forces in Syria since September 2015.

Another 109 people were killed in bombardment across the rest of Aleppo province during the same period, the Britain-based group said.

Once Syria's economic hub, Aleppo city has been ripped apart by violence since mid-2012, with warplanes bombarding the east and rockets raining down on the west.

Air strikes pounded Aleppo's southern edges on Saturday, and the intense battles there could be heard throughout the city, AFP's correspondent in an eastern neighbourhood said.

The violence rendered the rebel route out of the city -- via the southern district of Ramussa -- temporarily unusable, and trucks of food and other produce could not be brought into the city, the correspondent said.

Approximately 250,000 people live in the city's eastern districts, while another 1.2 million live in its western neighbourhoods.

While rebel groups are accessing the city via Ramussa, the regime is using the Castello Road to the north of the city to reach areas it controls.

According to the Observatory, regime forces seized territory on the city's southern edges on Saturday.

"There are a lot of clashes and air strikes, and the regime made modest advances. They are trying to reinforce their positions," Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said.

The Observatory -- which relies on a network of sources inside Syria for its information -- says it determines what planes carried out raids according to their type, location, flight patterns and the munitions involved.
N. Korea state media says diplomat defector "criminal"

North Korea's deputy ambassador to Britain, who defected to South Korea this week, is a criminal who had been ordered to return home for questioning, Pyongyang state media said Saturday.

The defector, Thae Yong-Ho, had embezzled huge sums of money, raped a minor and spied for South Korea, Pyongyang's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

KCNA did not name the "diplomat who fled his mission in London" but was apparently referring to Thae.

The defection of a top North Korean diplomat to the South is the latest strain on relations Katie Schubauer (AFP/File)

He is one of the highest ranking diplomats ever to defect to South Korea, and the move handed Seoul a major propaganda coup at a time of rising tension on the divided Korean peninsula.

The news agency in Pyongyang criticised Britain for handing over Thae and his family, calling him "human scum", to the South, saying that Pyongyang had previously told London of his crimes and requested his extradition.

The comments mark Pyongyang's first public response to the high-level defection, which was a rare and damaging loss of diplomatic face for North Korea.

Seoul said earlier this week that Thae's defection reflected a loss of faith among North Korea's elite in Kim Jong-Un's leadership.

Thae had become disillusioned with the Pyongyang regime, admired South Korea's free and democratic system, and was concerned about his family's future, the South's Unification Ministry said after the defection.

But KCNA said Saturday Thae fled "for fear of legal punishment for his crimes", adding that the South had brought the "fugitive" to Seoul to use him for its anti-Pyongyang smear campaign.

Thae was told to return home in June "for questioning as regards the embezzlement of huge amount of state funds, leakage of state secrets for money and rape of a minor", it said.

The North's prosecution authorities issued a legal document on starting the investigation on July 12, KCNA said.

"He deserved a legal punishment for his crimes, but he took to flight, betraying his country and parents and other kith and kin", KCNA said.

"He thus revealed himself as human scum bereft of elementary sense of moral obligation and conscience," it added.

Thae was believed to have worked at the embassy in London for 10 years, with one of his main tasks being to counter the image of North Korea as a nuclear pariah state and notorious human rights abuser.

The news agency also referred to 12 North Korean waitresses who were working at a restaurant in China and defected to South Korea in April, blaming Seoul of "such a hideous terrorism as kidnapping".
Turkey PM vows 'more active' Syria role in next six months

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim vowed Saturday Ankara would play a "more active" role in the next six months in efforts to solve the five-year Syrian civil war.

Yildirim -- whose foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, made a surprise visit to Iran this week -- said Ankara will step up efforts to reduce "instability" in the region.

"We say the bloodshed needs to stop. Babies, children, innocent people should not die. That's why Turkey will be more active in trying to stop the danger getting worse in the next six months, compared with before," Yildirim told foreign reporters in Istanbul.

Turkish Prime Minister and leader of the ruling Justice and Development Party, Binali Yildirim, speaks during an AK Party's group meeting at the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM) in Ankara, on August 16, 2016 Adem Altan (AFP/File)

Yildirim said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad can remain temporarily during a transition period as "he is one of the actors today no matter whether we like it or not".

But the premier stressed that Assad has no role to play in Syria's future.

"We believe that the PKK, Daesh and Assad should not be in the future of Syria," he added, referring to the Syrian Kurds and the Islamic State group in the war-torn country.

Yildirim said it was "out of the question" for Turkey to talk with the Syrian leader, and said regional countries Turkey and Iran as well as Russia and the United States must work toward a solution in Syria.

"That is our objective. We are not pessimistic. We have even left it late. Therefore, as Turkey, we will work more because the instability there pains us."

Turkey is on the frontline of fallout from the civil war, hosting over 2.7 million Syrian refugees at a cost of $12 billion (10.6 billion euros), Ankara says.

- 'Kurds as threat'-

After Syrian regime jets pounded US-backed Kurdish forces in northeastern Syria for a second day Friday, the Turkish premier said Damascus understood that Kurds in northern Syria have become a threat.

"This is a new situation... It is clear that the (Syrian) regime has understood the structure Kurds are trying to form in the north (of Syria) has started to become a threat for Syria too," he added, referring to the Syrian Kurds' bid to join up regions under their control.

Turkey is opposed to Syria's division along ethnic lines and the future government should not be based on an ethnic group and instead all groups including Arabs, Kurds and Alawites should be represented, Yildirim noted.

- 'Russia doesn't need Incirlik'-

Since the July 15 failed putsch, Turkey has sought to work with Iran and Russia on Syria's future and solving the crisis.

Although Russia and Iran are Assad's main allies which puts them at loggerheads with Turkey, this month Erdogan met with Russian President Vladimir Putin while Tehran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif came to Ankara during which Syria was on the agenda.

Turkey's foreign minister Cavusoglu even called on Moscow on August 11 to carry out joint operations against Islamic State (IS) in Syria -- and made a surprise visit to Tehran on Thursday for talks on "regional issues", according to Iranian state television.

Commenting on news reports that Russia wanted to use Incirlik air base in southern Turkey for air raids on IS jihadists in Syria, Yildirim said Moscow did not make such a demand but said "if necessary Incirlik can be used".

"I think they don't need it because they have two bases in Syria," he added, saying the news on the issue was "false".

The United States has used the Incirlik base in the southern province of Adana as a highly convenient launch pad for bombing raids against Islamic State (IS) jihadists in Syria since 2015.

Yildirim said several countries including the US were using the base "in the name of solving the problems in Syria".

Map of Syria locating regime/Russian airstrikes on Kurdish city of Hasakeh, the provinces of Aleppo and Idlib and the provincial capitals Iris Royer De Vericourt (AFP)
UN denies report Sri Lanka temple may lose heritage tag

The UN's cultural agency has denied reports it is considering taking an ancient Sri Lankan cave temple off a list of world heritage sites, as a local conservation official Saturday renewed fears about its status.

On a visit to the island last week, UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova told reporters she had raised concerns over the maintenance of the Golden Temple of Dambulla with local authorities.

However, Bokova's office later stressed she did not say the centuries-old monastery risked being removed from the list of World Heritage Sites, but rather that UNESCO is in dialogue with Sri Lankan authorities over the temple's condition.

The Sri Lankan government is bound by international treaty obligations to protect the cave monastery which is home to 2,000-year-old murals and 157 Buddha statues Ishara S. Kodikara (AFP/File)

"The Office of the Director-General reiterates that the Organization is engaged in a process of dialogue with national authorities on this matter, and that no reference was ever made to its delisting as a World Heritage Site," the statement released Thursday said.

Sri Lanka's top official in charge of heritage conservation told AFP Saturday he believed the Dambulla temple was in fact in danger of being removed from the list owing to decades of neglect.

"The temple risks losing the World Heritage status for two reasons. One is the new constructions that have been added and the second is the damage to murals and the failure to conserve them," Prishanta Gunawardhana, the head of the government's Central Cultural Fund told AFP.

A resident monk had for more than two decades denied conservation officials full access to the temple but a recent change of chief priest had given authorities hope the decline could be stopped, Gunawardhana said.
South Sudan's new vice president to visit Khartoum

South Sudan's new Vice President Taban Deng Gai will begin a two-day visit to Khartoum on Sunday for talks on thorny issues still outstanding from its 2011 secession, an official said.

Deng's first visit to Sudan comes just weeks after he replaced former rebel leader Riek Machar as vice president after clashes in Juba left hundreds dead in July.

Deng will be accompanied by a delegation of ministers and advisers, South Sudan's ambassador to Khartoum, Mayan Dout, told AFP.

Newly appointed South Sudan First Vice President, Taban Deng Gai (centre) speaks during a press conference in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi on August 17, 2016 Tony Karumba (AFP/File)

He said Deng would discuss issues that have been outstanding since the south's independence from Khartoum in 2011.

Unresolved issues include the status of the Khartoum-occupied border district of Abyei, which had been supposed to hold a plebiscite on its future, and the payments Juba should make for the use of an oil export pipeline through Sudan.

In June, the South Sudan ministers of foreign affairs, oil and the interior also held talks in Khartoum on the outstanding oil and border issues.

"There are some difficulties in our relations," South Sudanese Foreign Minister Deng Alor said at the time.

South Sudan's oil production has virtually ground to a halt since a civil war erupted there in December 2013, when President Salva Kiir accused Machar of plotting a coup.

Machar was later dismissed.

On Thursday an aide to the ex-vice president said he had escaped to the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Khartoum is hoping that an improvement in relations with Juba would help resolve persistent rebellions on both sides of the border that have sparked a prolonged war of words between the two governments.
Cross-border rocket fire from Yemen kills Saudi

Rockets fired by Yemeni rebels into a Saudi border city on Saturday killed a Saudi civilian and wounded six others including a Pakistani man, the Saudi civil defence agency said.

Quoted by Al-Ekhbariya state television, the agency the five other wounded in the city of Najran were all Yemeni citizens.

Video footage posted on social networks showed two blazing buildings in the city centre.

Cross-border attacks into Saudi Arabia have increased since a Saudi-led Arab coalition stepped up air strikes on insurgent targets inside Yemen Fayez Nureldine (AFP/File)

Cross-border attacks into Saudi Arabia have increased since a Saudi-led Arab coalition this month stepped up air strikes on insurgent targets inside Yemen in an attempt to shore up the beleaguered government.

Saturday's attack was the third this week.

On Friday, five foreign residents of Najran were wounded in a rocket strike just west of the city.

Seven civilians were killed on Tuesday when the city centre was shelled, with three victims said to be expats.

Tuesday's toll was the highest reported number of civilian casualties in Saudi Arabia for a single day since the Arab coalition intervened in Yemen in March last year against the Iran-backed Huthi rebels.

More than 100 civilians and soldiers have been killed in southern Saudi Arabia by retaliatory rocket strikes or skirmishes since the coalition began operations in support of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi's government.

Meanwhile, the rebel-controlled Saba news agency reported a wave of coalition raids inside Yemen on Saturday, including one that killed three civilians near the Huthi-held capital Sanaa.
Dane Axelsen targets Tokyo badminton gold

Denmark's 22-year-old Viktor Axelsen wants to strike badminton gold at Tokyo 2020 after stunning double Olympic champion Lin Dan to grab men's singles bronze at Rio on Saturday.

Axelsen lost the first game 15-21 but bounced back to take the second 21-10 and the deciding game 21-17 before bursting into tears as the reality of his achievement sunk in.

"When you've worked so hard for something for a long time then of course it's the best feeling in the world," the big Dane told reporters.

Viktor Axelsen is targeting badminton Olympic gold in Tokyo in 2020 Antonin THUILLIER (AFP)

Chinese superstar Lin, 32, and Malaysian world number one Lee Chong Wei, 33, are likely to have retired before the next Games.

Fourth-ranked Axelsen is also five years younger than current number two Chen Long, meaning the Dane could be favourite for gold by the time Tokyo rolls around.

"Let's see if they retire or not. How long they're going will play," he said when asked if he could see the Asian dominance of men's singles move towards Denmark.

"I'm just trying my best to get to my highest level and if that means I'm one of the best players in the world then of course I'm very very happy.
Israel extends Palestinian journalist's detention: NGO

Israeli authorities have extended by three months the detention without trial of a Palestinian journalist who had been due for release on Monday, a Palestinian NGO said on Saturday.

The Ramallah-based Palestinian Prisoners Club said it had been informed by Omar Nazzal's lawyers that the senior journalists' union official would not now be released at the end of his current term, on August 22.

"Israel is intensifying its policy of administrative detention and increasing the extensions of administrative detention," prisoners club spokeswoman Amani Sarahneh told AFP.

Palestinian journalists demonstrate outside the Red Cross offices in the West Bank city of Ramallah on April 24, 2016 in support of their colleague, Omar Nazzal, who was detained the previous day by Israeli forces Abbas Momani (AFP/File)

"In particular it made this choice in the case of Omar."

His wife Marlene Rabadi posted on Facebook: "We were informed today that Omar's administrative detention has been extended by three months."

Israeli officials could not immediately be reached for comment on Saturday, the Jewish sabbath.

Nazzal was arrested on April 23 at the border between the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Jordan, from where he had been due to fly to a European Federation of Journalists gathering in Bosnia.

A military court ordered at the time that he be placed for four months in administrative detention, an Israeli measure allowing suspects to be interned for indefinite periods without charge.

Israel accuses him of "participation in a terrorist organisation".

Its Shin Bet security service said in April that Nazzal, 54, served in a top position at Falestine al-Youm television in Ramallah, which Israel forcibly closed on accusations of incitement to violence.

Nazzal had left the broadcaster several months before his arrest, which Palestinians say is an Israeli attack on the freedom of the Palestinian press.

Israel says Nazzal was detained for "his involvement in terror group activities", not "because of his activity as a journalist".

He has been on hunger strike since August 4 in protest against his detention, and international organisations have called for his release.

The United Nations on Saturday expressed deep concern about "the deteriorating health" of another administrative detainee, Bilal Kayed, who has been on hunger strike for 67 days.

"This is an egregious case, in which Mr Kayed was placed on administrative detention on the day of his scheduled release after completing a 14.5-year prison sentence," Robert Piper, UN Coordinator for Humanitarian Aid and Development Activities in the occupied Palestinian territories, said in a statement.

It added that the number of administrative detainees is currently at an eight-year high.

"I reiterate the United Nations long-standing position that all administrative detainees - Palestinian or Israeli -- should be charged or released without delay," Piper wrote.
Anger still boils in northern Ethiopia after protest crackdown

The demonstrations were crushed but anger remains in Bahir Dar, capital of Ethiopia's northern Amhara region, where a fortnight ago security forces killed at least 30 protesters, according to a human rights group.

"I would say at least 50 people!" said Getachew, a protester who saw bodies arrive at the city hospital on August 7.

Dressed in black, Getachew is mourning his younger brother Abebe, 28, who he says was shot twice - once in the back of the head and once in his side - as Ethiopian security broke up the protests with gunfire and teargas.

Members of the Oromo, Ogaden and Amhara community in South Africa demonstrate in Johannesburg on August 18, 2016 against the ongoing crackdown in the restive Oromo and Amhara regions of Ethiopia Gulshan Khan (AFP)

"The 'Agazi' were on the rooftops. They started to shoot in the crowd. The police was launching tear gas," Getachew said, referring to Ethiopia's feared special forces with their distinctive red berets who were deployed to help crush the protests in Bahir Dar.

As he spoke Getachew scrolled through photographs of victims - including his brother -- on his mobile phone.

Like many of the protesters, Abebe was wrapped in an old green, yellow and red Ethiopian flag, but without the central star imposed on the flag by the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) when it took power in 1991. The wearing of the old flag is a patriotic rebuke of EPRDF rule.

Getachew was one of the few willing to speak following the protests in Bahir Dar, and even he would not give his full name.

- Fear and mistrust -

This small, pretty town on the edge of Lake Tana and close to the source of the Blue Nile is still in shock after the killings. The tourist hotels are deserted, the tour guides idle and the fear of government reprisals is palpable.

"If I start talking in a cafe, the Kebele [local government officials] will know it. We cannot trust our neighbours or our friends," said one tour guide who did not want to be identified.

Since the demonstrations, arrests have multiplied, said Getachew. "Five friends of Abebe were arrested after they went to his funeral. We don't know where they are," he said.

In the village of Dangla, just south of Bahir Dar, resident Andualem said there had been security sweeps and stark warnings.

"They go door to door to give extreme warning not to go out to demonstrate otherwise you will be killed," said Andualem. "They say: Keep your children and your life."

Mobile internet and social networks have been blocked to prevent the predominantly young activists from the decentralised protest movement from organising further demonstrations.

Many of the young protesters are angry at a government that has been in charge for almost their whole lives and that is seen to favour the minority Tigrean community who occupy key positions in government, the security services and public companies.

"There is a tangible development. You can't deny the roads, the buildings, the power supply but the VIPs are all from Tigray. Tigreans dominate economically and socially. All the industries are in Tigray," said Ashenafi, a young Amhara protester.

- Ethnic federalism failing -

The government's decision to join the northern province of Welkait to the Tigray region was the immediate trigger for the Amhara protests, but they have occurred at the same time as others in the Oromo region where regular, sometimes deadly, demonstrations have happened since November over land rights.

Together, Oromo and Amhara people make up over 60 percent of the population.

The demonstrations are a challenge to the EPRDF's model of "ethnic federalism" intended to give representation and a degree of self-determination to the multitude of ethnic groups in Ethiopia.

"Ethnic federalism is not working because it is not implemented equally," said Molla Wasie of the opposition Agaw Democratic Party. "Things are getting more and more tense. The government and the opposition should come together and find a solution."

The Bahir Dar demonstrators are still angry. Following the protests, the authorities gave a low figure of just seven dead, while human rights group Amnesty International said 30 had been killed. Locals say the number was higher still.

"They did not apologise for the people killed. They do not feel guilty. All they say is that if somebody comes out, they will take action," said Ashenafi. "I do not see any sign that they will change."

A demonstrator (L) joins members of the Oromo, Ogaden and Amhara community in South Africa as they demonstrate on August 18, 2016 in Johannesburg against the crackdown in the restive Oromo and Amhara region of Ethiopia Gulshan Khan (AFP/File)
2 Nigeria pipelines attacked as new activist group emerges

Two Nigerian state-owned oil pipelines were blown up in the delta region Friday in attacks blamed on the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) militant group, a local security official said Saturday.

"The attacks targeted two pipelines located in the same zone," an official for the Department of State Security (DSS) told AFP.

"Both belonged to the NPDC (Nigerian Petroleum Development Company) and we believe this attack to be due to militants."

Naval security operatives patrol the creeks of Niger Delta in Buguma on September 30, 2004 Pius Utomi Ekpei (AFP/File)

Also on Friday, a newly emerged armed group calling itself the Niger Delta Greenland Justice Mandate (NDGJM) claimed responsibility for an attack the same day in Udu State.

It was the second claim of responsibility by the group, which earlier this month claimed to have blown up a major pipeline and warned of more attacks to come.

The creation of the group was announced scarcely two days earlier by its spokesman, self-proclaimed "general" Aldo Agbalaja, who warned that the NDGJM would strike at oil installations within 48 hours.

Since the start of the year, the Avengers have carried out a string of devastating attacks on Nigeria's oil pipelines and facilities.

The oil rebels have also said the Niger Delta, home to the country's multi-billion-dollar oil and gas resources, might declare independence on October 1.

Nigeria marks October 1 as the anniversary of its political independence from colonial power Britain in 1960.

Oil majors including Shell, Exxon, Chevron, Eni and the state-run oil group NNPC have all been targeted in the attacks this year.

The attacks have reduced Nigeria's output by a third, hammering government revenue at a time of low global oil prices.

The oil sector accounts for 90 percent of the nation's foreign exchange earnings and 70 percent of government revenue.

The Avengers claim to seek a fairer share of Nigeria's oil wealth for residents of the region as well as self-determination and political autonomy.
Six suspected rebels on trial for DR Congo massacre

Six suspected members of a Ugandan rebel group went before a Congolese military court on Saturday accused of taking part in the killing last weekend of 51 people, the latest in a string of massacres in the restive east of the country.

The gruesome slaying in the town of Beni touched off mass street protests against the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo for failing to protect the population from the armed rebel groups that plague the region. Clashes erupted at Wednesday's protest march leaving three people including a policeman dead.

The men accused in the slaughter are "one Ugandan, one Tanzanian and four Congolese," said colonel Jean-Paulin Esosa, who presides over the operational military court of North Kivu province.

Suspected members of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a partly Islamist militia of Ugandan origin blamed for the death of hundreds of civilians in eastern DRC, attend a public hearing for their trial in Beni on August 20, 2016 Kudra Maliro (AFP)

Appearing at the public hearing in blue and yellow prison shirts, they were charged with "participation in an insurrectional movement, crimes against humanity for murder and terrorism," Esosa said.

The accused admitted at the hearing to having been "at the service of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF)", a partly Islamist armed group of Ugandan origin, an AFP correspondent reported.

Hundreds of Beni residents had gathered to attend the hearing. One survivor of the brutal attack, Eve Kahambu, told AFP she wanted to see the "murderers" receive "the severest punishment".

But the head of the Beni civil society, Gilbert Kambale, said: "We're sceptical... it's not the masterminds (of the attacks) who are before the court."

The ADF has been present in DR Congo for more than two decades and is accused of a litany of human rights abuses and being involved with criminal networks funded by kidnappings, smuggling and logging.

The mass killing last weekend was only the latest of the attacks in the region around Beni that have claimed more than 700 lives since 2014.

The government has blamed them on the ADF, but a report published in March by the Congo Research Group at New York University, which probed these massacres, claimed that soldiers from the regular army had also participated in the killings.

In the attack last Saturday night "at least 50 civilians" were hacked to death, according to the UN mission to DRC (MONUSCO). Local civil society groups put the death toll at 51.

The violence added to the existing tension in the DRC, where fears are mounting that President Joseph Kabila plans to hold on to power after his second mandate expires in December.

In Beni on Wednesday, an effigy of Kabila was burned in the town's main market, as were flags of his ruling People's Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD).

The deadly protests came a day after Prime Minister Augustin Matata was booed by hundreds outside Beni's town hall, after he visited the massacre site.

"What did he come for? We don't need humanitarian aid, but peace," said Germain Katembo, a survivor of the massacre who lost three members of his family.
Libya forces launch air operations to cut off IS jihadists

Air force units of Libya's unity government launched an operation Saturday to cut off potential escape routes for jihadists holed up in the coastal city of Sirte, loyalist forces said.

The forces of the Government of National Accord (GNA), on their Facebook page, said the surveillance operation covered central Libya as we1l as the western region up to the border with Tunisia.

Pro-GNA forces, backed since early August by US air strikes, began an assault in mid-May to expel the Islamic State (IS) group from its Sirte stronghold.

Fighters from the pro-government forces loyal to Libya's Government of National Unity (GNA) hold a position as they target the Islamic State (IS) group in Sirte with a wave of air strikes to help pave the way to take the city on June 23, 2016

They fought their way into Sirte on June 9 and have since faced a barrage of sniper fire, suicide bombings and booby traps, but have pinned down the jihadists in a downtown area near the sea.

More than 350 pro-GNA fighters have been killed and nearly 2,000 wounded in the battle, according to medical sources. IS casualties figures are unavailable.

Sirte itself has been emptied of its residents, apart from families of IS militants, according to the pro-GNA forces.
Tunisia PM-designate presents unity govt line-up

Premier-designate Youssef Chahed unveiled his unity government Saturday, pledging to work to try to resolve deep social and economic crises that plague Tunisia five years after the Arab Spring revolt.

If his cabinet is confirmed by parliament, Chahed, 40, would become the youngest Tunisian prime minister since the North African country won independence from France in 1956.

"The promises have been kept," Chahed told a news conference late Saturday.

Tunisia's newly appointed prime minister-delegate Youssef Chahed speaks to the press after being appointed by the Tunisian president at Carthage Palace in Carthage, some 15 kilometres on the outskirts of Tunis, on August 3, 2016 Fethi Belaid (AFP/File)

He said he will head a 27-member cabinet which will also include 14 ministers of state, eight women "in important" positions and "14 young" ministers.

"We have tried to follow a method which would guarantee... the efficiency of the government's work," Chahed said.

"We have formed it according to the priorities which I outlined on August 3," he added of the day he was nominated to form a cabinet.

His appointment by President Beji Caid Essebsi came as Tunisia struggles with a stagnant economy and the threat posed by jihadists, as well as pressing social issues.

Chahed was given the task to form a new government days after lawmakers passed a vote of no confidence in the government of premier Habib Essid after just 18 months in office.

"Today we are entering a new stage that requires effort, sacrifice, audacity, courage, selflessness and unorthodox solutions," Chahed told reporters on August 3.

If the cabinet wins the backing of parliament, Chahed will also be Tunisia's seventh prime minister since a youth-led revolt in 2011 toppled longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

Chahed earlier Saturday submitted his proposed line-up to the president.

Seven ministers from the outgoing cabinet -- defence, interior, foreign affairs, transport, tourism, education and equipment -- will keep their portfolios in the new administration.

Newcomers will include a woman, Lamia Zribi, as finance minister and a judge, Ghazi Jeribi, as justice minister.

Chahed also chose a woman, Samira Merai, to head the health ministry.

Chahed is a member of the Nidaa Tounes party, which was founded by Essebsi.

Essid's cabinet, which included Nidaa Tounes, the moderate Islamist movement Ennahda and two other groups, was strongly criticised for failing to tackle a jihadist insurgency and Tunisia's economic crisis.

In June, Essebsi said he would support the formation of a new unity government.

Many Tunisians welcomed the nomination of a comparatively young premier -- especially compared with other leaders since 2011.

Essebsi is 89 years old, and Essid is 67.

If his cabinet receives parliamentary approval, Chahed's main task will be to remedy the economic and social crises that still grip Tunisia five years after the revolution.
US condemns sentencing of anti-slavery activists in Mauritania

The United States on Saturday condemned Mauritania's imprisonment and alleged torture of protesters, including anti-slavery activists.

A court in the west African country handed 13 members of a group fighting hereditary slavery prison sentences on Thursday ranging from three to 15 years.

"The United States is gravely concerned about the harsh prison terms," State Department spokesman Mark Toner said in a statement. "We are also dismayed by specific accusations that some of these individuals were subjected to abuse and torture while in detention following their arrests."

People hold a banner reading "No to slavery" during a demonstration against discrimination in Nouakchott on April 29, 2015

All 13 activists say they were tortured in prison ahead of the court case.

Lawyers for the group denounced Thursday's verdict as "a travesty of justice."

"The United States urges an immediate and comprehensive investigation into all credible allegations of torture, public release of the findings of this investigation, and appropriate prosecution of any individuals whom the investigation finds were responsible for such acts," the State Department said, adding that Mauritania committed itself to fighting torture in its revised 2012 constitution.

"The United States strongly encourages Mauritania to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms, including freedoms of expression and association, for all Mauritanians."

The activists were arrested last month after a protest in a Nouakchott slum community, which was being forcibly relocated as Mauritania prepared for an Arab League summit.

The neighborhood was home to many so-called Haratin -- a "slave caste" under a hereditary system of servitude whose members are forced to work without pay as cattle herders and domestic servants.
While not previously against the law, lane splitting was left up to officer discretion. Now it is state law that the lane splitting is legal. Officers will use their judgement to determine what is safe behavior and what is not.

Via the LA Times:

Gov. Jerry Brown has signed legislation by Assemblyman Bill Quirk (D-Hayward) that defines the practice and authorizes the California Highway Patrol to establish rules for motorcyclists on how to do it safely.

Assemblyman Tom Lackey (R-Palmdale), a retired state highway patrol sergeant who co-wrote the bill, called the new law a "groundbreaking step."

"This is a huge win for roadway safety," Lackey said in a statement. "We are now giving riders and motorists clear guidance on when it is safe."

Lane splitting, in which a motorcyclist passes other vehicles by riding between them along the lane line, has long been a controversial issue.

Technically, it has not been legal or illegal, falling in a gray area where it was treated as acceptable by law enforcement agencies. But when the CHP published guidelines on the practice in 2015, a citizen complained that the agency should not be allowed to create public policy. In came AB 51.

Quirk's original bill proposed that lane splitting could occur legally only when a motorcycle was moving no more than 15 mph faster than the traffic around it, and it prohibited the practice at speeds above 50 mph.

Several motorcyclists' groups objected to that, saying the limit was too low. Other groups and individuals, who believe that lane splitting is dangerous regardless of speed, objected to the proposal entirely.

The revised bill, which sailed through the legislative process, provides a basic definition of "lane splitting" and leaves the rest to the CHP. Quirk has said it has many benefits, including reducing traffic congestion and promoting safety.
Colombia's half-century-long rebel conflict at a glance

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP)  A look at Colombia's half-century guerrilla conflict:

HOW IT STARTED

The 1948 assassination of populist firebrand Jorge Eliecer Gaitan led to a political bloodletting known as "La Violencia," or "The Violence." Tens of thousands died, and peasant groups joined with communists to arm themselves. A 1964 military attack on their main encampment led to the creation of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

In this Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2016 photo, rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia southern bloc, FARC, listen to a lecture on the peace process in the southern jungles of Putumayo, Colombia. Martin Corena, the acting commander of the FARC's southern bloc, is calling on President Barack Obama to free a guerrilla leader jailed for more than a decade in the U.S. Corena said Ricardo Palmeras 60-year sentence in connection to the FARCs holding captive of three American defense contracts was incompatible with Obamas support for a peace deal. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

REBEL AIMS

Though nominally Marxist at its founding, the FARC's ideology has never been well defined. It has sought to make the conservative oligarchy share power and prioritized land reform in a country where more than 5 million people have been forcibly displaced, mostly by far-right militias in the service of ranchers, businessmen and drug traffickers. The FARC lost popularity as it turned to kidnapping, extortion and taxes on cocaine production and illegal gold mining to fund its insurgency.

US INVOLVEMENT

In 2000, the United States began sending billions of dollars for counter-narcotics and -insurgency efforts under Plan Colombia, which helped security forces weaken the FARC and kill several top commanders. The State Department classifies the group as a terrorist organization and its leaders face U.S. indictments for what the George W. Bush administration called the world's largest drug-trafficking organization.

THE HUMAN TOLL

More than 220,000 lives have been lost, most of them civilians. In the past two decades, many of the killings were inflicted by the militias, which made peace with the government in 2003. The FARC abducted ranchers, politicians and soldiers who were often held for years in jungle prison camps. Its captives included former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and three U.S. military contractors, all of whom were rescued in 2008.

PEACE EFFORTS

Mid-1980s peace talks collapsed after death squads killed at least 3,000 allies of the FARC's political wing. Another effort fell apart in 2002 after the rebels hijacked an airliner to kidnap a senator. The current talks have been going on since 2012 in Havana.

AGREEMENTS REACHED
In-person voting fraud is rare, doesn't affect elections

WASHINGTON (AP)  Donald Trump's newest campaign ad begins with a warning: "In Hillary Clinton's America, the system stays rigged against Americans."

The commercial, which aired Friday as part of his $5 million swing state ad buy, harkens back to a claim Trump has been hammering for weeks  that the general election is rigged against him. The questionable claim looks to mobilize Republicans, with the all-important start of early voting in some states just weeks away.

The presidential nominee has voiced strong support for North Carolina's stringent voter ID law  struck down as discriminatory, but to be appealed  saying without it, voters will cast ballots "15 times" for Democrat Hillary Clinton. He also launched a new effort on his website last week seeking volunteers to root out fraud at the polls.

FILE - In this Aug.18, 2016 file photo, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks in Charlotte, N.C. Trumps first-of-its-kind campaign ad begins with a warning: In Hillary Clintons America, the system stays rigged against Americans. The commercial, which aired Friday, Aug. 19, 2016, as part of his $5 million swing state ad buy, harkens back to a claim Trump has been hammering for weeks _ that the general election is rigged against him. The questionable claim looks to mobilize Republicans, with the all-important start of early voting in some states just weeks away. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)

Things to know about voting fraud:

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WHAT ARE VOTER ID LAWS?

That ID law Trump referred to had involved a broader package of restrictions  among them, reducing early in-person voting, which is popular among blacks in particular. At the same time, it exempted tough photo ID requirements for early mail-in voters, who were more likely to be white and Republican.

In all, 17 states were set to have restrictions for the first time in a presidential election, pending final appeals, such as voter ID or cuts to voter registration or early in-person voting. Among them: the battlegrounds of North Carolina, Virginia, Ohio, Wisconsin and Georgia. Florida and Iowa had restrictions in place since 2012.

The potential impact is significant: Barack Obama's strength among early voters in 2012 helped him capture Florida and Iowa despite losing the election-day vote in those states, according to voting data compiled by The Associated Press. He narrowly lost North Carolina by 92,000 votes; in 2008, Obama had won all three states plus Colorado, thanks to early voters.

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IS VOTING FRAUD A PROBLEM?

Not the type that Trump is referring to.

While fraud can occur, the number of cases is very small and the type that voter IDs are designed to prevent  voter impersonation at the ballot box  is virtually non-existent.

News21, a reporting project affiliated with Arizona State University, in 2012 found 2,068 cases of election fraud nationwide since 2000. Of those, just 10 involved voter impersonation  or one out of every 15 million prospective voters. More common was absentee mail-in ballot fraud, with 491 cases. None affected the outcome of an election.

Lorraine Minnite, a political science professor at Rutgers University-Camden, says voter impersonation fraud is rare because it's difficult to do on a large-enough scale to tip an election.

"It's so irrational to even try just for one or two more votes," said Minnite, author of "The Myth of Voter Fraud."

In court cases that temporarily invalidated some of the ID laws, including North Carolina, Wisconsin and North Dakota, election officials could barely cite a case in which a person was charged with in-person voting fraud.

But Trump continued his warnings, calling last week for "election observers" on his official website to "stop Crooked Hillary from rigging this election." Volunteers who sign up are directed to a donation page.

A new Pew Research Center report released Friday found that 38 percent of registered voters who support Trump are very confident their vote will be accurately counted. This view stands in contrast to the 2004 and 2008 elections, when substantial majorities of voters who backed Republicans George W. Bush and John McCain expressed confidence in the count of their votes.

The survey found that 67 percent of Clinton supporters have a high degree of confidence that their vote will be counted accurately.

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WHAT CAN WE EXPECT WITH EARLY VOTING?

North Carolina is the first to kick off early voting on Sept. 9, when its residents may request and submit mail-in absentee ballots through election day for any reason. It will be followed by Georgia, Wisconsin, Virginia and Iowa.

A total of 37 states also offer in-person early voting, typically in mid to late October.

Over the years, mail-in early voters usually have been older, better educated and more likely white, while in-person early voters were often young people and black Americans, according to University of Florida professor Michael McDonald, an expert in election statistics.

As a result, early voting will likely be concentrated heavily among registered Republicans initially before turning in the Democrats' favor in late October to early November. Those initial numbers will offer clues as to the depth of Trump's support among his biggest partisans, who vote right away, McDonald said. Meanwhile, in North Carolina, a potential wild card is its voter ID law. An appeals court recently invalidated restrictions that cut in person early voting from 17 to 10 days, but the governor has vowed to appeal, creating uncertainty about the extent of early voting this fall.

Voter mobilization is a key part of Clinton's strategy to winning North Carolina, as it was for Obama.

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WILL RULINGS INVALIDATING VOTER ID INCREASE THE DEMOCRATIC VOTE?

Not necessarily. More likely, it will prevent a net loss of would-be Democratic voters  the black Americans, young people and the poor, whom recent rulings said would be less able to vote if newly passed state voter ID laws remained.

Based on rulings as they stand now, voters in North Carolina and North Dakota are ultimately unlikely to face new ID requirements, while those in Wisconsin and Texas will in some form.

A number of factors can influence voter turnout, beyond ID laws, such as voter excitement for a candidate, as was seen in 2008 and 2012, when voters rushed to the polls to help elect the first-ever black president, said Richard Hasen, a law professor at the University of California at Irvine.

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AP Director of Election Tabulations and Research Don Rehill contributed to this report.

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On Twitter follow Hope Yen at https://twitter.com/hopeyen1

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Police identify man shot and killed by deputy in Virginia

FAIRFAX, Va. (AP)  Police in a Virginia suburb of the nation's capital have identified a man shot and killed by a sheriff's deputy.

Fairfax County Police said Friday night that 29-year-old Jovany Martinez died early Tuesday after being shot the previous night outside Inova Fairfax Hospital. The statement said the man had charged a deputy with a sign post with a sharp end.

Police say another officer had encountered Martinez at a gas station Monday and noted he was behaving strangely. Authorities say the officer summoned paramedics, who took Martinez to the hospital.
Trump to black voters: 'What the hell do you have to lose?'

DIMONDALE, Michigan (AP)  Republican Donald Trump again made a direct appeal to black voters Friday night, urging them to abandon the Democratic Party and give him a chance.

Speaking at a rally in Dimondale, Michigan, an overwhelmingly white suburb outside of Lansing, the GOP nominee argued that Democrats, including his rival Hillary Clinton, have taken advantage of African-American voters and taken their votes for granted.

"Tonight, I'm asking for the vote of every single African-American citizen in this country who wants to see a better future," Trump told the crowd.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump arrives onstage to speak at a rally in Dimondale, Mich.. Friday, Aug. 19, 2016. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

"What do you have to lose by trying something new, like Trump?" he asked them. "You're living in your poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs, 58 percent of your youth is unemployed  what the hell do you have to lose?"

He also made a bold prediction: "At the end of four years, I guarantee you that I will get over 95 percent of the African-American vote. I promise you."

Most polls show Trump trailing Clinton significantly among black voters. President Barack Obama won roughly 93 percent of black voters in his re-election campaign in 2012.

But Trump once again accused Clinton of "bigotry," claiming she sees African-Americans "only as votes, not as human beings worthy of a better future,"

And he painted a dismal role of life for African-Americans in the workforce, declaring that, in cities like Detroit, they "have become refugees in their own country."

On Twitter, the Clinton campaign responded, "This is so ignorant it's staggering."

The Clinton campaign's Marlon Marshall added in a statement: "Donald Trump asks what the African-American community has to lose by voting for him. The answer is everything from a man who questions the citizenship of the first African-American President, courts white supremacists, and has been sued for housing discrimination against communities of color."

Marshall said, "Trump painting the entire community as living in poverty with no jobs continues to show he is completely out of touch with the African-American community."
AP EXPLAINS: Why Kashmir has been torn by decadeslong strife

SRINAGAR, India (AP)  When news spread in early July that Indian troops had killed a charismatic commander of Indian-controlled Kashmir's biggest rebel group, the public response was spontaneous and immense. Tens of thousands of angry youths poured out of their homes in towns and villages across the Himalayan region, hurling rocks and bricks and clashing with Indian troops.

A strict curfew and a series of communications blackouts since then have failed to stop the protesters, who are seeking an end to Indian rule in Kashmir, even as residents have struggled to cope with shortages of food, medicine and other necessities. The clashes, with protesters mostly throwing rocks and government forces responding with bullets and shotgun pellets, has left more than 60 civilians and two policemen dead. Thousands of civilians have been injured and hundreds of members of various government security forces.

On Friday, clashes erupted in at least 20 places after government forces fired tear gas and shotguns to stop protesters who tried to march on the main roads. But Kashmir's fury at Indian rule is not new. The stunning mountain region has known little but conflict since 1947, when British rule of the subcontinent ended with the creation of India and Pakistan.

Tear gas shells are exploded to disperse Kashmiri Muslim protesters in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Friday, Aug. 19, 2016. The Himalayan region has been under curfew for almost six weeks as the largest street protests in years erupted after Indian troops killed a top rebel leader. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

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DIVISION ROOTED IN PARTITION

In 1947, the kingdom of Jammu and Kashmir was asked to join with either India or Pakistan. But Maharaja Hari Singh, the unpopular Hindu ruler of the Muslim-majority region, wanted to stay independent. However, local armed uprisings that flared in various parts of Kashmir, along with a raid by tribesmen from northwestern Pakistan, forced Singh to seek help from India, which offered military assistance on condition that the kingdom link itself to India. The ruler accepted, but insisted that Kashmir remain a largely autonomous state within the Indian union, with India managing its foreign affairs, defense and telecommunications.

The Indian military entered the region soon after, with the tribal raid spiraling into the first of two wars between India and Pakistan over Kashmir. The first war ended in 1948 with a U.N.-brokered cease-fire. Nonetheless, Kashmir was divided between the two young nations by the heavily militarized Line of Control, with the promise of a U.N.-sponsored referendum in the future.

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INDIA AND PAKISTAN GO TO WAR OVER KASHMIR

In Indian-controlled Kashmir, many saw the transition as the mere transfer of power from their Hindu king to Hindu-majority India. Kashmiri discontent against India started taking root as successive Indian governments breached the pact of Kashmir's autonomy. Local governments were toppled one after another, and largely peaceful movements against Indian control were suppressed harshly.

Pakistan regularly raised the Kashmir dispute in international forums, including in the U.N. Meanwhile, India began calling the region an integral part of the nation, insisting that Kashmir's lawmakers had ratified the accession to New Delhi. As the deadlock persisted, India and Pakistan went to war again in 1965, with little changing on the ground. Several rounds of talks followed, but the impasse continued.

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A POLTICAL CAMPAIGN FAILS, A REBELLION ERUPTS

In the mid-1980s, dissident political groups in Indian-held Kashmir united to contest elections for the state assembly. The Muslim United Front quickly emerged as a formidable force against Kashmir's pro-India political elite. However, the United Front lost the 1987 election, which was widely believed to have been heavily rigged. A strong public backlash followed. Some young United Front activists crossed over to Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, where the Pakistani military began arming and training Kashmiri nationalists. By 1989, Kashmir was in the throes of a full-blown rebellion.

India poured more troops into the already heavily militarized region. In response, thousands of Kashmiris streamed back from the Pakistani-controlled portion with weapons, staging bloody attacks on Indian security forces and pro-India Kashmiri politicians. Indian soldiers, empowered with emergency laws giving them legal impunity, carried out a brutal military crackdown, leaving Kashmiris exhausted and traumatized. More than 68,000 people have been killed since then.

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US INFLUENCE, INDIAN MILITARY MIGHT CRUSH KASHMIRI REBELLION

Kashmir rebels suffered a major setback after 9/11, when the U.S. pressured Pakistan to rein in the militants. Indian troops largely crushed the militancy after that, though popular demands for "azadi," - freedom - remain ingrained in the Kashmiri psyche. In the last decade, the region has made a transition from armed rebellion to unarmed uprisings, with tens of thousands of civilians repeatedly taking to the streets to protest Indian rule, often leading to clashes between rock-throwing residents and Indian troops. The protests are usually quelled by force, often resulting in deaths.

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RELIGIOUS STRIFE, RENEWED VIOLENCE

In 2008, a government decision  later revoked  to transfer land to a Hindu shrine in Kashmir set off a summer of protests. The following year, the alleged rape and murder of two young women by government forces set off fresh violence. In 2010, the trigger for protests was a police investigation into allegations that soldiers had shot three civilians dead, and then staged a fake gun battle to make it appear that the dead were militants in order to claim rewards for the killings. Over those three years hundreds of thousands of young men and women took to the streets, hurling rocks and insults at Indian forces. At least 200 people were killed and hundreds wounded as troops fired into the crowds, inciting further protests.

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CRACKDOWNS AND MORE MILITANCY

The crackdowns appear to be pushing many educated young Kashmiris, who grew up politically radicalized amid decades of brutal conflict, toward armed rebel groups. Young Kashmiri boys began snatching weapons from Indian forces and training themselves deep inside Kashmir's forests. Despite that, the number of militants has apparently remained tiny, with security experts estimating there has not been more than 200 for the last several years.

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Follow Aijaz Hussain at www.twitter.com/hussain_aijaz

Indian paramilitary soldiers use sling shots to target Kashmiri Muslim protesters in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Friday, Aug. 19, 2016. The Himalayan region has been under curfew for almost six weeks as the largest street protests in years erupted after Indian troops killed a top rebel leader. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

Kashmiris watch a protest against alleged killing of civilians by government forces, through the window of their home, in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Friday, Aug. 19, 2016. Curfew and protests have continued across the valley amidst outrage over the killing of a top rebel leader by Indian troops in early July, 2016. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan)

Kashmiri Muslims protest against alleged killing of civilians by government forces during the ongoing valley-wide protests, in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Friday, Aug. 19, 2016. Curfew and protests have continued across the valley amidst outrage over the killing of a top rebel leader by Indian troops in early July, 2016. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan)
China, Myanmar vow closer ties as Suu Kyi visits Beijing

BEIJING (AP)  China and Myanmar said Saturday that they have pledged to forge closer ties as "blood brothers," as Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi got set to wrap up a visit to Beijing, her first diplomatic trip since taking power in March.

The neighboring countries also said in a joint statement that they would strengthen trade and cooperation on issues along the border, where fighting between Myanmar government forces and rebels have occasionally spilled over. There was no mention of progress, however, on a stalled $3.6 billion dam project in northern Myanmar primarily funded by Chinese energy interests, which was a key concern during the visit.

China has been on a diplomatic charm offensive in the past year toward its fast-growing neighbor, while Myanmar under Suu Kyi has shown a willingness to embrace its top trading partner and major investor.

In this photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, Myanmar's State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi visits the Museum of Terracotta Warriors and Horses of Emperor Qin Shihuang in Xi'an in northwestern China's Shaanxi Province, Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016. China and Myanmar have pledged to forge closer ties as "blood brothers" following Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi's visit to Beijing, her first diplomatic trip since taking power in March. (Li Yibo/Xinhua via AP)

The five-day visit, concluding Sunday, is the second trip to China in 15 months for Suu Kyi, who was imprisoned for more than a decade by Myanmar's former Beijing-backed military junta.

Suu Kyi has indicated that she will seek more balanced relations with China and the United States compared to Myanmar's previous government, headed by former President Thein Sein, who initiated political reforms and built ties with Washington.

Myanmar's State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi hold a talk with Chinese President Xi Jinping, at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, China, Friday, Aug. 19, 2016.(Rolex Dela Pena/Pool Photo via AP)

Chinese President Xi Jinping, right, and Myanmar's State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi, left, hold a talk at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, China, Friday, Aug. 19, 2016.(Rolex Dela Pena/Pool Photo via AP)

Myanmar's State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi, left, shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping, right, pose for the media before their meeting at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, China, Friday, Aug. 19, 2016. Suu Kyi was welcomed by Premier Li Keqiang at a formal ceremony Thursday at part of a visit that will include talks with President Xi. The trip ending Sunday is her first to China since her party won a historic majority last year.(Rolex Dela Pena/Pool Photo via AP)
Amid Louisiana flood disaster, youngest bear mental scars

DENHAM SPRINGS, La. (AP)  After floods devastated pockets of south Louisiana, mental scars are already showing on the youngest victims of a disaster that prompted more than 30,000 rescues and left an estimated 40,000 homes damaged.

Children who endured harrowing rescues are returning home to a jarring landscape that even their parents can scarcely grasp: Homes filled with ruined possessions must be quickly gutted. Damaged schools and daycare centers are closed indefinitely. Parents juggling jobs and cleanup work must also line up caretakers for their kids.

Michelle Parrott's children hear thunder when there is no storm. When rain does fall, they ask their mother if the floodwaters are rising again.

Residents gather house debris for the trash near Highway 16 in Denham Springs, La., as people begin the recovery process from the severe weather flooding in Livingston Parish, east of Baton Rouge, La., Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2016. (Bill Feig/The Advocate via AP)

Parrott, her husband and her six children, ages 6 to 17, have slept in cars, a shelter and a hotel room in the week since they had to be rescued by boat. The flooding wrecked their home in Livingston Parish, where one official has estimated that three-quarters of the residences are a total loss after more than 2 feet of rain fell in three days.

"The emotional toll on the kids has been heavy. They're all in a bit of shock and stress and having meltdowns and tantrums," Parrott said. "Trying to get back into their routine is going to be difficult when we don't know what the future holds for us."

Routines are particularly important for her 17-year-old son, Blake, who is autistic and attends special needs classes at one of the many Denham Springs schools damaged in the floods.

"He feels unsafe constantly. He's had a lot of breakdowns," she said. "We've had trouble getting his medications in. The therapist flooded, so he's lacking the emotional support he needs from professionals."

Thirteen deaths have been attributed to the storm and its flooding, and nearly 4,000 people remain in shelters.

But signs of recovery emerged Friday.

Gov. John Bel Edwards announced that FEMA will start paying for hotel rooms for storm victims staying in cars, hotels, shelters or their workplaces. A disaster food stamp program will begin Monday. And the state intends to start consolidating shelters this weekend as more of the displaced return home or find other places to stay.

The floods hit just as the school year was starting in many districts, reminiscent of how Hurricane Katrina abruptly ended a new school year in New Orleans in 2005. With the city under water for weeks and much of its population scattered for months or even years, the first public school didn't open in New Orleans until three months after the storm.

Some school districts, including in East Baton Rouge Parish, plan to reopen next week. But in Livingston Parish, it could take several weeks for some individual schools to be able to open. All told, Louisiana Superintendent of Education John White said 22 public schools were so heavily damaged around four parishes that they can't be opened by next week.

Amanda Burge, 35, said one of her friends from Denham Springs plans to temporarily enroll her daughter at a school in Covington while they stay there with a relative. Burge said she can't move her three sons to another district because her husband's job is rooted here, but they haven't had time to weigh their options. On Thursday, the couple was racing to clean out their flooded home before the mold sets in.

"Everything is gone. School is gone. Home is gone. Church is gone," said Burge, president of the Parent Teacher Organization at Denham Springs Elementary School.

Her 11-year-old son, Logan, smiled at the prospect of a "second summer."

"At the same time, I'm starting to miss my teachers and my friends," he said. "I'm wondering if they're all OK from the storm."

Bonnie Nastasi, a professor at Tulane University in New Orleans specializing in school psychology, said addressing the disruption of children's lives is as important as helping them with the trauma they experienced during the flooding. Many had to be rescued in nighttime darkness, plucked from their homes and packed together in crowded shelters.

"If they can resume normal routines, that helps them to feel more safe and more secure," Nastasi said.

A growing pile of debris sits outside the flood-ravaged home of Carolyn and James Smith in Denham Springs, La. on Wednesday, Aug 17, 2016. Smith says she and four other adults will live for the time being in the travel trailer that one of her sons towed to the driveway after weekend flooding inundated the area. (AP Photo/Kevin McGill)

Members of the Louisiana Army National Guard help place sandbags to protect the city hall in Lake Arthur, La., Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2016. (Scott Clause/The Daily Advertiser via AP)

Lake Arthur residents receive help from the Army National Guard to build sandbag wall to keep flood waters from Lake Arthur, La., Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2016. (Scott Clause/The Daily Advertiser via AP)

Dylan Heinan, among other volunteers, piles sandbags in an effort to stop flood waters from rising in Lake Arthur, La., Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2016. (Scott Clause/The Daily Advertiser via AP)

Terry Brewer, left, and Timothy Harris pile up debris outside a flooded auto parts store in Albany, La. on Wednesday, Aug 17, 2016. The U.S. Small Business Administration plans to open several south Louisiana locations to help businesses damaged by record flooding. Louisiana's economic development office is encouraging business owners to register for federal disaster aid and to look at other available support services at www.OpportunityLouisiana.com. (AP Photo/Kevin McGill)

Amanda Burge looks at flood damaged items with two of her three children Aiden, left, and Hudson, center, in Denham Springs, La., Friday, Aug. 19, 2016. "Everything is gone. School is gone. Home is gone. Church is gone," said Burge, president of the Parent Teacher Organization at Denham Springs Elementary School. (AP Photo/Michael Kunzelman)
Officials: Zika won't hurt South Florida tourism in long run

MIAMI (AP)  The discovery of Zika-carrying mosquitoes in South Florida certainly isn't ideal for tourism, but local officials and business leaders are confident the long-term impact on the tourism industry will be minor.

Transmission of the virus via mosquito has been confirmed in two sites in Miami-Dade County, but Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine said in a news conference Friday he is confident in the city's efforts to combat it. City workers are trying to get rid of standing water and foliage that might attract the insects, while the county begins a fumigation program to kill the bugs.

"Between our efforts and the county's spraying efforts, the last thing I'd ever want to be on Miami Beach is a mosquito," Levine said.

A City of Miami Beach Sanitation worker gets ready to clean the alleyways of South Beach, sucking up still waters and debris with a mobile vacuum, Friday, Aug. 19, 2016, Miami Beach, Fla., as part of the city's Zika clean-up. (C.M. Guerrero/El Nuevo Herald via AP)

Organizers for Art Basel Miami Beach and other upcoming events cautiously expressed confidence in the region's mosquito control efforts. Officials at the Americas Food and Beverage Show will add mosquito repellent to goody bags at the late September event at the Miami Beach Convention Center.

"We're taking extra precautions," said Yendi Alvarez, the show's media coordinator. "This wasn't even a thought last year. We put this in place once the news started getting crazy."

Gov. Rick Scott has directed Florida's health department to offer mosquito spraying and related services at no cost to Miami-Dade County's hotels, restaurants and tourist attractions. More than 15.5 million people made overnight visits to Miami and nearby beaches in 2015, with an impact of $24.4 billion, according to figures from the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Three vacuum trucks purchased to help Miami Beach fight rising sea levels have been used since the beginning of the year to drain water in low-lying areas where mosquitoes could breed, said Roy Coley, the city's infrastructure director.

The city also has been sending workers to fill potholes collecting water in alleys and fix leaky beach showers, in addition to applying pesticides to the area's many construction sites and flood-prone residential streets, Coley said.

Five cases of Zika have been connected to mosquitoes in Miami Beach, bringing the state's caseload to 36 infections not related to travel outside the U.S., Florida's governor and health department announced Friday.

South Beach has been identified as a second site of Zika transmission by mosquitoes on the U.S. mainland. Containment there will be difficult because high-rise buildings and strong winds make it impractical to spray the neighborhood from the air, officials said Friday.

The discovery prompted the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to announce that it was expanding its travel warning for pregnant women to include the area known for nightclubs, pedestrian thoroughfares and beaches.

In pregnant women, a Zika infection can cause severe birth defects, including microcephaly.

The CDC previously warned pregnant women to avoid the Wynwood arts district in Miami. In its statement Friday, the agency said pregnant women may also want to consider postponing nonessential travel throughout Miami-Dade County if they're concerned about potential exposure to the virus.

Aerial spraying and door-to-door operations on the ground have cut mosquito populations in Wynwood by up to 90 percent, but Zika may be continuing as mosquitoes breed, said CDC director Dr. Tom Frieden.

"The mosquitoes are persistent and we won't know for a couple of weeks whether these aggressive measures have worked," Frieden said.

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Associated Press writers Tamara Lush in Tampa, Florida, and Scott Mayerowitz in New York contributed to this report.

Melvin Gaitan, from the Miami Beach Sanitation Dept., washes down alley ways Friday, Aug. 19, 2016, Miami Beach, Fla., with a high pressure water machine that is set to 250 degrees Fahrenheit, which kills any bacteria or mosquito larvae that could be growing in still waters. (C.M. Guerrero/El Nuevo Herald via AP)

FILE - In this Aug. 4, 2016 file photo, Florida Gov. Rick Scott, foreground, speaks during a news conference along with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Tom Frieden, left, Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-FL, and Fla. Surgeon General and Secretary, Dr. Celeste Philip, far right, in Doral, Fla. South Beach has been identified as second site of Zika transmission by mosquitoes on the U.S. mainland, Florida officials said Friday, Aug. 19. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
Homes burned by California fire; teams look for more damage

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (AP)  In the aftermath of a wildfire, somebody has to figure out exactly what burned. It's painstaking and important work that helps evacuated residents know if they lost everything or have something waiting for them when they return home.

Officials estimate that at least 105 residences and 213 outbuildings have been destroyed in the massive fire that burned ferociously through Southern California mountain communities this week and was still smoldering Saturday.

Those numbers could rise as damage assessment teams pore through the aftermath of the blaze about 60 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, Fire Marshal Mike Horton of the San Bernardino County Fire Department said. Drought conditions in California have left plenty of fuel for wildfires.

Scorched cars and trailers burned by the Blue Cut fire line a residential street in Phelan, Calif., on Friday, Aug. 19, 2016. Thousands of residents chased from their mountain and desert homes were slowly beginning to take stock of their losses as the preliminary damage assessment was released for the blaze that erupted Tuesday in drought-parched canyons 60 miles east of Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

The fire sparked Tuesday was 73 percent contained and firefighters who were on the offensive for days were finally transitioning to mop-up phase, officials said.

Operating from a mobile command center just south of the 58-square-mile blaze, Horton leads a team of 15 investigators, technicians, hazardous materials experts and others responsible for determining the extent and nature of the damages.

"We come in right on the heels of the fire," Horton said. "Once it's cool enough, we go parcel-by-parcel."

Often properties are so decimated that it's difficult to know if a smoking ash heap was a home, a trailer or a water tank, he said. Technicians consult mobile computer applications that can download geographic data and county assessors' information to learn what might have been there before flames swept through. Numerous photos are taken and each "gets its own narrative" of what the team saw, Horton said.

Some evacuations remained in place but the majority of those ordered out were allowed to return Friday, when crews made huge gains against the blaze, fire spokesman Brad Pitassi said.

"Things are extremely positive," said Pitassi, adding that officials expect more progress and more residents returning home throughout the weekend. At the height of the fire, some 82,000 people were under evacuation orders.

Even before they go back, anxious residents can sometimes get a sense of what awaits them thanks to reports filed swiftly by the damage assessment team. The goal is to compile the data even before the fire is fully extinguished and make them available online, via phone recordings and on postings at evacuation centers.

Maps are color-coded with red areas signifying "complete damage," orange describing damage between 40 and 75 percent, yellow showing damage of less than 40 percent and green meaning no damage.

"Green, you're in good shape," Horton said Friday. "Any other color and you should be concerned."

Johanna Santore was among those left homeless. She was running an errand Tuesday when the fire charged through her neighborhood. She tried to rush home to rescue the family's four dogs, six cats and hamster but was blocked by closed roads.

A group of animal rescue volunteers found the house in smoldering ruins  with no signs of the pets.

"I'm actually feeling numb," said Santore, who fled with her husband and granddaughter to an evacuation center. "It's like a nightmare."

A prolonged drought has transformed swaths of California into tinderboxes, ready to ignite. Six other wildfires were burning in the state, including a blaze in rural Santa Barbara County that prompted the evacuation of a pair of campgrounds and another in San Luis Obispo County that forced the closure of the historic Hearst Castle on Saturday.

Fire officials say the fire, which grew to more than 26 square miles since it ignited a week ago, is about 3 miles from the hilltop estate overlooking the Central Coast. The castle, a popular tourist attraction that houses a large art collection belonging to media magnate William Randolph Hearst, stopped giving tours due to heavy smoke, said California State Parks spokeswoman Gloria Sandoval.

In the southern Sierra Nevada, another blaze feeding on dense timber in Sequoia National Forest forced the evacuation of several tiny hamlets.

In mountains north of San Francisco, a 6-square-mile blaze was 80 percent contained after destroying 300 structures, including 189 homes and eight businesses, in the working-class community of Lower Lake. All evacuation orders have been canceled.

No deaths have been reported in the fire east of Los Angeles and the cause of the fire was under investigation. Crews continued to sift through burned regions to tally the damage.

The information collected by damage assessment teams is useful for the fire's incident command, local offices of emergency services, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and insurance companies. But Horton knows it's most important to evacuated residents, which is why his main goal is accuracy.

"We have to be so exact. We don't release anything until it's triple checked," he said. "The last thing we want is people thinking, 'oh my house is fine' when it's not."

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Associated Press writer Olga Rodriguez in San Francisco contributed to this report.

Scorched cars and trailers burned by the Blue Cut fire line a residential street in Phelan, Calif., on Friday, Aug. 19, 2016. More people returned to their homes Friday as firefighters made significant progress against a huge wildfire burning in Southern California's San Bernardino National Forest, but that was tempered by the announcement that at least 96 homes and 213 outbuildings were destroyed. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

A firetruck passes scorched cars and trailers burned by the Blue Cut fire in Phelan, Calif., on Friday, Aug. 19, 2016. More people returned to their homes Friday as firefighters made significant progress against a huge wildfire burning in Southern California's San Bernardino National Forest, but that was tempered by the announcement that at least 96 homes and 213 outbuildings were destroyed. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

Firefighters water down scorched compost material at a property burned near Phelan, Calif., on Friday, Aug. 19, 2016. The wildfire unleashed its initial fury on a semi-rural landscape dotted with small ranches and homes in Cajon Pass and on the edge of the Mojave Desert before climbing the mountains. (AP Photo/Christine Armario)

Firefighters water down scorched compost material at a property burned near Phelan, Calif., on Friday, Aug. 19, 2016. The wildfire unleashed its initial fury on a semi-rural landscape dotted with small ranches and homes in Cajon Pass and on the edge of the Mojave Desert before climbing the mountains. (AP Photo/Christine Armario)

In this Friday, Aug. 19, 2016, photo, Fire Marshal Mike Horton of the San Bernardino County Fire Department manages the damage assessment team operations at the Glen Helen Regional Park in San Bernardino, Calif. In the aftermath of a wildfire, somebody has to figure out exactly what burned. It's painstaking and important work that helps evacuated residents know if they lost everything or have something waiting for them when they return home. Operating from a mobile command center just south of the 58-square-mile blaze, Horton leads a team of 15 investigators, technicians, hazardous materials experts and others responsible for determining the extent and nature of the damages. (AP Photo/Christopher Weber)

In this Friday, Aug. 19, 2016, photo, Fire Marshal Mike Horton of the San Bernardino County Fire Department manages the damage assessment team operations at the Glen Helen Regional Park in San Bernardino, Calif. In the aftermath of a wildfire, somebody has to figure out exactly what burned. It's painstaking and important work that helps evacuated residents know if they lost everything or have something waiting for them when they return home. Operating from a mobile command center just south of the 58-square-mile blaze, Horton leads a team of 15 investigators, technicians, hazardous materials experts and others responsible for determining the extent and nature of the damages. (AP Photo/Christopher Weber)

In this Friday, Aug. 19, 2016, photo, Fire Marshal Mike Horton of the San Bernardino County Fire Department accounts the damage assessment team operations at the Glen Helen Regional Park in San Bernardino, Calif. In the aftermath of a wildfire, somebody has to figure out exactly what burned. It's painstaking and important work that helps evacuated residents know if they lost everything or have something waiting for them when they return home. Officials estimate that at least 105 residences and 213 outbuildings have been destroyed in the massive fire that burned ferociously through Southern California mountain communities this week and was still smoldering Saturday. (AP Photo/Christopher Weber)

An air tanker makes a fire retardant drop Friday, Aug. 19, 2016 on the Lebec Fire off Interstate 5 in Lebec, Calif. Firefighters kept the blaze to 10 acres. (Casey Christie/The Bakersfield Californian via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT; MAGS OUT; NO SALES; ONLINE OUT; TV OUT

This photo provided by California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection shows smoke billowing from a wildfire near Lake Nacimiento in San Luis Obispo County, Calif., Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016. (California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection via AP)

This photo provided by California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection shows smoke billowing from a wildfire near Lake Nacimiento in San Luis Obispo County, Calif., Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016. (California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection via AP)
The Brennan Center has rounded up a rogues' gallery of candid, on-the-record admissions from Republican politicians, officials, and operators about the true nature of the unconstitutional voter restriction laws that were cookie-cuttered across the Tea Party state governments: they don't fight voter fraud (because that's not a thing), but they do disenfranchise traditional democratic voters: people of color and students.



Conservative Leader Argues Voter ID Skews Elections Toward Conservatives

Heritage Foundation president and former U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) said in an April 2016 radio interview, "[Voter ID laws are] something we're working on all over the country, because in the states where they do have voter ID laws you've seen, actually, elections begin to change towards more conservative candidates."

Georgia Politician Complains When Early Voting Location Opens in Black Neighborhood

Georgia State Sen. Fran Millar (R) vented on social media following the state's opening of a new early voting location in 2014. "This location is dominated by African American shoppers and near several large African American mega churches such as New Birth Missionary Baptist," he wrote in a Facebook post.

Ohio Republican Says Early Voting Shouldn't Cater to African-Americans

In 2012, in response to a state-level battle over early voting hours, Doug Preisse, chairman of Franklin County, Ohio's Republican Party, told The Columbus Dispatch, "I guess I really actually feel we shouldn't contort the voting process to accommodate the urban  read African-American  voter turnout machine."
Philippine troops, rebels hold fire ahead of peace talks

MANILA, Philippines (AP)  Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has reimposed an indefinite cease-fire after communist guerrillas declared their own truce as both sides set the stage for a resumption of talks aimed at ending one of Asia's longest-running rebellions.

Government peace talks adviser Jesus Dureza said Saturday that the unilateral cease-fire reimposed by Duterte will take effect Sunday simultaneous with the start of the rebels' weeklong cease-fire.

The gestures usher in four days of talks in the Norwegian capital of Oslo starting Monday that will focus on resolving the root problems of an insurgency that has left more than 150,000 combatants and civilians dead and undermined the Philippines' economic development.

FILE - In this Dec. 26, 2010, file photo, communist New People's Army militants march in unison past local residents and supporters during the celebration of the 42nd anniversary of the Communist Party of the Philippines on Mount Diwata in southern Philippines. On Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte reimposed an indefinite cease-fire after communist guerrillas declared their own truce as both sides set the stage for a resumption of talks aimed at ending one of Asia's longest-running rebellions. (AP Photo/Pat Roque, File)

"The duration of the cease-fire will last for as long as necessary to bring peace in the land and also in order to provide an enabling environment for the success of the peace negotiations," Dureza said at a news conference at Manila's Ninoy Aquino International Airport before he and the government's negotiating team flew to Oslo for the talks.

The military said it backs Duterte's move and expressed hopes that the rebels will match his move with the same sincerity.

After being sworn into office on June 30, Duterte has reached out to the Maoist guerrillas by talking to rebel leaders, designating left-wing activists to two key Cabinet posts and agreeing to free captured rebel leaders. The growing rapport, however, was short-lived.

Duterte declared a cease-fire on July 25, but withdrew it five days later after the guerrillas killed a government militiaman in a clash and failed to immediately declare their own truce by a deadline set by the tough-talking president.

While he became more critical of the rebels, whom he said survive through extortion, Duterte pursued peace negotiations to stop the decades-long bloodshed.

Under Duterte's predecessor, Benigno Aquino III, peace talks stalled over the government's refusal to heed a rebel demand for the release of some captured guerrillas. Duterte, however, has shown more flexibility by agreeing to the release of 22 rebels, who would serve as consultants in the talks.
AP EXPLAINS: How South Sudan rebel's flight adds to turmoil

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP)  South Sudan, the world's newest country, is in political limbo after rebel leader and former vice president Riek Machar fled earlier this week. His whereabouts remained unclear Saturday after a spokesman for Machar and the United Nations both said he was in neighboring Congo but Congo's government said it had no knowledge of him being there. His departure puts South Sudan's peace deal, reached a year ago under international pressure, into disarray while the country's humanitarian crisis worsens.

WHY THERE IS CHAOS IN JUBA

Machar and many of his supporters fled the capital after last month's fighting between government and rebel forces, in which hundreds of civilians were killed and fears grew of a return to civil war. The fighting displaced at least 15,000 people in the capital. About 12,500 fled to U.N. camps in Juba, where food remains scarce. Witnesses told The Associated Press that soldiers in government army uniforms raped women who ventured outside the camps to collect food, as U.N. peacekeepers stood by. After he fled, Machar was replaced as first vice president, a post he held for just a few months under the fragile peace deal. He has been replaced by another official in his party, Taban Deng, but that appointment has not been accepted by many of Machar's supporters. A spokesman for Machar's opposition SPLM-IO party, Mabior Garang, told AP that the move was "illegal" and claimed that some officials who nominated Taban were "coerced by security officials."

FILE - In this Sunday, Dec. 29 2013 file photo, displaced people gather around a water truck to fill containers, at a United Nations compound which has become home to thousands of people displaced by the recent fighting, in the capital Juba, South Suda. Sudan's political limbo continued Friday, Aug. 19, 2016 after rebel leader Riek Machar fled the country earlier in the week. Last month government and rebel forces clashed in the capital, killing hundreds of civilians and Machar was controversially removed as First Vice President. Machar's departure puts South Sudan's peace deal into disarray at the same time the country is suffering from a humanitarian crisis. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis,file)

MACHAR HAS VANISHED, BUT THAT COULD HELP HIM

Taban has pledged to step down if Machar returns to the capital. Machar says he will return to Juba only after a regional peacekeeping force arrives and secures Juba. Last week, the U.N. Security Council voted to send 4,000 additional peacekeepers to South Sudan with a strengthened mandate to provide security. President Salva Kiir's government at first rejected the decision, saying it violated the country's sovereignty. But in recent days, the government has been more receptive to the U.N. plan. Machar's flight from South Sudan could give him more visibility and increase pressure on the international community to send in the regional peacekeepers.

HOW MACHAR'S FLIGHT COULD SPARK NEW ETHNIC VIOLENCE

Most South Sudanese who are Dinka, the largest ethnic group of South Sudan's 12.5 million people, support their tribesman, President Kiir. Most ethnic Nuer, the second largest group, support Machar's opposition party, with some notable exceptions. There has been sporadic fighting in parts of the country since Machar and his forces fled, especially in the south. Local and opposition officials in the Yei region say clashes have taken place there. The region had little violence during the country's civil war, which began in December 2013. The fighting in Yei indicates that violence has shifted to a new front following Machar's disappearance.

SOUTH SUDAN'S HUNGRY ARE FLEEING BY THE THOUSANDS

The displaced are not just in Juba. There are 190,000 South Sudanese living at U.N. camps across the country. At these sites, U.N. peacekeepers have been criticized for failing to protect civilians. About 70,000 South Sudanese have crossed the border into Uganda since the July clashes, adding to the more than 2.3 million people who have been displaced both inside and outside the country since the civil war began, according to the U.N. The new refugees have overwhelmed humanitarian agencies that are already short on funding. Earlier this week, the U.N. said it was forced to cut food assistance in half for 200,000 South Sudanese in Uganda. "Never has the gap between what is being provided and what is needed been larger," said acting UNHCR Representative to Uganda Bornwell Kantande.

FILE - In this Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2010 file photo, Dr. Riek Machar, Vice President of the Government of South Sudan, presides over an all-southern-parties meeting in Juba, Sudan South. Sudan's political limbo continued Friday, Aug. 19, 2016 after rebel leader Riek Machar fled the country earlier in the week. Last month government and rebel forces clashed in the capital, killing hundreds of civilians and Machar was controversially removed as First Vice President. Machar's departure puts South Sudan's peace deal into disarray at the same time the country is suffering from a humanitarian crisis. (AP Photo/Pete Muller, file)

FILE - In this Sunday Dec. 29 2013 file photo, displaced South Sudanese children gather around a water truck to fill containers, at a United Nations compound which has become home to thousands of people displaced by the recent fighting, in the capital Juba, South Sudan. Sudan's political limbo continued Friday, Aug. 19, 2016 after rebel leader Riek Machar fled the country earlier in the week. Last month government and rebel forces clashed in the capital, killing hundreds of civilians and Machar was controversially removed as First Vice President. Machar's departure puts South Sudan's peace deal into disarray at the same time the country is suffering from a humanitarian crisis. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, file)
Turkish PM rules out new peace process with Kurdish rebels

ISTANBUL (AP)  Turkey's prime minister has ruled out a new peace initiative with the country's outlawed Kurdish rebels.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim told foreign media representatives on Saturday: "there is no (new peace) process. We would not enter into a dialogue with a terror organization."

His comments came as the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, has intensified its bomb attacks targeting police and military. More than a dozen people were killed in attacks this week.

A cease-fire between the PKK and the government collapsed last year, leading to a resumption of the three-decade long violence that has led to hundreds of deaths.
Turkish PM says US should 'speed up' cleric's extradition

ISTANBUL (AP)  Turkey wants the United States to speed up procedures for extraditing U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom it accuses of orchestrating last month's violent coup attempt, the country's prime minister said Saturday.

Binali Yildirim was speaking with foreign media representatives in Istanbul days before a delegation of U.S. Justice Department and State Department officials are due to arrive in Turkey to discuss Turkey's demand that Gulen be returned to Turkey to face trial for the brutal July 15 coup. U.S. Vice President Joe Biden is also scheduled to visit next week.

Washington has asked for evidence of Gulen's involvement and says the regular extradition process must take its course. Gulen, who lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania, has denied knowledge or involvement in the coup attempt that led to more than 270 deaths.

A woman checks her cell phone as she passes outside Marmara University Theological School mosque in Istanbul, Friday, Aug. 19, 2016. Turkey accuses U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen of masterminding the July 15th coup and has launched a massive crackdown on his movement, detaining more than 40,000 people and dismissing tens of thousands from government jobs. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

Yildirim said Turkey and the United States have an extradition agreement and the process should not be delayed.

"We want the process to be accelerated," he said. "This man was the leader of the coup. What are we waiting for?"

"The United States has every kind of information on the incidents this terror organization and its leader have been involved in," Yildirim added. "Our request is clear: that he be temporarily detained and then returned."

Yildirim said Turkey had sent Washington 84 files on Gulen before the coup and four other files after it.

The Turkish government has declared a state of emergency and launched a massive crackdown on Gulen's supporters in the aftermath of the coup, raising concerns among Turkey's allies and human rights groups. Some 35,000 people have been detained for questioning and more than 17,000 of them have been formally arrested to face trial, including soldiers, police, judges and journalists.

Tens of thousands more people with suspected links to Gulen have been suspended or dismissed from their jobs in the judiciary, media, education, health care, military and local government.
Overnight subway service in London to serve 50,000 a weekend

LONDON (AP)  London's new overnight subway service has begun, with plans to host 50,000 riders each weekend.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan took the first Victoria line train on the new service early Saturday, chatting with passengers and marking the milestone. City leaders hope the new service will make the British capital a truly 24-hour city on the weekends and bolster its economy.

London already boasts a vibrant nightlife that attracts millions. But the service is also meant to serve doctors, cleaners and others who work graveyard shifts.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, center, chats with passengers as he travels on a northbound Victoria line tube train during the launch of London's Night Tube Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016. The London Underground introduced limited overnight service Saturday, a move city leaders hope will make the British capital a truly 24-hour city and bolster the local economy. (Yui Mok/PA via AP)

Police say they will be able to keep revelers in check.

Chief Constable Paul Crowther of the British Transport Police says "someone who's had a lot to drink at eleven o'clock is no different from someone who's had a lot to drink at three o'clock."

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, center, touches his Oyster card at an entry gate at Brixton Underground Station during the launch of London's Night Tube Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016. The London Underground introduced limited overnight service Saturday, a move city leaders hope will make the British capital a truly 24-hour city and bolster the local economy. (Yui Mok/PA via AP)

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, left, shakes hands with Daniel George, a driver of the first Night Tube, in the driver's carriage of a Victoria line tube train at Brixton Underground Station during the launch of London's Night Tube Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016. The London Underground introduced limited overnight service Saturday, a move city leaders hope will make the British capital a truly 24-hour city and bolster the local economy. (Yui Mok/PA via AP)

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, second left, listens to poet Hussain Manawer, center, reciting his poem The Night Tube while traveling with passengers on a northbound Victoria line tube train during the launch of London's Night Tube Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016. The London Underground introduced limited overnight service Saturday, a move city leaders hope will make the British capital a truly 24-hour city and bolster the local economy. (Yui Mok/PA via AP)

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan smiles as he sits in the driver's carriage of a Victoria line tube train at Brixton Underground Station during the launch of London's Night Tube Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016. The London Underground introduced limited overnight service Saturday, a move city leaders hope will make the British capital a truly 24-hour city and bolster the local economy. (Yui Mok/PA via AP)

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, second left in a black jacket, travels down an escalator with members of the public at Brixton Underground Station in London during the launch of London's Night Tube Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016. The London Underground introduced limited overnight service Saturday, a move city leaders hope will make the British capital a truly 24-hour city and bolster the local economy. (Yui Mok/PA via AP)

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, center, smiles as he travels with passengers on a northbound Victoria line tube train in London during the launch of London's Night Tube Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016. The London Underground introduced limited overnight service Saturday, a move city leaders hope will make the British capital a truly 24-hour city and bolster the local economy. (Yui Mok/PA via AP)
Turkey: Assad can be part of transition in Syria

ISTANBUL (AP)  Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Saturday his country is willing to accept a role for Syrian President Bashar Assad during a transitional period but insisted he has no place in Syria's future.

The comments came after Assad's forces began attacking Kurdish positions this week, leading some Kurdish officials to speculate that a Syrian-Turkish rapprochement was underway at the expense of Kurdish autonomy in northern Syria.

"There will be concessions on the Kurdish question," said Nasser Haj Mansour, an adviser to the predominantly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces, which expelled the Islamic State group from their northern Syrian stronghold of Manbij this month. "I do not know where this will lead."

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim speaks during a meeting with foreign media representatives in Istanbul, Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016. Yildirim says his country is willing to accept a role for Syrian President Bashar Assad during a transitional period in Syria. (Prime Minister Press Service via AP)

Turkey is one of the main supporters of rebels fighting to overthrow Assad, and hosts more than 2.7 million Syrian refugees. But Istanbul is concerned about the growing power of U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish forces across the border and opposes any moves toward Kurdish autonomy or independence. The Syrian government, too, has grown uneasy with the Kurdish forces in the north, who enjoy close relations with the U.S. government, an open antagonist of Syria's Assad.

Damascus has largely refrained from attacking its homegrown Kurdish forces, which have successfully defeated the Islamic State group in multiple battles while expanding their own autonomous footprint.

However on Friday, the Syrian military's General Command released a statement referring to the Kurdish Asayesh internal police force as the "military wing of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)."

The military's statement appeared to be a concession to the Turkish government, which is battling its own Kurdish insurgency in the southeast and has long pressed the Syrian government to label the Syrian Kurdish political movement as an extension of Turkey's outlawed PKK.

Speaking to foreign media representatives in Istanbul, Yildirim said Turkey would aim to become more of a regional player with regard to Syria in the next six months.

"Could Syria carry Assad in the long-term? Certainly not," Yildirim said. "The United States knows and Russia knows that Assad does not appear to be someone who can bring (the people) together."

"There may be talks (with Assad) for the transition. A transition may be facilitated. But we believe that there should be no (Kurdish rebels), Daesh or Assad in Syria's future," he said, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.

"In the six months ahead of us, we shall be playing a more active role," Yildirim said. "It means not allowing Syria to be divided along ethnic lines ... ensuring that its government is not based on ethnic (divisions)."

Fighting erupted between the Kurdish Asayesh forces and the Syrian military this week over control of the northern city of Hasakeh, with Syrian warplanes raiding Kurdish positions inside the city, a first for the five-year-long Syrian war.

The escalation prompted the U.S. to scramble jets to protect International Coalition forces embedded with the Kurds. The U.S. has 300 special operating troops embedded with the Kurds, according to the U.S. government.

U.S. Navy Captain Jeff Davis said Friday the U.S. would do what was needed to protect coalition forces.

"The Syrian regime would be well advised not to do things that would place them at risk," he said.

Mansour said Syria's Kurdish forces have not received any official protection guarantees from the U.S. government. However, the U.S. is known to use three air strips in the predominantly Kurdish northern Syrian territory, while a top U.S. general, Joseph Votel, commander of U.S. Central Command, visited Kurdish forces there in May.

Fighting continued in Hasakeh Saturday with Kurdish forces attempting to push the Syrian government's National Defense Forces militia out of the city's center. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group reported 26 people had been killed in the fighting, among them 10 children and four women.

___

Associated Press writers Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria, and Philip Issa in Beirut contributed to this report.
Fundamentalists gain ground in Algeria as war memory fades

ALGIERS, Algeria (AP)  Mosques are going up, women are covering up, and shops selling alcoholic beverages are shutting down in a changing Algeria where, slowly but surely, Muslim fundamentalists are gaining ground.

The North African country won its civil war with extremists who brought Algeria to its knees in the name of Islam during the 1990s. Yet authorities show little overt concern about the growing grip of Salafis, who apply a strict brand of the Muslim faith.

Algerians favoring the trend see it as a benediction, while critics worry that the rise of Salafism, a form of Islam that interprets the Quran literally, may seep deeper into social mores and diminish the chances for a modern Algeria that values freedom of choice.

Veiled women walk in central Algiers, Wednesday Aug. 10, 2016. Mosques are going up, women are covering up and bars, restaurants and shops selling alcoholic beverages are shutting down in a changing Algeria where, slowly but surely, Muslim fundamentalists are gaining ground.(AP Photo/Ouahab Hebbat)

More than a decade after putting down an insurgency by Islamist extremists, Algerian security forces still combat sporadic incursions by al-Qaida's North African branch. The conflict started in 1991 after the army canceled elections that an Islamist party was poised to win. The violence left an estimated 200,000 dead and divided society.

But authorities are treading lightly in their dealings today with "quietist" Salafis, who eschew politics but are making their mark on this North African nation buffeted by high unemployment  and a far higher lack of confidence in the powers-that-be.

"Thanks to God, Algerian society is returning to its source of identity," commented Said Bahmed, a philosophy professor at the University of Algiers. Bahmed, who is close to the moderate Islamist party Movement for a Peaceful Society, described the growing number of women in Islamic dress as a "benediction."

Algeria's North African neighbors also have been grappling with a new assertiveness from those seeking a greater role for Islam in society, and have folded Islamist parties into their power structures.

In Morocco, where a moderate Islamist party runs the government, women increasingly don veils, especially in working-class neighborhoods.

Tunisia's moderate Islamist Ennahda party headed the country's first government after the 2011 revolution and remains strong in parliament, but rebranded itself this year to separate religion from politics. Ennahda's influence did not stop deadly attacks on tourist targets last year claimed by the Islamic State group.

In today's Algeria, the vestiges of 130 years of French colonial rule are falling away, with ardent help from Salafis. Their influence visibly marks the lively capital of Algiers, where alcoholic beverages once were served on terraces, in bars and at restaurants and women dressed as they liked.

Approximately 100 bars and restaurants around Algiers have been shut down over the past decade, 37 of them in the city center, according to the Direction of Commerce of the Wilaya, or region, of Algiers.

Dead leaves are piled up at the locked Claridge bar, a writers' haunt that folded in May.

Expiring rental contracts and problems linked to an inheritance are among the reasons officially cited for closing alcohol-serving establishments. Journalist Mohamed Arezki called those pretexts that officials use so they will "be in the good graces of Islamists."

"Authorities' message is to tell the population that ... defense of values of Islam isn't the monopoly of Islamists," Arezki said. "But in this bidding game between the state and Islamists, it is the project of society, of a plural, tolerant Algeria, that is threatened."

Mohamed Ait Oussaid's bar-restaurant in the colonial-style fishing port of La Perouse, on the edge of Algiers, was ordered closed in 2005. The directive ended a business that had been in his family for three generations.

Ait Oussaid said an ex-local chief of the disbanded Islamic Salvation Army campaigned to close the restaurant for the sake of public order.

"I found myself with three children and their families all out of work," Ait Oussaid said, condemning "the cowardliness of the state in the face of Islamists."

Political scientist Mohamed Saidj of the University of Algiers agrees, accusing authorities of "backing down under Islamist pressure."

"These bars and shops are commerces that create jobs, pay taxes and are part of a balanced society," Saidj said.

President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, an infirm 79-year-old in his fourth term, is leaving his mark with the construction of the billion-dollar Grand Mosque of Algiers. With its soaring 267-meter- (867 foot-) high minaret, the mosque is being portrayed as a testament to a tolerant Islam.

When completed as expected next year, the mosque will become the world's third largest by area, after those in Mecca, which encloses Islam's holiest shrine, and Medina.

While Chinese workers toil on the Grand Mosque, modest places of worship have been sprouting across Algeria, some financed by the state, others by private donors.

Rachid Rezouali, a former police chief, said private funders want "to appear like God's servants in the eyes of the people." He called the changing social landscape "a sign that an Algeria of tolerance and modernity is disappearing."

The U.S. State Department's International Religious Freedom Report for 2015 says volunteer imams at 55 mosques in Algiers were replaced for "spreading Salafism." But the report also noted a social media campaign ahead of last year's Ramadan urging men to avoid retribution by forcing their wives, daughters and sisters to dress according to conservative Islamic values.

No dress-related reprisals happened, perhaps because fashion already has become so prevalent.

For sociologist Nacer Djabi, the growing number of women in traditional Muslim garb is a sign that Algeria is reclaiming an identity subverted by more than a century of French rule. But, he added, "Most women suffer it because of pressure from society."

Meziane Ourad, a journalist who fled Algeria after the Armed Islamic Group killed his friend, celebrated writer Tahar Djaout, in 1993, barely recognizes the homeland he left.

"It's more than three months I'm back in Algeria, and I haven't seen a bare leg," Ourad said.

___

Elaine Ganley in Paris contributed to this report.

A veiled woman walks in central Algiers, Wednesday Aug. 10, 2016. Mosques are going up, women are covering up and bars, restaurants and shops selling alcoholic beverages are shutting down in a changing Algeria where, slowly but surely, Muslim fundamentalists are gaining ground. (AP Photo/Ouahab Hebbat)
Steyn returns to take early wickets as rain halts NZ-SA test

DURBAN, South Africa (AP)  South Africa paceman Dale Steyn announced his return to the international game with two early wickets before rain wiped out the remainder of day two of the first test against New Zealand on Saturday.

Playing his first international match since being sidelined by a shoulder injury in December, Steyn claimed the wickets of both New Zealand openers to leave the tourists at 15-2 in reply to South Africa's first-innings of 263 all out at Kingsmead.

South Africa's attack was then halted for lunch by rain, with bad weather continuing through the afternoon until play was called off for the day.

Although Steyn's pace was down as he had predicted, the 33-year-old bowler offered a superb swing presentation to take 2-3 in a six-over spell.

He was well supported by Vernon Philander, who beat the bat on numerous occasions as he played his first test in almost a year.

"It's especially good having them back in international cricket, bowling in tandem," South Africa bowling coach Charl Langeveldt said. "We got the ball to do just enough."

It was just the start that South Africa needed with the ball after being bowled out for an underwhelming total.

The hosts resumed on 236-8 after light rain delayed the start of play by 50 minutes, and lasted just 10 overs before Tim Southee and Trent Boult wrapped up the tail for New Zealand.

Boult finished with figures of 3-52, while Kagiso Rabada was left unbeaten on a career-best 32.

South Africa's disappointment at its total was lifted slightly by the seam-friendly conditions, which Steyn and Philander used to put the pressure back onto New Zealand.

Although Tom Latham was dropped by Dean Elgar at second slip off the bowling of Philander early on, Steyn induced another edge from the left-hander soon after and this time it was held by Hashim Amla.

Steyn then trapped Martin Guptill lbw in his next over to cap a brilliant opening spell, before poor weather took hold for the rest of the day.

"It was pretty tough," New Zealand's Mitchell Santner said. "It was a good spell from Philander and Steyn.

"There's going to be a little bit there for them going forward so we just need to build partnerships. We can't get ahead of ourselves."
Hundreds of thousands in Yemen march in support of rebels

SANAA, Yemen (AP)  Hundreds of thousands of Yemenis marched on Saturday in support of Shiite Houthi rebels and their ally, former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The march in the rebel-held capital, Sanaa, was in support of a new combined governing council the rebels and Saleh announced late last month, but which was immediately rejected by the internationally recognized government and the United Nations. Saleh was forced to step down in 2012 amid Arab Spring protests after more than three decades in power.

Yemen's war pits troops and militiamen loyal to the government, backed by a Saudi-led coalition, against the Shiite rebels and Saleh loyalists. The Houthis captured Sanaa in 2014, and the U.S.-backed coalition began its offensive against them in March 2015.

Later in the day, coalition airstrikes hit the presidential palace in Sanaa and other areas in the city, leaving an unknown number of casualties, security officials said. Saudi Arabia's civil defense directorate said that the Houthis had launched a missile over the border into the Najran region, killing a Saudi and wounding five Yemenis and a Pakistani who were residents there.

Peace talks collapsed earlier this month, and the Saudi-led forces resumed heavy airstrikes shortly thereafter.

In Oman, one of the locations used for peace talks, Houthi negotiators said that Saudi forces were preventing them from returning to Yemen by blocking international flights to Sanaa's airport.
PICTURED: A selection of pictures from the past week

Highlights from the weekly AP photo report, a gallery featuring a mix of front-page photography, the odd image you might have missed and lasting moments our editors think you should see.

This week's gallery features images of a child sitting in an ambulance after being pulled out of a building hit by an airstrike in Syria; Hindu priests bathing in Nepal; and flames burning in California.

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Flames burn on a hillside alongside one of the main rail routes connecting Southern California with points north and east in Cajon Pass north of Devore, Calif., Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2016. (Doug Saunders/The Sun via AP)

This gallery contains photos published Aug. 12-19, 2016.

See the latest AP photo galleries: http://apne.ws/TXeCBN

The Archive: Top photo highlights from previous weeks: http://apne.ws/13QUFKJ

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Follow AP photographers on Twitter: http://twitter.com/AP/lists/ap-photographers

Follow AP Images on Twitter: http://twitter.com/AP_Images

Visit AP Images online: http://www.apimages.com http://www.apimages.com/

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This gallery was produced by Patrick Sisson in New York.

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Danny and Alys Messenger paddle a canoe away from their home after reviewing flood damage in Prairieville, La., Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2016. Flooding prompted more than 30,000 rescues and left an estimated 40,000 homes damaged in south Louisiana. (AP Photo/Max Becherer)

Police move in on a group of protesters throwing rocks at them in Milwaukee, Sunday, Aug. 14, 2016. A black man whose death at the hands of police spurred two nights of violence in Milwaukee was shot once in the chest and once in the arm, the Milwaukee County medical examiner said Friday. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps)

Riot police clash with protestors during a demonstration against the introduction of bond notes by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, in Harare, Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2016. Several protestors were beaten as they took to the streets in a peaceful demonstration aimed at venting their anger and frustrations at the imminent introduction of the notes, which the country's Central Bank says will be equivalent to the United States dollar. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)

Pedestrians are reflected in an electronic board showing stock prices in Tokyo, Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2016. (AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama)

A man floats past the reflection of a public sculpture next to a river in Beijing, China, Monday, Aug. 15, 2016. Swimming in the capital's rivers is a popular pastime in summer and even in the frigid winter. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

Young Nepalese Hindu priests bathe as a part of holy rituals during the Janai Purnima festival at Pashupatinath temple in Kathmandu, Nepal, Thursday, Aug. 18, 2016. During the festival, worshippers also perform annual change of the Janai, a sacred cotton string worn around their chest or tied on the wrist, in the belief that it will protect and purify them. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

In this image made from video provided by the Syrian anti-government activist group Aleppo Media Center (AMC), a child sits in an ambulance after being pulled out of a building hit by an airstirke in Aleppo, Syria, Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2016. Syrian opposition activists reported an airstrike at the al-Qaterji neighborhood in Aleppo late Wednesday. (Aleppo Media Center via AP)

Relatives mourn over the body of Palestinian Mohammed Abu Hashhashi, 17, during his funeral in the West Bank refugee camp Fawwar, near Hebron, Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2016. Abu Hashhashi was killed by live fire during clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinians the day before. (AP Photo/Nasser Shiyoukhi)

Indian paramilitary soldiers take positions near the site of a gun-battle in the Nowhatta neighborhood of Srinagar, in Indian controlled Kashmir, Monday, Aug. 15, 2016. Suspected separatist rebels and government troops were engaged in two gun battles in Indian-controlled Kashmir despite a complete security lockdown in the disputed region Monday as India celebrated its independence from British rule. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan)

Mine workers sing as they wait for the start of commemoration ceremonies near Marikana in Rustenburg, South Africa, Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2016. On Aug. 16, 2012 police shot and killed 34 Lonmin striking miners, apparently while trying to disperse them and end their strike. Ten people, including two police officers and two Lonmin security guards, were killed in the preceding week. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

In this photo made with multiple exposures, Australia's Danielle Prince performs during the rhythmic gymnastics individual all-around qualifications at the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Friday, Aug. 19, 2016. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

In this image from video provided by the Russian Defense Ministry, a Russian long range bomber Tu-22M3, right, flies during an airstrike above an undisclosed location in Syria on Sunday, Aug. 14, 2016. (Russian Defense Ministry via AP)


The police in Caldwell, Idaho told Shariz West that they thought her ex-boyfriend might have run into her house and they asked for permission to look inside; she said yes, but then the cops engaged in a 10-hour armed standoff against her empty home (the family dog was inside, but there were no humans), blasting holes in the walls, crashing through the ceilings, smashing out the windows, and filling the house with tear-gas, which destroyed most of the family's possessions.



The police did not compensate Ms West for the damage to her home, though they did park their nifty military-surplus armored personnel carrier in front of the house for the duration of the "standoff." Though Ms West gave the cops the keys to her front door, they elected not to use it, preferring to Rambo-ize her home instead.



In any event, the city and PD are now facing a lawsuit. The police did give her a three-week stay in a hotel. Too bad it took more than two months for her to be able to return to her residence. This raid on a house containing nothing more than a dog is the natural side effect of police militarization, which encourages law enforcement to escalate in questionable situations, rather than use more measured tactics to ensure occupants aren't deprived of a place to live simply because a suspect might be hiding somewhere behind closed doors.

Woman Sues After Police Destroy Her Home During 10-Hour Standoff With The Family Dog

[Tim Cushing/Techdirt]










'Hillbilly Elegy' author offers insight on Trump's appeal

MIDDLETOWN, Ohio (AP)  For pundits and politicos baffled by the appeal of a wealthy New York businessman to the struggling white working class in Appalachia and Rust Belt mill towns, J.D. Vance's book "Hillbilly Elegy" is offering some insights.

It's a vivid, deeply personal tour of the stark world he grew up in, set mainly in this southwestern Ohio city hit hard by the decline of its dominant steelmaking company, but also in his familial eastern Kentucky hills region. They are places where, for many, the American Dream long ago faded into despair.

Vance has a colorful family: Mamaw (grandmother) douses the sleeping Papaw with gasoline and drops a lit match to punish his carousing (he escaped with minor burns), and his mother's own problems with spreading substance abuse lead her to Rollerblade through a hospital emergency room and to badger him into providing a urine sample for her drug test. He learns early to fight to defend family honor, while coping with a chaotic home life.

FILE  This March 13, 2008, shows AK Steel's Middletown Works plant in Middletown, Ohio. Author J.D. Vance's book "Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis" provides a vivid tour of the stark world he grew up in, set mainly in the southwestern Ohio city of Middletown hit hard by the decline of its dominant steelmaking company, but also in his familial eastern Kentucky hills region. (AP Photo/Al Behrman, File)

With his tough Mamaw's support, he went on to serve in the Marines, including in Iraq, and to success at Ohio State University, at Yale Law School, and in a Silicon Valley investment firm.

Subtitled "A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis," his book quickly hit best-seller lists while attracting the attention of national TV talk shows and columnists. Vance discussed it in a telephone interview:

Some excerpts:

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ON SUPPORTERS OF DONALD TRUMP

"He communicates in a way that is very relatable to a lot of people; it's one of the things that both parties frankly have been increasingly bad at, which is connecting to voters in an emotional and kind of visceral way, and I think Trump does that. ...

"And he is tapping into a substantive concern that people have ... the sense America's best days are behind it and the future doesn't hold a whole lot of promise."

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ON WRITING A MEMOIR AT AGE 31

"I was very bugged by this question of why there weren't more kids like me at places like Yale ... why isn't there more upward mobility in the United States?

"I felt that if I wrote a very forthright, and sometimes painful, book, that it would open people's eyes to the very real matrix of these problems. If I wrote a more abstract or esoteric essay ... then not as many people would pay attention to it because they would assume I was just another academic spouting off, and not someone who's looked at these problems in a very personal way."

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ON NEIGHBORS SHIRKING WORK, MANIPULATING WELFARE SYSTEM

"I think it ... creates very ambivalent feelings about government policies to begin with; that's a big reason, frankly, that there's been this political shift in these areas to the Republican Party. ...

"You know people that are really down on their luck, who really need this help, but then you also see other people who seem to be gaming the system in one way or another, and it makes you feel a little bit resentful of the people who you feel like aren't really trying ... I think that's one reason why people are a little bit mistrustful of their neighbors and maybe why these communities aren't quite as strong as they used to be."

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ON IMPROVING OPPORTUNITIES THROUGH EDUCATION

"It's not just what is happening at the schools, it's what's happening at home that really drives the education outcome. ...

"A lot of these kids just need space to do their homework, and space to breathe a little bit, and a little bit of extra time with their teachers. ... We spend a ton of money on kids after they're 18, helping them pay for college, helping them pay for graduate school. We don't spend as much money when ... some of these interventions might really be able to help."

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ON REACTION FROM HIS FAMILY AND HOME AREAS

"I was frankly worried about what the reaction would be, but everybody has been extraordinarily positive and supportive.

"I involved my family in writing the book. ... I think it's been very, very good for us to talk about and think about some of these things.

"Friends I hadn't spoken to in a while, acquaintances from middle school, have reached out. ... I think when you grow up in an area like this, you just can't miss how complicated a lot of these issues are, and a lot of people have told me they appreciate that I tried to be honest about the complications and also passionate about them."

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Follow Dan Sewell at http://www.twitter.com. For some of his other recent stories: http://bigstory.ap.org/content/dan-sewell

This book cover image released by HarperCollins Publishers shows "Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis," by J.D. Vance. Author J.D. Vance's book "Hillbilly Elegy" provides a vivid tour of the stark world he grew up in, set mainly in the Ohio city of Middletown that was hit hard by its dominant steelmaking company's decline, but also in his family's home eastern Kentucky hills region. (HarperCollins Publishers via AP)
Governor nominee's work 'in Bosnia' was mainly in Croatia

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP)  In his online biography, a campaign video and speeches, Missouri Republican gubernatorial candidate Eric Greitens recounts how he volunteered in Bosnia to help children orphaned or separated from their families by a horrific ethnic war.

But the refugee camps he visited as a college student in summer 1994 actually were in neighboring Croatia. Only in recent years has he increasingly referred to his work as occurring in Bosnia.

The discrepancy in Greitens' description of his past is notable because his gubernatorial campaign against Democratic Attorney General Chris Koster is built largely upon his remarkable resume. He's an Oxford-educated author and public speaker. A humanitarian who has documented the conditions of the downtrodden around the world. And a Navy SEAL officer who survived an attack in Iraq.

FILE - In this Aug. 5, 2016 file photo, Missouri Republican gubernatorial candidate Eric Greitens a speaks in Jefferson City, Mo. Greitens often recounts how he volunteered in Bosnia helping children separated from their families by a horrific ethnic war. But the refugee camps he visited as a college student in summer 1994 actually were in neighboring Croatia. (Julie Smith/The Jefferson City News-Tribune via AP File)

Leading up to his victory in the Aug. 2 Republican primary, Greitens stressed his Navy SEAL background with ads showing him shooting large guns and causing a fiery explosion. But he has showcased a softer side since then. His first online video for the general election highlighted his humanitarian efforts, as Greitens declared into the camera: "I went to work in refugee camps in Bosnia."

Asked by The Associated Press why he refers to his refugee work in Bosnia as opposed to Croatia, Greitens replied: "When you think about the violence, people recognize and they understand what happened in Bosnia, and they understand working with Bosnian refugees."

Although Greitens denies any political motivations for his word choice, there nonetheless is a potential political advantage to citing Bosnia instead of Croatia. Missouri has one of the largest Bosnian refugee populations in the world. And to the extent voters remember the fighting in the Balkans, citing Bosnia rather than Croatia probably provokes a stronger sense "that there must have been something heroic going on," said Wayne Fields, a retired English professor from Washington University in St. Louis whose expertise is in political rhetoric.

About 100,000 people were killed in Bosnia during a 1992-1995 war following the collapse of the former Yugoslavia, which had been composed of Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia and several other republics. A United Nations war crimes court recently convicted the former Bosnian Serb leader of genocide against Bosnian Muslims.

As a 20-year-old student at Duke University, Greitens was one of several undergraduates who went to Europe on a summer trip organized by professor Neil Boothby to help evaluate the Unaccompanied Children in Exile aid program. Greitens spent a few weeks at a refugee camp near Pula, Croatia, along the Adriatic Sea, then a few more weeks at a camp near Osijek. Both housed people who had fled from ethnic fighting in Bosnia.

When describing his work during a recent speech to Missouri Farm Bureau members, Greitens said he had been invited by a teacher "to go to Bosnia," and he noted the "vicious campaigns of ethnic cleansing that were happening in Bosnia." Greitens said the experience taught him important lessons about leadership and led him to take future trips to help children in Rwanda, Cambodia and elsewhere.

"Bosnia was challenging," Boothby said in a recent interview with The Associated Press, "but he wasn't close to that, he was in Croatia."

Greitens told the AP that although the "vast majority of the work" was in Croatia, he did enter Bosnian areas for meetings with other international nonprofit groups during a time of fluctuating borders.

Greitens' descriptions of his refugee work appear to have changed over time. Shortly after returning home, Greitens recounted his six weeks in Croatia for an Aug. 9, 1994, story in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. In 2005, the Duke Chronicle student newspaper similarly quoted Greitens as saying: "When I was working in Croatia... it was extraordinarily safe and far from conflict."

His online biographies also initially included Croatia on the list of places he did humanitarian work. A search of archived internet sites shows that by June 2012, "Croatia" had been replaced by "Bosnia" in biographies on EricGreitens.com and The Mission Continues, a nonprofit group Greitens founded to provide volunteer opportunities for veterans. Although some biographies since then have mentioned Croatia, his current campaign biography lists Bosnia.

The St. Louis area, where Greitens lives, now is home to the largest Bosnian population in the U.S  about 70,000 residents  many of whom arrived as refugees since the 1990s.

"I think he's trying to get the Bosnian community" to support his campaign, said Sadik Kukic, a Bosnian refugee who came to St. Louis in 1993 and now is president of the local Bosnian Chamber of Commerce.

Kukic isn't bothered by Greitens' descriptions of being in Bosnia when he primarily was in Croatia.

"Maybe he messed it up," Kukic said. But "whoever offered any kind of help for these people did a really big thing."

Bosnian refugee Akif Cogo, who is president of the nonprofit St. Louis Bosnians Inc., is similarly forgiving toward Greitens.

"There's definitely a distinction between the two places," Cogo said. But "if he was helping Bosnian refugees in Pula and Croatia, more praise to him, he did a good deed."

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Most limits on US-Mexico flights are about to be lifted

DALLAS (AP)  Most restrictions on flights between the U.S. and Mexico will lift on Sunday, a change expected to bring more options and possibly lower prices for travelers.

American, Delta and Southwest have already announced that they will offer new flights across the border later this year. United is watching the demand for flights and will respond accordingly, a spokesman said.

The United States and Mexico agreed in December to open their aviation markets to each other's carriers. Rules that had generally limited two or three airlines from each country to a particular route will go away.

FILE - In this July 28, 2014 file photo, a Delta Air Lines jet takes off from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Va. Most restrictions on flights between the U.S. and Mexico will lift on Sunday, Aug. 21, 2016, a change expected to bring more options and possibly lower prices for travelers. American, Delta and Southwest have already announced that they will offer new flights across the border later this year. United is watching the demand for flights and will respond accordingly, a spokesman said. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)

Airlines on both sides of the border will be able to fly whatever routes they want as often as they want and set their own prices, said Thomas Engle, the State Department's deputy assistant secretary for transportation.

"This will help reduce airfares for sure," said George Hobica, founder of the travel site airfarewatchdog.com.

Hobica said base fares between the U.S. and many destinations in Mexico are already low, but both countries impose taxes that inflate the price of a ticket. "The fares are low, it's the rest that makes it seem expensive," he said.

For example, on a round trip between Dallas-Fort Worth and Cancun, Mexico  already a popular route  taxes and fees can account for between 20 and 30 percent of the price of a bargain, economy-class ticket of $383 to $585.

Southwest promoted fares as low as $258 for a round trip, although seats were limited and the offer was scheduled to end Sunday.

The agreement between the U.S. and Mexico does not relax limits on takeoffs and landings at Mexico City's busy main international airport. So the first new flights from U.S. carriers will focus on resort towns in Mexico.

Delta Air Lines Inc. announced Friday that on Dec. 17 it will start daily nonstop flights between New York's Kennedy airport and Cancun and between Los Angeles and Los Cabos. It will run Saturday flights between Kansas City and Cancun.

Southwest Airlines Co. announced that on Dec. 4 it will start flying daily from Los Angeles to Cancun, Los Cabos and Puerto Vallarta. Southwest plans to fly from Oakland, California, to Los Cabos and Puerto Vallarta starting in February if it gets approval from the Mexican government.

American Airlines Group Inc. will begin flying between Miami and Merida on the Yucatan peninsula on Nov. 4 and from Los Angeles to Cancun and Puerto Vallarta on Dec. 15, a spokesman said.

Engle, the State Department official, said in an interview that the agreement should help American travelers and increase Mexican tourism to the United States.

"We think it will help drive economic growth in sectors well beyond aviation, including tourism and manufacturing," he said.

The agreement also covers cargo airlines. It will let U.S. cargo carriers fly from airports in Mexico to other countries without stopping in the United States.

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Clinton having a quiet August, and for her, that's just fine

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP)  It's no day at the beach, but Hillary Clinton is having the political equivalent of a quiet August.

Donald Trump may be dominating the political chatter as he reboots a trailing campaign, but it's Clinton who's winning positive headlines during visits to some of the most competitive states in the presidential race.

The Republican nominee's constant state of campaign chaos is dulling the impact of stories about Clinton's emails and allowing her to spend plenty of time raising money behind closed doors.

In this photo taken Aug. 18, 2016, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks to media as she meets with law enforcement leaders at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. While Donald Trump dominates the national political chatter as he reboots a trailing campaign, Clinton is successfully stealing positive local headlines as she visits battleground states. The Republicans constant state of campaign chaos is dulling the impact of stories about her emails and allowing Clinton to spend plenty of days quietly raising money behind closed doors. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

"I think she's actually smart to stay quiet at this time. She's not a popular candidate with the Democrats. She has a lot of negatives herself. There's a lot of news that could be made about her," said Rick Tyler, a former aide to Ted Cruz, the Texas senator and onetime Trump rival.

But, Tyler said, it's all "getting subsumed by the black hole candidate that is Donald Trump."

A disastrous stretch for Trump has helped solidify Clinton's lead in national preference polls and most surveys in closely contested states. Clinton campaigned in Ohio and Pennsylvania this past week, and the Democratic nominee's voter registration efforts and policy pitches went largely unnoticed as Trump shook up his campaign staff.

Trump's reshuffling also overshadowed fresh stories about Clinton's use of a private email account and server as secretary of state.

"Donald Trump never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity," said Whit Ayres, a GOP pollster who worked for Florida Sen. Marco Rubio's presidential campaign.

Clinton seems more than content to let Trump dominate coverage on cable news and in national newspapers. In the meantime, her campaign has carefully courted journalists in the communities she visits, pushing tailored policy messages. For example, stressing her plans to respond to the Zika virus in Florida and how she'd support manufacturing jobs in Detroit.

Local supporters have hit Trump on issues such as his refusal to release his tax returns. Clinton had an opinion piece on water quality in this past week in Florida's Treasure Coast Newspapers.

After an appearance in Ohio on Wednesday, the top headline the next day in The Plain Dealer in Cleveland read, "Clinton Tears Trump Plan to Cut Estate Tax," while The New York Times' main campaign story focused on the tumult in the Trump campaign.

"If the Republicans are spending their time attacking and fighting each other, it gives you a little bit more liberty to go out there and articulate your message. They're not necessarily offering a counter-argument," said Chris Lehane, a Democratic strategist who worked in Bill Clinton's White House. "It gives you more real estate in a more uncluttered way to break through."

Republican pollster Greg Strimple said that's not just spin, arguing the "overarching national message of the campaign is not one that can unify the country, so I would focus on doing small events that have local flavor."

"It also keeps her profile lower," he said, "which allows the circular firing squad of the Trump campaign to continue."

Since the bus tour that followed the end of the Democratic convention, Clinton also has focused heavily on fundraising. She has been to more than 10 fundraisers in the first half of the month, hitting mansions in Miami and enjoying a private performance by Aretha Franklin in Detroit.

She's keeping up the pace, heading this weekend to Martha's Vineyard off the Massachusetts coast and to California next week. Clinton is on track to top the $90 million she raised for her campaign and Democratic allies in July.

Her campaign has been hard at work in the battleground states, eyeing the start of early voting in some places next month.

At his rallies, Trump often urges his backers to vote. But Clinton gets into the details at her events, plugging registration and urging people to cast absentee ballots.

"If you aren't registered and you're eligible, see the persons with the clipboards here," Clinton said during a recent event in Kissimmee, Florida. "We want you to be registered, and then we want you to be part of this campaign."

Trump has started to advertise on television and appears at ease with his new campaign team. His trip to flood-ravaged Louisiana on Friday won praise from residents who feel overlooked by President Barack Obama. He kept to his vacation schedule on Martha's Vineyard, though the White House announced he would visit Baton Rouge on Tuesday.

While Trump was in Louisiana, Clinton called the state's governor during a day spent fundraising on the East Coast.

"St. Amant loves Trump because he is here in the middle of everything," said Doug Ford, a Trump supporter who put out a sign in his front yard welcoming the Republican to the flooded town, where his trailer was filled with water. "We need him here because the president is not here."

But even with three presidential debates to come and the prospect of more negative stories about Clinton's emails, Republicans say she is well positioned to avoid the pitfalls that could arrive before the November vote.

"She's just got to execute a campaign professionally," said Tyler, the former Cruz aide. "If she does that, she's overwhelmingly likely to win."

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Lerer reported from Washington.

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Associated Press writer Rebecca Santana in St. Amant, Louisiana, contributed to this report.

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Follow Catherine Lucey on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/catherine_lucey

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What political news is the world searching for on Google and talking about on Twitter? Find out via AP's Election Buzz interactive. http://elections.ap.org/buzz

A sign placed by resident Doug Ford welcomes Republican Presidential candadate Donald Trump on Friday, Aug. 19, 2016 in St. Amant, La. Casting his campaign chairman aside with just 11 weeks until Election Day, Trump moved ahead with the reboot of his White House bid on Friday with a tour of flood-ravaged Louisiana. Ford 's trailer was completely flooded. (AP Photo/Rebecca Santana)
Survivors of Libyan shipwreck report 7 Syrians dead

MILAN (AP)  The U.N. refugee agency says that survivors of a shipwreck off Libya have reported at least seven people, including three children, died when the small wooden boat carrying 27 people, mostly Syrian refugees, capsized.

A Spanish aid group recovered five bodies, including two Syrian girls aged 8 months and 5 years, during the rescue Thursday.

UNHCR representative Medea Savary said that survivors arriving in the Sicilian port of Trapani on Saturday reported that a woman and another child also died, but the bodies couldn't be recovered.

The remains of a dinghy is seen partially sank after a rescue operation by members of Proactiva Open Arms NGO, at the Mediterranean sea, about 17 miles north of Sabratah, Libya, Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016. Migrants seemingly prefer to face the dangers of the journey towards Europe, rather than stay at home.(AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Survivors said that the boat began taking on water a few hours after departing Libya, and eventually capsized.

The Migrant Offshore Aid Station, MOAS, brought the five bodies to Trapani, along with 304 people rescued in recent days.

A woman from Nigeria comforts a child on the Astral vessel after been rescued by members of Proactiva Open Arms NGO, during a rescue operation at the Mediterranean sea, about 17 miles north of Sabratah, Libya, Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016. Migrants seemingly prefer to face the dangers of the journey towards Europe, rather than stay at home. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

A woman from Nigeria reacts on the Astral vessel after been rescued by members of Proactiva Open Arms NGO, during a rescue operation at the Mediterranean sea, about 17 miles north of Sabratah, Libya, Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016. Migrants seemingly prefer to face the dangers of the journey towards Europe, rather than stay at home.(AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Women from Nigeria sits at the Astral vessel after been rescued by members of Proactiva Open Arms NGO, during a rescue operation at the Mediterranean sea, about 17 miles north of Sabratah, Libya, Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016. Migrants seemingly prefer to face the dangers of the journey towards Europe, rather than stay at home.(AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

An Italian military officer lifts a young child into a navy ship, evacuated by members of Proactiva Open Arms NGO, during a rescue operation at the Mediterranean sea, about 17 miles north of Sabratah, Libya, Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016. Migrants seemingly prefer to face the dangers of the journey towards Europe, rather than stay at home.(AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Children from Nigeria sleep on the Astral vessel after been rescued by members of Proactiva Open Arms NGO, during a rescue operation at the Mediterranean sea, about 17 miles north of Sabratah, Libya, Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016. Migrants seemingly prefer to face the dangers of the journey towards Europe, rather than stay at home.(AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

A woman from Nigeria is carried away by a member of Proactiva Open Arms NGO, as they transfer them to an Italian navy ship, during a rescue operation at the Mediterranean sea, about 17 miles north of Sabratah, Libya, Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016. Migrants seemingly prefer to face the dangers of the journey towards Europe, rather than stay at home.(AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Migrants from Nigeria crowd onto a dinghy fleeing Libya as they are helped by members of a Spanish NGO, during a rescue operation at the Mediterranean sea, about 17 miles north of Sabratah, Libya, Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016. Migrants seemingly prefer to face the dangers of the journey towards Europe, rather than stay at home.(AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Migrants fleeing Libya on board a dinghy are helped by members of Proactiva Open Arms NGO, before transferring them to an Italian navy ship, during a rescue operation at the Mediterranean sea, about 17 miles north of Sabratah, Libya, Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016. Migrants seemingly prefer to face the dangers of the journey towards Europe, rather than stay at home.(AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Trump and new team have little time to execute new strategy

WASHINGTON (AP)  Donald Trump is on the clock.

He has about 80 days to reset and rally a presidential campaign that's done little but stagger since the close of the Republican convention. The GOP nominee's allies say the celebrity businessman and his new leadership team are "laser-focused" and ready to direct the billionaire's venom against Democratic Hillary Clinton.

"This has been one of the best weeks the campaign has had," said Sean Spicer, chief strategist at the Republican National Committee.

FILE - In this Aug. 18, 2016 file photo, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump calls out to supporters as he exits after speaking in Charlotte, N.C. Trump is on the clock. With less than 80 days to reboot and rally a presidential campaign thats done little but stagger between stumbles since the close of the Republican convention, the GOP nominees allies said the celebrity businessman and his new leadership team are laser-focused and ready to focus the billionaires considerable venom on Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)

For much of the past year, Trump has ignored the tools of modern-day presidential campaigns. That's a big reason why Trump's Republican critics are skeptical their party's nominee has the time or discipline to rescue his struggling White House bid.

"The Trump campaign is at a ludicrously high disadvantage," said Dan Senor, a former adviser to 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney and House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis. "The Democrats have something that the Republicans don't: They have a nominee that's built a real campaign organization."

While Trump did bring in a new set of advisers in the past week, it appears all but certain his comeback strategy cannot benefit from the proven building blocks of winning campaigns, especially when compared with the structure Clinton has assembled.

Trump has few loyal staffers devoted to his election working in the tightly contested states that will decide the election; little early investment in the data operation needed to help ensure his supporters vote; and no significant effort to take advantage of early voting, which begins next month in some states.

If not for the Republican National Committee's staff, Trump would have a skeleton presence in the most competitive states.

Only in the past week did Trump place his first round of general election advertising  nearly $5 million for TV commercials in Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and North Carolina.

By contrast, Clinton's campaign has spent more than $75 million on ads in the weeks since she effectively locked up the nomination in early June, according to Kantar Media's political ad tracker.

Out of time to build a campaign to match Clinton's, the team at Trump Tower will by necessity focus on a broad messaging effort to capture the attention of voters and try to highlight Clinton's shortcomings. For now, Trump finds himself behind Clinton in preference polls in nearly every battleground state.

"This new team will be very, very aggressive. They understand the nature of taking on the left," said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a Trump ally. "They will be on the attack."

That team includes Stephen Bannon, a combative conservative media executive with no presidential campaign experience, and pollster Kellyanne Conway, who has known Trump for years. The campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, resigned on Friday amid scrutiny of his past work for Ukraine's former pro-Russian political leaders.

Bannon and Conway will have money to work with. In July, Trump raised more than $80 million for his campaign and allied Republican Party groups, his campaign has said. That's just shy of the $90 million that Clinton's aides said the nominee collected in July for her campaign and fellow Democratic committees.

The goal for the Trump campaign's leaders is not to tame the candidate's passion, according to Trump's allies, but refocus his attacks on Clinton. The hope is that Trump can avoid the missteps that have defined his campaign since the end of the conventions, including a public feud with an American Muslim family whose son was killed while serving in the military in Iraq.

"Unfortunately, it took them two months to figure out that Donald Trump is Donald Trump," former Trump adviser Barry Bennet said of Manafort and his team. "He's the bulldozer candidate. What you need to do is aim him at an immovable object, not try to change him."

That approach was evident Friday. Trump began with a visit to flood-wreaked Louisiana and ended with a measured, but pointed rally in Michigan. He took on Clinton and her strong support among African-Americans, and contended that his rival would rather give jobs to refugees than American citizens. Trump accused Democrats of taking advantage of black voters while failing to offer them new jobs, better schools and a way out of poverty.

"It's time to hold Democratic politicians accountable for what they've done for these communities," he said, adding: "What do you lose by trying something new like Trump?"

Clinton had no intention of letting Trump's messages pass politely. Within hours of his speech, she tweeted: "This is so ignorant it's staggering."

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Associated Press writer Julie Bykowicz in Chicago, Jonathan Lemire in New York and Ken Thomas in Washington contributed to this report.

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Follow Steve Peoples on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/sppeoples
The Latest: About 40 migrants get into Spanish enclave

MILAN (AP)  The Latest on European response to the influx of migrants from the Middle East and Africa (all times local):

4:15 p.m.

The Spanish government says about 40 sub-Saharan migrants have crossed into the Spanish border town of Melilla after climbing over the fence that separates the European enclave from Morocco in North Africa.

A woman from Nigeria reacts on the Astral vessel after been rescued by members of Proactiva Open Arms NGO, during a rescue operation at the Mediterranean sea, about 17 miles north of Sabratah, Libya, Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016. Migrants seemingly prefer to face the dangers of the journey towards Europe, rather than stay at home.(AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Local government spokeswoman Irene Flores says about 150 migrants attempted to climb the fence early Saturday morning. She says Moroccan police responded, stopping most from crossing into Spanish territory. She adds that there were no injured among those who made it.

The joyful migrants made their way to the Temporary Immigrant Resident Center (CETI) in the middle of the town and to the police headquarters, where they will stay until they are processed by Spanish authorities.

Thousands of African immigrants reside illegally in Morocco awaiting to enter either of Spain's North African cities, Melilla or Ceuta.

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3:35 p.m.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim has called on the European Union to deliver on promises made as part of a deal to stem the flow of migrants.

Yildirim said Saturday the EU had still to deliver funds to help Turkey improve conditions for some 3 million Syrian refugees in Turkey and grant Turkish citizens visa-free travel.

The Turkish leader told foreign media representatives in Istanbul it was "not fair" to expect Turkey to implement the deal without giving it what it was promised.

Plans to loosen visa restriction have run into trouble over Turkey's refusal to amend its anti-terror laws at a time when it is fighting heightened threats.

Yildirim said: "it cannot be 'me, me' all the time... it has to be more balanced."

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3:10 p.m.

The U.N. refugee agency says that survivors of a shipwreck off Libya have reported at least seven people, including three children, died when the small wooden boat carrying 27 people, mostly Syrian refugees, capsized.

A Spanish aid group recovered five bodies, including two Syrian girls aged 8 months and 5 years, during the rescue Thursday.

UNHCR representative Medea Savary said that survivors arriving in the Sicilian port of Trapani on Saturday reported that a woman and another child also died, but the bodies couldn't be recovered.

Survivors said that the boat began taking on water a few hours after departing Libya, and eventually capsized.

The Migrant Offshore Aid Station, MOAS, brought the five bodies to Trapani, along with 304 people rescued in recent days.

The remains of a dinghy is seen partially sank after a rescue operation by members of Proactiva Open Arms NGO, at the Mediterranean sea, about 17 miles north of Sabratah, Libya, Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016. Migrants seemingly prefer to face the dangers of the journey towards Europe, rather than stay at home.(AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Migrants from Nigeria crowd onto a dinghy fleeing Libya as they are helped by members of a Spanish NGO, during a rescue operation at the Mediterranean sea, about 17 miles north of Sabratah, Libya, Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016. Migrants seemingly prefer to face the dangers of the journey towards Europe, rather than stay at home.(AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
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In the aftermath of the devastating floods that hit southern Louisiana this week, residents have started to rebuild their homes, which were left severely damaged following the storms.

At least 13 people died in the flooding that swept through parts of Louisiana after torrential rains lashed the region over the last week. Approximately 40,000 homes were damaged by the floods, while 4,000 people still remain in shelters.

While the waters have slowly receded in many areas, the hard work of rebuilding lives is just ramping up, with people cleaning out their homes while others struggle to find a place to stay.

Driving through neighborhoods where pools of water still stand outside and families are ripping out carpets and carrying water-logged sofas to the curb, the searchers are looking for houses with little activity.

In many areas the water is still so high that people are rowing boats out to their houses to see what the situation is like inside.

'It is devastation, absolute devastation. I mean these homes, there are areas that have not flooded. They never flood and they flooded,' said Stacey Rand of the Louisiana State Fire Marshal's office. 'It caught everyone by surprise.'

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his running mate Mike Pence visited Louisiana on Friday, winning praise from residents who feel overlooked by President Barack Obama. Obama kept to his vacation schedule on Martha's Vineyard, though the White House announced he would visit Baton Rouge on Tuesday.

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Brandy Cormiar grabs belongings from a friend's shack in a flooded neighborhood of Sorrento, Louisiana, on Saturday after floods hit the area

Jeri (L) watches her husband Chris Melancon rip up flooring inside his parents' flooded and damaged home in Sorrento

Donnie Bourgeois drags a damaged carpet from a friend's flooded house in Sorrento, Louisiana, as his neighborhood begins to rebuild following floods

Daniel Stover, 17, wipes his head as he helps Laura Albritton, rescue personal belongings in Sorrento. Search parties are going door-to-door in the area looking for survivors of the floods

Seth LeBlanc surveys the damage inside his flood damaged home in Sorrento on Saturday. At least 13 people died in the flooding that swept through parts of Louisiana after torrential rains lashed the region over the last week

Brandy Cormiar surveys her brother-in-law's flood damaged home in Sorrento, Louisiana, on Sunday, where his furniture was raised up by tables to avoid flood water

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his running mate Mike Pence visited Louisiana on Friday and helped unload supplies for flood victims

President Barack Obama (pictured on August 7) kept to his vacation schedule on Martha's Vineyard, though the White House announced he would visit Baton Rouge on Tuesday

Trump offered notably restrained remarks as he surveyed the waterlogged wreckage.

'Nobody understands how bad it is,' Trump told reporters, after briefly helping unload a truck of supplies while cameras captured the moment. 'It's really incredible, so I'm just here to help.'

Trump flew into Michigan later on Friday to address a rally, explaining his appearance in an open-necked shirt and trucker hat by saying he had come straight from 'a tour of the suffering and devastation in Louisiana'.

'The spirit of the people is incredible, the devastation likewise,' he said. 'Honestly, Obama ought to get off the golf course and get down there,' he added to cheers from the crowd.

Yet the trip did little to obscure the turmoil in Trump's campaign, punctuated early Friday when Trump announced that he'd accepted campaign chairman Paul Manafort's offer to resign.

While Trump was in Louisiana, Democratic rival Hillary Clinton called the state's governor during a day spent fundraising on the East Coast.

'St. Amant loves Trump because he is here in the middle of everything,' said Doug Ford, a Trump supporter who put out a sign in his front yard welcoming the Republican to the flooded town, where his trailer was filled with water. 'We need him here because the president is not here.'

Nelson Morgan Jr throws water logged items out as he clears out his father's home after flood waters inundated it in St Amant, Louisiana

Mike Wroten (L) and Matt Wroten clean out Mike's water logged home in St Amant on Saturday

Sorrento was one of many southern Louisiana towns to be hit torrential rain, causing flooding that destroyed thousands of homes

Daniel Stover loads personal belongings from a friend's home flooded home in Sorrento while cleaning up after the devastating floods

Meanwhile, a spokesman for Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards said on Thursday that Trump was welcome to visit, but he hoped it'd be for the right reasons.

'We welcome him to LA, but not for a photo-op,' spokesman Richard Carbo said in a statement. 'Instead, we hope he'll consider volunteering or making a sizeable donation to the LA flood relief fund to help victims of this storm.'

While speaking to MSNBC, he said that he hoped Obama would wait a week before visiting the flood-ravaged state.

'In all honesty, if he's going to visit, I would just as soon it be a week or 10 days or 14 days from now,' he said.

He went on to mention what a 'major ordeal' it was when Vice President Joe Biden visited the state for a memorial service a few weeks ago.

'[T]he vice president was here about three weeks ago to go to a memorial service for the victims of the police officers that were killed here, and I will tell you it's a major ordeal,' Edwards said. 'They free up the interstate for him.

'We have to take hundreds of local first responders, police officers sheriff's deputies and state troopers to provide security for that type of visit.

Laura Albritton, 59, left, and friend Shelley DeCarlo, 40, right, pack up clothes in Albritton's waterlogged home in Sorrento

Marty Jo Clark, 42, helps her friend pack up clothes and personal belongings from a water damaged home in Sorrento

Albritton cleans out her water soaked refrigerator to prevent the smell of spoiled food after floods drowned her home in Sorrento

Charles Brignac cleans out his flood damaged house in Sorrento. In many areas the water is still so high that people are rowing boats out to their houses to see what the situation is like inside

'I would just as soon have those people engaged in the response rather than trying to secure the president. So I'd ask him to wait if he would.'

Pumps and sandbags are keeping floodwaters out of Lake Arthur, a city of about 2,700 in southwest Louisiana - but authorities say there's still too much danger for people to return.

Larry Lyons of the area's drainage district tells KPLC-TV that, for example, an alligator crawling onto the bank could knock out sandbags.

Chief Deputy Chris Ivey of the Jefferson Davis Parish Sheriff's Office said that people have been placed every 100 yards to watch for breaches in the levees.

Mayor Robbie Bertrand said that about 16,000 sandbags have been placed strategically throughout the town, and another 800 are ready.

He says that even as the Mermentau River falls, the levees remain fragile and saturated.

Debris removal will begin Monday in much of East Baton Rouge.

Mayor Kip Holden is encouraging residents to put all flood debris on the curb during the weekend, separated by types. Plant material should be in one heap. Next to that, construction and demolition debris. Then appliances, with a fourth area for electronics.

Mike Wroten (left) and Matt Wroten throw a water logged couch out of the house as they clear Mike's home in St Amant

Jason LeBlanc carries a mirror through flood waters outside of his house in Sorrento. Cars in the area appear to have been thrown about in the stroms

Brandy Cormiar holds her three-year-old daughter Maci LeBlanc as they wade through flood waters in Sorrento

Some families are also trying to rebury relatives whose caskets were unearthed by the floods.

Heavy rainfall and floodwaters can completely saturate soil down the depth at which caskets are buried. Pressure from the water pushes the caskets to the surface, where they can then be swept away by flood waters.

At the Plainview Cemetery in Denham Springs, relatives gathered to see what had become of their plots, only to find a chaotic mess with some vaults overturned and in other cases only empty outlines of graves remaining.

HOW CAN COFFINS BE SWEPT AWAY BY FLOODS? Heavy rainfall and floodwaters can completely saturate soil down the depth at which caskets are buried. Pressure from the water pushes the caskets to the surface, where they can then be swept away by flood waters. Advertisement

'This is bad, it's just bad. You can't even come to see people. You don't know where they're at,' said Ravonte Thomas, whose relative's casket was missing.

In southern Louisiana, the water table is so high that people generally cannot be buried six feet under.

Caskets are often encased in vaults that are partially above ground, said Zeb Johnson, with the Calcasieu Parish coroner's office, who has extensive experience with recovering caskets scattered by flooding or hurricanes.

At least 15 cemeteries across seven parishes have had disruptions, the Louisiana Department of Health reported, although they don't yet have an estimate of how many graves, tombs and vaults have been damaged.

The department is reaching out to affected parishes to do assessments. In most cases, the disinterred caskets and vaults are still within the territory of the cemetery, although one casket ended up in a nearby backyard.

In one case, a local funeral home has already recovered and re-interred the small number of caskets that surfaced.

Bryce Richard, Nick Rome and Blake Waguespack (pictured left to right) wait in the boat for a friend to check out her flooded house in Sorrento

Tray Blazier pulls a boat filled with water and supplies as he helps a friend check in on his flooded home in Sorrento

Danny and Alys Messenger paddle a canoe away from their home after reviewing flood damage in Prairieville, Louisiana

Stacey Rand of the Louisiana State Fire Marshal's office said the floods caused 'absolute devastation'. Pictured above, Jason LeBlanc surveys damage in Sorrento

Friends and family help to clean out the flood damaged home of Sheila Siener, 58, second from left, in St Amant on Saturday

In Livingston Parish, which was hard-hit by the floods, John Marston from the coroner's office said they've received reports of about 30 caskets unearthed, and they anticipate finding more when waters recede off the southern part of the parish.

'As the water table gets high and the ground gets saturated, it's just like a boat. It's going to float,' he said.

The problem is so widespread that the government is asking people who have seen any problems with cemeteries as a result of flooding to contact local law enforcement.

In other areas the search for the living goes on.

Search teams going house-to-house are going out at least through the weekend, said Brant L Thompson from the State Fire Marshal's office.

Breaking down the various parishes where floods swept through on a grid, search teams have been knocking on doors, checking for signs of life like fresh tire tracks or debris piled up indicating someone is already inside cleaning things out.

They hope for the best but with floods this catastrophic that caught many by surprise, they're also prepared for the worst.

Jody Harelson, 52, dumps a wheel barrel of wet sheet rock an ever growing pile of rubbish as he helps clean out the flood damaged home of Sheila Siener in St Amant

Siener, pictured center, gets help from friends and family including her sister Julie Mabile, 51, left, to clean out her flood damaged home

Laura Albritton, 59, squeezes out a mop she is using to clean up her water soaked home in Sorrento on Saturday

Jason LeBlanc attemps to salvage a flood-damaged motor outside his home in Sorrento as he and his neighbors clean out their houses

Many roads in Sorrento are still closed due to flooding, and some people are even using boats to travel through the area

'If we go by and this house has waterline up to the roof line, no one's been there, there's no trash piled out by the road, we want to check that house to see if anyone inside that, maybe, perished,' said Clint Sistrunk, a firefighter.

He and colleagues from of the Monroe Fire Department in northern Louisiana arrived Wednesday, part of waves of first responders who have been coming in from all over the state and country to help Louisiana.

Gov Edwards announced that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will start paying for hotel rooms for storm victims staying in cars, hotels, shelters or their workplaces.

A disaster food stamp program will begin Monday. And the state intends to start consolidating shelters this weekend as more of the displaced return home or find other places to stay.

The floods hit just as the school year was starting in many districts, reminiscent of how Hurricane Katrina abruptly ended a new school year in New Orleans in 2005.

With the city under water for weeks and much of its population scattered for months or even years, the first public school didn't open in New Orleans until three months after the storm.

Some school districts, including in East Baton Rouge Parish, plan to reopen next week.

But in Livingston Parish, it could take several weeks for some individual schools to be able to open. All told, Louisiana Superintendent of Education John White said 22 public schools were so heavily damaged around four parishes that they can't be opened by next week.

In this image made from video, Coffins lie unearthed in Plainview Cemetery in Denham Springs, where several coffins were unearthed in the floods
Attorneys clash over document release in Ferguson lawsuit

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP)  Defense attorneys in the wrongful-death lawsuit by Michael Brown's parents cite recent ambushes of police in Texas and Louisiana among reasons against expanding who can see sensitive grand jury details related to Brown's 2014 death in Ferguson.

A St. Louis federal judge agreed in June to let no more than two attorneys for the defense and each of Brown's parents see testimony and the names of witnesses from proceedings involving a St. Louis County grand jury that investigated the Aug. 9, 2014, fatal shooting of Michael Brown by Ferguson officer Darren Wilson. The grand jury declined to indict Wilson, and the U.S. Justice Department later cleared him, concluding that he had acted in self-defense. Wilson resigned in November 2014.

Brown's death led to months of sometimes-violent protests in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson. It also was a catalyst for the Black Lives Matter movement, which rebukes police treatment of minorities and has grown following several other killings of black men and boys by police.

FILE - In this Sept. 27, 2014, file photo, the parents of Michael Brown, Lesley McSpadden, left, and Michael Brown, Sr., sit for an interview with The Associated Press in Washington. Defense attorneys in the wrongful-death lawsuit by Michael Brown's parents cite recent ambushes of police in Texas and Louisiana among reasons against expanding who can see sensitive grand jury details related to Brown's Ferguson 2014 death. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

Brown's parents are suing Wilson, the city of Ferguson and its former police chief, Thomas Jackson.

U.S. District Judge E. Richard Webber's "protective order" spelling out terms of the records release marked the first time someone other than a prosecutor or grand juror will see uncensored details of the secret proceedings. The order bars the attorneys who see the grand jury items from making any of them public.

Brown's mother, Lezley McSpadden, has asked Webber to let three more of her attorneys see the grand jury information, insisting in a recent court filing that denying her request would interfere with her counsel's "ability to fully, adequately and competently represent their client."

But attorneys for Wilson and Ferguson warn that widening such access to the "highly sensitive" details  including names of witnesses and members of law enforcement  "will greatly increase the risk" that the sensitive information makes its way online, endangering those officers.

"The more attorneys who have access to this highly confidential information, the greater the risk of leaks and hacking," attorneys with the St. Louis County counselor's office pressed in a recent brief. "Further, adding three additional attorneys will make it considerably more difficult, if not impossible, to trace a leak to the attorney who violated the protective order."

The defense added that ambushes this summer that left five police officers dead in Dallas and three in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, demonstrate that "the actions of (law enforcers) in one part of the country often ignites rage and violence" against police elsewhere.

"In the midst of this volatile and dangerous environment, the men and women of the (St. Louis County police force) continue to carry out their law enforcement duties," the defense's written motion read. That filing asked Webber to reject McSpadden's request "and refrain from unnecessarily increasing the stresses and dangers to these officers and their families, as well as to witnesses who cooperated with the investigation."
Democratic mega-donors plow money into Senate, Clinton bids

WASHINGTON (AP)  Democratic mega-donors, including George Soros and Tom Steyer, are putting millions of dollars into efforts to put Hillary Clinton in the White House and win control of the Senate. Their investment comes as Republicans worry about not only the chances of their nominee Donald Trump, but also his effect on down-ballot races.

Yet few of the GOP's biggest donors have put major money into Trump efforts, a striking change from four years ago when Mitt Romney had more million-dollar donors on his side than did President Barack Obama. They're also not rushing to help save the Senate, based on the July reports from GOP super PACs.

The presidential candidates and many outside groups detailed their July fundraising and spending to the Federal Election Commission on Saturday. Here are some highlights:

FILE - In this May 20, 2016 file photo, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at the National Rifle Association convention in Louisville, The National Rifle Associations political committee is pooling together small contributions to run attack ads against Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.(AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)

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SOROS RETURNS

Billionaire after billionaire appeared on the latest fundraising reports from Democratic super PACs.

Super political action committees face no restrictions on how much money they can take from individual, corporate and union donors. Liberals have decried these groups as bad for democracy  yet they've leaned on them to help win races, saying they don't want to disarm against Republicans.

In July alone, New York hedge fund billionaire George Soros gave $1.5 million to Planned Parenthood's super PAC and $35,000 to Priorities USA, both working to elect Clinton, as well as $500,000 to the Senate Majority PAC. Other million-dollar donors to Priorities USA include the creator of diet product Slim-Fast, Daniel Abraham, and Donald Sussman, a financier who is divorcing Maine Rep. Chellie Pingree.

Soros's latest contributions bring his 2015-2016 super PAC total to more than $14 million  a fivefold increase from his super PAC investments during the previous presidential election.

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BILLIONAIRE EFFORTS

Across the country, California hedge fund billionaire Tom Steyer is feeling similarly generous.

Last month, he pumped another $7 million into his super PAC, called NextGen Climate Action Committee. In the past two years, he has put into $38 million into the group, which works to defeat politicians who don't believe in human-caused climate change.

NextGen also is spending heavily to help Clinton, including by giving millions of dollars to labor union super PACs that back her.

Another billionaire with his own super PAC, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, gave $5 million in July. The group, called Independence USA, backs candidates who want stricter gun control measures.

Although that often means championing Democrats, the super PAC recently began spending to help Republican Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey retain his seat in a tough contest. Bloomberg praised Toomey's support of expanding background checks as his chief motivation for doing so.

Bloomberg has also endorsed Clinton.

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DAD BOOSTS SENATE BID

The Senate Majority PAC, a group with ties to Minority Leader Harry Reid, netted $7.3 million in July  its best fundraising yet this year. One of its top donors was Thomas Murphy, a Florida construction executive whose son Patrick Murphy is likely to face off with Republican Sen. Marco Rubio. The younger Murphy is a Democratic representative who had worked with his family's company before being elected to office.

Other $1 million donors to Senate Majority PAC were the Greater New York Hospital Association Management Corporation, a network of heath care facilities in the northeast, and the Laborers' International Union of North America.

On the Republican side, the Freedom Partners Action Fund is typically among the biggest groups spending in Senate races. In July, it counted a single donor, hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer. He gave $1 million.

Freedom Partners is one of many political and policy groups steered by billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch, who are uncomfortable with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and have decided to concentrate on down-ballot races. Likewise, Singer is not a Trump backer.

Singer also gave $1 million in July to the Republican-backing Senate Leadership Fund. He was joined by Home Depot co-founder Bernard Marcus. The contributions of those two men accounted for about 80 percent of the super PAC's July fundraising  a sign that the numerous GOP donors on the sidelines in the presidential campaign aren't all moving their money down ballot, as some had predicted.

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TRUMP HELPERS

A pro-Trump group called Great America PAC landed its biggest contribution yet in July, $100,000 from billionaire Charles Johnson, a backer of vanquished GOP Trump opponent Jeb Bush and owner of the San Francisco Giants. Great America PAC has spent about $2 million on Trump-themed ads, most of which are aimed at getting viewers to call in to pledge money to the group.

Another Trump group, Make America Number 1, is funded exclusively by hedge fund billionaire Robert Mercer, new filings show. He gave the group $2 million in July, making him Trump's most generous supporter yet. Mercer was a major funder of Ted Cruz, Trump's toughest opponent in the long primary race.

Mercer's impact on Trump is evident: Not only is he a super PAC donor, but he also funds Breitbart News, whose leader Stephen Bannon became the campaign's chief executive officer this week, and Cambridge Analytica, a data company now doing business with the campaign.

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PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES INCREASE SPENDING

Trump and Clinton accelerated their campaign spending last month, though the Republican did so far more dramatically.

New campaign documents show Trump's campaign spent $18.5 million in July, more than double its expenditures a month earlier. Still, that's far short of the $38 million Clinton's campaign spent last month. In June, her campaign had spent about $34 million.

Clinton can afford to spend more: Her campaign brought in more than $52 million in July, compared to the roughly $37 million the Trump campaign netted. That amount includes a $2 million donation from Trump himself.

Clinton's report shows her campaign's work to bring small donors into the fold is paying off. Her Democratic primary rival, Bernie Sanders, had strong appeal online and had routinely trounced her on the small-money front. In July, contributors giving $200 or less accounted for $11.4 million of Clinton's fundraising  roughly double the amount they gave her in June.

But even having raised less than Clinton overall, Trump outpaced her when it comes to small donors. Contributors giving $200 accounted for $12.7 million of his campaign fundraising.

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Associated Press writer Chad Day contributed to this report.

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Follow Julie Bykowicz on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/Bykowicz.

FILE - In this Oct. 20, 2014 file photo, State Hillary Clinton speaks at a fundraiser for Democratic congressional candidates hosted by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, in San Francisco. The National Rifle Associations political committee is pooling together small contributions to run attack ads against Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg. File)
Looking at the world through the eyes of the Web
AP EXPLAINS: Why Colombia's rebel conflict could soon end

JUNGLES OF PUTUMAYO, Colombia (AP)  Deep in the country's southern jungles, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia are preparing for a peace deal that they and the government say could be just weeks away. Associated Press journalists recently visited the rebels at four different camps on the condition they not reveal the precise locations because of security concerns.

A look at the past and future of Colombia's half-century guerrilla conflict:

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FILE- This April 1948, file photo shows rioting and looting as a street car is overturned and burned during an uprising following the assassination of Jorge Eliecer Gaitan in Bogota, Columbia. The 1948 assassination of populist firebrand Jorge Eliecer Gaitan sparked the political bloodletting known as "La Violencia," or "The Violence." The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia are preparing for a peace deal, in Columbia's half-century guerrilla conflict which has roots in the assassination, which they and the government say could be just weeks away. (AP Photo/E. L. Almen, File)

HOW IT STARTED

The 1948 assassination of populist firebrand Jorge Eliecer Gaitan led to a political bloodletting known as "La Violencia," or "The Violence." Tens of thousands died, and peasant groups joined with communists to arm themselves. A 1964 military attack on their main encampment led to the creation of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

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WHAT THE REBELS WANTED

Though nominally Marxist at its founding, the FARC's ideology has never been well defined. It has sought to make the conservative oligarchy share power and prioritized land reform in a country where more than 5 million people have been forcibly displaced, mostly by far-right militias in the service of ranchers, businessmen and drug traffickers. The FARC lost popularity as it turned to kidnapping, extortion and taxes on cocaine production and illegal gold mining to fund its insurgency.

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HOW THE US GOT INVOLVED

In 2000, the United States began sending billions of dollars for counter-narcotics and -insurgency efforts under Plan Colombia, which helped security forces weaken the FARC and kill several top commanders. The State Department classifies the group as a terrorist organization and its leaders face U.S. indictments for what the George W. Bush administration called the world's largest drug-trafficking organization.

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THE MASSIVE HUMAN TOLL

More than 220,000 lives have been lost, most of them civilians. In the past two decades, many of the killings were inflicted by the militias, which made peace with the government in 2003. The FARC abducted ranchers, politicians and soldiers who were often held for years in jungle prison camps. Its captives included former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and three U.S. military contractors, all of whom were rescued in 2008.

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AFTER DECADES OF FALSE STARTS, A PLAN FOR PEACE

Mid-1980s peace talks collapsed after death squads killed at least 3,000 allies of the FARC's political wing. Another effort fell apart in 2002 after the rebels hijacked an airliner to kidnap a senator. The current talks have been going on since 2012 in Havana. In late June, negotiators announced an agreement on a bilateral cease-fire and a blueprint for how an estimated 7,000 FARC fighters will demobilize and lay down their weapons. Accords have also been reached on land reform, combatting drug trafficking, the guerrillas' political participation and punishing war crimes on both sides. The sides formally agreed to the cease-fire and disarmament agreement at a ceremony in Cuba.

FILE- In this April 9, 1948, file photo, Jorge Eliecer Gaitan lies dying in the Colombian Capital of Bogoto after being shot. Others are unidentified. The 1948 assassination of populist firebrand Jorge Eliecer Gaitan sparked the political bloodletting known as "La Violencia," or "The Violence." The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia are preparing for a peace deal, in Columbia's half-century guerrilla conflict which has roots in the assassination, which they and the government say could be just weeks away. (AP Photo, File)

FILE- In this April 9, 1948, file photo, a mob quickly gathers in Bogota, Colombia after Jorge Eliecer Gaitan was shot. The 1948 assassination of populist firebrand Jorge Eliecer Gaitan sparked the political bloodletting known as "La Violencia," or "The Violence." The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia are preparing for a peace deal, in Columbia's half-century guerrilla conflict which has roots in the assassination, which they and the government say could be just weeks away. (AP Photo, File)

In this Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2016 photo, rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia southern bloc, FARC, listen to a lecture on the peace process in the southern jungles of Putumayo, Colombia. Martin Corena, the acting commander of the FARC's southern bloc, is calling on President Barack Obama to free a guerrilla leader jailed for more than a decade in the U.S. Corena said Ricardo Palmeras 60-year sentence in connection to the FARCs holding captive of three American defense contracts was incompatible with Obamas support for a peace deal. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

In this Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2016 photo, rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia southern bloc, FARC, listen to a lecture on the peace process in the southern jungles of Putumayo, Colombia. Martin Corena, the acting commander of the FARC's southern bloc, is calling on President Barack Obama to free a guerrilla leader jailed for more than a decade in the U.S. Corena said Ricardo Palmeras 60-year sentence in connection to the FARCs holding captive of three American defense contracts was incompatible with Obamas support for a peace deal. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

In this Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2016 photo, Martin Corena, acting commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombias southern bloc, FARC, addresses his troops in the southern jungles of Putumayo, Colombia. Corena is calling on President Barack Obama to free a guerrilla leader jailed for more than a decade in the U.S. Corena said Ricardo Palmeras 60-year sentence in connection to the FARCs holding captive of three American defense contracts was incompatible with Obamas support for a peace deal. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
Imam's shooting death shakes storied immigrant neighborhood

NEW YORK (AP)  The gunman, police said, was Hispanic. His two victims were Bangladeshi Muslims, one an imam, shot without provocation on their way home from their mosque.

A week after the double killing, prosecutors haven't been able to offer any theory explaining why the college janitor they charged with the crime, Oscar Morel, would have singled out the two victims.

Was it racial or religious hatred? Or maybe a bubbling up of old tensions between immigrant groups in one of New York's evolving neighborhoods?

In this Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2016, photo Ashik Uddin gestures as he speaks during an interview with The Associated Press outside the Al-Furqan Jame mosque in the Ozone Park neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York. The shooting of an imam and his assistant near their New York mosque has unnerved Muslim residents of the Ozone Park section of Queens. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

The answer remains a mystery, but people living in the Ozone Park section of Queens, where the shooting took place, say it shouldn't be taken as evidence of a rift between the culturally diverse groups that share its streets.

"There's tension now because of what happened," said Sumona Kazi, 26, who was born in Bangladesh but came to New York as a baby. She said she was confident that if the motive was hatred, it was the hate of one person.

"Our neighborhood  even if you're Spanish, you're Arabic, you're Muslim, you're Guyanese, whatever  we're a whole united family, you know? If you're in trouble, we're going to go out for you," she said. "There's no hatred here. There's no religious gang here. We're all friendly."

Located on the border with Brooklyn, just west of Kennedy Airport, Ozone Park has had its bad and better times along with an ever-changing population.

An Italian-American neighborhood for much of the 20th century, its most famous longtime resident was the late Mafia boss John Gotti. Jimmy Burke, the real-life mobster portrayed by Robert De Niro in "Goodfellas," lived a short walk from the shooting site. So did the not-yet-famous Cyndi Lauper and Jack Kerouac.

Dramatic change came in the '70s with the arrival of a wave of Hispanic newcomers, mostly from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.

Then, in the 1980s, came the next cultural jolt with the arrival of immigrants from Bangladesh.

Danny Perez, 46, a school custodian who has lived in Ozone Park since he was 8, said that in the old days, the Bangladeshi and Hispanic teenagers would get into fights, West Side Story-style.

"But it was a testosterone thing, I would say. I don't really feel that it was hatred or racism," said Perez, whose family is ethnically Puerto Rican.

And anyway, he said, all that is a thing of the past.

The Bangladeshis "are great neighbors, hardworking people. Their kids are respectful. I'm glad they're living here," Perez said. "That was a freaking maniac, this guy who killed the imam."

Morel, 35, was arrested the day after the Aug. 13 attack and charged with shooting Imam Maulana Alauddin Akonjee, 55, and his assistant at the mosque, Thara Uddin, 64, with a revolver later found hidden inside a wall in the suspect's apartment.

He has pleaded not guilty.

"As far as he's concerned, he didn't commit anything," said his lawyer, Michael Schwed.

The killing awakened memories of similar deadly encounters in Ozone Park.

Two summers ago, an Ozone Park resident with ties to a political party in Bangladesh, Nazmul Islam, was beaten to death by two Hispanic men just a few blocks from the spot where Akonjee and Uddin were killed.

And in 2002, a bat-wielding group of teens killed Bangladeshi photojournalist Mizanur Rahman after a day of fistfights between Bangladeshi and Hispanic youths.

Both incidents prompted rallies and calls for a more robust police presence in the neighborhood now reeling again from the latest violence.

"That's a hate crime," concluded Nurul Hoque, a worshipper at Akonjee's Al-Furqan Jame Masjid mosque. "It's not a robbery; the imam had $1,000 in his pocket."

Some worshippers have been demanding stepped-up police protection  not out of fear of their own neighbors, but of anyone who might harbor ill will toward Muslims.

"9/11 changed everything ... and now, it's changing again in this election campaign," said Hoque, noting the political climate has brought back occasional prejudice on the street, despite a generally friendly mood in the neighborhood. "Some people look at you like you came from another planet. And they say, 'Go back to your country!'"

Fear of being attacked by a random stranger is keeping Hoque's wife from walking to the grocery store; her husband drives her.

Police officials say Ozone Park is as calm as any other section of the city, with no unusual reports of ethnic tension.

"It's just basic neighborhood friction  parking conditions, things of that nature," said New York Police Department Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce.

In this Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2016, photo Nurul Hoque gestures as he speaks during an interview with The Associated Press outside the Al-Furqan Jame mosque in the Ozone Park neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York. The shooting of an imam and his assistant near their New York mosque has unnerved Muslim residents of the Ozone Park section of Queens. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

In this Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2016, photo Johnny, left, and Sally Lee speak during an interview with The Associated Press at their Liquor store in the Ozone Park neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

In this Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2016, photo Manolo Reyes works on a clients hair while speaking during an interview with The Associated Press in his hair salon in the Ozone Park neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York. The shooting of an imam and his assistant near their New York mosque has unnerved Muslim residents of the Ozone Park section of Queens. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

In this Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2016, photo pharmacist Mohammed haque gestures as he speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in his pharmacy in the Ozone Park neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York. The shooting of an imam and his assistant near their New York mosque has unnerved Muslim residents of the Ozone Park section of Queens. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

In this Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2016, photo Sumona Kazi gestures as she speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in the Ozone Park neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York. The shooting of an imam and his assistant near their New York mosque has unnerved Muslim residents of the Ozone Park section of Queens. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

In this Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2016, photo Danny Perez gestures as he speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in the Ozone Park neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York. The shooting of an imam and his assistant near their New York mosque has unnerved Muslim residents of the Ozone Park section of Queens. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
LA art exhibition look at dying through words, photos

LOS ANGELES (AP)  Four years ago photographer Andrew George approached the medical director of a Los Angeles hospital with an unusual request: He wanted to meet and take photographs of people about to die.

There was nothing macabre about the request, George says. He simply wanted to learn of and reflect the wisdom these people had gained in the hope that others could discover how to lead better, more fulfilling lives.

"I wanted to make a project about the universal challenge that we all have to address, and that is dying," George said as he sat in a gallery in Los Angeles' Museum of Tolerance, where his photo exhibition, "Right, Before I Die," opened this week.

In this Aug. 15, 2016 photo, photographer Andrew George, right, poses with Nelly Gutierrez, who is featured in George's exhibit, "Right, Before I Die," at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. The exhibit, which features portraits of people facing serious illnesses, will run until Sept. 30. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)

"I thought if I could make a project about exceptional people who had overcome the fears that we all grapple with in life. Then it occurred to me that I could really only get that from dealing with a dying population."

On the exhibition walls around him are 20 framed photos of dying people, each accompanied by some of the words they spoke as they described their hopes, dreams, happy moments and regrets while he photographed them.

A commonality he found was that few seemed to fear death any longer. Not that any were in a hurry for it to come either. Many, although appearing frail and noting they were in much pain, still looked forward to just greeting the day.

One subject, identified only as Irene, is quoted as saying: "It's a beautiful day. I'm watching the leaves sway back and forth in the wind, and I'm happy that I get to be alive to watch that."

A few had regrets, although they no longer dwelled on them.

"My wife wasn't the greatest love of my life. A Japanese girl was back in the '40s," a man named Jack is quoted as saying.

The pair were teenagers when she was sent to a relocation camp during World War II. And although they planned to marry, they lost touch. "Thought about her the other day because I had a Japanese nurse. I hadn't thought about her in years," said Jack, who is photographed connected to an oxygen tube.

Of the people George photographed, only Nelly Gutierrez  who has diabetes, liver failure, heart trouble and other ailments  is still alive. The 63-year-old says she hangs on through pain and grueling treatments because she wants to see her family. That, and she likes to sing karaoke on the days she isn't too exhausted by dialysis.

She saw the white light of death once, she recalled, adding she believed it was heaven. But she argued with God that she wasn't ready to go because her kids still needed her.

"And then I woke up," she says with a smile as she checks out her photo.

Coincidentally, the LA exhibition opened just days after a San Diego woman suffering from Lou Gehrig's disease threw a farewell party for friends, then ended her life through assisted suicide.

Dr. Ira Byock, founder of the Providence Institute for Human Caring, which is underwriting the exhibition, declines to offer an opinion on assisted suicide other than to say he's happy to see the debate about it over in California, where it is now legal.

Now, the author of "Dying Well" says, medical professionals can concentrate on making a person's final days as fulfilling as possible rather than arguing about how those days should end.

When he set out to find people to photograph, George said, he was turned down repeatedly by hospital administrators who told him the same thing: "This is taboo. We don't talk about death."

He found an exception in Dr. Marwa Kilani, medical director of palliative care at Los Angeles' Providence Holy Cross Hospital. She had heard so many interesting life stories from people during their final days, she told him, that she agreed it was important to share them with others who could learn from them and learn of the dignity people continue to possess even in their dying days.

"Right, Before I Die," opened last year at Belgium's Musea Brugge, moving on to San Francisco's Grace Cathedral earlier this year. Future venues are being considered after it leaves the Museum of Tolerance at the end of September.

"We're not an art museum, but there was something that resonated with me very much with the subject and the important themes of our museum," said Liebe Geft, director of the facility dedicated to peace, tolerance and a remembrance of the horrors of the Holocaust.

"It reminds us of the resilience of the human spirit, of the precious gift of life," she said of the exhibition. "And it begs all kinds of questions about what it means to be alive, what is the purpose in being here, how can I be the best person that I can be."

In this Aug. 15, 2016 photo, photographer Andrew George, right, talks with Nelly Gutierrez, who is featured in George's exhibit, "Right, Before I Die," at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. The exhibit, which features portraits of people facing serious illnesses, will run until Sept. 30. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)

In this Aug. 15, 2016, photo, photographer Andrew George stands in front of his photography exhibit "Right, Before I Die" at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. The exhibit, which features portraits of people facing serious illnesses, will run until Sept. 30. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)

This Jan. 10, 2013 photo shows Irene, one of the people Andrew George photographed for a project called "Right, Before I Die" that part of an exhibit at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. Four years ago George approached the medical director of a Los Angeles hospital with an unusual request: He wanted to meet patients who were about to die in hopes of capturing the wisdom they'd gained through living, their thoughts on their demise and how the perspective with which they looked back on life now that it was about to end. Dr. Marwa Kilani, looking for a way to focus a conversation on the dignity people deserve, and often don't receive, during the last days of their lives, opened the doors of his hospital to George. The result, "Right, Before I Die,' an exhibition of photos and words, opens later this month at Los Angeles' Museum of Tolerance." (Andrew George via AP)

This Jan. 25, 2013 photo shows Jack, one of the people Andrew George photographed for a project called "Right, Before I Die" that part of an exhibit at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. Four years ago George approached the medical director of a Los Angeles hospital with an unusual request: He wanted to meet patients who were about to die in hopes of capturing the wisdom they'd gained through living, their thoughts on their demise and how the perspective with which they looked back on life now that it was about to end. Dr. Marwa Kilani, looking for a way to focus a conversation on the dignity people deserve, and often don't receive, during the last days of their lives, opened the doors of his hospital to George. The result, "Right, Before I Die,' an exhibition of photos and words, opens later this month at Los Angeles' Museum of Tolerance." (Andrew George via AP)
The Latest: Officials: 60,000 homes damaged by flooding

NEW ORLEANS (AP)  The Latest on Louisiana flooding (all times local):

5:25 p.m.

Louisiana officials say an estimated 60,000 homes have been damaged by massive flooding that swept through the southern part of the state.

Amanda Burge looks at flood damaged items with two of her three children Aiden, left, and Hudson, center, in Denham Springs, La., Friday, Aug. 19, 2016. "Everything is gone. School is gone. Home is gone. Church is gone," said Burge, president of the Parent Teacher Organization at Denham Springs Elementary School. (AP Photo/Michael Kunzelman)

Mike Steele, spokesman for the Governor's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, said Saturday that 102,000 people have also registered for federal assistance.

He says authorities are still assessing damage to homes and that number could fluctuate.

The state is slowly digging itself out from a massive flood that swept through last weekend.

Commissioner Jay Dardenne announced Saturday that state offices in all parishes are reopening on Monday.

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1:30 p.m.

In south Louisiana, homeowner Sheila Siener (SEE-ner) says flood damage to her home was worse than she'd imagined.

She says she had known that her house got four to five feet of water, but hadn't realized how filthy and foul-smelling it would leave everything.

All up and down her street in the Ascension Parish community of Saint Amant (SANT uh-MANH), people were gutting their houses, hauling out just about everything to be carted away.

Siener says about 20 relatives and co-workers helped haul out all of her furniture, appliances, kitchen cabinets, and even the toilets.

Seiner says they included co-workers from Optimal Field Services who had driven three hours from their homes in the central Louisiana town of Pollack.

Throughout the flooded areas, search parties are going door to door looking for survivors or bodies trapped by flooding.

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Louisiana's health department says floods have damaged graves, tombs and vaults in least 15 cemeteries across seven southern parishes. However, officials don't yet have an estimate of how many graves, tombs, and vaults have been damaged.

The department has asked affected parishes to do assessments. In most cases, the disinterred caskets and vaults are still within the territory of the cemetery, although one casket ended up in a nearby backyard.

In one case, a local funeral home has already recovered and re-interred the few caskets that surfaced.

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Noon

A central Louisiana woman and her daughter have been recognized as heroes for rescuing a 4-year-old boy whose grandmother died in floods last week.

The Rapides (rap-EEDZ) Parish sheriff says the child would have died without Jennie Thacker and Jessie Kingan. Sheriff William Earl Hilton gave them the office's first Citizens Valor Award on Friday.

Thacker says they stepped outside Aug. 14 to look at their flooded road and heard a child. They were chest-deep when they heard a cry for help.

Thacker says they saw a little boy clinging to a tree branch. She swam out to him, telling her daughter to call for help. She says his first words to her were "My grandmother's dead."

Sheriff's investigators said both the boy and grandmother escaped from the car when it was swept away by the current, but the grandmother drowned.

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11 a.m.

Pumps and sandbags are keeping floodwaters out of Lake Arthur, a city of about 2,700 in southwest Louisiana  but authorities say there's still too much danger for people to return.

Larry Lyons of the area's drainage district tells KPLC-TV (http://bit.ly/2bBXVWe ) that, for example, an alligator crawling onto the bank could knock out sandbags.

Chief Deputy Chris Ivey of the Jefferson Davis Parish Sheriff's Office says people have been placed every 100 yards to watch for breaches in the levees.

Mayor Robbie Bertrand tells The American Press (http://bit.ly/2b69to5) that about 16,000 sandbags have been placed strategically throughout the town, and another 800 are ready.

He says that even as the Mermentau (MER-men-taw) River falls, the levees remain fragile and saturated.

Hundreds of volunteers helped build a 180-foot plywood wall at one spot to stabilize sandbag barriers.

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9:40 a.m.

As search parties look for survivors, Louisiana continues to dig itself out from devastating floods, with local government saying debris removal will begin Monday in much of East Baton Rouge.

Mayor Kip Holden is encouraging residents to put all flood debris on the curb during the weekend, separated by types. Plant material should be in one heap. Next to that, construction and demolition debris. Then appliances, with a fourth area for electronics.

A news release says nothing should be bagged. It notes that regular household trash should be bagged and put out in garbage carts on the regular pickup day, away from flood debris.

A news release says residents can track daily progress on a web-based map. It's at http://gis.brla.gov/debris.

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9 a.m.

Louisiana continues to dig itself out from devastating floods.

Search parties are going door to door Saturday looking for survivors or bodies trapped by the flooding.

Teams have come from around the state as well as other parts of the country to assist in the effort.

They've been going house to house, knocking on doors, looking for signs of life such as furniture or carpets piled out front indicating someone has been there cleaning up.

At least 13 people died in the flooding that swept through parts of southern Louisiana after torrential rains lashed the region.

In a uniquely Louisiana problem, some families are also trying to rebury family members whose caskets were unearthed by the floods.

Amanda Burge looks at flood damage with two of her three children Aiden, right, and Hudson, left, at her home in Denham Springs, La., Friday, Aug. 19, 2016. "Everything is gone. School is gone. Home is gone. Church is gone," said Burge, president of the Parent Teacher Organization at Denham Springs Elementary School. (AP Photo/Michael Kunzelman)

In this image made from video, Coffins lie unearthed Thursday, Aug. 18, 2016, in Plainview Cemetery in Denham Springs, La. With an estimated 40,000 homes damaged by deadly flooding, Louisiana could be looking at its biggest housing crunch since the miserable, bumbling aftermath of Hurricane Katrina a decade ago. (AP Photo/Joshua Replogle)

Danny and Alys Messenger paddle a canoe away from their home after reviewing flood damage in Prairieville, La., Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2016. Flooding prompted more than 30,000 rescues and left an estimated 40,000 homes damaged in south Louisiana. (AP Photo/Max Becherer)

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, right, help to unload supplies for flood victims during a tour of the flood damaged area in Gonzales, La., Friday, Aug. 19, 2016. (AP Photo/Max Becherer)

The personal belonging of a flood damaged home is piled on the road side waiting for garbage pick up in St. Amant, La., Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016. Louisiana continues to dig itself out from devastating floods, with search parties going door to door looking for survivors. (AP Photo/Max Becherer)

Jody Harelson, 52, dumps a wheel barrel of wet sheet rock an ever growing pile of rubbish as he helps clean out the flood damaged home of Sheila Siener, 58, in St. Amant, La., Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016. Louisiana continues to dig itself out from devastating floods, with search parties going door to door looking for survivors. (AP Photo/Max Becherer)

Friends and family help to clean out the flood damaged home of Sheila Siener, 58, second from left, in St. Amant, La., Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016. Louisiana continues to dig itself out from devastating floods, with search parties going door to door looking for survivors. (AP Photo/Max Becherer)

Sheila Siener, 58, center, gets help from friends and family including her sister Julie Mabile, 51, left, to clean out her flood damaged home in St. Amant, La., Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016. Louisiana continues to dig itself out from devastating floods, with search parties going door to door looking for survivors. (AP Photo/Max Becherer)

Raven Harelson, 59, left, carries a drawer to the trash heap in front the home of Sheila Siener, 58, as friends and family help to clean out the flood damaged home in St. Amant, La., Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016. Louisiana continues to dig itself out from devastating floods, with search parties going door to door looking for survivors. (AP Photo/Max Becherer)

Standing water closes roads in Sorrento, La., Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016. Louisiana continues to dig itself out from devastating floods, with search parties going door to door looking for survivors or bodies trapped by flooding. (AP Photo/Max Becherer)
Attorney sues Ohio judge over Black Lives Matter button

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (AP)  A lawyer sentenced to five days in an Ohio jail for refusing to remove a Black Lives Matter button while in court has filed a federal lawsuit, saying her free speech rights were violated.

The Youngstown Vindicator reports (http://bit.ly/2b8aeZg ) Andrea Burton sued Youngstown Municipal Court Judge Robert Milich on Thursday. Milich last month sentenced Burton for contempt of court after she refused to remove the button.

He said he cited her because of a U.S. Supreme Court decision banning political buttons in courtrooms. The Black Lives Matter movement grew out of several killings of blacks by police.

Milich stayed the order after Burton agreed to follow the dress code, pending appeal of the order.

Milich is white. Burton is black.
New England drought means bolder bears, stressed fish

CONCORD, N.H. (AP)  Bears are bolder, mosquitoes are multiplying and stream-dwelling fish are stressed. Beyond hurting crops and helping the tourism industry, New England's hot, dry summer also is affecting the region's wildlife.

All six New England states are experiencing at least moderate drought, according to the National Drought Mitigation Center, with severe patches in all but Vermont and pockets of extreme drought in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

Low rainfall also means low stream flow levels across the region. The U.S. Geological Survey says all six states have areas exhibiting moderate hydrologic drought, with severe spots in Massachusetts and one extreme area in Maine.

FILE - In this Wednesday Aug. 1, 2007 file photo black bear cubs are seen in Lyme, N.H. Beyond hurting crops and helping the tourism industry, New England's hot, dry summer also is affecting the region's wildlife. Bears are getting bolder, mosquitoes are multiplying and stream-dwelling fish are stressed. (AP Photo/Cheryl Senter/FILE)

Low and warm water stresses fish, such as trout and salmon, forcing them to seek out deeper pools or spring holes. On Friday, the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection closed portions of the West Branch Farmington River and the Farmington River to fishing through Sept. 15 after several fish kills.

"This is the first time in memory that we have found it necessary to take action like this to protect our fisheries on these rivers, and it is not a step we are taking lightly," said Deputy Commissioner Susan Whalen.

In Maine, officials are recommending that people fish earlier or later in the day when temperatures are cooler. The same goes for southern New Hampshire, said Scott Decker, inland fisheries program director at New Hampshire Fish and Game.

Given that mosquitoes breed in standing water, you might expect fewer instead of more during a drought, said Pete Pekins, wildlife professor at the University of New Hampshire. But the opposite happens because as water levels drop, river banks and the edges of ponds widen, he said.

Thanks to a mild winter and the current drought, water is warmer and more stagnant, which encourages growth of cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae, said Jeff Schloss, natural resources program leader at UNH Cooperative Extension. The resulting toxic blooms can hurt everything from microscopic organisms eaten by fish, to waterfowl that feed on those fish.

In Vermont, the drought has lowered water at the Bennington Fish Culture Station to about 30 percent below normal. As a result, biologists reduced the number of times they feed the fish destined for stocking next spring from three times to one, said hatchery manager Monty Walker. He expects fish that usually would measure about 7 inches by September to fall nearly two inches short.

The drought has implications on land as well as water, with bears, snakes and ants among those species venturing further afield in search of food or water. In Quincy, Massachusetts, a timber rattlesnake showed up on someone's front steps. In New Hampshire, bears have been foraging for food at campgrounds and neighborhood trash cans because drought-stricken berry bushes didn't produce as much as usual.

Pekin, the UNH professor, keeps it all in perspective. He notes that herons and other birds are feasting on frogs that have become more visible in ponds, and he himself has been enjoying listening to osprey in his backyard.

"In all of this, there are winners and losers," he said. "I have great faith in wildlife to adapt. Next year could be the opposite."

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Man who owes insurance to 'Obamacare' still voting for Trump

MIAMI (AP)  When Bruce Bradford was fired after nearly two decades as a federal police officer, he lost his income, his health insurance and eventually his wife and apartment as his medical problems mounted. He ended up being thrown a lifeline by the very politicians he can't stand.

Bradford, a longtime Republican who dislikes big government and what he regards as handouts, obtained insurance and a monthly government subsidy under President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.

Before he was terminated, Bradford fell and blew out his knee, missing weeks of work at a time. Then he had flare-ups of diverticulitis that resulted in a hole in his gut. He lost his job while out on sick leave last year.

Bruce Bradford spends time outdoors during a holiday visit in Orlando, Fla., on Thursday, June 23, 2016. In January, the 58-year-old longtime Republican and Donald Trump supporter qualified for Social Security disability, which allowed him to buy health insurance through the Affordable Care Act. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

The 58-year-old Jacksonville resident often ended up in the emergency room because he had no insurance. He sometimes had to go without medication and relied on charity care for half a dozen operations.

He was not eligible for Medicaid, because Florida has some of the most stringent eligibility requirements in the country and the state opted against expanding the program under the federal health care overhaul.

In January, he qualified for Social Security disability. Finally getting a regular income allowed him to buy government-subsidized health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. He pays a $340 monthly premium for insurance that requires no co-pays or deductibles; the federal government pays $450 a month toward his premium.

When the coverage took effect, Bradford immediately scheduled doctor's appointments and filled the nine prescriptions he takes every day.

He acknowledges he would be in trouble without the Democratic-backed health care reforms and struggles to reconcile his feelings about them.

"The dilemma of seeing both sides of the coin ... I think about it all the time," he said.

(He said he believes he lost his job because he was missing work and was unable to perform some of his tasks, and because he was accused of lying about how he was injured on the job. The Pentagon confirmed to The Associated Press that Bradford worked at the Naval Air Station in Jacksonville for 17 years and was fired, but would not give details).

Bradford said some parts of "Obamacare" should be repealed, starting with the tax penalties imposed on people who don't obtain insurance. Yet, he said he favors other parts of the law and believes there should be "some sort of health care safety net."

Bradford said he will cast his ballot for Donald Trump but acknowledged mixed feelings, knowing a GOP victory could mean the end of the health insurance he badly needs.

And what would he do then?

Bradford said he can't think that far ahead because he lives in constant pain from his operations.

"If I wake up in the morning," he said, "I'm happy."

Bruce Bradford spends time outdoors during a holiday visit in Orlando, Fla., on Thursday, June 23, 2016. Bradford, a supporter of Donald Trump, said some parts of "Obamacare" should be repealed, starting with the tax penalties imposed on people who don't obtain insurance. Yet, he said he favors other parts of the law and believes there should be "some sort of health care safety net." (AP Photo/John Raoux)
Popular 'Obamacare' provision gives young adults coverage

Mina Schultz figured she'd be OK without health insurance during the months between finishing graduate school and joining the Peace Corps.

But a few weeks after graduation, she was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a bone cancer more common in children.

All her plans changed. Instead of working for several months on a Montana ranch, she was living at age 25 with her father and stepmother in Columbia, Missouri, and going through a year of chemotherapy plus a knee replacement.

Courtney Grayton, 22, is photographed with her parents, Frankey, right, and Talita, left, at their home in Washington on Sunday, Aug. 7, 2016. The ability of young adults to be on their parents' health plans until they turn 26 is one of the most popular benefits of the Affordable Care Act. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Her father, Jack Schultz, a professor at the University of Missouri, recalls a scramble not only to deal with his daughter's health, but also to pay for it.

He said it was only after her diagnosis that he learned she could be covered on his policy under a provision of President Barack Obama's health insurance law that allows young adults to be on their parents' health plans until they turn 26.

It's a popular part of the Affordable Care Act. Soon after the provision went into effect, the number of uninsured Americans ages 19 to 25 dropped by 1.6 million, according a government survey.

More young adults received health insurance as the law's other provisions took effect in 2014. By last year, fewer than 5 million were uninsured, about half the number when the law passed in 2010.

Because she was considered a disabled dependent when Schultz turned 26 and was still in treatment, she was able to extend the coverage another year.

Her father said the coverage saved Schultz and her family more than $500,000 and provided treatment that saved her life.

Schultz, now 30, works in Fairmont, West Virginia, in the health industry. Her job includes helping people enroll for coverage.

Most young adults who qualify for coverage under their parents' plans don't have such dramatic health circumstances, but the option can provide economic stability.

Courtney Grayton graduated with an economics degree from the University of Maryland-Baltimore County in 2015. At first she landed only part-time work as a $13-an-hour backup concierge for a couple of condominium buildings in Washington.

She came up with the idea of going on the health insurance plan of her mother, a union administrator in the nation's capital.

It wasn't a burden for her parents. Her mother, Talita Grayton, said that with a younger son still on her plan, she had family coverage, with no additional cost for another child.

In June, Grayton, 22, landed a full-time job that allows her to use her degree. But for now, to save money, she's staying at her parents' house and remaining on their plan.

"I'm just grateful that she's able to be covered," Talita Grayton said. "She doesn't have to worry about that added expense."

Courtney Grayton, 22, sits outside her parents home in Washington on Sunday, Aug. 7, 2016. Under the Affordable Care Act, she was able to get health insurance coverage from her mother's plan after graduating with an economics degree from the University of Maryland-Baltimore County in 2015 and landing only a part-time job. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Courtney Grayton, 22, sits outside her parents home in Washington on Sunday, Aug. 7, 2016. In June, she landed a full-time job that allows her to use her economics degree. But for now, to save money, she's staying at her parents' house and remaining on their health insurance plan. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Tanning industry blames 10,000 salon closings on 'Obamacare'

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP)  The tanning salon industry is feeling burned by "Obamacare."

Business owners around the country say the little-noticed 10 percent tax on tanning in President Barack Obama's health care overhaul has crippled the industry, forcing the closing of nearly 10,000 of the more than 18,000 tanning salons in the U.S.

Experts say the industry is overstating the effects of the "tan tax" and that it has been hurt by other factors, too, including public health warnings about the dangers of tanning and the passage of laws in dozens of states restricting the use of tanning salons by minors.

Kim Arnold stands for a photo outside her Tropical Tann business in Queensbury, N.Y., on Friday, June 17, 2016. Arnold said she and her husband had to close their third location in 2015 because of a 10 percent tax on tanning in the Affordable Care Act. (AP Photo/Mike Groll)

Nevertheless, some salon owners say the health care overhaul will be on their minds on Election Day. Republicans have vowed to repeal "Obamacare" if they win the presidency and retain control of Congress.

"When I go to vote, I'm supporting candidates who are pro-business and who want less government involvement, less government regulation," said Chris Sternberg, senior vice president of Sun Tan City, a Louisville, Kentucky-based chain with nearly 300 salons in 22 states.

The tax, similar to that imposed on tobacco, is meant to discourage a practice known to increase the risk of cancer. The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network says those who use tanning beds before age 35 increase their lifetime risk of melanoma, the deadliest type of skin cancer, by 59 percent.

Congressional experts also projected the tax would raise about $2.7 billion to help expand health coverage for uninsured Americans, but the industry says it actually has raised just a fraction of that.

The industry has spent millions lobbying to repeal the tax, which it says destroyed 81,000 tanning jobs.

Kim Arnold, a business owner in upstate New York, said she and her husband had to close their third Tropical Tann location last August because of the tax.

"Customers would say, 'I'm not paying that,'" she said. "I'd have people walk right out the door."

Kim Arnold stands for a photo next to a tanning bed in her Tropical Tann business in Queensbury, N.Y., on Friday, June 17, 2016. Arnold said she and her husband had to close their third location in 2015 because of a 10 percent tax on tanning in the Affordable Care Act. (AP Photo/Mike Groll)
Sudan: Egypt has arrested 70 Sudanese on route to Israel

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP)  Sudan says that Egyptian authorities have arrested 70 Sudanese nationals while they were attempting to enter Israel, detaining them in a Cairo prison.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Ghareeb Allah Khidi said Saturday in a report on the SUNA news agency that the Sudanese embassy is maintaining contact with Egyptian security authorities to follow up on the status and treatment of the detainees.
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Former Somalia PM who lost US court battle dies: president

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP)  A former Somalia prime minister who lost a long U.S. court battle over accusations of killing and torture has died, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud announced Saturday.

The president called Mohamed Ali Samantar a "genius" who had done a lot for his country.

Samantar died in Virginia at age 85. The cause of his death was not specified.

He served throughout the 1980s under dictator Siad Barre as prime minister, vice president and defense minister before the regime was overthrown in 1991 by warlords, plunging the Horn of Africa nation into decades of conflict.

Samantar later moved to the United States, where he was sued by seven Somalis who accused him of personally ordering the killings and torture of members of the minority Isaaq clan.

After an eight-year legal battle that reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which rejected the argument that Samantar enjoyed legal immunity as a former foreign official, a judge in 2012 awarded $21 million to his accusers. While he accepted legal liability for the killings, he denied wrongdoing.

At the time, the San Francisco-based Center for Justice and Accountability, which represented the plaintiffs, called the ruling the first in the world to hold a leader in the Barre regime responsible for crimes it perpetrated.
Judge finds convictions in 1992 slayings should be reversed

WACO, Texas (AP)  A Central Texas man serving a life prison sentence for a double slaying in 1992 is innocent, as are three co-defendants no longer in prison, a state judge has found.

Retired District Judge George Allen ruled Friday that Richard Bryan Kussmaul, 45, should be free. His three co-defendants each received 20-year sentences and have already been released.

DNA evidence not available two decades ago shows the four weren't involved in the fatal shootings of 17-year-old Leslie Murphy and 14-year-old Stephen Neighbors at a home near Moody, south of Waco, Allen said in a four-page opinion.

Allen's recommendation now goes to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals for a final decision. The state's top criminal appeals court had ordered a hearing held last month to look into the men's claims they were innocent.

"The evidence just seemed overwhelming, with the DNA evidence having excluded these men from any contact whatsoever with these people," Kussmaul's lawyer, David Sheppard, told the Waco Tribune-Herald (http://bit.ly/2b8gdNI ).

Allen presided over the trial where Kussmaul was convicted of murder. His three co-defendants, James Edward Long, Michael Dewayne Shelton and James Wayne Pitts Jr., were convicted of sexual assault. Long and Pitts served 20 years. Shelton was released after 17 years.

At the hearing last month, Long, Shelton and Pitts all testified they gave false testimony against Kussmaul at his trial because a prosecutor promised them probation. They also said their confessions were coerced by a deputy who threatened them with the death penalty. The three said at Kussmaul's trial in 1994 that he and they raped Murphy before Kussmaul shot the two victims. After they were sentenced to 20 years in prison, each recanted his confession.

Kussmaul did not testify at the hearing.

"I was willing to say anything they wanted me to say because I thought I was getting probation and no prison time," Long said at the July hearing. "I had two small children and I was afraid of going to prison for life or, worse, getting executed."

If the court upholds the judge's opinion and the men's claims of actual innocence, they each could be eligible for a state payout of $80,000 for each year in prison.

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Kidnapping survivor Smart says porn made ordeal even worse

SALT LAKE CITY (AP)  Kidnapping survivor Elizabeth Smart says pornography led to her captor raping her more than he already did in the nine months she was held.

Smart made the remarks in a video posted Friday by Fight the New Drug, an anti-pornography advocacy group.

Smart, who was taken from her Salt Lake City home in 2002 at the age of 14, recounts how Brian David Mitchell showed her magazines containing hardcore pornography.

FILE - In this April 24, 2015 file photo, Elizabeth Smart looks on during a news conference in Sandy, Utah. Smart says pornography led to her captor raping her more than he already did in the nine months she was held. Smart made the remarks in a video posted Friday, Aug. 19, 2016 by Fight the New Drug, an anti-pornography advocacy group. Smart was taken from her Salt Lake City home in 2002 at the age of 14. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

She says he then wanted to mimic what he saw.

Smart says she cannot say that looking at pornography caused Mitchell to kidnap her but that "pornography made my living hell worse."

Smart describes herself as an advocate against abuse and pornography.
Trump calls on GOP to improve African-American outreach

FREDERICKSBURG, Va. (AP)  Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said Saturday that his party must do a better job appealing to African-American voters and that he wants the GOP to become their political home as it was in the era of Abraham Lincoln.

"I fully recognize that outreach to the African-American community is an area where the Republican Party must do better, and will do better," Trump said during a rally in Fredericksburg, located between Richmond and Washington in the critical battleground state of Virginia.

In spite of past fiery rhetoric that alienated many minority voters, and speaking  as usual  to an overwhelmingly white crowd, Trump said that he wants "an inclusive party." He noted that the "GOP is the party of Abraham Lincoln" and said, "I want our party to be a home of the African-American voter once again."

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump greets the crowd as he arrives to speak at a campaign rally in Fredericksburg, Va., Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Trump has been working in recent days to boost his appeal among African-American voters  declaring Friday that he could win 95 percent of the black vote at the end of his first term in office, if he is elected.

Trump's new minority outreach efforts followed a shake-up in his campaign management in the face of falling poll numbers that quickly prompted noticeable changes to his campaigning tactics. In Fredericksburg, he spoke with the aid of a teleprompter, as he has at rallies all this week, and continued to strike a more inclusive, less caustic tone.

Still, Trump continued to rail against the impact of illegal immigration, claiming that an influx to the state of Virginia was putting "enormous pressure" on local schools and public services. And he blamed "border-crossers" who are "being relocated to the state" for taking jobs away.

"The people hurt most by our open border are low-income Hispanic and African-Americans who are competing for jobs and community resources against new arrivals," he said.

Trump once again accused his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, of "bigotry," saying that she took black votes for granted.

Earlier Saturday in New York, Trump met with his new National Hispanic Advisory Council for Trump, which will work to help him to focus his message, as well as provide assistance with the campaign's Hispanic outreach.

Polling shows Trump lagging significantly behind Clinton among minority voters, partially due to some of the more wayward comments he has made since entering the race. He launched his campaign last year with a speech that accused Mexico of sending rapists and criminals across the border, and has since vowed to deport all of the estimated 11 million people living in the U.S. illegally  though some Hispanic supporters insist that Trump has softened his stance.

Helen Aguirre Ferre, director of Hispanic communications for the Republican National Committee, who attended the meeting, called it a "game-changing" opportunity Saturday.

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus also issued a statement saying the group's engagement "is just one component of our expansive effort to engage the Hispanic community, and their contributions will help us compete for every vote in every community all the way through Election Day."

Trump also met Saturday with officers and detectives in the Stafford County Sheriff's Office in Stafford, located just north of Fredericksburg.

Among the topics discussed: aggravated assaults on law enforcement, mental health issues, heroin and opiate addiction, school safety and active-shooter incidents, according to the campaign.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump arrives to speak at a campaign rally in Fredericksburg, Va., Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
University bondholders file suit against Puerto Rico

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP)  A lawsuit filed on behalf of University of Puerto Rico bondholders is asking a federal court to stop the commonwealth from diverting $89 million in tuition and fees that are pledged for bond payments.

It is the latest in a series of legal challenges filed against the Puerto Rican government since it began to restructure its nearly $70 billion in debt in 2014. Officials say they need to use the funds earmarked for bond payments to provide essential services instead amid a deep fiscal crisis.

The lawsuit filed Friday by bond trustee U.S. Bank Trust National Association seeks relief from a new federal law that stays creditor lawsuits.
Authorities grab 604 kg of cocaine in El Salvador, arrest 2

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP)  Authorities in El Salvador have seized 604 kilograms (1,330 pounds) of cocaine from a go-fast boat and arrested the two men aboard following a lengthy high-seas chase.

The Salvadoran navy was assisted in the operation by anti-narcotic police agents. A man from Honduras and another from Ecuador were detained on suspicion of drug trafficking.

The Defense Ministry said Saturday that the seizure was carried out the previous day in Salvadoran waters in the Gulf of Fonseca, which it shares with neighboring Honduras and Nicaragua.
Navajo Nation wants Mormon Church lawsuit in tribal court

SALT LAKE CITY (AP)  The Navajo Nation wants a lawsuit against the Mormon Church over the alleged sexual abuse of four Navajo children heard in tribal court.

The Salt Lake Tribune reports (http://bit.ly/2b8AX7U) that the tribe's attorneys filed a motion Friday asking a federal judge in Salt Lake City to dismiss the suit until after it goes through tribal proceedings.

According to the motion, the attorneys argue that having the case go through federal court challenges the tribe's sovereignty.

Church attorneys say their constitutional religious freedoms could be denied in a tribal court.

Two men and two women say they were sexually abused between the 1960s and early '80s while in a church-run foster program.

The Indian Student Placement Program placed thousands of Navajo children in Mormon foster homes in Utah, Idaho and New Mexico.

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Ohio city gives owner 30 days to collect naked Trump statue

CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio (AP)  Authorities have given the owner of a naked Donald Trump statue 30 days to claim it along with a minor misdemeanor citation.

Cleveland.com reports (http://bit.ly/2bCoPxd ) the statue of the Republican presidential nominee that made a brief appearance Thursday in front of a Cleveland Heights bank is now being stored at that city's police department.

The city's police chief says the owner could face a fine for breaking a city code that prohibits placing items and equipment on public property.

Life-size naked Trump statues also made appearances in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Seattle and Cleveland on Thursday. They are the brainchild of an activist collective called INDECLINE, which has spoken out against Trump and his candidacy.

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Sheriff's office investigating fatal police shooting

EAST RIDGE, Tenn. (AP)  Authorities are investigating after a south Tennessee police officer fatally shot a suspect.

The Chattanooga Times Free Press reports (http://bit.ly/2bF7Zy6) the altercation began at about 6 p.m. Friday when East Ridge police responded to a report of a man wielding a knife.

Hamilton County Sheriff's spokesman Matt Lea says police located the suspect outside a home.

Lea says the man refused commands and approached the officer with a weapon, prompting the officer to fire.

Alec Long lives nearby. He says he saw the officer on the driver's side, aiming a rifle over the hood of his car. Long says he didn't see anything in the suspect's hands.

Officials have not released the name or race of the officer or the suspect.
Pound goes further in Warsaw, culture vultures told

UK holidaymakers planning a cheap cultural city break should head to Warsaw, new figures show.

The pound stretches further for live shows, galleries and museums in the Polish capital than 16 other cultural hotspots, according to the Post Office Travel Money study.

A poll of 2,099 UK adults found that 46% of regular city break tourists rate cultural attractions as a key factor in choosing a destination.

The pound stretches further for live shows, galleries and museums in the Polish capital, a study found

The report found that even though sterling buys nearly 16% fewer Polish zloty than a year ago, cultural tickets in Warsaw cost 40% less than in 2015.

For just 65 UK visitors can go to the city's top museum, art gallery and heritage site, plus take in nights at the Polish National Opera, National Ballet and a symphony concert.

This is less than a quarter of the cost of equivalent tickets in the most expensive cities, which were New York (304) and Barcelona (277).

London was found to be the third most costly destination at 256, followed by Madrid (239).

One ticket to see Otello performed by the Madrid Opera at the Teatro Real in the Spanish capital is more expensive (156) than the cost for two UK holidaymakers enjoying all six of Warsaw's cultural highlights, according to the study.

Budapest is the second cheapest city at (78), with Dublin in third (120) and Prague fourth (126).

Andrew Brown, of Post Office Travel Money, said: " It is encouraging to see that prices have actually fallen in several of the cultural capitals surveyed this year.

"This means arts lovers can get to see a world-renowned orchestra or a top opera or dance company at very reasonable prices, despite the falling value of sterling.

"Bear in mind, though, that prices can vary dramatically from one city to another so do some homework before booking a culture break."

:: This is a ranking of 17 cities in order of how expensive their live performances, galleries and museums are for UK visitors, according to Post Office Travel Money:

1. Warsaw, Poland (65)

2. Budapest, Hungary (78)

3. Dublin, Ireland (120)

4. Prague, Czech Republic (126)

5. Stockholm, Sweden (147)

6. Moscow, Russia (155)

7. Brussels, Belgium (160)

8. Berlin, Germany (199)

9. Paris, France (228)

10. Vienna, Austria (228)

11. Copenhagen, Denmark (232)

12. Amsterdam, Netherlands (236)

13. Rome, Italy (237)

14. Madrid, Spain (239)

15. London, UK (256)

16. Barcelona, Spain (277)
Australian treasurer formally rejects Chinese bids for state-owned Ausgrid

SYDNEY, Aug 19 (Reuters) - Australian Treasurer Scott Morrison on Friday officially rejected bids by two Chinese companies in the A$10-billion ($7.67-billion) sale of the country's biggest energy grid, Ausgrid, after they failed to overcome security concerns.

Morrison announced last week that neither State Grid Corp of China nor Hong Kong's Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings, the preferred bidders, would be allowed to seal a deal.

On Friday, Morrison said the acquisition by foreign investors would be contrary to the national interest.
Square posts job openings signaling European expansion

By Heather Somerville

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug 18 (Reuters) - U.S. mobile payments company Square Inc posted three new job openings in Europe on Thursday, signaling it is moving closer to ramping up operations in the region through an initial venture in Britain.

San Francisco-based Square, which makes a card reader that turns a mobile phone into a payment terminal, hopes to seize on the region's growth of small businesses that are quickly adopting new technology.

Square posted three openings on the job board Indeed.com. It is seeking a compliance analyst and communications manager, both based in London, and a technical customer support representative, based in Dublin.

A Square spokeswoman declined to comment on the job postings.

Square began beta testing of its payments system in London in June to prepare for an initial launch in Britain, Reuters reported last month. The company incorporated a business called Squareup Europe Ltd in Britain, where its payments processing technology is already being used by merchants.

"We do view it as a very interesting market," Chief Executive Jack Dorsey said on a recent call with investors when asked about the UK.

Previously, Square's payments service had only been available in the United States, Canada, Japan and Australia.

The position in Dublin indicates that Square has its sights set beyond the UK. Dublin has a high density of tech talent -- companies including Alphabet Inc's Google and software analytics company New Relic have offices there -- making it appealing for a business like Square, according to a person familiar with the company's thinking.

Square will compete with established European players such as Sweden's iZettle and SumUp in London.

Competitor Apple Pay launched in the UK last year and has partnerships with banks across Europe. Google's Android Pay is also in the UK.

Gearing up for its UK operation, Square in May added Paul Deighton to its board of directors. Deighton, a Conservative member of the upper House of Lords, served as Britain's commercial secretary to the Treasury until last year.

Square, whose chief Dorsey is also the CEO of Twitter Inc , has expanded since its 2009 founding to offer an array of services for businesses such as point-of-sale registers, invoice software and loans.

The company this month reported a 41.5 percent jump in revenue and 42 percent growth in payments processed on its system for the second quarter. However, it is still unprofitable with a loss of more than $27 million for the three-month period.
Two Syrian girls among six who drown when boat sinks off Libya coast

ROME, Aug 19 (Reuters) - Two Syrian girls aged eight months and five years drowned along with four other people when a wooden boat carrying war refugees trying to make it to Europe capsized off the coast of Libya, a humanitarian rescue group said on Friday.

The bodies were recovered about 22 nautical miles from Libya on Thursday when the small vessel packed with 27 Syrians flipped over and sank, the Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) humanitarian group said.

The bodies of two women and one man were also recovered, while another person who was on the boat was not found, MOAS reported. MOAS operates two rescue boats in the Mediterranean Sea between Italy and Libya.

The media spotlight refocused on the plight of civilians in Syria's conflict this week following a wrenching video of a dust-covered, disoriented five-year-old boy, Omran Daqneesh, pulled from the rubble after a bombing raid in Aleppo.

More than 500 boat migrants were rescued from overcrowded and unsafe boats in seas between Libya and Italy on Thursday, including 146 people plucked from a semi-deflated rubber vessel, Italy's coastguard said.

Last year Syrian refugees bound for Europe tended to take a short boat ride to Greek islands from Turkey. But those routes have been largely shut down this year, forcing some to make the longer and more dangerous voyage from North Africa toward Italy.

Thousands of children have been killed in the Syrian civil war, now in its fifth year, and more than 3,000 migrants have died in the Mediterranean so far this year, the International Organization for Migration estimates.
Justice elusive for slain aid workers on front lines of crises

By Nita Bhalla

NEW DELHI, Aug 20 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - It was a massacre that shocked the world's humanitarian community.

Seventeen aid workers were killed outside their office in Sri Lanka's northeast - executed at point-blank range with automatic weapons in one of the worst attacks on humanitarians.

A decade on, justice remains elusive for families of the victims, all Sri Lankan nationals, says Action Contra La Faim (ACF), the charity where they worked.

"Our colleagues, four women and 13 men, were deliberately executed although they were clearly identified as humanitarian aid workers. It was an unprecedented massacre in the humanitarian sector, constitutive of a war crime," said Pauline Chetcuti, ACF's Head of Humanitarian Advocacy and Policy.

ACF has found evidence they were likely assassinated by Sri Lankan security forces and that their attackers must have been shielded by Sri Lankan top authorities, she said.

As aid workers across the globe gathered on Friday to mark World Humanitarian Day, paying tribute to those killed working on front lines of crises, experts say much more needs to be done to ensure perpetrators are held accountable.

In 2015 alone, 109 aid workers were killed, 110 injured and 68 kidnapped in attacks in countries such as Afghanistan, South Sudan, Yemen, Somalia and Syria, according to consulting group Humanitarian Outcomes.

Yet experts say few, if any, of the 148 attacks, which included physical and sexual assault, bombings, shootings and kidnappings, have been independently investigated and satisfactory justice served.

"An attack on an aid worker is an attack on humanity," said Unni Krishnan, director of Save the Children's Emergency Health Unit. "For people who are living in such extremely vulnerable and difficult circumstances, these aid workers are sometimes their own line of defense."

MUTUR MASSACRE

The "Mutur Massacre," named after the town where the killings took place, occurred on August 4, 2006 during Sri Lanka's civil war between separatist Tamil Tiger rebels and forces belonging to the majority Sinhalese-ruled government.

The mostly ethnic Tamil aid workers were providing water and sanitation to survivors of the 2004 tsunami when Tiger fighters launched an offensive against government troops for control of Mutur.

Trapped in their office, the workers lost radio contact with their head office.

Two days later, the bloated bodies of 15 aid workers were discovered face-down in the ACF compound, with bullet wounds to their heads and necks. Two other bodies were found in a vehicle nearby. They were killed possibly trying to escape.

ACF, which has campaigned for justice, says the Sri Lankan government investigation was biased and that it has deliberately attempted to avoid prosecuting its own forces.

But last September, the United Nations published its findings, concluding "there are reasonable grounds to believe that members of the security forces committed the extrajudicial executions of the ACF staff."

Yet the investigation remains at a standstill, ACF's Chetcuti said.

"There has been no indictment or prosecution. The authors of the crime are still free," she said.

"Families of the victims have made clear that justice is a key element to allow closure," she said. "They are suffering twice - from the crime and from the injustice that followed."

HOSPITALS TARGETED

What happened in Mutur, however, is not exceptional. Across the world, many families of slain aid workers have had no form of redress.

This is especially true when victims are nationals of the country. Often violence is intensified where a government is incapable or unwilling to provide security for its population.

In recent years, hospitals and clinics run by aid agencies in countries such as Yemen, Syria and Afghanistan have been increasingly targeted by state forces as well as militants.

On Monday, a hospital run by Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) was hit in an air strike in northern Yemen, killing 19 people and injuring 24 others. It was the fourth and deadliest attack on MSF facilities there this year.

As a result, the medical charity said it was being forced to evacuate its staff from hospitals in Yemen, where civil war has raged for more than a year.

The charity said despite sharing GPS coordinates of its hospitals and clinics with the Saudi-led coalition government trying to quell Yemen's insurgency, aerial bombings of its health facilities continue.

In October last year, 42 people, including 12 aid workers, were killed when MSF's hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan was hit in a U.S. air strike. In response, the group demanded an independent humanitarian commission be activated.

Such a commission was never activated, and a U.S. military investigation concluded the bombing was not a war crime and was caused by human error, equipment failure and other factors.

Sixteen service members faced disciplinary action over the air strike. Pentagon officials said payments of $6,000 were made to victims' families and $5.7 million would be given to rebuild the MSF hospital.

"The number of hospitals that have been destroyed over the past years is utterly shocking," said Andre Heller Perache, MSF's head of programmes and former head of mission in Yemen.

"It should warrant a unanimous outcry from world leaders, but this is not happening," he said. "If news of hospitals being destroyed, patients killed in their beds and doctors torn apart in bomb blasts happens with such frequency that it somehow becomes normalized, what does it say about our humanity?"

Experts say there is often no real follow-up because organisations may not be certain who the perpetrators are and the region may be too remote and insecure for aid groups to investigate further and find witnesses.

Attacks also happen in countries where law and order is not transparent and judicial structures are weak and susceptible to corruption. Often charities do not have the power to push for independent inquiries.

Adele Harmer from Humanitarian Outcomes, which publishes an annual report on aid worker security, said the group seeks to identify both motive and perpetrator when compiling data on attacks but found information was not always easy to come by.(https://aidworkersecurity.org/)

Only about 60 percent of aid worker deaths can be attributed to a motive and perpetrator, said Harmer.

"The high profile cases like Mutur and Kunduz are clearer, but the vast majority are not high profile and are often utterly undocumented. As a result, it is incredibly difficult for organisations to do something about it."

Humanitarians say to reduce such attacks, aid groups must demand accountability and better monitoring of compliance to International Humanitarian Law to keep perpetrators from acting with a sense of impunity.

Creation of an independent special rapporteur for protection of humanitarian aid workers is under discussion at the U.N. and could be a welcome solution, they said.

"There is currently no robust, coordinated system in place to deal with this," said Krishnan. "It's just individual agencies when their own colleagues are attacked.
Haiti Senate report claims graft in use of Venezuela funds

By Makini Brice

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Aug 19 (Reuters) - A Haitian Senate report has called for charges to be brought against two former prime ministers and several ministers for alleged embezzlement, abuse of authority and forgery stemming from the use of funds in a Venezuelan oil loan program.

The executive summary of the report, dated Wednesday, said heads of ministries granted multimillion-dollar projects to firms while bypassing the public bidding process and signed contracts that were not under their authority. The full report has not been released.

The Senate report will add to concerns about billions of dollars of aid promised to Haiti after the 2010 earthquake. Much of the money went to directly to aid organizations, with results on the ground mostly unimpressive. Aid flows have slowed as memories of the devastation fade.

Venezuela's PetroCaribe program, by contrast, funnelled money directly to the Haitian government's coffers. The program, which Haiti joined in 2006, allowed Caribbean nations to pay low prices for oil from Venezuela, part of which would be financed upfront, with the balance put in a fund to finance social and economic projects.

That money, too, has dried up, however, as Venezuela, which has the world's largest proven reserves of oil, contends with domestic political problems and low oil prices.

The report caps a parliamentary investigation led by a senator from the southern town of Jacmel into whether funds from Venezuela's PetroCaribe program were misspent under previous governments led by presidents Rene Preval, under whom the program began, and Michel Martelly, who left office earlier this year.

The report calls for judicial investigations into Jean-Max Bellerive, prime minister under Preval; Laurent Lamothe, prime minister under Martelly; former ministers of finance, public works, planning, agriculture and health; the Office of the Monetization of Aid and Development Programs; and members of committee under the Ministry of Planning.

It also asks for certain companies granted funds under the program to return the money and called for investigations into overbilling and violations of contracts.

"The liberties taken by the successive administrations with the law, the manoeuvres or strategies used to skirt the law, the lightness with which some dossiers were treated, the overbilling and other derivatives, the lack of ethics demonstrated that the interrogations and the suspicions of public opinion were well-founded," the summary reads.

Through his spokesman, former Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe said he was innocent.

A spokeswoman for the Venezuelan embassy declined to comment, saying this was an internal matter concerning the Haitian government.

A draft of the report has been distributed to senators for approval. If it is approved in a vote, it will be sent to an administrative court, the anti-corruption office and two financial authorities, Youri Latortue, the senator who led the investigation, said on radio station Magik 9 on Friday.

The Haitian Senate has not met regularly for months.

Haiti used about $2.1 billion in funds from the program for its investment budget between 2008 and March 2016, the executive summary said.
U.S. judge seeks criminal contempt charges against Arizona sheriff

By David Schwartz

PHOENIX, Aug 19 (Reuters) - A federal judge recommended on Friday that prosecutors bring criminal contempt charges against Arizona lawman Joe Arpaio, finding that the controversial sheriff had violated court orders stemming from a 2007 racial profiling case.

U.S. District Court Judge Murray Snow also urged criminal contempt charges against Arpaio's second-in-command, Gerard Sheridan, along with Maricopa County Sheriff's Captain Steve Bailey and an Arpaio attorney, Michele Iafrate.

In a written order, Snow asked federal prosecutors to file contempt charges for three alleged violations by Arpaio, who styles himself as "America's toughest sheriff" and has built a national reputation for strong rhetoric and aggressive actions to crack down on undocumented immigrants.

Federal prosecutors must still decide whether to bring criminal charges in a case that grew from a lawsuit challenging conduct by the sheriff's department as unconstitutional.

A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Phoenix said the judge's referral was under review. If prosecutors decline to file charges, another judge could appoint a special prosecutor to take up the case.

Criminal contempt citations, if proven in court, carry penalties of jail time and fines.

Arpaio's criminal defense lawyer, Mel McDonald, said he was certain his client will be vindicated.

"Judge Snow voiced his opinion, and we disagree with his conclusion," McDonald told Reuters. "There was no criminal intent by the sheriff." McDonald added that he would meet with prosecutors to make his argument against criminal charges.

But an attorney for the plaintiffs in the racial profiling case called the judge's decision "the right next step for justice to be done."

"When a federal court finds that a law enforcement official has lied under oath and willfully flouted court orders, that official must be held to account," said Cecillia Wang, director of the American Civil Liberties Union Immigrants' Rights Project.

In his 32-page order, Snow said Arpaio willfully violated a 2011 court injunction barring the sheriff's office from stopping and detaining motorists solely based on suspicion they were in the country illegally. That practice continued for 18 months after the judge ordered it halted, Snow said.

He also cited Arpaio for failing to disclose documents and preserve records in the case, as ordered.
Olympics-Taekwondo-Cisse's last-second kick delivers gold for Ivory Coast

RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 19 (Reuters) - Cheick Sallah Cisse, of the Ivory Coast, clinched a stunning victory against Great Britain's Lutalo Muhammad with a spin kick to the head in the last second of their gold-medal taekwondo bout on Friday.

After trailing the British fighter by four points to six until the waning instants of the match, Cisse scored another four points, the most available in a single maneuver, with a spectacular reverse turning kick to Muhammad's head.

The victory, in the under 80 kg category, gave Ivory Coast its first-ever gold medal in Olympic history and the country's second overall medal at the Rio Games, following a bronze for compatriot Ruth Gbagbi in an earlier fight on Friday in the women's under 67 kg category.

The African country has only won one other Olympic medal ever, a silver in the men's 400 metres race in 1984.

An emotional Muhammad, who won bronze at London 2012, called the kick "a horrible moment".

"I came within inches of achieving what has been a life goal for me," he added. "I was very sad."

With his silver after Friday night's fight, Muhammad secured the second taekwondo medal in Rio for the British team.
Taliban make further gains in Afghan north

KABUL, Aug 20 (Reuters) - The Afghan Taliban captured a strategic district in the northern province of Kunduz on Saturday, forcing troops to retreat to the provincial capital which fell briefly to the insurgents last year, officials said.

Fighting has sharply escalated in Afghanistan since the insurgency started spreading from its traditional strongholds in the south and east of the country to the once peaceful north.

The militants seized the district of Khanabad, which connects Kunduz to Takhar and other northern provinces, in the early morning, with heavy fighting ongoing in several other districts, the officials said.

"The Taliban attacked the district from different positions and we resisted for hours but we received no support. The district fell to the Taliban," said Hayatullah Amiri, the Khanabad chief.

Afghan officials in Kabul say a lack of ammunition and few reinforcements are the main reasons for the district's fall to the Taliban, who are seeking to force the NATO-led coalition out of Afghanistan and bring in Islamic law.

The fall of Khanabad comes only five days after the Taliban captured a district in neighbouring Baghlan province, seizing a number of government forces' vehicles and ammunition. {nL3N1AW2EZ}

The provincial capital of Kunduz fell to the Taliban for the first time in September last year, one of the biggest victories for the militant group since they were ousted from power by U.S. and coalition forces in late 2001.
Turkish parliament approves deal ending rift with Israel

ISTANBUL, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Turkey's parliament approved a reconciliation agreement signed with Israel in June which has brought to an end a six-year rift between the two regional powers, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Saturday.

Relations between the two countries crumbled after Israeli marines stormed a Turkish ship in May 2010 to enforce a naval blockade of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, killing 10 Turks on board.

Israel, which had already offered its apologies for the raid, agreed under the deal to pay out $20 million to the bereaved and wounded in return for Turkey dropping outstanding legal claims.

Both countries are to appoint ambassadors under an agreement which is partly driven by the prospect of lucrative Mediterranean gas deals.

The accord, signed on June 28, was a rare rapprochement in the divided Middle East, also driven by mutual fears over growing security risks. Two weeks afterwards more than 240 people were killed in an attempted coup in Turkey.

Under the deal, the naval blockade of Gaza, which Ankara had wanted lifted, remains in force, although humanitarian aid can continue to be transferred to Gaza via Israeli ports.
Turkey asks Germany for help with Gulen crackdown - report

BERLIN, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Turkey's government has sent German authorities requests for 40 searches and three extraditions linked to supporters of Fethullah Gulen, the U.S-based Muslim cleric it blames for last month's attempted coup, magazine Der Spiegel reported on Saturday.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan accuses a network of schools, charities and businesses led by Gulen, and built up in Turkey and abroad over decades, of infiltrating state institutions and orchestrating the failed coup.

Authorities in Turkey have arrested or suspended tens of thousands of police, troops, officials, judges and civil servants because of their alleged links to Gulen's movement.

Citing classified documents, Spiegel said Turkey's secret service had asked Germany's foreign intelligence agency (BND) for help in rounding up Gulen supporters in Germany.

The magazine said the Turkish secret service wanted the BND to use its influence to spur German lawmakers into taking action against Gulen supporters and extraditing them to Turkey.

A spokesman for the BND said the agency only reported on the operative aspects of its work to the German government and the responsible authorities in the lower house of parliament.

A Turkish presidency official said: "It's not our policy to comment on intelligence operations. However, we expect all our friends and allies to assist Turkey's efforts to hold FETO operatives accountable for their crimes." FETO is an abbreviation standing for the "Gulenist Terror Group" which is how Ankara refers to Gulen's movement.

Germany is home to a three-million strong Turkish community and concern is growing that tensions between Erdogan backers and Gulen supporters are spilling over onto German soil.

Erdogan backers have demonstrated in several German cities since July's attempted putsch, shops have been boycotted by political rivals and hate mail has been sent to anti-Erdogan politicians.
Philippine government agrees new truce with Maoist-led rebels

MANILA, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has agreed a new ceasefire with Maoist-led guerrillas, who declared a truce several hours before, ahead of fresh peace talks in Norway next week, a senior administration official said on Saturday.

The ceasefire will come into effect from Sunday morning.

Duterte lifted the unilateral truce with the communist New People's Army late last month as rebels did not respond to a deadline to reciprocate the government's truce.

"The enabling environment brought about by this 'silencing of guns' will hopefully go a long way in bringing about an expeditious and early resolution to our differences and aspirations that have long divided us as a people," Jesus Dureza, presidential peace adviser, said in a statement.

The peace talks, brokered by Norway, will resume on Aug. 22, four years after getting bogged down due to rebels' demand for the release of 500 political prisoners.

Last week, 17 captured communist guerrilla leaders in the Philippines were freed so they could attend peace talks next week in Norway.

Duterte, who came to power seven weeks ago, is seeking to negotiate an end to two long-running insurgencies by Muslims and communists.

Talks brokered by Norway between the government and the Maoist-led rebels' National Democratic Front stalled in 2012 over the government's refusal to free communist leaders who had been in jail for decades.
Kurds vs Syrian army battle intensifies, complicating multi-fronted war

By Angus McDowall

BEIRUT, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Fighting between the Syrian army and Kurdish forces intensified late on Friday and into Saturday, creating the risk of yet another front opening in the multi-sided civil war.

The two sides have mostly avoided confrontation during the five-year conflict, with the government focusing its efforts against Sunni Arab rebels in the west, and the Kurds mainly fighting Islamic State in northern Syria.

In an indication of their reluctance to escalate further, pro-government media said on Saturday they had held preliminary peace talks.

After the fighting broke out this week, government warplanes bombed Kurdish-held areas of Hasaka, one of two cities in the largely Kurdish-held northeast where the government has maintained enclaves.

Fighting there could complicate the battle against Islamic State because of the Kurds' pivotal role in the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces' (SDF) fight against the group.

On Friday, warplanes from the U.S.-led coalition flew what the Pentagon called protective patrols around Hasaka to prevent Syrian jets from targeting U.S. special forces, who are operating on the ground with the SDF, the first sorties of their kind in the war.

Ground fighting intensified late on Friday when Kurdish YPG fighters battled Syrian forces, whose air force flew sorties over the city, Kurds and monitors said.

"The clashes continue in areas inside the city today. There were military operations," a Kurdish official said.

Many inhabitants of Kurdish areas fled on Friday and at least 41 people have been killed, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based war monitoring group, said.

"There are efforts to cool things between the army and the Asayish (YPG-affiliated forces), and a first meeting was held aimed at a ceasefire," Sham FM, a pro-government radio station, reported.

COMPLICATING FACTOR

As well as complicating the war against Islamic State, fighting in Hasaka could create problems for the government's campaign in the city of Aleppo, where Kurdish forces have been accused of coordinating with the Syrian army against rebels backed by Turkey.

The YPG, or People's Protection Units, have close ties with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Turkey, against which Ankara has waged a three-decade counter insurgency. Turkey fears the Kurds' drive against Islamic State is partly aimed at carving out a Kurdish region along its own southern border.

On Saturday, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Turkey would take a more active role in Syria in coming months to stop it being torn along ethnic lines - an apparent reference to the YPG gains in northern areas.

Local fighters backed by the SDF, of which the YPG militia form an integral part, said on Saturday they would not advance further north - towards the Turkish border - having secured the city of Manbij, 250 km (155 miles) west of Hasaka, from Islamic State, an announcement that may have been aimed at assuaging Turkish fears.

Syria's army has blamed the YPG for the Hasaka fighting and described it as a branch of the PKK, a characterisation the group rejected on Saturday.

In Aleppo, fighting continued near the mouth of a corridor that rebels opened this month into besieged areas they control.

Jakob Kern, the Syria director of the United Nations' World Food Programme, said opposition-held areas had been inaccessible for weeks and food was running perilously short.

"In the east of Aleppo, the food will last a maximum of two weeks, probably until the end of August," Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger quoted him as saying on Saturday.
Nicaragua election campaign begins with Ortega as clear favorite

By Ivan Castro

MANAGUA, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Nicaragua's election campaign kicked off on Saturday, with President Daniel Ortega the clear favorite to sweep aside a weakened opposition and win a third consecutive term in a Nov. 6 vote.

Ortega, a 70-year-old former guerrilla leader, remains highly popular after nearly a decade in power due to his handling of the economy and a series of social welfare programs that were backed by leftist allies Cuba and Venezuela.

But the political opposition has accused Ortega and his Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) party of neutering state institutions and trying to install a dynasty after he announced his wife, Rosario Murillo, would run as his vice presidential candidate.

Murillo previously served as the government's chief spokeswoman.

The United States and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights have criticized Ortega's government for failing to accept international election observers, a decision Ortega defended by arguing that he has lost elections in which such monitors failed to recognize irregularities.

The U.S. government has also voiced concerns over efforts by the country's Supreme Court to weaken the opposition Independent Liberal Party (PLI) and the Constitutionalist Liberal Party (PLC), in what it called efforts "to limit democratic space."

"We call on the Nicaraguan government to respect the voices of its people and take the steps for fair and transparent elections that permit the full participation of all Nicaraguan citizens, including by allowing opposition parties to operate independently," U.S. Department of State spokesman John Kirby said earlier this month.

Ortega first ruled the country in the 1980s and returned to power in 2007 after a fracture in Nicaragua's right-wing parties.

Although he maintains his anti-imperialist rhetoric, Ortega has consolidated power by striking alliances with the business sector, helping the Central American country maintain an average annual growth rate of 5 percent over the last five years.

The poverty rate has also fallen, tumbling from 42.5 percent of the population in 2009 to 30 percent in 2014.

According to a poll published in late June, Ortega was seen easily winning a third consecutive term, which would keep him in office until 2020. The poll, conducted by M&R Consultants, showed that 65 percent of those surveyed planned to vote for Ortega's FSLN, compared with just 13 percent for the opposition parties.
Tunisian premier names government, appoints new finance minister

By Tarek Amara

TUNIS, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Tunisian Prime Minister-designate Youssef Chahed named his new government on Saturday, appointing a former investment official as finance minister and keeping the previous foreign and defence ministers in their posts.

Chahed, named premier after his predecessor was dismissed by lawmakers in a no-confidence vote last month, had been in talks with the main secularist, leftist and Islamist parties over cabinet posts. His cabinet line-up must now go to parliament for a vote of approval.

A senior member of the secularist Nidaa Tounes and ally of President Beji Caid Essebsi, Chahed promised a cabinet capable of delivering economic reforms that evaded past prime ministers, but critics say he may not have the political capital to succeed.

"Our country is in a very delicate phase and we do not have the right to deceive the Tunisian people. I call on all Tunisians and the parties to support this government," Chahed told reporters at Carthage presidential palace.

Tunisia's transition since a 2011 uprising overthrew autocrat Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali has been hailed as a model for the Arab world. But the North African state has struggled with Islamist militant violence and slow progress on economic reforms needed to create growth and jobs.

The new cabinet is inclusive, with members of Nidaa Tounes, Islamist party Ennahda, and smaller parties as well opposition figures, independents and ministers close to the powerful UGTT labour union, in a likely attempt to win backing for reforms.

Marouane El Abassi, a World Bank representative for Libya and economist educated in France, had been touted as new finance minister. But Chahed named Lamia Zribi, a former official for investment and development and a state bank director.

Keeping their posts in the cabinet were Interior Minister Hedi Majdou, Defense Minister Farhat Horchani and Foreign Affairs Minister Khemais Jhinaoui, a move seen to keep continuity in the delicate fight against Islamist militants.

TOUGH START

Chahed also nominated Mohamed Trabelsi as minister of social affairs and Abid Briki, a former union official, as minister of public functions. Both men have close ties to the UGTT, which in the past has resisted austerity measures.

During his nearly two years in office, previous premier Habib Essid failed to overcome political infighting and carry out reforms including public spending cuts and improvements to laws to attract foreign investment.

Chahed's cabinet faces a tough start. Three major attacks by Islamist militants last year badly hit tourism bookings, forcing job cuts in an industry that accounts for 8 percent of the economy. Unemployment is already at 15 percent, with the rate far higher among the young.

Months of protests by jobless youths have also disrupted production and exports of the state-run phosphate industry, another major revenue earner.
Article 21 of the Constitution, considered as fundamental to all fundamental rights, provides for protection of life and personal liberty. According to the Supreme Court, Article 21 guarantees not only the Right to Life but also a right to dignified life. But does the Right to Life implicitly mean a right to take away ones own life?

The right to die not only covers euthanasia, but also suicide, assisted suicide and other related concepts. Section 309 of the Indian Penal Code criminalises attempt to suicide with an imprisonment up to one year and a fine.

Euthanasia is a highly emotional issue and has taken a legal recourse in recent times. In May 2016, the government of India invited suggestions on the draft Bill for euthanasia, titled "Terminally Ill Patients (protection of patients and medical practitioners) Bill."

In 2006, the 196th report of the Law Commission of India brought the Medical Treatment of Terminally Ill Patients (Protection of Patients and Medical Practitioners) Bill, 2006 but the government did not make any law on euthanasia. In 2008, Jeet Narayan, a labourer from Uttar Pradesh sought euthanasia for his four sons  all crippled and paralysed below the neck. His plea was rejected by the then president.

During the Aruna Shanbaug vs Union of India case of 2011, the Supreme Court agreed for the first time that passive euthanasia may be practiced on a case to case basis. The court held that patients who are brain-dead, or in a permanent vegetative stage/state, and if doctors have lost all hopes of reviving them, may be allowed to die by withdrawing life-sustaining drugs and life support system.

Giving right to die is respecting patients choice.

Active euthanasia means deliberately doing something to cause death, whereas passive euthanasia occurs when the patient dies because the medical professionals either don't do something necessary to keep the patient alive, or when they stop doing something that is keeping the patient alive.

In August 2012, the Law Commission again proposed a legislation on passive euthanasia. It doesn't recommend active euthanasia, which continues to remain a crime under law.

The recent Bill was drafted to "provide for the protection of patients and medical practitioners from liability in the context of withholding or withdrawing medical treatment including life support systems from patients who are terminally ill".

The proposed law says that competent patients, including those above 16 years of age who can take informed decisions themselves, can ask the doctor directly to withhold treatment.

The law explicitly states that the doctor as well as the patient would be protected from any criminal or civil liability. For incompetent patients, their relative, friend or doctor has to file a case in a high court. The high court is expected to pass a judgment within a month. Before taking a decision, the court would have to take the opinion of three doctors and the wishes of the patient's close relatives. These three would be chosen by the high court from a panel of doctors.

However, the draft does not give complete clarity on the concept of a living will, "a document in which a person states his/her desire to have or not to have extraordinary life-prolonging measures used when recovery is not possible from his/her terminal condition." The draft Bill also says that any "advance medical directive (living will) or medical power of attorney executed by the person shall be void, of no effect and shall not be binding on any medical practitioner."

A living will, therefore, become irrelevant. Also, in cases where a competent terminally ill patient can decide on further treatment, the decision still rests with the doctor. The medical practitioner has to be satisfied about patients competency in deciding. This gives too much discretion to the doctor and is a violation of patients autonomy.

Doctors unwilling to withdraw life support can take shelter in this provision. The current Bill gives power to 16-year olds to decide on passive euthanasia, whereas 18 is the age of consent for surgical treatment or administration of medicine, and even to vote and drive. Child rights activists are also not too happy with the draft. Enakshi Ganguly of the Haq Centre for Child Rights in Delhi called it "ridiculous" to allow a child to decide something as important as life and death.

Different laws give different definition of being adult. We need consistency in our laws regarding age of a major.

Lawmakers in India may also refer to international examples.

In countries like Japan, Canada, Germany, and United States, passive euthanasia is already legal. Albania justifies passive euthanasia if a patient is incapacitated from making the decision to die. In 2009, Luxembourg fully legalised euthanasia, giving the right to die to terminally ill patients who have asked for it more than once.

In 2013, Belgium opened a debate and then voted in favour to extend the administration of voluntary euthanasia to terminally ill children in unbearable pain who are able to fully comprehend the meaning of euthanasia.

India should look into these matters and come up with a concrete solution. There have been suggestions like brain death certification to check the patients euthanasia plea. There are also concerns for involving courts to check every plea. Given the number of cases already pending in our courts, we might need special courts or tribunals for this.

While the Bill does talk of providing palliative care for terminally ill patients, irrespective of the decision taken, the facilities for such care are not enough in the country.

India has initiated a national debate and working to enact a separate law on the subject with safeguards to prevent its misuse. The courts have repeatedly asked for it. The media has taken the lead. Elected representatives should follow it, and so should think tanks and civil society leaders. The courts have said that the right to live does not include the right to die by implication, but there can always be a separate right to die.

Patients living in a vegetative state are not only in emotional trauma but they also become a financial burden for families. States insufficiency, apathy, and inadequate investment on health become a mockery to "Right to Life".
There was a belief in GOP circles that once elected, Donald Trump would become more moderate and inclusive. Basically, that he would stop being Trump.

Things haven't really gone that way as the Presidential nominee has done the exact opposite week after week and continued with his outlandish ways, alienating an already thinning support base. He recently disrespected a Gold Star family, he called Barack Obama the founder of ISIS and asked Russians to hack into Hillary Clinton's emails.

Yet, a large number of American people support him. But the problem is that we have reached a stage where the loose cannon that is Trump can't even differentiate between detractors and supporters.

Donald Trump makes a face at his night rally in Des Moines. Photo: Reuters

On Friday, a Indian-origin teenager was escorted out of Donald Trump's rally in Charlotte, North Carolina after the Presidential nominee's staff said they recognised him as a frequent protester.

Jake Anantha, and 18-year-old college student, insisted he was a Trump supporter (he was wearing a Trump t-shirt for god's sake), but made it clear that after this treatment, he wouldn't be voting for the GOP candidate in the November elections.

"I told him I've never been to another rally in my life," Anantha said. "I'm a huge Trump supporter. I would never protest against Trump."

Anantha feels that he was shunted out of the rally because of the colour of his skin as he saw many white people being allowed after he was forced to leave.

"I thought (Trump) was for all people. I don't believe he is for all people anymore," he told the Observer. "Why are all these white people allowed to attend and I'm not?"

@FauxGaryJohnson I will definitely be voting Johnson on November 8th.  Jake Anantha (@JakeAnantha) August 19, 2016

Anantha wasn't the only one who Trump's trusted force threw out. Rose Hamid, another American at the rally, was also shown the exit. An observant Muslim, Hamid was distributing flowers at the rally to change the perception about her community.
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About Censored News Censored News is published by Brenda Norrell. Since 2006, Censored News has received more than 20 million pageviews. As a collective of writers, photographers and broadcasters, we publish news of Indigenous Peoples and human rights. Contact publisher Brenda Norrell: brendanorrell@gmail.com

From the publisher Censored News is published by Brenda Norrell, a journalist in Indian country for 40 years. Norrell created Censored News after she was censored and terminated as a staff reporter at Indian Country Today in 2006. She began as a reporter at Navajo Times during the 18 years that she lived on the Navajo Nation. She was a stringer for AP and USA Today and later traveled with the Zapatistas through Mexico. She has been blacklisted by all the mainstream media for 14 years. Contact brendanorrell@gmail.com

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In the early 18th century, the Blue Ridge Mountains were a formidable barrier to western expansion.

Intrepid hunters and trappers who ventured across the craggy rises would return with stories about the paradise that lay on the far side of the blue-tinged ridges. They spoke of fertile land, forests teeming with wildlife and clear-running rivers and streams filled with fish.

By 1716, it had become clear that a passage through the mountains needed to be found. Alexander Spotswood was the man for the job.

Spotswood was born around 1676 in the Colony of Tangier, Morocco. After moving to England in 1683, he joined the British Army and moved up through the ranks until he became a lieutenant colonel.

In 1710, the battle-seasoned officer was commissioned lieutenant governor of the Virginia colony by Queen Anne. This appointment provided Spotswood with the wherewithal to head up an expedition to find a route through the Blue Ridge that would give settlers access to the western frontier.

Three hundred years ago this month, Spotswood and about 50 others set out from the German settlement of Germanna to find a breach in the mountains. The exploratory expedition consisted of 14 rangers, four Meherrin Indians and prominent citizens.

Assisting the adventurers were 74 horses, some of which were used as pack animals.

The liquor list reveals an intention to mix work with pleasure. There was a generous supply of red and white wine. Add to this a quantity of brandy shrub, which was a popular drink of the day, consisting of rum or brandy mixed with sugar and fruit juice.

Jugs or bottles of asquebaugh, a type of whiskey, also went into packs and saddlebags. And there were two kinds of rum, cider and cherry punch. Of course, there had to be plenty of Champagne to toast whatever needed to be honored along the way.

A bracing drink to lift the spirits could be just the thing in the withering summer heat. And although the men were well fortified, this wasnt an easy jaunt through the countryside.

Breaking brush through the trackless wilderness was a wearying ordeal for man and beast. Disturbed hornets caused enough mayhem to earn a mention in the notes of the expeditions scribe, Lt. John Fontaine.

There were accounts of riders being thrown from horses, some of which may have been startled by the ominous warnings of rattlesnakes. At one point, the forest was so thick that men had to use axes to clear the way.

Fontaine wrote that at the end of each day, they made great fires, supped, and drank good punch. These nightly revelries included roasting hunks of venison and bear meat on forked sticks.

After days of travel through steep terrain, the men had a real reason to celebrate. At about 1 p.m. Sept. 5, 1716, they and their animals labored up the final rocky pitch and found themselves on top of their world.

Their location likely was Swift Run Gap, and the panoramic view to the west was wondrous. The following day, the expedition traveled down the western slope of Massanutten Mountain and into the Shenandoah Valley.

Near what is now the town of Elkton, the travelers paused in order to commemorate their accomplishment. Out came the booze, pistols and muskets. Volley after volley of celebratory gunfire echoed through the ridges and hollows.

Toasts were made to the health of King George I and members of his royal family. Spotswood named the tallest peak he could see for the king. The next tallest, he dubbed Mount Spotswood.

One of the explorers, the Rev. Hugh Jones, claimed that Spotswood chiseled the kings name on a rock located on a slope of Mount George. Fontaine discounted this and wrote, The governor had graving-irons, but could not grave anything, the stones were so hard.

The men had accomplished their mission of finding a route wagons could travel through the mountains. Colonial records show that by 1726, more than 10,000 settlers had established homes, farms and businesses in the valley.

To reward the officers of the expedition, Spotswood gave each of them a gold stickpin in the shape of a horseshoe. Precious stones were set into the holes where the nails would have been.

Engraved on the pins were Latin words that translated as, Thus, it is pleasant to cross the mountains. The expensive mementos resulted in the explorers becoming collectively known as the Knights of the Golden Horseshoe.

To commemorate the 300th anniversary of the expedition, a re-enactment of the ride will start on Tuesday at the Germanna Foundation Visitor Center. Its scheduled to culminate on Saturday at Big Meadows in Shenandoah National Park.

The 1716 expedition has been called Americas first trail ride. It certainly didnt involve the degree of hardships or epic distances of other historic treks that would follow.

Nonetheless, the Knights of the Golden Horseshoe opened an important door, beyond which lay Americas future.

David A. Maurer can be reached at dmaurer@dailyprogress.com or (434) 978-7244.
News / Africa

by Nqobile Tshili

A 16-YEAR-OLD pupil at a Bulawayo school fought off a pirate Honda Fit driver who wanted to rape her by stabbing him with a pen before kicking his private parts.The teen boarded a black Honda Fit near Christian Brothers College on Sunday on her way home to Famona suburb.Police have since launched a manhunt for the driver.Bulawayo acting police spokesperson Assistant Inspector Abednico Ncube said the teen boarded the pirate taxi at about 8:30AM.He said the driver suddenly drove off the main road and tried to force himself on the girl. The driver, said Asst Insp Ncube, targeted the teen as she was the last passenger to drop off the pirate taxi."The driver dropped his other two passengers along Luanda Road and instead of proceeding to the teen's place, he drove towards Argyle Road where he parked his vehicle at the edge of the road. The suspect got out of the vehicle and tried to strip the complainant naked," he said.Asst Insp Ncube said the girl bravely fought the man and managed to escape after kicking the rapist's private parts."She stabbed the man with a pen on the arm. As he staggered backwards, she kicked him on his private parts. She then escaped as the man lay on the ground writhing in pain. She made a report and Hillside Police Station is now investigating the matter," said Asst Insp Ncube.He said police were hunting for the driver of an unregistered black Honda Fit plying eastern suburbs routes."The driver was wearing a blue work suit driving an unregistered Honda Fit. We're appealing to anyone who might have information that may lead to the location of the driver and his vehicle to come forward," he said.Asst Insp Ncube urged members of the public to avoid boarding pirating unregistered vehicles saying some of them have been linked to heinous crimes in the city.In July police recorded 91 cases of plain robberies in Bulawayo, with 69 of them being linked to pirating Honda Fit drivers.
Charlottesville police are investigating a reported sexual assault that occurred early Saturday morning on the University of Virginia Grounds.

According to police, the female victim, a UVa student, was approached from behind on Emmet Street near Thomson Road. The suspect had a knife, pulled the victim from the sidewalk and assaulted her.

The suspect is described as a white male, between 20 and 30 years old, of average height and with light-colored hair.

Police ask that anyone in the area between midnight and 1 a.m. who noticed anything suspicious contact Det. Sgt. T. Newberry at (434) 970-3280 or Crime Stoppers at (434) 977-4000.

Friday marked the beginning of Opening Weekend at the University of Virginia, which welcomed about 24,000 students to Grounds for the new school year.

This year, the university has gone to great lengths to keep students  especially the approximately 3,700 entering first-year students  out of trouble on opening weekend. This week, several administrators  including Dean of Students Allen W. Groves and President Teresa A. Sullivan  sent out notices urging students to stay away from Saturdays rowdy Wertland Street Block Party.

While the event is not in any way affiliated with, or sanctioned by, the university, it has nonetheless become a great concern for many of us, given the increasing size of the crowd and the demonstrated potential for negative (and highly serious) incidents to occur, Groves wrote. Sexual assault, dangerously crowded balconies, underage drinking, and other risks inherent in large crowds of individuals you do not know are all very real concerns.

The university had a series of alternative events planned for the same time as the block party, which typically attracts about 5,000 people.

The university sponsored a concert headlined by J. Cole, as well as several late-night events in the Aquatic & Fitness Center. Dining halls were open late, and several dorms hosted their own events.

UVa sent out a timely warning notification to students about the reported sexual assault, but many first-year students, such as Sabrina Lingenfelter and Kate Giesler, said Saturday they didnt know about it and had not received the notification. Both said they thought they had signed up for the notification system at orientation.

I still feel really safe on Grounds, though, because [of], I think, [my] peers, Lingenfelter said. Whenever Im walking with one of my classmates, I still feel really safe.

About 30 other first-year students said they also had not heard about the reported sexual assault. One first-year student said he did receive the email notification.

The university has two types of alerts: timely warnings about Clery Act crimes and emergency notifications for any incident that may be considered an immediate and ongoing threat, according to UVas Clery Act website.

The university is reviewing the email distribution system for timely warning notifications to confirm message delivery, UVa spokesman Anthony de Bruyn said in an email.

The Jeanne Clery Act, a consumer protection law passed in 1990, requires all colleges and universities that receive federal funding to share information about crime on campus and their efforts to improve campus safety, as well as inform the public of crime in or around campus, according to the Clery Center for Security On Campus.

The center says institutions have ongoing reporting obligations, and when an incident occurs, they must determine if a timely warning or emergency notification must be disseminated to the campus community. They should have specific policies for both timely warnings and emergency notifications, and they should not conflate the two in their policies or in any description of their policies, the center website says.

At UVa, the emergency notifications are sent via email and text, among other channels, said de Bruyn, and the timely warnings are distributed via email only.

Eva Cassada and Tom McLaughlin were on Grounds on Saturday to move in their first-year son. They said they had not heard about the reported sexual assault, from their son or otherwise.

All we knew about was this block party, said Cassada. President Sullivan put the word out that it was to be off limits, and so the J. Cole concert is a nice alternative. Thats all we had heard about.

It was not mentioned in President Sullivans address, the welcome to the parents  that was certainly not mentioned, she said.

The Presidents Welcome Address was at 1 p.m. Saturday, and Cassada and McLaughlin said administrators talked about alcohol safety and took questions from the audience. A representative from the UVa Police Department talked about the alert system and other safety measures they take for students and staff.

It was a good presentation, but that did not come up, McLaughlin said.

Reports of sexual assault at UVa have been in the national headlines over the past two years.

Second-year student Hannah Graham went missing in September 2014 from Charlottesvilles Downtown Mall. Her remains were found just over a month later on an abandoned property off Old Lynchburg Road in Albemarle. Jesse Leroy Matthew Jr. pleaded guilty in March to two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of abduction with the intent to defile in the cases of Graham and Morgan Harrington. Harrington, a Virginia Tech student, went missing after a Metallica concert at John Paul Jones Arena in October 2009, and her remains were found the following January on a property in Albemarle.

In 2014, a debunked Rolling Stone graphically described a first-year UVa student identified only as Jackie being raped by seven men in a fraternity house. The story crumbled under scrutiny, and a city police investigation turned up no evidence to back it. The magazine issued an apology, saying it had found discrepancies in Jackies account.

UVa had 35 reported rapes on Grounds in 2014  the latest data available  and the rate of reported rapes is 1.5 per 1,000 students, according to data collected by the Department of Education.

In 2011, the education departments Office of Civil Rights launched a review into UVas sexual assault policy after UVa had been found to be in violation of Title IX. In a letter, the department was sharply critical of UVas old policies for dealing with sexual misconduct complaints, saying the university failed to eliminate a hostile environment and did not take steps to prevent its recurrence.

According a letter from the department, UVa did not provide a prompt and equitable response in many cases, often providing delayed responses and sometimes changing things on short notice.

The university was cleared in September 2015.

UVa created a new office to ensure the university complies with Title IX law, added new confidential outlets for reporting and hired designated experts to investigate assault claims. These changes were solidified in a new written policy adopted earlier in 2015.
Members of the Crozet Community Advisory Committee recently received an update on a proposed rezoning for downtown Crozet.

Were trying to build a town center thats relevant in the 21st century, Frank Stoner, of Milestone Partners, who is working to redevelop about 20.5 acres in the heart of Crozet, said at a CCAC meeting earlier this week.
Three years after local arts officials approved a cultural plan for Charlottesville and Albemarle County, the body charged with spearheading the plan says it needs some tweaks.

The Piedmont Council for the Arts this summer applied for $57,000 in city funding to refine the document and identify a clear source of funding for the arts.

The Virginia Festival of the Book, Tom Tom Founders Festival, PauseLab and the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission also applied for the funding, city officials said.
When a suspected serial shoplifter walked into the Ruckersville Gallery antiques mall Friday, employees were ready for her.

On Friday morning, Greene County sheriffs deputies received a call from the antiques mall on Seminole Trail about a suspected shoplifter after employees recognized her from security camera footage from an incident at another store, according to Connor Hughes, district manager of the mall. The employees watched her while she was in the store, and Hughes said she tried to conceal some items.

All of the antique stores talk to each other and theyll help each other out, Hughes said. Were an active, tight-knit community.

When deputies arrived at the store, they discovered the woman  later identified as Maria G. Chicas  had concealed store merchandise on her person that had not been paid for, authorities said. Hughes said the woman had taken the price tag off a heavy glass paperweight and placed it in her purse.

The incident came a few days after several items went missing at the Gateway Antiques Center, which is adjacent to Ruckersville Gallery, according to Laura Kane, co-proprietor of the store. Kane said that on Monday she was in the store when a woman came in and began browsing. At one point, the woman asked to try on some clothing in the bathroom, and Kane said that was when the woman concealed some expensive linen under her shirt.

It was a handmade table cloth  one of the nicest things in the shop, Kane said. The shop is big, but we know everything thats in here. We know if something goes missing.

When she noticed the items were missing, she looked back at her security camera footage and saw the woman conceal the items on her person. At that point, Kane took to social media to alert her colleagues on the Central Virginia Antique Dealers Crime Watch Facebook page.

When we see something happening on our cameras or suspect someone, then we alert the other shops to these individuals, Kane said. The most important thing is that were arming ourselves with technology, and its working.

Chicas faces two counts of shoplifting related to the incidents at both stores. She is free on bond.

Anyone with information about the incidents is asked to call Greene Deputies B. Shifflett or M. Collier at (434) 985-2222 or Crime Stoppers at (434) 977-4000.
AFTON  Emily Riddle, of Greenville, watched excitedly from behind a safety fence as her husband, Alan Riddle, sat behind the wheel of their old red pickup truck with two of their children on a recent hot Saturday in Nelson County.

Alan Riddle revved the engine as a stars and bars flag rippled in the wind in the bed of the truck and a 50-foot lane of mud lay before him.

An attendant waved a dirty green flag and Riddle took off into the mud. His time from one end to the other was about 10 seconds.

Many more trucks, sport utility vehicles and other vehicles of varying ages plowed through mud for the Rockfish Valley Volunteer Fire Departments monthly Pit of Dreams mud bog.

A mud bog is a competition between various types of vehicles that are driven through a large mud pit. The drivers attempt to avoid becoming stuck. There are various classes of vehicles  including stock, modified stock, four- and six-cylinder classes and womens and childrens classes.

E.G. Pannell, president of fire company, said the department hosts the mud races every second Saturday from April to October. The next one will be Sept. 10, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. They are held at the fire department, at 11100 Rockfish Valley Highway in Afton.

The revenue from the event goes to the fire department except for one Saturday in October, when the proceeds go to the American Cancer Societys Relay for Life.

Pannell said they generate a couple thousand dollars a month.

We typically get 300 to 500 people, but today it was hot  so people were out here earlier, less now, he said later that afternoon.

All the labor and equipment to dig out the vehicles that do get stuck is donated.

The drivers come from all over, including West Virginia, North Carolina and Northern Virginia.

Theyve had a ball, so they keep coming back, Pannell said, referring to a driver from West Virginia.

Staunton resident Kim Myrtle came to the mud bog to support her cousin Chris Charron, who was racing a Chevrolet Camaro through the mud. She and her friends estimated that he had the only car going through the mud.

For Emily Riddle, she said its a family event. Her family started coming last year and has been to every mud bog since then.

Its a good family event and supports the fire department, she said.

Her nephew Colton Riddle, 7, of Stuarts Draft, sat under the shade of a tent next to her. He said it was fun going through the mud in a truck.

When looking around the tent, Emily Riddle pointed out that a majority of her cousins, nephews and nieces had done a run in the mud pit that day.

Her husband used an old junked truck they bought for the motor before they even heard of the mud bogs, she said.

The tires cost more than the truck, she said.

Riddle said her daughter was in the childrens class this year but would have to be in the womens class next year.

I might have to drive next year, she said.

Ashlie Walter reports for The (Lynchburg) News & Advance.
Friday marked the beginning of move-in weekend at the University of Virginia, which welcomed about 24,000 students to Grounds for the new school year.

This year, the university has gone to great lengths to keep students  especially the approximately 3,700 entering first-year students  out of trouble on opening weekend. This week, several administrators  including Dean of Students Allen W. Groves and President Teresa A. Sullivan  sent out notices urging students to stay away from Saturdays rowdy Wertland Street Block Party.

Curbing substance abuse and being more proactive in mental health outreach are among Sullivans top priorities this year.

But on Friday those worries seemed far from the minds of students and families, who met opening weekend with the familiar mix of apprehension and anticipation.

Im definitely anxious but Im excited to be on my own, said Atman Soni, a first-year biology student. Obviously, it comes with certain risks, but youve got to know how to handle yourself.

Raquel Moya, a third-year biomedical engineering student, said she doesnt blame the administration for taking precautions. But students should find their own ways to entertain themselves without putting themselves in danger, she said.

I always encourage people to have fun wisely and smartly, Moya said. How that looks is up to you.

The university has a series of alternative events planned for the same time as the block party, which typically attracts about 5,000 people.

The university has sponsored a concert headlined by J. Cole for Saturday evening, as well as several late-night events in the Aquatic & Fitness Center. Dining halls will be open late and several dorms will host their own events.

Other events are planned for this weekend, as well.

Safety was one of many topics Sullivan addressed at her Opening Weekend speech to entering students and their families in Old Cabell Hall on Friday.

Sullivan said many students come to campus with a false sense of security. She asked students to look out for each others safety.

Students need to serve as lifeguards, she said. You have a shared responsibility to take care of one another.

Lorna Minott, who had come from Jamaica to drop off her son Jack, said she isnt worried about him. Jack is a track and field athlete, and has been away from home for weeks at a time.

The school year will keep him away for months at a time, but Minott said shes confident hell make the right choices.

Its something Im taking in stride, she said. I pray that he goes with God, and that hell be able to carry through the task he has to do now.

Strategic fund addressed

The $2.3 billion Strategic Investment Fund came up Friday during a question and answer session with university administrators. Sullivan fielded the question  from an anonymous audience member  along with Patrick D. Hogan, UVa executive vice president and chief operating officer.

The fund has been in the spotlight as state legislators ask why UVas Board of Visitors raised tuition while the university had reserves in excess of $2 billion.

Sullivan said it was the decision of the board, which wanted to take the reserves and invest them in the hopes of bringing a return that could be used for future improvements.

The university is required to have reserves, for various reasons, Sullivan said. If we had a bad storm this year, and the roof blew off your childs residence hall, youd expect us to be able to replace it.

She continued: What our board realized is that these reserves could themselves be invested. And proceeds from these investments could be spent.

The fund is expected to pay out approximately $100 million annually. Hogan said that payout will allow the university to make big investments in facilities and hiring without passing on too much additional cost to families.

Helen E. Dragas, who was on the board at the time the fund was approved, has called it a slush fund and insinuated the board tried to hide the money from the public as it was passing tuition increases.

Hogan said much of the information circulating about the fund is false.

Dont believe everything you read, he said.
The University of Virginia has received funding for a new graduate fellowship program in resilient infrastructure.

The U.S. Department of Education has allocated about $246,140 to the university, enough to fund six doctoral fellowships.

Governments and engineers increasingly see the importance of designing resilient infrastructure, which is resistant to disasters, climate change and population booms.

UVas fellowship program will train engineers to tackle these problems with coursework in engineering; computer and information sciences; mathematics; and area, ethnic and cultural studies.
News / Local

by Nqobile Tshili

POLICE in Bulawayo arrested 210 suspects in just two days this week in connection with a series of theft cases that rocked the city recently.Detectives recovered stolen property worth thousands of dollars between Monday and Tuesday.The 210 were arrested following a sting operation to curb theft from vehicles, unlawful entry and plain robberies among other crimes.The officer commanding crime prevention in Bulawayo, Chief Superintendent Marshal Dube, headed the operation.Yesterday, acting Bulawayo police spokesperson Assistant Inspector Abednico Ncube said the arrested suspects are linked to the recovered property."We've arrested at least 210 suspects in connection with various offences during an operation to stop unlawful entry and plain robberies."We've also recovered a wide range of stolen property which includes electrical gadgets, laptops, cellphones, television sets, refrigerators, vehicle wheels with reams and radios," said Asst Insp Ncube.He said police recovered some of the stolen property from informal traders. Ass Insp Ncube warned members of the public against buying goods from informal traders saying those who do so risked being arrested as accessories to theft."Some of the arrested culprits failed to account for the property that was found in their possession," he said. He said two of the people who were arrested were on the police most wanted list for crimes ranging from pickpocketing, assault and theft."Members of the public who might have fallen prey to these criminals are being urged to visit the Zimbabwe Republic Police licence inspectorate at Drill Hall to identify their stole property," he said.Asst Insp Ncube said those seeking to recover their property should be in a position to produce serial numbers for goods or positively identify their property. Last month police said property worth nearly $2 million was stolen in the city between April and July this year.
News / National

by Patrick Chitumba

THE Government has rescued about 120 Zimbabwean women from Kuwait where some had been turned into sex slaves.Women's Affairs, Gender and Community Development Minister Nyasha Chikwinya told The Chronicle that since President Mugabe tasked three Cabinet ministers to lead the process of repatriating Zimbabwean women still in the Arab emirate earlier this year, about 120 had been rescued."On a positive note, my Government has brought home about 120 Zimbabwean women from Kuwaiti captivity and we are still finding ways of ending this human trafficking of our women to that country," she said.Chikwinya encouraged Zimbabweans to be happy with the local economic, political and social conditions saying they were more favourable compared to some countries."I urge all Zimbabweans to be comfortable here. As I am speaking, a lot of Zimbabweans are in bondage in Kuwait, they are being treated like dogs or other useless animals," she said."My ministry is in the process of coming up with programmes aimed at empowering women in the country so that they remain in their beloved country. It is quite disheartening to hear that our children are being treated like dogs in Kuwait, sleeping on top of roofs guarding other people while they sleep yet as a government we have a lot of things to do for the upkeep of our children."In March, Brenda Avril May, a secretary at the Kuwait Embassy in Harare, was arrested on allegations of facilitating the processing of visas for the victims who are now stuck in the emirate.Over the years, many Zimbabwean women have been lured to Kuwait on the pretext of lucrative jobs, only to be forced into virtual slave labour and sex work.Kuwait has the fourth-highest per capita income in the world and the sixth-largest oil reserves, and its currency  the dinar  is the highest valued currency across the globe.Such statistics entice thousands of Africans, especially women, to move to that country.In 2014, the Government enacted the Trafficking in Persons Act (Chapter 10:20) to domesticate the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons.
News / National

by Staff reporter

WHILE President Robert Mugabe might have heaved a sigh of relief following reports that #ThisFlag founder, Evan Mawarire had left the country, the Zanu-PF leader's respite could be short-lived, as the cleric is plotting a massive demonstration when the veteran ruler attends the United Nations General Assembly next month.According to the Washington Post, Mawarire told his audience of mainly expatriate Zimbabweans in Atlanta this week that he "might stop by the International Monetary Fund headquarters in Washington to discuss the government's plan to replace the Zimbabwean currency with a bond pegged to the US dollar"."Mawarire also revealed plans for a major demonstration at the annual UN General Assembly gathering in New York next month, saying he hoped to organise, the biggest protest ever (by expatriates) outside of Zimbabwe," the Washington Post reported.The UN General Assembly will begin on September 13 and Mugabe is expected to attend.Mawarire did not, according to the report, directly respond to questions on whether he had plans to return to Zimbabwe, where the government has indicated it is willing to "interview him".He, however, said his movement would continue to pressure Mugabe ahead of elections expected in 2018, but ruled out "violent protests", despite claims by Mugabe he had called for violence."My faith teaches us that violence only begets violence. Whatever we obtain by violence, we would have to maintain by violence," Mawarire was quoted as saying.The cleric started and led the new social movement demanding that Mugabe addresses rampant corruption and drops plans to introduce bond notes, as well as reverse a ban on the importation of basic commodities.He was arrested, but was freed on a technicality.The cleric immediately left the country and has been on an international tour that has brought mixed feelings among his supporters and critics alike.Meanwhile, Kadoma-based businessmen, Munyaradzi Matombo and Zivanai Mavesere have vowed to continue the fight."President Mugabe, we have consistently invited you to Kadoma to talk to us, but you have refused. I am a Zimbabwean seeking your attention, unafraid and I am not running away," Matombo said in a number of videos that went viral on social media.He scoffed at Defence Forces Commander General Constantino Chiwenga's threats to citizens over growing protests against the government and argued Mawarire had done nothing wrong."The idea of having senior army officials threatening us is a no-brainer. Zimbabweans are not happy. Those close to you are not telling you the truth. You must set things right. Evan (Mawarire) has done nothing wrong. He must be allowed to come back to the country. We are not happy; we cannot be expected to run away from our country," Matombo said.Mugabe, addressing mourners at the burial of a national hero recently, declared Mawarire "should find another country".Matombo said Mugabe was being ill-advised by his acolytes."You would rather call us your enemies because we are pointing out the bad governance and corruption going on. We had our own things, but now we have become destitute. Black entrepreneurs have beenimpoverished, we had local transport operators, some of them your relatives. I suppose you have forgotten about them," he continued."Now the people you call local businessmen are Chinese nationals. We will continue to say the truth even if it means dying for the people of this country. No army general will bully us. The $15 billion would have served all of us, but a few benefited."Matombo accused Mugabe's senior officials of lying to him."The intelligence is telling you lies. They just give you reports that mean nothing. You must dissolve the government and call for elections, even in December, so that we clean up this government," he said."Those close to you claim we have rebelled against your government. We have been brutalised and bullied by the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority and the National Social Security Authority as emerging businesspeople. We need the President's intervention."
PARIS - France - Christianity is a really peaceful religion, its history is peppered with peace, civility and goodness...you must believe this..

One might say that Christianity has caused the deaths of more people than any other organised religion in the world, and they may be correct in their supposition.

From the Conquistadors who bashed the brains of South American Indian babies onto rocks in the name of Jesus, to the Pilgrims who decimated millions of Native Americans, to the concentration camps of Europe where the Christian Hitler nearly erased Jews  the enemy of Christ  from the earth, we must not forget George W Bush and Tony Blair, whose modern Crusade eradicated over 1.5 million people in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Christianity has a history of hatred, death and purging, and it is no different today. Through technology, the blessed drone bombs and missiles of Christian nations today pummel and desecrate whole villages and towns, killing entire generations of people with one clinical stroke, but its okay, because it looks like a video game from 20,000 feet up, and those are not Christians dying.

Another religion, certainly less organised than Christianity, is Islam, which although deemed brutal by modern so-called civilised Christians, is simply at an earlier developmental stage than Christianity. Islam today is still at the stage of Christianity during the Spanish Inquisition. When you see ISIS atrocities on the screen, just remember that Christians did far worse in the name of their organised religion and their lord.

So, let us pray to the civilised peaceful religion of the Christians, who have murdered, killed and plundered more people than any other religion in the history of mankind.

Let Us Pray
Opinion / Columnist

I have noted with some trepidation at the general deterioration of what was once the first and foundational political party in Africa, the African National Congress (ANC).The ANC was founded in 1912 with very African and modest aspirations, at the core of its value system was the people. Hence in 1955, the ANC ractified a Freedom Charter whose cornerstone is - the people shall govern. In present day South Africa one begs the question, which people shall govern - the people in ANC?I would like to imagine that in 1955 before anyone tasted the sweet nectar of power, "the people" were the ordinary men and women of South Africa; not merely the party leadership of ANC.The leader Party leader of ANC have always stirred the party towards the common center of South Africans. However, as I have written before the democratic challenges of Southern Africa coupled with corruption are turning what was once an institution ( ideal political party) to a peripheral case..A recent agreement between ANC and several liberation parties in the Southern African region to collaborate in fighting "neocolonialism" is an example of misplaced priorities; rather than agreements that give solutions to developmental issues, there are agreements to deal with "neocolonialism." Since when do political parties reach a compromise across borders to retain power and on how to handle the opposition? There is a word for this, it is called - Totalitarianism: a complete lock down on internal political freedom. This is what George Orwell wrote about in his novel 1984 - a police state that enforces "thoughtcrimes." The word Cybercrimes is also an accurate way of contextualizing this.The opposition in Africa, just like the liberation parties were, are an African phenomenon - a product of Africa's thirst for individual freedom. To say the opposition in Africa exists because of the west is to create a subculture of armed resistance like in Mozambique where RENAMO has threatened to go back to the bushes. I am confused here: did African liberation parties fight for DEMOCRACY or was the fight for POWER? Was the fight not to replace one system (Colonial) with a democratic one, in the words of the late freedom fighters: the indomitable Josiah Magama Tongogara and the indispensable Chris Hani.It appears that African democracy has taken a step backwards since Africa gained her independence. Totalitarianism is mistaken as a form of homegrown African democracy.If we examine this "neocolonial" charge it does become a slippery slop towards insanity. For example, Christianity and Judaism are external to Africa; this in light of Ethiopia and other communities, like the Lemba, showing credible indigenization of these religions. According to this theory of Western Neocolonialism, the only religion that is African is Ancestral Workship. Incidentally, the only country that was never colonized is Ethiopia, who are predominately a Christian country.There are new challenges, and the center has shifted and no longer is Apartheid the problem but developmental issues in a developing nations. And at the core is stability, peace and security in a democratic country. This is why the ANC to survive should quickly rein in deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa as President of the party, and subsequently South Africa.Mr. Ramaphosa, a favorite of Madiba, and a known trade unionist, has business sense and an understanding of South Africa's power politics. Mr. Zuma's presidency has been characterized by an unexpected attack on the person of Mr. Zuma, as never been seen before since Verwoed, the then South African Primeir Vervowed who came to embody Apartheid in the flesh. Even to this day when you talk of the name Verwoerd the response to any South African is that he started Apartheid and was very bad man. Concidentally, when you talk of President Zuma you hear corruption, Nkandla, Gupta etc. You don't hear of any national doctrine or philosophy, perhaps unlike Mbeki who pioneered the idea of African Renaissance. I remember listening to his Thabo Mbeki's brother's (Moletsi) speech in 1997 at Jan Smits Library Wits University, and thinking how we as South Africans were on the right path. How premature I must have been.The vitriolic discourse in South Africa's parliament is not even worth mentioning here, but at the center of the attacks is not ANC but the head of ANC - Jacob Zuma. Indeed, part of Malema's anger is targeted at President Zuma in an individual capacity. I never even once heard of Nelson Mandela speaking of any of the white politicians individually in such a crude manner as Malema speaks of Zuma! All this suggests that perhaps the personal leadership of Zuma, while charismatic, is not effective and is inherently divisive.Effective leadership requires a consensus, confidence and stability. You cannot be an effective leader when people have no confidence in you.In order not to lose something, I believe historically should continue as long as South Africa grows and develops; an institution which brought down Apartheid the couch of leadership should pass from Jacob Zuma to Cyril Ramaphosa.----------Ken Tecumseh Sibanda is a South African (Transkei) born American Constitutional attorney, known affectionately as "Tecumseh," for his writings and articles. He has written for numerous publications, in the US and South Africa, and including for "The Jerusalem Post," in Israel.He is the author of the book: International Law: Peace Accords, Tovakare Press (2015).He has received numerous awards and citations including in 2000 at International House, for "extending International cooperation."
New Delhi: Coal India workers will go on a nation-wide strike on September 2 to mark their protest against further divestment and strategic sale in the sector.

"We have received a communication of notice... for strike on September 2. Efforts are being made for conciliation process," Coal India said in a regulatory filing today.

"In case they resort to strike, it will affect product and dispatch of coal."

In September last year, a majority of about 4 lakh coal workers across the country had gone on strike called by trade unions, which hit the production level in a big way.

The strike call was given by major trade unions like INTUC, AITUC and CITU to pitch for their demands that included opposition to any further stake sale in Coal India.

Nearly 5 lakh bank union workers and officers are set to join the strike called by trade unions on September 2 to protest against what they call "anti-people policies of the Modi government and labour reforms".
Mumbai: As has been a growing trend, a bunch of videos come up whenever a film's trailer releases, in which people watch the trailer, react and offer their views on it.

And the reactions to Ajay Devgns Shivaay trailer, which has already registered over 15 million views, is definitely interesting.

Most of them confess to finding it difficult to pronounce Shivaay or Ajay. Intermittent comments like hes got a big brow, great jewellery or why are all cars are black or grey in car stunts are unintentionally hilarious. At the same time, some reviewers also call it too computer graphic heavy or is it real? or are baffled by the world of Bollywood, going, is he indestructible?'.

However, most of them appreciated Ajays intense expressions, choreography of the action scenes and the cinematography. Some even termed it one of the best trailers they had seen, with words like overwhelming, awesome, frequently coming up and some even went to the extent of calling it better than the trailers of Hollywood films from the same genre. What was most strikingly uniform was the fact that most of them are eager to watch the film.

Watch the reactions here:
Former Karnataka chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy met Pawan Kalyan at his office in Hyderabad on Saturday.

Speculations were doing the rounds that this move was backed by a political motive, however, the two maintain that it was just a courtesy call and not a meeting to discuss politics.

I know Kumaraswamy since the last eight years and it was just a courtesy call. His son is about to debut in Telugu films, so he wanted to meet me. There is no political agenda behind it, says Pawan Kalyan.

Kumaraswamys son Nikhil is all set to make his debut with the Telugu film Jaguar, that is going to hit the theatres soon.

My son is entering the Telugu film industry, so I requested Pawan Kalyan to treat him as his brother. Thats the reason I met him, says Kumaraswamy.

So is there a chance of Pawan Kalyan campaigning for him in the near future? No, this is totally a personal call and nothing political was discussed, adds Kumaraswamy.
The makers of Nara Rohit-starrer Sankara have announced that the movie will finally release on September 16.

The shooting of the film, directed by Tatineni Satya, was completed a couple of years ago, and was supposed to release a long time back. But the makers decided to release the movie now since it has a Bollywood connection.

The Sonakshi-starrer Akira and Sankara are both remakes of the Tamil action-thriller, Mouna Guru. The lead character, however, is played by a female protagonist in Akira, unlike in Sankara.

Talking about the movie, producer Chandramouli Prasad says, Sankara is a student, who reacts to any social evil that happens in the society. His parents get worried and send him out of town, where he is enrolled into a college and stays in a hostel. Trouble starts brewing when he is involved in a crime. The turn of events will keep the audience gripped.
Pokemon Go players can log hours of walking as they physically chase the virtual Pokemon creatures based on video images displayed on their smart phones. (Photo: AP)

Houston: 'Exergames' such as Pokemon Go, that combine augmented reality technology, geocaching and other novel techniques, have potential personal and public health benefits, researchers claim.

Tom Baranowski from Baylor College of Medicine in the US identified many lessons that can be learned from the success of the popular Pokemon Go, in which players can log hours of walking as they physically chase the virtual Pokemon creatures based on video images displayed on their smart phones.

Baranowski encouraged researchers to conduct well-designed studies to assess the health effects of active video games (AVGs).

Game developers could then use this information to create new games that would be both fun to play and promote beneficial physical activity, he said.

"Pokemon Go stimulated substantial amounts of physical activity in many likely-otherwise sedentary game players without intending to," said Baranowski.

"We might call this stealth exergame programming, and we have a lot to learn about how to achieve this," he said. The research is published in the journal Games for Health.
Cairo: Egypt's state-run television has taken several anchorwomen off the air until they lose weight, the broadcaster's chief told AFP, drawing criticism from rights groups but also praise from some commentators.

Egyptian public television, commonly viewed as a staid government mouthpiece, has been struggling to compete with private satellite channels with slicker programming. Safaa Hegazy, the head of the Egyptian Radio and Television Union which runs state television, said six to eight anchorwomen would be affected by the decision.

The move "is within the framework of developing the broadcaster, in form and content," she said. Hegazy said she told the anchorwomen "that they can work in production during the period they need to lose weight." "They can then return to the screen," she said.

The move provoked a backlash from rights groups who labelled it discriminatory.

The Women's Centre for Guidance and Legal Awareness in Egypt called the decision "shameful" and said it was contrary to Egypt's constitution. Hegazy dismissed allegations the decision was sexist. "How can there be discrimination against women in an institution run by a woman?" she said.

She said the anchorwomen "are no longer how they were" when hired, suggesting they had since gained weight. One of the affected women, Khadija Khattab, said she felt slandered by the move. "Publishing this decision in the newspapers is tantamount to defamation against the anchorwomen," Khattab told AFP.

"We need to know who decides whether an anchor is fit to go on air, and by which standards," she said. Others supported the move. "I agree with this decision because an anchorwoman's appearance is an important criterion," state newspaper Al-Ahram quoted Sami Abdel Aziz, described as a media expert, as saying.

"An anchorwoman's fitness gives an impression of liveliness on the screen," he said.
The CBI has taken into custody three accused in the Bulandshahr rape case and will produce them in a fast-track court in the Uttar Pradeshs city on Tuesday. (Photo: PTI/Representational)

New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has taken into its custody three accused in the case of rape of a woman and her minor girl in Bulandshahr last month.

CBI sources refused to disclose the identity of the accused taken into custody, but said they would be produced in the fast-track court-2 of Bulandshahr on August 23.

Uttar Pradesh police had arrested six persons, including the prime suspect, in connection with the rape of the woman and her 13-year-old daughter while they were travelling to Shahjahanpur from Noida on the intervening night of July 29-30.

The case was transferred to CBI on the instructions of the Allahabad High Court. The agency had registered a case on Friday and sent a team of forensic experts and DIG-ranked officer to the crime scene.

UP police, which received flak from the Allahabad High Court, had claimed to have solved the blind case within nine days of the incident with the arrest of Salim Bawariya, the head of a gang from Rajasthan.

On the basis of his interrogation, two other gang members  Zubair and Sajid  were arrested by the Special Task Force of the police. Later, three more accused  Naresh, 25, Bablu, 22 and Rais 28  were arrested.
Chennai: In a case of the fence eating the crop, a drunk cop who stalked an 18-year-old girl student from Azhar Khana bus stop, molested her in full public view. The incident took place on Friday evening on the service road under the Kathipara flyover. The cop was identified as Jerald Gibbs (30), official driver of the law & order wing Inspector. He was being interrogated late into Friday evening.

Cabbies who were resting in their cars in the underbelly of the flyover came to the girl's rescue and pinned the cop down. If they had not intervened, the molester could have done worse things to the girl. When a patrol cop S. Angamuthu, attached to the Mount police station, arrived at the scene and learnt that the perpetrator was a cop he suggested that the latter escape from the scene.

Unrelenting cabbies nabbed the perpetrator a second time after giving a short chase and tried to thrash him. Angamuthu intervened again and abused the cabbies for preventing the escape besides hitting a few of them. Enraged by the attitude of the cop, the cabbies protested. A patrol vehicle arrived on the scene and whisked Jerald Gibbs away from the spot to save him from the 'mob justice' the cabbies were waiting to give him.

Angamuthu also warned the cabbies that he wouldn't be allowed to park their vehicles in the flyover's underbelly. He also threatened to set the cars on fire if they did not let the incident pass.

The cabbies, all members of Nanbargal Magizhunthu Othunargal Sangam, resorted to a road roko and an ACP level officer brokered peace among the protesting drivers. "We demand an unconditional apology from the cop who abused us and hit our office bearer, Tamilarasu," said Balachandar, who was among the core team that nabbed the culprit.

"Had we not interfered, he would have simply gone scot-free. I saw the girl screaming and running away from him. He kept charging at her. An auto driver tried to block him which is when we realised what was going on and jumped in to save the girl," he added.

The drivers were later called for a round of talks to the Mount police station where a few cops were said to have donned the role of preachers, blaming the cabbies for ruining the girl's life by raking up the issue instead of hushing it up.

Pressure exerted on the girl's family by the cops not to pursue the incident may have worked too as the girl, studying first year B.Com in a city college, refused to file a complaint. In the meantime, Jerald Gibbs was taken to Chromepet GH for a medical examination.
The gang was busted after the woman gang member, hired to pose for the picture, was identified as a Foreshore Estate resident.

Chennai: In an extortion attempt, a gang took nude pictures of a septuagenarian businessman, a Harrington road resident, posing with the servant maid and a woman gang member and demanded Rs 2 crore from him to keep the pictures under wraps.

The gang was busted after the woman gang member, hired to pose for the picture, was identified as a Foreshore Estate resident. Police said Chandran (75), who owns a tea estate in Kodaikanal besides a hotel, was taken by force by the gang, which was lying in wait when he returned home, on Thursday morning. The gang had already locked up the servant maids, Pushpa and Rajalakshmi and Chandran's brother Jaganathan.

The gang forced Chandran and a maid to undress while they also made the woman member do the same. Pictures were then taken at knifepoint. Chandran explained to the gang that he does not have Rs 2 crore.

The gang then took Rs 45,000 stored in a cupboard and vanished. Though a maid had alerted the control room that a the robbery was underway at the house, the gang managed to flee from the spot.

Chandran identified an acquaintance named Manikandan, who runs a hotel in Munnar, from amongst the gang. In the meantime, the cops managed to narrow down the woman gang member with the pictures shared by the gang with the businessman. Both Manikandan and the woman from Foreshore Estate have been arrested.
The constable, who was posted at sector five police chowki in Bawana, spotted the snatchers near Samosa Chowk in the area and chased them following which they fired at him, police said. (Photo: Representational Image/PTI)

New Delhi: A Delhi Police constable was shot dead by miscreants while he was chasing them after they had snatched a bag from a woman in Shahabad area on Friday night.

"Anand was chasing three unidentified miscreants who had snatched the bag from a woman in Sector 5 industrial area around 9.30 pm, when he was shot at," said DCP (Outer) Vikramjeet Singh.

The constable, who was posted at sector five police chowki in Bawana, spotted the snatchers near Samosa Chowk in the area and chased them following which they fired at him, police said.

Anand sustained bullet injury on the chest. He was rushed to a nearby hospital where doctors declared him dead, they said.

The incident occurred hours after Delhi Police Commissioner Alok Kumar, during a crime review meeting, instructed senior officials to curb street crimes in the national capital.
The army has been conducting operations against the NSCN(K) militant outfit since last year. (Photo: Representational Image)

Guwahati: A major gunbattle between the Indian Army and suspected National Socialist Council of Nagaland Khaplang (NSCN-K) militants took place on the Indo-Myanmar border in Mon district of Nagaland on Friday.

According to reports, around 30 Indian paratroopers began an operation at around 5:30 am in the morning on a known infiltration route. While the NSCN(K) claimed that five to six Indian troops had been killed following a surgical strike by the army reportedly inside Myanmar, the army said that the operation had taken place on our side of the border.

The army said that the militants fled back into Myanmar after the gun battle, leaving some weapons behind. It also added that there were no casualties on the Indian side.

Yangba Konyak, SP (Mon), was also quoted as saying by news agencies that, "There was heavy exchange of fire between NSCN (K) cadres and Assam Rifles soldiers. The incident was reported early in the morning. As of now, no casualties have been reported."

NSCN(K) is a banned outfit which last March abrogated a 14-year ceasefire with the Centre. The army has been conducting operations against the militant outfit since last year.

In a major operation last June, Indian special forces had conducted a surgical military strike across the Myanmar border to inflict "significant casualties" on the groups behind that ambush. Apart from NSCN(K), Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup (KYKL) militants were also killed in the June 2015 operation.
Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had made the remark on the 1984 Sikh riots that broke out after his mother Indira Gandhi's assassination. (Photo: PTI)

Kolkata: An infamous remark made by Rajiv Gandhi during the anti-Sikh riots in 1984 was tweeted from the handle of West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee (WBPCC) on the former PM's birth anniversary on Saturday, leaving the Congress party red-faced.

The Bengal Congress tweeted When a big tree falls, the earth shakes  Rajivs comment on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots that broke out after the assassination of his mother Indira Gandhi by her two Sikh bodyguards.

The WBPCC was quick to fix the gaffe, as the tweet was deleted soon after Twitterati started slamming the party. It posted another tweet with a fresh quote; however, people were still sharing the screenshots of the first tweet.

Later, several statements on the gaffe started to pour in from the party, however they were contradictory.

According to a report in Hindustan Times, senior Congress leader and leader of the opposition in the assembly Abdul Mannan said the Twitter handle from which the tweet was posted did not belong to the party.

On the other hand, Congress leader Manas Bhunia said West Bengal party president Adhir Choudhury needs to take responsibility for the tweet, while party spokesperson OP Mishra said he has no knowledge about the tweet and the Congress will issue a clarification on it, according to a report in The Indian Express.

Chowdhury later told PTI that the WBPCC Twitter account was hacked and the tweet was posted with the intention to malign Rajiv Gandhi and Congress.

"This tweet was not posted by anyone from the Congress who handles our twitter account. Somebody hacked the official twitter handle and posted this tweet... We have decided to lodge a police complaint against hacking of our account," Chowdhury said.

This is the second time in the past three days that the Congress has landed in an embarrassing situation because of its party members. Senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh on Thursday referred to Jammu and Kashmir as "India-occupied Kashmir" while talking to reporters.
Kolkata: Launching a frontal attack on the Narendra Modi government, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday accused it of bulldozing the federal structure in the country and said she would seek the President's opinion on the issue.

"Modi government is bulldozing the federal structure and violating Constitution. It is interfering in the functioning of the state governments. We will seek the opinion of the President," Banerjee told reporters at the 'Nabanna', the state secretariat.

The state government, she said, received a letter from the Centre during the day saying that centrally-sponsored schemes are being rationalised.

"This is being done by force without taking the states into confidence ... They talk about cooperative federalism. I don't know what is cooperative federalism.

"If they interfere into the functioning of the states, there is no meaning of the existence of the state governments. It is a very serious matter," she said.

"Narendra Modi is running dictatorship. The people of the country have lost freedom under Modi.

"They (BJP) are trying to start a Presidential form of government knowing that they will not win next time," the Chief Minister claimed.

Banerjee said the central government should have only four ministries - Defence, External Affairs, Railways and Finance.
The High Court had granted Kanhaiya interim bail for six months on March 2 and it expires on September 1. (Photo: File)

New Delhi: The Patiala High Court on Saturday adjourned the regular bail plea hearing of Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU) president Kanhaiya Kumar and two others, who are facing sedition and criminal conspiracy charges. The two other students are Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya.

The trio are being prosecuted by the Delhi Police for allegedly raising anti-India slogans on the JNU campus at a meeting organised on February 9 this year in memory of Afzal Guru, who was hanged in 2013 after his conviction in the Parliament attack case.

Kanhaiya has assured in his bail application that he will adhere to every condition imposed by the court, adding that he has not violated any of the conditions that were imposed by the Delhi High Court while granting him interim bail on March 2.

However, the high court while granting the interim bail, warned Kanhaiya against participating actively or passively in any activity which may be termed as anti-national.

The High Court had granted him interim bail for six months on March 2 and it expires on September 1.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday extended an invitation to new Prime Minister of Nepal Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' to visit India at the earliest while expressing commitment to strengthening traditional bonds

of friendship and kinship.

Modi conveyed this to Bimalendra Nidhi, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Home Affairs of Nepal, when he called on him.

During the meeting, Modi conveyed his greetings and best wishes to the new government of Nepal led by Prachanda and extended an invitation to him to visit India at his earliest convenience, a PMO statement said.

Nidhi briefed the Prime Minister about developments in Nepal where the new government took over recently. Modi said the relations between India and Nepal were not merely between the two governments but between the people of

the two countries and that India is committed to strengthening these traditional bonds of friendship and kinship with the people of Nepal.

The Prime Minister also said that India is fully committed to support the government and the people of Nepal in the post-earthquake reconstruction efforts.

Relations between India and Nepal went through a bad phase last year and the two countries are hoping to make a new beginning after the new government took over in Kathmandu.
The National Investigation Agency will approach banks and financial institutions to seek the list of Jammu and Kashmir residents whose bank account records show "suspicious transactions" in the last two months. (Photo: AP)

New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has planned to make a list of Jammu and Kashmir residents and institutions with suspicious bank activities for which it will seek assistance from banks and other financial institutions in the state.

According to a report in dna, the NIA has said the move comes in the wake of ongoing unrest that started after the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani on July 8, however, the officials in Delhi said that a probe into funding of terror and unlawful activities was long overdue.

NIA Inspector General Sanjeev Singh said that the agency was informed that some individuals and entities in Kashmir have carried out suspicious transactions in the last two months.

"We have investigated a number terror cases and there are many key areas, especially the financial ones, which are to be explored. There has been a steady inflow of money into accounts of many individuals on Kashmir. We are sure that some of the names that have cropped up during our findings might be involved with unlawful activities," Singh said.

A senior official said the transaction could be done in three ways  "One is routine bank transaction wherein an individual is chosen and money transferred into his bank. Second is the Hawala routes and third is the funding that is done using trade."

NIA is likely to investigate some entities linked to cross-border trade between India and Pakistan.

The ongoing protests in Kashmir have so far taken more than 60 lives and injured thousands.
Recently a biography of Shatrughan Sinha was released by Nitish Kumar in presence of Lalu Prasad. (Photo: Representational Image/PTI)

Patna: BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha on Friday took recourse to his talent in theatre to attack his own party and leaders using a political satire.

The play at the S K Memorial Hall in Sinha's constituency Patna Saheb unfolded in the presence of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his ally RJD chief Lalu Prasad. However,there were no BJP leaders in attendance.

The Bollywood actor turned BJP MP and his team hosted the play "Pati, Patni aur Mein" (Husband, wife and me).

Directed by Ramesh Talwar and written by Manohar Katdare,the play featured Rakesh Bedi, Dimple Danda and Sanjay Goradia, besides Mr Sinha.

The nearly two-hour long play is a satire on contemporary politics and politicians including many from BJP itself.

Playing the lead role as presenter, Sinha laced his dialogue with one-liners that triggered peals of laughter from the audience.

Sinha, popularly known as "Bihari Babu", the second consecutive term Lok Sabha member from Patna Saheb, has been at odds with BJP since Bihar poll at the fag end of last year after party leaders ignored him in the elections.

A close associate of veteran BJP leader L K Advani, Sinha has taken several potshots at his own party through display of bonhomie with "friend" Nitish Kumar and RJD president Lalu Prasad leaving his party leaders embarrassed.

Recently a biography of Sinha was released by Nitish Kumar in presence of Lalu Prasad. None of the Bihar BJP leaders were present in the book release function. The play was hosted by Bihar Art, Culture and Youth Department with Bihar Sangeet Natak Academy.
New Delhi: A special court on Saturday dismissed the bail plea of an LIC agent, arrested in a money laundering case involving Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and others, saying there were "more than sufficient" material

to show his involvement in the offence.

"The material collected during investigation till date is more than sufficient to reach the conclusion of active involvement of applicant (Anand Chauhan) in the offence of money laundering," Special Judge Vinod Kumar said.

The judge said, "I am of the opinion that it cannot be said that the material against the applicant (Chauhan) is not substantial enough or that he is only at the periphery of the offence. Accordingly, in view of the stringent provisions of

Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), I am not inclined to grant bail to the applicant."

Chauhan was arrested from Chandigarh on July 9 under the provisions of PMLA as he was allegedly not cooperating with investigating agency Enforcement Directorate (ED).

In its order, the court also asked the probe agency to follow the practices adopted by other probe agencies like CBI like maintaining of case diaries, arrival-departure registers which could be of immense benefit for the agency.

The ED had opposed the bail plea, saying there were ample evidences against Chauhan and there was serious apprehension that he could tamper with evidence if released on bail.

"The persons against whom the case was filed are still holding very high posts. He should not be granted bail as it will hamper the further course of investigation," the agency had told the court.

Chauhan had sought bail on the ground that the case against him was documentary in nature and there was no need to keep him in custody. He had further said that he had joined and cooperated in the probe.

While arguing for bail, his counsel had submitted that he was not the "fountainhead" for generating the money. "Neither the money was his (Chauhan), nor he was the beneficiary. He was arrested on July 9 while no other accused has been arrested in the case yet. Isn't it a dubious way of the probeagency," the counsel had asked.
New Delhi: Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday lashed out at Pakistan for the ongoing unrest in Kashmir, saying it was continuously trying to derail peace in the Valley.

"Today, I don't feel hesitant in saying that Pakistan is continuously trying to create unrest in Kashmir. It wants to destroy it and derail peace in the Valley," he said in Shahjahanpur while addressing a Tiranga rally.

"Recently, I went to Pakistan and you all know our neighbouring country's misdeeds. I don't want to repeat what happened over there but would like to say that I did not let India's pride go down there. I said one country's terrorist cannot be the hero of another," he said.

"I want to tell the people of Kashmir that we not only love the land of Kashmir but also its people. I would like to appeal to the Kashmiris that we do not want to see stones, bricks and firearms in their hands but pen, computers and jobs. We want to see you employed," Singh said.

He said that a violent protest cannot be a solution to a particular issue. There should be peace at first then issues can be resolved through talks.

"Some people are trying to create hatred among Hindus, Muslims, Christians and Parsis by following the divide and rule trick adopted by British rulers but they have been failed miserably. No one can divide the people of India," Singh said.

He said if people want to make India a great nation, then all residents regardless of their community, race or religion will have to contribute and go ahead together.

"British rulers tried to divide communities on religious lines but their malicious attempts were thwarted by the friendship of freedom fighters Ashfaqullah Khan and Ramprasad Bismil," he said.

"India's Muslims know that India is the only country in the world where Islam's all 72 sects are found. No other nation, not even Muslim countries have all the 72 sects of Islam. Christianity's all sects are found only in India," he said.

According to Singh, whenever China or Pakistan tried to show aggression at the borders in the past, "our people stood united and challenged them".

Singh paid floral tributes to freedom fighters Khan, Bismil and Thakur Roshan Singh and visited their memorial in the city's Ramprasad Bismil park in the presence of Shahjahanpur MP Krishna Raj and local BJP leaders along with hundreds of people.

He laid wreaths at the statues of the three freedom fighters who belonged to Shahjahanpur and laid their lives in India's freedom struggle.

Singh lauded the contribution of the three and met the family of Khan. He greeted people of Shahjahanpur and said he is delighted to visit the city where these freedom fighters were born.
Swamy said that the culprits in Adarsh Housing Society and the Sukhna Land scam were exposed during Singh's tenure as Army chief. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: Outspoken BJP leader Subramanian Swamy on Saturday came out in support of V K Singh, amid the ongoing row over the Army chief's affidavit against him, saying the Minister was continuously being targeted by "certain corrupt forces" and there was a "paid slander campaign" against him.

Swamy said that the government should take steps to protect Singh since as a Minister he cannot defend himself in a "slugfest with the present Chief of Army Staff" Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag.

He claimed the corrupt forces are unhappy with Singh as he as the Army chief had prevented illegal kickbacks in weapons purchase and exposed certain officials to vigilance inquries.

Singh is now the Minister of State for External Affairs. Citing examples, he said that the culprits in Adarsh Housing Society and the Sukhna Land scam were exposed during Singh's tenure as Army chief.

"The DV (Discipline and Vigilance) Ban on appointment of certain Generals was issued after due process. No COAS (Chief of Army Staff) can issue a DV Ban on a whim," the Rajya Sabha MP said in a statement.

Read: VK Singh victimised me, imposed illegal ban, alleges Army chief Suhag

Suhag had this week in an affidavit in Supreme Court accused Singh of victimising him when he was the Army chief.

In 2012, Suhag was placed under a discipline and vigilance (DV) ban by Singh, for his alleged "failure of command and control" after a Court of Inquiry was ordered into an operation carried out in Jorhat, Assam, on the night of December 20-21, 2011 by the 3 Corps Intelligence and Surveillance Unit.

Suhag, who was the then General Officer Commanding of the unit, said the imposition of DV ban on him and issuance of a show cause notice by the then COAS "was illegal and premeditated".

Swamy said that DV Ban is a matter which is examined by not just the Vigilance Branch but also by MoD at the highest levels.

Only after these three bodies recommend DV ban, can the process be initiated, he said.

"The most recent attempt to slander Gen Singh for the vigilance inquiry was so ordered against Lt Gen D S Suhag in May 2012 and not by Gen VK Singh as part of the alleged personal animosity between them," he said.

Swamy said the government should take steps to protect Singh from this "paid slander campaign" since being a Minister, he cannot defend himself in a slugfest with the present Army chief.
Hyderabad: In a significant ruling, the Hyderabad High Court has made it clear that whenever a state is bifurcated and a native of the combined state chooses one of the two newly-formed states, he cannot be said to be migrating from one state to another, in the strict sense of the term. A division bench comprising Justice V. Ramasubramanian and Justice Anis, while disposing a batch of petitions by students seeking admissions into undergraduate medical courses, held that insofar as TS and AP were concerned, both states existed as a combined state up to June 1, 2014, and, therefore, the question of migration itself may not arise.

The petitioners urged the court to direct the AP government as well as the NTR Health University to treat them as local candidates as per the amended Presidential Order and also grant benefit of reservations to them. The bench noticed that difficulty has arisen with regard to the candidates belonging to backward classes though they have been treated as local candidates in AP, pursuant to the interim direction issued by the Court. But the community certificates produced by them to the effect that they belong either to BC-A, or BC-D, have not been accepted by the respondents.

Tadi Nageswara Rao, counsel for the health varsity, told the Court that whenever a question of migration arose, the question as to whether a candidate could take to the state of migration, his social backwardness had to be considered by the officials of the social welfare departments of both the states. He said that in the three cases present before the High Court the officers concerned found that the petitioners were ineligible for being treated as belonging to BC-A or BC-D.

The bench said, It is true that a particular caste, which is recognised as a BC or SC or ST in a particular state, need not necessarily be recognised as such in another state. The law is well settled that people cannot carry their social backwardness wherever they go. The bench found that, some of the petitioners in these cases were born in the regions which now form part of AP. They have been issued community certificates by the departments concerned in the regions that now form part of AP. Therefore, it is actually a question of a person who was a native of one state, but was brought up in another state, getting back to his own native state. Hence, the principle that one may lose his community status upon migration cannot apply to persons who have valid community certificates issued by the departments concerned in the regions that now form part of AP.

The bench, directed the respondents to treat the petitioners not only as local candidates, but also as candidates belonging to the respective reserved communities, provided the community certificates produced by them had been issued by a competent authority of the region, that now form part of AP even after bifurcation. The bench said it was needless to state that it will be subject to the regulations that are in force for admissions.

The bench refused to accept the objection raised by counsel for the University that allotments have already been made in the first phase of (web) counselling and that if the whole process is to be re-done, it will result in severe hardship to thousands of candidates. The bench said "It is only the first phase of counselling which is now over. The candidates have not so far been issued with orders of allotment. Moreover, there has been no uniformity on part of the respondents in the matter of acceptance of community certificates produced by the candidates, upon migration. Therefore, the contention that much water has flown under the bridge, loses sight of the fact that there is more water to come under the bridge."
People block a truck carrying leaders who were arrested in Jangaon during a bandh call given by the joint action committee on Saturday. (Photo: DC)

Hyderabad: In a significant development, all political parties on Saturday unanimously backed the Telangana governments move to create new districts but asked it to do so in a scientific manner based on population and in tune with public aspiration.

Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, who chaired the first all-party meeting attended by representatives of seven parties  TRS, Congress, Telugu Desam, MIM, BJP, CPI and CPM  promised to consider suggestions made by them.

Mr Rao promised to convene two all-party meetings, one after a fortnight from issue of notification and another after one month, to finalise the new districts.

The government has proposed 27 new districts besides increase in mandals and revenue divisions.

We planned to have new districts ideally by Dasara. But if it takes another 8 to 10 days more, I have no problem. Government will seek opinion of all sections of people before finalising the districts after one month. We conducted an elaborate exercise, Mr Rao told the meeting that lasted about two and a half hours.

The Congress and Telugu Desam pinpointed several shortcomings in the government proposals including lack of scientific approach in creating the proposed districts and insisted on guidelines besides setting up judicial commission.

He rejected the Congress plea for a judicial commission to carve out new districts saying it was not necessary since the Dis-trict Formation Act of 1974 and 1984 rules was enough.

Mr Rao made it clear that the existing Hyderabad district would be retained as it exists, as suggested by the MIM and the BJP. He turned down the plea of the Congress, Telugu Desam and Left parties for division of the capital city.

We wanted existing Hyderabad district and the CM has agreed to it. MIM, Congress and other parties opposed merger of Shadnagar with Sham-shabad district, Mr Syed Amin Jafri, MIM MLC, said.

To queries, Mr Rao hinted that going by the pronouncements of the Central government, delimitation of Assembly constituencies was likely to be delayed further and hence he was focusing on reorganisation of districts.

Congress leaders Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and Mohd Ali Shabbir wanted population to be one of the main criteria for carving out districts. How can we have Hyderabad district with 35 lakh population and four districts out of Warangal, and three districts from Ranga Reddy having population of 27 lakh, Mr Vikramarka asked.

Opposition parties opposed the spilling of Assembly constituencies onto more than one district, mandals in more than one district and questioned the fate of ZPTCs and MPTCs. The Left parties asked the government to protect Girijan interests, 1/70 Act, 371D Presidential order.
Hyderabad: A special session of the TS Assembly to pass the Goods and Services Tax Bill adopted by Parliament will be held in the first week of September, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao said here on Saturday. Mr Rao also disclosed that he got an assurance from Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the bifurcation of High Court and said that if there was no action then: We will think of dharna in New Delhi.

He said that the special Assembly session could also be converted into a short monsoon session. I will discuss the special Assembly session needed to pass the GST Bill as per Constitutional norms with the Speaker and Governor and fix the date. It could be most probably in the first week of September, Mr Rao said. Describing the TS-Maharashtra accord on irrigation projects on August 23 as historic, he said previous governments quarrelled with neighbours like Maharashtra and Karnataka resulting in stalling of irrigation projects.

Earlier, we unnecessarily picked fights with Maharashtra. But TRS government has extended a hand of friendship with both neighbours the result is we are signing historic accord, will have an inter-state board with both CMs and five ministers. We put an end to Basti mein sawal ... (street fights). We got 1000 MW power from Chhattisgarh and 1 tmc feet from Karnataka, which has also promised to complete pending RDS works, Mr Rao said.

Dismissing the Congress PowerPoint presentation as bekar (useless), the CM flayed the Opposition partys planned protest on August 23 over the accord with Maharashtra government and the PMs failure to provide support to TS. What kind of culture is this? What is the reason for the protest? Congress was in power at the Centre, Maharashtra, AP and Karnataka, but nothing was done for the state. We have done it. They are jealous. PM said Hyderabad is like Delhi for him indicating importance of the State, Mr Rao said. He said that his government favoured scrapping of zonal norms and would prefer to have state and district cadre of officials.
New Delhi: The monogrammed suit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which he donned during his meeting with the US President, Barack Obama in the national capital last year, has entered the Guinness World Records as the most expensive suit sold at auction.

The suit, which was auctioned in February last year, was purchased for Rs 4.31 crore by Surat-based diamond trader Lalji Patel, who owns Dharmananda Diamond Company.

The suit, which has stripes with the name Narendra Damodardas Modi woven into it in glittering gold letters, has been placed inside a glass cabin at the reception of the Dharmananda Diamond Company, Mr Patel said.

The Guinness World Records acknowledges the suit as the most expensive suit (clothing) sold at auction is Rs 43,131,311 and was bought by Laljibhai Tulsibhai Patel (India) in Surat, Gujarat, India on February 20, 2015.

The auction money has been earmarked for the Clean Ganga mission. It may be recalled that the suit had kicked up a huge political storm, which eventually led the Congress vice-president, Mr Rahul Gandhi describing the Narendra Modi-led government as Suit boot ka sarkar. The government countered it by saying it was soojh bhooj ki sarkar.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court has affirmed its 2014 order that husbands and in-laws should not be arrested mechanically in dowry harassment cases filed by the wife.

With a view to ensuring that police officers did not arrest accused unnecessarily on registration of an FIR and the magistrate did not authorise detention casually and mechanically, the Supreme Court in 2014 had ordered that no arrests can be made for offences relating to dowry harassment and for offences for which punishment is upto seven years.

It held that anti-dowry law was being misused and granted protection to husbands and the in-laws Following protests by feminists, the National Commission for Women, which was aggrieved over the verdict in its petition said that the 2014 judgment gave an unreasonable discretion to the police in deciding whether or not to arrest those complained against in a dowry harassment case.

The NCW expressed its concern that the judgement could work against the interest of the women, with police likely to misuse it and filed a petition to recall the verdict. A review against this verdict was dismissed and against which a curative petition was filed.

Dismissing the petition recently, a bench of Chief Justice T.S. Thakur and Justices Anil R Dave, J.S. Khehar and Pinaki Chandra Ghose in a brief order passed in the chamber said No case is made out within the parameters indicated in the 2002 decision which enables filing of curative petitions.

The SC had directed all state to instruct its police officers not to automatically arrest when a case under Section 498-A of the IPC was registered but to satisfy themselves about the necessity for arrest under the parameters laid down in Cr.PC Section 41.

The court had said police should issue notice of appearance to the accused in terms of Section 41A of Cr.PC within two weeks from the date of institution of the case, which might be extended by the SP for the reasons to be recorded in writing.

Failure to comply with the directions should apart from rendering the police officers concerned liable for departmental action, they would also be liable to be punished for contempt of court to be instituted before High Court having territorial jurisdiction.
KARIMNAGAR: Both Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and his son and IT minister K.T. Rama Rao have been drawing severe criticism for dropping Sircilla from the list of proposed new districts. People tried to set their portraits on fire to vent their anger.

Mr Chandrasekhar Rao and Mr Rama Rao are receiving unprecedented flak from different sections in Sircilla for backtracking on the promise of a new district. In particular, Mr Rama Rao has been facing the wrath of the people for the past few weeks. Some protesters threw mud and slippers at their posters on Mr Rama Raos birthday on Saturday.

Sircilla officials had to remove the posters of Mr Rama Rao, fearing vandalism. Police was also forced to protect vinyl posters erected across town. The people of Sircilla and neighboring villages had pinned their hopes on the government, following inclusion of the textile town in the list of proposed districts. They had purchased house sites and agriculture land, expecting growth. But, their hopes were dashed when the government withdrew its decision, a TRS senior said.

At the same time, the government has come under the scanner for including two mandals of Husnabad Assembly constituency in the proposed Siddipet district.

Students, members of trade unions and activists of political parties are taking to the streets, opposing the merger of Husnabad and Koheda mandals.

TPCC secretary Bomma Sriram, said, The people of Husnabad and Koheda had developed an emotional attachment with Karimnagar since Independence. They are not interested to be a part of a new district. They feel that their identity is at stake. These mandals have no ties with Siddipet.

Warangal puzzles at splitting of twin cities

The district reorganisation sub-committee suggesting Hanamkonda as one of the new districts has not gone down well with the people and parties alike. One cannot draw boundaries bet-ween Kazipet, Hanam-konda and Warangal. They were always seen as one city, they said.

People accuse Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao of dividing districts to suit his political interests and not for ease of governance. Forum for Better War-angal president P. Sudha-kar said the move lacked scientific rationale.

While Warangal will have 27 mandals, Mahbubabad will have only 13. Hyderabad has a population of 44,08,017 but Bhupalapalli has only 6,95,145. In terms of area, Komuram Bheem district is 8161.68 sq km whereas Jagityal is 3,081.41 sq km, he said, adding this could lead to regional imbalance.

BJP state vice president M. Dharma Rao said dividing Hanam-konda and Warangal would impact the importance of the city which boasts of Kakatiya heritage. Many structures and temples would get divided. Warangal was chosen a heritage city by the Centre. Problems related to fund allocation could arise, he said.

After Hyderabad, Warangal is the only city with any importance. Who gives KCR the right to divide Hanamkonda and Warangal? The people will not sit quiet, he said. TDP district president Gandra Satyanarayana accused the Chief Minister of reorganising districts to please his family members and his ministers.
Hyderabad: In a historic decision, the Telangana state Cabinet on Saturday decided to effect a major but selective reorganisation of districts, under which an addition of 17 districts would see the state having a total of 27 districts, as against the existing 10. The government would issue a draft notification to this effect on Monday, August 22.

The last time a district had been created was Ranga Reddy, in 1978, next to capital Hyderabad. After a gap of 38 years, districts are being reorganised and new ones formed by the will of the TRS government that stormed into power in 2014 with K. Chandrasekhar Rao as Chief Minister.

After issuing of the draft notification, the government would wait for month to receive and consider suggestions from the people and proceed accordingly.

Infographic

KCR to call for more all-party meetings

In a historic decision, the Cabinet on Saturday decided to effect a major reorganisation of districts. The government would issue a draft notification to this effect on Monday, August 22.

Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao announced that he would call an all-party meet once or twice to fine-tune matters before finalising the districts. He held such a meeting earlier in the day.

The new districts formation process would begin after the issue of notification. We are now going to the public domain and will wait for feedback. I got some proposals at the all-party meet today, which will be taken into account. We will give a full-page advertisement in newspapers on the proposed districts, new revenue divisions and new mandals. Till now, we had a committee headed by chief secretary and a cabinet sub subcommittee that went into the matter, he said after the Cabinet meeting.

Infographic

Mr Rao said he wanted to make it clear the new districts are being carved out for public and administrative convenience. The proposed districts will be revenue districts. This is a ratified item since we have put this in our election manifesto and we got the mandate. It will be 99.9 per cent acceptable to the public. All the same, this is not the final draft. There could be changes.

Stating that Hyderabad will remain as it is, he said there has been a demand from various quarters for new districts across the state but this is not viable. If a majority of the people want the heritage Warangal city to be one unit, we will retain it, he said.
Kamma is a powerful and predominant upper caste in Andhra Pradesh and parts of Telangana. (Photo: File/AP)

Hyderabad: Twitterati seethes with anger over tweet from a Hyderabad-based group, who was looking for donors belonging to a specific dominant caste. It prompted a debate on caste-based discrimination, a social evil that refuses to vanish.

The Twitter handle of @bloodplusapp, belongs to a group of blood donors. On Thursday, they tweeted that a child was in need of blood belonging to "Kamma caste donors". Kamma is a powerful and upper caste in Andhra Pradesh and Telanagana.

A number was provided along with the tweet to contact the parents of the child admitted to Max Cure hospital in Hyderabad.

Most of the social media users denounced the demand. The group was quick to delete the tweet and even issued an apology tweet, saying that it received the tweet from an unknown person and put it up without verifying it.

@bloodplusapp it's a shame you propagate this message. Blood is blood for God's sake! #depressing #casteSystem  Shafi F1 (@Shafianin) August 19, 2016

Our group is neutral to religious, caste, political divisions. I trusted requests that came in, and speed is key - safeguards from now on.  Blood+ (@bloodplusapp) August 19, 2016

Tomorrow even if you put out a genuine tweet on blood donation,not many are going to take it seriously@bloodplusapp  Ratnakar Sadasyula (@ScorpiusMaximus) August 19, 2016

Max Cure Hospital authorities confirmed that the same person had contacted the hospital for an emergency and never mentioned about 'Kamma' caste in particular.

The group manager of Blood Plus called this as an "accident".

There was a tweet sent out yesterday that mentioned caste, which was obviously wrong. This was human error and not deliberate. My apologies  Blood+ (@bloodplusapp) August 19, 2016

The tweet comes at a time when the nation is grappled with caste prejudices and Dalits are being targeted in Gujarat and elsewhere.
Children of Chettair families, born and brought up abroad, who visited Cholapuram near Sivagangai to learn the history, culture and heritage of their community at Nagarathar Training Programme orgainsed by Dubai-based Nagarathar Business Initiative Group (NBIG).

Sivagangai: The search for roots by scores of children of Chettiar families living abroad and coming to Tamil Nadu learn about the communitys cultural heritage in August created a buzz in Sivagangai. The community's efforts to regain its old glory by inspiring the next generation to involve themselves in traditional professions like trade, commerce and business came in for praise from the locals who have all been immersed in such professions for generations.

The community of Nattukottai Chettiars or Nagarathars is in fact the first Tamil diaspora community to have established banking and financial institutions in countries ringing the Bay of Bengal. They have been in these fields now for over 150 years from the late 18th century. The community has only now woken up to the fact that their children are no longer keen on carrying forward their culture and heritage.

Our early migrants are still been remembered not only for being successful in their business ventures but also for making their cultural capital visible, both aboard and on their home turf through the establishment of many temples and huge Chettinad houses. Ironically, our grandchildren have few traits of their ancestors, said K.V.AL.RM.M.RM Valli Muthiah (70), from Kolhapur village in sivagangai, the first woman to take the initiative to teach NRI children on the community's heritage.

Valli Muthiah decided to dedicate the rest of her life to educate the children on the history and cultural heritage of the community after she had an interaction with the kids during her business visit to Malaysia 7 years ago.

The interaction was in fact a self-realisation for me about where we stand today as a community in the globalised world, she said. Being a trading community for centuries helped the Chettiar merchants to be connected with their roots always, observed Valli Muthaih whose family owns oil farms in Malaysia.

The Chettiars began expanding their business during the Colonial period, first to Calcutta in the 1780s and then to Ceylon in 1796 and Burma in 1824. In the 1850s, they were in the Federated Malay States and the Straits Settlements (Penang, Malacca and Singapore) as well as in Siam.

And a few years later they even had a small presence in Mauritius and South Africa. With the French and Dutch colonial powers also seeking their help, the Chettiar business of banking spread to the countries of Indo-China and to Sumatra and Java, pointed out S. Muthiah, Editor, Madras Musings, who also hails from the same community.

In the words of an early European planter in Ceylon, the Chettiars helped make hamlets into villages, villages into townships and townships into today's towns. Most of the merchants ensured that they visited their ancestral homes spread in 75 villages in east of Madurai and south of Thanjavur and Tiruchchirappalli districts at least once in three months.

The famed Chettinad houses which are standing tall even after 100 years are a witness to it today. They invested their hard earned money and imported Burma teak to build those massive homes and named them as Nattukotai (country fort) in remembrance of their ancestral place, Poompugar, Valli Muthiah recalls.

Each house took nearly 20 years to construct. Every time the merchants visited their home town they would complete one Mugappu (room) and would also conduct the family marriages only in the houses as per tradition. When asked about this during the interaction, none of the children in Malaysia were able to relate to it, she observed.

Muthiah attributes the change in its outlook of the community members to the dark side of their history. At the end of the 19th Century, Chettiar investment in all these countries was estimated at over `2,000 millionwith about half of it in Burma alone, he said.

However, the Chettiars became the victims of freedom movements of the 1940s and 1950s in the Southeast Asian countries, particularly Burma, from they were forced to leave abandoning all their wealth, said Sunil Amirth, Mehra, Family Professor of South Asian Studies, Harvard University.

During the turbulent period, our elders sold the teak doors of our houses to feed the families and asked us to focus on education, not on the business, said Ramesh Ramanthan, secretary of the Nagarathar Business Initative Group (NBIG), Dubai, which was behind the initiative of bringing the children to Chettinad. Ramanathan said that his father had gone to work in the TVS group, which the family had patronised.

The next generations of the community focused only on education and used it as capital to regain the lost glory. With India witnessing the IT boom in 1990s, they used the opportunity to move to America, Australia, Dubai and Singapore and have settled there.

This training initiative has two agendas - to train the children on their heritage and thereby inculcate not only the cultural values and also to inspire them to take up business like their ancestors. Only if they are in business, they can be connected to our roots like our forefathers, said Annamalai, a member of NBIG who also owns a chain of hotels in Dubai.
Kerala government has not taken any decision on the online liquor trade. (Representational Image)

Thiruvananthapuram: Facing flak from all quarters over its plan to start online liquor sales during the Onam festival, the CPI-M led LDF government in Kerala has dropped the move.

Putting to rest the row over the proposed move to introduce online foreign liquor trade, government made it clear that no such decision has been taken.

Tourism and Cooperation Minister A C Moideen said that neither the state owned Co-operative Consumers Federation (Consumer fed) nor the government has taken any decision to start online liquor trade.

Media reports that the decision was taken by Consumer fed, the apex body of consumer cooperatives in the state in this regard were "baseless", he said on Friday.

Attacking the government over the issue, Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala said UDF would not in anyway accept this and alleged that the government plan was part of its agreement entered with the liquor lobby in the state. "The LDF government initiative in this sector was in favour of encouraging liquor consumption in Kerala", he said.

Criticising the new proposal, BJP state President Kummanam Rajasekharan had said the initiative would hurt the state's 'pride and glory' during Onam festival.

Consume rfed chairman M Mehboob had stated on August 19 that the plan was to launch online liquor sales during Onam, but that it would be implemented only after discussions with the state government.

Consumers registering for the products online could order their favourite brand and collect it from outlets by presenting the bill, he had said and added it was only a suggestion to avoid long queues outside liquor outlets.

Excise Minister T P Ramakrishnan had said the proposal was yet to come up before the government and that a decision would be taken when it comes before it.

Consumer fed had later stated that it would not deliver liquor via courier or post at the doorsteps of consumers.
Lucknow: Believe it or not, but Mahatma Gandhi and Amitabh Bachchan are among the applicants for the posts of assistant teachers in the government schools in Uttar Pradesh.

Mahatma Gandhi, in fact, has topped the merit list with 94 per cent marks.

According to Basic Shiksha Adhikari for Lucknow, Praveen Mani Tripathi, more than 15 applicants have mentioned fake names in their applications. One candidates name is ABC, while the fathers name is BCD.

Some candidates have even used expletives instead of their original names  one such example is a topper in the female list.

The official said, While preparing the merit list, we were shocked to find out the names like Mahatma Gandhi and Amitabh Bachchan. We have stalled the merit list and have set up a committee to scrutinise these applications. It is obvious that these are not serious candidates, and are playing pranks. However, we will deal with them firmly.

Interestingly, at the time of counselling when documents are verified, none of these candidates turned up. Those who have qualified the Basic Teaching Certificate (BTC) are eligible for the job of assistant teacher in government schools.

In Uttar Pradesh, recruitments is being done for 16,448 posts, while in Lucknow, more than 800 applications have applied for 33 vacant posts.

(This story originally appeared in the Asian Age)
A place in Singapores museum A bronze monument named From Chettiars to Financiers in Asian Civilisation Museum, Singapore, which traces the settlement of Chettiar community as money lenders during the colonial period.

Tirunelveli: It is not just the Chettiar families living abroad who are riled that their children growing up without any understanding of their cultural heritage. Even uprooted communities, which trace their lineage to the Chettiars who migrated to faraway lands and never returned home, are now searching for their roots.

One such instance is the Chetti Melaka community from Malacca reaching out to the Centre for Diaspora Studies (CDS), Manomaniam Sundaranar University, Tirunelveli, expressing an interest in sharing their hybrid culture with the Tamil audience.

Deviltry Parasurama, spokesperson of the Chetti Melakas, contacted CDS director Samuel Asir Raj last week requesting him to include his name in the list of participants in the Global Tamilscape - International conference on the Journeys of the Diaspora Tamil People across the Globe, scheduled for October 2017.

"I was surprised to learn from him that Chettiars settled in Malacca in Peninsular Malaysia 500 years ago adopted to the local customs by marrying Malay and Chinese women, which had resulted in a unique blend of cultures," observed Samuel Asir Raj, who is also professor of Sociology.

About 200 Chettis from some 40 families are now living within Kampung Chettis in Gajah Behrang, Malacca and Parasurama has also sent a picture of Chetti men marrying a Malay girl following the traditional Chettiar wedding rituals at the Sri Muthu Mariamman temple recently.

Ever since Samuel Asir Raj started the CDS in May 2015 , which is a first of its kind in Indian academia to study the Indian Tamil diaspora spread across the globe, he has been receiving nuggets of important historical information about Tamil diaspora from eminent scholars working on these areas from the universities across the world.

For instance, Professor Chi P Phan from the University of California has thrown light on settlements of Tamils in Vietnam during the 19th century and how deeply they were integrated into Vietnamese culture over many generations, but at the same time financially supported the freedom fighter Subhas Chandra Bose when he formed Indian National Army to fight the British army. "Even Tamil words have integrated with the languages of South East Asian countries," he pointed out.

"Of course Tamils had a long trade history with South East Asia countries since the Sangam Age and we have archaeological evidence, copper plates and Tamil literature to prove it, but what interested me is untold stories of migration to British colonies from the 18th and 19th centuries."

When Samuel Asir Raj travelled for sociological research into the interior villages in Tirunelveli and Thoothukudi districts, he was intrigued when people there have stories to narrate about their family's diaspora history. Be it Nadars, Reddiyars, Dalits or Muslims, their forefathers have travelled to Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, South Africa, Mauritius, Fiji, Guyana, Sri Lanka and Burma to work either as labourers in coffee or tea estates or as Kankaniyars (man power agents in modern language) or as small traders, he pointed out.

At the moment there is a diaspora population of more than 70 million of Tamils spread in over fifty countries of the world. I want their stories to be told to younger generations, he added.

The CDS has also signed a MoU with Harvard and Cambridge Universities and with heritage centres in Singapore and Sydney to promote this research. They are also planning to introduce a one-month course for diaspora studies on Tamil history, language and culture.
The suit, said to be worth Rs 10 lakh, had kicked up a political storm with the Opposition. (Photo: PTI/File)

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modis monogrammed suit entered Guinness World Records as the most expensive suit sold ever.

Modi's monogrammed bandhgala suit that drew trenchant criticism from rivals was sold last year off for a staggering Rs 4.31 crore at an auction in perhaps the first such sale of articles gifted to a serving Prime Minister.

The navy blue suit with Modi's name in full-- Narendra Damodardas Modi--embroidered on the fabric to look like golden stripes, which he had worn for Summit talks with US President Barack Obama in New Delhi on January 25, was bought by a diamond trader from Surat, Lalji Patel and his son, after an intense bidding on the closing day of the three-day auction.

During the auction, the suit was displayed on a lookalike mannequin of Modi behind a glass case. Some bids, including one of Rs five crore, were also received after the deadline, but were disallowed.

The money generated from the auction went for Modi's ambitious 'Clean Ganga Mission'.

The suit, said to be worth Rs 10 lakh, had kicked up a political storm with the Opposition, particularly the Congress taking on Modi during the campaign for Delhi Assembly polls.

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi used the suit, whose fabric was claimed to have come from United Kingdom, to attack Modi over his 'Make in India' campaign and to show how alienated he was from the poor to have worn a Rs 10 lakh attire.

Amid the swirling controversy over the suit, a NRI Gujarati businessman Ramesh B Virani had claimed he gifted it to Modi when he had gone to invite him for his son's wedding.

The suit was tailored by 'Jade Blue' in Ahmedabad, a clothing chain that handles Modi's wardrobe.
Sakshi Malik celebrates after winning bronze medal of the women's wrestling freestyle 58-kg competition, at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janerio, Brazil. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Saturday announced a promotion for Rio Olympics bronze medallist wrestler Sakshi Malik's father Subir Malik, who works as a conductor in Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC), besides felicitating the grappler and her parents.

Sisodia visited the wrestlers parents in Haryana's Rohtak and announced an award of Rs 1 crore for Sakshi Malik.

On Friday, in a communication to Transport Minister Satyendar Jain, Sisodia said, "One of our colleagues (Sakshi's father Sukhbir Malik), while working as a conductor, created such an atmosphere for her daughter so that she could raise the honour of the nation."

"I propose that apart from felicitating Sakshi Malik, the government should felicitate her family, especially her father. I recommend for the promotion of Sukhbir Malik for his contribution," he said.

On Wednesday, the 23-year-old wrestler ended the country's wait for a medal at the Rio Olympic Games as she bagged the bronze medal in the 58 kg category, pulling off a dramatic 8-5 victory in the play-off bout.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal took to Twitter to congratulate Sakshi, and hailed her for making the "whole nation proud".
The question of why Cubbon Park police were called to the pub, on M.G.Road has not been adequately addressed. (Representational Image)

Bengaluru: Beware Bengaluru! Too much PDA and you could spend a night at Parapanna Agrahara! And contract chikunguniya! At least that's what happened to two loved up couples last Saturday who were at a pub on M.G. Road and were reportedly all over each other.

The manager of the pub, asked them to leave so that their "obscene" behaviour didn't upset the other patrons. He then set the ball in motion by calling the cops on them. But he insists he cannot be blamed for their arrest or their subsequent detention.

The question of why Cubbon Park police were called to the pub, on M.G.Road has not been adequately addressed. Although one of the arrested youngsters, Shreyas says: I suspect there is a nexus between the pub management and the police who target vulnerable drunk customers for their advantage to extort money or else file false cases against them.

The four pub crawling youths including two girls were arrested by the Cubbon Park police last Saturday for obscene behaviour inside a pub and creating a ruckus when they are alleged to have assaulted a police officer who was summoned by the pub management after they were asked to leave the pub.

The arrested are Shreyas Pai, 24, founder and CEO of a startup in the city, Jatin, 22, a law student, and their two female friends, one a 22-year-old software engineer turned salesperson working for a Mumbai based firm and a 23-year-old techie working with a reputed MNC in the city. Both their names have been withheld.

Is there a law against kissing too? Pub crawlers jailed for obscene behaviour

"It was around 11.30 pm when I and my female friend were asked to step out of the pub by the manager. We did not create any ruckus and stepped outside

only to see a cop waiting for us outside on the stairs of the WYT Restropub on MG Road," said Shreyas Pai to Deccan Chronicle, adding, " I had only smooched my girlfriend and we both were not sure why we were asked to get out and why a cop should wait for us outside."

"Things started getting ugly when a head constable attached to the Cubbon Park police station started abusing us, to which I was not paying attention, but my girlfriend was," said Shreyas adding "when she tried to reason with the cop, he pushed her aside and all that I did was stand in between them and push the cop away. And that was the end of any control we had on the issue," Shreyas told DC.

"Immediately then the cop started hitting us with a lathi. He punched us and behind him there were around 15 to 20 people who were auto drivers and random passersby who gathered and it was mob fury including the cop who kept attacking me and my friend Jatin," said Shreyas.

"After the mob fury ended, I and Jatin were taken to Bowring Hospital in a Hoysala jeep by the cops. Two doctors attended to both of us, one of whom stitched my forehead and gave me a tetanus injection. I still have my jeans covered with my own blood. Jatin refused the injection, so his wounds were cleaned up. We learned that the duty doctor at Bowring was writing the medical report according to what the cops dictated. The doctors did not take any blood samples to assess how much alcohol we had drunk or not, and just wrote a report according to what the cops dictated for obvious reasons. They wrote that we were inebriated, and were out of our senses, causing ruckus etc.," said Shreyas.

"In the meantime, the two girls came on their own to the hospital as they were concerned about us. When they came too, they saw that the doctors writing what the cops were dictating to them and the girls were asking sarcastically, as the doctor was donning an 'Art Of Living' cap and how can you do this? The same head constable once again came there, held the girl by her arm and pushed her out of the room," Shreyas recounted.

After the medical procedures and formalities were over, the two youngsters were bundled off to Cubbon Park police station at around 3.30 am and the two concerned girls followed them to the station.

"The cops could not arrest the two women as it is against the law to arrest women at night. They lied to us and said that we could wait there till the morning when the inspector arrives and all of us would be allowed to go home," said Shreyas.

But in the morning, the police registered an FIR, and arrested all four, produced them before a magistrate who remanded them to judicial custody, Shreyas recounts.

"I suspect there is a nexus between the pub management and the police who target vulnerable drunk customers for their advantage to extort money or else file false cases against them," said Shreyas.

Group behaved badly: Pub

WYT pub manager Nair said, We have our house policies. If we come across any inappropriate behaviour, its our duty to inform the cops and request the erring patrons to leave politely otherwise they wouldn't pay their bills."

"The group was not only indulging in inappropriate behaviour at their table, but our staff noticed the two girls 'cozying up' at the smoking lounge. At that time, we had about 40 to 50 patrons at our bar," he said.

Woman gets chikungunya in jail

The 22-year-old female friend of Shreyas developed chikungunya at the Parappana Agrahara Central Prison. All the four have been out on bail on Thursday. "We are desperately looking for the CCTV footage that would prove that we were the victims at the hands of the police and pub," said Shreyas.
Srinagar: National Conference president Farooq Abdullah on Friday asked the Centre to accept Pakistan's invitation for dialogue on Kashmir to resolve the "complex issue" for lasting peace in the region.

"The central government should consider the Pakistani invite for dialogue on Kashmir as golden opportunity and extend its hand," said Abdullah, who is currently in London, in a statement issued here.

The former Chief Minister asked the Centre to give up its "ego and rigidity", accept the Pakistani invitation and start a "meaningful and solid" dialogue process to try find a lasting solution to this long standing "complex problem" for an everlasting peace in the region.

The former union minister, however, urged India and Pakistan to involve Kashmiris from both sides in the dialogue process for its success. "Without participation of Kashmiris, the (success of the) dialogue is impossible. Therefore, India and Pakistan should take into confidence the people on both sides of Kashmir before starting a meaningful dialogue," he said.

He said the peace would return to Jammu and Kashmir in particular and south Asian region in general only after the Kashmir issue is treated as a "political issue" and India and Pakistan initiate peace talks to resolve it "permanently".

"As long as the two neighbouring countries continue to delay the resolution of this long standing issue, the lurking threat to peace will continue to haunt the region with each passing day," Abdullah said.

Condemning the continued "curfew, restrictions and excessive use of force" on people, he said "it is impossible to restore peace in the valley by use of brute force".

"Atrocities, bloodshed, indiscriminate and unjustified use of force, arrests, beating of people and ransacking of houses to suppress the people will only deteriorate the situation further," he said, adding people around the globe are condemning and protesting over the happenings in Kashmir.

He appealed to the Centre to put an immediate end to the "bloodshed and atrocities" and said "whatever is happening in Kashmir is badly impacting the image of India and question marks are being put on the Indian claims of democracy".

Abdullah also appealed to President Pranab Mukherjee to intervene and take necessary steps to stop "human rights violations" in the valley and make the state Governor and government answerable.

"The BJP coming to power has encouraged the forces who are unleashing such atrocities on the people which have no example in the past," he said, adding his party has forewarned the people about the happenings if the right wing party comes to power in the state.

"The time has vindicated it," he said, adding "BJP's basic agenda is to revoke article 370 of the Constitution and change the demography of the Muslim-majority state".
Hassan: Hinda will be left behind, while Mr Eshwarappa will move forward and enjoy power, commented state Janata Dal (Secular) president H.D. Kumaraswamy on senior BJP K.S. Eshwarappas backward classes movement, here on Friday.

On his way to Chikkamagaluru, Mr Kumaraswamy said that the Eshwarappas movement would meet a slow death, just like CM Siddaramaiahs Ahinda movement that was launched nearly a decade ago.

He said, Mr Siddaramaiah dumped the Ahinda movement after he became chief minister and Mr Eshwrappa will do the same with the Hinda rallies once he comes to power.

He took exception to the use of Sangolli Rayanna (a freedom fighter) for Hinda grouping, saying Sangolli Rayanna belongs to the entire state and it is not right to confine him to a particular community (kurubas).
About 12,000 people are in prison in Bihar for violation of the new prohibition law. Broadly, they have been taken into custody over the past three months. The law is extremely stringent, much more so than prohibition provisions that are in existence or have been in existence in other states. An accused cannot get bail without a long judicial process that assesses the circumstances of arrest and the evidence.

As per the prohibition law, the police is authorised to search kitchens and come to the conclusion that alcoholic or intoxicating drinks are being produced domestically if it finds certain ingredients  sugar, jaggery and grapes  being used in a particular fashion. The scope for misuse and extortion can be imagined. Landlords have been asked to compulsorily report tenants who drink in the privacy of their rooms. Otherwise, both the tenant and landlord are liable to be arrested.

Punishment under the law can extend to not just the person found drinking but also his family and members of his community, neighbourhood or village. Collective fines and presumption of guilt of family members in case an individual is found drinking is a feature of the Nitish Kumar governments prohibition regime. Collective punishments on a significant scale were last heard of in Bihar (and certain other provinces) in 1942, during the Quit India Movement. Using a draconian wartime ordinance, the colonial government punished entire villages to defeat the revolutionary spirit.

Not that harsh laws have stopped people from drinking. In Gopalganj district this past week, some 20 people died after consuming sub-standard and illicitly produced alcohol. Without the prohibition law, the men who died would have had access to country-made liquor made in safe conditions or Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) from a regular store. They would have survived and their families would not have been left wondering if the prohibition law was worth it.

The state government was initially in denial about Gopalganj and sought to explain it away as food poisoning. Similar explanations have been offered for post-prohibition deaths in Khagaria, Nalanda and even Patna. Now the government has conceded that illicit liquor was responsible for deaths in Gopalganj, a district where 300 people are in prison on charges of violating prohibition.

Ironically, the JD(U)-RJD government has announced compensation for the families of those who broke the prohibition law, consumed illicit (but poor quality) alcohol and died in Gopalganj. This seems a ghoulish incentive  if that word is appropriate here in the first place. After all, those who drink legally-produced alcohol  procured now from other states or even made at home, as happens in some communities  are being fined and locked up.

How did Bihars prohibition binge begin? Prohibition has failed wherever it has been tried.

From 1920s America to 1990s Andhra Pradesh and Haryana, in the old Bombay state and in the successor province of Gujarat  where prohibition continues to exist, though it has been progressively diluted  a ban on alcohol production and consumption has only incubated smuggling and bootlegging syndicates, promoted organised crime and given local police officials opportunities to take bribes.

Encouraged by rural women voters who wanted curbs on their husbands drinking  and immoderate drinking is indeed and undeniably a social problem in many parts of India 

Mr Kumar promised a ban on country-made liquor which came into effect on April 1, 2016. On that day, long queues, running into two or three km, formed outside IMFL shops. Since country-made liquor shops had closed, consumers moved to branded alcohol. The ban was reduced to a fiasco.

Embarrassed, the state government hit back. In a matter of hours, all alcohol was banned. Big companies such as Cobra, United Breweries and Carlsberg, which had invested in Bihar following invitations by the Nitish Kumar government and facilitation by its industrial development agencies were surprised. There was no consultation or warning, before the ban.

The companies are fuming, as are brewery workers and distributors who have made investments and employed people.

Mr Kumar is accused of hypocrisy. As Satyajit Singh, a leading Patna businessman and chair, Bihar Committee, PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry, pointed out during a recent public debate, The Nitish Kumar government opened liquor shops in 8,000 panchayats and made people drink for 10 years to help check spurious liquor. It generated an estimated `30,000 crore in revenue and the growth story of Bihar was scripted.

What is Mr Kumars motivation for prohibition  a measure he now advocates for all of the country and one that could form part of his national political plans? In Bihar, the JD(U) is smaller and less organised than its alliance partner, Lalu Prasad Yadavs RJD. The prohibition policy and creating a populist, and womens, constituency is seen as Mr Kumars quest for a security blanket.

He is quite unhappy, especially since he has supporters and contributors who are in the alcohol business. Lip service to prohibition has forced him to keep his objections to himself.

The third partner in the ruling alliance, the Congress, has also maintained a tactical silence. Nevertheless, if Gopalganj-type tragedies recur, the noise levels will rise. So will pressure on Mr Kumar to reverse his absurd law.
Former Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai remains a leader sought by the world and his own people. The reason is evident, as his comments to the media showed on Friday in the course of a visit to New Delhi. Mr Karzai demonstrated his acute grasp of the regional reality, as he spoke of ending extremism and checking the rise of the ISIS, ensuring peace and harmony for development, and finding ways for the return of normality in Kashmir in the context of a proxy war.

Coming from a country that has endured nearly four decades of continuing war caused by extremism fomented by Pakistan, Mr Karzai, not surprisingly, appreciated Prime Minister Narendra Modis observation pertaining to Balochistan, where suppression of the people, killing and bloodshed has been the norm since the 1940s. Balochistan is the area from which extremism and terrorism is commonly exported to Afghanistan.

Mr Karzai made two other important points. Even as all steps must be taken to end extremism and terrorism, efforts should be made for friendship with Pakistan, and that a country of Indias size, philosophy and history should not be constrained by advice from Pakistan or the US to make and nurture its own friends.
More than 30 major technology and communication companies said on August 19, 2016 they are joining the US government to crack down on "robocalls," automated, prerecorded phone calls that regulators have labeled a "scourge."

AT&T, Google parent Alphabet, Apple, Verizon and Comcast Corp are among members of the Robocall Strike Force that held its first meeting with the US Federal Communications Commission.

The strike force will report to the FCC by October 19 on "concrete plans to accelerate the development and adoption of new tools and solutions," said AT&T Chief Executive Officer Randall Stephenson, chairman of the group.

The strike force hopes to implement Caller ID verification standards to help block calls from spoofed phone numbers and consider a "Do Not Originate" list that would block spoofers from impersonating legitimate phone numbers from governments, banks or others.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler in July urged major companies to take new action to block robocalls, which often come from telemarketers or scam artists.

"This scourge must stop," Wheeler said on Friday, calling robocalls the No. 1 complaint from consumers.

"The bad guys are beating the good guys with technology," Wheeler said. In the past, he has said robocalls continue "due in large part to industry inaction."

Stephenson emphasized "the breadth and complexity" of the problem.

"This is going to require more than individual company initiatives and one-off blocking apps," Stephenson said. "Robocallers are a formidable adversary, notoriously hard to stop."

The FCC does not require robocall blocking and filtering but has strongly encouraged phone service providers to offer those services at no charge.

The strike force brings together carriers, device makers, operating system developers, network designers and the government.

"We have to come out of this with a comprehensive play book for all of us to go execute," Stephenson said. "We have calls that are perfectly legal, but unwanted, like telemarketers and public opinion surveyors. At the other end of the spectrum, we have millions of calls that are blatantly illegal."

Stephenson said technical experts representing the companies have had "preliminary conversations about short- and longer-term initiatives."

Joan Marsh, AT&T vice president of federal regulatory issues, called the problem complicated. "We have been wrangling with this problem long enough to know there is no silver bullet," she said. "Nothing by itself is going to do it."

Other companies taking part include BlackBerry, British Telecommunications Plc, Charter Communications, Frontier Communications, LG Electronics, Microsoft, Nokia, Qualcomm, Samsung , Sirius XM , T-Mobile and US Cellular Corp.

Consumers Union, a public advocacy group, said the task force is a sign "phone companies are taking more serious steps to protect their customers from unwanted calls."

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The' always-on' display enables screen to display time and notifications even when the phone is locked

Moto, this week, has accused Samsung for copying its always-on display feature, on its Twitter handle.

In what galaxy is it okay to steal competitor phones' cool features? #TheOriginalAlwaysOnDisplay #motozdroid, reads company's US twitter handle.

The much anticipated Samsung Galaxy Note 7 launched on August 2, 2016, features always-on display as claimed by Moto, which enables screen to display time and notifications even when the phone is locked. A similar feature can be spotted on Moto X smartphone; however, according to the reports Moto itself is unable to claim that it was the original creator of the feature as it was first seen on Nokias Lumia phone.

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Washington: The FBI and US Justice Department are investigating possible US ties to alleged corruption involving the former president of Ukraine, including the work of firms headed by political operatives Paul Manafort and Tony Podesta, CNN reported on Friday, citing multiple U.S. law enforcement officials.

The broad-based investigation was looking into whether U.S. companies and the financial system were used to enable corruption by the party of former pro-Russian Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, CNN said.

A person who answered a telephone number for Manafort said Manafort was not available for comment. The person, who said he was an associate of Manafort and who gave his name only as David, referred queries to a lawyer in Washington, who did not immediately respond to a phone call and an email.

In response to a report in the New York Times on Monday, Manafort denied any impropriety in a statement. "I have never received a single 'off-the-books cash payment' as falsely 'reported' by The New York Times, nor have I ever done work for the governments of Ukraine or Russia," he said.

The New York Times reported that he had received cash payments worth more than $12 million over five years that were itemized on secret ledgers belonging to Yanukovich's Party of Regions.

Manafort, who resigned as chairman of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's campaign on Friday, had not been the focus of the probe, CNN said, citing the officials.

The probe was looking at the work of other firms linked to the former Ukrainian government, including the Podesta Group, a lobbying and public relations company headed by Tony Podesta, whose brother John Podesta is chairman of the campaign to elect Democratic Party presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

Manafort's attorney Richard Hibey did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The FBI declined to comment, CNN reported.The Podesta Group has hired an independent legal firm to investigate whether it had been misled by the Centre for a Modern Ukraine, a not-for-profit group linked to the ousted Ukrainian government, a spokeswoman for the group said in a statement.

The Justice Department, asked to comment on the report, said it remained "committed to helping recover stolen assets on behalf of the people of Ukraine."

Investigators in Ukraine have said Yanukovych and his party engaged in widespread corruption. He fled to Russia following a popular uprising in 2014.
Washington: A little-known foreign policy adviser of Donald Trump had praised Russian President Vladimir Putin during a meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi had with US experts and think tanks here in June, according to a media report.

Such a meeting between Modi and top American foreign policy experts and think tanks representing both the Clinton and Trump Campaigns was held at the Blair House when the Prime Minister visited Washington DC in June.

According to The Washington Post, which reported about this of-the-record meeting earlier this month, such a remark by a US foreign policy expert in a meeting with a foreign leader stunned those present at the Blair House?

"In early June, a little-known adviser to Donald Trump stunned a gathering of high-powered Washington foreign policy experts meeting with the visiting prime minister of India, going off topic with effusive praise for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Trump," the daily said.

"The adviser, Carter Page, hailed Putin as stronger and more reliable than President (Barack) Obama, according to three people who were present at the closed-door meeting at Blair House -- and then touted the positive effect a Trump presidency would have on US-Russia relations," it said.

A month later, Page dumbfounded foreign policy experts again by giving another speech harshly critical of US policy -- this time in Moscow, the daily said.

The Clinton Campaign yesterday used 'The Post' story to allege that members of the Trump campaign have connections with the Putin regime in Russia.

"Carter Page, Trump's pro-Putin foreign policy adviser, built his career on deals with Russia's state owned gas company, Gazprom, and travelled to Moscow just last month," the Clinton Campaign alleged in a lengthy statement issued after the Trump Campaign chairman Paul Manafort resigned amid reports of his alleged links with pro-Russia elements in Ukraine.
Paul Manafort resigned in wake of campaign shakeup and revelations about Ukraine work. (Photo: AP)

Washington: Donald Trump's U.S. presidential campaign sealed a major staff reshuffle with the resignation on Friday of its campaign chairman, and the Republican nominee tried to end weeks of upheaval to focus on beating Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

The departure of Paul Manafort came as Trump tried this week to reset his unorthodox bid for the White House after falling behind Clinton in opinion polls for the Nov. 8 election.

Trump said in a statement he had accepted Manafort's resignation and praised his "great work," but did not offer an explanation for the departure.

Trump aides say the staff changes usher in a greater focus on policy and a more serious tone.

The former reality TV host has stuck to that mission, swapping his free-wheeling rally speeches for prepared remarks that stick to a singular theme. He has concentrated on immigration, trade deals and law and order.

Speaking in Dimondale, Michigan, on Friday with the use of a teleprompter, Trump stayed clear of much of the hyperbole that has been a hallmark of his campaign.

He attacked Clinton for her position on trade agreements, telling the Michigan crowd that the Democrat would send auto jobs to Mexico.

Nonetheless, he appeared to stray at times from his prepared remarks, as when he said that black voters, who overwhelmingly tell pollsters they prefer Democratic candidates, should vote for him.

"You're living in poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs, 58 percent of your youth are unemployed," Trump said. "What the hell do you have to lose?"

Trump, who has never held elected office, did not refer to his staffing changes, but in an interview earlier on Friday his son Eric Trump said unflattering headlines about Manafort had taken a toll.

"I think my father didn't want to be, you know, distracted by, you know, whatever things that, you know, Paul was dealing with," he told the Fox News Channel's "Sunday Morning Futures", while also praising Manafort's work for the campaign.

Questions have arisen about Manafort's previous work for the political party of the Kremlin-backed former Ukrainian leader, Viktor Yanukovich.

Federal investigators from the U.S. Department of Justice are examining American ties to corruption in Ukraine, CNN reported on Friday. The investigation is looking at the work of Manafort's firm and another lobbying firm, the Podesta Group, headed by Tony Podesta, whose brother, John Podesta, is chairman of Clinton's presidential campaign.

Clinton poll lead

Clinton leads Trump by 8 percentage points among likely voters, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released on Friday. The Aug. 14-18 online poll showed that Clinton was supported by 42 percent of Americans who are expected to vote, compared with 34 percent for Trump. Some 23 percent would not side with either candidate.

On Wednesday, Trump overhauled his campaign team, hiring the head of conservative website Breitbart News, Stephen Bannon, as chief executive of the campaign in a move that bolstered his combative image. Trump also promoted adviser Kellyanne Conway, a data-driven political analyst, to campaign manager.

In a previous shake-up, Manafort, who first joined the team in March, took over the running of the campaign from Corey Lewandowski, who was fired as campaign manager in June.

The Clinton campaign has pointed to Manafort's Ukraine work and favorable comments that Trump has made about Russian President Vladimir Putin to sow questions in voters' minds about whether the Russian government has an unseen hand in the U.S. election. Russian officials have rejected that accusation.

"You can get rid of Manafort, but that doesn't end the odd bromance Trump has with Putin," Robby Mook, Clinton's campaign manager, said in a statement.

Too many cooks

John Feehery, a Republican strategist, said it would have been unsustainable for Manafort to stay on after Wednesday's hires. "Too many cooks in the kitchen," he said.

Trump's hiring of Bannon was seen as a sign he would not hold back in his aggressive, unorthodox campaign manner. Still, Trump offered rare words of regret on Thursday for any time he had caused "personal pain" with his take-no-prisoners style.

On Friday, he also began airing his first television advertisement since becoming the Republican candidate, buying airtime in the crucial states of Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Florida, where Clinton has already spent of millions in television advertising.

The 30-second ad focuses on immigration, saying Clinton would allow "terrorists and dangerous criminals" into the country, a charge her campaign dismisses.

Karlyn Bowman, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute conservative think tank, said Trump still had some time to turn around his campaign, noting the news of the shakeup came as many Americans were enjoying summer vacations.

The final stretch of the protracted campaign traditionally starts after Labor Day, which falls on Sept. 5 this year.

"I'm not sure the public pays a lot of attention to inside campaign stories," she said. "But that said, Trump has clearly been having significant problems in the polls and he needed to do something differently and perhaps this is the beginning of the attempt."

Clinton won some relief on Friday from a controversy over her use of a private email system when she was secretary of state. A U.S. federal judge ruled that Clinton did not need to give sworn testimony in a lawsuit about the email issue.
The new report focused on the Armys General Fund, the bigger of its two main accounts, with assets of $282.6 billion in 2015. (Photo: Representational Image/AP)

New York: The United States Armys finances are so jumbled it had to make trillions of dollars of improper accounting adjustments to create an illusion that its books are balanced.

The Defence Departments Inspector General, in a June report, said the Army made $2.8 trillion in wrongful adjustments to accounting entries in one quarter alone in 2015, and $6.5 trillion for the year. Yet the Army lacked receipts and invoices to support those numbers or simply made them up.

As a result, the Armys financial statements for 2015 were materially misstated, the report concluded. The forced adjustments rendered the statements useless because DoD and Army managers could not rely on the data in their accounting systems when making management and resource decisions.

Disclosure of the Armys manipulation of numbers is the latest example of the severe accounting problems plaguing the Defence Department for decades.

The report affirms a 2013 Reuters series revealing how the Defence Department falsified accounting on a large scale as it scrambled to close its books. As a result, there has been no way to know how the Defence Department far and away the biggest chunk of Congress annual budget spends the publics money.

The new report focused on the Armys General Fund, the bigger of its two main accounts, with assets of $282.6 billion in 2015. The Army lost or didnt keep required data, and much of the data it had was inaccurate, the IG said.

Where is the money going? Nobody knows, said Franklin Spinney, a retired military analyst for the Pentagon and critic of Defence Department planning.

The significance of the accounting problem goes beyond mere concern for balancing books, Spinney said. Both presidential candidates have called for increasing defence spending amid current global tension.

An accurate accounting could reveal deeper problems in how the Defence Department spends its money. Its 2016 budget is $573 billion, more than half of the annual budget appropriated by Congress.

The Army accounts errors will likely carry consequences for the entire Defence Department.

Congress set a September 30, 2017 deadline for the department to be prepared to undergo an audit. The Army accounting problems raise doubts about whether it can meet the deadline, a black mark for Defence, as every other federal agency undergoes an audit annually.

For years, the Inspector General, the Defence Departments official auditor has inserted a disclaimer on all military annual reports. The accounting is so unreliable that the basic financial statements may have undetected misstatements that are both material and pervasive.

In an e-mailed statement, a spokesman said the Army remains committed to asserting audit readiness by the deadline and is taking steps to root out the problems.

The spokesman downplayed the significance of the improper changes, which he said net out to $62.4 billion. Though there is a high number of adjustments, we believe the financial statement information is more accurate than implied in this report, he said.

The grand plug

Jack Armstrong, a former Defense Inspector General official in charge of auditing the Army General Fund, said the same type of unjustified changes to Army financial statements already were being made when he retired in 2010.

The Army issues two types of reports  a budget report and a financial one. The budget one was completed first. Armstrong said he believes fudged numbers were inserted into the financial report to make the numbers match.

They dont know what the heck the balances should be, Armstrong said.

Some employees of the Defence Finance and Accounting Services (DFAS), which handles a wide range of Defence Department accounting services, referred sardonically to preparation of the Armys year-end statements as the grand plug, Armstrong said. Plug is accounting jargon for inserting made-up numbers.

At first glance adjustments totalling trillions may seem impossible. The amounts dwarf the Defence Departments entire budget. Making changes to one account also require making changes to multiple levels of sub-accounts, however. That created a domino effect where, essentially, falsifications kept falling down the line. In many instances this daisy-chain was repeated multiple times for the same accounting item.

The IG report also blamed DFAS, saying it too made unjustified changes to numbers. For example, two DFAS computer systems showed different values of supplies for missiles and ammunition, the report noted, but rather than solving the disparity, DFAS personnel inserted a false correction to make the numbers match.

DFAS also could not make accurate year-end Army financial statements because more than 16,000 financial data files had vanished from its computer system. Faulty computer programming and employees inability to detect the flaw were at fault, the IG said.

DFAS is studying the report and has no comment at this time, a spokesman said.
Julie was found guilty of raping the boy, inciting him as well as engaging in non-penetrative sexual activity. (Representational Image)

Herefordshire, West Midlands: In an incident that shocked UK, a court in West Midlands, England, has ruled in favour of two paedophile sisters who were accused of sexually abusing a six-year-old boy.

According to a report in the Daily Mail, the Worcester Crown Court in its ruling, said that both the accused were deaf and they would experience 'complete isolation' if sent to jail.

Identified as Julie Fellows, 30, and Jennifer, 32, the accused sisters from Kington, Herefordshire in West Midlands, had molested the victim for over a period of 14 years.

While the case was undergoing a trial in court, prosecutors told judge that in the year 2000, Julie had lured the victim into a toilet and began touching herself inappropriately.

On another occasion, she performed oral sex on the victim who failed to understand that it was a crime, since it happened almost every time. Prosecutors said that she also had sex with the boy when he turned 14.

She was found guilty of raping the boy, inciting him as well as engaging in non-penetrative sexual activity.

Despite being found guilty, the sisters were spared jail because the judge believed that they were deaf and it would be unfair to send them in prison as it would land them in isolation.

However, both the accused were ordered to undergo 30 sessions of sexual offending programme and were slapped with a five-year restraining order to not have any contact with the victim.
Istanbul: Prime Minister Binali Yildirim on Saturday insisted the United States was Turkey's "strategic partner, not our enemy" despite Ankara's anger at Washington for failing to extradite Fethullah Gulen, whom it blames for last month's failed coup.

"There can be ups and downs in the two countries' relations (but) we need to remove elements that harm our relations," Yildirim told journalists in Istanbul, referring to the Pennsylvania-based cleric.

Ankara has for years accused Gulen of running a "parallel state" in Turkey and it also blamed him for ordering the failed putsch of July 15.

The reclusive cleric, who has lived in self-exile in the United States since 1999, strongly denies any involvement in the coup attempt.

Ankara had previously suggested any failure to deliver Gulen would severely damage bilateral ties and Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said it was up to Washington to extradite him to prevent "anti-US feeling" in Turkey turning into "hate".

The White House has confirmed that US Vice President Joe Biden will visit Ankara next week in the highest-ranking visit to Turkey by any Western official since the coup.

Yildirim also confirmed a technical delegation would arrive on August 22 for talks with Turkey's judicial authorities ahead of Biden's visit.

"I hope this process will be finalised in a way favoured by both countries, and (that) questions in the minds of Turkish people about America will be removed."
Russia's three cruise missile launches were its first against targets in Syria from the Mediterranean. (Photo: AP)

Aleppo: Russian warships in the Mediterranean Sea fired cruise missiles at targets near Aleppo on Friday, a further sign of Moscow's broadening military effort in Syria days after it began to fly bombing missions from an airbase in Iran.

Russian air power had helped Syrian President Bashar al-Assad make steady advances against rebels seeking to oust him since Moscow's intervention a year ago, but a recent insurgent advance in Aleppo has checked that momentum.

In northeastern Syria, warplanes from a U.S.-led coalition flew patrols on Thursday to protect local ground forces they back against Syrian government airstrikes that are targeting the Kurdish city of Hasaka, the Pentagon said.

"The Syrian regime would be well advised not to interfere with coalition forces or our partners," Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said.

Russia's three cruise missile launches were its first against targets in Syria from the Mediterranean, with previous ones made from its Caspian Sea fleet. On Tuesday Russian bombers began flying missions in Syria from Hamedan air base in Iran.

Russia's Defence Ministry said the strikes targeted the Islamist militant group Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, known as the Nusra Front until it broke formal ties with al Qaeda last month before playing a big role in the sudden rebel advances in Aleppo.

The upsurge in fighting and airstrikes in and around the city, split between government-held west and rebel-held eastern sectors, has prompted growing international concern, galvanized by pictures on Thursday of a dazed, bloodied child.

The plight of civilians in Aleppo has been aggravated in besieged areas by dire shortages of basic goods, leading the World Food Programme to warn of a "nightmarish" situation.

In Daraya, a suburb of Damascus, rebels and a war monitor said the Syrian army's helicopters had dropped incendiary barrel bombs early on Friday, putting the opposition-held town's only hospital out of action.

On Thursday Russia, Assad's most powerful military ally, said it supported a proposal for a weekly 48-hour pause in fighting in Aleppo to allow aid to reach the besieged areas and that it was ready to start the first one next week.

On Friday, the main umbrella group for the Syrian opposition also cautiously welcomed the idea provided the U.N. monitored the truce and enforced compliance. During a previous humanitarian pause this year, both sides complained the other had broken the truce as fighting escalated again.

Dozens killed in Hasaka

On Friday Syrian Kurdish authorities evacuated thousands of civilians from Kurdish areas of Hasaka following government air strikes, a spokesman for the Kurdish YPG militia, an integral part of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), said.

The SDF is at the heart of Washington's military campaign against Islamic State group and last week seized the town of Manbij from the militant organization, part of a growing swathe of northern Syria it controls.

The US-led coalition aircraft arrived at Hasaka as two Syrian SU-24s, which had carried out the strikes, were leaving. "This is very unusual, we have not seen the regime take this kind of action against YPG before," the Pentagon's Davis said.

Hasaka is divided into zones of Kurdish and Syrian government control and fighting between them has killed dozens of civilians in the past 48 hours, YPG spokesman Redur Xelil said.

The YPG and the government have mostly avoided confrontation during the multi-sided war that has turned Syria into a patchwork of areas held by the state and an array of armed factions.

The Syrian army said on Friday that this week's fighting was caused by Kurdish security forces attempting to take over Hasaka, prompting it to return fire on armed groups.

Assad, backed by Russia and Iran, has focused mostly on fighting Sunni Arab rebels who have been battling to oust him in western Syria with support from countries including Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the United States.

The YPG, or People's Protection Units, has meanwhile prioritized carving out and safeguarding predominantly Kurdish regions of northern Syria. The group has ties to Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels in Turkey.

While the YPG controls most of the northeast, the Syrian government has maintained footholds in the cities of Hasaka and Qamishli at the border with Turkey.

The SDF seizure of Manbij from Islamic State last week raised the prospect of possible advances towards al-Bab, near Aleppo.

Families of Islamic State fighters in al-Bab and another nearby town, Jarablus, were evacuated to the militant group's stronghold of Raqqa, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based war monitoring group, said.

Aleppo truce

Rebel groups, including Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, stormed a Syrian army complex in southwest Aleppo two weeks ago, breaking a siege on opposition-held parts of Aleppo and prompting fierce counter-attacks.

A senior rebel commander said there was a "positive atmosphere" surrounding talk of a ceasefire. "But so far there are no details."

Syrian warplanes had carried out 46 sorties in the last 24 hours, including strikes in Aleppo that destroyed a tank, a vehicle loaded with ammunition and three mortar emplacements, and killed dozens of rebel fighters, a military source said.

Continuing clashes between rebels and the Syrian army and allied militias were fiercest in the southwest of city, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based monitor of the five-year-old civil war, said on Friday.

It added that air strikes and shelling in and around Aleppo had killed 422 civilians, including 142 children, this month.

"We need a 48-hour pause, we need it now," WFP spokeswoman Bettina Luescher told a briefing in Geneva on Friday. While the rebel advance this month opened a narrow corridor into opposition-held areas of Aleppo, access remains very limited and dangerous, meaning aid supplies are scarce.

"It's crucially important that we go in there because people are absolutely desperate," Luescher added. "From both sides, these sieges have to stop - it's inhumane, awful, disgusting, nightmarish. Not necessarily U.N. words, but that's what it is."
Six terrorist hideouts were destroyed in the raids in Khyber Agency's Rajgal Valley that also killed nine militants, according to a statement issued by the Inter Service Public Relations (ISPR). (Representational Image/ AFP)

Peshawar: At least nine terrorists were killed on Saturday and their hideouts destroyed in aerial and ground operations by the army in Pakistan's restive northwestern tribal region bordering Afghanistan.

Six terrorist hideouts were destroyed in the raids in Khyber Agency's Rajgal Valley that also killed nine militants, according to a statement issued by the Inter Service Public Relations (ISPR).

Large dumps of arms and ammunition were targeted in air raids and ground operations in the treacherous terrain, the statement added.

The operation was part of Khyber-III, launched on Tuesday, which targets terrorists holed up in the area beyond Tirah Valley, right on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

On Wednesday, 14 terrorists were killed in air strikes in the high-mountainous region where the proscribed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan had a strong presence, the Express Tribune reported.

The toll from three days of the military operation so far stands at 27 dead, including two soldiers.
Myanmar under Suu Kyi has shown willingness to embrace its top trading partner and major investor. (Photo: AP)

Beijing: China and Myanmar have pledged to forge closer ties as "blood brothers" following Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi's visit to Beijing, her first diplomatic trip since taking power in March.

The neighbours said in a joint statement they would strengthen trade and co-operation on issues along the border, where fighting between Myanmar government forces and rebels have occasionally spilled over.

There was no mention of progress, however, on a stalled $3.6 billion dam project in northern Myanmar primarily funded by Chinese energy interests, which was a key concern during the visit.

China has been on a diplomatic charm offensive in the past year toward its fast-growing neighbour, while Myanmar under Suu Kyi has shown willingness to embrace its top trading partner and major investor.
Asked about criticism in some quarters that India and Pakistan were engaged in a proxy war in his country, Karzai retorted by saying, "India is not engaging in any proxy war in Afghanistan." (Photo: PTI)

Kabul: India is not engaged in any proxy war in Afghanistan and has been sincerely carrying out reconstruction work there, former Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Saturday even as he slammed Pakistan for "encouraging" radicalism and not containing terror groups operating from its soil.

Karzai also appreciated Prime Minister Narendra Modi for raising the issue of Balochistan in his Independence Day address, saying Afghanistan understands the problems being faced by the people of Pakistan's southern province.

In an interactive session on Regional Power Play and Rise of Radicalism in Afghanistan, he identified terrorism as the single biggest challenge facing the region and called for a united fight to defeat it.

Karzai, who was president of Afghanistan from 2001-2014, said China has been a good neighbour to Afghanistan and its military and security assistance to his country was very recent. At the same time, he said that Afghanistan's ties with China is not as deep as it is with India.

"But the overall relationship between China and Afghanistan is of course very good," he added.

Asked about criticism in some quarters that India and Pakistan were engaged in a proxy war in his country, Karzai retorted by saying, "India is not engaging in any proxy war in Afghanistan...Training thousands of Afghans is not a proxy war, it is empowerment."

India has supplied four Mi25 helicopters to Afghanistan besides providing training to Afghan security forces.

Welcoming Modi's comments on Balochistan, Karzai said, "The issue of Balochisthan is something we understand and therefore we appreciate the remarks of Prime Minister Modi."

In his Independence Day speech on Monday, Modi had talked about the situation in PoK, Gilgit and Balochistan and said people from there have thanked him for raising their issues.

Karzai attacked Pakistan for encouraging spread of radicalism. "Unfortunately, in our region there was use of radicalism to a purpose," he said.

About spread of dreaded terror outfit Islamic State, he said IS is a "sinister" tool, adding tomorrow it will be against the ones using it. He said Afghanistan and all its neighbouring countries must work together to combat IS.

"Today I can use it, tomorrow I can discard it. That's a very dangerous strategy," he said, while asking Pakistan to deal with terror groups firmly.

He said religion and aspirations to be a democratic country have nothing to do with one another.

In an apparent reference to Pakistan, he rejected promotion of religion as an "instrument of foreign policy". He also sounded critical of the US for its role in the region.

Karzai appealed to Pakistan to join hands with Afghanistan in addressing various problems "without use of radicalism."
Islamabad: Pakistan on Saturday said the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation has expressed "deep concern" over the Kashmir situation and reaffirmed its support for the right of self-determination for the people there.

Secretary General of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Iyad Ameen Madani, who is here on a three-day visit from August 19-21, conveyed the grouping's concerns to the Pakistani side, the Foreign Office here said in a statement.

Claiming that Madani's visit to Pakistan was aimed at discussing the situation in Kashmir, it said, "discussions during the meeting (between Madani and Prime Minister's Advisor on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz) focused on a number of challenges facing the Muslim world, particularly on the situation" in Kashmir and peace in Afghanistan.

Madani expressed "deep concern over the killing of innocent civilians" in Kashmir and sorrow at the "indiscriminate use of force and gross violations of human rights" in Kashmir by the Indian forces, the statement said.
Mathew Barrett arrived in Islamabad earlier this month and was cleared at the airport. (Photo: AP)

Islamabad: Pakistan has deported an American national who managed to get a visa and arrived in Islamabad despite being on list of people banned from entering the country, officials said on Saturday.

Mathew Barrett arrived in Islamabad earlier this month and was cleared at the airport. Later, his name was found in the blacklist and he was arrested from a guest house in Islamabad. A case was registered against him for violating immigration laws.

After initial hearing, a court ordered two days ago that he should be deported.

"He was taken to Lahore from Islamabad last night and put on flight PK-711 for the United States," an official said.

Barrett was blacklisted and deported in 2011 after he was arrested from nearby a nuclear site in Punjab province. However, he got a visa from Pakistani consulate at Houston and landed in Pakistan.

Pakistan has launched an internal probe against the officers who granted the visa and entry to the blacklisted man. It is believed that Pakistan was under pressure from the US to show leniency towards Barrett.
Pakistan army troops patrol in Pakistan near the Torkham border post between Pakistan and Afghanistan. (Photo: AP/File)

Islamabad: Pakistan has closed one of its main border point with Afghanistan after a group of Afghans staged a protest and tried to attack the crossing in the troubled Balochistan province.

A large number of people had gathered near Friendship Gate at Chaman in Balochistan to celebrate Afghanistan's national day yesterday.

During the event, some Afghans attacked the gate and burnt a Pakistani flag in the evening, prompting authorities to deploy additional security troops and shut down the gate for indefinite period, an official said.

Another official said the Afghans belonging to border town of Spin Boldak protested in favor of India after Pakistan protested against the remarks made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi regarding Balochistan.

They also chanted slogans against Pakistan, threw rocks at the gate.

The closure resulted in long queues of trucks and lorries on both sides of the border. The traders suffered on both sides as fresh supplies of essential items have been badly interrupted.

Pakistan had closed Torkham border crossing in the north-west region in June after deadly clashes with Afghan forces. It was later reopened after talks between high officials of the two countries.
A 10-year-old boy was shot at by unidentified men in front of his home in East Delhis Farsh Bazaar area on Thursday night. The bullet punctured the boys kidney, and he is admitted in Guru Teg Bahadur (GTB) Hopital.



The incident happened around 10.30 pm when Aman, a resident of New Sanjay Amar Colony, returned from a nearby grocery shop after purchasing a packet of ` crispies. He was standing in front of his house slightly off the road when he suddenly started groaning with pain, said Rakesh, Amans neighbour.



There were some other people who were standing there and noticed Aman sitting on the ground holding his stomach. When they checked the boy they found Amans abdomen bleeding. They informed Amans parents and he was taken to a nearby doctors clinic.



The doctor after conducting x-ray told Amans parents that he has been shot at and a bullet has pierced his kidney. A man was taken to Hedgewar Hospital from there he was further referred to GTB Hopital where the doctors took out a 315 bore bullet from the boys stomach, said Rajesh.



Aman, a class 4 student atf KM Public School was on Friday in the intensive care unit of GTB Hospital where his condition is said to be stable. Police have begun investigation and questioning of Amans parents, neighbours and the eyewitnesses.



Mystery continues

Police said no one saw anyone shooting a bullet towards the boy. Police further told that Amans father, Ranveer, a native of Bhind in Madhya Pradesh, sells samosas on push cart for a living.



Aman has two brothers and two sisters and he is the youngest of them. According to police his father Ranveer didn't have any rivals or enemies in the area. He is a simple person and it looks like the incident is a case of accidental firing. However, we are investigating the case from every angle, said a police officer.



Police have taken the bullet which hit the boy in their custody and forensic experts are examining it. CCTV footage of the area is also being scanned in a bid to find the shooter.


After opening 58 liquor shops in little duration of 18 months, the government has now woken up to decide that no more liquor shops shall be opened this year, said Gupta, adding that the government has not fully used the funds meant for spreading awareness against addiction.



Gupta said the Opposition has given notices to the Assembly Secretary on 11 issues, including pending Delhi Sanitation and Cleanliness By Laws 2009, engagement of private lawyers, payment of Rs 6 crore every month to companies named in water scam, non implementation of schemes for cleaning the Yamuna, appointment of public relations firms at hefty fees to improve Delhi government image and non-implementation of the Aam Admi Canteen Scheme.



For the Assembly session starting from Monday, the Oppostion BJP has chalked out a strategy to confront the AAP government on its alleged unconstitutional functioning and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwals frequent visits to other states.During the session, the three-MLA Opposition plans to raise issues like diversion of funds meant for labour welfare, appointment of private lawyers at hefty fees, non implementation of a three percent quota for the physically handicapped in government jobs and the inability to start construction of the promised 500 schools and 20 colleges.Leader of Opposition Vijender Gupta said the Bharatiya Janata Party will confront the ruling Aam Aadmi Party for its unconstitutional actions, leading to a piquant situation in running the government.The BJP will leave no stone unturned in highlighting governments failure on different fronts, Gupta said. The AAP government has taken many unconstitutional and anti-poor measures which need to be raised in the Assembly for rectification.The government which boasts of increasing the minimum wages of workers, has committed the illegal act of diverting Rs 1,150 crore out of Rs 1,700 crores of Cess Fund contributed by building and other workers since 2002, he said.The fund has been diverted by AAP government for non-permissible uses such as construction of school colleges, aganwari and canteens, said Gupta.The fund could have been used only for the listed 18 welfare schemes for the constructions and other workers, said the BJP leader. He said the BJP will take the AAP government to task for its hypocrisy on drugs and liquor addiction.The ruling party is worried about drug addiction in Punjab. But it is least bothered about fast spreading drug addiction in Delhi. Lakhs of poor and homeless people are taking to drugs because of the government inaction and lack of convincing rehabilitation policy, the BJP leader said.
Amnesty International India has never involved itself in any kind of anti-national activities, state Home Minister G Parameshwara said today, even as it faced sedition charges over an event held by it here in which anti-India and anti-Army slogans were allegedly raised.



"Amnesty International is not new to Bengaluru; this organisation has been functioning here for a long time. I don't know nor I have heard in the past about it (Amnesty) or anyone from it involving in any anti-national activities," he said.



"They (Amnesty) had organised a programme about Army's excesses in Kashmir. They had called a few families (from Kashmir) to console them and give them some sort of mental support, in which certain incidents took place about which an FIR has been registered," he said.



Amnesty International had on Saturday last organised the event as part of a campaign to seek justice for "victims of human rights violations" in Jammu and



Kashmir, which took an ugly turn with heated exchanges and alleged raising of pro-Kashmir 'Independence' and anti-Army slogans.



ABVP activists had submitted a CD containing video recording of the event after filing a complaint with police, who have registered an FIR against Amnesty International, including on sedition charge.



IPC sections-- 142 (being member of an unlawful assembly), 143 (whoever is a member of an unlawful assembly), 147 (rioting), 124A (sedition), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony) have been invoked against Amnesty.



Criticising BJP and ABVP for holding protests, Parameshwara said now that an FIR had been registered, ABVP were holding protests on the streets.



"What is your culture? What are you trying to do? What kind of society are you trying to build?" "They (protesters) are students, they are not aware of anything, those who had gone for classes are being brought forcefully (to protest), this is BJP's culture," he added.



ABVP activists have been staging protests, demanding the arrest of those who allegedly raised anti-India and anti-Army slogans at the event organised by Amnesty International India.



During one such protest in front of Amnesty International India office here yesterday, police resorted to a mild lathi charge during which a few students were injured.



ABVP today intensified its agitation by launching a day-night protest here. Several state BJP leaders and party's women's wing also staged a protest here condemning police action against ABVP activists and demanding arrest of those involved in alleged anti-Army sloganeering.
The island of Bali in Indonesia is an art lovers paradise, and for those enjoying the sun and sand in its beautiful beaches, a visit to the tiny hamlet of Celuk is a must. Situated around 10 km from Denpasar city, snuggled in Gianyar Regency, Celuk is known around the world for its splendid art of silver making. Art lovers can not only shop for silver artefacts, but they can also pick up the nuances of silver making at art workshops.





Celuk is home to highly skilled silversmiths, who are known for their superb craftsmanship. What started as a profession for some families in the last century has now become the source of livelihood for the entire village. The villages goldsmiths and silversmiths have been passing down their expertise to their descendants until today. The beginning of Celuks traditions started when Nang Gati, a Celuk resident, went to the Mengwi Kingdom in 1915 to study metal craft. Upon his return, Nang Gati taught the first generation of craftsmen to make tools for religious ceremonies. The products of these craftsmen became accessories for the royal family and noblemen until the 1940s.



Hundreds of silversmiths and goldsmiths work in their homes on the backstreets north and east of the main road. Most of these artisans are from pande families, members of a sub-caste of blacksmiths whose knowledge of fire and metal has traditionally put them outside the usual caste hierarchy.



Craftsmen from Celuk cater to both domestic and global demands, and they also participate in Bali Art Festival. They are involved in trading silver jewellery in Europe, the US, Australia and Japan.



Those on the lookout for rich, creative jewellery designs will be spoilt for choice. There are a wide array of rings, earrings, bangles, necklaces, brooches, mother of pearls, with designs that are precise and clear-cut. Earrings, with coloured stones or crystal drops, are some of the stunning works of art that are synonymous with Celuk. If you are interested in buying silver souvenirs, then you can take your pick from the many intricately carved silver photoframes. At Celuk, the prices of silver jewellery begin from 2,80,000 IDR, and rise based on the intricate carvings and size of the items. So head to Celuk, the silver and gold centre of Bali.




The Association Of Small Bombs

Karan Mahajan

Harper Collins

2016, pp 276, Rs 499





Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. Hamlet (1,4.) This is the memorable line spoken by Marcellus to Hamlet in anguish. Horatio applies a balm by saying, Heaven will direct it. Karan Mahajans realistic fiction explores the tragedy of today. It is not only Twin Towers in USA or Hotel Taj in South Mumbai, or Le Jardin restaurant in France, or Peshawar School, where 132 boys were killed, for this kolaveri goes on daily. Obviously, misguided or well-guided persons handle bombs as if they are preparing goo-balls with peanut butter and honey, and in the process not only kill innocence, but maim minds forever.



Karan Mahajan has chosen this horrendous scenario for his second novel. He cannot be blamed if he wants to make a statement and at the same time sell. After all, literature thrives on life. Time was when poets could write odes to Grecian urns and evenings and nightingales. But now, the writer has to call out for themes of actual action on the stage if he aims at a prize or immortality.



The two world wars fed a Kurt Vonnegut Jr (Slaughterhouse-Five), an Ernest Hemingway (For Whom the Bell Tolls) and a Joseph Heller (Catch-22). These days, terrorism comes with a million varieties. So, authors like John Updike and Khaled Hosseini have dipped in to take a spoonful to create memorable fiction. Karan Mahajan comes nearer home for us and makes do with a bombing in the busy Lajpat Nagar in Delhi. Among the dead are two Hindu boys; their friend Mansoor survives.



From now on, Karan has many angles to provide psychic interest for physical happenings, as when the grieving Khurana couple become parents of a girl child, one year after the deaths of Varun and Nakul. For the father this is no renaissance, as he sees visions. The grief of a fond parent who thought the world of his two healthy sons has necessarily to jump across births in search of a cause, so typical of the Hindu psyche of self-flagellation, courtesy Karma Theory. Blame yourself. This must be the result of a sin committed in the births past: Was I Hitler in my past life? Did I massacre a million people and forget? Was I Stalin, General Dyer, Cortes, or Ashoka before his conversion? He looked into the mirror and saw his unshaven mouth and upper lip and felt deeply crazy, cracked.



So much for the victims side. As for the killers, Karan tries to pilot the boat of terrorism away from religious fanaticism and finds the reason in victimisation  real or imagined  in the past. To have been the privileged rulers of this vast land and now reduced to being just ordinary citizens going through the everyday travails of all the Indians can be somewhat disorienting. There is plenty of Modi-bashing and quite a few of those willing-to-wound-but-afraid-to-strike steps.



With the rich Hindu girl Tara getting involved with Ayub and Mansoor, we are all set for the expected. But Tara is tired of Ayubs delusions of grandeur, and gets ready to go abroad for academics. Ayub is furious, feels helpless, and takes recourse to self-pity: What was Tara but a lost monkey from a powerful family of monkeys, whod fallen down from her tree and randomly played with a poor monkey far from its own family? No, there was nothing to do but feel sad... She had been pulled back into the thicket of her family.



Tara is out of the novel, and we move forward as if travelling in a tumbril towards the guillotine. Ayub with the activists of terror. Ayub the chosen. No more for him the Peace for All association, with toothy, smiling members with adolescent moustaches from Jamia and JNU meeting in Baristas and Cafe Coffee Days scattered all over the city. And religion is not jettisoned either, certainly not by the terrorists. Then they put their heads down and prayed.



It seems naive to argue that terrorism carried on always by misguided youth who nurse some insult or injury they have suffered in the past. Actually, its the devilish ecstasy of killing introduced by Hitler long ago. Once a tiger turns into a man-eater, there is no stopping the cat. This is clearly articulated by Tauqueers irrational logic: Better to kill generously rather than stingily.



So the tumbril moves on noisily and we end up at Sarojini Nagar blast: The bomb had killed only fifteen. Only! That one word contains the theme of The Association of Small Bombs. And so, Malik-Shockie-Ayub betrayals seem to be the only hope for the return of peace to humanity.




Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council K S Eshwarappa has said the Sangolli Rayanna Brigade would work to bring the BJP back to power in the state.





Speaking to reporters here on Saturday, he said B S Yeddyurappa would be the chief minister if the BJP came to power. Yeddyurappa will also inaugurate the brigade.



Eshwarappa said he attended a meeting of leaders from backward classes, because they offered support to the BJP.



I am an RSS worker and I will never defect. Leaders of backward classes called a meeting saying they were betrayed by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. I have put conditions for Sangolli Rayanna Brigade to support the BJP in polls, to invite only BJP leaders to its programmes, and to mention the name of BJP in its banners, Eshwarappa said.



I do not know why Yeddyurappa is opposing my move regarding the Sangolli Rayanna Brigade. I will discuss with him, to clear the confusion, he said.



Eshwarappa reportedly met BJP and RSS leaders here but no details were made available.
President Pranab Mukherjee will be on a two-day official visit to the state. Mukherjee, who will arrive in Bengaluru on August 27, will participate in the 15th year celebrations of the Akshaya Patra Foundation and commemoration of 'serving two billion meals programme' at Iskcon, Hare Krishna Hills.





The following morning, he will deliver an address at the 24th annual convocation of the National Law School of India University.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah says he is facing hurdles similar to those encountered by Buddha, Basavanna, Ram Manohar Lohia and D Devaraj Urs in his mission to reform society.





Addressing the valedictory function of the 101st birth anniversary of former chief minister Devaraj Urs here on Saturday, he said those men had strived hard to bring about change in society, but they all faced stiff resistance and criticism from people around them.



Siddaramaiah said he, too, was facing similar difficulties. Bringing about change in society is as difficult as swimming against the roughest of tides. There will be many hurdles, with people around you constantly trying to pull you down. But it is people like these who are immortalised, he said.



Hailing the late Urs for his achievements and contributions, Siddaramaiah said that if there were engineers, doctors, scientists and teachers from backward communities today, the credit went to the former chief minister. He said that 1970s was the golden era both in Karnataka and in the country with leaders such as Urs and Indira Gandhi at the helm.



While Urs was successful in bringing about land reforms and abolishing bonded labour and manual scavenging, the country saw nationalisation of banks, the 20-point programme and the Garibi Hatao campaign during Gandhis rule. Not everybody is remembered after they are dead, but people such as Urs are immortalised. His biggest achievement was to politically empower the oppressed. He was both a leader and a voice (for change), he said.



Urs award



Siddaramaiah presented the 2016 Devaraj Urs award to former minister B A Mohideen. The government has spent Rs 10 crore on Urss centenary celebrations. Thirteen books were released on the occasion. Social Welfare Minister H Anjaneya appealed to the government to present the Karnataka Ratna award to Urs posthumously.
As many as 23 people were killed on Saturday in rain-related incidents in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, even as rivers continued to be in spate in Bihar.





Fifteen deaths were reported in Madhya Pradesh since Friday evening as the Met department predicted more showers and sounded heavy downpour alert for some districts on Sunday.



Three Indian Air Force aircraft dropped food packets and medicines in flooded areas of Rewa district, District Collector Rahul Jain said.



Seven people, including a woman and four minors, were killed and three others injured when a house collapsed early on Saturday in Rahatgarh area of Sagar district.



Two people, including an old woman, were also killed and seven injured when a newly constructed building collapsed amid incessant rain at Maihar in Satna district. A jeep carrying two persons was swept away in the swollen Betwa river as it tried to cross a bridge in Raisen district.



In Rajasthans Baran district, eight people were killed in rain-related mishaps and a wall collapse incident in Phool Baroda village on Saturday.



As many as 35 people were airlifted as heavy rain created a flood-like situation in Baran, which recorded 300 mm rainfall. Floodgates of the Lhasi Dam near Chhipa Barod in the district had to be opened as the water level was crossing the danger mark.



Several villages have been inundated with water entering buildings, houses and a private power plant in Baran. Several villagers in Soni and Kheri were seen sitting atop trees awaiting help, amid gushing flood waters.



According to Defence spokesperson Lt Col Manish Ojha, Many villagers had climbed trees amid gushing waters and were waiting for help. A MI-17 V5 helicopter from the Air Force station in Phalodi rescued 24 people from seven different locations. However, the rescue operations are still on, according to the latest update .



Since Friday night, Baran and nearby areas have been witnessing heavy rain.

The rising water level of Ganga affected all the districts situated along the banks of the river in Bihar.



Situation grim in Uttar Pradesh



The overall flood situation in Uttar Pradesh worsened with the waters from the overflowing rivers, including the Ganges, entering the residential areas in several major cities and towns. This led to the displacement of thousands of residents, reports DHNS from Lucknow.






External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will travel to Nay Pyi Daw on Monday to invite the de facto head of Myanmars new government Aung San Suu Kyi for a visit to India.





This is going to be the first high-profile visit from India to Myanmar after a civilian government led by Suu Kyis National League of Democracy took office in Nay Pyi Daw earlier this year. She will call on President U Htin Kyaw in Nay Pyi Daw, apart from meeting Nobel laureate democracy icon Suu Kyi, who now holds the office of the state councillor and foreign minister of Myanmar.



The external affairs minister will be accompanied by Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar and other officials of the Ministry of External Affairs.



Sushmas travel to Nay Pyi Daw comes days after Suu Kyi had a high-profile visit to China. The discussion between Sushma and Suu Kyi are expected to focus on New Delhis bilateral relations with Nay Pyi Daw, as well as plans for the upcoming BRICS-BIMSTEC Outreach Summit scheduled to be held in Goa, officials said in New Delhi.



India and Myanmar share close relations with a robust development cooperation programme in areas such as agriculture, IT, human resource development, infrastructure development, culture etc. The visit re-affirms Indias commitment to heighten partnership with Myanmar in the areas of priority by the new government of Myanmar, official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, Vikas Swarup, said.
Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan on Saturday inaugurated the two-day conference of the BRICS Women Parliamentarian Forum in Jaipur. Around 42 delegates from member countries, including 28 MPs from both Houses of Parliament, are participating in the event.





The programme was inaugurated by Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje. Assembly Speaker Kailash Meghwal and chairperson of the National Council of Provinces T R Modise were also present at the function, during which the theme song of BRICS 2016 umeedam, penned by Prasoon Joshi and sung by Shankar Mahadevan, was played.



Addressing the gathering, Sumitra said being women parliamentarians, they have a responsibility towards the development of women. She began her address with references to water management in India and cited examples of Jaipur's Laporiya village, known for traditional water conservation methods. Meghwal termed the meeting an endeavour to provide an opportunity for strengthening parliamentary cooperation in furthering the agenda of BRICS.



The inaugural session was followed by a deliberation on the Perspectives on Implementation of Sustainable Development Goals at the Vidhan Sabha. The theme of the session on Sunday is Containing Climate Change - Imperatives of Global Cooperation, following which Vasundhara will deliver the valedictory address.



Sumitra will deliver the concluding address.

Women MPs, including Meenakshi Lekhi, Jaya Bachchan, Poonam Mahajan, Kumari Selja and Supriya Sule, attended the programme.



BRICS is a five-nation grouping of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

On Monday, the delegates will take a tour of the city and visit Albert Hall and Amber Palace.




Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday invited Nepals new leader Prachanda to New Delhi on an early official visit.





The prime minsiter offered the invitation through Nepals Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Home Bimalendra Nidhi, currently on a visit to New Delhi as Prachandas special envoy. Bimalendra Nidhi called on the prime minister on Saturday.



Prachanda, who took over as the new prime minister of Nepal on August 4, sent Bimalendra Nidhi and another Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara to India and China, respectively, as his special envoys.



The move is seen as an attempt to signal the willingness of the new government in Nepal to strike a balance in Kathmandus relations with Beijing and New Delhi.



Prachanda, who leads the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist-Centre), took over as the new prime minister after dislodging his predecessor K P Oli. On July 12, his party withdrew its support to the erstwhile government led by Olis Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxists-Leninists).



New Delhis relations with Kathmandu came under stress after the new Constitution adopted by Constituent Assembly of Nepal in September 2015 triggered internal protests.



Disgruntled communities like Madhesis and Tharus resorted to protests, charging that the new Constitution failed to allay their concerns of further marginalisation and meet their aspirations.



India also prodded Nepal to ensure that the new statute was inclusive Modi on Saturday conveyed his best wishes to his Nepal counterpart, who held the position earlier from 2008 to 2009.



India was upset when Prachanda, who led a Maoist insurgency in Nepal from 1996 to 2006, chose to visit China first after becoming the prime minister of Nepal in 2008.



Almost all of his predecessors in the past half-a-century chose New Delhi for their first official trip abroad.




Iraqs autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has sought Indias military support in its fight against Islamic State (IS) group.





Kurdistan has also sought humanitarian aid from India to help provide food, medicines and other essentials to over 1.8 million refugees, who have taken shelter in the region after fleeing the areas occupied by IS.



Kurdistans appeal to India for military support and humanitarian assistance was conveyed by Falah Mustafa, who heads the Department of Foreign Relations of the government of the autonomous region.



Mustafa recently briefed the newly appointed Consul General of India in Erbil (the capital of Kurdistan), Deepak Miglani, about Kurdish armed force Peshmergas role in the fight against IS, sources in New Delhi told DH.



Mustafa also told Miglani that the KRG alone cannot bear such a huge burden of giving food, medicine and other essentials to the refugees, unless the international community steps in and provides support.



The influx of refugees from Syria and rest of Iraq resulted in a 30% rise in the population of Kurdistan, according to an estimate by the KRG.



Mustafa is learnt to have conveyed to Miglani that Kurdistan expects New Delhi to provide support,possibly by supplying weapons, ammunition and other military hardware for Peshmergas use.



Miglani conveyed to Mustafa Indias solidarity with the KRG in the fight against IS.

Sources told DH that while India is keen to deepen its political and economic engagement with Kurdistan region of Iraq, New Delhi has not yet taken a decision on the request from the KRG for military and humanitarian assistance.



While providing humanitarian aid for refugees in Kurdistan might not be difficult, New Delhi is likely to take a cautious approach when it comes to providing military support to the Peshmerga, ostensibly due to the possible implication of such a move on Indias relations with Iraq as well as its ties with other nations in the region.




Mahalakshmi Layout in northern Bengaluru has as many as 53 parks, but most of them are in bad shape. From inadequate lighting to lack of benches, the green spaces have plenty of problems.



The poor upkeep of parks was one of the several issues put forth by residents before their MLA, K Gopalaiah, and seven corporators. At Citizens for Change, a citizens connect initiative organised by Deccan Herald and Prajavani on Saturday, residents had a platform to seek assurance from the officials concerned to address the civic issues.



Scores of people turned up for the event from seven wards  Nandini Layout (43), Marappana Palya (44), Nagapura (67), Mahalakshmipuram (68), Shakthiganapathi Nagar (74), Shankar Mutt (75) and Vrushabhavathi Nagar (102).



Basavaraju T P, a member of Basaveshwaranagar Senior Citizens Forum, said that barring Kempegowda Park in Shankar Mutt, all parks needed better upkeep. Nandamma, a resident of Nandini Layout, said there were no benches in the local park. Whats more, garbage is dumped near the park and left uncleared.



Hare Krishna Park has not seen maintenance for several months now as work on Namma Metro and Rajajinagar 1st Block flyover work had been under way. The park is in bad shape and its compound walls need to be redone, said B S Ravindra, a resident of Nagapura ward. Pipeline Park in the same ward, awaits inauguration. The MLA said the park would be inaugurated soon and named after Balagangadharanatha Swami. He also promised phased upgrade of parks in the constituency. Several plans to improve the parks are in the pipeline. We want to make this a model constituency, he said.



Residents also complained about illegal activities such as alcoholism, smoking, sale of tobacco to minors and eve-teasing taking place in the parks.



Traffic problems



Agumbe Gurujaj Bhat, a resident of Nagapura ward, said, If one rides on the fourth main road, it feels like a dance. The roads are in a pathetic condition, so are the footpaths. Rama Rao, a resident of Mahalakshmi Layout, said that roads in Marappana Palya had not been asphalted for the past three years. Gopalaiah assured that work would begin after the monsoon.



Encroachment of footpath by roadside vendors, wrong parking and food stalls were other issues residents face. Gurudutt Prabhu of Shakthiganapathi Nagar ward said a number of food stalls had come up on the footpath near SBI Staff Colony. It also obstructs traffic as motorists park their vehicles there to buy cigarettes. Krishnamurthy C from Shankar Mutt ward noted that haphazard parking between Shankar Mutt and Kaverinagar badly affected traffic. Thats not all, with constant traffic near APMC Yard, residents said they were unable to sleep well.



Traffic jams are common in several parts of Mahalakshmi Layout. Deputy Mayor Hemalatha Gopalaiah, who participated in the event, said traffic would ease once the flyover between Bovipalya and the Outer Ring Road opened.



Irregular water supply



Despite being located in Bengalurus core area, Mahalakshmi Layout does not get regular supply of Cauvery water. Rama Rao, a resident of Mahalakshmi Layout, said there had been no supply of Cauvery water since March 2012. Gopalaiah responded, If this issue is not sorted within Monday, I will ensure that water tankers are sent to your house.



Stray dogs



Gururaj Bhat, a resident of Nagapura ward, said there were many stray dogs at 4th main, 2nd stage. Similar complains were heard from residents of Sathyanarayana Layout, Nandini Layout and Shankar Mutt. The MLA said dogs could only be vaccinated and then dropped back at the original place, as per the Supreme Court guidelines.



Contact numbers



Corporators

K V Rajendra Kumar, Nandini Layout, 9886789567

Mahadev M, Marappana Palya, 9945544444

Badregowda B, Nagapura, 9448315643

S Keshavamurthy, Mahalakshmipuram, 9844208489

Gangamma, Shakti Ganapathi Nagar, 8722084777

M Shivaraju, Shankar Mutt, 9880092283

S P Hemalatha, Vrushabhavathi Nagar, 9535829234



Joint Commissioner : Yathish Kumar 9480683552



Police



A R Badiger, Malleswaram ACP, 9480801305

G A Jagadish, Traffic (North) ACP, 9480801907

V Venugopal, Vijayanagar ACP, 9480801707



BBMP Joint Commissioner Yathish Kumar did not

participate in the Citizens for Change event.




Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday announced the constitiution of five sub-groups, including one for the development of infrastructure in Bengaluru, for giving an impetus to the industrial growth in state.



Siddaramaiah, who chaired the first meeting of the Vision Group for industrial development, said the sub-group for the development of infrastructure in Bengaluru has been tasked with preparing a detailed report on addressing the problems of infrastructure.



The sub-group will co-ordinate with a separate Vision Group and a Task Force will be set up to look into issues related to infrastructure in the state capital, he added.



Bengaluru is facing infrastructure problems and it is really a challenge to bridge the gap between growth of industry and the quality infrastructure in the city. The government is not keeping quiet and doing its best to add sheen to the charisma of Brand Bengaluru by achieving effective convergence of the grants given to Bengaluru through different institutions (sic), he stated.



Another sub-group will look into issues related to infrastructure at the state level. This sub-group will hold consultations with all sectors of the industry in the state. Besides, sub-groups for manufacturing, including automobile and aerospace, textiles and garments and electronics and e-commerce have been set up. The sub-group members will prepare short-term action plans for the growth of the sector, he added.



Implement BRTS



Briefing the media about the Vision Group meeting, Industries Minister R V Deshpande said the members gave a number of suggestions to the government on easing traffic congestion in Bengaluru. The members asked the government to implement the Bus Rapid Transport System (BRTS) in Bengaluru to ensure smooth traffic. The Urban Development Department will examine the suggestion, he added.



The government was asked to take measures to implement the peripheral ring road project, construct elevated roads and widen roads in Whitefield. Besides, it was suggested to develop Bengaluru-Mysuru corridor and Bengaluru-Bidar corridor. Some members opined that pressure on Bengaluru can be eased by encouraging development of industries in other cities and towns, he added.



State ready to pass GST



On the implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST), Deshpande said the state government will extend its co-operation to the Centre. We are ready to pass a bill. The ball is in the centres court, he added.



Taxation issue to be solved by Sept



IT&BT Minister Priyank Kharge said the government has set a target to resolve the long-standing issue of taxation with e-commerce companies by the end of September, this year. We have been holding meetings with the companies. We have set a target for ourselves to solve the issue of taxation by the end of next month. An issue pertaining to their warehouses will also be sorted out soon, he added.
MLA K Gopalaiah and Deputy Mayor Hemalatha Gopalaiah assured the residents that they would turn the Mahalakshmi Layout Assembly constituency into a model constituency.





Speaking to Deccan Herald after attending the Citizens for Change programme, Hemalatha said at least Rs 50 crore had been set aside by the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike for the development of the constituency. Out of this, Rs 23.5 crore had been sanctioned for the completion of the various projects which were being implemented in the seven wards of the constituency.



There are 53 parks in the constituency and 23 would be upgraded soon. We have also begun installing LED bulbs in parks. Complaints that were aired in todays meeting will be addressed at the earliest, she added.



MLA Gopalaiah said projects like starting a BBMP maternity home in ward 74, establishing an anganwadi centre, an e-library and a dialysis centre, were in the pipeline. In order to ease traffic congestion in the constituency, work on the flyover between Bovipalya and Ring Road would be speeded up, he added.



Meanwhile, the residents urged the elected representatives to take measures to minimize the stench emanating from the solid waste management unit near the Nandini theatre. The garbage trucks are also parked near the unit, making the stench unbearable. There are two schools in the vicinity and the children would be affected, they added.




Students at the Bangalore Institute of Technology (BIT) got an insight into the hard work that goes in cracking the union civil services examination.





On Saturday, Rajya Vokkaligara Sangha, which runs the college, felicitated 16 candidates from the Vokkaliga community who cleared the tough exams to join the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), the Indian Police Service (IPS), the Indian Revenue Service (IRS) and the Indian Forest Service (IFoS).



At the interactive session, D B Gunank, who has made it to the IFS, said the exam conducted by Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) could be described as a triple A test. The preliminary exam is the Aptitude Test, Mains is the Analysis Test and Interview is the Attitude Test, he said.



The successful candidates allayed doubts that medical or engineering graduates would find it difficult to clear the exams. Nine out of 10 successful candidates present at the programme were engineers.



Retired IAS officer M K Shankar Lingegowda said the number of candidates cracking the entrance exam was higher than before. He reminded the new civil servants about challenges faced by bureaucrats in present times. We are living in a time of political and social conflict. You (civil servants) should be cautious. More than external threat, we have internal threat to our security like never before, said the retired bureaucrat.



He reminded them that assertion of identities caused conflict, and asked them to read Nobel laureate Amartya Sens book Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny. He asked them not to buckle under pressure and to boldly face the challenges. Governance is different from political parties. There is a robust system in place which works accordingly, he said.
Traffic was thrown out of gear for a few hours in the central business district and surrounding areas in the city on Saturday.





A large number of people took part in the protests organised by the ABVP, the BJP and Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (KRRS). Also, the birthday celebrations of former chief minister late D Devaraj Urs added to the congestion.



Congestion lasted for hours on Platform Road, Link Road, Sheshadri Road, Race Course Road, Ballari Road, Magadi Road, Okalipuram, Dr Rajkumar Road, KR Circle, Hudson Circle, Town Hall, Richmond Road, Palace Road, Dr Ambedkar Road, KG Road, Avenue Road and Mysuru Road. Vehicles moved at a slow pace in the adjoining areas. Motorists had tough time at Gandhinagar, Malleswaram, City Market, Basavanagudi and Yeshwantpur, said the police.



The KRRS took out a procession of around 4,000 people from the city railway station to Freedom Park. The protesters demanded that the government provide land for poor farmers. The BJP workers also staged a protest around 11.30 am seeking a ban on Amnesty International India (AII) for raising anti-national slogans. The ABVP also began a 48-hour-long protest around 12 noon at the Anand Rao Circle. A large number of people arrived at the Ballari Road to attend the birthday celebrations of Urs, which was held around the same time.



Traffic movement was adversely affected between 11 am and 5 pm, said the police.



The police had made temporary diversions for vehicles heading towards the Anand Rao Circle and Palace Road. Vehicles stood in a long queue from the Okalipuram Junction to Suguna Hospital, on Dr Rajkumar Road. The situation was similar on the Magadi Road as well. The police deployed additional forces and manually controlled the traffic at major junctions.
Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad workers began their 48-hour protest seeking the arrest of Amnesty International representatives for organising the Broken Families event on August 13 where slogans were raised against the Indian Army.



Addressing a gathering at Anada Rao Circle on Saturday, Sachin Rathod, organising secretary, ABVP, Bengaluru Central, condemned the police for caning protesters. The ABVP will resort to different forms of protests if AII representatives are not arrested, he warned.



Vinay Bidri, national general secretary of ABVP, demanded an impartial probe into the incident. ABVP will lodge complaint with the State Human Rights Commission against police atrocities. We will demand a thorough investigation as the police manhandled students and women, he added.



S S Rajan, a retired colonel, Minority Commission members and members of the Forum of Integration and National Security participated in the protest. The AII has sheltered people who raised slogans against the Indian Army. Retired armymen would be requested to attend the protest on Sunday. Nobody should forget the Indian Armys contribution in rehabilitation of people displaced during the 2014 floods in Kashmir, Rajan said.



KTVS PU College principal Srikanthaiah has lodged a complaint with Magadi Road police in connection with a protest on August 18. He said that a few unidentified men forced the college students to participate in the protest. The police have registered a case for kidnap against unidentified protesters.



Meanwhile, the Kashmiri Hindu Cultural Welfare Trust has questioned the role of Amnesty International and its intent in conducting the programme at the United Theological College.

Ministers office ransacked



More than 300 ABVP members ransacked the office of district in-charge minister H Y Meti in Bagalkot on Saturday, reports DHNS from Bagalkot. The protesters barged into his office , raising slogans against the state government. They smashed a photograph of the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and damaged two chairs in the office.

Guard against RSS mischief



Congress leader B K Hariprasad on Saturday cautioned people about the mischief being played by the RSS. One does not become a patriot by wearing khaki shorts and wielding. We dont need lessons on patriotism from the RSS and the ABVP , he said.

Students weaned away



ABVP leaders were in for a shock due to the poor turnout for their protest at Anand Rao Circle. Around 60 students had gathered before the start of the protest. ABVP activists say some unknown persons had distributed tickets to students of a Kannada film released on Friday. R C College and Government Arts College students went to the show instead of attending the protest. Others did not turn up fearing

police action.
The hi-tech, low-floor Volvo city buses had given the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC)s image a dramatic hyper-boost. But nine years later, poor maintenance has reduced many of these into a fleet of creaking, leaky, breakdown-prone buses. What happened?





In routes across Bengaluru, drivers, conductors and BMTC mechanics are in complaint mode. Drivers say they are told to operate the buses somehow despite the recurring faults. Mechanics have no fresh spares. Instead, they are told to replace parts from other buses. How long will these shortcuts work?



The reason is obvious, as Harindranath TS, a former divisional mechanical engineer of KSRTC, explains. BMTC should have inducted these buses in a phased manner. Instead, they acquired these buses in one go. Result: Within a few years, all the buses have got old, he elaborates.



But the government dismisses these charges as baseless. Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy says he has been personally monitoring the maintenace aspects, taking officials to task when complaints are received.



Lapsed contracts



The Volvo acquisitions did come with maintenance contract deals. But once the required batches of mechanics were trained, the contract period lapsed. Rising costs made spares unaffordable. Big numbers might have been acquired due to price concessions. But in the long run, it has not helped.

Preferring anonymity, a Volvo bus conductor well-versed with the operation, discloses that new spare parts are hardly purchased. Old bus parts are used in new buses. Many a time, the buses break down during trips. Only a few mechanics know how to repair these buses, he says.



City traffic police often complain about these nightmarish breakdowns. Since only authorised or trained mechanics can operate them without further damage, the buses are often left right in the middle of the road for hours. This triggers massive traffic congestions, a recipe for further chaos.



Volvo depots



If a bus breaks down, mechanics are alerted in the BMTCs Volvo depots at Hebbal, Subhashnagar, HSR Layout, Whitefield and Kathriguppe. But, as another Volvo conductor notes, such breakdowns can be avoided if red alerts on the display systems are heeded to.



What the conductor discloses next is shocking: The red message is an indication that there is a fault somewhere in the system. It could be in the wiring or engine. When it is seen, the bus is not supposed to be taken out of the depot. But often we are told to ignore it!



Volvo buses are equipped with sensors such as the multiple pressure sensors, brake pad wear sensors and valve feedbacks. When any of the harnesses is loose or wires damaged due to abrasions, the error reports are flashed on the screen.



Engine-overheating



Engine-overheating is a recurring affair. Due to this, the speed cannot go beyond 30-35 kmph. The temperature in the engine system, which should be 70 to 80 degrees Celsius, goes beyond 100 degrees. This affects the engine and other components, explains a mechanic. When buses halt, drivers find coolants unavailable since they are costly and not stocked.



Enquiries with Volvo bus drivers and conductors bring out the full extent of the problem. Issues linked to brakes, air-conditioners, switchboards, wiring, lights and even the hydraulic doors are common. Lack of cleanliness is another problem. Passengers complain of rats, that could be gnawing at the cables.



Long-distance Volvo buses operated by KSRTC have fared better. But, as Harindranath points out, the wear-and-tear in inter-state buses is far less than in city buses.



He explains, KSRTC buses can cover 1,000 km in a day, moving on National Highways without many stops. But BMTC Volvo buses hardly cover 200-250 km daily, halting every one to two km. This reduces the life of brakes, gears and other key parts.



Wear-and-tear in city



The multiplicity of signals, traffic congestion and constant gear changes in the city have only worsened the condition of these buses. The bus starts at 6 am and the engine is in running condition till 10 pm. Unless the bus is maintained in ship-shape condition, the components are bound to create huge problems. Efforts to extend the life of these buses have not vastly improved their performance.



The high cost of acquisition and maintenance of Volvo buses has also sparked questions of sustainability. Contends Muralidhar Rao from Praja-RAAG, a collective of urban mobility experts: For the cost of every Volvo bus, you can purchase four regular buses. There is a shortage of affordable buses even as these AC Volvos are running empty on many routes. We need buses in thousands, not hundreds.








Local residents pelted stones at policemen after the maulana of a mosque in northeast Delhis Welcome area was detained for questioning on Friday night.





There were protests outside the mosque as well at the police station after rumours that the muezzin had been beaten up while being taken to the police station.



The police said they visited the mosque and asked Allauddin Alwi (36) to accompany them for questioning over a complaint from a local resident that a stone had been hurled at his house from the mosque.



But some sources said the local residents had complained about the loudspeaker at the mosque being too loud. The police said there was no violence in the area.



The maulana was released after questioning late on Friday night. But the local residents were demanding the suspension of the policemen who had picked him up.



The crowd pelted stones at police personnel, following which mild force was used to disperse the crowd, said a senior police officer.



The policemen came to the mosque situated adjacent to the Jamia Sunni Markaz madrasa in Janata Colony of Welcome area after the evening prayers.



Soon after the detention, rumours spread in the area that the muezzin had been manhandled.

People from nearby areas started gathering in front of the mosque and shouting slogans against the police.



On seeing the swelling crowd, police personnel from nearby Seelampur and Zaffrabad police stations were also called in.



But the situation deteriorated when someone from the crowd reportedly threw a stone towards the police.



Policemen reacted by wielding batons and tried to push people back into their homes. The slogan-shouting against policemen, however, continued. Senior police officers soon arrived at the spot with seniors from the community and tried to pacify the mob.



The police detained around six youths from the crowd. Around 1.30 am, the police released Alwi and others detained by them.



The police have identified 15 people for rioting in the incident and soon action will be taken against them, said a senior police officer. On Saturday, policemen were deployed in the area as a precautionary measure.




First Look Of Baahubali: The Conclusion On Prabhas Birthday?
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Saudi Arabia rues MSF decision to pull out of Yemen

The Saudi Arabia-led coalition fighting rebels in Yemen said on Friday it regretted the plan by Doctors Without Borders (Medicins Sans Frontiers, or MSF) to withdraw from hospitals in the northern part of the country because of what the aid group described as indiscriminate bombings.

The coalition values the work done by the aid group under difficult circumstances and wants to resolve the situation, according to a statement published by the official Saudi Press Agency.

''The Coalition is committed to full respect for international humanitarian law in the conduct of our operations in Yemen,'' the statement said.

The medical aid group said on Thursday it was withdrawing staff from six hospitals in northern Yemen after a coalition airstrike on Monday on a hospital in the Houthi rebel-controlled area of Hajjah killed 19 people and wounded at least 24.

Monday's airstrike was the fourth and deadliest attack on any clinic supported by MSF during the fighting, though other health facilities have also been attacked, according to a statement by the group.

''There have been countless attacks on health facilities and services all over Yemen despite the fact that MSF has systematically shared the GPS coordinates of hospitals in which we work with the parties involved in the conflict,'' the statement said.

''Given the intensity of the current offensive and our loss of confidence in the Saudi-led coalition's ability to prevent such fatal attacks, MSF considers the hospitals in Saada and Hajjah to be unsafe for both patients and staff.''

Although it would pull its staff, the group said it would continue to provide indirect support such as medicine for northern Yemen.

The coalition of Arab states, which is backed by the US, intervened in Yemen in March 2015 to help battle Shiite Muslim rebels who had forced the president into exile.

Joan Tubau, the aid group's general director, said in a phone interview on Friday that he welcomed the chance for discussions with coalition representatives, but insisted that there needed to be an independent investigation into the airstrikes.

''The outcomes need to be discussed and there needs to be a clear correlation between this investigation and decisions of protocol and rules of engagement and we need to see changes in this,'' Tubau said.

The decision to evacuate staff from northern Yemen was difficult, he said.

''It means you're leaving patients that require our help, but also hospitals full of workers that require our support and contribution in order to keep up the services in terms of standard and scope of care,'' he said. ''It's a hard decision when we cannot guarantee the safety of our staff.''
The Minister of State for Regional Economic Development Michael Ring has set up a Working Group to examine how post offices can act as community hubs.

This was a recommendation in the final report of the Post Office Network Business Group.

The Programme for a Partnership Government commits to acting on all of these recommendations.

The group recognised the value of the post office as a key piece of rural infrastructure that could revitalise rural communities and has recommended that a number of post offices could act as hubs, around which local social and economic activity would revolve.

The Post Office Hub Working Group, has been established to examine all aspects of this recommendation and report back to Government with recommendations on how this can best be achieved.

It is my view and Government policy that An Post should remain a strong, viable company in a position to provide a high quality postal service and maintain a national network of customer focused post offices in the community, Michael Ring said.

The post office network plays an important role in serving the needs of business and domestic customers alike. I believe that the rollout of post office hubs could potentially be of considerable benefit to local communities and contribute greatly to rural rejuvenation.

The groups initial membership is drawn from the Irish Postmasters Union (IPU), An Post, the Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Irish Rural Link and also has community representation.

The group is expected to report back to Government before the end of the year.

Ardee Postmaster Michael Farrelly has welcomed the move but wants to see some concrete evidence that the Government is serious about the future of post offices and and expanding on the role they play in Irish country life.

The post office has always been more than just a delivery business and a place to collect payments.

It has always been a place of friendly human contact where people help one another out.

It's about time somebody in politics realised that.

We had a previous Government that was only interested in pleasing its paymasters in Germany and elsewhere.

Local government and central government should be about people. Put people first.
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Considered to be the Ten Best UFO Photos Ever Taken I am sure that we could add more pictures to this list but these are considered ten o...
Designer and artist Zhou Niuniu fuses his art with architecture, food and fashion, and attempts to break boundaries by launching perfumes, home ware, cosmetics and accessories. [Photo provided to China Daily]

These days, art is not just something to look at, but to live with. Zhou Niuniu, a designer and artist, has been mixing his art with architecture, food, and now it is fashion.

One of the first local Chinese designers to work with 10 Corso Como, the Milan multi-brand fashion boutique, Zhou will launch a perfume under his Mr Hua & Mrs Hua brand at 10 Corso Como in Beijing SKP on Friday. This signals Zhou's first formal foray into the fashion world.

A few months ago, Zhou took part in an exhibition that paid tribute to Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa in Shangha's Xintiandi area with nine other artists and designers.

Zhou created 15 pieces based on the painting. He re-created the Mona Lisa in modern situations, where she is portrayed grooming herself, enjoying food and making funny faces.

Follow China.org.cn on Twitter and Facebook to join the conversation.




Charles Krauthammer blasted the Obama administration for lying about the nature of the $400 million cash payment sent to Iran arguing that the problem is that they lied and they lie shamelessly and they lie when the lie is uncovered.



Appearing on Fox Newss Special Report on Thursday with guest host Shannon Bream, Krauthammer said, Im almost amused. This was so obvious on the day it was announced that it was ransom. All of us have seen movies, on the night it was announced, we talked about this.








International trade figures heavily in the presidential race. Presidential candidate Donald Trump said, "Hillary Clinton unleashed a trade war against the American worker when she supported one terrible trade deal after another - from NAFTA to China to South Korea." And adding, "A Trump Administration will end that war by getting a fair deal for the American people. The era of economic surrender will finally be over." He lamented, "Skilled craftsmen and tradespeople and factory workers have seen the jobs they love shipped thousands and thousands of miles away."








California, New York, Seattle and Washington D.C. are some of the jurisdictions where the minimum wage has been increased to $15 an hour. Recently, activists from the labor union-backed Fight for $15 movement held their first national convention in Virginia. Advocates of increasing the minimum wage claim that this proposal is the best means for lifting workers in low skilled positions out of poverty. However, mandating employers increase wages will likely have the opposite effect  decreased economic opportunity.



Increasing the minimum hourly wage here in Virginia would adversely impact small businesses.








(CNN)The US used a plane filled with $400 million in cash intended for Iran as "leverage" to ensure that American prisoners were released by Tehran, a State Department spokesman said Thursday.



The money was held up because of concern Iran would not come through on its agreement to release the prisoners earlier this year, spokesman John Kirby said.
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The G20 2016 Summit is to be held in Hangzhou on Sept. 4, when its member states will stand ready towards an innovative, invigorated, interconnected and inclusive world economy.

G20 countries account for 90 percent of global GDP, and 80 percent of global trade, a massive influence on the worlds economic trends. The upcoming summit bears expectations from all sides to introduce new driving forces for the global economy amid sluggish recovery across the world.

Since the outbreak of the financial crisis in 2008, the stimulus packages unveiled by all major economies failed to produce the effective results as expected, and the world economy is still recovering amid difficulties. Meanwhile, these stimulus plans, mostly based on loose monetary policies, have resulted in huge debts in some countries. The total government debt in the world has expanded by US$57 trillion since 2007, far outpacing the growth of the GDP during the same period, locking some countries up in the liquidity trap.

When all countries felt the need to unite to save the global economy, globalization, which is one of driving forces for growth, suffers hindrances. Globalization intends to facilitate the transnational flow of goods, services and capital, so as to realize common development in all countries. But in reality, globalization has failed to bring overall happiness to many developing countries, and people from some developed countries even joined the anti-globalization campaign due to unemployment.

Brexit is the case in point, whose influence has been felt by many other European countries, ready to follow the British lead. Across the Atlantic, anti-globalization is also seen in the United States, a country that used to advocate globalization relentlessly. Presidential candidates from both parties highlighted their anti-TPP attitudes. Apparently, globalization now faces unprecedented doubts and challenges, while regional hot issues, such as chronic wars in the Middle East, refugee issues, religious extremism and terrorism, all shadow world economic recovery and growth.

Therefore, in an era with more complicated political and economic conditions, cooperation among all major economies with greater joint effort is the way out for the sluggish world economy. The upcoming G20 summit is undoubtedly a prime opportunity, and to lead up to this goal, the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting was held earlier this week, during which consensus was reached regarding how to facilitate global growth with concrete action plans.

First, the meeting stressed that each member state will take individual and cooperative measures, including monetary and financial policies and structural reforms to respond to risks, enhance market confidence and facilitate growth, which in turn, will lead to robust, sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth.

Second, it approved the first-ever G20 guiding principle on global investment policies, which will serve as a general framework for G20 member states to conduct mutual investment and to promote global investment. In terms of lowering global trading costs, G20 members agreed that they would accelerate the implementation of the deal on trade facilitation, oppose protectionism of any kind, and provide capacity building and technological assistance to developing countries.

Third, the meeting will seek to deepen all member states' structural reforms and has put forward nine areas with higher priorities and 48 guidelines. The meeting established a reviewing system for biennial appraisals.

These abovementioned action plans featured both an emphasis on stimulation from the macro-economy and the need to deepen structural reform. The sluggish world economy is a result of both cyclical factors and structural factors. The counter-cyclical macro-control policies, such as China's "Four trillion yuan stimulus package," did smooth out the economic fluctuation for a while and help achieve temporary high growth. However, the still sluggish economy made people realize that structural problems are what global economic governance should tackle.

The G20's increasing focus on structural reform and the responding measures it already put forward obviously target the problem.

Reformers' courage and resolutions are essential to make the change. Structural reforms have been easier said than done. In fact, structural reform started to draw attention as early as the 2009 G20 Pittsburg Summit and became a concrete action with promised policy changes at the 2014 G20 Brisbane Summit. But by the time of the 2015 G20 Antalya Summit in Turkey, only one third of the promises had been realized.

In light of this, China advised marking off areas with higher priority in structural reform and establishing a reviewing system to appraise the progress. China's proposal will facilitate G20 countries to take larger leaps forward in structural reform, although it still rests with each individual country to implement these action plans.

This year China has moderately expanded the overall demand while deepening an economic re-balancing policy using supply-side structural reform. In so doing, China has maintained stable growth while laying a solid foundation for long-term growth.

Zhang Deyong is a research fellow at the National Academy of Economic Strategy, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

The article was translated by Chen Boyuan. Its original version was published in Chinese.

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.
 Flash

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that Moscow has no intention of cutting relations with Kiev.

"Despite the reluctance of current Kiev authorities to have full diplomatic relations at the ambassadorial level, we will create opportunities to develop contacts and support them," Putin said at a Russian Security Council briefing in Crimea.

Russia has been mulling additional security measures following clashes on the peninsula that killed two Russian servicemen.

Russia's Federal Security Service has accused Ukrainian authorities of masterminding an attempt to send a group of saboteurs to Crimea, which it thwarted last week. Kiev denied the accusations.

"It appears, our partners in Kiev have decided to aggravate the situation, and it is clear why," Putin said.

The Russian leader said the reason behind the incident was Kiev's intention of avoiding implementing the Minsk agreements aimed at reaching a political settlement of the crisis in the country and to divert the attention of the Ukrainian people from social and economic problems.

"I hope this will not be the final choice of our partners and common sense will prevail," he added.

Earlier in the day, Putin appointed former Education Minister Dmitry Livanov as his special representative for the development of commercial, economic and scientific relations with Ukraine.

Russia currently has no ambassador in Kiev after Putin relieved Mikhail Zurabov of his duties in July.
Ely, Cambridgeshire is best known for its majestic cathedral dubbed the 'Ship of the Fens' because it dominates the flat landscape. The city, which is the second smallest in England, is about 14 miles north-northeast of Cambridge and about 80 miles by road from London.

14:55, 28 OCT 2022
 Flash

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) issued Friday night a unilateral declaration of a seven-day ceasefire to "celebrate and bolster" the resumption of formal peace talks with the Philippine government.

The ceasefire will take effect starting 12:01 a.m. of Aug. 21 and will last until 11:59 p.m. of Aug. 27 local time, the Information Bureau of the CPP said in a statement.

The formal talks between the negotiating panels of the leftist National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and the Philippine government are scheduled for Aug. 22-26 in Oslo, Norway.

The ceasefire declaration is encouraged by the Philippine government's facilitation of the release of nearly all NDFP consultants who are set to participate in peace negotiations in the course of the next several months, said the CPP and New People's Army (NPA), armed wing of the CPP-NDF.

Earlier Friday, the Philippine government released NDFP consultants Benito Tiamzon and Wilma Austria Tiamzon, who were leading members of the CPP and key consultants of the NDFP when they were arrested in March 2014.
It started with a dam, but not the dam the people of Lake Wissota know today.

A couple of wooden dams were washed away in floods before the one operated by Xcel Energy was built. This led to the creation of Lake Wissota, and the rest of its 100 years of history as of next year.

In honor of its centennial anniversary, members of the Chippewa County Historical Society are creating a book to feature the 100 years of Lake Wissota from when the dam was first built to efforts nowadays to make the lake better.

Jim Schuh, vice president of the society, said the book will consist of mostly pictures and captions, as well as stories, to provide more of a visual history of Lake Wissota.

Xcel provided them with more than 500 photos of the dam being built, which were taken incrementally throughout its year and a half of construction.

People reading the book will be able to see how the lake came to be. Since it is a man-made lake, Schuh said the book will contain before and after photos of the land people sold to be used as the site of the future lake.

There are also photos of the various bridges going around the lake, both railroad and automobile ones. The book will show how the various businesses and buildings have evolved around the lake like the beaches, supper clubs and a dance hall as well as an old girl scout camp called Camp Sco-loa-a.

Donna Bourget and Anne Keller, authors of the book, said photos will be the best way to tell Lake Wissotas history.

No matter what we say to describe it, Keller said. It wouldnt be quite the same as looking at the exact picture.

In addition to photos, Schuh said they are looking for people to submit stories about their time in Lake Wissota and to talk about how they have seen the lake evolve over the years.

While there isnt anyone around anymore who remembers the lake being built, he said theyre hoping to talk to the children of those who were around to get their perspective on its development.

We would just like this to be as complete as we can, Schuh said. The more input we have and photos for consideration, the more likely well be able to produce the book we want.

One of the efforts to preserve Lake Wissota thats happened is the removal of the invasive Eurasian milfoil plant by Lake Wissota Improve and Protection Association Volunteers.

Schuh said Leinenkugels Brewing Company also funds the Little Lake Wissota Stewardship Project to help farmers reduce the amount of fertilizer from flowing in the lake. That will keep the phosphorus levels lower, improve the water quality and extend the usable days of the lake.

Research is still being done for the book, but Schuh said they hope to have it finished in June so people will have time to look through it before the centennial event taking place July 29 next year.

The historical society will be collecting photos and stories of Lake Wissota spanning the last 100 years to possibly be included in the book. Images of the dance hall, roller rink, resorts, cabins, restaurants or recreation and events are wanted. The historical society will be accepting submissions until Sept. 27.

People are encouraged to bring them to the History Center, 123 Allen Street, Chippewa Falls, during an open house on Saturday, September 24, 10:00 am  2:00 pm or on any Tuesday until September 27, or by email at wissotabook@gmail.com.

Authors Jim Schuh, Donna Bourget and Anne Keller plan to donate all book sale proceeds to the Chippewa Area History Center Capital Campaign Fund.
SEATTLE -- After September 11, issues of immigration and terrorism merged, heightening surveillance and racializing Latino immigrants as a threat to national security, according to sociologists at The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin).

Latino immigration in the United States has long sparked passionate debates, with Latinos often racialized as 'illegal aliens' posing an economic threat. But following the al-Qaeda-led terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, the fear of another attack, coupled with Islamophobia, streamlined immigration agendas with anti-terrorism rhetoric, policies, and institutional efforts, racializing Latinos in a new way, the researchers said.

"Neither contemporary political rhetoric, nor policy, nor institutional change in regards to immigration and terrorism can be properly understood in isolation without taking into account how these issues are brought together at specific moments," Amina Zarrugh, a UT Austin sociology alumna who will be an assistant professor of sociology at Texas Christian University in the fall. "In fact, the endurance of certain political agendas is made all the more powerful through their connection with other important agendas, each of which reinforces the other."

Using government reports and media accounts, Zarrugh and UT Austin sociology PhD candidate Luis A. Romero, who will present their paper at the 111th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association (ASA), analyzed political rhetoric, immigration policy, government reports, and non-governmental evaluations to explain how Islamophobia -- or the extreme and irrational fear of Muslims and Islam -- is deployed against Latinos to garner political support, create fear, and justify increased surveillance and immigration enforcement.

Citing examples of politicians blaming "porous borders" for "enormous problems," a commercial which paired images of terrorists with images of Latinos crossing the border, and fabricated rumors of a terrorist training camp at the U.S.-Mexico border near Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, the researchers concluded that political rhetoric in the aftermath of the attacks mobilized popular fear.

"Increased surveillance and security were an easy sell," said Romero. "People were more afraid of threats, real or perceived. Politicians fed on this fear, encouraging people that security was key in this new era. The call to enforce the U.S.-Mexico border became a rallying point in the push for greater security."

Rhetoric then became policy, which dictated how government agencies were created and operated. "Policy began to shape this us versus them sentiment in new ways," Zarrugh said.

New systems of surveillance were established, as a result of legislation such as the USA Patriot Act, and the U.S. began to take a more aggressive approach to border security. Since 9/11, deportations have increased dramatically. From the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in 2003 through 2013, there was an average of 334,000 deportations per year, and each year there were at least 211,000 deportations, a number never reached in U.S. deportation history pre-9/11. In addition, the Department of Homeland Security absorbed the Immigration and Naturalization Services and united 22 federal agencies under the DHS umbrella, one of the first examples of state resources merging to combat undocumented migration and terrorism as a single issue.

"The primary goal of the Department of Homeland Security, is just that: security," Zarrugh said. "It was created to prevent future terrorist attacks and while undue attention was directed toward Muslims as a result, they were not the only ones who came under direct scrutiny."

###

About the American Sociological Association

The American Sociological Association, founded in 1905, is a non-profit membership association dedicated to serving sociologists in their work, advancing sociology as a science and profession, and promoting the contributions to and use of sociology by society.

The paper, "Linking Immigration and Terrorism in the Post-9/11 Era," will be presented on Saturday, Aug. 20, at 8:30 a.m. PDT in Seattle at the American Sociological Association's 111th Annual Meeting.

To obtain a copy of the paper; for assistance reaching the study's author(s); or for more information on other ASA presentations, members of the media can contact Daniel Fowler, ASA Media Relations Manager, at (202) 527-7885 or pubinfo@asanet.org. During the Annual Meeting (Aug. 20-23), ASA Public Information Office staff can be reached in the on-site press office, located in Room 601 of the Washington State Convention Center, at (206) 219-4513 or (914) 450-4557 (cell).

Rachel Griess, College of Liberal Arts, UT Austin, wrote this press release. For more information about the study, members of the media can also contact Griess at (512) 471-2689 or rachelgriess@austin.utexas.edu.

Papers presented at the ASA Annual Meeting are typically working papers that have not yet been published in peer-reviewed journals.

Contact: Daniel Fowler, (202) 527-7885, (914) 450-4557 (cell), pubinfo@asanet.org

On-site Press Office (Aug. 20-23): Washington State Convention Center, Room 601, (206) 219-4513
SEATTLE -- While studying the rapid growth of the therapeutic boarding school industry, Jessica A. Pfaffendorf observed that troubled young men in at least one program most often displayed a type of "hybrid masculinity."

This observation -- young men incorporating more feminine behaviors in their social interactions while at boarding school -- presented a notable incongruence.

Earlier research has found that males in traditional boarding and preparatory school settings are prone to display masculine behaviors to signal their wealth, self-worth, and strength. In those settings, such behaviors have been positively linked to future attainment and success, said Pfaffendorf, a doctoral candidate in the University of Arizona School of Sociology.

But Pfaffendorf, who will present her research in a paper at the 111th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association (ASA), found that young men at the therapeutic boarding school she studied intentionally used more feminine behaviors for personal benefit. Whereas traditional boarding schools have tended to focus on academics and college preparation, therapeutic boarding schools are specifically designed for those with emotional and behavioral challenges.

Pfaffendorf's findings are part of a larger investigation she began conducting in 2012 on the rise of therapeutic boarding schools. About 300 of these elite residential treatment centers exist in the United States, a number representing a threefold increase in the last two decades, Pfaffendorf said.

Such programs generally cater to those aged 13 to 18 who have behavioral and psychological issues, and who are dealing with addictions. Tuition for these programs can range between $75,000 and $100,000 annually, and they exist most often to help young adults graduate from high school, while offering interventions. Most often, upper-class, white young men enroll, Pfaffendorf said.

As part of her research, Pfaffendorf spent two years observing and conducting interviews at a therapeutic boarding school located in the Southwest region of the U.S.

The program in the Southwest operated on an active ranch, involving the young men in the grooming, riding, and training of horses, as well as wilderness excursions with counselors. The program, like most others nationally, also reinforced values associated with relationship building, interdependence, recognition of one's powerlessness, communality, and the open expression of emotions.

Pfaffendorf found that the young men often "spoke at length about their feelings, expressed emotion openly, and freely admitted their past wrongs and the guilt that came along with them." These men also described themselves as being more mature and having more purpose than their counterparts attending traditional schools.

"By communicating and responding maturely to situations, students maintain that they are better leaders and better able to succeed than other young men," Pfaffendorf said. "In these ways, students use hybrid masculinities to reassert dominance," particularly over those attending traditional schools.

It is important to note here that sociologists understand gender not as a biological occurrence, but as culturally-defined behaviors that are learned and performed.

Also important, Pfaffendorf found that the men did not fully embrace feminine demeanors. Instead, they aligned masculine and feminine styles with intention -- namely to assert that they were in control of their emotions and were, therefore, more mature than their peers.

Given the national discourse about male masculinity, often evoked during conversations about acts of violence carried out by boys and men, Pfaffendorf believes her findings may offer insight about how and why some young men adopt styles that are not usually perceived as "manly."

"Limited research attributes the growth of therapeutic boarding schools to a series of cultural events. The initial development of the therapeutic boarding school coincides with the height of the 'war on drugs' in the late 1980s," Pfaffendorf said. "In the immediate years after the Columbine shootings, the number of therapeutic schools increased six times over."

Pfaffendorf also found that hybrid masculinity was regarded positively. The young men were often rewarded in certain circumstances by women, employers, and educational organizations.

"In sum, students in therapeutic boarding schools may appropriate feminine qualities, but these qualities are used to reassert masculine dominance -- sustaining prevailing gender norms," Pfaffendorf said. "This contributes to what others have called the 'flexibility of patriarchy' -- that privileged men are able to mobilize feminine characteristics to their advantage and to assert dominance."

Pfaffendorf suggests that future research should evaluate the long-term implications of therapeutic boarding schools, and whether young men maintain their hybrid masculinity or return to more dominant forms of masculinity.

###

About the American Sociological Association

The American Sociological Association, founded in 1905, is a non-profit membership association dedicated to serving sociologists in their work, advancing sociology as a science and profession, and promoting the contributions to and use of sociology by society.

The paper, "Sensitive Cowboys: Mobilizing Hybrid Masculinities in a Therapeutic Boarding School," will be presented on Saturday, Aug. 20, at 2:30 p.m. PDT in Seattle at the American Sociological Association's 111th Annual Meeting.

To obtain a copy of the paper; for assistance reaching the study's author(s); or for more information on other ASA presentations, members of the media can contact Daniel Fowler, ASA Media Relations Manager, at (202) 527-7885 or pubinfo@asanet.org. During the Annual Meeting (Aug. 20-23), ASA Public Information Office staff can be reached in the on-site press office, located in Room 601 of the Washington State Convention Center, at (206) 219-4513 or (914) 450-4557 (cell).

La Monica Everett-Haynes, Senior Communications Manager, University of Arizona, wrote this press release. For more information about the study, members of the media can also contact Everett-Haynes at (520) 626-4405 or leverett@email.arizona.edu.

Papers presented at the ASA Annual Meeting are typically working papers that have not yet been published in peer-reviewed journals.

Contact: Daniel Fowler, (202) 527-7885, (914) 450-4557 (cell), pubinfo@asanet.org

On-site Press Office (Aug. 20-23): Washington State Convention Center, Room 601, (206) 219-4513
SEATTLE -- In the part of the world that often makes headlines because of religious strife, ethnic divides are no less -- and perhaps even more -- consequential for political stability and socioeconomic wellbeing.

Members of minority ethnic groups, who are often marginalized politically and economically, differ from members of the ethnic majority in their assessment of interethnic relations and their prospects, according to a new study by Victor Agadjanian, a University of Kansas Foundation Distinguished Professor of Sociology, in the multiethnic nation of Kyrgyzstan, a nation in Central Asia and formerly part of the Soviet Union.

Soviet leaders many decades ago arbitrarily drew administrative borders in Central Asia, placing a large portion of Uzbek-populated areas within Kyrgyzstan, rather than Uzbekistan, where Uzbeks are the majority. In addition to Kyrgyz, Kyrgyzstan's largest ethnic group, and Uzbeks, its largest native ethnic minority, Kyrgyzstan's population includes ethnic Russians and members of other groups of European origin whose ancestors were encouraged or forced to relocate there during the Soviet rule.

Agadjanian analyzed data from a nationally representative survey that he designed and directed in the country in 2011-12, a year-and-a-half after a major outburst of ethnic violence that targeted primarily ethnic Uzbeks.

His research on what he defines as "ethnic optimism" found that representatives of the titular ethnic group, Kyrgyz, demonstrated greater optimism about the future of interethnic relations and the collective prospects of their ethnicity than did members of two main minorities -- Uzbeks and those of Russian and other European descent. Yet, at the same time, Uzbeks were not very different from Kyrgyz in their expectations for future overall economic trends in the country. In contrast, Russian and other Europeans were consistently least optimistic than members of the two native groups with regard to the nation's and their households' economic future.

"The results illustrate both the importance of the majority-minority divide and substantial variations across minority groups. As a native group to Kyrgyzstan, Uzbeks don't have anywhere to go, especially because neighboring Uzbekistan is not very welcoming to them," Agadjanian said. "They have to think about their future in Kyrgyzstan, even despite the experience of overt violence, which may help them suppress some of their anxieties about the future. In contrast, ethnic Russians, even though some of their families had lived in Kyrgyzstan for generations, are always aware of their 'historic motherland,' Russia, to which they can 'return.' Their enduring emotional and, often, practical orientation beyond Kyrgyzstan's borders may influence their views of that country's future."

The findings could provide insight for governments and non-governmental organizations that seek to navigate and mitigate challenging ethnic tensions because they help situate ethnic group experiences and perceptions within a historical context, he said.

"Ethnic tensions are not just pervasive. They tend to exacerbate in a context of major societal transitions, such as that experienced by post-Soviet Central Asia," Agadjanian said. "But different ethnic minority groups may experience these tensions and project them into their vision of the future differently, depending on their historical background and circumstances."

Agadjanian will present his findings at the 111th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association (ASA).

###
Its easy to understand why global warming deniers refuse to believe that the Earths temperature is climbing and human consumption of fossil fuels is to blame.

Each new bit of evidence makes the climate change warnings sound like a broken record. The latest is that National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration this week reported that July was the hottest month on record for the planet.

The temperature was 1.57 degrees above the 20th century average, shattering last years July record of being the warmest by 0.11 degrees, NOAAs National Centers for Environmental Information reports.

July also was the 15th month in a row to break the monthly heat record. The data go back to 1880.

For the year to date, the average global temperature was 1.85 degrees F above the 20th-century average, NOAA reports. This was the highest temperature for this period, breaking the previous record set in 2015 by 0.34 degrees F.

Some other striking data about the planets rising temperature:

The average sea surface temperature was a record high for July and from January through July.

The average land surface temperature on Earth tied the 1998 record high for July and the record high for the year to date.

There were near-records on some continents: Asia had its second warmest July; Oceania its fourth; North America its fifth; and Africa and Europe their seventh.

The average Arctic sea ice extent for July was 16.9 percent below the 19812010 average. This was the third smallest July extent since records began in 1979.

The average Antarctic sea ice extent for July was 0.2 percent above the 19812010 average, marking the smallest July Antarctic sea ice extent since 2011 and the 19th smallest on record.

Human consumption of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas produces greenhouse gases, which trap heat in the atmosphere. It causes the Earth to warm, polar ice and glaciers to melt and sea levels to rise, threatening coastal areas and increasing the risk of flooding.

The warming of the planet also results in spreading droughts such as those occurring in California, states in the Southwest, in sub-Saharan African nations and countries like Iran. The recurring wildfires in California are also an outgrowth of global warming.

Thousands of people have had to flee devastating wildfires in Southern California, which have spread across nearly 50 square miles and consumed a number of homes and businesses. Five years of drought have turned much of the state into a tinder box with eight blazes burning from Shasta County in the far north to Camp Pendleton, just north of San Diego.

More than 34,000 homes and about 82,000 people are under evacuation warnings as firefighters focused on trying to save residents in the mountain communities of Lytle Creek, Wrightwood and Phelan. This is the second year that wildfires from the ongoing drought have consumed property and caused residents to become global warming refugees in California.

Because of climate change, storms when they do occur are often more severe. Louisiana has borne the worst of it this summer. The southern part of that state has been slammed with rainfall and flooding, with authorities estimating that 40,000 homes have been damaged, about a dozen people killed and more than 30,000 others have had to be rescued.

The rain and flooding also have caused more than 110 state highways to remain closed, making it even more difficult for families to flee to higher ground.

About 68,000 people have signed up for assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and that number is expected to rise. President Barack Obama has declared a number of parishes disaster areas. It enables residents to apply for grants and loans to help them clean up and rebuild.

But federal budgets to help people recover from floods and wildfires have been devastated from the all-too-frequent occurrences of these climate change fueled disasters.

The Paris climate change summit last year was a coordinated response of many nations to try to arrest the warming of the planet. Efforts include increasing renewable fuels from solar, wind, hydro and geothermal sources.

Conservation efforts also will have to improve in addition to a continued reduction in burning coal, gas and oil as energy sources.

But environmentalists worry that none of the efforts to save the planet is occurring fast enough to offset the effects of climate change. Their concern is that more disasters will keep occurring until ultimately they force peoples hand to act with a greater sense of urgency.
According to the study, businesses are using a variety of sources to inform their marketing strategy; however insights gathered through social media monitoring have finally overtaken more traditional metrics such as market share data and brand tracking to become the most popular component used by marketers

Brands in India are placing social media at the heart of their strategy as they strive towards 360 degree customer engagement, according to a study released by global insights consultancy, TNS. The results from TNSs annual Marketing Monitor study across Asia Pacific highlight the centrality of social media for marketers - it ranked as the top element guiding the planning process, as well as the top metric used to measure the performance of campaigns.

According to the study, businesses are using a variety of sources to inform their marketing strategy; however insights gathered through social media monitoring have finally overtaken more traditional metrics such as market share data and brand tracking to become the most popular component used by marketers.

Top five metrics informing planning:

1. Social media monitoring

2. Brand tracking

3. Market share data

4. What the competition is doing

5. Information from ad agencies

These findings echo the changes happening in consumer behaviour across the region. As people become more connected via digital channels, brands are focusing on how they can communicate with their customers in the online spaces where they are already spending time  social. Whats more, for many mobile-first internet users across the country, social is the primary reason for going online, and so it is a valuable environment for marketers to both connect with their audiences and build a better understanding of them.

Zoe Lawrence, Digital Director, APAC for TNS said, Its no secret that social has become an intrinsic part of our daily lives  94% of connected consumers in India use social networks, switching between Facebook, Google + and Twitter as the top three channels. This mass adoption of social provides marketers with an array of sources when it comes to developing strategies and evaluating the effectiveness of their marketing activity. As the digital ecosystem evolves, we will continue to identify new ways to build insights. However, whatever the metric used, its important to ensure marketers are monitoring the indicators that contribute to sales.

The study also highlighted the top priority for marketing departments this year  customer relationship management. The Marketing Monitor findings revealed that marketers sphere of activity has now broadened, as they concentrate on how to deliver the best overall customer experience, ahead of the traditional aim of increasing brand awareness.

To achieve this, businesses are using social media across a range of disciplines. For example, half (50%) of marketers are using social media for brand communications, but in addition, (43%) are using it for to provide customer service. Social media appeared to be a big part of ecommerce strategy, with 51% using social media advertising and one in three (32%) using social media buy buttons.

Despite this approach to using social to support a variety of marketing goals, the results showed that businesses are not working as collaboratively as they could be, with only 37% of marketers partnering with customer service teams, 38% working with the digital team and a mere 11% working with the insights department.

According to S. Visvanathan, Managing Director, South India & Sri Lanka and Head of Brand & Communications practice, TNS India, businesses are typically overwhelmed by the sheer volume of data generated. He said, Indias online environment is developing very fast. As more consumers and customers start connecting to the internet through mobile and start accessing different digital platforms, the amount of data available will explode! It is important that marketers devise effective ways of extracting insight from this data before it is too late.

Lawrence added, With marketers using social for a range of marketing objectives, it is important that they are offering a consistent, coherent experience to the customer. Brands need to strive to break down the siloes in their organisations to ensure that they are realising the potential positive impact that an aligned, well-executed social strategy can deliver.

APAC India Top five metrics informing planning 1. Social media monitoring 1. Social media monitoring 2. Market share data 2. Brand tracking 3. Brand tracking 3. Market share data 4. What the competition is doing 4. What the competition is doing 5. Information from media agencies 5. Information from ad agencies Top priority for marketing departments this year 1. Customer relationship management 1. Customer relationship management 2. Increasing brand awareness 2. Increasing brand awareness 3. Transforming the marketing organisation in the digital world 3. Transforming the marketing organisation in the digital world 4. Deriving value from data to inform decisions 4. Identifying and converting new sales opportunities 5. Identifying and converting new sales opportunities 5. Marketing automation and programmatic How marketers are using social media 46%: Brand communications 50%: Brand communications 43%: Customer service 43%: Customer service 38%: Sales channel 36%: Sales channel 37%: Amplifying other marketing activity 31%: Providing insights to inform product development 36%: Providing insights to inform product development 28%: Amplifying other marketing activity 27%: Mining for customer intelligence 22%: Mining for customer intelligence Social media and ecommerce 47%: using social media advertising 51%: using social media advertising 30%: using social media buy buttons 32%: using social media buy buttons What departments are marketers collaborating with? 46%: customer service teams 43%: business development teams 39%: business development teams 38%: digital team 33%: wider sales team 37%: customer service teams 30%: digital team 16%: wider sales team 16%: insights team 11%: insights team % using social networks 92% 94% Top three platforms used daily 1. WeChat Moments 1. Facebook 2. Facebook 2. Google+ 3. QQ Space 3. Twitter

Read more news about (internet advertising India, internet advertising, advertising India, digital advertising India, media advertising India)
Hi everyone



I am seeking some information here. My wife is currently 4 months pregnant .I am recently approved Australian citizen , my wife is PR ,she is living with me.



If I take my wife overseas to give birth (as I don't have any relative living here and im full time professional )and come back later what will be the procedure of application for new born baby?how tough , lengthy the procedure would be.Approx how much cost it might involves?



Or if I bring one of my family member ( my sister or my mother in law) what will be the procedure. which visa category should I apply (visitor/family sponsor/tourist).Approx how much money I have to show as sponsor if I apply for my guest to stay 3 moths here.also what is the best time to apply as my wife is due on feb-2017. what sort of documents I need to submit for that visa category?



Please advise me which option would be better for me.

Anyone from the same situation please share your experience.



Thanks in advance

Mohammed mazumder
I am planning to immigrate to canada and i personally feel that to know better about the work culture we have to be part of that system and upgrade accordingly.



As per my research there are many courses available which can be done.



But kindly advice what course should be done in order to get PR.



I have done Post Graduate Diploma in Marketing Management and Btech in Electrical Engg.



Which course should i do , which will help me in getting job and PR in the province.



What is duration of work visa after completion of course.



Please advice.
You DO NOT pay a deposit to the estate agent. You need to find and instruct an INDEPENDANT lawyer and any funds go through them to the seller.



It is however normal to pay a deposit, as I said through your solicitor, to have the property 'reserved' for you while all the legal checks are carried out.



Is it new or resale and does it have title deeds etc.?



I am sure others will be along with advice too but we just completed the purchase of our resale home earlier this month.
I am more of a lurker in this forum, but when I saw your post, I had to respond.



The short of the long of it is this: do not do it.



Women in Saudi Arabia and the society is very much dependent on men... you cannot love your daily life without a man. It is almost like trying to love without... I dont know, access to the internet?! Firstly I can tell you, that you will most probably not even get a visa, even if sponsored by an employee. Even when you have a visa, you have to enter the country with a man or at least have a male RELETIVE only to meet you there and escort you to wherever you go. You cannot leave the house without a male chaperone, unless your transported by a company vehicle to work and back. I strongly suggest you dont go into this blindly. Research the culture and the society... a woman cannot function there without male reletives. Its actually hard to explain in words, because its such a different dynamic and society... nothing even close to the UAE. Apart from that, you will be bored stiff. No cinemas, no public libraries, if you drink, no pubs or clubs.. you dont want to get caught brewing your own alcohol, google the story abt british expat guy who did that. Internet is censored, so is the rest of the media. Unless you like to spend half your life in a shopping mall, there is nothing to do... and you probably wont even get close to a shopping mall without being able to leave the house without your husband. A single mother in Saudi? Really? I would seriously try and look at finding work in UAE. Trust me. And I am saying this, a Muslim woman myself from Middle Eastern background and I could happily live in Saudi any day because I was raised in the Muslim culture and never drank a drop of alcohol etc.. . but assuming your a non Muslim westerner single mom in Saudi alone, you will be vulnerable in many ways, since you will have no male reletive chaperone, cant live without that in Saudi my dear. Women cant even drive cars there, remember xx
Slacker said: Hi, we are interested in buying a property that is a former water mill, next to a small river. We are concerned about flood risk.



We understand that the mairie should be able to provide information on the flood history, but what about the potential flood risk? Does anyone know any useful websites or sources of information where we can find out about future risk, please?



Also, is it possible for me to speak to an insurance company before a purchase to see if they would assess it? I don't want to buy the house, only to find that it is uninsurable.



Many thanks Click to expand...

I would only consider this property if it is set well above river level on at least a gentle slope that runs downstream. Well, actually I wouldn't buy it, nor would I buy on a plain at river level or downhill from a river, even if there were several kms between the property and the river. Floods are getting more frequent in France (and elsewhere including the UK and particularly the US) and, as Smeg says, affecting villages and surrounding areas where even very aged residents have never experienced events like some of the recent ones.The Mairie can provide details of flood risk based primarily on historic events. AFAIK there has been no study of the whole of France as regards potential future flood risk, although there is a possibility that the Mairie has some sort of study on its files, especially if development has been considered in that area, however such studies are expensive, the appropriate expertise is hard to come by and are, in any case, unreliable.You can always phone an insurance company and get a quote for a policy that includes flood (of course, you would have to declare that it's a mill on the river).
Climate change a key issue come election day

Floods in Louisana, Maryland, West Virginia, and a torrential rain that washed Saxon Harbor out into Lake Superior. Prolonged droughts in the far West, horrifying wildfires wiping out homes and a lifetime of hard work and memories. This year is racing to become the hottest year on record.

For years scientists have been telling us that our nasty weather events are man-influenced. There is talk of the tipping point when the damaged atmosphere will be unable to correct itself. Bernie Sanders said that climate change is the greatest challenge of our time. Ninety-nine percent of climate scientists are warning us of this catastrophe.

The Republicans cite a scientist who says thats not so. That fellow is on the payroll of Exon-Mobil. While this is a world people problem, the leadership must come from national governments. The voters must elect leaders who are serious about putting forth policies that are eco-friendly.

Why does the Republican-dominated Congress stall on legislation that could move us in the direction of less use of fossil fuels? Could it be that the money being shuffled their way would dry up? Could it possibly be that any ideas coming from President Obama have to be blocked?

Could it be that those climate-change doubters would jeopardize the whole planet to keep their jobs? Dont you find it strange that the news networks (NBC, ABC, CBS and Fox ) never link these weather events to climate change, even though such events were the predicted result of what is happening to us?

It seems the Chippewa Valley has been spared, and we have been the recipients of ideal weather. The Upper Midwest is but a small part of the whole. If weather events wreck our planet, rest assured we will not be able to dodge the result.

The voter should reject any politician who considers climate change a hoax (Donald Trump) or not a problem (Sen. Ron Johnson). Strange as it seems, the GOP would rather spend billions of dollars fixing and rebuilding after fires and floods rather than confronting the cause of the problem.

John S. Fadness,

Chippewa Falls
Hi ,



I am planning to bring my wife and Son to malaysia in Dependent visa



My company is asking embassy attested Marriage an birth certificate for applying MDec letter



The attesting agency BLS is asking my wife's and Son's original passport for attestation (Which is in India)



Can anyone tell me is this the correct procedure or Attesteation is a must for applying MDec letter
Hi and welcome to the forum,(A) You should be able to manage on that salary but as you say it'll come down to how much you'll be paying in rent which will be your highest expense. I'd expect $700 per week for a family of five plus all your other bills and utilities on top.It's easy to see how much you'll take home (nett pay) after income tax, ACC and Kiwisaver has been deducted. You pay income tax on every cent earned here and I think Kiwisaver may now be mandatory at minimum 3 % or earnings?Use this calculator and generally you'd be electing to have 4% deducted for Kiwisaver.(B) Electricity maybe $300-$350 a month winter dropping to $200-$250 a month summer as the heat pump will be on air con instead of heat during the summer. Could be higher or lower depending on how your rental is heated.You may have piped gas so this will reduce some of the electrical usage but gas is more expensive than electric I think (not had gas for a while) so could be a bit more overall.The type of house you rent etc will have a bearing on power costs so hard to estimate.Water may be free if you aren't on a meter. If no meter the rates will cover water and wastewater. We have a meter in Tauranga but it's only around $60 per quarter.You'll have to pay for bins. $400/$500 a year to rent wheelie bins or you can buy the council bags locally and leave them out to be collected.Basic sky TV is $49 a month. Sports is $28 extra. Movies are around $36 extra.Broadband and a fixed phone around $80-$120 per month depending on type and package.You'll need contents insurance maybe $30 a month.If you get a car just halve whatever you are paying now as an approx figure....we pay around $1100 per year fully comp for 2 x cars worth $40k.Have a look at www.countdown.Co.nz to do a grocery shop.(C) Yes but equally expensive. If you work North Shore you'd wanna be living that way on.(D) Sorry can't help with public transport in Auckland. It ain't the best as far as I know.(E) Yes. Defo limits your options.(F) Just look on Wikipedia for schooling in new Zealand. The page has a good description and a table at the bottom to work out types of establishments and years your child will go in to.Other costs......Mobile phone will be at least $20 a month. We pay $39 a month each to get more data in our package which includes 1GB data, unlimited texts and 400 minutes for calls to NZ numbers. If you are calling the UK often you need to look at the best package for you as international calls can be very expensive.The only free healthcare in NZ is emergency care. Anything else has to be paid for unless you have been referred as an outpatient by your GP. A GP consult is anything from $40 to $80 depending on the practice and the city it is in and your visa status. A repeat script maybe $20. Each item on the script is $5 at the pharmacy. Kids from I think 4 to under 13 are generally free although you have to make sure with some GP's as some opted out of giving kids free care. 4 and under is free as far as I know although the only thing you do have to pay for is a repeat script for kids 13 and under is $10.Any storage for furniture coming from overseas ? We pay $100 a month for approx 10m3 secure storage.Sports clubs/gym/golf?Lottery?Good luck.
bringing computer periferals



Thanks for the info everyone. Very helpful. It turns out that all my computer equipment has 100 - 240 voltage capacity.



Voltage regulator: does it have multiple outlets to plug-in more than one device at the same time, such as a laptop, speakers, widescreen monitor and external hard drive all at the same time?



Computer speakers: I use Logitech 40w speakers. The subwoofer is fairly large so if I wanted to bring them, I'll have to ship them. I can buy new ones here in Canada for about 3600 php. Are they or similar ones available there and would they cost much more than that?



Computer monitor: I'm currently using a 22" widescreen monitor. Same question as above for speakers. Should I ship it or buy new one there. New 22'' to 24"monitors would cost me about 5500 php here in Canada. There is currently a 27" one on sale for about that same price.



Rechargeable batteries: My battery charger for AA and AAA batteries will work there. I use those for my 2 wireless mice. Should I bring extra packages of rechargeable batteries or are they available cheap there.



External hard drives: I have 6 hard drives. I've got back-ups of important documents, etc, on several of them. I've also got about 20,000 mp3s and maybe the same number of photos. But most files are large video files - thousands of TV shows and movies I've saved over the past 12 years or so through my TV and Internet account, the majority of which I have not yet watched for lack of time. I will only watch a TV series in its entirety after it ends. I've been saving them for a "rainy day", though I never thought that day would be in the Philippines, so I guess it will be a "sunny day".



I have not traveled internationally since 2005, so am not sure what to expect at airport security. Do you think I will encounter any problems bringing those hard drives into the country? I plan on taking my laptop and drives in my carry-on luggage, never out of my sight. Are there any precautions I need to take regarding security xray machines? Will these hard drive cases with wires sticking out of them attract suspicion? I'll be trying to find out some of these answers elsewhere, but any suggestions here will be much appreciated, as is all the help I get here.
Friday, August 19, 2016

Yes, it is possible to make money and save the environment when you downsize. In this short speech by Gail Rubin, The Doyenne of Death (and now the Doyenne of Downsizing), she demonstrates how shes leading by example when it comes to lightening her load of stuff around the house.

According to the 2007 video The Story of Stuff, while Americans make up 5% of the worlds population, we consume 30% of the worlds natural resources and generate 30% of the worlds waste. With the Silver Tsunami of Baby Boomers getting close to doing their own downsizing as they reach their later years, we have a downsizing crisis brewing.

How can we downsize and avoid adding to the amount of material goods going into landfills? Watch this video for five tips on ways to remove excess household goods: selling online, donating for tax credit, curbing with a FREE sign, giving away through Freecycle.org, and properly disposing of hazardous wastes.

These ideas and many more are in Gail Rubins new book, KICKING THE BUCKET LIST: 100 Downsizing and Organizing Things to Do Before You Die. Its currently available in paperback form for $15.95 (plus shipping and tax as applicable) from Amazon, Rio Grande Books, and AGoodGoodbye.com. Look for the eBook version in the near future.

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Today, the problems in the criminal justice system have gained national attention through the recent protests over black killings by police officers, racial profiling, and long prison sentences for non-violent crimes and even longer sentences for minority group members. Now AMERICAN JUSTICE? features a discussion of about how to fix major problem in the criminal justice system along with a memoir of a woman's inquisition by the criminal justice system when she was unfairly prosecuted following a neighborhood dispute.

It begins by describing the nightmare that author Paul Brakke and his wife Carol experienced when some local kids falsely accused Carol of trying to run one of them over, because they didn't like her interfering with their play at a dangerous intersection. Based on this false accusation and additional lies by neighbors who wanted to get her out of the neighborhood, Carol was subjected to a series of devastating events. These included involuntary commitments to a psych ward, two psychological evaluations, exile from her home, delays in setting a trial date, and the threat of a 16-year jail term. These circumstances drove Carol to the verge of a nervous breakdown and forced the Brakkes to agree to move out of their home, at a great cost, to another community as part of a plea bargain in which all charges relating to aggravated assault were dropped.

After describing these harrowing experience, the book discusses problems in the criminal justice system and recommends what to do to resolve those problems. The book should be especially timely today, given the growing concern about cops, racial profiling, and whether judges can be truly fair, when subjected to all kinds of pressure from local citizens and the media. The book is also designed to start a national dialogue on what to do to fix the system -- from the local police, prosecutors, and judges to state and national officials. Additionally, the book comes at a time when there is a reconsideration of long-term sentencing laws, changing penalties for non-violence drug offenses, and creating alternatives to prison sentences through restorative justice. It includes suggestions on how to deal with these many challenges.

Additional information on the book's website: www.americanjusticethebook.com. Its Facebook group is at www.facebook.com/bookamericanjustice.

The author Paul Brakke is available for interviews about this book or the criminal justice issues discussed in the book. He currently works as a scientist at a university research center. He has chosen to use a pseudonym to protect himself and his family, as well as those participating in the injustices described in the book. His co-writer, Gini Graham Scott, is also available for interviews about the criminal justice system. She has a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California at Berkeley, as well as a J.D. in law from the University of San Francisco law school, and four M.A. degrees from California State University, East Bay, including in Anthropology, Popular Culture and Lifestyles, and Mass Communication. She has an A.A. in the Administration of Justice from Merritt College in Oakland, California.

For further information, PDFs of AMERICAN JUSTICE? are available to journalists with print and broadcast media outlets.

Contact:

Nancy Parker

Changemakers Publishing and Writing

3527 Moraga Blvd.

Lafayette, CA 94549

changemakerspublishing@gmail.com

http://www.americanjusticethebook.com

http://www.changemakerspublishingandwriting.com

(925) 385-0608
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AUSTIN  The campaign for the White House will knock on Texas door next week, when Donald Trump will rally voters and collect cash and former President Bill Clinton will raise money for Hillary in cities including San Antonio.

Trump, the unconventional Republican nominee whose campaigns hallmark is turmoil, announced Friday he is adding an Austin rally to previously scheduled fundraisers Tuesday in the state capital and Fort Worth.

Bill Clinton, the high-profile husband of the first woman to receive a major-party nomination for president, will appear at Thursday fundraising receptions in Dallas, Houston and San Antonio to raise money for the Democratic effort, according to invitations obtained by the San Antonio Express-News.

Their visits come after a poll by the Democratic-leaning Public Policy Polling showed Trump only 6 percentage points ahead of Clinton in Texas, an unusually close margin in a state where Democrat hasnt won the day in the presidential race since Jimmy Carter in 1976. Trumps poll performance has been lagging nationally.

While state Democrats hope Clinton can boost their party, theres no real expectation of a Clinton win in Texas. Shes not expected to pour big money into the state.

Collecting money here, however, is a different matter.

Texas has long been an important fundraising stop for candidates who spend the money elsewhere.

Besides the practical need for resources, Clintons ability to raise big money can help her project a winning campaign, said Rebecca Deen, chair of the political science department of the University of Texas at Arlington. Clintons campaign already has expressed concern over Trumps ability to raise money when he turned his attention to the effort in July.

Her campaign can say the fundraising is another measure of our resonance with voters, and that helps to counteract a little bit perhaps her unfavorability rating, Deen said.

Regarding Trump, Deen said, Its so hard to say anything definitely because you just dont know whats going to happen from day to day or week to week.

She said, however, it would make sense for him to spend his money in battleground states like Ohio and North Carolina, two he already has targeted with his first television ad.

Trumps Texas trip comes in the wake of a campaign shakeup including the Friday resignation of his chief strategist, Paul Manafort.

Its just the latest twist for a campaign in which Trump has upset many Latinos and women with offensive comments and has tangled with the American Muslim parents of an Army captain who was killed in Iraq. Trump this week said he regretted sometimes saying the wrong thing.

Texas officeholders who have backed Trump have done so with varying degrees of public enthusiasm.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick plans to attend the rally and is part of the host committee for the Austin fundraiser. Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller likely will attend at least one event, and perhaps all, said a spokesman.

Gov. Greg Abbotts spokesman, John Wittman, said Abbott would unfortunately not be able to attend because he will be receiving ongoing treatment for burns he suffered on a vacation trip last month. Staffs for Attorney General Ken Paxton and Land Commissioner George P. Bush, who heads Republicans victory effort in Texas, said they had previous commitments.

The Austin host committee for Trumps fundraiser also includes, among others, U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio; Red McCombs, the San Antonio mogul who founded the Red McCombs Automotive Group and co-founded Clear Channel Communications; and Amy Henry Deane, a businesswoman and speaker who was on The Apprentice, a show that was hosted by Trump.

Trumps son, Donald Trump Jr., is touted as a special guest at the Austin event.

Among others listed on the invitation are Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus and Trumps Texas state finance co-chairs  Dennis Nixon, chief executive officer of IBC Bank; and real estate developer Gene Powell, former regent of the University of Texas System.

The price of admission to his Austin fundraiser ranges from $100,000 per couple to $2,700 per person. For his Fort Worth luncheon fundraiser, the cost ranges from $2,700 per person to $250,000 per couple (give or raise for the larger amount).

Bill Clintons fund-raising trip is eagerly anticipated by those who admire the couples decades-long ties to the state.

Theres always enthusiasm in San Antonio when it comes to the Clintons. People are always glad to welcome them home, and the state is very excited with the latest poll showing them (Clinton and Trump) six points apart, said Hillary Clinton supporter Choco Gonzalez Meza of San Antonio.

Hosts of the San Antonio fundraiser are businessman Henry R. Munoz, national finance committee chair for the Democratic National Committee, and his partner, Kyle Ferari; and Maria and Jose Villarreal, a lawyer who is national treasurer for Hillary Clintons campaign.

The Houston fundraisers hosts include the citys former mayor, Bill White; lawyer Carrin Patman, chair of Harris Countys Metropolitan Transit Authority Board; and attorney Sima Ladjevardian.

In Dallas, hosts include physician, businessman and Barack Obama bundler Kneeland Youngblood.

The price of admission for the Clinton receptions ranges from $2,700 to $33,400.

Reporters John W. Gonzalez and Josh Baugh contributed to this report.

pfikac@express-news.net

Twitter: @pfikac
Midwest spinach production explained in detail

Learn how spinach performs in the Midwest and seasonal considerations in a new publication from ISU.
An outbreak of American Foulbrood (AFB), a disease affecting colonies of honeybees, has been found in an apiary near Inverness.

The disease was confirmed on 19 August 2016 following laboratory diagnosis by Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture (SASA).

The AFB infected hive has been destroyed as there is no permitted treatment for the disease in the UK.

There are no risks to public health from AFB and no implications for the quality and safety of honey.

The apiary is located at Scaniport, an area west of Inverness and the movement of bees and related equipment into or out of the affected area is prohibited.

Bee farmers and beekeepers are being urged to be vigilant for signs of the disease, to maintain good husbandry practices and to notify any suspicion of disease to the government.

Classic signs of the disease are sunken cappings on cells, which when uncapped reveal dead larvae in various stages of decomposition.

The larvae have a caramel like, light to dark brown consistency and when drawn out, the decomposing material strings out rather than snapping off  the ropiness test.
Sheep farmers are being encouraged to make use of the latest technology to boost the genetics and profitability of their flocks.

A demonstration of Computed Tomography (CT) scanning of ram lambs will take place in Aberystwyth on Sunday 28 August, in order to show how the technology can accurately measure key characteristics to help produce lambs which meet market requirements.

The mobile scanner, which is owned by Scottish agricultural college SRUC and is being demonstrated in Wales in collaboration with Hybu Cig Cymru  Meat Promotion Wales (HCC), will be at the University farm, Plas Gogerddan, Aberystwyth, SY23 3EB.

CT scanning can help to identify outstanding animals within the breed, and can improve the efficiency with which superior animals can be selected using on-farm ultrasound.

Gwawr Parry, HCCs Industry Development Officer, explained the various data that the CT scan generates.

"The scan produces measurements for the weight and the percentage of fat, muscle and bone in the carcase.

"Data can also be obtained on muscle distribution in the loin, leg and chest."

"With processors paying more for animals with certain characteristics which arent always obvious to the naked eye, analysing breeding rams is becoming ever more important for farms profitability," added Gwawr.

"CT scanning is a welfare-friendly way of obtaining key data to improve Estimated Breeding Values; Im sure many will be keen to see this technology in action."

Any sheep breeders who are interested in viewing the demonstration are encouraged to contact HCC on 01970 62 5050.
A juvenile male was injured in a shooting in Dale City Thursday night, but there's been no word yet on the condition of the victim or whether 
As hurricanes worsen, can Lumbee Tribe learn to live with water?

The Native American tribe was saved by the swamp. Now, like so many people in the South, flooding threatens to drive them away.
Do you ever wish you could just chuck it all away and say "f*ck it"? I do. I do enough that I wrote a whole book about it!

667 Ways to F*ck Up My LIfe

My funny women's fiction "667 WAYS TO F*CK UP MY LIFE" goes into wide release today, and it answers the question so many woman have asked themselves-what would happen if I just gave up?

It should come to no surprise to any lady reading this that we're expected to be "perfect"...even though almost nobody can agree on what "perfect" is. We're supposed to be hot but modest; confident but meek; not too thin, not too fat; to wear makeup, but not too much makeup; to take care of babies, yet never look like we're taking care of babies; to succeed while not being overly ambitious. And we must perform this tap-dance backwards and in high heels. Ha ha ha ha-easy! Yet no matter how well we reverse cha-cha, our best efforts can come crashing down around our heads, and then, naturally, we will be blamed for not climbing single-handedly to the moon while looking tight in lingerie.

My "F*ck Up" heroine is named Dagmar. She's a hard-working perfectionist. She scarifies her personal happiness so that everyone around her is fulfilled. Guess how well that works out for her? Not very, and she's left with this feeling of...why? Why did she swallow her needs to stay in a crappy relationship? Why did she put up with a grab-assy boss only for her butt to be kicked out into the snow? She did these things because she was taught to get along. To be a good little girl. How many of us have heard that?

So Dag decides she's had enough. Being "perfect" got her nowhere...so it's finally time to embrace her dark side. Her naughty side. Her inner bad girl who's been clamouring to wear too short skirts and bright red lipstick!

She decides to f*ck up. Hard. And I had a hell of a good time sending her down the rabbit hole.

My best friend calls my books "wish fulfillment," and I can say with certainty that they are-for ME! Unfortunately, being an adult sometimes means biting your tongue just when you want to tell some sexist asshole to go to hell. But I can have my book heroines send jerks to Hades, or take down a roofie-ing ba*tard, or get revenge on an evil ex-boss. Hooray! Justice is served for all of womankind!

In my dreams at least.

Grab yourself a glass of wine, girl. Settle into the bathtub. And live vicariously through Dag and her BFF Mel as they f*ck everything upand finally learn how to really love life. When you finish 667 WAYS TO F*CK UP MY LIFE, I want you to feel like the superheroine you are-no matter how tight your bum is.

All my love,

Lucy
Courteney Cox's reluctance to leave Malibu has frustrated Johnny McDaid.

Courteney Cox and Johnny McDaid

The couple reconciled earlier this year following a brief split, but their friends are now worried about their future following a string of rows during their recent European vacation, largely triggered by the Snow Patrol musician's desire to return to Ireland and his fiancee's unease at being away from home.

A source said: "They really love each other but they can't resolve their issues.

"Courteney is such a homebody and hates leaving Malibu but Johnny is desperate to return to Ireland with the wedding pegged for autumn it's causing huge rifts.

"Their trip to Europe has been stressful, not just because of tension between Courteney and Johnny's family but also because she's feeling suffocated and uncomfortable away from her own home in Malibu. She hates being away for any length of time.

"Johnny gets frustrated by how restricted that leaves their life, and the thought of being holed up in some LA mansion for the rest of his life is not what he wants."

The 52-year-old 'Friends' actress is also said to be reluctant to uproot her 10-year-old daughter Coco from their home and wants to ensure her custody agreement with her ex-husband David Arquette - who is based in New York - stays in place.

But pals are hopeful the couple can still reach a compromise.

The source told Grazia magazine: "Courteney's done a lot of work on herself to try and be more flexible for Johnny, which is one of the reasons they decided to give it another chance. But she struggles to leave her comfort zone.

"Friends just hope that they can reach some kind of compromise and finally make it down the aisle."
Sarah Silverman has paid tribute to her mother on the first anniversary of her death.

Sarah Silverman [Twitter]

The 45-year-old actress' beloved mother, Beth Ann O'Hara, died in August 2015 at the age of 73 and on Friday (19.08.16) Sarah took to Twitter to reveal how much she misses her.

She tweeted a picture of them together and wrote: "A year ago today my mom left her human shell. So many times I went to call her this year, forgetting (sic)."

Sarah was extremely close to Beth Ann and praised her "know-it-all" parent's outlook on life after her death last year.

She tweeted: "She was a know-it-all in overalls & two different colored socks. And defiantly, no bra.

"The woman who, when I was little, gave me detailed directions to a restaurant ladies room then secretly watched as I found my way to it on my own.

"The woman who went back to college at 42, and skinny dipped in ponds, and told me never to protect myself from a broken heart because it was so very worth the pain to get to experience love (sic)."

Sarah also publicly praised her mother - a producer and director known as 'mom' to a number of aspiring actors - when presenting her with a lifetime achievement award at the New Hampshire Theater Awards in 2003.

She said at the ceremony: "[She is] loving, nurturing, caring, colourful - she used to wear two different colour socks, I'm not sure she was aware of that - supportive, honest, strong and with endless creativity and energy.

"She gives us the feeling that we fill her heart with love and I think it's because we fill her heart with love. Mom ... we feel the same. you fill our hearts, as well."
Starring: Kelly Macdonald, Andrew Scott, Rafe Spall, Jessica Haynes

Swallows and Amazons

Director: Philippa Lowthorpe

Rating: 4/5

If you are looking for a family adventure to enjoy on the big screen this weekend, then the new adaptation of Swallows and Amazons could well be the film that you are looking for.

The movie is based on the much-loved novel of the same name by Arthur Ransome and sees Philippa Lowthorpe - who is best known for her television work - make her feature film directorial debut.

Swallows And Amazons follows four children dreaming of escape from the tedium of a summer holiday in the Lake District with their mother. When finally given permission to camp on their own on a remote island in the middle of a vast lake, they are overjoyed. But when they get there they discover they may not be alone... As a desperate battle for ownership of the island ensues, the real dangers of an adult world on the brink of war encroach on their paradise in the form of a mysterious pair of Russian spies hot on the tail of the enigmatic Jim Turner.

As the sleepy British summer is turned on its head, the children must learn skills of survival, responsibility, and the all-important value of friendship. Steeped in the wonder of a child's imagination and set against the breath-taking backdrop of the Lakes, this is an exhilarating adaptation of a treasured classic.

Ransome's enduring books series has been wonderfully realised on the big screen and this is a film that is packed with tons of charm and heart.

This is a true family adventure and it is sad that we don't see more of these kinds of films made for the big screen. Swallows and Amazons is a movie that is driven by a great story and interested characters and doesn't rely on CGI and special effects that so many movies are driven by.

Swallows and Amazons is a movie about the innocence of children and the adventures and scrapes that they get into when they explore the outside world - something many of us can relate to.

Kelly Macdonald, Andrew Scott, and Rafe Spall are the biggest names on the cast list and, while they are not hugely challenged, they all deliver great performances. However, it is the children who really steal the limelight with Dane Hughes and Orla Hill - who take on the roles of John and Susan Walker - two talents to keep an eye on over the next couple of years.

Philippa Lowthorpe has also captured the Lake District beautifully and the setting becomes a character in its own right. It really is one of the most stunning looking movies that we have seen all summer.

It is hard to believe that this is the feature film debut for Lowthorpe because she has delivered an assured and compelling movie that captures the adventure and the charm of the book series.

Of course, there are some tweaks to make this story relevant to modern day audiences, but Lowthorpe has really captured a more innocent time when children could be truly wild and free.

Swallows and Amazons is an exciting adventure and a story that you cannot help but be swept along with.

Swallows and Amazons is out now.

by Helen Earnshaw for www.femalefirst.co.uk

find me on and follow me on
In an effort to boost export of high-value readymade garments (RMG), the Central government has increased the duty drawback of 3.2 per cent to 4.7 per cent, depending on the category, for exports of non-fabric inputs made from imported fabrics under the Advance Authorisation Scheme.

The new duty drawback rates would be effective from the next month.

Exporters shall be eligible for the All Industry Rate of Duty Drawback, for non fabric inputs, as determined by Central government for this scheme. The fabric imported shall be subject to pre-import condition and it shall be physically incorporated in the export product (making normal allowance for wastage). Only physical exports shall fulfil the export obligation.

In an effort to boost export of high-value readymade garments (RMG), the Central government has increased the duty drawback of 3.2 per cent to 4.7 per cent, depending on the category, for exports of non-fabric inputs made from imported fabrics under the Advance Authorisation Scheme. The new duty drawback rates would be effective from the next month.#

Authorisation, and the fabric imported, shall be subject to actual user condition. The same shall be non-transferable even after completion of export obligation.

Duty-free import of fabric under the Special Advance Authorisation Scheme shall be allowed for export of articles of apparel and clothing accessories for export of items covered under Chapter 61 and 62, subject to the terms and conditions.

The authorisation shall be issued based on Standard Input Output Norms (SION) or prior fixation of Norms Committee. The authorisation shall be issued for the import of relevant fabrics including inter lining only as input. No other input, packing material, fuel, oil and catalyst shall be allowed for import under this authorisation. (RKS)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
Intertextile Shanghai Apparel Fabrics which runs October 1113, 2016 will once again feature an extensive range of fringe program events.These include six Trend Forums which will reveal overseas and domestic trends, as well as a series of seminars, the Digital Printing Forum and panel discussions offering the latest market information.

Intertextile Shanghai Apparel Fabrics which runs October 1113, 2016 will once again feature an extensive range of fringe program events. These include six Trend Forums which will reveal overseas and domestic trends, as well as a series of seminars, the Digital Printing Forum and panel discussions offering the latest market information.Envisioned by the...#

Envisioned by the Intertextile Directions Trend Committee, the A/W 2017-18 international trends will be revealed in the Intertextile Directions Trend Forum in hall 6.2.Alongside the international Trend Forum are five China Fabric Trend Forums namely; Fashion Focus; Accessories; and forums for menswear; womenswear and casualwear.These demonstrate the A/W 2017-18 domestic trends under four themes, Future Intelligence , Symbiosis Art, Balance Philosophy and Merging Time, Messe Frankfurt, the organiser said.The Digital Printing Forum and panel discussions will offer an interactive platform for industry experts to share their unique insights on various topics.Konica Minolta China, Kornit Digital China and textile media World Textile Information Network (WTiN) from UK are already confirmed to host a number of digital printing forum sessions.In addition, a number of design & trend and sustainability issue seminars will also be held throughout the three-day fair. (AR)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 08/19/16 -- Copper One Inc. (TSX VENTURE: CUO) ("Copper One" or the "Company") has entered into a settlement agreement with a creditor (the "Settlement Agreement") to settle an aggregate of CDN$611,250 of debt in consideration for the issuance of an aggregate of 4,701,923 common shares of the Company at a deemed price of CDN$0.13 per common share (the "Shares for Debt Settlement").

The board and management of Copper One believe that the proposed Shares for Debt Settlement is in the best interests of the Company because it allows the Company to preserve its funds for operations.

The Shares for Debt Settlement will not create a new control person holding more than 20% of the issued and outstanding common shares of the Company.

The Shares for Debt Settlement is subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange. The common shares issued pursuant to the Shares for Debt Settlement will be subject to a statutory four month and one day hold period.

About Copper One

Copper One is focused on developing the Riviere Dore property located near Val d'Or, Quebec covering the base of the Bouchette anorthositic complex which spans over 80 km.

Forward-looking information

This press release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, without limitation, statements regarding the Shares for Debt Settlement and the future plans or prospects of the Company. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved". Forward- looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of Copper One, as the case may be, to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Although Copper One has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Copper One does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE

Contacts:

G Scott Moore

Chairman, President and CEO

smoore@forbesmanhattan.com




Editor's note: What's more fun than passing off stalking celebrities on social media as work?

Very little, right?

And so, we scanned the Instagram and Twitter accounts of celebs from India and abroad, to bring to you weekly updates from the interwebz. Who tweeted to whom? Who reposted last night's party pics? Who went on a rant about-... well, whatever it is Kanye West rants about. Whatever it is, don't worry, we've got you covered.

We stalk, you read. Deal?

This week we have more dope on your favourite celebrities: From envy inspiring holiday pictures (we are looking at you Ranveer) to a celebrity studded lunch date and a case of the accidental twin Olympian, here is what our favourite celebrities were upto:

'The Holiday' starring Ranveer Singh

Thrillseeker! #Wakeboarding #LakeZurich #VisitZurich #inLOVEwithSWITZERLAND @myswitzerlandlive A photo posted by Ranveer Singh (@ranveersingh) on Aug 18, 2016 at 1:30am PDT

Ranveer Singh is having the time of his life on his Switzerland holiday. The Befikre star has already given us some serious holiday goals as he 'Instagrams' his travel diaries across Switzerland. The star has also tried skydiving, tobogganing and surfing on his Swiss holiday. A hula hoop and a thank you

Akshay Kumar took some time out from celebrating the success of Rustom to thank his friends from B-wood who stood by him and promoted his film. But Akshay Kumar being Akshay Kumar had to thank people in his own 'loopy' way. Watch him as he says his thank you poetry as he expertly hula hoops. Also notice, one leg of his pajamas is folded up to his knees. That's the khiladi's style. There's a part two too:

Thank you part II

Cruising down real slow: Srk and Aryan

Objects in the mirror....r closest...sigh...!!! A photo posted by Shah Rukh Khan (@iamsrk) on Aug 17, 2016 at 9:42pm PDT

Shah Rukh Khan spent some time bonding with his son Aryan Khan before he went off to study at the University of Southern California. Shah Rukh posted this trippy photo of Aryan and himself hanging out in a car.

Reese Witherspoons lunch menu

My lunch date today @amyschumer #TheGirlWithTheLowerBackTattoo A photo posted by Reese Witherspoon (@reesewitherspoon) on Aug 16, 2016 at 1:11pm PDT

While she was eating lunch that day, Reese posted a photo showing off her salad, iced tea and the novel she brought with her  Amy Schumers book The Girl With the Lower Back Tattoo. Heres to more girl on girl power! Zac Efron and the twin Olympian

My Brotha from anotha Congrats #MichaelHixon #Rio2016 A photo posted by Zac Efron (@zacefron) on Aug 18, 2016 at 8:35pm PDT

Michael Hixon, the Olympian, who won a silver medal in diving for USA at the Rio Olympics, looks a lot like Zac Efron, doesn't he? Efron posed for a photo with the swimmer after he landed in Rio to surprise gymnast Simone Biles, who had a crush a long standing crush on Zac Efron.
If youve liked any of Todd Phillips films like Road Trip, Eurotrip and The Hangover, you might enjoy the silly thrills of War Dogs.

You can even conclude that this is the smartest film he has made, though thats not saying much. The filmmaker excels in situations where people are stuck in places where they dont belong, and War Dogs offers plenty of entertaining avenues around that hook.

Loosely based on a Rolling Stone article about two Americans who ran a gun ring in Afghanistan, the film follows the oddball journey of Efraim (Jonah Hill) and David (Miles Teller) who find themselves in such a situation.

David is originally a massage therapist struggling to make ends meet, and when his girlfriend (Ana de Armas) gets pregnant hes forced to find a real job. Efraim enters his life and tells him about a shady practice by the US government, which buys military equipment from third parties in Afghanistan to supply to its troops.

Clearly seduced and also surprised that no one else has discovered this, both David and Efraim proceed head on into a business arrangement as middle men in the arms trade with the prospect of some seriously huge money.

Its surely the most unique plot in Phillips filmography and until we discover how far the rabbit hole goes the film is pretty entertaining. You get the usual frat boy humor and the expected shocked face comedy which somehow works mainly due to Hills consistent performance. The highlight of the film is one hilarious encounter with a dirty arms and ammunition supplier (played by Bradley Cooper).

The bromance between Hill and Teller runs on the highest possible perimeter for more giggles, and surprisingly its mostly rendered in dark humor rather than in the clumsy vein of The Hangover films.

The downside of the premise is that the film never really achieves the potential it sets to achieve. Once Efraim and David begin making money the film kind of goes into a zone which feels like the love child of The Wolf of Wall Street and Lord of War. That combination should ideally lead to a really zany out of the box filmmaking but the final product isnt as crazy as you want it to be.

There are montages of excess and indulgence but no real insight into how stupid the government is that it can be fooled by these two idiots. There is also very little explanation on why David begins to trust Efraim despite the fact that he enters the film as a very obviously shady personality whom you should never logically trust.

But its the little details that make you forgive the film for its contrivances. Efraim keeps a poster of Scarface and models his office after the drug den shown in the film. He also starts doing coke to pay respect to his hero Tony Montana. The film is also ultimately a not so subtle diatribe on where America is headed towards, and even though you wish it were a more incisive cut into the topic that a giant gnarly bite, its a fairly entertaining watch.
The tribulations and torment of Joseph K in Franz Kafkas The Trial is set in a dystopian nightmare where a bullying police, unclear, yet draconian laws and a bewilderingly confusing judicial process work to relentlessly break one mans mind, body and spirit. It also seems to have inspired the persons who drafted the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010 (and its predecessor, the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 1976)  not as a horror to be avoided, but as a model of how the State should implement and apply law.

Whereas governments in the last 25 years have worked hard (and succeeded to some extent) in dismantling the license-permit-quota raj in other sectors of the economy, when it comes to foreign contributions, a licence-permit-quota raj is seen as the right and proper state of affairs.

Every not-for-profit that seeks to obtain foreign funding for itself must obtain a certificate from the Union Government before it gets such foreign funding. Certain organisations and persons are entirely barred from receiving foreign funding. It is understandable and probably desirable that political parties, election candidates, judges, governments, and members of legislature not accept foreign contributions because of the nature of their duties. But why, pray tell, should a cartoonist of a newspaper not receive 'foreign contribution'? Or for that matter anyone associated with a newspaper or a news channel? When its possible for a foreign entity to legitimately own up to 26 percent of a newspaper through the automatic FDI route, what sense does it make to entirely prevent a not-for-profit foreign source from contributing to an Indian newspaper?

This isnt the only illogical clause of the FCRA. "Organisations of a political nature" are prohibited from receiving foreign funds. Sounds reasonable since the law shouldnt allow something to be done indirectly to what cant be done directly.

Except, theres no definition of what an "organisation of a political nature" is in the law.

FCRA leaves it to the the government to decide on a case by case basis what an "organisation of a political nature" is. There are guidelines indicated in the FCRA Rules, but if you ever wanted to see an example of the textbook definition of a tautology, look no further. According to the guidelines, any organisation, trade union, voluntary action group with political objectives, promoting political goals, engaging in political activities or furthering political interests would be an "organisation of a political nature". Apart from using the term "political" as an adjective to describe multiple nouns and verbs, the guidelines throw no real light on what an "organisation of political nature" is. Only one guideline which covers front organisations for political parties, such as AIDWA, NSUI, ABVP et al is slightly illuminating. The unclear and wide use of the term "political" in the Rules suggest that the guidelines are all but useless to understand who this clause can apply to, and will be applied to anyone and everyone the government chooses.

In a supposedly free and open democracy where the Constitution guarantees universal adult franchise, is there any subject that does not involve politics? When I say politics here, I dont mean the court intrigue or intra-party intrigue that is passed off or incorrectly referred to as "politics" in India. Whether it is the resolution of the Kashmir issue, or the provision of free and compulsory education, or the ending of manual scavenging, all have a political dimension in so far as they relate to the powerless sections of society seeking to legitimately seek more power in society. They may use the language of human rights or pitch their claim in courts on the basis of constitutional rights but what they are asking for is the government to re-balance the existing status quo in society in some way or the other.

One could perhaps make the argument that even such activities should not be foreign funded at any cost. Fair enough. But thats not what the FCRA does. It allows the government to pick and choose what sort of "organisations of political nature" are permitted to receive foreign funding and what are not. Although the FCRA gives the process the trappings of natural justice, the absence of any coherent guidelines and the vesting of absolute discretion in the Government to determine what is an "organisation of political nature" leave it open for abuse and misuse, whatever the party in power.

One would have even tolerated a little bit of discretion for the government if it didnt display such rank hypocrisy when it came to the foreign funding of political parties. When faced with a judgment which held that the BJP and Congress had flouted the FCRA, instead of prompting legal action against these parties, the law was surreptitiously changed, retroactively, to whitewash their illegalities.

On the other hand, any NGO which dares to question the agenda of the government of the day, whether it is the protesters against the Kudankulam nuclear power plant, or Amnesty International or Greenpeace, is branded as the "foreign hand" and the subject of a witch-hunt, using the FCRA to de-fund and de-legitimise the activities of these bodies. Wild conspiracy theories are spun and peddled in public by "sources" and useful idiots as legitimate concerns, and opposing viewpoints are tarnished and brushed aside.

The clumsy and heavy-handed manner in which the NDA-II government operates would make you think that the anti-NGO approach is something unique to it. It isnt. The original FCRA was introduced by the Congress-led government at the height of the Emergency, persisted with by governments of all hues, and the latest version of the law is a creation of the UPA government which put NGOs at the centre of its policy making. The fact of the matter is that paranoia and suspicion have been institutionalised in government under the FCRA. We dont even need to speculate where this will lead us to. A live example is playing out before our very eyes in Turkey. A dark and dangerous path lies ahead.

The author is Senior Resident Fellow, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy. The views expressed in this article are entirely his
New Delhi: Though Yoga guru Ramdev and Anna Hazare presented a joint front on Sunday's fast demanding the passage of Lokpal and bringing back black money from foreign shores, differences in Team Anna were too visible to be ignored.

Around 3 pm, Team Anna member Arvind Kejriwal spoke for about ten minutes and he mentioned names of current and former cabinet ministers during his talk. He made a reference to the 'charge sheet' recently released by Team Anna against 15 ministers including the prime minister. "People like Lalu Prasad Yadav, Mulayam Singh Yadav and A Raja will not rule the nation," he said.

Just after Kejriwal finished speaking, Baba Ramdev cautioned him against naming ministers as it diverted attention from the core issue.

Moments later, Arvind left the stage.

However, the Anna camp played down the event saying that Kejriwal left as he was not feeling well. "It was pre- decided. Arvind conveyed that he wanted to speak early and leave," said Manish Sisodia.

But Anna's speech was a 'study in contrast' as compared to Arvind Kejriwal's talk. Anna did not violate , what Ramdev later termed later protocol for the day- not naming any politician or leader.

Anna's speech was timid. He did not take any names and spoke about the struggle against corruption in general. The social activist from Maharashtra's Ralegan Sidhi district spoke about his experience in the Lokpal movement and movements to transform gram panchayats.

Just after Anna finished speaking, Ramdev hugged him. This was the first time that Hazare spoke at Jantar Mantar in the absence of Kejriwal.

Later in the day, Ramdev said that he was not in favour of making the struggle, people specific.

Around 4500 people gathered at Jantar Mantar, the venue of the fast which was guarded by 500 policemen and 20 battalions of paramilitary forces.

At 10.30, Baba Ramdev, Anna Hazare, Arvind Kejriwal and Kiran Bedi reached the fast venue with their supporters.

Sunday's fast came exactly a year after Baba Ramdev was forced to end his demonstration against black money at Delhi's Ramlila ground. "Hamne Ramlila mein Ravanlila dekhi," he said, referring to the handling of last year's episode, of which many said, worked against the ruling government.

The fast came at a time when a section of Team Anna is believed to be against the association with the yoga guru.

Why is it that when we talk of corruption, the government directs all its forces on us, asked Ramdev.

"The prime minister is individually honest. But he has to make sure that he has an honest cabinet," he said.

About the government's dealings with anti-graft activists, he said, "When the government fails, it unleashes attacks on my associates and that of Anna Hazare."
New Delhi: Kite flying, a quintessentially Indian sport whose fun factor is best exemplified in Munshi Premchand's Bade Bhai Sahab, won't be fun anymore.

The use of 'Chinese' manja (thread to fly a kite), which has become synonymous with killer string that recently killed two children on Independence Day, besides four others prior to that, has compelled the Delhi government to impose a ban on its production, storage and use.

The Chinese manja has virtually overpowered the Indian market and ensured an exit of the age-old traditional manja from the kite market.

What's Chinese manja all about?

Contrary to the popular view, China doesn't export any manja to India or elsewhere. It's purely India's homegrown innovation. The 'Chinese' manja has got its name due to two reasons.

First, due to the use of nylon thread, which has replaced the traditional cotton tone thread. While the latter is breakable, the nylon thread is almost impossible to break due to its high tensile strength.

Second, the cost of nylon thread sold as 'Chinese' is comparatively cheaper than the cotton one.

And, anything that is cheaper  whether a lamp, a series of coloured bulbs used during Diwali festival or toys (dumped in India by China) is branded as 'Chinese'.

While 12 reels of cotton manja cost about Rs 1,150 and above depending on the quality, 12 reels of Chinese manja cost just about Rs 350 to 500.

"The demand for Chinese manja has grown many times in the last five years. The kite flyers now ask only for Chinese manja as it's cheaper than the cotton manja and difficult to break. After coating 'masala' on it, Chinese manja becomes tougher and stronger than the traditional ones. Till now it's easily available in the market and there is enough stock with the kite sellers in Delhi," said Prabir Saha, a kite and manja seller in Govindpuri market.

By 'masala', Saha meant the coating that is applied on the thread. In traditional cotton manja, finely-powdered glass is used with colour and glue; whereas in Chinese manja, besides glass powder, metallic powder like iron/metal dust is also used to coat the nylon thread. This makes 'Chinese' manja fatal.

Chinese manja is produced locally in Delhi and other parts of India; and not imported from China.

Can Chinese manja be banned?

It'll be extremely difficult to have a total ban on the sale and use of Chinese manja, unless and until there's a strong vigilance and monitoring by Delhi police.

According to local market sources, maybe with the ban in place, Chinese manja won't be sold as openly as it is at present, but kite flyers may procure it from a 'black market' by paying a premium.

"At present, it's easily available in Delhi market. But after this ban, it'll be difficult to buy and sell. However, there is already enough stock in the local market and people will procure it illegally from black market by paying extra bucks, which is still cheaper than cotton manja. Is it possible to check sale and use of Chinese manja in far-flung areas of Delhi?" a trader questioned.

What environment experts say?

"Flying kites is a big traditional festival in various parts of India. Earlier, kite flyers used cotton thread manja, which is breakable, unlike Chinese manja. The latter one is fatal due to its high tensile strength. It's not just humans, even thousands of birds either die or get injured due to manja. The so-called Chinese manja should be totally banned," said Anand Arya, environment expert and bird watcher.

What Central government and trade law say?

In a reply in the Rajya Sabha this month on 'import of kite strings from China', MoS (Independent charge), Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Nirmala Sitharaman said, "As no specific EXIM code for abrasive string used for kites (manja) exists under Indian Trade Classification (Harmonised System), 2012, separate import data and other related information regarding abrasive string used for kites (manja) are not available. Chinese manja is a loose description given to kite threads made of nylon and may not necessarily be imported from China."

"It's a misconception that Chinese manja is imported from China. It's yarn, staple fibre, man-made filaments, etc. that are imported. And, it's also not necessary that the nylon thread used to make manja is from China. It can be from elsewhere. The word 'Chinese' is used as an USP to sell this killer manja," an official of the department of commerce, Ministry of Commerce and Industry said on condition of anonymity.

Import data on plastic/synthetic thread shows that it is imported under four different heads  Chapter 39, 54, 55 and 56 of Indian Trade Classification (Harmonised System), 2012. In addition, as kite is a flying kit (toy) containing such thread, it may find entry under Chapter 95 of ITC (HS). These are also produced domestically.

"Imposing restrictions or regulations on synthetic and plastic threads alone, which have multiple uses, would violate India's commitments to the WTO. In the name of Chinese manja, import of synthetic thread can't be stopped. Retail trade is a State subject, and the state governments should strictly impose ban on Chinese manja and stringent punishment for the sellers and users of the same, as few states have already done," Sitharaman said in her statement that was laid on the Table of the House.

Delhi's ban order is a little too late

After several deaths and many injuries across the country due to this killer string, many states and cities banned the sale and use of Chinese manja much before the National Capital. These states are Gujarat (2009), Mumbai (2011), Maharashtra (April 2016), Cuttack (January 2016), Telangana (January 2016), Andhra (May 2016) and Karnataka (July 2016).

Delhi government ordered ban only after the Delhi High Court's order on 2 August, in the wake of the death of two innocent kids due to the string.
Gopalganj: More than 550 litres of country liquor, which was buried under the earth, was recovered during a search operation launched in Khajurwani ward of Gopalganj town where 16 persons died in a suspected hooch incident early this week.

Search operation in which JCB machines are being used to dig the earth for hidden plastic containers of "mahua" (country liquor) is continuing on Saturday, District Magistrate Rahul Kumar told PTI.

Meanwhile, Lalbabu Passi, said to be the main accused in the suspected hooch tragedy has been arrested by Deoria in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh, Officer In-charge of town police station Santosh Kumar said.

Passi had fled to Deoria after the incident.

The Gopalganj DM said he has sought proposal from the Excise department for imposition of "collective fine" on residents of Khajurwani ward where as media reports suggest liquor trade continues despite total prohibition.

The DM said there are 56 households in the Khajurwani and the Excise department has been directed to survey households involved in preparation of country liquor so that a collective fine could be imposed on them as per provisions of new Liquor law, 2016 of Bihar.

Principal Secretary Excise KK Pathak who paid a visit to Gopalganj in the wake of the incident has said that if hooch is confirmed, the property of the culprits would be attached as part of stringent provisions of the new Liquor law.

The Gopalganj DM discounted soaring figures presented by media in Wednesday's tragedy and said officially the death toll stood at 16.

Meanwhile, Madhepura MP and chief of Janadhikar Party Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav slammed Nitish Kumar government over Gopalganj tragedy before leaving for the place to meet the families of the victims.

Talking to reporters in Patna, Pappu Yadav described the new Excise law as a "black law" and said within two weeks he would file a writ in the Supreme Court against it.
Ahmedabad: Four years after three Dalit youths were killed in a firing incident at Thangadh in Surendranagar district of Gujarat, the state government has decided to form a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate the case.

Chief Minister Vijay Rupani decided to form the SIT after receiving several representations from Dalit leaders requesting the same, a government release said on Saturday.

"Chief Minister Vijay Rupani took the decision following representations from Dalit leaders including cabinet minister Atmaram Parmar, former minister Ramanlal Vora, and Rajya Sabha MP Shambhuprasad Tundiya," the release said quoting Minister of State for Home Pradipsinh Jadeja.

The government has also decided to form a special designated court and appoint a special public prosecutor to expedite the case, it said.

It also announced an additional Rs 2 lakh compensation to the nearest kin of each of the victims over and above what was decided earlier.

The issue of Thangadh Police firing came in focus after the Una town Dalit flogging incident.

In a rally held by Una Dalit Atyachar Padkar Samiti, which organised a march from Ahmedabad to Una, Dalit leaders have demanded for justice to victims of Thangadh firing.

Family members of victims of Thangadh were also sitting on hunger strike in Gandhinagar, demanding judicial probe in the incident.

Rajkot city police commissioner Anupam Singh Gehlot, Surat city DCP Zone -2, Parikshita Rathod, and Porbandar superintendent of police Tarun Kumar Duggal will be members of the SIT, the release said.

On the intervening night of 22 September, 2012, three Dalit youths  Pankaj Sumra, Prakash Parmar and Mehul Rathod  were killed when police opened fire to disperse a violent mob to control a clash between Dalits and OBC Bharwad community members at Thangadh town in Surendranagar district.

The government had earlier ordered a probe into the incident and a report was submitted to it by the then principal secretary of social justice and empowerment department, Sanjay Prasad. The report has not yet been made public.

Later, the State CID investigation into the matter also remained inconclusive after the state probe agency filed a C-summary report. No chargesheet has been filed yet into the incident.

Thangadh is around 65 kms from Rajkot, and is famous for the annual Tarnetar fair which is held eight kms from Thangadh town near the temple of Trinetwshar Shiva temple.

Seven members of Dalit community from Mota Samadhiyala village of Una tehsil of Gir Somnath district were brutally assaulted by some self-styled cow vigilantes for skinning a dead cow on 11 July.

The incident sparked wide-spread protests after videos of the beating went public. Several political leaders like Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and BSP supremo Mayawati had visited the families of the victims.
A delegation of major opposition parties in Kashmir on Saturday met President Pranab Mukherjee at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi to apprise him of the situation in the Valley and demanded a probe by a retired Supreme Court judge into allegations of excessive use of force by security personnel. Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah called on the President requesting him to urge upon the central government to find a solution to the present Kashmir crisis politically rather than administratively.

"The failure of the central government to acknowledge that the issue in Kashmir is largely of a political nature has worsened the already volatile situation," Omar, who was leading a delegation of 20 opposition leaders, told reporters after an hour-long meeting with the President.

The delegation, led by Abdullah, apprised President with "real" situation on ground and also requested resumption of the dialogue process between all stakeholders. The decision to meet the president came after a meeting between all major opposition parties in Kashmir, held on Wednesday. Leaders of Congress, National Conference, Communist Party, Democratic Party Front, Awami Ittehad Party and People's Democratic Front were a part of the delegation.

Speaking to the press after meeting the President, Omar Abdullah said that the situation in Kashmir should be blamed upon the ruling Mehbooba Mufti government and not on Pakistan. "Pakistan has been responsible for problems in Kashmir from last 25 years. What happened after Burhan Wani's killing is a result of our own mistakes," Omar told reporters after the meeting.

He added that Pakistan may have incited the fire lit by the Indian government's faulty handling of the situation but the fault primarily lies with the Jammu and Kashmir government."

The former Chief Minister, who was flanked by Congress MLAs led by state PCC Chief G A Mir, CPM MLA M Y Tarigami and Independent legislator Hakim Yaseen, said, "The fire that has been raging in Kashmir Valley for last 42 days has already started spreading across Peer Panjal and Chenab Valley in Jammu region and Kargil area."

"I wonder when would they wake up as the situation is grave," he said, alleging that the state and central governments were trying to "crush the agitation by using administrative measures" like stopping sale of petrol and other essential commodities.

Launching an attack on her political adversary and Kashmir CM Mehbooba Mufti, he said "total administrative failure" and a state of complete "anarchy" is what is responsible for the situation in the valley. He compared the present crisis and the situation in 2010 violence during his tenure. He said that the crisis did not spiral out of control back then because the political leadership accepted its fault and took fire-fighting measures. The Mufti government, he said is denying responsibility.

"This is a political problem and that is about it. We cannot escape the fact by blaming Pakistan," he said.

Accusing the BJP-PDP coalition of inaction, Abdullah also said that it is the first time in history that initiatives that should have been taken up by the government,are being taken by opposition parties.

He also bemoaned the lack of political will to resume dialogue stating, "It's sad that the statements expected from political leadership are coming from the Army leadership. The Army had said that dialogue is the way forward."

"It was opposition parties which pressurised the government for holding a debate in Parliament and it is again the opposition parties which are pushing the state government to find a political solution to the problem," he said.

Omar warned that a "continued delay to engage with the people of the state through a comprehensive and sustained political initiative will further deepen the sense of alienation in the Valley and cast a shadow of uncertainty on its future generation".

Meanwhile, Union Home Minister and BJP leader Rajnath Singh replied to Abdullah's stinging comments made on Friday.

Hume kewal Kashmir ki zameen se mohabbat nahi hai, hume kashmir ke logon se bhi mohabbat hai: HM Rajnath Singh  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) August 20, 2016

Abdullah had earlier said "The Centre has been saying 'Kashmir is integral part of India'; they are not talking about the Valley people, they are only taking about the land of Kashmir."

With inputs from PTI
Pune: Rival processions in Pune marked the third death anniversary of anti-superstition campaigner Narendra Dabholkar who was killed on 20 August, 2013 when he was out for a morning walk.

Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmulan Samiti (MANS), several other like-minded groups, civil society activists and others took out a large procession demanding justice for Dabholkar who was gunned down by two unknown motorcycle-borne shooters.

Simultaneously, a few activists of Sanatan Sanstha -- which has been linked to Dabholkar's murder through accused Vinod Tawde -- and other groups attempted to take out a protest march but were stopped by the police.

They raised slogans calling for an end to what they called trial of Sanatan Sanstha by the media.

Leading the MANS procession, Dabholkar's daughter Mukta urged all people to join the movement for peace and strengthen the voice of rationalists.

Dabholkar's son Hamid said if his father's killers remained untraced for three years, what hope can the common masses have for justice.

"We shall continue to demand justice and fight for the ideals which he stood for," Hamid said.

Sporting black ribbons and carrying banners and placards, the marchers shouted, 'Narendra Dabholkar Amar Rahe,' (long live Narendra Dabholkar) and walked to the spot where he was killed. The groups also organised cultural programmes in Dabholkar's memory.

Several commemorative marches, candle-light vigils and other programmes are being organised across Maharashtra to pay homage to Dabholkar.
Gurdaspur (Punjab): A terror alert has been sounded in border districts of Gurdaspur and Pathankot after a call from Pakistan was intercepted by security agencies suggesting movement of some suspects. Security was beefed up in Pathankot and Gurdaspur especially Batala town with police along with army and BSF conducting massive checking operation, police said on Saturday.

Terrorists who had sneaked from across the border had attacked Pathankot air base on the intervening night of 1-2 January while Dinanagar in Gurdaspur was targeted on 27 July last year. "Security agencies intercepted a call from Pakistan on Friday evening in which callers were heard saying about movement of suspects in a truck to Pathankot or Dinanangar in (Gurdaspur)," police said.

After receiving the input, Punjab police conducted massive search operations late last night comprising 400 security people including Special Weapons and Tactics Team (SWAT) and BSF personnel. "We are not taking any chances. Security has been tightened in the border areas of Gurdaspur, Pathankot and Batala," said a police officer posted in Gurdaspur on Saturday.

Vehicles going towards and coming from Jammu and Kashmir as well as Himachal Pradesh are being checked thoroughly. Special 'nakas' were put up at entry points and other areas in Pathankot and Gurdaspur by police with the assistance of BSF, police said.

Tight vigil is being kept near Indo-Pak borders areas, police said. The Pathankot attack had claimed the lives of seven security personnel while four terrorists were killed.

Three heavily-armed terrorists wearing army fatigues, had stormed a police station in Dinanagar town in Gurdaspur district last year killing seven persons, including a superintendent of police, before they were gunned down during a day-long operation.
Chetan Bhagat arrived on the IWE (Indian writing in English) scene at a time when many readers mostly looked westwards for their everyday novel. Read or unread, rubbished or relished, his books continue to sell voluminously. After Five Point Someone, One Night at the Call Center, The Three Mistakes of My Life, 2 States, Revolution 2020, Half Girlfriend  plus nonfiction What Young India Wants and Making India Awesome  he is now all set to launch his latest book, written in a female voice, One Indian Girl. What follows is a conversation between me  his editor  and Bhagat.

Banker to bestselling writer, what was your life like while growing up?

I grew up in West Delhi, with my father posted in the Army. My brother and I studied in the Army Public School. We had a middleclass life, where there was never a lot of money. But we managed to have some fun. My upbringing in Delhi might be the reason why so many of my novels are at least partially set in that city: Five Point Someone, One Night @the Call Centre, 2 States, Half Girlfriend.

What does writing mean to you?

Writing for me is a way to make the world a better and happier place. I always wanted to have a writing style that connects,whether to simply entertain with funny stories or to be thought-provoking. Personally, it is a way to keep myself challenged and engaged. Writing uses every part of my brain. The end result may be a simple book, but that simplicity comes about after much soul-searching and complicated thought. The writing may seem easy, but to those who go "anyone can write that", I say, try it.

Writing has also been therapy for me. All my life I grew up with self-confidence and self-esteem issues. Writing has helped me deal with my dark side. Like 2 States helped me deal with father issues. The new book had me go where men fear to go - a womans mind.

When did you first feel an urge to write?

All through my school and college years I have written articles for the campus magazines. I also wrote plays, and directed a couple of them. I never thought I could write a book but finally attempted one while working at Goldman Sachs.

Humourist, storyteller or social reformer?

Storyteller. I do a lot of things but at heart I am a storyteller who is constantly striving to connect, to tell a story.

As a humourist how far are you ready to go?

Quite far, if you mean how much I push the limits. I used to be far more politically incorrect, and probably still am. People doexpect you to be a good boy or adarsh purush (which incidentally I am not). So when you have 7 million followers on twitter you could get self-conscious. I can't do, though I admire, what AIB does sometimes. We are gasping for laughs in this country.

What do you appreciate as a reader in a book?

I notice the author's ability to articulate. They should have something interesting or different to say and be able to say it clearly. If the plot gets me in I consider it a good book.

How did the idea for your latest novel come to you?

Ive been wanting to write in a womans voice for a long time. To write about a woman means getting to know her, her psyche, and not just pen the dialogues she speaks, more likethis is what she thinks while she says that. It took me a long time to gain the confidence to be able to even attempt this.

What fascinates you about women?

Oh everything! They make life worth living. Imagine just men, men, men everywhere... the aesthetics of earth would have been so skewed. So many women have influenced my life, so many women are my life. All writers think for all their characters, put themselves in the protagonists shoes. As a writer I had always wanted to do this, write a womans story. Julian Barnes has said in an interview: Writers of either gender ought to be able to do the opposite sex  that's one basic test of competence, after all.

Would you say your perceptions of women changed between the time you began and ended One Indian Girl?

I like to think I have become generally less insensitive. Womendo suffer a disadvantage in this world designed and run by men, and we need to acknowledge this and not just laugh it offas a figment of someones imagination. The word feminism has gained more connotations for me, every connotation positive.

Which was the most difficult part to write in this novel?

The sex scenes. To be a man and write about sex from a woman's view was challenging. It required me to keep my male ego aside and let the character do the talking.

Compared to the rest of your books, this one must have thrown up challenges vis-a-vis voice, characterisation, love scenes etc...

Yes, it is different from any of my previous books, the female lead changed everything. To understand what women want is an eternal human paradox. I had to somehow navigate the complexities of a female mind.

How is Radhika different from your other heroines?

She's quite different in that she takes charge and drives every aspect of the story. Since it is in first-person, the reader can get inside her head, rather than see and hear her through others. But then Ive always had feisty heroines.

How egalitarian do you think Indian men are? Are they ready for the New Indian Woman?

You cannot generalise, of course, but at a pan-India level Idhave to say no. Forget men, even Indian women are not ready for the New Indian Woman. To a certain extent, even the world is grappling with what to do with this new species of empowered women and how to fit them in.

What do you think of India's current crop of writers?

I think we have far greater variety now. You have several writers in the commercial arena alone doing good work, whether mythology, crime, mystery or self-help. At the same time, the Indian literary novel continues to flourish. The large number of lit-fests around the country is a healthy sign. However, as a nation we need to read more, and not get lost in our TV sets and apps. Remember, they only say a well-read person, never a well-TV-watched person.

Do you think a writer can over-write or have written too much?

I guess so. If you write to pay bills or take on assignments that you are not really into, write too much too fast, you either burn out or hurt the quality of writing. I have had to say no to amazing assignments - screenwriting blockbuster films, columns for top international publications - only for this reason. I write a book every two to three years, and have a column that runs twice a month. Even that seems too much at times. Bestselling writers sometimes write a book every six months, I can't do that. After every book I take a year off to live, just live. Where will stories come from otherwise?

How easy or difficult is to be seen as an icon, to be loved or even hated blindly?

It's nice for the most part, especially the love. It means people trust you and will pick up your story. Apart from that, it doesn't do much for me. Screaming fans and selfie mobs at airports do not excite me, even though people say, "that must feel so amazing". It doesn't. What feels amazing is the honest feedback from readers.

As far as hate is concerned, I don't think any human being enjoys it. The biggest stars, journalists, musicians, all get trolled and every now and then react to it as it simply hurts them too much. A troll attack that often hurts is often the troll making an assertion that is technically plausible but actually false. However, you have no way to disprove it. For instance, you could say I am being paid by a political party to write columns. In reality I am not. However, it is technically plausible. I have learnt these troll tactics and I find I am less affected by them compared to many other celebrities. I wont lie, it does hurt sometimes. But then I think thats a small price to pay for being read.

In my case, I also have to deal with the so called keepers or 'literary brahmins' of literature. These are often people with a good command over the English language and exposure to English books, but often poor analytical or logical arguments skills. They had a special position in society when only a few people read English books. I have demolished that and brought their high chair crashing down, with everyone reading books now. Of course, they will get hurt. They will try to demean me, try their best to isolate me from their world (but Chetan Bhagat is not really literature, is it?) and in those attempts expose their fakeness and lack of understanding of what literature is meant to be - a mirror to society. My books are doing so much better than many pretentious books out there, and it hurts them that despite their great knowledge of English they can't write one article that has impact. I understand their pain.

So yeah, that's what it feels like, to be adored and to be trolled.

In most of your books heartbreak and the turnaround of life thereafter seems to be a recurring theme...

I write about ordinary people. Relationships are highly important to most. I can't write a story about an ordinary person and not cover their relationships. I am fascinated by human behaviour, particularly in the way we bond with each other. It's the kind of writer I am. I can't, for instance, write sci-fi or fantasy. Real people are far more exciting to me than any superhero out there.

Are there any feminists you identify with?

I have liked the words of Sheryl Sandberg, Melinda Gates and even Hilary Clinton on feminism. I also see Priyanka Chopra and Kangana Ranaut as my heroes, who came from nowhere to rule the film industry. Non-celebrity women, everyday women inspire me. I saw a woman jog in Central Park, pushing a baby pram with her child in it, such was her dedication to fitness. When you see women cutting vegetables in the Mumbai local, so they can cook dinner, on their way back from a fulltime job, it inspires you to work harder too. Given the modern world, there are more heroic women than men out there, I can tell you that.

You have lived both in and out of India. As a writer has any one city or country affected your flow of thought?

I think Delhi features in a lot of my books, though I am trying to change that. Varanasi and Patna inspired me enough to write books set there, and I did visit these cities a few times. Ahmedabad taught me about the Gujarati entrepreneurial spirit. I have lived in Hong Kong for more than a decade and the buzz and can-do spirit of that city has had a big impact on me as well. The benefits of capitalism I witnessed there have formed my pro-economic reform stance. Now I live in Mumbai, a city that inspires millions. I consciously stay away from writing articles or books on the greatness of Mumbai - there are just too many good ones already.

Journalists are always scoring points off you...

Maybe they are frustrated writers getting nowhere. Maybe they are just frustrated, period. Or maybe they are right and I don't deserve my success. When I am writing my stories they are people I barely remember.

Whats next?

Am I writing my next book? No. I am just enjoying not writing. Now is the time for some silence. As I say in One Indian Girl, awkward silences lead to interesting things.

Read an extract from One Indian Girl.
Whether it is in prescribed textbooks for history, or in pop culture representations such as graphic novels, it is rare to come across women warriors.

Even the few who do make it to page/on screen are generally typecast: Rani Laxmi Bai as a grieving widow out to avenge her husbands death and protect their kingdom; Mastani as one half of a love story rather than as a warrior in her own right.

Thats where illustrator Tara Anand comes in.

A high school student from Mumbai, Anand has been illustrating from a very early age. The 17-year-old was on a study tour abroad when she had the eureka moment that led to her current project:

I recently went abroad for a course and we had a conversation about powerful queens in history and I was surprised at how many of the names I rattled off were western. As soon as I got back I dug out my Amar Chitra Kathas and my laptop and got to researching Indian warrior queens out of sheer embarrassment that I could only name two or three, Anand said.

In a conversation with Firstpost, Anand said she was perplexed by why Indias women warriors, with the exception of one or two, had been left out of popular narratives.

Honestly I was totally taken aback by the number of powerful queen regents and warriors that I could find and shocked at how totally their contributions had been left out of the mainstream narrative! So I decided to turn it into a project and contribute as much as I could to getting these women recognised as important and inspirational figures in our history."

To do this, Anand started an illustration series called I AM NO MAN. Anand, a Lord of the Rings fan, says she was inspired by the character Eowyn (who screams out I am no man when striking down the Witch-King of Angmar in battle; an Elvish prophecy had said that he would never be struck down by the hand of man) from Tolkiens tale. Eowyns display of courage inspired me to name my project as a tribute to unknown women warriors from India, Anand says.

For Anand, the point of the series is to reiterate that women made valuable contributions across the length and breadth of Indian history  and not that it was the result of the 'progressive' nature of any one period or culture. To further that view, Anand has tried to capture the contributions of women from a variety of reigns and periods. For instance:

Nagamma from medieval India



Nagamma is often hailed as one of the most powerful women in medieval India. While not a queen, Nagamma held immense administrative powers as a minister who later rose to be the prime minister of her kingdom. She was also trained in Warcraft and was a key player in the "epic" War of Palnad.

Bibi Dalair Kaur in the 17th century

Bibi Dalair Kaur was a Sikh woman in the 17th century who formed an all-woman army to fight Mughal forces.

Begum Samru in the 18th century

Joanna Nobilis Sombre, popularly called Begum Samru, was India's first woman Roman Catholic ruler and leader of a mercenary army that she inherited from her European husband.

Rani Velu Nachiyar of Sivaganga

Trained in warcraft as a child Rani Velu Nachiyar of Sivaganga ruled her kingdom for over a decade after her husband was killed by the British. She lead her kingdom's army in numerous battles against colonial powers in the 1700s and even formed a special "women's army" named "Udaiyaal" after her daughter

Rani Rudrama Devi of the 13th century

After succeeding her father to the Kakatiya Throne at the age of 14, Rani Rudrama Devi led battles against the nobles in her kingdom who opposed her rule because of her gender.

Chand Bibi of the 16th century

Chand Bibi is known as a 16th century warrior but she was also skilled in languages, music and art. She acted as the regent of Bijapur and Ahmednagar and defended her territory against Mughal invasions.

These illustrations are Anands way of cutting across not just gender barriers, but also those of caste  especially since she feels feminism has become a bourgeois activity of late.

To explain her point, Anand says: I think the feminist movement has made incredible progress in the last decade but I feel like its prevalent more among privileged members of society who often, have a very Western outlook on feminism. For example, people trying to bring the Riot Grrrl movement to India, not knowing that it tends to be targeted at mainly middle-class white women I think we need to find our own brand of feminism that includes and involves women from all castes, classes and faiths. There are thousands of women in our country living in poverty or completely oppressive circumstances. These women have neither the time nor the wherewithal to even think about feminism as it is currently perpetuated. It is therefore the responsibility of people representing the movement to alter it so that it includes everyone.

And to what does Anand attribute the mostly one-dimensional portrayal of women in history textbooks? So much of mainstream history is written by men, says Anand. They dominate the social and political spheres and therefore, dominated the narratives.

Anands illustrations are certainly a step in the right direction, in that regard.

All illustrations  Tara Anand
Kolkata: Amid the raging controversy over cow vigilantism, Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das on Saturday said those who consider India as their country should treat cow as their mother.

Das, however, stressed that there should be no violence in the garb of cow vigilantism and said cattle smugglers may be involved in the recent events of violence over cow protection.

"The entire Sangh Parivar is on the same page on the issue of cow protection. Those who consider India as their country will treat cow as their mother," Das told PTI during an interview.

On whether there were differences in the Sangh Parivar over the issue of cow slaughter and cow census, Das said, "The Sangh Parivar is united on this matter. Cow is our mother. Those who are living in India and are Indians, those who consider India as their country, for them cow is their mother."

Das' comments come in the backdrop of a controversy over cow vigilantism and attacks on Dalits over the issue.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 6 August had hit out at cow vigilantes, saying he felt enraged at such "anti-social elements" who indulged in crimes by the night and masqueraded as cow protectors by day.

Modi's comment had drawn sharp reactions from VHP international working president Pravin Togadia, who said by dubbing them as "anti-socials" the PM had insulted them.

"What our Prime Minister has said on this issue is right. You may believe in any religion, any caste, but cow is our mother and we should protect cows. But, in the name of cow vigilance if someone is using violence, then that will not be tolerated.

"I personally feel those who are involved in cattle smuggling and export are involved in these crimes. This angle should be probed," Das said.

Das said it was due to the vote bank and appeasement politics of a certain community by some sections of political parties that this awareness programme about cow and its benefits have taken a hit. "Political parties should not see everything under the lens of vote bank politics. The milk that we get from cow is beneficial for people from all communities be it Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians. A politician who is saying this is also having the milk of the cow," Das said. The Chief Minister said he had already asked the police administration in his state to stop any instance of cow smuggling.

"I have given clear instructions to the police that there will be no instance of cow smuggling from the state. Recently we seized few trucks carrying cows for smuggling through Bengal. In Jharkhand there should be awareness about cow smuggling, there should be awareness in West Bengal too," Das said.

He said it was due to the degradation of moral values that social evils such as rapes, cow slaughter and other evils are happening in the society. "Be it rapes, illegal cow slaughter or other social evils, they are result of degradation of moral values of the society. We need to raise awareness about it. These things are a conspiracy to stop the development process started by our Prime Minister," Das said.

On the opinion of some people who are on a different page on the issue of cow slaughter, Das said, "By doing this a section is only pursuing vote bank politics and there should be awareness against this."
Kolkata: Launching a frontal attack on the Narendra Modi government, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday accused it of bulldozing the federal structure in the country and said she would seek the President's opinion on the issue.

"Modi government is bulldozing the federal structure and violating Constitution. It is interfering in the functioning of the state governments. We will seek the opinion of the President," Banerjee told reporters at the 'Nabanna', the state secretariat.

The state government, she said, received a letter from the Centre during the day saying that centrally-sponsored schemes are being rationalised.

"This is being done by force without taking the states into confidence while they talk about cooperative federalism. I don't know what is cooperative federalism," she said.

"If they interfere into the functioning of the states, there is no meaning of the existence of the state governments. It is a very serious matter," she added.

"Narendra Modi is running dictatorship. The people of the country have lost freedom under Modi."

"They (BJP) are trying to start a Presidential form of government knowing that they will not win next time," the Chief Minister claimed.

Banerjee said the central government should have only four ministries - Defence, External Affairs, Railways and Finance.
Athens: Around 100 migrants were rescued after their boats ran aground on Friday off the coast of Greece, police said, while two Syrian girls, one of them a baby, drowned off the Libyan coast. One group of 67 migrants, including 13 children, was found stranded in their wooden boat off the western Greek port of Methoni on the Peloponnese peninsula, facing southern Italy.

The migrants, whose nationalities have not been revealed, appear to have been trying to leave Greece for Italy, according to initial reports.

They were taken to Methoni to be processed and identified, according to harbour police, who revised their earlier figure of around 50 migrants rescued.

In another incident, a sailboat was stranded off the Aegean island of Mykonos, which is popular with tourists and is near Turkey.

All 36 migrants on board, including seven children, were rescued by the local authorities.

After a major lull since the European Union (EU) signed a controversial deal with Turkey to stem the migrant influx in March, there has been a slight uptick in arrivals in Greece in recent days.

Between Thursday and Friday morning, 261 new arrivals were registered on the Aegean islands -- mainly Lesbos -- an increase on recent days, according to the SOMP agency which is coordinating Greece's response to the migrant crisis.

The number of new arrivals, at an average of 100 a day, is however considerably lower than the peak of several thousand daily last summer.

Under the deal, Turkey agreed to take back Syrians who make it to Greece, in return for being allowed to send one from its massive refugee camps to the EU in a more orderly redistribution programme.

Lat week there were between 13 and 147 new arrivals every day. Both Greece and the EU fear that the migrant floodgates could re-open as Turkey focuses on a purge of officials following the failed coup of July 15 which has led to a souring of relations between Ankara and Brussels.

Some 10,000 migrants remain encamped on the Aegean islands  which have a capacity to host just 7,450 migrants  with most claiming asylum to either avoid or postpone their forcible return to Turkey under the deal.
Washington: A former Navy SEAL, who wrote the best-selling book detailing the secretive raid that killed Osama bin Laden, has agreed to forfeit over USD 7 million, including all sale proceeds from the work, as part of a deal to avoid prosecution for not seeking pre-publication approval.

Matthew Bissonnette, the former Navy SEAL, agreed to pay the US government all past and future proceeds from his bestselling book as part of a settlement with the Department of Justice which alleges that he did not submit the draft of the book for the mandatory review.

"Mr Bissonnette has agreed to pay the United States all of his past and future proceeds from the publication of 'No Easy Day,'" Department of Justice spokesperson Nicole Navas was quoted as saying by CNN.

As part of the settlement acknowledging his errors, Bissonnette has agreed to pay the US all past and future proceeds from his book, which as of today total nearly USD 6.7 million. He will also be required to pay the government's legal fees of over USD 1.3 million, ABC News reported.

Bissonnette, who wrote the book under the pen name 'Mark Owen', has also agreed to pay the government USD 100,000 for a presentation on leadership that he gave that used slides that included information that was not submitted for Pentagon

review first.

Following the publication of the book, the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the former Navy SEAL.

The Justice Department alleged that Bissonnette indulged in "breach of contract" by violating a non-disclosure agreement that required him to "submit to the government for pre-publication security review any written manuscript containing or relating to classified information".

However, the complaint did not fault him for revealing classified information.

Bissonnette did not violate matters of national security but rather violated contracted non-disclosure agreements with

the military, reports said.

The National Public Radio said Bissonnette tendered an apology for not submitting draft of the book for review.

"I acted on the advice of my former attorney, but I now fully recognise that his advice was wrong. It was a serious error that I urge others not to repeat," he said.

"This enforcement action does not discredit Mr Bissonnette's military service, but reinforces that it is important for our service members and individuals who have been assigned positions of trust and granted access to classified information to comply with the obligations set forth in their non-disclosure agreements to protect classified information after leaving the US military and government in an effort to protect our nation's national security," Navas said in a statement.
Five identical nude statues of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump sprang up overnight on Thursday on bustling street corners in New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Cleveland, and Seattle, quickly drawing amused crowds.

The installations of the stern-faced Trump have become the hottest destination for selfies. Trump's hands are folded over a bulging belly and some parts of male genitalia are visible, while others seemingly are missing. The activist collective Indecline, put up the statues, calling the project 'The Emperor Has No Balls'. The name is a veiled reference to Hans Christian Andersens famous fairytale The Emperors New Clothes, in which a narcissistic emperor gets conned into strolling amongst his people in the nude.

"It is through these sculptures that we leave behind the physical and metaphorical embodiment of the ghastly soul of one of America's most infamous and reviled politicians," Indecline said in a statement.

The collective said the hope is that Trump "is never installed in the most powerful political and military position in the world".

Trump's campaign has so far made no comments on the statues.

New Yorkers ran down to Union Square to see as much nude Trump as their eyes could possibly tolerate. But employees of the New York City Parks Department removed the unauthorised installations.

"NYC Parks stands firmly against any unpermitted erection in city parks, no matter how small,'' quipped parks spokesman Sam Biederman cheekily.

The risque art work was also hours away from being removed in San Francisco where the pop up art went on display in the gay neighborhood of the Castro District where Trump is not very popular.

Indecline hired Los Angeles-based artist Ginger, who specialises in haunted houses and horror movies, to make the statues. Ginger told The Washington Post that he used 300 pounds of clay and silicone to create the statues and said the "candidates mouth ended up being his biggest sculpting challenge". On the right hand, the statue version of Trump is wearing "a Masonic ring, a piece of jewelry emblematic of privilege, secret handshakes and cloistered groups of powerful people," the artist said.

Ginger told the Post that the goal was to give Trump the slightest hint of a scowl  a constipated look  that hinted at his implicit frustration with contemporary America.

He has a very distinct little mouth, the way his chin meets the jowl, it had to look right, the creator told the US newspaper.

The artist started out as a Trump supporter before he switched sides. He told the Post that he was considering punching his ballot for Trump in the general election because the candidates message resonated with the middle class. However, the more familiar he became with Trump, the "more that familiarity bred contempt".

The straw that broke the camels back was when he made fun of the disabled reporter from The New York Times, said Ginger.

I have family members that are physically and mentally handicapped and who need different types of care, he added. When I saw what he did, I was in such a rage. That rage, he said, is one of the reasons he wont mind seeing "the statues destroyed by police or dismantled by angry Trump supporters like a silicone pinata". The artist took four months to create the giant statutes.

It stunned America when Trump made fun of people with disabilities. In contrast, as former Secretary of State Clinton appointed the first Special Advisor on Disability Rights for the US Department of State and vigorously fought for ratification of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

This isnt the first time Indecline has gone after Trump. They protested several comments that Trump made about Mexican immigrants being "rapists" by spray-painting an eye-catching caricature of Trump with a ball gag in his mouth on a border wall in Tijuana. They claimed responsibility for both the anti-Trump 'Rape' mural on the US-Mexico border and a massive piece of graffiti art in Californias Mojave Desert.
It was a terse and brief statement of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Indian Independence Day, highlighting human rights violations by the Pakistani state in Balochistan, the Giligit-Baltistan region and Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK). The official response and the dominant media narrative from Pakistan, loud of tenor, was that of the breach of international norms by Modi and intrusion of India into Pakistans sovereignty.

What is missing in the discourse arranged around this series of exchanges  official or otherwise  between the two countries is the significance of Modis speech for the people of Balochistan, its possible consequences in that region, and that Modi, once the custodian of a state which witnessed the massacre of Muslims, and now PM of a nation killing people of that community in Kashmir, wants a moral standpoint to denounce Pakistans treatment of a minority group in that country.

Modis speech has evoked a response both of exuberance and dismay in Balochistan, and it will only serve to sharpen existing fault lines within the region, and incite ethnic tensions across provinces in Pakistan.

Baloch separatists and their supporters within and outside the country have joyfully expressed gratitude to Modi. They believe that highlighting the Baloch issue will help the ethnic group gain international attention, including that of the United Nations, they have long vied for their voice to be heard. In fact, if Modi consistently pursues this strategy internationally it could be of great help for Baloch rights activists to put a check on the Pakistani states oppression in the region. However, pro-military politicians in the province repeated the official narrative and discredited the separatists as "Indian agents" creating chaos. The chasm between separatists and pro-military Baloch has only become deeper within the Baloch ethnic group following Modis speech.

Consequently, ethnic tension within the country has intensified, and this anxiety is manifested in the language of the citizenry. We, Baloch have always remained suspected citizens in the country; our loyalty is believed to be in the service of India and Afghanistan. Indeed, Pakistan Foreign Office has already declared the Indian PMs speech as tantamount to Indias support for Baloch insurgency  Pakistan has always blamed India for this but never presented credible evidence. The Pakistani state and its numerically major and dominant ethnic group, the Punjabis, therefore now see themselves as vindicated in a decade long suppression of the Baloch.

It is likely that the Pakistani military will now draw justification from Modis statement for its brutal treatment, of those native to the province, to supress both militant struggle for freedom and the democratic political forces within the region bidding for greater provincial autonomy and increased participation in power structure of the country. This will be backed by the hegemonic Punjabi discourse which frames Baloch subjects as citizens corrupted by Indias influence, and who can only be fixed by brute force.

The Baloch separatists, on the other hand, belittle the magnitude of the imminent crackdown, arguing that that torture, mass graves, mutilated bodies, and disappearance is the new normal for them and it could not get worse than this. However, the everyday persecution is only likely to increase manifold: the ordinary citizen will be viewed with suspicion, the number of military checkposts will increase, as will the frequency of forced interrogation.

Modis speech will also impact the struggle in which the countrys civil society is engaged  it has recently displayed courage in questioning gross human rights violations in the province. Baloch rights activists and the provincial political leadership were at the forefront of this movement, discrediting the military operation and pushing for a political solution to the crisis in Balochistan.

Their voices became marginalised after the apprehension of Indian spy Kulbhushan Yadav in the province a few months ago  it appears he has admitted to his guilt  which has provided Pakistan with sufficient means to blame India for every imaginable thing; and aspects with which India does not concern itself. Modis mentioning of Balochistan in his speech has also made it increasingly difficult for civil society in the province to talk, in democratic language, to the extremely jingoistic masses (particularly of Punjab province).

This isnt to take away what the PMs speech has achieved in focusing attention on the excesses committed within Balochistan. But it is critical that Modi, the BJP, and Congress leadership shed realpolitik and narrow political agendas when they choose to highlight atrocities perpetrated by Pakistan against its own population. India should also be concerned about the rapid mushrooming of Jamat-ud Dawah, a UN sanctioned organisation headed by internationally declared terrorist Hafiz Saeed. Lately, the Pakistani state has given free hand to the Jamat to cultivate anti-India sentiment to turn the Baloch youth away from waging a secular war for their rights, to a religious war against Hindus (read India). The unprecedented but a few and small scale state-sponsored rallies against India and in praise of the militant Burhan Wani this summer on Kashmir Day is indicative of the Jammats success in this regard in a province historically indifferent to the Kashmir issue.

At present Modi seems to be using the Balochistan issue as a countervailing tactic to divert gaze of the international community from Indias violence in Kashmir, and garnering domestic support for 2017 Uttar Pradesh election by employing anti-Pakistan rhetoric. While Pakistan has brought in the trope of sovereignty to undercut solidarity with the Baloch, and therefore perpetuate repression in its own territory in the name of autonomy. In all this cacophony, it is vital that democratic voices within the troubled province of Balochistan, and Kashmir, which should stand a chance at being heard.

The author is a social anthropologist from Central European University, Hungary, now based in Balochistan
Peshawar: At least nine terrorists were killed on Saturday and their hideouts destroyed in aerial and ground operations by the Army in Pakistan's restive northwestern tribal region bordering Afghanistan.

Six terrorist hideouts were destroyed in the raids in Khyber Agency's Rajgal Valley that also killed nine militants, according to a statement issued by the Inter Service Public Relations (ISPR).

Large dumps of arms and ammunition were targeted in air raids and ground operations in the treacherous terrain, the statement added.

The operation was part of Khyber-III, launched on Tuesday, which targets terrorists holed up in the area beyond Tirah Valley, right on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

On Wednesday, 14 terrorists were killed in air strikes in the high-mountainous region where the proscribed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan had a strong presence, The Express Tribune reported.

The toll from three days of the military operation so far stands at 27 dead, including two soldiers.
Islamabad: Pakistan has closed one of its main border point with Afghanistan after a group of Afghans staged a protest and tried to attack the crossing in the troubled Balochistan province.

A large number of people had gathered near Friendship Gate at Chaman in Balochistan to celebrate Afghanistan's national day yesterday.

During the event, some Afghans attacked the gate and burnt a Pakistani flag in the evening, prompting authorities to deploy additional security troops and shut down the gate for indefinite period, an official said.

Another official said the Afghans belonging to border town of Spin Boldak protested in favor of India after Pakistan protested against the remarks made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi regarding Balochistan.

They also chanted slogans against Pakistan, threw rocks at the gate.

The closure resulted in long queues of trucks and lorries on both sides of the border. The traders suffered on both sides as fresh supplies of essential items have been badly interrupted.

Pakistan had closed Torkham border crossing in the north-west region in June after deadly clashes with Afghan forces. It was later reopened after talks between high officials of the two countries.
Ankara: The Turkish Parliament approved a deal to normalise ties with Israel after a delay caused by last month's attempted coup, state-run media reported Saturday.

Lawmakers ratified late Friday the agreement to restore relations between the two former close regional allies after a six-year rift, before parliament was due to go into summer recess.

Under the deal, Israel will pay Turkey $20 million (17.7 million euros) in compensation for a botched Israeli commando raid on a Gaza-bound Turkish aid ship in 2010 that left 10 Turks dead, state-run Anadolu news agency said.

Israel will hand Turkey a "lump sum" within 25 working days of the agreement coming into force, the agency said, which families of the victims will receive in due course.

Under the terms of the deal, both sides agreed individual Israeli citizens or those acting on behalf of the Israeli government would not be held liable  either criminally or financially  for the raid, Anadolu said.

Israeli cabinet ministers approved the deal with Turkey in late June but Ankara did not send it to parliament because of time pressure following the 15 July attempted putsch by a rogue military faction.

Israel was quick to give its support to the Turkish government in the aftermath of the coup bid, condemning it while repeating its faith in the reconciliation process between the two countries.

Now the deal has been approved, the two countries are expected to begin the process of exchanging ambassadors to fully restore diplomatic ties.

Policy of reconciliation

The agreement also involves an easing of the naval blockade on the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip allowing Turkey to deliver humanitarian aid to Palestinians there via Israel's Ashdod port.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has previously spoken about the economic advantages of improved relations, discussing the possibility of a pipeline to Turkey to export Israeli gas.

The rapprochement between the two countries came after secret talks held in December 2014 with two more rounds in February 2015 in Geneva and April this year in London.

Turkey appears to be willing to return to its previous "zero problems with neighbours" foreign policy after the country also normalised relations with Russia. Relations were damaged after Turkey shot down a Russian jet in November last year.

Earlier this month, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made his first trip abroad since the coup bid, meeting his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin for the first time since 2015.
Washington: A US federal judge has ordered Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton to answer written questions from a watchdog group about her use of a private email server when she served as secretary of state.

Such an order was passed by the US District judge Emmet G Sullivan as part of a lawsuit filed against Clinton by Judicial Watch, which had sought permission to question the former secretary of state under oath and in person.

This was, however, denied by the court.

Judge Sullivan said the court persuaded that Secretary Clinton's testimony is necessary to enable her to explain on the purpose for the creation and operation of the clintonemail.com system for State Department business.

"We are pleased that this federal court ordered Hillary Clinton to provide written answers under oath to some key questions about her email scandal," said Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton.

"We will move quickly to get these answers. The decision is a reminder that Clinton is not above the law," he said.

The court also asked the state department to release all remaining documents responsive to Judicial Watch's Freedom of Information Act request by 30 September.

Judicial Watch may serve interrogatories on Clinton by 14 October. Clinton's responses need to be within thirty days, the order said.

"Judicial Watch will get Clinton under oath regarding the set-up of her outlaw server  something no other person, organisation or agency has been able to do, to date. We believe it is a victory for law and order to get Hillary Clinton under oath answering questions about the server setup and why she did it," said Judicial Watch director of investigations Chris Farrell.

The Clinton Campaign said the former secretary of state would answer the questions.

"Judicial Watch is a right-wing organization that has been attacking the Clintons since the 1990s," said Brian Fallon, the spokesman of the Clinton Campaign.

"This is just another lawsuit intended to try to hurt Hillary Clinton's campaign, and so we are glad that the judge has accepted our offer to answer these questions in writing rather than grant Judicial Watch's request," he said.
Even as the city of Dhaka struggles hard to get rid of the cafe attack trauma, jihadists field women as terrorists to carry out attacks on security forces. The Bangladesh police has arrested 11 women with links to Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) so far after the tragedy that struck the nation on 1 July this year.

The development is seen as a serious threat to the neighbouring country that shares a border as long as 4,096 kilometres with India, as JMB has also trained the women recruitees to conduct terrorist attacks and to make bombs. Six bombs along with bomb-making materials were recovered from the four female terrorists arrested in the last month.

Lieutenant Colonel of Rapid Action Battalion Abul Kalam Azad told the media, Women are now equally involved in jihad as men are. Information related to involvement of females in jihad has started pouring in after arrest of the women groups.

The police arrested another group of four women with alleged links with terrorist groups on 15 August.

Attacks on Bangladesh security forces are apprehended as an arrested female militant Aklima Rahman confessed in police custody that during their training in JMB it was taught that Bangladesh Police and Rapid Action Battalions are groups of kafirs as they have arrested jihadists and tortured them in jail.

Most of the female jihadis are well educated, added Abul Kalam Azad.

Three of the four alleged female jihadists arrested on 15 August were students of Manarat International University in Dhaka. Aklima Rehman being one of them, the other two are Mou and Sadija Parveen. A female doctor working as an intern in the Dhaka Medical College Hospital was also arrested on the same day. She was identified as Oishee by the Rapid Action Battalion.

Apart from JMB, another banned militant group of Bangladesh namely Ansarullah Bangla Team and Hizb ut-Tahrir also wield woman wings.

The 1 July attack on an upscale cafe in Dhaka claimed 22 lives.The carnage carried by educated youths was considered the bloodiest in the recent history of Bangladesh.

JMB, which also has a chapter in India, was involved in a blast in Burdwan district in West Bengal in 2014 that happened while making bombs. It is suspected that most of the female cadres had arms training in West Bengal. The Bangladesh police arrested three women with alleged links to the Dhaka attacks for the first time on 8 July this year.
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Hello readers! We are coming to meet you again. After the successful ZUK Z1 meetups back in April before the launch of the smartphone in May, we are teaming up with the folks from Lenovo once again, who will be introducing their next version of the smartphone in the country soon.

Lenovo Zuk Z1 running Cyanogen OS was launched in India at a competitive price tag and was a huge hit in the price range.

Whoever gets to be at the meet up will be the first bunch of people to experience and spend some time with the upcoming product. FoneArena team will also be present at the event.

If you are interested in being a part of our meet up in a city near you, go ahead and RSVP in the below form. Please double check and make sure you are RSVPing for the right city!

[Update: You can signup for meetup here.]

Due to unforeseen circumstances, the meetup has been postponed. We will announce the new dates shortly.
Samsung has sent out invites for a new smartphone launch on August 23rd where it is expected to launch Z2 (SM-Z200F) Tizen smartphone in India. The invite says that the upcoming smartphone will be the companys next meaningful innovation. Last years Samsung Z3 launch invite had a similar caption.

The Samsung Z2 is expected to pack a 4-inch AMOLED display, 1GB RAM, Dual SIM support, 4G VoLTE connectivity, My Money Transfer app and S Bike Mode.

The Samsung Z2 will head to India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya first. It is expected to be cheaper than the Z3 that was launched in India last year and now costs Rs. 5590. Since Jio has expanded its preview offer for most Samsung offers, the Z2 will likely come with the offer.

The Samsung Z2 is rumored to be priced at Rs. 4,499. We should know all the details about the phone in a couple of days.
If you are looking for companies that have dividend yields north of 5%, then you'll need to travel into the territory of companies that have questionable payouts or less-than-certain futures. Fortunately, some companies with such high yields are less vulnerable than others. Three that stand out today are Enterprise Products Partners (EPD 0.67%), Holly Energy Partners (HEP 2.26%), and Eni (E 2.18%). Here's a quick rundown as to why each of them should be able to keep its high yield payout going for some time.

Close to dividend aristocrat status

You will be hard pressed to find an investment that combines high yield with payout security as well as Enterprise Products Partners. The company's distribution yield now stands at 5.9%, but it's based on a payout that has risen every year since the company's IPO back in 1998. If it keeps that pattern going, it will become a dividend aristocrat in 2023.

Based on its business model, Enterprise should have no difficulty getting there. More than 85% of the company's gross profits come from fee-based services it provides involving its pipeline and infrastructure network, shielding it from much of the commodity price pain that has afflicted so many other energy companies. The company's strong balance sheet and payout policy have kept its finances much healthier than many of its peers.

For the company to actually grow, though, it will need to a produce suite of new projects that can deliver more cash to the coffers. Today, that doesn't appear to be a problem: Enterprise currently has $6.5 billion in new projects under construction, and expects $1.2 billion worth of them to come online by the end of 2016. This robust construction plan should be enough to see it through at least the end of the decade, and should put it on track to achieve that vaunted dividend aristocrat status.

Small company, big payout

Even though Holly Energy Partners is one-thirtieth the size of Enterprise, the two do share some attractive similarities. Holly Energy Partners' revenue stream comes from long-term, fixed-fee contracts that mostly insulate it from the ups and downs of commodity prices. In fact, 100% of its contracts and services are fee based, so the only exposure the company has to commodity prices is if a shift in values caused the volume of products moved to decline significantly.

The other thing that makes Holly Energy Partners similar to Enterprise is that its management has eschewed a common modus operandi of other master limited partnerships, which often try to increase payouts too quickly and end up paying out all their available cash. Instead, it has elected to grow its dividend at a rate that keeps some cash on the books each quarter to either support funding of other projects or as a safety net in case earnings unexpectedly turn south. This conservative approach has allowed the company to raise its dividend every quarter since it IPO'd back in 2004.

It also helps that Holly Energy Partners has support from its general partner HollyFroniter (HFC). HollyFrontier's management has been one of the best in the oil refining business at allocating capital to high return projects, and it is using that approach with Holly Energy Partners as well. For the company's projected capital spending of $65 million to $85 million this year, the company expects 2017 EBITDA to increase by $51 million. Those high rates of return should be more than enough to keep its payout streak alive for a while longer.

Dividend already cut, big catalyst on horizon

One integrated oil and gas company that routinely gets overlooked -- despite a $50 billion market cap and a dividend yield of 5.8% -- is Eni. Based on some of the moves the Italian company has made to shore up its balance sheet as of late and the big production bump it will soon receive from a massive gas discovery last year, it may be time to start paying attention.

Yes, because of the steep decline in oil prices over the past couple of years, Eni was the first -- and so far the only -- integrated oil and gas company to cut its dividend, a move it made in March 2015. For those who held its shares at the time, that probably stung. However, that 28% dividend cut helped to free up $1.2 billion in cash that it can now use to close the gap between its spending and its income over the next couple of years -- which it is likely to need, given that oil companies are forecasting that oil prices will remain low for some time. This should mean that Eni's current dividend will be stable, and put it in a position to grow after the company starts production at some of its major new projects in the coming years.

The biggest of those start-ups will be in the Zohr discovery off the coast of Egypt, which is estimated to hold 30 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, making it one of the largest discoveries of the past century. Also, it will be a relatively lower cost source because there is already robust oil and gas infrastructure nearby. Eni is looking to sell a small equity stake -- about 20% -- to help pay for the development, but even after accounting for the sale, that one new field alone should boost Eni's production by 10%. With projects like these on the horizon, and a currently healthy financial situation, Eni's dividend looks pretty attractive.
If I told you Washington is gearing up to deliver a big load of cash to Israel, to pay for military purchases, would that surprise you?

If you've been keeping up with the news, probably not. But here's something that may surprise you: Much of the money America is planning to "give" to Israel as military aid is actually making a U-turn -- and coming right back into the pockets of U.S. defense contractors Boeing (BA 2.92%) and Raytheon (RTN).

The news

Last month, the Obama administration asked Congress to increase the level of annual U.S. military aid to Israel from its current level -- about $3 billion a year -- to as much as $40 billion over 10 years. The U.S. Office of Management and Budget calls the new aid package, which is still under discussion, "the largest pledge of military assistance to any country in U.S. history."

Historically, the U.S. has awarded military aid to client states on the condition that the funds awarded be spent on military equipment manufactured by U.S. suppliers. Israel, however, has been granted a unique exemption, allowing it to spend as much as 25% of its military aid on purchases from non-U.S. suppliers. Israel generally takes advantage of this exemption by using U.S. aid to buy weapons from Israeli manufacturers, helping to build up its own arms industry -- an industry that has, over the past few decades, developed into a competitor to U.S. companies.

If the U.S. raises the amount of defense aid to the level Israel is seeking, one condition may be that Israel spends more of its military aid dollars here in the U.S.

Spend...on what?

Israel's military wish list reportedly includes F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter jets from Lockheed Martin and armored personnel carriers built with help from General Dynamics. But there's perhaps even greater interest in getting funds to pay for Israel's multiple missile defense initiatives:

Iron Dome -- short-range missile defense against rockets and artillery shells.

Arrow -- a hypersonic "theater" level defense system against ballistic missiles up to 150 km distant.

David's Sling -- a two-stage system for shooting down tactical ballistic missiles, medium- to long-range rockets, and cruise missiles at distances up to 300 km.

Israel also has an ultra-short-range Iron Dome derivative project under works. Dubbed "Iron Beam," it would use high-energy laser weapons to shoot down short-range rockets, artillery, and mortars too small to be effectively targeted by an anti-missile missile. And there's an Arrow derivative ("Arrow 3") that's being developed as a potential anti-satellite weapons.

What it means to investors

So, what does additional funding for Israeli missile defense mean for Boeing and Raytheon? Quite a lot, actually. According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank, about 9% of all U.S. funding for our own Missile Defense Agency is spent on Israeli missile defense programs.

In particular, DefenseNews.com reports that the current U.S. 2017 defense budget contains $200 million in funding for development of Israel Aerospace Industries' Arrow missile defense systems. Boeing partners 50-50 with IAI on that project, so 50% of funding for Arrow must be spent buying equipment from Boeing. Similarly, Raytheon -- which partners 50-50 with Israel's Rafael on the Iron Dome and David's Sling missile defense systems -- stands to reap about $75 million in revenue this year from U.S. support of these two systems.

To be clear, this is what the two defense contractors could receive from fiscal year 2017 funding alone -- and 2017 isn't even an especially "good" year in this regard. In 2014, for example, one single contract (to supply Israel with replacement interceptor missiles for the Iron Dome system) netted Raytheon nearly $150 million.

Over the course of a new 10-year agreement including $40 billion (or even just $30 billion) in U.S. funding, the revenue opportunities for these companies will be even greater.
The FDA has had authority over chewing tobacco for years, but a recent move takes regulation one step further. Image source: U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Investors in Altria Group (NYSE: MO) don't have much to complain about the tobacco giant's long-term performance, which has defied fears about the industry's future for years. The company's solid gains have continued so far in 2016, but not everything has gone right for Altria. Indeed, one piece of bad news from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in the form of a new rule dramatically increasing the agency's regulatory authority over Altria didn't come as a major shock to the company or its shareholders, but it could nevertheless present yet another obstacle that Altria will have to overcome in order to implement its strategic plans going forward.

Losing the battle over reduced-risk products

In May, the FDA finalized a rule that dramatically expanded its ability to regulate products that Altria and other tobacco giants make. To understand the rule, which took effect earlier this month, it's important to understand the background of tobacco regulation in the U.S. as it stood before the FDA's recent move.

Back in 2009, the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act gave the FDA broad discretion to regulate many different types of products that contain tobacco, including cigarettes, cigarette tobacco, roll-your-own tobacco, and smokeless tobacco products. That legislation gave the FDA oversight over the regulation of the manufacturing process for tobacco products, as well as their distribution and marketing.

However, the law didn't give the FDA authority over every product that Altria and its peers sold. Among the products available back in 2009 that were omitted by the law, the most obvious were cigars and pipe tobacco, which escaped regulation under the FDA's oversight.

Since then, Altria and other tobacco companies have made great strides toward promoting reduced-risk products. E-cigarettes, heat-not-burn technology, and various other dissolvable tobacco products have become much more popular, and many consumers see the new products as having advantages over traditional cigarettes in terms of potential health impact.

What the new FDA rule does

In response, the FDA sought to expand its authority over the industry by taking a broader definition of what constitutes tobacco products for purposes of regulation. The final rule effectively pulled in cigars and pipe tobacco, as well as e-cigarettes and other electronic nicotine-delivery systems, under the aegis of FDA regulation.

As a result, the FDA will have the ability to review products as Altria and other manufacturers develop them. The regulatory agency will be able to look at ingredients, product design, and health risks. It will also be able to evaluate whether products impermissibly cater to those younger than 18, which is of particular concern because of data showing that e-cigarette use among high school students has jumped precipitously in the past five years.

Altria's position

In what might come as a surprise to some consumer advocates, Altria has supported the extension of FDA authority over all tobacco products. In its own words, "Reasonable regulation can benefit adult tobacco product consumers, including by providing a framework to evaluate tobacco products that are potentially less harmful than conventional cigarettes."

What's clear, though, is that Altria has a much different viewpoint than the FDA when it comes to reduced-risk products. In comments that Altria subsidiary Nu Mark submitted in 2014, the company made clear that the FDA should apply the new law "based on science and evidence, recognizing differences between tobacco product categories, including noncombustible, tobacco-derived nicotine products." Nu Mark went on to give its case for why e-cigarettes have the potential to have fewer health effects than traditional cigarettes, and so the agency should be careful not to discourage innovation that could lead to health advantages over existing traditional tobacco products.

Altria's approach might seem pragmatic, given the widespread support for regulation of e-cigarettes and vaping products. Many believe that Altria will continue to work with lawmakers to try to pass legislation limiting the FDA's ability to impose restrictions on reduced-risk products going forward. Nevertheless, for those who had hoped that Altria might be more successful in preventing the new regulatory rule from ever going into effect, the FDA's latest actions make it clear that the tobacco giant will have to keep fighting hard in order to make sure that it can pursue its long-term plans toward fully integrating reduced-risk products into its lineup of consumer offerings going forward.

A secret billion-dollar stock opportunity The world's biggest tech company forgot to show you something, but a few Wall Street analysts and the Fool didn't miss a beat: There's a small company that's powering their brand-new gadgets and the coming revolution in technology. And we think its stock price has nearly unlimited room to run for early in-the-know investors! To be one of them, just click here.

Dan Caplinger 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.
Washington is getting ready to deliver a big load of cash to Israel. Image source:Getty Images.

If I told you Washington is gearing up to deliver a big load of cash to Israel, to pay for military purchases, would that surprise you?

If you've been keeping up with the news,probably not. But here's something that may surprise you: Much of the money America is planning to "give" to Israel as military aid is actually making a U-turn -- and coming right back into the pockets of U.S. defense contractors Boeing (NYSE: BA) and Raytheon (NYSE: RTN).

The news

Last month, the Obama administration asked Congress to increase the level of annual U.S. military aid to Israel from its current level -- about $3 billion a year -- to as much as $40 billion over 10 years. The U.S. Office of Management and Budgetcalls the new aid package, which is still under discussion, "the largest pledge of military assistance to any country in U.S. history."

Historically, the U.S. has awarded military aid to client states on the condition that the funds awarded be spent on military equipment manufactured by U.S. suppliers. Israel, however, has been granted a unique exemption, allowing it to spend as much as 25%of its military aid on purchases from non-U.S. suppliers. Israel generally takes advantage of this exemption by using U.S. aid to buy weapons from Israeli manufacturers, helping to build up its own arms industry -- an industry that has, over the past few decades, developed into a competitor to U.S. companies.

If the U.S. raises the amount of defense aid to the level Israel is seeking, one condition may be that Israel spends more of its military aid dollars here in the U.S.

Spend...on what?

Israel's military wish list reportedly includes F-35 LightningII stealth fighter jets from Lockheed Martin and armored personnel carriersbuilt with help from General Dynamics. But there's perhaps even greater interest in getting funds to pay for Israel's multiple missile defense initiatives:

Iron Dome-- short-range missile defense against rockets and artillery shells.

Arrow-- a hypersonic "theater" level defense system against ballistic missiles up to 150 km distant.

David's Sling-- a two-stage system for shooting down tactical ballistic missiles, medium- to long-range rockets, andcruise missiles at distances up to 300 km.

Israel also has an ultra-short-range Iron Dome derivative project under works. Dubbed "Iron Beam," it would use high-energy laser weapons to shoot down short-range rockets, artillery, andmortarstoo small to be effectively targeted by an anti-missile missile. And there's an Arrow derivative ("Arrow 3") that's being developed as a potential anti-satellite weapons.

What it means to investors

So, what does additional funding for Israeli missile defense mean for Boeing and Raytheon? Quite a lot, actually. According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank, about 9% of all U.S. funding for our own Missile Defense Agency is spent on Israeli missile defense programs.

In particular, DefenseNews.com reports that the current U.S. 2017 defense budget contains $200 million in funding for development of Israel Aerospace Industries' Arrow missile defense systems. Boeing partners 50-50 with IAI on that project, so 50% of funding for Arrow must be spent buying equipment from Boeing. Similarly, Raytheon -- which partners 50-50 with Israel's Rafael on the Iron Dome and David's Sling missile defense systems -- stands to reap about $75 million in revenue this year from U.S. support of these two systems.

To be clear, this is what the two defense contractors could receive from fiscal year 2017 funding alone -- and 2017 isn't even an especially "good" year in this regard. In 2014, for example, one single contract (to supply Israel with replacement interceptor missiles for the Iron Dome system) netted Raytheon nearly $150 million.

Over the course of a new 10-year agreement including $40 billion (or even just $30 billion) in U.S. funding, the revenue opportunities for these companies will be even greater.

A secret billion-dollar stock opportunity The world's biggest tech company forgot to show you something, but a few Wall Street analysts and the Fool didn't miss a beat: There's a small company that's powering their brand-new gadgets and the coming revolution in technology. And we think its stock price has nearly unlimited room to run for early, in-the-know investors! To be one of them, just click here.

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. 301 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.
People who buy annuities, it turns out, live longer than people who don't, and not because the people who buy annuities are healthier to start with. The evidence suggests that an annuity's steady payout provides a little extra incentive to keep chugging along. -- Steven Levitt, SuperFreakonomics

It's hard to top Steven Levitt's reason for buying an annuity -- because it might help you live longer. But choosing to buy an annuity (or two) is not a slam-dunk decision. Here's a closer look at what you need to know about annuities and how they might increase your future financial security by providing critical retirement income -- and how they might hurt you.

Annuities 101

Buying an annuity is a lot like getting yourself a pension. At its heart, an annuity is a contract between a buyer and an insurance company. You pay the company a lump sum (or installments) and in return you receive payments, now or later. The payments are often monthly, but can be quarterly, annually, or even a lump sum. The payments can last for a fixed number of years or for the rest of your life. Pay a little extra (or accept smaller checks) and you can have your payouts last until the end of your spouse's life, too, and/or be adjusted to keep up with inflation over the years.

There are lots of different kinds of annuities: immediate vs. deferred (paying you immediately vs. starting at some point when you're older), fixed vs. variable (certain payouts vs. payouts tied to the performance of the market or part of the market), lifetime vs. fixed period (paying until death or paying for a certain span of time), and so on. Some annuities, such as indexed annuities and many variable annuities, are problematic and unsuitable for many people, due to steep fees and/or restrictive terms. But whether they're immediate or deferred, fixed annuities are smart options for many retirees and those approaching retirement.

Why avoid indexed and variable annuities?

So what's so bad about indexed annuities and many variable annuities? Well, remember that annuities are not simple arrangements; they have lots of details and terms to consider and decisions to make. Many people considering variable annuities are doing so because some salesperson has urged them to -- perhaps without disclosing the commission or reward he or she will get for selling one.

Variable annuities generally have an accumulation phase, where the money you paid grows, and a payout phase, where the company cuts you checks. The money that you pay in is often invested in mutual funds, with the expectation that it will grow over time. Variable annuities do have some appealing features, such as:

Tax-deferral. Your money in one grows without being taxed. It's taxed later, when you withdraw funds.

Income for the rest of your life! That sure sounds hard to beat, as it can help you avoid running out of money in retirement.

A "death benefit." Some variable annuities will let you choose a beneficiary to receive a certain sum should you die before you receive all guaranteed payouts or if your account's balance is above a certain level.

Another apparent upside of variable annuities is that they give you more control than fixed annuities. You get to choose how the money in your account is invested -- conservatively, aggressively, or somewhere in between -- so if your choices turn out well, you can end up with bigger checks come payment time. Of course, there are no guarantees, and you're also exposed to the risk of investments underperforming, leaving you with less than you'd hoped or planned for.

Variable annuities are often very expensive, with steep fees and costs. A variable annuity will probably charge you fees for mortality and expense risk, along with general administrative fees. In addition to that, the securities you invest your annuity money in, such as mutual funds, will charge fees of their own. These fees add up, making many alternatives to variable annuities look better in comparison. The average annual variable annuity fee (its "expense ratio") was around 2.3% as of last year, but they can top 3%. That will reduce your investment's performance significantly. A $100,000 investment will grow to $215,893 at an annual rate of 8% over a decade, but will only reach $174,080 growing at 5.7% -- fully $42,813 less!

Meanwhile, an indexed annuity (which is sometimes called a fixed indexed annuity or an equity index annuity or a variation of one of those) is linked to the performance of an index, such as the S&P 500 stock index, which is a common measure of the overall U.S. stock market, representing about 80% of it. You could invest in the S&P 500 easily via an inexpensive index mutual fund such as the Vanguard Index 500 (VFINX) or via an exchange-traded fund, such as the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY), which would give you returns that closely track the index. But if the S&P 500 dips or plunges, so will your investment -- though over long periods it has always recovered and gone on to new heights. That volatility scares some people, so they're happy to hear about indexed annuities, which often promise them no chance of losing money or a guaranteed minimum return.

But if you read the fine print on indexed annuities, as you should always do before investing in anything, you'll see that while your downside is indeed limited, so is your upside. Your gains are constrained in a variety of ways. For starters, there's the "participation rate," which measures what portion of the underlying index's return you might receive in your investment's return. Imagine that the S&P 500 was the benchmark, for instance, and it gained 10% in a year. If your participation rate was 100%, the participation component of your investment's return would be 10%. If it were 80%, you'd be credited with 8%.

That might seem pretty good, considering that you're promised little or no losses in the investment. But wait! There's more. There's a cap. The cap is a strict limit on how much you can earn. If the cap is, say, 7%, then even in a year when the S&P 500 surges 20% or 30%, you'll earn no more than 7%. It gets worse, too. There are annual fees, often subtracted from the return, and they can make quite a difference.

The folks at Fidelity crunched some numbers to show how performance-limiting indexed annuities can be. They point out, for example, that in 2013, the S&P 500 surged about 30% (32%, including dividends), while a representative indexed annuity delivered just 10%. They also looked back at the decade ending in 2013, and found that the overall S&P 500 averaged an annual gain of about 7.4%, while the annuity averaged 3.2%. (In many years, the annuity returned 0%.) That's a hugely meaningful difference. A $10,000 investment that grows for a decade at 7.4% will become $20,400, while growing at 3.2%, it will only become $13,700.

Focus on fixed annuities

For the reasons above, fixed annuities, whether immediate or deferred, are likely to serve you best. Their fees will often be lower (and fewer), and their value less uncertain.

How much can you expect from a fixed annuity? Well, prevailing interest rates will influence how much insurers will be willing to pay you, and these days rates are very low. Still, even in today's environment, you can buy significant income. Here's the kind of income that various people might be able to secure in the form of an immediate fixed annuity in the current economic environment:

Note that women will generally be offered lower payouts because they tend to live longer than men.

Annuities can serve you well if you're worried about depleting your nest egg and running out of money late in life. Remember that fixed annuities can start immediately or be deferred. If you think you have sufficient income for about 20 years, you might buy a deferred annuity today that will start paying you in 15 or so years. That way, you'll be assured of income later in life too. Better still, you'll get bigger payouts if they're deferred, because the insurance company gets your money early and can invest it for itself until it has to pay you. As an example, a 65-year-old man with $100,000 could recently buy an annuity that will start paying him almost $2,000 per month for the rest of his life beginning at age 80.

Annuity income is guaranteed, as long as the insurance company behind it is solvent. You should always favor top-rated insurers, and perhaps even divide your annuity-buying money between several of them. Look for high marks from credit rating agencies. Here are the top ratings from the major agencies:

Other ratings can be pretty good, too, and don't necessarily require disqualification, but you should favor insurers with very high ratings for maximum safety. You might also divide the amount you want to spend on an annuity into several chunks, using them to buy smaller annuities from several highly rated insurers. Know that a big insurance company might have several subsidiaries, each with its own rating. So be sure to find and assess the rating for the entity that will be issuing your annuity.

Alternative income

Finally, remember that an annuity isn't your only option. You can generate annuity-like income from a portfolio of bonds that pay interest and/or stocks that pay dividends. There are lots of healthy stocks with dividend yields of 3%, 4%, 5%, and more, and even a simple, broad-market index fund sports a dividend payout that recently yielded 1.9%. Here are some familiar names and their recent yields:

If you have a $300,000 stock portfolio with an average dividend yield of 4%, it will kick out $12,000 to you each year. Better still, healthy and growing companies tend to increase their payouts over time, so your income will offer some inflation protection. (Though, of course, dividends are never guaranteed  which is why you want to favor solid and growing companies.)

The average Social Security benefit, as of June, 2017, was $1,369 per month, or about $16,000 per year. That's not going to be enough income for many people, and it will likely be insufficient for you, too -- so give some consideration to fixed annuities, which offer income in retirement.

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Selena Maranjian owns shares of General Electric and Procter & Gamble. The Motley Fool owns shares of General Electric. The Motley Fool recommends Cisco Systems and Dominion Resources. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
A two-page letter from Hillary Clinton's doctor a year ago, declaring the former first lady, senator and secretary of state "fit to serve" as president has done little to quell doubts about her health amid a gruelling campaign.



Photos of the Democratic presidential nominee being helped up stairs, frequent coughing bouts on the campaign trail and rumors that a 2012 concussion was worse than revealed have made the 68-year old's fitness a campaign issue.

Hillary Clinton lacks the judgement, the temperament and the moral character to lead this nation," Donald Trump said in a recent foreign policy speech. "Importantly, she also lacks the mental and physical stamina to take on ISIS, and all the many adversaries we face  not only in terrorism, but in trade and every other challenge we must confront to turn this country around.

Clintons health has been a matter of scrutiny since the concussion she suffered while serving as secretary of state. While being evaluated at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, doctors discovered a blood clot inside a vein in her head and prescribed blood thinners, she told ABC News Diane Sawyer in 2014.

In part to quash speculation about Clintons health, the campaign released a summary of her medical records last summer.

In the July 28, 2015 letter, Dr. Lisa Bardack, an internist in Mount Kisco, N.Y., described Clinton as a healthy 67-year-old female whose current medical conditions include hypothyroidism and seasonal pollen allergies.

Unlike 2008 Republican presidential candidate John McCain who invited reporters to review the full 1,173 pages of his medical records, Clinton released only a summary of her past issues, including an elbow fracture in 2009 and several episodes of deep vein thrombosis.

Clintons chief strategist Joel Benenson said the campaign has no plans to release more detailed records, but his position is at odds with many Americans.

A new Rasmussen Reports survey found that 59 percent of voters believe all major presidential candidates should release at least their most recent medical records to the public. That figure is up from 38 percent of Americans in May 2014, when questions about Clinton's health were first being raised.

Thirty percent dont think candidates should have to release their recent medical records and 11 percent were undecided.

The people may want to see more medical records, but the Clinton campaign just sees right-wing conspiracy. A campaign spokeswoman blamed the health controversy on Roger Stone, a longtime conservative policeal operative who had a formal role as a Trump adviser until he was fired a year ago. Still an unabashed supporter of Trump, Stone is still working to get him elected, say critics.

Donald Trump is simply parroting lies based on fabricated documents promoted by Roger Stone and his right-wing allies," said campaign communications director Jennifer Palmieri. "Hillary Clinton has released a detailed medical record showing her to be in excellent health plus her personal tax returns since 1977, while Trump has failed to provide the public with the most basic financial information disclosed by every major candidate in the last 40 years.

Requests for comment from the Clinton and Trump campaigns were not answered. Bardacks office declined to comment.

I think the questions being raised are legitimate given that it impacts who leads our nation," said Dr. Jan Orient, executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. "As a physician, you cannot help but to ask questions. But given that our information is limited, it would be wrong for any physician to diagnose someone without seeing them themselves.

Orient said she has received both positive and negative responses to her recent column on the Associations blog which asked whether Clinton is medically unfit to serve as president.

Television personality Dr. Drew Pinsky told KABC radio this week that he was concerned about the 1950s level of care that Clinton was receiving and not as much about her actual health.

It just seems like shes getting care from somebody that she met in Arkansas when she was a kid, he added.

While agreeing that a candidates health is a serious issue for voters to consider, one Trump advisor warned against either side diagnosing the physical or mental health of the candidates.

I would be very cautious and would recommend the doctors for professional reasons to be very cautious when deciding you are going to analyze people, said former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich on Fox & Friends.
The year 1994 was a pivotal, landslide year for Republicans.

The GOP seized control of the Senate from Democrats for the first time in eight years. But the big story was the historic win by Republicans in the House. Republicans netted a staggering 54 seats, flipping the House to their control for the first time since 1952.

Several things worked in the GOPs favor.

Republicans successfully portrayed President Bill Clinton as a tax and spend liberal and propounded the so-called Contract with America as their electoral promise.

They excoriated the Clinton over the Whitewater land deal in Arkansas and his effort (alongside that of spouse Hillary Clinton) to move health care reform legislation through Congress. Health care reform died miserably, never even hitting the floor.

In retrospect, some Republicans now may take the Clinton proposal over ObamaCare, which didnt develop until 16 years down the road. But thats another story.

Combine GOP efforts to tarnish Clintons record with the impacts of redistricting from the 1990 census and congressional Democrats were cooked.

One would think that sophisticated political analysts would be prescient enough to see such a landslide months in advance. However, the most compelling narrative of the 1994 midterm elections was that virtually nobody was able to detect the possibility of one of the most lopsided shellackings in American history until just a few weeks ahead of time.

This brings us to this years House and Senate contests and what could happen down ballot. There are questions about what November could mean for congressional Republicans if GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump continues to perform as poorly as he is now and Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee, ignites the Electoral College scoreboard.

We have known since before this election cycle started that retention of the Senate for Republicans was a jump-ball proposition at best.

However, the House is another story. It has always been a challenge for Democrats to cobble together an electoral strategy that bounces the GOP from the majority and pockets them 30 seats.

Democrats salivated at the possibility of Republicans nominating a candidate like Trump or Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, thinking either would be so toxic that it could help them in congressional races.

Well, Democrats got their wish. Even so, Trumps nomination doesnt predict much of anything for House contests this fall.

Yet.

Yes, its August. Early voting begins in many states in about four weeks. So far, theres little reason to think the House is in jeopardy for Republicans. And if there is going to be a hint that the House could flip -- like 1994 -- such indiciators are most likely going to emerge rather late.

It wont take 54 seats. But a 30 seat bar is a lot for Democrats. And handing over control of the House to the Democrats constitutes a landslide.

Major factors still inhibit Democrats from having a snowballs chance of picking up the lower chamber. Theyve struggled to recruit strong candidates in some key districts.

Some may even criticize Democratic leaders for failing to convert the Trump nomination into a cakewalk for House Democrats. In other words, if the GOP could galvanize opposition around Bill Clinton in 1994, shouldnt Democratic demonization of Trump be childs play in 2016?

To be fair, those arent apples to apples comparisons.

One of the biggest problems House Democrats face is the political map. In the 22 years since the Republican sea change, both parties have worked to narrow the playing field. They segregated Democratic and Republican votes into districts that are more and more Democratic or Republican.

The result is that electoral politic experts denote only about 56 districts out of 435 as competitive. That means Democrats have to hold the approximately dozen seats they now control -- which are in the swing category -- and simultaneously lock up three-quarters of every GOP seat that could fall into play.

But that doesnt tell the full story.

In reality, only about 25 seats are truly competitive. The issue for Democrats is that there might not be enough seats available to flip to capture the House.

Heres another problem for Democrats. The electorate isnt excited for Hillary Clinton. However, Democratic voters are energized against Trump.

Still, that cuts two ways. Many Republicans may not be ready to vote for Trump. But theories now abound that GOP voters could show up to vote Republican in House and Senate contests to represent a check against Clinton, should it be obvious she may win.

All of this centers on turnout.

Trumps nomination could spark a sit out by Republicans. Couple that with an Electoral College landslide by Clinton and various House contests that arent on the board now could become competitive in late September and October.

Trumps hiring of Breitbart CEO Steve Bannon could result in the unleashing of an even more bellicose nominee.

If thats the case, congressional Republicans are in trouble and will have to scramble to further distance themselves from the top of the ticket. Of course, the good news on that front is that many Republicans are running races that form a firewall between them and Trump. That strategy has been in place for months.

One of the best things going for Republicans is that they sit on an historic majority that could serve as a failsafe.

In 2014, House Republicans won 247 seats, their biggest majority since 1928. The 2010 Census and subsequent redistricting process dramatically favored Republicans. The body politic still feels reverberations from those electoral exercises.

The Census and redistricting stopgaps could mean theres almost no way for Democrats to claim the House until the midterm election of 2022. That would follow the 2020 Census and another round of reallocating congressional seats.

An Electoral College landslide in favor of Clinton -- coupled with a prodigious number of Republican voters simply staying home -- is probably the best scenario Democrats can hope for in House races this year. Electoral College landslides arent enough.

Republicans only earned 12 seats in 1984 after President Ronald Reagan won 49 states over Walter Mondale. In 1972, President Richard Nixon walloped George McGovern with 49 states. That provided a minimal 12 seat GOP pickup in the House.

It comes down to voter turnout. Its still too early to understand who might show up in November or participate in early voting.

Thus, it remains an outside shot for Democrats to win the House. But if the House does move into play, its likely the scenario will mirror 1994 in at least one fashion: we wont spot that possibility in the viewfinder until very late.
Growing evidence suggests the recent cyber-attacks on top Democratic Party groups and the possible breach of Clinton Foundation computers are connected to Russian-backed cyber militias, say a former Defense Department official and other security experts.



"This clearly has all indications of a larger strategic intelligence gathering operation," Bob Gourley, a former IT specialist at the Defense Intelligence Agency, told Fox News.

Tom Kellerman, CEO of the next-generation technology group Strategic Cyber Ventures, also thinks the attacks are linked, based on circumstantial evidence such as the sequence of events.

"It's not surprising to me," said Kellerman, arguing that as of last summer 2,600 of Washingtons most influential people and their spouses were targeted by cyber-attacks from Russia in what was called Operation Pawn Storm."

Based on available data and what's known of the time line on the recent attacks, the first was on the Democratic National Committee.

Then hackers "island hopped" to other computer networks after staffers at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and perhaps elsewhere opened phishing emails from which their user IDs, passwords and other credentials were stolen.

The FBI is investigating the breaches at the DNC, made public in late July, and the DCCC, announced earlier this month. It is not clear whether that work has expanded with the apparent targeting of the Clinton Foundation.

Gourley, now a partner at the strategic consulting and engineering firm Cognitio, also told Fox News about a new hacking method known as malvertising, which takes advantage of how the internet is now designed to deliver targeted ads to visitors.

"People are deceived into clicking a link, Gourley explained. After that foothold is established, the malicious code, the real hackers get to work and grow out from there."

Russian President Vladimir Putin's government denies direct involvement, but Russian intelligence is thought to routinely use cyber gangs to do its bidding and to create plausible deniability.

"Within the former Soviet bloc, Russian-speaking hackers pay homage as cyber-militia members to the regime in Russia, Kellerman said. They act as proxies  when called upon to leverage their sophisticated tool sets and attack against victims in the U.S.

He also warned about the NSA earlier this week posting for auction some of its most powerful spying tools -- considered electronic lock picks with code names such as "buzzdirection" and "epicbanana."

"The distribution of that cyber arsenal to the wild allows for literally a cyber forest fire to occur against U.S. corporations and government agencies," Kellerman said.

The codes -- created by a group of elite NSA hackers -- were believed stolen in 2013, at the same time former contractor Edward Snowden was copying thousands of NSA surveillance documents.

Snowden is still in Russia, and experts are not ruling out a DNC connection.

"The only links are circumstantial," Gourley said. It's a very interesting timing that would occur right now after someone sat on that code for over three years."
The editor of the major Louisiana newspaper that urged President Obama to cut short his summer vacation to see the devastating flooding that has damaged roughly 40,000 home said Friday hes pleased that the president will visit the state.

Our feeling is that this is a crisis that calls for presidential leadership, and we're glad to see the president is coming, Advocate Editor Peter Kovacs told Fox News On the Record with Greta Van Susteren. The magnitude of the devastation is something you really have to come here to see.

An editorial in the newspaper, the largest in Louisiana, on Thursday asked that Obama visit the state before his vacation ends Sunday in Marthas Vineyard, Mass., saying the president should back his bags now and leave the playground for the posh and well connected.

However, Obama is scheduled to visit Louisiana on Tuesday, the White House said Friday.

Earlier that day, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and running-mate Indiana Gov. Mike Pence toured the flood damage, handed out supplies and vowed to help rebuild.

We are not here to say we think the president should have come, Kovacs also told Fox News. We are glad he is coming. We are not here to say who got here first. We need all these leaders here.

Roughly 70,000 people have reportedly registered for individual assistance, and roughly 9,000 have filed flood insurance claims in Baton Rouge and other parts of Louisiana, for which Obama has declared a state of emergency.

Thirteen people have died as a result of the flooding.

While, the federal response has largely received high marks, Kovacs also argued that the federal government in many ways told residents in the impacted areas previously that they didnt need to buy flood insurance and is now telling them that they are not going to be helped because they didn't have flood insurance.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
And off we go!

Morning Glory

Marc Atkinson Trio - II - self - II -

Daybreak in Dixie

Stanley Brothers - Angel Band - Mercury

Good Morning Blues

Leadbelly - Where Did You Sleep Last Night - Smithsonian Folkways

Sunset to Dawn

The Sadies - New Seasons - self - New Seasons -

Rain, Rain

Great Uncles of the Revolution - Stand Up! - Black Hen - Stand Up! -

Here's Your Hat, What's Your Hurry

The Brian Browne Trio - Blue Browne - self - Blue Browne -

Miss Molly

Canal Street String Band - Introducing.... - CSSB

Molly Bawn

Gordon Quinton - Molly Bawn - self - Molly Bawn -

Molly Dee

Kingston Trio - Washington Square Memoirs V.1 (var) - Rhino

I Want to See My Molly

Dyad - Who's Been Here Since I've Been Gone - self - Who's Been Here Since I've Been Gone -

Molly-O

Steve Earle - I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive - New West

Molly Put the Kettle On

The Leake County Revellers - Mississippi String Bands V.2 (var) - County

Good Golly, Miss Molly

Jerry Lee Lewis - Live At the Star Clube - Rhino

Paris Au Mois d'Aout

Charles Aznavour - 7" EP - Barclay

Bend Me Shape Me

The Amen Corner - 7" Single - Deram

House of the Rising Sun

The Animals - 7" Single - Capitol

In My Imagination

Paul Anka - 7" Single - RCA - 7" Single -

Never My Love

The Association - 7" Single - Warner Bros.

Bony Maronie

The Appalachians - 7" Single - Sparton

I've Got The San Francisco Blues

Billy James Dance Orchestra - Dime Store Hot Dance - Jazz Oracle - Dime Store Hot Dance -

Pratt City Blues

Jabo Williams - Juke Joint Saturday Nite - Yazoo

Milwaukee Blues

Dom Flemons - EP, What Got Over - self

Johnson City Blues

Clarence Green - Od Time Mountain Blues 1927-39 (var) - County

The Nashville Blues

The Delmore Brothers - Are You From Dixie? - RCA

St. Louis Blues

Scott Cushnie - Two Hands, No Waiting - National Treasures - Two Hands, No Waiting -

All Around My Hat

Friends of Fiddler's Green - Old Inventions - FOFG - Old Inventions -

In My Little Red Book

Frog and Henry - Frog and Henry - self - Frog and Henry -

Wonders I've Seen

The Bills - Trail of Tales - Borealis - Trail of Tales -

Black Wind Blowing

Billy Bragg & Wilco - Mermaid Avenue Vol. II - Elektra

Drive-in Show

Eddie Cochran - The Best Of - EMI

Wild Bill Jones

Slocan Ramblers - Shaking Down the Acorns - self - Shaking Down the Acorns -

Amazing Grace

Blind Boys of Alabama - Spirit of the Century - Real World

Train Song

Twin Peaks - Trouble - self - Trouble -

Father Had a Knife

Lynched - Cold Old Fire - self

Blueberry Hill

Carl Mann - Like, Man - Sun

I'm In Love Again

Fats Domino - The Greatest R&B Hits of 1956 (var) - Acrobat

Now Is The Cool of the Day

Riley Baugus - Long Steel Rail - Sugar Hill

Devil On a Stump

Hollow Rock String Band - Traditional Dance Tunes - County

Rambler's Plea

The Unseen Strangers - Follow the Sound - Stranger Music - Follow the Sound -

Hard Times Ahead

Janis Martin - Juke Joint Boogie (var) - Bear Family

One Good Fast Job

Gord Downie, The Sadies And the Conquering Sun - Gord Downie ..... - Arts & Craft - Gord Downie ..... -

Banjo Bill

Martin Simpson - Purpose + Grace - Topic

For Catherine

Laura Cortese - Into the Dark - self

Jamie Raeburn

Kehler & Williams - First Frost - self - First Frost -

The Devil Is All Around

Shovels & Rope - Swimmin' Time - Dualtone

Summers That We Made

Lucy Ward - I Dreamt I Was a Bird - Betty Beetroot

Sally Ann

Natalie Merchant - The House Carpenter's Daughter - Myth America

All Time Low

Carolyn Mark & NQ Arbuckle - Let's Just Stay Home - Mint Records - Let's Just Stay Home -

I'm Just Here To Get My Baby Out of Jail

The Blue Sky Boys - Are You From Dixie? (var) - RCA

For the Dogs

Twin Peaks - EP - self - EP -

Need Your Love So Bad

Little Willie John - The Greatest R&B Hits of 1956 (var) - Acrobat
Donald Trump met Saturday with his newly formed Hispanic advisory board, part of a new effort by the Republican presidential nominee and his new-look campaign team to win at least some support from minority voters as the White House race enters its final stages.

Trump met in New York with the National Hispanic Advisory Council for Trump -- a coalition of elected officials, business leaders and faith leaders -- with hopes of improving relations with Latino voters.

Helen Aguirre Ferre, director of Hispanic communications for the Republican National Committee, called the meeting a "game-changing" opportunity.

RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said the meeting would be an exchange in which the leaders would share their insights and experience, then return to their communities to relay Mr. Trump's message of ending the failed status quo to their congregations and media audience.

Priebus also said the meeting was just one component of our expansive effort to engage the Hispanic community.

Still, winning over Hispanic voters will not be easy. Trump infamously accused Mexico of sending rapists and criminals across the southern U.S. border at his campaign kickoff event last year. The real estate mogul also vowed to deport all of the estimated 11 million people living in the country illegally.

Washington Republicans have been trying to improve their standing among Hispanic voters since the 2012 election, when exit polls showed President Obama won re-election with roughly 70 percent of the Hispanic vote, compared to about 27 percent for Republican challenger Mitt Romney.

And most polls show Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton with a double-digit lead over Trump among Hispanic voters, with early voting in some states set to begin in less than two weeks.

Earlier this week, the Trump campaign announced that Stephen Bannon, executive chairman of Breitbart News, was its new chief executive and that GOP pollster Kellyanne Conway had been promoted to campaign manager. On Friday, campaign Chairman Paul Manafort resigned.

Trump has also made efforts to try to appeal more to black voters, whom he argues should support his campaign after years of reliably supporting Democrats.

At a rally in suburban Michigan on Friday night, Trump said to the crowd that no group in America has been more harmed by Hillary Clinton's policies than African Americans.

"Look at how much African-American communities are suffering from Democratic control, Trump continued in a speech similar to one he gave the day before in North Carolina. What do you have to lose by trying something new like Trump?  You live in your poverty. Your schools are no good. You have no jobs -- 58 percent of your youth is unemployed."

His efforts are similar to those of other Republicans who have publically argued that Democrats have for decades run major U.S. cities like Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit and Philadelphia but have failed their residents, many of them minorities, with poorly-run or under-performing services and facilities.

Democrats were quick to denounce Trumps comments in Michigan, with Democratic National Committee official Brandon Davis on Saturday saying Trump has shown little interest engaging the black community and his comments underscore just how out of touch he is with the African American community.

On Saturday, Trump told supporters in Fredericksburg, Va. that Republicans "must do better, and will do better" at appealing to African-American voters.

Noting that the "GOP is the party of Abraham Lincoln," Trump said, "I want our party to be a home of the African-American voter once again."



However, Democratic politicians have had the black vote for decades, and this years election appears to be no different.

Clinton overwhelmingly won the black vote in South Carolina early in the Democratic primary season and continued to win it in other Southern states to secure the nomination, despite challenger Sen. Bernie Sanders strong populist promise to cut the social and economic inequality gap in the United States.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Authorities say three men died and another was injured after a boat overturned on the Allegheny River.

Officials in Clarion County, Pennsylvania, said the 21-foot boat apparently ran up on the riverbank and overturned at about 1:30 a.m. Saturday below Phillipston. Emergency officials were called at about 6:30 a.m. Saturday when someone reported a boat upside down in the river.

Waterways conservation officer Gregory Pochron, of the Fish and Boat Commission, said three men were found dead in the boat. A man in his 70s found pinned underneath the boat was reported to be conscious and alert when he was taken to a hospital in Pittsburgh.

Pochron said the accident is under investigation.

The coroner's office said autopsies are planned for Monday.
Billy Smolinski was 31 and in love when he disappeared nearly 12 years ago from his Connecticut home -- a one-story house in Waterbury not far from the farm where his parents had raised him.

Since that day -- Aug. 24, 2004 -- no one has seen or heard from Billy, the only son of William and Janice Smolinski -- a hard-working tow-truck driver who, by all accounts, loved sports, his German Shepherd "Harley," and his close-knit family.

Detectives have long suspected foul play, according to sources close to the investigation, but without a body or other forensic evidence, the case is a mystery that continues to haunt Connecticut residents. Yet with each passing year, the family's determination to solve the case never wavers and, as the 12th anniversary of his disappearance nears, they are appealing to the public for information.

"Someone, somewhere knows something," said Janice Smolinski.

"He just loved life," said Smolinski, who believes her son was murdered. "He had such a future ahead of him."

According to police reports and numerous media accounts, Billy Smolinski was dating Madeleine Gleason, a school bus driver from Woodbridge, Conn., at the time he vanished. The two had just returned from a trip to West Palm Beach, Fla., when Smolinski reportedly learned Gleason was also dating a married politician.

Smolinski confronted Gleason about the alleged cheating, and his last phone call on record was to the other man, identified in press reports and court documents as Chris Sorensen.

Both Gleason and Sorensen have denied any involvement in Smolinski's disappearance. Gleason told Waterbury police that she last saw Smolinski leaving her home on the morning of Aug. 24 --"a little depressed," she said, because the two broke off their relationship.

Sorensen told detectives he received a phone message on Aug. 24, 2004, in which a male caller said, "Chris, you better watch your back at all times," according to police reports. Authorities later determined the caller was Smolinski.

Shortly before that phone call, Smolinski -- described by his family as "heart-broken" -- contacted a friend and former girlfriend and invited her on a date to Six Flags. At around 3 p.m. on Aug. 24, he drove his white truck to a local Burger King, where he purshased two hamburgers and fries, according to receipts found in a trash bin inside his home.

What happened to Smolinski next is a mystery.

When his parents drove to his home from their farm in Naugatuck on Aug. 25, Janice Smolinski said she immediately feared for her son but was told by police she had to wait three days before reporting him missing.

Smolinski's white truck was parked in a usual spot -- with his keys and wallet still inside, his mother said, and a rubber glove was found under the driver's seat.

A next door neighbor would later tell the Smolinskis that Billy asked him to walk his dog because he was leaving town for a couple of days -- a claim Janice Smolinski does not believe.

"Billy would never ask anyone aside from Mary Ellen to watch the dog," she said, referring to Smolinski's friend and former girlfriend. The neighbor said that when he went to the home on Aug. 25 to walk the dog, the spare key Smolinski hid in the foyer was nowhere to be found.

"As soon as we heard that, we knew there was something very wrong," she said.

Authorities received tips claiming Gleason's son, Shaun Karpiuk, killed Smolinski, according to police and local media reports. Karpiuk died at age 27 in 2005 from a drug overdose.

Over the years, several searches have been conducted -- some using cadaver dogs. One such search involved digging up the yard of a home after Chad Hanson -- one of Karpiuk's friends -- claimed Smolinski was buried there. The search turned up no clues. Hanson, who has been identified in court documents as a person of interest in the disappearance, was jailed for two years for making false statements to police about Smolinski's whereabouts.

The family still maintains a website, Justice4Billy, which tracks the number of days, hours, minutes and seconds since Billy was last seen alive. The site includes a tipline for information in the case.

The Smolinskis have also plastered Waterbury and surrounding towns with flyers about their son -- much like the families of other missing loved ones. The posters, however, have caused legal trouble for the Smolinskis, who were sued in 2006 by Gleason for alleged harrassment and defamation of character.

Gleason -- who admitted to ripping down the flyers along her route as a school bus driver -- claims the Smolinskis taunted her and falsely blamed her for their son's disappearance. In 2012, a judge awarded her $52,666 in damages, including intentional infliction of emotional distress and defamation. In 2015, the state Supreme Court overturned the trial court's decision on First Amendment grounds. The case was remanded to the trial court and later withdrawn by the plaintiff.

The FBI referred all inquiries into the Smolinski case to the Waterbury Police Department, which did not return calls seeking comment. Gleason declined to speak about the matter through her attorney, John Williams, of New Haven. Sorensen could not be reached.

For William and Janice Smolinski, the pain of not knowing what happened to their son is unbearable at times.

"All we are is a family looking for Billy," Janice Smolinski said as she reminisced about a son who loved to play practical jokes, "lived for the holidays," and was known to pick up wounded or stray animals and care for them.

"We will never give up looking for Billy," she said.
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The shooting of an imam and his assistant near their New York mosque has unnerved Muslim residents of the Ozone Park section of Queens.

Police are still investigating a motive, but some residents say they are sure the killings were a hate crime aimed at the Bangladeshi Muslims who have moved into the neighborhood alongside longtime Hispanic residents.

Many Ozone Park residents say the imam's death shouldn't be taken as evidence of a rift between the culturally diverse groups that share the streets.

Neighborhood resident Sumona Kazi says Ozone Park's various immigrant groups are a united family.

Danny Perez says when Bangladeshis first started arriving in the neighborhood, teenagers from both sides would get into fights.

But he says those old tensions are a thing of the past.
The Navajo Nation wants a lawsuit against the Mormon Church over the alleged sexual abuse of four Navajo children heard in tribal court.

The Salt Lake Tribune reports (http://bit.ly/2b8AX7U) that the tribe's attorneys filed a motion Friday asking a federal judge in Salt Lake City to dismiss the suit until after it goes through tribal proceedings.

According to the motion, the attorneys argue that having the case go through federal court challenges the tribe's sovereignty.

Church attorneys say their constitutional religious freedoms could be denied in a tribal court.

Two men and two women say they were sexually abused between the 1960s and early '80s while in a church-run foster program.

The Indian Student Placement Program placed thousands of Navajo children in Mormon foster homes in Utah, Idaho and New Mexico.

___

Information from: The Salt Lake Tribune, http://www.sltrib.com
A Navy sailor was sentenced Friday to a year in prison for taking photos of classified areas inside a nuclear attack submarine while it was in port in Connecticut.

Kristian Saucier, of Arlington, Vermont, appeared in federal court in Bridgeport, where a judge also ordered him to serve six months of home confinement with electronic monitoring during a three-year period of supervised release after the prison time. He pleaded guilty in May to unauthorized detention of defense information and had faced five to six years in prison under federal sentencing guidelines.

Saucier admitted to taking six photos of classified areas inside the USS Alexandria in 2009 when it was in Groton and he was a 22-year-old machinist mate on the submarine. The photos showed the nuclear reactor compartment, the auxiliary steam propulsion panel and the maneuvering compartment, prosecutors said.

Saucier took the photos knowing they were classified, but did so only to be able to show his family and future children what he did while he was in the Navy, his lawyers said. He denied sharing the photos with any unauthorized recipient.

"It was a foolish mistake by a very young man," his lawyer, Greg Rinckey, said after the sentencing. "It's a very sad case because Kristian Saucier is a fine young man. We don't believe this was really his true character."

Saucier is expected to receive an "other than honorable" discharge from the Navy next month, Rinckey said. He is to report to prison on Oct. 12.

Saucier did not speak during Friday's court proceeding.

Federal prosecutors said the FBI and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service were never able to determine if the photos had been distributed to unauthorized people because Saucier destroyed key evidence including his laptop computer, a camera and a memory card after an interview with the FBI in 2012.

Prosecutors asked U.S. District Judge Stefan Underhill to send Saucier to prison for five years, saying his conduct put national security at risk.

The investigation began in 2012 when a waste station supervisor in Hampton, Connecticut, found Saucier's cellphone with the submarine photos on top of a pile of demolition trash and showed it to his friend, who was a retired Navy chief and brought the phone to the NCIS, according to court documents.

Saucier, who grew up in Cape Coral, Florida, had asked U.S. District Judge Stefan Underhill to sentence him to probation. In court filings, he compared his case to Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server when she was secretary of state. The FBI declined to charge Clinton for her handling of classified information while using the server.

Saucier's lawyers also said two other Alexandria crew members were caught taking photos in the same locations as Saucier, but were not prosecuted  only disciplined by the Navy.
One of two girls accused of trying to kill a 12-year-old classmate to please horror character Slender Man two years ago pleaded not guilty Friday by reason of mental disease or defect.

Morgan Geyser, 14, entered her plea to one count of attempted first-degree intentional homicide during a status conference in Waukesha County Circuit Court. Judge Michael Bohren appointed two doctors to examine her.

Her attorney, Tony Cotton, said in a telephone interview after the conference ended that he felt the facts of the case fit a mental illness plea. Experts have testified already that Geyser suffers from schizophrenia and oppositional defiant disorder and maintains relationships with imaginary characters.

Bohren said he will look to schedule a trial in March or as soon as prosecutors and Cotton are ready. If Geyser is convicted, the mental illness plea necessitates another trial to determine her mental state at the time of the crime, Cotton said. If she's found mentally deficient, she would be ordered confined to a mental hospital. If she's deemed mentally fit, she would serve up to 40 years in prison and 20 years on extended supervision.

The other girl in the case, who is now 14 as well, also faces one count of attempted first-degree intentional homicide. She pleaded not guilty last year. Bohren on Thursday said he would look to schedule her trial for March as well.

Assistant District Attorney Ted Szczupakiewicz, who is leading the prosecution of both girls, didn't immediately return a voicemail message Friday.

Anyone 10 or older charged with attempted first-degree intentional homicide is automatically considered an adult under state law. The Associated Press hadn't previously named the girls because their attorneys had been seeking to move their cases into juvenile court, where they could be incarcerated for three years and then supervised under age 18.

A state appeals court, however, ruled last month that both girls' cases should remain in adult court, saying the crime was planned and violent. That leaves the state Supreme Court as the girls' last hope of being moved into juvenile court, but Cotton said Friday he won't ask the high court to take Geyser's case because it doesn't present a novel question of law.

The other girl's attorney, Maura McMahon, didn't immediately respond to a voicemail asking if she planned to appeal to the Supreme Court.

According to court documents, the girls invited their classmate, Payton Leutner, to a birthday sleepover in May 2014. All three girls were 12 years old at the time.

The next day they lured Leutner into some woods at a Waukesha park, stabbed her repeatedly and then fled. Leutner suffered 19 stab wounds, including one that doctors said narrowly missed a major artery near her heart. Leutner crawled to a road where a bicyclist found her.

Police captured Geyser and the other girl on Waukesha's outskirts later that day. They told investigators they had hoped killing Leutner would gain them favor with Slender Man, a demon-like character featured in online horror stories. They said they were planning to walk 300 miles to the Nicolet National Forest, where they hoped to live as Slender Man's servants in his mansion.

Leutner recovered from her wounds and returned to school that fall.


The suicide bomber in a Turkish wedding party attack that killed dozens of people was between 12 and 14 years old, Turkey's president announced Sunday, blaming the Islamic State terror group for the massacre.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke in a live nationally-televised address in front of Istanbul city Hall. At least 51 people were killed and dozens of others wounded in the attack late Saturday in the southeastern city of Gaziantep.

Erdogan added that there was absolutely no difference between ISIS, Kurdish rebels and the movement behind the U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, calling them terrorists. He said 69 people were wounded, with 17 of them in critical condition.

The remains of a suicide vest have been recovered at the site, according to the state-run Anadolu Agency, citing a statement by the chief public prosecutor's office.

"We stand with the people of Turkey as they defend their democracy in the face of all forms of terrorism. We are in close touch with Turkish authorities," National Security Council spokesman Ned Price responded, calling the attack "barbaric."

Turkey has been the target of attacks in the past year that have been claimed by Kurdish militants linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) or were blamed on ISIS. In June, suspected Islamic State militants attacked Istanbuls main airport with guns and bombs, killing 44 people. A dual suicide bombing blamed on ISIS at a peace rally in Turkey's capital, Ankara, in October killed 103 victims.

Earlier this week, a string of bombings blamed on the PKK that targeted police and soldiers killed at least a dozen people. A fragile, 2  year-long peace process between the PKK and the government collapsed last year, leading to a resumption of the three-decade-long conflict.

"This was a barbaric attack. It appears to be a suicide attack. All terror groups, the PKK, Daesh, the (Gulen movement) are targeting Turkey. But God willing, we will overcome, Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek told NTV television.

Daesh is an Arabic name for ISIS.

Simsek later traveled to Gaziantep along with the country's health minister to visit the wounded and inspect the site of the attack. He characterized the attack as barbaric.

"This is a massacre of unprecedented cruelty and barbarism," he told reporters in Gaziantep. "We ... are united against all terror organizations. They will not yield."

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim condemned the bombing that turned "a wedding party into a place of mourning" and vowed to prevail over the "devilish" attacks.

"No matter what this treacherous terror organization is called, we as the people, the state, and the government will pursue our determined struggle against it," he said.

A brief statement from the Gaziantep governor's office said the bomb attack on the wedding in the Sahinbey district occurred at 10:50 p.m.

Mehmet Tascioglu, a local journalist, told NTV television, that the huge explosion could be heard in many parts of the city.

Police sealed off the site of the explosion and forensic teams moved in. Hundreds of residents gathered near the site chanting "Allah is great" as well as slogans denouncing attacks.

Fox News' Lesa Jansen and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
It was February this year when camel drivers first spotted the Chinese troops staking out a patch of coastal scrubland about 8 miles from the largest U.S. military base in Africa.

Chinese navy ships had visited this tiny East African nation before. They sometimes picked up supplies in the old French port, farther down the arid coast, during antipiracy patrols off Somalia.

This time, the Chinese military was here to stay. The camel herders watched as the troops secured a plot next to a construction site where a vast new bulk and container port is taking shape.

The 90-acre plot is where Beijing is building its first overseas military outposta historic step that marks a bold new phase in its evolution as a world power.

Due for completion next year, the naval outpost is expected to feature weapons stores, ship and helicopter maintenance facilities and possibly a small contingent of Chinese marines or special forces, according to foreign officers and experts monitoring its development. Its cluster of low-rise concrete buildings and shipping containers, some with Chinese flags, offers the most tangible sign yet of Chinas strategy to extend its military reach across the Indian Ocean and beyond.

In doing so, China is accelerating its transformation from an isolationist, continental nation to a global maritime power, a move that could challenge Western security partnerships that have underpinned the world order since 1945.

Right now, only a handful of nations have bases beyond their borders. The U.S. has the most, in 42 foreign countries. Britain, France and Russia each have them in about a dozen countries and overseas territories.

While Chinese officials deny plans to build large U.S.-style bases and call the Djibouti outpost a support facility, they also talk openly about negotiating more overseas outposts where Chinese interests coalesce.

Steadily advancing overseas base construction is one of President Xi Jinping's foreign-policy priorities, wrote Adm. Sun Jianguo, the deputy chief of the joint staff department and likely future naval chief, in a Communist Party magazine in April.

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YOU'RE MY MAN

SEX O'CLOCK USA (MORT SHUMAN) - 12" - LONDON

DIRTY YOUNG GUY (TIM PREZZANO DIGITAL MIX)

*BUTCHER - ROADKILL! 2.14 (3LP) - ROADKILL

I'M A SEX MANIAC (CLUB MIX)

STORM - 12" - SEX MANIA

BABY I LOVE YOU

EASY GOING - EASY GOING (LP) - BANANA

I'M A MAN

STAR CITY - 12" - TK - 12" -

I'M A MAN

MACHO - I'M A MAN (LP) - PRELUDE

MOTHERS LOVE (MAMA MIA)

MACHO - ROLL (LP) - GOODY MUSIC

VULCANO

MARZIO - 12" - MAXIMUS

ACTION! (DANCE FLOOR ACTION!)

PAUL ZONE AND MAN TO MAN featuring MAN PARRISH - 12" - ABFAHRT

YOU THINK YOU'RE A MAN

DIVINE - 12" - VIRGIN

MALE STRIPPER (BUMP & GRIND MIX)

MAN 2 MAN meet MAN PARRISH - 12" - ZYX

BOOM BOOM (LET'S GO BACK TO MY ROOM)

PAUL LEKAKIS - 7" - RCA

I WANNA TAKE YOU HOME

PATRICK COWLEY - MENERGY (LP) - FUSION

FEAR

EASY GOING - FEAR (LP) - BANANA

MENERGY

PATRICK COWLEY - MENERGY (LP) - FUSION

LOVE KILLS

FREDDY MERCURY - 12" - COLUMBIA

I GOT A LINE ON YOU

PATRICK COWLEY - MENERGY (LP) - FUSION

BECAUSE THERE IS MUSIC IN THE AIR

MACHO - I'M A MAN (LP) - PRELUDE

LOVE TO LOVE YOU BABY/I FEEL LOVE/JOHNNIE REMEMBER ME

BRONSKI BEAT, MARC ALMOND - 12" - FORBIDDEN FRUIT
North Korea said Saturday that a senior North Korean diplomat who recently defected to South Korea is a criminal and "human scum," in its first official response to the defection.



The official Korean Central News Agency also accused Seoul of using the defection of Thae Yong Ho, formerly a minister at the North Korean Embassy in London, for propaganda aimed at insulting the North Korean leadership. It also denounced the British government for ignoring international protocol by rejecting what it said were demands to have Thae extradited back to the North and instead handing him over to the South.



KCNA said North Korea had ordered Thae to return to the North in June to be investigated for a series of crimes, including embezzling government funds, leaking confidential secrets and sexually assaulting a minor.



It said that Thae "should have received legal punishment for the crimes he committed, but he discarded the fatherland that raised him and even his own parents and brothers by fleeing, thinking nothing but just saving himself, showing himself to be human scum who lacks even an elementary level of loyalty and even tiny bits of conscience and morality that are required for human beings."



In announcing the defection, Seoul's Unification Ministry said Wednesday that Thae was the second-highest North Korean official at the embassy and the most senior North Korean diplomat ever to defect to South Korea. In 1997, the North Korean ambassador to Egypt fled but resettled in the United States.



The ministry said that Thae decided to defect because of his disgust with the government of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, his yearning for South Korean democracy and worries about the future of his children.



The Unification Ministry didn't immediately respond to a request for comment about North Korea's claims on Saturday.



More than 29,000 North Koreans have defected to South Korea since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, according to the South Korean government. Many defectors have said they wanted to leave North Korea's harsh political system and poverty. Pyongyang often accuses the South of deceiving or paying its citizens to defect, or claims that they have simply been kidnapped.



In April, 13 North Koreans working at a North Korean-operated restaurant in China defected to South Korea. It was the largest group defection since Kim took power in late 2011. Later in April, South Korea also revealed that a colonel in North Korea's military spy agency had defected to the South last year.



Most South Korean analysts say it's premature to take the defections of Thae and other senior officials as indicators that the unity of North Korea's ruling elite is starting to crack because there are no significant signs that Kim's grip on power is weakening.



South Korea doesn't always make high-level defection cases public. Its announcement of Thae's defection came with ties between the rivals at one of their lowest points in decades following the North's nuclear test and long-range rocket launch earlier this year.



North Korea recently has expressed anger at a U.S. plan to place an advanced missile defense system in South Korea. The North has warned of unspecified retaliation and fired several missiles into the sea earlier this month.
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After their fragrant travelogue including Eight & Bob, Egypt and Cap d'Antibes, American niche brand EIGHT & BOB will offer a new exotic composition perfect for hot summer days. The fragrance is inspired by the small Caribbean island whose crystal clear waters, lush nature and turquoise blue colors of the sea and bright sky reflects a perfumer's memory and emotions resulting in a creation full of freshness, lightness and delicate exotic overtones.

Albert Fouquet has created Memoires de Mustique as a way of returning to the small island of Mustique known for its wild and untouched nature, crystal clear waters and long, white sandy beaches. It is characterized by a wild and unspoiled nature, which has not changed for centuries, and unreal beautiful sunsets. The whole experience has managed to create a journey into the past in its purest form.

EIGHT & BOB

MEMOIRES DU MUSTIQUE



bergamot, petit grain (leaves and petals of bitter orange), neroli

orange blossom, jasmine sambac, osmanthus

amber, precious wood, white musk

Memoires de Mustique contains a fresh and sparkling blend of bergamot, petit grain and neroli in its top notes; orange blossom, jasmine sambac, and sweet, honeyed aromas of osmanthus in the lush flowery middle; and amber, precious wood and white musk in the subtle and creamy base. EIGHT & BOB MEMOIRES DU MUSTIQUE is available as a 100ml EDP for 130 EUR (the official website of Eight & Bob)

MEH
The Nebraska American Legion on Friday expressed disappointment with Sen. Ben Sasse for his recently stated opposition to a proposed U.S. constitutional amendment to prohibit desecration of the American flag.

During a town hall meeting Tuesday at American Legion Hartman Post 84 in Columbus, Sasse told a questioner he supports First Amendment protection of free speech.

In 1989, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that burning or desecration of the U.S. flag represents a form of protected free speech.

In a written statement, Sasse outlined his view.

"Let's be blunt about two things: first, desecrating the flag is wrong, immoral and disrespectful of everyone who protects this country, and second, part of being free means that we don't outlaw everything that's wrong," he said.

"But even when burned, the flag endures. The flag endures because it is a symbol of a deeper sacrifice made by generations of Americans from Bunker Hill to Fallujah.

"These heroes have fought for our freedom to associate, freedom to worship as we see fit and, yes, freedom to say and to do things that are stupid and offensive.

"While amendments to ban flag burning are motivated by patriotism, I fear they open the door to government control over other freedoms. I trust Nebraskans to teach our kids to respect the flag."

The issue of a proposed constitutional amendment has been brewing for decades, spawned largely by flag burnings associated with the Vietnam War, and it divided Sen. Bob Kerrey and Sen. Chuck Hagel when they both represented Nebraska in the Senate in the late 1990s.

Hagel supported a proposed constitutional amendment; Kerrey opposed it.

Both served in the Vietnam War and were wounded in combat; Kerrey was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Sen. Deb Fischer, Sasse's Nebraska colleague in the Senate, is a co-sponsor of a joint resolution proposing a constitutional amendment to prohibit desecration of the flag.

"Imagine the disappointment many veterans in Nebraska must feel" when Sasse expresses opposition to the proposed amendment, Beth Linn, department commander of the Nebraska American Legion, said in an email statement.

"If being an American is about anything, it's about the will of the people overriding the will of self-appointed 'amendment police' who believe they know better than the people about how our nation should be run.

"Free speech does not allow you to yell fire in a theater and it should not allow you to commit what amounts to a hate crime against America."

In an op-ed published in The Washington Post in 2006, Kerrey said incidents of flag burning or desecration represent "rare, unpleasant demonstrations (that) are protected by the First Amendment."

"I hope we are strong enough to tolerate such rare and wrenching moments," Kerrey wrote.

It is freedom of speech, not the flag, that needs constitutional protection, he said.
LiveViewGPS Launches Business Line of Fleet Tracking Products

Products track slacking employees, reckless driving and improves financial bottom line reports LiveViewGPS.com

--

In today's service-based and consumer-oriented society, businesses have no other option but to take their office to the customer. From pet grooming vans to plumbers and their fleet of trucks filled with tools of trade, few businesses are exempt from company vehicles. But in return for this face-to-face interaction, firms are introduced to a new set of problems- from their own employees. Insurance rates go sky-high from dangerous drivers, gas prices are ever increasing and employee's lax behavior and inappropriate use of company property puts employers on the defensive.

With this in mind, LiveViewGPS has launched their gps tracking products for businesses and law enforcement in an effort to assist firms in keeping their employees honest. Explains spokesperson George Karonis, "Small and large businesses alike run into costs for every minute their company vans or trucks are on the streets. With gps tracking devices, they will be able to closely monitor all the vehicles, gaining all of the necessary information needed to makes educated decisions regarding cuts or adjustments to improve business efficiency."

Karonis goes on to explain how the satellite tracking will also keep a company's employees honest. "Being tracked with GPS tends to deter employees from from making pit-stops they shouldn't or driving recklessly. It will also keep them from idling while on the job, taking more time than they should. We also help customers protect their assets with a portable GPS tracker that comes with a built-in alarm. Now managers can secretly watch after property, valuable goods and cargo. They can procure tamper, temperature and vibration alerts, as well as locate on demand for real-time location information."

Tracking employees' behavior is not the only benefit. Users find they're also able to prove vehicle's whereabouts when discrepancies arise. "Not only can we nsure accurate billing to customers, but we're able to prove an employee was on the scene to provide services when a customer claims the technician never showed up."

Some clients worry the tracker will be cumbersome or difficult to use, but Karonis assures this is not the case. "For business users small or large, our enterprise level tracking interface is feature rich and extremely easy to use. Customers receive complete reports which effectively manage organizations. Information can be used to reduce and eliminate otherwise hidden expenses that will have a dollar for dollar impact to the bottom line. From asset tracking to GPS fleet tracking, we provide definitive answers to efficiently and effectively manage businesses."

About LiveVIew GPS:

LiveViewGPS, Inc. located in Southern California, is a Location Based Service Company (LBS)., providing gps tracking products and gps trackers for businesses, law enforcement and family safety. Their GPS tracking devices include vehicle and fleet-tracking systems, asset trackers, trailer tracking systems, surveillance monitoring tools, people tracking devices and GPS asset protection equipment.

For more information, please visit http://www.liveviewgps.com

Contact Info:

Name: George Karonis

Organization: LiveViewGPS Inc

Phone: 661-294-6805

Source: http://marketersmedia.com/liveviewgps-launches-business-line-of-fleet-tracking-products/128779

Release ID: 128779

For more information visit r



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High-quality corn silage often is an economical substitute for some of the grain in finishing and in dairy rations, and it can be an important winter feed for cow-calf producers. All too often, though, silage isn't harvested at the best time for ultimate feed value.

Timing needs to be based on moisture content of the silage. Silage chopped too early and wetter than 70 percent moisture can run or seep, and it often produces a sour, less palatable fermentation. We often get this wet silage when we rush to salvage hail or wind damaged corn. Live and green stalks, leaves and husks almost always are more than 80 percent moisture, so be patient and wait until these tissues start to dry before chopping.

Normal corn, though, is often chopped for silage too dry, below 60 percent moisture. Then it's difficult to pack the silage adequately to force out air. The silage heats, energy and protein digestibility declines, and spoilage increases. If your silage is warm or steams during winter, it probably was too dry when chopped.

Many corn hybrids are at the ideal 60-70 percent moisture as corn kernels reach the one-half milkline. This guide isn't perfect for all hybrids, so check your own fields independently.

Corn kernels in silage between half milkline and black layer are more digestible. Drier, more mature corn grain tends to pass through the animal more often without digesting unless processed. Also, older leaves and stalks are less digestible.

Remember, chopping your silage at the proper moisture level can mean better feed and better profits.

The second management thought relates to the use of inoculants. To make good silage, a little help from inoculants can improve fermentation.

When and how can you get the best use from them? There is no clear cut, consistent way to predict when inoculants will be most useful or cost effective. Silage fermentation is just too complex.

Inoculants primarily reduce storage losses. The most effective ones contain homolactic acid bacteria like Lactobacillus plantarum. Fermentation starts and ends quicker with inoculated silage so more silage remains for feeding. Typically, you save about 5 percent.

Some inoculants also improve aerobic stability by using the heterolactic acid bacteria Lactobacillus buchneri. They reduce spoilage losses when silage is re-exposed to air, thus extending bunk life. These bacteria are especially useful at reducing spoilage on the face of bunker silos.

Inoculants consistently improve wet silage, especially sorghum silage. If you start chopping early enough to prevent silage from being too dry at the end, inoculants should help.

In the past, inoculants rarely improved properly made corn silage -- silage at the right moisture, chopped fine, packed well, and sealed tight. Nor did they improve dry silage. But recently developed inoculants, with more effective strains of fermentation bacteria, are producing slightly better quality silage even from these feeds.

If you use an inoculant, make sure that it contains live bacteria. Also check to see that the inoculant provides at least 100,000 colony forming units per gram of wet forage when applied at the recommended rate at the chopper. You need plenty of live bacteria for the inoculant to do you any good.

But used in the right conditions, inoculants can be worth it.

Bruce Anderson, University of Nebraska-Lincoln forage specialist, provided most of the information used in this weeks column.
To live in the universe of Breitbart News is to live in a universe of perpetual fear and agitation.

"Suspected illegal immigrant allegedly carjacks elderly woman," one headline on the hyper-conservative, verging-on-nationalist site read Thursday morning. "Fire Department ordered removal of U.S. flags from fire trucks," blared another. "The ObamaCare Bomb: Plan 9 from Collectivist Space," warns still another headline.

Scroll down for more news about the jihadists in our midst and our surly neighbor to the south - Mexico.

And America's savior? Well, that would be one Donald J. Trump.

The Republican nominee's face is everywhere on the site. And it's tough to distinguish the Trump's anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim rhetoric from that of the bold-faced headlines that burst from the screen.

Thus it's no surprise that the de facto merger between Team Trump and Breitbart has finally come to pass with the appointment of one of the site's senior executives, Steve Bannon, as the Trump campaign's CEO.

Bannon is one-half of a two-headed leadership team that also includes longtime Republican pollster Kellyanne Conway, who's pushed the troubled Paul Manafort (he of Ukrainian Cash fame) from the top of the Trumpian Heap.

It's the campaign's second reset in as many months. But if you were expecting a kinder, gentler Trump as a result, you can pretty much forget it.

While Conway brings a much-needed dose of professionalism to Trump's foundering campaign (he's trailing Democrat Hillary Clinton by double-digits in many key battleground states and by an average of 6 percent nationwide), Bannon is another matter entirely.

As The Washington Post reports, Bannon is a big fan of Nigel Farage, the former head of the ultra-right wing U.K. Independence Party. And Bannon stands pretty much alone in continuing to think that foisting Sarah Palin on the voting public was a good idea.

It's widely expected that Bannon, a former Wall Streeter, will just encourage Trump's more nationalist instincts, rather than blunt them.

The candidate himself was reportedly agitated with attempts to domesticate him and wants to return the two-fisted brawling that won him the GOP nomination.

In that, Bannon is a perfect match.

In the past few weeks and months alone, the Breitbart site has, as the New York Times reports, "accused President Obama of "importing more hating Muslims"; compared Planned Parenthood's work to the Holocaust; called Bill Kristol, the conservative commentator, a "renegade Jew"; and advised female victims of online harassment to "just log off" and stop "screwing up the internet for men," illustrating that point with a picture of a crying child."

In a statement, Trump's campaign favorably cited a Bloomberg Politics report describing the pugilistic entrepreneur as "the most dangerous political operative in America," who, along with Conway,has the "experience and expertise needed to defeat Hillary Clinton in November."

Trump's final pivot to the Breit-wing will no doubt play well with the crowds who fill the candidate's rallies, gleefully shouting "Lock her up!" every time Clinton's name is mentioned.

But to senior Republicans looking to hold onto their majorities in the U.S. House and Senate (where Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania is on the verge of tearing a rotator cuff in his ongoing Trump endorsement tango), this is bad, bad news.

And it will surely send more Republicans, especially those in marginal seats, fleeing to the exits.

It's a mixed bag, meanwhile, for Clinton.

There's no doubt that more radioactive rhetoric from the Trump camp will hurt the Manhattan mogul's standing in the polls. That's good news for Clinton, who can gin up the Democratic base by citing Trump's latest outrage on the stump.

That will also help lure moderate Republican voters, such as those in the Philadelphia suburbs and northern Virginia, into Clinton's camp.

But more aggressive attacks, spearheaded by a guy whose website specializes in giving Clinton agita, will keep the Democratic nominee on defense.

Questions about Clinton's honesty and trustworthiness remain her campaign's weakest spot. And Clinton is her own worst enemy when it comes to trying to explain that behavior.

Heading into the home stretch, though, she'll have to gamble that voters will detest Trump more than they dislike her.

And since "Letting Trump be Trump" has has prompted The Donald's decline, Steve Bannon may only hasten the final meltdown.
Farmers have been accused of carrying out large-scale, illegal gassing of badgers on farms in a bid to control the spread of bovine TB.

Dominic Dyer, chief executive of the Badger Trust, claims that badgers in Britain are regularly killed by farmers, landowners, hunt masters, game keepers and others.

In Mr Dyers new book, Badgered to Death, he states the problem is far wider than illegal criminal activity by such individuals.

See also: Anger and frustration over spread of bovine TB in Wales

It goes right to the heart of government and the farming industry, which all too often turn a blind eye on illegal badger persecution.

In a chapter entitled Illegal culls, Mr Dyer recounts an incident in October 2013 when he came face to face with this brutal reality at the end of the first six weeks of Defras pilot badger culls in Gloucestershire and Somerset.

Gassing badgers is illegal

Mr Dyer said he spent an afternoon filming with Sky News reporter Isabel Webster, who told him a farmer in Somerset had bragged about gassing badgers on his farm  and added that neighbouring farmers were doing the same.

He writes: Was this important? Yes, I said. Gassing is not an approved method as it is considered inhumane. It is also illegal. No badgers can be killed without a licence from Natural England: the farmers were acting illegally.

Mr Dyer goes further, by suggesting this incident is proof the illegal culling of badgers is widespread in the farming industry.

The interview showed what many in the badger protection movement feared: that farmers were organising themselves into groups to carry out the large-scale, illegal killing of badgers on their farms, both inside and outside the official culling zones.

In the cull zones of west Somerset and Gloucestershire, Defra revised down the estimated figures for the badger population from 2,400 to 1,450 and 3,400 to 2,350 respectively.

Disease, breeding patterns and the weather were the causes of the decline, according to the secretary of state, writes Mr Dyer.

Yet there was a hint that something else may have been to blame as well, or instead.

Mr Dyer said following further interviews with farmers Ms Webster later uncovered evidence of illegal gassing by farmers using a hosepipe and vehicle engines on 14 farms in Somerset and Gloucestershire.

Industry reaction

Responding to the claims, the NFU told Farmers Weekly it was not in a position to comment because it had not received a copy of Mr Dyers book.

Defra has said it is researching different methods of deploying gas in a humane way as a potential method of removing diseased badgers from the countryside.

But a Defra spokeswoman said any illegal killing of badgers could not be condoned.

She added: If there is a belief that someone is illegally killing badgers, it should be reported to the police.
Dance Moms Season 7 Air Date, Spoilers, News & Update: Chloe Lukasiak & Mackenzie Ziegler To Return?

"Dance Moms" season 7 is surrounded by speculations of those who will be returning and leaving the show. Chloe Lukasiak and Mackenzie Ziegler returning to the Lifetime series is the latest one in the rumor mill.

Mackenzie Ziegler Will Return to 'Dance Moms' Season 7?

Rumors of Mackenzie Ziegler returning to "Dance Moms" Season 7 started when Abby Lee Miller posted a photo of her ALDC team with Ziegler in it. There has been no announcement about Mackenzie Ziegler returning as a full cast for "Dance Moms" season 7 however, the fan-favorite may be making a cameo appearance, Reality Tea noted.

Abby Lee Miller recently posted a photo of the cast, showing Maddie's little sister in center stage. The website noted that Mackenzie Ziegler's placement on the photo is not just a coincident. It's actually an effective way to hype up "Dance Moms" season 7. Check out the Instagram post below.

Mackenzie Ziegler's departure from "Dance Moms" season 6 was only accepted by fans knowing that the little kid has a lot of opportunities outside the reality show. While her projects may not equal to her older sister's, Mackenzie is definitely a talented dancer. Fans were very sad to see her go in season 6.

Chloe Lukasiak Will Return To 'Dance Moms' Season 7?

Mackenzie Ziegler may not be the only one who's making a comeback to "Dance Moms" season 7. Now that Maddie Ziegler is no longer with the Lifetime reality show, fans can't help but speculate that her number one opponent will make a comeback.

Meanwhile, Nia Sioux was speculated to be leaving "Dance Moms" season 7 as reported by Game & Guide earlier. She received a lot of offers outside the Lifetime reality series. Now that the Ziegler sisters and Chloe Lukasiak are no longer with the show, fans couldn't help but feel that the show is slowly dying.

The second half of "Dance Moms" season 6 was announced to air starting September 6. Do you think "Dance Moms" season 7 will survive without the Ziegler sisters and Chloe Lukasiak? Does it mean their comeback will save the reality show?
Days of Our Lives Spoilers for Aug. 22 - 26 Reveal Chloe's Secret

"Days of Our Lives" is getting a technically brand new week after a 2-week hiatus to make way for the Rio Olympics 2016. Now, it looks like a lot has happened in the town of Salem as villains return to terrorize everyone. According to recent DOOL spoilers, Tate is now back in the arms of his parents Brady (Eric Martsolf) and Theresa (Jen Lilley). The witness will also point finger on Victor (John Aniston) as the culprit in the kidnapping.

Meanwhile, as "Days of Our Lives" spoilers dig deeper on the issue, Xander (Paul Telfer) is back in Salem and is all ready to to ruin the life of Brady and specially Theresa. Theresa will have premonitions of Xander and at one point during the day of her wedding, she sees Xander on the mirror and immediately froze.

Clyde (James Read) and Orpheus (George DelHoyo) will also escape jail and is determined to return to Salem and make the lives of its town folks as miserable as they can. Days of Our Lives spoilers also reveal how Chloe (Nadia Bjorlin) on the other hand will do everything to keep her pregnancy secret from Deimos (Vincent Irizarry). Despite Philip (John-Paul Lavoisier) offering to be the father of her child, Chloe remains undecided.

Chloe's predicament will cause so much of her nightmares and on one occasion, she dreamt about Deimos learning about her pregnancy. According to Soap Shows, it looks like Chad (Billy Flynn) will not be comfortable about his son Thomas near his grandmother Jennifer (Melissa Reeves). Chad will soon realize that Jennifer has returned to his addiction; all the more that he will not leave Thomas in her guidance.

Do you want to know more "Days of Our Lives" spoilers? Make sure to read and check on Game & Guide and be informed with the latest DOOL spoilers.
Teen Wolf Season 6 Air Date, Spoilers, News & Update: Stiles & Lydias Romance Brewing? A Vulnerable Theo Shows Up

"Teen Wolf" Season 6 will finally see everything in its place as it airs on Nov. 15 on the MTV channel. Questions will be answered, and mysteries will be solved in Beacon Hills. Not the questions about Dylan O'Brien, Tyler Posey and Holland Roden's alleged demand for a raise on their pay, but whether Stiles Stilinski will end up with Lydia Martin in the finale. Yes, that kind of thing.

Is a love triangle brewing among Stiles, Lydia and Malia? "Teen Wolf" Season 6 could focus on the budding romance of Stiles and Lydia, a relationship that could tarnish the friendship of Lydia and Malia. With the romance blossoming, how will Malia, Stiles Stilinski's ex-girlfriend, react to that? The two cats will even have physical fight over Stiles according to some spoilers. Holland Roden revealed that on the next season, she will have lots of fun times together with Shelley Henning. Could this be a confirmation of their cat fight scenes in the next season?

In the previous season of "Teen Wolf" Lydia has been portrayed to have conflicts emotionally that is why she cannot connect with Stiles. But with things going pretty stable, Roden said that fans of Stiles and Lydia will be pleased in "Teen Wolf" Season 6.

So, we already know the Theo Taeken, portrayed by Cody Christian, is back from the fiery place called hell after his sister brought him there. The "Teen Wolf" Season 6 actor said that his character will still have a love-hate relationship with the audience.

He added that Theo will be a vulnerable soul in "Teen Wolf" Season 6. His vulnerability might be attributed to his hellish experiences that will earn him distrust from the pack. Spoilers said that Season 6 will also evolve on Theo's struggle to prove to his peers that his comeback can give more strength to their pack.

"Teen Wolf" Season 6 is expected to air before the year ends. Keep your eyes tuned to GameNGuide for more updates and spoilers of "Teen Wolf" Season 6.
WWE SummerSlam 2016 News & Update: Finn Balor, Dolph Ziggler turning to the 'dark side'

WWE SummerSlam 2016 is almost here and the highlights of the upcoming pay-per-view will be the two main title events for both brands.

For Raw, Seth Rollins and Finn Balor mix it up for the rights to be crowned the first Universal champion while SmackDown will see Dean Ambrose facing Dolph Ziggler. The matchups alone seem to lack the flair though the creative team may have some twists through storylines.

Looking at the four stars, the closest one that can pass for a heel is Rollins. But if the predictions made by the Bleacher Report is spot on, there could be new heels before SummerSlam is over.

Only way to go for Ziggler is heel

One thing that puzzles many to date is why Ziggler was the one who got the nod to face Ambrose for the WWE title. Considering the talent Shane McMahon and Daniel Bryan had backstage, something fishy is bound to happen.

Both are technically facing wrestlers but at some point, something has to give. Ambrose is not expected to be the guy to turn dark which means The Showoff will likely do something dastardly and turn heel.

While that seems the logical move, the question now is why. With no flavor, the match will only gain attention if Ziggler does something odd. He has been seen trying to use dirty tactics but a complete heel turn should have occurred long ago.

If he does turn heel this Sunday, it also means that this rivalry will not close at WWE SummerSlam. Next question, would that be wise?

Balor Club Debuting?

Seth Rollins has been the perfect heel. So is it time to play face? Finn Balor is the obvious fan-favorite this Sunday but could a major twist happen?

Many may have forgotten about the Balor Club which was speculated even before the WWE brand split. Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows did form The Club with AJ Styles but the faction never really got off the ground.

It could be the best time to showcase the Balor Club which means The Club could interfere in the match (before or after), also meaning that The Demon will unleash his darks side.

WWE SummerSlam kicks off this Sunday (Aug. 21) from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York starting at 7 p.m. ET.
Song Joong Ki, Song Hye Kyo Dating: Descendants of the Sun Actor Admits Feelings for Co-star? Song-Song Couple Spotted At Big Apple?

Song Joong Ki and Song Hye Kyo are hitting the dating headlines again. Now, recent reports are claiming that the "Descendants of the Sun" stars are hiding their relationship to take good care of their careers.

'Descendants of the Sun' stars Song Joong Ki and Song Hye Kyo are hiding their relationship?

Rumors claim that Song Joong Ki and Song Hye Kyo are possibly dating in real life. Previous reports have revealed that the "Descendants of the Sun" stars were spotted very sweet in New York City few months ago.

Eyewitnesses stated the Song Joong Ki and Song Hye Kyo looked like a couple while they are strolling down the streets of the Big Apple. The "Descendants of the Sun" lead stars were also spotted holding hands at that time.

After they were seen in New York City, reports about Song Joong Ki and Song Hye Kyo getting so cozy on the sect of the popular Korean Hallyu have also spread. Sources have claimed that the rumored couple were caught flirting with each other when they are not filming for the "Descendants of the Sun."

Though these reports could probably be true, both Song Joong Ki and Song Hye Kyo have not confirmed anything as of yet. However, the "Descendants of the Sun" actress has previously revealed that she and her co-star are very "good friends."

'Descendants of the Sun' stars Song Joong Ki and Song Hye Kyo working together again?

Meanwhile, Soompi has hinted that Song Joong Ki and Song Hye Kyo could possibly do another project together soon. As a matter of fact, the "Descendants of the Sun" actor has revealed in an interview that he is very willing to work together again with his leading lady, which fans interpreted as his admission that he has feelings for her.

"If she's okay with it, I would want to act with Song Hye Kyo 30 years from now as well," Song Joong Ki reportedly said during a fan meeting in Taipei last June. This then sparked reports that the actor and Song Hye Kyo might be doing the "Descendants of the Sun" Season 2 very soon.

Song Joong Ki and Song Hye Kyo are yet to confirm if they will be doing "Descendants of the Sun" Season 2 in the near future. Stay tuned to GamenGuide for the latest news and updates on the alleged Song Joong Ki and Song Hye Kyo relationship.
'Samsung Galaxy S8' Release Date, News & Update: Galaxy S8 To Feature Powerful Processor? Samsung Planning To Ditch Flat Screen Design

After the successful release of Galaxy S7, looks like the next gadget "Galaxy S8" will be much anticipated for next year.

Reports have starting to come out about the predictions of the possible details of what the new "Galaxy S8" will have to offer. The giant tech company from Korea reportedly said that they will be adding more advanced specs and features on their "Galaxy S8."

According to an article by Trusted Reviews, the Samsung Galaxy S7 will run on either Snapdragon 830 chip processor which is built by Qualcomm or an Exynos 8890 processor built by the company itself. Some say that the Exynos chipset could probably be faster than the upcoming A10 processor of Apple. Exynos is also reportedly more powerful than the Snapdragon 830 processor, according to Mobipicker.

But others are saying that Samsung might use Qualcomm's Snapdragon 830 processor which could be very useful to support the expected feature of the "Galaxy S8," the 4k display resolution. It is hard to tell as to which of the two will be used because both were previously used by the Samsung company on their previous Galaxy Series. Exynos processor was used in Galaxy S6 while Snapdragon processor was used in Galaxy S5.

International Business Times also reported that the Samsung company might already junk the flat screen design and start releasing curved screen models only. The Samsung mobile business president, Koh Dong-jin said that the company has considered the edge display as their identity for their Galaxy S gadget line-up.

If these rumors can be proven to be true, Samsung will boost once again on the market. But as of the moment, the company remains silent about all these speculations about the "Galaxy S8." The company is said to be focusing on the upcoming release of their Galaxy Note 7 as of these moment.
The free event will take place on Saturday, Oct. 29, and feature more than 30 different types of aircraft.
It's so hot ...

How hot is it?

Well, we haven't received any reports of chickens laying hard-boiled eggs or cows giving cappuccino froth, but you get the idea.

High temperature records from Oregon State University's weather station at Hyslop Farm weren't immediately available Friday, but early indications from the National Weather Service were that Friday could set a record, with officials forecasting that mid-valley temperatures could have been as high as 104.

If Hyslop's readings for Friday crack 100, that will set a record for the day. The previous high temperature at Hyslop for Aug. 19 is 99, set in 1951. The official Hyslop high mark for Aug. 20 also is 99; that mark was set last year. (Hyslop is not an official Weather Service station.)

Temperatures are expected to hit about 100 degrees Saturday, but then the Weather Service is predicting relief from the heat on Sunday.

"Saturday well have a hot day, but not as hot," said Will Ahue, meteorologist with the National Weather Service. "Then we'll see a dramatic decrease Sunday. We're looking at a good 10 to 15 degree cool off."

The Weather Service's excessive heat warning remains in effect until 9 tonight for much of northwest Oregon, reminding people to take special care with children, the elderly, anyone without air conditioning, and anyone working outside.

And while temperatures are predicted to cool off at least a little by Sunday, they could be right back up to the mid-90s by the middle of next week, said Colby Neuman, a Weather Service meteorologist.

"It doesnt look as extreme of this current one, but I would say the odds of returning to the 90s is a pretty good bet for the middle of next week and basically lasting to the latter half of next week," he said.

The Albany Fire Department responded to one heat-related illness this week and is reminding residents to "stay cool, stay hydrated and stay informed," said Assistant Fire Chief Shane Wooton.

The department advises staying in air-conditioned buildings as much as possible, avoiding direct sunlight and wearing lightweight, light-colored clothing.

"If you feel you are getting too hot, take a cool shower or bath. If you know someone that might be vulnerable, check on them twice a day," he said. "People should also drink more water than usual. Dont wait until youre thirsty to drink more. Also, remind those around you to drink enough water."

Wooton said to watch for symptoms of heat exhaustion, which are heavy sweating, weakness, cold/pale/clammy skin, a fast and weak pulse and loss of consciousness.

A heat stroke, which is more dangerous, causes hot, red, dry or moist skin and a rapid and strong pulse. Heat stroke can also lead to possible unconsciousness, he said.

"Our department cant stress enough for people not to overexert themselves and stay in or find somewhere where with air conditioning, especially during the extreme heat," Wooton said.
When staff members at Oregon State Universitys veterinary medicine school led Chopper, a quarter horse, onto their treadmill, the animal immediately began to paw at it.

He wants to get started, Erica McKenzie, a professor of large animal internal medicine, said to the watching group of 16 high school students.

As the horse walked and later ran on the treadmill, the students watched and took photos and cellphone videos of Chopper. McKenzie explained how she trains horses to walk on the treadmill and how veterinarians can observe horses respiratory systems by inserting a camera through their noses and having them walk or run on the treadmill.

The lesson took place Wednesday as part of the OSU Summer Veterinary Experience put on by the College of Veterinary Medicine. Organizers say the program is intended to improve diversity in the veterinary field by introducing high school students to the field.

Other activities during the program, which was held this week, included dissecting eyes and hearts of livestock and a hands-on lessons in suturing in which students practiced on bananas.

We want to encourage gifted students to consider this as a career, said Lyn Smith-Gloria, a representative of the college.

Smith-Gloria said the students in the program are mostly entering their junior and senior years and come from throughout Oregon. The students spend half their day in lessons and half their day doing research. They also have evening activities, stay in campus dorms and eat at dining halls so they get a feel for college life, she said. In addition to the veterinary topics, the program also included a lesson on college applications and financial aid.

Smith-Gloria said half of the participants received full scholarships; the other half paid $700. She said the program has a $750 grant from OSUs precollege program and the rest of the costs are covered by the College of Veterinary Medicine.

McKenzie said the camp gives the students experience with a variety of careers that involve working with animals, so it could lead them to many different paths.

For the most part they seem enthusiastic and hopefully it piques their interest in pursuing something related to animals in their lives, she said.

Emily Mangan, a second-year veterinary medicine student and mentor for the program, recalled the many mentors she had when she was young who sparked her interest in science. She said she is hoping to repay it by working with students in the camp.

It can help solidify them on going into the field, she said of the camp.

Jake James, a 17-year-old who will soon start his senior year in Portland, called the experience life-changing.

"It made me want to pursue both college and the veterinary field," he said.

Matthew Siddel, a 16-year-old who will soon start his junior year in Eugene, said the experience confirmed his interest in studying veterinary medicine.

This is better than any other camp Ive ever been to because its focused on what Im interested in, he said.
bayonel3 at 19-08-2016 04:05 PM (6 years ago) (m)

The chairman of the Code of Conduct Bureau, CCB, Sam Saba, has confirmed that the federal government has ordered the probe of certain public officers whose names were in the leaked #PanamaPapers document. The #PanamaPapers are a leaked set of 11.5 million confidential documents created by the Panamanian corporate service provider Mossack Fonseca that provide detailed information on more than 214,000 offshore companies, including the identities of shareholders and directors.

The chairman of the Code of Conduct Bureau, CCB, Sam Saba, has confirmed that the federal government has ordered the probe of certain public officers whose names were in the leaked #PanamaPapers document. The #PanamaPapers are a leaked set of 11.5 million confidential documents created by the Panamanian corporate service provider Mossack Fonseca that provide detailed information on more than 214,000 offshore companies, including the identities of shareholders and directors. Comprising documents created since the 1970s, the 2.6 terabyte set was given by an anonymous source to the Suddeutsche Zeitung in August 2015 and subsequently to the US-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). The papers were distributed to and analyzed by about 400 journalists at 107 media organizations in more than 80 countries.

I want to let you know that government has written to us and given us some names based on what they have been reading and hearing regarding that document, Saba said

I think it (Panama Papers) is going to be helpful because already we have some questions for certain public officers, which I will not be able to disclose at the moment. Until they finish answering those questions, I may not be able to discuss it. I tried to access the document via the internet, but I was required to subscribe and pay some money, which I didnt have. That was what stalled our effort at the time. But I later asked my counterpart in the ICPC if he was in the picture and he replied in the negative. Saba added.

Worthy of note is the fact that the use of shell companies is not illegal and there are individuals and firms who incorporate them for purely legitimate purposes. However, some of them, who are public office holders, held the assets in violation of Nigerian law  failing to declare them to the Code of Conduct Bureau. Comprising documents created since the 1970s, the 2.6 terabyte set was given by an anonymous source to the Suddeutsche Zeitung in August 2015 and subsequently to the US-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). The papers were distributed to and analyzed by about 400 journalists at 107 media organizations in more than 80 countries.Saba saidSaba added.Worthy of note is the fact that the use of shell companies is not illegal and there are individuals and firms who incorporate them for purely legitimate purposes. However,

Post Reply I scour the world wide web to bring you interesting stories from around the globe. +2348055557203 Posted: at 19-08-2016 04:05 PM (6 years ago) | Hero
Xiaomi To Roll Out MIUI 8 on August 23 News oi -Vigneshwar

A couple of months back, Lei Jun's Xiaomi has rolled out the MIUI 8 ROM in the Chinese market with some enhancement and optimizations.

The company has also announced the roll out of MIUI 8 in the Indian market during the official announcement of Mi Max. However, Xiaomi has rolled out the public beta of the ROM as promised, it is the stable version roll out that got delayed.

SEE ALSO: Indian smartphone market grew 17.1% in Q2 2016: IDC

Now the recent news is that the MIUI 8 Global stable ROM will be rolled out on August 23rd and will gradually release the MIUI 8 Global Stable ROM for public.

The supported devices are Redmi 1S, Redmi 2, Redmi 2 Prime, Redmi Note 3 Qualcomm, Redmi Note 3 Special Edition, Redmi Note 2, Redmi Note 3G, Redmi Note 4G, Redmi Note Prime, Redmi 3, Redmi 3S/Prime, Mi 2/2S, Mi 3,Mi 4, Mi 4i, Mi 5, Mi Note, Mi Max 32GB.

SEE ALSO: Here's Why LAVA X50 is the most comfortable big screen phone in the market right now

While the Redmi 1S, Mi 2/2S, Mi 4i, Redmi Note 3G, Redmi Note 4G will get OTA update on August 23rd, the other devices will receive the update gradually in the upcoming days.

The MIUI 8 will be an OTA update, otherwise, users can check the Updater' app as well. Talking about the features, the MIUI 8 comes with new colors in system app UI including Phone, Dialer, Calendar, Contacts. The company has changed the notification bar as well the drop down bar in the white background similar to iOS.

Also, the company has tied-up with 50 media partners to enhance the quality of the lock screen. Other features include -- quick sharing, dual apps, quick ball, scrolling screenshot, second space and an improved power saving mode.

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COAI rejects Jio's request for additional point of interconnect News oi -GizBot Bureau

The Cellular Operators' Association of India (COAI) has rejected Reliance Jio's request for additional point of interconnect from its member companies, saying the optimal link has already been provided.

"The members of COAI would like to clarify that they have already provided Reliance Jio with enough interconnect capacity to meet the usual demand of 15 to 20 million customers," said COAI Director General Rajan S. Mathews.

SEE ALSO: How to Get Reliance JIO 4G SIM Card for Free! All Possible Ways Listed

"We understand Reliance Jio presently has approximately 2 to 3 million customers using their network. Hence, we are unable to substantiate Reliance Jio's claim for additional capacity," he added.

This was also conveyed to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) following a letter from Reliance Jio.

Earlier, in a letter to the watchdog, Reliance Jio requested for directives to the existing service providers (telcos) to immediately provide interconnection to its Jio 4G network with their own, in the spirit of the licensing agreements.

It also asked the TRAI to take appropriate action against those companies that delay such a provisioning of points of interconnect to Jio in gross violation of the licensing agreements and applicable regulations.

Quoting from licensing accords, Reliance Jio said in its letter to TRAI Chairman R.S. Sharma that operators must extend requisite points of interconnect, of sufficient capacity and in sufficient numbers to ensure that calls are completed to all destinations.

The company said the current number of interconnect points being provided to Reliance Jio are far from adequate as the failure rate is in excess of 65 per cent, resulting in more than 1.6 crore call failures per day between Reliance Jio and the networks of Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea.

On August 12, chief executives of top mobile companies, under the umbrella of the COAI, called on Communications Minister Manoj Sinha to express concerns over alleged favouritism towards new players in the sector.

The meeting came a day after a rather unprecedented move, wherein the association even wrote to the Prime Minister's Office complaining about the industry watchdog and contending that some of its moves discriminated against existing players.

SEE ALSO: Researchers develop non-flammable lithium-ion battery

A similar missive was also flagged to the Department of Telecom (DoT), which also specifically alleged that Reliance Jio has launched a full commercial service in the garb of test runs, while expressing concern over some consultation papers floated by the watchdog recently.

Reliance Jio had countered the claim, saying its tests are bona fide and were aimed at delivering high-quality service.

Source IANS

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Bulk Data Interception is of 'Vital Utility' to UK Intelligence, Security

Sputnik News

13:50 19.08.2016

London considers bulk interception of data to be extremely important for security and intelligence, according to a report.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Bulk interception of data is of "vital utility" to UK security and intelligence, other methods fail to provide same results, a security legislation review said Froday.

"The bulk interception power has proven itself to be of vital utility across the range of GCHQ's operational areas, including counter-terrorism in the UK and abroad, cyber-defence, child sexual exploitation, organised crime and the support of military operations," the report prepared by David Anderson said.

The report claims that alternative methods may be useful, "but fall short of matching the results that can be achieved using the bulk interception capability."

 Sputnik

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Military Strikes Target ISIL Terrorists in Syria, Iraq

From a Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve News Release

SOUTHWEST ASIA, Aug. 19, 2016  U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorists in Syria and Iraq yesterday, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today.

Officials reported details of yesterday's strikes, noting that assessments of results are based on initial reports.

Strikes in Syria

Bomber, ground-attack, attack and fighter aircraft conducted eight strikes in Syria:

-- Near Abu Kamal, two strikes destroyed two ISIL pump jacks, two ISIL oil tanker trucks, two ISIL oil tanks and two ISIL wellheads.

-- Near Dayr Az Zawr, two strikes destroyed six ISIL oil tanker trucks and two ISIL wellheads.

-- Near Manbij, four strikes struck two ISIL tactical units and destroyed five ISIL fighting positions, an ISIL tactical vehicle and suppressed two ISIL tactical units.

Strikes in Iraq

Bomber and fighter aircraft conducted six strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of Iraq's government:

-- Near Albu Hayat, a strike destroyed two ISIL communication towers.

-- Near Mosul, three strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit, an ISIL finance storage center, and an ISIL finance distribution center and destroyed three ISIL fighting positions, two ISIL vehicle bombs, two ISIL mortar systems, four ISIL assembly areas and an ISIL tunnel and suppressed an ISIL tactical unit and denied ISIL access to terrain.

-- Near Sinjar, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL fighting position.

-- Near Sultan Abdallah, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit.

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 it poses to Iraq, Syria, the region and the wider international community. The destruction of targets in Syria and Iraq further limits ISIL'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, Denmark, France, Jordan, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.

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Marines wrap up Exercise Koolendong 2016 with live fire gas attack

US Marine Corps News

By 1st Lt. Sarah Rhodes | August 19, 2016

As the dust settled after thousands of rounds of ammunition were shot at targets on the foggy morning of August 18, 2016, Marines celebrated the end of the two week long Exercise Koolendong. The exercise took place in the heart of the Outback of Australia in Bradshaw Field Training Area, Northern Territory.

The Marines and sailors with 1st Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, Marine Rotational Force  Darwin conducted Koolendong, an annual infantry training exercise, with 4th Marine Regiment from Okinawa, Japan, 8th/12th Australian Artillery Regiment from Darwin, Australia and for the first time, the French Armed Forces New Caledonia.

Approximately 1,300 U.S. Marines and sailors, 100 Australian Defence Force and 50 FANC personnel completed a wide spectrum of infantry training activities to include live fire ranges, close air support, and a final capstone defensive live fire under chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear conditions.

"Koolendong is an opportunity to train as a Marine Air Ground Task Force in an austere expeditionary environment," said Lt. Col. Steven M. Sutey, commanding officer of 1st Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, MRF-D. "We are focusing on our core mission essential tasks, offense and defense, in a live fire environment and among some of the harshest conditions."

While the infantrymen made up the Ground Combat Element of the MAGTF, HMLA-367 took on the role of the Air Combat Element.

UH-1Y Huey helicopters were the primary support, taking part in several close air support evolutions, aerial command and control, armed reconnaissance, and forward air controller support for the Marines on the ground, providing the MRF-D with a full MAGTF capability.

"This training area has provided us a different environment to fly out of. We have the ability to work with different forces and bridge the gap between these forces," said1st Lt. Steve "Woody" Vining, an UH-1Y pilot with HMLA-367, MRF-D. "When the Marines are working to achieve an objective we have the ability to protect them from the air."

Throughout the two week exercise Marines destroyed several enemy positions and as the culminating event, the unit executed a battalion size defensive position, while working with the ACE for close air support.

This year, however, their unit added some extra flair.

Approximately 30 cans of CS gas were dropped into the fighting holes of the Marines holding defensive positions. While still sending rounds down range, Marines donned their masks and held the position.

The ability to training with CBRN in a live fire environment is limited, said Sutey. It provides the Marines with extra training we don't get to do very often.

For the past five-months Marines and sailors with Marine Rotational Force  Darwin, have been conducting training with their Australian counterparts throughout Australia from Shoalwater Bay, Cultana, and Bradshaw Training Areas.

Koolendong will be followed by exercise Kowari, a survival exercise in the Northern Territory, which will conclude the six-month long deployment for the Marines, who will be returning home in October.

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Pacific Partnership 2016 Arrives in Indonesia

Navy News Service

Story Number: NNS160819-06

Release Date: 8/19/2016 10:38:00 AM

By Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class William Cousins, Pacific Partnership Public Affairs

PADANG, Indonesia (NNS) -- Pacific Partnership 2016, embarked aboard hospital ship USNS Mercy (T-AH 19) arrived in Padang, Indonesia, Aug. 18 for the final mission stop of 2016.

This year marks the fifth time the mission has visited Indonesia and will include partner nations' military forces from Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, and the United States as well as experts from several non-governmental organizations including Project Hope and HOPE worldwide.

Pacific Partnership is visiting Indonesia to strengthen ties between partner nations in order to improve multinational cooperation for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR).

"We hope to build stronger partnerships, continue our long working relationship with our Indonesian counterparts and more importantly, we relish the unique opportunity to learn from these partnerships as we move forward," said Lt. Rebecca Wolf, country officer-in-charge of Indonesia for Pacific Partnership 2016.

Indonesian civilian and military personnel and Pacific Partnership personnel will work side-by-side during disaster response training; civil engineering projects; Women, Peace, and Security seminars; subject matter expert exchanges in medical procedure; and a live field training exercise that will improve the capacity of the local government and partner militaries to respond to an earthquake in the West Sumatra province.

"The medical projects are centered around subject matter expert exchange events and workshops focusing on dentistry, nursing, and medical considerations relating to natural disasters," said Wolf. "Educational outreach teams will also conduct eye screenings, dental and public health hygiene lectures alongside Indonesian counterparts."

Participating nations of the Pacific Partnership mission have worked with the people of Indonesia during times of calm and also crisis that include the 2004 and 2005 tsunami relief operations in Banda Aceh and responding in the aftermath of the Padang earthquake in 2009.

"Pacific Partnership's motto of 'preparing in calm to respond in crisis' highlights the importance of taking advantage of opportunities to mature the response capabilities and interoperability between all the nations involved with Pacific Partnership," said Lt. Col. Andrew Rice, Pacific Partnership 2016 deputy chief of staff, and lead HADR planner. "Natural disasters usually don't provide much of a warning. When they strike, we all have to be ready to respond in a coordinated, efficient fashion because lives can depend on it."

The HADR field training exercise in Indonesia will be the largest exercise of Pacific Partnership 2016. There will be more than 200 total participants involved in four locations in and around Padang. The scenario will involve Pacific Partnership personnel and participating Indonesian agencies, including local government leaders and the Indonesian military. The participating entities will need to plan and coordinate a collective response to two large earthquakes and the resulting aftermath.

"It's a very medically-focused scenario," said Rice, "so disaster medical response will be a large part of the efforts."

In addition to medical and HADR knowledge exchange events, U.S. Navy Seabees will work with Indonesian military engineers on three projects, including the construction of a community shelter and evacuation road that help build resiliency in the local community in case of natural disaster.

"Each of these countries we have gone to and each of these projects we have been a part of, it leaves me a little bit more humble," said Builder 3rd Class Garrett Barham, Amphibious Construction Battalion 1. "It's a great feeling knowing that what I am doing actually leaves an impact."

Before arriving in Indonesia, Pacific Partnership 2016 completed five mission stops in Timor Leste, the Philippines, Vietnam, Palau and Malaysia.

"I think the biggest impact is exactly what the country of Indonesia is looking for, as well as what Pacific Partnership is looking for -- a kind of big picture, unified understanding and knowledge of the all hazards response," said Kang. "I think the Indonesians have embraced the Pacific Partnership mission, in that they want to make sure that all of the countries involved have an extensive knowledge of responding to a humanitarian assistance [and] disaster relief effort."

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Statement of Cooperation Signing in Australia Aims to Advance Biofuels Development

Navy News Service

Story Number: NNS160819-14

Release Date: 8/19/2016 2:56:00 PM

By Chief Mass Communication Specialist Hendrick Simoes, U.S. 7th Fleet Public Affairs

BRISBANE, Australia (NNS) -- A statement of cooperation between the U.S. Navy and the northeastern state of Queensland was the culmination of a week of Great Green Fleet events in Australia to promote the Navy's energy efficiency and alternative energy initiatives.

Queensland's Premiere Annastacia Palaszczuk and U.S. Deputy Under Secretary of the Navy for Management Thomas Hicks signed a Statement of Cooperation to work together in support of projects that advance shared interests in alternative fuel development, Aug 17.

Both officials signed the Statement of Cooperation shortly after meeting and discussing energy security and the Great Green Fleet initiative.

The signing "memorializes" several years of progress and "what's to come," Hicks told reporters immediately after the signing at the Parliament House. "That's what's most exciting for us, is how these fuels that are developed here can be used not only for ourselves, but in private industry as well."

The document spells out a commitment for the U.S. Navy and Queensland to hold discussions on the research, development, supply and sale of alternative fuels, which can improve operational flexibility and increase energy security. The Statement of Cooperation is not a legally binding commitment and does not create a legal relationship between the U.S. Navy and Queensland.

"We look forward to what the future holds in working together as we go forward," Hicks said.

Earlier in the week, Hicks called the Great Green Fleet initiative "the new normal" in his remarks to Royal Australian Navy officials and industry representatives at an event aboard the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Stethem (DDG 63) Aug. 15, while the ship was conducting a port visit in Sydney to promote the Great Green Fleet initiative. Additionally, Stethem held a roundtable aboard for eight professionals working in the clean energy sector, and sent personnel to speak to roughly 40 high school students at the Powerhouse Museum, a major branch of the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences in Sydney, about how the U.S. Navy is transforming its energy use to increase combat capability. The visit coincided with National Science Week in Australia.

During Hicks' five-day visit to Australia, he also met with high-ranking Royal Australian Navy officials, the U.S. ambassador, industry leaders, academia, and caucus members at the Queensland Parliament to highlight the U.S. Navy's commitment to alternative energy and energy efficiency measures, learn about new developments in the alternative fuels industry in Australia, and to urge greater research on the benefits of alternative fuel.

The yearlong Great Green Fleet initiative deployed in early 2016 to highlight how energy efficient technology and procedures and alternative energy can provide increased combat capability and flexibility in an operational environment - essentially enabling U.S. Navy ships to go farther, stay longer and deliver more firepower.

Many U.S. Navy ships operating in the Pacific Ocean this year have been powered by an alternative fuel blend containing 10 percent advanced biofuel derived from beef tallow provided by Midwest farmers. The blend requires no changes to engine modifications or operational procedures, is cost-competitive with traditional fuel, and was purchased from a California-based producer as part of the Defense Logistics Agency's normal bulk fuel procurement process.

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Southern Partnership Station 2016 Doctors Fight Against Zika in Honduras

Navy News Service

Story Number: NNS160819-18

Release Date: 8/19/2016 3:37:00 PM

By Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Torrey W. Lee, Southern Partnership Station 2016 Public Affairs

SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras (NNS) -- Seven U.S. Navy medical personnel, deployed in support of Southern Partnership Station 2016 (SPS-16) partnered with the Honduran health workers of Operation Blessing to provide preventive medicine education and combat the Zika virus.

Southern Partnership Station 2016 (SPS-16) is a U.S. Southern Command-directed operation planned by Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command (COMUSNAVSO)/Commander, U.S. Fourth Fleet (C4F) and carried out by deployed adaptive force packages (AFPs) in Honduras, El Salvador and Colombia.

AFPs are specialized military teams from Navy Expeditionary Combat Command (NECC), Navy Environmental and Preventive Medicine Unit 2, Navy Bureau of Medicine subordinate commands, the U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Army, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Coast Guard and civilian personnel that focus on locally identified needs such as port security, non-commissioned officer professional development, operational risk managements and medical readiness, among others.

This year, the medical AFP deployed to Honduras conducted a subject matter expert exchange (SMEE) with Honduran medical personnel, which centered on the Zika virus and preventative treatments to promote environmental health. AFPs deployed as part of SPS-16 will collaborate with partner nations in Central and South America, working hand-in-hand to build partner capabilities in the fields of law enforcement, junior officer development, medical readiness and construction.

"Our ultimate goal is to build a partnership by improving the health infrastructure here in Honduras," said Lt. Cmdr. Patrick McKenna, SPS-16's medical team leader. "As we went through the planning process our ideas evolved. Our initial focus was on women's health and water issues, but when Zika became a world issue, we shifted our focus."

SPS-16's medical team is equipped with entomologists specializing in mosquitoes, clinical nurses, preventive medical personnel, and a gynecologist.

"When it comes to the Zika [virus] and preventive medicine, it's not a one-stop deal," said Cmdr. Tony Silvetti, the team's gynecologist. "To change the environment, we have to change the mindset. We have to educate the kids, talk to the adults, and work with our medical subject matter experts."

Silvetti came to Honduras with a goal to educate as many people as possible about the various environmental diseases caused by sanitation issues. He didn't intend to only consult patients during the mission, but reach out to the youth population through child-friendly training.

To maximize the team's outreach, the Navy's personnel partnered with the nonprofit organization, Operation Blessing. Honduras National Director Hilda Romero leads Operation Blessing, and her organization provided a bridge between the U.S. service members and the people of Honduras.

"We're in the middle of this crisis, preventing Zika, and when the military asked the locals what they could do to help, we said that there was plenty to do," said Romero.

To achieve the goal of reducing Zika, Operation Blessing has began implementing biological pesticides to limit mosquito larva development. The organization gives Monte Verde villagers tortoises and tilapia that are trained to eat mosquito larva to place in their standing water for washing clothes. Without these animals, the mosquito breeding rate would exceed 40 percent, increasing the risk for mosquito-borne illnesses.

Romero said she believed the U.S. service members and Hondurans could learn from each other. She explained how the people of Monte Verde live a very different life, where water and medical attention isn't always readily accessible. Many of the practices used in Honduras are not conventional for many Americans.

"This has been just the first few days and I feel like we accomplished a lot," said McKenna. "As long as we strengthen this relationship, that in itself will be a success."

SPS-16 is an annual series of U.S. Navy deployments focused on subject matter expert exchanges with partner nation militaries and security forces in Central and South America and the Caribbean. U.S. military teams work with partner nation forces during naval-focused training exercises, military-to-military engagements and community relations projects in an effort to enhance partnerships with regional maritime activities and improve the operational readiness of participants.

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Incessant Saudi airstrikes kill 11 in Yemen

Iran Press TV

Fri Aug 19, 2016 3:0PM

Nearly a dozen civilians, including two children, have been killed and several others injured when Saudi military aircraft mounted a raft of fresh airstrikes on various residential areas in crisis-plagued Yemen.

A civilian, identified as Abdullah al-Sharif, lost his life along his two children as Saudi fighters struck their house in the al-Matammah district of the northern Yemeni province of al-Jawf on Friday afternoon, Arabic-language al-Masirah satellite television network reported.

Saudi warplanes also pounded an outdoor market in the province's Khabb wa ash Sha'af district, leaving at least two people dead and nine others injured. Local sources said the number of casualties would further rise due to the extent of the damage caused.

Elsewhere in Yemen's western coastal province of Hudaydah, four people were killed and a number of others injured when Saudi jets hit al-Khawkhah district.

Furthermore, Saudi warplanes targeted a vehicle traveling along a road in Baqim district of the northern mountainous province of Sa'ada, killing the two occupants of the car.

Earlier in the day, Yemeni soldiers, backed by fighters from allied Popular Committees, launched a number of artillery rounds at the Nahouqah military camp in Saudi Arabia's southern border region of Najran. There were no immediate reports of casualties and the extent of damage inflicted.

A Saudi military vehicle was also destroyed east of al-Rabouah city in Asir region when Yemeni forces fired an anti-armor guided missile.

Yemen has seen almost daily military attacks by Saudi Arabia since late March 2015, with internal sources putting the toll from the bloody aggression at about 10,000. The offensive was launched to crush the Houthi Ansarullah movement and their allies and restore power to the resigned Yemeni president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi.

The Houthi fighters took state matters into their own hands after the resignation and escape of Hadi, which threw Yemen into a state of uncertainty and threatened a total security breakdown in the country, where an al-Qaeda affiliate is present.

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Yemen forces cut off Saudi supply line

Iran Press TV

Fri Aug 19, 2016 9:34AM

Yemen's Ansarullah fighters and allied army units have cut off the main supply route used by invading Saudi Arabian forces between the Aden and Ta'izz provinces in the impoverished country's southwest.

Yemen's al-Masirah television reported the development on Friday, saying that the pathway had been being used as the main channel by the invaders to procure arms and ammunitions.

Separately, in west-central Yemen, the Yemeni forces recaptured the areas that had been seized by Saudi mercenaries in the Ma'rib Province.

Sources, meanwhile, reported that a Bahraini trooper fighting alongside the Saudi forces had been killed during border clashes between the Yemeni forces and the Saudi military in northwestern Yemen. The soldier has been identified as Issa Abdullah Badr Aid.

Also on Thursday, two Saudi unmanned aerial vehicles went down in the Nihm district of the Sana'a province, similarly located in west-central Yemen, and the Sa'ada province in the country's extreme northwest.

Yemen has been under Saudi military strikes since late March 2015. The war was launched in a bid to undermine the Houthi Ansarullah movement and to reinstate Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, who has stepped down as Yemen's president but is now seeking to grab power by force.

The aerial campaign, carried out without any international mandate, has killed about 10,000 people, most of them civilians, according to local Yemeni sources.

Recently, Paris-based relief agency Doctors Without Borders (MSF) announced that it was evacuating its staff from six hospitals in northern Yemen, following a recent Saudi bombing of an MSF-run hospital in Yemen.

The international charity organization said it could not get assurances that its hospitals will not be bombed Saudi Arabia again.

Subsequently, the Saudi-led troops' central command expressed "deep regret" over the MSF's decision and said it was trying to set up "urgent meetings" with the medical aid group.

Saudi Arabia has several times targeted MSF-run hospitals. The most recent case was carried out on Monday on the Abs Hospital in Yemen's Hajjah Province. The airstrike killed at least 19 hospital staff and patients and wounded 24 others.

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South Sudan rebel leader safe in neighboring DR Congo: UN

Iran Press TV

Fri Aug 19, 2016 6:21AM

South Sudan's rebel leader and former first vice president Riek Machar has fled to the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the United Nations says.

UN spokesman Farhan Haq said Thursday that Congolese authorities had asked the world body's mission in DRC (MONUSCO) to facilitate the transfer of Machar and his family from a location near the border with South Sudan to a safe place.

He said the UN mission had "no involvement" in Machar's departure from South Sudan.

"He has been handed over to the DRC authorities," the UN official said, adding that the transfer was done for "humanitarian reasons" and "with his consent."

Haq further said Machar was in danger and was provided with whatever medical assistance he needed.

The spokesman declined to provide further details about his location in the county, but an unnamed source told AFP that Machar could be in the capital, Kinshasa.

The source said Machar wanted "to go as soon as possible to Ethiopia."

Earlier on Thursday, a South Sudanese opposition spokesman had said Machar went to a "safe country within the region" and was expected to hold a news conference on Friday.

Machar's spokesman James Gatdet Dak said in a separate statement that rebel forces had managed to foil what he called a "ruthless attempt" by President Salva Kiir to kill Machar.

South Sudan civil war: A timeline of events

December 2013: Fighting erupts after Kiir accuses Machar of plotting to overthrow him.

January 2014: A ceasefire is signed between the government and the opposition.

August 2014: First round of talks begins in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa as fighting continues in violation of the peace deal.

February 2015: The government calls off general elections due in June that year because of the ongoing conflict.

August 2015: The president signs an internationally-mediated peace deal under which, Machar will return as vice-president.

April 2016: Machar returns to Juba and is sworn in as first vice-president in a new unity government.

July 2016: Kiir sacks Machar after a new wave of fighting erupts. Machar leaves Juba with his troops, saying he would return only if an international peacekeeping force guarantees his safety.

August 2016: The opposition figure flees the country.

So far, thousands of people have been killed and more than three million forced to flee their homes in the war, which broke out only two years after the country seceded from Sudan to become the world's youngest nation.

'Juba army recruiting minors'

In another development, the United Nations revealed that the government in Juba has recruited child soldiers over the past week in preparation for a new conflict.

According to an internal UN document obtained by the Associated Press on Friday, Kiir appointed a senior politician to lead the recruitment of an entire village of boys. The boys, some of them as young as 12-year-old, are being intimidated, according to the UN.

"At this precarious stage in South Sudan's short history, UNICEF fears that a further spike in child recruitment could be imminent," said Justin Forsyth, deputy executive director for the UN children's fund.

At least 16,000 children have been recruited into armed groups in South Sudan since December 2013.

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MSF leaving Yemen after Saudi airstrikes on hospitals

Iran Press TV

Fri Aug 19, 2016 1:34AM

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has announced that it is evacuating its staff from six hospitals in northern Yemen, saying it cannot get assurances that its hospitals will not be bombed again by Saudi warplanes.

The decision was "never taken lightly," said the Paris-based relief agency in a statement on Thursday, condemning the Saudi "indiscriminate bombings and unreliable reassurances".

"Given the intensity of the current offensive and our loss of confidence in the Saudi-led coalition to prevent such fatal attacks, MSF considers the hospitals in Sa'ada and Hajjah governorates unsafe for both patients and staff," it added.

The MSF decision to pull its staff out of the war-torn country was made following a number of deadly Saudi airstrikes on MSF-run hospitals, the most recent of which was carried out on Monday on Abs Hospital in Hajjah province. The airstrike killed at least 19 hospital staff and patients and wounded 24 others.

In a report released on May, the international aid agency said at least 100 staff members, patients and caretakers had lost their lives and 130 others had sustained injures due to the Saudi aerial attacks on over 80 MSF-supported and run health structures in 2015 and early 2016.

The MSF said that it had held two meetings with high-ranking Saudi officials involved in the war on Yemen in the past eight months and had been assured that attacks on hospitals would end.

"Aerial bombings have however continued, despite the fact that MSF has systematically shared the GPS coordinates of hospitals in which the organization works with the parties involved in the conflict," the statement further read.

Yemen has been under Saudi military strikes since late March 2015. The war was launched in a bid to undermine the Houthi Ansarullah movement and to reinstate Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, who has stepped down as Yemen's president but is now seeking to grab power by force.

The air campaign, carried out without any international mandate, has killed about 10,000 people, most of them civilians, according to local Yemeni sources.

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New Polish Tank Anders Unlikely to Become 'Killer' of Russian Armata

Sputnik News

19:52 19.08.2016

Recently Russian media reported that in the near future Poland is planning to seriously bolster the combat capabilities of its armed forces, including the increase in military equipment and weapons.

According to a report by consulting firm Deloitte, Warsaw will increase military spending by 3-7 percent annually until 2020. Tank brigades are usually considered the basic component of conventional ground warfare.

Currently, there are 892 tanks with the Polish Armed Forces, the forth-largest fleet in NATO, after the United States, Turkey and Greece. It is interesting that all the vehicles are so-called third-generation tanks. In addition, Poland is now the only country in the European Union to develop a new tank, the PL-01 Anders.

The new tank is being developed by local company OBRUM with the support from Britain's BAE Systems. Mass production is scheduled for 2018.

The project is remarkable for the Polish military because the new tank will allow for replacing German-made Leopard-2 tanks, according to the Russian news website Life.ru. Moreover, some in Poland say the PL-01 would be rival to the newest Russian T-14 tank based on the versatile Armata platform.

Russian military expert Konstantin Sivkov doubted that Poland would be able to create a breakthrough combat machine.

"In order to build a good tank, a serious technical and engineering background is needed. Such countries as the US, Russia, Germany, Britain, France and China can do that. But Poland totally lacks experience in developing tanks. In the past, they modified Britain and Soviet machines. Now, they might take the German Leopard and make something out of it," Sivkov told Sputnik.

However, the expert suggested that Poland is unlikely to make a revolution in the tank industry.

One of the main problems Poland will face is the absence of a capable gun for the new tank, he pointed out.

"Another problem is developing composite armor with active dynamic protection. Poland does not have the technologies to produce this type of armor, unlike Israel, Russia, Germany and Britain. For example, Russia has unique active protection systems like the Drozd and the Arena. Israel has similar systems. And that's all," the expert said.

As a result, any assumptions that the PL-01 would be the killer of the Armata are false, Sivkov concluded.

 Sputnik

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Afghan Government Forces Fail to Wrestle Kunduz Province From Taliban

Sputnik News

16:10 19.08.2016

Afghanistan's government forces failed to maintain control over most of the northern Kunduz province amid growing Taliban presence in the area, a Kunduz provincial council member said.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The Kunduz province has been a hotbed of Taliban activity in Afghanistan. In September 2015, the Taliban seized the 300,000-large provincial capital city of Kunduz after months of fighting between the militants and government forces.

"I mentioned this in the past that 70 percent of Kunduz is under the control of militants, but now the percentage has increased after another district fallen to insurgents  including most parts of Dasth-e-Archi district. We are concerned about the situation and so are the residents," council deputy head Zargul Alemi said, as quoted by the TOLOnews channel on Friday.

The regional capital was wrestled back from the Taliban in October, but the militants continued making advances elsewere in 2016, capturing the Qala-e-Zal district in July as well as gaining control over most of the Archi district and making advances in the Imam Sahib district.

Taliban fighters have overran up to 90 percent of the Archi district, Alemi said, adding that the government only controls four roads in the entire province.

Afghanistan is experiencing significant political, social and security-related instability, as radical extremist organizations, including the Taliban, continue to stage attacks against civilian and state targets. The Taliban now controls more territory than at any time since 2001, according to the United Nations.

 Sputnik

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Manila Gets First of 10 Patrol Vessels Paid for by Japan as China Rises

Sputnik News

03:21 19.08.2016

On Thursday, the Philippines received one of 10 promised Japanese-funded patrol vessels, paid for by an assistance loan aimed at helping the country expand its nautical capacity while in the midst of a territorial conflict with Beijing over the South China Sea.

The vessel, a 44-meter multipurpose watercraft named BRP Tubbataha, was built by the Japan Marine United Corp in Yokohama, and assigned to the Philippine Coast Guard. The loan funding the construction of the Tubbataha is established at some 7.3 billion pesos ($158 million), and has been furnished by the Japan International Cooperation Agency.

Along with the patrol vessels, Japan plans to lease up to five Maritime Self-Defense Force TC-90 training aircraft to Manila.

Coast Guard chief Rear Adm. William Melad said at the vessel's welcoming ceremony, "In the past few years, we have all been witness to the growing and evolving challenges that the Philippine Coast Guard is facing, and the maritime community and the sea-traveling public also had to face. Who could forget the devastation and horror brought about by Super Typhoon Yolanda?" That storm, also known as Typhoon Haiyan, killed over 6,300 people when it hit the Philippines in 2013.

Melad continued, "Who would not be angered by violations committed against our maritime laws that sometimes resulted in maritime accidents or even casualties? And who could afford to take the bullying of our fishermen within our maritime jurisdiction?" he added, "These instances have reverberated the call for a modern and equipped Philippine Coast Guard that can speedily respond to cries for help and engage in rescue and rehabilitation efforts, one that has technical capability to match against poachers, smugglers, human and drug traffickers, and one that can stand up for the country's citizens against maritime bullies."

According to coast guard spokesman Armando Balilo, the BRP Tubbataha will be used on mission to the West Philippine Sea, one of the contested areas where the Philippines is claiming jurisdiction.

Manila has long protested the claims of China to control the South China Sea. Beijing's attempts to keep Filipino fishermen away from resource-rich Scarborough Shoal, which contains a deployment of energy-surveying ships at Reed Bank, is another hotspot between the countries. Based on the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, these features are within the Philippines' 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone.

The Philippines sought international arbitration on the issue in 2013, and the Hague ruled against Beijing's "nine-dash line" claim to most of the South China Sea last month. Manila was also able achieve legal affirmation for its fishermen to ply their trade near Scarborough Shoal.

China was criticized by the Hague's Permanent Court of Arbitration for causing massive environmental damage through its construction on the sea's contested areas. China maintains the Hague has no jurisdiction in the issue.

Malaysia, Brunei, Taiwan and Vietnam also have overlying claims in the sea lane, which is believed to contain considerable amounts of natural gas and oil.

 Sputnik

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'We cannot and will not leave anyone behind,' says UN chief on World Humanitarian Day

19 August 2016  With a record 130 million people worldwide now dependent on humanitarian assistance, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stressed that though solutions to the crises that plunged these people into such desperate hardship are neither simple nor quick, "there are things we can all do  today, and every day. We can show compassion, we can raise our voices against injustice, and we can work for change."

"World Humanitarian Day is an annual reminder of the need to act to alleviate the suffering," said Mr. Ban in his message on the Day, which he said is also an occasion to honour the humanitarian workers and volunteers toiling on the frontlines of crises and pay tribute to these dedicated women and men who brave danger to help others at far greater risk.

Noting that a record 130 million people are dependent on humanitarian assistance to survive, he said while these figures are truly staggering, they tell only a fraction of the story. Hidden behind the statistics are individual's families and communities whose lives have been devastated.

"From parents who must choose between buying food or medicine for their children to families who must risk bombing at home or a perilous escape by sea; their stories have led up to the creation of these initiatives," said the UN chief.

"Today, I urge everyone to sign on to the United Nations World You'd Rather campaign, which is at the heart of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), said Mr. Ban. The 17 global goals offer a 15-year plan to reduce need and vulnerability, promoting a world of peace, dignity and opportunity for all.

"We need everyone to play their part. Each one of us can make a difference, "continued Mr. Ban.

Earlier this year, 9,000 participants gathered in Istanbul for the first-ever World Humanitarian Summit. World leaders committed to transform the lives of people living in conflict, disaster and acute vulnerability. They rallied behind the Agenda for Humanity and its pledge to leave no one behind.

The Secretary-General encouraged involvement as well as raising awareness and building empathy, the new campaign has a concrete goal: to raise money for the UN's Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) and to enrol the support of individuals everywhere as Messengers of Humanity.

"On this World Humanitarian Day, let us unite in the name of humanity and show that we cannot and will not leave anyone behind," said the Secretary-General.

At today's annual memorial service in honour of fallen UN staff on the anniversary of the Canal Hotel bombing in Iraq, UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson said that "those who attack the United Nations want to make us afraid, feel weak and to retreat" but "those we honour today inspire us to be bold and determined to go forward."

"This challenge we meet all over the world today  from Syria to South Sudan, from Yemen to Libya, from Somalia to Afghanistan, where humanitarian workers and peacekeepers have lost or are risking their lives," he said.

Noting that 22 people were killed in the hotel bombing in Baghdad on 19 August 2003, Mr. Eliasson said that World Humanitarian Day is an occasion to recall and remember colleagues who lost their lives in their mission to help people in conflict and in desperate need.

"This tragedy touched all of us who believe in the United Nations and who understand that our blue flag only flies because committed people wave it  like our friends and colleagues in Baghdad," he said.

He concluded that having lost colleagues not only in Iraq but all over the world before and since then  the most important thing is to work in an even more determined way, never losing faith in the role of the UN and in "our own responsibility to work for peace, development and human rights."

UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Stephen O'Brien warned that crises around the world, from Syria to South Sudan, are forcing people to make impossible choices  risking violence for food or risking drowning in search of a safe haven, calling on all global citizens to show solidarity, use their voice and demand that world leaders take action.

"At the heart of World Humanitarian Day are the aid workers and volunteers who have sacrificed their lives in the line of duty," he noted.

Joining the call for action are renowned Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Game of Thrones actress Natalie Dormer, Arab Idol winner Mohammed Assaf, Tony Award winner and former Hamilton star Leslie Odom Jr., Quantico actress Yasmine Al Massri and The Voice Season 10 winner Alisan Porter, who will attend a commemorative event at the UN Headquarters in New York tonight.

Syrian refugee Hala Kamil, who fled Aleppo with her four children to find safety in Germany, will also speak at the event. Their story is the subject of the film "Watani, My Homeland" by director Marcel Mettelsiefen, which is now streaming on PBS as the documentary "Children of Syria."

Addressing an audience in the iconic General Assembly Hall just one month ahead of the UN Summit on refugees and migrants, Kamil will call on world leaders to uphold their responsibilities to help the women, men and children who are forced to flee their homes due to conflict.

More than halfway through the year, the UN and its partners have received less than a third of the $21.6 billion required to meet the most urgent humanitarian needs in 2016.

Celebrity activists and influencers, including actress Rosario Dawson, entrepreneur Richard Branson, and Chobani CEO Hamdi Ulukaya, will amplify this call for change through the "The World You'd Rather" campaign.

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UN rights office urges Ethiopia to ensure independent probe of reported violations in Oromia region

19 August 2016  Voicing concern over serious human rights violations in the Oromia and Amhara regions of Ethiopia earlier this month, the United Nations human rights chief today urged the Government to ensure access for independent observers to affected areas and to work towards opening up political and democratic reforms.

Against the backdrop of extremely alarming reports on human rights abuses during public protests over the weekend of 6-8 August, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, appealed to the Ethiopian authorities for allowing human rights experts to access to the conflict zones and evaluate the situation.

"We welcome the decision to launch an independent investigation, and we urge the Government to ensure that the investigation has a mandate to cover allegations of human rights violations since the unrest in Oromia began in November 2015," Ravina Shamdasani, a spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), told reporters in Geneva.

She went on to stress that the probe should be "indeed independent, transparent, thorough and effective, with a view to establishing whether the use of excessive force occurred and with a view to bringing to justice the perpetrators of any human rights violations."

The UN rights office is ready to assist in ensuring that the investigation is abide by international human rights standards. However, she said, it is critical to have access to areas where have been reported of ongoing arbitrary arrests, intimidation and harassment of people in the regions.

"We call on the Government to ensure that the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and expression are protected and that those detained for exercising these rights are promptly released," said Ms. Shamdasani.

She further urged the Government to work towards opening up the political and democratic space, including comprehensive security sector, legislative, and institutional reforms.

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Humanitarian Crisis Grips Northeast Nigeria, UN Agency Says

By Lisa Schlein August 19, 2016

A catastrophic humanitarian situation is unfolding in northeast Nigeria, where Boko Haram Islamists have displaced nearly 2 million people since 2013, the U.N. refugee agency said Friday.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said the extent of the suffering to which Boko Haram victims have been subjected was only now becoming visible. It said government forces' advances into the Islamist group's previous stronghold in northeast Nigeria had exposed the destitution of the displaced population.

UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards said aid agencies could not move around freely amid the continuing military campaign. He said that the situation in the region remained dangerous and volatile and that it was impossible to go to some areas without a military escort.

Edwards said the suffering in Borno and Yobe states was shocking. He cited numerous reports of human rights violations, including deaths, sexual violence, disappearances, forced recruitment, forced religious conversions and attacks on civilian sites.

He said population of Bama, the largest city in Borno after the capital, Maiduguri, had been deeply traumatized. Many of the displaced are women, children and the elderly, he said.

"We have seen adults so exhausted they are unable to move, children with swollen faces and hollow eyes and other clear indications of acute malnutrition," Edwards said. "Many also show signs of severe trauma. We have people screaming at night. We have aggression among children. People complain about a lack of food and water."

Regional crisis

Edwards said that with the lack of security along the borders with Niger, Chad and northern Cameroon, the insurgency in northeast Nigeria had turned into a vast regional crisis, with immense suffering among both the Nigerian refugees and internally displaced nationals.

"One consequence is that Nigerian refugees are fleeing back into their own country, into one of the most catastrophic areas as far as humanitarian needs are concerned that we are seeing at the moment," he said. "So, it is moving, it is dynamic. It is very difficult, and the insecurity, as I said, it is making it a very tough job indeed, getting these people the help that they desperately need."

The UNHCR is scaling up its operations to provide lifesaving assistance to nearly 500,000 people. The World Food Program and U.N. children's fund said they were trying to reach more than 700,000 people in desperate need.

The beneficiaries are concentrated in 10 newly liberated local government areas in Borno state, but the U.N. agencies said the thousands of refugees who have returned to Nigeria from the three Lake Chad Basin neighbors also urgently needed care.

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19-22 August 1991 Coup

Gorbachev hoped that he could at least hold the union together in a decentralized form. However, in the eyes of the remaining CPSU conservatives, he had gone too far because his new union treaty dispersed too much of the central government's power to the republics. On August 19, 1991, one day before Gorbachev and a group of republic leaders were due to sign the union treaty, a group calling itself the State Emergency Committee attempted to seize power in Moscow. The group announced that Gorbachev was ill and had been relieved of his state post as president. Soviet Union vice president Gennadiy Yanayev was named acting president. The committee's eight members included KGB chairman Vladimir Kryuchkov, Internal Affairs Minister Pugo, Defense Minister Dmitriy Yazov, and Prime Minister Pavlov, all of whom had risen to their posts under Gorbachev.

On August 19-21, 1991, a group of plotters made an attempt to preserve the Soviet Union as it was, in a desperate effort to avert the disintegration of the country. However, the coup against Mikhail Gorbachev failed miserably. A state of emergency was declared in Moscow and troops were brought in to the city on Aug. 19, 1991. "Compatriots! Citizens of the Soviet Union! In this difficult and critical hour for the fate of our fatherland and our peoples we turn to you! Deadly danger awaits our great homeland! The policy of reforms that Mikhail Gorbachev initiated as a means of guaranteeing dynamic development of our country and the democratization of society, due to a series of reasons, has reached a dead end.

The State Committee on the State of Emergency (GKChP) pronounced these anxious words to the Soviet citizens on Aug. 19, informing them that plotters were attempting to seize power in an attempt to derail the reforms implemented by Soviet premier Gorbachev. This was the first time the people had heard of the GKChP. Taking advantage of the liberties given them, trampling on the fresh buds of democracy, extremist forces have appeared and intend to liquidate the Soviet Union, destroy the government and seize power at any cost," declared the GKChP. The committee, which had been formed just a day earlier, included representatives of the Soviet top brass: the head of the KGB, the prime minister and the vice president of the USSR. The latter, Gennady Yanayev, issued a decree appointing himself head of the government, justifying this by Gorbachev's poor health.

Gorbachev himself, who was preparing a new constitution project that would have turned the USSR into a loose confederation, was detained by coup participants in Crimea, where he was on holiday. The GKChP introduced censorship and restricted TV broadcasting. The TV stations, having changed their broadcast programs, were constantly showing Swan Lake, which many people still associate with those events.

The committee lasted for only three days. The "putschists," as the GKChP members were later called by allies of popular Russian leader Boris Yeltsin, could not overpower the center of opposition to the GKChP, which in those days was the White House in Moscow, where the Russian government was located. The committee members decided not to storm the building. By that time Yeltsin's entourage was able to bring Gorbachev back from Crimea, and the GKChP members were subsequently arrested.

Boris Yeltsin, who had been elected President of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic two months earlier, was the biggest winner from the coup's defeat. The authority of his main political rival, Mikhail Gorbachev (along with that of all the Soviet administration and the USSR as a political project itself), was irreversibly undermined.

Yeltsin's supporters (during the GKChP days thousands of people came to defend the White House) perceived the coup attempt as an intention to return to the past, to the pre-perestroika period of the Soviet Union. This would have been impossible, since by the time of the coup the process of the USSR's dissolution had already acquired an irreversible inertia  the putsch's success would have only prolonged the agony. The USSR was doomed, no matter what the GKChP members might have done, by tahe collapse of the Soviet economy due to the distortions resulting from Peristroika. This meant that any moves aimed at preserving the Soviet Union by the committee members were also doomed to failure. The problem with the USSR was that even before Gorbachev came to power the Soviet administration had lost strategic aims for developing the country, aims that earlier were formed within the framework of Communist ideology.

There is, however, the opinion that the GKChP had a chance of being successful had the committee's members been more prepared for seizing power. From the military point of view, in 1991 everything was done very poorly, says Dmitry Andreyev, a historian and political scientist at Moscow State University. But Andreyev does not believe that the GKChP did not have a program. In its statements to the Soviet citizens the committee spoke of private enterprise, democratization, and the fight against crime, among other things.

Viktor Militarev, member of the Council of National Strategy, a non-governmental expert organization, is also convinced that the GKChP had a chance of prevailing. He believes that the GKChP would have conducted policies that in principle would not have been different from Gorbachev's. "The GKChP's public statements appeared threatening during the few days they were in power because they did not have good image-makers. But this does not mean that they actually wanted to impose a dictatorship. In essence, they wanted the same thing that Gorbachev did ([he preservation of the USSR  RBTH]," explains Militarev.

Large public demonstrations against the coup leaders took place in Moscow and Leningrad, and divided loyalties in the defense and security establishments prevented the armed forces from crushing the resistance that Yeltsin led from Russia's parliament building. On August 21, the coup collapsed, and Gorbachev returned to Moscow.

Once back in Moscow, Gorbachev acted as if he were oblivious to the changes that had occurred in the preceding three days. As he returned to power, Gorbachev promised to purge conservatives from the CPSU. He resigned as general secretary but remained president of the Soviet Union. The failed putsch further destabilized the Soviet state, which was already coming apart because of a steady loss of faith in the Soviet Union's ruling communist ideology and rising nationalism in its constituent republics. The coup's failure brought a series of collapses of all-union institutions. Yeltsin took control of the central broadcasting company and key economic ministries and agencies, and in November he banned the CPSU and the Russian Communist Party.

By December 1991, all of the republics had declared independence, and negotiations over a new union treaty began anew. Both the Soviet Union and the United States had recognized the independence of the Baltic republics in September. For several months after his return to Moscow, Gorbachev and his aides made futile attempts to restore stability and legitimacy to the central institutions. In November seven republics agreed to a new union treaty that would form a confederation called the Union of Sovereign States. But Ukraine was unrepresented in that group, and Yeltsin soon withdrew to seek additional advantages for Russia. In the absence of the CPSU, there was no way to keep the Soviet Union together. From Yeltsin's perspective, Russia's participation in another union would be senseless because inevitably Russia would assume responsibility for the increasingly severe economic woes of the other republics.

On December 8, Yeltsin and the leaders of Belarus (which adopted that name in August 1991) and Ukraine met at Minsk, the capital of Belarus, where they created the Commonwealth of Independent States and annulled the 1922 union treaty that had established the Soviet Union. Another signing ceremony was held in Alma-Ata on December 21 to expand the CIS to include the five republics of Central Asia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. Georgia did not join until 1993; the three Baltic republics never joined. On December 25, 1991, the Soviet Union ceased to exist. Exactly six years after Gorbachev had appointed Boris Yeltsin to run the Moscow city committee of the party, Yeltsin now was president of the largest successor state to the Soviet Union.

In a Levada Center poll conducted in late July 2016, respondents were asked to assess the failed August 1991 coup. Thirty percent of the respondents called it a tragic event which had disastrous consequences for the country and the people, while 35 percent called it just an episode of power struggle in the top leadership of the country. Only 8 percent called it the victory of a democratic revolution that ended the power of the Communist Party, while 27 percent said they were undecided about how to assess it. Asked whether they would come out to protect Russian democracy if something like the 1991 coup attempt happened today, 16 percent of the respondents answered yes, 44 percent answered no while the rest said they didnt know whether they would or not.

Vladimir Putin once called the dissolution of the Soviet Union the greatest geopolitical tragedy of the 20th century. He rolled back many of the democratic reforms Gorbachev inaugurated three decades ago.

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Nation's next generation of missiles to be highly flexible

People's Daily Online

By Zhao Lei (China Daily) 09:43, August 19, 2016

China's next-generation cruise missiles will be developed based on a modular design, allowing them to be tailor-made for specific combat situations, and will have a high level of artificial intelligence, according to a senior missile designer.

Wang Changqing, director of the General Design Department of the Third Academy of the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp, told China Daily in an exclusive interview on Thursday that future com-bat will require weapons to be cost-efficient and flexible. Therefore, the modular design will be a good solution, he said.

Wang's department has developed a large family of cruise missiles for the Chinese military.

"We plan to adopt a 'plug and play' approach in the development of new cruise missiles, which will enable our military commanders to tailor-make missiles in accordance with combat conditions and their specific requirements, he said on the sidelines of the 2016 Hiwing Forum in Beijing. The forum focused on artificial intelligence and unmanned equipment.

"Moreover, our future cruise missiles will have a very high level of artificial intelligence and automation," he said. "They will allow commanders to control them in a real-time manner, or to use a fire-and-forget mode, or even to add more tasks to in-flight missiles."

Chinese engineers have researched the use of artificial intelligence in missiles for many years, and they are leading the world in this field, he said.

Modular design is not new to the world's missile developers. The European missile developer and manufacturer MBDA displayed its CVW102 Flexis modular missile concept at last year's Paris Air Show. The system will allow missiles to be configured, according to mission requirements.

The CVW102 Flexis is designed for an aircraft carrier strike group. Missiles will be selected and assembled with different warheads, engines and guidance devices based on target information, according to a report on advanced missiles published by the Beijing Hiwing Scientific and Technological Information Institute, which researches aerodynamic missiles and unmanned systems.

A senior researcher at the institute who requested anonymity said a modular missile system is flexible and multifunctional. This will help manufacturers reduce development and storage costs and will enable a military user, such as an aircraft carrier, to prolong the operational range and duration of a mission.

"It is a promising approach in terms of the design of next-generation missiles, but we should also consider its technological complexity and production costs," he said.

Wang Ya'nan, editor-in-chief of Aerospace Knowledge magazine, said a modular missile will be capable of changing its destructive capacity, flight mode and range, and so is suitable for striking targets on the ground or at sea.

"However, engineers will have to make sure such a missile can be assembled within a very short period of time. Otherwise, the best time to engage the target will be missed," he said.

Fang Yuan contributed to this story.

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China set to boslter military support for Syria: Media

Iran Press TV

Fri Aug 19, 2016 10:26AM

Media outlets and political analysts view a recent visit by a top Chinese military officer to Syria as a show of support for the Damascus government, which is engaged in heavy anti-terror battles with the help of its allies, including Russia and Iran.

China's official Xinhua news agency said in a commentary that recent visit by Guan Youfei, the Chinese military official charged with overseeing international cooperation, signaled Beijing's willingness to boost military cooperation with the Damascus government.

This is while the newspaper Global Times cited the Chinese Defense Ministry as saying that both sides agreed to expand personnel training and humanitarian aid to Syrians via the Chinese military.

The Chinese military "is willing to strengthen cooperation with its Syrian counterparts," it quoted the ministry as saying.

The visit comes as Beijing has also warned of the potential threat posed by Chinese militants returning to the country after fighting alongside Takfiri terrorist groups such as Daesh in Syria and Iraq. The Chinese military is involved in fighting a foreign-backed militancy in some troubled regions across China.

Meanwhile, Wang Lian of the School of International Studies at Peking University said the visit took place in the wake of recent Turkish efforts to warm relations with Russia, which is a key supporter of the Syrian government.

"More likely, the Chinese military wanted to use Guan's trip to better understand the current state of the turmoil in Syria," Wang said. "In developing a closer relationship with Syria, one has to take into account the changes at hand in Syria and the region, including the fast-recovering relations between Turkey and Russia."

The official, who recently visited Syria for talks with Syrian Defense Minister Fahad Jassim al-Freij, has said Beijing was seeking closer military ties with Damascus.

"The Chinese and Syrian militaries traditionally have a friendly relationship, and the Chinese military is willing to keep strengthening exchanges and cooperation with the Syrian military," he stated.

The Chinese official and al-Freij also discussed the enhancement of training for Syrian soldiers by the Chinese military.

According to reports, the visit also featured a meeting between the Chinese official and a Russian general.

Russia and Iran have been assisting the Syrian government in its fight against terrorists. Tehran has also been providing advisory assistance to Damascus.

The Chinese official, meanwhile, reminded that his country, a permanent United Nations Security Council member, was insistently exploring diplomatic channels to find a political solution to Syria's crisis.

The visit marks a new precedence, given China's refusal in the past to proactively concern itself with the Syrian conflict.

China has, meanwhile, been vocally backing Russia's anti-terrorism efforts in Syria, which has seen Moscow carrying out large-scale bombings of Takfiri militants there.

The foreign-backed militancy in Syria, which enjoys vigorous Western support, has been plaguing the Arab country for the past five years, killing hundreds of thousands and displacing millions.

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China holds naval drill in Sea of Japan

Iran Press TV

Fri Aug 19, 2016 7:36AM

China has conducted a "routine" naval drill in the Sea of Japan with the participation of missile-equipped warships, a Chinese military publication says.

The drill was conducted in "certain part of the Sea of Japan," China's People's Liberation Army Daily said on Friday, without providing any more specifics.

"Exercises far out at sea in international waters are commonly done by navies of the world, and this year our navy has many times organized fleets to carry out exercises far out in the Western Pacific," the newspaper said.

Chinese destroyer Xi'an, frigate Hengshui and supply ship Goyouhu took part in the exercise.

Drill commander Xu Haihua described the exercise as part of routine annual arrangements, which was meant to help improve the navy's ability to fight far out at sea.

The Chinese military daily said the drill was carried out in accordance with international law and "was not aimed at any specific country, region or target."

The strategic Sea of Japan is bordered by Japan, North Korea, Russia and South Korea.

China conducted a joint naval drill with the Russian navy near the waters of the Sea of Japan last year.

China's next-generation missiles

Meanwhile, local Chinese media say Beijing is considering using a high level of artificial intelligence and automation in developing its next generation of cruise missiles.

"We plan to adopt a 'plug and play' approach in the development of new cruise missiles, which will enable our military commanders to tailor-make missiles in accordance with combat conditions," Wang Changqing of the China Aerospace and Industry Corp told the state-run China Daily.

"They will allow commanders to control them in real time manner, or to use a fire-and-forget mode, or even to add more tasks to in-flight missiles," Wang added.

Beijing's growing military power has concerned the United States as well as China's neighbors, some of whom are engaged in territorial disputes with it.

China, however, says it has no hostile intention and that it only seeks to modernize its military in an attempt to protect its legitimate security needs.

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Secrets Behind New Chinese Cruise Missiles Revealed

Sputnik News

21:01 19.08.2016

The new generation of Chinese cruise missiles will be created using modular construction technology, according to the director of the main department of development of the Third Academy of China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC) Wang Changqing.

The Third Academy CASIC is a leading Chinese manufacturer of cruise missiles that operate on land, sea and air.

The company has developed a large number of cruise missiles for the Chinese Army. The modular construction involves rocket configuration for specific tasks and goals.

"We plan to take the approach of plug and play in developing new cruise missiles, which will enable our military leadership to configure cruise missiles according to military conditions and specific requirements," Changqing said.

According to him, the new missiles will have a high level of artificial intelligence.

"Moreover, our future cruise missiles will have a very high level of artificial intelligence and automation allowing commanders to monitor them in real time or use them for automated real time navigation, as well as add more tasks during the flight," Changqing said.

The director added that the creation of such rockets will help reduce costs for the purchase of ammunition.

 Sputnik

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Chinese Fleets Conduct 'Confrontation' War Games in Sea of Japan

Sputnik News

22:49 19.08.2016(updated 00:22 20.08.2016)

As tensions increase between Beijing and Tokyo over the Senkaku islands, China has performed "confrontation" exercises in the Sea of Japan.

In recent weeks, tensions have flared over a chain of disputed islands in the East China Sea. While Japan announced plans to install new land-to-sea missile systems on the southernmost point of the Okinawa prefecture, China has deployed a number of coast guard vessels to the region.

According to the state-run People's Liberation Army Daily, Beijing has now conducted military drills in the neighboring Sea of Japan.

The "confrontation" exercises were carried out between two Chinese naval fleets returning from the US-hosted Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise, held in Hawaii. One fleet involved the missile destroyer Xi'an, the missile frigate Hengshu, and supply ship Gaoyouhu.

"The precision strike against 'enemy' maritime strength jointly launched by warships and naval aviation forcewas highlighted in the confrontation drill," the PLA Daily report reads.

"Exercises far out at sea in international waters are common among the world's navies, and this year our navy has conducted many exercises far out in the Western Pacific."

The report stressed that the drill was not meant as a signal to any single nation.

"This exercise is part of annual training arrangements," according to the report, and "is not aimed at any specific country, region or target, and accords with international law and practice."

The second fleet consisted of a number of warships from the Donghai Fleet.

According to Xinhua news agency, "foreign aircraft attempted surveillance during the drill and were met with the proper response from the Chinese warships."

Earlier this week, Tokyo released footage of Chinese vessels encroaching on contested waters near the Senkakus in the East China Sea.

"Your ship has intruded into the territorial waters of our country," said an electronic message sent from the Japanese patrol ship Aguni to one of the Chinese vessels, according to the Japan Times.

"Non-innocent passage in the Japanese waters is not allowed. Get out of this area immediately."

Beijing claims ownership of the islands, which are known in Chinese as the Diaoyus, dating to their discovery in the 14th century. Tokyo maintains that it formally owned the chain between 1895 and the end of World War II, when they were ceded to the United States, until being returned in 1971.

The islands are believed to be rich in energy resources.

 Sputnik

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US, South Korea must take blame for North's new nuclear move

People's Daily Online

(Global Times) 08:34, August 19, 2016

North Korea's Atomic Energy Institute on Wednesday claimed that it has reprocessed spent nuclear fuel rods removed from a graphite-moderated reactor in a written interview with Japan's Kyodo News. It also disclosed that its Yongbyon nuclear facilities have produced uranium needed for nuclear armaments. At a time when Beijing and Seoul are in a tug of war on the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile system, Pyongyang has thrown a bombshell.

North Korea mothballed the Yongbyon reactor in 2007 under the Six-Party Talks accord, but began renovating it amid the confrontation with the US and South Korea in 2013. Kyodo's report suggested that North Korea has resumed its reprocessing facilities and its nuclear reactor is in full swing.

This is a dilemma facing China, the US and South Korea. The choice of the latter two is simple. The more nuclear activities North Korea will carry out, the greater pressure they will impose on it. But their tactics are of no help in solving the problem.

Given the increasing risks of a military strike by the US and South Korea and subversion of the regime, Pyongyang seemingly has no other choice but to intensify its efforts in developing nuclear power. China seems to have the most options, but that has put the country in a predicament. Beijing has cooled down its relations with Pyongyang and imposed the toughest ever sanctions against it over the past several years.

Complaints from South Korea that China hasn't pressured Pyongyang enough have often been heard. Seoul hopes Beijing and Pyongyang will openly turn against each other. It is even better for Seoul to see the North targets its nuclear weapons at China. Meanwhile, Pyongyang blames Beijing for taking the wrong side.

China should stay unwavering to pursue denuclearization in the Korean Peninsula. Meanwhile, it should hold firm to opposing any strategic military deployment by the US that will cause threats to China's security under the excuse of dealing with the Peninsula situation. North Korea's resumption of uranium production further complicates the Korean Peninsula situation. But currently, China should pay more attention to THAAD.

Pyongyang has paid the price for developing nuclear weapons, so should the US and South Korea for deploying THAAD. Any resolution by the UN Security Council to denounce North Korea and adopt new sanctions should be associated with the THAAD issue. The US and South Korea should take the blame if THAAD impairs the effectiveness of sanctions against the North. Nonetheless, Pyongyang shouldn't feel relieved. It would rather be totally isolated from the international community before it gives up its nuclear ambition.

China objects to North Korea's nuclear tests and war on the Peninsula. But once large-scale military conflicts break out, the North and South Korea will take the brunt. China doesn't need to feel more anxious than them.

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North Korea Threatens South Korea Over 'Provocative' War Games

Sputnik News

14:45 19.08.2016(updated 14:48 19.08.2016)

North Korea has reacted with fury as the US and South Korea conduct their largest ever military drills along the highly volatile border on the Korean Peninsula.

The sound and smoke from 300 heavy artillery systems firing shells simultaneously filled the air, along the most heavily fortified border in the world: the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea. Dozens of military units have been deployed in controversial joint US-South Korea war games.

It made for a threatening show of strength against North Korean President Kim Jong-un, and it hasn't gone unnoticed.

With characteristic bravado, North Korea responded with indignant threats. The North's ruling-party published Rodong Sinmun newspaper said: "Any rash military provocation will result in (South Korea) paying a high-price penalty.

"In the past, (South Korea) has been crazy about military provocations driven by a war fever to invade North Korea, but the latest shelling exercise which involved so many artillery units lurking along the front-line is unprecedented."

Long-time allies, the US and South Korea, conduct annual military drills in the region, and have done so for decades.

US officials justify the exercises as solely to ensure readiness for a possible North Korean attack, and suggest that decades of such drills have contributed to stability in Asia.

However, with this year's war games being the largest ever, and with a US decision to deploy a B-1 bomber plane in the Pacific for the first time in a decade, North Korea is claiming that the US's intentions are far from promoting regional stability.

North Korea has accused Washington of planning a pre-emptive nuclear strike.

A North Korean official said: "The enemies are bluffing that they can mount a pre-emptive nuclear strike on the DPRK [North Korea] by letting fly B-1B over the Korean peninsula within two-three hours in contingency.

"Such moves for bolstering nuclear force exposes again that the US imperialists are making a pre-emptive nuclear strike on the DPRK a fait accompli."

Tensions between the West and Pyongyang have been mounting throughout the year, since North Korea resumed its production of plutonium, and carried out its fourth nuclear test in January.

North Korean state media cited the threat of the US increasing its influence in the region as justification.

Last month, US Army Secretary Eric Fanning, acknowledged that despite plans to scale down the size of the US army, the US has increased its presence in Asia-Pacific. The number of soldiers and civilian army workers in the region has risen to more than 100,000, from 70,000, four years ago.

Pyongyang has repeatedly warned it may carry out pre-emptive nuclear strikes against it's southern neighbor, and US bases in the Pacific, if it feels further threatened.

This week's war games are being seen as highly provocative by some regional analysts, in such an atmosphere of mutual mistrust.

 Sputnik

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North Korean Diplomat Deemed Missing in Moscow Defects to South Korea

Sputnik News

08:48 19.08.2016

A North Korean diplomat who had been considered missing in Moscow since last month, defected to South Korea, media reported Friday, citing a well-informed source.

TOKYO (Sputnik)  According to earlier reports, Russian police found out that the diplomat and his family had flown from St. Petersburg to Minsk and from there, according to the preliminary information, to Ukraine before leaving for South Korea.

"The third secretary of the North Korean Embassy in Russia Kim Chor Sen, who disappeared last July, decided to leave for South Korea. He entered the country together with his wife and son and is under the protection of the respective state agencies," the source was quoted as saying by Yonhap news agency.

The case comes amid reports that a North Korean diplomat in the United Kingdom, who escaped the country on August 16, arrived in South Korea on Thursday.

 Sputnik

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Indian Air Force's Most Lethal Fighter Jet Lands Just 100 km From China

Sputnik News

13:12 19.08.2016

Pasighat Advanced Landing Ground is a strategic asset and will be one of the operating bases under the Eastern Air Command capable of operating all types of aircraft and helicopters.

The Indian Air Force's most lethal aircraft, Sukhoi-30MKI, made its first landing at Pasighat in the West Siang district of India's northeastern state Arunachal Pradesh, marking the inauguration of an Advanced Landing Ground (AGL) just 100 kilometers away from the Chinese border.

Kiren Rijiju, India's Minister of State for Home Affairs, who belongs to Arunachal Pradesh, officially inaugurated the refurbished airfield. The advance landing ground at Pasighat has remained unused since the Sino-Indian war of 1962.

Group Captain Mohonto Panging (retired) was present on the inaugural ceremony. Panging is from Arunachal Pradesh and belongs to the original lot of Sukhoi pilots who underwent training in Moscow and later went to Russia to bring first batch of 12 Sukhoi fighter jets to India in 1997.

Arunachal Pradesh has 1,680 km of international border, of which 1080 km is with China. India will upgrade two more Advanced Landing Ground in Arunachal Pradesh. Sources from the Ministry of Defense told Sputnik, "Work on Tuting is near its completion. More than 75% upgrade work has been done and expected to become operational by end of this year."

Meanwhile, another ALG project at Tawang, which was taken up in 2014, is underway and is expected to be ready by the first quarter of next year. In May this year, India's Ministry of Defense informed the Standing Committee of Parliament that 24% physical progress had been completed. Earlier in March and May this year, upgraded ALGs were inaugurated in Mechuka, Ziro, Along and Wallong in India's northeast.

 Sputnik

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Zarif: Joint Commission to discuss US disloyalty to JCPOA

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Tehran, Aug 19, IRNA -- Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that the Joint Commission will hold a session in near future to discuss US disloyalty to the nuclear deal known as Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

He was asked to comment whether Iran has taken any complaints about the US disloyalty to the nuclear agreement to the joint commission which was designed within the JCPOA to consider complaints in case of the parties' disloyalty to document.

The foreign minister said that the commission has convened whenever deemed necessary.

Necessary solutions to problems have always been worked out during the meetings, he added.

'We will have another meeting with the Joint Commission to discuss US violation of commitments and other issues,' he said.

Asked about compensations for the 1953 Iranian coup d'etat, known as the 28 Mordad coup, Zarif said that a complaint has been filed against the US 25 years ago.

8072**1424

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US strategies in Mideast have failed, Iran defense minister says

Iran Press TV

Fri Aug 19, 2016 4:59PM

Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan says the Middle East and the entire world are grappling with the consequences of the US interventionist policies, stressing that Washington's strategies have failed in the region.

Speaking in the pre-sermon address to worshippers at the weekly Friday prayers in Tehran, Dehqan said the September 11, 2011 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York led to the US invasion and occupation of the two Muslim countries of Iraq and Afghanistan.

The whole world, including the Middle East region, is still grappling with the severe and profound consequences of this invasion and occupation, he added.

Dehqan said the US thought that by pursuing the Greater Middle East strategy it could secure a permanent presence in the region and achieve its goals through claims of promoting stability, peace, security, democracy and welfare.

He noted that Washington was also pursuing fueling the flames of insecurity and instability in the region in order to destroy the national capabilities of the countries standing against it.

Iran's military power

Elsewhere in his remarks, Dehqan pointed to the Iranian Armed Forces' power to repel any threat against the country, saying, "We have the military potential and capacity... to counter and crush any possible aggression against the country."

He said Iran's defense industry is capable of supplying all military needs of the Armed Forces in accordance with the country's defensive doctrine.

The Iranian defense minister went on to say that the country's missiles can hit targets with high accuracy and at a range proportionate to the level of the possible threats.

Dehqan emphasized that in addition to the Iranian Armed Forces, the resistance front enjoys Iran's high military capacities.

"Today, a major proportion of the resistance movement's defense needs are supplied by our defense industry," the Iranian defense minister pointed out.

On March 30, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei stressed the importance of strengthening Iran's defense capabilities in the face of the threats posed by the country's enemies.

In recent years, Iran has made great achievements in its defense sector and reached self-sufficiency in producing essential military equipment and systems.

The Islamic Republic has repeatedly assured other nations, especially the regional countries, that its defense doctrine is merely based on deterrence and poses no threat to other states.

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Republicans Slam Obama on Cash Payments to Iran

By VOA News August 19, 2016

Republicans are sharply criticizing the Obama administration over Thursday's revelation that the United States used a cash payment of $400 million to Iran as leverage to ensure the release of a group of American prisoners being held by Tehran.

House Speaker Paul Ryan released a statement saying President Barack Obama and his administration "have been misleading us since January" and the president owes the American people a "full accounting of his actions and the dangerous precedent he has set."

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump called Obama a "liar" for early denying that the payment was ransom.

The chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Republican Ed Royce, said the payment "put more American lives at risk. And we've emboldened Iran. We've encouraged them, frankly, to take more hostages."

State Department denies ransom payment

The State Department has repeatedly denied the payment was a ransom. U.S. policy forbids the government from paying ransoms in order to avoid encouraging the kidnapping of American citizens. Instead, the Obama administration has said that the negotiations to return the Iranian money  the result of an aborted arms deal in the 1970s with the U.S.-backed shah  were conducted separately from the talks to free four U.S. citizens in Iran.

"We had concerns that Iran may renege on the prisoner release,'' State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters, citing years of mutual mistrust between the two countries. "Obviously when you're inside that 24-hour period and you already now have concerns about the endgame in terms of getting your Americans out, it would have been foolish and prudent, irresponsible, for us not to try to maintain maximum leverage."

The prisoners were: Washington Post Tehran bureau chief Jason Rezaian; Marine veteran Amir Hekmati; Christian pastor Saeed Abedin; and Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari, whose disappearance had not been publicly known before he was freed.

The cash transfer and the hostages' release  both on January 17  came at the same time as Iran's deal with the United States and five other world powers restraining Tehran's development of nuclear weapons, along with the lifting of sanctions that had hobbled Iran's economy.

Iranian media reports have quoted senior Iranian defense officials as saying they considered the cash as a ransom payment.

Cash transfer

On the day of the transfer, non-U.S. currency cash  in euros and Swiss francs among others  was stacked on wooden pallets and flown into Iran on an unmarked cargo plane.

It was the first installment on a $1.7 billion settlement stemming from the failed U.S. weapons pact with Iran in 1979 just before its last monarch, Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, was toppled. The U.S. dispatched the cash in foreign currencies because any transaction with Iran in dollars is illegal under U.S. law.

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Iraqi forces retake town in Anbar province from Daesh

Iran Press TV

Fri Aug 19, 2016 11:43PM

Iraqi government forces have flushed Daesh Takfiri terrorists out of a town in the western province of Anbar, in the latest of a series of victories against the terror group in the past few months.

Iraq's Joint Operations Command announced in a statement that counter-terrorism forces had managed to retake Khaldiyah town, located some 90 kilometers (55 miles) west of the capital Baghdad, on Friday evening.

The provincial capital city of Ramadi was liberated in December last year after being occupied for some seven months by the terror group. The key city of Fallujah, also in Anbar, fell to Daesh in January 2014 but was fully retaken by Iraqi forces on June this year.

After these two landmark victories, Iraqi forces further tightened the noose around Daesh in the volatile province and began retaking more towns and villages, leaving Daesh with a sparse presence in Anbar.

The government forces are now largely heading north, preparing for a highly-anticipated offensive against Daesh in Mosul, the capital of Iraq's northern Nineveh province, and the terror group's last remaining urban bastion in Iraq and its de facto capital in the Arab country.

The northern and western parts of Iraq have been plagued by gruesome violence ever since Daesh terrorists mounted an offensive in June 2014. The militants have been committing vicious crimes against all ethnic and religious communities in the Arab country, including Shias, Sunnis, Kurds and Christians.

The Iraqi army and fighters from the Popular Mobilization Units have been engaged in joint operations to retake militant-held regions.

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26 more slain in fresh Daesh atrocities against Iraqi civilians

Iran Press TV

Fri Aug 19, 2016 12:46PM

More than two dozen Iraqi civilians have lost their lives and scores of others sustained injuries as members of the Takfiri Daesh militant group continue perpetrating crimes against humanity in various parts of the conflict-stricken Arab country.

A security source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said 12 civilians were killed and 35 others injured on Thursday, when Daesh militants fired a barrage of mortar shells at a gathering of refugee families in al-Asmida area north of the oil-rich city of Baiji, located some 210 kilometers (130 miles) north of the capital Baghdad.

The source noted that the victims had fled clashes in the city of Shirqat, located some 300 kilometers (190 miles) north of Baghdad, and the surrounding regions.

The roads through which refugee families flee are dangerous as Daesh extremists have placed improvised explosive devices along them, and several civilians have lost their lives in such roadside bombings, the security source added.

Separately, Daesh members brutally murdered 14 prisoners by locking them in a metal cage and lowering them into a swimming pool in their stronghold of Mosul.

A local source, requesting not to be named, said the executions were carried out in the city's Faisaliyah district, and the victims had been charged with spying and collaboration with Iraqi government and Kurdish Peshmerga forces.

On August 11, Daesh extremists placed 25 local residents of the town of Hawijah, located about 282 kilometers (175 miles) north of Baghdad, inside a booby-trapped house and then detonated the building.

The development came only a few days after the Takfiris executed six people in Mosul.

The northern and western parts of Iraq have been plagued by gruesome violence ever since Daesh terrorists mounted an offensive in June 2014. The militants have been committing vicious crimes against all ethnic and religious communities in Iraq, including Shias, Sunnis, Kurds and Christians.

The Iraqi army and fighters from the Popular Mobilization Units have been engaged in joint operations to retake militant-held regions.

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Japanese Defense Ministry to Seek Record-High $52Bln Budget in 2017

Sputnik News

09:08 19.08.2016(updated 09:09 19.08.2016)

Japan's Defense Ministry will make a record-high 2017 budget proposal of 5.17 trillion yen ($51.7 billion) in a bid to ensure better protection from perceived threats coming from China and North Korea, local media reported Friday.

TOKYO (Sputnik)  According to the Nikkei newspaper, the ministry believes that the budget increase is necessary due to the growing North Korean missile activity and tensions with China over disputed islands in the East China Sea.

Among other things, the budget, which is set to be 2.3 percent larger than in the fiscal year 2016, will be spent on acquiring the Standard Missile-3 Block IIA next-generation missiles developed jointly with the United States. These missiles are set to be deployed on Japanese warships for protection against North Korean missile threat.

The budget proposal also reportedly includes upgrade to the ground-based Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) interceptors, also put in place to deter a potential Pyongyang attack.

In response to the alleged Chinese maritime activity near Japanese shores, the ministry is expected to propose to upgrade surface-to-ship missiles stationed on the Sakishima Islands in the Okinawa prefecture and the US-designed F-15 fighters deployed at a military base in Okinawa.

The budget increase is the fifth in a row, as under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe the Defense Ministry has been receiving greater funding each year since 2013.

 Sputnik

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Denmark Agrees to Participate in Removing Chemical Weapons From Libya

Sputnik News

13:11 19.08.2016(updated 13:12 19.08.2016)

The Danish parliament approved Friday the governmental proposal for the country to participate in a UN-backed international maritime operation to remove chemical weapons from Libya.

STOCKHOLM (Sputnik)  According to the Ritzau news agency, the parliament gave the green light for two Danish vessels to remove the remaining chemical weapons in Libya.

Copenhagen will send 200 servicemen and civil experts to take part in the operation, according to the media outlet.

Earlier this week, the Danish Foreign Ministry said that Copenhagen had been offered to lead the work on the chemical weapons withdrawal under the aegis of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). The operation is aimed at preventing dangerous chemical substances from falling into the hands of extremist groups, including the Daesh jihadist organization, banned in many countries including Russia.

On July 22, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution which allows states to receive, take away and destroy Libyan chemical weapons in order to help the country eliminate the toxic agents.

Libya joined the UN convention on eliminating chemical weapons in 2004.

 Sputnik

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Chinese, Burmese Leaders Look to Strengthen Ties

By VOA News August 19, 2016

Myanmar's leader, State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi, met with Chinese president Xi Jinping Friday to discuss the future of relations between the two countries.

Xi said he hoped the five-day visit would strengthen the relationship between the two countries, which has suffered as Myanmar pushes more democratic reforms and stalls Chinese-funded projects in the country.

"China attaches great importance to developing relations with Myanmar," Xi said during a meeting at a government guesthouse in western Beijing. "We should adhere to the correct direction to push for new progress of bilateral relations and to bring tangible benefits to the two peoples."

A $3.6 billion dam project in northern Myanmar  suspended in 2011 by Aung San Suu Kyi's predecessor, Thein Sein  is expected to be a key topic of conversation during the visit. Since Aung San Suu Kyi's appointment in April, Chinese officials have pushed for her to resume construction, but the project still faces overwhelming local opposition.

Aung San Suu Kyi said that "both sides are advancing relations and deepening mutual understanding and friendship" during the meeting, but later told reporters she had nothing new to announce regarding the Myitsone Dam.

Aung San Suu Kyi's visit to the Chinese capital is her first major diplomatic mission since her National League for Democracy party won a historic landslide election last year that finally brought an end to five decades of tight-fisted military rule. The Nobel Peace laureate is barred from serving as president under a military-drafted constitution, but she holds several key posts, including state counselor and foreign minister.

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Russia's Aircraft Carrier to Be Repaired by October Before Syria Deployment

Sputnik News

10:01 19.08.2016(updated 10:24 19.08.2016)

Repair works of Russia's Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier will be completed before the end of September, a Russian defense industry source told RIA Novosti on Friday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  A high-level source in the Northern Fleet said earlier that the carrier's crew kicked off preparations for assignment to the Mediterranean slated for sometime this fall.

"The aircraft carrier has now arrived at the 35th shipyard [a Murmansk subsidiary of the Arkhangelsk Region-based Zvezdochka] to undergo the second phase of upgrades and the recovery of its technical readiness. Work should be completed before the end of September, after which the ship will be seaworthy," the source said.

The two-phase approach was devised to allow pilots work out takeoff and landing aboard the MiG-29K/KUB fighters, designated to become the carrier air wing, over the summer.

The Admiral Kuznetsov is Russia's only aircraft-carrying cruiser, sometimes designated by the West as an aircraft carrier, commissioned into the Russian Navy on December 25, 1990.

 Sputnik

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Former Soviet Citizens Mull Failed Hard-line Coup, a Quarter Century Later

By Victor Vladimirov, Anna Plotnikova August 19, 2016

Twenty-five years ago, on August 19, 1991, a hard-line group calling itself the State Committee for the State of Emergency (known by its Russian acronym GKChP) announced that it was removing the Soviet Union's reformist president, Mikhail Gorbachev, from power and taking control of the country.

The GKChP's goals were to halt Gorbachev's policies aimed at liberalizing the economy and relaxing controls on freedom of expression, and to restore the centralized Soviet state.

Thousands of people took to the streets in Moscow to oppose the GKChP, and while three demonstrators were killed in a confrontation with security forces, there was no mass use of force against the protesters, and the attempted coup fell apart in a few days.

Dissolution soon followed

Still, the failed putsch further destabilized the Soviet state, which was already coming apart because of a steady loss of faith in the Soviet Union's ruling communist ideology and rising nationalism in its constituent republics. The Soviet Union was dissolved four months later on December 26, 1991.

One of the coup plotters committed suicide, while the remaining seven, along with three other officials, were put on trial starting in late 1993. All 10 were amnestied the following year.

Russia's current president, Vladimir Putin, once called the dissolution of the Soviet Union "the greatest geopolitical tragedy of the 20th century." He has been in power for 16 years. During that time, he has rolled back many of the democratic reforms Gorbachev inaugurated three decades ago.

In a survey conducted last month, the Levada Center, Russia's only independent national polling agency, found that 58 percent of respondents said they largely trusted Putin and 20 percent said they completely trusted him, while only 12 percent said they largely distrusted him and 6 percent said they completely distrusted him.

Assessing failed coup

In a separate Levada Center poll conducted in late July, respondents were asked to assess the failed August 1991 coup. Thirty percent of the respondents called it "a tragic event which had disastrous consequences for the country and the people," while 35 percent called it "just an episode of power struggle in the top leadership of the country." Only 8 percent called it "the victory of a democratic revolution that ended the power of the Communist Party," while 27 percent said they were undecided about how to assess it.

Asked whether they would come out to protect "Russian democracy" if something like the 1991 coup attempt happened today, 16 percent of the respondents answered "yes," 44 percent answered "no" while the rest said they didn't know whether they would or not.

Gennady Burbulis was a close associate of Boris Yeltsin, the Russian leader who resisted the August 1991 coup attempt and became post-Soviet Russia's first president. Burbulis told VOA's Russian service that while the Soviet Union disintegrated nearly a quarter a century ago, an "imperial mindset" persists in Russia.

"An imperial complex has left deep roots that formed over centuries," he said. "And it hasn't gone anywhere."

Burbulis added that Russia is also dealing with "a Soviet heritage that manifests itself in increased confrontation and violation of basic human rights, including international law."

Speaking from Kazakhstan, Dosym Satpayev, director of the Almaty-based Risk Assessment Group, told VOA that many members of his country's older generation are nostalgic for the Soviet period.

Younger people don't relate

"Many of the older generation regret the collapse of the Soviet Union and think it was a mistake," he said. "As for young people  or, as they are called, the 'generation of Independence'  who were born after 1991, all of these events are for them approximately what the Middle Ages or even Ancient Greece are for us. That is, they do not relate to these events either positively or negatively, simply because many do not know anything about them."

Views of the Soviet Union's collapse nearly 25 years on are much different in countries like the Baltic states, which even before 1991 had fully developed independence movements.

"Although it is assumed that the collapse occurred in December 1991, by that time, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania had already left the Soviet empire," Kalev Stoicescu, a researcher with the International Center for Defense Studies in Tallinn, Estonia, told VOA's Russian service in an interview from the Estonian capital.

While the Soviet Union's breakup "was the greatest catastrophe of the 20th century for the president of one large state," Stoicescu said, "for me and for the vast majority of Estonians, it was the best thing that could have happened."

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Good intentions arent always enough.

And Amy Kaunas wants residents to know that even meaning well, they need to know how their municipalities work when it comes to dropping off stray animals at the Humane Society of Harrisburg Area.

Kaunas said the shelter has different types of contracts with municipalities. Some contracts require residents to fill out an authorization form before dropping off an animal, others require the police department to be directly and solely involved, and still other municipalities dont have contracts at all.

This is where the sticky situation occurs, said Kaunas, executive director of HSHA. Without a contract, even a resident trying to do the right thing ... theres no room.

Kaunas said that because of the contracts with area municipalities, the shelter is obligated to keep the majority of its available spaces ready for animals coming from those contracted areas. Given that the shelter must also keep space open should there be any sudden animal cruelty cases that could bring them the potential for dozens of animals, space can be a luxury at the shelter.

Refusal of a stray picked up by a resident in a municipality without a contract is entirely possible.

We encourage citizens to push their municipalities to have a contract, Kaunas said. Theres little to no financial risk to have a contract. Its not residents randomly, willy nilly dropping off animals. Municipalities are contacted for authorization to take an animal in.

Contracts

A few years ago, HSHA changed its contracts with municipalities to better reflect just how many animals the shelter was taking in from each area.

Theres a $250 flat fee, which is basically an administration cost. But everything else is 100 percent usage-based, Kaunas said.

Because of the change in contracts, there was an uptick in costs  something that had stirred conversations at municipal meetings regarding how much they could afford and how often its residents were dropping off stray animals.

Kaunas noted, however, that because the contract turned to usage, the flat rate hasnt seen an increase since the change.

Weve had a flat rate at least, probably five years, she said. The only way a municipality sees an increase in fees is if there is an increase in usage. If the municipality averaged about 20 animals and now sees 50, then the fee is going to go up.

Its a service she says is important for all municipalities to have. Currently in Pennsylvania, stray dogs must be processed by a licensed facility, and Kaunas said most municipalities simply dont have the kind of staff to handle such cases.

Contracts are for stray animals that are found in municipalities. Most municipalities do not have any methodology for handling the animals and they have nowhere else to go, she said.

Most instances of stray animals will be handled by police  if the municipality has a contract  and the department will transport the animal. HSHA only provides the shelter, though Kaunas said her organization may respond if there is an animal cruelty case or if there is an unusual animal that police arent trained to handle, such as farm animals.

The contracts in turn provide the funds needed to care for the animals.

The big cost is veterinary care, she said. State law requires shelters to spay and neuter every animal before it leaves the facility. You also have to have a good veterinarian on staff  and we have two.

Police

Kaunas added that the contracts also encourage police or the municipality to find the owners of some of their found animals.

Upper Allen Township Police Chief James Adams said his department has found a lot of success in finding the owners of lost dogs, with very few ever making it to the shelter.

Upper Allen does have a contract with HSHA. Adams said that Upper Allen as a first class township is required to be responsible for dogs. It, however, does not need to be responsible for cats, and Upper Allen like many municipalities does not have a contract that covers cats. Those who find cats in Upper Allen are responsible for them, Adams said.

Though the police departments sole focus is on dogs, Adams said they has been doing well with posting found dog and lost dog information on its website and social media sites. He also noted that sites like Find Toby on Facebook also pick up information from the township, pushing their posts through and reaching enough people to eventually get to the ears of the owner.

There are web pages like Find Toby that subscribe to us ... and anytime we post something about a found dog, they grab that and push it to their site, he said. I really dont care who gets the credit, as long as the owner is reunited with their dog.

This past Monday, police posted a found-dog entry in the afternoon, and a neighbor called soon afterward saying they recognized the dog and was contacting the owner. The two were reunited that same afternoon, and Adams said they are usually able to reach owners within 24 hours.

If it takes a little longer, the dogs arent hurting for attention in Upper Allen.

We have one large crate, bedding, food and water. And we have quite a few dog lovers in the department. The dogs are not ignored, Adams laughed.

The Carlisle Police Department doesnt house the dogs they find at the station  rather the dogs go to Northside Veterinary Clinic on E Street for a temporary stay for about a day.

Like Upper Allen, that is usually the amount of time the department needs to reunite dog and owner.

A lot of times, the owner will contact us within a day or so, Carlisle Police Cpl. Josh Bucher said.

Carlisle police is also the handler for any dogs found in the borough, and it will transport the dog to the shelter if the owner cannot be found. While Adams said Upper Allen sees only about one case of a found-dog a month, Bucher estimates Carlisle sees about 15 to 20 dog calls a month, which can include calls for lost dogs, found dogs and dog sightings.

Bucher said the department has a scanner for microchips and they will also check the Cumberland County tags to see if there is a name with a license.

Carlisle Police also give a description to Cumberland County Communications, which can then communicate information about a found dog with callers who have lost animals.

With those tools available to cut back on usage of the shelter, Adams said the cost of its contract hasnt been an issue with the township.
Russia says ready to support UN proposal for 48-hours ceasefire in Syria's Aleppo

People's Daily Online

(Xinhua) 10:30, August 19, 2016

GENEVA, Aug. 18 -- The United Nations' Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura said Thursday night he was informed that Russia was ready to support his proposal of a 48-hour ceasefire in order to provide humanitarian assistance to the Syrian city of Aleppo.

"The Special Envoy welcomes the Russian Federation statement, and the United Nations humanitarian team is now set to mobilize itself to respond to this challenge," the UN envoy said in a statement.

"The United Nations count on the Russian Federation to deliver their part, regarding, in particular, the adherence of the Syrian armed forces to the pause, once it comes into effect," he added.

The UN Official also urged "all those with access to or influence on the armed opposition", in particular the United States, to ensure that the armed opposition also respects the 48-hours humanitarian pause.

On Thursday morning, de Mistura sent a strong message by calling off a humanitarian taskforce meeting after only eight minutes because of the lack of progress on the ground and ongoing fighting between factions vying for control of the war-torn country, especially around Aleppo.

He also recalled the urgent need to install a 48-hour truce in Aleppo to give humanitarian convoys enough time to achieve meaningful aid deliveries.

"Today I suspended the meeting as a symbol of deep concern and as a sign of respect towards the World Humanitarian Day tomorrow," Staffan de Mistura explained after the shortest ever meeting between humanitarian taskforce members who convene here on a weekly basis Thursday morning.

"It is also a sign of deep unhappiness about the fact that due to the lack of a pause, no humanitarian aid is reaching anywhere in Syria at the moment except Deir-ez-Zor," he added.

According to the official, the situation in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, where two million civilians are trapped, is particularly alarming.

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Photo of boy pulled from rubble reminder of 'unimaginable horrors' Syrian children face - UNICEF

19 August 2016  The heart breaking photograph of Omran Daqneesh, the little boy sitting alone in an ambulance with his face and body covered in blood and dirt after being pulled from a destroyed building has reminded the world, yet again, of the unimaginable horrors that Syrian children face every day, a spokesperson for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said today.

"No child in Syria [is] safe while the conflict drags on," Christophe Boulierac, a spokesperson for the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) told the press at a regular briefing in Geneva, referring to the photograph which went viral on social media yesterday and has galvanized world attention to the suffering in Aleppo, Syria's iconic second city.

"More than 3.7 million Syrian children under the age of five know nothing but displacement, violence and uncertainty," he added underscoring the sheer desperation of the situation facing them and millions more in need of humanitarian aid in Syria and neighbouring countries.

According to UNICEF, the situation in Aleppo has continued to deteriorate in the past two weeks. It is particularly dire for civilians living in eastern parts of the city where taps have gone dry and the population, including approximately 100,000 children, rely on water from wells potentially contaminated by faecal matter and are unsafe to drink.

Heavy fighting and escalation of violence since 4 August have also prevented technicians from repairing the severely-damaged electricity and water systems.

Furthermore, children living in those parts also face risks of outbreaks of water-borne diseases.

In the midst of this situation, the UN children's agency has been able to deliver 300,000 litres of fuel to water pumping stations in western parts of Aleppo, providing water to some 1.2 million people. It has also provided water purification tablets and suppled four million litres of drinking water, via trucks, on a daily basis to the western parts of the city.

However, these supplies were "not enough and it was not a solution," said Mr. Boulierac.

"It [is] critical for UNICEF to be able to reach all parts of the war-torn city and to provide much needed assistance," he stressed, reiterating the agency's call on all parties to the conflict to immediately allow safe and protected access for technicians to conduct urgent repairs to restore electricity and water networks.

"The fighting [must be] stopped in order to do that," he underlined.

Aid would never be suspended

At the same briefing, Bettina Luescher, a spokesperson for the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said the agency is deeply concerned about the situation in Aleppo and that during the week, it had been able to feed some 20,000 people in eastern parts of the city.

"Aid would never be suspended. [We are] ensuring that the little kids, grandmothers, mothers and fathers got food whatever it took," she stated.

Responding to a question, she said that in June, 30 per cent of the food went into opposition-controlled areas, and that political opinions of people did not matter. "[The] number one goal [is] to feed civilians," she stressed.

Furthermore, she explained that non-governmental organizations (NGOs) on the ground need a 48-hour pause immediately.

"Many little boys and girls need help, as they were in the same situation as little Omran," she said, stressing that the siege has to stop.

"It [is] hard, but not impossible to come up with a 48-hour pause," she added.

UN envoy welcomes evacuation of persons with urgent needs

In related news, Staffan de Mistura, UN Special Envoy for Syria welcomed the reports of evacuation of some 39 people, including several children and those in need of medical treatment from the besieged towns of Fouah (in Syria's north-west) and Madaya (in the country's south-west).

The evacuations were conducted by the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC).

Thanking all those who were involved in the extraction, Mr. de Mistura said: "While this is a positive step, areas remain besieged by parties to the conflict and Syrians are in need of food and medical assistance to enter these areas"

He reiterated that in some places, including in the two towns, convoys have not been allowed to enter for over 110 days. He added that there are also reports of desperate need for food and other assistance in towns such as Darayya, a suburb of the capital Damascus.

The Special Envoy urged all parties to the conflict to allow humanitarian access and to evacuate those Syrians in need of medical assistance.

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Syrian Kurdish City Becomes Flashpoint as US Scrambles Aircraft to Protect Coalition Troops

By Zana Omar August 19, 2016

A city in northeastern Syria has become a flashpoint in the country's civil war as Syrian warplanes attacked Kurdish forces Thursday, and the United States responded by sending in its own aircraft to protect U.S. coalition forces in the area.

Thousands of civilians have been fleeing the Kurdish-majority city, Hasaka, since the Syrian airstrikes started on Thursday, which witnesses said have killed dozens of people. The airstrikes mark the first time since the start of the country's civil war in 2011 that Syrian government warplanes targeted a majority Kurdish enclave. They also appear to mark a break between Syrian government troops and Kurdish forces that had been working loosely together against Islamic State fighters in the city since 2014.

Witnesses said three Syrian government fighter jets targeted military positions belonging to a Kurdish group, according the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group that has researchers on the ground. VOA video shows Syrian military planes circling over the city as residents sought cover on Friday.

"They [warplanes] are targeting specific areas to weaken the local Kurdish forces," Hasaka resident Aziz Abe told VOA.

Pentagon spokesman Maj. Adrian Rankine-Galloway said the Syrian Air Force conducted strikes against "ground forces in the vicinity of Hasaka" on Thursday, however the strikes did not threaten coalition forces who are operating in the area.

In response, the U.S. scrambled aircraft to protect coalition forces, and the Pentagon contacted the Russian government, which has been carrying out airstrikes in Syria in support of the Assad government. The spokesman said Russia indicated that Russian aircraft were not involved in the strikes in Hasaka, and "we made clear that coalition aircraft would defend its troops on the ground if threatened."

Reached by the VOA, the Kurdish YPG refused to comment on the involvement of U.S. warplanes in Hasaka. But a commander with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) told VOA that the fighting is ongoing.

"Our people are expecting the anti-IS international coalition to stop Syrian warplanes from bombing them in Hasaka, because this is part of that war on terrorism," said Nasir Hajji Mansur, a comannder with the SDF.

In addition to airstrikes, Syrian government forces used heavy artillery in the city, killing at least 14 people and wounding dozens more, local news reports said.

No comment

The Syrian military or the pro-regime press did not comment on the strikes.

A spokesperson for the People's Protection Units (YPG), the main armed Kurdish group in Syria, said that clashes have occurred in the past between the two sides but this is the first time the government has used warplanes against the Kurds.

"The use of warplanes (by the Syrian government) comes as the (U.S.-backed) YPG and Syrian Democratic Forces made achieved overwhelming victories against (IS) in Manbij," said Redur Xelil, YPG's spokesman, in an official statement.

He said that the Syrian government was not pleased with Kurdish-led forces making advances on IS in Manbij, "because it went against their interest."

Since 2012, the Kurdish region has been administrated by local Kurdish forces after government troops largely withdrew to focus on fighting rebels elsewhere. In major cities like Hasaka and Qamishli, however, government and Kurdish groups have been tacitly sharing control.

Entangled conflict

Analysts believe that some regional powers oppose Kurdish gains in Syria, further complicating the entangled conflict in the country.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a speech Thursday that Ankara was "ready to move against the Kurds if they represent a threat to Turkey."

Gulf-based Middle East analyst Theodore Karasik told VOA that the "attack on Kurdish militia targets in Hasaka is directly connected to Russia's (new and stronger ties) with Iran." Russia recently began using an Iranian airbase in Hamedan to attack Syria.

Karasik said Russia, Iran and Turkey have concluded that "the empowerment of Kurdish factions, especially those (trained and supported) by the U.S.," is a threat, and that those Kurdish militias "must be put in check" with some deterrence of their on-the-ground support systems.

Edward Yeranian contributed to this report from Cairo and Sirwan Kajjo, Carla Babb and Jeff Seldin reported from Washington

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China urged not to block Taiwan's international participation bids

ROC Central News Agency

2016/08/19 22:05:48

Taipei, Aug. 19 (CNA) A diplomacy scholar on Friday urged China not to pressure international organizations into rejecting Taiwan's participation, citing the results of a survey that showed China will lose favor with the Taiwanese people if it continues to.

Huang Kwei-bo (), an associate professor in the Department of Diplomacy at National Chengchi University, made the comment Friday during the release of the survey that was commissioned by the Association of Foreign Relations (AFR), a civil group dedicated to the promotion of Taiwan's foreign and cross-Taiwan Strait relations.

According to the poll, 38.2 percent of Taiwanese, mostly from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)-led "pan green camp," think that the international community generally supports Taiwan's efforts to join major international organizations.

Meanwhile, 40.4 percent of Taiwanese hold an opposing view, and most of those who do are from the "pan blue alliance," which is led by the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) and advocates closer ties with mainland China, the poll showed.

Huang, who is also secretary-general of the AFR, said China is most likely the key factor that shapes the Taiwanese people's perceptions of the international community's attitude toward Taiwan's efforts to join international organizations.

He said pan-blue supporters may think that the international community is not in favor of Taiwan's participation in international organizations, while the pan greens may think otherwise, but they are both of the view that China's suppression is the main reason why Taiwan cannot join such organizations.

In particular, Taiwan is facing a challenge as it seeks to gain participation in the International Civil Aviation Organization and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Huang said.

He said Beijing should consider whether it wants to continue along its path of blocking Taiwan's efforts, which would lead to China eventually losing favor with the Taiwanese people.

The survey was conducted via telephone by Taiwan Real Survey Co. June 27-30 among people aged 20 and over in Taiwan proper and the Penghu Islands.

It collected 1,140 valid samples and had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points.

(By Chen Chia-lun and Elizabeth Hsu)

ENDITEM/pc

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Chinese passenger volume drops at most Taiwan airports in July

ROC Central News Agency

2016/08/19 11:29:45

Taipei, Aug. 19 (CNA) With the number of tourists from China traveling to Taiwan on the decline, the number of Chinese visitors who arrived at and departed from the nation's airports, with the exception of the Taipei Songshan Airport, fell in July, the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) said Friday.

According to the CAA, the number of Chinese visitors handled by the Taoyuan International Airport in northern Taiwan, the largest airport in the country, stood at about 710,000 in July, down 4.4 percent from a year earlier.

The CAA data showed that the number of Chinese tourists arriving in and departing from the Taichung airport in central Taiwan and the Kaohsiung airport in southern Taiwan for the month of July fell 13.1 percent and 8.5 percent, respectively, to 27,000 and 92,000.

Even worse, the Hualien airport in eastern Taiwan and the Tainan airport in southern Taiwan saw zero arrivals and departures of Chinese tourists in July, the CAA statistics indicated. In the same period last year, the Hualien Airport and the Tainan Airport handled 1,100 and 2,622 Chinese visitors, respectively, the CAA said.

Only the Songshan Airport, located in capital city of Taipei, bucked the downtrend, recording a 2.6 percent increase in the number of arrivals and departures of Chinese visitors in July, to some 150,000, the CAA said.

The latest CAA data echoed market concerns that the number of Chinese tourists traveling to Taiwan has been falling since the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) took power on May 20.

According to the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), which governs cross-strait relations in Taiwan, the number of Chinese arrivals during the period of May 20 and Aug. 16 fell about 20 percent. The MAC said that the number of Chinese group visitors plunged 37 percent but the number of Chinese visitors on independent travel programs rose 4.8 percent.

The decline occurs as Beijing continues to insist that Taiwan's new president, Tsai Ing-wen () of the DPP, recognize the "1992 consensus" -- a tacit agreement between Taiwan and China that there is only one China, with each side free to interpret what that means. China has perceived the consensus as the political foundation for cross-Taiwan Strait exchanges.

Tsai has only gone so far as to say that she respects "the historical fact" that Taiwan and China "arrived at various joint acknowledgements and understandings" in talks in 1992.

Local media repeatedly reported that Chinese authorities have started to tighten control on their citizens visiting Taiwan amid deteriorating cross-strait ties after Tsai was sworn in.

In 2015, about 4.18 million Chinese tourists visited Taiwan, a number that was almost evenly split between independent travelers and those in tour groups, up from the 3.99 million recorded in 2014, according to Tourism Bureau data.

On Thursday, The Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) said that it will work with local travel agencies and their Chinese counterparts to launch new travel programs to restore the confidence of Chinese tourists after a high-profile tour bus accident in July.

The accident involving a tour bus fire killed all 26 on board, including 24 Chinese tourists.

(By Wang Shu-fen and Frances Huang)

Enditem/ke

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Turkey Asks India to Monitor Gulen Supporters

Sputnik News

23:01 19.08.2016

Turkish Foreign Minister has asked India to monitor US-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen's supporters in India and shut down Gluen-linked organizations, sources in the Indian Ministry of External Affairs told Sputnik on Friday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu is currently on official visit to India and met with his Indian counterpart, Sushma Swaraj. The two ministers discussed bilateral cooperation as well as finalizing a roadmap for cooperation between Ankara and New Delhi in the coming years.

"Turkish Foreign Minister briefed [Swaraj] about the role of Fethullah Gulen in the Turkish coup and also asked India to keep a close watch on his networks in India. Turkish Foreign Minister also requested India to close his institutions as they impart terror teachings."

Ankara has accused Gulen and his followers of playing a key role in the failed coup, a charge Gulen has denied.

On July 15, an attempted coup took place in Turkey and was suppressed the following day. Over 240 people were killed during the coup attempt and an estimated 2,000 were wounded. The Turkish authorities have already removed thousands of officials from their posts across the country over links to coup perpetrators and to the Gulen movement. Those removed include members of the armed forces, governors, military advisers, prosecutors, intelligence officers and judges.

 Sputnik

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Russia 'conducting drill in Crimea' amid tensions with Kiev

Iran Press TV

Fri Aug 19, 2016 10:21AM

Russian military forces are engaged in naval and logistical exercises in the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, the Russian Defense Ministry says.

"The logistic support units embarked on working out the practical tasks of logistics support in the naval and land ranges of the Republic of Crimea," Deputy Defense Minister Dmitry Bulgakov announced on Friday.

He said Russian vessels conducted service recovery tasks at sea, and the Southern Military District's logistics units evacuated equipment from the battlefield, transported military equipment and performed mass jet refueling missions at the Opuk range.

Meanwhile Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said he would not hesitate to announce the mobilization of Ukrainian army forces in response to what he described as military build-up by Russia in Crimea.

"In the event of the exacerbation of the situation in the east and in Crimea we will have to impose martial law and order mobilization," Poroshenko said on Thursday.

Poroshenko also said he had ordered all Ukrainian army units near Crimea and in the eastern Donbass region to stand at the highest level of combat readiness.

Tensions between Moscow and Kiev have flared in recent days. Russia's Federal Security Service said on Wednesday that it had thwarted an incursion by the Ukrainian military into Crimea over the weekend, but two Russians were killed in the incident.

Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed Ukraine for "practicing terror" and vowed to retaliate the deaths. Putin met with his security council to discuss "antiterrorist security scenarios" involving Crimea's borders.

Ukrainian officials, however, denied the allegations and accused Russia of creating an excuse for further "intervention."

People in Ukraine's Black Sea peninsula of Crimea voted in a referendum to join the Russian Federation in March 2014. The move angered the West and the Ukrainian government, which branded it as Moscow's annexation of the territory.

The Crimea referendum came almost at the same as the Ukrainian government engaged in a crackdown on the Russian-speaking people in the eastern Donbass region, who later took up arms to defend themselves.

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Putin Criticizes Ukraine At Crimea Security Council Meeting

August 19, 2016

Russian President Vladimir Putin has chaired a session of the Security Council in Crimea, the Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula that Moscow annexed in 2014.

Putin told the August 19 gathering in Sevastopol that Ukraine attempted to carry out sabotage attacks in Crimea because Kyiv is "reluctant or unable" to implement the Minsk Accords.

Putin was referring to Moscow's claim earlier this month that it had thwarted a Ukrainian plot to carry out sabotage in the region.

Kyiv has denied the existence of any such plot and Western officials say Moscow has failed to produce convincing evidence of one. On August 17, European Union President Donald Tusk said Russia's account of the events was "unreliable."

Putin told the Security Council that "it looks like our partners in Kyiv have made a decision to aggravate tensions."

Nonetheless, Putin said Russia was not planning to cut off diplomatic relations with Ukraine "despite the unwillingness ofKyiv to have full-fledged diplomatic relations at the level of ambassadors."

Russia was holding a military exercise in Crimea as Putin was speaking, training the logistics of bringing troops, armor, and equipment from Russia to Ukraine.

Putin will also address the Tavrida youth forum, an event that has been held annually since the annexation that assembles "young professionals" from across Russia.

It is Putin's fifth visit to the region since it was annexed.

Based on reporting by AFP, RIA-Novosti, and Interfax

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/russia-putin-crimea -security-council/27933735.html

Copyright (c) 2016. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Report: Trump Aide Did Not Disclose Lobbying For Ukraine's Yanukovych

August 19, 2016

The Associated Press (AP) said it has obtained e-mails showing that a company run by Donald Trump's campaign chairman lobbied for Ukraine's Russian-backed president and did not meet legal requirements that it disclose those activities.

The e-mails show that a lobbying firm run by Paul Manafort and his deputy, Rick Gates, sought to gain publicity and sway American public opinion in favor of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who was forced out by a popular revolt in 2014.

The latest disclosures on August 18 about Manafort's Russian connections come as Republican presidential candidate Trump faces increasing criticism for his friendly views on Russia.

Manafort and Gates have steered Trump's campaign since April and have retained their titles despite a campaign shake-up this week.

Manafort said earlier this week that he never performed "direct lobbying support" for the governments of Ukraine or Russia.

But AP said his firm did such lobbying and should have registered and disclosed its role as an foreign agent. Under U.S. law, people who lobby on behalf of foreign political leaders must provide detailed reports about their actions to the Justice Department. A violation is a felony and can result in up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

On August 18, Ukraine's National Anticorruption Bureau published excerpts from accounting ledgers from the political party of ousted President Victor Yanukovych documenting more than $12 million in under-the-table payments designated for Manafort.

The documents do not confirm that Manafort actually received the money, and his lawyers have denied that he participated in any illegal activities.

Based on reporting by AP

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/ap-report-trump- aide-manafort-not-disclose-lobbying-ukraine- yanukovych-donald-trump-russia/27933131.html

Copyright (c) 2016. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Ukraine Shows Evidence Of Secret Payments Allegedly Made To Trump Aide

August 19, 2016

by Christopher Miller

KYIV -- Ukrainian authorities have published excerpts from secret accounting ledgers of former President Viktor Yanukovych's political party documenting more than $12.7 million in under-the-table payments that were earmarked for Paul Manafort, who chaired U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump's campaign until his resignation on August 19.

Some of the 22 line items posted on the website of the National Anticorruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) show payments of more than $1 million for Manafort's "services," while others describe the payments as being for "Manafort exit poll in real time," "personal computers for Manafort," and simply "sociology" -- possibly a reference to opinion surveys.

The handwritten entries span nearly five years, from November 20, 2007 to October 5, 2012, when Manafort was working for Yanukovych's ruling Party of Regions in Kyiv. Yanukovych fled to Russia in 2014, after being pushed from power by protests over his decision to scrap plans for a landmark cooperation pact with the European Union and forge closer ties to Moscow instead.

Manafort has come under fire over the revelations, first reported by The New York Times on August 14. He was removed from day-to-day management of Trump's campaign on August 17 but retained his title until August 19, when Trump issued a statement via his official website in which he described Manafort as "a true professional."

"This morning Paul Manafort offered, and I accepted, his resignation from the campaign," the statement read, adding that the Republican nominee was "very appreciative for his great work in helping to get us where we are today...."

NABU said the presence of Manafort's name in the ledger did not mean that he actually received the money designated for him, because the signatures that appear in the column of recipients belong to other people.

Manafort has said he never received any illegal payments and his lawyers have denied that he participated in any illegal activities in Ukraine.

But Serhiy Leshchenko, a Ukrainian lawmaker and anticorruption campaigner who has studied the ledger, is convinced that Manafort received the payments listed.

"Manafort didn't work for free in Ukraine, he served the Party of Regions for over 10 years and it is clear that his work was paid," Leshchenko said, holding up copies of the ledger items at a news conference in Kyiv on August 19. "The money was transferred in cash and it is impossible to trace the transactions, but I have no doubt as to the authenticity of these documents."



"We know that people who were mentioned in these books...they confirmed they were involved in this activity and money [was] taken," Leshchenko added.

Money 'Funneled' To Washington Firms

His belief is bolstered by the fact that the signatories for the payment orders include top former Party of Regions lawmakers Vitaliy Kalyuzhny, who served as chairman of the Ukrainian parliament's International Relations Committee, and Yevhen Heller, who Leshchenko said was considered to be the party's "cashier."

Heller is also one of the founders of the European Center for a Modern Ukraine, a Brussels-based nonprofit organization that Associated Press reports say was used to funnel money from the Party of Regions to two U.S. lobbying firms.

AP reports said the news agency obtained e-mails showing that Manafort -- using his own firm, run with help from his deputy Rick Gates -- helped route at least $2.2 million through the European Center for a Modern Ukraine to lobbying firms Mercury and the Podesta Group in order to sway American public opinion in the interest of Yanukovych and his party.

The AP said Manafort and Gates failed to disclose their roles as foreign agents by registering as such with the federal government. Under U.S. law, people who lobby on behalf of foreign political leaders must provide detailed accounts of their work to the Justice Department. Failure to do so is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

Manafort has denied ever performing "direct lobbying support" for the Ukrainian government.

Manafort is not the only American whose name appears in the party ledger. In his presentation on August 19, Leshchenko also revealed for the first time that veteran U.S. journalist and longtime CNN television host Larry King's name is listed in the accounting book.

'Larry King Payment'

In an entry dated October 11, 2011, King is listed as the recipient of a $225,000 advance for an "interview." King's signature is not on the page. As with the entries referring to Manafort, Heller signed for the payment.

Leshchenko's colleague Sevhil Musayeva-Borovyk, an investigative reporter and editor in chief of the independent news site Ukrayinska Pravda, said she believes the payment was for King to conduct an interview with then-Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, a Yanukovych ally and senior Party of Regions member.

King visited Kyiv and interviewed Azarov weeks after the date of the entry, on November 28, 2011, at the government headquarters in Kyiv.

At a news conference following the interview, King called Azarov a straightforward and honest person. He said that after the interview he had told his wife, who joined him in Kyiv, that Azarov "would have been a successful U.S. politician."

"He's a bit like Jimmy Carter. He looks good, and it's easy to meet with him," King said when asked with whom of the world's politicians he would compare Azarov, according to the Interfax news agency.

King's representatives could not be reached for comment.

The Azarov interview did not air on CNN, and it is unclear whether it was broadcast elsewhere.

King's CNN show Larry King Live was canceled in 2010, but he was still hosting CNN special programs at the time the interview was conducted.

CNN cut ties with King in February 2012. In 2013, King signed on to host a new program on state-funded Russian channel RT.

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/ ukraine-secret-payments- evidents-manafort/27933901.html

Copyright (c) 2016. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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With so much going on, it was easy to get hurt on the flight deck of the USS Coral Sea.

Gary Stackhouse was lucky that most of his time on the aircraft carrier was spent below in the hangar fixing up A-6 Intruder attack planes flying missions over Vietnam.

But every so often the York county native was ordered topside to brave flight operations to make a quick repair to an air mask or some other piece of safety or survival equipment.

The pilots had all kinds of problems when they were going through their checks, recalled Stackhouse, who recently retired as a security guard stationed at Carlisle Barracks.

Standard gear for a crewman on the flight deck was a helmet fitted with front and back plates to protect the head from injury. I ran into a lot of wings and stabilizers, the former Marine said.

He added how ear muffs were attached to the skull cap to shield the ears from the noise of warplanes taking off and landing. There were also goggles to keep out flying debris kicked up by the violence of machines in motion.

Crossing the deck, Stackhouse had to be mindful that every step could carry him closer to an afterburner, a jet intake or spinning turboprop. He wore an inflatable life vest in the event a near disaster knocked him off the ship into the ocean below.

You could get a heat blast and the next thing you know youre on your (butt), said Stackhouse, now a resident of York Springs, Adams County.

Duties

From August 1971 to August 1972, he was a lance corporal assigned to Marine attack squadron VMA-224. The carrier Coral Sea was in a task force patrolling Yankee Station in the Gulf of Tonkin. Its mission was to launch air strikes against enemy targets.

It was not unusual for him to work 12 hours a day, seven days a week, when flight operations were in full swing. The more you fly those things, the more they break, Stackhouse said.

Every so often, he was ordered to board a helicopter for a flight to Da Nang to repair a plane that could not return to the carrier. They would send in somebody from every work center, he recalled.

While he specialized in ejection seats and safety and survival equipment, there were other specialists on the helicopter trained in the repair and upkeep of avionics, engines and airframes.

Da Nang was hot, Stackhouse recalled. The jungle heat was ... killer. We went to fix the aircraft, get it done and get out of there.

Other times he was tasked with the repair of aircraft damaged in battle. Most times this took the form of holes in the fuselage and tail section from ground fire. We had 20 aircraft, Stackhouse said. We came back with 15 of them. The other five were shot down.

The near-constant flight operations made the resupply of bombs, rockets and other ordnance vitally important. Underway replenishment was also used to feed a crew that numbered in the thousands.

It was ongoing ... constant, Stackhouse recalled. One night food ... several nights later ammunition ... The Navy had it locked down.

Hangar

Typically helicopters airlifted cargo pallets from supply ships to the carrier flight deck. The pallets were lowered onto the massive elevators that carried aircraft between decks. The cargo was taken below to the hangar deck.

There Stackhouse waited with other crewmen equipped with forklifts and power jacks to break down each pallet into manageable loads that were taken to other parts of the massive carrier.

Food went one way ... Ammunition went another, he recalled. It was manual labor. By the time one load was ready, another pallet was waiting when Stackhouse returned to the flight deck. It started all over again.

Food onboard the ship was pretty good with two mess hall lines offering a daily schedule of meals, he said. A snack food line near the stern served up hot dogs and hamburgers virtually around-the-clock. While convenient, the limited menu options got old real quick.

Crewmen spent their off hours playing cards, watching movies on the hangar deck or visiting the crowded gym or library. When flight operations were suspended, the flight deck was clear for crewmen to head topside to relax, sunbathe or run laps.

Sleep onboard the carrier was a challenge at first with all the noise from the ship engines, flight operations and crewmen milling around at all hours of the day.

The U.S. Navy was not alone in the Gulf of Tonkin. All too often, the carrier task force was shadowed by Soviet aircraft off in the distance and by spy trawlers fishing for information, Stackhouse said. The other ships kept an eye on those guys.

Stackhouse would go on to spend 22 years in the Marine Corps, retiring in 1992 as a gunnery sergeant. Since 2001, he worked as a security guard at Carlisle Barracks assigned primarily to Root Hall and Collins Hall on post and to the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center.
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Despite the heat that is usually an indicator of a busy mosquito season, South Middleton Township Supervisor Tom Faley said the mosquito-positive samples tested are still low compared to past years.

Faley reported this week that the township has only had two positive samplesone in the West Springville Road area and the other in the Countryside Drive area.

Thats one of the lowest numbers in the last few years, he said, adding that the township had seven positive samples last year, two in 2014, nine in 2013 and 16 in 2012.

Given the heat, thats a surprising number, he said.

A normal mosquito season may continue through late September, but Faley said that could also extend to October if temperatures remain high and at a level where mosquito populations can still thrive.

Overall, there have only been 18 positive samples in Cumberland County.

Cumberland County had one of the earliest positive samples in the statewith a sample coming in positive in Camp Hill Borough on June 1. The 18 positive samples were collected since then, up to this past weekend, according to data from the Pennsylvania West Nile Virus Control Program.

Other positive samples found in Cumberland County were three positives in Camp Hilll; two each in Monroe Township, Lemoyne Borough and Carlisle Borough; and one positive sample each in Upper Allen Township, Shiremanstown, Southampton Township, North Newton Township, Newville Borough and Mechanicsburg Borough.

Cumberland County is not the only county in the Midstate to have West Nile-positive samples of mosquitoes. Adams County has 23 positive samples, York County has 22 positive samples and Dauphin County has collected one. No positive samples have yet been found in Perry County.

The only human case of West Nile Virus in the state this year was reported in Indiana County, and no veterinary positives have yet been reported this year.

However, there were four avian samples that tested positive for West Nile, including three in the Midstate. Orrstown Borough in Franklin County had a West Nile-positive turkey vulture in mid-May, and Lancaster Township had two West-Nile positive samplesone a red-tailed hawk in late July and the other a crow on Aug. 1.

Cumberland County Vector Control collects mosquito samples to be tested for West Nile Virus. The department will also help treat mosquito populations with spraying or making water non-inhabitable for mosquitoes. To report a mosquito problem or for more information, call Vector Control at 717-240-6539.
TSX-V:ELY

VANCOUVER, Aug. 19, 2016 /CNW/ - Ely Gold & Minerals Inc. ("Ely Gold" or the "Company") (TSX-V: ELY, OTC: ELYGF) announces a proposed non-brokered private placement consisting of up to 8,000,000 units (the "Units") at a price of C$.14 per Unit, for gross proceeds of C$1,120,000 (the "Offering"). The Units will be comprised of one common share and one-half of one share purchase warrant. One whole warrant will entitle the holder to purchase one common share for a period of two years at a price of C$.20 per share.

The Company may, in appropriate circumstances, pay a finder's fee comprising cash and/or securities in connection with the Offering. The Offering is subject to TSX Venture Exchange acceptance. All Securities issued pursuant to the Offering will be subject to a four-month hold period from the closing date. The proceeds from the Offering will be used for property acquisition, royalty acquisition and for general corporate expenses.

About Ely Gold

Ely Gold is focused on developing recurring cash flow streams through the acquisition, consolidation, enhancement, and resale of highly prospective, un-encumbered North American precious metals properties. Ely's property development efforts maximize each property's potential for acquisition, while reserving significant royalty interests. Additional information about Ely Gold is available at the Company's website, at www.elygoldinc.com

On Behalf of the Board of Directors

Signed "Trey Wasser"

Trey Wasser, President & CEO

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This news release may contain forward-looking statements including but not limited to comments regarding the timing and content of upcoming work programs, geological interpretations, receipt of property titles, potential mineral recovery processes, etc. Forward-looking statements address future events and conditions and therefore, involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements.

SOURCE Ely Gold & Minerals Inc.
VANCOUVER, Aug. 19, 2016 /CNW/ - Resource Capital Gold Corp., TSXV: RCG ("RCG" or the "Company") announces today that it has entered into agreements to settle CAD$1,070,623 of debt at a deemed price of $0.12 per share. Pursuant to these agreements, the Company will issue 6,755,192 shares to ACT2 Pty Ltd ("ACT2), to settle CAD$810,623 of debt; 1 million shares to Cove Street Pty Ltd ("Cove") to settle CAD$120,000 of debt; 1 million shares to Mr. George Young to settle CAD$120,000 of debt; and 100,000 shares to Flintridge Holdings Limited. After this transaction, ACT2, the Company's largest shareholder will own and control 17,352,746 shares, representing 19.49% of the issued and outstanding common shares of the Company.

The debt settlement agreements with ACT2 and George Young are considered related party transactions subject to TSX-V Policy 5.9 and Multilateral Instrument 61-101. The Company is exempt from the need to obtain minority shareholder approval and a formal valuation as required by MI 61-101 as the Company is listed on the TSXV and the fair market value of the transactions does not exceed 25% of the Company's market capitalization.

Further to its announcement of 5 January 2016, RCG announces that it will issue 1 million shares to Centennial Mining ("Centennial"), in satisfaction of the initial milestone payment on the Corcoran Canyon Joint Venture. Under its agreement with Centennial, RCG is to issue 1 million upon completion of its due diligence at the Corcoran Canyon Silver-Gold Project, Nevada.

The shares for debt transaction and the share issue to Centennial are both subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange.

On behalf of the Board of Directors of Reliance

George S. Young

Chairman and CEO

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" (collectively, "forward-looking information") within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking information is generally identifiable by use of the words "believes," "may," "plans," "will," "anticipates," "intends," "could", "estimates", "expects", "forecasts", "projects" and similar expressions, and the negative of such expressions. Forward-looking information in this news release include statements about the completion of the debt settlement transactions and share issuance to Centennial, each of which are subject to TSX Venture Exchange Approval.

All forward-looking information herein is qualified in its entirety by this cautionary statement, and the Company disclaims any obligation to revise or update any such forward-looking information or to publicly announce the result of any revisions to any of the forward-looking information contained herein to reflect future results, events or developments, except as required by law.

SOURCE Resource Capital Gold Corp.
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The practice of raising drug prices on new  and old  medications is common and widespread, notes Consumer Reports.

From a nationally representative telephone poll conducted by Consumer Reports Best Buy Drugs in March, it learned that 3 in 10 Americans (about 32 million people) were hit with price hikes within the previous 12 months, costing them an average of $63 more for a drug they routinely take  and a few paid $500 or more. Consumer Reports also found price increases on everything from longtime generics used to treat common conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol to new treatments for diseases such as hepatitis C.

The poll shows that when people were hit with higher drug costs, they were more likely to take unhealthy measures such as skipping doctor appointments, tests or procedures, or not filling their prescriptions or taking them as directed.

The Forces of Profit

Consumer Reports' analysis suggests that high prices for generic and brand-name drugs stem in part from a battle over profit between mammoth industries  Big Pharma and insurance companies  with consumers caught in the middle.

Drug companies can charge whatever price they want. For Medicare and commercial health plans, no government body  including the Federal Trade Commission, the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services  has rules or laws that dictate or restrict the price a pharmaceutical company can set for a drug. And in most cases, there's nothing that restricts how much a company can raise that price.

Insurance companies are also charging you more. The only way left for insurers to provide coverage for a drug but maintain their profit margins is to reduce how much insurance coverage  and thus protection from high prices  they offer to a consumer. That can happen in at least one of four ways: by raising your deductible; by increasing monthly premiums; by increasing your co-pay by putting drugs into more expensive "tiers"; or by making you pay "coinsurance," where you pay a percentage of the medication's cost, usually one-third or more.

What Consumers Can Do

Consumer Reports offers these tips to find the best deals at the pharmacy:

Talk to your doctor about the cost of the drug she is prescribing. For less expensive alternatives, ask about generics, which can cost up to 90 percent less. Your doctor might consider "therapeutic substitution"  a different drug that works as well. If your insurance drops or reduces coverage of a drug, your doctor can also help by appealing to your insurance company for an exception to cover the drug anyway.

Shop around and negotiate. Consumer Reports' secret shoppers have found that retail drug prices can vary widely, even within the same ZIP code. The shoppers also found that asking, "Is this your lowest price?" could get you further discounts.

Check online. If you pay out of pocket, check GoodRx to learn a drug's "fair price." You can also fill a prescription with a low-cost online pharmacy based in the U.S., such as HealthWarehouse.com. Be careful of fraudulent websites: Use only an online retailer that operates within the U.S. and displays the VIPPS symbol to show that it's a Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Site.

Choose a plan that covers the medications you need. Compare plans during your open-enrollment period because coverage may change from year to year. Keep in mind that high-deductible plans have lower premiums but require you to pay a larger chunk of your drug costs.
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User info is gathered, used by advertisers

By Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY NETWORK

SAN FRANCISCO  You're not paranoid, you really are being followed more online.

A study that looked at web tracking over the last 20 years found that at least 75 percent of the world's 500 most popular websites contain web trackers, up from fewer than five percent in 1998.

"The number of trackers have increased, the ability of the top trackers to track you across sites has increased and the complexity of the trackers has increased," said Adam Lerner, a security and privacy researcher at the University of Washington in Seattle and one of the study designers.

The researchers used a unique Internet archive, the Wayback Machine, to look at third-party tracking code used on websites over time. These-third party trackers first appeared in 1998 and their use has been rising almost continuously ever since.

"Obviously they have legitimate purposes, but they also have privacy implications," said Franziska Roesner, professor of computer science at the University of Washington and an author on the paper, which was presented last week at a computer conference in Austin, Texas.

Half of the top 500 websites they looked at contained at least four of the third-party trackers, the researchers found.

And it's not simply those individual companies that are tracking users, said Ali Lange, a policy analyst with the Center for Democracy and Technology in Washington D.C.

"It's important to remember that those four brokers are then selling that data to others, so it's much broader," she said.

The rise of web tracking and more targeted advertising has helped fund the explosion of online content and build such web behemoths as Google, Facebook, Amazon and others. It's even part of the reason Verizon recently bought Yahoo, to bolster its potential audience for ads. It's also led to more consumers installing ad-blocking software, which resulted in pushback from companies like Facebook to thwart it.
Kimberley Parker/Special to the Standard-Times Trayton Stone and camp buddy Rebecca Key laugh and clap as Carol Santry plays guitar and sings. Campers enjoyed numerous activities, including a hayride, during this week's West Texas Rehabilitation Center Summer Camp for children with disabilities.

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Program benefits kids with disabilities

By Zahra Farah Zahra.Farah@Gosanangelo.Com 325-659-8250

Amid a crowd of children singing, swimming and paint-balling, camper Hunter Magee had a serious matter on his mind.

Hunter, 12, who has cerebral palsy, was among 85 young patients attending this week's 34th annual West Texas Rehabilitation Center Summer Camp. The three-day camp, which began Tuesday and ends today, offers children a chance to do what they know best ? be kids.

On this particular day, Hunter spent a good half-hour playing with three Samoyed dogs trained to help ease the pain of patients. When Hunter understood what the dogs were for, his eyes lit up.

"I've been trying to find someone for a long time," he said. "My dad is in a lot of pain. Could you make him feel better?"

The dogs' owners, Tom and Toni Maurer, listened as Hunter told them about how his father is recovering from a recent surgery and asked for their phone number so they could see his father.

As promised, the couple put their number in his backpack and agreed they would visit his dad.

Hunter is one of numerous children the camp helps each year. The free program, for WTRC patients ages 2 to 12, started in 1978 with 15 children and now attracts about 85 campers.

It's a chance for patients to have the same summer experience as their peers, said Suzanne Atkinson, director of marketing at West Texas Rehab.

Founder Barney Barnhart and Shelley Smith, first executive director of WTRC, struck upon the idea over drinks one day as they discussed how young patients had nothing to do during the long summer.

"Smith said other camps felt children with disabilities were a liability," said Linda Rasor Barnhart, one of Barney Barnhart's three daughters. "Dad told Smith, 'Well, bring them over here' " to the Barnhart estate near Lake Nasworthy.

Through that vision and years of hard work, the camp has grown to include about 100 buddies, 50 volunteers and 50 organizations and families ready to kick-start the kids' summer. Most volunteers are buddies, teenagers who accompany campers all day. The kids are broken into four large groups and spend 45 minutes at the 10 or more activities each day.

Jami Martinez, 15, was a camper for 12 years before she became a buddy.

"I've been doing camp for as long as I can remember, and I've always had fun," she said.

Her camper Alonah Green, 10, started off shy but didn't end her day that way.

"I've made two new friends, my buddies," Alonah said.

Michelle Dye, 16, watched Jace Cline, 6, rock out to the sound of drums.

Michelle started volunteering when she was 12 because of her brother, who had a speech impediment. He attended camp every year and she saw how much joy it brought him.

"I tried (being a buddy) my seventh-grade year and fell in love with it," she said. She was impressed that the kids are so independent.

Warren Simpson, director of Angelo State University's recreational and fitness graduate program, said some children with disabilities have stronger senses and are able to do more things than people realize.

"Most importantly it's good to realize kids are kids," he said.

"What we do is considered kind of minor," said Bob Helmers, WTRC board member. "What's most important is the look on the kids' faces."

As kids jumped on hayrides at this week's camp, some yelled for the driver to go faster. Others sang camp songs while eating cupcakes.

Blake Herring, 20, who was one of Hunter's buddies, said his favorite part of the day was helping Hunter go down the water slide.

"He was a little apprehensive at first, but when we slid down he had a big smile," Herring said.

Hunter made a promise to his buddy earlier in the day that he kept.

"I made him laugh," Hunter said. "I told you I would make you laugh."
This Aug. 10, 2016, photo provided by Carrie Leven shows the exterior of the reconstructed San Antonio Catholic Church in Questa, N.M. The community will celebrate the rededication of the church with a special Mass on Sunday, Aug. 14, 2016. It took volunteers tens of thousands of hours over the last several years to rebuild the heart of one mountain village in northern New Mexico. (Carrie Leven via AP)

SHARE This Aug. 10, 2016, photo provided by Carrie Leven shows the interior of the reconstructed San Antonio Catholic Church in Questa, N.M. The northern New Mexico mountain village will celebrate the rededication of the church with a special Mass on Sunday, Aug. 14, 2016. (Carrie Leven via AP) This July 21, 2016, photo provided by Carrie Leven, shows one of the stained glass windows made by volunteers for the historic San Antonio Catholic Church in Questa, N.M. The community will celebrate the rededication of the church with a special Mass on Sunday, Aug. 14, 2016. It took volunteers tens of thousands of hours over the last several years to rebuild the heart of one mountain village in northern New Mexico. (Carrie Leven via AP) In this Thursday, Aug. 11, 2016, photo, provided by Carrie Leven, shows the installation of the retablos, or devotional paintings, at the alter of the reconstructed San Antonio Catholic Church are part of the finishing touches being made in Questa, N.M. The community will celebrate the rededication of the church with a special Mass on Sunday, Aug. 14, 2016. (Carrie Leven via AP) This June 7, 2014, photo provided by Carrie Leven shows project manager Mark Sideris after concrete forms were removed from the foundation of one of the buttresses for the historic San Antonio Catholic Church in Questa, N.M. The community will celebrate the rededication of the church with a special Mass on Sunday, Aug. 14, 2016. It took volunteers more than 40,000 hours and hundreds of thousands of dollars in private donations to finish the project. (Carrie Leven via AP)

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN, Associated Press

Fueled by faith and determination, volunteers worked tens of thousands of hours over the last several years to rebuild the heart of one mountain village in northern New Mexico.

On Sunday, they will gather in Questa to celebrate their efforts with the rededication of the historic San Antonio Catholic Church. Archbishop John C. Wester and other officials will lead a special Mass.

One of the church's main adobe walls collapsed almost a decade ago, prompting the Archdiocese of Santa Fe to call for the building to be torn down. Community members wouldn't have it and fought for permission to rebuild the church on their own.

"To just let it go and say goodbye was not a real option for us," said Malaquias Rael, a former mayor of Questa and a spokesman for the restoration committee. "For us, it has always been the heart of the community. It's the cornerstone of our community."

Rael predicted there won't be a dry eye in Questa during the weekend celebration.

As part of agreement with the archdiocese, the villagers had a deadline of six years to rebuild the massive adobe structure and they had virtually no money to do it. Undeterred, they held bake sales, car washes, dances, silent auctions and raffled off trucks, a motorcycle and a quilt. They also sold some of the old adobe bricks from the church to raise money.

Rael jokingly called it the "nickel and dime" approach.

But over the years, they raised more than $600,000 in donations and received close to a half-million dollars in donated equipment and materials to make the project happen.

Another 41,000 hours in volunteer labor went into laying 29,000 adobes, stabilizing existing walls, plastering and painting and creating numerous stained glass windows and the special carvings that border the altar and choir loft.

Project manager Mark Sideris said working with an all-volunteer crew was a blessing because their hearts were in it.

"What kept us from feeling like we were being overworked is that everybody's forefathers had to make and lay about 50,000 adobes to build this place 170 years ago without any of the resources we have  no mechanized equipment, no mortar mixers, no loaders. It was all by hand and in all seasons and all by daylight," he said. "That kept us kind of in our place."

The volunteers were focused Thursday on finishing touches ahead of the weekend celebration. That included installing retablos, or devotional paintings, in the altar screen. The day before, the crew lined up all the pews.

It's been a long road and the community has shared its progress through social media .

As much of the original church was salvaged as possible, Sideris said.

The historic adobes and large vigas from the original building provided a glimpse into what life might have been like in Questa in the mid-1800s. The original builders had to chisel square holes in the timber to haul them down from the mountains as there were no hand augers. They also used whatever was around  corn cobs, left-over meat bones from their lunch and pottery shards  to shim the adobes as they were laid.

The adobes  which came in all sizes back then  were placed on bare ground and stretched about 20 feet high to form the main walls. Some walls were 4 feet thick.

"The first miracle here was that it stood for 170 years without any foundation and now the second miracle is getting it rebuilt and keeping the roof in place while we did it and keeping many of the walls standing while we did it," Sideris said. "So there are a couple of miracles here for sure."

Rael and Sideris said the community is ready to move back into the church, which had been the center of so many family events, from baptisms and first communions to weddings and funerals.

"There were all of these stories and just the thought that now that can start all over again, it's going to be back in business and all those new memories can be made," Sideris said.

For Rael, who grew up next door, the reconstruction also symbolizes a rebirth for the community. Questa has struggled to find new economic footing in the wake of the 2014 closure of a nearby mine that employed generations of residents.

"We wanted to draw attention to what this community is made of," he said. "The mine shutdown made it challenging, but this is an attraction now. We want people to come and see this old building that was restored and learn the story of the people who live here."

___

Follow Susan Montoya Bryan on Twitter: www.twitter.com/susanmbryanNM
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By The Kansas City Star (Tns)

Q. How can I use my faith to learn how to forgive?

The Rev. Bob Hill, pastor emeritus, Community Christian Church: All who ask this question and earnestly seek answers to it are already on the way to lifesaving learnings about forgiveness and wholeness.

Becoming better acquainted with your faith's scriptures, prayers and rituals will result in exciting insights and a powerful impact on your life.

Reading scripture can remind you of forbearers who have been where you are now. A regular disciplined recitation of prayers can provide peace and confidence to do the challenging work of forgiveness. Participating in forgiveness rituals (annually or weekly) can shape your life with hope and grace.

Of course, faith is always lived out best in community. If you have a faith home, seek the guidance of your leaders. If you don't currently have a faith community, ask a friend who exemplifies a forgiving spirit about their place of worship and join them for a service or a study group.

As we probe sacred texts, special prayers, cherished rituals and the life of a faith community, one thing becomes clear: We are best fulfilled as human beings when we learn how to give and receive forgiveness.

Christianity's most famous prayer, the Lord's Prayer, describes forgiveness as a two-way street: " forgive us our trespasses (sins), as we forgive those who trespass (sin) against us."

And always remember: Forgiveness is the supreme antidote to the harsh and destructive impossibility of perfectionism. At the root of all worthy religions is a precious proposition: There is always more merciful forgiveness in God than there are misdeeds in us.

The Rev. Duke Tufty, senior pastor, Unity Temple on the Plaza: My understanding of faith is having absolute conviction in and commitment to something that cannot be sensed or proven in any way.

Hope is, "I want this to happen." Faith is, "I know this will happen." It is believing without reservation, hesitation or the slightest doubt that which hasn't happened and there is no evidence to indicate it ever will, most definitely will happen.

You ask how do you use faith to forgive. Say you are walking down the path of life when you stumble over a big rock, fall down and get hurt. Forgiveness is taking a moment to center yourself, pick yourself up, tend to your hurts and continue on free of thought about the situation.

Not forgiving is picking up the big rock and carrying it with you as a reminder of the hurt it caused. It has been said that, "Not forgiving is like drinking poison and hoping the other person will die."

It is important to keep in mind that thoughts of hatred and resentment are in you. They are like poison to the soul that you live with 24 hours a day, and they sicken you.

Forgive literally means to "give for." When we forgive somebody or something, we give up negative thoughts toward the situation that weaken and sicken us for positive thoughts that allow us peace of mind and a sense of well being.

The act of forgiveness is for our individual benefit and has little to do with the other person. You can use faith in forgiveness by knowing, beyond the slightest doubt, that it is in your best interest, you will feel incredibly better and a sense of lightness will return to your life when you forgive.
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By Judi Light Hopson, Emma H. Hopson and Ted Hagen Tribune News Service (TNS)

Do you have an out-of-control teenager whos giving you a hard time? Maybe youve yelled something like: You idiot! Cant I teach you anything?!

Or, are you quarreling with a neighbor whos always making trouble? Maybe youve screamed a few obscenities in the backyard  actually hoping that neighbor heard you.

It can be tempting to slam someone verbally. After all, we each have our breaking point.

However, maintaining your own dignity requires that you watch your words. You cant be described as a person of class if you throw words around recklessly.

Choosing just the right words will not only make you feel more in control, but the person youre confronting will listen with more respect if you make good sense.

Keep in mind, too, that if you are a person of dignity and class, youll feel more confident that others cant shake you from your poise and centeredness. In almost every circumstance, ugly fighting and name-calling nixes any chance for a good outcome.

For example, calling your teenager an idiot will resonate for decades  in his or her brain. And, its likely your offspring will pass this kind of language to your grandkids. Not a good legacy, now is it?

In reality, your true enemies in life will fear you more if you are a calm person. And your friends will feel more loyalty to you, if they know you are like a rock under pressure.

Keep in mind that a person of class has power, because being able to have a strong, intelligent conversation is a form of solid influence in a real crisis situation.

We had a weird situation where an employee was driving our clients around drunk, says a lawyer well call William. This paralegal, whom Ill call Shawn, would take people to lunch and have five mixed drinks!

William knew that he didnt want to act crazy himself. But, he told us, I had to jump this employee before he got somebody killed. Not only that, but I had to fire him before he got us sued!

Here is the advice we gave William in grabbing control and managing correctly:

 Create a formal situation to talk. We told him to invite Shawn to lunch with the partners of the firm. This way, William would have the right setting to hold his employees attention.

 Tell the good news first. By this, we meant for William and his senior associates to point out productive work and faithfulness Shawn had acted out in the past. This would ease some of the pain for the firing to follow.

 Describe the persons behaviors. Dont attack his character. For example, do say, Your excessive drinking is affecting our confidence in your job performance. Dont yell, We cant have an out-of-control weakling on our staff!

Acting calmly doesnt always fit the situation one hundred percent of the time. There might come a time youll need to simply shout out the truth. For example, you might need to tell an employee, like Shawn, Youre putting other peoples lives at risk! Youre fired!

But, in maintaining your role as a person of class, you will feel less shaky in this challenging world if you act in a peaceful and calm manner most of the time  especially when things are hopelessly rocky.

People will also trust you to manage their business efforts, money investments, correspondence, and a host of other responsibilities if you can manage yourself well.



Judi Light Hopson is the Executive Director of the stress management website USA Wellness Cafe at www.usawellnesscafe.com. Emma Hopson is an author and a nurse educator. Ted Hagen is a family psychologist.
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By Hannah Allam, McClatchy Washington Bureau (TNS)

WASHINGTON  Stanley Vernon Majors was a neighbor from hell.

For five years, according to witness accounts and court papers, Majors terrorized the Jabara family living next door to him in suburban Tulsa, Oklahoma.

He disrupted their family gatherings. He hassled visitors if they parked in front of his house. He hurled racial slurs at a black friend of the family. He even made false claims to health inspectors, the Jabaras said, sabotaging their lucrative catering contract providing hummus to Whole Foods stores.

Majors often mentioned the family's Arab roots in his tirades; one police report quoted him as calling them "filthy Lebanese." He also used "Ay-rabs" and "Mooslems," recalled the Jabaras, who are Christians.

The harassment took a violent turn last September, when Majors was charged with ramming his car into the Jabara family's 65-year-old matriarch, Haifa, who suffered a collapsed lung, head trauma and broken bones from her nose to her ankle. Majors was awaiting trial on charges from that incident when, last Friday, according to the authorities, he walked next door and fired four shots at 37-year-old Khalid Jabara, killing him on his front porch.

Among Muslim and Arab Americans, the case immediately was viewed as a hate crime, with Jabara portrayed as the latest victim in a bloody wave of attacks against people perceived as foreigners or Muslims. "Hate was definitely part of it. This guy did hate our family," said Jabara's brother, Rami, speaking by phone to McClatchy this week.

Yet despite the well-documented history of Majors' targeting the family, there's no guarantee that prosecutors will seek hate crime charges in addition to the murder charge against him. Legal specialists who track hate crime prosecutions nationwide say the Jabara case is likely to run into the same hurdles that civil rights advocates have warned about in numerous studies: Hate crime laws can be prohibitively difficult to use, narrow as to what offenses are covered, and dependent on police who often have no obligation to report  or lack training in how to respond to  crimes involving bias.

That disconnect  having laws on the books but problems using them  is a source of growing frustration for Arab American, Muslim and other civil rights activists who have seen numerous attacks that appear to have been motivated by racial or religious hatred, but weren't considered that way under the law. The result, activists say, is the loss of confidence in the justice system just as a nasty political climate deepens fears of bias-motivated attacks.

"We are concerned that, generally, the crimes are not being prosecuted in the way that we would hope," said Madihha Ahussain, a staff attorney who follows the issue for the nonprofit Muslim Advocates. "There's a lot of inconsistency and we hope that the communities speaking out more will change the course of the way these incidents are being prosecuted and reported."

Muslim Advocates has compiled a nationwide list of more than 100 reported hate crimes against Muslims  or those targeted because they are thought to be Muslim  since terrorist attacks struck Paris last November. The group is still examining the outcomes for a case-by-case analysis, Ahussain said, but so far, of the more than 100 cases, "many are not deemed a hate crime under the law or they're not charged as a hate crime."

The concern is not limited to Arab-Americans and Muslims. Hate-crime monitors say incidents involving racial, ethnic and gender bias are under-reported across all categories of people. The FBI's annual tally of reported hate-related offenses hovers around 6,000; the most recent survey, released last November, listed 5,479.

Compare that, said Heidi Beirich, a specialist on extremism who leads the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, with the findings of another Justice Department branch that said some 260,000 people suffer hate crimes each year, based on the government's National Crime Victimization Survey.

Attacks on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender victims don't count under hate crime laws across the Deep South, she said. Some states' codes don't apply to murder cases. Five states have no hate-crime statutes at all.

The numbers will remain skewed until there's broader buy-in from local authorities and a sense of urgency about recoding these crimes, said Steven Freeman, deputy director of policy and programs at the Anti-Defamation League.

"There's not one magic wand," Freeman said. "It's an ongoing challenge that's got to have the FBI understanding the importance of it, and police chiefs saying, down their chain of commands, 'Let's do it, and let's get it right.' "

Vanita Gupta, head of the Justice Department's civil rights division, recently said that the FBI last year updated collection guidelines and introduced separate categories to track crimes targeting Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus and Arabs.
On the whole, Im an imperfect Catholic, but there is one particular area of my Christian identity in which I excel: guilt. Lately, Ive been thinking a lot about my father, who wasnt the sort of person to wallow in guilt, although Im quite certain he was well acquainted with this shadow friend. He just didnt talk much about it. Instead, he internalized his feelings and manifested whatever penance he thought he owed through action. My father risked his life to make sure other Americans not as blessed as he was could vote. In could have spent the summer of 1967 he went to Mississippi one year before Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, and three years after young civil-rights workers were murdered in Philadelphia, Miss. Voting meant that much to him. It means that much to me, because of him. I never walked across my own Edmund Pettis bridge, and I never had to fight to get to a polling place. No one ever tried to deprive me of my birthright, which, had I been born in 1861 and not 1961, would have been unthinkable. In this country, voting is the most precious incident of citizenship, and when I see how my immigration clients fight to earn it for themselves, I wonder how anyone could ever take it lightly. But then, this year happened. I was presented with the most mediocre candidates this country could extract from its bowels, a man and a woman who reflect the basest and most troubling aspects of our identity. The man wants to use false labels to turn foreigners into criminals and terrorists, while the woman lies and says that abortion is health care. The man ridicules war heroes, and the woman calls Republicans and other political opponents terrorists. I could go on, and I have in other columns, where Ive lamented the putrid quality of the candidates, but I dont really have the stomach. It has gotten to the point that Ive said I will not vote for either of the horror shows presented for daily inspection. That has elicited the usual partisan flame-throwing from both sides, and I now expect that no one will be happy with whatever I say about anything, anytime, anyhow. But thats not the point. I dont really care what other people think about my non-choice. I care about what Im doing if I dont vote. I think back on my father, who is likely looking down upon me with a bemused Irish smile, and saying, Christine, Ill kick your freckled ass if you mess this up. My mother is probably sitting beside him saying Ted, leave her alone. The truth is, I feel guilty at the thought that I wont be able to vote for president this year. I feel ashamed that I would voluntarily relinquish the gift for which my father fought to give to others less privileged than a white suburban college-educated professional who never had to fight to get to a polling place. My Catholic guilt is engaged as I think about people who marched through the streets of Cairo and Tehran and Baghdad, courageously saying, We are here. And I think of my father in Hattiesburg, telling those little, white children with the dirty mouths, I am here. So, Im voting this year. Not for him, and not for her. Both are so soiled and damaged as candidates that billions of Hail Marys would not wipe the stain from my soul if I supported either one. But I am voting, for an as-yet undetermined person whose name will be written in that space left open for me by my father, and those who went before. And, my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended thee by even considering staying home. Christine Flowers is an attorney and a columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News, and can be reached at cflowers1961@gmail.com.
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By HILARY UGURU, Associated Press

WARRI, Nigeria (AP)  Prison workers say at least 10 inmates and a prison officer have been shot and killed in an attempted jailbreak in southeastern Nigeria, though police say they only shot into the air.

Local newspapers reported that one prisoner disarmed a guard, killed him and wounded two others in Thursday's riot at Abakaliki Prison in Ebonyi state.

A warden and a cook said they saw between 10 and 14 inmates killed, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of losing their jobs.

Police spokesman George Okafor says riot police fired into the air and used tear gas. He denies anyone was killed.

The incident comes the same week the Prisons Service dismissed 23 officers for allegedly colluding in jailbreaks from two prisons.
Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel/TNS Serge Rene, owner of Rene's Security and Training, handles merchandise on Friday, Aug. 5, 2016 in Orlando, Fla. Central Florida has more than 380 licensed gun dealers and, despite laws prohibiting it, at least a half dozen have felony and domestic violence convictions. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel/TNS)

SHARE photos by Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel/TNS Serge Rene owns Rene's Security and Training in Orlando, Fla. Central Florida has more than 380 licensed gun dealers and, despite laws prohibiting it, at least a half dozen have felony and domestic violence convictions. Rene shows an AR15 on display at his store. In Florida, to get a dealer license and renewal after three years, applicants must go through the ATF. A federal licensing center reviews applications and fingerprint cards. It also conducts background checks. Field officers interview applicants and recommend approval or denial.

By Mary Shanklin And Charles Minshew, Orlando Sentinel (TNS)

ORLANDO, Fla.  Florida's barbers, construction workers and talent agents face tougher oversight than gun dealers, who in Florida are only monitored by a short-staffed federal agency.

Cosmetologists and other licensed professionals in the Sunshine State are required, for instance, to self-report felony and misdemeanor convictions within 30 days. In addition, state law enforcement alerts Florida's licensing agency about any drug trafficking convictions of licensed professionals.

Unlike 13 states that license gun dealers, Florida's firearms retailers have no state oversight. Dealer licensing and monitoring falls under the watch of the federal Bureau of Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Oversight of dealers has gained more attention in recent months because of their role in helping vet potential buyers. A dealer in Jensen Beach, for example, turned away Omar Mateen, who later purchased a semi-automatic rifle just days before he shot and killed 49 people at Pulse nightclub on June 12.

University of Central Florida professor Jay Corzine, who has studied homicides and firearms, said state licensing would not eliminate problematic dealers, but it would better safeguard the public from corrupt dealers.

"I don't care if my barber has a checkered past, but people selling firearms is another story," he said. "There are dealers who have committed felonies but not been arrested, so there is no fail-safe system. But state licensing could provide an added layer of protection."

There are 386 licensed gun dealers in Orange, Osceola, Seminole and Lake counties.

In Florida, to get a dealer license and renewal after three years, applicants must go through the ATF. A federal licensing center reviews applications and fingerprint cards. It also conducts background checks. Field officers interview applicants and recommend approval or denial.

In addition to denying applicants for felony and domestic violence convictions, ATF can deny them for failure to comply with state or local laws, including zoning infractions.

Across the U.S., the denial rate was one for every 636 applicants in 2014.

Florida's contractors, Realtors and other professional licensees face renewal every two years. State licensing also gives Florida officials some control over who conducts business in the state. The state Department of Business and Professional Regulation, for instance, solicits complaints about licensees and publicizes disciplinary actions against them.

And Florida's Office of Financial Regulation, another state licensing agency, requires collection agencies to renew their license every year and the agency is notified immediately if a licensee is arrested.

The state gives its licensed professionals 30 days to report misdemeanor and felony convictions. If a licensee does not report, he can face disciplinary action up to revocation of the license. When a licensee is convicted of a crime related to drug trafficking, the state immediately suspends his license.

There is no self-reporting mechanism for gun dealers.

"We educate them on what's prohibited, but there's no self-reporting procedure in place," said Mary Harmon Salter, area supervisor for the ATF's Tampa area office. Dealers, she added, undergo background checks initially, when they move and when they renew their license.

During a recent five-year period, the agency's staffing shrunk by 1.5 percent. It lost 81 staffers between 2009 and 2014 but its responsibilities grew, with a 22 percent increase in federal firearms licensees, which includes dealers, pawnshop brokers, collectors and others.

In 2009, the agency inspected one in every 5.3 dealers. Five years later, it inspected one in every 7.4 dealers, according to the agency's most recent report on firearms commerce.

ATF spokesman Kevin Richardson said the agency has to prioritize. Among other things, it focuses on dealers who sell guns that end up at crime scenes.

"Just because they haven't been inspected doesn't mean they are doing something wrong," Richardson said.

In states across the country, gun dealer licensing and other firearms-related measures generally win support of Democrats and face opposition from Republicans. New York, Indiana and California are among more than a dozen states that have some form of state licensing.

Gun store sales clerks in Indiana must have a state license and law enforcement officials must attest to their "good character and reputation." In California, dealers must obtain about a half-dozen licenses or permits by local and state regulators. In New York, dealers have to be licensed and maintain records of sales.

In Georgia in 2014, the state repealed gun control measures including state licensing of dealers. The legislation was driven from concern that residents were losing their constitutional rights to own firearms.

In Florida, Rep. Randolph Bracy, an Orlando Democrat who served this year on the state's House Civil Justice Committee, said he would introduce a bill calling for state licensing next year if he wins a state Senate seat he is seeking.

Senate President Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando, meanwhile, requested his staff to take a closer look at dealer licensing. However, in the past he has not supported more regulations to require state licensing for that group.

Serge Rene, a licensed dealer and co-owner of Rene's Security and Training in Orlando, said he is not convinced an extra layer of regulation from the state is needed but added that it's nothing to fear.

"I'm not against more regulation," the retired assistant principal said. "Anything that will help to ensure the safety of the public, I'm in general favor of. The good citizens should never be afraid of more regulation. They will always pass that litmus test."
SHARE Raymond Jessop is escorted to the Schleicher County Jail by State Trooper Sgt. Roger Looka after Jessop was found guilty Thursday in Eldorado. Jessop could be sentenced to two to 20 years in prison for sexually assaulting a 16-year-old in November 2004.

Sentencing set for Monday as 11 others await day in court

By Trish Choate Standard-Times Washington Bureau

ELDORADO ? Raymond Merril Jessop has been the only man on trial the past two weeks in Schleicher County.

Even the eyeball-torturing lighting in the 51st Judicial District Courtroom couldn't trick anyone into seeing 11 other shadows cast behind his as he sat quietly at the defense table. Jessop is the first to be tried among 12 members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints facing charges in the county.

He kept his tanned, attractive face nearly free of expression and didn't twitch when fingers pointed at him over nine grueling days in the makeshift courtroom where he was on trial, charged with sexually assaulting a 16-year-old in November 2004 at the Yearning for Zion Ranch near Eldorado.

Then Thursday evening, Jessop, 38, walked past a group of men in the gallery who appeared to be members of his polygamist sect.

Things were different now. Anyone could see that.

He didn't walk the same ? not because of the new burden of a jury's guilty verdict branding him a sex offender, but because of how the cuffs binding his hands behind him contorted his posture.

He gave a single nod and looked directly at the men, among them Willie Jessop, a well-known FLDS spokesman and leader.

Their presence was likely a show of support. Willie Jessop has said the defendant asked him to be there.

Then the moment passed, and two law-enforcement officers led Raymond Jessop to the nearby Schleicher County Jail.

The 11 other men facing charges stemming from an April 2008 raid on the YFZ Ranch weren't sitting at the defense table with Raymond Jessop. But they probably know a seven-man, five-woman jury begins deciding his punishment Monday for sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl he'd taken as a spiritual wife.

The fruit of that union, a daughter born in August 2005 to the 16-year-old, contributed to Jessop's undoing, thanks to DNA and paternity testing.

The 11 other men could be weighing their options more intently now.

Like Jessop was, they are innocent unless proven guilty. They face charges ranging from aggravated sexual assault to bigamy to conducting a ceremony prohibited by law.

Those other cases will depend on "the facts and circumstances" in each one, said Dan Benson, a Texas Tech University law professor.

But the possibilities might be grim if any of the seven other defendants charged with sexual assault of a child have the same circumstances as Jessop. Imprisoned church leader Warren Jeffs is among them.

"They could probably get convictions of as many of them as would fit the general description of this guy who got convicted," Benson said. "They've got the same kind of evidence against them probably" as they had with Jessop.

Open-and-shut case

The case against Jessop was an open-and-shut case of statutory rape, Texas law professors said.

Besides being underage, the girl was not legally married to Jessop and was too young to be his common-law wife, said John Sampson, a family law expert at the University of Texas at Austin.

In Texas, an underage person is not legally able to consent to sex ? unless within the confines of a legal marriage.

Sampson, called by prosecutors as an expert witness, told jurors last week that Jessop was also already legally married to another woman in 1994.

So never mind a ceremony performed by Jeffs between Jessop and the girl in August 2004 at the YFZ Ranch.

"Basically, they're legal strangers from the point of view of Texas," Sampson said.

Jessop's is the first of 10 trials on 51st Judicial District Judge Barbara Walther's court schedule.

The other 11 FLDS men facing charges might, at this point, consider plea deals, depending upon what might be offered, said Arnold Loewy, a Texas Tech University law professor and criminal law expert.

In Loewy's eyes, a good deal would be allowing a defendant to plead guilty to simple assault and receive community supervision, he said.

But lead prosecutor Eric Nichols and his team is "going to be somewhat emboldened" by the Jessop conviction, Loewy said.

Bigamy charge

Jessop also faces a charge of bigamy in connection with a 2006 incident, but it is to be tried separately.

Loewy said a bigamy conviction was a bit "iffy."

"That's a harder case, and I think that's why they started with the sex assault case," he said.

FLDS men are known to take spiritual wives as Jessop took the 16-year-old in the marriage ceremony performed by Jeffs. Prosecutors allege Raymond Jessop had one legal wife and eight celestial or spiritual wives.

"It's at least arguable" the U.S. Constitution has protections making it quite legal for a man to live with seven women and be married only to one, Loewy said.

Freedom of religion and private sexual activity are protected under the U.S. Constitution, he said.

Loewy said the question is whether the FLDS marriage ceremonies are considered binding under state law. If they're just religious ceremonies and don't purport to be binding under state law, then prosecutors might have problems with the bigamy cases, he said.

It could throw a wrench in the defense's case, though, for instance, if a spiritually linked man and wife file federal income tax returns as a married couple, Loewy said.

Sampson begged to differ with Loewy.

"You are on to some old biblical terminology," he said. "You had a wife and concubines."

But the FLDS sect members don't have concubines, Sampson said.

Nichols called them "celestial" marriages in court, but the FLDS doesn't label them as such in its church documents, Sampson said.

Texas has a new law on the books for bigamy, authored by Rep. Harvey Hilderbran, R-Kerrville. Before 2005, bigamy was a misdemeanor offense. The new law ratchets bigamy up to a felony offense, and it includes a provision aimed directly at the FLDS.

"That's what the Legislature gets to do is decide the laws of marriage," Sampson said.

Prosecutors can pursue convictions even if those in question aren't bound by state-sanctioned marriages.

If a man claims more than one purported spouse ? if it simply appears bigamy is occurring with several purported wives living with a man ? then prosecution could ensue.

The law also raised from 14 to 16 the age at which minors can marry with their parents' consent.

The April 2008 raid was the result of a hoax. Authorities went in looking for an underage girl they thought was being abused by her "spiritual" husband.

They left with 439 children and three trailer-loads of documents. The children were all returned to parents or guardians.

Willie Jessop has said the scars of the raid linger for the parents and children involved.

He could not be reached for comment for this story. Prosecution and defense attorneys avoided commenting to the media while Raymond Jessop's trial was under way.

Sect documents

Those documents from the ranch were also on trial during the past two weeks.

"When you introduce a document in court, you can't do it like you see on TV or on the movies where the lawyer just stands up in court and says what it is," Benson said. "You have to authenticate."

Nichols authenticated evidence painstakingly during several hours of testimony from Texas Rangers and others.

It became routine to hear a law enforcement officer give an account of going onto the YFZ Ranch during the raid and discovering an overwhelming number of church records giving accounts of important events such as marriages, as well as key dictations from Jeffs.

Nichols also brought in ex-FLDS member Rebecca Musser as an expert witness to explain the importance of the documents and help authenticate them.

Still, Musser couldn't testify she saw who wrote the documents or when they were created, a point lead defense attorney Mark Stevens hammered home with the defiant and poised witness.

The documents were the stuff of hearsay as far as the defense was concerned.

But church records are among hearsay exceptions, Benson said.

"That doesn't mean it's conclusive. The jury would have the authority to believe it or disbelieve it no matter what it says," Benson said.

The question for Monday: How long in prison might a jury give a man for sexually assaulting a 16-year-old whom he took as a spiritual wife in a religious ceremony performed by the church's prophet?

Sampson said the law doesn't allow religion to be used as cover in, for instance, virgin sacrifice or other wrongdoing.

He also wondered if the prosecution's allegations that Jessop had eight spiritual wives might make it into the punishment phase of the trial to illustrate his character.

Benson said it depends on the circumstances of the case.

If it seems there was a valid religious element in what Jessop did and the child's parents were in favor of her marriage, that might make an impression on the jury, he said.

"And it's not predictable how the jury will act in any given case," Benson said. "They'll just base that on their perception of the defendant."

They'll consider whether he seems arrogant or remorseful, he said.

Jessop could be sentenced to two to 20 years in prison. Jurors could recommend community supervision if the sentence is less than 10 years. The judge could also decide to sentence Jessop to community supervision without prompting from the jury.
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Jodi Lundell, Northfield, Minnesota

In this time of ongoing turmoil, student exchange is good medicine for a world torn by terror. We invite the families of San Angelo to help us combat international fears and prejudices by welcoming a foreign teen into their homes and hearts.

In recent weeks, all eyes have turned to Rio and the Olympic games. But as we cheer on Phelps, Biles and Ledecky, many of us quietly hold our breath: rumors of a potential terrorist threat are woven through the press and shared on social media.

The result? Fear. "International," a word once celebrated as exciting and elite, now feels scary and oppressive. And yet we have a choice. If we want to break down prejudices and build understanding (even in the face of terror), relationship is the most likely antidote  real relationships with other human beings.

This is where student exchange comes in. Welcoming an international student is a simple, tangible way to teach our children that different is not dangerous. When students engage with a classmate from Germany or Thailand, they begin to see the world differently. They become more likely to judge the country based on their friendship (and not the other way around).

In short, exchange students provide a much needed way to let "global" be good again.

We've partnered with schools such as Central High School to find host families to welcome these students. We can't do it without community support, so let's link arms and be part of the solution. We urge your readers to help us bring all students "home."

We are seeking homes for 60 students from Germany, Thailand, Switzerland, Spain, Austria and Italy. All students must have a host home by Aug. 31. Readers can serve as a short-term or long-term host family. To learn more, contact International Experience at 888-266-2921 and we will connect you with the local coordinator, or visit www.IE-USA.org.
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More Disclosure Pressure on Munis

A Country of Municipal Haves and Have-Nots

Pump It Up

Investors in the municipal market have long demanded better access to governments financial information, particularly since the 2008 financial crisis. But tired of waiting, an industry group stepped up its calls for federal regulators to intervene this week in a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).The failure to publicly disclose bank loans to all market participants can lead to unexpected rating changes that negatively impact bond pricing, said Lisa Washburn, chair of the National Federation of Municipal Analysts (NFMA). The group is calling for governments to disclose all interim but relevant information, such as an approved fiscal year budget and tax receipts, as well as clearly report any long-term debt obligations.The letter also suggests that the SEC adopt the authority to ensure that municipalities file their financial disclosures in a timely manner. Currently, there is no enforced deadline, and governments typically file annual reports anywhere from six months to a year after the close of a fiscal year.The problem from an investor point of view is that the more troubled an issuer is, the more likely it will delay releasing relevant financial information. Take Puerto Rico, which is essentially out of cash and only recently issued its annual financial report for the 2014 fiscal year.The SEC is well aware of investors' frustrations -- this week's letter largely urges the commission to implement its own recommendations from a 2012 report on the municipal market. But the SEC has been hesitant to push for changes as governments argue that they are too different from each other for a one-size-fits-all requirement to work. Governments want to be left alone to implement disclosure changes at their own pace.But the NFMA isnt the only organization beating down the SECs door on this topic. Credit ratings agencies and even the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board have also been vocal, particularly in regards to disclosing loans from banks. Time may be running out for governments to ramp up their financial disclosures themselves.A new report this week from Standard & Poor's on Pennsylvania localities illustrates the growing economic disparity between urban and rural areas across the nation.Pennsylvania has seen its population grow 0.8 percent over the past five years, but two-thirds of the state's 67 counties actually lost population. In many of those counties, the growth in the tax base has not kept pace with legacy costs like pensions and retiree health-care costs.On top of that, slow economic growth and state budget issues could further hurt these municipalities, according to S&P. Governments that have the flexibility to raise a local income or property tax are are more equipped to face rising costs despite slow economic growth, the report said. Additionally, the less reliant on state aid, the better for local governments as that makes them less vulnerable to future fluctuations in state aid These themes are repeated in states across the country, particularly as populations flock to major metropolitan areas. In Pennsylvania, a large portion of the state is rural and many of those regions have struggled. Areas reliant on coal mining, steel or other manufacturing jobs that have been in decline for decades have had a very weak economic recovery, S&P said.While a majority of the country lives in a large metro area now, the vast geographic majority of our country is rural. This rural-urban divide has, in a financial sense, created a country of municipal haves and have-nots . Rural areas increasingly do not have the tax base to support themselves. Its one of the reasons the National Association of Counties reports that nine in 10 U.S. counties has not fully recovered from the recession.The U.S. Energy Information Administration is predicting that gasoline consumption will set a record in 2017. That, according to Moodys Investors Service, is a very good thing for highway bonds that are paid back in part by motor fuel tax revenue. While states gasoline tax receipts slid during the recession and increased tepidly during 2010-2012, those numbers have since improved, largely because of lower gas prices.Even as fuel economy has gotten better -- meaning consumers make fewer trips to the pump -- the past two years have seen growth in state tax gas receipts -- 0.6 percent in 2014 and nearly 1 percent last year. That means people are driving more and the feds now estimate Americans will pump about 9.3 million barrels , or nearly 391 million gallons, of gas a day in 2016. That represents a 1.7 percent increase from last years daily average.Bottom line, this is good news for state highway officials. Higher gasoline tax receipts will strengthen debt service coverage on state highway revenue bonds. Perhaps even more key, said Moodys, is that stronger gas tax revenues could expand states borrowing capacity to finance highway maintenance projects at a time when reinvestment has stalled.States have deferred highway maintenance for a decade, leading to a higher average age of highway assets and pent-up capital investment needs, Moodys said. Considering the trend of growing pledged revenues, willingness by some states to increase gasoline taxes, and aging of capital assets, states may soon be poised to resume investing in their highways.
Eyragon Eidam

Twitter unveiled a new feature to clean up the user experience Aug. 18. But will the change mean more pressure for government social media managers, and what considerations does it raise for social media managers?The newly released feature allows account-holders to activate a quality filter aimed at reducing post redundancy and providing more relevant and tailored content.Additionally users can now, or will soon be able to, change who they receive notifications from, according to a Twitter blog post The controls come just a month after Twitter trolls clashed with actress and comedian Leslie Jones over tweets stemming from a fake account. The situation resulted in Jones taking a temporary hiatus from her account ( @Lesdoggg ) and the suspension of Milo Yiannopoulos (@Nero), a technology editor at conservative news outletFrom the perspective of Lindsay Crudele, director of DotGov and dean of training at Media Cause, the new feature goes a long way to combat negative interactions with harsh critics, but isnt a tool government officials or organizations should just jump into. It comes with potential ramifications.Twitters new quality and notification filter features are good news for anyone who has landed in the unfortunate focus of trolls, as Twitter has been at the center of pushback that their protections against abuse could be more stringent, she said. But filters shouldnt be used by public-sector social media managers as a means to limit feedback.While cutting an abusive critic out of the mix might seem like a quick solution, it could unnecessarily complicate an organizations online presence. Crudele advocates for organizations to keep the doors open from any direction.Limiting access without good cause, like threats or incivility, could spell the potential for more serious problems and potential legal issues, she warns.In this case, were seeing new features that have the potential to improve online life for individuals, but probably shouldnt be adopted by the public sector. Without clarity into algorithmic limitation, social media managers risk losing access to relevant messages that didnt make the cut, not just the best-packaged ones, said Crudele, formerly the community and social technology strategist for the city of Boston. The quality filter shouldnt be used as a gateway to weeding out negative feedback, and deliberate exclusion of public conversations could spell legal complications.But perhaps more important than how the public sector regards these tools, is the policies behind organizations' overall use of social platforms.Knowing when and how to disengage while allowing constituents to have a voice in the conversation is critical to an inclusive social campaign and something that should be outlined in an enterprisewide policy.Before venturing into an external platform such as Twitter, public agencies should start with a solid social media policy that lays out their terms of engagement, Crudele said. The best caliber of constituent service will still be found by analyzing the broadest possible streams of social data and fostering an open, collaborative conversation to make sure that everyone has a voice  paired with a public, in-house policy that governs when its time to step back.As for what the change might mean for content being distributed by government agencies, it is unclear whether or not it will have a large impact on what reaches and is dismissed by constituents. It does, perhaps, highlight the importance of crafting meaningful and engaging social content  a practice already embraced by agencies and public officials that are serious about growing an engaged audience.
Make over your kitchen for under 15K

If you're contemplating a kitchen remodel, there's a good chance you've been drooling over photos of Carrara marble countertops and commercial-grade ranges on websites like Houzz, Pinterest and Remodelista.

But for all of the inspiration those sites provide, they tend to be short of a couple of crucial details: the price of all that beauty and, just as important, how the pretty products perform.

Consumer Reports turned to designers and contractors for ways to stretch the budget and avoid common pitfalls.

You can buy a lot of kitchen for under $15,000 as long as the space isn't much more than 150 square feet and you're willing to do a lot of the work yourself. Consumer Reports allocated $1,000 for labor, namely electrical and plumbing work, which is always best left to the pros.

-- Where to start. Major home centers, including Home Depot, Ikea and Lowe's, provide free or affordable design assistance. If possible, work with a staffer certified by the National Kitchen and Bath Association (NKBA) or the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID). Many home centers employ in-house installers, or you can find your own certified contractor through the directory of the National Association of the Remodeling Industry (nari.org).

-- What's trending. Consumer Reports' tests have turned up new products that look much pricier than they are and perform extremely well -- perfect for this budget. For example, porcelain-tile planks that look remarkably like wood, right down to their textured grain. They're waterproof and have color that goes all the way through, so chipping isn't a big concern. Lumber Liquidators' Avella Brazilian Cherry 10039367 topped its latest tests, and at $3.60 per square foot, it's about half the cost of many solid hardwood products.

-- Appliances and accents. You can get a top-rated refrigerator, range and dishwasher all for about $2,500, even in unifying stainless steel. And Consumer Reports' tests have found that faucets costing as little as $60 have top-notch valves and tough finishes with lifetime warranties. Many stainless steel sinks costing less than $200 proved to be as durable as models costing twice as much.

-- Cabinet decisions. Stock cabinets start about $70 per linear foot and come in limited sizes and basic finishes. Laminate units tend to be the least expensive, followed by stained and painted. The Shaker style, with its clean, simple lines, delivers elegance in a cost-effective cabinet. Avoid units made of particleboard and constructed with staples and flimsy hardware. Instead, look for cabinets with solid wood frames surrounding a solid wood or plywood panel. Stretch the budget by incorporating open shelving, either mounted on brackets or with hidden anchors for a floating effect.

-- Counters and floors. For countertops, laminate is affordable and exceptionally resistant to heat and staining. High-definition laminate from brands like Formica and Wilsonart also do a better job at resembling natural materials, such as wood and stone. Formica's retro patterns, including a collection from the celebrity designer Jonathan Adler, inject a bit of fun into a functional material. Vinyl flooring continues to improve as well; it's now available in patterns that look convincingly like wood and natural stone. What's more, many vinyl floors fended off wear, scratches, stains, and discoloration from sunlight in Consumer Reports' tough tests.

-- Tips from the pros. Entry-level products and materials always work best in a neutral color palette. "Consider going for the clean, livable look, with white cabinets and subway tile, and a countertop in gray or beige tones," says Suzy Opalinski, a project specialist for Lowe's in Orlando, Florida.

To learn more, visit ConsumerReports.org

Is there a cure for high drug prices?

The practice of raising drug prices on new -- and old -- medications is common and widespread, notes Consumer Reports.

From a nationally representative telephone poll conducted by Consumer Reports Best Buy Drugs in March, it learned that 3 in 10 Americans (about 32 million people) were hit with price hikes within the previous 12 months, costing them an average of $63 more for a drug they routinely take -- and a few paid $500 or more. Consumer Reports also found price increases on everything from longtime generics used to treat common conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol to new treatments for diseases such as hepatitis C.

The poll shows that when people were hit with higher drug costs, they were more likely to take unhealthy measures such as skipping doctor appointments, tests or procedures, or not filling their prescriptions or taking them as directed.

The Forces of Profit

Consumer Reports' analysis suggests that high prices for generic and brand name drugs stem in part from a battle over profit between mammoth industries -- big pharma and insurance companies -- with consumers caught in the middle.

Drug companies can charge whatever price they want. For Medicare and commercial health plans, no government body -- including the Federal Trade Commission, the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services -- has rules or laws that dictate or restrict the price a pharmaceutical company can set for a drug. And in most cases, there's nothing that restricts how much a company can raise that price.

Insurance companies are also charging you more. The only way left for insurers to provide coverage for a drug but maintain their profit margins is to reduce how much insurance coverage -- and thus protection from high prices -- they offer to a consumer. That can happen in at least one of four ways: by raising your deductible; by increasing monthly premiums; by increasing your co-pay by putting drugs into more expensive "tiers"; or by making you pay "co-insurance," where you pay a percentage of the medication's cost, usually one-third or more.

What Consumers Can Do

Although much of drug pricing is out of consumers' hands, Consumer Reports offers these tips to find the best deals at the pharmacy:

-- Talk to your doctor about the cost of the drug she is prescribing. For less expensive alternatives, ask about generics, which can cost up to 90 percent less. Your doctor might consider "therapeutic substitution" -- a different drug that works as well. If your insurance drops or reduces coverage of a drug, your doctor can also help by appealing to your insurance company for an exception to cover the drug anyway.

-- Shop around and negotiate. Consumer Reports' secret shoppers have found that retail drug prices can vary widely, even within the same ZIP code. The shoppers also found that asking, "Is this your lowest price?" could get you further discounts.

-- Check online. If you pay out of pocket, check GoodRx to learn a drug's "fair price." You can also fill a prescription with a low-cost online pharmacy based in the U.S., such as HealthWarehouse.com. Be careful of fraudulent websites: Use only an online retailer that operates within the U.S. and displays the VIPPS symbol to show that it's a Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Site.

-- Choose a plan that covers the medications you need. Compare plans during your open-enrollment period because coverage may change from year to year. Keep in mind that high-deductible plans have lower premiums but require you to pay a larger chunk of your drug costs.

To learn more, visit ConsumerReports.org
LAS VEGAS -- Nevada, which calls itself the "Battle Born State," actually was born prematurely because of Republicans' anxiety. Now, 152 years later, it again is a subject of their anxiety.

Entering 1864, Abraham Lincoln and his party were intensely, and reasonably, in doubt about his re-election. So, scrambling for every electorate vote, Republicans decided to conjure three from thin air -- thin desert air. They began the process of admitting Nevada to the union, even though the 1860 census said its population was 6,857, far short of the 60,000 ostensibly required for statehood. Nine days before the election, the Republican-controlled Congress made Nevada a state (although Gen. Sherman's Sept. 2 capture of Atlanta probably guaranteed Lincoln's victory).

On election night 2016, the nation's attention might be focused on Nevada, where Republicans have their most promising, and probably their only realistic, chance to capture a Democratic Senate seat. Harry Reid, Senate minority leader, is retiring, and Republicans' hopes of retaining their majority might depend on Joe Heck replacing Reid.

He is a strong candidate for his party, as his opponent is for hers. Catherine Cortez Masto is a former two-term state attorney general who won re-election even against the 2010 anti-Democratic wave. She would be the Senate's first Latina.

Heck, an emergency room physician and a brigadier general in the Army Reserve, is a third-term congressman from the Las Vegas metropolitan area, where 75 percent of Nevada voters live. His district, where he defeated his 2014 Democratic opponent by 24.6 points, is 19 percent Hispanic and 16 percent Asian-American.

The state's non-Hispanic white population was 79 percent in 1990 and is now 54 percent. There are about 70,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans, down from 90,000 in 2012, when Barack Obama beat Mitt Romney here by 67,806 votes.

According to the Almanac of American Politics, Nevada was the fastest-growing state in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and from 2000 to 2007, before the economy cratered. Since 1990, the population of Henderson, a Las Vegas suburb, has quadrupled to 286,000, the size of Cincinnati. Heck says many people come to Nevada, which has no income tax, in flight from Democratic governance in contiguous California -- but some come with, and retain, Democratic attitudes.

Only 24 percent of Nevadans were born in the state, the lowest percentage of any state, which is one reason Nevada was devastated by the subprime mortgage crisis, which left 62 percent of Nevada homeowners "underwater" -- owing more on the mortgages than their homes were worth. Today, only 24 percent are, but Cortez Masto is picking at the scab of the post-2008 trauma with ads accusing Heck of putting the "big banks before Nevada families," partly because he has received contributions from the financial industry.

Heck notes that Trump's candidacy has energized Nevada Republicans. He says their February caucuses on a Tuesday evening attracted more participants than the 2008 and 2012 caucuses combined. Which is good for Heck, unless it isn't: Trump might similarly energize the Hispanic 17 percent of the electorate against Trump, with Heck as collateral damage.

Nevada has a senator from each party and a split (three Republicans, one Democrat) House delegation. Polls show a close contest between Heck and Cortez Masto. Today, there are 54 Republican senators, seven of whom are in difficult re-election races: Arizona's John McCain, New Hampshire's Kelly Ayotte, Pennsylvania's Pat Toomey, Ohio's Rob Portman, Missouri's Roy Blunt, Wisconsin's Ron Johnson and Illinois' Mark Kirk. Johnson and Kirk are currently trailing by five or more points. If Hillary Clinton becomes president, Vice President Tim Kaine will vote with Democrats to organize a 50-50 Senate. Republicans, needing 51 seats for control, must have a net loss of no more than three.

If, in October, Clinton seems headed for the presidency, Heck may need to convince many Nevadans who are tepidly for Clinton to vote strategically -- supporting him so a Republican Senate can restrain her. Reid is determined to keep his seat Democratic, but Heck says that in 2014 Reid's celebrated turnout machine was "an utter disaster."

In 1908, the Silver State (another Nevada nickname, a legacy of the long-since-depleted Comstock Lode) voted for a third and final time for the Democrat's presidential nominee William Jennings Bryan, who favored free coinage of silver. Since then, only once (in 1976, when it favored President Gerald Ford) has Nevada not supported a winner. Which is another reason the nation will be watching Nevada late on Nov. 8.
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GREENWICH  The closing of the juvenile division at the Stamford courthouse will challenge families of young people arrested in Greenwich, and the agencies here that work to help them, youth officials in town said this week.

Juveniles in the court system and their parents now must make the 30-mile drive up traffic-riddled Interstate-95 to Bridgeport to make required court appearances.

Logistically its going to take a whole day now because their parents have to go with them and if they got referred to the juvenile court in Stamford they could take care of it in maybe a few hours, said Greenwich Police Detective Sgt. Brent Reeves. A lot of the families that are getting referred to court are underprivileged families to begin with. Now the parents are going to have to take the day off to get all the way up there.

Jenny Byxbee, manager of the Greenwich Youth Services Bureau and a founding member of the towns Juvenile Review Board, said the change will make it more difficult for families and service providers to get young people the help they need.

Working in Stamford over the years, weve developed relationships with probation officers and others and we could navigate the system to figure out what services the kids need, how to get them for them so we try and reduce recidivism and get them support, Byxbee said.

The state Judicial Branch in June announced it would close the juvenile division in three courthouses, including Stamfords, in response to a $77 million spending cut.

Plus Stamford and Greenwich are so close that we have many agencies that we share like Child Guidance, Family Centers and Kids In Crisis, Byxbee said. If the families go to Bridgeport, our ability to navigate the system and connect services to them is going to be so much harder and its truly those services and contracts we put in place for the children that make the difference.

The cut will also translate to extra costs for town taxpayers, as police officers in juvenile cases will now have to spend more time on court appearances, but officials said its not yet clear how much more it will be with the fiscal year just having started.

Byxbee said despite the new challenges, those who work with young people are determined not to let the level of services that can keep them from devolving into patterns of serious trouble drop.

Where theres a will theres a way, she said. Success breeds success and agencies want to partner with us because we can do a lot of good and really help kids and families.

In particular, she and Reeves are determined to build on the work of the Juvenile Review Board.

The board is designed as an alternative to court for first-time offenders, giving them the opportunity to avoid a criminal record by working with an independent panel of police and youth officials who devise a course of action kids must take designed to make them appreciate the seriousness of their transgressions.

Since 2008, when it was formed, Greenwich police have referred 111 cases to the board, which has had a 92 percent success rate of kids completing their program and not being arrested again, according to Reeves.

Reeves will soon take over as head of the GPDs Special Victims Section, which covers a wide range of sensitive investigations in town, including crimes by and against children. As part of the job, he will become co-chair of the Juvenile Review Board.

He said it would be a mistake for anyone to think of the board as giving kids a pass. It ends up holding them more accountable, he said, because they are required to fulfill a contract or else they go to court.

Realistically we want to try and send as many kids as we can to the JRB because our thinking is restorative justice is really where its at for children, Reeves said. Kids make mistakes. Their brain isnt fully developed. Theyre not thinking correctly. We really want to try and connect them to those services that they need locally.

Since the start of the new fiscal year on July 1, 10 juvenile arrests have been referred to the JRB. In the 2015-16 fiscal year, 12 cases went to the JRB.

The board doesnt get involved in every case. The program is open only to first time juvenile offenders of misdemeanors who admit to their guilt. Reeves said typical offenses include shoplifting, vandalism or even minor drug crimes. The Police Department makes the decision whether or not to refer a case to the JRB.

If its an A misdemeanor or a felony it goes to court  and sometimes it also depends on the attitude of the kid, Reeves said. There might be a child who commits a delinquent act thats relatively serious but is remorseful. So we might decide to give them a shot with the JRB. Or we might have a child that does a silly larceny and claims they didnt do it and gives attitude. If theyre not getting the idea of what were trying to do for them then that might be someone who needs to answer to a higher power up in court.

A typical contract might require a youth to make restitution and write letters of apology for a larceny or find a way to restore something thats been vandalized.

Many towns and cities in Connecticut have Juvenile Review Boards. Reeves compared them to a surgical instrument while the courts can be more of a broadsword.

Going into the courts, youre going to be part of a large system where youre just a number, Reeves said. With the JRB some its about showing them what they did and how they impact other people.

kborsuk@scni.com
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GREENWICH  Like many couples who have been together for many years, Catherine and James MacKay like to kid about the length of their marriage.

They have more to kid about than most. On Tuesday, they will have celebrated 75 years together, as well as a lifetime of humor, love, companionship and support through good times and bad.

Its been easy, says Catherine MacKay: He just has to do everything I say, thats all, she joked.

Like a well-honed comedy act, James MacKay makes his own observation on their long marriage: You couldnt get a divorce in those days, it was too expensive. And you put up with my nonsense, he told her.

They met at a party in Greenwich, in the Glenville section, when she was 16 and he was 17. James said he took an immediate liking and asked her to the prom a short time later. Of course, I said yes. Maybe I should have given it more time, she quipped.

The two fell in love and decided to get married. Because they were both under 21 (they were 19 and 20) they needed to get permission from a judge, a requirement then under state law.

The marriage itself was a modest affair. They celebrated in a backyard. Nobody had any money in those days, said James.

World War II separated them soon after they were married, when James MacKay was called to arms by Uncle Sam, serving in Europe as an infantryman. Their separation for two years was agonizing, they said.

After they were reunited at the wars end, James MacKay pursued a career in banking. An independent sort, Catherine MacKay also worked, taking up a position with UPS in Greenwich. They raised two daughters and enjoy their six grandkids, and spent idyllic times in Florida. Catherine loved to ride bikes, and James was the outdoors and sporting type.

It took him a long time to get over his bachelor days, she joked. I was finally beaten into submission, he replied.

While there are no short-cuts to a successful marriage, they pointed to the ingredients of success: they communicate well, enjoy family life, share a taste for humor and maintain a commitment to make their marriage work.

Theres no easy way. Its work, observed James MacKay.

One of their granddaughters, Jessica Owen-Smith, who lives in Greenwich, said she was awed by their bond.

How many people do you know who have been married for 75 years? she asked. Its pretty impressive.

The anniversary on Tuesday will be a fairly modest occasion, but a big family party is in store for the weekend. Dancing wont be likely for the couple, who are now 94 and 95.

Well be lucky to be able to walk, James MacKay joked.

Kidding aside, the couple said they feel fortunate to have each other.

I got me a good man, continued Catherine MacKay, who brushed away a tear when she described how much effort her husband puts into her well-being. I couldnt ask for a more perfect husband. He puts in every ounce of effort to take care of me, she said.

Looking over at her husband, in a comfortable home filled with family mementos and a lifetime of memories, Catherine MacKay said, in all seriousness, Im just glad that we had this time together.

Robert.Marchant@scni.com
Tyler Sizemore / Hearst Connecticut Media

If New York States new tougher drunk boating law has its intended effect, sailing, cruising and fishing on Long Island Sound will become a little safer.

Under the new law, which does not appear to have a counterpart in Connecticut, a boater convicted of piloting a watercraft while intoxicated in New York will receive a harsher sentence if he or she was convicted earlier of driving under the influence on New York roads.
Samsung to pull the plug on its Milk Music service in US on September 22

In line with reports earlier this year, Samsung has announced that it will shut down its Milk Music service in the United States on September 22. The South Korean company says that it's now working on a model that focuses on "the best music services available today."

"We have made the strategic decision to invest in a partner model focused on seamlessly integrating the best music services available today into our family of Galaxy devices," the tech giant said in a press release.

While the company didn't provide anymore details on the product it's currently working on, we hope that we'll hear more about the said model at the upcoming IFA event in Berlin.

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Haiti - Tourism : New air link with the Dominican Republic





Friday morning at 9:45 am, Guy Didier Hyppolite, the Minister of Tourism and Creative Industry welcomed on the tarmac at Toussaint Louverture International Airport, the inaugural flight #743 of the first air carrier in the Dominican Republic "Pawa Dominicana" (PAWA).



Several Dominicans travel agencies and tour operators took advantage of this first flight to explore a short route of the Metropolitan tour proposed by the Ministry of Tourism, to the passengers who have gladly layed the dual role operators-tourists. In addition, a delegation of Dominican media and travel agencies, to mark the inaugural flight of PAWA in Haiti, paid a visit to the Museum of Haitian National Pantheon (MUPANAH).



At a cocktail given for the occasion at the Karibe Convention Center, the Minister Hyppolite, welcomed the PAWA for this new route and encouraged this initiative that increases the connection possibilities between Haiti and the outside. The flight of the Pawa went back to Santo Domingo at 3 p.m.



To book a flight and check the dates of availability on a route : pawadominicana.com



HL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - News : Zapping politics...





Cantave against the illegal occupation of power by Privert

Sen. Carl Murat Cantave denounced once again "the unlawful seizure of power" by Jocelerme Privert. Furthermore he challenges the ability of the latter to engage in electoral matters. Cantave was in favor of holding elections, but with legal authorities.



Passports, reality or demagoguery ?

Francois Joseph Annick, the Minister of Interior and Territorial Communities, announced that the Government of Haiti, awaiting the delivery of 300,000 passport books from October. According to him, 250,000 booklets are designed for Haitians living illegally in the Dominican Republic. Who wants to believe ?



Extraordinary session of Bac

Friday a working meeting was held around the state examinations with the Regional Directorates of Education (DDE) and the Commission of the state examinations. Mary Louis Cador the Director General of the Ministry, provided an update with the DDE around the organization of the extraordinary session of the bac. Eliccel Paul, the Director of the Unit of Research and Planning (UEP) has actively participated in this meeting.



The extraordinary session of Bac is scheduled from Tuesday 23 to Friday 26 August 2016. The number of candidates adjourned is 65.548. Candidates will compose only in subjects for which they have not got their average.



Cultural projects with Venezuela

Thursday, Marcus Aurele Garcia, the Minister of Culture, accompanied by his Chief of Staff, Edwin Parison and Jean Michel Lapin, the Director General of the Ministry, met with the Ambassador of Venezuela in Haiti, Luis Diaz Curbelo. There was discussion on the creation of Petion-Bolivar Cultural Centre in Jacmel, and the renovation of the house Bolivar, one where had lived the Liberator during his stay in this city, where he created the flag of the Republic of Venezuela.



The Minister of Justice discusses finances with BRH

Thursday, Camille Edouard Jr., Minister of Justice and Public Security met behind closed doors, Baden Jean Dubois, the Governor of the Bank of the Republic of Haiti (BRH) around important issues of the Haitian financial sector.



HL/ HaitiLibre


















Published on 2016/08/19 | Source

'The Legend of the Blue Sea' Lee Min-ho and Jun Ji-hyun finally have begun filming to make a start on the fateful story.

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While the fantasy romance drama has been drawing huge attention as Jun Ji-hyun, Lee Min-ho, writer Park Ji-eun, PD Jin Hyeok met, 'The Legend of the Blue Sea' started filming in Goesan County, North Chungcheong Province on August 19th.

'The Legend of the Blue Sea' is a fantasy romance drama that borrowed motifs from a mermaid story found in a book called 'Eaou Yadam', a collection of folk tales. According to the folk tale, Kim Dam-ryung, a magistrate in Hyupgok, released a mermaid caught by a fisherman back to the sea.

Jun Ji-hyun will play Sim Cheong, a mermaid who ended up in Seoul, and goes troubles to make a living. Lee Min-ho will play a cold-blooded fraudster Heo Joon-jae, who falls in love with the mermaid.

Jun Ji-hyun and Lee Min-ho will continue filming in Palau at the end of this month and in Spain this September. 'The Legend of the Blue Sea' will premiere this November taking over the airtime from "Incarnation of Jealousy".
Published on 2016/08/20 | Source

Added episode 9 captures for the Korean drama "W" (2016)

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Directed by Jeong Dae-yoon

Written by Song Jae-jeong

Network : MBC

With Lee Jong-suk, Han Hyo-joo, Jung Eugene, Lee Tae-hwan, Park Won-sang, Cha Kwang-soo,...

16 episodes - Wed, Thu 22:00

Synopsis

A mysterious melodrama about a parallel universe which depicts a man and a woman who live in the same Seoul but in different environments.

Broadcast starting date in Korea : 2016/07/20

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Kerrville, TX (78028)

Today

Some clouds in the morning will give way to mainly sunny skies for the afternoon. High 68F. Winds NNW at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

Clear. Low 43F. Winds light and variable.
Ninth Circuit Shields Hawaii Open Primaries

by Nicholas Fillmore, Court House News, August 19, 2016

HONOLULU (CN)  Preserving a nearly 40-year-old tradition of open primaries in Hawaii, the Ninth Circuit rejected claims that the system tramples the Democratic Party's free-speech rights.

Hawaii had been a state for only 20 years when it switched to an open primary system in 1979. The closed primary system  where only registered Republicans can vote in the Republican primary, or Democrats in the Democratic primary  remains a fixture of just 11 states today.

Nostalgic for the old days, the Democratic Party of Hawaii brought a federal complaint in 2013 to keep outsiders from determining its platform.

Though the party said open primaries violated its associational rights under the First Amendment, a federal disagreed and sided with the state's chief election officer, Scott Nago, at summary judgment.

Affirming that outcome Monday, the Ninth Circuit said Democrats offered little insight as to the political preferences of voters participating in its primaries.

"The party provided no evidence showing a clear and present danger that adherents of opposing parties determine the Democratic Party's nominees," U.S. Circuit Judge A. Wallace Tashima wrote for a three-person panel. "Nor had the party shown that Hawaii's open primary system causes Democratic candidates to moderate their policy stances."

In support of its suspicion that its races had been overrun by outsiders, the Democrats noted that their party has just 65,000 formal members but turnout for the Democratic primaries in Hawaii hit a quarter of a million people.

Tashima disagreed, however, that this is enough to show that crossover voting accounted for the approximately 185,000 other votes in the Democratic race.

The problem for the Democrats' argument is that Hawaii does not require voters to register with any political party.

"Thus, the 185,000 people voting in Hawaii's Democratic primaries who are not formal party members may nevertheless personally identify as Democrats," Tashima found.

The Ninth Circuit distinguished the Hawaii Democrats' challenge from U.S. Supreme Court precedent that struck down California's system of blanket primaries.

In the 2000 case California Democratic Party v. Jones, the court found it possible to track the number of crossover voters.

But Hawaii's open system, Tashima said, affords no way to ascertain "forced association."

Though Hawaii adopted its open primary system to boost voter turnout, only 34.7 percent of the electorate turned out for the state's Aug. 13 primary election  a record low.

As expected, the numbers bode well for Democrats.

On the national stage, Sen. Brian Schatz is poised to win his first general election with 162,891 votes, representing 86.17 percent of votes in the Democratic primary.

Republican challenger John Carroll got his party's nod with just 26,747 votes (74.58 percent).

Schatz was selected by former Gov. Neil Abercrombie to fill Daniel Inouye's seat following Inouye's death in 2012. The move ignored Inouye's deathbed wish that the seat should go to Congresswoman Colleen Hanabusa, whom Schatz went on to defeat in a 2014 special election.

Hanabusa is poised to take back the House seat she vacated to run against Schatz in 2014. Her successor, Mark Takai, a fellow Democrat, died in July from pancreatic cancer. Hanabusa captured 74,013 votes (80.37 percent) Saturday, compared with Republican nominee Shirlene Ostorv's 13,645. Ostrov, a retired Air Force Colonel, ran uncontested.

And in the second congressional district, Democratic incumbent Tulsi Gabbard has 80,020 votes compared to Republican nominee Angela Kaaihue's 7,499.

An Iraq veteran and outspoken opponent of war, Gubbard broke with the Democratic Party to support Bernie Sanders in the presidential primaries.

Locally, a nonpartisan blanket primary failed to identify a majority candidate for mayor. Top vote-getters, incumbent Democratic Mayor Kirk Caldwell, and former interim U.S. Rep Charles Djou will face one another in a general runoff.

Caldwell, beleaguered by cost overruns on the Honolulu Rail Project and a persistent homeless problem, captured 74,057 votes to Djou's 72,520.

The Democratic Party did not respond to requests for comment about the Ninth Circuit ruling.

PDF: Court Ruling
By Jessica Isaacs and Cramer Lewis

Tickets are still on sale for the upcoming High Country Beer Fest, which draws in a massive crowd every year to celebrate all things craft brew in the Carolinas.

Widely known as one of the most popular annual events in the Boone area, the festival is designed to benefit the fermentation sciences program at Appalachian State University.

This is our ninth year. The festival actually helps fund research grants for students to further their research within the fermentation sciences, said festival coordinator Charles Bateman. We have worked really hard the past few years to provide a topnotch festival experience.

Bateman said Beer Fest aims to further the science and research aspects of fermentation so that rising generations have access to the knowledge, equipment and research to allow them to be the future of the industry.

This is a celebration of the movement thats happening, not just in Boone, but the entire region. This is to ensure that weve got a future here in western North Carolina for pushing the envelope and this is the right environment to do it in. An event like this really moves the needle for that endeavor.

Beer Fest has been a sell-0ut every year since its inception, and coordinators expect this years event to be no exception. Many of the 2,600 total tickets have already been sold, and the few remaining are going fast.

Hosted on the High Country Fairgrounds, the fun will take place from 3-7 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 27 and will feature a variety of craft beer, food, educational seminars and live music.

We provide shuttles from around 1 p.m. and they last until 8:30 p.m. or so. People can even leave their cars and get them the next day, Bateman said. Even though the beer shuts off at 7 p.m., well be having music and serving coffee and goodies until then.

Eight or nine food vendors are going to be out there serving food throughout the day. One of our favorites is a dumpling truck that comes from Raleigh. The food is going to be incredible.

The festival has also teamed up with Mellow Mushroom to host a beer and pizza pairing seminar.

The entirely nonprofit event will also support local organizations like High Country Local First, High Country Mommies, Blue Ridge Conservancy, Middle Fork Greenway Association, The Mountain Alliance and Ivory Tower, Inc.

Performances will feature live music from the Backsliders, the Worthless Son-in-Laws and the Dead of Winter.

The festival will showcase breweries from the High Country and beyond.

Weve got 52 breweries lined up. We encourage them to bring one or two beers that are interesting and fun. Theres going to be some new breweries coming up this year that nobodys ever tried, said Bateman. We will have artisans there talking about what you should be looking for whenever you pair foods and beer.

Although stipulations set forth by state legislators forced several participating breweries to back out of last years festivities at the last minute, Bateman said steps have been taken to ensure the festival goes off without a hitch this time around.

We want to earn peoples trust back. We want to make Beer Fest great again. We want them to know we are nonprofit, he explained. This is an all volunteer army. We work with numerous clubs on campus and other groups throughout the region. I can unequivocally say this will be the best Beer Fest weve ever had.

Tickets are on sale now for $40 general admission, $80 VIP and only $10 for designated drivers.

It is a true kind of festival atmosphere. Boone doesnt have a food festival, so this is probably the closest thing to it that you can find. We think we bring some unique flavor that you cannot find in other events, said Bateman. Its that kind of boutique, quaint mountain festival. I think thats why we have received such great press and why people want to come back year after year.

Buy your tickets online at hcbeerfest.com or grab them in person at Peabodys Beer and Wine on N.C. Highway 105 or at Benchmark Provisions in downtown Boone.

Participating breweries include:

Appalachian Mountain Brewery | Boone

Aviator Brewing Company | Fuquay-Varina

Ballast Point Brewing and Spirits | San Diego, California

Beech Mountain Brewing | Beech Mountain

Bhramari Brewhouse | Asheville

Big Boss Brewing Company | Raleigh

Birdsong Brewing Company | Charlotte

Blind Squirrel Brewery | Plumtree

Blowing Rock Brewery | Blowing Rock

Blue Blaze Brewing Company | Charlotte

Blue Moon | Golden, Colorado

Blue Point Brewing Company | Patchogue, New York

Blueprint Brewing Company | Apex, North Carolina

Bold Rock Hard Cider | Nellysford, Virginia

Boondocks Brewing | West Jefferson

Booneshine Brewing | Boone

Brown Truck Brewery | High Point

Carolina Brewery | Chapel Hill

Catawba Brewing Company | Morganton

Fonta Flora Brewery | Morganton

Foothills | Winston-Salem

Fortnight Brewing Company | Cary

Good Wood | Lousville, Kentucky

Goose Island | Chicago, Illinois

Granite Falls Brewing Company | Granite Falls

Great Lakes Brewing Company | Cleveland, Ohio

Green Man Brewery | Asheville

Harpoon Brewery | Boston, Massachusetts

Hi-Wire Brewing | Asheville

Howard Brewing | Lenoir

Innovation Brewing | Sylva

Ivory Tower Brewery | Boone

Liberty | High Point

Lost Province Brewing Company | Boone

Natty Greenes Brewing Company | Greensboro

New Belgium Brewing | Asheville

Newgrass | Shelby

Nicklepoint Brewing | Raleigh

Noble Cider | Asheville

Olde Hickory Brewery | Hickory

Oskar Blues Brewery | Brevard

River Rat Brewery | Columbia, South Carolina

Sanctuary Brewing Company | Hendersonville

Shock Top | St. Louis, Missouri

Sierra Nevada | Mills River

Southern Tier Brewing Company | Lakewood, New York

Stout Brewing Company | Kings Mountain

White Street Brewing Company | Wake Forest

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By Jessica Isaacs | [email protected]

Feeling adventurous? Try something new and see the High Country from a whole new perspective at Sky Retreat, a brand new activities center, vacation spot and event space that literally has something for everyone.

Tucked away just off of the Blue Ridge Parkway, the areas newest adventure headquarters is taking the mountain getaway experience to new heights, although its only been open for a few months now.

The husband-and-wife team Dimitrijus Dima and Merin Sazinas moved here from Charlotte and opened the center in April. The retreat boasts 13 beautiful new log cabins that are available for rent, and a host of exciting things to do while youre there, including mountain biking and hiking, tubing and kayaking, paragliding and tandem rides, ballroom and Latin dance lessons and fitness classes.

We are both professional ballroom dancers and paragliding pilots. A lot of the activities you see at the retreat have sprung from our passions for those activities, Merin said. The area has really inspired us. We found that the mountain is perfect for paragliding, so we started having some informal activities with friends coming to visit. The idea just grew and we wanted to accommodate more people because we saw a demand for it.

Professional instructors offer lessons in all styles of Latin, ballroom and social dancing, including salsa, swing, waltz, tango, foxtrot and many others.

We are bringing world class dancers from Europe and all around the world to come and visit, dance and lead camps, classes and retreats for dancing, said Merin.

Sky Retreat is also the only certified paragliding site, school and USHPA paragliding club in all of North Carolina.

This is something that is enjoyed around the world, but on the east coast there arent many places to learn, Merin explained. There are other places to fly; but as far as a site where you can do tandem rides or learn to paraglide, we are unique in that aspect.

The Sazinas team is currently constructing the retreats Cloud Nine ballroom facility and event space that, when completed, will offer more than 5,000 square feet of open space for weddings, dancing and other programs.

As far as an open interior ballroom space for weddings, its the only one like it in the area that has so much interior space as an elegant venue with an external view. Thats pretty unique and we are excited about it, said Merin.

Couples opting to say I do at Sky Retreat will also enjoy the option to take on-site ballroom dancing lessons, enjoy custom choreography and music selection and even group dance activities for guests.

As the centers facilities and its presence in the High Country continue to grow, the Sazinas and their team of experts look forward to accommodating more guests, making new friends and living in the glory of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

The purpose of Sky Retreat has been to create a really unique activity center thats unlike any other in terms of being a one stop shop for outdoor adventure and the indoor elegance of the arts, Merin said. It is a creative blend of those two qualities.

For more information, visit theskyretreat.com.

Paragliding at Sky Retreat:

Ballroom Dancing:

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A 25-foot-long minke whale was washed up on Shankill beach in south Dublin during rough seas this week.

Gary Paul from Cherrywood, Co Dublin saw the whale yesterday morning on the beach. He said it was "moving around" but it was too far out for them to be able to do anything.

"It was kind of interesting to see. It's not something I've seen before and it's very unusual," he told the Herald. "I've never seen something of that size washed up before."

It was later washed back out to sea.

Spotted

Minke whales sometimes wash up on the south coast, but are rarely spotted on the east coast.

The Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) became aware of the whale on Thursday, when photos were sent to them.

Padraig Whooley, sightings officer with the organisation, said that they know the whale was already dead because it was lying belly up.

The reason it seemed to be "moving around" was because it was partially still in the sea.

"Based on images we've seen yesterday this looks most likely to be a minke whale, which are Ireland's smallest and most frequently-observed baleen whales," Mr Whooley said.

"If the numbers of whales are increasing - which we think they probably are in Irish waters - you are going to have more and more of that population washing up dead on our beaches," Mr Whooley said.

The surprise appearance comes as the IWDG prepares for its annual whale watch, which takes place next Saturday.
A Dublin teen who has been missing for more than six weeks has contacted his family - but gardai still don't know where he is.

Authorities are worried about the welfare of Leigh Leech (16), from Coolock, and say he is being housed by someone who "thinks they're doing the right thing".

It is understood the teen - who ran away from home -has been in contact with his family sporadically since going missing on July 3.

Concerns

Insp Brian Whelan, of Lucan Garda Station, told the Herald that gardai have serious concerns for Leigh's safety and well-being.

Despite making contact with his parents, both the Leech family and gardai have no idea of Leigh's whereabouts, although it has been confirmed that he is not staying with relatives or friends of the family.

"Any child who is missing for that length of time, we'd be particularly concerned," Insp Whelan said.

"We have good reason to believe that he is in the country.

"He has been in contact on an occasional basis with his family," he added. Leigh has contacted his parents by phone.

"He has run away and we are concerned that somebody is giving him shelter," Mr Whelan said.

"They might believe that doing this is in his best interest and be well-meaning in their efforts, but we would appeal to anybody who is providing him with shelter or putting him up in a home, to consider the welfare of Leigh.

"His welfare is paramount. Consider that he is a child and has a family at home that are extremely concerned and worried for him," Insp Whelan added.

The teenager's family are understood to be distraught and sick with worry.

Leigh was last seen on Ormond Quay in Dublin city centre. Gardai are searching the Coolock area, in particular, as part of their investigation into Leigh's disappearance.

However, they are not limiting their searches and are also searching nationwide.

"We don't know where he is at the moment, but we will follow up leads that we are investigating," Insp Whelan said.

"People are coming forward with information, and we're grateful for that, but there has not been enough information so far to lead us to where Leigh is," he added.

Tracksuit

Leigh is 5ft 8 inches tall, and has short dark brown hair, blue eyes and is of average build.

When last seen he was wearing a blue jacket, grey hooded top, grey tracksuit bottoms and black runners.

It is not the first time this year that Leigh has gone missing. Gardai appealed for information on his whereabouts in March.

A social media sharing campaign was set up at the time to help find the teenager.

Anyone who has seen Leigh or who can assist in locating him is asked to contact Ronanstown Garda Station 01 6667700, the Garda Confidential Line 1800 666 111 or any garda station.
Is God great enough to handle my doubts? What if I have not experienced something he promises? Does God hear and answer my prayers? Does he really heal people? People make stands against the Lord and his people and he laughs (Ps. 2).

We are in a period of history when more people are turning to belief in God as revealed in the Bible. Yet there are more people who noisily doubt or turn from their faith and church. According to Dr. Tim Keller (in Reason for God, chap. 1), in Europe the church is quietly growing, while in America churches are noisily shrinking, splitting, or fading.

I can doubt God because he answers. No one has yet raised the question that displaces God from his throne. I can walk away angry that he did not answer my demands. Or I can ask God what he means and listen. Or I can learn to accept what is in his character that I do not understand or like.

Tim Keller says that a faith without doubts is like a body without antibodies. People who are too busy or too afraid to ask why they believe may be defenseless against tragedy or clever skeptics. Your faith can be made of balsa wood and collapse over doubts. Or it can become oak because you took trouble for honest, biblical answers and applied discipline to feed your faith. Doubting can be an excuse for not committing or an exercise in spiritual weight lifting.

No matter how skeptical doubters seem, they hold an alternative faith position. Belief that God is real comes from faith, information, and sound reason. To believe God does not exist, you are expressing faith in lack of information, and weak reasoning. Jesus confronted doubting Thomas and yet he offered to treat seriously his request for evidence by showing his wounds. A man filled with doubts said to Jesus, Help my unbelief. He asked for help with doubts. Jesus answered by blessing him with a healed son. You can come to him with doubts, questions, fears and he will accept you.

Doubts are not something to deny but something for which you find answers. God is secure enough in his position to reassure us that he is for real. In 1 John, chapters 2-5, are many assurances of how you can know. Ask him for courage to come with your doubts.
This was one call for water-leak help that the next-door neighbors in Middletown, Ohio, could not ignore.

The landlord arrived and found Pattie topless, stoned and unconscious on her living room couch. Upstairs, the bathtub was overflowing  hence, the leaking roof, noted J.D. Vance in his Hillbilly Elegy memoir about the crisis in Americas working class that shaped his family.

Pattie had apparently drawn herself a bath, taken a few prescription painkillers and passed out. ... This is the reality of our community. Its about a naked druggie destroying what little of value exists in her life.

Vance was in high school at the time, and dramas of this kind kept creating a dark cloud over his life. Many of his questions had moral and religious overtones, especially among people with roots back to the Bible Belt culture of the Kentucky mountains.

Why didnt our neighbor leave that abusive man? wrote Vance. Why did she spend her money on drugs? Why didnt she see that her behavior was destroying her daughter? And ultimately, Why were all of these things happening not just to my neighbor, but to my mom?

Economic woes played a part, he said, but the elegy of hillbilly life involves psychology, morality, culture, shattered communities, and families that are broken or that never formed in the first place. Yes, there are religious issues in that mix.

Its a classic chicken-and-egg problem, said Vance in an interview. Which comes first: poverty and economic problems, or people making bad moral decisions that wreck marriages and homes? Clearly people  children especially  are caught in a vicious cycle.

Its crucial that religious leaders face this crisis, rather than continuing to build their sanctuaries and schools in prosperous areas, he said. After all, problems that plague distressed urban and rural settings will reach many safe suburbs  soon.

Anyone who knows Appalachia knows that some of these woes  poverty, alcohol and others  have been around for generations. But conditions keep changing and making things worse, he said, such as the loss of industrial Rust Belt jobs, waves of new drugs and generations of young people who have never lived in a stable home, with their fathers under the same roof.

Vances own life story is both typical and highly unusual. He grew up in what locals call Middletucky, after his family left Jackson, Kentucky, in the heart of coal country. His mother was trained as a nurse, yet she struggled with drugs, at least five marriages and countless romantic partners.

Depending on how one defines family ties, Vance said he has about a dozen stepsiblings. In one searing biographical passage, he describes the seemingly endless series of households, addresses and relationships he experienced between third and ninth grade. Nothing was more destructive than the revolving door of father figures, he said.

Vance escaped, even graduating from Yale Law School, because of his grandparents and the discipline he learned in the U.S. Marines. His Mamaw and Papaw are heroes in this story, providing love, stability and a quirky sense of moral order.

Social workers, clergy and others who want to help those trapped in the underclass must focus on saving marriages and the extended-family ties that can protect children, he said. That will require face-to-face work with troubled people.

When his Mamaw moved north, Vance noted, her Bible stayed in her lap, she prayed constantly and she insisted that God had a plan. However, she never felt comfortable in local churches. Back in Jackson, church people knew who she really was, including the fact she almost killed a man when she was 12 and later lost nine children in agonizing miscarriages. The fact that she cursed like a sailor and had a gun wasnt the whole story, back home.

In those hills, stressed Vance, his people were poor, but they retained a sense of identity linked to the towns, churches and schools they called home. For better or worse, they had big families and a real community.

You simply have to have help, he said. You cant do this alone. If its just me and my mom and all her boyfriends, then I never would have made it out. ... The single individual, or even one stressed-out nuclear family, is not enough. You have to see the bigger picture.
WILLIAMSTOWN, Ky.  Torrents of rain came.

Lightning thrashed, thunder rolled. Folks looked about at one another with a similar look awash among their reactions that said, Well, at least weve come to the right place.

Welcome to Ark Encounter.

Immense in size and scope, impact and import, the biblically-based destination opened to the public on July 7. Droves of people attended then and since. Likewise, two days prior on July 5, the Ark opened for thousands of VIP guests and media, within which included Greg and Tammy Kiser of Bluff City.

We were awestruck, said Greg Kiser, an engineer by trade and a Biblical scholar who has on occasion taken to the pulpit to preach.

Patrons exit Interstate 75, venture into seemingly nowhere, drive onto the grounds, park and proceed to a phalanx of ticket windows. Purchases made, a turn to the left and into a line folks are beckoned. A bus transports visitors to the Ark. A step from the bus and the full grandeur of the Ark comes into view.

We stood there in awe, Kiser said. When Tammy and I first got off the bus, holy cow. It was much bigger than we had imagined.

Despite the dark of as evening fell last Friday night, the Ark moved not a sliver of an inch, but it sure seemed to grow right before ones eyes. Through a haze of heat and humidity, Noahs vision occupied the vision of all who saw.

Holy cow, indeed.

A short walk from the bus, echoes of Bible verses accompanied the stroll to the Ark.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, from Genesis 1:1, shortly thereafter followed by: And God said, Let there be light, and there was light.

OK, the story of Noahs Ark does not begin at the beginning of the Bible, but approaching to and then especially stepping within the Ark rendered a general feeling of new beginnings. Dramatic music and sounds of a storm played throughout the tour of the Ark. Hence, thoughts of Genesis 1:1 came to mind.

Ken Ham would surely grin at that observation. The founder, president and CEO of Answers in Genesis and the nearby Creation Museum, envisioned and built Ark Encounter. Located on about 800 acres just south of Cincinnati, Ohio, Ham applied dimensions as outlined in Genesis 6 in the construction of his Ark.

Recall the beginnings of the flood as told in the Bible.

And God saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually, as stated in Genesis 6:5.

Skip to Genesis 6:7-8 for And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.

Translated, God prepared to wash away the world of the wicked, yet Noah and his family and select animals would be saved. A flood was coming. Quickly, God commanded Noah to build an Ark. Dimensions for Hams Ark as detailed in the Bible were employed in the construction of Ark Encounter.

In a world that is becoming increasingly secularized and biased, said Ham during the Ark Encounter grand opening, its time for Christians to do something of this size and magnitude.

So Hams Ark mirrors Noahs Ark. Seven stories high, 510 feet long, it is said to be the largest freestanding timber-frame structure in the world. Within, more than 120,000 square feet of space feature scores of exhibits, a large gift shop and a whopping 1,500-seat restaurant.

Throughout, stories of the Bible that preface, encompass and follow the story of Noahs Ark provide abundant context. However, the Bible left blank considerable amounts of detail relative to Noah including his family and living conditions on the Ark during the flood. Consequently, stories told within the tour of the Ark attempt to fill in those blanks in as sensible fashion as could be expected.

I really like the fact that they tried to comprehend what Noah and his family went through, Kiser said. It doesnt tell it in the Bible. I love the fact that they thought about it. Noah had living quarters, had a library to preserve ancient writings for mankind.

Picture the layout. Three levels comprise Hams Ark. Ensconced in the wooden structure, patrons stride within the Ark amid wooden cages positioned in the center of each level, filled each with pairs of exotic animals vividly recreated. Seriously, they look real. Again, underscore the word exotic relative to the animals on display.

You dont just see a goat. You see a goat-kind, Kiser said. You dont just see a dog. You see a dog-kind.

Animals of the era of Noah, given the wide breadth of times passage, would not look exactly as todays animals would.

That took thought, Kiser said.

Dozens of displays occupy the perimeter. Some, as with a wide ranging display of kids toys and books based on Noah and the Ark, tailor toward children. Others, such as displays and counter-arguments on such hot topics as evolution, provide ample fodder for thought. As with exhibits on the ice age and dinosaurs, blanks in the Bible rise to the fore. However, applications of the Bible exist throughout.

They let the Bible be the template or the skeletal scripture, Kiser said.

Stories told therein range from Genesis 1 and the beginning of mankind through mans fall, Noahs Ark and subsequent flood, the ice age, ancient man, to the coming and eventual crucifixion of Christ.

Thorough is the right word, said Arinze (he would provide but one word for his name), a native of Nigeria and resident of Michigan. The attention to detail just lets you know that God is awesome. Thats the way God is. Nothing catches Him unaware.

Arinze toured Ark Encounter on Friday night with his children. Within an exhibit that featured an animated Noah sitting at his desk while his wife, Emzara (whose name is not mentioned in the Bible) stood nearby, Arinze sought to clarify his own name.

Arinze translates to praise God, he said.

Every few moments and amid displays thereafter, Arinze stepped near to spotlight yet another highlight or observation that caught his attention. Excitement clearly enveloped the man.

The way it looks, Arinze said as his eyes cast upward and all about the Ark, is exactly the way I pictured the Ark.

Frankly, Kentuckys Ark looks and feels and encompasses such that God surely had a hand in making it happen. Attention to detail from stories told to nails driven into the curved boards of its hull strike as phenomenal.

For me being a Christian, just walking up to it and seeing how big it is makes the story in the Bible real, Kiser said. I can imagine going to Jerusalem and walking in the steps of Jesus. Man, this is real!

So lightning struck and the rains came during the time of Noah. The flood struck and cleansed the earth of the wicked and its wickedness, after which time Noah and his family gave rise to the rebirth of mankind.

The dawn of new days followed. And so it is with Ark Encounter as a new day dawned upon its opening such to inform mankind as to the fall, rise and rebirth of mankind.

The Ark is a reminder to remind generations of the truth of Gods word, Ham said. Its our way of presenting this to the world.

If You Go

 What: Ark Encounter

 Hours: Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m.-8 p.m.; Sunday, Noon-8 p.m.

 Where: Ark Encounter, 1 Ark Encounter Dr., Williamstown, Kentucky

 General admission: $40 adults, $31 seniors, $28 children ages 5-12; children under age 5 admitted free (various ticket packages and deals exist)

 Info: 855-284-3275

 Web, audio and video: https://arkencounter.com

 From Bristol: Take I-81 South to I-40 West at Knoxville then take I-75 North. It is less than a 5-hour drive to Williamstown, Kentucky. Without the road construction, the drive could be about 4 hours.
WASHINGTON  This week Russian bombers flew out of Iranian air bases to attack rebel positions in Syria. The State Department pretended not to be surprised. It should be. It should be alarmed. Irans intensely nationalistic revolutionary regime had never permitted foreign forces to operate from its soil. Until now. The reordering of the Middle East is proceeding apace. Where for 40 years the U.S.-Egypt alliance anchored the region, a Russia-Iran condominium is now dictating events. Thats what you get after eight years of U.S. retrenchment and withdrawal. Thats what results from the nuclear deal with Iran, the evacuation of Iraq and utter U.S. immobility on Syria. Consider: Iran The nuclear deal was supposed to begin a rapprochement between Washington and Tehran. Instead, it has solidified a strategic-military alliance between Moscow and Tehran. With the lifting of sanctions and the normalizing of Irans international relations, Russia rushed in with major deals, including the shipment of S-300 ground-to-air missiles. Russian use of Iranian bases now marks a new level of cooperation and joint power projection. Iraq

When Russia dramatically intervened last year, establishing air bases and launching a savage bombing campaign, Obama did nothing. Indeed, he smugly predicted that Vladimir Putin had entered a quagmire. Some quagmire. Bashar Assads regime is not only saved. It encircled Aleppo and has seized the upper hand in the civil war. Meanwhile, our hapless secretary of state is running around trying to sue for peace, offering to share intelligence and legitimize Russian intervention if only Putin will promise to conquer gently. Consider what Putin has achieved. Dealt a very weak hand  a rump Russian state, shorn of empire and saddled with a backward economy and a rusting military  he has restored Russia to great power status. Reduced to irrelevance in the 1990s, it is now a force to be reckoned with. In Europe, Putin has unilaterally redrawn the map. His annexation of Crimea will not be reversed. The Europeans are eager to throw off the few sanctions they grudgingly imposed on Russia. And the rape of eastern Ukraine continues. Ten thousand have already died and now Putin is threatening even more open warfare. Under the absurd pretext of Ukrainian terrorism in Crimea, Putin has threatened retaliation, massed troops in eight locations on the Ukrainian border, ordered Black Sea naval exercises, and moved advanced anti-aircraft batteries into Crimea, giving Moscow control over much of Ukrainian airspace. And why shouldnt he? Hes pushing on an open door. Obama still refuses to send Ukraine even defensive weapons. The administrations response to these provocations? Urging both sides to exercise restraint. Both sides, mind you. And in a gratuitous flaunting of its newly expanded reach, Russia will be conducting joint naval exercises with China in the South China Sea, in obvious support of Beijings territorial claims and illegal military bases. Yet the president shows little concern. He is too smart not to understand geopolitics; he simply doesnt care. In part because his priorities are domestic. In part because he thinks we lack clean hands and thus the moral standing to continue to play international arbiter. And in part because hes convinced that in the long run it doesnt matter. Fluctuations in great power relations are inherently ephemeral. For a man who sees a moral arc in the universe bending inexorably toward justice, calculations of raw realpolitik are 20th-century thinking  primitive, obsolete, the obsession of small minds. Obama made all this perfectly clear in speeches at the U.N., in Cairo and here at home in his very first year in office. Two terms later, we see the result. Ukraine dismembered. Eastern Europe on edge. Syria a charnel house. Iran subsuming Iraq. Russia and Iran on the march across the entire northern Middle East. At the heart of this disorder is a simple asymmetry. It is in worldview. The major revisionist powers  China, Russia and Iran  know what they want: power, territory, tribute. And theyre going after it. Barack Obama takes Ecclesiastes view that these are vanities, nothing but vanities. In the kingdom of heaven, no doubt. Here on earth, however  Aleppo to Donetsk, Estonia to the Spratly Islands  it matters greatly.
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When you h ave virtually got carte blanche to make appointments to institutions of great prestige, you exercise your authority very carefully. This is something the government would do well to internalise given its rather patchy record in executing this task since it assumed office. Quite a few of its choices have been controversial, largely on the grounds of objections from several quarters about the unsuitability of those chosen to head great institutions. The choice of Gajendra Chauhan to head the Film and Television Institute in Pune ran into trouble from day one with many students refusing to accept Mr Chauhans leadership. His lack of qualifications was cited as the main reason and quite justifiably so. His association with films did not extend beyond mythological serials and a few forgettable films on the big screen. Yet, despite the institute being thrown into turmoil for months, the government stuck to its guns when there were many people, some of them alumni of FTII, who could have been chosen.

Read | FTII controversy highlights problems with our premier institutes

Similarly, it did not cover itself in glory with the choice of Pahlaj Nihalani as chief the Central Board for Film Certification. Mr Nihalanis film on the PM was so embarrassing that Mr Modi himself expressed his disapproval. Since he took over, Mr Nihalani has tried to cut scenes he felt were unsuitable  this involves reducing the length of a kissing scene in a Bond film  and using strong arm tactics to bring producers and directors to heel. Once again, there is no dearth of qualified people the government could have chosen. And the list continues. A historian whose credentials have been questioned by his peers heads the Indian Council of Historical Research. The directorship of the Nehru Memorial has run into controversy after the government made it intentions of appointing a former aide to AB Vajpayee clear.

Read | FTII controversy: A case of very bad casting

The choice of candidates should be based only on merit  something the prime minister holds dear  and not on ideological affiliations. The net should be cast wide to include even scholars from abroad before a choice is made. After all, some of the finest scholars of Indian history and culture can be found in foreign universities. This would raise the bar in research and scholarship. The choice, wherever possible, should be made in consultation with eminent people from the field so that there can be no hint of suspicion that a particular appointment was guided by political expediency. These posts should not be treated as sinecures given as grace and favour.

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India has the largest number of urban poor and landless people in the world. The Hindustan Times special series on Delhis homeless people documents how they battle rape, stigma and drugs on a daily basis.

According to the 2011 census, approximately 13.75 million households or approximately 65-70 million people reside in urban slums. In some cities, such as Mumbai, those residing in slums represent closer to 50% of the urban population and cities like Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Kolkata account for more than 50% of total households living in slums in India.

Read | Delhis homeless: Nameless, forsaken even in their death

The neglect of homeless populations in India has been well documented by the Commissioners of the Supreme Court appointed to track the implementation of the court decision and subsequent orders on the right to food nationally. Government at central and state level appear to treat this very visible population as invisible, said Leilani Farha, special Rapporteur on adequate housing Leilani Farha, appointed by the United National Human Rights Council, during her India tour in April.

Read | Delhi govt to build 15,000 houses for homeless

Farha made some substantial recommendations on how India should proceed to tackle the issue of homeless people.

Here is a sampler: First, identify and address the structural causes of homelessness; second, a national moratorium on forced evictions and demolitions should be introduced; third, enhanced policy coherence and convergence between housing schemes in urban and rural areas and schemes for the provision of water and sanitation; fourth, the central and state governments should put in place effective and timely mechanisms to collect data on evictions, including with disaggregation of the persons who are evicted by age, gender, disability, caste and religion.

I also note that there is no national law, policy or programme in place to ensure homeless people has access to medium- and long-term housing options. They are not, for example, included in the Housing for All Scheme, she added.

But some states are experimenting with new models for tackling the problem. Rajasthan has adopted a progressive policy whereby emergency shelters are the first step toward rehabilitation, offering skill training to residents and assisting them to transition to employment and long-term housing options, a model that other city authorities are taking on board as well, for example in Delhi.

Watch | Is the Delhi government turning a blind eye to the homeless?

@kumkumdasgupta

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Modern master Akbar Padamsee has had brilliant luck with art, and truly rotten luck with movies.

His first film, Syzygy, was released at a UNESCO screening in Paris in 1969, by then chief producer of the Films Division Jehangir Jean Bhownagary.

In his introduction, Bhownagary said: I would like you to take an aspirin before you see this film. It will surely give you a headache.

It depressed me to hear that, Padamsee says, his voice wavering but sharp. After that, I decided not to bother screening any of my films.

That was the first blow. Then, in 1974, Padamsee was asked if his second film, Events in a Cloud Chamber, could be screened at the Delhi Art Expo.

I sent off my only reel, and it was never returned to me, Padamsee says. It got lost along the way.

Fate had already begun to move in her mysterious ways, though.

A still from Akbar Padamsees first film, Syzygy, an animation of a thousand drawings. (Akbar Padamsee)

Syzygy is a 16-minute animation film with no narrative, sound, or colour; just lines evoking shapes. (The word syzygy denotes connection or opposition, typically used to refer to the alignments of celestial bodies.) It was created, incidentally, with the help of animator Ram Mohan.

After the sad Paris premiere of that film, one person had stayed back, seemingly glued to his seat. When I went up to him, he said, Most people here couldnt understand your film [but] it is a masterpiece, Padamsee says, He asked for a print and he told me that I would never regret it.

That man became programming director at Cinematheque Francaise, the largest film archive in the world. And it is only because he preserved his copy that Padamasees second film, Events in a Cloud Chamber, is now reinterpreted by filmmaker Ashim Ahluwalia.

When Ashim Ahluwalia first heard about Padamsees films, he says it struck him that, for 47 years, there had been a gap in the history of Indian cinema. (Pratham Gokhale/HT Photo)

Over the past two decades, that Cinematheque print of Syzygy has been shown at art festivals and private screenings around the world. Film scholar Lalita Gopalan attended one such screening and decided to introduce her filmmaker friend, Ahluwalia, to Padamsee. When the two met, Ashim too saw Syzygy and was blown away. It was then that Padamsee, now 87, haltingly told him about this other movie hed made.

Where Syzygy was an experiment in thought using lines, Events... was an experiment in colour.

Read: Who were the Modernists in Indian art?

A cloud chamber is a device people working around radiation wear around their necks. It registers whatever charged energy or x-ray a person is exposed to, says Padamsee. My film was made in a dark room where I took a painting of mine and cut it out into different shapes juxtaposed with colour filters. My film, like the cloud chamber, ends up recording all the events that occurred in there.

Ahluwalia was riveted and asked Padamsee if he would help recreate the lost work.

It struck me that, for 47 years, there had been a gap in the history of Indian cinema because Padamsees films had been ignored, says Ahluwalia, best known for his National Award-winning 2012 film, Miss Lovely. Its as if one generation was removed. Reconnecting with him felt like I was reconnecting with a grandfather who was passing on these secrets to me  why and how he looks at his art, what made him make the films he did.

Their 20-minute collaboration, also titled Events in A Cloud Chamber, is set to premiere at the Venice Film Festival in early September, in the Classics category dedicated to the history of cinema.

EXPERIMENTS IN THOUGHT

Through the 1960s and 70s, artists such as MF Husain, Tyeb Mehta and Nalini Malani had all experimented with film.

Watch: MF Husains 17-minute film, Through the Eyes of a Painter

Padamsees approach was a more cerebral one. His films could be seen as thought experiments, says cultural theorist Nancy Adajania. Husain, Mehta and Malani were still grappling with the conventions of pictoriality and narrative. Padamsee did away with narrative altogether in Syzygy. He was using the language of film to go beyond film. Syzygy was like a gemstone without a setting.

Watch: Tyeb Mehtas Koodal, which won him a Filmfare Award for Best Documentary in 1971

With a failing memory and unsteady hands, Akbar Padamsee walks down the memory lane to recreate the painting and technique he devised in his experimental film of the early 70s. (Events in A Cloud Chamber/ Ashim Ahluwalia)

For Ahluwalia, remaking Events... took on all the magic of time travel. What resonated with me was the idea of an artist getting older and coming to terms with it. And the trajectory of creating a work, losing it, thinking its unimportant and then 45 years later being told it could be the most important work you ever did, Ahluwalia says. It is not just about Akbar Padamsee. It is also about fundamental, universal questions such as, why does anyone make art, and, does any of it matter?

Read: Why Akbar Padamsee is called the artists artist

In Ahluwalias Events... you get a glimpse of Padamsees studio, where he spends hours painting and, in the film, discussing with Ahluwalia art, the artist and the vagaries of time.

The film is also about rediscovering firsts. As Adajania puts it, the original Events... was new media art before that term existed.

Consider the musician Geeta Sarabhai, who created an electronic soundtrack for the film. She was one of only a few female musicians in the world making electronic soundscapes at the time and she is totally forgotten today, Ahluwalia says.

Akbar Padamsees innovative technique was to suggest a landscape of earth and sky through the use of colour and, onto those sections, project slides of similar colours, giving each shade a moving quality. Ashim Ahluwalia captures the process and the end result (above) on film. (Events in A Cloud Chamber/ Ashim Ahluwalia)

Thirteen minutes into the film, Padamsee starts working on his famous metascape-like art. Different colours suggest a landscape of earth and sky. Onto those sections, Padamsee projects slides of similar colours, giving each shade a moving quality.

You can see similar fluctuations in the artist himself. The film shows Akbar in a vulnerable light, Ahluwalia says. You are able to talk to him and see fluctuations in coherence. It felt at times like I was looking at Akbar and seeing an 87-year-old me.

For Padamsee, recognition -- and redemption -- off the canvas are finally here.

They are completely different films, but with a shared foundation, Padamsee says. It is a film of astounding beauty and sensitivity and I was deeply moved on seeing it.
The recently released comedy film Happy Bhag Jayegi has been banned in Pakistan. Interestingly, the movie has been shot in the neighbouring country and also stars Pakistani actor Momal Sheikh. The central character (played by Diana Penty) of the movie runs away to Lahore (Pakistan) in a bid to escape her wedding.

Read: Happy Bhag Jayegi review: Abhay Deol, Diana Penty return in full form

While the film received a green signal earlier, the Central Board of Film Censors (CBFC) has now slapped a ban on the cross-border comedy. The censor board of Pakistan saw the film and they loved it. They wanted us to cut a minor part of the film. We agreed to it, says film-maker Aanand L Rai, adding, Initially, I was told that the film is clean. Later, we were informed that a ministry in Pakistan had objected to the film. As a film-maker, the only greed I have is that the movie should reach a larger audience. The political reason for which a film is banned has nothing to do with a common man.

Watch: Trailer of Happy Bhag Jayegi

The scene that was asked to be cut featured a portrait of Pakistani leader Muhammad Ali Jinnah. In Bollywood, we have made a film on Gandhiji Lage Raho Munna Bhai (2006). But we never faced any backlash. As film-makers, we are allowed to have our own voice. They also had an issue with the policemans character in the film (played by Piyush Mishra). The board did not provide a particular reason, but a unanimous ban was issued, says Aanand.
Deepika Padukone may not have a brother of her own, but this Raksha Bandhan, she decided to make her bodyguard, Jalal, her rakhi brother.

Jalal is the one who looks after her wherever she goes. He works round the clock. He is her shadow. So, she decided to tie him a rakhi, says an insider.

Read: Deepika Padukone had to take medication for depression

Apparently, the actor makes it a point to acknowledge the hard work that he puts into ensuring her safety. There have been times when Jalal has gone out of his way to avoid any mishap, adds the source.

Jalal, who has been working with the actor for two years, is called Deepikas one-man army by her team members. Deepika thought this was the best day to show him that she understands the efforts he puts into protecting her, says the source.

Read: Ranveer will always be an important part of my life, says Deepika Padukone

The actor also considers Jalal her family, since she doesnt live with her parents (Prakash Padukone and Ujjala Padukone live in Bangalore with her younger sister Anisha Padukone). Since he has worked with her for a long time, the two share a good rapport, says the insider.

We tried contacting the Bollywood star, but she remained unavailable for a comment.

Follow @htshowbiz for more.

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Being a star kid comes with pressure and expectations, but not for actor Tiger Shroff. The 26-year-old says he never felt the pressure to match up to his father, actor Jackie Shroff, and has consciously maintained a different image. He (Jackie) is his own man. Our acting styles are very different. In fact, the first time I danced on a reality show, Farah Khan (filmmaker-choreographer) told me, you cant be Jackies son, you might be Hrithiks (Roshan) brother or Govindas son. I didnt give the audience a chance to compare me to my father, he says. But considering his fathers vast body of work, does he consult him before signing a film? No, says Tiger.

Read: No drugs or sex in A Flying Jatt. Thats too violent for kids: Tiger Shroff

The actor started his career with Heropanti (2014) and starred in Baaghi, which released in April. He is awaiting the release of A Flying Jatt, directed by Remo Dsouza. Im very happy as this has been a dream role for me. I am playing a super hero. I have not done this in the past and I am looking forward to the audience reaction. As of now, its all about making this film my biggest hit, he says.

Actor Tiger Shroff says that after seeing his first performance, filmmaker-choreographer Farah Khan couldnt belive that he was actor Jackie Shroffs son.

Read: Hrithik and Prabhu Deva had a Beat Pe Booty dance-off. And its mind-blowing

The actor was in the Capital over the weekend to promote the film, and said he loves Delhi. This is my third time in Delhi, and this is my favourite place to promote my films. The majority of love which I get is from Delhi. It feels good to be here, says Tiger, who will next work in Sabbir Khans Munna Michael. The actors younger sister, Krishna Shroff, will also be a part of the film. She is entering the industry. She wants to be behind the camera and is going to assist in my next film, says Tiger.

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Actor Fawad Khan feels that piracy poses a huge threat to the film industries around the globe and not just in India or Pakistan. He also emphasises that although over the years, the perception of audience has changed but the problem still persists and is far from getting over.

Piracy is like a cancer in the society which will take a while to be cured. It is a global problem and we must do something to put an end to this menace, says Fawad , who has been a part of the films such as Khoobsurat (2014) and Kapoor & Sons (2016).

Read:Women may be swooning but Fawad Khan doesnt think he looks good

Fawads popularity burgeoned in India after his Pakistani show Zindagi Gulzar Hai became a hit in the country.

About the changing dynamics of the film industry in Pakistan, the 34-year-old actor says, With each passing day, the number of movie goers in Pakistan are increasing and same goes for the number of screens. Most of the films are releasing now in Pakistan.

Read:Good looks are just an added perk for me: Fawad Khan

Actor Salman Khans recent release Sultan is the best example of this change in Pakistan.

Salmans Sultan gave a record opening in Pakistan, if you look at the records of the past three years. That shows that people actually prefer going to cinema rather than downloading it at home, says Fawad, who will soon be seen in Karan Johars next directorial.

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IN 1962, I WAS in Nasik, after completing my postgraduation in psychology, when I chanced upon some old travel brochures at home. That day, my father told me how he always wanted to travel and see the world, but could not afford it (we were five siblings)and had compromised by collecting brochures and photos instead. His words moved me. I knew that somehow, I wanted to help fulfil his dream. Alas, that was not to be as he passed away a year later. But I decided to pay him a homage in my unique way  by seeing the world.

In 1973-74, I visited England, Scotland and Europe on an educational tour during a one-year stint at the University College, London. This experience broadened my vista, stoking my desire to travel as much as possible, and to know the people, places, nature and cultures in different parts of the world.

I would make a list of short and long breaks in the year and start planning my travels as soon as I received the new years calendar. Before I became computer literate in 2006, I would do all my planning and research through books, and pack in as much sightseeing as I could, at a minimal cost.

Arun Sabnis in a traditional costume during his trip to Bhutan

To maximise my experience, I would read about the people and the countries I was visiting beforehand so I already knew what to see and where. I would try and cover a number of countries in back-to-back trips, and never feel tired. I would practise early morning yoga even during my travels. Though Im a vegetarian, food has never been an issue. I can subsist on bread and butter, as I did during my 15-day Antarctic expedition in 2012.

I have visited 75 countries and more than 575 cities across the seven continents so far. I am still fascinated by the striking similarities and differences among various cultures  the Pyramids seen not just in Egypt, but also in Mexico and Indonesia; and the fact that nature Gods are worshipped by Egyptians, Indians, Greeks, Romans, Persians as well as in Machu Picchu. I realised that humans of a certain era thought and acted alike during different phases of their cultural development.

There are adventures that I will always remember. The thrill of an extremely hazardous 60-hour return voyage from Antarctica brings back nightmares. At the same time, the eerie silence, and the pristine sight of the virgin earth there turns you into a sublime philosopher. The powerful nature of the volcano in quake-prone Iceland makes you revere the beauty of nature. The ostrich ride at Oudtshoorn, South Africa, where the bird throws you on the hay, brings back fond memories. The minimal choice, no-stress environment of Bhutan is a reminder of peace. The rugged and robust nature of Norway and New Zealand makes your jaws drop in awe, as does the human craftsmanship of Catherine Palace in Russia.

With granddaughter, actor Shriya Pilgaonkar, who accompanied him on his Iceland trip

I maintain a diary during each of my travels, recording what I see, think and feel. Being able to tell the story behind every picture adds to the thrills of travel. Im 77 now, and a bypass in 2012 slowed down my pace, but not my wanderlust. Next on my list is the Trans Siberian rail journey, including Siberia and Mongolia. I have plans to travel in the high-altitude train from Beijing to Lhasa and also discover Galapagos, Columbia and Venezuela.

We have one life, and must choose to enrich it with knowledge and experience. And whenever I see the beautiful world outside, I feel that my father is experiencing it through my eyes!

Arun Sabnis is a former college principal, who at 77 continues to be bitten by the travel bug

From HT Brunch, August 21, 2016

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The biggest secret to feeling young is to never stop meeting pretty girls. Its one of the first things I learned in life. I was 19 when I fell in love with Pearl, my first wife. I wanted to marry her, and my parents, who were quite strict and rather traditional, asked me how I could when I didnt have a job or money. And Pearl had two daughters from her previous marriage. But I defied my parents, and thats how I ended up getting into advertising  my first job was as a copywriter, for Rs 300 a month.

Ive had three marriages. Pearl was a wonderful person, and we were ecstatically happy for 10-15 years. But eventually, I found the adventure had gone. Any product, whether its a marriage or a food product, has a sell-by date. It gets stale, boring, and monotonous. Im a creative person whos over-influenced by Picasso and other artists. I believe that you have to have a muse. For me, that has always been women. And the muse cant be the same all your life; you have to renew the idea. So I found another. And then another. And yet, I dont share a bitter relationship with my ex-wives. Im close to all my kids, and share a wonderful relationship with them.

Life should be full of joy, and Im a great believer in the saying every cloud has a silver lining. Even if youre down in the dumps, and a tragedy or a big problem arises, the sun is waiting to peek out. Most young people today have never learned that. You must get involved in life, to not let a single minute go without thinking of something exciting, whether thats your girlfriend/ boyfriend, or even a big exam. The attitude should be wow, what a challenge, and not what a problem. The word problem should be banished from the dictionary. The only antidote to anxiety is action, together they make the three As.

When I wake up in the morning, I have my breakfast, and then work on two lists. One is a hate list, which, as the name implies, includes things like paying my insurance, going for a medical checkup, phoning clients who owe me money. My love list is calling up my daughter, my son, my girlfriend, and read at least a chapter from a book I find exciting. In fact, I love Shakespeare and he helped me find a solution to something I find very boring  exercise. The doctor said I must walk and I got a treadmill which I would use every night while watching my favourite show on TV. And when that ended, I stopped using the treadmill. My daughter, Shazahn, said shell get me some more DVDs but I thought of a solution. Now every night, I walk up and down my hall, and I recite Shakespeare. Ive already done seven of his plays and I intend to do the rest of the 28.

I have been recently invited to New York University to give a talk on Indian playwrights in October. Many people wonder if this is the age to go abroad. But my daughter will be coming with me, shes a wonderful companion, and were going to have a great time. The other day a friend asked me, what is it that youre most excited about when you go there? Surely Broadway? I said yes, I will go on Broadway and also see the plays off Broadway, but what Im looking forward to the most is going to a very famous disco that has just opened. I love dancing and go to Hard Rock Cafe in Bombay at least once in a month. Now, Im going to go to the New York one. People often tell me, Alyque, act your age. I do. Im 17 and studying at St Xaviers college.

Im very happy to be alive and when I have to go, which will be in some time, I tell my friends, dont grieve. Just say he lived a full life, falling in love with everything. Thats my philosophy  fall in love with life, every day. As Frank Sinatra sang, If youre young at heart...

- As told to Shikha Kumar

From HT Brunch, August 21, 2016

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The National Democratic Alliance government on Saturday appointed Essar Shipping managing director Anoop Kumar Sharma to head the state-run Shipping Corporation of India, a move that comes months after it relaxed rules to let the Centre recruit private sector managers to top jobs.

Shipping minister Nitin Gadkari had made up his mind to pick a private sector manager to head the company last year and got Prime Minister Narendra Modis approval. Gadkari had kept the post vacant for most of this year; it was temporarily assigned to SCI director BB Sinha.

Sharmas appointment on a three-year tenure comes just a day after SCI announced its net profit for the first quarter of this fiscal had dived 72% to Rs 56 crore as compared to the corresponding period last year.

A policy decision to allow the government to recruit talent from the private sector and state government-run companies was, however, made only in June when the rulebook was fixed. Sharmas appointment is the first after the rules were changed.

The NDA government had started with the public sector banks last August when it named Rakesh Sharma as the chief executive of Canara Bank and PS Jayakumar to head Bank of Baroda. Rakesh came from private sector Laxmi Vilas Bank while Jayakumar came from VBHC Value Homes.

Like them, Sharma  who had worked with SCI for 16 years  will take a pay cut to join the largest public sector shipping company in India. A back-of-the-envelope calculation indicated the pay cut could be as high as 80%.

At Essar Shipping, Sharmas annual compensation package totalled Rs 177 lakh in 2015-16, according to the companys annual report. His monthly basic salary was Rs 5.45 lakh.

If the salary package of heads of other similarly placed public sector firms is any indication, Sharma can expect an annual package of around Rs 36-40 lakh. Sharma can, however, expect a hike in 2017 when recommendations of a pay panel  set up to revise salaries in public sector firms  will come into force.

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Urjit Patel, a deputy governor in charge of monetary policy at the Reserve Bank of India, will serve as its next governor for a three-year term.

He will replace Raghuram Rajan, a former International Monetary Fund chief economist who announced in June that he would step down in September and return to academia after a single three-year term at the RBI.

Here is all you need to know about the new RBI governor:

Current position: Deputy governor of RBI (2013-till date)

Education:

BA, London School of Economics

MPhil, Oxford University

PhD, Yale University

Career:

Non-Resident Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution

International Monetary Fund (IMF) between 1990 and 1995 and worked on the US, India, Bahamas and Myanmar desks.

On deputation (1996-1997) from the IMF to the RBI

Consultant (1998-2001) to the ministry of finance, department of economic affairs, New Delhi

President (business development), Reliance Industries Limited

Executive director and member of the management committee

Infrastructure Development Finance Company Limited (IDFC) (1997-2006)

Member of the Integrated Energy Policy Committee of the government of India (2004-2006)

Member of the board, Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation Limited

Publications:

Authored technical publications, papers and comments in the areas of Indian macroeconomics, public finance, infrastructure, financial intermediation, international trade and the economics of climate change.
After creating a space for them in the fast-moving consumer goods market, Baba Ramdevs Patanjali will now enter Mumbai schools. On Thursday, the states school education department asked schools to co-operate with Patanjali Yog Samiti, Mumbai in holding yoga programmes every month. Some school principals objected to the department endorsing a private agency.

According to a departments circular issued on June 8, it is must for schools to organise yoga programmes on 21st of every month, unless its a Sunday. The circular was issued after Vinod Tawde, education minister, said yoga should become a year-long activity, instead of celebrating it on a token day.

Patanjali approached the department in June showing interest in helping schools conduct these activities. They proposed holding Yog-Pranayam in schools for free. They are looking at 1, 658 secondary schools, covering students from Classes 5 to 12. Exercises like pranayam and memory boosting techniques will be taught, said Jyotsna Desai, who runs the education wing of the Yog Samiti.

Some schools frowned upon the departments action. We are not interested in outside agencies holding yoga progamme in the school, we have three yoga teachers and will manage it on our own, said Chandrakanta Pathak, principal, HVB Global Academy, Marine Lines. Another school principal said, It is wrong for the government to openly endorse a company that promotes a particular religious philosophy. School is a secular space.

BB Chavan, deputy director of education, Mumbai region said it is not binding on schools to partner with Patanjali. We were looking for someone to help schools in conducting the sessions. Patanjali approached us and so we gave them our nod, said Chavan. It is up to the schools if they want to work with them or do it on their own.

In contrast, teachers said the programme should not be limited to students. Teachers face a great deal of stress, it will be good if some exercises are conducted for us to, said Uday Nare, teacher, Hansraj Morarji Public School, Andheri.

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Me: Sir, the situation in Kashmir is getting from bad to worse. What is our Kashmir policy?

Official: Have you heard of Balochistan?

Me: A place next to Bostan?

Official: What?

Me: Bostan, sir, in the north-eastern part of the USA; where they had the Bostan tea party.

Official: Balochistan is in Pakistan. And do you know where Baltistan is?

Me: Balti.Is it the place you go to after kicking the bucket?

Official: No, it too is occupied by Pakistan.

Me: Stans within stans, eh?

Official: What do you think is common to both these places?

Me: Ummm.they end in stan?

Official: And?

Me: They both start with Bal? Named after Bal Thackeray, perhaps?

Official: No. The people in both these places love our prime minister.

Me: Oh wow.

Official: And therein lies our Kashmir policy. From now on, anybody talking about Kashmir will have to talk about Balochistan and Baltistan.

Read: If Alice had come to the Wonderland that is India

Me: Brilliant. Its a real name-changer.

Official: You mean game-changer. But theres more to it. You remember when the present government took office, we invited the Pak prime minister?

Me: Yes.

Official: That was to make our policy look dovish.

Me: But wasnt there some unpleasantness with the Pak envoy talking to separatists?

Official: That was to make it look hawkish.

Me: I see.

Official: Then we decided separatists could talk to Pakistan. Also our foreign minister visited the place.

Me: Was that dovish or hawkish?

Read: Friends, Indians, countrymen, lend me your ears

Official: It was owlish.

Me: Ah, as blind as an owl.

Official: No, blind as a bat, wise as an owl.

Me: And what about Kashmir?

Official: Oh that was sorted out with the PDP-BJP government in the state. Guess what that was?

Me: A marriage of convenience?

Official: Certainly not.

Me: A neither-fish-nor-fowl policy?

Official: No. When it happened, it was also hailed as a game-changer.

Me: More of a cliff-hanger now, right? Or is it a clear-and-present-danger?

Official: Not at all. To continue with the story, the prime minister then visited Pakistan.

Me: That was dovish.

Official: Not really. More high-tea and hugs-ish.

Me: And then there were the terrorist attacks.

Official: Yes, we first blew hot.

Read: Getting the mathematics right on world peace

Me: Wonderful.

Official: And then blew cold.

Me: Lovely. Getting that ISI agent to investigate the Pathankot attack, that really took the cake.

Official: In fact, that was the icing on the cake. What do people think when they see youre mad as a wet hen one day, a lame duck another day, a sitting duck another?

Me: That youre fond of bird similes but are cleverly concealing the running around like a headless chicken one?

Official: We call it masterly confusion. They will be completely unbalanced, wouldnt know whats coming next. Weve got them totally off guard. And the Baluchistan thing will add to the confusion.

Me: Fantastic. This will solve the Kashmir problem?

Official: If it doesnt, there are always pellet guns.

manas.c@livemint.com

Manas Chakravarty is Consulting Editor, Mint

The views expressed are personal

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Ive received a fair amount of flak for last Sundays sentiments that were a nation of hypocrites. My critics say I was exaggerating. Yet if working yourself into a froth but failing to act is proof of hypocrisy the Lok Sabha debate on Dalit atrocities was undeniable proof we dont mean what we say and, often, dont say what we mean. The bald facts of that debate prove my point.

The debate was the culmination of widespread concern about the attacks on Dalits by gau rakshaks. It was intended to express our solidarity with our Dalit brothers and sisters. It should have been a moment Indian democracy was proud of. Alas, it wasnt. Heres why.

First, the attendance. Business Standard claims of the Lok Sabhas 543 members only 69, including the Deputy Speaker, were present. Of the Congresss 44 MPs eight were present. Of the governments 76 ministers six were present. Both the PM and Rahul Gandhi were absent.

Read: Scindia leads Opposition charge against govt on Dalit issue

Unfortunately, thats not all. Even the MPs present were hardly listening to the debate. You often saw them on TV chatting to each other, looking backwards at the row behind rather than forward to the speaker of the moment.

Udit Raj made a second telling point. Why was it that the vast majority of speakers were Dalits or members of scheduled tribes? Why did the rest of our MPs keep silent? During the first four hours there were 12 speakers, of whom nine or 75% were SC and ST. Yet SC and ST only represent 24% of the Lok Sabha. By the end of the debate the tally had improved. Including the home minister there were 21 speakers but 11 were still SC and ST.

In the 18th and 19th centuries in Britain and the 19th in America it was white men like William Wilberforce and Abraham Lincoln who fought to end slavery. Where are their counterparts when it comes to battling Dalit atrocities in India? After Gandhi there are few upper castes at the forefront of this battle. Even Arjun Ram Meghwal, the holder of a scheduled tribe constituency, was absent when he was called to speak in the Lok Sabha. Such is his commitment to this cause.

Read: Punish culprits of atrocities against Dalits: Centre to states

Alas, theres more to shame us. When Dr K Gopal, an AIADMK MP, was speaking he was interrupted by the Deputy Speaker so that a motion to send the Citizenship Bill to a standing committee could be passed. Why? Surely this motion could have been passed after the debate or the next day? By interrupting a debate on Dalit atrocities to pass this motion did not the Deputy Speaker clearly suggest this technical motion was more important than the substantive debate? Indeed, could there be better proof of the lack of seriousness that surrounded this debate?

The day before the Lok Sabha debate on Dalit atrocities the Rajya Sabha debated the Kashmir crisis. The House was full and all the channels cut to the debate and stayed with it, sometimes for an hour or more. In contrast, the Dalit debate was ignored by television and tucked into the inside pages of newspapers the next morning.

Read: Attack me, shoot me if you want, but dont attack Dalits: PM Modi

Now lets return to the question I started with: Do the facts of the Dalit debate suggest were hypocrites? Is our rage hollow? Are we just posturing? Indeed, was the performance put on by the Lok Sabha tokenism rather than a serious expression of concern?

I wont answer. The facts can speak for themselves.

The views expressed are personal

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GHAZIABAD/BULANDSHAHR: On the order of the Allahabad High Court, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday began investigation into the Bulandshahr highway robbery and gang rape case and registered a fresh case.

The CBI registered the case of dacoity with intent of causing grievous hurt, gang rape, wrongful confinement and provision of POCSO Act.

A CBI team and forensic experts visited Bulandshahr on Friday and checked the crime scene, a CBI spokesperson said.

The police have arrested six people, including the prime suspect Saleem Bawaria. A suspect, identified by the police as Fati, is on the run.

The CBI team also collected documents related to the case. Senior officers from Bulandshahr police were present... we hope that investigation goes in the proper direction, said a family member.

Earlier, taking cognizance of the incident, the Allahabad High Court rapped the UP Police for laxity and directed the CBI to take up investigation in the case.

Bearing in mind the manner in which the investigation has proceeded till now, the glaring lapses which are more than evident from the record, considering the depravity of the crime and the impact that this occurrence has had on the nation as a whole, we are of the considered opinion that the circumstances of the case warrant a transfer of the investigation to the CBI forthwith(sic), a bench of chief justice Dilip B Bhosale and justice Yashwant Varma said in their August 12 order.

The crime in question has transcended far beyond what may be described as a tragedy which befell an isolated family, the court said.
New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez

The "ultimate penalty," as Gov. Susana Martinez has called it, does not come cheap.





The high cost and slow process of prosecuting capital cases likely will be central to the debate over reinstating the death penalty after Martinez's announcement this week that she will push to restore capital punishment during the 2017 legislative session.





New Mexico used the death penalty sparingly during the period when it was last legal, handing down about a dozen death sentences and executing one inmate between 1979 and 2009, when lawmakers and Gov. Bill Richardson abolished it. Analyzing the costs of capital punishment, legislative staffers in 2009 wrote, "New Mexico does not receive much return on its death penalty investment."





The report said fewer than 1/4 of all capital prosecutions in the state led to a prisoner on death row. Fewer than 1/2 of the cases led to a death sentence, and 68 % of those were overturned on appeal.





Death penalty cases require heightened standards for defense attorneys, the report said, with at least 2 lawyers at each stage of the proceedings, trial-level litigation and mandatory appeals. Jury selection is particularly long and arduous in such cases, the report added, costing at least 4 times as much as other 1st-degree murder cases.





The only person executed in New Mexico between 1979 and 2009 was Terry D. Clark, who was put to death in 2001 for the rape and murder of a 9-year-old Roswell girl in 1986. The state brought in 2 "execution experts" from the Texas prison system for Clark's execution, the 1st in New Mexico since 1960.





"There is only a 4.5 % chance that any multi-million dollar death penalty prosecution will ever end in an execution in New Mexico," the legislative report said.





It's also unclear whether the state could navigate the logistical hurdles to carrying out an execution.





The state's prison system does not have a supply of the drugs typically used to carry out lethal injections, according to Alex Sanchez, deputy secretary for administrative support at the Corrections Department.





Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said finding the necessary drugs now could be complicated, with major pharmaceutical companies and many pharmacies refusing to sell their products for use in executions.





"That narrows who you can get the drugs from. The fear has been that executions are likely to be even more unsafe and even more prone to being botched if the drugs are obtained from compounding pharmacies," Dunham said, referring to the drug-manufacturing companies that have become the last resort for states in short supply of pharmaceuticals required for executions.





2 men sentenced to death in New Mexico prior to 2009 are still on death row.





Timothy Allen was sentenced to death in 1995 for kidnapping, attempting to rape and then killing a 17-year-old Flora Vista girl.





Robert Fry was sentenced to death in 2002 for the murder of Betty Lee, a 36-year-old Shiprock woman. He also is serving life sentences for the 1996 killings of Farmington residents Joseph Fleming, 25, and Matthew Trecker, 18, as well as the 1998 murder of 41-year-old Donald Tsosie of Ganado, Ariz.





Fry and Allen are incarcerated in the same tightly controlled conditions designated for inmates sentenced to life without the possibility of parole - a sentence that replaced the death penalty when it was abolished. No one is currently serving such a sentence in a New Mexico prison.





"Capital punishment is clearly a very expensive process."

Sanchez said the New Mexico Corrections Department would be capable of carrying out an execution and that reinstating the death penalty would change little for the state's prison system. "There would be no difference in housing, no difference in treatment," she said. "It would just be a matter of carrying out the execution."





But the cases of Fry and Allen illustrate the long process of carrying out a death sentence. Lawyers representing the men went before the New Mexico Supreme Court as recently as 2014, asking the state's highest judicial body stop their executions in light of the death penalty's abolition.





Their cases are still pending, and the Law Office of the Public Defender recently asked the state Supreme Court to authorize additional funding to pay the men's lawyers.





"Capital punishment is clearly a very expensive process. It adds costs for law enforcement, for prosecution, for the courts, and it adds tremendous costs to provide effective assistance of counsel," said Chief Public Defender Bennett Baur.





Death penalty cases require specialized skills, he said.





Baur also noted that state agencies are facing budget cuts. Public defenders, as well as prosecutors and others in the criminal justice system, would be forced to do more with less if capital punishment were reinstated, he said.





"In the time of flat budgets - or worse - there are things you cannot do," he said. "There are cases that cannot be prosecuted and cases that cannot be defended."





The political prospects of reinstating the death penalty remain unclear and are likely to shift with the outcome of the Nov. 8 general election.





The New Mexican contacted several state lawmakers to ask if they would sponsor legislation to restore capital punishment. Only 1, Republican Rep. Andy Nunez of Hatch, responded.





Nunez, who represents the district in Southern New Mexico where a police officer was gunned down last week, said Thursday he will sponsor a bill to reinstate the death penalty if Martinez asks him.





"I agree with her," Nunez said. "My wife's not for it, but I am."





Martinez did not specify Wednesday how broadly she believes the death penalty should be applied. But her comments signaled she is interested in at least allowing capital punishment for the murders of children and law enforcement officers. She mentioned slain Hatch Police Department Officer Jose Chavez in her remarks.





Nunez said such a scope is appropriate. While he supported repealing the death penalty in 2009, Nunez said Thursday he feels he was "misled."





He thought the death penalty would be replaced with a sentence of life without parole, he said, but with no one receiving such a sentence, he suggested that inmates who might have qualified for the death penalty when it was legal might now be receiving sentences allowing their eventual release.





Asked if the state can afford to undertake executions and the accompanying lengthy court battles, Nunez said: "They can afford that better than setting them in prison."

 | Report an error, an omission; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; send a submission; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com



Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE!

Source: Santa Fe New Mexican, August 19, 2016
NEW DELHI: The Delhi Commission for Women (DCW), the Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party and the Aam Aadmi Party criticised the Delhi Police on Friday for allegedly revealing a rape survivors identity.

A police release on Thursday night about the arrest of eight men who abducted and raped a woman for 10 years allegedly mentioned the survivors name.

DCW chair person Swati Maliwal demanded action against the police officer. Last month, the police filed an FIR against DCW officials for mentioning a rape survivors name. Maliwal said police tried to falsely implicate the DCW.

We have a classic case of police revealing the name and no action being taken against them. This is a mistake and the commission will take requisite action in this case, said Maliwal.

AAP spokesperson Deepak Bajpai called it an example of utter insensitivity. It is a cognisable offence and if they were so prompt in registering a case against Swati Maliwal, what action will they take against the erring officials. Their merely issuing an apology on WhatsApp is not acceptable, he said.

Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken demanded a probe and strict action against the guilty. It is condemnable. It is legally and morally wrong to reveal the name of the rape victim, he said.

Delhi BJPs media in-charge Praveen Shanker Kapoor said the Delhi Police commissioner should order a probe. The matter should be examined under the purview of the law and if the officers have made mistake, the Delhi police commissioner must act against them.

Deputy commissioner of police (north east) AK Singla told PTI, We hadnt revealed the new name of the girl. It was her childhood name, but then we clarified and asked people not to carry the name. Her name had earlier appeared in the media and certain media houses had mentioned her name. We had mentioned her old name at one place in the press release. We haven t disclosed her current name.
NEW DELHI: Another war is brewing in Delhis Jawaharlal Nehru University, this time over its conic Ganga Dhaba.

University officials say Bharat Tomar doesnt have a licence to operate but the eatery is not being shut.

No such move (to close the dhaba). However, all commercial spaces on the campus must adhere to the university regulations, vice-chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar said.

Served an eviction notice, the owner had until Friday morning to move out.

But as the eatery opens only in the evening, students started gathering at the dhaba in the morning to protest against the administrations attack on the dhaba culture of the Left-leaning campus.

It is hard to separate JNU from Ganga Dhaba, which opens at 4pm and feeds hungry students till three in the morning and at nominal prices. But, it is more than food. It is the ideas place, it is a debating club, it is a place where revolutions are sown.

A Facebook group named after the eatery, almost as old as the campus, has nearly 13,000 members. An old-timer went to the extent of describing the eatery as a dhaba with university facilities.

No wonder students are upset. They say Tomar should be allowed to continue.

He was served an eviction notice as he was illegally occupying the space and didnt have the authority to run the eatery, registrar Pramod Kumar told HT.

You are hereby directed to vacate the premises before August 18, 2016 and hand over the possession of the Ganga Dhaba to the estate branch of the university the August 9 notice sent by the universitys estate officer said.

The University on Friday issued a statement, Ganga Dhaba is not being closed by JNU Administration. It is considered as JNU Heritage. Since the present occupant is illegally occupying the premises, he has been asked to vacate the place so that tendering procedure may be initiated at the earliest to run the Ganga Dhaba.

But students are not convinced. JNU students union general secretary Rama Naga said the university said the same for a photocopy shop but a year on, the place was still shuttered. Same will happen with Ganga Dhaba, this is a trick to attack the dhaba culture in our campus, he said.

He said Tomar should be retained. He has been serving the campus for a very long time. If there is not a single complaint against his food or behaviour, then why change him? he said.

Tomar had not paid rent for three years, ignoring repeated reminders, Kumar said. His father used to run the dhaba and then his mother ran it after his fathers death. Now he is running it. It is not personal property -- to be transferred to family, the registrar said.

The university would call fresh tenders and Tomar was free to apply and seek a new contract, Kumar said. He has been asked to vacate today (Friday) but if he seeks more time we can consider that, he said.

Tomar said the Dhaba was alloted to his father in 1983-84. We provide cheap food and have developed a relation with students. The students dont want us to go, he said.

A JNU official said that eviction notice was also sent to a Magazine Centre, which runs near the bus stand opposite to Ganga Dhaba. Started in 1954, it is among the popular hangout places for students in North Campus. It is well known for its chicken curry, tea, and stuffed paranthas. The canteen offers the traditional Indian snack of samosa with a twist and serves meetha (sweet) samosas.

The most popular dishes of Delhi School of Economics canteen include mutton dosas and mutton cutlets. Other items on the menu are egg curry with rice, masala coke and rajma-rice. The canteen is pocket friendly and most of the dishes come for less than ` 50.

The St Stephens canteen is famous for samosas, nimbu paani and gulab jaamun. The college tried to shut the dhaba in 2012, but students resisted it. The dhaba is so popular that when owner Rohtas died, alumni, including historian Ramachandra Guha and chief economic advisor Arvind Subramanian, went to hold a prayer meeting in the college.

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NEW DELHI: Put a check on mosquito breeding to protect yourself against vector-borne diseases like dengue, malaria and chikungunya, say experts.

Prevention of mosquito breeding is the focus of the governments dengue-prevention strategy this year, said Dr SM Raheja, head of Delhis dengue control cell, which was created this year. The disease had affected 16,000 people last year and claimed 60 lives.

Using the patient data from the year before, the dengue hot-spots of the city were mapped and special attention paid to areas like Narela, Bawana and Trilokpuri.

The onus for preventing breeding lies not only with the government or the municipal corporation, but also with the people who need to ensure that there are no breeding spots in their homes, Dr Raheja said, adding, that people must observe a dry-day once a week. On their off-days, people must clean and dry any containers, potted plants or feng-shui plants where clean stagnant water is present to prevent mosquitoes from breeding.

By observing a dry-day, people break the life cycle of the aedes aegypti mosquito that takes eight to ten days to become an adult, said Dr Raheja.

FOGGING DOESNT WORK

Once the mosquitoes are adult, fogging becomes ineffective. Fogging is not very effective when done in the open. A contact poison is used for fogging to paralyse the mosquitoes when they come in contact, but it does not kill all mosquitoes in the open. Fogging is mainly done in areas where mosquito density is high, said Dr BK Hazarika, a municipal health officer from South Delhi Municipal Corporation.

Fogging inside a house is effective, but it may aggravate health problems such as asthma, allergy and other respiratory conditions. It is rarely done as people do not allow MCD workers to come inside their homes. After fogging, the occupants of a house need to stay out for at least 20-30 minutes to avoid adverse health impacts, he said.

PROTECTING YOURSELF

People must do all they can to protect themselves from mosquito bites during monsoon, when transmission of diseases like dengue, malaria and chikungunya is at its peak.

Wear lose clothes that cover your arms and legs. This reduces the surface area where the mosquitoes might bite. If wearing full clothes is not possible, then use mosquito repellents, said Dr Raheja.

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NEW DELHI: Come October, you will be able to use your Delhi Metro smart-card to travel cash-less in city buses, easing last-mile connectivity, a problem that has dogged the Capitals transport system for years.

The Delhi Transport Corporation(DTC) hasconducted the first successful transaction using a Delhi metro smartcard in an electronic ticketing machine (ETM) installed inside a city bus.

It is likely that in next two months, users of public transport in Delhi will be able to use a common mobility card in buses as well as the Metro, said RS Minhas, DTC spokesperson.

Officials say 70% of the DTC fleet already has ETMs installed and the rest should have it by mid-October, when the integrated travel scheme is likely to be launched.

Once operational, the scheme will cover 4,000 DTC buses and 1,100 orange cluster buses that are run under a private-public arrangement.

The idea is to have a prepaid service where people using any public transport will not have to use cash and can pay through one card, said a government official.

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NEW DELHI: A law that makes it difficult to get a divorce may not have kept unhappy married couples together. Census data released this week suggests these couples were splitting up anyway, without a divorce.

For every divorcee recorded by the census, there was an average of two more who told enumerators that they too had separated from their spouses. For Hindus, there were three more separated people for every divorcee.

The data comes against the backdrop of the NDA governments move to drop a much-debated bill that would give legal sanctity to live-in relationships and make it easier for Hindus to get a divorce.

But former law minister Sadananda Gowda dumped the bill in February last year, saying there were people who felt the amendments would be detrimental to the present system of family.

The law for Hindus  and others registered under a special marriage law  makes it difficult to get a divorce unless both partners give their consent. If one partner objects, the other has to prove allegations such as adultery, cruelty and insanity to get the courts seal of approval.

An analysis of the census data indicates that Hindus have the lowest proportion of divorced members  0.1% of its population  among all religious communities. The corresponding number for Muslims, Sikhs and Jains is 0.16%, Buddhists 0.23% and Christians 0.2%.

But the picture changes once the separated population is added.

At 0.35%, Jains reported the lowest proportion of people who emerged from a marriage on the rocks, followed closely by Muslims at 0.38%. Hindus and Sikhs come next at 0.4% of the population.

Apart from a social stigma associated with divorce, the restrictive provisions of the divorce law and the long delays are linked to a high proportion of separated individuals.

Between 1901 and 1931, the census added the number of divorced persons as widowers. It started recording divorced persons separately from 1941 and started clubbing separated and divorced people from 1961.

The 2011 census was the first where it reported on separated and divorced population separately.

The data also revealed that the men  divorced and separated  move on.

Across all religion groups except Sikhs, the proportion of separated and divorced women is much higher than men.

The lower number of divorced or separated men is almost certainly due to their higher rates of remarriage compared to women, said Prof Premchand Dommaraju at Singapores Nanyang Technological University in his study Divorce and Separation in India.
NEW DELHI: A Delhi court acquitted an advocate accused of raping a woman, observing that women use law as a weapon for vengeance when consensual physical relations break in many cases.

Additional sessions judge Sanjiv Jain freed the accused, saying the woman wasmature nough and capable of giving consent.

The physical relations between the prosecutrix and the accused were with the consent of the prosecutrix. I therefore acquit the accused.., the judge said.

The courts order came on the complaint of the woman, a divorcee, who engaged the accused as her counsel in a road accident case. She had alleged that he misbehaved with her in her house here and raped her.

The prosecutrix at the time of incident was 38 years of age, quite matured and capable of giving consent. It is not the case that the accused made any false representation to the prosecutrix or elicited her consent to have physical relations with her giving some false promise.

They knew each other for a long time. The accused used to visit her house. They loved each other. When a quarrel took place between the woman and the accused...she made the complaint alleging rape, though their physical relations were consensual, the court said.

According to the prosecution, the woman, a resident of South Delhis Greater Kailash area, had separated from her husband over a decade ago.

Few years later, she met with an accident and engaged the accused as her counsel, it said, adding that he used to visit her house often since then.

The accused denied the allegations and claimed that the physical relations between them were consensual and the woman did not pay him his fees for handling her case.
Life was rapidly draining out of Anand Singh but that didnt bother the Delhi Police constable. He chased three bike-borne robbers in outer Delhis Shahbad Dairy on foot and managed to hold onto two of them before being dragged for 50 metres  all this with blood gushing out of his mouth and two bullets wounds in his chest. The 48-year-old had to ultimately let go as life ebbed out of him.

His colleagues say he always wanted to win a bravery award, and on Friday night Singh died a hero.

Posted at the Shahbad Dairy police station, he was on patrol duty when he heard a woman scream. Three men on a motorcycle, their faces covered with helmets, were trying to rob the woman who runs a shop in the area. Singh ran to the spot and caught hold of two of the men. One of them removed his helmet and attacked Singh with it. As the constable was trying to fight him off  all the while holding onto the other robber  he was shot twice in the chest.

Two bullets hit Singh. He did not fall and held onto the robbers. The rider sped away and the constable was dragged for over 50 meters till he collapsed. He was bleeding profusely, a witness said.

As locals started attending to Singh and informed the police control room, the robbers fled on their bike. The constable was rushed to a nearby hospital but was declared brought dead.

Singh, a resident of Jati Kalan village in Haryanas Sonipat, is survived by his mother, wife and two children  a daughter and a son. The Delhi government has announced a compensation of Rs 1 crore for his family, while the Delhi Police said a family member will get a job in the force.

It is a very unfortunate incident. The police department today lost an honest official. We have asked the woman, who Singh tried to help, to give a detailed description of the bikers, which will help us identify them at the earliest, DCP (Outer) Vikramjeet Singh said. He said the force would soon announce compensation for the family.
Pakad lo inko...maar dega (Nab them. They will kill you)  these were the last words of Delhi Police constable Anand Singh, moments before he was shot by three men robbing a woman in outer Delhis Shahbad Dairy.

An eyewitness, who saw Singh fight the men, said: Despite being shot, Singh chased the fleeing bikers on foot while holding his gunshot wounds with one hand. More than 150 people had gathered near the spot but no one helped him. The bikers had a pistol, he said.

A man who called the police said Singh had fought like a hero. He (Singh) kept shouting, urging passersby to corner the bikers. But no one listened. I could not help either as I am differently abled, the man said.

All I could do was watch as people turned a blind eye to his requests. After Singh collapsed, they all gathered around and watched him die. No one cared to rush him to a hospital, he said.

He said Singh was rushed to a hospital after 20 minutes after the police arrived at the scene.

Singhs brother Vikas Sushil, who attended the wreath laying ceremony at the New Police Lines ground on Saturday, told HT the slain constable wanted to become a police officer and sacrifice his life for the force since his childhood.

As a child, he dreamt of winning the gallantry medal. He always wanted to be an honest officer. Our father was in the Army and he was the one who taught us to be disciplined and honest, Sushil said.

Read: Delhi cop takes two bullets to chest, dies chasing robbers

He has made us very proud. But what about his family now? He was the only earning member of the family. Both his children are studying, his wife is a housewife, Vikas added.

Daulat Singh, a childhood friend recalled: As kids, we always talked chasing robbers. Who could have imagined my friend would actually die chasing robbers while trying to save a woman, he said.

We were selected together and completed our police training together. When I used to get tired during the harsh training and thought of quitting, he motivated me. He told me he can do anything to earn this uniform. His passion for his job was unparalleled. He was a hero, Daulat said.

Singh had joined the Delhi Police in 1988. The Delhi government has announced a compensation of `1 crore for Singhs family.
Customs officials at Delhis Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) have seized large quantities of body supplements, generally used for to enhance performance during physical tests.

Officials said the samples were sent for testing to confirm the ingredients. Initial investigation suggested the substance is injected into the body.

The passenger who was bringing it from Almaty, Kazakhstan, said it gives instant energy. It is used in recruitment drives of police or armed forces, said a customs official.

The consignment was being carried by two passengers who arrived by flight KC 907 on Thursday. The air customs officers on suspicion intercepted the passengers and found around 12,000 vials of supplements.

The chemical composition of these vials could not be ascertained since it was printed in Latvian. The baggage was detained and samples were drawn for testing, the official added.

The passenger had kept the consignment in the check-in baggage, hoping to go undetected.

In another case on Wednesday, customs seized 87.95 kg of organ pipes corals from a passenger travelling from Dubai by a Jet Airways flight. The customs official intercepted the passenger after they crossed the green channel.

While keeping surveillance on passengers, officers found the passenger to be suspicious and diverted him for screening of his baggage. On preliminary examination, it was suspected the passenger was carrying some endangered species with him, said an official.

Experts confirmed it was Organ Pipes Coral. Trading and possession of the coral is prohibited under the CITES Convention and Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. The passenger was arrested.

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I need the best recipe for the deadliest manjha (a coated kite string) so that I can trump the sky, Dr Rahul Verma, a kite enthusiast, posted on a blog that claims to know the manjhas dark secrets. Many like Verma want secret tips from the blogger called Manjha -- a retired fighter kite champion who claims to have figured out a perfect formulation for a razor-sharp kite string.

Kite-flyers say manjha is the key to win a kite battle. Over the years, the string has become sharper than before and so has the demand. But most people are either oblivious of the danger involved or simply ignore it.

The result was there for all to see.

On Independence day, two children and an adult died after Chinese kite strings, coated with powdered glass, slit their throats. Many injuries were reported from across the city, though figures were available.

Until a decade back, a good quality manjha would be strong enough to cut another kite but weak enough to break when it gets entangled in the human body, says Aftab Ahmed, whose father, Zahoor Mian, was a famous manjha maker of Bareilly in UP, the hub of manjha and kite manufacturers.

Bareillys manjha makers

Aftab, 67, was in Lal Kuan in Delhi, the capitals oldest kite and manjha market, to collect payment from shopkeepers. This year, he says, business of Bareillys makers dipped by 90% due to the popularity of Chinese manjha made of synthetic fibres and coated with chemicals.

Aftab, whose family has made kite strings for over 80 years, says good manjha is handcrafted and made of natural substances. It involves creating a concoction of ingredients such as sirus, rice, dalchini eggs, saboo dana and the right amount of glass powder depending on the manjha maker and then applying it with hands on the cotton threads.

Only the manjha makers of Bareilly can achieve the right smoothness, toughness and sharpness. Unfortunately, the most famous ones are dead and the quality of cotton manhja has suffered over the years, says Aftab.

The reels and spindles of strings made in Bareilly are named after individuals. Each labourer making the manjha is a brand, and it sells because of the craft of the man who makes them, says Md Arif, whose family has sold kites and manjha for four generations. The manjha spindles in his shop at the Lal Kuan market have names such as Jafari, Shanna Rizwan, Shabir Beig -- the men who made the manjha.

Most sellers swear by the names of Bareillys makers such as Wazir Ustad, Chunnan Ustad, Pyare Mian, Riyasat Mian, Lala Ram Mohan and Zahoor Mian. Most of them are now dead. Each one of them had their own manjha recipe and their own technique of applying it on the cotton thread to achieve the desired toughness and sharpness, says Md Jafari, another manhja maker from Bareilly.

What is Chinese manjha?

The Bareilly manjha is now losing out to the Chinese one in popularity and sales.

But many kite-shop owners in Lal Kuan say there is nothing Chinese about the so-called Chinese kite string. Chinese Manjha is a market name for synthetic kite string coated with chemicals, they say. Many shops have posters of Mono Kite, a Bangalore-based manjha brand. This has been a best-selling manjha but most wrongly think it is a Chinese brand, says Sachin Gupta, a wholesaler.

Nishant Kumar, 23, who came from Ghaziabad to buy Chinese Manjha, wants to see some. Arif offers the Bareilly cotton manjha. It is useless, I want the Mono Chinese manhja, nobody can cut my kite with that, says Kumar, moving to the next shop.

But two days after the ban on Chinese Manjha, most shopkeepers in Lal Kuan stopped selling the Mono Kite brand. These days a lot of people prefer synthetic manhja because its one spindle costs just Rs 250, while that of the Bareilly cotton manjha costs Rs 500, says Arif.

Mohit Kartikeya, head of sales and marketing at Mono Kite, says unfortunately their manjha has been branded as Chinese.

The contention against Chinese manjha, he explains, is that it is harmful because it does not break, is made of metallic powder and toxic chemicals and is non-biodegradable.

Our string has none of these qualities. We have the safest breaking strength and instead of glass and metallic powder for sharpness we use non-toxic chemicals. Our manjha packaging says it is made in India, but kite traders have failed to explain to buyers that we are not a Chinese company, says Kartikeya.

What is the non-toxic chemical used to achieve the sharpness? It is a trade secret. Our company produces not just kite strings but various polymer products, says Katikeya. We started producing Mono Kite manjha in 2010 to revive the dying game of kite flying.

A kite trader who does not wish to be named guesses: Chinese manjha is called so because the synthetic polymer it is made with is imported from China.

Kartikeya denies it. He says the government should come up with standards for kite string strength, bio-degradability and material. We came up with our manjha after two years of research, and we have been dubbed as Chinese, though we have nothing to do with China, says Kartikeya.

The art of kite-flying

Jamaluddin, 35, an ace kite-flyer from Delhi who represented India at festivals abroad, says that the strength of manjha lies in its fineness, not in its unbreakable nature. I know many people who got severe infection after they were injured by the Chinese manjha. The Bareilly cotton manjha always breaks under certain force. Besides, kite flying is essentially about making beautiful kites and how elegantly you fly them, he says.

Bhai Mian (85), considered the godfather of kite-flyers in the Walled City, holds a record for flying 1,184 kites on a single string. (Ravi Choudhary/HT Photo )

His father, Bhai Mian, 85, is the godfather of many well-known kite-flyers in the Walled City and has several records, including one for flying 1,184 kites on a single string.

In kite battles, manjha is not everything. A kite-flyer should know when to pull, when to loosen the string. In fact, the quality of a kite is more important than the string. If it does not obey your command, you cannot win, no matter what manjha you use, says Bhai Mian, who set up Diamond Kite Club, one of Delhis first.

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ok ill see them get away with it and how many of those people have to come out and do that, how much space they have in those american concentration camps for gun owners makers?



that wasnt my point and are you threatening me? the feds cant do nothing over me rifling a gun as i said. and want to come calling it manufacturing. we need though some drug type laws against guns dont we? me carrying on a conversation i dont care about and making a sarcastic joke about... the similiarities between this and the "drug war". and how they arent dealing with someone with a bag of pot but an actual leave me the **** alone, gun. When yo8u come then you'll think twice. Why why he's rifling a gun and manufacturing like the idiots who do drug busts, lets go "do" something.



out of how many of those gun workers, not manufacturer's is my point is the result going to end up good, as compared to someone as compared, to guns. Who wants to do that, who is going to and since, you avoided the question i can see its 1 no for you. but yo8u want to threaten me. make my day punk. the feds can kiss my ***. They have no jurisdiction across the states. Plus again read my stupid question which your too big of a scaredy cat to answer.
When September comes round again, attention will turn to the four fashion capitals of the world  New York, London, Milan and Paris  to see whats new at the spring-summer 2017 fashion shows. As always, some models will stand out during the Fashion Month, and they will be the ones who the big brands sign up for their next campaigns. Heres our lowdown on the models everyone will be talking about.

Bella Hadid

Bella Hadid modelling for the Christian Dior spring-summer 2017 cruise collection. (AFP)

Gigi Hadids little sis needs no introduction, as shes already won over planet fashion. But even as her star rises, she could still pull out a few surprises. She was recently made the face of Dior Beauty, and is likely to be in high demand during Fashion Month, particularly in New York and Paris. Shes expected to walk for Dior, where she could open or close the show, and could also stride out for Chanel, Miu Miu or Givenchy as shes done catwalk work for them previously.

Read: This fall, denim is as much of a winner as always

In just two years, the young Bella has shot to stardom in the model world. She recently posed for two editions of Vogue and is regularly on the front page of the worlds top fashion magazines. She also featured in the J.W. Anderson, Calvin Klein and Givenchy fall-winter 2016 campaigns.

Steffy Argelich

Steffy Argelich walks at the Isabel Marant spring-summer 2016 collection. (AFP)

Her name may not be familiar to you, but this Spanish model has caught the attention of a raft of fashion brands. Spontaneous and charismatic, Steffy has that little something extra that brands are looking for. She has already won over Emilio Pucci, Lancaster, Mango, Max Mara, Just Cavalli, Topshop, and A.P.C., and thats only in 2016.

Read: Did you know ditching your dupatta could slim you down? Heres how

And shes no stranger to the catwalk, having worked for Paul & Joe, Kenzo, Isabel Marant, Courreges, Cedric Charlier, Jacquemus and Topshop Unique for the spring-summer 2016 collections. Theres no doubt that the bigger fashion houses will snap her up for the upcoming shows.

Taylor Hill

The model of the moment was part of the Versace fall-winter 2016 haute couture show. (AFP)

This American model has attracted a large number of brands with her ability to switch from rocknroll to sensual to femme fatale. Shes only 20, but is already a Victorias Secret Angel, and has been a Lancome ambassador since July.

Read: When it comes to fashion, its time to get back to your roots

On top of these highly sought-after contracts, she has partnered with many other big names in fashion for both ad campaigns (Topshop, Jimmy Choo, Miu Miu, and Michael Kors) and on the catwalk (Tommy Hilfiger, Jeremy Scott, DKNY, Ralph Lauren, Dolce & Gabbana, Versace, Fendi, Mugler, Miu Miu, and H&M).

The brunette with the piercing eyes was also named social media model of the year at the 2015 Fashion Media Awards. Theres no doubt that shes only at the beginning of a long and successful career.

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About 80% of doctors and 75% of dispensaries are serving urban India, which makes only for 28% of the countrys population, leaving the rest in dire need of basic health facilities, a new report revealed on Saturday.

According to the report, India is estimated to lose $4.58 trillion by 2030 due to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) which account for nearly 60% of deaths in India annually.

Read: WHO report questions qualification of doctors in India

The KPMG-OPPI report on healthcare access initiatives said that Indias total healthcare expenditure is about 4.1% of the GDP, which is among the lowest in the world.

Seventy five percent of dispensaries, 60% of hospitals and 80% doctors are located in urban areas, serving only 28% of India, the report said.

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) account for nearly 60% of deaths in India annually. The country is estimated to lose $4.58 trillion by 2030 due to them, it said.

Indias life expectancy (68 years in 2015) and its number of hospital beds per 1,000 population (0.9) are among the lowest in BRICs nations. (Shutterstock)

The report said that India clearly faces a large and looming economic and wellness burden and prioritising healthcare has never been more critical.

It is imperative that all stakeholders collaborate and increase their commitment towards a patient-centric healthcare ecosystem, it said.

The report analyses the current healthcare scenario in India and the future burden in access initiatives and also summarises the interventions undertaken by member companies of the Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI) in this regard.

Read: MBBS might not be enough to be doctor as govt plans another qualifying exam

Highlighting Indias poor health indices, the report said that Indias life expectancy (68 years in 2015) and its number of hospital beds per 1,000 population (0.9) were among the lowest in BRICs nations.

Noting that the country has the lowest number of physicians per 10,000 population among BRICs nations, the report said that in rural India, only 37% of people had access to In-Patient Department (IPD) facilities within a 5 km distance while only 68 per cent had access to an Out-Patient Department (OPD).

Nearly 63 million people are in debt due to health expenditure, it said.

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Sahju Joshi, 36, was devastated when she lost her baby girl on March 21. She was just 35 days old, we took her to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences for the best possible care, but the doctors couldnt save her, says Sahju, a homemaker who lives with her husband and his extended family in the middle-class neighbourhood of Janakpuri in west Delhi.

Joshi, who has no other children, slipped into a depression until her husband Om Prakash threw her a lifeline. He showed me a newspaper advertisement that urged lactating mothers to donate milk for premature babies whose mothers were not able to feed them, Sahju says. I couldnt save my baby, I didnt want other mothers to experience my loss.

So Sahju called the listed number and became a donor, using a pump to express milk that she stored in sterilised bottles sent over by the human milk bank.

I dont know who my milk went to, but helping another sick baby made me happy. It gave me something to look forward to each day, Joshi says.

Read: WHOs sobering statistics on India and preterm births

Feeding baby

Sourcing pasteurised milk from a human milk bank sounds like a nutrition fad, but it is far from that. More than 15 million babies  or one in 10  are born too early, or before 37 weeks of gestation, estimates the World Health Organisation.

With preterm birth complications being the leading cause of death among children under 5  one million premature babies die globally every year  donated breast milk becomes a vital lifeline.

Of Indias 25 million births, 3.5 million are preterm, of which 300,000 die of associated complications. Breast milk can save 156,000 of these children from dying each year.

Banked human milk is the next best thing after the biological mothers milk. Since mothers of very premature babies  some born before 28 weeks  may not lactate at the start, banked milk becomes an incredibly precious nutrition source that boosts recovery, says Dr Raghuram Mallaiah, head of neonatology at Fortis La Femme, which runs a not-for-profit milk bank called Amaara.

The milk banked at Amaara is for medical use only, to feed premature babies who weigh less than 1.5 kg (anything below 2.5 kg is termed low birth weight) or are growth-restricted. We opened in the end of April and have collected 90 litres already, 45 litres of which has been used across our hospital and others, says Dr Mallaiah.

One of the beneficiaries has been Sunanda Aroras as-yet-unnamed baby girl. Her premature birth at 32 weeks had her doctor recommend Amaara immediately. Sunandas last baby was also premature and was given formula milk, but since she had the option this time, she chose donor milk, says Dr Mallaiah.

Human milk is widely used in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) globally, to treat premature babies who may suffer from disorders of malabsorption, short-gut syndrome, intractable diarrhoea, nephrotic syndrome, congenital anomalies, formula intolerance, failure to thrive or immune deficiencies. It also protects against necrotising enterocolitis (NEC), a fatal condition in premature babies in which portions of the bowel undergo tissue death. Newborns given donor milk are three times less likely to develop NEC, studies show.

Read: Why mother's milk works best for premature babies

Yet India has just 18 milk banks, with indeterminate milk collection, compared with 16 in the UK and 220 in Brazil.

Many new mums want to donate; they just dont know how to do it and where to go. If banks overcome the logistical challenges of transporting milk safely from the donors homes to hospitals, all newborns could get enough milk, Dr Mallaiah says.

Even some full-term babies dont get adequate human milk.

Some mothers cant lactate at the start, and mothers milk is the perfect mix of vitamins, proteins and fat in an easily digestible form to help your baby grow and fight infections, says gynaecologist Kanika Khanna.

Babies breastfed exclusively for six months have been found to have fewer allergies and chest, stomach and ear infections. India has accordingly launched the MAA (Mothers Absolute Affection) programme to promote starting breastfeeding within one hour of birth, doing it exclusively for first six months, says CK Mishra, secretary at the union ministry of health and family welfare.

The good news is, any healthy mother can donate.

For the first six months, a healthy mother produces more milk than her baby needs, so she can safely donate a few millilitres a day to help out another mother, says Dr Jayashree Mondkar, head of neonatology at Mumbais Sion Hospital and director of its milk bank.

Universal Donor: A mom of preemies pitches in

Emily Bild donates her breast milk in New Delhi. (Saumya Khandelwal/HT Photo)

Keeping up with her two young children  10-month-old Priya and 2-year-old Rohan  keeps Emily Bild (above) on her toes all day, but she takes time out each morning to express milk and store it in the freezer.

Both my children were premature and spent some time in the NICU, the girl for two weeks because she came seven weeks early, says Bild.

I was lucky as I could express more than enough milk and feed them, but some mothers arent, so when I saw an ad for the milk bank in the newspaper, I decided to donate, says the Delhi-based Bild, 39, who works for a non-profit organisation.

She started in July, and has been using a pump every morning to fill up one 150 ml bottle a day. Twice a week, the milk bank sends a runner with sterilised bottles that he exchanges for filled ones I take out from the freezer. They go back to the bank in a cold box; its a very efficient system, Bild says.

She plans to donate for another two to three months. Ill donate as long as Im feeding my daughter, who will be a year old in a couple of months, she says. My babies are healthy. Im happy I can help others too.

Dr Raghuram Mallaiah, director of neonatology at Fortis La Femme, with the bottles of milk donated by lactating mothers in Delhi. (Saumya Khandelwal/HT PHOTO)

Indias oldest human milk bank

In 1989, Dr Armida Fernandez opened a human milk bank at Mumbais Sion government hospital that was the first of its kind in Asia.

This hospital treats some of the poorest of the poor, and Dr Armida realised that many of the women who gave birth here were so severely malnourished that they could not produce enough milk.

So she decided to take from the milk-rich to give to the poor.Every day, we doctors come face to face with some of the tiniest and sickest babies in the city. The milk bank was our way of trying to make sure that each of these babies is fed human milk, Dr Fernandez says.

The Sion milk bank began with about 10 women donating 28 ml a day; it now gets donations from about 38 women every day.

Among the most dedicated of these has been a new mother named Nirmala Jobu. She donated for eight months in 2014 because she wanted to do something for sick babies, says Dr Jayashree Mondkar, head of neonatology at Soin Hospital and director of the milk bank

Healthy lactating mothers can now donate milk to any of four milk banks in Mumbai  there are also banks at the JJ, KEM and Cama hospitals.

This milk is available free to premature babies whose mothers cannot feed them, or for mothers with transmittable diseases who cannot breastfeed. The Sion hospital milk bank alone benefits 3,000 newborns annually.

(With inputs from Shweta Verhani)

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Twins not only have a bestie from birth, they may also live longer than singletons, according to a new study which suggests a significant health benefit for close social connections.

The study, which is the first to look at what being a twin means for life expectancy, shows that twins have lower mortality rates for both sexes throughout their lifetimes. We find that at nearly every age, identical twins survive at higher proportions than fraternal twins, and fraternal twins are a little higher than the general population, said David Sharrow, a postdoctoral researcher at University of Washington (UW).

Read: Overweight twins are more likely to get type 2 diabetes

The data comes from the Danish Twin Registry, one of the oldest repositories of information about twins. Researchers looked at 2,932 pairs of same-sex twins who survived past the age of 10, were born in Denmark between 1870 and 1900, and all had a complete lifespan. They then compared their ages at death with data for the overall Danish population.

For men, they found that the peak benefit of having a twin came in the subjects mid-40s. That difference is about 6 percentage points, meaning that if out of 100 boys in the general population, 84 were still alive at age 45, then for twins that number was 90. For women, the peak mortality advantage came in their early 60s, and the difference was about 10 percentage points.

The researchers said their results reflect the benefits of social support, similar to the marriage protection effect. Our results lend support to a big body of literature that shows that social relationships are beneficial to health outcomes, Sharrow said.

Read: Watch your weight gain during pregnancy, it may lead to premature births

There is benefit to having someone who is socially close to you who is looking out for you. They may provide material or emotional support that lead to better longevity outcomes, Sharrow said. Sharrow and James Anderson, a UW research professor were looking to tune a mortality model using the data from twins. But when they ran the numbers they stumbled upon an unexpected discovery.

Their model separates acute causes of death, such as accidents or behaviour-related causes, from natural causes in old age. Female twins only had lower mortality for the earlier, acute causes.

Male twins got a bigger overall longevity boost than women because they had lower mortality rates both for acute causes during their early years and from so-called natural causes past the age of 65, researchers said. The study was published in the journal PLOS ONE.
At least 11 people have been killed and nine injured in the last 24 hours as heavy rains lashed Madhya Pradesh, officials said on Saturday.

Seven members of a family were killed and three injured after their house collapsed in Rahatgarh town of Sagar district on Friday night. The incident occurred around midnight near Qila Road, where the house was located on a hillock near the banks of the Bina river.

Inspector Anil Singh told Hindustan Times that the house belonged to Mehtab Silawat, who was injured, his wife, three sons, daughter and her husband and their one and a half-year-old daughter died.

In another incident, a car was swept away while crossing a flooded culvert in Buxwaha area of Chhatarpur district. Of the six people travelling in the car, three managed to swim to safety, while three others were washed away along with the vehicle.

The bodies of two people have been fished out, while the third person is still missing and is feared dead.

In a separate incident, two people were killed and several injured after a three-storey building collapsed in Maihar town of Satna district.

According to administration and police sources, the building that houses 30 flats and at least 20 shops collapsed in the morning.

Local residents were the first to rush to help those who were trapped in debris. Later, police, home guards and others arrived at the spot and JCB machines were pressed into action to remove the debris and rescue those trapped inside.

Six people were rescued but more residents are still feared trapped inside the debris.

Satna district collector Naresh Pal said an SDRF team is working to rescue others trapped in the debris.

Owing to rains and holidays, not many people or shop owners were present in the building, owing to which only a few persons could still be trapped in the debris, Pal told HT over the phone an hour after the mishap.

MP chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan ordered a probe into the incident after chairing an emergency meet in Bhopal to take stock of the situation in the wake of destructive rain and flood in the state. The CM also announced a Rs 4-lakh compensation to the kin of the deceased.

I have directed all administrative and police officials to rush to the spot and carry on rescue operations fast, the CM added.

MP Housing Board chairperson and senior BJP leader Krishna Murari Moghe also ordered an immediate probe and assured that if any official or private contractor is found guilty of negligence in the matter, they will not be spared.
Amnesty International India has never involved itself in any kind of anti-national activities, Karnataka home minister G Parameshwara said on Saturday, even as it faced sedition charges over an event held by it in Bengaluru in which anti-India and anti-army slogans were allegedly raised.

Amnesty International is not new to Bengaluru; this organisation has been functioning here for a long time. I dont know nor I have heard in the past about it (Amnesty) or anyone from it involving in any anti-national activities, Parameshwara said.

They (Amnesty) organised a programme about armys excesses in Kashmir. They had called a few families (from Kashmir) to console them and give them some sort of mental support, in which certain incidents took place about which an FIR has been registered, he said.

Amnesty International last week organised the event as part of a campaign to seek justice for victims of human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir, which took an ugly turn with heated exchanges and alleged raising of pro-Kashmir Independence and anti-army slogans.

ABVP activists had submitted a CD containing video recording of the event after filing a complaint with police, who have registered an FIR against the charity, including on sedition charge.

IPC sections-- 142 (being member of an unlawful assembly), 143 (whoever is a member of an unlawful assembly), 147 (rioting), 124A (sedition), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony) have been invoked against Amnesty.

Criticising BJP and ABVP for holding protests, Parameshwara said now that an FIR had been registered, ABVP were holding protests on the streets.

What is your culture? What are you trying to do? What kind of society are you trying to build?

They (protesters) are students, they are not aware of anything, those who had gone for classes are being brought forcefully (to protest), this is BJPs culture, he added.

During one such protest in front of Amnesty International India office in Bengaluru on Saturday, police resorted to a mild lathi charge during which a few students were injured.

ABVP intensified its agitation by launching a day-night protest.

Several state BJP leaders and partys womens wing also staged a protest here condemning police action against ABVP members and demanding arrest of those involved in alleged sloganeering.
A split seems imminent at the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP), an ally in the Bharatiya Janata Party -led National Democratic Alliance.

Two days after a dissenting faction sacked party president and Union minister Upendra Kushwaha, the partys disciplinary committee suspended Jehanabad MP Arun Kumar and MLA Lallan Paswan for indulging in anti-party activities.

Based on the recommendations of the partys disciplinary committee chief and MP Ram Kumar Sharma, the National Council has decided to suspend Lok Sabha member Arun Kumar and MLA Lallan Paswan for indulging in anti-party activities, said a statement by RLSPs principal general secretary Shivraj Singh.

The party also suspended former national general secretary Binod Kushwaha from the party.

The RLSP, a majority of whose leaders had moved away from JD(U), contested the 2014 general election with the BJP and has three Lok Sabha MPs in Bihar  Upendra Kushwaha (Karakat), Arun Kumar (Jehanabad) and Ram Kumar Sharma (Sitamarhi).

It has also two MLAs in the 243-member Bihar assembly  Lallan Paswan (Chenari) and Sudhansu Sekhar (Harlakhi).

The dissenting faction had on Wednesday appointed Arun Kumar the new president of the party, and also revoked the suspension of members of various central and state committees, which were disbanded by Upendra Kushwaha a few months ago.

Reacting to his suspension, the Jehanabad MP said his suspension has no meaning as Kushwaha had already been replaced as national president. The RLSP led by Kumar is the real party as 33 members of the central council attended todays meeting, apart from a large number of state committee members. We will inform the Election Commission, he said.

Kumar, however, made it clear that they would not part ways with the NDA. Narendra Modi is our leader. We fought election in his name, so we will continue to work under his leadership in the NDA, Kumar said.

For the last few months, internal feud had intensified in the party with the Kumar faction levelling allegations against Kushwaha of having links with people allegedly involved in hawala trade and intimating the Prime Ministers Office about it. The dissenters had charged Kushwaha of crushing internal democracy in the party and ignoring genuine workers.

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The results of 2017 Goa assembly elections will lay the foundation of partys victory in the 2019 general elections, BJP president Amit Shah said on Saturday.

2017 is very important for the party. There are elections in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur and Goa. Through these elections we want to bring transformation in the country ... We should be in power from panchayat to Parliament, Shah said.

He was addressing a gathering of booth-level BJP workers near Panaji, kicking off the partys campaign for the 2017 assembly elections.

Results of Goa assembly elections will lay foundation for partys victory in 2019 Lok Sabha elections under the leadership of Narendra Modi, Shah said.

If we win all the states in 2017, then no one can stop BJPs victory in 2019 elections, he said.

Shah expressed confidence that BJP on its own will win 27 seats (out of total 40) in Goa Assembly elections.

Congress has lost in all the states in the recent past. Now they are eyeing Goa ... how will they win in Goa after losing in all the states, the BJP president said, alleging that corruption to the tune of Rs 12 lakh crore took place during the Congress regime.

Responding to former union minister Kamal Naths criticism of the Prime Minister Modis foreign visits, Shah referred to Modis predecessor Manmohan Singh as Maunibaba.

Even Maunibaba used to visit the foreign countries, but no one knew about them, not even the countries he was visiting. But when Modi travels abroad, thousands of people wait to receive him. The reception is not for Modi alone, it is for the BJP and citizens of this country, Shah said.

When Modi addressed the UN in Hindi, the country was proud of it, he said.
The ruling BJP will start a year-long programme from next month to take party ideologue Deendayal Upadhyay to every district of the country in an attempt to give its identity politics a new push.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to formally launch the programme from Calicut on September 25, Upadhyays birth anniversary. More than 2,500 Bharatiya Janata Party leaders will gather for a conclave in the beach city, where Upadhyay was elected the Jan Sangh president.

Plans are afoot to create infrastructure like busts, community halls and libraries in his name in every nook and corner of the country to help people relate to him.

A committee comprising PM Modi, home minister Rajnath Singh and culture minister MaheshSharma has been set up to supervise the preparations. Proposals have been invited from the states and the committee will scrutinise and approve them. Two hundred such proposals are already on the table.

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or RSS-affiliated Deendayal Research Institute will be the knowledge partner for this initiative.

Union finance minister Arun Jaitley had announced in the annual budget that Rs 100 crore will be set aside for Upadhyays birth centenary year celebration. Eighty percent of the money will be spent on creating infrastructure, culture minister Mahesh Sharma told Hindustan Times.

The BJP considers Upadhyays treatise on Integral Humanism as one of the most powerful influences on its ideological moorings with the RSS. He died under mysterious circumstances during a train journey in 1968 and his body was recovered near Mughalsarai railway station.

The celebration is part of a concerted effort by the Modi government to popularise icons outside Nehru-Gandhi family, particularly those from the saffron stable.

Certain schemes named after Indira and Rajiv Gandhi - both former prime ministers - have been rechristened and Modi government also decided to issue commemorative stamps on other icons who it thought did not get due recognition under the Congress-led government.

The saffron party is often accused of trying to appropriate the legacy of leaders such as Sardar Vallabhbahi Patel and BR Ambedkar.

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A tweet by a Hyderabad-based group asking for blood from donors of only a particular dominant-caste community triggered outrage on Friday and renewed a debate on caste-based discrimination in India.

The handle of @bloodplusapp, belonging to Blood+ -- a group of blood donors  tweeted on Thursday saying that blood for a child was needed from ONLY Kamma caste donors.

Kamma is a powerful and predominant upper caste in Andhra Pradesh and parts of Telangana.

The person tweeted the donors could contact a particular number for donating blood needed for the child at Max Cure Hospital, Hyderabad on Friday.

But within minutes, the tweet triggered a controversy with many people condemning the demand. The tweet has since been deleted and the group issued an apology, saying they received the request from an unknown person and tweeted it out without verifying.

When I was kid, my teacher told me that everyones blood is same. Now, these UCs have found Caste in it. Sickness! (sic)  said @Ambedkars Caravan.

Another person wrote, Where is the CASTE? It has ended millions of years ago. Answer - In your BLOOD. Pic. 2016 #EndCasteApartheid

An individual who identified himself as Amit Dandec tweeted, Caste is a disease of mind!!! And only one anti-dote exists for this - #DrAmbedkars literature!

Another netizen, Punit Juneja, angrily reacted: Why did caste enter blood donation? I hope @maxcurehospital didnt insist on caste-based donors! But do save the child.

Efforts to trace the person on the mobile number given in the tweet proved futile. Authorities at Max Cure Hospitals confirmed that some person had contacted the hospital for emergency blood requirement for a child on Thursday, but did not make any reference to the caste. However, the child was not admitted to our hospital. We were told they had taken the child to some other hospital, Max Cure Hospitals spokesperson Sree Lakshmi told HT.

On coming to know about the tweet of the person seeking blood only from Kamma donors, the hospital authorities put up a disclaimer. Pls note that this tweet has been posted by @ShekarNews & @bloodplusapp in Twitter. @MaxCure Hospitals doesnt own responsibility for this post.

It is ridiculous that there are persons who seek blood donation based on caste affiliation. It is not only inhuman, but also dangerous, Sree Lakshmi said.

Ambedkar Students Union secretary Sannaki Munna said there was no surprise that dominant-caste people did not want to get their blood contaminated.

This is not an unusual phenomenon. There are upper caste groups which maintain WhatsApp groups for their own needs. May be instead of posting the requirement for blood in the Kamma caste group, the person might have posted in the general social media network, he observed.

The Twitter handle of Blood+ called it an accident and apologized for the controversy. We want to help others and are repeating info we get. We will now take greater care, the group manager tweeted.

The incident comes at a time when India is in the middle of a nationwide debate on festering caste discrimination. The flogging of four Dalit men in Gujarat by alleged cow protectors last month triggered a massive movement against caste-based atrocities. This followed a massive debate and protests over the death of PhD scholar Rohith Vemula in Hyderabad in January after months of alleged caste discrimination on campus.

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Detainees who died in custody since January 2009: 4.7

When Obama wanted to close Gitmo and put the prisoners in American prisons the republicans raised hell because they didn't want them near U.S. Cities. One time you say you want them to tried by a military tribunal, another time you want them tried in civilian court. We can't find many countries willing to take them back or accept them. You people aren't satisfied with anything short of executing all of them and some of them are most likely innocent of terrorist activities or aiding and abetting."The DetaineesDetainees currently held at Guantanamo: 61.1Total number of detainees ever incarcerated at Guantanamo: 780.2 Detainees released under President Bush: Over 500.3 Detainees at start of Obama Presidency: 242.4 Detainees transferred, repatriated or resettled under Obama: 177.5 Detainees transferred to U.S. for prosecution: 1.6 Number of current detainees imprisoned for more than 10 years: 44 (72 percent of total population).8Remainingdetaineesapprovedforrelease: 20.9 Yemenis approved for transfer: 12.10Detainees convicted by military commission and still held at Guantanamo: 311 Detainees Obama Administration is currently trying in military commissions: 7.12 The Pentagon may only plan to prosecute 14 detainees in total, including those currently in pre-trial hearings.13 Detainees Obama Administration is holding for indefinite detention without charge or trial: 31.14  Number of countries that have accepted Guantanamo detainees: 59.15"The DetaineesDetainees currently held at Guantanamo: 61.1Total number of detainees ever incarcerated at Guantanamo: 780.2 Detainees released under President Bush: Over 500.3 Detainees at start of Obama Presidency: 242.4 Detainees transferred, repatriated or resettled under Obama: 177.5 Detainees transferred to U.S. for prosecution: 1.6 Detainees who died in custody since January 2009: 4.7 Number of current detainees imprisoned for more than 10 years: 44 (72 percent of total population).8Remainingdetaineesapprovedforrelease: 20.9 Yemenis approved for transfer: 12.10Detainees convicted by military commission and still held at Guantanamo: 311 Detainees Obama Administration is currently trying in military commissions: 7.12 The Pentagon may only plan to prosecute 14 detainees in total, including those currently in pre-trial hearings.13Detainees Obama Administration is holding for indefinite detention without charge or trial: 31.14Number of countries that have accepted Guantanamo detainees: 59.15"
A woman from the upper caste allegedly shot dead a Dalit woman in broad daylight on Saturday over a land dispute in Manona village of Mainpuri district. The woman and her husband are absconding.

A case has been registered at Kurawali police station against the accused woman under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code and the SC/ST Act, said Jagdish Chand, the station in-charge.

Police force was deployed in the village after the incident in view of increasing incidents of violence against Dalits in Mainpuri.

The accused woman, Poonam Tomar, a resident of Barhari village in Etah district, and her sister and nephew had got some land from her grandparents in Manona village. Her sister, Shikha, later sold her share of the land to the victim, Sarla Devi.

Tomar, however, was not pleased with this, and grew even more furious when the Dalit woman began construction on the land she bought. A court case is pending over this dispute.

However, on Saturday, Tomar allegedly went to Manona and shot Devi dead, before absconding with her husband. A country made pistol, suspected to be the murder weapon, was recovered by police.

This incident has worsened the situation in an already sensitive area. A few days ago, a Dalit couple was reportedly hacked to death in Mainpuri for not paying Rs 10 to a shopkeeper belonging to the upper caste. Three more Dalits  one in Kisni and two in Kosma areas of Mainpuri district  have lost their lives in separate incidents in recent times.

Sources said as many as 5,000 women in Mainpuri district have an arms license  one-fifth of the total number of licenses issued.

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When Dalits across Gujarat vowed to never touch cow carcasses as part of protests against caste atrocities last month, it grabbed national headlines with experts predicting mounds of rotting animal flesh piled on roads.

Gujarat has nearly 10 million cows and some 2,000 of them die every day. Experts feared that the non-disposal of carcasses could result in an outbreak of deadly diseases.

On July 31 at a convention in Ahmedabad, Dalits vowed to give up several traditional occupations such as carcass removal and skinning of cows, which many saw as demeaning. They reiterated their pledge at a rally in Una on August 15.

But almost a month later, officials say the threat of not removing carcasses  made in protest against the flogging of four Dalit men by alleged cow protectors for skinning dead cattle -- has had no impact on the ground.

They credit a time-tested system of carcass disposal for keeping the state clear of rotting bovine flesh.

According to them, the eight municipal corporations, 33 district panchayats and 249 taluka panchayats of the state either have employees or contractors to dispose garbage and carcasses. These bodies have a collective workforce of about 30,000 who continue to do the dirty job.

Many Dalits working in these municipalities say their livelihood is tied to the job and they cannot let go of it.

I earn Rs 22,500 per month. I understand the problem my community raised but if I will give up my job, how would I support my family? said Jitesh Solanki, an employee of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation.

The state also has 285 panjarapols (cow shelters) with some 200,000 cows. But they too have disposal teams or contractors hired on an annual basis carrying out the task.

For a few days after the Una incident, our teams which had some Dalits were reluctant to remove carcasses. They feared being ostracised by the community. But things are now back on track, said Ghanshyam Patel of Karjan Panjrapol in Vadodra.

Official say some villages faced problems for a few days with Dalits staying away, but the panchayats have been instructed to seek the district administrations help if needed.

In Una, the epicentre of the Dalit protest, officials say the Dalit threat has made no dent. In the whole month, not a single incident was reported from any village in Una taluka where carcasses remained unattended, said Ajay Kumar, the district collector of Gir Somnath.

But Dalits say they remain steadfast in their resolve and the families of the youths flogged in Una are staying away from the traditional livelihood. The families have not taken up a single skinning work since the incident, pointed out Keval Rathod, a relative.

Dalit protest leaders are also hopeful that their decision to stay away from degrading jobs would bring the community the respect it deserved. We wish that even civic body employees join us in the fight against injustice, said Jignesh Mevani, an Ahmedabad-based lawyer who has become the face of the Dalit agitation in Gujarat.

The clean-up job

 Cow population in Gujarat: 10 million

Cow deaths per day: 2,000 approx

8 municipal corporations/33 district panchayats/249 taluka panchayats employ some 30,000 cleaners

285 cow shelters with 2 lakh cows employ contractors to remove carcasses

District officials ordered to provide earth movers and chemicals to gram panchayats for speedy disposal of carcasses.

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An elderly couple was injured when security forces opened fire during a midnight raid on their residence in south Kashmirs Tral region, and a seven-year-old boy was critically injured in a separate incident of pellet firing in downtown Srinagar.

Eyewitnesses say a joint party of the Jammu and Kashmir Police and Central Reserve Police Force fired on the couple when they tried to resist their sons arrest in Trals Kamla Bachoo village.

The son  Shabir Ahmad Fallahi  is the district chief of the hardline Jamat-e-Islami organisation.

The couple  Abdul Qayoom (80) and his wife , Nazira Begam(75)  is admitted at the SMHS hospital in Srinagar. Qayoom has undergone a surgery for a pellet injury and his wife has a bullet wound on her shoulder. In spite of repeated attempts, no police officer responded to calls by HT.

Read: Kashmir Opposition leaders meet President, accuse Modi govt of failure

Qayoom has internal injury as he has perforation in small intestine. Blood has also accumulated in his lungs and abdominal cavity. The damage is severe as he was hit from a close range, said a doctor treating him.

The seven-year-old boy, identified as Junaid from Qalamdanpora Nawabazar, is said to be critical and is under treatment at the SMHS Hospital in Srinagar.

SMHS medical superintendent Nasir Chaudhary told HT that the boy was hit in the chest. His condition is not good, he added.

Police werent available for comment regarding the circumstances that led to the injury, but Junaids family has alleged foulplay. It was a targeted fire. He was hit on the chest, one of them said.

The aged couple and Junaid are just three out of thousands of civilians injured in the Valley since violent protests broke out over the killing of militant commander Burhan Wani. Kashmir has been under curfew for more than 40 days now and 66 people have been killed.

Jamat spokesperson Umar Sultan said the forces tried to arrest Shabirs brother because the district chief wasnt at home. The elderly couple tried to stop the forces when they were fired upon.

The spokesperson said Shabir was wanted by the police for organising anti establishment rallies and not any heinous crime. Nothing can justify firing at his elderly parents.

The incident may further roil simmering anger in the Valley and comes at a time when forces have intensified nocturnal raids and curfew after Independence Day. The past few days have seen reports of excesses and violence pouring in from different parts of Kashmir.

Read: Army orders probe after lecturer dies in custody in Kashmir

The army ordered a probe on Thursday into the death of a 30-year-old college lecturer who was allegedly beaten to death in the forces custody after being picked up from his home in south Kashmirs Pampore.

Residents of Shar village alleged the army barged into their homes on Wednesday night around and arrested 28 people.

A day later, an ambulance driver Ghulam Mohammad Sofi was also fired with pellets from a close range while he was trying to ferry people to hospital. Sofi was hit with around 200 pellets in his arm.

The use of pellet guns, considered a less-lethal option by forces, has fuelled anger, with many protesters left dead or blinded.

The CRPF that has used more than 1.6 million pellets informed the Jammu and Kashmir high court on Wednesday that if pellet guns were banned, personnel will be forced to fire bullets in extreme situations, causing more fatalities.

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The tension between India and Pakistan has come in the way of release of Indian fishermen, who strayed across the maritime border inadvertently.

According to government data, there are 392 Indian fishermen languishing in various Pakistani jails at present.

Of these, some did not get their nationalities verified because Pakistani authorities refused to grant them consular access. Consular access enables Indian high commission officials to meet the fishermen  most of whom hail from Gujarat  in jail.

We have been repeatedly urging Pakistan authorities to grant consular access, but they are not forthcoming, said an Indian official.

The two countries are engaged in a diplomatic offensive after the fresh bout of violence in Kashmir.

Since the NDA government came to power in 2014, fishermen who ventured into Pakistani waters secured their release without much hassle.

This year, Pakistan has released 190 fishermen so far, with the last batch freed in March. It is a humanitarian issue and should be seen like that. We have been taking this up with Pakistan consistently, said the official. He also said there were only 37 Pakistani fishermen in Indian jails.

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When gangster Mohammed Nayeemuddin was killed in an encounter in Telangana earlier this month, little did many know of his Maoist past.

As a member of Peoples War Group (PWG), the original Maoist party, he had been involved in many killings, including that of IPS officer K S Vyas in January 1993 and was celebrated as a hero by Maoists and their overt sympathizers.

Barely a month later, he surrendered to the police and procured bail. It was then that he became a gangster, indulging in extortions and illegal land dealings.

Nayeem, as he is known, was one of the several young men from undivided Andhra Pradesh in the 1970s and 80s who walked off into the forests with lofty idealsto liberate the oppressed and establish a classless society by waging a peoples war against the state.

In the 1970s and 80s, Left-wing extremism, popular as Naxalism, was what the IT sector is now to youths. However, the movement waned over the decades and these men surrendered to the very state against which they fought a protracted war.

Read | From Maoist to police informer to gangster: The rise and fall of Nayeem

But the surrender was not just in flesh and blood. It was also of the ideology as these men turned to crime and politics and gained massive wealth and influence.

Land and the lure of quick money have been key factors in this transformation, observes G Haragopal, former Hyderabad Central University professor and a civil liberties leader.

He said police encourage illegal activities so that they do not return to Maoism.

A retired IPS officer, who did not want to be named and had dealt with Maoists, feels it is all about land.

Maoists have an affinity towards land. They fight for land issues when in the (Naxalism) movement, and after surrender, they use the same land issues to make quick money (as a criminal or politician), he said.

Read | Another associate of gangster Nayeemuddin arrested in Hyderabad

Nayeem also became an informer, snitching on several of his former comrades, some of whom were arrested or killed by police.

He is also said to be behind the killings of other Maoist-turned-criminals such as Patlolla Goverdhan Reddy and G Narasimha Reddy, allegedly over property dealings.

In another instance of former Maoists targeting their old brothers-in-arms, Bayyapu Sammi Reddy was said to have been slain by Jadala Nagaraju in 2003 over a land dispute.

Nayeems gang allegedly hacked to death TRS leader and dreaded former Naxalite Konapuri Ilaiah, popular as Sambasivudu, over a land dealing in Nalgonda in March 2011.

As a Naxalite, Ilaiah had been involved in 35 murders, including of Congress MLAs Ragya Naik and Ch Narsi Reddy, and in an assassination bid on AP chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu.

He virtually ruled the Nallamala forests for over two decades, but surrendered to police in February 2009 and got involved in land dealings before joining Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS).

Another infamous Maoist-turned-politician/criminal is former TDP minister Paritala Ravindra, on whom filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma has made Rakth Charithra.

A dreaded factionist leader from Penukonda in Anantapur district, Ravi was the son of Paritala Sriramulu, a close associate of PWG founder Kondapalli Seetharamaiah. After Sriramulu was killed by landlords, Paritala joined the Naxal movement for revenge. He even distributed his land among the poor.

Subsequently, he joined politics, becoming a TDP MLA five times, while also indulging in factionist killings and acquiring vast swathes of land through illegal dealings. In January 2005, he was allegedly shot dead by his factional rivals.

TRS legislator Konda Muralidhar Rao was PWG member and his wife Surekha, Warangal MLA, was a Naxal sympathiser. Murali has several cases of murders, extortions, and land-grabbing pending against him.

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The main accused in the Gopalganj hooch tragedy that claimed 18 lives in Khajurbanni locality of Gopalganj, Nagina Pasi alias Choudhari, was arrested on Saturday.

Twenty-five policemen, including the SHO of Gopalganj town police station, have been suspended for dereliction of duty following the hooch tragedy.

Confirming the arrest of Pasi, Saran range deputy inspector general (DIG) Ajit Kumar Rai said, police were interrogating him. His brother, Lal Babu Choudhary, also an accused in the case, had been arrested from Deoria in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh, where he had fled after the incident, Rai said

Meanwhile, the police used JCB machines to unearth more than 1,000 litres of country liquor in Kajurbanni locality in the last 24 hours and arrested 16 persons across the district.

Sources said police destroyed several liquor tanks underground and recovered raw materials used for making illicit liquor.

Gopalganj district magistrate (DM) Rahul Kumar said the search operations are still on.

Three of the four people undergoing treatment in Patna Medical College Hospital (PMCH), after consuming illicit liquor, are said to have lost their vision. Of the six people transferred from Gopalganj Sadar Hospital to the PCMH in a critical condition, Munna Kumar and Nasir Alam died on Thursday.

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The Lok Sabha Speakers decision to extend the term of the committee probing lawmaker Bhagwant Manns act of shooting and uploading a video that allegedly compromised security at the Parliament House has the Aam Aadmi Party crying political conspiracy.

Speaker Sumitra Mahajan agreed to a request from the committees chairman Kirit Somaiya and extended the term of the committee for a second time, now till the first week of the Winter session of Parliament. Mann will have to stay away from the Lok Sabha till the committee submits its report. Have I dug a tunnel under Parliament that they need to unearth? Why do they need so much time? They are just trying to keep me away from Parliament, Mann told HT.

Blaming the ruling BJP, the AAP today said keeping Mann away from Parliament was a ploy to keep issues of poll-bound Punjab from being raised in the Lok Sabha. The BJP has been in power there for nearly a decade in alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal. The nine member committee has three BJP MPs including Somaiya. Mann is being pressured into changing his statement to the committee in which he has said Prime Minister Narendra Modi committed a bigger security breach by inviting (Pakistans ) ISI to the Pathankot air base, AAP leader Ashish Khetan said.

Dismissing AAPs allegation, Somaiya said the committee had unanimously asked for an extension in its last meeting, held before the budget session of Parliament ended on August 12.

As the session ended, some committee members had said the probe should now be concluded and a report submitted to the Speaker. Somaiya said he forwarded the committees request to the Speaker on August 17 and those members who have objections can raise the issue in the next meeting on August 23.

Read | Panel probing Bhagwant Mann videography issue gets another extension

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Communal tension gripped Uttar Pradeshs Bareilly town on Friday afternoon after Hindus and Muslims clashed over the use of loudspeakers for azaan or call for namaz in a mosque.

A group of men from the Hindu community entered into an argument with the Muslims at the mosque in Hafizganj area.

The situation took a violent turn after both groups indulged in stone-pelting and firing, sources said. At least 20 people were injured in the clash.

The first team was dispatched from the local police station as soon as we came to know about the incident. Later, additional forces were sent to control the situation, superintendent of police (rural) Yamuna Prasad said.

Over 300 men from both the sides indulged in violence and fled the spot when additional police force reached there. Reports of clashes from neighbouring areas continued to pour in till late in the evening.

Local police, who were in Shahjahanpur to ensure security arrangements ahead of Union home minister Rajnath Singhs visit, were called back by the evening to ensure law and order.

Police have started the process of identifying and arresting those who were involved in the clash. Our teams are investigating the matter and those who indulged in violence will soon be behind bars, the SP said.

Sources claimed that tension was simmering in the area since last week after some Hindus opposed the use of loudspeakers for azaan. Though the situation was defused after the intervention of local police but the issue remained unsolved.
The Narendra Modi government has failed in Kashmir because its not trying to solve the crisis politically, said Opposition leaders from the Valley in a meeting with President Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday.

The failure of the central government to acknowledge that the issue in Kashmir is largely of a political nature has worsened the already volatile situation, said former chief minister Omar Abdullah.

We have requested the President to impress upon the central government to initiate a credible and meaningful process of political dialogue without any further delay involving all stakeholders to address the political issue in the state, said the National Conference leader who lead a delegation of 20 opposition leaders for their hour-long meeting with the President.

I wonder when would they wake up as the situation is grave, he said, alleging that the state and central governments were trying to crush the agitation by using administrative measures like stopping sale of petrol and other essential commodities.

We want the Centre to take emergent steps to check excessive use of force. There is a need for a judicial probe into the Kashmir situation, he said, alleging that both the Central and state governments totally failed to stop the killings of civilians in the Valley.

Abdullah said union home minister Rajnath Singh had been blaming Pakistan for the unrest. Yes, they are playing a negative role, but it is the security forces who are killing youth and other people of the Valley, he said.

Earlier in Srinagar this week, Abdullah initiated a meeting of opposition parties and passed a resolution demanding special session of the state assembly on the present unrest, among other things.

The parties had also recommended political dialogue with all stakeholders and with Pakistan for resolution of the Kashmir issue.

The meeting drew flak from the J&K unit of the BJP which attacked the NC leader for absolving Pakistan of its role in the current turmoil in the Kashmir Valley and accused the opposition parties of aggravating the prevailing situation to destabilise the coalition government in the state.

The BJP also said it was not the time to have dialogue with Pakistan or any other individuals or groups on the Jammu and Kashmir issues.

The Valley has been witnessing unrest since the death of militant commander Burhan Wani on July 8 in an encounter. At least 66 people have died in crackdowns by security forces in the Valley and thousands have been injured so far.

(With inputs from PTI.)
Opposition parties based in Kashmir Valley are scheduled to be in New Delhi on Saturday to meet President Pranab Mukherjee .

The 20-member delegation will be led by former chief minister and National Conference working president Omar Abdullah. The delegation will include JKPCC president G A Mir, CPI(M) State secretary and MLA MY Tarigami, PDF chairman and MLA Hakeem Yaseen, AIP chief and MLA Abdul Rashid, and former minister and DNP chief Ghulam Hassan Mir.

The appointment with the President is scheduled at 1.30 pm on Saturday in his office in New Delhi, a local news agency said.

Earlier this week, opposition parties held a meeting in Srinagar and passed a resolution demanding special session of the state assembly on the present unrest, among other things.

The parties had also recommended political dialogue with all stakeholders and with Pakistan for resolution of the Kashmir issue.

The initiative was taken by National Conference leader Omar Abdullah on Tuesday after a spike in civilian deaths.

Speaking to Hindustan Times, Abdullah blamed the government for being devoid of empathy and making situation worse by blaming victims.

The Valley has been witnessing unrest since the death of militant commander Burhan Wani on July 8 in an encounter. At least 66 people have died in crackdowns by security forces in the Valley and thousands have been injured.
I am appalled at that.



One of the biggest tragedies of my life is also the source of one of the proudest moments in my life.



My godson was killed by a drunk driver (3 in the afternoon - the 12 year old was killed riding home from school on his bicycle. He was on the correct side of the road - but the woman, drunk out of her mind, was driving half on the road and half on the shoulder, swerving from right to left lane.) and the woman was the first charged in NYS on vehicular manslaughter charges. She was also the first to receive SERIOUS prison time for the offense. We worked overtime on the media for that - and several of us, especially his mother, spoke up at the victim's response time at the trial.



This four day sentence is an absolute JOKE - the judge should be censured.
Mobile phone services were partially restored in Kashmir Valley on Saturday even as life remained suspended for the 43rd day due to curfew and shutdown.

Common people, reeling under an intense communication blockade, were able to make calls to their near and dear ones after authorities lifted the restrictions on the operation of post-paid mobile services.

The services were suspended on August 13, ahead of the Pakistans Independence Day celebrations.

The incoming call services of pre-paid mobiles, which form the bulk of customers in the Valley, were also restored. However, it was not clear when pre-paid customers be also be able to make calls.

Internet access for mobile phones is still suspended in the Valley. The authorities have only allowed BSNL post-paid mobile and landline services to function unhindered while blocking the rest, on and off, after violence erupted across Kashmir following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in an encounter on July 8.

Officials say that mobile and internet services trigger the spread of rumors and escalate protests. But activists insist that lack of communication services actually triggers the rumour mongering.

So far, 66 people, mostly civilians, have been killed and thousands injured in clashes between security forces and protesters during the unrest.

Residents claim that for the past four days, the police and CRPF have rigorously enforced a stringent curfew to foil the 72-hour march to the UN office called by separatists on August 16 to protest the spate of killings in Kashmir.

The last four days saw an intense security crackdown on the movement of people even during the nights which was not the practice since the unrest began last month. The crackdown ensured that the march did not materialise.

The separatists have been continuously issuing protest calendars and they extended the latest protest programme to August 25.

Separatists have also asked people to write to all MLAs, MLCs and ministers of pro-Indian political parties and demand their resignation from the government and party positions.
Union home minister Rajnath Singh said on Saturday that Pakistan is trying to derail peace in the Kashmir Valley.

Today, I dont feel hesitant in saying that Pakistan is continuously trying to create unrest in Kashmir. It wants to destroy it, Rajnath said while addressing a Tiranga rally in Shahjahanpur.

Recently, I went to Pakistan and you all know our neighbouring countrys misdeeds. I dont want to repeat what happened over there but would like to say that I did not let Indias pride go down there. I said one countrys terrorist cannot be the hero of another, he said.

I want to tell the people of Kashmir that we not only love the land of Kashmir but also its people. I would like to appeal to the Kashmiris that we do not want to see stones, bricks and firearms in their hands but pen, computers and jobs. We want to see you employed, Singh said.

He said that a violent protest cannot be a solution to a particular issue. There should be peace at first then issues can be resolved through talks.

Some people are trying to create hatred among Hindus, Muslims, Christians and Parsis by following the divide and rule trick adopted by British rulers but they have been failed miserably. No one can divide the people of India, Singh said.

He said if people want to make India a great nation, then all residents regardless of their community, race or religion will have to contribute and go ahead together.

Indias Muslims know that India is the only country in the world where Islams all 72 sects are found. No other nation, not even Muslim countries have all the 72 sects of Islam. Christianitys all sects are found only in India, he said.

According to Singh, whenever China or Pakistan tried to show aggression at the borders in the past, our people stood united and challenged them.

Singh paid floral tributes to freedom fighters Khan, Bismil and Thakur Roshan Singh and visited their memorial in the citys Ramprasad Bismil park in the presence of Shahjahanpur MP Krishna Raj and local BJP leaders along with hundreds of people.

Singh lauded the contribution of the three and met the family of Khan. He greeted people of Shahjahanpur and said he is delighted to visit the city where these freedom fighters were born.
A Pawan Hans helicopter on its way to Agra made an emergency landing on Saturday in a farm in Ghaziabad district of Uttar Pradesh after developing a technical snag, police said.

The helicopter was piloted by Captain S Kumar and had three passengers onboard, SK Sharma, Krishna Kumar and Jadhav Thar, said superintendent of police (rural) RK Pandey.

The police control room received information from the Air Traffic Control (ATC) that some technical snag has developed in the chopper. The ATC asked us to assist the crew, he said.

The pilot landed the chopper safely in a field, Pandey said.

We have deployed a police force around the helicopter. It is still parked in the field under police guard.
The monogrammed suit donned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his meeting with US President Barack Obama in New Delhi last year, which kicked up a controversy, entered the Guinness World Records as the most expensive suit sold at auction.

The suit had gone under the hammer in February last year and was purchased for Rs 4.31 crore by Surat-based diamond trader Lalji Patel, who owns Dharmananda Diamond Company.

It is a matter of happiness and pride that the suit has found a place in the Guinness Book of World Records. We had applied for the world record around five months back on the suggestion of our companys HR management team. Within a couple of months, we received a certificate acknowledging that it was the worlds most expensive suit sold at an auction, Hitesh Patel, son of Laljibhai, said on Saturday.

The suit, which has stripes with the name Narendra Damodardas Modi woven into it in glittering gold letters, has been placed inside a glass cabin at the reception of the Dharmananda Diamond Company for visitors to view it, Patel said.

The suit was reportedly prepared at a cost of Rs 10 lakh and was auctioned at a base price of Rs 11 lakh.

The Guinness World Records acknowledges the suit as the most expensive suit (clothing) sold at auction is Rs 43,131,311 and was bought by Laljibhai Tulsibhai Patel (India) in Surat, Gujarat, India on February 20, 2015.

The money raised from the auction of the suit has been earmarked for the Centres clean Ganga mission.

After successfully bidding for the suit, owner Laljibhai Patel had told the media that he wanted to do something for the country and this auction gave him a chance.

I always wanted to do something in the interest of country. This event gave me a chance to do something in national interest, in this case for Clean Ganga Mission. I never thought that this incredible suit will finally come to me, he had then said.

The suit had kicked up a political row with opposition parties accusing the PM of narcissism.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had latched on it to accuse Modi of heading a suit-boot ki sarkar which worked only for the rich.
Three years ago, Kaushal Shakyas parents withdrew him from government school after the Congress assured him of a monthly stipend  apparently on party vice-president Rahul Gandhis instructions  to ensure the young boy wouldnt have to work on the streets of Bhopal.

Earlier this year, Union minister Smriti Irani assured him admission in a local Kendriya Vidyalaya, in an apparent attempt to outdo her political rival.

But the 14-year-old is still out of school, works as a labourer with his father and has given up all hope of a better life. His future hangs in the balance as supporters of two of Indias top politicians trade blame for Shakyas misery.

They spoiled my sons career and killed four years. He was better off in a government primary school earlier, said Dulichand Shakya, Kaushals father.

Kaushal grabbed headlines in April 2013, when as a vendor, he sold a copy of an evening daily to Gandhi, who offered him Rs 1,000 for the price of the newspaper  Rs 1. The boy returned the money, saying he didnt have enough change.

Read: Smriti vs Rahul: Mystery remains who informed minister about teen hawker

The next month, then state Congress president Kantilal Bhuria announced a Rs 1,000 monthly allowance for Kaushals education  a move that inspired the boys parents to take him out of government school and admit him into a private institution. But the money dried up 10 months later with no explanations, forcing the parents to stop the boys education.

Their hopes were rekindled in April, when then HRD minister Smriti Iranis department sent a letter to the family, assuring Kaushals admission in Class 6 of KV No 1, Bhopal. However, the school authorities denied him entry, saying he was overage for Class 6.

Dulichand says he couldnt ensure admission for Kaushal because of the hefty fees and the lack of financial assistance. The school denied this.

I got a copy of the letter and took initiative to call the boy and his parents. The fee was not a big issue as I could have exempted it. The boys age didnt allow us to grant him admission to Class 6, said principal of the school, Saurabh Jaitley.

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Union home minister Rajnath Singh said the government was trying its best to return normalcy to the Kashmir Valley, addressing a gathering of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supporters at Ramleela Ground in Shahjahanpur.

He said he wanted to see pens and laptops in the hands of Kashmiri youths, during a visit as part of the Tiranga Rally, and emphasised that India would not tolerate eulogising of any militant.

Kashmir is an inseparable part of India. We dont just love the land of Kashmir but also its people. However, we will not allow any terrorist to become a hero anywhere in the country, said Rajnath, referring to former Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani whose death led to widespread protests in the Valley.

The function was attended by over a thousand BJP supporters.

Before the event, Singh visited the Shaheed Smarak in Shahjahanpur to pay tribute to freedom fighters Ram Prasad Bismil and Asfaqulla Khan, who were hanged by the British for their involvement in the Kakori train robbery.

We must never forget their struggle for the independence of the country and try to create the India of their dreams, Singh said at the Smarak.

Saturdays visit is the first by the Union home minister to the region this year. The visit was a part of BJPs Tiranga Yatra, which the party claims symbolises social harmony and unity. The yatra started on August 15 and is scheduled to continue till August 22.

Every leader and seat-bearer of the BJP will visit Shaheed Smaraks (martyr memorials) across the country to pay homage to freedom fighters, he said.

Over 2,000 police personnel were deployed to ensure the ministers security in Shahjahanpur.
Noida

The Uttar Pradesh government is considering a proposal to reduce circle rates in 12 districts, including Gautam Budh Nagar and Ghaziabad.

The principal secretary of Uttar Pradesh (stamp and registration) has asked district magistrates to submit details of circle rate hikes in the last 5 years.

Demands from home-buyers, industrialists and realtors among others had prompted this rethink.

The government has sought suggestions from all stakeholders on this proposal.

I had a meeting with the realtors body- confederation of real estate developers association of India (CREDAI) in sector 27 office and sought their suggestions, said NP Singh, district magistrate of Gautam Budh Nagar.

The government has asked realtors and others to submit factual data on why circle rates should be reduced. We will send all details demanded by government soon, he said.

The administration hiked circle rates up to 14% for residential properties, effective from August 1, despite objections from buyers and other groups. But it did not hike circle rates for flats.

Realtors and buyers said if Gurgaon can reduce circle rates, so can Noida and Greater Noida.

Read: Circle rates of Ghaziabad residential areas hiked by 2 to 5%

Gurgaon cut circle rates by 15% across all segments on June 28 to revive the realty market. Ghaziabad officials said the hike in nearly 90% of industrial and rural areas was negligible this year.

Realtors and buyers said circle rates in many sectors were unrealistic and disproportionate to the prevailing market rates. This affected the realty sector facing a slowdown, they said.

Circle rates are unrealistic in Noida and Greater Noida. Property buyers had to pay more stamp duty. Circle rates should be on a par with market rates, said Amit Gupta, a home-buyer.

Officials said a final decision on rate reduction will be taken once all district administration heads send a detailed report to the UP government .

UP has asked the year that saw maximum hike in circle rates and average hike in 5 years. In 2012-13 the administration hiked circle rates up to 43 percent in commercial category. The government has asked why the hike was so high in a particular year, said district magistrate NP Singh.

The UP government wants to take populist decisions just because the UP assembly elections are scheduled in 2017 beginning, officials said.

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Amity Universitys fact finding committee has given clean chit to the authorities and some faculty members in the death of a law student whose family has accused them of abetting his suicide.

In its interim report submitted on Friday, the panel observed that the college and faculty were following the rules and regulations of the Guru Gobind Singh IP University. It will submit the final detailed report once investigations are over.

Meanwhile, the accused professors whose suspension was being demanded by students union and family members of the law student, have submitted their resignations.

Amity spokesperson Savita Mehta said on Friday, The seven-member committee which was to submit report today has sought some more time...and in view of the sentiments of students the two professors have submitted their resignation.

Sushant Rohilla (20), a fourth year student of BA-LLB course in Amity Law School, had last week allegedly committed suicide at his residence in south Delhis Sarojini Nagar area.

Demanding a probe into the incident, his family members and friends, had staged a protest outside the college here on Tuesday, and alleged foul play by the authorities.

The student, son of a joint secretary-level official in the Rajya Sabha secretariat, was barred from appearing in the sixth semester exams in May due to shortage of attendance.

According to his family, Sushant and 19 other students, who were not permitted to take the exams, were promised that they will be allowed to take the exams and promoted to the next semester.

In the interim report, the committee said since the director and senior faculty have been asked to go on leave, it could not meet them due to paucity of time, Mehta said.

The committee found that the college authority had been liberal by extending all possible support to enable him appear the exam. Rohillas attendance was only 29%, it said.

Even by giving additional attendance for activities like moot court competitions, the level of attendance was as low as 43%. His case could not be considered consequent to BCI and GGS IP University Regulations, it said.

The college had informed his parents many a times through e-mails. The student and his father were intimated by ALSD on July 11 about detainment due to attendance shortage and about the opportunity for readmission in fourth semester, the committee said.

It said the faculty was following rules laid down by GGS IPU and Bar Council in regards to attendance and also did its best to give extra attendance for extra-curricular activities.

The college also fulfilled its duties in continuously informing the student and the father about the shortage of attendance and its consequences leading to detainment.
Unidentified criminals gunned down Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Vinod Yadav in Nuagachia sub-division of Bhagalpur district in Bihar, 240 km from state capital Patna, early Saturday morning.

Yadav, 50, was a member of Naugachia nagar panchayat.

RJD district president Tirupati Nath said Yadav was on his morning walk in Rasalpur locality in Nuagachia when three motorcycle-borne criminals shot him dead.

Naugachia superintendent of police (SP) Pankaj Sinha said a countrymade pistol and four empty cartridges were recovered from the site of the murder.

Sinha said prima facie personal enmity appeared to be the reason behind the murder as Yadav was involved in a number of criminal cases.

The body has been sent to the government hospital at Naugachia for post-mortem, he added.

Family members have alleged the involvement of Yadavs nephew Ajit in the murder.

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Four people were killed and 15 injured in a head-on collision between two private buses, one owned by the ruling Badal family, at Billi Chaharmi village on the Jalandhar-Moga road on Saturday afternoon.

The accident took place when a bus belonging to Orbit Aviation Company (PB-03-AJ-7532), owned by Punjab deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, which was on its way from Jalandhar to Muktsar, hit another bus (PB-08-CX-9531), coming from the opposite direction while overtaking. The Pathankot-bound GSK Transport bus was on its way to Moga.

Three of the deceased were identified as Pala Singh of Dharamkot in Moga district and Vinod Kumar of Gopal Nagar in Jalandhar, and Gurbhej Singh of Shahkot. A woman, who is yet to be identified, was also killed in the accident.

The injured were taken to civil hospitals in Nakodar, Shahkot and Jalandhar.

While the driver of the GSK bus, Binder Singh, suffered fractures and has been admitted to a private hospital in the city, the Orbit bus driver reportedly fled the spot. Owner of GSK Transport Kulwinder Singh claimed that the Orbit bus was being driven rashly and its driver tried to overtake a truck and a car when it collided with the GSK bus.

Also read | Driver of Badals bus who mowed down father-son in Ludhiana held

Police, local residents and passersby at the accident spot. (Pardeep pandit/HT Photo)

The police took the Orbit bus to the Malsian police station. Local Congress leader Navjot Dahiya, who reached the accident spot, alleged: Instead of taking the injured to a hospital, an assistant-sub-inspector drove the Orbit bus to the police station.

Senior superintendent of police (SSP), rural, Harmohan Singh said as per initial reports, the accident took place due to the slippery road.

Malsian police post in-charge Surjit Singh said a case would be registered after recording statements of eyewitnesses and injured. He said the police have impounded both the buses.
Cameron Charles Rhamy, 18, of Lebanon, was arraigned Friday in Linn County Circuit Court on charges he committed first-degree sodomy and first degree sexual abuse.

Rhamy, a registered sex offender, was arrested in Albany on Thursday after the alleged victim informed police she was the victim of inappropriate contact.

According to the probable cause affidavit, Rhamy is accused of having entered the victim's bedroom at her Lebanon home during separate incidents between July 1 and August 3. An August 17 medical examination and interview with ABC House, an Albany nonprofit that helps victims of sexual abuse, the victim provided more detailed information.

Judge Thomas McHill set security at $50,000. His next hearing is set for August 29.
The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) has condemned the All India Radio (AIR) Delhi centres decision to discontinue Punjabi news bulletin under its regional languages section.

In a press release issued here, SGPC chief Avtar Singh Makkar said, The AIT is citing the shortage of staff as an excuse for the move. Discontinuing the Punjabi news bulletin is an injustice with Punjabi-speaking population in Delhi that comprises 35%.

Punjabi as a language is getting recognition across the world, but in our own country, it is being maltreated, he said. Makkar has urged information and broadcasting minister Ravi Shankar Prasad to roll back the decision.
Trying to rob two Amritsar men of a bag, a duo shot dead a 35-year-old and injured the other near Jandiala on the national highway on Friday morning.

The deceased has been identified as Raj Kumar. Kuldeep Kumar and he were on their way to Rayya from Jandiala Guru around 11am, when the two bike-borne robbers approached their motorcycle from the rear. The accused made them stop their vehicle and told them to hand over their bag.

As Raj and Kuldeep seemed reluctant, the accused shot at them with a pistol. One of the two bullets hit Raj in his head, leading to his immediate death, while the other grazed Kuldeeps neck.

We work with a private finance company, and it is our job to collect instalments. The bag that the accused took away contained no money, but only receipts, an injured Kuldeep told HT.

Deputy inspector general of police (DIG), border range, AK Mittal and senior superintendent of police (SSP), Amritsar (rural), Harkamal Preet Singh Khakh reached the spot soon after the incident. After alerting the highway police, cops are looking for clues to the accused by screening closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage of nearby toll plazas.

Deputy superintendent of police (DSP), Jandiala, Ravinder Pal Singh said: We have dispatched police parties and efforts are on to scan CCTV footage to nab the accused. Meanwhile, a case of murder under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code has been registered.
The graffiti art added a new colour in the beautification of the Punjabi University. Without any financial assistance from varsity, students of fine arts department, Punjabi university made the effort to beautify the varsity campus with their paintings.

About 20 students of MA second year (fine arts), made a plan with the aim to do some different and attractive in the varsity with their art. After the nod from registrar Devinder Singh, the students kicked off their work on August 5.

In the first phase, after working till late in the evening, they painted eight trees and four sitting benches near Happiness cafe in the university. The young enthusiasts artists designed different concepts including natural beauty, animal kingdom, aquatic life and women empowerment.

During his visit on the Independence Day, vice-chancellor Jaspal Singh appreciated the artists and their work for beautifying of the university. He also asked them to make the open art gallery in the campus. (Bharat Bhushan/HT Photo)

Ravi Verma, 21, one of the artists said that now they would pursue more painting on themes including Punjabi culture and old civilizations, on the walls as well as on the floors in the different parts of the university.

We received a lot of encouragement from the university authorities, students even from renowned artists on social media for our art. They also offered us financial support for our upcoming projects that give the boost to our confidence, he added.

During his visit on the Independence Day, vice-chancellor Jaspal Singh appreciated the artists and their work for beautifying of the university. He also asked them to make the open art gallery in the campus.
Lakhs and lakhs of people will be covered under the property-related policies that we are launching soon, is what Punjab industries minister Madan Mohan Mittal declares, and then comes down to some plain poll-speak: It will benefit us. Everyone needs a home (makaan) and a shop (dukaan).

Assembly elections are hardly six months away, and stakes are high for the SAD-BJP alliance that faces two terms anti-incumbency, a combative Congress, and an aggressive newbie, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

Also read: AAP leaders plan Italy, UK campaign tour ahead of Punjab polls

Congress for Sidhu: Capt cites past, Manpreet ready to go barefoot to welcome

Mittal of the BJP heads a six-minister committee of the Parkash Singh Badal regime to frame the policy for ownership rights to occupants of houses in villages and lal dora (municipal limit) areas. And this is just one of the many sops that the government has on this front.

Besides, commission agents (arhtiyas) will get shops in seasonal foodgrain-procurement centres; a policy for houses to the economically weaker sections (EWS) is being drawn up; and an ordinance is set to amend The Punjab Laws (Special Provisions) Act to legalise 10,000 unauthorised housing colonies.

Giving ownership

The Mittal-led panel  also comprising cabinet ministers Tota Singh, Sikandar Singh Maluka, Gulzar Singh Ranike, Anil Joshi and Bikram Singh Majithia  met on August 10 and another meeting is planned in the near future. The policy for rights to occupants will be ready by the end of this month, he says on Friday. Thats 12 more days.

The policy aims to cover occupants since Independence who have not got ownership rights. The problem the occupants face is that they cant use these properties for mortgage or to raise loans, or even sell at a good price. The plan is to make these properties productive, Mittal tells HT.

The model being followed is from Madhya Pradesh, says a senior officer in the revenue department. The government is looking for a foolproof mechanism to establish genuineness of the occupants. Also, the fee to be charged is being worked out, adds the officer.

Estimates say there are at least 100 such houses in each of the 13,000 panchayats. Thats about 13 lakh such dwelling units in the state! No one seems left out, says Mittal.

The plan was mooted two years ago. Why did it take so long to get to the drawing board? Mittal says every plan has a right time for execution. Does that mean election time? He accepts that, with a hearty laugh.

Shops for arhtiyas

President of the states commission agents association, Ravinder Singh Cheema recently approached chief minister Parkash Singh Badal for shops to the association members. Cheema claims to represent the moneyed class of 23,500 arhtiyas in rural Punjab.

A policy is in the making now. On August 5, Cheema, also vice-chairman of the Punjab State Agricultural Marketing Board (or mandi board), was part of meeting chaired by the CM on August 5, when a broad outline was discussed. That will come up for approval of the council of ministers shortly.

Estimates say shop plots measuring 10 feet by 20 feet, in the 1,500 procurement centres that have no such facilities so far, are expected to be given to commission agents. At a nominal Rs 50,000!

Those with three years experience as commission agents are eligible; giving a new base to agents who are not very old in the business, says Cheema.

The mandi board, which runs and owns procurement centres, is expected to mop up Rs 375 crore from the 75,000 plots. The land for seasonal procurement centres was given by village panchayats and is now owned by the board; but these could never be turned into full-fledged business centres. Now, that will happen, he says.

Poor policy

The 2008 policy for economically weaker sections (EWS) in housing and urban development  asking builders to spare 10% space for the category  was not implemented effectively, so the government plans to amend it.

The new policy will allow developers to construct homes for the EWS anywhere within five kilometres of the project. This will give a relaxation to the developers, says chief town planner HS Dhillon. Also, if EWS families own land, the builder can construct a home on that.

Officers in the housing department say, Not many came forward to apply for a home under the EWS category under the existing policy; and developers also have certain limitations. The amendments will deal with that.

Breather for illegal colonies

Thats not all. The state government is contemplating to give another chance to unauthorised colonies and the property owners therein for legalisation. This regularisation scheme had been offered twice in the past, in 2013 and 2014; the last cut-off was February 2015.

The scheme is applicable for colonies falling in the jurisdiction of six subsidiaries of the Punjab Urban Planning and Development Authority (PUDA), in Mohali (SAS Nagar), Ludhiana, Amritsar, Patiala, Bathinda and Jalandhar, and also the municipal corporations.

The plan is to amend The Punjab Laws (Special Provisions) Act, for which the government will take the route of an ordinance, which is technically valid for six months and is to be used for urgent matters when assemblys nod is not possible within that time. In this case, the next and possibly the session of this assembly starts on September 15. The proposal to bring in the ordinance was cleared in the last cabinet meeting, and the amendment as such will get nod from the assembly in the coming session, says principal secretary, housing, Vishavjeet Khanna. The matter is at present with the legal remembrancer for clearance.

Past record

In the previous chances, 10,154 illegal colonies applied for regularisation, of which 936 cases were disposed of and the remaining are still under process. Also, 4.3 lakh owners of plots and houses applied for regularisation, of which 2.9 lakh applications were cleared. The state government earned `777 crore as regularisation fee.

Estimates say there are about 10,000 more colonies that still have not applied; and there are 2-lakh houses in them. The regularised tag will come after payment of compounding charges by colonisers, and through regularisation charges by individual property owners.

Once the notification of the ordinance is done  likely this month  the government is expected to give a three-month deadline. Officers say theres sufficient time before the elections take place  due in March  to take in applications, which can then be processed even after a new government takes over. For now, those elections are what matters.

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A Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) special court, Haryana, has held five men  including government officials and an advocate  guilty of cheating, criminal conspiracy and using a fabricated document to pocket land compensation of Rs 7.43 lakh in 1996 in the name of a fictitious person, on Friday.

The Haryana vigilance bureau had registered a case on a complaint from a Sector 12-A resident Parmanand in 1998. Then, on the complaints letter alleging shoddy investigation, the HC transferred the case to CBI in 2005.

Two different Punjab and Haryana high court (HC) orders were used to produce a fabricated judgment of Justice JL Gupta with the help of a photocopy machine to get compensation of land in Faridabad in the name of a fictitious person Kishore Kumar. The punishment will he announced on Saturday.

The matter pertained to acquisition of 14 kanal and 19 marla of MC land in Jharsaithli village in Faridabad by the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA).

The convicts misused judgment passed in CWP number 1045 of 1991 by the high court and concluding page of order dated July 21, 1994, passed in RFA number 3561 of 1993 by justice JL Gupta to produce a fake order dated July 21, 1994, on the basis of which compensation of Rs 7.43 lakh was released in favour of Kishore Kumar, who never existed, said CBI counsel DS Chawla.

Section officer Mahesh Chand Sharma, naib tehsildar Jai Pal Singh, kanungo Nar Singh Dass, assistant district attorney DP Ranga and advocate Yatinder Singh were held guilty, the counsel added.

On February 16, 1996, Rajiv Malik, contacted naib tehsildar Jai Pal Singh, in the land acquisition office (LAO), Faridabad, and produced an affidavit in Kishore Kumars name and also the copy of fabricated order, titled-Kishore Kumar vs Deep Chand and Rajindra Paper Mill Faridabad. Deep Chand and Rajindra paper mill were tenants on the land in question.

Jai Pal Singh directed Nar Singh Dass, Kanungo of LAO office, to give his comments. Dass reported that in the records, the MC owned the land, but concealed the fact that a tenant, Deep Chands application for land compensation was already pending. The application was filed through Deep Chands legal heir.

On the same day, Jai Pal Singh, without consulting appeals section, sought comments from DP Ranga, then additional district attorney in the LAO.

Ranga, without having certified copy of the HC order, opined that Kishore Kumar was the absolute owner of the property and was entitled to the compensation. This was in spite of the fact that no mutation was done in favour of Kishore Kumar.

Then Jai Pal Singh took the concerned file himself to IAS officer Hawa Singh Dhankad, the then land acquisition collector (LAC), and got the approval. Dhankad forwarded the case to Mahesh Chand, section officer, LAO. Within 4 days, on February 19, 1996, Chand handed over the cheque of Rs 7.43 lakh without the mention of complete address of Kishore Kumar (Rajiv Malik) in the documents. Later, he however got a fresh cheque issued on February 28, 1996, as the convicts failed to get an account opened.

Advocate Yatinder Singh helped Rajiv Malik in opening an account in Syndicate Bank. Dhankad, who later retired, helped the CBI as witness.

Section officer Mahesh Chand Sharma, naib tehsildar Jai Pal Singh, kanungo Nar Singh Dass, assistant district attorney DP Ranga, have been convicted of cheating, using forged document, criminal conspiracy and under Sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Advocate Yatinder has been held guilty of criminal conspiracy and cheating.

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A day after a man and his son were crushed to death by a bus belonging to a company owned by deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal and his family, the driver, Amritpal Singh of Jhajjal village in Bathinda, was arrested from Mullanpur Dakha area on Friday. He has been booked for causing death due to negligence (Section 304 A of the IPC).

What Happened?: Badals bus kills father-son in Ludhiana, Sukhbir brushes it off

Hardev Singh (60) and his son Manjit Singh (28) were mowed down by a bus of Dabwali Transport Company on Thursday. An angry crowd had set the killer bus afire.

On Friday, the family of the deceased refused to cremate the bodies, demanding arrest of the bus owners even as heavy police force was deployed at Baddowal village to maintain law and order.

The family agreed to cremate the bodies on Saturday only after Akali MLA from Dakha Manpreet Singh Ayali met them and held parleys for three hours in the presence of members of Baddowal panchayat and bus company representatives.

The bus torched by people near Baddowal on Ferozepur road in Ludhiana on Thursday. (JS Grewal/HT Photo)

Baddowal sarpanch Amarjot Singh said the victims family had reached a compromise with the bus company, but refused to divulge details. Sources said the bus operator had agreed to pay Rs 25 lakh to the family as compensation, but nobody came on record to corroborate this.

On Thursday, residents of Baddowal demanded Rs 60-lakh compensation to the family, along with government job to one of the family members.

Mann visits family; demands murder case against bus owners

Aam Aadmi Partys Sangrur MP Bhagwant Mann visited the family and demanded that a murder case be registered against the owner of the bus company.

Calling it road terrorism, Mann said the buses owned by Badals were ruining families.

He said if the AAP came to power in the next assembly elections, an investigation will be done to find out how only the buses owned by the Badals got the long-route permits.

He said the AAP will launch an agitation if the victim family didnt get justice.

He criticised deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal for his Koi kamm di gal karo statement, saying it was insensitive.

He also called up the Jagraon SSP to know the status of the case.

All accidents are painful: Badal

Khanna: Chief minister Parkash Singh Badal said all accidents are painful. Accident koi vi hove, dukhdai haunda hai. Accident taan kisse vi company di gaddi naal ho sakda hai (All mishaps are painful and they can occur with vehicles of any company), he said when pointed out that the killer bus belonged to Dabwali Transport Company owned by his family.

The chief minister was in Khanna to attend a sangat darshan on Friday.

Licences issued to Badals buses be cancelled: Channi

Chandigarh: Leader of the Congress legislature party in the Vidhan Sabha Charanjit Singh Channi on Friday wrote to the Punjab chief secretary, requesting to cancel the licences of all buses owned by the Badal family.

The fearless behaviour of the drivers of these buses is compounding the agonies of hapless families. The operators of these buses have become so emboldened that they threaten people who question them, Channi said.

He said Baddowal mishap was not an isolated accident in which a bus owned by the Badal family was involved and cited nine similar fatal mishaps.

He also appealed to the people of Punjab to stop travelling in the killer busses.
Cops have started registering cases against those riding two-wheelers with their faces covered in violation of police commissioner Amar Singh Chahals order. Police have registered at least 20 cases so far, and aim to intensify the drive.

The police commissioner a few days back issued order banning people from riding two-wheelers with their faces covered. As people failed to shun this practice, they were giving warnings initially. Now, we have started registering cases against the violators. We have registered at least 20 cases under Section 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) so far, said deputy commissioner of police (DCP) J Elanchezhian on Friday.

The DCP said it has been seen many a times anti-social elements cover their faces to prevent identification while committing crimes. On being questioned if the initiative is a fallout of the murderous attack on a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leader in Jalandhar, in which the assailants had covered their faces, the DCP said, It is just a coincidence. This move of the Amritsar police should not been seen in that context.

Although the DCP stressed that cases will also be registered against women caught defying the order, till now all the cases registered are against men.
Its unclear if the makers of Bollywood movie Flying Jatt deleted the scenes that Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) objected to, but lead actors Tiger Shroff and Jacqueline Fernandez landed in Amritsar on Saturday to begin a promotional tour before the August 25 release.

The actors and the crew paid obeisance at the Golden Temple, where they said nothing about the controversy or the deleting of any content. The SGPC doesnt know if the changes were carried out. I got a call from the unit saying it would meet me when it came to Darbar Sahib but nobody did, SGPC additional secretary Diljit Singh Bedi said.

SGPC president Avtar Singh Makkar said the SGPC film committee had reviewed Flying Jatt and conveyed its reservations to Balaji Motion Pictures. They promised to delete the scenes but havent confirmed it till date. If the content is not modified, then theyll be responsible for the consequences.

Director Remo DSouza taking a selfie with Jacqueline Fernandez, Tiger Shroff and others at the Golden Temple. (Sameer Sehgal/HT Photo)

In the movie, Tiger Shroff plays a Sikh who turns into a superhero and dons a blue bodysuit along with a cape and a mask. SGPC additional secretary Diljit Singh Bedi said the committees objection was to Tigers turban and khanda (Sikh military emblem) on his outfit. After it came to Makkars notice last November, the SGPC president wrote to the filmmakers in December.

About the objections given in writing to the filmmakers, Bedi said: The khanda on the superheros outfit didnt look authentic. Amrita Singh, who plays Tigers mother, is shown drinking, which is inappropriate portrayal of a Sikh wife or mother. A few scenes twisted the Sikh identity and ethos.

Actors avoided even the media mostly but Shroff did say he was sure the character (of Flying Jatt) will not hurt anyones sentiments. We are glorifying Punjabis, not showing them in a bad light. On July 21, the SGPC had given a warning to the producers.

Objections

~ The khanda (Sikh military emblem) on the superheros outfit doesnt look authentic

~ Amrita Singh, who plays Tigers mother, a Sikh, is shown drinking

~ A few scenes twist Sikh identity, claims the SGPC

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Punjab Police have arrested sleuths of Intelligence Bureau (IB) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in a Friday-night case of a software engineers kidnapping here.

Five accused -- IB head constable Jasminder Singh, CBI constable Manjit, DC office Suvidha Centre employee Varun Sareen, Jasminders relative Paramjit Singh, and driver Manmohan Singh -- were held, while two accused -- Dharamvir Singh and IB sub-inspector Pawan Kumar -- are on the run. They had identity cards. Business rivalry seems to be their motive, a police source said.

Amritsar police commissioner Amar Singh Chahal refused to give the media more details of the case that has shocked the investigators and embarrassed the two central investigation agencies. Police have sent a report to the Punjab government.

Software engineer Amandeep Singh, who returned from Canada three years ago, was kidnapped around 8.30pm on Friday from near Hotel MK at Ranjit Avenue here. His brother, Pardeep Singh, told police he had spotted a few men bundling his brother into a Toyota Innova car with a Delhi registration number.

Amandeep Singh was rescued from a hotel on the Tarn Taran road around midnight after ransom call to his brother was traced to the spot. The software engineers Mitsubishi Pajero SUV, which the kidnappers had taken away, was also recovered.

Police seal lips

After solving the kidnapping case within four hours, cops went into a silent mode over confirming that men from two central investigation agencies were involved in the crime. All day, top officers of the Amritsar police questioned the accused on the CIA (crime investigation agency) staff premises and, in the evening, released their names, holding back their designations in a attempt to hide their identities.

The case was registered at Civil Lines, under Sections 364 (kidnapping in order to murder) and 34 (common intent in crime) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

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Twenty-eight-year old Manjit Singh could have escaped death had it not been for a last minute change of plan to accompany his father from Baddowal to Ludhiana on the fateful day that a bus belonging to Dabwali Transport Company, owned by deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal and his family, mowed them down.

Death on wheels: Driver who mowed down man, son in Ludhiana held

Manjits father, 60-year-old Hardev, was to go to Ludhiana to deliver tools to their client.

Hardev had asked his friends to accompany him but none of them turned up due to Rakhi celebrations. So Hardev asked his son to accompany him, a family member said.

Minutes after Manjits sister, Gurpreet Kaur, tied Rakhi and prayed for his long life, the father-son duo left for their destination. Gurpreet Kaur was inconsolable.

Hardev was driving the bike while his son rode pillion, holding the goods meant to be delivered.

Hardev and his two sons Manjit (28) and Jasveer Singh (32) used to run a workshop Guru Nanak Grill Workshop of welding and making agriculture tools within the village.

Villagers recall that both Hardev and Manjit were hard working, down to earth and sincere persons.

Must read: Badals bus kills father-son in Ludhiana, Sukhbir brushes it off

Hardev was well known in our village and surrounding villages of Jhanda and Lalton as the man who repairs tubewells. He was very good at it, recalled another villager.

Amrik Singh, a neighbor said, The elder son Jasveer worked for around eight years at different workshops the city, earned experience and started this workshop a year ago after procuring the loan.

Hardev used to manufacture agriculture tools since many years but his sons expanded the business.

The youngest son, Manjit, used to help his father and brother. Now, the whole familys responsibility has come on to Jasveers shoulders.

An eyewitness to the accident, Kishan Gopal, said the passengers set the bus afire. Eyewitnesses also claimed that the bus driver had fled in another bus belonging to the same company which was passing by.
LEBANON  Liz Alperin has resigned from the Lebanon School Board, and board members are seeking a successor to appoint by Sept. 8.

Alperin, who was elected to the board in 2009 to represent Zone 2, is moving with her family to the San Juan Islands, where she has accepted a job teaching at Orcas Island High School, Superintendent Rob Hess said Thursday. She spoke with Hess last week and sent a formal resignation to the board on Monday.

"It has been a pleasure and honor to have worked with all of you," Alperin wrote. "I wish you and the district the best of luck. We have come a long way."

On Thursday, board members said they would begin advertising immediately for applicants to fill the remainder of Alperin's term, which ends next June 30. The appointed member could then choose to run for election to a full term.

The deadline to apply is noon Thursday, Sept. 8. Applicants must live in the district, must not be an officer or employee of the district, and must be a qualified voter of the district.

Board members said they are seeking applicants who live in Zone 2, which includes southeast Lebanon to the community of Waterloo and east to Hamilton Creek School. If none apply, the seat might be opened to the district at large.

Russ McUne, who was elected to the position of board chairman on Thursday, said applications should include a statement about why the person wants to join the school board and candidates should come to the Sept. 8 meeting prepared for a short interview.

Applications are available at the school district business office, 485 S. Fifth St., or on the districts website, www.lebanon.k12.or.us.
Claims by the SOI to bring in funds worth Rs 10 crore for five long-pending projects of Panjab University, out of which Rs 7 crore was for the benefit of girls, have fallen flat. The Students Organisation of India is the student wing of Shiromani Akali Dal.

Deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal had announced financial aid to PU during a crisis in the financial year 2015-16. Washing machines in all nine girls hostels, a world-class gym and solar power panels, among others were some of the promised facilities. Most of these facilities were female-oriented as girls comprise over 65% of the voters on campus.

Must read: Panjab University student elections on August 26

The deputy CM had also announced that Rs 5 crore will be released by the government, in addition to more funds as and when required by the university. Funds for the washing machines for girls were to borne by the government, he had said.

However, none of the plans have been implemented so far, although SOI claims to have fulfilled all the proposals made in their manifesto.

Simranjit Singh Dhillon, chief spokesperson and general secretary of SOI, said, Whatever we promised to the university, we have almost fulfilled it. We made history because only our organisation managed to do something for the campus.

He added, Its been a while since we had handed over a cheque worth Rs 10 lakh to PU authorities to buy washing machines for girls but the registrar is not taking it up and that cheque remains unused. Meanwhile, there are solar panels on the roofs of most hostels and the gym is still under construction. We have also submitted a cheque to replace old fans but none of the departments ever sent in information stating their needs. We will be submitting another cheque for bus services in another weeks time. I strongly believe that the delay is on behalf of PU authorities. We are doing our part.

Jasmeen Kang, former president of the PU student council, said, We did our work diligently, even beyond our own imagination and expectations. We had asked PU authorities to put up a representation so we could take it up with the deputy CM because we have cooperated with varsity officials in every way. Its just that the process got delayed for some reason.

No alliance this time

Dhillon said this time there were no plans for an alliance with any other student organisation. Last year, it was our first victory and we did not wish to take any risk but this time we are confident and have our own contesting for the four posts in the student council. However, with time, we shall analyse the status of the party.

Last year, SOI allied with Himachal Students Union (HIMSU), National Students Organisation (NSO) and Indian National Students Organisation (INSO). The Akali student wing also received support from Gandhi Group Students Union (GGSU), Pal Pehelwan Students Organisation (PPSO) and Youth Welfare Association (YUWA).

SOI fought elections in 2013

The SAD launched its youth wing in 2006. However, SOI fought elections for the first time in 2013 and the party was relaunched after a senior SOPU (Student Organisation of Panjab University) leader joined it.

That year, it lost the presidents post by a margin of 58 votes. However in 2015, they won all seats.

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Punjab has the sole right over Chandigarh, and it belongs only to Punjab, said chief minister Parkash Singh Badal at an event marking the 31st death anniversary of Harchand Singh Longowal on Saturday. Longowal was the president of the Akali Dal during the Punjab insurgency of the 1980s. Badal was accompanied by his son and deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal.

However, the leaders spent most of their time boasting about the state governments achievements and criticising the Congress and Aam Aadmi Party, their rivals in the upcoming assembly polls. In one of the instances, talking about AAP, the deputy CM drew parallels with Naxalites who had infiltrated the party comprising outsiders trying to capture power in Punjab at any cost.

Also read | Alphons picked as Chandigarh administrator, then plan dropped

People were spotted leaving the venue in the first half an hour when they saw that the leaders were digressing from the days topic.

Interacting with the media on the sidelines, Badal claimed that the former Congress government in Punjab had deprived the state of its capital in Chandigarh along with Punjabi-speaking areas and its legitimate share in river waters. He also blamed the Congress for betraying the state by snatching the capital away.

Also read | How Chandigarh almost got its own head again, separate from Punjab governor

He congratulated Olympians PV Sindhu and Sakshi Malik for bringing sporting glory for the country, calling it a matter of pride for the entire nation.

Addressing the public earlier, Badal held the Congress responsible for Longowals death. He claimed that the Congress backstabbed the leader by violating the Punjab accord.

Calling the SAD-BJP government the only pro-people government in the entire country, Badal said the alliance had supplied free power to farmers of the state at a cost of Rs 50,000 crore in the last 10 years to bail them out of an agrarian crisis.

Must read | Punjabs new guv Badnore will be Chandigarh boss too, oath on Monday

The deputy CM said Punjab had prospered in every sector because of the ruling government. He also announced that all the 12,000 villages of the state will have carpeted roads and cemented drains in the next five years at a cost of Rs 30,000 crore.

Meanwhile, people wearing black clothes were not allowed to enter the venue and some were also made to change outside the venue in order to enter the premises.

THE PUNJAB ACCORD AND LONGOWALS DEATH

In March 1985, the then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi started releasing Akali leaders from jail. This was done to keep the peace and for negotiations for fulfilling Sikh demands. After weeks of secret meetings and discussions, Longowal met Gandhi in Delhi and signed the Punjab accord on July 23, 1985. Sikh historian Harjinder Singh Dilgeer says this was the most shameful and honourless agreement signed by Sikh leaders, as no demand of the Sikhs had been accepted. Less than a month after signing the accord, Longowal was shot and killed on August 20, 1985 near the gurdwara in Sherpur village, not far from Longowal in Punjab.
With the arrest of nine persons and recovery of stolen motorcycles, the city police on Friday claimed to have busted two gangs in the city.

Additional deputy commissioner of police (ADCP, city-2) Gaurav Garg said a gang of five bike thieves was nabbed during patrolling on the rear of the mental hospital. The accused have been identified as Vijay Singh, Suraj, Aman, Mohan Singh and Krishna, all from Faizpur locality.

Seven motorcycles and drug tablets in a large quantity were recovered from their possession. These bikes were stolen from different localities, said the ADCP. A case has been registered under relevant sections of Indian Penal Code and the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act at the Civil Lines police station.

The city police have also arrested four other bike thieves from Islamabad area. As many as 15 stolen motorcycles have been recovered following the arrest.

Station house officer Niraj Kumar said a police team led by assistant sub-inspector (ASI) Harjinder Singh laid a naka at the Rego bridge following a tip-off. The four accused, who were coming there on bikes, turned on seeing the cops, but were nabbed, said the SHO.

While two motorcycles were seized on the spot, the remaining were found at their hideouts following interrogation. The accused have been identified as Lovepreet Singh, Varinder Singh and Ravi Singh of Waraich village and Akashdeep Singh of Bal Kalan.
How many of you use the amaro filter on Instagram only to look fairer? How many of you have been told you are tanned, when actually its your skin colour? How many of you have been denied the front row on stage in your annual school play only because a fair friend made the cut? How many of you have been told you wont find a good-looking partner because you werent fair enough? How many of you been cursed for giving birth to a dusky-skinned baby? How many of you and how many times? The fact that you are already counting, is the answer.

With cosmetic companies humming the tune of lightening, brightening and whitening and even creams to whiten vaginas, it is clear that we continue to live in a culture where we must be fair to be beautiful. The issue is more pronounced in India even after completing 70 years of independence.

Ones inherited darkness becomes a characteristic, a trait- something one is identified with. As Delhi based art-critic Rosalyn DMello mentions in her essay Black,  Ive learned as a black-skinned feminist: like how the conjunctive but can be used as a compensatory word to stinging effect [Youre beautiful, but dark or Youre dark, but you have great features]. The otherwise simple act of accepting a compliment, as she points out, continues to be fraught with anxiety.

Amir Khusro, a 13-century poet, wrote about Gori Gori bayyan hari hari churiyaan (fair arms wearing green bangles) in the poem Chhap Tilak Sab Chheeni, indicating that it was beautiful to be gori. Then, there is the argument of the Aryan race, where certain sections of the population are believed to be fair-skinned due to their Aryan and middle-east racial lineage.

The obsession, continues, either way. Yet, there are women taking on misconceptions about skin colour and flaunting their melanin of social media websites with the hashtag #unfairandlovely. There are also actresses speaking out for dark-skinned women like Nandita Das, whose Dark is Beautiful campaign attempts to combat the media under-representation of the dark-skinned.

As we step into the 70th year of Independence we speak to a few who take pride in their skin colour, and their varied experiences.

Dark-skinned have standstill beauty

Shobha Koser (HT Photo)

It is important to value ones inner beauty because that reflects on our outward appearance, says renowned kathak dancer and founder of Pracheen Kala Kendra, Chandigarh, Shobha Kauser. She quickly adds, While fairness might attract immediately, one might notice defects on fair complexion too...kissi ki naak thedhi toh kissi ki ankhein. A dark-skinned face has its own standstill beauty. It is the glow that counts. Originally from Agra, the septuagenarian moved to Chandigarh after her marriage at a tender age of 16.

Skin colour was never a cause of concern to me then, however, when I notice my students (young girls) today worry about the same, I try and counsel them, says the doe-eyed lady. Belonging to a family of noted dance experts, Kauser learned to value art of expressions over makeup from a young age. A lot of classical dancers use stage make-up for looking fairer. A true artist maintains the audiences attention through the expressions not superficial makeup, she says adding that she encourages her girls to keep their make-up natural, even if it means looking dark on stage.

- Shobha Koser, 70, Kathak dancer, Chandigarh

Geographical boundary no bar for bias

Bedatri D Chaudhary, 27, NYU student, Kolkata (Photo: Suryaa Bhattacharya)

For Kolkata-born Bedatri D Choudhary, who grew up with a lot of women who had the same skin-tone as hers, she doesnt consider her tryst with being dusky as difficult. But, even then she was asked not to be in the sun for too long. It is internalised within us no matter which part we live in, but when it really hit me was when I moved to Delhi for college, she tells HT.

From being made to look three shades fairer in a passport size photograph by a Delhi photographer, to being asked to bleach her face, to never being considered for the lead role in a play, are among the few prejudices this 27-year-old has had to face.

A former literature student, she refers to how the idea dates back to the Other, for dominant ideologies to thrive, I think discrimination is the biggest taboo and our racist theory we have grown up to associate darkness with the lowly and the unclean and therefore, the undesirable. Choudhary laments at how We are discovering Mars, but at the end of the day, still paying money demanding a fair bride. She also says that there is a need for schools to rework the way they teach. If a three-year-old wants to be a princess, they should jolly well be one irrespective of their gender, skin-tone and so on, shares the film student from New York University.

My skin tone gave me the courage to fight

Nirmala Devi, 45, tea-vendor, Chandigarh (HT Photo)

All of 45, Nirmala Devis marriage was a compromise due to her dark skin. My parents never discriminated between my siblings and me, but society did and being the darkest of them all, I was forced into getting married to a sharaabi(drunkard) because I was made to feel I wouldnt get anyone better, says Devi while serving tea to a police constable in Chandigarhs Sector 36 market. Some 28 years into her marriage, shes the earning member of a family of seven including her grandchildren. Nirmala has been selling tea and home-cooked for the past 19 years. I think I have somewhere down made up for what was a compromise, by at least ensuring that I can protect my loved ones, says Devi who doesnt distinguish between her sons and daughter-in-laws, fair or dark, as she explains.

In India, only fair skin is good skin

Sonia Mariam Thomas, 22, journalist, Mumbai.

Sonia Mariam Thomass mother, like most Indian moms, ran behind her daughter with various quick-fix homemade fairness solutions. A girl in school once took my wrist next to hers and said look at the difference, she says adding how she has avoided such comments as an adult only because she has never been uncomfortable with her skin colour. A confident Thomas never felt victimised by the taboo as she questioned it more often than not. I overheard boys favouring a fairer girl over a darker one, she says. She cant help but laugh when people react to her fair south Indian friends Oh, I didnt think youd be a south Indian just because they are fair. The truth remains that we still photoshop our magazine covers to make women look brighter and we still have anti-tan creams and face washes advertising heavily, says the journalist, who used Fair and Lovely for a video for Buzzfeed India titled We tried Fair and Lovely for three weeks so that you dont which explains it all. Somehow, in India, good skin and fair skin mean the same thing and that is the problem, says the 22-year-old who feels the best reaction to someone saying were too dark is as simple as So what?. Our mythology has some beautiful dark-skinned actors and our real lives are surrounded by people like Deepika Padukone, Priyanka Chopra- so why care anymore? Lets grow up, adds Thomas.

First-person account: What my mother told me

By Nirupama Dutt

My mother thought I was the most beautiful creature on earth. She bedecked me in fancy clothes, lined my eyes with kohl and planted a beauty spot on my chin to ward off the evil eye.

But at seven I recall shutting my eyes and praying that when I open them after a minute, I should be fair like Snow White. The miracle never happened.I remained dark as they come.

Now I wonder when did this realisation come that the world around me did not think me to be as lovely as did my mother? Somehow I had missed out on being a beauty. In youth I would be described as charming or attractive but never beautiful.

Was it the influence of fairy tales that cried out Mirror, mirror on the wall, whos the fairest of them all? Or was it the reaction of the very Punjabi world around me and my lighter skinned mother and siblings. My grandmother would exclaim right in my face, Ah! I dreamt that Kunti had a girl so late in life and that too black and the dream came true. Actually, for her it was more of a nightmare coming true.

The first joy came when a novel by popular Hindi writer Shivani being serialised in weekly telling the story of a very beautiful dark woman named Krishnakali, from a Tagore poem. The poem said: I call her my Krishna flower, though they call her dark in the village, Ah, you call her dark! let that be/ her black gazelle eyes I have seen. Next I was irked by a fine Rafi song that said Kahin ek masoom nazuk si ladki/ Bahut khoobsoorat magar sanwali si. I had problems that why magar (although)? And now I call out to all the Krishnakalis of the world to celebrate their colour as never before. You are just as beautiful as you feel.

Skin-lightening treatment hazardous

An increasing number of people are also taking the medical route to get a fair complexion. Dr Vikas Sharma, a skin specialist in Panchkula, says out of a total of 160 patients daily, 30 ask for skin lightening treatment. People are willing to go to any extent, take any number of medicines. However they dont realise that all this has side effects, he says, adding that some patients with adverse impact of previous treatment come to get more lightening without understanding the implications.

Women in the 16-40 age group are most common, but today a large number of men also come for lightening treatment, says the doctor who at times tries to counsel people to not go in for treatments that could even be prove to be fatal.

The intravenous injection is a recent discovery to lighten skin tone which has Glutaehione which can be extremely hazardous, adds the doctor.

- Dr Vikas Sharma, Panchkula-based skin specialist

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The revolving door at the glitzy Trump Tower spun once again this week for yet another shakeup of the Republican nominees chaotic presidential campaign team.

This time to welcome a new member, Stephen Bannon, a hard-charging, colourful media executive who has taken over as the campaigns chief executive, the big Kahuna.

Kellyanne Conway, a pollster who supported his rival Ted Cruz during the primaries but had been working with him for a while now, was promoted as the new campaign manager.

They are extremely capable, highly qualified people who love to win and know how to win, Donald Trump said, announcing the appointments, adding they share my message and vision.

On Friday, the sidelined campaign chairman Paul Manafort, a one-time lobbyist whose links to Ukraine had come under scrutiny recently, left through the same door.

Just two months ago, Manafort had engineered the ouster of then campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, a combative figure who had also fallen foul of the three Trump children.

With less than three months left for November 8 elections, Trumps circle of advisers, both close and not-so-close, has constantly been in a state of flux .

Trump Family

The Republican nominees wife, Melania Trump, has been a reluctant campaigner. But his three children, Don, Ivanka and Eric form a tight-knit group of advisers for the nominee, with Ivankas husband Jared Kushner, also a real estate businessman, receiving the maximum attention. He has been called the de facto campaign manager after engineering the ouster of then campaign manager Corey Lewandowski.

Kushner, a boyish 35-year-old has been the subject of multiple newsmagazine profiles. He is believed to have prevented Trump from picking Chris Christie as his running mate, because the New Jersey governor had as US attorney in 2005, brought down Kushners father Charles Kushner and thrown him in jail.

Kushner, who is Jewish, also helped his father-in-law reach out to the powerful Jewish lobby, and helped him deal with blowback from an anti-semitic re-tweet.

Campaign Team

Chief executive Stephen Bannon, a one-time Wall Street executive who headed ultra-conservative Breitbart News before going the Trump campaign, is a colourful and combative figure much in the mould of the Republican nominee himself. He has been a harsh critic of the Republican party establishment and has encouraged Trump to run as himself, an outsider with a strong populist message and appeal. He has been called the most dangerous political operative in America for his readiness to play hard and rough.

Campaign manager Kellyanne Conway is a veteran Republican party pollster and strategist who had headed a political action group backing Ted Cruz during the primaries.

Shadow Advisers

The ousted head of Fox News Roger Ailes, who has been a long-time friend, is said to be helping the nominee prepare for the debates. Ailes brings a formidable reputation and experience to the job having helped three Republican presidents do this before  Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George H W Bush. He is best known for making Nixon, a very awkward candidate with negligible personal charms, acceptable.

Roger Stone, a long-time Republican party operative who has often been called the dirty trickster for his willingness to fight dirty. He is supposed to be close to Trump despite leaving the campaign last August.

Former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski who was fired in June is still close to Trump who continues to consult him regularly, as perhaps the most steadfast supporter of the Let-Trump-Be-Trump approach. For a brief time, Lewandowski had made it his lifes mission to sully Paul Manafort, with whom he had clashed as campaign manager.

Transition Team

New Jersey governor Chris Christie, a long time friend of the presidential nominee, heads the transition team which would lay the groundwork for Trumps presidency if win. He has been a close adviser and was among those shortlisted as potential vice president before Trump chose Mike Pence as his running mate.

Christie is often spoken of as a possible attorney general in a Trump administration.

Foreign Policy/National Security

When asked about his foreign policy advisers, Trump once cited himself as one, saying he has a pretty good brain. That may still be true, but he has since acquired real advisers with some real experience. Senator Jeff Sessions, one of Trumps earliest backers, heads the campaigns foreign policy shop and shapes his belligerent views on immigration.

Retired general Micheal Flynn, who headed the Defense Intelligence Agency, was one of the few national security experts to have backed the Republican nominee, and has been called Trumps favourite general. He accompanied the nominee to his first intelligence briefing this week.

Economic Team

Trumps economic team is a 13-member group of billionaires led by Stephen Mnuchin, with no women. Another billionaire friend Carl Icahn, who was frequently mentioned by Trump on the campaign trail, was left out to start a political action committee in support of the nominee.
The trailer for American film director Terrence Malicks debut documentary, Voyage of Time: Lifes Journey, has been revealed. It features Australian actress Cate Blanchett as its narrator.

The upcoming feature -- 30 years in the making -- explores our planetary past and a search for humanitys place in the future and merges innovative special effects with awe-inspiring footage from around the globe in search of what lasts, what endures, through times changing scenes, as described in the films official synopsis.

Read: Cate Blanchett is pure evil in Thor: Ragnarok, says Mark Ruffalo

In making the 90-minute film, Malick has been assisted by VFX supervisor Dan Glass, who worked with the filmmaker on The Tree of Life. An alternate cut, called Voyage of Time: The IMAX Experience, will run 45 minutes in length, with narration from Brad Pitt (via EW).

Read: In pics | The top 20 absolutely stunning movie posters of 2015

Voyage of Time premieres October 7 on IMAX screens.

First trailer for Terrence Malicks Voyage of Time: lifes journey narrated by https://t.co/ezM43YyMso pic.twitter.com/Uy3qR5pNFd  Cate-Blanchett.com (@blanchettcom) August 19, 2016

ott:10:ht-entertainment_listing-desktop
Beirut

The older brother of a Syrian boy whose image, dazed and bloodied after an air strike, shocked people around the world, has died in Aleppo from wounds sustained in the same incident, a war monitor, a local council official and a witness said.

Ali Daqneesh, 10, was wounded in Wednesdays air strike, according to UK-based monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, and a witness who was present at the time of the death along with the boys father.

He was martyred while in hospital as a result of the same bombardment that their house was subjected to, said Besher Hawi, the spokesperson for the local council of Aleppo.

He had internal bleeding and organ damage, doctors told the witness.

His younger brother, five-year-old Omran Daqneesh, was pictured in the back of an ambulance after being pulled from the rubble, with an expression of incomprehension on his dust- and blood-caked face.

Five-year-old Omran Daqneesh, with bloodied face, sits with his sister inside an ambulance after they were rescued following an airstrike in the rebel-held al-Qaterji neighbourhood of Aleppo. (REUTERS)

The video and pictures were widely circulated online and in the media, refocusing public opinion on Syrias five-year-old civil war and the plight of civilians, particularly in Aleppo.

Russian and Syrian warplanes have intensified their air strikes on the rebel-held east of the city since insurgents made an advance last month, breaking an effective siege.

Fighting and air strikes in and around Aleppo have killed 448 civilians so far this month, the Observatory said.

Rebels, supported by the United States, Turkey and Gulf Arab nations, have been fighting since 2011 to oust President Bashar al-Assad, who is supported by Russia and Iran.

Russia began air strikes last September. On Friday, the World Food Programme described the situation in besieged areas as nightmarish amid growing international concern over the humanitarian cost of the war in Syria.

Russia on Thursday said it supported the idea of weekly 48-hour ceasefires to allow humanitarian aid to enter besieged parts of Aleppo, a plan the rebels also cautiously welcomed.
The ban on the Islamic burkini swimsuit on some French beaches has triggered disdain in English-speaking countries, where outlawing religion-oriented clothing is seen as hampering integration.

Newspaper commentators have condemned the ban as an absurdity, and one questioned how a burkini could be more offensive than middle-aged bum crack bursting out from traditional Western beachwear.

And experts said the debate raised questions about the French one-size-fits-all model of integration.

In Britain, the full-face veil is not an uncommon sight in towns and city districts with big Muslim populations, but ostensibly does not stir as strong a reaction as in France.

One of the worlds most secular countries, France strongly separates religion and public life. Defenders of the policy say a common arena without religious connotations helps avoid sectarian conflicts and encourages equality.

As a result, the burkini  like the burqa before it  has come under fire in France. Some deem it a garment that channels radical Islam and oppresses women.

It is the expression of a political project, a counter-society, based notably on the enslavement of women, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said of the burkini on Wednesday.

Such views are widely contested in Britain, both on the grounds of tolerance and practicality.

Britains best-known example of burkini-wearing was not by a Muslim but by TV chef Nigella Lawson, who hit the headlines in 2011 when she wore a black version of it on Bondi Beach in Sydney.

Wetsuit demonisation

Tunisian women, one wearing a burkini, a full-body swimsuit designed for Muslim women, walk in the water at Ghar El Melh beach near Bizerte, northeast of the capital Tunis. (AFP)

A BBC look at the issue found women in Britain speaking in favour of the burkini and saying it aided integration.

The burkini allows me the freedom to swim and go on the beach, and I dont feel I am compromising my beliefs for that, Aysha Ziauddin told the broadcaster.

Maryam Ouiles said: Its outrageous that you would effectively be asked to uncover some flesh or leave. People are always complaining that Muslims should integrate more, but when we join you for a swim thats not right either.

Commentator David Aaronovitch, writing in The Times newspaper, said only warped minds would impose a burkini ban. The idea that full-length clothing provokes attacks on the wearer, as the French suggest, displays a poisonous logic, he said.

No problems are solved by this French absurdity, only new ones created, he wrote.

Remona Aly, the communications director for the Exploring Islam Foundation, produced a list of five reasons to wear a burkini  and not just to annoy the French.

Nothing says losing the plot to me more than demonising what is, lets face it, a wetsuit, she wrote in The Guardian newspaper. Is full-piece swimwear really more offensive than seeing a middle-aged bum crack?

Assimilation vs multiculturalism

Sara Silvestri, who specialises in religion and politics at City University London, said Frances approach to integration was one of assimilation, whereas Britain had encouraged multiculturalism.

Neither country could claim success, she said.

Both models of integration are in crisis: they are no longer applied or understood in a clear-cut manner, and both countries are looking at each other to learn lessons and potentially modify the way in which they deal with minorities, she told AFP.

Patrick Simon, an international migration and minorities expert at the French Institute for Demographic Studies, said the burkini debate was driving the impression that minorities, rather than the structure of French society, were the problem.

There is a difficulty in the French integration model in accepting cultural and religious practices in the public domain, he told AFP.

Recent terror attacks bolstered the notion that diversity could threaten national cohesion, he said. The state discourse has gone from one of tolerance to one of exclusion regarding one section of society.

In the United States, the ban was being seen as illogical  imposing rules to stop women having to obey rules.

The ban is about more than religion or clothing, Amanda Taub wrote in The New York Times newspaper. It is about protecting Frances non-Muslim majority from having to confront a changing world.

The burkini was invented about a decade ago by Australian designer Aheda Zanetti, who spotted a gap in the market for Islamic sportswear. Zanetti told AFP she was frustrated the word now had negative connotations.

French politicians symbolise it as an Islamic term in a bad way when its really just a word, she said.
Nepals newly elected Prime Minister, Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda, has sent a message to PM Narendra Modi, admitting errors in the past, reaffirming his commitment to friendship with India, promising efforts to forge an inclusive constitutional settlement, and seeking closer development cooperation.

In a meeting with Modi, Prachandas special envoy and Nepals deputy PM and home minister Bimalendra Nidhi said his PM wanted to convey he had made mistakes in the past since he was not experienced in the ways of open politics. But he was now committed to friendship with India.

The PM is aware that Nepals development is not possible without cooperation with India, and wants to convey his deep commitment to the relationship, said Nidhi, according to a top official present at the meeting.

Modi, in return, said that Nepal has a special place in his heart, and India would do everything possible to assist Nepal to fulfil its aspirations. He also referred to Prachandas upcoming visit to India  tentatively scheduled for September 15-18.

Please tell the PM that while the government will of course welcome him, I will personally welcome him to India, Modi told Nidhi, another official at the meeting told HT.

Sources told HT that the meeting was very warm, positive, and forward-looking. Nidhi also had a separate one-on-one, 15-minute meeting with PM Modi. On Friday, he had met external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj, and also held a one-on-one meeting with his Indian counterpart Rajnath Singh.

Nidhi reminded the PM of his well-received speech to the Nepali Constituent Assembly back in 2014, and said, Some of your phrases have become household phrases in Nepal...You also told us to take everyone along in the constitution-writing process. Our government is committed to it.

This assumes significance, for India had advised Nepali political elites to take Madhesi aspirations on board in the constitution writing process last year. The advice was disregarded, resulting in the deterioration of bilateral relations. But the new government has taken symbolic steps to reach out to the Madhesis and is planning to register a constitutional amendment before Prachanda departs for Delhi.

Modi told Nidhi that India fully supports all such efforts.

Nidhi spoke of the need for development cooperation  and referred repeatedly to the Hulaki Road project, an east to west postal road in the Tarai, close to the Indian border, which has suffered many delays. Under a new modality, India is financing the project and offering consultants, while Nepal is responsible for land acquisition and the actual construction. Modi said that he is personally overseeing the implementation of projects, and there is a similar effort in the MEA to track projects.

Nidhi also asked for greater assistance on earthquake reconstruction, and extended an invitation to Modi to visit Janakpur, where Ram and Sita got married according to the Ramayana legend, and Lumbini, the birthplace of the Buddha, in Nepal  sites which Modi had been unable to visit during his last trip during the Saarc summit.

Modi is said to have interjected and said, Yes, there is Muktinath too, another religious site in the upper reaches of Nepal. Whether Modi will be able to fit in a third visit to the northern neighbour is however uncertain.

After Prachandas visit, President Pranab Mukherjee is scheduled to travel to Nepal in early October, and Nepals President, Bidya Bhandari, may come to India in December.

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An Indian-origin US college student who was ejected from a Donald Trump rally has said hes gone from avid backer to disillusioned opponent because he feels he was racially profiled.

Jake Anantha, an 18-year-old student of Central Piedmont Community College, was removed from the rally on Thursday after Trumps security staff accused him of being a known protester, The Charlotte Observer reported.

He is registered as a Republican and planned to cast his first vote for Trump. CNN reported he was wearing a pro-Trump shirt with another pro-Trump shirt underneath.

Anantha and his father, Ramesh Anantha, who works in financial services, said they believed he was profiled because of his dark skin. I do think its because Im brown, Anantha was quoted as saying.

He was approached by a member of Trumps security team and then ushered out by police from the Charlotte Convention Center before the rally began. Anantha was told he resembled another man who has previously disrupted Trumps rallies.

Its unbelievably ironic, said Ramesh Anantha, whose parents immigrated from India. He said his son, as a young person of color appearing at a rally where Trump spoke about his support for people of color, should have been looked at as a perfect Trump supporter.

Anantha added, Im a huge Trump supporter. I would never protest against Trump.

Explaining his political beliefs, Anantha said described himself as a conservative and expressed views similar to those of Trump, including opposition to Black Lives Matter protesters and his belief that radical Islam is a large threat to the US.

Anantha tweeted later that he would vote for Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson in the presidential elections in November.

I couldnt believe what was going on, he was quoted as saying by CNN. Obviously now Im very angry. Ive wasted a bunch of time coming here. I may have wasted six months of my life supporting Donald Trump, who doesnt even let me come to his rallies.

Kirk Bell, communications director for Trumps North Carolina campaign, said the security team identified those individuals asked to leave as individuals who have been removed from previous events.

In Ananthas case, the identification was made by Trumps security director, former FBI agent Eddie Deck, Bell said.

Trumps rallies have been marked by confrontations between protesters who disrupt speeches and the candidates supporters and security staff. Rose Hamid, a Charlotte Muslim who has appeared at several rallies to peacefully protest Trumps depiction of Muslims, was also ejected from Thursdays event.

Trump has struggled to gain support among minority voters. Only 2% of African-American voters and 26% of Latino voters say they back him, according to a McClatchy-Marist poll.

In his speech in Charlotte, Trump spoke of his desire to connect with people of color. He talked about working with African-Americans to improve public education and fight poverty.

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It's so hot ...

How hot is it?

Well, we haven't received any reports of chickens laying hard-boiled eggs or cows giving cappuccino froth, but you get the idea.

High temperature records from Oregon State University's weather station at Hyslop Farm weren't immediately available Friday, but the National Weather Service said its stations in the Albany area were at 100 or 101 degrees as of 3 that afternoon and might have still had a ways to go.

If Hyslop's stations show the same highs by the time all temperatures are logged for Friday, that would be a new record for the date. Hyslop figures show record highs of 99 for both Aug. 19 (set in 1951) and Aug. 20 (set in 2015). The usual temperature for the mid-valley in August is somewhere in the mid-80s.

The National Weather Service has issued an excessive heat warning until 9 tonight for much of northwest Oregon, reminding people to take special care with children, the elderly, anyone without air conditioning, and anyone working outside.

And while temperatures are predicted to cool off at least a little by Sunday  possibly by as much as 10 to 15 degrees  they could be right back up to the mid-90s by the middle of the week, said Colby Neuman, NWS meteorologist.

"It doesnt look as extreme of this current one, but I would say the odds of returning to the 90s is a pretty good bet for the middle of next week and basically lasting to the latter half of next week," he said.

The Albany Fire Department responded to one heat-related illness this week and is reminding residents to "stay cool, stay hydrated and stay informed," Assistant Fire Chief Shane Wooton said.

The fire department advises staying in air-conditioned buildings as much as possible, avoiding direct sunlight and wearing lightweight, light-colored clothing.

Libraries, senior centers, Heritage Mall and other places with air conditioning are good places to visit during the heat wave, he said.

"If you feel you are getting too hot, take a cool shower or bath. If you know someone that might be vulnerable, check on them twice a day," he said. "People should also drink more water than usual. Dont wait until youre thirsty to drink more. Also, remind those around you to drink enough water."

Wooton said to watch for symptoms of heat exhaustion, which are heavy sweating, weakness, cold/pale/clammy skin, a fast and weak pulse and loss of consciousness.

A heat stroke, which is more dangerous, causes hot, red, dry or moist skin and a rapid and strong pulse. Heat stroke can also lead to possible unconsciousness, he said.

"Our department cant stress enough for people not to overexert themselves and stay in or find somewhere where with air conditioning, especially during the extreme heat," Wooton said.

He added: "If you plan to head toward the river to cool off, please remember that you can visit any of our stations and borrow the loaner life jackets provided by the Albany Firefighters Community Assistance Fund."
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made history last November by appointing four Indo-Canadians to his cabinet. Now, hes made some more by giving the added responsibility of being Leader of the Government in the House of Commons to Bardish Chagger, making her the first woman to hold the post in Parliament.

This is a fairly significant promotion for the 36-year-old, first-term MP from Waterloo in the province of Ontario. Chagger was the first Indo-Canadian woman to become a minister when she was appointed as the minister of small business and tourism.

In a brief statement on Friday, Trudeau expressed his confidence that Chagger will be a worthy successor to Dominic LeBlanc, who also holds the portfolio for fisheries, oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard.

With her added responsibility, Chagger will be a key player in the lower house of the Parliament for shepherding legislation through the House of Commons. She will face the challenging task of working with opposition parties to further Trudeaus agenda.

Chagger indicated she may opt for a cooperative stance. She told the media in Ottawa, the Canadian capital and seat of its Parliament, I really do believe that we can all work together.

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India is not engaged in any proxy war in Afghanistan and has been sincerely carrying out reconstruction work there, former Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Saturday, even as he slammed Pakistan for encouraging radicalism and not containing terror groups operating from its soil.

Karzai also appreciated Prime Minister Narendra Modi for raising the issue of Balochisthan in his Independence Day address, saying Afghanistan understands the problems being faced by the people of Pakistans southern province.

In an interactive session on Regional Power Play and Rise of Radicalism in Afghanistan, he identified terrorism as the single biggest challenge facing the region and called for a united fight to defeat it.

Karzai, who was president of Afghanistan from 2001-14, said China has been a good neighbour to Afghanistan and its military and security assistance to his country was very recent. At the same time, he said that Afghanistans ties with China are not as deep as it is with India.

But the overall relationship between China and Afghanistan is of course very good, he added.

Asked about criticism in some quarters that India and Pakistan were engaged in a proxy war in his country, Karzai retorted by saying, India is not engaging in any proxy war in Afghanistan...Training thousands of Afghans is not a proxy war, it is empowerment.

India has supplied four Mi-25 helicopters to Afghanistan besides providing training to the Afghan security forces.

Welcoming Modis comments, Karzai said, The issue of Balochisthan is something we understand and therefore we appreciate the remarks of Prime Minister Modi.

In his Independence Day speech on Monday, Modi had talked about the situation in PoK, Gilgit and Balochistan and said people from there have thanked him for raising their issues.

Karzai attacked Pakistan for encouraging spread of radicalism. Unfortunately, in our region there was use of radicalism to a purpose, he said.

About spread of dreaded terror outfit Islamic State, he said the Islamic State is a sinister tool, adding tomorrow it will be against the ones using it. He said Afghanistan and all its neighbouring countries must work together to combat IS.

Today I can use it, tomorrow I can discard it. Thats a very dangerous strategy, he said, while asking Pakistan to deal with terror groups firmly.

He said religion and aspirations to be a democratic country have nothing to do with one another.

In an apparent reference to Pakistan, he rejected promotion of religion as an instrument of foreign policy. He also sounded critical of the US for its role in the region.

Karzai appealed to Pakistan to join hands with Afghanistan in addressing various problems without use of radicalism.
North Korea said Saturday that a senior diplomat who recently defected to South Korea is a criminal and human scum, in its first official response to the defection.

The official Korean Central News Agency also accused Seoul of using the defection of Thae Yong Ho, formerly a minister, at the North Korean Embassy in London, for propaganda aimed at insulting the North Korean leadership. It also denounced the British government for ignoring international protocol by rejecting what it said were demands to have Thae extradited back to the North and instead handing him over to the South.

KCNA said North Korea had ordered Thae to return to the North in June to be investigated for a series of crimes, including embezzling government funds, leaking confidential secrets and sexually assaulting a minor.

It said that Thae should have received legal punishment for the crimes he committed, but he discarded the fatherland that raised him and even his own parents and brothers by fleeing, thinking nothing but just saving himself, showing himself to be human scum who lacks even an elementary level of loyalty and even tiny bits of conscience and morality that are required for human beings.

In announcing the defection, Seouls Unification Ministry said Wednesday that Thae was the second-highest North Korean official at the embassy and the most senior North Korean diplomat ever to defect to South Korea. In 1997, the North Korean ambassador to Egypt fled but resettled in the United States.

The ministry said that Thae decided to defect because of his disgust with the government of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, his yearning for South Korean democracy and worries about the future of his children.

The Unification Ministry didnt immediately respond to a request for comment about North Koreas claims on Saturday.

More than 29,000 North Koreans have defected to South Korea since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, according to the South Korean government. Many defectors have said they wanted to leave North Koreas harsh political system and poverty. Pyongyang often accuses the South of deceiving or paying its citizens to defect, or claims that they have simply been kidnapped.

In April, 13 North Koreans working at a North Korean-operated restaurant in China defected to South Korea. It was the largest group defection since Kim took power in late 2011. Later in April, South Korea also revealed that a colonel in North Koreas military spy agency had defected to the South last year.

Most South Korean analysts say its premature to take the defections of Thae and other senior officials as indicators that the unity of North Koreas ruling elite is starting to crack because there are no significant signs that Kims grip on power is weakening.

South Korea doesnt always make high-level defection cases public. Its announcement of Thaes defection came with ties between the rivals at one of their lowest points in decades following the Norths nuclear test and long-range rocket launch earlier this year.

North Korea recently has expressed anger at a US plan to place an advanced missile defense system in South Korea. The North has warned of unspecified retaliation and fired several missiles into the sea earlier this month.
Haggard and covered in blood, little Omrans blank stare shook the world. But across war-torn Syria, thousands of children like him are traumatised by daily life under bombs and siege.

The footage of the shell-shocked four-year-old made headlines around the world and was dubbed by Washington the real face of Syrias five-year war.

Omrans case isnt rare -- we treat dozens of cases like him every day, with wounds that are typically worse, Dr Abu al-Baraa, a paediatrician in a rebel-held eastern neighbourhood of Aleppo, told AFP.

The footage from activists at the Aleppo Media Centre shows Omran sitting quietly in an ambulance, his bare, dust-covered feet barely reaching the edge of the orange chair.

He touches his forehead with a tiny hand and seems surprised to see blood on his fingers -- then wipes it off on the orange chair with the timidity of a child who feels he has done something wrong.

There are thousands of stories of wounded children whose limbs have been blown off, with wounds to the stomach and head, said Dr Abu al-Baraa.

A bombing raid on the rebel-held district of Salhin in Aleppo killed seven people on Thursday and wounded many more, he added.

Read: Theyve nothing to do with wars: Bloodied photo of Syrian boy haunts the world

One child was wounded in the chest and head. We tried to stop the bleeding and give him a transfusion, but he was in critical condition and he died.

He was almost six years old. These are the cases we see every day.

Despite the international outcry, Dr Abu al-Baraa said nothing would change.

The world can see videos of children every day on YouTube, the children dying in the raids, stuck under the rubble. But the world isnt focusing on this. These are just empty words.

Omrans haunting photo has sparked a series of caricatures and edited images.

In one, Omran sits unassumingly between US President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, deep in discussion.

In another, the toddler occupies the seat held by Syria at the Arab League, as if to criticise international inaction on the crisis.

And Sudanese artist Khaled Albaih drew Omran near Aylan Kurdi, the three-year-old whose tiny body washed up on a Turkish beach in September after a desperate attempt by his family to reach Europe by boat.

Choices for Syrian children, reads the bold text over the picture. Omrans blank stare is captioned with if you stay, and Aylans crumpled body with if you leave.

Online supporters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, meanwhile, shared photographs of children wounded in rebel fire on government-held parts of Aleppo city.

Once Syrias economic hub, Aleppo has been divided by government control in the west and opposition fighters in the east since 2012.

Regime warplanes, backed by Russias air force since September 2015, bombard the eastern districts while rebel groups fire rockets into the west.
Samer al-Ahmed remembers the size of the small hatch near the bottom of his cell door because he was regularly forced to squeeze his head through it. The prison guards would then straighten it out, so his throat was pressed against the edge of the hatch, and jump on his head with all their weight, until blood started flowing across the floor.

It is one of the many methods of torture used in Saydnaya military prison, Syrias most notorious jail, a hidden complex now brought to life in a harrowing interactive digital model as part of Amnesty Internationals work to raise awareness of the darkest untold stories of President Assads brutal regime.

A black spot on the human rights map, the high-security prison has been off limits to journalists and monitoring groups in recent years. It stands 25km north of Damascus, near the ancient Saydnaya monastery where Christians and Muslims have prayed together for centuries. A mute concrete trefoil is discernible from Google Earth, standing in the centre of a 100-hectare desert compound. Nothing has been known about what goes on inside until now.

Read | Blood and soot: Haunting image of Syrian boy rescued from Aleppo rubble

To coincide with the launch of a damning new report, which estimates that 17,723 people have died in custody in Syria since the crisis began in March 2011, Amnesty has collaborated with the Forensic Architecture agency at Goldsmiths, University of London, to reconstruct the site.

As we pieced together the model, we realised the building isnt only a space where incarceration, surveillance and torture take place, says Eyal Weizman, director of Forensic Architecture, but that the building is, itself, an architectural instrument of torture.

Is this the worst place on earth? See inside Syria's most notorious torture prison, Saydnaya https://t.co/mBsJktMO8C pic.twitter.com/xlRymxtdUU  Amnesty UK (@AmnestyUK) August 18, 2016

The architecture of public truth

Weizmans provocative work  tagged the architecture of public truth  has tackled everything from the spatial strategies of the Israeli Defence Force in Palestine to mapping drone strikes in Afghanistan and the topography of genocide in the Guatemalan jungle. His team is practically unique in the field of architectural forensics, using the designers spatial toolkit to build damning bodies of evidence used in both UN investigations and trials in the international criminal court.

For Amnesty, the team began an intensive process of interviewing former detainees of Saydnaya prison who escaped across the border to Turkey, to build up a detailed picture of the facility.

Architecture is a conduit to memory, says Weizman, describing how an Arabic-speaking architect built a digital model on screen as detainees described specific memories and events. As they experienced the virtual environment of their cells at eye level, the witnesses had some flashes of recollection of events otherwise obscured by violence and trauma.

Inmates were constantly blindfolded or forced to kneel and cover their eyes when guards entered their cells, so sound became the key sense by which they navigated and measured their environment  and therefore one of the chief tools with which the Forensic team could reconstruct the prison layout. Using a technique of echo profiling, sound artist Lawrence Abu Hamdan was able to determine the size of cells, stairwells and corridors by playing different reverberations and asking witnesses to match them with sounds they remembered hearing in the prison.

Like a form of sonar, the sounds of the beatings illuminated the spaces around them, says Abu Hamdan. The prison is really an echo chamber: one person being tortured is like everyone being tortured, because the sound circulates throughout the space, through air vents and water pipes. You cannot escape it.

Ear-witness testimonies have become a crucial form of evidence, he says, citing the recent examples of the shootings of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown , as well as the Oscar Pistorius case , where sound played a crucial role in unpicking what happened. Unlike vision, sound leaks into other peoples spaces, he adds. People might not be facing an incident, but they can still have an acoustic experience of it.

Deprived of their visual sense for months and years on end, the Saydnaya detainees developed an acute aural sensitivity, able to identify the different sounds of belts, electrical cables or broomsticks on flesh, and the difference between bodies being punched, kicked or beaten against the wall.

You try to build an image based on the sounds you hear, says Salam Othman, a former Saydnaya detainee, in a video interview. You know the person by the sound of his footsteps. You can tell the food times by the sound of the bowl. If you hear screaming, you know newcomers have arrived. When there is no screaming, we know they are accustomed to Saydnaya. During punishments, inmates were forbidden from making a sound. Any squealing only prolonged the torture.

Amnestys reconstruction of Saydnaya prison. (Photograph: Amnesty International/Forensic Architecture.)

Welcome Party

Another detainee recounts details of the welcome party  the terrifying initiation ceremony that awaited new arrivals, fresh off one of the meat fridge trucks used to transport prisoners, clueless to their whereabouts until the doors clanged open. Beatings with metal bars and cables were followed by so-called security checks, during which women in particular were subjected to rape and sexual assault by male guards. As we waited for our turn, we heard the sounds of beating, of people falling out of the truck, we heard people scream, says Jamal Abdou. Everyone was screaming  the guards and the prisoners.

Abdou and Ahmed spent the first five months of their incarceration underground in a freezing-cold solitary confinement cell, a space just 2.35m by 1.65m, designed for one person but used to hold up to 15 people at a time, forced to take turns sitting down in the cramped room. They recall days at a time when the water was cut off, forcing them to drink from the toilet gutter, inducing hallucinations and waves of hysteria when the sound of water dripping through the pipes returned. When I closed my eyes, I started seeing waterfalls, says Ahmed.

The point of recreating this gruesome torture centre in such vivid detail, says Weizman, is twofold. It is not only a tool to induce further testimony, but serves as a powerful form of advocacy: The aim is to get this place shut down and ensure that Assad is no part of any future peace deal. Links on the Amnesty site direct readers to send a message to tell Russia and the US to use their global influence to ensure that independent monitors are allowed in to investigate conditions in Syrias torture prisons.

Read | Russian warplanes strike targets in Syria from Iran base for the first time

For years Russia has used its UN security council veto to shield its ally, the Syrian government, says Amnestys Philip Luther, and to prevent individual perpetrators within the government and military from facing justice for war crimes and crimes against humanity at the international criminal court. This shameful betrayal of humanity in the face of mass suffering must stop now.

For Diab Serriya, who was imprisoned in Saydnaya from 2006 to 2011, the reconstruction serves as a lasting reminder.

I lost five years of my life there, I nearly died there, he says. I just want it to remain so that other generations will see this horrible place, where we were tortured. The world should know its the worst place on earth.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Friday urged African Americans, who have largely stayed away from him, to try him once because they have nothing to lose.

Trump told them they have been let down by the Democratic party, which they have supported and voted for for decades, and they may as well try something new  like him.

Look at how much African American communities are suffering from Democratic control, the nominee told supporters, mostly whites, at a rally in Michigan.

To those I say the following: What do you have to lose by trying something new like Trump? What do you have to lose? he asked, straying from the speech scrolling on the teleprompter.

Then he ad-libbed some more: You live in your poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs, 58% of your youth is unemployed, what the hell do you have to lose?

That was awkward. The headline of a Washington Post analytical piece caught it well: Its hard to imagine a much worse pitch Donald Trump could have made for the black vote.

Though he went off-script in this instance, this was a theme Trump had essayed the day before in North Carolina where he asked for a chance, making the same you-have-nothing-to-lose argument.

Democratic candidate Hillary Clintons campaign hit back saying African Americans had everything to lose by supporting a man who questions the citizenship of the first African American President and calling Trump someone who courts white supremacists, and has been sued for housing discrimination against communities of colour.

Protestors gather outside a rally for US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in Michigan on Friday. (AFP)

Trump is struggling with non-white votes, having antagonised Hispanics with his comment early in the race about Mexicans being criminals and rapists.

He has done no better with African Americans. At a campaign rally in California in June, he called out to a black supporter saying, Look at my African American over there.

Trump has gone on to claim in his bombastic manner that if the community gives him a chance, he will do so much for them he will be polling at 95% support from the community after four years.

For now, however, he is getting only 1% nationally to Clintons 85%, according to a Fox News poll earlier this month. In key swing states Ohio and Pennsylvania, he is scoring zero.

Among Hispanics, Trump is trailing Clinton by 60 points.

He is running 5.7 points behind his Democratic rival in the RealClearPolitics average of polls nationally, and is fighting a growing perception that his campaign is in trouble.

He parted ways with his campaign chairman Paul Manafort on Friday, two days after naming Stephen Bannon, a hard-charging media executive, his campaign chief executive officer.

This was the second major shake-up of the campaign hierarchy and was generally not taken as a good sign with less than three months to go for the November 8 elections.
The U.S. military has withdrawn from Saudi Arabia its personnel who were coordinating with the Saudi-led air campaign in Yemen, and sharply reduced the number of staff elsewhere who were assisting in that planning, U.S. officials told Reuters.

Fewer than five US service people are now assigned full-time to the Joint Combined Planning Cell, which was established last year to coordinate U.S. support, including air-to-air refuelling of coalition jets and limited intelligence-sharing, Lieutenant Ian McConnaughey, a U.S. Navy spokesman in Bahrain, told Reuters.

That is down from a peak of about 45 staff members who were dedicated to the effort full-time in Riyadh and elsewhere, he said.

The June staff withdrawal, which U.S. officials say followed a lull in air strikes in Yemen earlier this year, reduces Washingtons day-to-day involvement in advising a campaign that has come under increasing scrutiny for causing civilian casualties. A Pentagon statement issued after Reuters disclosed the withdrawal acknowledged that the JCPC, as originally conceived, had been largely shelved and that ongoing support was limited, despite renewed fighting this summer.

The cooperation that weve extended to Saudi Arabia since the conflict escalated again is modest and it is not a blank check, Pentagon spokesman Adam Stump said in a statement.

U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the reduced staffing was not due to the growing international outcry over civilian casualties in the 16-month civil war that has killed more than 6,500 people in Yemen, about half of them civilians.

But the Pentagon, in some of its strongest language yet, also acknowledged concerns about the conflict, which has brought Yemen close to famine and cost more than $14 billion in damage to infrastructure and economic losses.

Even as we assist the Saudis regarding their territorial integrity, it does not mean that we will refrain from expressing our concern about the war in Yemen and how it has been waged, Stump said.

In our discussions with the Saudi-led coalition, we have pressed the need to minimize civilian casualties.

A spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, Brigadier General Ahmed al-Asseri, declined to confirm details about the positioning of U.S. military personnel, but played down such moves.

The relationship between the kingdom and the U.S. is a strategic one. If true, this move reflects something at a tactical level, Asseri told Reuters. The U.S. may move its assets, but that doesnt have any impact on the bilateral relationship between the countries.

Hospital strike

Since the campaign began, the U.S. military has conducted an average of two refuelling sorties every day and provided limited intelligence support to the coalition. That assistance continues, officials said.

Still, the Pentagon has long distanced itself from the Saudi-led coalitions decisions on targeting.

At no point did U.S. military personnel provide direct or implicit approval of target selection or prosecution, Stump said.

The JCPC had also largely wrapped up an earlier effort to advise the Saudi-led coalition on steps to prevent civilian casualties, the Pentagon said.

An annual U.N. report on children and armed conflict said the Saudi-led coalition was responsible for 60 percent of child deaths and injuries in Yemen last year. Saudi Arabia has said the report is based on inaccurate information.

On Tuesday, a coalition air strike hit a hospital operated by medical aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres in Yemen, killing 19 people and prompting the group to evacuate staff from six hospitals. MSF cited a loss of confidence in the Saudi-led coalition to prevent fatal attacks.

U.S. Representative Ted Lieu, a Democrat from California and a colonel in the Air Force Reserve, said he believed such strikes could help galvanise votes for limiting arms transfers to Saudi Arabia.

When its repeated air strikes that have now killed children, doctors, newlyweds, patients, at some point you just have to say: Either Saudi Arabia is not listening to the United States or they just dont care, Lieu said.
The US military has slashed the number of intelligence advisers directly supporting the Saudi-led coalitions air war in Yemen, the US Navy said on Saturday.

The reassignment of personnel, around June, occurred because there was not the same sort of requests coming in for assistance from the Saudis, Fifth Fleet spokesman Lieutenant Ian McConnaughey told AFP from Bahrain.

Saudi Arabia has faced repeated criticism from rights groups over civilian casualties in its 17-month-long campaign against rebels in Yemen.

US officials have regularly urged their major Middle East ally to avoid harming non-combatants in Yemen.

But McConnaughey said the US reassignment of personnel does not affect their ability to support the Saudis and is a more efficient allocation of resources.

Thats the main reason behind it, and its based on the amount of requests that we receive from the Saudis.

He said the United States now has a limited number, less than five, that are working directly on the advisory cell that we have here.

That number is down from about 45, in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, at its peak. The joint cell was established around the start of coalition operations in March last year, McConnaughey said.

The Arab coalition began air raids and later sent in ground forces to support the internationally recognised government of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi after Houthi rebels and their allies overran much of Yemen.

Saudi Arabia says the rebels are backed by its Shiite regional rival Iran.

The coalition has told AFP that it uses highly accurate laser and GPS-guided weapons -- many of them supplied by the US -- and that it verifies targets many times in order to avoid civilian casualties.

Yet allegations of strikes on civilian facilities have continued.

Paris-based Doctors Without Borders (MSF) on Thursday accused the coalition of indiscriminate bombings and said it had lost confidence in the alliances ability to prevent fatal attacks on its facilities.

MSF decided to withdraw staff from six hospitals after 19 people died in an air strike Monday on an MSF-supported hospital in Yemens rebel-held northern province of Hajja.

That was the fourth and deadliest attack yet on an MSF facility during the war, the charity said.

US State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau expressed deep concern after reports of the hospital strike.

A coalition investigative team is conducting independent probes into the hospital strike and an air raid two days earlier on a Koranic school which MSF said killed 10 children.

McConnaughey said the US cooperation with Saudi Arabia mostly involves imagery that allows them to better assess the situation on the ground, and then advice and assistance.

He said intelligence is still being provided to the Saudis.

The only difference is its based on the demand signal. Were not going to basically have a bunch of people available if theres no immediate request for them.

The spokesman for the coalition could not be immediately reached.
The worlds largest bloc of Muslim countries expressed concern on Saturday over alleged human rights violations in Kashmir, which has seen weeks of deadly clashes between protesters and police.

Iyad Madani, secretary-general of the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, said at a news conference in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad that the situation in Kashmir was deteriorating and urged the international community to act.

Read: Elderly couple injured in midnight firing by security forces in Kashmir

The situation is getting worse rather than better and this cannot continue, Madani said after meeting with Sartaj Aziz, the foreign affairs adviser to Pakistans prime minister.

We should not be afraid of referendum, Madani said, adding that it was up to the Kashmiri people to decide their future.

Standing next to him at the news conference, Aziz accused Indian forces of using lethal force against Kashmiris protesting peacefully over extrajudicial killings. He said a peaceful solution to the dispute over the region is an imperative for regional peace and stability.

Read: Kashmir Opposition leaders meet President, accuse Modi govt of failure

Kashmir has been gripped with violence since July 9, a day after security forces killed top militant, Burhan Wani, in a gunfight. At least 67 people have been killed and over 4,000 injured in clashes with security forces since then.

The Pakistani foreign secretary Aizaz Chaudhry has invited his Indian counterpart S Jaishankar for talks in Islamabad later this month on the Kashmir dispute, but the Indian side has said the talks should focus on aspects related to cross-border terrorism and rejected Pakistans self-serving allegations on Jammu and Kashmir.

India has also said the foreign secretary-level talks would focus on the earliest possible vacation of Pakistans illegal occupation of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir.
Federal health officials on Friday warned pregnant women not to travel to trendy Miami Beach after Florida confirmed that the mosquito-borne Zika virus was active in the popular tourist destination.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also suggested that pregnant women who are especially worried about exposure to Zika - which has been shown to cause the severe birth defect known as microcephaly - might consider avoiding all of Miami-Dade County.

The new warnings represent a challenge to Floridas multibillion dollar tourism industry, with Miami Beach accounting for nearly half of visitor stays in the Greater Miami area. They also heighten concerns over Zikas spread in the continental United States.

In a press conference, Florida Governor Rick Scott said state health officials had identified five cases of Zika believed to be contracted in Miami Beach.

This means we believe we have a new area where local transmissions are occurring in Miami Beach, he said, noting that the state had already stepped up pesticide spraying efforts in this area.

The new transmissions come as Miami-Dade continues to battle Zika in the Wynwood arts neighborhood of Miami, the site of the first locally transmitted cases of Zika in the continental United States. For a graphic of Floridas Zika outbreak, click here.

In Miami Beach, the state believes Zika transmission is confined to a 1.5-square-mile area located between 8th and 28th streets in the popular South Beach neighbourhood. For a graphic of map, click here.

Miami Beach resident Steve Ehrlich, 30, said news of the five cases transmitted somewhere in the blocks around his home was not surprising, but that did not make it any less concerning.

You knew it was going to intermingle all over the place, he said.

And though Ehrlich said and he and his wife Caroline did not have any immediate plans to have more children, any thought of doing so has been indefinitely shelved.

Current CDC guidelines recommend men wait six months after being infected with Zika before trying to have children to avoid passing the virus to a pregnant partner through semen. The recommendations are based on observations that the virus can live in semen as long as 93 days after an infection, but a recent report in the journal Eurosurveillence described two cases in which the virus lingered in semen six months after a person was infected.

The CDC is giving recommendations for how long to wait before you get pregnant, but it seems like no one has a clear grasp on just how long it stays in your system, Ehrlich said. Thats scary for us because we eventually want to have more kids.

Travel expert Henry Harteveldt, founder of travel consultancy Atmosphere Research Group, said the Zika outbreak in South Florida could jeopardize travel in the area.

Even if 1 percent or 2 percent of potential travelers decide not to go to Florida, whether its for leisure or for business, there could be a multi-million dollar hit to the local economy, he said.

In a conference call with reporters on Friday, CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden said there have been at least four other independent instances of mosquito-borne Zika transmission in Miami-Dade county. These were individual cases and did not represent local transmission.

Frieden said it is difficult to determine if cases are locally acquired and whether cases are related. As a result, there may be a time lag in reporting the spread of disease locally.

Given that, Frieden said there could be transmissions that have not been identified throughout Miami, which is why the CDC has advised pregnant women and their sexual partners who are worried about potential exposure to consider avoiding travel to Miami entirely.

Of the five new cases in Miami Beach, one person is a resident of New York, one person is a resident of Texas and one person is a resident of Taiwan.

All three of these people travelled to Miami, Scott said.

Frieden said battling Zika-carrying mosquitoes in this neighbourhood will be especially challenging because the areas high rise buildings will prevent pilots from flying low enough to drop pesticides in aerial spraying campaigns.

The inability to use aerial spraying there means well be limited to using ground-based techniques like backpack spraying, he said.

Frieden said aerial spraying continues to be successful in the Wynwood neighbourhood, where experts have seen substantial but not complete knockdowns of mosquito populations.

Scott said Florida has requested more support from the CDC.

More funding urged

Reporters pressed Scott on the timeliness of the announcement, which was first reported in the Miami Herald on Thursday and was confirmed by many other news outlets on Thursday, including Reuters.

We recognize the desire for information quickly, but it is important that we conduct our interviews and investigations pursuant to epidemiological standards, Scott said.

Reporters charged Scott with underplaying Zika transmission and delaying confirmation to minimize the effect on tourism in the state.

Scott said the state was taking every measure to ensure the information they provided to the public was accurate.

In a press conference later on Friday, however, Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine expressed frustration with Scott and the states health department for keeping him and other elected officials in the dark about the island-citys five locally transmitted Zika cases.

Levine said mayors across Miami received the information at the same time as media.

Its backwards, Levine said.

Levine said he and tourism promotion officials have also sought to get ahead of a panic that could cut into hotel reservations.

Between our efforts and the countys spraying efforts the last thing Id ever want to be is a mosquito on Miami Beach, Levine said.

U.S. Senator Harry Reid, a Democrat, said the transmission of Zika in Miami Beach is the most alarming development yet in the rapidly growing threat of Zika in the United States.

Both Reid and Florida Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican, renewed calls for lawmakers in the House and Senate to return to Washington to authorize funding to help public health officials fight the spread of Zika.

President Barack Obama in February requested $1.9 billion to fight Zika but Congressional efforts to approve part of the funding deadlocked before lawmakers adjourned for the summer.

Earlier on Friday, U.S. health officials published a study estimating that as many as 270 babies in Puerto Rico may be born with the severe birth defect known as microcephaly caused by Zika infections in their mothers during pregnancy.

A public health emergency was declared in the U.S. territory on Aug. 12 after more than 10,000 laboratory-confirmed cases were recorded, including more than a thousand pregnant women.

The condition, in which infants are born with abnormally small heads and underdeveloped brains, is estimated to cost $10 million over the lifetime of one child.

The connection between Zika and microcephaly first came to light last fall in Brazil, which has now confirmed more than 1,800 cases of microcephaly that it considers to be related to Zika infection in the mothers.
When last we checked in with the debate about how best to fund research into the Zika virus, Congress was kicking around various proposals, while evidence was mounting that the virus would be with us for the duration.

That evidence continues to mount, by the way: Florida Gov. Rick Scott said Friday that five new cases have been identified in Miami Beach, some involving tourists. Florida has more than 500 reported cases, and Zika isn't limited to warmer states: Federal officials say there are more than 400 cases in New York City, for example.

The virus has been linked to severe birth defects, including microcephaly, since it surfaced in Brazil about a year ago. Earlier this summer, President Obama, the Senate and the House of Representatives were batting around different proposals for emergency funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, not to mention the various state and local health departments who find themselves battling this new health threat.

You probably can guess what happened next: Congress deadlocked on the matter, and then embarked on its summer recess, the longest such recess in anybody's memory.

There's plenty of blame to go around here: The White House asked for $1.9 billion to combat Zika, but House Republicans balked, noting that the administration had leftover Ebola funds and suggested that the Zika effort start with that cash, according to an account of the controversy in Politico.

The House did pass a $622 million package of additional funds, but Democrats thought that amount was inadequate. Senate Republicans offered a $1.1 billion package, but Senate Democrats blocked that, arguing in part that it was inadequate. (As is usual with these congressional deadlocks, a host of other issues got in the way as well, including yet another attempt to defund the Affordable Care Act.)

When the dust had cleared and Congress had zipped out of Washington, this was the amount of additional money allocated to fight Zika: Zero.

What happens then is that the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and affected health departments nationwide must shortchange other programs in order to garner the money needed to combat Zika. (If this is starting to ring a vague bell, it's because this is pretty much exactly the same situation facing the U.S. Forest Service and its firefighting budget: As firefighting costs rise, the agency must dip into other budgets.)

There's a solution to this, and it actually is similar to a solution that would work for those firefighting costs: Why not establish an emergency fund that can be called upon in a hurry when the next disease, whatever it may be, becomes a threat? Already, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has access to such a fund to speed aid to areas hit by natural disasters such as hurricanes and tornadoes.

There might be times, presumably between health emergencies, when the fund will run low. That's when Congress can bicker about exactly how much money it wants to allocate to refresh the fund.

But we're not optimistic about Congress' ability to move forward with this common-sense solution: After all, it still hasn't been able to enact that relatively simple solution to cover the nation's increasing firefighting tab.

But having an emergency fund ready to go when (not if) the next disease or health threat emerges could remove the need to shortchange other important public health efforts. More importantly, it would increase our ability to respond in a timely manner to the next health threat. After all, viruses move much faster than does Congress.

But these days, pretty much everything moves faster than Congress. (mm)
WASHINGTON: The father of Ami Bera, the only Indian-American in US Congress, has been sentenced to a year in jail for violating election funding laws in his donations to his sons campaign.

Babulal Bera, 85, a retired chemical engineer who immigrated from Gujarat, had pleaded guilty in May, saying, I have, in fact, done the crime.

Prosecutors said he had solicited donations from friends and relatives for Beras first two campaigns in 2010 (which he lost) and 2012 (which he won, for his first term). He had either paid these relatives and friends to make those donations, or repaid them later, after they had contributed. He was funneling his own money through others to get around funding laws that limit individual contributions to $5,000 for primary and general elections together. Prosecutors traced $260,000 in such funding.

He will serve 10 months from the day he starts the jail term.

This is one of the most difficult moments my family has ever experienced. Im absolutely devastated and heartbroken for how todays decision will impact our entire family. But my fathers accepted what he did was wrong, hes taken responsibility, and I love him more than words can express, Ami Bera said in a statement on Thursday.

Bera was found to be unaware about the violation. To date, there is no indication from what weve learned in the investigation that either the congressman or his campaign staff knew of, or participated in, the reimbursements of contributions, acting US attorney Phillip Talbert had said during the trial.
WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama will travel to China next month to attend the G20 Summit which will also be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

This would be Obamas 11th trip to Asia after he became president in January 2009.

Two of these trips have been to India in November 2010 and January 2015.

This trip will highlight the Presidents ongoing commitment to the G20 as the premier forum for international economic cooperation as well as the US Rebalance to Asia and the Pacific, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said in a statement.

On the sidelines of the G20 Summit, Obama is likely to meet Modi, which would be the eighth meeting between the two leaders after Modi became prime minister in May 2014.

While there has been no official word from the White House on this, Modi during his White House joint media interaction in early June had said the two leaders would be meeting in China in September.

Earnest said, in China, Obama will participate in his final G20 Leaders Summit, where he will emphasise the need to continue building on the progress made since 2009 in advancing balanced global economic growth. He will also hold meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Hangzhou.
ISLAMABAD: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modis remarks on Balochistan sparked protests across the Pakistani province and chief minister Sanaullah Zehri accused New Delhi of fomenting terror in the region, stoking fears that bilateral ties could worsen in the coming days.

Foreign Office spokesperson Nafees Zakaria said Modis remarks  especially at a time when relations were frayed by the violence in Kashmir  had further strained ties between the two sides.

Zakaria noted that Tariq Fatemi, the special assistant to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on foreign affairs, had said Modis comments could set back relations in a far more serious manner than anything thats gone before because the Indian premier had crossed a red line by discussing Pakistans internal issues.

Proof of that breakdown came when Pakistan International Airlines announced one of its flights was barred from entering Indian airspace. The PIA flight from Peshawar to Kuala Lumpur was reportedly told to change its route by Indian aviation authorities.

Pakistani media reported the Indian government had not given any response when it was asked about the reason for the PIA flight not being allowed to use Indian airspace.

Analysts in Pakistan warned that barring flights of national carriers from each others airspace would be only one of many steps that the governments could take if bilateral talks break down.

We are also looking at a reduction in trade between the two countries as well as making it difficult for nationals of one country visiting the other, said analyst Mosharraf Zaidi.

Thursdays protests in Balochistan, believed to have been orchestrated by the local government, were held in all major towns of the province. Chief Minister Zehri said the demonstrations and rallies were evidence that Balochistans people did not like what Modi had said about rights violations in the province.

Zehri said the Kashmir and Balochistan issues were entirely different as people of his province were in favour of Pakistan while people in Kashmir were resisting state-sponsored oppression.

He castigated Brahumdagh Bugti, the self-exiled head of the banned Baloch Republican Party, for thanking Modi for taking up the issue of Balochistan. Zehri called Bugti a traitor and said he should have thought about the friends of his grandfather Akbar Bugti who had made many sacrifices for Pakistan.

By saluting Modi, Brahumdagh has proved he is a traitor, Zehri told the media.
WASHINGTON: Donald Trumps campaign chair Paul Manafort resigned on Friday, parting ways with the Republican nominee who is trying to reset his White House race with a long overdue pivot.

Trump began the process this week with a top-level reshuffle of his team, and followed it up with a stunning expression of regret for unspecified offensive remarks at a campaign rally on Thursday.

Sometimes in the heat of debate, and speaking on a multitude of issues, you dont choose the right words or you say the wrong thing. I have done that, Trump told his supporters.

And believe it or not I regret it. I do regret it, particularly where it may have caused personal pain. 

Was he expressing regret about his public feud with Khizr and Ghazala Khan, parents of a fallen Muslim-American soldier, that outraged even his own supporters and allies? Was that about calling Mexicans criminals and rapists? Or for saying Senator John McCain was not a war hero?

The list is long, and he did not specify.

The New York businessman, known for his bombastic style of speaking and combativeness, has rarely if ever backed down in a confrontation or retracted his remarks or apologised.

This was completely out of character, which made pundits and experts wonder if this was part of the long overdue pivot to a more disciplined, traditionally presidential Trump.

The Republican nominee wants to run his campaign the way he ran it during the primaries  by being himself. I am who I am, he said in tweets and multiple interviews.

His advisers have counselled him to run a more disciplined race. While his approach served him well during the primaries, it failed to help him expand his appeal. His poll numbers sank, leaving him trailing Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

After reports appeared recently of chaos in his campaign, Trump brought in Steve Bannon and promoted Kellyane Conway, a pollster already on his roll, as campaign manager.

Manafort, whose earlier career as a lobbyist for some of the worlds most controversial figures had come under intense scrutiny in recent days, was clearly sidelined.

With his exit, Trumps new team will try to shape his campaign the best way it can.
Contrary to earlier reports that its camera will be the iPhone 7's saving grace, it now emerges the shooter on Apple's offering this year may turn out to be its trump card.

According to numerous sources, Apple is likely to introduce Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) for cameras on the 4.7 inch iPhone 7. OIS was until recently available on the larger 5.5-inch 'Plus' iPhones. The rumored iPhone 7 camera is already better than its predecessors with bigger pixels. OIS would take it notches higher and could help Apple position the iPhone 7 as a device capable of high quality photography.

Images purportedly showing an iPhone 7 camera module with OIS are believable as reports about camera improvements have been consistently pouring in from supply chain sources. It began with leaks of dual-camera setup on the larger iPhone 7 Plus followed by leaked images of those camera modules. A dual camera setup could prove a game-changer for iPhone 7 which is perceived to launch amidst pessimism given it does not feature radical design changes. The latest leaks also rule out dual camera for the iPhone 7, ending a months-long mystery.

While Apple has not confirmed specification charts, it is widely accepted the company would release its new phone with the A10 chipset and more RAM than iPhone 6S. The iPhone 7's exterior is said to be identical to its predecessor, sans the headphone jack and straight antenna lines. A second speaker at the bottom is speculated to be part of the iPhone 7.

Recent reports on iPhone 7 release date suggest the phone could go on sale a week later than predicted earlier. It was speculated Apple would release the device on September 16 but it is also likely the phone won't arrive until September 23.

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Next year is going to spell out a big relief from scorching temperatures. It looks like last year's government resolve to fight climate change is going to get support, according to scientists on Wednesday.

Referring to the Goddard Institute for Space Studies Surface Temperature Analysis (GISTEMP) report, NASA chief climate scientist Gavin Schmidt explained: "July 2016 was absolutely the hottest month since the instrumental records began." July 2016 was 1.51 degrees Fahrenheit (0.84 degrees Celcius) warmer than the global temperature average between 1950 and 1980.

The reason behind it is, of course, greenhouse gases and an El Nino event that stoked the Pacific. But this week, NASA said that it is most likely that 2016 will be the warmest year---much more than 2015 and 2014.

It is interesting that El Nino, which is a phenomenon that is heating the eastern Pacific and disturbs weather patterns every two-seven years, is reducing and fading.

"Next year is probably going to be cooler than 2016," said Phil Jones of the Climatic Research Unit at Britain's University of East Anglia. There is no strong La Nina, which is the opposite of El Nino, and which can cool down the planet.

The last known incidence of El Nino was in 1998, which got overtaken only in 2005. It actually led some people to believe that global warming is not the threat that it is made out to be.

"If 2017 is cooler, there will probably be some climate skeptics surfing on this information," said Jean-Noel Thepaut, head of the Copernicus Climate Change Service at the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts.

"The long-term trend is towards warming but there is natural variability so there are ups and downs. The scientific community will have again to explain what is happening," he said.

The 1998 rise in government temperatures could have led to reduced government attention to climate change, linked to increasing heat waves, floods, downpours and rising sea levels.

"One thing that the scientific community needs to be careful about is that they are not gearing up for a new 'hiatus' event," said Glen Peters of the Center for International Climate and Energy Research in Oslo.

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
In a new development, experts have combined satellite imagery with Artificial Intelligence in order to detect global poverty.

With little information on the situations in developing countries, it is difficult to identify the problem. Hence, a team from Stanford University could manage a computer system that identified poor areas from five African countries.

The technique can transform efforts to identify and fight with the challenges of poverty, says the team, with Neal Jean, Marshall Burke and colleagues.

"The World Bank, which keeps the poverty data, has for a long time considered anyone who is poor to be someone who lives on below $1 a day," Dr Burke, assistant professor of Earth system science at Stanford, told the BBC.

"We traditionally collect poverty data through household surveys... we send survey enumerators around to houses and we ask lots of questions about income, consumption - what they've bought in the last year - and we use that data to construct our poverty measures."

AI examines daylight images in order to capture images such as paved roads and metal roofs that can distinguish diverse levels of poverty and prosperity in developing nations.

Scientists also used state-of-the-art to classify different indicators in the images beamed from Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Malawi.

"If you give a computer enough data it can figure out what to look for. We trained a computer model to find things in imagery that are predictive of poverty," said Dr Burke.

"It finds things like roads, like urban areas, like farmland, it finds waterways - those are things we recognise. It also finds things we don't recognise. It finds patterns in imagery that to you or I don't really look like anything... but it's something the computer has figured out is predictive of where poor people are."

When the researchers compared traditional survey data with modern computer models, they found that there was a lot of accuracy in the computer's mapping.

"These things [that the computer model found] are surprisingly predictive of economic livelihoods in these countries," Dr Burke explained.

The plan is to cover the entire sub-Saharan Africa and later the whole of the developing world.

The results are published in the journal Science.

YouTube/Neal Jean

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Michele and Marcus Bachmann are here. She told reporters she's met privately with Trump and is advising him on foreign policy.
Authorities are searching for two men suspected in a robbery last month at a game room in southwest Houston.

The heist happened about 9 p.m . May 6 at the Variety Game Room at 10301 Club Creek Drive, according to the Houston Police Department.
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AUSTIN - The campaign for the White House will knock on Texas' door next week, when Donald Trump will rally voters and collect cash and former President Bill Clinton will raise money for Hillary in cities including San Antonio.

Trump, the unconventional Republican nominee whose campaign's hallmark is turmoil, announced Friday he is adding an Austin rally to previously scheduled fundraisers Tuesday in the state capital and Fort Worth.

Bill Clinton, the high-profile husband of the first woman to receive a major-party nomination for president, will appear at Thursday fundraising receptions in Dallas, Houston and San Antonio to raise money for the Democratic effort, according to invitations obtained by the San Antonio Express-News.

Their visits come after a poll by the Democratic-leaning Public Policy Polling showed Trump only 6 percentage points ahead of Clinton in Texas, an unusually close margin in a state where Democrat hasn't won the day in the presidential race since Jimmy Carter in 1976. Trump's poll performance has been lagging nationally.

While state Democrats hope Clinton can boost their party, there's no real expectation of a Clinton win in Texas. She's not expected to pour big money into the state.

Collecting money here, however, is a different matter.

Texas has long been an important fundraising stop for candidates who spend the money elsewhere.

Besides the practical need for resources, Clinton's ability to raise big money can help her project "a winning campaign," said Rebecca Deen, chair of the political science department of the University of Texas at Arlington. Clinton's campaign already has expressed concern over Trump's ability to raise money when in July he turned his attention to the effort.

Her campaign can say the fundraising "is another measure of our resonance with voters, and that helps to counteract a little bit perhaps her unfavorability rating," Deen said.

Regarding Trump, Deen said, "It's so hard to say anything definitely because you just don't know what's going to happen from day to day or week to week."

She said, however, it would make sense for him to spend his money in battleground states like Ohio and North Carolina, two he already has targeted with his first television ad.

Trump's Texas trip comes in the wake of a campaign shake-up including the Friday resignation of his chief strategist, Paul Manafort.

It's just the latest twist for a campaign in which Trump has upset many Latinos and women with offensive comments and has tangled with the American Muslim parents of an Army captain who was killed in Iraq. Trump this week said he regretted sometimes saying the wrong thing.

Texas officeholders who have backed Trump have done so with varying degrees of public enthusiasm.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick plans to attend the rally and is part of the host committee for the Austin fundraiser. Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller likely will attend at least one event, and perhaps all, said a spokesman.

Gov. Greg Abbott's spokesman, John Wittman, said Abbott would "unfortunately" not be able to attend because he will be receiving ongoing treatment for burns he suffered on a vacation trip last month. Staffs for Attorney General Ken Paxton and Land Commissioner George P. Bush, who heads Republicans' victory effort in Texas, said they had previous commitments.

The Austin host committee for Trump's fundraiser also includes, among others, U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio; Red McCombs, the San Antonio mogul who founded the Red McCombs Automotive Group and co-founded Clear Channel Communications; and Amy Henry Deane, a businesswoman and speaker who was on The Apprentice, a show that was hosted by Trump.

Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr., is touted as a special guest at the Austin event.

Among others listed on the invitation are Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus and Trump's Texas state finance co-chairs - Dennis Nixon, chief executive officer of IBC Bank; and real estate developer Gene Powell, former regent of the University of Texas System.

The price of admission to his Austin fundraiser ranges from $100,000 per couple to $2,700 per person. For his Fort Worth luncheon fundraiser, the cost ranges from $2,700 per person to $250,000 per couple ("give or raise" for the larger amount).

Bill Clinton's fund-raising trip is eagerly anticipated by those who admire the Clinton couple's decades-long ties to the state.

"There's always enthusiasm in San Antonio when it comes to the Clintons. People are always glad to welcome them home, and the state is very excited with the latest poll showing them (Clinton and Trump) six points apart," said Hillary Clinton supporter Choco Gonzalez Meza of San Antonio.

Hosts of the San Antonio fundraiser are businessman Henry R. Munoz, national finance committee chair for the Democratic National Committee, and his partner, Kyle Ferari; and Maria and Jose Villarreal, a lawyer who is national treasurer for Hillary Clinton's campaign.

The Houston fundraiser's hosts include the city's former mayor, Bill White; lawyer Carrin Patman, chair of Harris County's Metropolitan Transit Authority Board; and attorney Sima Ladjevardian.

In Dallas, hosts include physician, businessman and Barack Obama bundler Kneeland Youngblood.

The price of admission for the Clinton receptions ranges from $2,700 to $33,400.

John W. Gonzalez and Josh Baugh contributed to this report.
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A man was fighting for his life at the hospital late Friday after he was pulled from a house fire that killed another person in southwest Houston, authorities said.

A fire broke out at about 7:45 p.m. Friday at the home in the 9400 block of Greenwillow near South Loop West.

The first Houston Fire Department crews at the scene noticed heavy smoke pouring from the home.

They had difficulty making their way inside because the scene appeared to be a "hoarder-type situation," authorities said. Crews had to physically remove the front door to get inside.

"There were objects stacked above the door," HFD Senior Fire Capt. Ruy Lozano said.

Working on their hands and knees in thick clouds of smoke, HFD crews made their way along trails cutting through debris inside the home.

They spotted a man on the floor in the front part of the home. He was still breathing when firefighters pulled him to safety, Lozano said.

HFD paramedics used a "cynokit" on the man. Authorities said it is an injection that quickly flushes poisonous cyanide from someone's system.

"When we give these kits, there is a high rate of survival from smoke inhalation," Lozano said.

Other HFD search teams discovered a body near the back door. Authorities couldn't determine where it was a man or woman.

"The burns are very severe," Lozano said.

The man who was rescued was in critical condition at the hospital, officials said.

Heavy amounts of debris scattered throughout the home made it more difficult for the firefighters, officials said.

"You just never know what's in there. It certainly makes the potential for the fire to grow quickly," Lozano said.

The blaze was brought under control in about an hour. HFD arson officers have launched an investigation to determine the cause of the fatal fire.
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RIO DE JANEIRO - Undefeated, uncatchable, unquestionably the best.

Usain Bolt bid a blazing-fast farewell to the Rio de Janeiro Games - and likely the Olympics altogether - Friday night with yet another anchor leg for the ages. He turned a close 400-meter relay race against Japan and the United States into a never-a-doubt runaway, helping Jamaica cross the line in 37.27 seconds.

"There you go," he said. "I am the greatest."

Japan won the silver medal, finishing .33 seconds behind.

The U.S. finished the race third but endured yet another relay debacle - disqualified because leadoff runner Mike Rodgers passed the baton to Justin Gatlin outside the exchange zone. That promoted Canada to the bronze medal.

The Americans protested the ruling, and if it stands it will mark the ninth time since 1995 the U.S. men have been disqualified or failed to get the baton around at Olympics or world championships.

"It was the twilight zone. It was a nightmare," Gatlin said. "You work so hard with your teammates, guys you compete against almost all year long. All that hard work just crumbles."

But there are no cracks in Bolt's record in Olympic finals: Nine races, nine wins. Nobody has done that before, and nobody's on the horizon to do it again soon.

More Information Medal leaders Gold Silver Bronze USA 105 38 35 32 Country ChN 65 22 18 25 GBR 60 24 22 14 Total Nine lives Usain Bolt tied Carl Lewis and Paavo Nurmi for the most gold medals in track and field: Usain Bolt, Jamaica 2008: 100 meters, 200 meters, 400 relay 2012: 100 meters, 200 meters, 400 relay 2016: 100 meters, 200 meters, 400 relay Carl Lewis, U.S. 1984: 100 meters, 200 meters, 400 relay, long jump 1988: 100 meters, long jump 1992: 400 relay, long jump 1996: Long jump Paavo Nurmi, Finland 1920: 10,000 meters, cross country, cross country team 1924: 1,500 meters, 5,000 meters, 3,000 meters team, cross country, cross country team 1928: 10,000 meters See More Collapse

Along with Bolt for his final trip down the track were Nickel Ashmeade, training partner Yohan Blake and the Jamaican elder statesman, former world-record holder Asafa Powell.

When Bolt received the yellow baton from Ashmeade for his final run down the straightaway, he was maybe a step behind Aska Cambridge of Japan and Trayvon Bromell of the United States.

That lasted about four steps.

With 70 meters to go, it was all over.

No world record, but he has a piece of that one, too - it's 36.84 seconds, set four years ago at the London Games.

"I am just relieved. It's happened. I am just happy, proud of myself. It's come true," Bolt said. "The pressure is real. I look at it as an accomplishment."

Counting all the preliminaries, finals and his approximately nine-second blast down the stretch in Friday's last race, Bolt has spent 325 seconds - a tad less than 51/2 minutes - running on the track at the Olympics since he made his debut in Beijing eight years ago.

Every tick of the clock has been a treasure. And while he may not close things out with 23 golds, the number Michael Phelps left Rio with this week, it's hard to argue there is anybody more successful or electric - or important to his sport, and the Olympics themselves.

The anchor sport of the Olympics has been mired, especially over the past year, in a cesspool of doping, cheating and bad characters.

When Bolt's on the track, everyone forgets.

"A great sprinter," said American Tyson Gay who, once upon a time, was Bolt's biggest challenger. "Nine gold medals, words can't even describe what he's done for the sport."

So much of that is because the show isn't over when he's through running.

After crossing the line for his finale, Bolt pumped his fist in the air, slowed and took off those famous gold spikes. He huddled with his teammates and they prayed.

Then, a final, luxurious lap around the track.
Back-to-school season always holds bittersweet memories for me. Seeing kids hop off the bus after their first day of a new school year, as they rush to mom or dad waiting nearby, reminds me of my son, JR, when he was that age. Five years ago, an underage drinker took JR away from me. My heart still breaks when I think of him.

On Father's Day 2011, my firstborn son, Lance Ray Martin, Jr. ("JR"), was driving home from work at midnight on a county road when a 19-year-old female drunk driver, Loren Grace Hardy, crashed head-on into our lives forever. JR died by himself that night on County Road 31, not able to say goodbye to his family and not able to fulfill his dreams. Hardy, meanwhile, would go on to plead guilty to the charge of criminally negligent homicide; a judge suspended a five-year prison sentence and ordered her to serve 60 days in the county jail and three years probation.

JR was taught from a young age about the dangers of drinking and driving. His killer, unfortunately, was not. Twenty minutes before the fatal crash, a friend of Hardy's posted on her Facebook wall, "One of these days you're going to kill someone driving drunk." Those haunting words will stay with us forever.

As parents, we have to talk with our children about alcohol, starting at an early age. It's not an issue we can ignore simply because we believe our child knows better. More than 40 percent of all 10th graders drink alcohol. About 1 in 7 teens binge drinks, yet only 1 in 100 parents believes his or her teen binge drinks. According to the Texas Department of Transportation, last year 70 young people ages 12-20 were killed in our state in traffic crashes involving underage drivers under the influence of alcohol.

Parents - not peers - are the No. 1 influence on their teens' decisions about alcohol, including their decisions around riding with an impaired driver. We need to let our children know it's never OK to get into a car with a driver who has been drinking.

Talking with your children is just the first step. You must also put those words into action by modeling positive behaviors. A MADD and Nationwide survey found that more than 82 percent of Texas parents surveyed have talked with their children about the dangers of riding with a drinking driver, but more than 1 in 4 parents admitted to riding with a drunken driver in the past year. Nearly 55 percent admitted to having a drink or two at dinner and then driving their children home in the past year.

Our children notice when we break our own rules. Research from Pennsylvania State University indicates children are more willing to ride with a drinking driver if they see their parents do so.

The consequences can be deadly. Kids who start drinking young are seven times more likely to be in an alcohol-related crash. With teen alcohol use killing about 4,700 people each year, clearly we need to do more to protect our children.

MADD developed its Power of Parents program and resources to help parents of middle school and high school students feel more confident about talking with their children about the dangers of underage drinking and riding with a drinking driver. Parents can download free Power of Parents handbooks and sign up for a free 15-minute online workshop in English or Spanish at www.madd.org/parentstx.

As you help your kids get ready for the new school year, take the opportunity to talk with them about alcohol. One bad decision shouldn't have to end your child's life or someone else's. JR's death was 100 percent preventable, as are the nearly 10,000 drunk driving deaths each year - 924 last year in Texas alone. I hope that my message and my work with MADD will help save lives.

Martin lives in Denton. Jaime Gutierrez, MADD Executive Director, Texas, also contributed to this commentary.
The Texas County Genealogical and Historical Society has a library open on Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at its Grand Avenue building. Its meetings are on the first []
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Kelly Loughlin Photography via Getty Images Girl playing on waterslide in the garden in the summer.

[Warning: This story contains graphic details and might be disturbing to some of our readers]

Edmonton mom Ashley Field called it "the scariest night of her life."

In a Facebook post, Field recounted the how her six-year-old daughter needed more than 37 stitches after her leg was split open by a metal peg during a trip to the park earlier this week.

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Field brought Kennedy and son Peyton to Westview Village Park where a makeshift water slide had been laid down by Green Shack program staff, the Edmonton Journal reports.

The program regularly hosts activities for kids ages six to 12 during the summer. That day organizers sprayed water on a blue tarp that was nailed into the grass with metal pegs. About a dozen kids were already lined up taking turns, Field writes.

"Kennedy went about three times and on her fourth time I watched her slide let out a huge scream and jar herself on the slip and slide," she writes in a Facebook post.

Field, who is training to become a nurse, raced over to her daughter and along with another staff member, applied pressure to the wound, while someone else called an ambulance.

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"I knew it was bad enough because her bone was exposed."

I knew it was bad enough because her bone was exposed, the tissue had actually started to butterfly out of the wound, Field told the Journal.

Kennedy's leg had been caught on a metal peg that wasn't properly pounded into the ground, and it tore a Y-shaped gash about 15 centimetres long and 10 centimetres wide from her ankle to her knee, Field writes on Facebook.

The six-year-old was rushed to Stollery Childrens Hospital where she was stitched up late Tuesday night. Since the ordeal, the Edmonton Sun reports that Kennedy has been dealing with mixed emotions and shame over what she calls her "Frankenstein leg."

She will be on bed rest for the next 20 days and could deal with severe scarring and potentially more surgery.

"I assumed it was safe because the city workers had set it up and other kids were already playing."

A photo of the bent metal spike was posted online and Ashley urged parents to take caution if their children are participating in any public activities.

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"I assumed it was safe because the city workers had set it up and other kids were already playing," Field wrote. "I wish I could say it was an accident but after seeing the bent metal spikes they used it was complete negligence on the city's end."
Danny Lawson/PA Archive

Tom Watson hit the headlines last week with his over-heated claims that Trotskyists were swarming into the Labour Party. Tom the Trot-Finder got a lot of attention - too much perhaps.

Because raising a storm about what the miniscule Alliance for Workers Liberty may or may not be doing is far from being the most damaging intervention our Deputy Leader has made recently in his campaign to save the Party from itself.

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I had to rub my eyes when I read these remarks by Tom in his recent interview in The Guardian: "I think it's highly likely there'll be an early election. I mean, if you're Theresa May, with a majority of 12, with your Brexit fanatics already saying you're not going quickly enough to get us out of the European Union, with having sacked too many people from the frontbench who are just looking for the opportunity for her to stumble, and with a double-digit lead in the polls, then even though on day one you might not think you're going to have an early election, I think it's almost inevitable you'll get to a point where you have to. If you were Theresa May, why wouldn't you? Honestly, why wouldn't you? You'd get your own mandate, you'd have the easiest run at the election you could imagine, and in all likelihood you'd come back with a bigger majority. Why wouldn't you do that?"

Tom is no fool, and those comments are not likely to have been accidental. They amount to a virtual encouragement to the Prime Minister to press the button for the much-trailed early election.

Let's say that Mrs May read that article and thought "yes - he makes the case well, let's go for it." What would happen to the Labour Party then?

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I like to look on the sunny side of life, but even I have to recognise that our Party is scarcely in a shape to meet the challenge of a general election right now. We need a period of unity, self-discipline, policy development and talking to the public rather than ourselves - as I hope we will get once the leadership election is over - before we are ready to face the electorate with any realistic prospect of success.

A general election in the immediate future would risk a further major weakening of Labour in parliament, since divided parties never win votes.

But perhaps there would be a silver lining for Tom in that a defeat could create the conditions for a change in the Party leadership. I am reluctant to say that Tom Watson would be prepared to sacrifice dozens of Labour seats to see off the left in the Party, but it does look a bit like it.

This intervention by Tom is the worst, but far from the only, error of judgement he has been involved in over the last period.

For the record, his evidence on far left infiltration of Labour is just about the dodgiest dossier produced since Alistair Campbell left Downing Street or Tony Blair's claims of WMD in Iraq. It pitches together the larger Trotskyist groups which are commenting on Labour's struggles but emphatically not joining it - like the SWP - with groups of impenetrable obscurity which may be trying to enter Labour but even aggregated amount to a heap of nothing.

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On my calculation, if every allegation in Tom's bill of indictment were true, it would mean that a full 0.1 per cent of our 515,000 members were members of entryist factions. Or to put it another way, 99.9 per cent of the people in the Labour Party are loyal and legitimate members - but the public have now been given a very different impression.

In fact, it is that 99.9 per cent that Tom Watson seems worried about, rather than the straw man of Trotskyism. He has advocated one measure after another to marginalise the members' participation in the Party's life.

He was one of the moving spirits behind the plan to exclude 130,000 members from voting in the leadership election, and in getting that exclusion enforced by the judges.

He has backed the complete shut-down of Party meetings over the summer, stifling debate and democracy by giving credence to media allegations of bullying and bad behaviour which are sustained by hardly any evidence at all.

He voted for hiking the registered supporters' fee to 25 and narrowing the window of application to just 48 hours, moves which make sense only if one is trying to minimise participation and involvement.

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Now, in the same Guardian interview as he came over all come-hither to Teresa May, Tom Watson has urged scrapping the leadership election system altogether. This, of course, was the system introduced to nearly-universal approval in the Party just three years ago because it broadened the franchise and gave every vote the same weight.

Labour's right-wing loved the plan then - even Tony Blair praised it - because it was seen as a way of diluting union influence in the Party. Beware what you wish for, I suppose.

But now Tom and others want to row back on equal votes. He wants to revert to a scheme which would give 230 MPs the same say as all the Party members.

If you think each MP - the conduct of some of whom over the last few months has perhaps been less than ideal - is as good as 2,300 Party activists then this is the plan for you. The rest of us will pass.

Tom also wants to go backwards by having those MPs, rather than the Leader, choose the shadow cabinet. Were that to be enacted, we would have institutionalised division with a left-wing Leader presiding over what would likely be a "new Labour" team, with some of its members seeking to undermine him at every turn.

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Now, each of these positions advanced by Tom might be debatable. But add them all up and it amounts to a fairly comprehensive assault on the rights of the Party membership and indeed, the principles of democracy.

His silences are eloquent too. Last weekend millionaire Labour donor Michael Foster compared Jeremy Corbyn's supporters to "Stormtroopers". Could anything be more offensive - even Tom himself hasn't gone further than "rabble"? Had anyone from the Left said such a thing about, say, Progress, there would rightly have been an uproar, doubtless led by Tom. But not a peep so far.

This all seems to be underpinned by a view, not unknown in those parts of the trade union movement where Tom cut his teeth, that the members have overstepped their proscribed role and are interfering in the business of their betters.
Image: Hillary Clinton. Public Domain

Top figures in America's Democratic Party are warning that any new release of emails that the Russians have hacked may contain lies aimed to damage Hillary Clinton's run for president.

Republicans have labeled such announcements by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and others as Democratic "spin." The Democrats are trying to prime the public to think that a new email dump will contain fabrications in order to minimize the damage of any embarrassing disclosures the dump contains, the Republicans assert.

This is one time where both sides got it right.

The Democrats are using a tested public-relations ploy to give them "plausible deniability" if there is another embarrassing email dump.

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They are also right that the Russians may sprinkle lies into the dumped emails to try to increase the damage that the dump will inflict on Clinton.

Those of us who grew up in the Soviet Union know that government officials and the KGB often used fabrications against opponents. And that continues today in the Soviet Union's successor countries.

An ironic example is the late, KGB-trained former son-in-law of Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev presenting documents to an Austrian court that purported to prove that former U.S. President Bill Clinton was heading an international conspiracy against him.

The documents that Rakhat Aliyev gave the court, which was preparing to try him for two murders in Kazakhstan, alleged that in addition to Clinton, those out to get him included former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and former American CIA Director James Woolsey.

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After prosecutors objected that the documents were forgeries, the court brought in a renowned forgery expert who proved them right. In fact, it turned out, one of the skills the KGB taught Aliyev was forgery.

Facing life in prison for the murders, he hung himself in his cell in February of 2015.

A more high-profile example of spreading lies to inflict political damage was Russia's use early this year of a story about Middle Eastern immigrants in Germany gang-raping a 13-year-old girl who was part German and part Russian.

The story created firestorms in Germany, where people savaged Prime Minister Angela Merkel for letting in too many Middle Eastern immigrants, and in Russia, because of the girl's part-Russian heritage.

The Russian fury included politicians lambasting the Germans for failing to protect ethnic Russians on German soil and lots of "outrage stories" about the girl in the Russian media.

The problem is the story was made up. The girl admitted she had concocted it to prevent her parents from finding out the real reason she had been away from home for 30 hours: She had stayed overnight with a male friend.

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The German authorities and media quickly told the public the truth. The Russians, angry over Germany's hard line on European Union sanctions that have hurt the Russian economy, let the rape story continue to stay out there, uncorrected.

Another high-profile example of the use of lies for political purposes in the former Soviet Union was a fake letter sent to Western news media about the health of Viktor Yushchenko, the pro-Western presidential candidate during Ukraine's Orange Revolution of 2004.

Russia's FSB, the successor to the KGB, had helped Viktor Yanukovych, Yushchenko's pro-Russian opponent in the presidential race, poison Yushchenko.

The poison was dioxin, which at the time was almost impossible to detect, but poison specialists in Austria discovered it and treated Yushchenko. Otherwise, he would have died.

The news in Ukraine that Yushchenko had been poisoned caused a voter backlash against Yanukovych, whose team came up with a list of strategies to try to reverse the damage.

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One strategy was to send a fake letter to Western news media, supposedly from Yushchenko's doctor in Austria, saying that he had not been poisoned.

Not only was the letter sent, but some gullible news media did stories about the doctor saying Yushchenko had not been poisoned.

When the doctor learned about the fake letter, he quickly alerted the media, and the resulting stories further damaged Yanukovych's candidacy.

Yanukovych went on to steal the election in rigged vote counting, but a Ukrainian court overturned the victory, giving Yushchenko the presidency.

Donald Trump's recently resigned campaign chief, Paul Manafort, helped Yanukovych polish his image to the point that Yanukovych won Ukraine's presidential election in 2010. Four years later, Ukrainians rose up to oust Yanukovych for reneging on his promise to sign a treaty that would have paved the way for Ukraine to join the European Union.

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Another political lie surfaced in a joint press conference that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan gave in Moscow 10 days ago.

The lie came as Putin tried to shore up support for the Eurasian Economic Union that he forced Armenia to join in 2015. Sargsyan's cave-in to Putin triggered demonstrations in Armenia, where many people had wanted their country to join the European Union.

At the press conference in Moscow, the Russian president said Armenia had achieved 10 percent economic growth since joining the Moscow-led Eurasian Economic Union. The problem was that Armenia's actual growth was a third of that -- just 3 percent.

Fabrications in the former Soviet Union don't always involve documents, and aren't always aimed at political opponents.

In 2011, then-19-year-old Armenian television actress Ani Yeranyan was horrified to learn that a porn video of her had been posted on YouTube.

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Whoever had tried to damage her career had done a poor job on the video, however. It was clear to even casual observers that the woman in the video wasn't her.

The questions of who produced the video, and why, have never been answered.

These are just a handful of examples of officials and others in the former Soviet Union using lies to try to damage someone they have grudges against. There are likely hundreds of other examples -- or more.

So when top figures in America's Democratic Party warn that a new Russian email dump against Hillary Clinton may include fabrications aimed at damaging her, the world would be wise not to discount it.


Statue of Aphrodite overlooks her legendary birthplace.

Dozens of tourists, mostly women, are dipping their hands in the waters of a little grotto high up in the Cypriot mountains. Legends say this is the spot where the Greek goddess Aphrodite came to freshen up after running around with her many boyfriends. The waters are believed to have magical properties, one being the power to restore youth and innocence.

Aphrodite, Cyprus' hometown goddess, rules the roost on this easternmost island of the Mediterranean. On the coast, tourists pack the cliffs above a rocky bay said to be her mythical birthplace. A guide explains she popped up fully grown out of the ocean foam there. Inland, busloads of tourists are scampering around her palaces, shrines and sanctuaries.



A cave is lined with Byzantine wall paintings.

"Between Aphrodite (or Venus, as the Romans called her), her boyfriends (including the Greek hunk Adonis), her son (Eros, called Cupid by the Romans) and her father (the super-god Zeus), there's something here for everyone," a local saying goes.

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After a day or two of trailing the footsteps of the fabled icon of love and beauty, the tour buses move on to other historical sites around the island. And there's plenty of them, remnants of centuries of rulers. First on the scene were the Mycenaean Greeks, then the Phoenicians, Assyrians, Persians, Egyptians, Romans, Byzantines, Crusaders, Germans, Franks, Venetians, Ottomans and -- until a few years ago -- the British.

"Our whole island is like an outdoor history museum," says a Cypriot spokeswoman. "In one place, you'll find the remains of prehistoric settlements. In others, Crusader castles, Venetian fortresses and a classic Greek theater. In still others, pagan temples, early Christian basilicas and Muslim mosques."

Among the island's most-visited sites is a hillside cave lined by Byzantine wall paintings at the Agios Neofytos Monastery, the spectacular mosaic floors of Roman villas at the Kato Pafos Archaeological Park, the Sanctuary of Apollo and the ancient city-kingdoms of Kourion and Amathous.



Tourists check out mosaics on the floor of a wealthy merchant's home.

Many visitors bunk down in the ancient city of Nicosia -- Cyprus' capital and home to a hefty number of the island's 100 or so tourist-class hotels -- and in the modern-day resort cities of Limassol, Larnaka and Agia Napa.

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All of these sites are on the southern two-thirds of the island, below a "green line" drawn by the United Nations in 1994 to separate the predominantly Greek south -- called the Republic of Cyprus -- from the predominantly Turkish north. The line, manned by UN troops, was set up as a buffer zone after an invasion of the northern area by the Turkish army.

The invasion came just 14 years after Cyprus won its independence from Great Britain, which had governed the island since 1878. The Republic of Cyprus remains a favorite destination for visitors from the U.K., as shown in the dual Greek-English signage around the island. Many Greek Cypriots speak English as a second language.
I only have 13% of battery life left so I am going to accept this winding down clock as a challenge. Let's just see what I can accomplish with my writing life with that kind of jeopardy.

I've always hated the word "deadline" because when I finally got to the end, I feel more alive than ever. But I digress.

How I ususually operate is, I sit down each morning, hit the diesel button on the coffee pump and with no plans or road map and I just see where the road will take me.

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I usually do a feelings inventory in the warehouse of my emotions and whatever balloon escapes and heads skywards becomes the lead that refuses to be buried.

12% left.

I am loathe to write about Trump...again. It seems all I do is dedicate myself to downing that fascist blimp with the swirling Mr. Ed hair-do.

Shit. Okay. That let a balloon out. Last night's right before sleep image was the naked statue of limitations of Hair Trump that has popped up all over the place. Bravo to whoever is the mastermind behind that because trust me, that is not Trump's image of himself. In his eyes. He surely must see himself as the younger version of him that he has had a mad crush on since boyhood.

11% left.

Kellyanne Conway said that Trump announcing that he has regrets was his idea. The thing is he never said specifically what he had regrets about. That is classic Trump. It's like a public school bully being forced to apologize to the kid who he just beat up with a large polo mallet because his parents made him and the best that he can come up with is the wildly insincere "I have regrets." For all I know he has regrets that there isn't enough time in the day to pummel even more people.

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10% left

Stephen K. Bannon of not so Brietbart is a media pig whose site/trough for conspiracy theorists and racists also encourages antisemitism on an almost profound level. Meet the regrets of tomorrow. Typically, Bannon has zero experience running a campaign. He comes armed with the identical bluster of his candidate who thinks that any idiot can be president and proves that very point by the minute.

9% left.

Michael Moore's recent editorial informed us that Trump only entered the race as a publicity stunt to generate more income flow for his fast fading reality show. All he wanted to do was say a few incredibly insensitive, incendiary things in a fake news conference in order to draw attention to himself and then go away but lo and behold, his stupid remarks accidentally triggered a movement amongst the confederacy of Donces and the rest is scorched earth history. So what will happen after the election/public humiliation? (The last Clinton Presidential campaign's theme song was "Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow." This year will no doubt be Fleetwood Mac's song "Landslide").

So what comes next? The worst form of branding. I am willing to bet you anything that Trump, Bannon and that other media pig, Roger Ailes are going to create a new radicalized version of Fox News. Trumpig News perhaps? Look, Hitler failed on his first try too and wound up in jail, before he conjured up the unfortunate best seller Mein Kampf. Trump now gets that the way to mesmerize/hypnotize the swine of America is to squeal just like them so that they go out and buy the outsourced bacon that he is selling. The Art of the Squeal.

7%

The tragedy of this election cycle is not what everyone is focusing on now. It's not about the next 80 days. It's about the years to come. It's about the permanent damage that Trump has created by giving voice and power to the clueless and disenfranchised.

American still yearns for its face in the crowd. It still craves a Lonesome Rhodes who, with his smilling Andy Griifth face and good ol' boy southern charm who can create the TV transmitted illusion that makes them believe that they are heard and most of all loved...while behind closed doors Lonesome cackles like Satan, considering his followers to be nothing but a bunch of marching mindless morons. And what motivated Lonesome Rhodes? The desperate need to be loved by Patricia Neil...and by anyone else, so disproportionally, that he has has a bottomless hole in his soul that will never be filled.

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Sound familiar?

5%

Lastly, at 5% let me say this to Mr. Trump: this is what it feels like to have the clock run down on you.

Whether it's the now inevitable national unilateral rejection of you that you are already preparing for by saying things like the election is rigged and that the Sarah Palin media is turning on you or the unlimited Blue Velvet gas that you are huffing that is making you delusional enough to think that you have been both a fine parent and outstanding human being, let me say this:

Sooner or later there will be judgement day.

And if we are really lucky, God will come in the form of an Indiana judge of Hispanic descent who is waiting in the wings of eternity to take you down.

Or maybe he will allow you to be judged by the thousands of people you have underpaid or not paid at all for labor done. Or the people who have been crushed by the endless debt that you have made millions from. Or maybe he will allow every single Trump University victim who was duped by your scam to sue you for every penny that you've got.

1%

You see, just like that we're down to the 1%.

And no one symbolizes that 1% more than you.
Which is better: a real Democrat, or someone who just talks like one?

Maggie Hassan, Democratic Governor, is running for the Senate seat occupied by Kelly Ayotte, Republican.

In a state which may vote blue this November, Ayotte goes to great lengths to sound independent, almost like a Democrat. But is she?

For instance, does she support her party's Presidential candidate?

Her answer is complicated.

Ayotte states: first, she will stand up to Donald Trump when he is wrong; second, she will not endorse him; third, she will not campaign by his side; and fourth she does intend to give him her vote, and has widely shared that decision.

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So is that a yes, or a no?

Governor Hassan's position is easier to follow. She is for Hillary. She stands beside Secretary Clinton, speaks in favor of her, and proudly campaigns at the candidate's side.

Well, what about the issues? Is there a significant difference?

On the question of the Supreme Court vacancy, (President Obama's nomination of Merrick Garland is currently being blocked by a Republican Senate), Ayotte sat down for a meeting with Judge Garland, and called a press conference about it. But then she also announced her support of Senate Leader Mitch McConnell (R)'s denial of Garland's nomination--until the new President comes to power.

Governor Hassan's position? Straightforward: the Republican-controlled Senate should do to its Constitutional duty, and hold a vote on Merrick's nomination.

Social Security? Judging by her vote for the Republican budget as offered by Paul Ryan, Ayotte wants to cut federal funding for this crucial program, privatize it, and replace it with vouchers.

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Hassan? she is committed to "fight any attempt to privatize Social Security".

Medicare? Again, look to Ayotte's vote in support of the Ryan budget, which "would end Medicare as we know it".

Hassan? She "will always fight for medicare."

Obamacare? Ayotte voted numerous times to delay, diminish, or do away with it altogether. Her party's position would deprive an estimated 21 million Americans of their newfound medical care coverage.

Hassan says: "Obamacare helps working American families afford health insurance", and strongly supports its medical benefits for her state.

And my key issue, the embryonic stem cell research restricted by former President George W. Bush, but approved by President Obama?

According to her August 11, 2010 statement on the Christian Coalition Survey, Kelly Ayotte would "prohibit... human embryonic stem cell research...(and) would ban such research."

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To be clear on Governor Hassan's position, I contacted her office and received the following statement:

"Governor Hassan supports President Obama's 2009 Executive Order that removed barriers to responsible scientific research involving stem cells and the Governor will work to ensure that this critical research can continue going forward."--personal communication

This is not small. Right now, my paralyzed son Roman Reed's best hope of ever walking again is the stem cell research Hassan supports, and Ayotte would ban.

And did you hear about Ayotte's hearing on the Sandy Hook school massacre?

Among the speakers was Erica Lafferty, daughter of slain Sandy Hook Elementary School Principal Dawn Hochsprung. Ms. Lafferty confronted Ayotte over her vote against expanding background checks for gun purchases.

Referring to Ayotte's comment that expanded background checks would be a burden on gun store owners, Lafferty asked:

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"I am wondering why the burden of my mother being gunned down in the halls of her elementary school isn't more important than that."

Ms. Ayotte, who has received $81,905 from the gun lobby as well as earning an "A" rating from the National Rifle Association, responded with sympathetic comments--but her position remained unchanged.

Ms. Lafferty turned and walked away, leaving the meeting room.

Asked why she was leaving, she responded:

"I have had enough."

Let us hope New Hampshire voters feel the same.

To find out more about Maggie Hassan, visit her website: http://maggiehassan.com/

Chip in a few bucks if you can, try to balance the overwhelming financial advantage held by Republicans.

Why should you care? Above all else: the Supreme Court. If Hillary Clinton achieves the Presidency, she will need four new Democratic Senators--without whom the Republican blockage of Supreme Court nominees may go on.

Maggie Hassan could bring us to a balanced Senate: 50 Democrats, 50 Republicans. With the Vice President presiding, President Hillary's Supreme Court nominees would be guaranteed a hearing.

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And a strong Supreme Court could sweep away the webs of campaign contribution corruption, which presently defile our electoral system.

And the alternative, re-electing Republican Kelly Ayotte?

That would be promising dinner to a hungry child--but giving only empty words instead.
"What do you think of this plane--Malaysian plane shootdown?" Barrett asks. "The U.S. media is putting out the possibilities of this being done by the Russians or by the pro-Russian Ukrainians, but President Putin's plane was flying through there shortly before this plane was shot down--it looks like Putin's plane may have been targeted. If so, obviously that wouldn't have been done by the Russians or pro-Russian separatists quote unquote, that would have been done by the Kiev Zio-Nazi government. Which is what it is--these Zionist Jewish oligarchs, billionaire criminal dons, are funding Nazi street thugs. These are the people who overthrew the legitimate democratically elected government of Ukraine and created a fascist junta, and they are the ones who would be the suspects, at least in my opinion--somebody shooting at Putin's plane, and yet the media doesn't even raise that as a possibility."

Baraka immediately engages with the idea and agrees.

"And when it's raised, it's raised as a conspiracy," Baraka responded. "I think that this is a--I was trying to find the citation, I remember reading, I can't remember who it was, someone wrote about three weeks ago that we should expect false flag, a major false flag operation in eastern Ukraine that's going to be blamed on the Russians. And that's exactly what has happened."
One week ago, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Stanley Vernon Majors murdered his next door neighbor, 37 year old Khalid Jabara. He shot Khalid dead on the front porch of the Jabara home. It was a horrific crime, but it could have been prevented. As I have reflected on the developments leading up to this murder, I have been both saddened and outraged, because while there is no doubt that Majors pulled the trigger, there are others who share varying degrees of culpability for this violent act.

Majors was a sick hate-filled man who for the past four years created a nightmare for the Jabara family. Police records show that he had frequently taunted, stalked, and threatened members of the Jabara family, calling them "dirty Arabs," "filthy Lebanese", "Aye-rabs", and "Mooslems". He sent threatening emails and verbally threatened them with violence.

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On two separate occasions, Khalid and his mother, Haifa, secured restraining orders prohibiting Majors from having any contact with them. In May of 2015, from police records, we learn that Majors had shouted at Haifa "F*** you, I want to kill you". On September 12, 2015, an intoxicated Majors, struck Mrs. Jabara with his car while she was jogging and left her broken and bloodied body in the road as he fled the scene. He was later arrested and charged with assault and battery, hit and run, driving while intoxicated, and a violation of the court's restraining order.

The state requested that Majors be held without bail, but the judge set bail at $60,000. At the end of May 2016, Majors posted bail and was released, once again taking up residence next door to the Jabara family.

Last Friday, Majors appeared at the window of the Jabara home waving a gun and making threats. The police were called. They arrived, knocked on Majors' door and when he did not answer, they reported to Khalid that there was nothing more they could do. Eight minutes after the police left, Khalid went out of his home to retrieve his mail only to find Majors there. He shot Khalid four times leaving him to die.

Every account of this story I have read leaves me with a range of competing emotions. I am grief-stricken by the murder of a young man whose only fault was to be an Arab living next door to a person sick with hatred. I am pained both by the Jabara family's loss and thoughts of the incredible nightmare of fear they have been forced to endure these past few years. I am furious at the failure of the criminal justice system, at all levels, for allowing this nightmare to continue and for the negligence that enabled it to come to this tragic end.

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Majors was a violent felon. In 2012, while living in California, he was convicted of criminal threats and assault with a deadly weapon. The behavior he displayed toward the Jabara family, after he moved to Tulsa, was a clear violation of his parole. That the police department didn't act, early on, to deal with this obviously deranged and violent criminal is baffling and inexcusable. That such a low bail was set for a person with such a record and pattern of behavior is inexcusable. And the fact that he was able to buy a gun and that the police would respond to the report of his brandishing a weapon in a threatening manner with the cavalier dismissal that "there was nothing that could be done" is absolutely maddening.

Added to all of this, is my outrage over the fact that Majors' display of virulent anti-Arab animus was apparently dismissed, or viewed as incidental, by the authorities. Until this day, they refer to the murder as resulting from a "neighborhood dispute". Think, for a moment, how this situation would have played out if Majors had been an Arab or an African American and the Jabara family had been white. The early displays of hate would have been dealt with quite differently and/or Majors would have been sent back to California for parole violations. The protective order would have been enforced. The drunken driver who had threatened to kill his neighbor and then almost did in a hit and run assault would be in prison without bail. After he was reported to have been waving a gun, the police would have broken down his door to search for it and protection would have been provided to the much tormented family. And, oh yes, Donald Trump would be exploiting this case, ranting about our lax immigration system or our coddling of Arab or black criminals.

But the victims were from a Lebanese Arab immigrant family--and so this situation was left to fester.

Khalid's sister, Victoria, in a powerful and poignant Facebook post, summed up the family's feelings about this maddeningly avoidable tragedy.

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"My family lived in fear of this man and his hatred for years. Yet in May, not even one year after he ran over our mother and despite our protests, he was released from jail with no conditions...

"The suspect had a history of bigotry against our family... [But his] bigotry was not isolated to us. He made xenophobic comments about many in our community - "filthy Mexicans" and the "n" word were all part of his hateful approach...

"This [case] is troubling at any time, but profoundly disturbing given the current climate of our country and the increase nationally in cases of hate crimes.

"Our brother Khalid was just 37 years old and had his whole life ahead of him. He was a kind and loving brother, uncle, and son. Khalid's heart was big. He cared for our entire family, our friends, and people he didn't even know...All of that has been taken from us by this hateful man and a system that failed to protect our community."

Nothing will bring back Khalid, and nothing can ease the pain of loss endured by the Jabara family. Majors must pay for his crime. But that is not enough. There must be accountability in Tulsa for the negligence of the authorities. And we must work together as a nation to demand zero tolerance for those who feed the hate that emboldens sick minds to commit murder.

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The Teeling Whiskey Company, Dublin's newest distillery



The logo of the Teeling Whiskey Company is a phoenix - that mythical bird which is periodically consumed by fire only to be reborn from its ashes. It is a fitting symbol for Teeling Whiskey, the Teeling family and for the revival of the Irish whiskey industry; an industry with which the Teeling family has had a long association.

The Teelings has been distilling Irish whiskey since 1782, when Walter Teeling set up a craft distillery on Marrowbone Lane in the area of Dublin known as the Liberties. This period was the beginning of the first Irish whiskey boom and would at its height see over 37 independent distilleries in Dublin alone.

The industry peaked in 1900, when it produced around 12 million cases of Irish whiskey. World War I, Prohibition in the United States, the Irish War of Independence and subsequent civil war, poorly thought out Irish government regulations, plus ongoing trade disputes with Great Britain, all combined to steadily erode the whiskey industry's sales over the following three-quarters of a century.

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By the end of 1972, production had fallen too just under 500,000 cases and there were only two operating distilleries left, Midleton and Bushmills, both owned by Irish Distillers Ltd. (IDL). This was the nadir of Irish whiskey.

Two events would mark the start of the Irish whiskey revival, the purchase of IDL by the French wine and spirits conglomerate Pernod Ricard in 1988 and the founding of the Cooley Distillery in 1987 by John Teeling.

When it opened, Cooley was the first new whiskey distillery in Ireland in over a century. Beam Incorporated purchased Cooley on January 17, 2012, and since renamed it Kilbeggan after its flagship brand. Suntory in turn purchased Beam on April 30, 2014. Since 1989, Irish whiskey production has soared; surpassing seven million cases in 2014, and is expected to surpass the old record of 12 million cases by 2018.

The staff at Teeling Whiskey celebrate the distillery's first birthday



The Teeling Whiskey distillery was opened in 2013, only a short walk from where the original Teeling distillery was set up in 1782. The distillery was the first new distillery in Dublin in 125 years and the first distillery to produce whiskey there since 1976. The company's three copper pot stills pay tribute to the Dublin tradition of triple whiskey distillation, while continuing with the innovative cask finishing techniques used by Cooley Distillery.

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Currently, Teeling offers three separate categories of Irish whiskey: a single malt range, a grain whiskey and a blended Irish whiskey.

The Teeling single malt range features a blend of single malt whiskies that has been finished in barrels that previously held sherry, port, Madeira, white Burgundy or Cabernet Sauvignon.

The company does not disclose the source of the malt whiskey. Most of the whiskey came from stocks at the family's Cooley Distillery before it was sold. Some of the older whiskies feature the pronounced stone fruit taste and aroma profile that usually points strongly to Bushmills, due to its use of crystal malts in the production process, as the likely source.

Crystal malts are made from malted barley that is cooked prior to drying. The heat from the kilning caramelizes some of the sugars in the barley and, for reasons that are not entirely clear, produces a distinctive stone fruit flavor in the resulting whiskey.

The single malt expressions range from a premium bottling comprised of a vatting of malt whiskeys that have been aged on five different types of wine casks, and that carries no age statement, to a range of specialty bottlings ranging in age from 13 to 30 years.

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There is also a Teeling Revival 13-year-old (YO) bottled at 46% alcohol by volume (ABV), which has been finished for a year in a cask that previously held Calvados, an apple brandy from Normandy, and a 24 YO double distilled single malt bottled at 48.3% ABV. There is also a 23 YO sherry cask finish expression, 52.5% ABV, that is available only at the distillery as a custom bottling.

Teeling single malt Irish whiskey



Teeling Single Malt, No Age Statement, 46% ABV, 70 cl

Appearance: The whiskey has a bright gold color and consists of a blend of malt whiskies that have been separately finished in casks that previously contained sherry, port, Madeira, white Burgundy and Cabernet Sauvignon. The vatted malt includes stocks up to 23 years old.

Nose: On the nose there is a pronounced "grapeiness," like grape jelly, followed by cereal notes, a hint of shortbread and some butterscotch. There are pronounced tropical fruit aromas of melon and fig as well as ripe apple and some red fruits, sort of a fruit cocktail, followed by some citric orange notes and just a hint of chocolate.

Palate: On the palate the tropical fruit flavors of mango, melon and pineapple are even more pronounced, especially with the addition of a little water. There are baking spice notes of cinnamon, cloves as well as a bit of ginger pepperiness, followed by notes of chocolate, some orange marmalade and some vanilla. There is a hint of smoke in the background, more wood smoke than peat, and a bit of woodiness.

Finish: The finish is medium length, well balanced, featuring tropical fruits, spice and just a hint of bitterness. The tropical fruit notes tend to persist giving the finish a slight sensation of sweetness.

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Conclusion: This is an excellent whisky, offering a complex array of fruit and spice notes. It is well integrated, nicely balanced, with a satisfying finish.

Rating: Appearance: 8/10, Nose, 26/30, Palate 27/30, Finish 27/30 Overall Score: 88/100

Teeling 23 YO Irish malt whiskey



Teeling Single malt, 23 YO, 52.5 ABV, Sherry Cask Finish, Single Cask Bottling #6836.

Appearance: The whiskey has a rich, brown mahogany color typical of sherry cask aged whiskies.

Nose: On the nose there are ripe apple and pear notes, followed by some caramel and some dried fruit aromas of fig, a little apricot and some raisin.

Palate: On the palate there is a thick, smooth, creamy sensation typical of sherry cask finished whiskies. There is a pronounced stone fruit taste of ripe peach, some raisin, followed by light tropical fruit notes. There are some spice notes with a hint of pepperiness, and just a touch of wood. There is a slight, dried fruit sweetish note that hangs throughout.

Finish: The finish is long, with a distinctive caramel and peppery notes, and interlaced with dried fruit sweetness and a creamy texture on the mouth.

Conclusion: This is an outstanding whiskey, extremely well integrated with a complex range of ripe and dried fruit flavors. The sherry cask influence is unmistakable and contributes the sweetness and creamy texture typical of sherry cask finishing. The pepperiness is a nice counterpoint to the sweet note that hangs in the background.

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Rating: Appearance: 9/10, Nose: 28/30, Palate: 29/30, Finish: 28.30 Final Score 94/100

Additional bottlings, now hard to find, but which occasionally turn up, include a Revival 15 YO rum cask finished bottling and a 21 YO, 26 YO and 30 YO Vintage Reserve single malt bottlings.

Teeling also offers a Single Grain Red Wine Cask Finished bottling, which is completely matured in Cabernet Sauvignon wine barrels from California. The expression carries no age statement, but is believed to be around five years old and is bottled at 46% ABV. The grain whiskey is sourced from the Cooley Distillery. The mash bill is 95% corn and 5% malted barley.

Teeling Single Grain Irish whiskey



Teeling Single Grain Red Wine Cask Finish, NAS, 46% ABV



Appearance: The whiskey has a rich golden bronze color with a slight orange tint.

Nose: On the nose there is a distinctive bourbon-like corn sweetness, followed by red fruit and kirsch notes with vanilla, coconut and baking spices.

Palate: On the palate there is a soft, creamy honey sweetness, vanilla, a bit of buttery shortbread, and pepper. There are red fruit notes throughout, with a bit of a wood note hanging in the background.

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Finish: The finish is long, peppery, with a caramel sweetness throughout.

Conclusion: This is an interesting whiskey. It's smooth, and offers a broad array of flavors but like most Irish grain whiskies lacks the intensity of pot still malt. It's easy to drink and its fruity notes would make for an excellent aperitif.

Rating: Appearance: 7/10, Nose 24/30, Palate 25/30, Finish 26/30 Final Rating: 82/100

Finally, the company has a Small Batch whiskey offering that consists of a blend of Irish grain (65%) and malt whiskies (35%), which are married in Flor de Cana rum casks for six months and bottled at 46%

ABV. The expression carries no age statement but is believed to contain whiskies between four and seven years of age.

Teeling Small Batch Irish whiskey



Teeling Small Batch, NAS, 45% ABV

Appearance: The whiskey has a rich golden color.

Nose: On the nose there are distinct ripe fruity aromas featuring, apricot and a bit of peach, followed by apple and pear notes. There is a bit of a cooked sugar, caramel, cotton candy sweetness throughout. There is also a very slight medicinal, herbal note in the background.

Palate: On the palate the whiskey is sweetish, featuring a creamy mouthfeel. There are flavors of apricot and apple, with some vanilla and spice and peppery notes, as well as cooked sugar notes of caramel and a bit of molasses.

Finish: Medium length, featuring sweet and fruity notes initially, with some woodnotes and a bit of dryness at the end.

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Conclusion: This is a good whiskey. The rum cask finish adds some additional flavors and complexity as well as a cooked sugar sweetness.

Rating: Appearance 7/10, Nose, 26/30, Palate 26/30, finish 25/30 Final Rating: 84/100
What do anthrax-riddled reindeer corpses, a pile of flaming horse manure, and thawing cold war waste at a top-secret military base in Greenland have in common? These are just three of the increasingly bizarre and disturbing impacts of a warming climate that made headlines this summer. Climate scientists like myself are always trying to anticipate the unexpected - but the full implications of a warming planet are starting to catch even us by surprise.

So what's going on? Let's start with the anthrax. Some 75 years ago, an anthrax outbreak swept across Siberia, killing around a million reindeer. Because the ground there is permafrost, those reindeer were buried in shallow mass graves across northern Russia. This summer has been an exceptionally warm one on the Yamal Peninsula, a piece of land that juts out into the Kara Sea north of the Arctic Circle. The mercury there hit 93 degrees in July, some 14 degrees above normal. During this heatwave, at least one of those reindeer corpses remerged from the thawing permafrost. The anthrax spores inside it proved viable, and sparked a new outbreak. To date, one person--a 12-year-old boy--has died, 72 people have been hospitalized, and at least 2,300 reindeer have perished.

"It sounds like an episode of Game of Thrones but in fact, it's another wake-up call that global warming is entering a new and disturbing phase," writes Hilary Bambrick, a bioanthropologist whose research focuses on the health impacts of climate change. Perhaps the worst part about this anthrax outbreak is it will likely reoccur as the permafrost keeps melting. And there are untold other viruses and bacteria locked in the permafrost, including smallpox. "We really don't know what's buried up there," Birgitta Evengard, a microbiologist at Umea University in Sweden, told NPR. "This is Pandora's box."

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And the flaming horse poop? This July brought record-breaking heat to the Eastern Seaboard of the U.S. In a town called Throop, in the Finger Lakes region of New York, residents began to notice a terrible, unexplained smell wafting their way. Residents complained to the state environmental agency, which determined that a pile of horse manure outside a stable in town had spontaneously combusted in the extremely hot and dry conditions. "It took three local fire departments more than two hours to extinguish the burning manure," the New York Department of Environmental Conservation said in a press release. Poop in Throop: you can't make this stuff up.

And the thawing top-secret military base? In 1959, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers tunneled into a glacier in northwest Greenland and built Camp Century, "the City Under Ice," which they claimed was an arctic research station. In reality it was a secret Cold War-era nuclear missile test site. It was abandoned eight years later, due to shifts in the glacier that made it structurally unsound, but the waste--including raw sewage, radioactive coolant, and PCBs--was left behind, beneath the ice. "They thought it would snow in perpetuity," Tom Colgan, a geography professor at York University in Toronto, told NPR. "The phrase they used was that the waste would be preserved for eternity by perpetually accumulating snow." However, thanks to climate change, that isn't the case. The glacier--and Greenland's whole ice sheet--is melting, and Colgan and his colleagues warned in a study published in Geophysical Research Letters in early August that the base's wastes will spill out by 2090, carried by meltwater through tunnels in the glacier into the ocean. Ugh!

What's scary about climate change is that there are so many unanticipated ways that it will affect us. I study our warming planet full-time. I'm even writing a chapter right now, with Rutger's Bob Kopp and other colleagues, about what surprises the future may hold under a changing climate. But in my wildest imagination, I couldn't have imagined these headlines!

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I've been back in California for nearly two months - enough time to readjust to America: from driving back on the right side (not as easy as I thought) to listening to endless automatic telephone menus when I call the phone or cable company (actually worse, if any Aussie can believe this, than Telstra!). I've written a couple of "Letters from Melbourne (CA/ED)" which was supposed to mean "California Edition," but it's time to end the series.

The Letter began simply as a way to let my American friends know how my year in Oz was going. But after the third letter (Halloween and Gun Control in Oz) I thought the Huffington Post would be interested in posting them. They were. The most recent Letters can still be archived on http://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/lawrence-diller-273.

Then, over time as I made more and more Australian connections I began adding my Australian friends to the Letter from Melbourne email list. I was so pleased that these Aussies made it clear that they appreciated this American's view points and analyses on many, even familiar Australian subjects like footy or ANZAC Day.

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But it's time to say goodbye for now. I met my primary goal in living a year in Melbourne -- which was to slow time down. My year was very, very rich and varied. It was not all good. Leaving my prostate in Melbourne was totally unexpected but in the process I met my best Australian mate who was there for me before and after the surgery. We had known each other for only two months but he supported me through the pre and post-surgery experience for which I can never thank him enough. But I think he also thought I was a bit of a hero when, for example, I showed up, at Jewish High Holy Day services, with a catheter in place -- I really needed to pray before the surgery.

My observations about the differences between these two overtly similar countries have been reinforced after being back here in the U.S. Australia is the more civil society, happier country than America is these days. The pressures on most Americans to maintain their standards of living appear so much greater than those on the Aussies. Aussies know how to work but they also know how to enjoy themselves. Americans are so pressured and worried, they've have forgotten how to play without their phones or iPads connecting them to their work.

Aussie friendliness in the work place seems authentic and genuine. While there are exceptions, much of the supposedly friendly exchanges at stores and restaurants in the Bay Area strike me as formulaic, forced or pressured. When the CVS pharmacy check out lady greets me as I walk into the store with a monotonic "How are you today?" I do not feel connected. Her greeting and motivation if anything is off putting.

In so many other American encounters I am feeling lawyers' legal influence on basic human interactions. So many exchanges require signatures, initials or listening to preemptory exculpations ("Your conversation may be recorded," "A listing of benefits is not a guarantee of coverage," etc.). The threat of suits and protection of rights have unintentionally but steadily added to the decrease of civility in American daily life.

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The homelessness situation is truly out of control in the Bay Area now and throughout America. It is a gross national shame and has decreased the quality of the urban experience. I compared homelessness in both countries last year in The Letter. Australians, unless they have visited an American city, just have no idea how minimal their problems are compared to the American situation.

Some U.S. leaders feel that that the American homelessness can't be solved without some reduction in the civil rights of the mentally ill, e.g. more involuntary hospitalizations and treatment. But I realized Australian rights for the mentally ill -- being held for no more than 48 hours against your will in Victoria without a hearing -- is very similar to California laws, where it is 72 hours. So the differences in the magnitude of the problem between the two countries is not because Australia is tougher on the mentally ill. Might the difference between the two countries have to do with Australia's $19 an hour minimum wage compared to America's $7.75?

Working as a behavioral pediatrician in Australia helped me immeasurably in my professional life as well. I recognized that I'm "not crazy" to feel that American healthcare is out of whack when it comes to the diagnosis and treatment of children's emotional and behavioral problems. As an M.D. in the U.S. I am considered a virtual heretic for not medicating every child who comes into my practice.

In Australia, by contrast, I was considered a relative proponent of medication. It was so refreshing to work with Australian psychiatrists and pediatricians who were still committed to non-drug strategies for children and their families. I really needed their particular injection of reality. Upon my return, I have renewed energy to continue to resist the American corporate world of medicine where the influence of insurance companies and big Pharma predominate.

My surgery in Melbourne offered another unexpected benefit. Planning the year in Australia I had signed up to be a medical provider. I wound up also experiencing Australian health-care as a patient. Overall my care was absolutely first world excellent. Indeed, my PET scan to rule out metastases (there were none) was a quasi-experimental procedure performed in only four other sites in the world (apparently San Francisco coincidentally is one of them).

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But I completely was taken by Australian informality even in the hospital. My discharge orders were written on a Friday and I could leave ANY TIME I WANTED on Sunday. I signed only a one-page form to authorize the PET scan. There would have been several initials and signatures required in the U.S.

I saw the simplicity of the single payer model in operation and wished that I could have participated. As a non-resident alien I learned to automatically approach reception with my credit card extended saying "Overseas, non-Medicare, self-pay." The receptionists were often confused because everyone has a Medicare card and either pays nothing or a nominal co-payment.

I was also impressed with an attitude of health caring so different from the anxious, legally driven U.S. model. I'd summarize the Australian system as treating the patient with "You'll be alright, mate," versus the hand-holding, suit-fearing American system. I must admit initially I felt a little uneasy with the single scheduled two-week post-op visit with a nurse but of course it worked out fine.

Australia ain't perfect. I noted so many of the social/economic trends that have led to a second Gilded Age in the U.S. (the one per cent phenomenon) operating in Australia, especially the exorbitant real estate prices and tax-benefits to the wealthy like negative gearing. The Australian media tended to glorify excessive luxury consumption much like Americans. Indeed, the Australian cautionary caveat of "Don't be a tall poppy," is waning. "Watch out Australia!" is my advice - if you don't want to become another America. Most Australians I met are aware of these trends - but it will take great national Aussie resolve to avoid the tentacles of the efficient but amoral global market economy.

Australia's success and attractiveness makes it a haven for legal and illegal immigrants. Australia has successfully moved from a whites-preferred immigration policy to a successful multi-cultural melting pot. But it's handling of illegal immigration has resulted in the international scandal of Narau and Manus, Australia's equivalent of America's Guantanamo Bay prison.

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Perhaps my biggest take-home lesson I learned had little to do with Australia itself. Pulling up stakes in the U.S. and setting ourselves up in a new country at the age of sixty-three turned out to be much more physically challenging to my wife and me. We may have had the drive of forty-somethings but our bodies were mid-late middle age. We often were so surprised how physically tired we were during the specific times of transition (It took nearly three months to ready our home and my office for our departure from the States).

But on the other hand our Australian experience left us confident that we could handle nearly anything. Apparently I'm not completely done with my prostate problem as I have had a recent bump-up in my PSA which is calling for a visit to a urological oncologist. No worries - there's still no evidence of anything beyond a local problem but further treatment may be warranted. My year in Melbourne has me feeling strong that Denise and I will competently get through this challenge as well.

So I'm back "home" and the treadmill beckons. I've learned from the Aussie way of life. I'm going to try to work a bit less. I've changed my hours in the office so I'm less tired. I'm committed to not falling entirely back into a rigid routine because while comfortable and predictable, routine makes the time I have left speed by too quickly.

I am very grateful to all of you who have read The Letter. So many of you responded with support, occasional corrections and advice. Even negative comments were appreciated because I knew people were reading these missives. Writing The Letter became one of my most pleasurable activities during my stay in Oz.

I've been urged by a number of you to put all of The Letter from Melbourne into a book. I've scantly pursued this idea. If you have any contacts or leads, especially within the Australian publishing world -- which remains much more robust and friendly to non-celebrity writers than the New York publishing scene -- do let me know.

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But until I return to Melbourne - my hope is January 2018 (winter in California and summer in Melbourne) -- I'm signing off for now.

Best to all my mates on two continents
Donald Trump's insinuation that Second Amendment supporters might be able to "do something" to stop a President Hillary Clinton is part of a disturbing trend that is not without consequences. By blocking all sensible gun safety measures, the Republican Party has done everything within their capability to ensure that potentially dangerous people have access to deadly assault weapons. The Planned Parenthood shooter was repeating an unfounded GOP talking point when he killed three people last November.

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For the past four years, the Republican-led House has been one of the most ineffective in U.S. history. Their tactic is simple: Ruin government and then run on an anti-government platform, to the detriment of enabling government to improve people's lives by working efficiently. When they are not trying to block President Obama any way they can, they are advancing agendas against the common good.

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Against all evidence, the Republican's only response to our mass shooting epidemic is claiming that more guns are the solution. Why govern using evidence? Trump says, "I love the poorly educated." The Daily Beast's Michael Tomasky described that the Republican Party "is a party of nihilism that has no desire to solve any social problem, holding the rest of us hostage to its craziness as the bodies mount." He said this in the context of gun control, but it resonates well for the entire GOP platform.
"You [Iranian officials] will be in the future etched in the annals of history as criminals. The greatest crime committed under the Islamic Republic, from the beginning of the Revolution until now, which will be condemned by history, is this crime [mass executions] committed by you." Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri warns the Islamic Republic in an audio disclosed recently.

Montazeri's son, Ahmad, a moderate cleric, posted the audio on his website but was ordered by the intelligence to remove it.

In reference to one of the worst mass executions in the modern history of the Middle East, being carried by the government officials, Montazri stated that "So, now, without their having carried out any new activities (the prisoners), we execute them. This means that all of us screwed up, our entire judicial system is wrong".

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He talks about a 15 years old girl being executed because she liked her brother who was also executed. Amnesty International estimates that in the summer of 1988, the overall number of people executed were 4,500. Some estimates reach as high as over 30,000 people.

He adds "In Esfahan, a pregnant woman was among them [those massacred]. In Esfahan they executed a pregnant woman.... [In clerical jurisprudence] one must not execute a woman even if she is a mohareb (enemy of God).

"I reminded [the Supreme Leader] of this, but he said they must be executed. In the month of Moharram, at least in the month of Moharram, the month of God and the Prophet, it shouldn't be like this. At least feel some shame before Imam Hussein. Cutting off all meetings and suddenly engaging in such butchery, dragging them out and Bang! Bang!!! Does this happen anywhere in the world? ..."

Montazeri's audio points to one of the worst crimes against humanity committed in modern history and it continues to occur. It points to the means that the government uses to control the population and silence opposition.

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It also points to the interconnectedness of Shiite Islam, power and authoritarianism, and it points to the dominance of the IRGC, intelligence, Khamenei and their loyalists.

For more details and nuances you can read full version on Here.

_______________________

Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is an American political scientist, business advisor, best-selling author, and the president of the International American Council on the Middle East. Harvard-educated, Rafizadeh serves on the advisory board of Harvard International Review. An American citizen, he is originally from Iran and Syria, lived most of his life in Iran and Syria till recently. He is a board member of several significant and influential international and governmental institutions, and he is native speaker of couple of languages including Arabic and Persian. He also speaks English and Dari, and can converse in French, Hebrew.

You can sign up for Dr. Rafizadeh's newsletter for the latest news and analyses on HERE. You can also order his books on HERE.

You can learn more about Dr. Rafizadeh on HERE.
"He's a talker, the angry man, talks the whole time. Talks as he picks me up in his pretend cab, talks as he turns the wrong way..., talks as he extends his hand with a knife."

With this opening to her memoir, Naughton drops readers right into the terrifying moment of her abduction. We're there, in Belize, in a taxi that turns out not to be a taxi, with a man who at first tells her he will rob her, but later decides he wants more from her than money.

Naughton has returned to Belize to spend two weeks with a man she'd met on a previous visit. While their romance is still new, untested, and long-distance, they've corresponded steadily for several months when she goes back to celebrate his birthday and to see if their love might be something to sustain. He's a younger man, a dive master and professional fisherman. On the 4th day of what she intends to be a two-week stay, she goes to meet up with him after his work day, and this is when she gets in the errant "cab". Life turns in a single moment. Nothing will ever be the same.

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"In the periphery of your vision you see green. A wild of green. Forest green leaves, sea green water, moss green barks of trees, yellow green shimmery sand, greens without names they're so particular to themselves. The black green curves of striated roots seem to beat like a subterranean womb. All around you is a mash of sand, snakes, mosquitoes, night bird calls, rhythmic waves, grasshoppers, and tall billowy green grass defending itself with sharp edges."

Poetic passages like these elevate the memoir throughout.

While the narrator's life is spared, readers feel along with Naughton the sinking irreversibility of the event: "I want to pretend it never happened and go to the caye with the diver in the morning, have a vacation, and fall in love." Ugh. No longer possible.

"The diver holds my hand, but his kindness cannot reach me. I tell him not to worry about me; I'll be fine. I tie this lie into a knot that moors me, and it will be a long time before the fibers of the rope wear thin."

The effects of the event are so entirely pervasive that in some sense, it's as though she actually did die. The memoir chronicles the confusing, messy, long-term process of coming back to life. Reclaiming it.

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Naughton is a magnificent writer whose mastery of this particular narrative is her ability to deliver it as allegory or fable or myth. In part she does this by rendering characters more symbolic than actual, more universal than specific, giving them labels rather than names. Her rapist is either The Angry Man or Jaguar Man. Her recent boyfriend is always The Diver. The friend back in L.A. is always my friend. Rape is always referred to as X, no matter if she's using it as a noun or a verb. For example: Is it X if you let him? And when she gets her flight changed so she can go back to the states immediately, she's suspicious and wary of every man in the Belize airport. She thinks, Has he X? Has he?

Remarkably effective and well-written are the few pages relating the monstrously slow passage of time as the narrator waits many hours for the flight that will take her off the island, away from Jaguar Man. She achieves this through a hyper-attentiveness to her own hyperactivity as she tries to kill the necessary time. In and out of the restaurant, the bathroom, the doors of the airport, attempting to read and being unable to read, calling a friend back home--dozens of moves, yet the clock tells us only a few minutes have passed. It's relentless and interminable and excruciating and perfectly rendered.

Admirably inventive is the scene where the narrator imagines she recreates the jungle of her rape through the construction of origami forms--first a single grasshopper, then multiple grasshoppers, and the awkward paper forms come to life--hopping and rubbing their legs together. Then she says she can't stop folding, folding being a metaphor for an unraveling, a reckoning, a compulsion to free herself, and once she's started it gathers momentum. She "folds" trees now and seaweed and a moon and the sea and the jungle and thorns and weeds and sand and shells and moss. By replicating the jungle, she brings herself back to sense memory, while still technically safe inside her cabana. The imagined paper rape scene is on the floor all around her.

Naughton's choice to use origami as the vehicle for this rendering is inspired--an art form, one she admits she does not know--her lopsided grasshoppers, her paper sea becoming armor, a shield.

Often in the case of trauma, the one traumatized disassociates to endure the event. Naughton enacted in that jungle a divide, a split, allowing the "other" to handle the emotion, the feelings, while she would absorb and endure the sexual violence, the physical pain.

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"The part of me that feels is hiding with the frogs, or she's trapped or, God only knows, still caught by her hair in a tree."

The narrator has ostensibly gone back to retrieve the part of herself she left behind.

"You admit you left her on purpose, in a delirium of birdcalls, fish scales, branches, berries, sand flies, stench, snake eyes, jellyfish, feathered tails, and hollowness. You took the physical brunt of the jaguar man while she held the fear."

Despite the horrific experience at this memoir's core, Naughton's gift for language, symbolism, metaphor, allegory and myth, give readers the stark, unblinking horror, while also transforming that into something artful and beautiful.

This review originally appeared at New York Journal of Books.
I have been living in the Swiss city of Basel for some time now. Just a few months ago, I moved from a student dorm to an unfurnished flat with two friends, and went through the complete ordeal of furniture hunting,planning,transporting it and setting it all up.I think by the end of it all, we probably became experts in assembling IKEA furniture, fixing light fittings, drilling holes in the walls and fixing shelves. Thanks to IKEA and all the people selling their old (and not-so-old) furniture, we found quite a bit of 'smart' or space saving furniture. But, recently, when I visited Stockholm(also in the land of IKEA!)and stayed at HTL - a 'smart hotel', I was amazed at some of the really cool features they had implemented in all rooms!

Now, I had read about the predicted rise of smart hotels but staying in one was a first for me. I realized how you could utilize the little space you have and come up with so many ideas. I wish I could implement some of these in my home too.I see some people have mastered the art of bringing hotel design ideas home, but it will probably take a lot more time (and budget) for me to do so. Nevertheless, here are some design ideas that I found interesting, some from the hotel and some just on the internet:

1. USB ports along with regular power outlets -- At HTL Stockholm, I noted they offered USB ports on the wall, along with the regular power outlets. This proved to be very useful while charging multiple devices at the same time, especially since I had more USB cables than adapters. Also, they had these power outlets on each side of the double bed, which meant that each person had enough possibilities of charging all devices they needed!

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2. Sockets under the bed -- Speaking of chargers and power outlets, I was surprised to find an outlet also in the bed box (under-the-bed storage- which I love and got for my room too by the way). Plus, it was nice of them to already provide a EU adapter, for those two might not be carrying one themselves. Three years ago, stressing on the needs of professional travellers, an article on a British Airways blog read," Hotels that put plug sockets by beds are the rarest of treasures." Sure, time has passed and advances have been made. But, when it comes to catering to the needs of the tech savvy traveller, HTL probably takes the cake.

Power outlet in the bed box. Image:europediaries.com

This might have been a good idea for my home too, perhaps, as I currently have multi-plug outlets and lots of wires kept next to my bed.

3. Built-in-bin -- This is embarrassing, but honestly, when my friend and I checked into our HTL room and took a look at the washroom, we thought they hadn't provided us with a dust bin! How strange, I thought to myself, before realizing this:

Space saving ideas for the washroom. Image:europediaries.com

Of course there was a dust-bin in the washroom, just integrated below the wash basin! I thought it was a clever idea to save some space, as the washroom was small. I do have a pull-out bin in the kitchen, but having one in the washroom too might not be a bad idea. Oh, and they also had recyclable bags in the room for disposing paper.

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4. Room key in smartphone -- Real talk -- the amount of time I spend looking for my keys in my bag could well be utilized for something constructive on the whole. I sure have looked up solutions and found some interesting techniques and ideas,both, for not losing keys in the house as well as in your bag. However, when I saw that you could check in through the HTL app on your smartphone and also use your phone as your key, I was thrilled! How convenient it would be if I could use my phone for my house too! Except of course, if my phone went dead or worse, if I lost it :( It also would be very expensive to have that kind of a system at home. But then again, you never know how technology might advance in the next few years.

5.Hooks, hangers and lamps near bed -- I would be up for an opportunity to fix adorable lamps above or near my bed, along with alternatives, if that were a possibility. I remember running around looking for bedside and table lamps when I was moving in.It would depend a lot on the type and size of the room, for each one's case. But, it would be convenient to control the lamps using buttons next to the bed or appropriate gadgets.



Lamps, hooks and hangers above bed at HTL. Image: europediaries.com

I wouldn't have opted to have hangers near my bed in my own room, but someone used one of the hooks to hang their shoe!

6. Storage staircase -- I came across this idea in a post on icreatived and absolutely loved it! Having storage options under the stairs would be fantastic!What do you think?

7.Extendable bed with storage -- Now I saw one of such beds on the IKEA website and immediately knew I wanted it. A single bed, which could be extended to make it double, when you have family or friends over, along with bed boxes for storage -- sounded so perfect to me! So perfect that I ultimately bought it. Not a new IKEA Brimnes costing nearly 300 CHF, but luckily found someone selling theirs just after 6 months of usage at a third of the price. So, win win!

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8.Book shelves on the wall -- This is something I would absolutely love to have! A small set of shelves mounted on the wall would be convenient to store books, files, decoration pieces for instance, and I wouldn't have to worry much about creating more space in my room for an extra shelf.

Some cool ideas I came across were on Floatproject , decoist, homemydesign and of course, images on Pinterest.



I also remember having a small shelf next to my bed at The Winery Hotel,also during my trip to Stockholm.



At The Winery Hotel,Stockholm. Image: europediaries.com



9. Wide mirrors -- I came across some posts suggesting that wide mirrors can make a small room look more open as they reflect light. I would keep this in mind in the future. Also noticed this in my room at HTL. In fact, they had mirrors on both sides of the room.

Room at HTL Stockholm. Image: europediaries.com

So these were some of the things that I could think of at the moment. I am sure this list will keep growing, as and when I come across even more smart ideas. If you have any suggestions to add on, do let me know. And now, it's time to close this post with a bit of wishful thinking : a rooftop pool! Just like the one at The Winery Hotel, Stockholm.
In pivoting to the general election, Donald Trump recently proclaimed, "I will never lie to you." That, of course, is a lie.

Some of Trump's lies are inconsequential, like his claim to never lie; others, though, are extremely damaging, furthering his political agenda while undermining the security of us all. His recent Social Security lie, embedded in his first general election ad, falls into that latter category.

In that ad, Trump includes a lie that can be found circulating around the internet but contains not one iota of truth. The ad claims that unauthorized workers (people he pejoratively calls "illegal") receive Social Security. The exact opposite is true.

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Millions of undocumented workers, working in jobs where Social Security is automatically deducted from paychecks, contribute billions of dollars to Social Security every year. Yet, by law, they cannot collect a penny of benefits. The Chief Actuary of the Social Security Administration has estimated that undocumented workers have contributed over $100 billion to Social Security in the last decade alone.

Trump's claim that he will lose Pennsylvania only if the election is rigged seeks to undermine confidence in the integrity of our elections. His lie about undocumented workers receiving Social Security seeks to undermine confidence in another crucial institution, our Social Security system.

Social Security is vital to the economic security of all of us. It provides working families with their most important source of retirement income, life insurance, and disability insurance. It provides these benefits efficiently, fairly, and securely. Less than a penny of every dollar spent by Social Security goes to administration. The remaining more than 99 cents goes directly to the American people in the form of benefits. Without Social Security nearly half of today's seniors would have incomes below the Federal poverty line. Our nation's largest children's program, Social Security provides benefits, either directly or indirectly, to around nine percent of America's children.

Social Security is not only critically important and extremely well run, it is extremely popular, as well. Overwhelming majorities of Americans, irrespective of Party affiliation, age, race, gender, ethnicity, or economic status support Social Security, believe it is more important than ever, do not want to see it cut, and want to see it expanded.

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There, of course, have always been those who dislike Social Security and would like to dismantle it. President Dwight Eisenhower called them a "tiny splinter group." He added, "Their number is negligible, and they are stupid."



"Trump's latest ad is not only an attack on immigrants and refugees. It is an attack on the economic security of us all. "





Today, that tiny splinter group never openly expresses dislike for Social Security. Rather, they seek to undermine confidence in it. President George W. Bush, for example, proposed drastically cutting Social Security and dismantling it through privatization. Yet, he described it as "[o]ne of America's most important institutions," and "a great moral success of the 20th century." He quickly followed those remarks with the comment that it was going bankrupt and unsustainable. This, despite the fact that the United States is the wealthiest nation in the world at the wealthiest moment in its history, and can unquestionably afford Social Security's modest benefits.

Like Bush, Trump clearly understands the politics of Social Security. In a 2011 interview with Sean Hannity, Trump said he was on board with plans to cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid -- but that Republicans should be very careful "not to fall into the Democratic trap" by doing it without bipartisan support, or they would pay the price politically.

Sure enough, during the primaries, Trump claimed he would oppose cuts to Social Security. As soon as he secured the nomination, though, he sent signals both to Party leaders and wealthy donors that he, indeed, would cut benefits, just as he espoused before becoming a candidate. And the Republican Platform, though oblique in its language, makes clear to those who follow the issue closely, that the Party supports cuts and privatization.

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While not likely to make his true position on Social Security known before Election Day, Trump, in his just released ad, seeks to undermine confidence in the integrity of Social Security by spreading the lie that undocumented workers receive Social Security. The obvious implication is that the earned Social Security benefits of hard working Americans are being diverted to those who don't deserve them.

This subtle undermining of confidence in our Social Security system should not be a surprise. Before becoming a candidate, Trump called Social Security a Ponzi scheme, darkly hinting that it was on the verge of collapse.

In stark contrast, Secretary Hillary Clinton is a champion of Social Security. She fought hard to defeat President Bush's reckless privatization scheme in 2005. Today, she stands firmly and clearly in favor of expanding, not cutting, Social Security. She sees expanding Social Security as a solution to serious challenges facing the nation, including our looming retirement income crisis, the continuing perilous growth in income and wealth inequality, the financial squeeze on working families, and the need to support those among us who take time out of the paid workforce to undertake the essential and demanding job of care-giving. The Democratic Platform includes a powerful plank advocating expanding, not cutting, Social Security.

Many foreign policy experts have warned that Trump is unfit to be commander in chief or have control of our nuclear codes. He is a threat to our physical security. His lies about Social Security make clear he is a threat to our economic security, as well.

Though Trump is seeking to pivot to the general election in order to become more acceptable to a broader group of voters, his latest ad, sowing fear and misinformation, is revealing. It is not only an attack on immigrants and refugees. It is an attack on the economic security of us all.
There's a new documentary out dealing with the history of the Cabrini Green project in Chicago. 70 Acres in Chicago deals with the many complicated issues of race and urban poverty. But as the Slate article about the documentary notes, it underlines another huge issue with the "improvement" of some urban neighborhoods.

The idea behind these housing project upgrades is always pretty simple. Here comes the city to say to the poor folks living in the projects, "Aren't you tired of living like this? We are going to knock these projects down and replace them with something better. Yes, you are going to have to find another place to live, but when we've finished, you'll be eligible to come back here and live in the newer better place."

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That seems like a great idea, a straightforward way to improve quality of live for those living in public-assistance housing.

But as writer Dianna Douglas notes, that's not how it works. Mostly, the people who have been displaced by the new project do not come back. The most successful such project in the country was in Atlanta, and that project brought back a whopping 25% of the original residents. The national average "hovers below 19 percent."

Some of this is simply circumstance. Moving is expensive. Doing it twice is way expensive. But some of this is also design. The Cabrini-Green redevelopment will follow the new model of mixing low-cost housing with higher SES models for a mixed neighborhood. But there's a problem.

The decrepit, infamous Cabrini-Green had 3,600 public housing units. When the rebuilding is complete in 2019, there will be around 2,830 units. Only 30 percent are for families in public housing. Got that? Fewer than 900 units.

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And as Douglas notes, the rules for getting into those limited units can be pretty strict.

The message for the urban poor when it comes to gentrification is simple-- we're going to make this neighborhood better by moving you out of it. Meanwhile the actual humans who have been moved out may find themselves in a rougher situation, an equally bad neighborhood, but now without the neighborhood ties, the little bit of social capital that they had previously worked up in the original (now "improved") neighborhood.

Does this apply to charter schools in some cities? Here's a response from a reader in a recent Valerie Strauss/Carol Burris piece at Washington Post

As a mother of four whose children attend public schools and charter schools, I can tell you exactly what's occurring in both public and public charter schools.

I live in a neighborhood in Washington,DC that is undergoing regentrification. It is still prodominately African American but Whites have moved in within the last five years. The Washington Latin Public Charter School which opened about four years ago has a predominately White student body in a predominately African American neighborhood. I have two children that are in Middle School and High School and they are not allowed to attend the school that is in walking distance ( school sits at the end of my block). They have been wait listed for years. I finally just enrolled them in another charter school that has a predominately African American and Hispanic student body. When we drive past the school every morning we see White kids being bused from outside the neighborhood. My kids now know what segregation looks like in 2016. These white students are coming from Eastern market, Tenley Town, and Logan Circle. All of those white kids live outside the neighborhood. I brought it to the attention of the Charter School board here in Washington and nothing changed. As stated in the article the members of Washington Latin School Board are predominately all Attorneys from Georgetown, Yale and Harvard Law School. This means that trying to change the policies on how students are selected will be extremely difficult. It's as if the Charter School Board is afraid of the elected members at this school.

The save the village, we have to lose the villagers.

But what good does it do to save a neighborhood or a school if we throw away the people? What good does it do to "fix" a neighborhood school when the neighbors are gone and the students come from some other neighborhood? If the actual problem was that the neighborhood or the school were not meeting the needs of the people, how have we solved that problem? The same people who were not served before are still not being served-- they're just not being served somewhere else. Of all the wrong ways to do charter schools, this is the wrongest.
Contraception. (Photo by: MediaForMedical/UIG via Getty Images)

By Phil Harvey and Lisa Conyers

Obscured by the noise and heat of current pronouncements on income inequality, one option for combating poverty would have a quick and major impact. That option is providing young women with long acting reversible contraceptives, a.k.a. LARCs. As we learned in the course of interviews with welfare recipients across the country, if all young women had the tools they need to avoid unwanted pregnancies, there would be a marked drop in single motherhood, and since poverty is a major side effect of single motherhood, there would be fewer impoverished mothers and children.

The young unmarried women we talked with who had had children while they were still in their teens told us about this connection as they reported on their lives. The penalties they paid for their pregnancies were predictable - delayed graduation or no graduation from high school, no way to acquire job skills, and no time to do paid work, all of which adds up to being poor, having to depend on welfare programs, and knowing you've lost any chance to realize the American dream.

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"I used to have that American dream of having a nice house, a car, a career, my kids in a good school," Juakea, a young mother of two in Beacon, Georgia, told us. "Now all that is gone. I'm just surviving. Those dreams are gone."

Multiply Juakea's experience by the millions of unmarried mothers who now depend on welfare and it is no surprise that the poverty rate for families headed by single mothers is disturbingly high -- 40%, compared to 8% for two-parent families.

LARCs give the young single women who are most likely to end up on welfare a better way forward, as studies have shown.

Research by Isabel Sawhill -- a sociologist with the Brookings Institution who has spent decades studying single mothers -- reveals that most young single women today are not making conscious decisions to plan their childbearing. Instead, they are sliding into motherhood without any planning, losing the chance to finish school and start careers because they have to care for unplanned children.

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Like our interviews, Sawhill's research highlights facts that we need to accept: Young women are going to be sexually active, and they don't rely enough on current contraceptive choices, at least partly because those contraceptive choices require repeated action, often in the heat of the moment.

LARCs are different. Providing effective contraception for an extended period without requiring any action by users, LARCs include intrauterine devices (IUDs) and subdermal contraceptive implants. They are unquestionably the most effective reversible methods of contraception.

Sawhill's research results are affirmed by two important studies done in Colorado. Using funds from an anonymous donor, the state ran a pilot study in 2009 to see what would happen if teenage girls were given free-of-charge access to LARCS, primarily the IUD and hormonal implants.

What happened then surprised many observers. Teen pregnancies were reduced by 26 percent, and that reduction measurably reduced welfare dependence. Participation in the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) welfare program fell by 23 percent, for example, and every dollar the state spent on LARCs saved an estimated six dollars in welfare costs.

A second Colorado study produced even more promising results. This one involved unmarried women who used LARCs after having had a first child. Only 2.6% of these mothers got pregnant again within a year while 19% of the mothers in the control group without LARCs got pregnant again in that time.

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Although long-acting reversible contraceptives are safe and effective, they do present some challenges. For one thing, they won't prevent sexually transmitted diseases, so condom use should still be encouraged. For another, the initial cost averages $1,000 for the device and insertion, and young women may find it daunting to start on LARCs because they have to visit a clinic. On the other hand, LARCs have no continuing costs, while other contraceptive devices do. And, like all FDA-approved contraceptives, LARCs are covered by medical insurance under the ACA, and by Medicaid.

The main point, clearly, is that LARCs are an effective anti-poverty tool. When young women are given access to long acting reversible contraceptives, they are able to choose when to get pregnant, able to exert more control over their own lives, able to reduce the incidence of single motherhood, and therefore almost certainly able to alleviate the stubborn poverty that now afflicts so many families headed by single women.
Today, federal and state governments, as well as hospitals and clinics, are struggling with the country's devastating opioid epidemic. With prescription pain medication abuse a driving factor, the focus has mostly been on younger and middle-aged people and restricting drug access. However, millions of older people experience chronic, even debilitating pain and desperately need relief. We must take a balanced approach so that older adults can continue to make contributions to their communities and families and continue to live well as they age.



Older adults and prescription drug problems

In recent years, the health care system, led by the Veterans Administration in 1999, began to treat pain as the "fifth vital sign." Needed painkiller prescriptions increased. The unintended result? An explosion of opioid addictions and overdoses, with an intergenerational ripple effect on grandparents, parents, young children and our overall society.

Older adults are not immune to the problems of abuse and addiction, and signs point to a growing problem. One study, presented at the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry's (AAAP) 23rd Annual Meeting, reported that approximately one in five individuals aged 65 years and older take analgesics, including opioids, several times per week and that rates of abuse or addiction in those with chronic pain is 18 percent. The efforts underway to help clinicians recognize patients with drug problems and appropriately prescribe opioids must include a focus on our Medicare patients, in addition to younger adults.



Chronic pain should not be a constant companion simply because we age.

While concerns about addiction are warranted, we must also ensure adequate pain management in older people. Almost half of all adults over age 65 routinely live with pain, part of a larger and important public health challenge. Chronic pain in older adults comes from a variety of (and often multiple) sources--degenerative arthritis, nerve damage (from fibromyalgia, shingles and diabetes) and cancers.



Still, undertreatment remains a significant problem. We know that severity of pain is subjective, and can be particularly hard to diagnose and manage in the elderly. This health disparity must be addressed, just as variations in pain treatment based on race and ethnicity found in recent research from the University of Pennsylvania require similar attention.



Treating pain is a critical aspect of good health care, and sometimes opioids are the best option. A review of studies showed that short-term use of opioids in older non-cancer patients can be safe and effective, and the risk of abuse is negatively associated with age. Tightened restrictions on opioid use may present difficulties for the nearly 30 percent of those enrolled in Medicare Part D in 2015 who had at least one opioid prescription, as described by The New York Times' Paula Span.



Beyond opioids: drug and non-drug alternatives

Fortunately, opioids are not the only pain treatment options, and in fact, they should often be avoided in older adults. With aging, metabolism slows and side effects such as nausea, vomiting, constipation and falls are more frequent. Further, despite common expectations, opioids do not always work and may instead exacerbate the pain. Clinicians need to be conservative as long-term opioid use in general can be dangerous, and experts find that opioids may not be effective in terms of restoring activity and function.

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In many cases, alternative therapies should be considered first. Physical therapy may be an important initial step, along with massage therapy. Clinicians in the community are also examining other evidence-based non-drug approaches to pain, including exercise, tai chi/yoga, cognitive behavioral therapy, and meditation. There are several places to access supervised programs at local senior centers, churches, Ys, on television and in online classes. Some older people may be able to eschew opiates all together, with combinations of non-opioid drug and non-drug alternatives, and manage their pain to tolerable levels. Currently, grantees of The John A. Hartford Foundation are developing standards and resources to limit opioid overuse during and after surgery and in the emergency room.



Moving to action

The opioid epidemic remains a national crisis, one that requires actions at all levels. The solutions must take the special needs of older people into account. The FDA, CDC and other groups have offered responses, for example, placing limits on various opiate formulations, constraining how clinicians can call in opiate refills, and providing a clearer sense of who will benefit from opioids and who should not receive them. These efforts should include a focus on older adults. At the same time, we need an approach that avoids unintentionally exacerbating the undertreatment of pain in elders. We need action that includes:

Further development, testing and prescription of pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical alternatives to opioids;

Clinical support necessary to help older people take on and manage drug and non-drug options for their pain; and

A commitment to more research into opioid use and its efficacy for chronic pain management.

For older people already addicted to opioids, we also need to create greater access to treatment services and social supports that can help them break their addictions and find new ways to take control of their pain and their lives. Together we can both stem the opioid epidemic and ensure that older adults get the pain management they need.

Earlier on Huff/Post50:
This February 4, 2013 photo illustration in Manassas, Virginia, shows a man holding a Colt AR-15 semi-automatic rifle. US President Barack Obama Monday heaped pressure on Congress for action 'soon' on curbing gun violence. Obama made a pragmatic case for legislation on the contentious issue, arguing that just because political leaders could not save every life, they should at least try to save some victims of rampant gun crime. AFP PHOTO/Karen BLEIER (Photo credit should read KAREN BLEIER/AFP/Getty Images)

By Valerie Plame and Miranda Viscoli, Co-President of New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence

When is the highly respected United Way's mission to "improve lives by mobilizing the caring power of communities around the world to advance the common good" incompatible with their actions? When they allow a United Way chapter in New Mexico to auction off firearms - including military assault style weapons as a means to fundraise. Yes, you read that right.

United Way Worldwide is officially sanctioning a yearlong raffle in rural Otero County, New Mexico -- with full knowledge that this fundraiser will distribute over a hundred deadly firearms into New Mexican communities already ravaged by gun violence.

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We are being pressured by the international headquarters of the United Way not to talk to the press about this event. But, silencing of voices that urge peace and reason is not an effective means of stopping violence in our communities. Our collective conscience demands that we speak out. In 2012, after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School a group of concerned citizens founded a grassroots local organization called New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence. Like so many Americans, we could not stand by and do nothing after twenty innocent young children were killed by one of the firearms labeled "Grand Prizes" in the upcoming United Way raffle.

With over 33,000 people killed every year by gun violence in the US (and many more injured), the time for silence has long passed. We believe that a vast majority of Americans will find the United distributing weapons like the AR-15 assault rifle into one of our communities to be as morally repugnant as we do. In fact, the first weapon to be raffled off in January will be a military grade Barret m95.50 BMG sniper rifle, designed to kill a person up to a mile away. This is not for killing a rabbit. The sniper rifle is valued at $8,999 on the United Way website. That's a lot of money in rural New Mexico. The United Way Worldwide is fully aware of laws that allow the raffle "winner" to turn around and immediately sell that military grade sniper rifle to absolutely anyone. No background check or questions of any kind are required in a personal gun sale in New Mexico. The raffle winner can then sell that deadly sniper rifle to the highest bidder, whether that person is a drug cartel member or gang member, a terrorist, a felon, or a medical patient with a history of violence. A full list of the 100+ weapons that the United Way will introduce into our community can be found on the Otero County United Way website, complete with pictures of the "Grand Prizes."

"Many of us who have supported the United Way for years are deeply embarrassed by and for the organization. "

When we first approached the United Way Worldwide in early August about the firearm raffle, it appeared that they were going to do the right thing. They told us that "United Way of Otero County has removed references to the firearms raffle from their website" and that "we are still following up to ensure the event is not happening at all." The Alamogordo Daily News even printed an article about the Raffle being cancelled. Not surprisingly, gun groups began targeting both the United Way and New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence with their usual bullying tactics. We just learned that the raffle is back on and that United Way Worldwide is fine with that. We understand that NRA bullies can be intimidating. In fact, we have been experiencing their ire for some time now. But, it is the cowardice of people who know better that makes violence epidemic in our country. It is unfortunate (and stupid, frankly) that the Worldwide Board of Directors were not willing to stay true to their mission in the face of misplaced pressure from local and national gun groups.
Boo at the Zoo is back

Boo at the Zoo will take place from 2-5 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 29, throughout the grounds of the zoo, and is free to the public.
Transcription

1 The Cuban Embargo: Detrimental to Cuba, the United States, and Democracy by McClain Napier A Brief History of U.S.-Cuban Relations The u.s. and Cuba have a long and complicated history dating back to the colonial age. In fact, the u.s. played a key role in helping Cuba attain independence from Spain in the late-nineteenth century. Both before and after Cuban independence, the two countries enjoyed numerous trading privileges, mainly focusing on Cuba's abundant sugar production (Porter 2006). However, this all changed in the mid-twentieth century, during a very tense time of the Cold War. In 1959, a group of leftist revolutionaries-led by Fidel and Raul Castro and Ernesto Guevara-toppled the dictatorial regime of Fulgencio Batista. Upon establishing a socialist government, Fidel Castro seized and expropriated all Americanowned industries on the island. In response, President Dwight D. Eisenhower called for the first of many embargos against the island nation (Porter 2006). Seizing the opportunity to win a western hemisphere ally, the Soviet Union filled the trading gap left by American sanctions, promising heavy subsidies to Cuban products (Medland 1990). Fearing the myriad of potential dangers from a Soviet-allied Cuba, President John F. Kennedy authorized the coup d'etat of the new, Castro government through the ill-fated Bay of Pigs fiasco. The failed coup accompanied the 1961 comprehensive embargo against Cuba called the Foreign Assistance Act (Teegan 2002). These events were followed by the Cuban Missile Crisis, which ended with the u.s. promising to never invade Cuba (Medland 1990). Modem developments have seen both relaxing and tightening of the sanctions against Cuba. President Jimmy Carter allowed U.S. travel restrictions to expire; however, those restrictions were reinstated under the Reagan administration. Other steps toward normalization taken by the Ford and Reagan administrations were also undone by the 1992 Cuban Democracy Act and the 1996 Helms-Burton Act (Teegan 2002). 59

2 SIGMA In 2000, President Bill Clinton authorized the Trade Sanctions Reform and the Export Enhancement Act, which allowed the sale of agricultural and medical goods for the purpose of humanitarian aid (Teegan 2002). Finally, in 2003, President George W. Bush spearheaded the creation of the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba (CAFC). This commission called for the allocation of $80 million annually to endeavors that would foster a democratic movement at the grassroots level through an increase in information technology (Hanson 2008). Current U.S. Policy on Cuba. In short, the embargo on Cuba has essentially remained the same for nearly half a decade. However, instead of existing for the purpose of containing communism, as was the case during the Cold War, the embargo against Cuba exists today for the purpose of promoting democracy in the remnant communist regime (Bush 2007). In a speech given in October 2007, then-president Bush summarized the principal caveat that has kept America's sanctions against Cuba alive: "As long as the regime maintains its monopoly over the political and economic life of the Cuban people, the u.s. will keep the embargo in place." In response to critics of the embargo, Bush argued that Cuba's terrible economit: condition is not a product of the long-lived American embargo but of the corrupt communist regime that has controlled everyday life on the island for the past fifty years. He applauded members of Congress who sought to provide "additional funding to support Cuban democracy efforts" (Bush 2007). Therefore, current u.s. policy on Cuba is two-fold. First, the u.s. aims to preserve the embargo until Cuba makes the first transitional move to a democratic government. Second, the u.s. continues to provide funding to pro-democratic efforts in Cuba. Why the Current Policy is Ineffective and Detrimental The primary reason the current policy against Cuba is ineffective is because it misses its intended target-cuba's party leaders; instead, it punishes citizens with impoverishment (CATO 2008). Pope John Paul II vocalized the dilemma of these sanctions in 1998 when he visited Cuba, declaring that sanctions, like the ones against Cuba, are "always deplorable, because they hurt the most needy" (Griswold 2000). Statistics show that a significant majority of Cuba's population live in poverty. The CIA World Factbook reported that the average GDP per capita in Cuba is $4,500 (CIA 2008). Other sources have shown that the average monthly income of a Cuban citizen is a mere ten dollars, while pensioners receive a meager four dollars per month (Roberts 2008). As mentioned in Bush's 2007 speech, there are many who would argue that Cuba's poverty is a result of corrupt leadership and not solely of the embargo (Bush 2007). However, there are many studies that draw a clear correlation between Cuba's mass poverty and the longstanding embargo. For instance, a study performed by professors at George Washington University showed that active sanctions have disrupted from 17 to 27 percent of Cuba's possible imports due to the significant symbiotic relationship between the u.s. and Cuba (Teegan 2002). 60

3 NAPIER Furthermore, medical studies have shown the negative personal effects of the embargo on citizens. In 1997, doctors from Columbia University found that because the embargo raised the prices of food and medical supplies, it was nearly impossible for the poorer classes-a substantial portion of Cuban society-to gain access to these essential commodities. The study examined the effects of economic decline, due to the fall of the USSR and the tightened embargo from The authors analyzed data from various sources, such as nutrition factors, disease increase, and hospital diagnoses. They reported that the economic changes of 1992 generally resulted in a much lower nutritional level among citizens, more widespread infectious diseases, and a higher rate of violent deaths (Garfield 1997). In a similar medical study performed a year earlier, Anthony Kirkpatrick studied the effects of the American embargo on citizens' ability to obtain food and medicine. He found that even though the 1992 Cuban Democracy Act exempted the sale of food and medicine to Cuba from sanction, the reemphasized strictness of the 1996 Helms Burton Act once again removed these items from the reach of the general populous. This, he showed, resulted in a manifestation of neurological diseases greater than any Cuba has seen the past century (Kirkpatrick 1996). Second, the act is detrimental because it weakens the u.s.' standing abroad. For instance, one of the more controversial provisions of the Helms-Burton Act gave certain American businesses the right to sue foreign companies that trade with Cuban companies. The act argues that these American businesses are justified since a good portion of Cuban industry utilizes property that was expropriated during the Communist Revolution. Many nations and international organizations like Canada, the EU, and the OAS argue that this provision violates international trading law and condemn it simply as an attempt to influence governments to a foreign cause (The Cuban Experience 1999). Despite threats from this provision, many world powers like Canada, the UK, Russia, China, and much of Latin America, still maintain trade with Cuba. This effectively removes the teeth from the embargo needed to really suffocate Cuban industry. The results are that Cuba makes just enough in international dealings to support its regime but still suffers due to the American embargo. Therefore, the people continue to suffer while the regime thrives (Griswold 2000). Indeed, the u.s. is one of the only nations that observes the embargo. In 2006, the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly voted to end the embargo for the fifteenth year in a row calling it a "breach of freedom of trade and navigation." Of the 188 countries participating in the assembly, 183 voted to end the embargo. Only four countries (Israel, the Marshall Islands, Palau, and the U.S.) voted for the continuation of the embargo and one (the Federated States of Micronesia) abstained from voting (U.s. Fed News 2006). Third, the embargo negatively affects U.S. interests. For instance, Daniel Griswold with CATO Institute found that the economic sanctions against Cuba "have cost American exporters fifteen billion to nineteen billion in lost annual sales overseas." He also stated that the embargo had "caused long-term damage to u.s. companies" from "lost market share and reputations abroad as unreliable suppliers" (Griswold 61

4 SIGMA 2000). This should come as no surprise since so many countries reject the Cuban embargo and oppose its continuation. More important than the economic consequences of the Cuban embargo are the political ramifications that prove detrimental to American interests. As the u.s. continues its unilateral embargo, and as numerous other world powers skirt American threats, Cuban leadership more easily portrays the U.S. as a corrupt "bad guy," trying to use its power to force the rest of the world to do its bidding. In this way, Cuban leaders not only find a common enemy to use as a factor to rally domestic support from its own citizens, but they win the sympathy of the international community. Cuba becomes stronger as sympathetic countries add their economic aid to the "Cuban victim." Also, as Cuba is more widely seen as a victim surviving the American bully, countries like Venezuela and Iran become more emboldened in their own endeavors and jointly throw their support behind the island nation (Brookings Institution 2008). Finally, the most telling indicator of the ineffectiveness of America's policy against Cuba is probably the most obvious. Despite nearly a half decade of continually staunch sanctions, the policy has not met its objective of unseating the communist regime. Whether or not the sanctions succeeded in preventing a further spread of communism in the Latin America-Caribbean area is a different subject for debate. However, the modern objective to effect democratic change in Cuba has gone unfulfilled. Considering Cuba rebounded, to some extent, and survived the dissolution of the Soviet Union, a future democratic transition as a result of the current embargo seems highly unlikely. Policy Suggestions In order to remedy the obvious problems of the current policy against Cuba and to better promote democracy in Cuba, I offer three simple changes the u.s. government must adopt. Remove Communication Barriers and Restore Diplomatic Relations Carlos Pascual, of the Brookings Institution, summarized the dilemma of restricting communication with another country. Pascual referred to the u.s. interaction with numerous communist bloc countries during the Cold War and the success of their interactions: What we've come to understand is that some of the most dramatic changes that have occurred in the international community have been linked with engagements. In the Eastern bloc it was in part that engagement with Poland and Hungary and the Czech Republic, the then Czechoslovakia, that was so critical to the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989 in keeping alive the aspirations of people there who believed in change (Pascual 2008). Vicki Huddleston, also with Brookings, applied this history lesson to the current situation with Cuba: If we remove the barriers to communication, we will speed the forces of change. Just as was the case in Eastern Europe as a result of the Helsinki agreement, the 62

5 NAPIER Cuban people will be empowered by human contact, the free flow of information, and the support and encouragement of Americans and Cuban-Americans from Florida to California. Removing the barriers to communications and to normal diplomatic relations are not concessions as some would claim. Rather, they are practical initiatives that will reduce the dependence of the Cuban people on the Cuban state by providing them with alternative sources of information and resources to improve their daily lives (Huddleston 2008). History clearly shows that communication is the key in creating any kind of substantial change, whether it be in relations between countries, or in a regime itself. If one wants to foster democracy, it must be grown from the bottom up and not forced to grow by sanctions. This can take place more easily as a country's populous sees for themselves how their lives could be better through a different government. One of the biggest flaws of the Bay of Pigs invasion was that Kennedy falsely believed that the exiles would be welcomed and that the coup would be popular among the people (Lynch 2007). However, most Cubans had not known democracy. Most had only known the American-backed dictatorship of Batista that had squandered the country's resources through corruption (Argote-Freyre 2006). If Cubans had realized the benefits of democracy and the downfalls of communism, the Bay of Pigs invasion might have been a success. The same stands today. Until the Cuban people know the benefits of democracy, they will not be ready or willing to replace their authoritarian regime. Therefore, I suggest the u.s. establish greater engagement with Cuba by reopening the American embassy in Havana and by reopening the Cuban embassy in Washington, D.C. Furthermore, there must be regular engagements between the ambassadors and leaders of the two countries. This will effectively normalize relations between Cuba and the u.s. and make it possible to implement the next two steps in Cuba's democratic transition. Eliminate Travel Restrictions The second step goes hand in hand with the principle established in the first. Greater interaction prepares the soil for democracy to grow. However, this step moves communication and engagement from the realm of diplomats to the realm of citizens. As citizens of both countries are allowed to move freely between the nations, there will be further sharing of ideas and culture. Cubans who come to the u.s. will see the high standard of living afforded by a democratic government. As the u.s. and its organizations travel en masse to Cuba, they will transport with them humanity and inspiration-humanity because Cubans will see Americans in person and see that they are not enemies but potential friends and inspiration because Americans will convey by simple communication and interaction the very essence of democracy, freedom. The Cuban-American National Foundation (CANF) is an organization dedicated to serving the interests of Cuban exiles and to helping impoverished family members in Cuba. Traditionally, the organization has objected to removing the U.S. embargo against Cuba. However, this organization sees the obvious benefit of free travel be- 63

6 SIGMA tween nations. In a 2007 policy recommendation to the White House, they promoted the idea of allowing Cuban-Americans free access to the island: Visits to Cuba are essential to moving events on-island. Cuban-American family members can act as ambassadors of change, taking much needed assistance, but more importantly, helping to transmit that message of hope and support, as well as dispel the regime's propaganda intended to further divide the Cuban family and create fear of change. It is evident by the regime's actions to restrict access to Cuba, particularly by international media outlets, that it seeks to carefully select what the world is privy to. This is precisely why, a liberalization of Cuban-American travel is also crucial to learning more about the internal situation and helping to further destabilize the regime's hold on power (CANF 2007). Even though CANF recommends granting free travel access only to Cuban-Americans, one can still see from their ideas the role that Americans in general would play in promoting a democratic change in Cuba. Reinstall Trade with Cuba Finally, after relations between the U.s. and Cuba have been normalized, and after a free flow of citizens exists between the two countries, Cuba will be ready for the finishing touch that will dissolve the regime's grip over the people, trade. In The Lexus and the Olive Tree, Thomas L. Friedman discussed the idea of "the golden straightjacket and the electronic herd," which illustrated certain principles of interdependence in the modem business world. To paraphrase Friedman, he explained that a country puts on the golden straightjacket when they adopt the principles of trade and capitalism, which means that they become bound to these principles and are richly rewarded for doing so. The electronic herd represented the gaggle of investors around the world. If a country chose to go against the principles of trade and capitalism that typically correlate to a healthy market-if the country chose to break free of the golden straightjacket-the electronic herd will avoid the country. This may happen because investors fear the country's recklessness in not obeying the rules will result in poor returns on their investments (Friedman 1999). How do these ideas apply to American trade with Cuba? It is very simple. As of yet, under the communist regime, Cuba has not engaged in full trade with the U.s., as noted previously, this disrupts a projected 17 to 27 percent of potential Cuban imports (Teegan 2002). This number becomes more substantial as the u.s. becomes a more significant trading partner to Cuba. Cuba will slowly but surely realize the importance of binding themselves to the golden straightjacket. They will taste the sweetness of prosperity from increased trading with the U.S., and they will realize that this prosperity is linked to following the rules and not scaring away the electronic herd. They will perceive their interdependence on American trading. Therefore, little by little they will bind themselves in the golden straightjacket by adopting the strict observance of the policies that attract investors, such as an un-centralized economy and a free market. Once they are bound in the golden straight jacket, they will be more susceptible to u.s. influence that would compel them to switch to a democratic government. 64

7 NAPIER More so, even if the communist regime in Cuba is unwilling to release their authoritarian grip over the country, the people will demand it. After so much cultural inflow from the U.s., the Cuban people will finally be convinced of the benefits of the freedoms afforded by democracy. Therefore, in order to avoid a bloody revolution (which could scare away investors), the Cuban government will make gradual concessions to the populous to not appear weak and will slowly transition to a democracy. There are a few steps that must be followed for the plan to be implemented successfully. Most importantly, the trade must be re-instated gradually. In the previously mentioned study from George Washington University, the authors predicted that Cuban industries' capacity to produce has become atrophied over the years of economic depreciation. As a result, any increase in production of essential goods to meet U.s. demands would detract from the consumption needs of the Cuban populous (Teegan 2002). Therefore, in order to avoid any possible increase in citizen starvation, the u.s. would have to engage in trade with Cuba sector by sector. For instance, instead of permitting all American industry to do business with Cuba, the U.s. might allow only electro-domestic industries to trade. Each year, the u.s. would allow another sector to trade. All the while, the u.s. government would need to continue its current annual CAFC amount of $80 million to Cuba for the continued purpose of improving Cuban industries and structure. Some people believe there may be negative implications for U.s. agriculture by reinstating trade with Cuba. However, this is not the case. The authors of the study from George Washington University predicted that u.s. agriculture would actually benefit from trade with Cuba. They found that exports with Cuba alone would earn an estimated 400 million to one billion for the agricultural sector and would create around six thousand jobs as a result (Teegan 2002). Conclusions The principal objective of the current embargo on Cuba is to foster a democratic government on the island nation. However, the current policy is clearly not achieving its objective. The embargo is ineffective and detrimental to the u.s. because it hurts the Cuban people-not the leadership. The policy harms U.S. world standing, gives the Cuban government a common enemy for which it can rally domestic support from other countries, and the test of time has proven that the policy is unsuccessful in removing the Cuban regime. Clearly, the answer lies in change. By reopening diplomatic communication with Cuba, we reestablish our historic friendship. By allowing our citizens to travel freely between the countries, we permit the conveyance of American culture and ideals to the Cuban populous, which facilitates the growth of democracy from the ground up. Finally, by reimplementing trade with Cuba at a gradual pace, we slowly bind the Cuban leadership with the golden straigh~acket and induce dependence on American trade. This policy would avoid all the pitfalls of the current policy and, more importantly, it will be successful. In conclusion, I emphasize the need for the U.s. government to enact this policy as soon as possible. The Brookings Institution recently held a conference on policy 65

8 SIGMA ideas toward Cuba. They discussed the fact that Cuba has a vast, untapped source of energy, both within natural oil reserves and ethanol production from sugar crops. Furthermore, the conference members found that once the Cuban government fully taps these energy sources, they will gain additional revenues of around three to five billion annually. All participants at the conference agreed that when Cuba reaches this point of production, they will be substantially less influenced by the U.S. (The Brookings Institution 2008). Therefore, one hopes that President Barack Obama will make good on his campaign promises to ease restrictions against Cuba, as this will at least proffer some benefits. Ideally, the embargo must be lifted. If the u.s. truly hopes to transition Cuba from authoritarianism to democracy, then the time to make these changes is now. REFERENCES Argote-Freyre, Frank Fulgencio Batista. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. Bush, George W "Bush's Remarks on Cuba Policy," Council on Foreign Relations. At < publication/ 14616/bushsJemarks_on_cuba_policy.html.> 24 October. Cuba The CIA World Factbook. At < / geos/ cu.html.> 8 March Friedman, Thomas L The Lexus and the Olive Tree. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Garfield, R. and S. Santana "The impact of the economic crisis and the U.S. embargo on Health in Cuba," American Journal of Public Health 87 (Winter): "General Assembly Overwhelmingly Supports End to U.s. Embargo on Cuba," U.S. Fed News. At < 8 November. Griswold, Daniel "Going Alone on Economic Sanctions Hurts U.s. More than Foes," CATO Institute. At < 10 November. Gutierrez, Carlos M "Cuba at the Crossroads," The Heritage Foundation. At < / 17 September. Hanson, Stephanie "U.s.-Cuba Relations," Council on Foreign Relations. At < / 21 February. Huddleston, Vicki "Cuba's Embargo's Usefulness Has Run Its Course," Brookings Institution. At < opinions/2008/ 0310_cuba_huddleston.aspx.> 10 March. Kirkpatrick, Anthony F "Role of the USA in shortage of food and medicine in Cuba," The Lancet 348 (November): Lynch, Grayston L "Cuban Nightmare," Military History 24 (November): Medland, William J "The Cuban Missile Crisis: Evolving Historical Perspectives," The History Teacher 23 (August): Pascual, Carlos "Cuba 2008: Opportunities and Challenges," The Brookings Institution. At < events/2008/0206_cuba.aspx.> 6 February. Porter, Keith "Timeline of U.s.-Cuban Relations," About.com. At < about.comlodlamericas/altimelineuscuba.htm.> 8 March Roberts, James M. and Ray Walser "Cuba's Phony Transition: Fidel Resigns, Raul Resigns," The Heritage Foundation. At < / LatinAmerica/ wm1820.cfm> 19 February. "Simulations: U.S. Policy Toward a Cuba in Transition," The Brookings Institution. At < events/2008/0207 _cuba.aspx.> 8 March

9 NAPIER Stanley, William D "Struggles for Democracy in Latin America," Journal of Third World Studies 10 (2): "Summary: CANF Policy Recommendations in a post-fidel Castro era," The Cuban American National Foundation. At < Summary _ CANF _Policy _Recommendations_in_a_post-Fidel_ Castro_era.shtml.> 23 January, Teegen, Hildy, Hossein Askari, John Forrer, and Jiawen Yang The George Washington University, Center for Latin American Issues. At < ~clai/working_ papers/teegen_hildy _02-03.pdf.> 27 June. "The Cuban Embargo," 2008 CATO Institute. At < / html.> 8 March The Helms-Burton Act The Cuban Experience. At < / library. thinkquest.org /18355/ the_helms-burton_act.html.> 8 March 2008, Weissert, Will "U.s. Sold Cuba $600M in Agriculture Goods," Associated Press. At < ap/080122/ cuba_us_trade.html?v=l.> 22 January. 67
We work towards an equitable,

gender-just, self-reliant and

sustainable fisheries,

particularly in the small-scale,

artisanal sector

We work towards an equitable,

gender-just, self-reliant and

sustainable fisheries,

particularly in the small-scale,

artisanal sector

We work towards an equitable,

gender-just, self-reliant and

sustainable fisheries,

particularly in the small-scale,

artisanal sector

We work towards an equitable,

gender-just, self-reliant and

sustainable fisheries,

particularly in the small-scale,

artisanal sector
I am a retired newspaperman. I am 69 and live in Poca, WV, with my wife of 45 years, Lou Ann. We grew up in Cleveland. Three kids. Grandfather.

More on who I am is here.

Report all errors to DonSurber@GMail.com
"His name is still honoured." [3GAR]

Good Sherlock took full many a crook

In Adventures beyond compare;

And the best of the lot is the crafty plot

Of the man with the flaming hair.

Image credit: The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia

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Somebody asked me a question the other day about Jay Finley Christ, BSI ("The Final Problem"), a Sherlockian whose immense contributions to scholarship (and fun) are by no means forgotten more than 50 years after his death. The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia has an extensive survey of his life and work , including the observation that "He is mostly famous for having created the system of abbreviations which shorten in 4 letters the titles of 60 Sherlock Holmes stories ."He was also the author of much good-natured Sherlockian writing, including a number of poems, among them " The Old Tin Box " (about Holmes's unpublished cases), issued as a pamphlet in 1946, and "The Story I Like Best," published in thein 1947, with this quatrain that I have quoted in more than one context:There was also "The Song of Hiawatson" in 1956, a mashup of Sherlock Holmes with Longfellow's "Hiawatha," which perhaps was more widely known then than it is sixty years later.Christ was a Chicagoan, recruited into the ranks of the Hounds of the Baskerville [sic] by Vincent Starrett himself. He was a professor of business administration at the University of Chicago for many years, and moved in the city's literary circles as well. Some of his works of Sherlockian scholarship, chronology and reflection appeared under his own name, some under the nom-de-plume of J. A. Finch.The debt we owe him is not just for the four-letter abbreviations, but for his invention of Sherlockian reference works, specifically the, published in 1947, for which the abbreviations were devised. Though a bit eccentric, like Sherlock Holmes's own good old index, theis still one of the reference books to which I turn most often  when, for example, I want to find all the mentions of weather in the canonical tales, or all the references to boxers' ears.Jay Finley Christ retired in 1950 and settled in Michigan City, Indiana, where he cranked up his Sherlockian production for the remaining 13 years of his life. He read and wrote in a little outbuilding  a man-cave, we would call it now  which his widow, Maud Christ, described later: "Jay built it all himself, even the fireplace, and put 221B over the door. Here he spent the happiest hours of his life."I was just becoming a Sherlockian when he died, in December 1963, so I never communicated with him, but a little later I did have some correspondence with Maud Christ, who kindly sent me some souvenirs of the great man. Most interesting among them was a little tin, or at least steel, box containing several dozen 35-millimeter slides that he had made, presumably for some of the non-credit Sherlockian lectures. They were clumsy by today's graphic standards, photographed mostly in black and white from print material, and sandwiched in glass, but they included some classic images. They are now in the Arthur Conan Doyle Collection at the Toronto Public Library Later, I was able to acquire a real collectible: Christ's copies of the three-and-a-quarter volumes of the old series. He had had them bound in blue cloth, with his name ("J. F. Christ") stamped in gold on the spine, and I continue to refer to them regularly.Unexpectedly, those volumes provide a window into the sad story of how the Baker Street Journal began bravely but later faltered, amid the financial woes of the publisher, Ben Abramson. It had been Christ's habit to note on each issue the date when it reached Michigan City, so that volume 1 number 1 is inked "Recd Feb 8, 1946". Volume 2, number 1, was slower to appear  "Posted 2/20 Recd 3/1/47"  and volume 3, number 1 did not show up until March 20 of 1948. After that, as the Journal's schedule slipped and eventually petered out, Christ made no more such notes.
Death Valley National Park Invites Visitors to Celebrate the National Park Service Centennial

Death Valley, California - Death Valley National Park has been celebrating 100 years of the National Park Service with events all year, and will continue to do so in the coming months. From the BioBlitz to the Celestial Centennial this spring, Death Valley has been busy celebrating the Centennial of the National Park Service. Events will continue during the rest of the year, including a birthday party in August and a weekend commemorating the National Historic Preservation Act in October. From August 25-28 all National Parks will waive entrances fees, making Founder's Day weekend the perfect time to visit Death Valley and other National Park sites!

On August 25th, Death Valley will host a birthday party for the National Park Service. A reception with cake and refreshments will take place from 1-2 pm in the Visitor Center. Everyone is welcome to attend!During that time, visitors can view Historic Photography in Death Valley, a special exhibit on display in the Furnace Creek visitor center for the rest of the year. The exhibit features the work of several photographers including:Edward Weston, Ansel Adams, Frederick I. Monsen, and George A. Grant.Each of these photographers represents a different approach to photography in Death Valley from the late 19th though the mid-20th century. For example, Frederick I. Monsen was a classic frontier photographer, while Edward Weston and Ansel Adams worked closely with park rangers as depression-era photographers and produced photographs used by the Works Progress Administration. Visitors can also take advantage of the beautiful landscape in Death Valley with a scenic drive to avoid the heat, or take a hike, such as the Wildrose Peak trail, in the cool mountains.

October marks the 50th anniversary of the National Historic Preservation Act, a law integral to the protection of many historic structures on public lands all over the country. During the weekend of October 15th-16th events will be held celebrating Death Valley's history, from prehistoric archaeology to Mission 66 National Park Service architecture. These events are for all visitors, and include children's activities, ranger programs, and talks and demonstrations by experts. Check the Death Valley National Park website (www.nps.gov/deva) soon for a full schedule of events.

On August 25, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed the act that created the National Park Service "to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for future generations."




Washington Post that the Department of Justice is With the dreadful, odious Wasserman Schultz falling from power and fighting for her political life, some of the criminal elements she has protected are losing their battles against the public. Predatory loan sharks, one of the foundations of her rise to power (payday lenders have given her $68,100 in direct pay-for-play bribes since she was elected to Congress), are battling for survival without her now. And one of her other big boosters, the private prison industry is also falling on its face without her ability to use her clout to protect them. Thursday Matt Zapotosky reported in thethat the Department of Justice is ending its relationship with private prisons , having concluded that Debbie's pals are "both less safe and less effective at providing correctional services than those run by the government."





After Wasserman Schultz was cornered and caught like a rat taking bribes from the Corrections Corp of America and other for-profit prison operators, she tried to cover her tracks. Starting with the 2014 cycle she stopped taking bribes from them. The private prison industry's biggest advocates-- and the ones who get the most payoffs from them now-- are Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), Diane Black (R-TN), Henry Cuellar (Blue Dog-TX), Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN), John Culbertson (R-TX) in the House and crooked senators Rob Portman (R-OR), Jon Tester (D-MT), Bob Corker (R-TN), Dean Heller (R-NV), Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Mitch McConnell (R-KY) John Cornyn (R-TX) and John Boozman (R-AR). These people have opposed the bill banning private prisons that was introduced by Bernie Sanders in the Senate and by Raul Grijalva, Keith Ellison and Bobby Rush in the House last September. Of the nearly 1.6 million people in federal and state prisons in 2013, 8.4 percent were in private, for-profit prisons. That includes over 41,159 federal prisoners in private facilities and 91,885 state prisoners in private facilities.





"We cannot fix our criminal justice system," Sanders said when introducing his bill, "if corporations are allowed to profit from mass incarceration." Grijalva added that "Our corrections system exists to uphold justice-- not to house innocent refugees or feed the greed of corporate interests. By treating prisoners and detainees as a means to a profit margin, were incentivizing jailors to lobby for ever more inmates, and for inmates to be denied even the basic staples theyre entitled to. The result is a corrections system collapsing under its own weight as the prison industry gets rich and countless innocent men, women and children are ensnared in their trap."





Thursday when the Department of Justice made their announcement, Sanders that that "Our criminal justice system is broken and in need of major reforms. The Justice Departments plan to end its use of private prisons is an important step in the right direction. It is exactly what I campaigned on as a candidate for president. It is an international embarrassment that we put more people behind bars than any other country on earth. Due in large part to private prisons, incarceration has been a source of major profits to private corporations. Study after study after study has shown private prisons are not cheaper, they are not safer, and they do not provide better outcomes for either the prisoners or the state. We have got to end the private prison racket in America as quickly as possible. Our focus should be on keeping people out of jail and making sure they stay out when they are released. This means funding jobs and education not more jails and incarceration."





Meanwhile Bloomberg reported that private prison stocks, which have been following Wasserman Schultz's career down the toilet, tanked Thursday with the Department of Justice announcement.









Corrections Corp. fell 35 percent to $17.57 at the close of trading, the real estate investment trusts biggest drop since its initial public offering in 1997. GEO Group plummeted 40 percent to $19.51, also the largest decline in its 22-year history as a publicly traded company. The stocks pared losses of about 50 percent as analysts said the impact may be less severe than initially expected. Corrections Corp. climbed to $18.85 in after-hours trading after saying that todays decision relates to facilities that represent just 7 percent of its business. GEO Group rose to $20.72.



...Corrections Corp., the largest U.S. owner of private prisons, owned or controlled 49 facilities and 25 halfway houses, and managed an additional 11 sites owned by its government partners as of June 30, according to its second-quarter regulatory filing. At GEO Group, U.S. government agencies accounted for 45 percent of revenue in 2015, according to the companys annual report. GEO Group has been trying to win new clients and also operates facilities in Australia, South Africa and the U.K.

So far this cycle, the biggest recipients of legalistic bribes from Corrections Corp are shown on this chart from OpenSecrets, based on data from the FEC:









DWT. Tim Canova, the progressive Democrat running against Wasserman Schultz in south Florida, has a None of these crooked politicians are willing to give back the blood money or donate it to charity. Reached by phone and asked if Lamar Smith would return the bribes from Corrections Corp., a spokesperson for one of Texas' sleaziest bribe vacuums cursed up a storm, using words we don't publish at. Tim Canova, the progressive Democrat running against Wasserman Schultz in south Florida, has a platform plank dealing with the for-profit prison system and how to right the wrongs, #DebtTrapDebbie and her self-serving colleagues on both sides of the aisle have caused.








Additional area of active Zika transmission identified in Miami Beach

Miami, Florida - The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been working with Florida health officials on investigating cases of locally transmitted Zika virus. An additional area of active Zika transmission has been identified in a section of Miami Beach, in addition to the area of active Zika transmission near Wynwood. The Florida Department of Health has also identified at least four other instances of apparently mosquito-borne Zika in Miami-Dade County, and has reported an increase in travel-related cases.

Based on this new information, CDC and Florida health officials are now recommending the following:

Pregnant women should avoid travel to the designated area of Miami Beach, in addition to the designated area of Wynwood, both located in Miami-Dade County, because active local transmission of Zika has been confirmed.

Pregnant women and their partners living in or who must travel to the designated areas should be aware of active Zika virus transmission and follow steps to prevent mosquito bites(http://www.cdc.gov/zika/prevention/prevent-mosquito-bites.html).

Women and men who live in or who have traveled to the designated area of Miami Beach since July 14, 2016 should be aware of active Zika virus transmission; pregnant women should see their doctor or other healthcare provider about getting tested for Zika; and people who have a pregnant sex partner should consistently and correctly use condoms to prevent infection during sex or avoid having sex for the duration of the pregnancy.

Pregnant women and their sexual partners who are concerned about potential Zika virus exposure may also consider postponing nonessential travel to all parts of Miami-Dade County.

All pregnant women in the United States should be evaluated for possible Zika virus exposure during each prenatal care visit. Each evaluation should include an assessment of signs and symptoms of Zika virus disease (acute onset of fever, rash, arthralgia, conjunctivitis); their travel history; as well as their sexual partner's potential exposure to Zika virus and history of any illness consistent with Zika virus disease to determine whether Zika virus testing is indicated.

Women with Zika should wait at least 8 weeks after symptoms start before trying to get pregnant.

Men with Zika should wait at least 6 months after symptoms start before couples try to get pregnant.

Women and men without confirmed Zika who traveled to this area should wait at least 8 weeks before trying to get pregnant.

Women and men who live in or frequently travel to this area and who do not have signs or symptoms of Zika should talk to their healthcare provider to inform their decisions about timing of pregnancy.

Were in the midst of mosquito season and expect more Zika infections in the days and months to come, said CDC Director Tom Frieden, M.D., M.P.H. Its difficult but important that pregnant women make every effort to avoid mosquito bites and avoid going to areas where Zika is spreading. Florida and Miami-Dade County are taking appropriate steps to control mosquitoes and protect pregnant women. It is difficult to predict how long active transmission will continue. CDC disease control experts are doing everything they can to support state and local control programs to stop the spread of Zika. Every community in the United States that has the Aedes Aegypti mosquito present must monitor for infections and work to control the mosquitoes.

Detecting local spread of Zika is difficult for several reasons:

The incubation period for Zika infection is up to two weeks,

A high proportion of infected people have no symptoms, and

Diagnosis and investigation of cases takes several weeks.

For this reason, it is possible that other neighborhoods in Miami-Dade County have active Zika transmission that is not yet apparent.

CDC advises those living in or traveling to Miami-Dade County to enhance their efforts to prevent mosquito bites. Pregnant women and their sexual partners who are concerned about potential Zika virus exposure may also consider postponing nonessential travel to all parts of Miami-Dade County.

CDC has been working with state, local, and territorial health officials to prepare for the possibility of locally transmitted Zika virus in the United States. Officials from Florida participated in all these activities, and their experience in responding to mosquito-borne diseases similar to Zika has been an important source of knowledge in this effort. To date, CDC has provided Florida more than $8 million in Zika-specific funding and about $27 million in emergency preparedness funding that can be used toward Zika response efforts.

It is understandable that women will be especially concerned, and there are things that everyone can do based on what is currently known. While there are still many unanswered questions about Zika, CDC is working hard to find out more about these infections. Here is what is known:

Zika is spread to people primarily through the bite of an infected Aedes species mosquito (Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus).

A pregnant woman can pass Zika virus to her fetus during pregnancy or around the time of birth.

Zika virus infection is associated with birth defects and adverse pregnancy outcomes, especially microcephaly.

A person who is infected with Zika virus can pass it to sex partners.

Most people infected with Zika virus wont have symptoms or will only have mild symptoms.

No vaccines or treatments are currently available to treat or prevent Zika infections.

As of August 17, 2016, 2,260 cases of Zika had been reported in the continental United States and Hawaii, including 529 in pregnant women. These cases also include 22 believed to be the result of sexual transmission and one that was the result of a laboratory exposure.
U.S. Chamber Condemns EEOCs Continued Attempt to Collect Extensive Data from Employers

Washington, DC - The U.S. Chamber of Commerce asked the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to return to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC or Commission) its proposal to collect employee compensation and hours-worked data from employers.

In comments filed yesterday, the Chamber argued that the EEOCs proposal will impose costly administrative burdens on employers and yield data that will not provide any insight as to whether an employers pay practices are discriminatory.

EEOC is proposing to collect extensive data heretofore never collected by the federal government  without any developed framework to review the data or use it for any legally authorized or recognized purpose  with the irrational hope that it will support the Commissions mission, said Randy Johnson, senior vice president of Labor, Immigration and Employee Benefits for the U.S. Chamber. Moreover, despite claims by EEOC that it will be held confidentially, there is real danger that the data will be mined by hackers and others to portray employer compensation practices in a false light. EEOCs proposal will create a great burden on responders, yield useless data, and fail to advance the enforcement of federal employment policies.

The Chamber and its members have long been supportive of nondiscrimination laws including the Equal Pay Act (EPA), Title VII, and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and are concerned with EEOCs current attempt to extract sensitive and confidential data from employers in a process that violates the Paperwork Reduction Act.
Education Secretary King Announces 7 Teachers, 3 Principals Selected for 2016-17 Teacher and Principal Ambassador Fellowships

Washington, DC - U.S. Secretary of Education John B. King Jr. announced the names of seven teachers and three principals who will comprise the U.S. Department of Education's 2016 cohort of Teaching and Principal Ambassador Fellows. Two of the teachers and one of the principals will serve as full-time employees at the Department's headquarters in Washington, D.C., while seven will remain in their schools and participate on a part-time basis.

"My own experiences as a teacher and principal have been critical in informing my work as Secretary," said King. "It is crucial to have the voices of practicing educators engaged at all levels of education to ensure every student gets the chance at an excellent education. Having the Teaching and Principal Ambassador Fellows as the U.S. Department of Education's partners in this work is not a nicetyit's a necessity."

Now in its ninth year, the Fellowship program is designed to improve education for students by involving practitioners in the development and implementation of national education policy. Fellows work collaboratively with one another and Department staff to provide outreach to teachers and principals among other stakeholders to help them understand the Department's policies, programs and resources. The Fellows also work directly with Department staff members to inform an understanding of how policies and programs are implemented and experienced by students, teachers and principals in schools around the country. The addition of these 10 new Fellows brings the network of outstanding teachers and principals with whom the Department has worked, and continues to network, to 113.

The 2016 Fellows build on the efforts of the 2015 cohort, who reached nearly 10,000 stakeholders through more than 200 discussions and other activities held in 32 states. For example, in preparation for rolling out the new Every Student Succeeds Act., Fellows facilitated 14 listening sessions with senior staff and educators in the field reaching nearly 1000 stakeholders. They also supported four Teach to Lead summits and six leadership labs; hosted seven "Tea with Teachers" conversations with the Secretary and other senior Department staff and three days of visits and meetings with "Principals at ED;" led the National Summit on Teacher Leadership, a Summit on Teacher Diversity and launched the Department's first Equity Summit held in Mississippi. The Fellows also supported the Department's digital engagement with educators, hosting monthly twitter chats (#TeachersatED), revamping the Department's Teachers Edition weekly newsletter and bringing 33 "Voices from the Classroom" to help ground major policy discussions in the experiences of students and educators.

The 10 new Fellows will be at the Department this week for a three-day summit to become more familiar with federal education policy and Department staff, as well as to begin exchanging ideas for enhancing communication between teachers, stakeholders and education policy leaders. The 2016 Fellows will launch their outreach in mid-September during the Department's annual back-to-school bus tour.

This year's full-time Washington, D.C., Fellows:

Patrick Kelly, a 2015 Classroom Teaching Ambassador Fellow and AP Government and lead teacher from Blythewood High School in South Carolina.

Amanda Barney, an English teacher and professional developer at Mattituck Jr.-Sr. High School and an America Achieves New York State Educator Voice Lead Fellow from Mattituck, New York.

Jean-Paul Cadet, principal of Oxon Hill High School, and adjunct professor on Teacher Leadership and Cultural Competence at Howard University, from Prince George's County, Maryland.

This year's part-time Fellows:
Vice President Joe Bidens Calls with President of the Republic of Cyprus Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot Leader Mustafa Akinci

Washington, DC - The Vice President spoke over the phone today to President of the Republic of Cyprus Nicos Anastasiades and subsequently to Turkish Cypriot Leader Mustafa Akinci. The Vice President congratulated the leaders on the progress they have made so far in the negotiations towards a settlement that would reunify Cyprus as a bizonal, bicommunal federation.

The Vice President expressed hope that the leaders would be able to make significant additional progress in the talks before their travel to the United Nations General Assembly, and that an agreement could be reached by the end of 2016.
'Working in The Dark': Journalist's Cooking Photo Shows The Reality of Life in Ukraine's Warzone
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Though liable to increase my rent to roughly the GDP of Lithuania, the Night Tube is definitely a net positive, in the sense that I can now get home from a late one without having to listen to indeterminable EDM blasted through an iPhone on a night bus, head rattling against the window.

24-hour weekend Tubes have been a long time coming and there was a palpable excitement ahead of their launch, with TfL staff even flinging vegetable soup around carriages during a dry run (there's a scurrilous rumour this was for vomit clean-up testing, but I choose to believe it was simple hysteria).

To mark the occasion, I did what any committed masochist would do and rode the thing from usual closing time (around midnight) to usual start time (around 5am).

Here's my chronological account of the night of 19 August, 2016 ANT (anno Night Tube)

00:01

My photographer friend who's joining me for the ride messages me saying he's delayed at Woodford station because a girl heading on a night out successfully descended 20% of the stairs to the platform before tumbling down the rest. Apparently, she might need to go to A&E, but most of her friends have impishly boarded a train into central. Off to a flyer, London.

00:22

We get on the Central Line at Leyton and bump into a Night Tube comms team. Carrying a large sign (I'm holding it below), they inform me that, fortuitously, we're actually on officially the first ever Central Line Night Tube. Like most major moments in history, it feels slightly hollow while actually in it. The other passengers on board are pretty stoic so far, concerned more with getting their M&S shopping back to the fridge than celebrating public transportational innovation.

00:24

The driver just announced that we're riding the "#nighttube", in probably the first instance of a tube driver announcing a hashtag.

00:26

The aforementioned comms team inform me that Mayor of London Sadiq Khan is currently riding the Victoria Line from Brixton right now. I lament my journalistic ineptitude at not having been aware of this and they give me a blank but not discouraging 'yeah, you fucked up' look. Fortunately, we live in the future, so I'm able to monitor Sadiq's progress on Twitter.

Here's a photo of him looking like he's just spent the Vauxhall to Pimlico stretch fighting a Komodo dragon to the death.

And another of him standing at the Tube's sambuca-laced heart as if to say: 'Try leaving my parties early with last train home excuses now'.

00:31

I forgot how soporific the rocking of the train is, this is going to be a long night.

00:34

You might be thinking 'Hey, I'll bet the Tube really cools down in the small hours.' No, the atmosphere is still comparable to that of Zeus' jock strap.

00:37

At some point tonight I'm going to remember that the Tube is underground. This might sound stupid, but it's easy to forget you're in a subterranean tunnel with no exit. Need to think of something else. Concentrate on the dystopian advertisement for 'virtual office spaces'.

00:40

Disembarking at Oxford Circus. First stretch complete.

00:42

I get talking to a couple of guys from a Japanese TV station who have literally flown 6,000 miles to cover this. I don't know what they were expecting but I feel the need to apologise that no-one has been sick on their own knees yet.

00:47

Other assorted press stand around in confusion on the Westbound platform, not really sure what to point their enormous cameras at. I count seven police officers too. They smell the potential for passenger hijinks in the air.

00:51

Your correspondents/subterranean mole rats head to the Eastbound platform to board a train because obviously the central to Essex direction is where the more visceral insights into humanity are likely to be found.

00:55

I'm back on the train just standing by one of those windows you get at the end of carriages. Windows are underrated. I can see the workings of the trains and the connections of the carriages and there is something Willy Wonka about it. I don't really know what I'm saying. It's not even 1am. Jesus.

00:59

Mid-window fugue state, this young man waxes lyrical about the Night Tube. He was here for the last-night-of-alcohol-being-allowed-on-the-Tube party in 2008.

"I woke up on the Circle Line surrounded by beer cans and there were Chinese tourists taking my picture."

01:06

More great quotes coming:

Girl: "Ooo the Night Tube, I'm so excited!"

Boyfriend: "Babe, it's just getting on the train but at a different time."

01:10

We hop off at Liverpool Street and there's a large drunk contingent trying to get home. It's a Friday remember, and we all know how hard it is to hold your liquor when you've been up since ~7am for work and probably missed dinner.

A girl swaying like a baby bird trying to leave the nest for the first time asks me what end of the platform the train comes in at (I'm in the presence of a pro here, trying to limit her walking time at the other end).

Gleefully smashed, she plans on reading a chapter of Room on the way back to Hainault. I try to engage her in a discussion on the film adaptation, but realise this is a non-starter when she slurs: "I can't read the book before I've read the film."

Apropos nada, she now has started revealing her plans to make a sofa out of "layers of foam" this weekend and, unsettled, I wish her well with this endeavour and head up to street level to see how pedestrians are coping with this transport paradigm shift.

01:11

A thing about the Night Tube: every staff member (understandably) thinks you must be drunk as all hell. Can't a guy just ceaselessly ride the Tube for six hours, somewhat sober, for pleasure? Everyone's doing a great job so far though, and there have been zero delays.

01:20

This girl at Liverpool Street is wearing a box as a dress. She's fully clothed underneath so it serves no practical purpose, more of a spontaneous fashion statement. You go, box lady.

01:33

Absolute scenes at the main entrance at Liverpool Street, where the front gates are closed.

"I thought it was supposed to be running all night?"

"Are they lying to us though?"

"Can't believe it. Fucking bastards."

This confusion is absolutely on TfL, as there is no signage whatsoever letting people know that the Night Tube entrance is hidden around the back. I suspect this is intentional in the hope of limiting footfall, but it still seems kind of mean, and I feel for the gathering masses who just want to get home and pass out fully clothed.

01:39

Something of an angry mob is assembling. The gates are visible from several metres away, but it's quite enjoyable watching people get closer and closer to them, as if they'll dissolve with increased proximity. The escalator is still running just beyond the gates too, as if to taunt people.

01:40

Oh god, incensed and with an alcoholic confidence boost, people are starting to climb the gates. 'I WILL HAVE MY NIGHT TUBE!' I could, of course, tell them where the entrance is, but sometimes you've just gotta go full Attenborough and let nature take its course.

01:44

Starting to feel like the wise owl in The Legend of Zelda. I hold the key to boarding the Night Tube, if only someone would ask me for it.

01:50

Mankind has cracked it finally, word spreading of the location of the entrance. It's really heartening watching drunken strangers come together for the greater cause. Feels a bit like watching toddlers collab on a sand castle.

02:00

Back on the bloody Tube. Going to Oxford Circus. Again.

02:05

Personal humidity at 90%. My eyes, red and itchy, feel like they're receding into my head.

02:15

Am struck by the urge to sing to a mouse on the tracks at Ox Circ (the mouse is on the tracks not me, it hasn't got that bad yet).

02:16

Huh, the yellow lines on the platform are darker where people get on the train. If nothing else, I have learnt tonight how to improve my chances of getting a seat in future.

02:18

I feel like I live on the Tube now. Like one of those ferrets in a network of pipes.

02:20

Projectile french fries are happening. Chips are being thrown from one escalator to another. Quite hungry by this point and considering opening my mouth to catch them like a seal.

02:21

New highlight : A group of Tube workers, the hard hat, orange overalls kind, are playing cards in the main atrium at Tottenham Court Road and one of them just flipped a table and stormed off.

Aftermath:

03:??

Eating McNuggets on a lampost by the station. I realise this isn't Tube riding but please try and understand.

03:??

The last McNugget fell to the floor. I might cry.

There were nine to share between two people though, so I guess we've been spared a major rift over who gets the final ovoid of sustenance.

03:24

Back on the #NIGHT #TUBE. Talking to a delightful trio of friends on their way back from an 80s-themed house party.

One of them has a name badge but no name on it so I re-christen him 'Tom Foxswift' (attorney-at-law). Fully delirious right now.

03:43

What do you know, it's my friendly neighbourhood colleague, culture reporter Jacob Stolworthy! He's on his way home from a night out in Brixton. Poor guy has work in a few hours.

03:51

Awareness of being trapped underground increasing. Tube humidity sweat now indistinguishable from subterrestrial claustrophobia sweat.

03:52

Script idea - The Earth's crust is scorched by an invading alien race, and the resistance must be mounted from those of us on the Tube network tonight. In a 'fuck you' to Hollywood whitewashing, and just because it would be cool, I will be played by Will Smith.

03:55

Being mocked by this sign:

03:58

There is the pungent smell of weed on this Central Line service and a few cigarette butts. Earlier, a wine bottle rolled around a carriage and there was a sadness to it. On the whole, though, everyone is being remarkably well-behaved and I haven't been sicked on once.

04:05

Really entranced by the seat patterns. Are those peacocks? London Eyes? It's really psychedelic and modernist and not helping my mental stability right now.

04:15

Both of your correspondents really need the bathroom, but the public one is 30p each and we only have 55p between us. I consider simply eating my friend to settle this matter.

04:27

Am aware that my updates are becoming less regular, largely because I've become distracted inventing back stories for passengers and, more recently, the tannoy lady, who actually isn't a recorded voice, I've decided, but a real human communicating to a secret society using coded language.

04:39

When the carriages in front move around a corner you can see them bending away from you. I feel like I'm inside a giant mollusc infecting a level boss' brain on an N64 video game. I cannot strain meaning from this.

04:50

I think I've won the Night Tube. No-one is left on the Liverpool Street platform now, save a tiny mouse who is so relaxed and tame by this point it's just shambling along the platform, thinking about eating carbs like the rest of us.

04:51

At the end of the platform and a few yards into the tunnel there is a green light. It strikes me as a bit like the one in The Great Gatsby and also seems to signify the futility of dreams in this moment, though I don't think even Baz Luhrmann could make this shit cinematic.

05:01:

We did it. The boys in the next set of carriage seats are supine and sleeping softly, and this eastbound journey will be our last of the night.

All photos: Alan Schaller

Key findings:

The Night Tube is good and useful.

Riding the Tube any longer than is necessary is very silly.

------

Photos: @Alan_Schaller | Words: @ChristophHooton
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In 2012, before any stirrings of Brexit could be imagined by most, Camilla de Maffei followed the course of the Danube river through Europe. From its beginnings in Hungary, through Serbia, Bulgaria and finishing in the Romanian-Ukranian delta, the Italian photographer documented its path and raised the question: Where does Europe end? Which are its political and culture boundaries? What is the core of European identity?

Mahmudia, Delta of Danube, Romania (Camilla De Maffei)

"There is a very strong link between people and the land they inhabit," she says. "Beneath political boundaries, there lies states beyond any such official divisions. I found that along the river, the idea of 'Europe' became fluid and elusive, fragmented in the everyday life of people and places."

Near Vidin, a small city along the Danube, Bulgaria (Camilla De Maffei)

Retracing the steps of Italian scholar Claudio Magris, De Maffei travelled alone along the Danube with an open mind ready to meet and capture whatever and whomever she came across. "I had no difficulty in taking pictures of people, I was welcomed with warmth everywhere," she says.

Jurivlovca, Delta of Danube - Romania (Camilla de Maffe)

One image of a wedding party stumbled across in Romania offers a poignant reflection of the transient nature of modern European life - a generation of young people who travel back and forth across borders for work. "A lot of Romanian people left the country in search of work and live permanently abroad. Many come back home in summer for holidays or to get married in their own village, among realtives and friends. I was just walking around Sarchioi village and saw this crowd from afar - it was one of several weddings I saw and ended up participating in."

Sulina, Delta of Danube - Romania (Camilla De Maffei)

"I have many 'homes'," says the photographer. "Home for me is the place I was born, the little town of my father in Italy. Home is also Sardinia, the land of my mother and Barcelona, the city where I am based. Being European has nothing to do with political or economical borders, to be in or out of Schengen Area," she says. "I think our identity as European is made by the rich and various cultural heritage we share - an enormous patrimony that is enhanced thanks to the difference."

Lake Babadag, Delta of Danube - Romania (Camilla De Maffei)

"Along the river the idea of 'Europe' becomes fluid and elusive, fragmented in the everyday life of people and places."

"During my journeys along the Danube I saw how landscape slightly changes and with it, faces, languages and traditions. There are no rigid dividing lines."

Jurilovca, Delta of Danube - Romania (Camilla De Maffei)

Camilla De Maffei - www.camillademaffei.com
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Baking is not, as some might think, only synonymous with Brits. Yes, we love a slice of Victoria sandwich made with farm eggs and strawberries on top with a lovely cuppa, but we are not the only ones who love a baked good.

With other classics including French macaroons, and Scotlands Dundee cake author and pastry chef, Claire Clark has whittled her favourite cake recipes down to just 80, and added her own personal twists to some and simplified some that might seem insurmountable like the French croquembouche.

Explore the cakes of Europe and how they wildly differ from the Asian and Middle Eastern kitchens, and discover the flavours and techniques, that all have one unifying factor  they all taste superb.

Turkey: Fig and Sesame Honey Drizzle Cake

My favourite figs are the sweet, plump, purple-black Turkish ones, which are readily available in September and October. This cake contains sesame seeds, which are also plentiful in Turkey. They give a slight crunch to the outside of the cake, while the fine semolina adds a soft, spongy texture. Its delicious warm but also keeps really well and is equally delightful cold. Serve with a cup of Turkish coffee.

Makes a 20cm cake

2 tablespoons sesame seeds

200g ground almonds

85g fine semolina

5 eggs, separated

grated zest of 1 lemon

140g icing sugar

50g unsalted butter, melted

4 fresh black figs

Syrup

200g honey

50ml water

Heat the oven to 180C/Gas Mark

Grease a 20cm deep cake tin and sprinkle the base and sides with the sesame seeds. Mix the almonds and semolina together, rubbing them thoroughly with your fingertips to remove any lumps. Put the egg yolks, lemon zest and 100g of the icing sugar in a bowl and whisk with an electric mixer until pale, fluffy and doubledin volume. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites with the remaining icing sugar until they form stiff peaks. Gently fold the egg whites into the egg yolk mix with a large metal spoon, alternating it with the almonds and semolina. Finally, fold in the melted butter.

Transfer the mixture to the prepared tin. Cut the figs in half and arrange on top of the cake. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until firm to the touch.

Remove the cake from the oven and poke small holes into the top with a skewer. Bring the honey and water to the boil to make a syrup and pour it over the warm cake while it is still in the tin. Leave for 10 minutes, then remove from the tin and cool on a wire rack.

USA: Rocky Road Cheesecake

These adorable little baked chocolate cheesecakes feature an Oreo cookie base, which adds a slightly salty taste. Its a great combination and includes all the elements of the famous Rocky Road: marshmallows, nuts, chocolate and cherries. I use griottine cherries, which pack an alcoholic punch; you might prefer to substitute glace cherries if you are making this for children.

Makes 12

100g dark chocolate (70 per cent cocoa solids)

50g white chocolate

500g full-fat cream cheese

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

125g caster sugar

3 medium eggs

Base

14 Oreo cookies, crushed

45g unsalted butter, melted

To decorate

100g dark chocolate (70 per cent cocoa solids), melted

100g salted roasted peanuts

1 bag of mini marshmallows

1 bag of mini Oreo cookies

12 griottine cherries

First make the base. Heat the oven to 170C/Gas Mark 3. Put the Oreo cookies in a plastic bag and crush to fine crumbs with a rolling pin. Transfer them to a mixing bowl and stir in the melted butter. Take a 12-cup muffin tin and spoon a tablespoon of the crumbs into each hole, pressing them down to level.

Bake for 10 minutes, then remove from the oven and set aside. Reduce the oven temperature to 140C/GasMark 1. To make the cheesecake, melt the dark and white chocolate together in a microwave or in a bowl set over a pan of gently simmering water, making sure the water doesnt touch the base of the bowl. Using an electric mixer on a low speed, mix together the cream cheese, vanilla extract and sugar until smooth. Do not over mix. Add the eggs and mix until combined. With the mixer still on a low speed, gradually mix in the melted chocolate.

Pour the mixture into the muffin tins and bake for 40-45 minutes, until the top is firm and they are no longer wobbly. Be careful not to let them souffle up or they will be overdone. Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tins. I find it easiest to put them in the freezer for an hour before turning out of the tins, then they pop right out. To finish, pour some of the melted chocolate on top of each cheesecake, then sprinkle with the peanuts, marshmallows, mini Oreo cookies and griottine cherries. Drizzle with more melted chocolate.

Austria: Austrian Coffe Cake

When the Turkish army retreated in haste after the Battle of Vienna in 1683, they left behind bags of coffee, or so the story goes. Perhaps it was the bountiful supply of coffee that led to Viennas famous cafe culture. Many a fine cake has come out of Vienna and this coffee cake is a prime example of how good a sponge cake can be. It is really simple to make but the results are stunning. I was reminded of this when I went for dinner at my neighbours house. Kath baked this cake for dessert and filled it with fresh raspberries. Use whatever fruits are in season.

Makes a 20cm cake

Food and drink news Show all 35 1 /35 Food and drink news Food and drink news Healthy living makes us more inclined to binge, research suggests Gluten-free breads, dairy-free milks and other plant-based products have been some of the most favoured foods in British supermarkets this year. However, while were busy filling our shopping trolleys with gluten-free goodness, were also jamming it with junk food and alcohol, new research suggests Getty/iStock Food and drink news Growing list of Vegan celebs Making the switch to veganism is a major lifestyle choice, one that many claim can improve energy levels, lower the risk of cardiovascular disease and clear up any skin issues. Beyonce, Natalie Portman and Jessica Chastain are among the growing list of Hollywood stars who have eschewed animal products from their diets in recent years. Theres also been an increasing number of professional athletes who have gone vegan, such as boxing champions Mike Tyson and David Haye, thus debunking the myth that following a plant-based diet will leave you feeling weak and malnourished. AFP/Getty/NARAS/iHeartMedia Food and drink news McDonald's has announced the launch of a new vegan burger on its menu in Germany This will mark the first time the German franchise of the fast food chain has offered a vegan burger to its customers. The Big Vegan TS burger consists of a patty made from soy and wheat. It is served in a classic sesame seed bun, and contains salad, tomato, pickles and red onion. McDonald's Germany Food and drink news Drinking too many protein shakes could lead to an increased risk of obesity and a reduced lifespan, a new study has claimed Researchers from the University of Sydney's Charles Perkins Centre carried out an investigation to determine the impact excessive consumption of branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) has on the body. BCAA supplements are often consumed in the form of powder, which is then added to water to make a shake. Published in journal Nature Metabolism, the study found that while BCAAs help to build muscle, they can also negatively impact an individual's temperament, cause weight gain and lead to a shortened lifespan Getty Images/iStockphoto Food and drink news Britain consumes more chocolate than any other country Most people love chocolate but it turns out no one does more than the Brits  with the average Brit found to have consumed 8.4 kg of chocolate in 2017, according to new data. Chocolate consumption around the world is on the rise, according to Mintel Global New Products Database (GNPD), which found that in the past year alone, Easter chocolate production has risen by 23 per cent Food and drink news 'Easter eggs should be banned for children under four' Dr Becky Spelman, chief psychologist at Harley Streets Private Therapy Clinic, is calling for Easter eggs to be banned for consumption for children under the age of four, claiming that giving them the opportunity to binge on chocolate so young will give them an unhealthy relationship with food later on. "This is a nightmare situation for parents of this generation as they have no idea how to teach their children to delay their response to cravings, she said, explaining that too many young kids binge on these chocolates because their parents dont know how to stop them. "Once a child starts overeating behaviour at a young age its very hard to turn things around for them in terms of food and their eating habits moving forward, leading to obesity from at very young age," she added PA Food and drink news Pineapple overtakes avocado as the UK's fastest-selling fruit According to Tesco, pineapple has overtaken avocado as the UKs fastest-selling fruit, with sales increasing by 15 per cent in 2017. In comparison, avocado sales rose by just under 10 per cent last year. The popular supermarket says the surge in popularity comes as shoppers buying the versatile fruit are beginning to use it as a main ingredient in everything from curries and barbecues, to juices and cocktails Getty Food and drink news Marks & Spencers launches stoneless avocados Rather than the result of genetic modification, the avocados are formed by an unpollinated avocado blossom. The fruit develops without a seed which in turns stops the growth, creating a small, seedless fruit. Whats more, the skin is actually edible, unlike a regular avocado. The flesh is much like that of a normal avocado - smooth and creamy, pale in colour and rich in flavour M&S Food and drink news Office teabags contain 17 times more germs than a toilet seat, reveals study The average bacterial reading of an office teabag was 3,785, in comparison to only 220 for a toilet seat. Other pieces of kitchen equipment also stacked up highly in their findings, with the bacterial readings averaging at 2,483 on kettle handles, 1,746 on the rim of a used mug and 1,592 on a fridge door handle Getty Images/iStockphoto Food and drink news New study shows drinking more coffee leads to a longer life There is good news and a final hope for coffee addicts and lovers. You will now be able to drink coffee for longer as new study shows its can lead to a prolonged life. Scientists showed that those who drank between two and four cups of coffee a day had 18% lower risk of death compared to non-coffee drinkers. PA Food and drink news Coke Zero is replaced with Coke Zero Sugar Coca-Cola is pulling the plug on its Coke Zero. The much loved drink will be replaced with a new improved taste. The move, backed with a 10 million campaign, is said to come from Coca-Cola supporting people to reduce their sugar intake. Coca-Cola want people make this move while not sacrificing sugary taste of Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola Food and drink news Starbucks introduce new avocado spread The avocado craze has grown from hipster brunch restaurants to Starbucks. Starbucks have introduced their new avocado spread earlier this year and it has the internet in debate. Some argue that it not a spread but guacamole while others question if there is any avocado in there at all. When buying the new spread you can also buy an optional toasted bagel. It is a must try for all avocado connoisseurs. Starbucks Food and drink news New Mars chocolate bar The iconic British chocolate bar is about to get its partner in crime. The new bar, named Goodness Knows, will replace the gooey caramel goodness of the mars bar with oats. It is said to be more like a Florentine biscuit with a thin dark chocolate bottom. While being moderately healthy Mars says that is has good intentions. One pack has 154 calories and will sell for about 90p. Mars Food and drink news Wine prices could increase because of Brexit Wine lovers across the UK might soon have to shell out close to a quarter more for their favourite tipple after Brexit, as a weaker pound and sluggish economy takes its toll, a new study shows Rex Food and drink news Chocolate may be good for the heart A new study, published in the British Medical Journal: Heart, found that moderate chocolate intake can be positively associated with lessening the risk of the heart arrhythmia condition Atrial Fibrillation Getty Images/iStockphoto Food and drink news Brits throw away 1.4 million bananas each year British families are throwing away 1.4 million bananas that are perfectly good to eat every day at cost of 80m a year, new figures have shown PA/Armin Weigel Food and drink news Rosemary sales spike over exam time There has been a surge a surge in sales of the herb rosemary after a recent study found it helps improve memory. According to high street health food chain Holland & Barrett, sales of the herb have increased by 187 per cent compared to the same time last year Getty Images/iStockphoto Food and drink news Gluten-free diets 'not recommended' for people without coeliac disease Avoiding wheat, barley and rye in the belief that a gluten-free diet brings health benefits may do more harm than good, according to a team of US nutrition and medicine experts Getty Images/iStockphoto Food and drink news Starbucks launches two new coffee-based drinks Starbucks is launching two new coffee-based drinks in the UK, as it strives to tap into consumers growing appetite for healthy beverages. The Cold Brew Vanilla sweet cream and the Cappuccino Freddo, will both be available in stores throughout the UK from the start of May Twitter/@SbuxCountyHall Food and drink news Cadburys Dairy Milk Tiffin is making a permanent comeback after 80 years The Cadbury Dairy Milk Tiffin, first produced in 1937, is making a permanent comeback to the UK. The raisin and biscuit-filled chocolate bar is being launched after a successful trial last summer saw 3 million chocolate treats  at the cost of 1.49 for each 95g bar- purchased by nostalgic customers Cadburys Food and drink news Pizza restaurant makes worlds cheesiest 'Scottie's Pizza Parlor' in Portland Oregon has created the worlds cheesiest pizza using a total of 101 different cheese varieties. Facebook/Scottie's Pizza Parlor Food and drink news A pizza joint in Portland Oregon has created the worlds cheesiest pizza using a total of 101 different cheese varieties. Why not eating before a workout could be better for your health A study published in the American Journal of Physiology by researchers at the University of Bath found you might be likely to burn more fat if you have not eaten first Getty Images/iStockphoto Food and drink news New York restaurant named best in the world A New York restaurant where an average meal for two will cost $700 has been named the best in the world. Eleven Madison Park won the accolade for the first time after debuting on the list at number 50 in 2010. The restaurant was praised for a fun sense of fine-dining, blurring the line between the kitchen and the dining room Getty Images Food and drink news Why you crave bad food when youre tired Researchers at Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University in Chicago recently presented their results of a study looking into the effects of sleep deprivation upon high-calorific food consumption. Researchers found that those who were sleep-deprived had specifically enhanced brain activity to the food smells compared to when they had a good nights sleep Shutterstock Food and drink news Drinking wine engages more of your brain than solving maths problems Drinking wine is the ideal workout for your brain, engaging more parts of our grey matter than any other human behaviour, according to a leading neuroscientist. Dr Gordon Shepherd, from the Yale School of Medicine, said sniffing and analysing a wine before drinking it requires exquisite control of one of the biggest muscles in the body Getty Images/iStockphoto Food and drink news British dessert eating surges after people ditch healthy eating in February : In heartening news for anyone feeling guilty about quitting their New Year diet, it seems lots of us have given in to our sweet tooths once again. New data from nationwide food-delivery service Deliveroo reveals there was a surge in Brits ordering desserts in February compared to the first month of 2017 Getty Images/iStockphoto Food and drink news US congress debates definition of milk alternatives A new bill has been created that seeks to ban dairy alternatives from using the term milk. Titled the DAIRY PRIDE Act, the name is a tenuous acronym for defending against imitations and replacements of yogurt, milk, and cheese to promote regular intake of dairy every day. It argues that the dairy industry is struggling as a result of all the dairy-free alternatives on the market and the public are being duped too Getty Images Food and drink news Cadburys launches two new chocolate bars UK confectionary giant Cadbury has launched two new chocolate bars, hoping to lure those with a sweet tooth and perhaps help combat some of the challenges it faces from rising commodity prices and a post-Brexit slump in the value of the pound.The companys new products will be peanut butter and mint flavoured. They will be available in most major super markets as 120g bars, priced at 1.49, according to the company Cadburys Food and drink news You can now get a job as a professional chocolate eater The company responsible for some of your favourite chocolate brands  think Cadbury, Milks, Prince and Oreo  have officially announced an opening to join their team as a professional chocolate taster. The successful candidate will help them to test, perfect and launch new products all over the world. Getty Images/iStockphoto Food and drink news MSG additive used in Chinese food is actually good for you, scientist claims For years, weve been told MSG (the sodium salt of glutamic acid) - often associated with cheap Chinese takeaways - is awful for our health and to be avoided at all costs. But one scientist argues it should be used as a supersalt and encourages adding it to food. Getty Images/iStockphoto Food and drink news Lettuce prices are rising Not only are lettuces becoming an increasingly rare commodity in supermarkets, but prices for the leafy vegetables seem to be rising too. According to the weekly report from the Governments Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, a pair of Little Gem lettuces had an average market price of 0.86 in the week that ended on Friday, up from an average of 0.56 in the previous week  thats an almost 54 per cent increase. Getty Images Food and drink news Do-It-Yourself restaurant To encourage more people to cook and eat together, IKEA has launched The Dining Club in Shoreditch  a fully immersive Do-It-Yourself restaurant . Members of the public can book to host a brunch, lunch or dinner party for up to 20 friends and family. Supported by their very own sous chef and maitre de, the host and their guests will orchestrate an intimate dining experience where cooking together is celebrated and eating together is inspirational Mikael Buck / IKEA Food and drink news Ping Pong menu with a twist Gatwick Airport has teamed up with London dim sum restaurant Ping Pong to create a limited edition menu with a distinctly British twist; including a Full English Bao and Beef Wellington Puff, to celebrate the launch of the airports new route to Hong Kong Food and drink news Zizzi unveil the Maamgharita Unique pizza art has been created by Zizzi in celebration of the Queens 90th birthday. The pizza features the queen in an iconic pose illustrated with fresh and tasty Italian ingredients on a backdrop of the Union Jack Food and drink news Blue potatoes make a comeback Blue potatoes, once a staple part of British potato crops, are back on the menu thanks to a Cambridge scientist turned-organic farmer and Farmdrop, an online marketplace that lets people buy direct from local farms. Cambridge PhD graduate-turned farmer, Adrian Izzard has used traditional growing techniques at Wild Country Organics to produce the colourful spuds, packed with healthy cell-protecting anthocyanin, which had previously disappeared from UK plates when post-war farmers were pushed towards higher-yielding varieties

185g unsalted butter, at room temperature

185g caster sugar

3 medium eggs, lightly beaten

185g self-raising flour, sifted

a pinch of salt

To finish

125g hot, strong black coffee

15g caster sugar

1 tablespoon rum

300ml whipping cream

25g icing sugar

 teaspoon vanilla extract

To decorate

1 tube (2g) freeze-dried raspberries

5 fresh black figs

5g candied rose fragments

Heat the oven to 170C/Gas Mark

Grease and flour a 20cm bundt ring tin. Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the eggs, creaming well after each addition. Fold in the flour and salt with a large metal spoon. Transfer the mixture to the prepared cake tin and bake for about 25 minutes, until it is golden brown and springs back when gently pressed with your finger.

Leave in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn out on to a wire rack to cool. Sweeten the hot coffee with the sugar and stir in the rum. Return the cooled cake to the bundt tin and slowly pour the coffee over it. Invert immediately on to a serving plate and leave to cool once more.

Put the cream in a bowl with the icing sugar and vanilla and whip to medium peaks. Spread most of it over the cake, using a palette knife; it does not have to look perfectly smooth.

Spoon or pipe the remaining cream into the centre of the cake and level with a spatula. Grind half the freeze-dried raspberries to a powder in a pestle and mortar or with a spice grinder. Using a tea strainer, dust the powder over the cream. Sprinkle with the remaining raspberry pieces. Cut the figs into quarters and arrange them in a circular fashion on top of the cake. Sprinkle with the candied rose fragments.

80 Cakes From Around The World: Claire Clark. Published by Absolute Press, 20
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A senior aide to the former UKIP leader Nigel Farage has pleaded not guilty to 21 counts of fraud, money laundering and extortion.

George Cottrell, 22, is being held behind bars in Phoenix, Arizona, until his trial on 4 October after a judge denied him bail as he posed a "serious flight risk".

The son of a glamour model who was romantically linked to Prince Charles was caught in an FBI sting operation which targeted individuals laundering money on behalf of drug traffickers.

He was arrested on 22 July as he and Mr Farage disembarked a plane at Chicago O'Hare airport on their way back to the UK after visiting the Republican National Convention in Ohio.

He was led away in handcuffs and extradited to Arizona on 1 August.

In court Friday, the judge reviewed his financial situation and ruled he would not have to pay his own legal fees.

The Daily Mail reported that Mr Cottrells associates thought he was worth 250 million through a family trust fund.

He now faces 21 charges including conspiracy to commit money laundering, extortion, blackmail, mail and wire fraud.

Nigel Farage's most controversial moments Show all 12 1 /12 Nigel Farage's most controversial moments Nigel Farage's most controversial moments When he unveiled that 'breaking point' poster during the referendum Mr Farage was accused of deploying Nazi-style propaganda when he unveiled a poster showing Syrian refugees travelling to Europe under the next Breaking point. Users on social media were quick to compare the advert to a Nazi propaganda film with similar visuals and featuring Jewish refugees. The poster was particularly controversial because it was unveiled the morning of the killing of Labour MP Jo Cox Rex Nigel Farage's most controversial moments When he said hed be concerned if his neighbours were Romanian In May 2014 Mr Farage was accused of a racial slur against Romanians after he suggested he would be concerned living next to a house of them. I was asked if a group of Romanian men moved in next to you, would you be concerned? And if you lived in London, I think you would be, he told LBC radio during an interview. Asked whether he would also object to living next to German children, he said: You know the difference Bongarts/Getty Images Nigel Farage's most controversial moments When he said the EU campaign was won 'without a bullet being fired' Nigel Farage has said the next Prime Minister has to be a Leave supporter AFP/Getty Nigel Farage's most controversial moments When he resigned as Ukip leader and came back days later After failing to win the seat of South Thanet at the general election, Nigel Farage stepped down as Ukip leader  as he had promised to do during the campaign. Days later on 11 May he un-resigned and said he would stay after being convinced by supporters within the party. Well see how long his resignation lasts this time AP/Matt Dunham Nigel Farage's most controversial moments When he blamed immigrants for making him late Mr Farage turned up late to a 25-a-head meet the leader style event in Port Talbot, Wales in December 2014. Asked why he was late, he blamed immigrants. It took me six hours and 15 minutes to get here - it should have taken three-and-a-half to four, he said. That has nothing to do with professionalism, what it does have to do with is a country in which the population is going through the roof chiefly because of open-door immigration and the fact that the M4 is not as navigable as it used to be Getty Nigel Farage's most controversial moments When he wanted to ban immigrants with HIV from Britain Mr Farage has used his platform as Ukip leader call for people with HIV to be banned from coming to Britain. Asked in an interview with Newsweek Europe in October 2014 who he thought should be allowed to come to the UK, he said: People who do not have HIV, to be frank. Thats a good start. And people with a skill. He also repeated similar comments in the 2015 general election leadership debates Getty Nigel Farage's most controversial moments When he defended the use of a racial slur against Chinese people Defending one of Ukips candidates, who used the word ch**ky to describe a Chinese person, Mr Farage said: If you and your mates were going out for a Chinese, what do you say you're going for?" When he was told by the presented that he honestly would not use the slur, Mr Farage replied: A lot would Lintao Zhang/Getty Images Nigel Farage's most controversial moments When he said parts of Britain were like a foreign land The Ukip leader used his 2014 conference speech to declare parts of Britain as being like a foreign land. He told his audience in Torquay that parts of the country were unrecognisable because of the number of foreigners there. Mr Farage has also previously said he felt uncomfortable when people spoke other language on a train Screengrab Nigel Farage's most controversial moments When he said the British army should be deployed to France At the height of trouble at Britains Calais border Mr Farage proposed a novel solution. The Ukip leader called for the British army to be sent to France to put down a migrant rebellion. In all civil emergencies like this we have an army, we have a bit of a Territorial Army as well and we have a very, very overburdened police force and border agency, he said. If in a crisis to make sure weve actually got the manpower to check lorries coming in, to stop people illegally coming to Britain, if in those circumstances we can use the army or other forces then why not AFP/Getty Nigel Farage's most controversial moments When he said breastfeeding women should sit in the corner Mr Farage sparked protests from mothers after he told women to sit on the corner if they wanted to breastfeed their children. I think that given that some people feel very embarrassed by it, it isnt too difficult to breastfeed a baby in a way that's not openly ostentatious, Mr Farage said. He added: "Or perhaps sit in the corner, or whatever it might be AFP/Getty Images Nigel Farage's most controversial moments When he said the gender pay gap exists because women are worth less At a Q&A on the European Union in January 2014 Mr Farage said there was no discrimination against women causing the gender pay gap. Instead, he said, women were paid less because they were simply worth far less than many of their male counterparts. A woman who has a client base, has a child and takes two or three years off - she is worth far less to her employer when she comes back than when she went away because that client base won't be stuck as rigidly to her portfolio, he said Getty Nigel Farage's most controversial moments When he said he actually couldnt guarantee 350m to the NHS after Brexit During the EU referendum campaign the Leave side pledged to spend 350 million a week on the National Health Service  claiming that this is what the UK sends to Brussels. Nigel Farage didnt speak out against this figure and also pledged to spend EU cash on the health service and other public services himself. Then the day of the election result he suddenly changed his tone, saying he couldnt guarantee the cash for the NHS and that to pledge to do so was a mistake Getty

The indictment alleges that Mr Cottrell posed online as "Bill" from March to September 2014, advertising consultation and money laundering services through the so-called dark web.

He was contacted by undercover FBI operatives posing as drug traffickers, who proposed to send him between $50,000 and $150,000 of drug money every month. Mr Cottrell allegedly agreed to launder the money in offshore accounts.

The documents claim that he arranged for the agents to send him 15,500 which he intended to keep for himself. He then allegedly demanded 62,000 in the form of bitcoin and threatened to alert authorities if they refused.

The lawsuit also claimed that Mr Cottrell had a serious, years-long gambling problem which led to him taking irrational risks.

 Farage Makes Brexit Address

Mr Cottrell, a grandson of the late Yorkshire landowner Lord Manton, runs Mr Farages private office, and has been described in an earlier statement by UKIP as an enthusiastic volunteer. He was responsible for Mr Farages diary and media inquiries.

His emails have been frozen, leaving Mr Farage without access to his online diary. Mr Farage reportedly knew nothing of Mr Cottrells alleged illegal activities and returned to London without him in July.

Mr Farages trusted campaign member said in his detention order that he had recently changed his name in order to distance himself from his political activities in the UK, which the court did not find credible. He also said that he lived with his parents in Worcester despite his residence being listed as a flat in Kensington, West London.

The UKIP aide was expelled from Malvern College before he sat his A-levels and went straight into what he described as "private banking".

He is surrounded by influential family figures, including his uncle Lord Hesketh, who set up a Formula One team and worked for the Thatcher government.

His mother, Fiona Cottrell, was a glamour model and was linked to Prince Charles in the 1970s.

UKIP could not be reached for comment. A previous statement from the party claimed that the alleged crimes were carried out before the 22-year-old started working for UKIP.
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The biggest social movement against enforced hijab in Iran and the banning of burkinis on local French beaches both demonstrate one key issue at the centre of each - the freedom of choice.

In Iran, women have to cover their hair in all public places. In France, women have been effectively prohibited from covering up after the mayor of Cannes banned full body swimsuits from beaches in the city. Nice soon followed suit and other French towns are reportedly considering whether to act too. While the stances in Iran and France present polar opposite positions on Islamic clothing, neither provides the choice to wear it that should be a fundamental right.

Recommended Read more Two men explain why they are wearing the hijab to support their wives

Masih Alinejads My Stealthy Freedom campaign has showcased women across Iran who share with her pictures of themselves in public, enjoying moments of stealthy freedom with their hair uncovered.

The campaign has grown steadily over two years and her page now has one million followers. In July, it attracted international attention once again when men stood in solidarity with their wives, sisters and mothers by sharing pictures of themselves in hijabs under the hashtag #meninhijabs.

Speaking to the Independent during a Facebook Live, Ms Alinejad said the controversy surrounding the ban on burkinis signifies how voiceless women are in Iran, where a child is obliged by law to wear a hijab from the age of seven but this will rarely make a news story.

Ms Alinejad said the key aspect in both cases is that women are not being allowed to dress of their own volition, whether that be by covering up or showing their hair and body.

The issue in France has dominated news internationally. For this reason, she says her campaign focuses specifically on Iran in order to give women there a platform from which to speak.

I am for freedom of choice, she said. I know that these days there is a lot of media coverage about those women who fight to have the choice to wear the hijab in the United States of America and in France, and they are being heard.

The countries with anti-women laws Show all 5 1 /5 The countries with anti-women laws The countries with anti-women laws The countries with anti-women laws The countries with anti-women laws The countries with anti-women laws The countries with anti-women laws

I think their campaign is strong enough, so I am here to talk about those people who do not have any freedom in their homeland. If a seven-year-old girl says no to the hijab, she wont get an education. You wont be able to go to school, you wont be able to get a job. You wont be able to live in your own country.

Those people in France have the media here, they have freedom of speech here - they can be heard. A Barbie wearing hijab can make news for CNN. But millions of seven-year-old girls in Iran - they are not news. [] So my focus is about women inside Iran.

Ms Alinejad, who lives in New York, pointed to growing anti-Muslim rhetoric in the US and how this could affect her mother, who does wear a hijab, if she came to visit her.

Recommended Read more Men in Iran are wearing hijabs in solidarity with their wives

I dont want to get arrested in my home country [for not wearing a hijab] and I dont want my mum to get kicked out [in the US] for wearing a hijab.

Im a campaigner against compulsory hijab. Our Facebook page has one million followers, which allows Iranian women inside Iran to take off their scarfs and express themselves about how it feels, or why they want to have freedom of choice.
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Chelsea Manning has recalled the first day she stepped out in public as a woman while still serving in the US military, at a time when the controversial dont ask, dont tell policy was still enforced.

The former US soldier announced her transition in August 2013 after being sentenced to 35 years in prison for leaking more than 700,000 classified military documents to Wikileaks.

Manning has successfully sued the US Government for the right to receive hormone therapy in prison.

Writing in the Guardian, Manning described passing as a woman in public for the first time in February 2010 after her experiences in Iraq led her to reevaluate what mattered.

Manning, who was on leave from her deployment in Iraq at the time, said she was able to blend into the crowd easily as her authentic self.

Id long known I was a woman, she writes, but Id been afraid, and a bit embarrassed, to appear publicly as myself before this. Not only was I worried that I could lose my already-tenuous connections with my family, but I was terrified that I could face administrative, or even criminal, charges from the military.

LGBT+ rights around the globe Show all 9 1 /9 LGBT+ rights around the globe LGBT+ rights around the globe Russia Russias antipathy towards homosexuality has been well established following the efforts of human rights campaigners. However, while it is legal to be homosexual, LGBT couples are offered no protections from discrimination. They are also actively discriminated against by a 2013 law criminalising LGBT propaganda allowing the arrest of numerous Russian LGBT activists. AFP/Getty LGBT+ rights around the globe Brunei Brunei recently introduced a law to make sodomy punishable by stoning to death. It was already illegal and punishable by up to 10 years in prison AFP/Getty LGBT+ rights around the globe Mauritania Men who are found having sex with other men face stoning, while lesbians can be imprisoned, under Sharia law. However, the state has reportedly not executed anyone for this crime since 1987 Alamy LGBT+ rights around the globe Sudan Both male and female same-sex sexual activity is illegal under Sudanese law. Men can be executed on their third offence, women on their fourth Getty LGBT+ rights around the globe Saudi Arabia Homosexuality and gender realignment is illegal and punishable by death, imprisonment, whipping and chemical castration Getty LGBT+ rights around the globe Yemen The official position within the country is that there are no gays. LGBT inviduals, if discovered by the government, are likely to face intense pressure. Punishments range from flogging to the death penalty Getty LGBT+ rights around the globe Nigeria Both male and female same-sex sexual activity is illegal and in some northern states punishable with death by stoning. This is not a policy enacted across the entire country, although there is a prevalent anti-LGBT agenda pushed by the government. In 2007 a Pew survey established that 97% of the population felt that homosexuality should not be accepted. It is punishable by 14 years in prison Reuters LGBT+ rights around the globe Somalia Homosexuality was established as a crime in 1888 and under new Somali Penal Code established in 1973 homosexual sex can be punishable by three years in prison. A person can be put to death for being a homosexual Reuters LGBT+ rights around the globe Iraq Although same-sex relationships have been decriminalised, much of the population still suffer from intense discrimination. Additionally, in some of the country over-run by the extremist organisation Isis, LGBT individuals can face death by stoning Getty

She says choosing make-up was easy because it was something she had done before.

Clothes proved more difficult, writes Manning, which led her to pretend to be shopping for a girlfriend.

Being myself for a whole day taught me a few lessons: trying to meet the expectations that I believed were placed on me by society was unsustainable. I was miscast in the play of life, and it was urgent that I admit that, sooner rather than later. Joy, confidence and security cant begin until we are able to just be ourselves.

In July, Manning was hospitalised after trying to take her own life. She could face solitary confinement for an indefinite period or charges relating to the suicide attempt, according to The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
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The actor and campaigner Lord Brian Rix has died aged 92, two months after being diagnosed with a terminal illness.

Lord Rix, once one of Britains most popular stage and television actors, was a campaigner for the charity Mencap for four decades.

He had changed his mind to support assisted dying in recent weeks because of his own terminal illness.

Lord Rix became a cross-bench member of the House of Lords in 1992 and voted against the assisted dying bill in 2006.

Ambassadors For Assisted Dying Show all 10 1 /10 Ambassadors For Assisted Dying Ambassadors For Assisted Dying Actor Sir Patrick Stewart Getty Images Getty Images Ambassadors For Assisted Dying Actor Hugh Grant Getty Images Getty Images Ambassadors For Assisted Dying South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu Getty Images AFP/Getty Images Ambassadors For Assisted Dying Author Sir Terry Pratchett Getty Images GETTY IMAGES Ambassadors For Assisted Dying Stephen Hawking Getty Images Getty Images Ambassadors For Assisted Dying Cilla Black PA PA Ambassadors For Assisted Dying Lord George Carey Getty Images GETTY Ambassadors For Assisted Dying Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne Getty Images Getty Images Ambassadors For Assisted Dying Actress Kim Cattrall Getty Images Getty Images Ambassadors For Assisted Dying Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan PA

He wrote to the speaker of the House, Baroness DSouza, in the final weeks of his life to ask her to raise the issue again because of how his illness had made him reconsider his position.

His letter continued: As a dying man, who has been dying now for several weeks, I am only too conscious that the laws of this country make it impossible for people like me to be helped on their way, even though the family is supportive of this position and everything that needs to be done has been dealt with.

Jan Tregelles, chief executive of Mencap, paid tribute to Lord Rixs determination to improve the lives of people living with learning disabilities after his own daughter Shelley was born with Down's syndrome in 1951.

Recommended Read more Lord Brian Rix changes his mind and calls for assisted dying

Lord Rix was a beloved colleague and friend to so many people with a learning disability and their families," she said in a statement.

"His passion, zeal and humour will be sorely missed. His tireless campaigning has perhaps done more to improve the lives of people with a learning disability than any other.

When Lord Rixs daughter, Shelley, was born with a learning disability he and his wife Elspet were told to put her away, and forget about her. This started a quest lasting over 60 years to make the world a better place for all those with a learning disability.

He has played a central role in many of the landmark moments for people with a learning disability in recent decades, working as Secretary General, Chairman and later President of Mencap and also in the House of Lords where he worked tirelessly into his 90s."
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Mystery has long surrounded the hundreds of ancient stone monuments found in Britain, from Stonehenge to Castlerigg in the Lake District.

But for the first time, archaeologists have been able to prove the two oldest stone circles in the country were deliberately constructed to align with the orbits of the sun and the moon.

Callanish Stones on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland and the Standing Stones of Stenness on the Isle of Orkney were constructed about 5,000 years ago with astronomical phenomena in mind, according to new research from the University of Adelaide.

Gail Higginbottom and her colleagues studied Ordnance Survey data and used 3D mapping technology to scrutinise the statistics behind the prehistoric stones alignment.

Its the first time individual circles have been assessed to really know whats going on, Dr Higginbottom told The Independent.

People have done statistical work on standing stones, but usually as a group. They hadnt separated them by specific age, or by looking at every single lineup in a circle.

The Stones of Stenness (Getty/iStockphoto) (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The research, published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, found the stones positioned to connect with the path of the sun and moon at different points in their cycle.

While the monuments themselves were built relatively quickly, their positioning was based on knowledge about the movements of the cosmos gathered over several generations.

And the arrangement of the stones in the two locations is so precise that they can even be used to measure the moons appearance at its most northerly position on the horizon  an event which only takes place every 18.6 years.

Stenness is situated near the Ness of Brodgar, the largest ancient temple complex in the UK dating from about 3200 BC, and the prehistoric settlement of Skara Brae from the same era.

The spiritual significance of connecting the earth and the sky using astrologically-placed standing stones may have remained the same for two whole millennia.

It was important for them to do alignments as it was part of their wider belief system, said Dr Higginbottom of the Neolithic populations who first created the structures.

Around the winter solstice, as the sun was moving further south, and it was getting darker and the days were getting shorter, if they couldnt confirm that the sun was starting to move north again, towards warmer weather, that would be catastrophic.

Skara Brae in Orkney, Scotland, the best-preserved Neolithic settlement in Western Europe (Getty/iStockphoto) (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The archaeologists used the data to examine landscape patterns at more than 100 of the earliest standing stone structures in Britain.

Recommended Read more Thousands travel to Stonehenge for the Summer Solstice

They discovered that at about half of the locations, the northern horizon was relatively higher and closer, with the summer solstice sun rising from the highest peak in the north.

But at the other half, the southern horizon was elevated, with the sun rising from the highest peak in the south during the winter solstice.

This meant the Neolithic people were able to predict when these amazing spectaculars would take place, said Dr Higginbottom.

They had to be aware of their environment, for survival, but it was also quite magical.

Callanish and Stenness were built about 500 years before Stonehenge in Wiltshire, where crowds continue to gather to mark the summer solstice each year at dawn on 21 June.

Revealed: Early Bronze Age carvings suggest Stonehenge was a huge prehistoric art gallery Show all 4 1 /4 Revealed: Early Bronze Age carvings suggest Stonehenge was a huge prehistoric art gallery Revealed: Early Bronze Age carvings suggest Stonehenge was a huge prehistoric art gallery 11.jpg Digital photogrammetry being used to record 3D images of the micro-topography on the tops of the lintels at Stonehenge. ArcHeritage/English Heritage Revealed: Early Bronze Age carvings suggest Stonehenge was a huge prehistoric art gallery 1.jpg Ghostly images: a laser-scan-derived image of the largest panel of axe-head carvings at Stonehenge. 75% of the carvings in this image were not previously known. ArcHeritage/English Heritage Revealed: Early Bronze Age carvings suggest Stonehenge was a huge prehistoric art gallery 2.jpg Drawings of all the axe-heads shown in the laser-scan-derived image. The green ones are new discoveries. The brown ones have been known or suspected since the 1950s. ArcHeritage/English Heritage Revealed: Early Bronze Age carvings suggest Stonehenge was a huge prehistoric art gallery 3.jpg Digital photogrammetry being used to record 3D images of the micro-topography on the tops of the lintels at Stonehenge. ArcHeritage/English Heritage

The structures are also much simpler than Stonehenge, which attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors every year and in 2013 celebrated the opening of a new 27m visitor centre.

We are planning to investigate Stonehenge, but we wanted to get it right with something simpler first, said Dr Higginbottom.

Stonehenge has so many alignments, and has had five different stages of stone building, so its much more complicated to work out what was going on in each period. But we are absolutely aiming for that.
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An Irish women who is live-tweeting her journey to England to have an abortion has attacked premier Enda Kenny for forcing women to go into "exile".

The woman and a friend who is travelling with her said they stand in solidarity with other women from Ireland who have had to make the trip.

The women launched the Twitter feed at 5am on Saturday morning, shortly before making a "chilly" dawn journey to board a 6.30am flight across the Irish sea.

They described it as an account of two women, one procedure, 48 hours away from home".

Abortion is illegal in the Republic of Ireland unless the pregnancy endangers the life of the woman, and it carries a sentence of up to life in prison.

Because the Eighth Amendment in the constitution gives a foetus equal rights to the woman carrying it, there is no exception for a woman who has been raped or who is carrying a foetus so severely disabled that it has no chance of surviving outside the womb.

As a result of the law, thousands of Irish women travel to Great Britain for abortions every year.

Women who have made the journey before described it as stressful and upsetting.

My work colleague became pregnant and I travelled to England with her for the termination," one woman told The Independent. "We had to travel back on the same day as the procedure because we couldnt afford to stay over. My friend almost fainted in the airport toilets and the journey home was horrendous, she was in such pain and discomfort."

Another woman said she would have committed suicide if she had not been able to raise the money to travel to England.

Many women cannot afford to make the journey. In addition to the cost of travel, Irish women are not entitled to free NHS England abortions and must pay privately for the procedure when they arrive.

Abortion is also illegal in Northen Ireland, despite it being part of the UK.

In April a 21-year-old woman was prosecuted in a Belfast court for taking abortion pills which she ordered online when she became accidentally pregnant at 19 and could not afford to travel to Great Britain.

When her housemates found blood-stained clothes and foetal remains in a bin, they reported her to the police and she was arrested.

After the woman was given a suspended sentence, three other women handed themselves into a police station in Derry and asked to be prosecuted for also having had illegal abortions.

In November 2015, Belfast High Court ruled that the abortion ban is incompatible with human rights. However, the Northern Ireland Assembly voted to keep the ban regardless.

Doctors and protesters join growing clamour for a change in the abortion law Show all 2 1 /2 Doctors and protesters join growing clamour for a change in the abortion law Doctors and protesters join growing clamour for a change in the abortion law savita1-getty.jpg Getty Images Doctors and protesters join growing clamour for a change in the abortion law savita-2-getty#.jpg Getty Images

In 2012 Savita Halappanavar, a 31-year-old dentist, died from complications related to a miscarriage after being refused an abortion at a hospital in Galway, Republic of Ireland, sparking pro-choice protests across the country.

Recently Irish women tweeted their periods to Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny, with one explaining: "Since we know how much the Irish state cares about our reproductive parts... I think it's only fair that women of Ireland let our leader Enda Kenny know the full details of our menstrual cycle."

The two women live-tweeting their journey to England said they would be open to answering more questions later in the day, after the abortion had taken place.
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Gibraltar is facing an "existential threat" to its economy if the UK negotiates a so-called hard Brexit deal, the territory's chief minister has warned.

The British enclave on the Iberian peninsula relies upon thousands of Spanish workers crossing the border every day to work, and its economy could collapse if the UK ends free movement of labour after leaving the European Union.

In the June referendum, Gibraltarians voted by 96 per cent to 4 per cent to remain in the EU  a higher margin than in any voting district.

Now its political leaders are wondering whether the Rock can do what they call a reverse Greenland. Though Greenland is ruled by Denmark, which is a member of the EU, the islands political leaders achieved a deal in 1985 under which it left the EU without severing its political links to Denmark.

In Gibraltar, the question is being raised as to whether the territory could remain in the EU when the UK leaves, while continuing to be a British Overseas Territory, its chief minister, Fabian Picardo told the BBCs Today progamme.

"A hard Brexit would be really an existential threat to the Gibraltar economic model," he warned.

Brexit racism and the fightback Show all 9 1 /9 Brexit racism and the fightback Brexit racism and the fightback Demonstrators protest against an increase in post-ref racism at London's March for Europe in July 2016 PA Brexit racism and the fightback These cards were found near a school in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, the day after the EU referendum Twitter/@howgilb Brexit racism and the fightback Getty Brexit racism and the fightback Romford, Essex, June 25 @diamondgeezer Brexit racism and the fightback A worker at this Romanian food shop was asleep upstairs at the time of this arson attack in Norwich on July 8, but escaped unharmed. Hundreds later participated in a love bombing rally outside the shop to express their opposition to racism and their support of the shop owners. JustGiving/Helen Linehan Brexit racism and the fightback This neo-Nazi sticker was spotted in Glasgow on June 26 Courtesy of Eoin Palmer Brexit racism and the fightback But after news emerged of neo-Nazi stickers appearing in Glasgow, some in the city struck back with slogans of their own. Courtesy of Eoin Palmer Brexit racism and the fightback Getty Brexit racism and the fightback More signs began to appear in some parts of the UK, created by people who wanted to show their opposition to post-referendum racism Courtesy of Bernadette Russell

"What might be a disastrous exit for the United Kingdom would be an existential threat to Gibraltar's current economic model.

"We have been talking about this possibility of what has been described as a 'reverse Greenland' which envisages one part of a member state leaving the European Union because it chooses to do so and other parts of the member state remaining, with access to the single market and freedom of movement being the things that matter most to us.

"What Gibraltar is looking at is what type of participation we can have in the European Union or with the European Union, once the United Kingdom has decided what its Brexit looks like."

The Gibraltar government is already in discussions with Scotland, which also voted strongly for Remain, about what kind of arrangements they could have with the EU once the UK finally leaves.

Mr Picardo strongly rejected suggestions that it would have to concede some form of joint sovereignty to Spain  something it has long opposed  if it were to continue to enjoy unfettered access to EU markets and labour.

"We are not worried because we have seen this sort of bloody-minded attitude before," he said.
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A Scottish farmer has caused outrage after posing for photographs with the the bodies of an elephant, water buffalo and other African animals that he had shot dead.

Ian Evans, of Wigtonshire in south-west Scotland, also killed antelope and zebra while on several trips to reserves in South Africa.

His daughter-in-law, Helen Winters, who posted these photos online, has also accused him of killing her family's pet geese, the Daily Record reported.

Ms Winters wrote on Facebook that after taking her daughter to an English hospital for months of treatment following a horseriding accident, Mr Evans got rid of her five pet geese which she had kept for 10 years.

Mr Evans, 62, said he had shot the African animals as part of a sanctioned cull by the management of an animal reserve he visited.

He added the photos dated back as far as 2007.

Explaining the cull on comments on his website that he later deleted, Mr Evans wrote: "There are around 900 elephants in this reserve (expanding at seven per cent per year, which is unsustainable).

"All the meat from the cull is sold to fund community projects such as infrastructure, education of local children, community halls and other community buildings.

"The licence fees go to help the running and maintenance of the reserve. The cull is part of the management of the reserve."

Mr Evans and a water buffalo he shot (Facebook/Helen Winters)

He added: "I just love Africa. I am in love with the enormous ecosystem that you can study.

Yes, I was part of a cull. Thats explained in my statement. It was seven years ago.

I went (to Africa) in 2014, but the pictures she is using are from 2009, 2007 and earlier. There was five years between the last one and the one before that.

The 62-year-old and a zebra he shot (Facebook/Helen Winters)

Mr Evans said he had not shot the geese, but admitted he "did away with them".

"There was no one to look after them. They had the run of the place and the mess they made was incredible," he said.

Harry Huyton, of the UK-based animal welfare group OneKind, said: It beggars belief that anyone can derive any sort of pleasure from killing beautiful creatures and posing with their bodies.

Trophy hunting is absolutely abhorrent and this individual should be ashamed of himself not only for killing these animals but then boasting about it afterwards.
Foreign retailers are flooding into the country as consumer spending is set to grow 47 percent in the next four years.

The number of announced mergers and acquisitions (M&A) over the past five years is valued at $18 billion, according to the Ministry of Investment and Planning.

M&A deals in 2015 increased 40 percent from 2014 with total value of $4.3 billion, according to data released by Institute of Mergers, Acquisitions and Alliances.

Vietnamese mergers and acquisitions, after having reached the value of $3.2 billion in the first seven months of this year, are expected to hit $6 billion for the whole year, beating last years record as foreign investors have shown increasing interest in the countrys booming retail sector spurred by strong economic growth.

Emerging retail market

Vietnams retail market has grown at roughly 10 percent per year in recent years. The market is forecast to reach $109 billion in sales next year, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit. The country has also climbed up to 11th place on the A.T. Kearny 2016 Global Retail Development Index, which indentifies the worlds top 30 retail markets with the most potential investment opportunities.

Retailers have seen Vietnams relatively young population and expanding middle class as the main drivers of robust retail market growth. Almost 60 percent of Vietnams population of 93 million people are under 35 with rising incomes, averaging $2,111 last year, according to World Bank data.

EuroMonitor International predicts that Vietnams consumer spending is about to grow 47 percent in the next four years to $184.9 billion.

The World Bank forecast Vietnams $200 billion economy is likely to grow to a trillion dollars by 2035 with more than half of its population, compared with only 11 percent today, expected to join the ranks of the global middle class with consumption of $15 a day or more.

As incomes rise, people are also shifting shopping habits. Spending at modern supermarkets, convenience stores, and shopping malls is expected to rise to 40 percent of total consumer spending by 2020, up from the current 25 percent, the government data show.

Vietnam has thus seen a surge in M&A deals in the retail sector.

Korean retail conglomerate Lotte Group targets to open 60 supermarkets in Vietnam by 2020.

Thailands Central Group has acquired a 49 percent stake in consumer electronics retailer Nguyen Kim and sealed a $1.14 billion buyout of hypermarket Big C Vietnam. Another Thai giant, TCC, last year took over Metro Cash & Carry wholesale operation in Vietnam for $720 million.

Japanese retailers have also set eyes on Vietnam. Supermarket chain operator Aeon bought a 30 percent stake in Fivimart and a 49 percent stake in Citimart. Both are top players in the market with supermarkets and convenience stores in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

Meanwhile, convenience store giant 7-Eleven has laid out its expansion in Vietnam with its first store to be open early 2018.

Even luxury brands like the Japanese Takashimaya are already entering the Southeast Asian country. The group has invested about 5 billion yen ($47 million) in Vietnam since 2012. That includes the new 15,000 square-meter department store in the Saigon Center in Ho Chi Minh City which is set to open this month.

Vietnamese local businesses have also begun to pick up speed.

Property giant Vingroup has decided to make retail business its core, said Chairman Pham Nhat Vuong, contributing to around 50 percent of the group's total sales in the years to come, compared to the current 20 percent.

Vingroup aims to open as many as 500 supermarkets and 8,000 convenience stores under its VinMart and VinMart+ brands in the next five years.

In an attempt to get ready for the expansion, the real estate group has bought an 80 percent stake in Giang Vo Exhibition Center in Hanoi and acquired a 100 percent ownership of Vinatexmart which has as many as 39 supermarkets and retail stores in 19 provinces and cities throughout Vietnam.

Official statistics show Vietnam now has about 9,000 traditional outdoor markets, 800 supermarkets, 160 department stores and shopping malls and more than a million household stores.

M&A upward trend sees no signs of stopping

Foreign investors are also attracted by Vietnams high economic growth rate which has remained at an average of more than 5 percent since 1999. The Southeast Asian countrys economy aims to expand 6.7 percent in 2016 after growing at 6.68 percent in 2015, the fastest pace since 2007.

The Vietnamese government has shown strong commitment to making Vietnam a more attractive investment destination. A revised rule, which came into effective last month, has drastically shortened the process of acquiring an investment license to 15 days instead of 45 days.

The government on July 20 officially scrapped a long standing foreign-ownership cap on many publicly listed companies, allowing foreign investors to own a 100 percent stake in several listed companies in various industries, including consumer, property, transport, construction, manufacturing, financial services and agriculture, up from 49 percent.

The SCIC, the state's investment arm, has confirmed that it will divest from Vinamilk, the countrys largest dairy firm, valued at $7.6 billion, by selling its 45 percent stake worth $3.5 billion.

Another reason for booming mergers and acquisitions in Vietnam is foreign investors want to take advantage of Vietnams low-cost manufacturing. As Vietnam has concluded a variety of free trade agreements, especially the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the country is highly likely to become a global outsourcing hub.

Related news:

> Foreign investors plow $3 billion into Vietnamese firms

> Vietnamese retail giant joins forces with local firms to compete with foreign rivals

> Foreign investors dominate Vietnams M&A deals
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The Dangerous Dogs Act, brought in 25 years ago in the wake of a childs horrific death, has never really worked and should be overhauled, a Tory MP claims.

Andrew Rosindell, MP for Romford in London, who owns a Staffordshire Bull Terrier  or Staffy  criticised the legislation because it singles out specific breeds, but not others which can be highly dangerous in the hands of irresponsible owners.

On Thursday, a three-year-old boy, Dexter Neal, was mauled to death in Essex by an American bulldog, which is not one of the breeds mentioned in the Act. Earlier in the week, 52-year-old David Ellam died from his injuries after being savaged by a neighbour's "Staffy-type" dog, which had been returned to its owners only days earlier despite complaints that it was dangerous.

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The Dangerous Dogs Act was introduced in 1991 after a six year old girl playing in a park in Bradford was killed by a pit bull terrier. Legislation to impose restrictions on four breeds  the pit bull, Japanese Tosa, Fila Brasileiro and Dogo Argentino  was rapidly pushed through Parliament by the then Home Secretary, Kenneth Baker. It has been frequently cited since as an example of a law passed in haste to appease public anger. The Act also made it an offence to own a dog that is dangerously out of control".

You do need a complete review of this legislation. It's simply not effective, Mr Rosindell told the BBCs Today programme.

Hounded out: Why dogs are struggling to fit into modern life Show all 4 1 /4 Hounded out: Why dogs are struggling to fit into modern life Hounded out: Why dogs are struggling to fit into modern life 620910.bin Dan Burn-Forti Hounded out: Why dogs are struggling to fit into modern life 620911.bin Dan Burn-Forti Hounded out: Why dogs are struggling to fit into modern life 620914.bin Dan Burn-Forti Hounded out: Why dogs are struggling to fit into modern life 620913.bin Dan Burn-Forti

He added: It is impossible for authorities to check every single dog, but certainly if there's one incident then that dog and that owner would then have to be checked and warned, and if there's a second incident, then the authorities may want to take action. The problem is they only really have powers to act on those four breeds so they waste a lot of time on dogs that aren't dangerous instead of dealing with the ones that are.

There are lots of breeds of dogs that can be just as dangerous as the ones listed in the Dangerous Dogs Act, so to get rid of this legislation to replace it with a more flexible form of regulation means that the police and local authorities could then focus on where there is a known dangerous dog or an irresponsible owner.

A spokesman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: Any dog can become dangerous if it is kept by irresponsible owners in the wrong environment which is why the Dangerous Dogs Act covers any type of dog that is dangerously out of control.
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Savers have expressed their shock after it was revealed the Governments Help to Buy ISA cannot actually be used by first-time buyers towards a deposit on a house.

Paid in a lump sum, deposits are usually 10 per cent of the total cost of a house and worth tens of thousands of pounds. They are widely considered the largest obstacle to home ownership.

But contrary to how the scheme appears to have been portrayed, the ISA is not actually allowed to contribute towards the deposit and instead can only be used after the house purchase has been completed. This means it can only to be used towards the more easily managed monthly mortgage payment.

The Help to Buy ISA was unveiled by former Chancellor George Osborne in the 2015 budget, partly as a way to help with a deposit on a house.

Anyone who uses the savings account for a house would be granted a 25 per cent Government cash bonus on what they save  equating to 25 from the Treasury for every 100 saved.

The scheme was intended to help first-time buyers get on the housing ladder and more than 500,000 savers took advantage of it. But only 1,500 have used it to purchase a home since its introduction last year.

Some high-street banks also appeared to have misunderstood the scheme. On the Halifax website on Friday night, the Help to Buy ISA appeared to be promoted as a way of saving for a housing deposit.

(Halifax/screengrab (Halifax/screengrab)

Natwest also appeared to promote the Help to Buy ISA as a way of saving for a deposit on a house.

(Natwest/screengrab (Natwest/screengrab)

The web pages of other high-street banks did not immediately make it clear the ISA couldnt be used towards a deposit.

The Governments information pages on Help to Buy do include this information: The bonus cannot be used for the deposit due at the exchange of contracts, to pay for solicitors, estate agents fees or any other indirect costs associated with buying a home.

However, The Telegraph reported this information was only made more prominent after it contacted the Treasury regarding the issue.

Online, some savers vented their fury.

It is a scandal, said Andrew Boast of SAM Conveyancing. The Government launched this scheme declaredly to help people save the large exchange deposit required to buy a home. But what unsuspecting first-time buyers are now horrified to discover is that under the scheme rules they cannot use the bonus as part of this deposit.

 What will interest rate cut mean for you?

A Treasury spokesman said: It has always been the case that money saved in a Help to Buy Isa is for an exchange deposit, with the bonus of up to 3,000 per ISA from the Government going toward the total funds available for the property transaction.
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A man has died after being swept into the sea as he sat on rocks with his family in Cornwall.

The family, from Surrey, were on holiday in Newquay when the tragic accident happened at South Fistral Beach on Friday.

Police said the man, his wife and their three children were washed into the sea by a large wave at around 5.20am, sparking a rescue operation involving a helicopter, lifeboats, air ambulance and police.

The RNLI pulled the mother and father, in their 30s, from the water and carried out CPR on the man before he was airlifted for treatment.

He died on Friday evening in Treliske Hospital, where his wife remains with minor injuries.

Their two-year-old daughter was also rescued from the water and taken to hospital, while their two other children managed to clamber back on to the rocks and sustained minor injuries.

Detective Constable Jarrod Yewen, from Devon and Cornwall Police, said: This is a tragic incident and our thoughts are with the family at this difficult time.

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Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. 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

We are investigating the circumstances of the incident and we would like to speak to anyone who was on the beach at the time.

The beach was being lashed by 10ft waves on Friday, as a summer storm brought gales and treacherous seas to southern England and Wales.

Public events including the Bournemouth Air Festival have been cancelled over safety fears and police have been appealing for people not to put themselves at risks with storm selfies at the coast.

The Met Office has issued a yellow weather warning across most of England and Wales, with winds expected to reach 40mph to 50mph inland as a low-pressure system moves in from the west.


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Surgical abortions on vulnerable women and girls under 18 have been suspended at Marie Stopes International (MSI) clinics, one of the UK's leading abortion providers.

The suspension follows an unannounced inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) at MSI's headquarters in July and at their call centre on 12 August which raised concerns over patients' safety.

The CQC has stated the 250 clients will be sent elsewhere "to make sure that patients are protected from potential harm when undergoing pregnancy terminations".

Other services suspended at the provider's clinics include terminations under general anaesthetic and conscious sedation. All surgical terminations at their Norwich centre have also been suspended.

The CQC identified concerns related to poor governance arrangements with specific concerns relating to the lack of assurance in areas such as consent and safeguarding and the lack of assurance over competence in conscious sedation and general anaesthesia.

Professor Edward Baker, deputy chief inspector of hospitals at CQC, said: "Given the nature of the concerns we identified on our inspections, it is right that Marie Stopes International has suspended a number of its services.

"At all times, our priority is to ensure that patients get safe, high-quality and compassionate care. We believe that the action taken is appropriate to address our concerns.

"We will continue to monitor these services very closely and we will not hesitate to take further action, if needed."

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 28 October 2022 A cosplayer attends the MCM Comic Con London 2022 at the ExCel Centre in London Reuters UK news in pictures 27 October 2022 98-year-old D-Day Veteran Bernard Morgan, whose story is among those featured on the giant poppy wall, during the launch of The Royal British Legion 2022 Poppy Appeal, at Hay's Galleria in central London PA 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

Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, NHS England's national medical director, said: "This will be an anxious time for those women affected and we are taking immediate action to ensure everybody involved has access to the appropriate confidential advice and services."

The restrictions will take effect immediately and NHS England has set up a confidential helpline on 0300 123 1041 from 9am to 5pm at weekends and 9am to 8pm during the week.

MSI's chief executive, Simon Cooke, said: As of today Marie Stopes UK has agreed with the Care Quality Commission to voluntarily suspend some of its termination of pregnancy services.

"This is to allow Marie Stopes UK to resolve areas of concern in its training and governance procedures. We are working urgently with the CQC on these areas and intend to regain full assurance within a few days.

Alongside this, our immediate priority is to make sure that women booked into one of our affected services are rebooked swiftly into alternative local services and we are working closely with NHS England to ensure that this happens.

Wed like to reassure people that our other services remain unaffected. Each year 70,000 women are treated within our centres, and our clinical outcomes continue to outperform the national average."
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An alleged terrorist plot was foiled in the final hours before the planned attack on a target in the UK last year, a report has said.

An operation run by GCHQ, the British intelligence and security organisation, used interception warrants to monitor phones owned by individuals linked to the plot, according to the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation.

Their agents' analyses resulted in the identification of a cell that was close to carrying out their plan, it added.

The report provides several case studies of how anti-terror laws have been used, including how GCHQ "monitor[ed] the activity of a senior al-Qaeda leader and his network in a Middle Eastern country".

 Owen Smith doesn't rule out holding Syrian peace talks with Isis

GCHQ also provided support to both MI5 and European partners and helped to follow up 1,600 international leads, in the form of telephone numbers, email addresses and other identifiers, in the days following the Paris attacks, according to the report.

Powers enabling the mass interception of communications were also used to help a ground operations in Afghanistan.

The use of intelligence gained through bulk interception as a basis for urgent action was illustrated starkly in the case of a kidnapping in Afghanistan," the report said.

Bulk interception of communications data led to hostages being located within 72 hours of their abduction."

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. 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Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

The review has been well received by Prime Minister Theresa May.

Mr Andersons report demonstrates how the bulk powers contained in the Investigatory Powers Bill are of crucial importance to our security and intelligence agencies," she told the Daily Mirror.
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Jeremy Corbyn has suffered a strident attack from the Labour Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, who has backed his rival Owen Smith for the party leadership.

Mr Khan enjoys widespread popularity and his election to the mayoralty in May has been the most significant Labour victory under Mr Corbyn.

But relations between the mayor and Labour leader have long been frosty. Now, Mr Khan has come out in favour of a change at the top of the party, giving a much needed boost to Mr Smith.

Writing in The Observer, he said: "Jeremy has already proved that he is unable to organise an effective team and has failed to win the trust and respect of the British people.

Recommended Read more Jeremy Corbyn is all talk and no substance on policy

"Jeremy's personal ratings are the worst of any opposition leader on record and the Labour Party is suffering badly as a result.

"He has lost the confidence of more than 80 per cent of Labour MPs in Parliament  and I am afraid we simply cannot afford to go on like this."

In an attempted coup which followed the Brexit vote, numerous members of Mr Corbyns own Cabinet and other MPs tried to dislodge him as leader. But Mr Khan refused to be drawn into the bitter row, despite being regarded as antagonistic towards Mr Corbyn.

However, Mr Khans latest remarks have removed any remaining facade of unity. The country's decision to leave the EU did not sit well with the mayor, who also criticised Mr Corbyns performance in the EU referendum campaign.

"Throughout the campaign and aftermath, Jeremy failed to show the leadership we desperately needed. His position on EU membership was never clear  and voters didn't believe him," Mr Khan said in the newspaper. "A third of Labour voters said they did not know where the party stood on the referendum just a week before polling day."

Labour leadership contest: Jeremy Corbyn vs Owen Smith Show all 8 1 /8 Labour leadership contest: Jeremy Corbyn vs Owen Smith Labour leadership contest: Jeremy Corbyn vs Owen Smith Jeremy Corbyn and Owen Smith clash at a leadership hustings in Gateshead, where Mr Smith was scarcely able to answer a question without being booed by Mr Corbyns supporters PA Labour leadership contest: Jeremy Corbyn vs Owen Smith Jeremy himself admitted he was seven out of 10 in terms of his faith in the European Union. He said it, said Mr Smith during his second live debate with Jeremy Corbyn Getty Labour leadership contest: Jeremy Corbyn vs Owen Smith Ballot papers are currently due to be sent out on 22 August and returned a month later, with the result being announced at a special Labour conference on 24 September Getty Labour leadership contest: Jeremy Corbyn vs Owen Smith Jeremy Corbyn supporters cheer and wave placards as the Labour Leader addresses thousands of supporters in in Liverpool, England Getty Labour leadership contest: Jeremy Corbyn vs Owen Smith Labour Party leadership candidate Owen Smith poses for a picture with supporters during a picnic for young members in London Fields, Hackney in London Getty Labour leadership contest: Jeremy Corbyn vs Owen Smith The Labour leader has a spring in his step at a leadership rally in Sunderland Screenshot Labour leadership contest: Jeremy Corbyn vs Owen Smith Labour leadership contender Owen Smith delivers a speech at the Open University in Milton Keynes, where he promised to reverse Conservative cuts set to leave millions of low paid workers thousands of pounds a year worse off PA Labour leadership contest: Jeremy Corbyn vs Owen Smith Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell has urged Owen Smith to distance himself from those saying they want to split the Labour party Getty

Mr Khan said that it was not enough to blame the media for the outcome of the referendum and "let Jeremy and his team off the hook".

"I know from my own election  up against a nasty and divisive Tory campaign  that if we are strong and clear enough in our convictions, the message will get through to the public," he said.

"That's a test that Jeremy totally failed in the EU referendum. Why would things be different in a general election?"

He urged Labour members to back challenger Mr Smith for the leadership. Having previously refused to say which of the two candidates he was supporting, Mr Khan's decision to come out for Mr Smith will be seen as a huge boon for the former shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, who is widely thought to be trailing in the contest.

Mr Smith said he was "hugely honoured" to have Mr Khan's support.

"Sadiq ran a fantastic campaign to win power for Labour in London this year, securing a huge mandate from party members and the electorate," he said.

He showed that a vision of hope and optimism can win, if it's backed up with a credible plan to deliver real meaningful change for people's lives.

Since that election we have already seen what a difference Labour can make when we hold power. I'm proud that Sadiq is supporting my vision for Labour's future based on a 200bn British New Deal to rebuild our country, strengthening workers' rights, reversing Tory cuts and boosting pay.
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Im very rich, Donald Trump has often said to woo the crowds, talking about the fine marble in his hotels and the millions of dollars he has both given to the veterans and to funding his campaign.

A New York Times investigation has revealed, however, that his companies are carrying debt of at least $650m (497m)  more than double the amount that he disclosed in public records.

While Allen Weisselberg, chief financial officer of the Trump Organisation, insisted to the newspaper that Mr Trumps company was a tightly-run family business, his critics have argued that the Republican owns minority stakes in an opaque network of partnerships and limited liability companies, and relies on credit and loans to prop them up.

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One example is an office building on Sixth Avenue in Manhattan, which is indebted by $950 million. The two major backers are the Bank of China and Goldman Sachs. Mr Trump has railed against China for not paying its fair share of taxes for taking American manufacturing jobs, and he has blasted his rival Hillary Clinton for accepting $675,000 in speaking fees from Goldman Sachs.

A significant chunk of his wealth is also beholden to three passive partnerships that owe a further $2bn in debt to a group of lenders, such as the ones who own the Sixth Avenue office building. If the loans were to default, the value of his investments would plummet, even if he were not held personally liable.

The investigations damning results come amid his refusal to release his tax returns, claiming he cannot do so while they are being audited, despite assertions to the contrary from billionaire investor and Clinton supporter Warren Buffett.

The claims of heavy debt also come shortly after Ms Clinton visited the abandoned, Trump-branded casino buildings in Atlantic City, where she condemned her opponents business tactic of loading up companies with debt without taking any personal liability and washing his hands of ownership before they go bankrupt.

The letters signed by Donald Trump Show all 5 1 /5 The letters signed by Donald Trump The letters signed by Donald Trump The letters signed by Donald Trump The letters signed by Donald Trump The letters signed by Donald Trump The letters signed by Donald Trump

Mr Trumps limited partnerships, of which there are many, have debt of close to $2bn, according to public documents.

I am the king of debt, he once told CNN, and the federal filing system for candidates allows him to reign as such.

The disclosure form provided by the Federal Election Commission for presidential candidates asks them to place assets in categories, the highest of which is more than $50 million. This opens the door for much higher-valued assets to be listed without being specific.

The form also does not require that candidates list corporate debt, and Mr Trump has said he has no personal debt. And where Mr Trump owns less than 100 per cent of a company, the candidate is not required to disclose debt of that company.

The FEC filings are reviewed by the United States Office of Government Ethics before being published, but the filings are not audited for accuracy, the Times discovered.

If the real estate mogul does make it to the White House, the tradition of past presidents is to place their assets in so-called blind trusts  selling the original assets and replacing it with other assets unknown to the seller. His children, who would run his company, have not indicated using such a fund, raising questions about a possible conflict of interest between the president and the corporate world.

The candidates most anticipated real estate project is the Trump International Hotel in the Old Post Office building in Washington. The federal government owns the land and has given him a 60-year lease in return for around $3m per year.

 'I Sometimes Say the Wrong Thing' - Trump Regrets Making Hurtful Remarks

Mr Trump has frequently spoken of the hotel to the large crowds at his rallies, perhaps to boost business. He also needs to remain the King of marketing after new research found his turbulent campaign was not helping visitor footfall.

The Trump campaign could not be reached for comment.
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"What the hell do you have to lose?"

It wasnt Donald Trump's strongest sell to African American voters, but the black community has become an increasing focal point of his recent speeches, including on Thursday in North Carolina and Friday in Michigan.

"You're living in poverty, you have no jobs, your schools are no good," he insisted. If you keep voting for the same people, you will keep getting exactly the same result.

He added that his rival, Democrat Hillary Clinton, would rather provide a job to a refugee than to unemployed young African Americans, who have become refugees in their own country.

Ms Clinton has since responded to the remarks, calling them "so ignorant it's staggering".

And Mr Trump wasn't finished. "At the end of four years, I will gain over 95 per cent of the African American vote, I promise you," he told the mostly white crowd.

The Republican nominee has work ahead of him to persuade black voters to cast their ballot in his favour come 8 November. According to CNN, he is polling around 2 per cent of African American voters.

His speech on Friday was held in Dimondale, an area with 93 per cent white residents, according to the latest census.

If African American voters give Donald Trump a chance by giving me their votes, the result for them will be amazing, Mr Trump declared in North Carolina, just two months after he declined an invitation to attend the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Peoples convention in Cincinnati.

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

Mr Trump said he would be busy at the Republican convention in Cleveland, a neighbouring city. Ms Clinton did attend.

The NAACP president, Cornell William Brooks, retweeted a USA Today article which accused Mr Trump of verbally inciting political violence. He wrote alongside it: "When words are weaponised democracies are desecrated by violence. A warning"

In Michigan, the nominee emphasised the lack of opportunity for young black people and said there were too many Americans that become involved with drugs and crime. He said that youth unemployment among African Americans was more than 50 per cent.

Mr Trump's comments on Friday come shortly after he gave a speech that focused on law and order in Milwaukee, an area that has recently been rocked by the police shooting of 23-year-old black man Sylville Smith and ensuing riots.

Mr Trump's special counsel, Michael Cohen, did not help his plea to black voters after he said that the candidate knows about the African American problem, without clarifying which problem he was referring to.
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The White House has said President Obama will visit Louisiana on Tuesday to view first-hand the effects of vast floods that have left 13 dead and tens of thousands displaced, the country's worst natural disaster since Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Mr Obama signed a disaster declaration on Sunday, ordering federal agencies to help recovery efforts, but he has drawn criticism for his decision to remain on vacation rather than travel to the stricken southern state.

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Mr Obama has received daily briefings on the disaster, while Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson travelled to the state to assess the damage on Thursday. For some, however, his failure swiftly to pay a visit himself has evoked comparisons to President George W Bushs much-criticised response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, when at first he viewed the flooded region from the comfort of Air Force One.

In an editorial addressed to the President, Baton Rouge newspaper The Advocate wrote that a hurting Lousiana needs you now, and criticised Mr Obama for taking a break from his holiday in Marthas Vineyard not to visit the Pelican State, but to attend a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton on Monday. A disaster this big begs for the personal presence of the President at ground zero, the papers editorial board insisted.

Yet Louisianas Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards has urged Mr Obama to stay away from the state until authorities are prepared for a presidential visit. White House press secretary Josh Earnest said on Friday that such a visit would simply distract local officials. The President is mindful of the impact that his travel has on first responders and wants to ensure that his presence does not interfere with ongoing recovery efforts, Mr Earnest said.

That did not deter Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his running mate, Indiana governor Mike Pence, who visited the afflicted region on Friday to meet with victims and hand out supplies. Though words cannot express the sadness one feels at times like this, I hope everyone in Louisiana knows that our country is praying for them and standing with them to help them in these difficult hours, Mr Trump said.

In a statement, Mr Edwards office urged Mr Trump to volunteer for the relief effort or make a sizeable donation to recovery efforts. We welcome him to [Lousiana], but not for a photo op, the Governor said.

Ms Clinton, Mr Trumps Democratic presidential rival, wrote on Facebook that she had spoken with Mr Edwards by phone and urged her followers to donate to organisations involved in recovery efforts, but said she would not visit the state for the time being. My heart breaks for Louisiana, and right now, the relief effort can't afford any distractions, she wrote.
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A family of otters attacked two teenage boys who were swimming in Shasta Lake, California, on Sunday morning.

Chris Whitney, 13, and Jacob Savage, 14, had been jumping off rocks into the reservoir when between three and five animals attacked them, chasing them down a narrow arm of the lake as they swam for the shore.

The friends had injuries on their necks, legs, and feet, Chris' father Ryan Whitney told local media. They had to be taken to hospital for rabies shots.

I noticed blood all over their legs and their feet. They sat down and they were crying in pain, Mr Whitney said.

Chris told a local news channel the otters "just kept getting at our legs and our feet.

"There was one that kept attacking us no matter what we did. I just remember looking back at it and seeing it's teeth, he said.

Every time it would go under I knew it was about to attack and it was just so terrible, it's just the scariest thing in my life I've ever been through," he continued.

Otters rarely attack humans, but can sometimes be territorial, especially when they are protecting their babies.

In 2013 a woman from Montana claimed she needed eight stitches to her head after being attacked by an otter while tubing on the Madison river.

An eight year old boy and his grandmother were also attacked by a four-feet long male otter while swimming in a river in Washington State in 2014.

The otter nearly killed the child and seriously injured the old woman when she tried to prise it off him.

[The otter] had him by the back of his head and it was holding him down, Dean Springer, the boys great-uncle, told local media. Just the whole body was wrapped around him.

Both the child and his grandmother were hospitalised and needed extensive medical treatment.

10 Deadliest Animals In The World Show all 10 1 /10 10 Deadliest Animals In The World 10 Deadliest Animals In The World 10: Poison Dart Frog They might look cute, but the backs of the Amazonian poison dart frog ooze a slimy neurotoxin to keep predators away. Each frog produces enough of the toxin to kill 10 humans. 10 Deadliest Animals In The World 9: Polar Bear The strength of a polar bear is enough to decapitate a human being with a single swipe of the paw. 10 Deadliest Animals In The World 8: African Elephant The brute force of an elephant is unrivalled by any land mammal. Weighing in around 16,000lb on average, they are responsible for around 500 human deaths each year. 10 Deadliest Animals In The World 7: Cape Buffalo Cape Buffalos charge head-on with their razor-sharp horns when confronted with a predator - all 1,500lb of them. And the problem is, they tend to do so as a herd. 10 Deadliest Animals In The World 6: Crocodile The stealth and combined strength of a crocodile allows it to lie in the water undetected, before it strikes, drags its pray underwater, barrel rolls and dismembers it. 10 Deadliest Animals In The World 5: African Lion These big cats are ruthlessly agile, armed with razor-sharp teeth and talons and near-perfect hunters. 10 Deadliest Animals In The World 4: Great White Shark These kings of the sea have 3,000 teeth with which to tear their pray to shreds. On average, are 15ft long and 5,000lb, and can detect a drop of blood in 25 gallons of water. 10 Deadliest Animals In The World 3: Australian Box Jellyfish Each tentacle has 5,000 stinging cells and enough toxin to kill 60 humans. Each jellyfish has 60 tentacles each at 15 ft long. That's a lot of killing power for an animal the size of a salad bowl. 10 Deadliest Animals In The World 2: Asian Cobra It might not be the most poisonous snake, but thanks to its unique spit and strike attack technique, the Asian Cobra is responsible for more human deaths than any other snake on the planet. 10 Deadliest Animals In The World 1: Mosquito Tiny but deadly, mosquitoes carry and transfer malaria causing parasites to humans. As a result, they cause on average 2million human deaths a year, making the insect one of the world's deadliest creatures. Aside from human beings, of course.

Chris and Jacob's injuries were less severe. They were treated by staff at Shasta Regional Medical Center, who Mr Whitney said printed out an 'otter lineup' and asked the boys which one was the culprit.

Since appearing on local TV, the boys have been offering to sign ottergraphs for their friends.
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It's sweet, perfect with pancakes and it can clearly drive people to take serious risks.

Thieves took off with $150,000 worth of maple syrup from a Montreal trucking business, without leaving so much as a sticky footprint behind.

Mexuscan Cargo vice-president, Alfredo Monaco, is offering a reward of $10,000 for anyone who might have information about the 13,000 litres of syrup.

"We learned this week that it's a hot comodity - it's liquid gold," he said.

Mr Monaco told the Toronto Star that the shipment had been bound for the Japanese market.

The shipping had been delayed, so the containers were sitting in his yard when the thieves stole in, breaking the pin lock on the trailer and carting off the golden goo.

Mr Monaco said it was likely the thieves used their own tractor to load the goods into a truck.

If they have plans to sell the produce, they will have to remove each bottle's Costco's Kirkland Signature brand label.

"You can't just sell this stuff at the flea market," he told the Star.

Although the crime may be rare, the shipment of maple syrup is not.

The province provides almost three qaurters of the world's maple syrup output.

In 2012 thieves made off with millions of dollars worth of syrup from another warehouse near Montreal.
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A wanted fugitive has been arrested by Massachusetts Police despite him wearing an elaborate disguise as an 'elderly man'.

Shaun 'Shizz' Miller, 31, had been on the run since April after being charged with possession of heroin with intent to distribute.

Police surrounded a house in South Yarmouth, Cape Cod, and ordered him to come out.

He walked outside in the disguise but police quickly saw through the attempted deception and arrested him, the US Justice Department said.

When South Yarmouth police raided his home, they found two loaded firearms hidden in a laundry basket and nearly $30,000 (22,900) in cash.

He was charged alongside 11 others as part of larger complaint into a major Cape Cod drug trafficking ring known as the Nauti-Block gang.

Russia: Cop disguised as granny catches town thief

The gang has been linked to a murder, a large number of assault charges, along with alleged drug smuggling and dealing.
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Puerto Rico has reported its first death caused by paralysis relating to a Zika infection.

The US territory in the Caribbean has been grappling with an epidemic of the virus, which has spread to 13,000 people on the island.

The victim, aged between 35 and 45 years old and from the San Juan area, died from Guillain-Barre syndrome.

Around 34 cases of Guillain-Barre, a condition linked to Zika, have been reported on the island since the epidemic took hold.

The victim was obese, but had no other health conditions. State epidemiologist, Brenda Riviera, said it was rare for the condition to kill someone who was relatively young. The first death related to the virus in the US was in Utah in July.

Ms Riviera told the Associated Press: What does this tell us? That all of us are susceptible.

There have been 13,186 cases of Zika on the island, with 1,106 involving pregnant women. More than a hundred infections have resulted in hospitalisation.

The virus was spreading rapidly, with dozens infected by the day. By the end of 2016, a quarter of the islands population is expected to be infected with Zika, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

President Barack Obama has declared a public health emergency on the Caribbean island.

Previously thought to only pose a threat to unborn children and their mothers, research has uncovered the mosquito-transmitted infection can have a profound impact on the adult brain.

It can "wreak havoc" on brain stem cells, according to a study by Rockefeller University and La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology.

Based on our findings, getting infected with Zika as an adult may not be as innocuous as people think, Joseph Gleeson, a professor at Rockefeller University, said in a statement.

The Zika virus - in pictures Show all 5 1 /5 The Zika virus - in pictures The Zika virus - in pictures A three-month-old, who has microcephaly, in Recife, Brazil. A rise in microcephaly cases is thought to have been caused by the spread of the Zika virus in affected countries Getty Images The Zika virus - in pictures A mother holds her baby who has microcephaly Getty Images The Zika virus - in pictures A five-month-old baby, who has microcephaly, in Recife, Brazil Getty Images The Zika virus - in pictures A pediatric infectologist examines a two-month-old baby, who has microcephaly, in Recife, Brazil Getty Images The Zika virus - in pictures A baby affected with microcephaly

Owing to its link with severe birth defects, future generations are likely to be affected by the Zika virus.

The CDC predicts between 5,900 and 10,300 pregnant women in Puerto Rico with be infected with Zika during the initial outbreak.

Officials predict as many as 270 babies will be born with the severe birth defect, microcephaly, as a result of the infection.

"Based on the limited available information on the risk of microcephaly, we estimate between 100 to 270 cases of microcephaly might occur" between the summer of 2016 and of 2017, Dr. Margaret Honein, chief of the birth defects branch at the CDC, said.

"It's going to be very important to follow up on these infants," she added.
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Four men are believed to have run over a kangaroo, stabbed it with a knife and stamped on its head in a shocking display of animal cruelty that they filmed and posted on social media.

A video uploaded to Snapchat appears to show the young men burning the marsupial with a cigarette while it was still alive, according to RSPCA South Australia who are investigating the horrific attack.

They then stabbed the animal in the head with a hunting knife and allegedly stomped on the kangaroos head until it came off, said RSPCA Chief Inspector Andrea Lewis in a statement.

Screenshots from the Snapchat video of a kangaroo being tortured by four young men (RSPCA)

Acts of aggravated animal cruelty can carry a sentence of up to four years imprisonment or a fine of up to 50,000 Australian dollars (29,000) under the Australian Animal Welfare Act.

A 17-year-old has been interviewed in relation to the incident, which took place on 10 June, said Ms Lewis.

The marsupial was allegedly run over, burned and stamped on (RSPCA)

Local radio presenter Jeremy Cordeaux has offered a 10,000 dollar (5,800) reward for anyone with information leading to a conviction over the incident that has sickened people in Adelaide.

What sort of person would want to do that to an animal? said Mr Cordeaux on radio station Five Aa.

Recommended Read more Black cat survives being shot more than 30 times

Someone must know these people because they have not been discreet. Theyre proud of what theyve done.

There were more than 34 million kangaroos in Australia in 2011, according to the Australian government.

And recent estimates suggest the kangaroo population has rocketed in recent years to 50 or 60 million.

This has resulted in a controlled kangaroo cull by the government to prevent devegetation.

Where not to visit if you love animals Show all 9 1 /9 Where not to visit if you love animals Where not to visit if you love animals Monkey shows Chimpanzees are forced to perform demeaning tricks on leashes and are often subject to cruel training techniques. Animals who are confined to small, barren enclosures and forced to perform unsurprisingly show symptoms of stress and depression. Chimpanzees have been documented rocking back and forth, sucking their lips, salivating and swaying against enclosure perimeters in distress. Getty Where not to visit if you love animals Marine parks Some parks confine orcas to concrete tanks and force them to perform meaningless tricks for food - many die in captivity. Orcas are highly intelligent and social mammals who may suffer immensely, both physically and mentally, when they're held in captivity. Getty Where not to visit if you love animals Tiger shows Tigers are forced to live in an unnatural and barren environment and have to endure interactions with a constant stream of tourists. Since tigers never lose their wild instincts, across the world they are reportedly drugged, mutilated and restrained in order to make them safe for the public. However, every year, incidents of tiger maulings are reported at this type of tourist attraction. Getty Where not to visit if you love animals Donkey rides Sunning on the beach is great for humans  we can take a quick dip or catch a bite to eat when we get too hot or hungry. But it's pure hell for donkeys who are confined to the beach and forced to cart children around on the hot sand. Some donkey-ride operators at beach resorts in the UK even keep the animals chained together at all times. Getty Where not to visit if you love animals Swimming with dolphins Some marine parks use bottlenose dolphins in performances and offer visitors the opportunity to swim with dolphins. Unfortunately, people are often unaware that these animals are captured in the wild and torn from their families or traded between different parks around the world. Getty Where not to visit if you love animals Canned hunting Lions are confined to fenced areas so that they can easily be cornered, with no chance of escape. Most of them will have been bred in captivity and then taken from their mothers to be hand-reared by the cub-petting industry. When they get too big, they may be drugged before they are released into a "hunting" enclosure. Because these animals are usually kept in fenced enclosures (ranging in size from just a few square yards to thousands of acres), they never stand a chance of surviving. Getty Where not to visit if you love animals Running of the Bulls Every year, tourists travel to Pamplona for the Running of the Bulls. The bulls who are forced to slip and slide down the town's narrow cobblestone streets are chased straight into the bullring. They are then taunted, stabbed repeatedly and finally killed by the matador in front of a jeering crowd. The majority of Spaniards reject bullfighting, but tourists are keeping the cruel industry on its last legs. Getty Where not to visit if you love animals Horse-drawn carriages City streets are no place for horses. The animals toil in all weather extremes, suffering from respiratory distress from breathing in exhaust fumes as well as numerous hoof, leg and back problems from walking on pavement all day long. As easily spooked prey animals, horses subjected to the loud noises and unexpected sounds of city streets are likely to be involved in accidents, even deadly ones. Getty Where not to visit if you love animals Zoos The zoo community regards the animals it keeps as commodities, and animals are regularly bought, sold, borrowed and traded without any regard for established relationships. Zoos breed animals because the presence of babies draws visitors and boosts revenue, yet often, there's nowhere to put the offspring as they grow, and they are killed, as we saw with Marius the giraffe in Denmark. Some zoos have introduced evening events with loud music and alcohol which disrupt the incarcerated animals even further. EPA

Around 150 million people are said to use Snapchat every day, according to Bloomberg.

The four-year-old messaging app is popular with young people but has been used to publish a number of distressing videos.

West Yorkshire Police are currently looking into a video posted on Snapchat last week appearing to show a 15-year-old being beaten up by bullies, reported the Mirror.
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Child refugees are being sexually abused and extorted in Italy as the proportion of unaccompanied minors arriving on Europes shores reaches record highs.

Charities have long warned of smugglers abusing children, frequently forcing girls into prostitution to repay their debts, but teenage asylum seekers in Sicily say they have been targeted by local men.

Ermias Haile, a 16-year-old from Eritrea, has been sleeping on a building site with his friends since they arrived on the island after making the treacherous voyage from Libya.

Like many others, they left an official reception centre for young refugees in the belief they would be forced to remain in Italy after applying from asylum, leaving them alone and unprotected.

 More than 10,000 child refugees disappear in Europe

Ermias and friends told Sky News an Italian man had sexually abused them after buying them drinks and offering them shelter.

He find us in a place like this [park] and he invite us to a bar and he let us drink beer and then he take us to his home and there he give us beer, he said.

We start drinking and then he start touching us on our body. After we leave the house, he calls us and he gives us money.

Almost 102,000 asylum seekers have arrived by sea in Italy so far this year  15 per cent of them unaccompanied minors.

Most, such as Ermias, are picked up by rescue boats in the Mediterranean and taken to Sicily, where they are sent to local reception centres.

But many leave the comparative safety of the accommodation, travelling to other European cities and often ending up homeless or trapped at borders such as in The Jungle camp in Calais, where several rapes have been reported.

Refugee crisis - in pictures Show all 27 1 /27 Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugee crisis - in pictures A child looks through the fence at the Moria detention camp for migrants and refugees at the island of Lesbos on May 24, 2016. AFP/Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Ahmad Zarour, 32, from Syria, reacts after his rescue by MOAS (Migrant Offshore Aid Station) while attempting to reach the Greek island of Agathonisi, Dodecanese, southeastern Agean Sea Refugee crisis - in pictures Syrian migrants holding life vests gather onto a pebble beach in the Yesil liman district of Canakkale, northwestern Turkey, after being stopped by Turkish police in their attempt to reach the Greek island of Lesbos on 29 January 2016. Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees flash the 'V for victory' sign during a demonstration as they block the Greek-Macedonian border Refugee crisis - in pictures Migrants have been braving sub zero temperatures as they cross the border from Macedonia into Serbia. Refugee crisis - in pictures A sinking boat is seen behind a Turkish gendarme off the coast of Canakkale's Bademli district on January 30, 2016. At least 33 migrants drowned on January 30 when their boat sank in the Aegean Sea while trying to cross from Turkey to Greece. Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A general view of a shelter for migrants inside a hangar of the former Tempelhof airport in Berlin, Germany Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees protest behind a fence against restrictions limiting passage at the Greek-Macedonian border, near Gevgelija. Since last week, Macedonia has restricted passage to northern Europe to only Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans who are considered war refugees. All other nationalities are deemed economic migrants and told to turn back. Macedonia has finished building a fence on its frontier with Greece becoming the latest country in Europe to build a border barrier aimed at checking the flow of refugees Refugee crisis - in pictures A father and his child wait after being caught by Turkish gendarme on 27 January 2016 at Canakkale's Kucukkuyu district Refugee crisis - in pictures Migrants make hand signals as they arrive into the southern Spanish port of Malaga on 27 January, 2016 after an inflatable boat carrying 55 Africans, seven of them women and six chidren, was rescued by the Spanish coast guard off the Spanish coast. Refugee crisis - in pictures A refugee holds two children as dozens arrive on an overcrowded boat on the Greek island of Lesbos Refugee crisis - in pictures A child, covered by emergency blankets, reacts as she arrives, with other refugees and migrants, on the Greek island of Lesbos, At least five migrants including three children, died after four boats sank between Turkey and Greece, as rescue workers searched the sea for dozens more, the Greek coastguard said Refugee crisis - in pictures Migrants wait under outside the Moria registration camp on the Lesbos. Over 400,000 people have landed on Greek islands from neighbouring Turkey since the beginning of the year Refugee crisis - in pictures The bodies of Christian refugees are buried separately from Muslim refugees at the Agios Panteleimonas cemetery in Mytilene, Lesbos Refugee crisis - in pictures Macedonian police officers control a crowd of refugees as they prepare to enter a camp after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A refugee tries to force the entry to a camp as Macedonian police officers control a crowd after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees are seen aboard a Turkish fishing boat as they arrive on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing a part of the Aegean Sea from the Turkish coast to Lesbos Reuters Refugee crisis - in pictures An elderly woman sings a lullaby to baby on a beach after arriving with other refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A man collapses as refugees make land from an overloaded rubber dinghy after crossing the Aegean see from Turkey, at the island of Lesbos EPA Refugee crisis - in pictures A girl reacts as refugees arrive by boat on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees make a show of hands as they queue after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures People help a wheelchair user board a train with others, heading towards Serbia, at the transit camp for refugees near the southern Macedonian town of Gevgelija AP Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees board a train, after crossing the Greek-Macedonian border, near Gevgelija. Macedonia is a key transit country in the Balkans migration route into the EU, with thousands of asylum seekers - many of them from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia - entering the country every day Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures An aerial picture shows the "New Jungle" refugee camp where some 3,500 people live while they attempt to enter Britain, near the port of Calais, northern France Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A Syrian girl reacts as she helped by a volunteer upon her arrival from Turkey on the Greek island of Lesbos, after having crossed the Aegean Sea EPA Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees arrive by boat on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Beds ready for use for migrants and refugees are prepared at a processing center on January 27, 2016 in Passau, Germany. The flow of migrants arriving in Passau has dropped to between 500 and 1,000 per day, down significantly from last November, when in the same region up to 6,000 migrants were arriving daily.

Save the Children said the number of unaccompanied children has doubled in the past year, seeing vulnerable boys and girls thrown into cycles of abuse.

Traffickers saddle girls and young women with up to 50,000 (43,000) in debt for the cost of their journeys across the Mediterranean before forcing them into prostitution and hard labour to pay it off.

Boys are forced into similar schemes, subjected to child labour and criminal activity including theft and drug dealing by gangs.

Children are also at risk at overcrowded detention camps on Greek islands, where all migrants are now held until their asylum applications are decided as part of a deal between the EU and Turkish government.

Aid agencies say families are living in fear after fleeing violence and persecution in their home countries, with many afraid to let their children out of their sight amid rising tensions, protests and fights.

Tanya Steele, Save the Childrens interim CEO, said: Its shocking that in this day and age so many vulnerable children are being subjected to this kind of violence, manipulation and exploitation.

They make the dangerous journey to Europe on their own seeking safety and a better life, but instead find themselves trapped in a cycle of abuse.

Former Prime Minister David Cameron responded to growing calls to house unaccompanied minors by pledging to resettle some of the most vulnerable refugee children in May, but none are believed to have arrived.

The Home Affairs Select Committee has warned that the UK is on course to fall short of its pledge to house 20,000 Syrian refugees by 2020, highlighting a huge backlog of asylum cases and decisions where refugees had been wrongly returned to violence and persecution.

The British Government previously restricted its scheme to asylum seekers in UN camps in the Middle East and North Africa, arguing that it did not want to encourage them to make the lethal sea voyage to Europe.
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A suspected suicide attack has killed and injured scores of people at an outdoor wedding party in Turkeys volatile south east.

The explosion, which took place in the town of Gaziantep, near the border with Syria, is being blamed on either Isis or Kurdish militants. However, on Saturday night, there were unconfirmed reports the wedding was between Kurdish and Alevi families.

Officials told Associated Press at least 22 people died and 94 were injured.

Photos taken after the explosion showed several bodies covered with white sheets. Police sealed off the area and forensic teams moved into the site.

Hundreds of residents gathered near the scene of the explosion chanting "Allah is great" as well as slogans denouncing terrorist attacks.

Gaziantep Governor Ali Yerlikaya told state-run Anadolu news agency the explosion was caused by a terror attack. Mehmet Erdogan, a ruling party legislator from Gaziantep, said authorities believe it was most probably a suicide bombing.

Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek, interviewed on NTV television, said: "This was a barbaric attack. It appears to be a suicide attack. All terror groups, the PKK, Daesh [Isis], the (Gulen movement) are targeting Turkey. But God willing, we will overcome."

A man cries over a covered body after the explosion in Gaziantep (IHA via AP)

On Twitter, an MP for the ruling AK Party, Samil Tayyar, appeared to blame Isis for the bombing. He added: Do not succumb to terrorism. God bless our country.

Mehmet Tascioglu, a local journalist, told NTV television the huge explosion could be heard from many parts of the city.

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

Online, observers reported social media platforms Twitter, Facebook and YouTube were blocked, as is common after suspected attacks in Turkey. A gag also was also imposed on Turkish media, according to reports.

The country has suffered numerous terrorist attacks in recent months. In June, suspected IS militants attacked Istanbul's main airport with guns and bombs, killing 44 people.

Stability in the country was damaged even further after an attempted coup in July.
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The brother of a Syrian boy whose photograph has come to symbolise the suffering of civilians in war-torn Aleppo has reportedly died of his injuries.

Ali Daqneesh, 10, was injured alongside his little brother Omran and the rest of their family when an air strike reduced their apartment building to rubble on Wednesday night.

He was taken to hospital with his parents and siblings but died of his injuries on Saturday, activists in Aleppo said, adding that mourners were gathering at the family's temporary home.

The UK-based Syria Solidarity Campaign also reported the death, calling the strike a war crime.

 The video which shows the suffering of the children of Aleppo

A local opposition group posted a photo of Ali online, appearing to show him in a hospital bed with facial injuries, unconscious and breathing through a tube.

He and the rest of the Daqneesh family initially survived the bombing after being pulled out of the rubble by volunteer rescue workers and transported to hospital.

Abu Ali, the childrens father, said Ali  his oldest son  was outside in the street playing with friends when the blast struck.

He described how he was sitting on the sofa next to Omran at the time, with his wife, another son and two daughters elsewhere in the first-floor flat.

It is very painful to watch your children falling in front of your eyes, the father said in an interview with The Telegraph.

Images of Omran sitting dazed and silent in an ambulance, covered in dust and blood, spread around the world and has intensified calls for an immediate ceasefire.

Five-year-old Omran Daqneesh, with bloodied face, sits with his sister inside an ambulance after they were rescued following an airstrike in the rebel-held al-Qaterji neighbourhood of Aleppo (Reuters)

His parents and siblings were also transferred to hospital for treatment and their condition could not immediately be confirmed.

Russia has denied responsibility for Wednesdays air strikes in the Qaterji district, which killed at least eight people, including five children.

Aleppo, which is split between regime and rebel control, has been at the epicentre of continued battles and bombing despite successive attempts at ceasefires.

More air strikes were reported on Saturday, with pro-rebel activists saying one bombing killed seven members of the same family  including six children  early in the morning.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group based in the UK, said more than 300 civilians have been killed in three weeks of bombing and fighting in Aleppo.

Around half were reportedly killed by Syrian and Russian air strikes and shelling on opposition-controlled districts, while rebel attacks killed more than 160 civilians on the regime side of the city.

Syrian children hold Pokemon Go pictures in the hope people will find them and save them Show all 13 1 /13 Syrian children hold Pokemon Go pictures in the hope people will find them and save them Syrian children hold Pokemon Go pictures in the hope people will find them and save them RFS Media Office Syrian children hold Pokemon Go pictures in the hope people will find them and save them RFS Media Office Syrian children hold Pokemon Go pictures in the hope people will find them and save them RFS Media Office Syrian children hold Pokemon Go pictures in the hope people will find them and save them RFS Media Office Syrian children hold Pokemon Go pictures in the hope people will find them and save them RFS Media Office Syrian children hold Pokemon Go pictures in the hope people will find them and save them RFS Media Office Syrian children hold Pokemon Go pictures in the hope people will find them and save them RFS Media Office Syrian children hold Pokemon Go pictures in the hope people will find them and save them RFS Media Office Syrian children hold Pokemon Go pictures in the hope people will find them and save them RFS Media Office Syrian children hold Pokemon Go pictures in the hope people will find them and save them RFS Media Office Syrian children hold Pokemon Go pictures in the hope people will find them and save them RFS Media Office Syrian children hold Pokemon Go pictures in the hope people will find them and save them RFS Media Office Syrian children hold Pokemon Go pictures in the hope people will find them and save them RFS Media Office

Approximately 250,000 people live in the city's eastern districts, while another 1.2 million live in its western neighbourhoods.

Aid convoys have not been able to access the city for months, with fighting continuing as a coalition of Islamist militants including the former al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra fight to open up a corridor out of besieged areas.

Russia, which has been conducting air strikes in support of the Syrian regime since September, said it was willing to support weekly 48-hour ceasefires to allow aid to reach besieged areas.

But battles continued on Saturday as forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad attempted to reinforce their positions.

Elsewhere in Syria, fighting between the regime army and Kurdish forces intensified around the north-eastern city of Hasakah.

The situation risks bringing the US and Syrian government into direct conflict for the first time after American jets were scrambled to prevent the bombing of special forces and allies on the ground.

Kurdish groups, who took control of the area after the army withdrew in 2012, have not been a focus of Assads forces so far in the conflict, with them focusing mainly on Sunni Arab rebels in the West.

The Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG) have now become a key ally for the US-led coalition in the battle against Isis, and were reportedly involved in preliminary peace talks with the Syrian regime on Saturday.
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The father of an Aleppo boy, whose image has become an emblem of the brutal civil war in Syria, has spoken of the horror of watching your children falling in front of your eyes.

The image of the dazed and injured young boy, Omran Daqneesh, sitting in the back of an ambulance after an air strike sparked public outrage from people around the world.

Attempts at a ceasefire have failed in Aleppo and there has been a surge in fighting around the city, which is divided between rebel groups and government forces.

Despite the widespread publicity about his son, Omrans father wanted to be known by his nickname, Abu Ali, fearing retribution because his family had accidentally became a symbol of the brutality of the Syrian government regime.

Abu Ali said he was sitting next to Omran on his living room sofa before the missiles hit their home, with another son and two daughters also in the first floor flat. Abu Alis other son was just outside with his friends.

Recalling the moment the blast ripped the sofa in two, he told The Telegraph: It is very painful to watch your children falling in front of your eyes."

Abu Ali said he had to dig himself free from the rubble before he found Omran, the first of his children that he was able to find in the wreckage.

After he found Omran's brother, he handed the boys to rescuers who had arrived at the house  telling the children to look after each other  so he could continue to search for his remaining two children.

Omran and his family all survived, although they sustained injuries in the blast.

Omran and his family were in their first floor flat at the time of the blast (Reuters)

Eastern Aleppo has been targeted by air strikes for years after it opposition groups took control of the area at the start of the war.

Russia has denied responsibility for the air strikes, which took place on in the Qaterji district. Five children and three adults were killed in the attacks.

Monitors have accused Russian forces of killing thousands of civilians over the course of almost a year while supporting Syrian President Bashar Assads regime.

Syrian children hold Pokemon Go pictures in the hope people will find them and save them Show all 13 1 /13 Syrian children hold Pokemon Go pictures in the hope people will find them and save them Syrian children hold Pokemon Go pictures in the hope people will find them and save them RFS Media Office Syrian children hold Pokemon Go pictures in the hope people will find them and save them RFS Media Office Syrian children hold Pokemon Go pictures in the hope people will find them and save them RFS Media Office Syrian children hold Pokemon Go pictures in the hope people will find them and save them RFS Media Office Syrian children hold Pokemon Go pictures in the hope people will find them and save them RFS Media Office Syrian children hold Pokemon Go pictures in the hope people will find them and save them RFS Media Office Syrian children hold Pokemon Go pictures in the hope people will find them and save them RFS Media Office Syrian children hold Pokemon Go pictures in the hope people will find them and save them RFS Media Office Syrian children hold Pokemon Go pictures in the hope people will find them and save them RFS Media Office Syrian children hold Pokemon Go pictures in the hope people will find them and save them RFS Media Office Syrian children hold Pokemon Go pictures in the hope people will find them and save them RFS Media Office Syrian children hold Pokemon Go pictures in the hope people will find them and save them RFS Media Office Syrian children hold Pokemon Go pictures in the hope people will find them and save them RFS Media Office

Suffering in besieged areas has been intensified by a shortage of basic supplies. Russia said on Thursday it supported a weekly two-day pause in fighting to allow vital aid to get through.

Turkeys Prime Minister Binali Yildrim said on Saturday his country would play a more active role in the conflict of Syria over the next six months.

Mr Yildrim added Mr Assad could play a role in the interim leadership of Syria as part of any peace deal, but could not be part of its longer term future.
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The US has withdrawn dozens of advisors assisting with Saudi-led air strikes in Yemen.

Fewer than five US military officers remain part of the Joint Combined Planning Cell, from a team of 45 formed last year to assist with Saudi Arabias campaign.

US sources have denied the move is because of increasing criticism from human rights groups over the number of civilian casualties the Saudi coalition has caused.

Instead, a military spokesperson said the reduced staffing was because the Saudis had not asked for help with their operations.

"There was not the same sort of requests coming in for assistance," Fifth Fleet spokesman Lieutenant Ian McConnaughey told AFP from Bahrain.

Pentagon spokesperson Adam Stump said in a statement: "The cooperation that we've extended to Saudi Arabia since the conflict escalated again is modest and it is not a blank check,"

Anonymous official US sources told Reuters the withdrawl of advisors was not because of repeated criticism of the civilian death toll in Yemen.

Yet Mr Stump was critical of the regime. "Even as we assist the Saudis regarding their territorial integrity, it does not mean that we will refrain from expressing our concern about the war in Yemen and how it has been waged," he said.

"In our discussions with the Saudi-led coalition, we have pressed the need to minimize civilian casualties."

Since the escalation of the conflict nearly two years ago, more than 6,500 civilians have been killed and a further 32,000 injured, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council.

Three million Yemenis have fled their homes, while eighty per cent of the country (21 million people) are now in need of humanitarian aid.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

The move away from the Yemen conflict by the US comes as the charity Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) withdraws from the north of the country.

The charity said their hospitals have been repeatedly detroyed by Saudi-led air strikes, even after they shared the satellite coodinates of their hospitals with parties involved in the conflict.

MSF announced they were leaving the area after a strike hit one of its buildings, killing 19 people.

"Coalition officials repeatedly state that they honour international humanitarian law, yet this attack shows a failure to control the use of force and to avoid attacks on hospitals full of patients," the French charity said in a statement.

"MSF is neither satisfied nor reassured by the SLC's [Saudi-led coalition] statement that this attack was a mistake.

"The decision to evacuate the staff from a project is never taken lightly but in the absence of credible assurances that parties will respect the protected status of medical facilities there may be no other option," they added.
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American fighter jets have been scrambled to stop Bashar al-Assad's air force bombing US special forces and anti-Isis allies on the ground as the Syrian conflict intensifies.

Defence officials said the Syrian planes were leaving as the coalition aircraft arrived, meaning they did not engage in combat, but that the US would not hesitate to defend its forces.

Captain Jeff Davis said the American jets were sent to the north-eastern city of Hasakah on Thursday after two Syrian air force SU-24s started air strikes near where coalition forces were conducting operations on the ground.

Kurdish civilians board a truck as they flee bombing in Hasakah, Syria, on 18 August (AFP/Getty Images)

It troubles us when we see regime airstrikes in Hasakah in an area where it's well known by everybody, to include the [Assad] regime, that the coalition is actively engaged in operations against Isis, the Department of Defence spokesperson said.

 The video which shows the suffering of the children of Aleppo

We view instances that place coalition personnel at risk with the utmost seriousness and we do have the inherent right of self-defence when US forces are at risk.

Elite troops are training and supporting the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG) in the area, where rebel territory provides an eastern base for an expected advance on Isis de-facto capital of Raqqa.

But as the Syrian civil war continues, regime forces have turned their fire on Kurdish areas of Hasakah for the past two days, causing thousands of civilians to flee a series of air raids.

Capt Davis said Thursdays incident was the first time American planes had been scrambled in response to Syrian bombing, and the first known wide-ranging attack against the YPG by the regime.

Coalition military personnel attempted to contact the pilots over the guard frequency to prevent the confrontation but received no response, and moved in after being assured by Russian officials that their jets were not responsible for the bombing.

As allies of Assad, the Russians were asked to tell the Syrian government that US aircraft would move in if their troops were threatened, Capt Davies said.

In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Show all 19 1 /19 In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Syrian boys cry following Russian air strikes on the rebel-held Fardous neighbourhood of the northern embattled Syrian city of Aleppo Getty In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Russian defense ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov speaks to the media in Moscow, Russia. Konashenkov strongly warned the United States against striking Syrian government forces and issued a thinly-veiled threat to use Russian air defense assets to protect them AP In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Syrians wait to receive treatment at a hospital following Russian air strikes on the rebel-held Fardous neighbourhood of the northern embattled Syrian city of Alepp Getty In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov speaks at a briefing in the Defense Ministry in Moscow, Russia. Antonov said the Russian air strikes in Syria have killed about 35,000 militants, including about 2,700 residents of Russia AP In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Jameel Mustafa Habboush, receives oxygen from civil defence volunteers, known as the white helmets, as they rescue him from under the rubble of a building following Russian air strikes on the rebel-held Fardous neighbourhood of the northern embattled Syrian city of Aleppo Getty In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Civil defence members rest amidst rubble in a site hit by what activists said were airstrikes carried out by the Russian air force in the town of Douma, eastern Ghouta in Damascus, Syria Reuters In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria A girl carrying a baby inspects damage in a site hit by what activists said were airstrikes carried out by the Russian air force in the town of Douma, eastern Ghouta in Damascus, Syria Reuters In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Civilians and civil defence members look for survivors at a site damaged after Russian air strikes on the Syrian rebel-held city of Idlib, Syria Reuters In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Civilians and civil defence members carry an injured woman on a stretcher at a site damaged after Russian air strikes on the Syrian rebel-held city of Idlib, Syria Reuters In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Volunteers from Syria Civil Defence, also known as the White Helmets, help civilians after Russia carried out its first airstrikes in Syria In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria The aftermath of Russian airstrike in Talbiseh, Syria In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Smoke billows from buildings in Talbiseh, in Homs province, western Syria, after airstrikes by Russian warplanes AP In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Russian Air Forces carry out an air strike in the ISIS controlled Al-Raqqah Governorate. Russia's KAB-500s bombs completely destroy the Liwa al-Haqq command unit In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Caspian Flotilla of the Russian Navy firing Kalibr cruise missiles against remote Isis targets in Syria A TASS/ITAR-TASS Photo/Corbis In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Russia claimed it hit eight Isis targets, including a "terrorist HQ and co-ordination centre" that was completely destroyed In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria A video grab taken from the footage made available on the Russian Defence Ministry's official website, purporting to show an airstrike in Syria In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria A release from the Russian defence ministry purportedly showing targets in Syria being hit In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Russia launched air strikes in war-torn Syria, its first military engagement outside the former Soviet Union since the occupation of Afghanistan in 1979. Russian warplanes carried out strikes in three Syrian provinces along with regime aircraft as Putin seeks to steal US President Barack Obama's thunder by pushing a rival plan to defeat Isis militants in Syria In pictures: Russian air strikes in Syria Caspian Flotilla of the Russian Navy firing Kalibr cruise missiles against remote Isis targets in Syria, a thousand kilometres away. The targets include ammunition factories, ammunition and fuel depots, command centres, and training camps A TASS/ITAR-TASS Photo/Corbis

The US and Russia have established a special communications channel to avoid mid-air conflict as they continue to back opposing sides of the civil war, but no such contact exists with the Syrian government.

Capt Davis said no US personnel were injured and that airspace would be closely monitored by extra patrols to ensure their safety, adding: As we've said in the past, the Syrian regime would be well-advised not to interfere with coalition forces or our partners.

The situation threatens to bring the international coalition into direct conflict with Assads forces for the first time since US planes started an anti-Isis bombing campaign in September 2015.

Faysal Itani, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council think tank, said it was easy for the Syrian government to avoid bombing large bases but far more risky to strike areas close to YPG forces being trained by the coalition.

If the regime continues bombing in close proximity to US forces, then simply I think the United States will shoot down the regime aircraft, he added.

Britain, France and several other nations are also conducting air strikes, which are predominantly targeting the so-called Islamic State and supporting selected rebels fighting the group.

Russia and the Assad regime also say they are targeting Isis but class all opposition groups as terrorists and legitimate targets for their bombing raids.

Russian planes have previously bombed rebel groups supported by the US and UK, seen her in al-Tanf (Syrian Observatory for Human Rights)

In June, Russian planes hit a coalition-backed rebel groups base with cluster munitions after allegedly ignoring attempts to warn them off.

Several members of the New Syrian Army (NSA) were killed in the attack on al-Tanf, where Russian officials allegedly did not respond to entreaties over the official communications channel.

The Kremlins jets reportedly retreated after the arrival of American planes, but returned after they left to carry out two devastating strikes during a supposed cessation of hostilities.

British special forces units were photographed near al-Tanf in June, as NSA fighters continued efforts to push Isis back from a strategic base and the borders with Iraq and Jordan.

Battles raged in Hasakah on Saturday, where residents said government air strikes had killed and injured dozens of civilians, cut off the electricity supply and caused food shortages.

The city and surrounding areas came under the control of militias led by the YPG in 2012 after regime forces withdrew from the predominantly Kurdish region to focus on fighting rebels elsewhere in Syria.

In a statement carried by Syrian state media, the general command of the armed forces accused Kurdish forces of attacking state establishments, stealing oil and cotton, disrupting examinations, carrying out abductions, and causing a state of chaos and instability.
Just last week, however, China refused to allow six Vietnamese fishing boats to anchor near a reef in the archipelago.

Chinese authorities have sent a helicopter to pick up an injured Vietnamese fisherman from a fishing boat operating in the Paracel Islands for medical treatment on their Hainan Island, Vietnams Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Friday, quoting information from the countrys National Committee for Search and Rescue and Vietnams Embassy in Beijing.

On August 16, fisherman Pham Van Thang, 28, was seriously wounded by the boats screw while fishing in the waters in the South China Sea (which Vietnam calls the East Sea). The captain of the boat sent an urgent request to Vietnamese authorities to rescue Thang.

The Vietnam Maritime Search and Rescue Coordination Center (MRCC) contacted China Search and Rescue Center for help. The Vietnamese center also told the fishing boat to move toward the closest location, the Woody Island in the Paracel Archipelago, which is under Chinese control.

As the injured fisherman lost a lot of blood and became weaker, the Chinese center sent a helicopter in the afternoon of August 17 to pick up Thang, following MRCCs request.

Earlier this month, China had refused to allow six Vietnamese fishing boats to anchor near a reef in the Paracels while they were trying to find shelter from extreme weather.

The six fishing boats from Vietnams central province of Quang Nam with 259 crew on board had encountered rough seas and big waves on the morning of August 12 in waters 40 nautical miles from the Paracels, and had asked to take refuge in Bombay Reef, which is under Chinese control.

Vietnams Ministry of Foreign Affairs contacted the Chinese side to ask for the boats to anchor in Bombay Reef but the Chinese authorities turned down the request, claiming that Bombay Reef was an unsuitable place for the boats to anchor.

In 1974, taking advantage of the withdrawal of the American troops from the Vietnam War, China invaded the Paracel Islands. A brief but bloody naval battle with the forces of the then U.S.-backed Republic of Vietnam ensued.

Vietnam's behemoth northern neighbor has illegally occupied the islands ever since. But a post-1975 united Vietnam has never relinquished its ownership of the Paracel Islands.

Related news:

> China denies Vietnamese fishing boats shelter on Paracel Islands
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Q Whats your recommendation for a week away over New Year, for some sun and a nice hotel?

Tim Rycraft

A The thing about New Year is that lots of people have already booked for the usual suspects. Im seeing a minimum of 1,500 for a week with British Airways Holidays to Barbados with a bottom-of-the-range, room-only hotel, departing on 29 December for a week.

Instead I strongly recommend Egypt  where I spent two New Years in a row, because of the winning combination of fascinating heritage, friendly people and guaranteed sun. Egypts Red Sea resorts offer less bling and more authenticity than Dubai, with shorter flights. And youll be doing the Egyptians, as well as yourself, a favour.

Sharm el-Sheikh is still off the airline map, so I suggest Hurghada. The place to stay is the Old Palace. It's not old, nor a palace, but it's fun, with an all-inclusive holiday from Thomas Cook departing Manchester on 30 December for 1,010 per person.

Every day, our travel correspondent, Simon Calder, tackles a readers question. Just email yours to s@hols.tv or tweet @simoncalder
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This list began when Daniel Hannan, commenting on the failed coup in Turkey, said coups are never  never  an answer. Tom Doran disagreed, and nominated no 4. Here are my favourites, in chronological order.

1. Childeric III, deposed as king of the Franks in 751 by Pope Zachary at the behest of Pepin the Short, father of Charlemagne. Surely the only coup on your list to involve a haircut, says Stian Westlake. Childeric had his hair cut off (painting by Evariste-Vital Luminais, above) as a symbol of his loss of power.

2. General Monck, 1660. Cautious, guarded and militarily competent, the former royalist who was appointed governor of Scotland by Oliver Cromwell finally took London and restored Charles II. Nominated by Peter Welby and Zagros. 

3. Glorious Revolution, 1688. But was that a coup, a revolution, or an invasion? asks Colin Rosenthal. All three, I say, which means we also have to accept nos 5 and 7. Also nominated by Dan Jackson and John Duffield.

4. Carnation Revolution, Portugal, 1974. Dictatorship of Marcello Caetano overthrown by dissident military units, without violence and with support from the people, who put carnations in the barrels of their guns. Thanks to Tom Doran.

5. Idi Amin, Ugandan dictator overthrown by Tanzanian invasion in 1979 after a failed mutiny by his own troops.

6. Paraguay, 1989. Andres Rodriguez overthrew his former patron Alfredo Stroessner, who had been dictator since 1954, and ushered in a period of relative liberal democracy, as David Mills points out.

7. Panama, 1989. US invasion deposed Manuel Noriega and installed Guillermo Endara, who had won an election that Noriega refused to accept. John McDonnell (not that one) says: If I cant have Gandalf replacing Saruman, Ill have the US-backed coup in Panama in 1989.

8. Romanian Revolution, 1989. Fall of Nicolae Ceausescu over Christmas when armed forces switched sides from the dictator to the people. Suggested by Steve. 

9. Re-instatement of Steve Jobs as CEO of Apple, 1997, after 12 years. Nominated by Spinning Hugo.

10. The Chicken Coup, 2016. Leadership challenge to Jeremy Corbyn launched by Angela Eagle after a vote of no confidence in the leader by Labour MPs. Corbyn, who had always advocated annual leadership elections, welcomed the democratic accountability with enthusiasm.

An honourable mention for Anna Rhodes, who nominated the Kornilov coup against the Kerensky provisional government in Moscow, 1917, and for William French and Peter Metcalfe, who nominated the Stauffenberg Plot, 20 July 1944. Failed coups dont count.

Rhys Needham asked, How about one that replaces someone utterly ghastly with someone merely ghastly? He nominated Equatorial Guinea in 1979, when Francisco Macias Nguemas nephew, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, overthrew him.

Finally, two of my correspondents suggested the one with Yeltsin on the tank. But Boris Yeltsin, who was president of the Russian republic as the Soviet Union was dissolving in 1991, was helping to foil a coup against Mikhail Gorbachev.

Next week: Words That Describe Themselves, such as awkward, curt and languid.

Coming soon: Most Obscure Titles of Politicians Memoirs, starting with Blue Remembered Years by Ian Lang and Westminster, Wales and Water by Lord Crickhowell.

Listellany: A Miscellany of Very British Top Tens, From Politics to Pop, is available as an e-book for 3.79. Your suggestions, and ideas for future Top 10s, in the comments please, or to me on Twitter, or by email to top10@independent.co.uk
More than a tonne of cocaine with a street value of 80m has been recovered from a boat off the south coast of England, the National Crime Agency (NCA) has said.

Three men have been arrested and charged following the operation, which Border Force has described as "one of the most significant drug seizures ever made in the UK".

The haul was discovered on vessel Bianca, a British registered converted fishing trawler, on Thursday, in UK waters just south of Falmouth, in Cornwall.

It was seized during a joint operation involving NCA and Border Force maritime command officers, who boarded the boat and found around 50 bags suspected of containing cocaine.

The NCA said the seizure would have a "significant disruptive impact" on the supply chain.

The owner and captain of the boat, Michael McDermott, 67, an Irish national, and his crew, Dutch national Gerald Van De Kooij, 26, and Briton David Pleasants, 57, appeared at Bodmin Magistrates' Court on Saturday charged with importing cocaine.

They have been remanded in custody until their next hearing at Bristol Crown Court on September 20.

Mike Stepney, director of national operations at Border Force, said: "This is one of the most significant drugs seizures ever made in the UK and a testament to the multi-agency approach we adopt to secure the UK's border and territorial waters.

"By working closely with the NCA and our other national and international partners we were able to intercept this vessel before it could deliver its 80 million of cargo to the UK.

"This seizure is a fantastic example of the vital role our officers play in preventing drugs from reaching the UK and keeping our communities safe."
Many farmers upset by the IFA salaries scandal have welcomed a decision by the country's biggest beef processor to end the levies system.

Larry Goodman's Anglo Beef Processors (ABP) has told the Irish Farmers' Association that levies charged on animals will no longer be collected on its behalf.

ABP says it is reacting to farmer opposition to levies, and it appears some farmers in the country agree.

Brendan McLaughlin, a suckler farmer from Manorcunningham, Co Donegal, said the perceived closeness between the factories and the IFA had left farmers voiceless.

"I never thought I'd agree with Larry Goodman on anything but this is the right move for farmers," said Brendan.

"I'd rather see membership fees treble than take money off factories," he said.

"I was in Tullamore (at the agricultural show) last week and that was the overwhelming view there.

"We should be taking on the factories so beef farmers get a fair price."

Jim Ryan set up his own farm-to-fork business in Ballinlough, Co Meath, in 2008.

"I was in a situation where I was fed up with the factories and we now run a very successful business providing beef, lamb and pork directly to the customer," he said.

"The sooner the IFA falls out with the factories, the better. We have had a situation where the IFA has been in a position where it can't bite the hand that feeds it. The biggest crime in farming in this country is that farmers own the land, we own the animals and rear them at enormous risk and we get nothing for it. All levies should be done away with in my view."

He said his 'farm-to-fork' business - which included direct supplies to restaurants - ensured he "wasn't beholden" to factories any more.

"I still hear all the time of cases where farmers aren't getting treated fairly," he said.

Farmer and cattle dealer John McDaid, from Ramelton, said grassroots IFA members no longer want to pay levies at the factory gate or at marts.

"We (IFA) have to pay our own way and I'm totally opposed to all levies," said John.

"It's time for farmers to organise themselves properly. The factories have had all the power and we have to take that power away from them.

"I'd love for us (farmers) to all stay at home for a week. We'd soon see prices change."

Raymond Golden, who is a beef farmer outside Ballymote, Co Sligo, insisted small farmers are struggling.

"The IFA is a shambles at the moment," he said.

"It's the small farmer who is suffering. Prices for beef are rising in England but going down here. The average farm income 15,000 a year so we are the last people who can afford any sort of levy and the whole lot should be scrapped. The IFA need to represent us. They could always cut salaries if they need to save money."
UK Prime Minister Theresa May is planning to invoke Article 50 and trigger negotiations on Brexit by April of next year at the latest - despite a report suggesting a possible delay.

Ms May is said to be keen to kick-start the official talks with the European Commission ahead of German and French elections, according to the Bloomberg news agency, quoting unnamed British officials.

But she won't do it before the end of this year, Downing Street reiterated.

Sterling weakened on the back of the report, touching almost 87 pence against the euro.

The 'Sunday Times' last week carried a report claiming that Britain's exit from the European Union could be delayed until at least late 2019 because the government was too "chaotic" to start the two-year process early next year.

Ms May has previously said that she would not invoke Article 50 before the end of the year, signalling that the government and the civil service needed space to develop a strategy and approach.

Bloomberg reported that a summit of European leaders in March could provide the right setting for officially invoking Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, which allows for a country to leave the European Union.

The news agency quoted sources as saying she would like to do it by April.

European Council President Donald Tusk will visit Dublin next month for Brexit-related talks with Taoiseach Enda Kenny, ahead of an informal summit of EU leaders in Bratislava in Slovakia.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Taoiseach said yesterday that no date had yet been fixed for the visit, although it is expected to be early next month.

Mr Tusk will meet with Mr Kenny, before flying to London for talks with Ms May, as part of a tour of European capitals.

The Bratislava summit is due to take place on September 16 to discuss European reform in the wake of the Brexit vote. The UK will not be represented at the summit, as it will only be for the remaining 27 member states.

The 'Sunday Times' reported that Ms May might not invoke Article 50 until the end of next year because the new departments she has set up to handle the transition won't be up and running as soon as once hoped.

The chief Brexit negotiator, David Davis, and Trade Secretary Liam Fox are still in the process of hiring staff, while Mr Fox and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson have already squabbled over the roles their departments will play.

After some initially urged the UK to leave as quickly as possible following the June referendum, European leaders, including Germany's Angela Merkel, have since accepted that Britain will need time to decide how it wants to work with the EU in future. Their patience is likely to have limits, however.

Ms Merkel and French President Francois Hollande both face elections next year and are unlikely to want an extended period of uncertainty threatening their economies as they campaign for votes.

The first round of France's presidential ballot takes place next April, and Germany will probably hold a parliamentary election in September. (Additional reporting Bloomberg)
A plan by Jones Engineering chief executive Jim Curley for a huge 10,000 sq ft home at Castleknock in Dublin that will include a hydrotherapy pool has drawn fire from neighbours.

Mr Curley plans to demolish an existing house and build a new residence that locals have claimed would be "completely incongruous" with the character of the area.

Jones Engineering is one of Ireland's biggest privately-held firms, boasting an annual turnover of 311m in 2014 and profits of 22m.

A company owned by Mr Curley plans to demolish an existing property called Knockrath. The owner of a neighbouring property claimed the planned new home would "overwhelm" existing structures on Castleknock Road, which leads into the Phoenix Park.

The new home will include a wine cellar, lift, dining areas, a 10-metre pool and sauna and an office. The local council has told the firm behind the application to submit a revised design for some elements.
A look back at the main business stories of the week.

Monday

Scandinavian airline Norwegian has paid a total of over $1m to a high-profile Washington lobby firm and a former senior civil servant with the US Department of State in its efforts to secure a US permit for its Dublin-based subsidiary, according to figures seen by the Irish Independent.

The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi is helping to bankroll the construction of five new schools being built in Ireland under a public-private partnership programme.

Tuesday

Remuneration to key management personnel at Dublin aircraft leasing firm SMBC Aviation Capital has more than doubled to $28.8m (25.5m).

The racehorse training and bloodstock firm operated by top horse trainer Aidan O'Brien enjoyed a bumper 2015, recording profits of over 625,000.

Big investment banks with their European headquarters in London will start the process of moving jobs from the UK within weeks of the government triggering Brexit, a faster timeline than their public messages of patience would imply, sources say.

Wednesday

Irish exporters may be facing more pain on the currency front as global bank HSBC predicts the euro will reach parity with sterling within 18 months, arguing further weakness is required for the UK economy.

Expand Close Glanbia Managing Director Siobhan Talbot. Photo: Bloomberg / Facebook

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The slump in sterling since June's Brexit vote doesn't make the UK any more attractive for Glanbia's potential acquisition activity, according to group managing director Siobhan Talbot.

The falling pound has bolstered interest in acquisition activity in the UK by foreign buyers.

Thursday

A global survey of 2,000 investment professionals has tipped Dublin to benefit from the UK's vote to pull out of the European Union. The study by the CFA Institute - the global association of investment professionals - finds that 62pc believe Dublin, as a financial services centre, will be a winner from the Brexit result, just behind Frankfurt.

Irish exploration firm Tullow Oil begins pumping oil from its strategically important Ghanaian TEN project.
German police officers guard a terminal at Frankfurt Airport during tighter security measures following deadly attacks by extremists in Brussels in March

France is the most visited country in the world. Yet, following the recent Islamic State-motivated attack in Nice, travel stocks dipped considerably. Was the drop a short-term fluke, or will sustained market falls become the new normal in countries targeted by terrorism?

The nature of terrorism is changing. What was once small groups planning "spectacular attacks" like 9/11 is becoming an anyone, anywhere phenomenon.

We saw examples of this trend in Nice, and before that in Paris, Brussels, Dhaka, Bangladesh, Istanbul as well as other places that once seemed unlikely targets.

Clearly, the response to terrorism can no longer be left only in the hands of police and Special Forces. As new areas are affected, we need to develop a whole-of-society approach that would involve other sectors - especially business.

Typically, stock markets rebound quickly after a terrorist attack. But their resilience is applicable to stocks in the aggregate, and to markets in the short term. Tourism, transit and other related industries may experience deeper impacts, such as Bangladesh's garment industry or Turkey's tourism sector. According to a study by the Institute for Economics and Peace, terrorist violence cost the global economy $113.5bn (100bn) in 2015.

One study, from 2006, estimated that when a militant attack targets companies, the per-firm impact results in a loss of $401m in market capitalisation for a number of years.

A 2013 study pointed to a 2.5pc reduction in stock market indices in smaller countries within 11 days of a larger trading partner suffering an attack. When assaults become commonplace, a long-term trend may result, such as the economic damage to Northern Ireland during The Troubles.

As we have seen, the indirect political fallout related to fears of a terrorist attack can lead to border closings, as in Europe. Cultural friction can have commercial repercussions too.

Consider, for example, how the United Arab Emirates issued travel warnings to citizens in the United States after an Emirati was held at gunpoint while wearing traditional dress in Ohio - and what that might mean for multinationals doing business in both countries.

Isis-inspired attacks could become commonplace in the next three to five years. According to researchers at the University of Maryland, fatalities from terrorist attacks overall are up tenfold since 2000.

In addition, since 2011, more than 36,500 foreign fighters from more than 100 countries have travelled to Syria and Iraq to fight for jihadi groups like Isis, including an estimated 6,600 from Western countries.

As we saw in Paris and Brussels, many fighters are from immigrant families; they return home to create lethal networks in previously unaffected areas.

Islamic State is also cultivating global branches outside Iraq and Syria with the aim of motivating individuals with no direct connection to the group to kill in its name.

As many studies show, attacks seldom happen out of nowhere.

Long before an individual kills, there tends to be a pathway to his or her radicalisation that could have been interrupted through opportunity, a sense of community or counselling. In many cases, the private sector is best placed to create such openings. Some companies have taken on this challenge, notably in the technology sphere. Facebook, Twitter and Google's parent company, Alphabet, made a recent investment in countering extremist narratives online. Companies that have adopted the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights to show appreciation for their local communities may follow suit.

Organisations like Islamic State abuse commercial products like social media and target employees and infrastructure in ways that can disrupt supply chains (if not worse) and hurt global commerce. So why is the private sector loathe to contribute funds toward preventing extremism? Probably because it has yet to affect their earnings systematically. But that may be changing. More attacks could create enduring security or political risks to the commercial sector and reduce profits through sustained risk premiums.

The top voices in political-risk management need to convince companies with social responsibility programmes to focus their projects on communities where violent extremist recruitment is a concern. Such an approach could create hope, provide for a sense of identity for a local population and mitigate the risks of violent extremism. The investments could drive down risk premiums and prevent shocks to industry after new attacks. Additionally, private-sector initiatives may be more effective because they would not come with the same credibility burden as those from government.

The Obama administration has stepped up efforts to prevent radicalisation and to encourage - though, not necessarily to incentivise - private investment in this cause. Recently, the administration asked "Madison Valleyood" (Madison Avenue, Silicon Valley and Hollywood) to come up with more innovative solutions, particularly from sources more palatable to impressionable youth than the US government.

However, Congress has seldom provided enough resources to address the challenge from a prevention perspective, and many of the existing public-private partnerships are either nascent or superficial.

Big businesses are not helpless bystanders. We need to ask them to provide practical aid to communities at risk of fostering a climate for violent extremists. That aid could save lives - and boost their bottom lines.

Ryan B Greer is ceo of Vasa Strategies, a social impact and political risk consultancy (Reuters)
Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena chief Fabrizio Viola and former chairman Alessandro Profumo are under investigation as part of a wider probe into alleged false accounting, sources said.

The "operations in question were carried out by the previous management of the bank and by the ex-managers", the Siena-based lender said. Monte Paschi has acted "with complete propriety" in the matter, it said. Prosecutors have been investigating how Monte Paschi's former managers allegedly misrepresented the lender's finances in the years before it sought a government bailout.
Whether you are staying in or going out, we pick the events not to miss this week.

Going out

The show

Warpaint

We unfortunately still live in an era in which four female musicians playing on stage together strikes many as enormously novel. Warpaint are also arguably unlucky in having as an early fan the late Heath Ledger - a fact mentioned in every interview they have ever given. None of which has anything do with their weird, sinuous music - as exemplified by gloriously murky hit 'Undertow'. Tuesday, National Concert Hall, Dublin

The spook-fest

Dublin Ghost Story Festival

Victorian Dublin was a hotbed for fantastical writing. We gave the world Dracula, the proto-Middle Earth of County Meath-based Lord Dunsany and the steampunk Gothic of Sheridan Le Fanu. That rich heritage is at last celebrated in a new festival, which will feature an appearance by Cork-based David Mitchell, a contemporary writer straddling the literary and the uncanny. Grand Lodge of Ireland, Molesworth Street, Dublin, Friday to Sunday

The festival

Another Love Story

This summer festival with a difference is billed as a "weekend celebration of music, art and whimsy". County Meath's picturesque Killyon Manor forms the backdrop, with woozy homegrown artists such as Saint Sister, Meltybrains? and Ships leading the lineup. Friday to Sunday

Staying in

The TV show

Ripper Street, season four

Video of the Day

The Dublin-shot Victorian procedural was set for the television morgue until Amazon Prime revived it for a fourth season. Available online for months, series four at last makes its terrestrial debut. Moustache-twirling high-jinks are in ready supply as we become reacquainted with the crime-stoppers of Whitechapel 'H' division. BBC1, Monday, 9pm

The box set

Brooklyn Nine-Nine, season three

The cult comedy has swooped under the radar in Ireland, though highly regarded in the US. Andy Samberg stars as incompetent cop Jake Peralta, part of a police division that makes 'Naked Gun' look like 'True Detective'.

The album

Lisa Hannigan, At Swim

Hannigan's previous albums were agreeable yet often fatally whimsical. She brings the darkness with a vengeance on LP number three, with spectral production from The National's Aaron Dessner.
Seahorses are used in Asia as traditional medicine and aphrodisiacs.

French customs officials said Friday they had intercepted some 2,000 dead seahorses, prized in Asia for use in traditional medicine and as aphrodisiacs.

The "dead and dehydrated" seahorses, a protected species, were found on July 28 and August 8 hidden in airmail packages sent from the west African country of Guinea destined for Vietnam, it said.

Paris customs official Olivier Gourdon told AFP that seahorses, protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), are confiscated "pretty often".

He said they are generally trafficked from African countries to Vietnam as well as China and Japan.

In addition to their use in traditional medicine and as aphrodisiacs, seahorses are sold to tourists as souvenirs, Gourdon said.

He did not put a value on the find but some 19,000 seahorses seized in February 2015, en route from Madagascar to Hong Kong, had an estimated value of 200,000 euros ($225,000).

Related news:

> Meet Sausage, the yellow-cheeked gibbon

> Alleged rhino horn smuggler busted at Vietnam airport

> Endangered moon bear rescued in Vietnam after decade in captivity
Gloria Hunniford has said she felt violated after a 'lookalike' conwoman managed to swindle 138k (120k) from her savings by posing as the star.

The Northern Ireland-born TV and radio star said she was still in shock after learning that the imposter, who is currently on the run, was able to add a fake grandson as a signatory to her Santander account in order to perpetrate the fraud.

And the 'Rip Off Britain' presenter also slammed the bank's security checks for falling far short of what customers should expect by not "double-checking the facts".

Cashier Aysha Davis (28) said the fraudster told her she had "a few bob" in her account and had come to add the teenager as a signatory because she had been ill.

They filled in paperwork to access the account, including photocopying their passports, and within days had stolen more than 120,000 from the celebrity.

Ms Hunniford (76), a 'Loose Women' panellist who regularly appears on 'This Morning' and 'The One Show', said it was very difficult to believe what had happened.

"If my husband or one of my two sons went into my bank and said they wanted to be a co-signatory I'd expect very thorough checks," she said.

"But in this case somebody was able to go to the bank with a copy of a driving licence or something.

"I didn't understand it from the off. I felt completely violated. These were my savings. You expect your money to be safe in a bank, but it is not."

The stylish, sophisticated, veteran journalist, who presents BBC One's consumer series 'Rip Off Britain' alongside Julia Somerville and Angela Rippon, said she had lost her faith in banks.

"I am left with no trust. You think anybody can walk into a bank pretending to be someone else and get it all signed over," she said.

"Banks are going to have to step up their security with staff and systems. If someone can be scammed as easily as this, they have to up their game."

Video of the Day

The Portadown native, whose work with Rip Off Britain has given her an insight into scammers' methods, also said it was time for the financial institutions to up their game to protect clients.

"There's no way I could have foreseen this," said Gloria, who now lives in Kent.

"In this case, a bank official took them on their word and did not, in my opinion, double-check the facts.

"It was such a shock. You keep your savings where you feel they are safe. What else can you do with them?

"Banks give out advice all the time on scamming, but the one piece of advice I think they need to pick up on is that their own security checks have to be stronger."
An English TV presenter has been forced to apologise after she made a 'joke' about the Irish famine.

Alice Beer was presenting a segment on ITV's This Morning where she was showing the correct foods to store in a fridge.

This Morning host Eamonn Holmes was questioning her on the storage of potatoes when she made the gaffe live on air.

The presenter of the segment, 'The Great Fridge Debate', suggested people should store their potatoes in the fridge.

Expand Close Eamonn Holmes' reaction to the comment about the Irish Famine / Facebook

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Im from Ireland, Eamonn Holmes protested.

"You dont put potatoes in the fridge.

Beer responded: "You want to preserve the life of your potatoes.

"You Irish should know that.

There was a bit of a shortage once upon a time," she added.

A quick camera shot of Eamonn Holmes' face showed his disdain as the presenters continued the discussion.

Angry viewers took to the social media platform Twitter to complain about the quip.

One person wrote; "Nothing like a bit of casual racism & making light of a million people's deaths but its only the Irish so it doesn't matter."

Video of the Day

Another tweeted: Shortage of potatoes comment was a bit of a low blow.

Beer took to her own Twitter account to apologise, writing: "I apologise for the insensitivity of my comment which of course was never intended to offend. It was stupid.

Watch the comment from 4.55 on the video timeline:
TV presenter Gloria Hunniford had 120k drained from her account after an imposter walked into the bank and duped the cashier

The 76-year-old 'Loose Women' panelist's bank account was emptied just days after the woman arrived at a Santander branch with her 'daughter' and 'grandson'.

Personal banker Aysha Davis (28), said the woman told her she had "a few bob" in there and had come to add the teenager as a signatory because she had been ill.

She then helped them complete the paperwork, including photocopying their driving licences, at the Croydon North End branch.

Davis was accused of being part of the plot but was acquitted after less than 30 minutes of jury deliberation after saying the TV star was "not of my time".

Police are still hunting for the "lookalike" and her "daughter", while stand-in grandson Alan Dowie (18), faces jail.

He will be sentenced alongside Reyon Dillon (also 18), who laundered some of the cash from the scam. The court heard Santander has reimbursed the money stolen from Ms Hunniford's account.

Giving evidence, Davis said she had never met Dowie before he walked into the bank and had to google TV star Ms Hunniford - who presents 'Rip Off Britain' - to find out who she was. "I had to google Gloria Hunniford and even if I passed her on the street I wouldn't recognise her because she's not from my time," she said.

The prosecutor said it was ironic Ms Hunniford presented consumer complaints programme 'Rip-off Britain'.

Davis, of Streatham, south London, denied one count of conspiracy to defraud. Dowie, of Oxted, Surrey, has already pleaded guilty to the same charge. Dillon, of Croydon, pleaded guilty to money laundering. Ms Hunniford said she had lost all trust in the ability of banks to look after her money. ( Daily Telegraph, London)

Video of the Day

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Last May Debenhams Retail (Ireland) Ltd sought examinership because of consistent losses sustained since the recession in 2007, high rents, and after the withdrawal of support of its UK parent company, Debenhams Retail plc. Photo: Dave Thompson/PA Wire

A survival plan allowing department store chain Debenhams to exit examinership has been approved by the High Court.

Under the terms of the plan Debenhams Retail (Ireland) Ltd's 11 stores are to remain open and the vast majority of the company's 1,400 directly employed staff, some 500 concession staff and 300 cosmetic staff are to be retained.

There will be some 98 voluntary redundancies, but no compulsory ones. The company operates four stores in Dublin, two in Cork, and others in Galway, Limerick, Newbridge, Tralee and Waterford.

The scheme, put together by the retailer's examiner Kieran Wallace of KPMG and agreed by the majority of Debenhams' creditors, was formally approved by Ms Justice Caroline Costello at the High Court.

Last May Debenhams Retail (Ireland) Ltd sought examinership because of consistent losses sustained since the recession in 2007, high rents, and after the withdrawal of support of its UK parent company, Debenhams Retail plc. The company said it owed its parent 46m, which it said was unsustainable.

The company will exit the examinership process on August 25.

The only objection to the scheme in Court was brought on behalf of a woman who had brought a personal injuries claim against Debenhams. Under the terms of the scheme she would get 5pc of any payment due.

Seeking the approval of the scheme, Neil Steen Bl for Mr Wallace said it had been approved by the vast majority of creditors and classes of creditors.

Counsel said that the company had secured significant cost savings that would allow it to continue to trade. The examiner reached arrangement concerning rent agreement Debenhams had with landlords of seven of its stores.

The parent company Debenhams Retail Plc had also agreed to invest in the company by way of a loan. Also, historic debts owed by the company had been written off.

Proposals put to unions Mandate and Siptu had been accepted.and 83pc of the workforce had voted in favour of cost saving proposals.
Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald said police forces cannot prevent every horrific gang murder when unscrupulous criminals are determined to kill.

However, Ms Fitzgerald vowed to take down the gangs behind the tragic murder of innocent father of three Trevor O'Neill in Majorca  the latest victim in the bloody feud between the Hutch and Kinahan crime cartels.

The minister said her entire sympathy is with Mr ONeills family including his wife and children who watched as he was shot dead in broad daylight in a case of mistaken identity.

Clearly this is an appalling and tragic killing. Its outrageous but be very clear we will do everything we can both here in Ireland and in cooperating with international colleagues, she told Independent.ie.

Read More

Every resource will be made available that the guards need to continue. If people are determined to be ruthless killers not every event can be prevented but everything possible within the scope of An Garda Siochana will be done, she added.

Ms Fitzgerald said she met her counterpart in Spain in recent weeks and has been assured of the full cooperation of Spanish authorities in the war against gangland violence.

It is a cycle of revenge and retaliation between unscrupulous people but we have beaten gangs before and subversives and I am confident that we will do so again, she said.
Senior Garda officer Derek Byrne is resigning from the force in a major blow to the organisation.

The Assistant Commissioner was the architect of an overhaul of the specialist units fighting organised crime.

His departure will be a major loss to the gardai, as he is one of its most experienced officers and has been involved in a lengthy series of criminal investigations over three decades.

And his decision will be particular body blow to the Garda's senior management team, as he has been an assistant commissioner for the past eight years.

It will create a gap in experience in the senior management team and will mean that more than half of the current assistant commissioners have been appointed within recent months. He will leave An Garda Siochana later in the year to take up the prestigious post of commissioner of police in the Cayman Islands.

Mr Byrne was offered the post after a six-month recruitment process and he notified Garda Commissioner Noirin O'Sullivan yesterday of his intention to resign.

Mr Byrne had previously been short-listed for the position of chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and also for executive director of Interpol.

He told the Irish Independent last night that the Policing Authority had a very important job to carry out in selecting leaders for the future and said succession planning was a key task to complete.

Mr Byrne had been examining his options for the past two years, but put any move on hold until the completion of the Anglo Irish Bank inquiry, where he had been senior investigating officer since 2009.

Separately, the outcome of the O'Higgins inquiry cleared him of any suggestion of wrongdoing and described him as an officer of the highest integrity.

Under his leadership, sweeping changes in the specialist units saw the merging of the drugs bureau and the organised crime unit, the creation of economic crime and cyber crime units and the setting up of the national protection services bureau.

Since early this year, he has also been closely involved in the investigation into the Kinahan-Hutch feud. He was also in charge of the highly successful anti-burglary initiatives Operations Thor and Fiacla.

The governor of the Cayman Islands, Helen Kilpatrick, said she looked forward to Mr Byrne's experience and expertise making a positive impact on the policing role there.
This is the moment Brazilian police uncovered several hundred Rio Olympics tickets kept in a safe in an Irish executive's room.

Kevin Mallon (36) was arrested by police in Rio de Janeiro two weeks ago after police uncovered an alleged ticket touting scam in the city.

Police claim that one part of the tickets discovered were allocated to the Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI) and the second were set aside for the Irish public.

Footage, supplied by the Brazilian Civil police fraud department, shows officers opening a safe in Mr Mallon's room at an upmarket hotel in the city.

Inside they discovered a portion of the 813 tickets seized by police. The passes had a face value of around R$1,400 (383) but were allegedly being sold for up to $8,000 (7,070) each.

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One group reportedly paid $60,000 for ten tickets.

Ricardo Barboza de Souza, head of the Civil Police Fraud Unit, explained how they uncovered the ticket stash.

Through this department it came to our attention there was going to be a reception at a hotel. It was going to be a cocktail party where tickets were going to be sold at much higher prices.

This whole cocktail reception was just a farce. They were making it look like a hospitality event but that was all just a facade.

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The discovery of the tickets led to the arrest of Pat Hickey at a hotel in the city on Wednesday morning.

Hickey is currently being held at Bangu Prison in West Rio. Mr Mallon is being held in the same complex.
Firework display to celebrate the August Revolution (August 19, 1945) and Vietnam's Independence Day (September 2) last year. Photo by VnExpress

Save the date: September 2 in Ho Chi Minh City for firework displays and other fun activities.

Ho Chi Minh City Peoples Committee has approved a firework plan to celebrate Vietnams 71st anniversary of Independence Day on September 2. People will be able to enjoy fireworks at two locations, one high-range display near the Saigon River Tunnel in District 2 and a smaller-scale performance at Dam Sen Park in District 11.

The two shows are estimated to cost around VND2 billion ($90,000), which will be covered by the private sector.

The firework celebrations will commence at 9:00 p.m. local time and will last for 15 minutes. The show will also be broadcast live on Ho Chi Minh Television.

On the day, HCMC will hold a series activities, including the Around the City bicycle race; a photo exhibition on Nguyen Hue and Dong Khoi streets; and a ceremony to commemorate former presidents Ho Chi Minh and Ton Duc Thang.

Vehicles will be prohibited from entering areas within a 1km radius of the shows.

Vietnams National Day marks the declaration of independence on September 2, 1945 by Ho Chi Minh, the founder of the Vietnamese Communist Party. It is often jointly celebrated with the August Revolution (August 19, 1945) which led to the foundation of the communist country Vietnam is today.

Related news:

> HCMC to oversee high tech-guaranteed pork with CCTV

> Saigon celebrates unification day with firework show

> HCMC considers banning private vehicles from city center
Ireland's topsy turvy weather will continue as weather warnings have been put in place this weekend

Ireland's topsy turvy weather will continue as weather warnings have been put in place this weekend.

The glorious sunny conditions of earlier in the week will be replaced by wind and the danger of flooding in areas.

The nation basked in warm Mediterranean days with lots of sunshine on Monday and Tuesday, but just a few days later we are being advised to beware of strong gales and heavy rain.

The sound of thunder in the sky in some areas may be considered an apt soundtrack for our roller-coaster weather.

Met Eireann forecasters warned that a deep Atlantic depression was bearing down on Ireland from the south-west, which was expected to track east over the country overnight and early today.

This was forecast to generate some unseasonably strong south-westerly winds, with the strongest winds affecting south-western and southern coastal counties.

Read more: Never mind the weather: The best things you'll watch on TV this weekend

Gusts as strong as 80kmh or 90kmh are possible in coastal areas as rough seas are expected with some heavy, thundery rain or showers at times.

The national forecasting service declared a yellow warning will remain in place for Wexford, Clare, Cork, Kerry and Waterford until 6pm today.

Today is expected to be wet and windy with widespread showers and strong westerly winds as the low-pressure system slowly moves north-eastwards over the country.

Westerly winds will be strong and gusty but will gradually moderate towards evening. Highest temperatures today will be between 16C and 19C.

In Dublin, it will be showery and windy with some bright spells, again with the risk of some of the showers being heavy.

Highest temperatures in the capital are expected to be around 17C or 18C degrees, with fresh and gusty westerly winds.

Tomorrow will see a dry and bright start in many areas in the morning with well-scattered light showers.

However, thickening cloud and rain will move into the south-west in the morning and gradually spread north-eastwards to affect Connacht and Leinster through the afternoon and evening.

Met Eireann said tomorrow afternoon temperatures would be between 18C and 20C and winds would be light at first, but freshening southerly later.

The sun will make a welcome return on Monday with good sunshine in many places in the afternoon.
Unions Siptu, the NBRU and TSSA have balloted in favour of industrial action in pursuit of a 15pc pay rise

Schoolchildren face the prospect of September bus strikes as unions prepare to serve notice of industrial action - but there has been a breakthrough in a long-running row at Irish Rail.

Industrial action that could disrupt services for up to 334,000 passengers a day loom at Dublin Bus as unions are unlikely to serve notice in time to take action this month.

Unions Siptu, the NBRU and TSSA have balloted in favour of industrial action in pursuit of a 15pc pay rise but unions, including Unite, have yet to issue results.

The bigger unions could serve notice at any point, but it is understood they are holding off so they can coordinate a campaign of industrial action with the other unions.

Sources said a meeting of all of the unions is unlikely to take place until the end of next week, and they will announce their intentions early the following week

They are legally obliged to give Dublin Bus seven days notice of industrial action.

Threatened

The workers want a 15pc pay rise, paid in instalments of 5pc a year over three years.

However, a dispute at Irish Rail that threatened to bring services to a standstill may be resolved, as unions brokered a deal to reduce drivers' working week from 48 hours to 39.

Read more: Once bombastic Ross has made scant progress at Transport

The proposal negotiated at the Workplace Relations Commission, seen by the Irish Independent, says the company is committed to move towards a 39-hour week if a new rostering system is set up that includes increased weekend cover.

But in a notice to members yesterday, the NBRU and Siptu say that any reversal of commitments to cut the working week could yet lead to industrial action, by the first week in September.

The unions halted ballots for industrial action after being invited to talks.

"Both trade unions have made it abundantly clear that the die is essentially cast regarding commitments on the working week," says the message from NBRU chief Dermot O'Leary and Paul Cullen of Siptu.

Reversal

"Any reversal on such commitments will, possibly as early as next week, result in the reactivation of our balloting process, which mandate permitting, may result in industrial action by the first week in September."

However, the message says significant progress has been made in getting them to a point where the reduction of the working week is a "live and distinct possibility".

The Workplace Relations Commission proposal says the company indicated the pension costs associated with reducing the working week has the potential to reach around 6m plus.

This is due to an increase in the workers' hourly pay rate.

But the unions said this issue had been "wrestled from our control" as separate talks on the CIE pension schemes will take place at the end of the month.
Members of the Labour Party take part in an event in Dublin to publicise their plan to repeal the 8th Amendment earlier this year Picture: Niall Carson/PA

Presenter James Corden has offered words of support to an Irish woman who is documenting her experience travelling to the UK for an abortion via live Twitter updates.

The woman, who is travelling to Manchester for the procedure, is accompanied by a second female who is helping her operate the Twitter account @twowomentravel.

They left Ireland at about dawn this morning, and have been updating the journey since then.

Corden is among hundreds who have pledged their support to the woman, and took to his Twitter account to connect with her.

"Today, @TwoWomenTravel but you're not on your own in this. So many people are with you," he wrote.

Today, @TwoWomenTravel but you're not on your own in this. So many people are with you. X  James Corden (@JKCorden) August 20, 2016

The women described their mission: Two women, one procedure, 48 hours away from home.

In one of their first tweets, they tagged Taoiseach Enda Kenny and thanked him for forcing them to "hit the road".

The women declined to comment further when contacted by Independent.ie but did say that "Tweeting photos of our journey is the most painless way of conveying our message of solidarity, and outrage (at the situation)."

Neither of the women's identities have been released thus far, but they have confirmed that they are both "well over" 18.
If you got your Leaving Cert results last week, you're currently in one of the most frightening limbos of your education. You are in that unique place between school and college, unsure of where you're going next.

As you wait on the college offers on Monday from the Central Applications Office (CAO), remember first of all how much work you have put in to get to where you are. The Leaving Cert is probably the most challenging set of exams you will ever face. Being finished is an achievement in itself.

Now you have to move on to the next stage.

People often say that college is the best time of your life, and they're not lying. It is one of the most freeing experiences you will ever go through. It is the first step on a ladder to adulthood.

It is exciting, but it is also terrifying - for all the right reasons.

For those of you starting college this September, you are about to enter into an extraordinary period of your life, so it's important that you enjoy it.

Going to college takes a lot of courage. For most 18-year-olds, it's the biggest upheaval of your lives so far. It often means leaving the family home for the first time.

But it will also give you an unprecedented level of freedom. Moving to a new city to go to college allows you to reinvent yourself in whatever way you see fit. You can be whoever you want to be. It will come as an enormous relief to many teenagers who feel oppressed in small towns across the country.

So give college your all. Put yourself out there. Be brave. Talk to everybody. Go on nights out, and have fun. But don't just limit yourself to alcohol. Get involved in your college life. There are so many societies, clubs, and various opportunities for you to grow and have new experiences.

There is a society for almost every hobby, interest or sport you want to take up. Or if you fancy your chances at being a politician one day, you can always get involved in pretend politics - otherwise known as the students' union.

It's not just about socialising and having fun either. Too often, the narrative we hear is of students drinking too much and getting into trouble.

Doing stupid things will be an important part of your college experience - how else are you going to learn who you are? But you also will have a degree to complete, and it's worth paying attention to it.

Your degree can be just as freeing as the social opportunities college presents you with. Whether it's studying Jane Austen's novels or learning human anatomy, college is about gaining understanding and knowledge.

It is a completely different experience to secondary school, where rote learning is the focus. You will be used to learning off poems for your English exams, or even worse: learning off essays to replicate them in your Leaving Cert.

That kind of learning is done away with in college, and you will have to dedicate time to really understanding your subject.

Education is one of the most freeing things of all, and the right to have one is constantly under threat.

Student fees in Ireland are currently the second highest in Europe. Young people are increasingly being pushed out of education and stripped of their opportunity to learn.

So be grateful for the opportunity you are about to enter into. College may be terrifying, but it's also rarely dull. So throw yourselves in, because it truly is the most freedom you will probably ever have.
The Carlingford Lough Artists are holding an exhibition called 'Interpretations' in Carlingford Design House, as part of the Heritage Week programme in this historic village.

Artists taking part include Irene Woods, who works from her studio in the heart land of the Cooley Peninsula, and specialises in capturing the beautiful scenery of the area. i > Drogheda native Carlingford resident Olive Eustace, who hails from Drogheda, studied Fine Art in Limerick and Dublin. Her colourful figurative paintings evoke a response, both contemplative and enquiring. Her work uses a central figure in either an interior or exterior setting

Annette Maguire, another Cooley resident, has a passion for painting and uses oils to create her landscapes of the surrounding Cooley Mountains. She also loves to paint flowers and still life. Carlingford native Maura Muckian is inspired by the beauty outside her studio, which overlooks Carlingford Lough. Using rich bold colours she captures the atmosphere of the sea and landscape.

Dundalk artist Patricia Mc Ateer, who now lives in Omeath, is captivated by the rich Celtic heritage and legends and incorporates crystals and handmade papers in her work.

Visitors will also have the opportunity to view the work of various craftmakers and of jeweller Garrett Mallon.
Once again Philipstown House, Hackballscross, is opening its gates for an evening of theatre on the lawn with the exciting tale of 'Zorro' on Saturday August 20.

This is the third year that Off The Ground theatre company have visited this idyllic setting for an evening of family fun with a thrilling telling of the story of the masked hero 'Zorro', as well as food stalls and BBQ.

The Viceroy of New Spain, aided by the evil Ramon family, has turned New Mexico into a tyrannical, poverty-stricken wasteland. Their legendary hero, 'Zorro', is their only hope of relief and resolution. As the rebel group The Alliance attempt to fight back, Zorro must be smarter than he has ever been to stop the Ramons from turning his beloved people against him.

Off The Ground have completed a tour of open venues and stately homes in the UK and have now embarked on a tour of Irish venues.

Tickets 15 adult, concessions 10 and under 21s 8 are available at www.philipstownhouse.com. Gates open 6.30pm - bring a picnic and a chair!
Local traditional musician Fiachra Meek will be entertaining visitors to Florida's top attraction Disney World for the next six months.

The 21 year old, who recently completed a four year degree course in music and performance at DkIT, jetted off to Orlando last week.

Fiachra, who plays the uileann pipes, and whistles, was invited to join the performers at Disney World after coming to the attention of their talent scouts.

While a student at DkIT, Fiachra was a member of Ceol Oirghialla and travelled to America and Brazil. He is also a member of the bands Na Tonnta and Navy Cut and has performed with them at a number of music festivals around the country.
The ringing of the at Carlingford Lough Heritage Centre will mark the beginning of Heritage Week in the historic medieval village.

During the course of the week, locals and villagers alike will have the opportunity to explore the narrow streets and beautiful coastline of the village where history is evident in the stones and brickwork of its ancient buildings.

There will be guided tours of these historical buildings including the Dominican Friary, King John's Castle, the Thosel, Taafe's Castle and the Mint on both weekends. Anyone wishing to join these free tours should meet at Carlingford Heritage Centre at 11am and 2pm.

To get a different perspective on the village's history, why not go on a guided boat cruise of Carlingford Lough, with visits to both King John's Castle and Greencastle on the other side of the Lough. These tours will take place on Sunday August 21 at 12noon to 4pm and on Sunday August 28 at 9.30am-12.30pm and from 7pm to 10pm.

There is also an opportunity to enjoy the spectacular scenery of the Lough with stunning views of the Mourne Mountains on the 'Off The Track' walk along the Greenway on Saturday August 20. The Greenway follows the old DNG railway from Omeath to Carlingford. The walk gets underway from Greer's Quay, Omeath at 2pm.

The Thomas D'Arcy McGee Summer School is taking place in Carlingford Heritage Centre throughout the week.

This annual event sees internationally renowned historians, academics and politicians debating and reflecting on D'Arcy McGee's relevance to the current peace process and the changing nature of revolutionary republicanism.

The summer school will be opened by the Canadian Ambassador to Ireland, His Excellency Kevin Vickers and speakers include David Wilson and Mark McGowna from Toronto University and the former Taoiseach John Bruton.

Cultural events include a screening of the movie Mise Eire, a courthouse drama. a 'The Trial of P.H. Pearse'. Anthony Russell's play presents the premise is that Padraic Pearse is called from the grave to answer, in the Court of History, the charge that he committed treason against the People of Ireland. The prosecutor is Thomas D'Arcy McGee, a former Irish rebel who became a founding father of the Canadian Confederation. John Mitchel, an unrepentant republican from Young Ireland and the Fenians, is the defence lawyer. They too have returned from the grave for the occasion.

As the jury,the audience. will decide on Pearse's guilt or innocence. The action takes place in Carlingford Courthouse and seating is limited - book early for this imaginative and challenging new drama. For full details of the summer school programme and for registration, contact info@carlingfordheritagecentre.ie or phone 042 9373454. There is also a banquet and a Canadian/Irish folk night presented by Tommy Sands and Gerry O'Connor.

Local artists Irene Woods, Olive Eustace, Maura Muckian, Annette Maguire, and Patricia McAteer are showing their work in the exhibition 'Interpretations' in Carlingford Design House from Saturday August 20 to Sunday August 28.
The European Union has taken action against invasive aliens by declaring war on 37 species comprised of 23 animals and 14 plants. The wanted list came into force on 3rd August.

Under EU Regulation 2016/1141, Member States now have to start implementing measures to control unwanted aliens. As far as Ireland is concerned, the Grey Squirrel is the most high-profile species that we have on the wanted list.

Aliens are non-native animals and plants that are brought, either deliberately or accidentally, into an area where they are not normally found. Invasive ones are aliens that have the potential to cause serious damage.

The damages that invasive aliens can cause are threefold. First, they can cause major biodiversity loss, sometimes even the extinction of native species. Second, they can transmit new disease to humans. And third, they can cause economic damage, for example, farm crop losses and infrastructure damage.

The problem is growing. New invasive alien species are coming into Europe with increased international trade and travel. Climate change may make matters even worse.

What the EU is now implementing is a set of measures to prevent new invasive alien species from entering the EU and to deal more effectively with the ones that are already established here.

Under the new Regulation all Member States must take action on a list of 37 invasive alien species of Union concern. The Regulation foresees three types of interventions; prevention, early detection and rapid eradication, and management.

If they work as planned, the new measures will benefit everyone: a major threat to our native wildlife will be addressed, there will be better protection from health hazards, and there will be less damage to property, farmers, animal breeders, fisheries, forestry firms and the tourism and leisure industries.

What exactly will change? There will be a complete ban on importing, selling, growing, using and releasing the most problematic invasive alien species. To enforce the ban, EU member countries will have to organise border checks and introduce a surveillance system to detect banned species. They will also need to put in place measures to detect those species that come into Europe accidentally.

When EU countries detect the presence of a banned species, they will have to take immediate action to stop the species from spreading. For banned species that are already widely spread, like the Grey Squirrel in Ireland, EU countries will need to put in place measures to keep them under control.
Religious freedom does not exist in North Korea, according to the State Departments 2015 International Religious Freedom Report. Indeed, the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on the Human Rights Situation in North Korea concluded there was an almost complete denial by the government of the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion.

In many instances the Commission of Inquiry, or COI, found that violations of human rights committed by the North Korean government constitute crimes against humanity.

Ownership of Bibles or other religious materials brought in from abroad is reportedly illegal and also punishable by imprisonment and severe punishment, including, in some cases, execution. The government of North Korea continued to deal harshly with those who engaged in almost any religious practices through executions, torture, beatings, and arrests. An estimated 80,000 to 120,000 political prisoners, some imprisoned for religious reasons, were believed to be held in the political prison camp system in remote areas under horrific conditions.

Religious and human rights groups outside the country provided numerous reports that members of underground churches were arrested, beaten, tortured, or killed because of their religious beliefs. International nongovernmental organizations reported any religious activities conducted outside of those that are state-sanctioned, including praying, singing hymns, and reading the Bible, can lead to severe punishment, including imprisonment in political prison camps.

The COI found that the government of North Korea considers Christianity a serious threat, as it challenges the official cult of personality of the Kim dynasty and provides a platform for social and political organization and interaction outside of the government. Christians face persecution, violence, and heavy punishment if they practice their religion outside the state-controlled churches.

Christians are restricted to the lowest, hostile class rungs of the songbun system, which classifies people on the basis of social class, family background, and presumed support of the regime based on political opinion and religious views. The songbun classification system results in discrimination in education, health care, employment opportunities, and residence.

In Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinkens remarks during the release of the 2015 International Religious Freedom Report, he said, Every country has an obligation to respect religious liberty and freedom of conscience. No nation can fulfil its potential if its people are denied the right to freely choose and openly practice their faith.
Beautiful summer sunshine ensured that the traditional August 15 visit to Ladywell Shrine on the Dublin Road even more pleasant this year, with hundreds flocking to the well.

The tradition, which dates back hundreds of years, actually begins on August 14, the evening before the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin with Rosary and the Mass starting at 11.30pm at the shrine.

This year, celebrant Fr Mark O'Hagan, ADM, St Patrick's, was joined by Fr Gus Harty from the Dominican order, chaplain of St Malachy's Girls School and deacon Barry Matthews from the Point Road who is due to be ordained in the Archdiocese of Armagh next year.

Fr O'Hagan welcomed the hundreds of people gathered for the midnight Mass at the shrine and said that everyone had come for their own reasons, including to remember those who had passed since last year, and to place their intentions in the hands of Our Lady.

Fr Gus, who is a renowned expert on the Rosary, gave a rousing homily which was well-received by the congregation who clapped their appreciation and gave another round of applause when Fr O'Hagan said the Dominican priest is 95.

It is not known exactly how old Ladywell Shrine is but Thomas Wrights engraving/drawing of the well in 1730 is arguably the earliest detailed visual record of an Irish holy well and clearly indicates that the well is at least 250 years old and is probably medieval.
Laurie Winkless is full of curiosity, which is a good trait to have if you want to make your way in the world of science. From a young age, she was asking questions of her engineer dad, Jackie, and mum Rosemary.

Finding out how things work, why things work and how they can work better has led the former Astrophysics student to writing a book about cities and how they operate.

'Science and the City', published by Bloomsbury, was launched last week and combines Laurie's passion for science and engineering and her ability to make these topics relevant, explainable and interesting to the public.

Living in London and working as a freelance science writer with well-known publications such as Forbes, Laurie is excited about the launch of the book and hopes it will help satisfy other people's natural curiosity about the world around them.

Laurie (33) said: 'My love of cities first appeared when I arrived in London, just after my BSc in Physics with Astrophysics at Trinity College Dublin.

'While studying for my MSc in University College London, I realised I was a fully-fledged transport nerd. I spent seven happy years in the materials team at the National Physical Laboratory, where I became fascinated by the role of materials science in the real world. Since taking a break from research, I've dived into writing, and my first book, 'Science and the City: the Mechanics Behind the Metropolis' has been published by Bloomsbury'.

The book covers everything you can imagine needing to know about cities. Topics include skyscrapers and how they are built, understanding the role of electricity and how the grid works, water and its treatment, the science of traffic jams, tunnels, networks such as food and goods and communication and money.

In addition, Laurie, from St Malachy's Villas takes readers into the future with a vision of how cities can develop, based, of course, on science fact, not science fiction. Research was the key to Laurie getting the book together, which she initially slotted in to her free time while she was working at the National Physical Laboratory before she left to become a freelance science writer this time last year.

She is passionate about bringing the science of every day to the masses, appealing to people who may have struggled at school with it but are nonetheless curious about what happens when we push a button at a pedestrian crossing, what happens when we flush the loo, where the water in our taps comes from and what happens to our rubbish when the bins are collected.

'Communicating science to the public is something I really care about', she says. 'There is a difference between simplifying something and dumbing it down. I wanted to explain things in everyday language and I'm delighted to say there is only one equation in the whole book!

'It means that people can join the debate about engineering and science and share their views on how things are done and what can be done better in the future. I believe that everyone can benefit from knowing learning some science and while it would be great if far more people decided to make careers in science and engineering because the world is short of these people, I think everyone has a role to play and I want people to know that they're opinion is just as valued.

'Essentially, critical thinking is at the heart of science and engineering and I want people to think more critically, especially about the 'science' they read in the media so that they can argue with it. For instance, on the subject of climate change, the vast majority of data and scientists believe it's real and happening, but too often the media 'balances' or 'weights' the argument with one of the small minority who don't believe'.

Asking questions, finding solutions, and not taking everything at face value are the ideals that Laurie and her colleagues advocate. She says: 'We don't know all the answers because if we did, we wouldn't have science. But we need to get more of those who are good communicators out where. Scientists are humans first and they live in the real world. People think that once we are in the lab we are not interested in the application of our work to the real world, but the vast majority want to answer questions, change thing, invent things.

'When you look at children, you can see they are curious, they are natural-born scientists, trying to find out about the world around them, experimenting with new things. But we often 'educate' the science out of them and that can disengage people from science'.

It's people like Laurie Winkless that will help make science interesting, engaging and even cool. She gave a talk at the Wilderness Festival in Oxford earlier this month and had the opportunity to introduce the audience to some of the themes in the book.

'It really boiled down to tunnels of various descriptions and I talked about lifts, which operate in a tunnel, sewers and transport tunnels. Keeping water away from waste is the biggest problem facing cities as they grow and the sewer systems are life-savers in that regard'.

As part of her research, Laurie had the opportunity of visiting the Cross Rail project in London, the biggest infrastructure development in the British capital and was fascinated to see how the 42kms of tunnel needed for the new light rail system was being constructed millimetres around the existing sewers and Tube tunnels.

She said: 'Those involved in Cross Rail were really supportive of what I was doing and opened up a lot of opportunities for me to speak to some of the best engineers in the world'. On a less glamorous note, she's also learned that London produces 1.25 billion kilos of poo every year - no wonder they are investing in the city's sewer system!

Having spent time in a lot of the world's cities, Laurie thinks that London, which has been her home for the past 11 years, is the best in the world. Not that it doesn't have its problems, it does, but she remains fascinated with it. 'There's no one ideal city in the world - each does things really well but falls down in other areas - but the fact is that people are going to keep moving to the cities and how they develop in the future is something that everyone should have a stake in'.

Water systems, energy formats, sustainability, air pollution, community integration and moving huge numbers of people to where they need to are the big issues that continue to face city planners and governments as cities grow to a size their founders couldn't even have dreamt about. And Laurie Winkless will remain curious about it all.

Book explores what lies beneath cities

Cities are a big deal. More people now live in them than don't, and with a growing world population, the urban jungle is only going to get busier in the coming decades.

But how often do we stop to think about what makes our cities work? Cities are built using some of the most creative and revolutionary science and engineering ideas - from steel structures that scrape the sky to glass cables that help us communicate at the speed of light - but most of us are too busy to notice. Science and the City is your guidebook to that hidden world, helping you to uncover some of the remarkable technologies that keep the world's great metropolises moving.

Laurie Winkless takes readers around cities in six continents to find out how they're dealing with the challenges of feeding, housing, powering and connecting more people than ever before.

In this book, you'll meet urban pioneers from history, along with today's experts in everything from roads to time, and you will uncover the vital role science has played in shaping the city around you.

But more than that, by exploring cutting-edge research from labs across the world, you'll build your own vision of the megacity of tomorrow, based on science fact rather than science fiction.

Science and the City is the perfect read for anyone curious about the world they live in.

And it is already receiving great reviews from her peers. Mark Miodownik, Professor of Materials at UCL, UK, and author of Stuff Matters said: 'If you are looking for a guide to the city, look no further than this book. Its got attitude and humour delightfully balanced by Winkless' insight and clarity'.

Dame Athene Donald, Professor of Experimental Physics and Master of Churchill College, University of Cambridge said: 'This book is an engaging read, opening our eyes to the extraordinary science underpinning the urban world that is all too easy to take for granted.

'Looking both back, to how the cities have developed, and forward with a bit of informed crystal-ball gazing, the author conveys the challenges we face and the technology we have and need to develop to continue to thrive'.

Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Visiting Professor of Astrophysics, University of Oxford said: 'This book is a wonderful source of fascinating information. It is future-looking also, describing the technology that will change the world we live in. A very readable book, for all inquisitive folk!'

And John O'Farrell, comedy scriptwriter and author of The Man Who Forgot His Wife says: 'Fascinating, lucid and entertaining; her infectious enthusiasm for the subject lights up every page'.
Fine Gael Louth TD Fergus O'Dowd and the party's MEP Mairead McGuinness say that Louth will benefit from the Town and Village Renewal Scheme for Rural Ireland, which aims to revitalise up to 200 towns and villages across the country.

The scheme was launched last week and 10 million will be made available for the scheme.

Mr O'Dowd said: This fund is available to local authorities to support the revitalisation of rural towns and villages across Ireland. In total 380,000 will be available to Louth and I urge the County Council to apply for the full allocation of funds available, in order to ensure that communities and businesses in Louth can benefit fully from this initiative'.

Louth County Council can apply for grants under this scheme for up to 8 separate town/village projects. They will have to submit outline plans to the Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs in September for approval.

The TD explained: The funding available to the council is designed to meet up to 85% of the total cost of each project. The council will then be required to partner with local businesses and local communities to develop and implement ideas that can make a real and lasting impact in revitalising our local rural towns and villages.

'The focus of this fund for 2016 will be on small towns and villages with populations of less than 5,000, but there will be some funding available for towns and villages with a population of between 5,000-10,000.

'The economic crash which occurred after years of Fianna Fail led government really left its mark on small towns and villages across rural Ireland. We have seen the evidence of it here in Louth.

'Thankfully the economic recovery is underway, but many towns and villages in the county are still feeling the after effects of the recession. This government has made sure that rural development is a key priority in the programme for a Partnership Government'.

Mairead McGuinness, MEP and Vice-President of the European Parliament is encouraging community groups to avail of the immediate opportunity to work with their Local Authorities to enhance and upgrade their towns and villages under the new 10 million allocation announced today.

Speaking at the launch in Clones, Co. Monaghan of the scheme by Minister for Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Heather Humphreys TD, the Ms McGuinness said it is a good opportunity for those who have projects and ideas ready to action to put in their applications by September.

'This funding scheme is due for distribution by the end of the year so projects already in the mind will be in pole position to benefit. There will be further tranches coming during 2017 and beyond'.
Health minister Simon Harris wants the Minor Injuries Unit (MIU) at the Louth County Hospital in Dundalk to treat children, aged five and over, from next year.

The minister was in Louth on Monday visiting the Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda and the facility in Dundalk at the invitation of his colleagues Peter Fitzpatrick and Fergus O'Dowd. And, following a tour of the Dublin Road hospital, Minister Harris told the local media that a review of services at the MIU is currently underway and will be completed shortly.

After that, it is intended that services will be expanded to allow for the treatment of over fives at the MIU from 2017. The news was welcomed by Mr Fitzpatrick who said his priority remains the increase in services at the Louth County Hospital.

Regional Health Forum member, Cllr. Tomas Sharkey, gave the news a guarded welcome, saying it was important that health chiefs in the region followed through on Minister Harris's announcement, though he was disappointed the range of injuries that can be treated at the MIU was not expanded.

Mr Harris said he was very impressed with the Louth Hospital, particularly the stroke rehab unit. He also visited Dundalk Men's Sheds in Seatown.
A man who threw objects from a stolen car at pursuing gardai, has appeared before Dundalk court on charges relating to the incident which occurred more than six years ago.

Dominic McGrath (24), 25 Iveagh Crescent, Newry, Co Down, was brought before Judge Faughnan on foot of two warrants, after he failed to turn up at a previous court hearing.

He pleaded guilty to charges of being a passenger in a stolen vehicle, endangerment and possession of cannabis herb.

The DPP directed that a charge of causing criminal damage be struck out.

The offences stemmed from an incident on 10 March, 2010, when gardai chased a stolen vehicle from St Mary's Road in Dundalk to where it crossed the border at Jonesboro; via the Inner Relief Road, Ballymascanlon roundabout and the M1 at Faughart.

Evidence was given that McGrath was a passenger, and he threw objects at the garda vehicle, causing danger to road-users.

He was subsequently arrested, when a small amount of cannabis herb was found on him.

The car had been taken in Newry.

He has no previous convictions.

Gardai had to apply for a European arrest warrant to get McGrath to court, and when he was arrested on foot of it in Northern Ireland, he spent four days in custody in Maghaberry prison.

Barrister, Irene Sands, said her client is incredibly worried about the outcome of the case; prompting Judge Faughnan to remark, 'he had a long time to worry about it.'

Ms Sands said the accused was aged 18, and young and foolish at the time. He is aware of the gravity of what is before the court.

There has been no trouble since, north or south, and the time in Maghaberry was 'eye-opening' for him.

The judge remarked this was despicable behaviour.

He noted a garda objection to bail, but decided to grant conditional bail, and adjourned the case to 26 October next for the defendant to come up with 1,000 for the garda benevolent fund.

In the meantime, he must reside at his home address, sign-on daily at Dundalk garda station, surrender his passport (which is already in the custody of the PSNI), undertake not to apply for travel documentation, and not travel outside the island of Ireland.

McGrath's mother handed over 235 towards the compensation, and the judge said if the balance is paid, and bail conditions complied with by the next date, he will impose a 500 fine for being a passenger in a stolen vehicle, and a 150 fine for the endangerment offence.

He warned the accused of the consequences if not adhering to the bail conditions, telling him he will hold a special court sitting and remand him in custody.

McGrath received legal aid for a solicitor and counsel.
A Louth-born man whose prediction that 'Dundalk AFC for European Cup 2017' was unearthed from a time capsule buried 25 years ago in Cavan says he is confident the team, which his late father helped found in the 1920s, can overcome Legia Warsaw and become the first Irish team to make it to the group stages of the Champions League.

Speaking to the Argus from his home in Belturbet, Co Cavan, Peter Francis Morgan revealed how he has been a Dundalk FC supporter for 'almost 80 years' and how his auctioneer dad, John C Morgan, helped found the club with Dr Jim Donegan in 1926.

He also described how he came to make the remarkable prediction about Dundalk and how it was unearthed just in time for their European adventure. It was the only one of three sporting predictions he made that is close to coming to pass - he also predicted Louth would win an All-Ireland!

Mr Morgan, a retired teacher, who has been living in Cavan since he got married to Eileen (O'Reilly) in 1964, said: 'Eileen is associated with the Belturbet Festival of the Erne and in 1991, at a meeting of the organising committee they were talking about making predictions about what the world would be like in 50 years time. But they decided to be less ambitious and settled for 25 years instead.

'They got together and began writing their predictions about what they would like to happen in 2016. I happened to be there and I concentrated on the sporting aspect, Dundalk FC. My prediction, along with all the others, were sealed inside the capsule and buried.

'When the capsule was resurrected, the predictions were put onto a sheet, photocopied and given to the people who had written them. It's amazing that the prediction was unearthed on the eve of the biggest game of the club's history'.

Mr Morgan said his father died , as a young man, in 1947 from TB which was rampant at the time and the family moved to Newry where he was educated at the Abbey Grammar school before training to be a teacher in Belfast.

During his 40-year career, he taught in Clones and in Rosslea and Newtownbutler in Co Fermanagh. He has been a regular visitor to Oriel Park for decades, travelling with his close friend, Kevcin Ludlow. He is also friends with some of the great names associated with Dundalk FC including Dermot Keeley and the late Tommy McConville 'who would have absolutely loved all this'.

Unfortunately, due to his failing eyesight, Mr Morgan will not be travelling to the Aviva in Dublin but will be 'cheering in Belturbet'. He said he was 'terribly disappointed' by the club's back to back league defeats against Galway and Bray.

'In my experience of following Dundalk for almost 80 years, I think the Warsaw game will be a draw, a neutral event. But I really hope Dundalk gets a decent result over the two legs - it would be wonderful for everyone involved in the club and for the town.
Inviting health minister Simon Harris to Louth to see the hospitals in Dundalk and Drogheda is part of Fine Gael TD Peter Fitzpatrick's commitment to 'show the potential of the Louth Hospital'.

He said the hospital and getting an increase in services into the Dublin Road campus was his key priority. Mr Fitzpatrick said: 'Services were closed in 2010 by the Fianna Fail government and since I was elected in 2011, my main thing is that I realise the good the hospital can do for people.

'I'm pleased about the review of the MIU services and hope that children between five and 14 can be treated here in future as there are numbers of people bypassing the hospital'.

Mr Fitzpatrick said Minister Harris was 'extremely positive' about the Louth Hospital and 'has never seen anything like it'. And the TD says his colleague 'has promised that he will invest in the Louth'.

Mr Fitzpatrick, who has been reappointed to the Oireachtas Health Committee after serving five years on it, and who also will take up a position on the Transport, Tourism and Sport Committee in the new Dail term, said it was very important that the Louth is supported by the government.

And he heaped praise on the health minister: 'He's the most impressive health minister I have met'.

Meanwhile, Minister Harris had a private meeting with hospital managers and local council representatives including councillors John McGahon, Maria Doyle, Tomas Sharkey, Conor Keelan and Meave Yore. The councillors heard how the minister wants the MIU to take children from age five upwards.

Speaking after the meeting, HSE Health Forum member Tomas Sharkey said the minister had confirmed that hospital management had been asked to put a protocol together to make the MIU suitable for children and Minister Harris 'expects that to be in place some time next year'.

Cllr. Sharkey said he was happy to hear the minister's 'statement of intent' and added: 'It's for everyone now to make sure this actually happens'.

The Sinn Fein representative said: 'I was interested to hear about the minister's own frustration about home help hours, which are not appearing in reality, even though he has provided extra funding for them.

'I hope he understands that heavy administration may be causing a delay in our healthcare'.

And while Cllr. Sharkey gave a guarded welcome to the MIU announcement, he said he was disappointed that Minister Harris 'didn't talk about the Medical Assessment Unit (MAU) or increasing the types of injuries that the unit can deal with.

He said: 'We need an incremental increase of services at the Louth.

'I'm giving today's announcement a guarded welcome and the fact that children should be able to come here for treatment means that there will be more people attending the MIU and the numbers of nurses and doctors at the Louth County Hospital campus will increase too.

'And if there are more staff and patients here, then we can continue to justify and improve services'.

Cllr. Sharkey added: 'Minister Harris didn't open any new services or treatments. But he did say he wanted to see children aged five and up being treated at the MIU and to have that service operational next year. And while I welcome it, I hope it's not something that's going to re-announced every second week.
Spin1038s Lauren Kelly at the launch of Sumo Run in Bray

The Guinness World Record breaking Sumo Run is coming back to Bray for the second time on Sunday, August 28, raising funds and awareness for Purple House Cancer Support.

Sponsors Fitzpatrick Motors held a sign-up day at the weekend to support the event, while Lauren Kelly of Spin 103.8 donned the sumo outfit to launch the run.

At Fitzpatrick Motors on Saturday, people came along to sign up, try on a sumo suit, and get their faces painted. There were also chances to win prizes including a car valet.

There were also goodies from Raindrop Drinks and Good4U for everyone who attended.

Sinead Desmond from TV3 will join Lauren and hundreds of others to take part in Ireland's most unique 5km fun run, in lightweight inflatable suits.

The aim of Sumo Run Ireland is to raise funds to support everyone affected by Cancer in Ireland through the work of Purple House Cancer Support.

One in three people in Ireland will develop cancer during their lifetime. In Ireland an average of 30,000 new cases are diagnosed each year, and this is expected to rise to over 40,000 by the year 2020.

Purple House Cancer Support operates a Cancer Support Centre in Bray and an Outreach Support service in Dun Laoghaire and are asking people to put their love of life to the test and commit to run or walk 5km of Bray Seafront in a lightweight Sumo Suit!

In 2015, Purple House provided 2,060 individual cancer support services to families. These included Counselling, art therapy workshops for children, hospital transport, complimentary therapies, telephone support helpline, and a range of classes and workshops.

Sumo Run Ireland was a sell out last year and even broke a Guinness World Record for the largest gathering of people in sumo suits.

Sumo Yoga will be back this year, an outdoor yoga class on Bray Seafront just before the main Sumo Run.

A new addition this year is the Sumo Refuel Zone, where each participant will receive goodies from Glenisk, Lindt, Raindrop Drinks, Good4U, Powerful Yogurt and Chia Bia.

There will also be a special performance by the amazing Bray Gospel Choir and more.

Register online at www.wumorun.ie. The sumo suit is included in the entry fee and each participant gets to keep their sumo suit.
A Mid-Cork community centrally involved in the events of 1916 and the War of Independence in Cork is to be honoured this weekend when President Michael D Higgins visits to officially open a new museum which houses an exhibition commemorating Cork's role in the fight for Irish freedom.

Around 400 Irish Volunteers from Cork city, east Cork and West cork marched to Kilmurry in Mid-Cork in Easter 1916 en route to Kerry where they were due to rendezvous with Kerry members of the Irish Volunteers to collect arms from the Aud which was due to dock at Fenit..

But the mobilisation was stood down, when following the capture of the Aud, Cork Irish Volunteers leaders, Tomas Mac Curtain and Terence MacSwiney decided to send the men home after receiving Eoin Mac Neill's countermanding order cancelling all Irish Volunteer manoeuvres at Easter.

Now Kilmurry is set to feature again the story of Cork's part in the fight for Irish freedom when President Michael D Higgins will officially open the Independence Museum Kilmurry after delivering the Michael Collins oration at nearby Beal na Blath on Sunday afternoon (August 21st).

The museum is the brainchild of Kilmurry Historical and Archeological Association which was founded in 1963 and which in 1965 opened the Terence MacSwiney Memorial Museum as a tribute to the lateLord Mayor of Cork who was born in the parish but died on hunger strike in Brixton in 1920.

KHAA Chairman, Noel Howard explained that when renovated farm building that housed the original museum began to fall into disrepair, putting the many valuable historical and archeological artefacts from the area at risk, a decision was taken to build a new museum.

Mr Howard said KHAA applied for funding to the West Cork LEADER programme and received 410,000 and they contacted Theo Dahlke, curator of Allihies Copper Mine Museum on the Beara Peninsula and co-founder of Heritageworks who design and build heritage projects.

"We felt that a museum would make Kilmurry a destination for the ever growing numbers of history buffs - its close proximity to Kilmichael, Beal na Blath, Crossbarry and other War of Independence sites gives it a key role in telling our country's story in the decade of centenaries," he said.

KHAA Treasurer Mary O'Mahony said that the new building, completed in 2014, was a fitting venue to house the many artefacts including several relating to Terence MacSwiney, Tom Barry's suitcase and a wheel from the Crossley tender ambushed by Barry and his IRA Flying Column at Kilmichael.

"Now we have a place that will show what the ordinary men and women of this country and, in particular in our area, did for our country in very difficult times. Everyone of Irish heritage needs to hear all of these fabulous stories brought to life by the museum as they are part of our unique DNA."

Independence Museum Kilmurry, located just off the N22 Cork-Killarney Road at Lissarda, will be officially opened by President Higgins at 5.00pm on August 21st. The museum's website can be found at www.kilmurrymuseum.ie
According to the Department of States recently released annual report on International Religious Freedom, non-state actors are among the greatest abusers of the exercise of religious freedom in the world.

Weve also seen certain non-state actors  including terrorist organizations like ISIL, al-Qaida, al-Shabaab, Boko Haram  posing a major threat to religious freedom, said Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Reports release.

In March, Secretary Kerry announced that in his judgment, ISIL is responsible for genocide in areas under its control including against Yezidis, Christians, and Shia Muslims. He said that ISIL is also responsible for crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing directed at those groups and in some cases also against Sunni Muslims, Kurds, and other minorities. ISILs barbarous acts include killings, enslavement and trafficking, rape, and other sexual abuse.

In Africas Lake Chad region, Boko Haram, an ISIL affiliate, targets both Christians and Muslims who oppose their violent ideology with deadly attacks. They have attacked and destroyed dozens of churches and mosques often killing worshippers during religious services or immediately afterward.

In Somalia, Al-Shabaab continues to impose violently its own interpretation of Islamic law and its practices on others. They have used self-styled sharia courts to try and punish people for blasphemy, apostasy and other religious crimes, and they have subsequently killed those convicted. Al-Shabaab threatens to kill anyone suspected of converting to Christianity, and in areas under their control, to close mosques whose teachings do not conform to the groups violent interpretation of Islam.

This harsh suppression of other individuals freedom to worship, wherever these groups hold sway, is yet another reason the United States is leading the fight against these groups and others like them.

Support for religious liberty guides the United States and our foreign policy every single day, said Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

There is, after all, no more egregious form of discrimination than separating out the followers of one religion from another  whether in a village, on a bus, in a classroom  with the intent of murdering or enslaving the members of a particular group.
Renowned local composer Michael Holohan will perform at two of the upcoming events during Heritage Week.

The 400th anniversary of the death of The Great O'Neill, otherwise known as Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, will be marked with an event at Old Mellifont Abbey in Tullyallen on Saturday, August 20th at 3pm.

The event will feature compositions and arrangements by Michael Holohan, composer with Mick O' Brien, the renowned uilleann piper and readings by Donal O' Kelly award-winning playwright and actor, The Boyne Chamber Orchestra and special guests.

Hugh O' Neill surrendered to the English Crown and signed The Treaty of Mellifont in the grounds of the abbey in 1603.

He spent the last eight years of his life in exile in Rome always hoping to return with an army to reclaim his title and lands. He died in the Eternal City of Rome in 1616.

Michael will also perform at the Hill of Tara on Sunday, August 21st during the 'A Salute to Ireland 1916-2016' event, which starts at 12 noon.

The music on the day will be provided by Michael and Simon O'Dwyer from Ancient Music Ireland.

The readings on the day will be by Susan Connolly, poet and special guests.

'Tara means something equivalent to me to what Delphi means to the Greeks or maybe Stonehenge to an English person' (Seamus Heaney).

This sacred site and its long continuum of Irish history will be celebrated by the regal fanfares of our native Bronze Age Horns and Iron Age Trumpets complimented by dramatic percussion soundscapes.

Michael Holohan said: 'The Hill of Tara has featured so prominently in Ireland's long history I felt that this sacred place should be commemorated in this of all years by an appropriate salute. It was the palace of the ancient Irish High Kings, Red Hugh O'Donnell rallied his troops there in the Nine Years War 1592-1603, St Oliver Plunkett visited the site in the 1670s, Molly Weston and 400 of her croppy followers lost their lives on the Hill in the 1798 Rebellion, Daniel O' Connell addressed a monster Repeal meeting on the site in 1843, WB Yeats and Lady Gregory made a special visit in the 1900s and finally a number of the Meath 1916 rebels gathered there on Easter Sunday, awaiting orders.'
The Irish Blood Transfusion Service is taking part in a global initiative with blood donor organisations across 21 countries to highlight an almost 30% international drop in people becoming blood donors compared to a decade ago.

The launch of the campaign, which brings together 25 blood services from 21 countries covering one billion of the world's population, takes place this week and each country is calling for new donors to ensure blood donation for future generations.

And it comes in advance of a major clinic in Drogheda at the end of the month.

St Mary's primary school at Bryanstown will be operating a clinic on Monday 29th, Tuesday 30th, Wed 31st August and Thurs 1st September, from 5:00pm to 8:30pm and Sunday 4th September, 2016 From 1 1 :30am to 3:00pm

"In Ireland there is a particular need for new donors as 21% less people came forward to donate for the first time in 2015 compared to 2010. While the average age of donors in Ireland was 40.8 years old last year. This has increased by 2.5 years, from 38.4 years in 2005. This is part of a world-wide trend in blood donation. In a survey for the Missing Type campaign, participating blood services reported the number of people becoming donors and giving blood for the first time was 1.8m in 2005 and 1.3m in 2015 - a drop of just over 27% As part of this initiative, the IBTS is aiming to recruit an additional 8,000 new donors before the end of the year" said IBTS Operations Director Paul McKinney.

Throughout the campaign, As, Bs and Os, the letters of the main blood groups, will disappear in everyday and iconic locations across the world including Croke Park, Wild Atlantic Way, Bondi Beach, Route 66, Tokyo Tower and Downing Street all are losing their A, B, and O's for MissingType.

"Blood transfusions save lives and transform health for millions across the world. But blood transfusions cannot happen if people do not give blood. Whether it is patients receiving treatment for cancer, blood disorders, after accidents or during surgery, or women who lost blood in childbirth, blood is an absolutely essential part of modern healthcare.

"We really hope that people will be inspired by the Missing Type campaign and start saving lives by becoming blood donors. They can visit giveblood.ie to check eligibility, see when the next clinic is on, or register their interest if no clinics are near them in the near future," said Paul
New signs have been erected in Ballsgrove to deter on street drinking.

Residents decided to take action and confront the problem after a number of individuals were loitering around the estate and gathering to drink in public areas.

The new signs warn of the fine of up to 1,900 which could be imposed on those caught consuming alcohol in the area.

Councillor Paul Bell has congratulated local residents for taking the first steps in confronting individuals involved. 'In response to a small minority of individuals involved in the practice of on street drinking and other acts of anti social behaviour associated with this activity in the vicinity of the church, shops and school area of the Ballsgrove estate residents demanded that Council and GARDAI take the necessary steps to stop this behaviour which is causing a high degree of anxiety in the close knit community,' he said.

A number of signs have been erected throughout the area and the next steps will involve the introduction of CCTV and the engagement with the local community garda to discuss the most effective response to this activity.

'I am confident that with the continued support of Council, GARDAI and business community this issue can be effectively dealt with in the interests of the community. I look forward to working with all stake holders determined to rid the community of antisocial behaviour,' Mr Bell added.
Local residents in Tullyallen were shocked and disappointed to see the picnic benches at Tullyallen National School completely defaced with graffiti.

On a note on their facebook page, the school said these benches had been purchased with money that was fundraised by the parents for the school.

The post claimed the same group are responsible for defacing the benches in the stand at Glen Emmets. It said the graffiti is of a nature not suitable for viewing by children and called for volunteers to help sand them down before the school reopens.
Jewellery including diamond rings have been stolen following an early morning raid on a jewellers shop in Ardee.

The burglary happened in the early hours of Monday morning when the culprits broke into Ardee Jewellers on Irish Street through a roof panel.

The alarm on the premises was activiated at around 3am but those responsible had already fled the scene with a number of diamond rings and other expensive pieces of jewellery.

Inspector Paul Kieran confirmed a substantial amount of jewellery had been taken during the incident.

He said the alarm on the shop was activated at around 3am but the culprits had fled the scene by the time gardai arrived.

'We are looking for any witnesses who have have been in the vicinity of Irish Street between the hours of 2.30am and 3.30am to make contact with us,' he said.
Up-and-coming GAA stars were put through their paces at one of the popular O'Dwyer's GAA Club camps held over the summer break.

The highlight of the week was undoubtedly the visit of Dublin GAA star Michael Darragh McAuley, who took time out from his quest to land another All-Ireland title, to pass on plenty of advice for the budding stars at the Balbriggan venue.

McAuley was a regular figure at camps across Fingal over the summer, giving up his time to help out the next generation.

He happily organised a couple of drills for the boys and girls at the camp, as well as posing for plenty of photos with the youngsters at the camp.

The Balbriggan club ran four successful camps over the summer break and were attended by hundreds of kids. However, the juvenile season is beginning to crank into action and teams are resuming training ahead of the restart.

The skills camp has now returned to its Saturday morning slot, starting each week at 11am on the main pitch.
Dublin Airport was the fastest growing major airport in Europe in the first six months of this year, according to new data from ACI Europe, the trade association for European airports.

Passenger numbers at Dublin Airport increased by 13.4% in the first half of the year, making Dublin the leading performer among top tier European airports, which have more than 25 million passengers per year.

The growth at Dublin follows last year's record-breaking performance when the airport welcomed 25 million passengers for the first time in its history.

In the first six months of this year traffic at Dublin Airport grew faster than at Barcelona's El-Prat Airport (+12.7%) Istanbul's Sabiha Gokcen International Airport (+12.0%), Copenhagen Airport (+10.9%) and Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam (+9.9%).

The average growth across European airports was 4.9% in the first half of the year, with airports in the European Union reporting stronger average passenger growth of 6.2%, according to ACI Europe. Traffic at non-EU airports within Europe was almost flat in the first half, growing by just 0.5%

'Dublin Airport had a very strong performance in the first half of this year, welcoming just over 13 million passengers,' said Dublin Airport Managing Director Vincent Harrison. 'The growth in passenger numbers at Dublin Airport is having a significant impact on the Irish economy by bringing increased trade and investment and also driving higher visitor numbers, which is in turn boosting the Irish tourist industry.'

A 2015 study by economic consultants InterVistas showed that Dublin Airport is a key strategic asset for the Irish economy as it supports or facilitates 97,400 jobs and contributes 6.9 billion to the economy.

'The significant growth in passenger numbers meant that more than 1.5 million extra customers travelled through Dublin Airport in the first six months of the year,' according to Mr Harrison. 'This year Dublin Airport will have a total of 18 new routes and services as well as additional frequencies on 24 existing services.'

To meet this growth, Dublin Airport is continuing to invest in new facilitates for both passengers and airlines.

A 10 million upgrade to the Arrivals Hall in Terminal 1 is currently underway and 10 new aircraft parking stands entered use earlier this year as part of a 20 million upgrade project.

The airport recently completed a 14 million expansion to the Terminal 2 multi-storey car park, which doubled the number of available spaces, opened a new business lounge after US pre-clearance in T2 and installed new self-service check-in and bag drop kiosks in both terminals.

Dublin Airport is also progressing its plans for the new 320 million North Runway at the airport, which is essential to allow the airport to grow, and will be a key enabler for the Irish economy for decades to come.

The ACI Europe traffic report, which covers 215 airports, is the only air transport report that includes all types of civil aviation, comprising passenger flights to and from Europe on full service, low cost, charter airlines and others.
The Men's Shed movement began in Australia in the late 1990s - an idea which subsequently spread into Europe and North America.

There are now more than 320 Men's Sheds in Ireland. The important contribution that Men's Sheds make to good mental health became apparent early on in Australia. This prompted the Government there to fund the development of Men's Sheds throughout the country. At present there are over 1,200 Men's Sheds in Australia and as a result there has been a drop in the suicide rate in older men.

The Sheds are clearly meeting an essential need by providing important supports for men in a wide range of communities and in less than two years, Swords Men's Shed has proven that there is a need for a substantial Men's Shed within the community.

Research shows that older people enjoy better health and live longer if they implement practices such as eating healthily, exercise, engage with the community, stay connected and not become isolated and become involved in a group and undertake a new hobby or skill.

The Men's Shed movement in general provides the environment where a large part of the above can take place and do so within the local community.

'In Swords Men's Shed we plan to expand our project so that more men in the surrounding area have this opportunity,' said Michael Quinn, Chairman of Swords Men's Shed.

'We will achieve this by securing a permanent location which will enable us to provide better and a more varied range of activities as well as training opportunities and we are extremely grateful to Paul and Anthony Dunne for making this happen.'
Sub-Saharan Africa is on the move. It is one of the worlds fastest-growing regions, is home to a middle class projected to grow to over one billion, has the worlds most youthful population, and is more connected by technology and smartphones than ever before.

A key to continued growth and prosperity in the region is to support and empower a new generation of leaders. Thats why the United States launched the Young African Leaders Initiative, or YALI, six years ago. The goal is to connect future leaders with each other, with the United States, and to resources and to networks that can help them flourish as leaders in business, government, and civil society.

In a recent speech at a YALI town hall meeting for the Mandela Washington Fellows President Barack Obama announced a new executive order to support American companies interested in doing business in Africa. This fall, the U.S. will host the second U.S.-Africa Business Forum on trade and investment. In addition, the U.S. will continue advancing the Power Africa initiative to bring cleaner electricity to more than 60 million African homes and businesses.

Under YALI, the Mandela Washington Fellows Program has already brought 2,000 outstanding young Africans to the United States to participate in six week leadership institutes and a Presidential Summit. Across Africa more than 250,000 people have joined the YALI network, through which they gain access to online courses and a network of peers and mentors.

Thousands of young people have been trained in leadership, entrepreneurship, and networking at four Regional Leadership Centers located in Dakar, Accra, Nairobi, and Pretoria.

A current Mandela Washington Fellow is human rights activist and lawyer Geline Fuko of Tanzania. She developed Tanzanias first database of constitutional resources, connecting her government to more Tanzanians so they could understand the law, their rights, and their responsibilities.

The United States believes in the potential of individuals like Ms. Fuko and thousands more like her not only in Africa but in Southeast Asia, the Americas, and Europe. As President Obama said, You should know that youll always have a partner and friend in the United States of America.
A slight increase in the number of unemployed people signing on in both Balbriggan and Swords last month has been described as 'worrying' by a local TD.

The latest figures released by the CSO show that 3,078 people signing on in the Fingal capital in July, up 118 on the previous month.

In Balbriggan, there were 3,632 people on the live register, up by 10 on June.

A further breakdown shows that in Swords, some 311 people under the age of 25 are unemployed, comprising 177 men and 134 women,.

Of the remaining 2,767 people on the live register over the age of 25, some 1,405 are men and 1,362 are women.

In Balbriggan, there are 389 people under 25 on the register, comprising 227 men and 162 women.

Of the remaining 3,243 people over the age of 25, some 1,716 are men and 1,527 are women.

Responding to the figures, Sinn Fein TD for Dublin Fingal has said that the increase in the numbers on the live register in Balbriggan and Swords was "worrying'.

She also highlighted the worrying increase in the number of women who are unemployed and called on the Minister for Social Protection to take action.

Deputy O'Reilly said: #The release of the Live Register figures today show that there are 128 extra people on the live register in Balbriggan (+10) and Swords (+118) in the last month. While these figures are only small, the increase is worrying.

'What is most worrying about the figures in both Balbriggan and Swords is the trend for more women to sign on to the Live Register, while the numbers of men on the live register in both offices is decreasing. In Balbriggan, there are an extra 59 women on the live register and in Swords, there are an extra 126.'

She said it was becoming clear that the so-called labour market activation measures in the past have disadvantaged women.

'This has been the focus of media attention most recently in the case of Erica Fleming, who, because of changes to lone parent's payments by Joan Burton is now no longer eligible for Back to Education Allowance and may miss a place in college. This is something that needs to be reviewed urgently and I am calling on the Minister to take note of these worrying trends and to take action as a matter of priority.'
People seeking social housing support have been to notify Fingal County Council housing department by this week's Friday deadline.

A housing needs assessment is currently being carried out by all local authorities to identify the number of households requiring social housing in each area.

Fingal County Council has begun the process of updating the number of approved households in the county and has notified all existing approved applicants (those who are on the social housing support waiting list) seeking details.

Caren Gallagher, Director of Policy at the The Irish Council for Social Housing (ICSH), the national federation of housing associations, said: 'There were 6,020 households in Fingal qualifying for housing supports in 2013 - the last official count, and this figure is likely to have increased since then.

'This assessment is a critical tool for the effective planning for provision of social housing by both the Department and housing authorities, and we also welcome the recent move to an annual count, allowing for the collation of real time data. This is an important development as we are currently relying on housing figures that are three-years-old.'

In order to remain on the waiting list for social housing support, it is important for applicants to complete the Housing Needs Assessment form(s) and return to Fingal County Council's Blanchardstown, Swords or Balbriggan offices. It is also important for new eligible applicants to complete an application form to the housing department.

For more information, go to http://www.fingal.ie/housing/social-housing/is_your_housing_application_up_to_date-/
Fianna Fail TD James Browne has been assured that consideration will be given to the hiring of local labour and services on the multi-million Euro Gorey to Enniscorthy Bypass.

Anyone interested in working on the project is asked to contact the site office so that their names can be added to a list of available employees and subcontractors.

Deputy Browne raised questions about employment on the project after the groundworks scheme was sub-contracted to Portuguese company Ferpi, Transportes y Obras SA.

'My main concern is that there is no social dividend for Wexford and Enniscorthy or local employment on what is one of the biggest contracts in Europe. We had been told that 400 jobs would be created locally and I will be asking the Minister for Transport where they are,' he said.

The Enniscorthy deputy wrote to Irish company Bam Civil which is the main contractor along with Spanish partner Dragados in a 50/50 joint venture called M11 EJV (Enniscorthy Joint Venture) asking about local jobs.

Contractors' representative Pedro Jadraque replied to the TD informing him that the Public Private Partnership (PPP) project was won by the M11 Gorey to Enniscorthy PPP Company Ltd from a tendering competition by Transport Infrastructure Ireland in accordance with EU procurement procedure.

According to Mr. Jadraque, this company engaged the M11 EJV partnership of Bam and Dragados to undertake the construction of the road and in turn, M11 EJV awarded the earthworks package to Gorey Earthworks Ltd which is an Irish subsidiary of the Spanish company Ferpi SA.

'The personnel employed on the project meet the requirements of the scheme,' he said.

'As with all vacancies on this job, consideration will be given to local labour whether employed directly by us or our subcontractors,' said Mr. Jadraque.

'We are at the early stage of this project and there are many construction activities of different disciplines of work to be awarded. Therefore there are opportunities for tender process involving local firms and international firms which requires further labour.'

'To address the concerns of your letter we would ask that all those interested contact our site office on 053 9270590 or local recruitment/ government agencies. We will add them to our list of those who would be interested or available for this project as subcontractors or employees,' he said.

Deputy Browne had said that awarding the contract to Ferpi SA which set up Irish-registered company Gorey Earthworks in June, was in line with EU law on open market between member states, but there must be a level playing field in terms of wages and conditions which had to be in accordance with Irish legislation.
Two Taiwanese women arrived in Gorey last Friday to pick up a pair of brand new motorbikes that they plan to ride home across Europe and Russia over the next two months.

Jenny Lee and Julia Yu spent the last month arranging the purchase of the Honda CB 500X bikes from David and Gary Rynhart in Adventure Motorcycles Ireland which is based in Gorey Business Park.

'They were searching online for motorcycles for sale and came across Adventure Motorcycles Ireland,' said David and Gary's father Derek Rynhart. AMI specialises in trekking bikes with the aid of Rally Raid Products in the UK.

He admitted it was a slightly unusual way to do the journey as it might have been cheaper to buy the bikes in Taiwan and ride them to Ireland and leave them here.

The motorbikes, which are manufactured in Thailand, cost 7,000 each, but with extras, the total bill came to around 8,000 each.

AMI has a sister company Overlanders which organises motorcycle tours, and the Rynharts have taken bikes to Russia, Vietnam, Thailand, Morocco, and more. They normally ship bikes out for touring abroad, but this is the first time they have had such an unusual sale where someone has flown in from so far away to ride a bike home.

Jenny and Julia flew in to Cork before travelling up to Gorey. They both have excellent English and spent a few hours with David and Derek, getting familiar with the motorcycles and the equipment. They also picked up a few tips and advice from them about travelling across Europe and Russia.

'They were delighted with the bikes,' said Derek. 'We recommended the model. We've used it many times in the past. They have been riding since they were children, so they are quite experienced, but on smaller motorcycles.'

The distance between Ireland and Vladivostok is over 12,000 km but they expect to cover much more ground than that.

They will spend the next month touring around Europe before moving on to Russia, where they expect to spend a month riding across to Vladivostok where they will catch a boat home to Taiwan.
Four one-day strikes are planned at St Aidan's Services, Gorey, as negotiations continue at the Workplace Relations Commission

Talks continued at the Workplace Relations Commission yesterday afternoon, Monday, in an attempt to resolve a pay dispute at St Aidan's Services in Gorey.

Speaking from the WRC, Dave Morris of SIPTU confirmed that Wednesday's planned strike was still set to go ahead, but that negotiations were ongoing

Staff at St Aidan's Day Care Centre staged a 24-hour work stoppage last Wednesday in protest at the continued non-payment of salary increments.

Four separate 24-hour work stoppages are planned over the next month. Both sides attended talks at the Workplace Relations Commission last Thursday in an effort to resolve the dispute. The negotiations resumed yesterday, Monday, and were still underway at the time of going to press.

Members of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO), the Psychiatric Nurses Association (PNA), IMPACT and SIPTU staged the action forcing a closure of day services at Millands and Camolin. However, residential services were not subject to the strike action.

In January 2013, the Labour Court stated that the staff had an entitlement to increments, but these have not been paid.

Funding for staff wages is provided to St Aidan's Services by the HSE. The Board of St Aidan's has in the past laid the blame with the HSE, saying that its decision to cut pay scale increments to voluntary community agencies such as St Aidan's is 'unfair and discriminatory' and it is committed to paying staff increments when funding is made available.
In the Disability Services Provision category, Wexford County Council has been shortlisted for its beach wheelchairs

Wexford County Council has been shortlisted in three categories in the Excellence in Local Government Awards.

The council was short listed in the Best Library Service, Disability Services Provision and Commemorations and Centenaries.

In the Best Library Service category Wexford County Council was short listed for the county's mobile library service - literacy at the heart of rural communities. It is facing competition from Galway, Offaly and South Dublin county councils.

In the Disability Services Provision Wexford was short listed for its beach wheelchair initiative which saw beach wheelchairs being made available at a number of the county's top beaches.

In this category it faces competition from Fingal, Kerry and South Dublin county councils.

In the Commemorations and Centenaries category the council name the shortlist for its 1916 Centenary Commemorative programme. In this category the council faces competition from Carlow, Dublin, Fingal, Kildare, Meath, Monaghan, South Dublin county councils.

Excellent Work Undertaken By Local Authorities Highlighted In Awards Shortlist

Chambers Ireland announced the shortlist for the Excellence in Local Government Awards 2016 with a total of twenty three local authorities short listed over sixteen categories.

Madeleine Quirke, CEO of Wexford Chamber, said: 'on behalf of Enniscorthy, Gorey, New Ross and Wexford Chambers, I would like to congratulate Wexford County Council on being short listed for the Chambers Ireland Excellence in Local Government Awards.

'Wexford County Council has been short listed in 3 categories. Being short listed for the Excellence in Local Government Awards highlights the commitment shown by our local authority insofar as the provision of library services and disability services is concerned and also in their innovative approach to Commemorations and Centenaries.

'It is important to recognise the continued hard work of our local authority despite the many challenges they have faced in recent years. The shortlist highlights the varied local projects undertaken across Ireland and these Awards are an important annual showcase for the dedication and commitment within local authorities to support the community and the local area.'

The Excellence in Local Government Awards are held in association with the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government. The winners will be announced at the 13th annual awards ceremony on November 24 in Dublin.
An Enniscorthy woman living in Cork has written a book inspired by Hurricane Katrina and set in New Orleans where she went on honeymoon with her husband eight years ago.

Emily Clarke (nee Nolan) who grew up in Cherryorchard and attended Colaiste Brid secondary school, is the author of 'Cassy's Voice' about a black woman and her journey through the storm and into her past.

Emily (38) will be signing copies of the self-published book in Wexford Library on Thursday August 18 at 7 pm and all are welcome to go along.

A daughter of Joe and Joan Nolan who retired from Enniscorthy to Rosslare, Emily is a granddaughter of Florrie and the late Fran Nolan formerly of the Corner Shop in Barrack Street, Wexford.

After leaving school, she worked in the retail business in Wexford for several years including stints in Colman Doyle's, Curtain Creations, Wigoders in Redmond Square and Arthur Kelly's.

'There was a recession and places kept closing down. I took whatever work I could,' she said.

She met he husband Navan man Bryan Clarke who was head chef in South 51 and moved to Cork where she became cosmetics manager in Debenhams.

Writing was always a sideline interest ever since she was a child. She self-published a children's book 'The Wandering Dog' in 2003 with all the sale proceeds going to the mental health charity Aware.

She and Bryan were planning a visit to New Orleans in 2005 but their plans changed when Hurricane Katrina struck and the couple went to California instead, eventually travelling to New Orleans on their honeymoon three years later.

It was while walking through the streets of the city and getting to know the locals that the idea for the book really started to take shape and come to life. She published it first as an e-book for Kindle and then in paper form through Amazon with copies available at Amazon.co.uk. 'When you have the physical book in your hand, it is an incredible feeling. There is nothing like it,' said Emily.

Readers can follow Emily on her Facebook page Emily Clarke Author.

Finishing work and starting a family gave her the time to write and she is now working on her second adult book 'Magnolia Blooms', also set in the American South.
Ranchers are at the mercy of the cattle markets, which have always had their ups and downs.

The market is changing every day, said Kaley Sproul, executive director of the Nevada Cattlemens Association.

Sam Mori of Mori Ranches and president-elect of the Nevada Cattlemens Association said the current downturn in prices is tough on ranchers, with cattle losing at times 45 percent of their value in the course of a year. However, prices were at a record high in 2014 and were high in 2015.

Drought had an impact on the market because ranchers were running fewer cattle, which led to the higher prices.

Mori said consumer spending is a major factor in the current lower prices.

When meat got pretty high, you were starting to see a leveling off of demand. Another thing is that China and other countries are hurting so demand is down, he said.

The Fallon Livestock Exchange Inc.s July 19, 2016, report showed steers in the 300-400-pound category selling as high as $172.50 per hundredweight and heifers in that category going for as high as $180 per hundredweight.

Steers at Fallon on July 19, 2015, sold in the 300-400-pound range as high as $300 per hundredweight, and heifers in that range went as high as $307.50 per hundredweight.

According to the CattleFax Daily Market and Analysis provided by the Nevada Cattlemens Association, July 21 prices closed nationally at $107.525 per hundredweight for live cattle, down $1.90, while feeder cattle closed at $134.40 per hundredweight, down $4.225.

The CattleFax analysis for July 30, 2014, showed live cattle closing at $159.85 per hundredweight and feeder cattle closing at $223.04 per hundredweight.

According to a 2016 Nevada Department of Agriculture report, An Economic Analysis of the Food and Agriculture Sector, the value of cattle and calves production in Nevada in 2014 totaled $289.47 million, compared with $171.77 million in 2010.

The reports latest data was for 2014.

Elko County is an important place in the cattle industry, and production values are up over the past 10 years due to efficiencies in the industry, said Flint Wright, the animal industry administrator for the Nevada Department of Agriculture.

The calves out of Elko County are highly desirable thanks to ranchers progressive practices around genetics and value-added initiatives like vaccine protocals, he said.

Despite the ups and downs of cattle prices, Elko County Assessor Katrinka Russell provided figures from her office that show farming and ranching in the county are doing better than 10 years ago.

Qualified agriculture properties in production in 2016 totaled just under 2.5 million acres, compared with slightly more than 2.4 million acres in 2006. The overall qualified acres in agriculture totaled 2.52 million acres, compared with 2.45 million acres in Elko County in 2010. The number of agriculture parcels totals 2,723 in 2016, compared with 2,680 10 years ago.

Taxes from agriculture are up as well. The deferred taxes billed for 2016 are roughly $1.47 million, compared with $928,715 in 2006, while the net assessed value of agriculture property in the county for 2016 is $63.18 million, compared with $38.03 million 10 years ago.

The state Agriculture Departments public affairs officer, Rebecca Allured, also provided figures showing that there were 103,143 brand inspections in Elko County in 2015, down from 123,298 inspections in 2010, while the states head tax applied to 114,181 cattle in the county in 2015, up from 108,675 in 2010.

Brand inspections are done when there are transactions or movement of cattle over state or district boundaries, she said.
On the evening of Sunday August 7, the church of St. Michael the Archangel in Dungegan, Ballinskelligs, was packed to capacity as the people of the parish and surrounding areas came together to celebrate it's 200th anniversary.

A most memorable evening of music and song was enjoyed by all as the main guest of honour and entertainer was Phil Coulter, who is revered as one of Ireland's premier music figures of the 20th century. Musician, arranger, composer, conductor, producer, publisher and artiste. Song writing is his love and songwriters are his heroes.

Born and raised in Derry City, his father, a catholic policeman in the RUC, played the fiddle, his mother played the piano and from them, he learned the pure joy of music. He studied music at Queen's University, where he started his own band.

Phil Coulter (born February 19, 1942) was awarded the Gold Badge from the British Academy of songwriters, Composers and Authors in October 2009 and

He is one of the biggest record sellers in his native land. As a songwriter, he was involved in writing multple Eurovision song contest winners; including Puppet on a String, by Sandie Shaw, Congratulations by Cliff Richards, and All Kinds of Everything, by Rosemarie Browne(Dana).

As a writer and producer,he sold millions of records including smash hits by Elvis Presley, Kenny, Slik, The Bay City Rollers, Planxty, The Dubliners, Luke Kelly, The Furey Brothers, Sinead O'Connor and Boyzone.

As a performer, Phil Coulter has had, and continues to have an amazing career with some unbelievable highs, including Coast to coast tours of the USA, three personal invitations from the President of the United States to perform at the White House, recording and touring with James Galway, multiple hit albums with a great range of tunes and melodies.

The church of St Michael the Archangel has been in the village of Dungegan since the 1800s.It was completely rebuilt in the 1920s on the same site under the guidance of Fr. O'Brien PP and Fr. Allman as Curate.

Fr O'Brien passed away before the rebuilding was completed, being replaced as PP by Fr Behan. The Dungegan church was again renovated and modernised in the 1960s and 1970s. The porches were added and the perimeter walls and gates were removed.

The marble altar originally came in a crate from Italy. The tabernacle was moved to the back altar, the lectern was modernised and the main altar was reduced in size. The altar rails were removed and the Stations of the Cross were changed.

Local men worked by drawing stones,and gravel by horse and cart to the building of the church. It stands more or less the same structurally since then.

Recently, under the guidance of Fr David Gunn, PP of Prior, the church has received a makeover with the roof being re-slated, new tarmac on the church yard, a public toilet and a complete internal and external re-paint.

A beautiful name plaque is also situated at the entrance.
Kenmare teen Chloe Palmer has been located safe and well

A 16-year-old Kilgarvan girl who went missing twice in the last week has been found safe and well.

Last Wednesday Gardai issued an appeal seeking the public's help in tracing the whereabouts of Chloe Palmer who had not been seen since the previous week.

Following the appeal - which attracted national media coverage - Ms Palmer made contact with her family from Donegal on Thursday.

A family member - understood to be Ms Palmer's mother - then arranged to travel to the county to collect her.

Whilst in the care of a HSE minder in Donegal on Friday Ms Palmer again went missing leading to a second search.

She was subsequently located on Saturday afternoon in Letterkenny. She has now been reunited with her mother.

Gardai have thanked the public for their assistance in tracing the missing teenager.
The amount of money paid by Kerry defendants to the Court Poor Box in 2015 has dropped by a staggering 750,000 on the previous year, according to figures released by the Courts Service this week.

Last year, 21 charities benefited from 131,570 which was collected in courts across the county by way of Court Poor Box contributions,

The figure, however, is dramatically lower than the 883,527 that was collected across Kerry courts during 2014.

The total figure relates to the amount of money paid to the Court Poor Pox in Court District 17, which covers Killarney, Tralee, Listowel, Kenmare, Killorglin, Cahersiveen and Dingle.

The significant drop in the Kerry contribution has impacted significantly on the overall national figure, which has dropped from 2.18m in 2014 to 1.3m last year.

The option of a court poor box payment in lieu of a conviction is at the discretion of the judge - in the case of Kerry, Judge James O'Connor - as is the amount a defendant is ordered to pay.

As well as public order offences, the poor box is sometimes used for first time offenders charged with minor offences such as minor road traffic offences and drug offences.

"When combined with the Probation of Offenders Act, it provides an option where some financial penalty is considered merited but a conviction and fine are not," the Courts Service explained in a statement.

The practice is predominantly used by the district courts which deal with criminal offences of a less serious nature than other jurisdictions and the individual amounts can vary substantially, depending on a person's ability to pay, other penalties imposed and the nature of the offence.

In Kerry last year, the money collected was distributed between 21 charities - most of which are agencies working internationally.

Action Aid Ireland, a charity that works to combat poverty in Africa's poorest regions - was the highest beneficiary, receiving 40,000 from the overall Kerry total.

Other charities which benefited from the Kerry contributions were Oxfam Ireland (17,150); Columban Fathers in Ireland (15,000); Missionaries for the Poor (12,000); St Patrick's Missionary Society, Kiltegan (11,000) and World Vision Ireland (10,000).

The largest local beneficiaries were the Stephanie O'Sullivan Memorial Fund which received 5,000 and the St Vincent de Paul Society in Castleisland which received 2,250.

Other Kerry charities to benefit included the Kerry Rape Crisis Centre (500), Listowel Conference of St Paul (400), Milltown Childcare Centre Ltd (500) and Kerry respite Care which received 250.
Psychiatric nurses in Kerry are today (Wednesday) bracing themselves to intensify their industrial action because of what their union says is an unacceptable delay by he government in reinstating nurses' annual community allowance.

The Psychiatric Nurses Association national executive council says that while the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform has agreed in principle to reinstate the annual allowance of 5449 - and that Minister Paschal Donoghue is to make a decision to sign off on it in the first week of September - the delay is 'unacceptable'

"The Minister may equally decide not to sign off on it and this was unacceptable to the NEC," explained PNA representative for Kerry, Cormac Williams. "We have advised management that unless the Minister has reviewed, signed off and has issued a date for implementation of the community allowance by Wednesday, August 17, the PNA will be moving to Phase 3 of industrial action from that date and this includes a ban on overtime and working time in lieu."

Phase three of their action includes not supplying projected rosters, not swapping days to facilitate rosters, not working additional hours for overtime or time in lieu, not accepting calls to personal mobiles from work and not deferring holidays to facilitate rosters.

Mr Williams added that another outstanding issue is the payment of an incremental credit to nurses who graduated from 2011 to 2015 in respect of their placement. As of yet there has been no agreement on this issue.

"The PNA has already met with the INMO and has agreed a joint strategy to have the increment paid, which will include a march on the Dail on September 29 when TDs arrive back from the summer recess.
Death has removed from our midst one of the most esteemed and loved members of our community, the late Mrs Alice Cullen (nee Bailey), late of 43 South Street, New Ross.

Alice was the oldest direct descendant in Ireland of the La Touche family of Bank of Ireland. Her mother was also Alice La Touche. Alice passed away peacefully after a short illness at Millhouse Care Centre on July 29, 2016, in her 96th year. A woman of fine physique and beauty, she was the daughter of the late John Bailey and Alice Bailey (nee La Touche). On her mother's side she belonged to an old French Huguenot family who came to Ireland in 1685. Her father belonged to an old extended family identified with the town for over five generations. Alice attended school at the Mercy convent, South Street, New Ross and then worked alongside her father in his painting and decorating premises at 59 South Street, these premises continue under the Bailey name today. In 1954 she married Jim Cullen from Coppenagh, Graiguenamanagh. Jim was a widower, having lost his wife Catherine at a young age. This gave Alice a ready made family of six boys and four girls. Five children remained in the family home and Alice reared them with love and kindness. They all in turn returned it in many ways. In 1960 Alice and Jim returned to live at 18 Ard Na Greine, New Ross, where they lived and reared six children. Sadly Jim passed away suddenly in 1972.

Alice worked as a cook in the Five Counties Hotel, New Ross District Hospital and the Augustinian Friary. She was a wonderful cook and all the family and their friends enjoyed many of her meals. In 1982 Alice moved back to live in South Street where she remained up to the time of her illness in early July. She loved New Ross and her door was always open. She always gave great advice and comfort to all who called. Alice had a fantastic memory and was a great source of information and history to all. Her wealth of knowledge and her wit will be greatly missed. One of the great occasions in Alice's life was when she visited New York in 1996 and visited her sister May's grave, whom she sadly had not seen since she was a very young woman. Alice enjoyed many trips to Florida, France and Spain with family members and got great enjoyment from these trips. Alice was an avid reader and was never without a book in her hand. Up to a few years ago she enjoyed going to bingo and in latter years enjoyed playing telly bingo. The esteem in which Alice was held was shown by the large attendance at Doyle's funeral home, Rosbercon and her funeral mass at St. Mary and Michael's parish church New Ross.

Alice will be sadly missed by her six children, Michael, Ailish, Paul, Frances, Marc and Jacquie, her 23 grandchildren, seven great grandchildren, daughters-in-law, sons-in-law, nieces, nephews and extended family and friends.

May she rest in peace.
Kane's farm in Whitechurch hosted its biggest ever steam and vintage working farm day recently, drawing a crowd of 4,000 people.

The Whitechurch Steam & Vintage Working Rally has been running at Seamus Kane's farm over the past three decades, raising more than 100,000 for charities including the missions in Kenya where Seamus's brother Fr Michael Kane worked. A large crowd attended a barn dance with music by Eugene French and Theresa & The Stars on the Saturday night.

They were greeted with the sound of six engines humming and enjoyed a barbecue and refreshments during the fantastic night out.

The weather improved for the main event on Sunday, with crowds arriving from 1 p.m. for an authentic taste of farm life from yesteryear.

People of all ages enjoyed vintage working events, the old forge, a working horse event, ploughing and traditional Irish food, including colcannon, pigs feet and griddle bread. A dog show and craft making was also enjoyed on the day.

Paddy Denby from Ferns described the show as the best working rally in the country.

Seamus, who recently recovered from an illness, said he was delighted with how the day turned out. 'We want to thank everyone who helped and contributed to the day and we look forward to seeing you all again next year. We're appealing for volunteers to help out as it takes 100 people to run this.'
One out of every three homes in County Wexford have costly water leakage problems.

To date around one in 18 Wexford houses with potential water leaks have been sent letters by Irish Water about water leakage issues at their homes. Irish Water has a First Fix Free scheme which has been availed of by 423 householders in County Wexford to date. Leakage of water from the network is a serious problem on a national scale and 'lost water' is estimated at 47 per cent nationally based on figures from the national metering programme, and 34 per cent in County Wexford. The First Fix Free scheme was launched in early 2015 across all metering regions nationally. To the end of March, 75,974 properties were identified with customer-side leaks and 2,994 of these were found in County Wexford.

In 2014 the Government announced funding of 51m for a scheme to address water leakage on pipework within a customer's property boundary under a 'First Fix' scheme. Under the scheme Irish Water notifies customers where suspected leakage is occurring within the boundary of the property outside the home and offer a free leak investigation and repair if appropriate. The vast majority of leaks are underground so go unnoticed and undetected. To avail of the scheme, customers must have a confirmed leak on their external supply pipe; have water meter installed on their property (so the leak can be verified) and have a working and accessible inside stop valve.

Irish Water's Water Conservation Strategy Specialist Kate Gannon urged more people to avail of the scheme.

She said: '2,994 households in County Wexford will have already received a letter indicating a potential leak on their property and these householders should contact Irish Water, if they haven't done so already, to request a free leak investigation. We will then issue them with a First Fix Repair Scheme offer detailing the terms and conditions of the repair. This really is a great opportunity to potentially avail of a free fix.'

878 home owners in County Wexford have so far made contact.

'If you contact us about requesting a leak investigation one of the Irish Water team will contact you within ten working days. LoCall 1850 278 278 or see www.water.ie.'

For more information about the First Fix Leak Repair Scheme for Domestic Water Customers is available at water.ie/water-supply/first-fix/
In my last column (Part One), I described how the renewed trickle of .22 rimfire ammunition to dealers shelves inspired me to pull a new in the box standard Ruger 10-22 from the basement closet  where it had been languishing for years  and use an assortment of aftermarket parts to trick it out into the .22 of my dreams. Well, Ive done just that and Im now happy to report that the project is an unqualified success!

My newly-upgraded 10-22 not only looks cool, but more importantly, it is a joy to handle and with many hundreds of rounds down its .920 target bull barrel, is proving itself to be outstandingly accurate. A word of caution: many target grade barrels feature Bentz chambers, which due to their tighter dimensions, tend to be much more finicky about what brands and styles of ammunition they prefer. But not to worry, Ive only had the gun running for about a month now and Ive already found five or six different varieties of plinking, target, and hunting ammunition that cycle perfectly. I cant wait to wring it out this winter on some plump cottontails that frequent the basalt outcroppings near my home.

While the major components (lock, stock, and barrel literally) were sourced locally, the specialty parts that really sent this rebuild into overdrive came from a single internet source: TANDEMKROSS. Based in New Hampshire, TandemKross carries aftermarket products manufactured exclusively in the USA. Their mission is to solve firearms problems that manufacturers cant or wont, making good guns great. Currently their product lines service a number of Ruger, KelTec, Walther, Browning, Smith & Wesson, and Glock centerfire and rimfire models. Be sure to check out their extensive inventory at tandemkross.com.

Lets take a moment and talk about the TK parts that have transformed my ho-hum 10-22 rebuild into a real show stopper. In my book, functional reliability trumps all other criteria, so the first thing that I did was to replace my Rugers cheap stamped factory extractor with TKs Eagles Talon version. Machined from hardened tool grade steel, the Eagles Talon incorporates a positive hook design which guarantees that even the most recalcitrant round or casing will be plucked from my rifles tight chamber.

To speed competitive reloads and alleviate the bothersome two-handed operation of releasing the 10-22s bolt to chamber a round, I substituted my guns manual bolt release with TKs Guardian auto bolt release plate. Installation was a breeze thanks to TKs online instructional videos. Now all that I have to do to release the bolt on a fresh magazine is to intuitively pull back and then release the bolt charging handle. Also pictured is TKs Advantage Picatinny Charging Assist that Ill be installing before my nieces next Johnny Appleseed competition. She already has designs for using Uncle Richs 10-22 to get a competitive edge over her competitors.

A really nifty item (pictured) that makes bolt and extractor removal and reassembly a snap is Gunsmither Tools Bolt Bar. This ingenious device greatly simplifies these two formerly onerous tasks.

Ive deliberately held back the best news for last. As dearly as I love Rugers utterly reliable BX-1 rotary 10 round and their BX-25 25-round Zytel magazines, in my opinion, they have at long last been bested. They are being phased out of my collection and replaced by TKs Double Kross Double 10-22 magazine bodies. Following website video instructions, use the Magazine Tune Up Tool to dissemble two Ruger factory magazines and place their internals into a single Double Kross magazine body. These uber-reliable units double your standard 10-round capacity in a single clear or black Zytel magazine that is only slightly larger than the standard 10 rounders. They are fully compatible with 10-22 competitive belt pouches and function flawlessly in all competitive scenarios.

Thanks to the increased availability of .22 ammo and TandemKross components, I now have my one gun does it all Ruger 10-22. Life is good.
A New Ross e-commerce company co-founder has sold his business to Walmart for 3 billion in the largest-ever purchase of a U.S. e-commerce start-up.

The Barrowside town man is in line to get tens of millions of dollars after the business was sold in a landmark deal on August 8. Mike Hanrahan, the co-founder of online marketplace Jet which was bought by Walmart in a cash and shares deal worth $3.3bn (3bn), is a married father-of-two who lives in New Jersey.

He attended St Augustine's NS and Good Counsel College before studying at Waterford Institute of Technology in the late 1990s. He worked at PwC, the largest professional services firm in Ireland, after completing his studies. A chest infection meant he couldn't take up a job in London, so instead he joined Credit Suisse where he met Marc Lore. Nine years later he joined Lore at Quidsi, which sold nappies and soap online. Lore sold the company to Amazon for $545,m.

Lore, Hanrahan and another Amazon employee Nate Faust then founded Jet, which was established to compete aggressively with Amazon.

Hanrahan is chief technology officer of Jet.com and helped build the algorithm which reduced prices depending on how much customers bought. The company wasn't expected to make a profit until 2020, but it has been adding 400,000 customers per month since its launch. It remains a growing but not yet profitable company. Hanrahan is also a project director of operations at Quidsi. The management team owned about 25 per cent of the business. Hanrahan said he is 'very much looking forward to continuing to build out Jet and its technology group, while working with Walmart'.

Wal-Mart Stores bought Jet.com to sharpen its e-commerce abilities to better take on industry giant Amazon, and to attract more millennial customers.
The Denis Collins Gallery on Wexford's Rowe Street is presenting a unique exhibition by artist Joel Whybrew who creates drawings using 'Etch a Sketch' as well as lion prints and sculptures.

The exhibition running from Saturday, August 20 to Saturday, September 10 will feature about 15 of his mini- masterpieces.

Joel is an illustrator and sculptor from Essex in England and after meeting a Wexford-born girl in London, he moved to the sunny south east in April of this year.

Since moving to Wexford, he has been focusing on his artwork while also being a regular fixture at Fusion Cafe's open mic nights with his 5-string banjo.

His favourite medium to work with is the classic children's toy 'Etch a Sketch' having discovered his talent for drawing with it a few years ago. Since then he has produced many drawings and even created his own version of the toy which enables him to save his illustrations and print them. After purchasing soaps and candles on North Main Street, he has also carved a series of sculptures based on Irish storytelling.

'I make artwork because I am inspired by everyday situations, role models, and the occasional hero from popular culture, both past and present,' he said.

"Etch A Sketch Artist!" will be officially opened with an afternoon of celebration on Saturday 20th August starting at 3.00pm and continuing until 5.30pm.

Gallery owner Denis Collins will introduce the work and speak about Joel's background. Joel will be there to talk about his work and play a few numbers on the banjo and there will be a showing of "Rainbow Quest - A Present for Pete", a documentary of Joel's journey to the USA to present a sculpture to the folk musician Pete Seeger.

Denis Collins extends an open invitation to drop in and see Joel Whybrew's art and celebrate with him.
The Friends of the County Wexford Art Collection and the Arts Department of Wexford County Council are delighted to host an exhibition of work by the renowned Irish contemporary artist John Shinnors.

The exhibition in County Buildings in Carricklawn will present a selection of his work from 2001 to 2016 including the acclaimed Scarecrow Portraits.

The title of the exhibition, 'Seeing Things', refers to the solid but fluctuating world of objects and to a haunted realm of the imagination.

In his paintings, Shinnors offers a hint of a figure or object which initially can be seen as an unsettling light in the dark. The viewer's eyes adjust to the varying tones and begin to decipher the recessed elements of the paintings and the image is revealed, exposing the primal energy of light within the works.

Shinnors' style shows a playfulness between the object and its meaning. His oblique views are infused with a strong sense of emotion through the use of paint, colour and contrast which convey an atmospheric, otherworldly meaning and an unmasking of the beauty within the painting.

The exhibition will be officially launched at a reception in Wexford County Buildings on Thursday, August 18 at 1 p.m. with Council CEO Tom Enright as guest speaker.

The Friends of the County Wexford Art Collection are a voluntary group of people passionate about the need to support the collection which is one of the most prestigious local authority art collections in the country, estblished in 1994 and containing almost 200 pieces of purchased, donated or loaned works.

Through the Friends, works of artistic significance are secured for the collection by means of gift bequest. The Friends also facilitate the donation of works on behalf of names or anonymous donors or in honour of a named person.

John Shinnors was born in Limerick in 1950 and has lived and worked all his life in his native city apart from a brief period spent in London during his teens. He studied at the Limerick School of Art and Design under the influential Jack Donovan and has exhibited widely in Ireland and internationally. He is a member of Aosdana and is involved in the promotion of the arts through the Shinnors Scholarship and the Shinnors Drawing Award.

Seeing Things will run in Wexford County Council from Friday, August 19 to Wednesday, October 5 from 9 am to 5 pm each day.
Wexford Fire Service rushed to Wellingtonbridge on Sunday after they received a call to say that a jeep was on fire on the Duncannon Line.

Two units of the fire service attended the scene, where they discovered a jeep in flames and the driver of the jeep, who had escaped unharmed.

Gardai and ambulance services were also in attendance. A tow truck removed the vehicle from the road once the fire was extinguished.

Wexford Fire Service were unsure of the cause of the fire. Gardai in New Ross had no further information on how the fire may have started.
The moment has arrived for 1,971 County Wexford Leaving Certificate students who pick up their results on Wednesday morning.

Of these 1,971 students, 1,861 sat the traditional Leaving Certificate exams while the remaining 110 completed the Leaving Certificate Applied. There was a relatively even split between male and female students with 944 females sitting the Leaving Certificate and 917 males. 44 females completed the Leaving Certificate Applied compared to 66 men.

Principal of St Mary's secondary school in New Ross, John Michael Porter urged pupils to keep a cool head on Wednesday.

Mr Porter said: 'The work is done now so I'd urge students to just be calm and keep relaxed. A lot is made about the results but the CAO offers come out next week so things might look a lot different then.'

Guidance counsellors will be on hand at many schools across the county, including St Mary's, and Mr Porter reminded pupils that there are so many pathways to careers today.

'Take advice and take time making your decisions and there are phonelines available for anyone. It's the start of the next phase of their lives and there is help there for everyone.'

The ISPCC has issued tips to help parents support young people who are receiving their results next week. They include focussing on their strengths, achievements and unique qualities and urging their children to explore other options. ISPCC Director of Services, Caroline O'Sullivan, said: 'Although there will be a lot of students who are happy with their results and looking forward to the next stepping stone in life, this week can be a challenging time for many families as some students may feel anxious waiting for their Leaving Cert results. Receiving disappointing exam results can be stressful and upsetting for both young people and their parents.'

Ms O'Sullivan said the best tip is to keep the communication lines open. 'Support your son or daughter through listening and talking and keep your own expectations in check. There can be a lot of pressure on young people to perform well in exams, but they should be reassured that there are other options and this is just one stepping stone in life, there are many others.'

The ISPCC Childline service is available around the clock on 1800 666 666 or visit www.childline.ie. Alternatively the National Parents Council (1800 265 165) provides advice and guidance for candidates and parents, staffed by professional guidance counsellors, for one week following the issue of the results.

Meanwhile Waterford Institute of Technology has announced that applications are being accepted for its Maths Entry Exam. This unique initiative is a 'second chance scheme' for students who have not achieved the required maths grade in the Leaving Certificate for their chosen course in WIT.

Students will be given another opportunity to matriculate to the Institute by sitting a Leaving Certificate equivalent paper at the end of August. The exam is available to candidates who have already applied for a course in WIT. The exam does not provide additional points so intending applicants must have already achieved the cut-off points for their programme of choice. The standard of the Maths paper will be equivalent to the Leaving Certificate Ordinary Level paper one and paper two. Costing 35, the exam will take place on Friday, August 26, in the Main Campus at WIT.

The exam is not applicable to students seeking places on WIT's nursing programmes due to restricted availability of places or for the BEng (Hons) in Electronic Engineering because of minimum professional qualifications. An application form and full details of the scheme including the revision course are available on www.wit.ie/mathsentryexam.
A number of business women across Wexford are expected to attend the second annual Enterprise Ireland International Business Women's Conference next week.

The conference will be held in conjunction with the Rose of Tralee International Festival on Monday at the Brandon Hotel, Tralee.

There is a line-up of 29 expert speakers set to take to the podium; some 27 of those are some of Ireland's leading business women and entrepreneurs. Inspirational female figures such as Eleanor McEvoy and Norah Casey from Dragons' Den will share their experiences and insights on themes such as leadership, growing a global business and entrepreneurship.

The event will celebrate the business achievements and success stories of women today under the conference theme 'The Changing Face of Success' focussing on strong female role models leading by example and empowering women to fulfil their ambitions.

Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Mary Mitchell O'Connor TD said: This is a hugely important and inspiring event, which brings together successful, inspirational female entrepreneurs. It is great to see the range and diversity of the speakers attending the conference. Promoting the achievements of women actively encourages others to aim high and in turn creates a valuable contribution to both the economy and society.'

Registration for the conference is now open online with the option of purchasing bundled tickets to the Rose of Tralee Fashion Show and the televised Selection nights in the Dome. See www.internationalbusinesswomen.ie/Online-Registration.
A scene from one of the performances in San Salvo, Italy

Talented members of the County Wexford Youth Orchestra based in Summerhill in Wexford town have just returned from an international orchestra festival in San Salvo, Italy.

A group of 26 musicians from the Wexford orchestra auditioned for the 11-day event called 'Music Inclusion' and were chosen to travel to Italy along with their conductor Emily Redmond.

Students from Conservatoires in Spain, Slovakia, Italy and Ireland attended the international festival with a total of 160 musicians taking part. The young participants engaged rehearsed for eight hours each day in preparation for two finale concerts of repertoire including pieces from Lord of the Rings, West Side Story, Harry Potter and two Beethoven Symphonies.

The County Wexford Youth Orchestra, with musicians from New Ross, Enniscorthy, Bunclody, Gorey and Wexford town, also performed a solo concert in the town square for the Mayor of San Salvo and other local dignatories and even taught the audience some Mumming.

This was the orchestra's fourth trip abroad. They have competed and received prizes in competitions in Prague (2009) and Bratislava (2011) and featured on Italian TV at another festival in Italy in 2014.

Their next outing will be the Festival of Youth Orchestras at the National Concert Hall in Dublin in Febuary 2017 along with other local events over the coming months.
Country piles and castles in South Sligo are among the establishments opening their doors to the public for Heritage Week next week.

Starting this Saturday, Heritage Week organises a range of events to encourage the conservation and preservation of our Heritage.

Some of the events include a field trip to Moygara Castle from the Coleman Centre in Gurteen this Sunday from 3.30-5.30pm.

The owners of Coopershill House are giving a free guided tour on Wednesday August 24th 12-2pm. You can wander around a restored 19th century schoolhouse at Annaghmore, Collooney on Sunday August 28th 10am-4pm.

The charming old Schoolhouse has been conserved by the Irish Landmark Trust.

Other opportunities thrown up by Heritage Week are a guide tour of lesser-known Newpark grounds and nature walk led by Michael Bell. This is free and takes place on Friday 26th August at 2.30 - 3.30pm.

Temple House Estate are also offering a free tour and talk of their historic B&B, farm and native woodland on Monday August 22nd 12-2pm.

Website: heritageweek.ie.
Officers from the Criminal Assests Bureau seized two tractors, two motorbikes and a car after carrying out searches at two houses in the Ballymote area last Thursday morning.

The CAB oficers, who had travelled from Dublin, were assisted by local Gardai based in Ballymote Station.

The searches took a couple of hours during which high value vehicles were taken away.

These included two tractors, two motorbikes and a car.

No arrests were made and the CAB investigation is ongoing.

Up to a dozen Gardai and officers attached to CAB were involved in the searches of the properties which took place around 8am. It is understood the probe has been ongoing for some time. There has been several investigations in Sligo and across the West of Ireland in general over the past number of years into the importation of stolen farm machinery into this country, mainly from the UK and Northern Ireland.

There has been also several arrests in the past, charges brought and convictions secured at Circuit Court level with jail terms imposed in some cases.
125 YEARS AGO

August 15, 1891: Jas. Dewar and family and Mrs. Grant and family started out Thursday morning on a ten days camping trip to Lamoille and South Fork. They took two wagons and a tent.



John Ainley has our thanks for a big box of choice currants from his ranch.



S.G. Weston was in from Lone Mountain Saturday. He has been under the weather for a week or two, though able to be around.



E.C. Jones is having the front of his blacksmith shop painted.

100 YEARS AGO

August 16, 1916: Mr. and Mrs. Doc Secor and Mr. and Mrs. Hymer spent Sunday at the Jack Creek ranger station. According to all reports, the fish were ravenous and the hunting was never better, in consequence, fish and chicken dinners were in order since that day.

August 17, 1916: James Colling has completed the transfer of his large ranch on South Fork to Araskada Brothers, large sheep men, who contemplate making the ranch headquarters for all their sheep operations. Mr. Colling has no plans for the future, but will probably go into business on a large scale here. The ranch is one of the largest and best in this section of the state, and was located on the Bullion road.

August 19, 1916: Last Saturday 34 of Lamoilles pleasure loving people motored to Hylton to attend the dance at that place. A large crowd was present and every one enjoyed themselves very much. Refreshments were served at 12 oclock and the dance continued till the wee hours of a new day.

75 YEARS AGO

August 14, 1941: Word was received in Elko today from the army headquarters reception center at Fort Douglas, Utah, that Romano Lopez and Norman L. Thompson, selectees from Elko county, have been assigned to the infantry replacement center at Camp Wolters, Texas. Camp Wolters is located in eastern Texas, about 40 miles west of Fort Worth.

August 15, 1941: A partnership existing since 1932 between Kem Woolverton and William Bellinger was dissolved here today. Bellinger has taken full control of the garage business which was conducted by the two men, while Wolverton will leave shortly for the coast. Bellinger plans to continue the business much as the two men have in the past. They have repaired everything from bikes to diesel trucks and have been the agents for the DeSoto cars. Wolverton is undecided as to just what he will do, but he is considering ferrying air ships for England from the coast of Canada.

August 19, 1941: Members of the Elko city council decided definitely last night to drill a new water well. The special meeting was called to consider this matter and the construction of a new fire house. While all the members of the council recognize that the city is badly in need of a new firehouse they did not feel that it should be constructed now. City Engineer R.A. Kinne was instructed by the council members to select a location for drilling a new well and to contact drillers to do the job.

50 YEARS AGO

August 17, 1966: Robert J. Zander, Elko elementary school principal, last night was named to replace Elko County School District Superintendent Burnell Larson during a special meeting of the Elko County School Board. The complete board, Chairman Richard Toothman, Wilda Grock, R.E. Burns, Jr., Frank Weinrauch, Arthur Glaser, D.V. Harper and John Blecka were in attendance. The board chose Zander from 20 applicants, three of which were Nevadans, and the starting salary was agreed upon at $13,000. Bob Zander, and Elko resident since 1946, received a bachelor of education degree from Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill. In more recent years he has logged almost 27 graduate hours at Northwestern and 33 graduate hours at the University of Nevada in Reno.



A ten-year dream began coming true late yesterday as the Northeastern Nevada Historical Society signed a contract with Lesbo Construction Co. of Elko for a 4,000 square foot museum building. Construction will be of a masonry type, with a low roof. The structure will include a main building and one wing, with provision for later addition of a second wing.

August 18, 1966: His tour of duty with the U.S. Navy Dental Corps completed, John H. Martin, Jr., D.D.S., has returned to Elko and is now making preparations for entering the practice of dentistry in this city where he was born and raised. He will be located at a new dental clinic building being constructed and equipped at 1184 College Avenue, just across from the Elko General Hospital.

25 YEARS AGO

August 14, 1991: Skywest Airlines has changed its plans about dropping flights between Ely and Reno, but has announced it will end direct flights from Ely to Elko beginning Sept. 1. Currently, two Skywest flights travel between Elko and Ely each day. Elko has a total of 11 Skywest flights arriving daily from Salt Lake City and Reno.

August 16, 1991: Plans for a pedestrian island in east east Idaho Street, between the Red Lion Inn and Casino and the Red Lion Motor Inn, were approved Tuesday by Elko City Council. The island is designed to allow pedestrians to tackle half of the street at a time by giving them a refuge half way across the four-lane road. The island would go in the left-turn lane. Street lights, from Manzanita Lane to the East Elko freeway interchange, are part of the project.

August 17, 1991: Lillian and Bob Secrist are closing the hardware portion of their operation at 147 Commercial St. after 23 years in business. The Secrists emphasize that only the Elko Ace Hardware store will be closing; they will continue to operate the Ace Tie store and their firewood business.
Two men who were involved in a car crash which claimed the life of a young man near Boyle last week were arrested for questioning about an attempted robbery in Sligo half an hour later.

The crash claimed the life of a 20-year-old, Dylan Byrne from Crumlin, Dublin who was a rear-seat passenger when the car left the road and struck a ditch at Ardcarne, Boyle shortly after midnight on Wednesday last.

Mr Byrne was taken to Sligo University Hospital where he was later pronounced dead. A post mortem took place there subsequently.

The driver of the Renault Megane and the other passenger, aged 31 and 37, were arrested at the same hospital after receiving treatment for minor injuries. They were held in relation to an incident in Sligo around half an hour earlier.

A garda alert had been issued about a red Renault Megane and Gardai suspect that the same car was involved in the fatal crash in Boyle. The car was not however being pursued by gardai at the time of the crash.

At around 11.30pm on Tuesday, two men had approached the owner of a Chinese takeaway at his home in Sligo town and threatened him with knives. The men managed to steal house keys from the 74-year-old Chinese man and attempted to enter his home nearby.

The men were not able to gain entry to the house as they dropped the keys which they had taken. No money was taken and they fled the scene. Half an hour later, their car was involved in a fatal road collision which claimed the life of Mr Byrne.

The two men arrested in the hospital are said to be well-known to gardai for involvement in crime.They were questioned for a number of hours at Carrick-On-Shannon Garda Station, in Co Leitrim, before being released without charge. A file on the case will now be prepared for the DPP.

The funeral of Mr Dylan took place on Monday after Mass in St. Agnes's Church, Crumlin to Mount Jerome Cemetery.

Mr Byrne, known as Byrner, is survived by his mother, four sisters and one brother.
IT Sligo's new 280 seat lecture hall will be known as the Aurivo Auditorium.

The college, which has over 6,000 students, has signed a four-year deal with Aurivo Co-operative Society, for the naming rights to the new state-of-the-art campus facility, which will be officially opened in September.

The construction of a 280-seater lecture and conference space in the heart of the campus is nearing completion and will be known as the Aurivo Auditorium. The new facility, situated in IT Sligo's main building, will be opened by Irish Nobel Prize winner Professor William C Campbell, who is a native of the North West.

The Aurivo Auditorium has been designed by Rhatigan Architects (Sligo), and is being built to a high specification with the latest audio and visual systems by Boyle Construction (Donegal).

In addition to the naming rights, the agreement with Aurivo will see the IT Sligo logo and marketing messages appearing on several of Aurivo's Connacht Gold milk products. The partnership will also enable Aurivo to use the auditorium for the co-operative's principal conferences and AGM each year.

Professor Vincent Cunnane, President of IT Sligo said: "This is a facility which will be an important academic resource for the Institute's students and staff, but it is also a facility for Sligo and the wider community. Bringing people to our campus is one of the best ways enhance our engagement with the community. That is what makes this new relationship with Aurivo a very good fit."

Aurivo is one of Ireland's leading multi-purpose co-operatives with businesses in dairy ingredients, consumer foods, retail stores, animal feeds, and livestock marts. The co-op has 10,000 shareholders, employs over 600 people, exports dairy ingredients to almost 50 countries worldwide, and had a turnover of 420m in 2015. Aaron Forde, Chief Executive of Aurivo said: "As a globally focussed agribusiness headquartered in Sligo, it's fitting that Aurivo is collaborating with one of Ireland's most successful third level institutions. Education and industry partnerships are crucial in delivering a strong knowledge base and enhanced economic development, and Aurivo is delighted to partner with IT Sligo in this innovative initiative."

The official opening of the new Aurivo Auditorium will take place in September, and is the latest in series of capital developments by IT Sligo.
A leading Credit Union figure has urged parents to turn away from moneylenders as they try to meet back to school costs.

Seamus Kilgannon, who is a board member of the Irish League of Credit Unions said this time of the year can be very stressful for parents.

"Many parents are under so much financial pressure they may even need to approach moneylenders which inevitably leads to further hardship and financial stress.

"My advice is avoid using money lenders at all costs. Make a list of what you need to buy and work out what your budget is for those purchases.

"Check with other parents if they have books or uniforms that they do not need. Most parents are only too keen to help others when they can," said Mr Kilgannon who is also a County Councillor.

He pointed out that in a recent CU survey, eighty one per cent of parents interviewed stated that preparing children for back to school was a significant financial burden.

"Thirty one percent were recorded as having to get themselves into debt to meet these costs and fourteen percent have had to use money lenders to meet the unavoidable costs of getting a child back to school"

"Most worryingly thirteen per cent of all parents interviewed stated that have had to sacrifice spending on food to meet back to school costs.

This is a very serious situation for many families. Unfortunately, there is no magic wand to immediately solve this problem.

"However, in my role as a Councillor and a Board Member of the Irish League of Credit Unions, I have recognised that parents need more support in this area.

"Shop around for best value and talk to other parent's for advice on best deals available. The schools themselves may be able to offer helpful advice in that respect. But most importantly, if at all possible, try to stay within your budget.

"Also, be sure to check your eligibility for the Back to School Allowance and make an application before the scheme closes on 30th September.

"The Citizens Information Board has made available excellent advice on their website."

Councillor Kilgannon added:

"The Credit Union does not exist to make a profit, the Credit Union is about supporting the people.

"We are currently planning to implement nationally the new "It Makes Sense" scheme, an almost instant loan facility for people on Social Welfare or low incomes.

"This is being particularly developed to meet the needs of struggling parents at this time and similar circumstances.

"In the case of those on Social Welfare, small manageable repayments are deducted at source from the Social Welfare payment and transferred to the Credit Union re-payment account.

"I would encourage anyone who is currently facing financial hardship for whatever reason to call into your local Credit Union branch to discuss how they can assist your financial needs".
The Hollywood Fair Committee is busy making final preparations for the annual fair which takes place from Thursday, August 18, to Sunday, August 21.

The 2016 Hollywood Fair promises to be hugely entertaining with something of interest for everyone. The pre-1950s rural heritage theme of the Fair has proved a real hit with people. All in attendance embrace the spirit of the occasion and enjoy the spectacle of seeing each other dressed in pre-1950s attire.

Whether it's nostalgia for the past or something else, both the farming community and townspeople alike have been flocking to Hollywood in the last 5 years to be part of the celebration.

This year, the Fair commences with a Ceili/Set-Dancing session on Thursday night in the GAA Centre.

On Friday evening at 8.15 p.m. a production called 'Face the Short Kick-out' written and performed by the Blessington's Richard Lynch takes place in the Hollywood Community Centre. This will be followed by traditional music and singing in the Ceilidh House in the village on Friday night.

On Saturday evening Bishop Eamonn Walsh will celebrate an old-style Latin Mass in St Kevin's Church at 6 p.m. with local clergy.

Dressed in pre-1950s attire the large attendance usually make their way by pony and trap, vintage vehicles, bikes and shank's mare.

After Mass a slow-bicycle race is followed by a re-enactment of the 1916 Executions at Kilmainham Gaol.

On Sunday, there will a Guinness World Record attempt for the largest number of people (men, women and children) wearing flat-caps at a single event.

And of course there will be the usual exhibitions of traditional crafts such as blacksmithing, stonecutting, threshing, thatching, wood-turning and butter making.

The indoor handicrafts being displayed included spinning, knitting and sewing.

Among the items on display are vintage cars and farm machinery.

The renowned Lisdoonvarna Match-Maker Willie Daly will attend the Fair on Sunday. Another major attraction is the Sheep Show. Competition for the various categories attracts intense local interest.

Entrance fee for a wonderful family day-out is just 3 for adults, with children under-12 getting in free.

The Hollywood Fair book is also currently on sale and every year the fair book gets bigger and better.

This year local contributors have submitted their reflections and historic stories connected to the area, the inhabitants and community. There is a fantastic selection of archive photography images for you to muse on which accompany the many articles. This 2016 book is a must have addition to whittle away the hours over the winter and a welcome historical document to pass on to future generations.

Rams line up for the judges at last year's Hollywood Fair.
Three events will take place in Glenmalure to mark National Heritage Week in addition to the self guided walks on the 2015 and 2016 PURE Miles.

On Sunday, August 21, a short walk to explore the mining heritage of Baravore will begin at Baravore Car Park at 2 p.m. This event will be hosted jointly by the Mining Heritage Trust of Ireland and the Glenmalure PURE Mile/Adopt a Monument Group. Refreshments will be served afterwards in the nearby An Oige Historic Hostel which will also host an open day with short guided tours.

On Saturday, August 20, a Glenmalure Valley History Walk will begin at Glenmalure Lodge at 10 a.m. The group will walk from Baravore to the zig-zag track. This event is organised by the IMC with Carmel O'Toole recounting the history of the area.

On Sunday, August 28, in addition to the guided tours in the hostel, a short drama will be performed at intervals. This is a new narrative on the life of Dr Kathleen Lynn, written by Marion McEvoy, who has also previously written the play 'The Last House in the Glen.'

Events are free and all are welcome.

Self guided leaflets for both PURE Miles are also available at Glenmalure Lodge.
Petra O'Toole, the Toronto Rose, with Noreen and Jackie Higgins in Shay Doyles Pub, Rathnew

Paddy Canavan who piped Petra O'Toole the Toronto Rose with Holly Connors into Shay Doyles Pub, Rathnew

Petra O'Toole the Toronto Rose is greeted by Shay Brennan, Marian Murphy and Eamonn Franey on her arrival to meet family in Shay Doyles Pub, Rathnew

Eamonn Franey teaching Petra O'Toole the Toronto Rose how to pull a pint of Guinness in Shay Doyles Pub, Rathnew

Petra O'Toole the Toronto Rose, with The Village PLayers who performed The Plough and The Stars play in Shay Doyles Pub, Rathnew

Toronto Rose, Petra Bridget O'Toole, has been tracing back her Irish roots prior to the Rose of Tralee Festival by visiting some prime Wicklow locations.

Petra's grandparents, Chris and Eileen O'Toole, emigrated to Canada in 1962 and their granddaughter is keen to meet as many Wicklow family members as possible, all for the first time.

She was accompanied by her sister Keenan and her parents Joseph and Orsey at a family get together held in the Grand Hotel.

Also joining them was a camera crew as Petra is filming a documentary on her year as Toronto Rose.

More recently she also paid a visit to Doyle's Public House in Rathnew, where she received some 'Royal' treatment during rehearsals for an upcoming production of the Plough and the Stars by the Village Players.

Petra also paid a visit to the Mystic Celt last Thursday, where she enjoyed some fine Irish cuisine.

Petra has a BA honours degree in Theatre and German and a Masters in German Literature.

She studies in Paris for a period and currently works as a performer, producer and production co-ordinator in film and theatre.
Garda Niamh Leacy who tracked down a French Tourist on Twitter and social media to return their camera

Some intrepid police work carried out by a Wicklow town based Garda has reunited a French tourist with the high-end camera she left behind while on holiday.

The camera in question was found near the bus stop across the road from Tesco in Wicklow town and handed into Garda Niamh Lacey, who went above and beyond the call of duty to make sure the expensive Canon camera was returned to its rightful owner.

Sgt Colm Corrigan was able to access the camera's memory and download some photographs to try and ascertain the identity of the owner.

'There were quite a few photographs taken at the airport so we had an idea early on that the camera might belong to someone who had been visiting Ireland on a trip but might not have not have still been in the country, which made the job of tracking them down that bit more difficult,' said Garda Lacey.

'A woman in one of the pictures was wearing a zip-up jacket that had the words Medecine Lille emblazoned on the sleeve so I thought maybe the owner was a student attending a French college. Maybe we had an outside hope of finding the owner.

'I was going to contact different colleges and see if they could identify anyone in the photos.'

Some of the photographs were then sent on to the Garda Press Office who almost immediately placed them up on their twitter account. Within no time the photographs were going viral on social media.

It soon became apparent that a French woman had visited garda stations in Dublin and Bray to report her camera missing but that had been four weeks ago and she had since returned home to France.

Fortunately she had left behind an email address to contact her in case the camera was recovered. Garda Lacey was able to reach her and pass on the good news to the medical student.

The camera was packed up and sent back to its very grateful owner on Monday evening.

'There were an awful lot of photographs on the camera, including snaps of her holidays and other pictures which I'm sure had real sentimental value,' says Garda Lacey.

'I'm sure she never thought she was going to see the camera again, especially having left it at a bus stop. It's not often social media is used to trace someone but in a case like this it proved to be the prefect tool and worked really brilliantly.'
Annie Murphy and Jimmy O'Shaughnessy at the official opening of the Parnell Summer School in Avondale house, Rathdrum

Niall O'Suilleabhain and Sarah Kinsella at the official opening of the Parnell Summer School in Avondale house, Rathdrum

Deidre Larkin and Bernadette O'Reilly at the official opening of the Parnell Summer School in Avondale house, Rathdrum

The Parnell Summer School drew to a close on Thursday in Avondale House and featured a number of different talks reflecting on the impact of 1916.

The morning lecture by Dr Leeann Lane was titled 'Violating gender: women and weapons in 1916' and examined the manner in which the Irish Free State elided the participation of women during the revolutionary period as full and equal soldiers. The state deemed men to have fought for Irish independence but considered female activists in the nationalist cause to have had an auxiliary, less than participatory role.

This was followed by Mick O'Dea, President of the Royal Hibernian Academy, as he spoke about his recent exhibition 'The Foggy Dew.'

The closing sessions included a lecture from Orla Fitzpatrick of the National Museum of Ireland as she discussed the use of photography, portraits and propaganda in recording and commemorating Easter 1916.

On Wednesday, Dr Brian Hanley talked about the class divide in existence during the Irish Revolution. In 1916 Ireland was a society acutely and minutely aware of class distinction, not only between, but within classes.

Among the most evocative images of Dublin during Easter Week are the looting of businesses by the urban poor and the hostility towards the rebels shown by some inner-city residents.

A panel was also in place later that same day for a debate entitled 'Assessing Commemoration: 2016 and the Decade of Centenaries.' Members of the panel included Professor Maurice Manning, Dr Anne Dolan, Dr Margaret O'Callaghan and Professor Tom Dunne.
Over 1,500 young people across the county will find out their Leaving Certificate results today

This morning marks the end of the anxious wait for Leaving Certificate results for over 1,500 young people across the county.

A total of 1,553 students - 704 females and 849 males - will receive their large brown envelope this morning while 72 students, 25 females and 47 males will get the results of the Leaving Certificate Applied exams.

Once the results are collected, both in school and online, the students must then wait for the first round of the CAO offers next week.

While all the advice points towards students taking time to assess their results carefully and not to be disappointed whatever the outcome, there has also been some important information circulated on marking the occasion safely when it comes to partying.

Drinkaware are appealing to parents to discuss their exam celebration plans with their children as they collect their Leaving Cert exam results tomorrow.

Parents can be unsure how to approach the subject of alcohol use with their teenage children or other parents, particularly at this time when many receiving results tomorrow may already be of legal drinking age.

According to Yvonne Rossiter, Interim Chief Executive Officer of Drinkaware, the post-results celebrations do not have to be synonymous with the now expected reports about drunken teenagers spilling out of nightclubs.

'We simply should not accept that the two go hand in hand,' she said. 'We should not presume that young people will drink to excess. Far from it, young people are telling us that they are looking for alternatives to alcohol and now it's time we listened to them and gave them the kind of practical knowledge and advice they can apply to stay safe and be healthy. We are appealing to parents to discuss with their children their plans for results night, find out who they will be with, if alcohol will be present and how they plan to get home,' she added.

Further information is available at www.drinkaware.ie
Wicklow's mountain rescue teams were involved in their 48th call out of the year after responding to a female walker with a leg injury.

The Gardai alerted the Dublin Wicklow Mountains Rescue Team and the Glen of Imaal Red Cross Mountain Rescue Team at 3.30 p.m. on Saturday, August 7, after a woman fell on the Spink in Glendalough and injured her lower leg.

Mountain rescue personnel assisted Irish Coast Guard helicopter Rescue 116 to airlift the woman. The incident was stood down at 4.49 p.m.
Tom Hanks has paid an emotional tribute to his mother following her death at 84.

The Forrest Gump star shared a portrait of Janet Marylyn Frager on Instagram, writing in the caption: "This beauty? My mom. She was the difference in many lives. Many lives. We say goodbye to her today. Safe crossing."

The double Oscar-winner, who celebrated his 60th birthday on Saturday, later posted another photo on Twitter of the State Theatre in Red Bluff, California.

"Saw many movies here with our Mom," he wrote. "Thanks for all who came to see her off. Hanx."

Hanks' wife, actress Rita Wilson, also took to social media to pay tribute to Ms Frager, a former hospital worker.

Sharing a picture of Hanks with his mother on Instagram, Wilson wrote: "This wonderful lady gave birth to my husband, and three other children. Thank you for bringing my love into the world. She is at peace now."

Hanks broke down in tears on Desert Island Discs in May as he discussed his nomadic childhood after he went to live with his father Amos following his parents' divorce.

After hearing the theme to 2001: A Space Odyssey, Hanks said the piece of music helped him as he struggled with the "vocabulary of loneliness" in his head.

He and his siblings, Larry and Sarah, went to live with their father following the divorce, staying in 10 houses in five years, while their younger brother Jim stayed with their mother.
Five-year-old Omran Daqneesh sits with his sister inside an ambulance following an airstrike in the rebel-held al-Qaterji neighbourhood of Aleppo, Syria. Photo: Reuters

A general view shows the site of yesterday's airstrike where five-year-old Omran Daqneesh got injured in the rebel-held al-Qaterji neighbourhood of Aleppo, Syria. Photo: Reuters

A photograph of five-year-old Omran Daqneesh has since been seen around the world. Photo: Reuters

The brother of a Syrian boy whose photograph has come to symbolise the suffering of civilians in war-torn Aleppo has reportedly died of his injuries.

Ali Daqneesh, 10, was injured alongside his little brother Omran and the rest of their family when an air strike reduced their apartment building to rubble on Wednesday night.

He was taken to hospital with his parents and siblings but died of his injuries on Saturday, activists in Aleppo said, adding that mourners were gathering at the family's temporary home.

The UK-based Syria Solidarity Campaign also reported the death, calling the strike a war crime.

A local opposition group posted a photo of Ali online, appearing to show him in a hospital bed with facial injuries, unconscious and breathing through a tube.

He and the rest of the Daqneesh family initially survived the bombing after being pulled out of the rubble by volunteer rescue workers and transported to hospital.

Abu Ali, the childrens father, said Ali  his oldest son  was outside in the street playing with friends when the blast struck.

He described how he was sitting on the sofa next to Omran at the time, with his wife, another son and two daughters elsewhere in the first-floor flat.

Expand Close A general view shows the site of yesterday's airstrike where five-year-old Omran Daqneesh got injured in the rebel-held al-Qaterji neighbourhood of Aleppo, Syria. Photo: Reuters / Facebook

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Whatsapp A general view shows the site of yesterday's airstrike where five-year-old Omran Daqneesh got injured in the rebel-held al-Qaterji neighbourhood of Aleppo, Syria. Photo: Reuters

It is very painful to watch your children falling in front of your eyes, the father said in an interview with the Telegraph.

Images of Omran sitting dazed and silent in an ambulance, covered in dust and blood, spread around the world and has intensified calls for an immediate ceasefire.

His parents and siblings were also transferred to hospital for treatment and their condition could not immediately be confirmed.

Russia has denied responsibility for Wednesdays air strikes in the Qaterji district, which killed at least eight people, including five children.

Aleppo, which is split between regime and rebel control, has been at the epicentre of continued battles and bombing despite successive attempts at ceasefires.

More air strikes were reported on Saturday, with pro-rebel activists saying one bombing killed seven members of the same family  including six children  early in the morning.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group based in the UK, said more than 300 civilians have been killed in three weeks of bombing and fighting in Aleppo.

Around half were reportedly killed by Syrian and Russian air strikes and shelling on opposition-controlled districts, while rebel attacks killed more than 160 civilians on the regime side of the city.

Approximately 250,000 people live in the city's eastern districts, while another 1.2 million live in its western neighbourhoods.

Aid convoys have not been able to access the city for months, with fighting continuing as a coalition of Islamist militants including the former al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra fight to open up a corridor out of besieged areas.

Russia, which has been conducting air strikes in support of the Syrian regime since September, said it was willing to support weekly 48-hour ceasefires to allow aid to reach besieged areas.

But battles continued on Saturday as forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad attempted to reinforce their positions.

Elsewhere in Syria, fighting between the regime army and Kurdish forces intensified around the north-eastern city of Hasakah.

The situation risks bringing the US and Syrian government into direct conflict for the first time after American jets were scrambled to prevent the bombing of special forces and allies on the ground.

Kurdish groups, who took control of the area after the army withdrew in 2012, have not been a focus of Assads forces so far in the conflict, with them focusing mainly on Sunni Arab rebels in the West.

The Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG) have now become a key ally for the US-led coalition in the battle against Isis, and were reportedly involved in preliminary peace talks with the Syrian regime on Saturday.
Civilians walk at the site of the airstrike where five-year-old Omran Daqneesh was injured, in the rebel-held al-Qaterji neighbourhood of Aleppo, Syria Photo: Reuters

Britain's UN ambassador says Russia must follow up its announcement of support for weekly 48-hour ceasefires to allow humanitarian aid to be delivered to the embattled Syrian city of Aleppo with action to make this happen.

Matthew Rycroft told reporters at UN headquarters in New York yesterday that Russia's new position "certainly sounds better than their old position, but the people of Syria have heard a lot of Russian commitments, not all of which have been implemented".

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He expressed hope that aid will get to Aleppo and other areas but "what matters is Russian action, not Russian words".

Rycroft also expressed concern that Russia and Iran, members of an international group trying to end the Syrian war, "are deliberately prolonging this conflict rather than doing everything they can to end it and get the political transition that is so desperately needed".

The Russian military said yesterday that two of its ships had launched cruise missiles at targets in Syria from the eastern Mediterranean Sea.

The ministry said the missiles destroyed a command facility and a militant camp near the militant-held town of Daret Azzeh, along with a mine-making facility and a weapons facility in the province of Aleppo.

Russian warships in the past have launched cruise missiles at targets in Syria from both the Caspian Sea and the Mediterranean, a show of the navy's long-range precision strike capability.

The cruise missile strikes have added an extra punch to the aerial campaign Russia has conducted since September in support of President Bashar Assad's military.

The development comes after Russia this week began using Iranian territory to launch airstrikes in Syria, with Moscow's bombers flying out of the Islamic Republic for three straight days to hit targets in the war-ravaged country.

Residents of the northeastern Syrian city of Hassakeh took advantage of a lull in the fighting between Kurdish forces and Syrian government troops yesterday to flee to safer areas nearby, after fighting intensified on Thursday, with government warplanes bombing Kurdish-controlled positions in the city for the first time.

Shortly afterward, clashes broke out anew, a Kurdish official said. An activist group said Syrian government warplanes launched new air raids on areas controlled by Kurdish fighters yesterday. The fighting between the Kurdish troops and government forces could add a new dimension to the country's deadly war, now in its sixth year, by potentially opening a new front in Syria.

The area around Hassakeh had witnessed battles between the two sides in the past but this week's violence has been among the worst since Kurdish fighters took control of wide, predominantly Kurdish areas in northern Syria in 2012.

The main Kurdish force in Syria, known as the People's Protection Unit, or YPG, has been the main US-backed force in Syria and the most effective force in fighting the Islamic State group.

Last week, the Syria Democratic Forces, a coalition led by the YPG, captured the former Isil stronghold of Manbij in northern Syria under the cover of airstrikes by the US-led coalition.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an activist group that tracks the conflict, said the fighting first began on Wednesday. So far, 16 people, including six women and children, have been killed on the Kurdish side. Five pro-government gunmen of the National Defence Force were killed as well, the Observatory said.

Jwan Mohammed, a former Kurdish official, said there was intense fighting overnight. A relative calm yesterday morning prompted scores to flee, mostly to nearby towns of Qamishli and Amouda. Speaking from Qamishli, he said that there were calls through mosque loudspeakers for the evacuation of civilians stuck in the areas of fighting.

The Observatory also reported residents were fleeing the city and that clashes picked up in the afternoon again. The Beirut-based pan-Arab Al-Mayadeen TV quoted an unnamed Syrian military official as saying the clashes broke out anew after YPG fighters attacked military positions in the city.

YPG spokesman Redur Khalil denounced Thursday's government air raids on Hassakeh as an act of "suicide," adding that Assad's forces would be held accountable for the "brutal, blatant attacks against our people."
A new door has been installed in the International Space Station

Spacewalking astronauts installed a new front door for visitors at the International Space Station yesterday, the crucial first step in welcoming commercial crew capsules as soon as next year.

The two Americans, Jeffrey Williams and Kate Rubins, hooked up the docking port -their major objective - in just a few hours.

They were about to tackle some extra chores, but a problem cropped up with the right earpiece in Williams' helmet and he had trouble hearing. Mission Control decided to play it safe and bring them inside about a half hour early. The spacewalk concluded at the six-hour mark.

"We're done for the day," Mission Control advised the crew.

Williams assured flight controllers that his helmet was dry. The last Nasa spacewalk in January was cut short because of a small water leak in one helmet. A much bigger leak, from the suit's cooling system, almost led to a spacewalker's drowning in 2013.

The station's new gateway arrived last month, packed in the trunk of a SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule.

Americans haven't rocketed into orbit from their home turf since Nasa's last shuttle flight in 2011. SpaceX and Boeing expect to resume human launches from Cape Canaveral in another year or two. But their crew capsules can't dock without this new-style parking spot, which replaces the now obsolete shuttle setup and is meant to be internationally compatible.

Yesterday's success paved the way for these future spaceships.
A fire service helicopter sprays the wildfire above homes along Cajon Boulevard, near Wrightwood, California Photo: Getty

Firefighters were on the offensive as they worked to expand significant gains against a huge wildfire that chased thousands of people from their homes in Southern California.

"We've got the ball, we're on the move," fire information officer Bob Poole said.

The fire has scorched nearly 58 square miles and was 26pc contained as it entered its fourth day in mountains and desert 60 miles east of Los Angeles.

Mr Poole said it was "spectacular" to make progress so quickly against such a big fire that had firefighters on the defensive for the initial days of the blaze.

Plans were under way to demobilise some of the nearly 1,600 firefighters.

"Crews really buttoned up some areas. But the possibility is still there for explosive growth," said Brad Pitassi, another fire spokesman.

One area of concern was southeast of the ski town of Wrightwood, where old-growth brush and trees haven't burned in 70 years, fire behaviour analyst Brendan Ripley said.

Elsewhere, the fire's growth was limited because flames had reduced the land to a moonscape.

"The fire burned so intensely that there's no fuels left for it to move again," Mr Pitassi said.

Some 82,000 residents were under evacuation orders at the height of the fire. A small number of evacuees have been allowed to return home, but Mr Pitassi could not say when all the evacuations would be lifted.

Long-awaited damage assessments were expected to be released later yesterday, he said.

Among those waiting to return was Lisa Gregory, who didn't know whether her house was still standing.

The uncertainty "is an awful feeling," she said as she lounged in a lawn chair under a tree outside an evacuation centre.

Meanwhile, a new fire broke out in rural Santa Barbara County, quickly surging to about 600 acres and prompting the evacuation of a pair of campgrounds.

In the southern Sierra Nevada, another blaze feeding on dense timber in Sequoia National Forest exploded to nearly 15 square miles. Tiny hamlets in Kern and Tulare counties were evacuated.

During five years of drought, California's wildlands have seen a continuous streak of destructive and sometimes deadly fires. No deaths have been reported in the latest fire, but crews assessing property damage were using cadaver dogs during searches.

The dry vegetation is like firewood, said fire information officer Sean Collins.

"It burns that much quicker, that much hotter. The rate of travel is extremely fast," he said.

Wildfires across the US in recent years have grown more ferocious and expensive to fight. Last year's fire season set a record with more than 15,625 square miles of land charred. It was also the costliest on record with $2.1bn (1.8bn) spent to fight fires from Alaska to Florida.

Experts have blamed several factors, including rising temperatures that more quickly dry out forests and vegetation. Decades of aggressively knocking down small fires also have led to the buildup of flammable fuel. On top of that, more people are moving into fire-prone regions, complicating firefighting efforts.

The Southern California fire unleashed its initial fury on a semi-rural landscape dotted with small ranches and homes in Cajon Pass and on the edge of the Mojave Desert before climbing the mountains.

In mountains north of San Francisco, a 6-square-mile blaze was 55pc contained after destroying at least 268 structures, including 175 homes and eight businesses, in the working-class community of Lower Lake.

The equipment manager, or "armourer," of the US Olympic fencing team, was among those who lost their homes.

Matthew Porter was in Rio with the medal-winning team when his house burned down.
Donald Trump gives a thumbs-up alongside former campaign manager Paul Manafort (centre) and daughter Ivanka at the Republican Convention Photo: Reuters

Embattled Donald Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort resigned yesterday - capping a week of dramatic changes for the Republican presidential nominee as he seeks to regain his footing against Democrat Hillary Clinton ahead of the November election.

"This morning, Paul Manafort offered, and I accepted, his resignation from the campaign," Trump said in a statement. "I am very appreciative for his great work in helping to get us where we are today, and in particular his work guiding us through the delegate and convention process. Paul is a true professional and I wish him the greatest success."

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Manafort had come under increasing media scrutiny because of his past consulting for the pro-Russian former president of Ukraine.

Trump on Wednesday named Breitbart News' Stephen Bannon his campaign CEO, and adviser Kellyanne Conway his campaign manager, effectively demoting Manafort amid the Ukraine scrutiny - and a string of polls showing Trump badly lagging Clinton.

The personnel moves are far from the only change to Trump's campaign this week.

At a rally on Thursday in North Carolina, Trump struck a rare note of apology for rhetoric that he acknowledged had offended people. "Sometimes, in the heat of debate and speaking on a multitude of issues, you don't choose the right words or you say the wrong thing," he said.

"I have done that, and believe it or not, I regret it."

Yesterday, his campaign also announced it planned to spend nearly $5m to air his first television ads, including one that contrasts him and Clinton on border security, immigration and Syrian refugees.

"I think campaigns have different phases," said Representative Scott DesJarlais of Tennessee, one of the first House Republicans to back Trump. "Certainly, Manafort did his job in getting the delegation together and bringing it home at the convention."

Now, DesJarlais said, Trump's campaign is entering a phase where the focus should be on raising money, advertising, and Clinton.

"He's in a good position considering we really haven't gone after Hillary," DesJarlais said.

The status of Manafort's deputy, Rick Gates, was unclear. A campaign official who asked not to be named said Gates was no longer with the organisation, but a person close to Gates denied that. Gates declined to comment.

Gates was named in a report on Thursday that said the two men "never disclosed their work as foreign agents as required under federal law."

The two have said their work wasn't the type that required registration, according to Associated Press, which said they declined to comment.

Roger Stone, a former business partner of Manafort, denied the chairman had quit because of infighting.

"He resigned because he thought the unfair and unfounded attacks on him would become a distraction and he doesn't want to do anything that hurts the election of Trump," Stone said. "The idea there was any discord with Bannon or Kelly is just not true. They had everything kind of worked on what they'd do."

Eric Trump, Donald Trump's son, also suggested the "distraction" of the Ukraine press was a major factor, according to Fox News.

"I think my father didn't want to be, you know, distracted by whatever things Paul was dealing with" or to distract from the issues "looming" over Clinton, the network quoted Eric Trump as saying.

The Clinton campaign signalled that it plans to continue linking Trump to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"Paul Manafort's resignation is a clear admission that the disturbing connections between Donald Trump's team and pro-Kremlin elements in Russia and Ukraine are untenable," Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook said in a statement. "You can get rid of Manafort, but that doesn't end the odd bromance Trump has with Putin."

This week was the second major change in Trump campaign leadership. Trump's first campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, exited in June after Manafort was brought on to help smooth Trump's path to the Republican National Convention in July where he was formally nominated.

Manafort, a veteran political operative, was seen as capable of professionalising Trump's campaign after Lewandowski oversaw a hard-scrabble primary victory.

Lewandowski will not be rejoining the campaign, said a person familiar with the matter.
ELKO  A controversy appears to be brewing over the death of several horses at Mustang Monument.

The Nevada Department of Agriculture has confirmed that 11 dead horses have been found on Madeleine Pickens property in Elko County, along with an unspecified number on public land.

Neither the state investigator nor Pickens returned calls Thursday from the Elko Daily Free Press.

The Nevada Department of Agriculture cannot discuss any specifics of an ongoing investigation, said a statement from the agency, which included a message from State Veterinarian JJ Goicoechea.

Although we have not determined responsibility, care for animals is ultimately the obligation of the livestock owner, he said. We alert all livestock owners to be extra cautious during the excessive heat of the summer months. When temperatures exceed 90 degrees, as they consistently have been in northern Nevada, dehydration can set in fast when livestock do not have access to fresh water sources.

Pickens told a Las Vegas television station this week that more than a dozen of her horses had died, and she was offering a $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the persons responsible for vandalism on her property.

A Bureau of Land Management spokesman said staff from his agency noticed damage to fences a week or two ago and reported it to Pickens.

The federal agency is not investigating, however, because the damage was on her private land.

Pickens purchased two ranches south of Wells, which are intermingled with federal land. Her intent was to operate an eco-sanctuary for rescued horses, but she has not received a permit from the BLM.

Her Mustang Monument eco-resort has been operating on private land.
Turkey is willing to accept a role for Syrian president Bashar Assad during a transitional period but insisted he has no place in Syria's future, Turkey's prime minister Binali Yildirim said.

The comments came after Mr Assad's forces began attacking Kurdish positions this week, leading some Kurdish officials to speculate that a Syrian-Turkish rapprochement was under way at the expense of Kurdish autonomy in northern Syria.

"There will be concessions on the Kurdish question," said Nasser Haj Mansour, an adviser to the predominantly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces, which expelled the Islamic State group from their northern Syrian stronghold of Manbij this month. "I do not know where this will lead."

Turkey is one of the main supporters of rebels fighting to overthrow Mr Assad, and hosts more than 2.7 million Syrian refugees.

But Istanbul is concerned about the growing power of US-backed Syrian Kurdish forces across the border and opposes any moves toward Kurdish autonomy or independence. The Syrian government, too, has grown uneasy with the Kurdish forces in the north, who enjoy close relations with the US government, an open antagonist of Mr Assad.

Damascus has largely refrained from attacking its homegrown Kurdish forces, which have successfully defeated the Islamic State group in multiple battles while expanding their own autonomous footprint.

However on Friday, the Syrian military's general command released a statement referring to the Kurdish Asayesh internal police force as the "military wing of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)".

The military's statement appeared to be a concession to the Turkish government, which is battling its own Kurdish insurgency in the south east and has long pressed the Syrian government to label the Syrian Kurdish political movement as an extension of Turkey's outlawed PKK.

Speaking to foreign media representatives in Istanbul, Mr Yildirim said Turkey would aim to become more of a regional player with regard to Syria in the next six months.

"Could Syria carry Assad in the long-term? Certainly not," Mr Yildirim said. "The United States knows and Russia knows that Assad does not appear to be someone who can bring (the people) together."

"There may be talks (with Mr Assad) for the transition. A transition may be facilitated. But we believe that there should be no (Kurdish rebels), Daesh or Assad in Syria's future," he said, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.

"In the six months ahead of us, we shall be playing a more active role," Mr Yildirim said. "It means not allowing Syria to be divided along ethnic lines ... ensuring that its government is not based on ethnic (divisions)."

Fighting erupted between the Kurdish Asayesh forces and the Syrian military this week over control of the northern city of Hasakeh, with Syrian war planes raiding Kurdish positions inside the city, a first for the five-year-long Syrian war.

The escalation prompted the US to scramble jets to protect International Coalition forces embedded with the Kurds. The US has 300 special operating troops embedded with the Kurds, according to the US government.

US Navy captain Jeff Davis said on Friday the US would do what was needed to protect coalition forces.

"The Syrian regime would be well advised not to do things that would place them at risk," he said.

Syria's Kurdish forces have not received any official protection guarantees from the US government. However, the US is known to use three air strips in the predominantly Kurdish northern Syrian territory, while a top US general, Joseph Votel, commander of US Central Command, visited Kurdish forces there in May.

Fighting continued in Hasakeh on Saturday with Kurdish forces attempting to push the Syrian government's National Defence Forces militia out of the city's centre. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group reported 26 people had been killed in the fighting, among them 10 children and four women.

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An Anderson church, Wilson Calvary Baptist, will collect donations of supplies for victims of recent flooding in Louisiana.

The Rev. James Clark said he is reaching out to one of his friends, a pastor at Baton Rogue-based Capital Missionary Baptist Church in Louisiana.

"They're on high ground so they weren't flooded," Clark said. While the Louisiana church wasn't flooded, it is surrounded by people who are in need. The church is acting as a storehouse for supplies that are being handed out, Clark said.

Donations of nonperishable food and cleaning supplies will be collected from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. today at Wilson Calvary Baptist Church's community center at 310 Lee St. in Anderson, Clark said.

They'll also be collected from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Wednesday.

After that, a truck with whatever was donated will head to Baton Rouge, Clark said.

Staff report
PHOTOS BY KATIE MCLEAN/INDEPENDENT MAIL Steve Cannon, military veteran and chaplain at the Richard M. Campbell Veterans Nursing Home, prays Monday with a group of veterans in Anderson.

SHARE Steve Cannon, military veteran and chaplain at the Richard M. Campbell Veterans Nursing Home, poses Monday for a portrait in Anderson.

By Frances Parrish of the Independent Mail

Chaplain Steve Cannon saluted and welcomed back a resident who was wheeled back into the Richard M. Campbell Veterans Nursing Home from the hospital Monday afternoon. As Cannon walked down the 1/8-mile hallway on the way back to his office, he greeted several residents by name.

Part of his job as chaplain is to speak with the residents at the home while he makes his daily rounds through the wards there.

"Sometimes they just want to talk," Cannon said. "My job is to be here for whatever the guys need."

In the five years he's been at the nursing home, Cannon has baptized residents, buried them, counseled them and their families, and even performed wedding ceremonies for family members of staff.

But he didn't start out knowing he would be a chaplain in a nursing home for veterans.

His father and uncle were both pastors and he was raised in the church. Buta after serving in the Air Force in the Vietnam War, he grew apart from his church.

"Vietnam can do that to people," Cannon said.

But as his wife and kids started going to church more often, he started going back to church as well. Becoming involved with Riverside Baptist Church in Greenville inspired him to attend seminary.

After he got his master's degree and doctorate, he began working with adults with mental disabilities in Greenville County and through the Upstate. All the while, he was an associate pastor in a church in Williamston.

But after several years, he was ready for a change.

The veterans nursing home is where he's meant to be, he said.

"He (God) put me here for a reason, its' up to me to do his will in my life. Right now, that's where I'm at," Cannon said. "I could retire. I'm old enough to, but I'm not ready yet. I don't think he's ready for me to retire yet."

One of the best parts of his job is meeting the residents.

"It's a ministry where I can work with vets like myself," Cannon said. "I have a deep concern for veterans. I find it very rewarding. Some of the stories I've heard from some of the men who've served the country, how they served, where they served; we got some characters here."

He's met a Purple Heart recipient. He's met people who served with Dwight D. Eisenhower and others who were code breakers in World War II.

But one resident stands out in his mind. The resident told Cannon to leave him alone on the day Cannon first met him. Still, Cannon would say hello to him in the hall every day.

One day Cannon visited him in the hospital.

"He saw me in the hall. He looked at me and said 'Hey Preacher, I'm glad you came. I think you need to help me pray,'" Cannon said. "'I'm dying. It's time for me to get it right.'"

Cannon baptized him in hospital, and the man died two days later.

"That's reward enough," Cannon said about baptizing the resident. "That's good enough for me to be here for five years."

Since the start, Cannon has made it his goal to serve the residents in any way he can.

"When I first came here, I worked really close with activities. I asked around one day, 'Anything I can do to help?'" he said. "They said, 'Serve soup.' So, I took the tray around to the tables and served them (residents) soup."

Now, residents know him as the soup man. They stop him in the hallway and ask him, "What's the soup today, Chaplain?" As a joke, he will tell them North Georgia Buzzard, meaning chicken and rice soup, and they laugh.

The downside of his job, he said, is losing friends he's made in the nursing home. On one wall in his office, he has photographs of friends who have died there.

"Most of the guys, when they come here, will tell you, 'I've come here to die, this is the end of the road for me,'" Cannon said.

But just because a veteran has come to the nursing home doesn't mean that person is done with life. For veteran resident and retired pastor Gerald Morgan, he needed a job.

Cannon led the Bible study group, when he asked Morgan if he would take over a few years ago.

"He hooked me into it. One day he said, 'You come with me,'" Morgan said with a laugh. "He said, 'You do it until further notice.' I haven't gotten further notice yet."

But Cannon doesn't work alone. He said he has a prayer crew. Morgan was made his volunteer assistant chaplain and Warren Phelps, also a retired pastor, sings and leads the residents in songs at Bible study.

Even though Cannon doesn't lead the weekly Bible study anymore, he still attends it.

"The great thing about Steve is that he's always there," Phelps said. "He doesn't interject; he's there to be supportive."

Follow Frances Parrish on Twitter @frances_AIM
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By Ray Chandler, Special to Independent Mail

Construction on the Oconee County campus of Tri-County Technical College is set to begin in April 2017, county officials said Friday.

Russell Johnson, project manager with the Oconee Alliance economic development office, also on Friday laid out a timeline by which construction on the School District of Oconee County career development center that will be adjacent to Tri-County Tech's Oconee campus will begin in July 2018. The career center's opening is planned for 2020.

Both will be constructed on a tract in the Oconee Industry and Technology Park, off S.C. 11 in the Richland community.

Tri-County Tech President Ronnie Booth said Friday that the money needed for the construction of the Oconee campus is "in the bank."

Oconee County officials have pegged the estimated cost of constructing the Tri-County campus at about $5 million.

The announcement of the timeline came Friday at a meeting of the Oconee Alliance board of directors. The alliance, a public-private partnership, guides economic development in Oconee County.

The location of the Tri-County Tech and school district facilities near one another is intended to concentrate the county's workforce development resources in one location that will allow them the sharing of some facilities such as labs for teaching welding, computer technology and other skills.

Richard Blackwell, executive director of the Oconee Alliance, praised the emphasis of local educators on training the local workforce in job skills and manufacturing skills in particular.

Seventy-two percent of the county's job growth is in the manufacturing sector, and the availability of a trained workforce is a key factor aiding recruitment of industries, Blackwell said.

Oconee County has added approximately 113 jobs so far in 2016, according to Oconee Alliance figures, with about $82.5 million in new capital investment by companies.

Blackwell said the county has two certain industrial expansions in its future.

Two companies, whose names have not been made public yet and that both already have facilities in Oconee County, have informed his office that Oconee County won out in competition with other sites for the expansions, Blackwell said.

The expansion that Blackwell's office has code-named Project Hawk pitted Oconee County against a site in Mexico. In the second instance, Project Laser, the Oconee site competed with locations in Arkansas, Texas and Missouri.

Blackwell's office is assembling the proposed tax incentive packages for those projects. Further announcements about the projects, and identification of the companies to the public, could happen before the end of the year, Blackwell said.

In terms of recruitment of new industry, Oconee County has been named a finalist as a possible location a China-based industry looking for a location, Blackwell said.

A visit by officials of the company for further inspection is expected next week, he said.
WASHINGTON -- This week Russian bombers flew out of Iranian air bases to attack rebel positions in Syria. The State Department pretended not to be surprised. It should be. It should be alarmed. Iran's intensely nationalistic revolutionary regime had never permitted foreign forces to operate from its soil. Until now.

The reordering of the Middle East is proceeding apace. Where for 40 years the U.S.-Egypt alliance anchored the region, a Russia-Iran condominium is now dictating events. That's what you get after eight years of U.S. retrenchment and withdrawal. That's what results from the nuclear deal with Iran, the evacuation of Iraq and utter U.S. immobility on Syria. Consider:

 Iran

The nuclear deal was supposed to begin a rapprochement between Washington and Tehran. Instead, it has solidified a strategic-military alliance between Moscow and Tehran. With the lifting of sanctions and the normalizing of Iran's international relations, Russia rushed in with major deals, including the shipment of S-300 ground-to-air missiles. Russian use of Iranian bases now marks a new level of cooperation and joint power projection.

 Iraq

These bombing runs cross Iraqi airspace. Before President Obama's withdrawal from Iraq, that could not have happened. The resulting vacuum has not only created a corridor for Russian bombing, it has gradually allowed a hard-won post-Saddam Iraq to slip into Iran's orbit. According to a Baghdad-based U.S. military spokesman, there are 100,000 Shiite militia fighters operating inside Iraq, 80 percent of them Iranian-backed.

 Syria

When Russia dramatically intervened last year, establishing air bases and launching a savage bombing campaign, Obama did nothing. Indeed, he smugly predicted that Vladimir Putin had entered a quagmire. Some quagmire. Bashar Assad's regime is not only saved. It encircled Aleppo and has seized the upper hand in the civil war. Meanwhile, our hapless secretary of state is running around trying to sue for peace, offering to share intelligence and legitimize Russian intervention if only Putin will promise to conquer gently.

Consider what Putin has achieved. Dealt a very weak hand -- a rump Russian state, shorn of empire and saddled with a backward economy and a rusting military -- he has restored Russia to great power status. Reduced to irrelevance in the 1990s, it is now a force to be reckoned with.

In Europe, Putin has unilaterally redrawn the map. His annexation of Crimea will not be reversed. The Europeans are eager to throw off the few sanctions they grudgingly imposed on Russia. And the rape of eastern Ukraine continues.

Ten thousand have already died and now Putin is threatening even more open warfare. Under the absurd pretext of Ukrainian terrorism in Crimea, Putin has threatened retaliation, massed troops in eight locations on the Ukrainian border, ordered Black Sea naval exercises, and moved advanced anti-aircraft batteries into Crimea, giving Moscow control over much of Ukrainian airspace.

And why shouldn't he? He's pushing on an open door. Obama still refuses to send Ukraine even defensive weapons. The administration's response to these provocations? Urging "both sides" to exercise restraint. Both sides, mind you.

And in a gratuitous flaunting of its newly expanded reach, Russia will be conducting joint naval exercises with China in the South China Sea, in obvious support of Beijing's territorial claims and illegal military bases.

Yet the president shows little concern. He is too smart not to understand geopolitics; he simply doesn't care. In part because his priorities are domestic. In part because he thinks we lack clean hands and thus the moral standing to continue to play international arbiter.

And in part because he's convinced that in the long run it doesn't matter. Fluctuations in great power relations are inherently ephemeral. For a man who sees a moral arc in the universe bending inexorably toward justice, calculations of raw realpolitik are 20th-century thinking -- primitive, obsolete, the obsession of small minds.

Obama made all this perfectly clear in speeches at the U.N., in Cairo and here at home in his very first year in office. Two terms later, we see the result. Ukraine dismembered. Eastern Europe on edge. Syria a charnel house. Iran subsuming Iraq. Russia and Iran on the march across the entire northern Middle East.

At the heart of this disorder is a simple asymmetry. It is in worldview. The major revisionist powers -- China, Russia and Iran -- know what they want: power, territory, tribute. And they're going after it. Barack Obama takes Ecclesiastes' view that these are vanities, nothing but vanities.

In the kingdom of heaven, no doubt. Here on earth, however -- Aleppo to Donetsk, Estonia to the Spratly Islands -- it matters greatly.
Honor Indianas veterans and active military personnel this fall at the Indiana State Museum. Heroes from the Heartland will run from Nov. 1 through Veterans Day, Nov. 11, 2016.

Hoosiers are invited to submit photos of friends and family who have served or who are currently serving in any branch of the military. Those contributing photos are encouraged to share special stories about the veterans service. All photos will be included in a photo mural, which will be on display at the museum during Heroes from the Heartland. Photos will also be viewable in an album on the Indiana State Museums Facebook page.

Please email photos by Oct. 21, 2016 to kcoyne@indianamuseum.org and include the following information:

Name

Date of service

Division of military

Hometown

Submitted by

*Photos should be between 150 and 300 dpi at 100 percent.

For questions about photos or programming, contact Katelyn Coyne via email: kcoyne@indianamuseum.org or phone: 317.232.5598
A face of the Gujarat riots and a brand ambassador of Hindu Rashtra is now talking about Dalit-Muslim unity. Yes, you read that right.

We are talking about Ashok Parmar aka Ashok Mochi. Once seen wearing a saffron band around his forehead, with an iron rod in one hand, arms outstretched, fists clenched, mouth open, letting out a war cry as fires raged behind him  he turned over a new leaf and joined Dalit Asmita Yatra that began in Ahmedabad on August 5.

pragyatiwari.com

A cobbler by profession, Parmar sits on the footpath of a busy road between Shahpur Darwaza and Delhi Darwaza in old Ahmedabad with his makeshift establishment of a few boxes that contain boot-polish, buckles, pins, thread, big and small needles, worn-out shoe brushes and other equipment to mend footwear.

The footpath has been serving as the homeless man's permanent address in the city for the past two decades.

thehindu

Ashok, along with his friends, many of whom are Muslims, joined the 10-day yatra in Savarkundla before it ended on August 15 in Una where seven Dalits were flogged for skinning a dead cow.

Dalit-Muslim unity is the need of the hour. Both communities are oppressed and poorer. And therefore, they are being targeted on one pretext or the other  the latest one is the terror unleashed on them in the name of cow protection. I believe every citizen of India has a right to live peacefully and have a roof over the head. He or she should have all the freedom to chose profession and decide what eat and wear, the 40-year-old Parmar told Indiatimes.

How did this change of heart come about?

He said he was labelled as a Bajrang Dal member and became the face of saffron terror and genocide. But I am neither, he said claiming his becoming one of the rioters on the street was just a coincidence.

mumbaimirror

The girl I loved the most got married few days before the riots. I returned to work with a heavy heart that ill-fated day at around 10 am. There was a bandh that had affected thousands of daily wage workers like me. I lost my daily business and could not get any food. I was angry. Angry at my own situation and what was going on in the streets of the city in reaction to the Godhra incident that had occurred a day before.

Hindus were killing Muslims. I had beard which was making me look like a Muslim. I tied a saffron cloth round my forehead to save myself. Meanwhile, a photographer (Sebastian DSouza from Mumbai Mirror) approached me asked me to pose like a rioter. I picked up an iron rod to show how angry I am. The next day I saw myself on the front page of almost all publications. Since then, I became a villain and face of Gujarat riots across the world. The photo landed me in jail for 14 days. Later, I was acquitted by a lower court because there was not a single bit of evidence to show my participation in the massacre, he added.

If you see the photograph minutely, you will find me alone in the picture. I was not part of any mob. I was not out for rioting. I never imagined the picture would cause so much trouble, he explains.

BCCL

But he does not regret tying the saffron band. Dont politicise the use of any colour. Like all Muslims who wear beard and skull caps are not terrorists, all those who wear saffron are not necessarily associated with RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) and its affiliates like VHP and Bajrang Dal. The right wing groups do not have copyright on the colour. Our national flag has a saffron band, he said.

But his account of what happened on that day has been strongly contested the photographer, who has been quoted in several reports as saying that he did not ask anyone to pose for him.

I saw Mochi climb up on a signboard and spread his hands. It seemed as if he was saying, I am the king. He looked threatening. I saw and shot him in the middle of taking many other pictures. Thats it. I do not remember seeing whether he actually burnt something or beat someone up, DSouza earlier told DNA.

When asked why the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal never opposed the association with him and the photo, he says, Why would they? They had got a brand ambassador for their Hindu Rashtra image, says Parmar.

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Parmar now has a debt of over Rs 10,000 fighting court cases. I didnt get any support from my family or community in my village, said a loud and assertive Parmar who manages to earn a modest sum of Rs 200 a day.

Why he gave up on the idea of marriage

Parmar is still single. He did not get married because of two reasons  his unsuccessful love life and his weak financial condition.

In my twenties, I was in love with a girl in this neighbourhood but she was from a slightly higher caste  an OBC. Her family did not approve of the match. I could not press the family fearing honour killing. She was married off elsewhere and therefore, I gave up on the idea of marriage altogether, he said.

He further exclaimed, In fact, I cannot even afford a wedding let alone a marriage. I do not want a woman or children to suffer the poverty I grew up in.

He would have liked to start a shop of his own selling ready-made footwear, but he does not believe that will ever happen. He will never be able to afford it.

A proud chamar

I am a chamar and I take pride in it, he said adding that he never calls himself a Dalit. It is wrong and unconstitutional to call anyone a Dalit, he explained.

Why did Parmar withdraw himself from Dalit Asmita Yatra?

He left the protest march four days after joining it. Reason being the collective pledge never to dispose off and skinning dead cattle and do sanitation work.

BCCL/representative image

I have a strong disagreement with making people take oaths in the rally to not skin dead animals. We the chamars are known for tanning work. It is our profession, a source of livelihood. Preventing people to do this will lead to further weakening of our financial condition. It is true that we should look for alternative jobs, but not all will be able to find an alternative. The fight should be for getting respect in whatever job one does, he added.

He said, "Although he does not skin animals, but many in my community do so. The doctors do almost the same job after years of training. But chamars master the art without any formal education."

"The availability of fancy leather products in the market is possible only because of us," he added.

Modi failed the people of Gujarat and India

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said, has failed Gujarat in particular, and the country in general. Realising the fact that only Hindutva will not work, he started talking of development since 2012. But nothing has changed for the poor. My financial condition is so bad I cant even get married. People more educated than me are driving rickshaws because they cannot get jobs. All I have seen in the name of development in this area is the riverfront being made like Chowpatty (Mumbai) and two over-bridges. It has nothing to do with poor people like me, he added.
Weve heard nonstop criticism of both the Democrat and Republican presidential candidates  for good reasons. So are their running mates any better?

Yes.

Trumps vice presidential pick, Mike Pence, has some good points. He supported a guest worker program. He opposed reckless spending, including Republican bills, like No Child Left Behind, George W. Bushs Medicare expansion and the Wall Street bailout.

Then he became one of only four governors to get an A rating from the Cato Institute for keeping government spending under control.

As a result, Indiana has a budget surplus and a good credit rating. Of course, that was easier for Pence because the very responsible Mitch Daniels was the previous governor.

On the other hand, Pence is a consistent supporter of bad wars, like the Iraq War and the toppling of Moammar Gadhafi.

Hes also a social conservative who wants to force his beliefs on others.

The Indianapolis Star reported that Pence says he believes in building a zone around your marriage for avoiding temptation. That means never attending an event where alcohol is served or dining alone with a woman who is not his wife.

Fine. If hes worried about temptation, let him impose whatever rule he wants on himself.

But I object when Pence tells others how to live. He says societal collapse was always brought about following an advent of the deterioration of marriage. He gives that as a reason for wanting to ban gay marriage, even civil unions. But gay marriage doesnt threaten heterosexual marriage; it makes marriage a bigger deal.

Pence also opposes legalizing marijuana, even medicinal.

This is not a politician who wants government limited.

Neither is Hillary Clintons running mate, Sen. Tim Kaine. When he was governor of Virginia, he made it the first southern state to ban smoking in bars.

Hes also a typical political opportunist. For most of his career, he supported free trade. He backed the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement  as did Clinton until she realized that it was unpopular with the economically ignorant majority of her party.

See Kaines opportunism in this 2016 chronology:

July 11: Kaine says, I see much in the (Trans-Pacific Partnership) draft ... that I like.

July 12: Kaine reportedly tells Clinton campaign hed oppose TPP if he is picked to be her VP.

July 23: Clinton chooses Kaine. Kaine now says he opposes TPP.

But at least Kaine respects the Constitution more than Clinton and Pence. He joined Senators Jeff Flake and Rand Paul in arguing that President Obama should not go to war against ISIS without getting authorization from Congress.

Overall, the major parties vice presidential candidates are less scary than than the presidential candidates. But my favorite vice presidential candidate is running on the Libertarian ticket, former Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld.

When he was a Republican, Weld praised F. A. Hayek and individual freedom. He said, Democrats taxing and spending habits remind me of that old definition of a baby: a huge appetite on one end and no sense of responsibility on the other.

Weld is not totally libertarian, but hes a good example of a fiscally conservative, socially liberal politician at a time when people seem to be desperate for alternatives to Trump and Clinton.

Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson says Weld makes me better. And from what I could see when I interviewed them, thats true. They collaborate. When Weld is present, Johnson is clearer and crisper.

Sadly, most Americans dont pay attention to third parties. They also dont pay much attention to vice presidents. After all, most dont do much. One of Franklin Roosevelts vice presidents said the job wasnt worth a pitcher of warm spit.

But vice presidents sometimes become presidents  15 percent of them over the course of our history  and 25 percent eventually became presidential nominees.

So vice presidents matter.

I respect Mike Pence and Tim Kaine, but Bill Weld (with Gary Johnson) would be better than either. And, of course, hed be much better than Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton.
National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-K) has claimed that at least five-six of its commanders were killed in an Indian Army operation on Friday.

BCCL/ Representative Image

According to reports the gun battle took place between some 30 Indian paratroopers and suspected NSCN-K militants along the India-Myanmar border, in the Mon district of Nagaland.

However some local media reports quoting NSCN-K sources said the operation was carried out inside Myanmar border.

BCCL/ Representative Image

While the Army confirmed the operation, it rejected reports that the forces had crossed over and the incident happened in the Indian side of the border.

"Our troops had laid an ambush along a known infiltration route. After the ensuing gunfight, the militants fled back into Myanmar. They left some weapons behind. There were no casualties on our side," an army source was quoted by The Times of India.

EPA/ Representative Image

The Army has also refused to confirm the number of casualties on the militants side.

If indeed the operation was inside Myanmar, this will be the second such strike in recent times.

In June last year, Indian special forces had conducted a surgical strike across the Myanmar border which inflicted "significant casualties" on NSCN (K) and Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup (KYKL).

It was in retaliation to a militant attack that killed 18 army soldiers, which was the worst attack on security forces in two decades. Even then the army had denied launching any such operation.

BCCL

The NSCN (K) is an armed insurgency group which aims at unifying all the Naga-inhabited areas in the North East of India and Myanmar to form a sovereign state.
The loss of Machli is still looming large on the minds of tiger lovers in India when more bad news seems to be coming in from Nagpur. The city's seven-year-old male tiger celebrity, Jai, has been missing since April and it is about time to give up hope of his return.

The concerned citizens had even organised a special havan for his safe return. Clearly, the gods have not had a part to play.

BCCL

Jai, who has been so named after the legendary Bollywood character of the same name played by Amitabh Bachchan in the blockbuster Sholay, first shot to fame a few years ago when he undertook a dangerous journey across the mountains and through dangerous highways for the tigress he loved. When he succeeded in wooing his love, it was written about as an epic love story.

"He's successfully fathered more than 20 cubs and has boosted the local economy by attracting wildlife enthusiasts," Rohit Karoo, a conservationist helping co-ordinate the hunt, told TOI. "Losing such a majestic tiger would be a great loss for India."

"Around ten non-governmental organisations, locals from nearly four hundred villages and forest officials are patrolling the forests in Maharashtra to locate Jai," he said.

AFP

Despite a 100-man search that was launched to find Jai and return him to safety, no leads were found. It is clear that a premeditated event led to the "sudden disappearance" of the 250 kg male tiger.

While the state government and forest officials are still counting on the ongoing manhunt to find some clues to his location, conservationists feel that poachers have long fled the country with whatever they could gather from the tiger.

There has not been any discovery of any remains either.

BCCL

But Jai's fans have not given up hope."I don't think anything bad has befallen him as he is a dominant male tiger with the capacity to travel large distances," Karoo said. The situation has led to anger from the conservationists as Jai was radio-collared for his safety.

"If this is the case with the largest collared tiger in the region, what hope do the others have?"

It seems that the Forest Department has some tough questions to answer. And soon, as India just cannot afford the loss of yet another celebrated member of the tiger family.
The suit worn by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his meeting with American President Barack Obama last year has been officially recognised as the most expensive suit sold by the Guinness Book of World Records.

The suit was sold at an auction for Rs. 43,131,311. It was bought by Laljibhai Tulsibai Patel, a resident of Surat, in Gujarat, on February 20, 2015. Read more

1. Indian Army Carried Out A 'Surgical Strike' Against NSCN Militants, Reportedly Inside Myanmar

National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-K) has claimed that at least five-six of its commanders were killed in an Indian Army operation on Friday. According to reports the gun battle took place between some 30 Indian paratroopers and suspected NSCN-K militants along the India-Myanmar border, in the Mon district of Nagaland.

However some local media reports quoting NSCN-K sources said the operation was carried out inside Myanmar border. Read more

2. Amritsar Man Eats 40 Knives - Because He Felt Like

Some guy in Amritsar had an unusual appetite. One fine day, this dude felt like eating knives. Yes, full-on metal sharp edged ones. For some bizarre reason, he liked the 'taste' of it and for the next two months continued eating them. Not just a couple - he managed to swallow 40 knives.

The story came to light after he was admitted to a hospital and doctors pulled out all of them from his stomach after a 5-hour long operation. Read more

3. According To Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das, 'If India Is Your Country, Cow Is Your Mother'

Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das has come up with an absurd analogy - those who consider India as their country should treat cow as their mother. Cow is our mother. Those who are living in India and are Indians, those who consider India as their country, for them cow is their mother.

He however, stressed that there should be no violence in the garb of cow vigilantism and said cattle smugglers may be involved in the recent events of violence over cow protection. Read more

4. Three Indigo Pilots Grounded For Taking Selfies While Flying 1.5 Years Back

India's aviation safety regulator has grounded three IndiGo pilots for a week for taking selfies in a cockpit while airborne, a rising phenomenon which distracts pilots and may endanger lives. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) officially warned some pilots of Indian carriers, and may soon issue guidelines prohibiting mid-air selfies in cockpits, sources said.

An IndiGo spokesperson said that the pilots have been de-rostered for seven days for selfies taken about 1.5 years ago. Read more

5. Army Accepts Kashmir Lecturer Was Beaten To Death By Soldiers, Calls It 'Unacceptable, Unjustified'

The Army has said the recent raid in which a lecturer was killed in the valley wasn't sanctioned and such acts by soldiers won't be tolerated. It expressed regret over the death in the raid in Khrew area of Pulwama district and ordered an inquiry into the incident.

Shabir and others were beaten up by soldiers for resisting house-to-house searches by the Army looking for stone-pelters. Read more
The suit worn by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his meeting with American President Barack Obama last year has been officially recognised as the most expensive suit sold by the Guinness Book of World Records.

PTI

The suit was sold at an auction for Rs. 43,131,311. It was bought by Laljibhai Tulsibai Patel, a resident of Surat, in Gujarat, on February 20, 2015.

ANI

The pin striped suit had created quite a storm for having the name Narendra Modi stitched on it.

Many in the opposition had criticised the Prime Minister of being self-obsessed and narcissist and his monogrammed suit as gimmick.

It was also claimed that the price of the suit was Rs. 10 lakhs, while others claimed it was a gift.

Guinness World Records

After the uproar, it was put up for auction along with other gifts Modi had received. The money collected from the auction was used for the Namami Gange Fund, a project to clean the Ganga River.
There's not much one can say to a parent who lost his son. To a father who knows his son could have been saved. To an Indian failed by the system. One can only be compassionate, but that cannot change what happened.

In a really tragic incident, a State Agriculture Department official's depressed son ended his life. His father could have saved him, had his pleas for a half-day from work been approved by his superior who asked him to carry on working. This happened last week and has led the Maharashtra government to order a probe.

statnews.com

On the afternoon of 12th August, department Joint Secretary Rajesh Ghadge received a panic call from his son who was suffering from depression. He asked his father to come home as soon as possible or he would end his life. The panic-stricken father, Mr Ghadge requested Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) Bhagwan Sahay to let him go home early. But Bhagwan denied his requests and made him work in the office right till his shift ended. A source who was present in the office said, "Ghadge's 23-year-old son was desperately calling him to come back home and had threatened to commit suicide if he did not turn up. So Ghadge approached Sahay with a permission for a half-day leave. Sahay, known for his whimsical ways not only denied the permission but asked Ghadge to work as per the regular office hours."

Ghadge was apparently completely distraught and down on his knees when he got a second frantic call from his son. He again pleaded Sahay to let him go attend to his son but his requests were ignored. All he got in response was a cold 'no'. In the evening, Ghadge's fears came true as he received a call telling him about his son's suicide.

State Minister for Agriculture Pandurang Phundkar said he has ordered a departmental inquiry into the incident. The incident saw an outrage in the department with officers and Ghadge's colleagues staging a demonstration. While the distraught father contemplates a retirement, Sahay refuses to address the media.

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Two things about this incident. First, the fact that depression still is not taken seriously in this day and age. People are still unaware of what it actually is and how big a problem it can become. Secondly, and equally importantly, the work culture of the Indian subcontinent. The sense of entitlement that some bosses display while working with their employees is shocking to say the very least. Forget being an asset to the company, basic value of a human life is neglected for work. People are literally treated like slaves and expected to do everything his/her superior says without questioning any of it. And this needs to stop.
India's aviation safety regulator has grounded three IndiGo pilots for a week for taking selfies in a cockpit while airborne, a rising phenomenon which distracts pilots and may endanger lives.

ning/representative image

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) officially warned some pilots of Indian carriers, and may soon issue guidelines prohibiting mid-air selfies in cockpits, sources said.

An IndiGo spokesperson said that the pilots have been de-rostered for seven days for selfies taken about 1.5 years ago.

petapixel

"This is not the only such case. Facebook and other social media profiles are full of pilots beaming in their seats while flying aircraft," said a source.

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The American air safety regulator, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), has already banned commercial airline crews from using personal electronic devices (PEDs) for personal work by cockpit crews.

Also Read: DGCA Asks Air India, Jet Airways To File FIRs Against Two Pilots Caught For Being Drunk On Duty
Though the crushing defeat in the Sino-Indian war in 1962 had left the confidence of the Indian establishment and armed forces shattered, the post 1965 war against Pakistan and 1967 standoff against Chinese in Sikkim saw the Indian Army oozing with confidence. The Bangladesh War in 1971, where the Indian Army made 93,000 plus soldiers of Pakistan surrender, also added to the burgeoning might of the Indian Army. The political establishment led by PM Indira Gandhi didn't back off despite threats of powers like China and showed the will to back their armed forces.

indiandefencereview

Sumdorong Chu incident in 1987 in Arunachal Pradesh is one such standoff between the Indian Army and Chinese People Liberation Army (PLA) where India-China came close to a war. But Indian diplomacy mixed with caution and aggression not only avoided war but also brought China to the table to discuss. The impact of the 1987 incident was such that when then PM Rajiv Gandhi visited China in 1988, he talked with the Chinese Premier on equal footing.

What led to the standoff?

After the return to power in 1980, then PM Indira Gandhi focused on the improvement of India's security. Thus, in 1982-83, she approved a plan submitted by the then Chief of the Army Staff (COAS), General K.V. Krishna Rao, to upgrade the sporadic deployment of forces along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China.

But now Indira Gandhi was firm about India having to devise a strategy to defend Tawang in case of any conflict. And the only viable line of defence for Tawang would be along the Hathung La ridge. India's increasing interest in fortifying its defences alongside the Chinese border gave China initial worries but the Chinese didn't give those much heed.



Sumdorong Chu and the beginning of the conflict

During the summer of 1984, India had established an observation post on the bank of Sumdorong Chu. It was to be manned by the Special Security Bureau (SSB) during the summer and vacated in the winter. This practice was carried out for the next two years. But in June 1986, an Indian patrol found some 40 Chinese working on permanent structures. Soon some 200 men reinforcements arrived on the spot. By August, after the Chinese had constructed a helipad, the Indian Army took a more aggressive stand along the entire front in the NEFA.

Indiatoday.in

In September, in order to diffuse the tension, Delhi suggested that if the Chinese accepted to withdraw their forces during the coming winter, India would not re-occupy the area the following summer.



Chinese rejection and COAS Sunderji's Operation Chequerboard

In 1986, India had a new COAS in Gen K Sunderji. The adamant General didn't want to concede ground anymore, no matter who the opponent was. India's offer of not to re-occupy the post if China withdrew troops was arrogantly rejected by China. Gen. Sundarji, in order to retaliate to Chinese hubris, launched Operation Chequerboard and used the Indian Air Force (IAF) advance airlift capability with M-26 helicopters to move a large number of troops to Sino-Indian border. These forces occupied the Hathung La, across the Namka Chu from Thag La.

China threatened to repeat 1962

In October, Chinese Premier Deng Xiaoping warned India that China would have to teach India a lesson. The message was conveyed through the US Defense Secretary. But India reacted sharply and declared Arunchal Pradesh a state. Barely two months after the Chinese threat of doing a 1962, India granted statehood to Arunachal Pradesh, which is an area claimed by China but administered by India.

youthkiawaz

This move further irked China and the military movement in Tawang along with this political action was taken as provocation by China. By early 1987, China's tone became similar to that of 1962. But the Indian Army was in no mood to calm down either. The Westerners predicted war.

Heavy troop movement by Chinese

By summer 1987, the Chinese had also moved their troops towards the Indian border. Though the Chinese called it a regular troop movement exercise, the Indians knew that the action could start any moment.

topyaps.com

The Tibetan Review while explaining Chinese troop movement had mentioned: All recent visitors from Tibet report fresh and hectic Chinese military activities on the Tibetan frontier adjoining India. A large number of troops are being sent there as what is being termed troop replacement operation. However, so far no one has witnessed corresponding withdrawal of troops already stationed there. The Chinese military and civil personnel are given a call to proceed with three top-priority preparations: to prepare urgently for a military offensive; to stockpile foodgrains and other necessary materials; and to be ready for construction projects. More and more unemployed but able-bodied young Tibetans are being recruited for heavy manual work. China is said to have moved in 20,000 troops from the 53rd Army Corps in Chengdu and the 13th Army in Lanzhou in the first months of 1987 along with artillery and helicopters. By early April, it had moved 8 divisions to eastern Tibet.

India too continued building up the numbers by adding several battalions along with IAF squadrons. At places like Sulu La, Bum La, etc. the Chinese troops were now face to face with their Indian counterparts.

Bum La Flagmeet and de-escalation

In May 1987, the then Indian Minister of External Affairs, N.D. Tiwari went to Beijing en route to Pyongyang, North Korea. In order to de-escalate the tension, he gave a clear message that New Delhi had no intention of aggravating the situation. As a result, the first formal flag meeting to discuss  the freezing of the situation since 1962, took place on the 5th of August, 1987 at Bum La in the aftermath of the Wangdung affair. Both countries also decided to resume bilateral talks to solve border disputes.

Soon, the deployment of troops was de-escalated, and the then PM Rajiv Gandhi visited Beijing in 1988. It was the first visit of any Indian PM after his grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru. Experts say that it was the first time post the 1962 war that any Indian PM had talked to top Chinese leaders on equal footing and the move garnered much respect in return.
The Earth that we live in was once home to dinosaurs. Fascinating creatures, these massive beings were the ones ruling the world before mankind happened. Such was the enigma of this creature that even after all these years, man is yet to figure how and why they went extinct. Of the various species of dinosaurs, the most ferocious and powerful was the Tyrannosaurus rex. Carnivores with embarrassingly tiny hands, standing tall at 20-feet and stretching up to 40-feet, it's safe to say that they ruled the world back then.

Now, 66-million years later, a team of palaeontologists from the United States have discovered an extremely rare T-rex fossil. The humongous piece of bone that weighs up to 2,500 pounds was transported to Seattle to the University of Washington's Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture.

Talking about the findings, Greg Wilson, the museum's adjunct curator of vertebrate palaeontology told the media, "The combination of the skull features, the size of the bones, and the honeycomb-like appearance of the bones tell us this is a T. rex. This was a very exciting moment for us." Wilson led a group of more than 45 people who helped excavate the dinosaur fossil. Such was its size that it took more than a month to do so. Apparently, two palaeontology volunteers, Luke Tufts and Jason Love, were searching for signs of fossils in the Hell Creek Formation when they saw a large scattering of bone fragments on the surface of the sandstone. According to Burke Museum, the 4-foot-long skull featured a keyhole-shaped opening that palaeontologists said was unmistakably the squamosal bone of the T-rex.

In honour of those volunteers who found it, the T-rex has been nicknamed "Tufts-Love Rex". Palaeontologists have only been able to excavate 20% of Rex's full skeleton including the skull, teeth, ribs, hips and lower jaw bones. The University of Washington plans to put the skull on display at the New Burke Museum when it opens for public in 2019.

All images have been sourced from Dave Demar/Burke Museum/Facebook
In Lisieux, north of France, firefighters rushed to tackle what seemed to be a flame at a church, only to find that it was a giant swarm of flying ants.

The incident happened at the basilica on Wednesday.

A local resident had raised the alarm after seeing smoke apparently coming out from the church roof.

Laurent Boivin at the towns centre for emergencies said we quickly identified the cloud as flying insects. We had feared a big fire inside the basilica.

It was sheer coincidence that the ants chose to swarm above the basilica, he added.

According to scientists, ants pick a summer day for mating by sensing temperature, humidity and day length.

They like warm, humid conditions, which make it easier for them to fly and for mated queens to dig nests in the soft ground. Queens mate with males during flight.
A baby girl has been gifted a million air miles by an airline after being born on a flight between Dubai and Manila in the Philippines.

The babys mother went into labour fours hours into the Cebu Pacific Air flight, five weeks before her due date.

Fortunately, cabin crew were able to find two nurses able to help with the delivery of the baby, who has been named Haven.

Fellow passenger Missy Umandal, who was seated near Havens mother, wrote on Facebook: We only heard one semi-loud screech, and a few seconds later there were tinier, cute screeches, and it was then we knew the baby was born.

Moments later, the woman got up to go back to her seat, baby in arms (mighty strong, I might say).

There were two other babies with us in the front row, and one of the passengers had a suitcase full of infant clothes and necessities, which could not have come at a better time.

The plane was forced to land in Hyderabad, India, to provide further medical attention for the woman and her premature infant.

Cebu Pacific chief executive Lance Gokongwei announced that Haven will receive one million GetGo points from the airlines reward scheme as a birthday present.

According to the airline, the airmiles have no expiry date and can be used by her family.
As allegations of budget padding continue to rock the House of Representatives, its Majority Leader, Femi Gbajabiamila, has offered himself up for investigation by security and anti-corruption agencies.

A former Chairman of the House Committee on Appropriation, Abdulmumin Jibrin had alleged that Speaker Yakubu Dogara, Deputy Speaker Yussuf Lasun, Whip Alhassan Doguwa and Minority Leader Leo Ogor, illegally padded the 2016 budget to the tune of about N40b.

Jibrin also accused nine Committee Chairmen of inserting 2,000 fictitious projects worth N284billion into the budget. All the persons accused have denied any wrongdoing.

Rising from a meeting late Thursday, 10 Principal Officers of the House, including the Majority Leader, issued a statement declaring support for the Speaker and accusing the sacked appropriation committee chair of making wild, baseless and unfounded allegations.

Going a step further, Hon. Gbajabiamila, in a statement Friday, noted that though his name was not mentioned by Jibrin of padding the budget since the controversy began, there was a need for him to clear his name.

He also displayed a commendable spirit of sportsmanship by re-affirming the innocence of the entire body of Principal Officers of the House on the budget padding scandal.

It would be recalled that the member representing Surulere 1 Federal Constituency of Lagos State on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC, contested the Speakership position with Dogara, losing by a very narrow margin.

His statement read: I returned from the United States just yesterday after a three-week break. I called the Speaker a day before my return to urgently fix a Principal Officers meeting so we could address the several allegations made by Hon Jibrin.

At the meeting, Speaker Dogara, Deputy Speaker Lasun, Chief Whip, Hon Ado Doguwa and Minority Leader, Hon Leo Ogor passionately and vigorously clearly stated their innocence.

A prepared text was read and we all agreed to sign. For me as the Leader of the House, I felt it was important to give them the benefit of doubt which in any case is what our constitution says.

The decision to relieve Hon Jibrin was indeed a collective decision of which I was a part of.

However, I gave a caveat before the press release was signed, I made it clear to my colleagues in the leadership that because somehow my name had been sullied in all of this and fake documents and publications had been put out there in traditional and social media, which stated I was also involved in the so-called padding of the budget, that I would need to clear my name and that even though no petition was filed against me by Hon Jibrin and no invitation was extended to me by the police, I would be submitting myself on my own volition to the police for investigation.

This is important to me as insinuations have been made from many quarters that I along with others were sponsoring Hon Jibrin. I have just this afternoon met with the police authorities for a proper and thorough investigation of my role if any in this whole bizarre episode.
Today is the World Humanitarian Day. For the sake of thousands of families that have had their lives uprooted by terrorist actions of Boko Haram, senate president Bukola Saraki offers recommendations which are intended to begin the relief, recovery and rehabilitation of the North East region.



1.Nigeria International Donors Conference

First, I call for a North East Nigeria International Donors Conference, which will review the interventions thus far, ..  Bukola Saraki (@bukolasaraki) August 19, 2016

2.Coordination and service-delivery gaps

.identify the coordination and service-delivery gaps, and renew the calls for donors to honour their pledges.  Bukola Saraki (@bukolasaraki) August 19, 2016

3.Developing a sustainable framework

.. Goal of developing a sustainable framework for the situation in North East and future complex emergencies.  Bukola Saraki (@bukolasaraki) August 19, 2016

The Senate president further stated that upon resumption of 8th Senate ,they have prioritised the passage of the North East Development Commission (NEDC) Bill. The Bill, he says is intended to be the primary rehabilitation and development program for the affected areas.
The Chinese government has offered 24 Nigerian students scholarship awards to pursue various degree programs in China, it has been reported.

The students were awarded the scholarships as both countries seek to enhance educational exchanges and cooperation.

The scholarship is part of the China-Nigeria Bilateral Education Agreement (BEA).

Qin Jian, charge daffaires of the Embassy of China in Nigeria, said that education is one of the important areas of cooperation between the two countries.

Speaking at the at a pre-departure ceremony held on Thursday for the beneficiaries in Abuja, Qin said, It is not only a demonstration of the close people-to-people exchanges between China and Nigeria, but also a great inspiration for deepening our bilateral exchange and cooperation in educational field in the future.

He urged the awardees to seize the opportunity to study hard while getting to know China well and enhance friendship.

In an environment of different language, culture and life in China, I hope you will overcome any difficulties and challenges with courage, make full use of time, acquire professional knowledge, and strive for excellent results so as to live up to the expectations of your parents and your mother country, he added.

Nigerias Permanent Secretary for Information, Ayotunde Adesugba, expressed gratitude to the Chinese government for extending another scholarship opportunity to excellent Nigerian students this year.

She said the consideration was well-appreciated by the government and people of the West African country.

Currently, about 237 Nigerian students are said to be studying in China under government scholarship.

SEE ALSO: Navy To Benefit From FGs N60bn China-Africa Loan
After several tests and PR attempts to assure the public of its safety, China has launched the worlds longest glass bridge. The bridge which connects two mountain cliffs in the Zhangjiajie, Hunan province is also the worlds highest glass bridge.

The bridge, designed by Israeli architect Haim Dotan is 430m-long and reportedly cost a whopping $3.4m. If youre worried about safety, theres not much to fear. The bridge is paved with 99 panes of three-layered transparent glass and even attempting to smash it with hammers dont produce damage.
The Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC) has described as fake, a vacancy advertising for recruitment and asked Nigerians to ignore it.

It also stressed that it will not undertake any recruitment on social media.

All Federal Civil Service Commission recruitment processes usually go through Federal Civil Service Commissions website www.fedcivilservice.gov.ng and not on an unauthorised internet website or mobile line, a statement by FCSC spokesman, Dr. Joel Oruche, said.

The statement described the current advertisement as fraudulent as it did not originate from the commission.
Governor of Plateau State, Mr. Simon Bako Lalong, has explained that the commission of inquiry on the states finances was not to witch hunt anyone but set straight the states debt profile.

A former governor of the state, Senator Jonah Jang, had in a statement issued Thursday by his media aide, Clinton Garuba, described his successors inauguration of the commission to probe his tenure between 2007 and 2015, as a wild goose chase.

While declaring readiness to give account of his tenure in office as governor, Sen. Jang urged that the commissions inquisition should be without bias and free of pre-determined outcomes.

In apparent response to the concerns expressed by the former governor, Mr. Lalong said that he inherited a debt of N220billion, unpaid salaries and poor infrastructure, a claim Jang denies.

Speaking to State House correspondents after visiting Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Friday, the Plateau governor said There was no way that we could come and see what we saw on the plateau and still leave them without clarification.

The first one was that when I said that I inherited a debt of N220 billion, the former governor said no, that what I got was only N18 billion.

I also spoke about projects and salaries that I inherited and he said no.

But, what I did was first of all to concentrate on doing my best so that I will not lose focus; now we are able to pay our salaries in the state, he said.

The governor disclosed that he cleared the salary arrears in order to make the citizens happy and to focus on development of the state.

Now that the people are happy, I initiated the commission of enquiry because what I got from the transition committee was really alarming.

For me to say that I will ignore it is going to be at the peril of my people, he stated.

He said that the enquiry was to put the record straight so that the debt would not hunt his administration after office.

Governor Lalong also said that the judicial commission would compare what was inherited and what the past administration claimed it left and make clarifications.

According to him, after the clarification, the administration will send the report to the appropriate authority for prosecution.

He also denied that his state was confused about whether to have grazing reserve or ranches for cattle breeders.

He said that he was in support of ranching whereas there was a gazette from his predecessor on grazing reserve and route.

He said the gazette was only there to create confusion.

I knew the advantage of ranching policy so I took my people on sensitization right from the youth to traditional rulers to religious leaders and we concluded with National Assembly members.

And, all accepted that we should adopt the ranching policy.

As far as Plateau state is concerned, we are into the ranching policy; if you see anybody talking about grazing reserve, it is not in my state, he stated.
The sacked Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriation, Abdulmumin Jibrin, said yesterday that Speaker of the House, Yakubu Dogara, lacks the moral ground to remain in office.

He was reacting to the statement issued by 10 Principal Officers of the House after their meeting on Thursday, in which they described allegations of budget padding leveled against Dogara and other lawmakers as wild, baseless and unfounded.

While the leadership is determined to ensure that absolute diligence, maturity and due process are employed in dealing with the allegations, instead of joining the accuser in a press war, it is important to state, in the interest of the agitated public, that the allegations are wild, baseless and unfounded, read part of the statement issued by the Principal Officers.

But Jibrin via a statement on Friday, said they (Principal Officers) have failed in their attempt to hide the truth of what transpired during the budget process to Nigerians.

It is clear Speaker Dogara is not in any way prepared to respond to the allegations I raised, but one can clearly see from his pronouncements, actions and body language that he is more interested in running helter-skelter to hold on to power.

Those familiar with the House politics know that Dogaras antics were last kicks of a dying horse. Looking beyond the corrupt regime of Yakubu Dogara, the first duty of the new speaker is to implement a wide range of internal reforms. Speaker Dogara does not have the credibility to superintend over the reforms, he stated.
Some top political heavyweights from Bauchi State on Friday stormed the National Secretariat of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abuja, with accusations of alleged wrongdoings, including misuse of funds, against the state governor, Mohammed Abubakar.

Led by Speaker of House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, and the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, the politicians accused the governor of misusing the N8.6 billion bailout funds given to the state by the Federal Government.

The politicians arrived at the APC secretariat at about 4.50 p.m. for a closed-door meeting with the partys National Chairman, John Odigie-Oyegun, and some National Working Committee members.

Before the group left the secretariat at 5.15 p.m., one of them, Sen. Ali Wakil (APC/Bauchi-Central) told newsmen that issues discussed at the meeting revolved around non-payment of workers salaries and non-utilization of bailout funds.

You know that Bauchi is an agrarian and civil service state and we must do everything to see that workers are paid as and when due.

We are not comparing ourselves with Osun or Edo or other states that have backlogs of nine months; it is not our business.

Our people must be paid as and when due and the remaining balance of the stipends must be paid and all the unending verifications must end, Wakil said.

Also speaking, Senator Suleiman Nazif (APC/Bauch-North) revealed that the state chapter of the party was not at peace.

Everything is not okay with the APC in Bauchi State, he said. Therefore, we needed the attention of the APC at the national level to come to the rescue of the APC in Bauchi because there is fire on the mountain in Bauchi APC.

According to Nazif, There are so many issues, but these are party issues and we felt that there was a need for us to come and discuss with our leaders and those issues are being handled.

The national chairman has assured us that he will take a drastic measure immediately and address the APC Bauchi pending problems.

The senator, who earlier in the day accompanied the Speaker on his visit to the Aso Rock Presidential Villa to meet with President Muhammadu Buhari, denied that the visit to the party secretariat also had something to do with the 2016 budget padding allegation against Dogara, saying no, no, no, it is not about padding; it is about APC Bauchi politics.

On the allegation that he and Dogara were sponsors of the crisis in the state, he said, it is not about 2019.

It is about solving the APC problem in Bauchi and ensuring that APC remains united in Bauchi and as you are aware, APCs strongest hold in the North is Bauchi as far as northern politics is concerned.

So, there is a dire need for us to come to the national secretariat and we can assure you that the national chairman is on top of the matter.

We will go back to Bauchi, to our key supporters and tell them exactly what transpired.

Nobody is against the governor, the governor is against himself.

(NAN)
No fewer than 120 houses, farms and other valuables worth millions of naira were destroyed by flood that ravaged part of Jahun Local Government Area of Jigawa State.

Member of the House or Representatives, Saidu Yusuf, representing Jahun/Miga constituency revealed this to journalists after paying a condolence visit to the victims.

He said the report received from the victims, indicated that about 120 houses, foodstuffs and other valuables were destroyed by flood.

The lawmaker was accompanied by Chief Whip, of the House of Reps Alasan Doguwa who came in person of the Speaker of the House of Representatives Hon. Yakubu Dogara, and National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) official to sympathize with the victims.

Yusuf said he came in company of Alasan, who represented the to assess the level of damages caused by the flood for appropriate action.
Law enforcement agencies in South Africa are currently on the trail of some unidentified young men who broke into a Christ Embassy Church branch in South Africa.

Footage from surveillance cameras installed in the premises shows the burglars entering the building at the early hours of the morning during which they made away with some valuable equipments.

We gathered that, an online awarness has been launched on social media with the video footage of their crime uploaded on Youtube and other content sites to help authorities in its investigations.



A church member, Nicolas Garcer, who uploaded the videos online, wrote:

The Following footage is of a burglary caught on camera @ CHRIST EMBASSY SOUTH CHURCH (106 harry street, Robertsham, Johannesburg south) on Saturday 30th July 2016.

4 thieves broke in at 1:30 am and left with valuable equipment (Sound,musical instruments, PCs) and valuable other Items

Watch the video clip below:
A fugitive who disguised himself as an elderly man has been arrested by police in the US.

31-year-old Shaun Shizz Miller was said to have walked outside in disguise after police officers ordered him out a house they surrounded in South Yarmouth, Massachusetts.

The officers realised the elderly man was actually Miller, they arrested him.

Miller had been on the run since April after being charged with heroin trafficking offences.

Two loaded weapons hidden in a laundry basket, and nearly $30,000 in cash were found in the house when searched.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms tweeted that the charges against Mr Miller were part of a larger complaint into a street gang, and that twelve other people had also been charged.
According to a report released by The Economist Intelligence Unit on Thursday, Lagos is ranked as the third worst city to live in.

It maintained its position at the lowest rankings of the Global Livability Index.

Lagos was placed 138th out of the 140 cities ranked in the latest livability survey and only Tripoli and Damascus were ranked worse than Lagos.

The livability survey assesses which locations around the world provide the best or the worst living conditions across five broad categories, including stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure.

According to the report, the top five best countries to live in are: Melbourne, Australia; Vienna, Austria; Vancouver, Canada; Toronto, Canada; and Calgary, Canada.

Of the poorer-scoring cities, 13 continue to occupy the very bottom tier of livability, where ratings fall below 50 percent and most aspects of living are severely restricted.

Continued threats from groups like Boko Haram acts as a constraint to improving stability in Lagos, the report stated.

Lagos scored highest in culture and environment, followed by infrastructure. It scored lowest in stability.

Three other African cities joined Lagos at the bottom rung of the liveable cities, including Douala, Cameroon; Harare, Zimbabwe; and Algiers, Algeria; ranking 132nd, 133rd, and 134th respectively.

No African city made it to the top 10 most liveable cities, five were in the 10 least liveable cities.

SEE ALSO: Nigerians Are Knocking CNN For This Futuristic Photo Of Lagos
The Lagos State government has announced its readiness to publicize Brand Lagos as the state continues to record successes in infrastructural development, investment drive and promotion of Arts and Culture.

Consequently, the State will expand on its promotion of the States tourism brand next weekend with a three-day programme tagged Love Lagos Weekend holding between Saturday, August 27 and Monday, August 29, 2016 in London.

The States Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Steve Ayorinde, made this known on Friday while receiving the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Londonbased BEN TV, Dr. Alistair Soyode, who paid him a courtesy visit in his office.

The Commissioner stated that the time is now right to begin to promote the Lagos Brand on the world stage in order to showcase the socio-economic and cultural strengths of the State.

According to him, the State Government has in the past one year undertaken several tourism programmes that have been widely acknowledged, which have put the state on world map, adding that the Love Lagos Weekend in London is also geared towards selling the state and uniting lovers of Lagos in the diaspora.

The various tourism programmes, he said, are in the realization of the pledge made by Governor Akinwunmi Ambode during his electioneering campaign to use tourism and the arts to promote social cohesion and create employment opportunities.

Other objectives of the Love Lagos Weekend are to create awareness on the new Lagos State administration, provide platform for interaction with Lagos State indigenes and lovers of Lagos State in the Diaspora and further market the state to potential investors and partners that can contribute towards the [email protected] celebrations.

The Commissioner congratulated the Chief Executive Officer of BEN TV for the successes recorded in the past 13 years of operation and for propagating the Nigerian and African culture to global audiences.

Ayorinde stated that the State Government is ready to partner with the TV Station in line with its strategic engagement with the media. He added that while One Lagos had successfully been launched as the states Tourism master brand, the Love Lagos concept as the slogan and brand-driver is now being promoted to further endear the state to the world.

Earlier, Soyode had explained that the purpose of his visit was to intimate the Lagos State government on the activities of the station and the establishment of the Nigerian Diaspora Mentoring Corp aimed at creating a platform to engage Nigerian youth for gainful ventures.

According to him, the Corp has been able to provide a platform to engage professional Diaspora Nigerians to interact with the Nigerian youth for purposeful direction in adjusting to adulthood, noting that private individuals are more available to render such support and give them needed leadership direction.

He commended the State Government for redefining public sector information management under the current leadership of the Ministry of Information and Strategy and pledged the readiness of the station to partner with it.
Last seasons PFA Player of the year, Riyad Mahrez has signed a new four-year contract with the Premier League defending champions.

Mahrez was repeatedly linked with Arsenal in the summer transfer window as speculations were rife that he would make a switch to the North London club.
A 23 year old artist and film maker Ilya Novikov was arrested for impersonating Jesus Christ after he was spotted walking along a road carrying a huge wooden cross on his back in the city of Perm in central Russias Perm Krai region.

A video recorded by an eyewitness showed the bearded artist wearing long flowing white robe as he walked along the street with a T-shaped cross. Motorists saw him and called the Police. wo policemen quickly arrived on the scene to arrest him  but struggled to fit his cross in the back of their patrol car. They eventually succeeded and took Mr Novikov to a police station for questioning and was later released.

A police spokesman said:

A man in white clothes, carrying a cross, was spotted by onlookers and police were called to the scene. Officers talked with the man at the police station and let him go.

Mr Novikov said:

My friend gave me some wooden sticks so I made a cross out of them. The experience of Jesus Christ was repeated. People were laughing, shouting and mocking me.

This reaction proves that the Bible story was true and that after 2,000 years people have still not changed  we are still cruel and intolerant to our neighbours.

But Father Igor Anoufriev, the rector of the citys Church of St George, condemned the stunt as blasphemy.

Police officers said the stunt was a potential traffic hazard.

Source: UK Mirror
In what is being seen as a strong message to about 21 foreign nationals earlier arrested for peddling drugs, a district judge in Dharwad awarded a 10-year jail term and imposed Rs 1 lakh fine on 32-year-old Arthur Joseph, a Nigerian who was first arrested and put behind bars by Vidhya Giri police in January 2013 for supplying drugs.

Police had caught the accused red-handed in his rented house at Sattur layout with large quantities of various drugs. Soon, a chargesheet was framed and a trial had been initiated two years ago.

If drug peddlers are convicted, then there will be some control over the drug mafia, a police officer said.

Recently, in Bengaluru, former model Darshitmita Gowda, 26, was arrested under various sections of the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS).

According to NCB officers, she was a member of a drug peddling group that catered to college students and working professionals in Bengaluru, Mangaluru and Goa.

The model, a regular at major fashion events, is the fifth person to be arrested in connection with the case, the investigation into which began after the NCB, on November 30, 2015, raided a posh apartment in RT Nagar. During the raid, 110 g of cocaine, 19 g of hashish, 1.2 g of MDMA and one LSD blot were seized.

In the last three years, 21 foreign nationals, 16 of them Nigerian, have been booked under the NDPS Act; some of them have been released on bail. Sources said some of the released members may have returned to their old drug-peddling ways.

Sources said cocaine is the drug of the elite, in India, it is supplied to five-star hotel clients and students from well-off families. However, common drugs like ganja, brown sugar, opium, ketamine and hashish are supplied those from middle-class backgrounds. Experts say that in Bengaluru, the supply of cocaine is comparatively low.

But the city is an important transit point for drug suppliers since the security at Delhi and Chennai Airports is higher. Peddlers are said to smuggle drugs from BIAL to other countries by concealing them in make-up boxes and footwear soles. Customs and immigration authorities have trapped a number of peddlers and courier agencies for possessing banned drugs.

Source: Banglore Mirror
Thirteen foreign nationals were rescued from suspected sea by pirates by the Nigerian Navy while attempting to hijack a merchant ship leaving Nigeria for Cameroon.

The Commanding Officer of the Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS) Nwamba, Capt. Mustapha Hassan,said in an interview with newsmen in Bonny area of Rivers State that the rescued victims were unharmed.

Capt. Hassan who led the rescue mission, gave the nationalities of the victims as seven Philippinos, two Romanians, one Russian, one Polish, one Indian and one Croatian.

On Aug. 17, MT Vectis Osprey, a British ship, was attacked by sea pirates about 20 nautical miles off the coast of Bonny Island Fairway Bouy in Rivers, he said.

We got a distress alert from the operations centre at the naval headquarters which dispatched NNS Nwamba with NNS Okpabana to shadow the operation.

On getting the distress call, we immediately set course to intercept and rescue the merchant ship from hijack by sea pirates.

On arrival, the special forces attacked the nine heavily armed pirates who jumped into the sea and escaped, apparently due to superior gunfire and tactical awareness of troops.

The operation was largely successful as all 13 foreign crew members, including the captain, are safe and unhurt while cargo onboard the ship is intact, Capt Hassan stated.

He added that the pirates however, escaped as to poor visibility partly caused by torrential rain on the day of the rescue thwarts their the troops effort of apprehending them.
Facebook user, Ada Ogbonna shared this post (below) on her wall some hours ago. She says she named her dog after Nigerias Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, because hes someone she admires.

We hope she would not be arrested like the 30-year-old trader, Joe Fortemose Chinakwe, who named his pet dog Buhari.

Recall the embattled trader, who was visibly angry after his three-day incarceration in police cell explained why he named his dog after the Nigerian President.

The father of two said; I did not commit any offence. I named my beloved pet dog Buhari, who is my hero. My admiration for Buhari started far back when he was a military Head of State. It continued till date that he is a civilian President. After reading his dogged fight against corruption, which is like a canker worm eating into the very existence of this country, I solely decided to rename my beloved dog which I called Buhari, after him. I did not know that I was committing an offence for admiring Buhari.
President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday went on social media to inform Nigerians that the North east is returning to normalcy. According to the president, a clear proof to this is that the outgoing Egyptian Ambassador told him(Buhari) that he travelled by road from Maiduguri to Yobe last month and nothing happened. However, this sparked various reactions among Nigerians on the platform.



In the words of Mr. president;

The outgoing Egyptian Amb today told me he travelled by road from Maiduguri to Yobe last month. This was once a journey no one dared to make  Muhammadu Buhari (@MBuhari) August 18, 2016

At first, some of them misunderstood the tweet, thinking President Buhari was talking about the admirable state of the road not knowing he meant the security of the road.

@MBuhari so according to you this is an achievement, shame u cant see the eminent issues of poverty, stagnant economy etc  Richie Gustav Uyi (@ocyno) August 18, 2016

@MBuhari so according to you this is an achievement, shame u cant see the eminent issues of poverty, stagnant economy etc  Richie Gustav Uyi (@ocyno) August 18, 2016

However, those who understood the context of the tweet still went ahead to question the mode by which the outgoing Egyptian Ambassador traveled the road and if ordinary Nigerians can dare such. Some others just wrote it off as government propaganda.

@MBuhari An Amb who obviously travelled with Security details is a bench mark for the safety of a road. We are in trouble.  Raymond Enaholo (@er_rays) August 18, 2016

@MBuhari absolutely no mole amongst the amb security detail to show him what our gallant soldiers are facing  Moyo Ayodele (@mohyur) August 19, 2016

@MBuhari you are louding the ambassador who dont know the gravity of risk he toke by doing that, but why havent you been in NE by yurself  Stephen Gunners (@stvgod2) August 19, 2016

@MBuhari Many thanks for the efforts thus far. Could you please embark on a stealth visit to confirm the true scenario..May Allah help you  Muhammad (@BuhariMuhd) August 19, 2016

@MBuhari congratulations. Can ordinary citizens embark on the same journey with his/her safety guarantee?  Adeiza (@IamAdeiza) August 18, 2016

@MBuhari did he mention how many policemen,army private security others that travelled with him,your excellency?  Meshack Idehen (@MeshackI) August 18, 2016
An Austrian farmer was said to have recently solved the mystery of why his cows had no milk.

To his amazement the milk was being drunk by three local pigs.

Hans Gumpitsch said he had been unable to work out why his cattle were not producing as much during the summer months until passing tourists snapped a picture of the piglets suckling their udders.

The three pigs, which belong to the local mayor Gaimberg Bernhard Webhofer, had been spending the summer months outside in the small town of Nussdorf-Debant in southern Austria.

Mr Gumpitsch said the pigs were able to suckle the cows because they drink from the udder with a lot of sensitivity. Saying the pigs would have been kicked away by the cows if they had bitten or been too rough on the cows.

He said that after drinking their fill, the eight-month-old piglets like to lie down in the summer for a nap.

Since the milk rustling came to light, Mr Gumpitschs farm has become an unlikely tourist attraction with visitors and locals all flocking down to see the spectacle for themselves.
The senate president, Bukola Saraki, and hispredecessor, David Mark, and other prominent Nigerians may soon be in troubleas the Presidency has ordered the investigation of present and past Nigerian officials named in the Panama Papers scandal.The chairman of the Code of Conduct Bureau, CCB, Sam Saba, confirmed the directive to PREMIUM TIMES.This newspaper had published leaked papers from a Panamanian law firm, Mossack Fonsecca, which were obtained by the German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung.The 2.6 TB files, involving 214,488 entities, exposed incredible secrets of the underworld economy, where a network of banks, law firms and other middlemen utilize shell companies, sometimes to hide illegal wealth.PREMIUM TIMES identified at least 110 Nigerians and companies operating offshore shell companies in tax havens.Mr. Saba said the Presidency forwarded names of some persons mentioned in the Panama Papers, to the agency for investigation.I want to let you know that government has written to us and given us some names based on what they have been reading and hearing regarding that document, Mr. Saba said. He said as soon as the #PanamaPapers reporting started, the CCB attempted to get the full leaks until PREMIUM TIMES assisted it by making some details for its scrutiny. Mr. Saba said the CCB, after studying the papers, has questions for some public officers in the country. He would not, however, disclose the names of the affected public officers.I think it (Panama Papers) is going to be helpful because already we have some questions for certain public officers, which I will not be able to disclose at the moment. Until they finish answering those questions,I may not be able to discuss it, he said.The CCB boss said the agency took some time to respond because it could not securethe leaked documents.I tried to access the document via the internet, but I was required to subscribe and pay some money, which I didnt have, Mr. Saba said.That was what stalled our effort at the time. But I later asked my counterpart in theICPC if he was in the picture and he replied in the negative. He, however, advised me to approach PREMIUM TIMES.Public officers who may be investigated by the CCB.

Senate President, Bukola Saraki Four assets listed in the secret offshore accounts carry Mr. Sarakis name, but the embattled senate president failed to disclose them in violation of Nigerias Code of Conduct law.One of the companies in Mrs. Sarakis name in Seychelles Island is Sandon Development Limited, a vehicle used in acquiring a property on 8 Whittaker Street, Belgravia, London, in 2012.Another shareholder listed for that company is Babatunde Morakinyo, a long-term personal aide and friend of Mr. Saraki. PREMIUM TIMES confirmed that theassets actually belong to Mr. Saraki, and not his wife, Toyin.Evidence showed that Mrs. Saraki and Mr. Morakinyo were mere fronts and nominee directors holding assets in trust for the Senate president.According to one of the documents obtained by this newspaper, Mr. Sakari, while still Kwara State governor, and describing himself as landlord of 8 Whittaker Street, London and 70 Bourne Street, London, executed a deed granting his tenants license to alter the premises of the properties.A part of the deed reads, This license is supplemental. The reversion immediately expectant on the determination of the lease is now vested in the landlord.The unexpired residue of the No. 70 (Bourne Street) lease is still vested in Dr. Saraki and the unexpired residue of the number 8 (Whittaker Street) lease is now vested in the companies.The deed was signed, sealed and delivered by Mr. Saraki on behalf of himself, Sandon Development Limited and Renocon Property Development Limited.It was, however, from Renocon that Mrs. Saraki, posing as owner of Sandon, purportedly bought Number 8 Whittaker Street in July 2011.Both companies belong to Mr. Saraki, but he only used a company owned by him to buy a property from another of his companies.Toyin acted as a front for her husband in the purported transaction.The Sarakis also own Girol Properties Ltd, which was registered on August 25, 2004 (ayear after Mrs. Sarakis husband became governor) in the British Virgin Island (BVI).Company documents show that Mrs. Sarakiowns 25,000 numbers of shares with a par value of US$ 1,00 each. She was appointed the first and only director of the company.Mrs. Saraki had in a letter to the International Center for Investigative Journalism, ICIJ, denied having a shareholding in Girol Properties.But thisnewspaperfound a document linking her to the firm, as well as another handwritten document suggesting that she was known within Mossack Fonseca as justa nominee director and not the beneficial owner of the company.

Former senate president, David MarkFormer Senate president, David Mark, has links with eight offshore companies in British Virgin Island as shown by the leakeddatabase of Mossack Fonseca.The database showed Mr. Mark is one of Nigerias most extensive users of offshore shell companies, while serving as a public official.The companies are Sikera Overseas S.A, Colsan Enterprises Limited, Goldwin Transworld Limited, Hartland Estates Limited, Marlin Holdings Limited, Medley Holdings Limited, Quetta Properties Limited,and Centenary Holdings Limited.In the documents, Mr. Mark was repeatedly marked as a politically exposed person, andat a point the former senate president had to send documents, across to Mossack Fonseca to prove that he was clean.The 68-year-old former military officer spent the last 40 years covered by the investigation largely as public office holder.He is widely seen to be far richer than his legitimate incomes could have provided.He served as military governor of Nigerias north-central state of Niger, minister of communications, and later as president of the Nigerian Senate from 2007 to 2015.Mr. Markhas been in the senate since 1999, and remains a senator of the federal republic, representing Benue South Zone in the upper legislative chamber.

Former National Planning Minister, Rasheed GbadamosiA former Minister for National Planning, Rasheed Gbadamosi, owns two expensive and luxurious penthouses in Panama, a notorious tax haven.Mr. Gbadamosi, writer, businessman and bureaucrat, who was recently appointed co-chairman of the Lagos at 50 planning committee, bought the two properties in 2008, while serving as chairman of the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, PPPRA.He paid a staggering N836.8 million ($2.6 million) for the penthouses located in a swanky tower in Panama.According to the leaks, sometime in early 2008, the former minister approached Gilberto Aleman, a Panamanian real estate broker, to help him secure two posh penthouses owned by Nicolas Corcione, owner of Ciclones Corporation Inc, and Cosmopolitan Corp, the companies under which the properties were registered.Valued at N436,800,000 ($1,365,000.00), Penthouse 1, the first penthouseMr. Gbadamosibought, is located in Ocean Park Tower 2, and consists of a surface area of 537.33 square meters, on floors 35 and 36 of the Tower.

Former Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Funsho KupolokunMr. Kupolokun, 69, is one of the largest shareholders in one of Ghanas biggest hotels, the Kempinski Accra Hotel, a 269-luxury rooms five-star facility.But a close look at the companys records will not reveal this fact because in 2013, Mr.Kupolokun, who was head of the NNPC between 2003 and 2007, used a shadowy offshore company registered in Mauritius, aknown tax haven, to hide his shares in the company that owns the hotel.The company, Gold Coast Resorts International Limited, is an entity incorporated in the British Virgins Island in 2006.Details obtained by PREMIUM TIMES from the leaked Mossac Fonsecas database showed that Mr. Kupolokun became director of Gold Coast Resorts on August 11, 2008 and personally held 17.23 per centshares in the company.

Source: Premium Times
President Barack Obama is no doubt one of the most popular presidents in American history. Just a few months before he leaves office, his Presidential twitter account, @POTUS hit the 10 million follower mark.

Obama has had a commendable social media presence and even managed the feat of being the fastest twitter account to reach one million followers. That particular feat took all of just five hours.

To celebrate the milestone, Twitter put together a video of Obamas best Twitter moments.


A 35-year-old barber, Uche Emeroha, and a prophet, Kenneth Alozie, were paraded by the police on Thursday for allegedly abducting two sisters, who were returning from a summer class in the Igando area of Lagos State.

Emeroha said Prophet Alozie allegedly promised to pay him N6,000 if he could abduct and bring two children to his church, Hope in God Healing Ministry in the Agboroko area, Iyana Iba.

PUNCH Metro had reported on Thursday that two sisters  Jumia, six, and four-year-old Ayomide  were abducted on Olorunfemi Street in the Igando area while returning from the summer class around 2pm on Tuesday.

It had been reported that the children, whose mother is a widow, were rescued by police operatives from the Igando division around 7pm on Wednesday and two suspected abductors were arrested.

Our correspondents learnt that Emeroha, after allegedly abducting the girls on their way back home, had handed them over to a woman identified as Mama Chioma, who then took them to Alozies church.

According to the police, Emeroha was the first suspect to be arrested and he, thereafter, led operatives to the hideout, where Alozie had hidden the girls.

Alozie, who claimed to be a prophet, was also arrested.

It was gathered that Mama Chioma was still on the run.

Speaking to PUNCH Metro at the Lagos State Police Command headquarters, Ikeja, on Thursday, Emeroha said when he went to Alozies church for counselling, the prophet promised to fortify him with a charm, so that he (Emeroha) could be bringing stolen children to the church.

He said, I am not married. I did not know the girls before that day. I worked as a barber on that street. One woman, Mama Chioma, was the one who introduced me to the prophet. She collected my phone number from my girlfriend. She took me to the prophet for counselling. I think she and the prophet worked together.

When I met the prophet on Tuesday, he asked me to abduct some children. He promised to do some charms for me so that I would not be caught and he promised to pay me N6,000. That was the first time I would run such errand.

When I came back to the area, I saw the girls returning home. I accosted them and lied that their mother asked me to buy some soft drinks for them. They did not struggle with me. I carried the younger one and held the hand of her sister. Mama Chioma was already waiting at Akesan bus stop to receive them. I recently moved to the area to work as a barber. I was living in Abuja.

Alozie, however, denied sending Emeroha on the errand, saying he only prayed for the barber during the counselling.

He said, I did not know him before that Tuesday. Mama Chioma is my member. She usually brings people, who have one problem or the other to me, so that I could pray for them. I am not a herbalist.

I was at home on Tuesday when the woman brought this man. I counselled and prayed for him. I only wanted to solve his problems. Later on Tuesday when Mama Chioma brought the girls, she said they were Emerohas children and his wife had abandoned him because of his challenges.

The older girl, Jumia, told PUNCH Metro that Mama Chioma took her and her sister to an unfamiliar house, gave them food and plaited their hair.

She said, The man, who took us away, said mummy asked him to buy some drinks for us. He later gave us to one woman. The woman took us on a bus to a place. She put us in one house and gave us food. She gave us rice and soup.

She later carried us to one mans place. She also plaited our hair. Later, the police came and carried us to the station. The police now took us back to mummy.

The mother of the rescued girls, who identified herself as Iya Ayo, said it was a boy in the area who caught a glimpse of Emeroha escaping with the girls.

She said, My children were found around 6pm in the Agboroko community, towards Okoko. I thanked the God of Christ Apostolic Church. When I initially discovered that my children were abducted while returning home, I searched the whole area trying to trace them.

I usually grill corn in the area since the death of my husband three years ago. It was a boy in our area who caught a glimpse of the barber escaping with the girls. I also thank the police for their efforts.

The Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni, who paraded the suspects, said the police were on the trail of Mama Chioma, who was believed to have other victims in her custody.

He said, The woman is also known as chairlady. She is being hunted now. We are going to find out if she does not have other victims. But we have the two suspects  the barber and the prophet  with us. The police want parents to take more proper care of their children to avoid them falling preys to abductors. Investigation is ongoing.

Source: Punch
Barrister Aisha Wakil who was declared wanted by the Nigerian military authorities last Sunday was until recent largely unknown. Almost always totally veiled, her identity has been as inscrutable as the tale about her origins. Popular folklore is that the woman activist, who was born into an Igbo Christian family converted to Islam during her time at the University of Maiduguri where she studied law.



The news report declaring Aisha wanted undoubtedly came to her and nearly all who knew her with surprise especially against the fact that she had almost always carried out her conduct and liaisons with Boko Haram with the knowledge of the authorities. In fact, she is known to be a staff of the National Human Rights Commission, NHRC and was during the Goodluck Jonathan administration an important liaison that was used to make contacts with the Boko Haram.Prior to the transformation of the Islamic Boko Haram sect into a fighting force in 2009, Wakil was well known to have close ties with Mohammed Yusuf, the leader of the sect, whose killing led to the radical transformation of the group. Following her education, she settled in Maiduguri and made a home with another lawyer, Wakil Gana who is presently a judge with the Borno State High Court.

She has not for once denied a link with the group, having said in separate fora that she knew some of the insurgents right from when they were circumcised.

It was perhaps on that account that when the Jonathan administration constituted a committee to negotiate with Boko Haram she featured prominently on the list. Even more, when the Boko Haram group announced a group of prominent northerners to negotiate with the government she and her husband, Justice Wakil were featured among those nominated by the group.

Calling the Boko Haram insurgents at one point as her children who moved in and out, she said:

That was how I got to know most of them. Then they were not Boko Haram and Jamaatu ah-lil Sunnah members. It is surprising how these children turned out to be what they are now. I keep on saying there is certainly no smoke without fire. Something must have triggered those innocent-looking children to grow up behaving the way they are behaving now.

You needed to see them growing up. Sometimes when I start talking about them, I shed tears. Those children prayed, and still pray a lot. I have a mosque in the house, and they would always go in and pray.

Wakil narrated how she started noticing changes in them. How they would go out in the morning and return in the evening and during the fasting period, they would not return until around 11 or 12 midnight. They also started attending Muhammad Yusufs lectures to listen to his preaching.

I didnt observe anything strange about the teaching. Soon, the children began to be conscious of themselves. It was then that the rumour started that they were planning a war. When I heard of it, I went straight to Muhammad Yusuf because I had been very close to him. When I realized that Muhammad Yusuf was frequently being arrested, detained and released, I went to Baba Fugu and asked him why his son-in-law was always being detained? But I learnt he was always preaching things the government didnt like and insulting them.

At the peak of the crisis when few dared to come out, Aisha was able to mobilise some Borno women to come out to protest against the situation. At that time she was quoted to have referred to the Boko Haram insurgents as her children.

My sons, I have been begging you since in silence to come out and state your grievances and stop destroying your homeland. Please come out and state your grievances and stop these killings, she was quoted to have tearfully said. Just as she is almost never seen without being fully veiled from the crown of her head to the sole of her feet, Aishas origin has been almost always veiled from Nigerians.

The nearest revelation about her linkage to being Igbo was when she was quoted to have disclosed in an interview with a national newspaper her peace-making efforts.

According to her, she started the dialogue process since 2009, even before the major crisis erupted because I knew their slain spiritual leader, Muhammad Yusuf. His father-in-law, late Alhaji Baba Fugu Mohammed, was my spiritual father in Islam, and I used to visit his home.

In fact, Mohammed Yusuf almost married my younger sister Amina, but Almighty Allah did not make it possible. So that was how I got closer to the duo. It went even to the extent that I was cooking food and taking it to the house of late Alhaji Fugu, to the pupils of the Quranic school, (almajari).

And because I am from the southern part of the country, I normally prepared southern dishes, which Yusuf had always come to eat. In fact, he liked my egusi soup very much, and we became very close when his father-in-law told him that I was the one who cooked the food. So anytime we met, he expressed delight and prayed that Almighty Allah would reward me, for he was eating from my pot and that was how I established a strong relationship with him, she was quoted as saying.

Source: Vanguard
The Akwa Ibom State Police Command have arrested three suspected militants for being in the possession of high-power bombs capable of sinking any ship, boat, or destroying buildings or pipelines

The State Commissioner of Police, Murtala Mani, who paraded them on Friday at the state Police Headquarters, Ikot Akpan-abia, said the suspects were arrested on August 18, 2016, through an intelligence report.

Mani who briefed newsmen on the development through the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) of the Command, Cordelia Nwawe, said the suspects were arrested at Moden City Hotel in Eket local government area of the state.

The State Police boss gave the names of the suspected militants as Nelson Seimiyefa, aged 34, from Bayelsa state, Victor Emmanuel Williams, aged 34, from Etinan local government area of Akwa Ibom and Nseobong Dickson, aged 38, from Eket local government area also of Akwa Ibom State.

Mani said bombs recovered from the suspected militants included two high-power IED bombs measuring 60/80.5 cm and 44/5.5 cm respectively; and one long single high-power propel launcher bomb measuring 78/4.55cm.
On this day in 2015;FORMER Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Demcoratic Party, PDP, Chief Olabode George, berated former governor of Lagos State, Mr Babatunde Fashola for allegedly spending N78 million to build a website, describing the move as a reckless misappropriation.

Also On this day in 2015;President Muhammadu Buhari, directed the management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, to work more closely with the indigenous oil producers to boost domestic refining capacities.

The president gave the directive while meeting with members of the Independent Petroleum Producers Association, IPPA, at the Presidential Villa.

And On this day in 2015;The Joint Task Force, Operation Restore Order, quoted intelligence reports saying that the Most wanted Boko Haram Leader, Abubakar Shekau might have died of gunshot wounds sustained in confrontation with the soldiers.

A statement released by the spokesman of the JTF, Lt Col. Sagir Musa, said the terrorist leader sustained serious gunshot wounds in an encounter with the JTF troops in one of their camps at SambisaForest on June 30, 2013.
The Buhari Media Support Group, (BMSG) has appealed to the Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) advocacy group to shelve its proposed demonstration to the Presidential Villa.

The BBOG, in a statement signed and issued on Friday in Abuja by its co-conveners, Aisha Yesufu and Oby Ezekwesili, said it would commence as from Monday, a series of actions that will compel the Federal government and international community to take decisive action towards the rescue of the abducted Chibok schoolgirls.

Some of the actions the group said it will take include several marches to the Presidency, media interactions, and engagements with critical stakeholders such as Governments, International Organizations, Statesmen and Influencers.

In its reaction, the BMSG, which is a pro-President Muhammadu Buhari group, explained that shelving the demonstration was necessary to avoid complications and anything capable of undermining efforts of the government to rescue the girls unharmed.

The group in a statement signed by Muhammad Labbo, noted that playing politics with the Chibok schoolgirls abduction saga was unhelpful and embarrassing to the government and counterproductive to the silent efforts of the military to rescue them.

According to him, government would take serious exception to the mobilisation of the parents of the kidnapped girls to score political advantage or exploiting the tragedy to play to the gallery.

He further said dragging the parents of the victims to Abuja for endless demonstrations would only compound a bad situation, and give them the impression that a rescue mission is as simple as ABC.

Labbo also warned the BBOG against claiming monopoly of patriotism and humanity over the government by seeking to undermine the silent efforts of the military to map out strategies to safely rescue the girls.

He stressed that if there was a formula for rescuing the girls within 24 hours unharmed, government would have done that, reminding the group of the complexities and sensitivity of hostage rescue missions.

The terrorists have no rules of engagement and therefore, would not mind killing all the hostages if the Nigerian military attempts any rash action, the BMSG coordinator said.

He urged the BBOG not to blackmail and stampede the government into doing something which might lead to the large-scale deaths of the hostages, adding their captors had no regard for the sanctity of life.

Any rescue attempt that leaves the kidnapped girls dead would not worth it.

Our armed forces have been working hard on plans and strategies of how to rescue the girls but dont have to publicise their plans because absolute secrecy is needed.

The primary objective of any rescue mission is to get the hostages alive and unharmed, he said.

Labbo advised the Bring Back Our Girls Group to support the government in its efforts to deal with the challenge rationally, adding that the BMSG frowns at efforts by the BBOG group to portray the government of the day as insensitive or inhuman because it did not act according to their idealistic theories of easy rescue mission.

If a reckless rescue effort results in disaster for hostages, the advocacy group would be the first to crucify the government for sacrificing the lives of the girls.

He also stated that the recent Boko Haram video clip was a propaganda effort to force the government to surrender to terrorists and release their members in custody.
In the US a woman reportedly stole an ambulance early Friday morning and drove herself back to her home after being released from the Hospital.

While a paramedic was inside dropping off another patient, police say 43-year-old Lisa Carr walked outside, got into that ambulance and took off.

Carr then drove about 15 kilometres home, where she was taken into custody after police used GPS to track her down.

She was charged with auto theft and driving with a suspended license.

Police are said to be trying to determine her mental health condition.

Carrs attorney raised concerns about her mental competence Friday morning, which led to an exchange between the prosecutor and the judge, who reminded the court several times that Carr is innocent until proven guilty.

Carr has no prior convictions other than a few traffic violations, according to her attorney.

Carr waived her appearance in court Friday. Her next court appearance is set for Aug. 29.
Village officials in Niles, Ill., are examining ways to increase revenue, including the imposition of a new tax on self-storage businesses. Trustee George Alpogianis proposed implementation of a self-storage tax during an Aug. 12 meeting of the general government and information-technology committee, of which he is chair.

Alpogianis told the committee he started thinking about the tax because of a new self-storage facility thats being built in the villages industrial district. He said he consulted with attorney Danielle Grcic before making the proposal.

[After] all the charges we charge our citizens, I think we need to find more ways to bring money into the village, Alpogianis said during the meeting. Storage facilities seem to be in the gray area, and nobody knows how to tax them. Im sorry; I just cant understand how businesses can come into town and we cant [tax them].

There is a precedent in the state to support the proposed tax. The Illinois communities of Morton Grove, North Chicago and River Grove have imposed some form of tax on self-storage businesses. Morton Grove requires facilities to charge tax on tenants. Earlier this year, Lincolnwood, Ill., considered imposing a storage tax before placing a one-year ban on self-storage development in the villages commercial areas.

The Niles General Government Committee decided to hold off on making a recommendation until the building and zoning committee could discuss a series of business-fee proposals during a meeting scheduled for yesterday, the source reported.

If we can get something from the [building and zoning committee] by next month, that would be great, Alpogianis said. Time is money.
Storage Express, which operates 91 self-storage properties in five states, recently opened a newly built facility in Indianapolis, the companys eighth location in the city and 90th overall. The property at 3235 E. Hanna Ave. is along Interstate 65 near the Interstate 465 interchange. It was developed on a narrow tract of land that was created years ago when the interstate right-of-way bisected a larger parcel. The site languished on the market for decades before Storage Express acquired it, according to a company press release.

The facility comprises 30,000 square feet of storage space. Features include 24-hour access, climate control, controlled gate access, a rental center and video cameras.

Storage Express has opened four other locations in metro Indianapolis over the past year, and a 27,000-square-foot expansion is nearing completion at the companys property at 4822 Mann Road, the release stated. Another facility is under construction on Madison Avenue and is scheduled to open in September.

Founded in 1992, Storage Express owns and operates self-storage properties in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee. The company has offices in Bloomington and Jeffersonville, Ind., as well as Indianapolis. Rentals are centralized out of the companys Bloomington headquarters.
Big Yellow Self Storage in Swindon, England, is acting as a drop-off for donations to benefit Saving Needy Dogs (SND), a local charity that cares for rescued canines. The organization had been seeking a central location for donations from the public, according to a Big Yellow press release. SND previously depended on out-of-town veterinary clinics.

The partnership came about in May after 300 worth of dog food was stolen from a shed belonging to the charity. Following the theft, volunteer Clare Fantini-Stephens reached out to Big Yellow for help. They said they could help with a drop-off point, which would be more central for us and, of course, we jumped at the chance; it really does help us out and make it easier for us, Fantini-Stephens said.

Once we heard SN Dogs was looking for a central drop-off point in town, we instantly wanted to help , as dog lovers and supporters of local charities, said Tom McDowall, assistant store manager for Big Yellow Swindon. At Big Yellow, were always thinking about how we support the local community, and it made sense for us to be involved as we are an easy-to-reach, noticeable location for the public to drop off canned food and bedding. Weve even had a visit from a few of the foster dogs, which was a welcome treat.

SND is already benefiting from the new partnership, according to the source. We have noticed an increase in the number and variety of products were getting. Were getting dog beds and specialist dog food, so the new location has really worked for us, Stephens-Fantini said. With more dogs coming in, we are always in need of lots of donations. We know that to receive them the community needs easily accessible locations, and Big Yellow [has] been kind enough to offer that, so were thrilled.

SND is a foster-based rescue that relies solely on volunteers to operate. Participants assess dogs for rehoming, provide foster care, and organize and attend fundraising events. The charity has found new homes for 60 dogs since January. It is what were all about. Yes, we love to fundraise and going to all of our community events; but what means the most is knowing our dogs go to loving new homes and have long and happy lives, Fantini-Stephens told the source.

Big Yellow Swindon is operated by Big Yellow Group PLC. The company has 84 locations in the United Kingdom under the Big Yellow Self Storage and Armadillo Self Storage brand names, with most concentrated in Greater London. Its total portfolio comprises 5.1 million square feet.
Technical analysis doesnt often generate a lot of excitement, as macroeconomic disciplines go, but that doesnt mean its practitioners are dull. Take Jeffrey deGraaf, for instance. My dream job is being a pilot with the U.S. Forest Service in the air attack division, fighting forest fires, he says. I would round that off by being on the Telluride ski patrol during the winter months, walking my kids to school, then going to work on the slopes.

How then did the founder and chairman of Renaissance Macro Research, who this year celebrates his tenth appearance at No. 1 on Institutional Investors All-America Research Team and thus earns entry into its Hall of Fame, end up in a job thats equal parts number cruncher and trend spotter?

I knew from an early age that I needed a career that rewarded risk-taking and creative thought, explains deGraaf, 46. I studied finance because it was challenging and had a certain elegance about it  but unlike accounting, in my view, it wasnt completely rules based. Creativity could be rewarded.

DeGraaf earned a bachelors degree at Michigan State University in 1990, then joined Merrill Lynch as a technical analyst. There he met the first of two men who would have a role in shaping his career: Stephen Shobin. Steve is one of the best people Ive ever had the honor of working with  a true gentleman, a wonderful person with a great sense of humor and uncanny intuition regarding the markets and stocks, he says. He showed me how to convey ideas in research reports, how to put the personal element into the work  to keep it simple and easy to understand but not at the expense of being insightful.

Shobin moved to Lehman Brothers in 1995 and deGraaf followed three years later. The former debuted on the All-America Research Team in 1996, as a runner-up in Technical Analysis, and was No. 1 in the sector in 2000, the year he left to run money for Americap Advisers in New York. DeGraaf debuted on the team the following year, in second place, and rose to the top in 2005. He has held that spot ever since, even as he changed firms twice.

In 2007 the analyst moved to ISI Group, where he met a second mentor, Ed Hyman, a fellow member of the All-America Research Team Hall of Fame and the most honored economist in the surveys history. Eds magic, in my opinion, is his ability to write about economics and keep it interesting for the noneconomist, deGraaf observes. We try to instill that in our research.

DeGraaf launched his own firm in 2011. We started RenMac because we wanted to broaden our scope, create more proprietary business lines and take macro-based research in a new, fresh direction, he explains. It didnt make any sense to create value without being independent because wed just be creating value for someone else. Today, with technology and the proliferation of [commission-sharing arrangements], its far easier to be an independent research boutique.

What advice does deGraaf offer to those considering a career as an analyst? First, know your history  not just of the companies, industries and markets, but also business cycles, global trade, economics and the like, he advises. In the end, this is a judgment business, and the more solid the foundation of broad knowledge, the better the judgment.

The inclusion of deGraaf brings the Hall of Fame membership total to 55, 12 of whom appear at No. 1 in their sectors again this year: George Staphos (Paper & Packaging), Bank of America Merrill Lynch; Meredith Adler (Retailing/Food & Drug Chains) and Andrew Lazar (Food), both of Barclays; A.M. (Toni) Sacconaghi (IT Hardware), Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.; Ed Hyman (Economics), David Raso (Machinery) and Mark Schoenebaum (Biotechnology, Pharmaceuticals/Major), all of ISI Group; Andrew Steinerman (Business, Education & Professional Services) and Michael Weinstein (Medical Supplies & Devices), both of J.P. Morgan; David Adelman (Tobacco), Morgan Stanley; Jeffrey deGraaf (Technical Analysis), Renaissance Macro Research; and Steven Fleishman (Electric Utilities), Wolfe Research.

Three other Hall of Fame analysts earn positions this year, but not in first place: BofA Merrills Jessica Reif Cohen (Cable & Satellite, Media), Citis Ehud Gelblum (Telecom & Networking Equipment) and Zelman & Associates Ivy Zelman (Homebuilders & Building Products).

Three currently ranked analysts have amassed nine first-place appearances to date and thus could be inducted in the Hall of Fame next year, should they reign supreme in their sectors in 2015: Joseph Greff (Gaming & Lodging) and Brian Tunick (Retailing/Specialty Stores), both of J.P. Morgan, and UBSs Robin Farley (Gaming & Lodging, Leisure).

Listed below are the members of the All-America Research Team Hall of Fame, ranked by the total number of times they finished in first place in their sector(s), and the firms where they worked at the time of their most recent top appearances. The All-America Research Team Hall of Fame
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Monday, August 22: Preliminary purchasing manager index data from market for the primary euro zone economies will be released. As Brexit jitters subside, consensus forecast suggests a modest pace of expansion to continue in the region, aided by European Central Bank stimulus. Manufacturing activity in two economies which have showed signals of stumbling in recent quarters, France and Italy, will be a particular focus for traders speculating that further weakness could spur action from ECB president Mario Draghi and his colleagues.

Tuesday, August 23: Bank of Montreal announces second-quarter financial results on Tuesday, one day ahead of Royal Bank of Canada.

Despite being perceived as global stalwarts of the sector with strong balance sheets, there is gloom among many investors as earnings season kicks off for the four major Canadian banks, which control 85 percent of the nations market. The declining fortunes of commodity producers has weighed heavily on lenders north of the border, coupled with concerns over rising household debt linked to rapidly rising housing prices in recent years.

Wednesday, August 24: The National Association of Realtors releases existing home sales data for July. Home builder sentiment picked up recently according to the latest release by the National Association of Home Builders last week, suggesting that improving labor situation and mortgage rates that remain near historic lows continue to propel strength in the U.S. home market. Strong second-quarter results reported by home improvement retailer Home Depot this past week suggested that U.S. home owners have few concerns over the direction of values.

Thursday, August 25: The 2016 Jackson Hole Summit, hosted by the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank every year since 1978, brings policymakers, academics and bankers from around the globe to gather in the Wyoming ski resort town. Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellens speech on Friday is the likely highlight of the event for most investors, as markets look for any whisper of clues as to potential September FOMC monetary policy moves. After the hawkish tone of notes from the policymakers July meeting, derivatives markets are increasingly pricing in a rate hike before year-end.

Friday, August 26: The Bureau of Economic Analysis, part of the U.S. Commerce Department, releases revised second-quarter U.S. GDP data. Initial data released in July indicated that the U.S. economy expanded at a weaker-than-forecast 1.2 percent annualized rate during the second quarter. Following soft growth in the first three months of the year, any upward revision will be carefully parsed by Fed watchers speculating on when the next rate hike will occur. Despite being downbeat overall, one silver lining in the initial GDP release was the resilience of the U.S. consumer, with household spending growing at an annual rate of 4.2 percent.
Il governo per il 2016 sblocchera circa 20 miliardi di investimenti in infrastrutture. Questa la ricetta per dare la spinta decisiva alla ripresa emersa dal confronto tra Matteo Renzi e Graziano Delrio andato in scena ieri sera al Nazareno. Nello specifico, alla scuola andranno 1 miliardo e 220 milioni di euro, per lo sblocca Italia sono previsti 3,2 miliardi e per il dissesto idrogeologico altri 3 miliardi.

Per Rfi saranno stanziati 4 miliardi e per il contratto di programma Anas 1 miliardo e 115 milioni. In opere dei provveditorati dovrebbero essere investiti 4,5 miliardi, mentre agli aeroporti dovrebbero andare 228 milioni, 468 milioni al piano casa e 900 milioni ai porti; in ambito locale sono previsti 260 milioni per Tpl e 500 milioni di interventi nei comuni.

I cantieri che si possono sbloccare rapidamente, ha spiegato il premier durante il seminario nella sede del Partito democratico, rappresentano circa 20 miliardi di investimenti: risorse gia stanziate ma ancora ferme al palo. In questo momento e il ministro Delrio a dettagliare la serie di interventi possibili nel breve periodo.
On Saturday, September 17, 2016 the Harp and Shamrock Society of Texas will celebrate its 50th anniversary as Texas' oldest Irish organization with a "Green Tie Gala."

The society is honored to present the following 50th anniversary honorees. They are Tim Campion of GLI in Business and Industry, Neill Reagan of the Inishfree School of Irish Dance in Arts and Humanities, Richard McCracken, Dean Emeritus of the University of the Incarnate Word in Education, Sister Teresa Carter CSB in Religion. Also being honored are the widows of two of the founders Margaret Burke, widow of Dr. Sean Burke, former Professor of Philosophy at the University of the Incarnate Word and Virginia M. Dowd, widow of Patrick Dowd formerly of the Brooks Air Force Base school of Aerospace Medicine. The third founder was Col. Joseph McShane.

Austin based Consul General Adrian Farrell will be present as will Senator Bill Lawless of the Seanad Eireann to meet those who are Irish Nationals.

The community, wherever you are located, is invited to join with the Harp and Shamrock Society in this gala. The gala will consist of music, food, dance, and a silent auction followed by a presentation to the honorees. If businesses would like to promote their business silent auction items are needed and if interested contact Linda Grosse at lmgrosse@hotmail.com or if businesses or individuals would like to support us by the purchase of an ad in our gala program please contact Carolyn Dowd at cdowdpa@hotmail.com.

For further information contact the Harp and Shamrock Society at its website www.harpandshamrock.org or on its Facebook page.
US and Syrian war planes have come close to engaging in a mid-air battle.

The US scrambled a number of F-22 fighters after American special operations soldiers came under fire from Syrian government jets.
The company specialises in industrial drilling tools.

We have been active in approaching potential acquisition targets, but we did not see value for the group in the terms that were being sought by vendors, compared with the cost of investing in our own engineering competencies to build a competitive offering, the company said yesterday.

We continue to engage in dialogue with potential acquisitions and investments, but in some cases, the asking price is not supported by the earnings, it said.

However, Mincon still sees fine companies worth acquiring and is still looking to buy.

We are actively continuing to identify and engage with those that we believe would add more than they would cost, and which would continue to fill out our geographic footprint and our product and service offering, it said.

Despite that uncertainty it yesterday reported a strong set of first-half figures; with pre-tax profits up 11% year-on-year to just over 5m and total revenue ahead by the same percentage to 36.3m.

Its balance sheet remains strong, with net assets totalling almost 100m and it is seeing a strong return to growth in all markets other than Africa, which is being affected by the instability of the South African rand.

Mincon said that it expects to see sales growth, next year, from new product ranges in which it has lately been investing.

We are investing in our factories to provide for the expansion of our product ranges, said chief executive Joe Purcell.
Joint bidders Rank and 888 Holdings formally pulled the plug on their recently revised 3.6bn (4.2bn) bid for William Hill late on Thursday, still adamant that a successful deal would have created a transformational force in the global betting and gaming industry and unlocked substantial cost and revenue synergies.

William Hill had rejected the bid, believing it undervalued its business, and said this week that it saw no merit in engaging with its suitors. Yesterday, the company maintained its confidence of fulfilling an improved digital offering and international expansion led growth plan.
He made the remarks yesterday during an application to have them made wards of court by a couple who had fostered them for four years and who want to stop them being reunited with their natural parents.

After a District Court hearing for a care order relating to the children collapsed after 29 days of evidence, the Child and Family Agency (CFA) has been promoting their reunification with their natural parents.

They have remained in the care of their foster parents with overnight access to the natural parents over the last two months and cannot be identified by order of the court.

Judge Kelly was told in the High Court that the CFA had carried out an extraordinarily detailed risk assessment study before supporting family reunification. The children were to have been reunited with their natural parents next Tuesday. He said that would not now take place as he was of the opinion the status quo should be maintained until another judge of the High Court had fully heard and decided on the wards of court application.

He adjourned the matter until September 8 and said it would be dealt with by the vacation duty judge of the day. He did not believe it would be in any way detrimental to the children not to rejoin their natural parents before that date.

Judge Kelly said the children, on the evidence he had read, would be going back into a situation that would be detrimental to them. He had concerns with regard to a suggestion that the natural parents have overnight access to the children. The judge said the court had seen affidavits and reports alleging sexual abuse and cruelty of the children involving a family relative. He was told that Mr Pol OMurchu, solicitor for the foster parents, would be opposed to any overnight access by the natural parents to the children.

The question of overnight access fills me with considerable concern and those concerns would want to be allayed very powerfully in order for overnight access to be allowed, he said.

Judge Kelly said that in circumstances which he found to be very strange a District Court hearing that had lasted for 29 days had been told that the application regarding the childrens future had been withdrawn.

He said the District Court judge had not been given any opportunity to make an order regarding the welfare of the children. The District Court had been denied an opportunity of making any appropriate orders.
The home of Mary Moore, of Rathcoole, featured on the architectural renovation TV series in an episode broadcast in July 2009 entitled Rathcoole Gallery. Works were carried out on her three-bedroom home at a cost of 100,000.

However, Ms Moore was unhappy with what was done to her home and claimed remedial works were required to carry out repairs on her property.

She brought High Court proceedings seeking damages against a number of parties, including Bannon, who trades as Dermot Bannon Architects.

She also sued Kelly OConnell Developments Ltd, of Timahoe, Co Laois, the principal contractor who carried out the works on her home that featured in the show; a director of the contractor, Brendan OConnell; and Coco Television Productions Ltd, the company which produces Room to Improve.

The claims were denied.

The case briefly came before Ms Justice Caroline Costello during a vacation sitting of the High Court yesterday. It was told by barrister Peter Shanley, who appeared with solicitor Raymond Quinn, for Ms Moore, that the action had been settled.

He said 100,000 had been lodged into court by Mr Bannon, Mr OConnell, and Coco TV in February.

Mr Shanley said that while it was Ms Moores case the amount lodged did not cover what was required to carry out the necessary remedial works on her home she had agreed to accept the 100,000 by way of settlement.

In order to obtain payment out of monies, an application had to be made to the court, said counsel.

After considering the application Ms Justice Costello consented to the application for payment out in favour of Ms Moore.
Mr Davis, aged 27, of Johnstown Court in Kilpedder, is wanted by US authorities on charges of conspiracy to distribute narcotics, conspiracy to commit computer hacking, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Mr Davis, who has Asperger syndrome and depression, had opposed the request. Among his points of objection, he said that, if extradited, he would be detained in an inhuman and degrading manner.

If convicted in the US, Davis could receive a life sentence.

Earlier this month, lawyers for the attorney general said Mr Davis should be surrendered to the US after an order was made by Mr Justice Paul McDermott.

Following the decision, Mr Davis was remanded in custody to Cloverhill Prison. The matter returned before the court yesterday when Ms Justice Caroline Costello was informed that Mr Davis had lodged an appeal, seeking to be released on bail pending the outcome of said appeal.

The State consented to bail on conditions including that he sign on daily with the gardai and that an independent surety of 15,000, 10,000 of which must be cash, be lodged in court.

Further terms include that he reside at Johnstown Court, be of good behaviour, and undertake not to seek travel documents that would allow him leave the jurisdiction.

The court heard Davis had been on bail while the High Court was dealing with the extradition request and had fully complied with all the terms of his bail.

Ms Justice Costello approved his father, John Davis, as independent surety and granted bail.

Gary Davis, who was not in court, was expected to be released from custody late yesterday.

Silk Road, which was shut down by the FBI in 2013, was an underground website that hosted a sprawling black market bazaar.

Mr Davis is accused of acting as a site administrator using the name Libertas. It was created and run by American Ross William Ulbricht under the pseudonym Dread Pirate Roberts.

Ulbricht had been charged and subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment. The site offered anonymity to its users, where trades were conducted in bitcoin.

The US authorities claim that between June and October 2013, Mr Davis was a site administrator and had explicit knowledge of the items for sale on the website.

Drugs available on the site included heroin, LSD, cocaine, and amphetamines. It was claimed that as part of his role, Mr Davis dealt with queries from site users, and had reorganised into different categories certain items that could be purchased on the website.
Under the terms of the plan, the retailers 11 stores are to remain open and the vast majority of the companys 1,400 directly employed staff, some 500 concession staff, and 300 cosmetic staff are to be retained.

There will be 98 voluntary redundancies, but no compulsory ones. The company operates four stores in Dublin, two in Cork, and others in Galway, Limerick, Newbridge, Tralee, and Waterford.

The scheme, put together by the retailers examiner Kieran Wallace of KPMG and agreed by the majority of Debenhams creditors, was formally approved by Ms Justice Caroline Costello at the High Court yesterday.

Last May, Debenhams Retail (Ireland) Ltd (DRIL) sought examinership because of consistent losses sustained since the recession in 2007, high rents, and after the withdrawal of support of its UK parent company, Debenhams Retail Plc. The company said it owed its parent 46m, which DRIL said was unsustainable.

The company will exit the examinership process on Thursday.

The only objection to the scheme in court was brought on behalf of a woman who had brought a personal injuries claim against Debenhams. Under the terms of the scheme, she would get 5% of any payment due.

Neil Steen, counsel for Mr Wallace, said the scheme had been approved by the vast majority of creditors and classes of creditors. Only one class of creditors had rejected the scheme, he said.

While certain classes of creditors, including unsecured creditors, would only receive some 5% of what they are owed, counsel said the only alternative was that the company go into liquidation.

In that scenario, those classes of creditors would get nothing, counsel added.

He said the company had under the scheme secured significant cost savings that would allow the company to continue to trade. The examiner reached arrangement concerning rent agreement Debenhams had with landlords of seven of its stores.

The parent firm Debenhams Retail Plc had also agreed to invest in the company by way of a loan. Historic debts owed by the company had been written off.

In addition, counsel said proposals put to the employees unions, Mandate and Siptu, had been accepted.

In all, 83% of the workforce had voted in favour of cost-saving proposals, he said.

It had also been agreed that there would for a period be a reduction in the price charged on goods sold to Debenhams Irish companies from interconnected firms.

Supporting the application to approve the scheme, counsel Rossa Fanning said the company had not entered the examinership process lightly. It did so after incurring losses of 22.6m in the last three years.

Ms Justice Costello, in approving the scheme, noted that under the scheme, that a number of cost-saving measures had been agreed that would allow the company to continue to trade as a going concern.
Mr ONeill, a completely innocent man who worked for Dublin City Council, was on holidays in Majorca when he was shot dead in front of his partner and three children on Wednesday night.

It is alleged that the intended shooting target was a relative of the Hutch family, currently embroiled in a feud with the Kinahan gang.

I was coming off the homeless run early on Friday morning and there were several garda vans and an armed unit in the north inner city, independent councillor Christy Burke told the Irish Examiner.

The vehicles are understood to have been parked outside and patrolling an area where Hutch relatives live.

An Garda Siochana yesterday told this newspaper that they had no comment to make on the shooting in Spain.

A spokesperson said it was a Spanish investigation and would not confirm whether the Guardia Civilia had requested their assistance in investigating Wednesdays fatal shooting.

Meanwhile, Guardia Civilia told the Irish Examiner that they had no update on the shooting.

It is a special investigation, said a spokesperson yesterday afternoon who added that they would inform the media when they catch the person.

Mr ONeill was shot on Wednesday night at around 9pm near the popular resort of Costa de la Calma in south-west Majorca around 25km from the capital Palma.

It understood that Mr ONeills family is now back in Dublin.

Yesterday afternoon mourners began laying flowers at the gate of their family home in Drimnagh.

It is understood that Mr ONeill was shot at close range. While witnesses heard several gunshots, an autopsy carried out at the Institute of Forensic Medicine in the Majorcan capital Palma showed he died of a single gunshot wound to the lower back.
Steven ODonovan, from Listowel, began donating blood in 1990, after threatening to do it for years.

The ITBS mobile unit would arrive twice a year, setting up camp in one of the local schools. Steven donated every year, for 24 years.

I saw advertisements and thought I must check that out, Steven said.

Every time I passed by there, there always seemed to be a crowd. I had to make the conscious decision, one time, to go in. I went in on my own, and I hadnt a clue. But once I did it, I felt like I was after doing something worthwhile. I was getting as much out of it as I was giving to it.

In May, 2014, Steven received an award from the IBTS for donating more than 50 units of blood. But three weeks later, life took a tragic turn for the 49-year-old father-of-three.

He was riding his motorcycle, just a few minutes from his home, when tourists driving on the wrong side of the road crashed into him.

Steven landed face-down in a water-filled ditch at the side of the road, seriously injured.

Luckily, a nurse and a veterinarian happened to be passing, and they stayed with Steven until the paramedics arrived.

They were the two best people I could have had beside me, said Steven. They jumped in with me and stayed with me. They looked after me until the emergency services arrived.

Stephen was rushed to hospital in Tralee, and was later transferred to Cork, where he spent a number of weeks.

During his recovery, he received several blood transfusions.

Having the blood transfusion was like having life pumped back into me, said Steven.

I could feel better getting it back in. It just made such a difference.

He says receiving blood meant a great deal to him, and he wishes he could thank the donor.

At the time of the transfusion, I was just glad to be getting it, he said. But thinking about it afterwards, I felt how privileged and lucky I am.

One of the most devastating outcomes of the crash for Steven is that he can no longer give blood, as those who have received transfusions are banned from donating.

That was one of the worst outcomes of the whole crash, he said. It was one of the most worthwhile and satisfying things I could do. It was terrible that I couldnt give blood, because I know the value of it.

Only 3% of the population donates blood.

The IBTS needs up to 5,000 new donors, and a number of high-profile organisations around the country have joined in the services campaign, Missing Type, to recruit new donors. As part of the campaign, which launched earlier this week, the Wild Atlantic Way, Croke Park, and Dublin Fire Brigade, amongst others, have deleted the letters of the blood types  A, B and O  from their signage, vehicles, and social media sites.

Every week, 3,000 blood donors are needed to provide blood to 1,000 people in need of transfusions.
There is a gender split on the issue too, with almost a quarter of women spending between one and three hours on social media, compared to just one in five men.

Research for Liberty Insurance by Millward Brown found that women and men differ as to how they feel about their phones.

Over half of the women said they felt panicky, desperate or even sick if they find they have left their mobile at home by mistake, compared to just one in three men.

Older people are not as bothered as younger people about leaving the phone behind when they go out. The survey found that just 31% of people aged 55-plus felt upset if they forgot their phone, compared to 64% of 17 to 29-year-olds.

While most people own smartphones ( 81%) and laptops (79%), just one in ten have their gadgets insured.

It emerged that more than half those surveyed (59%) had lost or damaged smartphones.

The research found 30% of those surveyed had cracked the screen of their smartphone.

The Irish like to talk a lot  they spend on average 31 minutes on mobile calls every day.

However, the cell phone is a source of amusement too with adults spending 25 minutes a day gaming on their device.

Director of personal lines at Liberty Insurance, Deirdre Ashe, said the survey found that 29% had either lost their phone or dropped it in the toilet.

According to gardai, mobile phones worth over 3m were stolen over the last 14 months, and most were smartphones.

Most people dont realise the number of gadgets they carry around with them on a daily basis or take on holidays, so it makes sense to get insurance, said Ms Ashe.
In a statement to mark World Humanitarian Day yesterday, Mr Higgins said Irelands citizens and politicians have a responsibility to highlight the need for international co-operation in tackling a series of worldwide issues.

The President said it is right that the United Nations has given an entire day to honour aid workers who are based in a string of war-torn countries, and to remember the 2003 bombing of 22 UN aid workers in the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

However, while not mentioning the Syrian crisis specifically or the picture of five-year-old Omran Daqneesh who was rescued from rubble after an air-strike, Mr Higgins re-iterated his view that growing humanitarian crises around the world cannot be ignored.

World Humanitarian Day is commemorated across the globe each year, to pay tribute to aid workers who have died or have been injured in the course of their work and to celebrate our common commitment to the values of humanity.

As we honour those who work to pick up the pieces in a broken world by seeking to prevent and respond to human suffering, we are called upon to inspire each other to help create a more humane world.

World Humanitarian Day is an opportunity to show our solidarity with the more than 130 million people around the world who need humanitarian assistance to survive.

We can take pride in Irelands strong track record of support to the victims of conflict and natural disasters. And we can encourage each other to take actions  and to call for policies  that help bring an end to poverty and violence, he said.

Mr Higgins is widely expected to raise the plight of people living amid the ongoing Syrian civil war in media interviews after a speech at the annual Beal na mBlath commemorations in West Cork tomorrow.

In recent months, he has also raised the matter and the related issue of the Mediterranean migrant crisis on a number of occasions, including at the May 2016 World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul, Turkey.

Meanwhile, President Higgins is due to make history tomorrow when he becomes the first sitting president to deliver the oration at the annual Micheal Collins commemoration at Beal na Blath in Cork.

Afterward the commemoration, which is due to start at 3pm, Mr Higgins will open a museum in nearby Kilmurray dedicated to the War of Independence and Civil War fighting.
The Association of Catholic Priests challenged nuncio Archbishop Charles Brownes selection of new bishops since first appointed nearly five years ago.

The association, which claims to represent over 30% of priests in the country, said that Archbishop Browne has declined to meet with it to discuss its concerns, despite it passing a motion at its AGM last year expressing its grave disquiet at some of the policies presently being pursued in relation to the appointment of bishops in Ireland.

That motion also criticised the lack of any credible process of consultation; the preference in the main for candidates drawn from a particular mindset and not least the choice of candidates who seem to be out of sync with the realities of life in Ireland today and uncomfortable with the openness of Pope Francis to change and reform the Church.

The association said yesterday that between past and impending appointments, Archbishop Browne will play a central role in the appointment of bishops to 16 of 26 dioceses.

The Association of Catholic Priests believes that, at this most critical juncture for the Catholic Church in Ireland, the policies being pursued by Archbishop Browne in the choice of bishops are, in the main, inadequate to the needs of our time, at odds with the expectations of people and priests, and out of sync with the new church dispensation, it said.

Fr Brendan Hoban told the Irish Examiner that the association believes the bishops are too conservative.

It cited the Churchs approach to last years marriage equality referendum. He said that the bishops approach lacked nuance.

The people in the pews have moved on from the kind of church the bishops represent. They are much more open to the ordination of married men and women deacons, for example. In 10-15 years, the Irish church will not have the ability to provide the services currently there.

Attempts to contact a representative from the papal nuncios office were unsuccessful.
Until his arrest, the 71-year-old was a guest of the five-star Windsor Marapendi and his 220-a-night room was paid for by the IOC, in addition to a daily stipend of 800 to cover his expenses.

But since early yesterday, Mr Hickey has instead resided in the Cadeia Publica Jose Frederico Marques, one of Rio de Janeiros most notorious prisons.

Last year a report by public defenders condemned the totally subhuman conditions in the jail, with inmates so hungry they resorted to eating wet toilet paper.

After his arrest at the Windsor Marapendi on Wednesday, Mr Hickey spent the night at a hospital after complaining of feeling unwell. On Thursday, he was transferred to a police station to be questioned by detectives.

A judge denied him habeas corpus and he was transferred to the jail, which is part of the huge Bangu prison complex in Rios west zone, early yesterday morning.

Dubliner Kevin James Mallon, 36, who was the first person arrested in the ticket touting scandal, is being held in another prison in the same complex.

The Cadeia Publica Jose Frederico Marques, known as Bangu 10, was over capacity when public defenders visited last year, with 735 prisoners but space for only 532. A prison spokesman said last night there are currently only 396 inmates.

OCI president Pat Hickey was advised to put Shane Ross in his place, via @Ocionnaith https://t.co/hGgaWljIZo (GM) pic.twitter.com/X3RQv3c3DU  Irish Examiner (@irishexaminer) August 18, 2016

When the defenders arrived at the jail, they found an inmate with motor paralysis in pain lying on a hard board as he did not have a mattress to sleep on. Defenders later found a room with dozens of new mattresses stored, suggesting corruption.

Water at the jail is only turned on for a few minutes per day for washing and drinking. The larvae in the water could be seen with the naked eye.

Many prisoners told the defenders that the guards dirtied their drinking water as a kind of punishment, their report said. When food was available, it was often rotten.

What is striking is that overcrowding causes all the other problems, said Roberta Fraenkel, the public defender, of the Centre for the Defence of Human Rights.

Detective Ricardo Barbosa de Souza, head of the fraud squad at Rios Civil Police, said: Yesterday afternoon [Thursday] Patrick Hickey was discharged from the hospital where he was under medical care since his arrest.

His lawyers filed an application for habeas corpus, but it was denied by the court.

A court previously ordered Mr Hickeys preventative detention. He can appeal to be freed, or to be placed under house arrest. The latter is thought unlikely, though, as it typically requires the suspect to have a permanent residence and job in Brazil.

The Civil Police have 30 days to complete their investigation into the case.
Over a year ago the HSE admitted it was experiencing delays in the supply of BCG vaccine, a problem that is affecting most countries in Europe, not just Ireland.

There is only one licensed manufacturer of the vaccine providing it to countries within the European Union.

The Health Products Regulatory Authority has been unable to find an alternative supply of BCG vaccine that met safety, quality and effectiveness standards so it could be used in Ireland.

Fianna Fails spokesperson on community and national drugs strategy, Jack Chambers, said the shortage of the vaccine was a growing concern for families.

At least 50,000 babies, and potentially many more, will not receive their BCG when appropriate, said Mr Chambers. This is a matter of real concern, given the dangers posed to humans by TB and the fact that the bacterial disease remains a problem in Ireland.

Mr Chambers said the vaccine gave adequate protection to 80% of infants who received it and had been used routinely in Ireland and worldwide since the 1950s.

We should not alter our national immunisation strategy because of a shortage of supply. While the HSE is deflecting the issue, this government must ensure that all is done to procure an appropriate supply as a matter of urgency.

The HSE said the number of cases in Ireland had been falling, and there were no cases in young children in 2014. It said most European countries did not give BCG to all babies, and babies were not at risk of TB because of the delay in getting BCG vaccine.

Last December the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) recommended a change from a universal to a selective national BCG vaccination strategy but stressed that it must be supported by a clear commitment to introduce improved systematic and comprehensive TB control measures.

According to latest TB figures from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre for the first quarter of this year, it was notified about 86 cases and more than a third (37.2%) were Irish born. Resistance to drug treatment was reported in five cases.

There were no children under the age of four with the disease. However, the TB notifications included three children aged between five and nine and two aged 10 to 14.

Two people with TB died between January and March this year, but neither death had TB reported as the cause.

There were four TB outbreaks reported to the HPSC over the three month period  a total of 16 cases of active TB, 13 of whom were hospitalised.

There were two family outbreaks  one occurred in a private house and one occurred across an extended family. The family outbreaks happened in the eastern and southern part of the country.
Stephen Collins said that current legislation provides protections for victims of trafficking found here who are not citizens of the European Economic Area (EEA), but said existing laws recognise that people can be trafficked within their own country.

Mr Collins comments came following the arrests of six people after a man alleged he was being falsely imprisoned at a house in Castletown, Kilpatrick, near Navan, Co Meath.

It is understood gardai were alerted to the house on Thursday evening by an Eastern European national.

Three men and two women, aged from their early 40s to early 60s, were detained after a search was carried out.

A teenage girl was also arrested at the scene.

It is reported that up to 20 people were found at the house.

Unfortunately one of the more shocking things about the nature of this kind of offence is that it tends to occur in very ordinary and in some cases suburban locations, so people can be trafficked for a variety of reasons, Mr Collins told RTEs News at One.

People can be trafficked for labour exploitation, for sexual exploitation, or for other, even darker reasons than that.

The majority of these crimes occur in very ordinary situations, its not even necessary to cross a border to have an act constitute trafficking.

So its a misconception that it has to be an act where somebody crosses for example from the continent or from Africa to Ireland, he said.

In fact, you can be trafficked within a house, technically. The definition of trafficking in Irish law is set very, very wide, and its designed specifically to catch the maximum number of acts involved, because Irish law recognises that these events do occur in very ordinary circumstances and locations.

Mr Collins warned that, unfortunately, anybody can be trafficked.

One of the big things about the EU issue in this case is that, for example, whilst Irish laws deals comprehensively with prosecuting people who are traffickers, it is less at ease when it comes to offering protection to people who are victims of trafficking, Mr Collins warned.

If, for example, the other people who were found last night turn out to be European nationals, then unfortunately theres very little protection that they can get in Irish law.

They can, and in many circumstances will, co-operate with the gardai in their investigating of the crimes, but they themselves cant, for example, be declared to be refugees, they cant, for example, be offered protection under administrative arrangements, he said.

If a person, lets say, is a non-EEA national coming from Africa, if and when they came to the attention of the authorities, then they could apply to the gardai to be recognised or identified as a victim of trafficking.

If the garda of no less a rank than superintendent decided that they were a victim of trafficking, then they would be offered a rest and reflection period essentially to recover from what is inevitably a very traumatic experience, he said.

The problem with that is that the administrative arrangements that contain the rest and reflection period are only available to non-EEA nationals.

So, for example, European people or Irish people  who can be trafficked in their own country  dont have the benefit of that protection, Mr Collins said.
Connemara marble has found a new application away from churches, and leprechaun ornaments which were once so beloved by American tourists, looking to take a piece of old Ireland home with them.

Reinventing its use is Eric Byrne, whose background as a stonemason, coupled with his love of marble as a material, fostered the desire to reinvigorate the stone. It turned a recession-hit livelihood making fireplaces and kitchen and bathroom work surfaces into a success, by taking marble and fashioning it into useful and beautiful items for the domestic table top.

Connemara marble, and marble in general, had fallen out of favour with designers, Eric explains. It had been used widely in the seventies and eighties but was produced to a very poor standard and had become synonymous with tacky.

Despite its decline, Eric recognised that hundreds of years ago people understood the stones value and beauty. You just have to look at cities like Paris and Rome to see the amazing marble art in the form of detailed architecture, mosaic floors, intricate inlaid fireplaces and sculpture.

So it was this value he sought to build upon and to add practical function for everyday use.

I wanted to reintroduce Irish people to their native stone, he says, and to foster an understanding and appreciation of it, by making it relevant to today and bringing it into the home in the form of beautiful, functional pieces for contemporary living, but with a story to tell.

He began in 2008 by looking at what he could make in an Ireland deep in recession, making trips to exhibitions in Europe to see what other countries were doing with their indigenous stones. I could see different uses there for the stone, like baths, which you wouldnt see here, he says, but I wanted to make something that was exportable.

These observations helped inform the design of the products he now sells in retailers like House of Ireland, Serendipity and Kilkenny Design, and online. So expect to find cheeseboards, cake slices and cheese knives with marble handles, salt and pepper cruets, napkin rings and egg cups.

Prices start at 5 for a worry stone, going up to 300 for a set comprising a cheeseboard and knife with a complex herringbone construction from his Marmar range which uses a mix of traditional green Connemara marble and a sparkling white marble from Macedonia.

As appreciation for the products grows, ornamental leprechaun-loving tourists have now been replaced by more design aware and discerning visitors, many of whom buy Irish craft as a memento of their time here.

Some drop by the Russborough House Estate in Blessington, Co Wicklow during the summer season to visit Eric and his wife Jeanine Hennessy, at their marbleworks located in a yard that also houses other craft makers including a ceramicist, a weaver, and a blacksmith who, rather than making horseshoes, makes sculpted pieces.

But before the stone even gets to the marble works for time-consuming and careful cutting and polishing, it has to come from a quarry in Recess, Co Galway which has been in the Joyce family for generations.

Its just one of a number of quarries providing marble to feed a growing appetite abroad. Try doing a quick search on line to see an extensive list of results, and an even bigger one if you type in the words Irish green marble  the name its known by internationally. It reveals how popular the stone is for architectural projects in places like Las Vegas and Abu Dhabi for homes, corporate buildings and hotels.

A little closer to Ireland, the marble found another use when a Parisian gallerist saw some of Erics products at the London design show Tent last year. He was so impressed he asked him to make a vase. But its not just marble getting the tableware treatment, hes also hewing Irish granite and limestone into a product to last.

Our tableware is in no way a disposable product, Eric says, but rather a unique little piece of history to be used, enjoyed and cherished.

This history is contained in a booklet that comes with each item and tells of the marble being an astonishing 750 million years old, which gives it sustainability credentials too, making it a product for our times  for all times, in fact.
A 100-year-old Clonmel man who started driving back in 1930 at the wheel of his fathers Ford Model-T has gone electric.

John Walsh has purchased a Nissan Leaf for himself  the first new car he has ever bought  saying his motivation was to do something to improve the environment and to conserve the supply of fossil fuels.

The banks are paying no interest, so I decided to spend my money on an EV to do my own little bit to protect the environment, said John, who is preparing to celebrate his 101st birthday on September 10.

The pioneering pensioner particularly enjoys being able to charge his new Nissan car at home. His father, Richard, who was an electrician by trade, helped him to build his family home in 1949 and he was living there for almost three years before they witnessed the arrival of electricity in rural Clonmel.

I love the car in so far as I drive it on trips into town and to visit friends. There are a few places that Id like to visit soon like Dungarvan, Holy Cross or Mount Mellerary Abbey which is quite a special place and somewhere I used to visit quite a bit in earlier years, said John, who retired from his job as the chief accountant with Bulmers in 1981.

He also revealed that another goal is to make the 250km round trip back to Foynes to visit the place where he grew up and first sat behind the wheel of a car as a teenage driver, and the fact that his new motor can cover the distance on a single charge was also something to note. I am convinced that we have to do something about global warming and pollution. I am a late convert to environmental protection and a bit of a late starter driving an electric car but this is my way of playing my part. My son also enjoys driving the car on longer distances, but I have priority on it, he quipped.
On July 6, Nakia Jones, a police officer in Warrensville Heights, Ohio, was woken by her teenage son bursting into her room, on the verge of tears. Did you see the shooting? he asked.

The day before, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, someone had filmed two police officers tackling and then shooting to death a black man named Alton Sterling. The video showed in bloody detail how quickly an officer can take a life at point-blank range. The clip left Joness son, a straight-A student and captain of the school band, sad and confused.

Mom, not only am I afraid of being shot by another black male, she recalls him saying. Do I also have to be afraid of somebody who wears the same uniform as you do?

Jones says she is the first black woman to serve on her towns force, and she understands the split-second decision officers have to make when they face a threat (her husband is also a cop).

But as a mother of four girls and two boys, she also knows that the next young black man killed by police could be one of her sons. As she watched the Sterling video, she felt torn in a way that she hadnt before, despite similar incidents.

Other police killings seemed justified, she had told her children, but this one made her feel different, as if she had half of my body in a uniform and half of my body in civilian clothes.

Jones was so upset she recorded a video on Facebook Live. How dare you stand next to me in the same uniform and murder somebody! she said, her voice growing louder as she lambasted racist cops. Her eyes filled with tears as she asked people to support good police officers and take a stand against the bad ones. The video now has 8m views.

The next few days were hard on Jones. First, an officer in Falcon Heights, Minnesota, shot and killed a black man  Philando Castile  after pulling him over for a traffic stop, another act caught on camera.

Then came the retaliation: Five Dallas police officers shot dead by a black gunman and former soldier who officials said had targeted white cops. Ten days later, another gunman, a former Marine, killed three officers in Baton Rouge.

Its almost like a nightmare, says Jones. My heart goes out to the families of Alton Sterling and the other man that was killed. But then, at the same token, these are my brothers and sisters in blue. Now their families have lost [loved ones].

It feels, she adds, like Im torn on both sides.

In police departments across the US, a growing number of officers have more in common with Jones than with those who make headlines for killing black men.

Although sometimes portrayed as a white occupying army at war with black civilians, American law enforcement has never been so diverse. In 2013, around 27% of the countrys 477,000 sworn local police officers were racial or ethnic minorities, up from 15% in 1987, according to the US Bureau of Justice Statistics. There are now more female cops than there were decades ago  around 12% of local police  and more openly gay, lesbian, and transgender officers as well.

Police in America today are also entering the force with higher levels of education and more special abilities, such as foreign language skills and technological expertise.

Once they join a department, they often receive better training and equipment than at any other time in history. And regardless of what the public has seen in shocking videos of shootings, todays cops have been trained to act with more sensitivity and restraint than previous generations of officers. The common refrain among those on the force is that they are guardians, not warriors.

And yet the tension between law enforcement and large swaths of American citizens has not been this high since the 1960s and 70s, when riots and targeted cop killings were common.

Many Americans feel the countrys 18,000 police departments need major reform, especially when it comes to the use of deadly force. Last summer, a Gallup poll found that confidence in the police was at its lowest level since the beating of motorist Rodney King in 1991 led to massive riots in Los Angeles. That incident was when filming police using excessive force emerged as a new phenomenon.

Whats angered many is the spate of high-profile homicides by police of unarmed African-Americans. Since Ferguson, Missouri, police officer Darren Wilson fatally shot Michael Brown in 2014, American police have killed nearly 3,000 people, whether justified or not, according to Fatal Encounters, a website that tracks deaths caused by law enforcement.

A Louisiana State Police officer leave the scene of the crime where three police officers were killed.

A July report by the Centre for Policing Equity, a think tank at UCLA, said police departments tend to use 3.6 times more force on black residents than on white residents.

Police reform advocates decry the fines and fees municipalities make defendants pay for less serious crimes, sometimes in order to raise revenue, which can put poor offenders in debt or behind bars if they dont have the money. Advocates also criticise the billions in US Defence Department equipment that now make many local cops look as if theyre about to invade Fallujah.

The murders of officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge are part of another troubling trend that has some political commentators claiming theres now a war on cops. A July report by the US National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, a non-profit that maintains the national monument to fallen officers in Washington, DC, showed a 78% spike in firearms-related officer fatalities this year compared with 2015, with 32 shooting deaths of police since January 1 and a 300% jump in ambush killings.

Demonstrators have upended or tramped squad cars in Ferguson and Baltimore, and in New York City they have chanted, What do we want? Dead cops! When do we want them? Now!

Not only are police increasingly having to protect people who despise them, but their jobs have expanded too. As social services in the US fail and threats such as terrorism and mass shootings grow, officers are having to step into new roles, whether theyre prepared for them or not.

This is the most challenging time I can remember, says Santa Barbara County, California, undersheriff Bernard Melekian, a law enforcement veteran of four decades. The public demand and the public scrutiny are more than Ive ever seen.

Its no wonder fewer people want the job  departments are reporting low numbers of applicants. Were hiring idealistic young men and women who want to protect the good people from the bad people, says Milwaukee Police chief Edward Flynn. Right now, they are being portrayed as faceless others. Automatons. Star Wars stormtroopers.

Jones has to deal with these conflicts and contradictions every day. Her 6-year-old daughter has started kissing her and begging her to come home safe before she leaves for her shift each night.

The tension is so high between the community and the police, she says. Its like we have no middle ground Both of us feel like theres a target on our backs.

On a hot, overcast day in August, New York City Police Department commissioner William Bratton stood beneath a portrait of Alexander Hamilton at New Yorks City Hall and announced he would soon resign.

Bratton, dressed in a pinstripe suit and tie, his white hair neatly combed, projected confidence and optimism despite protests that morning from reform advocates (who called for his resignation) and his own officers (who are demanding better pay)  as well as a growing controversy over recent allegations that the NYPD roughed up a black state assemblyman.

This department will have a seamless transition, and there has never been a time in American policing history when that is more important than now, Bratton said as he announced his successor, current NYPD chief of department James ONeill.

As we go forward and face the crises of race in America, crime in America, fear of terrorism, and in the midst of the turmoil of this presidential election, there is no police department in America that will be better prepared.

In recent decades, few cops have been as influential  and controversial  as Bratton. He joined the Boston Police Department in 1970 and climbed the ranks to commissioner, a position he held from 1992 to 1993. But it was his first stint as the NYPDs top cop, starting in 1994, that made him legendary, or notorious, depending on whom you ask.

Building on the work of social scientists James Wilson and George Kelling, Bratton popularised the broken windows style of policing, which considers no crime too small to fight, from turnstile jumping to public urination. The idea is that minor offences can snowball and create an atmosphere of lawlessness and disorder.

New York City police commissioner William Bratton is joined by mayor Bill de Blasio earlier this month to announce he is leaving the nations largest police force. Picture: Mary Altaffer/AP

During Brattons first tour as NYPD commissioner, New York began to transform itself from a place where people were afraid to ride the subway at night to one of the safest, most desirable major cities in the world. In the five years after his appointment, crime fell by a half, and murders dropped by two-thirds.

Brattons detractors decried his methods, saying that the correlation between broken windows and crime was never clear and that his tactics disproportionately targeted minorities.

Though Bratton left his post in 1996, his crime-fighting philosophy stuck, and distrust between the NYPD and minorities continued to grow thanks to the departments stop-and-frisk policy, which permitted officers to temporarily question and search people for weapons.

The backlash grew to such an extent that the current mayor, Bill de Blasio, made police reform one of the central tenets of his 2013 campaign. A year later, the day after he took office, he brought Bratton back as commissioner to keep the crime rate low, as well as repair the damage to community relations.

This included scaling back stop-and-frisk after a judge declared it unconstitutional. Bratton also set out to implement some new strategies he had picked up in his almost two decades away, while leading the Los Angeles Police Department and consulting for the police in Oakland, California.

Days before he announced his resignation, the New York police commissioner sat down with Newsweek in what his team calls the command centre, a windowless room in the police departments downtown Manhattan headquarters. The 200 monitors lining the walls show CompStat maps and statistics, 911 calls, and surveillance footage from a network of 8,000 cameras.

If were having a demonstration, I can zoom in on all the cameras in that area, explains Bratton. He can monitor his officers too: Using GPS, he says, he can basically see where any [squad] car in the city is at any time, whos assigned to it, what their call is.

During the interview, Bratton stresses the importance of coupling hi-tech strategies with building on-the-ground neighbourhood relations. He now advocates precision policing, which he likens to zapping cancerous cells with a laser instead of using surgery to cut out large chunks of tissue.

He also recently announced the department is spending $1.9bn on improvements to facilities, training, and equipment, including bulletproof squad car doors, stronger pepper spray, and heavy-duty helmets and vests capable of stopping rounds fired from automatic weapons like those that felled the Dallas and Baton Rouge officers. But he still hasnt budged on his broken windows philosophy.

Going after quality-of-life crimes is very important and I still believe an essential component of what we do, he says. If we stopped dealing with minor crime, were going to lose the trust of the public. The vast majority of calls are coming from inner-city neighbourhoods, he adds, stressing that ending broken windows would hurt minorities the most.

Yet as Bratton steps down and ONeill takes over, some police reform advocates say Brattons algorithms, fancy command centre, and RoboCop-like armour have done little to repair the rift between New York Citys police and the communities they serve.

Theres a change in face, but I think we also want to see some change in policy, says Jose Lopez, a lead organiser with Make the Road New York, a Latino and working-class community action group, and a member of President Barack Obamas taskforce on 21st century policing.

Whats really broken, reform advocates say, is broken windows itself.

One important change implemented by Bratton this time around (along with his predecessor, Ray Kelly) was to ensure that the NYPD is more diverse. Its a trend in police departments nationwide. Across America, more and more officers reflect the communities they serve.

Monica Only, a black female officer and recruiter for the police department in Orlando, Florida, says she hasnt had any race-related problems with her colleagues. Jim Ritter, a gay officer in Seattle, says he feels comfortable being out. His police chief, Kathleen OToole, says she hasnt faced any insurmountable obstacles due to her gender.

Dallas police respond after shots were fired at a Black Lives Matter rally in downtown Dallas on July 7, following the killings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. Picture: Smiley Pool/Dallas Morning News

Several large departments today are even majority-minority, including those in New York, Detroit, Los Angeles, and Washington, DC. Adding women to the force has lagged, and much of the diversity has taken place only in bigger cities, but experts say the nearly all-white, all-male departments of the 1950s and 60s are fast becoming a relic.

And thats a very good thing, for the police and the communities they serve. Evidence suggests diversity can improve the overall department, says David Sklansky, a Stanford Law School professor who first wrote about police demographics a decade ago.

Having a more diverse agency can help break down the rigid mentality that often develops among officers and makes it easier to implement reforms.

Fifty years ago, there was one way, basically, to be a police officer, one way to think like a police officer, he says. Thats not true anymore.

For instance, diversity advocates argue that female cops are better with domestic violence calls, which are the largest category of 911 calls in the US. One study found that 40% of police officers surveyed admitted they had behaved violently against their spouse and children in the previous six months.

Kathy Spillar, a founder of the US National Centre for Women and Policing, points to untested rape kits (there are an estimated 400,000) as evidence that some men with badges do not take womens issues as seriously as a woman will.

Perhaps, but reform advocates say hiring more women and minorities isnt a panacea, and some police chiefs use Benetton-like diversity to mask the need for greater reform.

Female or minority officers can still do stupid things, says David Klinger, a criminology professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis and a former Los Angeles cop.

Rather than focus on race or gender quotas, he says, the issue is, Am I getting sound policing? Newark, New Jersey, has a mostly minority police force, but in 2014 the US Justice Department found evidence of widespread police misconduct, including unjustified stops and arrests, excessive use of force, and officer thefts.

Cops do not have to break the law or violate the Constitution to be a good police officer, says Anthony Ambrose, a former police chief who returned in January as public safety director to try to repair the department.

US federal investigations in other cities suggest police misconduct is systemic, regardless of race. In Cleveland and Seattle, the US Justice Department found patterns of excessive force; in Ferguson, it exposed how cops targeted minorities with fines to generate revenue.

More recently, the US Justice Department announced it believes that Baltimore City Police Department (BPD) officers stop, search, and arrest people without cause, especially African-Americans, retaliate against critics of the police, and use excessive force.

The federal agency said the misconduct is the result of systemic deficiencies that have persisted within BPD for many years, and detailed investigation findings in a 164-page report. Lawsuits have turned up similar abuses around the country.

Its not just bad apples, says Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. She points to the case of Eric Garner, a black man NYPD officers confronted in 2014 for allegedly selling loose cigarettes; he died after an officer put him in a chokehold.

You had several officers on the scene, she says, and nobody, not a single one of them, did anything to de-escalate that situation. Thats a culture where blue loyalty is valued more than morality.

Dallas Area Rapid Transit police officer receives comfort at the Baylor University Hospital emergency room entrance in Dallas. One rapid-transit officer was killed and three were injured when gunfire erupted during a protest in downtown Dallas over recent fatal shootings by police in Louisiana and Minnesota. Picture: Ting Shen/AP

New York Citys 75th police precinct has a reputation, and its not for balloon animals, bouncy castles, and clown noses. One writer recently described the area, home to Brooklyns East New York neighbourhood, as sicker, sadder, more dysfunctional, more isolated, harsher, frailer, madder, toxic  broken through and through everywhere.

There were 15 murders there this year through the end of July, making it the deadliest precinct in the city. Thats part of what makes the Seven-Five a surprising place for National Night Out, an annual event across the country in which police throw parties for their communities.

The event, held in a local park hours after Bratton announced his departure on August 2, offers free hot dogs, an inflatable slide, a face-painting station, and a DJ playing Beyonce and other popular artists.

At one point, kids from a drum line march through the crowd, with six dancers in black track pants and shimmering blue tank tops in the lead, followed by drummers in wrinkled blue uniforms and blue hats with yellow on top. Locals trail behind them, dancing and wielding camera phones.

Officer Marcus Johnson, who is black and handles community affairs for the precinct, seems almost hurt when asked about the crime rate in his precinct. Were all out to have a good time and support the community, he says. And likewise, the community comes out to support us.

A trio of older black women interrupts so they can get a photo with him. Later, another woman approaches and gives him a hug.

Taking pictures with people or giving them hugs isnt everyones idea of policing. But the type of cop America needs is always evolving. It may no longer be the officer at a diner counter chatting with a young runaway, as in the iconic Norman Rockwell cover of The Saturday Evening Post; it could be a cop passing out hot dogs or balloons. It could be an officer disarming a mass shooter or stepping in when social services have failed a family.

In recent decades, many of Americas social problems have only grown worse, as the institutions charged with taking care of those in need have been decimated by budget cuts.

The number of Americans on food stamps is now 16 times what it was in 1969, according to the US Department of Agriculture. Nationally, there are more than 200,000 fewer public housing units available than in the 1990s, the US Centre on Budget and Policy Priorities recently reported.

And if police find themselves confronting more people suffering from mental health crises, its likely because, according to one estimate, 95% of the public psychiatric beds available in 1955 are gone.

Police officials in some of Americas largest cities tell Newsweek the same thing  that all of these social problems fall on their officers shoulders. Police chiefs estimate that three-quarters of their job now involves playing social worker or surrogate parent, especially in poor communities.

The hundreds or even thousands of people killed in officer-involved incidents each year, they point out, are a fraction of the estimated 40m people aged 16 or older who have contact with law enforcement annually.

Aaron Coleman joins other protesters marching on Florissant Rd in downtown Ferguson, Missouri. The group rallied in front of the towns police headquarters to Brown. Picture: Sid Hastings/AP

If there was not a single police shooting, says Charles Ramsey, a former police chief in Washington, DC, and police commissioner of Philadelphia, wed still have about 13,000 murders nationally per year.

And those murders affect African-Americans at a higher rate than other groups. Which is one of the reasons why police find the anti-cop rhetoric so frustrating. As Flynn, the Milwaukee police chief, puts it: We are the only organisation in society whose members get killed protecting black lives.

Long before four of its men (plus a transit cop) were gunned down in July, the Dallas Police Department was facing an officer shortage and plummeting morale. Low pay and poor management were part of the problem, but given how hard policing has become, the tension between cops and the people theyre sworn to protect, and the ubiquity of camera phones and how they subject every stop or arrest to scrutiny, its no wonder fewer people are signing up for the force.

In many municipalities, theres been a cop crunch for at least a decade. In 2002, 61,000 people entered police training. In 2013, the number was 45,000.

Jeremy Wilson, a criminal justice professor at Michigan State University and founder of the Police Consolidation and Shared Services programme, blames changing generational preferences (millennials dont want to work such bad hours) and competition from related industries, like private security. But the anti-police rhetoric and high-profile killings by law enforcement have likely discouraged people too, he says. No one wants to become the next Darren Wilson.

Yet some police chiefs hope to find new recruits in an unlikely place: Among their staunchest critics, such as those who support Black Lives Matter. Were hiring, Dallas Police chief David Brown said after the July 7 slayings.

Get off that protest line and put an application in, and well put you in your neighbourhood, and we will help you resolve some of the problems youre protesting about.

The Dallas Police received 467 applications in the 12 days following the shooting, a 243% increase over the same period in June. Similar upticks occurred in Baton Rouge and Orlando after the recent tragedies in those places.

Dallas Police chief David Brown pauses at a prayer vigil following the deaths of five police officers during a Black Live Matter march on July 8. Five officers were killed and seven others were injured in a co-ordinated ambush. Picture: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

One person who heard Browns call was Jaiston Sawyer, a 30-year-old African-American Navy veteran who lives in Denton, Texas, about an hour-and-a-half north of Dallas.

He works as a security guard and had often complained on social media about police brutality. When Brown issued that challenge, Sawyer says, it was like he was talking to me.

Posting about police brutality on Facebook, he says, you get a few likes and a few people agree with you, but after a couple of days that post is dead and nothing was accomplished. I have three sons, so instead of hoping my sons dont run into a bad cop, I can be the cop out there patrolling the community that I grew up in.

He applied to take the civil service exam in Denton and will likely apply in Dallas too.

Sawyer is hopeful for the future cops of America. So is Nakia Jones, the officer who made the viral video. Her son, the one who showed her the Alton Sterling clip, wants to be a neurosurgeon. But her 6-year-old daughter  the one who now tells her each night to come home safe  has long talked about becoming a police officer. And still does.

I want to be a police officer just like you and Daddy, she tells her mother. I want to protect people.
It is the first night of our holiday and my husband is trying to coax me off the jetty and back on the boat.

My mind is racing so fast it is courting insanity. So first, he will have to coax my mind back. I cant coax my mind back. Things have gone beyond that. Way beyond.

Come on, he whispers, inching towards me cautiously, get back on the boat.

I am stuck to the jetty wall like a tick on a dog.

No.

But what are you going to do?

Stay here.

But weve got a weeks sailing ahead.

I will go to the house in Sivota instead. And stop inching towards me, its making me nervous.

Youre not thinking straight, he whispers, standing still, you cant go to the house in Sivota. We havent booked it for this week, weve booked it for next week, after this week on the boat.

Ill sleep right here, on the jetty then.

You cant sleep on the jetty. Can you see anyone here, sleeping on the jetty?

I look around with wild eyes. It is crucial that I remain stuck to this wall. But there are so many boats. And not one person sleeping on the jetty. There must be a rule against it.

Where is everyone? I say, its so quiet.

Theyre all asleep, below deck, like normal people.

Or dead, I think. Who would make up a rule like this?

What do you mean, normal people?

My husband wavers between truth and personal safety. Safety wins out.

I mean people who dont have claustrophobia, he says.

You didnt know you had claustrophobia until Rudi shut you into a car-boot, I say, and that was only a year ago. Its just unfortunate that I had to wait until now to know I have claustrophobia.

Unfortunate? he whispers, Im standing in my underpants on a pier. Its one in the morning. Id say its more than unfortunate.

Think of the car boot, I say, remember the panic you said you felt?

Ssh, he says, youll wake everyone up. The cabin is not a car boot, he continues, its not nearly that bad. You just got a fright because the fan went off and the door somehow closed. Youll get used to it. And you had a bit to drink before you went to bed.

What were my options? I say, in the taverna, you suggested that I drink now, so youll be fine later.

I cant go through a whole week drinking now so that I will be fine later. Im a lightweight. Im shit at drinking. I came to it too late. Ill be dead by the end of the week. Thats if the claustrophobia doesnt kill me.

With the fan on, it will be a lot cooler, he says.

A fan will make as much difference to me in that cabin as it would to someone in Joseph Fritzls dungeon.

Ssh, seriously, everyones asleep, he says.

Or dead, or dying slowly from suffocation.

Ssh, come on, its hardly Joseph Fritzls dungeon.

Ok then, Joseph Fritzls sauna.

1.30am. I am back on the boat. My husband did well. But that is ALL the luck hes going to have with coaxing tonight. I am holding my fleeing position on the boat for now, right next to the gangplank, gripping a safety rail.

So what now then? he says.

Im going to sleep on deck.

For seven days? he says, where on deck?

What do I care where, I say, as long as its not in Fritzls sauna?

But where?

There, I say, letting go of the hand-rail.

You cant sleep there. Thats the bench we eat on. Its only four feet long.

I move towards the bench. I need to stick myself to that like a tick on a dog.

I am only five feet long, I say, lying down on it, whats a f***ing foot?

And theres a horrible step in it. Look, just there.

Perfect for my feet.

Your head will be hanging off the end if you put your feet there.

Perfect for my head, then.

But then your feet will be

I AM SLEEPING HERE OR JUMPING SHIP.

but its rock hard.

Exactly, I say, like my resolve.
AFTER Christmas and the Eurovision, some of my fondest childhood memories involve the Rose of Tralee.

The excitement! The glamour! The nausea from consuming too much Fanta and Tayto crisps! We were really living.

I remember watching the contestants on stage and thinking that this was the pinnacle of Irish womanhood.

Indeed, if you had asked me at the age of seven what my ambition in life was, I would have told you I wanted to be a Rose. (Have bigger dreams, seven year old Louise.)

To be a Rose was to have made it in life.

Twenty years later, I was visiting one of my best friends, Vicky, in Tralee, and as chance would have it, my trip coincided with the festival.

The streets were thronged with people, lights picking out the outline of roses in florescent green and red, as the float drifted past us.

The women smiled down at us, akin to Disney Princesses in their glittering gowns, and I watched as the children in the crowd stared back, open-mouthed.

One little girl reached out her hand to try and grab at them, as if she could absorb their magic through touch alone.

Afterwards, I saw a group of pre-pubescent girls standing before a poster that featured a grid of the Roses faces.

Which one is the prettiest? I heard one of the group ask her friends as I passed by and a heated debate broke out.

Im not sure how they could choose, to be honest. All the faces looked remarkably similar to me  thin, young, conventionally attractive, white.

(Has a woman of colour ever entered the competition? Answers on a postcard, please.)

I conducted an informal poll amongst my university friends to see what modern Irish women think of the pageant (prompting yet another in-depth conversation about feminism in the group Whatsapp) and lame, outdated, and embarrassing was the verdict.

Im obviously not the only person who cringes when they see impressive women with degrees in biochemistry or medieval history or international languages, being reduced to a grand girl, altogether.

Theres something so insular about the whole event, an obsession with celebrating a sense of Irishness that verges on the jingoistic. And, despite the well deserved win of the wonderful Maria Walsh in 2014, the festival still feels heteronormative.

Why do they insist on providing male escorts for the contestants? And why do they even think that any woman in her twenties would need to be chaperoned by a man in the first place?

If its simply about celebrating Irish culture and heritage, why doesnt a similar competition for men exist? And while I concur that its not as bad as the Miss World or Miss Universe pageants, I do find it laughable when attempts are made to distinguish the Rose of Tralee by saying that its not about appearance, its about their personalities.

If this is the case, why hasnt the festival implemented a blindfold policy for the judges lest those pesky appearances get in the way of their decision making? Why do the women wear makeup or even bother to wash their hair? Why do they all wear dresses? Are you sure none of them would like a chic trouser suit? Why is there an age limit?

Do women over the age of thirty undergo a personality transplant that I havent heard about, one which would render them unable to keep up with the craic down in Kerry? Why were unmarried mothers banned until 2008?

And if winning the competition is based on their personalities, why does that personality inevitably have to be sweet and lovely and nice and well behaved and, of course, ladylike? Are you trying to tell me that doesnt enforce strict gender roles in its own way?

This begs the question  why does the Rose of Tralee still exist? It would seem to serve no real purpose and yet endures as part of our cultural landscape.

Every year, hundreds of thousands of people tune in to watch the show on television and presumably theyre doing so because they enjoy it. My friend Aoife suggested that its popularity could be due to the fact that it offers a view of rural Ireland that we dont see enough of with the Dublin-centric service RTE sometimes gives us, and I dont think thats too farfetched a possibility.

I am all too aware of the revenue it generates for the town of Tralee, and coming from a family of small business owners, this is not something I can dismiss easily.

Lastly, and most importantly, the women involved are free and willing participants, it is their choice to enter in the first place. Its not for me to say that they shouldnt do that or to cast aspersions on their reasons for doing so.

Ive had friends who have entered and who had an incredible experience, making friendships that they have maintained today.

Ive met a few of the previous winners, and I have been struck by their intelligence, their humour, their work ethic, and their warmth, but yes, I have also been struck by how attractive they are. Because no matter what defenders of the festival claim, the Rose of Tralee is a beauty pageant.

Its about celebrating young, pretty girls, about deciding which Lovely Girl is the loveliest of them all.

That night in Tralee when I watched those pre-teens rating the Roses, they did not think about their personalities, or their degrees, or their accomplishments. They were judging them on their beauty.

Those little girls staring at the Roses waving beatifically from that float were not deciding that an ability to play the fiddle or Irish dance is the key to lasting happiness. No, they were internalising the notion that in order to receive love, attention, and validation, that a pretty dress and a ready smile are what they need.

And that, Im afraid, can only prove to be damaging to those girls in the future.
The real tragedy is that people on the ground are dealing with such cases every day. There are around 250,000 people still in Aleppo, and a spokesperson for UNICEF estimates that about 100,000 of those are children.

International opinion was shocked and outraged last year by the photograph of the body of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi, washed up on a Turkish beach. There was a brief outcry.
Full-face coverings worn by some Muslim women are not part of our open society and officials urge everyone to show their faces, Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said after meeting his state counterparts from Merkels conservative Union bloc.

However, he acknowledged constitutional problems with a blanket burka ban and said the proposal seeks only to prohibit face coverings where showing the face has a function.

He said Germany already bans wearing any kind of face covering at demonstrations, such as masks meant to hide protesters identities.

Calls for a ban on burkas and other full-face veils emerged from parts of Merkels bloc over the past two weeks amid discussions of how to step up security following several attacks last month  two claimed by IS  which rattled Germany.

Among the loudest advocates were the conservative interior ministers of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Berlin, which both hold state elections next month.

Both are anxious to fend off a strong challenge from the nationalist, anti-immigration Alternative for Germany party, which has been bolstered by concerns over the hundreds of thousands of asylumseekers Germany allowed in last year.

There has been criticism from some even within their own party, however, who view the election-season focus on a burka ban as a distraction from more important issues.

Armin Laschet, a deputy leader of Merkels Christian Democrats, was quoted yesterday in Focus magazine as saying that getting tangled up in such debates was unhelpful for the party.

The security situation is so serious that we need to fully concentrate on internal security and not on symbolic topics. A burka may displease some, but it has nothing to do with domestic security, he said.

De Maiziere acknowledged the face veil was not a security issue and also that overall its not a big problem in Germany.

However, he said the interior ministers felt strongly about sending a signal about what it found unacceptable for our open society.

The proposal still faces several hurdles.
Ties between Ankara and Europe have worsened since last months failed coup, with Turkey accusing its Western allies of insensitivity, saying they were more concerned about a subsequent crackdown than the coup itself.

Travel warning! Do you know that Sweden has the highest rape rate worldwide? read the large advert.
Sometimes, in the heat of debate and speaking on a multitude of issues, you dont choose the right words or you say the wrong thing, Trump told a crowd in Charlotte, North Carolina.

I have done that, and I regret it, particularly where it may have caused personal pain. Too much is at stake for us to be consumed with these issues, he said.

Trump did not cite any examples of such remarks.

The New York businessman has made his tough talk and brash style a selling point of his campaign for the November 8 election, rarely apologising in the face of criticism even from within his own party for own party for comments insulting women, Muslims and Mexican immigrants.

In his presidential announcement speech last year, he described some Mexican immigrants as criminals and rapists.

He recently faced a barrage of criticism for belittling the family of a Muslim American soldier who died in Iraq in 2004, after the soldiers father spoke out against Trump at the Democratic National Convention last month.

The campaign for his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, quickly dismissed Trumps apology, saying: Donald Trump literally started his campaign by insulting people.

We learned tonight that his speechwriter and teleprompter knows he has much for which he should apologise, the campaign said in a statement.

But that apology is simply a well-written phrase until he tells us which of his many offensive, bullying and divisive comments he regrets  and changes his tune altogether, she said.

Trailing Clinton in national opinion polls, Trump has tried to reset his campaign, announcing a shake-up of his senior campaign staff for the second time in less than two months. In the past week, he has abandoned his free-wheeling style of campaigning, instead using a teleprompter at every rally.

Trump also began adding non-rally events to his campaign schedule, visiting a police lodge on Thursday afternoon and hosting a roundtable on Wednesday morning. Previously, Trump had eschewed such events that historically comprise a significant portion of a candidates time.

Trumps speech, echoing remarks earlier in the week in Wisconsin, reached out to minority voters and accused Clinton of being dishonest.

So while sometimes I can be too honest, Hillary Clinton is the exact opposite: She never tells the truth, Trump said. In this journey, I will never lie to you. I will never tell you something I do not believe.

Trumps new campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, promised he would stick to a more disciplined and uplifting message to voters in the final dash to election day without crimping his freewheeling style.

Conway said the candidates White House bid could preserve his authenticity and still move past a long string of controversies to focus on issues.

We would like to take an uplifting, optimistic, policy-centric message directly to the American people, Conway told CBSs This Morning, adding she was confident the former reality television star could stick to a sharper message.

Wednesdays campaign reshuffle also brought on Steve Bannon, a combative conservative who headed the Breitbart News website, as chief executive, in a move seen as giving Trump a chance to emphasise his unconventional style.

Conway said the more disciplined approach by Trump, who has never held elective office, would not mean jettisoning his more off-the-cuff and unpredictable style.

Were going to make sure Donald Trump is comfortable about being in his own skin, that he doesnt lose that authenticity that you simply cant buy and a pollster cant give you, she said on CNN. Let him be him, in this sense.

Resignation

Donald Trumps campaign chairman Paul Manafort has resigned from the campaign.

Trump praised Manaforts work and called him a true professional.

Manafort is stepping down in the wake of a campaign shake-up, as well as revelations about his work for a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine.

Manaforts firm orchestrated a covert Washington lobbying operation on behalf of Ukraines then-ruling political party.

Paul Manafort and his deputy, Rick Gates, didnt disclose their work as foreign agents as required.

Earlier in the week, the campaign added two top officials to the campaign in a move seen as a demotion for Manafort.
John ONeill, aged 45, who was once described by a judge as a very dangerous individual, also discussed committing acts of sexual violence during a consultation with the nurse.

ONeill, an IT consultant currently living rough in a wood, was appearing at York Magistrates Court for a hearing to decide whether an interim sexual risk order (SRO) should be made permanent or should end.

The single father of two from York is representing himself as he has lost his right to legal aid.

ONeill was cleared of rape following a retrial at Teesside Crown Court last year.

Despite this, Judge Simon Bourne-Arton said: Please could you inform the authorities that although this man has been acquitted, it is my judgment that he is a very dangerous individual.

Oliver Thorne, representing North Yorkshire Police, referred to a consultation ONeill had with a community psychiatric nurse, Kevin Holmes, to whom he had been referred by his GP.

The nurse gave evidence at the rape trial but was unavailable to attend the hearing before yesterdays district judge, Adrian Lower.

The nurse recorded notes from the meeting saying ONeill had feelings of rage, anger, and violence.

He has been sexually violent to past girlfriends and he was not sure if they consented, said Thorne, referring to the notes.

In 2010 he noticed a change in himself, the notes state, and he stopped asking girlfriends if they consented to sex with him.

The nurse noted he was preoccupied with killing himself and others and he found the idea soothing.

Thorne, outlining the police case, said SROs could be imposed even if there was no conviction.

ONeill, who has previously admitted to having an interest in sado-masochism and used to attend a Fifty Shades of Grey-style fetish club, had claimed the order breached his human rights and said he had no prospect of forming a relationship while he lived by its terms.

The hearing continues.
More than half a century later, the gonzo journalists wife returned the antlers to Hemingways house in the mountain town of Ketchum.

He was embarrassed that he took them, said Anita Thompson, noting the deep respect her husband had for Hemingways work. He wished he hadnt taken them. He was young, it was 1964, and he got caught up in the moment.

He talked about it several times, about taking a road trip and returning them.

She has now returned the antlers to Ketchum Community Library, which helps catalogue and preserve items in the residence where the author took his own life. It is now owned by the Nature Conservancy.

In 1964, Hunter Thompson, then 27, came to Ketchum when he was still a conventional journalist.

He was writing a story for the National Observer about why the globe-trotting Hemingway shot and killed himself at his home three years earlier at age 61. Thompson attributed the suicide in part to rapid changes in the world that led to upheavals in places Hemingway loved most  Africa and Cuba.

Even Ketchum, which in the 1930s and 1940s attracted luminaries such as Gary Cooper, had fallen off the map of cafe society by the late 1950s, Thompson wrote.

In the story, later collected in The Great Shark Hunt, he noted the problem of tourists taking chunks of earth from around Hemingways grave as souvenirs. Early in the piece, he wrote about the large elk antlers over Hemingways front door but never mentioned taking them. For decades, the antlers hung in a garage at Thompsons home near Aspen, Colorado.

Giving cops a pizza his mind

USA: Authorities say a drunken driving suspect upset that his vehicle was still impounded a week after his arrest threw pizza and punches at a Pennsylvania police station.

Police in the tiny borough of Dallas say 44-year-old Sean Mulloy showed up and began wrapping a chain around the railing outside the police station. He also had a statue and a full box of pizza with him.

Authorities say when the patrolman who arrested Mulloy last week confronted him at the station, Mulloy started throwing punches and pizza and had to be subdued with a stun gun.

Mulloy is charged with aggravated and simple assault and resisting arrest.

Twin turtles power

ITALY: Marine biologists have separated conjoined twin loggerhead turtles and released the surviving newborn into the Mediterranean Sea.

The release occurred along the beaches of Campania where the endangered loggerheads come to nest every year.

Fulvio Maffucci, marine biologist at Anton Dohrn Zoological Station, said there had been only seven known births of conjoined twin loggerheads in the Mediterranean. He said the fact one survived was extraordinary. The smaller twin was dead and significantly underdeveloped compared to the larger twin.

Maffucci said: After the removal of the dead brother from his chest, he crawled from the nest and hes been released in the wild without any help.

One of the hatchlings this year also included a rare albino loggerhead.

Wild about West

ENGLAND: A Kanye West fan queued for more than 15 hours with no sleep in the hope of bagging merchandise from the rappers first pop-up shop in the UK.

West announced on Wednesday that 21 shops would open in locations around the world to sell products tied to The Life of Pablo.

Carlos Rico, 19, from Essex, a part-time retail assistant and clothes designer, managed to secure the first place in the queue at the Old Street venue in London.

Robber racoons

USA: Two masked intruders were captured after entering the Oklahoma Capitol, rummaging through a senators office, and splashing around in a second-floor toilet  but they turned out to be raccoons.

Security footage shows the pair sneaking down a senate hallway at night and exploring an office. A cleaning crew trapped the raccoons and called animal control officers. The two raccoons are being taken to a wildlife sanctuary.

Underwater Buddha

CAMBODIA: Villagers have held a ceremony asking spirits to help recover Buddhist statues their ancestral tales say were buried in a nearby river.

Buddhist monks joined some 500 locals at the ceremony by the Tonle Sap River, where divers recently recovered eight small statues of Buddha and claim to have spotted another that is about 2m tall. They asked the spirits of water and earth to help them raise any statues still buried as much as 20m underwater.

Stories passed down by villagers ancestors tell of the statues being buried in the river hundreds of years ago to hide them from marauders from other areas or neighbouring Siam (Thailand).
About 900 suspected drug traffickers have been killed since Duterte came to power after winning a May election on a vow to wipe out drugs and warning traffickers they risked death if they did not mend their ways.

The United Nations this week called on the government to protect all people from targeted killing and extrajudicial executions.

The president ... decries the attribution of killings to the Philippine government, presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said.

This is simply unfair, especially to the hardworking men and women in uniform who risk their lives and limbs to win the war against drugs.

Police have said many of the dead drugs suspects were shot while resisting arrest or were killed by rival gang members.

A staunch critic of the president, senator Leila de Lima, will next week start a congressional inquiry into the killings, summoning top police and anti-narcotics officials to explain the unprecedented rise in the body count.

Duterte responded by warning legislators not to interfere with his campaign, saying they could be killed if they blocked efforts aimed at improving the country.

Be careful with me because when I say I will do it for my country, I will do it even if I have to kill you or be killed in the process, he said on Wednesday, directing his statements to opposition senators.

This week, he also told police officers not to be intimidated by a suggestion from de Lima that the United Nations might be asked to look into the surge of extrajudicial killings.

Do not investigate us as if we are criminals, Duterte said in a speech to police.

Let the police do their duty.
The image of stunned five-year-old boy, Omran Daqneesh sitting in an ambulance caked with dust and with blood on his face, captured the horror that has beset the war-torn city.

The Russian defence ministry said in a statement it never targets populated areas and that rebels themselves hit urban areas in order to derail humanitarian efforts there.

The ministry also said the footage of the boys rescue showed windows in the house next door intact, indicating that the boys house was not targeted by an air strike but was hit with a mine that rebels use.

Video of the small boy, bloodied and covered in dust, sparked outrage and concern on social media .

Twitter user Charlene Deveraturda @malasadasbooks posted an image of the boy and wrote: Poor baby. Near my grandsons age. I cannot imagine. The image does not leave my mind. #syrianboy #Syria #peace

The hashtag #Syrianboy was one of the top trending topics across the world. More than 10 tweets posted every minute on Twitter with the hashtag. Many linked images of the child with a picture of Aylan Kurdi, a Syrian boy whose body was found on a beach in Turkey last year.

The video of Omran and other children being pulled from the rubble caused widespread upset and condemnation over the harrowing reality of Syrias five-year-old civil war.

Twitter user Malcolmite (@Malcolmite) wrote: Its not important if it goes viral, whats important is what is going to be done about it? #syrianboy

Aleppo, split into rebel- and government-controlled areas, has become the focus of the fighting in Syria.

Rebel-held areas suffer heavy air strikes daily as pro-government forces try to retake territory lost to rebels two weeks ago in the southwest of Aleppo.

Aleppo-based freelance photographer Mohammed Raslan Abu Sheikh, who was at the scene, said civilian rescuers and aid workers were elated as Omran was pulled from the rubble alive with the rest of his family of six.

He was in a state of shock, not even crying, he made us cry while he himself was silent, just watching us, Abu Sheikh told Reuters.
Burma This Week in Parliament (August 15-19)

Lower House Speaker Win Myint seen pacing through Parliament on Feb. 4 this year / The Irrawaddy

In the Lower House, lawmaker Than Soe, representing Thazi Township of Mandalay Division for the Union Solidarity and Development Party, put forward a proposal for the government to pressure the US to lift its remaining sanctions against Burma. Lawmakers rejected further discussion of the proposal, by 219 votes to 151.

In the Upper House, Htoot May of Arakan State Constituency-11 criticized a lack of transparency in the Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone (SEZ) Management Committee and asked if the government has a plan to form a new management committee. Deputy Minister for National Planning and Finance Maung Maung Win countered that the work of the committee, including selecting tenders and implementing projects, had been done in line with international norms. He said the ministry has also established a website (www.kpsez.org) containing relevant information. The Ministry of Commerce has been tasked with reconstituting SEZ management committees formed by the previous government; work on SEZs will be halted till then.

The government will permit local and foreign investment towards the establishment of private forests within state-owned forest reserves and protected forest areas, according to the Minister for Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation Ohn Win.

Tuesday August 16

In the Lower House, Khin Cho, representing Hlaingbwe Township in Karen State, enquired about the total debt owed by Burma to foreign countries. The Deputy Minister for National Planning and Finance Maung Maung Win said it amounted to US$9.16 billion as of the end of last fiscal year on March 31.

Lawmakers debated a proposal by Khin Hint Thit of Pandaung Township in Pegu Division that urged the government to take a tough stance on crime, for the countrys stability.

In the Upper House, lawmakers debated a draft amendment to the civil service law. The Bill Committee decided to review the law, in accordance with the points raised in the debate.

In the Union Parliament, lawmakers voted to accept a US$100 million loan from the World Bank, to be used as part of the Myanmar Monetary Sector Development Plan, under which $75 million would be allotted to the National Planning and Finance Ministry and $25 million to the Central Bank.

The Union Parliament also approved the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with the Asean-India Center.

Wednesday August 17

In the Lower House, lawmakers continued to debate Khin Hint Thits proposal that the government should be tougher on crime. The parliament put the proposal on record.

In the Upper House, in response to questions from lawmakers, Education Minister Myo Thein Gyi said that if not enough graduates were to apply for teaching positions at schools in remote areas, the education ministry would appoint as temporary teachers, those aged between 18 and 25 who have passed the basic education middle school level.

Tun Tun of Mandalay Division Constituency-2 asked whether the government is taking steps to curb increased levels of smuggling through border areas since the dismantling of multi-departmental mobile taskforces in December, after they were repeatedly ambushed by smugglers. Commerce Minister Than Myint assured lawmakers that plansincluding for new checkpoints along known smuggling routeswere being drawn up with other ministries.

Thursday August 18

In the Lower House, lawmakers continued to debate the proposal from Tin Htwe of Pegu Divisions Waw Township that urged the government to prioritize the modernization of farming methods as a means of reducing poverty. The parliament approved the proposal.

Friday August 19

In the Union Parliament, lawmakers debated the medium-term debt settlement strategy proposed by the President. The deputy minister for planning and finance responded to discussions and the parliament approved the strategy. Lawmakers also discussed amendments to the Union budget for the 2016-17 fiscal year, and amendments to the governments expenses law.
Business The Irrawaddy Business Roundup (August 20)

Bangkok is about to become more accessible for residents of northern Burma, as multiple new flights a week are set to link Mandalay and the Thai capital, starting from late August / Reuters

New debit and credit cards launched

A new debit and credit card service was launched in Burma this week when Burmas AYA Bank and the Myanmar Payment Union Public Co. (MPU) signed a deal with JCB International Co. (JCBI), the international operations subsidiary of Japan-based credit-card company JCB Co.

Burma is the fourth country in the Mekong region in which JCB cards have been made available, after Thailand, Vietnam and Laos, according to an announcement by AYA Bank.

The cards, combining the MPU and JCB brands, come in four kinds: the Universal Platinum credit card, Universal Gold credit card, Universal Silver credit card, and Universal debit card, according to the statement.

Cardholders can use MPUs nationwide merchant network and enjoy privileges at JCBs international merchant network which has more than 31 million locations globally, the announcement said. There are also special privileges at hotels and airport lounges for platinum cardholders.

This co-brand arrangement will enable cardholders to have more flexible options for payments in foreign countries. Its another milestone in the Myanmar card payment market, to promote the countrys transition to a cashless economy, said Zaw Zaw, founder and chairman of AYA Bank.

Myanmar is an important market for JCBI. With its growing economy and population, the country has great potential for growth in the card payment market, said Kimihisa Imada, deputy president of JCB International.

Boost in air links between Mandalay and Bangkok

Myanmar National Airlines will begin thrice-weekly flights on the Rangoon-Mandalay-Bangkok route staring from August 31, the travel website TTR Asia reported this week. The service is scheduled for Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

Captain Than Tun, managing director of MNA, said in local media that the service aims to tap demand from passengers in the countrys second largest city [Mandalay].

The service will start just a day before rival airline Myanmar Airways International launches a direct Mandalay to Bangkok service on Sept. 1, with three flights a week on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays, using an Airbus A319.

Government gives suspension orders to two jade mining companies

Two companies found to be illegally mining for jade on state forest land have been ordered to suspend production, a spokesperson for the Sagaing Division government said on Wednesday.

Radio Free Asia reported that the Lin Htet Zaw and Jade Gold companies were illegally mining on land under the control of the Forestry Department in Indaw Township of Katha District.

Under the former government, the Ministry of Mines had given the companies operating permits, but the firms had not obtained permission from the townships Forestry Department, said Than Htay, spokesman for the Sagaing Chief Minister Myint Naing.

An inspection had shown that the companies didnt follow rules and regulations [] they were working on more acres than they were permitted to work on, and didnt follow the rules for disposing of mining waste, the spokesman told RFA.

The Forestry Department sued the companies in Indaw Township court in May. They were each fined 5,000 kyats (US$4) for conducting illegal operations, according to a Forestry Department officer who declined to be named.

The Irrawaddy reported in July that the new government would not renew existing jade mining licenses until environmental impact assessments have been completed. Hundreds of licenses expired at the end of July. Many hundreds more will expire in 2018.

About 10 mining companies that have been operating in Indaw Township since 1990 have stopped production, pending the receipt of new licenses.

Suu Kyi inks deals with China

Burma and China signed deals to build two hospitals, as well as a bridge near the border of the two countries, during a visit by State Counselor and Foreign Minister Aung San Suu Kyi to Beijing this week.

The two hospitals will be built in Burmas largest cities, Rangoon and Mandalay, Aye Aye Soe, deputy director-general at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told Reuters.

The bridge aims to improve transport and communication between the countries and will be built in the town of Kunlong, 32 kilometers (20 miles) from the Chinese border, in Burmas northern Shan State.

No further details on these proposed projects, including how they will be financed and when they are planned for, were available at the time of going to press.

Tin output in Burma forecast to drop

Tin ore production in Burma may decline next year, according to the International Tin Research Institute.

Output could fall by as much as 5,000 tons in 2017, from 30,000 metric tons of contained metal mined in 2015, due to depletion of resources and a drop in grades, Bloomberg quoted an Institute representative as saying.

Myanmars tin ore industry faces a development bottleneck, Cui Lin, the institutes China representative told Bloomberg. Their production costs are also rising as they move to underground from open-pit mining. That involves a lot of fixed-asset investment.

The Tin Institute based its estimates on Burmas exports to China, which account for most of its shipments of the product. Burma is one of the worlds largest tin exporters, with much of it coming from areas of northern Shan State controlled by the United Wa State Army, Burmas most powerful non-state armed group, backed by China.
Giant names in technology and telecommunications industries like AT&T Inc, Google parent Alphabet Inc, Apple Inc, and Verizon Communications Inc joined the U.S. Federal Communications Commission on Friday in stamping down automated, pre-recorded phone calls known as robocalls.

According to Reuters, the group called Robocall Strike Force is headed by AT&T Chief Executive Officer Randall Stephenson. The strike force hopes to put into practice Caller ID verification standards in support of the Anti-Spoofing Act of 2015 in U.S Congress. They are also deliberating a "Do Not Originate" list that would block spoofers from copying legitimate phone numbers from various companies.

The strike force is expected to report to the FCC on October 19 about their "concrete plans to accelerate the development and adoption of new tools and solutions," said Stephenson.

Time reported that FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler urged major companies last month to implement new rules to obstruct robocalls, which often come from telemarketers or scam artists.

This scourge must stop, Wheeler said on Friday, calling robocalls the No. 1 complaint from consumers. The bad guys are beating the good guys with technology, he added.

Stephenson emphasized, the breadth and complexity of the robocall challenge. This is going to require more than individual company initiatives and one-off blocking apps. Robocallers are a formidable adversary, notoriously hard to stop.

Such collaboration from renowned leaders of the government and the genius team of technology experts would surely bring significant changes in the telecommunications industry especially to the consumers who are often the victims of fraud and other forms of treachery.

Other companies that cast their membership in the Robocall Strike Force include: Comcast Corp., Blackberry Ltd, British Telecommunications Plc, Charter Communications Inc, Frontier Communications, LG Electronics Inc, Microsoft Corp, Nokia Corp , Qualcomm Inc, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd , Sirius XM Holdings Inc, T-Mobile US Inc and U.S. Cellular Corp.
Apple has reportedly delayed the release of the new MacBook Air. A number of speculators are blaming the upcoming and overhauled MacBook Pro as the reason for the delay.

The MacBook Air gained a lot of followers due to its dependability and low price as opposed to the MacBook Pro, according to the Vine Report. However, there are rumors circulating around that Apple may have decided to get rid of the MacBook Air lines and focus instead on marketing the MacBook Pro.

Apple's continued silence on any upcoming MacBook Air has only made the cancellation rumors louder. Some observers, however, claimed that the Cupertino-based company has merely delayed the release of the Air due to the reportedly overhauled MacBook Pro set to be release in the latter part of 2017. Still, there are rumors that Apple is still undecided in releasing a new MacBook Air that will probably have the same specs and features as the overhauled MacBook Pro.

Many of Apple's product line are in dire need of an upgrade including the MacBook Pro and the MacBook Air. Last year's MacBook Pro only had some minor updates which were not enough to impress its usual customer base. The continuing dismal sales reports have finally convinced Apple to do something about it. It seems the tech giant is streamlining its products.

There are rumors that the new MacBook Pro will have thinner look than its older counterpart, according to Fortune. It will also be equipped with latest and most powerful graphics in Apple's arsenal. The graphic card,however, is rumored to be coming from AMD. The standard function keys will be removed and a touch screen placed on top of the keyboard will take its place. The upcoming Pro will also come out with the new USB-C ports.

Industry observers believed that a new overhauled MacBook Pro will possibly be released after the new iPhone 7 has been announced to the public.
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By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) |  

The fighting that has broken out between Kurdish YPG fighters and the Syrian Arab Army in Hasaka, northeast Syria, is hardly a new thing. There were clashes in April.

Syria says that the Kurds brought it on themselves by trying to expand into government-held territory.

As the US has deepened its involvement in Syria, this round of fighting could drag the US into war.

The Peoples Protection Units or YPG is a Syrian Kurdish militia that now holds large swathes of northern Syria. These leftist Kurds are in conflict with Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) and with the fundamentalist rightwing Arab guerrillas such as the al-Qaeda-linked Army of Syrian Conquest and the Saudi-backed Army of Islam.

Since the YPG is the only really reliable ground force willing and able to take on Daesh, the US has allied with it (over the objections of Turkey). Washington has embedded some 200 US troops with YPG units (some were even caught wearing YPG insignia).

In Hasaka and Qamishli, the YPG holds territory adjacent to that held by the army of the Syrian government, led by Bashar al-Assad. Al-Assad doesnt like the leftist Kurds, whom he considers separatists, but he has bigger problems, and so often the YPG is left alone by the Syrian army, for now.

But the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) maintains that the YPG has been expanding its territory in Hasaka at the expense of Damascus. So, with all the subtlety of a mobster, al-Assad scrambled fighter jets and bombed YPG-held Hasaka.

But if you bomb the YPG, you might well hit an American special operations soldier.

Washington minded, and flew its own jets over Hasaka on Friday, apparently scaring off the Syrian pilots (the Pentagon tried to play this confrontation down).

But this US and coalition intervention could have a long tail. Is the US committing itself to a no-fly-zone over Rojava, the area of Syria on which the YPG wants to erect a mini-state? Arguably, the US no-fly-zone over Iraq helped get us into the Iraq War.

So not only are US troops in danger of being killed by al-Assads mad bombers (as tens of thousands of innocent civilians have been) but US pilots are in danger at any moment of going to war in the skies against the Syrian air force.

Me, I think this is a dangerous flashpoint.

I mean, it may blow over. But if al-Assad killed a US soldier operating among the Kurds, can you imagine the storm of feces in Washington? And if it happens once either of the presidential candidates get into office, it could be the Gulf of Tonkin all over again.



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Toronto, Canada / TheNewswire / August 19, 2016 - Savary Gold Corp. (TSX-V: SCA) ("Savary" or the "Company") has closed its non brokered private placement financing announced on August 8, 2016, which was upsized on August 12, 2016, for total gross proceeds of approximately $3,000,000 (the "Offering"). The financing was oversubscribed and the Company scaled back the financing to $3,000,000.

Savary has issued 27,222,545 units at a price of $0.11 per unit ("Unit"). Each Unit is comprised of one common share of the Company and one-half of one common share purchase warrant (each whole warrant, a "Warrant"). Each Warrant entitles the holder thereof to acquire one common share of the Company at an exercise price of $0.15 per common share until February 19, 2019, however, in the event that the common shares trade on the TSX Venture Exchange at a volume weighted-average price of $0.30 or more for a period of at least twenty (20) consecutive trading days from that date which is 9 months following the closing, the Company shall be entitled to accelerate the exercise period to a period ending at least thirty (30) days from the date notice of such acceleration is provided to the holders of Warrants.

The proceeds from the financing will be used to fund an exploration program on the Karankasso project, Hounde belt, Burkina Faso, with partner Sarama Resources Ltd. and for general corporate purposes. The common shares and the common shares issuable upon the exercise of the Warrants are subject to statutory resale restrictions which expire on December 20, 2016. Closing of the Offering remains subject to the receipt of all regulatory approvals, including final approval of the TSX Venture Exchange.

In connection with the Offering, Savary will pay cash finders' fees totaling approximately $172,624 and will issue 1,584,488 finders warrants with each finder warrant being exercisable for one common share at an exercise price of $0.11 until February 19, 2019.

About Savary Gold

Savary Gold is a Canadian exploration company which, along with partner Sarama Resources Limited, is focused on exploring and developing the Karankasso Gold Project in Burkina Faso. The Project properties lie within the Birimian age, Hounde Greenstone Belt, which hosts Semafo's Mana mine, Roxgold's Yaramoko MIne and additional gold deposits that are presently subject to production decisions and extensive exploration efforts (including Endeavour Mining's Hounde Project, Orezone's (acquired by Sarama) Bondi Project and Sarama's/Acacia's South Hounde Project, which is adjacent to Savary Gold's property). The Project contains an Inferred open pit constrained mineral resource estimate of 9.16 million tonnes grading 2.28 g/t gold (Savary news release November 24, 2015). For additional information please visit our website at www.savarygold.com.

Don Dudek, P.Geo., President and CEO of the Company and a qualified person under National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and approved the scientific and technical information in this press release.

SAVARY GOLD CORP.

On behalf of the Board

"Don Dudek"

President & Chief Executive Officer

Cautionary Notes

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This news release may contain forward-looking statements. These statements include statements regarding the proposed use of proceeds and the receipt of all required approvals in relation to the Offering. These statements are based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially because of factors discussed in the management discussion and analysis section of our interim and most recent annual financial statements or other reports and filings with the TSX Venture Exchange and applicable Canadian securities regulations. We do not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required by applicable laws.

This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities in the United States. The securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "1933 Act"), or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to, or for the account or benefit of U.S. persons (as defined in Regulation S under the 1933 Act) absent such registration or an applicable exemption from such registration requirements.

NOT FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES OR THROUGH U.S. NEWSWIRE

SERVICES

Copyright (c) 2016 TheNewswire - All rights reserved.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals [official website] granted [opinion, PDF] a stay of execution on Friday for murder accomplice Jeffrey Lee Wood. Wood and Daniel Reneau attempted to rob [CNN report] a gas station in 1996. Wood waited in the car while Reneau went inside the store and ultimately shot and killed the stores clerk. In Texas, the distinction between committing a murder and acting as an accomplice to murder does not prevent the latter from being charged and convicted of first degree murder. The appellate court remanded the following two arguments to the trial court for resolution while the execution is stayed: false and misleading testimony by the prosecutions psychiatrist and false psychiatric testimony concerning Woods future dangerousness, both allegedly presented in violation of due process. Woods mental capacity has been at the forefront of the argument against his execution, but was never brought before the jury that imposed his death sentence. A federal judge previously stayed [NYT report] Woods execution in 2008 to grant a hearing on whether he was mentally competent.

Capital punishment [JURIST Commentary report] remains a controversial issue worldwide. Last week, UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Zeid Raad Al Hussein urged [JURIST report] the Maldives to abide by a decades-old moratorium on the death penalty. Earlier this month, the Delaware Supreme Court ruled [JURIST report] that the states death penalty statute is unconstitutional. Last month, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated [JURIST report] that he would approve reinstating the death penalty. In February, a spokesperson for the OHCHR urged [JURIST report] the Indonesian government to halt all executions of people convicted of drug-related offenses.
The United Nations (UN) [official website] issued a report [report, PDF] on Thursday detailing [UN News Centre report] the terrible atrocities committed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) against the Yezidi people and other ethnic and religious groups. The report was put together by the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) [official websites] and contains numerous accounts from those who have survived ISILs actions in Iraq, including systematic killing, sexual violence, inhumane treatment, and forced displacement. Based on the report, it is believed that approximately 3,500 women, girls, and some men, the vast majority of which are Yezidi, remain in captured by ISIL. The report also calls the various violations and abuses by ISIL akin to war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. The report ends saying everything feasible must be done to create safe, dignified conditions for the Yezidi and all others in ISIL captivity.

IS, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), have been accused of war crimes on a massive scale in Iraq and Syria. In March US Secretary of State John Kerry said [JURIST report] that IS is responsible for genocide against groups in areas under its control, including Yazidis, Christians, and Shia Muslims. Also in March the US House of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution [JURIST report] denouncing the actions of IS as genocide and called for the establishment of international and domestic tribunals by UN member states. In December Amnesty International said that IS is in possession of a large and lethal arsenal [JURIST report] due to decades of reckless arms trading and the poorly regulated international flow of weapons into Iraq. In November IS claimed responsibility for a series of coordinated attacks in Paris [JURIST report] that killed more than 120 individuals. In September members of Iraqs Yazidi community met with International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and urged the court to open a genocide investigation [JURIST report] into IS actions in Northern Iraq.
To Tim Stratton of Kearney, thank you for your response to Kearney Hub Intern Sarah Walsh on the Bibles stance on same-sex relations. However, it seems you have misconceptions about historical accuracy.

The churchs original verification of biblical canon through apostolic tradition  deciding which books were scripturally sound and which should be rejected  was established by historical theologians such as the French Bishop Irenaeus of Lyons. He died in about 202 A.D.

Biblical verification is markedly different than historical accuracy, however. Using Biblical canon as self-evidence of the Bibles veracity is insufficient for proving its historical accuracy. Ancient theologians words should have no credence, either. Modern historians would have to provide verification of a documents source material for it to be considered historically accurate.

Deriving the true meaning of biblical scripture dates back to four Ecumenical Councils  councils in the 3rd through 5th centuries that established the basic Christian tenets. The belief that God is three persons in one being wasnt established until nearly 500 A.D.

The church took half a millennium to cement its core beliefs, which indicates that biblical scripture has undergone many changes to its interpretations.

Regardless, using historically unverifiable Biblical interpretations in choosing which laws should be kept and which can be dismissed is offensively dangerous when it implies marginalizing an expansive group, such as the LGBTQIA community, which according to the National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior, accounted for roughly 7 percent of the American population in 2010.

Walsh is within reason to call into question the use of a multi-millennia old document  which has sparked heated debates over its origins, legitimacy and interpretations amongst even its leaders  as a compass for modern lawmaking.

In closing, I respectfully urge Stratton and church leaders to examine their adherence to any Biblical passage that exhorts condemnation of LGBTQIA individuals.
As students head back to school and all of the activities that surround the start of the academic year, Nebraska families will make many choices. Because of limited time and budgets, parents will choose one activity over another and distinguish between wants and needs among school supplies, and balance the demands of work and family. Every family understands the process of setting priorities.

Officials at every level of government in Nebraska will need to follow the example of Nebraska families who strategically prioritize. Spending decisions in local budgets approved in the coming months and development of state governments biennial budget and tax reform measures during the coming legislative session must reflect the current economic status of Nebraska. The state ended the 2015-2016 fiscal year $95 million below certified revenue projections. Revenue for July, the first month of the new fiscal year, was $19 million below the certified forecast. Since the Nebraska Economic Forecasting Advisory Board last certified revenue projections in October 2015, revenues have fallen short five out of nine months.

To put the current $114 million total revenue shortfall in perspective, that amount represents twice the amount spent on the Nebraska State Patrol and more than the cost of the entire state college system. It is over half of both the Property Tax Credit Relief Fund and budget of the Department of Corrections.

When stacked against the three largest General Fund expenditures, it is 12 percent of the total state equalization aid to K-12 schools (TEEOSA); 13 percent of the Medicaid expenses, and more than 20 percent of the budget of the University of Nebraska.

Spending decisions will be difficult. In the middle of the budget process will be continued attempts to change Nebraskas tax policies. Over the past several weeks a number of special interest groups have promoted their tax reform priorities. Some have called for reductions in corporate and personal income tax rates, with increased special interest tax breaks and exemptions for businesses. Other policy groups are advocating for adding a sales tax to services and charging taxes on goods currently exempt, including food. Property taxes remain the most burdensome tax reported by Nebraska voters, despite opposition from lobbyists representing local spending interests.

The first priority is Nebraskas constitutionally mandated balanced budget. That requires thoughtful, strategic spending decisions in development of the biennial budget, as well as responsible policy choices that address costs of government. Lower incomes and reduced spending of Nebraska families are the reason for the revenue shortfall. Asking taxpayers to spend more of their budgets on taxes is unacceptable.

Our second priority must be maintaining transparency in Nebraskas tax system. While income tax reductions may put more money in your take-home paycheck, funding those reductions by increasing total sales taxes paid reduces the purchasing power of that paycheck. Putting money in one pocket but taking more money out of the other pocket doesnt leave Nebraska taxpayers better off. It is the very definition of a shell game. Every taxpayer can see their total income taxes paid on their pay stub and tax return. Increased sales taxes that accumulate purchase by purchase obscure the total cost of government from taxpayers. Tax breaks and incentives further complicate a fair, transparent code.

Finally, we must prioritize the long-term economic viability of the state. Growth of business and recruitment of new industry are essential to Nebraskas future. However, it is irresponsible to undermine the very economic foundation of our state to show favor to highly mobile businesses at a time when revenues are already falling short.

The blatantly disproportionate tax burden on agriculture, the states top industry representing more than $25 billion in economic impact and 25 percent of the states total economy, must be addressed before Nebraska taxpayers are asked to speculate. Just as Nebraska families must choose the basics of food and shelter for their families over vacations and new cars, so must lawmakers prioritize Nebraskas fiscal engine before pursuing shiny new options.

Sen. John Kuehn of Heartwell represents District 38 in the Nebraska Legislature. The district encompasses southwest Buffalo County and all of Clay, Franklin, Kearney, Nuckolls, Phelps and Webster counties.

@JohnKuehnDVM
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FILE - In this July 21, 2016 file photo, Secretary of State John Kerry speaks at a news conference at the conclusion of the Meeting of the Ministers of the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL at the State Department in Washington. Kerry is arriving in Africa on Monday, Aug. 22, 2016 for talks in Kenya and Nigeria on countering terrorism before visiting Saudi Arabia to discuss the conflict in Yemen.(AP Photo/Cliff Owen)
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Quality measures began as tools to quantify the health care process, using outcomes, patient perceptions, and organizational structures associated with the provision of high-quality health care. Overall, the goals should focus on delivery of care that is effective, safe, efficient, and equitable. Did you notice a particular word missing? Yes, I missed the word physician too, because they have been left out of the conversation entirely.

Measuring quality health care by a patient lab result is like recording a patients temperature by waving the thermometer near their face. One has little to do with the other except for the slight appearance of connection. Quality must be measured by physician outcomes and not those of patients. For instance, our county does not have fluorinated water. Measuring the percentage of children that have cavities is a patient outcome and not an accurate reflection of medical care provided. A physician outcome would be calculating the percentage of children who received a prescription for supplemental fluoride during their office visit.

If the intended goal is to reduce unnecessary ER visits, then we must determine the root cause. Patients with private insurance rarely go to the ER for non-emergencies because they pay a large out-of-pocket cost. Those on Medicare or Medicaid visit the ER for free. There is no disincentive to visiting the ER, but there needs to be. In addition, it makes no sense to penalize me for an unnecessary ER visit if I have not seen and evaluated the patient in my office. The common sense solution is to figure out how many patients seen in my office were then seen in the ER within 24 hours. That may be a quality indicator.

Asthma and diabetes are two chronic conditions with large costs to the health care system. Compiling statistics about the number of patients who are not well controlled on daily medications is a patient outcome. How about looking at whether or not patients who presented with these conditions were prescribed the proper maintenance medications in a timely fashion? How about checking whether we emphasized the importance of daily use of these chronic medications in our clinical note? Those are physician outcomes and could be used to determine quality. Why are we allowing patient outcomes, for which they alone bear responsibility, to burden us as physicians?

How about paying me for the time spent completing oral rehydration for a moderately dehydrated child in my office? It takes a few hours to orally rehydrate an infant or small child properly. In my humble opinion, it is time well spent and avoids an ER visit. I bill for extended time, but am rarely paid. It is one of the most satisfying things I do; no parent has required more than one session in my office to be successfully taught this skill to use at home with successive children. Return on investment for those three hours is unbelievable and pays dividends for years; a parent will almost never need to go to the ER for dehydration again. How about a metric covering the amount of money saved by patients, insurance, and the government once a pediatrician has taught this essential skill to a family?

My fifth suggestion would be to look at the percentage of children under five years of age seen for well-child visits annually, rather than viewing value from percentage of children up-to-date on immunizations? In states, like Washington, there are vaccine exemptions for every reason under the sun. That metric penalizes a physician for a patient outcome, of which they have no control? A physician outcome would be documenting the recommendation for immunizations during a well visit by the primary care physician.

A metric tracking exceptional physical exam skill is another worthy physician virtue. For instance, how frequently does a pediatrician diagnose rare congenital conditions when evaluating a new patient? Top notch physical exam skills are essential and it this metric would preferentially favor experienced physicians who pay close attention to detail. In 15 years, my list includes a half dozen boys with undiagnosed undescended testicles, two children with choanal atresia requiring surgical intervention, 4 with chromosomal deletion syndromes, and my holy grail, an undiagnosed aortic coarctation (narrowing of the main vessel supplying blood to the body) suspected based on physical exam alone.

My idea of value is best illustrated by sharing my coarctation story. A boy came into my office for a well-child visit. He had some behavioral issues, had seen multiple pediatricians over the years due to frequent moves, and brought scant records with him. He was restless, and it was difficult to palpate femoral pulses, but I do this on each and every child at their yearly physical. Despite my persistence, I was unable to palpate them successfully. A quick glance at his slightly elevated blood pressure, 128/90, made me pay closer attention. I repeated it myself with a similar result.

I discussed my concerns with the family, referred him to a cardiologist, and called to discuss the case with the specialist. Doubtful, the cardiologist told me she would let me know what she thought after evaluation. Indeed, my diagnosis was spot-on! He underwent surgical correction for his congenital anomaly, (like the others who have transferred into my practice) and it was a success. He became quite the star athlete in high school and is entering college this fall.

Value can be defined as both a noun and a verb. The former denotes having importance, worth, or usefulness. Experienced physicians have stories exactly like the one above; because our care provides tremendous value to the patients we serve. Business people in health care prefer to use value as a verb because it signifies having a monetary gain attached. Government and insurance companies should stop wasting dollars and cents chasing visions of value, rather use common sense and give physician outcomes the attention they deserve. Health care will be on better footing now and into the future.

Niran S. Al-Agba is a pediatrician who blogs at MommyDoc.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com
It is sunny and hot right now, but just how ready are Laredo emergency responders when it comes time for severe weather?

Earlier this week, a funnel-shaped cloud was spotted on the North Side of town.

Severe weather like flooding has also affected this community.

We spoke with Laredo Fire Department Chief Steve Landin, who says they keep in communication with the National Weather Service.

"They send us alerts as to anything they may see developing in radar, or in their computerized systems," Landin said. "They call me directly, then we send out [a] mass notification to the different response groups."

Landin says the city has a Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan. He says they also have specialized team and equipment for swift water rescue.
Highly paid corporate executives are often compensated with a complex web of bonuses, stock grants, insurance, pension plans and other financial instruments. Unfortunately, even though these company plans are their most valuable assets, many executives often wait years to develop a strategy to manage this wealth.

After developing financial strategies for numerous corporate executives over the past 15 years, I have found that the most common reaction once we have a plan in place is, "I wish I had done this years ago." They feel a sense of relief and optimism because they now have a financial plan in place to maximize the value of these assets accumulated during a long career.

For corporate executives seeking to maximize the value of their financial assets, here are five tips to consider:

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1. Resist "lifestyle creep."

With each new promotion, an executive often earns more in salary, bonuses and other compensation. But what I call "lifestyle creep" is a major reason that people don't accumulate more financial gains from their promotions.

After each promotion, people tend to increase their lifestylethey take on a bigger mortgage, buy a luxury car, enroll their children in private school or install a large swimming pool in the backyard. The key to financial success is spending less than you earn and investing the difference wisely over a long period. To accomplish this goal, consider the following with each pay raise:

Increase your 401(k) contribution if you are not already contributing the maximum amount each year (in 2016, the limit is $18,000 for those under age 50 and $24,000 for those age 50 and over).

Consider setting up or increasing automatic monthly transfers from a checking account to savings, or to college accounts, individual retirement accounts or other investment accounts.

If you direct the money received with the new pay raise straight into savings, you'll never miss the temptation to spend it. And, you'll be in better shape to retire early.

2. Understand how company compensation plans work, especially stock plans.

People moving up the corporate ladder often receive stock grants. These grants can be quite lucrative, but the rules governing them can be complex. In addition, company plans tend to change over time, so the grants received this year may differ two, three or five years from now.

Know the answers to the following questions: When do the stock options or restricted stock grants vest? How and when are taxes paid on these stock plans? If you leave the company this year, which grants will you be able to keep? Finally, what age is considered "full retirement" in order to retain all your stock grants?

For young executives, accumulating a large amount of stock can help build wealth. But make certain to strike a balance among all investments; owning too much stock in one companyany companyis not sound. If you have accumulated a heavy amount of stock in your company, consider setting up a multi-year diversification plan so that by the time you retire, your investment portfolio consists of no more than 10% to 20% in company stock.

3. Take maximum advantage of your company's pension plan.

The benefit is not as commonly available as it once was, so anyone working for a company that offers a pension should consider working there for as long as possible. The reasons are obvious. A pension makes it easier to meet income goals during retirement. You'll feel less pressure to save your personal dollars to support your entire retirement. And since your company has set aside funds for your retirement, your personal savings requirement is lower.

4. When you are young, buy life and disability insurance.

The more money you earn, the more valuable you become for your spouse, partner and children. Companies often allow a person to buy a lot of insurance through their group plans. For those people that tend to jump from company to company, consider purchasing individual insurance policies from a trusted agent not tied to an employer's plan.

5. Seek out tax advice.

Those working in corporate America are likely paid as W-2 employees, which means they have a limited number of ways to save income taxes, so you should be sure to take advantage of the ones that do exist. Also, as a result of promotions, big bonuses and stock plans paying out, executives can move in and out of high tax brackets over their working years. Partnering with a competent tax adviser can help smooth out and minimize taxes, allowing you to further maximize your wealth.

Lisa Brown is a partner and wealth adviser at Brightworth, an Atlanta wealth management firm. She specializes in investment management, executive compensation, retirement transition and estate planning.
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By Ed Friedrich of the Kitsap Sun

BANGOR  The ballistic-missile submarine USS Louisiana and a Navy offshore support vessel collided while conducting routine operations in the Strait of Juan de Fuca on Thursday, according to Submarine Force Pacific.

The collision occurred at 6 p.m. There were no injuries. Damages to both vessels is being assessed.

Both ships returned to port under their own power, the support vessel to Port Angeles and the Louisiana to Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor.

The nuclear-powered Louisiana can be armed with up to 24 nuclear-tipped missiles.
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By Rob Gelder, Kitsap County commissioner

Thank you to the Kitsap Sun editorial board for the recent Our View column about the community effort to save the Port Gamble Forest. ("Forest and Bay vision appearing," July 10)

The Port Gamble Forest is at risk of being lost to development, and we must act now to save it. The forest is six times the size of Seattle's Discovery Park, providing our community with year-round access to over 65 miles of trails, accommodating cyclists, runners, mountain bikers, equestrians, bird-watchers and people of all ages and abilities.

To save this forest now and for future generations, we must raise $3.5 million by summer 2017.

The Kitsap Forest and Bay Community Campaign is the culmination of an effort that began in 2011, when Forterra signed an Option Agreement with Pope Resources to purchase land including the Port Gamble Forest. Since that time the community has worked tirelessly to conserve 1,076 acres of forest and 1.5 miles of Port Gamble Bay shoreline by raising over $7 million in federal, state, tribal and local funds  showcasing the broad support for protecting these lands for public use, sustainable timber management, trail corridors and wildlife habitat.

Please join us to save the Port Gamble Forest as a community treasure. Join a guided hike, bird or bike event from 10 a.m. to noon on the following dates:

Hiking: Sat., Aug. 27, Tues., Aug. 30

Birding: Sat., Oct. 1, Tues., Oct. 5

Bike: Sat., Aug. 27, Sat., Oct. 1, Tues., Oct. 5

All tours start at the Port Gamble Forest Heritage Park Trailhead, on Highway 104 just south of Port Gamble.

Spread the word! Tell your friends and family how to help by visiting SavePG.org. For more information/questions, please contact: Susannah Hale, Campaign Director: shale@forterra.org.
As readers know I am no Trump fan. I dont like his narcissism, most of his policies, and much of his style.

But that is not to say he is wrong on everything.

His policy to ban every Muslim in the world from entering the US, either as a migrant or tourist was one of the most reprehensible policies he has had. It treated 1.4 billion identically, that their religious affiliation was all that mattered. It would have treated Malala Yousafzai the same as Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

He has now retreated from that, and proposed extreme vetting. USA Today reports:

In calling for extreme vetting of foreigners entering the United States, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump suggested a return to a 1950s-era immigration standard  since abandoned  that barred entry to people based on their political beliefs. We should only admit into this country those who share our values and respect our people, Trump said Monday, explaining how he would deter terrorists from entering the U.S.

I think there is a case for vetting on the basis of extreme ideology. Not as Trump describes it though.

Of course anyone who is an actual terrorist will not be allowed to migrate. No-one disagrees with that. But are we saying that anything short of being an actual terrorist is okay? Would you want Anjem Choudary migrating to NZ?

This is where again it is useful to differ between Islam and Islamism. Within Islam you have a huge range of views from those who are incredibly devout and support sharia law as the law of the land to those who are liberal and see their religion as merely something for their personal behaviour.

Christianity has a similar variety from extremely liberal Anglicans to ultra Conservative Catholics to some fundamentalist baptists groups such as Westboro.

Within Islam though those who hold extreme views (such as supporting the death penalty for apostasy) are a significant number. They are not a majority but a large minority.

George Borjas at Politico makes the case for vetting:

In particular, is it really that big a departure from what we have done in the past if we also asked green card applicants: Do you believe that religious law should supplant the Constitution of the United States? Or if we asked: Do you believe that the law should treat people differentially based on their gender, their race, or their sexual orientation? And would it really be that unreasonable if we had second thoughts about admitting persons who answered those questions in the affirmative? Are there really that many Americans who would disagree with the notion that a reasonable immigration policy should, in Trumps words, keep out those who do not believe in our Constitution, or who support bigotry and hatred?

I think we should ask questions to exclude people who for example think apostasy should be a crime.

Of course, it is sensible to wonder whether such filters are effective. I doubt that the 9/11 terrorists admitted in their applications for foreign student visas that they planned to use their flight training to fly planes into the World Trade Center. But the fact that such filtering is far from perfect does not imply that we should not have any filters whatsoever. If nothing else, the perjury in the visa application gives the government an easy way for detaining and deporting dangerous immigrants living in our midst, even after they become American citizens. The falsification or concealment of relevant facts during the application process provides grounds for the removal of a green card, for the revoking of naturalization, and for eventual deportation.

It will not be of course 100% effective but perfect is the enemy of good. Asking such questions would give grounds for removal, but also it may discourage people from migrating to a country where they will not integrate.

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Vodafone announced:

Vodafone is pleased to announce new peak speed commitments for 4G rural wireless broadband services delivered under the Rural Broadband Initiative (RBI).

In an agreement signed with MBIE, Vodafone has increased its 4G wireless broadband peak speed commitment from 5Mbps to 30Mbps download. Its 4G peak upload speed commitment has increased from 500Kbps to 5Mbps.
Shenandoah, IA (51601)

Today

Sunshine and some clouds. High 69F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies during the evening will give way to cloudy skies overnight. Low 41F. Winds light and variable.
Olli is a self-driving electric minibus that Local Motors will begin producing using 3-D printing at a new Knoxville plant next year. SUBMITTED

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By Ed Marcum of the Knoxville News Sentinel

Olli, a self-driving vehicle that Local Motors plans as a form of public transportation on demand, will be produced in Knoxville starting next year, the company said Friday.

A grand opening is planned in early 2017 for the micro-factory that the Phoenix, Ariz.-based company is constructing in West Knoxville, and Jay Rogers, Local Motors CEO, told an audience at the Knoxville Chamber's Endeavors 2016 Young Professionals Summit Friday that the facility will manufacture the Olli. Production should start around late 2017, said Local Motors spokeswoman Jacqueline Keidel.

The Knoxville facility is one of three that Local Motors launched this year, and is meant to be the company's main location for developing and constructing 3-D printed vehicles.

"Knoxville will be doing a good deal of 3-D printing as some of our materials experts are there," Keidel said by email. "The printing could either be for full vehicle bodies or for pieces of vehicles."

The Olli, which Local Motors unveiled at its Maryland facility in June, resembles a small van or minibus and can carry up to 12 people. It is electrically powered and designed to be operated as part of a fleet.

"We see cities purchasing Olli to fill gaps in their existing transportation systems," Keidel said. "Universities may purchase them to transport students safely across campus."

Large companies might use them to transport people across a campus or even amusement parks might use them to shuttle people to and from their cars, she said.

For now, Olli is in use on public roads in Washington, D.C., and is slated for use in Miami-Dade County, Fla. and in Las Vegas later this year.

According to Local Motors, Olli is the first vehicle to use the cloud-based computing ability of the IBM Watson Internet of Things to analyze and learn from the volumes of transportation data Olli will pick up from the more than 30 sensors it carries. Some of these include cameras and light detection and ranging laser scanners for measuring distances.

Besides all the technology Olli uses to help it know where it is, where it's going and what is around it, Olli uses four Watson developer application program interfaces  Speech to Text, Natural Language Classifier, Entity Extraction and Text to Speech  to allow it to have seamless interactions with passengers.

Riders will be able to summon Olli through a mobile application. They will be able to use the app to set the locations where they want to be picked up and dropped off and will be able to pay for the ride through the app.

While the vehicle will be self-driving and able to interact with passengers itself, activity inside the vehicle will be monitored by a human at all times.

Local Motors set up shop in the Knoxville area in 2014, opening a showroom on Market Square downtown. It also began development of a 40,000 square-foot micro-factory off Pellissippi Parkway. It will include areas for offices, research and development, manufacturing and retail.




Speaking at the event, Thai Consul General in Ho Chi Minh city Ureerat Ratanaprukse said that Ba Ria-Vung Tau has important effects on the Thailand-Vietnam relations in socio-economic aspects.

At present, Thailand ranks third in terms of the number of investors in the southern province. Also, there are a lot of Vietnamese people who used to live in Thailand in Ba Ria-Vung Tau, contributing to tightening the connectivity between the two countries people, she stated.

She expressed her belief that the diplomatic ties between Thailand and Vietnam and Ba Ria-Vung Tau province will grow further.

At the event, cultural exchange performances, including traditional dances and singing, and a traditional costume show, were organised./.
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By Sean Kinch, Chapter16.org

Yaa Gyasi's debut novel, "Homegoing," tracks the family lines of half-sisters born in Ghana in the late 18th century. Effia becomes the "African wife" of the governor of Cape Coast Castle, the British fortress that serves as a hub of the empire's slave trade. Esi, who "grew up in bliss" as the cosseted daughter of a village leader, is captured by a rival tribe and sold to the British. Thrown into the women's dungeon beneath the Cape Coast Castle, she is stacked like cargo for shipment to the American colonies. In alternating chapters, Gyasi charts the fates of Effia's and Esi's descendants in Ghana and America over the next six generations.

The novel's structure invites a question: which side of the slave trade fared better? Is it preferable to live with the physical torment of slavery in America or with the pangs of conscience in Africa, where the leaders of the Asante and Fante tribes maintain their prestige by selling fellow countrymen to Europeans?

Gyasi's characters are willing to make "unimaginable sacrifices" in exchange for the possibility of freedom, if only for their offspring. One Ghanaian descendant of slave traders fakes his own death to live in principled poverty. In the U.S., two slaves make a bid for emancipation via the underground railway to deliver their son from the hell of the plantation.

When a Baltimore pastor warns a boy against using "African witchcraft," his guardian, an older woman who remembers the ways of their native land, encourages him to fight back: "The white man's god is just like the white man. He thinks he is the only god, just like the white man thinks he is the only man," she says. "We do not fight him. We do not even question him."

Gyasi is clear about the brutality of white Europeans and Americans, but she also highlights the way Africans on both sides of the Atlantic contribute to their own undoing. To overcome tyranny, these characters must do more than fight against the white man; they must learn to collaborate.

"Homegoing," whose title refers to a dead soul's reunion with God, takes on weighty issues but at times exhibits a sense of play. The characters joke and tease one another, and they have sex at every available opportunity.

Gyasi's treatment of history is notable as much for its omissions as for its inclusions. She mentions the American Civil War only in hindsight, choosing to focus instead on the Fugitive Slave Act, one of the vilest provocations of the era. Passed in 1850, that law ostensibly required Northern police to apprehend runaways and return them to their overlords. In reality, the act deputized bounty hunters to kidnap African Americans, regardless of their legal status.

"Homegoing" is simultaneously epic and compact, its 300-year scope neatly contained in brisk episodes that enable readers to make connections among the changing time frames and settings. Gyasi has said that she was inspired to write this novel after traveling to Ghana (her birthplace). "Homegoing" honors her ancestry and deserves to be discussed in classrooms and book clubs alike.

To read an uncut version of this reviewand more book coveragevisit http://chapter16.org/
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Kickoff for Operation Christmas Child

Volunteers from around Knoxville will celebrate the kickoff of Operation Christmas Child's collection season at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 27, at Calvary Chapel of Knoxville, 3330 W. Governor John Sevier Hwy.

Shoebox gifts filled with toys, hygiene items, school supplies and notes of encouragement will be packed throughout the fall and collected Nov. 1421. They will then be sent to children overseas who are suffering from poverty, natural disaster, war, terror, disease and famine.

Vicki Humphreys, of Knoxville, joined 40 other volunteers on a special Samaritan's Purse team traveling to Paraguay and will share her experience at the event.

Information, updates and Operation Christmas Child supplies will also be provided to equip volunteers to pack shoebox gifts and encourage others to do the same.

Info: 865-659-7967 or samaritanspurse.org/occ.

Operation Christmas Child is a project of Samaritan's Purse, an international Christian relief and evangelism organization headed by Franklin Graham.

'Love Does' author to speak Sept. 11

New York Times best-selling author Bob Goff will speak at Cokesbury Church at 6 p.m. on Sept. 11.

Goff's book, "Love Does: Discover a Secretly Incredible Life in an Ordinary World," is a collection of short stories about events that have occurred in his life because of the love of Jesus in someone's heart.

The program begins at 5 p.m. with food trucks and live music on the church's main campus, 9919 Kingston Pike. The event is open to the community. Tickets are $10/person and can be purchased at cokesbury.tv/lovedoes. Seating is limited.

Childcare is available at 5:45 p.m. for 2nd graders and younger by reservation. After the event, Cokesbury Church will have information for those interested in getting involved in a Small Group, Teaching Group, or Service Group at Cokesbury.

Other programs and events coming up:

Beech Grove Baptist Church: Special Singing with guest Children of The Promise, 6 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 28. Everyone is welcome. A love offering will be received. 2733 Tooles Bend Road. For more information, call David or Karen McCormack at 865-531-7797.

Focus Fest: Focus Ministries presents its back-to-school fun, food and fellowship event starting at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 21, at World's Fair Park with a corn hole tournament, Battle of the Bands starting at 3 p.m., a Take Back Our Town community prayer at 5:30 p.m., and a praise and worship service led by the contest winner at 6:30 p.m. Cost is $5 for the FocusFest armband. For more information, contact Kristin Ferrell at 363-4244 or kristin@focusgroupministries.com.

Madison Avenue Baptist Church: A benefit for Janet Bishop Kegel will be 2-7 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 20., in the church gym with live gospel music provided by performers including His Own, The Foothills Quartet and Corky Long (from Messiah's Call). In addition to music and food for purchase, the benefit will have silent auction items, raffles, bake sale and more. Janet suffered serious complications during elective surgery in January 2015. Due to a prolonged recovery, she relies on continuous oxygen and has not been released from her physicians to return to work. Everyone welcome. 1918 Madison Avenue, Maryville. Tickets may be purchased at the door or by calling Sherry (Janet's cousin) at 567-6897 or via email at nuggetlvr@gmail.com. For more information, call Kimb (Janet's sister) at 221-1151 or Sherry.

First Baptist Church of Knoxville: The church will host a concert by Montecarlo, a classical music group from Colombia, at 7 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 11. The concert will feature performances of popular music with a classical style. Admission will be free to the public, and the opportunity to give a love offering will be available. It is the group's first tour of the United States. 510 W. Main Street between the City-County Building and the Bank of America. For more information, visit www.fbcknox.org or call the church office at (865) 546-9661.

St. Mark United Methodist Church: The church's annual Fall Fun Fest will be held from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, Sept. 2 and 3, on the corner of North Main and Church Streets in downtown Clinton with a rummage sale in the fellowship hall, a "Book Nook," and, at 1 p.m., a live auction in the annex building. Free games with prizes for children, old-fashioned cake-walks, home-canned goods and baked items and a "Chuck Wagon" kitchen will be part of the festival. Proceeds are used to aid families with clothes and supplies, shoes and gifts at Christmas, food for the hungry, and a mission providing clothes and school supplies to children in Mexico.

Mount Zion Baptist Church: 2016 Youth Revival Event, 7-8 p.m. on Monday and Tuesday, Aug. 22-23, with conference call-in presenters Minister Faith Bynoe of Brooklyn, N.Y., and Minister Aaron Jenkins of Washington, D.C. Conference # 712-432-0080, code 478288. Reflections on Transformation at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 24, at the church, 2714 Brooks Road, Knoxville.

Christ United Methodist Church in Halls: Seeking vendors for the church's Fall Arts & Crafts Festival, to be held 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 22. Entry fee of $30 includes table and two chairs. For more info and an application, email Sherry at bsstair@comcast.net or call her at 776-1100.

Goode's Temple AME Zion Church: 113th church anniversary and homecoming on Sunday, Aug. 28. Rev James Woody, pastor of Goodes Temple, will bring the morning message at 11 a.m. with musical selections by the Goode's Temple Senior Choir. Rev.Bernice Osborne, pastor of Young's Memoral AME Zion Church of New Market, will deliver the afternoon message at 3 p.m. with the Young's Memoral Mass Choir. Fellowship dinner follows the morning service. 476 Old Dandridge Pike, Strawberry Plains. For more information, call 933-8099.
Rick Staples was chosen as the 15th House District's Democratic nominee in a special meeting Thursday because he jumped right in to seek the post after state Rep. Joe Armstrong was found guilty of a federal tax felony and disqualified from seeking re-election.

By the time two other candidates decided to run, it was too late, Democrats said Friday. City Councilman Dan Brown, a former interim Knoxville mayor, and LeTonia Armstrong, Joe Armstrong's wife, who presented herself as a community leader and pharmaceutical company lobbyist, also were candidates.

When LeTonia Armstrong went to the meeting at Knox County Democratic Party headquarters Thursday accompanied by her husband, she was advised by Sylvia Woods, a supporter, that if she didn't have the votes, "don't hold your voters out (on a limb)." So then she didn't seek to be nominated, Woods said.

Brown said Friday he realized he probably didn't have the votes but thought he would go ahead as a candidate.

"It was set from the beginning," he said.

Brown said he knew that by talking to the 15 members of the Knox County Democratic Party's governing board from the district making the decision. Woods said Brown waited several days after Armstrong's conviction before contacting governing board members and by then, Staples pretty much had commitments.

Staples has sought several offices the past few years and ran in the Democratic primary in March for the 1st District Knox County Commission seat. Evelyn Gill won the nomination and the recent general election.

Armstrong was convicted in federal court Aug. 8 for filing a false tax return. He was nominated to seek re-election as a Democrat on Aug. 4, and since the conviction meant he couldn't seek re-election, Democrats had to act quickly for the Nov. 8 ballot.

One "story" making the rounds the past week was that Jackie Clay, the Democratic Party's vice chair, would nominate Brown and if he won, he would help her get elected to take his place on the City Council.

"That was told by more than one person," Woods said.

Brown denied the rumor Friday.

"There was no deal cut between Jackie Clay and me. I wanted the voters (in the party) to have an alternative," he said.

Otherwise, he said he preferred not to discuss the election further because he wants the Democratic Party to be unified behind Staples. Clay, formerly administrator of the city's Save Our Sons initiative, didn't return a phone call for comment.

Staples faces Independent Pete Drew in November.
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By News Sentinel Staff

KNOXVILLE  A man faces multiple charges that include vehicle burglary after a foot chase led to his arrest, according to Knoxville police.

Richard Reagan, 50, of Knoxville, faces three counts of vehicle burglary as well as charges of evading arrest and theft.

Shortly after 6 a.m. Friday, officers responded to a call reporting a suspicious person on Larigo Drive. Knoxville Police Department Officer James Kennedy saw several cars with their interior lights on and doors and rear hatches open, according to police.

KPD Officer Stephanie Wilson was flagged down on Laurinda Road, where three vehicles in a driveway were burglarized and items were scattered in the driveway and the yard.

Wilson followed the trail of items and saw Reagan run into some woods, police said.

With the help of Officer Brian Mullane and his police dog, Milan, Reagan was apprehended, according to police.

Officers recovered several stolen credit cards, two backpack leaf blowers, a pair of bolt cutters and a briefcase. Police said investigators believe more victims have yet to contact police.

Reagan is being held on $32,000 bond with additional charges pending, police said.

More details as they develop online and in Saturday's News Sentinel.
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By News Sentinel Staff

KNOXVILLE  Police are looking for a man wanted in four armed robberies in the past week.

In all four cases, the man displayed a gun and demanded money from store employees before running away, police said. No one was injured in the robberies.

On Saturday, a man entered the R&S Market on Whittle Springs Road and selected a few items before going to the counter. He then pointed a semi-automatic handgun at the store employee and demanded money from the register, according to police. The employee handed over money, and the man ran, police said.

The next day, the same thing happened at Fuel City on Beaumont Avenue, according to police.

On Monday, police said the man entered the Tobacco King on Centerline Drive and asked for a pack of cigarettes before pulling a handgun and demanding money.

Two days later, police said the man walked into Next to New on Kingston Pike and showed employees he had a gun tucked into his waistband before demanding money. The employees handed over money, and he ran.

Police describe the robber as a thin man in his mid- to late 20s, about 5 feet, 10 inches tall and about 150 lbs. He has brown hair and, according to police, has committed robberies with facial hair and without.

Police asked that anyone with information in the robberies call the Knoxville Police Department's crime information line at 865-215-7212. Callers can remain anonymous.

More details as they develop online and in Saturday's News Sentinel.
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Another year, another looming government shutdown fight.

That's the predicament Tennessee's congressional delegation has put us in. They're currently enjoying a month-long vacation after leaving D.C. without fulfilling their basic constitutional duty: funding the government for 2017. When they return after Labor Day, they'll have to scramble to avoid a government shutdown on Oct. 1.

This government-by-crisis is now a tradition. In fact, it's been over 20 years since Congress passed a budget on time. The result is almost always the same  and it doesn't benefit Tennesseans.

With only days before a shutdown, some lawmakers will advocate for a short-term funding bill that lasts through December. This will kick the debate over next year's budget into a "lame-duck" session . Worse yet, they'll use this opportunity to enact a massive "omnibus" bill that's crafted behind closed doors and filled with handouts to special interests and higher spending. Then lame-duck lawmakers will pass it without even reading it.

Tennesseans are understandably sick of this charade. That's why they should pass a long-term funding bill. We're calling this plan "Stop, Cut & Fix." Here's why it's the best path forward for Tennessee's lawmakers in D.C.

Start with "Stop." A long-term funding bill  say, two years  would end the cycle of manufactured crises. For the first time in years, there would be no last-minute scramble to avoid a shutdown. Nor would a lame-duck Congress and President Barack Obama be able to craft a deal in secret.

Next up is "Cut." The biggest problem with the current system is that some lawmakers, on both sides of the aisle, leverage the threat of a shutdown to hike government spending in a lame-duck session. It's little different than a hostage situation, and it's happened three times in the past four years.

But a two-year funding bill would protect the bipartisan spending cuts that were established in the 2011 Budget Control Act. Then, Republicans and Democrats in Congress joined with Obama to establish modest annual spending caps on the one-quarter of the budget that isn't entitlements and interest payments.

These caps are still on the books. A two-year bill would lock them in through 2018, saving taxpayers $150 billion.

Finally, there's "Fix." It's obvious that the budgeting process is broken. A two-year funding bill would give Congress time to fix it. Lawmakers could go through a normal appropriations process, publicly debating spending priorities for each part of the federal government. They would even have time to discuss reforms to entitlements  the main drivers of America's $19.4 trillion and growing national debt.

Crucially, there's nothing in this plan preventing lawmakers from adjusting spending within the caps. They would simply have to weigh each proposal's pros and cons and make trade-offs  what they're supposed to be doing right now.

Now it's up to Congress to act. When Tennessee's lawmakers head back to Washington, D.C., next month, they have two choices. They can either stick with the failed status quo or they can get behind a plan that prevents a shutdown fight, restores the normal budgeting process and puts Tennessee taxpayers first.

It shouldn't be a hard decision.

Andy Koenig is a senior policy advisor at Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce.
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Donald Trump on Monday gave a foreign policy speech in which he promised to curtail immigration from terrorism-breeding countries and to subject potential immigrants to "extreme vetting," including an "ideological test" aimed at weeding out un-American attitudes.

"In addition to screening out all members or sympathizers of terrorist groups, we must also screen out any who have hostile attitudes toward our country or its principles, or who believe that Sharia law should supplant American law," the GOP presidential nominee said.

What to make of Trump's proposal? Will it make America safer, or will it simply ban individuals with unpopular views? Joel Mathis and Ben Boychuk, the RedBlueAmerica columnists, debate the issue.

JOEL MATHIS

Religious liberty for me but not for thee.

That's the essence of Trump's proposed ideological test for immigrants arriving in the United States.

Everybody  yes, even us spineless liberal Democrats  wants to filter out terrorists and their sympathizers. There's so little debate on that point that you can easily argue the Obama administration is already subjecting many immigrants to the kind of "extreme vetting" Trump says would be a hallmark of his tenure.

After that, though, it gets tricky: We're going to exclude Muslims who believe their religious beliefs sometimes outweigh American law? Here's the problem with that: American Christians already routinely make the claim that their religious beliefs trump the requirements of federal law. And they call these exemptions "religious liberty."

The hypocrisy is abundant. A few years back, Muslim taxi drivers in Minnesota  citing their religious faith  refused to carry passengers who were carrying alcohol or accompanied by dogs. Conservatives raised the alarm that "creeping Sharia" would deny non-Muslim Americans their right to use taxis unimpeded.

Those same conservatives, however, regularly defend Catholic pharmacists who seek exemptions from dispensing birth control pills and big corporations whose leaders say their religious beliefs prevent them from providing the full range of health insurance otherwise required by law.

For American conservatives, Christians are allowed to claim fealty to a higher power than U.S. law and Muslims aren't. Trump's ideological test would enshrine this double-standard in American law.

One group that recognizes the problem: Mormons. Their own history as "exemptions" from the rule of religious liberty in America makes them sensitive to such issues  so much so that Trump stands a very good chance of losing Utah, an otherwise rock-solid Republican state, in the November election. His new "ideological test," it's clear, is nothing more than old-fashioned religious discrimination.

BEN BOYCHUK

Who said anything about a religious test?

Yes, yes, liberals are suspicious that Trump's talk of an ideological screen for immigrants is really nothing more than fig leaf for his original idea he blurted months ago to ban Muslims from entering the United States altogether. Some critics, including more than a few Republicans, said a religious test for newcomers would be un-American, to say nothing of unconstitutional.

On that last point, they are dangerously mistaken. True, the Constitution forbids religious tests for holding public office; but the immigration and naturalization statutes allow the president to consider religion among other factors when carrying out the law.

The question here really has little to do with religious liberty. Instead, the issue revolves around a basic principle of sovereignty: We get to say who enters. We get to say who stays.

If you take the American founding principles seriously  and, let's face it, most people's understanding of those principles is in pretty sorry shape nowadays  then an ideological test for newcomers isn't a repugnant idea at all.

The first generation of U.S. leaders spilled plenty of ink trying to figure out what an immigration policy should look like. They worried that foreigners who did not share a disposition toward liberty and equality under the law could overwhelm the country. Cultural assimilation was essential.

George Washington made the point beautifully in his 1790 letter to the Hebrew congregation at Newport, Rhode Island, home to one of the first thriving Jewish communities in the new republic.

Washington wanted to assure the Jews that they were as free and equal as any other citizens would be, even though they were a minority.

"For happily," Washington wrote, "the Government of the United States gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support."

Notice the caveat: As long as you behave like good citizens and support the country, you are welcome to live as you please. It's a small condition  one that should go without saying  but a condition nevertheless.

Trump's idea of extreme vetting may or may not work in the long run. But it shouldn't be dismissed out of hand.

Joel Mathis is an award-winning writer in Kansas. Ben Boychuk is managing editor of American Greatness. They may be reached at joelmmathis@gmail.com or bboychuk3@att.net.
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A group of 50 conservative foreign policy elites and veteran national security officials of prior Republican administrations recently wrote an open letter denouncing Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

They cited especially his lack of character and moral authority  and his "little understanding of America's national interests." Particularly bothersome, they wrote, is Trump's inability "to separate truth from falsehood."

The letter stated that Trump's one-year campaign of blustery rhetoric suggests he could be as reckless in deed in the White House as he has been in word on the campaign trail.

Is there a like group of past Democratic wise men and women who can commensurately "police their own" and so warn us about Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton? Unlike Trump, Clinton already has an actual political record as a former U.S. senator and secretary of state. If there were such a group, the heart of their letter might read something like the following:

"We the undersigned who have served in prior Democratic administrations will not vote for Hillary Clinton.

"She has endangered U.S. national security by using an unsecured and unlawful personal email server. She has transmitted classified information over it, some of which was most likely accessed by foreign interests. Hillary Clinton deliberately undermined government intelligence-handling protocols and ignored Freedom of Information Act requests.

"FBI Director James Comey, after a lengthy investigation, has stated before Congress that Ms. Clinton was untruthful in her various public explanations about her reckless behavior. We are discovering from her unsecured and once-deleted correspondence more evidence of negligence and unethical behavior  from crossover business between State Department operatives and the Clinton Foundation to quid-pro-quo favors and discussions about a U.S. informant who was later executed by the Iranian government.

"Unfortunately, Ms. Clinton cannot distinguish truth from falsehood in areas that transcend the email scandal. She went on record falsely attesting that the Benghazi tragedy was a result of popular anger against a filmmaker. In previous communications, she had asserted just the opposite  that it was a terrorist operation.

"Clinton's role in the decision to bomb Libya ensured a subsequent failed state and terrorist haven there. Her laxity left the consulate in Benghazi without protection from terrorist violence that led to American deaths.

"Backing the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt nearly destroyed a traditional ally. The Iranian government has stepped up its support of terrorism and its promises to destroy Israel  after the Iran accord Clinton claims to have helped initiate.

"On her watch, all U.S. troops were precipitously withdrawn from Iraq, destroying what had been a promising calm, and ensuring the rise of ISIS and the implosion of nearby Syria.

"Her 'reset' policy emboldened Vladimir Putin's Russia, helped to restart a Cold War, and led to the end of an independent Crimea and unified Ukraine. China's unchecked expansionism has spread to new artificial island bases in the South China Sea.

"Hillary Clinton for political advantage has flipped positions on the Keystone XL pipeline, major international trade agreements, illegal immigration and a border fence.

"Just as our Republican foreign policy counterparts are rightly worried about what Donald Trump has said, we Democratic foreign policy veterans are equally terrified of what Hillary Clinton has said and done. In our view, further continuance of a long record of proven failure is even more worrisome than reckless rhetoric about future policy."

No such letter will ever be published. Why? Hillary Clinton is a fixture of the foreign policy establishment and thus is considered exempt from being judged empirically on her serial deceit and her disastrous foreign policy record. In the world of elite Washington, crude bluster from an uncouth outsider like Trump is deemed more hazardous than the prevarication, dishonesty and incompetence of a familiar insider.

Victor Davis Hanson is a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and the author, most recently, of "The Father of Us All: War and History, Ancient and Modern" He may be reached at author@victorhanson.com.
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A look at recent events in the news that pleased us ...

Body cams: The vast majority of Tennesseans support public access to police body camera footage that shows serious injury or death, according to a recently released poll reported by the Tennessean.

Conducted by icitizen and the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government, the survey found that nine out of 10 people in the state support the release of body camera footage of incidents that result in an injury or fatality.

Despite such support for access to body cam footage, Tennesseans range in their views on whether or not the right to view such evidence should be limited. Only 12 percent of people believe police should be able to withhold the video for any reason.

Healthy banks: The banks in Tennessee and the Southeast have mostly recovered from the Great Recession and their overall "health is quite good," Dennis P. Lockhart, president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, said during a visit to Knoxville on Tuesday.

"Tennessee banks have been quite stable and balanced," Lockhart told newsroom officials at the News Sentinel.

But Fed officials and economists are worried about the "very slow pace" of fixed investment by businesses, Lockhart said. "That investment is really quite weak."

Hope Gala: The Tennessee Valley Coalition for the Homeless is holding its third Hope Gala from 6-9 p.m. Saturday at the Jackson Terminal event center in Knoxville's Old City.

At the $50-per-person event, themed "Unmasking Homelessness," the coalition is hoping to raise $40,000 to help match some federal grant funding that provides services to chronically homeless veterans. The coalition also will announce its newest project: a multimillion-dollar supportive housing development in Campbell County for the homeless.

Bad shot: A Rockwood police officer accidentally fired a live round inside a Roane County school during an active-shooter drill. No students were present and no one was hurt during the Thursday incident at Rockwood Middle School, Police Chief Danny Wright said.

The officer, Jared Hall, mistakenly thought his weapon was loaded with blanks. The first shot he fired, however, was an unexpected live round that lodged in a wall. Hall has been placed on paid administrative leave.

The drill, held during a school administrative day, was intended to help teachers and other staff recognize the sound of gunfire.
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The definition of an idiot is a foolish or stupid person, generally being unable to learn connected speech or guard against common dangers.

The people behind Hillary Clinton don't believe she should be prosecuted and jailed for her actions. Apparently they hold certain people above the law, compromising the ideal of the first female president over the good of the country. The people behind Donald Trump have little insight about what he is actually saying and live in a fantasy world, yet these two are supposedly the best to represent our country in the November election to lead our nation. Lead our nation to what? Other people in the world are most likely laughing at us as the two front-runners are possibly the worst representatives for our nation. The same thought process could be said of some state elections, too.

If you follow your emotions in deciding for whom to vote, then this is what you get. However, if you don't vote, you can't complain. Yes, we are going to vote for the lesser of two evils  again. The past several years have set us up for failure. Does $20 trillion in debt seem like a good idea? Both parties are to blame, though one more so than the other.

If you look at Trump and Clinton and their records and actions, you ask yourself why and how they got this far. The next question is: Who are the real idiots in all of this mess?

Tim Masten, Knoxville


By Oh Young-jin

Be warned, prime ministers and presidents who are heading for Korea after Sept. 28!

You may have to bring your own utensils or get your checkbooks ready for the food you eat during a state dinner at Cheong Wa Dae. Please check the prices of the gifts you exchange with the Korean President. If they are in violation of the new anti-corruption law, it could spell big trouble.

The September date is when the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act takes effect.

Also called the Kim Young-ran law, named for the former head of the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, the state agency stipulates that public servants, teachers and journalists may not receive and give meals worth more than 20,000 won, gifts worth over 30,000 won and cash payments at weddings and funerals over 100,000 won. For 1 million won at one time or an aggregate of 3 million won over a year, the receiver will face three years behind bars or a maximum fine of 30 million won.

To save foreign heads of state or governments vexing sleepless nights, the commission is now studying how to formulate detailed case-by-case applications, with the goal of unveiling them by the end of this month or early next.

Its spokesman made clear that the law would apply to Cheong Wa Dae and to foreigners in the country. "We are going over these instances," the spokesman told The Korea Times.

VIPs, or those preparing to visit Korea, are fully aware of the new law because the violations may carry fines two to three times the amount at stake.

The fines, carrying the stigma of corruption, should be the last thing that presidents and prime ministers want.

First, here is what we know about a Cheong Wa Dae dinner for visiting foreign dignitaries.

Often, the hosting Korean President gives the visiting VIP and his or her retinue a lunch or dinner. Let's estimate how much the presidential lunch or dinner amounts to for the president's guests, just in case they have to pay for what they have.

The dinners are full-course affairs, starting with appetizers through to the main course and dessert, be it Korean, Chinese or Western. The dinners consist of delicacies. The level of the presidential fare is illustrated by the lunch President Park Geun-hye hosted for Lee Jung-hyun, her former spokesman, celebrating his election as chairman of the ruling Saenuri Party. It featured a menu of truffles, caviar, rare fish, top-rated hanwoo beef and lobster. The presidential office was careful to explain that just enough of the truffles were served to give the meal flavor. This was extreme, considering Lee's predecessor was treated to a "mundane" Chinese luncheon. In other words, what the guests are served at Cheong Wa Dae differs.

Adding to the tab are top-rated golden utensils -- fine porcelain plates, bowls, chopsticks and the whole nine yards -- besides the service of an army of attendants and special performances.

On top of that, the venue should be factored in because the banquet is often hosted at a reception hall or backyard lawn for a large delegation, or a separate "hanok" for a more intimate get-together.

Also, multiply these by the number in the delegation and the tab could be very high.

Now, charging visiting VIPs for a dinner or luncheon sounds preposterous but it is the job of the anti-corruption commission to provide the legal grounds for these special occasions to be excused from the spearhead of the anti-corruption law.

First of all, the President is a public servant and can be subject to the same law as bureaucrats and lawmakers and may be treated in the same way. The commission, though, may endow Cheong Wa Dae with a special status that puts it out of the remit of the law.

An interesting part is that the 3.5/10 law is designed to prevent a bureaucrat or reporter from being influenced by businesspeople or others. Then, would the President's "hobnobbing" with foreign dignitaries fall under such an influence-buying category?

Whatever excuse the commission may come up with for the exemption, the chance is that it might weaken the spirit of the law, some would say. But then, others would back the exemption because it is an official affair that promotes international friendship and national interest. Even if the visiting VIPs are charged for the food they are served at Cheong Wa Dae, they shouldn't get mad. They are doing their part in making this society free from corruption.

Footnote: As I briefly mentioned in this satirist column, the chance that visiting presidential guests have to pay for their food at Cheong Wa Dae is unlikely. This is a precautionary tale aimed at showing the scale of domestic chaos that the implementation of the anti-corruption law may create. Personally, I think that the Kim Young-ran law is needed and hope it changes our way of life for the better.

Oh Young-jin is The Korea Times' chief editorial writer. Contact him at foolsdie5@ktimes.com and foolsdie@gmail.com.
The presidential office Cheong Wa Dae on Friday said a special inspector's alleged leak of information over his probe into a presidential aide would constitute a "grave violation of the law," if it turns out to be true.

The remarks came a day after Lee Seok-su, a special inspector looking into the allegations of corruption involving Woo Byung-woo, senior presidential secretary for civil affairs, submitted a petition with the state prosecutors' office to seek a formal investigation.

Lee himself has been mired in a controversy after local broadcaster MBC reported Tuesday that he illegally leaked information about his investigation into Woo to an unspecified reporter via social media.

By law, a special inspector can face a prison sentence of up to five years for leaking information related to ongoing work.

"(The alleged leak of information, if it is true) is a grave breach of the law, and a matter that can't be condoned," senior presidential secretary for public affairs Kim Sung-woo told reporters.

According to the MBC report, the special inspector told a reporter that should Woo refuse to budge from his denial of all allegations against him, Lee would refer Woo's case to the prosecution.

Lee's special inspection began on July 21 amid mounting calls for Woo to step down.

Opposition lawmakers have even called for a special probe by an independent prosecutor into Woo's case.

Woo is alleged to have received favors from a disgraced former prosecutor in a 2011 real estate transaction involving the family of Woo's wife.

He is also purported to have peddled influence to help his son get an easy job during his ongoing military service.

Another allegation against him is that he had misappropriated funds from a company run by his family. (Yonhap)
U.S. President Barack Obama will visit China early next month for a summit of the Group of 20 countries and bilateral talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the White House said Thursday.



The trip, set to begin on Sept. 2, comes as the U.S. and China are at odds over maritime disputes in the South China Sea and the U.S. plan to deploy the THAAD missile defense system in South Korea.



Obama will "conduct in-depth meetings with President Xi Jinping of China in Hangzhou, where the two leaders will discuss a wide-range of global, regional, and bilateral issues," White House press secretary Josh Earnest said in a statement without elaborating.



During the G-20 summit, Obama "will emphasize the need to continue building on the progress made since 2009 in advancing strong, sustainable, and balanced global economic growth" while underscoring the "importance of G-20 cooperation in promoting a level playing field and broad-based economic opportunity," Earnest said.



The G-20 summit is set for Sept. 4-5 in the southeastern Chinese city of Hangzhou. Obama's trip will highlight his "ongoing commitment to the G-20 as the premier forum for international economic cooperation as well as the U.S. rebalance to Asia and the Pacific," Earnest said.



After China, Obama will visit Laos for annual regional summits led by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) -- the U.S.-ASEAN Summit and the East Asia Summit -- as well as bilateral meetings with Lao President Bounnhang Vorachith, the White House said.



China has strongly protested the decision by Washington and Seoul to deploy a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) unit in South Korea, saying the system, especially the powerful "X-band" radar, could be used against it, despite repeated U.S. assurances the system is purely defensive and designed only to cope with North Korean threats.



The issue has raised concern that China might be refusing to render full-scale cooperation for international efforts to increase pressure on Pyongyang, including implementing the latest U.N. Security Council sanctions resolution, in protest of the THAAD deployment decision.



After the North's latest missile launches early this month, the U.S. sought to have the Security Council adopt a press statement condemning the firings, but those efforts fell through due reportedly to Chinese insistence the statement also include opposition to THAAD's deployment.



The U.S. and China have also been at odds over China's territorial claims in the South China Sea.



Last month, an international tribunal rejected China's claims in a victory for the Philippines and other Southeast Asian nations locked in maritime disputes with Beijing. But China has rejected the ruling. (Yonhap)




The secretary of the U.S. Navy will meet with South Korea's defense minister on Friday to discuss measures to better counter threats from North Korea, the military said.

U.S. Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus is set to meet Han Min-koo in Seoul, the Ministry of National Defense said in a statement.

"The U.S. naval official and South Korea's top defense policymaker will discuss measures to strengthen the bilateral alliance against growing (nuclear and missile) threats from the North and to cooperate on North Korean policies," the statement said.

It is Mabus' sixth visit to South Korea since he took office in May 2009, and he is meeting Han for the second time following their first meeting in 2014, it said.

The naval official also plans to meet South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) Chairman Gen. Lee Sun-jin and Navy Chief of Staff Adm. Jung Ho-sup. He leaves Seoul for Sri Lanka on Saturday, the ministry said. (Yonhap)
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and U.S. Vice President Joe Biden had a phone call and discussed security at the administrative border with Crimea and in Donbas.

"The leaders pointed out the importance of political and diplomatic efforts to de-occupy Crimea," the press service of the Ukrainian head of state reported on the official website late on Friday.

Biden also said that the United States continues to reject the occupation and annexation of Crimea.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and U.S. Vice President Joe Biden had a phone call and the leaders discussed security at the administrative border with Crimea and in Donbas where militants continue shelling, including with banned heavy weapons, and large-scale military drills near the Russian-Ukrainian border.

"Poroshenko and Biden pointed out the importance of continuing efforts, including as part of the Normandy format, aimed at implementing the Minsk agreements by Russia, in particular, in the security sphere," the press service of the Ukrainian president reported on the official website late on Friday.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and U.S. Vice President Joe Biden have discussed by phone the importance of providing a new tranche by the International Monetary Fund to Ukraine (IMF) in the near term and U.S. credit guarantees.

"The side also discussed the important of providing a tranche by the IMF and credit guarantees by the United States in the near term," the press service of the Ukrainian President reported on the official website late on Friday.

As reported, Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman earlier said that the Ukrainian government is working on improving bilateral trade relations between Ukraine and the EU, creating the necessary prerequisites for obtaining the second tranche of EU macro-financial assistance in the amount of EUR 600 million.

After the singing of the $1 billion loan guarantee agreement with the United States, Poroshenko expressed hope that the signing of the memorandum of cooperation with the IMF will follow.

On August 13, Biden pointed out recent progress towards fulfilling IMF conditions for disbursing the next tranche of financial assistance, and the importance of recent Ukrainian efforts to continue critical anti-corruption reforms.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree appointing former Education and Science Minister Dmitry Livanov special presidential representative for the development of trade and economic relations with Ukraine, the Kremlin website reported on Saturday.

The decree takes effect on the day of its signature.
The SLFP does not condone the continuation of the Emergency Regulations (The Public Security Ordinance) more than a day necessary

Read more
PGO: Yanukovych doesn't reply to proposal to appear at any Ukrainian embassy to be questioned via videoconference

The Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) says it is still unaware of disgraced former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych's whereabouts, which makes investigative and other legal procedures with him impossible.

The PGO said it received a motion on August 16, 2016 from lawyer Vitaliy Serdiuk representing Yanukovych's interests regarding the questioning of certain witnesses in the criminal case, including simultaneously with questioning Yanukovych himself, via a videoconference.

Yanukovych is currently hiding from Ukrainian investigative and judicial bodies, and therefore "he has been declared wanted, which, in turn, makes it impossible for the pretrial investigative body to hold investigative and other legal procedures with him," the PGO said.

"The information on the whereabouts (stay) of this suspect in the Russian Federation's territory is being verified. At the same time, no official confirmation has still been received from the Russian Federation's competent agencies that suspect Yanukovych is staying in this territory, which makes any investigative and other procedures with him impossible," it said.

Yanukovych has still not answered to the Ukrainian PGO's proposal that he appear at any Ukrainian embassy wherever he is staying to be questioned via a videoconference, it said.

"If suspect Yanukovych's whereabouts is determined or if he appears at a pretrial investigative institution, he will be questioned in line with the existing criminal procedural law," it said.

Serdiuk said on July 21 that Kyiv was aware of Yanukovych's current whereabouts. He said that, after the Ukrainian Justice Ministry sends relevant documents to the Russian Justice Ministry, Russia is supposed to appoint a court in Russian territory to arrange a videoconference and coordinate a date for the questioning with a Ukrainian court. "Most likely, this will be a court at the place where he is living now, namely in Rostov-on-Don," Serdiuk said.

Yanukovych's defense team had informed the Ukrainian PGO about its client's exact address in Rostov-on-Don eight months ago, Serdiuk said. "We have demanded all this time that investigators arrive at this address to hold investigative procedures, but the [Ukrainian] PGO has denied the questioning on farfetched formal pretexts," he said.

Serdiuk sent a motion to the Ukrainian PGO on August 17 on initiating certain legal procedures, including the questioning of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and other high-ranking officials in Yanukovych's presence via a videoconference.

Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko said on August 18 that he supported a face-to-face interrogation with Yanukovych but insisted that this must be arranged in Ukrainian territory.

A prosecutorial source told Interfax on August 19 that the Prosecutor General's Office denied Yanukovych a face-to-face interrogation with incumbent officials.
PRESS RELEASE

As IMF Said, Deutsche Bank Exports the Most Risk to Bank System

Aug. 19, 2016 (EIRNS)Financial press headlines today report the op-ed in the Financial Times by Deutsche Bank whistleblower Erik ben-Artzi, stating why he is refusing an $8.25 million award for reporting the banks manipulating the value of its derivatives book in late 2008. The award is ben-Artzis share of a $55 million slap on the wrist paid by Deutsche Bank to the SEC, for criminally fraudulent statements to regulators about the risk of $130 billion in derivatives exposure. Ben-Artzi refuses the award precisely because there was no criminal prosecution and the SEC and Deutsche Bank were literally exchanging personnel through a revolving, in fact wide open door. Suffice to say that Deutsche Banks general counsel in 2009-10 became the SECs Director of Enforcement in 2012, and stood to suffer significant financial losses if the bank were prosecuted.

It is also important to the present case of Deutsche Bank, that it fraudulently disguised a loss in just this $130 billion part of its derivatives assets, of $10-12 billion, enough to have plunged its capital to a level requiring nationalization. This is reported by ZeroHedge.com today. If it misreported its derivatives assets then to cover losses and potential insolvency, and suffered essentially no regulatory consequences, it is likely doing the same again now.

In 2014, Deutsche Bank sold a significant chunk of its derivatives exposurewith its energy and metals trading divisionto a greater fool. The greater fool was Citibank, which is now essentially equal with Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan Chase as the banks with the biggest derivatives exposures in the world.

Moreover, the Financial Times reported Aug. 18 that the U.S. CFTC has charged Deutsche Bank with repeatedly failing to report its swaps derivativesprimarily interest-rate swapsfor various "reasons." CFTC fined Deutsche in September 2015; has charged it again; and says it is still failing to report, "compromising the CFTCs ability to gauge systemic risk throughout swaps markets."
PRESS RELEASE

Doctors Without Borders Removes Its Medics from Six Hospitals in Yemen Citing Danger from the Saudi/U.S. Coalition

Aug. 19, 2016 (EIRNS)Doctors without Borders (Medecins sans Frontieres) announced yesterday, that they are withdrawing all their staff from six hospitals in northern Yemen, following the July 15 attack on the hospital in Abs, by the Saudi-led Coalition, which, they stated,

"is the fourth and deadliest on any MSF-supported facility during this war, and there have been countless attacks on other health facilities and services all over Yemen."

Joan Tubau, the General Director of MSF said,

"MSF asks the Saudi-led coalition and the governments supporting the coalition, particularly the US, UK and France, to ensure an immediate application of measures geared to substantially increasing the protection of civilians."

But until then, the current protocols are inadequate, and the danger severe.

The six hospitals are in northern Yemen, in the Saada and Hajjah governates. The facilities will continue to operate, with volunteers and staff from the Ministry of Health, but their services were already stretched terribly. The evacuation of MSF personnel includes obstetricians, pediatricians, surgeons and emergency room specialists.

In the July 15 Saudi bombing of the Abs hospital in Hajjah governate, 19 people were killed, and 24 injured. The MSF states they have lost confidence that the Saudi-led Coalition will act to prevent such fatal attacks. The Aug. 18 MSF press release ends, "That medical staff and sick and injured people are killed inside a hospital speaks of the cruelty and inhumanity of this war."

On Aug. 17, a New York Times editorial titled, "America Is Complicit in the Carnage in Yemen," states that, "Saudi Arabia, which began the air war in March 2015, bears the heaviest responsibility for inflaming the conflict..." and that, "Mr. Obama agreed to support the Yemen interventionwithout formal authorization from Congressand sell the Saudies even more weapons." The Editorial Board concludes, "Given the civilian casualties, further American support for this war is indefensible."
PRESS RELEASE

Russian Parliamentarian Calls for New Non-NATO Anti-Terror Coalition To Wipe Out ISIS

Aug. 19, 2016 (EIRNS)Pointing today to Chinas recent announcement that it will expand its military cooperation with the Syrian government, Adm. Vladimir Komoedov, the chairman of the Russian Dumas Defense Committee, said that the time has come to form an anti-terrorism coalition that is not aligned with "the aggressive NATO," TASS reported.

Earlier this week, Rear Adm. Guan Youfei of Chinas Office of International Military Cooperation met with Syrias Defense Minister Lt. Gen. Fahd Jassem al-Frejj in Damascus, and agreed to strengthen their cooperation. China is ready to increase personnel training and humanitarian aid to Syria, UPI.com reported.

Speaking with reporters this morning, Adm. Komoedov asserted that,

"the Chinese military in Syria is the first step toward putting together a serious military-coalition dominated by countries that are not aligned with the aggressive NATO bloc."

Were Russia, China, India and Iran to join efforts in the Middle East, he explained, the problem of liquidating the Islamic State and affiliated terrorist organizations, "could be resolved within a year." Nor is it just an issue of these countries powerful military potential, he added, but also "their serious political influence." They all share common interests in the region, as "peace and stability in the Middle East is needed" for economic and political stability throughout Europe and Asia.

Thus, Adm. Komoedov remarked,

"that is why other countries could join the coalition that we are discussing. I am glad that at last, there is an understanding on the issue at the highest international level."

There is much head-scratching and fear-mongering in Western media about the meaning of Chinas heightened interest in Syria, not the least of which is the fact, as The Fiscal Times worries Aug. 18, that Chinas involvement "necessarily requires greater cooperation between Beijing and Moscow." Combined with Russias use of an Iranian air base to launch missiles against ISIS, this poses "a major conundrum for Obama."

Alexander Lomanov, a professor at the Russian Academy of Sciences Institute of Far Eastern Studies, put it this way in remarks referenced by Russia Beyond the Headlines today: "Its about what Xi Jinping termed as the new diplomacy of a super power with a Chinese accent."
Two vintage race cars set sales records Friday night as the Monterey Car Week automobile auctions got up to full speed.

A 1955 Jaguar D-Type car, a winner at the 1956 24 Hours of Le Mans international competition, was sold at an RM Sothebys event for $19.8 million ($21.7 million, with auction fees included) to become the most expensive British automobile ever sold at public auction, according to classic car insurance agency Hagerty.

Minutes later, American race legend Carroll Shelbys Cobra prototype, known as the CSX 2000, rolled onto the RM Sothebys stage  driven by Shelbys grandson, Aaron Shelby. When the bidding ended, the deep blue race car had sold for $12.5 million ($13.75 million with fees). That rate made the Shelby car the highest-priced American vehicle sold at public auction, Hagerty said.

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Despite those high-profile sales, the auction action around Monterey was off the pace of the last two car week levels.

Hagerty research said that sales totals for 2016 are down 41% from last year  in part because RM Sothebys threw in an extra day of auctions in 2015. Median vehicle prices were down 10% overall, Hagerty said, and the sell-through rate was down five points to just 51%.

Indeed, even the Jaguar sale was disappointing to some auction attendees. The value of the sale had been estimated by the auction house at $20 million to $25 million, and some viewers thought it could go higher. So the $19.8 million figure, while a record-setter, still was lower than anticipated.

The Shelby Cobra, too, was expected by many experts to go higher. RM Sothebys had not published an estimated value, but several auction experts had predicted privately that the car, because of its unique history and its sentimental value, could sell for well over $20 million.

Peninsula-wide, the Friday auction totals came to $119 million, off last years $190 million pace.

RM Sothebys led the pack by auction house, with $62 million in Friday sales. Bonhams, whose top car was a 1931 Bugatti Type 51 Grand Prix Roadster that sold for $4 million, was second with $34 million in sales.

Mecum, which sold a 1973 Ferrari Dino 246 GTS Spider for $357,500, was third with $8.5 million on overall sales. Russo and Steele sold $1.5 million in vehicles.

The auctions continue through the weekend, as the multiple-day Monterey Car Week builds to its traditional Sunday climax at the Pebble Beach Concours dExcellence. By then, Gooding and Co. will have convened its auctions and added its numbers to the overall sales.

Last years total auction figure was $396 million. Estimates have put this years totals at about $370 million.

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Earlier this year, ride-hailing giant Uber started allowing its drivers to get paid daily, or even several times a day, rather than weekly  but only if they had accounts with GoBank, a unit of Pasadena prepaid debit card issuer Green Dot Corp.

Following the introduction of that program, called Instant Pay, about 80,000 Uber drivers signed up for GoBank accounts, many of them presumably to take advantage of the new payment system.

But GoBank is no longer the only game in town. Green Dot and Uber said this week that drivers can now instantly cash out their pay to just about any bank account with a Visa, Mastercard or Discover debit card.

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Thats a feature Ubers chief rival, Lyft, started offering late last year to drivers eager to speed up their payments, said Harry Campbell, who drives for both ride-hailing firms and blogs about the industry on TheRideshareGuy.com.

He noted that while hes used Lyfts instant payout feature, called Express Pay, he had not used Ubers, largely because he would have needed to open a GoBank account.

I didnt want the hassle of setting up a different account, Campbell said, noting that hes likely to use the feature now that he can link it to other accounts.

While the change means that Uber drivers will have less incentive to sign up for GoBank accounts, Green Dot isnt out of the picture entirely.

The company will continue to process instant payments for Uber drivers and get a slice of the 50-cent fee drivers have to pay if they want to cash out into anything other than a GoBank account, said Mike Panzarella, a Green Dot senior vice president.

Whats more, Uber will continue to market GoBank accounts, offering them to would-be drivers who dont have bank accounts already.

The company also hopes to make similar arrangements with other companies that, like Uber, rely on freelancers. That could include firms such as courier service Postmates or on-demand restaurant delivery service DoorDash, although Panzarella declined to name specific companies Green Dot might seek to work with.

Our goal is to continue to expand across the sharing economy, he said.

Fintech out of fuel?

The second quarter has been rough for financial technology start-ups, with far fewer of them raising money from investors, according to a report out this week from consulting firm CB Insights and accounting giant KPMG.

The most recent edition of their quarterly Pulse of Fintech report, which tracks investments in financial technology companies, shows that from April through June, North American fintech firms raised $1.3 billion in 97 deals, down from $1.8 billion in 130 deals during the first three months of the year.

The numbers look even worse compared with the second quarter of last year, when companies raised $2.5 billion in 131 deals.

Behind at least part of that dip in funding is the ongoing shakeout in the online lending business, which makes up a big part of the fintech sector.

Since the beginning of the year, investors had raised questions about the quality of loans arranged by so-called marketplace lenders, such as San Franciscos Lending Club and Prosper, forcing those firms to slow down loan production.

In May, Lending Club dismissed its chief executive and acknowledged problems with loans sold to an investment bank, sparking further concern.

Conor Moore, a partner at KPMG, said all that continues to worry investors, keeping them from making new investments in the space.

Many investors are waiting on the sidelines to see what will happen, Moore said in the Pulse of Fintech report. This is particularly the case in marketplace lending, which has been rocked by a number of potentially damaging setbacks.

The Oracle of L.A.

In finance circles, Howard Marks is known not only as one of the founders of downtown L.A. investment firm Oaktree Capital Management, but also as a guru of sorts who dispenses sage commentary on investing, the economy and other subjects.

(Oaktree is a major shareholder in Tronc Inc., which owns the Los Angeles Times.)

Marks commentary comes in the form of memos, which he typically dispatches to Oaktree clients each quarter and have gained quite the following. Theyre often picked up and analyzed by the Wall Street Journal, Barrons and other finance publications.

Even Warren Buffett, known as the Oracle of Omaha for his wizardly stock picks and famous annual letter to shareholders, has said hes a fan.

Now, in the midst of the heated presidential campaign, Marks has broken form and taken on GOP candidate Donald Trump.

In some ways, it isnt surprising. While Marks has donated to Republicans, he generally gives to Democrats, including to Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

Still, Marks typically doesnt call out one candidate or another. In 2008 and 2012, his memos barely mentioned the presidential candidates.

But in the new memo released Wednesday  titled Political Reality and focused on the causes of and potential solutions for political dysfunction  he devotes two of its 16 pages to how Trumps statements on the economy dont add up.

For instance, he writes that Trumps position that China is destroying American jobs ignores the fact that U.S. consumers have benefited from inexpensive Chinese goods while the loss of manufacturing jobs is more the result of automation than overseas manufacturing.

Marks goes on to say that Clinton has her own shortcomings as a candidate, noting that she has adopted positions that, to him, seem like pandering to Bernie Sanders supporters. Still, he said it seems to him that Clinton hasnt been anywhere near as guilty as Trump of defying economic reality on the campaign trail.

Marks closed the memo with a post script, saying he has tried hard to stick to matters of economics and fact, rather than non-economic policy or programs, opinion or personal preferences. Im sorry if my statements cause unhappiness.

james.koren@latimes.com

Follow me: @jrkoren
The battle among airlines to win over the big-spending business traveler intensified this week, with Delta Air Lines announcing a business class section of private suites on long-haul flights.

Deltas plan to roll out its so-called Delta One section on the carriers new A350 jets, starting next year, comes a couple of months after United Airlines unveiled its Polaris business class section, with pod-like suites and lie-flat beds on international flights.

The latest upgrades are prompted by several changes in the industry, including a surge in airline profits over the past few years because of lower fuel costs and a series of mergers that reduced competition for domestic flights.

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The airlines now have some money burning a hole in their pockets, said Rick Seaney, chief executive of the travel website Farecompare.com.

A trade group for the nations airlines has reported that the average profit margin for the countrys top airlines was 14.1% in 2015, or 14.1 cents on every dollar of revenue, nearly on par with the average for major U.S. corporations of 16.5%.

So it makes sense that the airlines would invest some of those profits to keep or expand their appeal to business travelers, who generate the lions share of airline revenues.

U.S.-based airlines also are buying new planes and installing more luxurious seats to respond to the expansion of foreign carriers, such as Etihad and Emirates, which began years ago to fly out of the U.S. equipped with ultra-luxury amenities such as private suites and onboard showers and cocktail lounges, Seaney said.

The business class sections for Delta and United both offer seats with direct access to the aisle that convert to lie-flat beds that stretch to 6 feet, 6 inches. Delta has an 18-inch television monitor, while United offers a 16-inch screen. Both also have specially made bedding, mood lighting and power outlets.

The key difference is that Deltas suites will be equipped with sliding doors for ultimate privacy while Uniteds pods are open to the aisle but display a glowing do not disturb sign when passengers want to be left alone.

hugo.martin@latimes.com

To read more about the travel and tourism industries, follow @hugomartin on Twitter.

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If you are unsure whether to tip your hotel housekeeper, you are not alone.

There is no consensus among Americans travelers about which, if any, hotel staffer should get a tip, according to a survey commissioned by the travel company Expedia.

The survey of more than 1,000 American travelers found that 30% dont tip anyone at a hotel. Of those travelers who do tip, 46% say they tip housekeepers, 40% tip room service attendants, 30% tip the valet, 20% tip the porter and 10% tip the concierge, according to the survey.

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Although travelers are not obligated to tip any hotel workers, it is proper etiquette to leave a tip for those workers who helped make your visit enjoyable, said Lizzie Post, the great-great-granddaughter of etiquette queen Emily Post and president of the Emily Post Institute.

On the other hand, it is acceptable to withhold tips from a valet or the concierge if you didnt use the valet or didnt talk to the concierge, said Post, who has written several books on etiquette.

If Im dealing with them directly and they are doing a good job, I tip, she said.

As for the hotel housekeeper, Post said she typically leaves between $2 and $5 a day on the nightstand or a desk, along with a note, thanking the worker for his or her effort.

hugo.martin@latimes.com

To read more about the travel and tourism industries, follow @hugomartin on Twitter.
Lyft hit pause on its commuter carpool feature on Friday, citing the lack of driver opt-in for its failure. The news, first reported by Forbes, came just hours after the New York Times reported that the ride-hailing company had in recent months sought and failed to secure a buyer.

There is no shortage of conflicting rumors in our industry, and we are not commenting on them, Lyft spokesman Tim Rathschmidt said of report the company had pursued a sale.

The San Francisco startup is believed to still have deep pockets after receiving $500 million in funding from General Motors earlier this year, but it faces mounting pressure from even better funded competitor, Uber.

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Lyft did acknowledge that its commuter carpool feature didnt go as planned, though.

Launched as a test in March in the Bay Area, Lyft Carpool was the firms foray into traditional commuter carpooling. Any driver could sign up and make up to $10 by giving a ride to someone who was headed in the same direction.

The feature was different to Lyft Line, which is the companys algorithm-enabled carpooling feature that matches passengers headed in the same direction. Lyft Line remains an important and fast-growing service for the company; it reported that since the start of this year, weekly Lyft Line rides in Los Angeles alone have increased by 177%.

While we think a scheduled carpool feature is the right long-term strategy, it is too soon to scale to a meaningful level where supply matches demand, Rathschmidt said in a prepared statement. We learned a lot and will apply it to new and existing projects  like Lyft Line  as we drive our vision forward to solve pain points in commuting.

The move is a setback for the company, an underdog to the ride-hailing juggernaut Uber. Uber hasnt yet launched a commuter carpooling feature, but signaled earlier this year in emails to the California Public Utilities Commission that it was considering a similar service.

tracey.lien@latimes.com

Twitter: @traceylien

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The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation announced Friday that it has named Gerun Riley as its new president.

Riley has spent 13 years with the Broad Foundation, which provides grants in education, science and the arts. She will be the foundations first president to oversee all areas of the organization.

Bruce Reed held the title of president from 2013 to 2015, but he was focused on education initiatives. After Reed, the foundation had no president until Rileys appointment.

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Eli Broad remains chairman of the board of the foundation, which helped to create or fund institutions including the Broad art museum in downtown Los Angeles and the Broad Stage in Santa Monica. In a statement, Broad, 83, said that he and wife Edythe, 80, were healthy but mindful that we will not live forever, despite our best efforts!

Broad said that the foundation had been searching for a president for some time.

We want our philanthropy to continue after we are gone, Broad said, adding that they have looked for someone whom we trust to work with us in overseeing our philanthropic activities, someone who shares our values and priorities. And the right person has been with us the whole time.

Riley, who will lead a 10-member board of governors, worked her way up from an entry-level administrative role to her current position as senior vice president. Broad called Riley smart, loyal and passionate about our philanthropic work.

A Connecticut native, Riley has a bachelors degree in neuroscience and has lived in Los Angeles since 2002. Shes married to television writer and producer Jason Wilborn, and they have two children.

Follow me on Twitter: @DebVankin

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From Civil War telegrams to a historic Los Angeles house to the shaky place of art in Brazil, there has been terrific culture writing going on. Im Carolina A. Miranda, staff writer for the Los Angeles Times, and here are the weeks top stories:

Decoding Civil War telegrams

 The Huntington Library has launched a crowdsourcing project in which volunteers will transcribe or decipher nearly 16,000 Civil War telegrams from Abraham Lincoln, his Cabinet and Army officers.

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For more than a century, nearly 16,000 Civil War telegrams have sat locked in a trunk that once belonged to a confidant of President Abraham Lincoln. They ticked out news of typhoid, scurvy and fear, writes The Times Jeffrey Fleishman. They spoke of long marches and vast battles. They hummed with frailty and humor, fretting over drunken soldiers and praising the unwavering president of a fraying republic. Now the Huntington, which holds the trove, is looking for citizen archivists to help transcribe and decode them. Los Angeles Times

How the U.S. underestimated an important conductor

Times classical music critic Mark Swed is in Switzerland, where he took in a performance of Mahlers Eighth Symphony directed by Italian conductor Riccardo Chailly  and it was smoking. The conductor, who had been perennially overlooked for leadership posts when he worked in the U.S., recently took over La Scala in Milan. The show he just gave in Lucerne, writes Swed, represented an extraordinary arrival for a conductor who has struggled through much of his career to be taken seriously as a substantial musician. Los Angeles Times

Plus: On the centenary of Yehudi Menuhin, Swed pens an appreciation of the famed violinist: Listen to Menuhins recordings, the heavenly early ones, the sour but unmistakably soulful later ones, and you can hear  what a better world might sound like. Los Angeles Times

And because were on the subject of classical music: Reviewer Richard S. Ginell says the Los Angeles Philharmonic hasnt been slacking just because its August. A recent concert directed by Nicholas McGegan featured a high-powered Handel evening. Los Angeles Times

Brazil on the brink

Brazilian federal police participate in the eviction of the building of the Ministry of Culture in downtown Rio de Janeiro in July. (Fernando Maia /EPA )

In a Brazil that has been roiled by corruption scandals and power grabs, culture writer Silas Marti examines the events that are leaving the nations artists unmoored. What happens to art institutions caught between an imploding public sector on one hand, and on the other a collecting class whose richest members may be heading to jail? he writes. There are no easy answers. A stunning, essential piece of journalism. Even Magazine

Endangered: A key house by a Case Study architect

Some of L.A.s most groundbreaking architecture is residential. It is also some of its most endangered. Architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne looks at the International Style House that J.R. Davidson designed for the Nobel Prize-winning novelist Thomas Mann. The home is for sale and is being marketed as a teardown. Writes Hawthorne: The uncertainty surrounding the house is a reminder of how unusually fragile the cultural patrimony of Los Angeles remains. Los Angeles Times

In related news: The German press is going bananas over the pending sale. LAist

Plus: I hope the buyers of the home read an essential new Tumblr account that picks apart the inherent badness of so much McMansion design. Worst of McMansions

Rethinking the Uffizi

A woman admires canvases by El Greco and Diego de Velazquez at the Uffizi Gallery in 2011. (Fabrizio Giovannozzi / Associated Press )

One of Europes most famous and most visited museums, the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy, has a new German director, Eric Schmidt. A former curator at the Getty Museum, he is looking to shake up the institution and make it easier to navigate by opening up new public areas for visitors  including the storied Vasari Corridor, which runs the length of the Ponte Vecchio, the famed 1345 bridge. New York Times

How art catalogs flourish in a digital world

A detail of a work by Andy Warhol in Three Centuries of American Prints: From the National Gallery of Art, published by Thames & Hudson. (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)

Digital may have taken a bite out of book publishing, but it hasnt done so in the world of art catalogs, which thrive on elegant layouts, innovative typographic treatments and fold-out pages featuring sumptuous photographs. There have been some worthwhile online experiments, but ultimately print still reigns supreme in this niche publishing area. Bonus: This story features some very alluring photos of books. Los Angeles Times

A movie for one

The L.A. County Museum of Art has a wild new installation by French conceptual artist Loris Greaud that consists of a single immersive work: one chair, in a large theater, where a viewer takes in an abstracted film. But Times art critic Christopher Knight isnt all that impressed: Sculpt, he writes, is pretentious and uninvolving. The good news is that, unlike a movie theater, the museum offers all kinds of other experiences to make up for the price of admission. Los Angeles Times

Shakespeare in the summer when its sizzlin

Summer Shakespeare, writes Times theater critic Charles McNulty. These words can strike fear in the heart of a reluctant theatergoer. He takes a look at how the Bards work is faring in a pair of new productions, which transplant two of the playwrights comedies to American settings. Los Angeles Times

In other news

An Italian restorer from the Friends of Florence Assn. cleans Michelangelos David at the Galleria dellAccademia in Florence. (Alberto Pizzoli / AFP )

Its all in the ankles: Imbalances in Michelangelos sculpture of David could be compromising the statue. New York Times Magazine

New Yorks Metropolitan Opera has balanced its budget for a second year in a row but is seeing audiences decline. Wall Street Journal

A controversial passage from Marina Abramovics upcoming memoir about Australian aboriginal people has landed the artist in hot water. Guardian

 How the messy breakup of the Corcoran Gallery of Art and its College of Art & Design still haunts Washington, D.C. Washington Post

Director Kathryn Bigelow and Light and Space artist Robert Irwin will be the guests of honor at the next LACMA gala. Los Angeles Times

A group of classical musicians has recorded a benefit album for refugees on-site in a the Calais refugee camp in France. New York Times

Get ready to selfie! The Broad has announced a survey of the work of Yayoi Kusama, whose Infinity Mirrored Room has become a must-see (and must-Instagram) at the museum. Los Angeles Times

Five-year-old Big Macs as sculpture. Los Angeles Times

An arts collective project in El Monte has resulted in the creation of a digital archive of its murals. L.A. Taco

Cant-miss show

An exhibition at the Landing in West Adams titled 3 Women brings together works by an intergenerational group of artists exploring the tenets of feminist art in ways that might make your ovaries ache, writes Times reviewer Sharon Mizota, but in a good way. The show features paintings, textiles and installations by Lenore Tawney, Tanya Aguiniga and Loie Hollowell. On view through Sept. 17. 5118 W. Jefferson Blvd., Los Angeles, thelandinggallery.com.

And last but not least 

A super summer jam, courtesy of Sister Nancy. Just right. The New Yorker

Find me on Twitter @cmonstah.
The lawyer for disgraced former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, Vitaliy Serdiuk, has requested the Pechersky district court in Kyiv to interview, as witnesses, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, former Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Verkhovna Rada Speaker Andriy Parubiy, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council Secretary Oleksandr Turchynov, in the presence of his client in the videoconference format.

"I request to hold the interrogation of witnesses Poroshenko, Yatsenyuk, Parubiy, Klitschko, Turchynov at the court hearing at the address of the Pechersky district court of the city of Kyiv in the presence of the parties to the criminal proceedings, and in the personal presence of the defense attorney of suspect Yanukovych, lawyer Serdiuk, at the court hearing, and in the presence of suspect Yanukovych via videoconference, and with observance of other rules applied to holding an interrogation during a court hearing," the motion filed on August 18, which text is available to Interfax-Ukraine, said.

In the motion, Yanukovych's lawyer speaks of an interrogation as part of the pre-trial investigation of the criminal case opened over the alleged illegal obstruction of gatherings and rallies held in Kyiv from January 20 - February 21, 2014 by officers of higher bodies of state authority and law enforcement agencies, as well as mass killings of people and other offences aimed at illegal suppression of protests at the time.

In Serdiuk's view, the stance of the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office on the issue of holding the interrogation of top Ukrainian public officials with participation of Yanukovych is "another pretext voluntarily created by the Prosecutor General's Office to prevent collecting information from Yanukovych and questioning him".
Todays release of the illustrated biography Coco Chanel falls on what would have been the late designers birthday. Zena Alkayat penned the heavily researched quick read and Nina Cosford provided the images. Published by Chronicle Books, Coco Chanel features lovely, jolly drawings on every page and plenty of icy details too.

Part of the pairs Library of Luminaries series, the duo also have written a new book about Frida Kahlo, as well as older ones about Virginia Woolf and Jane Austen. In a phone interview from London, where Alkayats full-time job is commissioning lifestyle books, she said of their subjects, Were really interested in women whose life stories affected their work or inspiration, or directed their lives in some way. It wasnt just about modern women or iconic women because there are so many amazing women who have done wonderful things.

The death of her mother led to more hardship for the 11-year-old Chanel. The author noted she and her siblings were deserted by her fly-by-night father and unwelcome by her mothers family, and her younger brothers were given to a rural family and she and her three sisters landed in a convent orphanage. Even as a child her experience in an orphanage kind of affected the direction she took in her life, her loves, her losses, her environment  everything about her kind of got channeled into who she was as a designer. Alkayat said.

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Approaching her subject as the journalist she was for 10 years, she plunged into research, reading anything she could get her hands on including Lisa Chaneys Coco Chanel: An Intimate Life and Justine Picardies Coco Chanel: The Legend and the Life. She also noted two scenes in her own work are known to be reported rather than confirmed  the idea the nickname Coco stemmed from her singing revue standards and her traveling to the site of her lover Boy Capels car accident on the day of his funeral. I just focused on the bits that captured my imagination, made me stop and then tracked them as a line through their life.

For the U.S. version, she said she tried to make the endings [for Chanel and Kahlo] not too tragic and to limit some of the controversy. But it was about being accurate as well so were not going to hide from some of the darker elements of Cocos life  her affair with the Nazi officer for example, and her kind of foray with drugs and lesbianism.

Dalliances with the Duke of Westminster (better known as Bendor), Pablo Picasso, composer Igor Stravinsky, exiled Russian Duke Dmitri Pavlovich, poet Pierre Reverdy and others are also noted. A demon with a fishing rod, Chanel befriended Churchill through Bendor, often fishing and hunting together on Bendors Scottish estate, Alkayat said. Another affair with Hans Gunther, Baron Von Dincklage during the war led to her attempt to set up peace talks with Winston Churchill and the Germans.

Complicated as her romantic life was, Chanels somewhat choppy career is also detailed in the compact book. Chanels Hollywood run dressing movie stars, thanks to $1 million from producer Samuel Goldwyn, is referenced. The author notes how Chanel felt all her hard work had been undone by Christian Dior and Pierre Balmain, who created restrictive hourglass shapes contrary to everything Chanel had fought for. The writer notes how her 1954 return to fashion received a mixed reception but persevered with defining styles like wide trousers, straw boaters, the Breton top, the little black dress and costume jewelry. Quotes from Chanel are interspersed throughout such as Eccentricity was dying out; I hope, whats more, that I helped kill it off.

Alkayat and Cosford have put the brakes on more books for the time being. Frida Kahlo was the last one. Theyre so much fun to write but the stories are quite tragic in many ways. None of the tales end very well. Nina and I both put a lot of ourselves into them. They are sweet, little gift books people kind of enjoy and so on, but the making of them is really a labor of love, and quite an intense thing.
Christies is readying a sale that will open the doors of the former president and Nancy Reagans California house. Potential bidders and the just plain curious will find all sorts of Billy Haines Hollywood Regency style furniture and light fixtures, porcelain stamped with the presidential seal, decorative works, baubles, handbags and other adornments from the couples Ted Graber-appointed home in Bel-Air.

The e-catalog goes live at Christies Monday, with online bidding slated to start Sept. 19 followed by the live auction Sept. 21 at Christies in New York. Those who cant attend the sale will be able to take a video tour of the Reagans California home.

The auction is expected to generate more than $2 million with individual items ranging from $1,000 to $50,000. In keeping with the Reagans wishes, proceeds will be donated to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute. Nancy Reagan died March 6 at the age of 94.

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As much of a force as the former First Lady was known to be  celestial and otherwise in the West Wing  she was also a barnstormer about fashion. Interestingly, none of her many signature red suits from designers like Adolfo, James Galanos, Bill Blass, Oscar de la Renta andArnold Scaasi will be on view. Nor will there be any of the designer eveningwear she wore to host five state dinners, during the high-flying Eighties at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

From the former First Ladys personal collection, a Van Cleef & Arpels diamond and gold lion pendant brooch and necklace are estimated between $30,000 and $50,000. Christies will also be lowering the gavel on an accompanying pair of Van Cleef & Arpels diamond and gold ear clips that she wore on a state visit to the U.K. in 1988, and a Bulgari diamond, sapphire and ruby ring in an American flag motif worn on the Fourth of July in 1986. The former is expected to sell between $15,000 and $20,000 and the latter is pegged between $5,000 and $8,000. An 18-karat gold and diamond Bulgari bracelet should have starting bids of $5,000. A black star sapphire and diamond brooch was one of Nancy Reagans favorite, and she wore it to the 1977 Diana Vreeland opening at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. A Ruser coral, diamond and gold brooch hints at her fondness for coral, the gemstone she collected more than any other.

There is also an assortment of handbags and clutches including a black porous crocodile Hermes mini Kelly bag with a shoulder strap and a gold and diamond evening bag. Other resources include Gucci, Judith Leiber and Giorgio Armani. As for her designer wardrobe, Throughout the last 20 years, a good deal of her clothing was donated to a charity that benefits the Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles. The balance of it is now at the Reagan Library, said Melissa Giller, chief marketing officer of the Reagan Foundation and Institute.

Britophiles will gravitate toward a pair of Elizabeth II silver beakers  one engraved with a R and the other with a N that were a personal gift from Margaret and Denis Thatcher. The set has an estimated price of $1,000 to $2,000. Another presidential gift that will be up for grabs is the Tiffany American marine chronometer with a plaque engraved with Good Morning Mr. President and inscribed January 1981 Love Francis and Barbara. That gift was from Frank Sinatra and his wife in honor of the 40th commander in chiefs first inauguration.

A pair of Abercrombie & Fitch English cowhide leather elephant ottomans by Dimitri Omersa have an estimated price of $2,000 to $3,000, and a pair of Mottahedeh Chinese porcelain ice pails decorated in the green Fitzhugh-style with a spread-winged eagle and inscribed Candlelight Dinner have an estimated price of $2,000 to $4,000.

One of the more personal items that will go up for auction is a red monogrammed needlepoint cushion that was given to the president on Feb. 6, 1981 in honor of his 70th birthday from the interior designer Graber. (In 1981, he lived at the White House for nine months to oversee the renovations and later redesigned the Reagans Bel-Air house.) Another cushion that will be on the block has an embroidered map of the United States and You aint seen nothing yet, November 6, 1984, Love, Fran and Ray  a present from the renowned postwar Hollywood producer Ray Stark and his wife.

At 62, the former Hollywood actor and president of the Screen Actors Guild, used his elan to his advantage for political purposes.

President Reagan made a habit of never taking off his suit jacket while in the Oval Office. Just as the decor of that work space was inspired by the West, earthy colors and such Western art as a collection of bronze saddles, Reagans own fashion sense had a certain flair. Partial to finely tailored suits with pocket squares, Reagan could be daring with his fashion choices.

He kicked up some controversial media coverage during a European trip in 1982, when he wore a gray and blue glen plaid suit. Speaking to Time magazine at that time, WWDs publisher John Fairchild, supported that choice, saying, Good for him. The president didnt look like a stuffy old goat. Theres some sunshine, some California in that suit.

None of the two-term presidents suits or accessories will be auctioned by Christies. Despite that, Christies estimated total of $2 million seems within reach or as a sign in Reagans Oval Office read, It CAN Be Done.
When the Doors swung open to the 60s

Regarding Rocks Most Explosive Year: 1966 [Aug. 14]. I love John Densmore of the Doors, but I had to chuckle at his comment, I always say the 60s, they didnt start until 65, and they ended after 67. So Bob Dylans The Times They Are a-Changin  album, in 1964, wasnt the 60s? And the Beatles Abbey Road album, in 1969, wasnt the 60s? Had me fooled.

Robert Chapman

Downey

:::

I was 10 in 1966, and it was all about Brian Hyland, James & Bobby Purify and Question Mark & the Mysterians. And 93 KHJ.

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Danny Landau

West Los Angeles

:::

The music of the 60s did promote social change, but the biggest change guaranteed that Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan made the White House. It also guaranteed Reagan as governor of California. I remember George McGovern running for president while I was in college. Most all of the students were for McGovern, and he got trounced in the election.

Robert Price

Walnut

Where movies, Roth part ways

The article Its the Wrath of Roth [Aug. 16] gave me a laugh-out-loud moment with The epic monologues of Roths prickly, narcissistic antiheroes are preoccupied with the mess of male sexual desire, intellectual competition, the aging body and authorial self-reflexivity -- none of which makes for the usual dramatic material of Hollywood movies. Its obvious to any moviegoer that the exact opposite is true. The majority of movies made by Hollywood scream those same male obsessions, handled straight-faced and without irony, much less introspection. Philip Roth opens up and makes raw contemporary male angst instead of burying it under witty repartee and explosions.

Sharon Graham

Huntington Beach

Not age appropriate for that role

Barbra Streisand kicked off her tour in Los Angeles on Tuesday by singing from six decades of hit albums. (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times )

Regarding Charles McNultys wish for Barbra to play Mama Rose in Gypsy [Streisand Deserves Gypsy Swan Song, Aug. 9]: Babs was 25 years too young when she played Dolly Levi in Hello, Dolly!. She would now be 25 years too old to play Mama Rose.

Michael McCrann

West Hollywood

The source of real off-notes?

Regarding Off-Notes in Song and Storytelling [Aug. 12]: Reviewer Kate Walsh misunderstands what the movie Florence Foster Jenkins is about: a wonderfully compassionate love of a man for a woman.

Jack Tewksbury

Valley Village

Keeping it legal  or maybe not

Your article on Lenny Bruce [A Stand-Up Who Didnt Back Down, July 31] reminded me of the time I tried to arrest him. In the early 1960s, I was a Los Angeles County sheriffs deputy assigned to the vice squad. One night, Bruce was on the bill at a comedy club on the Sunset Strip. As he began his act, he spotted me and my lieutenant and said something like, I see we have some police present tonight. Since I can only be arrested if the police witness me committing a crime, lets turn out the lights. So the lights went out and stayed out for the 20 minutes of Bruces set. He did all his bits in the pitch dark to a captivated audience. We would have busted him if the lights had been on. Today his act would be considered to be on the clean side.

Wilmer Abram

Carson

:::

David Goodwins letter [Lenny Bruce Fades With Time, Aug. 14] about my article on the stand-up comedian complained, Bruce could see no difference between prescription drugs that save and improve billions of lives and recreational drugs. I wrote that one of Bruces taboo-breaking targets was the double standard between illegal and prescription drugs. To clarify my point, as long as any government can arbitrarily decide which drugs are legal and which drugs arent illegal, anyone serving time for a nonviolent drug offense is a political prisoner.

Paul Krassner

Desert Hot Springs

The kindness of a stranger

Regarding Learning From a Legends Failures [Aug. 7]. Tennessee Williams rarely produced and mostly unknown plays (who many refer to as his B plays) were as important to him as any he had written. Because most were based on his own life, family and friends, he took the negative response to these plays very personally.

How brave and courageous Williams was, considering his fragility and sensitive nature. I agree with you that he is Americas greatest playwright. How tragic that he and Elia Kazan stopped working together and that he could find no one else to help him navigate through his flooded landscape of the human condition.

Michael Arabian

West Hollywood

Advice from John Q. Public

Your review of the movie Suicide Squad [Go for Broke, Aug. 5] criticizes the picture for its muddled plot and unanswered questions. Why does the review read like a professors remarks and grade for a film school assignment? While critics watch movies for work, please remember we watch movies for play. We know nothing of film school rules and dont care if the picture technically works. We want to know how the movie plays in the form of how it makes you feel. Within the first 10 minutes, Suicide Squad made me laugh, cry and gasp for breath. The characters captured my attention in every frame. It was fun.

Richard Barker

Alexandria, Va.

:::

It might be appropriate for movie reviews to be segregated into one part for the potential viewer and the other for the industry. As someone deciding whether to see a film, I really dont care that this is the directors third attempt to legitimize a slasher movie or that his former paramour stars in this epic. Just give me a review so I can decide whether to see this picture.

Peter Heiman

Malibu

It got an epic laugh, no doubt

With the latest version of Ben-Hur about to open [A Ben-Hur for Our Time, Aug. 14], I am reminded of a clever review of the 1959 edition that starred with Charlton Heston: Loved him, hated Hur (Mort Sahl).

Robert Blackey

Claremont

No review? This could be why

The letter castigating The Times for not reviewing Gladys Knights recent performance at the Hollywood Bowl [Feedback: Gladys Knight Deserves Review, Aug. 14] and stating that white privilege is alive and well in our beloved local newspaper, comes across as both mean-spirited and off the mark. Cash-strapped newspapers cant be expected to cover every single performance in town, especially in the busier summer months.

Kyle Kimbrell

Playa del Rey
Aug. 25, 2016, 10:40 a.m. Reporting from imperial beach, Calif.

We made it, Oregon to Mexico, along an 1,100-mile beach The drive began at the Oregon border. It ended five weeks later at the Mexican border. Where I almost got arrested. OK, thats an exaggeration. When photographer Allen Schaben and I got to the border of Tijuana and Imperial Beach, the party was much better on the Mexican side. Families were in the water and on the sand, a Mariachi band played, and the whole scene was rather festive compared with two people strolling quietly on the Imperial Beach side. I thought briefly about defecting. One man stood at the fence on the Tijuana side, so I walked up to say hello. I asked why he wasnt swimming and he said he didnt have a bathing suit, then he stuck his hand through the fence to shake my hand. A Border Patrol agent sped toward me in an SUV and yelled for me to stand back from the fence. I hesitated, because what was the big deal? But then I noticed a sign warning against contact or the passing of narcotics through the fence, etc. So I stepped back from the fence because I didnt know if Id be able to write my last road trip columns from a jail cell. Im going to wrap up the series on Sunday, but that wont be the end of my coverage of the California Coastal Commission on the 40th anniversary of the Coastal Act. Theres lots to keep an eye on. Legislation to ban private meetings between commissioners and developers could move forward later today. A vote has been delayed on the controversial proposal for a desalination plant in Huntington Beach, a project that doesnt make a lot of sense in my opinion but has big money backing it. The ever-controversial Newport Banning Ranch project -- a massive hotel/housing development on the last undeveloped plot of privately owned coastal property in Southern California -- will be up for a vote in early September. And the City Council election in Pismo Beach has gotten very interesting because Erik Howell, a councilman and coastal commissioner who ticked off Pismo residents by supporting a development that will block ocean views, now has challengers in his reelection campaign. Howell, if youve forgotten, accepted a $1,000 campaign donation from the domestic partner and business colleague of the lobbyist who represents the Pismo development. If he loses his council seat, he loses his Coastal Commission seat too. So stay tuned. The Coastal Commission will have a new director soon, a new chair and at least two new commissioners, and we need to watch closely because whats at stake is the greatest 1,100-mile coast in the world.



10:25 A.M. reporting from san diego

Lawmaker who led 72 coastal preservation bike ride from San Francisco to San Diego still has Schwinn that delivered win Former senator James Mills, 89, stands with the bike he rode from Sacramento to San Diego in 1972 to promote Prop 20, which created the Coastal Commission and led to the Coastal Act. The photo was taken overlooking the San Diego skyline from Mills Coronado apartment Wednesday. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) The bike. I wanted to see the bike, and meet its owner. Arriving in San Diego meant our coastal trek from Oregon to Mexico was coming to an end, and it meant that it was finally time to pay a visit to Jim Mills. Mills, a state legislator from 1962 to 1981, was Senate president pro tempore in 1972 when he decided to support Proposition 20, the coastal preservation act. Without it, conservationists feared, coastal development would run amok, Highway 1 would be widened, and a string of nuclear power plants would spring up on some of the greatest beach fronts in the world. But there wasnt much money to fight Prop. 20s foes, said Mills, who had grown up wading in La Jolla Cove and has a deep appreciation of the states greatest natural resource. So in September 1972, he hopped aboard his canary yellow Schwinn Super Sport and led a bike rally from San Francisco to San Diego. The number of riders swelled at times, Mills said, and bikers were greeted each evening by locals serving plenty of carbs. We ate a lot of weenies and beans, and spaghetti too, he said. He recalled PG&E executives following the cyclists in a chauffeur-driven Cadillac, doing their own spin on Prop. 20. The bike rally drew lots of publicity, Mills said, and whether it made the difference is anyones guess. But Prop. 20 won 55% of the vote and led in 1976 to the Coastal Act that to this day protects the coast for the benefit of fragile marine and land habitats and the enjoyment of everyone. Mills was 45 when he rode down the coast, and 89 now. He greeted me and photographer Allen Schaben at his Coronado condo and said he hasnt done any riding lately, but hes doing a lot of writing. Mills has written several books and is working on another. He leads us down to the basement, and there it is. The dusty, canary yellow Schwinn that Mills rode in 1972, and for many years after the Prop. 20 campaign. He was an avid cyclist. Mills also kept the helmet he wore in 1972. We took the bike upstairs, where Mills put on his helmet and posed next to the bike that is a piece of California history. The Coastal Act has done a great deal of good over the years, Mills said, and the cause is no less important now than it was when he rode south from San Francisco. We need to preserve the coast for the benefit of future generations, he said, and I thank him for his contribution.



Aug. 21, 2016, 10:50 p.m. Reporting from the Mexican border

Steve Lopez reflects back on his 1,100 mile trek down the California coast

6:57 P.M. Sometimes the sausage is good enough to eat Two things will happen soon. The last column from my 1,100 mile road trip down the California coast will be done. And the reform bill banning private communications between California Coastal Commissioners and developers, as well as others, could finally emerge from the factory. As Ive been saying, Hannah-Beth Jacksons bill sailed through the Senate and should have done the same in the Assembly, but it got pushed off into a dark corner after a very fishy report claimed that reform costs money. The thing has come back to life, though, with amendments that arent as bad as the original amendments. I dont see why we need the amendments at all, or why the wrangling has to take place behind closed doors and out of public view. While I was thinking about that, a reader emailed me a clever idea about how to keep coastal commissioners honest -- make them strap on body cameras, like cops. I like it, and why not do the same with legislators, so we can all see whats going on? Having said all this, though, Im hearing from supporters of Jacksons bill that they think theres actually a chance the legislation is going to be OK, once all the cooks are done tweaking the recipe. Sausage is full of awful stuff, but just about all of it is good on the grill. So as much fun as Ive had telling you to ping Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, @Rendon63rd, and Appropriations Chair Lorena Gonzalez, @LorenaAD80, and ask what gives, maybe we should try another approach. Im told that Rendon, Gonzalez and other Assembly leaders have done some decent work rescuing this much-needed bill from the trash. So go ahead and tweet them again, and tell them youre encouraged, and still watching -- to the extent thats possible -- and counting on them to do whats necessary to get the bill to Gov. Jerry Brown, which is when the real fun will begin.

8:46 A.M. When it comes to coastal protection, why does state Assembly have such a problem with transparency? The need to clean up the way the California Coastal Commission operates was obvious. Commissioners meet privately with developers more than with any other group, by far. They have repeatedly failed to fully explain the nature of those meetings, and have even failed to report them on occasion. State Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) penned a bill to ban such meetings. It cleared the Senate and bounced over to the Assembly, which nearly killed it, but finally decided this week to merely beat it to a pulp. The toothless mess that emerged from the Assembly Appropriations Committee this week would allow private meetings to continue under certain circumstances, and now Sen. Jackson has the task of trying to put some punch back into her bill. And heres the irony: We dont know which Assembly members, or higher powers, conspired to water down Jacksons bill because there is no transparency in the process. You cant peer through a window into the sausage factory. These amendments were hammered out privately. One can guess that the development lobby and labor groups did not like Jacksons reform bill because it would get in the way of a process that gives an advantage to those who want to build on the coast. One can even guess that the Brown administration shares their view. But we dont know, because a bill to shine a light on important decision-making got pummeled in a dark room, and the perps left no fingerprints. See Dan Weikels story at latimes.com. Ive sent in a request for an explanation to Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Paramount). He has appointing authority for four coastal commissioners and itd be nice to hear what he thinks about the handiwork by his Appropriations Committee. If youd like to ping him or Appropriations Chair Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego) to ask what happened, try @Rendon63rd and @LorenaAD80. Or you can drop a line to The Silent One @JerryBrownGov, but Ive tried, and despite months of turmoil and controversy on the 40th anniversary of the Coastal Act he signed into law, the governor doesnt want to be disturbed.



7:36 A.M. Summer is in the rear-view mirror, end of journey just down the road The tide splashes up on the beach at sunset on a warm summer evening at Windansea Beach in La Jolla. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) Carlsbad. Leucadia. Encinitas. Cardiff. Solana. Del Mar. Summer is disappearing in my rear-view mirror. Week Five of my trip from Oregon to Mexico will be over in just a few days, 1,100 miles after it began. Photographer Allen Schaben is farther down the road, waiting for me in San Diego. Soon well stand at the Mexican border and reflect on a deeper love of the California coast, a greater appreciation of the Coastal Act on the 40-year anniversary of protections that became law. Ill wish Id had a week to spend in places where I only had an hour or two. Ill thank the people we met along the way, and tell others well take up their offer the next time through. Californians are passionate about their coast. Theyre closely watching those in public office whose job is to protect fisheries and dunes, to limit development and maximize access. Ive got one eye on Sacramento myself. On legislative reforms that would serve all Californians. On coastal commissioners, some of whom seem to have forgotten their purpose. Im pulling into San Diego, where the air is warm, the water blue, Mexico in the near distance.



4:14 P.M. La Jolla The palm fronds of a palapa reveal a surfer, a couple and children taking in a warm summer sunset at Windansea Beach in La Jolla. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)



1:07 P.M. newport beach

Watts in a name? Find Amp-le answers in Newport Beach On Pacific Coast Highway in Newport Beach. (Steve Lopez / Los Angeles Times) Im driving south on the Pacific Coast Highway and spot the sign. The boat name of the week, it says, is Watt A Man. Thats not a mistake. This is the headquarters for Duffy, which makes the electric boats that are part of the culture in the Newport harbor. Many years ago, I wrote a column about a day of hobnobbing and bar-hopping, by boat, with local residents. I also wrote, at the time, about boat owners trying to out-do each other with clever names for the battery-powered boats. One of my favorites was Salt n Battery. So what are some of the newer ones? I walk into the office, and salesman Jim Drayton says one of the best ones this summer was Amp-ly Endowed. Not bad. Tyler Duffield, of the Duffy family, shows me a list with a few more recent winners. Your name here. (Steve Lopez / Los Angeles Times) Its a Ohm Run. Watt the Hey. Watta Yacht. Going back through the years, some of the better names include: Current Affair. Carry Us Ohm Watts the Hurry. Shock Cousteau. Ohmer Simpson. Knots and Volts. I could go on, but why dont you, instead? Send me your best names. Its not as easy as it looks, Duffield said. Its usually the hardest part, he says. Someone comes in and orders a boat, and they get the colors and everything figured out, and the last thing to do is come up with a name before the boat leaves the factory. Yeah, Its a Duff Life out here, where people are Ohm on the Watter, but It Is Watt It Is.



9:13 A.M. Going under in Laguna Beach A snorkeler looks for fish at Crescent Bay in Laguna Beach (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) Garibaldi swim and feed on rocks at Crescent Bay in Laguna Beach. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

2:41 P.M. Catching waves in Huntington Beach



10:53 A.M. On our way toward Mexico A view of the beach through a telescope at Pacific City, a new 31-acre mixed-use development in Huntington Beach, also known as Surf City U.S.A. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) The site of the proposed Banning Ranch development now before the California Coastal Commission. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) The tide rolls in at twilight at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station located on the border of San Diego County and San Clemente. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

4:52 P.M. Laguna Beach

4:45 P.M. Laguna Beach



12:51 P.M. Dana Point A pod of dolphins leaps out of the water with a view of south Laguna Beach in the background on Aug. 12, 2016. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

10:37 P.M. sacramento

Profiles in courage: Legislators soften Coastal Commission reform, leave no fingerprints A perfectly sensible bill to clean up the way California coastal commissioners do business has been getting the waterboard treatment. First, Santa Barbara Sen. Hannah-Beth Jacksons SB 1190 was submerged by a ludicrous report claiming it would cost too much money to prohibit private conversations between developers and commissioners. Then it was tossed overboard and dragged like chum. Then on Thursday, legislators pulled SB 1190 back into the boat so badly decomposed its barely recognizable. As my colleague Dan Weikel reports at latimes.com, five amendments gutted the good intentions. The most egregious one allows commissioners to meet privately with developers during on-site visits. This comes just weeks after reports that Coastal Commission Chairman Steve Kinsey met twice with developers of the massive Newport Banning Ranch development and failed to properly report those confabs. Environmental groups, however, would not be able to have such meetings in the bills current form. On my best day, I could not have come up with a more Alice in Wonderland outcome. Details were still emerging, and it wasnt clear which legislators were responsible for the hatchet job, or whether they caved in to political, development or union pressure, or all three. No fingerprints on the body, in other words. Three environmentalists I checked with were livid, and understandably so. Stay tuned for updates on the autopsy, and dont stop letting @JerryBrownGov know how you feel about whats happening to coastal preservation on his watch. #SaveYourCoast



7:46 A.M. Sunset at Crystal Cove Beach Cottages Children run along the beach at twilight near the Crystal Cove Beach Cottages. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) The sun sets over the Crystal Cove Beach Cottages in Newport Beach. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) Isabella, 9, and Holden, 7, roast marshmallows over a beach fire with their parents, Steve and Amy Knuff, of Aliso Viejo at twilight at Crystal Cove Beach Cottages. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) Incoming tide rolls onto the beach at twilight at Crystal Cove Beach Cottages. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)



1:29 P.M. Column: Fighting for the California coast from a tiny office in her kitchen nook Susan Jordan, who created and runs the California Coastal Protection Network, is seen in her Santa Barbara office. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) If you were a coastal conservation activist in California, with 1,100 miles of shoreline to look after, how would you even decide where to begin? Theres always a battle somewhere, and let me give you just a couple of examples from one tiny section of the coast. Moss Landing is in the news again this week as the Surfrider Foundation and other activists try to stop Cemex, an international sand mining company, from trucking away the beach as it has done for decades, causing erosion that has begun to set off lots of alarms. Read more



8:49 A.M. Hermosa Beach

Remember when you could spend a night at a California beach motel for less than a weeks pay? A third-generation motel owner in this seaside town tells me he gets an offer, about every other day, from someone who wants to buy his property, bulldoze it and rebuild. But hes hanging on because three generations of families have been staying at his low-budget, no-frills motel since the 1960s, and he doesnt want to end those summer vacation traditions. Elsewhere on the California coast, motels and hotels have been bought out by chains and developers, driving up the cost of affordable family vacations. Look for my column on the Hermosa Beach motel in the coming days. And if you know of good low-budget beach lodging, or if youve seen your motel go from cheap to chic, drop me a line at steve.lopez@latimes.com Over the next two days, photographer Allen Schaben and I will be in Hermosa and Huntington Beach, reporting on the proposed desalination plant there. And, by the way, we should find out in the next day or two whether legislation banning private meetings between coastal commissioners and developers is released from legislative prison and put up for a vote in the state Assembly. Theres still time to weigh in at #SaveYourCoast and be sure to give a poke to @JerryBrownGov and Assemblywoman, Lorena Gonzalez @LorenaAD80. Read more
The Trudgeon family was back again, staying in the beach cottage for the 22nd year in a row, just steps from the sand.

And they were worried.

The Brussels family, customers for almost three decades, was staying in a second-floor suite with an ocean-view balcony above the Hermosa Beach Strand.

And they were worried, too.

You worry that it wont be here next year, and when it happens, thatll be a sad day, said Marty Brussels, a Phoenix optometrist whose wife, Carmen, is a medical assistant.

The 38-unit, no-frills Sea Sprite Motel, which has offered affordable beach vacations since the 1960s, isnt going to last forever. Independent mom-and-pop motels and hotels have been vanishing for years on our 1,100-mile coast. Theyre gobbled up by chains that raise prices, and bulldozed by developers panning for coastal real estate gold.

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This is the 40th anniversary of the Coastal Act, which called for the protection of low-cost accommodations so middle- and lower-income families could enjoy the states greatest public resource. Several members of the Coastal Commission have recently said increased access is high on their agenda, but their record in that regard has been inconsistent.

Meanwhile, hotel chains are in the midst of a gold rush. Pacifica, in particular, has been buying and upgrading little inns between San Francisco and San Diego, including six on Moonstone Beach in Cambria. A company press release boasted of the continued coastal expansion and called Pacifica the largest owner and operator of boutique hotels on the Pacific coast.

But Susan Jordan, of the California Coastal Protection Network, said those hotels are charging much higher prices per room than before.

So whether youre talking about housing or lodging, the California coast is increasingly the playground and domain of the wealthy. For everyone else, there are day trips, and camp sites, a few nice deals like the cottages at Crystal Cove, and a shrinking number of independent, old-fashioned motels.

Darrell Greenwalds family has owned the unabashedly modest Sea Sprite since 1966, just feet from the sand in the heart of Hermosa, a bit south of the pier. Greenwalds mother Thelma once ran the place and told him that if guests had issues with the furnishings, he should just point to the water and emphasize the million-dollar view.

The sea-blue Sprite, a stucco throwback, sits on prime real estate, and Greenwald told me hes been getting buyout offers every other day or so.

For how long?

The last 10 years, he said.

He pulled open a filing cabinet drawer in his office to reveal the latest pitches. Theyre generally not from hotel companies, he said, but from developers who would probably level what is there and build something else. Maybe condos or restaurants or high-end retail.

Greenwald said there will come a day when hell be ready to accept the best offer and retire from what has been a rewarding, but taxing, round-the-clock job.

I asked him why hes kept rates as low as $140 a room in summer, and whats holding him back from walking away.

I could probably double my rates and do fine, he said. But you know, the customers helped build this business up, and three generations of families have been coming here. We just dont want to price them out.

Surfers walk past the Sea Sprite Motel in Hermosa Beach on Aug. 11, 2016. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times )

Mitchell Rowe, a retired firefighter from Folsom, just hit 20 years as a regular. He and his wife, a hairstylist, pay a bit above $200 a night for a two-room suite with a full kitchen and ocean-view balcony.

Its one of the last places thats affordable from Redondo up to Manhattan Beach, Rowe said. Its not luxurious, but its relaxed, laid-back. And its half what some of the other places charge.

The extended Trudgeon family always stays in the free-standing three-bedroom cottage, which costs more than $400 a night.

But it sleeps 10, and when friends of friends squeeze in, the price per head is a bargain.

Weve had as many as 20 people in here, said Larry Trudgeon, a retired San Fernando Valley dentist.

He was with daughter Amber, a nurse, and son-in-law James Williams, a building manager, along with other family members who brought bikes, boogie boards, a barbecue, a bean-toss game and a string of lanterns to decorate the porch of the bungalow that becomes home for two weeks every summer.

James proposed to Amber at the lifeguard stand, Trudgeon said, and his grandson Trey caught his first fish on the pier.

But things are changing. Just up the Strand, a Beverly Hills developer is set to build a fancy new hotel, and local institutions like the Mermaid, Good Stuff and The Poop Deck will get flattened to clear the way.

Trudgeon, 70, wonders how long the Sea Sprite can survive.

This is part of an old-school, nostalgic era, and I think its important to preserve it, he said.

But how?

A 1981 amendment to the Coastal Act prohibited the Coastal Commission from setting room rates, but the agency can and does require developers to provide some lower-cost units in their projects, or elsewhere, or pay fees that can be used to support low-cost units elsewhere. Neither of those things, however, has slowed the loss of affordable options in the face of rampant development.

Reversing the trend wont be easy, but if someone wanted to drop a wrecking ball on the Sea Sprite and replace it with yet another swanky overpriced hotel, the commission could deny the permit unless the new owner agrees to concessions like the ones I just mentioned.

Last year, commissioners stood strong and rejected up to three hotels on public tidelands in San Diego because the Port District didnt make a stronger commitment to providing affordable lodging on or near Harbor Island.

That kind of backbone, along with sharper strategies and more consistency, are key going forward, or else beach vacations in California will be out of reach for teachers, cops, construction workers and healthcare workers.

This commission could do much more than it has, said Coastal Commissioner Mary Shallenberger. In the face of developer opposition, I dont think we have been as strong as we ought to have been.

At the Sea Sprite, Marty and Carmen Brussels sat on their deck taking in the view on the last day of their escape from the blazing heat of Phoenix. They talked about annual reunions with other longtime regulars and how much they love the cool sea breezes and taking in the sunsets, beach volleyball and evening concerts from their balcony.

If the Sea Sprite goes out of business, Marty said, theyll never have this again.

Not at this price.

Not on the California coast.

Live Updates -- Follow along with Steve 

steve.lopez@latimes.com | Follow on Twitter: @LATstevelopez

Weigh in at @JerryBrownGov #SaveYourCoast and (916 445-2841) or email governor@governor.ca.gov.

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Good morning. It is Saturday, Aug. 20. Heres what you dont want to miss this weekend:

TOP STORIES

The Blue Cut fire in San Bernardino County has claimed 96 homes and 200 other structures. In Northern California, a blaze in Lake County destroyed 300 buildings. Lets call it an imperfect storm of conditions: the drought, the heat, the low humidity. And lets be honest, this is not really big winds, said Char Miller, a Pomona College professor whos an expert in wildfires. Los Angeles Times

When Mabel Ramos returned home Thursday, she discovered the Blue Cut fire had taken her home and 135 of her livestock. I cried. It was terrible. Los Angeles Times

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The drought has made East Porterville famous  for a lack of water. Wells went dry and residents watched their community turned to dust. But on Friday, water flowed from Porterville to a home here. As many as 1,800 homes soon will benefit from the municipal water system. I had chills when they turned the water on, said Bill Croyle, a deputy director with the Department of Water Resources. Los Angeles Times

In Los Angeles Westlake neighborhood, the homeless community is mourning the loss of Ida Mae Prince. The 58-year-old woman lived in a makeshift shanty for 30 years, offering guidance and assistance to the men and women on the street. She taught so many ladies of the night how to conduct themselves, said Berval Cato. Los Angeles Times

Rents in San Francisco are increasing, but at a slower rate than in previous years. Part of the reason is a sudden increase in housing stock at the top end of the rental market. An additional 9,000 units are expected to come online this year. SFGate

Its not what you would typically expect to see at the Wedge  a giant, inflatable flamingo. With any swell, theres going be a lot of people and high risk for rip currents. Its going to be pretty consistent, said Laguna lifeguard Matt Grace. Orange County Register

Wendy Tokuda is ending her broadcasting career in California. Television had the ability at that time of making the Bay Area more of a community. I just happened to be there at this magical time, she said. SFGate

Take a trip through the $700-million USC Village with this new aerial footage. Urbanize LA

THIS WEEKS MOST POPULAR STORIES IN ESSENTIAL CALIFORNIA

1. What are the unwritten rules for when you have to pick up someone from LAX? LAist

2. A gorgeous new time-lapse video of Los Angeles. YouTube

3. These are likely to keep you up at night  10 urban legends about L.A. BuzzFeed

4. The Blue Cut fire in the Cajon Pass has been very difficult for firefighters to tackle. You could throw the worlds firefighting resources at it and its just going to keep going, said Capt. Howard Deets of the Mill Creek hotshot crew. Los Angeles Times

5. The Brown Derbys neon sign is on once again. LAist

ICYMI, HERE ARE THIS WEEKS GREAT READS

A thousand words: This haunting image from Syria captured the attention of the world this week. The barefoot boy is clad in shorts and a cartoon-emblazoned T-shirt  just like any kindergartner anywhere on a hot summers evening  lending the chaotic events an incongruous touch of childhood familiarity, right down to his slightly pigeon-toed pose. Los Angeles Times

Home stretch: Five weeks and 1,100 miles after it began, columnist Steve Lopezs coastal road trip is coming to an end. Californians are passionate about their coast. Theyre closely watching those in public office whose job is to protect fisheries and dunes, to limit development and maximize access, he writes. Los Angeles Times

Calling out sexism: Two steps forward, one step back. Thats typically how progress comes. So what can women expect if Democrat Hillary Clinton wins in November and becomes the first woman to lead America? Four to eight years of the kind of down-and-dirty public misogyny you might expect from a stag party at Roger Ailess house. The Atlantic

LOOKING AHEAD

Monday: The Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science will celebrate its 50th anniversary.

Thursday: The Los Angeles Food and Wine Festival will begin.

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.
A half-century ago, hundreds of streams cascading down the San Gabriel, San Bernardino and San Jacinto mountains were packed with fist-sized mountain yellow-legged frogs competing for mating rights.

Today, fewer than 400 of the federally endangered frogs are holed up in five hard-to-reach streams, all of them reduced to ribbons of shrinking ponds after five years of drought.

Now, as the third major wildfire in a month strips slopes overlooking the frogs ancestral habitats of vegetation, there is mounting concern that winter storms could inundate their last outposts with mud, debris and ash.

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Ive never seen things this dry here before, Adam Backlin, a U.S. Geological Survey biologist, said on Wednesday as he surveyed the health of a small population of about 20 frogs in the upper reaches of the San Gabriel Mountains Big Rock Creek. The last thing these frogs need is drought and wildfire.

Wildfire is a natural ecological phenomenon, biologists say. Decades ago, when yellow-legged frogs and other rare aquatic species were widespread, they survived over time by recolonizing from neighboring populations.

Not anymore. Existing populations are descendants of a species pushed to the edge of extinction by urbanization, disease and the appetites of voracious nonnative predators including crayfish, bullfrogs and trout.

Small, isolated mountain yellow-legged frog populations were lost in the aftermath of the Old fire in 2003, the Station fire in 2009 and the Mountain fire in 2013, Backlin said.

Three weeks ago, biologists watched with mounting alarm as the Sand fire ravaged 40,000 acres of northwestern San Gabriel Mountain watershed including portions of Soledad Canyon, home to rare arroyo toads and an isolated population of federally endangered unarmored threespine stickleback fish.

This week, the Blue Cut fire charred more than 37,000 acres on the ranges rugged northeastern canyon lands.

The big question now is whether it is too late to leave the unique Southern California frogs fate to nature.

In 2010, federal wildlife authorities launched an ambitious recovery program that includes captive breeding facilities, trout removal programs and barring public access to areas where frogs are clinging to existence.

The species last hope may be swimming in carefully monitored aquariums at the Los Angeles Zoo and the San Diego Zoo, where genetic insurance colonies are being raised in collaboration with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Three additional zoos may join the captive breeding effort later this year: the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, Neb., the Memphis Zoo in Memphis, Tenn., and the Santa Ana Zoo.

At the Los Angeles Zoo, curator Ian Recchio is raising 23 mountain yellow-legged frogs that arrived three years ago as tadpoles collected in Big Rock Canyon and Little Rock Canyon.

Theres no room for error when it comes to taking care of these frogs, Recchio said, peering through the glass of an enclosure designed to replicate the water chemistry and seasonal shifts in temperatures and light found in the species natural mountain habitat.

In another year, theyll be sexually mature and, if all goes according to plan, breeding a new generation of what Recchio described as the rarest and most at-risk native amphibian at the zoo.

When those tadpoles are large enough to have a shot at surviving the wild, they may be used to replenish the streams they evolved in, including the San Gabriel Mountains Big Rock Canyon.

Louis.Sahagun@latimes.com

@LouisSahagun
Half-awake and barefoot, Maria Elena Hernandez hurried toward the loud banging on her front door.

It was before sunrise, and she hoped the noise wouldnt wake her 14-month-old granddaughter. As she cracked open the door, dressed in a sheer nightgown, Hernandez, 62, saw six California Department of Insurance officers staring back at her.

Are you Maria Hernandez? one of them shouted.

Yes, she answered. A female officer yanked her arm, twisted it behind her back and tightened handcuffs around her wrists.

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Why? Why? Why? she asked. Let me go. Youre arresting the wrong person.

It would take more than two months before authorities realized they had, indeed, arrested the wrong person.

Incarcerations of innocent people mistaken for wanted criminals represent a tiny fraction of the roughly 16,700 people locked up in L.A. County, and they have declined sharply from a decade ago. But, from May through July, records show, at least six people were released from jail in Los Angeles County after authorities determined they had arrested the wrong person. (That does not include people, such as Hernandez, who bailed out before authorities realized the error.)

Officials introduced reforms to reduce the problem after a 2011 Times investigation found such cases had occurred nearly 1,500 times in five years. The mistakes usually involved the victims of identity theft or people who shared the same name as suspects listed on outstanding arrest warrants. The problems were compounded when police agencies and jailers failed to properly check that the fingerprints of people arrested matched those of the accused criminals.

But extra checks by the jail would not have helped Hernandez.

Her arrest warrant was issued after the California Department of Insurance confused her with an insurance fraud suspect, who had used a false date of birth as well as a first and a last name that matched Hernandezs. Last month, the district attorneys office asked a judge to dismiss the fraud case, and an insurance department spokeswoman said officials have tried to reach out to Hernandez to apologize.

The department deeply regrets the error, spokeswoman Nancy Kincaid said.

Hernandez spent nearly two days in the countys jail in Lynwood before her family managed to bail her out. Her family now owes $2,000 to a bail bonds company. And Hernandez, who cleaned homes for years but is now retired, faces another bill of $1,470 for a medical exam conducted at the direction of jail staff.

The events that led to her arrest began in the summer of 2013, when a woman made a phone call to Access General Insurance saying shed been the driver of a car involved in an accident. She identified herself as Maria Mercedes Hernandez, according to investigative records.

An insurance investigator had a hard time tracking the woman down, but when he finally found her at her South Park home, she verbally confirmed that her name was Maria Mercedes Hernandez and said her birthday was May 2, 1954, though she did not produce proof of her identification. After prodding from the investigator, the records show, the woman admitted that she hadnt actually been in an accident. Shed agreed to say she had been, she explained, after meeting a man at a nightclub who promised to give her a cut of the insurance money.

Before leaving the home, the insurance investigator took the womans photo.

When Department of Insurance detectives interviewed the woman at her home a year later, they said they recognized her from the photo in the case file and said that she, again, identified herself as Maria Hernandez. Greg Risling, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County district attorneys office, said she had given a fake name and birth date. The spokesman said it was unclear if the woman had picked the name and date of birth at random or if she had deliberately used the arrested womans identity.

Exactly how insurance investigators mistook her for Maria Elena Hernandez is unclear.

The Department of Insurance spokeswoman declined to explain, citing an internal investigation being conducted by the agency. The district attorneys office also declined to detail what led to the mix-up or comment on whether detectives know the suspects real identity but said the auto insurance fraud investigation is ongoing.

Hernandezs daughter, Roxanne, criticized the mistake. Investigators, she noted, had the real suspects photo. And although Maria Hernandez is a common name  there are 1,300 registered to vote in Los Angeles County  her mother has a different middle name and address. Investigators arrested Hernandez at her Mid-Wilshire home, which is seven miles from the neighborhood where detectives had previously interviewed the fraud suspect.

Its just shocking how they confused this person with my mother, Roxanne said.

So much of the arrest is still unbelievable to Hernandez. When her 25-year-old son stepped toward the detectives to ask for official paperwork justifying the arrest, an officer pointed a gun at his head, Hernandez and her daughter recounted.

If this had happened in a different area  say Beverly Hills  it wouldnt have happened like this.  Maria Hernandez

If this had happened in a different area  say Beverly Hills  it wouldnt have happened like this, Hernandez said. These people were harsh to me and my family. No one deserves what I went through.

Kincaid, the Department of Insurance spokeswoman, said law enforcement officers are trained to have their weapons drawn from their holsters until entry has been made and the residence or individuals have been secured in a safe manner.

As Hernandez was led away in handcuffs, she recalled, tears filled her eyes and she felt like she needed to scream. She tried to encourage her children using a common Spanish phrase: He who owes nothing fears nothing.

As the officers drove toward the jail, she pleaded for answers. If this is an auto insurance fraud case, she explained, it cant be me. I dont even know how to drive, she told them. Maybe its a case of stolen identity, she suggested.

At the womens jail in Lynwood, things only got worse.

She was too frail to climb into the top bunk bed and gave the lower bed to a woman who had just given birth, she said. Hernandez ended up sleeping on the floor.

She felt her faith in the concept that she had used a couple days earlier to reassure her children  owe not, fear not  start to shrivel.

I thought, I will die here,  she said.

Finally, someone called her name.

Maria Hernandez. Youre going to leave.

She learned that family members and friends had scraped together the $500 deposit needed to hire a bail bond company to post bond. Her daughter said she visited the bail bond company recently and was told the family had to pay what was still owed under the contract she signed.

Hernandez is also behind on hospital bills stemming from the arrest. After arriving at the jail, but before she was officially booked, she explained that she has high blood pressure and cholesterol, as well as circulation problems. Jail staff decided to have her taken to Coast Plaza Hospital.

She had her finger pricked for testing and got her blood pressure taken. When she peeked at the machine, her systolic rate was in the upper 170s, nearing crisis hypertensive levels.

Hernandez said she was shocked when  not long after her release  a hospital bill came in the mail.

Ive suffered and paid, and am still paying, she said.

Times researcher Scott Wilson contributed to this report.

marisa.gerber@latimes.com

Follow me on Twitter: @marisagerber

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Authorities said 18 people in downtowns skid row became ill Friday morning and were rushed to hospitals.

It is not yet known what caused the victims to become sick, said Brian Humphrey, spokesman for the Los Angeles Fire Department. The conditions of the victims have not been released, though no one has died, he said.

We surmise they may have had contact with a substance, but were not certain, Humphrey said.

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The first person became ill around 10 a.m. Friday and the area around 5th and Wall streets was cordoned off early afternoon as paramedics fanned out to look for others who might have become sick, Humphrey said.

1 / 5 Paramedics and police officers respond to Los Angeles skid row, where multiple people fell ill on Friday, Aug. 19, 2016. (Patrick T. Fallon / For The Times) 2 / 5 Paramedics and LAPD officers transport a man from Los Angeles skid row to the hospital after he became ill Friday. (Patrick T. Fallon / For The Times) 3 / 5 Police officers and paramedics care for a sick man in Los Angeles skid row area Friday. (Patrick T. Fallon / For The Times) 4 / 5 LAPD officers tend to a sick person in Los Angeles skid row neighborhood Friday. (Patrick T. Fallon / For The Times) 5 / 5 Officers wait for paramedics while responding to reports of people sickened in the skid row neighborhood on Friday. (Patrick T. Fallon / For The Times)

In April, 15 people in skid row were hospitalized after consuming a tainted form of synthetic marijuana known as Spice. Los Angeles police officials said most victims simply collapsed on sidewalks, though none died.

Homeless advocates, shelter operators and police officers said the April episode was similar to previous incidents in which paramedics arrived at homeless encampments to find poisoned Spice users.

Tainted batches of synthetic cannabinoids have popped up in recent years in numerous locales, including New York and San Diego. Spice is made by spraying psychoactive chemicals onto plant matter, which is then smoked or eaten.

Side effects include rapid heartbeat, nausea and sometimes seizures.

Last year, New Yorks mayor signed a law banning the sale and manufacture of synthetic cannabinoid products like Spice and K2 and stimulants such as bath salts.

A crackdown by the Drug Enforcement Administration and Department of Homeland Security last year led to the arrest of 16 people in Los Angeles who were accused of distributing thousands of pounds of synthetic marijuana.

The DEA has identified 400 new designer drugs, mostly with origins in rogue labs in China. In the Los Angeles arrests, the dealers distributed their smokable products under such names as Sexy Monkey, Crazy Monkey, Mad Hatter and Scooby Snax.

ben.poston@latimes.com

Follow @bposton on Twitter.

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Firefighters tightened their grip on the fast-moving Blue Cut fire overnight Friday, capitalizing on humid weather conditions to gain greater control over the 37,020-acre blaze, authorities said Saturday.

The fire, which is 73% contained, has destroyed 105 homes and 213 other structures in San Bernardino County since it broke out Tuesday for reasons investigators are still trying to determine.

Most of the damage was concentrated in rural communities perched on the edge of vast open spaces. More than 80,000 people were evacuated at one point, and no one has died or been injured.

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Read more about California wildfires >> 

On Saturday, fire teams focused their efforts on the communities of Lytle Creek and Wrightwood, finishing containment lines so that residents could return to their homes more quickly, said Lyn Sieliet, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Forest Service.

Theyre holding the perimeter fairly well. Its just a matter of getting the containment lines cut around it, Sieliet said.

Dry brush and unseasonably powerful winds have complicated things for the 2,684 firefighters battling the blaze, Sieliet said. She says firefighters have battled winds of up to 50 mph.

Its not much, but its enough to move the fire, Sieliet said.

San Bernardino has seen some of Californias most lethal and destructive wildfires. In 2003, Santa Ana wind conditions whipped the Old fire to more than 90,000 acres, destroying nearly 1,000 structures in one of the deadliest fire seasons in the states history.

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection reports that 3,874 fires have broken out between Jan. 1 and Aug. 13, burning 112,950 acres and killing seven people.

Other wildfires continued to burn under various states of control across California.

--Clayton fire: 3,929 acres and 300 structures were destroyed near Clear Lake; 90% contained as of Saturday evening; began Aug. 13.

--Chimney fire: 19,909 acres acres and 46 structures destroyed in San Luis Obispo County; 35% contained as of Saturday evening; began Aug. 13.

--Rey fire: 10,732 acres north of Santa Barbara in Los Padres National Forest; 10% contained as of Saturday morning; began Thursday afternoon.

frank.shyong@latimes.com

Twitter: @frankshyong

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The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine strongly condemns that the Russian Federation has not coordinated the visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to Ukraine on August 19.

"The new visit by an official of the Russian Federation to the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol city, which are an integral part of Ukraine, is evidence that the Russian Federation continues neglecting Charter of the United Nations, the UN General Assembly resolution 68/262 of 27 March, 2014 entitled "Territorial integrity of Ukraine," Baku declaration and resolutions of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and other principles of international law," the Foreign Ministry said.

The ministry said that it many times pointed out the inadmissibility of uncoordinated visits of Russian officials to the sovereign territory of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders, including the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol.

"Attempts of Russian officials to interpret these 'visits' to Ukraine as visits within the state are void," the ministry said.

The protest note has been sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia.
A former Cal State Fullerton janitor who killed seven people on the campus in one of Orange Countys most notorious mass murders has been transferred to Napa State Hospital, angering his victims family members and the Orange County district attorneys office, which believes the move may signal the mans release from custody.

Edward Charles Allaway, now 77, brought a rifle to Cal State Fullerton in July 1976 and opened fire, killing seven and wounding two others. He had a history of mental illness and was ruled not guilty by reason of insanity at his trial four decades ago.

Allaway was held at an all-male, maximum security hospital until 1995, when he was transferred to Patton State Hospital in San Bernardino. About two weeks ago, Allaway was transferred to a 17-acre hospital that houses both civil and criminal patients in the Napa Valley, sparking protests from Orange County Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas and family members of Allaways victims.

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At a news conference Friday, Rackauckas called Allaways new hospital idyllic and warned that Allaways transfer could be a precursor to his release. Because Allaway is no longer taking medication and has maintained a record of clean behavior, Rackauckas said, hospital treatment teams have repeatedly deemed him safe for release.

But his victims are in complete fear of finding him on their doorsteps, Rackauckas said.

Pat Almazan, whose father was killed by Allaway, called the process sneaky.

It should not be this difficult to keep a mass murderer behind bars, Almazan said.

Paul Paulsen, whose older sister Debbie Paulsen was killed, expressed fear for his and the publics safety: God help us all if he is ever released in any way shape or form.

Rackauckas also warned that Napa State Hospital could give Allaway too much access to the facilitys grounds, where he could escape into the community. The D.A. also released a letter that he wrote to Gov. Jerry Brown requesting state involvement, calling Allaways transfer an urgent threat to public safety.

The hospitals staff has misdiagnosed his illness, and has little appreciation of the substantial danger he poses to society, Rackauckas wrote.

Allaway has unsuccessfully appealed for his release at least five times. His most recent appeal in 2001 was denied by an Orange County judge who said he was still a danger to society. Allaways appeal of the judges decision in 2003 was also denied.

In July, some of the victims families held a candlelight vigil to mark the 40th anniversary of the shootings at Cal State Fullerton, where a plaque and a grove of seven stone pine trees planted shortly after the shooting memorialize Allaways victims.

frank.shyong@latimes.com

Twitter: @frankshyong

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The Orange County Sheriffs Department has spent nearly $570,000 to harden its Central Mens Jail and needs an additional $3 million for more upgrades  months after the January escape of three inmates gained national attention and led to a massive statewide manhunt.

Officials have long conceded that the Santa Ana jail, built in 1968, was in desperate need of repairs. But public pressure to modernize mounted when prisoners Bac Duong, Hossein Nayeri and Jonathan Tieu cut through steel bars, squeezed through plumbing tunnels, rappelled off a roof and fled at dawn on Jan. 22  15 hours before authorities noticed their absence.

Duong surrendered seven days after the jailbreak and officers captured his alleged accomplices on the eighth day, acting on a tip from a homeless man who saw the pair hiding in a van in San Francisco.

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At a news conference Friday, Sheriff Sandra Hutchens outlined changes designed to prevent another escape at the facility.

She detailed improvements in three areas: those made immediately after the escape; those made in the last six months; and others being planned but are dependent on funding.

Immediately after the escape, officials secured points of exit used by the three inmates, including the area where prisoners are housed and plumbing tunnels, Hutchens said.

A team of civilian and sworn staff was formed to review inmate count procedures and conduct an inventory  from basement to roof, twice  looking at every tool required for daily maintenance work that enters and exits the maximum-security facility.

Officials still do not know what tools were used to cut through prison bars. After searches turned up nothing, they believe the escapees took those items with them, Hutchens said.

Sheriffs Department spokesman Lt. Mark Stichter said the trio had been planning their getaway for at least four months.

Over the last six months, officials added more lighting outside the building as well as inside the plumbing tunnels to boost visibility. Workers installed criss-cross metal grills on the plumbing wall vents and motion-sensor video cameras designed to set off alarms when movement is detected. A K-9 dog named Mercy now patrols the premises sniffing for drugs and cellphones. An ongoing investigation revealed that the fugitives used such a phone to plan their escape, Hutchens said.

Her team also introduced radio-frequency ID technology to track inmate movement from classrooms, the cafeteria and other areas used for medical care and religious counseling. Officials have opened a second investigation focusing on policies and procedures inside the department. Sheriffs Lt. Dave Sawyer, who oversees investigations, said there is not one sliver of evidence that any member of the staff had any involvement in the escape.

Authorities initially arrested an English-language instructor who taught at the jail on suspicion of being connected to the escape, alleging that she provided critical planning tools, among them Google Earth aerial maps of the facility.

Citing insufficient evidence to charge the woman, officials later released her.

Inside the jail, sheriffs supervisors have also examined the clothing exchange and linen exchange procedures that are used to prevent suicides or escapes. Before fleeing, the fugitives reportedly tied towels and bedsheets together, forming a makeshift rope that allowed them to rappel from the roof, landing on the street four stories below.

Orange County Supervisor Andrew Do, appearing with Hutchens and her staff Friday, noted the detailed improvements, adding that her swift actions demonstrate how seriously they take this issue.

He pledged to push for increased funding for future upgrades.

The nearly $570,000 already spent comes from the current departmental budget. In the future, officials also want to install extra metal detectors; expand radio-frequency ID technology to all Orange County jail sites; add or improve cameras on jail rooftops; and enclose the Central Mens Jail roof.

Some improvements remain under wraps in order not to compromise security, Hutchens said.

Across the county, more than 6,000 inmates are housed at five jails that have a maximum capacity of 7,000. The others are the James A. Musick Facility, also called The Farm; Theo Lacy Jail; the IRC, or Intake/Release Center; and the Central Womens Jail.

The inmates who fled are now housed at three separate jails and have been classified as escape risks.

anh.do@latimes.com

@newsterrier

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A former student who fathered a child with a onetime Redlands schoolteacher convicted of having sex with him and two other students will receive a $6-million settlement from the school district, officials said Friday.

Vince Finaldi, an attorney for the former high school student, said the egregious conduct of Redlands Unified School administrators in the case warranted what may be one of the largest single-victim sex abuse settlements by a public agency.

The size of this settlement represents the gravity of the damage done to this young victim and his family and it also highlights the extreme malfeasance and neglect by school officials who turned a blind eye to the criminal conduct of a teacher and failed to protect a student, Finaldi said.

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Laura Whitehurst, 29, was arrested in July 2013 and charged with 41 felony counts of unlawful sex acts that could have meant up to 29 years in prison. She pleaded guilty to four counts of unlawful sexual intercourse and two counts of oral copulation with a person under 18 involving three boys while teaching at Citrus Valley and Redlands high schools.

As part of a plea bargain, she was sentenced to a year in jail and released after six months. She remains on probation and is required to register as a sex offender. She shares custody of the child with the former student, who is now 21, according to his attorneys.

In the lawsuit, attorneys for the former student alleged that school officials knew of his relationship with Whitehurst and failed to warn his family. The suit also claimed that a teaching colleague of Whitehursts was aware of the relationship and that school officials even questioned Whitehurst and the student when she became pregnant.

School district officials said they were admitting no wrongdoing by settling the lawsuit and blamed Whitehurst alone.

District spokesman Tom DeLapp said the district is not pleased with this outcome but settled this tragic case once and for all so we can move forward.

We felt there could be serious damage to the reputation of a very fine school district if the plaintiffs lawyers were allowed to drag the district and its employees through the mud all over again, DeLapp said. In the long run, $6 million is high, but it could have been much higher if this had been left to an empathetic jury in another city looking past the facts to find a financial scapegoat for the unprofessional, criminal actions of one individual.

There was a picture of her in the birthing suite circulated to people at the school with the boy.  John Manly, attorney for the victim

The former student who fathered Whitehursts baby said the relationship started in 2012 when he was 16 and lasted nearly a year. He told authorities Whitehurst began driving him home from school functions and spending long hours with him. On a trip to Disneyland, she grabbed his hand and told him she wanted to kiss him. Shortly after the trip, she and the boy began having repeated sexual intercourse at her apartment. Whitehurst gave birth to their child in June 2013, with the boy in attendance.

He said Whitehurst gave him alcohol and told him it was a miracle pregnancy because she did not believe she could get pregnant. She even gave him a Bible on his 17th birthday and would take him to church, he said.

In asking a judge to reject the plea bargain with prosecutors in 2013, the student said, Physically, I feel sick to my stomach thinking about the manipulation I was subjected to.

John Manly, another attorney for the former student, said district employees failed to report the abuse to authorities as required by state law.

There was a picture of her in the birthing suite circulated to people at the school with the boy, Manly said. The principal wrote an email about the photo.

According to a Redlands police search warrant served shortly after Whitehursts arrest, the school district began investigating the accusations but failed to report suspected child abuse as mandated to police or social workers until six weeks later on July 1, 2013.

Supt. Lori Rhodes has said the district received the first credible information about a possible relationship on July 1, when the teens mother reported it to school officials, who then immediately called the police. Rhodes said that the pair in May had denied the relationship and provided plausible explanations for their association.

School officials insist that the only wrongdoing was by Whitehurst. No one in the district was charged with any offense.

Ms. Whitehurst made a conscious effort to deceive and circumvent the standards and policies she was trained to uphold, DeLapp said.

The settlement follows a $505,000 payout in an alleged sexual abuse case involving a teacher and student in 2013. The district also faces a legal claim from a 16-year-old alleged victim of a math teacher recently charged with sexually abusing her.

richard.winton@latimes.com

Twitter: @lacrimes

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Trump predicts landslide support from black voters if he gets to seek a second term as president

In four years, Donald Trump predicts, hell get more than 95% of the African American vote.

The support will come if he is elected president and seeks a second term in 2020, he said Friday, explaining that African Americans will be moved to back him because of the great strides he will have made for inner-city communities.

Youre living in poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs, 58% of your youth is unemployed. What the hell do you have to lose by voting for Trump? the candidate asked. At the end of four years, I guarantee I will get over 95% of the African American vote.

The statement  highly unlikely given how poorly Republicans fare among black voters  continues a theme the GOP presidential nominee has pounded this week as he courted African American voters. He said Democrats take black voters for granted and have ignored their needs while governing cities with large African American populations.

America must reject the bigotry of Hillary Clinton, who sees communities of color only as votes, not as human beings worthy of a better future, he said of his Democratic opponent.

In 2012, GOP nominee Mitt Romney won 6% of the black vote, according to exit poll data. Trump is seeing single-digit support among African Americans in most polls. In some states, polls Trump logged 0%.

Trump made his remarks while campaigning Friday night in Dimondale, a suburb of Lansing, Mich. The village was 92.7% white and 0.7% African American in the 2010 census.

Trump argued that Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clintons policies on issues such as immigration and refugee resettlement harm African Americans.

Clintons campaign railed against Trump, pointing out that the real estate developer was a prime figure in questioning whether President Obama, the nations first black president, was born in the country and that he had been sued for housing discrimination.

Donald Trump asks what the African American community has to lose by voting for him. The answer is everything from a man who questions the citizenship of the first African American President, courts white supremacists, and has been sued for housing discrimination against communities of color, Marlon Marshall, Clintons director of state campaigns and political engagement, said in a statement. Trump painting the entire community as living in poverty with no jobs continues to show he is completely out of touch with the African American community.
Earlier this month, when President Obama rejected Republican arguments that he had paid ransom to Iran in January to obtain the release of four Americans, we suggested that the president had the better of the argument. We still think its inaccurate to describe as ransom the payment to Iran of $400 million in cash. As Obama noted, that sum is actually part of the settlement of a dispute over a failed arms deal that stretches back to the 1970s. The money belongs to Iran, and eventually it would have been returned.

But in one important respect Obamas explanation was misleading. At a news conference the president suggested that the delivery of the $400 million in foreign currency to Iran and the release of the Americans converged because, thanks to contacts between the United States and Iran connected to negotiations over Irans nuclear program, the two countries were able to clear accounts on a number of different issues at the same time. In the same press conference Obama insisted that we do not pay ransom for hostages.

The cash wasnt ransom, in the sense that it had no purpose other than to win the prisoners release. But clearly its timing was connected to that objective.

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But on Thursday State Department spokesman John Kirby essentially confirmed a Wall Street Journal report that Iranian officials in Geneva werent allowed to take custody of the cash until a plane carrying three of the Americans was airborne. (A fourth imprisoned American was released separately.) Kirby said that because we had concerns that Iran [might] renege on the prisoner release, given unnecessary delays already regarding some persons in Iran as well as some mutual mistrust, we, of course . . . sought to retain maximum leverage until after the Americans were released.

Republicans gloated over Kirbys concession. We now know it was ransom, Rep. Ed Royce (R-Fullerton), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told The New York Times.

Royce has it exactly backward. Iran wasnt using the hostages to get more from the United States than it was entitled to; the United States was using Irans money  funds Iran had paid for weapons that the U.S. never delivered  to ensure that Iran fulfilled its promise to release Americans who shouldnt have been held.

But suppose Obama had announced, while the Americans were still imprisoned in Iran, that the U.S. wouldnt return funds rightfully belonging to Iran until the Americans were released? Would returning Irans funds to Iran after the prisoners release have constituted ransom? At what point would it have been permissible to pay Iran what was owed to it?

We raise these points to underscore the complexity of the issues surrounding this transaction. The shipment of cash wasnt ransom, in the sense of being a payment that had no purpose other than to obtain the release of prisoners. But clearly its timing was connected to that objective.

Obama should have made that clear. Why didnt he? One obvious explanation is that, even if he didnt regard the timing of the payment as a form of ransom, connecting the payment to the prisoners release encourages the opposite interpretation  which in turn would create an incentive to hold more Americans hostage. He also may have omitted this detail because some of the same Republicans who cried ransom also opposed (and continue to oppose) the international agreement that placed limitations on Irans nuclear program, a signature achievement of Obamas foreign policy and, by most accounts, a success. Its understandable that Obama didnt want to give ground to his critics, but in the end his dissembling has empowered them.
Californians first threatened to legalize recreational marijuana by ballot initiative in 1972. It failed 66% to 33%. We tried again in 2010. It was voted down 53% to 46%.

Now were back at it. This time, though Proposition 64 looks like a sure thing. Polls show support for legalization in general at 55%, and 60% among likely voters. Whats so different this time around?



For the record: Marijuana  An Aug. 20 op-ed incorrectly stated that Proposition 64 would delay vertical integration (farm-to-pot-shop) of recreational marijuana until 2023. There is no delay for small- and mid-sized growers to apply for licenses as manufacturers, distributors, or retailers. Only large-scale growers must wait until 2023 to apply, at which point they will still face limitations on integration.

Yes, demographics and attitudes have shifted here, like everywhere. But you also have to understand what went wrong back in 2010. At the time, California  the state that pioneered pot for the people  seemed poised to become the first state to legalize recreational marijuana, but the cause was unexpectedly hurt by the states convoluted history with medical marijuana.

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When medical marijuana was legalized here by ballot initiative in 1996, it was groundbreaking  but the law itself left many unanswered questions: How would pot be sold to patients? How would the state regulate those sales? State legislation, SB 420, tried to sort that out, but it left sellers even more confused. Were dispensaries allowed to profit? The guy who wrote the law, late state Sen. John Vasconcellos, said sure. Others, including former L.A. City Attorney Carmen Trutanich, said medical weed had to be a nonprofit enterprise. The rules and enforcement issues werent fully worked out until last year, when Gov. Jerry Brown signed the Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act.

Meanwhile, cities including Los Angeles struggled to keep a lid on hundreds of new dispensaries opening during the period of regulatory chaos. By 2010, years of problems policing and monitoring medical sales had taken a toll on the credibility of pro-pot activists.

It became clear that if pot legalization was going to attract majority support in California, any ballot initiative was going to have to be about more than the freedom to get high. It was going to have to delve into the details about how this was all going to work. And proponents were going to have to step up their political game.

They did.

Six years ago, Proposition 19 was a one-man-band of an initiative run by Oakland cannabis entrepreneur Richard Lee. Todays effort, Proposition 64, by contrast, is so professional it scares some old-school marijuana activists. Even some pro-marijuana groups are uncomfortable with how the measure is written to appeal to law-and-order voters.

For instance, Proposition 64 would have the state establish a Bureau of Medical Marijuana Regulation in the Department of Consumer Affairs to police the industry. Taxes of 15% at the cash register would pay for that agency and benefit police. The law also allows cities like Los Angeles to continue to limit or ban dispensaries, recreational or not.

Its 60% legalization, Ellen Komp, deputy director of California NORML, has said.

The authors of Proposition 64 have thought through the details this time.

But that might be just the right amount for California voters.

The Yes on 64 campaign has been endorsed by Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and the California NAACP. It is so sophisticated that it has a Latino outreach arm. Amid threats last year that rival marijuana groups might put competing measures on the ballot in November, Yes on 64 cleared the field and got most pro-pot soldiers to fall in line. It has raised nearly $8.5 million, including $2.5 million from former Facebook President Sean Parker. Voters may, for the first time, see pro-legalization campaign advertisements.

The opposition, meanwhile, has raised only $163,370, and its campaign is relying on old scare-tactic arguments: Legalization will expose more teens to marijuana, bring pot stores to every corner, or allow pot ads on TV.

The No on 64 crowd also asserts the initiative is a scheme to allow Parker and his ilk to create Big Tobacco-style pot companies. Its true the measure would allow vertically integrated enterprises  from the farm to the pot shop  but not before 2023. And large producers would not be allowed to merge, according to the Drug Policy Alliances reading of the ballot language. The authors of Proposition 64 have thought through the details this time.

It wasnt just Californias pot activists that learned from the loss in 2010. Stephen Gutwillig, then the state director of Drug Policy Alliance, said in 2010 that Proposition 19 moved marijuana legalization into the mainstream of American politics.

Indeed, it set the stage for Colorado to legalize recreational weed in 2012. Oregon, Washington and Alaska followed. That moved the spotlight off California for a few years, but also gave voters here a picture of what orderly legalization could look like.

Once Proposition 64 passes, expect things to move quickly. California is the nations No. 1 cannabis producer, and theres already a pot economy here. Just last summer, the state Board of Equalization estimated that there were 935 medical pot dispensaries already operating in the city of Los Angeles. Thats more than twice the number (440) of licensed recreational shops in the entire state of Colorado.

Californias ready to lead the green rush again.

Dennis Romero is a staff writer for the L.A. Weekly who has been covering marijuana laws since 2009.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook
A recently hired exotic dancer stands in a stores makeup aisle. Everything is expensive, but she has to have it for her new job. Shes also a part-time student, mother of a 2-year-old, and lives with her sister because she cant afford rent. She puts a couple things in her basket, and slips the rest into her purse, $113 worth of merchandise  misdemeanor shoplifting. A store detective makes the arrest.

A young man goes clubbing with a fake ID. His friends are older, he wants to impress a date, and he doesnt intend to drink. But he gets caught and cited. A conviction even when its a low-level crime, could prevent him from joining the armed services, being awarded a scholarship for college, or getting hired.

A man is unemployed. He gets drunk, argues with his neighbor, and puts a hole in the neighbors fence. His crime is simple vandalism, but why he did it is complicated.

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When these crimes are handled in traditional courtrooms, overburdened, understaffed judges usually assess hefty fines and pro forma community service, a rap sheet gets a permanent entry, and its on to the next case  assembly line punishment in service to abstract law and order.

I know a different kind of justice, designed for a deeper fix.

In late 2014, Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer and his staff put into motion the Neighborhood Justice Program. Built on a restorative justice model, the program is a way for first-time offenders who commit a nonviolent, non-weapons-related and non-drug-related misdemeanor to take responsibility for their actions and work with the victim and the community to repair the harm.

A panel of community members meets with the offender who has agreed to abide by what they prescribe. The panel listens to his or her story and devises appropriate obligations. If the obligations are met satisfactorily, there is no permanent record of the offense. The court has one less case to process, and the offender avoids a criminal record. The hope is that the offender learns that his actions have consequences, that he and the community forge a connection and that out of that connection, we build a better city.

Ive been a volunteer panelist in the Neighborhood Justice Program in Hollywood for more than a year. I applied through the city attorneys website, did a day of training, observed other panels. Now I sign up for the programs weekly sessions when Im available.

Three panelists meet with each participant  we dont call them offenders. The meetings include a trained volunteer facilitator and a liaison from the city attorneys office. The owner of the store where petty theft occurred or the homeowner whose fence was vandalized is always invited to participate but usually declines. The panel, then, represents the victim and the wider community that is also harmed by these offenses. Whats restored in this form of justice is the offenders standing as a member of the community.

I am overwhelmed by the perilous state of the world, about how impossible it seems to help. Neighborhood justice is something I can do.

The true beauty of the process is that its personal. Participants must acknowledge and accept responsibility for what they did. Then we discuss the effects of the offense. It may seem that talking wont accomplish much, but this is when I see the light bulb go on in these sessions.

The participants are forced to confront the ramifications of their actions. Will the bar that failed to card the clubber lose its license? Will the store, out hundreds of dollars in shoplifted merchandise, have to raise its prices? Will the neighbors fence require repairs he cant afford?

The panelists learn why participants did what they did. We discuss their families, their work, their hopes for the future. Finally, panelists and participants work together to come up with a way to make reparations.

In our training, we panelists are told to devise obligations that will help the participant think about what happened as well as make amends. It might be a letter of apology to the victim or an essay examining the act and its effects to be read by a larger group of community members. It always includes community service  as much as 24 hours spent applying a participants talents toward the neighborhoods needs.

Sometimes more is required than the opportunity to make amends. In pursuit of rehabilitation for participants, my panel has recommended employment help, GED courses or social services such as therapy or parenting classes.

Once the obligations are set, the participants are monitored by the city attorneys liaison. Over two months, the liaison decides if the obligations have been satisfied. If not, the case is sent back into the court system.

I know what youre thinking. This is too easy a way out for these offenders. But heres what Ive discovered: Confronting a neighborhood panel, admitting wrongdoing and accepting the consequences the program devises are not nothing. Appearing before a Neighborhood Justice Program panel can be life-changing  Ive seen it happen.

The results confirm that it works. Since October 2014 the Neighborhood Justice Program has dealt with 828 participants at panels in nine city neighborhoods. As of June 1, 766 participants have successfully completed their obligations. The participants have given 7,334 hours of community service. The average one-year recidivism rate is very low  3%.

I dont know about you, but I am overwhelmed by the perilous state of the world, about how impossible it seems to help. Neighborhood justice is something I can do. My panel and I can ask that exotic dancer to write a letter of apology to the store and another one to her 2-year-old daughter, to be read when the child is older. I can assign her 12 hours of community service helping women in a homeless shelter dress for job interviews. I can hope that she will continue to volunteer because its meaningful to her. If she wants job counseling or child care options, I can offer that to her as well.

It wont save the world, but its change for the better, one person at a time.

Diana Wagman is the author, most recently, of the novel Life #6.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinionand Facebook
It seemed bizarre. But Donald Trumps choice last week of a renegade, far-right news executive to lead his campaign was an inevitable culmination of a candidates war with the mainstream media and his embrace of his partys most incendiary voices.

Trumps obsession with the media has been one of the few constants in his campaign. He rails against scum reporters, withholding credentials from major news organizations and lashing out on Twitter this week against the failing New York Times, while granting lengthy interviews to those same outlets and basking in their attention. He exploits the divide in conservative media to bash enemies and create safe zones on select television and radio shows. He questions the core tenets of the 1st Amendment and flouts the judgment of fact-checkers with abandon.

The union of conservative medias edgiest elements with the partys standard-bearer has been years in the making, fomented by the establishment medias loss of dominance and credibility. Trump, who has spent years learning how to navigate and dominate the news, has stepped into that credibility void to push once-fringe ideas into mainstream conversation like no other candidate.

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You have all these websites that create this echo chamber  thats kind of an old term, said Charlie Sykes, a conservative radio host in Wisconsin. Its gone beyond an echo chamber to competing realities.

While trust in the media has fallen precipitously in the country, the drop among conservatives is especially large over the past two decades. Only about one in four Republicans surveyed by Gallup in 2014 said they trust the mass media, roughly half the level of trust expressed by Democrats. Earlier polling by Pew showed similar results, with large and widening gaps in the trust levels held by Democrats and Republicans in specific news organizations such as CNN, NBC and the New York Times. A Morning Consult poll released Friday found a plurality of Americans of all political stripes  38%  believe the media is biased in trying to help elect Hillary Clinton president, a far greater percentage than the 12% who said the media is biased in favor of Trump.

Republicans have long fed off that trust gap, but Trump has made it a central talking point. His loudest applause at rallies often comes when he points out the dishonest media confined to a cordoned-off pen. For a time this month, his own campaign took the unusual step of blasting out negative stories about Trump in news releases titled Media Bias Offender.

If the disgusting and corrupt media covered me honestly and didnt put false meaning into the words I say, I would be beating Hillary by 20%, Trump tweeted this week.

The establishment media doesnt cover what really matters in this country, or whats really going on in peoples lives, he said during a rally in North Carolina on Thursday. They will take words of mine out of context and spend a week obsessing over every single syllable, and then pretend to discover some hidden meaning in what I said.

Trump has used that distrust to join with sites like Breitbart in crafting what some observers see as an alternate reality where Trump is favored to win the election despite polls showing otherwise, where voter fraud is rampant in spite of evidence that its not and where stories that reveal darker aspects of Trumps past are either examples of media bias or do not exist at all.

In tapping Stephen Bannon, the editor of Breitbart News, as his campaigns chief executive officer, Trump has elevated a kindred spirit who, like Trump, relishes trafficking in taboo subjects and conspiracies once relegated to the far corners of conservative dialogue.

Trump just hired a mirror, said Ben Shapiro, a former editor at Breitbart who left in anger this year over what he saw as Bannons determination to create a Trump media complex at the expense of authentic conservatism. Shapiro has since criticized the site for promoting so-called alt-right voices who espouse white nationalism.

Breitbart and other sites have also helped bring rumors and conspiracies closer to the mainstream.

The latest rumor to reach Trumps rhetoric: Clintons allegedly failing health. In two speeches this week, Trump said she lacks the strength and stamina to fight terrorism. The comments alluded to unsubstantiated speculation on conservative websites, highlighted by Breitbart, that Clinton is too ill to serve as president. Clinton fainted and suffered a concussion in 2012; her doctor wrote later that she suffered symptoms, including a blood clot and double vision, that were resolved within two months. But that did not quell speculation that has circled since.

Trumps longtime political ally, Roger Stone, insisted in 2014 that Clinton would not run for president for health reasons.

Remember you heard it first from the #StoneZone, he tweeted.

The rumors have festered, relying on forged documents, speculation from doctors who never examined Clinton and pictures showing Clinton sitting on a stool or using a pillow during events. One Breitbart story quoted a former New York City police officer who had no direct knowledge of Clintons health but claimed in a tweet that another unnamed strong source told him Clinton took a long bathroom break during a debate in January due to a flare-up of problems from brain injury.

Fox News host Sean Hannity, a close Trump ally, devoted significant air time to the issue in recent weeks, asserting that a reporter was scared when Clinton jokingly shook her head in an exaggerated seizure-esque manner during an unexpected encounter with the press. The reporter in the middle of the scrum later wrote that she was not scared.

This week, after commentators claimed seeing a Clinton handler wielding an anti-seizure pen in a photograph, Clintons director of communications weighed in on Twitter.

That is a U.S. Secret Service agent with a pen, Jennifer Palmieri wrote. Normal writing pen.

It wasnt a pen, either, according to the Secret Service. Its a flashlight, period, said Nicole Mainor, a spokeswoman for the agency.

Trump has capitalized on two decades in which conservative outlets have helped transform legitimate gripes with the medias liberal slant into a post-truth environment, said Sykes

Sykes pointed to Trumps previous foray into politics  his promotion of the myth that President Obama was born outside the U.S., a persistent conspiracy theory that gained the label of birtherism.

Now we have a Republican nominee whos the nations premier birther, said Sykes, whose tough interview with Trump was credited with diminishing Trumps chances in the states spring primary, which he lost. These things dont happen in a vacuum.

Sykes said that when he talks about news stories on his show that are critical of Trump, such as a Washington Post investigation showing Trumps apparent lack of charitable donations, his listeners push back, asking why he would sell out by quoting the liberal media. He said people who get news purely from Breitbart, the Drudge Report, commentator Ann Coulter and the like were led to believe that House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) was in serious danger of losing a recent primary election to an outsider candidate who aligned himself with Trump. Ryan won with more than 80% of the vote.

What [Trump] and his enablers are doing and have succeeded in doing is to delegitimize the media altogether, and that is important to him because that inoculates him against legitimate fact-checking and against legitimate investigations of his record, Sykes said.

Supporters at Trumps rallies often echo the talking points of conservative media. Dalton Behie, a 19-year-old college student who attended a recent rally near his Virginia home, said he follows a variety of news sources on Twitter, including Breitbart, but also more mainstream news outlets that do not share his conservative viewpoint.

Still, he was unaware of major stories this week detailing alleged financial ties between Paul Manafort, who resigned Friday as Trumps campaign chairman, and a pro-Russia political party in Ukraine. Yet Behie had seen numerous stories questioning Clintons health, which have been largely limited to conservative media. He did not find the evidence conclusive, but he was curious.

It definitely raises legitimate questions, he said.

Similarly, he dismissed Clintons lead in the polls as unbelievable because some of his liberal friends who supported Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in the primary have told him they will not support Clinton in the general election.

There is also a sense among many of Trumps supporters that the media fails to grasp the sarcasm in some of Trumps more inflammatory remarks or takes them out of proportion. Thats in part because Trump tends to repeat those remarks, amplify them and resist opportunities to back down  ensuring they get maximum coverage. But there are moments that lend fuel to such critiques, including a rally where Trump did in fact seem to be joking when he told the mother of a crying baby to leave the room.

Trumps formula for remaining in constant controversy seemed to help win him the Republican nomination. And the media was just one more institution that he was tearing down.

This has been taken to an extreme that is unprecedented, said Michael Lempert, a University of Michigan linguistic anthropologist who has written about presidential politics. Mavericks arent enough. An ostentatious outsider like Sarah Palin is not enough.

Yet many mainstream Republican consultants have been frustrated with that tactic as Trump has fallen behind in general election polls. Kevin Madden, a former spokesman for Mitt Romney, said he does not believe Trumps constant battles with the media constitute a deliberate strategy at this point, nor does he believe it resonates with most voters Trump will need to overcome Clintons polling advantage.

Its a reflexive one, in that its a reaction to the very poor position that the campaign has put itself in, he said. Hes not going to accept any blame himself.

noah.bierman@latimes.com

Twitter: @noahbierman

As a young Donald Trump began his real estate career, he fought hard against allegations of racial bias

Before Trump, Americans hadnt worried this much about nuclear weapons since the Cold War

A wasted summer for Donald Trump and a boost for Hillary Clinton

UPDATES:

8:35 a.m. Aug. 22: This story was updated with comment from the Secret Service.

This story was originally published Aug. 20.
August used to be a leisurely time in presidential politics, a chance for candidates and others in the traveling campaign circus to retire to the beach or mountains and rest up for the final sprint to November, starting on Labor Day.

No more.

The round-the-clock news cycle and bottomless maw of social media make the notion of a summer respite seem as antiquated and old-timey as straw boaters and torch-light parades.

Good afternoon, Im Mark Z. Barabak, filling in for Washington Bureau Chief David Lauter. Welcome to the Friday edition of our Essential Politics newsletter, in which we look back at the events of the week in the presidential contest and highlight some particularly insightful stories.

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While the presidential candidates and their running mates kept up a brisk schedule of coast-to-coast appearances, the biggest news of the week was yet another shake-up in Donald Trumps troubled presidential campaign.

Polls in key battleground states show that Trumps already difficult climb to the White House has grown considerably steeper after several weeks of self-generated controversy. The response of the Manhattan business mogul, never one to bow to political convention, was to double down on what has proved so problematic.

TROUBLES FOR TRUMP

As Noah Bierman pointed out, the demotion of seasoned campaign veteran Paul Manafort, who left Trumps campaign Friday, and the hiring of Stephen K. Bannon, the head of the pugnacious Breitbart News website, signals Trumps intention to continue his brawling, unrestrained ways. Cue Frank Sinatra: Come Nov. 8, win or lose, Trump will be able to say he did it is his way.

Speaking of unconventional, Don Lee visited with one of Trumps economic advisors, a UC Irvine professor and four-time Democratic political candidate, Peter Navarro, who has never met the GOP nominee or even spoken with him on the telephone.

Looking back, Bierman paired with Joe Tanfani for an examination of young Donald Trumps start in the real estate business, (which was helped along nicely with a big assist from his rich father.) Even then, the hallmarks of Trumps presidential run were plainly visible, including allegations of racial insensitivity and an elbows-out approach to dealing with opponents.

Turning back to 2016, Lisa Mascaro reported from New Hampshire on concerns that Trumps sinking fortunes could drag down other Republicans running in November and possibly cost the GOP control of the U.S. Senate. Republican incumbent Kelly Ayotte is locked in one of the countrys closest Senate contests, against Democratic N.H. Gov. Maggie Hassan, and Trump hasnt made Ayottes life, or campaign, any easier.

And with shades of Dr. Strangelove, Evan Halper reported how Trumps loose talk has elevated discussion of nuclear weapons and the possibility of nuclear war to the highest level in decades.

NOT ALL ROSES FOR CLINTON

Looking beyond the top-line, or horse-race, numbers, Cathleen Decker did a deep dive on the USC Dornsife/L.A. Times tracking poll and found several structural shifts that are working to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clintons advantage.

Meantime, Tracy Wilkinson, exploring Clintons years as secretary of State, finds her tenure helping lead the nations foreign policy is not the unalloyed political asset it once was.

And in the steady drip-drip-drip surrounding Clintons use of a private email server, the FBI turned over to Congress classified documents explaining prosecutors decision not to pursue criminal charges against the Democratic standard-bearer.

WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN

Vice President Joe Biden thought long and hard about running for president  a job he twice sought  before making way for Clinton. Ever the good party soldier, he appeared this week with the Democratic nominee at a stop in his hometown of Scranton, Pa. Michael Memoli was there as Biden proclaimed: She gets it, vouching for Clintons working-class cred.

A LATE START AND A MISSED DEADLINE

Evan McMullin, the former CIA counter-terrorism officer who last week launched a late independent campaign for the presidency, did not meet Californias deadline to submit nomination papers signed by 178,039 registered voters.

WHAT WERE READING

The Pew Research Center offers some of the best political analysis around, going well beyond whos-up-and-whos-down polling to parse various demographic groups and plumb whats on voters minds. This week, the center released a nationwide survey that found Clinton and Trump supporters view the past and future in strikingly different ways. Those findings and much more are available here.

CANT GET ENOUGH CLINTON & TRUMP?

Everything you ever wanted to know about the two major-party nominees is here and here. And check our daily USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times tracking poll at the top of the politics page.

LOGISTICS

If you like this newsletter, tell your friends and family to sign up. Its free! Did someone forward you this? You can sign up here for delivery straight to your email in-box.

That wraps up this weeks summary. My colleague Christina Bellantoni will be back Monday with the weekday edition of Essential Politics. Until then, keep track of all the developments in the 2016 campaign with our Trail Guide, at our Politics page and on Twitter @latimespolitics.

Comments, suggestions, news tips? Send them along to politics@latimes.com.
The Newport Beach Fire Department sent two strike teams this week to help fight the massive Blue Cut fire in San Bernardino County.

Assistant Chief Chip Duncan said the teams, totaling 10 people, stayed in the Lytle Creek area in the San Gabriel Mountains on Wednesday and Thursday.

Resources are very thin out there, Duncan said. But this is a dangerous fire, its a huge fire, and weve sent both men and women out there to fight it.

During their first day on the scene, the Newport Beach firefighters performed perimeter control and structure defense, with no damage to buildings in their area, Duncan said.

No Newport Beach firefighters were injured.

According to estimates released Friday by San Bernardino County Fire Chief Mark Hartwig, 96 homes and 213 outbuildings had been destroyed by the fire, which had covered 37,000 acres since it began Tuesday in the Cajon Pass.

The Newport Beach Fire Department has a total of 114 personnel and deploys 38 people during every shift. There are three shifts a day.

We have to be very wise about how we use our resources, because we still have to protect the people in Orange County, Duncan said.
The capital of Ukraine is in the bottom ten of the worlds most liveable cities, being 131st out of 140 cities in Global Liveability Ranking 2016 of UK's The Economist magazine.

According to the rating, Kyiv has 44.1 scores with 100 considered ideal. The liveability rating is provided both as an overall score and as a score for five categories.

The Economist said that when ratings fall below 50% most aspects of living are severely restricted.

Ukraine got 75 scores in the education category. Stability was assessed at 20, healthcare at 54.2, culture and environment at 48.6 and infrastructure at 42.9.

Kyiv is the second in the list of ten cities with the worst - the biggest declines in liveability scores over five years. Liveability for Kyiv decreased by 25.1% in 2016 compared to 2011.

The capital of Syria  Damask is 140th this year and liveability decreased there by 26.1% (the score is 30.2).

The positions from 132nd to 139th belong to Douala (the capital of Cameroon, score 44), Harare (Zimbabwe, 42.6), Karachi (Pakistan, 40.9), Algiers (Algeria, 40.9), Port Moresby (PNG, 38.9), Dhaka (Bangladesh, 38.7), Lagos (Nigeria, 36) and Tripoli (Libya, 35.9).

Melbourne in Australia remains the most liveable of the 140 cities surveyed (score 97.5).

The Economist said that the major part of the worlds least liveable cities remain the subject of high-profile armed conflicts, while a number of other countries continue to battle insurgent groups. The weight of stability of the total score is the largest among other categories of the liveability ranking.
A fugitive wanted in connection with the slaying of an 81-year-old Newport Beach man was extradited this week to Orange County from Nevada.

Anthony Thomas Garcia, 57, of Carson City has been charged with one felony count of special-circumstances murder for financial gain, the Orange County district attorneys office said Friday.

He is suspected of killing Abelardo Abby Estacion, who was found dead at his 16th Street home April 11, 2015. Details about the slaying and Garcias alleged connection to it or Estacion have not been made public.

Nevada deputies arrested Garcia on July 28 in the Nevada capital with help from Newport Beach police. He was extradited to Orange County on Wednesday.

If convicted, Garcia could face a maximum sentence of life in state prison without possibility of parole. He is scheduled to be arraigned Sept. 16.

Detectives have been working on the case for 16 months.

Estacion was a member of the Santa Ana Elks Lodge. He originally was from the Philippines and was a veteran of the U.S. Navy.
An Irvine-based real estate firm has acquired nearly 30 acres in Huntington Beach and intends to redevelop the property into a resort and commercial and residential offerings.

Shopoff Realty Investments acquired the 28.6-acre parcel near Magnolia Street and Banning Avenue for $26.5 million, the company said in a news release.

Bloomberg.com, which first reported the acquisition, said Shopoff is committing $500 million on new development for the site and has met with the Huntington Beach Wetlands Conservancy about the project.

Specifics of the plans were not disclosed.

The parcel, about 400 yards from the Huntington State Beach entrance, had been an oil storage tank farm and pumping facility. The site contains three 500,000-barrel tanks, which will be removed.

The land parcel is in a phenomenal location with close proximity to the Pacific Ocean, William Shopoff, chief executive of Shopoff Realty Investments, said in a statement. Redevelopment of a site like this is a challenge on many fronts but creates incredible opportunities, making it an ideal project for our unique team of value-add experts.

John Santry, Shopoffs executive vice president, added, We believe that the replacement of this large industrial facility with a beautifully designed mixed-use development will better serve the community by providing improved aesthetics and services.

Other Shopoff projects have included Uptown Newport Village, a mixed-use development near John Wayne Airport in Newport Beach, and the Bayside Square office development in Corona del Mar.
UC Irvine administrators announced this week that a Palestinian student group violated student conduct policies when it disrupted an Israeli film screening in May, though the university said many allegations of other wrongdoing by the group were unfounded.

In a campuswide email sent Thursday, Thomas Parham, vice chancellor of student affairs, said Students for Justice in Palestine wrongly disrupted the May 18 on-campus screening of Beneath the Helmet, a film about Israeli soldiers, and has received a written warning as a result.

In a report dated Thursday, the Office of Student Conduct states that university policy prohibits obstruction or disruption of teaching, research, administration, disciplinary procedures or other university activities.

The group is being required to host a power mapping educational program for its members that must be completed by Nov. 18.

The program is designed to help SJP members better understand how to host constructive events and protests if they want to protest and add to the conversation, rather than detract from it, UCI spokeswoman Cathy Lawhon said Friday.

The written warning, she said, puts SJP on notice through March that its behavior is under increased scrutiny and that another violation could lead to harsher consequences.

UCI values its diverse mix of cultures and opinions, Parham said in his email. We support and defend groups exercising free speech and assembly, yet we must protect everyones right to express themselves without disruption. This is a bedrock principle of our university.

Lets continue to work together to foster a safe environment that allows the open, civil and robust exchange of ideas to flourish.

In the Office of Student Conduct report  reviewed by the Daily Pilot on Friday  investigator Crystal Rae Lugo-Shearer concludes that many of the allegations against SJP in May were unfounded, among them that SJP demonstrators harassed, threatened and terrorized people attending the screening.

The report, which includes testimony from 11 witnesses who claimed they feared for their safety, also states that it was not likely that SJP members blocked the entrances and exits of the classroom where Beneath the Helmet was screened. It also says a filmgoer was not chased by SJP demonstrators and that the demonstrators did not bang on the windows or doors.

SJP members did, the report states, demonstrate so loudly that the filmgoers were unable to hear the movie and, for a time, needed to turn up the volume.

Orange County district attorneys office spokeswoman Roxi Fyad said Friday that her office informally reviewed information about the incident provided by UCI police. Prosecutors decided a crime hadnt been committed, and no criminal charges will be filed, she said.

Sean Garcia-Leys, a student advisor with the National Lawyers Guild at the UCI law school who is working with SJP, called the allegations malicious fabrications.

Everything was found to not be credible except that students were loud  loud enough to make it difficult to watch the movie, he said.

Garcia-Leys said the SJP members felt unfairly excluded from what was supposed to be a public event, solely because of their political beliefs.

There should be student conduct charges against the group that hosted the meeting that locked them out, he said.

But Garcia-Leys said SJP does not plan to appeal Thursdays decision.

In a joint statement Friday, executives of two Jewish groups called UCIs decision a step in the right direction.

But Lisa Armony, executive director of the Hillel Foundation of Orange County, and Eric Fingerhut, president and chief executive of Hillel International, said further action is needed to ensure Jewish students are protected and afforded the right to free speech and assembly, and to make clear that efforts to thwart those freedoms by groups or individuals will not be tolerated.

The pair called on UCI to ensure the educational program to be hosted by SJP is a sincere sanction that addresses the motivations behind their conduct violation, as well as anti-Semitism and anti-Semitic forms of anti-Zionism.

bradley.zint@latimes.com

Twitter: @BradleyZint
The Newport Beach Sister City Assn. recently kicked off the 32nd annual Wendall Fish Okazaki Student Exchange.

Each July, seven graduates from Ensign Intermediate and Corona del Mar Middle schools attend classes and live with host families in Okazaki, Japan. The following fall, the seven Newport Beach students host Okazaki students in Newport.

The 2016 delegation included students Kelly White, Audrey Tumbarello, Zoe Johansson, Jaden Golden, Jack Blackman, Morgan Morgan and Wesley Lachman, as well as teacher chaperones Jennifer Brundage and Jackie Vorona. In addition to their time in Okazaki, the delegation traveled to Tokyo and Kyoto. For the sixth year, Sister City member Connie Skibba is organizing all aspects of the exchange program.

In late September, the Okazaki students will arrive here to experience school and family life with the Newport Beach students. The exchange students will attend a middle school assembly, where they will perform traditional Japanese dances and songs. They will also enjoy a day at Disneyland, a Halloween party with pumpkin carving and burgers served by Newport Beach firefighters, and other activities.

The Okazaki exchange is co-sponsored by Newport Beach Sister City Assn. and the Rotary Club of Newport Balboa. Each year, these organizations jointly present a fundraiser to support the program. This years fundraiser, the Taste of Japan, will be held at 5:30 p.m. Oct. 29 at the Oasis Senior Center in Newport Beach.

Visit nbsca.org for details about the fundraiser and the exchange.

Sister City student attends leadership summit

From July 13 to 16, Jack Woodworth, a student at Newport Harbor High School, represented Newport Beach at Sister Cities Internationals youth leadership summit in Washington, D.C.

Sister Cities International serves as the membership organization for individual sister city organizations across the United States. The summits goal was to introduce participants to leadership activities and diplomatic affairs.

Jack was one of 115 student representatives from around the world. He enjoyed a taste of college life while staying in the George Washington University dormitories.

Thank you to the Newport Beach Sister City Association for allowing me to represent our city, he said. It was great to be part of the youth leadership conference and go to a different city while still feeling connected with people there.

The student representatives acted as flag bearers at the Parade of Flags, held during the conferences opening ceremony. They visited museums, the White House and the U.S. Capitol. They enjoyed a reception at the residence of the Japanese ambassador to the United States, Kenichiro Sasae.

On the final day, they attended breakfast at the main conference, where they heard from the foreign diplomatic corps panel with the ambassadors of Malta, Serbia and Armenia.

Ensenada twice welcomes Newport Sister City

Newport Beach appointed Melanie Woodworth chairwoman of its Sister City relationship with Baja, Mexico. Ensenada has twice welcomed Woodworth and her husband, Victor, this year.

In April, the Woodworths enjoyed their first visit for the finish of the Newport to Ensenada International Yacht Race. They attended a dinner hosted by 93-year-old Don Carlos Avila and his wife to celebrate Ensenadas 64th year of organizing the race.

They presented the mayor of Ensenada with dozens of gift baskets donated by Sister City members for the Dia del Nino (day of the children). On this day, Mexico honors children with their favorite foods, games, music, and gifts.

Ensenada invited the Woodworths to celebrate its 134th birthday on May 15. The Woodworths enjoyed the weekend in Ensenadas city center and dined at Finca Altazona and Laja, world renowned restaurants in the Valle de Guadalupe, Ensenadas fast-emerging wine country.

Student Exchange with Antibes, France?

Plans are underway for a student exchange with Newports sister city in France, Antibes. The Sister City group is seeking a member to lead that exchange program, as well as members with computer and website expertise.

Sister City organizations promote peace through people-to-people relationships, said Liddy Paulsen, Newport Sister City president. We as members act as citizen diplomats. The relationships we establish with our sister cities help our businesses, government and other cities to make contact with dignitaries in our sister cities. We in turn learn more about other cultures and make new friends along the way.

Membership benefits include first consideration for trips to the organizations sister cities, invitations to events for dignitaries visiting Newport Beach, and invitations to parties, dinners and cultural events held to commemorate international holidays.

Of course, there is also the opportunity to make new friends and lifetime memories. Adults interested in Sister City membership should visit nbsca.org.

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The Daily Pilot wants to hear about your clubs or organizations events so we can inform our readers. Contact DIANE DARUTY at dianedaruty@sbcglobal.net or (949) 322-7949.
The Newport Beach City Council will soon consider the 26-story, 504,000-square-foot Museum House condominium tower proposed to replace the Orange County Museum of Art in Newport Center. I would like to point out that this approval is completely discretionary, meaning that this property has no entitlement to build anything beyond the structure that is currently there.

If our City Council decides to approve this project, it will be continuing its pattern of approving development after development without giving heed to its constituents desire for preserving a certain standard of livability in Newport Beach, such as not allowing our beautiful beach town to become choked with traffic and demands on our resources that we are ill-prepared to meet. Our City Council needs to represent the wishes of the citizens who elected them  a good start would be to say no to the Museum House project.

Susan Seely

Newport Beach

..

Presentation slanted toward developer

I sat next to a Daily Pilot writer who covered the Museum House meeting. I am not questioning the facts that were published in the Daily Pilot article. The newspaper did not say anything wrong. It just chose not to tell the whole story. I am completely disappointed in our hometown newspaper. We have been a subscriber for 50 years. That has now become a question mark.

I am not a professional writer. I know what was said in the presentation. I listened to all of the speakers in the audience. I heard all of the questions. I clearly heard all of the responses.

The presentation was given by the designer and builder of the proposed condominium project in Newport Center. I would estimate that there was in excess of 200 people in attendance. Nearly all of the attendees were opposed to the project and all who spoke were most definitely opposed. Only the developer spoke, and his small staff went completely unnoticed.

The slide presentation was large and well organized to give a different look to the project that stands as it is. It was shrewdly designed to promote the developers views and not necessarily the facts as they are. He was called on this by several members in the audience with minimal response by him.

He stated, on several occasions, that he has no interest in making any modifications to his proposal. And he would not consider moving his project to a different location in the city.

Jim Warren

Newport Beach

..

Candidate showed leadership

I am very proud of those who celebrate our city and those who care enough to engage and step into the arena of leadership. A few weeks ago, Costa Mesa Parks Commissioner Julie Mercurio bowed out of the race for City Council. I believe Mercurio represents the silent majority of Costa Mesa. She has harnessed social media, to make their reasonable voices heard providing a platform for debate, civic information and the empowerment of the heretofore silent majority. The Facebook group, Costa Mesa Public Square, now has over 7,550 members.

Mercurio is the future of Costa Mesa. Shes a single mom raising two children who wants a safe city they can grow up in. Mercurio is a long-time Costa Mesan who wants improvement and values civility over disparagement.

Possessing the rare combination of charisma, an ability to communicate effectively, thoughtfulness and the courage to articulate her positions on issues, Mercurio embodies the wind of change blowing through our city.

I hope Julie stays involved. So often we only hear from those that only care to criticize. Mercurio breaks that mold and lets hope she continues to add her brand to our city. Mercurios infectious smile and positive message is contagious. I want to thank her and hope public service is in her future.

Mayor Steve Mensinger

Costa Mesa

..

Residents should get to vote on Banning Ranch

I wish the local residents could vote and decide whether to allow the Banning Ranch development. Its so obvious who benefits: the developers. Those who live in the surrounding community have to make room, in terms of road use and water use, and have to put up with the added pollution during construction. Those who think that nature should have a say, that endangered species should be given a space to live, could add their vote also.

The developers could vote too, if they lived here. Thats democracy. But that isnt the current case.

Development of our coast is not a democratic decision. It is a big money and politics decision. Banning Ranch is the last, large parcel of undeveloped coastal property left in Orange County and would provide a unique wildlife corridor throughout adjoining parks along the Santa Ana River. It is also unique for its coastal mesa, bluffs, arroyos and coastal salt marsh. What a treasure.

Once developed, you cant bring it back; itll be lost forever. The only voice we have to protect this rare environment is through letters and attending Coastal Commission meetings, which is why I am writing this. Theres one coming up Sept. 7 to 9, right here in Newport Beach at the Civic Center. Its a rare opportunity to influence the right decision for today and our future generations.

Philip Chipman

Costa Mesa

..

Irvine should stay out of Banning Ranch

Im responding to a letter from Dennis Gimian of Irvine. The only people who have the right to voice their opinions on Banning Ranch are residents of Costa Mesa, Newport Beach and Huntington Beach. Mr. Gimian, why dont you and the rest of Irvine residents continue to put your efforts into your Great Park and leave Banning Ranch to people who are actually affected by it.

David Martinson

Costa Mesa

..

Have we seen the last of Michael Phelps?

Regarding Michael Phelps more or less retiring you just never know what motivations people have regarding future events. Leaving the 2016 Olympic Games with 28 total Olympic medals  of which 23 are gold he is the most decorated Olympian ever, and will probably remain that way for at least a century.

Phelps, however, might get the itch a few years from now regarding the 2020 games in Tokyo. He will be 35 in 2020, the same age as American swimmer Anthony Ervin, who took the gold in the 50-meter mens swimming freestyle a few days ago. So it may indeed be a case of never say never again, or come 2020 in Tokyo, the world might see a bit of more splashing in the pool by Phelps.

Bill Spitalnick

Newport Beach

..

Singapore is a model of math education

One of the best newspapers in Britain is Londons Financial Times (FT). It keeps track of financial health in London and around the world.

Like many people it is dawning on the British that there is a causal relationship between high school math scores and financial dominance. If people have trouble counting, they probably have trouble counting money.

Who wants a banker who cant count?

Therefore, the FT recently visited a little island just east of the Indian Ocean: Singapore. Why? Because Singaporean high school students routinely score at the top of the world in international math tests. And Singapores economy is booming. The FT wanted to learn the Singaporean secret.

Heres how Singapore does it:

The parents are aware and involved. They have high academic expectations of their children, and let their children know it. The children take their parents expectations very, very seriously.

The teachers are quite calm. They are perfectly clear about what they want. If the students are inattentive, the teachers get a little sharp. They never yell. But its not much of an issue. The students take their teachers very, very seriously.

All students are expected to do well. Talent is secondary. Effort is primary.

The core of the Singaporean curriculum is math and science. Singaporeans get a lot of quantitative training. They dont just learn procedures. They learn to think like mathematicians. They become excellent problem-solvers.

Once they master the basics, then they can get creative.

Students are competitive with each other, but in a fun, encouraging way.

The entire culture is pro-education. Singaporeans accept that freedom is based on prosperity, and prosperity is based on academic excellence. Therefore, school and work are closely linked. When Singaporeans get their diplomasthe jobs are ready for the graduates, and the graduates are ready for the jobs.

Its good Singapore is as small as it is, or we might be in trouble.

Steve Davidson

Newport Beach
For Glendale Police Officer James Colvin, the new assignment is deeply personal.

Three years ago, his mother, who has a history of mental illness, went missing.

She ended up in Minnesota, breaking into a house, with a steel bar in her hand, Colvin told city officials at a meeting earlier this week.

The police officer who responded to the call had gone through mental-health training, and recognized signs of dementia and schizophrenia.

He was able to de-escalate that situation, treated my mom like a person, Colvin said. No use of force was used, and she got the treatment she needed.

Earlier this year, Colvin  who also volunteers for the Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services suicide hotline  was reassigned to lead the Glendale Police Departments new Mental Health Evaluation Team, which consists of another officer and, starting in October, a Los Angeles County mental health clinician.

The trio will respond to mental health-related calls, and proactively follow up with individuals to make sure theyre getting the help they need. That may include helping the homeless find housing or following up with mental health patients to make sure theyre taking their prescribed medications, said Glendale Police Chief Robert Castro.

The goal, he said, is to reduce repeat calls on the same people, which can bog down patrol officers. Since the team was put in place, Castro said, its been averaging about five calls a day.

Exacerbating the workload, Castro said, is that some people with substance abuse problems arent being treated through the court system because of Proposition 47, which downgraded some drug-related crimes to misdemeanors.

A lot of people who may be committing petty crimes or causing problems have issues that need to be resolved, he said, noting that Glendale police see them more as victims instead of criminals. We need to get them some sort of help or else were going to continue the cycle of arrest, release, arrest, release  and that doesnt help anybody.

Colvin also works closely with family members of those with mental illnesses. This year, he helped place a 15-year-old girl with a history of violent, suicidal and unpredictable behavior in a treatment facility in Utah.

The bread-and-butter of this team is going to be long-term problem solving, Colvin said.

--

Alene Tchekmedyian, alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com

Twitter: @atchek
A former employee of a Huntington Beach remodeling company was sentenced Friday for cashing disability checks under the false pretense of being unable to work, prosecutors said.

Angel Monzon, 53, of Santa Ana was sentenced to 180 days in jail, three years of probation and was ordered to pay more than $25,000 in restitution, according to the Orange County district attorneys office

In 2015, he pleaded guilty to one felony count of insurance fraud and two felony counts of making fraudulent statements.

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Monzon worked as a granite installer in 2010 for Fermol Inc., based on Hamilton Avenue. During that year, he fell while carrying a large piece of granite and was placed on temporary total disability, according to the district attorneys office.

He received more than $24,000 in disability benefits while reporting to doctors that he was unable to work because of his injuries and limited physical abilities, prosecutors said.

Despite those claims, however, Monzon resumed work as a granite installer and collected income while simultaneously accepting disability benefits, prosecutors said.

In 2012, Fermol reported to an insurance company that Monzon, who never returned to Fermol after his injury, had resumed working for either himself or another company in a similar line of work, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said in 2013, while under oath, Monzon lied by claiming not to have worked since his injury and that his only income came from disability benefits, among other claims.

The California Department of Insurance investigated the case after reviewing video surveillance footage showing Monzon working on projects similar to those performed before his injury, prosecutors said.

bradley.zint@latimes.com

Twitter: @BradleyZint
Ten Years Ago

A series of rainstorms caused a sinkhole to open up on Alta Canyada Road just north of Foothill Boulevard, leading to the closure of the roadway for about a day. The damage occurred in a section of the road where Southern California Gas Co. was improving its gas lines in connection with a city sewer project.

Twenty Years Ago

Christine Shumka of Knight Way was the first La Canadan to connect to a then-new sewer line running from the water reclamation plant on the La Canada Flintridge Country Club. Shumka said she was delighted with the ability to hook up to a sewer line as her home septic system was having to be pumped all the time. She was so eager to abandon the septic tank that on the same day she visited City Hall to take care of required paperwork, her plumbing contractor was in line there to take out a permit to do the work for her.

Thirty Years Ago

Tickets went on sale ($5 adults; $3 kids) for the Musical Chili Supper and Art Show organized to benefit the La Canada High School Fine Arts Department. Ticket purchasers were promised a special evening, with local celebrity Ormly Gumfudgin (born C. Stanley Locke) presiding over the chili offerings. Gumfudgin was the Keeper of the Official Seal and official historian of the International Chili Society. He also worked for many years as head of the employees recreation department at La Canadas Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Forty Years Ago

Pasadenas hopes of annexing the land containing the Jet Propulsion Laboratory months before La Canada could achieve cityhood were dashed by a 3-1 vote of the Local Agency Formation Commission of Los Angeles County. Speaking before the commission on La Canadas behalf were Warren Hillgren, then president of the local chamber of commerce and George Parrish, chairman of the Cityhood Action Committee. The lone dissenter on the commission vote was John D. Phillips, a former Pasadena city manager.

Fifty Years Ago

Ronald Reagan was spotted driving along Foothill Boulevard in La Canada 50 years ago this week by the owner/publisher of the Valley Sun, who was curious as to what might have brought the noted actor and rising politician to town. Noting that Reagan turned his car onto Alta Canyada Road, the journalist realized he was here to visit the co-chair of his 1966 campaign for governor of California, Phil Battaglia, a 31-year-old lawyer, Alta Canyada area resident and president of the Los Angeles Junior Chamber of Commerce who had been recommended for the job. Once Reagan was elected, Battaglia served for a time as his chief of staff.

Sixty Years Ago

A new supermarket opened in town on March 1, 1956, to serve the burgeoning post-World War II population. Alexanders Market anchored a shopping center on Foothill Boulevard at Vineta Avenue, roughly where McDonalds is today, and had to be torn down years later to make way for the Foothill (210) Freeway. Among the new stores offerings were a self-service Van de Kamp bakery section and an ice cream shop operated by Brookdale.

Compiled from the Valley Sun archives by Carol Cormaci
Ten Years Ago

Actor Haley Joel Osment, then 18, in August 2006 was charged with misdemeanor driving under the influence and possession of marijuana, nearly a month after his 1995 Saturn flipped over on Flintridge Avenue in a single-car accident. Osment, who was alone in the car and whose blood alcohol content was double the legal limit at the time of the 1 a.m. crash, suffered a fractured rib and an injured shoulder.

Twenty Years Ago

Apparently not content just to steal jewelry and silverware from two homes near La Canada Elementary School one morning in August 1996, evidence suggested the intruder(s) involved also enjoyed food pilfered from the kitchens of both residences.

Thirty Years Ago

Three nearly simultaneous brush fires broke out in the area, one a 400-acre blaze in the Chevy Chase Canyon-Linda Vista area that damaged three houses and threatened not only Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy but also Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. A second fire burned the roof a home on Paulette Place near Paradise Canyon Elementary School, and a third that had been ignited on a brushy hillside on Berkshire Place near the 210 Freeway damaged a Meadow Grove Street home. Glendale fire investigator John Orr, who more than five years later was arrested and eventually convicted as a serial arsonist who took the lives of four people in one spectacular 1984 home center fire in South Pasadena, told a Valley Sun reporter in the summer of 1986 that he could provide no information related to the local incidents beyond his belief that arson was involved.

Forty Years Ago

Someone cut through two master padlocks in order to get into the ice cream freezer at the La Canada High School cafeteria. Stolen were unknown quantities of the dessert. Also taken from the cafeteria were several 30-pound cases of American cheese and one 30-pound case that contained chicken parts.

Fifty Years Ago

An old, 83-stall structure at Flintridge Riding Club was bulldozed during August 1966 to make way for new equestrian facilities. Plans were underway for a fall barn dance to celebrate the opening of the new stalls.

Sixty Years Ago

The then newly formed Foothill Foreign Car Club held an 85-mile pajama rally. Club President Nelson Bice of Belaire Drive reported that 33 cars, with their drivers and navigators dressed in pajamas, drove from San Fernando to Saugus, traversing fire trails and other roads, and participating in stunts along the way. Earning the highest points during the event were John C. Lewis of Palm Drive and his wife Margery.

Compiled from the Valley Sun archives by Carol Cormaci.
The Saudi Arabia-led coalition fighting rebels in Yemen said Friday it regrets Doctors Without Borders plans to withdraw from hospitals in the northern part of the country because of what the aid group described as indiscriminate bombings.

The coalition values the work done by the aid group under difficult circumstances and wants to resolve the situation, according to a statement published by the official Saudi Press Agency.

The Coalition is committed to full respect for international humanitarian law in the conduct of our operations in Yemen, the statement said.

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The aid group, also known as Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF, said Thursday it was withdrawing staff from six hospitals in northern Yemen after a coalition airstrike Monday on a hospital in the Houthi rebel-controlled area of Hajjah killed 19 people and wounded at least 24.

Mondays airstrike was the fourth and deadliest attack on any clinic supported by Doctors Without Borders during the fighting, though other health facilities have also been attacked, according to a statement by the group.

There have been countless attacks on health facilities and services all over Yemen despite the fact that MSF has systematically shared the GPS coordinates of hospitals in which we work with the parties involved in the conflict, the statement said.

Given the intensity of the current offensive and our loss of confidence in the Saudi-led coalitions ability to prevent such fatal attacks, MSF considers the hospitals in Saada and Hajjah to be unsafe for both patients and staff.

Although it would pull its staff, the group said it would continue to provide indirect support such as medicine for northern Yemen.

The coalition of Arab states, which is backed by the U.S., intervened in Yemen in March 2015 to help battle Shiite Muslim rebels who had forced the president into exile.

Joan Tubau, the aid groups general director, said in a phone interview Friday that he welcomed the chance for discussions with coalition representatives, but insisted that there needed to be an independent investigation into the airstrikes.

The outcomes need to be discussed and there needs to be a clear correlation between this investigation and decisions of protocol and rules of engagement and we need to see changes in this, Tubau said.

The decision to evacuate staff from northern Yemen was difficult, he said.

It means youre leaving patients that require our help, but also hospitals full of . . . workers that require our support and contribution in order to keep up the services in terms of standard and scope of care, he said. Its a hard decision when we cannot guarantee the safety of our staff.

Bulos is a special correspondent.

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(Xinhua) 19:36, August 19, 2016

BEIJING, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- A mutual visa exemption agreement between China and Tonga took effect Friday and is expected to attract more Chinese tourists to the South Pacific island kingdom, said China's tourism authority.

Starting Friday, Chinese and Tongan holders of ordinary passports can enter or transit through each other's countries without a visa, with a maximum stay of 30 days, said the China National Tourism Administration.

The agreement was signed on June 9 by Chinese Ambassador to Tonga Huang Huaguang and Tongan Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Akilisi Pohiva in the Tongan capital of Nuku'alofa.

"The agreement aims to promote people-to-people exchanges between our two countries, especially in the tourism and business sectors," Huang said.

To visit Tonga, a Polynesian kingdom and archipelago consisting of 176 islands in the south Pacific ocean, Chinese tourists can take daily flights from the Chinese mainland via Sydney or Auckland, or three flights weekly from Hong Kong via Fiji, according to the Tonga tourism authority.

In 2012, China and Tonga signed a similar visa waiver agreement, but it only applied to holders of diplomatic passports, service/official passports and passports for public affairs. Enditem
Hundreds of thousands of people marched in Yemens capital Saturday in support of a new governing body announced last month by rebels and former President Ali Abdullah Saleh but quickly rejected by the United Nations and the countrys internationally recognized government.

The demonstration in rebel-held Sana, which featured people packed together holding Yemeni flags and banners, backed the Higher Political Council supported by Houthi rebels and Saleh, who stepped down in 2012 as a result of the Arab Spring protests.

A coalition of Arab states led by Saudi Arabia and supported by the United States intervened in Yemen in 2015 to help fight the Shiite Muslim rebels, who had forced President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi into exile. The coalition is fighting to reinstate Hadi.

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The official Saudi Press Agency issued a statement Saturday saying the formation of the council made the search for a peaceful solution more difficult by unconstitutional and unilateral actions in Sana.

These actions only increase the divisions in Yemen and will not address the political, economic, and security problems that are causing such widespread suffering throughout the country, the statement said.

More than 6,500 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in the fighting between rebels and the Saudi-led coalition, according to the U.N.

Footage posted by activists on social media showed crowds pouring into Sanas Sabeen square, waving flags and shouting slogans in support of the council.

Hisham Omeisy, an independent analyst based in Sana, said warplanes from the Saudi-led coalition dropped explosives near the rally.

I honest to God didnt expect such folly. Jets usually do low-altitude flybys, break the sound barrier  but never [drop] bombs when there are big crowds of people and with cameras rolling, Omeisy said in an interview on the instant messaging service WhatsApp. It took a moment to sink in that the Saudis had actually bombed the area.

There was no immediate comment from the coalition about the purported bombing, and the claim could not be independently verified.

Footage uploaded by Omeisy on social media showed people firing machine guns in what he described as a show of defiance.

Al-Masirah, the Houthis television channel, said that three people were killed in a coalition airstrike on the area of Al-Nahdayn in Sana, roughly two miles away from Sabeen square.

Bulos is a special correspondent.
China's Ministry of Commerce spokesperson Shen Danyang speaks at a press conference in Beijing on August 17, 2016. [Photo: mofcom.gov.cn]

China's Ministry of Commerce (MOC) on Friday voiced its concerns over the Australian government's latest rejection of an investment application from two Chinese companies.

On Friday, the Australian Department of the Treasury made a final ruling to block the sale of electricity distributor Ausgrid to China's State Grid and the Hong Kong-listed Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings.

Ausgrid is a state-owned company whose shareholder is currently the New South Wales government. The two Chinese companies had offered to buy 50.4 percent of Ausgrid under a 99-year lease.

The actions by Chinese companies were normal business activities in line with market principles, MOC spokesman Sun Jiwen said, adding that they had followed international bidding procedures and cooperated in Australia's security inspection.

China respects the Australian safety inspection for foreign investment based on its laws, but blocking the sale in the last stage of the public bidding process revealed uncertainty in the Australian investment environment, Sun said.

The rejection will "severely hurt the willingness of Chinese companies to invest in Australia and exert negative influence on Sino-Australian economic and trade relations," Sun said.

He added that China hopes Australia will use caution when adopting security inspection practices in order to create a fair, equitable and transparent environment for foreign investors.

It was not the first rejection by the Australian government of Chinese investment. Earlier this year, Australia blocked the sale of a cattle company to a Chinese consortium, citing Australia's national interests.
The two will likely strive to reach consensus despite disagreement on key issues, experts say

US President Barack Obama will hold "in-depth meetings" with President Xi Jinping next month during his 11th and probably final trip as president to Asia, the core region of his administration's foreign policy, the White House said.

Experts said that disagreements will remain between China and the United States on key issues, such as the South China Sea and the planned deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense anti-missile system in the Republic of Korea, but the two leaders will likely strive to reach a consensus.

During the eight-day trip, starting on Sept 2, Obama will attend his final G20 summit in Hangzhou, the White House said in a statement on Thursday.

After the summit, he will visit Laos  the first visit to the country by a US president  where he will attend the US-ASEAN Summit and the East Asia Summit before winding up his Asian trip.

This trip will highlight Obama's ongoing commitment to the G20 as the main forum for international economic cooperation as well as the "US rebalance to Asia and the Pacific" strategy, the White House said.

Tao Wenzhao, a researcher in Sino-US relations at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the talks between Xi and Obama will be "of great importance" to bilateral relations. However, the relationship will continue to experience "ups and downs" with unresolved disputes on issues including the South China Sea and THAAD, he said.

"It will be the 'new normal' (a term usually used to describe China's ongoing economic structural adjustment) of the Sino-US relationship, with fluctuations from time to time," he said, adding that such ups and downs are likely to continue during the next US administration.

Obama's presidential term will end in January.

Zuo Xiying, a researcher of US foreign policy at Renmin University of China, said the possibility could not be ruled out that Obama might "point fingers at China" on the South China Sea issue during multilateral meetings in Laos.

"China will definitely not accept accusations by the US," he said.

Obama's visit to Laos will send a signal to Southeast Asian countries that the US will maintain its presence in the region, he added.

Stephen Orlins, president of the New York-based National Committee on US-China Relations, said in an interview with Xinhua that as the G20 host, China has an opportunity to set the tone and agenda for the meeting and help participants reach consensus.

Orlins also expressed confidence that the G20 summit could help deepen mutual understanding between China and the US and boost bilateral ties.

"Every time that an American president visits China, it is a benefit to US-China relations. Every time that a Chinese president and an American president meet, it is a benefit to US-China relations," Orlins was quoted as saying.

Obama previously visited China in 2009 and 2014.

Contact the writers at [email protected]
(Photo/Hebeinews.cn)

Traffic police in different cities throughout China took to the internet to live broadcast what they were doing in the streets throughout August, to make law enforcement procedures clear to the public.

The idea was to show a "transparent law enforcement process to the public", according to the Traffic Management Bureau of the Public Security Ministry.

On August 19, the traffic control department in Lanzhou, capital of northwest China's Gansu province for the first time webcasted traffic police in the city through social media platforms, which attracted more than 20 thousand viewers online.

On the same day, local media reported a 39-minute webcast of traffic officers conducting law enforcement generated viewers of more than 350 thousand in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan province.

Traffic police officers surnamed Tan told the media, "The form of live feed is very good, though we hope [by watching] people can know more about traffic police in Chengdu, and hope offenders can consciously abide by traffic rules."

The webcasts were welcomed by many, observing that while the traffic police usually supervise the public, now the public gets to supervise them.

It is expected that the municipal traffic departments of more cities across China would carry out the way of live webcasting on the social media like Weibo, to let people see the actions of traffic police.
What looks to be a mostly sunny Saturday will give way to storms Sunday, then a break from the humid heat on Monday, weather agencies predict.

Forecasts call for only a slight chance of showers Saturday, when the high is expected to reach about 90 degrees in the Lehigh Valley.

Things will start to get a little dicey late Sunday afternoon when thunderstorms moving from the west could bring strong wind, hail and heavy rain, according to a National Weather Service outlook.

"People spending time outdoors or on the highways should keep an eye out for rapidly changing weather conditions," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski said in that agency's forecast.

Potentially strong storms will move through the region later Sunday, but they will set up a welcome change in the heat and humidity for Monday. (AccuWeather graphic)

The storms will be spotty, however. Some areas may see little rainfall while others get drenched with an inch or more, AccuWeather said.

The Eastern PA Weather Authority said storms are likely Sunday, but wasn't sold on their severity. The arrival of cooler air behind the storm front may not happen until Monday, lessening the risk, Bobby Martrich said in his agency's forecast video on social media, though he cautioned those conditions may change over the weekend.

Following the storms will be a comfortable change Monday, where highs may struggle to break 80 degrees in the Valley -- "just a fantastic day compared to what we've been dealing with, all this oppressive heat and humidity," he said.

Steve Novak may be reached at snovak@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @type2supernovak and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
MANAGEMENT of a county Limerick nursing home have taken swift action after a resident was left unattended in a bathroom on her own overnight.

The lady, who is understood to be aged in her late seventies, is a resident at St Michaels Nursing Home in Caherconlish. After this happened in recent weeks she has chosen to remain there.

The staff member who was in charge on the night of July 22 has been dismissed from their post and three healthcare assistants, who were involved, have been issued with final written warnings.

In a statement to the Limerick Leader following a media query, Sandra Farrell, provider and managing director, said: Regrettably at St Michaels Nursing Home, we had an incident recently where one of our residents was left unattended at night in their bathroom for a long period of time. This unacceptable breach of policy has been treated very seriously by management.

When management was informed of this serious incident, immediate action was taken. Ms Farrell, who was in Holland to explore international best practices in dementia care at the time, contacted HIQA after being told what had occurred.

As this is a notifiable event requiring reporting to HIQA, this was duly completed on the day the incident was reported. An internal investigation was immediately commenced.

All staff involved were suspended until the full investigation was completed. The resident and their family were kept informed throughout the process.

The resident was offered a GP review, psychological support from our in-house psychotherapy which Is available to all residents when required, said Ms Farrell.

Following the completion of the detailed investigation it has been concluded that the incident resulted from a breakdown of communication between staff during a staff shift change, and a failure to fully comply with our procedures.

HIQA and the residents family were informed of the outcomes and measures put in place to ensure that there would be no such reoccurrence of this substandard level of care, she said.

The staff member who was in charge that night has been dismissed from their post. Three healthcare assistants who were involved in the incident have been issued with final written warnings which will be placed on their file.

A mentoring and retraining program will be completed for these healthcare assistants concerned. In addition to this, a period of close supervision by senior members of staff will be carried out, said Ms Farrell.

Management offered the residents family assistance with seeking alternative nursing home accommodation.

However, the family declined this offer as they stated that their parent was very content and settled in the nursing home.

We, here at St Michaels are more than disappointed that this incident happened and as demonstrated above we have taken appropriate action to address the failures that arose.

We have truly apologised to the resident and their family.

We are committed to providing the highest level of care at St Michaels and on maintaining our focus on the protection and well-being of all the residents in our care, concluded Ms Farrell.

A HIQA spokesperson said: We are aware of this allegation and were notified as per the relevant regulations by the provider.

Opened in 2012, St Michaels Nursing Home has 80 bedrooms  62 single and 9 double en-suite rooms. Between full and part-time staff over 90 are employed.

Last August, staff and management, along with locals in Caherconlish raised over 5,000 to pay for medical treatment and the funeral of a nurse in India who joined St Michaels in 2013.

Sophia Lorense, aged 59, passed away this week last year from inoperable pancreatic cancer.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 20

Trend:

Armenias armed forces have 17 times violated the ceasefire on the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops over the past 24 hours, said Azerbaijans Defense Ministry Aug. 20.

The Armenian army was using large-caliber machine guns.

The Armenian armed forces stationed in the Paravakar village of Armenias Ijevan district opened fire at the Azerbaijani positions located on nameless heights of the Gazakh district.

Positions of the Azerbaijani army located in the villages of Kokhanabi, Munjuglu and Garalar of the countrys Tovuz district also underwent fire from the Armenian positions located in the nameless heights and the Chinari village of Armenias Berd district.

Azerbaijani positions came under fire from the positions located in the Goyarkh village of the Terter district, Merzili village of the Aghdam district, Garakahnbayli village of the Fizuli district.

Azerbaijani positions also took fire from the positions located on nameless heights of the Goranboy, Khojavand and Jabrayil districts.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
May 3, 2021, 2 AM

Finnish-born architect Eero Saarinen is honored on a 20 stamp from 1982 showing the Dulles Airport terminal building he designed.

By Michael Baadke

Architect Eero Saarinen was born Aug. 20, 1910, in Kirkkonummi, Finland. He was the son of another famous architect, Eliel Saarinen, who was also born on Aug. 20, but in the year 1873.

The father, Eliel Saarinen, was honored on a 60-penni stamp from Finland issued Aug. 20, 1973, to mark his birth centenary (Finland Scott 532).

The son, Eero Saarinen, was honored on a United States 20 stamp issued Sept. 30, 1982. This stamp shows the terminal building he designed for Dulles Airport outside Washington, D.C., and includes his name in the inscription (Scott 2022). The stamp is part of the fourth and final set of American Architecture series commemoratives.

Other structures by Eero Saarinen have been featured on U.S. stamps.

The 2002 Missouri stamp from the 50-stamp Greetings from America set clearly shows the Gateway Arch monument in St. Louis (34 Scott 3585, 37 Scott 3720).

The 2005 Modern American Architecture set includes a 37 TWA Terminal New York stamp (Scott 3910d). Saarinen is named as the architect in text printed on the back of the liner paper.

And the Gateway Arch was commemorated again in 2006 as part of the 39 Wonders of America set of 40 stamps, featured as the tallest man-made monument (Scott 4044).

Eero Saarinen studied sculpture in Paris and architecture at Yale University. He became a naturalized American citizen in 1940, and died in 1961.
May 2, 2021, 7 PM

The picture side of the postcard shows a New York City landmark, Castle Williams, which was built by the United States Army Corps of Engineers in 1911, and which today is part of a national park

A private mailing card sent from New York City to Athens, Greece, actually began its travels in Indianapolis, Ind., as an unusual marking reading up the left edge of the card explains.

By Charles A. Fricke

The 1899 postcard pictured here features the image of a New York City landmark: Castle Williams, which is now part of the Governors Island National Monument.

But this card also includes an unusual postal marking that adds to its historic charm.

Lets begin with a brief history of the circular fortification illustrated on the back of the card.

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Castle Williams was designed by Lt. Col. Jonathan Williams of the United States Army Corps of Engineers. Its construction was completed in 1811, just prior to the War of 1812.

The structure was intended to be a fortification on Governors Island that would serve as part of a defense system for New York Harbor.

It is 210 feet in diameter with a sandstone wall of 7 feet to 8 feet thick, consisting of four levels and 13 casements holding up to 26 cannons.

Although it was never part of an active defensive operation, it did hold Union troops during the Civil War, as well as Confederate prisoners of war and Union deserters.

Later it served as a low-security military prison. Over time it was upgraded with housing improvements until it ceased operations in 1965.

The Coast Guard took control of the island that year and considered demolishing Castle Williams, but the structure was instead converted into a community center. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972, transferred to the National Park Service in 2003, and opened to the public in 2011 following extensive rehabilitation.

The postcard, therefore, pictures the structure during the period when it was in use as a military prison.

The postcard was mailed with an 1899 2 red type IV George Washington stamp (Scott 279B) and is postmarked New York, N.Y., with a Dec. 12, 1899, flag cancel. It is addressed to Dr. Th. von Heldreich in Athens, Greece, Europe.

Handstamped below the large printed message Private Mailing Card is the message Postal Card-Carte Postale. This additional message follows a Universal Postal Union agreement that allowed the card to be mailed at the 2 UPU first-class postcard rate.

On the back, or picture side of the postcard is an imprint identifying the card with a No. 7 as a product of New York publisher Arthur Livingston.

The handstamped return address of Mrs. Mary F. Muhl of Indianapolis, Ind., appears at lower right. Since the card was mailed in New York City without a message, it is likely an exchange postcard.

That means Mrs. Muhl was sending the postcard to a fellow member of her postcard exchange club. Members would receive a postcard from a club member and send another to the mailer in return. Structures and monuments were popular subjects on exchange postcards.

Since there was no written personal message, Mrs. Muhl actually could have mailed the card at the 1 UPU printed matter postal rate. As a result, she overpaid the postage by 1.

The more unusual marking reads up along the left side of the front of the card: Mailed at Indianapolis, Ind., under cover addressed to postmaster New York City. That message is handstamped in uppercase letters, with the exception of Indianapolis, Ind., which is handwritten in a blank space.

By mailing the addressed postcard from Indianapolis to New York City inside an envelope, Mrs. Muhl ensured that the picture postcard of a New York City landmark would receive an appropriate New York City postmark, rather than a postmark from Indianapolis.

It is an unusual printed picture postcard, with an unusual marking added, and addressed to an appealing destination.

It has been preserved for more than a century thanks to the care that Mrs. Muhl put into sending the card, and that Dr. von Heldreich put into saving it in his own collection.

Charles A. Fricke, a longtime collector of postal stationery, received the American Philatelic Societys 1981 Luff award for distinguished philatelic research, and its 2016 Charles J. Peterson Philatelic Literature Life Achievement Award.
Aug 20, 2016, 10 AM

An overprinted version of the 1936 souvenir sheet was issued Aug. 1, 1937, for that years Brown Ribbon horse race. The overprinted stamp from the sheet is shown.

The Brown Ribbon semipostals issued from 1939 through 1944 displayed a variety of artistic designs. For example, the 1939 stamp shows a man holding the reins of two rearing horses, and the 1944 stamp depicts a race horse and foal.

Proceeds from the surtax on the 1939 semipostal stamp for the 70th running of the German Derby were split between the race promoters and Hitlers National Culture Fund.

The Blue Ribbon horse race was supported in part by semipostal issues in 1940, 1941 and 1942. The 1940 semipostal stamp shows a horseman.

Semipostal stamps of two different denominations and the same design were issued in 1943 to support the grand prize of the Freudenau, Vienna, horse race. The 6-pfennig+4pf stamp is shown; the other stamp is denominated 12pf+88pf.

Germanys first Brown Ribbon race semipostal issue was a souvenir sheet with a single stamp issued June 22, 1936. This race was held near Munich.

By William Hughes

Many countries have issued semipostal stamps since the first were released by New South Wales in 1897.

The causes that these stamps have supported with their surcharge in excess of the postage fee have included fighting tuberculosis, aiding war wounded and orphans, and providing aid to victims of natural disasters such as hurricanes, floods and even a plague of locusts.

Among the more unusual semipostal stamps are those that helped to fund horse racing. Over the nine-year period from 1936 to 1944, during the Third Reich era in Germany, a semipostal stamp was issued each year to support the Brown Ribbon (Braune Band), an annual horse race held near Munich.

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The surtax on these semipostal stamps usually went to pay for the event or to provide the funding for the sweepstakes prize. A part also went to Hitlers National Culture Fund, used primarily to help fund the construction of new buildings in Berlin.

The Brown Ribbon race was for 3- and 4-year-old horses over a distance of 1.5 miles. The race was initiated in 1933 during the first year of the Third Reich as a kind of Nazi Derby  the title Brown Ribbon coming from the color of the uniform of the paramilitary wing (the Sturmabteilung) of the party.

The Brown Ribbon was held in July at the race track in Riem, one of the best known racing venues in Germany and located just a few miles from Munich. A variety of events, including track racing, hurdles and even steeplechase, were held as part of the Brown Ribbon.

The first semipostal stamp associated with the Brown Ribbon Derby was issued June 22, 1936, as a single-stamp souvenir sheet (Scott B90) to commemorate the third running of the race.

These sheets were sold for 1.50 marks at the race course and selected post offices. The 1.08m surtax on each 42-pfennig stamp was to go toward a sweepstakes prize of 100,000 marks. Munchen Riem 1936 appeared as a watermark in the sheet margin.

In 1937, for the fourth running of the Brown Ribbon, the souvenir sheet from the previous year was overprinted with 1 AUGUST/1937/MUNCHEN-/RIEM inside a wreath of oak leaves surmounted with an eagle atop a swastika (Scott B105).

The Brown Ribbon semipostal stamp for the fifth running was issued July 20, 1938, and portrays the goddess of victory mounted on a rearing horse and holding aloft a triumphal wreath (Scott B119).

The annual issuing of a semipostal stamp associated with the Brown Ribbon horse race continued for 1939 through 1944, the sixth through 11th runnings. The subjects of the stamps are as follows: 1939, man holding reins of two rearing horses (Scott B145); 1940, ancient warrior holding wreath of victory and riding in a chariot drawn by three horses (B173); 1941, two Amazons, with shields and spears, riding galloping horses (B192); 1942, three racing horses with ribbon banner of the Braune Band curling around them (B205); 1943, man in hunting garb on horseback blowing a hunting horn (B243); and 1944, white race horse with foal (B283).

In addition to the semipostals supporting the Brown Ribbon, semipostal stamps were issued between 1936 and 1944 for several other German national horse races.

The first was issued on June 18, 1939, for the 70th anniversary of the German Derby (Scott B144). This race for 3-year-old thoroughbred colts and fillies was run at Hamburg.

The Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue identifies the stamp design as portraying a race horse named Investment with a jockey. The 50pf surtax went to the race promoters and Hitlers National Culture Fund.

During World War II, the German Derby became known as the Grosser Deutschlandpreis der Dreijahrigen um Das Blaue Band, loosely translated as the Greater Germany Sweepstakes of Three-Year-Olds in the Blue Ribbon race. Semipostal stamps were issued for the 1940-42 races, which were run in Hamburg.

All three stamps (Scott B172, B191 and B204) carried a 100pf surtax that went to Hitlers National Culture Fund. In 1943 and 1944, the race was relocated to Hoppegarten, outside the gates of Berlin in the state of Brandenburg, and no further stamps were issued for it.

Two semipostal stamps (Scott B244-B245) were issued Aug. 14, 1943, in association with a horse race known as the Grand Prize of Vienna at Freudenau. The Galopprennbahn Freudenau race track, in the port section of Vienna, was built in 1839 by the Vienna Horse Racing Society, with the Imperial Box and covered grandstands added in 1870.

The incorporation of Austria into the Reich (Anschluss) in March 1938 led to the inclusion of this 1943 Austrian race in the semipostal stamps of Germany.

During the years of the Third Reich, horse racing was a popular spectator sport in Germany.

The races were major social events, much as the Kentucky Derby is in the United States, and large numbers of people attended the national races, even in the waning days of WWII when going to large public events was dangerous because of Allied bombing raids.

The collapse of the Third Reich in 1945 put an end to German semipostal stamps benefiting the unusual cause of horse racing.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 20

By Elchin Mehdiyev  Trend:

Azerbaijans Central Election Commission (CEC) registered two more initiative groups  Municipality and Civil society  on Aug. 20 for their participation as campaign groups in the upcoming referendum.

Earlier, Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev signed an order to hold a referendum Sept. 26 for making amendments to the countrys constitution.

CEC Secretary Arifa Mukhtarova told reporters that Municipality campaign group has been created by municipalities, which expressed interest in campaigning for the referendum.

Civil society group has been created by Azerbaijans Trade Unions Confederation and civil society organizations.

Both groups previously completed a campaign on collection of signatures and submitted them to the CEC for registration to participate as campaign groups in the Sept. 26 referendum.

Earlier, the CEC registered an initiative group of the ruling New Azerbaijan Party.
The 5,000-year-old stone circle at the site of Stenness on the Isle of Orkney was designed with a number of astronomical alignments. For example, the stones on the far right and far left in this image are aligned with a lunar phenomenon that occurs every 18.6 years, researchers found.

Scientists have statistically proven that two 5,000-year-old stone circles located on islands in Scotland have a series of astronomical alignments that ancient builders intentionally created.

The stone circles were created in such a way as to create alignments between the sun and the stones, along with various landscape features, during winter and summer solstices. The circles also align with the moon during a "major lunar standstill," an event that happens once every 18.6 years.

The summer and winter solstices mark the longest and shortest days of the year, respectively  when the sun is highest and lowest in the sky. During a major lunar standstill (the next one will occur in 2025), the moon can move through the sky at points that appear very high or very low on the horizon.

The two stone circles are located at sites called Callanish, which is on the Isle of Lewis, and Stenness, on the Orkney Isles. [In Photos: Hidden Monuments Discovered Beneath Stonehenge]

Considered the "first great circles of Scotland," Callanish and Stenness consist of 16 and 12 stones, respectively, wrote Gail Higginbottom, a visiting research fellow at the University of Adelaide in Australia, and Roger Clay, a professor at the Australian National University in Canberra, in an article recently published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.

The two researchers noted that by 2,800 years ago, hundreds of stone circles had been constructed in Britain, including the famous example at Stonehenge. "The number of these monuments, and the fact that they were likely constructed over a far longer time frame than any other megalithic monument type highlights their continual relevance for Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures," wrote Higginbottom and Clay in their journal article.

Statistically proving it

Scientists have long suspected that these two stone circles were aligned with the solstices and major lunar standstill. Journal articles published at least as far back as the 1950s have presented possible alignments. Additionally, numerous YouTube videos record possible alignments involving the solstices and major lunar standstills at Callanish (the last major lunar standstill occurred in 2006). The challenge is statistically proving that these alignments are intentional and not the result of random chance, said Higginbottom and Clay in their paper.

The researchers identified eight possible alignments involving the solstices and major lunar standstill at Callanish and six more possible alignments at Stenness. For instance, if you are in the center of the circle at Callanish during the summer solstice you will see the sun rise over one of its stones. Also if you are at Stenness during the major lunar standstill, on a day when the moon appears at the highest point on the horizon, the last glimmer of the moon will occur behind one of its stones.

The investigators then used a series of statistical tests to try to determine the chances that these possible alignments were nothing but chance. Results showed that there was only a 1.25-percent possibility that the alignments at Callanish were entirely chance and a 3.75-percent possibility that the alignments at Stenness were due to chance.

The calculations also showed that "the likelihood of the monuments being astronomical is above 97.87 percent for Stenness and 97.87 percent for Callanish," wrote Higginbottom and Clay in their paper. In other words, the alignments are likely not random, and instead the ancient builders intentionally constructed the circles to create alignments with the solstice sun and the major lunar standstill, the researchers said.

"Nobody before this has ever statistically determined that a single stone circle was constructed with astronomical phenomena in mind  it was all supposition," Higginbottom said in a statement. "This research is finally proof that the ancient Britons connected the Earth to the sky with their earliest standing stones, and that this practice continued in the same way for 2,000 years."

Original article on Live Science.
Baku, Azerbaijan, August 20

Trend:

The domestic and foreign policy carried out by Azerbaijan shows that prejudiced approach to the country won't produce any results, Novruz Mammadov, deputy head of Azerbaijani presidential administration, chief of the administration's foreign relations department, told reporters in Baku.

Mammadov also noted the biased approach of some international structures towards Azerbaijan.

He said that Azerbaijan, being a stable, secure country of the region, continues its own policy.

Often, the western circles, international structures and states showcase a biased position towards Azerbaijan, said Mammadov.

However later, he said, when they see this brings no results, they themselves start making approaches towards Azerbaijan, and this is what can be currently observed.

Mammadov noted the biased statements of some international structures, related to the executive secretary of the "REAL" movement, Natig Jafarli, which was arrested on suspicion of inflicting serious damage to state interests guarded by the law, which led to serious consequences.

"Such steps, attempts to interfere in domestic issues of our country, will never get any results," Mammadov said. "Better to stop with the double standards against Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan, for 25 years, righfully and successfully follows its own chosen way, developing and strengthening international connections."

Mammadov further said that some international structures cannot accept the independent domestic and foreign policy of Azerbaijan. He added that Azerbaijan is not under control of any state, and this will never happen in the future.

Touching upon the latest developments in Armenia, Mammadov said that in this country one protest action follows another, rights of people are being violated.

The international organizations know about this, but they don't make any statements, don't state their position, and that is a double standard, said Mammadov.
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Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 20

By Azad Hasanli  Trend:

Azerbaijan invites Chinese companies to intensify cooperation with local businesses, in particular, in industrial sphere, Chinese media reported citing Azerbaijans Deputy Economy Minister Niyazi Safarov.

Safarov made the remarks at a session of the Azerbaijan-China Intergovernmental Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation.

Safarov said that currently, Chinese companies participate in Azerbaijans 12 projects worth over $640 million. In total, 77 companies with Chinese capital operate in Azerbaijan, he added.

Speaking about the prospects of bilateral cooperation, the deputy minister noted that its sustainability is based on an extensive legal framework: more than 66 documents, including 22 in the field of trade and economic relations, were signed between Azerbaijan and China.

Chinas Xinhua news agency reported that during the meeting, Azerbaijans Deputy Prime Minister, Co-chair of the intergovernmental commission Abid Sharifov emphasized that Azerbaijan and China have longstanding ties based on mutual respect and benefit.

Sharifov highlighted the activities of the Chinese company Huawei, adding that it works efficiently with Azerbaijani companies. The deputy prime minister drew special attention to the cooperation in the sphere of transportation and logistics. He recalled that the construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway, which will link Asia with Europe, will be completed soon.

A new transportation route, connecting Chinas railways with Europe in the shortest way, will start work with the BTKs commissioning, noted Sharifov. The BTK corridor will considerably increase the efficiency of transportation logistics and will contribute to a considerable increase in the volume of cargo transportation.

Addressing the meeting, President of Azerbaijans state oil company SOCAR Rovnag Abdullayev said that for 15 years SOCAR has been cooperating with China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), from which it bought equipment used in the petrochemical sphere that worth more than $500 million. He noted the mutual intention to expand business contacts, recalled the signing of a memorandum of understanding in June 2016 that aimed at cooperation in the oil and gas, petrochemical sectors.

Chinas Vice Minister of Commerce Qian Keming, in turn, said that China and Azerbaijan are good friends and partners and it contributes to the dynamic growth of bilateral trade and economic ties. Speaking about the huge development potential of economic cooperation, the vice minister noted that China sees Azerbaijan as an important partner in the Silk Road Economic Belt projects implementation.

During the commissions meeting, the issues of cooperation in the field of high technologies, agriculture, air traffic, alternative energy, education, and the prospects of expanding relations were discussed, and specific proposals on boosting economic cooperation were put forward. As a result, a protocol of the commissions 6th session was signed.

Trade turnover between Azerbaijan and China amounted to $390.6 million in January-July 2016, $325.2 million of which accounted for the Chinese products export, according to Azerbaijans State Customs Committee.
A stranded seal, known as 'Rapunzel', became an unexpected patient in a Longford vet's practice on Tuesday last, August 9.

The seal was found washed up and badly in need of first aid on Strandhill beach, Co Sligo. On her discovery, Seal Rescue Ireland in Wexford were notified, who in turn contacted Longford vet James Victory to provide a resting point en route to their sanctuary.

The Seal Sanctuary contacted me, and I took it in on Tuesday morning, explained James.

Having been transported from Sligo to Longford in the boot of a car, it was in some distress on reaching the vet.

I gave the seal first aid, it had a chest infection, and I got her cooled down, James continued. She was in distress when she got here, but we nursed her and she was well on the way to recovery when the sanctuary came.

While the clinic has nursed an array of creatures from snakes to exotic birds, and the usual rabbits and rats, the seal is a first for the Longford vet.

Other than seeing them in the sea, said James, I've never had one before, she's one of my most interesting clients of the past few years.

Rapunzel was then transported to the Seal Sanctuary in a special water bath container, where she's under careful supervision.

She's improving, which is a good sign, but she's not out of the woods yet, explained Ivan Kelly of Seal Rescue Ireland.

She had two bites on her lip which had turned into abscesses, but they are healing faster than we anticipated.

She was dehydrated and hungry, but we have stabilised her and she's well on the way to recovery.

When asked if they had named the seal Ivan laughed, saying; We don't like to name the seals until they're fully out of the woods, in case we become attached, but the working name on this one is 'Rapunzel'.

Seal Rescue Ireland is a charitable organisation who rescue seals that have gotten into trouble or been abandoned by their mothers.
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

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Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 20

By Fatih Karimov  Trend:

Accepting Russia's bomber planes in Nojeh airbase in Irans western Hamadan city is in line with mutual cooperation on fighting against terrorists, the Iranian Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan said, Tasnim news agency reported Aug. 20.

He further said that Iran accepted the planes at the request of Syrian government for targeting the terrorists.

Irans cooperation with Russia is based on the Islamic Republics general policies and approval of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, he said, adding that the cooperation is at a strategic level.

The Iranian minister also said that Russian planes will use Nojeh airbase as long as necessary.

Russian bombers refuel and take weapons at the Nojeh airbase in Irans western Hamadan city, Dehghan said.

The IS (Islamic State, ISIS, aka ISIL) terrorist group is taking its last breath, Dehghan said, adding in the future everybody will see the results of Iran-Russia cooperation in Syria.

He further said that accepting Russias military planes in Nojeh air base is not of Iranian parliaments business, because no military base was given to Russia.

On Aug. 16, Russia said its Tu-22M3 and Su-34 bombers are deployed in Iran and from there the bombers launch attacks on the IS terrorist group's positions in Syria.

Some Iranian politicians raised concerns on the issue, saying the move is against the Islamic Republics constitution.

During a parliament session held Aug 17, Iranian MP Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh said the deployment of Russian military forces in the Nojeh airbase is against the Article 146 of the Islamic Republics constitution.

Alaeddin Boroujerdi, head of parliaments Foreign Policy and National Security Commission later said that Russian bombers only refuel at the Nojeh airbase in Irans western Hamadan city.

He further said Irans Supreme National Security Council has issued permission for the Russian aircraft to refuel at the base.

Neither Hamadan airbase has become a Russian base, nor any Russian fighter has been deployed there, so this isnt against the Islamic Republics constitution, the senior MP said.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 20

By Fatih Karimov  Trend:

The Iranian Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan confirmed that Tehran has purchased AK-103, a modern generation of Kalashnikov assault rifles from Russia, Tasnim news agency reported Aug. 20.

Over the past 10 years, production of light weapons decreased in Iran with priority given to aerospace and naval projects, he said, adding Tehran decided to purchase the AK-103 rifles considering the regional crises.

Dehghan further said that certain infrastructures for production of the rifle are developed inside the country.

We can produce light weapons in the country in order to meet all needs of the armed forces, he added.

The AK-103 is chambered for the 7.62x39mm M43 round and it weights (unloaded magazine) 3.4 kilograms.

The rifles length is 943 millimeters and it uses 30-round magazines.
A survey in the United Kingdom has revealed that over half of British parents allow their children under the age of 14 to drink alcohol at home, Press TV reported.

According to a research study conducted by Churchill home insurance, of 1,000 parents surveyed in Britain, 34 percent of them with under-14 children used alcohol as a bribe to encourage good behavior, while 11 percent of parents with children between the ages of five and seven let them drink at home.

A quarter of the parents in the survey said they saw nothing wrong with their children drinking alcohol.

The relationship between children and alcohol in Britain always seems more fraught than for our continental cousins. Many parents want their children to have a responsible attitude to drinking and introduce alcohol in a safe, controlled environment, said Martin Scott, head of Churchill home insurance.

The challenge any parent will recognize is how to prevent excessive drinking, especially amongst teenagers ... Whenever people are drinking in the home, there is a greater risk of injury or property damage as alcohol has a significant impact on co-ordination, he added.

This is while UK health officials have repeatedly warned parents to keep children away from alcohol until they are at least 15 years old.

The Chief Medical Officer (CMO), which is the most senior health institution in Britain, says those individuals who drink before the age of 14 are at increased risk of health problems, alcohol-related injuries, becoming involved in violence and attempting suicide.
Lahore : Pakistan is investigating another Mumbai attack suspect, who has recently been arrested, for allegedly providing financial assistance to the LeT men to carry out the deadly assault in 2008. "The FIA (Federal Investigation Agency) has arrested Sufyan Zafar recently and is interrogating him for his role in providing financial assistance to the accused of the Mumbai attack - who are lodged in the Adiala Jail Rawalpindi," FIA special prosecutor Chaudhry Azhar told PTI today. He said Zafar was absconding after being declared proclaimed offender in the Mumbai case.

A resident of Gujrawala district of Punjab, some 80km from Lahore, Zafar is among 21 other absconding suspects wanted in this high-profile case. "Zafar will be indicted in the Mumbai case after completion of the investigation," the FIA official said. A Pakistani anti-terrorism court has charged seven Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) activists - its operations commander Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi, Abdul Wajid, Mazhar Iqbal, Hamad Amin Sadiq, Shahid Jameel Riaz, Jamil Ahmed and Younis Anjum - with abetment to murder, attempted murder, planning and executing the Mumbai attack. The case has been underway in the country for more than six years.

Lakhvi, the mastermind of the Mumbai attack, is living at an undisclosed location after getting released from jail on bail over a year ago. The other six suspects are in Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi. The trial proceedings have come to a halt as India is yet to send 24 witnesses to Pakistan for recording of their statements in the trial court. Pakistan says the trial cannot be concluded unless India sends its nationals for recording their statements in the case. As many as 166 people were killed and over 250 injured in the attack carried out by 10 LeT men. Nine assailants were killed while the lone survivor, Ajmal Kasab, was captured and later executed.

PTI
A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S, in its strategic review, is considering several options including a two-way split into an energy and a transport company, says a Bloomberg report.

According to Danish daily Berlingske, the shipping group is likely to break up into transportation and energy divisions.

"Maersk Transport" would include the Maersk Line, APM Terminals, Maersk Tankers, Damco and Svitzer units, while "Maersk Energy" would include Maersk Oil, Maersk Drilling and Maersk Supply Service.

The company's chairman first floated the idea of breaking up its business segments in June after appointing a new chief executive, Soren Skou.

"The question is whether we should be a large group, or whether we should be a number of independent companies," Chairman Michael Pram Rasmussen told Danish online media Finans.

Louise Muenter, head of media and stakeholder relations at Maersk in Copenhagen, said that the structure of the group is one of many options being evaluated, but it is important to point out that it is one of many possibilities, as structure alone doesnt ensure growth.

A Reuters report said that the board of directors had told Skou to "investigate the strategic and structural options to further increase agility and synergies." It plans to report on its progress by the end of the third quarter of the year.

According to a Jefferies report Energy makes up 35% of net asset value with shipping accounting for the remaining 65%.

Maersk Line is fighting to remain the world's leading container shipping carrier as a wave of mergers and acquisitions, particularly in Asia, creates new challengers trying to grab a bigger share of a depressed market.

Maersk revenue stood at $40 billion last year. Its shipping business of more than 600 container vessels is its biggest.

Jefferies analysts said they expected the outcome of the review to be "drastic". This was due to the fact that the newly appointed CEO Soren Skou remained leader of Maersk Line while taking on the CEO responsibilities. He was also given a mandate of reviewing all strategic options.
Vishakhapatnam Port is poised for major expansion, with the Minister for Shipping, Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari inaugurating several projects during his visit to the port, says government press release.

The Minister inaugurated a Container Freight Station of 1 lakh TEU capacity developed by M/s.VCTPL at a cost of Rs.104 crores for which an extent of Ac 34 acres is allotted by the Port.

He also inaugurated the commissioning of 6.25MW out of 10MW solar power plant. The power generated from this plant is meeting the captive consumption of the port and the excess power is proposed to be sold by third party agreements.

In addition to this the Minister inaugurated a Liquid cargo berth  EQ-10 developed by M/s.AVR Infra Pvt., Ltd., on Private Sector Participation at a cost of Rs.55.38crores with a capacity of 1.84 million tonnes per annum and a Multi cargo berth  WQ-6 developed by M/s.ABG Infra Logistics on Private Sector Participation at a cost of Rs.114.5 crores with a capacity of 2.08 million tonnes per annum

Gadkari also laid the foundation stone for the project Reconstruction of old EQ-2,3,4&5 berths into two new berths of 530 meters quay in the inner harbor taken up with ports internal resources at a cost of Rs.182 crores and capacity of 6 million tonnes. He also reviewed the progress of two berths WQ-7&8under construction taken up by port with internal resources at a cost of Rs. 243 crores and capacity of 6.39 million tonnes.

The union Minister reviewed the performance of the port and the progress of developmental projects. He also reviewed the dredging projects executed by the port at a cost of Rs.400 crores which were taken up to enhance the draft of inner harbor to 14.5mts to enable Panamax vessels berthing and outer harbor to 18.1 draft to enable berthing of Super Cape vessels berthing.

Later, the Minister held discussions with the stakeholders of the port. He suggested to the Govt., of Andhra Pradesh to install sewage treatment plant for treating the city sewage before letting into the port limits to avoid water pollution.

The Minister informed that the pollution levels have been considerably reduced consequent to various mechanization projects. The particulate matter (PM10) in the air is brought down from the level of 300 microgram in 2011 to less than 100 microgram in 2016.

Minister also directed the Port to engage a good consultant to do a comprehensive study and suggest measures to reduce the pollution level further.
Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) CEO Park Dae-young proposed the outsourcing of shipbuilding to China and Indonesia in an effort to overcome a liquidity crisis, according to Yonhap.

"I feel a doubt over whether we should build ships only in our shipyard," Park told a shareholders meeting which has been convened to discuss the shipyard's rights offering.

Park also said the company could outsource the shipbuilding process to smaller Korean shipyard.

SHI will also pursue new revenue streams as it fixes its restructuring. The company may offer project management and operating and maintenance services. Park said that such services are being considered as new business opportunities.

In a report in Korea Herald, Park said that there were many requests for operating and maintenance services from shipowners, but a large part (of operating and maintenance services) is going to Singapore.

If we, who know the most about a ship, offer (operating and maintenance services) it would be a big help to us and the shipowners.

Park ruled out the possibility that Samsung Heavy may stop building ships altogether, and that project management services will be offered for types of vessels the company does not offer.

The shipbuilding arm of South Korea's largest conglomerate, Samsung Group, has revealed a painful self-rehabilitation package worth 1.4 trillion won (1.26 billion US dollars), which was were approved by creditors at the start of June. It also plans to increase capital by issuing new shares to other group units which hold a combined 24.08 percent stake in Samsung Heavy.
According to a report by Korea Economic Daily the number of workers who left Korea's top-three shipbuilding companies - Hyundai Heavy Industries, Samsung Heavy Industries, and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering - in the first half of this year is estimated at around 5,000.

As the shipbuilding industry was hit by global oversupply and lack of demand the countrys shipyards were forced to decrease their workforce as they launched drastic restructuring measures in an effort to return to liquidity.

As a result of the shipyards' top-to-bottom restructuring, caused by the slump of the global shipbuilding market, as many as 3,000 employees resigned during the January-June period of this year, with about 2,000 employees who applied for voluntary retirement programs being laid off on July 1.

In their earlier submitted self-rescue plans, the companies revealed that they would cut their combined workforce by up to 6,000 in 2016. But Yonhap News Agency quoted company officials as saying that this number could be even larger given the persistent slowdown in the shipbuilding industry.

HHI scaled down their workforce to 26,300 as of the end of June, down by 1,100 workers compared to the end of December. Apart from this additional 2,000 workers were subjected to leave the company soon under the recently executed voluntary retirement program.

Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) had 14,000 workers at their shipyard as of December but has reduced that number by 1,500 workers to cut labor costs. Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) had a total of 13,199 workers as of the end of December, but scaled down to 12,819 in March and then 12,700 in June.

"As the business environment is getting worse (in the shipbuilding industry) and more workers are expected to apply for the voluntary retirement programs later this year, the number of workers leaving the shipbuilders will be bigger (than the present 6,000) at the end of this year," Yonhap quoted an un-named industry official as saying.
The Danish Maritime Authority confirms having received a report on the finding of a wreck off the west coast of Jutland.



The report also states that there are unexploded mines and torpedoes on board. However, currently the Danish Maritime Authority cannot confirm that the wreck found is UC-30.



On the basis of the report, the Danish Maritime Authority has issued a prohibition against diving operations, anchoring and fishing in a radius of 1,000 metres around the position of the wreck due to the danger presented by the unexploded ammunition on board.



The Danish Maritime Authority has informed the Danish Defence, which is to assess what to do with the unexploded ammunition on board the wreck.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 19

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

Iranian-Russian block fighting against terrorism, more specifically, against the so-called Islamic State (IS) in Syria, contributed to increasing penetration of radicals from around the world into the region. The US and the West havent had success in the fight against the IS, either.

Syria has currently become a kind of training ground, where Sunni radicals are at a war with Hezbollah (Shi'a Islamist militant group and political party based in Lebanon) and government forces, as well as among themselves.

All these groups, with the exception of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), consider the West and the US their main enemies.

Thus, it is much more profitable for many countries that these groups continue to fight among themselves, away from those countries borders. This tactic, of course, could be considered ideal, if mainly civilians didnt die as a result of military actions.

Protraction of the conflict in Syria also springs from the ethnic and religious composition of Syrias population, which includes mostly Sunni Arabs, Kurds, Turkomans and Alawites.

On the other hand, settlement of the Syrian crisis is delayed because almost all players in the region  the West, including the US, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey and Russia  have for five years tried to solve the problem solely within their interests.

It is not a secret that without Turkeys participation, none of the parties, in particular, Iran or Russia, can solve this problem.

Turkeys Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said Aug. 18 that Turkey, as other countries, was not successful in its policy towards Syria. Thus, Turkey criticized itself for the first time for its Syria policy.

Today, it is not a secret that there is a necessity to introduce new mechanisms of cooperation for solution of the Syrian crisis, since almost all of the steps, taken previously, failed.

Earlier, Russia and Iran declared that Turkey can play an important role in resolving the Syrian crisis. Ankara also has a positive attitude towards this issue. This was confirmed by the statements of Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, when they indirectly admitted that only Russia, Turkey and Iran can solve the Syrian conflict.

It is not excluded that Turkey can give Russia an access to its military bases. Military bases in Turkeys eastern provinces of Mus and Bitlis can be among such facilities.

Given this, it can be noted that a new format of trilateral cooperation between Turkey, Russia and Iran can be created in the region in order to resolve the Syrian conflict.

--

Rufiz Hafizoglu is the head of Trend Agency's Arabic news service, follow him on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
The ballistic-missile submarine USS Louisiana and a Navy offshore support vessel collided while conducting routine operations in the Strait of Juan de Fuca off the coast of Washington state on Thursday (August 18, 2016), informs the United States Navy.

The collision occurred at 6:00 p.m. There were no injuries to personnel. Assessments of the damage to both the submarine and the U.S. Navy Offshore Support Vessel are being conducted. The incident is currently under investigation.

Both ships returned safely to port under their own power. The U.S. Navy Offshore Support Vessel returned safely to port at Port Angeles, Washington, and the USS Louisiana returned safely to homeport at Naval Base Kitsap Bangor, Washington.

Louisiana is one of eight Ohio-class Trident ballistic missile submarines stationed at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor, providing the survivable leg of the nation's strategic deterrent forces. The nuclear-powered Louisiana can be armed with up to 24 nuclear-tipped missiles.
SPRINGFIELD  A person riding a dirt bike was seriously injured in Springfield on Friday night, according to Lt. Kenneth Murray of the Springfield Police Department.

Police received a call for a traffic related incident on Cooley Street at approximately 6:31 p.m., Murray said.

After preliminary investigation, police believe that a Burgundy Buick pulled out in front of the biker as both were driving down Cooley, causing a collision between the two vehicles.

Upon impact, the biker was thrown from his vehicle, and subsequently struck another car that appeared to have been headed in the opposite direction, Murray said.

During the incident, the biker lost his helmet and sustained major injuries. He was taken by ambulance to Baystate Medical Center for treatment, Murray said.

Murray went on to say that the Springfield Accident Reconstruction Bureau has been called to the scene and is investigating how the crash occurred.

The status of the victim wasn't currently known.

The drivers of the other two vehicles were not harmed in the incident, and are both cooperating with police, according to Murray.
boston police cruiser creative commons.jpg

(Boston Police )

BOSTON  City police are investigating an early Saturday shooting that has reportedly left one person dead and another with life-threatening injuries.

Officers responded to reports of a person shot near Dudley Terrace in Dorchester around 12:05 a.m. on Saturday, according to Boston Police.

Upon arrival they located one adult male and one adult female suffering from apparent gunshot wounds, police reported.

Officers pronounced the man dead on scene and transported the woman to a local hospital.

The Boston Police Department is investigating circumstances surrounding the incident.

Anyone with information related to the alleged shooting is asked to call the agency's Homicide Unit at 617-343-4470.

Anonymous tips may also be submitted through the CrimeStoppers Tip Line at 1-800-494-TIPS or by texting the word "TIP" to 27463.
CHICOPEE - Police are asking for help to locate a 93-year-old man who was last seen early Friday evening.

Lester Norman



Lester Norman is described as being 5 feet, 10 inches tall and weighs about 175 pounds. He was last seen abound 7:15 p.m. on Sunrise Lane, Michael Wilk, public information officer for Chicopee Police said.

He may be wearing jeans or possibly pajamas and he should have a gold watch on his wrist. He drives a 2004 brown Toyota Camry with the Florida plate of M58OSI and may be heading towards Becket.

Norman has some medical concerns and people are worried about him. Chicopee Police detectives are actively working on the case and have contacted hospitals and other medical facilities in the area, Wilk said.

Anyone who spots Norman or his car are asked to call 911 from their location, he said.
HOLYOKE- Parents brought goldfish crackers and pacifiers to keep the little ones quiet. If they did make a sound, no one seemed to mind as moms and dads were graduating.

It was a day for students in Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children's (MSPCC) Holyoke Healthy Families and Mass Home Visiting Initiative and Teen Parenting Program to be honored.

Thirty-seven graduation participants received certificates during a Friday afternoon ceremony with family and friends looking on. The graduates, in green caps and gowns, held their children during the procession wearing (MSPCC) shirts with paper graduation caps.

Student speaker Giensi Ramos thanked the staff at the Teen Parenting Program (TPP) for her help and success moving on.

"Next for me is school. I am very excited to be starting in the fall and I have TPP workers to thank for that,"Ramos said. "I will be entering a CNA program and I hope that this is just the start to my career."

Another student speaker Devika Pandit echoed the praise for the Holyoke Healthy Program.

"Between my living arrangement during the time of my pregnancy and the upcoming demands and needs of my new child, Healthy Families aided me in finding resources for clothes, diapers and other general necessities my child would need," Pandit said.

Graduations from the program have been held since 2001. A running theme during the ceremony was of challenges the young parents have.

The executive director of the (MSPCC) Mary McGeown remarked during the presentation, "I look out at each of you and I am so impressed and in awe of all that you have accomplished. Today we do something we really don't do enough of. We take a moment to celebrate accomplishments, and you all deserve our praise and our applause."
SPRINGFIELD -- Two reputed organized crime figures who allegedly conspired to shake down a local tow company operator for $20,000 were released on bail Friday after being arrested on Aug. 4.

Francesco "Frank" Depergola, 60, of Springfield, and Giovanni "Johnny Cal" Calbrese, 53, of Longmeadow, were granted pretrial release by U.S. Magistrate Judge Katherine Robertson on conditions including conceding to radio frequency monitoring, curfews and no-contact orders with witnesses in the case.

The two were among five men arrested on charges including loan sharking and extortion conspiracy. Others rousted in early morning arrests and searches by Massachusetts State Police and FBI agents were Ralph Santaniello, 49, and Gerald Daniele, 51, both of Longmeadow, and Richard Valentini, 51, of East Longmeadow.

All pleaded not guilty to the charges at their arraignments. The judge subsequently ruled that four of the defendants could be released pending further bail hearings.

Santaniello and Depergola also face charges in federal court in Manhattan in connection with a $30,000 extortionate loan to an unnamed witness at a Chicopee pizza shop at the behest of New York Genovese crime family capo Eugene "Rooster" O'Nofrio, 74.

According to court records filed in connection with the case, the loan was made in the presence of an undercover FBI agent who infiltrated the crime family. The New York case ensnared dozens of reputed mobsters up and down the East Coast and the alleged Chicopee exchange was just a snippet of the larger conspiracy, which included arson and brutal beatings, the charges state.

Valentini and Daniele have posted bail and have been released, according to court records. Depergola, a former Springfield restaurant owner, and Calabrese, a Braman pest and termite eliminator, were ordered to post the equity in their homes as a condition of release.

Santaniello has been held without bail. The judge ruled he exhibited "a casual brutality" toward the tow operator, Victim One, as he is labeled in court records. Two days of evidence and testimony presented during detention hearings for the local defendants, showed Santaniello arrived unannounced at Victim One's property in Hampden in 2013 and insisted he repay a decade of "street taxes" for his towing business.

Santaniello demanded $50,000 to make up for what he believed he was due since the witness stopped paying slain mob boss Adolfo "Big Al" Bruno after Bruno's murder in 2003. In addition, Santaniello proposed $2,000 monthly payments going forward but the witness resisted, according to the government.

The witness got a slap in the face and a fat lip, and went to state police, court records state. He told investigators Santaniello and Calabrese threatened to behead him and bury him in the woods on his land if he didn't pay up. Victim One agreed to wear a wire and visually record eight subsequent meetings over his alleged "debt."

The Republican has previously reported that Santaniello has emerged as the ad hoc head of the "Springfield Crew" under the Genovese crime family with the backing of his father, Amedeo Santaniello. The elder Santaniello was once of confidante of Bruno, and the current "crew" is bolstered by the fear factor of Albert Calvanese, a convicted loan shark who has not been charged in this case. Nor has the elder Santaniello.

Audio and video evidence presented during the detention hearings in Springfield's federal court portray Ralph Santaniello as the chief bully in the push to get Victim One to pay. He tears around the victim's property demanding to know whether law enforcement is watching. They were, and Santaniello missed it anyhow, according to video recordings played in court.

Santaniello made direct threats, according to court evidence, while Calabrese enthusiastically backed him up.

"Calabrese confronted Victim One with the fact that he is not a legitimate business: 'I'm listening to everything in your life and you are not, and I'll say it to your face, you are not a straight shooter. You've been shooting angles your whole f---ing life and now you've been f---ing talking to someone about crazy s--- because you are part of something you don't want to be part of no more. You're thinking you're being wronged, it was a deal that was legit, business I told you was going to grow,'" court records quote.

Depergola appeared more of a faux ombudsman, according to the government's recordings, accepting a $3,000 payment from Victim One in 2013, telling him he was doing the right thing because Depergola's cohorts were "vindictive mother-------," he said.

It is unclear, according to information released so far, how the players were allegedly splitting the profits, but the government footed the bill. They supplied the $20,000 Victim One paid over two months in exchange for being "left alone."

A second witness, Victim Two, was included in the Springfield indictment. He told investigators that he was a longtime debtor to Daniele, with whom he grew up, and got in arrears over gambling and loan-sharking while the alleged victim was in the throes of alcoholism and drug addiction. Their friendship went south between 2015 and 2016 as the witness fell further in debt, according to court records.

When Daniele confronted Victim Two at his place of work, a drug rehabilitation center, Victim Two told Daniele to get lost -- which he did, according to all accounts. Calabrese resumed collections from Victim Two, investigators said, but never harmed or threatened him. The two occasionally met at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.

Depergola and Calabrese were released with promises that they would not interact with one another or any of their co-defendants. To complicate matters, one defendant has an uncle who passed away, potentially bringing all together for funeral services on Tuesday, according to Calabrese's lawyer, Jeremy B. Powers.

"I will make sure that we walk in, pay our respects and leave immediately," Calabrese's wife reassured the judge.

Powers added that if Calabrese encounters Victim Two at any AA meetings, he will also leave immediately.

The next pretrial conference in the case is scheduled for Oct. 13.
The Turkish parliament late Friday approved a deal for Israel to pay compensation for victims of the 2010 Mavi Marmara tragedy, Anadolu reported.

The deal involves Tel Aviv paying $20 million to the families as part of a normalization agreement between the two countries secured last month after a six-year hiatus in ties.

The sum will be transferred in a one-time deposit to a bank account opened by Turkey and shared through diplomatic channels, and the transaction will be completed within 25 business days of the bilateral agreement coming into force.
SPRINGFIELD  The two women who stole "Flint" the kitten from the Dakin Society in Springfield have been identified, but they have not yet been apprehended, according to Lt. Kenneth Murray of the Springfield Police Department.

Authorities were somehow alerted to the kitten's whereabouts on Friday morning, but were unable to track down the feline in time for him to be rescued.

Murray said the cat and his captors were temporarily located in Northampton on Friday, but by the time Northampton police arrived at the scene, they had moved elsewhere.

However, Murray also confirmed that police know the identities of the cat thieves and that the Springfield Major Crimes Unit is now working to track them down, and to bring Flint home safely.
In my role as an advisory board member for several startups, Im always excited to see that initial surge of revenue from a great rollout campaign. Unfortunately, many passionate entrepreneurs read this initial surge as success, and charge ahead with more of the same passion, leading to a series of potential pitfalls that can quickly jeopardize the health of the entire business.

Martin Zwilling

Full Story: http://blog.startupprofessionals.com/2016/08/7-startup-pitfalls-can-kill-your.html
As NASA prepares to stop funding the International Space Station in about a decade, the agency is inviting companies to use the science lab to test their wildest space-business ideas while they still can.

By Lonnie Shekhtman

Full Story: http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/new-economy/2016/0819/NASA-to-companies-Please-tell-us-your-wildest-business-ideas-for-space
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 20

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

Turkey didnt claim that the US stood behind the military coup attempt, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said, Anadolu Agency reported Aug. 20.

Ankara has indicated that if Fethullah Gulen, who is involved in a military coup attempt, is not extradited from the US, this may form an opinion that this country may stand behind the military coup attempt, he said.

Turkey, as before, demands Gulens extradition from the US, the minister added.

An Istanbul court ordered on Aug. 4 to arrest Fethullah Gulen.

On July 15 evening, Turkish authorities said a military coup attempt took place in the country. Meanwhile, a group of servicemen announced about transition of power to them.

However, the rebelling servicemen started to surrender July 16 and Turkish authorities said the coup attempt failed.

Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had said the death toll as a result of the military coup attempt stood at 246 people, excluding the coup plotters, and over 2,000 people were wounded.

Erdogan declared a three-month state of emergency in Turkey on July 20.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
Mayuree Lobin et Raveena Cuttuck sont deja enregistree pour ses deux competitions pour 2021.

Lannonce a ete faite par la direction de Miss Mauritius National Organisation par le truchement de sa President Fondatrice, Primerose Obeegadoo.

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Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 20

By Orkhan Guluzade  Trend:

Turkish police have detained 18 entrepreneurs, who are members of the countrys Confederation of Businessmen and Industrialists (TUSKON), during a special operation against the Fethullah Gulen movement, Hurriyet newspaper reported Aug. 20 citing sources at law enforcement agencies.

Gulen is accused of organizing the July 15 military coup attempt in the country.

The newspaper reported that there are the head of Taha Tekstil company Ismail Hakki Kisacik and Vice Chairman of Turkeys Exporters Assembly Mustafa Cikrikcioglu among the detainees.

Earlier, 187 entrepreneurs were arrested at TUSKON and other institutions during a special operation and searches within the fight against the Gulen movement.

An Istanbul court ordered on Aug. 4 to arrest Fethullah Gulen.

On July 15 evening, Turkish authorities said a military coup attempt took place in the country. Meanwhile, a group of servicemen announced about transition of power to them.

However, the rebelling servicemen started to surrender July 16 and Turkish authorities said the coup attempt failed.

Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had said the death toll as a result of the military coup attempt stood at 246 people, excluding the coup plotters, and over 2,000 people were wounded.

Erdogan declared a three-month state of emergency in Turkey on July 20.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @o_quluzade
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 20

By Orkhan Guluzade  Trend:

Turkeys National Security Council will hold a meeting Aug. 20 under the leadership of the countrys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the presidential residence in Istanbul, Haber 7 newspaper reported.

It is expected that the situation in Turkey after the military coup attempt will be discussed at the meeting.

The last meeting of Turkeys National Security Council was held August 18 with the participation of chief of the General Staff of the Turkish Armed Forces, army general Hulusi Akar and Prime Minister Binali Yildirim. Reforms in the Armed Forces of Turkey were discussed at the meeting.

On July 15 evening, Turkish authorities said a military coup attempt took place in the country. Meanwhile, a group of servicemen announced about transition of power to them.

However, the rebelling servicemen started to surrender July 16 and Turkish authorities said the coup attempt failed.

Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had said the death toll as a result of the military coup attempt stood at 246 people, excluding the coup plotters, and over 2,000 people were wounded.

Erdogan declared a three-month state of emergency in Turkey on July 20.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @o_quluzade
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The Stockton, California, family's quest for answers illustrates the challenges of diagnosing rare genetic diseases, and illustrates how and why scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine are devising new approaches to help.As much as Shayla's parents longed for a diagnosis, they almost didn't get one. On August 10, 2012 - only two weeks after Shayla's doctors at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford concluded that they could not match her genetic patterns and symptoms to a disease - a scientific report about a newly discovered link between a genetic defect and a rare disease was published that would have allowed them to diagnose her. But at the time, genetic-testing results were not routinely re-analyzed to take into account new knowledge. The family and doctors remained unaware that the answer was out there.In 2015, as part of a scientific study, Shayla's parents agreed to have her genome re-analyzed. This time, Stanford computer scientists used new computational tools they had developed to compare Shayla's gene sequences to the scientific literature. They found the 2012 scientific report and predicted that Shayla had a rare genetic disease called Wiedemann-Steiner syndrome, which her doctors confirmed."With each passing month, more of the world's genetic diversity is represented in scientific databases, and each time more information is there, it's easier to interpret the next thing you see," said Jon Bernstein, Shayla's clinical geneticist at Packard Children's and an author of the new report, which was published online in10% of the patients in the study - four individuals, including Shayla, out of 40 who did not receive diagnoses after their first genetic analysis - were diagnosed with various rare diseases based on recent discoveries, even though the initial analyses had been conducted an average of only 20 months earlier.These "near misses" highlight a big challenge in the realm of precision health: Although the speed, cost and effort involved in obtaining individuals' genetic sequences has dropped dramatically in recent years, it still requires about 20 to 40 hours of work by trained experts to match a patient's rare mutations to information in the scientific literature that might reveal a diagnosis. Among patients suspected of having a rare genetic disease, 75% aren't diagnosed the first time they have their DNA analyzed. And yet the knowledge base is growing fast. Each year, researchers discover the cause of about 250 genetic diseases and also find 9,200 links between specific gene variants and known diseases."Our study demonstrates that reanalysis of patients' gene-testing results is useful because there's a steady rate of discovery," said Bernstein, who is also an associate professor of pediatrics at the School of Medicine."But there is no way we'll have enough manpower to continue to do all the analysis manually, as clinicians and scientists have done in the past," said Gill Bejerano, senior author of the study and associate professor of developmental biology, of computer science and of pediatrics.Bejerano led the computer scientists who devised the automated approach used in the new research. Bejerano said, "Rather than continuing to invest dozens of hours in each patient's analysis, our team thought it made more sense to spend that time building computer science tools that can do much of the work for us," he said.In the new study, the scientists tested whether automated comparisons between undiagnosed patients' genomes and existing gene databases could accelerate diagnosis. The approach worked."The genome is ultimately a programming language," Bejerano said. "We really would like to use machine learning and other approaches to build computer systems that leave as little as possible work for the human expert. A computer is going to be weaker than a human at doing this, but we think we can take the process 80 to 90% of the way by computer and provide a huge time savings for the human in the loop."Another key finding from the new research, according to Bernstein and Bejerano, is that comparing patients' gene sequences to those of their parents greatly speeds the diagnostic process. Such comparisons help turn up new disease-causing mutations that occurred in the patients but are not present in their parents. "These things stand out more easily if you have the parents' data in front you," Bernstein said.In Shayla's case, her diagnosis brought her family the answers they'd long been seeking. She doesn't share her disease-causing mutation with her parents; instead, it occurred spontaneously in her. It wasn't preventable, nor is there any expectation it would affect her siblings' children. "It really relieves a lot of worry to know that," Siloti said.The diagnosis also has helped the Silotis find other families whose children have the same diagnosis. They share stories on a Facebook group and feel they've found a new sense of support and community. "We've always believed that knowledge is power," Siloti said. "It is wonderful to have some answers, especially after such a long search."Source: Eurekalert
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"Foot ulcers cause many serious problems for diabetic patients," said Guillermo Ameer, professor of biomedical engineering in the McCormick School of Engineering at Northwestern, in a press release."Some sores don't heal fast enough and are prone to infection. We thought that we could use some of our work in biomaterials for medical applications and controlled drug release to help heal those wounds."Ameer and his team conducted a study, recently published in thein which they developed an approach to diabetic wounds that "mimics the repair process" in healthy bodies. The regenerative bandage is composed of a thermo-responsive, biocompatible material, which when applied to the wound as a liquid, solidifies into a gel at body temperature.The researchers incorporated a protein, called stromal cell derived factor-1, into the gel. The human body innately uses this protein to elicit the return of repair cells (stem or progenitor cells) to the site of injury, where they produce new blood vessels, thus increasing blood flow and promoting wound healing. The slow release of this protein from the biocompatible material mimics the body's innate healing response.The thermo-responsivity of the material enables safe wound dressing changes by rinsing with cool saline, thereby preventing re-injury of the healing tissue during bandage replacement. Antioxidant properties incorporated into the dressing reduce inflammation, which also encourages healing.According to Ameer, the proteins used in the dressing are similar to ones a healthy body would use to heal itself. In their experiments, the researchers found that applying the proteins directly did not work as well as controlled release. Also, the gel-form molds itself directly to the wound, but it is more easily removed than traditional paper or cloth dressings."The ability of the material to reversibly go from liquid to solid with temperature changes protects the wound," Ameer explained. "Patients have to change the wound dressing often, which can rip off healing tissue and reinjure the site. Our material conforms to the shape and dimensions of the wound and can be rinsed off with a cooled saline, if needed. This material characteristic can protect the regenerating tissue during dressing changes."Recent developments in wound dressing technology have led to a "smarter" bandage. MIT scientists recently introduced "smart" wound dressing technology that delivers medicines, monitors temperature, and lights up if its drug supply is running low. Also, a research team at the University of North Texas has designed a skin cancer treatment that is placed directly over cancerous lesions for a more individualized and convenient approach to squamous cell carcinoma treatment.Source: Medindia
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 20

By Orkhan Guluzade  Trend:

Legal Adviser to the Chief of Turkish General Staff, Major General Dincer Ural has been detained during a special operation against the Fethullah Gulen movement, Anadolu Agency reported Aug. 20.

Gulen is accused of organizing the July 15 military coup attempt in Turkey.

The report says that currently, Ural is being examined at the Prosecutor Generals Office.

After the attempted military coup, during the session of Turkeys Supreme Military Council on July 28, Ural was awarded the rank of major general.

An Istanbul court ordered on Aug. 4 to arrest Fethullah Gulen.

On July 15 evening, Turkish authorities said a military coup attempt took place in the country. Meanwhile, a group of servicemen announced about transition of power to them.

However, the rebelling servicemen started to surrender July 16 and Turkish authorities said the coup attempt failed.

Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had said the death toll as a result of the military coup attempt stood at 246 people, excluding the coup plotters, and over 2,000 people were wounded.

Erdogan declared a three-month state of emergency in Turkey on July 20.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @o_quluzade
"Men make use of their illnesses at least as much as they are made use of by them." - Aldous Huxley

Illness anxiety disorder refers to a type of mental disorder in which the person thinks that he or she is seriously or fatally ill. The belief is despite negative medical evaluations and reassurances from the doctor that no physical health problem is detectable. Normal bodily functions like heart beats, bowel movements, etc., may be regarded as symptoms of an unknown serious illness. Sometimes, minor symptoms like a runny nose or a headache may be thought to be symptoms of a brain tumor. Other terms used to refer this illness include hypochondria, hypochondriasis and somatic symptom disorder.

Not all people suffering from illness anxiety disorder express their concern about their imaginary illness. Some persons may use vague names like sore kidneys, tired nose, etc., for their so-called illness. Some may just avoid the names and reminders of illness and medical professionals for their routine medical checkup. This may also be dangerous as minor illnesses may proceed to more serious conditions if they are not attended on time.

The severity of hypochondria varies with the person. A full-blown illness anxiety disorder can cause problems that interfere with the normal daily activities and work. Severe hypochondria can disable the individual completely without any actual physical illness.

Diagnosis of hypochondria can be a challenge as the individual would be concerned about seeing his primary care physician, instead of a mental health professional. Hypochondria can be identified by a primary care physician when they find that the patient is concerned about his health despite negative results of the lab tests and other diagnostic tools.

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Hypochondria or illness anxiety disorder can occur in a person without any real cause. However, some triggering factors may contribute or exacerbate the underlying hypochondriac belief about their imaginary illness.

Attention-seeking: Some people who may feel neglected in the family may bring them to the limelight. Experiences of negligence during healthy childhood and extra attention during an illness can be a cause of hypochondriasis in a person.

Serious illness during early years of life: The mental impact of a serious illness during childhood could cause fear and anxiety of developing another illness during later years. So, the individual may become over-cautious and anticipate the same illness or another one. Extra attention during an illness during childhood can also cause anxiety that any minor health abnormality can cause serious consequences if they are not attended properly.

Serious illness or death due to illness of a close family member: When a child sees that a family member who is seriously ill is getting all the attention, they tend to link expression of love and affection to the illness. Death of a sick person can cause serious concerns and fear in the child about personal health.

Physical abuse or Sexual abuse during childhood: Experiences of abuse during childhood can make the individual feel vulnerable and unstable. They may have difficulty in interpersonal relationships, which may cause them to be hypochondriac for seeking attention.

Overly-protective parents or caretakers: Parents who are anxious about their childrens health can be the reason for a child to develop hypochondriac behavior during later years. Kids health anxiety may be present in most parents, but over-indulgence in their health can cause trouble.

Internet as a trigger for hypochondria: People take to looking into the internet for their symptoms that may be harmless. The information on the internet presents all possible disorders associated with a particular symptom or set of symptoms. As some symptoms can be common in mild as well as serious illnesses, a person with illness anxiety disorder may consider the worst possible disorder to be the cause of his own presenting symptom or symptoms.

Symptoms of health anxiety disorder can start with usual concerns about ones health. Frequent health checkups, doctor visits and laboratory tests can raise a concern about the presence of hypochondriasis by a close family member or the caretaker.

A person with hypochondriasis often presents with the following characteristic behaviours.

Intense, long-term anxiety of the presence of a serious illness or fatal disease.

Repeated visits to doctors and having laboratory checks done very frequently. They ask too many questions to doctors and may also argue with the medical professionals that their symptoms are being ignored.

They believe that they have the disease that would have just heard or read about.

They may constantly switch doctors; especially if the doctor they visited tries to reassure that they are not sick.

Frequent checking of body vital parameters such as pulse or blood pressure

Frequent examination of the body for lesions, lumps, sores and warts.

Worrying too much about normal body sensations and minor symptoms.

Continuously talking about their symptoms and suspected diseases with whoever listens to them.

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When a person is suspected to be overly anxious about their health, even after the confirmation of the absence of the suspected illness, it is advisable to see a mental health professional regarding their health anxiety.

Identifying hypochondria in a person can be a challenge. Not everyone who is concerned about their illness can be diagnosed as a hypochondriac. Sometimes, a real illness cannot be easily identified with the presenting symptoms. This can cause concern and anxiety and the person may go for a second opinion or further tests.

However, since illness anxiety disorder does not involve any real physical illness, a close friend or family can help them consult a mental health professional.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders has renamed hypochondria with a new term illness anxiety disorder in its newly published DSM-5 guidelines. Diagnostic guidelines of hypochondria in DSM-IV mention the following criteria.

Based on the persons misinterpretation of bodily symptoms, the person believes that he has a serious disease.

Despite appropriate medical evaluation and negative test results, this belief persists.

Delusional disorder must be ruled out.

This belief about having a disease interferes with daily living and social and personal relationships and activities.

The duration of the disturbance is for a minimum of 6 months.

Differential diagnosis of anxiety disorder, panic disorder, major depressive disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder and separation anxiety or any other related mental illness must be done to rule them out.

Treatment for hypochondria includes a combination of psychological counseling, creating awareness about the condition and anti anxiety or anti-depressive medications

Counseling: Cognitive behavioural therapy is the most popular way of handling a person with illness anxiety disorder. Counseling sessions would include explaining the problem, how it is related to some negative experiences in the past and how to cope with the anxiety when it arises.

Education about hypochondria: Explaining the nature of hypochondria as an illness that can occur in any one and try to relate and understand the problem. Counseling sessions include explaining what illness anxiety disorder is, the cause of the disorder and how to cope with the fears that arise due to the concern about their health.

Medications: Antidepressant medication is usually prescribed for a person with anxiety due to concerns about their health. Tricyclic antidepressants like clomipramine and imipramine and serotonin reuptake inhibitors such as paroxetine are the usual drugs that can help cope with the anxiety associated with the disorder.

A person with illness anxiety disorder may suffer for months or even years. The anxiety about the health may manifest for some periods of time and may not surface for a long period of time. In such cases, one cannot assume that the disorder has been cured.

Some patients respond well to treatment like counseling or medication or even a combination of both. However, solving the underlying reason or cause of the problem can lead give better results with the treatment procedures.
Details added (first version posted on 14:28)

Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 20

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

Bashar al-Assad can stay in power in the period of transition government in Syria, Hurriyet newspaper reported Aug. 20 citing Turkeys Prime Minister Binali Yildirim.

Over the next six months, Turkey will play an active role in the settlement of the Syrian crisis, said Yildirim.

He noted that after the formation of a transition government in Syria, Assad must leave his post.

Ankara wont allow dividing Syria into separate states, added the prime minister.

Earlier, Turkeys Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said that Turkey, as other countries, was not successful in its policy towards Syria.

Syria has been suffering from an armed conflict since March 2011, which, according to the UN, has so far claimed over 500,000 lives.

Militants from various armed groups are confronting the Syrian government troops. The Islamic State (IS, ISIL, ISIS or Daesh) is the most active terrorist group in Syria.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
12:11 (GMT+4) Death toll in blast in Turkey has reached risen 50 people, Anadolu agency reported.

05:11 (GMT+4) Death toll in blast in Turkey has reached 30 people, 94 people have been hospitalized, Haber 7 reported.

03:13(GMT+4) Death toll in blast in Turkey has reached 22 people, 94 people have been hospitalized, CNN Turk reported.

02:16(GMT+4) Eight people were killed and 60 wounded when a blast targeted an outdoor wedding celebration in the southern Turkish province of Gaziantep on Saturday night, security sources said, Daily Sabah reported.

Gaziantep Governor Ali Yerlikaya said the blast was a terror attack and that there were injuries reported. Ambulances and police have been dispatched to the scene.

Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek said that the explosion may have been caused by a suicide attack, adding that the death toll might be higher than reported.

"The aim of terror is to scare the people but we will not allow this," said Simsek, who also represents Gaziantep in the Turkish parliament.

"It is barbaric to attack a wedding," he told Turkish television.

The blast took place in a mainly Kurdish-inhabited neighborhood of the city, while local reporters and officials said that the family hosting the wedding is from eastern Turkey. Reports suggest that 300 to 500 people were at the area when the explosion took place.

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) deputy Samil Tayyar said that the attack was carried out by Daesh terrorist group.

Gaziantep borders Syria's Aleppo province, where intense clashes between Daesh and U.S.-backed SDF and opposition groups have been continuing for weeks in the towns of Manbij and Jarablous.

Four years ago on Aug 20, 10 people were killed and 66 others were injured in a car bomb attack carried out by PKK terror organization in Gaziantep. This coincidence also raised questions whether this date was specifically chosen.

Deputies of the province departed for Gaziantep after the blast, while Prime Minister Binali Yldrm instructed several ministers to depart for Gaziantep.
Shenzhen-Hong Kong Trade Link: China Becomes Most Expensive Trading Market in the World

China announces Shenzhen-Hong Kong stock market link. (Photo : Getty Images)

China is now the most sought-after stocks exchange after the government announced a green light for the link between Shenzhen and Hong Kong indexes while stock prices of the "good ones" shoot up.



The Chinese government approved the link on Tuesday in order to attract more investors to its tech-heavy Shenzhen exchange, The Wall Street Journal reported.



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However, many investors see some of the "good ones" in the Shenzhen stocks exchange to be much too expensive, a proof that China is now the most expensive market in the world.



The Effects of Linking Shenzhen-Hong Kong Trading



After the announcement, different stock exchange covered in the link reacted quite differently.



According to WSJ, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index ended with a 0.5 percent drop while the Shenzhen Composite Index and the ChiNext index both shot up by about 0.3 percent each. The Shanghai Composite, on the other hand, remained relatively unchanged.



The announcement also rippled through foreign exchanges where the Nikkei Stock Average earned an extra 0.9 percent even though the yen became weaker and the Australian S&P/ASX 200 has risen 0.1 percent while the Korean Kospi decreased by 0.2 percent.



According to Guotai Junan Securities analyst Zhang Xin, such reactions were normal and should stabilize soon enough.



"The market may enter a moderate correction period since the good news has been exhausted in the short term," he explained.



Expensive Market



Even though the announcement was good news to traders, there was little positive reaction amid what the WSJ described as a "fatigue" among traders who had waited a long year for the link to come to reality.



"We expected the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Connect for a long time," Kim Eng Securities regional strategy analyst William Cheung told WSJ.



Aside from that, stocks that are considered "good" by traders are more expensive than usual, especially in the Shenzhen stocks exchange.



"The good ones [Shenzhen stocks] are very, very expensive," said BNP Paribas Investment Partners Asia Pacific equities head Arthur Kwong.



Because of this, China is being dubbed as the world's most expensive trading market as reflected by the expected higher growth rate.



Capital Economics China economist Julian Evans-Pritchard said that Shenzhen Stock Connect will have very small effects on capital flows and equity valuations.



"It is a welcome signal that policymakers are keen to press on with financial reform as concerns over market volatility and capital outflows fade. But limited appetite overseas for mainland equities means the direct impact on equity valuations and capital flows will be small," he wrote in a report cited by BBC.






UPPER THUMB  Huron County has less of a physician shortage than Sanilac and Tuscola counties, and it also ranks first of the three in overall health, according to reports.

The Citizens Research Council recently revealed a report showing that three out of four Michigan counties have physician shortages in at least one primary-care field.

Huron Countys population to primary care physician ratio is 1,709:1, compared to a state average of 1,246:1. Sanilac Countys average is 2,818:1, and Tuscolas average is 3,644:1, according to the report.

Primary-care fields include family medicine, pediatrics, internal medicine, general obstetrics and gynecology, general surgery and psychiatry, according to the report.

Primary care physicians  are often the first point of contact for patients to proper and continuous health care, the report said.

Along with difficulty of access, higher prices and lower quality of care are other issues that arise from primary care physician shortages.

The report says that population growth, an aging population, and Michigan medical students leaving the state are some of the factors contributing to the shortage.

Terrance Lerash, chief executive officer of Scheurer Hospital in Pigeon, said that the shortage does not apply to Scheurer.

Scheurer does not have a shortage of primary care physicians, but our doctors are all very busy, he said.

Scheurer still has the capacity to take on additional patients, he said.

There is a percentage of our population in Huron County that are going to Bay City, Saginaw and Midland for primary care, he said, adding that Tuscola County has a large percentage of the population that leaves the county for primary care.

Caro Community Hospital President and CEO Marc Augsburger said he agrees with the report.

I would absolutely believe those numbers to be true, he said, noting a significant shortage of providers between Caro and Tuscola Countys other hospital, Hills & Dales General Hospital of Cass City.

It has severely impacted us in Tuscola County, he said.

Huron County is also ranked 41st of 83 counties in its overall health outcomes, he said. That puts Huron County in the 50th percentile for issues such as length of life and quality of life.

Tuscola is 28th and Sanilac is 23rd.

This information comes from countyhealthrankings.org  a program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation at the University of Wisconsin that tracks community health.

The site ranks Huron County 17th in the state for health factors. This includes health behaviors such as smoking, obesity, alcohol use, mental health and teen births; clinical care, and social and economic factors.

Washtenaw County is ranked first, and Wayne County is 83rd. Tuscola is 43rd and Sanilac is 49th.

Augsburger said its possible that those numbers are skewed, and Tuscola County should be ranked worse.

Tuscola County has one of highest medicaid populations in the state, he said.

The higher the medicaid population, the lower the health scores are, he said.

Caro Community Hospital serves the highest population of medicaid patients in the Thumb, Augsburger said, noting that 22 percent of patients pay with medicaid.

Reasons for the score, he said, are that stress levels are high, more people are apt to smoke and drink, its harder to get into behavioral health, and the inability to treat as many patients as efficiently as we would like. And those with low financial status cannot afford health care.

Every year for the next three years, Scheurer plans to recruit a new primary care physician, Lerash said.

As far as recruiting, you have to be very creative these days. You have to be proactive.

Its hard to recruit in rural America to begin with. You have to work harder than hospitals in urban America.

This includes rolling out the red carpet for recruits, creating a good environment, and having current doctors on staff network to encourage doctors to work in Huron County, Lerash said.

Augsburger said recruitment companies promise you the world, but end up being a waste of money.

He formerly worked for a rural hospital in Iowa, where he hired a recruiting company.

All that was, was money down the drain, he said.

Although there is a shortage of medical students to recruit, Augsburger said the new medical school out of Central Michigan University in Saginaw provides hope.

Their plan is to attract students who want to practice in rural Michigan, he said.

Both the Caro and Cass City hospitals have CMU medical students on staff.

But it will be a number of years before those students graduate and complete residencies, he said.

We both (Caro and Cass City hospitals) have had medical providers retire or leave the area in the last few years and replacements have been horrible to find, he said.

Although Caro is 35 minutes from Saginaw, Bay City and Lapeer, They want to be in the hub of whats happening, and they dont want to drive, he said.

Were working very hard on recruiting and bringing quality health care providers to the area and region, Augsburger said. Theres a shortage, but we still provide top-notch, high-quality health care at our hospital.

Caro Community Hospital hosts a lot of visiting specialists from Saginaw and Lapeer, he said.

Officials from McKenzie Memorial Hospital in Sandusky and Huron Medical Center of Bad Axe could not be reached for comment.
Where are the tears, the weeping and cries of united voices for this nation, the Syrians, and all others still slaughtered daily, including the recent Brooklyn imam, and the French Catholic priest, let alone the countless Detroit murders each day?

My heart breaks repeatedly amid each murder that the media depicts on TV.

Sunday, my twin sister shared with me that she went to her room and cried over the ISIS killing of the elderly French priest recently.

Accompanying heartless shootings of Iraqi children can grow despondency within me, also.

Caught in that fray, innocent children, among others are gunned down like the 7-year-old shot Tuesday on Detroits east side.

I pause often these days and night as I grow sad over the cutting of the throat of the 85-year-old Father Jacques Hormal of France.

Dubbed a martyr who died for his faith, my comrade, a Catholic priest like myself, spilled his blood with the stellar aim of only witnessing to Jesus, his Savior. Father Hamel accepted his fate at the feet of his possessed and demonic murderers. In fact, father told them to get away you Satans, note reports of his horrific demise.

Christian love calls for radiating only love, and eventual forgiveness of killers by bystanders at that pastors altar and table of sacrifice in that edifice that joined that moment to Jesus own tragic crucifixion on the tree of a cross. Only love triumphs for the Christian, believers assert. Death is ultimately outdone and defeated without sting, promises the Bible, the code of conduct for followers of Jesus.

Have human hearts gone frozen and grown numb to the countless ISIS-led slaughter of suffering Syrians fleeing to Germany and elsewhere? More common than blowing ones nose these days as fellow humans are struck down by hanging and sword, for example, begs me to ask where is the outrage?

Is seeming silence of so many the lone American response? Unsure of how to defeat ISIS, rising up together in prayer, and, solidarity of fervent and Godly souls is at least somewwhat satisfying amid my bewilderment.

Why the deafening quiet and lack of tears? It seems that we protest more over cruelty and violence toward pets here in this country than over deaths outside and inside a mothers womb.

Is not it the time for all faiths to stand together? After all, the Jewish people sow deep roots in Iraq. Abraham, the Hebrew Scriptures patriarch, was born in the ancient city of Ur that is present-day southern Iraq. Abraham fathered Isaac who have birth to Jacob. Jacob was renamed Israel by God and promised a nation, the Bible notes. From that line Jesus descended, declares the Christian Scriptures. Ishmael, the other son of Abraham, the progenitor of the Arabic people, was also promised a nation in the Bible. Islams key figure, the prophet Mohammed, descended from that branch of Ishmael.

Mounting murders at home and abroad only mock the love, worth and dignity of all humans who are created in the image of God, says the Sacred Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, while the Islamic writings declare: Killing an innocent person unjustly is like killing all humankind.

Like tears that are common to all humans, and are normal manifestations when losses instill the grieving process, the solidarity and common union of faith traditions can do a world of good for mending a broken heart, humans, and the world, in turn.

Terrorism, indeed, has to cause tears in the brutalized victims. The same tears of observers can spur solidarity with the suffering through speaking out against the deadly violence surrounding the globe. Grief entails the tears that aim to face and feel the feelings of losses of life.

Like a flowing river, tears need to flow, and accompany the anguish and pain people are experiencing. If left unfelt, emotions atrophy. After all, we are one nation and one world under God, no?

Shutting down, numbing, and denying ones aches, and only passively watching the violence all about us, only creates other issues and consequences.

Jesus cried over Jerusalem, the Bible claims.

Something to savor from the healer, the Gospels report.

Detroits seal, Resurget Cineribus, Latin for, It will rise from the ashes, urges all to stand together in speaking up against terror.

When the iconic Focus:HOPE in Detroit was founded by Father William Cunningham and Eleanor Josaitis after the civil unrest and rioting in 1968, Cunningham stood up when others simply sat. Focus:HOPE today, decades after initial tears and turbulence, still pledges practical action to overcome racism, poverty and injustice while building a metropolitan community where people may live in freedom, harmony, trust and affection among black, white, yellow, brown and red from Detroit and its suburbs of every economic status, national origin and religious persuasion. It joins in a covenant. Akin to the 75-year-old Michigan Roundable for Diversity and Inclusion that is steered by Steve Spreitzer, and based in downtown Detroit.

The Rev. Lawrence Ventline of Port Austin is a Catholic pastor and a board certified professional counselor who is the first director of the ecumenical Michigan Coalition for Human Rights.
China will spend over $4.8 billion in building low-rent housing. (Photo : Getty Images)

The boom of China's housing market is now cooling manifested in reports of property prices declining, leaving everyone worried about its effects on the country's economy.



According to Reuters, the price of houses in the biggest cities in China is losing its steam, leaving many worried that one of the country's economic drivers are about to sink.



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However, analysts believe that the slowdown on the price increase of homes in the Middle Kingdom is a sign that the country's real estate property market has already reached its peak and has no way to go but down.



Housing Market in China



A report from ABC revealed that 51 out of the 70 cities in China surveyed by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reported gains in prices.



While such number is still remarkably high, the outlet noted that it is significantly lower from its peak of 65 in April and 55 in June. Furthermore, 16 cities reported a price drop while three others remain unchanged as NBS notes how the housing price growth "continued to abate."



Analysts explained that since the housing market is one of the key drivers that push the second largest economy in the world towards its remarkable growth in the past years, the slowdown may have a significant impact on the Chinese economy,



"We believe the housing market is cooling down from the rebound in the first half. Property investment will continue to drop, which will put more pressure on the economy in the future," Nomura economist Wendy Chen told Reuters.



A Welcome Change for Policymakers



According to national statistics, 70 major cities in China saw a 7.9 percent increase in price in July as compared to the previous year.



While this may sound bad for those who invest in real estate in China, ABC said it might be a welcome change for policymakers since it would give them the chance to augment the alarming property bubble that is looming over the country.



"The recent policy tightening could curb rapid home price growth. Local policies will see further divergence as surging home prices and land costs trigger more tightening rules," explained Shanghai-based analyst David Yang of the UOB Kay Hian Investment.



However, some analysts believe that some policymakers are making the situation worse with the government intervening with the housing market.



"With development focused primarily on those regions already suffering from excess capacity, China is playing a dangerous game," explained Fathom Consulting in a report.






The number of Zika virus cases among military personnel has continued to rise, with 14 more cases reported in recent weeks to increase the total number from 41 to 55, a Pentagon spokesman said Friday.

In addition, 12 military dependents have been diagnosed with Zika, an increase of five cases over the seven among military dependents reported earlier this month.

All of the cases among military personnel and dependents were "travel related," meaning that the virus was not contracted within the continental U.S. since testing began earlier this year, the spokesman said.

The number of cases in the military could be much higher. Only about 20 percent of people infected with Zika have symptoms, which can include fever, rash, joint pain, pink eye and headache, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Earlier this month, the Defense Department said that one of the service members with the Zika virus was pregnant. Zika has been linked to birth defects such as microcephaly and a study released in May by the CDC estimated that the fetuses of mothers infected with Zika in their first trimester face up to a 13 percent chance of being born with severe brain abnormalities.

The rise in Zika cases among military personnel came amid heightened concerns over the spread of the virus linked to bites from the aedes aegypti mosquito found in many states.

Florida officials and the CDC said Friday they were investigating reports of locally transmitted Zika virus cases in Miami Beach. The suspected Zika virus zone in Miami Beach involved about 1.5 square miles from 8th to 28th Streets in the main tourist area.

In response, the CDC advised that "pregnant women should avoid travel to the designated area of Miami Beach, in addition to the designated area of Wynwood, both located in Miami-Dade County, because active local transmission of Zika has been confirmed.

"Pregnant women and their sexual partners who are concerned about potential Zika virus exposure may also consider postponing non-essential travel to all parts of Miami-Dade County," the CDC said.

"We're in the midst of mosquito season and expect more Zika infections in the days and months to come," CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden said. "It's difficult but important that pregnant women make every effort to avoid mosquito bites and avoid going to areas where Zika is spreading."

Zika infections have been reported in more than 70 countries. Thus far in the U.S., more than 1,650 Zika infections have been reported, according to the CDC.

Earlier this year, the Defense Department ordered heightened monitoring for the aedes aegypti mosquito at military installations in 27 states and the District of Columbia in response to the Zika crisis. The Pentagon called for monitoring, trapping, testing and eliminating water sources as breeding grounds.

The Defense Department also offered to relocate family members of active-duty personnel and civilian employees assigned to regions at higher risk for Zika.

Earlier this month, government-funded human trials began on a possible Zika virus vaccine. "We are right now in a race against time to get the best vaccine," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

However, Fauci has repeatedly warned that the ongoing disputes between Congress and the White House over funding for development of a Zika vaccine could delay the research.

Doctors at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research have also been working separately on a Zika virus vaccine. In June, the Walter Reed doctors published a study in the journal Nature in which they said that mice developed immunity to the Zika virus after injection with a purified inactivated virus vaccine, called ZPIV.

The vaccine was undergoing more testing and human trials could begin later this year, Lt. Gen. Nadja Y. West, the Army Surgeon General, said at a breakfast with reporters Thursday. West said that the funding debate hampering civilian Zika vaccine research would not affect the work at Walter Reed.

--Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com.
Despite Flipping in Surf 4 Times in a Year, Marines Say New ACV Is the Future of Amphibious Warfare

Some Marine veterans familiar with the vehicle and its operations have worried about the reliability of the ACV.
A Long March-2D carrier rocket blasts off at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Dec. 2008 in Gansu Province. (Photo : Getty Images)

China's first ever hack-proof quantum satellite "Micius" has successfully sent data back to Earth, two days after it was launched into orbit through a Long March-2D rocket.



State-run Xinhua News Agency reported on Friday how the first data from the quantum-powered satellite named after the fifth century B.C. Chinese scientist and philosopher Micius was received at the China Remote Sensing Satellite Ground Station (RSGS).



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The information from the Micius satellite arrived at around 11:56 a.m. local time at the RSGS in Miyun located on the outskirts of the Chinese capital, Beijing.



According to the outlet, the data was estimated to be about 202 megabytes and was immediately transferred to the National Space Science Center (NSSC), China's version of NASA.



There was no word on what the data contains but China appears to be keeping it a secret, something that information-hungry hackers could drool on for decades for the satellite was said to be hack-proof, thanks to the quantum key encryption technology.



According to New Atlas, such technology is gradually becoming one of the most sought-after methods of transferring critical and confidential information because of its ultra-secure feature that rebuffs any attempt of interception.



As the first to use it, China is now leading the race towards the space age and proves that the Middle Kingdom is no longer a follower in information technology.



"The newly-launched satellite marks a transition in China's role - from a follower in classic information technology (IT) development to one of the leaders guiding future IT achievements," Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Quantum Experiments at Space Scale (QUESS) project chief scientist Pan Jianwei explained.



After it was launched on Wednesday via a Long March-2D rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, the quantum satellite Micius is orbiting the Earth's atmosphere from about 100 kilometers or 62 miles at around the speed of 8 kilometers per second.


A farmer harvests wheat in Yanguoxia Town of Yongjing County in Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture. (Photo : Getty Images)

China is set to undertake reforms in its agriculture industry to address the growing food security crisis, which is seen as the biggest change since the Great Leap Forward.



The changes are being planned as China is faced with problems on how to feed the nation of 1.3 billion, almost a fifth of the world population with only 7 percent of arable land.



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An article by Time said that fertilizer overuse, intensive animal grazing and the use of biomass for rural energy have caused severe soil degradation to more than 40 percent of the country's land.



According to experts, it was agriculture, not the industrial factories, that has exerted a great toll on China's environment.



This has resulted in poverty and land degradation as it was predicted that some 300 million Chinese are expected to leave the fields or farms for jobs in the city, despite the fact that the country has produced 600 million tons of food for 12 straight years.



In addition, valuable agriculture lands have been lost to give way to urban clusters, where meat, grain and dairy consumption is higher.



About 63 kilograms of meat is consumed by the average Chinese every year, which is expected to increase by 30 kg by 2030, while 70 percent of the country's corn has been used to feed livestock, not the people, the report said.



To address the problem and safeguard food security, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has taken drastic actions such as the acquisition of land overseas that included the largest dairy in Australia, more than 324,000 hectares of farmland in Argentina, and soybean-processing plants in Brazil that are worth billions of dollars.



The government has also re-introduced taxes on fertilizers and pesticides and reorganized incentives and subsidies for farmers. It also reduced support for unprofitable crops and increased subsidies for crops that are in demand and sustainable.



An expert said that the CCP took serious risks with the reforms which if they fail, could make food prices soar and impoverished the farmers further.



"There could be massive social unrest if they screw up the agriculture industry," Erlend Ek, an agriculture expert at the China Policy research firm, was quoted as saying. "There hasn't been this big of a change maybe since the Great Leap Forward."



The country's tillable land is divided into small parcels owned by farmers and some state-run farms.



The government wants to organize these small farms into larger farms to modernize agriculture.



"Chinese agriculture is effectively a cottage industry," Sun Chang, chairman of Black Soil group, which helps to consolidate these plots into larger farms, said. "China is so far behind the U.S., Australia or Europe because of unorganized, subscale farms with no scientific management."



As staple crops are expensive to grow in China compared with the U.S., the government has turned to alternative solutions to remain self-sufficient.



In Gansu Province, farmers cultivate alfalfa as substitute to traditional crops while in Guandong Province, insects are being grown to become a source of high-protein animal feed.



To replace toxic insecticides, Chinese scientists breed wasps called Trichogramma, that feed on the eggs of destructive pests. Pigs in Jilin Province are grown in a bed of microbe-infused rice husk and sawmill, to reduce the smell of excrement to be used as compost for the fields. Most incredibly, salmon and trout are being farmed in the arid Gobi Desert.



Rustan Lindqvist, a Swede who spent 25 years working in aquaculture across Scandinavia, helped China to establish a recirculation aquaculture system (RAS) farm in Xinjiang Province, where fish are grown in large indoor tanks under controlled conditions.



"I thought someone finally understands the full potential of the RAS system," Lindqvist, the architect of the project, said. "You can actually build it in the middle of the desert."



China has transformed the Turpan basin, the country's hottest and driest region, into a green pasture through network of deep karez wells that stretches to more than 5,000 km. The government has also reforested the Yellow River Loess Plateau, through the watershed rehabilitation project funded by World Bank.



Scientists, in partnership with the local communities, put a stop to free-grazing practices as animals were grown in pens. They also formed reservoirs and made terraced farming for crops in shallow slopes.



Local farmers were given ownership rights to the land to ensure continued maintenance of the land.



"This is transformation and change on a landscape about the size of France," Juergen Voegele, World Bank's former team leader for the project, said.



The strategy was replicated across the country which increased the number of high-quality farmland in China. There are now 30.4 million hectares of prime fields and the government aims to increase the number from 53 million to 67 million hectares by 2020, which is about half of all arable land in the country.



The government is also drafting a rural-land contract law, which will allow farmers to lease their land to a larger, consolidated farm. In Heilongjiang Province, the Black Soil group has two pilot projects which measures more than 750 sq km, with plans to expand it.



"Farmers are essentially turned into workers," Sun said. "They don't have to worry about working capital, standards, seeds, chemicals, buying equipment, sales. Only by doing this can you ensure food safety."


SAGINAW, MI -- A Saginaw man who police said was a serial arsonist will not serve anymore time behind bars.

Nathaniel L. Nixon

Chief Circuit Judge Fred L. Borchard on Wednesday, Aug. 17, sentenced Nathaniel L. Nixon for six felonies.

Borchard sentenced Nixon to one year in jail, with credit for 364 days, and three years probation for three counts each of third-degree arson and three counts of preparing to burn a building.

With one day left for Nixon to serve, Borchard released him on Wednesday.

Nixon in June pleaded guilty to the six charges, and in exchange, prosecutors dropped an additional count each of the two charges.

Nixon, 50, pleaded to setting three fires in the city's Cathedral District in August 2015. Police suspected Nixon in up to 20-plus fires in the area in and near the Cathedral District.

Nixon's attorney, Kenneth Wright, said Wednesday that the fires were a "misconceived attempt" by Nixon to rid the city vacant homes, of "eyesores." Wright said Nixon is "very remorseful" and acknowledges that he went about his efforts the wrong way.

Nixon, who lived in the neighborhood at 1434 Gage, had no comment at Wednesday's hearing. He said in June that he used lighter fluid to set fires on Aug. 2 at 1022 S. Weadock between Merrill and Mott, on Aug. 16 at 1335 Atwater between South Weadock and South Park, and on Aug. 18 at 1224 S. Weadock between Gage and Atwater.

The charges that prosecutors dropped were in relation to a July 31 fire at 1332 S. Park between Atwater and Phelon. Michigan State Police Trooper Paul Frechette testified at Nixon's May 2 preliminary hearing that Nixon admitted to setting all four blazes.

Nixon's state sentencing guidelines placed his minimum sentence in a range of five to 23 months. Borchard went along with a recommendation from the Michigan Department of Corrections and did not send Nixon to prison.

State police investigators arrested Nixon after the Aug. 18 fire on South Weadock, one of at least 15 suspicious fires or confirmed arsons in less than a month primarily on the city's East Side. Investigators in the weeks before Nixon's arrest noticed a pattern emerge regarding some of the suspected arsons, state police 1st Lt. David Kaiser has said.

State police Detective Sgt. Tim Larrison testified at Nixon's hearing that detectives surveilling the area confirmed that Nixon, a person of interest in the previous arsons, had left his home, so Larrison approached him near the Weadock house and ordered him to the ground, he said.

Nixon threw a plastic foam Cup Noodles cup when Larrison announced his presence, Larrison said. Larrison began placing Nixon in handcuffs, and in the meantime, the detectives saw that the porch of the Weadock house was on fire, Larrison said.

Chief Assistant Prosecutor Christopher Boyd has said his office was content with Nixon only facing the four cases. He noted that regardless of how many cases Nixon was convicted of, his sentences would have ran concurrently.
A woman tries the Ozo camera during its European launch in London in March 2016. (Photo : Getty Images)

Nokia is opening a major avenue for expansion by bringing its high-end Ozo VR camera to China, the company announced on Wednesday, Aug. 17.



An article published by The Verge.com said that the 360-degree camera, which is equipped with "ready-to-go stitching and production pipelines", will be sold in China in September this year, although it is available in the U.S. and Europe now.



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Nokia also said that it is offering a new price for the camera, which was originally sold for $60,000. It is now offering $15,000 discounts to some individuals and early adopters or users.



But the company said that the Ozo camera, which is being sold on retail for $45,000 in the U.S. and 40,000 in Europe, will be sold at an equivalent price during the China launch.



Nokia Technologies president Ramzi Haidamus said in an interview earlier this year, that Ozo is a professional production tool similar to the Arri Alexa or RED's line of cameras. He added that the product's potential market will be the professional camera rental houses.



Ozo head of presence capture Guido Voltolina said that the discounted early adopter program has made their sales better than expected and also made it possible for them to expand into China.



""Next year I can see the China VR market on par, if not bigger, than North America," Voltolina said.



"VR in China is beyond exploding," he added. "Investments, new companies offering content creation; all aspects of the ecosystem are going crazy on VR, to the point that in the early part of next year I can see the China VR market on par, if not bigger, than North America."



According to the report, Nokia's plans also include a partnership with LeEco, which will distribute the Ozo content through its LeVR division.



Voltolina said that the expansion is a big opportunity for Nokia as China is now opening access to hardware and new business experiences.



"PlayStation VR is really focusing on China as one of its key markets from the very beginning. VR cafes are popping up like mushrooms," Voltolina said. "It's all about making the technology available, even to ones that cannot afford the whole system."



But Voltolina said that even in the U.S., the approach did not pick up fast, with a company called Awesome Rocketship which used it first as standalone VR stations in movie theaters' lobbies and malls two weeks ago.



Disney also announced that it would be using Ozo cameras for many of its 360-degree VR initiatives, but it has not made any strong promotions yet, the report said.



The report said that Nokia's expansion into China is a smart move for Ozo to gain foothold before other competitors come along.


Hillary Clinton

In this photo taken Aug. 18, 2016, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks to media as she meets with law enforcement leaders at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

(Carolyn Kaster)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- It's no day at the beach, but Hillary Clinton is having the political equivalent of a quiet August.

Donald Trump may be dominating the political chatter as he reboots a trailing campaign, but it's Clinton who's winning positive headlines during visits to some of the most competitive states in the presidential race.

The Republican nominee's constant state of campaign chaos is dulling the impact of stories about Clinton's emails and allowing her to spend plenty of time raising money behind closed doors.

"I think she's actually smart to stay quiet at this time. She's not a popular candidate with the Democrats. She has a lot of negatives herself. There's a lot of news that could be made about her," said Rick Tyler, a former aide to Ted Cruz, the Texas senator and onetime Trump rival.

But, Tyler said, it's all "getting subsumed by the black hole candidate that is Donald Trump."

A disastrous stretch for Trump has helped solidify Clinton's lead in national preference polls and most surveys in closely contested states. Clinton campaigned in Ohio and Pennsylvania this past week, and the Democratic nominee's voter registration efforts and policy pitches went largely unnoticed as Trump shook up his campaign staff.

Trump's reshuffling also overshadowed fresh stories about Clinton's use of a private email account and server as secretary of state.

"Donald Trump never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity," said Whit Ayres, a GOP pollster who worked for Florida Sen. Marco Rubio's presidential campaign.

Clinton seems more than content to let Trump dominate coverage on cable news and in national newspapers. In the meantime, her campaign has carefully courted journalists in the communities she visits, pushing tailored policy messages. For example, stressing her plans to respond to the Zika virus in Florida and how she'd support manufacturing jobs in Detroit.

Local supporters have hit Trump on issues such as his refusal to release his tax returns. Clinton had an opinion piece on water quality in this past week in Florida's Treasure Coast Newspapers.

After an appearance in Ohio on Wednesday, the top headline the next day in The Plain Dealer in Cleveland read, "Clinton Tears Trump Plan to Cut Estate Tax," while The New York Times' main campaign story focused on the tumult in the Trump campaign.

"If the Republicans are spending their time attacking and fighting each other, it gives you a little bit more liberty to go out there and articulate your message. They're not necessarily offering a counter-argument," said Chris Lehane, a Democratic strategist who worked in Bill Clinton's White House. "It gives you more real estate in a more uncluttered way to break through."

Republican pollster Greg Strimple said that's not just spin, arguing the "overarching national message of the campaign is not one that can unify the country, so I would focus on doing small events that have local flavor."

"It also keeps her profile lower," he said, "which allows the circular firing squad of the Trump campaign to continue."

Since the bus tour that followed the end of the Democratic convention, Clinton also has focused heavily on fundraising. She has been to more than 10 fundraisers in the first half of the month, hitting mansions in Miami and enjoying a private performance by Aretha Franklin in Detroit.

She's keeping up the pace, heading this weekend to Martha's Vineyard off the Massachusetts coast and to California next week. Clinton is on track to top the $90 million she raised for her campaign and Democratic allies in July.

Her campaign has been hard at work in the battleground states, eyeing the start of early voting in some places next month.

At his rallies, Trump often urges his backers to vote. But Clinton gets into the details at her events, plugging registration and urging people to cast absentee ballots.

"If you aren't registered and you're eligible, see the persons with the clipboards here," Clinton said during a recent event in Kissimmee, Florida. "We want you to be registered, and then we want you to be part of this campaign."

Trump has started to advertise on television and appears at ease with his new campaign team. His trip to flood-ravaged Louisiana on Friday won praise from residents who feel overlooked by President Barack Obama. He kept to his vacation schedule on Martha's Vineyard, though the White House announced he would visit Baton Rouge on Tuesday.

While Trump was in Louisiana, Clinton called the state's governor during a day spent fundraising on the East Coast.

"St. Amant loves Trump because he is here in the middle of everything," said Doug Ford, a Trump supporter who put out a sign in his front yard welcoming the Republican to the flooded town, where his trailer was filled with water. "We need him here because the president is not here."

But even with three presidential debates to come and the prospect of more negative stories about Clinton's emails, Republicans say she is well positioned to avoid the pitfalls that could arrive before the November vote.

"She's just got to execute a campaign professionally," said Tyler, the former Cruz aide. "If she does that, she's overwhelmingly likely to win."
DETROIT -- In the box score, it may appear to be the worst outing of Michael Fulmer's young career.

But from the mound, where Fulmer was in the best position to judge his performance Friday night, there was little the young pitcher said he would change.

His fastball was just as swift, his slider as crisp and his command nearly as consistent as it has been in the past.

The biggest culprit for his rough night? A Boston Red Sox lineup that exercised patience and discipline. They didn't bite on his two-strike sliders and they had the strength to handle his inside fastballs.

"Sometimes," said Fulmer, "you've just got to tip your cap."

The Red Sox beat the Tigers 10-2 Friday night at Comerica Park, and Fulmer was responsible for six of the runs.

The last two were runs cheapies, cobbled together from two-out singles in the sixth inning. The first four were well-earned, the product of two home runs driven deep to right field in the first inning.

In between, Fulmer was effective, retiring 12 of 13 and staying out of trouble.

"I felt good. I think I made some good pitches, but I think they had my number tonight," Fulmer said.

Tigers manager Brad Ausmus said Fulmer was due for a night like this after pitching at an elite level for much of his rookie season. His most recent start in Texas was the first complete game shutout of his career. On Friday, he came back to earth.

"He was bound to have an outing like this at some point," Ausmus said. "He couldn't continue to be as dominant as he was on an every-five-day basis."

Fulmer's next start probably won't be for another seven or eight days, depending on how Ausmus structures the pitching rotation after Monday's off-day. The team is trying to limit his workload while still keeping him active for the stretch run. But both Fulmer and Ausmus said fatigue had nothing to do with Friday's outcome.

The home runs got most of the attention in the first inning, but Fulmer also gave up a couple of singles on at-bats that began with an 0-2 count.

That was a testament, Fulmer said, to the Red Sox' discipline. They simply wouldn't bite on an offspeed pitch, and when he returned later with an inside fastball, they were ready.

"Their whole lineup was like that tonight," he said. "I tried setting pitches up and I guess I need to miss inside a little more."

The Tigers offense contributed little to the effort. The Tigers have scored only nine runs in the last five games. Take away a three-run outburst in the eighth last night, and that's one run every seven innings.

Red Sox starter Rick Porcello, a former Tiger, pitched seven strong innings Friday and improved his record to 17-3.

"We're not scoring a lot of runs regardless of the name on the back of the jersey, but I think Rick threw well and he's having a really good year," Ausmus said.

Fulmer is having a good year, too, and he was ready to put Friday's ugly line in the past.

"You've got to turn the page and have a short memory and hopefully we'll get them next time," he said.
The extremely talented eShun has evolved from reality show star to a superstar songstress. Her unique blend of music makes her completely stand out from her peers in the Ghanaian music industry. When you hear her music, you can literally hear her soul sing. She sings from the heart, with a passion and flare that is unmatched and incomparable. I caught up with her to find out more.

How did you begin your career as a recording artiste?

eShun: It started one-and-half years ago when I got to meet Stephen Mensah, the head of my team. I knew him, but not professionally until after I came back from Nigerias Glo X-Factor competition where I placed first runner-up. I talked to him about learning to be a radio presenter, since he was into radio, but said hed rather have me concentrate on singing first. I couldn't have agreed more. I must add it has been great journey so far! I went through about two reality shows which had given me enough prep: TV3 Mentor and MTN Project Fame, third place and runner-up respectively. I was using the name Ethel at the time.

How would you describe your type of music?

eShun: I do highlife and urban Afro-pop with a spark of soul. Youve got to hear it to understand the soul feel in my tunes. Do visit my sound portal on to get my tunes so you can understand my genre of music. Soundclound.com/eShunmusiq or Reverbnation.com/eShun.

What do you normally talk about in your music?

eShun: In my songs, I make sure I am being real. It shows even in my singing. I talk about my experiences, life and everything we can relate to as human beings. I talk about how proud I am to be an African and I try to inspire others to never give up. I do music for the ears and mind. So, it should inspire you to do and be better after listening to me!

What are some of the challenges youve faced in your career?

eShun: Being a creative person is a challenge in itself, so being a musician and creating/recording new songs/music and getting people to become fans is always a daunting task. Fortunately, I have crossed that challenge. My challenge now is with getting the traditional outlets, i.e. radio and television stations, to play my songs and videos. That seems to be a major problem because what it is really is that at the third listening of my songs, you become a fan. We are beginning to jump that problem because more people are loving my sound, and invariably forcing the radio and television stations to play my material. Getting features with the Ghanaian established artiste is no child's play. They will be playing hard to get and some will be asking you to pay some ridiculous amount like GH20,000. So yea, those are some of the challenges, but my team and I are finding our way around all of those challenges.

Where do you get your inspiration from?

eShun: For me, there are so many things that inspire me to write my songs. Different photos, scenery, quotes and life experiences make me just want to write and write. Life and basically everything I see and hear in my day-to-day errands inspire me. I draw inspiration from God, and I believe I am on a journey to do greater things other artistes havent yet been able to do. I am inspired by the fact that I am on a course to make Africa proud. That is an inspiration for me!

What are you working on at the moment?

eShun: I am working on three new music videos and some new songs to be released hopefully next month. Ive got some features with many great artistes such as MI, Shatta Wale, Stonebwoy, Diamond Platinum, Patoranking, Cabum, 4X4, just to mention a few. I am working on my 'Gift Album' which we plan to release in the second quarter of 2017. Im practising, rehearsing and making sure I am better with each rise of the notes. My tag line is becoming Africa's next biggest music brand, and that is no joke. eShun is squeezing every little drop of sweat to make it happen tomorrow!

What do you hope to achieve through your career?

eShun: This year, I began my eShun health care project which saw close to a thousand people get free quality health care at Aminsano (Cape Coast) in the Central Region of Ghana. This is something I want to continue doing, so my music doesn't only inspire minds and hearts, but does actually impact the lives of people physically. Currently, I am giving tips to people all over Africa, especially ladies on how to prevent breast cancer. My general intent is to make sure Africans and everyone that loves and listens to me lives longer and healthier. We are all servants, and at the end of my stay on earth I hope to have served well. I believe I have the best voice in Africa, and I want that voice to inspire minds and hearts of Africans in particular and the world at large. I want to my brand to be known and loved by about 50 percent of Africans by the seventh year in my music career. I hope to be among the first most known and sought-after music brands in Africa and among the five top music brands in the world. I want to be the voice of Africa ,so help me God!

What does the future hold for you?

eShun: Whenever I think of the future, I get excited and more focused. I strongly believe the future is really bright for me as a music artiste. The music industry in Ghana has evolved exponentially from its modest roots. Now when you have the right ideas and well set-out goals, your music can be heard worldwide. Technology is making that possible. My team and I are taking complete advantage of technology to get my music to be heard, and subsequently loved by all. I want to tour the world with my music! I trust that with God in the mix, there is a bright future for me. I cant wait to say hello to that future.

What advice would you give to upcoming artistes reading this?

eShun: To upcoming artistes, I will say note that each time you delay or say, 'Oh I dont think I can do this now', you shut your talent and deny someone's livelihood. Your success is what employs someone and secures his or her daily bread. It wont be easy, but that is the reason why you were given the needed strength to make it. Be selfless and ready to listen to critique. Have a team that will tell you the truth no matter how unpleasant. Be ready to serve and most of all, never give up, put the #Meye Spirit up all the way to the top. See you at the top!

A message to your fans?

eShun: I am grateful to everyone who loves and believes in me. God bless the head of my team, Stephen Mensah, Team eShun, family, friends and all my fans in Africa and the world at large. I want encourage all Ghanaians to vote peacefully, and restrain from engaging in anything that might cause panic and destroy the peace we are enjoying. #iVote4Peace
20.08.2016 LISTEN

The wait is over as Maame Lucy has finally dropped her Awurade Kasa peace song. The gospel artist believes though Ghanaians have a pivotal role to play in ensuring peace in the country but it is only the Almighty God who can help preserve the peace that we are enjoying in Ghana.

She called on Ghanaians to hold tight the peace that we have because Ghana is only the country that we have.

I beg you in the name of God lets be one and pray for our country. Lets do what is right in the eyes of God. Peace, unity and Love are what we need. The future of Ghana lies between me and youwe have nowhere to go if there is chaos in this country, she uttered.

The Management of Lucy Akosua Oforiwaa Amanfo (Maame Lucy) has disclosed to the News Hunter Magazine that the video of Awurade Kasa and the peace campaign will follow soon.

We think it is wonderful a piece

Listen to the Awurade Kasa song below and share with us what you think.

https://www.hulkshare.com/newshunter/maame-lucy-awurade-kasa
Newly appointed South Sudan First Vice President, Taban Deng Gai (centre) speaks during a press conference in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi on August 17, 2016. By Tony Karumba (AFP/File)

20.08.2016 LISTEN

Khartoum (AFP) - South Sudan's new Vice President Taban Deng Gai will begin a two-day visit to Khartoum on Sunday for talks on thorny issues still outstanding from its 2011 secession, an official said.

Deng's first visit to Sudan comes just weeks after he replaced former rebel leader Riek Machar as South Sudan's new vice president after clashes in Juba left hundreds dead in July.

"He will arrive tomorrow... accompanied by a delegation of ministers and advisers," Mayan Dout, South Sudan's ambassador to Khartoum, told AFP on Saturday.

He said Deng will discuss issues that have been outstanding since the south's independence from Khartoum in 2011.

Since then a raft of issues between the two countries have been unresolved, including the status of the Khartoum-occupied border district of Abyei, which had been supposed to hold a plebiscite on its future, and the payments Juba should make for the use of an oil export pipeline through Sudan.

South Sudan's oil production has virtually ground to a halt after a civil war erupted there in December 2013, when President Salva Kiir accused Machar of plotting a coup.

Machar was later dismissed and his whereabouts unclear following a new flare-up in fighting in July.

On Thursday an aide to the ex-vice president said Mashar had escaped to the capital of Democratic Republic of Congo.

Khartoum is hoping that an improvement in relations with Juba would help resolve persistent rebellions on both sides of the border that have sparked a prolonged war of words between the two governments.

Deng is expected to be accompanied to Khartoum by South Sudan's defence and energy ministers as well as senior intelligence officials.
(1) Ethiopia

Given the extremely alarming reports that emerged earlier this month about serious human rights violations in the Oromia and Amhara regions of Ethiopia, the High Commissioner reached out to the Ethiopian Government, seeking access for independent observers to the country to assess the human rights situation. We have now received a reply from the Government, indicating that they will launch an independent investigation into the events.

We welcome the decision to launch an independent investigation, and we urge the Government to ensure that the investigation has a mandate to cover allegations of human rights violations since the unrest in Oromia began in November 2015, that it is indeed independent, transparent, thorough and effective, with a view to establishing whether the use of excessive force occurred and with a view to bringing to justice the perpetrators of any human rights violations.

We stand ready to assist in ensuring that the investigation is undertaken in line with international human rights standards. We also reiterate our request for access to the affected areas, as the situation on the ground makes it very challenging for independent civil society actors to operate, particularly given the tense situation in parts of the Oromia and Amhara regions, where a large security presence has reportedly been deployed, and there are reports of ongoing arbitrary arrests, intimidation and harassment of people in the regions.

We call on the Government to ensure that the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and expression are protected and that those detained for exercising these rights are promptly released. Protests must be handled by security forces with full respect for international human rights laws and standards on the use of force.

We also call on the Government to work towards opening up the political and democratic space. This should include a comprehensive reform of the security sector, as well as legislative and institutional reforms.
All Nippon Airway's newest Boeing 787 Dreamliner. (Photo : Twitter)

Major aircraft manufacturer Boeing said that China is still a huge market for their jets despite the country's current economic slowdown.



The company made the statement during media briefing commemorating the delivery of its 50th 787 Dreamliner sold, Reuters reported. "We're not feeling any softness yet," Being senior vice president for sales in Northeast Asia Ihssane Mounir said, referring to reports of a slowdown in aircraft sales in the region.



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Mounir added that China still has a growing demand for both domestic and international air travel, something that has not yet to be fully satisfied. He cited company's recent deals with major Chinese carriers Air China and China Eastern Airlines as proof of the current high demand.



Boeing announced in April that it has closed an order of 15 Dreamliner 78's fr-9's from China Eastern Airlines, which is estimated to be around $4 billion at current pricing for the aircraft.



Boeing's assessment came amid China's current economic slowdown, with several American companies reporting slow sales growth in the country. Analysts believe the trend could persist until the end of 2016.



Meanwhile, global demand for wide-bodied jets has also slowed down, raising concerns about Boeing's sales growth. The company has earlier announced that it will be decreasing the production of the older 777 airliners, while also not increasing the production of the 787 until there is renewed increase in demands.



However, the company expressed optimism that sales will bounce back, Puget Sound Business Journal reported. According to senior marketing manager Bob Michael, they still have 1161 orders for the Dreamliner coming from 65 different customers, 153 of which are of the 787-10 variant.



Mounir added that the design, efficiency, and reliability of the Dreamliner has been vastly improved, thanks to its close partnership with All Nippon Airways (ANA). ANA was the purchaser of the aircraft unveiled during the briefing and plans to use it for the route to be launched between Tokyo and Mexico City.


The United States announced nearly $35 million in additional humanitarian assistance to help the people of Ethiopia face the impacts of the worst drought in fifty years.

Triggered by El Nino, the drought follows successive poor rainy seasons and has exceeded many people's ability to cope. Todays funding announcement will support USAIDs UN and NGO partners in providing humanitarian aid, including more than 6,000 metric tons of supplementary and therapeutic foods to help an estimated one million people suffering from moderate and severe acute malnutrition. The new funding will also increase access to safe water and sanitation facilities and promote hygienic practices to drought-affected communities.

To get communities back on their feet, USAID partners are providing seeds to farmers and assistance to protect their livestock and other assets. We are also helping to train health workers, expand programs that address gender-based violence in drought-affected areas, and augment logistics capacities so that critical supplies get to people most in need. These efforts will help Ethiopians meet immediate needs, protect development gains made, and complement long-term efforts to build resilience to future disasters.

With this announcement, the United States is providing nearly $774 million since FY 2015 in humanitarian assistance and continues to be the single largest humanitarian donor to the people of Ethiopia.

USAIDs Mission Director in Ethiopia Leslie Reed announced the new funding in Addis Ababa during an event commemorating World Humanitarian Day, which was designated by the United Nations in memory of the 22 UN and relief agency staff who lost their lives in a bombing in Baghdad 13 years ago. With this years theme being One Humanity, USAID stands in solidarity with the people of Ethiopia, to help them mitigate the worst impacts of the drought.

The United States commends other donors who have contributed to the Ethiopia drought response, and encourages others to join this international effort. Mobilizing a robust and coordinated global response will be critical to protect the countrys development gains and ensure early recovery.
What?  The United Nations Secretary-Generals Envoy on Youth, Ahmad Alhendawi, is to travel to Nigeria for a four-day official visit.

He intends to meet Vice President Prof Yemi Osinbajo, as well as the Ministers or Principal officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; the Ministry of Youth and Sports; the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development; the Ministry of Labour and Productivity; the Ministry of Environment; the Ministry of Education; the Ministry of Health and the Federal Capital Territory.

When?  Mr Alhendawi will arrive on Sunday 21st August and depart on Wednesday 24th February 2016.

Where?  Mr Alhendawi will visit selected sites within the Federal Capital Territory, including a visit to the Office of the Vice President, the National Assembly, the Ministry of Youth and Sports, the National Youth Service Corps, the National Agency for the Control of AIDS, the Abuja Enterprise Agency and the Office of the United Nations Resident Coordinator.

Why?  Mr Alhendawi will be in Nigeria to promote coordinated United Nations support to Youth Development initiatives. He will particularly advocate for adequate investment in Youth Development interventions, with particular focus on education, employment opportunities, poverty alleviation, empowerment, health and the role of youth in peace building.

About the UN Secretary-Generals Envoy on Youth:

Mr Ahmad Alhendawi of Jordan is the first-ever United Nations Secretary-Generals Envoy on Youth and the youngest senior official in the history of the United Nations. He was born in Jordan in 1984.

Mr. Alhendawi assumed his position in January 2013 with a mandate to harmonise the United Nations system efforts on youth development, enhance the United Nations response to youth needs, advocate for addressing the development needs and rights of young people, as well as to bring the work of the United Nations closer to the youth.

The Envoy on Youth also acts as the adviser to and the representative of the Secretary-General on youth related matters.
A unanimous parliament has today approved decision B 197 regarding the removal of the remainder of Libyas chemical weapons stockpile.

This entails a leading role for Denmark in an international maritime operation, which will transport the remainder of Libyas chemical weapons programme safely out of the country.

We will undertake a leading role in an important operation to remove the remainder of Libyas chemical stockpile, which otherwise risks falling into the wrong hands. It is an important task and it is highly appreciated by our international partners. And once again it shows how Denmark is a credible partner, who takes responsibility for international peace and stability, Minister of Foreign Affairs Kristian Jensen says.

The Danish maritime contribution will shortly be ready to commence the operation in coordination with the OPCW and allied partner countries. The Danish Defence has very good experience from a similar operation in Syria in 2013-14. I am therefore very pleased that the Danish Defences skills are yet again demanded by the UN and the OPCW, Minister of Defence Peter Christensen says.

The Director-General of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Ambassador Ahmet Uzumcu, commended the Danish Parliament's decision and stated, Denmarks leadership is both welcome and crucial as it will help Libya fulfil its responsibilities under the Chemical Weapons Convention to destroy these remaining chemicals".

Additional background information can be found here

Decision B 197 can be found here
On World Humanitarian Day, celebrated under the theme "One humanity", partners in West and Central Africa pay tribute to humanitarian workers and call for global solidarity with the most vulnerable.

Today, the scale of human suffering is greater than at any time since the Second World War. More than 130 million people around the world need humanitarian assistance in order to survive.

"Our region is one of the most affected in the world. About 25 million people in West and Central Africa are affected by crises and need our help," says Allegra Baiocchi, Head of the UN Regional Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in West and Central Africa. There is a strong spirit of solidarity in the region, visible in the field through the work of humanitarians on the front line, but also in the way host communities welcome displaced people fleeing insecurity ".

While 2016 saw the end of the Ebola epidemic, West and Central Africa continues to face some of the worlds deadliest crises. The situation around the Lake Chad Basin continues to worsen. Acute vulnerability prevails in the Sahel, and the resurgence of violence in Mali affects the provision of effective assistance. The crises in the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of the Congo persist. More than ever, the situation of affected communities requires our commitment and collective support.

Hundreds of aid organizations are hard at work in the region, often operating in difficult and dangerous conditions. Since 2000, 427 humanitarian workers have been killed, wounded or kidnapped in West and Central Africa.

"To help the most vulnerable populations, our teams often face considerable risks," says Allegra Baiocchi. "This day is an opportunity to celebrate the commitment of all the teams in the field, and honor those who, working for more humanity, have paid with their lives."

The 2016 edition of World Humanitarian Day builds on the first ever World Humanitarian Summit held last May in Istanbul. Leaders from around the world have pledged to transform the lives of the victims of crises by adopting an Agenda for Humanity.

The theme "One humanity" reminds each and every one of us of our responsibility to become engaged and perform specific actions for those left behind. Anyone can register on the website of the UN campaign "The world you'd rather", which aims to raise funds and receive the support of individuals and celebrities worldwide.

In Dakar, the humanitarian community in Senegal will celebrate with a photo exhibition focusing on children in crises situations. The project "One day I ..." by Vincent Tremeau will be set up at the French Institute until the end of August.
Paul Manafort, campaign chairman for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, has resigned just two months after taking the helm.

Mr Trump confirmed Mr Manaforts departure in a statement.

He first took control of Mr Trumps campaign after the businessmans campaign manager was fired in June.

Mr Manafort, 67, has come under fire for his ties to Russian interests and former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.

But it is not yet clear why he left the team, which was overhauled earlier this week with the addition of a new campaign chief executive and a new campaign manager.

Mr Trump has come under pressure in recent weeks after a series of controversial remarks and falling poll numbers.

This morning Paul Manafort offered, and I accepted, his resignation from the campaign, Mr Trump said in a statement.

I am very appreciative for his great work in helping to get us where we are today, and in particular his work guiding us through the delegate and convention process.

Mr Manafort has faced public scrutiny in recent weeks after the New York Times reported that the Ukrainian government had uncovered ledgers pledging more than $12m (9.2m) in undisclosed cash payments for his work with Mr Yanukovych, who fled after an uprising in November 2013.

Ukraines Anti-Corruption Bureau is also investigating business deals worth millions of dollar that are linked to Mr Manafort.

He has vehemently dismissed the claims and denied any wrongdoing.

Mr Manafort, a former adviser to George HW Bush and Bob Dole, only joined the Trump campaign in March, to help the New Yorker secure the partys nomination.

The announcement of new campaign chief, Kellyanne Conway, and campaign CEO, Stephen Bannon, earlier this week raised questions about whether it would diminish Mr Manaforts role.

The longtime Republican operative was considered a guiding hand in steering Mr Trump toward a more conventional campaign as opposed to the anti-establishment brand of politics that made his primary campaign successful.

A hotel developer with no previous experience of politics, Mr Trump stunned the political world by beating far more experienced figures in the Republican party.

He faces Democrat Hillary Clinton, who has faced intense criticism over her email arrangements while secretary of state, in Novembers election.

-bbc
While the NDC dominates Volta Region, there is little to show for the support the people give the party

20.08.2016 LISTEN

Why is the Volta Region one of the most deprived regions in Ghana despite consistently voting massively for the NDC in 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012? Why are the road networks in Ho and the surrounding districts very poor despite the huge support NDC has enjoyed from the people in the region? Why is water so scarce in several parts of the Volta Region despite the region having one of the highest parliamentarians in the country under the NDC? Why is unemployment in the region so high and pervasive among the people especially the youth? Why aren't more factories been established in the region to ease the unemployment and poverty in the region? Why have the leaders of the NDC not reciprocated the positive gesture and favours Voltarians have showered on the party for decades? Have the people of Volta Region been taken for granted for supporting the NDC?

In the last couple of weeks, the people of Volta Region and the Northern parts of Ghana have intensified their protests against the President Mahama led-government. They feel the NDC has not fulfilled its part of the social contract between the party and the people. Those in Ho want the roads in the city to be fixed. Others want water. Some have complained about lack of jobs while others are bitter due to lack of electricity for their socio-economic activities.

It is not only the ordinary people who feel neglected, the chiefs and other opinion leaders feel the same way too and have been very vocal about it. The Paramount Chief of the Avatime and Bator Traditional Areas, Osie Adza Tekpor VII said in 2014 that Our people are suffering; our people are cursing and making negative statementsSome say they have regretted voting for the NDC. Another chief Torgbui Koku Ahiem IV also said: We are getting tiredanytime we meet and talk about the development of the region, the promises are repeatedalways promises, repetition of promisesThe promises are too much. Every now and then there is one promise or the otherWe are not happy at all about the government because whenever people travel to Ho, you will become a multi-coloured human being as you will be either red or black. He was referring to the poor nature of roads and the dirt associated with it. Togbe Adela Titriku Anaze XII, the Chief of Podoe-Dofor and the President of the Dofor Traditional area, speaking on behalf of the chiefs in his traditional area in 2015 said the government has failed to develop the region. We, the chiefs, do not want to be seen talking too much but again we would like to remind the government that a promise to the people is an indebtedness to the people.

It is good that the people of Volta and their counterparts in the north are making it clear how they feel about their current situation. The unquestionable support NDC has received from these regions has made the party complacent. In fact, in my opinion the people have been taken for granted by the NDC for a long time. Because the votes have been automatically there, there has been no basis for the NDC to deliver tangible socio-economic goods to the masses who always vote for the party: excellent roads, hospitals, water, schools, irrigation, railways, fast internet accessibility, good public transport, deep ports and harbours and many more.

Voltarians voted hugely for the NDC in the last six presidential elections. Without the Volta votes the NDC would not have won 4 out of the 6 presidential elections since 1992. Almost all the Voltarian MPs in the current parliament are NDC candidates yet the region has not changed much in terms of social and economic advancement. This is because the people do not appear to value their votes or have not insisted that the terms of the contract between them and the party be implemented to the letter. The Voltarian MPs some of whom were key ministers in the Rawlings and Mills presidencies and the current Mahamah administration have not devised any social or economic policies tailored to the needs and aspirations of Voltarians.

In fact despite its potentials, the Volta region is poor and without major development because the NDC which dominates the region does not have any realistic development blue print for the region. As a result Voltarians are among the leading migrants in the country. Very few Ghanaians are willing to migrate to Volta and the three northern regions because these regions are seen as not providing enough socio-economic attractions and opportunities. The NDC has not put in place policies and programmes that will change the Volta region and make it more attractive to other Ghanaians to settle and live there. According to Jay Oelbaum of the Centre for International Studies, University of Toronto-Canada The regions of destination with the lowest percentage of the migrant population [in Ghana] are Volta and the three northern regions, while Ashanti, Western and Greater Accra are respectively the destinations with the highest share of in-migration. [1] The leadership of the party is only interested in the votes but not the needs, aspirations and opportunities of the people. They use the people during elections and dump them afterwards. This has to change.

While some NDC apparatchiks in Volta and the three northern regions have been riding on the back of the people to become wealthy, the people whose votes continue to make the NDC the longest ruling party in the history of the Fourth Republic continue to be kayayos in Accra, and Kumasi and live their lives selling dog chains, ice water, sugar cane and sleeping in kiosks, and uncompleted structures in Accra. Is it how to reward loyal voters?

It is difficult for majority of Voltarians to vote for other parties because they feel the NDC is theirs. But in the face of increasing poverty, lack of socio-economic development, poor infrastructure, lack of economic and employment opportunities for both the youth and adult population, will the people continue to provide unflinching support for the NDC?

If Voltarians are going to vote for the NDC again in December 2016, then they must do so by assessing whether the NDC actually deserves their votes given its track record in the region.

By Lord Aikins Adusei

(20-08-2016)

Notes

[1] Oelbaum, J. (2004) "Ethnicity adjusted? economic reform, elections, and tribalism in Ghana's Fourth Republic", Commonwealth & Comparative Politics, 42:2, 242-273
The West African Examinations Council, (WAEC), has withheld the results of over five hundred candidates at the Techiman Senior High School in the Brong Ahafo Region.

Citi News' Brong Ahafo correspondent reported that although the school was not cited in any of the categories of schools which were found to have engaged in exam malpractices, the school authorities say the results have been withheld for scrutiny.

This has put the candidates, who are poised to further their education, in a dilemma, as they ponder over when they will know their fate.

Some of the affected candidates who spoke to Citi News expressed their frustration about the development.

One affected candidate said :This situation has put me through quite a lot. The institutions that we applied for gave us a deadline and the deadline has come and gone. Right now we don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. I'm just holding on.

I applied to schools, stating clearly that I'm awaiting forms with the WASSCE 2016 results. I have no option but to wait for next year, another said.

Meanwhile, a frustrated parent has asked authorities at WAEC to take steps to address the issue immediately.

We don't know what they want us to do. I think they want our children to stay in the house. At the end of the term or the year, they can't go anywhere, she said.

The Headmaster of the school, Jacob Afor, also responded to the development, saying We have contacted WAEC and they have stated that they are scrutinizing some schools results and ours have been slated for scrutiny. I am still following. We were not cited for exam malpractice. We don't know of anything nasty that occurred during the exams that will call for such scrutiny but they are stakeholders so we are just crossing our fingers and waiting, he said.

Background

1,576 candidates had some of their subjects cancelled, while 598 candidates had their entire results cancelled in 2016 WASSCE.

The entire results of candidates presented by 85 schools have been withheld while investigations into alleged cases of mass cheating are being conducted.

The withheld results of candidates will be cancelled if found culpable or released if otherwise.



By; Kwabena Agyare/Kwadwo Brefo/citifmonline.com/Ghana
The presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, brought commercial activities and vehicular movement to a complete halt in the Central Business District of Accra on Thursday when he visited the Klottey Korle Constituency.

With news filtering into the CMB and Tudu areas about his arrival, Nana Akufo-Addo was met by thousands of market women, business owners, drivers and others who lined the principal streets of Accra to catch a glimpse of the NPP leader.

There were unprecedented scenes in Accra amidst chants of Nana oo Nana! Yresesamu, Afe yi y wa'fe.

Market women and other business owners abandoned their activities while commercial drivers parked their vehicles to listen to Nana Akufo-Addo's message of hope ahead of this year's elections.

As the news spread across the capital, thousands of people rushed towards CMB and Tudu from Makola and its environs to hail the arrival of the NPP presidential candidate and his team.

In the company of the party's parliamentary candidate for the constituency, Philip Addison, as well as regional and national party stalwarts, Nana Akufo-Addo addressed separate gatherings at CMB and Tudu.

Nana Akufo-Addo expressed disquiet about the fact that Ghanaians have become too miserable under the leadership of President Mahama.

It is inexplicable that Ghana, a nation blessed with an abundance of human and natural resources, is drenched in poverty, leading many to lose hope in the ability of the country to offer them a decent standard of living, he said.

In spite of this, he urged the thousands gathered to have hope in the fact that a government is on its way, God-willing, from 2017 which will bring development, progress and prosperity to every corner of the country without discrimination.

As is stipulated by law, the time has come, this year, for us to vote and decide who leads us. Let us use the power of our thumbs to change Ghana and bring in a government that can change our circumstances and bring relief, progress and prosperity to all, he entreated.

Addison



With the NPP aiming at securing a decisive majority in the presidential poll, as well as securing the majority of parliamentary seats, Nana Akufo-Addo appealed to NPP members not to entertain any thought of voting skirt and blouse, either in the presidential or parliamentary election.

He, therefore, urged all NPP supporters in Klottey Korle to rally behind the party's parliamentary candidate  Philip Addison  recounting his own experience in 1998 when he fully supported then candidate John Agyekum Kufuor to enable the NPP win the 2000 elections.

A true NPP member always accepts the decision of the party's Electoral College. When it's your turn, the party will reward you. That is why I am also here today as flagbearer of the NPP. So those trumpeting 'skirt and blouse' should stop, and rather help Philip Addison and push him to parliament, he appealed.

He continued, This is a gentleman who is well-known in every part of Ghana. We all saw his heroics during the election petition. As an advocate in parliament, you can be sure that the concerns of Klottey Korle will be well-articulated before parliament. The NPP's candidate for Klottey Korle is Philip Addison. We have no other candidate.

Nana Akufo-Addo was also at the Okaikoi North Constituency yesterday.
The Presbyterian Church of Ghana (PCG) is holding its 16th General Assembly to elect a new moderator to take over from Right Rev. Prof. Emmanuel Martey, whose tenure ends on 30th November, 2016.

The event is taking place at the Ramseyer Training Centre, Abetifi-Kwahu in the Eastern Region.

Decisions that will guide the activities of the Church in the coming years will be made at the 16th General Assembly.

This year's General Assembly, starting from Friday August 19-25 2016, is under the theme, When the Holy Spirit Moves.

The Assembly is the highest decision-making body of the Church.

About 250 commissioners and corresponding members from all the 20 Presbyteries, both home and abroad will attend this year's event.

Rev Ezekiel George Larbi, Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Presbyterian Church, in a statement, said major highlights of the Assembly would include the official opening ceremony which President John Dramani Mahama will be the special guest of honour, Divine Service to commemorate the faithful departed and plenary sessions from Monday.

He said the presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, is also expected to visit the Assembly.

Other activities at the Assembly, he said, include presentation of awards to deserving individuals and corporate bodies that have made significant contributions to the growth of the PCG.

Ministers retiring from the active service of the Church would also be presented to General Assembly, Rev Larbi said.

He urged members of PCG and the entire Christian community to pray for the success of the General Assembly.

By Cephas Larbi
Oye Lithur has reportedly alerted the Police about the Daniel Obinim saga. Although a step in the right direction, her action does not erase the general impression about her penchant for selectiveness in tackling gender issues.

Obinim could not have gone scot free after the wanton trampling upon the human rights of the two persons he flogged in his church. We wonder whether if she had not done so the gentleman would not have been invited by the law enforcement agency anyway. Indeed, we were counting the days to see whether he would not be invited. Be it as it may, his conduct is now expectedly a subject of investigation by the Police.

It is our expectation that the probe is expedited before hidden hands of, especially politicians, are brought to bear upon in a manner that would douse it.

Many cases involving politicians or their proxies have died under worrying circumstances unsurprisingly in this country.

There is a perception steeped in experience that popular persons and politicians whose parties are in power are hardly arraigned before court regardless of the extent of their default.

This is a classic case of crime and we are watching, as are the rest of Ghanaians, about the outcome of the case.

We hear the suspect has already stated the circumstances which informed his decision to flog the two persons. The reasons do not warrant his primitive conduct and we condemn it in no uncertain terms.

Being charitable as to adopt the two persons does not make it right for him to dehumanize them the way he did.

We have heard how he and his aide have virtually dared the law and state.

If the case dies, as many in its mould have, the law enforcement system would suffer further erosion of confidence.

Our country is hinged upon the rule of law, anything short of this would send us back to the jungle where the survival of the fittest is the order.

Disgruntled Ghanaians already think that the law only deals with the ordinary man not so the affluent or famous.

We think a thorough investigation of this matter be done with a view to ensuring that he is either let off the hook or dealt with according to the applicable law. That is the only way by which we can be satisfied that justice has not only been done but seen to be done.

We have come a long way in our independence that such nonsense should not be condoned under any circumstance.

We are particularly interested in upholding the law of the land rather than weakening it by allowing the ilk of Bishop Obinim to trample it as he is set to do.

The attention of Ghanaians is transfixed on this case and so whoever seeks to whittle it down should be mindful about the repercussions therein.
Samsung Galaxy Note 7 smartphones are displayed during a launch event for the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 at the Hammerstein Ballroom, August 2, 2016 in New York City. (Photo : Getty Images/Drew Angerer)

Samsung users, the much-awaited phone-tablet hybrid is released into the market with companion Samsung accessories. Galaxy Note 7 from Samsung is ready to lift the smartphone market with demand and price as well.



According to CNeT, Samsung Galaxy Note 7 is available in ten countries and territories such as US, Canada, Australia and South Korea starting from Friday. Samsung has come up with three fabulous colors: blue coral, silver titanium and black onyx. Upcoming Samsung users need to choose the best suitable colors for their lifestyle or the best-liked color as a whole.



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According to CNet, The Note 7 pre-orders in Europe will be limited in Samsung with an intention to release some other phones in the market. The Samsung's new launch will make the other rivalry competitors in the market a step backward as this new device is expected to get a better fame and name in the market.



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President John Dramani Mahama has commissioned the first phase of the upgraded Tamale Airport in the Northern Region.

He also interacted with the first batch of prospective pilgrims yesterday and bid them farewell ahead of their journey to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for this year's Hajj.

Three flights will transport 1,500 would-be pilgrims from the Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia through NasAir 747 series, the official carrier of the 2016 Hajj from 19-21 August.

Dignitaries, who graced the occasion, included the National Chief Imam Sheikh Nuhu Sharubutu, Minister for Transport Fifi Kwetey, Metropolitan Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs).

Some prospective pilgrims, who spoke to DAILY GUIDE, said they were happy to be flying directly from Tamale to Saudi Arabia.

When DAILY GUIDE visited the Hajj Village in Tamale, traders were seen doing brisk business at the place.

Personnel of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS), Police, Immigration, Ambulance Service, Narcotic Control Board, Customs Division, were all on standby to handle any emergency case at the Hajj Village.

Transporting pilgrims from Tamale is better than people travelling about 10 hours to Accra and staying there for weeks at a high cost so its a plus that government has taken this initiative, the Airport Manager, Charles Asare, said.

He mentioned that the Tamale Airport would serve as the second international airport to help officials deal with any emergency at Kotoka International Airport (KIA).

We are building infrastructure to make Ghana the aviation hub in the sub-region.

According to him, Ghana has the only aircraft shop located in Tamale in the whole of the sub-region.

Mr Asare stated that the Tamale Airport would create economic opportunities for the citizens.

Some pilgrims were prevented from sending yams to Saudi Arabia.

Mr Asare said the Hajj Committee informed pilgrims about the type of foodstuffs that they could transport to Saudi Arabia.

He advised pilgrims to adhere to the laid down rules in order to go through the process smoothly, adding that if officials of Immigration and Customs detect any unwanted products, they would be removed.

From Eric Kombat, Tamale
Kinsley Ifechukwu Nwoke, a self-styled Nigerian businessman, is before an Accra circuit court for robbery.

The accused and one Ebuka  currently on the run  are purported to have conspired to rob one George Koduah Hamilton on August 9, 2016 at Airport City in Accra.

According to the prosecutor, Detective Chief Inspector Isaac Agbemehia, the accused and his accomplice about 2:30 on the said day, robbed the complainant of GH110,000 and attempted to escape.

Before trial judge Aboagye Tandoh, Nwoke, who was without a lawyer, denied the offence and was remanded into police custody until August 31, 2016.

The facts are that George is a resident of East Legon whilst the accused is a self-acclaimed businessman resident at Accra New Town.

The prosecution said on the afore-mentioned day, George, in the company of a witness in the case at the instance of the complainant, went to cash a cheque of GH150,000 from the First Atlantic Bank, Airport Branch, which was parceled in two brown envelopes of GH110,000 and GH40,000.

D/C/Insp. Agbemehia said the money was kept at the booth of a Toyota Land Cruiser with registration number WR 3366 X, driven by the witness.

He said on their way home, the complainant and the witness got stuck in traffic at the Airport second traffic light where the accused person and his other accomplices, who were trailing them on motorbikes, caught up with them.

The court heard that Nwoke hit and smashed the back windscreen of the car, picked one of the envelopes and passed it on to the accomplice pillion rider of a second motorbike operated by Ebuke.

D/C/Insp. Agbemehia said in their attempt to escape, the accused persons decided to ride in the opposite direction but the accused and his accomplices collided with a taxi with registration number GC 469-15, leading to the arrest of Nwoke.

George ran back with the other envelope to the bank only to realize that it contained GH40,000, indicative of the fact that the accused and his accomplices bolted with GH110,000.

By Jeffrey De-Graft Johnson

[email protected]
President John Dramani Mahama has indicated that he has done his best for the country by executing numerous infrastructure projects.

When former President John Agyekum Kufuor assumed office, he continued from where Jerry Rawlings left off and the late Atta Mills also came to do his part and I also came to continue. I will not say I have completed all the jobs but I can say I have done my best for my country, he indicated.

Addressing supporters of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in Sekondi on Thursday as part of his four-day campaign in the Western Region, President Mahama disclosed that when he assumed office, his government decided to invest in five key areas- water, electricity, health, education and roads.

He pointed out that currently about 76 percent of the people of people in the country have access to good drinking water while about 80 percent of the citizens have access to electricity.

President Mahama noted that over 75 kilometers of asphaltic concrete roads had been constructed in the Sekondi-Takoradi metropolis alone while 97 percent of children of school-going age were in school.

President Kufuor once said the four-year term of every president in Ghana was meant for laying solid foundation.

I am saying I have built a good foundation so I am calling on you to give me another four-year term to put up the building, President Mahama told the NDC supporters.

He indicated that Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis was booming because the sea port, timber industry and the railway company were operating effectively.

He noted that while the port was still active because of the injection of foreign investments, the railway system seemed to be collapsing partly due to the lack of capital injection in the sector.

President Mahama said the timber business was also declining due to climate change and deforestation.

In my second-term in office, the Port and Railways would emerge as it used to be during the regime of the first President of Ghana, Dr Kwame Nkrumah to help revive the railway system and create jobs, he indicated.

I have already discussed the initiative with the Director of Port and we have begun putting in place the necessary documentation.

The government has also signed an agreement with the Japanese Government for an expansion work to be carried out at the Bosumtwi-Sam Fishing Habour in Sekondi, he disclosed.

He stated that some Japanese consultants and contractors are already in the country to begin the work. There will be new cold storage room, ice block making machine and new fishing net mending area, among others.

He mentioned that the government had started constructing the railway line from Sekondi-Kojokrom-Takoradi as part of efforts to revive the railway system.

The president told the people that his government had not discriminated against the people of Sekondi and Takoradi even though the NDC has not won the seats for a very long time.

He mentioned that the expansion of the Takoradi Port would help bring in more ships and create about 3,000 direct and indirect jobs.

Our opponents are saying the roads, hospitals and the other projects are not edible and that my government is only incurring huge debts and embezzling state funds, but I want to ask them if people have money in their pockets but can't get any hospital to go to when they are sick, then you ask yourself what then is the use of the money? he quizzed.

From Emmanuel Opoku, Sekondi
Some farmers living along the tributaries of the White Volta in the Talensi District of the Upper East Region are not happy with the short notice given them to leave their farm houses due to the spilling of excess water from the dam in Burkina Faso.

Emmanuel Bagre is a farmer who cultivates maize, millet and rice along the White Volta in the Bawku West District.

He is very likely to be affected severely with the water level increases and take over his land. He is among farmers who planted their crops late, due to the late rainfall in the region.

It is an annual occurrence, but the farmers say they are usually informed about the spillage weeks before the opening of the dam, which is on the Bagre River. The spillways are expected to be opened today, August 20, and will take three days to have effect in Ghana.

Usually, water from two rivers in Burkina Faso  Bagre (White Volta)  and another connected to the Red Volta enter Ghana during the rainy season. In the past the effect had been severe but subsided when a dam was created on the Bagre River.

This year, due to the heavy rains upstream there is so much water running through the waterways connected to the Red Volta; and with the spillage from the Bagre Dam, the Galaka community in the Bawku West District will swell bigger and soon increase the wideness of the White Volta.

Some 63 communities in four districts in the region  Bawku West and East, Binduri and Talensi  are very likely to be affected if the downpours in the region continue, especially when the spillage occurs.

This year's spillage comes at a time farm products are yet to yield due to delayed rains; and with the spillage, many acres of farms, especially those close to the waterways, will be affected and wouldn't be able to yield any food.

The Regional Coordinator of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), Alfred Saawug, in a media interview, disclosed that some education was being done by the various zonal coordinators to get the farmers and herdsmen to stay away from the waterways.

If any disaster occurs after the opening of the Bagre Dam this weekend, the NADMO will have to stock and give out more food items to fill the gap that will be created by the farmers' inability to harvest their crops before the flooding.

FROM EBO BRUCE-QUANSAH, Pwualugu
THE OPPOSITION New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Ashanti Region yesterday stormed the Electoral Commission (EC) regional office in Kumasi to protest over the snail-pace at which the continuous registration was being conducted in the city.

Led by Bernard Antwi Boasiako aka Wontumi, the Ashanti Regional Chairman, Mac Manu, National Campaign Manager of the NPP and other top gurus, the NPP alleged that the EC was intentionally slowing down the pace of the exercise to disenfranchise more people in the region.

Wontumi, who addressed the media during a press conference held at the compound of the EC's regional office at Denyame, charged the EC to increase its staff and equipment for the registration exercise in the city.

He said the EC's decision to combine about five constituencies with a single biometric machine was not appropriate as it was causing the undue delay, noting that people who want to register in the city were getting frustrated by the slow process.

Wontumi said if the EC continued to carry out the important exercise at that slow pace, definitely most potential registrants would be denied their constitutional right of getting their names into the electoral roll so that they could also decide who should steer the affairs of the state.

The NPP regional chairman observed that the machines being used to register the people were too slow, suggesting that the EC should with immediate effect, replace them with new ones that could operate faster, adding that the NPP was only demanding fairness.

Wontumi said his protest was not meant to favour the NPP, explaining that he was only fighting for every Ghanaian who had attained the voting age of 18 so that they could perform their civic right of voting during the national polls, as mandated by the Constitution.

Mr Peter Mac Manu also expressed the same concern and appealed to the EC to add more hands so that the process could be quickened to ensure that nobody was disenfranchised in the December 7 polls.

The Deputy Ashanti Regional EC Director, Lucas Yiryel, countered the claim that the EC was deliberately delaying the registration process in Kumasi to deny some people the opportunity to register, noting that the EC was doing the right thing, so far as he was concerned.

According to him, the EC was using online registration system which could detect people that want to register twice and also add details of new registrants into the national data hence, the delay.

FROM I.F. Joe Awuah Jnr., Kumasi
John Kudalor, Inspector General of Police (IGP), has confirmed the withdrawal of the police from Donkorkrom and Tease in the Afram Plains following the destruction of police properties and assault on the personnel in the area.

The vandalization of the police station happened when two police personnel, together with a civilian, escaped after their arrest in a purported robbery attack.

A police station and barracks in the areas were vandalized by the rioters while the only patrol vehicle was also set ablaze together with seven other vehicles.

Not satisfied with their act, the protesters also burnt a standby generator at the district police station and further destroyed a water reservoir at the barracks.

Some properties of personnel and their families were allegedly looted in the course of the attack.

A fire tender belonging to the Ghana National Fire Service was destroyed by the angry youth in the area.

Robbery Attack

Addressing the media at the police headquarters in Accra, the Director General in-charge of Criminal Investigation Department (CID), COP Prosper Kwame Agblor, said on Tuesday, August 16, 2016, at about 10:30 am, the Donkorkrom Police received a report that there was a robbery attack on a GCB Bank bullion van with registration number GN 1354-15 at Maame Krobo Junction in the Afram Plains.

The police promptly responded to the call and after some serious operational maneuvers, the suspects, numbering three, were rounded up.

They included Hasifu Mohammed, a civilian who was the driver of a taxi allegedly used for the robbery, Corporal Elvis Solomon Mensah and Lance Corporal Daniel Kissi Abrokwa  both policemen attached to the Donkorkrom District Police Command. Abrokwa doubles as an elder at the Church of Pentecost at Tease.

Driver of the Bullion van was killed in the process and a policeman, who was escorting the vehicle, suffered multiple gunshot wounds.

The injured policeman, according to reports, is still receiving treatment at the Donkorkrom Presbyterian Hospital.

The Escape

Upon their arrest, the suspects, who were then being kept at the Donkorkrom police station, were to be sent to the Eastern Regional Police Command for further interrogations in line with police procedures and practices.

While on their way, the two cops among the gang managed to escape at Nkawkaw when the escort team had stopped to refuel.

COP Agblor said the escape issue was also being investigated.



Riot by residents

Upon hearing news that the police officers had escaped, some opinion leaders of Donkorkrom allegedly instigated some youth of the area on Thursday, August 18, to attack the district police station in the area and the police post at Tease.

The police barracks were destroyed while an operational vehicle and seven other vehicles were also burnt down.

The rioters also attacked police officers and their families and purportedly looted one of the blocks in the barracks, taking personal belongings of the affected personnel and their families.

Police personnel in the area had to run for their lives as the rioters, numbering about 500 and wielding guns, clubs, machetes and other offensive weapons, injured two personnel in the process.

Re-Arresting Of Escapees

In less than 24 hours of their escape, the police, with the help of some residents, re-arrested the suspected criminals at their hideouts at Nkawkaw.

COP Agblor said the police administration, as part of disciplinary measures, would punish the purported police-turned-armed-robbers for their action.

The three suspects, who have provisionally been charged for murder, will be taken to court for trial.

Meanwhile, over 500 police personnel from the Formed Police Unit, the Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU) and other action units have been deployed to maintain peace, law and order in the area.

By Linda Tenyah-Ayettey

( [email protected] )
MEMBERS OF the Greater Accra Regional House of Chiefs say they are running out of patient over President John Dramani Mahama's reluctance to rescind his decision to transfer their registrar, Harry Anthony Attipoe.

According to the chiefs, they have observed that the President by his decision, is happy with the numerous chieftaincy disputes in the region and do not want peace to prevail in Accra.

They threaten to lead a massive demonstration against President Mahama if he kept to the decision.

The chiefs came to the resolution following a fresh petition from the Ministry of Chieftaincy and Traditional Affairs for the said registrar to vacate his post to the Volta Regional House of Chiefs with immediate effect.

Speaking to journalists on the matter, Nene Kano Atiapah III, Acting President of the Ningo Traditional Area and member of the House indicated that the House of Chiefs had met and petitioned the President again to rescind his decision due to the registrar's efforts in settling chieftaincy matters in the region and would not like to lose him because they want peace to prevail in the area.

He stressed that, the sector minister disrespected them by not consulting them before taking what he described as the malicious transfer decision.

According to him, they would have no option than to storm the Flagstaff House to demonstrate if the President still maintained his position to remove the registrar from Greater Accra.

Nene Atiapah III expressed suspicion that the Chief of Staff and the Minister of Chieftaincy might be succumbing to an ultimatum given by a Coalition of Ga-Dangbe Youth, a development they found very unfortunate because as traditional leaders we are stakeholders in the development of the region and the nation as a whole but for the Chief of Staff and Minister of Chieftaincy to bypass us and succumb to an ultimatum by a youth group, leaves much to desired.

It would be recalled that sometime in April, 2016, some concerned youth in Kpone organised a demonstration against the Kpone Traditional Council and alleged that Mr. Attipoe had collected $5 million from the Sunon Asogli Power Plant and pocketed same.

The youth consequently called for his removal of the registrar.

From Vincent Kubi, Dodowa
The very moment my mother the Koko seller at Kasoa called me last week to watch our very own Bole Bamboi Presido modeling in a military uniform as he proved to the whole world that he was indeed the CEO of the Armed Forces of Ghana, I knew the battle line for the 2016 elections had been drawn and not even the following could take away the excitement in this year's coming elections:

(a) The hide and seek Secret marriages of celebrities which only marks their first step towards divorce.

(b) The visitation of Oluman Mugabe who feels he can kill TIME by staying in Power but does not know that TIME is rather what is killing him.

(c) The only Ghanaian Angel without wings who happens to sit at God's Right-hand Side, Bishop Obinim ,whipping a vulnerable girl and her boyfriend in the presence of a large congregation who cheered as if they just received light from ECG.

(d) The story of the numerous fake honorary doctorate degree holders who try to have some fame in their fake names but it is just a shame.

Although Mama thought that Mr. President was too bd (soft) to be in the green uniform and even Shatta Wale would have looked more Kakai in that attire, Mama also wanted the elephant people to know that 'no one sharpens his machete just to cut a banana tree.'

So, it happened that the gods of Oguaa in the Central Region were on Sabbatical holidays when our former President, May His Soul rest in Peace, Atta Mills said thatadze wo fia oye. I am very certain if the Oguaa gods really remembered this, they would not have discriminated against one of their own -Papa Kwesi Edzumawura.

As for this one di3333, the Oguaa gods should come again because I honestly doubt this is another case of The gods are to blame.

Well, the middle of the story is that the NDC successfully launched their 2016 campaign at the Cape Coast stadium.

Wow!

Come and see the people, the merry making, the colors, the big men, the insults, the promises, the figures of speech, the money, the Bieghya, the Collapsed Ghallywood stars, the funny bleaching boxers, and the lessons to all the short men in Ghana. Ooopse! did I just use the word short? Well, who the Chale wote fits, let him wear it, bam!!! Hahaha, whoever says Ghana Politics is not funny and not sweeter than sobolo is a cousin of satan.

Seriously, I can say without a doubt that if one is previewed to all the things that really happen at the campaign grounds of our various political parties, one will then know that it does not take only Donald trump to know that some politicians are nothing but dumb.

Studying Ghana Politics, I got to know that while every Gecko claims to possess the longest tail, every cock is also a town crier in his own dung heap. Now, thanks to politicians in Ghana, everything is now a FIGURE OF SPEECH and the meaning of the word INSULT has been twisted so much so that not even Cambridge dictionary and the Queen are ready to entertain this nonsense.

No wonder candidates in the 2016 WASSCE FAILED pt in English. Before I forget, did WAEC in the name of tightening security use an Item differential Profilesomething-something software to detect candidates who cheated in the section A papers (shading)? Please.. do not ask me how it works because not even the whole head of the Public Affairs Directorate of WAEC could explain that on Radio.

Very typical and unsurprising of WAEC. My mother the Koko seller seriously wants to know: Who cheated who? What Differential what? How on earth is WAEC using a software to detect that Mahama and Lordina both shaded answer 'A' so they both cheated? Is it a way WAEC is telling us that they sold the papers to the highest bidder before the exam commenced so these candidates worked out the answers before entering the exam hall? .or WAEC wants us to know that after all the policemen with guns and hardcore invigilators at the exam centers, the candidates still communicated in the exam hall?

Ohhhh WAEC!! Mama wants you to know that when you bend down to tell how smelling someone buttocks is, you should make sure your buttocks which are also looking into the sky is tightly covered. YES, our candidates may have FAILED but WAEC is equally a FAILURE; seriously, this is not a figure of speech at all. How old is WAEC, how many leakages have they not have, and how innovative and creative have they been in setting questions that will promote critical thinking? If there is a grade lower than F9, then is the grade for WAEC. I will not waste my time on you and your cousin bodies who have given us nothing but confused education, Mama will catch you la(t)rer.

Now, back to Oguaa, and back to the lessons of the book- long Elephant people. The truth about Elephants is that they fear attacks from several sides but sadly, theElephantiasis cannot recognize that. Did they see how the NDC hailed Jerry Boom even though we all know he has issues with them? If there is anything like Public relations Harmony and Unity, I salute the NDC, after all, is about winning elections, right? Now, what does my mother the Koko seller see with the Elephantians? Paper fights nkwaaa!!!. Mama 's message to them is very simple: it is true that Jesus Christ saw more in Zacchaeus effort than his shortness, but our people say that 'a fight between the grasshoppers is a joy to the crow', and 'if you don't sell your head, no one will buy it.' How on earth are the Elephantiasis going into the 2016 elections with their suspended Chairman still battling in court? Did they not see how Lordina Mahama was sacrificed in Oguaa just to prevent a boom speech? With this booklong I know my right attitude, I will not mind enjoying another version of 'CHASING THE ELEPHANT TO THE BUSH'. Kikikikiki

I must confess that a few of the speeches made at Oguaa were brilliant. Truth is, I needed not to elevate myself in order to see that most of them were empty and just words for the fans. Do you blame Politicians for this? Politics is now about approaching every situation with an open mouth; the wider your mouth, the wider the applause. Speaking about applause, that was what the Ghanaian contingent loudly received when they beautifully modeled in the Bonwire Kente in the opening ceremony of the Rio Olympic Games and they later went to sleep.

Nii Lante, where are the medals oooooooooo ton!!! Not even the over reliance on our brothers who were carried by slave masters to faraway lands could make things better. How my mother the Koko seller wishes that the preparation of koko and kose would be included in the Olympics so she could proudly lift high the flag of Ghana.

Mama 's biggest worry is that even when our athletes have FAILED to come close to the shadows of the medals , we still have mouths to romanticize their FAILURE with their personal bests and how they will be superb for the future. Mama is asking, na which future be that? Martha Bisa's future or those who participated in the previous, and the previous and the previous and are still waiting for the future?

To Ghana Olympics Committee, I say learn ooo learn. Even Ghana Police Service has moved on, and now they are arresting and re-arresting their own in PRISON BREAK fashion. Thumbs up to them.

To conclude, I am very certain that the 2016 election campaigns will be very interesting as it will be full of insults and various kinds of figures of speech for those of us who want to see the light side of things. At this point, if Mama says that 'President Mahama is as slow as a Tortoise,' will that amount to an insult or a figure of speech?

What about 'Prez. Mahama's attempt to speak Fanti is like adding garlic to salad'? Will that also amount to an Insult? Anyway, if you know the answer, just email me at [email protected] but please don't insult me. kikikiki. Thanks for reading from the Koko seller's son. Byeeeeeeeeeeee
An unemployed young man was yesterday sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment with hard labour by an Accra Circuit Court for robbing his step-sister of her possessions.

The convict, Ebenezer Quaye, aka Atta Quaye on July 2, this year robbed his step-sister one Isabella Yeboah at about 8pm.

The convict, who appeared before the Accra Circuit Court presided over by Aboagye Tandoh, admitted the offence and was convicted on his own plea.

In sentencing Atta Quaye, the judge said the court took into consideration the convicts' plea for mercy and the fact that he had been in custody for two weeks.

The court condemned the conduct of Atta Quaye, who attacked Isabella at knifepoint, subjected her to severe beatings and ransacked her room.

The court said that even the mask that the convict wore to carry out his nefarious activities could not protect him.

A second accused, Abdul Tahidu Latif aka Dobiw, a scrap dealer, denied charges of abetment of crime preferred against him although the judge suggested that he was to be charged with dishonestly receiving stolen items and not abetment.

He was however remanded into custody to reappear on September 2, 2015.

Prosecuting, Detective Chief Inspector Isaac Agbemehia, said the convict, who moved out of the family house, lives in Kasoa.

He said on the said day, Isabella returned from a funeral at Cape Coast and was attacked at the gate by a man in mask.

The convict escorted her into her apartment and demanded that she surrender all her belongings or be killed.

The prosecutor narrated that in the process of ransacking her belongings, his mask came off and Isabella identified him as her brother, adding that the convict took away the complainant's Kia Sportage car with registration GY 490-13.

The case was reported to the Anyaa Police, and on August 9 the convict was arrested at Mallam-Gbawe where he said that he handed over the car to Dobiw, who sold it and gave him GH7,000.

By Jeffrey De-Graft Johnson

[email protected]
The Awutu Breku Police Command has arrested two persons who allegedly snatched a taxi at Kasoa in the Central region.

The two suspects-Nana Kwesi Adom, 38, and Kwame Nazah, 37, purportedly snatched a Mazda taxi with registration number GH 2399-15.

The police are looking for the third suspect known only as Kwame, who is currently at large.

Information gathered by DAILY GUIDE indicates that the arrest took place at Awutu Bontraase.

The Awutu Breku District Police Commander, ASP Samuel Amfo, said the incident happened on August 17, 2016 around 5:30pm.

The two suspects Nana Kwesi Adom and Kwame Nazah

He said the police on that day received a distress call that three young men had snatched a Mazda taxi cab with registration number G 2399-15 from the owner, William Mensah at Blue Rose, Kasoa.

He said the suspects moved towards Awutu Botraase through Awutu Breku after snatching the car.

According to him, The Police pursued them and arrested Nana Kwesi Adom, aged 38 and Kwame Naizer, aged 37 at Botraase after they got involved in an accident.

He said that on that fateful day Nana Kwesi Adom hired the services of a taxi driver at Cocoa Clinic in Accra to transport him to his plot at Blue Rose for a fee of GH80.00. When they got to Buduburam, the other two accomplices, Kwame Nazah and Kwame joined them.

By Melvin Tarlue
South Korean actor Lee Jong Suk has been chosen as a new model for Vevi Vero luxury eyewear brand. The 26-year-old Hallyu actor currently stars on MBC's "W - Two Worlds" along with actress Han Hyo Joo.



On Aug. 18, Thursday, Vedi Vero announced that Lee will represent the luxury eyewear brand throughout the second half of this year, The Kpop Herald reported. Rising as a Korean star who has great acting abilities and an attractive appearance, Lee is widely expected to give positive influences on the brand's image.



Advertisement

The exciting news came a few months after the eyewear brand released a series of images from Lee's photo shoot with Vedi by Vedi Vero through Korea's fashion magazine, Arena, in June. Photos of Lee's photoshoot were then shared by fans on Twitter.





Apart from Vedi Vero, Lee, who is best known for his leading role in 2014's "Pinocchio" and "Doctor Stranger," is currently the face of other four brands: Lock & Lock, Burberry (Art of Trench), Hapsode, and China's most popular casual brand, Semir.



"Being a star who can pull off a fashionable style with a white shirt alone, Lee Jong Suk's classy and fashionable image well suits Semir's image," an affiliate of Semir stated to MWave. "Lee Jong Suk will class up the brand by becoming its model and bring out increased sales and promotional effects."



Currently, Lee plays a self-made business tycoon, Kang Chul, in a webtoon world created by famous cartoonist, Oh Sung Moo (Kim Eui-Sung). During the "W - Two Worlds" press conference on July 18, Lee uncovered the factors why he chose to star in the fantasy drama.



"Any actor who had a chance to read the script would have wanted to do it," Lee said before a predominantly Korean crowd. "I thought it was the kind of script I would not be able to come across twice, so it's been an honor for me to shoot it."



Check out "W's" latest episode below:






The Ministry of Finance has clarified that taxes on wages of casual and temporary workers have been reduced from a 15 % and 7.5 % to 5%.

A press statement copied to Citi Business News explained that under the repealed tax Act (2000), Act 592 wages of casual and temporary workers, especially workers in Oil and Gas, Mining and other companies were taxed at the marginal rate of 15% or 7.5%.

These are now replaced with a lower rate of 5%, it said, pointing out that the reduction was effected after the passage of the Legislative Instrument (LI).

The statement further clarified that the 5% in the Regulation L.I 2244 is therefore a reduction in rate and not a new tax on casual and temporary employees.

The press release follows earlier reports that a new legal instrument (LI) under the country's Income Tax Act, 2015, Act 896 (as amended) and the Value Added Tax Act, 2013, Act 870 (as amended), has paved way for the reduction taxation of taxes on casual and temporary workers.



By: Lawrence Segbefia/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana
Future Africa Foundation (FAF) on August 14, 2016, in the United States (US) acknowledged and honored Bishop Dr. Kofi Adonteng Boateng of the Divine Word International Ministries (DWIM) with a citation declaring him as the Peace Ambassador for the upcoming 2016 general elections in Ghana.

The honor according to FAF is in accordance with the United Nations (UN) Peace For Africa Initiative recognition of the Bishops commitment to the goodwill of all mankind and his outstanding humanitarian works over the years that have positively impacted lives.

According to Prince Duke Adu-Gyamfi; President of FAF, "Bishop Adonteng Boatengs continued efforts at globally reaching out through his ministries to realize the full potentials of every person, situation or organization he encounters makes him an ideal candidate for FAF Peace Ambassador. His persona will serve as a great positive influence to foster peace and unity both in and out of Ghana as the countrys presidential and parliamentary elections begin in December 2016.

UN Peace for Africa Initiative representatives Dr. Kennedy Amofa and Michael Eidem read and presented the citation to Bishop Adonteng Boateng.

Nana Adu Gyamfi, President of the Kwahu Obomeng Association of the Washington DC area was the Chairman of the event which was held at the headquarters of the DWIM located in Springfield, Virginia, USA. Also in attendance were Nana Berima Ampofo Wiredu II, the Akyem Bomaahene of Ghana.

The Bishop said after the event that he was firstly thankful to God and his wife Ewura Adonteng Boateng for always being there for him. He pledged to use his new status to diligently work towards a peaceful election in Ghana and to also help strengthen democracy in Africa and around the globe.

Cardiologist Dr. Isaac Opoku-Asare was also present with his wife lawyer Jennifer Opoku-Asare at the event to share congratulate and acknowledge Bishop Adonteng Boateng on his new status as Peace Ambassador.

The two leading political parties of Ghana were also represented by Dr. Tina Abrefa-Gyan; Vice Chairperson in the US branch of the opposition New Patriotic Party of Ghana, while Evans Asigbee; member of Friends of John Dramani Mahama (incumbent president of Ghana) in the US stood in for Ghanas ruling party the National Democratic Congress.

Sensational Ghanaian percussionist Okyerema Asante provided traditional drumming performance for the audience and dignitaries at the event which was MCd by Kwaku Boateng. The CEO of VIP Communications - Peter Rogers - a US-based telecommunication firm and one of the event sponsors was present to deliver a speech.

Peter Rogers in his speech stressed the importance of voting during elections and called on Ghanaians all over to exercise this privilege during the December 2016 elections. He also said his firm was going to donate a portion of proceeds from calling cards purchased by customers who frequently call Ghana from the USA towards the peace ambassador's initiatives.

The whole event was put together by Richard Adjei Mensah Ofori Atta who is the Executive Director of Future Africa Foundation. To find out more about DWIM and FAF visit their respective websites at divinewordint.org and futureafrica.info
20.08.2016 LISTEN

Recognizing the widening gap and huge untapped potential in their economic cooperation, Russia and Africa are gearing up efforts in raising the level of trade and business, Lyubov Demidova, Deputy Chairperson of the Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry at Moscow Region, explained in an interview with me, while emphasizing unreservedly the importance of increasing business and economic cooperation with the African countries.

She says that Russians are constantly interested in partnering with large and medium scale businesses in the African market as well as in the continuing interest of Africans to further cooperate with Russia, and further pointed out that a significant impetus to the Russian-African business cooperation was given by the visit of the then Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev to a number of African countries in June 2009.

Since then, many Russian delegations have visited the continent, the highest ranking delegation headed by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to a few African countries, notably Zimbabwe where he launched the $3 billion project and in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia where he held discussion with Africa Union Commission Chairperson, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, about Russia's readiness to infrastructural development.

In 2014, Russia started a new $3 billion platinum mine about 50 km north-west of Harare, the Zimbabwean capital. The Russian project, where production is projected to peak at 800 000 ounces year, involves a consortium consisting of the Rostekhnologii State Corporation, Vneshekonombank, as well as investment and industrial group, Vi Holding, in a joint venture with some private Zimbabwe investors as well as the Zimbabwean government.

Brigadier General Mike Nicholas Sango, Zimbabwe's Ambassador to the Russian Federation, wrote recently that Russia's biggest economic commitment to Zimbabwe to date was its agreement in September 2014 to invest $3 billion in what is Zimbabwe's largest platinum mine.

"What will set this investment apart from those that have been in Zimbabwe for decades is that the project will see the installation of a refinery to add value, thereby creating more employment and secondary industries," Brigadier General Sango explained to the local media.

"We are confident that this is just the start of a Russian-Zimbabwe economic partnership that will blossom in coming years. Our two countries are discussing other mining deals in addition to energy, agriculture, manufacturing and industrial projects. Russia also continues to assist Zimbabwe in training young Zimbabweans in special-skills areas such as medicine, general engineering, agricultural engineering and many other disciplines," Ambassador Sango added. Groundwork was laid for expanding trade and investment when Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe met President Vladimir Putin in Moscow in May 2015.

Undoubtedly, Russia has been implementing a number of other large-scale projects with participation of Russian capital in Africa. Among them are the development of the world's largest bauxite deposit in Guinea and an aluminium plant in Nigeria as well as oil and gas in Uganda.

Of particular importance is also the creation a Russian industrial zone in Egypt. It is expected that products of Russian companies will localize their production and will be in demand not only in the local market, but also in all regions of North and East Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe.

Besides projects, trade is also important. Speaking at a symposium organized by the Embassy of the Republic of Ghana as part of the Independence Day (March 6) celebration in Moscow and which was attended by the eminent group of diplomats, industry leaders, prominent international traders and analysts, Dr. Leonid Fituni, Deputy Director of the Institute for African Studies under the Russian Academy of Sciences, called on Russian authorities to take significant practical steps to provide African countries with broad preferences in trade.

He pointed out that "Russia attaches special significance to deepening trade and investment cooperation with African States, including the involvement of Russian economic operators in the implementation of infrastructure projects. It is encouraging that more Russian companies being aware of the prospects that are opening in the large market of the continent work actively in such fields as nuclear energy, hydrocarbon and metallurgy industries."

On their part to engage Russian investors, Africans have seized efforts and shown activeness in business events (conferences, forums, seminars and exhibitions) in many cities, the latest in St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg, in the Russian Federation. Official government representatives and private individuals from about fifteen African countries attended the IV Russian-African Forum (RAF) held on 11-14 July as part of the INNOPROM-2016 international industrial trade fair in Yekaterinburg (Urals).

According to the organizing committee, this year the African delegates represented different countries included Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Burundi, South Africa, Namibia, Rwanda, Senegal, Cameroon, Mozambique, Chad, Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, Algeria and Egypt.

The "Russian  African Forum" has become an integral part of the program of the exhibition and it is no coincidence, that the African vector every year becomes more and more significant in the foreign policy of Russia, - said Russian Minister of Industry and Trade, Denis Manturov while addressing the gathering.

He expressed assertively Russia's readiness to expand its activities in projects of nuclear energy and, oil and gas industry. "We hope that the authorities of the countries of the African continent will contribute their part in creating most favorable conditions for the development of all joint projects that we have been discussing and also here at INNOPROM," said Denis Manturov.

As already well-known, Russian companies are interested in projects focusing on mineral extraction, the energy sector, construction of large manufacturing facilities, human resources training, healthcare development, agriculture and food security, cooperation in digital technology and communications.

The general or popular sentiments at the 2016 Russian-African forum was that Russia and Africa need a more efficient system of exchanging vital information and effective efforts have to target, first and foremost, the search for new partnerships, new ways directed at boosting the economic cooperation and at implementing the biggest and most promising projects.

Unbelievably all these years, Russian officials in their speeches have repeated the same identified pitfalls, speed bumps or setbacks in the bilateral relations between Russia and Africa. The Foreign Ministry published the text of Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov's speech at its official website in July 2013 which he highlighted the same decade-old problems at a session of the Urals-Africa economic forum in Yekaterinburg.

"One must admit that the practical span of Russian companies' business operations in Africa falls far below our export capabilities, on the one hand, and the huge natural resources of the huge continent, on the other," Bogdanov said.

"Poor knowledge of the African markets' structure and the characteristics of African customers by the Russian business community remains an undeniable fact," he said. "The Africans in their turn are insufficiently informed on the capabilities of potential Russian partners," Bogdanov said.

Experts have also been looking at ways to improve trade relations and economic cooperation. For instance, Andrey Efimenko, an Expert at the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Trade said in an exclusive interview with me that CCI of Russia closely monitored the activities of Russian companies in Africa, as a number of companies  members of Chamber are implementing major investment projects in this region of the world, in particular, Renova group, Gazprombank, LUKOIL, Rosneft, etc.

"Unfortunately," Efimenko regrettably pointed out, "some large Russian companies operating on the African market, has managed to establish itself negatively in a number of countries. This is primarily due to ignorance of cultural peculiarities of the region, the lack of social responsibility, failure to completely fulfill contractual obligations. These cases damage the image of Russia and Russian companies with further entering the African market."

The Russian Chamber of Commerce conducted a survey of Russian companies regarding the work on the African markets has shown that in conditions of sanctions have hampered their access to financial and credit resources that could be directed to participate in the implementation of infrastructure projects, the purchase of foodstuffs and agricultural raw materials.

Certain deterrent factor is the cost of logistics from Africa to Russia and/or vice versa and weak solvency of local companies, interested in obtaining Russian products on preferential terms. Another constraint to the development of business cooperation with certain countries in the region (Guinea, Nigeria, Sierra Leone) is currently an epidemic of the Ebola virus, as well as the lack of political stability in several African countries (Chad, Nigeria, Liberia, etc), the Expert explained.

In conditions of high competition on the African markets from China, European Union and the United States believe that public-private partnership with the coordinating and steering role of the state is at this stage the key to success and the best form of development of cooperation of Russia with African countries.

An important factor in the expansion of Russian-African relations  the establishment of development institutions such as the Russian export centre and Roseximbank. CCI of Russia is making serious efforts to unite the business community of the country for development of interaction with African countries.

On the initiative of the Chamber and with the support of Russian state, public and private organizations in 2009, established a Coordinating Committee on Economic Cooperation with Africa (south of Sahara) popularly referred to as AfroCom. Today, it unites more than 120 Russian organizations and companies interested in developing relations with Africa.

With the participation of the Committee are regularly conducted business activities, which are important both for the deepening of bilateral relations with individual countries, and to strengthen Russia-African relations in general. The Committee pays special attention to information work. The site completely devoted to the economy of the African continent and the development of Russian-African economic relations.

As a further step, the Africa Business Initiative (ABI) in partnership with the Institute for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, are also attempting to bring together key representatives from large Russian companies, government and the academic community as a working group to focus on helping Russian companies to enter and work in Africa.

There is still high optimism. "Russia has a large scientific and technical potential, and the Moscow regions also are historically developed as industrial and scientific centers and have good opportunities to develop their export potential to Africa. I would not want to associate the current crisis in the West and in Europe with the development of relations between Russia and African States," Lyubov Demidova told Buziness Africa in Moscow.

She further informed that the new regional committee will include representatives of Russian organizations and companies, from government, public and business organizations in Russia, major Russian companies which already occupied a niche in Africa, and those who plan to transact business in Africa.

The main directions of its work are to inform members of the committee, to explore the possibilities of establishing a mechanism of financial support for Russian entrepreneurs, the organization of various business activities, including conferences, seminars, business meetings to establish contacts with potential partners.

One of the most important directions in the committee's work is working on the information back-up of the image. It consists of several components: forming a positive image of Russia and its business community, the provision of necessary business information about Africa, including the dissemination of information on tenders declared in Africa, analysis of the peculiarities of economic and socio-cultural development in Africa, reference materials about Russia and about the potential of Russian-African cooperation.

In order to bolster trade and raise economic cooperation, another new Regional Council for the Development of Economic Relations with African countries (RCDRA) was created early this February which will serve as a good mechanism for the development of fruitful cooperation in various fields.

For its part, the newly created Council will make every effort to establish large-scale, long-term and mutually beneficial cooperation and hopefully will meet the some positive results on the part of African States.

The main obstacle is insufficient knowledge of the economic potential, on the part of Russian entrepreneurs, needs and opportunities of the African region. For this, the Council hopes to help members of the business community of all African countries to address systematically issues of effective cooperation.

"The main task is to shift to a more comprehensive approach, using the extensive territorial network of the Russian Chamber of Commerce. Russia's business should be provided with full information on economic development in African countries and their needs in order to establish an ongoing Russia-African mutually beneficial business dialogue,"she suggested.

The most promising option for solving the problem of intensification of bilateral contacts is the practical work to establish links between individual companies and business associations from both sides, which will gradually accumulate positive experience of working together, to understand the capabilities and needs of each other leading to the development of the economy with Russian and with the African side, Demidova concluded.

Currently, the turnover of trade between Russia and Africa is estimated at $2.5 billion, while imports of non-primary goods to the African continent already aggregate to $430 billion and are growing at 10-15 % a year. Nearly, in all economic sectors in African countries, Russia's major competitors are from foreign countries especially Asia, western Europe and European Union.

Kester Kenn Klomegah is an independent research writer on Russia-African affairs.
20.08.2016 LISTEN

A Message To Koku Anyidoho.

I've had a lot on my hand and mind these days. Hence, the luxury of time and to some extent a 'fertile mindset' to produce opinion pieces and articles pertaining to matters of national discourse has entirely eluded me.

However, even when restricted by the most demanding and inescapable schedules and circumstances, my pen cannot be left idle upon listening to Koku Anyidoho(Deputy Gen. Sec, NDC) and Bernard Mornah(Nat.Chair, PNC) on disgraced pro NDC radio station- Muntie Fm yesterday(August 19, 2016.)

Firstly, claims by Koku Anyidoho to the effect that no Ghanaian; whether a private businessman, civil servant or royal could have bought and owned a Hummer Vehicle during the reign of Kuffour as president(2001-2008) and as such any Ghanaian who owned a Hammer Vehicle during that period was either a COCAINE DEALER or a beneficiary of the drug trade.

Yes, we have people like Anyidoho and the entire NDC believing that no Ghanaian should be able to own a Hummer Vehicle. But l ask, in any thriving country, why can't successful businessmen afford Hummer Vehicles when the 2016 brands of latest Hummer Vehicles are hovering around 32,000 US dollars?

No wonder the NDC as a party abhors entrepreneurship and intimidates successful private businessmen anytime they are in power. From the inhumane treatment meted to Appiah Menkah and his "Apino Soap" franchise, the illegal confiscation of his assets, arrests and intimidation attests to the NDC's abhorrence for entrepreneurship. The late Mr. Ofori Yeboah, a Ghanaian who had studied electronics in the Netherlands and worked with global electronics giant Philips returned to Ghana in the 70's to set up a huge electronics company at Kotobaabi in Accra. His Ofori Electronics franchise employed hundreds of Ghanaians and made the best television, hi-fi equipment and transistor radios for the Ghanaian and entire sub-Saharan African market. Not only was his Ofori Electronics company confiscated but Mr Ofori was arrested by the P/NDC regime, jailed without a proper trial and returned from prison a broke !!!

Kwabena Darko of the renowned Darko Farms, Mr. Appenteng of Panbros Salt Industry, Dr. Kwame Safo Adu, a mogul in the pharmaceutical industry back then, Mr. B. A Mensah (father of Mr. Herbert Amponsah Mensah- ex CEO of Asante Kotoko FC) and a host of Ghanaian businessmen had their lifetime businesses destroyed by Rawlings and his P/NDC surrogates. Painfully, these businessmen were not targeted for refusing to pay taxes or any bad industrial practice. Contrary, the mere fact that one came from a certain part of the country, spoke a certain language or belonged to a specific tribe was a reason good enough to make him and his business the subject of a political witch-hunt.

In the end, most Ghanaian businessmen fled or relocated their businesses to the Ivory Coast, Sierra-Leone, Liberia and Nigeria.

Koku Anyidoho should and must be told that in any thriving economy, you don't need to be a deputy minister of education before setting up fuel stations, suddenly cruising in range rovers and V-8 vehicles. He should tell us how previously bald headed malnourished student politicians who now find themselves in the corridors of power as deputy ministers can suddenly be owning fuel stations in Accra and across Ghana, mansions in London and afford weekly flights to attend lectures in London for their postgraduate studies. Are they also cocaine dealers or part of the syndicate Rawlings described as 'greedy bastards' now swimming in 'ill gotten wealth' as asserted by the NDC's own Murtala Mohammed?

Governments who implement prudent economic measures can only boast about the success and bask on the glory of its citizens who can afford building moderate houses, own vehicles and earn decent living for their families. It is only a clueless and an incompetent government, knowing very well how poorly it has mismanaged the economy and rendered its masses unemployed with throat-cutting IMF policies that shouts in utter disbelief at the mere acquisition of vehicles and properties by the very masses it claims to be changing and transforming their lives. Mark Zuckerberg now worth 44.26 billion US dollars was only nineteen when he launched Facebook with his Harvard course and room mates. Facebook is now worth billions of dollars and used by 1.6 billion people monthly as well as employing 13,598 people globally. Provided Ghanaians are provided with the best of business environment and their "start-ups" nurtchered and supported to reach the might of Facebook, You-Tube or Alibaba, why can't they be as rich as Zuckerberg and own Hummer Vehicles ? How can Ghanaians own Hummer Vehicles when our system easily allows illiterate Chinese migrants to cross our boarders and enrich themselves on 'galamsey' while the unemployed graduate trying to register his tiny business would have to spend over 9 months at the offices of the Registrar Generals Department ? How can we buy homes and own cars when our own system is killing businesses with cut-throat taxes, insane electricity tariffs and profligate use of state resources to brand buses and rare Akonfem that flew to Burkina and never returned? How can we live a descent life when unemployed graduates are still being fed by their parents and NDC foolsoldiers and rented media bootlickers are on government payroll?

The mere fact that Koku Anyidoho and the NDC believes no Ghanaian should be able to buy Hummer Vehicles sums up the level Of shallow-mindedness, small-thinking, lack of vision and the inability to think and dream big in the NDC. Afterall, these are people who said National Health Insurance wasn't feasible, Free SHS wasn't practicable, Ghana,wasn't going to last for 2 weeks under Kuffour because there had left no money in January 2001 and even ridiculed Kuffour and Ghana's discovery of oil at the cape three points, labeling the discovered oil as 'adwe ngo'(palm kernel oil.)

Yet we have these same people using Ghana's oil billions to enrich themselves. Hypocrisy, naked thievery, shallow-mindedness, small-thinking,and refusal to dream big, that's the stock in trade of Koku Anyidoho and the NDC.

I may have to attend to Bernard Mornah at some appropriate time. May God bless our homeland Ghana and give our voters the discernment to reject shallow-thinking politicians.

MICHAEL KWADWO NKETIAH,

Writer and Activist.

{ [email protected] }
We should ask ourselves, what is critical thinking? Can one say critical thinking imply detail scepticism toward all knowledge or established truth? Or it means to be inquisitive. To me, I believe critical thinking is reflected in the general universal knowledge applied to all areas of life.

According to Richard Nordquist, he tries to explain critical thinking as the process of independently analysing, synthesizing and evaluating as a guide to behaviour or belief.He further assert that, critical thinking skills include the ability to interpret, verify and reason, all which involve the principle of logic. It is quite obvious that critical thinkers try to think diligently to develop the intellectual integrity, intellectual humility, intellectual empathy, intellectual sense of justice and the confidence in reason.

People who undergo critical thinking realize that no matter how skilful they might be, they can always improve their ability of reasoning and will sometimes fall prey to mistakes in reasoning, human irrationality, prejudices, biases, distortion, uncritically accepted social values and self-interest.

The interesting aspect of critical thinkers is that, they strive to improve the circumstances in the world in whatever way they can and contribute to a more rational highly civilized society. At the same time, they also recognize the complexities which are often inherent in engaging in critical thinking.

A critical thinker is someone who does not think simplistically about complicated issues and also consider the right needs of others. From my perspective, I believe, critical thinkers are the symbol of the Socratic symbol The unexamined life is not worth living this is to the fact that, they realise that many unexamined lives together results in an uncritical, unjust and dangerous world.

The State of Christianity in Ghana and How It has affected the Reasoning of The People

Historically, the arrival of the Europeans in the 15th century into the Gold Coast brought Christianity to the land. According to Historians, a little success was achieved before it was firmly established in the 15th century. It is accepted that before the arrival of the Europeans there were different cultural groups across the West African region that were practicing different forms of religion.

However, some African Scholars and theologians like Mbiti have argued that Christianity is indigenous to Africans. He based his argument on the existence of some Africans in the Bible narrations like the Ethiopian Eunuch and Simeon from the Northern part of Africa.

The intrusion of Christianity into the territories that became Ghana had very far reaching influence on the daily activities of Ghanaians. It is an undeniable fact that the coming of Christianity into the country has not yielded any positive results on the lives of the people. The ruthless human sacrifice was abandoned by the aborigines of the land after the coming of the Europeans and Christianity as a whole. Going further, there are several feasibly evidence that shows immense contribution of Christianity to Ghana.

For example, Christian groups aided in the establishment of schools, hospitals, libraries and provided some significant social amenities to the Ghanaian society. Ghana is constitutionally a secular state. Religious Liberty is guaranteed and all the citizens are free to believe and manifest any religious faith. The national populations and housing census in 2012 placed Christianity as the dominant faith at 71% percent of the population. The rise of Christianity in the country can be attributed to the emergence of several prophetic and spiritual pastors who have established the numerous independent churches in the country which are popular known as "One Man" churches.

It is unfortunate that, some people who call themselves men of God in recent times, have imposed such high tittles as Bishops, Prophets, Elders, Deacons, Angel among others, without understanding the role such men of God play. It is pertinent to note that, most of the self-acclaimed men of God have very low educational backgrounds. They do not understand the Bible, which have resulted in the situation where they misinterpret the Holy Bible according to their shallow understanding.

Some of the preachers are charlatans conning the gullible with messages of impending doom. As in 2014, it was disclosed that the number of churches was about 10,000 in the country. This refers not to the number of consecrated buildings, but to the number of faithbased groups that claims allegiance to Christianity. Most of these churches currently can be described as commercial entities and it has led a strong competition among the churches.

Christianity and Its Influence on the Reasoning of Ghanaians

The great increase in the number of Christian churches has affected the spiritual, physical and the psychological lives of some adherent of Christianity. In Ghana, many Christians balk at the mention of critical thinking whenever it is associated with the church. Usually Christians connect the phrase critical thinking with scepticism and criticism of the Bible in general.

In Ghana for example, the Pentecostals, Charismatics and the Independent churches want nothing to do with critical thinking because they perceived it as an earthly knowledge or worldly philosophy which tries to challenge the Bible. The following paragraphs with the help of examples will show how Christianity has affected the rational ability, the sense of judgement and the opinions of Christians in Ghanaians.

Contemporary Christians ascribe everything in their life to the making of the Supernatural Being. According to the Christian concept of God, he is seen as eternal being who has the power to create and preserve all things. God is known as both transcendent and immanent. This means that, God in the Christian context is someone who is independent from the universe and at the same time involved in the world.

However, Christians in Ghana holds the assertion that good situations come from God and bad circumstances comes from devil. Most Christians have the notion that being a true Christian who prays and go to church regularly is the antidote to his or her problems. This has developed laziness among some Christians toward their work.

The lackadaisical attitude of Christians has made them very poor. Instead of a Christian paying a lot of attention to his work for the betterment his or her life, the person will sought to prayers which they believe to be a divine intervention from God that will liberate them from their wretchedness. Christianity in contemporary Ghana is so neck deep in the type of unethical seeking of wealth that Jesus himself preached in Luke 18:24-25.

It is becoming an occurrence that the church in Ghana today is turning into a controversial institution which is busy promoting illegitimate and illegal seeking of wealth and affluence. Also, whenever a bad omen befalls someone in the Christian fraternity due to his or her own negligence, the person will seek prophetic assistance from a pastor instead of assessing and making amendments in his life.

Upon consulting the pastor, they are compel to pay huge sums of money as consultation fee. The so called consultation which are paid to the pastors increase their coffers, in contrast their members continue to remain in their poor conditions. The gap between pastors and their members continue to widen, whereby every head pastor of these independent churches is always getting richer while their members continue to stay in their devastating wretchedness. These self-acclaimed men of God are able to buy big cars and house and do not even care about the well-being of their followers.

The reliance on God for everything by Christians in Ghana has also placed pastor in a position which has enabled them to control and engineer the thinking ability of some people. In recent times, the prophetic and the charismatic pastors have proven to solve almost all the hitches and the snag situation of their members. These actions of pastors make people to hold them in a high esteem in the detriment of their self.

They tend to listen to the directions of these pastors instead of following their own sense of purpose and critical thinking. In a situation whereby someone is suffering from a sickness, this individual will choose to take the ailment to the church house instead of taking it to the hospital for a proper health care.

It is becoming obvious that, the church in Ghana these days have become the second if not the first health care agency in the country. People with high academic excellence has also fall victim to this whereby they tend to seek quality health care in the house of God instead of the hospital. Taking the people of Jehovah Witness and blood transfusion as a scenario, it seems the adherents of the Jehovah Witness would rather allow their ward to die instead of donating blood to save him or her.

They back their actions against blood transfusion with the doctrines of their church and Bible which do not allow them to donate blood. We can testify that the mind of these people have been blinded by their church doctrine which does not give them any option to think for themselves. As citizen of a country, they refuse to vote during general elections in the country and claims the teachings of their do not support such actions. What baffles me sometimes is that these people claim to be the citizen of the country but fails to exercise their franchise but whenever something is not going on well with the government system they try to voice out.

Going further, one peculiar way in which one can observe how Christianity has affected the logical thinking of Ghanaians is how they have enculturated Christian and Europeans culture whiles aborting their own customs and traditions. On this particular note, Christians in Ghana have adopted Christianise culture and frown upon some of the African culture and way of life.

The sad aspect of this is that, most Christians think their own beliefs, values, customs and social behaviour seen as devilish and mischievous when they go contrary to the teaching in the bible. Some contemporary Christians claims to be a chief disqualify someone to be a true Christian. They justify their actions by saying chieftaincy is associated with indigenous practices as sacrifice and libation which is seen as devilish and therefore go contrary to the teaching of the Christian community.

Also some Christians find it atrocious to give their children indigenous names which are associated with the indigenous belief. Some Christians find it abominable to name their offspring after names like Antoa, Pra, Ankobra and other indiginous names which is be associated with the indigenous religion. They rather opt for strange names which they dont even understand since they classify these names as Abosom din.

WRTTEN BY ANANE BISMARK AMOFAH

CONTACT NUMBER: 0245371277

Richard Nordquist, Grammer.about.com, November, 2, 2015. Retrieved on 3rd August, 2016.

Ibid.

Interview with Agyemang Samuel, Political science graduate of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, 1 August 2016.

D.E.K., Amenumey, Ghana: A Concise History from Pre-Colonial Times to the Twentieth Century, Accra: Woeli

Publishing Services, 2008, p.168-169.

www.ghanaembassy.com , retrieved on 3rd August 2016.

www.Ghanaweb.com , retrieved on 4th August, 2016.
About 5,656 potential voters in the Volta Region risk an imminent expunction from the voters' roll following numerous lawsuits challenging their eligibility.

The legal tussle mostly led by polling agents of the opposition New Patriotic Party seeking to prevent the registered voters, some of whom they claim are foreigners from voting in the general elections.

3,193 of the objections were on the basis of being deceased while the remaining 2463 are being objected to, on the grounds of being non-residents or foreigners.

So far, some of the suits initiated across the 26 constituencies in the region have resulted in the grant of relief to the plaintiffs by the courts.

In the Ho West Constituency, Seven (7) out of the 171 names being objected have been directed by the court for deletion while the fate of the remaining 164 are yet to be determined by the Dzolokpuita Magistrate Court.

The appellants, Godwin Adinyirah , challenged voters in Gbadzeme in the Avatime Traditional Area while Moro Bamba challenged voters in Togorme in the Hornuta Traditional Area along the Ghana-Togo border.

Similarly some 99 names from the voters roll in the Ho central constituency are to be expunged following objections raised by one Leonard Agbesi, a resident of Hodzokorfe, claiming those persons were not 'residents or ordinarily residents' of his community.

One of the Lawyers for the plaintiffs, Emmanuel Ohene, told Citi News that there are other similar cases under trial across the country.

He said the lawsuits are necessary to prevent foreigners from taking advantage of the country's voter's register.

CitiNews has gathered that most of the persons being objected have failed to appear before the magistrate courts for adjudication.

The District EC Officer, Regina Tackey told CitiNews that, after the objections were raised during the just ended Voters Register Exhibition exercise; several efforts to get the objected persons to prove their residential status in the area, in accordance with processes prescribed in the CI 91 were unsuccessful. She said traditional authorities and town criers were engaged to help inform them but to no avail.

The cases have been attracting lots of people to courts in the region majority of them being sympathizers of the ruling National Democratic Congress.



By: King Norbert Akpablie/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Those who did not follow his brief career as Attorney-General and Minister of Justice in the Atta-Mills administration tend to envisage Mr. Martin Amidu as a legal genius. Which, of course, is not in any way to imply that the man is not adequately equipped where the practice of the law is concerned. Rather, it is to observe that the field of legal practice and scholarship is far too broad for any single legally trained mind to cavalierly presume to fully appreciate.

I personally lost much of my confidence in Mr. Amidus handling of the case involving the decidedly farcical cherry-picking of the alleged executioners of Ya-Naa Yakubu Andani, II, the traditional overlord of Dagbon. He would later claim that he had only inherited the judicial prosecution of the alleged criminal suspects, at least one of whom could not have been either a co-conspirator or an executioner of the Ya-Naa, because the alleged suspect was a toddler in 2002, or thereabouts, when the crime, which also involved the cold-blooded massacre of at least some 40 attendants of the Dagbon paramount king.

Even so, Mr. Amidu had been expected to have prosecuted the case in the most legally appropriate, or professional, manner and not passively go along to get along. In the Woyome Heist that caused his dismissal from the Atta-Mills cabinet, the dismissed Attorney-General, who would later claim to have been a victim of conscience, had not promptly spoken up against an egregious executive illegality on grounds of protocol. Indeed, the manner in which the Woyome Epic Heist was handled and deliberately bungled by the Attorney-Generals Office, left absolutely no Ghanaian in doubt that the National Democratic Congress is a party whose leadership hears and sees no evil.

To be certain, the NDC leadership villainously lacks the capacity to take responsibility for both its actions and inactions. And so it comes as hardly any surprise that nearly every reputable or, rather I should say, prominent legally trained member of the National Democratic Congress, including cabinet appointees, has a hard time coming to terms with the fact that the sort of flagrant incitement to the hatred of the members of the Supreme Court, allegedly perpetrated and propagated by the Montie Three media operatives, has absolutely no protection even under the specious guise of free speech as enshrined in the 1992 Constitution.

This is the primary reason why, even as Mr. Loh pointedly observes, legal pugilists like Mr. Amidu are having such a hard time in accepting the fact that the Supreme Court of Ghana is constitutionally empowered with certain inherent privileges among which is the power to summon, indict, prosecute and imprison patent anti-social and anti-civil elements of Ghanaian society. But what is even more edifying to observe here is Mr. Lohs expatiation of the fact that Attorney-General Marietta Brew Appiah-Oppong could not have caused the arrest, indictment and prosecution of the Montie Three because the current Constitution of Ghana does not privilege the Attorney-General with the power to arrest and prosecute persons deemed guilty of criminal judicial contempt. Rather, such power and/or privilege is directly invested in the Supreme Court itself.

This may be the constitutional deficiency that Prof. Stephen Kwaku Asare alluded to in one of his most recent articles, which may have prevented Attorney-General Appiah-Oppong from effecting the prompt arrest and prosecution of the Montie Three Gang, charged and imprisoned for the culpable crime of judicial contempt.

If the Supreme Court has been so invested by the 1992 Ghanaian Constitution, then it is clearly superfluous for any critic to suggest that Messrs. Salifu Maase (aka Mugabe), Alistair Tairo Nelson and Godwin Ako Gunn ought to have been indicted, prosecuted, convicted and imprisoned by executive officials constitutionally unencumbered to do so.

In sum, there is no gainsaying that Mr. Amidu comes off as a remarkable academic lawyer. But as a legal practitioner at work in a legitimately constituted court of the land, the jury may still be out on the man whose legion of admirers have nicknamed him The Citizen Vigilante.

*Visit my blog at: kwameokoampaahoofe.wordpress.com Ghanaffairs
Flagbearer of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo has said sharing of goodies by President John Mahama on his campaign trail shows he has failed as a leader.

Nana Addo insists President Mahama does not deserve another term in office over the issue.

In the run-up to this year's elections, the President and his wife are distributing items to Ghanaians. If things were alright and there is money in our pocket, would we need to be given handouts of pans, outboard motors and the rest from him? If he has done very well in office, would he be distributing things to court of our support?

There are reports that President John Mahama is sharing outboard motors, head pans and other items during his campaign in the Western Region.

His wife, Lordina Mahma has also been accused by the NPP of using her Foundation to undertake some humanitarian activities including donations to some schools which they claimed is a form of vote buying.

Speaking at the Avenue Chemist grounds in the Okaikoi North Constituency in the Greater Accra Region, Nana Akufo Addo urged Ghanaians to give him the mandate to enable him implement a program of economic restoration.

You remember he said previously that Ghanaians are forgetful people? Let's show him with our thumb this year that we have not forgotten the hardship his government has put us through. With your help, we would change him, Nana Addo added.

Follow the hashtag #GhElections on Social Media for election related stories



By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana

Follow @AlloteyGodwin
President John Mahama on Friday inaugurated the completed works of the first phase of the Tamale airport expansion and upgrade project.

The inauguration also saw the first batch of pilgrims airlifted directly from Tamale to Medina for Hajj.

The president is optimistic the airport will support the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority and enhance export of perishable goods directly from the region.

President Mahama said the decision to establish the Airport was aimed at extending opportunities to the North for growth and development.

The decision to upgrade the Tamale Airport to an international one is a well thought-through program aimed at extending opportunities to the people of the North for accelerated growth and development of our people, President Mahama observed.

He added, Government will work with the GACL to see the airport develop into an aerotropolis with a one stop shop for hotels, conferencing facilities, shops and restaurants to serve as an economic growth node to improve more jobs and grow the local economy.



By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana

Follow @AlloteyGodwin

Photos from Flagstaff House
A group of young men and women in the Tamale Metropolis has called a bluff of President John Dramani Mahama a few minutes after he had inaugurated the rehabilitated Tamale Airport. The group numbering about five hundred was spotted in red coloured attire around the Tamale Airport.

According to the spokesperson for the group Musah Huzairu the president has expanded the Tamale Airport, which now allows pilgrims to fly straight to Mecca. Muslims in the three Northern regions appreciate this gesture, Musah Huzairu noted. The group however, noted that a mere decentralization of the operations of the Hajj Committee does not mean the president has solved the problems that Muslims in the North face.

A member of the group Azumah Alhassan also observed that government is in power to fix the challenges confronting the citizenry. So if Mahama has expanded the airport does it mean we must burn the sea? According to Azumah Alhassan the Mahama led administration has crippled Muslims.

He alleged that it is the NDC government that has scrapped monthly allowances meant for Arabic Instructors in the Northern region. If you cut the source of my income and you expand airport how do you expect me to pay for my Hajj fee?, Azumah Alhassan questioned.

The group expressed their intention to speak to the press in the coming days on how the scrapping of the allowances for Arabic Instructors is impacting negatively on the lives of the affected persons and their families.

Stay tune for details on this developing story from Tamale.
KickassTorrents (commonly abbreviated KAT) was a website that provided a directory for torrent files and magnet links to facilitate peer-to-peer file sharing using the BitTorrent protocol. (Photo : YouTube / Underground @News)

Kickass Torrents (KAT) might have actually already came back but only as another domain and one of the alternatives or mirrors next to The Pirate Bay (TPB) and Extra Torrent that receives more traffic.



While the alleged owner Artem Vaulin is currently facing the legal charges of the United States government, he hinted that the site could still be working behind the scenes. The torrent site could be one of the many KAT mirrors and alternatives that suddenly sprung up after the main Kickass Torrent site has been shut down.



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KAT domains that still remain active do not have useful torrents at all but there could be a time that it will rise again to topple TPB and the up and rising Extra Torrent site, Gamenguide has learned. The Pirate Bay has risen again to the top as the King of Torrents after they celebrated their anniversary.



Users can still search for KAT alternatives but they might just see the mirrors and clones that are reportedly scamming people into entering their credit card details. Kickass Torrent mirrors should be avoided as much as possible and users are better off using Extra Torrent and The Pirate Bay.



There were also several rumors of TPB shutting down but The Pirate Bay is still up and running for those who want to search for torrents, Christian Times reported. Extra Torrent can also be a good Kickass Torrent alternative as it is also free and web traffic has recently surged up for the site.



Torrentz has voluntarily shut down as well, leaving millions of users stranded for alternatives. There have been Torrentz clones that also rose up after the take down but they are still no match for the original nor the KAT mirrors which now contain Suicide Squad torrents and the new Sausage Party movie starring Seth Rogen.



Kickass Torrents has provided a good service to all pirates and it could still be living on through KAT mirrors and alternatives. The Pirate Bay is now the king once again as TPB still houses the best torrents next to Extra Torrent which can also be a good site for piracy.


Khartoum (AFP) - South Sudan's new Vice President Taban Deng Gai will begin a two-day visit to Khartoum on Sunday for talks on thorny issues still outstanding from its 2011 secession, an official said.

Deng's first visit to Sudan comes just weeks after he replaced former rebel leader Riek Machar as vice president after clashes in Juba left hundreds dead in July.

Deng will be accompanied by a delegation of ministers and advisers, South Sudan's ambassador to Khartoum, Mayan Dout, told AFP.

He said Deng would discuss issues that have been outstanding since the south's independence from Khartoum in 2011.

Unresolved issues include the status of the Khartoum-occupied border district of Abyei, which had been supposed to hold a plebiscite on its future, and the payments Juba should make for the use of an oil export pipeline through Sudan.

In June, the South Sudan ministers of foreign affairs, oil and the interior also held talks in Khartoum on the outstanding oil and border issues.

"There are some difficulties in our relations," South Sudanese Foreign Minister Deng Alor said at the time.

South Sudan's oil production has virtually ground to a halt since a civil war erupted there in December 2013, when President Salva Kiir accused Machar of plotting a coup.

Machar was later dismissed.

On Thursday an aide to the ex-vice president said he had escaped to the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Khartoum is hoping that an improvement in relations with Juba would help resolve persistent rebellions on both sides of the border that have sparked a prolonged war of words between the two governments.

Deng is expected to be accompanied by South Sudan's defence and energy ministers as well as senior intelligence officials.
Bahir Dar (Ethiopia) (AFP) - The demonstrations were crushed but anger remains in Bahir Dar, capital of Ethiopia's northern Amhara region, where a fortnight ago security forces killed at least 30 protesters, according to a human rights group.

"I would say at least 50 people!" said Getachew, a protester who saw bodies arrive at the city hospital on August 7.

Dressed in black, Getachew is mourning his younger brother Abebe, 28, who he says was shot twice - once in the back of the head and once in his side - as Ethiopian security broke up the protests with gunfire and teargas.

"The 'Agazi' were on the rooftops. They started to shoot in the crowd. The police was launching tear gas," Getachew said, referring to Ethiopia's feared special forces with their distinctive red berets who were deployed to help crush the protests in Bahir Dar.

As he spoke Getachew scrolled through photographs of victims - including his brother -- on his mobile phone.

Like many of the protesters, Abebe was wrapped in an old green, yellow and red Ethiopian flag, but without the central star imposed on the flag by the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) when it took power in 1991. The wearing of the old flag is a patriotic rebuke of EPRDF rule.

Getachew was one of the few willing to speak following the protests in Bahir Dar, and even he would not give his full name.

- Fear and mistrust -

This small, pretty town on the edge of Lake Tana and close to the source of the Blue Nile is still in shock after the killings. The tourist hotels are deserted, the tour guides idle and the fear of government reprisals is palpable.

"If I start talking in a cafe, the Kebele [local government officials] will know it. We cannot trust our neighbours or our friends," said one tour guide who did not want to be identified.

Since the demonstrations, arrests have multiplied, said Getachew. "Five friends of Abebe were arrested after they went to his funeral. We don't know where they are," he said.

In the village of Dangla, just south of Bahir Dar, resident Andualem said there had been security sweeps and stark warnings.

"They go door to door to give extreme warning not to go out to demonstrate otherwise you will be killed," said Andualem. "They say: Keep your children and your life."

Mobile internet and social networks have been blocked to prevent the predominantly young activists from the decentralised protest movement from organising further demonstrations.

Many of the young protesters are angry at a government that has been in charge for almost their whole lives and that is seen to favour the minority Tigrean community who occupy key positions in government, the security services and public companies.

"There is a tangible development. You can't deny the roads, the buildings, the power supply but the VIPs are all from Tigray. Tigreans dominate economically and socially. All the industries are in Tigray," said Ashenafi, a young Amhara protester.

- Ethnic federalism failing -

The government's decision to join the northern province of Welkait to the Tigray region was the immediate trigger for the Amhara protests, but they have occurred at the same time as others in the Oromo region where regular, sometimes deadly, demonstrations have happened since November over land rights.

Together, Oromo and Amhara people make up over 60 percent of the population.

The demonstrations are a challenge to the EPRDF's model of "ethnic federalism" intended to give representation and a degree of self-determination to the multitude of ethnic groups in Ethiopia.

"Ethnic federalism is not working because it is not implemented equally," said Molla Wasie of the opposition Agaw Democratic Party. "Things are getting more and more tense. The government and the opposition should come together and find a solution."

The Bahir Dar demonstrators are still angry. Following the protests, the authorities gave a low figure of just seven dead, while human rights group Amnesty International said 30 had been killed. Locals say the number was higher still.

"They did not apologise for the people killed. They do not feel guilty. All they say is that if somebody comes out, they will take action," said Ashenafi. "I do not see any sign that they will change."
Beni (DR Congo) (AFP) - Six suspected members of a Ugandan rebel group went before a Congolese military court on Saturday, accused of taking part in the killing last weekend of 51 people, the latest in a string of massacres in the restive east of the country.

The gruesome slaying in the town of Beni touched off mass street protests against the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo for failing to protect the population from the armed rebel groups that plague the region. Clashes erupted at Wednesday's protest march leaving three people including a policeman dead.

The men accused in the slaughter are "two Ugandans, one Tanzanian and three Congolese," said colonel Jean-Paulin Esosa, who presides over the operational military court of North Kivu province.

Appearing at the public hearing in blue and yellow prison shirts, they were charged with "participation in an insurrectional movement, crimes against humanity for murder and terrorism," Esosa said.

The accused admitted at the hearing to having been "at the service of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF)", a partly Islamist armed group of Ugandan origin, an AFP correspondent reported.

Hundreds of Beni residents had gathered to attend the hearing. One survivor of the brutal attack, Eve Kahambu, told AFP she wanted to see the "murderers" receive "the severest punishment".

The ADF has been present in DR Congo for more than two decades and is accused of a litany of human rights abuses and being involved with criminal networks funded by kidnappings, smuggling and logging.

The mass killing last weekend was only the latest of the attacks in the region around Beni that have claimed more than 700 lives since 2014.

The government has blamed them on the ADF, but a report published in March by the Congo Research Group at New York University, which probed these massacres, claimed that soldiers from the regular army had also participated in the killings.

In the attack last Saturday night "at least 50 civilians" were hacked to death, according to the UN mission to DRC (MONUSCO). Local civil society groups put the death toll at 51.

The violence added to the existing tension in the DRC, where fears are mounting that President Joseph Kabila plans to hold on to power after his second mandate expires in December.

In Beni on Wednesday, an effigy of Kabila was burned in the town's main market, as were flags of his ruling People's Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD).

The deadly protests came a day after Prime Minister Augustin Matata was booed by hundreds outside Beni's town hall, after he visited the massacre site.

"What did he come for? We don't need humanitarian aid, but peace," said Germain Katembo, a survivor of the massacre who lost three members of his family.
Washington (AFP) - The United States on Saturday condemned Mauritania's imprisonment and alleged torture of protesters, including anti-slavery activists.

A court in the west African country handed 13 members of a group fighting hereditary slavery prison sentences on Thursday ranging from three to 15 years.

"The United States is gravely concerned about the harsh prison terms," State Department spokesman Mark Toner said in a statement. "We are also dismayed by specific accusations that some of these individuals were subjected to abuse and torture while in detention following their arrests."

All 13 activists say they were tortured in prison ahead of the court case.

Lawyers for the group denounced Thursday's verdict as "a travesty of justice."

"The United States urges an immediate and comprehensive investigation into all credible allegations of torture, public release of the findings of this investigation, and appropriate prosecution of any individuals whom the investigation finds were responsible for such acts," the State Department said, adding that Mauritania committed itself to fighting torture in its revised 2012 constitution.

"The United States strongly encourages Mauritania to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms, including freedoms of expression and association, for all Mauritanians."

The activists were arrested last month after a protest in a Nouakchott slum community, which was being forcibly relocated as Mauritania prepared for an Arab League summit.

The neighborhood was home to many so-called Haratin -- a "slave caste" under a hereditary system of servitude whose members are forced to work without pay as cattle herders and domestic servants.

A court in the capital Nouakchott found the defendants guilty of "use of violence," but Amnesty International has said they were falsely accused because of their advocacy work.
20.08.2016 LISTEN

The National Communications Authority (NCA), has warned the public against buying unapproved Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) receivers (televisions and set top boxes).

According to the NCA, many of the set top boxes do not meet the certified standard and will not function when there is switch from analogue broadcasting to digital broadcasting

In an interview with Citi Business News the Director for Engineering at the NCA, Henry Kanor, said it is important that dealers and importers comply to protect users with regards to environmental health and safety standards including electromagnetic radiation and emissions.

Our checks on the market reveal that there are companies in Nigeria and elsewhere who try to flood our market with those products and we realise that its only through education that our fellow countrymen will know that when you buy such boxes you buy it at your own peril because our test on these boxes have shown that they don't meet the standard in the country and will not even last. This is also because they do not conform to the regime that we have in Ghana.

He further stated that We are taking the GRA through some form of training; as they man the country's entry points,they must know the specification to be able to determine unapproved set top boxes being brought into the country.

Meanwhile Henry Kanor assured that the authority was trying to nip the infiltration of unapproved receivers in the bud to ensure that Ghanas boarder's especially inland ones which are porous are not used to import.

We will also intensify our market surveillance as when you buy it and it does not conform to the regime you may not get the benefit that you need to get he stated.

A recent visit by the NCA's market surveillance team to some markets have revealed that while there were certified receivers on the market, some dealers were also selling uncertified receivers, thus putting the consumers at risk.

Some of the unproved set up boxes on the market the public has been asked not to purchase include brands like Mac Sunny, Open Box, Free Sat, TuchnoSat, Odaimond Star, J-Star, Vidbox, Combo and DigiSat

The Authority has a mandate under Section 66 of the Electronic Communications Act, 2008, Act 775 to certify terminal equipment of public electronic communications network.

The Authority may regulate, prohibit the sale or other distribution or connection of terminal equipment or other device that is provided in the country primarily for the purposes of circumventing, or facilitating the circumvention of a requirement of this Act.



By: Norvan Acquah  Hayford/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana
The governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) could lose its grip on the Northern region, the partys second world bank, a constituency organizer has warned.

Deputy constituency organizer of the NDC in the Savelugu constituency, Alhaji Rauf Abubakar told Joy News Elton John Brobbey, a false hope about the partys grip over the region has been sold to President John Mahama.

Those riding in Land Cruisers making noise are not helping the president at all....I expect them to be good listeners to hit the ground and know what is happening, he expressed frustration.

His comments come as President John Mahama visits the region for a campaign tour.

Abubakar warned that the threats of failed NDC parliamentary aspirants going independent are increasing.

We have more people from the NDC going independent, master, including my own constituency, he expressed alarm.

He mentioned at least three constituencies where failed NDC parliamentary aspirants are breaking away from the party which could give an advantage to the main opposition NPP.

There are certain areas that are shaking...others are not yet out, he said.

The defectors are among the 89 failed parliamentary aspirants who contested the November 2015 primaries and the constituency organizer expects more if nothing is done about the situation.

According to him, intermediaries between the president and the grassroots of the party are not giving the president an accurate account of political happenings.

Those they trust are not really working. They do not pick calls that is why I have to come on air

I am not blaming the president. He is doing a fantastic job but some people are failing him, some people are failing him

He pointed out the First Lady as a potential peace broker in the escalating political developments.

Thank God that the First Lady is fighting it herself, he expressed hope.

He indicated that First Lady Lordina Mahama is trying to convince these people to stay in the party, he believes there is a lot more work to be done.

In a region that has been considered as one of the strongholds of the ruling NDC, the New Patriotic Party won ten out of the 31 parliamentary seats in the 2012 general elections.

In addition to its hold on Bimbilla and Zabzugu, the NPP recaptured Chereponi, which it lost to the NDC in 2008, won Tatale-Sanguli, Yagaba/Kubori and some others.

Story by Ghana|Myjoyonline.com | EA/AA
By Albert Futukpor, GNA

Tamale, Aug. 20, GNA - President John Mahama on Friday inaugurated the first phase of the upgrade and expansion of the Tamale Airport and the first direct commercial flight from the Airport to Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

The boeing 747 400-series, which took off at 15:40 GMT, carried 498 passengers to Mecca to participate in this year's Hajj activities.

President Mahama, who witnessed the take-off of the first direct commercial flight from the Tamale International Airport, was elated that his government has fulfilled a major campaign promise to the people of the Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions to fly direct from Tamale to Mecca for Hajj activities.

The upgrade and expansion of the Tamale Airport into an international airport means that the country now has an alternative airport capable of handling wide body aircraft like Kotoka International Airport.

The upgrade and expansion of the Tamale International Airport is to transform the economy of the country in general and the northern part of the country in particular as Tamale has the potential of attracting increased air traffic and international connectivity.

President Mahama said the Tamale International Airport would support economic activities such as the exportation of perishable agricultural produce from the Savanna Accelerated Development Authority zone.

He said the government was working to develop aviation infrastructure across the country adding the runway of the Ho Airport would be completed this year whiles in the next few months, the Wa Airport would begin recording commercial flights.

Mr Fiifi Kwetey, Minister for Transport, urged airlines in the country to reduce air fares as government has also reduced the cost of aviation fuel to make their services affordable.

Sheik Osman Nuhu Sharubutu, National Chief Imam, who also witnessed the take-off of the first direct commercial flight from the Tamale International Airport to Mecca, thanked Allah for the initiative and prayed for the leadership of the country.

Sheik Sharubutu also thanked Allah for the peace prevailing amongst various religious and ethnic groups in the country.

GNA
20.08.2016 LISTEN

By Prosper K. Kuorsoh, GNA

Wa, Aug. 20, GNA - The Upper West Region has from the period January - June 2016 a recorded malaria case fatality rate of 0.5 percent among children under five years.

Within the same period, a total of 200,086 number of suspected cases were recorded by health facilities in the Region and out of this 137,127 were tested and 69,926 proved positive.

Mr Titus Tagoe, the Upper West Regional Malaria Focal Person, disclosed this during a Regional Stakeholders Meeting organized by the Institute of Social Research and Development (ISRAD) - Ghana in Wa.

He said malaria was endemic in Ghana but was more pronounce in the rural areas as compared to the urban areas.

He said statistics from the 2014 Ghana Demographic Health Survey (GDHS) indicates that the malaria prevalence among children less than five years of age ranged from 11.2 per cent in the Greater Accra Region to 40 per cent in the Northern Region.

Prevalence of the parasite in rural Ghana, he said, was 37.7 per cent and 15 per cent in urban Ghana.

Mr Tagoe said malaria was confined to Africa, South America and Asia, adding that it was prevalent in 110 countries and territories.

He said an estimated 2,400 million people were at risk of the disease with over 500 million cases being reported every year.

This, he said, reduced economic growth by 1.3 per cent and took about 40 per cent public health expenditure in endemic countries.

Mr Issah Hassan Mubarack, the Regional Coordinator of ISRAD, said despite concerted efforts by key stakeholders to reduce the disease, malaria still remained the leading cause of morbidity and illness in the country.

He said it was for this reason that ISRAD was implementing the 'Advocacy for Malaria Stoppage (ARMS)' project to contribute to reduce the incidence of malaria in Ghana.

He explained that the project would select a group of five persons in every six district of the 10 regions of the nation to advocate for the release of the 0.5 per cent of the District Responsive Initiative for the prevention of malaria.

He said ISRAD believed strongly that when these funds were channeled through Ghana Health Service (GHS) for the work of malaria prevention, it would go a long way to help reduce the malaria burden in various districts.

GNA
20.08.2016 LISTEN

By Dennis Peprah, GNA

Bechem (B/A), Aug. 20, GNA - The Parliamentary Select Committee on Lands and Forestry is to put before Parliament the Wildlife Resource Management Bill, immediately the House reconvenes in September for its passage.

The passage of the Bill, according to the Committee, is urgently needed as it would help to facilitate proper maintenance of national forest reserves and control illegal logging and annual bushfires.

Alhaji Amadu Seidu, Member of Parliament for Yapei/Kusawgu and the Chairman of the Committee, said this when the Committee undertook a field visit to the Bosomkese and Aparapi forest reserves at Bechem in the Tano South District of the Brong-Ahafo Region.

Wild fire swept through the two reserves and destroyed several tree species early this year.

Reacting to a complaint about attacks on forest guards in the area, Alhaji Seidu said provision have been made in the Bill to empower forest guards to use firearms in the course of their duties.

Mr Thomas Okyere, the Brong-Ahafo Regional Manager of the Forestry Commission, had earlier expressed worry about the repetitive attacks on forest guards orchestrated by illegal loggers in the Region.

Mr Benito Owusu-Bio, the MP for Atwima-Nkwabiagya North, and a ranking member of the committee, said a clear policy direction was required for the proper maintenance of forest reserves.

He said there is the need for the country to invest part of its oil revenue into forest management, saying proper management of the forest could fetch the country millions of dollars annually.

Mr Owusu-Bio said forest resources fetched Sweden 10 billion Euros annually, stressing that Ghana has comparative advantage than Sweden and there was the need for the government to pay particular attention to afforestation.

Mr Nicholas Awuku, the Bechem Forest District Manager, expressed concern about inadequate funding and technical staff saying the office has only two technical officers and 12 forest guards.

GNA
By Albert Futukpor, GNA

Tamale, Aug. 20, GNA - Some of the would-be pilgrims, who will travel from Tamale to Mecca for this year's pilgrimage, have expressed joy at the new arrangement saying it has made the trip very comfortable for them.

Mohamadu Mumuni, Iman from Sagnarigu/Kukuo, a would-be pilgrim, told the Ghana News Agency at the Hajj Village in Tamale on Friday that he was happy to be travelling from his home region to Mecca to perform his religious rights.

The first batch of the would-be pilgrims numbering about 500 gathered at the Hajj Village in Tamale on Friday where officials from the Ghana Immigration Service and the Ghana Airports Company took them through the departure formalities.

A total 1500 would-be pilgrims are expected to travel from Tamale to Mecca.

The first flight will take off on Friday afternoon from the Tamale Airport.

The Tamale Airport has been rehabilitated and the runway extended to enable big planes to land and take off with ease.

President John Mahama is expected to inaugurate the Tamale International Airport on Friday afternoon, shortly before the first flight of the would-be pilgrims takes off.

Imam Mumuni said it would be better for all pilgrims be flown from Tamale to Mecca since that route was shorter (five hours) than Accra to Mecca (six hours).

He said the would-be pilgrims were going as one family urging them to remain as one family in all their endeavours in Mecca and return home again as one family.

Mrs Fuseina Mohammed expressed joy with the new Tamale-Mecca arrangement saying it shortens the worry and hustle usually associated with the journey in Accra.

GNA has also gathered unconfirmed information that nationals from neighbouring countries including Togo and Burkina Faso have also joined Ghanaian would-be pilgrims to travel from Tamale to Mecca.

GNA
By Christabel Addo, GNA

Accra, Aug. 20, GNA - A funding agreement has been signed between the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) and the Ghana Health Service (GHS) on the 'Project for Improving Community-Based Primary Healthcare Through CHPS Strengthening (CHPS+)'.

The documents to seal the nine million United States dollar funding agreement, was signed by Dr Ebenezer Appiah-Denkyira, the Director General of the Ghana Health Service and Mr Woochan Chang, the Country Director for KOICA.

Mr Chang said the move was to support the implementation of the Community-Based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) strategy as a collaborative partnership between the Ministry of Health (MOH) and KOICA in the thirteen districts of the Upper East Region over a five-year period.

He explained that a Record of Discussion had earlier been signed on June 14, 2016 by the MOH and KOICA to confirm Korea's bilateral support to Ghana in the Health Sector, and that the signing was a follow up to designate the GHS as the main implementing agency for the support.

The CHPS+ Project, he said, focuses on enhancing community engagements, improving the quality of maternal, newborn and child health services at health facilities, and strengthening health system environment.

Mr Chang said the Project aims at improving the current service at the community level through capacity building of Community Health Officers and Community Health Nurses, and further support their day-to-day operations by providing them with motorbikes for a more effective and efficient outreach service.

He said the existing Community Health Volunteer would continue to play a critical role as community health promotional agent through enhanced training, appropriate incentives, and supervision.

He said the Project also aims at enhancing and widening the coverage of the Sustainable Emergency Referral Care, which enabled community members to transport urgent cases such as emergency delivery, from their community to the next point of referral using emergency transport system such as modified motorking ambulances.

Dr Appiah-Denkyira, said the Project would equip CHPS compound, Health Centres and District Hospitals with various medical equipment and train doctors and midwives to improve their respective capacity in delivering the required services for maternal and newborn care, including safe delivery and neonatal care capacity building and provision and training of mobile ultrasound scanning service.

He said for the purpose of health system strengthening, the supervision and governance in the aspect of leadership and management would also be enhanced through capacity building of personnel in Sub- District, District and Regional Health Management Team.

Moreover the capacity for health information reporting and management from the level of CHPS compound would also be strengthened, he said.

He said the MOH and GHS has partnered KOICA in the past five years to support various areas of health, where collaboration on improving maternal and child health in the Volta Region and strengthening infectious disease response capacity were among the recent ones.

He said building on previous partnership and collaboration, the CHPS+ project would be the important milestone for a stronger partnership between the two countries in the great endeavour together for the goal of saving lives of mothers and children and improving the health of Ghanaians.

GNA
By Iddi Yire, GNA

Accra, Aug. 20, GNA - The Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College (GAFCSC) has honoured General Joshua Hamidu (rtd), by naming an auditorium after him.

The honour was in recognition of his immense contributions in the establishment of the College.

The College was established with the mandate to train officers of the Ghana Armed Forces and allied officers of Africa in command and staff responsibility- with Gen Hamidu as the first Commandant.

The auditorium, now known as the Hamidu Hall, was built with the support of the government through the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) during the leadership of Major General Kwesi Yankson as Commandant.

The commissioning event, which coincided with the College's Joint Graduation ceremony of Course 37 and Master of Science in Defence and International Politics programme was attended by Vice President Paa Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur, Mr Benjamin Bewa-Nyog Kombour, Defence Minister; Major General Obed Boamah Akwa, Chief of the Army Staff; Rear Admiral Seth Amoama, GAFCSC Commandant; and Professor Franklyn A. Manu, Reactor of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA)

Rear Admiral Amoama hailed General Hamidu for his excellent contributions towards the establishment of the College and in the Ghana Armed Forces.

He announced that the College was currently implementing the GETFund Budget allocations for the construction of a 50-unit student hostel project.

He said phase one of the project comprising18 suites was about 80 per cent ready and was expected to be completed by the close of this year.

He said they were hopeful that the whole project would be completed as scheduled so that the College could increase the intakes and roll out other programmes.

He also announced that work had begun on the renovation and expansion of the College's dining hall and kitchen complex.

An elated General Hamidu expressed his gratitude to the Armed Forces High Command and the College for the honour done him.

At the same event, Prof Manu, who would be retiring as Rector of GIMPA at the end of September was also honoured for his huge contributions in the College's mentoring by GIMPA.

GNA
By Iddi Yire, GNA

Accra, Aug. 20, GNA - The Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College (GAFCSC) will soon begin a PhD programme in Defence and International Politics with the caveat that 'when preparations are completed and at the time opportune'.

Rear Admiral Seth Amoama, GAFCSC Commandant, said given the progress of work done in the Masters programme and the infrastructural expansion that was ongoing, the College was confident that introducing the PhD programme in Defence and International Politics would be another success story.

With regards to facility development the Commandant said the College had initiated a programme to enable potential Defence Staff (DS) to acquire PhD to facilitate the future expansion of the College.

Rear Admiral Amoama said this over the weekend during the College's Joint Graduation ceremony of Course 37 and Master of Science in Defence and International Politics (MDIP) programme.

The event was attended by Vice President Paa Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur, Mr Benjamin Bewa-Nyog Kombour, Defence Minister; Major General Obed Boamah Akwa, Chief of the Army Staff; and Professor Franklyn A. Manu, Reactor of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration.

Course 37 was privileged to be the second in the history of GAFCSC to do an integrated course study, comprising the Passed Staff Course ('psc') and the MDIP.

In all 64 'psc' students from 12 African countries; namely Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, the Ivory Coast, Mali, Sierra Leone, Liberia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, Rwanda and Bostwana graduated; of which 37 were from Ghana.

On the hand, 49 students in the regular MDIP and 30 students weekend MDIP graduated at the ceremony.

The MDIP graduands were mainly from ministries, departments and agencies, diplomats, security services and privates institutions.

The College was established with the mandate to train officers of the Ghana Armed Forces and allied officers of Africa in command and staff responsibility.

Rear Admiral Amoama said as a centre of excellence for professional military training and inter-agency and department training, the College nurtures and encourages all its students to be responsible, effective and efficient in their respective roles in their chosen careers, with teamwork as a cardinal principle.

He said as expected, demand for allocation of vacancies from sister African countries was on the increase due to the quality and impact of their products at both national and international levels.

He said with the successful graduation of the first cohort of civilians in the MDIP programe, GAFCSC had positioned itself to fill the critical gap in national policy space by providing civilians a blend of academic excellence, sound leadership and military discipline to drive the nation's socio-economic development.

The Commandant said the College had also put together a five-year strategic plan from 2016 that provides a road map for the implementation of its future programmes.

Major P. A. Hoffma, an MDIP graduate received the overall best student award.

At the function, the GAFCSC also honoured General Joshua Hamidu (rtd), the first Commandant of the College by naming an auditorium after him.

GNA
By D.I. Laary, GNA

Accra, Aug. 20, GNA - The Ghana Police Service has begun investigation into alleged robbery attack on GCB bullion van last Tuesday at Afram Plains in the Eastern Region and disturbances that ensued after the attackers, involving two police officers, escaped.

'The police have commenced investigation into the entire incidents on the front of the robbery attack, arrest and escape as well as public disorder and disturbances,' COP Prosper Kwame Agblor, Director General of Police Investigation Department told journalists on Friday.

'The conduct of the police officers involved in the robbery and those involved in the arrest and escort of the suspects will be subjected to a thorough investigation,' he said 'and anyone found to have mis-conducted himself or herself accordingly punished.'

He said the police would pursue rioters at Donkorkrom and Tiase [where riots sparked] until the perpetrators were arrested and prosecuted, adding 'no single person who has a hand in this act of criminality will escape the wrath of the law.'

Residents of the area clashed with police on Thursday after inhabitants staged a demonstration to register their anger over the escape of two police officers and a civilian, who were arrested in the failed GCB Bank bullion car robbery.

The police vowed to clamp down on what they called 'evil behaviours' in the society and would use the incident in Donkorkrom as a test case.

COP Agblor said the practice of attacking police offices, accommodation facilities and logistics with impunity were becoming provocative and rampant and must be stopped.

'What the people who engaged in these shameful acts fail to recognize is that these attitudes affect the development of their communities,' he said.

He also warned that 'communities which attack their police and damage their police stations will suffer a close down of their stations, and will not to be reopened until they have renovated or reconstructed them at their own expense.'

He assured the pubic that Donkorkrom was calm following deployment of police personnel from the Formed Police Unit, Counter Terrorist Unit and other action units in the area to maintain law and order.

'We wish to entreat the residents of Afram Plains to remain calm as investigation into the incident continues.'

GNA
20.08.2016 LISTEN

By Albert Futukpor, GNA

Tamale, Aug. 20, GNA - The practice of Child, Early and Forced Marriages (CEFM) in the country has reduced 'many girls to baby producing machines', Mr Joseph Whittal, Deputy Commissioner of Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), has said.

He said the practice of CEFM continued to perpetuate issues of gender inequality, poverty, maternal and child mortality in the country.

He said this when making a presentation at a workshop in Tamale on the topic: 'The Prevalence of Child, Early and Forced Marriages in Ghana: Facts and Figures'.

The two-day workshop, organized by CHRAJ and the Commonwealth Secretariat, was attended by traditional leaders and queen-mothers drawn from the Northern (N/R), Upper East (UER) and Upper West Regions (UWR).

It focused on strengthening the capacities of the participants to champion the elimination of CEFM in N/R, UER and UWR in line with the Kigali Declaration of 2015 to move from aspiration to action to prevent and eliminate CEFM in the Commonwealth.

According to the 2011 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey, one in four girls are married off before their 18th birthday with the practice recording 39.2 per cent in UER, 36.7 per cent in Western Region, 36.3 per cent in UWR and 27.4 per cent in N/R, making the country to fall among countries with highest prevalence of CEFM in the world.

Mr Whittal said the country risked not attaining the Sustainable Development Goals if urgent actions were not taken to address the high prevalence of CEFM.

He expressed his pleasure at the attendance of traditional leaders and queen-mothers saying it was indicative of their willingness to contribute to eliminating the practice.

He expressed need for the sections of the Criminal Offences Act on consent to sexual intercourse to be in tandem with the age of marriage set under the Children's Act to address the issue of CEFM in the country.

Advocate Karen McKenzie, Head of Human Rights at the Commonwealth Secretariat, said a major role lay on traditional leaders and queen-mothers in eliminating CEFM emphasizing the need to protect the girl-child from the CEFM practice in the country.

A testimony of a victim of CEFM, read by Madam Esther Boateng, Programmes Manager of Action Aid Ghana, caused participants to express their abhorrence to the practice by shaking their heads in annoyance. GNA
20.08.2016 LISTEN

By Laudia Sawer, GNA

Dodowa (GAR), Aug 19, GNA - Some members of the Greater Accra House of Chiefs have appealed to the Ministry of Chieftaincy and Traditional Affairs to rescind the transfer of Mr Harry Anthony Attipoe, Registrar of the House, to the Volta Region.

Paramount Chief of Ningo Traditional Area, Nene Kanor Attiapa III, speaking on behalf of the chiefs, said it was wrong for the Ministry to ignore their appeal to maintain Mr Attipoe as Registrar of the Greater Accra House of Chiefs.

Nene Attiapa added that members of the House did not understand why the registrar was transfered without any good reason.

He made the appeal on Thursday at Dodowa in the Greater Accra Region during the induction of Nene Adergon Animile VI, Osudoku Chief, into the House of Chiefs.

He reminded the Ministry to respect their plea as according to him, the sector Ministry would not exist without traditional leaders and chiefs.

According to him, Mr Attipoe has helped resolved numerous Chieftaincy conflicts in the Region and stated that there was more work for him to do in the Region.

Nene Attiapa therefore urged the Ministry to give the registrar another chance to complete his works in the Greater Accra Region.

He however warned that the traditional leaders were prepared to embark on demonstration and petition the President on the issue should the Ministry ignore their plea.

Mr Harry Attipoe, who was also the registrar of the Kpone Traditional Council, was transferred to the Volta Region by the Ministry after series of agitation from the youth of Kpone.

Nene Abram Kabu Akuaku III, President of the Greater Accra House of Chiefs, congratulated the people of Osudoku for successfully installing a chief without any conflict.

Nene Akuaku advised the people to continue to give the needed support to the new chief to ensure rapid development in the area.

He also urged the Chief not to engage in acts that would result in chaos and misunderstanding in the area but rather consult his people on issues.

GNA
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Another day, another snooze fest in late summer trading in the US. Clearly, all the big hitters are swanning about in the Hamptons. Theyve left the trading robots in charge, and set the trading frequency to low.

The Dow closed 0.13% higher, while the S&P 500 rose 0.22%. Gold continues to consolidate its strong recent gains, but it isnt doing much either.

Oil is probably the most interesting market right now. Brent crude jumped 2% overnight and is back above US$50 per barrel. According to the pundits at Bloomberg, the rally sent oil into a new bull market.

The same pundits proclaimed oil in a bear market just a few weeks ago after it fell from nearly US$53 per barrel to a low of US$41.50. But as soon as the medias definition of a bear market kicked in, a rally got underway.

The moves in the oil price this year have baffled me. The near 100% rally from the January low to the June high was a big one. I expected a decent correction from that point, but it was relatively short-lived. From the June peak, oil fell around 20% in two months.

But as you can see in the chart below, the price rebounded sharply, and is now back above US$50 per barrel. Will oil continue to rally beyond the June high at US$52.80 per barrel? Or is this just part of a longer term consolidation and trading range after the big rally during the first half of the year?



Source: Optuma

[Click to enlarge]



My guess is the latter; although I stress that its only a guess. For some reason I dont get the vibe of the oil market. Its never been a market that Ive been very good at picking. And Ive never been an investor in the sector either.

The capital expenditure requirements to get new projects off the ground are massive. And the payoff is uncertain, given the volatile nature of the oil price.

The massive investment in liquid natural gas projects in Australia over the past few years are a great example. Nearly all of these projects got the go-ahead when oil traded for more than US$100 per barrel.

All the major players got involved. And it was a decision that has wrought share price devastation across the board.

Even the former staid and conservative Origin Energy [ASX:ORG] got in on the act. It increased debt to dangerously high levels when investing in the near US$25 billion Australia Pacific LNG (APLNG) project in Gladstone, QLD, in partnership with ConocoPhillips and Sinopec.

In 2014, the share price hit $16. Now, the misallocation of capital is all too obvious. The share price is just under $6, after rallying from a low of $3.50 earlier this year.

Yesterday, ORG reported a headline loss for the 2016 financial year of $589 million, largely thanks to write-downs on APLNG. Underlying profits of $354 million represented a 40% year on year decline.

But the share price had factored all this in already. As I pointed out yesterday, the market looks to the future, not the past. Absent a continuing oil price rally, the future still looks bleak for ORG. Put simply, its carrying too much debt.

In order to get debt down to manageable levels, ORG shelved its dividend yesterday and continues to pursue asset sales. The market is also hoping that it will demerge the APLNG project into a separate entity. The rationale is that ORGs energy distribution assets will have a much higher market value if theyre unencumbered by a low returning and volatile LNG project.

If that is the case, what was the rationale for taking on the project in the first place? An expectation of high oil prices forever? Thats hardly an endorsement of the boards investment nous.

But its not all gloom and doom out there. In fact, theres a solid bull market going on across many sectors. The weak performance of the banks is masking this bull market, owing to their large weighting in the ASX 200.

For example, have a look at these next few charts. The first one shows the performance of the ASX 200 financials index. This includes the banks, insurers and other financial stocks. Since the start of the year, the index has actually fallen.



Source: Optuma

[Click to enlarge]



But other sectors have performed much better. Take the ASX 200 materials (resources) index. It has had a great 2016 so far. Theres no commodities bear market here.



Source: Optuma

[Click to enlarge]



Or what about consumer discretionary stocks? Glenn Stevens historic rate cuts have to go somewhere, and the wealth effect from higher house prices has translated into strong consumer spending, as the chart of the ASX 200 Consumer Discretionary index below shows.



Source: Optuma

[Click to enlarge]



In fact, large parts of the market have done so well in 2016 that Im inclined to think that a correction is looming. Im seeing money move into many lower quality stocks. This is a sign of latecomers looking for bargains, but the only cheap stocks left are the ones that deserve to be.

I certainly dont think the market is going to collapse anytime soon. But a decent shakeout might not be too far away. Outside of the banks, the general mood is getting a little too bullish for my liking. Given the very weak foundations of the economy, Im not getting too excited.

The bull needs to calm down a bit. With the volatile month of September around the corner, there might be a bull-calming selloff in the market on its way.

Regards,

Greg Canavan,

For Markets and Money
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We were not bribed to drop ...
An Egyptian foreign ministry spokesman urged the family of a 13-year-old boy who travelled to Italy by boat to seek medical treatment for his younger sibling to treat the sick son in Egypt, saying the country always welcomes its citizens and provides medical care for them.

According to Corriere Della Sera, Ahmed Mahmoud arrived on Lampedusa by boat last week after departing by boat from the coastal governorate of Kafr El-Sheikh, carrying nothing but medical documents describing the condition of his seven-year-old brother.

International organisations have reoprted that many Egyptians and migrants of other nationalities are travelling via smuggling boats from Egypt's north coast to Italy. The majority of the Egyptian migrants are minors.

The Italian paper reported last week that Ahmed, upon his arrival, asked authorities to provide him with a job so he can pay for the medical bills of his brother Farid, who is suffering from thrombocytopenia. The Italian government decided to bring in Ahmed's family and treat Farid at no cost to the family.

The first official reaction from the Egyptian side came on Friday from health minister Ahmed Emad, who stressed that Farid's family didn't request state-sponsored treatment for their son.

Emad called on his family to contact his office and said he would personally communicate with them to ensure that Farid would get treatment in Egypt.

Later in the day, foreign ministry spokesperson Ahmed Abu Zeid urged the family to follow Emad's instructions.

"There is room for whoever wants to receive any sort of care or treatment in the country," Abu Zeid told Dream TV.

"This is a message for anyone else who might have flirted with the idea of emigrating or leaving the homeland through an illegal avenue to look for an opportunity or escaping from a certain misery that he would find support and full sympathy in his homeland."

The International Organisation for Migration said in June that Egypt occupies the tenth place among countries that see irregular migrants travel to Italy, which is symptomatic of a rising trend in Egyptian emigration since the 2011 uprising.

In the first five months of 2016, a total of 1,815 Egyptian irregular migrants landed on Italian shores. Of those migrants, 1,147 were unaccompanied migrant children, making Egypt the top country to see unaccompanied minors arrive in Italy.

The year 2011 saw almost 2,000 migrants arrive in Italy with the number increasing each year to peak at 4,095 irregular migrants in 2014.

"Egypt's economic growth is insufficient to absorb labour market entrants, in turn resulting in high unemployment prompting youth to find work opportunities abroad," IOM Egypt head Amr Taha said.

Healthcare services in Egypt are in theory available to all, but the quality and availability of care is patchy, particularly in public hospitals.

Egypt allocated EGP 53.3 billion to healthcare spending in this fiscal year's budget, up from EGP 49.3 billion in the previous year, putting healthcare at 1.6 percent of GDP.

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Yosemite 108 Intersection View Photos

Chinese Camp, CA  Two children suffered serious injuries in a three-vehicle crash on Highway 108 near Chinese Camp.

The wreck happened around 2:50 p.m. Friday at the Highway 120 intersection at the Yosemite Junction. The CHP reports Bin Zhang, 47 was driving a 2006 Toyota Camry westbound on Highway 120 and turned left on to Highway 108 in front of an eastbound 2003 Volvo big rig driven by Boris Bebikh, 59 from Sacramento. The semi hit the left side of the Camry, which spun it around and into a 2006 Camry driven by Jeffrey Linden, 55 of Copperopolis.

The two children passengers were in the back seat of Zhangs car. The CHP identifies them as 5-year-old Angelina and 10-year-old Rebecca Jia. Angelina was trapped inside the vehicle and had to be freed by emergency personnel. She and Rebecca were flown to U.C. Davis. Angelina sustained major injuries while Rebeccas were moderate. A third passenger, Jifei Jia and Zhang were taken to Sonora Regional Medical Center and treated for minor injuries. All are from Hercules, California. The other individuals involved in the accident were not injured.

The wreckage blocked Highway 108 forcing the CHP to shut it down for about half an hour. Officers diverted traffic along Highway 120 and 49 for more than an hour as crews removed the wreckage and debris from the roadway.
Doris Littrell isnt an artist in the traditional sense, but what she did for Oklahomas Native American art scene was truly masterful.

As owner and proprietor of the Oklahoma Indian Art Gallery in Oklahoma City and as an art dealer for more than 40 years, Littrell is one of the individuals most responsible for bringing Oklahomas Indian art in from curio shops, gas stations, flea markets and roadside booths to art galleries, museums, universities and the Governors Office inside Oklahomas State Capitol.

A book on Doris Littrells unusual journey to become one of the genres greatest supporters, and her unique contributions toward bringing attention to Oklahoma Native art, has been penned by Julie Pearson Little Thunder. Titled, A Life Made with Artists, it was printed this summer by The Roadrunner Press in Oklahoma City. It is being released nationally in September.

A book signing honoring author Julie Pearson Little Thunder and Doris Littrell is set for 2-4 p.m. Monday, Aug. 22, at Westridge Manor, 4304 W. Second in Plainview. The public is invited.

Several artists from Oklahomas Indian art community will be on hand as well, including Robert Taylor who agreed to temporarily help out at Littrells gallery during an illness. Instead of days, he ran the gallery for two years. Also, the authors husband, Merlin Little Thunder, will be there Monday. Several of his miniatures - painted without aid of magnification - decorate the walls of Littrells apartment at Westridge Manor.

Julie Pearson Little Thunders book tells the story of Littrells life from her hardscrabble upbringing in rural southwestern Oklahoma - she was born on a dairy farm in Apache, Okla. - to her many years as owner of the Oklahoma Indian Art Gallery on Southwest 44th Street in Oklahoma City.

The book includes 32 color plates featuring art representing the 65 artists or more she represented through the years. Butterflies flutter on chapter title pages and elsewhere as a nod to Littrells familiar logo. The book jacket is a work of art as well, a portrait of Doris Littrell by Robert Taylor.

Ive been blessed to be able to do something over the years that I so love and cherish, Littrell said last week. Many of these artists tend to have short lives, she admits. Im so glad that I had at least some small role in helping them gain the attention and compensation where many were able to pursue and develop their talents. Many were able to make a living from their art, although others didnt receive the recognition they deserved until after their deaths.

While Littrell never claimed to be an artist, her staging of exhibits to set off individual work and to draw viewers from room to room have been described as nothing sort of magnificent.

I consider it a God-given talent, Littrell said. Really it was just the Lord working through me to help them. They (the artists) are my extended family. Even if an artists work didnt attract the attention of collectors, Littrell made sure they received payment in time for holidays and special occasions. Those particular pieces would quietly being transferred to a closet inside the gallery or taken home to become part of her personal collection. Artists were never made to suffer or do without, even if collectors werent able to see the true value of their work.

With a remarkable eye for talent and a passion to bring it to the world, Littrell also knew when a struggling painter needed an extra word of encouragement. Julie Little Thunder writes that through that extra support, Littrell had a major role in promoting the contemporary Oklahoma Indian Art Movement.

Rather than being jealous of each other, many of the artists would help each other out, Littrell said. Even when they knew months in advance of show, theyd wait until the night before to finish up their painting and then drive all night , coming right into the gallery to start framing. Thats when they would help each other out.

Although declining health and advancing age forced Littrell to close her gallery in 2007, she remains an important fixture in the Oklahoma Native American art community. Even living in Plainview, I still receive many phone calls and letters requesting information and reference material. Shes still considered one of its most knowledgeable experts.

David Boren, former Oklahoma governor, U.S. senator, state representative and president of the University of Oklahoma, explained, Doris Littrells enthusiasm for Native American art became infectious in Oklahoma. The works of Native artists were not only purchased and collected by individuals, they began to be treated more seriously by distinguished museums and institutions. It is hard to believe that one person could make such a difference. Without Doris Littrell there would not be thousands of works in collectors hands today. Without her, scores of Native artists would never have produced so many lasting images.
It was a wide-armed welcome as the community greeted new Covenant Health Plainview CEO Bob Copeland and his family to the South Plains at a recent reception held at the Plainview hospital.

"We are very happy to be here in Plainview," said Copeland in front of a crowd of community leaders and citizens Thursday.

Copeland was named the hospital's permanent CEO earlier this month. Before then, Copeland served four months as Plainview's interim CEO following the departure of Clay Taylor.

"The first week he was here we thought we hit a home run," said Covenant Health Regional President and CEO Richard Parks, speaking to the crowd about Copeland's experience and discovering his strong Christian faith. "I said, 'we hired the right guy.' And I am thankful that so many of our co-workers, volunteers and physicians are Christians, it just exemplifies who we are and who we are trying to be. We are very thankful they are here."

Before coming to Covenant, Copeland most recently served as president/regional vice president of Mercy Hospital in Carthage, Mo.

"One thing I can say is, the first day I walked into this job I felt a wonderful spirit in this hospital," said Copeland, who stood next to his wife Becky and their 14-year old daughter Miriam. "I felt, automatically, that we had a wonderful spirit of co-workers, managers and physicians that want to provide wonderful care to our patients. And that's what we are all about."

Copeland said despite challenges surrounding the national scope of healthcare, Covenant Health Plainview vowed to continue providing quality care for those in the region.

"Healthcare is going through some challenging times right now and there are a lot of things we are not in control of. But one thing we are in control of is making sure that we can deliver the very best of ourselves to our patients. And if we can put that in the forefront of our minds, to deliver exceptional patient care, we are going to survive the challenges," Copeland said.

Copeland added that Plainview was fortunate to have the support of Covenant Systems and their ministry, who is currently working on the first phase of a multi-million dollar renovation of the Plainview hospital.

"My goal is to make us stronger and make sure you all continue to have faith and confidence in our ministry here, and that we continue to meet the needs that you want in healthcare service. That's my pledge to you, to make sure quality patient care always remains here," Copeland said.
An unknown person burglarized a residence in the 2000 block of Kokomo between July 18 and Aug. 18. Among items taken in the crime are seven pieces of furniture, including dresser, night stand, coffee tables and beds, valued at $1,600, and a refrigerator worth $100.

--A red Torro lawn mower valued at $379 was stolen from the 2200 block of Houston between 2-2:30 p.m. Thursday.

--A Samsung Eclipse cellphone valued at $600 was stolen from the 2500 block of West 11th between 12:30-12:45 p.m. Thursday.

--A theft resulting in the loss of property valued at between $750 and $2,500 occurred between 5 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday in the 200 block of Northwest Alpine.

--The gas cap latch on a 2004 Honda passenger car was damaged between 7 p.m. Wednesday and 7 a.m. Thursday in the 1700 block of Yonkers. The vandalism resulted in $200 damage.

--Police are investigating a reported case of forgery of a financial instrument involving an elderly victim which occurred between July 27 and Aug. 18.

--A 43-year-old Plainview man was arrested at 8:50 a.m. Thursday in the 1300 block of West 34th Street for possession of drug paraphernalia and an outstanding local misdemeanor warrant.

--A 30-year-old Tulia man was arrested about 2 a.m. Friday in the 2400 block of Dimmitt Road for four outstanding misdemeanor warrants.

--Two 24-year-old Plainview men were arrested at about 2:30 a.m. Friday in the 800 block of North Columbia, one on charged of driving while intoxicated and the other for public intoxication.

(Anyone with information on crime in Plainview and Hale County may contact the Crime Stoppers Hotline at 293-8477 or 293-TIPS.)
Interior Minister Magdy Abdel-Ghaffar attended the funeral march of an Egyptian police officer on Saturday who had been in a coma since being shot in 2013 while securing a police station that was under attack.

Captain Mostafa Yousri was shot in the face on 16 August 2013 while securing El-Asbakia police station in Cairo, during a wave of violence that followed the security forces' deadly dispersal of two large protest camps supporting ousted president Mohamed Morsi.

Yousri, who had been in a coma since the incident, had received treatment in Egypt, Switzerland and Germany but died on Friday.

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All evacuation orders for Lower Lake have been lifted as firefighters work to put out a blaze in Lake County that has burned nearly 4,000 acres and destroyed hundreds of homes and businesses, officials said Friday.

With 75 percent of the Clayton Fire contained, officials said the thousands of Lower Lake residents who were forced to flee can now return to their homes  if theyre still there.
Thousands of dollars were left blowing in the wind early Saturday when five Tennessee men in an SUV released the money out of windows as they were being chased by authorities through Polk and Liberty counties.

The group members, who told deputies they were headed to South Texas for vacation, discarded roughly $50,000 in cash, according to a report from the Liberty County Sheriff's Office.

The vehicle was slowed by spike strips that had been issued to a deputy on Friday.

Around 5 a.m., Polk County authorities alerted Liberty County officials that deputies were pursing an SUV southbound on U.S. 59. Polk County is immediately north of Liberty County and its governmental seat, Livingston, is about 80 miles north of Houston.

When the GMC truck reached Liberty County, three of the four tires were punctured by spike strips deployed by Sgt. Travis Pierce, a news release said.

"The vehicle continued the attempted high-speed escape on rims," the agency reported. That's when pursuing authorities saw currency in bundles and singles begin fluttering beside and behind the SUV.

The driver and passengers, all in their mid-20s, were stopped and arrested near New Caney.

The men "refused to give any explanation as to why they were trying to evade pur-suing sheriff's units from two counties" and had to be reminded that spring break happened months ago.

Authorities recovered more than $48,000.

All five men have extensive criminal records, according to authorities. Each was charged with tampering with evidence and evading arrest.

Marquavis Lytle and Deandre Brown, both 26, as well as 25-year-olds Deangelo Young, Reginald Black and Chaka Grady were booked into the Liberty County jail. All have home addresses in the greater Nashville area.
Debate on a report about corruption in wheat supplies might result in Egypt's parliament withdrawing confidence from Minister of Supply Khaled Hanafi, if it is tabled

As the end of the first session of Egypt's House of Representatives approaches, many MPs are wondering if their written motions (or interpellations) questioning the performance of the government of Prime Minister Sherif Ismail will be discussed or not.

Two cabinet ministers affiliated with Ismail's government  Minister of Supply Khaled Hanafi and Minister of Education Al-Hilali Al-Sherbini  face motions accusing them of corruption.

MPs seek in particular to direct their guns at Minister of Supply Hanafi. They say their motions, backed by documentation, aim to expose the depth of corruption and graft at the Ministry of Supply.

They also say they want to use a report by a parliamentary fact-finding committee on corruption in wheat supplies to support their argument against Minister Hanafi, and to force his resignation.

MP Magdi Malak, head of the fact-finding committee, told reporters Saturday that the report will be submitted to parliament Speaker Ali Abdel-Aal Sunday.

Malak, who has refused to disclose the contents of the report, had previously said that a lack of control over wheat supplies led to large quantities of grain finding their way into the black market without adequate oversight from the Ministry of Supply, with many of ministry officials illegally profiting.

MPs  primarily independent  and journalist Mostafa Bakri, also accuse Hanafi of misusing public funds. Bakri alleges that Hanafi cost the Ministry of Supply EGP 7 million for an expensive suite in a Nile-front five star hotel (the Semiramis Intercontinental) during the period between February 2014 and August 2016.

In a quick response, the ministry said in an official statement Saturday that Minister Hanafi did not cost the ministry any money and that the bill of his stay in the Semiramis Hotel was footed by him with private money.

Bakri said, "The corruption exposed by the fact-finding committee and Hanafi's shady practices should put the government before two choices: either Hanafi chooses to resign from office by his own free will, or parliament withdraws confidence from him."

Hanafi defended himself before parliament this month, denying there is graft in wheat supplies or that he profited from his post.

Hanafi also boasted that his excellent performance led to putting an end to citizens standing in long lines in front of bakeries to get bread. He also said he was able to modernise the ration card system in a way that enabled millions of citizens to get high-quality products.

According to Article 130 of Egypt's 2014 constitution, "Each MP has the right to table a motion (or interpellation) that seeks to withdraw confidence from the prime minister or his/her deputies, and a cabinet minister or his/her deputies, after questioning their performance and that parliament must discuss this motion between seven and 60 days from its submission."

Article 242 of parliament's internal bylaws also state that reports finalised by parliamentary fact-finding committees should be put up for debate in a plenary session that immediately follows their submission.

If the fact-finding report on corruption and graft in wheat supplies and the supply ministry was submitted Sunday, this means that it could be open for debate on the same day or on Monday.

Parliament's schedule of debates on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday do not list any discussion for motions against Minister of Supply Hanafi. But the schedule could change at any time.

Alaa Abdel-Moneim, head of the pro-government parliamentary bloc "Support Egypt", told reporters he expects that parliament will withdraw confidence from Hanafi.

"The fact-finding report about corruption in the Ministry of Supply and a lot of MPs having documented information about this corruption could force Minister Hanafi to resign," said Abdel-Moneim.

The first session of Egypt new parliament is expected to come to a close at the end of this month, with the House adjourning for a one-month summer recess.

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Miami

At least five people, including two Miami-Dade residents and three tourists from New York, Texas and Taiwan, have contracted Zika virus from mosquitoes in Miami Beach, Florida Gov. Rick Scott announced Friday as he identified a 1.5-square-mile zone of active transmission in the heart of the region's tourism engine.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention quickly followed up with a new travel advisory for pregnant women, telling them to consider avoiding "all non-essential travel" to all of Miami-Dade County due to evidence of widespread transmission of Zika, which can cause birth defects.

"If you're concerned about Zika," CDC Director Tom Frieden said, "you may consider postponing all non-essential travel to all parts of Miami-Dade County."

Pregnant women were advised to avoid travel to the area of Miami Beach between 8th and 28th streets from Biscayne Bay to the Atlantic Ocean  in addition to a previously identified one-square-mile zone in Miami's Wynwood neighborhood.

In reporting a new area of ongoing transmission in Miami Beach, Scott identified the five people who had contracted the disease. The CDC also said pregnant women who were in the transmission zone of Miami Beach since July 14 should see a doctor to consider being tested for Zika.

With the virus crossing Biscayne Bay to Miami Beach, the fight to contain the Aedes aegypti species of mosquito that transmits the disease will be much more challenging, Frieden said.

Aerial spraying cannot be conducted amid the high rises and ocean breezes of Miami Beach because the airplanes fly low, about 100 feet above the ground, Frieden said. But crowds of tourists on Miami Beach, and the abundance of people in bathing suits and exposed skin, means more people may be infected.

"The inability to use aerial spraying there means we will be restricted to ground-based technologies, like backpack spraying," he said.

The CDC has an Emergency Response Team in Miami working with the Florida Department of Health to investigate local cases of Zika, Frieden noted. And he said aerial spraying and backpack fogging in Wynwood has been effective.

While Frieden praised Florida's health department for its efforts, Scott criticized the federal agency for being slow to respond to his repeated requests for additional resources, such as testing kits and prevention supplies for pregnant women.

Scott said the health department has tested more than 6,673 people statewide for Zika virus, and that Florida currently has the capacity to test nearly 5,000 people for active Zika and almost 2,800 people for Zika antibodies.
Syrian government warplanes were again in the air over the mainly Kurdish-held city of Hasakeh early Saturday despite a US warning against any new strikes that might endanger its military advisers, a monitor said.

It was not immediately clear whether the aircraft, which were in the skies throughout the night, had carried out any bombing runs as there were heavy artillery exchanges on the ground, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Deadly clashes erupted between pro-government militia and the US-backed Kurdish forces on Wednesday. The following day, the regime launched its first ever air strikes against the Kurds.

The unprecedented strikes against six Kurdish positions in the northeastern city prompted the US-led coalition to scramble aircraft to protect US special operations forces advisers deployed with the Kurdish forces.

It was the first time the coalition had confirmed deploying warplanes against the Syrian air force.

Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis warned that "the Syrian regime would be well-advised not to do things that place them (coalition forces) at risk."

The Observatory said there was no let-up in the fighting on the ground which has left 39 people dead since Wednesday, 23 of them civilians, including nine children.

"There were heavy clashes, artillery fire and rocket attacks throughout the night and ongoing in the morning," Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

Around two-thirds of Hasakeh is controlled by Kurdish forces, but the rest is in the hands of pro-government militia.

The regime and Kurdish forces share a common enemy in the Islamic State jihadist group, which controls most of the Euphrates valley to the south, but there have been tensions between them in Hasakeh that have sometimes led to clashes.

The Pentagon said no coalition casualties were reported in Thursday's strikes by two Syrian SU-24s, and US special operations advisers had been moved to a safe location.

He said coalition aircraft were now carrying out additional combat patrols in the region.

The Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) are a key US ally in the fight against IS.

Washington regards them as the most effective fighting force on the ground against the jihadists in Syria and has provided them with air cover and military advisers.

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The Turkish parliament on Saturday approved a deal to normalise ties with Israel after a delay caused by last month's attempted coup, state-run media reported.

Lawmakers ratified the agreement to restore relations after a six-year rift before parliament was due to go into summer recess.

Under the deal, Israel will pay Turkey $20 million (17.7 million euros) in compensation for the 2010 raid by Israeli commandos on a Gaza-bound Turkish aid ship that left 10 Turks dead, state-run Anadolu news agency said.

Israel will hand Turkey a "lump sum" within 25 working days of the agreement coming into force, the agency said.

Under the terms of the deal, both sides agreed individual Israeli citizens would not be held liable -- either criminally or financially -- for the raid, Anadolu said.

Israeli cabinet ministers approved the deal with Turkey in June but Ankara did not send it to parliament because of time pressure after the July 15 attempted putsch by a rogue military faction.

Now the deal has been approved, the two countries are expected to begin the process of exchanging ambassadors to fully restore diplomatic ties.

The agreement also eases the naval blockade on the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip allowing Turkey to deliver humanitarian aid to Palestinians there.

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Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson announced Friday a massive sweep of an alleged gambling and organized crime ring at a local bingo hall and five other game rooms.

Twelve people have been arrested on charges of engaging in organized crime, and investigators seized the Paradise Bingo Hall on College, along with cash, guns and ammunition. (Which you can see in the photos above.)

Authorities also found several safes and a bunker that held a cache of firearms, ammunition and military-style provisions made for long-term storage until they are needed.

"There was a bunker here; it may be something more Doomsdayish," said Anderson, who stressed that the investigation continues.

"Every weapon will be looked at , every serial number run to see if they were stolen or used in any other crimes," she said.

RELATED: Drug cartel firepower getting bigger and more deadly

Lt. Ruben Diaz, of the Harris County Sheriff's Office, said it was as many weapons as he'd ever seen confiscated at one time.

"It was enough to start a small war in this area if they wanted to," he said. "They were pretty scary to have in this building."

The firearms, along with the ammunition were allegedly purchased with illegal gains from the operations.

Those charged were allegedly part of a ring that made money off illegal gambling machines that were housed at some of the bingo locations as well as stocked automatic teller machines with their illegally gained cash.

The investigation by members of the special crimes division and the Harris County Sheriff's Office took nearly a year and involved undercover work as well as surveillance aimed at the alleged leaders of the organization that allegedly did millions of dollars in business.

"This place is closed," an unidentified officer told a motorist who pulled up to the building Friday in an SUV and parked in a disabled parking spot before driving away.

Orange notices stuck to the windows of the bingo hall indicate it was seized as criminal contraband. The white building, with a large signs reading, "Daytime Bingo" and "Nighttime Bingo," is in a largely empty commercial shopping center beside a Waffle House and Dairy Queen.

The bingo hall, outfitted with at least four surveillance cameras focused on the parking lot, also features a peeling Chamber of Commerce sticker stuck to the door.

Inside are tables and chairs for a few hundred people, with an American flag hanging at the front of the large room above an automatic teller machine.

A listing of "house rules" includes #8: Absolutely no gambling of any kind will be allowed.

Plaques of thanks on the wall from the Shriners and the South Houston Police also hang on the walls.
The Battle of Medina, a clash on Aug. 18, 1813 that ranks as the bloodiest ever on Texas soil, was commemorated Saturday by history buffs and descendants of the combatants for the Spanish Royal Army and the Republican Army of the North, whose ranks included Tejanos and American Indians.

Despite steady rain, roughly 100 people gathered to rededicate markers placed along Apple White Road in Atascosa County honoring the sacrifice of roughly 1,000 rebels' lives lost fighting the Spanish in a furious battle that involved infantry, cavalry and artillery.
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A San Antonio Police Department officer will be placed on administrative duty after firing a shot Friday night in his Northwest Side home.

SAPD Chief William McManus said police surrounded the home as a precaution when they heard a shot was fired during a disturbance at about 10:30 p.m. on Nathans Peak near Crystal Moon.

We got here and we pause to evaluate the situation for doing anything else, and he came out in his own, McManus said.

The officer, a detective and 19-year veteran of the force, was alone when police arrived.

His wife and child were in the home when the shot was fired, but fled across the street and called police, McManus said.

After surrounding the home, the officer came out on his own and was detained by police.

McManus said the officer was to be evaluated.

Our main concern is making sure he is taken care of, McManus said.

Police did not know what prompted the shooting, nor what gun was used.

Charges, if any, are pending further investigation.

McManus said the detective will now be placed on administrative duty as they investigate the situation.

Well figure out what were going to do once we investigate and determine what our next steps are, he said.

jbeltran@express-news.net

Twitter: @JBfromSA
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Two sources have reported that that the son of reputed Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, and five others, were released Saturday after being abducted five days ago.

RELATED: Video shows 'El Chapo's' son kidnapped from by rival cartel gunmen in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

Mexican crime blog elblogdelnarco.com and news site riodoce.mx both report that Alfredo Guzman Salazar, 29, along with five others who were kidnapped Monday in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, were released unharmed.

There were no details on where Salazar and the others were released, but the reports note Salazar is back with his family.

No official statements have been released by Mexican law enforcement who still list Salazar and the others as missing.

Stay with mySA for more on this breaking story as information becomes available.
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UPDATE:

There was one high water rescue in San Antonio overnight due to heavy rains, but no significant flooding in the city has been reported.

Bexar County Sheriff's Office responded a high water rescue near Potranco Road at Loop 1604, but BSCO officials had no details at this time.

UPDATE:

The Wilson County Sheriff's Office assisted in several high water rescues overnight, but the exact number was unavailable at this time.

The sheriff's office said there are multiple road closures at the moment throughout the county, but no information on evacuations.

The Wilson County News reports the American Red Cross opened a shelter at the Floresville Middle School.

UPDATE:

The Karnes County Sheriff's Office said one man was rescued about 7 a.m. at U.S. 181 at Falls City near County Road 237.

Sheriff's Office spokesperson said the man was uninjured and there have been no other reports of injures, or evacuations in the county.

The sheriff's office reports multiple road closures in their area. Cibolo Creek Bridge on County Road 389, Farm-to-Market 887, Farm-to-Market 791, Farm-to-Market 627, Farm-to-Market 2724 to Texas 80, County Road 237 at Falls City Bridge and Farm-to-Market 3191 remain closed.

ORIGINAL STORY CONTINUES:

The National Weather Service reports heavy rain with flash flooding is likely overnight and into Sunday for the San Antonio area, including portions of the Hill Country, the Interstate 35 corridor and the Edwards Plateau.

The NWS issued a flash flood watch for portions of South Central Texas, including the Hill Country and San Antonio, early Saturday morning that remains in effect until 7 p.m. Sunday.

Rainfall amounts of 4-to-8 inches are expected with isolated amounts of up to 15 inches possible.

The majority of the heavy rain will be after midnight and into first part of Sunday. They report flooding is likely by sunrise.

The primary area of concern will be west and north of Interstate 35, the Hill Country, including the San Antonio and Austin metro areas.

Flash flooding with likely evacuations will occur near creeks, rivers, and low lying areas that traditionally flood during heavy rain events the NWS noted.

The service said it was "too early" to pinpoint where the highest rain totals will be, but that the Weather Prediction Center in Washington D.C. confirmed that weather models currently converging on Texas are showing "an event," for the areas indicated in the flash flood watch.

The NWS recommended that first responders and swift water rescue teams should be on high alert overnight as the rains are expected to develop quickly.

San Antonio Fire Department spokesman Joe Arrington said two rescue teams have watercraft on standby to be staffed with rescue personnel.

Cory Van Telt, NWS meteorologist said all the heavy rain activity should be over before Monday morning, just in time for the first day of school for the majority of children in the San Antonio and Hill Country area.

This story will be updated as information becomes available.

Staff Writer Jacob Beltran contributed to this report.
Enrolling in college at almost 40, Rita L. Houston used her innate organizational skills and boundless energy to juggle raising five children while being a student.

Obtaining bachelor and masters degrees in education, Houston became a school librarian before moving on to the classroom, ultimately becoming a principal in the Northeast Independent School District.

She thought education was the best field where she could help others, her husband Daniel Houston said.

Houston died Aug. 17 at 88.

Before returning to college, Houston was a busy stay-at-home mom, volunteering at Blessed Sacrament Parish Church and School, supervising her sons Cub Scout troops and becoming a founding member of the St. Ritas Holy Family Guild.

My mother was a master organizer, her son Gregory Houston said.

Attending Our Lady of the Lake University in the mid-1960s, just as her youngest child was starting elementary school, Houston made sure everything ran as smoothly as possible at home.

She would make sure that the groceries were bought in such a way that meals could be prepared quickly and easily, Greg Houston said. Teaching her older children to help out, Houston would sit down to eat with the family before disappearing to study.

My job was to help them with their homework and then get them ready for bed, her husband said.

More Information Rita L. Houston Born: June 5, 1928, Breckenridge Died: Aug. 17, 2016, San Antonio Preceded by: Parents William and Bridget Hofmeier; daughter-in-law Brenda Houston; two sisters and a brother. Survived by: Husband Daniel Houston; sons Daniel Xavier Houston Jr. and daughter-in-law Linda, Lawrence Andrew Houston, Thomas Edward Houston, and Gregory James Houston and daughter-in-law Laura; daughter Lilian Marie Houston; nine grandchildren; six great-grandchildren; a sister. Services: Memorial rosary and Mass starting at 9 a.m. Monday at Holy Spirit Catholic Church, 8134 Blanco Road. See More Collapse

Graduating in the late 1960s, Houston began working as a librarian at Windcrest Elementary School. She transitioning into teaching at Clear Spring Elementary School.

Encouraged by her colleagues, Houston set her sights on administration, becoming assistant principal at Redland Oaks Elementary School before becoming principal at Regency Place Elementary School.

Houston also served as principal at Larkspur Elementary School before retiring.

Though sensitive to other peoples family lives  she believed that  they had both an opportunity and a responsibility to make sure they cared for their child, Greg Houston said. And put them into a position to be ready to learn.

mheidbrink@express-news.net
Some San Antonio Independent School District administrators played by their own rules when dealing with truants last school year.

Students on some campuses were involuntarily withdrawn from class against their parents wishes after 10 unexcused absences. At other schools, parents were told to sign forms stating they planned to home-school when that was never their intention.

Although state truancy laws mandate intervention to address the root cause of a students absenteeism before a case is filed, no uniform procedures were followed in SAISD.

Even truants on the same campus were treated differently.

Major changes are coming this fall under new administrative polices established by Superintendent Pedro Martinez, who is early into his second year at SAISD.

School administrators will not be allowed to withdraw students for academic or attendance reasons without the signed approval of the deputy superintendent of administration.

The district is tightening administrative procedures to ensure there are phone calls, home visits and other attempts to find students and address the problems behind their truancy before any punitive action is taken, Martinez said.

The unusual and alarming handling of truancy cases within SAISD came to light during municipal court truancy hearings in the spring. Court staff kept hearing from parents who said their children were kicked out of school for excessive absences.

There was this culture that developed that nobody questioned, said Municipal Administrative Judge John Bull, whose staff works closely with local school districts on truancy issues.

Among the more troubling cases heard by Municipal Court Judge Clarissa Chavarria were those of parents who could not speak English. They said they were asked to sign documents stating they planned to home-school their child.

Before the start of each school year, districts scramble to locate leavers, students who left school before the summer break and did not enroll elsewhere. The stakes for locating leavers are high. If a leavers whereabouts remain unknown, he or she must be reported to the state as a dropout. This adversely affects a districts accountability rating.

At the end of the school year, the municipal court, in collaboration with SAISD, sent letters to the last known address of about 1,000 leavers.

Hundreds of them showed up, filling nine court dockets in the early summer.

I sat through some of those dockets and saw many parents filled with a sense of frustration and hopelessness in dealing with a system they felt had marginalized their child.

You have a lot of grandparents and guardians who are not used to questioning the schools authority, Chavarria said.

Most people are unaware of the rules, procedures and their rights when it comes to school enrollment, she noted.

Its not a matter of education or intelligence, its just not talked about. Its not something the district makes parents aware of, the judge said.

In a brief address to parents and guardians before they met with the truancy judge, Victor Vinton, juvenile case manager for municipal court, gave a rundown of education options available to their children.

Children dont have truancy problems. They have problems that cause truancy. A robocall from the school (when a student is absent) is the old way. Did anybody call and ask, How can we help? Do you want to go back to school? he asked.

The parents eagerly embraced the opportunity to re-enroll their children for the fall semester. The path to a diploma for many of the students appearing in truancy court will be through a nontraditional high school, where schedules are flexible and an accelerated curriculum is available.

The goal is to do whatever it takes to get kids to graduation, said Gary Pollack, director of attendance for SAISD, who was present at the court hearings.

The municipal court intervention is making it possible for a 16-year-old special-education student in the sixth grade, who was withdrawn from his middle school in September, to continue his education in a classroom that fits his special-education needs.

His mom said she made repeated attempts to re-enroll him last school year, but he kept getting withdrawn. She was advised to send him to a charter school. This fall, her son will be in a nontraditional school setting instead of a classroom with 12-year-old sixth-graders, where he would be the oldest and probably the tallest.

Another parent, Cynthia Aguilar, said she is glad she wont have to home-school her son this fall. She bought the pricey books for her eighth-grader after he was involuntarily withdrawn from class in April. She said the district left her no choice because she feared her son would fall behind academically.

The month after her son was sent home, she said, school officials called her to come in and sign a backdated form letter, stating she was withdrawing him to home-school him. She told the judge she felt coerced into signing the letter.

Districts establish their own policies on how long they will carry a no-show on the rolls before they are dropped, but that trigger point usually comes only after diligent and exhaustive efforts to locate the student.

In the Southwest Independent School District, whose truancy program is viewed as exemplary by court officials, attempts to locate truant students begin with phone calls. Then there is a home visit by a teacher, and neighbors and friends are contacted.

We do what we call pound the pavement, said Patty Escobedo, director of pupil services for SWISD. It is extreme and rare to withdraw a child because once they are withdrawn, they are forgotten.

Martinezs new truancy policies and a massive shift in campus leadership should foster some of that pound the pavement mentality at SAISD this fall.

The school year is starting with new principals at 30 of the districts schools. There is also optimism that Martinezs plan for block scheduling in the high schools, smaller class sizes and more academic alternatives will help reduce truancy in a district where 30 percent of students change schools each year.

The recent launch of a digital dashboard that allows access to students academic, attendance and disciplinary records  even if they frequently change schools  will help administrators, teachers and parents keep better tabs on students and watch for warning signs before serious problems develop.

Its back to school Monday for some 53,700 SAISD students. The district expects that the whereabouts of about 418 students who were on the leaver list in May will remain unknown. They will be reported to the Texas Education Agency as dropouts if they cannot be located by the end of September.

The new aggressive measures to keep at-risk students in class and monitor them should help reduce that number next school year.

gpadilla@express-news.net
We often hear there is a huge gap in income between the genders  men and women with the same titles working in the same company. And some politicians are suggesting that we need another law to close this income gap, as well as the gap between the rich and the poor.

Is that a solution or a problem? Is it desirable to reduce the income gap between the rich and the poor?

If I ate Krispy Kreme doughnuts morning, noon and night, and gained 100 pounds, would that make you thinner? Of course not. So why cant people understand that what I earn has no impact on what you earn?

Forcing companies to artificially increase the income of employees is not a sustainable solution. Anyone who believes in free-market capitalism knows that the collective market will pay people more when they acquire certain skills, knowledge or talent. And their earnings will go up or down depending on the size of the pool of applicants to fill the position.

It makes no sense for the government to say that whether you are 16 years old or 45, you will get the same minimum wage. A better way to earn more is for lower-wage workers to get into a trade or job that requires more skills and knowledge, which often means going to trade school or college.

For many years, the poor have gotten richer. Granted, their income has not increased as fast or as steep as the mega-rich, but one has nothing to do with the other. If I make $1 billion next year, it will not affect your pay one penny. The two are distinct and separate.

Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have said that we are looking at an economy in which the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

When there is an income gap between the rich and the poor, the mathematically meaningful way to close the gap is to make the rich less rich. The likelihood of making the poor into millionaires in a 10-year period is about as high as winning the lottery.

It is simple math. Tax the wealthy another 10 percent to 20 percent, and that reduces the gap.

There are, however, consequences of transferring wealth in this manner. And there are consequences of reducing the gap between the rich and the poor.

Taxing the rich would produce more money for the Treasury, but if you have $1 million and I confiscate a larger portion of the million for the Treasury, you will spend less, give away less or invest less.

All of those have a negative effect on the growth of the economy. Pension plans, startup companies and private investments that open stores will all be affected in a negative manner. When you transfer trillions of dollars out of the private sector and give it to the government, the government will often spend the added revenue in programs that get little return on investment.

Some women suggest they are being discriminated against. They cite articles that say women are making 79 percent of what a man does during a lifetime of earning income.

The problem with those studies is that they fail to control for all the independent variables that drive outcomes.

In other words, besides discrimination against women, could it be that during a lifetime, some of the differences may be due to hours worked, time off, positions held, and the types and the level of risk of certain jobs?

We already have a law to mitigate gender income inequality; the Equal Pay Act of 1963 made it illegal in the United States to pay men and women different salaries for similar work.

Clinton suggests that Congress add more teeth to that law. This will have real consequences for employers. She has suggested requiring employers to demonstrate that wage differentials are based on factors other than gender. The default position is that the government assumes pay differences are a result of discrimination. You will be presumed guilty unless proved otherwise.

That puts employers in a no-win situation. Their response will be to regress incomes to a mathematical mean, which will have the effect of lowering the pay of high performers. Some high performers will be women, and some will be men. All high performers are likely to get a pay cut under the guise of fairness and income equality.

Clinton also suggests prohibiting retaliation against workers who inquire about their employers wage practices or disclose their own wages. The slippery slope here is how one defines retaliation. If you fire someone, will that be grounds to sue? If you pay someone less because that worker is a really bad employee, is that retaliation?

Attorneys will view such legislation as creating an Attorneys Income Protection Act. They will file lawsuits anytime an employee claims retaliation because of a bad review, lack of promotion or a firing.

Every individual has different talents, skills, attitudes and work ethics. I celebrate the fact that we are all different. Mandating that outcomes (i.e., incomes) must be the same takes away individual rights and liberties guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution.

I have met amazing women in my lifetime who have substantially outperformed many of their male counterparts. Most women making more than their counterparts will not feel discriminated against. However, women making less than their male counterparts might.

Some people simply have more talent than others. How can we even suggest that their talent is not worth more than someone who does not have such a talent, regardless of gender?

The concept of gender income equality assumes the very worst about women. The assumption that we need income parity is based on a faulty assumption that denigrates women. It suggests that women are incapable on their own of achieving a level paying field with a man. And it suggests that, to remedy this injustice, we need a law to mandate equality. I cant think of a bigger insult on the capabilities of women. The mere suggestion that women are not and cannot make more than a man unless a law demands it seems to be a major insult to women.

There are so many women who outperform their male counterparts in certain job titles. Income equality suggests that these high-performing, intelligent, capable women will have their pay cut to match some male who is not performing up to standards.

That seems inequitable to me.

Dr. Alan M. Preston has been a professor for five years in San Antonio specializing in epidemiology, biostatistics and health care policy. Most of his career has been spent as a CEO for managed care companies and physician organizations.
Fighting between the Syrian army and Kurdish forces intensified late on Friday and into Saturday, creating the risk of yet another front opening in the multi-sided civil war.

The two sides have mostly avoided confrontation during the five-year conflict, with the government focusing its efforts against Sunni Arab rebels in the west, and the Kurds mainly fighting the Islamic State Group in northern Syria.

In an indication of their reluctance to escalate further, pro-government media said on Saturday they had held preliminary peace talks.

After the fighting broke out this week, government warplanes bombed Kurdish-held areas of Hasaka, one of two cities in the largely Kurdish-held northeast where the government has maintained enclaves.

Fighting there could complicate the battle against the Islamic State Group because of the Kurds' pivotal role in the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces' (SDF) fight against the group.

On Friday, warplanes from the U.S.-led coalition flew what the Pentagon called protective patrols around Hasaka to prevent Syrian jets from targeting U.S. special forces, who are operating on the ground with the SDF, the first sorties of their kind in the war.

Ground fighting intensified late on Friday when Kurdish YPG fighters battled Syrian forces, whose air force flew sorties over the city, Kurds and monitors said.

"The clashes continue in areas inside the city today. There were military operations," a Kurdish official said.

Many inhabitants of Kurdish areas fled on Friday and at least 41 people have been killed, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based war monitoring group, said.

"There are efforts to cool things between the army and the Asayish (YPG-affiliated forces), and a first meeting was held aimed at a ceasefire," Sham FM, a pro-government radio station, reported.

COMPLICATING FACTOR

As well as complicating the war against the Islamic State Group, fighting in Hasaka could create problems for the government's campaign in the city of Aleppo, where Kurdish forces have been accused of coordinating with the Syrian army against rebels backed by Turkey.

The YPG, or People's Protection Units, have close ties with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Turkey, against which Ankara has waged a three-decade counter insurgency. Turkey fears the Kurds' drive against Islamic State is partly aimed at carving out a Kurdish region along its own southern border.

On Saturday, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Turkey would take a more active role in Syria in coming months to stop it being torn along ethnic lines - an apparent reference to the YPG gains in northern areas.

Local fighters backed by the SDF, of which the YPG militia form an integral part, said on Saturday they would not advance further north - towards the Turkish border - having secured the city of Manbij, 250 km (155 miles) west of Hasaka, from the Islamic State Group, an announcement that may have been aimed at assuaging Turkish fears.

Syria's army has blamed the YPG for the Hasaka fighting and described it as a branch of the PKK, a characterization the group rejected on Saturday.

In Aleppo, fighting continued near the mouth of a corridor that rebels opened this month into besieged areas they control.

Jakob Kern, the Syria director of the United Nations' World Food Programme, said opposition-held areas had been inaccessible for weeks and food was running perilously short.

"In the east of Aleppo, the food will last a maximum of two weeks, probably until the end of August," Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger quoted him as saying on Saturday.

Russia, the main military backer of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, said on Thursday it was willing to support weekly 48-hour ceasefires to allow aid to reach besieged areas.

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Re: John Igo: 1927-2016: Language devotee, absolute treasure has died, Metro, Aug, 11:

Awhile back, I sat with John at the eye clinic. He was waiting for someone to pick him up. He said he couldnt use his computer or hold a pencil-pen. His arthritis was so bad.

My friends, Bob and Mary Beth Romeo, told me they had a new portable typewriter they would be pleased to give him. We had lunch with John, and he was so pleased that he was able to type on the portable. He sent us the next book that he wrote using the typewriter.

He was a life member of the Friends of San Antonio Pubic Library, and also was honored with our Arts and Letters Award.

Please visit the John Igo Branch Library and remember John N. Igo Jr., a special friend and teacher.

Mary McAfee

A rare teacher

Re: John Igo 1927-2016; Language devotee, absolute treasure has died, Metro, Aug. 11:

Back in 1974, I was a student of professor Igo at San Antonio College, taking British literature as a required course for my Baylor University degree plan. Professor Igo required us to read five British literature books in the six weeks of a summer session. Then we had to write a 10-page paper on each, which required us to answer specific questions about the books. So you had to read the books.

I cant imagine any other professor who could actually make this initially seemingly boring subject interesting. I would have never read these books had I not been in his class. He was a really good teacher who kept your interest, which I found rare in my college studies. He prided himself on rarely ever giving an A to a student. I was No. 1 in his class that summer having received a B-plus.

He was definitely a gifted and unique teacher. I know he will be missed by his family and all who were close to him.

Gary Kennedy

Job title reminder

If I can remember back to the beginning correctly, the job being sought by current nominees is titled president of the United States, not court jester.

Jim Douglas

Election a joke

I am 73, a conservative, free-ranging voter as long as I could vote. I vote for whom I think will lead America in a selfless manner. I blanch at voting for a liar and deceiver. Im afraid my vote for the Green or other third party is a throwaway.

Vote for Donald Trump? Would I allow him to take care of my child? Walk my dog? Dance with my wife? Not a chance. Are the American people so desperate for change that they would put a nut in the White House?

We need a true three-party system with viable candidates. This year is a joke.

Mike Horridge

Slander exemption

I must have missed the class in college with the lesson that the country had given up the right to sue for slander. I thought that should someone publish, print or even speak in a derogatory manner about you, and if their speech was false and detrimental, you could sue in a court of law.

I am guessing that somehow politicians are exempt from this form of justice. They can spout off (who does that?) however they want whenever they want with no time in the penalty box. Double standard?

Al Blomberg, Converse

Clown with a chart

Donald Trump spoke in Miami recently, and he held up a chart showing that home ownership dropped precipitously when President Barack Obama took office, implying the drop was his fault. He then remarked that the president was responsible for the loss of the American dream  owning a home.

This is further proof of the clowns lack of understanding of the 2008 recession, or proof of how disingenuous he is as a con man. He failed to mention the recession was a result of the felonious activities of the big banks.

Dale F. McCarty, Boerne

Worst election ever

I cant believe people vote for the party instead of the person and the issues they stand for. So often you hear this. I guess if the devil ran for office, people would want to know his party.

This is the worst year for selecting a president. But I will vote. I was honored to serve this great country for 32 years in the military.

Raymond Castoreno

A northern wall

Picture this: Donald Trump wins the election. Hordes of Americans attempt to escape to Canada. There is an outcry from Canadian citizens and politicians to build a wall and make Trump pay for it.

The wall on our southern border takes on a whole new purpose.

Dan Bolen

Avoid the insults

Assuming that Hillary Clinton has gotten a big bump in the polls following the convention, I suggest that she not debate Donald Trump in the following months. Trump does not appear to be able to manage a traditional debate in which one discusses the issues. Instead, he stoops to attacking individuals.

I see no reason for Hillary to subject herself to his brutal insults in person on national TV.

Katherine Hess

Consumed by hate

I receive 75 to 90 emails per week from relatives and friends trashing our president and Hillary Clinton. Their minds are preoccupied with bigotry and hatred, and they must spend most of their day reading and forwarding these trashy emails. I just delete and do not read them.

I am so happy my thoughts and days are not filled with bigotry and animosity. I have happier things to think about.

Kenneth Austin
Aztlan. Its that place in history and in legend where the Mexica  better known as the Aztecs  originated.

It has a place in history because some scholars say it actually existed. The Mexica came from somewhere. Perhaps from in and around Nayarit or some other place in northern Mexico.

It has its place in legend because some have appropriated it for purposes of cultural identity. It was, for instance, popularized during the Chicano movement of the 60s and 70s, its boundaries extended to the entire U.S. Southwest and beyond.

This was a way to say we have been here for a while  first as Indians, Spaniards, mestizos, annexed and conquered Mexicans, and Mexican-Americans. Or as one scholar, Lee Bebout, told me, it was a way of saying we belong  no matter what others might say.

Funny how its 2016, and were still having to say that. Thank you, Donald Trump.

He doesnt call it Aztlan, but Reynaldo Cuellar, 82, a San Antonio disabled veteran of the Korean War, has a theory that traveling Mexicans  the pre-Columbian Indians  traveled widely into the United States and Canada. And when the Spaniards took over Mexico and intermarried with the native people who then spoke Spanish, they still traveled widely.

We talked about it a few months back. Cuellar, who ran his own motor repair shop here and is a self-taught student of Texas and Mexican history, says place names and other names have their origins from these wanderers.

Hes worked at making the connections. So, Kentucky, he says, could have come from quien ta aqui, meaning (in somewhat slangish form) who is here? Iowa from hay agua, theres water. Kansas, cansas, or you tire me. There are, of course, plenty of Spanish place names in the United States, but Cuellar has a longer list of names that he says derive from the native Mexican travels.

Bebout is an English professor at Arizona State University who has written extensively on Aztlan and on the Chicano movement. He is author of Mythohistorical Interventions: The Chicano Movement and Its Legacies.

Aztlan, he said, is part myth and part history.

But, he told me, while Aztlans precise location is a matter of some dispute, the notion that native Mexicans traveled and traded with Indians in what is now the United States (and vice versa) is not at all controversial. And it is also historical fact that the Spaniards then followed those routes to lay claim to new lands, which they named.

Drew Lopenzina, a professor of early American and Native American literature at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, wrote me: There were definitely ancient ties to Aztec and Mayan culture that spread through what is today central and southeastern U.S., and, in addition, archaeologists have shown how pre-Columbian indigenous civilizations of North America had trade routes that stretched across the continent and into what is today Mexico.

So, no, Cuellars theory might not be far-fetched at all, though Lopenzina cautions that its risky to draw conclusions about name origins from words that coincidentally sound similar.

For instance, Mohican and Mexican have some similarities (and is on Cuellars list), but Mohican actually means wolf people in the Algonquian language. The Mohican or the Pequot people were a Native American tribe that occupied much of what is now Connecticut.

Cuellar has theories on other names in other parts of North America that one usually doesnt associate with the Aztecs.

I dont know about you, but this fires up the imagination and has since I came across a movie in my youth, 1963s Kings of the Sun. OK, not Aztecs, but the premise is that pre-Columbian Mayans, fleeing a tyrant and his army, travel from Yucatan to the American Gulf Coast, where they interact with a native tribe there. Cultures clash.

Cuellar invites more scholarly research on the matter of native Mexicans and their travels to what is now the United States and Canada. Aztlan might then be more factual history than myth.

But, yes, we Mexican-Americans (in our many forms) have been here a very long time. And  psst, Mr. Trump  were not going anywhere.

o.ricardo.pimentel@express-news.net

Twitter: @oricardopimente
On August 9 we celebrated the opening of our latest exhibit in the Gerhard Ens Gallery. Along the Road to Freedom is a collection of 26 paintings created by artist Ray Dirks, who is also the Curator at the Mennonite Heritage Centre Gallery in Winnipeg. This exhibit is on loan to Mennonite Heritage Village (MHV) and will occupy our temporary gallery till October 12, 2016.

In 2008 a group of four people approached Alf Redekopp, then-director of the Mennonite Heritage Centre in Winnipeg, and Ray Dirks with a vision to preserve the stories of Mennonite women who brought their families out of Soviet Union after the Russian Revolution and during World War II. In most cases the husbands of these women had been killed or taken from their families in horrific ways. Alf and Ray accepted the challenge, and the project began. And now, eight years later, the completed exhibit has arrived at MHV.

On opening night, MHV Curator Andrea Dyck created the context in which these stories took place by providing an overview of the conditions Mennonites faced in the Soviet Union during the Russian Revolution and World War II. Eckhard Goerz read a poetic narrative of his familys experiences during this time. Ray Dirks talked about the process of collecting these stories and turning them into works of art.

To remind us that the plight of refugees is still very real and current, Pastor Shadrach Mutabazi, attending with his wife Miriam and two daughters, talked about the familys experiences as refugees from Congo.

Pastor Shadrachs stories and those of the women depicted in the paintings are moving and often horrific. Those of us who have not lived through such experiences can only be grateful that we have been spared.

Many Russian Mennonite refugees journeyed for years before reaching Canada or Paraguay, where they were finally able to settle and create a new home. Family members sometimes became ill and died along the way. Anna Goosen Giesbrecht, grandmother of Wanda Andres, lost her husband and her son in the Soviet Union and led her remaining six children to freedom in Canada over a period of years. In an act of desperation, she eventually sold her wedding ring in order to purchase food for her family.

It is remarkable how so many of these people held onto their faith in a loving God throughout their extremely difficult experiences. One cant help but ask the question, How would my own faith come through similar circumstances?

The United Nations Refugee Agency reports that globally 65.3 million people are currently displaced from their homes. Of these, 21.3 million have fled the country in which they were living and are now refugees. Many Canadians are once again responding to this crisis with generosity, as has been the case in the past.

Along the Road to Freedom is a moving exhibit, to say the least, especially for the four individuals whose vision led to its creation  Wanda Andres, Henry Bergen, Nettie Dueck, and Hans Funk. All four were able to attend the exhibit opening on August 9.

The Gerhard Ens Gallery is open daily from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. until the end of August, and then to 5 p.m. through September and October.
One of the militants who murdered a French priest in July was buried in a Paris suburb, where his family owns a crypt, a local official said on Saturday.

Adel Kermiche, 19, was shot dead by French police after he and another assailant attacked a church on July 26 in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvroy in northern France, murdering priest Jacques Hamel and seriously injuring another hostage.

On Friday evening, Kermiche was buried in a discreet funeral in the Muslim section of a multi-faith cemetery in the Puiseux-Pontoise suburb northwest of Paris.

"All we did was strictly apply the law. The family owns a crypt in the cemetery, and the... law guarantees the right to be buried, regardless of the circumstances surrounding the person's death," a local official said.

France has wrestled with the conundrum of where to bury the militants behind a string of deadly attacks in recent months.

After standing in solidarity with Christians mourning the bloodshed at the Normandy church, local Muslim leaders in France refused to grant Kermiche a Muslim burial.

Officials meanwhile fear that graves of militants could become a site of "pilgrimage" for other extremists.

Abdel Malik Petitjean, the other assailant in the church attack, has not yet been buried, with the mayors of the two areas where he was born and where he lived still refusing to allow his body to be inhumed on their turf.

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THULI Mhlongo was there when her mum was buried in 2018 and the family even erected a tombstone. But she said her mum has started...
BISMARCK, N.D.  Since 1993, North Dakota has had the same 44 cents per pack cigarette tax. This year, voters may change that if they approve a ballot measure bumping the tax up to $2.20 per pack, the Daily Progress reports. The measure would also increase taxes on liquid nicotine from 28% to 56% of the wholesale purchase price.

The Raise It for Health North Dakota has been campaigning for the increase, but others, including tobacco companies R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and Altria Group and the Greater North Dakota Chamber of Commerce, have launched counter-campaigns to keep the status quo. The cigarette makers have given more than $860,000 to fight the measure that the North Dakota Retail Association calls an onerous tax on a legal product.

Tax hike supporters estimate that the higher tax would bring in around $50 million each year, money that could be used to fund various health programs, including one for military veterans. Currently, North Dakota has the fifth lowest cigarette tax in the country, after Missouri (17 cents), Virginia (30 cents), Louisiana (36 cents) and Georgia (37 cents). New York retains the highest taxes per pack at $4.35, followed by Massachusetts ($3.51), Rhode Island ($3.50) and Connecticut ($3.40).
The first auction for land recovered by the state will start on Sunday, according to Ibrahim Mahlab, the head of the committee to recover the lands.

Sunday's bidding would be the first auction to be held since an April announcement by the committee that 37,000 feddans of recoverd land would be offered at public auctions for the incorporation into the government's developmental plans.

Formed by Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi in February, the committee aims to recover stolen state land.

MENA agency reported Mahlab as saying that Sunday's auction -- to be held at the General Authority for Reconstruction Projects and Agricultural Development -- to achieve development to the state through "legal" purchase by buyers.

The auction will include lands located in Wadi Al-Natroun, Beheira, and on the Cairo-Alexandria road.

Mahlab said the 37,000 feddans isn't the only land retrieved by the committee, adding that 6,000 feddans of land worth EGP 7 billion were given to the housing ministry's urban community authority.

The former prime minister said that the committee would continue in its mission to retrieve "the people's rights", stressing that the auctions would be conducted within controls and regulations that ensure transparency.

The committee includes the minister of local development, the presidents aide for security affairs and counter-terrorism, representatives from the justice, defence and finance ministries and from Egypt's general intelligence service.

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Yves here. Ive been put on a e-mail list of supposed long-standing progressive writers and academics, who have all been very openly hostile to Trump and accepting the obvious superiority of Clintonuntil the appointment of her transition team made it undeniable how hard she was moving to the right. As one participant wrote:

Did I really say I would vote for her? I guess I didthis is awful: http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=17041 They, that is, Bill and Hillary and John Podesta really must think TINA has us straightjacked for good and theyve got this sown up early to be so brazen about betraying, if thats not an oxymoron in a Presidential campaign year, what comes out of the candidates mouth, the revised ideological stance. I have a strong hunch that we are still in for more suprises that may make all this already sown-up-ness look vastly premature.

So the left (as in the bona fide left that seeks to improve the position of the working classes) is again caught by the dynamic that the Clintons have so successfully exploited: the they have nowhere to go myth. Until the left is willing to inflict a cost by withholding its support, no matter how awful the alternative looks, the mainstream parties will be able to ride roughshod over it and the policy positions it represents.

By Gaius Publius, a professional writer living on the West Coast of the United States and frequent contributor to DownWithTyranny, digby, Truthout, and Naked Capitalism. Follow him on Twitter @Gaius_Publius, Tumblr and Facebook. Originally published at at Down With Tyranny. GP article archive here

This really matters. That Clinton is a better progressive choice than Trump is not much contested. But was Clinton the better progressive choice against Sanders? Almost no Sanders-supporting Democratic voter would say yes to that. Not on trade, not on climate, not on breaking up too-big Wall Street banks, not on criminally prosecuting (finally) too big to jail members of the elite  not on any number of issues that touch core progressives values.

Yes, Clinton was and will be good on some progressive issues, but the list is expected not to be Sanders-long. Progressive vs. progressive was, in fact, the hill on which Sanders battled Clinton. Sanders was made to lose. Clinton supporters won.

So what happens if (or when) a newly installed President Clinton pulls an Obama  if she starts supporting job-killing trade deals, say, and sells them as well managed and a way to keep China and Russia in check? Or institutes a large, climate-killing, fracked-methane buildout and calls it a bridge fuel to a safe and energy-independent future? What will Clinton supporters, those who happily helped bring down Sanders, do then? The question matters.

(About trade deals: Sanders supporters say  no, they know  that all pro-corporate trade deals are job killers, no matter the words these deals are painted them with. About methane expansion: If its a bridge fuel, will investors be told that the methane facilities theyre investing in will be torn down in ten years to make way for the fuel that methane is a bridge to? If so, why not just invest in that? Or is the bridge fuel talk just talk?)

Becky Bond on the Challenge to Clinton Supporters

Becky Bond has a unique place in the progressive ecosystem. As former president of the activist CREDO SuperPAC, she was at the center of a great many progressive actions, including the fights to stop TPP and the Keystone pipeline. As a senior advisor to the Sanders campaign, she saw the Democratic primary battle firsthand.

Now Bond looks at what the primary has wrought, and issues this challenge to activists who helped defeat Sanders: You broke it, you bought it. Will you now take charge in the fight to hold Clinton accountable? Or will you hang back (enjoying the fruits) and let others take the lead? (Enjoying the fruits is my addition. As one attendee noted, the Democratic Convention this year seemed very much like a jobs fair.)

Bond says this, writing in The Hill (my emphasis):

Progressive Clinton supporters: You broke it, you bought it Its time for progressives who helped Hillary Clinton beat Bernie Sanders in the primary to take the lead on holding her accountable. With Donald Trump tanking in the polls, theres room for progressives to simultaneously crush his bid for the presidency while holding Hillary Clintons feet to the fire on the TPP.

And yet:



Shes now appointed two pro-TPP politicians to key positions on her campaign  Tim Kaine as her Vice President and Ken Salazar to lead her presidential transition team. Its time for progressives who helped Clinton beat Bernie Sanders in the primary to take the lead on holding her accountable. Progressives who supported Clinton in the primary should use their leverage to ensure Clinton makes good on her vow to stop TPP and keep other promises she made on the campaign trail to win progressive votes. Bernie supporters will have your back, but its up to you to lead on this one. Its a serious matter, and it cant wait until after the inauguration. From the perspective of progressives who supported Bernie in the primary, this election is a shotgun wedding. Were going to vote for Clinton because we have to, but the honeymoon ends with the appointment of Salazar.

Bond has more on Salazar and why both he and Tim Kaine are a tell, a signal of things to come from Hillary Clinton: The choice of Salazar is a pretty good sign that as expected well be seeing the revolving door in full force in a Clinton administration. As head of the transition hell have enormous influence on who fills thousands of jobs at the White House and federal agencies.

Will Clinton-supporting activists take up the challenge?

To Clinton Supporters: You have a special responsibility

For Bond, the time to act is now and the primary responsibility for supporting progressive goals belongs to those who help kill the Sanders campaign:

So to progressives who supported Clinton in the primary  labor advocates, environmentalists, immigration reformers, anti-war activists  you have a special responsibility to lead efforts to hold your candidate accountable.

Yes, to lead efforts. But will they? Thats the challenge. The response to that challenge will also be a test and a tell, a sign of who Clinton activists actually are. Many will pass the test easily (I can name quite a few right now), but many will likely not.

The Split Among Democratic Activists

The Becky Bond Rule says progressives in the Clinton camp must be first in line to fix what Clinton does wrong, to aggressively and proactively lead the pushback. That seems only right. Yet theres a problem with this rule.

The problem: Applying this rule aggressively will expose those on the Clinton side who are really just centrists after all  or worse, just job-seekers  with only a few progressive positions. The dynamic within the progressive community was always complex (and pretty patched over), and will only become more so, more complex for sure, and maybe more patched over.

During the primary, a great many progressives got unmasked as mainly centrists (after all, Clinton allies held one of their big pre-Benghazi Committee strategy session in Third Way HQ). The reaction to Clinton activists by Sanders activists then, and the reaction going forward, was and will be the stuff of drama, or at least of daytime TV.

And this doesnt begin to touch the issues around war.

I predict a lot of hanging back from the Clinton-supporting camp  after all, no one butters their bread on both sides, the Clinton side and the anti-Clinton side, and the butter on the Clinton side is alluring. Thus its easy to predict a lot of angst from Sanders activists about how much calling out to do. The Becky Bond Rule  You broke it, you bought it  is a challenge to take responsibility. Note that it implies wrong-doing (you broke it). A real gauntlet throw-down on matters of urgent and critical importance.

The progressive-progressive split is as real as it always was, and its not going away. The next few years of activist interaction, especially among electoral and Party activists, will be revealing, especially when the real action, as Ill explain later, moves out of the electoral arena. If Im right about that, the loss of the orderly electoral arena as a place to make large changes could also be laid to Clintons ascendancy as well, and thus, to her supporters.

You broke it, you bought it is the right thing to say. But will Clintons activist base own what they did when they need to? Were about to find out.
'It just flipped': Busch details final season with Joe Gibbs Racing in 'Race for the Championship' In the latest episode of USA Network's "Race for the Championship," Busch describes the change at JGR and is introduced with a new team.
An international charity is rescuing animals from Gaza Strip's main zoo that it has dubbed "the worst in the world" and transferring them to better lives abroad.



Zoo owner Mohammad Eweda said on Friday the animals are being "donated" because the zoo doesn't "have the ability to give them anything."



In the past, his zoo turned to taxidermy to keep its deceased animals on exhibit while another zoo in the strip painted stripes on donkeys to try and make them look like zebras.



The Four Paws charity said tortoises, an emu and other animals will be taken to a rescue center in Jordan and the zoo's single tiger to a sanctuary in South Africa. The zoo is now closed.



There is little awareness of animal welfare in Gaza.

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Ten years ago the French (and Catholic, although this is not relevant for our topic) political philosopher Pierre Manent wrote a small book, The Reason of Nations.

In the introduction, he said that Europeans were witnessing some major phenomena, the erasure, may be the dismantlement of the political form that sheltered the progress of the European man, which is the nation.

Manent also added the political form, be it a nation or a city, is not a light cloth; you cannot at will easily decide whether you wear it or not.

For Manent, the West, facing new challenges, tries to bring a solution to the problem of political order by unifying humanity in one single big village, with a new political order that would be a democratic empire.

But in fact, he adds, you have two Western projects, which greatly differ. The American project assumes every people living in the world longs for democracy, free markets and rule of law. The USA is the central power, with a divine mission, helping other people to achieve this aim, either using soft power or muscled methods.

Of course, from time to time some evil/rogue states try to hinder the general harmony and progress, and the USA has to deal with them. (Of course, we, Arabs, know what this means in practice).

However, says Manent, the American scheme does not try to destroy nations (those who try to draw new frontiers in the Middle East do it because they think the actual frontiers do not reflect the real nations here).

The democratic empire, in American eyes, would include ancient components like nations, new ones, and people being more or less the same everywhere; no significant antagonising difference between them will emerge. This is the actual version of American idealism, the world it tries to make.

The European project is quite different, and even more promethean. No single state is the central power in this scheme  of course this overlooks and denies Germanys role.

The centre of this democratic empire is a gigantic central human agency, born near the Rhine, but detached from the peoples and states who gave it birth.

This agencys realm has a lust to expand, a vocation to advocate and impose the new formula in more and more territories, in Eastern Europe, in the Mediterranean, and maybe in Caucasia.

It claims to be a democracy, but in fact it is a kratos (a power) without real (well defined, circumscribed) people ("demos"). Why does it claim to be a democracy? Because it respects human rights and rule of law. But there is no deliberation, no consultation of the people (and when one fool decides to consult the people, he is surprised by the result: no, thanks).

This project, like the American, assumes that no difference between peoples, religions, cultures, is significant, but it also denies the need for a nation or a national framework.

You have many problems with this project (from here I am mixing Manents book with that of Taguieff and Bock). No demos, as already stated. And of course people living in the democratic empire are significantly different.

For the Empire project, the explanation is simple: these differences are either not relevant, or the consequence of similar evil processes: the existence and the building of nations, the too-long Westphalia era.

Nations are the mother of all ills. Either they are grounded in ethnicity, a community claim to have common ethnic origins, and such claims pave the way to superiority complex or even racism; or they are the fruit of a nation-state building project, which was everywhere ugly, relying on muscle, oppressing minorities, imposing a common language and common curricula, suppressing regional /primordial identities and inventing a new one, the national, much more aggressive. In both cases, the nation state formula leads to war, to racism, and to violence.

Of course, much of this is true, but they tend to forget the nation-state is also the political form that makes representative democracy, deliberation, collective will, people sovereignty, human individual rights, possible. In effect, democracy needs collective memory, a subtle relation between past, present and future that the nation state provides. The European project needs a break with the past, a self-hating outlook, despising most national cultures and memories, labelled a cause of antagonism and hatred between people.

Of course, this is an oversimplification: it would be more accurate to say a new European culture is unfolding, a narcissist one that thinks it is vastly superior to others, as it is the only one that is lucid enough to hate itself and its past. And the European project is, in many ways, an invitation to all dominant cultures of the areas encompassed by the Empire to acknowledge they are ugly, carrying a past full of crimes and to repent While minorities cultures are victims that deserve compensation and rehabilitation.

The European project also entails, says Manent, a radical change of the relation, or the equilibrium between, say, rules and peoples will, or between law and politics. Rules and law, rules of law are quickly gaining ground, at the expense of state power and political will. Law and politics no longer go together; we face now a zero-sum game. In itself, this is mixed development, with positive and negative dimensions.

But the fact is that rules and law, these products of Brussels bureaucracy, have much less democratic legitimacy than the elected political leaders. This neatly weakens the claim of being a democratic empire.

Moreover, and this is quite nasty, when a political leader takes a decision, he has to account for it. If he simply follows the rules, he no longer has to take responsibility for the results. The Empire project has yet to find a solution for this.

To be continued

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(NaturalNews) A political website is offering a $1 million dollar bounty for a whistleblower to leak Hillary Clinton's medical records.Article by Paul Joseph Watson, republished from Govtslaves.info After promising a $50,000 dollar reward for Clinton's health history, TruePundit.com has now upped its offer to a cool million."As calls for Clinton to release her own records have been ignored and even laughed off by her pompous campaign, True Pundit is now offering an unprecedented reward of $1 Million (One Million Dollars US) for Clinton's true medical records," states the website.The website claims it has assembled a group of individual donors who are willing to put up the money to encourage the release of the records."A million dollars can buy you safety. It gives a would-be whistleblower some ease," asserts the Philadelphia-based outfit.Questions over the presidential candidate's health came under focus again yesterday after Clinton almost fell over after giving a speech in Scranton, Pennsylvania, forcing Joe Biden to hold her arm.It was also revealed that an exhausted Hillary is taking off most weekends despite being in the midst of a political dogfight with Donald Trump.Suspicions over Hillary's health have been swirling all year but they picked up again at the start of the month after our viral video spotlighted Clinton's bizarre behavior while taking questions from reporters and at the DNC.Whether the $1 million bounty is serious or merely a ploy for web traffic remains to be seen  it's probably the latter  but the offer at least serves to illustrate the intense interest in Hillary's health despite the best efforts of the establishment media to dismiss the entire issue as a conspiracy theory.As we documented, the media obsessed over John McCain's health back in 2008, forcing the Arizona Senator to release his medical history, but the pro-Clinton press claims that questions over Hillary's health in 2016 are merely part of the right-wing noise machine.Read more at Govtslaves.info
The irony of a sneaky marketing campaign

Harmful toys, not the only questionable ingredient in the beloved kid's menu

(NaturalNews) Just days after introducing the colorful "Step It" fitness trackers in Happy Meals, McDonald's is removing them because the plastic bands are giving children skin irritations.In a statement sent to the CNN, Terri Hickey, a spokeswoman for McDonald's, said that they took "swift and voluntary" steps after receiving several reports of potential rashes and burns. She further stated that nothing is more important to them than the safety of their customers, and they will thoroughly investigate the issue.The kid's pedometer came in six bright colors and was part of their Rio Olympics healthy lifestyle campaign to get kids moving. The fitness tracker counted steps while blinking to indicate how fast the child was moving. The wearable was set to be available for four weeks in the U.S. and Canada.A recent Facebook post --which has been shared more than 130,000 times -- showed pictures of a young boy who received a burn on his arm from the Happy Meal toy, after playing with it for just eight minutes.Terri Hickey has not replied to requests of the CNN for additional information about the manufacturer of the activity trackers and how many incidents occurred.McDonald's promotional stunt to include a fitness device has sparked a lot of discussion on whether it would actually help children to get more active and live a healthier lifestyle.With devices such as FitBit or Jawbone becoming more popular and high-tech, McDonald's seems to be jumping onto the latest trends and fads rather than making their food more healthy.Some health experts have been praising fitness trackers to motivate kids to be more active. Lisa Gualtieri, an assistant professor of public health at Tufts University School of Medicine, told thehow she loved the idea that McDonald's included a Step-it fitness tracker to promote physical activity.Others, however, pointed out the irony of an unhealthy fast food chain giving out health-minded gadgets and are happy to see the project failing. They said that while pedometers are useful for promoting physical activities, devices such as Step-its shouldn't cast McDonald's food under a health halo.According to Jennifer A. Emond, assistant professor of pediatrics at Dartmouth Geisel School of Medicine, these McDonald's toys are not a credible way to promote a healthy lifestyle to children. She said that it is a common tactic used by the food industry to divert parents' attention away from poor nutrition, making them "feel better" when they buy a Happy Meal for their child.Rash-causing toys in a Happy Meal is far from the only thing harming children's health and well-being. If we may believe, a happy meal contains 78 food additives, of which some are very toxic, especially for their developing brain.Apart from housing a wide range of questionable ingredients such as colorants and preservatives, a Happy Meal with fries, a cheeseburger, apple slices and a milk jug also contains 530 calories and 20 grams of fat.As reported by CNN, it would take an adult man who weighs 195 pounds about 90 minutes to walk off the calories present in a Happy Meal If you want to keep your children healthy, it is far more important to take them to the park or go for a walk instead of feeding them Happy Meals. Furthermore, it is important to eat an abundance of fresh, homegrown fruits and vegetables and stay as far away as possible from toxic fast food chains.
Chicago looking to rename sewage sludge; hoping it will become a moneymaker

Some cities going bankrupt on selling sewage sludge as a compost

The adverse effects of biosolids

(NaturalNews) The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago is asking the public for its help in renaming a sewage-based product it markets and sells as "nutrient-rich" compost. Biosolids, produced by wastewater treatment plants , consist of sewage sludge combined with various types of industrial waste from the fracking, pharmaceutical and agriculture industries.Though it undergoes a filtration process, the end product often contains high levels of heavy metals , pesticides, pharmaceutical waste, pathogens and other toxic organic pollutants.Municipalities around the nation, including Austin, Texas, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, sell different versions of this toxic compost to generate revenue, an interesting practice considering the idea that processing of sewage sludge should be a cost incurred in the running of a city, not a market for fertilizer.Nevertheless, cities looking to make an extra buck are framing the sludge as an environmentally friendly product that's good for all of us, which is likely why Chicago is looking for help in finding a nice name that makes you think "green."A recent change in the law made Chicago eligible to start selling sewage sludge as compost, according to reports. The water authority says its product is made from adding microbes that help to filter out nutrients to the wastewater."The product is much cheaper, and perhaps an even more effective, alternative to chemicals used to fertilize soil, the district said. Now that the product can be sold to the public, the agency is hoping to come up with a more marketable name," reportsThe water authority launched a campaign to help draw awareness (and likely sales) about the new product, which in Milwaukee is called "Milorganite," and in Washington, D.C., "bloom."In the capital of the Lone Star State the product is called Dillo Dirt, named after the official state mammal. While Austin's composting operation has received national recognition, it's actually losing money, and a lot of it."Dillo Dirt has run in the red in recent years: Last year, costs to produce Dillo Dirt edged over $650,000, while revenue amounted to about $205,000. Over the last five years, the program has typically lost between $400,000 and $500,000, according to information provided by Austin Water," reported theThe loss of revenue has prompted the City of Austin to try and sell the program to an outside distributor called Synagro, which if the contract goes through, would market the product under a new name.The proposed five-year contract with Synagro is valued at an estimated $20 million. Austin Water director Greg Meszaros claims that the contract "is good for the environment, good for the utility, and good for our ratepayers."But research suggests otherwise.Dr. David Lewis, a former scientist with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) exposed the agency's flawed program by reporting on the adverse effects of biosolids, which ultimately cost him his job, money and in some ways his reputation as a well-respected researcher.Lewis says that spreading biosolids on the land as fertilizer is a danger to public health and the environment for a number of reasons, but primarily because of its toxic nature."Priority pollutants include endocrine disruptors, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, plasticizers and other chemical groups that concentrate in animal fats. As the fat solubility of chemicals increase, so does their neurotoxicity," Lewis said in a interview with"Not surprisingly, exposures to these chemicals are linked to autism, ALS, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and other neurological diseases and disorders."
Swedish dendrochronologist Paul J. Krusic led an international team of scientists on an expedition that discovered the oldest living inhabitant of Europe - a Bosnian pine that is more than 1,075 years old. The tree is joined by a dozen others that have also hit the millennium milestone.

"It is quite remarkable that this large, complex and impressive organism has survived so long in such an inhospitable environment, in a land that has been civilized for over 3000 years" Krusic said in a news release.

This grouping of ancient trees are part of a forest high in the Pindos mountains. Krusic learned about the "interesting" forest a long time ago and was able to use that knowledge in his quest to find ancient living trees.

The age of the tree was determined using a common method to analyze tree rings called dendrochronology. 1,075 annual rings were counted in a core of wood taken from the tree.

Current methods allow a complete core to be taken without compromising the tree's health. A complete core consists of a section of the tree from the outside all the way to the center.

"I am impressed, in the context of western civilization, all the human history that has surrounded this tree; all the empires, the Byzantine, the Ottoman, all the people living in this region. So many things could have led to its demise. Fortunately, this forest has been basically untouched for over a thousand years" Krusic added.

The oldest living organism in Europe now has a name to befit its age. Scientists named the pine Adonis, after the god of beauty and desire in Greek mythology.

Researchers involved in the discovery are working on the construction of climate histories parsed from variations in the annual rings. The Navarino Environmental Observatory (NEO) conducted the expedition as part of their larger work studying climate change.
Most volcanic eruptions are terrifying prospects, but for the Kilauea Volcano - which has been spewing out lava continuously for 30 years - it has become more of a tourist spectacle than anything else, especially now that the lava has flown into the Pacific Ocean. Here's why the volcano can still spell bad news for the island.

Unstable land. According to a report from Hawaii News Now, people angling to take a better look at the lava deltas should be very careful about their activity. Lava deltas are new land formed by the lava entering the sea.

"Lava deltas are deceptively stable looking," Janet Babb, a spokesperson with USGS Hawai'i Volcano Observatory, explained. "You see it and think, 'Gosh, that's the place I need to be to see lava up close and personal', but the near lava is hiding a foundation of rubble that is extremely unstable."

Explosions. Yes, it's not just the hot lava that tourists should watch out for, but also the interactions between different natural elements. When sizzling hot lava and the cool ocean water meet, it can create steam explosions that are dangerous with hydrochloric acid and shards of volcanic glass.

Babb said, "We talk about concerns for people on shore, but it's equally hazardous for people on the water because if a delta collapses and an explosion occurs all that debris is going to be blown out in all directions."

More violent eruptions. In general, Kilauea's activities throughout the years have remained mostly non-explosive, but according to a report from New Zealand Herald, there have been a few terrifying casualties. In 1924, an eruption threw ash and 10-tonne rocks into the sky, resulting in the death of a man. Puu Oo's 1983 eruption saw the lava shooting out up to 450 meters high and even the decades-long lava flow have destroyed a lot of homes and land.
This week, explorers have discovered the remains of a rare ship on Lake Ontario. Here are some interesting facts about the ship named Lady Washington.

It's Rare and Extremely Ancient

The sloop dates back in the 18th century. It is believed to have been built in the Erie County in 1797 and is considered to be one of the first commercial sailing vessels in the Great Lakes.

Tagged as the Lady Washington, the ship measures 53 feet long and is the second intact oldest vessel found after the discovery of a British naval vessel a few years back, the explorers write on their website.

Explorers financed by the National Museum of Great Lakes said that Lady Washington sank while carrying cargo from Kingston to Niagra. The ship was originally used to transport settlers and merchandise around the eastern part of Lake Erie. However, in November 1801, it was sold to Queenstown merchants and was moved to Lake Ontario. The ship sank two years later.

Shipwreck May Reveal Clues on Early Shipbuilding

The team of retirees who became shipwreck explorers, consisting of Jim Kennard, Roger Pawlowski and Roland Stevens, stumbled upon the shipwreck while conducting a survey using a Deepvision side scan sonar. However, because of the water's condition, the team had to wait for three weeks to get better imaging of the shipwreck using a remote operated vehicle (ROV).

The discovery of the Lady Washington pushes the boundary back for Great Lakes commercial shipwreck history. Breaking the 18th century barrier is not only psychologically important, but the wreck may reveal the earliest shipbuilding techniques on the Great Lakes ever examined," Christopher Gillcrist, executive director at the National Museum of the Great Lakes, told Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Breakthrough Discovery Offers Glimpse of Early Life

Meanwhile, Carrie Snowden, archeological director of the museum told the Wall Street Journal that this breakthrough discovery opens doors for a better understanding of what was life like during the older times on the Great Lakes.

Currently, there are no plans to get the ship from Lake Ontario and further study of the Lady Washington's wreckage will be passed on to archeologists.
Smize!

Supermodel Tyra Banks is slated to teach a class at Stanford University next spring.

It remains to be seen whether smiling with the eyes  a phrase she coined as a host of Americas Next Top Model on the CW Network  will be part of the Graduate School of Business class curriculum.

Banks, 42, will, however, team up with professor Allison Kluger for the spring elective titled Project You: Building & Extending Your Personal Brand. In 2011, the businesswoman earned a Harvard Business School diploma in a nine-week-long Owner/President Management program.

The chairman of Tyra Banks Co. and founder of Fierce Capital, LLC was spotted at the Palo Alto school last month. According to Stanford, the Inglewood native discussed the importance of hiring the right people, making cold calls, and knowing when to pivot, as part of the universitys Women in Business series.

Banks and Kluger met at the discussion and decided to team up, the Mercury News said.

"For the first 30 minutes of the class, I'm raising my hand, I'm all into it, 'cause it's kind of like theory and just like, the social part of the case," Banks told VH1, the newspaper reported. "The last hour it's all like Einstein and algebraic equations and craziness.

"And I'm just like, what the (heck) is going on? Please don't call on me because it won't be pretty."
People traveling from San Francisco to Florida have a new Zika warning to consider after five people, three of whom were not from the state, were infected with the disease by local mosquitoes.

On Friday, the Center for Disease Control made an announcement advising pregnant women to stay away from a 1  square mile area of Miami Beach, from the Intracoastal Waterway to areas of 28th Street.

University of Miami student Robert Papcica told NBC Bay Area that he will do his best to avoid mosquitoes, but that the spread of Zika is a concern. All told, 36 people in the state have been infected by local mosquitoes.

Ive got to go to school, Papcica said. Ill probably use Off (bug spray) a lot and not go to Wynwood too much.

The Wynwood neighborhood, which sits north of downtown Miami, marks the spot of the first U.S. transmission site. The newest Zika zone is about six miles from there.

Hotel operators in that area have said that some tourists are canceling reservations.

In the last week, we had three phone calls and three cancellations, one of which (was due to pregnancy concerns).

Many travelers at San Francisco International Airport told NBC Bay Area that they planned to be more cautious but were not scrapping plans.

I have a friend, and she went to the Bahamas, said one traveler. Shes pregnant and she felt safe.
A fast-moving wildfire in the Inland Empire in California left a trail of destruction along Interstate 15, including leveling a historic Route 66 diner which in its heyday was frequented by Hollywood's elite.

The iconic Summit Inn diner, located in Oak Hills along the Cajon Pass, was a popular roadside destination for people traveling from Los Angeles to Las Vegas since the 1950s.

The vintage building's signature red neon "Summit Inn" sign would flash on and off, beckoning drivers along Interstate 15 to stop in for a bite to eat or visit the gift shop full of memorabilia.

It is now in ashes.

"It is beyond comprehension how this could possibly happen," reads a message posted on the diner's Facebook page.

The devastating Blue Cut fire has destroyed 96 homes and 213 outbuildings as of Friday. Embers from the wildland fire have also gutted the landmark inn.

Ten tables full of customers and a half-dozen employees fled the restaurant around 3:30 p.m. Tuesday when firefighters told them they had to leave. The restaurant was destroyed just hours later.

The Summit Inn, which opened in 1952, was visited by both tourists and celebrities alike. Elvis Presley, John Wayne and Pierce Brosnan are just some of the famous faces that have visited the diner.

Former restaurant owner, Cecil Stevens, who sold the restaurant last month to Katherine Juarez, came to the Summit Inn on Friday to salvage memories.

"That was the year we didnt have any Elvis records in the jukebox," Stevens recalled. "He got a little upset and kicked the jukebox."

The restaurant is known for ostrich burgers and eggs cooked in a kitchen that is now charred. The fire also destroyed the next-door cottage of Michele Keeney, the Summit Inn's general manager, and her husband.

In "the hour and a half before the ridge caught fire, CHP told us three to four times we need to go," Scott Keeney said. "We grabbed the cat, lizard  out we went.

Juarez said the family plans to to see what memorabilia can be saved. The diner was insured and the family hopes to rebuild, she said.
The common highway maneuver, known as lane-splitting, allows motorcyclists to surpass traffic by weaving in between lanes, sometimes at fast speeds just a few inches away from other vehicles.

The practice is illegal in every state in the U.S. except California, however, the NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit discovered that its nearly impossible to make a determination on how safe or unsafe the maneuver currently is across the state because California does not track how often accidents involve lane-splitting.

How do you educate a motorcyclist on lane splitting if you dont even know the causes or when these accidents occur, said April Mistretta, 41, who lost her father last year in a lane-splitting accident. I think [accidents] happen more often than we realize.

Mistrettas father, Robert McDonald, 73, was traveling through Sacramento along Interstate 80 when he decided to lane-split on the highway.

Two diesel trucks kind of came together closer than he expected, Mistretta said. Hed been riding for a long time so maybe he felt that it was safe to do so.

Should California be tracking how often accidents involve motorcycle lane splitting?  NBC Bay Area (@nbcbayarea) August 19, 2016

IS LANE-SPLITTING SAFE?

California has allowed the practice for decades without knowing how often people are injured or even killed. In an effort to study the issue, the state requested that law enforcement temporarily track that information during a 14-month period: June 2012 to August 2013.

The California Office of Traffic Safety commissioned the study, which was done by the University of California, Berkeley.

Of the 5,969 motorcycle accidents recorded by law enforcement, the study found 997 involved lane-splitting  thats 17 percent.

NBC Bay Area

In analyzing the crash data, the study's authors determined lane-splitting can be safe if certain guidelines are met.

Lane-splitting appears to be a relatively safe motorcycle riding strategy if done in traffic moving at 50 MPH or less and if motorcyclists do not exceed the speed of other vehicles by more than 15 MPH, the study found.

However, the study also highlighted the inherent dangers of lane-splitting.

Lane-splitting riders often put themselves closer to other vehicles than they otherwise would, the study found. This proximity reduces the time riders have to identify and react to changes in the behaviors of other motorists.

Supporters of lane-splitting also point to a specific part of the study, which found that bikers who lane split are considerably less likely to suffer head injury, torso injury, extremity injury, and fatal injury than riders who were not lane splitting.

Video shows what it is like to lane split.

STUDY: 80 PERCENT OF BIKERS LANE-SPLIT ON FREEWAYS

Berkeley also surveyed 709 motorcyclists in California and found 80 percent lane split at least some of the time when traveling on freeways. Of those same riders, 37 percent said they always lane-split on freeways.

Once the 14-month data collection period for the study ended, California stopped tracking how often lane-splitting accidents occur.

Thats because lane-splitting doesnt necessarily cause a collision, said Sergeant Larry Starkey, who heads the Motorcycle Safety Unit for the California Highway Patrol. The cause of the collision is always going to have something that somebody was doing wrong and lane-splitting is not prohibited in California and, therefore, it's not technically something wrong.

Since lane-splitting is not an official violation in the states vehicle code, Starkey believes there is no reason to track the information.

He admits, however, lane splitting can certainly play a role in an accident.

It could be a contributing factor, he said. Sure.

NBC Bay Area

NEW LAW TO CHANGE LANE-SPLITTING

California Assemblyman Bill Quirk, D-Hayward, authored legislation to require the DMV and California Highway Patrol to issue safety guidelines for lane-splitting, such as speed restrictions.

I don't want motorcyclists splitting lanes unsafely, Quirk said.

In 2013, the California Higway Patrol released its own set of guidelines for lane-splitting, recommendating that bikers travel no more than 10 miles per hour faster than surrounding traffic. The guidelines, however, were scrapped in 2014 after the Office of Administrative Law received a complaint that the guidelines could be misconstrued as actual laws, which the California Highway Patrol does not have the authority to implement.

Quirk's legislation, Assembly Bill 51, was signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown on Friday and officially codifies lane-splitting as a legal maneuver across California. The bill authorizes the DMV and California Highway Patrol to begin developing safety guidelines in January, however, Quirk believes that process could last a year. He is a staunch supporter of lane-splitting and believes every other state in the country is putting their motorcyclists at risk by banning lane-splitting.

Oftentimes, cars don't see motorcyclists and they can get rear-ended, Quirk said. To some extent, you're safer if you're safely lane-splitting.

During an interview with the Investigative Unit, Quirk was surprised to learn that California no longer tracks how often lane-splitting accidents occur.

I'll see if there's a way if I can get more data, Quirk said. I'm glad you brought this up. It's something I hadn't thought about, so I really appreciate it.

April Mistretta and her younger sister Kim McDonald, 24, say they are torn on whether they believe lane splitting is truly safe, but wonder if more information might have helped save their father.

We first need to know how often it's happening, McDonald said. Peoples lives are at stake.
He did it on the web, and the web reacted.

American swimmer Ryan Lochte has had a lot of success in the pool. A bit less, lately, online.

After posting an apology on Instagram and then Twitter, it was parsed, largely because people said it didnt go far enough.

At the center of this maelstrom is a late-night incident at a Rio gas station that the 12-time medalist insists was a robbery. Brazilian police, however, said Lochte and three other swimmers vandalized a bathroom and were confronted by armed security guards before they paid for the damage and left.

We showed Lochte's post to branding expert Jeff Holmes of a San Jose-based marketing company, 3 Marketeers.

His reaction?

"Every time he comments, he's in the media for another 24 hours. If he would stop, make his apology, it could go away," Holmes said.

He has a point.

Even Lochte pointed out that there has already been too much said 

But Holmes has a larger point.

Calling Lochte Gate the worst part of an otherwise successful games, he says Lochte did himself irreparable damage. The hashtag #LochMess even went viral on Twitter on Thursday.

He's got the look, he's got the medals, he's got all that going for him, but he lacks integrity," says Holmes. "What brand is gonna want to stand behind somebody who doesn't have integrity?"

Scott swims through Twitter: @scottbudman
A virtual kidnapping scam sweeping the South Bay has parents on edge and law enforcement rushing to find the culprits.

The Milpitas Police Department said on Friday that a woman was scammed over the weekend after getting a call from an unknown number. When she answered, she was suddenly plunged into every parent's worst nightmare.

Mom, please help me! Someone grabbed me, and I am in a van, said the young voice on the other end of the call. A man then took the phone and demanded money, saying the screaming girl would be killed if the woman didnt comply.

Believing the girl was her daughter, the victim did as she was told: She drove to Walmart and wired money to a man in Mexico. Throughout the transfer, the man told the woman that the girl would be killed if the police were alerted.

Police say that the victim wired a small amount of money to the man, and once the transfer was complete, the man told the woman it was a scam.

Confused, the woman called her daughter, who was safe.

The Milpitas Police Department would like to remind everyone to be suspicious of any telephone call where the caller imposes a problem or crisis and the only solution is electronically transferring money or purchasing prepaid gift cards, the department said in a statement. If you receive a suspicious phone call of this nature, you are encouraged to report it to law enforcement.
Oak Park's first medical marijuana dispensary hosted a soft opening and ribbon cutting with about 70 people attending Friday.



Seven Point announced, on Lake Street, is nestled between a T-Mobile and Nandos Peri-Peri restaurant. The facility will offer services to potential patients and physicians holding a medical registry card.



Weve been working on this for two years and are excited to bring help to the community, said founder and CEO Brad Zerman.



After the official opening on Aug. 26, only registered card holders will be allowed access into the facility.



This is the only building that met state requirements on Lake Street," said Zerman. "The village [of Oak Park] has been supportive whether they know it or not.



At this time, Seven Point only accepts cash from qualified candidates. Healthcare professionals are able to come in for informational sessions regarding the Medical Cannabis Pilot Program. Individuals are eligible for a card if they have a listed condition, a completed physician certification form and required documents, according to the company's website.



"I think it is great. I'm excited about it," said Janic Glowgowski who said she has suffered from fibromyalgia.



The business name came from Zermans wife who referenced the seven points that make up a marijuana leaf.
Two convenience stores in Chicago and south suburban Oak Forest sold $350,000 winning lottery tickets for a drawing earlier this week.

One of the winning tickets was sold at A & B Convenience, 100 W. Randolph, while the other was sold at a 7-Eleven at 4901 W. 167th St. in Oak Forest, according to a statement from the Illinois Lottery. Both tickets matched all five winning numbers  07  11  24  25  26  in Tuesday nights Lucky Day Lotto drawing.

The winners are encouraged to sign the back of their tickets and keep them in a safe place until they can take it to one of the five lottery prize centers in Chicago, Des Plaines, Rockford, Springfield or Fairview Heights, lottery officials said. Winners have up to one year from the date of the drawing to claim their prizes.

Each store will receive a bonus of $3,500, or one percent of the prize amount, for selling a winning ticket.
Glenview Police are among the most recent departments reporting a disturbing number of violent crimes, some involving juvenile gang members, in the north suburbs.

Residents in these communities are increasingly more cautious as the numbers keep growing. Niles Police say they're seeing much of the same. Evanston, Lincolnwood, Morton Grove, Northbrook and Winnetka have also tweeted about crime in recent weeks.

Police are working together to stop an organized crime ring involving armed robberies, auto thefts and burglaries.

One attempted carjacking victim NBC 5 spoke to earlier this week on Chicago's North Side said offenders held him at gunpoint and demanded his keys.

Another victim was robbed at gunpoint in Skokie last Monday night.

The same group of young men may be responsible for an attempted carjacking in Wilmette.

Glenview Police say there have been some arrests linked to the incidents in the area involving vehicles with keys left in them.

The crimes are occurring at shopping centers, gas stations and homes, police said.
It's devastation everywhere you look with flood waters destroying homes and lives in Louisiana. At least 13 people are dead and tens of thousands displaced.

"We're going to be down here for as long as we need to be," said Stefanie Arcangelo, Chief Communications Officer for the American Red Cross CT and RI.

Volunteers from all across the country are rushing in to help. Eight American Red Cross volunteers from Connecticut are there now, assessing homes, delivering much-needed supplies, and showing those affected that they're not in this alone.

"Right now our focus is on providing the feeding, the sheltering," said Arcangelo.

Another connection from Manchester to Baton Rouge is helping too.

Kristine Lajeunesse is an owner of Always Best Care Senior Services of Central Connecticut, an organization providing non-medical home care for seniors. Her close friend owns Always Best Care in Baton Rouge.

"Of her caregivers, 75 percent are without homes and cars, and a lot of their clients they're not able to reach due to the flooding," said Lajeunesse.

Always Best Care in Baton Rouge is meant to help the elderly and now its also helping those displaced by flooding by turning the facility into a shelter.

"She is housing currently, I believe, 7 adults. Two of those adults are not employees of hers, 7 children, a dog, and a cat," said Lajeunesse.

To help those in need, Lajeunesse and her husband purchased supplies like clothing and toys and sent them all down to Baton Rouge Friday morning. Now they're hoping to send down even more. They're asking the community to donate.

Items include: toiletries, Walmart gift cards, MasterCard and Visa gift cards, girls pants and shirts and pajamas sizes 16/18, girls underwear size 14, girls shoes size 11, boys shirts, pants and pajamas sizes 12-18 month, 2T, 3T, 6, 10/12 and 14/16, 36/30, boys underwear size 2T/3T and Large, boys 12-18-month-old clothes, and boys shoes size 4, 5.5 and 6. All items can be dropped off at Always Best Care Senior Services of Central Connecticut at 135 Center Street in Manchester M-F 8:30 am - 4 pm.

To donate to the Red Cross, visit the Red Cross website, call 1-800-Red Cross, or text LAFLOODS to 90999 to make a $10 donation.
New Britain police are searching for two burglars who hit cars on the citys west side.

Police said the suspects were able to get into several cars and able to get away with valuables.

It happened in the early morning of Wednesday last week. Several surveillance cameras captured the pair at work.

In the videos, the men are seen checking to see if vehicles were left open and then entered those that had been unlocked.

I would have never suspected that someone would try to come to this neighborhood out of all neighborhoods. I would, that shocked me to be honest, neighbor Chris Maura, said.

I was kind of freaked out about it. To know that these things are happening while Im asleep, neighbor Kevin Desjardins, said. I keep my doors locked to my house and my car but after seeing the video Im convinced they tried my car doors too.

Neighbors say several cars were targeted on the west side of town, on Stanwood Drive and Kerin Drive.

Police were not able to say the total number of cars hit or how much was taken.

People who live in the area say they will be careful.

I am really precautious so I do generally keep my car locked. But we generally have three to four cars in the park, driveway. So Ill make sure my friends lock their cars for sure, says Mauro.

Anyone with information is asked to call police.
A showdown is shaping up between New Haven city officials and the firefighters union over a proposal to reallocate resources for fire and emergency services.

The union is waging a campaign saying the proposed changes will leave one of the citys ten districts without its neighborhood fire engine.

In an NBC Connecticut Exclusive interview, Deputy Director of Emergency Operations Rick Fontana denied that claim and said the union is misleading the public.

"Putting fear into them that theyre neighborhood fire engine is going to be leaving, its not right," Fontana said. "Were going to go based on the factual data we have and the need of the entire community."

Currently, New Haven only has two advanced life support (ALS) paramedic units.

"If this unit is out and somebodys having a heart attack out in Westville or Fountain street area, this unit has to come from Woodward Avenue," Fontana said, pointing to a map showing the distance the paramedic unit would have to travel across town.

A city committee recommends adding two more paramedic units to provide better coverage for the entire city, Fontana said.

To do that, Fontana said the proposal redeploys four firefighters from Engine 9 at the Ellsworth Avenue Station to staff the two new units (two assigned to each). One would be based at the Ellsworth Station and the other at the Whitney Avenue fire station.

"Its a disingenuous empty promise to the citizens," New Haven Fire Union President Frank Ricci said over the phone. "The problem with adding on two more paramedic units is they are a city wide asset that will not be in the district."

Ricci said he fears the neighborhoods near the Ellsworth Avenue station will be left without a local fire truck.

"The neighborhood fire engine gets their first, initiates quality care and then its backed up by a paramedic service," he said, adding fire trucks respond to any emergency in four minutes.

The Ellsworth station houses both Engine 9 and a city-wide squad company truck. Fontana said the firefighters from the squad company would staff the new neighborhood fire engine company.

That fire station will still have a fire truck in it, he said. "Just like the other nine fire stations in the city of New Haven.

Ultimately, the New Haven Fire Chief has the only authority, according to the union contract, to redeploy personnel. Mayor Harp said Thursday she plans to announce who will fill that vacancy sometime next week after interviewing three final candidates.

The fire union has recently filed a complaint against the city saying that Fontana has overstepped his authority by performing firefighter duties and interfering with department operations.

Fontana is a retired firefighter who spent nearly three decades with the West Haven Fire Department.
Residents have reported the return of sea lice at the state's beaches, according to media reports.

The Greenwich Health Department is urging people to take precautions against sea lice when visiting beaches, officials told News 12 Connecticut.

Health officials said there hasn't been a large number of sea lice cases reported, but they're still urging residents to remove their bathing suits and shower after being at the beach, News 12 Connecticut reports.

Signs and symptoms of sea lice include tingling, burning, itchy skin, small reddish pimples and small blisters, according to the CDC.

According to the Greenwich Time, sea lice is a common name for larval thimble jellyfish, that are small enough to wedge underneath bathing suits.

It is not clear, so far, all the beaches affected, however, lifeguards at Greenwich beaches said they received reports from swimmers with sea lice stings earlier in the week, according to the newspaper.

The jellyfish are about the size of a pin-head and transparent, making them difficult to spot in the water, experts told Greenwich Time.
For one week, Connecticut consumers will be exempt from paying sales tax on most clothes and shoes, in an effort to ease the six percent burden off of back to school shopping while boosting the local economy.

As a mother of two, Jasmine Devonish said shes looking forward to buying her kids uniforms, along with other necessities.

"Clothes, shoes, papers, pencils anything I can find for tax free week Im gonna stock up on," said Devonish.

Unfortunately for Devonish, papers, pencils and school supplies will not be tax exempt.

The deal applies to most clothing and shoes that, individually, cost less than $100.

Some local businesses will offer additional discounts, so items that retail for more than 100 dollars are on sale for less will also be exempt.

And one of the biggest deals at Hartfords Walmart, according to store manager Bill Fenlon, are diapers. They, too, wont get taxed.

"Some boxes of diapers cost around $40 right now, so thats a big savings off there," said Fenlon.

Those who cant make it to the stores or don't find what theyre looking for can also shop online.

Connecticut residents will get the same perks on all eligible purchases.
A Fort Worth police officer who fired pepper spray at a group of passing motorcycles in March will receive internal sanctions but not be suspended, the department said Friday.

In a widely-seen YouTube video, Officer W. Figueroa was seen aiming the spray at the motorcyclists on Highway 287 near Rosedale Street after he had pulled over several people in a pickup.

Sgt. Marcus Povero, a police spokesman, said on Friday that an internal affairs investigation into the incident is over.

The case is closed, he said.

Figueroa will receive internal sanctions, Povero said.

Povero said he could not specify exactly what sanctions but added they could include retraining or a commanders admonishment.

The officer was briefly taken off patrol duties when the investigation started.

Povero said none of the motorcyclists complained to the department.

Nobody that witnessed or was involved in this situation ever filed a complaint, Povero said. This was an internal investigation started by our own internal affairs unit.

Several people in the pickup were treated by paramedics when the pepper spray blew in their direction.

The video says it all, motorcyclist Chase Stone, of Longview, said at the time. Its just dangerous, man. It could have caused of accidents and possible death.

Stones friend shot the video, which was later posted to YouTube.

Stone could not be reached Friday for comment.

Several drivers had called 911 to complain about the motorcyclists driving erratically right before the incident.

Figueroa explained his decision to use pepper spray in a police report obtained by NBC DFW.

"Multiple motorcycles would not vacate the lane closest to my marked patrol car," Figueroa said. "I deployed my pepper spray into the lane closest to me, at which point approaching motorcycles began to vacate the lane, allowing me to conduct a traffic stop."
The use of a synthetic street drug from the same supplier is believed to be the common cause of some two dozen illnesses in the Skid Row section of downtown Los Angeles, police said.

The first case of seizure-like symptoms was reported Friday morning, followed quickly by additional cases, and then another spike after noon, when the fire department called LAPD to assist. The wail of rescue ambulance sirens continued to be heard through afternoon and into the evening.

The illnesses did not require advanced life support and did not appear to be life- threatening, said Brian Humphrey of the Los Angeles Fire Department.

Police believe those who fell ill had used the synthetic street drug known as "spice," described as a less expensive alternative to marijuana. It likely was a "bad batch," said Capt. Don Graham, LAPD Central Area commander.

"Folks are making it from recipes they find on the internet," Capt. Graham lamented. "Things that can go wrong."

Inexpensive to produce and sold on the street for as little as a dollar a joint, spice is not uncommon on the streets of Skid Row, with the city's most concentrated population of homeless, impoverished, and mentally ill. Officers fanned out Friday to warn those in the area of concerns the newly arrived spice was causing the illnesses.

It was the second one day epidemic of illnesses linked to spice in recent months, Capt. Graham said.

"Distribution is so fast that one bad batch can decimate an area," Graham said.

The source of the suspect Spice has not been determined.
Drivers heading to San Diego should expect delays along Interstate 5 this weekend, according to the Orange County Transit Authority.

A scheduled closure of the I-5 Freeway is planned for Friday and Saturday of this weekend, and will close three of four southbound lanes near an interchange in San Clemente. No northbound lanes will be closed, according to OCTA.

The closure will take place between Avenida Vista Hermosa and Avenida Palizada starting at 10 p.m. Friday until noon Saturday.

Two of those closed lanes are scheduled to open Saturday morning at 8:30. At noon, "southbound traffic is scheduled to reopen to four lanes on a newly constructed bridge," noted OCTA.

Southbound on-ramps at Avenida Vista Hermosa and Avenida Pico will also be closed, along with off-ramps at Avenida Pico and Avenida Palizada.

The OCTA advised drivers to avoid the area or take alternate routes if possible.

The closure is scheduled as part of a $230 million project to widen the freeway and add a carpool lane on both sides of the freeway in that area. The project also plans to reconstruct the Avenida Pico interchange.
While every longstanding dish, be it a salad, casserole, dessert, or anything else, has a tantalizing tale to tell, few foodstuffs are as storied as General Tso's Chicken.

How it came by its noble moniker  a prominent Qing Dynasty figure is the inspiration, it is said  and how it came to be one of the spicy superstar suppers of Chinese restaurants across America has been detailed in articles, essays, and menu descriptions aplenty. "The Search for General Tso," a 2014 documentary, also delved into the delicious back story of this savory forever-favorite.

Now the legendary creation'll take the sample-filled centerstage in Chinatown's historic West Plaza on Saturday, Aug. 20. "Beyond the (Takeout) Box: The Culture, Community, and Comfort Behind American Chinese Food" begins the evening, with several panelists discussing "the influence food has on personal identity" as well as a host of fascinating foodly topics.

Jennifer 8. Lee, the producer of "The Search for General Tso," joins the Chinatown Summer Nights panel alongside other luminaries including journalist Lisa Ling, cartoonist Gene Luen Yang, producer Melvin Mar, Andrea Cherng of the Panda Restaurant Group, and architect and professor Alvin Huang.

A cooking demo begins after the panel wraps, and General Tso's Chicken is indeed the dish of honor. You know that the entree traditionally boasts dried red chilis, and garlic, and cornstarch, and, yes, chicken, but every chef seems to put a different and delectable spin on the venerable edible.

Samples of General Tso's Chicken from Panda Express, the panel and demo's host, will be available (so stick around after the demo wraps for a taste, if you wish).

It's a festive night for a festively flavored take-out staple, but the to-dos extend beyond the demo stage. Look for KCRW DJs, a ukulele presentation, a photo booth, calligraphy and fruit carving events, and more.

But when the evening ends, will you long for some General Tso's take-out on the way home? It truly is one of the quintessential dishes of modern-day cookery, a meal that so distinctly itself that when you crave General Tso's, you need to find exactly that.

Of course, the "exactly that" with this hearty and piquant fare can mean a few different things depending on where you go, and that, too, is part of its amazing story.
The impending closure of a faded roadside inn turned residential motel has underscored conflicting visions over the future of affordable housing in gentrifying Costa Mesa.

The Costa Mesa Motor Inn on Harbor Boulevard is the first of half a dozen long-term occupancy motels that city leaders hope to see redeveloped.

"We're trying to clean up seedy motels," said Mayor Pro Tem Jim Righeimer.

But what City Hall sees as blight, advocates for low income residents contend serves as an alternative to homelessness for dozens of families with children in a city short of affordable apartments.

"This is a last resort," said Tim Dadey, who has lived at the Motor Inn for five years, paying $925 a month.

Dadey is one of four residents who filed suit against the city and the property owner after the City Council last November approved a plan to replace the motel with an upscale apartment complex.

The property owner offered long-term residents $5,500 in relocation assistance. Sixty day notices to residents went out earlier this summer, and most have already moved out, according to Ellia Thompson, attorney for the property owner Miracle Mile Properties. Fewer than 20 units remain occupied, she said.

Under the development plan approved by the city, the expected market rate for the new apartments would be expected to exceed the affordability of moderate income renters, currently about $1,800 a month in Orange County. Miracle Mile pledged to make 20 of the 224 units available to moderate income renters by pricing those units "below market."

However, advocates for affordable housing contend the city must require some units be affordable by lower income renters, and must take steps to replace the low income motel units that will disappear, said Cesar Covarrubias, executive director of the Kennedy Commission, a nonprofit that brought the suit with the four tenant petitioners.

Covarrubias contends the city triggered state law by encouraging the development with incentives such as higher density.

"We believe the city is not following state law by giving incentives without providing housing for the low and very low income," Covarrubias said.

The suit also contends the city must ensure there is a more rigorous relocation program than the property owner offered.

City officials and the developer's attorney disagree with the Kennedy Commission's analysis.

Righeimer is opposed to subsidizing rents as a matter of principal, he said. He has suggested families that find rents too expensive should consider moving to less costly areas.

"You want to make sure your kids are in decent housing," said Righeimer. "They shouldn't be in 300 square feet. And when somebody's doing something to help with first and last (month's rent), to move on with your life, you should do it."

Dadey takes offense.

"It's OK for people to work in the city, that make minimum wage, but not OK to live here," Dadey send.

Dadey and other residents do credit the Motor Inn's management with taking steps to rid the property of criminal activity--illegal drugs and prostitution--that many said had taken root in years past. But they contend that the city council's vision of a more wholesome future leaves them with less wholesome options for staying in Costa Mesa.

Once the property is vacant, there is nothing to stop demolition from proceeding. However, a court issued injunction currently blocks construction of the planned apartment building.

Thompson said the intent is to secure the property once it is fully vacated.

At this point, the hearing to determine whether the city's approval complied with the law will be held next February.
A New Jersey bus driver had only been on the job for 13 days when he pulled out in front a dump truck, resulting in a crash that killed 11-year-old Isabelle Tezla.

The National Transportation Safety Board was brought in to investigate the 2012 Chesterfield crash, which caused the bus to spin around like a top before slamming into a light pole. The driver had recently passed the nations most commonly used drug test, but the investigative body ultimately said the drivers "reduced vigilance" due to fatigue and the "sedative effects from his use of prescription medications" contributed to the crash.

The I-Team found that the test the driver passed  a five-panel drug test  didnt screen for the drug he was using, the powerful prescription opiate Tramadol. The test, which is the federal standard for commercial drivers and pilots, checks for illegal drugs but not the most commonly abused prescription drugs.

"The industry standards need to change, its not just what the federal government requires," said Heidi Villari, the Tezla familys attorney.

James Greer, the president of testing company Accredited Drug Testing, said agencies like the Federal Aviation Administration and the federal Department of Transportation only require drivers and pilots to take a five panel drug test, screening for THC, illicit opiates, PCP, cocaine, and amphetamines.

"There's an assumption that the five-panel is good enough for the federal government so it ought to in fact cover everything we need to know," said Greer.

He said an enhanced test, or a 10- or 12-panel test would catch more drug users, but it is rare that companies pay more for the more thorough test.

Dawn Nappi, a spokeswoman for Mothers Against Drunk Driving, has devoted her life to pushing for stricter drugged driving laws after her daughter 14-year-old Angelica was killed by a drugged driver when she was just 14 years old. She said it was disturbing that prescription drug addicts could slip through the cracks.

"It's very scary because you are eliminating testing for drugs that a lot of people are taking," Nappi said.

She added, "They are taking your life in their hands."

The Department of Health and Human Services, which sets drug testing policy, says they issued proposed changes last year to expand testing to include four additional prescription medications.

But drug testing experts say that proposal may take up to two years yours to go into effect. In the meantime, they say, the public is in danger.

As for Tezlas case, the driver never faced criminal charges and the bus company settled a civil case with the family.
A Long Island man has been charged after attacking a woman with a fork and a steak knife Friday night, police said.

Thomas W. Cummings, 47, knocked on the door of his neighbors apartment on Rose St. in Freeport around 9:45 p.m., detectives said.

When she opened the door, Cummings pushed his way in and stabbed her on her left arm and right hand with a fork he was carrying, according to police.

A man who was in the apartment entered the kitchen, allowing the woman to escape to a hallway, according to detectives. Cummings took a steak knife from a drawer, chased the woman down the hallway and slashed her back and stabbed her in the arm.

Cummings fled the scene and returned to his apartment where he was located by authorities and placed under arrest, according to police.

The woman was taken to a local hospital for treatment for her injuries, police said. Further details about her condition were not immediately available.

Cummings has been charged with two counts of burglary, one count of assault and two counts of criminal possession of a weapon, police said.

There was no information available as to whether Cummings has obtained a lawyer who could comment on the charges.

Cummings will be arraigned on Saturday at First District Court in Hempstead.
The second victim in the horrific t-bone crash between two New Jersey Transit buses in downtown Newark was identified Saturday.

Jesy Garcia, 49, of Newark, had been taken to University Hospital after the collision where she was pronounced dead hours after, according to police.

The buses collided on Raymond Boulevard near Broad Street shortly after 6 a.m. Friday. The driver of a No. 59 bus from Dunellen to Newark broadsided a No. 13 bus from Irvington to Clifton.

The driver of the No. 59 bus, James Barthelus, was the only person on board the vehicle and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Seventeen passengers were on the other bus. All of them and the driver were taken to hospitals in varying conditions.

The surviving bus driver, James Roberts, who had been on the job for 35 years, has been released from the hospital, authorities said.

NJ Transit police Chief Christopher Trucillo has said the bus agency was cooperating with prosecutors and others investigating the crash.

"We at NJ Transit would like to give our condolences to the family of our driver who is a long time NJ Transit employee and our hearts and sympathies go out not only to his family but also to all our bus employees because NJ Transit is a family and when an incident like this happens it impacts everyone in a meaningful way," said Trucillo.

The Essex County Prosecutor's Office is investigating the collision.
The stepmother of a 9-year-old girl whose body was found inside the bathtub of a Queens residence was charged Saturday with killing her, police said.

The stepmother, Shadai Argu, 55, was reported missing soon after friends kicked down the locked door of the bathroom Friday evening and discovered the body.

Argu was charged with second-degree murder after she was located and questioned by investigators. There was no information indicating she had yet obtained an attorney who could comment on her behalf.

Investigators initially said there was no sign of trauma on the body of Ashdeep Kaur when it was found inside the home on 112th Street in the Richmond Hill neighborhood.

They said Saturday that it appeared Ashdeep had been strangled.

Family members told NBC 4 New York that Ashdeep had moved to the United States from India about a month ago.

Ashdeep had stayed with her cousin's family for three days prior to her death, and didn't want to go home to her stepmother, her family said. She reluctantly returned home Friday, her family said.
Secretary of State John Kerry will be in Africa on Monday for talks in Kenya and Nigeria on countering terrorism before visiting Saudi Arabia to discuss the conflict in Yemen.

Kerry first meets with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta on regional issues including the upheaval in neighboring South Sudan and security in Somalia, where homegrown, al-Qaida-linked extremist group al-Shabab continues to launch deadly attacks in the capital.

On his last visit to the region in May 2015, Kerry became the first secretary of state to set foot in Somalia two decades after dead U.S. soldiers were dragged through the streets of its capital, Mogadishu. It was a symbolic visit to show support for the Horn of Africa nation's fledgling government.

Somalia faces key parliamentary elections next month and a presidential election in October. The country has been trying to rebuild after establishing its first functioning central government since 1991.

Kerry on Tuesday and Wednesday then visits the cities of Sokoto and Abuja in Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation of about 160 million people and one of its largest economies.

He will meet with President Muhammadu Buhari on the oil-rich country's worsening economy and its efforts to fight corruption. Kerry also will meet with leaders from the country's largely Muslim north, where extremist group Boko Haram was formed several years ago and continues to carry out attacks.

Boko Haram appears to be snarled in a power struggle after a new leader was announced by the Islamic State group earlier this month and the longtime leader protested.

In a statement Friday, Human Rights Watch urged Kerry to again urge Kenya's president not to close the world's largest refugee camp, Dadaab, without stability in neighboring Somalia. Kenyatta has said Kenya will close Dadaab camp this year after a quarter-century, putting more than 300,000 Somali refugees in limbo.

The rights group also urged Kerry to press Kenya for more reforms to police forces that have been accused of widespread abuses, and to press Nigeria to make "meaningful reforms" to a military that also has been accused of massive rights violations, including killings.

Kerry then heads to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday and Thursday for discussions on the conflict in neighboring Yemen. The talks will include Saudi leaders, counterparts from Britain and in the regional Gulf Cooperation Council and the U.N. special envoy for Yemen.

A Saudi-led coalition has been fighting Shiite rebels in Yemen, and rights groups and U.N. agencies say more than 9,000 people have been killed since Saudi-led airstrikes began in March 2015. Aid group Doctors Without Borders on Thursday announced it is withdrawing from northern Yemen after "indiscriminate bombings." It has seen four of its sponsored facilities attacked in Yemen this year.

The conflict has also pushed the Arab world's poorest nation to the brink of famine.
Three people, including a teen boy, are in the hospital after a man followed his ex-girlfriend home, leading to a massive shootout between two groups in West Philadelphia Saturday morning, according to police.

The ordeal began around 8 a.m. as a 21-year-old woman, her 19-year-old neighbor, 16-year-old brother and 2-year-old daughter went into a store in the area of 49th and Haverford Avenue to get breakfast.

As the group left the store, the woman was confronted by her 21-year-old ex-boyfriend, police said. The man asked her for money and the two began arguing, according to investigators. The woman then left with her neighbor, daughter and brother and drove away. Unbeknownst to them, the ex-boyfriend and three of his friends followed the woman as she drove home, according to investigators.

The woman, her daughter and 16-year-old brother later arrived at their home on the 100 block of S. 55th Street and went inside while her 19-year-old neighbor stood outside. Police say the womans ex-boyfriend and his three friends then arrived and confronted the 19-year-old neighbor. An argument ensued leading to the ex-boyfriend and his friends pulling out guns and opening fire on the 19-year-old man, police said.

The 19-year-old man ran into his home as the ex-boyfriend and his friends continued to shoot at him. At the time, the 19-year-old mans father and two brothers were inside his home. As the shooting continued, the 19-year-old mans family members grabbed their own weapons, which police say they legally owned, and began opening fire at the 21-year-old and his three friends, leading to a massive shootout.

During the shooting, the 21-year-old man's 15-year-old friend was struck in the groin and leg while his 24-year-old friend was also struck in the leg. The 19-year-old mans 25-year-old brother was also struck in the stomach.

The 24-year-old man is in stable condition while the 15-year-old boy and 25-year-old man are both in critical condition. No one else was injured during the shooting.

Police say the 21-year-old ex-boyfriend as well as his 24-year-old friend who was shot in the leg will face charges. Police are still deciding whether the 15-year-old boy who was shot as well as a fourth member of the ex-boyfriends group will face charges as well.

Police also said that the 19-year-old mans family members who opened fire on the 21-year-old ex-boyfriends group will not face charges since they were defending themselves.

Philadelphia Police Lieutenant John Walker said they recovered four guns from the scene of the shooting, including a shotgun.

These young men clearly have to resolve these situations in a better way, Lieutenant Walker said. Theres no reason to be firing a gun at 9:30 in the morning on a city street.

Police continue to investigate the incident.




Three people were injured in a head-on collision at the intersection of Carlton Oaks Drive and Oakbourne Road in Santee at around 12:35 p.m on Friday.

According to the San Diego County Sheriffs Department, a 2009 Nissan Xterra traveling north on Carlton Oaks Drive collided with a 2004 Toyota minivan as it was turning east onto Carlton Oaks Drive from southbound Oakbourne Road.

The driver of the Toyota van suffered serious injuries and the drivers son, 16, sustained non-life threatening injuries.

The driver of the Nissan suffered non-life threatening injuries as the collision caused the SUV to turn over on its side in the middle of the intersection.

All three passengers were taken to Sharp Memorial Hospital and are in stable condition.
A previously deported sex offender was arrested near the Calexico Port of Entry on Friday.

United States Border Patrol Agents at the El Centro station spotted the man running north away from the International Border fence near the Calexico Gran Plaza Outlets at around 2 a.m. Agents stopped the man and eventually determined that he had illegally crossed the border into the country.

Records showed that the man, a 48-year-old El Salvadorian national, had been convicted of assault to commit rape and served two years in a California prison.

The man will be criminally prosecuted for Re-Entry after Removal as a convicted sex offender.
There are an estimated 1,150 homeless veterans in San Diego currently.

United States Air Force veteran La Kisha Williams was one of them.

For eight months, the then pregnant, working mother lived in motels and shelters to keep her children off the streets.

It was heartbreaking. My kids werent going to their own room. I wasnt going home to my babys room," she said.

A joint federal and county program and a fellow U.S. military veteran looked past Williams' eviction, allowing her to rent a Spring Valley home and helped her back on her feet.

Stories like Williams' has the County of San Diego calling on landlords to help the homeless.

Were asking property owners to contact us by dialing 211 and they can make their property available," said David Estrella, Director of Integrated Services for the County of San Diego Health and Human Services.

And not just veterans.

"Project One For All began in July. Over the next three years, it's goal is to find homes for the estimated 1,250 homeless people in San Diego struggling with serious mental illness.

The charge for us is to match outreach, treatment and housing, said Estrella. By helping one of our most vulnerable populations we improve the well-being of our entire community."

Currently, 30 mentally ill, homeless people have vouchers for Section 8 housing, but officials say because of San Diego's low vacancy rates and high rent, those individuals can't find a home.

Williams knows that difficulty all too well. A year-and-a-half after being homeless, she is now off housing assistance and moving to a 4-bedroom home in Phoenix, Arizona.

Oh man!, exclaimed Williams. After being homeless, stability is the best. Stability case management and support a system when you dont have one and thats what they gave me from start to finish."

County officials say there are incentives for landlords who rent to veterans and people who are mentally ill.

Officials also say housing is essential to bringing stability, possibly leading to better health and success in the lives of the homeless.
Democratic vice presidential candidate Senator Tim Kaine visited San Diego Saturday for a private fundraiser for Hillary Clinton's campaign.

Just before noon, the Virginia senator stopped at a luncheon in Point Loma hosted by local Democratic donor Marcy Krinsk and her husband Jeffrey.

According the San Diego-Union Tribune, the price to attend the Clinton campaign fundraiser was $1,000 per person.

Parts of the road were closed off during the event. There were no protesters or large crowds gathered outside.

NBC 7 spoke with San Diego County Supervisor Dave Roberts outside the event as he was walking in. He told NBC 7 he was happy to be there.

Roberts said he has followed Kaine's career for years because they are both from Virginia.

Roberts said Kaine will understand the military needs of San Diego because Virginia is also home to a large military community.

Kaine left the fundraiser at around 1:15 p.m.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton named Kaine as her VP pick on July 22, just days before the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.

Kaine served as governor of Virginia before his election in 2012.
It's no day at the beach, but Hillary Clinton is having the political equivalent of a quiet August.

Donald Trump may be dominating the political chatter as he reboots a trailing campaign, but it's Clinton who's winning positive headlines during visits to some of the most competitive states in the presidential race.

The Republican nominee's constant state of campaign chaos is dulling the impact of stories about Clinton's emails and allowing her to spend plenty of time raising money behind closed doors.

"I think she's actually smart to stay quiet at this time. She's not a popular candidate with the Democrats. She has a lot of negatives herself. There's a lot of news that could be made about her," said Rick Tyler, a former aide to Ted Cruz, the Texas senator and onetime Trump rival.

But, Tyler said, it's all "getting subsumed by the black hole candidate that is Donald Trump."

A disastrous stretch for Trump has helped solidify Clinton's lead in national preference polls and most surveys in closely contested states. Clinton campaigned in Ohio and Pennsylvania this past week, and the Democratic nominee's voter registration efforts and policy pitches went largely unnoticed as Trump shook up his campaign staff.

Trump's reshuffling also overshadowed fresh stories about Clinton's use of a private email account and server as secretary of state.

"Donald Trump never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity," said Whit Ayres, a GOP pollster who worked for Florida Sen. Marco Rubio's presidential campaign.

Clinton seems more than content to let Trump dominate coverage on cable news and in national newspapers. In the meantime, her campaign has carefully courted journalists in the communities she visits, pushing tailored policy messages. For example, stressing her plans to respond to the Zika virus in Florida and how she'd support manufacturing jobs in Detroit.

Local supporters have hit Trump on issues such as his refusal to release his tax returns. Clinton had an opinion piece on water quality in this past week in Florida's Treasure Coast Newspapers.

After an appearance in Ohio on Wednesday, the top headline the next day in The Plain Dealer in Cleveland read, "Clinton Tears Trump Plan to Cut Estate Tax," while The New York Times' main campaign story focused on the tumult in the Trump campaign.

"If the Republicans are spending their time attacking and fighting each other, it gives you a little bit more liberty to go out there and articulate your message. They're not necessarily offering a counter-argument," said Chris Lehane, a Democratic strategist who worked in Bill Clinton's White House. "It gives you more real estate in a more uncluttered way to break through."

Republican pollster Greg Strimple said that's not just spin, arguing the "overarching national message of the campaign is not one that can unify the country, so I would focus on doing small events that have local flavor."

"It also keeps her profile lower," he said, "which allows the circular firing squad of the Trump campaign to continue."

Since the bus tour that followed the end of the Democratic convention, Clinton also has focused heavily on fundraising. She has been to more than 10 fundraisers in the first half of the month, hitting mansions in Miami and enjoying a private performance by Aretha Franklin in Detroit.

She's keeping up the pace, heading this weekend to Martha's Vineyard off the Massachusetts coast and to California next week. Clinton is on track to top the $90 million she raised for her campaign and Democratic allies in July.

Her campaign has been hard at work in the battleground states, eyeing the start of early voting in some places next month.

At his rallies, Trump often urges his backers to vote. But Clinton gets into the details at her events, plugging registration and urging people to cast absentee ballots.

"If you aren't registered and you're eligible, see the persons with the clipboards here," Clinton said during a recent event in Kissimmee, Florida. "We want you to be registered, and then we want you to be part of this campaign."

Trump has started to advertise on television and appears at ease with his new campaign team. His trip to flood-ravaged Louisiana on Friday won praise from residents who feel overlooked by President Barack Obama. He kept to his vacation schedule on Martha's Vineyard, though the White House announced he would visit Baton Rouge on Tuesday.

While Trump was in Louisiana, Clinton called the state's governor during a day spent fundraising on the East Coast.

"St. Amant loves Trump because he is here in the middle of everything," said Doug Ford, a Trump supporter who put out a sign in his front yard welcoming the Republican to the flooded town, where his trailer was filled with water. "We need him here because the president is not here."

But even with three presidential debates to come and the prospect of more negative stories about Clinton's emails, Republicans say she is well positioned to avoid the pitfalls that could arrive before the November vote.

"She's just got to execute a campaign professionally," said Tyler, the former Cruz aide. "If she does that, she's overwhelmingly likely to win."
What to Know Frozen strawberries from Egypt used at Tropical Smoothie Cafe stores appear to be linked to recent cases of hepatitis A in Virginia.

Officials say anyone who had a smoothie with frozen strawberries at a Tropical Smoothie Cafe in the last 50 days should watch for symptoms.

The smoothie chain says the cafes and their food handling practices ``have not been implicated in any way.''

Virginia health officials said several recent cases of hepatitis A may have been caused by frozen strawberries from a smoothie chain.

The Virginia Department of Health said testing indicates frozen strawberries from Egypt used at Tropical Smoothie Cafe stores may be to blame for the illnesses.

Tropical Smoothie Cafe said it stopped using strawberries from Egypt at all of its stores, including those outside Virginia, after learning about the potential issue. The smoothie chain said the cafes and their food handling practices "have not been implicated in any way."

Health officials are encouraging anyone who consumed a smoothie with frozen strawberries at a restaurant in the last 50 days to watch for symptoms of hepatitis A. Those include jaundice, fever, fatigue, loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, dark urine and light-colored stools.

Individuals who consumed a smoothie from a Tropical Smoothie Cafe in Virginia that contained frozen strawberries on Aug. 5, 6, 7 or 8, 2016, may still benefit from vaccine or immune globulin to prevent hepatitis A, the health department said.

Health officials said a vaccine or immune globulin given within two weeks of exposure to hepatitis A virus is effective at preventing the disease.

There are 96 Tropical Smoothie Cafe locations throughout Virginia, according to the chain's website. Visit their website for all locations. There is no information at this time that any Maryland locations have been affected.

If someone has had hepatitis A or has been vaccinated for hepatitis A, they are already immune and, therefore, not at risk for getting the disease. Anyone who consumed a smoothie after the frozen strawberries were removed from restaurants is not thought to be at risk for hepatitis A.

Other restaurants and firms that supply restaurants may also have received the frozen strawberries imported from Egypt, according to the Virginia Department of Health.

Below is the full statement from Tropical Smoothie Cafe:

"Tropical Smoothie Cafe was notified by the Virginia Department of Health about several foodborne illnesses in the state linked to frozen strawberries sourced from Egypt. Our cafes and their food handling practices have not been implicated in any way  the health department believes this is a single product issue (strawberries) sourced from Egypt. Egyptian strawberries represent a fraction of our overall strawberries purchased, and were predominantly distributed to stores in the Virginia market. Today, our strawberries are primarily sourced from Mexico and California. However, in an abundance of caution, we voluntarily pulled all strawberries sourced from Egypt from every cafe in our system, not only the Virginia cafes. Our primary concern is for the safety and well-being of our guests and crew members and we will continue to cooperate with the health authorities."

For more information about hepatitis A, visit the health department's website.

The Virginia Department of Health said anyone with questions concerning the investigation can contact their local health department.
What to Know A man has been charged with shooting a 7-year-old girl Friday night in Southeast D.C.

The child hit by a stray bullet was in fair condition as of Monday.

The father of the child hit on Knox Place SE is credited with saving her life.

Authorities said a District of Columbia man has pleaded guilty to charges stemming from a shooting that injured a 7-year-old girl when she was coming home from a pizza dinner.

U.S. Attorney Channing D. Phillip's office said Michael Wiggins, 27, pleaded guilty Friday to one count of aggravated assault while armed and one count of possession of a firearm during a crime of violence.

The plea agreement called for Wiggins to serve seven years in prison. He's scheduled to be sentenced in September.

Prosecutors said Wiggins fired four shots at his cousin's car last April and shattered the back windshield.

They said one of the shots hit the chest of a 7-year-old girl, who was returning home with her family after visiting Chuck E. Cheese.
A 7-Eleven convenience store employee was shot and killed early Saturday morning in Clinton, Maryland, and the gunman is still at large, police said.

Prince George's County police said they were called to the 9700 block of Brandywine Road in Clinton for reports of a shooting about 4:50 a.m.

Once they arrived on the scene, they found Taiwo Oduwole, 31, inside the business suffering from gunshot wounds.

Oduwole died a short time later at a hospital, police said.

Police said it appears someone was trying to rob the store. Detectives believe the same person robbed a hotel in the 7900 block of Malcolm Road in Clinton a short time after the shooting.

Police are offering a reward of up to $25,000 for information leading to an arrest or indictment. Anyone with information is asked to call the Prince George's County Police Department's Homicide Unit at (301) 772-4925, call Crime Solvers at 1 (866) 411-TIPS or text "PGPD plus your message" to CRIMES.
Two men and one female sustained multiple injuries after two cars rolled over in an accident that took place on Friday afternoon on Interstate 89 in Warner, New Hampshire.

According to State police, just before 4:30 p.m. they were dispatched to a rollover crash. When they arrived at the scene, they discovered a Mitsubishi driven by Jeffrey D. Scott, 60, of Amherst, New Hampshire, and a Toyota sport utility vehicle driven by Paul Bradley, 33, of Dennis Massachusetts. Both vehicles were off to the side of the road and both had sustained extensive damage.

Scott was taken to Dartmouth Hitchcock Hospital with multiple injuries. Bradley was ejected from the Toyota and taken to Concord Hospital along with a female passenger who had to be extricated by rescue personnel. Both suffered multiple injuries as well.

Scott had two dogs in his car, but they were uninjured.

If anyone has information on this crash, please call (603) 271-3636.
A Grafton County dispatcher is dead, one is injured, and a Haverhill Police officer is injured after a car accident that took place on Friday evening on Interstate 93 just north of exit 17 in the town of Canterbury, New Hampshire.

New Hampshire State Police report that Lincoln Police Department dispatcher Michael S. Weden, 29, of North Woodstock, New Hampshire was driving a red 2013 Ford F150 northbound on I-93 when the car drifted off the roadwy into the center median where it struck a cluster of trees.

As a result of the crash, passenger Lincoln Police Department dispatcher Steve M. Bomba, 25, of Lincoln, New Hampshire suffered fatal injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene. Another passenger, Officer Greg Collins, 41, of Piermont, New Hampshire suffered serious injuries. He was taken to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire.

Weden suffered non-life threatening injures and is being treated at an area hospital.

New Hampshire Governor Maggie Hassan provided the following statement regarding the accident:

Dispatcher Steven Bomba was a dedicated public servant, not only through his service to his community as a dispatcher, but also through his bravery and commitment to public safety as a firefighter in Lincoln. His heroic commitment to public service strengthened our communities and our state, and I join all Granite Staters in mourning his loss and wishing Officer Collins and Dispatcher Weden swift recoveries.

New Hampshires public safety officials put their lives on the line every day to protect their fellow citizens and keep our communities and our state safe. Now more than ever, it is our responsibility as Granite Staters to come together to support the families, loved ones and colleagues of Dispatcher Bomba, Officer Collins and Dispatcher Weden during this difficult time.

Weden and Bomba were also volunteer firefighters at the Lincoln Fire Department. All three men were coming back from the New Hampshire Police academy graduation ceremony.

The cause of the accident is unknown at this time. Anyone with more information about this accident is asked to call (603) 223-8699.
Residents in a Massachusetts neighborhood are in disbelief that a man accused of selling drugs tried to escape from police by disguising himself in an elaborate disguise.

Police surrounded an Old Main Street home in South Yarmouth on Thursday, where Shaun Miller, 31, was staying and ordered him outside.

Miller walked out dressed as an elderly man, but authorities said he was wearing a molded mask. When officers realized, they quickly pulled the mask off and arrested him.

Neighbor Peter Dunbar watched in disbelief as law enforcement from several different agencies raided the home.

"I think it was pretty clever," Dunbar said. "I've never seen something like that before. That's someone who really knows what they're doing."

Inside the home, police allegedly found weapons and nearly $30,000 in cash.

Investigators said Miller had been evading police for almost five months. His time on the run began after he avoided arrest during a major drug raid in early April.

Authorities said he was among 20 alleged members of the Hyannis-based Nauti-block gang  targeted for allegedly dealing heroin. When 19 of those people faced federal or state charges, the search for Miller began.

"Maybe he should get into the movies and do makeup," said Dennisport resident Jeremy Pina. "The amount of time and thought he put into eluding police, why don't you put that into a real job."

Police said the Nauti-block gang is not only accused of trafficking heroin across Cape Cod, but two alleged members of the gang have also been charged with murdering a woman in September of last year.

Miller was charged with possession of heroin with intent to distribute. He is being held without bail pending a hearing later this month.
The federal government is giving Maine close to $1.5 million to invest in the improvement of its health care centers.

The money is coming from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, and it will be used by health centers in the state to expand their systems. The DHHS says the money will also be used to improve delivery of primary care.

The health centers receiving grants are located all around the state, from York County to Lubec. The largest grant is going to Pines Health Services in Aroostook County.

The grants are part of more than $100 million that the federal government is giving out to more than 1,300 health centers in all 50 states and several U.S. territories.
A teacher from Narrangansett Regional High School in Templeton, Massachusetts was arrested on Friday morning for disseminating obscene matter to a minor and trafficking a person under 18 for sexual servitude.

According to the Templeton Police Department, the School Resource Officer received information on August 4, 2016, regarding teacher, 33-year-old Matthew Kacavich. The information warranted an investigation into his actions.

As the investigation went on, Gardner Police were asked to obtain a statement from a former student who had a past relationship with Kacavich after graduating. Subsequent to the interview, the School Resource Officer interviewed Kacavich, and discovered that he may be in contact with a current student at the school.

After obtaining permission from the minor student's parent to speak to the student about Kacavich, the School Resource Officer and Detective found out that Kacavich had inappropriate contact with the student during the last school year.

The Templeton Police Department obtained an arrest and search warrant, and early Friday morning members of the Templeton Police Department, Worcester Police Departrment and Worcester SWAT arrested Kacavich and searched his home.

Former students necn talked to said they were shocked.

"He seemed like he was a nice guy," said former student, Thomas Hill. "I liked having him as a teacher. Most people did."

Former student Melanie White said she never had any issues with Kacavich.

"I thought he was fine," said White. "A lot of my friends would have lunch in his classroom. I never did. I thought he was normal."

Dr. Christopher Casavant, Superintendent of Schools, said Kacavich is on paid administrative leave pending the investigation. He released a statement on Saturday:

"The District has no further information at this time, but will continue to update the community as we receive information that we are legally permitted to share publicly.

I want to personally thank the Templeton Police Department for their unwavering support and dedication to the students and staff of the Narragansett Regional School District. Please know, as District there nothing more important than the emotional and physical safety of our children."

Kacavich is in custody on a $2,500 cash bail, and he will be arraigned at the Gardner/Winchendon District Court.
A violent struggle caught on camera is the focus of a murder trial in Massachusetts.

Fifty-six-year-old Howard Penn is accused of first-degree murder in the shooting death of a co-worker at Rooming House in Worcester.

Video showed a Penn beating 52-year-old Lloyd Worster with his cane, with the struggle escalating after the man pulled out his gun, shooting and killing the beaten man.

Penn's defense admits Penn killed Worster, but says it was a case of self-defense, claiming Penn feared for his life after he says Worster told him "I should have killed you, next time I will."

During closing arguments, the prosecution told the jury his was not a case of self-defense - rather, it was a case of murder.

In the video, the men struggle and Worster forces Penn to the ground and starts kicking him in the corner.

The fight ends, and Penn is back on his feet as Worster starts to leave the Rooming House office with the defendant's cane.

At that point, the video show Penn taking a gun out of his bag and shooting Worster in the back, killing him.

The victim's daughter declined comment today. As for the jurors, they will return to deliberations Monday. They were sent home after a transformer in the courthouse blew, leaving them without lights or AC.


Flower festival marks Norwich churchs 50th birthday Flower festival marks Norwich churchs 50th birthday

A Flower Festival with an Art and Craft Exhibition is to held at St George's Catholic Church in Sprowston Road, Norwich from September 10 to 12 to help celebrate the churchs 50th anniversary.

Flowers arrangers from 15 catholic parishes from across East Anglia will be taking part with sponsorship from several others. Local Anglican churches, the Polish community and local flower clubs are also included, said Festival Co-ordinator, Marie Drew.



The exhibition will be open to the public from 10.30am on Saturday 10th and Monday September 12 and from noon until 5pm on Sunday 11th, with refreshments available on all three days.



Parish Priest, Fr Sean Connolly, has encouraged a variety of events throughout the year celebrating the 50th anniversary, from a Teddy Bears Picnic for toddlers to a free lunch and concert for the infirm and housebound, so that there should be something for everyone and open to the wider community.



The Festival also includes an Arts and Crafts Exhibition, which has been organised by St George's parishioner, Gill Bannon. We will be displaying a whole variety of work by local artists, from paintings to sculptor and from needlework to jewellery, she said.



On the Friday evening before the Festival officially begins, two former priests from St Georges, Monsignor Philip Shryane and Monsignor Anthony Rogers, will return to concelebrate with an opening Mass.



Festival Co-ordinator, Marie Drew, says the Flower Festival has been a year in the planning and, while it`s not seen primarily as a fund raiser, it`s hoped to cover expenses and make some profit to support The Holy Family Hospital in Bethlehem.



Admission is 2, which includes a Festival Guidebook.



Pictured above are organisers Marie Drew, left, and Gill Bannon at St Georges.


The U.S. Center for Disease Control extended its advisory Friday in Miami, warning pregnant women to avoid the South Beach area, which has been identified as an infection zone.

The CDC said pregnant women should also continue to avoid the Wynwood neighborhood of Miami, where the first local transmission of the Zika virus in the United States was detected.

Florida governor Rick Scott confirmed earlier Friday that tourist-heavy South Beach was the second area of Zika transmission in the continental U.S. He told reporters that five new Zika infections had been linked to the area.
Markers to show town's links to the past

BLUE plaques noting Thatchams history could be dotted around the town.

The town is believed to be the oldest in Britain, with evidence pointing to Mesolithic hunters settling in around 10,000 years ago.

The town also lays claim to three Victoria Cross winners and four-time president of the Royal Astronomical Society Francis Baily. Although born in Newbury, Baily is buried in the family vault in Thatchams St Marys Church.

Now, as a way to highlight Thatchams links to the past, a series of historical markers is being proposed.

Nick Young, of Thatcham Historical Society and Thatcham Vision, had previously explored such a scheme and had access to research, but it never took off.

The idea resurfaced through Thatcham Town Councils First World War working party as a way of recording notable historic information about people and places in Thatcham.

Sheila Ellison (Con, Thatcham North), who attended the unveiling of Francis Bailys plaque in Newbury, requested that Thatcham Town Council look at introducing the scheme.

Dr Young said it was a good idea as Thatcham needed to do more to promote its history.

However, he said that there would be a lot to sort out, including guidelines as to who should receive a plaque, where it should be placed, and how the scheme would be funded. Planning permission would also be required.

Dr Young added that his research had identified 10 people and places, including the Poplars and the Grange, as potential sites for plaques.

Thatcham Town Council will be inviting people to a meeting to discuss the scheme, including

representatives from local history and social organisations. The meeting will also be publicised in order for residents to become involved.

Councillors noted that the group would need to be independent from the town council in order to access a wider range of grant funding.
Intensifying competition in the business of cloud computing has also raised serious questions about security of operational data, analysts said. Civilian use of this technology spans wide areas, like data driven machinery, telecommunications, banking and transport systems, including plans for driverless vehicles.

China's home grown firms are not only grabbing domestic businesses but also venturing to different countries across the world. On the other hand, foreign players face regulatory walls that make it difficult to tap businesses in China.

The entry of Chinese vendors like Alibaba, Baidu, and Huawei will give a new twist to the dispute over cybersecurity as they compete with international players for control over data.

A cloud war could be in the offing, with Chinese companies trying to take on giants like Google, Amazon and Apple in the crucial data management market. The moves come in the midst of an intensifying dispute between the U.S. and China over issues like data hacking and network security.

 Data Concerns

"Many multinationals have serious concerns about the protection of their intellectual property in China, on and off line, and there have been a number of recent cases of international firms coming to believe that valuable information has been stolen from them through cyber means," Lee Branstetter, Associate Professor of Economics at the Heinz School of Policy and Management of the Carnegie Mellon University told VOA.

"All of this would give non-Chinese multinationals pause before entrusting their critical data to Chinese cloud computing service providers," he said.

But foreign companies with limited technology budgets, and those operating in China, may not have the luxury of higher priced services offered elsewhere, analysts said.

Chinese vendors are establishing data centers in different countries, and trying to tap sensitive data management business across the globe. Alibaba has established data centers in the U.S., parts of Asia, the Middle East and Europe.

But Branstetter does not think Chinese cloud vendors would pose a major challenge to the likes of Google, Microsoft and Amazon in the data management business.

"China's efforts to keep out foreign digital players are actually a real global outlier -- it is certainly the most digitally protectionist major economy. For this reason, I expect Chinese digital players to continue to be dominant at home, but I do not expect them to be very successful abroad," he said.

 Growing Behind the Wall

Government restrictions on foreign data vendors has left the field more or less clear for home made cloud computing firms, who are able to get major business opportunities without facing severe competition from international players. This is a massive chunk of business considering that over one-fifth of the Fortune 500 companies are of Chinese origin.

Under the rules, foreign cloud vendors can operate in China only if they have local partners, and use servers located in the country. But the Chinese market is too big for foreign companies to ignore.

Sheila Jasanoff, director, program on science, technology and society at Harvard Kennedy School, is worried that the unruly competition in the cloud computing business may result in a major accident before people wake up to the need for having strict rules.

"Cloud computing is still an unruly territory. People (in the business) are making rules as they go along or taking advantage of the lack of rules. I would think a big tragedy might happen in a large airport or other facility, like a hospital system, and it would result in loss of life," she said.

Security safeguards promised to customers by cloud computing compares are "extremely opaque", she said. An internationally accepted set of rules on data security is necessary. But she does not think that an international agreement would happen anytime soon.
What if one blood test could screen for more than 50 types of cancer?
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Noelle McGee is a Danville-based reporter at The News-Gazette. Her email is nmcgee@news-gazette.com, and you can follow her on Twitter (@n_mcgee).
Volkswagen has received approval by Germany's motor vehicle authority KBA for technical fixes on another 140,000 2.0-litre diesel cars with illegal emissions control software, a spokesman said.



The number of Volkswagen (VW) vehicles cleared for repair by the KBA since the start of the year has risen to about 5.2 million, the spokesman told Reuters.



Approval by Germany's KBA is valid for countries throughout Europe, where 8.5 million diesel cars are affected by VW's emissions-test cheating scandal. About 11 million autos are implicated globally, including 475,000 cars in the United States where the manipulations came to light last September.
Volvo Car Group has agreed a $300 million alliance with Uber to develop self-driving cars, the latest move by traditional vehicle manufacturers to team up with Silicon Valley firms seen as threats to their industry.



The partnership will allow the Swedish-based carmaker, owned by China's Geely, and ride-hailing service Uber to pool resources into initially developing the autonomous driving capabilities of its flagship XC90 SUV model. The investment will be shared roughly equally by the two companies.



Carpooling firms have formed alliances with large automakers to accelerate efforts to launch an autonomous car, a technology which depends on vehicle software and hardware working together to give a vehicle the right reflexes in traffic.



Companies such as Uber would make drastic savings on their biggest cost  paying the drivers, if they were able to incorporate self-driving cars into their fleet.



For the carmakers themselves, the ability of consumers to hail a cab via a simple app or hire a car by the hour risks putting them off buying their own vehicle.



Toyota Motor Co has said it is investing an undisclosed sum in Uber, while German rival Volkswagen has said it will back Gett, a ride-hailing company. General Motors has already acquired a stake in Uber's rival, Lyft.



In the latest alliance, Uber will purchase Volvos and then install its own driverless control system for the specific needs of its ride-hailing service.



Volvo will use the same vehicle for its own autonomous driving project, which is based on a plan that still envisages having a driver in the car.
Mumbai: Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday said that the government can think of a lower tax regime only when more and more people pay taxes.



Speaking on India's economy in Mumbai, he said, "If you take money from banks, learn to repay. And if you want lesser taxes don't evade it."



On the context of keeping GST rates in 17-18%, Jaitley said, industry and business must pay tax which is due.



"This is the only way to move country's economy. Tax evasion and moderate tax rates cannot co-exist. Evading taxes mean aberrations in tax structures," he added.



He also said that manufacturing is where mass jobs are, and insisted that "Make In India" is not just a slogan.



"When going is good, everybody is at their best. But defying trends to grow is a different thing. India did not take full advantage of low cost manufacturing & use of technology," he said.



Emanating optimism for the future, the minister said, "India has tremendous potential even in this Global slow down as the nation grows at commendable 7%. India is overtaking its competitors and has managed to stay ahead."
Kolkata: Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) will be transporting fuel to Tripura from Meghalaya through Bangladesh and for this the state-owned PSU has signed a pact with the neighbouring country.



The MoU was signed between IOC and Roads and Highways Department of People's Republic of Bangladesh in Dhaka on Friday, IOC said in a statement on Saturday.



The agreement would enable IOC transport petrol, diesel, kerosene and LPG from Meghalaya to Tripura via territory of Bangladesh in tank trucks by road as supplies had been hit due to the heavy rains and the dismal condition of NH 44, leading to the state from Assam.



These measures would ease the supply scenario in Tripura considerably, it added.




Thiruvananthapuram: A 65-year-old woman, Sheeluamma, was killed by 15 stray dogs at a sea shore near the state secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram on Friday night. She suffered dog bites all over her body and succumbed to injuries on her way to hospital.



The dogs also attacked the local people who tried to rescue the woman by chasing them away. Siluvamma's son Selvan, who was also attacked by the dogs while trying to rescue his mother, escaped by jumping into the sea.



According to the daughter-in-law of the victim, Sheeluamma went to the seafront to use a toilet there and did not return for quite some time. When her son went to look for her, he witnessed his mother being torn up by the hungry canines.



Her family and residents of the area were angry as they waited outside the state-run hospital to collect her body. They have blamed city authorities for inaction against the stray menace.







Barely an hour later, in a second attack Daisy, 50, was critically injured on the seafront.



Daisy's daughter Pathrosi said, "We were shocked to see both her hands bitten at several places by these dogs. Her condition was very serious when we brought her to the hospital."



"What sort of law do we have in our country. We are not going to take this again and we know what to do. We waited all this while to see if the authorities would do anything, but they say to us that cases would be registered against us if we try to eliminate dogs," said angry residents waiting in front of the home of the deceased.



"We have lost all our patience as the authorities are hanging on to some obscure law which says dogs cannot be eliminated. Are we inferior to these dogs," asked a group of angry residents in Pulluvilla.



The area near the airport is the worst affected by the stray menace in this coastal village, the residents said.



The residents of the coastal village have lashed out at Union Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi for her sympathy towards strays.



(With inputs from IANS)
Srinagar: Stone-pelting incidents were reported from over a dozen places in Kashmir on Friday but there were no casualties in the violence that took place even as curfew was extended to several areas to thwart a proposed march of the separatists.



"Twenty-one incidents of stone pelting were reported after Friday prayers from Sopore, Shopian, Kulgam, Baramulla, Handwara, Bandipora and Pulwama districts," police spokesman said tonight. However, there was no report of any casualty, he said.



Earlier, authorities had extended curfew to many towns including Aripathan and Magam areas of Budgam district in view of the call for a march to Airpathan given by separatists against the death of four civilians in clashes between CRPF and protesters there on August 16.



Curfew also remained in force in entire Srinagar district, Anantnag town, Pampore town, Shopian town, Khanpora in Baramulla, Ganderbal town and Kaloosa in Bandipora district on Friday, a police official said.



Hurriyat Conference leaders Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who are under house arrest, tried to take out the processions but were prevented by police.



Geelani was arrested soon after he came out of his Hyderpora residence here to offer Friday prayers in Aripanthan, a spokesman of his organisation said.



Mirwaiz, who was carrying a placard which read "stop state terrorism", was also taken into preventive custody when he tried to lead a march to Aripanthan from his Nigeen residence in the outskirts of the city, moderate Hurriyat Conference said in a statement.



Restrictions on the movement of the people were in force in rest of the Valley where normal life remained paralysed for the 42nd day.



The separatist camp, headed by Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Mohammad Yasin Malik, has extended the agitation till August 25. They had called for a march to Aripthan area of Budgam on Friday.



Schools, colleges and private offices remained closed while public transport remained off roads. The attendance in government offices was thin.Mobile internet and telephony services also remained suspended.



As many as 64 persons including two police personnel have been killed and several thousand others injured in the clashes that began on July 9.
Bhopal: With an aim of imparting technical and medical education in Hindi, the Madhya Pradesh's Atal Bihari Vajpayee Hindi Vishwavidyalaya has started courses in Hindi medium for electrical, mechanical and civil streams.



"The process is on for admitting students in electrical, mechanical and civil engineering degree and diploma courses. After completion of the procedure, we will start the classes soon in total Hindi medium," university's Vice Chancellor Dr Mohan Lal Chhipa told PTI on Saturday.



"We are determined to start these courses in Hindi language from this session even if a single student takes admission in it," Chhipa said when asked about the intake in these courses.



"The issue is not intake. We have to break this mindset of English that dominated the country for over 250 years. It can't be ended in just 70 years of country's Independence," he said.



Except few nations, many countries like Israel, Japan, China, Russia, Korea, Germany, Sweden and various others have teaching these courses in their own language and are progressing, he pointed out.



"We have to break this mindset that progress is assured through English only," the VC said.



He said it is a matter of pride that the university, which was founded in the name of noted Hindi scholar and former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, is working towards imparting education in technical subjects in Hindi medium.



The university at present is functioning from the Minto Hall (Old Vidhan Sabha building) and its own campus is being constructed in a 50 acre area.



The university will start engineering courses at present from Bhoj Open University's campus and will shift to the new campus once its construction is over, he said.



Chhipa said the university will focus on creating job-seekers, but will train them in a manner that they become job-creator for others.



The university has already drafted the syllabus in Hindi and appointed faculty for imparting engineering courses in Hindi. Besides degree courses, the university will also run diploma courses in these disciplines, he said. To begin with, the varsity is offering 30 seats each in civil, mechanical, electrical streams and also in diploma courses.



It will take some more time to start the medical courses in Hindi and the university has already written to the Medical Council of India to permit it.



"The process is long and will not change overnight, especially the mindset," he added.
New Delhi: A Delhi Police constable was shot dead by unknown assailants after he tried to nab them for snatching a bag from a woman in Shahabad area on Friday night.



The constable identified as Anand Singh, posted at Sector-V police check post in Bawana, got information about a snatching case. He immediately alerted other policemen and around 9.30 pm they spotted the snatchers at Samosa Chowk.



DCP (Outer) Vikramjeet Singh said, "The constable was chasing three unidentified miscreants who had snatched a bag from a woman in Sector 5 industrial area. Unfortunately, he was shot dead. We are looking for the killers and hopeful that soon they will be arrested."



He said, "He sustained bullet injury on the chest and declared brought dead in a nearby MB hospital."
Washington: Having a twin brother or sister increases your chances of living a life longer than singletons, new research has found.



Twins have lower mortality rates for both sexes throughout their lifetimes, the findings showed.



The researchers believe their results reflect the benefits of close social connections that twins generally share.



"We find that at nearly every age, identical twins survive at higher proportions than fraternal twins, and fraternal twins are a little higher than the general population," said lead author David Sharrow from University of Washington.



The data comes from the Danish Twin Registry, one of the oldest repositories of information about twins.



The authors looked at 2,932 pairs of same-sex twins who survived past the age of 10 who were born in Denmark between 1870 and 1900, so all had a complete lifespan.



They then compared their ages at death with data for the overall Danish population.



For men, they found that the peak benefit of having a twin came in the mid-40s.



That difference is about 6 percentage points, meaning that if out of 100 boys in the general population, 84 were still alive at age 45, then for twins that number was 90.



For women, the peak mortality advantage came in their early 60s, and the difference was about 10 percentage points.



"Our results lend support to a big body of literature that shows that social relationships are beneficial to health outcomes," Sharrow said.



A social network can boost health in many ways, he said. Friends can provide healthy outlets and activities, and encourage you to give up bad habits.



Just having a shoulder to cry on, a caregiver during an illness, or a friend to vent with can be healthy over the long term.



"There is benefit to having someone who is socially close to you who is looking out for you," Sharrow said.



"They may provide material or emotional support that lead to better longevity outcomes," he explained.



The study was published in the journal PLOS ONE.


: Timur Bakmambetov: Jack Huston, Toby Kebbel, Rodrigo Santoro, Morgan Freeman, Nazanin BoniadiSet in Roman-occupied Jerusalem, Ben-Hur has the story that most of the people are already aware of. A Jewish noblemen Ben Hur (Jack Huston), falsely accused of treason, is sold into slavery by his adaptive brother Messala (Toby Kebbel). After years of slavery under Romans and surviving a life full of never-ending drum beats, hes finally rescued by a Sheikh (Morgan Freeman). With Jesus making small cameos in the film, Ben Hur is finally convinced that he should take his revenge in the field and not with violence. The film begins and ends with a chariot race, which is probably the only scene youll realise is worth watching.Considering the fact that this is the fifth adaptation of the 1880 novel Ben Hur: A Tale Of the Christ Love followed by a series of silent films, the 11 Academy Awards-winning 1959 film and then the 2003 animated film of the same name, theres one question thatll bother you before the movie and more after you end up spending money on the film. Was this re-adaptation with new imagination really required?Apart from scenes here and there, even the 3D action-packed sequences fail to pack a punch. Scenes where Judah is banished to work as a slave or the chariot race that is successful enough in giving you an adrenaline rush are commendable but other than those, theres nothing worth applauding here. Its only towards the end that the chariot race draws in when you whole-heartedly decide to ignore the fact that Judah really enters the arena in a white shirt and trousers while every other competitor is perfectly protected in their uniforms!Jack Houstons gentle-eyed, solemn performance will move you, but only at times. He might have a charming personality but then that doesnt really help for a role as magnificent as this one. Tony is excellent in his portrayal of a man who is ready to go extra-length to achieve what he wants. The well-known actor Morgan, who assays the character of an Arab Sheikh is impressive with his punch lines such as You cant beat them, just outlive them or while betting his money against Romans pride but we expected so much more out of him!Looks like director Timur not just faired mediocre at the story telling level but also at the visual levels. One might expect tons of stunning visuals in a film as majestic as this one, but it has none. Even 3D fails to add weight to such muted colours and bumpy performances.For people who havent watched any of the previous adaptations, this might prove to be a better pick than Bollywood period dramas like Mohenjo Daro but for those who have, itll just be disappointing.
New Delhi: Sarod maestro Ustad Amjad Ali Khan has been granted a UK visa, ending his week-long ordeal after the British government denied him the travel document for a concert in September.



A much relieved Khan Sahib, as he is affectionately known, said: "Yes, the visa for my UK concert has been granted to me, finally. I am grateful to Mr Keith Vaz (British MP) and Shrimati Sushma Sawaraj (External Affairs Minister) for their initiative."



Amjad Ali Khan says he was summoned to the visa office of the UK High Commission here on Friday afternoon.



"I was called to be at the visa office for the third time. I've now been granted a visa for the UK from August 19 to September 19. Though I had asked for a visa till November I am just relieved the ordeal is over. I am so glad to have got my passport back. Now I can again travel the world with my sarod. My concert at the Royal Festival Hall South Bank on September 18 is now on.



Ustad Amjad Ali Khan will leave here on Saturday for a tenure of residency at the Indiana University Bloomington. During the tenure, he will take a break to perform in France and the UK.




Rio de Janerio: World record-holder Alexander Lesun of Russia won the men's modern pentathlon gold medal at the Rio Olympics on Saturday.

Lesun, denied a medal in London when he was pushed out of the top three in the closing running-shooting combined phase, got off to a hot start in Rio with an Olympic record 268 points in the fencing phase on Friday.

By completion of the swimming, fencing, show jumping and running/shooting he had amassed an Olympic record total of 1,479 points.

"I just did my job," he said of keeping his nose in front after his stellar fencing effort.

Ukraine's Pavlo Tymoshchenko earned silver with 1,472 and bronze went to Mexico's Ismael Hernandez on 1,468.

Tymoshchenko, joined 2008 women's bronze medallist Viktoria Tereschuk as the only Ukrainians to earn Olympic medals in modern pentathlon.

He pushed hard until the end, emerging from the pack in the run/shoot to fall seven seconds shy of seizing the gold.

"I almost believed that I could (catch Lesun), but it depended on his shooting and running," said the Ukrainian, the 2015 world champion. "I came close I guess.

"For Ukraine and modern pentathlon it's great," he said of getting a medal.

"It's not so easy to train in Ukraine and finally I could do it in my third Olympic Games."

Hernandez's bronze was a breakthrough medal for Mexico, and he fought fiercely over the final few meters of the run to claim it ahead of France's Valentin Prades.

"My entire life has passed in front of my eyes," he said.

"Those times I have failed, the victories I had -- everything that I went through along these years to not let this chance go away."
Rio de Janeiro: Cheick Sallah Cisse was the toast of the Ivory Coast on Friday as he won their first ever Olympic gold medal with a killer kick in the last second of the men's under-80kg taekwondo final.

Cisse created history for the West African country when he stunned third seed Lutalo Muhammad of Britain with a four-point score right at the death to win 8-6.

Tunisia's Oussama Oueslati and Milad Beigi Harchgani of Turkey won the bronze medals.

Ivory Coast's only previous Olympic medal was the silver won by Gabriel Tiacoh in the men's 400m at the 1984 Los Angeles Games.

Ivory Coast then got a second medal on the night when Ruth Gbagbi claimed bronze in the women's under-67kg class.

"I was able to realise this dream with courage and with passion. I don't have a lot of dreams, but this was one of them," he said afterwards.

British number one Muhammad was forlorn at coming so close to the title after taking bronze in London four years ago.

"I was a second away from my dream of being Olympic champion. I'm so sorry I don't want to cry on TV but I was so close," he told BBC straight after the fight.

He later revisited the moment when his gold dream was cruelly taken from him.

"It was the last kick, my check skimmed off and his reverse kick hit.

"It was a horrible moment when at the last second his points have gone on the board and the times run out and there's nothing you can do about it -- but hey, that's sport."

Muhammad had steamrollered into the final, ending American veteran Steven Lopez's dream of becoming the oldest ever taekwondo Olympic champion in the quarter-finals.

Reflecting om his performance the fifth seed from London borough of Walthamstow said: "I'm very happy and proud to be here, a second time Olympian, second time Olympic medallist -- a bronze, then silver, so we know what's next eh?

"I came within inches of achieving what has been a life goal for me. Of course emotions are raw. I was very sad about it. The sun will rise tomorrow. I'll get over it."

He paid tribute to Cisse, saying: "He's a very game champion, I wish him all the best, and I'll get him next time."

Before he left the arena he was asked if he would have done anything differently in the final, he thought for a second then replied simply: "Yeh - I'd have won."

In the women's under-67kg final South Korea's Oh Hy-Eri upset France's top seed Haby Niare 13-12. Gbagbi and Nur Tatar of Turkey won bronze.

A mammoth 40-match 13 hour day's action had begun in high drama with a shock defeat for second seed Aaron Cook.

The British-born player was fighting in the Olympics for the first time since Beijing 2008 after being controversially overlooked by British selectors for London 2012.

After a costly appeal -- funded in part by his parents -- failed to get him reinstated in the team Cook took dramatic action, switching nationalities to fight under the Moldovan flag.

The move was funded by Moldovan billionaire taekwondo federation president Igor Iuzefovici.

But his long circuitous route back to the Olympics came to nothing, his ambitions for gold left in tatters on the mat at Rio's Carioca Arena by Taiwan's Liu Wei-Ting.

The 25-year-old from Dorchester said: "I'm absolutely devastated -- all that hard work and sacrifice by myself and my parents, I just feel I've let everyone down," he shrugged, staring blankly into the distance.

"It didn't go right on the biggest stage and it's heartbreaking."
In a clear departure from the past, and facing one of the toughest electoral battles in her political career, BSP chief Mayawati has decided to hit the campaign trail much ahead of the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls next year. The first phase of BSP's campaign will be flagged off at a massive rally by the Dalit czarina in Agra on Sunday, from the same venue where Narendra Modi launched his UP campaign in the run up to 2014 general elections.



In this first phase of electoral blitzkrieg, Mayawati in the next one month will be addressing three more rallies- one every week- in different zones of the state. The Agra show of strength will be followed by a rally each at Azamgarh, Allahabad and Saharapur.



Party general secretary and BSP's Muslim face, Nasimuddin Siddiqui, will be in charge of this first phase of campaign. Preparations are on at full swing, BSP is hoping to draw in huge crowds- at least five-lakh people by party estimates- at each of this show of strength.



All the four venues have been carefully chosen and allude towards caste and religious combinations BSP seems to be working on for UP-2017. The first of the four rallies is in Agra, a division which has a substantial Dalit and Muslim population. It is this Dalit--Muslim or DM combination BSP seems to relying on this time around to end its exile from power. The DM factor would be at play at other three venues as well.



Mayawati's in the just concluded monsoon session of parliament took a belligerent stance against the ruling BJP for failing to rein in cow vigilantes across the country. Taking the battle to Prime Minister Modi's home state, she had raked-up the public flogging of dalits in Gujarat on the first day of the session. As the session progressed, she fine-tuned her political line accusing the government of the day for failing to prevent violence against Dalits and Muslims.



This twin-pronged strategy is aimed both at stemming attrition in its own ranks and mobilising Muslims to challenge the BJP. The saffron brigade has been for some time now attempting to wean away a section of the BSP core dalit votes- especially non-Jatav communities.



BSP's ticket distribution so far also alludes towards Mayawati's DM-gambit. In what is being seen by many as a do-or-die battle for the party, BSP is likely to allocate a big chunk of tickets to Muslims in assembly polls next year. It is expected that tentatively one out of every four candidate for 403 assembly segment will be from the minority community.



For example, take the case of Bijnor district in western-UP. Of the 8 assembly segments in the district, BSP had fielded 5 Muslims candidates as compared to 4 by the rival SP. Dalits and Muslims in some areas adjoining capital Delhi together constitute almost half the total electorate, making it a formidable combination at the ballot.



BSP this election has also scaled down its reliance on upper-caste or Brahmin votes which the party feels could be divided among multiple claimants in the field. With Congress openly playing the upper-caste card for its revival in UP, it would be difficult for the BSP to project itself as the first choice for this segment of the electorate.


I want to know if they are running a presidential form of government in the country," a fuming Banerjee told media persons while waving a letter by the National Institution for Transforming India (Niti) Aayog.

The Chief Minister said the motive behind the move was to deprive states where the BJP was not in power.



Banerjee, who is the Trinamool Congress supremo, said President Pranab Mukherjee's intervention would be sought against the Centre's arbitrary action.



Claiming that the recent recommendations for rationalisation of Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSSs) were "unilateral", West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday called the Narendra Modi government "dictatorial" and wondered if there was a presidential form of government in India.Mamata called the recommendations made by "BJP dominated" sub-group of chief ministers on the CSS rationalisation as an attack on federalism, and said the situation under the Modi government was worse than that during Emergency."The Centre has sent a letter declaring that the recommendations have been implemented. Citing cooperative federalism, they are actually bulldozing the states and democracy. This is nothing but dictatorship."The Union Cabinet earlier this month accepted the major recommendations of the sub-group on CSS rationalisation, including limiting the total number of schemes to 30 and changing the sharing pattern between the Centre and the states."This is the most arrogant government I have ever seen. This is the reason behind Jammu Kashmir issue turning into a disaster as also the Pakistan issue," she said."They have formed a public financial management system whose purpose is to the track the expenditure made by the states. Why do they want to monitor the state treasury? From media to education, the Centre is trying to control everything. They are trying take control of an elected government," the Trinamool leader said."This is a dangerous red signal to stop democracy. We will seek the President's intervention and also hit the streets in protest against the Centre's continuous attacks on democracy and federalism," added Banerjee.
New Delhi: Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai has lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi's remarks on the human rights situation in Balochistan, saying that there was extreme suffering in the region at the hands of "extremists promoted by state structures of Pakistan".



"Afghanistan and India have been very reserved in their comments on Pakistan from a very long long time. Of course, we need to talk because we are on the same platform," Karzai said in an interview to NewsX news channel.



In Balochistan, there is extreme suffering at the hands of extremists promoted by state structures in Pakistan," he added.



Karzai also said that India had approached the issue concerning Afghanistan with some caution.



"Yes, India approached the issue with caution and we understood it. There are considerations of Pakistani sensitivities which we of course disagree with," he said.



Modi, in his Independence Day address from the Red Fort, had referred to the situation in Balochistan, Gilgit, Baltistan and said people from these regions had thanked him a lot over the past few days for support.


It was not only the AK party people who were on the streets, but all the parties were there, from left to right. Biggest opposition party led a demonstration in support of democracy at Taksim square which is the symbol of these things, even the hooligans were there, supporting democracy, says a hopeful Muzaffer.

Mismanagement of Iraq in the post-invasion period; reckless transition of power that broke traditional Shia and Sunni power balance in Iraq and power vacuum because the Army was disqualified (read dissolved) led to the formation of various gangs and militias who took over, says Muzaffer.

They (West) didnt bring in any solution, but this didnt happen in the 1990s in the Eastern Europe, they supported democracy. They supported them, democratically, politically, and security umbrella was also given. Why dont they offer the same to Iraqis, is it because they (eastern Europeans) are humans and the Iraqis are quasi-human, Muzaffer laments. Yes, Saddam was a dictator but there was no war, no killing, no bombs no massacre, now everyday Iraqis are dying, he further adds.

Assad and Syria are the greatest tests of our generation. This is a humanitarian crisis and we should take care of this humanitarian crisis. Assad regime is committing atrocities, committing massacres, and the Syrians are facing a genocide, says Muzaffer.

It is the fault of the Muslim states. OIC has 56 Muslim states and only Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon are taking care of refugees. This is our responsibility to protect these refugees from Assad. This is a pity. Why Muslims are flowing to Europe and not to Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Iran or any other Muslim country, says Muzaffer.

The night of 15th July is deeply etched in the mind of Muzaffer Senel when a faction from within the Turkish Army attempted a coup d'etat in a bid to topple the democratically elected regime of Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The country, in the past 1 year, has witnessed a substantial rise in terror attacks and has also looked drifting toward increasing authoritarianism.The coup, for the Erdogan dispensation, did come as a surprise, but the way people thronged the streets the very same night, forced those behind the coup to succumb, indicating that Erdogan hasnt lost his support base as yet. After all, it was Erdogan whose exhortations brought the people onto the streets against huge military tanks and the red flags fluttered all over turkey.Muzaffer Senel, who is currently a lecturer at Istanbul Sehir University, Department of Political Science, Acting Director of Center for Modern Turkish Studies, and an expert in Middle-East and European Union, however, differs with this viewpoint. He believes that the people of Turkey came out that night, primarily, to support the democratic principles and civilian politics.Civilians were on the streets, in the squares to protect their rights, democracy. Civilians were against military junta and today we have an effective government in Turkey, says Muzaffer. Erdogans rule in the region of Middle-East was always referred to as the perfect embodiment of how Islam and Democracy can blend and function without almost any difficulty.However, in 2013, the events at Gezi Park, for the first time, projected the other side of the Erdogan government when suppression took precedence over civilian rights. A project that was personally pushed by Erdogan encountered impediments from the civilians who took to the streets to thwart Erdogans project of building an Ottoman styled shopping centre.More than 200 people died on 15th July 2016 when a faction from within Turkish Army attempted a coup d'etat to overthrow Erdogan. (Picture Courtesy: Reuters)While the government decided not to demolish the park and build a shopping mall, it did decide to brutally purge demonstrations; the police evicted hundreds of thousands of people vigorously. Turkish politics, since then seems to have changed a fair bit. Erdogan regime has become increasingly assertive, at times propagating Islamist ideas and receiving flak from all quarters.The rise in the number of terror attacks and now a coup attempt that sent shockwaves across Turkey could further result in rising vigilantism by Erdogan regime. Many in the west also believe that Erdogan would utilize this failed coup attempt to destroy his opponents as the administration is on a detention spree since the night of 15th July.However, Muzaffer has different ideas. He thinks neither a party nor the President himself is over and above the will of the people in Turkey. Turkish people are stronger than AK party or Erdogan. These people were there to support civil politics and civil political parties. People were there to protect civil rights and Erdogan is a symbol of those rights as of today. If people dont like Erdogan, for sure Erdogan will lose power, says Muzaffer.The year 2014 brought unprecedented turn to the war against terror as the world witnessed the arrival of the Islamic state of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). What also shocked the world was the ascension of the ISIS due to a variety of reasons. Known by different names such as ISIS, IS, ISIL and Daesh, this group of bigoted terrorists has inflicted brutal assault on civilians in Iraq and Syria. From high-quality propaganda videos to mass beheadings, the group has resorted to every possible means to instill fear in the minds of people.In 2016, Iraq and Syria are in ruins. Some of the regions in Syria have been deprived of humanitarian aid, hospitals have been attacked and besieged towns have become open prisons. The violence hasnt halted, and ISIS is believed to have spread its sleeper cells as far as Australia, South Asia, and many European countries where it regularly carries out deadly attacks.Two of the Former Envoys to Iraq and Syria, Kofi Annan and Lakhdar Brahimi have vehemently criticized the international community for having not done enough to curtail violence. Kofi Annan, in his book Interventions, says that most of the evidence that the US used to support Iraq war was circumstantial and it was never proved that Saddam was in possession of weapons of mass destruction, as Bush- Blair duo claimed.Muzaffer and various other noted authors and experts such as Peter Cockburn, Tariq Ali, Noam Chomsky and former US Ambassador to Croatia Peter W Galbraith seem to be on the same page as far as the arbitrary invasion of Iraq is concerned. Muzaffer underlines three main factors why Iraq plunged into violence and sectarian schism came to the fore.On 3 July 2016, in the deadliest bomb attack in Iraq since 2003 , more than 300 people were killed in Baghdad. (Picture Courtesy: Reuters)Muzaffer also refers to the way crisis was dealt with in Iraq and how it is different from the way the west supported the Eastern Europe in the 1990s when not only did the Berlin wall fall, but the Soviet Union also got dissolved.All of this seems to have been further vindicated by Sir John Chilcots report that slammed former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom for having not only exaggerated the threat posed by Saddam but also committed the UK in haste based on flawed Intelligence.Syria, however, is a different case altogether. The wave of Arab-Spring, a call for fundamental rights; which till now had remained elusive under various dictators across the region, reached Syria and quickly brought people to the streets. Many, including Hosni Mubarak, Muammar Gaddafi, Ben Ali had either fallen or been on the verge of collapse.After five years in 2016, the only thing that has remained the same is the president of Syria, Bashar-al-Assad. The number of civilian deaths has risen to a mammoth 400000 as per the latest reports and the civil war has displaced more than half of the total population. Assad regime is believed to be controlling just over 17% of total Syrian territory, the rest being under siege of ISIS, Al-Nusra Front and various other Militias backed by the west and Saudi Arabia.All the efforts against the ISIS have fallen flat and the group continues its brutality in the name of Islam. Assad, on the other hand, backed by regional ally Iran and Russia, has repudiated all the prospects of peace wherein his resignation has been at the forefront of affairs. Syria has become a concentration camp like we had in the world war two. Syria is being bombed every day. Aleppo is being bombed every day. There are crimes against humanity in Syria and the international community should help, says Muzaffer.After five years of this cataclysmic war that doesnt seem to be ending, life expectancy in Syria has reduced almost by two decades. Schools, hospitals etc have been laid to ground further exacerbating the misery of people. The solution, however, still doesnt seem to be in sight.In international politics, for years, the foreign policy of countries has been dictated by their geopolitical interest, regional hegemony, having their sway over weaker states and supporting different parties and policies leading to their direct or indirect interference in the internal affairs of others. Saudi Arabia and Iran, arguably the most powerful of all the Middle-East countries, have perennially stood on the opposite sides.From the Iraq-Iran war in the 1980s to the civil war in Iraq and Syria, Saudi Arabia and Iran have always ensured that their interests get served. This is because of the selfishness of Iran and Saudi Arabia. For Saudi Arabia, democracy is a threat to the regime itself. Iran is semi-democracy because the elections are not fair and are controlled by Wilayat-e-Faqih(Central axis of Shia Political thought). Iran and Saudi Arabia are traditional enemies. They see each other as ontological other, says Muzaffer.During the course of the civil war in Syria, Saudi Arabia and Iran have supported various factions. Saudi Arabia and West have supported and armed moderate rebels as they like to call them, while Iran has wholeheartedly backed the brutal Assad regime. Vladimir Putin, after having fought a war in Ukraine, intervened in Syria too on the side of Assad and guarded his fort against falling to the ISIS.US President, Barack Obama thought that Russian intervention could have wider ramifications and it would become difficult for Putin to extricate himself from Syrian quagmire. However, Russia has already started withdrawing, certainly after realizing what happened back in the 1980s when the Afghan war led to their economic destruction and eventually dissolution.The Civil war in Syria and Iraq, ISIS barbarity, Saudi Arabias onslaught on Yemen etc have made the lives of civilians in these areas extremely difficult thereby triggering another crisis. More than 1 million refugees fled their respective countries in 2015, most of them Syrians and Iraqis, and sought asylum in Europe. However, their voyage from Turkey, in most of the cases, to the countries such as Macedonia, Greece, and Hungary through the Mediterranean Sea is at the peril of their life.More than 4000 migrants have already drowned in the Mediterranean Sea owing to the dilapidated state of ferries. Some of the boats also capsized because they were stuffed with migrants beyond their capacity. In 2015 alone, Germany received more than 450000 asylum applications, but the Refugee crisis is reflective of the failure of some of the dominant countries in the middle-east such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Qatar and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).A refugee grapples with water waves in the Mediterranean Sea. More than 5000 refugees have already drowned as fragile boats continue to capsize frequently. (Picture Courtesy: Reuters)While the Muslim countries fail to accommodate refugees, the rise of Far-right in Europe has also aggravated the crisis. With the rise of movements such as PEGIDA and parties such as Alternative for Germany (AfD) have resorted to anti-Islam rhetoric very often and scored well amongst their supporters. AfD went on to propose a ban on the mosques in Germany. This nationalistic wave has smitten countries such as the United Kingdom where Ukip backed Brexit and posed the refugee crisis as the biggest impending infringement on the UK.The Far-right Freedom Party in Austria led by Nobert Hofer lost the final round of Presidential elections by a minuscule 0.6% margin. The far right is growing but it never became mainstream. NGOs and other institutions are also standing against them and against xenophobia. They (Far-right) are xenophobic, they are racist. For Arab people they are racist, for Europe they are far right, this is political correctness, but Muslims in Europe are still more secure than Muslim countries, says Muzaffer.
Lisbon: Portugal has said it may take diplomatic action after the twin sons of the Iraqi ambassador were arrested on suspicion of savagely beating a 15-year-old boy.



The incident happened in the pre-dawn hours Wednesday in Ponte de Sor, central Portugal, following a brawl between local people and pupils at a nearby flight school where one of the twins is enrolled, the Portuguese media said on Friday.



A source close to the inquiry said the 17-year-old twin sons of the Iraqi ambassador in Lisbon, Saad Mohamed Ridha, were arrested but then released because they had diplomatic immunity.



The boy suffered a fractured skull and other extensive injuries and has been placed in an artificial coma, local media said.



Amid rising anger at the attack, the foreign ministry yesterday said the incident was "a case of great seriousness."



The ministry will take "the necessary and appropriate measures... if the judicial authorities request it," the ministry said, pointing to the brothers' diplomatic immunity.



The Iraqi embassy could not immediately be reached for comment.


Two missing juveniles were taken into custody in Roanoke after disappearing from Lynchburg Juvenile Detention Center employees at Riverside Park on Aug. 11.

According to a news release from the Lynchburg Police Department, one of the wanted juveniles was taken into custody in the 800-block of Highland Avenue in Roanoke after engaging in short foot chase with an officer on an unrelated matter.

The second missing juvenile turned himself into authorities later in the day at the intersection of 9th Street and Jamison Avenue in Roanoke. He was taken into custody without incident, the release said.

On Aug. 11, the Lynchburg Police Department was dispatched to help assist Detention Center employees locate the missing juveniles. Three juveniles went missing from the park a court-ordered post-dispositional program at the detention center. One juvenile was found quickly.

The two boys originally were placed with the detention center on non-violent felony offenses.

Tobi Walsh
NEW YORK (AP)  Electronic violinist Lindsey Stirling's emotional roller coaster of a year included the death of her best friend and keyboardist and learning that her father had cancer.

Stirling tried keeping busy with work instead of dealing with her feelings head-on. And as she began composing new songs, things weren't coming together.

"At first I was writing the most depressing stuff. ... It just wasn't very great music ... and it didn't have a lot of depth to it," Stirling said. "I kind of realized I have to process these emotions myself before I can write about them."

Once she gave herself time to grieve and deal with life away from work  which included traveling home to Arizona to be with family and going to therapy  making music felt natural again, and therapeutic.

"I want to learn how to open my heart up more," she said. "A lot of times I hide from emotions by just working and distracting myself."

Stirling, 29, reached that goal and came through stronger with "Brave Enough," a new album she says is her most cohesive release yet. She closes the 14-track set with the emotional instrumental track "Gavi's Song," an ode to her friend and fellow musician Jason Gaviati, who died last year after battling Burkitt lymphoma.

"Brave Enough," out Friday, features collaborations with Zedd, Weezer's Rivers Cuomo, Lecrae, Christina Perri and Andrew McMahon. It's the follow-up to 2014's "Shatter Me," the gold-certified album in which Stirling wrote about overcoming anorexia. It won top dance/electronic album at the Billboard Music Awards, besting releases from Calvin Harris, Avicii and Disclosure.

"I'm not being self-deprecating here, but it's weird to see your name with people (like them)," she said.

Stirling agrees she's an electronic artist, but says it's hard to really pinpoint her sound and style: "I still kind of call myself that 'cause I just don't know what else to call myself."

"Pixie violin electro isn't a category," she added.

Stirling rose to fame on YouTube after posting videos on her own channel, which has more than 1.3 billion views. She released her debut in 2012 and put out music independently because major labels weren't "interested."

"All of the labels jump up once you prove that something's successful," she said.

Stirling grew fond of the violin after hearing her parents play classical music around the house and later discovered pop violinists David Garrett and Vanessa-Mae. In high school, she fell in love with rock bands such as Jimmy Eat World and Weezer, and in college, electronic acts like Skrillex.

Her first violin, she said, was a "cereal box with a toilet paper roll taped to it." Her teacher told her to practice holding it before getting the real thing.

Stirling will launch a tour on Sept. 21 in San Diego and said she's excited when her fans  both young and old  bring their violins to her live shows.

"That to me is one of the biggest, exciting compliments I get," she said.
US: We See

No Signs

Putin Will

Use Dirty Bomb
(Newser)  When Hernan Cortez and his Spanish army marched into Cholula in present-day Mexico nearly 500 years ago, they were greeted by a peaceful people prone to building pyramids instead of stockpiles of weapons. Those people and their pyramids fell, and fast, with 10% of the local population murdered in a day as their pyramids were torched into oblivion. But as legend has it, one mud-brick pyramid was hidden, perhaps accidentally by vegetation, and was for centuries mistaken for a mountain, until locals began to construct an insane asylum in 1910. That's when they discovered the largest monument ever constructed anywhere in the world. Tlachihualtepetl, or the Great Pyramid of Cholula, stands more than 200 feet tall and nearly 1,500 feet wide, dwarfing the Great Pyramid of Giza in volume, reports the BBC.

The Spaniards settled in Cholula and kept up with the local affinity for religious monuments, erecting enough churches so that there is now at least one for every day of the year. But when they built the Iglesia de Nuestra Senora de los Remediosa on what they believed was a big hill, they were actually placing a sort of ornamental top on what is in reality a pyramid setup modeled similarly to Russian stacking dolls, this one stacked at least six pyramids high. The original is thought to date back to around 300 BC, with each successive pyramid built over it by future civilizations. Today the "odd landmark" doesn't look like much more than a "grassy pre-Hispanic pyramid," as Afar magazine reports, but the marketplace that winds up from the pyramid's base to the church at its top is a testament to its exceptional endurance. (Giza stands slightly askew.)
(Newser)  San Diegobased attorney Shawn McMillan takes on only one type of case: those against California's child protective services agencies, which has paid out $20 million since 2005 as a result of his cases. Randy and Danyelle Branning were among his clients. At Atavist, Jessica Weisberg describes the "nightmare" that began for the couple on August 29, 2013, when a sheriff's deputy and two female CPS workers arrived at their Eastvale, Calif., home to ask about "an incident" the previous day: Danyelle's stepdaughter, Amber, was caught smoking pot, the latest in a string of troubles for the 16-year-old. Randy was a yeller and had a temper. But the visit to the house came in reaction to what Amber allegedly told a school counselor: that her dad had head-butted her. He hadn't.

Within 10 minutes, the women determined Amber needed to be put in foster care, along with "Kelly," 10, and "Cory," 6, because Randy posed too much of a threat. This though there was no warrant as required unless there is "imminent danger"; though Kelly was taped saying her dad had never once been violent; and though Danyelle frantically tried to come up with alternativesRandy could leave, the kids could go to her mom's. Weisberg charts the painful course that followed: the family court case that cost them their savings, Kelly's revelation that Cory had been molested while in foster care, Amber running away from foster care, and the case they filed with McMillan's help against Riverside County, a few social workers, and two foster agencies. They settled for $800,000, but Danyelle is "afraid of my own children now." Read Weisberg's nuanced story in full to find out why. (Read more Longform stories.)
(Newser)  Police looking for a 31-year-old man suspected of dealing heroin converged on a house in South Yarmouth, Massachusetts, Thursday, and ordered everybody out. Among those to emerge was an elderly manor so it seemed. Cops eventually realized the man they were speaking with was actually fugitive Shaun Miller in disguise, reports Boston.com. "It was Hollywood quality," says a police lieutenant of the rubbery mask, per the Cape Cod Times. "It was unbelievable." Two things that raised red flags: Police found $10,000 on the old guy, and his eyes did not look like those of a senior citizen. He was probably expecting us to move him outside the danger zone" so he could sneak away, says the lieutenant. (Read more weird crimes stories.)
(Newser)  A longtime Penn State professor was allegedly murdered by his friends in an attempt to profit off his death, the Centre Daily Times reports. The body of 56-year-old associate professor of media studies Ronald Bettig was found Wednesday in a Pennsylvania quarrytwo days after George Ishler reported him missing. Danelle Geier, who lived with Bettig, allegedly told police she and Ishler lured Bettig to the quarry Aug. 12 on the pretext of harvesting marijuana. Authorities say Bettig was pushed off an 80-foot cliff at the site, reports WGAL. Geier told police she waited in the car while Ishler killed Bettig, according to a court affidavit. Police say the pair originally planned to drown Bettig in the ocean.

Ishler allegedly told police he was upset about Bettig and Geier's relationship and didn't like how Bettig was treating Geier during a trip to the beach. Police, who describe Ishler and Geier as "known drug users," say Ishler was in possession of a will recently signed by Bettig. Ishler was charged with murder; no charges have been filed against Geier at this time. Bettig started teaching at Penn State in 1988, according to a statement from the university that describes him as an "intensely private" person and a "nutty professor," if you didn't know him well. "We are deeply saddened by the loss," a colleague says. "He was a part of the fabric of this college for many years." (Read more Penn State stories.)
(Newser)  It's unconstitutional to keep poor defendants in jail before their trial simply because they can't afford to pay bail. That's according to an amicus brief filed in federal court by the Justice Department on Friday, Reuters reports. According to NBC News, the Justice Department found that the practice violates the 14th Amendment and that bail amounts that don't take poverty into account "unlawfully discriminate based on indigence." It says courts must find a better way to make sure impoverished defendants show up to court than keeping them in jail.

The brief was filed in the case of Maurice Walker. Walker, who is poor and has mental health issues, was arrested for being a pedestrian under the influence in Calhoun, Georgia, the Huffington Post reports. Court is only held once per week in Calhoun, and Walker was kept in jail for six days because he couldn't afford to pay the $160 bail for his freedom. The city argued that it's perfectly legal to set bail amounts based on the seriousness of crimes without any consideration for a defendant's ability to pay it. A federal court ruled against Calhoun, but the city appealed. (Read more bail stories.)
(Newser)  A 42-year-old police constable came into an Indian hospital complaining of stomach pain, the Times of India reports. According to the Telegraph, an ultrasound showed a mass doctors believed to be cancer. The reality was much more disturbing. An endoscopy revealed the mass to be a whole bunch of knives. On Sunday, doctors performed surgery, removing 40 knives from the man's stomach, News 18 reports. Dr. Jitinder Malhotra calls the five-hour operation the "most dreadful surgery" he's ever performed.

The unnamed man had apparently been eating the knives for two months because he felt like it and enjoyed the taste. Doctors say he's suffering from some sort of psychological problem. "This was very unnerving," the Telegraph quotes Malhotra as saying. "I have not witnessed something like this in my career as a doctor." Despite recently having 40 knives of various sizes piling up in his stomach, the man is expected to be OK. (Read more knife stories.)
New Delhi:

A Delhi Police constable was shot dead by miscreants while he was chasing them after they had snatched a bag from a woman in Shahabad area tonight.

Anand was chasing three unidentified miscreants who had snatched the bag from a woman in Sector 5 industrial area around 9.30 PM, when he was shot at, said DCP (Outer) Vikramjeet Singh.

The constable, who was posted at sector five police chowki in Bawana, spotted the snatchers near Samosa Chowk in the area and chased them following which they fired at him, police said.

Anand sustained bullet injury on the chest. He was rushed to a nearby hospital where doctors declared him dead, they said.

The incident occurred hours after Delhi Police Commissioner Alok Kumar, during a crime review meeting, instructed senior officials to curb street crimes in the national capital.

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Srinagar:

Amid the ongoing protests in Kashmir, the army on Friday admitted that a 32-year-old school teacher was beaten to death by its soldiers during overnight raids at a village, 40 km from Srinagar.

The teacher Shabir Ahmad Mangoo, who taught at a government school, was killed when he and several others were thrashed on Wednesday night at Khrew.

Army said actions by its soldiers like the one in which a lecturer was killed will not be tolerated.

"These raids were not sanctioned in the first place. It is unjusitified. Nobody can support it and it will not be tolerated," Northern Army Commander Lt Gen D S Hooda told reporters here.

He said an inquiry has been ordered into the incident that took place during the intervening night of August 17 and 18 in Khrew area of Pulwama district.

Shabir Ahmad Monga, a lecturer, was killed and 18 others sustained injuries when they were thrashed by army personnel who were conducting nocturnal raids to arrest stone pelters in the area.

Asked about the circumstances that led to the incident, the army commander said according to information he has, the troops came under stone pelting by the mobs.

"The instructions are there to exercise maximum restraint but these are difficult times. The security forces are facing tough times and sometimes things get out of hand," he added.

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New Delhi:

Expanding its digital presence, the External Affairs Ministry launched an app, bringing websites and various social media handles of over 170 Indian missions on a common platform to further its public outreach.

The app, developed in cooperation with social media giant Facebook, will help people connect with Indian missions abroad and the Ministry of External Affairs through a range of social media platforms without having to access individual websites.

The app is a one stop shop to find social media handles twitter, youtube and websites of all Indian missions abroad, said External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup.

Speaking on the occasion, Ankhi Das, Public Policy Director of Facebook for India and South and Central Asia, said no terrorist contents are allowed by Facebook as it does not allow valourisation of terror.

Complimenting the External Affairs Ministry for its social media outreach, she said Facebook has made the app for free.

Currently over 165 Indian missions and posts are on Twitter and 172 on Facebook, while 124 have their websites and many of them their youtube channels.

Instead of searching for websites, Facebook pages and twitter handle of individual missions, people through the app can just tap on the map of the country and immediately all social media platforms of the mission will get flashed on screen.

Swarup said the the app, hosted on Facebook pages of MEA and Indian Diplomacy, will help people in distress to contact the missions without any hassles.

I think it is also in sync with the activism that our Foreign Minister herself has shown on Twitter where every night she reaches out to people who send out their messages (for help), said Swarup.

The MEA uses Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Instagram, Gplus, Soundcloud, Flickr to reach out to people as part of its social media engagement.

Das said the launch of the app is an example of consumerisation of foreign policy, putting power in peoples hand. Talking about power of Facebook, she said 100 million hours of video gets posted to it every day, while the number of average posts is a staggering 2.3 trillion. She said Facebook has over 155 million users in India.

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Mumbai:

The Bombay High Court has imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on the father of a minor boy, who drove his family car without having a licence and met with an accident in the city last year injuring his minor friend sitting behind.

After the accident on November 14, 2015, the injured boy was hospitalised and a case of negligent driving was filed in Versova Police Station against the boy who was driving the car which had crashed against a road divider in Lokhandwala area of suburban Andheri Versova.

However, parents of the both the children later came to a settlement and jointly filed a petition in the high court seeking to quash the FIR.

In the normal circumstances, we would have allowed the parties to get the FIR quashed without imposing cost or on a payment of nominal cost. But the facts of this case are disturbing in nature, observed a bench headed by Justice Naresh Patil in a recent order.

The owner of the vehicle i.e petitioners father allowed his minor son to drive a four wheeler due to which minor son of the respondent suffered very serious injuries. We share concern of the public prosecutor that message must go to the society at large. In such a situation even a by-passer or any other third party could have suffered serious damage or injuries. Fortunately that did not happen, the bench said.

The bench quashed the FIR on condition that the father of the petitioner Rajesh Dholay pay Rs 50,000 costs and deposit the money within two weeks with Tata Memorial Hospital and Cancer Research Institute in Mumbai.
Gopalganj:

Despite liquor ban in Bihar, more than 550 litres of country liquor were found in Gopalganj. It was recovered during a search operation which was launched in Khajurwani ward of Gopalganj town in which liquor was found buried under the earth, where 16 persons died in a suspected hooch incident early this week.

Search operation in which JCB machines are being used to dig the earth for hidden plastic containers of "mahua" (country liquor) is continuing today, District Magistrate Rahul Kumar told PTI.

Meanwhile, Lalbabu Passi, said to be the main accused in the suspected hooch tragedy has been arrested by Deoria in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh, Officer In-charge of town police station Santosh Kumar said.

Passi had fled to Deoria after the incident. The Gopalganj DM said he has sought proposal from the Excise department for imposition of "collective fine" on residents of Khajurwani ward where as media reports suggest liquor trade continues despite total prohibition.

The DM said there are 56 households in the Khajurwani and the Excise department has been directed to survey households involved in preparation of country liquor so that a collective fine could be imposed on them as per provisions of new Liquor law, 2016 of Bihar.

Principal Secretary Excise K K Pathak who paid a visit to Gopalganj in the wake of the incident has said that if hooch is confirmed, the property of the culprits would be attached as part of stringent provisions of the new Liquor law.

The Gopalganj DM discounted soaring figures presented by media in Wednesday's tragedy and said officially the death toll stood at 16.

Meanwhile, Madhepura MP and chief of Janadhikar Party Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav slammed Nitish Kumar government over Gopalganj tragedy before leaving for the place to meet the families of the victims.

Talking to reporters in Patna, Pappu Yadav described the new Excise law as a "black law" and said within two weeks he would file a writ in the Supreme Court against it.

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Zhangjiajie:

Tourists who suffer from vertigo need not apply. The worlds highest and longest glass-bottomed bridge opened today in Chinas spectacular Zhangjiajie mountainsthe inspiration for American blockbuster Avatar.

Some 430 metres (1,400 feet) long and suspended 300 metres above the earth, the bridge spans the canyon between two mountain cliffs in Zhangjiajie park in Chinas central Hunan province.

Six metres wide and made of some 99 panels of clear glass, the bridge can carry up to 800 people at the same time, an official in Zhangjiajiea popular tourist destination told the Xinhua news agency.

Tourists can walk across the bridge, designed by Israeli architect Haim Dotan, and the more adventurous will be able to bungee jump or ride a zip line.

I wanted to feel awe-inspired by this bridge. But Im not afraidit seems safe! Wang Min, who was visiting the new structure with her husband and children, told AFP today.

Following an alarming glass bridge cracking incident at the Yuntai mountain in northern Henan in 2015, authorities in Zhangjiajie were eager to demonstrate the safety of the structure.

They organised a string of media events, including one where people were encouraged to try and smash the bridges glass panels with a sledge hammer, and another where they drove a car across it.

Its crowded today and a bit of a mess. But to be suspended 300 metres in the air, its a unique experience, said Lin Chenglu, who had come to see the bridge with his colleagues.

Only 8,000 people each day will be allowed to cross the bridge, Xinhua said, and tourists will have to book their tickets a day in advance, at a cost of 138 yuan ($20).

Cameras and selfie sticks are banned, and people wearing stilettos will not be allowed to walk on the bridge, Xinhua said.

Local authorities have said that one of the summits in Zhangjiajie Park inspired the floating mountain which appears in the American blockbuster Avatar.

A Hollywood photographer visited the area in 2008, taking images which were used for the film, according to media reports.

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London:

British actor and learning disability campaigner, Brian Rix, has died aged 92.

Rix, who had been terminally ill, died today morning, confirmed a spokesperson for the learning disability charity Menap, which the headed as the president, reported Daily Telegraph.

At the beginning of the month, Rix made a heartfelt plea for euthanasia to be legalised in order to allow him to slip away peacefully as he revealed he was suffering with a terminal condition.

The actor earlier voted against an Assisted Dying Bill, which came before the House of Lords in 2006 because he feared that people with learning disabilities might become the unwilling victims of euthanasia.

But he changed his stance after his illness left him feeling like a beached whale and in constant discomfort.

Rix was considered one of the countrys foremost campaigners for people with learning disabilities.

He was one of Britains most popular TV and stage actors with his own brand of Whitehall farce comedy. He also featured in films like Reluctant Heroes (1951), Dry Rot (1956), Dont Just Lie There, Say Something! (1973)

He later became a leading campaigner for people with learning disabilities after his daughter was born with Downs syndrome.

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Durban:

Dale Steyn, playing in his first Test match in more than eight months, struck two early blows for South Africa before rain prevented any play after lunch on the second day of the first Test against New Zealand here on saturday.

New Zealand were 15 for two, 248 runs behind South Africas first innings total of 263, when play ended for the day.

Steyn, who had failed to complete the only two Tests he had played in South Africas last eight matches because of groin and shoulder injuries, had Tom Latham caught at first slip by Hashim Amla for four off the second ball of his fourth over.

Bowling in helpful, heavily overcast conditions, he followed up in his next over with a full in-swinger which trapped Martin Guptill leg before wicket for seven.

Steyn took two wickets for three runs in six overs. Latham added only one run after being dropped off Vernon Philander, also returning from injury. Guptill survived an appeal for leg before wicket off Steyns fourth ball of the innings when he was on two.

Umpire Richard Illingworth turned down the appeal and South Africa decided not to ask for a review. Replays showed the ball was clipping leg stump in the umpires call area so a review would have failed.

Three overs later Latham edged Philander low to second slip where Dean Elgar spilled a relatively straightforward chance.

Although Steyn had the better figures, Philander also looked close to his best form after missing South Africas most recent seven Test matches because of an ankle injury.

In the last over before lunch he twice beat Ross Taylor with balls that swung sharply away from the bat.

It took New Zealand ten overs to take South Africas remaining two wickets after rain delayed the start by 50 minutes.

Tim Southee struck with the eighth ball of the day when he bowled Steyn before South Africa had added to their overnight total of 236 for eight.

Kagiso Rabada and Dane Piedt added 27 runs for the last wicket despite New Zealand taking the second new ball, which enabled Southee and Trent Boult to gain extravagant movement in the overcast conditions.

Rabada, who was dropped by Southee at third slip off Boult when he had 16, battled his way to an unbeaten 32 before Piedt was last man out, caught behind off Boult for nine.

Boult finished with figures of three for 52.
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DANBURY - The campaign to represent the citys urban heart in the statehouse is a battle of contrasts between a Republican newcomer who emigrated from Brazil and a veteran Democrat who has been in office almost as long as his opponent has been alive.

And while the contrasting approaches of 14-term Democrat Bob Godfrey and 33-year-old newspaper editor Emanuela Palmares chiefly concern the 25,000 residents of the 110th General Assembly District, the impact could be felt beyond the boundaries of the district.

The state budget- which affects everything locally in Danbury from social service programs to school aid - is already running a $1.5 billion deficit.

That raises the stakes for the citys 110th District, where Godfrey is focused solely on motivating registered voters while Palmares is knocking on every door, regardless of registration status.

The stakes are high not only because the 110th is home to the citys poorest neighborhoods and schools, but also because with its diversity of ethnicities, the downtown district is also an epicenter of the American immigrant experience.

In this little area called the 110th you have the birthplace of every immigrant community that came to Danbury hungry for something that this country could offer that no one else could where they came from, says Palmares, who was raised near Main Street. There is that love and care and promise here, and we hold onto it.

The irony is in a presidential election year that has motivated scores of Danbury Latinos to apply for citizenship so they can vote, the candidates for the 110th District have not encountered much discussion about Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton when talking with voters about what matters most.

When I am asking voters what is on their mind, and I am listening to them, we are talking about solutions - practical ones - to issues that are facing us all, such as transportation, said Godfrey, the deputy speaker of the statehouse.

No debates are planned for the fall, but the candidates said their differing positions about the state budget crisis and getting Danbury its fair share of education aid will help provide the contrast voters need to make a choice in November.

I am not fond of the direction Gov. Malloy has taken with some of these budget cuts to health care, and I have been fighting him tooth and nail, said Godfrey, speaking of the battle over the 2015-16 state budget earlier this year. Just playing defense on some of these issues has consumed a lot of our time.

Palmares said the duty of a state representative is to work not only in Hartford, but also in the home district.

We have a lot of new citizens in the 110th who have not been part of the political process and who are unaware of the decisions that are being made in Hartford, Palmares said. You are only as good of a representative as your relationship to your community.

The 110th story

The citys most vulnerable neighborhoods and most troubled schools are in the 110th District, where one out of every three families is poor or struggling with income instability.

Families here are also traditionally among the most under-represented, according to Palmares, who said decades have gone by for some residents without anyone knocking on their door to ask how their lives could be better.

As someone who came to this country and had to go through what my family went through, I know what it is like to have lived in this district for 23 years and no one ever knocked on our door, said Palmares, whose mother cleaned houses in Ridgefield and whose father worked in construction and cleaned supermarkets at night.

Godfrey, who is the primary caretaker of his mother, responded that he does not need to be reminded who the people of the 110th are.

When I see people who are sick, I want to be sure they get healthcare, and when I see people who are hungry, I want to be sure that they get fed, he said. When I see people who are unemployed, I want to find jobs for them. This is the core of my work.

The problem with the 110th is that the state is not investing in its future because no one is telling its story in Hartford, Palmares said.

While the 110th shares the poverty and cultural barriers that are common to other urban centers in Waterbury or Bridgeport, it does not have the crime and unemployment that are often challenges in inner cities, she said.

On the contrary, Danbury has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the state, and one of the lowest crime rates for a Connecticut city.

We dont have the negative effects of some of these urban issues - we have things that are working - so why not invest in something we know can actually be a model for everyone else? Palmares said. For some reason, the urban story in the heart of Danbury is not being told.

The state budget deficit has the potential not only to further stress struggling districts such as the 110th, but communities across Connecticut, one observer said.

Obviously the next legislative session is going to be very challenging for towns and cities as the state budget deficit increases, said Ron Thomas, the deputy director of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities. We are very concerned about the towns ability to manage themselves.

Godfrey said the problem is larger than the Connecticut statehouse. He suggested that lost revenues from the Great Recession, high energy costs, a dearth of millennials in the workforce and an underfunded infrastructure aere all partly to blame.

I dont think the state economic situation is dire, Godfrey said. I think it is a problem, but I think it has been way overblown.

School aid

Godfrey also said a remedy is unlikely for the states broken education finance system, which awards some districts more aid than they need while giving needy districts less than they should have.

It becomes impossible because you are never going to get a legislator to cut funding in his town that has been overfunded, Godfrey said.

The problem of inequitable school funding is acute in Danbury, which has one of the few growing school districts in the state, and which has been underfunded by $30 million, according to the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities.

The city and a coalition of other communities has sued Connecticut to get a fair share of funding. Danbury also launched a coalition last week to lobby Hartford for more school aid.

Palmares said the solution starts with mobilizing parents and residents in the 110th District.

There is no reason why a parent should feel like she needs a Ph.D to understand how much money her child is getting for education from the state, Palmares said. That is what starts the process of de-powering people from advocating for their families.

Godfrey responded that leadership is a bond of trust.

The way you persuade people to vote for you is to persuade them that they can trust you to make these decisions, big and small, Godfrey said. They need to feel that connection, and anyone who has known me for a long time gets that.

Palmares disagreed.

As a representative, I dont work for the state of Connecticut - I work for the people of the 110th, Palmares said. We have to get back to the values of government by the people and for the people.
LIMA, Peru, Aug. 19, 2016 /CNW/ - Jean Lebel, President of Canada's International Development Research Centre, announced this morning new international cooperation funds to support research in Peru.

The new three-year, CA$1.2 million dollar project aims to transform the social sciences research system in Peru to address persistent poverty despite economic growth. Peru's unprecedented 20042013 economic boom has failed to reduce gaps in opportunities, in particular for its young citizens and rural and indigenous women. Known as the "middle-income trap," this situation could worsen with the economic slowdown and the current downward trend in investment.

Led by Peru's Economic and Social Research Consortium (CIES), this project will seek alliances among the State, academia, public and private enterprises, and international cooperation to create a culture of collaboration. In partnership with public institutions including CONCYTECPeru's national science, technology and innovation councilCIES will support research on pressing development issues, engage with policymakers, and build alliances with other public and private actors.

Javier Portocarrero, Executive Director at CIES indicated that "It is important that the State interact with the academic world and other stakeholders to design public policies that boost productivity, competitiveness, diversification of exports, and inclusive growth; while promoting institutional development, fewer social divides, more formal employment, and a sustainable use of natural resources. These new funds will help establish strategic alliances with CONCYTEC and other public and private institutions to promote social research and build co-financing models for research competitions, based on the demand for knowledge."

The announcement was made during the event "Dialogue on Research and Public Policies in Peru" held at the Central Reserve Bank of Peru with the participation of members of IDRC's Board of Governors led by its President Margaret Biggs. Also present were Canada's Ambassador in Peru, Gwyneth Kutz, Central Reserve Bank President Julio Velarde, as well as national and international authorities and members of academia. This event was part of a series of visits that IDRCs Board of Governors is carrying out in Peru.

Jean Lebel emphasized that "IDRC invests in knowledge, innovation and solutions to improve the living conditions of people in the developing world." He added that "IDRC is proud to have supported CIES since its beginnings in 1989 when it was made up of only 5 institutions. Today, 27 years later, it involves 48 institutions dedicated to excellence in research throughout Peru, which is proof of the fact that IDRC's contribution has made a difference."

About Canada's International Development Research Centre

Part of Canada's foreign affairs and development efforts, IDRC invests in knowledge, innovation, and solutions to improve lives and livelihoods in the developing world. Bringing together the right partners around opportunities for impact, IDRC builds leaders for today and tomorrow and helps drive large-scale positive change.

IDRC in Peru

Since 1974 IDRC has supported 290 research activities for an approximate amount of $78 million Canadian dollars. IDRC is supporting research in the country to assess public policies and strengthen initiatives that can promote inclusive growth and drive productivity. IDRC is also currently contributing to research in Peru's agriculture and health care sectors.

About the Economic and Social Research Consortium (CIES)

CIES comprises 48 Peruvian research and teaching institutions in economics and social sciences. CIES supports research and promotes dialogue to foster Peru's development, raising the quality of national debate over key economic, social, and environmental policy options.

SOURCE International Development Research Centre

For further information: Lucy Gray-Donald, IDRC, [email protected],+598. 99912957; Iliana Carrasco Diaz, CIES, [email protected], +511.2649855 anexo 108, RPM/cel #981206621
The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Ibrahim Magu, yesterday said that the agency would not spare...

The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Ibrahim Magu, yesterday said that the agency would not spare corrupt officers in the Executive, Legislature and Judiciary.He said that the era of impunity is over in the country as EFCC under his watch would be a leveler.Magu, who made the submissions in a paper titled This Is Our Chance at the Symposium organised by members of the National Association of Democratic Lawyers (NADL) in Lagos, said: In the past, it was so easy to simply wring our hands in self-pity and console ourselves that we had done our best and if others elect not do theirs, we were not to blame. That, however, was in the past.The EFCC under my watch has had no choice than to challenge certain senior lawyers, judges and other judicial officers against who we have collected concrete evidence for perverting the course of justice.Today is a new dawn at the EFCC. We have resolved to call out anybody who is corrupt, anybody who is an enemy of the Nigerian people, be he or she in the executive, legislative or judicial arms of government. Our anti-corruption mandate, which we insist on enforcing to the letter, is a leveller.There is no better time than now in Nigeria, to say, Enough is Enough! President Muhammadu Buhari has not only said it, he is acting it and has charged the EFCC to embody and live it.I have therefore pledged that on my watch, where hapless Nigerians are defrauded, EFCC will swiftly come to their aid; where powerless Nigerians are short-changed, EFCC will intervene and where there is impunity, EFCC will step in and level the field.He expresse+d regrets that some rogue elements in the Bar had been trying to undermine the anti-graft war. He said: We at the EFCC have been in close working relationship and partnership with a number of the majority of legal practitioners who are upright and their professionalism can be vouched for at any time.However, in the course of confronting the corruption monster, we consistently run up against a gang of rogue elements, who not only frustrate the work that we are doing but also give a terrible name to the bar and bench and hapless Nigerians have been the worse for it.The biggest form of corruption is not the ones you find in government offices or banks; it is not the ones plaguing the oil industry or pension administration. The biggest, most virulent form of corruption that ever existed is the one that has eaten deep into the fabric of the Temple of Justice.It is to you who minister in the temple of justice that we all run to, high or low, mighty or weak, lawmakers, law breakers and law enforcers. It is to the courts that we all run, for protection.However, we are all witnesses to the abuse of skills, knowledge, powers, position and privileges by a few rogue elements, who, whilst being a tiny fraction, have an outsized influence on the direction of the Nigerian judiciary and indeed, the Nigerian nation.Magu, who said the EFCC does not lay claim to perfection, said the agency had been working within the Rule of Law.He added: It is common to hear people agitate over what they term the immense powers of the EFCC. Let it be made clear, however, that at the Commission, we endeavour to make our actions fall strictly within the bounds of the Rule of Law.Having said that, being human, we do not claim perfection or the monopoly of knowledge. Therefore, we take corrections whenever our mistakes are pointed out to us. We will, however, not stand idly while Nigerians are held hostage by the twin evil forces of corruption and impunity.It is important to note that what has made the EFCC to stand out from every other law enforcement agency in Africa are our conviction, commitment and professionalism, backed by the unshaken support of ordinary Nigerians. Notwithstanding the perception that the Commission is all-powerful, we are also prone to certain dangers in the course of discharging our mandate. The EFCC is also a victim of its string of successes and some unscrupulous people are always scheming to appropriate the functions and powers of the Commission.It may have been well if it were all for the good of the country, but as history has taught us, the undue interest shown by certain powerful forces in the powers, jurisdiction and actions of the EFCC are only self-serving and nefarious and run contrary to the good of the vast majority of Nigerians.He begged Nigerians to resist dark forces working against EFCC. He said: When these dark forces gather (as they have), our expectation is that bodies such as the National Association of Democratic Lawyers would rise, without any further prompting, and come to our rescue. The tug-and-pull for the soul of the EFCC aptly mirrors that for the control of the destiny of our dear nation.Whilst we may not claim omniscience, one thing we are convinced of in the Commission is that Nigeria will be doomed if we fail to win the war on corruption. President Buhari has warned, We must kill corruption before it kills Nigeria. That is a clarion call to arms.
Godwin Emefiele, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has been elected president of the Association of African Central Banks (AA...

Godwin Emefiele, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has been elected president of the Association of African Central Banks (AACB) for 2016/2017.Emefiele was elected at the end of the 39th ordinary meeting of AACB governors.To work with Emefiele are the governor of the Bank of Ghana as chairman of the West African sub-region; governor of the Central Bank of Mauritania, chairman of the North African sub-region; and the governor of the Bank of Central African States, chairman of the central African sub-region.Also elected were the governor of Banque de la Republique du Burundi as chairman of the East African sub-region and governor of the Central Bank of the Kingdom of Swaziland as chairman of the Southern African sub-region.Reading the communique at the end of the meeting of governors, the new AACB president disclosed that the nomination for the vice chairman of the AACB, which is zoned to the South African sub-region, would be made known in due course.The assembly of governors also chose: Prospects for monetary integration in Africa: Lessons learned from the experience of monetary and financial integration of Europe, as theme for the 2017 symposium.According to the communique, the meeting noted that the unwinding of unconventional monetary policy measures, adopted during the financial crisis by the US Federal Reserve and central banks of developed countries, could have a negative impact on African countries due to the interconnectedness of economies.However, the congress noted that the unwinding of unconventional monetary policy could be an opportunity for African countries to develop appropriate measures to strengthen their resilience in the face of exogenous shocks.The assembly of governors therefore emphasised the necessity for African countries to diversify their economies and improve exports, while limiting imports.The Governors equally examined the implementation status of the African Monetary Cooperation Programme (AMCP) and pointed out the inability of African states to sustainably meet some of the criteria for macroeconomic convergence due to the negative impact of certain variables within the international environment.They therefore urged African countries to strengthen efforts at implementing structural reforms in order to diversify their respective economies, improve the business environment and promote intra-regional trade as a way of strengthening their resilience amidst external shocks.In reviewing the implementation of the work programme of the Community of African Banking Supervisors (CABS), which it noted had helped to set up an intranet platform for exchange of information among African banks.The AACB disclosed plans to unveil a project for collecting information on the activities of cross-border banks. This, the AACB noted, would allow the identification of risks associated with the activities.The 39th ordinary meeting of the Association of African Central Banks (AACB) was attended by 27 member Central Banks and the African Union Commission (AUC).
The ED also seeks transfer of further trial from Kerala to Bengaluru in the affidavit.
The Ogun State Police Command yesterday, said it had re-arrested Mr. Joe Chinakwe, who named his pet dog Buhari, noting that the suspect...

The Ogun State Police Command yesterday, said it had re-arrested Mr. Joe Chinakwe, who named his pet dog Buhari, noting that the suspect would be arraigned in court on Monday. It also stated that Chinakwe, who was earlier released a few days ago, was picked up again based on its belief that the suspects action was capable of provoking an ethno-religious crisis.It can be re-called that Mr Joe was detained for 3 days before he was subsequently released after the intervention of the Serkin Hausa and President-General of non-indigenes in the state. He was taken into custody after one of his neighbours, who was later found out to be a Nigerien complained that the dog was named after his father, Alhaji Buhari.It was learned that the prompt intervention of the elders made the complainant to withdraw the case at Sango-Ota Division.Police sources had earlier told newsmen that upon his release, the father of two, who hails from Ukwunzu in Aniocha North Local Government Area of Delta State and the complainant were made to sign an undertaking not to cause any breach of peace. In the light of these, the suspects arrest yesterday opened another page on the matter that had aroused public interest.However, the states Public Relations Officer, Mr. Abimbola Oyeyemi, told newsmen that Chinakwe was rearrested yesterday to prevent the state from being plunged into crisis, adding that the complainant and his sympathisers had threatened to kill the suspect.He further stated that the suspect was being held at the Criminal Investigation Department of the command, noting that the arrest was done to save Chinakwes life. In addition, the Police mouthpiece said the suspect, had confessed that he named his pet dog Buhari and had the name written on the body of the dog.His words: The man is here with us. He is at the Criminal Investigation Department. The charge will be prepared here and he will be arraigned at Sango Magistrate Court on Monday. He is going to court on Monday because what he did was highly provocative. It can cause an ethnic and religious crisis.We have to be proactive, we cannot fold our arms and allow the state to be plunged into crisis. In fact, the arrest was made to save the suspects life because the complainant and his group have threatened to kill him if he comes back and this may trigger violence.Further investigations showed that the Police had not recovered the dog which may likely serve as evidence. Chinakwe was arrested last Saturday after one of his neighbours complained that he named the dog after his father, Alhaji Buhari.
The Nigerian Navy has foiled an attempt by suspected sea pirates to hijack and abduct 13 foreign nationals on board a merchant ship leavin...

The Nigerian Navy has foiled an attempt by suspected sea pirates to hijack and abduct 13 foreign nationals on board a merchant ship leaving Nigeria for Cameroon.Briefing journalists on Friday at Bonny, Rivers, Capt. Mustapha Hassan, the Commanding Officer of the Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS) Nwamba, who led the rescue operation, said the 13 foreigners were rescued unharmed.Hassan said the crew members, including the ships captain, were of mixed nationalities consisting of seven Philippinos, two Romanians, one Russian, one Polish, one Indian and one Croatian.Hassan said that troops were unable to apprehend the pirates due to poor visibility partly caused by torrential rain on the day of the rescue.He said that the navy under the Chief of the Naval Staff, Vice Adm. Ibok-Ete Ibas, remained committed to the safety of the nations waterways and maritime environment.
Two Nigerian state-owned oil pipelines were blown up in the delta region Friday in attacks blamed on the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) mili...

Two Nigerian state-owned oil pipelines were blown up in the delta region Friday in attacks blamed on the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) militant group, a local security official said Saturday.The attacks targeted two pipelines located in the same zone, an official for the Department of State Security (DSS) told AFP. Both belonged to the NPDC (Nigerian Petroleum Development Company) and we believe this attack to be due to militants.Also on Friday, a newly emerged armed group calling itself the Niger Delta Greenland Justice Mandate (NDGJM) claimed responsibility for an attack the same day in Udu State. It was the second claim of responsibility by the group, which earlier this month claimed to have blown up a major pipeline and warned of more attacks to come.The creation of the group was announced scarcely two days earlier by its spokesman, self-proclaimed general Aldo Agbalaja, who warned that the NDGJM would strike at oil installations within 48 hours. Since the start of the year, the Avengers have carried out a string of devastating attacks on Nigerias oil pipelines and facilities. The oil rebels have also said the Niger Delta, home to the countrys multi-billion-dollar oil and gas resources, might declare independence on October 1. Nigeria marks October 1 as the anniversary of its political independence from colonial power Britain in 1960.Oil majors including Shell, Exxon, Chevron, Eni and the state-run oil group NNPC have all been targeted in the attacks this year. The attacks have reduced Nigerias output by a third, hammering government revenue at a time of low global oil prices.The oil sector accounts for 90 percent of the nations foreign exchange earnings and 70 percent of government revenue. The Avengers claim to seek a fairer share of Nigerias oil wealth for residents of the region as well as self-determination and political autonomy. They have rejected a government truce to end the violence.
Lagos monarch, Oba Riliwan Akiolu I, on Saturday urged Nigerians to be patient in spite of the hard times in the country, assuring them ...

Lagos monarch, Oba Riliwan Akiolu I, on Saturday urged Nigerians to be patient in spite of the hard times in the country, assuring them that all will be well. I am confident that the economy of the country, under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari, will change for good because our president is focused, Akiolu told newsmen in his palace.The royal father, who spoke during the celebration of the Isese Festival in Isale Eko area of Lagos Island, said that the present hardship was a prelude to a better tomorrow.Let us cooperate with the government. Do not take laws into your hands and always inform the security agencies wherever there are criminal activities, Akiolu said. He appealed to the Niger Delta Avengers to stop bombing oil facilities and put their grievances on the table for the government to address.I want to use this medium to appeal to the Niger Delta Avengers to give peace a chance. I agree to some extent with them that certain things have to be done for them, but they just have to give peace a chance and things will work for them. They should stop and put their grievances on the table and the government will address it. It is not too late to mend,  Akiolu said. On the festival, Akiolu said it was an inherited custom and tradition which he does not joke with.The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Isese festival featured diverse cultural activities to enhance interaction and promote harmony in the state and the country at large. Numerous Lagosians joined in the celebration of the festival, dancing and singing to various deities. (NAN)
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The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center offers premature and low birthweight babies pasteurized, human milk.

(Englewood Hospital and Medical Center)

Gina Giordano, 35, wasn't expecting her baby to be born two months premature. But when her pregnancy was determined to be a risk to the health of both mother and baby, doctors delivered her son via emergency C-section.

William Cunningham was born on August 3.

Because her son was born so early, Giordano had trouble producing enough of her own breast milk to sustain him, she said.

Fortunately, Englewood Hospital and Medical Center was able to give William milk from other mothers with its new pasteurized human donor milk program, which provided the newborn some of the nutrients on which he otherwise would have missed out.

The hospital received its first shipment of breast milk late last month and William is one of first three babies to drink the donated milk.

"The donor program was a life-saver because it's so much easier for him to digest," Giordano said.

Experts say that studies show babies have a decreased risk of infection and higher IQs if they drink human milk soon after they're born.

Englewood is the most recent hospital in New Jersey to offer donated breast milk to its babies. It receives shipments from Mothers' Milk Bank Northeast.

"It's really becoming the standard of care," said Dr. Loren Deluca, a neonatologist at Englewood and its human milk program coordinator.

Englewood's program is exclusively for premature babies, but human milk can also be beneficial for babies whose mothers can't produce enough milk or who might be on medications that prevent them from breastfeeding, Deluca said.

In New Jersey, Hackensack University Medical Center and Saint Peter's Healthcare System also receive milk from Mothers' Milk Bank Northeast, said Naomi Bar-Yam, executive director of the non-profit.

Bar-Yam said that the milk and its donors go through a detailed screening process. The process is modeled after blood screening, she said.

Once the bank receives the milk, it's pasteurized, frozen and distributed along the East Coast, Bar-Yam said.

Saint Barnabas Medical Center considers itself the first hospital in the state to offer this type of program to premature infants, which it began doing about eight years ago, said Jennifer Spiegel, neonatal intensive care nurse manager at St. Barnabas Medical Center. She said it is "fabulous" that more hospitals are starting to offer the service.

Spiegel said her hospital receives its donations from a milk bank in Ohio, partly because there aren't milk banks in New Jersey. Once they do start popping up, though, the state has paved the way to regulating them.

Sara Jerde may be reached at sjerde@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @SaraJerde.
NEWTOWN, Conn. -- A Mount Laurel man who escaped from house arrest and fled police by car and on foot was finally captured in Connecticut thanks to his GPS ankle bracelet.

Fox 61 in Connecticut reports that escaped convict Matthew Howarth, 25, was found hiding under a deck at the St. Rose School Monday when authorities in New Jersey activated a feature that made his GPS device emit a sound.

Howarth escaped while he was on home confinement program. He was nearing the end of a sentence for assaulting a police officer, Fox 61 reported.

New Jersey convict arrested with ankle GPS device on after leading Newtown officers on chase https://t.co/kKxmxQliRO pic.twitter.com/lV6jyx4DEe  FOX 61 (@FOX61News) August 19, 2016

The Department of Corrections on Monday notified police in Newtown, Conn., that Howarth's GPS showed he was near the intersection of South Main Street and Button Shop Road and police there located his vehicle around 2:45 p.m.

Howarth fled from police, striking another car in the process, the television station reported.

Police lost him but later got a call from a resident saying a man was running through his yard. Officers found his car and gave chase on foot in the area of the St. Rose School, according to Fox 61.

He hid under a deck connecting portable classrooms, where police found him thanks to the sound emitting from the GPS device.

Howarth is now facing a whole new round of charges, when he was so close to being done serving time.

He was arrested on charges of engaging in pursuit, reckless driving, evading responsibility, failing to stop at a stop sign, interfering, and being a fugitive from justice. The television station reported that his bail was set at $50,000.

Rebecca Everett may be reached at reverett@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @rebeccajeverett. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
CINNAMINSON TWP. -- A new law passed this week in memory of late Trooper Sean Cullen will help children of fallen troopers, and it couldn't come at a better time.

Cullen's fiance, Aryn McCormick, gave birth to their second son Aug. 3, nearly five months after Cullen died after being struck by a car while responding to a car fire on Interstate 295.

Now Conor Eamonn Cullen and his older brother, Seamus Cullen, 15 months old, will get 70 percent of their father's last salary until they are 18 or, if they enroll in college, 25.

The bill, put forward in response to Cullen's death, was signed into law by Gov. Chris Christie Thursday.

The previous law allowed for 20 percent death benefits for the first child, 35 percent for two or 50 percent for three or more children. That was compared to the 70 percent benefit that spouses of a trooper receive, according to a press release from the New Jersey Senate Democrats.

"Trooper Cullen gave his life in the line of duty serving the needs of others in a courageous act where he made the ultimate sacrifice," Senate President Steve Sweeney said in the press release. "We have a moral responsibility to provide for his family and for the surviving family members and children of all fallen troopers. This law will make sure that happens."

The new law applies to all children of those who die in accidents while on duty, even if the parents were unmarried.

If they were married, the spouse would receive the 70 percent benefit instead of the children.

However, while Aryn McCormick will be responsible for the benefits being paid to her sons while they are minors, she is still ineligible for the benefits herself because she and Cullen were not married.

Also this week, the New Jersey State Police shared on Facebook professional baby photos of Conor and Seamus Cullen taken by BH Photography of Riverside.

BH Photography owner Stephanie Anton-Velos said she has offered the Cullen-McCormick family free baby photos of the boys during the first year of Conor's life.

Cullen was struck by a vehicle on Interstate 295 in West Deptford while responding to a car accident where a driver was trapped in a burning car. The driver of the vehicle that struck him cooperated with police and no charges have been filed.

Cullen was a native of Ireland who graduated from Cinnaminson High School and Lycoming College. He worked as an officer in Sea Isle City, Mount Holly and Westampton before becoming a state trooper in 2014.

He was assigned to Troop A and served out of the Bunea Vista and Bellmawr stations.

This story was updated Aug. 22 to clarify the spousal benefits.

Rebecca Everett may be reached at reverett@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @rebeccajeverett. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
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Doug Warfle, left, and Nicole Gaeger are fugitives wanted by the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office. (Cumberland County Sheriff's Office)

BRIDGETON -- The Cumberland County Sheriff's Office is seeking the public's help in finding two of their most-wanted fugitives.

Doug Warfle, 51, is being sought on three Superior Court of New Jersey Family Court warrants for failing to pay $108,559.74 in child support payments and one Superior Court of New Jersey Family Court warrant for failure to appear, according to the Sheriff's Office. Warfle is described as a white male, 5 feet, 11 inches tall, 200 pounds, with brown eyes and brown hair. He has a tattoo on his upper left arm "DOUG." His last known address was Cedar Lane in Millville.

Nicole M. Gaeger, 24, is being sought on one Superior Court of New Jersey Criminal Court warrant for failure to appear. Gaeger is described as a white female, 5 feet tall, 130 pounds, with green eyes and brown hair. She has a tattoo on her upper right arm "VICTORIA." Her last known address was South 2nd Street in Millville.

Cumberland County Sheriff Robert A. Austino asks anyone who comes in contact with these individuals to call police immediately. You should contact state or local police, or the Cumberland County Sheriff's Department TIP-LINE at 856-451-0625.

If you know the whereabouts of this individual, share this information anonymously by downloading the CCPOTIP App at the Android or iPhone Store and choosing Cumberland County Sheriff's Department, submitting an anonymous tip via text to 847411 with CCSONJ and your tip in the message line or going to the Cumberland County Prosecutor's Facebook page and clicking "submit a tip" and submitting a tip to the Cumberland County Sheriff's Department.

Citizens are reminded not to approach, confront, or detain these fugitives.

Bill Gallo Jr. may be reached at bgallo@njadvancemedia.com. Follow Bill Gallo Jr. on Twitter @bgallojr. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
Less than two weeks remain before hordes of tourists head to the beach to celebrate the last three-day holiday of the summer season and many of those visitors have already secured their overnight accommodations (whether that involves crashing on a friend's couch or staying in an oceanfront mansion).

For the procrastinators who are just now thinking of heading to the Jersey Shore for Labor Day Weekend, the chances of finding the rental of your dreams are dimming day by day.

But there are still places available to book from Cape May to Sea Bright for last-minute vacations.

Among the options still open for a trip from September 2 to September 5 are a five-bedroom oceanfront home equipped with everything you'd need for an adventurous weekend at the Jersey Shore, including kayaks, boogie boards, surfboards, a standup paddleboard and bikes.

You can also book a weekend in a bunaglow that sits just a few blocks from the beach and boardwalk or decide to stay in the southernmost beach town in New Jersey, where a six-bedroom home with a heated pool and 10-person Jacuzzi hot tub is awaiting visitors.

Check out those rentals and others, which were available as of Friday morning, in the gallery at the top of the page.

Erin O'Neill may be reached at eoneill@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @LedgerErin. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
-- Essex County sheriff's narcotics detectives arrested two accused drug dealers and their suspected customers after receiving complaints about an open-air narcotics market in the city, authorities said Friday.

Detectives were conducting surveillance near North 9th Street and 4th Avenue around noon Thursday when they spotted Aquil Horne, 34, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Brandon Johnson, 20, of East Orange, unloading plastic sandwich bags from Horne's car, according to Sheriff Armando Fontoura.

"They moved as smoothly and efficiently as if unloading groceries," Fontoura said in a statement.

Two men -- identified as Thomas Lassen, 26 of Bloomfield, and Joseph Damico, 42 of Belleville -- approached the pair and exchanged cash with Johnson for items from his pants pocket, the sheriff said. The money then changed hands to Horne.

Sheriff's detectives stopped Lassen and Damico away from the area and found them with four glassine envelopes of heroin stamped "Mad Monkey" in red ink, Fontoura added. Both men were arrested on drug possession charges.

When detectives went to arrest the dealers, Horne jumped a fence, ran through backyards and into an abandoned building, Fontoura said.

"[Horne] was cornered and initially resisted arrest by punching and flailing his arms and legs at our officers," the sheriff said.

Authorities seized 47 packets of heroin from Horne with similar markings as the kind taken from Lassen and Damico, according to Fontoura. Johnson was arrested without incident and also found with 33 heroin packets. Both men face various drug distribution charges. Horne faces added charges of resisting arrest by flight and resisting arrest by force.

Fontoura said a drug-sniffing sheriff's K-9, named Hanner, also hit on several areas of Horne's car, which investigators planned to search after obtaining a warrant.

Horne was ordered held at the Essex County Correctional Facility in lieu of $85,000 cash only bail while Johnson was jailed on $75,000 bail, according to authorities.

Noah Cohen may be reached at ncohen@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @noahyc. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
A male known as "Isaac," pictured above, is suspected of stealing televisions, computers, clothing and shoes from an Algiers apartment he once shared with the victim, NOPD said.
Today

Thunderstorms likely. Potential for severe thunderstorms. High near 75F. Winds S at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 80%.

Tonight

A few clouds. Low 62F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph.

Tomorrow

Sunshine and clouds mixed. High near 75F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph.
Indiana. Hell I wouldnt live there even if I lived there.

Thats from one New Orleans detective to his partner, who is moving to Indianapolis to be closer to his son.

Its a funny line. Hoosiers with a sense of humor should appreciate it, along with the rest of the work from David The Wire Simons HBO series Treme in which the line was written for.

Ive been a fan of New Orleans well before the series ran from 2010 to 2013. Treme was a fantastically underrated show about the struggle in New Orleans after Katrina. Its characters include chefs, musicians, politicians, lawyers, reporters and cops.

It mixed actors with the real people of New Orleans. During my last trip there in 2014 I got to meet one of those people -- musician Davis Rogan, who was not only a music consultant for the show but had a character in it that was based on him played by Steve Zahn.

Im going back to New Orleans this week to explore more of the restaurants, bars and neighborhoods that were the focus of the city.

I thought about New Orleans during a recent assignment I had for Inspired Living magazine about live music at Region restaurants. Not bars, restaurants. There arent many. In New Orleans its almost mandatory to have live music in restaurants.

Its not all Bourbon Street. In fact, the more you fall in love with the city, the less you are on that famous street. Instead, try Frenchmen Street. Its not far from the southern end of Bourbon, and you can walk there with a Go Cup (thats a cup of beer you can buy on the street).

During this visit I plan to hit Baccahanal, a Bywater wine, food and beer joint with an outdoor patio that features fine dining on a paper plate and live music. After Katrina, guest chefs would cook outside in the patio for crowds in what was called NOLAs original pop-up. That experience was reenacted in Treme.

I look forward to seeing a lot of hats in New Orleans. I love a good hat. And down there its a fashion staple.

Im always shocked when I discover there are people who have yet to visit New Orleans. Its barely a few hours by plane and a 16-hour drive. Drive eight hours to Nashville, stay overnight, and drive another eight to New Orleans.

If more locals visit New Orleans, maybe we can bring some of that unique character back to the Region, where you are living here even if you arent living here (but I hope you are living here!).

Because, as the great Dr. John says in another of my favorite lines from the show, it matters a difference.
The South Shore Line is making progress implementing a federally mandated automated safety system, the railroad's general manager said after a government report showed some railroads are lagging.

"Our goal is to meet the statutory deadline of Dec. 31, 2018," Michael Noland said. "We are on track to make that, and that's what we reported to the (Federal Railroad Administration)."

The federal mandate requires passenger and freight railroads install Positive Train Control, a command-and-control system that uses GPS and radio signals to allow computers to track a train's position, and slow or stop it if it's at risk of crashing or derailing.

The Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District, the South Shore's operator, contracted Parsons Corp., an engineering firm headquartered in California, to install PTC in each of its trains and along its 75 miles of tracks. NICTD sold bonds to finance the $80 million project.

Congress had originally set a 2015 deadline for PTC, but railroad operators across the country, including NICTD, lobbied for an extension when it became clear that deadline could not be met. An extension to the end of 2018 was enacted last year.

Noland noted that full implementation depends on the Metra railroad in Illinois. The South Shore uses 14.5 miles of Metra tracks on its way into Chicago.

"Metra still might need an extension," Noland said.

The federal report shows NICTD on track for full implementation in 2018; it targets Metra's full implementation for 2020.
Paco's Custom Clothiers owner Paco Fernandez took this country by storm when he arrived as an 11-year-old.

"I remember Dec. 24, 1967, like it was yesterday," Fernandez said. "I arrived here from Tampico Tamaulipas, Mexico, during one of the largest snowstorms Chicago has ever seen. It was beautiful the first day but after a couple of days I wanted to go home, but I was told, 'This is home.'"

Fernandez, of Highland, said he struggled with the language and his educational skills suffered immensely after a ninth-grade teacher asked him, "Are you really that stupid?" Paco then decided never to step foot in the classroom again.

"That was devastating for a young man to hear," Fernandez remembers. "But in my short time in high school I did miss being part of the ROTC and I took great pride in the uniform and the shiny shoes. That was the start of my appreciation for the clothing industry."

Fernandez's amicable personality and his passion for clothes would help him go from window cleaner to top salesman in the country to clothing director in his 28 years at The Custom Shop.

"I learned to respect people and about their different cultures as well as clothing and cutting slacks," Fernandez said. "I was one of the best salesman in the country. In 1984, an executive actually gave me a six-month severance check and told me I would not make it in the industry because 'I'm not Jewish.' I tore the check up and just kept proving them wrong while moving up because I have a no-quit attitude and they eventually saw how hard I worked and I was good at what I did. Years later I was still there because I was so good at what I do."

Fernandez said that in 1996, after seeing the business sold numerous times, he resigned.

Fernandez was living in East Chicago and forced to do something, so he obtained a business license. He also decided to pick up the phone and call then-East Chicago Mayor Robert Pastrick.

"I introduced myself and told him I had acquired a license and wanted to meet him and I remember visibly, he joked, 'It's not a gun license is it?'" Fernandez said. "I went in there and he put a press release together and suddenly I was being interviewed and photographed for being the mayor's tailor. That changed everything for me and my partner, Gidal Vodovoz."

Fernandez counts on word of mouth to keep him busy, and it's working. Fernandez claims just under 4,000 clients all over the world, ranging from business executives, mayors to the "everyday guy that just wants to look good."

One of Fernandez's loyal customers is Elliot Segarra, who heard about Fernandez by word of mouth.

"I'm a big guy and it's very difficult for me to but clothes off the rack," Segarra said. "I appreciate Paco's professionalism and the shirts and suits I get from him. They're beautiful custom pieces."

Southlake Hispanic Chamber Director David Olivencia said the Region needs more businesses like Paco's.

"He's global and sells fine clothing all over the world and brings the money back to the Region," Olivencia said.

Fernandez, humble in nature, has an enormous personality and enjoys the connection with people just as much as the beauty of the fabrics he sells.

"I have never worked a day in my life," Fernandez said. "When you love what you do, that's how it feels."
VALPARAISO  An attorney with the Indiana secretary of states office warned last week of dire consequences for consumers if the defense succeeds in an attempt to erase nearly half of the 19 charges in the fraud case against former local real estate agent Donald Johnson.

Matt Kestian stood before Porter Superior Court Judge Roger Bradford and opposed an argument that the charges should be dismissed because they were filed beyond the five-year statute of limitations.

The charges accuse Johnson, of Porter, of bilking former clients, co-workers and even fellow church members out of hundreds of thousands of dollars by illegally soliciting and investing their money, which went missing without investors being immediately informed, according to court records. Johnson, 51, is charged with 17 felony counts of selling unregistered securities and selling securities without having the proper registration, according to court records. He also faces felony counts of forgery and theft.

Kestian said what concerned him about the defenses request is that it would set the stage for others to avoid prosecution by setting up long-term investments that would conceal wrongdoing by maturing after the statute of limitations, which is the period following a crime when criminal charges can be filed.

That cant be the law, he said.

The law allows for criminal charges to be filed beyond the statute of limitation period, if it can be shown a defendant concealed a crime, Kestian said.

He accused Johnson of concealing his crime by not registering as an agent and not registering the securities, which left the state with no way of discovering that unlawful acts occurred between two private parties. Johnson also structured the securities to mature many years down the road.

The investor would have no reason to believe that a crime occurred until those securities matured and the investor was not paid, Kestian said.

Defense attorney James Koch, of Chicago, argued last week the crime is alleged to have occurred in 2007 and 2008, yet the charges were not filed until 2014.

Prosecutors knew as early as January 2012 that Johnson may have committed a crime and interviewed him later that same year, Koch said.

There is no evidence Johnson took any specific action to conceal a crime, such as manipulating financial records or burying evidence, Koch said.

What is the one act that took place ... after the (investment) notes were created? he asked.

Koch said the prosecutors claim that investors would have no reason to believe that a crime has been committed until an investment has matured and no payment is made is flawed.

Any prudent investor could use the several tools at his or her disposal to check the licensing and registration of both the alleged securities broker and the securities, he said. Furthermore, the investors ignorance to the fact that a crime has been committed, in itself, cannot stop the statute of limitations from running.

Bradford took the attorneys arguments under consideration and said he would issue a ruling, in not too long of time.

A status hearing in the case was set for Sept. 26.
HAMMOND  A superseding indictment filed Friday alleges an East Chicago man killed a man he believed to be a rival gang member in June and attempted to kill the mans girlfriend.

Luiz A. LA Perez, 26, is accused of shooting Manuel F. Martinez III, 31, on June 17 in the 4300 block of Euclid Avenue.

Martinez died the next morning at St. Catherine Hospital, according to the Lake County coroners office. Martinezs girlfriend was wounded in the shooting.

The indictment alleges Perez killed Martinez for the purpose of maintaining or increasing position in the Imperial Gangsters street gang. Perez thought Martinez was a member of the Renegade Imperial Gangsters, court records said.

The original complaint against Perez shows police were investigating him back in March for an unrelated domestic battery charge.

According to a probable cause affidavit, as officers approached Perez in the 1000 block of 167th Street on March 10, he immediately exited his vehicle, locked the doors and began walking away.

He told police the car did not belong to him, but a registration check by police proved otherwise, the affidavit stated.

Police noticed a faint marijuana odor coming from the vehicle, and a subsequent K-9 exterior sniff confirmed officers suspicions. The vehicle was towed for safe keeping until a search warrant was obtained March 15.

Police later found in the car a plastic bag containing suspected marijuana, and a grocery bag containing five additional plastic bags with suspected marijuana weighing about 173 grams including packaging. Police also found a handgun and ammunition.
LANSING  A total of 75 kindergartners were enrolled in Sunnybrook Elementary School District 171 as of Monday before school opened.

That number represents a sizable increase from the total of 40 kindergartners that D.171 Superintendent Hughes B. George said had been enrolled on Aug. 3.

Thats huge, because that also impacts us financially, when our enrollment goes up, George said.

Assistant Superintendent Erika Millhouse-Pettis told the School Board on Monday that the school year is starting with 464 students enrolled at Nathan Hale Elementary School and 448 students enrolled at Heritage Middle School.

She said an additional 30 students will be sent to alternative sites in various communities.

George said the total number of students currently enrolled in the district is about the same compared to this time last year.

Typically after Labor Day were at about 1,050, but at this time were where we need to be, George said.

Later in the meeting, George extended an olive branch to the school board by reading a statement in which he spoke of the importance of forgiveness and a desire to avoid negativity.

He said that with the new school year getting ready to start, he found himself looking back upon the districts successes last school year.

As I continued to reflect, I would be remiss if I didnt acknowledge the fact that this has been a year that has met with challenges in terms of superintendent and board relations, George said. I want this community to know that I acknowledge that relationship building is a two-way street and I am committed to rolling up my sleeves and working together so that we can move from good to great.

George said he is grateful for the opportunity the board has given him.

I hope we can get back to school business and find common ground on issues of concern while agreeing to disagree in a professional manner, George said.

Only four of the boards seven members were on hand to hear Georges comments, as Vice President David Lopez, Secretary Solomon Davis and member Lance Lape were absent.

Lapes seat on the board has been a matter of controversy since April, when board member Jada Curry questioned whether Lape lives within the districts boundaries.

The issue has become a regular topic during the public comment portions of board meetings and was brought up again on Monday when an audience member asked if proof of residency had been provided to the board.

To date, I have not received any documentation or any supporting evidence regarding the residency, said Cozette Pettigrew, board president.

Last month, Lape said he would give Pettigrew the necessary documentation so she would have it for this weeks meeting.
VALPARAISO  The renovation of the 1912 Grand Trunk Railroad station has been given a boost by a recent donation of $50,000 from ArcelorMittal.

The ArcelorMittal donation will allow us to continue to work on the historic depot this year, converting it into a modern learning facility and much-needed additional space for the Porter County Career and Tech Center, Jon Groth, Career Center principal, said in a news release.

The station was moved to the PCCTC property two years ago through the support of local manufacturers, Indiana Landmarks, local historic preservationists, railroad enthusiasts, the city of Valparaiso, numerous individuals, and Career and Tech Center faculty, students and supporters.

ArcelorMittal is pleased to make this donation in support of not only the historic value of restoring the depot, but for the additional space that is needed to expand the classes for the students, Jolice Pojeta, manager of corporate responsibility and communications for ArcelorMittal, said in a written statement.

With the students involved in both the demolition and restoration of the structure, this experience provides them with a sense of ownership of the project while also utilizing their STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) skills.

Last year, the PCCTC Building Trades students began the interior demolition of the structure to return it to its original architecture and design. They also nearly completed the deck around the building.

This fall, pending the projects progress, the plan is to re-christen the depot with replicas of the original sign plates that designated the building as the Valparaiso Grand Trunk Train Depot.
GARY  Business and residences near some of the citys major transit hubs soon may be able to take advantage of a program designed to improve their exteriors using funds produced after the Gary Urban Enterprise Association scandal.

The Gary Redevelopment Commission last week approved policies and procedures for the Gary Facade Improvement Rebate Program and establishing a dedicated fund for the program. The Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority board still has to sign off on the program.

The proposed program was established after more than a year of negotiations between the state attorney generals office, the city of Gary and the the RDA, which will oversee the program along with the city. Joe Van Dyk, executive director of the citys planning and redevelopment department, said the program could start in September or October.

Properties within a half mile of transit areas like Garys Metro Center downtown, the Miller South Shore station, and a planned rapid bus station in the University Park area could be eligible for funds. Properties in the Broadway corridor also could be eligible.

The program would provide up to $35,000 in matching funds for facade improvements, or up to $45,000 if Gary contractors exclusively were used on the project.

After five years, a business or residence could seek another $10,000 in matching funds if they were able to show they properly maintained the facade during the intervening years.

Van Dyk said there is roughly $530,000 in the GUEA fund, and it is possible the money could be supplemented in the future with tax increment financing money or redevelopment funds.

The Gary Urban Enterprise Association was created in 1985 under a state law that allowed U.S. Steel and other Gary businesses to reduce taxes by donating more than $15 million to the association between 2000 and 2003. The money was to be used to improve the quality of life within the Emerson neighborhood of Gary.

A Times investigation revealed in 2004 that former GUEA director Jojuana L. Meeks used GUEA money for perks such as a Jaguar and an extensively remodeled home. She charged more than $163,000 on GUEA credit cards and permitted overpayments to herself and other GUEA officials amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The attorney generals office seized control of GUEA assets in 2006, and the remaining funds were originally used for scholarships. The nonprofit collapsed in 2007. Meeks and eight other GUEA officials and employees were convicted in U.S. District Court in Hammond of financial crimes in connection with the scandal.

Former mayoral candidate Jim Nowacki said he liked the idea of the money being used for scholarships and said the city already had a facade program. Van Dyk said that facade program only covers residential structures.
*SCHERERVILLE  Don Bacso remembers every moment of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, and his own race for survival.

Many times in the intervening years, the 50-year old Dyer resident and member of the Lake Central School Corp. board has recounted his story of being in the North Tower when the airliner hit as a way to keep alive the memory of those who were lost. He also tells the stories of those first-responders who helped rescue people before they lost their lives.

This year on Sept. 11, Bacso will be the guest speaker at the annual 9/11 memorial event hosted by the town of Schererville at the 9/11 memorial on Police Department grounds, 25 E. Joliet St.

The event begins at 1 p.m., said Schererville Fire Chief Joseph Kruzan.

A true community project, construction of the 9/11 memorial in Schererville began in 2012. In 2013, a steel beam from one of the World Trade Center towers was mounted on a concrete base.

The following year, Julie Rizzo, owner of Recycled Granite in Schererville and Bacsos sister-in-law, placed recycled granite on the monuments base. Several new engraved plaques also were added thanks to the June Hawk-Franklin Memorial Fund.

Each of the engraved pieces offers a different message with some honoring the New York Police Department, the Fire Department and the Port Authority police. Others mark the time when the crashes occurred at the World Trade Center Towers.

The granite for those engraved pieces came from Rogan Granite, the same Lynwood, Illinois, company that supplied granite for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., Kruzan said.

*This story has been corrected from its original version. The name Bacso was incorrect.
The issue: More Americans are dying from opioids than at any time in recent history, with overdose deaths hitting a peak of 28,000 in 2014. That amounts to 78 Americans dying from an opioid overdose every day, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC uses opioid as an umbrella term for synthetic painkillers and for drugs derived naturally from opium (known more specifically as opiates), such as heroin.

It's not just the use of illicit opiates that is on the rise. Overdose deaths from prescription painkillers have quadrupled since 1999, tracking a similar increase in the amount of these drugs being prescribed by doctors.

WHERE THEY STAND

Donald Trump: The Republican presidential nominee sees his plans to build a wall along the Mexican border as essential to stopping the flow of illegal drugs into the country. The Drug Enforcement Administration reports the seizure of drugs at the southern U.S. border quadrupled between 2008 and 2013.

Hillary Clinton: The Democratic nominee proposes spending $10 billion to tackle the drug crisis. Her plan would send more money to states to expand drug treatment and mental health services, promote greater availability of the overdose reversal drug naloxone and support better prevention programs in schools, among other things.

Gary Johnson: The Libertarian presidential candidate speaks mostly about his goal to legalize marijuana, which is not an opioid. But his campaign has called the U.S. War on Drugs futile and an "expensive failure" costing our government billions of dollars with no real results. Johnson has not supported legalization of other illicit drugs, but has said drug rehabilitation programs deserve more consideration and funding than incarceration and arrests for drug use.

WHY IT MATTERS

More than 2.4 million Americans were addicted to synthetic pain relievers or heroin in 2014, according to the latest federal survey on drug use and health. And that number excludes the millions more  family members, first responders and taxpayers  who feel the ripple effects of addiction in their daily lives.

Clinton has called drug addiction a "quiet epidemic." But it's one that's getting louder, as more and more Americans share their stories and prove drug addiction follows no standard profile of age, race or class.

For decades, drug addiction was viewed as a criminal justice problem, not a health one. The stigma is lessening, but many states simply don't have the capability to provide treatment and recovery for people who need it, leaving police departments and emergency rooms to fill the void. Lawmakers and advocates are fighting for precious tax dollars to expand services, but the 2015 National Survey on Drug Use and Health found just 0.9 percent of people seeking treatment for a problem related to drugs or alcohol received help.

Experts now believe the sharp increase in prescribed painkillers is to blame. People are quick to share stories of being prescribed dozens of pills for pain relief following procedures as simple as wisdom teeth removal. The strength of these medications can easily cause addiction, forcing many people to turn to a cheaper alternative  heroin  when their prescriptions run out. Roughly 75 percent of new heroin users report first using prescription opioids, the government says.

Lawmakers are beginning to take notice. At the meeting of the National Governors Association in July, 45 governors signed a compact aimed at tightening prescribing rules. Several attorneys general are engaged in or considering waging legal battles against major pharmaceutical companies, alleging they played down the risks of addiction when marketing painkillers.

At the same time, the illicit drugs people are turning to are becoming even more deadly. The synthetic painkiller fentanyl, which is up to 50 times as potent as heroin, is now being manufactured illegally. By sight, it's impossible to tell the difference between heroin and fentanyl, leaving people unaware of the deadliness of the drugs they are consuming. Northeastern and Midwestern states, such as New Hampshire and Ohio, are seeing a dramatic rise in the use of fentanyl. More than 5,000 people nationwide died from a synthetic opioid in 2014, and that number is rising.

As most politicians know, families and communities are demanding change, and fast.

This story is part of AP's "Why It Matters" series, which will examine three dozen issues at stake in the presidential election between now and Election Day.
MIAMI  South Beach has been identified as a second site of Zika transmission by mosquitoes on the U.S. mainland, and containing it there will be difficult because high-rise buildings and strong winds make it impractical to spray the neighborhood from the air, officials said Friday.

Five cases of Zika have been connected to mosquitoes in Miami Beach, bringing the states caseload to 36 infections not related to travel outside the U.S., Floridas governor and health department announced Friday.

The discovery prompted the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to announce that it was expanding its travel warning for pregnant women to include an area in Miami Beach known for nightclubs, pedestrian thoroughfares and beaches.

Zika infection can cause severe brain-related birth defects, including a dangerously small head, if women are infected during pregnancy.

The viruss apparent spread from a Miami neighborhood popular for day trips to the South Beach streets where many tourists sleep has rattled the tourism industry, even in the slower summer season.

Gov. Rick Scott has directed Floridas health department to offer mosquito spraying and related services at no cost to Miami-Dade Countys hotels, restaurants and tourist attractions. More than 15.5 million people made overnight visits to Miami and nearby beaches in 2015, with an impact of $24.4 billion, according to figures from the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau.

The CDC previously warned pregnant women to avoid the Wynwood arts district in Miami. In its statement Friday, the agency said pregnant women may also want to consider postponing nonessential travel throughout Miami-Dade County if theyre concerned about potential exposure to the mosquito-borne virus.

Were in the midst of mosquito season and expect more Zika infections in the days and months to come, said CDC director Dr. Tom Frieden. It is difficult to predict how long active transmission will continue.

Aerial spraying and door-to-door operations on the ground have cut mosquito populations in Wynwood by up to 90 percent, but Zika may be continuing as mosquitoes breed, Frieden told reporters Friday.

The mosquitoes are persistent and we wont know for a couple of weeks whether these aggressive measures have worked, Frieden said.

Aerial spraying isnt practical over South Beach because of the height of its buildings and strong winds over the narrow island city, Frieden said. Officials will be limited to spraying for mosquitoes at ground level in the highly populated area.

Miami Beach does have a series of characteristics that make it particularly challenging, Frieden said.

Two of the people infected in Miami Beach are Miami-Dade County residents, and three are tourists, including one man and two women, Scott said. The tourists are residents of New York, Texas and Taiwan.

The new area of infection in South Beach is roughly 1.5 square miles between 8th and 28th streets, according to Floridas Department of Health.

Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine said during a news conference Friday afternoon that the Zika reports certainly arent ideal for tourism, but he expects the long-term impact to be relatively minor. He said city workers are trying to get rid of standing water and foliage that might attract the virus-spreading insects, while the county begins a fumigation program to kill the bugs.

Between our efforts and the countys spraying efforts, the last thing Id ever want to be on Miami Beach is a mosquito, Levine said.

Three vacuum trucks purchased to help Miami Beach fight rising sea levels have been used since the beginning of the year to drain water in low-lying areas where mosquitoes could breed, said Roy Coley, the citys infrastructure director.

The city also has been sending workers to fill potholes collecting water in alleys and fix leaky beach showers, in addition to applying pesticides to the areas many construction sites and flood-prone residential streets, Coley said.

Our call volume has increased significantly, Coley said.

Officials at Art Basel Miami Beach and other upcoming events cautiously expressed confidence in the regions mosquito control efforts. Organizers of the Americas Food and Beverage Show will add mosquito repellent to goody bags at the late September event at the Miami Beach Convention Center.

Were taking extra precautions, said Yendi Alvarez, the shows media coordinator. This wasnt even a thought last year. We put this in place once the news started getting crazy.

Possible infections outside Wynwood and Miami Beach also are being investigated. The virus only causes mild, flu-like symptoms in most people, making it difficult to confirm local transmissions, the CDC said.

For this reason, it is possible that other neighborhoods in Miami-Dade County have active Zika transmission that is not yet apparent, the CDCs statement said.

The U.S. Senates top Democrat issued a call for Congress to return from its weekslong summer break to deal with the virus, an unlikely scenario in light of the dysfunction that prevented lawmakers from agreeing on money to fight the mosquito-borne disease. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nevada, said that the American people cannot afford to wait any longer for action.

President Barack Obama requested $1.9 billion in emergency funds in February to develop a vaccine and control the mosquitoes that carry the virus. But lawmakers left Washington in mid-July for a seven-week recess without approving any of the money. Abortion politics played a central role in the impasse.

Republicans angered Democrats by adding a provision to a $1.1 billion take-it-or-leave-it measure that would have blocked Planned Parenthood clinics in Puerto Rico from receiving money.
City health officials are now urging pregnant New Yorkers and their partners who have recently traveled to the Miami Beach area to get tested for Zika.

It comes on the heels of Florida Gov. Rick Scott announcing Friday that mosquitoes in the area have infected five people with Zika, including a New York resident.

South Beach is the second designated infection zone, joining Miami's Wynwood Arts District.

Officials say at least 36 people have contracted the virus through local Florida mosquitoes.

In response to the latest outbreak, city health commissioner Mary Bassett discussed steps that the city is taking to combat a potential outbreak here.

She said those steps include more spraying of pesticides, as well as increased lab testing and medical resources for women.

"I'm confident in our response to Zika here in New York City. That's not to say that I don't worry. Of course I worry," Bassett said at a press conference Friday. "I'm worried about how to communicate better so that people who should be worried about Zika take the right measures to protect themselves, and that's mainly pregnant women and their partners.

"And I'm also concerned about people who actually shouldn't worry, relax and maybe even go visit Latin America and the Caribbean."

Bassett also asked pregnant women or those planning to get pregnant, to avoid traveling to places infected by Zika.

Officials say there have so far been 483 cases of Zika in the five boroughs.

Five of them were sexually transmitted, and the rest caught the virus while traveling outside the country.

Scott said his state is taking aggressive steps to fight the virus, but says his repeated calls for help are being ignored.

"I initially asked for this on June 1st, and requested it by June 15th," Scott said. "We still haven't received it, and I have repeatedly called the president for this  just like we did in Wynwood."

In February, President Obama requested $1.9 billion in nationwide funding to fight Zika.

Congress has not approved any of the funds.
A 9-year-old girl was found dead inside her Queens home Friday night, according to police, and now the NYPD is questioning her stepmother in connection with the case.

Police were called to a home near 101st Avenue and 112th Street in Richmond Hill around 6:03 p.m.

Investigators said the 9-year-old girl was found in a first-floor bathtub.

Police sources said she was lying in a fetal position and had some bruising on her upper body, but they said they do not know what caused it.

Police have not declared her death a homicide.

A man, Manjinder Singh, who said he was the victim's cousin, identified her as Ashdeep Kaur and that there was no water in the tub in which she was found.

He said Ashdeep told him that her stepmother was physically abusive.

Singh also said his dad and the landlord were the ones who discovered Ashdeep.

"He came here and as soon as he saw the landlord was here, they broke the door and tried to see her," Singh said.

"When I came down then I saw the ambulance and the fire truck and everything, and I just wondered what happened. And then I heard somebody passed away," one nearby resident said.

The medical examiner will determine the cause of death.

No arrests have been made.
A woman was charged Saturday with the murder of her nine-year-old stepdaughter in Queens, according to the city police department.

Shamdai Arjun, 55, was charged with murder by strangulation, one day after Ashdeep Kaur's body was found inside a home in Richmond Hill.

Police were called to the home, near 101st Avenue and 112th Street, around 6:03 p.m. Friday.

Sources said a second family living in the apartment became concerned after Ashdeep had been in the bathroom and would not answer the door.

Investigators said Ashdeep was found in a first-floor bathtub.

Police sources said she was lying in a fetal position and had some bruising on her upper body, but they initially said they did not know the cause.

A man, Manjinder Singh, who said he was the victim's cousin, initially identified her and said that there was no water in the tub in which she was found.

He said Ashdeep told him that her stepmother was physically abusive.

Singh: She was telling me that she got beat up, she beat her  you know, her stepmother.



Reporter: Many times?



Singh: She told me twice.



"Three days ago she showed me something on her hand," Singh also said. "Maybe she held her hand hard, you know?



Reporter: It was bruised?

Singh: It was OK, kind of like scratches, little bit scratches on the arms.

For those who live in the neighborhood, that claim is now a painful missed opportunity to help.

"I don't understand if they knew that why they would keep her there," one neighbor said. "Look what happened."

Singh also said his dad and the landlord were the ones who discovered Ashdeep.

"He came here and as soon as he saw the landlord was here, they broke the door and tried to see her," Singh said.

"When I came down then I saw the ambulance and the fire truck and everything, and I just wondered what happened. And then I heard somebody passed away," one nearby resident said.

Those who know the family said they cannot comprehend what has happened.

"They were kind of peaceful people. It's kind of shocking, I don't know what's going on," one neighbor said.

Police had questioned Arjun most of Saturday at the 102nd Precinct before she was charged.

Earlier Saturday, Ashdeep's father was also at the precinct. Family members were supporting him as he left, as he was still in grief.

"We are saddened by this news and are investigating the circumstances that led to this devastating incident, along with the NYPD," the Administration for Children's Services said in a statement Saturday.
Anger and righteous disgust soared in Haiti. It is with great sadness that I write this letter to remind you that human rights must be respected, whatever type of country youre from, Viengemene Ulisse, who was hospitalized for more than a week with cholera in 2011, wrote the Security Council last year: one of 2,000 victims letters collected by lawyers bringing a class-action suit against the U.N. in United States federal court.

But on Thursday, shortly after the U.N. acknowledged its role in the outbreak to me for the first time, the Federal Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld a lower-court ruling that said the U.N. is immune from any kind of lawsuit under an international convention  even if it ignores other parts of that same convention saying it then has to provide some other way to resolve disputes, as it refused to do in this case. This seemed like good news for the U.N. The court could have ordered it to pay victims and their families $40 billion or more in restitution  equal to five years worth of worldwide peacekeeping budgets.

In that light, it was also a victory for one of the less-publicized players in this case: the United States government. Because the U.N. has refused to accept the legitimacy of the federal case, Justice Department lawyers have defended the organization instead in court. Judge Jose A. Cabranes cited the Obama administrations U.N.-friendly interpretation of the immunities convention as a significant factor in the three-judge panels decision. Lawyers for the plaintiffs are still deciding whether to appeal to the Supreme Court.

I have heard for years from high-level United Nations officials that American resistance has played a major role in keeping the organization from coming clean about what happened in Haiti and settling with victims. There are a few reasons the Obama administration would do that. The president has frequently defended the United Nations, which on its better days represents the multilateral, diplomatic approach central to his foreign policy worldview  in contrast to the philosophies of George W. Bush or Donald Trump. Any U.S. president would also want to uphold the principle that troops operating on foreign soil cant be hauled into local courts, whether theyre blue-helmeted Nepalese peacekeepers in Haiti or American soldiers in Afghanistan.

Theres also a financial angle. Any restitution will ultimately have to come from member states. None is more invested than the United States, which supplies more than a quarter of the United Nations peacekeeping budget, an expenditure that Washington, perennial congressional grumbling notwithstanding, has generally considered well spent: It allows the United States to outsource many overseas military missions it would otherwise feel pressure to undertake itself. The Bush administration led the way in creating the U.N. Stabilization Mission in Haiti, or Minustah, putting together a blue-helmeted force to replace U.S. soldiers and Marines whom Bush sent to Haiti after a 2004 coup detat. If there is one thing the Obama administration and Republicans in Congress can agree on, its that neither wants to pay the United Nations more than it is already obligated to.
The main question is, what is Shari going to do? added Mr. Gabelli, who said that he had met with Ms. Redstone twice in the last 12 months.

The settlement, which Viacoms board approved Thursday night, firmly put the fate of the company under the control of Mr. Redstone, who is in failing health, and his daughter. The board of National Amusements, the private theater chain company through which Mr. Redstone controls about 80 percent of the voting shares in Viacom and CBS, met later and approved the deal.

Image Thomas E. Dooley, who started at Viacom in 1980, is expected to work closely with the new board during the next month and a half.

The executive shake-up at the media company was part of a complex settlement agreement to a public battle, in which Mr. Redstone and his daughter faced off against Mr. Dauman, long his most trusted adviser, and the Viacom board. The vicious three-month dispute included lawsuits in Massachusetts, Delaware and California, challenging Mr. Redstones mental capacity to make decisions about his businesses and asserting that he had been manipulated by his daughter in an unlawful corporate takeover.

The agreement serves the best interests of Viacom, its shareholders, and you, our employees, and it paves the way for our future, Mr. Dooley said in a memo to the Viacom staff on Friday. I know we all share a desire to guide the company through this transition in the best possible way.

The settlement makes way for Viacoms board to expand to include the five new directors that National Amusements put forward in June. They include Nicole Seligman, a former Sony executive and lawyer who represented President Bill Clinton during his impeachment trial; and Kenneth Lerer, a venture capitalist, a co-founder of The Huffington Post and chairman of BuzzFeed.

Mr. Dooley, who started at Viacom in 1980, is expected to work closely with the new board during the next month and a half to develop a new plan for the struggling company. He is said to want the top job but also is committed to working with the new board through a transition period on whatever outcome is best for the company.
Amtrak, which is pressing to build a new rail tunnel under the Hudson River between New York City and New Jersey, on Friday named a freight rail veteran as its next chief executive.

The national passenger railroad said that Charles W. Moorman, the former chairman of the freight rail operator Norfolk Southern, would succeed Joseph Boardman next month. Mr. Boardman, who has led Amtrak since late 2008, is retiring.

Mr. Moorman, who is 64 and known as Wick, arrives at a critical time for Amtrak, which has said that its existing century-old tunnel under the Hudson was severely damaged by Hurricane Sandy four years ago. Officials with the railroad have said that the two tubes in the old tunnel will eventually need to be shut down, one at a time, so that repairs can be made. Without the additional tunnel, which would also have two tubes, the repair process would reduce train capacity across the Hudson by 75 percent.

Making steady progress toward obtaining the billions of dollars needed for the new tunnels is expected to be one of the goals the Amtrak board will set for Mr. Moorman. The tunnels are part of a larger infrastructure project known as the Gateway program that Amtrak has said could cost nearly $24 billion.
Hail a yellow taxi in New York City, and there is a good chance the driver is from another country. Passengers are regularly exposed to a range of languages that span the globe, from Spanish to Bengali to Urdu.

It can be charming, but also maddening for riders who feel that drivers do not understand where they want to go. Dont you have to speak English, some wonder, to drive a taxi here?

As of Friday, the answer is no.

That is when new rules went into effect eliminating the requirement that taxi drivers take an English proficiency exam. Now, the test for a taxi license is available in several languages, to accommodate non-English speakers.

The sponsors of a City Council bill to remove the English test argued that the requirement was a barrier for would-be drivers from immigrant communities who were looking for work. But the shift has prompted concerns over whether communication between taxi drivers and passengers could become even more difficult.
Its a hard time, but what can we do? he said.

The suspension of trains from Hoboken, N.J., to Midtown, which will continue through Dec. 19, is necessary to accommodate service upgrades and the installation of safety devices mandated by the federal government, PATH officials said. Trains stop running each Saturday at 12:10 a.m. and resume each Monday at 5 a.m., excluding some holidays.

The shutdown comes at a time when PATH ridership levels are soaring. In June, ridership reached its highest monthly total ever with nearly seven million passengers in the system  a 3.6 percent increase over June of last year, according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which has operated PATH since 1962. The system was first opened in 1908 by the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad.

In addition, average Saturday ridership through June rose 2.2 percent compared with the same period last year.

The economy is good, jobs are there, people are taking the system, said Mike Marino, PATHs director and general manager.

The suspension of service underscores the challenges facing aging rail systems throughout the Northeast, including the closing of parts of the Metro system in Washington, repairs to defective trains in Philadelphia and the recent announcement of plans to temporarily shut down the L train tunnel between Brooklyn and Manhattan.
1. Its so shortsighted. The burkini is a wonderful piece of clothing because it allows observant Muslim women to go swimming, to cool off, to have fun, like any other person.

If the burkini is banned, the result wont be for observant Muslim women to go swimming in a Western-style womens swimsuit. The result will be for such women to not go swimming at all, but to stay fully covered and on dry land. Is that a victory? I think not. It results in restricting observant Muslim womens activities.
Of the 24 million children under 6 in the United States today, some 12 million need day care, because both parents work or a single parent is the breadwinner. Yet most working families cant afford good care  if they can even find it in the first place. In 2006, a federal study gave a high quality rating to only 10 percent of the nations child care programs, and the proportion today is almost certainly smaller, since government financing for child care has declined in the past decade.

So it is no surprise that child care has become a campaign issue, with both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump proposing to help with costs that now average nearly $18,000 a year for two children in a child care center (or about 30 percent of median family income). What is surprising is that it has taken so long for the issue to gain prominence. After all, affordable high-quality child care is one remedy to the long stagnation in wages afflicting most of the work force. It is also an antidote to the waning productivity that threatens future living standards.

Affordable day care, for instance, would stanch the income loss experienced by parents who now must leave the work force while their children are young. The damage of such career interruptions does not end when a parent goes back to work; among other things, there are the raises that were missed and the savings that otherwise would have accrued. A 26-year-old mother who takes five years off from a median-paying job  $30,253 in 2014  would forfeit $467,000 over a work life, reducing her lifetime earnings by 19 percent, according to a calculator by the Center for American Progress.

The losses are even more profound when multiplied over the economy. International comparisons indicate that more family-friendly policies in the United States, including quality child care, would allow roughly 5.5 million more women to work, assuming the economy was adding jobs at a reasonable pace. All else being equal, that surge could generate an astounding $500 billion a year in economic growth, or about 3.5 percent of gross domestic product.
AMAGANSETT, N.Y.  People run for the presidency for all sorts of reasons. But Donald J. Trump may be the first to run because he sees a presidential campaign as the best way to attract attention to himself. There seems to be no other driving passion in him, certainly not the passion to govern.

He isnt an ideologue like Ted Cruz, an opportunist like Marco Rubio, a movement builder like Bernie Sanders, a political legatee like Jeb Bush or a policy wonk like Hillary Clinton. For all of them  for any serious candidate  attention is a byproduct of a campaign, not its engine. For Mr. Trump, attention is the whole shebang.

That may be the lesson of his campaign shake up earlier this week. The shift is from politics to grabbing attention, and, quite possibly, from winning the election to winning the defeat, which is how he has spent practically his entire career.

Mr. Trump, the real estate magnate, is, after all, the master of taking a property, squeezing out the profit and leaving it for dead, then miraculously turning the loss to his advantage. A failing building or a failing Republican Party: To Mr. Trump, it may be the same thing.
I know its not a good idea to hate anyone. I know from an article I read that negative emotions are bad for my health. I would hate to have a heart attack because my internet isnt working. But I do hate Verizon.

I spent four hours on the phone with the company on a recent Saturday morning. I know for sure I was disconnected three times. Once I didnt realize it and just hung around for 20 minutes expecting someone to come back on the line. One person promised me he wouldnt disappear and even said, Have I yet? I said no, and then he disappeared.

I keep forgetting that I dont have internet, sitting down at my desk, clicking on a browser window and getting the blank screen with the message Unable to connect.

I was feeling crazy that I was getting so upset about this. My husband died last October. I blamed my hysteria on the loss of Jerry, not to mention the long summer of the fascism of Trump. With senseless tragedies all over the world, and my own loss, I am for sure anxious and despairing. Feeling on all counts helpless.
Two years after President Vladimir Putin of Russia annexed Crimea and began destabilizing eastern Ukraine, tensions are rising anew, with news reports suggesting that he may be preparing for yet another military confrontation with the pro-Western government in Kiev.

Given his endless capacity for intimidation and unpredictability, its possible that Mr. Putin is merely manufacturing the threat of a crisis to strengthen his diplomatic hand and extricate Russia from economic sanctions imposed by the West beginning in 2014. Yet regardless of his intentions, the provocations, real or feigned, could spin out of control. It is essential for Europe and the United States to keep the sanctions in place and remind Mr. Putin that they will not be lifted until he has helped bring peace to Ukraine.

The cease-fire agreed to 18 months ago between Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatists has been steadily eroding. Mr. Putins recent comments have only added to the tension. Last week he accused Ukraine of planning terrorist attacks in Crimea and said that a confrontation with Ukrainian saboteurs had led to the deaths of two Russian servicemen in the town of Armyansk near the disputed border with Ukraine. There is no doubt that we will not let these things pass, Mr. Putin warned on a state media broadcast.

Adding to the worries about Mr. Putins intentions is a military buildup that began in May with the deployment of additional military forces and weapons near Ukraines northern, eastern and southern borders. Between Aug. 7 and 12, Russia sent naval and air units, ground forces and military hardware to strengthen separatist forces, according to the Institute for the Study of War, which tracks the conflict. On Friday, a day after Russian land and naval forces conducted war games in Crimea, Mr. Putin further stirred the pot by visiting an air base near Sevastopol.
NATIONAL

Because of an editing error, an article on Friday about the political activities in Ukraine of Donald J. Trumps former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, misidentified the office once held by Yulia Tymoshenko, a rival of Mr. Manaforts client, the former president Viktor F. Yanukovych. Ms. Tymoshenko served as prime minister of Ukraine, not its president.

METROPOLITAN

The Neighborhood Joint column on Page 3 in some editions this weekend, about Almond, a restaurant in Bridgehampton, N.Y., misstates the surname of a writer who frequents the restaurant. She is Julie Sheehan, not Feehan.

BUSINESS DAY

An article on Friday about a federal judges decision to strike down a proposed class-action settlement between Uber and a group of current and former drivers referred incorrectly to the states in which some of Ubers concessions would have applied. The company had agreed to recognize and speak with quasi-unions only in California and Massachusetts  not in New York and other states.

SPORTS

An article in some editions on Friday about Usain Bolts victory in the 200 meters at the Rio Olympics referred incorrectly in some copies to the significance of his earlier victory in the 100 meters. He was the first person to win three consecutive Olympic gold medals in the 100 meters; he was not the first person to win three consecutive gold medals in any Olympic track and field event.
The referral does not mean the sheriff will face criminal charges; it is up to federal prosecutors to decide whether to pursue the case. Still, if the prosecutors do not take the case, the judge could appoint a special prosecutor.

A criminal prosecution of Sheriff Arpaio is the right next step for justice to be done, Cecillia Wang, director of the American Civil Liberties Unions Immigrants Rights Project, one of the groups that filed the lawsuit resulting in the court orders, said in a statement. When a federal court finds that a law enforcement official has lied to the court in an effort to cover up misconduct, and willfully flouted court orders, that official must be held to account.

Judge Snows referral also extends to Capt. Steve R. Bailey, who was in charge of internal affairs investigations in the sheriffs office, and Michele M. Iafrate, a lawyer for Sheriff Arpaios. They were both accused of withholding information from a court-appointed monitor about the existence of 1,459 IDs seized in law enforcement operations.

Ultimately, though, Judge Snow laid the blame squarely on Sheriff Arpaio. The court, he wrote, has reminded Sheriff Arpaio that he is the party to the lawsuit, not his subordinates, and thus the failure of his subordinates to carry out this courts orders would amount to his own failure to do so.

In his decision, Judge Snow removed several of Sheriff Arpaios powers, including his ability to oversee internal affairs investigations. The judge had already found that Sheriff Arpaio and his deputies had mishandled and manipulated such investigations, in part to obscure wrongdoing or neglect by deputies.
Those concerns may be warranted. So far, Mr. Trumps campaign has yet to make reservations for airtime beyond August. Mrs. Clintons campaign has reserved time into early September, totaling more $18.1 million, according to Kantar Media. And Priorities USA, the primary group supporting Mrs. Clinton, has put almost $80 million behind ads through the election.

Mr. Trumps aversion to television spending has been one of the biggest curiosities of his campaign. Mr. Trump waited until a month before voting began in the primary races to start airing television spots, instead banking on the free exposure he had received from seemingly endless interviews. His campaign announced this month that it raised $82 million in July for his campaign and Republican Party committees, leading many in the party to believe an advertising onslaught was imminent.

The Clinton campaign has already spent $55.8 million on television advertising so far this cycle, with $32.3 million of that going to local broadcast television in nine states: Colorado, Florida, Iowa, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia, according to Kantar Media.

It has also been bolstered in those same nine states by $33.5 million in advertising bought by Priorities USA, bringing the total spent in local broadcast television in the nine crucial swing states alone to $65.8 million in support of Mrs. Clintons campaign, according to Kantar Media. Priorities USA first went on the air in May, with an attack ad criticizing Mr. Trumps past misogynistic comments, and have since aired eight additional ads hammering the Republican nominee.

Regardless of the recent additions, the advertising spending is notably less than the 2012 election on both sides. At this point in 2012, President Obamas re-election campaign had already spent more than $136 million, and Mitt Romneys campaign $55 million. Restore Our Future, the super PAC supporting Mr. Romney, had also spent an additional $15 million in support by this point, according to Kantar Media.

Not all Republicans see Mr. Trumps decision to hold back on spending as a mistake.

There is very little evidence that paid advertising has made any difference in this presidential election to date, said Neil Newhouse, a Republican who was the lead pollster on Mr. Romneys 2012 presidential campaign.

Steve Murphy, a Democratic ad-maker and strategist, disagreed, pointing to recent polling.

Hillary Clinton has a lead in most swing states out of proportion with her national lead, demonstrating the huge success of her advertising campaign, Mr. Murphy said. The race should be closer in swing states.
WASHINGTON  A federal judge on Friday ordered Hillary Clinton to provide written testimony under oath about why she set up a private computer server to send and receive emails while secretary of state, ensuring that the issue will continue to dog her presidential campaign until the eve of the election.

In a brief ruling issued on Friday afternoon, the judge, Emmet G. Sullivan of Federal District Court in Washington, approved a motion by the conservative advocacy organization Judicial Watch to pursue its vigorous campaign to expose Mrs. Clintons use of the private server. In addition to requiring her testimony in writing, the judge allowed the group to depose a senior State Department aide who had warned two subordinates not to question her email practices.

Only six weeks ago, the director of the F.B.I., James B. Comey Jr., declined to recommend prosecuting Mrs. Clinton, saying that while her actions had been careless, they did not amount to a crime. Yet the controversy refuses to dissipate. This week, the bureau turned over to Congress the documents it compiled in the case, including a three-and-a-half hour interview with Mrs. Clinton, even as Republicans in Congress pressed their public case for her to be charged with perjury.

Judge Sullivans ruling opened another front in a fight Mrs. Clintons campaign certainly hoped to put behind her. Although he declined to order her to answer questions in person, his ruling underscored the legal complications that Mrs. Clinton faces even as she enters the homestretch of her campaign.
The Russian Ministry of Defense said Friday that two ships from the countrys Black Sea Fleet, the Zelyony Dol and the Serpukhov, fired three missiles from positions off the coast of Syria in the eastern Mediterranean.

The Kalibr missiles are a new addition to Russias arsenal, similar to American Tomahawk cruise missiles. And like Tomahawks, they are capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

But taken in the context of the dozens of strikes that Russia carries out daily, the three missile attacks were hardly significant. The ministry said the missiles hit a garrison, a command center and a weapons depot belonging to the Levant Conquest Front, until recently called the Nusra Front and officially affiliated with Al Qaeda.

Far more important militarily is the decision to fly the long-range bombers from Iran rather than from Moscow as it had before; if it continues, this could result in a more devastating air war over a long period of time.

The United States, too, engaged in saber-rattling on Friday.

The Pentagon said it had scrambled aircraft over northeastern Syria in a warning to the government after Syrian warplanes hit areas controlled by Kurdish fighters that are working with the American military to fight the Islamic State. The government and the Kurdish-led forces have had only occasional skirmishes, maintaining a kind of de facto truce, and the government airstrikes came amid their most serious clashes yet.

Scrambling the jets was the most robust American response yet to Syrian government airstrikes, although Syrian and Russian attacks have repeatedly hit predominantly Arab rebel groups backed by the United States, as well as hospitals, schools and civilian areas. The American move prompted grumbling from opponents of Mr. Assad, who said that the United States appeared ready to offer stronger protection to its Kurdish-led allies than to other rebel groups or civilians.

Two SU-24 bombers struck Thursday near the city of Hasakah in north-central Syria, said Captain Davis, the Pentagon spokesman. No members of the American military were harmed in the strikes, he said.
But when Ms. Zhang did not arrive on time, Mr. Yeung became angry.

Here I was trying to do this girl a favor, and she was late, he said. I wasnt happy about it.

But his mood changed the moment Ms. Zhang walked through the door and into his life.

She was so gorgeous, she took my breath away, he said. I was completely blown away. It was as if I had been struck by a thunderbolt.

They eventually went to their meeting, which lasted five hours.

I thought What a nice guy, taking all this time to help me out, said Ms. Zhang, who had no idea that she had swept Mr. Yeung off his feet.

I guess I wasnt struck by that same thunderbolt, she said, laughing. I was honestly just looking at Eric as a professional who was trying to help me get a good job after college.

And that is the role Mr. Yeung decided he would play, for as long as he could, anyway.

Even though I was completely enamored by her, I had to remind myself that this was the sister of a friend and colleague, he said. I was going to respect the boundaries that had been put in place.

In the ensuing weeks, Ms. Zhang took advantage of being back in New York for several school-related recruiting events to meet with Mr. Yeung.
Startled, I thought to myself, When did outsourcing become the subject of station IDs?

But, of course, it would be. Ive lived in big cities, including New York, for long enough that Ive forgotten the things you hear on rural radio. Progressive views about diversity and the benefits of immigration are not among them. Instead, the monster truck voice says that even though all else is slipping away, at least we still have our music. These touchstones are important. They tell us who we are.

Outsourcing and guns: These are the twin issues animating Trump voters in rural Kentucky. The two are linked and feed off each other; the only difference between them is that white rural voters see outsourcing as a losing battle, whereas protecting and expanding Second Amendment rights is the only policy theyve been able to get politicians to move on. For that reason alone, it is totemic.

Mr. Trump has nurtured this conception of defending constitutional rights under threat: Its been said that the Second Amendment is Americas first freedom, says his campaign site, paraphrasing a 1997 speech by the N.R.A.s first vice president, Charlton Heston. Thats because the Right to Keep and Bear Arms protects all our other rights.

What gun owners hear when Mr. Trump echoes N.R.A. talking points against certain kinds of gun control is that they can be trusted, that they are responsible citizens. No politician since Ronald Reagan has affirmed them the way Donald Trump has. And he feeds their just sense of grievance. His message on trade is that rural white voters  and anyone who has lost a job because of outsourcing and globalization  has been wronged. He calls Nafta a disaster  and who would disagree among the dozens of people I went to high school with who left their hometown because they couldnt make a living? Who would disagree in Detroit, for that matter?

Mr. Trump says more. In a June speech in Monessen, Pa., he leveled an indictment: Hillary Clinton unleashed a trade war against the American worker when she supported one terrible trade deal after another  from Nafta to China to South Korea. We are at war, he says, a war he promises to win. The era of economic surrender will finally be over. This is where his Second Amendment rhetoric and his economic rhetoric conjoin: guns and butter.

If Nafta, signed into law in 1993, was tied to the Clinton era, it is not lost on rural voters that the last major legislative effort on gun control was, too. The following year, President Bill Clinton put his signature on the assault weapons ban. Mr. Trump reassures them that the bans have always failed, and he reassures them that when bad things happen with guns, it is assuredly not their fault. Violent crime in cities like Baltimore, Chicago and many others is out of control, he proclaims, and yet law-abiding gun owners are the ones who anti-gun politicians and the media blame when criminals misuse guns.

This is how its seen by rural people  and theyre not wrong, even if theyre not all the way right either.
Now, with Congress often gridlocked by Republicans from those safe districts, the initiative on reform has shifted to the states. Insurgency has spread beyond California and New York to unlikely Republican bastions like Arizona, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Nebraska and South Dakota.

At this point, 17 states have become reform battlegrounds. In six, lawsuits are challenging racial or partisan gerrymandering, and in five more, that goal is being pursued by popular movements, state governors or legislative bodies. This summer, federal courts have ruled in favor of suits seeking to strike down strict photo-identification requirements in Texas, North Carolina and North Dakota. The courts found that the requirements discriminated against minorities, and often seniors and students. Other citizen lawsuits have won restoration of early voting days in Ohio and straight-ticket voting for Michigan.

South Dakota and Washington State are holding referendums on proposals for more transparent elections; similar petition drives fell just short of success in Arizona and Idaho. This year, reformers in California, New York and Washington State have been mustering votes to press Congress to control campaign funding and ban corporate campaign contributions.

In the pushback against Citizens United, 17 states and more than 680 local governments have appealed to Congress for a constitutional amendment, either through a letter to Congress, referendums, legislative resolutions, city council votes or collective letters from state lawmakers. In the most prominent case, Californias 18 million registered voters get to vote in November on whether to instruct their 55-member congressional delegation to use all of their constitutional authority to overturn Citizens United. Washington State is holding a similar referendum.
These arguments are largely a side show to the real issues, which are cultural. In April, when the Louisiana State Senate voted to put cursive back into the public school curriculum, senators yelled America! in celebration, as though learning cursive were a patriotic act.

A month later, Alabama required the teaching of cursive in public schools by the end of third grade by way of Lexis Law, named for the granddaughter of the state representative Dickie Drake; Mr. Drake believes cursive writing identifies you as much as your physical features do. In other words, our script reveals something unique and ineluctable about our inner being.

For most of American history, cursive was supposed to do the opposite. Mastering it was dull, repetitive work, intended to make every students handwriting match a standardized model. In the mid-19th century, that model was Spencerian script. It was replaced by the Palmer Method, which was seen as a more muscular and masculine hand suitable for the industrial age  a plain and rapid style, as Austin Palmer described it, to replace the more effeminate Spencerian. Students who learned it were taught to become writing machines, holding their arms and shoulders in awkward poses for hours to get into shape for writing drills.

It was also believed that mastering the Palmer Method would make students better Christians, immigrants more assimilated Americans (through its powerful hygienic effect), bad children better (the initial step in the reform of many a delinquent) and workers more industrious (because the script had fewer curlicues and strokes than Spencerian).

Our 19th- and 20th-century counterparts grafted their values onto handwriting, just as we do with our conceptions of individualism, patriotism and the unique self. These are projections we make onto squiggles and loops.

We have seen similar debates over the meaning of handwriting during other moments of historic transition. In the early medieval era, monks were told to stop using a Roman-based script because it looked too pagan and to adopt a more Christian-looking one. In the 16th century, Erasmus wrote a dialogue in which characters writing in the Renaissance-infused Humanist script complain about the barbarous look of Gothic script which they deem less civilized. They also complain that women have messy, impatient handwriting. (Today, women are perceived as being naturally better at penmanship than men, largely because handwriting is now taught at a younger age, when the fine motor skills of girls are more developed.)

Cursive has no more to do with patriotism than Gothic script did with barbarism, or the Palmer Method with Christianity. Debates over handwriting reveal what a society prizes and fears; they are not really about the virtues or literacy levels of children.
But there is evidence to support the predator theory. On Californias Channel Islands, off the coast of Santa Barbara, scientists found that, once variation in rainfall and island size was accounted for, those islands with the greatest number of predator species had the lowest prevalence of hantavirus, a nasty rodent-borne disease that kills 36 percent of the people it infects. Predators can really regulate infectious disease, and actually protect us, Dr. Buttke said.

As it happens, after more than a century, large predators are already trying to return to the Northeast on their own. In recent years, a number of wild wolves have been killed in the Northeast, said Linda Rutledge, a research associate at Princeton. They were probably migrants from Canada or around the Upper Great Lakes, and were most likely mistaken for coyotes. And in 2011, a cougar was hit by a car and killed in Connecticut. The animal had traveled from South Dakotas Black Hills, some 2,000 miles away.

Wolves need uninterrupted space, so Dr. Levi thinks that, even if they established a breeding population, theyd be restricted to remote areas like the Adirondacks. But cougars are another matter. In theory, they could live on the outskirts of New York City, as they do around Los Angeles and other Western cities. I think the best chance to make Lyme disease go away would be recolonization by cougars, Dr. Levi told me.

The question is: Will people allow it?

Over the years, scores of eastward-bound cougars have been killed in the Midwest, including in Chicago proper. Large cats are scary; long ago, they probably routinely ate people, said William Stolzenburg, author of Heart of a Lion, a book about that Connecticut cougar. And when attacks occur today  like a recent case in which a Colorado mother wrestled her 5-year-old son from a cougars jaws  they make headlines. But fewer than 30 people have lost their lives to cougar attacks in the past 125 years, Mr. Stolzenburg pointed out. These are just animals trying to reclaim the half of the country we drove them out of, he said. We ought to make a little bit of room for them.

The argument isnt just sentimental. Accommodating these animals might improve human health and save money. A recent analysis by scientists at the University of Washington concluded that, by controlling the deer population, cougars in South Dakotas Black Hills prevented $1.1 million in collision damage annually. If cougars recolonized the East over 30 years, the scientists calculated, collisions with deer might decline by nearly one-quarter, preventing 21,000 injuries and 155 deaths, and saving $2.13 billion.

As far as Im aware, no one has crunched the numbers for Lyme, but the same principle applies. How many days spent ill with Lyme disease might cougars prevent? How much suffering?

The relationship between the health of ecosystems and humans extends beyond Lyme. Over 60 percent of emerging infectious diseases, including Ebola, SARS, the Nipah virus and hantaviruses, originate in animals. The major killers of history  smallpox, measles and the plague  also came from animals. Yet the emergence of these zoonotic diseases seems to have accelerated.
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As Zika was moving north from Brazil to the United States, a different mosquito-borne disease  yellow fever  was cutting a devastating trail through Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo, killing more than 400 people and sickening thousands. This epidemic is not yet over, and, like Ebola in West Africa, it has exposed glaring weaknesses in how the world confronts infectious diseases.

There is no cure for yellow fever, which took a big toll in Europe and the Americas in the 18th and 19th centuries, but there is a vaccine. About 15 percent of people who get yellow fever progress to a severe form, which is characterized by jaundice, the condition that gave the disease its name. Between 20 percent and 50 percent of people who become very sick die.

The current outbreak is believed to have begun in December in Luanda, Angola. National governments, the World Health Organization and other public health groups have struggled to halt it. The biggest problem is that health officials cannot procure the vaccine fast enough. Making a batch can take up to six months and involves chicken eggs, a method that dates back about 80 years. Just four companies produce it. Last month, the W.H.O. said it was short about nine million doses.

Missteps by the W.H.O. and governments have not helped. Angola couldnt account for a million doses the organization sent it early this year, The Associated Press recently reported. A paucity of refrigeration and syringes has hampered vaccination efforts, and the lack of labs makes it hard to track the spread of the disease.
Although its been a long time, I vividly recall my reaction when I learned that I had been admitted to Amherst College: The admissions office must have made a terrible mistake.

I had graduated from a Long Island high school where most students didnt go to college, so I was convinced that at Amherst I would be overmatched by my better-educated, more sophisticated classmates and sliced to ribbons by my brilliant professors. To my surprise, I fared well academically, but I never entirely got over the feeling of being an impostor. Only decades later, at a class reunion, did I discover that many of my peers had felt exactly the same way.

Regardless of their credentials, many freshmen doubt that they have the necessary brainpower or social adeptness to succeed in college. This fear of failing hits poor, minority and first-generation college students especially hard. If they flunk an exam, or a professor doesnt call on them, their fears about whether they belong may well be confirmed. The cycle of doubt becomes self-reinforcing, and students are more likely to drop out.

The good news is that this dismal script can be rewritten. Several recent research projects show that, with the right nudge, students can acquire ways of thinking that helps them thrive.
Donald Trump is heading to November like a certain zeppelin heading to New Jersey, in a darkening sky that crackles with electricity. He is fighting crosswinds and trying new tacks  hiring the head of Breitbart News to run his campaign, trying on a new emotion (regret) in a speech on Thursday night, promising to talk more this week about immigration, his prime subject. Theres still no telling what will happen when the gasbag reaches the mooring.

It could be that the polls are right, and Mr. Trump will go down in flames. But while that will solve an immediate problem, a larger one will remain. The message of hatred and paranoia that is inciting millions of voters will outlast the messenger. The toxic effects of Trumpism will have to be addressed.

The most obvious damage has already been done  to the debate over immigration, a subject that is Americas pride but that can also show the country at its worst. Mr. Trumps solution is to build an unbuildable border wall and force 11 million people out of the country, while letting millions of good ones back in. Or maybe not  now he says he wants to bar immigrants from most of the world, except for a few who pass religious and ideological tests. Extreme vetting, he calls it, bringing the Alien and Sedition Acts and McCarthyism into the reality-TV age.

Yes, Mr. Trump speaks frontier gibberish. Outright nativism remains a fringe American phenomenon. But there is no shortage of mainstream politicians who have endorsed his message by endorsing the Republican nominee. Anyone hoping to build a serious solution to immigration after this election will have to confront the unworkable ideas and vicious emotions that Mr. Trump, with many enablers, has dragged into the open.
When the war ended, she, her mother and sister were packed into the trans-Siberian railroad headed west. Her father had been taken to a separate camp before she was born. At each stop, they stepped off the train and onto the platform, praying that he had survived. One day, they stepped out of the train and there he was, bags packed. Every morning for weeks he had headed to the station, waiting to join his family, the daughter he had never met.

No one was waiting for them when they arrived in Warsaw. My grandparents had many siblings, each with large families of their own. As far as we know, no one survived. Warsaw was still a dangerous place to be Jewish. The children were put in an orphanage for their safety. One day in the late 1940s anti-Semites beat my grandfather almost to death. Soon after, United States visas arrived, and they set off for a new life in Brownsville, Brooklyn.

My parents explained to me that these pasts meant that they were not Holocaust survivors. My mother told me that in her labor camp, they were hungry, they were put to work, but no one was shooting or gassing them. When they went back to Poland, it was hard, and Jews were hated. But this, she explained, was the fate of Jews. Anti-Semitism was a permanent feature of the world, not special to the Holocaust.

My fathers reaction to describing him as a Holocaust survivor was more severe. He angrily questioned my motivations. Was I seeking a special status as a victim? He urged me to reflect about how offensive this is to those who have to actually live under oppression. He argued powerfully against the stance of the victim. It was morally dangerous, he said, using the actions of Israelis and Palestinians toward one another as an example. He was scornful when he saw signs that I was taking the Holocaust to mean that Jews were special. If the Germans had chosen someone else, he often said, we would have been the very best Nazis.

Most frequently and passionately, he would reprimand me for taking the Holocaust to be about me, or about my family. The Holocaust was about humanity. It was about what we are capable of doing to one another. It could happen again, it could happen here. The Holocaust was about everyone. Helping to prevent such events from occurring required agency and good moral sense, and good moral sense was not consistent with preferring ones own people.
Tokyo  A parasite who lives off taxpayers money. That was how my father disparaged the emperor of Japan. Back then, our emperor was Hirohito and my fathers antipathy toward him was typical of Japanese intellectuals. I grew up thinking that the sooner the emperor was thrown out into the street, the better.

But as time went by and I watched the current emperor, Akihito, obligingly perform his symbolic duties, year after year, tirelessly greeting crowds and visiting victims of natural disasters, I mellowed. I began to like him. I even began to pity the soft-spoken emperor, as did many of my compatriots, conservatives and liberals alike. His schedule is ruthless. His is a job no one wants.

Yet there is a job thats far worse: being married to an emperor. There have been days, as The Tale of Genji tells us, when being one of the emperors wives or concubines was the most enviable position a woman could attain. But a thousand years later, times have changed, even if esoteric rituals remain the same. Today, marrying a future emperor is the last thing any sane woman would want.

Recently, Emperor Akihito made an unusual video appearance expressing his desire to retire. I listened with great sympathy. Then, thinking how his retirement might affect the imperial system, I realized to my surprise that I actually wanted the system to continue. After years of being in the minority, I have now aligned myself with a large majority of the population.
TUCSON  After a long, scary trek through three countries to escape the gang violence in El Salvador, a 15-year-old boy found himself scared again a few months back, this time in a federal immigration court here. There was an immigration judge in front of him and a federal prosecutor to his right. But there was no one helping him understand the charges against him.

I was afraid I was going to make a mistake, the boy said in Spanish from his uncles living room, in a modest cinder-block house on the south side of this city. When the judge asked me questions, I just shook my head yes and no. I didnt want to say the wrong thing.

Every week in immigration courts around the country, thousands of children act as their own lawyers, pleading for asylum or other type of relief in a legal system they do not understand.

Suspected killers, kidnappers and others facing federal felony charges, no matter their ages, are entitled to court-appointed lawyers if they cannot afford them. But children accused of violating immigration laws, a civil offense, do not have the same right. In immigration court, people face charges from the government, but the government has no obligation to provide lawyers for poor children and adults, as it does in criminal cases, legal experts say.
THE MESSAGE Illegal immigration, which would be rampant under a President Clinton, threatens national security.

THE TAKEAWAY Amid a shake-up in his campaign staff and a speech admitting regret for some of his more caustic comments, Mr. Trump is pressing his hard-line approach to immigration in an effort to reassure his die-hard supporters that he is committed to the issue while also presenting himself as the stronger candidate on national security issues.

Changing channels ...

Rapid Response

The Clinton campaign released a new ad on Friday, which presents a strong contrast with Mr. Trumps commercial. The spot is packed with scenes of Mrs. Clinton joyfully interacting with people of all races and ethnicities; a smiling and diverse group of children playing games and attending school; a woman in a cap and gown hugging her family; and a mother holding aloft her young infant. The Clinton campaign emphasized that the ad as represented a plan to lift Latino working families up, offering broad platform proposals such as relief on child care and a path to debt-free college.

Down the Ballot

Mr. Trumps struggles have put congressional Republicans in a tough position, and many of them have distanced themselves from his candidacy in order to protect their own seats. Outside groups looking to knock out incumbent Republicans are seizing on the tension. Independence USA, a super PAC underwritten by former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York, released an ad against Senator Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, quoting her saying Ive been an independent, strong voice for New Hampshire, and contrasting it with other independent Republicans whom the ad claims said no to Trump. Mr. Bloomberg has long been critical of Ms. Ayotte for her votes against gun control measures, running a negative ad through another group he financially supports, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, against her in 2013.

Digital Decency

All broadcast networks hold a right of refusal on political ads, allowing them to keep ads containing any profanity or slurs off the airwaves. The same is also true for digital ads, at least on Facebook, as MoveOn.org found out. An ad from the group that tried to show some of the more vicious comments from the crowd at Trump rallies was rejected by Facebook Ads, which told the group that ads cannot contain any profanity. But the rejection was limited to paid promotions; the group was still able to post the video to its own Facebook page.
The kingdom of Saudi Arabia donated more than $10 million. Through a foundation, so did the son-in-law of a former Ukrainian president whose government was widely criticized for corruption and the murder of journalists. A Lebanese-Nigerian developer with vast business interests contributed as much as $5 million.

For years the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation thrived largely on the generosity of foreign donors and individuals who gave hundreds of millions of dollars to the global charity. But now, as Mrs. Clinton seeks the White House, the funding of the sprawling philanthropy has become an Achilles heel for her campaign and, if she is victorious, potentially her administration as well.

With Mrs. Clinton facing accusations of favoritism toward Clinton Foundation donors during her time as secretary of state, former President Bill Clinton told foundation employees on Thursday that the organization would no longer accept foreign or corporate donations should Mrs. Clinton win in November.

But while the move could avoid the awkwardness of Mr. Clinton jetting around the world asking for money while his wife is president, it did not resolve a more pressing question: how her administration would handle longtime donors seeking help from the United States, or whose interests might conflict with the countrys own.
MIAMI BEACH  Michal Keren David stood alone amid the confectionery swirl that draws millions to the adult playground of South Beach, clutching not a minty mojito or even a ubiquitous cellphone, but one of the very latest symbols of life here: mosquito repellent.

As she spritzed herself next to a sidewalk cafe on Lincoln Road, Ms. David lamented her ill timing. Just Friday morning, as she headed to fly out of New York, bound for a weekend in Miami, she said she learned the latest news about Zika. The mosquito-borne virus, which can cause birth defects in fetuses, had found a new, albeit small, home on South Beach.

Ordinarily, she said, she might have simply shrugged off the news.

Im thinking of trying to get pregnant in the next month, said Ms. David, 32. We thought maybe about canceling, but we also thought we have to live our lives. This will get to New York City, too. It will be all over the place.

On Friday, this rollicking southern slice of Miami Beach, a place long accustomed to boom and bust, downtrodden and glamorous, became the second official target zone of the Zika-carrying mosquito, Aedes aegypti, in the continental United States. The discovery forced the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to advise pregnant women not to venture into a 1.5-square-mile area from Eighth to 28th Streets on one side and from the beach to the Intracoastal Waterway on the other. But federal health officials also warned them to consider postponing travel anywhere in Miami-Dade County.
DZALANYAMA FOREST RESERVE, Malawi  Out of desperation, soldiers were dispatched to the national forest here last year to defend the capital, Lilongwe, less than 30 miles away. Their mission was not to save it from an invading force, but to keep water flowing to its taps.

For years, wood charcoal burners had been destroying this forest, the catchment basin for the Lilongwe River, the source of the capitals water. Fewer trees mean the ground is less able to absorb water in the rainy season and gradually surrender it the rest of the year. With the supply reaching the capital dwindling and increasingly turbid, and with the El Nino drought spreading across Malawi and the rest of southern Africa, the capital was under imminent threat.

Weve always known wed have the problems were facing now, said Alfonso Chikuni, the chief executive of the state-owned Lilongwe Water Board. After the board agreed to bear the cost of the deployment, the army ordered a company of soldiers to the Dzalanyama Forest in February 2015 to save the trees.

The order came too late.

Two months ago, with the water supply increasingly squeezed by the drought and rebellion in the forest, Mr. Chikuni started rationing in the capital, leaving customers bereft for half the week.
BEIJING  As Myanmars leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, met this past week with Chinese officials during her five-day visit here, China helped arrange a gift for her back home, a reminder that it wants to make itself Myanmars new best friend.

Since assuming power this year, Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi has said her major goal is to end 70 years of civil war with ethnic minorities seeking greater autonomy. The gift, announced Thursday, was a letter signed by three well-armed and stubborn ethnic rebel groups with ties to China that declared their intention to join a peace conference she will convene this month.

I do believe that as a good neighbor China will do everything possible to promote our peace process, Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi said at a news conference here on Friday. If you ask me what my most important aim is for my country, that is to achieve peace and unity among the different peoples of our union. Without peace there can be no sustained development.

But China was not acting out of altruism when it nudged the groups to join the peace talks.

After years of encouraging the armed groups, China wants to end the prolonged fighting. The lawlessness created by that conflict has allowed the illegal jade and timber trade, worth billions of dollars, to flourish, but it has also made legitimate commerce across Chinas southern border with Myanmar almost impossible.
SEOUL, South Korea  North Korea said on Saturday that a diplomat in its London embassy who recently defected to South Korea had fled rather than face punishment for various crimes, calling him human scum.

The statement, from the official Korean Central News Agency, was North Koreas first reaction to the defection of Thae Yong-ho, its most senior official to defect in almost two decades. The defection of Mr. Thae, who was the No. 2 diplomat in the embassy, was announced by South Korea on Wednesday.

The North Korean statement said Mr. Thae, whom it did not identify by name, had been ordered in June to return from Britain to Pyongyang, the Norths capital, because he had embezzled state funds, sold official secrets and sexually assaulted a minor. The statement offered no evidence for those accusations.
MUMBAI, India  Pramukh Swami Maharaj, the spiritual leader who engineered the global expansion of a socially conservative Hindu sect that grew to be the largest in the United States, died on Aug. 13 in Sarangpur, a village in the state of Gujarat in western India. He was 94.

The gurus death was confirmed by Jayesh Mandanka, a spokesman for the sect, Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha, known as BAPS.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi flew to the village to deliver an emotional eulogy. Mr. Modi built his political career in Gujarat.

Under the gurus leadership, the sect, which practices a relatively modern form of Vaishnava Hinduism, established more than a thousand temples worldwide. He made numerous trips to East Africa, to Britain, to Canada and later to the United States after American immigration laws were loosened in 1965, attracting a tide of educated Indians.
Ernst Nolte, a German revisionist historian who broke academic taboos by equating Nazism with Bolshevism and who was denounced as an apologist for Hitler and even the Holocaust, died on Thursday in Berlin. He was 93.

His family told the daily newspaper Der Tagesspiegel that he had died in a hospital.

Professor Nolte, a respected scholar of fascism, provoked an ideological uproar in 1986 by suggesting in an essay that Nazisim had been a logical response in Germany to an existential threat posed by the Russian Revolution and its aftermath. He also argued that Hitlers extermination of Jews and other minorities was comparable to the mass murders engineered by Stalin in the Soviet Union, where victims were singled out by economic and social class as enemies of the Communist state.

Did the Gulag Archipelago not exist before Auschwitz? Professor Nolte wrote in the newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Was Bolshevik class murder not the logical and factual predecessor to the Nazi racial murder? he continued. Did Auschwitz not, perhaps, originate in a past that would not pass away?

An intellectual firestorm ensued  his car, parked at the Free University in Berlin, where he taught, was set ablaze  but Professor Nolte was nevertheless awarded the Konrad Adenauer Prize for literature in 2000 by the Munich-based Deutschland Foundation, a conservative organization close to the Christian Democratic Partys right wing.
LONDON  The London Underground, the worlds oldest subway system, opened a new chapter in its storied history on Friday night and Saturday morning: For the first time, trains on two lines kept operating all night.

The late-night, weekend-only service, called the Night Tube, began on the Central and Victoria Lines and will extend to three other lines in the fall. The idea had been discussed for decades and was originally scheduled for September 2015, but was put off because of labor disputes.

The Central and Victoria Line trains will run about every 10 minutes between 12:30 a.m. and 5:30 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday, serving 51 stations. The two lines are among the busiest in the system, which serves 4.8 million passengers a day.

London joined a small club of cities  New York, Vienna and Copenhagen, among them  in offering weekend round-the-clock service. Like Berlin and other cities, London has a network of night buses, and the agency added eight new routes to its night-bus network to complement the new late-night subway service.
ZO Project  Creating new values on the traditional paper

Located in a small alley in Hanoi, the little Zo shop is always full of customers searching for unique designs and products made from traditional paper (Source: ZO Project's official FB)

VietNamNet Bridge  Do paper, widely known as the material of the famous Dong Ho folk paintings, has been given new vitality thanks to an art project named Zo. The project aims to revive peoples interest in the traditional materials like Do paper and get them to learn more about Vietnamese folk arts. VOV Viet Anh reports.

As Vietnam has developed, many of its traditions have steadily declined and are on the verge of fading from peoples memories. Recognizing that making Do paper was a dying craft, the Zo project, looking for a way to keep Do paper alive, set a plan to preserve and promote this priceless cultural value. Van Anh, a member of the Zo project, talked to us about the inspiration and aim of the project. In the first stage, we focused mainly on Do paper, so Do can be considered the inspiration of the project. Do paper is used to create a wide range of items: notebooks, postcards, lamps, iphone case, lanterns, calendars, envelopes, and more. 3 years after we started, we have been successful in building our own brand. Do is now a good choice for making many modern decorative products

The Zo Project has produced many exciting and creative products which have helped to build its brand name (Source: ZO project's official FB)

A sheet of resilient Do paper is the result of a painstaking paper-making process involving many people. Three years on, the project has branched out into making other kinds of paper. Van Anh told us: "We were worried by the fact that there are only a few artisans that still do this craft, and on a very small scale. We asked ourselves, how can we preserve traditional calligraphy without its staple material - Do paper? We have been working with paper-making artisans in Hoa Binh Province to develop a new kind of paper made from Duong bark, which is easier to grow and is therefore cheaper and can be used to make a variety of handicrafts. We have also applied some new techniques to diversify the paper choices. Real do paper, though, is still irreplaceable despite significant developments with newer materials.

The shops beautiful handmade items excite the interest of Vietnamese and foreigners alike (Source: ZO project's official FB) A portrait, which is painted on do paper, by artist Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan (Source: ZO project's official FB)

The Zo Project has produced many exciting and creative products which have helped to build its brand name. Located in a small alley in Hanoi, the little Zo shop is always full of customers searching for unique designs and products made from traditional paper. The shops beautiful handmade items excite the interest of Vietnamese and foreigners alike. Diana Bustamante from Argentina. I read about them on the internet. I found them through a friend, who recommended me this shop. Well, its paper is handmade, which is completely different from the others, yes, I mean the quality and it takes a lot of work to make it. Its a long process and that makes it valuable for me at least.

Zo customer Thu Huong, was also impressed with Zo paper and its products: Zo is a very good model of a start-up project. The project members have diversified and modernized its products to meet market demand. When I came here, I was shown product sets, for example, wedding ceremony or birthday party sets, which were really impressive. And the designers also use Do paper to print traditional items like Buddha pictures.

The designers also use Do paper to print traditional items like Buddha pictures (Source: ZO project's official FB) Do paper is used to create a wide range of items: notebooks, postcards, lamps, iphone case, lanterns, calendars, envelopes, and more (Source: ZO project's official FB)

Diana Wagner  a product designer from France, who is deeply in love with traditional Vietnamese folk arts, especially traditional paper, has been working with the project to preserve Do paper. Zo project is a very good project. The small company should take example of this. Its a kind of message somehow. I think that one of the most important thing here, like to preserve traditional craft, because I was told the story of Do paper, that its going to disappear. And its very sad. So I want to help them develop and make new things so that people wont forget this traditional craft

The project team believes that once people understand the value of Do paper and Vietnams traditional art forms, traditional values will be uphold in a simpler and more sustainable way.

VOV5
Those visiting 904 Geneva St. in Opelika will no longer be greeted by the by the orange Storys sign. A red Reynolds Outdoors sign has taken its place, beginning a new chapter for the store that has been a tradition in Opelika.

The former Storys, which sold sporting goods such as guns, ammo and fishing bait to hunters and outdoorsmen in the area for more than 60 years, is now Reynolds Outdoors.

Tuesday, Clay and Tyler Reynolds, a father-son duo, finalized the purchase of Storys from Andy Story. The two have always talked about running a hunting store together, so when the opportunity arose, they seized it.

Wed always kind of thought that the Auburn-Opelika area needed a full-service sporting goods store, Tyler Reynolds said. When we found out that Mr. Story was wanting to sell his store  hes just getting to retirement age and he didnt have any kids that wanted to take it over  it was kind of like it all just aligned and we talked about it for awhile and prayed about it and we were like, Okay, were going to give this a shot.

Clay and Tyler Reynolds intend to keep the business family and locally owned. Both grew up on the outskirts of the Opelika-Auburn area and attended Auburn University.

While some things will change about the store, Tyler Reynolds said he and his father intend to keep the essence the same.

Obviously Mr. Storys been in business for over 60 years, so hes been doing something right, Reynolds said. We dont want to change from the loyal customer base thats been here, but also, looking at some of the things hes done, we also want to go in a slightly different direction.

Customers will no longer find the grocery section, whose contents were donated to the Food Bank of East Alabama last week. The hardware section will also be removed, with a liquidation sale coming, and will be replaced with sporting goods.

They will also no longer sell tobacco products or alcohol, and will no longer cash checks to promote a family-friendly environment, said Reynolds.

Apparel, sporting goods inventory, guns, and hunting and fishing merchandise will be expanded.

Hunting, fishing, apparel, clothing, boots, camo, all that stuff theyll be able to come here and get it all, Reynolds said. Theyre either going to buy it here or at a big-box store, so we hope they come here and can buy a gun and ammo and everything else to go with it.

As far as guns, Reynolds said their goal is to improve the wide selection Storys already offered, including expanding the handguns offered.

Reynolds said they have heard a lot of concerns about Storys closing, but wanted to assure people their needs will still be taken care of.

Yes, the business will not be called Storys anymore, but theyre still going to receive the same service that they were used to at Storys, and theyre going to see a lot of the same inventory.  A lot of the employees are going to be the same; a lot of the inventory is going to be the same, so hopefully it wont be too big of a switch for folks.

Attempts to reach Story for comment were unsuccessful.

The store will reopen Wednesday at 9 a.m. Regular store hours will be Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
David Steinberg is in crossword heaven. Just ask any, um, cruciverbalist.

Only 19 years old and already an award-winning professional crossword creator  yep, I am way out of my league here when it comes to wordsmithing  Steinberg this summer is interning with The New York Times crossword guru Will Shortz.

Call it brains on brains.

When Shortz, now 63 years old, was 13, he wrote to a language expert for advice on a career in word puzzles.

Steinbergs first professional crossword puzzle was accepted when he was 14.

If Steinbergs name sounds familiar, it should. At 15 years old, Steinberg was editor of the Orange County Registers crossword section. Three months ago, he published Juicy Crosswords, his second book.

Wait, theres more about this enigmatologist. (Yeah, I had to look that one up, too.)

As a freshman in high school, Steinberg, now a sophomore at Stanford University, decided to digitize every New York Times crossword that predated Shortzs career at the Times, which started in 1993.

Steinbergs Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project, as he called it, required remastering 16,225 crosswords.

It was a task that for most people would have taken years. But Steinberg, who went to elementary school in Irvine, had a plan.

Moreover, this puzzle creator  make that cruciverbalist  had faith in the power of crossword puzzles.

GAMEBOY GAMES

It was a century ago when modern crossword puzzles came into being.

For many of us  and that includes me  crossword puzzles offer nothing more than a frustrating and confounding way to waste time, only slightly more tolerable than their cousin, that dastardly game called Scrabble.

But for thousands of crossword solvers, as they are known, word puzzles offer challenge, mystery and satisfaction.

Who knew?

OK, my mother is a fan. So is my wife.

Steinberg reports one of the things he learned this summer is that there seem to be far more women than men who tackle crossword puzzles. Why remains a mystery.

I blame it on Gameboy.

On the flip side, Steinberg reports, as an intern in Manhattan he sees more word puzzle submissions from men than women. Another unsolved mystery.

The New York Times crossword is widely considered the finest crossword puzzle in the United States. The cycle is Monday through Saturday, with the puzzle getting more difficult each day. Saturday is a bear.

Experienced fans take 90 minutes or more to finish the puzzle  an hour if they are good.

Steinberg whips through Sunday puzzles in eight minutes.

Still, he pushes his prowess aside. He knows some who finish the Sunday crossword in four minutes.

PASSION FOR WORDPLAY

Steinbergs passion for crossword puzzles started with the film documentary Wordplay. The year was 2006, and Steinberg was 10 years old.

True, most kids would have fled the room. But synapses in the boys brain caught fire.

Since the digital revolution, most puzzle makers use computer software to lay out the basic grid. But in the movie, Steinberg marveled at something different. In one scene, Steinberg recalls, Merl Reagle (a professional creator) created one by hand.

It doesnt look that hard, but I tried to do it and its very hard.

Immediately, Steinberg started making his own crossword puzzles and submitted them to the legendary Shortz. All were rejected. But Shortz encouraged the young creator to keep trying. The lad had a knack, especially when it came to crafting clues.

Understand, creating the crossword grid is the easiest step. The true charm of a great crossword is in the phrasing of clues. The creator has to manage just the right mix of difficulty, ease, even a dash of mystery and humor.

Consider this clue from a recent Steinberg puzzle: Tree hugger. The answer is boa.

Hilarious, right? Maybe you had to be there. Let me explain.

Themed crosswords are especially fun  or so Im told. And part of the fun, is figuring out the theme.

After a dinner with fellow cruciverbalists that touched on millennium-era electronic games, Steinberg was inspired to create a Space Invaders crossword.

Word of advice here: Its time to strap on your geek squad helmet.

In a blog, Steinberg confesses: The hardest part for me was the middle right. I really, really didnt want to get stuck with EARED SEALS at 45-Down, especially since I already had the obscurish (to me, at least) ALGREN in that area.

Like I said, it takes some serious gray matter to create a crossword puzzle. More down-to-earth, Steinberg wrote his favorite clue was, Place to get drunk before getting high?  AIRPORT BAR.

Steinberg smiles and tells me the crossword marked the first time a New York Times puzzle had airport bar.

He adds when he was 16 years old, he worked with Bernice Gordon, who was 99 and the countrys oldest crossword creator. Their 83-year age difference was a first.

Cruciverbalists like firsts.

CROSSWORD FUTURE

When Steinberg launched his Pre-Shortzian Puzzle Project, he knew he needed help and reached out online to fellow creators and solvers. Soon he had more than 60 volunteers.

I was really curious about 1942-1993, Steinberg explains. The consensus was overwhelmingly negative about that time, that there was no cleverness, no wordplay.

The three-year project proved otherwise. And, surprise, people cared.

Steinberg was awarded a $25,000 scholarship from the Davidson Institute for Talent Development in the Outside the Box category. He also proved crosswords were always meant to be fun and believes that will never change.

After earning his bachelors degree, Steinberg hopes for a career crafting crossword puzzles, although he admits, There arent many jobs like that.

Still, he is confident about the future of crosswords. Shorter, celebrity-oriented crosswords on mobile devices, he predicts, will bring more people into word puzzles.

And if you ever play Scrabble, dont forget Steinbergs million-dollar word: Cruciverbalist.

For more, visit CustomCrossword.com.

Contact the writer: dwhiting@scng.com
A superior court judge said Friday he was disturbed that it took three years for the Orange County Sheriffs Department to follow his order to turn over secret records related to the use of informants in county jails.

County prosecutors, reacting to suspicions that a new set of secret records has been started in the jails, told Superior Court Judge Thomas Goethals on Friday that they have asked the Sheriffs Department to turn over everything  including any new records  it may have.

In 2013, Goethals ordered deputies and prosecutors to turn over all records about jailhouse informants to the public defender representing admitted mass murderer Scott Dekraai. At the time, it was unclear how extensive those records were.

On Friday, Goethals expressed frustration that the records only recently washed ashore and noted that the 1,157 pages of computerized logs kept by sheriffs deputies ended exactly six days after he ordered that evidence be turned over to the defense.

Goethals also said he was unhappy that the content of those records appears to contradict sworn testimony from sheriffs deputies working on the case. The records cover a period from September 2008 to January 2013 and include information about informants working on potentially dozens of cases other than Dekraais.

Some deputies had told the court, under oath, that they dont actively work to cultivate informants in the jails.

But Goethals said the documents show that some deputies worked extensively with jailhouse informants, moving them as needed for capers with goofball names like Operation Okie-Dokie. The logs show that informants also were rewarded.

It makes you smile, but it also makes you shake your head, Goethals said.

Goethals is presiding over the penalty trial of Dekraai, who pleaded guilty to killing eight people at a Seal Beach salon in 2011. In 2015, Goethals removed the Orange County District Attorneys Office from the case out of concern the agency could not guarantee a fair trial. The case was handed to the state Attorney Generals Office, which is appealing.

Meanwhile, Goethals has been asked to determine how much of the logs, sealed by the court as confidential, can be turned over to Dekraais attorney, Assistant Public Defender Scott Sanders. Some excerpts of the records have been turned over to Sanders as part of the case against Daniel Wozniak, a Costa Mesa community theater actor who killed two people in 2010 to steal money.

Lawyers for the county on Friday indicated that Sheriff Sandra Hutchens wants all of the documents kept under court protection. The logs are said to contain names of various informants, whose lives could be threatened if the information is released publicly. Goethals gave other police agencies until Sept. 19 to turn in requests to keep confidential other parts of the logs.

He also set the next hearing date for Sept. 22.

Sanders asked the judge to be as forthcoming as possible with the logs, noting what he described as three years of deception by prosecutors and police.

Will favorable evidence ever make its way out of the jail? Sanders asked in exasperation.

Contact the writer: tsaavedra@scng.com
With her new album, The Hope Six Demolition Project, the fiercely intense PJ Harvey continued turning over the soil in that place where the political meets personal, a fertile vein for her now and on its predecessor Let England Shake.

Shes got things to talk about, issues shes seen around the world, though often with their roots, or tentacles, firmly planted in the United States, and at the Shrine Expo Hall on Thursday Harvey explored them, playing all 11 tracks of the new record live for a sold-out and adoring audience.

Harvey has always been a mesmerizing presence in the studio and especially live, and for 19 songs and 90 minutes on Thursday she captivated the crowd almost without pause with her voice, her music, her minimal yet dramatic stage choreography.

The night began with a bit of that theatricality as Harvey, playing saxophone, and the nine men in her touring group marched on stage like a battlefield band playing a mournful dirge  more saxophones squawking, snares and bass drums keeping a sharp, slow beat  before slipping into Chain of Keys, the first of five new tunes that opened the show.

Where Let England Shake turned Harveys burning vision on her homeland in all its flaws and faded glories, The Hope Six Demolition Project  the album the musical accompaniment to a broader work that includes photography, poetry and a documentary film  shifts much of her focus to the United States at home and abroad.

Its songs can be opaque in their meanings, but the lyrics offer hints and whispers of the things that interest her: Poverty and war, the rights of women, children and native peoples, governments at once both overbearing and uncaring. Their titles  The Ministry of Defence, Near the Memorials to Vietnam and Lincoln, A Line In The Sand  offer even more clues to her intent and purpose.

Live at the Shrine, though, everything felt stronger and clearer, as the sharp band, which included such longtime Harvey collaborators as John Parish and Mick Harvey, breathed power and passion to amplify that for which PJ Harvey long as been lauded.

The Ministry of Defence opened with a hard beat that lifted on the choruses, when seven of the nine men in the band sang with Harvey. The Community of Hope arrived with a rousing, almost cheerful melody undercut by lyrics that described a downtrodden neighborhood in Washington D.C., the song coming to a close with nearly the whole band singing the bitterly ironic line, Theyre gonna put a Wal-Mart here.

Eventually the show opened up to older, more familiar songs. Let England Shake found Harvey singing in the haunting falsetto she used for much of that album, her long black sleeves flowing as she moved she seemed a prophet dressed in vestments. The Words That Maketh Murder from the same album fit seamlessly with the new material, its final refrain quoting Eddie Cochrans Summertime Blues, the band again a chorus singing the refrain: What if I take my troubles to the United Nations?

The stage lights and backdrops also seemed to reference Harveys current interests, the video screen mostly displaying an image reminiscent of the brutalist architecture popular in so many mid-century government buildings, the effect making it feel like Harvey and the band were playing in the courtyard of the ministry or this or that.

Unlike past tours when Harvey played guitar, autoharp and a handful of other instruments here she focused on singing and saxophone, at times as on songs such as The Wheel, a song about the plight of children, stepping to the back of the stage to join the two other horn players, emphasizing her role as a member of the band more than the star in the spotlight up front.

A run of songs near the end of the night nicely brought the show to a rousing and harder rocking finale. The new tune The Ministry of Social Affairs opened with a greasy blues riff which segued nicely into 50ft Queenie a track from her 1993 sophomore release Rid of Me.

The punk blues of Queenie got a huge response from the crowd as did Down By The Water, one of the most eerily seductive songs shes ever done.

Band introductions represented the only time she spoke to the audience all night. In addition to Parish and Mick Harvey, standouts in the band include Alain Johannes on guitars, Terry Edwards on saxophones and flute, and Jean Marc Butty on percussion, though all were excellent.

The earlier and much-loved To Bring You My Love with Parish playing its echoing guitar riff offered another highlight and followed by the new River Anacostia with its references to the spiritual Wade In The Water brought the main set to a close.

A two-song encore closed with a riveting performance of Working For The Man, Harvey dancing as she sang into an old-fashioned microphone, the band roaring full-out behind her, a dazzling finish to a show I only wished had last a few songs longer.

Contact the writer: 714-796-7787 or plarsen@ocregister.com
ATHENS, Greece  Greeces coast guard on Friday rescued dozens of migrants whose boat ran aground on a deserted islet off southwestern Greece, while another boat landed on the Aegean Sea resort island of Mykonos, well west of the normal migrant route.

The coast guard said the first vessel appeared to have been carrying migrants trying to clandestinely reach Italy from Greece. It hit rocks on Sapientza, off the southwestern tip of the Peloponnese, and took on water. All 67 people on board the nine-meter (27-foot) wooden craft were picked up safe.

Another 36 people, including seven children, landed Friday on a remote beach on Mykonos. The coast guard said all were in good health.

Separately, government figures showed 261 migrants or refugees arrived on eastern Greek islands in the 24 hours from Thursday morning to Friday morning  a jump compared to recent figures, which had ranged from a few dozen to about 150 per day.

Of those who arrived in the last 24 hours, 139 people reached Lesbos. The rest arrived on Chios, Samos, Leros and Karpathos.

The new arrivals brought the official count of refugees and migrants stranded in Greece to just over 58,000. Many have officially applied for asylum.

Last year, Greece was the main point of entry into the EU for hundreds of thousands of people seeking better lives in northern and central European countries. A March deal between the EU and Turkey, combined with Balkan border closures to migrants, has led to a dramatic drop in new arrivals.

Those now arriving on Greek islands from Turkey face deportation back to Turkey unless they successfully apply for asylum in Greece.

While the deal has limited the flow, people still arrive and around 11,000 are stranded on a handful of eastern Aegean islands, most housed in overcrowded detention camps.

With the Balkan route closed, increasing numbers of migrants have turned to more dangerous routes. Hundreds have died making the perilous journey across the Mediterranean from the north African coast to Italy.

An aid group said Friday that five bodies had been recovered a day earlier off Libya after a small wooden boat capsized. The Migrant Offshore Aid Station, MOAS, said two Syrian girls, ages 8 months and 5 years, were among the victims.

A Spanish aid group rescued at least 100 people from three separate boats in the area on Thursday.
PORTERVILLE  A central California police officer is recovering after being shot by a suspect in Porterville.

KFSN-TV reports that the officer was shot in the hip while pursuing a suspect who fled on foot after a traffic stop on Thursday.

Porterville Police Chief Eric Kroutil says as the suspect ran away he opened fire, striking the pursuing officer. The officer was able to return fire and a second officer arrived at the scene and also shot the suspect.

The suspect was hit several times in his leg, arm and torso. He is in critical condition but expected to survive.
MANILA, Philippines  Even amid the slaughter of President Rodrigo Dutertes war on drugs, the killings of Renato and Jaypee Bertes stand out.

The Bertes men, father and son, shared a tiny, concrete room with six other people in a metropolitan Manila slum, working odd jobs when they could find them. Both smoked shabu, a cheap form of methamphetamine that has become a scourge in the Philippines. Sometimes Jaypee Bertes sold it in small amounts, relatives said.

So it was unsurprising when police raided their room last month.

They were arrested and taken to a police station where, investigators say, they were severely beaten, then shot to death.

Police said the two had tried to escape by seizing an officers gun. But a forensic examination found that the men had been incapacitated by the beatings before they were shot; Jaypee Bertes had a broken right arm.

There is no justification at all, said Gwendolyn Pimentel-Gana, a member of the Philippine Commission on Human Rights, an independent government body that investigated the case. How can you shoot someone who is already in your custody?

The two men are among more than 800 people who have been killed by police officers and vigilantes since the May election of Duterte, who has repeatedly called for killing drug dealers and users. Most have been killed by police officers, in encounters the police characterize as confrontations or self-defense. More than 200 have been attributed to vigilantes, who often leave cardboard signs declaring their victims to be drug pushers.

The Bertes case is one of the rare killings to prompt legal action. Two of the officers involved have been suspended, and police said they would be charged with murder.

Duterte has not commented on the case, which has been widely reported in the local news media. In a speech on Wednesday, he said that police should not use excessive force, but he showed no sign of backing down from his call to kill drug suspects.

The fight against drugs will continue unrelenting until we have destroyed the apparatus operating in the entire country, he said.

Sen. Leila de Lima, the former Philippine secretary of justice, called the killing a summary execution and said the evidence was so clear-cut that authorities had no choice but to bring charges.

The case is one of several expected to be the focus of potentially explosive hearings next week before the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights, which de Lima oversees.

Duterte lashed out at de Lima in his speech on Wednesday, accusing her, without providing evidence, of having an affair with her married driver, who he said collected drug payoffs for her.

De Lima called the accusation foul and added, If this is his way of stopping the Senates investigation on the extrajudicial killings, he can try, but she insisted that she would not call off the hearings.

Although the killings have dispensed with what Duterte has called the rigamarole of due process, his drug war has proved wildly popular in a country plagued by crime.

The blunt-spoken Duterte made his name as the mayor of Davao City, where vigilante killings starting in the 1980s are credited with helping reduce crime and making it one of the countrys safest places.

Since Duterte has taken his campaign nationwide, more than 600,000 drug dealers and users have turned themselves in to avoid being killed, the authorities say. The result, they say, has been a visible reduction in drug use and petty crime.

Renato Bertes, 49, and Jaypee Bertes, 28, lived with their families in a dark warren of alleyways in Pasay City, a part of greater Manila near Ninoy Aquino International Airport. The eight of them shared a small room and a kitchen area with buckets in place of a sink.

According to police, the officers chanced upon the Bertes men, out in the neighborhood gambling, on the evening of July 6. They arrested them, found small amounts of shabu in their possession and took them to the police station.

Police declined to discuss the case or release their investigative report, but that document was summarized in a report by the Commission on Human Rights, a copy of which was provided to The New York Times.

According to the commission report, members of the Bertes family and a neighbor told a different story. They said that police barged into their apartment at 11:30 while they were in bed. The officers demanded to know where Jaypee Bertes was keeping drugs and began roughing him up.

This was not the familys first run-in with the police. Pimentel-Gana said that according to family members, police had extracted payments of hundreds of dollars from Jaypee twice before.

One officer picked up Jaypees 2-year-old daughter, Angel, and strip-searched her, according to Harra Kazuo, 26, the girls mother and Jaypees wife.

Harra begged them to stop and not to kill her husband in front of her, the commission report said. She then ran outside with her daughter.

Renato Bertes tried to intervene and told police his son would surrender, the report said. The officers arrested the men and took them to the police station, in Pasay City.

According to the summary of the police report, once inside a jail cell, Renato Bertes tried to grab an officers gun. The officer managed to hold onto his firearm and fired successive shots at Renato, the report said.

At that point, Jaypee Bertes grabbed the gun, the report said, but before he could fire, the second officer came to his rescue and shot Jaypee.

The commission report, however, said it was not possible for either suspect to attack the officers or to try to take their weapons. Both men had been tortured, the report said.

A forensic examination concluded that they had been repeatedly struck with a blunt object before their deaths.

With Jaypees broken arm and both he and his father Renatos badly bruised bodies, the victims can no longer be threats to the life and security of the officers, the report said.

Each suspect was shot at least three times, and other shots struck the walls of the police station. One shot hit Renato Bertes in the top of the head, suggesting that his head was bowed at the time, Pimentel-Gana said.

What they did was plain wrong, Kazuo said in an interview. There are laws in the country that they need to follow, especially since they are policemen. You cannot just kill anyone.

She acknowledged that her husband and his father were involved with drugs but said that did not mean they deserved to die. They were not big-time pushers, she said, or part of a syndicate.

Some people are just pushed to extremes to survive, she said.

Pimentel-Gana said it was common in such shootings for police to claim that the victim tried to grab an officers weapon.

Last week, an official in Pasay City was shot and killed by police, who said he tried to grab an officers gun while handcuffed, according to the local news media. The official had gone to the authorities in an effort to clear his name of drug charges, family members said.

Although the two officers accused in the Bertes killings have been suspended from duty, family members say the officers still frequent the neighborhood and remain armed.

In his speech on Wednesday, Duterte said his government was willing to submit to an investigation of the killings and that he took full and sole responsibility for the campaign against drugs.

He did not, however, renounce his call to kill drug suspects, adding that many addicts were no longer viable as human beings on this planet.

Kazuo, Jaypees widow, begged Duterte to have some compassion.

This is what I can tell the president, she said. Not all addicts can change overnight, but no one has the right to take somebodys life. If God gives people chances to change, how can we not?
BAGHDAD  Iraqi forces pushed Islamic State fighters out of a pocket of territory near the key western city of Ramadi on Friday evening, the military said, following a string of recent victories against the Sunni militant group in the sprawling western Anbar desert.

Iraqi forces are now largely moving north, ahead of an eventual push on the countrys second-largest city of Mosul, which has been under Islamic State groups control for the past two years. Mosul is also the Islacmi States last remaining urban bastion in Iraq.

The development came as a powerful Iraqi Shiite cleric in Baghdad expressed discontent with the countrys new ministers appointed this week, after months of political wrangling  a reflection of the still simmering political crisis.

The town retaken Friday from Islamic State  Khaldiyah, 55 miles west of Baghdad  lies between Ramadi and Fallujah, the two key cities in Anbar province retaken from Islamic State by Iraqi security forces over the last year.

The Shiite cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr, issued a statement in which he repeated calls a complete government overhaul and trials for all corrupt politicians. He also accused Iraqs political blocs of standing in the way of reforms that the prime minister pledged to pursue more than a year ago.

Iraqs parliament approved a partial Cabinet reshuffle this week, endorsing five new ministers.

Over the past year Iraqs government has come under mounting public pressure. Anti-government protesters stormed Baghdads highly fortified Green Zone once in April and a second time in May.
ST. AMANT, La.  If Donald Trump were looking for those fed up with the national media and the Obama administration, he had some fertile ground in flood-wrecked southern Louisiana.

Over the week leading up to a visit here by Trump on Friday, a sentiment burned that the flooding, which has left thousands of people in shelters, has been unconscionably overlooked on the national level. The Advocate newspaper in Baton Rouge published an editorial Wednesday slamming President Barack Obama for not interrupting his vacation to visit the flood-stricken areas, comparing his absence to President George W. Bushs much-derided flyover of a flooded New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

The White House said Friday that Obama would be coming to Baton Rouge on Tuesday.

Into this came Trump.

It just lets you know that somebody on the national level is doing something, said Sandra Bennett, 76, a Trump supporter who lost everything in the flooding and had come to see the Republican presidential nominee at the first of his several stops around the flood-battered area Friday. We dont just believe in Trump for this, though, she said. We think hes got the right values.

Word that Trump would be coming surfaced in reports Thursday night after a speech in North Carolina in which he spoke briefly of the heartbreak and devastation in Louisiana, a state that is very special to me.

The news of his visit seemed to catch many officials here by surprise. Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, said in a statement late Thursday that he had not been told anything about it. The governor said he welcomed Trump to Louisiana, but not for a photo-op. Instead we hope hell consider volunteering or making a sizable donation to the Louisiana Flood Relief Fund to help the victims of this storm.

The typically brash and spotlight-seeking billionaire offered notably restrained remarks as he surveyed the waterlogged wreckage.

Nobody understands how bad it is, Trump told reporters, after briefly helping unload a truck of supplies while cameras captured the moment. Its really incredible, so Im just here to help.

During another campaign stop in Dimondale, Mich., on Friday, Trump asked African American voters to give him a shot at the presidency.

What do you lose by trying something new like Trump? he asked.

Trump said many are living in poverty and have no jobs. Its not the first appeal Trump has made to the demographic, despite his dismal standing in polls of African American voters.

The trip did little to obscure the turmoil in Trumps campaign, punctuated early Friday when Trump announced that hed accepted campaign Chairman Paul Manaforts offer to resign.

Manaforts departure followed a string of revelations about his work for a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine. The damaging news included an Associated Press report Thursday describing a covert Washington lobbying operation run by Manaforts firm. Manafort and his deputy, Rick Gates, never disclosed their work as foreign agents as required under federal law.

Trump, in a statement, praised Manaforts work on the campaign and called him a true professional.

Hillary Clintons campaign called the resignation of Paul Manafort from the Trump campaign an admission of the Trump campaigns disturbing connections with allies of Russian President Vladimir Putin in Russia and Ukraine.

You can get rid of Manafort, but that doesnt end the odd bromance Trump has with Putin, campaign manager Robby Mook said in a statement.

And in Ukraine, a lawmaker said Manafort should be questioned about $12.7 million that records show he was to be paid from a secret account for working on behalf of toppled President Viktor Yanukovych.

Manafort worked with Kremlin-backed Yanukovych for a decade, helping him win presidential elections in 2010 that tilted Ukraine back into Russias orbit until a 2014 revolution ousted him from power.

Manafort has said hes never received a single off-the-books cash payment and that all money directed to him was for work carried out in Ukraine by his political team for functions such as polling and television advertising. He said in a statement that he hasnt ever done work for the governments of Ukraine or Russia.

Back in Louisiana, there was plenty to look at for those who visited on Friday. For miles and miles, on either side of the truck-clogged roads that the motorcade traveled, there were huge piles of debris as people dumped the contents of their homes so that the structures themselves might be salvaged. In the small community of St. Amant, Trumps last stop, some homes were still nearly submerged, eight days after the flooding began.

We lost everything we own, said James LeBlanc, the communitys fire chief, ticking off the school, the grocery stores and nearly every home. And the waters still here.

A preliminary analysis released Friday by the Baton Rouge Area Chamber of Commerce estimated that more than 110,000 homes valued at $21 billion were in the region that flooded. The vast majority were uninsured.

Trump and his running mate, Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana, arrived separately at the Baton Rouge airport around 9 a.m. and set off in a long motorcade with several state Republican politicians. The first stop was in Central, a flood-ravaged suburb of Baton Rouge, at a Baptist church that had become the headquarters for a large volunteer effort. A small crowd had formed, many of them Trump supporters who had heard about the visit at the last minute.

Thank you, Donald, many in the crowd shouted as the candidate greeted volunteers, though one woman contradicted the widespread frustrations of the past week here by shouting that the national news media should get out of Louisiana.

After leaving the church, Trump saw a high school that had flooded, visited with a retired law enforcement officer whose home had been badly damaged, and went to the emergency operations center in St. Amant, where he met with members of the National Guard and local officials.

He also autographed a large vehicle that was the command center for the Ascension Parish Sheriffs Office.

Next to the emergency operations center was a large church that had been converted into a fully staffed relief station, where a stream of people came seeking food and cleaning supplies.

Jacqueline DeLatte, 30, who was picking up a box of food for everybody I know, who lost everything they have, said Obama should have come to Louisiana by now, and thought it inexcusable that he had not. This did not, however, leave her receptive to Trumps visit.

Hes just trying to show off, honestly, she said. Hes just here to see what votes he can get.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
SACRAMENTO  The California Senate is rejecting legislation that seeks to force public water agencies to disclose their largest commercial and industrial water users.

The measure failed Friday on a 20-15 vote. It would have clarified that data on business water use is a public record but would not apply to residential customers.

Conservation groups and First Amendment advocates support the bill. They say AB1520 would allow the public to know how effectively water agencies are conserving water in the midst of Californias drought.

Agriculture groups say the bill would treat customers of public and private water providers differently.

Republican Sen. Jeff Stone of Temecula says the measure would put California companies at disadvantage when competing against companies in other states.
LINCOLN  A federal judge cleared the way Friday for Nebraska to move forward this year with a major revamp of the way Medicaid services are managed.

U.S. District Judge Robert Rossiter ruled against two companies that sought to stop the state from proceeding with the transition.

The companies, Aetna Better Health of Nebraska and Arbor Health Plan, lost out in the bidding this spring for a share of nearly $1.2 billion in managed care contracts in Nebraska.

In response they filed lawsuits claiming that they had been shut out of the contracts because of irregularities in the bidding process.

Last week they argued in court for a preliminary injunction halting the contracts that had been awarded.

But Rossiter ruled against them on a number of key points needed to win a preliminary injunction.

Despite getting more than 20,000 documents from the state, he said, the companies struggle to show that the state acted unlawfully during the bidding process, including a decision to rescore one section of the bids.

Nor had the companies shown evidence of favoritism or prejudice by the state in the bidding process, the judge said.

In addition, Rossiter concluded that the publics interest in having the new Medicaid program implemented without undue delay outweighed the companies interests.

He pointed to the significant time, energy and expense that the state and the winning bidders already have put into implementing the new program.

The winning bidders were UnitedHealthcare Community Plan, Nebraska Total Care (Centene) and WellCare of Nebraska.

The three are to oversee the physical and mental health of some 230,000 low-income Nebraskans in a program called Heritage Health.

The program is to start Jan. 1, but open enrollment is to begin Sept. 1.

Officials with the State Department of Health and Human Services have said the new approach will replace a fractured system of contractors who provide different services in different areas of the state, and that the new approach will save taxpayer dollars and deliver better care.

HHS put out a request for proposals to manage the new program last year. Officials with HHS and the Department of Administrative Services announced an intent to award contracts to the top three bidders in February. They took a second look after two of the losing bidders filed protests.

Officials determined that there had been a scoring error in one section of the proposal, so they brought in new evaluators to score the bids a second time.

Aetna, which currently has a Medicaid contract with the state, dropped from third to fourth place when the revised standings were released. Arbor Health finished out of the top three both times.

Contact the writer: 402-473-9583, martha.stoddard@owh.com
For most couples, the attraction didnt start until they saw each other.

But David Bolam only had to hear his future wifes voice to know he liked her.

In late summer 1965, David had just finished college and worked as a medical technician at Omahas former Clarkson Hospital, and Judie Cisar was a college student with a part-time job as a hospital operator.

Her duties included paging people over the hospital PA system. One day David heard a smooth, pleasant and sexy voice on the PA and decided he had to see what this woman looked like.

The operators sat at a desk in the lobby, so Judie was easy to spot. David was kind of shy, so he asked a hospital intern he knew to introduce them. An introduction was made, and David asked Judie out.

David told her he was originally from southeast Iowa and had never been west of Omaha, so Judie suggested they drive to Lincoln for dinner.

That gave them time to get to know each other. David thought that, along with her looks and nice voice, Judie was fun and easy to talk with.

She thought he not only was good looking, but also a good listener who had clear goals in life. He was applying to medical school at the time.

They married Aug. 6, 1966, at Holy Cross Catholic Church.

David enrolled in medical school in Omaha and became a neonatologist, a specialist who cares for high-risk newborns. He still practices part time and is on the faculty of the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

Judie stayed home and raised their kids. The couple live in Omaha and have three children and five grandchildren. They celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary this month.

So after five decades of marriage, does he still like her voice?

He loves it.

Contact the writer: 402-444-1122, michael.oconnor@owh.com
The Nebraska Attorney Generals Office said Friday that the State Department of Banking and Finance is working hard to figure out how much money is in the estate of deceased financial adviser Joe Bonnett, and to get the proceeds disbursed to victims of his fraud.

The department is working daily to get that accomplished, said Dave Lopez, assistant attorney general, speaking at a court hearing in Douglas County District Court. We are several weeks from getting the ball rolling.

Bonnett, an Omaha wealth adviser, killed himself with a gun in May, after he had been charged by Douglas County prosecutors with forgery and insurance fraud. Investigators said his Ponzi scheme went back almost a decade and investor losses could reach $2 million.

Now, the beneficiaries of his life insurance  it still pays out in cases of suicide if it happens so many years after the coverage was bought  are in a tug of war with the fraud victims over the proceeds of the policy.

On the one hand, a court-appointed receiver in the case, an independent third-party attorney skilled in such matters, has asked that it be allowed to take custody of the $3.25 million in life insurance proceeds from the Ohio National Life Assurance Co. to settle victim claims.

On the other hand, the legal beneficiaries of the policy are eight people, mostly with the Bonnett surname, and the Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity at the University of Nebraska.

Fridays court hearing didnt advance the matter. Thomas Stalnaker, the Omaha attorney appointed receiver by the Banking Department, had asked the court last month to keep Ohio National, and another Bonnett insurer, Cincinnati Life, from turning over any proceeds to beneficiaries.

But given the possibility that Ohio National and Cincinnati Life will file their own lawsuits seeking clarification as to whom they should pay, further action on the Stalnaker restraining order was postponed on Friday for about 30 days.

If the insurance companies do receive permission to file their own lawsuits seeking clarification as to whom they should pay  something attorneys in the case view as likely  the whole issue of a restraining order will be moot.

Clarence Mock, the attorney for the Bonnett estate, said he hopes that sufficient money will be available to compensate both victims and beneficiaries.

We want people made whole to the fullest extent possible, Mock said.

In all, Bonnett managed 83 investment accounts totaling approximately $47.5 million in assets, according to state officials.

Contact the writer: 402-444-3133, russell.hubbard@owh.com
The body of a 38-year-old man who had been slain was found Friday morning inside his sport utility vehicle outside a southeast Omaha house.

Police did not release the cause of Edward S. Reed IIIs death, though a detective told the mans relatives that someone heard shots fired in the hours before the body was discovered.

Reed, who lived in Omahas Florence neighborhood, was found about 10:45 a.m. inside his Ford Explorer outside a duplex at 3030 Y St.

Police had not announced an arrest in the killing late Friday.

Reeds slaying was the 16th homicide in Omaha this year and the second south of Dodge Street. Another death, of a man who appeared to have been assaulted, is under review. There had been 32 homicides in the city on the same date last year.

Reeds aunt said he had four children. She and other relatives did not know why he was outside the house where his body was found.

Reed has no felony convictions on his record. He settled a suit against the City of Omaha for $37,500 in March after his car was hit by a police cruiser in August 2015.

Also Friday in southeast Omaha, a woman was shot in her leg just below the knee by a bullet that she believed was meant for her boyfriend, police said.

Maria D. Castillo, 36, was shot between 2 and 2:25 a.m. in front of a house behind Tquila Bar near 31st and L Streets, police said. Her injury was not life-threatening, police said.

Her boyfriend said that the assailant is a friend of his who fired during an argument. Police had not announced an arrest.

Castillo was driven in a Nissan Maxima first to the area near 20th and W Streets, then in an ambulance to the Nebraska Medical Center.

Anyone who has information about Reeds killing is urged to call the homicide unit at 402-444-5656 or Omaha Crime Stoppers at 402-444-7867 or at omahacrimestoppers.org, a police spokesman said. Tips through Crime Stoppers that lead to an arrest are eligible for a reward of up to $25,000.

Contact the writer: 402-444-3106, emerson.clarridge@owh.com
The Omaha Public Schools are used to working out a few kinks during the first week of school.

Students show up late to get registered. Addresses and bus stops change.

But the busing delays this week have been markedly worse than usual, officials said Friday, stranding kids at bus stops and requiring parents to pitch in on drop-off duty.

OPS leaders huddled Friday and said theyd work through the weekend to figure out solutions to the delays that have plagued the district since school started Wednesday.

Superintendent Mark Evans also voiced frustration with Student Transportation of America, OPSs busing contractor.

We expected a few glitches, maybe, because its the start of the school year, but we did not expect to have this level, Evans said. Were paying (Student Transportation of America) a lot of money, and we expect better service for it.

The busing contract cost OPS $22.3 million during the 2014-15 school year. More recent figures were not immediately available.

In a statement, Student Transportation of America spokeswoman Lynette Viviani said the company was working around the clock with OPS and other officials to rectify this situation and asked for patience.

Viviani pointed to a nationwide bus driver shortage and said its been especially difficult filling jobs in Omaha. A new regulatory requirement also has lengthened the time it takes for bus drivers to get certified after being trained, she said.

We do have a full pipeline of potential drivers currently in training and awaiting testing, the statement read. We certainly welcome additional folks from the community who would like to join our family of operations.

Evans said in past years that there have been some driver shortages. At the beginning of August, Student Transportation of America didnt indicate any major problems.

But on Monday night  school started Wednesday  Student Transportation of America revealed it was down a significant number of drivers, Evans said. Some drivers who had agreed to work earlier in the year may not have shown up, OPS officials said.

As of Thursday, there was a reported shortage of 65 drivers, leaving some routes unassigned. Other buses showed up late to bus stops and schools. In past years, driver shortages at the start of the school year may have totaled 30, OPS officials said.

Clearly, we wish we would have found out before this week, Evans said.

Friday afternoon at Burke High School, the south side of the school was lined with parked cars as drivers waited on Burke Street to pick up students.

Many said picking up their children was what they normally do, but Rusha Chappell said her kids rely on the bus to get them from their home in north Omaha to Burke High, a distance of about 8 miles.

Chappell does not have a car. So she had to borrow a friends Buick LaCrosse to ferry her 16-year-old twins to and from Burke.

She was frustrated at the situation Friday afternoon. I have to borrow this car. I have to put gas in this car.

Thursday morning, the school bus never came for her kids. My kids were at the bus stop for two hours, she said. I told them to come home.

A son who goes to Lewis & Clark Middle School has experienced no bus issues, she said.

OPS has a number of plans in the works to fill in the gaps.

Starting on Monday, Chief Transportation Inc. will cover 10 general education routes. OPS in-house bus drivers, who transport special education students, have been tapped to fill in for buses that are late or routes that dont have an assigned driver. On Thursday, those drivers helped Student Transportation of America cover 38 routes.

Special education buses have been running smoothly, Evans said.

OPS transportation staff also will try to combine routes to pack more kids onto buses. Middle and high school kids could ride together if their schools are in close proximity, such as Bryan High and Bryan Middle or Benson High and Monroe Middle.

Student pickup times could be altered to give drivers more time to complete their routes. On smaller routes with fewer kids, OPS is exploring contracting with local transportation companies to shuttle students in smaller vehicles, such as passenger vans.

Were putting all hands on deck now, Evans said.

He said Student Transportation of America was exploring other alternatives to fill in gaps, such as bringing in out-of-state drivers.

OPS has relayed its concerns to Patrick Vaughn, chief operating officer of Student Transportation of America, and asked that he or another company executive attend the school boards meeting Sept. 7 to address the recent troubles.

At this point, I just want to get the facts and make sure that we make appropriate decisions going forward and that we communicate well with families, said school board President Lou Ann Goding.

District attorneys also will review the Student Transportation of America contract to determine OPSs options and the companys responsibility to pick up the tab for any extra busing costs, Evans said.

If were incurring costs to transport kids we thought they were going to transport, we certainly think they have a responsibility there, he said.

OPS is not alone in experiencing a scarcity of bus drivers. School districts from Pittsburgh to Kansas to Michigan have reported driver shortages this year, driven in part by the recovering economy, the part-time hours and the sometimes-stressful nature of the job. Transportation officials say state and federal screening and training requirements also can shrink the pool of qualified candidates.

Some districts have boosted pay and hours or offered signing bonuses to attract drivers.

School board member Marque Snow said the district needs to let parents know how long these problems might persist.

The district has been sending emails and robocalls out to parents warning of delays since Tuesday night.

At the end of the day, (transportation) is a pretty big budget, and we cant sit there and point the finger at everybody else, Snow said. Its our job to make sure those kids get picked up.

About one-third of OPSs 52,000 students  or more than 17,000  take a bus to school. The district has not been able to count exactly how many students have been affected by delays, but OPS spokeswoman Monique Farmer said about half of OPS schools, all across the city, have been affected.

Teachers and principals are trying to work around students who are showing up late or kept waiting after school for a bus, Evans said.

The Millard Public Schools also contract with Student Transportation of America, but the start of the school year has been fairly smooth so far, said spokeswoman Rebecca Kleeman. Millard is about half the size of OPS, however, and only about 3,000 of its 23,000 students get transportation to school.

OPS shortened its middle school walk zone this year, making more students eligible for a bus ride. But that added only 19 routes to the more than 700 that already exist, officials said, which shouldnt have contributed to the delays.

World-Herald staff writer Andrew J. Nelson contributed to this report.

Contact the writer: 402-444-1210, erin.duffy@owh.com
Ragtime society to host meeting, music at steakhouse

Great Plains Ragtime Society will host a meeting and music from 2 to 4 p.m. Aug. 28 at the Pink Poodle Steakhouse, 633 Old Lincoln Highway in Crescent, Iowa.

Reservations are required. Call 402-556-3340.

Stuhr Museum to offer Living History Classes

Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer, in Grand Island, Nebraska, will offer Living History Classes this fall for adults, children, families or anyone wanting to learn a historical trade from the museums Railroad Towns interpretive staff.

Classes offered include:

Blacksmithing I, Sept. 10 to 11, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

This program is designed for those with no metalworking experience. Participants will create items using a coal forge and learn the tempering process and basic hammer techniques. Find out how metalworking was done more than 100 years ago. The program is $120 for members and $130 for nonmembers.

Blacksmithing 2, Sept. 24 and 25, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

This class is designed for those who have completed Blacksmith 1. Participants will make more advanced pieces and learn advanced techniques. The class is $120 for members, $130 for nonmembers.

Family Tinsmithing, Nov. 5 and 6, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Participants will make cookie cutters, cups, boxes or a lunch pail and learn how to handle tools. This class is specifically designed for couples or a parent and child to take together and is taught by Railroad Town tinsmith Loren Miller. The class is $95 for two adults (or adult/child team) and $15 per additional child. Non-members are $115

For more information, contact Renae at 308-385-5316 or rhunt@stuhrmuseum.org or go online to stuhrmuseum.org.

South High School plans used tire collection

South High School will host a used tire collection from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Aug. 27.

Bring used tires to the school parking lot at 23rd and J Streets. No business tires or tires with rims will be accepted. The collection is free to Douglas County residents.

Womens suffrage topic of luncheon, discussion

The YWCA of Adams County, Nebraska, is providing a luncheon on Tuesday in honor of womens suffrage.

Guest speaker Laureen Riedesel will dress in period costume. Riedesel will portray Dr. Mary White, sister of Nebraska suffragist Clara Bewick Colby.

Reservations are asked and must be made by calling 402-462-8821 by 5 p.m. Monday.

Social media workshop for parents at Do Space

Keegan Korf, regional manager of Common Sense Media, hosts a workshop about social media for parents at Do Space on Tuesday.

The session is designed to teach parents how to talk to kids about social media. Register for the 6 p.m. workshop at dospace.org.
DES MOINES (AP)  Nearly one year after Gov. Terry Branstad announced the creation of a bullying prevention office, the program has no designated dollars and relies on inconsistent funding for its work.

The Governors Office for Bullying Prevention at the University of Northern Iowa has received no private grants since launching in September 2015, according to documents provided by the Cedar Falls school. The state also hasnt provided funding, as Branstad decided in January not to allocate money, citing budgetary constraints.

The small office offers some programming, but the lack of clear or consistent funding raises questions about its long-term effectiveness in addressing statewide bullying and harassment.

It sounds like bullying prevention is not being treated like the priority that it is, said Nate Monson, executive director of Iowa Safe Schools, a statewide nonprofit that supports programing for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students.

Its a new school year and Im already receiving phone calls about kids being bullied or afraid to start the school year. Without a functioning office or without functioning guidance from the state, it doesnt work.

Branstad issued an executive order last fall creating the governors bullying prevention office, a move that followed years of inaction by the Legislature to approve anti-bullying measures.

Its difficult to measure whether other governors have taken similar action, though universities across the country have dedicated resources to the problem.

Branstad signed the order surrounded by elementary school students in Cedar Rapids. Days later, he said the order was the best move.

Were going to continue to work with both houses of the Legislature on these issues and respect the separation of powers, he said. But at the same time, I am the chief executive, and I want to do all I can to set the right tone and to support schoolchildren.

UNIs Center for Violence Prevention, which since 2011 has focused on issues such as domestic and sexual assault, oversees the bullying prevention office. When the office was initially placed under the centers watch, Branstads office said the center had existing funds to house the anti-bullying program.

Although the center had at least $68,000 available in private grants for the budget year that began in July, a review shows that most of the money is earmarked for efforts such as mentoring school athletes as it relates to sexual assault prevention and relationship abuse. Other funds are for research.

Alan Heisterkamp, the director and only full-time employee at the violence prevention center and bullying prevention office, said private funds for violence prevention have been used to provide training and legislative lobbying on bullying issues, but its hard to specify the spending because the topics are similar.

Heisterkamp, whose $97,000 salary is covered by UNI, said last fall that the Governors Office contacted the university about creating the bullying office less than two weeks before issuing the executive order. About four months later, Branstad opted not to recommend a $250,000 request from UNI to fund the violence prevention center, which in turn would have supported the bullying prevention office. Heisterkamp plans to ask again.

There needs to be an investment on the part of the decision makers, the lawmakers in Iowa, to say This is an important issue. These are important things for schools and communities to deliver on,  he said.

Branstad spokesman Ben Hammes, who didnt respond to Heisterkamps funding concerns, said in a statement that the governor will carefully evaluate the funding request with how it fits with state revenues during the normal budgeting process.

Sen. Tony Bisignano, a Des Moines Democrat who worked on past anti-bullying efforts, said he plans to introduce legislation next session as well. He said he was disappointed when Branstad chose not to fund the bullying prevention office.

It looks like he did something and he did nothing. Now its off his plate, Bisignano said. Its just one issue he can take some credit for if he wanted to say he did something, but in reality its not going to do anything.

Hammes disagreed, saying in a separate statement that preventing bullying in our schools and creating a safe environment for students will remain the highest priority.

Heisterkamp said his violence prevention center offers training opportunities on bullying prevention through a national program known as Mentors in Violence Prevention. It focuses on gender violence and has several components on bullying prevention. He said 11 high schools have been implementing the training over the past academic year.

Penny Bisignano, an education consultant who leads bullying prevention training in Iowa, said Mentors in Violence Prevention should be offered alongside other training.

Its easy for bullying prevention to get lost in other work ... it cannot get consumed in other violence efforts, she said.

Heisterkamp said he wants to offer more training over the next school year, and that state funding would aid that effort.

Theres many stakes that hold up the tent, he said. The executive order was one of those stakes. Now there needs to be other stakes pounded into the ground if we want to address this issue.

Copyright 2016, the Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Several dozen people marched in downtown Omaha on Saturday in opposition to an oil pipeline spanning from western North Dakota to south central Illinois.

Carrying signs with messages such as water is sacred, the anti-Dakota Access pipeline protesters walked from Gene Leahy Mall to the Old Market to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Office. Pipe construction began last week, according to Prairie Public News. Its set to cross the Missouri River close to the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota.

The group gathered around the Heritage statue across from the Holland Performing Arts Center as speakers expressed concerns about possible contamination of water and sacred lands.

Michelle LaMere, 49, of the Winnebago tribe, said she was concerned about safety and potential pipe breaks.

It doesnt just affect the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, LaMere said. It affects millions and millions of people that are along the river.

Another protester, 42-year-old Grace Johnson of the Oglala Sioux tribe, said water and the land that the pipeline would cross are sacred.
LINCOLN  An Omaha man has filed a complaint with the Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission against State Sen. Ernie Chambers for his drawings and rhymes about Sen. Bill Kintners cybersex scandal.

Andrew Sullivan, a Kintner supporter, filed the complaint Aug. 17. Chambers announced its existence Friday morning during the Legislatures executive board meeting, where lawmakers met to discuss Kintner.

In the complaint Sullivan said that Chambers drawings and rhymes are a misuse of government stationery. The memos, distributed to colleagues and others, appear on letterhead used by state senators.

While he has every right to contact constituents, contact colleagues and the general public using such materials, he has no right to engage in unlawful and criminal harassment, and continuing such harassment by posting it to Facebook, he said.

Chambers said that hell continue his writings, and said claims that hes responsible for what someone else puts on Facebook show how silly thats become.

Chambers is widely known for not using technology. He does not have a legislative email address and does not use social media.

I bet the public wishes that the worst thing a politician could be accused of is writing satirical rhymes and writing memos that deal with the business of the state and the Legislature, Chambers said.

Contact the writer: 402-473-9581, emily.nohr@owh.com
GRAND ISLAND, Neb.  Traversing the Platte River Basin by foot, bicycle and canoe, Michael Forsberg and Pete Stegen arrived Wednesday at the Crane Trust, where they spent the night before continuing their journey to where the Platte River empties into the Missouri River.

Forsberg is an award-winning conservation photographer and co-founder of the Platte Basin Timelapse project. Stegen is the field producer for the project.

Forsberg has spent years discovering many of the hidden places and species in the Platte River Basin. Now he hopes to answer the question Where does your water come from?

On July 1 Forsberg and Stegen began a 1,000-mile traverse of the basin  hiking, biking and canoeing from the headwaters in Wyoming and Colorado to the confluence with the Missouri River  and plan to arrive in Plattsmouth the last week of August.

The team has crossed from Wyoming into Nebraska at the Stateline Gauge and is making its way across the state. During that time Forsberg has given Nebraskans the opportunity to follow his journey as he speaks to national and international issues related to water conservation and the future of agriculture.

His journey has a vital message.

Our economy starts with the health of the land, and the health of the land begins with the ecological infrastructure and biodiversity a watershed provides, Forsberg said.

He hopes to raise awareness of how global water shortages, increased by climate change and population pressures, can be viewed through the microcosm of the Platte River basin.

By exploring this critical water source Forsberg and Stegen hope to show the importance of water to the daily lives of the millions of people who live in this 90,000-square-mile watershed.

Forsberg said that the Platte River is the great artery of the Plains.

In Nebraska it is our lifeline. I have lived in the Platte basin most of my life, he said. It is where I grew up, and where I work and raise a family. This watershed is personal to me.

But it is only in the last few years, working on this project, that I have really thought about where that water comes from, and what it means to live in a watershed today. This journey traversing the Platte basin with Pete is a way to personify that drop of water and connect the dots, take the river in slowly, feel its heartbeat, and try to understand its beautiful and complex journey from mountains to plains.

Michael is a phenomenal friend and advocate for the Crane Trust, not only on this journey discovering the flow of water in the Platte River but also just as an advocate for all the work that we do, said Ben Dumas of the Crane Trust.

Dumas said that a lot of what they are learning at the Crane Trust and what they do to maintain habitat and protect wildlife is dependent on the Platte River.

The Platte River basin time-lapse looks at how so much of that water makes its way down to us, he said.

Dumas said water from the Platte River, which originates from snowfall in the Rocky Mountains in Wyoming and Colorado, gives life to an ecosystem along the path of Forsbergs journey.

Each spring more than a half million sandhill cranes and millions of other migratory birds temporarily make the Platte River basin home for several weeks, fattening themselves for their journey to breeding grounds to the north. The mass migration of sandhill cranes has been called one of the most spectacular migrations of wildlife in the world.

And, Dumas said, the Platte River is what makes that migration important to those millions of birds that not only depend on the rivers resources during their migration but occupy that ecosystem year-round.

Forsberg said: When we think about water we sort of think about it in a box  we turn on the tap and here it comes. We see it come through the sprinklers. We see it come through the center pivots. We see it in the river. But what is the story behind that water? Where did it come from? Where does it go? How does water interact in our lives? That is the point of this journey, he said.

And what Forsberg and Stegen have found on their voyage of discovery is how interconnected all living things are along the Platte River watershed.

Born and raised in Nebraska, where he has worked and raised his family most of his life, Forsberg has photographed magnificent landscapes and wildlife that have brought awe and joy to many people.

But, he said, until he embarked on his Platte River project, taking the journey with Stegen, it hadnt come home to me how connected we are with others throughout the Platte River basin.

Forsberg said that during their journey, whenever they engage someone about the river, each individual has his or her own personal story to tell about water.

They have a connection to water, too, he said. When you spend enough time talking, you realize that we are all in this together.
Karnataka to survey all Arabic schools to check if on same page as state board

Sedition against NGO, but no 'amnesty' for violent ABVP protesters either

Bengaluru

oi-Vicky

Bengaluru, Aug 20: The Bengaluru police have slapped a series of cases against the ABVP ranging from kidnapping minors to rioting. The ABVP has been seeking the arrest of Amnesty International activists against whom sedition charges have been filed.

A case of sedition was filed against Amnesty International after anti-national slogans were raised at an event organised by them in Bengaluru last week.

Bengaluru: ABVP students protesting against Amnesty lathicharged

The police have now booked cases of rioting and kidnapping against the ABVP. The case of kidnapping under Indian Penal Code 363 was filed after the principal of a college complained that ABVP activists had forcibly taken minors for the protest.

It was alleged that the ABVP activists had barged into a college in Rajajinagar and forcibly taken Pre-University students for the protest. The principal stated that he had requested the activists not to take the PU students as they were minors.

However, the activists did not listen, it was alleged.

In addition to this the police have filed cases against 22 for rioting. Another complaint of rioting has also been filed against the ABVP at the JC Nagar police station in Bengaluru.

The police had on Friday lathi charged ABVP activists who were protesting outside the office of Amnesty International. The police say that they had to resort to a lathi charge as the protest was getting violent.

The ABVP will continue their protest on Saturday too.

OneIndia News
Lack of development in J&K for decades was one of the reasons behind rise of terrorism: Rajnath Singh

J&K unrest: NIA prepares list of bank accounts with suspicious activity

India

oi-Vicky

Srinagar, Aug 20: The National Investigation Agency is in the process of preparing a list of bank accounts in Jammu and Kashmir which have had suspicious transactions in the past month.

The action is part of the ongoing investigation being conducted into the flow of money into the Valley to fuel the protests in the aftermath of Burhan Wani's killing. Wani, a Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist was killed in an encounter on July 8.

How Kashmiri businessmen overinvoiced goods to fund the unrest

NIA officials are now approaching banks in the Valley to provide a list of accounts that have had suspicious transactions.

A large sum of money had been deposited into various bank accounts and the Intelligence Bureau had reported that this was to fuel the unrest. It was suspected that nearly Rs 30 crore had been deposited into several bank accounts.

The NIA had also learnt that some businessmen from Kashmir working in the Gulf had also channelised money into the accounts in the Valley. It was found that to justify the money flow they had over invoiced goods that they would trade in.

NIA officials say that after the list is prepared with the help of the banks, they would call in for questioning persons whose accounts have reported suspicious activity. While probing the bank accounts the NIA is also looking for the hawala route which was also used to send money to fuel the unrest.

OneIndia News
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'

Hillary campaign slams Trump over Paul Manafort's resignation

International

oi-PTI

Washington, Aug 20: Targeting controversial Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump over the resignation of his campaign chairman Paul Manafort, rival Hillary Clinton Campaign has claimed that the move was a "clear admission of the connection" between Donald Trump and the "pro-Kremlin elements" in Russia and Ukraine.

"Manafort's resignation is a clear admission that the disturbing connections between Donald Trump's team and pro-Kremlin elements in Russia and Ukraine are untenable," Robby Mook, campaign manager of Clinton Campaign, said on Friday.

Manafort, the high profile head of the Trump Campaign, resigned on Friday.

"But this is not the end of the story. It's just the beginning," Mook said. "You can get rid of Manafort, but that doesn't end the odd bromance Trump has with Putin," he said.

"Trump still has to answer serious questions hovering over his campaign given his propensity to parrot Putin's talking points, the roster of advisers like Carter Page and Mike Flynn with deep ties to Russia, the recent Russian government hacking and disclosure of Democratic Party records, and reports that Breitbart published articles advocating pro-Kremlin positions on Ukraine," Mook said.

"It's also time for Donald Trump to come clean on his own business dealings with Russian interests, given recent news reports about his web of deep financial connections to business groups with Kremlin ties," he said.

"Despite the latest staff shake-up, Trump's campaign still maintains strong ties to Russia and pro-Kremlin elements. At least a half-dozen of Trump's remaining aides have Russian connections, and let's not forget about his own financial interests in the region, as well as his repeated praise for Putin," Democratic National Committee national press secretary Mark Paustenbach said.

PTI
Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort resigns

International

oi-PTI

Washington, Aug 19: Paul Manafort, the beleaguered chairman of Donald Trump's presidential campaign, resigned today after a staff shake-up this week that marginalised him in the team amid growing speculation about his links with Ukrainian politics.

"This morning Paul Manafort offered, and I accepted, his resignation from the campaign. I am very appreciative for his great work in helping to get us where we are today, and in particular his work guiding us through the delegate and convention process," Trump said.

"Paul is a true professional and I wish him the greatest success," the 70-year-old business tycoon said. Manafort's role was reduced after Trump elevated two aides to senior positions on Tuesday, appointing Breitbart News chief Steve Bannon as campaign CEO and Kellyanne Conway as campaign manager. Manafort, who had once lobbied for pro-ISI and anti-India groups, had been recently attracting negative publicity for his alleged lobbying activities in Ukraine.

Manafort had joined the campaign after Trump's historic wins in the Republican primaries. He successfully led the campaign in the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, where Trump was formally nominated as the party's presidential nominee. Trump's popularity rating had been falling down after the convention. Manafort told Trump he was becoming a distraction and he wanted to end that, a Trump source was quoted as saying by CNN.

The resignation comes as the campaign seeks to correct course after weeks of damaging controversies and self- inflicted wounds, effectively evaporating Trump's steady footing against Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in the polls and his post-convention bump. Trump is now trailing Clinton in every major poll. The most damaging for Trump was his attack on a Gold Star family - who lost their son, Army Captain Humayun Khan, while he served in Iraq -- for speaking out against him at the Democratic National Convention. He later refused to apologise or express regret.

Manafort's personal business dealings have also come under intense scrutiny in recent weeks, amid damaging questions over his ties to foreign governments and indications that he might have received USD 12 million in undisclosed cash payments, according to the Washington Post. The alleged payments, which Manafort denied, were noted in a ledger kept by former Ukraine president Viktor Yanukovych's political party. Since then, more evidence has surfaced that raised concerns about his ties to the Kremlin.

One GOP strategist was quoted as saying that Manafort was undone by the combination of revelations about his work in behalf of pro-Russian forces in Ukraine and the elevation of Conway and Bannon.

PTI
Pakistani spy had visited India 4 times

Jaipur

oi-Vicky

Jaipur, Aug 20: Nandlal Maharaj, the Hindu spy from Pakistan, had visited India four times between 2010 and 2016. Nandlal Maharaj was arrested in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan in a joint operation carried out by the Intelligence Bureau and police officials.

To cover up his operations, he would sell silk at a low price in India. He would visit India under the pretext of selling silk and this acted as a cover for him. On Friday, upon his arrest he had confessed to smuggling 35 kilograms of RDX into India.

Pakistan spy arrested in Rajasthan had smuggled 35 kgs of RDX

The ongoing investigations have revealed that Maharaj had visited several places in Rajasthan. A pen drive seized from him had photographs and information about defence installations. He had shared the details with his handler in the ISI, investigations have also revealed.

Maharaj hailing from Sangad in Pakistan was working at a garment showroom. He earned Rs 3,000 per month and was lured into spying by the ISI.

He says that he was lured by money, but has not specified how much the ISI paid him. He told the police that money was given to him in instalments by his ISI handler.

The police learnt that Maharaj had visited India four times. His visited India in 2010, 2011, 2014 and 2016. During each visit he would gather information on defence installations and pass it on to the ISI.

Sources also say that Maharaj was not alone in this operation. There were at least 8 others who were helping him out, but it is not clear whether they were Pakistani nationals or locals. The 8 men fled from the scene at the time Maharaj was arrested.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Saturday, August 20, 2016, 13:54 [IST]
Centre MoPs up another plan to needle judiciary, negate collegium

New Delhi

oi-Vicky

New Delhi, Aug 20: The Union Government wants the names of new judges to be vetted by all judges instead of the appointment process to be overseen just by the collegium. In the Memorandum of Procedure, the government will also propose that an age limit be set for the appointment of new judges both in the high court and Supreme Court.

The Memorandum of Procedure came into existence following a Supreme Court verdict which sought more transparency in the appointment of judges to the higher judiciary.

Appointment of judges have not been stalled, say Law Ministry officials

There has been a deadlock over the appointment of judges as the government and the Supreme Court have not agreed upon some points mentioned in the MoP.

Apart from fixing an age limit, the centre also wants Chief Ministers, Advocate and Attorney Generals to have a say in the appointment of new judges. The Supreme Court has however, not agreed to this proposal made by the government.

The law ministry has submitted a draft of the MoP to the Chief Justice of India. The CJI is likely to take a final call on the matter after holding consultations with four senior most judges of the Supreme Court.

OneIndia News
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Malta iGaming Seminar Hosting Inaugural Awards for Industry Professionals

Published August 20, 2016 by Mike P

iGaming Idol is a brand new awards event for November 2016 that will honour Maltas industry professionals for the first time.

The Malta iGaming Seminar (MiGS) will return for its eighth year, with industry professionals attending the Hilton Malta from 7-9 November 2016 for the event. Those who attend this year will notice a new addition in the form of an awards ceremony entitled iGaming Idol.

iGaming Idol Awards

Now, what is special about iGaming Idol is that it will be the first-ever awards ceremony to honour professionals working in the Malta marketplace. Video Slots has agreed to be the lead sponsor for the awards, with NetEnt and the Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) also acting as sponsors.

Event organisers MiGS and Remax Malta have planned a wide scope for the ceremony, with awards planned for every sector of the countrys igaming industry. In terms of how it works, colleagues and employers are being asked to nominate impressive individuals working within the industry.

After the nominations have been made, the next stage of the process will be for the nominees to appear in front of a judging panel filled with igaming experts. Their task will be to rigorously question nominees on the duties they perform in their roles. Ultimately, the panel will select the most impressive of the nominees to receive the relevant awards.

MiGS16 Topics for Discussion

For MiGS16, organisers have secured the attendance of three expert hosts in the shape of AJ Thompson, Michael Caselli, and Sue Schneider. Over the course of three days, the hosts will oversee and guide discussions that encompass a number of pressing topics that are currently relevant in the igaming industry.

Regulation and taxation are ever-present topics for each iteration of MiGS, but, in 2016, there are some new things to discuss. The first will be to cover esports, given the popularity in the US, while another crucial topic will be virtual currencies and the role of blockchain in improving financial security.
Congress Switchboard: 202-224-3121

"We are in the midst of a profound change of paradigms: from seeing the world as a machine to understanding it as a network. Rob Kall has interviewed many of the leaders, both thinkers and activists, of this global cultural transformation. In this eminently readable book, he weaves their statements, values, and ideas into a coherent and inspiring whole. Bottom-Up is a joy to read!"



Fritjof Capra, author of The Web of Life and The Hidden Connections, coauthor of The Systems View of Life
This piece was reprinted by OpEd News with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.



Secretary Salazar Holds Hydraulic Fracturing Forum. Carbon-loving TPP proponent Ken Salazar, Clinton's new head of her transition team. Salazar's group will will recommend names to fill thousands of Executive Branch jobs in the next Clinton administration

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Reprinted from downwithtyranny.blogspot.com

by Gaius Publius



This really matters. That Clinton is a better progressive choice than Trump is not much contested. But was Clinton the better progressive choice against Sanders? Almost no Sanders-supporting Democratic voter would say yes to that. Not on trade, not on climate, not on breaking up too-big Wall Street banks, not on criminally prosecuting (finally) "too big to jail" members of the elite -- not on any number of issues that touch core progressives values.



Yes, Clinton was and will be good on some progressive issues, but the list is expected not to be Sanders-long. Progressive vs. "progressive" was, in fact, the hill on which Sanders battled Clinton. Sanders was made to lose. Clinton supporters won.





Progressive Clinton supporters: You broke it, you bought it



It's time for progressives who helped Hillary Clinton beat Bernie Sanders in the primary to take the lead on holding her accountable.



With Donald Trump tanking in the polls, there's room for progressives to simultaneously crush his bid for the presidency while holding Hillary Clinton's feet to the fire on the TPP.

And yet:

She's now appointed two pro-TPP politicians to key positions on her campaign"- --"- Tim Kaine as her Vice President and Ken Salazarto lead her presidential transition team. It's time for progressives who helped Clinton beat Bernie Sanders in the primary to take the lead on holding her accountable.



Progressives who supported Clinton in the primary should use their leverage to ensure Clinton makes good on her vow to stop TPP and keep other promises she made on the campaign trail to win progressive votes. Bernie supporters will have your back, but it's up to you to lead on this one.





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Marshall McLuhan. Understanding media (and cities) - Open Your ...

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Duluth, Minnesota (OpEdNews) August 20, 2016: My favorite scholar is the American Jesuit cultural historian and theorist Walter J. Ong (1912-2003; Ph.D. in English, Harvard University, 1955). Jesuit training is rather lengthy. As part of his Jesuit training, young Walter Ong was sent to study philosophy and English at Saint Louis University (SLU), the Jesuit university in St. Louis, Missouri.

At SLU, Ong took at least one English course from the young Canadian Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980; Ph.D. in English, Cambridge University, 1943), then a recent convert to Catholicism (in the spring of 1937, when he was teaching English at the University of Wisconsin, Madison). At the time of his conversion to Catholicism, he understood that his Catholicism would be a stigma that would prevent him from ever becoming a professor at Harvard University. McLuhan the new Catholic convert taught English at SLU from 1937 to 1944, as he continued to work on his 1943 Cambridge University doctoral dissertation.

McLuhan published the article "G. K. Chesterton: A Practical Mystic" in the Dalhousie Review, volume 15 (1936): pages 455-464. Chesterton was a well-known British convert to Catholicism. In my estimate, Chesterton's biographies of Francis of Assisi and Thomas Aquinas are still worth reading to this day.

One year, McLuhan took a leave of absence from SLU to return to Cambridge University and work further on his doctoral dissertation. He was accompanied by new bride Corinne, so it was kind of a honeymoon trip for them to take together.

At SLU, McLuhan became friends with the young philosophy professor Bernard Muller-Thym, who had done his doctoral dissertation in medieval philosophy under Etienne Gilson at St. Mike's at the University of Toronto. Later in life, McLuhan would teach English at St. Mike's at the University of Toronto.

Muller-Thym's doctoral dissertation was published as the book The Establishment of the University of Being in the Doctrine of Meister Eckhart of Hochheim (Sheed and Ward, 1939).

During World War II, Muller-Thym served in the U.S. Navy. After the war, he became a consultant. In the book Master Minds: Portraits of Contemporary American Artists and Intellectuals (Macmillan, 1969), Richard Kostelanetz devotes a chapter to Muller and another to McLuhan (even though he was Canadian). In any event, McLuhan and Muller-Thym remained lifelong friends.

The American spirituality writer Matthew Fox has published three books about connection consciousness in Eckhart's writings. The Swiss psychiatrist and psychological theorist C. G. Jung, M.D., was fascinated with Eckhart's thought and with connection consciousness.

In the late 1950s, McLuhan slowly worked his way through the Canadian Jesuit Bernard Lonergan's 1957 philosophical masterpiece Insight: A Study of Human Understanding (5th ed., University of Toronto Press, 1992). In it Lonergan works out what he himself refers to as the generalized empirical method that he considers to be the method suitable for research in theology, philosophy, and the natural and human sciences. But to what extent, if any, was McLuhan influenced by Lonergan's book? I have no idea. However, as I will explain momentarily, McLuhan himself advanced his own thoughts about a supposed new science.

Ong's massively researched doctoral dissertation was published, slightly revised in two volumes by Harvard University Press in 1958. In Ong's 1958 book Ramus, Method, and the Decay of Dialogue: From the Art of Discourse to the Art of Reason, Ong works with an insight that he himself gives credit to the French Catholic philosopher Louis Lavelle (1883-1951) for developing originally. Then Ong's 1958 book prompted McLuhan to write his flawed experimental book The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man (University of Toronto Press, 1962), in which he greatly expands the scope of the insight he borrowed from Ong's 1958 book.

Next, McLuhan further expanded the scope of that basic insight in his 1964 book Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (McGraw-Hill), which became his big breakthrough book. Neither Ong nor Lonergan ever had a comparable big breakthrough book.

Ong published reviews of McLuhan's 1951 book The Mechanical Bride: Folklore of Industrial Man (Vanguard Press) and of his 1962 book The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man (University of Toronto Press) and of his 1969 book The Interior Landscape: The Literary Criticism of Marshall McLuhan (1969).

As improbable as it may sound to people today, McLuhan was seemed to be ubiquitous in the 1960s and 1970 -- in newspapers and magazines and even on television and in a cameo appearance in a Woody Allen movie. For example, the New York Times published an interview with McLuhan conducted by Wallace Turner titled "Understanding M'Luhan [sic] by Him" on November 22, 1966, page 43. Among other things, McLuhan is quoted as saying, "People make a great mistake trying to read me as if I were saying something. I poke these sentences around to probe and feel my way around in our kind of world."

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The 1953 coup in Iran, known as " 28 Mordad ", became the centerpiece for the new imperialism. It was only natural that the US embassy in Tehran became a "nest of spies", as it was dubbed by the Iranians. It had become "mission control center" for all US espionage activity in the Muslim world.

The following is an interview with Eric Walberg that first appeared in Khamemei.ir . Eric Walberg is a well-known Canadian journalist, specializing in the Middle East, Central Asia and Russia.



[Khamemei.ir]: What made the US orchestrate the coup d'etat of the 28th of Mordad in Iran (August 19, 1953)?





It is important to follow the events in the region that the 1953 coup in Iran was part of. Imperialism has gone through three distinct stages since the term "Great Game" was coined in the nineteenth century to describe the rivalry between imperialist powers Russia and Britain. Imperial strategy was simpler then, but the basic elements were in place.



Britain sent spies disguised as surveyors and traders to Afghanistan and Turkestan and, several times, armies to keep the Russians at bay. The ill-fated Anglo-Afghan war of 1839-1842 was precipitated by fears that the Russians were encroaching on British interests in India after Russia established a diplomatic and trade presence in Afghanistan. Already by the nineteenth century there was no such thing as neutral territory. The entire world became a gigantic playing field for the major industrial powers, and Eurasia was the center of this playing field.





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Reprinted from Reader Supported News



Elizabeth Warren

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Hello,

When I was a little girl, I never in a million years thought that I'd run for the United States Senate. Heck, when my mother was born, women didn't even have the right to vote.

But five years ago today, I began exploring the possibility of running -- and today, I'm proud (and a little amazed) to be the first woman elected to the Senate from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

There's been lots of progress since my mother was a child. Today, we have 20 women in the United States Senate. Last fall during one of my hearings on student debt, the room actually stopped and cheered when Amy Klobuchar noted that five women senators were running the hearing -- with no men.

It's a good start, but let's be honest: 50 women in the Senate would be a lot better.

That's why I'm so excited that we have a terrific group of smart, strong, experienced Democratic women running in some of the toughest Senate races in 2016. These women are the key to taking back the Democratic majority and building a Trump-proof firewall in the Senate -- but they need strong grassroots support.

Our Democratic women Senate candidates are fighting their hearts out right now, and it looks like we have a real shot at taking back control of the Senate with a record number of women in the Senate in January.

But the Republicans and their Super PAC pals are desperate to protect their majority and make sure we lose:

Rep. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois is a true American hero who lost both legs while serving in Iraq. But Republican Mark Kirk's Super PAC just launched its first ad: a nasty "swiftboat" style attack on Tammy's record of service for veterans. Illinois has been called the Democrats' top pickup opportunity in the Senate -- but if Tammy is going to win, she needs help to fight back against these disgusting smear attacks.



New Hampshire Governor Maggie Hassan knows a thing or two about attack ads. Since Maggie launched her Senate campaign, her Republican opponent and the right-wing Super PACs have already spent $24 million against Maggie (and remember, New Hampshire is not that big!). Despite all of their efforts to drag Maggie down, the polls are still neck and neck. Every dollar Maggie has to fight back will make a difference.



Former Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto is also under heavy attack in a too-close-to-call Senate race. The right-wing groups are drooling over the thought of taking the open Senate seat Democratic Leader Harry Reid has held for decades. They've already spent or reserved $26 million in attack ads against Catherine, and that number could skyrocket in these final months of the campaign. Catherine knows how to fight back against the powerful interests, but she needs us by her side. Clean energy and environment leader Katie McGinty has jumped ahead in the polls in Pennsylvania, and it has put the Republicans in a panic. The Koch Brothers alone have spent over $5 million to help their friend Pat Toomey, and the outside spending in Pennsylvania will likely get a lot worse. Katie McGinty is a terrific candidate running a strong campaign, and with our help she can win this Senate race in November.

96 years ago today, women got the right to make our voices heard in the ballot box. Now, let's make our voices heard in the halls of the US Capitol -- by sending Tammy Duckworth, Maggie Hassan, Catherine Cortez Masto and Katie McGinty to the Senate.

Thanks for being a part of this,

Elizabeth
Hotel Business News and Analytics

Important! This article is written by orangesmile.com editors and is protected by copyright law. The article can only be re-used with a direct link to www.orangesmile.com

NEWS BLOCKS:

Marriott Opens Social Media Tracking Studio in a London Hotel

Marriott International has opened one more M Live Studio, this time in a London hotel. The studio, which is the fourth for the company, is dedicated to generating real-time content for European travelers. The London based M Live Studio is aimed to increase social engagement of travelers who speak French, German, Italian, Spanish and English.



The first M Live Studio appeared at Marriott International headquarters in 2015. Since that time the hotelier has added such studios in Asia Pacific, Latin America, Caribbean regions and Europe. M Live studios offer content about current trends, different marketing campaigns, brand reputation and global performance. The content is available on different social platforms.



The idea behind M Studios is to create a two-way conversation between hotels and travelers. That helps knowing more about preferences and wants of hotel guests and engaging with consumers more efficiently. One of examples of M Live studio work is about The Lego Backpacker. M Live was inspired by a New Zealand backpacker who was traveling around the world with his favorite Lego figurines and then published his adventures on social media. M Studio was able to find The Lego Backpacker and invited him to attend the AC Hotel Ciudad de Sevilla, where they took a series of interviews. The content was posted on Lego dedicated channels, bringing Marriott more than 370 thousand of new followers.



M Live also use geo-fencing technology developed in partnership with HYP3R. Together, they uncover social conversations that guests have during their stay at Marriott hotels. For example, M Live team found a tweet posted by a guest of Domes of Elounda Autograph Collection Hotel in Greece, where he shared excitement about the hotel. To praise the guest, Marriott team surprised him with a special breakfast and awarded with extra rewards points.

20.08.2016Stay in touch with the latest news of a worldwide hotel industry. All up-to-date analytics, reports , and news about hotel business trends on OrangeSmile.com.
Blue line MAX

A MAX Blue Line train to Gresham, shown September 26, 2013.

(The Oregonian/File)

One person was arrested Thursday after a TriMet MAX operator saw two people throwing rocks at the train in East Portland, breaking windows, the agency said.

The operator reported the rock impacts after passing 117th Avenue along the train's East Burnside Street alignment, TriMet spokeswoman Mary Fetsch said. Police searched the area and made one arrest, she said.

A police spokesman was not immediately available to provide more information on the arrest.

It was the second day of incidents in the area that resulted in broken train windows. On Wednesday, two train operators reported broken windows "from unknown cause" about 10 minutes apart, Fetsch said.

Police searched the area but came up empty-handed.

No one was hurt in either incident, Fetsch said.

-- Elliot Njus

enjus@oregonian.com

503-294-5034

@enjus
Screen Shot 2016-08-19 at 5.31.29 PM.png

A review form used to evaluate if a Portland child qualified for Access Academy. The child's parent obtained the document through a records request and included it in a formal complaint with the district.

In a complaint filed with Portland Public Schools, three families say district officials illegally relied on their children's disabilities when denying them entry to a gifted program they were otherwise qualified to attend.

Based on test results, the families believed their children clearly met the criteria for the district's Access Academy, an alternative program for high-aptitude students.

But review documents obtained by two of the families showed district officials had repeatedly annotated application forms with handwritten notes that linked admission with the students' disabilities.

The federal American Disabilities Act forbids "the imposition or application of eligibility criteria that screen out or tend to screen out an individual with a disability."

On one form, in which the student was recommended as having "potential" for admission to Access, someone wrote, "Not with current staffing." On another, next to a recommendation marked "no" for admission, someone wrote the student had "support needs."

A lack of staffing would not erase the district's obligation to follow federal law.

The complaint, filed on Tuesday and obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive, said review documents for the third have yet to be made available.

"I was thinking it was happening -- never in wildest dreams did I think it would be as black and white," said complainant Nicole Iroz-Elardo, whose son has Asperger's. "I was shocked. I never thought they would put it in writing."

Iroz-Elardo said if she hadn't done a records requests she would still be in the dark about why her child wasn't admitted into Access.

The families believe their experiences illustrate larger problems of discrimination.

"We all agree that the issues covered in this complaint are bigger than our own circumstances," the complaint says.

Portland Public Schools spokeswoman Courtney Westling said Friday the district cannot comment on the complaint until looking into if further.

"We take this type of complaint very seriously," Westling wrote in an email.

State law requires districts to provide talented and gifted services to qualified students. Districts are required to identify gifted students and provide support either through a program such as Access or through services at neighborhood schools.

But neighborhood schools struggle to accommodate children who qualify for both gifted programs and special education services, the complaint says.

The Access Academy program is known to turn away students on its waitlist. In 2013, the program had 220 students. Details on current enrollment levels and the number of qualified students turned away were not available Friday afternoon.

It's not unusual for qualified students to be rejected from Access. But it's illegal to use a student's disability against them, the parents' complaint argues.

The parents argue the district has set up a "bait and switch."

To get into Access, parents must present a compelling case for why they would benefit from the program. In their complaint, the parents argue they are encouraged to detail behavioral issues that demonstrate why a child needs to attend -- only to have that information used against them.

"It's illegal and it's demoralizing and frustrating," Iroz-Elardo said.

The three families, along with two others, are also fighting what they see as the general opacity of the Access admission process in a separate complaint.

Parents say the lack of transparency surrounding Access Academy admissions violates Oregon state law, "which protects a parent's ability to be an active partner in making [gifted] education decisions." The complaint says families aren't told why a student ends up on the wait list, the size of the list, when decisions are made, or how to appeal.

Although the district lists information it considers for admission, how it interprets that information is a mystery.

One controversial factor: Whether the child already has a sibling in Access. District materials say sibling status is "one factor" in the decision making process.

"The preference of sibling status has never been fully explained or justified in the context of limited spots and alternative education," the complaint says.

The parents have proposed several additions to the district's waiting list notifications: the size of the list by grade, the student's rank on the list, a description of the appeal process, and officials to contact for more information.

Without more details on how to appeal, Iroz-Elardo said, parents may not be able to ensure their children receive the gifted and talented services they're entitled to under state law.

-- Bethany Barnes
killiannoe.jpg

Killian Noe

((c)WFU/Ken Bennett)

When the construction crew arrived on that Seattle ridge in 2009, John Wilson was permanently camped in the parking lot on the other side of Denny Way.

"There were a lot of bushes," Wilson says. "It was a safe haven from everyone when I was doing my incorrigible behavior."

He was 51 at the time and anchored to his addictions. He'd been homeless for 30 years. Exasperated by the hammers and Skil saws, Wilson finally crossed Denny one day to confront the builders. "I asked what the hell they were doing. They said the Recovery Cafe was coming.

"I got irritated. I didn't need recovery stuff coming around me. I was a squatter, but I felt in some way insulted. It was my neighborhood, and no one had told me. They came into my neighborhood."

He's a big man. He takes a deep breath. "Thank God."

For a dozen years now, Recovery Cafe has been dining hall, life raft and "community of radical hospitality" for those wrestling with addiction, homelessness and mental-health issues in Seattle.

John Wilson

At the heart of the storm shelter is Killian Noe. Wilson thinks she may be a saint.

"I think all of us were created to be instruments of love in the lives we touch," Noe says. And she is bound and determined to change the narrative about society's untouchables.

The daughter of a Southern Baptist preacher, Noe has long been drawn to "the places where people are suffering."

When court-ordered busing roiled her South Carolina high school in the mid '70s, Noe devoted herself to building bridges between the old guard at the school and the strangers in the halls.

The summer she turned 21, after graduating from Wake Forest, Noe left home for three years in the Middle East, mentoring teens outside Tel Aviv and volunteering at an Anglican hospital for Palestinian refugees in Gaza.

While fiercely involved in the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in Washington, D.C., Noe started Samaritan Inns, a transitional housing and recovery program.

Time and again, she was struck by the stark inequities between "those who have what they need to fulfill their potential, and those who do not."

So it was, when her husband relocated to Seattle, that Noe opened Recovery Cafe in 2004 at the edge of Belltown, then found more room for the lost on Denny Way.

The "Servant Christ" sculpture outside Seattle's Recovery Cafe

"Everyone needs a place to heal when they are desperately ill," Noe writes in "Descent into Love," her book on the Cafe. "Everyone needs authentic community where they are known and loved. Everyone needs some structure of loving accountability."

That has never been more true in Seattle, where the homeless population surged 21 percent last year, and mental-health services are increasingly inaccessible.

In February, the city was featured in "Chasing Heroin," the PBS' Frontline documentary on the opiate epidemic. King County's 156 heroin-related deaths in 2014 only added to the stigma of addiction.

"Reasonable people become unreasonable when their kids pick up needles," says David Coffey, the cafe's executive director.

And too many anxious people come unglued when one presidential candidate demonizes those who don't have the luxury of our advantages, our tax breaks, our "values."

The Recovery Cafe serves 350 members who struggle to stay afloat when rents soar, minimum-wage jobs disappear, and mental-health triage is left to cops and bus drivers.

"One way to change structures and systems that are leaving out large segments of the human family," Noe says, "is to create what Martin Luther King Jr. called, 'beloved communities,' communities that show what it looks like when those people aren't left out.

Killian Noe

"We are connected to these people. They are part of us. We have to create narratives in which their suffering is our concern, and, ultimately, their suffering is our suffering.

"The flip side of that? Their joys are our joys."

The doors at Recovery Cafe are open to anyone who has been clean and sober for 24 hours. Members must contribute in some way to the operation of the cafe, and they must be committed to recovery circles, where they are held accountable and allow themselves to be deeply known.

That interaction, Noe says, "is every bit as meaningful for the staff and volunteers as for the men and women who walk through the door in search of healing."

For a while there, John Wilson remained in the bush. Then, he says, "I got to a place in my meaningless life where it became deplorable, and deplorable wasn't working any more."

Too often when we reach that stage of drowning, and choose life over death, Noe says, "There isn't a boat on the horizon that you have a prayer of a chance of reaching."

In Seattle, that inspiration and sanctuary is the Recovery Cafe.

Just inside the door is a woman who has already brought similar community to five other cities, including Vancouver, Wash., and dreams of bringing it to Portland.

"The picture of unconditional love," Wilson calls her. "There are a thousand words you can use to describe Killian. I'm damn near at the point of wanting to use 'sainthood.'

-- Steve Duin

stephen.b.duin@gmail.com
REESE.JPG

Mike Reese, former chief of police in Portland, at his swearing-in ceremony last week to become Multnomah County sheriff.

(Beth Nakamura/Staff)

Mike Reese has a tough job ahead. The former Portland police chief, sworn last week as the new sheriff for Multnomah County, must restore confidence to an 800-member staff destabilized by outgoing Dan Staton while exemplifying to voters he'd be worthy of election to the office in November. Complicating things further is a question on the November ballot that will ask voters whether the sheriff's job should be an elected position at all rather than appointed.

http://media.oregonlive.com/opinion_impact/photo/agenda-2013jpg-da8a3522a991b9c6.jpg

Editorial Agenda 2016



Get Oregon centered

Better leadership in education

Make Portland a city that works

Build Oregon prosperity

Protect and expand personal freedom

Get pot right

_______________________________

First things first. Staton wrought damage. Reese has been on the job in recent months in a transitional capacity, learning the agency and of Staton's errant ways. But now he must dig in and meet with his staff singly, in pairs and in groups to see just how far Staton's damage spread. Did it go widely beyond the command staff to affect the rank and file? The sheriff's office is only as good as its last everyday transaction on the street. Having ascertained the damage, Reese must then set about to produce a full-agency turnaround: in morale, in performance, in community profile.

Recently released records of an investigation into Staton's behavior characterize him as untruthful, retaliatory, threatening, angry and demeaning toward his subordinates, Emily Smith of The Oregonian/OregonLive reported. In one set of investigators' notes, Chief Deputy Tim Moore told investigators it was routine during meetings for Staton to berate members of the command staff, call them stupid and threaten to fire them. Moore, Smith reported, described Staton's "rage" as unparalleled to anything he'd experienced in agency leadership. Meanwhile, Jennifer Ott, the law agency's director of human resources, told investigators Staton had told stories that sounded made up. Full stop: As in, he may have had the habit of lying. It's no wonder three unions representing workers in Staton's office had called for his resignation.

Reese, a neighborhood cop at heart, had a solid four-year run at the helm of the Portland force. He kept a low public profile while encouraging subordinates to report even a whiff of misconduct by other officers. The result was anything but "Lord of the Flies": Reese was trusted and for the most part liked by police officers, among them his friend Mike Marshman, recently appointed to head Portland's force and whose wife, Shea Marshman, departed the sheriff's office during Staton's embattled tenure. Despite his low-profile manner, however, Reese showed an appetite for high-profile leadership along the way, at one point briefly considering a run to be Portland's mayor. He seems to like people that much and clearly has the sense people like him, too.

Oregonian editorials

reflect the collective opinion of The Oregonian editorial board, which operates independently of the newsroom.

are Helen Jung, Mark Katches, 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 Len Reed, acting

editorial and commentary editor,

at lreed@oregonian.com

or 503-294-7667.

But Reese will find the job of county sheriff to be a great, at times high-profile, test of his capacity: as a leader as well as manager, as a disciplinarian, as a community bridge-builder, as a collaborator with leaders from outside the ranks of law enforcement.

His first partner in finding success will be Deborah Kafoury, chair of the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners, and the person who sought an internal probe of Staton after hearing complaints about him. Kafoury and Reese should meet regularly, something the angered Staton refused this year to do, to ensure the county's administration and sheriff's office share more than budgetary concerns, however large. Kafoury's persistent attentions to the problem of homelessness, for example, can and should find creative partnership with the county sheriff's office. Reese's friendship with the Portland Police Bureau's Marshman, meanwhile, should take on new depth as both law agencies find collaborations that help many Portland citizens respect and trust law officers.

The risk is in trying to do too much. But Reese already has a record of setting priorities, narrowing his efforts to make them count. And in the coming months the priorities are clear: win back the agency, earn the community's trust, open the lines of communication with elected leadership through the county and the city of Portland. The November election, in its double-whammy questions about the sheriff's office, could seem merely incidental if he succeeds.

-The Oregonian/OregonLive Editorial Board
1hales.jpg

Portland Mayor Charlie Hales speaks at a November 2013 press conference announcing a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice on police reforms in response to excessive-force allegations.

(The Oregonian/OregonLive staff)

There was no mistaking the public outcry earlier this month over a proposal to merge two police-oversight panels into one that would review misconduct complaints against Portland Police. While the change would help simplify Portland's hopelessly convoluted police-accountability framework, community members objected to the idea that the consolidated panel would meet behind closed doors, limiting public participation, as The Oregonian/OregonLive's Maxine Bernstein reported. Despite promising elements of the proposal, the opposition appears to have tanked it - for now.

That wasn't the only casualty. Mayor Charlie Hales' interest in meaningful police reform also seems to have fallen to the wayside. Rather than offering revisions to address citizens' concerns, Hales appears to disavow the proposal - even though his office had requested that it be put on the City Council's Sept. 7. agenda. Hales' spokeswoman, Sara Hottman, sought to distance Hales from the proposal, withdrawn from the agenda after the contentious town hall, and recast the involvement of Hales' staffers in the work group that developed it.

The contortions are baffling. Hales is the police commissioner. He should be intimately involved with significant policy changes that affect the bureau. Moreover, the city of Portland doesn't have a choice in taking action. The U.S. Department of Justice warned the city more than a year ago that it needed to streamline its "byzantine" police-accountability system or risk being out of compliance with the police-reforms settlement that a judge approved in 2014.

http://media.oregonlive.com/opinion_impact/photo/agenda-2013jpg-da8a3522a991b9c6.jpg

Editorial Agenda 2016



Get Oregon centered

Better leadership in education

Make Portland a city that works

Build Oregon prosperity

Protect and expand personal freedom

Get pot right

_______________________________

Hales needs to re-engage. Even if the mayor can ignore his duty to Portlanders, he must recognize the serious consequences of noncompliance with a legal settlement.

The Justice Department is right to hone in on the labyrinthine way the city handles citizens' complaints about police misconduct. Now, a citizen's complaint alleging officer misconduct can follow different pathways, depending on the severity of allegations and whether discipline is ultimately recommended. Some investigations are handled by the police bureau and others by the auditor's office. Some hearings, such as those convened by the Police Review Board to consider recommended discipline, are held behind closed doors. Others, like those convened by the Citizen Review Committee, are public. All of it can take several months before a case is resolved.

In response to the Justice Department's concerns, the city convened a workgroup that included community members, the mayor's public-safety policy director and others, according to a city attorney's memo in June, leading to the proposal to consolidate the Police Review Board and the Citizen Review Committee. While the citizen panel would no longer handle appeals - limiting public input in those cases - the proposal would give complainants the ability to make their case directly to the review board that is weighing discipline, Bernstein reported.

Oregonian editorials

reflect the collective opinion of The Oregonian/OregonLive editorial board, which operates independently of the newsroom.

are Helen Jung, Mark Katches, 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 Len Reed, interim editorial and commentary editor,

at

or 503-294-7667.

City Auditor Mary Hull Caballero argues the city could increase citizen participation and transparency in other ways. For example, the city could boost the number of civilians on the consolidated board, hold non-confidential portions of the hearings in public and require more detailed and timely reports of board actions.

But that would need action by Hales to develop such changes and champion the proposal to the public. Hales' spokeswoman said the mayor isn't offering any revisions, and is instead monitoring the public's response to another idea considered by the workgroup. That alternative, which the City Auditor's office is now proposing, would allow three-member subcommittees of the 11-member Citizen Review Committee to hear appeals of misconduct cases, allowing the group as a whole to tackle appeals more quickly.

While the proposal would cut the excessive amount of time a citizen waits for resolution of a complaint, it would not address the dueling oversight panels or confusing process, Hull Caballero told The Oregonian/OregonLive Editorial Board. This is not likely to satisfy the Justice Department which called for a "global" approach and is preparing a report on the city's progress in advance of a hearing set for October.

Time is short. The proposal for a consolidated board can and should be revived with Hull Caballero's ideas as a guideline.

But making such changes is up to the city's policymakers - the city commissioners and the mayor, not the auditor. "It is a political will question," Hull Caballero said.

That, unfortunately, may be the proposal's doom.

- The Oregonian/OregonLive editorial board
1trump.JPG

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally August 19, 2016 in Dimondale, Michigan.

(Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)

By Mark A. Patterson

The debate over Donald Trump's tax returns overlooks an important point: The lack of any mechanism to require presidential candidates to disclose their returns means that our system holds candidates for the nation's highest office to a much lower standard than many applicants for lesser federal positions.

Dozens of nominees to Cabinet- and sub-Cabinet-level positions in the Treasury Department, Social Security Administration, Department of Homeland Security, Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and other agencies are required to submit their tax returns to the Senate, where they are reviewed by the relevant Senate committee, sometimes working with the Joint Committee on Taxation.

Many (although not all) senior federal appointments are subject to this requirement, which is imposed to ensure that people in positions of public trust have complied with the law. There is no exception to the requirement for people who are being audited by the Internal Revenue Service; in fact, nominees are asked detailed questions about any current or recent audits. Regardless of whether a nominee is under audit, Senate committees that require submission of tax returns will not act on a nomination until those returns have been provided and reviewed.

The tax-review process of the Senate Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over nominations to multiple executive branch agencies, is particularly stringent. The committee requires nominees to submit tax returns for the most recent three years, and if any concerns are identified in those returns, the committee may require the nominee to provide returns covering the past 10 years. The committee staff also conducts interviews of nominees. If the committee determines that a nominee's taxes have not been paid in full, it offers a choice: The committee can release a public report detailing the noncompliance and require immediate payment of those amounts, or the nominee can withdraw and the committee will keep the tax information confidential.

It makes no sense whatsoever for candidates for the presidency - the office charged under our Constitution with seeing to the faithful execution of the laws - to be held to a weaker accountability standard than subordinate federal officials are. To correct this problem, Congress should act immediately to require public disclosure of tax returns by presidential candidates. And in the interim, if Trump continues to refuse to release his returns, he should at the least submit them to the Senate Finance Committee (which is controlled by Republicans) or the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation for review and a public report on his compliance. If, as he maintains, he has satisfied his tax obligations, he should have nothing to fear from such a review.

Republicans in Congress would presumably support such a move by Trump. Over the past eight years, Republican senators and staff have devoted a tremendous amount of time and energy to scrutinizing the tax returns of President Barack Obama's nominees. Many of these nominees were required not only to submit multiple years of returns, but also to answer dozens of detailed questions about sources of income, deductions, investments, tax treatment (and immigration status) of domestic employees and other topics. Republican senators who have demanded this information from lesser officials should hold the GOP presidential nominee to at least the same standard of accountability.

Trump told one interviewer that a question about his taxes was "none of your business." But public disclosure of presidential candidates' tax returns has been the accepted practice in the modern era, and for good reason. Paying taxes is a fundamental obligation of citizenship, and the public deserves to know whether its next leader has fulfilled this obligation.

Mark A. Patterson was Democratic staff director and chief counsel of the Senate Finance Committee from 1995 to 1999 and chief of staff at the Treasury Department from 2009 to 2013. He is a partner in the Perkins Coie law firm, which provides legal services to the Clinton campaign; he is a supporter of Hillary Clinton but does not personally represent her campaign.
housing.JPG

An apartment unit created by the nonprofit Portland Habilitation Center Northwest in an affordable housing complex on Burnside Street, in east Portland, in a file photo from earlier this year.

(Luke Hammill/Staff)

By Eric C. Hunter

Housing and health are so closely interconnected that we must often address them together to serve our members.

People at or near the poverty income level have higher rates of diabetes, ulcers, kidney and liver disease and other chronic illness. When they move into stable housing, their Oregon Health Plan (OHP) costs drop an average of 12 percent.

But stable affordable housing is in short supply. For every five families in Portland that qualify for affordable housing, there are only two units. That shortage takes a direct toll on health. While OHP members who are severely ill go to the top of the list for Portland's Home Forward public housing program, they may spend months on the waiting list. Medical procedures must be postponed because people don't have a safe, stable home where they can heal.

Identifying solutions to this complex issue will take the cooperation of our entire community. The first step, however, is to keep people in the housing they have. That's why CareOregon makes housing-related grants to organizations that are succeeding in this area.

Portland Homeless Family Solutions, for example, will use our $50,000 grant to fund a retention specialist to work with people on overcoming social issues that make it hard for them to get housing: evictions, debt to past landlords, bad credit and health issues like addiction. Learning new skills will improve their lives so they can retain housing without financial help. And having stable housing is proven to have better health outcomes.

Best of all, the work we do with our partners equips people with the basics they need to succeed.

But Portland is short 24,000 affordable dwellings. We can do so much more to improve community health when we continue to invest in affordable housing.

It's time to take the next step.

Oregon harnessed its public will and resources to create OHP's innovative health coverage for the working poor and those unable to work. In November, Portlanders have a chance to join the ranks of other great cities and apply our will and resources to affordable housing.

Your "yes" vote on Measure 26-179, a bond issue to fund 1,300 affordable housing units, means more than safe, stable homes. Your "yes" vote saves lives and helps people get on their feet. Lower health costs and a healthier community is a win we all share.

Eric C. Hunter is CEO of CareOregon, a nonprofit health services company serving the largest share of Medicaid members in Oregon. It owns or supports four Coordinated Care Organizations - HealthShare of Oregon, Columbia Pacific CCO, Jackson Care Connect and Yamhill Community Care.


To the editor:

Midland County Habitat for Humanity would like to thank the more than 500 volunteers who helped during our Neighborhood Revitalization event this year. From painting homes to building porches, repairing roofs and replacing windows, volunteers were willing to assist with whatever was needed. We could not have accomplished all that we did on 15 homes without the help of our volunteers and sponsors.

We would like to give a special thank you to all the crew leaders: Phil Baker, Lisa Brown, Mark Camilleri, Earl Denomme, Jeff Dudley, Bob Donald, Jerry Hahnfeld, Roger Miller, Dave Summers, Tim Johnson, Bob Donald and Joel Davis. We would also like to thank Marcia Hahnfeld for providing her landscaping expertise.

Thank you to Mayor Maureen Donker as well as Rich Wells and Tim Lacey from The Dow Chemical Co. for your kind words and support of our initiative.

Thank you to the City of Midland for your annual help and support of this event. In particular, thank you to Karen Murphy and Bart Heil.

Thank you to Great Lakes Safety Training Center (Kelly Juday, Jill Dougherty, Melody DeBolt and Chelsea Hadd) for providing safety tips on how important it is for each volunteer to work safely for both themselves and others around them.

Thank you to the several pastors that prayed over our volunteers and the projects being done throughout the week. They include Pastor Ed Doerner  Messiah Lutheran, Pastor Wally Mayton  Memorial Presbyterian Church, the Rev. Rhonda Myers  Chapel Lane Presbyterian Church, Pastor Gerald Ferguson  Trinity Lutheran, Pastor Julie Wiseman  Eagle Ridge Church of God and Pastor Carl Bjork  Trinity Lutheran Church.

Also, thank you to our many sponsors and supporters. Without your financial, volunteer and in-kind support, we would not have been able to help as many homeowners as we did. Many thanks to all, including Midland Public Schools-Administration Building, City of Midland, The Dow Chemical Co., Chemical Bank, Consumers Energy, Ayre/Rhinehart Realtors, Huntington Bank, Lowes of Midland, Midland Roofing and Remodeling, Memorial Presbyterian Church, Ace Hardware, First United Methodist Church, Gordonville United Methodist Church, Mid Michigan Obstetrics and Gynecology, Valley Electrical Contractors, Stevens Worldwide Van Lines, Cintas, Dan Dan the Mattress Man, Home Builders Association, Mid Michigan Eye Care, Servinski Sod, Wolverine Bank, Accenture, Bluemer Contracting, DeWitt Lumber, Great Lakes Safety Training Center, Garber Chevrolet, Big Apple Bagel, Chapel Lane, Dominos, Eagle Ridge Church of God, Family Fare, Gordonville United Methodist Church, Messiah Lutheran Church, Midland Public Schools, Moltus Building Group, Big Apple Bagels, Coffee Chaos, Grounds for a Better World, Starbucks, Target, The H Hotel, Tim Hortons, Trinity Lutheran Church and Valspar.

A sincere thank you to our board of directors for its continued support of the mission and the vision of Midland County Habitat for Humanity.

We look forward to working with everyone again next year at our eighth annual Neighborhood Revitalization as we seek to put Gods love into action by bringing people together to build homes, communities and hope.

LAURI IRELAND

Community Outreach Coordinator

Midland County Habitat for Humanity
Not many things in life are more satisfying than reading a good book, especially one that rings personal and authentic.

Livingston County native Jeff Utterback has published a collection of stories most of us from small towns will appreciate.

The book is titled after his hometown, Swygert, a small town located between Pontiac and Saunemin along the Illinois Central Railroad tracks. According to Utterback, when he was growing up there in the 1960s and 70s, Swygert boasted seven houses, a cemetery, a junk yard, a grain elevator and 35 residents. The book is appropriately subtitled: Growing Up in the Middle of Nowhere in a Little Town Nobody Ever Heard of.

Except me. I had heard of Swygert.

Published five years ago, the collection features 22 stand-alone stories about Jeffs childhood in a rural household. The only son in a family of five children, he shares recollections how country kids entertained themselves and occasionally got into mischief.

Not only did I find myself laughing aloud and saying, I remember that! but I also learned a few things. For instance, I never really understood how a grain elevator operated. Not really.

Interesting features of the book are Jeffs mechanical explanations of how things work. Readers may be surprised to know hes not a writer by trade. With a degree in electronics, he develops software for aviation controls. He gives fascinating accounts of hours spent in the farmhouse basement (which smelled like mildew and was visited only by Jeff and his dad) where they repaired his bicycle or he played with his Aurora Model Motoring slot car racetrack.

I completely related to his childhood memories of visiting the Coast to Coast store and driving by a Gibson City plant sign that read, Accident-free for 213 days. His sister, Jenifer, spent New Years Eve 1973 listening to the WLS AM radio Top 100 hit countdown and so did I.

It was kind of like reading my own diary. Especially when Jeff wrote about the arrival of Santa Claus in downtown Pontiac one particular Christmas season.

One year, just to change it up a bit, Santa decided to forget the sleigh and reindeer. Instead Santa arrived in a real helicopter!

Well, of course I remember that. It was my Dad, Norman Rittenhouse, who flew the helicopter.

There were many moments that made me smile, including a reference to a little girl from Pontiac named Susan Fraher who sent a letter to former WGN television star Ray Rayner. (Rayner read her note on the air -- a very big deal!) The inside secret is, after Susan grew up, she married Jeff. The couple lives in Sugar Grove and has one daughter, age 20.

Never intending to be an author, Jeff said, It took me about 10 years of writing stories before I decided to publish a book.

Entering the world of online publishing was a learning experience, he said. Not only did he not receive an advance payment from the publisher, but he had to pay them. The book is available for purchase on Amazon and Barnes & Noble Booksellers.

Writing some of his memories was cathartic for Jeff, such as remembering his dad, who is now deceased. Much of the book revolves around kid-type antics with his older sister Jenifer, four years his senior. Knowing Jenifer, I got a kick out of his near-idolization of her.

I didnt read it all at first, she said, I think the part about our Dad was just too hard to get through. But I did finish it about a month ago. It really took me back to things I cant believe he remembered.

Jenifer said the collection of memories accurately captures how they lived as kids  in a simpler time and in a place called Swygert, a little town in the middle of nowhere that nobody ever heard of.
The Apostle Paul once wrote to a church that there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:28). And yet there were times in our country when churches sharply divided over how to apply those teachings.

At times the issues of slavery and, later, womens rights, found defenders as well as opponents among Christians. And both sides quoted scriptures to defend their positions.

The same is true today regarding the issues of immigration, global warming and gay rights. Scriptures are quoted on both sides of those issues too.

Sharp divisions exist, even among Christians. The unity of mind that we should have in Christ often eludes us.

Must we not sometimes wonder how much it is our own views, rather than the Holy Spirits guidance, that determines how we see both those issues and the scriptures -- and wonder whether we put the emphasis where God would have us put it, rather than according to our own preferences and prejudices?

As pastor, I once ministered to a young man who was dying of AIDs at his parental home. His parents, his dear grandmother, and his sister who was an evangelical pastor -- all of us felt enriched by that young mans faith in the face of what was coming to him. He felt drawn to Jesus and did not excessively fear death.

Jesus in his own time reached out to people who were considered absolutely unacceptable, people who were considered too reprobate for anyone even to associate with. He sat at a table with those who were considered to be the worst of the worst and the lowest of the low -- tax collectors, sinners, prostitutes -- and shared his celebrative meals with them, meals that spoke of a greater feast that God would someday make available to all (Mark 2:13-17; Isaiah 25:6-9).

Surely that same Jesus would show compassion and acceptance in our time.

If Paul were living among us today, aware of all that we have come to know, would he perhaps insist on writing, for our time, In Christ there is neither Anglo nor Latino, neither poor nor rich, neither black nor white, neither male nor female, neither gay nor straight, for we are all one in Christ Jesus?

And that question is not for the politicians, but for Christians.
NORMAL  Indiana automaker AM General is not buying the former Mitsubishi plant in Normal despite discussions with the plant's owner.

The military and commercial vehicle manufacturer had negotiated with officials to use the facility, but no agreement was reached, said Taso Sofikitis, CEO and president of plant co-owner Maynards Industries USA Division.

We were trying to make a deal with them, and it didnt happen, he said Friday. "Its not happening."

AM General spokesman Jeff Adams declined comment.

The company "designs, engineers, manufactures, supplies and supports specialized vehicles" including the Humvee, which it originated, according to its website. AM General is based in South Bend and has "major facilities" in Michigan, Ohio and Virginia.

Maynards, a Michigan company specializing in industrial asset auction, appraisal and liquidation services, has been working with local officials to sell the Mitsubishi plant since agreeing to buy it in partnership with Industrial Assets Machinery of California in May.

I have no comment, said Kyle Ham, CEO of the Bloomington-Normal Economic Development Council and chairman of a task force searching for a buyer for the plant. I'm under nondisclosure (agreements) for activities that I'm working on out there. I'm not at liberty to talk about whether they're moving forward or not moving."

Bloomington and Normal officials referred questions on the plant to Ham.

"There have probably been upwards to two dozen different groups and entities that have been through (the plant) since (Mitsubishi) announcing last year it was closing, Ham said. "We continue to try and find new users. That's our priority and will be until the end."

The real estate, buildings and contents of the plant are set to be sold at auction Oct. 18-21.

Sofikitis declined to comment on whether delays in negotiations with AM General led Maynards to twice delay that auction.

Kyle Ann Sebastian, public information officer for the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, said she was not aware of any state incentives that might be offered to companies who might use the site, including AM General.

Rod DeVary, president for United Auto Workers Local 2488 during the plant's final year, said he had no direct knowledge of a deal with AM General and was unaware of any job interviews involving the company and former plant workers.

DeVary said he is hopeful the plant will be sold to an employer who could create union jobs.

The UAW chapter, which represented about 1,000 plant workers, dissolved with the plant's closure at the end of May.

AM General's "1,500 employees include the proud members of United Auto Workers Local 5," according to its website.

I would love to go back out there and finish my time," said DeVary. "If they are going to be UAW-oriented, hopefully I could get back into my role as president.
BLOOMINGTON  In the first case of its kind in McLean County, two men have been convicted in connection with the trafficking of 150 pounds of khat, a plant material containing cathinone, a stimulant that is legal in some countries but a controlled substance in the U.S.

Awil Aden, 28, and Mohamed O. Samantar, 61, both of Minneapolis, Minn., were stopped by Illinois State Police in June 2015 on suspicion of improper lane usage on Interstate 55 near the Interstate 39 interchange. Trooper Ryan Albin asked to search the rented Toyota minivan driven by Aden after he detected an odor of what he suspected was from drugs.

Inside the vehicle were 17 cardboard boxes and a trash bag filled with what was later determined in lab testing to be khat, a plant grown in parts of East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.

The men are natives of Somalia, where the drug is popular with men, who mix the leaves with tea.

Police also seized $2,950 in cash from Samantar's suitcase and another $340 from his shirt pocket.

Police said the men were returning to Minnesota from Georgia where they had picked up $30,000 worth of khat for four people. The drugs carried a street value of about $81,000, according to police estimates.

Samantar was convicted in a stipulated bench trial Tuesday of controlled substance trafficking and delivery of a controlled substance. He faces 12 to 60 years in prison when he is sentenced Sept. 30, and he would have to serve 75 percent of the sentence.

Speaking through an interpreter, Aden pleaded guilty Friday to possession of a controlled substance. His open plea includes a $30,000 street value fine in his sentence, but other terms, including whether he will receive probation, up to 180 days in jail or between four and 15 years in prison, will be determined by a judge at his Sept. 30 sentencing hearing.

Assistant State's Attorney Erika Reynolds said the successful prosecution of McLean County's first khat case was due in large part to sharp observations by the state trooper and cooperation of the state crime lab in Morton where the substance was quickly tested.

"Khat has affects similar to amphetamines," said Reynolds, who learned about the drug and its origins as part of her research in handling the state's case against the two men.

"The plant itself isn't necessarily illegal," said Reynolds, unless the cathinone is present on the leaves.

"It all has to do with how the plant is harvested and stored," said Reynolds. Once the plant is harvested, the cathinone metabolically breaks down into cathine, a less potent substance that also is illegal in the U.S.

According to police reports, Samantar told investigators that khat is coming into the U.S. from Kenya and Ethiopia.

Both men were told in court that they may face deportation as a result of their convictions.
Boy Scout registration set Sept. 15

BLOOMINGTON  W.D. Boyce Council of Boy Scouts of America will host registration at elementary schools throughout Central Illinois from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Sept. 15.

Each youth who joins Boys Scouts will receive a free rocket along with an invitation to participate in the Blast Into Scouting Cub Launch. More information is at www.BlastintoScouting.org or at www.wdboyce.org.
BLOOMINGTON  Ron Demlow looked out of his bedroom window Saturday morning and knew something wasnt right.

I saw smoke coming from the house next door and I knew that family worked nights, he said.

While he called 911, his wife went next door.

I just screamed Hey, your garage is on fire, Cathie Demlow said. They had no idea.

Damage was mostly limited to the garage of the home at 437 Standish Drive, off Oakland Avenue south of Central Illinois Regional Airport, Bloomington Township Fire Chief Tom Willan said.

Called at 10:50 a.m., crews from Bloomington Township Fire Department, the Heyworth Fire Department and Downs Fire Department quickly knocked down the fire.

We had eight people in there and a couple of animals, said homeowner Troy McGinnis. Im just glad we are all safe. Thats the main thing. But I am really thankful for our neighbors. Im glad they were there.

Cathie Demlow said things could have been far worse.

When it starts in the garage, you never know, because they could have lawnmowers and gasoline in there and something could happen pretty quickly, she said. And there is a good breeze this morning, so I think we are all just thankful that everyone is safe.

A cause was not determined, Willan said. Authorities were working on a dollar estimate of damage.

"They won't be able to stay there because we had to shut the utilities off, but the damage was limited to the garage," he added.

Im not sure what could have started it, McGinnis said. Im just surprised none of us noticed it first.

The Red Cross was called to assist the family.
BLOOMINGTON  A McLean County resident has tested positive for West Nile virus, resulting in the county's first case of the potentially deadly disease since 2013, a representative of the county health department said Friday.

Cathy Coverston Anderson, health department assistant administrator, said t she didn't know the condition of the person.

The McLean County resident is among five cases of West Nile in Illinois so far this year, said Melaney Arnold of the Illinois Department of Public Health. None of the people have died, she said.

Other counties with cases are Franklin, Massac, Monroe and Warren, Arnold said.

Because mosquito pools and a bird also tested positive for West Nile in separate neighborhoods of the Bloomington-Normal area from the human case, Coverston Anderson said that confirms that the virus is widespread in the area.

She asked residents to reduce the risk of mosquito bites by wearing insect repellent containing DEET when outdoors, repairing torn window screens and draining stagnant water outside.

County residents also are asked to call the health department at 309-888-5482 to report dead birds on their property.

Mosquitoes become infected with the virus when they feed on infected birds. Mosquitoes then pass the virus to humans and animals.

Last year, there were 77 confirmed cases of West Nile and nine deaths, Arnold said. Among the 77 cases were two Livingston County residents, one of whom died.

It's unknown how many people become ill each year with West Nile because most people who get the disease show no symptoms or only mild symptoms such as fever, nausea, headache and muscle aches that last a few days.

But, in rare cases, meningitis, encephalitis and death occur. Older adults and people with compromised immune systems are at greater risk.

People who are bitten by a mosquito and experience fever, headache, stiff neck or disorientation should contact their medical provider.

Whether recent rain  resulting in standing water  is responsible for the uptick in mosquito activity is unknown. The disease remains a threat until there's a hard freeze.

On Wednesday and Thursday, health department employees went door-to-door in three Bloomington-Normal area neighborhoods notifying more than 1,100 residents and businesses of the heightened risk for the virus.
NEW ORLEANS -- October is observed in communities across the country as Bullying Prevention Month. During this time, schools and organizations host assemblies, workshops, awareness campaigns and conferences to address the pervasive issue, which has gained global notoriety and media attention.

One organization - the International Bullying Prevention Association (IBPA) - has been offering solutions to bullying for more than a decade with its regional and national conferences. This fall, IBPA will host its annual conference Louisiana in hopes of uniting youth and youth advocates to get to the bottom of bullying.

Approximately 800 teens and adults from more than 20 countries will gather in historic New Orleans from Nov. 6-8 for the International Bullying Prevention Conference. This year's theme, "Getting to the Bottom of It: Bullying Prevention through Empathy and Kindness," features nearly two dozen workshops and sessions and keynote addresses from internationally acclaimed experts and authors Michele Borba and Sameer Hinduja.

The IBPA board of directors and conference organizers are working to expand the association's reach and build more global partnerships. In 2017, IBPA is partnering with Stockholm-based Friends organization for the World Anti-Bullying Forum.

In addition to its professional development opportunities, IBPA offers scholarships to students involved in bullying prevention efforts in their schools and communities. Visit ibpaworld.org to learn more.
The British royals are indeed the most followed royal family in the world. As a matter of fact, Kate Middleton, Prince William and their respective families are always on the news as they become an easy target of speculations.

Speaking of speculations, reports circulated on Thursday claiming Kate Middleton and Prince William's families were reportedly at war. According to the latest issue of Life & Style magazine (via Celeb Dirty Laundry), Prince William was seething with anger over Duchess Kate's mom, Carole Middleton, as she has built a relationship with her grandchildren, Prince George and Princess Charlotte.

Prince Charles, on the other hand, was reportedly jealous because he and wife Camilla Parker-Bowles were "excluded" from his grandchildren's lives. An insider further claimed Kate Middleton's 67-year-old father-in-law felt "betrayed" due to what the Middletons had done after he welcomed them into their royal lives.

Fortunately, royal couple Prince William and Kate Middleton were trying to sort the conflict between their families. In fact, the Duke of Cambridge has reportedly asked Duchess Kate to speak to her mom Carole to end the feud between them.

What's interesting, however, was Gossip Cop debunking the report, saying the alleged "family war" between the Middletons and the Cornwalls was fabricated. Meanwhile, Kate Middleton was incessantly reported to be pregnant with her third child.

Despite the fact that no official royal baby news have been announced, OK! magazine claimed Kate Middleton and Prince William may be forced to reveal it soon since the royal heir is reportedly due in December. International Business Times also added that Duchess Kate will be ditching the upcoming royal visit to Germany due to her pregnancy.

Aside from the Germany visit, Kate Middleton and Prince William are also bound to visit the Isles of Scilly and Cornwall on Sept. 1 and 2. As reported by Daily Mirror, the royal couple will be there for charities, not to mention to learn more the Duchy estate, which has been labeled as a "cash cow."

In other royal-related news, Kate Middleton and Prince Williams were recently slammed for their lavish lifestyle. Moreover, Celeb Dirty Laundry also pointed out that the royal couple was criticized for and accused of accepting excessive "free gifts," such as the free "borrowed" chateau during their recent French holiday.

Do you think the British royals and the Middletons are feuding? Share your thoughts below and follow Parent Herald for more news and updates.
NEW YORK, August 19, 2016 - Did you know that one-in-four children grow up without learning how to read well? In the United States, students that don't read proficiently by the end of third grade are four times as likely to drop out of school, and two-thirds of students who cannot read proficiently by the end of fourth grade will end up in jail or on welfare. Every U.S. president has identified tackling the literacy gap as paramount to the country's success, yet there is still a literacy crisis.

Learn With Homer, the #1 Learn-to-Read program and app, is working to solve this problem. Its founders are on a mission to teach the world's children how to read, one step at a time, one child at a time, with the help of a tablet. Learn With Homer works by cultivating a love for reading with a fun, easy to use program that has been shown to boost early reading scores by 74 percent.

Throughout the 2016-2017 school year, Learn With Homer is free to qualified and verified teachers and librarians to support instruction with progress tracking for up to 32 individual students.

Families interested in joining the fight to end the literacy crisis can help support Learn with Homer in low income schools with a purchase of a family subscription.

A recent study showed that by using Learn With Homer just 15 minutes a day over a six week period nearly doubled reading scores on the Test of Preschool Early Literacy, making it extremely effective for whole and small-group instruction, resource rooms and libraries as the most reliable and effective app for teaching a child to read.

Educators interested in using Learn With Homer may obtain the program free-of-charge through the Learn With Homer website learnwithhomer.com. Educators may apply online at learnwithhomer.com/teachers with a valid school email address.

"At Learn with Homer we are leading a revolution to teach the world's children to read," said Stephanie Dua, founder and CEO of Learn With Homer. "As educators, we were sick and tired of wringing our hands over the literacy crisis so we decided to get down to business and build a scalable solution."

By providing a complete start-to-finish reading program with more than 1,000 fun and easy-to-use reading lessons, including a library of 200+ stories, songs and decodable readers, Learn With Homer is a scientifically-proven, phonetically-based program that brings the best literacy instruction to families and schools without the need of a trained teacher to supervise instruction.

Learn with Homer was shown in a double blind research study conducted by the Susan B. Neuman, former U.S. assistant secretary of education, to increase reading scores in preschool and kindergarten aged children by more than 74 percent in just six weeks. Using the program in conjunction with classroom instruction helps form an ever stronger foundation of reading.

Learn With Homer uses animation and audio to model precise sounds of each phoneme -- the sounds letters make -- and relies on voice recording by the child. This enables children to hear the sounds of letters, see the movements of the mouth as it makes the sound, then to record themselves making the sound and to play that back.

Learn with Homer's native mobile design integrates the best early literacy pedagogy and the best of game design to create a seamless learning experience for children. The students thought they were playing a game when really, every activity was carefully designed to result in maximum learning.

Amanda Highly, a media coordinator at Burke Public Schools in North Carolina stated, "I have loved having this wonderful resource right at my fingertips! I first started using Learn With Homer about three years ago as a first time media coordinator. I see classes ranging from pre-k to fifth grade, so I was so thrilled to find a resource that not only helped me to create interactive, multimedia lessons, but that could be used across multiple grade levels. The content is rich and correlates with what the students are learning in their classrooms. The ability to have the information read aloud allows the younger students to learn and enjoy it as well. I have used the Learn with Homer app on my iPad for the past few years, but am excited for the new website they are offering. It provides even more tools and information than the app, especially for parents and teachers. I have had several teachers walk in the library and see it on my Smartboard and ask me about how they can use it in their classrooms! Everyone is so impressed, including the kids!"

Learn With Homer was developed by educators and literacy experts and built on leading scientific research by the National Reading Panel and is one of the most comprehensive foundational phonics-based reading system available on mobile and the web.

"Technology and learning go hand-in-hand today," noted Dua. "Kids know how to use apps on phones and tablets from a very early age, so our goal was not only to create the first comprehensive literacy app, but also to deliver for parents and educators what we know to be the best practices in early education in a way that was beautiful but not over gamified."

About Learn With Homer

Learn With Homer, the #1 Learn-to-Read program for children ages two to eight, is teaching the world's children to read. Learn With Homer has the vision is to transform the academic trajectory of every child that uses the Learn With Homer program by cultivating a love for reading with a fun, easy to use program that boosts early reading scores. Learn With Homer is also nurturing, supportive and fun! Reading is the single most important skill for a child's success in school and life and Learn With Homer is the #1 Learn-to-Read app that is a research-based and proven apps to boost early reading scores by 74 percent. The app has received a five-star rating from Common Sense Media and is the winner of the Teacher's Choice Award and was designed by teachers and experts and based on educational research from Harvard and Stanford Universities. Learn With Homer provides a step-by-step method proven to work and helps struggling or new readers accelerate their reading skills. To learn more, visit learnwithhomer.com or download from the iTunes app store or follow on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and G+.
"American Horror Story" Season 6 teased various directions for the new "AHS" from FX and creator Ryan Murphy. Despite "American Horror Story" Season 6 trailer misdirects, "Murder House" at S1 still holds the best clue as to what the "AHS" S6 cast will be up to.

Parent Herald cites E! News in reporting that FX Networks CEO John Landgraf, Ryan Murphy and Stephanie Gibbons collaborated to make several "American Horror Story" Season 6 teasers to mislead "AHS" fans. However, John Landgraf did say that one "American Horror Story" Season 6 teaser is at least a real representation of the new "AHS."

Perhaps the best clues then on the "American Horror Story" Season 6 can be found be independent, manual digging as Vanity Fair did. The "American Horror Story" dig up by the media outlet uses clues that reference the Lost Colony of the Roanoke from "AHS" Season 1, "Murder House."

Scene from new season of American Horror Story vs message Manson girl Susan Atkins left in Sharon Tate's blood. #AHS pic.twitter.com/rqQEGUgdDG  Creepy Catalog (@CreepyCatalog) July 30, 2016

Vanity Fair points out that what psychic Billie Dean (Sarah Paulson) told Violet Harmon (Taissa Farmiga) in "Murder House" may be the echoing theme throughout the "American Horror Story" series. To illustrate her point "Murder House" character Billie Dean used the example of the Native American elder, who tried to banish the angry ghosts of the Roanoke to save his tribe.

Interestingly, the one word that the tribe elder used to finalize the ritual of banishing the Roanoke ghosts was recently found in leaked photos of the "American Horror Story" Season 6 set. The word, which now seems to tie up "American Horror Story" Season 6 with the "Murder House" clue, is "CROATOAN."

According to Vanity Fair, TMZ published photos taken from a bespoke set for "American Horror Story" Season 6, which displays a tree carving of the word. While "American Horror Story" Season 6 will not specifically dwell on the Roanoke colony, the new "AHS" may once more be an elaborate illustration of what Billie Dean told Violet Harmon in "Murder House."

Vanity Fair highlights that the recurring theme in the "American Horror Story" series has been that evil is drawn to specific places because of negative or horrific events that happened in them. "Events that unleash psychic energy into the environment where it's absorbed, like the way a battery stores energy," Billie Dean said. "You'll see it all the times in places like prisons or asylums - negative energy feeds on trauma and pain."

Whatever the theme may be, returning cast as listed by Pop Sugar Lady Gaga, Sarah Paulson, Angela Bassett, Kathy Bates, Finn Wittrock, Wes Bentley, Denis O'Hare, Matt Bomer and Cheyenne Jackson should make for a great "American Horror Story" season. Evan Peters, Anabell Osorio, Leslie Jordan and Cuba Gooding Jr. will also be in "American Horror Story" Season 6.

FX is anticipated to premiere "American Horror Story" Season 6 on Sept 14. What is your favorite "American Horror Story" season by far?
On Wedenesday, an airstrike took place in Aleppo and one of the injured victims of the ongoing Syrian conflict is 5 year old Omran Daqneesh. The Aleppo Media Center was able to relaese of the captured photo of the rescued boy and has created quite a stir all over when it was posted on You Tube. The photo also made it in news papers worldwide and has created an impact that has derived the global attention towards the war that is transpiring in Syria.

In a report via Goats and Soda: Stories of Life in A Changing World, an eye-opening statement was relived by Washington Post Director of Photography Mary Ann Golon, "It's heartbreaking, compelling, beautifully composed, scary." She also added a statement that just clenches every parent's heart saying, "Any mother in the world would want to scoop him up and take care of him."

This is not the first case that such excruciatingly painful pictures of children becoming the greatest casulaties of war, have been exposed in media. Another photo of a boy that garnered the same kind of attention form the world is that of Alan Kurdi.

Alan Kurdi, a 3 year old Syrian boy who actually drowned when his family tried to escape the tragedy of the Syrian war off to perhaps a better situation in Greece. The photo sparked compassion amongst various organizations worldwide that responded to aide the victims of the Syrian war. One of which is the Mercy Corps, a humanitarian organization that donated $2.3 million after Kurdi's image was shown all over media.

Another organization that responded is Save The Children, where Vice President for Humanitarian Response Greg Ramm, addressed that the photo of the Syrian boys did make a difference."It's reminded the world of the suffering inside Syria. It has motivated people to help. And it does put pressure on politicians."

The world has seen enough wreckage in the aftermath of political conflicts and on going strife from wars waged for reasons that at times are beyond human understanding. It is a very unfortunate reality that it's toll has to be delivered via photos of grief stricken children traumatized by the effects of war. Photos, signed, sealed and delivered to hold hearts and clench it to enough to a breaking point and entice compassion to take over. If it is not enough pain already to witness it on televisions, social media and the internet, one can only imagine the devastating effects of having to witness it first hand.

To rise above such human tragedies such as war may just be bearable for those of age, those with greater understanding and endurance, those with whom has taken the responsibility of protecting the younger ones from war's affliction. But what of the children in places such as Syria , Afghanistan, and Iraq? Much has to be done, much has to be duscussed, much has to be realized. War - it is a victory for who really? To divide and conquer entails damage that can never be compensated by the victory of whoever wins the battle. A harsh reality that should shake the heads of world leaders, before they can offer to shake hands.
U.S. Education Secretary John B. KIng Jr. recently spoke in Hartford Magnet Trinity College, one of Connecticut's magnet schools where diversity in the educational system is greatly practiced. According to King, these magnet schools should be followed in terms of how diversity is given due importance in their curriculums. King believes that the students produced in schools that adapt diversity have a shot in deriving better results than those schools that do otherwise.

In his statement to reporters, King's reiteration was "We're not here to say that victory has been achieved but rather there are promising results from the efforts around diversity here." King also added, "We've got to build on that momentum."

In a report via Business Insider, it has been the thrust of King since he took office, to promote diversity in the U.S. Educational System, where a pending Congress Bill is reported to fund school programs that would promote his advocacy. A funding of $120 Million is said to be alloted to support the various program of local school systems where it can cater to more students outside the locality, create more preferences for public schools and even widening the modes of transportaion for these students.

The Stronger School Diversity Act of 2016 was also introduced last month by Democrat U.S. Senator Chirs Murphy. According to the same report, Senator Murphy highlighted in the discussion, the importance of diversity in school systems as it would be greatly beneficial to students that are disadvantaged as well.

Diversity has definitely created its mark in the magnet schools of Hartford. However, there are still students in Connecticut that are not given the educational freedom of not having to suffer the after effects of racism, discrimination and poverty in these areas. The lack of option has lead them to attend neighboring schools instead. School preference is still almost a luxury enjoyed by those who are privileged.

Students of color respond better to teachers of color as well. This is according to a statement released by U.S. Education Secretary King saying, "While students of color make up the majority in our public schools, just 18 percent of teachers identify as people of color. Research suggests that students of color benefit from having teachers of color who can serve as positive role models and illustrate the potential of what they can be."

Education is a right. It should be accessible and given freely to every student no matter the skin color or socio-economic status. The objective of getting an education is to pave roads that will lead to an individual's success, creating better opportunities and more chances to a better life. Society's perception may have hampered and curtailed this right. However, with the likes of U.S. Education Secretary John B. King Jr. and Senator Chris Murphy fighting for diversity in the educational system, hope is definitely instilled in the learning experiences in every classroom.

A diploma will never have its worth, if the right to a good education is stripped from the credentials its supposed to uphold. Graduating my just be another right of passage, but what is assimilated in the learning experiences in a school that adapts diversity thus becomes the breaking ground of passage to a better future.
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The Redlands Unified School District will pay a former high school student $6 million to settle a lawsuit brought against it after former teacher Laura Whitehurst was convicted of having sex with him and other students.

All of this is put to rest now and, in fact, we hope that this tragic and unfortunate episode will now be behind us as a school district, district spokesman Tom DeLapp said at a press conference Friday morning at RUSD headquarters.

Whitehurst, he said, made a conscious effort to violate district rules and policies she was trained to uphold. District policy forbids relationships between students and educators, even if the student is 18 years old or older.

Whitehurst was arrested in 2013 after a complaint from the parents of a 17-year-old boy. They reported that Whitehurst had engaged in an inappropriate relationship with their son. Investigators said Whitehursts baby was the result of that relationship.

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Vince Finaldi, lead attorney in the case against the school district, said the settlement is the largest against any public entity in the country with respect to child sexual abuse.

That number didnt get there by accident, Finaldi said by phone Friday. The evidence we were able to deduce against the district of its knowledge (that) this was going on and its complicity was so voluminous, they had no choice but to settle the case. It was that bad.

No one in the district was charged with any crimes for its handling of the Whitehurst matter  something that San Bernardino County District Attorney Mike Ramos, a former Redlands Unified school board member, still hears about.

In May 2013, Whitehurst and the future father of her child gave the district what appeared to be reasonable explanations for any allegedly suspicious conduct, according to DAs spokesman Chris Lee.

The district interviewed the pair separately on May 17, 2013, six weeks before Whitehurst was arrested.

On Friday, DeLapp denied any wrongdoing on the part of the district, saying the settlement is not an admittance of guilt, liability or acceptance of the validity or invalidity of the allegations. He said the district was settling to avoid dragging employees through the mud all over again and damaging the reputation of a very fine district.

We believe that the signing of this by the plaintiffs attorneys and the withdrawal with prejudice of all of those claims, exonerates the school district in the eyes of the public, DeLapp said. We did nothing wrong in the way we handled our side of dealing with the Laura Whitehurst case.

He also noted that jury awards are escalating out of control, and the district wanted to avoid a potentially higher settlement amount.

The settlement will be paid using funds set aside for such expenses, not out of the general fund used to pay for salaries and other day-to-day expenses.

BIRTH RAISES SUSPICIONS

Whitehurst is a 2003 graduate of Redlands East Valley High. Four years later, she began her career as an English teacher at Redlands High.

In spring 2009, she was laid off due to budget cuts, according to school district records, but returned to the district that fall to teach at Orangewood. She transferred in fall 2010 to Citrus Valley High School, where she worked as an English teacher and club adviser.

Whitehurst gave birth to her child in June 2013. It was then that the 17-year-old victims mother discovered her sons year-long relationship with Whitehurst and called the district. Redlands Unified called the police July 1, and Whitehurst resigned later that month.

Two former Redlands High School students then made their own allegations against Whitehurst. She was charged with 41 felony counts of unlawful sex acts with minors and later pleaded guilty in San Bernardino Superior Court to six felonies.

Under an agreement with prosecutors, in exchange for her plea, Whitehurst was sentenced to five years on probation and up to a year in county jail, and ordered to forfeit her teaching credentials, register as a sex offender, attend sex offender treatment, wear a GPS tracking device and not make contact with the victim.

She served six months in jail, due to good behavior, and now legally shares custody of the child with its father. According to Finaldi, Whitehurst has primary custody of the child.

In the meantime, the victim pursued legal action the school district, saying that a Redlands Unified teacher and soccer coach, along with other unidentified district officials, failed to report the abuse to authorities, as they are required by state law.

According to the victims complaint, Whitehurst demanded the teen keep their relationship secret, demanded he not associate with other women or girls and manipulated him in a religious manner by saying the baby was Gods plan and a miracle baby.

Whitehurst also allegedly required the victim to attend doctor appointments with her, and even called the principal to excuse the victims absences while he attended appointments.

PROTECTING STUDENTS

Although the case may be settled, Finaldi said more needs to be done to protect Redlands Unified students.

Theres a lot of problems in that district, he said. The settlement doesnt make it go away. It will put the plaintiff in the position where he can move on with his life and can address some of these important issues such as dealing with his child, but I think we still have a lot more work to do with this district.

Finaldi said the district needs to retrain its employees on Californias Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act and make sure they follow it.

The law requires school district employees and other educators, along with a long list of other mandated reporters, to alert police when they suspect child abuse has occurred. Failure to do so is a misdemeanor and carries a sentence of up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

I have deposed dozens of (Redlands Unified employees) and maybe only 5 percent get it right on who to report to, when to report and how to report, Finaldi said.

Redlands Unified officials, however, say the district already had been working to strengthen its standards and practices, including having detailed conversations with employees and providing specific guidance about boundaries for interpersonal and digital interactions with students.

The district also gave administrators additional training in child abuse and sexual harassment prevention and their responsibilities to oversee mandated reporting laws; reviewed procedures; posted information to the districts website and rewrote the teacher moral conduct policy to include specific examples of inappropriate conduct, according to the districts statement.

We didnt implement those things in reaction to this, DeLapp said. We already had many of these things going on.

He expressed a hope that Fridays announcement is an end to the Whitehurst case.

I think our community is tired of this, DeLapp said. I think our community has been battered and beaten by a lot of coverage of this story. Its unfortunate, but I think we can tie this off and this settlement agreement does that.
It has taken far too long to resolve concerns about toxic contaminants in the soil at Riversides so-called Ag Park, site of a former defense installation later used by the city for dumping and briefly for livestock shows.

From the moment toxic sludge came spilling out of a former sewage digester at the one-time treatment plant, the pollution has been mishandled  first by the city, then by state regulators.

Steps taken by the state Department of Toxic Substances Control in the weeks and months after the agency certified the site as clean when it wasnt have done little to relieve residents fears.

RELATED: Old contamination raises new concerns

That track record continued unbroken at a recent community meeting of a work group convened by DTSC to allow neighbors to participate in decision-making on the third cleanup, to begin this week.

I didnt attend the first work group meeting, but I am told it immediately went off the rails despite DTSC having a professional facilitator to lead it.

But at the Aug. 10 meeting, I quickly got the feeling the whole exercise is mere window dressing on DTSCs part, so the agency can say it reached out to the community.

Others view it that way, too. It was a waste of time, said resident Marilyn Whitney of the meeting. We know all that information (that was presented). Theyre stalling.

CASSIE MacDUFF: Is Ag Park still tained? State must come clean

Its hard to argue. When neighbors of the 62-acre site at Rutland and Jurupa avenues in Arlanza asked pointed questions, DTSC officials just stared at them silently.

Eventually a DTSC official explained they were only to gather comments, not answer questions. Someone should have offered that reminder each time a resident asked a direct question. Instead, DTSC left an impression of callous disregard.

After a wasteful hour, DTSC got down to brass tacks. Branch Chief Peter Garcia described, slowly and laboriously, how the agency will go about picking locations to collect dust samples to find out whether PCBs  toxic polychlorinated biphenyls  blew into the neighborhood during the first or second bungled cleanup.

Garcia said PCBs degrade very slowly and could easily attach to dust particles, so winds could easily have carried them into the neighborhoods around the site.

CASSIE MacDUFF: Toxic regulators flunk community relations

He didnt come right out and say it, but its clear DTSC has to do the sampling in a methodical, scientific way. Everyone knows prevailing winds blow from west to east, but DTSC must establish it scientifically.

The California Air Resources Board is developing a computer model of wind directions and will give DTSC the air dispersion model. Based on this model, DTSC will create a neighborhood sampling plan, said DTSC spokesman Tim Reese.

Whitney, who is a member of the work group, said its obvious where the sampling should be done: in the ductwork, draperies and upholstery in the homes around the site.

But it sounded like DTSC plans only to take samples outside homes on the east side of the site. The winds dont blow only one direction; Santa Ana winds in the Inland Empire blow east to west, and air monitoring during earlier cleanup work showed the wind swirls, too, Whitney said.

Until CARB completes its computer modeling, Reese said, DTSC hasnt decided where it will sample.

CASSIE MacDUFF: Digging on Riverside Ag Park causes panic

Its frustrating that it has taken this long, and will take even longer, to come up with a plan for sampling dust in the neighborhood, where Whitney said 37 people have died and 35 pets, in the 13 years since the spill.

People have developed kidney disease, thyroid disease, lung disease, brain tumors, skin lesions and had miscarriages and stillborns, Whitney said.

Although a scientific model might help the regulators, Penny Newman, of the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice, said science should not be the longest way to get to a point.

This modeling nonsense, I just find abhorrent, she said. The thing thats very disconcerting to me is how long its taking, especially when sampling at a PCB contamination site in Huntington Beach was tested within a year.

I asked Reese about that. Were the Huntington Beach homes tested quickly because the area is predominantly white, while the Arlanza neighborhood is still waiting because its predominantly minority, as Newman believes?

RELATED: Tainted soil to be removed from Riverside site

Reese said the Fieldstone site in Huntington Beach was different because the source of soil contamination was throughout the neighborhood, not confined to one site, as the Ag Park contamination is.

I also asked Reese why the suspected disease cluster hasnt been studied, when neighbors have been raising fears about it for years? Reese said DTSC is working with the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry on a possible study and hopes to bring its representative to a future work group meeting.

I also asked the South Coast Air Quality Management District about Rule 403, which prohibits allowing dust to blow off a site, for example, during a cleanup.

AQMD spokesman Sam Atwood told me the cleanup plan calls for crews to follow the basic rule and even imposes measures beyond what AQMD would require for a site that size.

A dust control supervisor will be on-site during all cleanup operations and will be able to shut down the work or immediately order dust-control watering if dust starts blowing. A sign on the site fencing will have a 24-hour hotline number to report blowing dust, and AQMD can respond 24/7, Atwood said.

DTSC officials did outline that during the meeting, but people still went away with the impression Rule 403 wont be followed.

Developers representative Bob Beers said there will be more air monitoring equipment on the site than AQMD would have required under Rule 403 (three machines instead of two).

Beers said the developer, Friends of Riverside Airport, is also frustrated at how long the cleanup process has taken. Just getting a plan in place took from February till this month, he said.

With safeguards in place beyond whats required, hopefully the third cleanup will go smoothly and not kick up even more dust  and fears  in the neighborhood.

A disease-cluster study should be undertaken right away, to address the remaining fears the neighbors understandably have.
The Blue Cut fire has not qualified for federal disaster aid, San Bernardino County officials said Friday night.

While the fire has destroyed at least 96 single-family homes and more than 200 other structures, the devastation falls below the threshold needed for federal disaster relief funds, the county announced in a news release.

RELATED: Day 4 updates

San Bernardino County declared a local emergency on Tuesday, the day the fire broke out, the release read. In response, the governor declared a state emergency and requested a federal declaration, which would have cleared the way for federal assistance to fire victims.

But the fire did not meet the threshold for a federal disaster, and the request was not approved. The state countered by combining the Blue Cut Fire with two other recent California wildfires in a request for federal consideration. But the federal government did not approve that proposal, either.

County officials have opened a one-stop aid center for fire victims at the San Bernardino County fairgrounds, 14800 7th Street, Victorville.

RELATED

HELP WANTED: Investigators want your aid to pinpoint cause

FIREFIGHTERS: We had fire coming right at us

EVACUEES: Love pulls couple through the Blue Cut fire

EVACUEES: I just felt helpless, fire captain-turned-evacuee says

WEATHER FORECAST: Will rain help quench Blue Cut fire this weekend?

HISTORICAL BUILDINGS BURN: Earp cabin, Clyde Ranch burn in Blue Cut fire

COLLEGES HELP: Chaffey, Cal State help students cut off by fire

PHOTO GALLERIES: Day 4 | Day 3 | Day 2 | Day 1

HOW TO HELP: How to aid Blue Cut fire victims

LIVE BLOG: Heres the latest on what we know about the fire
As firefighters continue battling the Blue Cut fire in San Bernardino County, fire officials across the state are bracing for what is expected to be a very busy fire season.

As they do every summer as fire season nears, fire agencies have been monitoring fire-prone areas, mainly the foothill and mountain regions, and working with property owners to ensure brush and dead or dying trees are cleared and defensible space exists surrounding properties.

And while it has been nearly 13 years since prolonged drought and a massive bark beetle infestation fueled the California Fire Seige of 2003, drought and bark beetles continue to be among the biggest threats.

Blue Cut fire day 5: Overnight progress stops growth, increases containment

The spate of 14 wildfires in 2003 included the Old Fire, which burned across the San Bernardino Mountains for a week, scorching 91,281 acres, destroying more than 1,000 homes and other structures, and killing six people.

We still have a bark beetle issue. Its not as bad as in 2003 when the Old Fire hit, but theres still a problem and its continuing to grow due to the drought and overgrowth in the mountains, said Tracey Martinez, spokeswoman for the San Bernardino County Fire Department.

Tree mortality

Although more than a million dead or diseased pine trees have been cleared in the San Bernardino Mountains since 2002, it has not been enough to hold back the onslaught of bark beetles, insects the size of a grain of rice capable of taking out stands of towering pines.

Our mountain communities are dense with numerous trees. Our trees are fighting for the water, and when the trees do not have enough water it allows bark beetles to bore into the center of the tree, and thats what kills it, Martinez said.

Statewide, drought and bark beetles are responsible for the deaths of 66 million pine trees, said Stephanie Gomes, spokeswoman for the U.S. Forest Services regional office in Vallejo.

In the Sierra Nevada, bark beetles killed 16.8 million pine trees from October 2015 through May, and in the last five years they have killed 32.7 million pine trees, said Gomes, adding that the infestation epicenter is the Sierra, Sequoia and Stanislaus national forests.

Weve been working really hard to mitigate the tree mortality in areas near residents and campgrounds, as well as creating and maintaining fuel breaks, Gomes said.

Additionally, Forest Service crews have been clearing trees along roads, power lines and trailheads  any areas where fire poses the biggest danger to life and infrastructure, said Gomes.

We cant take every tree down, so what were doing is a triage approach, Gomes said.

Preventive measures

The San Bernardino County Fire Department has been working with county code enforcement and weed abatement to create fuel breaks and clear brush along evacuation routes in the San Bernardino Mountains, Martinez said.

But while firefighters are focusing mainly on the mountain and foothill communities of Southern California in their prevention efforts, the desert regions, as the Blue Cut Fire in San Bernardino County illustrates, are also raising alarm.

The foothills and mountain communities are our No. 1 priority because they are more vulnerable, but as you can see, we cant leave our deserts out, Martinez said.

In Los Angeles County, firefighters have been monitoring the Palmdale and Lancaster areas in the Antelope Valley in addition to the foothill areas vulnerable to fire, said Richard Licon, a fire department inspector.

Those are the areas with light, flashy fuels. Those areas burn yearly, Licon said.

Every year, come summer, firefighters begin inspecting the most fire prone areas for dry brush that needs clearing. Notices are sent to homeowners who need to clear brush from their property.

Failure to comply can result in a fine, Licon said.

We know its very costly to do it or have someone come out and do it, but its a matter of protecting those individuals who live within our jurisdiction, he said.

Cal Fire/Riverside County has created a website, www.readyforwildfire.gov, that provides information on fire prevention and safety, including the proper way to clear brush and dead trees from property, creating defensible space and preparing emergency evacuation plans, said Josh Janssen, a battalion chief for the department.

Fire behavior

The recent wildfire outbreak in California has alarmed fire officials, so much so that a team of fire scientists has been dispatched to the Cedar fire in the Sequoia National Forest to monitor the fires behavior, Gomes said.

The purpose, Gomes said, is to see how differently the fire burns in an area with a large density of dead trees.

This is our first major fire in a heavy tree mortality area, Gomes said, adding that understanding how fire behaves in areas with a high tree mortality rate can better prepare firefighters to battle similar blazes in the future.

The Cedar fire started at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday above Lake Isabella and has burned roughly 14,500 acres, with five percent containment midday Saturday

The Blue Cut fire, which ignited Tuesday in the Cajon Pass and rapidly spread, has destroyed more than 100 homes and more than 200 other structures, while burning more than 37,000 acres. It has left firefighters astonished by its rate of spread and also concerned about fire behavior in the face of the severe drought.

Weve never seen this kind of fire behavior, and were six weeks ahead of the drying out period, Martinez said, referring to the fall months of October and November, the peak of fire season. The fall is when the Santa Ana winds kick up and fuel the spread of wildfires. On the first day of the (Blue Cut) fire, the fire just spread so quickly and was burning so erratic. The firefighters would get ahead on one section, then the fire would spot one to two miles ahead and ignite, and the firefighters just couldnt get ahead of it. We had to take more precautions, thats for sure.

Janssen said he has never seen a fire burn quite like the Blue Cut fire. He said he is not alone.

Youve got firefighters with 40 years experience who say they havent seen a fire burn like this, Janssen said.

Cal Fire spokesman Daniel Berlant said a large chunk of Southern California is now above normal for potential wildfire danger.

We have these tinder dry conditions across the state due to drought, and it only takes one spark  whether its a vehicle that pulls over into grass, a campfire, or lightning  that has the potential to create a fire that can grow very quickly and potentially do a lot of damage.

RELATED

HELP WANTED: Investigators want your aid to pinpoint cause

FIREFIGHTERS: We had fire coming right at us

EVACUEES: Love pulls couple through the Blue Cut fire

EVACUEES: I just felt helpless, fire captain-turned-evacuee says

WEATHER FORECAST: Will rain help quench Blue Cut fire this weekend?

HISTORICAL BUILDINGS BURN: Earp cabin, Clyde Ranch burn in Blue Cut fire

COLLEGES HELP: Chaffey, Cal State help students cut off by fire

PHOTO GALLERIES: Day 4 | Day 3 | Day 2 | Day 1

HOW TO HELP: How to aid Blue Cut fire victims

LIVE BLOG: Heres the latest on what we know about the fire
A woman was hospitalized Saturday after she suffered a medical emergency on a horseback ride through a Jurupa Valley riverbed.

The incident was reported at 12:25 p.m. in a remote area near Troth Street and Limonite Avenue, a Cal Fire/Riverside County Fire Department news release states.

An adult woman, whose age and other information have not been released, was riding along the Santa Ana River with seven other people when the unspecified emergency occurred, Cal Fire said.

Cal Fire could not be reached Saturday afternoon to elaborate.

Firefighters helped the woman walk out of the riverbed to an ambulance. She was taken to a hospital for treatment.
Riverside Sheriffs deputies are searching for two more people suspected in a kidnapping for ransom incident earlier this month.

On Aug. 8, a woman told officers that two armed men forced her from her home in the 27000 block of Holland Road in Menifee, making her obtain cash to repay a debt and ensure a safe release, a sheriffs department news release states.

The suspects have been identified as Fallbrook residents Jesse Aaron, 32, and Nathan Lopez, 31. Aaron is being held at the Southwest Detention Center in Murrieta on suspicion of kidnapping and false imprisonment.

The Riverside County District Attorneys Office has issued arrest warrants for Lopez and Jacqueline Smith-Perez, a 31-year-old Menifee resident who deputies say was also involved in the crime. The sheriffs department has asked citizens to report sightings of either suspect by calling 911.

On Aug. 18, the Menifee Police Department and San Diego Sheriffs Department conducted a search in the 1200 block of Juliette Place in Fallbrook, where two people believed to be involved in the crime were located.

Jedediah Shaw, 31, ran from deputies but was apprehended in the backyard of a neighbors home. He is being held on suspicion of kidnapping and drug sales.

Kelly Crossman, 27, was arrested in the house and is being held on identical charges.

The investigation revealed Mr. Shaw and Ms. Crossmen were complicit in the kidnapping, the release states.

Deputies also found various contraband in the Fallbrook home, including an illegal firearm and 15 ounces of methamphetamine, the news release states.

The investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information about this case is asked to contact Menifee police Officer Cardinale at 951-210-1000, or email PerrisStation@RiversideSheriff.org.
The practice of motorcyclists riding between two marked lanes of traffic, which has long existed in the gray area of being neither legal nor illegal in California, will now get some guidelines.

Gov. Jerry Brown on Friday, Aug. 19, signed legislation that allows the California Highway Patrol to develop guidelines.

California is the only state that does not expressly prohibit lane-splitting.

The CHP published educational guidelines on lane-splitting in 2013, but regulators later ruled the agency had no authority to make public policy.

Those guidelines were:

-Ride no more than 10 mph faster than traffic.

-Dont lane split when traffic is faster than 30 mph.

-It is safest to split between the far left and second lanes, where there are likely to be fewer lane changes

-Keep in mind the width of lanes and vehicles, weather, road conditions, lighting and movement of vehicles.

The bill, AB 51, was written by Assemblyman Bill Quirk, a Hayward Democrat, and Tom Lackey, a Palmdale Republican.

The bill requires the CHP, in crafting the guidelines, to consult the DMV, Caltrans, the state Office of Traffic Safety and A motorcycle organization focused on motorcyclist safety.

CHP Officer Mike Martes, in the public affairs office in Sacramento, said Friday that the CHP did not know yet when it expected to have the guidelines written.

The practice is controversial among drivers of four-wheeled vehicles. Some complain that the practice is unsafe and leads to collisions and injuries. Motorcyclists say it is necessary to drive between vehicles when traffic is slow because their air-cooled engines need the air.

At the 91 freeway construction project in Corona, electronic message boards discouraged lane-splitting where the lanes were narrowed for several miles.

The debate came into focus in the Inland Empire, where at least three motorcyclists died in a one-year period over 2012 and 2013 while lane-splitting.

In May 2013, 40-year-old Corona resident Quecannon Nihipali was killed when his motorcycle clipped the rear of a vehicle on Highway 91 in Corona. Nihipali was knocked off his bike and run over by a semi trucka??s trailer, according to the CHP.

In March 2013, Harold Brent, 52, of Murrieta, struck the back of a vehicle as traffic on Interstate 15 in Temecula suddenly halted. Brent was thrown into the path of another lane-splitting motorcycle. Brent was killed, and the other rider was injured, the CHP said.

And in June 2012, Manuel Isidoro Alves, 27, of Murrieta, was splitting lanes at about 65 mph while passing traffic in a 55 mph construction zone on Interstate 215 in Murrieta. Traffic slowed to about 35 mph, Alves braked hard, and he was thrown under the wheels of a semis trailer and died, the CHP said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The San Bernardino terror attack is still coming up on the presidential campaign trail.

While discussing his plan for extreme vetting of immigrants to make sure they share American values, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump referred to the Dec. 2 attack by a couple that killed 14 and injured 22 in what was the worst Islamic extremist attack on U.S. soil since 9/11.

Trump reportedly mentioned a report following the attack that a neighbor of shooters Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik saw suspicious behaviorbombs on the floor and other thingsbut didnt want to warn authorities because they said they didnt want to be accused of racial profiling.

The online magazine Slate took issue with Trumps remarks. From Slate:

Fact checkers at the Annenberg Public Policy Center looked into the assertion shortly after Trump made it during an appearance on Fox and Friends in mid-June and concluded:

There is also no evidence for Trumps repeated claim that many people including neighbors of the San Bernardino shooters saw bombs all over the floor of the apartment, but did not report it to authorities because of politically correct concerns about racial profiling.

Politifact came to a similar conclusion way back in January when Chris Christie made a similar claim during a GOP debate:

We looked for any reports of the neighbors saying they had an inkling of any plans for an attack. We didnt find any. We did find second-hand reports that werent well sourced, and these were repeated primarily on right-leaning news websites.  We rate this statement False.

Attacks like the San Bernardino and Orlando mass shootings have given impetus to Trumps Make America Safe Again platform which calls for increased border security and tight immigration patrols.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has denounced Trumps security plan, calling it xenophobic and ineffective in the war on terror.

Trump also referred to San Bernardino during his speech accepting the GOP nomination at the Republican National Convention last month. Going over a list of mass shootings and terror attacks, Trump referred to those killed at an office party in San Bernardino.
A 58-year-old Moreno Valley man was sentenced Friday, Aug. 19, to 26 years to life in prison for his conviction in the 1992 murder of a woman co-worker with whom he once had a casual dating relationship in Riverside.

Riverside police interviewed Leonard Terrance Woods, who once lived in the same apartment complex as victim Judith Goodman, 44, right after she was found dead in her La Sierra neighborhood apartment. He had scratches on his face but was not arrested at the time.

Investigators picked up the file again in 2010. A DNA analysis of fingernail clippings led police back to Woods and his arrest in 2011. Gaps in memories and evidence became issues in a jury trial that ended in a conviction in March.

On Feb. 26, 1992, police responded to a 911 call from a neighbor who had heard suspicious noises in Goodmans apartment. Fearing a perpetrator was inside, police fired a flash-bang grenade into the apartment, which set the building ablaze. Police retrieved Goodmans lifeless body before the building burnt to the ground.
Nestled in the foothills east of Lake Perris, the rural community of Nuevo has a few thousand residents, one gas station and no fast-food restaurants or grocery stores.

It also has one of the best public schools in the country, according to a recent report.

Nuview Bridge Early College High School, a charter school offering grades 9-12, has appeared on Newsweeks list of Americas top 500 public schools two years in a row. It moved from 466 in 2015 to 284 this year and is the only school in Riverside or San Bernardino counties to make the list.

Charter schools are tuition-free public schools that are exempt from many parts of the states education code. They have no residential boundaries for students, have many teachers who dont belong to unions and have more flexibility to use innovative learning methods.

Newsweeks rankings use criteria such as graduation rates, test scores, dropout rates, enrollment in college courses during high school and the poverty rate in the schools area.

Its a great honor to be on the list, Nuview Bridge Principal Jason Fowler said. But whats more important is the work that got us on the list: The college opportunities that were offering to the kids, the gains in academic rigor weve been able to make, the safe school culture and the support of our community.

Nuview Bridge also climbed from 69 to 19 on Newsweeks Beating the Odds list of 500 schools that are doing an excellent job preparing kids in poverty for college.

Around 70 percent of the schools 600 students come from low-income households, and many are the first in their families to plan to attend college.

Were on message from the day you walk in the door that youre going to college, Fowler said. It doesnt matter where you come from. It doesnt matter who your parents are. It doesnt matter what your economic background is.

The school opened in 2001 as Nuview Bridge Academy to serve kids in Nuevo and the surrounding communities of Lakeview and Juniper Flats. It became an early-college high school in 2003 and since then has enrolled students from those areas as well as Hemet, Menifee, Temecula, Beaumont, Banning and other cities, Fowler said.

PATHS TO COLLEGE

Nuview Bridge partners with two community colleges to allow students to take high school and college classes at the same time.

About 300 students leave the high school campus for part of the day and ride a bus to Moreno Valley College and take college courses available in most subjects. The number of kids is limited to five per class to preserve the atmosphere of a college class, Fowler said.

An additional 100 kids are in the dual enrollment program through Mt. San Jacinto Colleges Menifee campus in which the same classes count for high school and college credit. In the program, Nuview Bridge teachers who have masters degrees in math, history and English are hired by the college to teach those subjects at the high school.

Of a 128-student graduating Class of 2016, three completed the requirements for three associate degrees, 17 earned double associate degrees, nine earned an associate degree and 32 met their two-year general education requirements.

For the past nine years, the school has had a 100 percent graduation rate, Fowler said. Nuview Bridge also notched the highest scores in Riverside County on state English and math tests in 2015.

All but five graduates in the 2016 senior class were accepted to a college or university, Fowler said.

I want to go into the medical field, so it really puts me ahead, said Samantha Gray, a 16-year-old senior who plans to graduate with three associate degrees and complete her college general education requirements in high school. I wont have to spend as much time in college. I will save a lot of money.

One challenge is ensuring that kids who leave the high school campus during the day to take classes at Moreno Valley College make up their missing work. The school offers online programs and tutoring to help them.

KEEPING IT POSITIVE

The school also offers Advancement Via Individual Determination, or AVID, a college preparation program. Unlike other schools that target a small and specific group of students, typically those getting B and C grades, Nuview Bridge requires all students to take AVID for four years.

The program teaches organization, study skills, public speaking, note taking, how to ask questions, how to apply for college and other skills.

Its AVID on steroids, Fowler said. When you have AVID schoolwide, you help kids who are in the A and D range develop the skills theyre lacking.

Kids say they like Nuview Bridge because its a small school with a family atmosphere where kids know and respect one anothers differences.

At other high schools, they all have drama, said Isabel Samaniego, a 16-year-old junior, referring to name-calling, cliques and negative teen behavior.

Samaniego, whose parents didnt attend college, wants to go to medical school and become a neurosurgeon.

Nuview Bridge offers athletics and extracurricular activities to help kids get rid of some of that steam from the intense academic focus, Fowler said. It has teams in most sports as well as cheerleading, mock trial, academic decathlon, dozens of clubs as well as dances and a prom.

The kids that come here dont have to give up anything, Fowler said.

Students also are required to complete a four-year service project. Examples have included tree planting, anti-bullying and mentoring middle school students.

Madison Demaris, 17, transferred to Nuview Bridge before her sophomore year because she liked the theater program. Her project was putting on a production of The Little Mermaid and teaching painting and technical design to kids at two elementary schools.

I dont have a single regret, said Demaris, who wants to study acting and directing. Coming here was one of the best decisions Ive made.

Contact the writer: 951-368-9292 or stwall@scng.com
The bond Larry Rudolph and his granddaughter Emaily Wallace share goes beyond the familial.

The pair also is connected by their mutual love of animals, both volunteering weekly with the Riverside County Department of Animal Services.

Rudolph, 74, has been volunteering with animal services for three years. The former Marine retired from a director of operations job at a security systems company in 2012 and was looking for a way to keep busy now that he was no longer heading to a full-time job every day.

I like animals, and I love dogs, he said. Most animals seem to be attracted to me. So, I decided to do an orientation (with animal services), and I said this is for me.

He typically volunteers two days a week, sometimes more if there are events, training other volunteers and working the front desk. His work at the shelter earned him volunteer of the year honors two years ago.

When Emaily, 13, started her summer vacation, she had free time and began going with her grandfather to the animal shelter. Although the eighth-grader didnt meet the age requirement to donate her time, animal services made an exception because of Rudolphs long history there. Emaily has helped in the shot clinic, among other duties, he said.

She loves it, Rudolph said. Its pretty neat. The enjoyment for me is that I get to see how much she loves animals. It give me a good feeling that she is doing something she likes.

Rudolph encouraged his granddaughter, who started volunteering in June, to keep a journal documenting her experiences at the shelter and her hours, which she does.

Emaily has enjoyed the 60 volunteer hours she served during the summer so much that she told her grandfather she wished she could go to school at the shelter. Now back to the grind at Parkview Middle School in Yucaipa, she plans to volunteer with Rudolph on every other Saturday during the school year.

I really like spending time with animals because with animals, you just fall in love with them, she said.

The teen, who loves cats in particular, said her main task at the shelter involves escorting cats to the visitation room where potential adoptive parents can spend time and play with the animals. When she is done with her work with the cats, she takes the shelters dogs for their walks.

She recalled the one dog that got away. She had gone into an area holding four dogs and one of them snuck past her and escaped, forcing her to chase the pup around until she caught up with him. Emaily, whose future goal is to work on staff at the animal shelter, enjoys the quality time she spends with her grandpa.

Its very fun volunteering with him because he when he does training with the other volunteers, he always uses me as an example, she said.

Candace Falkenstein, program manager for volunteer services, praised both Emaily and her grandfather for their hard work and dedication to the shelter.

Shes just adorable, and she loves to work with cats, which is important because cats dont get adopted as fast as dogs, Falkenstein said of Emaily. Shes doing a fantastic job.

As for Rudolph, Falkenstein said he has been a godsend to animal services, which has more than 1,000 volunteers.

Larry is the backbone of the volunteer program because he does more of the volunteer training, she said. He works the kiosk. He even attends our staff meetings. He really serves our department to the fullest.
Riversides utility hopes to make $3.5 million this year on a deal to sell water to a nearby water district. Last year, the city sold a small amount to customers of the Western Municipal Water District.

Officials with Riverside Public Utilities and Western say the deal benefits both agencies customers by helping Riverside make up lost revenue and saving Western money.

Under the pact, Riverside would sell up to 5,000 acre-feet of water to Western between September and February 2017. An acre-foot is about enough water to serve two households for a year.

Western would save more than $200 per acre-foot compared with what it pays for imported water purchased from wholesaler Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, resulting in about $1.1 million in savings, a Riverside city report said.

Riverside, meanwhile, would make about $3.5 million, which would help offset a $6 million shortfall last year caused by falling demand due to drought and state-mandated conservation.

With customers using less water, Riverside utility officials say they dont expect to need as much as the city has available. Riverside has the legal right to pump a set amount annually from the Bunker Hill basin at the base of the San Bernardino Mountains, but any water it doesnt pump cant be added to future years allotments.

The agencies made a similar deal late last year, but Riverside didnt end up selling as much water as expected because of lower wintertime demand and other issues, said Todd Jorgenson, Riverside Public Utilities assistant general manager for water.

Neither utility expects a dramatic impact on customers, but Jorgenson said the added revenue from the water sale should lessen the need to raise rates.

Tim Barr, Westerns director of water resources, said the deal only covers this year, but Western would like to continue buying Riversides excess water.

Jorgenson said the city is looking into finding other customers for its unused water, but theres a limit to how much it can sell.

We dont intend to sell water that we dont have, he said. Our first responsibility is to take care of our customers.

Contact the writer: 951-368-9461 or arobinson@scng.com
For female fiction writers, this has been a year of hopefulness. Publishers of literary journals are taking a serious look at the low percentage of women they publish; the entire literary community is addressing the fact that feminine experience is human experience.

Having this in mind as I completed a final draft of a novel with a female protagonist, I sought the help of a valued author-mentor on drafting a query letter. He gave me sound advice about changes to make in quickly describing the characters and action of the story. He also added that, near the end of the letter, I should not describe my novel as mainstream fiction, but rather as womens fiction.

This man knows much more than I about the publishing world, but I couldnt help but ask why he felt this to be true. Id always thought that the designation womens fiction meant that romance would be a major element  and this isnt the case in my novel. He felt that because the domestic life of the protagonist was a major element of the story, it would largely appeal to women and thus, the label.

Its true that much of what women experience is foreign to men. A recent article in the Los Angeles Review of Books by Lily Gurton-Wachter discusses in detail how strange it is that pregnancy and new motherhood are not considered literary subjects. Among Gurton-Wachters arguments for their literary value is that since childbirth and mothering can obliterate a womans sense of self in the same way that war experience can dislocate a man, it is equally valuable reading, grounded with the same insights.

Yet as women try to record their experience, much of what is now regularly available online is, for the serious reader, off-putting in its titillatingly personal nature. An online article in The Guardian by Rafia Zakaria gives many examples of what is no more than self-exposure, of female naval-gazing. A term for this body-examination genre has sprung up, modeled after the now worn chic lit. We may not like the derogatory pigeonholing, but if were honest with ourselves, a discussion of womens experiences alone is not enough to be deemed literature.

I think now on recent much-loved novels by women. Generally, they take place either in the past or in more rural environs than most contemporary Americans are familiar with, producing a sense of both otherness and nostalgia. Everyone should have those long, mossy, rock-studded lanes to walk through lifes journey. But they dont. We can love the Depression-era, small town characters of a brilliant writer like Marilyn Robinson, but weve never met anyone like them.

To write away from, to not publish, stories based on the life of the average American woman is to judge that life as uninteresting. This is far from true. In order to find ourselves in the literary mainstream, we need to make direct connections between the things done in an ordinary womans life and the way in which those things inform her worldview.

To do so is to write the big social novel from a feminine perspective.

Since much is at stake in the daily life of raising kids, depending on their experiences, women find themselves on clashing sides of social issues. Recommitting to difficult personal relationships informs everything from how women react to their self-promoting, narcissistic bosses to which public battles they will fight. The need of many women (and female characters) to push past emotionally crippling abuse in order to discard their previous acceptance of the boundaries of their lives and to help others changes society.

I want to read fiction that addresses these issues  and Im doing my best to weave characters, whose distinctly female experiences are the grounding warp threads of the great social tapestry, into my work. I dont think of this as womens fiction any more than I think of Jonathan Franzens Freedom as a book about a birdwatcher.

I hope we have come to the era when, as I query agents about my mainstream novel, they dont think Im misdirecting them.

Victoria Waddle is an Inlandia Literary Journeys blogger. She also blogs on teen literature at the mirror sites Colony Library Lady and Chaffey Library Lady.

For more literary journeys, go to Inlandiainstitute.org
The recent involvement of police officers in armed robbery and other related criminal activities in the country has been roundly criticised by many highly ranked police officers of the Ghana Police Service, GPS.



They described the act as whimsical, unfortunate and a disgrace to the police service and issued a strong warning to the criminal officers of the law to halt the act.



Speaking at a closing ceremony of High Risk Operations Course training programme held in the Pwalugu Police Training School in the Talensi District of the Upper East Region, the Director of Police Public Safety Training School, Assistant Commissioner of Police, ACP Victor Adusah-Poku, said the acts of some recalcitrants in the service had maligned the hard-won reputation of the service and hinted all the perpetrators would soon be identified and exposed.



He asked the police to help track down their colleagues who condoned and connived with armed robbers to terrorize civilians.



He added, "it is also worrying, the new trend of police participation in violent crimes such as armed robbery and violent trickery.



That is why I will entreat course participants not only to be wary with armed robbers a lone but also their own policemen and women who hide behind the banner of the uniform to unleash mayhem and murderous acts against the very people they are expected to serve".



He, thus, advised the 165 policemen drowned from all the regions of the country who were selected to undertake a "new course" to enable them acquaint themselves with some contemporary techniques of fighting crime to discharge their responsibilities professionally, bearing in mind the integrity of the police service.



The Upper East Regional Police Commander, Deputy Commissioner of Police, DCOP Simon Afeku, nearly broke down as he recounted how the police engagement in criminal acts indited the image of the police service, saying the act was unjustified and must not be condoned.



He told the police officers who graduated from the 21-day special course to translate their knowledge gained through the new trend of training given them into dealing decisively with prospective violence that might brew in the wake of the December 7 polls.



He also admonished them against brutalising civilians anyhow, adding the act could compel aggrieved civilians to go on rampage and plunge the whole nation into chaos.



Meanwhile, about 300 policemen and women in the country are expected to undergo the new trend of High Risk Operations Course as the country heads towards the less than four months general elections which are widely expected to be fiercely contested.



Briefing newsmen in sidelines, the Coordinator of the course, Superintendent of Police, SP Raymond Adofiem, disclosed another two batches would undergo the training in due course.



He said entry into the programme was fundamentally based on one's ability to withstand pressure, adding a police officer needed to vindicate beyond reasonable doubts he or she was physically and mentally disciplined prior to garnering admission into the course.



He said the police who had successfully graduated from the training programme had an oversight responsibility to embark on community anti-violence campaign.





Source: Francis Dabre Dabang/ email: [email protected]









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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John Kudalor, Inspector General of Police (IGP), has confirmed the withdrawal of the police from Donkorkrom and Tease in the Afram Plains following the destruction of police properties and assault on the personnel in the area.



The vandalization of the police station happened when two police personnel, together with a civilian, escaped after their arrest in a purported robbery attack.



A police station and barracks in the areas were vandalized by the rioters while the only patrol vehicle was also set ablaze together with seven other vehicles.



Not satisfied with their act, the protesters also burnt a standby generator at the district police station and further destroyed a water reservoir at the barracks.



Some properties of personnel and their families were allegedly looted in the course of the attack.



A fire tender belonging to the Ghana National Fire Service was destroyed by the angry youth in the area.





Robbery Attack





Addressing the media at the police headquarters in Accra, the Director General in-charge of Criminal Investigation Department (CID), COP Prosper Kwame Agblor, said on Tuesday, August 16, 2016, at about 10:30 am, the Donkorkrom Police received a report that there was a robbery attack on a GCB Bank bullion van with registration number GN 1354-15 at Maame Krobo Junction in the Afram Plains.



The police promptly responded to the call and after some serious operational maneuvers, the suspects, numbering three, were rounded up.



They included Hasifu Mohammed, a civilian who was the driver of a taxi allegedly used for the robbery, Corporal Elvis Solomon Mensah and Lance Corporal Daniel Kissi Abrokwa  both policemen attached to the Donkorkrom District Police Command. Abrokwa doubles as an elder at the Church of Pentecost at Tease.



Driver of the Bullion van was killed in the process and a policeman, who was escorting the vehicle, suffered multiple gunshot wounds.



The injured policeman, according to reports, is still receiving treatment at the Donkorkrom Presbyterian Hospital.





The Escape





Upon their arrest, the suspects, who were then being kept at the Donkorkrom police station, were to be sent to the Eastern Regional Police Command for further interrogations in line with police procedures and practices.



While on their way, the two cops among the gang managed to escape at Nkawkaw when the escort team had stopped to refuel.



COP Agblor said the escape issue was also being investigated.





Riot by residents





Upon hearing news that the police officers had escaped, some opinion leaders of Donkorkrom allegedly instigated some youth of the area on Thursday, August 18, to attack the district police station in the area and the police post at Tease.



The police barracks were destroyed while an operational vehicle and seven other vehicles were also burnt down.



The rioters also attacked police officers and their families and purportedly looted one of the blocks in the barracks, taking personal belongings of the affected personnel and their families.



Police personnel in the area had to run for their lives as the rioters, numbering about 500 and wielding guns, clubs, machetes and other offensive weapons, injured two personnel in the process.





Re-Arresting Of Escapees



In less than 24 hours of their escape, the police, with the help of some residents, re-arrested the suspected criminals at their hideouts at Nkawkaw.



COP Agblor said the police administration, as part of disciplinary measures, would punish the purported police-turned-armed-robbers for their action.



The three suspects, who have provisionally been charged for murder, will be taken to court for trial.



Meanwhile, over 500 police personnel from the Formed Police Unit, the Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU) and other action units have been deployed to maintain peace, law and order in the area.

Source: Daily Guide









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church Ghana, Most Rev. Titus Awotwe-Pratt, has urged President John Dramani Mahama to stand by his intention and promises to work for a united Ghana.



"While the church congratulates the President on the peaceful atmosphere in Ghana, it respectfully urges him to carry out his plans to work with all people for the common good, irrespective of their creed, ethnicity or political affiliation, he said.



He was speaking at the 47th biennial national conference of the church at Tarkwa in the Western Region.



In attendance were the Vice-President, Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, and his wife Matilda.



The theme for the three-day conference is: Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations: Rekindling the Methodist evangelical heritage for church growth. (Acts 28:19)



The Presiding Bishop said the Methodist Church Ghana is aware of the positive efforts and commitments made by both the Electoral Commission (EC) and the leadership of the various political parties in Ghana for peace before, during and after the presidential and parliamentary elections to be held in December, 2016.



He added that the church also appreciated the pledges they had made to work for a free and fair election.



We, therefore, commend the efforts being made and the success achieved thus far, as is testified to by reports of both local and international observers of our elections. The church is thankful to God for the international recognition of Ghana as an excellent example of growing democracy in Africa.



Most Rev. Awotwe-Pratt said the church was also aware of the increasing tension and the polarisation in the Ghanaian society, arising from various accusations, counter-accusations and agitations by some political parties.



Executive/Parliament/Judiciary



To that end, Most Rev. Awotwe-Pratt appealed to the Executive to co-operate with all other political parties in its bid to govern and develop the country and advised all Members of Parliament (MPs) to work together as representatives of all Ghanaians irrespective of their political inclinations for the common good of the people.



For the Judiciary, he urged members to continue to be fair, firm and just in the exercise of their functions to promote lasting peace in the country.



Most Rev. Awotwe-Pratt further advised the various political leaders to educate their followers to constructively engage agents of other parties in socio-economic and political discourse regardless of their differences in opinion.



He further urged media houses to make available their premises, facilities and talents for promoting mutual love, harmony, understanding and unity among all citizens.



Brief remarks



In his brief remarks, the Vice-President extended good wishes from the President to the church for a successful conference; and also urged the congregation to keep on praying for the Presidency to fulfil its obligation.



Mr Amissah-Arthur said as a member of the Methodist family, he recognised the need for the church to make sacrifices so that the legacy that had been bequeathed to the latter generation by the forebears of the church was not destroyed.



We are only swimming in the past legacy left for us, but there is a huge responsibility on us to revive schools, health and other social facilities which are collapsing, as well as the falling standards in the society through sacrifices from members, he noted.

Source: Daily Graphic









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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After last weekends premier of the much anticipated season two of Law Express, currently one of the most watched talk shows on Ghanaian television has received positive feedback.



Whilst industry professionals have commended the team on an amazing production, most of the viewers and the general public have expressed delight about the look and feel of the show with emphasis on the new set.



The show continues this weekend on Sunday at 6.30pm on Metro TV with another intriguing episode to focus on the extended family, answering questions such as who are your extended family, do you owe them any legal obligation and do your parents have any enforceable rights of maintenance from you in their old age?



Joining the host, Nuhela Seidu, for this discussion will be two outstanding and respected lawyers, Iris K Aggrey Orleans, a member of the Ghana Bar from 2010 and Nana Nsiah Asare, a private legal practitioner and also a member of the Ghana Bar Association. Iris K. Aggrey Orleans graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, with a Masters in Commercial Law in August 2014.



She has a passion for Litigation and Alternative Dispute Resolution and has advised various local and foreign entities on matters of real estate, land acquisition, franchising, securities, and other financial transactions. She also practices in the area of family law and has dealt with a number of international abduction cases.



Do make time to watch Law Express this and every Sunday at 6.30pm on Metro TV to get education on the law and its operation. For further information about the program, kindly visit www.lawexpresstv.com and like our pages on Facebook and Instagram (lawexpresstv) as well as our twitter handle (@lawexpresstv for updates.

Source: Peacefmonline









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Well, this was probably to be expected.

In the aftermath of problematic at best, horrifically victim-blaming at worst comments from Judge Christopher Ryan in regards to the sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl, experts have thoroughly condemned his baffling take on the issue.

ICYMI, Judge Ryan yesterday released 32-year-old man Franco Abad on a two-year good behaviour bond for the sexual assault, which was committed after police had informed the Melbourne man his victim was legitimately underage.

The details of the case are almost unreal: Abad was a security guard at Melbournes Childrens Court (!!!) when he started a relationship with girl, who first told him she was 17.

The fact the victim initially portrayed herself as over the age of consent seemed to have more impact on Judge Ryans sentencing than Abads obvious dereliction of duty and his conscious decision to have sex with her (read: abuse her) once he knew she was underage.

At the pre-sentence hearing, Judge Ryan said he [then] goes to bed and is joined by a young woman hes not made of steel, before typifying the victim as some kind of quasi-manipulative and worldly seductress who was older than her years.



That almost sympathetic language, combined with the apparent slap-on-the-wrist punishment, has quite rightly drawn the ire of advocates for sexual assault survivors.

Speaking to The Age, Dr Cathy Kezelman of the Blue Knot Foundation said with respect, it would appear the judges comments are ill-informed and perpetuate very dangerous myths which the royal commission [into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse] and others are working very hard to shift.

She also said Judge Ryans ruling demonstrates there is still a lack of information with people in a position of power to make decisions about culpability, sentencing and perpetrators, alluding to the deadset fact the actual bloody adult in the situation was the one ultimately responsible.

Carolyn Worth of Centres Against Sexual Assault corroborated that viewpoint, saying Judge Ryans statements suggest shes an equal party in this and I think thats not quite accurate.

If hes 30 and shes 14 and already subject to court proceedings, shes clearly vulnerable. She may as well be sexualised and vulnerable but it doesnt make her any less vulnerable.

In his own column for The Age, lawyer Duncan Fine also responded to the case. His take is no less scathing, as he writes Judge Ryans idea that a 14-year-old girl can be a temptress seems at best disingenuous and at worst designed to absolve an adult man of guilt

True men of steel protect children What predators dont deserve is judges making excuses for their crimes.

TBH, the whole thing still beggars belief, but the widespread remonstration of Judge Ryans comments is proof not everyone will make such glaring allowances to sexual abusers.

Source: The Age.

Photo: @its_sherylr / Instagram.
FILE - In this Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2016 file photo, people watch a TV news program showing a file image of Thae Yong Ho, a minister at the North Korean Embassy in London, at Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea. North Korea on Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016, said Thae, a senior North Korean diplomat who recently defected to South Korea, is a criminal and "human scum," in its first official response to the defection. The letters read "A high-ranking North Korean diplomat." (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon. File)
East Jordan wins first playoff game since 1999, beat Frankfort in OT

FRANKFORT  If you were looking for the last time the East Jordan football team earned a playoff victory before Friday, you had to do a bit of scrolling in the record books.
A 4.1 magnitude earthquake struck South Korea's central county of Goesan on Saturday, the weather agency said, with no damage or casualties reported so far. The quake occurred i...

Flights from Seoul's Gimpo International Airport to Osaka and Taipei will resume later this week, the state-run airport operator here said Saturday, more than two years after the r...
Nick Petrangelo Wins EPT Barcelona 10,300 Single Reentry, 413K

August 20, 2016 Martin Harris

The European Poker Tour Barcelona festival is well underway to kick off the EPT's 13th season, and the first of several marquee events is in the books with Nick Petrangelo topping a tough 240-entry field to win the 10,300 Single Reentry event and a 413,000 first prize.

Petrangelo outlasted a talented final table and a lengthy three-way contest with eventual runner-up finisher Marcin Chmielewski and Markku Koplimaa who took third. The trio battled for four hours, then came another half-hour of heads-up before Petrangelo finally prevailed.

With 195 uniques and 45 reentries, the total prize pool added up to 2,328,000. Here's how the final table payouts looked:

Place Winner Country Prize 1 Nick Petrangelo United States 413,000 2 Marcin Chmielewski Poland 285,410 3 Markku Koplimaa Estonia 220,230 4 Roman Korenev Russia 173,670 5 Pavel Plesuv Moldova 134,100 6 Kitty Kuo Taiwan 101,500 7 Enzo Del Piero United Kingdom 75,900 8 Yang Zheng China 57,270

Two long days of play produced just 14 survivors from the starting field, with Alexandru Papazian carrying the chip lead to Friday's final day of play.

Alas for Papazian, he'd fall shy of the final table to bust in 10th (38,640) after some early struggles punctuated by his pocket kings being unable to hold against the of Pavel Plesuv.

Papazian followed Byron Kaverman (14th - 30,260), Dario Sammartino (13th - 33,750), Patrick Leonard (12th - 33,750), and Sergey Lebedev (11th - 38,640) to the rail, and when Igor Yaroshevskyy was knocked out in ninth for 45,630 the official final table was set with Plesuv the chip leader, Koplimaa in second position, and Petrangelo third.

Yang Zhang next busted in eighth after calling off his stack on fifth street with second pair only to see Petrangelo had rivered a wheel. Then following a dinner break Enzo Del Piero lost his short stack to finish seventh after running pocket nines into the pocket aces of Kitty Kuo.

Kuo was celebrating a birthday on Friday, and would ultimately add sixth-place prize money as a birthday gift. She was eliminated by Roman Korenev after being on the wrong side of a queens-versus-kings preflop all-in.

At five-handed Plesuv became the short stack, and when his couldn't catch up to Korenev's Plesuv fell in fifth. Just a few minutes after that Marcin Chmielewski wiped out Korenev in fourth when the latter's pocket sevens couldn't hold up against Chmielewski's after the board brought a ten.

The epic three-handed battle then commenced with Petrangelo leading Chmielewski to start and Koplimaa the short stack. All three would take turns leading and trailing as their chips rose and fell repeatedly. Finally Koplimaa went out in third after his was bested by Chmielewski's , and he enjoyed a big lead versus Petrangelo to begin heads-up play.

But Petrangelo doubled up no less than four times  once with jacks against ace-king, then with king-ten versus pocket sixes, again with ace-five against queen-five, and one more time with ten-nine versus king-eight.

A fifth double-up then followed when Petrangelo's pocket eights held against Chmielewski's nine-six, giving Petrangelo the advantage. Then on the final hand Chmielewski was all in with against Petrangelo's , and a runout gave Petrangelo the better two pair and the win.

Just a few days separated from a fourth-place finish in the $25,500 High Roller Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open where he won $190,313, Petrangelo adds yet another big score to bring his career tournament earnings close to the $5.9 million mark.

As noted, the EPT13 Barcelona festival is just getting started, with several more big events to come including the 50,000 Super High Roller that begins today. The PokerNews Live Reporting Team also begins its coverage today with live updates, chip counts, videos, and more from that event, the first of four the team will be covering:

50,000 Super High Roller (Aug. 20-22)

25,500 Single-Day High Roller (Aug. 23-24)

5,300 Main Event (Aug. 22-28)

10,300 High Roller (Aug. 26-28)

Photo courtesy PokerStars Blog/Carlos Monti.

Be sure to complete your PokerNews experience by checking out an overview of our mobile and tablet apps here. Stay on top of the poker world from your phone with our mobile iOS and Android app, or fire up our iPad app on your tablet. You can also update your own chip counts from poker tournaments around the world with MyStack on both Android and iOS.
Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) announced on Thursday the selection of David L. Maggard, Jr., a distinguished 30-year law enforcement veteran, as the next Chief of Airport Police Division (APD). Maggard was chosen from more than two dozen candidates after a national search, and succeeds Patrick M. Gannon, who will continue in his role as LAWA Deputy Executive Director, Homeland Security and Public Safety.

Currently LAWA's Assistant Airport Police Chief for Operations, a role he assumed in 2015, Maggard leads nearly 500 airport police officers, 429 airport security officers and 49 airport safety officers in providing comprehensive and specialized public safety services to Los Angeles International (LAX), Van Nuys (VNY) and LA/Ontario International (ONT) airports.

Maggard assumes the position of Airport Police Chief at a time when LAWA is focused on strengthening airport safety and security at all of its airports, in particular LAX, the third busiest in the U.S., seventh busiest in the world. A record number of passengers traveled through LAX in 2016, a number that is expected to exceed 80 million this year. Keeping them, visitors and employees safe has been and remains LAWA's top priority. The new Police Chief assumes responsibility for day to day oversight of more than 1,000 dedicated, respected and mission critical sworn and civilian personnel, while current APD Chief Pat Gannon will continue in his role as LAWA Deputy Executive Director of Homeland Security.

Maggard joined LAWA in November 2015 after 13 years as Chief of Police and Director of Public Safety for the City of Irvine, CA, where he led 450 public safety professionals, implemented an innovative personnel deployment model known as Geographic Based Policing which serves as a model for other jurisdictions, and created a nationally acclaimed Area Traffic Officer program. At VNY, he recently worked with tenants to improve security at the general aviation airport  by addressing safety concerns while enhancing relationships with local law enforcement partners.

"Our national search identified 27 qualified candidates for the Chief of Airport Police position," said LAWA Chief Executive Officer Deborah Flint. "After careful, objective and thoughtful deliberation it became clear that Assistant Chief Maggard, with his experience, leadership qualities and innovative approach to policing, was the best candidate."

"I am honored to accept this new assignment and grateful to Deborah Flint, LAWA executive management and the Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners for their faith and confidence in my abilities," Maggard said. "I am eager to further strengthen my relationships with the men and women of the Airport Police force, and work closely with them to ensure our airports, passengers, visitors and employees are safe and secure."

A Berkeley native, Maggard's law enforcement career began in 1987 when he joined the University of California Police  Berkeley as a Police Officer. He served as a Sergeant and Lieutenant for the University of California Police  Irvine (1991-95); Lieutenant in the City of Indio, CA, (1995-99); and Captain in the City of Manhattan Beach, CA, (1999-02) prior to joining the City of Irvine as Deputy Chief of Police in 2002.

Maggard holds a Master of Science degree in Criminal Justice from California State University, Long Beach and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Legal Studies from the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned All-America honors in Track and Field. He is a Doctoral candidate in Organizational Leadership at Pepperdine University.

Maggard has occupied leadership positions in numerous law enforcement associations, received more than 20 department and personal awards and his writings have been published by leading law enforcement professional journals.

Maggard officially assumes his new position on September 1, 2016.

For more information visit www.lawa.org.
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Donald Trump couldnt help himself. He boasted that he could win 95% of the African-American vote, and promptly fell into a Hillary Clinton trap.

While in Michigan, Trump boasted that he would win 95% of the African-American vote in 2020. He also made his pitch to African-American voters, What do you have to lose? Youre living in poverty. Your Schools are no good. You have no jobs.

Trump was set up by his own ego, and the Hillary Clinton campaign knocked him down.

Hillary for America Director of State Campaigns and Political Engagement Marlon Marshall said, Donald Trump asks what the African American community has to lose by voting for him. The answer is everything from a man who questions the citizenship of the first African American President, courts white supremacists, and has been sued for housing discrimination against communities of color. Trump painting the entire community as living in poverty with no jobs continues to show he is completely out of touch with the African-American community.

The Clinton camp then referred to the fact that Trump has been sued twice by the Department of Justice for housing discrimination against African-Americans.

If that wasnt enough, the Clinton campaign brought up Trumps history of birtherism against President Obama.

The biggest reason why Donald Trump is struggling in the polls is that he has no discipline. The remark about winning 95% of the African-American vote was another in a long line of delusional promises and boasts that Trump makes off the cuff on the campaign trail.

By going off script, Donald Trump fell into a perfectly placed Clinton trap. Donald Trump has a long and well-documented history of practicing discrimination. It hadnt been injected into the general election previously because there was no need for it.

Once again, Donald Trump could stop himself. He opened his mouth and shot himself in the foot.
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As this weeks column is being compiled, Fox News is rushing to embrace Donald Trumps non-apology as Powerful Proof of a Presidential Pivot (4P). Then Putin Manafort quit Telepromter Trump, but With Trump-Breitbart Alliance, The Right-Wing Medias Civil War Just Got A Whole Lot Worse.

Those fractures first identified by Friday Fox Follies in Defending the Indefensible. LONG STORY SHORT: The Fives Dana Perino slapped Eric Bolling as an unrepentant Trumpeteer. Their respective fans immediately chose sides. What happened this week wont mollify either camp:

Trump Supporter Eric Bolling Cant Be Bothered

With Silly Things Like Your Accurate Polling Data

Dana Perino Shuts Down Poll-Truther

Fox News Host: Youre Lying To Them!

LATEST FAN FLASHPOINT:



Its not the only laughable thing Bolling said this week:

Fox hosts battle each other over Trumps tax

returns  If it was Clinton, youd demand them

READING RAINBOW: FFF provides these links for your reading pleasure and to prove Fox News Lies. However, if readings not your thing, watch this cute video from Media Matters:

How Right-Wing Lies Become Mainstream News:

SHALLOW WATTERS: Leave it to Jesse Watters to say the most disgusting thing on Fox News this week.

Foxs Jesse Watters Says Terrorist Attack

in October Would Be Good for Trump

Watch Watters engage in play acting as the smarmy little punk pretends he wasnt trolling Juan Williams.

If theres one more terror attack, maybe in October, this is gonna make Trumps plan look a lot more appealing, Watters said.



Co-host Juan Williams retorted, Oh my god, what wishful thinking. Anti-American! Thats unbelievable!



Why would you say that thats what Im thinking? How dare you?



Well, why? What did you say?



How dare you? Watters repeated, claiming that he had been engaging in a bit of political analysis.



Oh thats what it was. I see, Williams said. I thought it was desperation.

The OReilly wannabe wont even stand behind the words he whined a second after he whined them.

HILARIOUS HANNITY HYPOCRISY: How much hypocrisy? Check out Hannity Praises Trump For Using A Teleprompter After Years Of Demonizing Obama For Using Them. Meanwhile, Hannitys Shameless Trump Town Hall Includes Lies That Trump Opposed Iraq And Opposed Troop Withdrawal as The Continuing Conservative Media Civil War Zeroes In On Sean Hannity.

For good reason Sean Hannity has been a FFF target of late, while Sean Hannitys Week From Hell got worse. Hes singled out in The True Enemies of Press Freedom Have Arrived, and Neither is Named Obama. Headlines like Hannity v. The World: Here Are The People Sean Hannity Has Attacked To Defend Trump (So Far) will stick.

How much worse can it get? CNNs Brian Stelter Blasts Hannity For Being Not Interested In The Truth About Hillary Clintons Health, which leads to Got Irony? Hannity Attacks CNNs Pipsqueak Stelter For Literally Kissing Clintons And Obamas Ass Every Day.

And, by the way, its not just Stelter and the so-called liberal media who think Hannity has jumped the shark with his unwavering devotion to Trump. As Media Matters reported, Hannity is battling other conservative media figures over his unapologetic and unconditional defense of the candidate, with those media figures now calling his shilling for Trump slavish and disgraceful.

Then this happened:

Newsweek Columnist To Hannity: F*** You

By any standards it was a bad week for Hannity, who has no standards.

RACE RELATIONS: AKA White Privilege On Tee Vee:

Bill OReilly Lectures African

Americans For Not Voting Republican

Foxs OReilly gets slapped down hard for

whitesplaining why blacks should vote for Trump

OReilly Complains African-Americans Wont

Support Trump No Matter What He Does

Fox Panel Blames Unmarried Women And

Lack Of Fathers For Unrest In Milwaukee

FOX & FRIENDS FONE FRIEND: The relationship between the Curvy Couch and their Orange Crush goes back many years. Its where he teased his Birther investigation. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that Foxs Steve Doocy [says]: So If The Election Were Held Today, According To The Zip App, Donald Trump Would Win and why the All-white Fox panel [claims]: Speech to all-white Wisconsin crowd shows Trump is not ignoring black voters:

On Tuesday, Trump traveled to West Bend, Wisconsin  which is 95 percent white  to ask for the vote for every African-American citizen struggling in our society today who wants a different and much better future.



Trump campaign adviser Rudy Giuliani joined three white Fox News hosts  Steve Doocy, Ainsley Earhardt and Brian Kilmeade  on Wednesday to praise Trumps African-American outreach.



Consider how dangerous that was, Giuliani opined. Going into Milwaukee in the middle of the riots and talking about law and order. But also talking about what needs to be done to help minority communities, African-American communities, poor communities to come out of the situation that theyre in. No one has offered answers like that together.

Teleprompter Trump: More dangerous than TNT.

IRONY ALERT: Bill OReilly Discusses Collapse of American Media, while not acknowledging he led the way as a biased, right wing, Cultural Warrior.

Its no secret that Fox Newss Bill OReilly [is]: Trumps very best enabler. Thats why OReilly [claims]: The Anti-Trump Press Is Using Saul Alinsky Tactics to Take Him Down and the reason why OReilly Asks Dana Perino If Shes Showing Anti-Trump Bias Because She Believes in Polls.

The Falafel King also beclowned himself with:

Bill OReilly Likens George Soros To David Duke

Bill OReilly Hosts Segment On Polling Bias,

Learns Polls Wrongly Favored Romney In 2012

OReillys Proof That Voter Fraud Exists Was

Debunked On His Own Show Four Years Ago

INSIDE THE FOX BOARD ROOM: No surprise that In Nearly Six Weeks, Fox News Has Covered the Roger Ailes Developments For 11 Minutes. In one way Fox News Turmoil Recalls News Corp. Phone Hacking Scandal, after we learned Secrecy of Settlements at Fox News Hid Bad Behavior.

Now serial abuser Roger Ailes Is Advising Donald Trump Ahead of Presidential Debates, repeating the role he played for Richard Nixon.

This comes after Fox News confronts (but just barely) a scandal in its own house. While Fox News Names 2 Insiders to Top Posts, others wonder how it helps when Fox News Promotes Executive Who Reportedly Played An Integral Role In Covering Up Sexual Harassments Claims. Even Vanity Fairs Sarah Ellison [notes]: Fox Leaving In Charge People Who Were Doing Exactly What It Was That Ailes Asked Them To Do.

Subsequently, 2 More Fox News Execs Leave Network while Fox Ditches Ailes Black Room Private Investigator Bo Dietl  And Hes Threatening To Sue Reporter Gabriel Sherman.

Let the legal games begin!

CREDIT WHERE CREDITS DUE: Every once in a while a blind squirrel finds a nut. This weeks nut squirrel truth-teller is Greg Gutfeld.

One Fox Hosts Definition Of Internet

Trolls Sounds A Lot Like Bill OReilly

Fox Host: Trumps New Campaign

Chief Executive Has Trashed

Fox News And Our Hosts

Greg Gutfeld Says Trump Basically Stole His

Platforms From 10 Years of Fox News Content

Headly Westerfield has been criticizing Fox News since 2009. He also hosts Fox Follies and Fallacies and is Head Writer at the Not Now Silly Newsroom.
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Donald Trump continues to slip into a downward mental spiral. The GOP nominee is promising that he will win 95% of the African-American vote not in 2016, but four years from now in 2020. Hillary Clinton quickly delivered a dose of reality to Trump.

Trump said:

Trump went off of his teleprompter script and said:

Hillary Clintons campaign responded with a dose of reality for Trump:

.@realDonaldTrump predicts he'll get 95% of the Black vote. The reality: Trump Polling Zero % with Blacks in OH, PA https://t.co/9qPT1k6fVH  Hillary Clinton (@VoteHillary2016) August 19, 2016

The most generous polling number with African-Americans for Trump out there is 1% nationally. Trump has been pulling a zero in state level polls for months now.

To put Trumps promise into proper context, he is promising to get the support of more African-American voters than President Obama. Democrats have not gotten less than 80% of African-American support in modern polling, so what Trump promised to do is simply not possible.

His promise that he will get 95% African-American support within four years wasnt in his prepared text. This wasnt something that his campaign came up with or told him to say. The idea that Donald Trump will win near universal support from African-Americans came completely from the delusional mind of Donald J. Trump.

The reality is that Hillary Clinton is going to win ninety percent plus support from the African-American community. Anyone who believes otherwise is completely insane.
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The big Bernie rallies are returning, but this time, Sen. Sanders will be campaigning in swing states to get Hillary Clinton elected president.

According to The Washington Post:



Sanders, who endorsed Clinton last month, ticked off a list of states that he is likely to hit in coming weeks, including some where he won primaries and caucuses (New Hampshire, Maine, Michigan and Wisconsin) and some where he fell short but ran strongly among key segments of the electorate (Ohio, Pennsylvania and Nevada).

.

Sanders said that during some of those visits he will also campaign on behalf of Democratic Senate candidates, including Katie McGinty in Pennsylvania, Ted Strickland in Ohio and Maggie Hassan in New Hampshire. He is also planning to campaign for other progressive down-ballot candidates, he said.

Bernie Sanders is staying true to his word that he is going to do everything he can to get Hillary Clinton elected. Sen. Sanders also said that he plans on campaigning for progressive candidates around the country as well as his work for Clinton and the Senate Democrats.

It is a smart move by both the Clinton campaign and Sen. Sanders to harness the energy of his rallies as the next step towards integrating Sanders supporters and their ideas into the Democratic Party. The Democratic platform has shown that Democrats are serious about welcoming Sanders supporters into the party. With Sen. Sanders transitioning his presidential campaign into a broader progressive movement, the return of the big rallies will not only help Hillary Clinton but also help Sanders keep the momentum going forward on his agenda as well.

Sen. Sanders can be a great help to both Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party in the fall. His rallies were bigger and better than Trumps events.

As if Donald Trump didnt have enough problems, Sen. Sanders is hitting the campaign trail in the fall to get Hillary Clinton elected president and give Democrats back control of the United States Senate.

The Democratic primary had its moments, but Sanders and Clinton are demonstrating the sort of cooperation and unity that is non-existent in the Republican Party.

Togetherness is why Democrats find themselves in a great position to win in November.
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Donald Trumps plan to cut corporate taxes has already taken a brutal hit from conservative economist Ben Stein, who said,

I dont think Mr. Trumps plan is going to work very wellthe evidence that tax cuts stimulate business in any kind of meaningful wayis extremely poor to put it mildly.

Now Stein has gone after Trump over the reality stars negative stance on free trade, saying, I think at the end of the first term of a Trump presidency, we would wish he had taken a very different tack on trade.

Watch courtesy of CNN Money:

The idea of starting trade wars is a very, very bad idea. I dont know where he got that idea from. I dont know where he got the idea that you can just somehow drive a big pickup truck into Mexico and bring back all the jobs. Its just not true.

No indeed, particularly since some of the jobs Trump would have to bring back in his pickup truck would be those devoted to making his clothing line. Hed have to drive his pickup truck to China to bring back the rest of them, a neat trick.

Stein went on to say,

The general misconception about the trade deals is that we are somehow giving away jobs that American workers want and were shipping the jobs to China or to Mexico. That isnt true. We have full employment in this country. We have a labor shortage in this country. We have many, many jobs going unfilled because there arent enough Americans to take the jobs.

As to the manufacturing jobs that have gone overseas, it is a shame for any American to lose a manufacturing job, but on the other hand, every American is a consumer. Not every American is a manufacturing employee. So the great majority of Americans are benefited by these trade deals, not harmed, and we should really get it through our head that free trade is one of the best advances in human prosperity theres ever been.

Keep in mind Stein supports the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, which he calls a very good trade deal, and he isnt happy that his former Yale law classmate Hillary Clinton has backed away from it, having previously allowed that she knows something about it [economics].

Even so, the prospect of a Trump presidency has him far more alarmed. Stein told The Guardian in June, I dont think Trump knows a goddamn thing about economics.

This has Stein wavering. He says, Ive never voted for a Democrat, but allowed that it could be different this time.
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Yes. It is true. Conservatives are freaking out because lesbians can be farmers too. And apparently there is something wrong with that. What has them all worked up is the Iowa LGBT Rural Summit, which took place on August 18 at Drake Law School. To make matters worse, the summit was co-sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which joined with the National Center for Lesbian Rights.

The Drake University official news release explained,

Many LGBT people choose to live, work, and raise their families in rural areas. To highlight the unique needs of this community, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has partnered with Drake Law School, One Iowa, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, and True Colors Fund to organize the Iowa LGBT Rural Summit. [] This event is the 15th summit in the nationwide LGBT Rural Summit Series and #RuralPride Campaign, which aims to elevate the voices of the rural LGBT community, highlight the important federal policy efforts to protect this community, and identify next steps to ensure all rural communities have access to the resources they need. The Iowa LGBT Rural Summit will share information about programs and services that exist to protect, promote, and strengthen LGBT members of rural communities. Issues related to housing, education, healthcare, youth empowerment, and more will be discussed.

So yeah. Pretty scary stuff for right wingers who can never find enough stuff about which to be frightened. Rush Limbaugh launched into one of his famously incoherent rants over it, exclaiming,

Have you heard the latest Democrat scam? Have you heard about the Agriculture Departments financial grants to lesbian farmers? You think Im making this up? See, this is how they do it.



Limbaugh insists its not actually about lesbian farmers. What theyre trying to do is convince lesbians to become farmers.

Oh dear.

Why would Democrats want to encourage lesbians to become farmers, you ask? Rush has the answer: They are trying to bust up one of the last geographic conservative regions in the country, and thats rural America.

Rural America happens to be largely conservative. Rural America is made up of self-reliant, rugged individual types. They happen to be big believers in the Second Amendment. So here comes the Obama regime with a bunch of federal money and theyre waving it around, and all you gotta do to get it is be a lesbian and want to be a farmer and theyll set you up.

Gosh darn it! Why didnt that wily Kenyan Muslim gun-confiscating dictator Barack Obama think of this back in 09? Wed have kept the House in 2012! The idea is patently ridiculous and makes the lesbians sound like pod people from some awful science fiction movie.

Rush is talking about Sarah Palins real Americans here, as opposed to people with New York City values or, no doubt, immigrants, unless theyre working as migrants picking the produce conservatives want to eat.

Limbaugh wasnt the only one to freak out. World Net Daily had their usual unhinged reaction, assuming that the summit meant the administration was ignoring the threat of terrorism and that LGBTers had their priorities mixed up, since they should be more interested in being protected from ISIS more than, you know, being able to make a living as a farmer.

The Patriot Post was, if possible, even more unhinged than WND, asking, Where does the Constitution enumerate the power for government to waste taxpayer dollars in such a manner?

It might come as a surprise to the folks at the Patriot Post, but we liberals and progressives dont like a lot of things our tax dollars are spent on either. But what this episode demonstrates is that there is literally nothing Democrats can do that wont be interpreted by conservatives as a conspiracy meant somehow to hurt conservatives.

Keep in mind this is the demographic that puts the only in front of Black Lives Matter, so go figure they take helping LGBT farmers as an attack on white hetero Christian farmers. Theirs is the sort of either/or thinking that precludes Trumps claim to want to work together.

As Democrats have stressed, from Obama on down, working together means all Americans being included, not just white people, and especially not just white males. And that includes gays and lesbians who want to be farmers.
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*The following is an opinion column by R Muse*

Over the course of the past couple of years some of the giants in the oil industry have intimated that they were converting themselves into champions of the environment and were on the forefront of and leading the battle to halt anthropogenic climate change. Obviously, it was a gargantuan shift in policy to the days of paying Republicans in Congress and state legislatures to fight any and all efforts to confront the greatest threat to human survival in mans history; in many circles it was just too good to be true. As is normally the case when something appears too good to be true, the concept of the oil industry joining the fight against climate change was just that: too good to be true and a monumental farce.

About a month ago, Exxon Mobil Corporation appeared to be publicly ramping up its lobbying efforts of other energy companies to support a carbon tax. Obviously, it sounded too good to be true. The effort was part of a phony response to growing pressure on the fossil fuel industry to do its part to address the politically charged issue of global climate change. The publicity scam was meant to portray ExxonMobil as making a conscientious shift away from its typical resistance to doing anything to reduce carbon emissions driving climate change, and instead was leading the rest of the dirty energy industry to make a 180-degree change. However, like anything connected to the Koch brothers, ExxonMobil has no intent of doing anything more than talk about a carbon tax as evidenced by its continued campaign contributions to Republicans who reliably oppose and block any and all efforts to save the climate.

Beginning in 2009, ExxonMobil, like Shell Oil cautioning about the danger of climate change, was acting as if they embraced the idea of a carbon tax to aid in reducing the amount of carbon being poured into the atmosphere. However, while appearing to be stricken with a social ethic, the oil giant devotedly funded Republicans in Congress who determined long ago that their political life-goal was working resolutely to oppose any effort remotely connected to fighting climate change. They were particularly opposed to a European-style cap-and-trade system and vehemently emphasized their aversion and certain obstruction of implementing a carbon tax.

In fact, although Exxon has claimed to support a carbon tax since 2009, as late as March 2015 thirty of the 40 senators who voted to pass a budget amendment (58 to 42) prohibiting enactment of anything close to a carbon tax were recipients of ExxonMobil campaign contributions. It is noteworthy that the thirty senators began receiving ExxonMobil contributions in about 2010, barely a year after the oil company started paying lip service to the benefits to humanity of a carbon tax to save the planet. At the time, the carbon tax campaign was a complete farce of a cover story that it was a more palatable choice in Congress than the Democrats preferred cap-and-trade, even though the worlds largest oil company spent millions to ensure that neither cap-and-trade nor a carbon tax passed to combat climate change.

A similar situation occurred two years earlier in March 2013 when 156 members of the House cosponsored a non-binding resolution stating categorically that a carbon tax would be detrimental to American families and businesses and is not in the best interest of the United States. Of the 156 House member co-sponsors, ninety-three percent of those members campaigns were being generously funded by the same oil company, ExxonMobil that publicly endorsed the benefit of a tax on carbon.

Fast forward to last December when, the companys outgoing vice president of public and government affairs, Ken Cohen wrote about ExxonMobils strong support for a carbon tax. He even took time to boast that the worlds largest oil company had been holding countless private briefings with members of Congress on carbon tax policy options. However, when a June 2016 vote came up in the House to pass another resolution similar to the one in 2013, eighty-five percent of the members voting to resolve that a carbon tax would be detrimental to the United States economy were recipients of ExxonMobil political donations; this time since 2013.

It is noteworthy that 82 of the ExxonMobil campaign donation recipients were affirmed and documented climate change and science deniers. One can only envision what kind of campaign donation conversations Exxon had with climate deniers during those countless private briefings; they certainly couldnt have been about enacting a carbon tax due to something the 82 House members claimed was non-existent.

None of these various oil industry feints toward regard for the Earths climate should be the least bit surprising. All of Americas oil industry giants, and less significant fossil fuel entities as well, and the Koch brothers and their anti-climate cohort in ALEC and the Heritage Foundation portray themselves as acutely concerned about saving the environment, combatting climate change and protecting Americans health. All the while the Koch brothers, ExxonMobil, Shell Oil and the rest of the fossil fuel industry heavily fund any and all efforts to block real determinations to combat climate change; including paying, primarily Republicans, House and Senate members handsomely to block even minimal climate change efforts.

With a general election looming, and more Americans finally grasping that climate change is real, here to stay and an existential threat to their survival, it is typical for the oil industry, particularly a giant like ExxonMobil, to promote themselves as champions in the fight to reduce global warming. It is highly likely the industry is well aware that many voters pay heed to which corporation is funding their representatives or candidates seeking their votes and is doing what is needed for image control. But no American should be deluded into thinking that ExxonMobil, the Kochs, or any of their dirty energy cabal have any interest in combating climate change or supporting any candidate concerned with doing whatever is needed to save the planets climate; like the Republicans they fund it is just not in their nature.
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Republicans are exploring a new strategy where they will admit to voters that Donald Trump is going to lose to Hillary Clinton in an attempt to save their majorities in the House and Senate.

Politico reported:

Republicans, worried about preserving their House and Senate majorities in the face of fierce headwinds, are accelerating their plans to distance themselves from Donald Trump  and may soon concede, if only implicitly, his defeat.

Party strategists are mapping out blueprints for down-ballot candidates, in TV ads and on the campaign trail, to present themselves as checks on a Hillary Clinton presidency. Its an approach that would essentially admit a Trump loss. In interviews, nearly one dozen Republican operatives said they had begun poll-testing the idea  which one labeled a break glass in case of emergency strategy  to gauge how the public would react to it.



The admitting the nominees defeat in an attempt to cut losses elsewhere is a strategy that hasnt been used since Bob Dole in 1996. Republicans would be hoping that history would repeat itself as Bill Clinton got a big win, but Republicans limited Democratic House gains to three seats and kept their House majority. Democrats gained two Senate seats and kept control of the Senate.

The reason why history is unlikely to repeat itself is that Hillary Clinton is running a different campaign than Bill Clinton ran twenty years ago. In 1996, Bill Clinton didnt campaign for a Democratic Congress, but Hillary Clinton has made taking back Congress a key part of her campaigns message.

The presidential election has yet to reach Labor Day, but Republicans are already testing out the possibility of admitting White House defeat to their supporters. In the modern polarized domestic political environment, the Republican Party is running the risk of depressing their own voter turnout and turning a Democratic victory into a landslide if they give up on Trump.

It is increasingly likely that Republicans are going to cut off his funding and bail on Donald Trump. The question that is being weighed now is whether or not they publicly write off the White House.

Either way, it looks like the GOP is getting set to abandon Trump.
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With the Minnesota State Fair still weeks away, I was forced to head south in search of food on a stick. Destination: the Iowa State Fair .

I've only been to the fair a few times and not since childhood. Growing up, I'd stay up late to watch the nightly fair highlights with my mom on Iowa Public Television. My usual priority was getting eight hours of sleep, but I'd make an exception for fair highlight week. My favorite part was watching clips from the Bill Riley Talent Search and the fair queen competition.

But enough of memory lane; it was time to move past the highlight reel and get on down to the fair. I've heard the anticipation of an enjoyable activity equates to a surprisingly large portion of the total enjoyment. In the case of the state fair, both the anticipation and the experience were exceptional. The pre-excitement started a while ago: Advance tickets were purchased, and then I prepared my beloved clipboard with all the most important documents (site map, parking map, "favorites" list and a schedule of events). Fast forward a few weeks and add in a couple hours on Interstate 35  and presto: The moment arrived!

My sweetheart, Justin, and I found a yard to park in near the fairgrounds and hiked over to the entrance gate. He's a fellow Iowa native, which made him a perfect co-adventurer for the day. He's also one of the very few people on the planet who doesn't seem to mind having a girlfriend who carries a clipboard for personal enjoyment.

Justin was an FFA member in high school and spent several summers working shows at the grandstand and living in the on-site dormitory. Though the layout of the grounds has expanded a bit since then, he definitely remembered his way around with ease. We went from building to building. As we walked through one of the barns, we got a special behind-the-scenes glimpse of the teenage girls getting ready to ride their horses for the Cowgirl Queen Contest. The woodworking and photography displays were highlights, but each stop along the way offered its own flair (and people-watching).

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The best moment of all came at the end of the day. We found our way over to Pioneer Hall. The Midway volume had increased vastly by that point, as had the number of fairgoers, and I was getting a little overwhelmed. At Pioneer Hall, there were antiques to peruse, and R.B.J. was playing hits from the 1950s and '60s. After admiring the items inside, we stepped back into the summer evening. There was a big, old house just steps away called the Ralph H. Deets Historical Museum . Neither of us had ever noticed it before. It was closing time there, and the lights were switching off as we walked closer.

"Oh, darn," I said. "We just missed it. But maybe we could just sit down anyway." Lovely wooden rockers lined the wrap-around porch. We plopped down to rest a while. Glancing across the way through the open barn door, we realized we had a perfect view of the stage inside Pioneer Hall. It felt like R.B.J. was playing us a private concert as they harmonized to "Here Comes the Sun." The rest of the fair noise felt distant. Rocking back and forth on the porch, the lyrics of the song felt truer than ever, "Little darling, the smile's returning to the faces, little darling, it seems like years since it's been here. Here comes the sun, here comes the sun, and I say it's alright."

"This has been a great summer," I reflected. "And this is a really great fair."
As I was growing up, we always referred to it as the "Motherhouse." Today, it goes by Assisi Heights. Either way, for many it is the most incredible building and piece of real estate in Rochester.

My first connection with the Motherhouse was sneaking in from adjacent Elton Hills to get apples for Bryce Kommerstad's mother to turn into luscious apple pie.

My second connection was years later, seeing the original Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi, Italy, which Rochester's Assisi was modeled after when built in the mid-'50s.

But my best connection was working with some of the Sisters of Assisi for the 1990 Earth Day 20-year celebration. One sister in particular, Sister Marlys Jax, continues to work tirelessly with a special focus on the importance of the natural world we are all part of.

So, when Sister Marlys called me last year about doing a program for her educational series at Assisi Heights, I didn't shy away as I often had since retiring from Quarry Hill. Instead, I agreed to do a program if she would set up a meeting with the engineering staff. My goal was to try to figure out if the 125-foot-high octogonal Assisi chimney could somehow become a staging roost for thousands of swifts as they prepare to head to the Amazon basin for the winter.

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Little did I know that chimney swifts have probably been using the chimney for the past 50 to 60 years. But when I stopped in to talk with the engineers five years ago, I thought they indicated the boilers run year-round, even in summer. What I didn't learn until meeting with them again this last fall with Sister Marlys is that during summer only one small boiler operates, producing exhaust that is only 125 degrees.

Since I already knew from other chimneys that the swifts could tolerate a certain amount of heat and noxious gases, I had some hope. But when one of the engineers took me to look into the bottom of the chimney, my excitement level soared. There, on the ground floor of the 13-foot-wide Kasota limestone chimney, was 1 to 2 inches of bird droppings, along with a few feathers I was sure were swifts.

Sister Marlys shared my excitement and agreed to get clearance from security to allow me to start counting this summer after dusk, when the grounds are officially closed, except for programs. I thought I might start around mid-July until I got a call from friend Sue Schruers in mid-May saying she had seen at least a couple hundred swifts flying around the chimney after a bee program she attended.

So I began going to Assisi every week or two and saw numbers rise each time I counted, hitting 507 on July 28. That was for the first of two yearly Audubon Minnesota swift counts, done with help from fellow counters, Jerry Pruett and Jim Peterson. Then, on Aug. 10, seven of us counted and got close to a thousand birds.

Wondering if the numbers might increase, I went back up three nights later with neighbor Bob Kennedy. We got the first 100 counted by 8:15, and over the next half hour counted more than 2,000 more, with Bob tallying the last of 2, 279 Swifts descending the chimney.

So, I am cautiously optimistic that when we do the next count on Friday, Aug. 26 (Aug. 27 if rained out), we might hit a record. Both Sister Marlys and I would like to share this with others who might want to witness this spectacle.

If you are interested in taking part in this approximately one-hour count, email naturenutgm@gmail.com with your name and the number of people expected to come in your vehicle. Plan to arrive by 7:15 p.m., entering the Assisi property from the 14th Street Northwest entrance. Look for bright pink ribbons to lead you to the upper parking lot. Bring a lawn chair or ground blanket, and binoculars if you have a pair.
RED WING  A 35-year-old man faces multiple felonies after authorities say he was caught inside Cannon Falls High School, reportedly to steal copper wire.

Thomas Paul Jeppesen, of Cannon Falls, appeared Tuesday in Goodhue County District Court, where he's been charged with second-degree burglary of a school, two counts of fifth-degree drug possession and possession of burglary tools, all felonies. He also faces one count of misdemeanor possession of hypodermic needles.

He remains in custody in lieu of $3,000 conditional bond and is due back in court Oct. 14.

The case began about 9:30 p.m. Aug. 13, when Cannon Falls police officers were sent to the school for a report of a burglary in progress. A custodian had found a school door open, with a bicycle next to it. He spotted a man inside the school who fled out the unlocked door and was running toward the track on the north side of the grounds.

Officers were able to spot and detain the suspect  later identified as Jeppesen  along the fence line of the track, the complaint says. He immediately complied with police, saying several times he shouldn't have gone into the school, court documents say.

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Jeppesen told officers he "should have" a utility knife on him, but no knife was found. He allegedly told law enforcement there might be another person, "Mike," inside the school; a search using a police dog was conducted, with no one found.

Jeppesen was unable to provide a last name for "Mike," or even a physical description "that made sense," the complaint says.

Police did find the bike described by the custodian, as well as a two-wheeler containing a garbage can loaded with wire spools and extension cords, the report says. Officers had seen Jeppesen riding the bike through Cannon Falls on many occasions.

Next to the garbage can was a set of wire clippers; a black jumper cable bag hung from the bike handlebars. Inside the bag were several hidden hypodermic needles and a stack of small containers that contained heroin and methamphetamine.

Also inside was a utility knife, a Marlboro cigarette butt, a phone charger and a tube of denture cream. A search of Jeppesen after he was detained turned up his dentures in his front pocket, as well as a pack of Marlboro cigarettes and an iPhone, the court document says.

Jeppesen denied doing anything in the school, denied riding a bike to the school and denied ownership of the black bag.

The school is under construction; there had been unreported thefts of copper wire, so the custodian had been coming in at night to make sure all the doors were secured.
Judge retiring from 8th Circuit federal appeals court

FARGO, N.D.  A judge on the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is retiring from his position as a federal appellate court judge.

Judge Kermit Bye says his full retirement is effective Sept. 1. He has served on the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals since April 22, 2000, and maintained his chambers in Fargo, N.D.

Bye served as an active judge for 15 years before taking "senior status" on the court in 2015.

The 8th Circuit includes Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota.  Associated Press

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5,000 nurses vote for new strike

MINNEAPOLIS  Nearly 5,000 nurses at five Twin Cities hospitals have voted to authorize an indefinite strike amid a dispute over a new contract.

The workers represented by the Minnesota Nurse's Association voted Thursday to authorize an open-ended walkout at the Allina Health hospitals just two months after a weeklong strike ended without a deal.

Part of the dispute is over health care plans. Allina wants to transition its nurses to the same plan as other employees to save $10 million a year. The corporate plan carries lower premiums but higher deductibles. The nurses want to keep their union plans.

The affected hospitals are Abbott Northwestern and Phillips Eye Institute in Minneapolis, United in St. Paul, Unity in Fridley and Mercy in Coon Rapids.

The union must give a 10-day notice before a strike.  Associated Press

17-year sentence in fatal bar assault

ST. PAUL  A St. Paul man has been sentenced to 17 years in prison for a fatal attack at a Maplewood bar.

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Eduardo Figueroa was celebrating his 40th birthday at Freddy's Tiki Hut in November 2014 when he helped the owner remove some disruptive patrons, including Brandon Smith.

Court documents say Figueroa was knocked to the floor and repeatedly kicked by Smith and another man and died of heart failure caused by the assault.

Smith, 25, earlier pleaded guilty to second-degree murder without intent in Ramsey County District Court.

Prosecutors say Smith never expressed any remorse for the attack or sympathy for those affected by Figueroa's death.  Associated Press

Tool maker considers buying Nebraska plant

ANNANDALE  A Minnesota company is working with Nebraska officials on acquiring a vacant former Vise-Grip plant in southeast Nebraska.

Malco Products Inc. President Mardon Quandt told the Beatrice Daily Sun that "there's a good fit with the culture and the work environment in Nebraska."

The company is based in Annandale and makes tools for the heating, ventilation and air-conditioning industry and produces other specialty tools as well. Quandt declined to say what would be produced at the DeWitt plant or how many people would be hired. He also said the plant purchase agreement is still being finalized.

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More than 300 DeWitt jobs were lost in 2008 when Newell Rubbermaid, the owner of the Vise-Grip brand and its plant in DeWitt, moved production to China.  Associated Press

Trump raising funds in Minneapolis

MINNEAPOLIS  Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is making his first visit to Minnesota this campaign, but not for any public appearance.

Trump is meeting with wealthy Republican donors to raise money, and doesn't plan a public rally.

Suggested donations for the Trump event at the Minneapolis Convention Center are $1,000 to $100,000 per couple.

Federal Election Commission records show Trump has raised about $110,000 in Minnesota, far less than Hillary Clinton's $2 million.

Trump drew condemnation from some in Minnesota's large Somali community ahead of his arrival. Jaylani Hussein, director of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, criticized Trump for "anti-Muslim and anti-Somali rhetoric."

Threat to Somali woman investigated as hate crime

LITTLE FALLS  Police in a central Minnesota city say they're investigating a recent threat to a Somali woman as hate crime.

Anab Ali moved to Little Falls with her children earlier this year and is one of few Somali residents in the city of about 8,000. The Star Tribune (http://strib.mn/2bHkrjv ) reports Ali told police two men came to her door last week, called her a terrorist and told her to move out of town or they would set fire to her home.

Both men were white, according to police. One was of medium build, about 30 years old with shoulder length blond hair and a goatee. The other was about 65 with white hair, a tattoo on the right side of his neck and tattoos on both arms. He was shorter with a stronger build. Authorities have yet to identify the men, Schirmers said, adding that the case remains under investigation.

The department reported the confrontation to the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension this week as a hate.

Little Falls Police Chief Greg Schirmers said the Aug. 7 confrontation is the first hate crime that he knows of directed at a local Muslim resident.

The threat has since been condemned by the mayor and others in Little Falls, a town about 100 miles north of the Twin Cities.

Haji Yussuf directs UniteCloud, a St. Cloud-area group that works to foster relationships between Muslims and non-Muslims. He says Ali told him she doesn't want to talk publicly about the confrontation because she doesn't want to portray Little Falls as a bad place.

"She's scared, but she's also saying a lot more people came to her and showed a lot of support, and she doesn't want to mess that goodwill up," he said.  Associated Press
MINNEAPOLIS  Retired Army Gen. John W. Vessey, who rose through the ranks in a 46-year military career to become chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and help oversee President Ronald Reagan's military buildup, has died. He was 94.

Vessey enlisted as a private in the Minnesota National Guard in 1939, fought in World War II and Vietnam and was the nation's top military officer when he retired to his home state of Minnesota in 1985. He died Thursday evening, his daughter, Sarah Vessey, told The Associated Press. He was surrounded by family and died of natural causes, she said.

After being named chairman of the joint chiefs in 1982, Vessey helped oversee the military expansion that Reagan championed when he took office just more than a year earlier.

"It was probably the greatest peacetime modernization of the American military establishment that ever took place," Vessey recalled in a 2004 interview. "We improved every facet of the armed forces, from the recruiting and retention, the selection of individuals, to the way they lived, but most importantly to the way they fought."

Vessey said the Soviet Union had been making a "big push" to solidify its position in Europe, deploying SS20 intermediate-range nuclear missiles and strengthening its ground forces in East Germany, "dabbling" in West European elections at a time when NATO was shaky and stepping up its espionage.

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By the time Vessey retired in 1985, he said, NATO was strong once again, the United States had deployed Pershing II and cruise missiles in response to the Soviet SS20s, and negotiations with the Soviets to eliminate each side's intermediate-range missiles were just about complete.

"He was smart and combined good common sense with good military judgment, and he knew how to get things done," Lawrence Korb, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, a Washington think tank, said in a 2006 interview. Korb worked with Vessey while serving as an assistant secretary of defense from 1981 to 1985. "He was a person of integrity."

The fate of MIAs

Even in retirement, Vessey heard from presidents and the Pentagon looking for help.

Reagan sent Vessey back to Vietnam in 1987 to account for Americans missing in action and bring back any still alive. His other tasks included reuniting separated families and getting former South Vietnamese leaders out of prison camps, Amerasian children out of Vietnam and the Vietnamese out of Cambodia.

"In typical Ronald Reagan optimistic fashion, he said, 'Well, it ought to take you about three months,'" Vessey recalled with a laugh. "Six years later, I told Bill Clinton that I had checked off all of those things and would like to be relieved."

Vessey's work to resolve the fate of the MIAs was "terribly important" because the issue had become a "rallying cry" for people who thought the United States had pulled out of Vietnam too soon or that the Pentagon was covering something up, Korb said.

In retirement, Vessey also chaired the advisory board of the Center for Preventive Action, an arm of the Council on Foreign Relations that seeks to prevent conflicts before they erupt; consulted for the Defense Science Board, Army Science Board and the Sandia National Laboratory; and led a campaign to build up the endowment funds of colleges affiliated with the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.

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While Vessey generally wielded his influence in military and foreign policy circles away from the public spotlight after he retired, he made news in 2006 when he spoke out against a push to weaken protections under the Geneva Conventions against torture of prisoners, particularly as they applied to suspected terrorists.

He wrote Sen. John McCain expressing concern that doing so "would undermine the moral basis" that traditionally had guided U.S. conduct in war, and that "could give opponents a legal argument for the mistreatment of Americans being held prisoner in time of war."

Another retired chairman of the joint chiefs, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, called Vessey's comments "powerful and eloquent" in his own letter to McCain. Those letters became ammunition in the congressional debate over the use of coercive interrogation techniques in the war on terror.

"He never strayed from his morals or values or faith, and he was an extraordinary patriot," Sarah Vessey said of her father.

Army career

Vessey was born in Minneapolis in 1922. He enlisted in the Minnesota National Guard at age 17, when the threat of Nazi Germany was looming over Europe. He was called to active duty and fought in Northern Africa and Italy, where he received a battlefield commission as a second lieutenant at the battle of Anzio in 1944.

He married his wife, Avis, right after he shipped home. He made the Army his career, serving mostly in field artillery units stateside and abroad. His postings included several in West Germany.

During the Vietnam War, Vessey was a lieutenant colonel in the battle of Suoi Tre, where U.S. forces held off a fierce attack from a much larger North Vietnamese and Viet Cong force in 1967. Vessey was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the Army's second-highest medal, and his unit received a Presidential Unit Citation.

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He was promoted to brigadier general in 1971. He earned his fourth star in 1976 and was put in charge of U.S. and U.N. forces in South Korea.

Vessey showed his character after his opposition to President Jimmy Carter's proposal to withdraw from Korea cost him a promotion to Army chief of staff, Korb said. Instead, Vessey became vice chief of staff of the Army in 1979 under the younger Gen. Edward C. Meyer.

"You never heard him complain or not defer to the real chief," Korb said.

Vessey was building a lake home in Minnesota when Reagan asked him to defer retirement and named him the 10th chairman of the joint chiefs. The general was never a self-promoter and never lobbied for the job, Korb said.

Congress didn't strengthen the chairman's role until 1986, Korb said, so while Vessey was nominally in charge, he had to lead by consensus. Vessey "had the perfect temperament" for that, Korb said.

Vessey and the joint chiefs advised against the 1982 deployment of Marines to Lebanon, which ended after 241 Marines were killed in a suicide attack on their barracks in Beirut in 1983. However, he directed the swift and successful 1983 U.S. intervention in Grenada.

"Jack Vessey always remembered the soldiers in the ranks; he understood those soldiers are the background of any army," Reagan said at a ceremony when Vessey finally did retire in 1985. "He noticed them, spoke to them, looked out for them. Jack Vessey never forgot what it was like to be an enlisted man, to be just a GI."

Vessey then settled on Little Whitefish Lake near Garrison, keeping a promise to his wife that they'd return before the snow fell.

"He and my mom were so happy to be back," Sarah Vessey said Thursday.

The couple had two other children: John III and David.

In 1992, President George H.W. Bush awarded Vessey the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award, paying tribute to his efforts to account for the missing in action.

Bush called him "the ultimate never-say-die soldier, the last four-star combat veteran of World War II to retire."
Michelle Durigan stumbled into a part-time job in Mayo Clinic 's food service department while she still was attending Lourdes High School. Thirty-seven years later, the 54-year-old Rochester woman feels she's got "the best job in this hospital."

For now, anyway.

Durigan's future is murky because of Mayo's plan, announced June 30, to subcontract its food service department. The pending switch from Sodexo to Morrison Healthcare will transition about 700 local workers in southern Minnesota from Mayo's payroll and self-described "exceptional benefits" plan to Morrison's "poverty wages" and lesser benefits, according to Service Employees International Union Healthcare Minnesota , which represents 350 Rochester workers affected by Mayo's decision.

On July 1, Durigan said Mayo's food service department was filled with "outbursts of crying and cussing, big disappointment and shock." Those emotions linger nearly two months later among workers who have more than 5,000 combined years committed to Mayo's workforce.

"Friends, family and colleagues are all telling me to get out now while I still can  (but) I love my family, my friends, my community and my job at Mayo Clinic," Durigan said. "I still wake up in the morning hoping this is a bad dream. Then I realize it's not when I reach for my work shirt and see the 'No subcontracting' button on it."

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Based on data pulled from SEIU contracts and career website Glassdoor.com, SEIU estimates the change will result in reduced annual wages totaling $3.2 million for its 350 Rochester employees  or $9,252 apiece  and increased insurance costs of nearly $800,000. SEIU says the net effect would be a compensation package totaling about $1,000 less per month for each employee, if Morrison offers its typical package.

A Mayo spokesman said the clinic can't comment on "a calculation it can't replicate," but "we know the wage rates are not changing." Morrison issued a similar statement refuting SEIU's estimates.

"Regarding the SEIU's claim that Morrison's pay is 'poverty wages,' it also remains unclear as to how they arrived at that conclusion based on the fact that all current, active department employees in the Mayo food services areas will be transitioned at their current rate of pay, and there is no end date to the guarantee regarding their current wages," Morrison spokesman Tom Hughes said via email.

Protests, petitions and a picket

Though the contract has yet to be finalized, the transition from Sodexo to Morrison is expected to take place during the next 12 to 18 months. Mayo said recent criticism hasn't altered plans, but opposition has been fierce  and pressure is mounting.

Durigan is one of more than 1,200 people who signed a petition asking Mayo to reconsider. A bipartisan group of state lawmakers submitted their own petition this week, with 30 signatures (29 democrats and one republican), urging Mayo to "do right by workers who have served our patients and our community for so many years."

A picket has been planned for Wednesday afternoon outside Saint Marys Hospital, while SEIU has filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board over unanswered questions about the change in vendor. Another NLRB charge could be filed soon over SEIU's ethics complaint , which alleges a Mayo administrator influenced the vendor decision because of an existing personal relationship with a Morrison executive.

Union employees say Mayo hasn't shared any additional information since the initial staff meeting, and has declined to answer questions. Mayo's public statements on the issue have conveyed a consistent message during the past seven weeks.

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"This change is about creating efficiency and consistency and ensuring the highest quality possible for the food and nutrition services throughout Mayo Clinic," Mayo said in a brief news release when the Post-Bulletin broke the news.

While SEIU has been highly critical of Morrison, the Georgia-based company routinely has been honored as an industry leader. Morrison was ranked No. 70 on Modern Healthcare's 2013 and 2014 "Best Place to Work in Healthcare," and it remains in the top 100 again this year; the 2015 rankings will be announced during a fall banquet. Morrison also was included on Becker Hospital's list of "150 Best Places to Work in Healthcare" released this spring.

Double whammy?

SEIU has attacked Mayo's tentative decision and has called for it to be reversed. Mayo has said the change was done, in part, to create efficiencies, but it declined requests for an estimate of monetary savings.

Data provided by SEIU suggests Mayo could save millions annually by migrating its food service department at 20 facilities across the country to Morrison, which serves about a million meals per day at 630 facilities.

Under SEIU's current contract with Mayo, food service workers make between $15.87 and $19 per hour while paying $257 monthly for a family insurance plan. By comparison, Glassdoor reports Morrison offers its food service workers between $7.81 and $12.89 per hour with a family insurance plan that costs $619.67 per month. The minimum wage in Minnesota is $9.50.

While Mayo contends Morrison's benefit package is "above the food service industry standard," the switch appears likely to reduce vacation time, eliminate short- and long-term disability insurance and increase the cost of dental and vision insurance, among other things, for Mayo employees.

Additionally, Lisa McClellan, an SEIU organizer who spent 22 years working at Mayo, said union members would stop adding to their Mayo pension plan, which equates to at least $1,600 per month in retirement for 40-year veterans. Details of Morrison's retirement plan have not been made public, but SEIU estimates the lifetime difference would be about $100,000 if it offers a 401k with 4 percent matching.

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SEIU representatives are to meet Monday with Mayo administrators for the first of four bargaining sessions that could help determine those issues, though the union intends to push for Mayo to reconsider the entire transition.

Durigan said the uncertainty has prompted so many to transfer out of the food service department that Mayo instituted a 90-day freeze on transfers. Mayo said the freeze "isn't new and isn't limited to food service," but multiple union members said the uncertainty, salary concerns and the rash of transfers are tearing apart what previously was a family atmosphere.

"The sad thing is we're losing all of our coworkers because they're all trying to transfer to a different department to save their benefits," said Jane Peterson, another food service worker. "We're losing our family."

'We don't want this to be a domino effect'

Former Mayo Clinic transcriptionists can relate to the experiences of the food service workers.

In late 2013 and early 2014, Mayo outsourced 270 medical transcriptionist positions at its Mayo Clinic Health System facilities in rural Minnesota and Wisconsin to reduce costs by about 40 percent. Transcriptionists remain in Rochester, but they're now hired on a part-time basis.

One former Mayo transcriptionist, who spoke to the Post-Bulletin on condition of anonymity, said Mayo ensured matching wages for eight months during the transition to Wisconsin-based Amphion Medical Solutions, but many employees quit long before then because of a series of negative changes, especially to compensation.

That former employee sees a lot of similarities with Mayo's handling of the food service department.

"What I did didn't change," said the transcriptionist, whose department wasn't unionized. "How I did it and who I did it for changed, and then after eight months, how much I got paid changed. I'm making 25 percent less now, and it really stinks. It's really hard. It's the same thing they're doing to the food service people."

Concern about a domino effect has prompted others to rally behind the food service employees. SEIU representatives say they seen support from Mayo Clinic janitors, housekeepers, maintenance workers, linen transporters, patient care aides, warehouse workers, surgical techs, nursing assistants, registered nurses and doctors. Many are expected to attend the upcoming picket as a show of solidarity.

"If they can just sweep this under the rug  then who's next?" asked Jennifer Nogren, another food service worker. "We don't want this to be a domino effect."

Increasingly common

Bakken said Mayo's responses to questions were less than reassuring at the June 30 meeting.

"Somebody spoke up, and they responded, 'We have no plans at this time,'" Bakken said of Mayo subcontracting out other departments. "That's being kind of evasive, in my mind. They didn't just say no."

Mayo confirmed that stance this week in a written statement, noting "transitions like this are uncommon."

"Like other health care organizations and top-performing institutions, Mayo Clinic is continually evaluating how we provide needed services to serve our patients," Mayo wrote. "The scope of this project is focused only on food service operations."

National studies and industry analysts suggest outsourcing has become increasingly common at medical facilities as a way to reduce costs and improve efficiencies. While an Allina Health spokesperson said its food service workers remain hospital employees, Mayo isn't exactly blazing new ground with its decision.

Chris Press , an Atlanta-based health care analyst with Morgan Healthcare Consulting, has said it's better to "let someone else have the headache" of delivering food service at hospitals. That meshes with what Twin Cities-based independent analyst Allan Baumgarten , who studies trends in local health markets, has seen across the industry.

Baumgarten isn't surprised by Mayo's interest in outsourcing as a way to cut costs.

"It's about efficiency and cost-saving and utilizing outside expertise, and also allowing the hospital to focus on its core mission of patient care. And, in the case of Mayo, research and education," Baumgarten said.
Rochester is ready to ride with a fleet of brand-new, bright orange bicycles from Nice Ride Minnesota. The nonprofit organization launched its Rochester bike-share program Friday with an event on Peace Plaza, attended by program sponsors and Rochester Mayor Ardell Brede.

"We are a cosmopolitan and international city, and I think this is going to be a huge success here with the bicycles," Brede said.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota is the title sponsor of the Rochester program, with support from Mayo Clinic. To find out more about the program, see niceridemn.org/Rochester .

Where to find them:

Nice Ride bikes are available in Rochester at two staffed locations: People's Food Co-op, seven days a week from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Peace Plaza Visitor Kiosk, Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

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How to get one:

Nice Ride will rent its orange three-speed bicycles at three rental rates: $8 per hour; $20 for four hours; or $30 for eight hours. All rentals include a helmet and a lock, and each bicycle is equipped with a front basket, rear cargo rack, lights and adjustable seat.

Who can rent:

Bicycle rentals are available to anyone 18 years old or older. Bikes can be rented for 16- and 17-year-old riders by a parent or guardian. Rentals are not allowed for anyone younger than 16.

Where to go:

The bicycles are designed to accommodate all riding types, from short trips and errands to trail rides. Rental kiosks will have route information, and more maps of trails and popular routes are available at niceridemn.org/Rochester .

What's next?

The initial roll-out of Nice Ride in Rochester is focused on the city's 2 million annual visitors. As Rochester's downtown population grows and travel modes adapt with Destination Medical Center, Nice Ride hopes to bring in self-service bike-share stations. Nice Ride also plans to innovate in Rochester with programs tailored to riders with disabilities.
Oh, those crazy North Koreans - whatever will they think of next?

According to an official release by North Korean newswire NK, the Hermit Kingdom is getting its very own version of popular streaming service Netflix.

The North Korea-only service will be known as Manbang (stop laughing) and will be available via a set-top box. While Manbang (STOP LAUGHING) will not access to Netflix's wide variety of content because, d'uh it's North Korea, it will have access to documentaries about the leadership of Kim Jong-Il and Kim Jong-Un.

No Gilmore Girls or Stranger Things, then.

The service will also have political videos on Juche ideology, learning Russian and will have access to real-time channels like KCTV and Mansudae Television. Observers in South Korea believe that the service is real and the technology quoted in the North Korean newswires checks out, but doubt its availability for the average North Korean citizen.

It's believed that only 12% of North Koreans have access to the Internet and that there are a total of ZERO secure servers in North Korea. The global average, per country is, 209 servers.

It's not yet known if films will be made available on Manbang (I SAID STOP LAUGHING), as previous North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il was said to have one of the largest collections of DVDs and videos in the world, totalling over 30,000 according to official sources.

Via NKNews
Mayo Clinic's plan to subcontract out its food service department has drawn opposition from multiple sources.

First, a 1,200-signature petition was delivered to Mayo on Aug. 8 by members of the Service Employees International Union Healthcare Minnesota, which represents the food service workers.

Then, on Thursday, 30 state lawmakers (29 democrats and one republican) upped the ante, submitting their own petition accusing Mayo of reneging on promises made during the legislative process to secure public funding for the $6 billion Destination Medical Center plan.

Lt. Gov. Tina Smith, chairwoman of the DMC Corporation Board, also has urged Mayo and SEIU to "find common ground."

On Wednesday, some officials, including Rochester City Council member Michael Wojcik, plan to join in a Wednesday-afternoon picket on the sidewalk outside Saint Marys Hospital. The 90-minute picket is scheduled to start at 2:30 p.m.

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"These people have been good, loyal employees," Wojcik said. "(Mayo is) a highly profitable nonprofit. I don't think improving their outcomes on the backs of the lowest rung is a good way to make Rochester a stronger community. ... It's creating a huge liability for Rochester if we suddenly have 300 or more families who can't afford to live (here)."

'Poverty wages?'

Mayo said the decision to switch food vendors from Sodexo to Morrison Healthcare was made in order to "increase the consistency and efficiency" of its food service department. The plan would affect food service workers at 20 facilities across the country, including Rochester, Austin, Albert Lea, Owatonna, Mankato and Fairmont in southern Minnesota.

Mayo declined to share how much would be saved by outsourcing those jobs, but SEIU has filled in the blank with its own estimate  an estimate Mayo and Morrison both dispute.

SEIU claims its 350 union employees in Rochester will be hit with the double whammy of losing about $3.2 million in annual wages while paying nearly $800,000 more for health insurance. That equates to a monthly financial impact of nearly $1,000 each. SEIU made its estimates based on current union contracts with Mayo and Morrison's salary data pulled from Glassdoor.com .

Bev Bakken, a 28-year Mayo employee, said many are concerned about losing their homes in the transition.

"You sit home and cry while you think about it, then you try not to think about it," Bakken said. "But it just keeps coming back up."

Cost of health care

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For example, Mayo's family insurance plan costs $257 per month, while Morrison's comparable Gold-level family plan carries a monthly cost of $619.67, an SEIU representative said. Mayo says it will be offering a "bonus and benefit credit" for employees who complete the transition to Morrison to offset increased health care premiums.

SEIU's estimates suggest the annual pay of a food service worker would drop $15,000, pending details of Mayo's bonus and benefit credit system.

"I don't see why we need to go and screw up a good thing," said Jennifer Norgren, a food service worker in Rochester.

Mayo and Morrison both have pushed back on SEIU's estimates.

In a written statement Wednesday, Mayo said "current food and nutrition employees will be offered similar positions with Morrison at their current rate of pay and (full-time equivalent) and will be credited for years of service."

Morrison issued its own statement this week with similar wording, further noting "there is no end to the guarantee regarding wages" and transitioned Mayo employees will be eligible for merit-based pay increases at the end of one year.

However, there have been no such promises to future food service employees, and Mayo muddied the water with its final comment about union members: "Any transition offerings for union-represented employees, including offers of employment, need to be negotiated with the unions representing those employees. We respect that process."

That language echoes what union workers say they were told during the June 30 meeting, where nonunion members were guaranteed jobs at Morrison, while Mayo "just left (union members) up in the air," Bakken said.

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Bakken said there has been no additional communication to food service employees about the move in the past eight weeks. Mayo and Morrison both have declined to answer questions from union members. She said many workers felt "betrayed" when Mayo made the initial announcement, but she's now hopeful Mayo will reconsider because of how many people have rallied to the union's cause.

"When we went to the meeting, I was angry and hurt  (but) we're hopeful," Bakken said. "You've got to do whatever you can to stand up for what you believe in."
MINNEAPOLIS  For many Somali-Americans in Minnesota, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's fundraising visit to the state on Friday was the culmination of a tough week, a reminder of recent hostilities against people like them.

They believe Trump's rhetoric on Muslims and immigrants is emboldening hate, and they worry the hostility will stay no matter what happens in the election.

"Donald Trump to me represents a part of America that is anti-Islam, that is anti-immigrant, that is anti-black, that is getting stronger and has an even louder voice and has someone powerful like him representing that, and coming to the place where I live," said Khadra Fiqi,of Minneapolis.

Fiqi is black, wears a hijab and is visibly Muslim. She said she regularly deals with hateful comments and sees Trump's arrival in Minnesota as a symbol of a troubled America.

Trump has called for a ban on Muslims entering the country as a way to protect the country from terrorists. He's also painted a dark picture of the Somali community in Minnesota, saying the state has become a "rich pool of potential recruiting targets for Islamic terror groups."

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Trump's words have not been lost on his supporters or those purporting to support him.

In an audio recording, the Somali Museum of Minnesota said it received last week on its office voicemail, an anonymous caller, who identifies himself as a Minnesotan, saying "when Donald Trump is elected president, you're going to have to close down your museum."

The anonymous caller continues: "November's coming around; he's gonna get elected, and we're gonna get put a ban on all Muslims, especially Somalis. Go listen to Donald Trump speak at speeches: He's talking about Somalis in Minnesota. What do you think is gonna happen? They're all gonna get deported. What's gonna happen then to your museum?"

During a news conference focused on the concerns and worries of Somali and Muslim people in Minnesota, 12-year-old Yusuf Dayur told reporters about an incident at school that left him shaken.

Yusuf became an internet darling last year when he confidently declared on YouTube he'd become the first Muslim president of the United States.

But on Friday, that self-assuredness was heartbreakingly gone as he described how a kid at school asked him, "Why do your people attack us for no reason?" "That really affected me, because I've never been bullied because I was Muslim, and it affected me because I didn't know what to do," he said, tearing up. "So I just stood there."

In Little Falls, the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations is asking the FBI to investigate an alleged threat by two men to burn down the house of a Somali-American woman. According to the Star Tribune, the men called her a terrorist and said Muslims weren't allowed to live in the city.

A Trump campaign spokesman in Minnesota declined to comment on the CAIR news conference.

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Another political fight also is rippling through the community.

It started last week, when a conservative blog picked up unsubstantiated claims that Ilhan Omar, the winner of a Minneapolis DFL primary, married her brother from England so he could receive U.S. citizenship.

Several days later, Omar issued a statement. She said he was not her brother but yes, she did legally marry the British man after she ended the relationship with the father of her children.

Jamal Abdulahi, a DFL party activist who is Somali-American, says many people in the community went from riding the emotional highs of Omar's historic win to feeling the whole moment was being hijacked.

Many were left scratching their heads as to how the discussion could swerve so instantly to the possibility of marriage fraud?

"The mood swing in the community is just remarkable," Abdulahi said. "Here at one moment, it's very jubilant and very celebratory, and suddenly, there's a sense of (being) under siege."

Omar's Republican rival in the general election, Abdimalik Askar, said he's not going to press the issue of Omar's complicated marriage history. He's calling it a private family matter.

Still, another voter in the district, Abdirahman Mukhtar, said he can't help but feel the constant barrage of bad news and allegations is putting a stain on his community.

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While anti-refugee blogs continue to depict his Cedar-Riverside neighborhood in Minneapolis as a so-called "no-go zone" where sharia law prevails, he dares them to visit and see for themselves. He'll point out the co-existence of a bustling mosque next to Palmer's Bar.

"Some of those people who are actually drinking are maybe Muslims who are not practicing their religion, while other Muslims are praying in the mosque and practicing the religion the right way," he said. "That's America at its core."
In his Aug. 11 Post-Bulletin letter, Randy Staver had one thing correct: One cannot "simply say that one will be proactive and visionary without being willing to actually engage in the public process, participate in attending discussions and outline specific solutions."

Sean Allen isn't only saying he'll be proactive; he has a history of action around "the core of (Staver's) objectives." While Staver was leading the city council through an unnecessarily long debate on food trucks in Rochester, Sean was hosting a food truck rally at his business. Rochester has shown overwhelming support for food trucks; however Staver's ordinance is prohibiting business.

Housing is one of Staver's core objectives, but Sean is the one with years of experience in creating more than 1,000 workforce housing units. He was a leader in the movement to revitalize Kutzky Park. Blight was transformed, and Kutzky now is one of the most desirable neighborhoods in Rochester. In comparison, as a reaction to the failed Holiday Inn development, Staver unfairly blamed volunteer citizens who invested time in ensuring a flawed development fit standards set by existing plans.

Staver's milquetoast style of leadership has stalled progress. An overhaul of development process is needed so more projects don't run away from Rochester. As someone who has navigated the process first-hand, Sean Allen is the one to trust with progress and change.

Jessica Schmitt

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Rochester
leftists who are too obsessed with global warming to want to reproduce. Hey, if thats what it takes, we probably should be grateful. NPR asks the questionseriously, as far as I can tellShould We Be Having Kids In The Age Of Climate Change?

Standing before several dozen students in a college classroom, Travis Rieder tries to convince them not to have children. Or at least not too many. Hes at James Madison University in southwest Virginia to talk about a small-family ethic  to question the assumptions of a society that sees having children as good, throws parties for expecting parents, and in which parents then pressure their kids to give them grandchildren. Why question such assumptions? The prospect of climate catastrophe.

Its interesting: I havent seen data on this, but by observation I believe that liberals, on the average, have smaller families than conservatives. But I dont think this is because of global warming, I think it is because liberals generally put a higher priority on disposable income.

Heres a provocative thought: Maybe we should protect our kids by not having them, Rieder says. His arguments sound pretty persuasive in the classroom. At home, it was a different matter. I have been one of those women who actually craved to have a baby, says Sadiye Rieder, smiling as she sits next to her husband in the sunroom of their Maryland home. To go through pregnancy and everything, that mattered to me a lot. Sadiye also wanted a big family. She grew up among extended relatives in the Turkish part of Cyprus and says she enjoyed having people around all the time. This was not a problem early in their marriage, as each focused on their studies. But by the time Sadiye began feeling ready for motherhood, Travis research had delved into the morality of adoption, which led to the ethics of procreation and to its impact on the climate. They knew they had to talk. Its not easy to convince a philosopher! Sadiye says with a laugh.

Sometimes its not easy to convince a guy, period. But happilyI mean that sincerelySadiye was able to talk Travis, the philosopher, into one child.

Travis is a philosopher, not a scientist, and it is evident from NPRs account that he has no idea of the current state of the climate debate, which the alarmists are losing badly. But he is not the only anti-child climate hysteric.

Meghan Hoskins is among a dozen people gathered in the spare office of an environmental group in Keene, N.H., earlier this year. They sit on folding chairs in a circle, the room humming with multiple conversations.

Never, ever, participate in a gathering that consists of people sitting on folding chairs in a circle.

This is one of 16 meetings over the past year and a half organized by Conceivable Future, a nonprofit founded on the notion that the climate crisis is a reproductive crisis. Hoskins says shes always wanted little redheaded babies  as do her parents, the sooner the better. But shes a grad student in environmental studies, and the more she learns, the more she questions what kind of life those babies would have.

Actually, it is entirely rational to worry about what kind of life your children will have. Only global warming doesnt rank among the top 100 threats to their well-being. Liberalism is number three on that list, after automobile accidents and fatal diseases.

At the New Hampshire meeting, 67-year-old Nancy Nolan tells two younger women that people didnt know about climate change in the 1980s when she had her kids. Once her children were grown, I said to them, I hope you never have children, which is an awful thing to say, Nolan says, her voice wavering. It can bring me to tears easily.

That really was an awful thing to say, and completely unnecessary from a scientific point of view. But liberals are hard-wired, apparently, to fall for any theory that foretells catastrophe unless we all adopt the liberal party line.

The perennial question, of course, is how to make the rest of us fall for it. This is where the government comes in:

Rieder and his Georgetown collaborators have a proposal, and the first thing they stress is that its not like Chinas abusive one-child policy. It aims to persuade people to choose fewer children with a strategy that boils down to carrots for the poor, sticks for the rich.

How did I know that was coming?

Ethically, Rieder says poor nations get some slack because theyre still developing, and because their per capita emissions are a sliver of the developed worlds. Plus, it just doesnt look good for rich, Western nations to tell people in poor ones not to have kids. He suggests things like paying poor women to refill their birth control and  something thats had proven success  widespread media campaigns.

Good luck with that.

For the sticks part of the plan, Rieder proposes that richer nations do away with tax breaks for having children and actually penalize new parents. He says the penalty should be progressive, based on income, and could increase with each additional child.

Taxes! Is there anything they cant do? Somehow, every liberal preoccupation comes down to increasing taxes on you and me. Funny coincidence, isnt it?

Liberals are easy to ridicule; in fact, making fun of them is a moral duty. But it is sobering to understand the extent to which they want to meddle in your life.
Stephen Breyer seems to me the ne plus ultra leftist progressive on the Supreme Court. I assume thats one of the reasons why Justice Scalia relished sparring with him. No left-wing dogma is beyond Breyer and he seeks to overlay the absurd with an intellectual patina. His interest in the United States Constitution approaches nullity.

Indeed, to borrow a famous Athenian indictment, Justice Breyer seeks to introduce new gods into constitutional deliberation. In his new book  The Court and the World  he purports to justify resort to foreign law to interpret the United States Constitution.

Brian Callanan is an attorney at King & Spalding in Washington, D.C.. He previously served as general counsel to Senator Rob Portman. Callanan introduces his CRB review of Justice Breyers book  Justice League International  this way:

Writing the Courts lone dissent in the 1999 case of Knight v. Florida, Justice Stephen Breyer relied on no less an authority than the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe to support an inmates claim that his long wait on death rowprolonged by his own appealsmade his punishment unconstitutional. Justice Clarence Thomas pounced: were there a shred of support for the right to a speedy execution in our own jurisprudence, he wrote, it would be unnecessary to rely on foreign sources. Breyer later confessed that invoking Zimbabwean precedent was what one might call a tactical error. Maybe so. But the practice caught on, and a working majority of the Court now periodically uses foreign legal sources in U.S. constitutional cases.

Callanan recalls:

To his credit, Breyer is the only Justice who has seriously attempted to explain the practice. Some years ago, he joined with the late Justice Antonin Scalia to debate this and other legal flashpoints. Since judges in constitutional democracies around the world often face problems similar to those confronting American judges, Breyer argued, why not consider how they solved those problems? It will not bind me, he said, but I may learn something. Scalia answered that the opinions of foreign judges should be irrelevant to originalists and non-originalists alike: modern foreign sources have no bearing on the Constitutions original meaning, and even those who wish to see the Constitution evolve through judicial decree surely want it to reflect the views of the American people. Breyer never quite mustered a clear response. Rather than advance a theory of interpretation legitimizing the use of foreign law, Breyer treats this practice, in the words of NYU School of Laws Jeremy Waldron, as a matter of getting a little bit of help here and a little bit of help there.

Here we approach the heart of the matter:

Breyer suggests that the Courts critics suffer from some version of the psychological phenomenon of displacement, blaming foreign law usage when their real grievance is with a cases outcome. Projection by the author may be a more apt diagnosis. It is striking that Breyers use of foreign law in constitutional cases so reliably yields progressive results. In cases in which world opinion is more retrograde the international dialogue falls silent. In Obergefell v. Hodges (2015), for example, the Court recognized a constitutional right to same-sex marriagewith no mention of the European Court of Human Rights contrary judgment one year earlier. Indeed, foreign law does not make it into the footnotes in cases addressing issues ranging from abortion to punitive damages to criminal procedure, matters on which European sensibilities generally point to more conservative policies. But the core objection to the Courts innovative use of foreign law is not that it is foreign or even that it is cherry-picked. It is that foreign sources are rarely probative of the Constitutions original meaning. As Scalia quipped: I use foreign law more than anybody on the Court. But its all old English lawthat is, founding-era authorities that elucidate how those who wrote and ratified the Constitution understood its language and legal concepts. The same cannot be said about the latest ruling of the Cour de Cassation.

Breyer has more, and worse, and Callanan is a reliable guide to his deep thoughts.

Callanans review completes our preview of the new (Summer) issue of the Claremont Review of Books. As I have mentioned a time or two before, you can avail yourself of the most cost-effective political education in the United States with a subscription to the CRB at the heavily subsidized price of $19.95 a year. Subscribe by clicking on Subscription Services at the link and get immediate online access thrown in for free.
If The Nation magazines special curated tour of the Soviet Union Russia isnt enough for you, why they have another trip to an America-hating country that may be perfect: Iran!

Join The Nation as we travel to Iran for an educational excursion curated for a very limited delegation of Nation readers and supporters. Undoubtedly, this trip will offer a rare opportunity to experience the people, politics, culture, and history of a country that has been at the very center of geopolitics for decades and that so few Americans have an opportunity to visit.

Our journey will take us to Tehran, where we will meet with college professors and other experts, and to the historic cities of Shiraz, Persepolis, Naqshi-i-Rustam, Pasargad, Isfahan, Kashan, and Qom. We will tour Irans preeminent museums, bazaars, mosques, and most significant historical sites.

SPACE IS EXTREMELY LIMITED  SO PLEASE REGISTER WITHOUT DELAY!
Over the last week, Donald Trump has delivered a series of remarkable speeches that have, in my view, reinvigorated his candidacy. The most recent was yesterday, in Charlotte. The speech has gotten a lot of attention, much of it directed to Trumps sort-of-apology for some of the rude things he said during the primary season. No doubt Trump is trying to unify the party and mend fences, but in context, his words of regret that have been widely quoted are hardly abject. Rather, Trump postures himself primarily as a truth-teller:

Ive never wanted to use the language of the insiders, and Ive never been politically correct  it takes far too much time, and can often make more difficult [sic]. Sometimes, in the heat of debate and speaking on a multitude of issues, you dont choose the right words or you say the wrong thing. I have done that, and I regret it, particularly where it may have caused personal pain. Too much is at stake for us to be consumed with these issues. But one thing I can promise you is this: I will always tell you the truth. I speak the truth for all of you, and for everyone in this country who doesnt have a voice. I speak the truth on behalf of the factory worker who lost his or her job. I speak the truth on behalf of the Veteran who has been denied the medical care they need  and so many are not making it. They are dying. I speak the truth on behalf of the family living near the border that deserves to be safe in their own country but is instead living with no security at all.

***

So while sometimes I can be too honest, Hillary Clinton is the exact opposite: she never tells the truth. One lie after another, and getting worse each passing day.

That is not what I would call an apology, nor is it directed to anyone in particular (e.g., John McCain).

What is notable about Trumps speech, in my opinion, is not that much-hyped expression of regret. Rather, it is the inclusive tone that he adopted and seamlessly incorporated into the powerful themes he has articulated in his recent set-piece speeches. Repeatedly, Trump appealed for African-American votes:

We cannot make America Great Again if we leave any community behind. Nearly four in ten African-American children are living in poverty. I will not rest until children of every color in this country are fully included in the American Dream. Jobs, safety, opportunity. Fair and equal representation. This is what I promise to African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, and all Americans.

***

On education, we are going to give students choice, and allow charter schools to thrive. We are going to end tenure policies that reward bad teachers and hurt good ones. My opponent wants to deny students choice and opportunity, all to get a little bit more money from the education bureaucracy. She doesnt care how many young dreams are dashed in the process. We are going to work closely with African-American parents and students in the inner cities  and what a big difference that will make. This means a lot to me, and it is going to be a top priority in a Trump Administration.

***

Finally, we are going to bring this country together. We are going to do it by emphasizing what we all have in common as Americans. We are going to reject the bigotry of Hillary Clinton, which sees communities of color only as votes and not as human beings worthy of a better future. If African-American voters give Donald Trump a chance by giving me their vote, the result for them will be amazing. Look at how badly things are going under decades of Democratic leadership  look at the schools, look at the 58% of young African-Americans not working. It is time for change. What do you have to lose by trying something new?  I will fix it. This means so much to me, and I will work as hard as I can to bring new opportunity to places in our country which have not known opportunity in a very long time. Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party have taken African-American votes totally for granted. Because the votes have been automatically there, there has been no reason for Democrats to produce. It is time to break with the failures of the past, and to fight for every last American child in this country to have the better future they deserve. In my Administration, every American will be treated equally, protected equally, and honored equally. We will reject bigotry and hatred and oppression in all of its forms, and seek a new future built on our common culture and values as one American people.

To the extent that African-American voters hear those appeals, I think they are powerful. Note how Trump weaves his appeal to black voters, gays, etc. into his discussion of immigration:

On immigration, we will temporarily suspend immigration from any place where adequate screening cannot be performed. All applicants for immigration will be vetted for ties to radical ideology, and we will screen out anyone who doesnt share our values and love our people. Anyone who believes Sharia law supplants American law will not be given an immigrant visa. If you want to join our society, then you must embrace our society, our values and our tolerant way of life. Those who believe in oppressing women, gays, Hispanics, African-Americans and people of different faiths are not welcome to join our country.

Liberal commentators have bashed Trump so obsessively with regard to his views on immigration that they seem to have lost sight of the fact that he is on the winning side of the issue. How does Hillary respond to this?

Another major issue in this campaign has been the border. Our open border has allowed drugs and crime and gangs to pour into our communities. So much needless suffering, so much preventable death. Ive spent time with the families of wonderful Americans whose loved ones were killed by the open borders and Sanctuary Cities that Hillary Clinton supports. Ive embraced the crying parents whove lost their children to violence spilling across our border. Parents like Laura Wilkerson and Michelle Root and Sabine Durden and Jamiel Shaw whose children were killed by illegal immigrants. My opponent supports Sanctuary Cities. But where was the sanctuary for Kate Steinle? Where was the sanctuary for the children of Laura, Michelle, Sabine and Jamiel? Where was the sanctuary for every other parent who has suffered so horribly? These moms and dads dont get a lot of consideration from our politicians. They certainly dont get apologies. Theyll never even get the time of day from Hillary Clinton. But they will always come first to me.

How does Hillary counter that? She cant. She just hopes Trumps message is muffled by the press.

Finally, Trump postures himself as the outsider who can clean up a corrupt government. Ten years ago, the assertion that our national government is hopelessly corrupt would have been implausible. Today, it resonates with a majority of voters. So this is an effective theme:

I have no patience for injustice, no tolerance for government incompetence, no sympathy for leaders who fail their citizens. Thats why I am running: to end the decades of bitter failure and to offer the American people a new future of honesty, justice and opportunity. A future where America, and its people, always  and I mean always  come first. Arent you tired of a system that gets rich at your expense? Arent you tired of the same old lies and the same old broken promises? And Hillary Clinton has proven to be one of the greatest liars of all time. Arent you tired of arrogant leaders who look down on you, instead of serving and protecting you?

***

I have no special interest. I am spending millions of dollars on my own campaign  nobody else is. My only interest is the American people.

Dont underestimate the appeal of the candidate who is rich and therefore wont use public office to get wealthy, like the Clintons, and doesnt need to follow the lead of donors and lobbyists. I have seen focus group data suggesting that in todays climate, this themeI am rich, and therefore I cant be boughtis one of the most popular among voters.

Finally, Trump attacked the liberal media, as he has consistently throughout his campaign. This, too, is very popular:

The establishment media doesnt cover what really matters in this country, or whats really going on in peoples lives. They will take words of mine out of context and spend a week obsessing over every single syllable, and then pretend to discover some hidden meaning in what I said. Just imagine for a second if the media spent this energy holding the politicians accountable who got innocent Americans like Kate Steinle killed  she was gunned down by an illegal immigrant who had been deported five times. Just imagine if the media spent this much time investigating the poverty and joblessness in our inner cities. Just think about how much different things would be if the media in this country sent their cameras to our border, or to our closing factories, or to our failing schools. Or if the media focused on what dark secrets must be hidden in the 33,000 emails Hillary Clinton deleted. Instead, every story is told from the perspective of the insiders. Its the narrative of the people who rigged the system, never the voice of the people its been rigged against.

In my opinion, Donald Trump is becoming a formidable candidate. On the key issues that he talks about the most, he takes positions that are, I think, both right and popular, with one exceptiontrade. He has given a series of excellent speeches, more or less as they were written, thereby demonstrating a discipline that was sorely lacking earlier in the campaign. No one should underestimate his populist appeal, including his appeal to minority voters.

Hillary Clinton, who at the moment is resting up from the rigors of the campaign while Trump tours Louisianashe is an elderly lady, after allcan only hope that her allies in the press block voters from hearing what Trump is saying.
For the first time in decades, I am an undecided voter in a presidential election. I havent decided whether to vote for Donald Trump or to vote for no candidate.

Concern over what the Supreme Court (and the lower courts) will look like if Hillary Clinton wins is one of the main considerations that might cause me to vote for Trump. Thus, when I saw that John Yoo and Jeremy Rabkin  both of whom I respect and admire  had written a piece called Filling Supreme Court Vacancies Isnt a Good Reason to Vote for Trump, I was eager to see what they argued. Almost as eager as I suspect the Los Angeles Times was to publish an anti-Trump piece written by conservatives.

I found the piece disappointing. Reading it, one would think the election is a referendum on Trump not a race between (effectively) Trump and Hillary Clinton.

Yoo and Rabkin begin by arguing, correctly, that the presidents first responsibilities are to maintain national security, advance our national interests in foreign affairs and provide direction for the military. They then point out some of Donald Trumps deficiencies in these areas. A Trump presidency, they say, invites a cascade of global crises and constitutional order will not thrive at home in a world beset by threats and disorder.

All true, I think. But Yoo and Rabkin dont address a question thats central to me: Will Hillary Clinton do a better job than Donald Trump of maintaining national security, advancing our national interests in foreign affairs, and providing direction for the military?

If so and if her edge is significant, then its reasonable, and probably compelling, to argue that filling Supreme Court vacancies isnt reason enough to vote for Trump. But if Hillary Clinton would likely be as bad or worse than Trump in the realm of national security and foreign affairs, then voting for Trump because of whom he likely would select for the judiciary seems to make sense, if his selections are likely to be materially better than Clintons.

Yoo and Rabkin address the question of the kinds of Justices Trump would likely select. But again, their discussion contains a big hole. It doesnt compare Trump to Clinton.

Yoo and Rabkin argue that Trump might not keep his vague promises to nominate conservatives. He might not even be able to figure out who among potential nominees is conservative.

Even if he nominates conservatives, the Senate might not confirm them. Even if a conservative is confirmed, some of his or her votes on the Supreme Court might disappoint. Anyway, conservatives are overestimating the importance of the Supreme Court.

All true to one degree or another. But none of these considerations negates what seems obvious to me: (1) Hillary Clinton will nominate liberal Justices and judges across-the-board, and many of them will be hard core left-wingers, (2) Donald Trumps nominees may be flawed in many instances, but most probably wont be liberal and virtually none is likely to be hard left-wing, (3) the strong leftward slant of Clintons nominees would likely have important negative consequences for the country.

Yoo and Rabkin deny none of this.

In a follow-up piece, Yoo and Rabkin make additional arguments. They express doubt that Justices appointed by a President Trump will restrain his excesses. The doubt is legitimate. We can be nearly certain, though, that Justices appointed by a President Hillary Clinton wont restrain her excesses.

Are Clintons excesses likely to be less egregious than Trumps? Yoo and Rabkin dont say.

Yoo and Rabkin then speculate that a Supreme Court dominated by Democratic appointees might restrain itself. What are the odds that it will show such restraint? Yoo and Rabkin dont say. I put them at slightly above zero. The best well get from that lot as they overhaul constitutional law and trample on rights in furtherance of a leftist agenda is the occasional troubled concurrence.

Next Yoo and Rabkin complain that Trump appointees will be unable to shape constitutional understandings over the long term. Thus, the Supreme Court will continue operating on the precise fault lines of almost all our domestic political disputes and we will continue to lack a solid constitutional structure.

To me, this state of affairs, though lamentable, is paradise compared to a Supreme Court under the control of Justices selected by Democrats.

I understand the view of some conservatives that Trump fails to meet the minimum level of acceptability in a president and therefore doesnt deserve support. But if Trumps candidacy has a serious chance of success, Im more sympathetic to the pragmatic view that if hed make a materially better president than Hillary Clinton, I should vote for him.

Judicial nominations are an important consideration in assessing the relative merits of Trump and Clinton, and that assessment must, by definition, be comparative. Yoo and Rabkin have not provided a comparative assessment of the two candidates either as to judicial nominations or national security/foreign policy.
The multi-billion Naira Calabar Light rail project, the first in Nigeria, would soon be inaugurated by President Muhammadu Buhari.

The 12-car monorail system, when fully operational, would use an Intamin P8 electric powered passenger shuttle train to convey passengers from Tinapa Resort, across Lake Tinapa to Calabar International Conference Centre (CICC).

The light rail project has three stations, Tinapa, Tinapa Lakeside Hotel and the Calabar International Conference Centre.

The monorail would also allow access to Studio Tinapa, Tinapa Shopping Centre and Tinapa waterpark as well as provide a quick alternative access to Summit Hills.

Built by Ponet TFZE, the train with a cruising speed of about 40 kilometres per hour, has 12 cars, including 10 passenger and two equipment cars.

Each car is primed for seven to eight passengers all seated, while the trains length, width and height are approximately 38, 1.95 and 2.2 metres, respectively.

When fully operational, the electric-powered air-conditioned train with 1.62 metres height approximately in its passenger compartment, would provide a 24-hour service.

Gov. Ben Ayade had recently told journalists in Calabar that Buhari would inaugurate the train to mark his first year in office.

Ayade announced this during a second test ride of the train to ensure that the project was ready for inauguration.

The governor said the launching of the monorail would be a step toward boosting the economy and expand employment opportunities in the state..

He said the state government was determined to extend the facility to Margaret Ekpo International Airport, Calabar, as panacea to envisaged congestion of the city centre through rapid investments inflow.

The parking space at the trains take-off point at Tinapa can conveniently accommodate 150 cars.

Mr Mba Mba, the stations Electrical Engineer, said the light rail project was completed in December last year.

Right now, the Calabar Monorail is ready for use pending inauguration by appropriate authorities.

We have test-run the system and confirmed its readiness. Gov. Ben Ayade was here with his team to see for himself what is on ground.

Tourists troop here on daily basis to take a ride. But they were disappointed as they were turned back.

 We always give the excuse that although services are ready, they can only have their way when it is officially inaugurated.

School children on excursions, families and other curious residents, who have not seen this kind of train before, have been coming to feed their eyes and seeking to take a ride.

Mr Christian Ita, Chief Press Secretary to Gov. Ayade, also confirmed that the project was completed.

It is awaiting inauguration; we are waiting for a date from the presidency for its inauguration, he said.
China's full-year exports expected to go down again Updated: 2016-08-20 09:42 By Du Xiaoying(China Daily)

Rows of Chinese automobiles are lined up in Lianyungang Port, Jiangsu province, in January, waiting to be shipped to Brazil. [Photo/China Daily]

China's full-year exports are likely to see a bigger drop than last year as downward economic pressures remain in place, a senior analyst at a government think tank said on Friday.

"Besides weak external demand, the country is suffering a hard time now," Long Guoqiang, deputy director of the Development Research Center of the State Council, told a news conference in Beijing.

He indicated traditional advantages enjoyed in previous years, such as relatively low-cost labor-intensive manufacturing industries, were losing traction in a weaker global economy while emerging advantages from expansion of the country's high-tech sector are still evolving.

"Export growth will remain slow in the coming years," Long said.

China's exports dropped 1.8 percent last year to 14.14 trillion yuan ($2.14 trillion), while imports plunged 13.2 percent to 10.45 trillion yuan, according to data from the General Administration of Customs.

That was the first time China saw declines in both exports and imports since 2009. In the first seven months of the year, exports were down 1.6 percent and imports decreased 4.8 percent.

An economist said that seasonal trends, shown in the GAC data, indicate that total yearly exports will be down even more in the remaining part of the current year.

In the January-July period, foreign trade was 3 percent lower than a year earlier.

Long said, however, the structure of China's foreign trade was getting better and the long-term outlook was promising.

Long said the development of new business formats such as cross-border e-commerce and buying from international markets, as well as the increasing number of exports with independent intellectual property rights, all showed structural upgrades.

Assistant Commerce Minister Zhang Ji told the news conference that China still retained its global leading position on trade in goods, with a rise in the global market share of its exports from 11.2 percent in 2013 to 13.8 percent in 2015.

"After three decades of high-speed growth, we should treat the issue more objectively and rationally," Zhang said.
The federal government on Friday said it was considering a new tax policy to capture Nigerians evading tax.

The Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, who disclosed this in Abuja, said government plans to announce a comprehensive framework to regulate duty waivers and exemptions in the country.

Mrs. Adeosun said government was currently consulting with interest groups to determine the impact the proposed tax policy review would have on private sector and overall tax collection.

We have lots of people who are not paying tax in this country, the minister said. But, we have to be careful. If we do a revenue drive and people are put out of work, something is wrong. There must be a framework to govern how tax revenues are collected.

The minister said government was equally considering a holistic framework for duty waivers and exemptions, in view of abuses in the system.

There are lots of abuses. An inter-ministerial committee is finalizing work on that. The two main areas government intends to announce holistic policies in the next two to five days on tax and duty waivers and exemptions, the minister said.

On plans by government to introduce luxury tax in the country, the minister said in view of the absence of a legal provision on the issue at the moment, a committee has already been constituted to look at how the laws could be put in place on the issue.

Tax are legislative issues. There must be a law in place for government to collect tax. The proposed taxes announced on private jets and property were more of a statement than policy, as it has no legal backing.

The Joint Tax is working on harmonizing overlapping taxes by federal, state and local governments to promote the ease of doing business. Government is also looking at the best agency to collect taxes, rather than many agencies handling the same responsibility, she said.

She also said a committee, headed by the Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Babatunde Fowler, had been inaugurated to overhaul revenue sources and rates of tax paid.

The Director in charge of Revenue and Investment, in the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, Mohammed Dikwa, said a recent Revenue retreat to review revenue generation strategies recommended a review of the existing laws on rates and tariffs.

He said the retreat resolved to re-strategise and come up with new ways to boost revenue to realise the N1.5 trillion target set by government.

About N500 billion revenue was lost in the last six months. We resolved to review existing customs tariffs and rates charged on services; create a single window for tracking of all goods coming in and going out of Nigeria; stop wastages at federal and states agencies by enforcing fiscal responsibility plan to make revenue receipts and payments public, Mr. Dikwa said

On the civil service reforms, the minister said a committee in the office of the Secretary of the Government of the Federation was working on the implementation of recommendations of the Steve Oronsaye Presidential committee on Rationalization and Restructuring of the civil service.

On when the country would likely come out of the current economic recession, the minister said although she would not make promises, she was convinced if the fundamental issue of fight against corruption was sustained, and monies recovered re-channeled to projects to grow the economy, the country would recover.

If we look at our recurrent expenditure and cut wastage and excesses and duplication in salary bills of about N165 billion every month; clean the payroll every month, and not allow new ghost workers to be added and redirect the money to where it is needed, we will recover, she said.

We inherited N65 billion to suppliers for fertilizer bought in 2014 and not paid for, and in 2015 most farmers planted without fertilizer. And the yield was low. This year we asked for the construction of more silos in expectation of a bumper harvest, because farmers planted with fertilizers this year, she said.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said that the recent crisis in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has shown that the partys era had come to an end.

Mr. Obasanjo disclosed this while fielding questions from journalists in Jalingo, the Capital City of Taraba, during a tour of some projects in the state.

When asked to comment on the ongoing crisis in his former party, the PDP, Mr. Obasanjo simply said in the part of the country where I come from, there is a saying that you cannot say good night and come to say good evening in the same place.

So for me, it is good night for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and thats all, he said.

Mr. Obasanjo. who was one time Chairman, Board of Trustees of the party, had torn his membership certificate before the 2015 election denouncing the party in its entirety.

Recently when a picture and story went out in the media that he was at a PDP event at the Shehu Musa YarAdua Centre, he also made it very clear that he was done with the party and with partisan politics.

Attending PDP Event

A wrongly captioned photograph by NAN had set tongues wagging and the rumour mills busy as to the mission of the former leader, who in 2015 tore his membership card of the PDP.

NAN can confirm that the former leader did not go near the ceremony inaugurating the National Convention Committee of the PDP faction led by Senator Ahmed Makarfi.

Rather, Mr. Obasanjo was at the centre to take part in an agricultural stakeholders meeting, Zero Hunger in Africa-Nigeria chapter

Some news reports had gone ahead with speculations that the former president was making political realignment for 2019 elections.

The PDP event was meant to inaugurate the partys national convention and financial committees.The party convention, downgraded to be non-elective after a court ban, held on Aug. 17 in Port Harcourt.

According to a statement by Tunde Arosanyin of the Zero Hunger in Africa in Abuja on Saturday, it was just a coincidence that the two meetings were holding at the same venue.

He came for zero hunger in Africa-Nigeria chapter meeting with commodity Association stakeholders.

At closing, some PDP members came to greet him at the boardroom of the hunger meeting venue, Mr. Arosanyin said.

(NAN)
The acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Ibrahim Magu, on Friday said some dark forces had been busy hijacking the powers given to the anti-graft agency to battle economic and financial crimes in the country.

Mr. Magu stated this while presenting a paper titled This Is Our Chance at the Symposium organized by members of the National Association of Democratic Lawyers, NADL, in Lagos.

When these dark forces gather (as they have), our expectation is that bodies such as the National Association of Democratic Lawyers would rise up, without any further prompting and come to our rescue, the EFCC chairman said.

The tug-and-pull for the soul of the EFCC aptly mirrors that for the control of the destiny of our dear nation.

Mr. Magu did not provide details of those he said were gathering and scheming to appropriate the functions and powers of his commission.

He however vowed that his agency would counter the dark forces and ensure that the war against corruption was not derailed.

Whilst we may not claim omniscience, one thing we are convinced of in the Commission is that Nigeria will be doomed if we fail to win the war on corruption, he said.

The EFCC chairman said Nigerians would no longer be held hostage by the twin evils of corruption and impunity.

He promised that the Commission under his watch would challenge anyone, including certain senior lawyers, judges and other judicial officers, against whom concrete evidence for perverting the course of justice had been established.

He lauded the patriotic fervour of the members of the association in the fight against corruption, saying their confrontation of the corruption monster through the instrumentality of the law was an inspiration to those of us on the enforcement side of the law.

Mr. Magu, however, stated that the Commission, in the course of its anti-graft war, had always been confronted with people he described as a gang of rogue elements, who had been a spoke in the wheel of the Commissions activities and also given a bad name to the bar and bench.

According to him, the biggest form of corruption is not the ones you find in government offices or banks; it is not the ones that is plaguing the oil industry or pension administration. The biggest, most virulent form of corruption that ever existed is the one that has eaten deep into the fabric of the Temple of Justice.

It is to you who minister in the temple of justice that we all run to -high or low, mighty or weak, lawmakers, law breakers and law enforcers. It is to the courts that we all run, for protection.

However, we are all witnesses to the abuse of skills, knowledge, powers, position and privileges by a few rogue elements, who, whilst being a tiny fraction, have an outsized influence on the direction of the Nigerian judiciary and indeed, the Nigerian nation.

He, therefore, called on everyone who is pained by the parlous state of affairs in the country to join hands with the Commission to stamp out corruption from Nigeria.

Mr. Magu, who also described the anti-graft mandate of the Commission as a leveller, added that Where hapless Nigerians are defrauded, EFCC will swiftly come to their aid; where powerless Nigerians are short-changed, EFCC will intervene and where there is impunity, EFCC will step in and level the field.

He stated that contrary to the impression that the Commission had immense powers, it had always operated strictly within the bounds of the Rule of Law.

It is important to note that what has made the EFCC to stand out from every other law enforcement agency in Africa, are our conviction, commitment and professionalism, backed by the unshaken support of ordinary Nigerians,  Mr. Magu said.
The Assistant Inspector-General of Police for the Zone II Command Headquarters in Lagos, Abdulmajid Ali, on Saturday said the case files of a man alleged to have named his dog Buhari should be transferred to his desk with immediate effect.

For now, the AIG Zone II has called for a meeting that we want to call the parties involved in the matter to see how the matter could be resolved, Ogun State police spokesman, Abimbola Oyeyemi, told PREMIUM TIMES.

Joe Chinakwe, 30, was arrested and confined to a police cell in Sango Otta, Ogun State, for three days last week after a neighbour complained that he named his dog Buhari, the Vanguard reported.

The neighbour, who police identified as Halilu Umar from Sokoto State, reportedly told the police that Mr. Chinakwes decision was aimed at spiting and ridiculing his father who also happened to be named Alhaji Buhari.

Mr. Chinakwe, a trader, was immediately arrested and detained for three days without bail, the Vanguard reported.

The paper quoted police sources as saying that Mr. Chinakwes action was very provocative and capable of stocking ethno-religious tensions in the country, allegations Mr. Chinakwe reportedly denied.

Mr. Chinakwe told the Vanguard he named his dog Buhari out of personal affection he had for President Muhammadu Buhari.

After a brief freedom he was granted by the police, Mr. Chinakwe was again rearrested on Friday.

Police said they rearrested Mr. Chinakwe ahead of his arraignment before a Magistrates Court on Monday as well as to guarantee his safety, having been allegedly threatened by neighbours.

Mr. Oyeyemi said since Mr. Ali had expressed his interest in the case and wanted to broker a peace amongst the parties involved, Mr. Chinakwe might not be charged to court again on Monday.

The matter may likely not go to court again on Monday, Mr. Oyeyemi said.

The Zone II Command covered Lagos and Ogun States.
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) on Friday said it had concluded arrangements to hold its next technical meeting on admissions at the Bayero University in Kano.

The boards Head, Media and Information, Fabian Benjamin, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that it would hold from Aug. 22 to Aug. 26.

Mr. Benjamin said that the meeting would receive the lists of candidates who had met the admission criteria from the various tertiary institutions for its ratification.

Mr. Benjamin said, We are expecting a full complement of representatives from all the tertiary institutions in the country to attend the meeting.

They are expected to submit the lists of first choice candidates shortlisted for admission into the respective tertiary institutions, comprising universities, polytechnics and colleges of education.

The board and all other stakeholders will collectively go through the lists to see if they had met the admission criteria.

The board, if satisfied, will ratify the lists and admission print-outs will be issued to the institutions.

He said that the names of successful candidates would also be uploaded on the website of respective institutions for candidates to print.

According to him, the admission letters will contain details such as admission status, school and course of study as well as duration of chosen programme.

(NAN)
An Ojaoba Panel of Sharia Court of Arbitration in Ibadan on Friday heard that a man, Abdulrasheed Yusuf, gives his wife, Sidikat, N10 per meal as upkeep allowance for family of six.

Sidikat had asked the court to dissolve her 18-year-old marriage to Yusuf for alleged infidelity and starvation.

He was giving me N10 as feeding allowance either as breakfast or lunch because he said he just lost his job.

Even when he got another job, Yusuf did not change and in fact, the situation worsened as we continued to depend on concoction.

Yusuf, most of the times fed on bread and egg with sardine while the children and I took gari or eba.

My lord, right from the beginning of my stay with Yusuf as his wife, I started experiencing different kinds of bad treatment of which starvation was number one.

Worst still, Yusuf started having sexual intercourse with my younger sister who came to assist me when I was sick and in fact impregnated her.

My lord, I still managed to endure with him for 10 years and when I saw that things will not change, I moved out of his house.

As if those are not enough, he could not pay for any of his children hospital bill, let alone mine.

During our wedding, so as to make things easy for him, I barely requested him to give me my favourite Islamic music cassette as my bride price and I am ready to refund it, Sidikat explained.

Sidikat also said that her husband impregnated her younger sister.

However, Yusuf strongly opposed the divorce, but failed to address any of the fundamental issues of starvation and infidelity raised by his wife.

My lord, till the end of time, I am not parting ways with Sidikat.

I am ready to welcome her back into my home any day anytime, Yusuf said.

In his judgment, the President of the court, Sheikh Hamad Tirmisiyu, held that it was terrible for any husband to be so irresponsible to the extent of being unable to fend for his household.

He added that Sharia considered inability of a husband to adequately provide for his family as a wicked act and ungodly.

Obviously, there is no true love between Sidikat and Yusuf because the husband cannot respond to the fundamental issues raised by the wife.

Accordingly, Sidikat shall refund the Islamic cassette which stood as bride price on wedding day to Yusuf.

The children shall determine who to stay with between Sidikat and Yusuf.

In addition, Yusuf shall pay a monthly feeding allowance of N10, 000 for the upkeep of the four children until they are ready to stay with him, he said.

(NAN)
Some top politicians from Bauchi state on Friday at the All Progressives Congress (APC) National Secretariat in Abuja, alleged wrongdoings, including misuse of funds, against the state governor, Mohammed Abubakar.

The politicians, led by Speaker of House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, and the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, accused the governor of misusing the N8.6 billion bailout funds given to the state by the Federal Government.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the politicians arrived at the APC secretariat at about 4.50 p.m. for a closed-door meeting with the partys National Chairman, John Odigie-Oyegun, and some National Working Committee members.

Before the group left the secretariat at 5.15 p.m., one of them, Sen. Ali Wakil (Bauchi-Central) told newsmen that issues discussed at the meeting revolved around non-payment of workers salaries and non-utilization of bailout funds.

You know that Bauchi is an agrarian and civil service state and we must do everything to see that workers are paid as and when due.

We are not comparing ourselves with Osun or Edo or other states that have backlogs of nine months; it is not our business.

Our people must be paid as and when due and the remaining balance of the stipends must be paid and all the unending verifications must end, Wakil said.

Also speaking, Senator Suleiman Nazif (Bauch-North) revealed that the state chapter of the party was not at peace.

Everything is not okay with the APC in Bauchi State.

Therefore, we needed the attention of the APC at the national level to come to the rescue of the APC in Bauchi because there is fire on the mountain in Bauchi APC.

There are so many issues, but these are party issues and we felt that there was a need for us to come and discuss with our leaders and those issues are being handled.

The national chairman has assured us that he will take a drastic measure immediately and address the APC Bauchi pending problems, he said.

Mr. Nazif denied that the visit also had something to do with the 2016 budget padding allegation against Dogara, saying no, no, no, it is not about padding; it is about APC Bauchi politics.

On the allegation that he and Dogara were sponsors of the crisis in the state, he said, it is not about 2019.

It is about solving the APC problem in Bauchi and ensuring that APC remains united in Bauchi and as you are aware, APCs strongest hold in the North is Bauchi as far as northern politics is concerned.

So, there is a dire need for us to come to the national secretariat and we can assure you that the national chairman is on top of the matter.

We will go back to Bauchi, to our key supporters and tell them exactly what transpired.

Nobody is against the governor, the governor is against himself.

(NAN)
The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has successfully reconfigured another Alpha Jet for combat role.

The latest conversion is the third alpha jet to be reconfigured to carry both rockets and bombs for combat mission by the NAF Technical Response Team (TRT) under the leadership of Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar.

See Pictures Here:
The Buhari Media Support Group, (BMSG),has appealed to the BringBackOurGirls (BBOG) to shelve its proposed demonstration to the Presidential Villa.

The group in a statement signed by one of its members, Muhammad Labbo, on Friday, said this was necessary to avoid complications and anything capable of undermining efforts of the government to rescue the girls unharmed.

Mr. Labbo noted that playing politics with the kidnapped Chibok schoolgirls was unhelpful and embarrassing to the government and counterproductive to the silent efforts of the military to rescue them.

He said the government would take serious exception to the mobilisation of the parents of the kidnapped girls to score political advantage or exploiting the tragedy to play to the gallery.

Mr. Labbo said dragging the parents of the victims to Abuja for endless demonstrations would only compound a bad situation, and give them the impression that a rescue mission is as simple as abc.

According to him, the BringBackOur Girls Group should not claim monopoly of patriotism and humanity over the government by seeking to undermine the silent efforts of the military to map out strategies to safely rescue the girls.

He said if there was a formula for rescuing the girls within 24 hours unharmed, government would have done that, reminding the Bring Back Our Girls group of the complexities and sensitivity of hostage rescue missions.

The terrorists have no rules of engagement and therefore, would not mind killing all the hostages if the Nigerian military attempts any rash action.

He urged the group not to blackmail and stampede the government into doing something which might lead to the large-scale deaths of the hostages, adding their captors had no regard for the sanctity of life.

Any rescue attempt that leaves the kidnapped girls dead would not worth it.

Our armed forces have been working hard on plans and strategies of how to rescue the girls but dont have to publicise their plans because absolute secrecy is needed.

The primary objective of any rescue mission is to get the hostages alive and unharmed, he said.

He advised the Bring Back Our Girls Group to support the government in its efforts to deal with the challenge rationally.

Mr. Labbo said the BMSG reject efforts by the Bring Back Our Girls group to portray the government as insensitive or inhuman because it did not act according their idealistic theories of easy rescue mission.

If a reckless rescue effort results in disaster for hostages, the advocacy group would be the first to crucify the government for sacrificing the lives of the girls.

He noted that the recent Boko Haram video clip was a propaganda effort to force the government to surrender to terrorists and release their members in custody. (NAN)
The Catholic Church in Nigeria says it is ready to take its anti-corruption fight in the country to the next level, now that the church has its own television station.

Patrick Alumuku, the Director, Catholic Television (CTV), said the station would aid the fight against corruption, as well as be a voice of the church in Africa.

We are trying to share with Nigerians the fact that corruption can do so much harm and the absence of corruption can bring about so much development,, said Mr. Alumuku, a Catholic priest, during a visit to PREMIUM TIMES office in Abuja recently.

We want to be able to show the positive values which we Catholics believe in.

Mr. Alumuku said one of the strategies the Catholic Church is using to fight corruption is its Prayer For Nigeria Against Bribery And Corruption which he said is usually recited all over the country, and for almost two decades now.

Mr. Alumuku, who said the CTV would be completed and launched within the next five years, explained how it all started.

We began this in a very small way with a programme on African Independent Television (AIT), called Light For The Nation. It is a programme aimed at making our own contribution towards a brighter future for Nigeria. We also have another programme called Faith In Action. It tries to tell the message that whatever you do, you have done nothing unless you positively affect your brother.

We have been there for five years. We are looking at five years from now to be able to have our channel running.

Mr. Alumuku said Africa was gradually gaining centre stage as a messenger of the gospel and that Nigeria could do a lot to foster the development of the gospel, using the mass media.

For a long time the impression has been that the church and the Christian community were stronger in Europe. Interestingly, Europeans are (now) looking towards Africa for a renewed faith.

We intend that the voice of the church in Africa be heard all over the world.

He said the management of the station hopes to partner PREMIUM TIMES in order to produce programmes that would boost Nigerias unity and foster the growth of the nation.
Ancient coins on display in Xi'an museum Updated: 2016-08-19 15:54 By Xu Fan(chinadaily.com.cn)

More than 400 ancient coins spanning a history of 2,500 years will be on display in a museum in Xi'an. [Photo provided to China Daily]

More than 400 ancient coins spanning a history of 2,500 years will be on display in a museum in Xi'an, the capital of Shaanxi province.

2016 The World's Eye: Coins on the Silk Road, jointly held by China and South Korea, announced that it would open on Sept 10 in Xi'an Yuanhao Huazang Museum at a recent Beijing event.

Aside from showcasing cultural exchange between the two nations, the exhibition will take a look back at the financial history of the ancient countries along the road's route from Asia to Europe.

After two years of preparation, the organizers revealed that the show will feature up to 430 coins -- 48 golden, 309 silver and 73 copper -- from 58 ancient dynasties, such as the Roman Empire (BC 27 to AD 395) and the Mughal Empire (1526-1858).
The Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, has urged officers and men of the Nigerian Army to ensure they update themselves in terms of knowledge apart from military basic training.

Mr. Buratai, a lieutenant general, spoke with newsmen at Kachia, Kaduna State after he fired some shots in a mock war as one of the concluding exercises for graduating cadets.

They must be up to date, not necessarily getting the basic military training only, they must be up to date in terms of current affairs and in terms of global trend, he said.

They must be current in Information Communication Technology and I am sure they will go places.

He said the exercise otherwise known as Battle Inoculation, was good for the cadets as it would make them have war experience, especially what troops were facing in the North-East.

On his participation in the mock war, Mr. Buratai described it as great and recalled that he engaged in such exercise more than 33 years ago, while graduating from the Nigeria Defence Academy.

He said, The standard is still being maintained and I give kudos to the commandant, instructors and administrators of the NDA.

I am happy that the standard is still being maintained and we will continue to improve on that.

Earlier, when he addressed the 60 cadets of the 63rd Regular Course of the NDA, the COAS commended them for showing discipline required of soldiers in war situation.

This is the culmination of the totality of your experiences that you have gained from the various military books, Mr. Buratai said.

What you have put into practice here today is fundamental to winning battles. You are as good as battle tested.

In a welcome address, the Director of Army Training, Okwudili Azinta, a brigadier general, said the exercise was for cadets of the Army in their final year at the NDA.

According to him, It is designed to test the cadets understanding of operational, administrative and logistical concepts which they have been taught throughout their stay in the academy.

It will also enable the commandant to access their suitability for commission into the Nigerian Army.

Mr. Azinta said at inception, the cadets were 84, consisting of 76 males and eight females.

However, out of this number, five cadets were at various times sent to military academies in U.S, UK and Brazil to complete their training.

Currently, they are 60; 24 have either been relegated or withdrawn.

He also said all the eight female pioneer cadets admitted to the academy were concluding their course. (NAN)
The Bauchi state Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Board has banned four female intending pilgrims, who were found to be pregnant and sick, from performing the 2016 Hajj.

The Speaker of the Bauchi State House of Assembly and the states deputy Amirul Hajj, Kawuwa Damuna, told journalists in Bauchi on Saturday that three females were discovered pregnant while one was barred on health ground.

The deputy Amiral Hajj commended the management of the airline contracted to convey the pilgrims to the Islamic holy land for its commitments.

He said the exercise would be completed in good time as it has two flights daily.
The Jigawa State Governor, Muhammad Badaru, on Saturday, said he had released the sum of N280 million for the 2016 hajj operation.

Mr. Badaru made this disclosure to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) after the departure of some intending pilgrims from the state at Dutse International Airport to Saudi Arabia.

He explained that the money would be used for the feeding of the pilgrims and other contingencies during the hajj in the holy land.

According to him, the same amount was approved and released for the expenditure of 2015 pilgrimage.

The State Government has done everything possible to take care of our pilgrims and make them comfortable in the holy land, he said.

The governor said the pilgrims were advised to abide by the rules set out by the Hajj Commission, adding that this was why their screening was thorough.

No fewer than 2, 369 intending pilgrims from the state are expected to perform this years hajj. (NAN)
Gunmen suspected to be militants on Thursday night bombed oil installation belonging to the Nigeria Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) at Owhrode community in Udu Local Government Area of Delta State.

The gas pipeline supplies the Delta Steel Company with gas.

President General of Owhrode community, Michael Odjo, confirmed the explosion on Friday.

Mr. Odjo said the people of the community heard the explosion at about 11:00p.m. on Thursday.

Immediately I mobilised my co-executives members, youths and members of the local vigilante to the points of oil facilities in the area but couldnt find anything.

So, we returned and blocked all access roads in and out of the community in a bid to apprehend the suspected militants but couldnt find any.

It was on Friday morning that we discovered that it was the NPDC gas pipeline that supplies DSC gas that was blown, he said.

According to Mr. Odjo, the pipeline was the only oil facility in their area and that they reported the matter to the Ovwian/Aladja Police station.

He appealed to the management of the NPDC to engage the host community to secure the pipeline.

A police source at the Ovwian/Aladja Police station, who did not want his name mentioned, confirmed the incident.

According to him, when we got there we found out that the gas pipeline was blown with dynamite connected to a battery which the perpetrators left at the crime scene.

Meanwhile, the Chairman of Udu Local Government, Solomon Kpomah, has condemned the act.

Mr. Kpomah said he was happy that the affected pipeline was not currently active.

What saved the situation is that the affected pipeline is not currently in use because DSC is not functioning at the moment,he said.
A former member of the House of Representative who represented Oyo Federal Constituency, Kamil Akinlabi, was on Thursday arraigned before an Oyo State High Court for allegedly conspiring with two others to accuse the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, of bomb planting and rights violation.

The Oyo Police Command charged Mr. Akinlabi, 50, and two septuagenarians  Jacob Oluokun and Ishola Ajiboye  before Justice Ademola Taiwo for allegedly breaching the peace of their town and defaming the Oyo monarch.

Mr. Akinlabi served in the House of Representatives between 2007 and 2015, and had the Alaafin as godfather before they became estranged.

Messrs. Oluokun and Ishola are from Isale-Oyo community with which the Alaafin has been at loggerheads since 1992, when the head of the community, Amuda Olohunosebi, then the Ashipa of Oyo land, was murdered.

The police said the three suspects conspired to defame Oba Adeyemi in the January 31 edition of National Mirror newspaper, accusing him of violating human rights and planting bombs within Oyo and its environs knowing same to be false.

The offences, the prosecution said, were contrary to and punishable under Section 375 of the Criminal Code Cap 38 Vol. II Laws of Oyo State 2000.

The three suspects pleaded not guilty to the charges, and Justice Ademola granted them bail on self-recognition despite opposition by prosecution counsels, J.I. Eboserem and Tijani Williams.

The judge then adjourned the matter to August 30.

The publication by the Mirror newspaper on which the charges are based was drawn from a petition to President Muhammadu Buhari by Messrs Oluokun and Ishola, asking him to compel the police to execute a court judgement ordering the investigation of Oba Adeyemi.

The Federal High Court, sitting in Ibadan, had on December 15, 2014, issued an order of mandamus compelling the Inspector General of Police to investigate Oba Adeyemi for alleged murder, bomb planting, unlawful possession of arms and other offences.

But over a year after the order, the police failed to act, causing the petitioners to write Mr. Buhari, a development that was reported by the Mirror newspaper on January 31.

The report also cited a police document accusing the Alaafin of bomb planting and human rights violation.

The police document, dated September 19, 2009, is a letter from the Oyo State Commissioner of Police at the time to the Oyo Area Command.

In the letter, the Commissioner directed the Area Commander, to arrest the situation before it is too late because the Alaafin intends to bomb the ancient city of Oyo.

According to the letter, some of the places the Alaafin allegedly planned to bomb during the 2009 Eid Kabir festival included Olojas palace and Isale Oyo praying ground, Sabo; Bizinillahi Estate; and Unique Hotel where Elepe Iseke lived.

The police said the suspected move of the Alaafin was revealed to it by top members of the Tobalase group.

Of the said Tobalse group, a report by the State Security Services claimed the group was founded by the Alaafin originally to oust the Baale Ago Oja, hence the location of their base contiguous to both Ashipas residence and the market of Isale-Oyo.

The group has included in their activities harassment and intimidation of perceived enemies of the monarch within the three (3) LGAs in Oyo, the report added.

The SSS report also mentioned murder cases of a chief, Rashidi Adebayo Salami popularly called Atingisi (February 15, 2009) and that of a Medical Doctor, Ogunniyi (December, 2005) who was said to have been involved in a land dispute with his former lover and later Alaafins wife, Yetunde Adeyemi.

The report alleged that the murders were carried out by the Tobalase group.

The head of the Tobalase group, Mojeed Agbaje, now estranged from the Alaafin, later said in a video clip available on YouTube that the Oyo monarch instructed him to carry out nefarious activities, including murder.

On March 14, 2014, Mr. Agbaje deposed to an affidavit at the High Court of Oyo State, sitting in Ibadan, confirming the contents of the video.
VINELAND  The ultimate fate of General Mills Progresso plant here, which is scheduled to close next year and cost hundreds of workers their jobs, is in part up to its employees, a state official said Friday.

General Mills and United Food and Commercial Workers Local 152 need to agree on a plan for reducing costs on the union side, said State Sen. Jeff Van Drew, D-Cape May, Cumberland, Atlantic.

Should that not happen, it is going to be impossible to develop any kind of financial incentive package for the plant to remain open, he said. That package could involve any combination of financial aid from state, Cumberland County and city governments, he said.

But the first step has to be some kind of agreement between the union and the company to reduce costs on the union side, Van Drew said.

About 370 workers are scheduled to lose their jobs next year. The union represents about 275 of those workers.

Van Drew said the union and General Mills were meeting Friday, but he didnt know the topic of the meeting.

Local 152 President Brian String couldnt be reached for comment.

General Mills spokeswoman Kelsey Roemhildt said, We typically dont discuss the nature of our discussions with the union.

However, General Mills said earlier that closing the Progresso plant is a business decision, and that it is hard for us to think that a different decision is likely.

Vineland merchant starts petition to help keep Progresso plant open VINELAND  A city businessman wants Progresso to reconsider its planned move, which would fo

General Mills announced July 21 that it plans to transfer production to other U.S. facilities to eliminate excess soup capacity in ... North America. The company said the Progresso brand will continue making soups in other plants.

The announcement took the region by surprise, prompting local, county and state officials to scramble for ways of keeping the plant open.

One local businessman, Praful Thakkar, who owns Todds News Agency on Delsea Drive, started a petition aimed at keeping the plant open. He said he started the petition because some of his regular customers include Progresso employees.

The petition garnered about 900 signatures in just a few days. Thakkar couldnt be reached for comment on Friday.

Next year marks Progressos 75th anniversary in the city.

Progresso got its start here in 1942 when the brands two founding families  Italian immigrants named Uddo and Taormina  took over an existing food-processing business.

The announced closing is a further blow to Cumberland Countys economy.

The county had a 7.4 percent unemployment rate in June, according to the state Department of Labor and Workforce Development. That was the highest unemployment rate of any county in the state.

The states overall unemployment rate was 5.2 percent.

Contact: 609-226-9197
BOISE, Idaho - A young Hunter S. Thompson went to Idaho to write about Ernest Hemingway and decided to take a piece of his hero home with him - a set of trophy elk antlers.

More than half a century later, the gonzo journalist's wife returned the antlers to Hemingway's house in the mountain town of Ketchum.

"One of the stories that has often been told over the years is the story of Hunter S. Thompson taking the antlers," said Jenny Emery Davidson, of Ketchum Community Library. "These are two great literary figures who came together over the item of the antlers."

Davidson was there on Aug. 5 when Thompson's widow, Anita Thompson, gave back the antlers she said her husband regretted taking. Hemingway's house is owned by the Nature Conservancy, which has an agreement with the library to catalog and preserve items in the home where the author took his own life.

In 1964, Hunter Thompson, then 27, came to Ketchum when he was still a conventional journalist. He had not yet developed his signature style, dubbed gonzo journalism, that involved inserting himself, often outrageously, into his reporting and that propelled him into a larger-than-life figure.

Thompson was writing a story for the National Observer about why the globe-trotting Hemingway shot and killed himself at his home three years earlier at age 61. Thompson attributed the suicide in part to rapid changes in the world that led to upheavals in places Hemingway loved most - Africa and Cuba.

Even Ketchum, which in the 1930s and 1940s attracted luminaries such as Gary Cooper, had fallen off the map of cafe society by the late 1950s, Thompson wrote.

In the story, later collected in his book "The Great Shark Hunt," he noted the problem of tourists taking chunks of earth from around Hemingway's grave as souvenirs.

Early the piece, he wrote about the large elk antlers over Hemingway's front door but never mentioned taking them.

For decades, the antlers hung in a garage at Thompson's home near Aspen, Colorado.

Davidson said they made their way back to Idaho after historian Douglas Brinkley, who spoke at the library in May and was familiar with the antler story after interviewing the writer, contacted Anita Thompson. She called the library Aug. 1.

"She gave a little background about the antlers and said she'd love to return them," Davidson said.

They have since been shipped to a Hemingway grandson in New York who wanted them, she said.

It's not known if the

antlers came from an elk killed by the author, who was a noted big game hunter, or if they were a gift.

Anita Thompson and Sean Hemingway did not respond to emails or phone messages seeking comment from The Associated Press.

Not long after the visit to Hemingway's house, Thompson developed the journalism style that took him into the dangerous world of the Hells Angels motorcycle gang and would make him famous.

Like Hemingway, Thompson ended his own life by shooting himself, dying in 2005 at age 67 at his Colorado home.
Question: Each member of our family recently was allowed to select an item from our late aunt's home before an estate sale was held. I chose a pale beige painted plaster statue of a young man holding a violin while talking to a small dog positioned on hind legs and listening attentively. The statue is 20 inches high, 11 inches wide and 8 inches deep. Impressed on the front of it base is "The Shaughraun and Tatters" then "John Rogers New York." On the base's back is "Patented Mar 2, 1875." Please tell me anything you can about the artist, statue, its value and what a Shaughraun is. - T.J., Linwood

Answer: The statue is one of many figural pieces known as Rogers Groups, mass produced in painted cast plaster or bronze by sculptor John Rogers (1829-1904). Born in Massachusetts, Rogers studied in Europe and settled in New York City. He retired in 1893.

Tens of thousands of Rogers Groups painted-plaster tableaux were sold internationally for $10 to $15 each from 1863 to 1893. Most portrayed the everyday lives of ordinary American families in their homes, churches and schoolhouses, and each told a story offered in a whimsical or serious way. Topics included literature, music, politics, amusements, history, work, values and theater.

Your figure represents Conn, hero of "The Shaughraun," a well-received stage melodrama presented in New York City during 1874 and 1875. Set at the time of the Irish Fenian Revolutionary Movement, it features Conn as a Shaughraun, an Irish vagabond or wandering musician, "the soul of every fair, the life of every funeral and the first fiddle at all weddings." He is posed with "Tatters," his dog that performed with him outside jails where Fenian prisoners were held.

Folks who collect painted-plaster Rogers Groups figures want "The Shaughraun and Tatters" without scuffs, scratches, flakes, chips, nicks or paint damage. This year, examples in very good condition have sold for $190 to $240.

Question: Several months ago, I bought a small Kodak Brownie Target six-16 camera for $5 at a thrift store. It seems to be in very good condition, but the saleswoman said she could not guarantee it works because the film it used is no longer made. A neighbor who collects old cameras for display has offered me $25 for it. I would like to know about the camera and if $25 is a fair price. - S.A., Hammonton

Answer: Your Brownie Target six-16 metal box camera with black-and-silver front has black textured sides, a leather handle and an innovative double viewfinder.

It was made by the Eastman Kodak Co., of Rochester, New York.

Founded in 1884 by George Eastman (1854-1932), the firm produced a number of "firsts," including motion picture cameras and film, aerial cameras, home movie cameras and projectors, color film and rolls of flexible camera film used in Brownies and other models.

Made from 1946 to 1951, popular Kodak Brownie Target six-16 cameras originally sold for $2.50 to $3 apiece.

Today, some are purchased by folks who buy old cameras for exhibition in a personal collection. Buyers look for examples with clear lenses and without rust, cracks or wear.

Influenced by a current weak market for a plentiful supply of old Target six-16 cameras, many have sold for less than $20. As a result, your friend's offer appears to be a reasonable one.

Alyce Hand Benham is an antiques broker, appraiser and estate-liquidation specialist. Send questions to: Alyce Benham, Life section, The Press of Atlantic City, 1000 W. Washington Ave., Pleasantville, NJ 08232. Email: treasuresbyalyce81@gmail.com. Letters may be used in future columns but cannot be answered individually, and photos cannot be returned.
Despite his last name, 16-year-old Markees Christmas saw snow for the first time this year when he attended the Sundance Film Festival.

The young South Los Angeles native made his acting debut in Chad Hartigan's film "Morris From America," which won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at Sundance. The film costars Craig Robinson.

In the comedy-drama set in Heidelberg, Germany, Christmas plays a lovesick 13-year-old and aspiring hip-hop artist who has just moved overseas from the States with his recently widowed father, Curtis (Robinson).

Christmas' coming-of-age role is not only a reminder of the nuances of teenage angst but also a portrayal of adapting as an outsider in a foreign country.

Q: When did you begin acting?

A: I was in the sixth grade and had horrible grades. (The school) told me, "If you don't get that grade up by the end of this school year, you are going to be in sixth grade again." I couldn't let that happen. So they told me the only way to do that was to be in the school play. At first, I was like, "Acting is not my thing. I don't want to do that." I was arguing about it for a while, and I ended up just coming to terms.

The play was "Raisin in the Sun" by Lorraine Hansberry. At first I auditioned for the part of Travis, but they basically tricked me into playing Walter. I guess I did good even though I really wasn't trying to.

Q: So you made it to seventh grade then?

A: Yes, I made it out of the sixth grade. My mom invited my mentor from the Big Brother program to the play, and when she invited him he didn't know I would be acting. He was in a small comedy scene in downtown L.A. called Channel 101, and he was making videos every month. Once he found out I dabble in this acting, we started making videos, and I just started getting noticed. Chad (Hartigan) got in contact with my mentor through YouTube, and that's how he got me.

Q: How did you find out you got the part?

A: I think only a week after the audition, Chad called me in for a callback. We met up, and then a few days after that callback, I got a voicemail from him asking me if I want to be in the movie.

Q: How did you feel about getting your first on-screen part?

A: I was walking down the street with my friends when I was listening to the voicemail, so I could not look like a weirdo. I wanted to scream, but I just couldn't. I mean, I was acting like a total weirdo for five minutes, and (my friends) were like, "What's up with you?"

And I'm just like, "I'm going to be in a movie." I'm trying to make it seem small, like I'm not super excited about it.

Q: So what was it like being at Sundance?

A: Man, the biggest part about going to Sundance was being able to see snow for the first time. I'm such a Southern Cali baby. I was super excited.

I also got to meet a lot of people, and I got to see a lot of people. I just had a total fun time at Sundance. I got to make a snowman and then completely destroy him afterwards.

Q: How do you relate to the character you play in "Morris From America"?

A: The relationship with him and his father is exactly the same as me and my father. That's a big part of it. That's kind of why Craig and I got together so good on this. Both Craig and I just kind of took from the relationship between our fathers and us.

And as far as the falling in love part, that's just not Markees. Not yet. But rap - I'm a huge rap fan. That's pretty much all I listen to right about now. I think that's just this teenager phase I'm going through, to tell you the truth. I listen to a lot of underground rap.

Q: There's a scene in "Morris" when you rap in front of a big audience. Was rapping new to you?

A: I write sometimes, but I've never set my goals on being a rapper. As far as rapping with the movie, of course I can do that.

I rap by myself all the time, rapping other people's lyrics. It wasn't a big problem or anything too crazy.

It's just that the scene where I have to rap in front of everybody - that was probably the hardest scene, because I was going through an emotional state. We shot that scene on the last day, so I was like, "Man, I don't want to leave Germany, and there's a bunch of people in the room, and I have to rap in front of everybody?"

Got it over with, though. That's a way different experience than just acting.

Q: What was your relationship like with Craig?

A: Craig and I got pretty comfortable with each other. Of course, we were the only two black dudes in the whole country. I met Craig one time before we went to Germany  and he's talking about how he's seen my work, and I'm like, "Dude, I've seen your work. I see your work everywhere!"

Watching "Hot Tub Time Machine" at I don't know what age, I just know I wasn't supposed to be looking at that screen. I was a total fanboy when I first found out he was going to be in the movie.

Q: What's next for you?

A: I'm planning on continuing with acting, capitalizing on this.

Once I actually started acting, I kind of fell in love with being on set and seeing all the magic come together.

Q: Which actors do you look up to as role models?

A: This is going to sound so cliche, but I'm a big Denzel fan. I'm an Omar Epps fan. Craig, of course, super fanboy. Mekhi Phifer.

There's a lot of people that I look up to. It's a long list. Now I can say that, because I've actually thought about this.
NORTH WILDWOOD  When Beach Patrol Chief Tony Cavalier went through his roll call of lifeguards before shifts started, he was shocked.

I knew there was a lot. Then I counted them: 21 brothers and sisters, Cavalier recalled as he stood on the front porch of the headquarters at 15th Avenue and the beach a recent Wednesday. Weve always had families. This is the most.

This year, nearly one-third of North Wildwoods patrol that has been keeping the beaches safe is made up of 21 siblings from nine families. For many of the lifeguards in South Jersey, keeping watch over the beaches has become a legacy job in families.

Although the number may have thrown Cavalier for a loop, he said lifeguard families are pretty common.

There are a lot of kids (whose) parents worked here or their older brothers and sisters. Its like that on a lot of beaches, he said. Its good for the beach patrol because they have younger brothers and sisters and when theyre coming up theyll want to be lifeguards.

For the Coleman sisters, thats exactly what happened.

Caitlyn Coleman, 21, and her 20-year-old sister, Sarah Coleman, both of Philadelphia, have been working for North Wildwoods Beach Patrol for four years. Although their parents were never guards, their eldest brother is a lifeguard in Wildwood while their older sister is a guard at summer camp in Philadelphia.

I thought it would a fun job, something different. I love being down at the shore, Sarah said.

When their little sister Maura turned 16, they talked her into joining them on the beach in North Wildwood.

They liked it so much so I decided I was going to try out too, Maura said, who is now in her first year at as a guard.

But there was some sisterly wheedling into the choice.

She kinda didnt have a choice. We were like, Come on Maura, Caitlyn joked.

The three sisters often sit in the stand with one another, keeping an eye on beachgoers.

Some days, Sarah said theyll fight like normal, like siblings are wont to do. Other days, they enjoying having inside jokes together.

Its like the best thing ever. Im not even being sarcastic, it just flies by. We dont even realize were like, Oh, three hours went by. Did we even say anything? Caitlyn said. You can be way weirder. (Maura) sang the national anthem for six hours straight, just on repeat, and it just didnt even bother me.

The sisters arent just keeping an eye on beachgoers  they look out for each other too.

The trio has been swimming for years, but that doesnt stop Caitlyn and Sarah from being on high-alert when it comes to their little sister persuing a rescue, or when the ocean is rough. Sarah said she will worry about Maura even during workouts, when the seas are choppy.

Caitlyn also recalled a time when Maura and other lifeguards were working out in the water before their shift and she went to watch.

A storm was coming in and I literally couldnt even sit on my chair. I was like, Oh my god, Maura, Maura, Maura, not even thinking theres thirteen other bodies in there, she said. Well I did but, its my 16-year-old baby sister. Its definitely nerve wracking.

Mike and Matt Murray, 19 and 18 years old, respectively, of Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania said they arent worried for each other when theyre on the job. The brothers joked that must be a little sister thing.

Hes fine, Matt said.

The brothers joined the North Wildwood Beach after their eldest sister did.

There were three of us here for a year and that was awesome, said Mike, who has been on the patrol for four years while Matt has served for three.

While on the stand recently, Mike sent Matt out to grab two children on boogie boards before they were sucked out by a rip current. In the water, Mike said that theres certain cues Matt does that he doesnt have to think about like he would with another guard.

Its nice to sit with someone I know who is on top of his stuff, Mike said. I guess I always looked at him like a little brother but when serious stuff happens, hes on top of his stuff and knows what hes doing which was cool to watch.

Both the Colemans and the Murrays said working with other siblings has been fun and that at times its like being a part of a big, extended family. The lifeguards go out together all summer long and even meet up over the winter as well.

This is literally our crew, if we go out at night we talked about it at work Sarah said.

The guards said theyre also excited when someone has a younger sibling coming up. Caitlyn said she cant wait for Mike and Matts younger brother, Patrick, to join.

Caitlyn will be waiting a while, as Patrick is only 10.

I think its the coolest thing ever, she said of working with other siblings. Im going to stay here until little Patrick gets here.

Cavalier also seemed to be enjoying his sibling guards this summer.

Its been fun. When you have that many uards related to each other, it makes the morale of the beach better, he said. Lets face it, brothers and sisters look out for each other. Theyre all close to each other.

Contact: 609-272-7217
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An Ocean City woman has the right to recoup attorney fees after she agreed to a settlement in her excessive-force case against the city and a police officer from 2014, the Third Circuit appeals court said.

Judges Franklin Van Antwerpen, Michael Chagares and L. Felipe Restrepo reversed the U.S. District Courts denial of fees to Monica Raab, 57, and held that she was the prevailing party in this case, despite it going to settlement.

The appeals court upheld the district courts denial of Ocean Citys request for attorneys fees.

Paul Rizzo, the attorney representing Raab, said the case was remanded to district court to determine how much money Raab is entitled to.

Rizzo, of DiFrancesco, Bateman in Warren, said he was satisfied with the opinion.

Its a shame we had to go to this extent, he said.

In a settlement signed in December 2014, Ocean City agreed to pay Raab $150,000 stemming from her complaint against the city and police Officer Jessie Scott Ruch, filed in U.S. District Court in November 2011.

The responsibility for attorney fees for both Raab and Ocean City was still up for determination. Raab, who is married to local doctor Gary Raab, was seeking about $230,000, according to earlier reports. Ocean City also had made a request to recoup attorney fees, paid for through the Atlantic County Joint Municipal Insurance Fund, but that figure was not immediately available.

After the settlement, a district court judge denied both the citys and Raabs motions. He refused to consider our request for attorney fees, saying that under the statute, we didnt qualify as a prevailing party. We thought it was pretty clear that we did, Rizzo said.

He said the amount Raab is now seeking will be higher due to further litigation. Now the request is going to include the appellate work and other additional work involved, he said.

Attorney Tom Reynolds, of Northfield, represented Ruch in the case. Michael Barker, of Northfield, represented the city. Barker deferred to city attorney Dottie McCrosson for comment.

McCrosson said the city was not surprised by the outcome of the appeal. Although Ocean City was the prevailing party in the litigation and the case against Ocean City was dismissed on summary judgment, its very difficult for a defendant to be awarded attorneys fees even when the defendant is the prevailing party, she said.

In her initial complaint, Raab sought compensation on several counts, including use of excessive force. In August 2014, federal Judge Robert Kugler dismissed all the claims against Ocean City. Kugler denied Ruchs motion for summary judgment on Raabs claims of excessive force and assault and battery.

According to Raabs complaint, she had attempted to move a trailer belonging to her brother-in-law that was illegally parked outside her West Atlantic Boulevard home on May 11, 2010, when Ruch used excessive force to subdue and handcuff her. Raab was never charged with a violation of criminal statutes related to the incident.

In his police report, Ruch said Raab was attempting to strike him when he subdued her.

Contact: 609-272-7251
The Cumberland County Department of Health is holding a free vaccination clinic for adults next week, an announcement said Friday.

Vaccines will be administrated to people 19 or older without insurance from 9 a.m. until noon on Tuesday at the Cumberland County Department of Health building at 309 Buck Street in Millville, a press release said.

Veterans rally for better health care at Vietnam Memorial Wall WILDWOOD -- Veterans rallied in front of the citys Vietnam Memorial Wall on Friday to urge 

No appointment is necessary, and available vaccines will include HPV, Hepatitis A and B, Tdap, Pneumonia, Meningitis and MMR (Measles, Mumps, and Rubella), according to the announcement.

Officials urged pregnant women, especially if they are between 27 and 36 weeks, to get the adult tetanus, diphtheria and Tdap vaccines.

Vaccination is one of the best ways you can protect yourself and your loved ones from getting sick with very serious and sometimes deadly diseases, said Megan Sheppard, health officer for Cumberland County. It is especially important for adults that have health issues like asthma, heart disease, and diabetes as well as older adults to get vaccinated because of their health status.
New Jerseys liquor laws are outdated and need to be overhauled.

There, we said it. Now we can talk about why the patchwork method in which the state doles liquor licenses, cases, pints and bottles doesnt really work.

For example, Ventnor, which has nine liquor stores, is looking to change its practice of BYOB for its restaurants by putting a question on the November ballot for voters. If it passes, that means it needs to sell liquor licenses to the highest bidder. In New Jersey, liquor licenses for retailers are set proportional to population, one per 3,000 residents.

So with Ventnors population of just over 10,000, that means about three for the highest bidding restaurants. Those licenses are valuable and have sold for upwards of $1 million.

That can be a hefty price tag for a small business.

Oh, and more proof that New Jerseys complicated patchwork of laws need to be streamlined? You can buy a good glass of red from the restaurant to go with that steak but the restaurant youre eating at must have applied to become an outlet for a New Jersey winery.

There are some other rules that seem carved out for specific interest, according to state . For example:

- You cant buy hard liquor before 9 a.m. or after 10 p.m., except in Jersey City and Newark.

- Strip clubs cant offer full nudity and alcohol sales.

-You can only do open bar or unlimited drinks for a flat fee on New Years Eve or for private parties.

- No Ladies Nights allowed. Seriously. Its discriminatory.

-We don't let gas station sell booze of any kind.

Theres no point in even getting into the myriad rules surrounding wineries and breweries. Thankfully New Jersey has seen the light and started to promote the development of wineries and craft breweries.

But here in New Jersey, regulation is in our blood. Which is why there are 29 different types of liquor licenses. Thats more than we have counties. The three-system, which harkens back to the end of Prohibition, says that manufacturers can only sell to wholesalers, who can only sell to retailers, who can only sell to customers.

All these rules make you want a drink, dont they? North Jersey.com has a good look at some proposed updates.

New Jersey isnt the only state with a quirky system of doling out alcohol. In New York you can buy beer but not wine or liquor in grocery stores, you cant buy beer at a liquor store and theres very little to zero byob outside of New York City.

And up until recently, Pennsylvania didnt let distributors sell anything but kegs and cases. Which seems a bit heavy-handed.

The real moral of this story is we should for once all look to be like Florida, minus the drugs that turn nice college boys in to flesh-eating killers.
LOWER TOWNSHIP  A Cape May-Lewes Ferry boat that has been for sale for four years likely will be scuttled as a new artificial reef after failing to draw interest on the commercial market.

The MV Twin Capes has been moored at the Delaware River & Bay Authoritys docks in Lower Township since it was gradually taken out of service about two years ago.

The ferryboat is bigger, heavier and more nicely appointed than the other three in the fleet. It has a full restaurant, a food court and two plush bars that were added as part of a $27 million renovation in 1996.

But the bigger boat costs more to operate, DRBA spokesman James Salmon said. It requires a bigger crew (17 people instead of 12) and uses more fuel than the other three ferries with every 17-mile crossing over the Delaware Bay.

The DRBA has a tentative agreement to sell the ferry for $250,000 to Delawares Department of Natural Resources for use as an artificial ocean reef.

Delaware is partnering with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, which has decades of experience sinking barges, boats and construction material to create offshore habitat for fish.

New Jersey halted the program during a dispute between recreational and commercial fishermen over fishing rights to the states 15 reefs.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service suspended funding for New Jersey reefs because of concerns that commercial fisherman were using them. The program is funded by taxes on fuel and recreational fishing gear.

Under a state agreement, commercial fishermen will have access to portions of two reefs in state waters. Meanwhile, the state plans to build a new reef in Manasquan Inlet and augment other reefs with 10 deployments.

The hard structures provide a base for a food chain and habitat that support bigger fish, DEP spokesman Larry Hajna said.

Barnacles, mussels, sea stars, crabs. All of these organisms attract smaller fish that attract bigger fish like black sea bass and tautog that recreational fishermen go after, he said. These sites become extremely productive.

New Jersey plans to sink a U.S. Coast Guard boat that served in Iwo Jima and rescued boaters and a downed helicopter crew in a 1991 hurricane off Cape Cod as depicted in The Perfect Storm.

Meanwhile, the state plans to conduct archaeological surveys soon for a new reef it plans to build in the Delaware Bay, Hajna said.

DRBA commissioners said the cost of scrapping the Twin Capes could be significantly higher since scrap-metal prices have declined.

The DRBA sold the equally large and well-appointed MV Cape May in 2013 to Northstar Marine Services, based in Dennis Township, for $750,000 for use as construction barge.

That leaves three remaining ferryboats in the fleet: the MV New Jersey, the MV Delaware and the MV Cape Henlopen.

Total ferry traffic (cars and passengers) has been on the rise in the past three years after declines that saw annual crossings drop from 5,676 in 2006 to 4,754 in 2012.

Last year, the ferryboats made 4,700 crossings that carried more than 1 million cars and passengers across the bay. But the service has seen increasing car and foot traffic on the ferry in each of the past three years.

And that trend should continue this year, despite emergency engine repairs that sidelined the MV Delaware for a week this summer, Salmon said.

The ferry on Tuesday reached a milestone with the transport its 45 millionth passengers on Tuesday, the Villecco family from Jackson Township, who are heading to Maryland for a camping vacation.

The ferry service offers a variety of package and bus tours to take passengers to attractions such as the Cape May Lighthouse, the Cape May County Park & Zoo and casinos in Atlantic City.
Vets group shouldn't remain nonpartisan now

My husband, Al, who is an honorably discharged Vietnam veteran, was appalled at Donald Trump's ongoing disrespectful statements about the Kahn family as well as his remarks concerning John McCain, a fellow Vietnam veteran.

Almost immediately after the remarks were made, the VFW issued a statement condemning the comments. The American Legion has been conspicuously silent on this matter.

My husband, a Legion member since 1969, called the national American Legion headquarters to ask what their position was on the comments. He was told tersely that the American Legion was "non-partisan."

There is nothing partisan about disrespect for American veterans. This behavior knows no party lines. To have an organization that presents itself as representing all veterans fail to address this is not acceptable. Needless to say, he is no longer a member.

Dina Glasser

Absecon

More in GOP should

quit supporting Trump

Two ex-CIA directors have unprecedentedly said that Donald Trump would be a national security risk as president. Michael Hayden is a Republican. He and Mike Morrell are well-respected in a bipartisan way. Every indication is that they never would have taken this very bold step if not for their conscience.

Yet the GOP basically says, yeah, we know; we respect their opinion and can see the risks, but we have to support him anyway. There are, fortunately, a good number of high level Republicans and conservatives that have said they cannot in good conscious support Trump. There are many more of the GOP, at varying levels, that have also said this. And it appears there are many who want to but feel they can't.

Trump is making the GOP look really bad. He's especially making the evangelical segment look like a laughing stock.

Trump and family values? Really? Wow. I guess he has had three wives, so maybe he does know a lot about families.

The GOP basically allowed several good candidates who may have won the election to be discarded by a guy who called them names successfully. That's where things first went horribly awry.

Of course, that's democracy. But it might be time to cut losses and for the GOP to try and save the Senate.

Philip Briglia

Linwood

Still blames Britain

In June I was vacationing in the home country when the Brits had a referendum on whether they should leave the European Union. The result was a narrow victory to get out. The reason given was the impression that the governing body in Brussels was screwing the people with big taxes and excessive regulation.

This I thought was rather ironic and laughable, coming from a country that for the past 300 years plundered and murdered millions in half of the world as it expanded its empire. Many of these countries have never recovered from the shambles left behind when revolution came and drove Britian out, such as Iraq, Iran, the Middle East, Zimbabwe (Rhodesia) and South Africa. There are others.

Now with leaving, in true British form, they want to dictate to the EU the conditions favorable to them. Having access to the free markets and unencumbered travel. Really. There are consequences to leaving a united Europe, the great aspiration of World War II Prime Minister Winston Churchill. They never truly bought into the whole EU concept. They kept the sterling monetary system.

One great consequence will be isolation and the great British Empire finally expiring. I shall shed no tears.

Donal J. Sheahan

Egg Harbor Township
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.




Woodward Avenue in Pontiac, Mich., transformed into a drag strip for the first-ever legal street racing during the second annual Roadkill Nights Powered by Dodge on Friday, Aug. 19. Building on the huge success of last year's premiere event at the Pontiac Silverdome, Dodge and TEN: The Enthusiast Network muscled their way onto historic Highway 1  Woodward Avenue  for nine hours of drag racing. Performance enthusiasts traveled from as far away as Kansas and Alabama to race for a total cash purse of $19,000.

"From a Dodge perspective, this was an absolutely epic event," said Tim Kuniskis, Head of Passenger Car Brands  Dodge, SRT, Chrysler and FIAT, FCA  North America. "Performance is more than a set of numbers, it's an attitude. More than 30,000 performance enthusiasts, triple the number that attended of last year, showed up to be a part of this incredible event  the first-ever legal drag racing on Woodward. Roadkill Nights is a tremendous opportunity to connect with our fellow performance enthusiasts, embrace those who are already Dodge owners and give potential owners a chance to get a real feeling what Dodge is all about."

More than 350 street-legal cars hit the specially prepped 1/8-mile drag strip on Woodward Avenue between Rapid Street and South Boulevard to compete in high-powered drag racing for cash prizes. In addition, more than 1,000 cars rolled in for a show 'n' shine car show. Fans also lined up for thrill rides in Dodge Charger SRT Hellcats, Challenger SRT Hellcats and Dodge Vipers on a drifting course with professional drivers.

Mike Moran of Taylor, Mich., won the top cash prize, $10,000, when his 1969 Dodge Charger powered by a 5.6-liter twin turbo Gen 2 HEMI V-8, sped to a winning finish in an old-school grudge-style drag race.



About Dodge Brand

The Dodge brand is America's mainstream performance brand. With the purification of the brand and consolidation with SRT, Dodge is getting back to its performance roots with every single model it offers. The Dodge and SRT brands offer a complete lineup of performance vehicles that stand out within their own segments. Dodge is the "mainstream performance" brand and SRT is positioned as the "ultimate performance" halo of the Dodge brand, together creating a complete and balanced performance brand with one vision and one voice.

From muscle cars to compact cars, minivans, crossovers and full-size SUVs, the Dodge brand's full lineup of 2016 models deliver best-in-class horsepower, class-exclusive technology, unmatched capability and a slew of cool features, such as LED headlamps, Dodge signature racetrack tail lamps, dual exhaust, 8.4-inch touchscreen infotainment centers and 7-inch thin-film transistor (TFT) customizable gauge clusters, to name a few. For the 2016 model year, customers will be able to drive the new 2016 Dodge Charger and Challenger, as well as the Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat and Charger SRT Hellcat. The Dodge brand lineup also includes the Dodge Dart, Durango, Grand Caravan and Journey, including the Crossroad model, and its flagship, the Dodge Viper.



Follow Dodge, SRT and FCA US news and video on:

FCA Content On Demand (COD): www.fcacod.com

Company blog: http://blog.fcanorthamerica.com

Company website: www.fcanorthamerica.com

Media website: http://media.fcanorthamerica.com

FCA360: www.fca360.com

Dodge brand: www.dodge.com

Dodge blog: blog.dodge.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/dodge or https://www.facebook.com/FiatChrysler.NorthAmerica/

Flickr: www.flickr.com/dodgeautos or www.flickr.com/chryslergroup

Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/dodgeofficial or www.pinterest.com/FCAcorporate

Instagram: www.instagram.com/dodgeofficial or www.instagram.com/FiatChrysler_NA

Twitter: www.twitter.com/dodge or www.twitter.com/FiatChrysler_NA

YouTube: www.youtube.com/dodge or www.youtube.com/pentastarvideo

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160820/399811

SOURCE FCA US LLC

Related Links

http://www.fcanorthamerica.com


SYDNEY, Aug. 20, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Iconic Australian beauty brand ModelCo, renowned for its glamourous celebrity ambassadors, has snapped up the hottest "IT" girl and model of the moment, Hailey Baldwin as its latest muse. The uber cool celebrity daughter of actor Stephen Baldwin will release her own Hailey Baldwin for ModelCo colour cosmetics product range which she designed in collaboration with ModelCo CEO and Founder Shelley Barrett. Hailey will be in Sydney in November 2016 to launch the high end 'limited edition cosmetic collection' for ModelCo which will be available exclusively on ModelCo's online store www.modelcocosmetics.com and through retailer Mecca Maxima. In a bold move, Hailey has launched #thebeautysquad to build on the hype of the up-coming collection.

"The Hailey Baldwin for ModelCo range is all about my signature go-to beauty products. I have always loved the world of beauty and was thrilled to be given the chance to show my creativity by collaborating with a cult-cool brand like ModelCo. I feel that ModelCo has a modern, innovative approach to beauty and I love that my fans can now create my personal beauty style. My product range is affordable, accessible and combines quality and femininity for a photo-finish inspired look and feel. Think filter-esque hues, sleek packaging and premium formulas" said Hailey Baldwin.

Hailey's signing is a signature ModelCo move for the brand which has an impressive list of past ModelCo ambassadors including Aussie Icon Elle Macpherson, Dannii Minogue, Cheyenne Tozzi and most recently Rosie Huntington-Whiteley. ModelCo Founder and CEO Shelley Barrett, a former model agent, prides herself on identifying up and coming talent that will resonate with her customers:

"Hailey epitomises raw beauty and has a look which is very edgy, modern and cool. I felt compelled to join forces and bring Hailey's fresh take on beauty to her many fans around the world. It was inspiring to work with her on this project and inject a renewed, contemporary feel to the ModelCo brand."

Reaching the 15 year milestone in 2016, ModelCo continues to evolve as a multifaceted beauty brand with global appeal and new innovations across all three ModelCo beauty categories -- self-tanning, natural skincare and colour cosmetics.

Customers will be lining up to pre-register for the limited edition, Hailey Baldwin for ModelCo collection at: www.modelcocosmetics.com

For further information please contact:

Lauren Lang

PR Manager

ModelCo Australia

[email protected]

SOURCE ModelCo

Related Links

http://www.modelcocosmetics.com


I've been meaning to read, Khaled Hosseini's perennial worldwide bestseller, for well over a decade. Given the rave reviews and the millions of copies sold in a multitude of languages, how could it be otherwise? But the more I waited, the more the novel's popularity grew. And as with every such literary phenomenon, expectations have a tendency to grow to such an extent that it is often impossible for the book to actually live up to them. Sadly, such was the case with this one.I reckon I feel the same way those poor readers felt after reading Dan Brown'sor Stieg Larsson'syears after the novels topped the bestseller charts around the globe. You acknowledge that it was a good read, but you fail to grasp how it could have become so immensely popular. Lofty expectations have a way to let you down in the end, which is what happened with this work. I did enjoy, no doubt about it. I brought it with me to Charlevoix and it was a nice vacation read. And therein lies the problem. It just turned out to be a good book, not the great read I envisioned.Here's the blurb:Khaled Hosseini's depiction of Kabul and the rest of Afghanistan in the 70s was simply amazing. Unless you have an interest for the history of that part of the world, most people from my generation immediately think of war-torn images when they consider that country. Yet the author brings us back to another time and place, to a time when Afghanistan was a more liberal and open society. Before the revolution, before the Soviet invasion, before the civil war, before they were forced to live under the yoke of the religious dogma enforced by the Talibans, Afghanistan was a much different place. And although I was well aware of this and have been for a long time, Hosseini's narrative brings the country and its inhabitants to life in such a fashion that it makes you feel as though it's a totally different country and culture. And for the most part, it is. The first portion of the novel, the one focusing on the tale before the Soviets moved into the country, is nothing short of magical. I was enthralled from the very beginning and couldn't put the book down.The second part is no less powerful. Once more, Khaled Hosseini's depiction of Kabul following the Soviet invasion creates a vivid imagery that leaps off the page. Amir and his father's harrowing escape to Pakistan is gut-wrenching, and their being forced to adapt to their new life as refugees in America shows what such men and women must go through and how difficult that process can be. Up until that point,was a poignant and memorable work, one of the best novels I had ever read. Trouble is, everything falters in the last part of the novel. The depiction of Kabul and the rest of Afghanistan under the brutal reign of the Talibans remains as evocative as that of the previous two eras, but the author's desire for Amir to achieve redemption by somehow undoing his past wrongs engender a number of contrived coincidences that unfortunately killed the story for me. Indeed, by trying to come full circle, so to speak, I felt that Khaled Hosseini prevented this book from hitting you with the enormous emotional punch he had planned for the end. Which, in my opinion, is quite sad considering just how perfect everything was until Amir returns to Afghanistan.The characterization was terrific. Understandably, the relationship between Amir and Hassan, two kids from different castes who became best friends, is at the heart of the story that is. Having said that, Amir's father, Baba, influenced this tale in multiple ways, and the novel would never have been the same without him. The same thing can be said of Ali, Hassan's father, as well as Rahim Khan, Baba's business partner and a man who's had a big influence on Amir as he was growing up. Soraya, the young Afghan woman Amir marries in the USA, and Sohrab, Hassan's son, also have important roles to play before the end comes. Khaled Hosseini has a knack for creating authentic characters, be they main or secondary protagonists. Although the novel failed to "wow" me as much as I would have wanted, this unforgettable cast will remain in my memories for a long time.is a multigenerational tale which explores the complexities inherent to the relationships between parents and their children. Friendship, betrayal, guilt, and redemption are other themes that are explored throughout the novel. One would think that this would make for a very hard story to get into, yet the author was able to weave all of those themes into the storylines and still make the book compulsively readable. Other than the redemption aspect, that is, which is clearly overdone and sadly killed the book for me.Hosseini's narrative grabs hold and captures the imagination, taking you away to an Afghanistan that was and then to the country devastated by war that we know today. Never at any point is the pace an issue. This is a novel that you get through rather quickly. The more Amir's tale unfold, the more you need to discover what happens next.Though the last part did not do it for me, I can understand howstruck a chord with so many readers around the world. But after such a realistic and striking start, to pursue Amir's redemption using such unrealistic coincidences cheapened the overall reading experience for me. . .The final verdict: 7.5/10For more info about this title: Canada
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif., Aug. 20, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Rolls-Royce Motor Cars today accepted the Best of Best Award for the new Dawn from Robb Report, one of the premier luxury media titles in the world. Rolls-Royce Dawn was singled out as the "best of the best" as the top convertible offered to luxury car owners in 2016. The world's most uncompromised open-top motoring experience, Dawn redefines the notion of a true super-luxury Drophead and continues to accumulate plaudits from the most highly respected luxury and automobile commentators around the world.

Robb Report featured Dawn in the June 2016 issue proclaiming, "Rolls-Royce bills the Dawn as the sexiest car it has ever built, and if by "sexiest" it means most appealing, it may be correct. Inspired by the postwar Silver Dawn convertible, the car is more glamorous and more contemporary looking than other Rolls-Royce models." Robb Report is the leading voice of luxury around the globe. It brings the best of the best to a discerning and highly affluent audience across the worlds of cars, style, travel, yachts, watches, art, food & drink, ideas and design.

Torsten Muller-Otvos, Chief Executive Officer, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, and Pedro Mota, President of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Americas accepted the award from Robert Ross, automotive editorial consultant for Robb Report during the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance 2016 festivities. Mr. Mota commented, "The Rolls-Royce design team, led by Giles Taylor, has designed the most glamorous, social Rolls-Royce in history  the perfect open-air motor car for the American markets, the largest and most expressive markets for Rolls-Royce in the world. The Bespoke levels we've unveiled here this weekend highlight the unlimited potential for our owners to create their own unique Bespoke Dawn."

The launch of Dawn represents a seminal moment for Rolls-Royce Motor Cars and promises to attract a new breed of successful, younger and dynamic customers through a highly contemporary, beautiful expression of Rolls-Royce aesthetics.

Further information:

You can find all our press releases and press kits, as well as a wide selection of high resolution, downloadable photographs and video footage at our media website, PressClub. You can also find the communications team at Rolls-Royce Motor Cars on Twitter and Instagram (@RollsRoycemedia)



Images, video and press materials relating to Rolls-Royce Dawn are available from the dedicated microsite: http://anewdawnformedia.com.

SOURCE Rolls-Royce Motor Cars
The Apollo Jetpack Team has been testing the performance of the jetpack underwater, and is hopeful for a successful stunt as part of a video for the international launch of Apollo Energy Gum.

"It has been my dream for 15 years," Scott said. "I don't know what will happen. Everything will depend on how deep I go with a 130-pound jetpack on my back. Anything can happen during launch. The performance will be my first attempt. Honestly, I'm scared, but it is what I live for."

Scott is no stranger to this extreme form of flight. As the holder of multiple jetpack world records, including a 2008 flight over the Royal Gorge, he is looking forward to adding another unique experience to his logbook. The number of people who have piloted jetpacks is on par with the number of people who have walked on the moon.

"Apollo is about the future. We are always trying to stay on the leading edge with all of our products  from our energy gum to our flying machines. This water flight will show the world something people have never seen or realized is possible," said Apollo Gum Company CEO and GO FAST! founder, Troy Widgery.

We welcome everyone and all members of the media to come out and cover this extreme event and meet Apollo Gum Company and the Jetpack team on August 23rd in Lake City, Colorado.

About Apollo Energy Gum Company (www.apollogumcompany.com)

Apollo Gum Company is the new business venture of GO FAST! founder Troy Widgery. This supplement company is on a mission to change the way people consume energy. With headquarters in Denver, Apollo Gum Company is providing a clean, healthy, portable and affordable energy source for athletes, business professionals and anyone who needs an extra boost. Apollo Gum Company is inspiring people all over the world to go after their dreams, push their limits and live a healthier lifestyle. It doesn't matter if you are an athlete, stay-at-home mom or a CEO, we want you to join our community of #belimitless individuals who want to release their inner superhero.

About Apollo JetPack (www.jetpackinternational.com)

Jet P.I. LLC was created 12 years ago to research, develop and construct what was once a childhood dream. The goal of Jet P.I. was to build a lighter, faster, more economical and longer-flying jetpack than the original built by Bell Aerosystems in the 1960s. Utilizing cutting-edge technology, materials and engineering along with incredible passion, determination and an extreme amount of work, Jet P.I. has developed the world's most advanced personal flying machine. Today, the Apollo Jetpack (the former GO FAST! Jetpack) has flown for events held around the world and has been featured on the BBC, the Today Show, Fox News and many other national and international programs.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160819/399802

SOURCE Apollo Gum Company

Related Links

http://www.apollogumcompany.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
Mumbai, Aug 16 : Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra says her favourite part about her profession is that it gives her the liberty to play myriad characters.

Priyanka, who was at the Twitter headquarters in San Francisco on Tuesday, did a video chat with her fans who asked her several questions.

When a user asked her about her favourite thing of being an actress, she replied in a video: "My most favourite thing of being an actress is being able to play so many different characters and the fact that I can be anybody. Scary huh?"

Another user asked what's the one thing she always needs on the sets.

She said: "One thing I always need on set is my phone, otherwise how will I tweet you guys... That's very essential."

The actress was also asked about her American drama TV series "Quantico", which helped her gain international recognition. A fan asked about how much of the storyline is revealed to her at the beginning of each session.

So, Priyanka who plays Alex Parrish in the show, shared: "Not really too much. As I just really want to find out when Alex finds out. So I insist on finding out too much, but I find out like two episodes before the one we are going to shoot."

In the new season of "Quantico", Priyanka will portray CIA agent Alex Parrish. In the first season, she played an FBI recruit.

The former beauty queen will also be seen as a guest judge for season 15 of American TV series "Project Runway", hosted by supermodel Heidi Klum.

Priyanka will join the series as one of the few guest judges on the show, which will air from September. The show focuses on budding designers who are given an opportunity to create a collection for New York Fashion Week.

She has essayed a negative role in "Baywatch" -- the big screen version of the globally popular TV series featuring Dwayne Johnson and Zac Efron.
Jakarta, Aug 16 : The popular tourist beach at Kuta on Bali island was on Tuesday packed with Indonesians celebrating the country's 71st anniversary of independence, the media reported on Tuesday.

More than 2,000 people, including government, military officials and students joined the event, Efe news quoted the organiser Saya Indonesia as saying.

While tourists surfed the waves, hundreds of people marched at the beach, each holding Indonesian flags attached to bamboo poles.

They then lined up and listened as Bali's military chief gave a speech about the country, followed by a group singing the national anthem.

A speaker announced that at the end of the celebration 100 baby sea turtles which were kept in two large buckets would be released into the ocean.

More formal ceremonies will be held in Bali on Wednesday for the country's Independence Day.

On August 17, 1945, Indonesia was declared independent from The Netherlands, which had colonised the archipelago since the early 19th century.
Bhubaneswar, Aug 16 : Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik will meet investors at the 'Invest Odisha' meet in Bengaluru on August 26, an official said here on Tuesday.

The Odisha government will hold the investors' meet in Bengaluru on August 25-26 to attract investments to the state.

Sources said around 50 large and medium industries have been invited to the meet.

Several industry leaders, including Tata Group chairman Cyrus Mistry, Wipro chairman Azim Premji, and Kiran Mazumdar Shaw of Biocon have been invited to the two-day meet.

The Chief Minister will meet the investors on August 26 and hold discussions with industry leaders, said an official statement from the Chief Minister's Office (CMO).

The meet is organised jointly by CII, Karnataka and Odisha government.

Besides, the Chief Minister would launch the Start Up policy of the state government at a seminar on 'Industrial Development and Investment Opportunities in Odisha'.

The master plan of proposed Info-valley project would also be unveiled on the occasion, the statement said.

The state government would sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Wadhawani Foundation for assisting the Odisha administration on vocational and skill development training of youths.

A preparatory meeting under the chairmanship of Naveen Patnaik was held at the state secretariat here on Tuesday.

International sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik would create a sand art at the event. The government would also hold cultural programmes on the same evening to celebrate the birth centenary of legendary leader Biju Patnaik.
Geneva, Aug 19 : Unicef on Friday warned that the ongoing fighting in the Syrian city of Aleppo was affecting over two million people of the city who have no access to safe drinking water.

"Access to safe water in Aleppo has continued to deteriorate over the past two weeks", Xinhua news agency quoted Unicef spokesman Christophe Boulierac as saying.

"The situation is particularly worsening for civilians living in eastern parts of the city where taps have gone dry and families have no safe water through the public network," Boulierac added.

According to Unicef estimates, at least 100,000 children trapped in the eastern parts of the war-torn city are facing outbreaks of waterborne diseases.

"We urge parties of the conflict to immediately allow safe and protected access for technicians to conduct urgent repairs to the electricity and water networks so that water is restored across the city.

"No child in Syria is safe while the conflict drags on. Let me remind you that more than 3.5 million Syrian children under the age of five know nothing but displacement, violence, and uncertainty," he added.

On Thursday a photograph of a boy sitting dazed and bloodied in the back of an ambulance after surviving an air strike in Aleppo has highlighted the desperation of the Syrian civil war and the struggle for control of the city.

The child has been identified as five-year-old Omran Daqneesh, who was injured late on Wednesday in a military strike on the rebel-held Qaterji neighbourhood in Aleppo.
Islamabad, Aug 20 : Pakistan has closed its border with Afghanistan indefinitely after a group of Afghan demonstrators attacked the Bab-e-Dosti gate at Chaman and set the Pakistani flag on fire.

The incident that took place on Thursday evening has resulted in suspension in the movement of trucks involved in trade shipments between the two countries and carrying supplies for NATO forces in Afghanistan, Dawn online reported on Saturday.

According to sources, a large number of Afghan nationals, celebrating the 97th anniversary of their country's independence, gathered near the Friendship Gate after marching through the streets of Spin Boldak town across the border.

They carried placards and banners inscribed with anti-Pakistan slogans.

Shouting slogans against Pakistan, the Afghan demonstrators started pelting stones at the gate.

Exercising restraint, the personnel of Frontier Corps avoided taking any action against the protesters who swarmed the gate after seeing Pakistanis who staged a protest against Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his remarks about Balochistan.

The Afghan demonstrators snatched the national flag from a Pakistani protester who stood close to the gate and set it on fire.

They also tried to force their entry through the gate which had already been closed because of the Afghans' rally.

"The border with Afghanistan will remain closed for an indefinite period," security officials said on Friday, adding: "We will not open the gate until orders to do so are received from the high command."

Every day between 10,000 and 15,000 Pakistani and Afghan traders cross into Chaman in Balochistan and Vesh Mandi in Kandhar province of Afghanistan.

"Not a single trader crossed the border from either side because of the closure of the Friendship Gate," NiamatAullah, a resident of Chaman, said.

According to the sources, security has been heightened at the border after the incident.

The latest incident in Chaman comes after tension intensified between the two countries following the construction of a gate at the Torkham border.

Clashes had erupted among the Afghan and Pakistani forces after Kabul condemned the move by Islamabad to construct the gate, calling it a unilateral act and against a bilateral agreement on border related issues.

Firing between the Afghan and Pakistani forces left a Pakistan major dead and injured several others from both the sides. Construction of the gate was completed in August.
New Delhi, Aug 20 : Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi on Saturday paid tribute to his father and former Prime Minister the late Rajiv Gandhi on his 72nd birth anniversary.

"Remembering Rajivji today. His vision, his values and his deep commitment to the people remain our inspiration," Rahul Gandhi tweeted.

"We pay tribute to former PM Rajiv Gandhi who helped usher India into the 21st Century. #BharatRatnaRajivGandhi," the party tweeted on its official account.

Rahul Gandhi also distributed vehicles to differently-abled youths at an event 'Access to Opportunities' organised to mark Rajiv Gandhi's birth anniversary at Jawahar Bhawan here.

President Pranab Mukherjee, Vice-President Hamid Ansari and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also paid floral tributes to Rajiv Gandhi at Vir Bhumi.

Rajiv Gandhi, born on August 20, 1944, served as the sixth Prime Minister of India from 1984 to 1989.

He took office after the assassination of his mother, the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984.

Rajiv Gandhi too was assassinated in a suicide bombing at Tamil Nadu's Sriperumbudur on May 21, 1991.
Chennai, Aug 20 : Veteran actress Amala Akkineni, last seen on screen in "Hamari Adhuri Kahani", will be seen playing a lawyer in the upcoming Malayalam film "C/O Saira Banu", which marks her return to the industry after two decades.

Amala's last Malayalam outing was the 1991 Mohan Lal-starrer "Ulladakkam".

"Amala plays a lawyer called Annie John Tharavadi, and will be sharing screen space with Manju Warrier, who will play the protagonist Saira Banu," a source from the film's unit told IANS.

To be helmed by debutant Antony Sony, the film is slated to go on the floors soon.
New Delhi, Aug 20 : Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi here on Saturday.

"Weekend diplomacy with Russia. Rogozin calls on PM @narendramodi in Delhi," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup tweeted along with a picture of the two leaders.

Modi had visited Russia for the annual bilateral summit with President Vladimir Putin last December.
Bali, Aug 20 : Indonesian police have arrested a British man and an Australian woman from Bali for their alleged involvement in the murder of a police officer.

David Taylor and Sara Connor were arrested on Friday in connection with the death of Wayan Sudarsa, whose body was discovered on Kuta beach on Wednesday with deep wounds on his head and neck, EFE news agency reported.

Connor's driving licence, ATM card and handbag were reportedly discovered near the body, while a smashed beer bottle at the scene is suspected of being the murder weapon.

Taylor and Connor were brought for questioning on Saturday, but police are yet to state whether they are suspects, Each could face a maximum of 15 years in prison if they are found guilty of second degree murder.

Police said the duo have confirmed their presence on the beach at the time of the murder, but have denied any involvement in the crime.

Connor has claimed that she was drunk and unable to remember all the events of the night.

Conner's family said she travelled to Bali for a holiday to meet Taylor, a British-born DJ who had lived in Byron Bay until recently.
Lucknow, Aug 20 : Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav inaugurated the 'Avadh Shilp Gram' in the state capital on Saturday and highlighted various achievements of his Samajwadi Party government besides announcing several welfare measures for the artisans.

The 20-acre sprawling campus of the Shilp gram houses a huge complex of shops where artisans from across the state can showcase their products. Built in red stone, the 'haat' saw thousands of people flocking there on its inaugural day.

The Chief Minister promised the artisans that the state government was committed to their development and prosperity and announced that the state would soon roll out many welfare measures for them. He also detailed various programmes and schemes of the Samajwadi Party government which were allowing the state to prosper and develop.

Public Works Department (PWD) minister Shivpal Singh Yadav lauded his nephew and chief minister Akhilesh "for bringing a turnaround in the state through his vision and development oriented mindset".

The minister also reminded the gathering of their predecessor, Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) government, and said if they wanted development to continue they should vote for SP in the forthcoming state assembly elections.

Minister of State for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Nitin Agrawal requested the Chief Minister to announce some sops for the weavers and said if this happened exports from the state would grow further.

He also informed that the share of the state in India's exports was at a staggering 45 per cent. He thanked Akhilesh for many policies that had led to a drastic change in the export scene.

Principal Secretary MSME, Rajneesh Dubey said the initiatives taken by the state government were yielding results and reports suggested a growth in the state's share in the country's export pie.

Akhilesh also felicitated some artisans for their work and laid the foundation stone of the UP Institute of Design besides launching a MSME portal.
Islamabad, Aug 20 : The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the world's largest bloc of Muslim countries, on Saturday said that Kashmir is "not an internal problem of India but an international issue", according to a top Pakistani official.

OIC Secretary General Iyad Amin Madani, who is on an official visit to Pakistan, discussed "human rights violations" in Jammu and Kashmir with the country's Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz.

"SG OIC reaffirmed strong support to the Kashmiris in securing their right to self determination," Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Mohammed Nafees Zakaria said in a tweet.

Madani said it was the OIC international community's responsibility to raise their voice against "atrocities" on Kashmiris and their "call for referendum as per the United Nations Security Council resolutions to enable Kashmiris' right to self determination".

According to Zakaria, the OIC secretary general said Kashmir was "not an internal problem of India but an international issue".

Aziz expressed his concern over the "rising incidents of extrajudicial killings" in Kashmir, Geo News reported.

He was addressing a press conference accompanied by Madani.

The OIC secretary general in his address said that the world can no longer stay silent on the atrocities in Kashmir. "We hope that a referendum is held in Kashmir. We should not be scared of the referendum. It is their decision, whether they want to stay here (with India) or there (with Pakistan)", according to Geo.

Aziz also welcomed UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon's statement offering his good offices to initiate a dialogue between Pakistan and India.

"The UN Secretary General has stressed the need for talks between Pakistan and India and hoped India will respond on the matter in a positive manner," he said.

Kashmir has been gripped with violence since July 9, a day after security forces killed top militant, Burhan Wani, in a gunfight. At least 67 people have been killed and over 4,000 injured in clashes with security forces since then.

The Pakistani Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry has invited his Indian counterpart S. Jaishankar for talks in Islamabad later this month on the "Kashmir dispute", but the Indian side has said the talks should focus on aspects related to cross-border terrorism and rejected Pakistan's "self-serving allegations" on Jammu and Kashmir.

India has also said the Foreign Secretary talks would focus on the "earliest possible vacation of Pakistan's illegal occupation of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir".
New Delhi, Aug 20 : A court here on Saturday reserved its order on the quantum of sentence for three persons held guilty of kidnapping and killing IT executive Jigisha Ghosh in March 2009.

Additional Sessions Judge Sandeep Yadav set August 22 for determining the punishment to be given to convicts Ravi Kapoor, Amit Shukla and Baljit Singh Malik.

Public Prosecutor Rajiv Mohan requested the court to award maximum punishment, i.e. death penalty, to the convicts as they have shown no remorse for killing the executive.

The convicts are also facing trial for killing India Today Group journalist Soumya Vishwanathan and a taxi driver, the prosecution apprised the court.

However, the defence counsel pleaded for leniency, contending that the convicts are young.

The court on July 14 convicted the three men under Section 302 (murder), Section 201 (destruction of evidence), Section 364 (kidnapping or abducting in order to murder), Section 394 (voluntarily causing hurt in committing robbery), Section 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), Section 471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record), Section 482 (punishment for using a false property mark) with Section 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.

Jigisha, 28, who was working with Hewitt Associate Pvt Ltd as an operations manager, was kidnapped and killed on March 18, 2009 after her office cab dropped her near her home in Vasant Vihar area in south Delhi around 4 a.m.

Her body was found on March 20, 2009 near Surajkund in Haryana.

The police later arrested Kapoor, Shukla and Malik in the case.
Jaipur, Aug 20 : Highlighting the initiatives of the Union government for promoting inclusion and social advancement, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan on Saturday said that India's development agenda is mirrored in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

"The Union government has chosen the path of removing poverty by empowering the poor. Women are most vulnerable and therefore are most at risk from climate change," Mahajan said while inaugurating the first Meeting of BRICS Women Parliamentarians' Forum at Rajasthan Vidhan Sabha Chamber here.

She said the BRICS countries need to strengthen cooperative mechanisms and to innovate new institutional means for meeting the needs of the member countries.

"The BRICS countries together comprise 43 per cent of the world's population and contribute 37 per cent of the world GDP. As such, the success of the SDGs will be heavily dependent on their successful implementation in the BRICS countries," she said.

She lauded the fact that BRICS has taken impressive strides beginning from a forum for consultation on economic issues of mutual interest to evolving into a group which now has various topical global issues on its agenda.

Hoping that under India's chairmanship, BRICS cooperation will be further strengthened, Mahajan said, "the role of women parliamentarians as enablers of achievement of the SDGs need to concentrate on their role as people's representatives helping to highlight the concerns of the people as well as mobilizing the participation of the citizens in issues of governance and sustainable development."

She added that the 2030 Agenda also recognises the essential role to be played by the national parliaments in ensuring accountability at different stages of the policy cycle and their implementation.

Earlier, complimenting Chief Minister of Rajasthan Vasundhara Raje for successfully organising the meeting, Mahajan said there could not have been a better venue than the state of Rajasthan to discuss the theme of the meeting.

As many as 35 delegates from five member countries of BRICS are participating in the two-day deliberations.
Beijing, Aug 20 : Achieving peace and unity in Myanmar is the most important aim, State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi said in Beijing.

Suu Kyi told this to Chinese media on Friday, Xinhua news agency reported.

Suu Kyi is on a five-day visit to China at the invitation of Premier Li Keqiang. China is the first country that Suu Kyi has visited outside of the Asean, since she took office in April.

She said that peace and unity among different groups was what Myanmar needed the most.

"Without peace, there can be no sustained development," Suu Kyi said.

Ethnic armed groups have existed in Myanmar since the country gained independence in January 1948.

The Myanmar government started ceasefire talks with several armed groups in November 2013, and a nationwide ceasefire accord between the government and eight ethnic armed groups was finally signed last year.

The Myanmar government formed an 11-member National Reconciliation and Peace Centre (NRPC) on July 11 this year, led by Aung San Suu Kyi.

Myanmar will hold a meeting called "the 21th century Panglong meeting", which aims to bring more ethnic armed groups to sign the ceasefire agreement and to participate in the peace process.

"The peace process, of course, is our process and the people of Myanmar must build peace in our country," said Suu Kyi, adding that Myanmar believes that China is a good neighbour and will do every thing possible to promote the peace process.

Regarding Myanmar's economic development in the future, Suu Kyi named job creation, national plans for energy and construction, and a new way of developing agriculture.

"With high unemployment in the country, Myanmar needs to create jobs for people so that they can use their own ability to earn a living and live a dignified and secure life," she said.

In addition, Myanmar has to develop its agriculture sector because the great majority of its people -- about 70 per cent of the population -- depend on agriculture for their livelihood.

While answering a question about her father General Aung San's legacy, Suu Kyi said: "It was the idea of honest leadership that aimed at serving the people rather than exploiting them."

"Unity among different ethnic groups of the country is greatly desired," she added.

"This is what my father would have desired and what we all desire, not because it is part of his legacy, but because it is what we need for our country," Suu Kyi said.
By Matt Siegel

SYDNEY, Aug 19 (Reuters) - Australia's anti-trust regulator on Friday said it would not grant the country's three biggest banks interim approval to collectively negotiate with Apple Inc to install their own electronic payments applications on iPhones.

Australia's three biggest banks, including the number one lender National Australia Bank (NAB), last month lodged a joint application seeking permission to negotiate as a bloc from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).

The ACCC said that its decision not to grant the banks the interim ruling was not indicative of whether the full ruling, expected in October, would be successful or not.

"The ACCC has considered interim authorisation within a short time frame at the request of the applicants," ACCC Chairman Rod Sims said.

"However, given the complexity of the issues and the limited time available, the ACCC has decided not to grant interim authorisation at this time. The ACCC requires more time to consult and consider the views of industry, consumers, and other interested parties."

Apple, which operates its own Apple Pay mobile wallet, does not allow third-party electronic payment apps to be loaded onto to the hugely popular smartphones. The banks are seeking to be able to negotiate jointly for access to Apple's phones without themselves being accused of violating anti-competition law.

The three Australian banks contend that while Apple allows apps on iPhones using other commonplace technology, such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, restricting the technology through which mobile wallets function - known as Near Field Technology - constitutes anti-competitive behaviour.

Australia and New Zealand Bank, which signed a deal to use the Apple Pay system in April, is the only one of the country's 'Big Four' banks not to join the action. The country's second-biggest lender, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, and number three, Westpac Banking Corp, have joined with NAB.

Story continues

A spokesman for the banks said they would continue their ongoing consultations with the ACCC until the final determination is made.

A spokeswoman for Apple in Sydney was not immediately available for comment.

(Reporting by Matt Siegel; Editing by Michael Perry)
Dhaka, Aug 20 : A Bangladesh citizens' group held a day-long protest on Saturday against the Rampal power plant project in the Sundarbans being jointly executed with India.

The 1,000-odd protesters of the National Committee to Protect Oil-Gas-Mineral Resources-Power and Ports warned the Bangladesh government not to persist with the coal-fired power plant that environmentalists say will badly damage the Sundarbans mangroves.

The protesters, who also comprised many Left groups, plan to submit an open letter to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the issue and to hold a rally in front of the Indian High Commission in Dhaka soon, according to the Daily Star.

The Oil Gas Protection Committee announced it will hold a "Cholo, Cholo Dhaka Cholo" (March to Dhaka) on November 24 if the government does not cancel the Rampal project by then.

The committee, during the daylong sit-in held at Shaheed Minar, also announced plans to hold a grand rally in the capital on November 26, as well as rallies at divisional and district headquarters through September, October and November.

The members staged patriotic dramas, sang songs and recited poems during the sit-in.

Columnist Syed Abul Maksud and other prominent personalities addressed the gathering.

Environmental groups and experts have protested against the 1,320 MW Rampal power plant in association with India's NTPC, while private firm Orion Group is constructing a 566 MW plant near the Sundarbans.

"This power plant in Rampal (in the southern district of Bagerhat) will have to stop. The movement we had started will not be silenced. I ask the government to weigh the consequences of the project," Communist Party of Bangladesh President Mujahidul Islam Selim said.

Selim added that the movement will go on. "We will continue our movement even if it means changing our political priorities."

India and Bangladesh inked an agreement in July this year to set up the thermal power plant in Bagerhat's Rampal near the Sunderbans. The two countries will have a 50-50 partnership in the venture styled Bangladesh-India Friendship Power Company Limited.

On Friday, opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader Khaleda Zia also demanded that Dhaka scrap the project.

Environmentalists say the power plant would cause extensive damage to the world's largest mangrove forest in the Sundarbans as well as affect the locals living nearby.
New Delhi, Aug 20 : Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai has lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi's remarks on the human rights situation in Balochistan, saying that there was extreme suffering in the region at the hands of "extremists promoted by state structures of Pakistan".

"Afghanistan and India have been very reserved in their comments on Pakistan from a very long long time. Of course, we need to talk because we are on the same platform," Karzai said in an interview to NewsX news channel.

"In Balochistan, there is extreme suffering at the hands of extremists promoted by state structures in Pakistan," he added.

Karzai also said that India had approached the issue concerning Afghanistan with some caution.

"Yes, India approached the issue with caution and we understood it. There are considerations of Pakistani sensitivities which we of course disagree with," he said.

Modi, in his Independence Day address from the Red Fort, had referred to the situation in Balochistan, Gilgit, Baltistan and said people from these regions had thanked him a lot over the past few days for support.
New Delhi, Aug 20 : Visiting Nepal Deputy Prime Minister Bimalendra Nidhi on Saturday called on President Pranab Mukherjee at Rashtrapati Bhavan here.

"The President said the long-term peace in and stability of a united Nepal is in India's interest. India will work with Nepal towards this common goal," an official statement said here.

"The President said India attaches highest priority to its relations with Nepal and remains strongly committed to further strengthening this age-old relationship. India-Nepal relations are firmly embedded in shared geography, history, culture, civilisation and close people-to-people ties," the statement added.

Mukherjee also congratulated Nidhi on his appointment as the new Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister of Nepal and wished him success in promoting national cohesion and reconciliation in the Himalayan country.
New Delhi, Aug 20 : As Kashmir Valley continued to be paralysed under curfew and shutdown for the 43rd day, the government on Saturday appealed to the people of the Valley to shun the path of confrontation and join the path of progress.

In a related development, former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah led a delegation of opposition lawmakers to meet President Pranab Mukherjee and urged him to ask the Centre to handle the situation in the Kashmir valley politically and not administratively.

Making an appeal to the valley, where over 65 people have died in clashes so far, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said at a rally in Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh: "We not only love the land of Kashmir but also its people. I appeal to you to shun the path of confrontation and join the path of progress. We do not want to see stones, bricks and firearms in your hands but pen, computers and jobs. We want to see you employed."

He also said that violent protest cannot be a solution to a particular issue.

"There should be peace at first then issues can be resolved through talks," he said.

Rajnath Singh also lashed out at Pakistan and accused it of stoking violence in Kashmir.

Information and Broadcasting Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu said that the Centre and the BJP-PDP alliance state government were doing everything to normalise the situation.

He urged all sections of people including a section of the media to exercise restraint in speaking on the sensitive issue.

He said that media too should ensure that such footage is not shown "that could be used by our adversaries against us".

In his meeting with President Mukherjee, Omar Abdullah said the problem in Jammu and Kashmir stems from its polity. "It is a political problem. It cannot be handled administratively and not through the use of force. It cannot be handled by creating a humanitarian crisis."

The National Conference leader said the delegation urged the President to impress upon the central government to initiate a credible and meaningful process of political dialogue without any further delay involving all stakeholders to address the political issues in the state.

It also urged him to influence the central and the state governments to stop the use of lethal force against civilians in the Valley.

Abdullah also criticised the ruling BJP-PDP alliance in the state for its handling of the violence in the Valley.

"Over the last couple of days we have found that an effort is being made to crush the ongoing agitation in Jammu and Kashmir by heaping more misery on the people," he said.

The delegation also submitted a memorandum to the President.

"We express our deep disappointment and displeasure at the response of both the central and the state governments to the current unrest in Kashmir, which stems from their insensitivity towards the sufferings and sentiments of the people of the state.

"The failure of the central government to acknowledge that the issue in Kashmir is largely of a political nature has worsened the already volatile situation. The central government's refusal to deal with the situation through a political approach is disappointing and can have serious long term implications on peace and stability in the state," the memorandum said.

Earlier, Omar led a MLAs' delegation and apprised the President of the situation prevailing in the Valley.

He said the situation went out of control after the July 8 killing of Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani and was "due to our own mistakes".

"Pakistan has been trying to destabilise peace in the Valley for the last 25 years. But if you ask me if the situation created after Wani's killing was due to Pakistan, I will have to say 'no'," the NC leader said.

He said Pakistan undoubtedly tried to fuel the situation and succeeded too to some extent. "But the immediate turmoil was due to our own mistakes."

Omar said it is for the first time that the initiatives that should have been taken by the government are being taken by the opposition.

"The people who today are undergoing the 43rd day of restrictions and curfew are having further restriction placed on them. With the sale of petroleum and other products being banned, with the movements of ambulances the hospitals are being affected, with stringent curfew measures being enforced, all that is happening is that more and more people are being driven out on to the streets and the problem is getting worse," the former Chief Minister added.
New Delhi, Aug 20 : BJP leader Subramanian Swamy on Saturday supported Union minister V.K. Singh amid a row over an affidavit filed by army chief General Dalbir Singh, saying the minister was "continuously being targeted by certain corrupt forces" unhappy over his role in preventing illegal kickbacks in weapons purchase.

The Rajya Sabha MP also urged the government to take steps to protect V.K. Singh, a former army chief, from "this paid slander campaign, since being a minister he cannot defend himself in a slugfest with the present Chief of Army Staff".

"The DV (Discipline and Vigilance) Ban on the appointment of certain Generals was issued after due process. No COAS (Chief of Army Staff) can issue a DV Ban on a whim. The matter is examined by not just the Vigilance Branch but also by the MoD (Ministry of Defence) at the highest levels. Only after these three bodies recommend the DV Ban can the process be initiated," Swamy said in a statement here.

"The most recent attempt to slander General Singh (retd) is for the vigilance inquiry ordered against Lt. General D.S. Suhag in May 2012," the Bharatiya Janata Party leader said.

General Dalbir Singh on Thursday briefed Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar about the affidavit, which was originally filed in the Armed Forces Tribunal in 2012, in which he accused former Army chief General V.K. Singh.

In the affidavit, Dalbir Singh said he was "victimised" by Singh "with the sole purpose of denying promotion to the appointment of Army Commander".

The affidavit had been filed by Dalbir Singh in his "personal capacity" when he was not the army chief, nor was Singh a minister.

The old affidavit was resubmitted by the present army chief after the matter came before the Supreme Court.

V.K. Singh slapped a discipline and vigilance ban on Dalbir Singh between April and May 2012 for alleged "failure of command and control" in an operation in Assam's Jorhat in 2011.

The ban was lifted in June 2012 after General Bikram Singh succeeded V.K. Singh as the army chief.

Dalbir Singh was then appointed commander of the army's Eastern Command.
Panaji, Aug 20 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in the two and a half years in office, has travelled abroad on fewer occasions than his predecessor Manmohan Singh, BJP national president Amit Shah said on Saturday, and added that the former Prime Minister would muddle up his speeches when abroad.

Shah took potshots at Singh, referring to him as 'mouni baba' or 'silent sage' even as he said that India under Modi's regime had a pride of place in the international arena.

"Kamal Nath has made a statement that Modi ji goes abroad very often. Kamal Nath does not know facts. In the two and a half year regimes of Manmohan Singh and Modi, Singh has gone abroad on more occasions than Modi. Kamal Nath does not know this, he cannot be blamed, because earlier our PM was a Mouni Baba, you know Mouni baba right?" Shah said to cheers from the Goa Bharatiya Janata Party poll booth workers.

Further mocking the former United Progressive Alliance government Prime Minister's functioning, Shah said that Singh's international visits were lacklustre and that the former Prime Minister used to muddle up his speeches.

"When he (Singh) used to go abroad, no one would know about it. No one, either in India or abroad, would know about his foreign visits. He would take two sheets of paper with English text on it. He would simply read out the content printed on the two pages and return to India. Sometimes, the sheets would get mixed up and he would read about Malaysia in Indonesia and about Indonesia in Malaysia," Shah said.

The BJP national president said that Modi had been successful in altering the perception of India in the international arena in a mere two and a half years.

"Now when Narendra Modi became Prime Minister of India, whenever he travels abroad, be it Nepal, Bhutan, (Sri) Lanka, China, US, England, France thousands of people are ready to welcome him. Therefore everyone knows now when Modi travels," Shah said.

"Narendra bhai has given India a pride of place internationally in two years. Mr. Kamal Nath, if you do not realise it, it does not matter. When the PM addresses the UN in Hindi, Indian hearts swell with pride," Shah said.
New Delhi, Aug 20 : BJP leader Subramanian Swamy on Saturday supported the appointment of economist and banker Urjit R. Patel as the next Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor and said it will be "idiotic" to attack him for being born in Kenya.

Swamy has been a bitter critic of the present RBI governor Raghuram Rajan and has accused him of derailing the Indian economy by keeping the lending rates high.

Hours after the official announcement was made of Patel, Swamy conveyed his views through replies and retweets of his followers.

"Don't be an idiot like the presstitudes," Swamy responded to a follower when asked "Urijit Patel new #RBI governor - hawkish for sure. Will @swamy39 Attack him for being born in Kenya (outsider) ??"

"He is not Kenyan citizen but was. R3 was born Indian & chose to continue his US Green Card even though in India from 2007," he tweeted in response to a question whether "Gujju" credentials had helped Patel.

The questioner also asked "Apparently he is a Kenyan Citizen. Wonder what @Swamy39 has to say about this!"

Swamy replied with "Rubbish", when one of his followers said "that i'm so dead sure, @Swamy39 is not happy with this appointment."

Swamy had alleged that Rajan has been acting as a "Congress agent" ever since the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in May 2014.

The BJP leader had also accused Rajan of "sabotaging the country's economy by trying to put all small, medium industries out of business".
For the public at large, the opportunity to experience avant-garde, worldwide trends in art outside international arenas such as the Venice Biennale is a rare occurrence.

The great writer, Edward Lucie-Smith, has contributed an essay and has chosen several contemporary, cutting-edge artists dealing with issues of concern today. The contemporary artist from Cypress, Christine Chrisofi, deals with her culture and is addressing the issues of being a modern woman in a society that doesn't want to change. There are more classical artists, such as Italian artist Ilarea Rosselli Del Turco, who has incorporated the figure and still life in a loose and traditional way of painting. Ilarea, as well as California artists Frank Damiano and John Tarahteeff, give homage to important classical artists. This exhibition displays both neoclassical and surreal works -- such as "Lullaby" by Avery Palmer. "Lullaby" depicts a windblown nude female figure playing a piano in a field with no vegetation. Instead of plants, bald men's heads slumber on pillows, sprouting out of the ground. Libyan artist Najla Shawkat Fitouri's painting shows a traditional Syrian wedding that gives a feeling of abstraction and collage in spite of being a painting. Najla successfully creates a relationship between her past and present culture. In the same vein of paying respect to classical painters, Spanish artist Jose Luis Cena Ruiz depicts a young man with a backpack listening to an audio recording, while California artist, Kim Frohsin's "L. D. Blue," is a tribute to Picasso's "blue period."

These figurative painters give an incredible walkthrough of the past, present and cutting edge in over three floors and 100 figurative paintings from around the globe, this is a rare opportunity you don't want to miss!
iWeSocial Stream Dashboard Social media and

Social media just became easier, and more impactful for businesses of all sizes with iWeSocial's release of their new product called iWeSocial Stream. Not only is Stream a one-stop dashboard for all the conversations around your brand, but it's also a social media publishing tool, analytics tool, that can also create professional looking reports that create visuals and graphs straight from the data.

With the Monitor tool, users can see comments and mentions about their brand and products across a multitude of social media channels, blog sites, and even rss feeds the instant they are live. The Monitor also makes the distinction between negative sentiment and positive sentiment by highlighting posts and comments in green or red. According to iWeSocial Vice President and VP, Evan Escobedo, "With the touch of a finger, or the click of a mouse, a company can see and react immediately to negative sentiment around your brand and respond directly from the platform whether it's a Twitter or Facebook post. It will also tell you how much influence that person carries which can help avert a crisis immediately."

The key to the entire product and dashboard is the visual element, and it's ease of use. Stream will tell you which comments are positive by showing circles that are green. The bigger that circle is, the more influence that person has. You can also use Stream to help you make future decisions about products or production. "We like to call it predictive analytics or predictive monitoring. Theoretically, a pharmaceutical company that makes a flu vaccine, for instance, could monitor for specific terms and flu symptoms such as 'cough', 'fever', or 'flu' and use the data from these terms to help determine how much vaccine to make that year" said Evan Escobedo. "iWeSocial Stream could potentially replace the need for a data scientist at a fraction of the cost." Another one of the major benefits of using iWeSocial Stream is that you won't be limited to how many different searches you can setup, and you can create dashboards for as many different topics as you please.

iWeSocial Stream simply adds power to any company's social media and branding efforts. It listens, and enables you to respond the minute something happens, good or bad. It not only saves money, but saves a lot of time by putting everything you need in one beautiful dashboard. And you don't have to be a data scientist to use it. Anyone can use it. Having the social stream displayed at all times in your workplace is a game changer. Everyone in the office will know that they have eyes and ears on the conversations that matter.

iWeSocial is offering free demos of iWeSocial Stream by contacting them at info(at)iwesocial(dot)com or calling them at 720.880.5492.

http://iwesocial.com/

Media Contact

Evan Escobedo

720.880.5492
Our fans look for the BuzzBallz logo because its a guarantee of quality, so of course were very concerned about other brands/products out there that may create confusion among consumers and are hopeful that this verdict rectifies that.

On June 10th, 2016, a Federal jury in Los Angeles returned a unanimous verdict holding that BuzzBox, a new supplier in the alcoholic beverage industry, used a logo that infringed upon the graphic trademark of the well-known liquor cocktail brand BuzzBallz. The crux of the matter was whether BuzzBox was confusingly similar to BuzzBallz as used on the products at issue. The jury found that, when viewing the products and respective marks as a whole, the stylized versions of the two terms were indeed likely to confuse consumers. Due, at least in part, to the testimony of BuzzBox Beverages, Inc.s founder, Rod Vandenbos, that his company has never been profitable, the jury declined to award any damages in the case.

BuzzBallz founder and owner, Merrilee Kick, was cautiously optimistic in light of the jury's finding that BuzzBox's logo infringed upon BuzzBallz graphic mark. We take enormous pride in the hard work and dedication that goes into making BuzzBallz a nationally recognized ready-to-drink cocktails powerhouse. Our customers are our best marketers, and were always hearing from folks who just discovered BuzzBallz and fell in love with our products, said Kick. Our fans look for the BuzzBallz logo because its a guarantee of quality, so of course were very concerned about other brands/products out there that may create confusion among consumers and are hopeful that this verdict rectifies that."

The case is styled BuzzBallz, LLC v. BuzzBox Beverages, Inc., et al. Case No.: 5:14-cv-01725 (United States District Court, Central District of California 2016).

About BuzzBallz

BuzzBallz are delicious, ready-to-drink cocktails that can be frozen or chilled. They are a functional cocktail choice in an earth friendly container that is unbreakable. The unique plastic container is pool and beach-safe and perfect to toss in the cooler for tailgates, boat trips, and camping. BuzzBallz are kosher-certified, made with real juice, natural sugar (no high fructose corn syrup), and available at retailers nationwide. Learn more at buzzballz.com.
Judy Davis "With the largest staff in the region, robust compliance programs, and high-tech employer and employee software solutions on her side, Judy will deliver real, impactful results to our clients. -Jules Gaudreau, President

The Gaudreau Group Insurance and Financial Services Agency of Wilbraham, MA is excited to welcome Judy Davis to their Employee Benefits team. Davis has over 25 years of experience in the Corporate Employee Benefits industry, with a focus on designing and implementing benefits plans and services for organizations large and small. She joins The Gaudreau Group after having spent 11 years as Vice President of Sales in the Employee Benefits Division at Insurance Center of New England in Agawam, MA. Prior to her time at Insurance Center, Davis was Vice President of Employee Benefits at Banknorth (now USI) Insurance Agency in Springfield, MA.

I am very proud to have joined an organization that exemplifies the same high standards of exceptional customer service and integrity that I have provided my clients for over 25 years, says Davis.

Jules Gaudreau, President of The Gaudreau Group adds. Judy is a great addition to our industry-leading Employee Benefits division. With the largest staff in the region, robust compliance programs, and high-tech employer and employee software solutions on her side, Judy will deliver real, impactful results to our clients.

Davis is the recipient of several accolades and awards, including the 2013-2014 Top Woman in Insurance in the Top 25 Women to Watch in Western MA as well as the 2015 Friend of Stavros award from Stavros Center for Independent Living in Amherst, MA. She has served on several Chamber of Commerce boards and committees in the Western MA area.

Not only has Davis amassed her own extensive knowledge of markets and trends in the Employee Benefits industry, but she also has access to the experiences of more than 2,000 benefits professionals via The Gaudreau Groups partnership with United Benefit Advisors. UBA is an invitation-only alliance of the nation's premier independent advisory firms.

Founded in 1921 and headquartered in Wilbraham, Massachusetts, The Gaudreau Group insures over 6,000 businesses and families in 14 states with combined annual premiums of over $100 million.
ACN, Inc. welcomes Japan, it's 25th country of operation As the fifth largest direct selling market worldwide, Japan was incredibly appealing to us. But it was the people that sealed the deal when selecting Japan to continue our Asian expansion.

ACN, Inc., the worlds largest direct seller of telecommunications, energy and other essential services for home and business, and the 26th largest direct selling company overall, continues to make history with the launch of its 25th country, Japan.

Headquartered in North America, ACN has primarily been a services-based company, with individuals creating home-based businesses offering services such as phone, wireless, internet and gas and electricity. However, ACN introduced an innovative strategy that combines the services industry with the health and wellness industries in many of its international markets. ACN Japan will initially focus on offering its BenevitaTM product line  a premium lifestyle brand that provides wellness, nutrition and weight management products. Additionally, the company seeks to offer a variety of services to customers in the future, including wireless, energy and internet.

ACN opened its Japan headquarters in the Minato neighborhood of Tokyo in mid July  providing a meeting space, a call center, corporate offices and a product storefront  allowing ACN to provide service and support locally to current and future Independent Business Owners and customers.

ACN began its expansion into Asia in 2010 with the launch of South Korea and brings more than two decades of success in the direct selling industry to Japan under the leadership of VP of Sales Danny Bae. As an ACN IBO for many years, and the driving force behind ACNs Asian expansion, Bae has hands-on experience to help develop leaders in Japan, as he has successfully done in Korea.

As the fifth largest direct selling market worldwide, Japan was incredibly appealing to us, said ACN President and Co-Founder Greg Provenzano. But it was the people that sealed the deal when selecting Japan to continue our Asian expansion.

About ACN Inc.

Founded in 1993, ACN is the worlds largest direct seller of telecommunications, energy, and other essential services for residential and business customers. ACN provides the services people need and use every day including Phone Service, Wireless, Energy, Merchant Services, Television, Home Security and Automation and High Speed Internet. ACN operates in 25 countries with offices located throughout North America, Europe, Asia, Latin America and the Pacific. For information on ACNs home-based business opportunity, visit http://www.acninc.com.
Badgers Babies at Work program made it possible for first-time dad Ryon to bring baby Willa to work until she was 6 months old. Badger's Babies at Work program proves that workplaces function best when employees and employers collaborate to find new ways of working

What happens when you let employees bring their babies to work? W.S. Badger, the maker of certified organic and natural body care products, answers this question in a new video from OpenWork, a nonprofit that inspires companies to continuously improve how, when, and where work is done for the mutual benefit of employees and employers.

Badger is one of 200 companies and organizations in the U.S. with a babies at work policy allowing moms and dads to bring their infants to the office and care for them until they reach six months of age. In addition to encouraging the parent/child bond at a critical time, the program also provides business benefits to Badger such as increased employee engagement, reduced turnover, and fewer parents leaving the workplace.

Offering benefits that support the lifecycle of our employees has always been a priority, says Rebecca Hamilton, VP of research & development and co-owner at Badger. Back in 2007 when an employee asked if she could bring her baby to work, we did the research and ended up working with the Parenting in the Workplace Institute to design a program that suited our needs. Weve since had 15 parents bring their babies to work here at Badger.

Badgers forward-thinking company culture is not just a happy accident. From its founding in 1995, the mission and principles of this family run and family friendly business were designed to support a culture that was respectful and supportive of all employees. In addition to Babies at Work, many of the companys innovative employee-centered practicesextended paid parental leave, a company-run childcare center, and free organic lunches served dailyare the result of employee feedback.

Badger's Babies at Work program proves that workplaces function best when employees and employers collaborate to find new ways of working, said Kathleen Christensen, Chairman of the Board of Directors of OpenWork. By building their business based on trust, accountability and flexibility, Badger has created a workplace that works for everyone.

Parents participating in the program are not expected to work a 40-hour workweek. Instead, it is expected that at least 2 hours a day, if not more, be set aside for taking care of their babies. Parents must also identify co-workers who act as backup caregivers.

My wife and I were both starting to establish our careers, so taking time away was a challenge. Having the option to stay on full-time while having baby Willa at work was perfect, says first-time dad Ryon Clarke, the product development project lead at Badger and the first father to participate in the companys program.

Christina Klueh, a customer support rep at Badger and a recent Babies at Work alum says, Being Ryons back up for baby Willa was a great opportunity to give back.

According to the nonprofit OpenWork, businesses that embrace the core principles of OpenWork  trust, accountability and flexibility  see an increase in productivity, higher employee engagement and job satisfaction, and a reduction in worker stress and burnout.

OpenWork is defined as happening when employees and employers collaborate to reinvent how work is done, for the benefit of all. This means breaking out of old patterns, establishing new cultures of trust and accountability and creating new ways of working to reap huge benefits. By sharing stories about workplace culture, employee engagement, job flexibility, work-life balance and more, OpenWork.org aims to accelerate the pace of change in the way people can and should work in the 21st century.

About W.S. Badger

Badger is the maker of certified organic and 100% natural body care products. Family run and family friendly since 1995, Badger was born when Badger Bill, a carpenter at the time, created a recipe of natural ingredients strong enough to soothe his rough, dry cracked hands. Now a team of over 90 employees, Badger produces more than one hundred products ranging from lip balms, hair oils and body moisturizers to mineral sunscreens and natural bug repellents. Recently, Badger was one of two New Hampshire businesses and 351 workplaces nationwide honored with a 2016 When Work Works Award for its use of effective workplace strategies to increase business and employee success.

Inherent in Badgers DNA is its status as a B Corporation, a certification earned through B Lab, a third party nonprofit that requires companies to meet rigorous standards of transparency as well as environmental and social performance. Badger has been a certified B Corp since 2011 and in 2015 became one of New Hampshires first businesses to register legally as a Benefit Corporation, a for-profit status that incorporates the pursuit of positive environmental and social impact in addition to profit.
Students who attend deeper learning network high schools are significantly more likely than their peers in other schools to enroll in college, particularly in four-year and selective institutions, according to a new study by the American Institutes for Research (AIR).

Schools focused on deeper learning aim to enable students to transfer knowledge and skills across contexts by developing academic and problem solving skills, enhancing their ability to communicate and work with others, and cultivating the self-knowledge and ability to manage their own time and effort.

The AIR brief, funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, focused on more than 20,000 students in 25 schools in New York City and California with largely diverse and underserved populations. Using a sample of similar schools, the team made statistical adjustments to compare students in network to non-network schools as both groups entered high school. The students entered ninth grade between the 2007-08 and 2010-11 school years.

Among the briefs major findings:



Roughly 53 percent of students who attended network high schools in the ninth grade enrolled in college by the end of 2014, compared to 50 percent of students in non-network schools.

Twenty-two percent of students who attended network high schools enrolled in four-year institutions, compared to 18 percent of students in non-network schools. For selective four-year schools  defined as four-year institutions where more than 80 percent of incoming freshmen are full-time students and where admissions test scores place the institution above the 40th percentile of postsecondary institutions  the research found that 9 percent of students from network schools and 7 percent from non-network schools enrolled.

Among students who enrolled in college, 69 percent of network school students enrolled the fall immediately following expected high school graduation, compared to 65 percent of their peers in non-network schools.

Nonetheless, rates of retention and consecutive enrollment were similar regardless of whether the schools attended were part of a deeper learning network. In both groups, 80 percent of students enrolled for at least two consecutive terms, 62 percent enrolled for at least three consecutive terms, and about half enrolled for at least four consecutive terms.

The effects of attending a network high school on college enrollment did not vary by gender or students eligibility to receive free or reduced-price lunch (a measure of low-income status), but they did for students with varying levels of prior achievement. Among freshmen who started high school with below-average achievement, students in network schools were more likely to enroll in college (by 5 percentage points) and more likely to enroll in four-year institutions (by 6 percentage points) than students who attended comparison schools. The study team did not observe significant differences in postsecondary enrollment among students who entered high school with above-average achievement test scores.

Using a sample that includes additional pairs of network and non-network schools, and an additional group of ninth grade students, this study builds on the findings of the 2014 report, Evidence of Deeper Learning Outcomes. That report also found that students in high schools that focused on deeper learning scored higher on standardized tests, had higher rates of graduation within four years of entering high school, were more likely to enroll in four-year and selective colleges, and had higher levels of collaboration, self-efficacy and academic engagement.

The new study can be found at http://www.air.org/deeperLEARNING.

About AIR

Established in 1946, with headquarters in Washington, D.C., the American Institutes for Research (AIR) is a nonpartisan, not-for-profit organization that conducts behavioral and social science research and delivers technical assistance both domestically and internationally in the areas of health, education and workforce productivity. For more information, visit http://www.air.org.
Crescent Harbor (http://www.crescentharbor.com) is pleased to announce that their customers can now purchase new Hubbardton Forge chandeliers from the Crescent Harbor online store.

Hubbardton Forge does exceptionally beautiful work, said Tim Fossett, President. The use of glass, candles and hand-forged wrought iron elevate the look of each piece. These chandeliers are the answer when you want to incorporate the look of a rustic elegance in your dining room, grand reception hall, or master foyer.

Among the many beautiful chandeliers in this line is the Aubrey. This seven-arm masterpiece evokes the classic Art Nouveau movement and features sweeping arms that curve upwards to act as stems for delicate glass light shades. Named for English illustrator Aubrey Beardsley, this fixture is a work of art in its own right.

Those seeking a more contemporary look will be delighted by the Piccadilly. A perfectly-forged circle holds twelve cylindrical frosted shades that sit beneath a sculpted starburst canopy.

Not to be outdone is the impressive large scale Flora that adds dramatic flair to big rooms with high ceilings. An impressive 59.6 high and 43.3 wide, the Floras 12 sweeping arms and winding middle accent will be the star attraction of any space it commands.

In addition to these and many other stunning Hubbardton Forge options, Crescent Harbors online clients can also enjoy free shipping (conditions apply), an easy return policy and a very special price guarantee. To learn more about Crescent Harbor and/or to purchase high-quality Hubbardton Forge lighting and fixtures at affordable prices, visit http://crescentharbor.com/hufo.html

About Crescent Harbor Lighting

Crescent Harbor Lighting is the online arm of The Lighthouse, a family-owned lighting company founded in 1972. The company specializes in a high-touch customer service approach to retailing lighting fixtures, ceiling fans and other related items.

Contact Details:

Tim Fossett

President

88 York Street

US Route One

Kennebunk, Maine, 04043

Toll Free Phone: 1-888-355-9525

Local Phone: 1-207-985-3535

Fax: 1-207-985-4569

Source: Crescent Harbor Lighting

###
The Dominator 500 Founders Club LE With achieved milestones, we are now a reality!

Alkane Truck Company has completed their EquityNet profile and uploaded their company business plan projections for the next 5 years. The company has already raised $5.4 MM in funding led by Robert Smith, founder and CEO of Alkane Truck Company. Alkane has achieved crucial milestones, which have defined the companys business model and structure. Alkane Truck Company has completed DOT compliance for their class 7 cab-over truck, and have signed exclusive Agent of Service agreements (AOS) with international truck manufacturers Foton (Chinas #1 commercial truck manufacturer) & Agrale (current military vehicles supplier for Brazilian Government and The United Nations).

You can visit Alkane Truck Companys EquityNet profile at : http://www.equitynet.com/c/alkane-truck-company-inc

Based in Myrtle Beach, S.C., Alkane Truck Company is influencing the future of trucking and off-road vehicles with its three products: the Dominator, Humvee-style off-road, all-terrain vehicle, a class 7 truck and a class 8, 18-wheeler tractor. The company is a leader in the development of alternative fueled vehicles. More information can be found at http://www.alkanetruckcompany.com/home/
Obtaining a GED, can expand your employment opportunities, increase your wages or allow you to go on to college, says Catharine Fleming, Chief Mission Officer for Horizon Goodwill Industries.

Horizon Goodwill is partnering with the Allegany College of Maryland to offer adult basic education and GED classes. Passing the GED, or the General Educational Development examination, is becoming more and more important. It can expand your employment opportunities, increase your wages or allow you to go on to college, says Catharine Fleming, Chief Mission Officer for Horizon Goodwill Industries.

The collaboration, part of the Adult Basic Education Program in Cumberland, Maryland will offer help to people who want to get a high school diploma or high school equivalent skills. Orientation for the class starts on Wednesday, August 24th, however, adults can enroll on any day the classes are offered. The program runs Monday, Wednesday, and Friday 9 to noon. Subsidiary programs offered through Allegany College of Maryland are Adult Basic Education classes, GED preparation, National External Diploma Program (NEDP), Family Literacy classes, and Essential Workplace classes.

The Adult Basic Education program helps around 300 people each year. The average class size is about 5-10 people, and classes will take place throughout Allegany County. The program length will depend on their educational background and commitment to earning their diploma, says Fleming. A potential student should head to, 12000 Upper Potomac Industrial Park, Cumberland Maryland for orientation on Monday.

The classes are complimentary. says Fleming. The classes are already proving to be a success for thirty-six people who enrolled earlier this year in the GED program offered by Lord Fairfax Community College (LFCC) at Horizon Goodwills Winchester, VA location. Fleming added, "The other benefit is in the state of Maryland, an individual who completes the GED tests or the NEDP program receives a Maryland High School diploma. This diploma is the same a student graduating from the public school system would earn."

The Adult Basic Education program is grant funded through the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing, and Regulation and administered locally by Allegany College of Maryland Continuing Education. There are some small fees for books and final testing.

Goodwill has been rated #1 above the worldwide brands Amazon and Google for the Brand World Value Rankings for 2016. Horizon Goodwill Industries, whose mission is Removing Barriers, Creating Opportunities, is a non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring that all people have access to employment despite significant obstacles. Horizon Goodwill serves over 5,000 clients annually in a 17 county region that includes parts of the states of Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia. For more information, please call 301-784-5445 or visit http://www.horizongoodwill.org.
Appleton Personal Injury Attorney Kristen S. Scheuerman "To achieve both accomplishments with fewer than ten years of experience is a reflection of the respect Kristen has earned in our legal community," says Herrling Clark President Kevin Lonergan.

Herrling Clark Law Firm, Ltd., a prominent Wisconsin law firm, is proud to announce that Partner Kristen S. Scheuerman has been elected to the Board of the Litigation Section of the State Bar of Wisconsin. Within months of her statewide election, she was also nominated and named to the Wisconsin Association of Justices Board of Directors.

Scheuerman won the statewide election this year to earn her seat on the State Bars Litigation Section Board. She has practiced with Herrling Clark Law Firm, Ltd., since 2011. The State Bar of Wisconsin is a professional association dedicated to improving the administration of justice and to providing educational and career development opportunities. It also provides numerous public services such as attorney referrals and low-income legal assistance. The Association includes over 25,000 members statewide, which consist of attorneys, judges, and other legal professionals.

Specifically, the State Bars Litigation Section brings together members who have an interest in civil litigation, insurance law, and tort law. The Section monitors and proposes relevant legislation, sponsors CLE programs, and publishes educational materials to benefit a variety of litigators. The Section is proud to support the training of law students in trial advocacy and promotes the continuation of the adversarial and jury systems in the State of Wisconsin.

The Wisconsin Association of Justice, formerly the Wisconsin Association of Trial Lawyers, is Wisconsins largest voluntary bar organization. The Wisconsin Association for Justice is dedicated to promoting a fair and efficient justice system- one that ensures justice for all, not just a privileged few. Scheuerman is proud to have been involved with WAJ since her time as a law student at Marquette University Law School.

Herrling Clark Law Firm President, Kevin Lonergan, also a personal injury litigator and Past-President of the Wisconsin Association for Justice, explains that Scheuermans accomplishments are especially impressive. Ordinarily, accomplishments like this require years, or decades, of experience. To achieve both accomplishments with fewer than ten years of experience is a reflection of the respect Kristen has earned in our legal community.

Appleton Personal Injury Attorney Kristen S. Scheuerman joined Herrling Clark in 2011. She graduated from Lawrence University with a B.A. in Political Science and went on to obtain a J.D. from Marquette University Law School.

Scheuerman has been recognized by numerous legal organizations for her success within the personal injury arena. She was named a 2016 Women in the Law Honoree from the Wisconsin Law Journal, and the National Academy of Personal Injury Attorneys named her to the nationally ranked Top 10 Under 40 list for 2015 and 2016. She has also been named to the Super Lawyer Rising Star list from on a number of occasions, which places her among the top five percent of attorneys in Wisconsin.

Scheuerman is a member of the Wisconsin Association for Justice, where she serves as chair of the Education Program Committee, and vice-chair of the New Lawyers Section. She is the president of the Outagamie County Bar Association and also holds memberships with the Association for Women Lawyers, the American Bar Association, the National Alliance of Medicare Set-Aside Professionals, and she serves as an attorney volunteer for the Wisconsin Election Protection organization.

About Herrling Clark Law Firm Ltd.:

Herrling Clark Law Firm Ltd. is one of the premier law firms located in Southeast Wisconsin. The firm has commendably served the Fox Valley area since 1959. With over 200 years of combined legal experience, the veteran attorneys at Herrling Clark represent clients in the practice areas of personal injury, family law, wills and trusts, probate, and business law.

In 2015, Herrling Clark Law Firm, Ltd. was voted the Best Law Firm in the Valley for the 12th straight year. The firm has offices conveniently located in Appleton, Green Bay, Oshkosh, and New London, Wisconsin. Call 920-739-7366 or visit http://www.herrlingclark.com to speak with a qualified member of the Herrling Clark legal team.
General Electric Company GE and Hitachi, Ltd. HTHIY recently entered into a definitive agreement with a provider of nuclear components, BWXT Canada Ltd. (BWXT Canada) to divest the GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy Canada Inc. (GEH-C) unit for an undisclosed amount. The deal is expected to close by the end of 2016.

Headquartered in Lynchburg, VA, BWX Technologies, Inc. BWXT is a power generation company, supplying precision manufactured components and services to the commercial nuclear power industry. The company offers technical, management and site services to governments in complex facilities and environmental protection activities. A subsidiary of the company, BWXT Canada has an impressive track record of providing sustained nuclear power generation services in Canada.

For over 60 years, GEH-C has a rich history of providing extensive innovation and expertise in the industry, especially in CANDU nuclear power industry. The company employs around 350 skilled employees across three major locations, namely Ontario, Peterborough, Toronto and Arnprior. This transaction will augment BWXT Canadas business with an extended portfolio. Per the deal, the company will also absorb GEH-Cs employees.

Despite volatility in the energy sector along with macroeconomic issues, General Electric reported a 31% year-over-year increase in revenues to $6,639 million in the second-quarter of 2016 from the Power sector. The continued focus on operational improvements to reduce costs has been a major reason for this gain.

GENL ELECTRIC Price

GENL ELECTRIC Price | GENL ELECTRIC Quote

General Electric is actively pursuing its massive restructuring initiatives in order to create a simpler and nimbler firm. From a classic conglomerate with diversified business interests in financial services, media, industrial and technology-based operations, the company is pruning its operating portfolio to focus on core manufacturing businesses with a digital edge.

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Earlier this year, General Electric completed the divesture of its appliance business to Haier Group, a Chinese multinational consumer electronics manufacturing firm. The transaction unlocked incremental value by allocating more resources to high-growth core industrial businesses.

The company continues to exit from the financial business and has increased its investments in core industrial businesses through restructuring, state-of-the-art technology, and R&D initiatives. We remain encouraged by the restructuring endeavors.

General Electric currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). A better-ranked stock in the same space includes Barloworld Ltd. BRRAY, holding a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

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Goldman Sachs (GS) is diving back into a business most of Wall Street has eschewed in the wake of the global financial crisis.

The bank is buying a stake of less than 10 percent in private equity firm Littlejohn & Co., through its Alternative Investments and Manager Selection group's Petershill fund. The AIMS group manages more than $150 billion, including investments in hedge funds, private equity and other strategies.

"The investment follows a 17-year relationship between AIMS and Littlejohn in which AIMS has been an investor in all of Littlejohn's committed capital private equity funds," a statement issued by Littlejohn this week said.

That would put Goldman in Littlejohn funds dating back to around 1999, when it raised its Littlejohn Fund II, according to Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund data. That fund saw an internal rate of return, or return on its investments, of 12 percent, the data state (not bad for a private equity fund, in other words). Littlejohn's next fund went far better  a 2005 fund netted a rate of return of more than 25 percent  outstanding by private equity industry standards.

The 2010 Littlejohn Fund IV netted a rate of return of more than 11 percent. By 2014, when Littlejohn raised Fund V, it took in $2 billion from its investors.

Goldman did not comment and neither side disclosed the sale price. But, its Littlejohn deal is far from its only recent foray back into private equity.

Last month, the bank was reportedly preparing to raise another private equity fund of its own, for the first time since the global financial crisis. The new fund, which will raise between $5 billion and $8 billion, is named West Street Capital Partners (for the bank's new headquarters' address).

In the case of its latest private equity fund, as well as investing in outside funds like Littlejohn, post-crisis regulations now require about 97 percent of funding is drawn from clients  not the bank's balance sheet.

That regulation forced many Wall Street banks to spin out their in-house private equity firms, forcing them to raise all their investment capital from outside sources of funding (and leaving some of them unable to match prior fundraising totals). The passive stake Goldman's AIMS picked up in Littlejohn also reflects a vote of confidence for the middle market investor.

The bank has also been making other private equity investments in 2016. Also via the AIMS platform, Goldman has invested in Neuberger Berman's Dyal Capital Partners and GP Interests, which both put money in other private equity firms.
The defection of a top North Korean diplomat to the South is the latest strain on relations (AFP Photo/Katie Schubauer)

Seoul (AFP) - North Korea's deputy ambassador to Britain, who defected to South Korea this week, is a criminal who had been ordered to return home for questioning, Pyongyang state media said Saturday.

Thae Yong-Ho is one of the highest ranking North Korean diplomats ever to defect to the South -- gifting Seoul a major propaganda coup at a time of rising tension on the divided Korean peninsula.

Pyongyang's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said that Thae, who they described as "human scum", had embezzled state funds, raped a minor and spied for South Korea in exchange for money.

The report did not name the "diplomat who fled his mission in London" but was apparently referring to Thae.

Any defection by a ranking member of an overseas North Korean mission would make waves, but London is considered a particularly prestigious posting that puts Thae's move on a whole different level.

The news agency in Pyongyang criticised Britain for handing over Thae and his family to the South, saying that Pyongyang had previously told London of his crimes and requested his extradition.

The comments mark Pyongyang's first public response to the high-level defection, which was a rare and damaging loss of diplomatic face for North Korea.

Seoul said earlier this week that Thae's defection reflected a loss of faith among North Korea's elite in Kim Jong-Un's leadership.

Thae had become disillusioned with the Pyongyang regime, admired South Korea's free and democratic system, and was concerned about his family's future, the South's Unification Ministry said after the defection.

-- 'Human scum' --

KCNA said Thae had fled "for fear of legal punishment for his crimes", adding that the South had brought the "fugitive" to Seoul to use him in its anti-Pyongyang smear campaign.

Thae was told to return home in June "for questioning as regards the embezzlement of huge amount of state funds, leakage of state secrets for money and rape of a minor", it said.

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The North's prosecution authorities issued a legal document on starting the investigation on July 12, KCNA said.

"He deserved a legal punishment for his crimes, but he took to flight, betraying his country and parents and other kith and kin", KCNA said.

"He thus revealed himself as human scum bereft of an elementary sense of moral obligation and conscience," it added.

British journalists who met him described Thae as likeable, urbane and highly articulate -- qualities that come across in a series of talks posted on YouTube in which, among other things, he compares life in Britain and North Korea.

North Korean defectors have been making headlines recently, largely due to an unusual group defection in April by a dozen waitresses and their manager who were working at a North Korean-run restaurant in China.

Referring to that case, KCNA Saturday said Seoul was responsible for "such hideous terrorism as kidnapping."

Thae was believed to have worked at the embassy in London for 10 years where a large part of his duties involved countering criticism of North Korea's human rights record and other negative media coverage.

Analysts said Thae had a privileged background and powerful connections with the ruling elite and that his defection represented the flight of some of the North's best and brightest.

The North's diplomats, who have to meet strict quotas on earning hard currency for state coffers, face growing difficulties and distress in the face of international sanctions, Yonhap reported.
Demonstrators rally in Istanbul to mark the 6th anniversary of the the 2010 raid by Israeli commandos on a Gaza-bound Turkish aid ship that left 10 Turks dead (AFP Photo/Ozan Kose) (AFP/File)

Ankara (AFP) - The Turkish parliament has approved a deal to normalise ties with Israel after a delay caused by last month's attempted coup, state-run media reported Saturday.

Lawmakers ratified late Friday the agreement to restore relations between the two former close regional allies after a six-year rift, before parliament was due to go into summer recess.

Under the deal, Israel will pay Turkey $20 million (17.7 million euros) in compensation for a botched Israeli commando raid on a Gaza-bound Turkish aid ship in 2010 that left 10 Turks dead, state-run Anadolu news agency said.

Israel will hand Turkey a "lump sum" within 25 working days of the agreement coming into force, the agency said, which families of the victims will receive in due course.

Under the terms of the deal, both sides agreed individual Israeli citizens or those acting on behalf of the Israeli government would not be held liable -- either criminally or financially -- for the raid, Anadolu said.

Israeli cabinet ministers approved the deal with Turkey in late June but Ankara did not send it to parliament because of time pressure following the July 15 attempted putsch by a rogue military faction.

Israel was quick to give its support to the Turkish government in the aftermath of the coup bid, condemning it while repeating its faith in the reconciliation process between the two countries.

Now the deal has been approved, the two countries are expected to begin the process of exchanging ambassadors to fully restore diplomatic ties.

In a statement, the Israeli government welcomed the Turkish parliament's approval of the deal and said it looked forward "to the next steps of its implementation, including the return of our respective ambassadors."

- Policy of reconciliation -

The agreement also involves an easing of the naval blockade on the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip allowing Turkey to deliver humanitarian aid to Palestinians there via Israel's Ashdod port.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has previously spoken about the economic advantages of improved relations, discussing the possibility of a pipeline to Turkey to export Israeli gas.

The rapprochement between the two countries came after secret talks held in December 2014 with two more rounds in February 2015 in Geneva and April this year in London.

Turkey appears to be willing to return to its previous "zero problems with neighbours" foreign policy after the country also normalised relations with Russia. Relations were damaged after Turkey shot down a Russian jet in November last year.

Earlier this month, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made his first trip abroad since the coup bid, meeting his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin for the first time since 2015.
Carolyn Arnold, the prolific Ontario-based author of mystery novels, writes with a deeply felt commitment to truth and accuracy. Her slogan, police procedurals respected by law enforcement, is not only a standard to which she holds herself, but something shes earned through praise from law enforcement professionals. Arnold believes in the importance and integrity of real police. I have such a love and respect for law enforcement; I want to get it right, she says.

In the Line of Duty is the seventh book in Arnolds Detective Madison Knight Series, about a tough female detective in the Stiles police department. Madison is obsessed with solving murder cases and pursuing justice for victims. In this book, the victim is one of Madisons fellow officers, Barry Weir. Madison and her boyfriend, Troy Matthews, leader of their departments SWAT team, wake up early one Saturday morning, revelling in their burgeoning romance, when both of them get calls from other officers. As they both hang up their phones, they turn to each other: Barry was shot, Madison says in disbelief.

Troys face is pale as he gets out of bed ahead of her. I know. Weve got to go.

So begins a series of reverberations that will rock Madisons life, her relationship with Troy, and the Stiles PD. The stakes are different, infinitely more personal, when the murder victim is a fellow officer. In this case, hes more than thatfor Madison and Troy, hes a dear friend. Evidence points to gang activity, but there may be more to it; meanwhile, retribution is on Madison and her fellow officers minds.

According to Arnold: Detective Madison Knight was born when I decided to write a mystery series with a strong female lead. At the time, independent and courageous women were hard to find in literature and on television. A female detective was usually found tagging along behind her male partner and having very little to say. I wanted someone who spoke her mind.

Of course, with all the public discussion over violence surrounding police officers, its a complicated moment for a book like this. But Arnold has thought deeply about the publics attitude toward police. Her goal is to portray law enforcement officers as truthfully as possible, neither idealizing or vilifying them. People either tend to point their fingers at the police or they raise them up on pedestals, Arnold says. Unfortunately, no one is perfect and what happens is that sometimes that pedestal cracks. Instead of idealizing police, I think its important that we respect them and accept that they are human like the rest of us. They have family and friends like us. They have feelings. They have hopes. They have dreams.

Veracity is the central expression of Arnolds sympathy and love for law enforcement officers. She goes to great lengths to ensure shes giving the most accurate portrayal possible of how police work and live. I do not have a background in law enforcement, but I feel a strong connection toward those who serve, she says. I have friends and contacts who selflessly offer their help. Some of these contacts have even read entire manuscripts to ensure that I had my procedures and terminology spot-on. What Ive found is those who serve greatly appreciate my going to this effort.

The book is full of moments in which popular myths about police work are debunked. Vests only helped so much, she writes. Bullets could still penetrate the Kevlar despite the fiction of movies. Arnold is proud to offer these kinds of insights. I want readers to know that they can turn to my books and find them reliable and grounded in truth, she says.

Arnold works hard not only at getting her policing facts and terms correct but at creating deep and believable characters: I wanted a book that showed the human side of policing. I wanted to paint the vivid picture that police are people, and I wanted to show how the loss of a brother in blue affects themnot only on a professional level, but more importantly, on a personal one.

In the Line of Duty shows police facing the ultimate challenge: The characters in my book must carry on despite their grief and find their fellow officers killer. It tears apart relationships, changes peoples viewpoints, and has them acknowledging their own mortality.

Fans of crime fiction will be moved and enthralled by In the Line of Duty, as much an action-packed mystery as it is a heartfelt tribute to police who give up their lives to protect others.

Learn more.
Some of the greatest movements in comics have happened beyond the limits of traditional publishing. Take the underground comics, aka comix, of the 1960s that took on subjects Superman never could have with their defiant depictions of sex, drugs, and rock n roll. It was the provocative stuff of teenage delinquency, and though self-published comic creators may continue to push the envelope of conventional comfort, self-publishing has become the norm for a growing community of supportive readers.

Self-published comics are as popular as theyve ever beenat an all-time high, says Anthony Composto, an assistant editor and writer at the pop culture site Monkeys Fighting Robots. People are gravitating to smaller, underground works ahead of the mainstream comics. Its on an incline and I see that continuing.

There are a few reasons behind the rising interest in self-published comics. To an extent it has to do with increasing receptiveness to indie publishing in general, and the fact that social media has connected authors with readers more than ever before.Readers seem to be moving towards a greater acceptance of self-published titles and a greater appreciation for work that is personal, creative, and the result of a more singular vision, says Amy Edelman, the founder and president of IndieReader. It is also easier these days for authors to share their work.

But perhaps the most significant drivers of interest in self-published comics are the eccentricity and dissent that define the category. Before the blockbuster superheroes of DC and Marvel, there were pulp magazines, popular in the early 20th century, and penny dreadfuls, which date to the 19th century. The antecedents of comic books were bizarre and imaginative, and those sensibilities didnt die off when Spider-Man was borntheyve always been around, but now we have greater access to comics from a more diverse pool of creators as technology has made self-publishing easier.

I first self-published [the minicomic] Mr. Lune: Good Morning, Good Night in 1995, Eraklis Petmezas says. Back then, most people didnt even have home computers. I drew with ink on paper, and because back then you didnt even really have scanners at your house, Id go to Kinkos and have them scan the work, and then pay to get it printed. It was pretty rudimentary, and printing all in color wasnt even something that was really heard of.

Beyond Superheroes in Spandex

Characters who werent superheroes in spandex were unheard of at the time, Petmezas says. Of Greek descent and a longtime vegan, Petmezas wanted to invent characters and situations that reflected his beliefs and identity.

Mr. Lune, a character I still write, [is at the center of] a lot of stories about the treatment of animals and what they go through, Petmezas says. Also, historically there arent a lot of Greek characters in American comic bookswith the exception of Hercules, but hes kind of a goofand I wanted to do something culturally meaningful, so I started a series [about the character] Kostas, a retired Greek detective who has bizarre adventures.

Taneka Stotts, the publisher, editor, and founder of Beyond Press, also uses self-publishing to challenge the frequent lack of diversity and representation in mainstream comics. My current project, [the anthology] Elements: Fire, was born from the notion that the comics industry doesnt feel so inviting to creators of color, Stotts says. Librarians, publishers, and authors are listening, but in comics its still not enough. I found 32 people to answer my submission call, and from that 22 amazing stories were created for the book, [which focuses] on creators of color telling their own stories and leading their own narratives.

Indie comic creators love the mainstream superheroes and the legacies they have spawned, and want to merge those legacies with other kinds of protagonists. Dennis Liu, for instance, self-published Raising Dion, illustrated by Jason Piperberg, to tell the story of a single African-American woman raising a son with superpowers.

Raising Dion was about helping diversify comics with a strong female protagonist that was a person of color, while also telling a superhero story from the point of view of a parent, and not the superhero, Liu says. It also dives into the ethics of gene manipulation and racial perception.

My Way or No Way

Liu didnt pitch Raising Dion to publishing houses, fearing that it would no longer belong to him if he did. The minute someone pays you to do something, its not yours anymore, Liu says. You lose your freedom and control, and thats a hard thing to balance as an artist.

Though plenty of comic creators first start self-publishing after being turned down by publishing houses, many find that they prefer the DIY method. If you have access to a printer, you can and should publish your own comics, says Katie Longua, the author and illustrator of Munchies and other self-published comics. [Publishing on your own] offers the opportunity for a variety of voices and styles of work to see the light of day, [and] quality never becomes a barrier. People do self-publish some amazingly fancy books, but even black-and-white xeroxed hand-assembled minicomics are respected and have a very important place in the community. You have the power to tell your story exactly as you want, and no one can stop you. Thats what inspires me.

Kathleen Kralowec, who self-publishes Electricity Is Her Element online, finds that operating without a publisher has helped her shape her creative vision and build an audience. Im making the decision about what page dimensions are best and what book will ultimately come out of it while gaining the interest of people who may buy the book later on, Kralowec says. I dont have to worry about legalities or about how many sites I post it on, and though its a task to market it myself, the project affords me a lot of creative license that it wouldnt have if I were going through a traditional publisher.

This issue of creative license and, beyond that, creative ownership is particularly relevant for comic artists because theres so little flexibility at the major houses. Mike Marts, who ran the X-Men and Guardians of the Galaxy lines at Marvel for roughly 10 years before joining DC Comics to head the Batman catalog for another 10 years, cofounded the indie comic press Aftershock in part to give creators more freedom.

[Comic book writer Joe Pruett] and I wanted to make a creator-friendly and creator-owned environment, Marts says. If it goes to a bigger publishing company, then the intellectual property is owned by them. We wanted creators to bring their projects to us so we could put the focus on them as the creators.

It worked. Aftershock, which handpicks its talent, largely from DC and Marvel, now publishes top names in comics, including Amanda Conner, perhaps best known for her work on the Harley Quinn series at DC Comics.

DIY Distribution and Diamond

Many self-published creators arrange for distribution of their books on digital platforms such as Gumroad and Comixology, and will print copies on their own dime to sell on Etsy, at conventions, or in comic shops and bookstores. Getting books into stores is typically the biggest challengeunless authors submit their books to Diamond Comic Distributors and make the cut.

Diamond is the only nationwide distribution platform that exists in the comic book world and its notoriously hard to get into, Kralowec says. Many comic creators dont even bother trying.

There has been criticism that Diamond, as the retail gatekeeper, pays too little attention to indie works. Print manager Caitlin McCabe is disheartened by this perception, and says Diamond has proved its commitment to fostering new and independent talent.

Our catalog is peppered with people doing this by themselves, McCabe says. I work on the print purchasing team, and we spend a lot of time thinking about how we can get the spotlight on these indie creators. Outside of the catalogue, we give [indie comic creators] as much coverage as we can [by setting] up Web portals and hosting panels. All self-published comic creators can submit their projects to Diamond for consideration for distribution, and it is my hope that they will.

No Money, No Problem

The next big challenge for comic book creators is the one that exists for pretty much any maker of art: how to make money. Kickstarter campaigns were hugely successful for Stotts and Longua, and selling at conventions has helped Kralowec recoup much of her printing costs. Sarah Horrocks, whose main comic project is The Leopard, which she describes as a Giallo comic about a racist transphobic family cannibalizing themselves over the course of a weekend, says shes been turning a profit through digital sales, and makes her money back on printing quickly so long as she prints only what she can sell.

But making anything close to a living wage is generally out of the question for creators who solely self-publish. When working in comics, its notoriously difficult to make a living doing just that, says Kelly Williams, who has self-published minicomics for decades.

Christian Sager, who specializes in horror comics and partnered with Williams on the historical graphic novel The Cabinet, says that even though he often loses money making comics, he always feels that its well worth it in the long term.

Every show and every sale is an opportunity to meet someone new who could become a fan, a friend, or a business collaborator, Sager says. It can be frustrating sometimes, but thats why its so important to make friends in the community. Theyll support you through it all and remind you to make comics for yourself first.

Nicole Audrey Spector is a writer living with a dog and a man.
A writer who waits for the ideal conditions under which to write will die without putting a word on paper, E.B. White said in a Paris Review interview. He chose to write in his living room, surrounded by noise and fuss, adding: In consequence, the members of my family never pay the slightest attention to my being a writing man. If I get sick of it, I have places I can go.

Ernest Hemingway famously wrote standing up at his desk. In an interview with George Plimpton for the Paris Review, he said he started every morning as soon after first light as possible, when there is no one to disturb you. He added, You write until you come to a place where you still have your juice and know what will happen next, and you stop and try to live through until the next day when you hit it again.... Its the wait until the next day thats hard to get through.

Then theres Mark Twain, who often wrote lying down, and Dan Brown, author of The Da Vinci Code, who says he likes to hang upside down when he gets writers block.

Francesca Stanfill, author of Wakefield Hall, told me that I feel unmoored without a routine, and am always happiest when I am disciplined. On my desk I have a framed quotation from Picasso: Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.  Stanfill leaves her seventh-floor apartment early in the morning for a nearby barre class and then heads to her tiny ground-floor office. I call this sacrosanct space the cave,  she says. It is lined with my research books, dictionaries, inspiring quotes, and maps pertinent to the novel Im writing. On a good day I work five to six hours. Sitting on her desk is her favorite coffee mug, inscribed with a quote from Midsummer Nights Dream: Though she be but little, she is fierce.

In contrast, Help for the Haunted author John Searles finds routine potentially deadening. He likes to keep it loose. My writing rituals change all the time, he says. Sometimes I write early in the morning, sometimes in the middle of the night, sometimes longhand, sometimes clacking away on my laptop. I always get a lot done on airplanes. What works for me is to mix it up so I dont get bored.

The poet Brendan Constantine, author of Dementia, My Darling, has a similar take. Ive never had a routine, he says. My career has been carved out in stolen hours. I write on phones, tablets, laptops, on notebooks balanced on the armrests of planes, trains, and cars. I write at large. When I was first discovering the poems for my third collection, Calamity Joe, Id just bought a rabbit costume on sale from a theatrical wholesaler. It was beautifully made and on sale for $100. I figured you never know when you might need one. Coincidentally, the themes I was exploring, more and more, began to involve laboratory animals.

Constantine adds: One night, late, I put on the costume and started to write. Pages piled up until I couldnt keep my eyes open. Two days later, I did it again and wrote until my hands cramped and Id sweated through an inch of Naugahyde. Something about that silly costume did the trick, and I wore it periodically until the poems became a book.

The self-publishing guru and adventure travel writer Carla King also takes her inspiration from varied sources. My books are created from dispatches sent to the Internet, columns Ive written, or courses Ive taught, she says. I organize the materials in a burst of energy over a single weekend, followed by four to six weeks of intense energy to fill in the gaps and create the narrative. This fruitful phase is followed by a ridiculously long and unproductive process of editing and nitpicking, during which time I tell myself repeatedly to just stop it and publish.

Barbara Abercrombie, the author of A Year of Writing Dangerously, looks at it practically. Writing is my job, she says. When I have a deadline for a book, I have a strict routine: get up early, exercise, and get to my desk, six days a week. Right now Im finding my way into a new book and my routine is a little looser, but I write something, anything, every single day. My muse is my dog, Nelson, who thinks everything I write is perfect.

Clearly, theres no one-size-fits-all when it comes to writers routines. But there is one thing that most writers agree on: get something down on paper every day. What seems horrible today may seem brilliant tomorrow. As the bestselling author Jodi Picoult told NPR in 2006, You cant edit a blank page. Just sit down and write.

Betty Kelly Sargent is the founder and CEO of BookWorks.
Award-winning author, poet, and playwright Joyce Carol Thomas, whose works largely focused on family and the African-American experience, died on August 13. She was 79.

Thomas was born on May 25, 1938 in the small town of Ponca City, Okla., where she lived until the age of 10. Her family then resettled in rural California where Thomas learned various farming chores and would work long summers harvesting crops alongside Mexican migrant workers from whom she learned to speak Spanish and developed a love of the language.

In 1966 she earned a B.A. in Spanish from San Jose State College (now University) and received a M.A. in education from Stanford University in 1967. She entered academia and taught French and Spanish, black studies, drama, and English at the college level at several institutions around the country throughout the 1970s and early 1980s. During that time she was raising her four children from two marriages that ended in divorce and was also writing plays and poetry for adults.

But Thomas embarked on a new career path in 1982 when Jean Feiwel, then editorial director of Avon Books for Young Readers, published her first young adult novel, Marked by Fire. The book was set in her Oklahoma hometown and followed the joys and tragedies of Abyssinia, a girl born in the cotton fields during a brush fire who has the gift of a beautiful singing voice. The book received critical praise and won the National Book Award in 1983. It was subsequently adapted into the 1987 Broadway gospel musical Abyssinia. A sequel to the novel, Bright Shadow, won the Coretta Scott King Award in 1984.

Thomas went on to write additional novels for adults and teens as well as a number of picture books that showcased her poetry. Her picture book collaborations with illustrator Floyd Cooper earned wide acclaim including a Coretta Scott King Award for Cooper in 2009 for The Blacker the Berry (HarperCollins, 2008) along with Thomass Coretta Scott King Honor for the text; a Coretta Scott King Honor for both author and illustrator for Brown Honey in Broomwheat Tea (HarperCollins, 1993) and a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor for I Have Heard of a Land (HarperCollins, 1998). In all, Thomas created more than 30 books for children.

Jean Feiwel, now senior v-p and publisher of Feiwel and Friends, offered these words in an email note: I was privileged to publish Joyces first novel, Marked by Fire, she said. She was a beautiful person and a beautiful writer. That novel won the National Book Award and set the course for Joyces brilliant career.

And Thomass longtime publisher Joanna Cotler, former senior v-p and publisher at Joanna Cotler Books at HarperCollins Childrens Books, shared this remembrance: Joyce Carol Thomas was a beautiful, generous and kind person, and a wonderful writer. I was extraordinarily lucky to know her, and so privileged to have published her outstanding work.

Thomas is survived by her children and grandchildren.
By Scot J. Paltrow NEW YORK (Reuters) - The United States Armys finances are so jumbled it had to make trillions of dollars of improper accounting adjustments to create an illusion that its books are balanced. The Defense Departments Inspector General, in a June report, said the Army made $2.8 trillion in wrongful adjustments to accounting entries in one quarter alone in 2015, and $6.5 trillion for the year. Yet the Army lacked receipts and invoices to support those numbers or simply made them up. As a result, the Armys financial statements for 2015 were materially misstated, the report concluded. The forced adjustments rendered the statements useless because DoD and Army managers could not rely on the data in their accounting systems when making management and resource decisions. Disclosure of the Armys manipulation of numbers is the latest example of the severe accounting problems plaguing the Defense Department for decades. The report affirms a 2013 Reuters series revealing how the Defense Department falsified accounting on a large scale as it scrambled to close its books. As a result, there has been no way to know how the Defense Department  far and away the biggest chunk of Congress annual budget  spends the publics money. The new report focused on the Armys General Fund, the bigger of its two main accounts, with assets of $282.6 billion in 2015. The Army lost or didnt keep required data, and much of the data it had was inaccurate, the IG said. Where is the money going? Nobody knows, said Franklin Spinney, a retired military analyst for the Pentagon and critic of Defense Department planning. The significance of the accounting problem goes beyond mere concern for balancing books, Spinney said. Both presidential candidates have called for increasing defense spending amid current global tension. An accurate accounting could reveal deeper problems in how the Defense Department spends its money. Its 2016 budget is $573 billion, more than half of the annual budget appropriated by Congress. The Army accounts errors will likely carry consequences for the entire Defense Department. Congress set a September 30, 2017 deadline for the department to be prepared to undergo an audit. The Army accounting problems raise doubts about whether it can meet the deadline  a black mark for Defense, as every other federal agency undergoes an audit annually. For years, the Inspector General  the Defense Departments official auditor  has inserted a disclaimer on all military annual reports. The accounting is so unreliable that the basic financial statements may have undetected misstatements that are both material and pervasive. In an e-mailed statement, a spokesman said the Army remains committed to asserting audit readiness by the deadline and is taking steps to root out the problems. The spokesman downplayed the significance of the improper changes, which he said net out to $62.4 billion. Though there is a high number of adjustments, we believe the financial statement information is more accurate than implied in this report, he said. "THE GRAND PLUG" Jack Armstrong, a former Defense Inspector General official in charge of auditing the Army General Fund, said the same type of unjustified changes to Army financial statements already were being made when he retired in 2010. The Army issues two types of reports  a budget report and a financial one. The budget one was completed first. Armstrong said he believes fudged numbers were inserted into the financial report to make the numbers match. They dont know what the heck the balances should be, Armstrong said. Some employees of the Defense Finance and Accounting Services (DFAS), which handles a wide range of Defense Department accounting services, referred sardonically to preparation of the Armys year-end statements as the grand plug, Armstrong said. Plug is accounting jargon for inserting made-up numbers. At first glance adjustments totaling trillions may seem impossible. The amounts dwarf the Defense Departments entire budget. Making changes to one account also require making changes to multiple levels of sub-accounts, however. That created a domino effect where, essentially, falsifications kept falling down the line. In many instances this daisy-chain was repeated multiple times for the same accounting item. The IG report also blamed DFAS, saying it too made unjustified changes to numbers. For example, two DFAS computer systems showed different values of supplies for missiles and ammunition, the report noted  but rather than solving the disparity, DFAS personnel inserted a false correction to make the numbers match. DFAS also could not make accurate year-end Army financial statements because more than 16,000 financial data files had vanished from its computer system. Faulty computer programming and employees inability to detect the flaw were at fault, the IG said. DFAS is studying the report and has no comment at this time, a spokesman said. (Edited by Ronnie Greene.)
The sudden and unexpected dismissal of Barnes & Noble CEO Ron Boire by the retailers board last week shocked publishers, who had no inkling that the head of the countrys largest bricks-and-mortar bookstore chain would be out of a job less than one year after taking the B&N helm. B&N announced the firing late Tuesday afternoon, issuing a brief statement from the company board describing Boire, who had been the head of Sears Canada, as not a good fit for the organization.

As a result of Boires abrupt departure, Len Riggio, B&Ns founder and chairman, is postponing his retirement. Earlier this year, Riggio announced his intention to step down on September 14, at the companys annual meeting. Now he will stay on at the company until a replacement for Boire is found.

As news of Boires ouster spread, publishers were angry and disappointed that B&N will be searching for a third new leader in less than three years. The head of one large publisher said he was angered to hear the news, pointing out that finding and building a new executive team will set B&N back by six months. I need them to execute on the ground during the holidays, this publisher said.

Among the new hires on Boires staff are Fred Argir, who joined in July 2015 as chief digital officer, and William Wood, who took over as chief information officer last December. In addition, Jaime Carey, who had been COO for less than a year, was named president of development and the restaurant group in June.

Another high-level publishing executive said he was surprised about the move, since Boire seemed to have a plan. Indeed, Boire spent the morning of June 23 laying out the future for B&N in a two-hour investor presentation in which he was joined by other B&N executives. During that meeting, B&N reiterated its intention to continue to downsize its Nook business, upgrade e-commerce site BN.com, and open four new concept stores, the first of which is set to open in October in Eastchester, N.Y. The centerpiece of the new stores will be an expanded cafe that will serve American-style fare plus beer and wine.

Though publishers were glad to hear that B&N is investing in new stores, they are eager for more details about the stores beyond the cafes. The head of one major publisher said he was skeptical about the value of the new stores, wondering how, even if the cafes bring in more customers, B&N can incorporate that concept in its other outlets. During the presentation to investors, executives were vague about their plans to roll out the new concept store format, saying only that they intend to bring it to other stores. They declined to indicate how many concept stores they have in mind.

Publishers were also left to speculate on what led to the abrupt dismissal. Though B&Ns revenue for the fiscal year ended April 2016 fell 3.1% compared to fiscal 2015, and the company had a net loss of $24.4 million, those results were about in line with expectations. The company even touted that the eight stores it closed in fiscal 2016 were the fewest closures in 16 years. Boire, who was also a B&N director, seemed to be in the good graces of the board as recently as late June. According to the companys proxy statement for fiscal 2016 (issued June 29), Boire had total compensation in the year of just under $8.9 million, a figure that included $1.8 million in bonuses and $6 million in stock options. The proxy also noted that incentives for Boire in fiscal 2017 will be based on the achievement of corporate performance goals or individual goals.

B&N provided no time frame for when it might find a successor to Boire. Looking to the future, one publisher said he hoped B&Ns next CEO will be better suited to the company and have bookstore experience, as opposed to just general retailing experience.
Extra Help

A pair of faith-driven titles are among the highest-selling books in the country this week. Uninvited by Lysa TerKeurst, at #2 on our Trade Paperback list and #3 overall, offers support for readers struggling with feelings of rejection and loneliness. Our starred review said that the author, blending personal stories, a wry sense of humor, and biblical teachings, writes as though shes chatting with a close friend. Three earlier

TerKeurst titles2010s Made to Crave, 2012s Unglued, and 2014s The Best Yeshave together sold more than 600K copies in trade paper.

At #1 in Hardcover Nonfiction and #8 overall, Present over Perfect by Shauna Niequist combines mindfulness, Scripture, and self-help, in an effort to help readers focus on whats truly important in their lives. Her style is conversational, friendly, inviting, and never heavy-handed, according to our review, making the book accessible to people of all faiths. Niequists most recent titles2013s Bread & Wine and 2015s Savoreach sold about 69K copies in hardcover.

(See all of this week's bestselling books.)

Color Her Cautiously Optimistic

The artist widely credited with kicking off the adult coloring book trend, Johanna Basford, has a new title at #5 on our Trade Paperback list, Magical Jungle. And though the book, with 16K print units sold, did less than a third

as well in its first week as 2015s Lost Ocean did, its still the 10th-bestselling book in the country. Print unit sales for her three older coloring books, plus associated postcards and other sidelines, accounted for another 13K print units this week, and her next effort, Johannas Christmas, pubs in just two months.

House Style

Powerhouse by James Andrew Miller, an oral history of Hollywood talent agency CAA, is at #11 in Hardcover Nonfiction. Miller is also the coauthor, with Tom Shales, of two earlier media-centered oral histories: 2011s Those Guys Have All the Fun, an inside look at ESPN, which has sold 116K print copies, and Live from New York, which pulls back the curtain on Saturday Night Live and has sold 52K print copies since its 2015 release.

Millers new solo effort launches Custom House, a HarperCollins imprint helmed by Geoff Shandler, who previously oversaw the adult trade division at Little, Brown. Forthcoming Custom House titles include

Audacity (Jan. 2017), New York political columnist Jonathan Chaits examination of Barack Obamas presidency; and The Spider Network (Mar. 2017) by David Enrich, financial enterprise editor at the Wall Street Journal, which delves into a banking scandal.

New & Notable

Another Brooklyn

Jacqueline Woodson

#21 Hardcover Fiction

In her first adult novel in 20 years, Woodson combines grit and beauty in a series of stunning vignettes, painting a vivid mural of what it was like to grow up African-American in Brooklyn during the 1970s, according to our starred review. The author, also an acclaimed childrens and YA author, won the 2014 National Book Award in Young Peoples Literature for Brown Girl Dreaming.

Adnans Story

Rabia Chaudry

#18 Hardcover Nonfiction

Our starred review said that Chaudry, the attorney who first brought Adnan Syeds case to the attention of the creators of the Serial podcast, here provides a gripping and meticulously detailed account of the case, with a detailed narrative that readers new to the story will have no trouble following, one that also offers podcast listeners plenty of previously undisclosed material.

Top 10 Overall

Rank Title Author Imprint Units 1 Harry Potter and the Cursed Child J.K. Rowling et al. Scholastic/Levine 484,616 2 The Girl on the Train Paula Hawkins Riverhead 56,428 3 Uninvited Lysa Terkeurst Thomas Nelson 54,376 4 See Me Nicholas Sparks Grand Central 27,372 5 Rogue Lawyer John Grisham Dell 26,089 6 Bullseye Patterson/Ledwidge Little, Brown 23,196 7 The Underground Railroad Colson Whitehead Doubleday 22,466 8 Present over Perfect Shauna Niequist Zondervan 20,788 9 After You Jojo Moyes Penguin 19,878 10 Magical Jungle Johanna Basford Penguin 16,305

All unit sales per Nielsen BookScan except where noted.
This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Japanese attack on the U.S. naval base, which took place Dec. 7, 1941. As a result, publishers are releasing a bevy of books examining the event on micro and macro levels. Heres a look at some of the Pearl Harbor titles headed to bookstores.

Title: A Matter of Honor: Pearl Harbor; Betrayal, Blame, and a Familys Quest for Justice

Author(S): Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan

Publisher: Harper

Pub Date: November 15

First Announced Printing: 150,000 copies

Angle: Adm. Husband Kimmel, the commander-in-chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet when the attack took place, was later accused of negligence and removed from duty. Summers and Swan expose how the government used Kimmel as a scapegoat, highlighting the fact that he was never provided with available, and essential, intelligence.

Title: Countdown to Pearl Harbor: The Twelve Days to the Attack

Author(S): Steve Twomey

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Pub Date: November 1

First Announced Printing: 50,000 copies

Angle: Pulitzer-winning journalist Twomey examines the days before the attack and reveals, S&S said, the warnings, clues, and missteps of the U.S. government.

Title: Seven Days of Infamy: Pearl Harbor Across the World

Author(S): Nicholas Best

Publisher: St. Martins/Dunne

Pub Date: November 29

First Announced Printing: 20,000 copies

Angle: Best offers what SMP is calling an up-close-and-personal perspective of the attack and its repercussions. He provides snapshots of what various famous peopleincluding Ernest Hemingway and John F. Kennedywere doing during the week the historic event took place.

Title: Pearl Harbor: From Infamy to Greatness

Author(S): Craig Nelson

Publisher: Scribner

Pub Date: September 20

First Announced Printing: 42,000 copies

Angle: The S&S imprint claims Nelsons account of the attack is the definitive history of it. The fruit of more than five years of research, the book details how and why Japan attacked America, giving a blow-by-blow account from both Japanese and American perspectives.
Kickstarter, the crowdfunding venture that allows individuals to donate money to support a variety of projects, marked a milestone last week, recording more than $100 million in pledges to general-publishing projects since it launched in 2009.

Publishing categories on Kickstarter include general publishing (which can include nonfiction, fiction, and podcasts), comics, and journalism. Margot Atwell, community manager for publishing on Kickstarter, cited several trends that she said indicate the platforms growing impact on the current publishing marketplace.

Traditional independent publishers, she said, use the service to fund individual books. Otherslike comics publisher IDWs new imprint, Its Alive, which uses Kickstarter to fund new editions of out-of-print graphic novelshave based their business models around crowdfunding. Still other indies, she said, are using Kickstarter to raise the funds needed to produce books with high production values.

Anthologies, she said, which traditional publishers sometimes avoid for fear of low sales, are thriving as a Kickstarter subcategory, with a 65% success rate, raising more than $1.2 million. In addition, Kickstarter has been key in supporting diversity in publishing, providing funding for projects aimed at people of color and the queer community that arent always reflected in the mainstream culture, Atwell said.

Looking back at 2015, Kickstarters general-publishing category raised $22.2 million in pledges (up from $21.6 million in 2014), with 26% of the 7,530 projects being successfully funded. (In 2014, the general-publishing category had a 28% success rate on 7,276 projects launched.) Comics campaigns raised a little more than $13 million in pledges (up from $9.5 million pledged in 2014), with 52% of the 1,916 projects launched in 2015 being successful, compared to a success rate of 52% of 1,577 projects in 2014. Pledges to journalism projects also rose in 2015, raising $2.8 million (up from $1.9 million in 2014), with 17% of the 1,448 projects launched successfully funded (compared to a 19% success rate in 2014, on 924 projects launched).

Atwell offered examples of the trends she noted earlier, including independent publisher Copper Canyon, which raised $103,000 to publish The Lost Poems of Pablo Neruda, and indie house Restless Books, which raised just more than $20,000 to publish a deluxe 400th-anniversary edition of Don Quixote. Citing diversity, Atwell pointed to the science fiction magazine Lightspeed, which raised more than $51,000 on Kickstarter to publish a special issue, People of Colo(u)r Destroy Science Fiction, and Beyond: A Queer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Comics Anthology raised more than $79,000 on Kickstarter. And Atwell also pointed to the creators of Black, a 120-page graphic novel about a world in which only African-Americans have superpowers; nearly $92,000 was raised to publish the book.

Atwell is also the publisher and founder of Gutpunch Press, an independent house she launched in 2015 that uses Kickstarter to fund selected projects. She said, Its very heartening to see the impact Kickstarter has had on diversity. Kickstarter has been a force for good and a channel for creators to bring their dreams into reality.
In a big field, in a town full of bold colors and clean lines, a school is born.

The school has red brick walls and wide blue windows, and if you look closely, you can just barely make out a hint of a face, formed by the twin black panes in the front doors, the door handles below, and a subtle smile line swooping across the front steps. The school has a name (Frederick Douglass Elementary), a friend, named Janitor, who mops and buffs the floors, and a worry: Soon, Janitor says, the teachers will come. Soon, the school will be filled with children.

Our hero's tale, "School's First Day of School," includes the standard first-day mishaps and misgivings, but told in the pitch-perfect voice of best-selling children's author Adam Rex and illustrated with freshness and feeling by Caldecott Honor winner Christian Robinson ("Last Stop on Market Street"). It's leading librarian Betsy Bird's top pick among a bumper crop of 2016 back-to-school books.

"It might be the best back-to-school book I've ever seen," says Bird, author of the popular children's literature blog A Fuse #8 Production at the School Library Journal website and collection development manager at the Evanston Public Library, in Illinois. "It's really smart and beautiful."

As the school's story unfolds, the children arrive, excited, nervous and, in some cases, downright hostile.

"There are kids who are saying, 'I hate school,' and there's this little girl who doesn't want to go to school at all. And the school's thinking, 'I must be awful,' " Bird says. "It has a fire alarm at one point -- it's super-embarrassed."

Bird's other picks, in alphabetical order, include:

-- "Captain Freddy Counts Down to School," by Elizabeth Shreeve, illustrated by Joey Chou

A sweet and reassuring tale in which Freddy, a fan of space travel, prepares for his first day of school. "It's sort of imagining going to school as going to space, and so when his mom goes to put on his shoes, he thinks they're moon boots," says Bird. "It's looking at going to school as an adventure."

-- "The Class," by Boni Ashburn, illustrated by Kimberly Gee

Twenty students get ready for their first day of kindergarten. Some are nervous. Some are grumpy. Some are happy. "It's just a really nice way of showing there's no wrong way to get ready for school," Bird says.

-- "Frank and Lucky Get Schooled," by Lynne Rae Perkins

"It's a story about a boy and his dog, but it's also about what you learn at school, the different subjects," Bird says. In the case of math, we wrestle with the questions of "how much" and "how many" from the canine point of view: "Let's say a dog comes in from outside and gets one biscuit, but there are three people in the living room," the book reads. "How many more biscuits should the dog receive? a) 2 b) A lot. Probably 5. c) Maybe (infinity)" (The correct answer is c.)

-- "Lola Goes to School" by Marcia Goldman

Photos of a real dog heading off for her first day of "school" capture the joys and challenges of meeting new friends. Lola, a Yorkshire terrier trained as a therapy dog, has already done books about going to work and going to the doctor. "In this case, she's going to doggy day care," Bird says. "They do really nice ties with what it's like to go to kindergarten, and it's a cute dog, and who doesn't like cute dogs?"

--"Milk Goes to School" by Terry Border

Border takes real food items, gives them metal arms and legs, and poses them to tell the story of a self-satisfied carton of milk that rubs a waffle classmate the wrong way. "It's very cute," Bird says. "It doesn't look like any other back-to-school book that's out there."
The court on Thursday rejected 5-2 a claim by a Chicago woman who split up with her partner after nearly 30 years of living together and raising children. The two women split in 2008, years before Illinois legalized same-sex marriage.

Eileen Brewer, a Cook County judge, was seeking a share in Dr. Jane Blumenthal's medical practice as restitution. Her attorneys asked the state high court to overturn its 1979 position barring such claims by unmarried partners.

The case was seen by some legal observers as a chance for the justices to update their position in the context of expanding protections for same-sex couples and all unmarried couples and their children.

Writing for the majority, Justice Lloyd Karmeier rejected the argument, saying the 1979 ruling in Hewitt v. Hewitt "remains good law" and if the Legislature had wanted to revive common-law marriage, it would have done so. Common-law marriage has been barred in Illinois for more than a century.

In her dissent, Justice Mary Jane Theis wrote that Illinois, Georgia and Louisiana are the only states that don't recognize property-division claims between unmarried partners. She said the majority opinion reaffirmed "an oddly myopic and moralistic view of cohabitation."

Brewer's attorneys may ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case, said Shannon Minter, legal director of the San Francisco-based National Center for Lesbian Rights, which assisted Chicago attorney Angelika Keuhn on Brewer's behalf.

"This is completely out of step with other states and the realities of families today," Minter said.

"Families deserve protections and the help of the courts when relationships end, whether the couples were married or not," said Susan Sommer of the gay rights group Lambda Legal. "And when access to marriage was unconstitutionally barred to same-sex families, it is the height of injustice to give legal protections solely to those who married."

Blumenthal's attorney, Reuben Bernick, said the ruling should not be seen as a setback for gay rights. The couple could have gotten married in another state, the Chicago attorney said, and in fact they had obtained a Massachusetts marriage license, but never used it.

As for unmarried couples in Illinois, Bernick said: "If they want to take advantage of the provisions available only in divorce, yes, they should get married. If they don't care about that, then nobody's making them get married."

___

Online:

The opinion:

http://www.illinoiscourts.gov/Opinions/SupremeCourt/2016/118781.pdf
Care for seniors with Assisted Living Professional training

Train to help clients in retirement communities or senior housing complexes with the new Black Hawk College class, Assisted Living Professional.

Students will learn how to help individuals with daily tasks such as personal care, transferring, bathing and dressing.

The class will be from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Mondays, Sept. 12 to Nov. 14, at the colleges Outreach Center in East Moline. Cost is $325, which includes an Assisted Living Health Care Provider competency exam.

To register, call 309-796-8223.

Get started in sign language, Spanish, Italian at BHC

Want an introduction to a new language? Black Hawk College offers basic classes to get you started.

Upcoming classes include:

American Sign Language (ASL) Beginning: 6-8 p.m. Tuesdays, Sept. 6 to Oct. 25. Cost is $159.

Beginning Spanish: 6-8 p.m. Tuesdays, Sept. 6 to Oct. 25. Cost is $159.

Italian 1: 2:30-4:30 p.m. Thursdays, Sept. 8 to Oct. 13. Cost is $119.

Class locations vary. For more information, visit bhc.edu/global. To register, call 309-796-8223.

Get creative with arts, crafts classes

Express your creative side this fall with arts and crafts classes at Black Hawk College.

Coming up in September are:

Techniques and Tips in Watercolor for Beginners: Noon to 2 p.m. Tuesdays, Sept. 6-27. Cost is $38.

Beginning Crocheting: 5:30-7:30 p.m. Tuesdays, Sept. 6-27. Cost is $44.

Stained Glass (Beginning, Copper Foil): 6-8 p.m. Tuesdays, Sept. 6 to Oct. 4. Cost is $65 plus $5 materials fee.

Creations with Clay: 6-8 p.m. Wednesdays, Sept. 7 to Oct. 12. Cost is $99 plus $20 materials fee.

Class locations vary. For more information, visit bhc.edu/pace. To register, call 309-796-8223.

Discover savings with BHC couponing class

Ease the burden on your wallet with the Black Hawk College class, Cashing in on Coupons.

Learn tricks, tips and where to shop in the Quad Cities for the best results.

The class will meet from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesdays, Sept. 6 and 13, at the colleges Outreach Center in East Moline. Cost is $20.

To register, call 309-796-8223.

Write your story with BHC class in Geneseo

Have you always wanted to write an autobiography about your life but never have been sure where to start?

Black Hawk College is offering a class that will help you develop a timeline and determine what events/stories you want to share.

Writing Your Story will be from 5:45 to 7:45 p.m. Tuesdays, Sept. 6, Sept. 20 and Oct. 4, at the Geneseo Public Library. Cost is $38.

To register, call Black Hawk College at 309-796-8223.
The number of people incarcerated in Illinois state prisons has plummeted over the last two years by 8.9 percent, to its lowest point since 2004, according to statistics from the Illinois Department of Corrections.

That's a dramatic break from a 45-year trend that drove the prison population from 7,326 in 1970 to 48,921 at the end of FY 2014. The decline, to 44,418 as of July 1 this year, comes in the wake of Gov. Bruce Rauner's declaration in February 2015 of his goal to reduce the number of prisoners by 25 percent by 2025.

The governor created the Illinois State Commission on Criminal Justice and Sentencing Reform through Executive Order 15-14 to review "current criminal justice and sentencing structure, sentencing practices, community supervision and the use of alternatives to incarceration."

The drop in the number of prisoners, though, precedes the official adoption of any of the commission's initial round of 14 recommendations in December 2015.

Rock Island County Chief Judge Walter Braud, an outspoken critic of sentencing laws, had some ideas about factors driving the number down.

"The easy answer is all of the judges that are in the criminal part of judging are on their way to implementing a lot of (the Commission's recommendations) on their own because they know it's right and overdue," he said.

Judge Braud also cited the decriminalization of marijuana and prosecutors being careful not to overcharge offenders as potential reasons for the recent drop in prison populations.

As Illinois courts use the power they have to make their own changes, some recommendations in the commission's report are under consideration by the legislature.

Some senators who served on the commission introduced bills based on three of the 14 suggestions the commission offered.

* Senate Bill 3164, which would require judges to issue a pre-sentencing report explaining why incarceration is appropriate when the offender has not had previous probation or convictions, has passed both houses and is awaiting action by Gov. Rauner.

* Senate Bill 3368, which would require the Secretary of State and Illinois Department of Corrections to provide state identification to prisoners upon their release, passed the Senate and it pending in the House.

* Senate Bill 3294, which would expand the use of electronic monitoring of prisoners by IDOC, also had passed the Senate and is awaiting action in the House.

No other bills related to the commission's recommendations have yet been introduced, according to Chris Saxma, a representative of Sen. Karen McConnaughay, R-West Dundee, a member of the Commission who introduced SB 3368.

Judge Braud praised the commission's recommendations and said each one would have a positive effect on decreasing state prison populations.

Reforms to minimum sentencing laws are especially important to Judge Braud, who said there are many cases where "the judge's hands are tied" and they must sentence nonviolent, low-risk offenders to prison.

"We have some laws where they just need to give the judges back the discretion to make the right decision," he said.

The commission's sixth recommendation addressed this matter and suggested that judges be given the power to use their discretion in cases of residential burglary, class two felonies and drug violations.

"Those are precisely the ones that need attention because they come up a lot," Judge Braud said.

He said these offenses are often committed by people with drug addictions or mental health problems, who if treated through drug or mental health courts often return to society well and do not reoffend.

Meanwhile, 48 percent of adult inmates and 53.5 percent of juveniles return to prison within three years of their release, according to the executive order creating the commission. This becomes a cycle for some offenders because their drug addiction or mental health problems remain untreated in state prisons, Judge Braud said.

Commission recommendations include increasing the use of probation and alternative courts but might be difficult to carry out because of funding. Judge Braud said these programs would be very effective in reducing prison populations and preventing people from reoffending.

State Rep. Pat Verschoore, D-Milan, voted yes for SB 3164 and said he anticipates Illinois will initiate several prison reforms in the near future because of a growing feeling in the country that too many people are being jailed for minor, nonviolent offenses.

"I think you're going to see more legislation and programs to release people," he said. He expects there to be more early releases and a push to put offenders into halfway houses or other programs rather than prisons.

Representative Mike Smiddy, D-Hillsdale, who also voted yes for SB 3164, said he did not want to comment on the commission's recommendations until he'd had a chance to study them in detail.

Sen. Neil Anderson, R-Rock Island, voted yes to all three bills advancing commission recommendations, but he did not reply to requests for comment.

The commission's December 2015 report said it will be studying and offering recommendations on truth-in-sentencing laws, racial impact of sentencing, sentences for drug law violations, sentencing ranges, sentence enhancements, problem-solving courts and community corrections, including probation and mandatory supervised release.

Cristin Evens, public information officer for the commission, said these subjects will be addressed in a report they expect to issue at the end of the year.

A report released Thursday by Voices for Illinois Children stressed the importance of using alternatives to prison as well.

"Instead of holding youth accountable and helping their rehabilitation, the use of incarceration has consequences that leave youth more likely to commit another crime and less likely to succeed in school, find employment and become financially secure in the long run," the report said.

It suggested moving more funds to community programs to rehabilitate youth rather than imprisonment.
BETTENDORF -- Joy Kelly has been selected to serve as Bettendorf High School interim principal for the 2016-2017 school year, the district announced in a press release Saturday. Ms. Kelly has been associate principal at Bettendorf High School since July 2003.

Ms. Kelly was named the 2014-2015 Assistant Principal of the Year by the School Administrators of Iowa (SAI). She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in American History from the University of Iowa, a Masters in Educational Leadership from the University of Northern Iowa, and a Specialist in Educational Leadership (Ed.S) from the University of Iowa.

Ms. Kelly replaces Jimmy Casas who has accepted a position as Senior Fellow for the International Center for Leadership in Education in New York. The district will start the search process for the next Bettendorf High School Principal in January with the goal of hiring someone in early spring with a start date of July 1, 2017, according to the release.
Submitted press release

LeClaire Civic Club

127 S. Cody Road

The LeClaire Civic Center wants to help Louisiana's flood Victims. When Katrina struck, the Civic Center sent four semis of needed emergency supplies from the Quad-Cities area, and we would like to do that again for Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

The club will accept donations through Sept. 30 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily at the civic center. What is needed is in the list. You can also drop off at any Blackhawk Bank & Trust locations during their normal business hours. Large drop offs should go to LeClaire civic center.

Contact Dan Morrell 563-579-4126, LeClaire Civic Club or Kevin Klute 309-798-4803, president, Village of Port Byron

These items are needed to help the Louisiana flood victims. Thank you for your donation!

Cleaning Products:

Clean rags

Dish soap

Disposable gloves

Laundry detergent

Paper Towels

Buckets

Mops

Masks

Rubber gloves

Cleaning supplies

Chlorox

Clothing: Women, Men, Children:

New, unopened packages of underwear (adult & children)

New, unopened packages of socks (adult & children

Diapers

No other clothes accepted at this time

General:

Boxes

Containers

Storage Totes

Non-Perishable Food:

Canned goods

Bottled water

Baby food & formula

Linens:

Blankets

Pillows

Sheets

Towels/washcloths

School supplies (due to flooding in schools):

#2 pencils

Glue sticks

Pink erasers

Washable felt markers

Scissors

Pencil cases

Pocket folders

Lined notebooks

Rulers

Crayons

Blue or red pens

Packets of lined paper

Reams of plain paper

Hygiene Products:

Toilet paper

Tissue/Kleenix

Soap

Shampoo

Deodorant

Toothpaste

Toothbrushes

Combs and hairbrushes

Feminine hygiene products (pads, tampons)

Mouthwash

Razors

Where to Find More Information:

On the Web: leclairecivicclub.org

Donations will be accepted at the Iowa and Illinois Blackhawk Bank & Trust locations or LeClaire Civic Club  Drop off times to be announced.

Monetary donations can be made at Blackhawk Bank & Trust locations in both Iowa and Illinois. People wishing to make a donation online, go to http://www.gofundme.com/2jtlzss

The Civic Club will be accepting donations as long as necessary. After Sept. 30, contact Dan Morrell at 563-579-4126 for directions on how to donate.
MILAN  After nearly a century of service, the Illinois Army National Guard's highly decorated 2-123rd Field Artillery Battalion will officially inactivate on Aug. 31.

The Milan-based unit, which will transition to the 123rd Engineer Battalion on Sept. 1, cased its colors on Aug. 13.

"It was not the field artillery that made the soldiers great, but rather the soldiers that made the field artillery great," said Lt. Col. Corey Wise, of Bryant, Ill., the battalion's commander for the past three years who relinquished command to Lt. Col. Krista Soria, of Springfield. "These same soldiers are going to make this a great engineer battalion."

Lt. Col. Wise, who spent more than 20 years in the battalion, said the transition is a difficult change, "but one that the battalion's soldiers have made with the same honor, pride and commitment that always have made this unit great."

With batteries in Milan, Galesburg and Macomb, the 2-123rd Field Artillery Battalion originated as the 6th Infantry Regiment that served in the Blackhawk War, the Mexican-American War, the Civil War and the Spanish-American War.

It became the 123rd Field Artillery just before World War I, seeing combat in the St. Mehiel, Muse-Argonne and Lorraine campaigns. During World War II, the unit earned an Army Meritorious Unit Citation for combat action in the Pacific Theater ,where it served in the Hawaiian Islands, New Guinea, the Dutch East Indies and the Philippines. It ended its World War II duty as part of the occupation forces of Japan.

During the Korean War, it was a training battalion on the West Coast. It also served in Iraq in 2005, where two of its soldiers  Sgt. 1st Class Kyle Wehrly, 28, of Galesburg, and Sgt. Brian Romines, 20, of Simpson, Ill.  were killed in action.

From May 2010 to June 2011, the battalion was deployed to the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt as part of the Multi-National Observer Force monitoring the peace agreement between Egypt and Israel. On multiple occasions, it also was placed on state active duty to assist in state emergencies, including major floods.

"Next year the unit would have celebrated 100 years with the field artillery," said Col. Rodney Thacker, commander of the 65th Troop Command. "I understand this is bittersweet for many soldiers who grew up in this battalion."

The unit's transition to the 123rd Engineer Battalion is part of the Army's restructuring to address future needs and bolster the Illinois Army National Guard's domestic emergency response.
ROCK ISLAND -- The music just might be the main reason Ya Maka My Weekend has continued for 25 years.

Outside of the Red Rodeo bar, a lone young lady, a student from Augustana College, eats a plate of jerk chicken with red beans and rice from one of the several nearby vendors. In the background, reggae music is playing.

A short time later, two gentlemen, Brian Wake of Davenport and John Robinson of Cordova, ask if they can join the student at the table. Later, two more strangers are invited to sit at the the table as well. A conversation about the Olympics shifts gears to the reason they came to the District: to enjoy the music.

"This is what the rest of the world does, and we should be able to do that here," Mr. Robinson said about a table of strangers sitting together, conversing without cellphones present. "The music makes this possible."

Mr. Wake, wearing a Bob Marley shirt, said he has been a regular at Ya Maka My Weekend for the past 10 years and he keeps coming back for the music.

In front of the Jumer's Casino & Hotel stage, a 4-year-old girl named Marly Steffensmeier dances with her cousin to the sounds of Az One. Wearing a yellow dress with "Jamaica" across the front, she seems to be enjoying herself.

Her father, Todd, and his wife, Erin, drove from just south of Knoxville, Tennessee to visit family and friends. Erin is originally from Bettendorf.

"We have been coming every year since it started, except the last two years," Mr. Steffensmeier said. "This is a family environment, and we always try to make it back."

Also enjoying the music is Abbey Borchsenius of Norway, Ill. She brought her friend Felix Musson to the Caribbean-themed weekend festival. Mr. Musson, who is originally from the south Caribbean, said that the event is "authentic."

"This is beautiful," Mr. Musson said. "I love the food, too. I have tried it all."

Making a two-hour trip was no issue for Ms. Borchsenius. She has been making it for 12 years now.

"I love that there are two stages, and all of the friendly people," Ms. Borchsenius said." It's not that long a drive for what you get. This is an awesome event and you guys are lucky to have it here."

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the event, which celebrates the food and culture of the Caribbean. Reggae music bands will be live on two stages in The District of Rock Island, on 2nd Avenue.

The event continues today, with gates opening at 3 p.m. Admission is $9, with children 12 and younger admitted free.
Five cases of Zika have been connected to mosquitoes in Miami Beach, bringing the state's caseload to 36 infections not related to travel outside the U.S., Florida's governor and health department announced Friday.

The discovery prompted the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to announce that it was expanding its travel warning for pregnant women to include an area in Miami Beach known for nightclubs, pedestrian thoroughfares and beaches.

The CDC previously warned pregnant women to avoid the Wynwood arts district in Miami. In its statement Friday, the agency said pregnant women may also want to consider postponing nonessential travel throughout Miami-Dade County if they're concerned about potential exposure to the mosquito-borne virus.

"We're in the midst of mosquito season and expect more Zika infections in the days and months to come," said CDC director Dr. Tom Frieden. "It is difficult to predict how long active transmission will continue."

Aerial spraying and door-to-door operations on the ground have cut mosquito populations in Wynwood by up to 90 percent, but Zika may be continuing as mosquitoes breed, Frieden told reporters Friday.

"The mosquitoes are persistent and we won't know for a couple of weeks whether these aggressive measures have worked," Frieden said.

Aerial spraying isn't practical over South Beach because of the height of its buildings and strong winds over the narrow island city, Frieden said. Officials will be limited to spraying for mosquitoes at ground level in the highly populated area.

"Miami Beach does have a series of characteristics that make it particularly challenging," Frieden said.

Two of the people infected in Miami Beach are Miami-Dade County residents, and three are tourists, including one man and two women, Scott said. The tourists are residents of New York, Texas and Taiwan.

The new area of infection in South Beach is roughly 1.5 square miles between 8th and 28th streets, according to Florida's Department of Health.

Three vacuum trucks purchased to help Miami Beach fight rising sea levels have been used since the beginning of the year to drain water in low-lying areas where mosquitoes could breed, said Roy Coley, the city's infrastructure director.

The city also has been sending workers to fill potholes collecting water in alleys and fix leaky beach showers, in addition to applying pesticides to the area's many construction sites and flood-prone residential streets, Coley said.

"Our call volume has increased significantly," Coley said.

Possible infections outside Wynwood and Miami Beach also are being investigated.

Zika infection can cause severe brain-related birth defects, including a dangerously small head, if women are infected during pregnancy. But the virus only causes mild, flu-like symptoms in most people, making it difficult to confirm local transmissions, the CDC said.

"For this reason, it is possible that other neighborhoods in Miami-Dade County have active Zika transmission that is not yet apparent," the CDC's statement said.
The conflict went on for years until Aug. 12, when, authorities say, Stanley Majors shot and killed Khalid Jabara, whom his husband had come to think of as a kind of apprentice.

"He killed my best friend," Stephen Schmauss lamented.

The case received a brief mention in the presidential campaign from Hillary Clinton, who said her "heart breaks" for Jabara's loved ones. She shared a Facebook post Thursday from the family and urged the country to unite "to ensure that no other family loses a beloved son or daughter because of prejudice and bigotry."

Schmauss told The Associated Press that he took the 37-year-old Jabara under his wing after the family arrived in the south Tulsa neighborhood. Schmauss said he trained Khalid to use power tools and to take apart computer circuitry when he came over on some afternoons.

His husband was never so welcoming. He repeatedly referred to the Jabara family as "filthy Lebanese," ''dirty Arabs" and "Moo-slems." They are actually Christian.

Majors, 61, "was never what you would call a friendly neighbor," said Khalid's brother, Rami Jabara. Majors was verbally abusive and sent the family abusive letters and email.

Lebanese immigrants have long been a visible part of the Oklahoma population, with many making their living as merchants, restaurateurs and grocers.

Khalid Jabara's mother, Haifa, said Majors' venom was not reserved solely for her family. He would insult the lawn crews she hired, some of whom were black or Hispanic. She recalled him using the N-word to taunt them as they mowed.

"He's the racist," Haifa Jabara pointed to Majors' house, the grief in her voice still evident.

Schmauss tried to explain away Majors' comments: His husband, he said, is "textbook bipolar" and a diabetic who refuses to take any medication.

"Anything that was said was done under the bipolar situation," Schmauss said.

The abuse between the neighbors escalated to the point where Haifa Jabara obtained a protective order in 2013 that required Majors to stay 300 yards away and prohibited him from possessing any firearms until 2018. Majors  who had a 2009 felony conviction from California for threatening a crime with intent to terrorize  seemed undeterred.

"It's just a piece of paper to some people. A judge said you can't do these things," said Tulsa Police spokesman Leland Ashley. There's a segment of the population that won't adhere to the order "unless they're behind bars."

Despite the court order, Majors was accused of plowing his car into Haifa Jabara last September. She suffered a broken shoulder, among other injuries. After Majors struck her, he kept driving. Officers who stopped him later reported that he was intoxicated.

While awaiting trial on assault and battery charges, a judge freed Majors from jail on $60,000 bond, overruling strong objections by Tulsa County prosecutors, who called him "a substantial risk to the public" and pleaded with the court to set a higher bond of $300,000.

Schmauss, 76, has been married to Majors for barely two years. He said his husband started Aug. 12 on a violent note, smacking him in the eye and pounding his wrist. Schmauss fled to a local motel for the rest of the day.

Before Schmauss fled, he watched as Majors emptied at least five rounds from a handgun inside the couple's home, sending bullets in every direction. One hit the bed, another struck the carpet. A third shattered a cellphone. Then Majors reportedly tucked the weapon in the back of his shirt.

Hours later, Khalid Jabara was found mortally wounded on his front doorstep. Police are still investigating the motive.

"Every concern and fear in this family seems to have manifested itself," Tulsa County District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler said. "The system seems to have failed Khalid and his family, and we can and should be doing more."

Majors is now being held without bond in the county jail on a first-degree murder complaint. No formal charges have been filed. Calls to his attorney were not returned.

On Friday, a group of friends and neighbors built a surprise memorial display in the Jabara family's front yard, with dozens of flowers, ferns and a Lebanese cedar tree, all circled around a statue of St. Francis of Asssisi.

"I want them to think of this as a place where Khalid lived, not the place where Khalid died," said longtime family friend Rania Nasreddine.

Schmauss, shifting his weight between a cane and metal walker in his foyer, said he viewed Khalid as a sort of woodworking apprentice. But his husband, who often went by the nickname Vern, could never accept the friendship.

"Vern told me this time and time again," Schmauss said. "Vern told me that I am not to have any friends, and he repeated it over and over. I guess he was the only one who could have friends."

So why marry that kind of man?

"Because he wanted to," Schmauss said. "If I wasn't going to, he was going to kick me out of the house."
DAVENPORT -- She continues to use wood to raise gold and silver for Chinese orphans.

Carrie Paschke, Bettendorf, recently received another cargo shipment of furniture she bought in China. The furniture includes antiques and items made of "reclaimed" old wood.

Through her organization, Furnish Out, Mrs. Paschke will sell the items from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Aug 27 and Aug. 28 in Bettendorf's Cumberland Square, 2304 Spruce Hills. Mel Foster Co. has donated retail space for the event.

The furniture was made at John Wong's Lasting Style Antique Furniture Factory and George Hong's Classical Furniture. She said items such as some window lattices and miscellaneous accessories fascinate her.

Mrs. Paschke has had two similar sales in the past. The first raised $10,000, she said; the second raised $11,000. The money benefits the nonprofit organization The China Hope Foundation that cares for orphaned children in China.

Mrs. Paschke became aware of the two men when her family moved to China in 2011. Her husband, Dan, is a general manager of a Waratah Forestry Attachments Distribution Division at Deere & Co., a job that took them to China.

The two Chinese businesses specialize in making furniture out of reclaimed wood dating back 200 to 300 years. No nails, screws or metal fasteners are used; all joints are wooden. The items come with information about the type of wood used, when it was made and other trivia.

Each shipment Mrs. Paschke receives contains about 250 to 320 pieces. Next weekend's sale will feature 286 pieces of furniture and accessories. She expects more customers this time since it's being held in a retail center instead of her home.

Mrs. Paschke said she plans to return to China in December to order another shipment for a future sale.

The effort, she said, has become a family project. Her aunt and uncle from Minnesota were in town to help unpack and sort through this shipment, Mrs. Paschke said. Her kids hold bake sales to raise money for family friends who operate an orphanage in Beijing.

Mrs. Paschke said Kistner Repair owner Don Kistner handles any repairs items may need after the 6,500-mile trip from China to the Quad-Cities. She also salutes APEX Relocation Services for shipping all of the items at cost.

For photos and details of select pieces in the Aug. 27-28 event, visit furnishout.com.
The Rock Island County Board has placed a Referendum on this November's ballot. The board asks voters to approves a half cent sales tax for county public safety purposes. It promises that, if this referendum is passed, the property tax levy will be reduced by $12 million -- rather like the robber who allows you to keep your wallet, if you'll allow him to keep your money and credit cards.

On April 9, 2013, this same county board placed another referendum on the ballot:

Shall the County Board ... be authorized to expand the purposeof The Rock Island Public Building Commission ... to include all the powers and authority prescribed by the Public Building Commission Act?

Not withstanding the fact that 61 percent of voters unequivocally refused to approve that referendum (and give the county board a blank check), this county board, in my opinion,has nevertheless illegally and unconstitutionally proceeded to "expand the purpose of The Rock Island Public Building Commission."

The board has disingenuously sold this, essentially saying that there won't be any tax increase. The "jail" bonds -- which presently cost citizens $1 million a year in property taxes --will be retired in December 2019. Rather than increasing your taxes, we will graciously permit you to pay that $1 million per year for another 20 years! -- unless, of course, the cost of the new courthouse ("jail annex") exceeds $20 million.

The River Cities Reader debunks that deception: "Whatever is said about 'property-tax neutrality,' ... a $50-million project still costs $50 million plus interest. Property-tax rates ... might not go up, but property owners will still be paying the full cost."

In an Aug. 16 op-ed, county board member Don Johnson wrote, "In November 2015, the Rock Island County Board passed a property tax increase of approximately 16.8 percent. .... After the tax bills came in June, ... property owners were shocked to see that the ... countys portion of their tax bill was up ... 20 percent. ... "This ... was caused by the bond purchase for the annex project (Euphemism: new courthouse)."

I compared my 2014 Tax Bill (payable - 2015) with my 2015 Tax Bill (payable - 2016).

My 2014 tax bill:

-- County tax rate: 0.9406

-- Forest preserve tax rate: 0.1190

My 2015 tax bill:

-- County tax rate: 1.1250

-- Forest Preserve Tax Rate: 0.1230

The tax rate on my county taxes was increased 16.4 percent; my Forest Preserve rate was increased by 3.3 percent. Those combined county tax rates were therefore raised 19.7 percent. Check yours!

Mr. Johnson also succinctly explained how the referendum requirement was evaded:

"A court case was decided by an associate judge of the 14th Illinois Judicial Circuit (appointee of the circuit judges of the 14th Circuit). The court case ... involved the question of whether an annex to the jail could be built without ... a referendum."

And how the new courthouse proponents gulled the voters. "The principal proponent and some county officials assured the board the $28 million in bonds for this project would not increase the property tax of homeowners, as we would be retiring old bonds for new ones."

As explained previously, this was untruthful. While old bonds would be retired, new bonds would be paid for 20 additional years! But Mr. Johnson points out still a further deception:

"This was only the INTEREST on the new bonds; as the PRINCIPAL was deferred for four years."

Mr. Johnson summed up the shenanigans: "It appears many of the same individuals not wanting voters to decide on the bond purchase for (a new courthouse), now want them to vote on raising their sales tax. ... This time a referendum is the only way to accomplish this."

In my opinion, this stinks. Taxpayers should have the right to say by referendum not only yes or no, but exactly how much money can be spent on a new courthouse.

My earlier op-eds clearly stated I firmly believe a new courthouse is necessary. But the ends don't justify the means. I want the judges and the board to come out of this with their integrity in tact, and with the public knowingly agreeing to be taxed in an amount certain.
Almost 50 Illinois counties have filed lawsuits against Democratic Governor, JB Pritzker, and the ill crafted SAFE-T Act. Introduced in the General Assembly by the Illinois Black Caucus, the Act passed the Democratic-led General Assembly in the wee hours of Jan. 13, 2021. Amongst many of its weaknesses and deficiencies, the Act eliminates cash bail, emboldens criminals, and makes it even more difficult for law enforcement to keep offenders off our streets. Public Safety personnel and States Attorneys across our great State have decried the legislation, noting that it was drafted and written with very little constructive input from Public Safety leadership, from either party; potentially impacting every Illinois community with dangerous consequences. Allowing perpetrators to bail out of jail, based on their good word that they will be glad to return to court is laughable, at best, and both ludicrous and dangerous, at worst. Soon after the SAFE-T Act was passed at the State level, the Republican-led Henry County Board drafted a resolution, requesting that the General Assembly repeal and replace the SAFE-T Act with a new criminal justice bill, this time with input from professional law enforcement, States Attorneys from across the State, and other Public Safety officials. We unanimously passed our resolution on May 19, 2022, and encourage all County Boards in Illinois to follow our lead. Our Republican-led Board in Henry County believes we all, Democrats, Independents, and Republicans, deserve effective and fair law enforcement in our communities.
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This item is no longer available, but theres still much more to discoverkeep shopping to find something new to love!
Rated 3.5 out of 5 by 4 reviewers.

Rated 5 out of 5 by laurievei excellent value The bracelet I received had beautiful stones. The price I paid for this bracelet was amazing for the design and quality of the bracelet. Bracelets like this elsewhere could never be purchased for a price like this. I'm very happy that I tried this one out. 06-02-16

Rated 5 out of 5 by catlady3 this is just lovely i could not wait to get this and my waiting was rewarded. the bracelet is beautiful. i do not see anything wrong with the stones. it is a tiny bit big for me as 7" fits perfectly but i am getting used to it being a little lower on my wrist and kind of like it that way now. take a chance on this. it really is pretty. 10-05-11

Rated 2 out of 5 by TCB Mother of Pearl not good quality I really wanted this bracelet, but the 8" had poor quality mother of pearl. I sent it back. 02-05-11

Rated 2 out of 5 by Kary May Doesn't stay in place because it is top heavy I really want to like this bracelet, but I just can't piddle with it every time it slides around because it is so top heavy. The toggle is not that charming to be on top of my wrist. Plus one stone on the side of the mother of pearl looks like a cognac quarts and the other stone looks like a smoky quartz. I also looked at it through a loop and the mother of pearl has a crack and you can see a lot of black color that looks like glue. All in all, this bracelet is defective. This is in the mail for a refund : ( 01-22-11
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!
Shawn Mendes takes his first ever #1 on the TMN Hot 100 this week with Treat You Better. It takes #1 from #2 after looking likely to drop out of the Top 10 in recent weeks, solidifying its place ahead of his previous hit Stitches, which peaked at #5

Major Lazers Cold Water ft. Justin Bieber & M drops to #2 from #1 in its fourth week in the chart. DJ Snakes new Let Me Love You ft. Justin Bieber hits #3 from its debut spot of #26, matching recent hitMiddle ft. Bipolar Sunshines peak of #3.

The globes highest-earning DJ (Forbes) Calvin Harris remains steadfast at #4 with This Is What You Came For ft. Rihanna.

The Chainsmokers Closer ft. Halsey cracks the Top 10 on week three in the chart, hitting #5 from #11. Drakes Too Good falls to #6 from #5 while Jonas Blue makes it into the bracket at #7 from #13 with Perfect Strangers.

Justin Timberlake returns to the Top 10 with Cant Stop The Feeling at #8 from #12. Imany drops to #9 from #3 with Dont Be So Shy followed by Ushers Crash dropping to #10 from #9.

Shawn Mendes

Treat You Better

(UMA)

Major Lazer ft. Justin Bieber & MO

Cold Water

(MAD/WMA)

DJ Snake ft. Justin Bieber

Let Me Love You

(UMA)

Calvin Harris ft. Rihanna

This Is What You Came For

(SME)

The Chainsmokers ft. Halsey

Closer

SME

Drake

Too Good

(UMA)

Jonas Blue

Perfect Strangers

(EMI)

Justin Timberlake

Cant Stop The Feeling

(SME)

Drake ft. Wiz Kid & Kyla

One Dance

(UMA)

Imany

Dont Be So Shy (Filatov & Karas Remix)

(MOS/UMA)

Usher

Crash

(SME)

Click here to view all this weeks charts, including our HOT 100 national airplay (by genre and state), iTunes, Spotify, Shazam, ARIA, AIR & AMRAP.
Weve seen Stuffed Crusts, strange things chucked on top and other gimmicks, now its the worlds first playable DJ pizza box from Pizza Hut.

Pizza Hut in UK follows Maccas in Europe who introduced the playable placemats instore with Pizza Hut now taking a standard cardboard container rigged up with touch-sensitive decks, a mixer and other controllable buttons.

Just Pizza Huts 350 UK restaurants have them. How do you cut through in the crowded distracted space?

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Each week Radio Today features Podcast Reviews a look at some of the best radio related podcasts available.

Podcasting increases your reach and profile. In this era of self-distribution Podcasts are a great way to market yourself and showcase your work.

If youre in radio you should be doing podcasts. If your station or network arent organising them then you should be doing yourself. Podcasting quality and listenership is growing rapidly.

You can check all the podcasts mentioned via iTunes, Pocketcasts, Overcast and other apps. This week we look at some of the ABCs offerings  we featured Richard Fidler early but heres a few others worth a look.

If you have produced a podcast series let us know at [email protected].

1: Dr Karl on Triple J  oin Dr Karl Kruszelnicki, Zan Rowe and their scientific guests, with a bunch of curious triple j listeners for a weekly injection of science, myth-bashing and answer.! Thursdays from 11am EST

2: The Hook Up  Never too early for a Sunday sess? The Hook Up is all about love and f*cking. Hannah Reilly fronts the show where people hang out including experts, comedians and friends of the show as they get graphic about their love lives, and help you out with yours.

3: Like A Version  Here;s how you can take a benchmark and turn it into its own brand a podcast. triple j every Friday morning get a musician or band into the studio to play one of their own songs and a cover of a song they love. Some rippers covers over the years.

4: All In The Mind is Radio Nationals weekly foray into the mental universe, the mind, brain and behaviour  everything from addiction to artificial intelligence. It will get you thinking.

5: Future Tense  A critical look at new technologies, new approaches and new ways of thinking, from politics to media to environmental sustainability.
Peter OCallaghans funeral has been announced. Emma OCallaghan shared: Dads funeral will be held on Monday August 22 at 2.30pm at the Cordell Chapel, Fawkner Cemetery. Please share this with everyone who would like to be there to farewell Peter xxxx
As it continues to grow following strong performance, Israeli independent formats distributor and creator Armoza Formats has made organisational changes aimed at building stronger marketing and strategy.

Yael Phillips (pictured), who has been leading the marketing department for the past three years, has now additionally been appointed as head of strategy, while Paula Schleider is joining the company to reinforce the marketing and public relations division.In her time at Armoza, Phillips has been responsible for global marketing and communications, both for the Armoza Formats brand - including Armozas 10-year campaign - and its wider catalogue and new product launches. In her new role, she will oversee strategic initiatives inside the company to bring about new growth opportunities, alongside her ongoing responsibilities heading up the marketing department.Schleider joins the team with a background in consumer marketing, with her previous role at Beiersdorf Mexico working on the Nivea brand.Commenting on the moves, Armoza Formats CEO Avi Armoza said: Were always looking for ways to move the company forward, and believe that these changes will help us do just that, ensuring that Armoza continues to thrive. We believe that Yaels combination of strategic vision and expertise in the industry along with Paulas marketing abilities will help us do just this.
HRW, August 17, 2016

(New York)  Afghan security forces are increasingly using schools as bases during military operations in Taliban-held areas, putting children at risk and depriving thousands of an education, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The Afghan government should take immediate steps to curtail security force use of schools for military purposes.

The 45-page report, Education on the Front Lines: Military Use of Schools in Afghanistans Baghlan Province, documents the occupation and other military use of schools by state forces and the Taliban in Baghlan province in northeastern Afghanistan. It is based on interviews with more than more than 20 school principals, teachers, and administrators, as well as local families affected by the conflict. As school districts across Afghanistan increasingly find themselves on the front lines of the countrys armed conflict, students risk their lives at schools being used by soldiers which may become military targets, or are deprived of an education until facilities are found elsewhere.

Afghan childrens education is at risk not just from the Taliban, but also from government forces that occupy their schools, said Patricia Gossman, senior Afghanistan researcher. Children are being put in harms way by the very Afghan forces mandated to protect them.



A girls school was lit on fire by militants in Logar province on Oct. 28, 2015. (Photo: PAN) A girls school was lit on fire by militants in Logar province on Oct. 28, 2015. (Photo: PAN)

Decades of unrelenting conflict in Afghanistan have decimated the countrys educational system, depriving entire generations of an education. Since late 2001, many donor countries reconstruction efforts have focused on rebuilding the countrys devastated educational infrastructure.

Foreign donors have invested heavily in education  building schools, supporting teacher training, and providing textbooks and other materials to schools across the country. But as the security situation has deteriorated in recent years, schools have increasingly been threatened by both insurgent forces and Afghan security forces, who use them for military operations.

In one case, the Taliban in 2010 attacked a middle school that was occupied by Afghan security forces in Postak Bazaar village, Baghlan province, and gunned down seven policemen inside a classroom. Their blood just wouldnt wash away, a school official told Human Rights Watch. So we had to chip it away from the wall with an axe.

By 2015, government forces had reoccupied the school, stacking sandbags on the second floor, while students tried to continue their schooling below. Alarmed school officials managed to get Kabul authorities to write a letter ordering the military forces to leave, but the commander disregarded the order. When school officials again presented the letter to the commander at exam time, officers fired their guns in the direction of the assembled teachers and students.

The Taliban have also used schools in Baghlan as bases, Human Rights Watch found. Taliban forces occupied a Swedish government-financed school in Omar Khail village soon after it opened its doors in 2015, to 350 boys and girls. Pleas by village elders to leave were rejected. In early 2016, government forces attacked the Taliban forces in the school with gunfire and mortar rounds. The Taliban fled, but the school compound was left in ruins.

A major achievement of the Afghan government since Taliban rule has been the increase in girls attending school. But parents are much less likely to allow girls to attend if soldiers are on school grounds or there is a risk of attack, depriving girls of their education.

Under the laws of war, schools are civilian objects that are not subject to attack unless they are being used for military purposes. Unnecessary use of schools by military forces is contrary to the global Safe Schools Declaration, which Afghanistan endorsed in 2015. The declaration urges parties to armed conflicts not to use schools and universities for any purpose in support of the military effort.

A decade of achievement rebuilding Afghanistans educational system and increasing education for girls is at risk so long as schools are used by military forces and threatened with attack, Gossman said. The Afghanistan government should get its soldiers out of the schools.
Alabama's budget has been a mess for years, and an increasing burden for the state's downtrodden taxpayers. But if some local politicians have their way it could get even worse.

The case in question this time involves a desired new bridge meant to alleviate traffic congestion over the Intracoastal Waterway, and into the Gulf Coast and the its booming cities of Orange Beach and Gulf Shores. The question isn't so much whether there is a need for a new bridge that would boost capacity over the Intracoastal, but how. No one doubts that a new bridge is desirable to reduce congestion.

The major sticking point is who should pay. There is where the problems start. Both the Alabama Department of Transportation and the Mayor of Orange Beach, Tony Kennon, have expressed a desire to dip into taxpayer pockets either through borrowing, or through the use of the state's road repair fund.

Recently, Mayor Kennon delivered an ultimatum to privately owned Beach Express, which operates one of the existing spans across the Intracoastal: Expand your existing bridge and cut your tolls in half, or I'll build a "free bridge" myself and put you out of business.

The problem is, Kennon's "free" bridge (along with operating and maintenance costs) would be paid for with tens of millions of dollars of new debt. The mayor isn't wrong to ask a private company to finance an expansion of its own bridge, but he errs in his attempt to dictate the toll rates they pay. He's pushing politics instead of economics, and demonstrating a lack of understanding about the roll tolls play in protecting taxpayers and drivers who want smooth traffic flows. Either threat from Kennon is bad for Alabama because the result would be the same: A bigger burden for taxpayers.

The sad thing is that it doesn't have to be this way. There are many ways that are simpler and more fair that would lead to a new bridge without squandering scarce resources. Taxpayers are already strapped as it is. Higher tax rates were signed into law last year as a result of an already-massive fiscal mess.

Here are the key points:

If Mayor Kennon is successful in building a taxpayer-financed third bridge, the citizens of Southern Alabama will be paying for something that is overwhelmingly used by people from out of state. Close to four-fifths of drivers traveling to the Gulf Coast came from outside the Alabama, according to a July 2015 report prepared for Gulf Shores and Orange Beach Tourism.

Why use government resources when there are other alternatives? There is a potential private sector partner, waiting in the wings, that may be willing to build and maintain a new bridge. The bridge can, and should, be located between Route 59 and the Beach Express. That's the location where Mayor Kennon threatens to build a bridge on the backs of taxpayers. But there's a reason toll rates are set by operators, not politicians: Operators know what rates the market will bear that allow them to make a return on their investment. Politicians know what rates (hint: always lower) will help them win their next election. The toll rate should be similar to that levied on the existing, but crowded Beach Express, not toll free as suggested by Kennon.

And it's not as if the $3.50 rate for out-of-state drivers is cost prohibitive. Really, what person travelling to the coast for a holiday wants to be stuck in traffic when a few dollar toll would solve the problem? It should be clear that vacationers renting a $328 a day condo would be more than willing to pay $3.50 to cross the Intracoastal Waterway as the price of reduced congestion. That's a similar rate to the Beach Express.

The private sector alternative can solve the bridge congestion problem without putting the state further into debt, or depleting the transportation department's road repair reserves. This would eliminate Orange Beach's share of the Beach Express tolls paid, which amounted to roughly $1 million in income for the city last year. The money has better uses since Alabama's existing infrastructure is already in bad shape with a rating of D+ for its roads by the American Society of Civil Engineers. The decision really comes down to whether local officials want to eliminate a revenue stream and increase debt load, or use private dollars to expand infrastructure in a way that reduces congestion and keeps taxpayers off the hook.

There's a simple rule that those outside the political class already know: "If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging."

And here's the simple message to Alabama's politicians: Stop digging. Instead, let the private sector take up the slack. The voters will thank you.
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On August 11, the Science Learning Center, with its $44.7 million budget from the Georgia Board of Regents, 122,500-square-feet space and 1,512 instructional seats, will take the initials SLC and officially end the era during which the Zell B. Miller Learning Center was known as the Student Learning Center.
You might not know it as you anxiously watch your grocery bill add up, but you are indirectly funding research at the University of Georgia with each of your purchases. As federal grants become increasingly competitive, UGA is looking toward industry partnerships to help fund research.
FILE - In this Monday, Aug. 8, 2016, file photo, Taraji P. Henson, a cast member in the FOX series "Empire," poses for a portrait during the 2016 Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif. Henson is back as Cookie in Empire, has an autobiography out in October, stars in a movie about a real-life NASA mathematician in January, and says shes just getting started. (Photo by Rich Fury/Invision/AP, File)

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By MIKE CIDONI LENNOX, AP Entertainment Writer

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP)  Taraji P. Henson almost backed out of writing her autobiography because she was reluctant to expose herself to scrutiny. She could have bypassed a starring role in a film about NASA's unsung female mathematicians because of her taxing work as the formidable Cookie on Fox's "Empire."

But the actress gathered her will and did both. The result is "Around the Way Girl," to be published Oct. 11, and the January theatrical release of "Hidden Figures," in which she plays Katherine Johnson, one of the real-life African-American women who were a critical part of the space program.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Henson discussed the projects as she awaits the Sept. 21 return of "Empire" and what's ahead for Cookie and her family after last season's cliffhanger ending. In it, her ex-husband and sparring partner, Lucious (Terrence Howard), married Anika (Grace Gealey)  who might or might not have survived a brawl with Rhonda (Kaitlin Doubleday). The questions and answers were edited for clarity and brevity.

Associated Press: Let's talk about the upcoming autobiography.

Henson: I am exposing myself and it is just very, very scary and there were a couple times where I almost backed out, where I'm just going to write them their check and say, 'I just don't want to do it.' And it was my beautiful makeup artist, Ashunta Sheriff, who re-calibrated me and focused on me on why I decided to write the book. People find my life inspiring. And, as an artist, that's what you should do: inspire people. ... A little around-the-way girl from the hood was able to dream because of all the people who came before me, and weren't afraid to dream and weren't afraid to go out and do it: the Lucille Balls, the Bette Davises, the Phylicia Rashads, the Debbie Allens, the Diahann Carrolls. The list goes on and on. If I didn't have them to look at, who knows that I could even dream, or make them come true?

AP: Like those women in NASA in "Hidden Figures"?

Henson: Well, I'm no mathematician, but I play one. (Laughs.) It's a movie based on these incredible women who helped our men get to space. Who knew that? Who knew that women had anything to do with men getting to the moon? Who knew? You see all the footage, all the documentaries, and you just see a room full of smoking men. So then I find out about these women and I redo my research and I'm like, 'OK, where's the woman?' I know I'm going to see her. Because now I know they exist.' That bothered me and I made it my mission to do this film. ... And it was the hardest thing I ever had to do, because I'm used to supporting movies. I've never carried a show and then went on to carrying a film. That was hard but worth it for Katherine Johnson's story.

AP: So is this a case of a body in motion staying in motion?

Henson: You have to strike while the iron is hot. People are interested. And this is the moment every artist prays about. Look, I grew up in an era where women were done at 40. Meryl Streep thought she was done at 40. And just watching her trajectory gave me hope. Edie Falco from 'The Sopranos,' she didn't hit until she was 36. That's hope. Men can do it. They can go bald, have a big stomach and never fix their teeth, and they'll work forever because they'll hire some next young, hot (actress). But you see what's happening is that we 40-year-olds are giving those 20-year-olds a run for their money. So you can get a mature woman who is still hot and play opposite these big leading-men roles. ... And not only that, I'm interested in work that's going to be talked about long after I'm gone, and challenging and pushing myself. And so when that role comes, I can't turn it down. Why walk away from an incredible role like Katherine Johnson? Why? Because I'm tired? I don't have time to be tired. ... We are just getting started.

___

AP Television Writer Lynn Elber contributed to this report.
FILE - Police approach the cab of a truck driven by Mohamed Lahouaiyej Bouhlel, a Tunisian who plowed through a crowded promenade, killing at least 84 people in Nice, France, in this July 14, 2016, file photo. Bouhlels family and neighbors say he was indifferent to religion, but French authorities have linked the attack to Islamic State. (NADER EL SHAFEI via AP, File) MANDATORY CREDIT

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By AYA BATRAWY, PAISLEY DODDS and LORI HINNANT, Associated Press

An Associated Press analysis of thousands of leaked Islamic State documents reveals most of its recruits from its earliest days came in with only the most basic knowledge of Islam

PARIS (AP)  The jihadi employment form asked the recruits, on a scale of 1 to 3, to rate their knowledge of Islam. And the Islamic State applicants, herded into a hangar somewhere at the Syria-Turkey border, turned out to be overwhelmingly ignorant.

The extremist group could hardly have hoped for better.

At the height of Islamic State's drive for foot soldiers in 2013 and 2014, typical recruits included the group of Frenchmen who went bar-hopping with their recruiter back home, the recent European convert who now hesitantly describes himself as gay, and two Britons who ordered "The Koran for Dummies" and "Islam for Dummies" from Amazon to prepare for jihad abroad. Their intake process complete, they were grouped in safe houses as a stream of Islamic State imams came in to indoctrinate them, according to court testimony and interviews by The Associated Press.

"I realized that I was in the wrong place when they began to ask me questions on these forms like 'when you die, who should we call?'" said the 32-year-old European recruit, speaking to the AP on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. He said he thought he was joining a group to fight President Bashar Assad and help Syrians, not the Islamic State.

The European, whose boyish demeanor makes him appear far younger than his age, went to Syria in 2014. He said new recruits were shown IS propaganda videos on Islam, and the visiting imams repeatedly praised martyrdom. Far from home, unschooled in religion, having severed family ties and turned over electronic devices, most were in little position to judge.

An AP analysis of thousands of leaked Islamic State documents reveals most of its recruits from its earliest days came with only the most basic knowledge of Islam. A little more than 3,000 of these documents included the recruits' knowledge of Shariah, the system that interprets into law verses from the Quran and "hadith"  the sayings and actions of the Prophet Muhammad.

According to the documents, which were acquired by the Syrian opposition site Zaman al-Wasl and shared with the AP, 70 percent of recruits were listed as having just "basic" knowledge of Shariah  the lowest possible choice. Around 24 percent were categorized as having an "intermediate" knowledge, with just 5 percent considered advanced students of Islam. Five recruits were listed as having memorized the Quran.

The findings address one of the most troubling questions about IS recruitment in the United States and Europe: Are disaffected people who understand Shariah more prone to radicalization? Or are those with little knowledge of Islam more susceptible to the group's radical ideas that promote violence?

The documents suggest the latter. The group preys on this religious ignorance, allowing extremists to impose a brand of Islam constructed to suit its goal of maximum territorial expansion and carnage as soon as recruits come under its sway.

Islamic State's most notorious new supporters appear to have an equally tenuous link with religion. Mohamed Lahouaiyej Bouhlel, who killed 85 people by plowing a truck into a Bastille Day crowd in Nice, France, was described by family and neighbors as indifferent to religion, volatile and prone to drinking sprees, with a bent for salsa dancing and a reported male lover.

Unlike Omar Mateen, the Orlando attacker, Bouhlel did not make a public declaration of allegiance to Islamic State, much less prove he had direct ties to extremists in the war zone. Still, the group was quick to claim both as foot soldiers.

___

The AP analyzed the IS entry form documents of around 4,030 foreign recruits who crossed into Syria when the group was rapidly expanding and seizing territory in Iraq and Syria in 2013 and 2014. At that time, the CIA estimated the extremist group had between 20,000 and 31,500 fighters across Iraq and Syria.

Among the documents were forms for nine of 10 young men from the eastern French city of Strasbourg, all recruited by a man named Mourad Fares. One of them, Karim Mohammad-Aggad, described barhopping in Germany with Fares. He told investigators that IS recruiters used "smooth talk" to persuade him.

He'd traveled with his younger brother and friends to Syria in late 2013. Two died in Syria, and within a few months, seven returned to France and were arrested. Mohammad-Aggad's brother, 23-year-old Foued, returned to Paris and was one of the three men who stormed the Bataclan in a night of attacks Nov. 13 that killed 130 people.

"My religious beliefs had nothing to do with my departure," Karim Mohammad-Aggad told the court, before being sentenced to nine years in prison. "Islam was used to trap me like a wolf," he said.

IS data shows Karim and his brother Foued were among eight in the Strasbourg group listed as having "basic" knowledge of Sharia.

Expressing a common sentiment shared by many Europeans of North African descent, Mohammed-Aggad told the court he felt like an immigrant in Algeria and "a dirty Arab" in France. After just a few months in Syria, he said he left IS because he was treated by the extremists as an "apostate"  someone who had renounced his religion.

When pressed by the judge on his knowledge of Shariah and how the IS group implements it, Mohammad-Aggad, a former gas station attendant, appeared dumbfounded, saying repeatedly: "I don't have the knowledge to answer the question."

One of his co-defendants, Radouane Taher, was also pressed by the judge on whether beheadings carried out by the IS group conformed to Islamic law.

He couldn't say for sure, answering: "I don't have the credentials."

That's where Amazon comes in.

The trial of longtime friends Mohammed Ahmed and Yusuf Sarwar, from the British city of Birmingham, revealed the 22-year-olds had ordered "The Koran for Dummies" and "Islam for Dummies" books in preparation for their trip to join extremists in Syria. They were arrested on their return to Britain and convicted in 2014 of terrorism offenses.

Patrick Skinner, a former CIA case officer with extensive experience with Mideast extremist organizations, said some people claim allegiance to IS out of religious belief, but that most who join, including those from the West, are people "reaching for a sense of belonging, a sense of notoriety, a sense of excitement."

"Religion is an afterthought," said Skinner, who is also director of special projects at security consultancy the Soufan Group.

Those who truly crave religious immersion would go to Al-Azhar in Cairo, he added, referring to the thousand-year-old seat of learning for Shariah and Quranic studies.

In its recent English language magazine Dabiq, dedicated largely to bolstering its own Muslim credentials, Islamic State dismissed Al-Azhar as part of an "approach to subdue Muslims through appeasement," with the West.

Mohammed Abdelfadel, an Islamic scholar who heads a German-language unit at Al-Azhar that tracks Islamic State propaganda and statements, said the group spews superficial notions about what is "halal and haram," or what is permissible and forbidden in Islam. He says the group's propaganda videos lionize IS fighters as masculine, strong martyrs going to heaven for the sake of God  counter to Islamic laws that forbid terrorism, the murder of non-combatants in war, the imposition of Islam on non-Muslims and other criminal activity.

____

The recruits' Shariah knowledge is important because IS not only needs soldiers and suicide bombers, but administrators and Shariah officials to oversee its local courts and judges, who in turn promote IS ideology.

It also matters because those who've claimed advanced knowledge in Shariah on the IS entry documents were less likely to want to become suicide bombers, according to a study by the U.S. military's Combating Terrorism Center, an academic institution at the United States Military Academy.

"If martyrdom is seen as the highest religious calling, then a reasonable expectation would be that the people with the most knowledge about Islamic law (Shariah) would desire to carry out these operations with greater frequency," said the report.

However, despite the religious justification that IS uses for suicide missions, "those with the most religious knowledge within the organization itself are the least likely to volunteer to be suicide bombers," the study found.

Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan said a close look at the IS group's top commanders shows that many had no religious credentials but, instead, they once held senior positions under Saddam Hussein's secular Baathist government.

Ramadan teaches Islamic Studies at Oxford and has written numerous books on Islam and the integration of Muslims in Europe. He says Muslim scholars must demonstrate that what IS teaches is wrong.

"The people who are doing this are not experiencing martyrdom, they are criminals. They are killing innocent people. Nothing in Islam, nothing ever can justify the killing of innocent people, never, ever."

The gay European recruit said he converted to Islam because he was interested in the culture and it was easy.

"It only required one prayer and no prior understanding of Islam," he said. "There was no hierarchy and it was all about living a good life."

As a convert with almost no knowledge in Islam, he says he was easy prey.

"People like me were tricked into something that they didn't understand. I never meant to end up with IS."

___

Online:

Zaman al-Wasl, which shared the Islamic State intake documents with AP: https://en.zamanalwsl.net/

___

Batrawy reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Dodds reported from London.
Firefighters water down scorched compost material at a property burned near Phelan, Calif., on Friday, Aug. 19, 2016. The wildfire unleashed its initial fury on a semi-rural landscape dotted with small ranches and homes in Cajon Pass and on the edge of the Mojave Desert before climbing the mountains. (AP Photo/Christine Armario)

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By Joe Szydlowski of the Redding Record Searchlight

As wildfires rage throughout Central and Southern California  and Redding-area firefighters battle them  Mother Nature has largely spared the North State.

But fire chiefs say they don't want to take any chances when they send firefighters to other parts of the state to aid those grappling with the infernos that, together, have raged across 144,826 acres.

"We have a staffing model that's always exactly the same. There's always the same number of people on duty," said Gerry Gray, chief of the Redding Fire Department, which had 11 of its 75 firefighters on some of those blazes. "That means some people don't get days off."

The Anderson Fire Department had put five people on fires, said Steve Lowe, Anderson Fire Protection District spokesman. They'd just reached Woodland coming back from 21 days on a fire when they were called to another fire, he said.

Most of the firefighters, however, came from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. More than 100 have been deployed, of whom about half are seasonal, said Cheryl Buliavac, spokeswoman with Cal Fire.

The system, known as mutual aid request, is the best in the country, Gray said.

"I know of no other aspect of government that is so well structured to meet the needs of our community with outside resources," he said.

Most fires that involve mutual aid are ones on the outskirts of Redding and Anderson when both the city and Cal Fire respond. But massive fires prompt the agency in charge to put out a request for help that goes to every Cal Fire dispatch center, which then relays it to other agencies, including federal ones.

Those agencies then evaluate current conditions and how many they can spare, said Scott McLean, a battalion chief with Cal Fire. Other agencies can use the system to request help as well.

When a request comes in, the on-duty battalion chief looks at weather conditions and forecasts, fire danger, staffing levels, distance and other factors, Gray said.

"There's not a simple formula, and some of those decisions are based on historical practice and sometimes a fire chief's gut feeling of what's best," he said. "Obviously we want to ensure we always maintain a sufficient level of protection for our community."

That means sometimes saying no.

"There are occasions (when) we're dealing with big fires on our own, or the area is stripped of resources, we just have to decline that request," he said. "If all neighboring agencies are indicating they have a very low level of resources ... then we're much more reluctant."

Once those firefighters are assigned, they leave immediately, McLean said. Some go to the fires themselves while others serve as substitutes for nearby agencies whose personnel are on a wildfire, he said.

They work 24 hours on, 24 hours off for 14 days, although they can stay an additional week if asked, Gray said.

Conditions on the frontlines are rough, said Gray, who realized he wanted to be a firefighter while on one of those lines in Lassen National Forest. "They often sleep in the dirt in between assignments," he said. "Many times I myself have spent the night in the dirt, trying to get some rest before the next day's assignment," he said. "We are also dealing with poison oak  four firefighters had to get prednisone shots." They also rarely have cell coverage and send little more than one text a day, he said.

"It's one of many things that keep fire chiefs awake at night," he said.
County clerk says she won't tolerate election interference

Cathy Darling Allen, the county clerk and registrar of voters, said she will answer questions from anyone who wants to observe the vote tally.
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Trio escape officers in highway pursuit

Shasta County sheriff's deputies pursued a white Chevrolet down Highway 273 on Friday afternoon, but the driver and two other occupants managed to run away after stopping the car.

The chase began just before 4:15 p.m. when a deputy saw the vehicle almost crash into another vehicle in Happy Valley, according to scanner reports.

A deputy tried to pull over the vehicle, but the driver failed to yield. The deputy said a woman and a man were inside along with a male driver.

They headed toward Anderson via Highway 273 and abandoned the car near the Shasta District Fair grounds.

Deputies and Anderson police cordoned off the area to search for the trio, but were unable to find them.

Deputies said the woman was wearing had red-and-white shorts. They didn't know what color or type of top she was wearing.

One man had reddish-blond hair. All three are white, deputies said.

Driver arrested following chase

A California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection law enforcement officer arrested one person after a chase through Happy Valley on Friday.

The California Highway Patrol assisted Cal Fire with the pursuit, which started about 9:50 a.m.

The Cal Fire officer tried to stop the soft-top Jeep in the area of Saddle Trail for crossing double-yellow lines and an expired registration.

The driver of the Jeep, which had a cracked windshield, didn't stop and instead sped down Saddle Trail, turned around and then went about seven miles south on Happy Valley Road to Coyote Lane, about two miles north of West Valley High School.

The Jeep crashed through a fence before stopping and the driver was apprehended.

Officer arrest four in Trinity pot raid

Law enforcement officers in Hayfork arrested four people last week after raiding a marijuana grow site.

Trinity County sheriff's deputies, along with California Highway Patrol officers and the U.S. Forest Service, also found methamphetamine, 119 guns, two pipe bombs and nearly $38,000 cash, according to the sheriff's office.

Officers on Aug. 12 served the search warrant at a Hayfork property, where they found Johnnie Acosta, 32, of Blue Lake, running from a two-story garage, deputies said.

They detained Acosta, who was followed by Josiah Claborn, 30, and Jennifer Cornell, 38, both of Hayfork.

Officers in a search of the property found 205 marijuana plants, 136 pounds of processed marijuana, $37,900 in cash and 16 grams of methamphetamine.

They also found the guns and more than 10,000 rounds of ammunition in a nearby tent. Richard Smith Jr., 42, of Hayfork, was staying inside the tent where deputies arrested him.'

The guns included three illegal rifles, 54 other rifles, 23 handguns, 36 shotguns and three other stolen guns, according to the sheriff's office.

The Shasta County Bomb Squad detonated two pipe bombs found on the property, deputies said.

All four were booked into Trinity County Jail on suspicion of a range of charges that included conspiracy, possession of marijuana for sale and illegal marijuana cultivation.

Claborn is a convicted felon and was also arrested on suspicion of being a felon in possession of guns.

All four remain in the Trinity County Jail in lieu of $500,000 bail each, deputies said.
A sign near the Chatham Street Bridge in Blue Island warns visitors the water in the Cal-Sag Channel "is not suitable for ... any human body contact." However, water quality has improved enough for local officials to plan a dip in the waterway Aug. 27 to raise funds for the Cal-Sag Trail. (Ted Slowik / Daily Southtown)

If you've ever thought about diving into a literal vat of waste and garbage, Steve Buchtel and Josh Ellis have got you beat.

Buchtel and Ellis, along with the executive director of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, David St. Pierre, and other fundraisers, will dive straight into the Cal-Sag (short for Calumet-Saganashkee) Channel to raise money for the Cal-Sag Trail project. The trail is "a 26-mile, multi-use trail" that, when finished, will run from Edgewater to Joliet. It's currently only halfway completedhence, the fundraiser.

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They'll dive into the channel in suburban Blue Island on August 27. For those unfamiliar with the channel, it debuted in 1922 to defer pollution away from Lake Michigan and toward the Illinois River. Located between the Little Calumet River and the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, the channel is now so polluted that no creature can survive in it.

A reverend was brought to the channel to exorcise it four years ago, but it didn't seem to work. The MWRD still has signs along the shoreline warning against drinking, swimming in or even touching the water in the channel. The water has improved a bit since the opening of a deep tunnel project that diverts sewer overflow to a nearby quarry, but it's still not anything you'd want to ingest.

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According to both of their fundraising pages, they're completing the dive, "To showcase the near miraculous work by the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District to clean up area waterways especially the Cal-Sag Channel."

Ellis is the director of the Metropolitan Planning Council and Buchtel works as the executive director of nonprofit Trails for Illinois. Buchtel organized the plunge.

"To the person who sponsors me at the highest dollar amount, I will ensure that you personally may stand behind me and shove with all your might," Ellis says on his fundraising page.

Buchtel, who organized the plunge, promises a similar prize. "The biggest individual donor gets to choose my dive: cannonball, can opener, corkscrew, or windmill," his page says. "This fit boy man has a broad arsenal of dives for one so afraid of going in headfirst."

We wish you both the best. Just don't disturb anything in its depths. Chicago doesn't need its own radioactive Godzilla.

@shelbielbostedt | sbostedt@redeyechicago.com
'Civilian casualties in Kashmir could change the mood overnight, and therefore should be avoided by every means.'

IMAGE: Protesters hurl stones amid tear gas smoke fired by the police during a protest in Srinagar. Photograph: Umar Ganie

The India-Pakistan slugfest over Kashmir is nothing new, either in terms of intensity of vitriol or in terms of the issues raised.

Enough of opinions on the mutual grandstanding by the two nuclear armed South Asian neighbours. The question remains: What should be India's strategy to deal with Pakistan?

N A Prasad, a senior Research and Analysis Wing officer who recently retired as additional secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat, spoke to Rajeev Sharma about how to deal with Pakistan and the ongoing crisis in Kashmir.

How should India deal with Pakistan?

First of all, India must recognise that it is not worth to nurture any pretensions of 'reasonableness' of the Pakistani establishment to negotiate a settlement other than full transfer of the Kashmir valley.

Their policy will not change for another two to three generations, at least until the retirement of the 'crop' of army personnel recruited during and before General Zia-ul Haq's presidency.

Hence, the Indian government should not feel compelled to get into any kind of political negotiations until Islamabad demonstrates its 'reasonableness' and stops exporting terrorism.

Where do you see Jammu and Kashmir in all this?

New Delhi shall have a consistent dialogue with all shades of opinion in Jammu and Kashmir. The Kashmir problem can't be termed as a sole creation of Pakistan.

There is no doubt of New Delhi's mishandling of the situation for a long time. It is a border state and should be handled a little more delicately.

It is fine to imprison some Hurriyat leaders belonging to Syed Ali Shah Geelani's group as there is enough proof of seditious activities carried out under the guidance and financial support of Pakistan.

No tears would be shed for them by most Kashmiris who want to live in peace and development.

'If there is no let up in Pakistan's export of terrorism across the border, there must be well deliberated retaliation -- both diplomatically and militarily.'

IMAGE: Policemen take cover behind shields as protestors pelt stones at the security forces in Baramulla in April after the deaths in Handwara. Photograph: Umar Ganie

Your views on the current crisis in Jammu and Kashmir which has been under curfew for over 40 days and the high number of civilian casualties.

Civilian casualties are something that could change the mood overnight, and therefore should be avoided by every means.

One should not get into working a 'package' for Jammu and Kashmir as some of the issues could not be resolved (by it) and hence would hold back other positive actions.

Get some of the 'do-ables' done right away and others can be negotiated at leisure.

The coalition government of the Peoples Democratic Party and Bharatiya Janata Party should demonstrate that they are alive to the aspirations of the people of the three regions of the state and could fulfil them.

Such genuine dialogue between Delhi and J&K would be appreciated by the international community and would silence the Pakistani establishment as any of their tricks could further damage their reputation.

What should be India's strategy in dealing with the crisis in Jammu and Kashmir?

India should maintain that Pakistan has no role at all in Kashmir affairs, and, hence, it would not negotiate with it on this issue.

If there is no let up in its export of terrorism across the border, there must be well deliberated retaliation -- both diplomatically and militarily.

Each action of Pakistan should be well documented and publicised before any retaliatory counter action is taken.

Consistent policy of talks with the Kashmiris and a stick for the Pakistanis would prove effective and productive in the long run.

IMAGE: Over 40 unprecedented days of curfew in the Kashmir valley: A scene from curfew in Srinagar. Photograph: Danish Ismail/Reuters

In a first, Prime Minister Narendra Modi raised the Balochistan issue in his Independence Day speech. Is it a good strategy?

India is within its right to expose Pakistan of its dirty tricks and parade its atrocities, both in Balochistan and Kashmir, relentlessly and consistently.

Pakistan will up its ante to claim that they are vindicated by the statements of Modi and other leaders about Indian involvement in Baloch terrorism.

The next few weeks will see its diplomatic offensive in international capitals to present another so-called 'proof' of Indian interference.

Evidently, Pakistan is going to ratchet up Modi's Balochistan remarks before the international community in coming weeks, particularly before the United Nations General Assembly session which begins on September 13.

The Indian bureaucracy and political leadership are prone to collapse under a Pakistani diplomatic offensive. There is absolutely no need to lose one's nerve over their propaganda.

New Delhi should be ready for a quiet but effective counter-diplomacy.

There are tonnes of reports of atrocities committed by Pakistani security forces in Balochistan and Pakistan occupied Kashmir, no less than what they did in the then East Pakistan.

The ministry of external affairs may set up a special cell to compile data on a regular basis and circulate among concerned interested parties, particularly the UN, the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Organisation of African Unity, and the Arab League etc.

Indian intentions must be made very clear that we had no interest in interfering in Pakistani affairs, but were compelled to highlight the issues as the international community is not doing enough to force Pakistan to stop supporting terrorism. The same message should go to saner voices in Pakistan.

Will the Baloch leaders actually follow the Indian line or will they chart their own course?

While the rebel leaders of Balochistan and PoK would welcome Indian support to highlight atrocities committed against them by security forces, they might be sceptical of New Delhi's interest to sustain the pressure.

They are quite aware of the 'flip-flop' in India's policies. India, therefore, needs to give them enough confidence that its political support would be unwavering and consistent. This has to be practically demonstrated in all international fora.

The US, the UK and the EU are likely to question India's change of policy and threaten consequences. They need to be clearly told that if they are 'good friends', get Pakistan to stop exporting terrorism into India and wind up terrorist bases in PoK and other parts of their country.

There cannot be one policy for Pakistan and another for India.

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Four years after three Dalit youths were killed in police firing in Surendranagar district, the Bharatiya Janata Party government in Gujarat has decided to set up a Special Investigation Team to probe the incident, a move that came in the wake of outrage over Una Dalit flogging incident.

Chief Minister Vijay Rupani took the decision to constitute the three-member SIT to investigate the incident after receiving several representations from Dalit leaders, including those from his party, an official release said on Saturday.

"Chief Minister Vijay Rupani took the decision following representations from Dalit leaders including cabinet minister Atmaram Parmar, former minister Ramanlal Vora, and Rajya Sabha MP Shambhuprasad Tundiya," Minister of State for Home Pradipsinh Jadeja said in a press release.

The government would also form a special designated court and appoint a special public prosecutor to expedite the case and announced an additional Rs 2 lakh compensation to the nearest kin of the victims, over and above what was decided earlier.

The opposition Congress reacted cautiously to the decision, saying it could turn out to be an "eyewash to mislead the people" and demanded that the government table the report of an earlier CID probe into the incident.

On the intervening night of September 22-23, 2012, three Dalit youths -- Pankaj Sumra, Prakash Parmar and Mehul Rathod -- were killed when police opened fire to disperse a violent mob to control a clash between Dalits and OBC Bharwad community members at Thangadh town in Surendranagar district.

The government had ordered a probe into the incident and a report was submitted to it by the then principal secretary of social justice and empowerment department, Sanjay Prasad. The report has not yet been made public.

The issue of Thangadh Police firing came in focus in the wake of recent Una town Dalit flogging incident with opposition leaders and Dalit rights activists raking it up to target the BJP.

At a rally held by Una Dalit Atyachar Padkar Samiti, which organised a march from Ahmedabad to Una, Dalit leaders have demanded justice to victims of Thangadh firing.

Family members of victims of Thangadh had also gone on hunger strike in Gandhinagar, demanding a judicial probe into the incident.

Rajkot city police commissioner Anupam Singh Gehlot, Surat city DCP Zone-2, Parikshita Rathod, and Porbandar Superintendent of Police Tarun Kumar Duggal will be members of the SIT.

The state CID investigation in the case remained inconclusive after the state probe agency filed a C-summary report. No chargesheet has been filed yet into the incident.

Thangadh, located around 65 km from Rajkot,is famous for the annual Tarnetar fair, held eight km from town near the temple of Trinetwshar Shiva temple.

Reacting to the government's announcement, the Congress said it appeared to be a move by the government to mislead people and shield the real culprits in the face of the agitation against atrocities on Dalits getting intensified.

"It has been a way with the BJP government that whenever agitation grows, it constitutes a committee to investigate an atrocity or a corruption case, mainly with the intention to mislead people and shield the real culprit. Such SITs only serve as an eyewash," Gujarat Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi said.

"Good that the government has constituted an SIT to investigate Thangadh killings, but we would again demand from the government that the report of a previous investigation conducted by the state CID crime be placed on the table of the state assembly for discussion," he said.

Atrocities on Dalits have come in sharp focus after seven persons from the community from Mota Samadhiyala village of Una tehsil of Gir Somnath district were brutally assaulted by some self-styled cow vigilantes for skinning a dead cow on July 11.

The incident sparked wide-spread protests after videos of the beating went public.

Several political leaders like Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Bahujan Samaj Party supremo supremo Mayawati had visited the victims in the hospital and their family members.
A new Bangladeshi militant outfit, aligned to the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, has prepared a list of local Hindus and secularists, and finalised plans to kill a Hindu doctor, police said.

The Ansar Rajshahi outfit has finalised plans to kill Nirendranath Sarker. The members communicate with each other through a secured messaging application, police said.

The outfit has prepared a list of local Hindus and secularists who they plan to target.

Absconding JMB leader Shariful Islam Khalid, a RajshahiUniversity student who was involved in the murder of his teacher Rezaul Karim in April this year, is one of the organisers of the Ansar Rajshahi, the Dhaka Tribune reported.

They came to know about the outfit after questioning two cousins of Shariful -- Aminul Islam Rumi and Enamul Huq Sabuj.

The duo were arrested on Monday night and produced before a Rajshahi court the following day with a five-day remand prayer for each. The hearing may take place next week, according to court sources.

During interrogation, Rumi disclosed the names of three of his associates in Ansar Rajshahi.

Since last year, the JMB members have killed at least seven Hindu priests across the country while threatened several dozen Hindus and Christians with death. The outfit also launched attacks on three Christians in the northern districts. Two of them were killed.

Known as a stronghold of outlawed JMB, Baghmara saw a deadly bomb attack on a local Ahmadiyya mosque on December 26 last year that killed the JMB suicide attacker and injured 10 devotees.

In 2004, JMB second-in-command Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai established a reign of terror in the area by killing and torturing scores of people.

The authorities on July 29 announced a Tk1 lakh bounty for Shariful and another JMB militant  Nazrul Islam alias Bike Hassan who was wanted in 11 cases filed over the recent targeted killings including Prof Rezaul murder. Nazrul was killed in an alleged gunfight with the DB police in Rajshahi on August 1.

Rajshahi Police Superintendent Moazzem Hossain on Tuesday said that they had found a secured messaging app on their phones.

We have got 58-page printed document of their conversations, Hossain said.

Through the app, Rumi recently asked a member of his group whether he would launch the attack on the Hindu doctor as he had refused to convert to Islam. He, however, sought an associate since the location of the target was close to a police station.

In another communication, Sabuj told someone that he wanted to carry the operational cost of killing the targeted Hindu doctor.

Photograph: Mohammad Ponir Hossain/Reuters
Two highly decomposed bodies, suspected to be those of Mahad bridge collapse incident victims, have been found at Velas beach in Ratnagiri district, nearly 60 kilometre away from the mishap site, district authorities said on Saturday.

The two bodies were found at Velas beach in Ratnagiri district yesterday by local residents and local administration informed us about it. Since the bodies are highly decomposed and beyond recognition, DNA tests would be conducted to ascertain their identity, a senior Raigad district official said.

The death toll in the Mahad bridge collapse incident has reached 28 after navy divers on August 14 found the wreckage of a washed away SUV and recovered two bodies trapped inside it on August 14.

The process of verifying the bodies found at Velas is underway and their DNA samples would be taken to see if they match with those of the relatives of Mahad victims, who are yet to be traced, the official said.

Satish Bagal, Resident Deputy Commissioner of Raigad district said, The bodies would not be shifted to Raigad, but kept in a rural hospital in Ratnagiri district. The process to retrieve the DNA samples is on and it would be tallied with the samples of the relatives.

Only if the test results show that the DNA samples are matching, we can declare that they are victims of Mahad bridge collapse incident. Once that is done, their relatives can be given compensation, Bagal added.

The state government has announced a compensation of Rs 14 lakh each to the kin of deceased travelling in the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation buses and Rs 10 lakh each to the family of the deceased in other vehicles involved in the tragedy.

Two buses of MSRTC and a few private vehicles were washed away after the bridge crashed amid heavy rains on August 2.

The decades-old structure on Savitri river was to be dismantled in December this year as part of the Mumbai-Goa Highway expansion project.
A 12-year-old girl has incurred the wrath of many after posting photos of herself hunting giraffes and zebras, sparking outrage online.

Aryanna Gourdin and her dad Eli travelled from Utah in the US to South Africa specifically to hunt big game.

IMAGE: Aryanna Gourdin posted the image of the dead giraffe with the caption 'One of my dream hunts for sure'. Photograph: Aryanna Gourdin/Facebook

While there, she posted a photo on Facebook of herself posing next to a dead zebra with a pink quiver and set of arrows. One of my dream hunts for sure, she wrote.

Unsurprisingly, the photos sparked a massive backlash. One had more than 73,000 comments, with people calling her sick and an animal hater.



Hope you grow up soon and see that these animals are innocent victim of unfair brutality, one person wrote. You are not a real hunter, you are hunting for sport that is murder.

One even suggested that young girl deserved to die.

A normal dad would take his daughter to Africa for a safari and not for hunting animal, for fun!!!!!! the commenter wrote.

Thats so poor. I hope that one day while she is hunting animals, just for fun, she will be killed by one of them!

IMAGE: The 12-year-old and her dad travelled from Utah in the US to South Africa for the hunting expedition. Photograph: Aryanna Gourdin/Facebook

Aryanna posted a lengthy defence of trophy hunting, claiming that the activity is justified because the high prices people pay to kill the animals is donated to conservation efforts.

Although there are flaws in the current system, (poachers posing as ethical hunters for example), trophy hunting remains the only effective way to obtain money for conservation efforts, she wrote.

However, few were convinced.

The 12-year-old later posted another photo, of herself posing with a dead giraffe, captioned: My last profile picture was very offensive to others and I have learned my lesson with that pose, I apologise.

The practice of hunting and killing large animals has drawn criticism from time to time. Perhaps the most controversial kill came last year when American dentist Walter Palmer took Africa's beloved black-maned beauty, Cecil the lion  renewing an intense debate over the sport.
India is not engaged in any proxy war in Afghanistan and has been sincerely carrying out reconstruction work there, former Afghan President Hamid Karzai said today on Saturday as he slammed Pakistan for "encouraging" radicalism and not containing terror groups operating from its soil.

Karzai also appreciated Prime Minister Narendra Modi for raising the issue of Balochisthan in his Independence Day address, saying Afghanistan understands the problems being faced by the people of Pakistan's southern province.

In an interactive session on Regional Power Play and Rise of Radicalism in Afghanistan, he identified terrorism as the single biggest challenge facing the region and called for a united fight to defeat it.

Karzai, who was president of Afghanistan from 2001-2014, said China has been a good neighbour to Afghanistan and its military and security assistance to his country was very recent. At the same time, he said that Afghanistan's ties with China is not as deep as it is with India.

"But the overall relationship between China and Afghanistan is of course very good," he added.

Asked about criticism in some quarters that India and Pakistan were engaged in a proxy war in his country, Karzai retorted by saying, "India is not engaging in any proxy war in Afghanistan...Training thousands of Afghans is not a proxy war, it is empowerment."

India has supplied four Mi25 helicopters to Afghanistan besides providing training to Afghan security forces.

Welcoming Modi's comments on Balochistan, Karzai said, "The issue of Balochisthan is something we understand and therefore we appreciate the remarks of Prime Minister Modi."

In his Independence Day speech on Monday, Modi had talked about the situation in PoK, Gilgit and Balochistan and said people from there have thanked him for raising their issues.

Karzai attacked Pakistan for encouraging spread of radicalism. "Unfortunately, in our region there was use of radicalism to a purpose," he said.

About spread of dreaded terror outfit Islamic State, he said IS is a "sinister" tool, adding tomorrow it will be against the ones using it. He said Afghanistan and all its neighbouring countries must work together to combat IS.

"Today I can use it, tomorrow I can discard it. That's a very dangerous strategy," he said, while asking Pakistan to deal with terror groups firmly.

He said religion and aspirations to be a democratic country have nothing to do with one another.

In an apparent reference to Pakistan, he rejected promotion of religion as an "instrument of foreign policy". He also sounded critical of the US for its role in the region.

Karzai appealed to Pakistan to join hands with Afghanistan in addressing various problems "without use of radicalism."

IMAGE: Hamid Karzai speaks at an interactive session in New Delhi. Photograph: PTI
Do you remember that monogrammed suit Prime Minister Narendra Modi wore while meeting United States President Barack Obama in January in New Delhi?

Well, that tailored suit is now the 'most expensive suit sold ever', said the Guinness World Records.

The suit which had Modis named tailored into it in gold pinstripes was later sold to the highest bidder, Laljibhai Patel, a diamond baron and private airline owner based in Surat, Gujarat for an astounding Rs 4.31 crore.

The Guinness World Records acknowledges the suit as the "most expensive suit (clothing) sold at auction is Rs 43,131,311 and was bought by Laljibhai Tulsibhai Patel (India) in Surat, Gujarat, India on February 20, 2015."

"It is a matter of happiness and pride that the suit has found a place in the Guinness Book of World Records. We had applied for the world record around five months back on the suggestion of our company's HR management team. Within a couple of months, we received a certificate acknowledging that it was the world's most expensive suit sold at an auction," Hitesh Patel, son of Laljibhai, said in Surat on Saturday.

During the auction, the suit was displayed on a lookalike mannequin of Modi behind a glass case. Some bids, including one of Rs five crore, were also received after the deadline, but were disallowed.

The money generated from the auction went for Modi's ambitious Clean Ganga Mission.

The suit was reportedly prepared at a cost of Rs 10 lakh and was auctioned at a base price of Rs 11 lakh.

The suit, which Modi had worn during Obama's three-day state visit to India in January last year, had kicked up a political row with opposition parties accusing the PM of 'narcissism'.

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi had latched on it to accuse Modi of heading a "suit-boot ki sarkar" which worked only for the rich.

He also used the suit, whose fabric was claimed to have come from United Kingdom, to attack PM Modi over his Make in India campaign.

Amid the swirling controversy over the suit, a NRI Gujarati businessman Ramesh B Virani had claimed he gifted it to Modi when he had gone to invite him for his sons wedding.

The suit was tailored by Jade Blue in Ahmedabad, a clothing chain that handles Modis wardrobe.

With PTI inputs
Twenty people were killed on Saturday in rain-related incidents in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan even as rivers continued to be in spate in Bihar.

Fifteen deaths were reported in Madhya Pradesh since Friday evening as the Met department predicted more showers and sounded heavy downpour alert for some districts on Sunday.

IMAGE: People with their cattles shifting to a safer place as their houses submerged in flood water of River Ganga in Danapur, Patna. Photograph: PTI

Three Indian Air Force aircraft dropped food packets and medicines in flooded areas of Rewa district, collector Rahul Jain said.

Seven people, including a woman and four minors, were killed and three others injured when a house collapsed in Rahatgarh area of Sagar district.

Two people including an old woman were also killed and seven injured this noon when a newly-constructed building collapsed amid incessant rains at Maihar, Satna district of Madhya Pradesh.

A jeep carrying two persons was swept away in the swollen Betwa river as it tried to cross a bridge in Raisen district.

Three bodies were recovered from a nullah in Chhattarpur district. The victims were in a car which was washed away off a bridge on the flooded nullah on Friday.

In Rajasthan, five people died when their house collapsed in Phool Baroda village in Baran district due to incessant rains since Saturday morning that created flood-like situation in several areas in the state.

IMAGE: A multi story building collapsed in Maihar, Madhya Pradesh on Saturday. Photograph: PTI

Several people are feared stranded in Chabra, Chipabarode, Kawai, Harnavadashahaji areas as the Parvan, Parwati, Ujjad and other rivers are overflowing after the rains.

The army was called in the flood-affected areas of Baran district as senior officials also rushed to the spot.

At least 24 people were airlifted in Baran district and nearby areas. Several villages are inundated as water has entered buildings, houses and a private power plant in Baran.

Baran and nearby areas have been witnessing heavy rains since Friday.

Meanwhile, two youths were reported as having been swept away by strong current of water in Balapura Dam near Chipabarode town of Baran district. One of the youths was reportedly rescued hours later while the other is still missing and the search operation is underway.

IMAGE: People move through path submerged by flooded river Ganga on their bicycles. Photograph: PTI

The national capital experienced a humid day and the mercury too settled at two notches above normal.

"The maximum temperature was recorded at 35.9 degrees Celsius and minimum 27.6 degrees Celsius, both two notches above normal," a MeT official said adding the humidity levels oscillated between 85 and 60 per cent.

The rising water level of Ganga affected all the districts situated along the banks of the river in Bihar with riverbank areas of the districts bearing the brunt.

Ganga and five other rivers were flowing above danger mark in Patna, Bhagalpur, Khagaria, Katihar, Siwan, Bhojpur and Buxar districts.

IMAGE: People shifting to a safe place for shelter. Photograph: PTI

More rain is likely to aggravate the flood-like situation in areas situated on the banks of the Ganga.

Rani Gupta (65) and Bablu Martin (45) were killed and five others injured when a three-storey building, constructed by the Madhya Pradesh Housing Board, collapsed in incessant rains at Maihar in Satna district at around 10 am on Saturday, collector Naresh Pal told PTI.

Prima facie it seemed that the sub-standard material used in the construction led to the collapse, Pal said, adding that 22 shops on the ground floor were constructed in 2013-14 while 20 flats on the second-third floors were built in 2014-15.

The building might not have withstood force of the water that had inundated the pavement for two-three days, the collector said, adding that rescue operation was still on, but according to the local people, only seven persons lived there.

Number of casualties was not high as the shops had not opened when it collapsed, and several flats had no one living there because the allotment process was still underway. Some labourers living in the building too had left for their homes for Rakshabandhan, the collector said.

IMAGE: A partially submerged police station due to heavy rains in Rewa. Photograph: PTI

Sanjay Singh Dhakat (35) and Padam Singh Bhadoria (40) who were returning from Bhopal in a jeep were swept away in the water flowing over a bridge on Betwa river on NH 146 in Raisen district last evening, said the Superintendent of Police Dipak Verma.

Bodies of Akshay Jain (22), Vabhav Jain (25) and N Jain (25), residents of Sagar district, were recovered from a nullah in Chhattarpur district on Saturday, Additional Superintendent of Police Neeraj Pandey said.

They were travelling in a car which was washed away while crossing a bridge over the swollen Chipa nullah.

Indian Meteorological Department's Bhopal Centre Director Dr Anupam Kashyapi said heavy downpour alert had been issued to Vidisha, Rajgarh, Raisen, Bhopal, Sehore, Sagar and Damoh districts for the next 24 hours.
Disclaimer

This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.
DR Congo: Denying visa to human rights researcher 'regrettable,' says UN rights chief

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 12 August 2016 Cite as UN News Service, DR Congo: Denying visa to human rights researcher 'regrettable,' says UN rights chief, 12 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57b8429840e.html [accessed 29 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

12 August 2016 - United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein today said that the denial of visa to a human rights researcher in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is a regrettable development.

"[This] does not bode well for civil society space in the run up to the presidential elections," said Mr. Zeid, according to Ravina Shamdasani, a spokesperson of his Office (OHCHR).

Last month, the High Commissioner visited the country and had commended its efforts to strengthen human rights. But he also cautioned that some of advances the African country had made may be under threat, especially what he saw as repression against opposition parties in the upcoming elections.

Furthermore, according to the spokesperson, Mr. Zeid was "reassured" by Government officials of their commitment to open up the democratic space, particularly with the President calling for an inclusive national dialogue.

However, the recent denial of visa to the researcher working with the international human rights non-governmental organization, Human Rights Watch, has casted a doubt over the depth of the Government's commitment, added Ms. Shamdasani.

Noting that it is essential for external observers to be able to work freely to present an independent picture of the human rights situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo without fear of reprisals.

"We urge the Government to promptly review its decision to deny the visa," she concluded.
'A political solution is the only solution,' UN says, as rising violence deepens crisis in Yemen

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 12 August 2016 Cite as UN News Service, 'A political solution is the only solution,' UN says, as rising violence deepens crisis in Yemen, 12 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57b843b1e5.html [accessed 29 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

12 August 2016 - The United Nations today sounded the alarm over a spike in violence in crisis-torn Yemen, as the world body's human rights wing reported the number of civilian casualties in the conflict has been "steadily mounting," with some 815 casualties since April alone.

"The people of Yemen continue to bear the brunt of the suffering as a result of the inability of the parties to find a political solution to a conflict that has been raging for more than a year and a half. The return to full-scale hostilities only drives humanitarian needs further," said Jamie McGoldrick, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Yemen, in a statement, adding: "A political solution is the only solution to this crisis."

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), local media has reported that ground fighting and air strikes have killed and maimed children and women, and destroyed homes and markets, particularly in the capital, Sana'a, and its governorates, Sa'ada, Taizz, and Al Hudaydah.

Mr. McGoldrick pointed out that the depletion of foreign currency reserves in the Central Bank has made it difficult for importers to obtain lines of credit - "making it nearly impossible for Government entities to maintain basic social services."

By example, the Humanitarian Coordinator noted that 40,000 cancer patients throughout the country would no longer receive the medication they required because of banking restrictions that impeded their import.

"Humanitarians have been called on, once again, to fill the gap in the provision of basic social services, increasing the need for greater resources from the international community," he stressed.

Mr. McGoldrick called on all parties to the conflict to abide by their obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law and take all necessary actions to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure in their conduct of hostilities.

Houses destroyed by airstrikes in Yemen's capital, Sana'a, July 2015. Credit: OCHA/ Charlotte Cans

"The humanitarian community also demands that the parties facilitate safe, unimpeded and sustained humanitarian access to people in need as well as the voluntary movement of civilians to reach humanitarian assistance," he stressed.

He urged the international community to exercise its influence over the parties to bring about an early and peaceful solution that puts the Yemeni people at the centre - "something all Yemenis deserve."

Meanwhile, earlier today in Geneva, a spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ravina Shamdasani, updated the press on the steadily mounting number of civilian casualties in Yemen over the past few weeks.

"Despite the cessation of hostilities, between 11 April and 11 August 2016, we have documented 815 civilian casualties, including 272 deaths and 543 injured. Of these, in just the past week, since 5 August, 49 civilians were killed and another 77 injured," she said.

Some of the deadliest incidents took place on 5 July, 7 August and 9 August. "On 5 July, eight children were killed and seven injured due to a rocket that landed in the Al Zira'ah Neighbourhood in Marib City. The rocket was allegedly fired from an area controlled by the Popular Committees affiliated with Al Houthis," Ms. Shamdasani explained.
UN condemns bomb attacks in Thailand

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 12 August 2016 Cite as UN News Service, UN condemns bomb attacks in Thailand, 12 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57b843e240e.html [accessed 29 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

12 August 2016 - United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has condemned the bomb attacks in Thailand that took place on Thursday and Friday, expressing hope that the perpetrators will be quickly brought to justice.

The Secretary-General extends his condolences to the families of the victims and wishes those injured a speedy recovery. He expresses his sympathies to the Government and people of Thailand, said a statement issued by Mr. Ban's spokesperson.

According to media reports, within a 24-hour period over Thursday and Friday, several bombs exploded in the resort town of Hua Hin, while several blasts hit the island of Phuket, a top tourist destination.

On behalf of the international tourism community, the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) joined Secretary-General Ban in conveying heartfelt condolences and sympathy to the families and friends of the victims and to the Thai people.

Thailand is one of the most consolidated tourism destination in the world. A destination where people of all cultures unite and enjoy tourism and its strong potential to foster development, said a separate statement from UNWTO Secretary-General, Taleb Rifai.

The agency expressed full confidence that this will continue to be the case and it looks forward to meet in Bangkok on 27 September for the official World Tourism Day celebrations.

More than ever, we need to work together to make a great success out of the celebrations of World Tourism Day, this will be the best expression of support and union against these hideous acts, said Mr. Rifai.
Australia and Nauru must end offshore detention; investigate claims of abuse  UN rights office

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 12 August 2016 Cite as UN News Service, Australia and Nauru must end offshore detention; investigate claims of abuse  UN rights office, 12 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57b8451c40c.html [accessed 29 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

12 August 2016 - Expressing concern about alleged violations against migrants, asylum-seekers and refugees, the United Nations human rights office today reiterated its call for Australia and Nauru to end the practice of processing and keeping these people offshore.

"We are extremely concerned about the serious allegations of violence, sexual assault, degrading treatment and self-harm contained in more than 1,000 incident reports from offshore processing centres on Nauru, many of which reportedly involved children," Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), told reporters in Geneva.

Many of the migrants, asylum-seekers and refugees in these centres were transferred by Australia to Nauru more than three years ago and have been living in very difficult conditions ever since, she said.

OHCHR has conducted regular visits to Nauru in recent years and many of the allegations contained in the documents are, sadly, consistent with the findings from these visits, the spokesperson said.

Some of these individuals had already experienced trauma in their home countries and sometimes also during theirs journey to Australia. Over the years, and despite the opening up of the processing centres in October 2015, their situation has become increasingly dire and untenable, exacerbated by the indefinite nature of their time in Nauru, she stated.
With long-term strategy, UN protects civilians in Gaza from threat of unexploded munitions

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 11 August 2016 Cite as UN News Service, With long-term strategy, UN protects civilians in Gaza from threat of unexploded munitions, 11 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57b8456e40d.html [accessed 29 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

11 August 2016 - Hostilities in the Gaza Strip dating back to 2014 and earlier still pose serious threats to life and physical integrity in the tine enclave as explosive remnants of war (ERW) and other legacy hazards remained littered throughout the strip, said the United Nations humanitarian wing, spotlighting a sustainable strategy to mitigate those risks.

"The full extent of contamination by ERW in Gaza is unknown," said the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in a news release issued yesterday, which added that although a large number of ERW was cleared shortly after the 2014 conflict by both official and unofficial bodies, suspected remnants remain hidden throughout Gaza, either among the rubble of destroyed structures or buried below the surface.

In that regard, as part of a sustainable strategy to mitigate risks, the UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS) has focused on protection measures to include removing suspected ERW and providing a holistic risk mitigation framework in support of reconstruction and development efforts.

These measures comprised four mutually-reinforcing components, beginning with site-specific ERW risk assessments to determine the hazards and the level of risk.

"Based on these assessments, ERW risk awareness training is then provided to construction workers. UNMAS monitors ongoing work activities to ensure compliance with recommended measures. The final component is responsive technical support from an Explosive Ordnance Disposal expert whenever an item is suspected to be an ERW. These activities are complemented by providing ERW risk education to communities at risk in order to reduce the number of accidents," OCHA's statement explained.

Following the end of hostilities in 2014, UNMAS supported the UN Development Programme's (UNDP) Rubble Removal project for the safe extraction and processing of more than one million tons of debris. By end-July 2016, UNMAS had provided 81 risk assessments to support UNDP-coordinated reconstruction efforts by surveying 405,000m2 of land, including 41 km of roadways. Additionally, ERW risk awareness training has been provided to 211 workers with risk education sessions reaching nearly 39,000 people in communities at risk, including boys and girls.

In parallel, UNMAS continued to provide the Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), other UN agencies and non-governmental partners with leadership and expert technical expertise in managing explosive hazards while developing contingency plans to strengthen emergency preparedness.

According to OCHA, "the ERW risk mitigation measures deployed in Gaza constitute a responsible and sustainable response to identify and remove ERW, and ultimately protect the lives of civilians."

Since the end of hostilities in August 2014, 17 people had been killed and 100 more injured by ERW, including 46 children.
'Let's build bridges, not walls,' says UN chief, urging all countries to help refugees and migrants

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 11 August 2016 Cite as UN News Service, 'Let's build bridges, not walls,' says UN chief, urging all countries to help refugees and migrants, 11 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57b8459740e.html [accessed 29 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

11 August 2016 - Encouraging young refugees gathered for an event at resettlement centre in Los Angeles to "study hard [and] be a full part of your new communities," United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the United States and other countries to keep reaching out to people in need, wherever they are, because "we will all be stronger" by building bridges instead of walls.

"Have hope [] I have faith in you," Mr. Ban said in a special message to young people gathered last night for a back-to-school event hosted by the International Rescue Committee, the Annenberg Foundation and the UN Foundation, after his visit to resettlement centre where he met refugees, including from Guatemala and Syria, and other countries from Latin America, the Middle East and Africa.

He assured the gathering that he is working hard for other refugee families around the world, and noted that on 19 September, at UN Headquarters in New York, the General Assembly will convene a Summit on Refugees and Migrants where, among other proposed commitments, governments will agree that refugee children should go to school as soon as possible after arrival in the country that gives them asylum.

"I encourage countries like the United States to continue to demonstrate leadership by providing safe haven to more refugees - including Syrian refugees," said the Secretary-General, adding: "Let's keep reaching out a helping hand to people in their time of need. Let's never give in to the forces of fear and division. Let's welcome people into their new communities as neighbours and friends. Let's build bridges, not walls. We will all be stronger for it."

He went on to recall that he himself had been displaced as a young boy. "I did not flee my country, but my family and I were driven out of our village by war - the Korean war. I was only 6 years old. Everything was destroyed. The United Nations came to our rescue. They gave us food. They gave us shelter. They gave us school supplies," he said.

"Now I am here as the head of the United Nations to give school supplies to you. If I could do it, you can do it," said Mr. Ban.

Earlier yesterday, the Secretary-General also participated in a public discussion with United States Congressman Ed Royce, the chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. He thanked the Congressman for his leadership on a wide-range of global issues. During a bilateral meeting, they had an opportunity to discuss the situations is South Sudan, Myanmar and the Korean peninsula.

Mr. Ban also participated in two events with the creative community yesterday, in which he talked to attendees, including, among others, film producer and director Brett Ratner, about how he strongly believed in the ability of the industry to be a power for social good.
UN rights chief sees 'worrying signs' in Bulgaria's detention regime for migrants

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 11 August 2016 Cite as UN News Service, UN rights chief sees 'worrying signs' in Bulgaria's detention regime for migrants, 11 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57b845d940e.html [accessed 29 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

11 August 2016 - United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein today expressed serious concern that virtually all people entering Bulgaria in an "irregular manner" are subjected to detention, and that they could be prosecuted and even jailed if they try to leave, "placing many of them in an invidious Catch-22 situation."

"This means that people who do not qualify under the strict definition of a refugee, but still have legitimate reasons for being unable to return to their home country, have hardly any avenues open to them," said High Commissioner Zeid, in a news release issued by his Office (OHCHR).

"This is clearly inhumane and unacceptable," he added.

The High Commissioner's statement comes as OHCHR staff concluded the second of two visits to the country in the past eight months, revealing a number of disturbing policies and practices relating to migrants and refugees, as well as degrading conditions at some migrant detention facilities.

Mr. Zeid said he was particularly concerned about the reported disregard for due process and fair trial guarantees on a number of fronts in the Svilengrad Regional Court, where many of the criminal prosecutions for irregular border crossings take place.

"There are migrants who do not have access to adequate legal representation or translation services, to the extent that they are sometimes even unaware that they have been prosecuted - this is clearly contrary to fair trial and due process safeguards," he noted.

Inhumane & unacceptable: Migrants in an irregular situation, prosecuted/jailed for trying to leave #Bulgaria pic.twitter.com/rapddN5JFC - UN Human Rights (@UNHumanRights) August 11, 2016

Other concerns included 'pushbacks' into neighbouring countries, limited possibilities for people to integrate legally in Bulgaria, and persistent allegations of physical abuse and theft by law enforcement officials at border.

OHCHR added that attacks against migrants and refugees were rarely, if ever, punished, especially if committed by police, border guards or Government officials.

One such example is the recent halting by a Bulgarian court of all criminal proceedings related to the October 2015 killing of an unarmed Afghan man who was shot by border guards, said the UN human rights arm.

Rising xenophobia 'most worrying'

"Rising xenophobia, Islamophobia and racism are among the most worrying threats to human rights in Europe today," said the High Commissioner.

In particular, he expressed regret that Bulgarian public officials, including the Prime Minister, and elements of the media have made frequent aggressively anti-migrant statements.

"[It is] particularly disturbing to see important and influential public figures expressing support for illegal armed vigilante groups who have been brazenly hunting down migrants along parts of the border between Bulgaria and Turkey," he said further, noting that the Bulgarian Government is not doing enough to challenge such alarming trends.

"Leadership is needed to create an environment conducive to respect for human rights, as well as to end violations and abuses when they occur," he added.

Some positive developments

The press release also pointed out that the UN human rights team found some positive developments since their last visit in July.

One of these included the fixing of a six-day time limit for the registration of an asylum claim. This has occurred since the entry into force in December 2015 of legal provisions bringing Bulgaria's law in line with the European Union's Asylum Procedures Directive.

The UN human rights chief also said that his team had been impressed by the 'many excellent, engaged and professional staff' working in various Government institutions, including in Ministry of Interior detention facilities, as well as Sofia Central Prison.

Mr. Zeid also praised the fact that the country's nascent guardianship system was recently extended to include migrant children. "[The system] was one of very few measures relating to migrants that related to their welfare and was not focused solely on security," he noted.
South Sudan crisis deepens as once-stable areas fall into violence  UN relief chief

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 10 August 2016 Cite as UN News Service, South Sudan crisis deepens as once-stable areas fall into violence  UN relief chief, 10 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57b8460440c.html [accessed 29 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

10 August 2016 - Recently returned from a three-day visit to South Sudan, United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator Stephen O'Brien today painted a grave picture of the enormous humanitarian crisis facing the world's newest country and the devastating impact of the ongoing violence on its people.

"Let me be clear: people in South Sudan are not just fleeing their homes because they need food, shelter or medical care and school for their children. They are fleeing [because they] fear for their lives," Mr. O'Brien told reporters at UN Headquarters in New York.

"We must protect them, and we must save their lives," he stressed.

The humanitarian situation in the country has witnessed significant deterioration, including in areas that were once relatively stable. Since December 2013, over two million people have fled their homes. Some 1.6 million are displaced within South Sudan and more than 900,000 people have fled to neighbouring countries.

The situation has worsened since clashes between rival forces - the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) loyal to President Salva Kiir and the SPLA in Opposition backing First Vice-President Riek Machar - erupted in and around the capital, Juba, on 7 July, close to the fifth anniversary of the country's independence.

UN compounds and civilian protection sites managed by the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) were attacked during the fighting, and, according to the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, a preliminary UN investigation into the recent fighting and its aftermath revealed that Government security forces carried out killings and rapes, and looted and destroyed properties.

Over the last month alone, some 70,000 South Sudanese crossed the border into Uganda as refugees.

Moreover, some 4.8 million people across the country are facing severe food insecurity and 250,000 children are severely malnourished. To add to the suffering, the country is also battling a cholera outbreak.

Stephen O'Brien (right), Emergency Relief Coordinator, briefs journalists on the humanitarian situation in South Sudan. UN Photo/Rick Bajornas

In this course of his visit, Mr. O'Brien travelled to Wau and Aweil, two places that were not long ago considered as beacons of hope for their prospects for development.

Now, Wau is mired in severe conflict and Aweil is suffering its worst food insecurity in years. "The situations that I saw in Wau and Aweil are [] emblematic of the devastating fate that has befallen this country," noted Mr. O'Brien.

While in the country, Mr. O'Brien who is also the UN Under-Secretary-General for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs met with President Kiir, as well as other top Government officials.

"I expressed in clear terms my shock and dismay at the appalling reports of violations committed against civilians during fighting in recent months, including in Juba," said Mr. O'Brien adding that, in particular, he condemned the heinous acts of sexual violence carried out against women and girls, including by members of the armed forces.

Recalling that 57 aid workers have been killed in the country since December 2013, Mr. O'Brien stressed, "This is unacceptable and unconscionable. I urged the President to take immediate action to end the impunity that has prevailed to date."

[Humanitarians are] risking their own [lives], and I am appalled that they continue to be harassed, targeted and killed.

Underscoring the extremely difficult conditions for humanitarian workers, the UN relief chief reiterated that they should be granted free, safe and unhindered access to all people in need, wherever they may be, and that they, themselves, and their assets must be respected.

"Humanitarians are in South Sudan to save lives and for no other reason," he said.

"[They are] risking their own [lives], and I am appalled that they continue to be harassed, targeted and killed."

Mr. O'Brien also thanked the international community for its continued support to South Sudan, including more than half a billion dollars donors provided to the Humanitarian Response Plan, the UN humanitarian chief pointed out that a gap of $700 million still persists, and that this will increase once the appeal is revised in the coming weeks to reflect the needs that have arisen since the beginning of 2016.

"I call on the international community to make sure together we can avert an even worse humanitarian tragedy in South Sudan," he urged.

In South Sudan, Mr. O'Brien also met with the leadership of UNMISS and discussed the challenges facing the African country and efforts underway by the UN to better protect civilians both inside its bases and beyond.

"The scale, breadth and depth of humanitarian needs in South Sudan continue to grow, and the plight of the people demands the world's attention," he concluded.
New UN report lays bare widespread ISIL 'atrocities' committed against Yazidis in Iraq

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 18 August 2016 Related Document(s) A Call for Accountability and Protection: Yezidi Survivors of Atrocities Committed by ISIL Cite as UN News Service, New UN report lays bare widespread ISIL 'atrocities' committed against Yazidis in Iraq, 18 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57b8471140e.html [accessed 29 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

18 August 2016 - A new United Nations report lays bare the widespread and systematic manner in which the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, Da'esh) has committed "terrible atrocities" against the Yezidi and other ethnic and religious communities, the UN envoy for Iraq said today, calling for the perpetrators to be fully and properly held to account.

Compiled by the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the report details heart-wrenching testimony of Yezidi survivors of ISIL atrocities in Iraq since the attack on Sinjar in August 2014, including accounts of systematic and widespread killings, sexual violence and sexual slavery, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, forced conversions and forced displacement, among other abuses of international human rights and humanitarian law.

The report contains accounts of those who were among the 308,315 mostly Yezidis who fled Sinjar District. An estimated 360,000 Yezidi remain displaced, with a serious lack of badly needed psychological care.

According to a press statement women interviewed by the UN spoke of being sold multiple times and having their young children and babies snatched from them. One woman told how she was sold to a 26-year-old Syrian ISIL member who raped her regularly for at least 15 days, threatening to kill her daughters if she did not submit.

Another woman was bought and sold to six successive men. She managed to rescue her seven-year-old daughter from the man who tried to abduct her, and tried to keep her safe by cutting off her hair and eyelashes, putting the child in a diaper and telling her to pretend to be mentally ill. However, in spite of this, an ISIL member tried to rape her daughter, driving the woman to attempt to kill her daughter and herself in despair. She eventually escaped with the help of a smuggler.

The report contains many accounts of men being separated from women, and of the mass killings of the captured men. In one instance, up to 600 men were reportedly killed in Tel Afar District. In other instances, members of the Yezidi community were forced to convert to Islam or be killed.

Yazidi refugees, including several children, go about their lives in Nawrouz refugee camp, approximately 40 kilometres from the Syrian border with Iraq. Photo: UNICEF/Razan Rashidi

Special Representative and Head of UNAMI Jan Kubis said the report also notes that approximately 3,500 women, girls and some men, predominantly from the Yezidi community but also a number of other ethnic and religious communities, remain in ISIL captivity.

"Two years after the fall of Ninewa, the Yezidi community continues to be targeted by ISIL. Thousands of men, women and children have been killed or are missing, or remain in captivity where they are subjected to unspeakable sexual and physical abuse," Mr. Kubis said, adding: "Faced with such evidence, it is of paramount importance that the perpetrators of these heinous acts are fully and properly held to account."

For his part, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said the testimony recorded in the report must serve as a clarion call to all members of the international community that "no effort must be spared in ensuring accountability for these terrible crimes and to send a clear message that no one may perpetrate them with impunity."

"I am profoundly concerned at the grave impact that the current conflict is having on civilians, particularly on people from Iraq's ancient and diverse ethnic and religious communities. The experiences recounted by survivors and documented in this report reveal acts of inhumanity and cruelty on an unimaginable scale that constitute a serious and deliberate attack on the most fundamental human rights and are an affront to humanity as a whole," High Commissioner Zeid said.

The report states that the violations and abuses committed by ISIL may amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

"Every effort must be undertaken by the Government of Iraq and the international community, in strict compliance with applicable international humanitarian law and human rights law, to put an end to the human rights abuses being perpetrated by ISIL and to secure the safe release of these civilians," the report states.

"Psycho-social, medical and other forms of support are urgently required, notably for the survivors of sexual violence and sexual slavery. Furthermore, everything feasible must be done to create safe, dignified conditions for the Yezidi, along with [internally displaced persons] from other communities, to return to their places of origin," it adds.
Syria: Citing lack of action, UN envoy cuts short humanitarian taskforce meeting

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 18 August 2016 Cite as UN News Service, Syria: Citing lack of action, UN envoy cuts short humanitarian taskforce meeting, 18 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57b848e940e.html [accessed 29 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

18 August 2016 - The United Nations envoy for Syria abruptly suspended the regular international humanitarian taskforce meeting in Geneva today shortly after it started, saying it made "no sense" to continue unless there is a pause in the fighting so aid convoys could reach besieged areas of the war-ravaged country.

"I decided to use my privilege as Chair to declare that there was no sense in having a humanitarian meeting today unless we got some action on the humanitarian side in Syria," UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura told reporters in Geneva, following a meeting of no more than eight minutes, co-chaired by Russia and the United States.

The taskforces for humanitarian aid and a cessation of hostilities, created by the International Syria Support Group (ISSG) which comprises the UN, the Arab League, the European Union and 16 other countries, have been meeting separately since early this year on a way forward on the Syrian crisis.

Mr. de Mistura said that not a single humanitarian convoy so far reached any of the besieged areas in August due to fighting, and it has been 110 days since aid last reached Madaya, Zabadani, Foah and Kafraya, the besieged areas under the 'Four Towns Agreement.'

The UN envoy also made, on behalf of the Secretary-General, a strong appeal for a pause of at least 48 hours in fighting in order to deliver UN humanitarian aid to the whole city of Aleppo - a pause that has become ever more urgent as the horrific images emerging from the ground attest to.

Mr. de Mistura also noted that he was scheduled to attend a meeting of the cessation of hostilities taskforce later in the day to discuss the truce.

"Tomorrow is World Humanitarian Day, and in Syria what we are hearing and seeing is only fighting, offensives, counter-offensives, rockets, barrel bombs, mortars, hellfire cannons, napalm, chlorine, snippers, airstrikes, suicide bombers," he stressed.
UN rights experts urge Philippines to end wave of extrajudicial killings amid major drug crackdown

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 18 August 2016 Cite as UN News Service, UN rights experts urge Philippines to end wave of extrajudicial killings amid major drug crackdown, 18 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57b8496840d.html [accessed 29 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

18 August 2016 - Amid a recent massive anti-crime and anti-drug crackdown in the Philippines that has claimed the lives of more than 850 suspected criminals, two United Nations human rights experts today urged the Government to end the wave of extrajudicial executions and killings, stressing that drug charges should be "judged in a court of law, not by gunmen on the streets."

"Claims to fight illicit drug trade do not absolve the Government from its international legal obligations and do not shield State actors or others from responsibility for illegal killings," Agnes Callamard, the new UN Special Rapporteur on summary executions, stressed in a news release from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

More than 850 people have been killed since 10 May when Rodrigo Duterte was elected President of the Philippines vowing to crackdown on crime. Some 650 people were killed in just the last month and a half.

"The State has a legally binding obligation to ensure the right to life and security of every person in the country, whether suspected of criminal offences or not," said Ms. Callamard.

During his election campaign and first days in office, Mr. Duterte repeatedly urged law enforcement agencies and the public to kill people suspected of trafficking drugs who don't surrender, as well as people who use drugs.

"Concerning drug-dependency, this should be treated as a public health issue and justice systems that decriminalise drug consumption and possession for personal use as a means to improve health outcomes," said Dainius Puras, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health.

However necessary, he added, responses to the illicit drug trade must be carried out in full compliance with national and international obligations and should respect the human rights of each person.

The President was also reported as promising impunity for such killings and bounties for those who turn in drug dealers 'dead or alive.'

"It is effectively a license to kill," said Ms. Callamard, underscoring that "directives of this nature are irresponsible in the extreme and amount to incitement to violence and killing, a crime under international law."

While welcoming recent reports suggesting that President Duterte is now publicly condemning vigilante justice, and called on all authorities to take a clear and public stance against it, the Special Rapporteurs pointed it out that "it is not enough."

"All allegations of killings and extrajudicial executions must be promptly and thoroughly investigated," said the experts, urging the authorities to take immediate and necessary actions to protect all persons from targeted killings and extrajudicial executions.

Special Rapporteurs and independent experts are appointed by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council to examine and report back on a specific human rights theme or a country situation. The positions are honorary and the experts are not UN staff, nor are they paid for their work.
Long-term resettlement solutions needed for refugees on Manus Island  UNICEF Australia

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 18 August 2016 Cite as UN News Service, Long-term resettlement solutions needed for refugees on Manus Island  UNICEF Australia, 18 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57b8498540e.html [accessed 29 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

18 August 2016 - Amid news of an agreement to close the Australian immigration detention centre on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) today underscored the importance of finding permanent and sustainable resettlement solutions that address the needs of the refugees.

In a news release, the agency's Australia office urged Peter Dutton, Australia's Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, to seriously consider resettlement options in credible third countries which are equipped to respond to the complex issues facing the refugees and their families.

"[The refugees] became adults under the some of the harshest conditions imaginable," said Nicole Breeze, Director of Policy and Advocacy, UNICEF Australia in the press release.

Many of the now grown men arrived on the island as boys, without their parents or families, and have grown up in an unsafe, institutionalized setting surrounded by highly distressed adults, she added.

She further said that Australia's offshore processing regime has created conditions in which already vulnerable people have been at risk of greater harm and that severe violence and self-harm have been frequently reported.

"It's what happens next that matters for this group [...] Pressuring them to move into the Papua New Guinea community or shifting them to Nauru would only relocate the crisis," she added.

The news release further noted that over the last three years, UNICEF Australia has expressed serious concerns regarding the safety of the unaccompanied children who were held in the Regional Processing Centre on Manus Island.

Noting that the agency has an appreciation of the challenges facing both refugees and the Governments seeking to assist them, Ms. Breeze said that it looks forward to a continued constructive partnership with Government that seeks to find the best possible outcome for children and families on Manus Island and Nauru.

"The Australian Government has an opportunity to fully consider sustainable options that properly prioritise the well-being of this group," she added.
UN reports reveal 'mixed' progress on efforts to end child refugee detention

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 18 August 2016 Cite as UN News Service, UN reports reveal 'mixed' progress on efforts to end child refugee detention, 18 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57b84f4840c.html [accessed 29 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

18 August 2016 - While two new reports released today as part of a new global strategy by the United Nations refugee agency found an overall drop in the total number of refugee children detained in 12 focus countries, they also revealed mixed progress in two critical target areas: ensuring alternatives to detention, and improving detention conditions.

"This strategy is an important step in ending the counter-productive use of detention, and we welcome the encouraging progress made in these two years," Volker Turk, Assistant High Commissioner for Protection at the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said today in a news release.

However, noting that asylum-seekers and refugees accounted for 17 per cent of all people detained for immigration-related purposes in 2015 in the countries, up from 12 per cent in 2013, he added: "Too many refugees and asylum seekers, including children, are forced to stay in detention centres when they should be in an environment where they can get the information, support, privacy and access to their legal rights."

The two reports issued as part of the agency's global strategy, Beyond Detention 2014-2019, which is supporting governments end detention of asylum-seekers and refugees, include a baseline report that uses data compiled from 2013 and a mid-216 progress report.

On the strategy's first goal: ending child detention, encouraging progress was reported. This includes adoption of protective laws and policies to limit or rule out child detention, prioritized processing of the asylum claims of children, enhanced access to age appropriate information in a child-friendly format and increased attention to the process of appointing qualified guardians.

According to UNHCR, these measures contributed to an overall decrease of 14 per cent in the total number of children detained across the 12 countries in 2015 as compared to 2014, when all the countries detained children for immigration-related purposes. By the end of 2015, two countries had also stopped detaining asylum-seeking children.

However, ensuring referral to alternatives to detention, the second goal of the global strategy, has proved more of a challenge.

"Officials in most of the focus countries still rarely or never consider alternatives in each individual case before detaining," said the agency in the news release.

"Asylum-seekers and refugees still [face] the risk of indefinite detention in one-third of the focus countries due to the absence in law of a maximum time limit in detention," it added, noting moderate progress on the final goal - improving detention conditions.

The report further revealed that in a majority of the 12 countries, asylum-seekers are still penalized for irregular entry or stay and that they may be detained together with people suspected or convicted of a crime.

The agency also said that while it is too early to assess the medium and long-term impact of the roll-out of the strategy, the first assessment indicates emerging trends which could herald changes in coming years in immigration detention policies.

"The progress results will form the basis for further dialogue with all stakeholders and to help identify and remedy shortcomings and support policy making, particularly in reception and alternatives to detention," it noted.

The five-year strategy was launched in June 2014 and has been rolled out in Canada, Hungary, Indonesia, Israel, Lithuania, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Thailand, the United Kingdom, the United States and Zambia. The 12 countries were chosen based on criteria, including regional and thematic diversity, size and significance of the problem, and prospects of progress in the initial roll-out period. Each government has established a national action plan to help address change and implement the strategy.
UN chief congratulates Zambia on peaceful elections

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 16 2016 Cite as UN News Service, UN chief congratulates Zambia on peaceful elections, 16 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57b859da40c.html [accessed 29 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

16 August 2016 - United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has congratulated the people of Zambia for the peaceful and orderly presidential, parliamentary and local elections, as well as the referendum on the Bill of Rights, held on 11 August.

The Secretary-General recalls Zambia's history of peaceful elections, and the democratic transition he witnessed when he visited the country in 2012, Mr. Ban's spokesperson said yesterday in a statement.

The Secretary-General reminded all parties, especially political leaders and their supporters, of their responsibility to reject violence and refrain from the use of inflammatory and incendiary language, the spokesperson added.

Mr. Ban also reminded them to resolve differences or disputes through constitutional means and in line with international norms and standards, the spokesperson added.

The UN remains committed to supporting Zambia's democratic governance and sustainable development and will continue to work closely with the African Union, the Southern African Development Community, the Commonwealth and other international partners, the spokesperson said.
UN condemns 'appalling' attack on civilians in eastern DR Congo

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 15 August 2016 Cite as UN News Service, UN condemns 'appalling' attack on civilians in eastern DR Congo, 15 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57b85a4340d.html [accessed 29 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

15 August 2016 - United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon joined his envoys from the Great Lakes Region and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) today in strongly condemning the killing of dozens of civilians during an overnight attack in Beni, located in restive eastern part of the country, where the UN mission and national authorities have now deployed forces in the wake if the incident.

The Secretary-General is appalled by reports of the killing of at least 36 civilians on 13 August in the area of Rwangoma village, North Kivu province of the DRC, by suspected members of the Allied Defense Forces (ADF), said a statement issued by his spokesperson.

[Mr. Ban] condemns in the strongest terms this latest attack in the Beni area where, since October 2014, several hundred civilians have been killed by suspected members of the ADF, the statement continued, extending the UN chief's condolences to the families of the victims and to the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The Secretary-General in his statement went on to call for those responsible for this attack to be brought to justice. He reiterated the commitment of the UN to support the authorities of the DRC in their efforts to address the threat posed by armed groups and end impunity, in line with the mandate of the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO).

Earlier in the day, United Nations Special Envoy for the Great Lakes Region Said Djinnit also strongly condemned the attack, referring to the incident as a massacre.

Attacking a vulnerable, innocent population is unacceptable, Mr. Djinnit told UN Radio.

We also encourage [] the authorities of the DRC and MONUSCO to increase their cooperation in addressing the scourge of armed groups in eastern DRC in general and Beni, in particular, he added.

At least 36 people were killed in the attack which took place overnight on 13 and 14 August. The attack is believed to have been carried out by the ADF, a rebel group of Ugandan origin, operating mainly in eastern DRC.

Additionally, in a press release issued earlier today, the Special Envoy noted that [The] attack will not deter from the collective determination to neutralize all negative forces that continue to cause sorrow and atrocities in eastern DRC.

Mr. Djinnit added that the attack is a reminder of the urgency to implement the commitments of the Peace, Security and Cooperation (PSC) Framework, and the decisions taken in that regard by the Heads of State of the region.

According to the press release, the Special Envoy also reiterated his readiness to continue to support ongoing efforts to end the plague of negative forces in the region, together with other representatives of the guarantors of the PSC Framework agreement.

Mr. Djinnit also expressed his condolences to the Government and people of the DRC on the deadly incident.

For its part, MONUSCO strongly condemned the killings as an act of barbarism, noting that reports indicate that 31 victims were brought to Beni town, while 5 victims were reportedly buried at the scene of the attack.

MONUSCO, in cooperation with the national forces, known by the French acronym, FARDC, and the national police, deployed forces throughout the territory of Beni to contribute to the protection of the population and prevent further attacks.

Joint patrolling is under way and a senior MONUSCO delegation was expected to fly to Beni today to express support to the national authorities in addressing the situation.
Central African Republic: After standoff, UN force detains 10 armed men, recovers weapons cache

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 15 August 2016 Cite as UN News Service, Central African Republic: After standoff, UN force detains 10 armed men, recovers weapons cache, 15 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57b85ab040d.html [accessed 29 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

15 August 2016 - The United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic (CAR) has reported that after a standoff with a convoy of heavily-armed men near Sibut, the capital of Kemo Prefecture, UN forces detained 10 of the suspects and recovered a "significant quantity" of weapons and munitions.

According to a press release from the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA), the convoy of some 35 men, which was believed to include several people who are the subject of arrest warrants, had departed Bangui, the nation's capital, late Friday.

The heavily-armed men exchanged fire with national security forces at several checkpoints en route, and these incidents resulted in a number of deaths and injuries, according to MINUSCA.

Early Saturday morning, MINUSCA forces blocked the convoy of seven vehicles from proceeding at 50 km south of Sibut and demanded that all weapons and munitions should be surrendered. This demand was rejected, and a stand-off ensued for several hours, the Mission said.

Ten armed men were detained, and a significant quantity of weapons and munitions, as well as the vehicles used by the convoy were recovered, the Mission added.

MINUSCA has remained in contact with the Government throughout this episode, including at the highest levels, seeking to deploy a joint team of Government authorities who have the primary responsibility for the restoration and maintenance of public safety and the rule of law, the Mission said.

The UN Security Council, in its most recent resolution on the situation in the CAR, demanded that all militias and armed groups lay down their arms, and cease all forms of violence and destabilizing activities.

MINUSCA reiterated its appeal to all armed groups and militias to adhere to the disarmament, demobilization, reintegration and repatriation process initiated by President Faustin-Archange Touadera and encouraged all Central Africans to prioritize dialogue.

More than three years of civil war and sectarian violence have displaced thousands of people in the CAR amid continuing clashes between the mainly Muslim Seleka rebel coalition and anti-Balaka militia, which are mostly Christian.
Teenage blogger trial 'deeply worrying' sign of Singapore's attempts to curb free expression

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 15 August 2016 Cite as UN News Service, Teenage blogger trial 'deeply worrying' sign of Singapore's attempts to curb free expression, 15 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57b85b4d40d.html [accessed 29 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

15 August 2016 - Concerned over increased criminalization of expression , a United Nations human rights expert today expressed serious concern about the upcoming trial of a 17-year old Singaporean for Facebook posts and blog comments that wounded the religious feelings of Muslims and Christians.

The UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, David Kaye, warned in a press release issued by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), that: "First, the trial concerns an expression that is lawful under international human rights law, and second, the person being tried is considered a child under international human rights law."

The blogger's trial is scheduled for 17 August. If convicted, he may face up to three years in jail. Last year, this same blogger was sentenced to four weeks in prison for posting a video that caricatured Singapore's first Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew.

"Tolerance and the rights of others are legitimate aims for any State to pursue," the UN expert said. "However, the criminalization of a broad range of legitimate, even if offensive, expression is not the right tool for this purpose, and may well have the opposite effect."

Noting that the teenager's trial was one of several cases in Singapore, he pointed out that it reflected a widening crackdown - not only on controversial expression but also political criticism and dissent.

"International human rights law allows only serious and extreme instances of incitement to hatred to be prohibited as criminal offences, not other forms of expression, even if they are offensive, disturbing or shocking," Mr. Kaye stressed.

In May, human rights lawyer Teo Soh Lung and blogger Roy Ngerng were investigated for allegedly breaching the Parliamentary Elections Act by posting, on their private Facebook pages, comments regarding government transparency and accountability.

While the Act prohibits campaigning in the last 24 hours prior to elections, it explicitly exempts the online expression of a private individual's political views. The press release indicated that this was the first time individuals were investigated under such provisions.

"Threats of criminal action and lawsuits contribute to a culture of self-censorship, and hinder the development of an open and pluralistic environment where all forms of ideas and opinions should be debated and rebutted openly," emphasized the UN expert.

Despite invoking the Parliamentary Elections Act to investigate, search and confiscate the personal belongings of Teo Soh Lung and Roy Ngerng, no charges have, to date, been brought against them.

"States are under an obligation not only to respect and protect, but also to promote freedom of expression. Increased criminalization of expression is in breach of this obligation," concluded Mr. Kaye.

Special Rapporteurs are appointed by the UN Human Rights Council to examine and report back on a specific human rights theme or a country situation. The positions are honorary and the experts are not UN staff, nor are they paid for their work.
UN chief condemns attack on school in Yemen that killed at least 10 children

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 15 August 2016 Cite as UN News Service, UN chief condemns attack on school in Yemen that killed at least 10 children, 15 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57b85b7e40e.html [accessed 29 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

15 August 2016 - United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has condemned the attack, reportedly an airstrike, on a school in northern Yemen that killed at least 10 children and injured many more over the weekend.

According to a statement issued by his spokesperson, the Secretary-General expressed dismay that civilians, including children, continue to bear the brunt of increased fighting and military operations in Yemen.

Mr. Ban called for a swift investigation of this tragic event in the Sa'ada governorate and urges the parties to the ongoing conflict to take all necessary measures to prevent further violations of international humanitarian law and human rights and do everything in their power to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure, the statement said.

The Secretary-General reiterates that there is no military solution to the crisis in Yemen, the statement said.

The UN chief also called upon the parties to renew -- without delay and in good faith -- their engagement with his Special Envoy for Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, in pursuit of a negotiated solution, the statement said.

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) also issued a statement on the killing of children in a religious school that also injured 21 others.

The children killed, aged between six and 14 years, were studying in a school in the Juma'a Bin Fadil village in Haydan, the statement said, adding that the surviving children were being treated in a hospital in Sa'ada.

With violence across the country intensifying over the past week, the number of children killed and injured by airstrikes, street fighting and landmines has grown sharply, the statement noted.

UNICEF calls on all parties to the conflict in Yemen to respect and abide by their obligations under international law, including the obligation to only target combatants and limit harm to civilians and civilian infrastructure, the statement said.

Following nearly 16 months of conflict in Yemen, the cessation of hostilities was declared on 10 April. While peace talks between a Yemeni Government delegation and a delegation of the General People's Congress and Ansar Allah have since continued, serious violations have occurred in Marib, al Jawf, Taiz and in the border areas with Saudi Arabia.

On 6 August, the UN special envoy announced a one-month break for the talks, during which the focus will be on working with each side separately to crystalize precise technical details.
South Sudan: Hundreds of children recruited into armed groups, reports UNICEF

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 19 August 2016 Cite as UN News Service, South Sudan: Hundreds of children recruited into armed groups, reports UNICEF, 19 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57b85f2940d.html [accessed 29 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

19 August 2016 - Reporting that 650 children have been recruited into armed groups in South Sudan since January, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNCEF) called today for an immediate end to recruitment and an unconditional release of all children by armed actors.

The dream we all shared for the children of this young country has become a nightmare, said Justin Forsyth, UNICEF Deputy Executive Director said today in a news release issued by the agency.

At this precarious stage in South Sudan's short history, UNICEF fears that a further spike in child recruitment could be imminent, he added.

The agency also warned that renewed conflict could put tens of thousands of children at an even greater risk. It further noted that despite widespread political commitment to end the practice children continue to be recruited and used by armed groups and forces.

According to estimates, some 16,000 children have been recruited by the armed groups and armed forces since the crisis first began in the country in December 2013.

The news release added that in 2015, UNICEF oversaw the release of 1,775 former child soldiers in what was one of the largest demobilizations of children ever. However, renewed fighting and recruitment in the world's youngest country risks undermining much of this progress, it noted.

The agency also highlighted increased grave violations in the country, noting that gender-based violence, already pervasive, has greatly intensified during the current crisis.

Children continue to endure horrific ordeals, stressed Mr. Forsyth.

Recent reports point to widespread sexual violence against girls and women. The systematic use of rape, sexual exploitation and abduction as a weapon of war in South Sudan must cease, together with the impunity for all perpetrators, he said.

The UN agency further underscored that unconditional access for all humanitarian interventions in Juba and all other parts of the country is urgently needed to provide support, protection, and assistance to children and women across the country.

Without a fully operational humanitarian sector, the consequences for children and their families will be catastrophic, concluded Mr. Forsyth, recently returning from a trip to the country's capital, Juba, and the northern town of Bentiu.
Yemen: Ban again calls for end to hostilities as ground fighting, airstrikes escalate

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 17 August 2016 Cite as UN News Service, Yemen: Ban again calls for end to hostilities as ground fighting, airstrikes escalate, 17 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57b85f5a40c.html [accessed 29 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

17 August 2016 - Alarmed by escalating airstrikes and ground fighting in Yemen and along the Saudi Arabia-Yemen border since, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon repeated his call on all the parties to the conflict to immediately cease all hostilities and for the Yemeni parties to return to the recently-ended direct talks facilitated by his envoy.

"Civilians, including children, are paying the heaviest price in the ongoing conflict, as civilian infrastructure, such as schools and hospitals, continue to be hit," said a statement issued by his spokesperson, citing Mr. Ban's ongoing concern at the escalation of violence in the country since the Yemeni talks ended on 6 August.

"The Secretary-General condemns the reported attack from the direction of Yemen that hit a workshop, killing at least seven civilians in Najran, Saudi Arabia yesterday, as well as the reported airstrike that hit a home in Nehm, east of Sana'a, in Yemen, which killed at least nine civilians," said the statement.

Through the statement, the UN chief reminded all parties of the utmost necessity to protect civilians and to respect their obligations under international humanitarian law.

"He repeats his call on all parties to the conflict to immediately cease all hostilities and for the Yemeni parties to return to direct talks facilitated by his Special Envoy for Yemen," the statement concluded.

This is the Secretary-General's third call this week for an end to the violence, having earlier condemned a reported airstrike on a school in northern Yemen that killed at least 10 children and injured many more over the past weekend. He called for a swift investigation into the incident. This was followed by condemnation of the reported coalition airstrike Monday on a rural hospital supported by Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in Hajjah, in which he noted that the parties to the conflict in Yemen have damaged or destroyed over 70 health centres, including three other MSF-supported facilities.

Following nearly 16 months of conflict in Yemen, the cessation of hostilities was declared on 10 April. While peace talks between a Yemeni Government delegation and a delegation of the General People's Congress and Ansar Allah continued, serious violations have occurred in Marib, al Jawf, Taiz and in the border areas with Saudi Arabia.

On 6 August, the UN Special Envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed announced a one-month break for the talks, during which "the focus will be on working with each side separately to crystalize precise technical details."
Concerned by curbs on free expression in Thailand, UN rights office calls for 'prompt return to civilian rule'

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 19 August 2016 Cite as UN News Service, Concerned by curbs on free expression in Thailand, UN rights office calls for 'prompt return to civilian rule', 19 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57b85f8640e.html [accessed 29 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

19 August 2016 - The United Nations human rights arm today expressed concern about the mounting constraints on the democratic space in Thailand - calling for a prompt return to civilian rule.

"Following the military coup in May 2014, severe restrictions on freedoms of expression and opinion and assembly have been in place through the use of criminal and military laws and orders, said spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani of the Geneva-based Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

She elaborated that restrictions spiked in the lead-up to this month's Constitutional Referendum.

"Overall, at least 1,300 people have been summoned, arrested or charged, and 1,629 civilians tried before the military courts," the spokesperson explained. "Since June, at least 115 people have been arrested or charged under military orders, criminal codes and the Constitution Referendum Act for expressing their opinion on the draft constitution or reporting human rights violations, including torture," she added.

Twelve people arrested in the Chiang Mai Province in late July remained in detention, along with a student activist who was incarcerated on 6 August. The others were released, but have been charged or remained under investigation.

"We urge Thailand to immediately drop all charges against political activists and human rights defenders, and to release those jailed for voicing dissent on the draft charter in the run-up to the referendum," underscored Ms. Shamdasani. "We also call on the authorities to suspend the use of military courts and military orders in cases involving civilians."

She made clear of the urgency in implementing the measures as Thailand moves towards its 2017 election - as proposed in the military Government's roadmap to restore democracy.

The election next year represents an opportunity for Thailand to meet the commitment it made at the UN Human Rights Council during its Universal Periodic Review in May to respect freedom of expression and, therefore, guarantee a more inclusive and participatory process that involves all political parties, civil society and the media in an open and non-threatening environment.
Photo of boy pulled from rubble reminder of 'unimaginable horrors' Syrian children face  UNICEF

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 19 August 2016 Cite as UN News Service, Photo of boy pulled from rubble reminder of 'unimaginable horrors' Syrian children face  UNICEF, 19 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57b85fc440c.html [accessed 29 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

19 August 2016 - The heart breaking photograph of Omran Daqneesh, the little boy sitting alone in an ambulance with his face and body covered in blood and dirt after being pulled from a destroyed building has reminded the world, yet again, of the unimaginable horrors that Syrian children face every day, a spokesperson for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said today.

No child in Syria [is] safe while the conflict drags on, Christophe Boulierac, a spokesperson for the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) told the press at a regular briefing in Geneva, referring to the photograph which went viral on social media yesterday and has galvanized world attention to the suffering in Aleppo, Syria's iconic second city.

More than 3.7 million Syrian children under the age of five know nothing but displacement, violence and uncertainty, he added underscoring the sheer desperation of the situation facing them and millions more in need of humanitarian aid in Syria and neighbouring countries.

According to UNICEF, the situation in Aleppo has continued to deteriorate in the past two weeks. It is particularly dire for civilians living in eastern parts of the city where taps have gone dry and the population, including approximately 100,000 children, rely on water from wells potentially contaminated by faecal matter and are unsafe to drink.

Heavy fighting and escalation of violence since 4 August have also prevented technicians from repairing the severely-damaged electricity and water systems.

Furthermore, children living in those parts also face risks of outbreaks of water-borne diseases.

In the midst of this situation, the UN children's agency has been able to deliver 300,000 litres of fuel to water pumping stations in western parts of Aleppo, providing water to some 1.2 million people. It has also provided water purification tablets and suppled four million litres of drinking water, via trucks, on a daily basis to the western parts of the city.

However, these supplies were not enough and it was not a solution, said Mr. Boulierac.

Children prepare a fire for cooking in Aleppo city, Syria. As of 2 August 2016, children are again facing terrible threats from new intense attacks and fighting in the western parts of the city. Photo: UNICEF/Khuder Al-Issa

It [is] critical for UNICEF to be able to reach all parts of the war-torn city and to provide much needed assistance, he stressed, reiterating the agency's call on all parties to the conflict to immediately allow safe and protected access for technicians to conduct urgent repairs to restore electricity and water networks.

The fighting [must be] stopped in order to do that, he underlined.

Aid would never be suspended

At the same briefing, Bettina Luescher, a spokesperson for the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said the agency is deeply concerned about the situation in Aleppo and that during the week, it had been able to feed some 20,000 people in eastern parts of the city.

Aid would never be suspended. [We are] ensuring that the little kids, grandmothers, mothers and fathers got food whatever it took, she stated.

Responding to a question, she said that in June, 30 per cent of the food went into opposition-controlled areas, and that political opinions of people did not matter. [The] number one goal [is] to feed civilians, she stressed.

Furthermore, she explained that non-governmental organizations (NGOs) on the ground need a 48-hour pause immediately.

Many little boys and girls need help, as they were in the same situation as little Omran, she said, stressing that the siege has to stop.

It [is] hard, but not impossible to come up with a 48-hour pause, she added.

UN envoy welcomes evacuation of persons with urgent needs

In related news, Staffan de Mistura, UN Special Envoy for Syria welcomed the reports of evacuation of some 39 people, including several children and those in need of medical treatment from the besieged towns of Fouah (in Syria's north-west) and Madaya (in the country's south-west).

The evacuations were conducted by the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC).

Thanking all those who were involved in the extraction, Mr. de Mistura said: While this is a positive step, areas remain besieged by parties to the conflict and Syrians are in need of food and medical assistance to enter these areas

He reiterated that in some places, including in the two towns, convoys have not been allowed to enter for over 110 days. He added that there are also reports of desperate need for food and other assistance in towns such as Darayya, a suburb of the capital Damascus.

The Special Envoy urged all parties to the conflict to allow humanitarian access and to evacuate those Syrians in need of medical assistance.
Honduras: Killing of rights defenders highlight perils they face, says UN rights office

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 19 August 2016 Cite as UN News Service, Honduras: Killing of rights defenders highlight perils they face, says UN rights office, 19 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57b85fe840e.html [accessed 29 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

19 August 2016 - With at least eight human rights defenders killed in Honduras this year, two United Nations and international rights experts today said the country is one of the most hostile and dangerous for rights defenders and urged the Government to take urgent steps to ensure their protection.

"The Government of Honduras must immediately adopt and apply effective measures to protect human rights defenders, so they can carry out their human rights work, without fear or threat of violence or murder," Michel Forst, UN Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders, and Jose de Jesus Orozco Henriquez, Inter-American Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, said today in a news release issued by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

"Violence and attacks against news release not only affect the basic guarantees owed to every individual. They also undermine the fundamental role that human rights defenders play in building a society that is more equal, just and democratic," they added.

In the most recent violence, Kevin Ferrera, a lawyer and outspoken youth leader of Juventud Liberal (Liberal Youth, a section of the Liberal Party of Honduras) and founding member of the organization Oposicion Indignada (Indignant Opposition), on 9 August.

According to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), so far this year, at least eight rights defenders have been killed.

Expressing serious concern at the killing of Mr. Ferrera, who also worked to empower citizens to denounce corruption and impunity as well as helped organize recent protests against the proposals for re-election of the current President of the country, Mr. Forst and Mr. Orozco Henriquez urged the Government to conduct an investigation and "bring to account both the material perpetrators and the intellectual authors of the heinous crime."

"The investigation should be exhaustive, effective, impartial and undertaken with due diligence," they stressed.

In the news release, the two experts also recalled that a mechanism for protection of human rights defenders and other groups in Honduras in was created in 2015, and acknowledged the country's efforts to make the mechanism fully functional.

"However, the implementation of the mechanism is yet to be tested," they noted.

"Crimes against human rights defenders, especially cold-blooded assassinations, must not go unpunished. Impunity is the enemy - and the undoing - of any protection scheme in place, no matter how comprehensive it may be," concluded Mr. Forst and Mr. Orozco.
UN rights office urges Ethiopia to ensure independent probe of reported violations in Oromia region

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 19 August 2016 Cite as UN News Service, UN rights office urges Ethiopia to ensure independent probe of reported violations in Oromia region, 19 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57b8601840c.html [accessed 29 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

19 August 2016 - Voicing concern over serious human rights violations in the Oromia and Amhara regions of Ethiopia earlier this month, the United Nations human rights chief today urged the Government to ensure access for independent observers to affected areas and to work towards opening up political and democratic reforms.

Against the backdrop of extremely alarming reports on human rights abuses during public protests over the weekend of 6-8 August, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, appealed to the Ethiopian authorities for allowing human rights experts to access to the conflict zones and evaluate the situation.

"We welcome the decision to launch an independent investigation, and we urge the Government to ensure that the investigation has a mandate to cover allegations of human rights violations since the unrest in Oromia began in November 2015," Ravina Shamdasani, a spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), told reporters in Geneva.

She went on to stress that the probe should be "indeed independent, transparent, thorough and effective, with a view to establishing whether the use of excessive force occurred and with a view to bringing to justice the perpetrators of any human rights violations."

The UN rights office is ready to assist in ensuring that the investigation is abide by international human rights standards. However, she said, it is critical to have access to areas where have been reported of ongoing arbitrary arrests, intimidation and harassment of people in the regions.

"We call on the Government to ensure that the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and expression are protected and that those detained for exercising these rights are promptly released," said Ms. Shamdasani.

She further urged the Government to work towards opening up the political and democratic space, including comprehensive security sector, legislative, and institutional reforms.
Security Council expresses 'regret' over postponed electoral process in Somalia

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 19 August 2016 Cite as UN News Service, Security Council expresses 'regret' over postponed electoral process in Somalia, 19 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57b8604c40d.html [accessed 29 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

19 August 2016 - The United Nations Security Council today expressed regret over a postponed timeline for this year's parliamentary and presidential elections in Somalia, calling on all stakeholders to follow the revised 2016 electoral calendar "without further delay."

Through a Presidential Statement adopted by the body, the Council's 15 members welcomed the continued political and security progress in Somalia since 2012, underscoring the need to maintain the momentum towards democratic governance, with an inclusive, transparent and credible electoral process in 2016 as a stepping stone to universal suffrage elections in 2020.

The Council noted the consensus decision of the National Leadership Forum (NLF) to extend the timeline for the parliamentary electoral process until 25 October, and the timeline for the presidential electoral process until 30 October, to allow for the implementation of technical modalities for an inclusive process.

Further in the statement, the Council noted the NLF's consensual decision to extend the current mandates of the federal institutions to respect this revised timeline.

Also noting that this electoral process is "an historic opportunity" to deliver more representative governance to the people of Somalia and to reflect Somalia's diversity, the Council welcomed the NLF's decision on representation of minority clans and the Banadiri community.

The Council urged all parties to take necessary steps to implement the provisions in the NLF communique of 9 August 2016, including the Government's commitment to reserve 30 per cent of upper and lower house seats for women.

The Council urged the Government to ensure the transparent and credible electoral process in a climate of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, including freedoms of expression and association, and commended the establishment of an electoral dispute resolution mechanism.
UN experts press Turkey to adhere to human rights obligations despite state of emergency

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 19 August 2016 Cite as UN News Service, UN experts press Turkey to adhere to human rights obligations despite state of emergency, 19 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57b8606f412.html [accessed 29 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

19 August 2016 - United Nations human rights experts today urged Turkey to uphold its obligations under international human rights law despite the attempted mid-July coup and during the subsequent state of emergency.

"One cannot avoid, even in times of emergency, obligations to protect the right to life, prohibit torture, adhere to fundamental elements of due process and non-discrimination, and protect everyone's right to belief and opinion," the experts underscored in a press release.

Their call comes as Turkey's Article 4 - which, within certain narrow conditions, temporarily relaxes some obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) - enters into effect, and the Government declared a state of emergency. Turkey signed the ICCPR in 2000 and ratified it in 2003.

"The invocation of Article 4 is lawful only if there is a threat to the life of the nation, a condition that arguably is not met in this case," the experts noted. "Even in situations that meet this high threshold, Article 4 establishes limits to how much a State may deviate from its obligations under the Covenant."

Since the 15 July attempted coup, and particularly from the 20 July declared state of emergency, detentions and purges have spiked in Turkey - most notably in the education, media, military and justice sectors.

"The derogation provision under Article 4 does not give a carte blanche to ignore all obligations under the ICCPR," the experts said. "Even where derogation is permitted, the Government has a legal obligation to limit such measures to those that are strictly required by the needs of the situation," he added.

Additionally, allegations of torture and poor detention conditions have risen following legislative provisions that enable indiscriminate administrative powers to affect core human rights.

"While we understand the sense of crisis in Turkey," the experts said, "we are concerned that the Government's steps to limit a broad range of human rights guarantees go beyond what can be justified in light of the current situation."

In recent statements, UN human rights experts have urged the Turkish Government to uphold the rule of law in time of crisis, voicing their concern about the use of emergency measures to target dissent and criticism.

The experts stressed, "Turkey is going through a critical period. Derogation measures must not be used in a way that will push the country deeper into crisis."

Special Rapporteurs are appointed by the Human Rights Council to examine and report back on a specific human rights theme or a country situation. The positions are honorary and the experts are not UN staff, nor are they paid for their work.
Nigeria's military gains against Boko Haram uncover vast humanitarian needs  UN

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 19 August 2016 Cite as UN News Service, Nigeria's military gains against Boko Haram uncover vast humanitarian needs  UN, 19 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57b8608a40c.html [accessed 29 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

19 August 2016 - The United Nations refugee agency said today that it is increasingly alarmed at the unfolding situation in north-east Nigeria where the advancing military campaign against Boko Haram has exposed "catastrophic" levels of suffering among a population outside humanitarian reach over months or years.

"While many areas are still beyond reach, in Borno and Yobe states, the picture of suffering is shocking," Adrian Edwards, a spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told reporters in Geneva.

He said that numerous reports of human rights violations, including deaths, sexual violence, disappearances, forced recruitment, forced religious conversions, and attacks on civilian sites, have been received. Some 800,000 additional internally displaced people have been identified as needing help.

"Severe malnutrition on a wide scale is being reported, and the needs are growing with each day," he said, noting that in Borno state, 51,474 people are on the refugee agency's critically vulnerable list, 21,912 of these being children - more than three quarters of whom have lost one or both parents.

An additional displacement complication has arisen from the knock-on effect of the military activity and the resulting further spread of insecurity to the north and west across the borders and into parts of Cameroon, Chad and Niger. The violent attacks against military personnel in the town of Bosso in south-eastern Niger on 3 June resulted in the worst displacement there since the beginning of the crisis in 2013.

Amid this, some 106,000 Nigerian refugees have been pressed back into homeland, with Borno receiving 67,000, Adamawa 22,000 and Yobe 17,000. These people, who became new internally displaced people in the process, need reception, registration and other protection help, plus shelter, psycho-social support and material assistance, Mr. Edwards said.

UNHCR is responding by scaling up its operations, he said, explaining that the immediate focus is the needs of some 488,000 highly vulnerable people in critical condition and now concentrated in ten newly liberated local government areas in Borno state, as well as the needs of the returned refugees.

The insurgency in northeast Nigeria has mutated into a vast regional crisis confronting Nigeria and its three Lake Chad Basin neighbours - Chad, Cameroon and Niger. Insecurity has driven more than 187,000 Nigerians across the border, but incursions by Boko Haram into the surrounding countries have generated growing numbers of internally displaced people too. There are 157,000 internally displaced people in Cameroon, 74,800 in Chad and over 127,000 in Niger.

As of the most recent available date there are 2,066,783 internally displaced persons in Nigeria.
Syria: 10-year-old girl to receive urgent surgery following evacuation from besieged Madaya

Publisher Amnesty International Publication Date 20 August 2016 Cite as Amnesty International, Syria: 10-year-old girl to receive urgent surgery following evacuation from besieged Madaya, 20 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57b860e14.html [accessed 29 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

A 10-year-old Syrian girl seriously wounded by sniper fire from a Syrian government forces checkpoint in Madaya was successfully evacuated last night for urgent surgery following international pressure, Amnesty International can confirm.

According to the Syrian Red Crescent, Ghina Ahmad Wadi and her mother were escorted from the besieged town to Damascus overnight last night. The move follows appeals by the girl's UK-based aunt, supported by Amnesty International and others.

"This is clearly a very welcome move that could prove to be a lifeline for Ghina, a brave young girl who was caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. It is appalling that she was left to suffer for days on end before being granted this vital reprieve," said Magdalena Mughrabi-Talhami, Deputy Middle East and North Africa Programme Director at Amnesty International.

"Amnesty International has information about many other civilians in Madaya who are critically ill or injured - in some cases for up to two months - and in need of urgent medical attention immediately.

"All parties to Syria's armed conflict must protect civilians and ensure humanitarian aid, including critical medical supplies, are allowed into Madaya and other besieged areas as a priority. They must allow and facilitate, where possible, the evacuation of civilians who wish to leave."

Ghina Ahmad Wadi, was shot in the leg by a sniper on 2 August at the Abdel Majed checkpoint when she was on her way to buy medicine for her mother. She was shot in her left thigh, causing a complex bone fracture and a severing of a nerve. Her eight-year-old sister who was with her was also injured.

Madaya is besieged by Syrian government forces in alliance with Hezbollah fighters, and Ghina's family appealed to the Syrian authorities to allow her to be evacuated to a hospital in Damascus or in Lebanon - a request which had been denied for almost two weeks.

A doctor working at a field hospital in Madaya told Amnesty International that the girl urgently needs surgery that is not available in Madaya, which has been under a tight government siege since July last year. Instead, Ghina had only been provided with sedatives - including morphine - which ease her extreme pain for only 10 to 15 minutes at a time.

"Children should have no part in this terrible war I know Ghina's just one among many thousands of children in Syria who're going though things they shouldn't have to, but she can be helped relatively easily and we need to do all we can to make that happen," Ghina Ahmad Wadi's aunt, Fadah Jassan, who lives in the UK, previously told Amnesty International.

Copyright notice:  Copyright Amnesty International
Bangladesh: End illegal detentions immediately

Publisher Amnesty International Publication Date 14 August 2016 Cite as Amnesty International, Bangladesh: End illegal detentions immediately, 14 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57b861724.html [accessed 29 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Authorities should charge or release detainees, stop practice of secret arrests

Bangladeshi authorities should immediately end the illegal detentions of Mir Ahmed Bin Qasem and Hummam Qader Chowdhury, arrested respectively on 9 August and 4 August, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said today.



Both men were arrested without warrants or charges, have not been produced before a magistrate, and have not been allowed access to family or lawyers



"There is no question that Bin Qasem and Chowdhury are subject to an enforced disappearance in the custody of the security forces. Yet the government continues to deny having them. Both men have been refused access to lawyers and their families, and production before a magistrate," said Champa Patel, South Asia Director at Amnesty International.



"This is a practice which has unfortunately become completely routine in Bangladesh, and has to end."



Chowdhury, a senior member of the opposition Bangladesh National Party, was arrested from inside his car as he was travelling with his mother to a courthouse to attend a hearing around 11am on 4 August. According to his mother, several men in plainclothes  some of whom were armed  forced Chowdhury to leave the car and come with them.

Mir Ahmed Bin Qasem, a Supreme Court lawyer, was arrested from his home around 11pm on 9 August by several men, also in plainclothes. The men did not identify themselves as being with any security forces. His wife and cousin were present during the arrest.



Authorities have denied having either of the men in custody, although multiple credible sources have said that both men were at the headquarters of the Rapid Action Battalion in Dhaka on the morning of 12 August. Mir Ahmed Bin Qasem's wife has filed a general diary complaint, the standard first report of transgressions filed with the police. Chowdhury's family attempted to file a general diary but the police refused to accept it.



Bin Qasem's family has subsequently learned, but has not been able to confirm, that he has been moved to the headquarters of the Detective Branch. This is where two other detainees were also held illegally from 2 July until their production in court last week. Chowdhury's family has also been told that he has since been moved from Detective Branch to a different agency, but they have not been able to confirm which one.



Bangladesh has been reeling from a spree of seemingly militant inspired killings and attacks, including a horrific attack on the Holey Artisan Bakery Cafe in Dhaka on 1 July, and another the subsequent week on an Eid gathering. In a much-delayed response, Bangladeshi authorities arrested nearly 15,000 people following the spate of attacks on bloggers, atheists, foreigners and LGBTI activists.



Following the attack on the cafe, the authorities arrested two hostages, Hasnat Karim and Tahmid Khan, and then proceeded to issue contradictory statements about whether the men were in their custody. More than a month later, they finally admitted the men were in their custody, although they created a false cover story to avoid allegations of illegal detention.



Both Chowdhury and Bin Qasem are the sons of two senior opposition politicians convicted of war crimes during Bangladesh's 1971 Independence War. Chowdhury's father, Salahuddin Qader Chowdhury, was executed in November 2015. Bin Qasem's father is currently facing execution on war crimes charges having nearly exhausted his appeals. Bin Qasem had feared that he would be arbitrarily abducted by the authorities shortly after the attack on the cafe when the government started claiming that the attack was the work of those seeking to free convicted war criminals.



"The Bangladeshi authorities have an obligation to pursue those responsible for the heinous crimes which have plagued Bangladesh for years, including of course the horrific attack on the cafe," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

"But time and time again, we have to call on the government to not give in to its knee-jerk response of arbitrary and secret detentions. The illegal detentions of Chowdhury and Bin Qasem need to end immediately."

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch both note that Bangladeshi security forces have an extensive and well-documented history of custodial abuse, including torture and other ill-treatment. Given this history, there is a real risk of harm during detention and interrogation. Bangladeshi authorities need to immediately end the illegal detention of Mir Ahmed Bin Qasem and Hummam Qader Chowdhury.

Copyright notice:  Copyright Amnesty International
Mexico: Release of environmental activist, a triumph for justice

Publisher Amnesty International Publication Date 20 August 2016 Cite as Amnesty International, Mexico: Release of environmental activist, a triumph for justice, 20 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57b862494.html [accessed 29 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

The release of a Mexican environmental activist, and prisoner of conscience, who was unfairly imprisoned nine months ago in what seems to be punishment for his peaceful activism against illegal logging is a triumph for justice and human rights, Amnesty International said.

Ildefonso Zamora Baldomero was arrested in November 2015 in the Indigenous Tlahuica community of San Juan Atzingo, 80km south-west of Mexico City. He was accused of participating in a burglary in July 2012.

The criminal charges against Ildefonso Zamora were based on fabricated evidence. A federal judge decided there was no basis to believe he was responsible of any crime and even doubted the crime even existed.

"Campaigning against illegal logging is not a crime. Instead of prosecuting environmental activists for their peaceful activities, the Mexican authorities should ensure they are able to carry out their legitimate work without fear of reprisals," said Carlos Zazueta, Mexico Researcher at Amnesty International.

"Ildefonsos story is a tragic illustration of what it means to be a human rights defender in Mexico today, where speaking up against human rights abuses can land you in jail."

Amnesty International believes that his arrest is part of a series of threats and harassment in relation to his anti-logging campaigns. In 2007, his son Aldo was murdered and his son Misael was injured in an attack which hasn't yet been fully investigated. The organization calls on the authorities to stop any other attempt to harass him or his family for his work.

Copyright notice:  Copyright Amnesty International
Venezuela: Ruling to uphold Lopez's sentence, new stain on crumbling human rights record

Publisher Amnesty International Publication Date 13 August 2016 Cite as Amnesty International, Venezuela: Ruling to uphold Lopez's sentence, new stain on crumbling human rights record, 13 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57b862914.html [accessed 29 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

A decision by a court of appeals in Venezuela to uphold a 13-year jail sentence against opposition leader and prisoner of conscience Leopoldo Lopez is yet another stain on the country's crumbling human rights record, Amnesty International said.

"Leopoldo Lopez is the victim of a vicious 'witch hunt' against anyone who dares to disagree with the Venezuelan government. He is a prisoner of conscience and must be released immediately and unconditionally," said Carolina Jimenez, Americas Deputy Director for Research at Amnesty International.

Leopoldo Lopez, leader of the opposition party Voluntad Popular, handed himself in to the National Guard (Guardia Nacional) on 18 February 2014 after a mass anti-government demonstration he organized. On 10 September 2015, he was found guilty of inciting violence during an anti-government protest on 12 February 2014 and sentenced to 13 years and nine months in prison for the charges of conspiracy, incitement to commit a crime, arson, and damage to public property. Amnesty International remains concerned that the detention and trial of Leopoldo Lopez appears to be politically motivated.

In August 2014, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said that Lopez's detention was arbitrary and the High Commissioner for Human Rights urged the authorities to release him immediately.

Forty-three people died, including members of the security forces, and hundreds were injured during the protests that swept Venezuela in the first half of 2014. Scores were ill-treated and thousands detained. Victims and their relatives are still awaiting justice.

Copyright notice:  Copyright Amnesty International
Kenya: Watershed ruling on lawyer's disappearance and execution by police

Publisher Amnesty International Publication Date 11 August 2016 Cite as Amnesty International, Kenya: Watershed ruling on lawyer's disappearance and execution by police, 11 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57b865234.html [accessed 29 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Responding to today's High Court ruling that Kenyan human rights lawyer Willie Kimani and two others were subject to enforced disappearance and later executed by police, Victor Odero, Amnesty International's East Africa Campaigner said:

"The court's determination is a watershed moment in the history of justice in Kenya as it sheds the spotlight on the common but under-reported scourge of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances in the country."

"The ruling is a fitting tribute to Willie Kimani, Josphat Mwendwa and Joseph Muiruri, as well as hundreds of other Kenyans who have been executed or disappeared at the hands of the police, and a victory for everyone who protested and demanded justice for them."

The court also ruled that Willie Kimani should be recognised as a champion of justice.

"Willie was indeed a champion of justice. He dedicated his life to fighting extrajudicial killings, but sadly met his end through the same violations he had worked so tirelessly to eradicate. His death must not be in vain. The Kenyan government should take all measures to bring all those suspected of criminal responsibility for these crimes to justice, in fair trials. In addition, it should set up a judicial commission of inquiry into extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances to deliver justice to the numerous other victims," said Victor Odero.

Background

The bodies of Willie Kimani, who was employed by International Justice Mission, a Christian legal aid charity, his client Josphat Mwendwa, a motorcycle taxi rider, and Joseph Muiruri, a taxi driver, were found in a river 73 kilometres northeast of Nairobi on 30 June 2016, a week after they were last seen leaving a court room in a Mavoko, a town near Nairobi.

Amnesty International and 32 other local and international human rights organizations promptly called on the Kenyan authorities to urgently and impartially investigate their killings.

Copyright notice:  Copyright Amnesty International
Syria: Fresh chemical attack on Aleppo a war crime

Publisher Amnesty International Publication Date 11 August 2016 Cite as Amnesty International, Syria: Fresh chemical attack on Aleppo a war crime, 11 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57b865984.html [accessed 29 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

The Syrian city of Aleppo has been hit by a suspected chlorine attack, which would amount to a war crime if confirmed, and constitutes an alarming sign that Syrian government forces are intensifying their use of chemical weapons against civilians, Amnesty International said Thursday.

The attack on a residential neighbourhood in a part of Aleppo controlled by armed groups is the third reported use of chemical weapons in northern Syria in just two weeks and has reportedly killed at least four people. Amnesty International has confirmed at least 60 others, mostly children, sought medical care after showing symptoms characteristic of a chlorine attack.

"This attack in Aleppo is yet another flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and signals a distressing pattern in the use of chemical weapons by regime forces," said Magdalena Mughrabi, Amnesty International's Deputy Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme.

The latest attack comes as Russia announced a three-hour daily ceasefire on the city, as humanitarian aid is desperately needed in some areas.

"We call for the immediate cessation of air raids on civilian targets in Aleppo. It is imperative that chemical attacks and other war crimes end now. We also call for the unrestricted free flow of aid to the tens of thousands of people trapped in the city's east," said Magdalena Mughrabi.

"Three hours a day to deliver aid is grossly inadequate given the magnitude of the humanitarian crisis in eastern Aleppo and the perilous and time-consuming nature of such deliveries."

Amnesty International spoke to a doctor in Aleppo who said that of the 60 injured in the latest attack, 40 were children.

"They were all suffering from the same symptoms, mainly coughing and shortness of breath. I could easily smell chlorine on people's clothes," he said.

"We will soon run out of medical supplies if the frequency of attacks continues like this."

In July, Syrian armed forces backed by Russian air power encircled eastern Aleppo, which has been held by armed groups since 2012. The government siege essentially cut some 250,000 people off from basic food, medicine and fuel supplies that keep ambulances and hospital generators running.

Russia has carried out airstrikes over Syria since September last year in support of the government forces.

Yesterday's attack occurred in the al-Zibdiye neighbourhood of Aleppo one kilometre away from the frontline.

Armed groups this week broke the Syrian government forces' siege but this was followed with intensified bombing of the city by government and Russian forces.

Two barrel bombs allegedly containing chlorine gas were dropped on 1 August in two residential neighbourhoods in the city of Saraqeb in Idleb province, reportedly injuring at least 28 civilians.

This attack comes almost exactly a year after the UN Security Council passed a resolution to establish a mechanism to investigate chemical attacks in Syria and identify their perpetrators. If it is confirmed that bombs dropped yesterday contained chlorine it will underline the extent to which government forces - as well as other parties to the conflict - are continuing to flagrantly violate international humanitarian law with impunity.

Media reports on 2 August said another chemical attack had been launched in Aleppo. The Chemical Weapons Convention prohibits the development, production, stockpiling, transfer and use of chemical weapons and requires States Parties to destroy chemical weapon stockpiles. The use of prohibited weapons such as chemical weapons is a war crime under customary international law.

Syrian government forces are suspected of carrying out dozens of horrific attacks with chlorine and other chemical weapons on opposition-held areas since 2012, killing hundreds and inflicting terrible injuries on others. All such attacks are prohibited by international humanitarian law.

In September 2013, after hundreds of people died in alleged sarin gas attacks on Ghouta, outside Damascus, Syria acceded to the Chemical Weapons Convention and President al-Assad pledged to destroy the country's stockpile of prohibited chemical agents.

However, a year later, in September 2014, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) fact-finding mission found "compelling confirmation" that a toxic chemical was used "systematically and repeatedly" as a weapon in villages in northern Syria.

Copyright notice:  Copyright Amnesty International
The long crossing to Hungary: refugees between borders and barbed wire

Publisher Amnesty International Author Todor Gardos & Alice Wyss Publication Date 11 August 2016 Cite as Amnesty International, The long crossing to Hungary: refugees between borders and barbed wire, 11 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57b866014.html [accessed 29 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

"The journey has been so difficult, especially for my child," Noor*, a 27-year-old woman from Afghanistan tells us.

Noor is in Horgos () on the Serbian-Hungarian border, a tented pre-transit camp beside a high barbed-wire fence. Each morning she joins hundreds of others, crowding around anxiously to look at a list, to see where their name is and how much longer they have to wait. It is a document which directs the fate of hundreds of people - some of them months into their journey, some of them years. This is the waiting list for refugees and asylum seekers trying to move on to Hungary and the European Union.

Noor asks to speak to us away from children who have, she says, already seen and heard too much.

"Life for us became very difficultIt was too dangerous for us to leave the house. We had to leave, we had no choice," she tells us.

Hers is an all-too-familiar story; they travelled over land from Afghanistan to Turkey, crossed by boat to Greece and became stuck in dreadful conditions there, before finally making their way northwards through Macedonia to Serbia.

Yet at the moment, they are merely names and numbers on an endless waiting list, surviving day-to-day. The camps are beside the border in Horgos and Kelebia. These have become the 'pre-transit zones', where refugees who wish to apply for asylum in Hungary are forced to wait.

The only source of water is a couple of sinks and there is a line of portable toilets alongside the fence. There are no showers and no areas for children to play or adults to rest. Most of the families stay all day in their makeshift homes made around small tents in an attempt to escape the dirt and the baking sun. Some have carried their elderly mothers and fathers on their backs and in wheelchairs to reach Europe. We meet pregnant women on the brink of delivery, mothers with new-born babies, entire families who've left everything to escape the destruction of their hometowns by the armed group that calls itself Islamic State (IS) or the Taliban.

These camps, first ignored - then patrolled - by the Serbian border police are currently home to some 600 people. In Horgos more than 400 people, who are mainly Farsi speakers, in Kelebia 200 people whose first language is Arabic or Kurdish. Most of them are families with small children.

Having a common language eases communication inside each of the camps and has contributed to a calmer atmosphere for all. But the weeks of waiting are no less excruciating.

Makeshift processing posts in shipping containers run by the Hungarian authorities open very briefly each morning, allowing 15 people into each of the two transit zones. The lucky few selected are based on a list submitted by camp leaders and 'verified' by the Hungarian migration office. Various organizations create lists and surveys of the camp population, but there is no official screening of vulnerabilities or special needs.

Any errors on the lists can carry devastating consequences. E., an unaccompanied minor aged 17 from Afghanistan, travelled to the border with a family that provided him protection. However his name was not on the list of family members so, after 45 days of waiting and with no questions asked, he was returned to the camp (and the bottom of the list). He should have been on another list, officials said as they pushed him out the door.

In Kelebia, we meet a Kurdish family of seven from north-east Syria. "Have you heard of the big explosions in our city?" they ask us. "We decided to leave because Daesh (IS) came to our city, killed our men and kidnapped our women."

Earlier this year, they spent four months in the hell of the makeshift camp in Idomeni at the border between Greece and Macedonia.

The mother is about to give birth at any moment; whether in Serbia or Hungary, they do not know.

In Horgos we meet a family of eight from Afghanistan. The youngest child is just three and swings on our arms as we talk, wanting to play. We hear that her mother is sick and in a lot of pain. She urgently needs treatment that she cannot get in the camp.

"We are so afraid," her husband says, "we don't know what to do". They have been in Horgos for almost a month and tell us they are number 127 on the list. With seemingly no way to cross any sooner to access medical treatment they are left waiting, scared and unsure about what the future holds.

Those refugees who finally manage to cross the border into Hungary and enter the European Union will find that they have not reached a promised land. Instead they will be faced with many more difficulties and many more tears to dry.

Refugees should not need to risk their lives and go through hell to find safety in Europe; they need safe and legal routes to protection and to be treated with dignity.

*Noor's name has been changed.

Copyright notice:  Copyright Amnesty International
Oman: Journalists detained for reporting on corruption

Publisher Amnesty International Publication Date 10 August 2016 Cite as Amnesty International, Oman: Journalists detained for reporting on corruption, 10 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57b866a84.html [accessed 29 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Oman's authorities have carried out a string of journalist arrests in recent weeks signalling a growing crackdown on freedom of expression in the country, said Amnesty International.

Three journalists from Azamn daily newspaper have been detained in connection with an article highlighting allegations of corruption in the Omani judiciary published on 26 July. The most recent arrest of the Deputy Editor in Chief, Youssef al-Haj, took place yesterday. Shortly afterwards, Oman's inistry of Information ordered the shutdown of the newspaper and its online news site.

"It appears that the journalists from Azamn are being punished for carrying out their legitimate journalistic work. Criticizing the judiciary or reporting allegations of suspected corruption is not a crime. If they are being detained solely in connection with their journalistic work, Oman's authorities must immediately release them," said Magdalena Mughrabi, Deputy Director of Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa Programme.

"The arrests appear to signify a worrying escalation of the authorities' clampdown on freedom of expression. The message to journalists in Oman is clear: criticizing the judiciary is off limits."

It is unclear whether the detained journalists have been charged or the nature of charges they may face.

The article in question, published in Azamn newspaper on 26 July, accused the Head of Oman's Supreme Court and the Chairman of the Judicial Council of intervening in the outcome of verdicts on behalf of influential officials.

Two days later, the Editor in Chief of the newspaper Ibrahim al-Maamari was summoned by the authorities and detained for questioning. Oman's Ministry of Information warned that the publication could be shut down if it continued to report on corruption allegations.

The following week, on 3 August, Azamn journalist, Zaher al-Abri, was detained. Since then, Youssef al-Haj, Deputy Editor in Chief, published a series of articles based on exclusive interviews with the Vice-President of Oman's Supreme Court, Ali al-No'mani, confirming allegations of corruption made in the earlier article. The latest of these articles was published on 9 August and Youssef al-Haj was arrested the same day at noon. His brother later confirmed that he had received a call from Youssef al-Haj, stating that he was being held at the headquarters of the Police Special Section in Muscat (al-Qism al-Khas) and would be transferred to a police hospital due to ill-health.

Oman's state news agency published a statement, citing an unnamed government source, describing the articles about corruption as "a flagrant violation of the limits and ethics of freedom of expression" warning that the articles were damaging to one of the country's most important institutions.

"If Oman's authorities wish to show they have even the most basic understanding of freedom of expression, instead of unlawfully detaining journalists they should be working to ensure that all journalists are free to carry out their legitimate work without fear of reprisal or harassment," said Magdalena Mughrabi.

In an earlier incident involving journalist arrests, al-Mutasam al-Bahlani, Editor in Chief of the e-magazine "al-Falaq", was detained on 25 July in connection with tweets he had posted about Oman's Renaissance Day. He was released two days later on 27 July.

Copyright notice:  Copyright Amnesty International
Iraqis who fled IS rule face harrowing future

Publisher Amnesty International Author Diana Eltahawy Publication Date 19 August 2016 Cite as Amnesty International, Iraqis who fled IS rule face harrowing future, 19 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57b867294.html [accessed 29 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

The humanitarian crisis in Iraq is described as "one of the largest, most complex and volatile" in the world by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Yet even this description doesn't capture the magnitude of suffering endured by civilians caught-up in the cycle of violence and impunity.

Over the past two weeks, a research team from Amnesty International on the ground in Iraq has spoken to hundreds of internally displaced people (IDPs), who are among some 3.4 million who have been forced to flee their homes and are currently living with host communities as well as in camps, schools, mosques and unfinished buildings. Many live in overcrowded and squalid conditions, with little protection from the scorching sun and searing temperatures which regularly hover over 50 Celsius. Many have little or no access to essential services.

Some of those we met had recently fled ongoing military operations, while others have been displaced for more than two years since the armed group calling itself Islamic State (IS) captured large swathes of Iraqi territory during 2014. Many cannot go home because fighting continues. Others are waiting for explosives to be cleared and for basic services to resume. The Popular Mobilization Units (predominantly Shi'a militias) and the Peshmerga forces (armed forces of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq) prevent others from going back to areas recaptured from the IS or areas that never came under their control.

Every family we spoke to had a harrowing tale about their life under IS rule, their dangerous escape, their current predicament and their uncertain future.

Ahmed Alawi Abbas lost five of his eight children after fleeing fighting in the Hawija district of the Kirkuk Governorate. He described their deadly journey: "We set off from our village in the Riyadh sub-district at about 1:30am on 1 June. We were 130 people including my wife and eight children. We could not use the main road because Daesh [Arabic acronym for IS] shoots at those fleeing We had to walk for about nine hours through thorns, stones, tall grass, valleys, water ditches Suddenly, there was an explosion, someone stepped on a mine, and 11 people died including my five children."

Sanaa, a mother of five, the eldest of whom is 14, travelled at night on 7 July climbing mountainous terrain in the Baashiqa area: "Daesh fighters were guarding the village, so we snuck out. Halfway through our journey, my youngest girl started crying and they [fighters] heard us. Daesh started shooting in the air, so we climbed even faster. The stones and thorns left my feet and ankles bloody. I looked up and saw Peshmerga beckoning us to climb up and they reached out to pull the children up. ..One of my children dropped a bag and I thought it was my little girl who fell down the mountain. I thought she was dead. I couldn't move. A Peshmerga pulled me up and said 'you are safe now' and I fainted straight away."

For others, the treacherous journeys ended with the arrest, disappearance or killing of their loved ones.

One man we met in Amariyat al-Falluja camp for displaced people in Anbar Governorate recounted his ordeal after escaping the Saqlawiya sub-district of Falluja on 3 June 2016:

"We were at least 1,300 men with our wives and children, and we met [armed] forces just before the area of Shuhada. We thought it was the army, but they turned out to be the Hashd's (PMU) Kataeb [Brigades] Hizbullah. Men were separated from women and children and hundreds were never seen again." He was among the luckier group of 605 men and boys, who were transferred to Amariyat al-Fallujah on 5 June, after being tortured and otherwise abused. Several died in custody. The fate of about 700 others from the area remains unknown, amid fears for their lives and safety.

Those who survived the IS and their journeys escaping them face a grim future. With fighting raging and bans on returns, there is little prospect of going home. In particular, Arab Sunni IDPs face arbitrary and discriminatory restrictions to their freedom of movement in both central Iraq and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. To be able to move out of camps into cities, they have to go through a myriad of bureaucratic procedures, which vary from governorate to governorate and appear to change at the whim of officials and armed men at checkpoints. Many need special permission simply to leave the camp for essential medical treatment.

A father of six pointed to his village visible from the edge of a Dohuk IDP camp stating: "My wife and younger children live at home. My 16 year-old son and I are not allowed to join them, we are prisoners in this camp... I am told that this is for security reasons. How can we live like this?"

As military operations gear-up in anticipation for the final assault on Mosul, the second largest city in Iraq and an IS-stronghold, doubts are rising about the ability of the Iraqi government and the international community to adequately respond to the humanitarian needs of fleeing civilians. Additional international funding is urgently needed to avoid catastrophe, while Iraqi authorities must rein in security forces to prevent further human rights abuses.

"What will become of us now?" asks one displaced woman who fled the village of Imam Gharbi in the north-western Ninewa Governorate. Her sister in law died along the way and her nephew was seized by the army suspected of supporting IS. For her, like the millions of other displaced people in Iraq, life has become a daily struggle and it remains uncertain what the future holds for them.

Copyright notice:  Copyright Amnesty International
Russia declares two more non-profits as undesirable

Publisher Amnesty International Publication Date 18 August 2016 Cite as Amnesty International, Russia declares two more non-profits as undesirable, 18 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57b8684d4.html [accessed 29 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

The Russian General Prosecutor's Office Thursday designated two more US-based organizations as "undesirable" under a draconian law adopted last year, as it continued to turn the screw on Russian civil society and cut off potential avenues of foreign funding.

The International Republican Institute (IRI), a Washington-based non-profit group funded by the US Congress, and the New York-based Media Development Investment Fund (MDIF) are just the latest in a list of organizations to be blacklisted in this way.

"This move is designed to send yet another unmistakable message: Russian NGOs and independent media should steer clear of foreign funders - and foreign funders should steer clear of Russia," said Sergei Nikitin, Director of Amnesty International Russia.

"This decision will not just hit Russian civil society, but also the communities and individuals they provide valuable services to."

"The true aim of the law is to isolate Russian civil society, intimidate human rights defenders and suffocate the free press that are facing increasing difficulties in accessing sustainable funding."

In a statement posted on its website, the Prosecutor General's office said that its investigation showed that the activities of IRI and MDIF had been posing "a threat to the foundations of the constitutional order and national security," without giving any further details. The work of both organizations is now illegal, any Russian assets they own have been frozen, and their foreign staff members have been denied entry to the country.

Background

Since the adoption of the law in July 2015, five other American non-profit organizations were added into the list of "undesirable" organizations: The National Endowment for Democracy, OSI Assistance Foundation, Open Society Foundation, U.S.-Russia Foundation for Economic Advancement and the Rule of Law and National Democratic Institute for International Affairs.

A notorious "patriotic list" of potential "undesirable" organizations widely distributed in the upper house of Russia's parliament last year contains a dozen non-profit groups in all.

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Australia: Official documents reveal serious incidents of abuse in Queensland juvenile detention centres

Publisher Amnesty International Publication Date 18 August 2016 Cite as Amnesty International, Australia: Official documents reveal serious incidents of abuse in Queensland juvenile detention centres, 18 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57b869154.html [accessed 29 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Australia must establish independent bodies to investigate child abuse in its detention facilities across the country, Amnesty International said today after it obtained more than 1,000 pages of government documents revealing abuses in two more centres.

The documents -- obtained by Amnesty International through a Freedom of Information request - showed a number of serious incidents, including where staff at the centres in the state of Queensland put child detainees in solitary confinement, deployed a security dog where a child was threatening suicide, caused bone fractures as a result of restraint and control techniques, and conducted partial strip searches using humiliating methods.

"These official documents shine a light in the darkest corners of these detention centres, and reveal incidents, and in some case policies, which may constitute cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, in violation of Australia's obligations under international law," said Champa Patel, Amnesty International's Senior Research Adviser for South East Asia and the Pacific.

The documents - which Amnesty International Australia obtained through a Freedom of Information request - describe incidents at the Cleveland Youth Detention Centre (CYDC) in Townsville, and the Brisbane Youth Detention Centre (BYDC) from 2010 to 2015. Indigenous Australians make up a majority of those held in the centres - accounting for 89% of children in the CYDC on an average day in 2015.

In one incident at the CYDC in January 2013, a 17-year-old boy identified as being at high suicide risk was restrained by a group of staff members, who held him down on the floor, and put him in handcuffs and leg cuffs when he refused to return to his room.

They then took the boy to a tiny isolation cell where they cut his clothing and underwear off with a knife. He was left naked in the cell for more than an hour before being given a gown to wear.

The snapshot of the Queensland centres comes after the Australian Broadcasting Corporation exposed the mistreatment of six boys held in isolation at a detention centre in the Northern Territory city of Darwin.

The boys there were teargassed and violently attacked at the Don Dale Detention Centre, including then-13-year-old Dylan Voller who was stripped naked and struck by guards. Harrowing images from years later in 2015 showed him at age 17 strapped to a restraint chair and hooded for hours, allegedly for being at risk of suicide.

A Royal Commission into child protection and youth detention in the Northern Territory over the past decade was established after the case was brought to light.

"Australia must put an end to these cruel, inhuman and degrading practices and stop sweeping these awful human rights violations under the rug. We have now seen hard evidence of these abuses happening in several states - it is clear what has been happening and this must be addressed urgently," said Champa Patel.

Amnesty International calls on Australia to ensure any staff suspected of being involved in abuse should be suspended until independent investigations are completed. The Federal Government must also ensure independent oversight mechanisms are established in every State and Territory by immediately ratifying the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture.

Other incidents outlined in the documents include:

Use of dogs. In 2014, a child on a roof threatened to self-harm or hang himself. A security guard and his dog were deployed to the scene, which was found to increase the young person's anxiety. In August 2015, a guard allowed an un-muzzled dog to approach an Indigenous girl in an "aggressive manner" while she was attempting to get out of a pool. Amnesty International is pleased to note that this practice of using dogs has been subsequently discontinued as we have documented the use of dogs to instil fear into prisoners as a torture method used around the world.

Solitary confinement. In March 2012 eight Indigenous children were held in isolation for 10 days in "near-continuous cell confinement" (approximately 22 hours a day). For the first two days of isolation, they were not allowed to leave their rooms at all.

Frequent attempts at self-harm or suicide, particularly at CYDC. According to the documents, 2015 saw 31 incidents of children in CYDC attempting suicide by "tying ligatures around their necks". This number rose from 20 instances at CYDC in 2014.

Unnecessary or excessive use of force. For example, in 2010 at CYDC there were four incidents when children suffered fractured wrists as a result of control and restraint techniques.

Partially clothed searches, during which children were asked to squat, with young girls asked to lift their breasts and young boys to lift their genitals prior to squatting - despite practices of squatting and lifting being prohibited in adult prisons.

Copyright notice:  Copyright Amnesty International
South Sudan: One year since peace deal, justice still elusive for victims

Publisher Amnesty International Publication Date 17 August 2016 Cite as Amnesty International, South Sudan: One year since peace deal, justice still elusive for victims, 17 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57b86a064.html [accessed 29 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Renewed violence underscores the urgency of bringing to account those responsible for crimes under international law committed during South Sudan's armed conflict, said Amnesty International and International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) today, a year on from a faltering peace agreement.

The peace accord was signed on 17 August 2015 in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. It requires the African Union (AU) to set up a hybrid court for South Sudan to investigate and prosecute individuals suspected of committing genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity since the conflict began in December 2013.

"Last month's return to violence underscores the need to seek accountability for the horrendous crimes committed and should bolster, not undermine, the pursuit of justice," said Elizabeth Deng, Amnesty International's South Sudan Researcher.

"The African Union must stop dragging its feet and take concrete steps to set up the court, including by immediately collecting and preserving evidence before it is lost and witnesses' memories of events fade."

Since the agreement was signed, the AU and South Sudanese authorities have made little progress in setting up the court. In the meantime, hostilities have continued and recently escalated, further worsening the human rights situation for millions of South Sudanese people.

During and after the recent fighting between government and opposition armed forces, civilians were once again targets of killings, rapes and other forms of sexual violence, and their property was looted and destroyed. .

"The recent outbreak of fighting in Juba and elsewhere is only the latest in a cycle of violence fuelled by impunity. Sustainable peace will remain elusive if nothing is done to ensure accountability for serious crimes committed in the past," said Sheila Muwanga, FIDH Vice President.

"The African Union must start engaging with South Sudanese, including civil society, to determine the statute, rules of procedure, location and personnel of the court."

The organizations reiterated that all those suspected of criminal responsibility for crimes under international law committed during South Sudan's armed conflict should be brought to justice in fair trials without recourse to death penalty.

They also called on the AU to ensure that the court complies with international fair trial standards, draws on best practices of other hybrid and ad hoc tribunals, includes South Sudanese nationals among its personnel, provides for the participation of victims at all stages of the proceedings and guarantees the protection of victims and witnesses.

Background

The African Union Commission of Inquiry on South Sudan (AUCISS) recommended in its final report published in September 2015 the creation of "an Africa-led, Africa-owned, Africa-resourced legal mechanism under the aegis of the African Union supported by the international community, particularly the United Nations to bring those with the greatest responsibility at the highest level to account." It added that "Such a mechanism should include South Sudanese judges and lawyers."

The heads of state and government of the AU Peace and Security Council (PSC) subsequently agreed to the establishment of the court. In a September 2015 Communique, the PSC requested the Chairperson of the AU Commission to "take all necessary steps towards the establishment of the HCSS, including providing broad guidelines relating to the location of the HCSS, its infrastructure, funding and enforcement mechanisms, the applicable jurisprudence, the number and composition of judges, privileges and immunities of Court personnel and any other related matters."

Copyright notice:  Copyright Amnesty International
Argentina: Ruling to release woman jailed after miscarriage, a step forward for human rights

Publisher Amnesty International Publication Date 17 August 2016 Cite as Amnesty International, Argentina: Ruling to release woman jailed after miscarriage, a step forward for human rights, 17 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57b86a9e4.html [accessed 29 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

A ruling to release a woman sentenced to eight years in prison after having a miscarriage in Argentina is a step forward for human rights in the country, Amnesty International said.

Last night the Supreme Court of Tucuman, a state in north Argentina, said there were not enough reasons to keep Belen, 27, in pre-trial detention. The Supreme Court of Tucuman is yet to issue a final ruling on the eight-year sentence imposed on Belen by the lower court. Belen is expected to be released from jail today.

"Belen's release is extremely positive and long awaited news. What we need to see now is for the charges against her to be dropped. Belen should have never been held behind bars in the first place, having a miscarriage is not a crime," said Mariela Belski, Executive Director at Amnesty International Argentina.

On 26 July, Amnesty International handed over more than 120,000 petitions from across the globe to local authorities, urging for Belen to be released.

Background Information

In March 2014, then 25-year-old Belen went to a state hospital in San Miguel de Tucuman, a city in northern Argentina, complaining of severe abdominal pains. At the hospital, a doctor told Belen that she was 22 weeks pregnant and experiencing a miscarriage. Belen was unaware that she was pregnant. She was kept in hospital for care.

Medical staff found a foetus in a hospital bathroom and claimed it was Belen's, without any evidence or DNA analysis to prove she had any relationship to the foetus. A nurse brought a box containing the foetus to Belen's bedside, claiming it was 'her son' and insulting her, Belen says.

The hospital staff reported Belen to the police, claiming that she had induced an abortion, rather than had a miscarriage. The person who causes an abortion can face prison from one to four years in Argentina. The law permits abortion when the life or health of a pregnant woman is at risk or when the pregnancy is the result of rape. Miscarriages or other complications during pregnancy are not criminalized.

The next thing Belen knew, she woke up in the hospital bed after surgery surrounded by police, who subjected her to intrusive physical examinations of 'private parts of her body'.ac.

The medical professionals hadn't proven Belen's relation to the foetus and they had failed to protect her right to patient confidentiality. Belen was charged with inducing an abortion.

Belen has been held in pre-trial detention for more than two years, awaiting trial and now annulment of her sentence. The prosecutor changed her charge to aggravated murder for the premeditated killing of a close relative - a crime that carries prison sentences of up to 25 years.

Copyright notice:  Copyright Amnesty International
Australia/PNG: Closure of Manus Island detention only first step to ending offshore nightmare for refugees

Publisher Amnesty International Publication Date 17 August 2016 Cite as Amnesty International, Australia/PNG: Closure of Manus Island detention only first step to ending offshore nightmare for refugees, 17 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57b86b084.html [accessed 29 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Responding to today's reports that the Australian Government-run refugee detention centre on Manus Island will close Anna Neistat, Amnesty International's Senior Director for Research, said:

"While welcoming the news that the centre will close Amnesty International urges the Australian Government to bring those currently held there to Australia. We must not forget that the Government set up a system of deliberate abuse of and cruelty towards almost two thousand people in two detention centres who are simply looking for a safe place to rebuild their lives."

"Amnesty International calls on Australian Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, Peter Dutton to urgently confirm the timeframe by which it will close the detention centre and safely settle refugees in Australia. Offshore processing can no longer be part of Australia's response to those attempting to arrive here by boat seeking protection."

Amnesty International recently investigated conditions in Nauru, and in November 2013 our team of investigators visited Manus Island. We found patterns of deliberate abuse at the hands of the Australian Government. These abuses are finally becoming known to other countries around the world.

"It is high time the people currently trapped on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea and on Nauru to be immediately brought to Australia to assess their refugee claims and live in the community. The Australian Government must be held accountable for the many years of harm it has inflicted upon people seeking its protection, as well as shoulder its share of responsibility and treat people seeking asylum fairly."

Copyright notice:  Copyright Amnesty International
Yemen: Huthi authorities must release detained Baha'is, end crackdown on minorities

Publisher Amnesty International Publication Date 17 August 2016 Cite as Amnesty International, Yemen: Huthi authorities must release detained Baha'is, end crackdown on minorities, 17 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57b86bae4.html [accessed 29 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

The Huthi armed group in control of parts of Yemen must immediately ensure the release of all 27 members of the Baha'i religion who have been detained in the capital, Sana'a, for a week without charge, in a blatant case of persecution of a minority faith, Amnesty International said today.

Armed officers in balaclavas from Yemen's National Security Bureau (NSB) intelligence agency, which works hand in hand with the armed Huthi authorities, stormed a Baha'i youth workshop in Sana'a on 10 August and arrested 65 people, including 14 women and six people under 18 without an arrest warrant. Further arrests were carried out yesterday.

"The arbitrary arrests of Baha'i people for doing nothing more than attending a peaceful community event is completely unjustifiable. It is just the latest example of authorities' persecution of minority faiths," said Magdalena Mughrabi, Amnesty International's Deputy Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme.

"The Huthis must end their harassment of minorities and respect the right to freedom of religion - a right that is enshrined in the country's own constitution and international law."

Some of the arrested participants were released, while the al-Sakkaf brothers -- the husbands of two detained women -- were later called into the NSB and were also arrested. Twenty-seven still remain in the agency's custody without access to lawyers or family visits.

The detentions of Baha'is on account of their faith violate Yemen's obligations under international law and appear to be part of a wider crackdown on minorities by the Huthi authorities. The Baha'is were also persecuted on account of their faith under ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh prior to the armed conflict.

The al-Sakkaf brothers were previously apprehended by Huthi authorities in March 2015 and held for two days, and were interrogated about their faith and other members of the community. They were released without charge.

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which Yemen ratified in 1987, guarantees the right of everyone to have or adopt a religion or belief of their choice and to practise their religion "individually or  with others and in public or private".

Yemen's penal code, however, imposes penalties for the "crime" of apostasy as well as for attempting to convert Muslims to other faiths.

The detention of the Baha'is for a week without charge and without being brought before a court also breaches the provision in Yemen's constitution, which requires that anybody arrested must be presented in court within 24 hours from the time of arrest.

In another case, Baha'i member Hamed Haydara is due for his final court hearing on 25 September 2016. He was detained in December 2013 and accused of trying to convert Muslims to the Baha'i faith.

He is also charged, among other things, with apostasy, working on behalf of the Israeli government and undermining the independence of the Yemeni State, all of which carry a mandatory death sentence under Yemeni law.

Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception.

Copyright notice:  Copyright Amnesty International
Iraq: Hundreds of thousands more risk displacement sparking fresh humanitarian crisis

Publisher Amnesty International Publication Date 16 August 2016 Cite as Amnesty International, Iraq: Hundreds of thousands more risk displacement sparking fresh humanitarian crisis, 16 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57b86e874.html [accessed 29 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Increased humanitarian assistance is urgently required to alleviate the suffering of millions of Iraqis displaced across the country and to provide basic services to hundreds of thousands of people who are expected to be displaced by military operations to recapture territory controlled by the group calling itself Islamic State (IS), said Amnesty International today following a three-week research trip to the country.

Humanitarian organizations have already been struggling to meet the most basic needs of the more than 3.4 million people who have been forced to flee IS rule and ongoing fighting to recapture IS territory. The impending battle for Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city and an IS stronghold, is expected to displace hundreds of thousands more in the coming months.

"Unless humanitarian aid is adequately funded, planned for and implemented, the potential influx of hundreds of thousands more displaced people fleeing the fighting and horrific abuses under IS control will push Iraq past breaking point with devastating consequences," said Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International's Senior Crisis Response Advisor who is leading the research mission to Iraq.

"We have witnessed how the vast majority of displaced people in camps or living in unfinished building sites across the country already have little or no access to basic necessities and medical care. The Iraqi authorities' response to displaced people has been woefully insufficient and much of the world has largely ignored their plight."

The international community has ploughed the vast majority of their resources and efforts into providing support to the military operations to combat IS.

"While the international community, including the USA, European states and others, has been eager to provide financial backing to the military campaign against IS, it has been far slower to provide contributions to alleviate the consequences on the civilian population. World leaders must urgently step up their funding for humanitarian assistance to those displaced civilians, some of whom were forced to flee due to the military operations supported by the international community," said Donatella Rovera.

"Additional international funding is desperately needed to meet the basic needs of the millions already displaced and prepare for further mass displacement from military operations to retake Mosul and the surrounding areas."

UN agencies have reported a shortfall of 53% of the funding needed to meet their crisis response plan for 2016.

For people like Ahmad, a father of seven, displaced from Iraq's north-west Ninewa province, the consequences are disastrous. He described to Amnesty International how he has struggled to feed his family after his home and livelihood were destroyed:

"At night I go to sleep dreading the morning, because I have nothing left to offer to my children and I can't bear to look them in the eye," he said.

Five weeks after he and his family arrived at a camp for internally displaced people (IDP) on the outskirts of the northern town of Dibega, they have not yet received a tent. The women and children of the family are sheltering along with hundreds of others in the camp's very overcrowded school - with 50 or more people squeezed into each room. The men are stranded in a nearby area of the camp where they are forced to sleep in the open air among piles of rubbish and open sewage. Whatever little food is available can't be preserved in the stifling heat, with the temperature reaching over 50 degrees Celsius.

In the space of a few weeks the camp for IDPs in Dibega has grown to the size of a small town, now hosting more than 30,000 people who fled IS-controlled areas.

In Anbar governorate, west of Baghdad, where more people have been displaced by the conflict than anywhere else in the country, the situation is similarly dire. Sprawling camps in the desert have buckled under the pressure of an influx of 87,000 more displaced people since the military offensive to retake the city of Falluja and surrounding areas began at the end of May.

"We survived hell under Daesh (IS) and hoped to find relief here," Hala, a mother of six, told Amnesty International in an IDP camp in Anbar's Khalidiya area. Her husband has been missing since being abducted by IS two years ago.

"I have received very little help in the two months I have been here. For weeks we had nothing to sleep on. Now we have a tent, but nothing else," she said.

"What's even more tragic is that the suffering of these people could have been avoided if the authorities had been better prepared. Instead, families who arrive, exhausted from treacherous journeys and months of life under siege, with nothing but the clothes on their back, are forced to endure further hardship," said Donatella Rovera.

Security measures compounding the crisis

Security measures and restrictions combined with unclear bureaucratic requirements have also exacerbated the growing humanitarian crisis.

Those displaced by recent and ongoing military operations are predominantly members of the Arab Sunni community and are subjected to security screening.

All men considered of fighting age (roughly between the ages of 15 and 65) who escape areas under IS control are separated from their families to undergo screening and interrogations, which can last from a few days to months for those released and not referred to trial or for further investigation.

They are held in transit sites near IDP camps or makeshift detention facilities, where conditions are squalid, characterized by severe overcrowding, shortages of latrines and other sanitation facilities, little food and a lack of basic necessities. Some are held outdoors with little protection from the scorching sun. Those in detention sites are frequently denied communication with their families. These flawed and opaque security procedures are applied by both Iraqi central government and the authorities in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

One woman at Dibega told Amnesty International that she had not heard from her son Hassan, a 20-year-old agricultural worker, since he had been taken away by security forces while they were trying to reach the camp.

"I just want to know where he is; he is my only son. The officers who took him away told me they would bring him back before sunset but it has been over a month and I don't know where he is," she said.

Security is also cited as a reason to prevent many displaced people from leaving the IDP camps. They must navigate onerous bureaucratic procedures and often require a local sponsor to seek permission to enter cities.

Others have been prevented from returning to their towns and villages even though these have long been recaptured from IS and secured by forces loyal to the Iraqi government or the Peshmerga forces of the Kurdistan Regional Government.

Nominally for security grounds, the authorities mostly impose such restrictions in the so-called "disputed areas" in the north of the country. These areas are now under de-facto control of Shi'a-backed paramilitaries or the KRG, and have long been the subject of territorial disputes.

These often arbitrarily imposed restrictions severely limit the ability of displaced people to access the job market leaving them dependent on humanitarian aid.

Ali, a farmer and father in an IDP camp in Guermawa, north-western Iraq told Amnesty International:

"Back home in the village we have a house and I could cultivate the land and feed my children. Here we are sleeping on the ground in dust and are forced to rely on whatever little humanitarian assistance we can get, when we can get it."

While the Iraqi authorities have the right and duty to protect the lives and physical integrity of civilians within their border, security procedures must comply with international law. Existing arbitrary restrictions on the freedom of movement of IDPs, including those who have been released after security screening, should be lifted.

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Azerbaijan: Activist Arrested, Held Incommunicado

Publisher Human Rights Watch Publication Date 19 August 2016 Cite as Human Rights Watch, Azerbaijan: Activist Arrested, Held Incommunicado, 19 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57b871084.html [accessed 29 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Azerbaijani authorities arrested Elgiz Gahraman, a youth activist, on August 12, 2016, but have refused to reveal his whereabouts or to give him access to a lawyer of his choosing, Human Rights Watch said today. The authorities should set aside Gahraman's detention order and promptly release him. If the authorities have credible evidence to pursue charges, they can proceed promptly to a fair trial while he is on bail, in accordance with international standards.

Gahraman was charged with drug possession on August 13, and the Narimanov District Court ordered him held in pretrial detention for four months. Police officers were instructed to take Gahraman to a pretrial detention facility. But the authorities have prevented a lawyer retained by Gahraman's parents from meeting with him and would not provide information about his whereabouts to the lawyer or to Gahraman's parents.

"Every minute that Gahraman doesn't have access to a lawyer of his choice, and his whereabouts is unknown to his family, is a minute when he's vulnerable to ill-treatment by police," said Giorgi Gogia, South Caucasus director at Human Rights Watch. "The authorities should immediately tell Gahraman's family where he is and ensure unfettered access to the lawyer of his choice."

Gahraman is a member of NIDA, Azeri for exclamation mark, a youth opposition movement active on social media that is highly critical of the government. Police detained him in the center of the capital, Baku, and took him to the Organized Crime Unit at the Interior Ministry. After allegedly discovering 3.315 grams of heroin on him, the authorities charged Gahraman with illegal drug possession in large quantity with an intention to sell under criminal code article 234.4.3. If convicted, he could face up to 12 years in prison.

For the past three years, the Azerbaijani government has carried out a pervasive crackdown on dissent, jailing dozens of political activists, human rights defenders, journalists, and other government critics.

Azerbaijan has a history of using bogus drug charges against NIDA and other youth activists to stop them from criticizing the government, Human Rights Watch said.

Gahraman's parents found out about his detention from a friend of his who was detained with him but released five hours later. For more than two days the family phoned the police hotline but was not able to get any additional information about Gahraman's detention or his whereabouts. Nor has Gahraman been in contact with his family, presumably because authorities have not allowed him to contact them. On August 15, officials at the Organized Crime Unit told the lawyer that a court had already ordered pretrial detention for his client.

Gahraman's lawyer told Human Rights Watch on August 18 that since August 15 he had been unsuccessfully trying to establish exactly where his client was being held and to visit him. The pretrial detention order, which Human Rights Watch has reviewed, states that the authorities should have transferred Gahraman to a pretrial detention facility in the Kurdakhani district of Baku, but when the lawyer went there he was told Gahraman was not there.

On August 16, the lawyer spoke with the investigator for the case, explained that he had a retention letter from the family  referred to as "an order" in Azerbaijan  and asked for a meeting with Gahraman. The investigator told the lawyer to send the letter by registered mail to the Organized Crime Unit and that he would review it. The lawyer sent the letter on August 16, but has not heard back from the investigator.

Under Azerbaijani law, the case investigator should be present at the first meeting a detainee has with the lawyer retained by the family, to confirm the choice of the defense lawyer with the detainee. On August 15, the family learned that Gahraman had been represented by a state-appointed lawyer at his bail hearing. The lawyer retained by the Gahramans appealed the judge's order for pretrial detention. However, at the appeal hearing, on August 18, the authorities failed to bring Gahraman to the court. Instead the investigator read a letter, allegedly from Gahraman, saying that he did not object to the pretrial detention order and did not want to appear in court

"It's hard to avoid the impression that law enforcement is purposefully keeping Gahraman out of sight," Gogia said. "Whether that's because they are trying to hide signs of abuse, or otherwise seeking to coerce him, blatantly circumventing his basic due process rights strongly suggests serious wrongdoing by the authorities."

By refusing to provide the Gahraman's family information about his arrest and his place of detention and by creating artificial barriers to prompt access to a lawyer of his choosing, the authorities are denying Gahraman his fundamental rights as a detainee and important safeguards to prevent ill-treatment and guarantee an effective defense, Human Rights Watch said. Physical abuse in police custody is a persistent problem in Azerbaijan.

Although about 17 human rights defenders, journalists, and activists have been released since March, the crackdown again intensified in the past few weeks.

Also on August 12, Azerbaijani authorities arrested Natig Jafarli, a prominent government critic and executive secretary of the opposition Republican Alternative (REAL) movement, charged him with illegal entrepreneurship and abuse of office, and sent him to pretrial detention for four months. The charges stem from a criminal case the prosecutor general's office opened against non-governmental groups in 2014. If convicted, he faces up to eight years in prison.

On August 15, a Baku court sentenced two other REAL activists Elshan Gasimov and Togrul Ismayilov, to seven days of administrative detention, allegedly for disobeying police orders.

REAL openly campaigned against proposed amendments to the constitution that abolish minimal age requirement for a presidential candidate, increase the presidential term of office from five to seven years, and give the president additional powers. They include the authority to dissolve the parliament, and to appoint the first vice-president to serve as president if the president is unable to fulfill his duties. Currently, the prime minister becomes acting president if the president is incapacitated.

Azerbaijan is a party to multiple human rights treaties, including the European Convention on Human Rights, that require governments to ensure multiple safeguards against arbitrary or otherwise unlawful detention (article 5 of the Convention), as well as against violation of fair trial rights (article 6 of the Convention). These include proper procedures around detention, so that the location of any detainee can be promptly established and the right to a lawyer from the moment of detention.

The European Court of Human Rights has told governments that they need to have accessible records that show "date, time, location of detention, the name of the detainees, as well as the reasons for the detention and the name of the person effecting it" and that failure to do so is "incompatible with the very purpose of Article 5." The failure of the authorities to provide Gahraman's lawyer or family with information on his whereabouts indicates that these safeguards are not being met.

The court has also emphasized on multiple occasions that, "access to a lawyer should be provided as from the first interrogation of a suspect by the police, unless it is demonstrated in the light of the particular circumstances of each case that there are compelling reasons to restrict this right."

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Cambodia: Drop Case Against Peaceful Activists

Publisher Human Rights Watch Publication Date 19 August 2016 Cite as Human Rights Watch, Cambodia: Drop Case Against Peaceful Activists, 19 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57b871a34.html [accessed 29 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Cambodian authorities should immediately drop the prosecution of two social activists for "direct incitement" to foment social disorder, Human Rights Watch said today. The prosecution violates their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.

On the evening of August 15, 2016, in Phnom Penh, police took two women, Tep Vanny and Bov Sophea, into custody while they were staging a symbolic cursing of people they consider responsible for human rights violations in Cambodia. Their arrests took place during a so-called Black Monday gathering where demonstrators were calling for the release of previously jailed human rights defenders, and for an independent investigation into the July 10 killing of Kem Ley, a popular social commentator and frequent government critic. The detention and subsequent charging of the two women is the latest effort by Phnom Penh authorities to deter and suppress weekly peaceful protests against Prime Minister Hun Sen and his ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP).

"The baseless charges against two activists is the latest escalation of the government's increasingly vindictive assault on peaceful critics," said Brad Adams, Asia director. "In Kafkaesque Cambodia, it seems one can't protest the wrongful treatment of critics of the government without becoming the next target of government mistreatment."

The government has alleged that the Black Monday activities are part of a foreign-backed attempt by the political opposition to fuel what Hun Sen and CPP partisans commanding the security forces call a "color revolution"  a reference to the toppling of several post-Soviet bloc governments in the first decade of this century. However, at no time has the government produced any evidence that the opposition is engaged in anything other than preparations to lawfully contest local and national elections scheduled for 2017 and 2018. The main opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) has declined to participate in Black Monday protests, although some of its members have worn black clothing on Mondays to show moral support for the protests.

Since May, as part of the government's anti-Black Monday repression, the Phnom Penh police and para-police have repeatedly taken peaceful protesters into temporary custody, threatening them with prosecution unless they cease their activities. In many instances, detained protesters were compelled to sign "contracts" promising to stop. Such documents have no basis in Cambodian law and violate international legal guarantees of freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. This has been accompanied by a campaign of directly and indirectly threatening telephone calls and visits by security force officers to prominent social activists that appear aimed to end to their activities. Such intimidation has occurred both before and after the outburst of largely spontaneous mass mourning for Kem Ley, who had received warnings before he was assassinated.

The detention and charging of Tep Vanny and Bov Sophea marks the first time the authorities have gone beyond temporary holding of Black Monday protesters. After being kept in police custody without charge for the maximum period of 48 hours, a prosecutor of the Phnom Penh Capital Court on August 17 invoked article 47 of Cambodia's criminal procedure code to charge the two women for immediate and summary trial for allegedly violating criminal code article 495, which provides six months to two years' imprisonment for "direct incitement to commit a felony or to commit acts generating severe disruption to the security of society." Invoking the "immediate appearance" procedure under article 47 allowed prosecutors to bring Tep Vanny and Bov Sophea before a trial judge on August 17, circumventing the normal criminal procedure by which the accused and their defense counsel can contest the evidence against them during investigations by the prosecution and an investigating judge.

The case's trial judge has set hearings for August 22, 2016, giving the two women, to whom he also denied bail, virtually no time to prepare their defense, in violation of their fair trial rights under Cambodian law and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Beyond the women's apparent arrest for peacefully exercising their fundamental human rights, criminal code article 495 requires that the prosecution show that the defendants' "direct incitement" resulted in an intentionally immediate and specific threat of "severe disruption to the security of society," of which there is no evidence. In addition, applying procedure code article 47 to this case appears legally flawed, as it requires that the offense to be tried carry a punishment of at least one year in prison, more than the six months' minimum specified for incitement under article 495.

"How many peaceful protesters need to be arrested before Cambodia's international donors express outrage?" Adams said. "They should jointly and publicly call for the release of Tep Vanny and Bov Sophea and an end to the government's campaign against peaceful protest."

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South Africa: Little Progress for Youth With Disabilities

Publisher Human Rights Watch Publication Date 19 August 2016 Cite as Human Rights Watch, South Africa: Little Progress for Youth With Disabilities, 19 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57b872654.html [accessed 29 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

South Africa has made little progress in addressing the discrimination and exclusion faced by children with disabilities when accessing schools, Human Rights Watch and Section 27 said today. South Africa's national government needs to take urgent action to demonstrate its commitment to inclusive education.

Section 27, a leading South African public interest law center, conducted new research demonstrating widespread and severe violations of the rights of children with disabilities, including the ongoing discrimination and the lack of concrete action to address areas of high exclusion in the Umkhanyakude District of KwaZulu-Natal. Based on interviews with 100 caregivers of children with disabilities and visits to 14 special and full-service schools, it described the situation there as a "dual racial and disability apartheid in South Africa's education system."

Nongovernmental organizations have repeatedly called for clarity on the numbers of children with disabilities who remain out of school, as well as for explicit budget lines for inclusive education in national and provincial budgets. Human Rights Watch has also said the government should stop segregating children with disabilities, and ensure that they are accommodated and guaranteed quality education in mainstream schools.

The government has not yet presented accurate data to show how many children with disabilities are out of school and continues to rely on estimates and outdated data.

In November 2015, the minister of basic education, Angelina Motshekga, announced that the Department of Basic Education would take major steps to strengthen the implementation of its inclusive education policy. In March 2016, President Jacob Zuma announced his commitment that "all government institutions must ring fence a budget for participation by and empowerment of young persons with disabilities, and must report annually on the impact of these programmes."

Yet, the government's 2016-2017 budget does not have a dedicated budget line for inclusive education, and does not stipulate financial support for full service schools, which would be adapted or built to accommodate children with disabilities and provide specialized services and attention in a mainstream environment. The Department of Basic Education stated that it has budgeted R6.3 billion (US$450 million) for special schools in 2016, and allocated funds for workbooks for visually impaired learners.

Research conducted from 2013 to 2015 by Section 27 in Umkhanyakude District, in northeast KwaZulu-Natal, found that schools are not provided with sufficient and consistent funding to accommodate students with disabilities. Both special and full service schools in the district report serious problems with infrastructure and access to basic services.

Chronic underfunding also affects special schools around the country, particularly those in rural areas like the Umkhanyakude District. Although the district's three special schools have been built recently and appear impressive at first sight, they lack furniture and facilities needed by children with disabilities.

Human Rights Watch and Section 27 acknowledged the government's attempts to carry out its screening, identification, assessment, and support policy, to ensure that all children are screened for learning barriers. Where the policy has been carried out correctly and understood by local education officials, it is increasing support for children with disabilities who are adequately assessed. However, the policy is not being uniformly rolled out in many rural areas, in many cases due to a lack of resources and the absence of qualified education personnel.

Beyond assessments, the government should ensure that adequate support and reasonable accommodations are provided in mainstream schools, to ensure that more children with disabilities can get quality education in inclusive environments.

The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child will review South Africa's record on September 19-20, 2016. Nongovernmental organizations have submitted evidence on the discrimination faced by children with disabilities in education. They urged the committee to recommend that South Africa should adopt adequate legislation to protect the right to education of children with disabilities, and allocate adequate resources to guarantee more children with disabilities access inclusive schools.

"We acknowledge the department's intent to make a budget available to strengthen special schools for an inclusive education system," said Silomo Khumalo, legal researcher at Section 27. "However, intent is not good enough. It must be supported with action. Funds from the Treasury must be allocated. We measure the department's success by the standard set by the constitutionally entrenched right to basic education and children with disabilities' right to equality. This right applies to all children, including children with disabilities, right now."

New Evidence of Exclusion of Children with Disabilities

Section 27's August 2016 report, "'Too Many Left Behind': Exclusion in the South African Inclusive Education System," documents widespread violations of the rights of children with disabilities in the Umkhanyakude District of KwaZulu-Natal. Section 27 found violations against poor black children with disabilities so severe that it described the situation as a "dual racial and disability apartheid in South Africa's education system" that amounts to systemic violations of children's constitutional rights to basic education, equality, and dignity.

Based on interviews with 100 caregivers of children with disabilities, and visits to three special schools and 11 full service schools in the district, Section 27 found that a large number of children with disabilities in the district do not have  and may never have had  access to school. A study in Manguzi in 2001 estimated that 53 percent of children with disabilities "did not attend school," and of those who did, 53 percent "reported having difficulties at school."

At special schools, teachers struggle to teach the curriculum  both because they don't have the requisite skills to teach children with varying barriers to learning, and because their classes are too big to give children individual attention and support.

Out of the 11 full service schools in the district, only two have any transportation provided by the province's Department of Education. One of the schools, with an enrollment of 1,000 learners, has a bus that transports 120 children on a specific route. The second school shares a single bus with seven other schools in its area, and the principal must provide a list of only the children with the greatest need to receive the service. Many children on the list refuse to use the bus, saying they are bullied by high school students who also use the bus.

The nine remaining schools have no transportation or budget to help children with transportation. The schools say that the provincial Department of Education has been made well aware of their desperate need for transportation.

Ten of the 11 full service schools in the district are primary schools. Only one of the 14 schools in the district that serves children with disabilities  Somfula Secondary School  is a high school. This school has such limited space that it largely only accepts students from its primary school. Most children with intellectual, sensory, or severe physical disabilities cannot go beyond grade seven or attain a National Senior Certificate in their own district.

A government report released in November 2015 estimates that Kwazulu-Natal has as many as 182,153 children ages 5 to 18 with disabilities, but that as many as 137,889  76 percent  may not be receiving any schooling.

Selected Accounts

A parent of an 8-year-old boy with physical and intellectual disabilities in Manguzi, said:

The doctors [at Manguzi Hospital] referred my son to Sisizakele [special school], and I was told that he would be placed on a waiting list and I would receive a call. I have still not received a call. He was delayed in learning to walk and talk, though he will laugh sometimes. Now he can even bathe himself. But he can't read or write and is very slow at school, and still struggles to speak properly. The local school indicated that they couldn't cope with him after he had been there for a year.

He is eight years old. He has been out of school for more than two years. Both my son and I are hurt that he is not in school. It means that the teachers think my son is nothing compared to other people.

The head of department at a special school said:

Some learners leave the school, and then find somewhere to do grade seven, and then receive further education. Others cannot, because they are fully dependent and would require another special school to do so, even if they could cope with the content of higher grades. [There are] three children currently at the school who have the potential to go to grade seven after being educated at [our special school]; but because they are in wheelchairs, they cannot be taken to another school.

A principal at a full-service school said:

It is more important to have transport, because there are learners with disabilities at the school. There is a grade four learner who is epileptic, and he does not want to walk so far and so will fight with his parents. There is another learner in the school who has a physical disability who walks far to school, and sometimes when she arrives she will complain that she feels sick and so she can't learn. This child has a limp, and must walk 10 kilometers to school. One side of her body does not work properly.

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Belarus: Turkmen Dissident Arrested

Publisher Human Rights Watch Publication Date 20 August 2016 Cite as Human Rights Watch, Belarus: Turkmen Dissident Arrested, 20 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57b8731f4.html [accessed 29 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Belarusian authorities are holding a former journalist from Turkmenistan on an extradition request by the Turkmen government, Human Rights Watch said today. They should immediately release the former journalist, Chary Annamuradov, and under no circumstances extradite or otherwise return him to Turkmenistan, where he would face torture and ill-treatment in custody.

Annamuradov, 58, worked as an independent journalist in Turkmenistan in the 1990s but had to flee the country in 1999 due to persecution and obtained asylum in Sweden in 2003. He has both Swedish and Russian citizenship and continued to work as a journalist until 2008.

"The Turkmen government has a long record of ruthlessly persecuting critics, including journalists," said Rachel Denber, deputy Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "If Annamuradov is returned to Turkmenistan, there is little doubt the government would unjustly jail and abuse him."

Turkmenistan is a closed country, ruled by an extremely repressive government. Turkmenistan's authorities allow no media freedom whatsoever and commonly use criminal charges to seek retribution against critics.

Belarusian border police arrested Annamuradov on July 19, 2016, when he arrived at passport control in the Minsk airport. He was traveling from Sweden to Minsk on vacation with his 16-year-old daughter. Annamuradov's family told Human Rights Watch that the police held both of them for four hours, then released his daughter but told Annamuradov he was under arrest. His daughter subsequently returned to Sweden.

Annamuradov's family has learned that Belarussian authorities arrested him because he is wanted in Turkmenistan in connection with criminal fraud charges filed in 2006.

"Belarusian authorities have no legitimate grounds to continue to hold Annamuradov in custody," Denber said. "He has been granted asylum in Sweden to protect him from the very government Belarus says they are acting on behalf of. They should release him immediately and let him return to Sweden."

Annamuradov was traveling on his Russian passport to avoid the need to obtain a Belarusian visa, as Russian citizens do not need visas to enter Belarus. His family said it was the first time Annamuradov had traveled to any country in the post-Soviet region since he received asylum in Sweden more than a decade ago.

In 1993, Annamuradov became a correspondent in Turkmenistan for the Russian daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta, covering such issues as Turkmenistan's political prisoners, ethnic minorities, and other social issues. He and his family faced harassment in retribution for his work, and in 1996, Turkmen police arrested him on bogus smuggling and numerous other trumped-up criminal charges. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison in 1997, but was released under amnesty in 1999, after serving two years.

Annamuradov's family told Human Rights Watch that later in 1999, police again detained Annamuradov and beat him severely, but released him the same day. He fled Turkmenistan soon thereafter, first to Russia, only to be hounded by Turkmen security services, and then to Belarus. Meanwhile, Turkmen security services repeatedly detained and threatened his wife, who was still in Turkmenistan, and his brother, to get them to reveal Annamuradov's whereabouts.

Annamuradov continued to write, using pseudonyms, about Turkmenistan's political prisoners, ethnic minorities, and other social issues, for Radio Liberty's Turkmen service, Deutsche Welle, and an opposition website, Gungadar. In 2008, Annamuradov stopped working as a journalist.

The Turkmen government controls all print and electronic media in the country, and reporters for foreign media outlets often cannot get visas to enter Turkmenistan. Authorities have repeatedly targeted Radio Azatlyk, the Turkmen service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), the only source of Turkmen-language alternative news available in the country.

In 2015, a court sentenced Saparmamed Nepeskuliev, a freelance correspondent for RFE/RL, to three years in prison on trumped-up drug charges. That same year, it also forced three other correspondents to cease working for RFE/RL.

"The Belarusian authorities have held Annamuradov for a full month now, based on an antiquated wanted list from a government that persecutes journalists, and specially has already persecuted him," Denber said. "Belarus should end this travesty and release Annamuradov."

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Human Rights Watch Submission on the Philippines to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

Publisher Human Rights Watch Publication Date 16 August 2016 Cite as Human Rights Watch, Human Rights Watch Submission on the Philippines to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 16 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57b873b44.html [accessed 29 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

We write in advance of your upcoming plenary session on the government of the Philippines' compliance with the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).

Human Rights Watch has extensively documented violations relating to attacks on education and the recruitment and use of child solders, the right to education, the right to health, and the right to work. This submission relates to Articles 10, 12, 13, and 14 of the ICESCR. It proposes issues and questions that Committee members may wish to raise with the government while reviewing its compliance with these articles.

Related Content

Child labor (Articles 10(3), 12)

Child Labor in Gold Mining

Thousands of children in the Philippines risk their lives every day mining gold. Children work in unstable 25-meter-deep pits that could collapse at any moment, or underwater, along the shore, or in rivers, with oxygen tubes in their mouths. They also process gold with mercury, a toxic metal, risking irreversible health damage from mercury poisoning.[1]

Artisanal and small-scale gold mining occurs in more than 30 provinces of the Philippines, and is an important livelihood for many poor, rural communities, largely occurring in the informal sector. An estimated 200,000 to 300,000 people work in small-scale gold mining.[2] According to a 2009 statement by the International Labour Organization (ILO), over 18,000 girls and boys work in mining in the Philippines.[3] Much of the children's work in the Philippines mines is hazardous and falls under the worst forms of child labor.

Large and small-scale mines produced about 18 tons of gold in 2014, at a market value of over US$700 million, according to official statistics. It is estimated that 70 to 80 percent of gold in the Philippines originates from small-scale gold mining.[4] Human Rights Watch has documented child labor in Camarines Norte and Masbate provinces, where we interviewed 65 child miners44 boys and 21 girlsbetween the ages of 9 and 17 in November 2014 and June 2015.[5]

Children start working as young as age 9, often work long hours, and in a few cases, adolescents work 24-hour shifts.[6]

Boys and adult miners mine gold underwater in a practice called known as compressor mining, sometimes for several hours. They receive air through a tube attached to an air compressor on the surface, but these tubes sometimes malfunction. The work exposes miners to the risk of drowning and serious health conditions such as decompression sickness and skin infections. Boys also work in deep pits where they are at risk of injury and death, for example, from falling rocks or wood beams, and death.[7]

Furthermore, girls and boys process gold with mercury, a highly toxic metal, by amalgamating the mercury with gold and then burning the amalgam to separate out the gold. Such exposure to high levels of mercury can cause irreversible health damage from mercury poisoning, including lifelong disability, brain damage, and even death. Heavy lifting involved in all the mining work causes pain in the back, shoulders, sides, or hands, and can cause spinal damage in the long-term.[8]

The Philippines Labor Code sets the minimum age for work at 15, and prohibits hazardous work for anyone under the age of 18. In addition to the ICESCR, the Philippines has ratified international laws on child labor, in particular the ILO Minimum Age Convention and the Worst Forms of Child Labor Convention.[9]

The government of the Philippines has been committed to combating the worst forms of child labor in law and policy but we remain concerned about the lack of enforcement. Child labor inspections in mines are rare, employers are not sanctioned for using child labor, and children are not withdrawn from mines. We are also concerned that, so far, administrative order 2015-03 of March 16, 2015 by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, which prohibits mercury use and underwater mining, appears to be poorly enforced in at least one area, Camarines Norte, where mercury use and compressor mining were ongoing during Human Rights Watch's visit in June 2015.[10]

Further information can be found in Human Rights Watch's report, "What  if Something Went Wrong?" Hazardous Child Labor in Small-Scale Gold Mining in the Philippines."[11]

Human Rights Watch recommends the Committee ask the government of the Philippines:

What steps is the government taking to tackle hazardous child labor in artisanal and small-scale gold mining?

What steps is the government taking to implement the March 2015 administrative order banning mercury use and compressor mining?

What steps is the government taking to implement the National Strategic Plan for the Phase-Out of Mercury in Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining and to ratify the 2013 Minamata Convention on Mercury?

Human Rights Watch asks the Committee to call upon the government of the Philippines to:

Develop a strategy to tackle child labor in mining and include it in the new child labor program.

Develop a comprehensive strategy for a responsible and safe small-scale mining sector, including enforcing the March 2015 administrative order banning mercury use and compressor mining.

Implement the National Strategic Plan for the Phase-Out of Mercury in Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining, including by introducing mercury-free gold processing methods and by ending the use of mercury by children.

Ratify the Minamata Convention on Mercury and implement its provisions.

Improve access to health care for miners for mining-related health conditions, including mercury exposure.

Education (Articles 13, 14)

Access to Education for Child Laborers in Mining Sector

An estimated 3.5 million children are out of school in the Philippines.[12] The right to education is guaranteed under the Philippines's constitution, which states that "The State shall protect and promote the right of all citizens to quality education at all levels, and shall take appropriate steps to make such education accessible to all." Moreover, "The State shall give priority to education."[13]

While the government has taken some important steps to ensure education for all, the number of out-of-school children working in gold mines remains a concern. Work in small-scale and artisanal gold mining causes children to miss school and sometimes drop out altogether. Child laborers work to support their parents financially. In addition, several children work to earn money for school supplies.[14] Nearly one-third of child miners interviewed by Human Rights Watch in November 2014 and June 2015 did not go to school at all. Other child laborers interviewed said that they attended school but skipped classes on a regular basis to work at the mines.[15]

School performance is also affected as children lack time to rest and study. Children and teachers interviewed by Human Rights Watch noted that children are tired, slow, and unfocused due to their work in the mines.[16]

Human Rights Watch recommends the Committee ask the government of the Philippines:

How many children are currently out of school in the Philippines?

What measures are in place to ensure that children who are out of school for financial reasons are being supported to get into school?

What progress is being made on efforts to monitor child labor through schools and teachers?

Human Rights Watch asks the Committee to call upon the Philippines to:

Improve access to education for children working in small-scale mining, including by following up on students who are frequently absent from school or who drop out, and offering bridging programs to get back into school.

Offer appropriate part-time youth employment opportunities for adolescents between the ages of 15 and 17, that do not interfere with the compulsory schooling requirement for these children.

Use social protection measures to assist vulnerable families in mining areas, including by providing stipends conditional on school attendance to offset lost income from child labor, guaranteeing access to free primary education, educating parents about the risks of hazardous labor, and providing basic social protections to orphans and other children affected by HIV/AIDS.

Attacks on education

Attacks on students, teachers, and schools, as well as the military use of schools continue to occur in the Philippines. They place children and teachers at risk of injury or death and affect students' ability to obtain a quality education.

The Philippine government is engaged in long-running internal armed conflicts with the communist New People's Army (NPA) and various Islamist armed groups in the south.[17]

There are a number of provisions for the protection of schools from military use and from attack in domestic law and military policy.

In 2009, the Philippine Congress passed a law affording protection against "intentionally directing attacks against buildings dedicated to  education, provided they are not military objectives," which is listed as a "war crime." Penalties range up to life imprisonment and fines from 100,000 to 1 million Philippine pesos (US$2,300-$23,100).[18]

The military use of schools has been explicitly banned under both national legislation and military policy. Section 22 of the 1992 Special Protection of Children Against Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act declares that children are "Zones of Peace" and prohibits the use of schools "for military purposes such as command posts, barracks, detachments, and supply depots."[19] Subsequent to the banning of the use of school for military purposes in the national legislation, a number of provincial and municipal entities issued local ordinances that reiterated the absolute ban.[20]

The Armed Forces of the Philippines Letter Directive Number 34 orders that all armed forces personnel shall strictly abide and respect that "Basic infrastructure such as schools  shall not be utilized for military purpose such as command posts, barracks, detachments, and supply depots."[21]

A number of deliberate attacks on students, teachers, and schools have been documented in the Philippines since its last review before the Committee.[22] According to information received by the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack, the United Nations verified 43 incidents involving damage, destruction, or occupation of education facilities, placement of landmines and unexploded ordnance near schools and violence or threats of violence against teachers and students from 2010 to 2012. In addition, 92 other incidents were recorded but could not be verified due to geographic and personnel restraints. These 135 incidents were estimated to have affected 8,757 students.[23]

In 2013, fighting between the Philippine military and a faction of the rebel Moro National Liberation Front forced 170 schools to close, although most of them have since reopened.[24]

Tribal schools have increasingly been the target of attacks. Since 2014, the Alamara paramilitary group has harassed students at tribal schools run by religious and nongovernmental groups in the context of wider violence against villages of indigenous peoples in Bukidnon and Davao del Norte provinces. These attacks have resulted in the closure of some schools and the disruption of classes. Hundreds of residents fled to a Protestant church compound in Davao City, where children hold classes under trees and in tents. Alamara claimed that these schools are used to indoctrinate tribal children in communist ideology. School administrators responded that the government-accredited schools teach approved subjects attuned to the tribe's culture.[25]

Save Our Schools Network, a Manila-based advocacy group, recorded 52 attacks on schools by combined paramilitary and military forces in four Mindanao provinces from 2014 to mid-2015. While paramilitaries have attacked public schools, most of their targets are tribal schools in far-flung villages where the NPA is also present.[26] On September 1, 2015, the government-backed Magahat paramilitary group allegedly attacked a tribal school in Surigao del Sur province, torturing and killing the director and two tribal leaders. This attack also caused an estimated 4,000 residents to flee their homes.[27] In September 2015, elements of the Philippine military accompanied paramilitaries as they harassed students and teachers at a tribal school in the town of Talaingod.[28]

Numerous examples of the military use of schools, primarily by the Philippine armed forces, have been documented since the Philippines' past review.[29] Philippine armed forces used parts of functioning schools as command centers, weapons storage depots, and as barracks or bases for military detachments. This included camping on school grounds and using school facilities during civil-military operations, such as the provision of development projects to school and nearby communities. Occupations typically lasted from between three months to more than a year.[30] According to information received by the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack, at least 56 incidents of military use of schools, mostly by government armed forces, were recorded by the United Nations from 2010-2012.[31]

Displaced children who have been living in shelters in Zamboanga City since they fled the southern Philippines have also struggled to access education. In May 2016, it was unclear whether these children would be able to attend classes when schools opened as the Zamboanga City government has failed to submit their school records and other requisite personal data to the Department of Education.[32]

Human Rights Watch recommends the Committee ask the government of the Philippines:

How many schools, universities, or education facilities have been damaged or destroyed as a result of attacks by a) state security forces and b) non-state armed groups in each year of the reporting period, and since?

What action has the government taken to prevent attacks by non-state armed groups on schools and universities and to mitigate their impact when they do occur?

How many schools, universities, or education facilities have been fully or partially occupied or used by a) government security forces and b) non-state armed groups in each year of the reporting period, and since?

What action has the government taken to ensure the enforcement of the 1992 Special Protection of Children Against Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act's ban on military use of schools?

What action has the government taken to ensure that attacks on schools in contravention of international humanitarian law are investigated and those responsible duly prosecuted?

What measures is the government putting in place to ensure children displaced by conflict are able to access a quality education?

When will the paperwork of the displaced children in Zamboanga City be processed so that these children can attend school?

Human Rights Watch recommends to the Committee that it calls upon the Philippines to:

Investigate and appropriately prosecute individuals responsible for involvement in the range of violations of international law that constitute attacks on education, including as a matter of command responsibility.

Respond to attacks on schools by promptly repairing damage and ensuring that students can safely return to class.

Ensure compliance with the 1992 Special Protection of Children Against Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act ban on military use of schools.

Endorse the Safe Schools Declaration, opened for states to join at the Oslo Safe Schools Conference in May 2015.

Ensure the availability of free education, including informal education and vocational training, for children removed from the worst forms of child labor, including children used as soldiers.

Ensure the provision of education in crises and displacement, and adopt special measures to ensure children can continue to go to school in highly insecure areas, including by reducing the distance to school, offering distance learning programs, and setting up protective spaces for girls and teachers.

Remove any bureaucratic obstacles that are barriers to children attending school.

Child soldiers (Articles 10, 12, 13, 14)

The recruitment and the use of children in armed conflict continues to be a significant problem in the Philippines. In the period since the last review, government forces; the New People's Army (NPA); the Moro Islamic Liberation Front; and Aby Sayyaf recruited and used children in armed conflict since the last review.[33]

Government armed forces also falsely identified children as "child warriors," detained these children for several days, and paraded them in front of the media, publicly calling them rebels. Human Rights Watch investigated these cases and found the allegations were fabricated by the military.[34]

Human Rights Watch asks the Committee to call upon the Philippines to:

End all recruitment and use of children under 18 years of age by regular forces or by associated militias.

End armament or other assistance to armed groups, including local defense groups, that use children under the age of 18.

Call on non-state armed groups to end all recruitment and use of children under 18 years of age.

Work with child protection agencies to disarm and release children within forces and aligned militias and transfer them to appropriate civilian rehabilitation and reintegration programs that include educational and vocational training as well as necessary counselling, in accordance with the Principles and Guidelines on Children Associated with Armed Forces or Armed Groups ("Paris Principles") of 2007.

Continue to provide appropriate support for the implementation of the action plan to prevent the continued recruitment of child soldiers between MILF and the United Nations signed on August 1, 2009.

As appropriate, facilitate the United Nations country task force on monitoring and reporting grave violations against children to renew its efforts to reach out to the NPA with a view to developing an action plan to end and prevent the recruitment and use of children and to address other violations and abuses against children committed by the NPA.

Children in humanitarian crises (Article 12)

Children are highly vulnerable in humanitarian crises such as natural and man-made disasters. In May 2016, outgoing Present Benigno Aquino III approved a law that made children's needs and welfare a leading priority during disaster relief operations. Under the Children's Emergency Relief and Protection Act,[35] the Department of Social Welfare and Development must develop a plan to "be used as the basis for handling disasters and other emergency situations to protect children, pregnant and lactating mothers, and support their immediate recovery."[36] This law now goes to the relevant agencies for implementation.[37]

Human Rights Watch recommends the Committee ask the government of the Philippines:

When will the Department of Social Welfare and Development develop the plan for the implementation of the Children's Emergency Relief and Protection Act?

Human Rights Watch asks the Committee to call upon the Philippines to:

Implement the Children's Emergency Relief and Protection Act in a timely mann

[1] Human Rights Watch, "What  if Something Went Wrong?": Hazardous Child Labor in Small-Scale

Gold Mining in the Philippines, September 2015, https://www.hrw.org/report/2015/09/29/what-if-something-went-wrong/hazar....

[2] Environmental Management Bureau (EMB), Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and United Nations

Environment Programme, "National Strategic Plan for the Phase-out of Mercury in Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining in the Philippines 2011-2021," 2011,

http://www.unep.org/chemicalsandwaste/Portals/9/2011-06-03%20nSP-aSGM.Fi... (accessed July 8, 2015) p. 12.

[3] International Labour Organization, "Girls in Gold mining: 'I don't want my children to be like me,'" June 10, 2009, http://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/newsroom/features/WCMS_107949/la...

(accessed July 14, 2015).

[4] "National Strategic Plan for the Phase-out of Mercury," p. 6; "Small-scale miners in 30 provinces account for 70% of mined gold  MGB," InterAksyon.com (News portal of TV 5), January

6, 2012, http://www.interaksyon.com/article/21330/small-scale-miners-in-30-provin... (accessed July 24, 2015).

[5] Human Rights Watch, "What  if Something Went Wrong?": Hazardous Child Labor in Small-Scale

Gold Mining in the Philippines, September 2015, https://www.hrw.org/report/2015/09/29/what-if-something-went-wrong/hazar....

[6] Ibid.

[7] Human Rights Watch, "What  if Something Went Wrong?": Hazardous Child Labor in Small-Scale

Gold Mining in the Philippines, September 2015, https://www.hrw.org/report/2015/09/29/what-if-something-went-wrong/hazar....

[8] Ibid.

[9] International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention No. 138 concerning the Minimum Age for Admission to Employment (Minimum Age Convention), adopted June 26, 1973, 1015 U.N.T.S. 297, entered into force June 19, 1976; ILO Convention No. 182 concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour (Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention), adopted June 17, 1999, 38 I.L.M. 1207 (entered into force November 19, 2000).

[10] Human Rights Watch, "What  if Something Went Wrong?": Hazardous Child Labor in Small-Scale

Gold Mining in the Philippines, September 2015, https://www.hrw.org/report/2015/09/29/what-if-something-went-wrong/hazar....

[11] Human Rights Watch, "What  if Something Went Wrong?": Hazardous Child Labor in Small-Scale

Gold Mining in the Philippines, September 2015, https://www.hrw.org/report/2015/09/29/what-if-something-went-wrong/hazar....

[12] Philippines Statistics Authority, "Out-Of-School Children and Youth in the Philippines," April 20, 2015, https://psa.gov.ph/content/out-school-children-and-youth-philippines-res... (accessed September 7, 2015); Human Rights Watch interview with undersecretary Alberto Muyot, Department of Education, Manila, February 4, 2015.

[13] Constitution of the Philippines, 1987, http://www.gov.ph/constitutions/1987-constitution/ (accessed August 9, 2016).

[14] Human Rights Watch, "What  if Something Went Wrong?": Hazardous Child Labor in SmallScale

Gold Mining in the Philippines, September 2015, https://www.hrw.org/report/2015/09/29/what-if-something-went-wrong/hazar....

[15] Ibid.

[16] Ibid.

[17] Human Rights Watch, "Disarming schools: strategies for ending the military use of schools during armed conflict," United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research, October 30, 2011, https://www.hrw.org/news/2011/10/31/disarming-schools-strategies-ending-....

[18] Republic Act No. 9851 (An Act Defining and Penalizing Crimes against International Humanitarian Law, Genocide and Other Crimes Against Humanity, Organizing Jurisdiction, Designating Special Courts, and for other related purposes), 2009, sec. 4(a)(4)(c)(3)&(10), http://www.lawphil.net/statutes/repacts/ra2009/ra_9851_2009.html (accessed March 2011).

[19] The Philippines, An act providing for stronger deterrence and special protection against child abuse, exploitation and discrimination, and for other purposes, Republic Act No. 7610, 17 June 1992.

[20] For further information on the ordinances see Save the Children, Philippine Laws Related to the Discipline and Punishment of Children, 2006.

[21] Armed Forces of the Philippines Letter Directive No. 34, GHQ AFP, November 24, 2009, para. 7(e). Cited in letter to Human Rights Watch from Brigadier General Jose B. Vizcarra, Adjutant General, Armed Forces of the Philippines.

[22] "Philippines: Paramilitaries Attack Tribal Villages, Schools: Military Supporting Abusive Forces in Mindanao," Human Rights Watch news release, September 23, 2015, https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/09/23/philippines-paramilitaries-attack-tr....

[23] Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack, "Country Profiles: The Philippines," 2014, http://www.protectingeducation.org/country-profile/philippines (accessed July 05, 2016).

[24] Carlos Conde (Human Rights Watch), "Dispatches: Philippines' Displaced Children Barred from School," June 15, 2016, https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/06/15/dispatches-philippines-displaced-chi....

[25] "Philippines: Paramilitaries Attack Tribal Villages, Schools: Military Supporting Abusive Forces in Mindanao," Human Rights Watch news release, September 23, 2015, https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/09/23/philippines-paramilitaries-attack-tr....

[26] Ibid.

[27] Carlos Conde (Human Rights Watch), "Dispatches: Killings of Philippine Tribal Members Spark Public Furor," September 08, 2015, https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/09/08/dispatches-killings-philippine-triba...; "Philippines: Paramilitaries Attack Tribal Villages, Schools: Military Supporting Abusive Forces in Mindanao," Human Rights Watch news release, September 23, 2015, https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/09/23/philippines-paramilitaries-attack-tr....

[28] "Philippines: Paramilitaries Attack Tribal Villages, Schools: Military Supporting Abusive Forces in Mindanao," Human Rights Watch news release, September 23, 2015, https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/09/23/philippines-paramilitaries-attack-tr....

[29] Human Rights Watch, "We Told the Children Not to Enter," commentary, Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies, January 31, 2012, https://www.hrw.org/news/2012/01/31/we-told-children-not-enter.

[30] Human Rights Watch, "Disarming schools: strategies for ending the military use of schools during armed conflict," United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research, October 30, 2011, https://www.hrw.org/news/2011/10/31/disarming-schools-strategies-ending-military-use-schools-during-armed-conflict#_ftn38; "Philippines: Soldiers on the School Grounds: Armed Forces Should Cease Military Use of School," Human Rights Watch news release, November 30, 2011, https://www.hrw.org/news/2011/11/30/philippines-soldiers-school-grounds; "Philippines: Military Leadership Should Act on Abuses: Armed Forces Chief Should Ensure Rights Violators are Held Accountable," Human Rights Watch news release, April 1, 2012, https://www.hrw.org/news/2012/04/01/philippines-military-leadership-should-act-abuses; Bede Sheppard (Human Rights Watch), "Some things don't mix," commentary, Philippine Daily Inquirer, April 24, 2012, https://www.hrw.org/news/2012/04/24/some-things-dont-mix; Human Rights Watch, World Report 2013, (New York: Human Rights Watch, 2013) Philippines, https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2013/country-chapters/philippines; Carlos Conde (Human Rights Watch), "Philippines: Investigate Zamboanga Detainee Mistreatment: Ensure Access to Lawyers, Family Members, Rights Monitors," Human Rights Watch news release, October 3, 2013, https://www.hrw.org/news/2013/10/03/philippines-investigate-zamboanga-detainee-mistreatment; Carlos Conde (Human Rights Watch), "Dispatches: Military Abuses in Southern Philippines," April 17, 2015, https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/04/17/dispatches-military-abuses-southern-....

[31] Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack, "Country Profiles: The Philippines," 2014, http://www.protectingeducation.org/country-profile/philippines (accessed July 05, 2016).

[32] Carlos Conde (Human Rights Watch), "Dispatches: Philippines' Displaced Children Barred from School," June 15, 2016, https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/06/15/dispatches-philippines-displaced-chi....

[33] "Philippines: Army Falsely Tags Children as Rebels: End Mistreatment of Minors for Propaganda Purposes" Human Rights Watch news release, October 11, 2011, https://www.hrw.org/news/2011/10/11/philippines-army-falsely-tags-childr... Human Rights Watch, World Report 2013, (New York: Human Rights Watch, 2013) Philippines, https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2013/country-chapters/philippines; Carlos Conde (Human Rights Watch), "Dispatches: Fighting Over Child Soldiers in the Philippines," February 16, 2016, https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/02/16/dispatches-fighting-over-child-soldiers-philippines.

[34] "Philippines: Army Falsely Tags Children as Rebels: End Mistreatment of Minors for Propaganda Purposes" Human Rights Watch news release, October 11, 2011, https://www.hrw.org/news/2011/10/11/philippines-army-falsely-tags-childr... Human Rights Watch, World Report 2013, (New York: Human Rights Watch, 2013) Philippines, https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2013/country-chapters/philippines; Carlos Conde (Human Rights Watch), "Dispatches: Fighting Over Child Soldiers in the Philippines," February 16, 2016, https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/02/16/dispatches-fighting-over-child-soldiers-philippines.

[35] Republic Act No. 10821, An Act Mandating The Provision Of Emergency Relief And Protection For Children Before, During, And After Disasters And Other Emergency Situations, 2015, http://www.gov.ph/2016/05/18/republic-act-no-10821/ (accessed August 09, 2016).

[36]Ibid.

[37] Carlos Conde (Human Rights Watch), "Dispatches: Filipino Children Promised Better Disaster Relief," May 24, 2016, https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/05/24/dispatches-filipino-children-promise....

Copyright notice:  Copyright, Human Rights Watch
Russia: Government Against Rights Groups

Publisher Human Rights Watch Publication Date 16 August 2016 Cite as Human Rights Watch, Russia: Government Against Rights Groups, 16 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57b874194.html [accessed 29 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Since June 5, 2014, the Ministry of Justice has designated 138 groups as "foreign agents". By August 16, 2016, at least 22 groups have shut down. Also, the Ministry has removed its "foreign agent" tag from 12 groups, acknowledging that they had stopped accepting foreign funding. Accordingly, on August 16, 2016, the official list of active "foreign agents" comprised 105 groups.

(Moscow)  In 2012 Russia's parliament adopted a law that required nongovernmental organizations (NGO)s to register as "foreign agents" with the Ministry of Justice if they engage in "political activity" and receive foreign funding. The definition of "political activity" under the law is so broad and vague that it can extend to all aspects of advocacy and human rights work.

Initially, the law required all respective NGOs to request the Ministry to have them registered and implied legal consequences for failure to do so. Because in Russia "foreign agent" can be interpreted only as "spy" or "traitor," there is little doubt that the law aims to demonize and marginalize independent advocacy groups. Russia's vibrant human rights groups resolutely boycotted the law, calling it "unjust" and "slanderous."

In early March 2013 the Russian government launched a nationwide campaign of intrusive inspections of hundreds of NGOs to identify advocacy groups the government deems "foreign agents" and force them to register as such.

Since the law entered into force, numerous rights groups challenged the prosecutor's office and the Ministry of Justice in courts; most lost their cases. As a result, by February 2015 at least 13 groups chose to shut down rather than wear the shameful "foreign agent" label, including Association of NGOs in Defense of Voters' Rights "Golos", JURIX (Lawyers for Constitutional Rights and Freedoms), the Moscow School of Civic Education (Moscow), Kostroma Center for Civic Initiatives Support, Anti-Discrimination Center (ADC) Memorial, Side by Side LGBT Film Festival, Coming Out, "Freedom of Information" Foundation, the League of Women Voters and Human Rights Resource Center (Saint-Petersburg), Center for Social Policy and Gender Studies and Association "Partnership for Development" (Saratov), Interregional Non-Governmental Organization "The Committee Against Torture" (Nizhniy Novgorod).

In August 2013, Russia's then-federal ombudsman Vladimir Lukin, acting on behalf of four organizations and their leaders who were affected by the law, challenged the law in Russia's Constitutional Court. On April 8, 2014 Russia's Constitutional Court upheld the law, ruling that there were no legal or constitutional grounds for contending that the term "foreign agent" had negative connotations from the Soviet era and that, therefore, its use was "not intended to persecute or discredit" NGOs. The Constitutional Court also found that the "foreign agent" designation was in line with the public interest and the interest of state sovereignty.

On May 23, 2014 parliament amended the "foreign agents" law, this time authorizing the Ministry of Justice to register independent groups as "foreign agents" without their consent, if the ministry regards the organizations as engaged in "political activity" and if the organization is receiving foreign funding. On June 4, 2014 the amendments were signed into law.

On June 5, 2014 the Ministry of Justice promptly registered five groups as "foreign agents," and since then has registered a total of 138, including prominent civil society groups that vigorously protested this action.

I. By August 16, 2016 the registry of "foreign agents" maintained by the Ministry of Justice included the following groups:

Association of NGOs in Defense of Voters' Rights "Golos" (Moscow)  June 5, 2014 Regional Public Association in Defense of Democratic Rights and Freedoms "Golos" (Moscow)  June 5, 2014 Center for Social Policy and Gender Studies (Saratov)  June 5, 2014 (the organization was shut down  May 22, 2015) Women of Don (Rostov region)  June 5, 2014 ("foreign agent" status was suspended  February 29, 2016) Kostroma Center for Support of Public Initiatives (Kostroma)  June 5, 2014 ("foreign agent" status was suspended  June 19, 2015) Interregional Human Rights Association "Agora" (Kazan)  July 21, 2014 Regional public organization "Ecozaschita!  Womens' Council" (Kaliningrad)  July 21, 2014 Public Verdict Foundation (Moscow)  July 21, 2014 Human Rights Center "Memorial" (Moscow)  July 21, 2014 Lawyers for Constitutional Rights and Freedoms / JURIX (Moscow)  July 21, 2014 (the organization was shut down  May 26, 2015) Soldiers' Mothers (Saint Petersburg)  August 28, 2014 ("foreign agent" status was suspended  October 23, 2015) Freedom of Information Foundation / Institute for Information Freedom Development  August 28, 2014 PIR Center  September 3, 2014 ("foreign agent" status was suspended  February 24, 2016) Association "Partnership for Development" (Saratov)  October 2, 2014 (the organization was shut down  November 6, 2015) "News Agency MEMO.RU" (Moscow)  November 20, 2014 Regional Press Institute (St. Petersburg)  November 20, 2014 Moscow School of Civic Education  December 9, 2014 Rakurs, Arkhangelsk regional non-governmental LGBT organization  December 15, 2014 All-Russian movement "For Human Rights"  December 22, 2014 ("foreign agent" status was suspended  December 30, 2015) Human Rights Center (Kaliningrad)  December 25, 2014 Krasnodar Regional Social Organization of University Alumni  December 25, 2014 Regional social organization "Public Commission for Academic Sakharov's Heritage Preservation"  December 25, 2014 Resource Human Rights Center (St. Petersburg)  December 30, 2014 (the organization was shut down  November 3, 2015) Regional Public Organization "Man and the Law" (Republic of Mari El)  December 30, 2014 Center for Social Development "Vozrozhdeniye" (Pskov)  December 30, 2014 Public Human Rights Organization "Civil Control" (St. Petersburg)  December 30, 2014 The League of Women Voters (St. Petersburg)  December 30, 2014 (the organization was shut down  May 22, 2015) Free Press Support Foundation  December 30, 2014 Interregional Non-Governmental Organization "The Committee Against Torture"  January 16, 2015 Educational Center "Memorial" (Sverdlov region)  January 16, 2015 Autonomous non-profit human rights organization "Youth Center for Consulting and Training"  January 20, 2015 ("foreign agent" status was suspended  July 22, 2015) "Information Bureau of the Nordic Council of Ministers in St. Petersburg"  January 20, 2015 Jewish regional branch of the Russian public organization "Municipal Academy" January 26, 2015 (the organization was shut down  May 22, 2015) The noncommercial partnership "Press Development Institute - Siberia"  January 30, 2015 Center for social, psychological and legal help to victims of discrimination and homophobia "Maximum" (Murmansk)  February 4, 2015 (the organization was shut down  October 28, 2015) Interregional public fund for civil society development "Golos-Povolzhye" (Samara)  February 6, 2015 Interregional charity organization "Siberian Environmental Center" (Novosibirsk)  February 12, 2015 Center for Civic Analysis and Independent Research / GRANI (Perm)  February 13, 2015 ("foreign agent" status was suspended  June 19, 2015) Municipal public organization "Samara Center for Gender Studies" (Samara)  February 16, 2015 Regional Fund "Center for Defense of Mass Media Rights" (Voronezh)  February 26, 2015 Regional Charitable Social Foundation "For nature" (Chelyabinsk)  March 6, 2015 Regional Ecological Social Movement "For nature" (Chelyabinsk)  March 6, 2015 Humanist Youth Movement (Murmansk)  March 13, 2015 (the organization was shut down  August 25, 2015) Regional Social Organization for Contribution to Harmonization of Interethnic Relations "Azerbaijan"  March 13, 2015 ("foreign agent" status was suspended  July 22, 2016) Regional Social Environmental Organization "Bellona-Murmansk"  March 19, 2015 (the organization was shut down  October 16, 2015) "Educational Center for Environment and Security" (Samara)  March 20, 2015 ("foreign agent" status was suspended  October 8, 2015) Foundation "Migration XXI Century"  March 27, 2015 Eco-logika (Rostov)  April 3, 2015 ("foreign agent" status was suspended  March 30, 2016) Transparency International Russia - April 7, 2015 Social Environmental Organization "Planeta Nadezhd"  April 15, 2015 Foundation for Consumers' Rights Defense (Novosibirsk)  April 17, 2015 (the organization was shut down  May 12, 2016) Civil Assistance Committee  April 20, 2015 Foundation 19/29 - Foundation for Support of Investigative Journalism  April 24, 2015 Commemorative Centre of History of Political Repressions "Perm - 36"  April 29, 2015 Women's League (Kaliningrad )  April 29, 2015 (the organization was shut down  December 16, 2015) Legal Expert Partnership "Soyuz "  May 7, 2015 (the organization was shut down  25 August 2015) Center for Development of Non-Commerical Organizations  May 13, 2015 Club of Accountants and Auditors of Non-Commercial Organizations  May 13, 2015 ("foreign agent" status was suspended  March 30, 2016) Informational Bureau of the Council of Ministers of Northern Countries (Kaliningrad)  May 13, 2015 Sutyajnik (Yekaterinburg)  May 15, 2015 Human Rights Academy (Yekaterinburg)  May 15, 2015 Ecological Center "Dront" (Nizhny Novgorod)  May 22, 2015 The non-profit organization "Liberal Mission" Scientific Foundation of Theoretical and Applied Research  May 25, 2015 ("foreign agent" status was suspended  September 11, 2015) The non-profit Dynasty Foundation  May 25, 2015 Union of Employers (Tula region)  May 28, 2015 Youth organization "Nuori Karjala/Young Karelia"  June 19, 2015 (the organization was shut down  March 25, 2016) Siberian Center for Support of Social Initiatives  June 19, 2015 Interregional Social Foundation for Peace in the South and in the Northern Caucasus  June 19, 2015 Informational Center "Free Inform"  June 22, 2015 (the organization was shut down  June 21, 2016) Center for Independent Sociological Studies (St. Petersburg)  June 22, 2015 Regional Organization for Population and Development  June 23, 2015 Geblerov Ecological Societ (Barnaul)  June 23, 2015 Association "Legal Basis" (Yekaterinburg)  July 3, 2015 Interregional Non-governmental Organization "Northern Environmental Coalition" (Petrozavodsk)  July 8, 2015 (the organization was shut down  December 1, 2015) Komi Human Rights Commission "Memorial" (Syktyvkar)  July 21, 2015 Altai Regional Public Fund for 21st Century Altai (Barnaul)  July 22, 2015 (the organization was shut down  March 28, 2016) Interregional Public Foundation for Civil Society Development "GOLOS-Ural" (Chelyabinsk region)  July 22, 2015 SREDA Foundation  July 28, 2015 Non-governmental environmental organization "Green World" (Nizhny Novgorod)  July 29, 2015 Civic Action Foundation (Perm)  August 5, 2015 Alliance of Funds of Local Communities of the Perm territory  August 11, 2015 Kabardino-Balkaria Human Rights Center  regional branch of the "For Human Rights" All-Russian movement (Nalchik)  August 18, 2015 (the organization was shut down  November 6, 2015) The Human Rights Center of the Chechen Republic (Grozny)  August 21, 2015 Interregional Social Ecological Foundation "ISAR-Siberia" (Novosibirsk)  August 26, 2015 Perm Regional Human Rights Center (Perm)  September 3, 2015 Siberia's lifeline (Novosibirsk)  September 3, 2015 Golos Foundation in Support of Democracy  September 4, 2015 (the organization was shut down  June 21, 2016) Jewish Cultural Center "Hesed-Teshuva" (Ryazan)  September 4, 2015 Sakhalin Environment Watch (Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk)  September 18, 2015 Yasavey Manzara Information and Research Center (Naryan-Mar)  September 23, 2015 (the organization was shut down  June 15, 2016) Consumer Rights and Environment Protection Association "Princip" (Moscow region)  October 5, 2015 Far East Center for the Development of Civil Initiatives and Social Partnership (Vladivostok) October 13, 2015 Russian Research Center for Human Rights  October 20, 2015 Women of the Don (Rostov region)  October 27, 2015 Friends of the Siberian Forests (Krasnoyarsk)  October 28, 2015 Photography Club "Sobytiye" (Omsk)  October 28, 2015 (the organization was shut down  December 16, 2015) Research and Information Center "Memorial" (St. Petersburg)  November 6, 2015 Baikal Environmental Wave (Irkutsk)  November 10, 2015 (the organization was shut down  JAugust 1, 2016) Glasnost Defense Foundation  November 19, 2015 Human Rights Institute  November 20, 2015 Center for Support of Indigenous Peoples of the North  November 27, 2015 Green World (Leningrad region)  December 2, 2015 Mashr (Republic of Ingushetia)  December 8, 2015 Woman's World (Kaliningrad)  December 11, 2015 Panorama Information and Research Center (Moscow)  December 18, 2015 Dauria Ecological Center (Chita)  December 30, 2015 Yekaterinburg Memorial Society (Yekaterinburg)  December 30, 2015 Bureau of Public Investigations (Nizhny Novgorod)  January 14, 2016 Committee for the Prevention of Torture (Orenburg)  January 14, 2016 Institute of Forecasting and Resolving of Political Conflicts (Nizhny Novgorod)  January 22, 2016 Ryazan Historical, Educational and Human Rights Center "Memorial" (Ryazan)  February 1, 2016 Society of Assistance to Social Protection of Citizens "Peterburgskaya EGIDA" (Saint Petersburg)  February 2, 2016 (the organization was shut down  April 26, 2016) Center for Health and Social Support "SIBALT" (Omsk)  February 15, 2016 Chelyabinsk Regional Organ of Public Independent Action "Ural Human Rights Group" (Chelyabinsk)  February 15, 2016 Women of Eurasia (Chelyabinsk)  February 15, 2016 Ural Democratic Foundation (Chelyabinsk)  February 15, 2016 Legal and Social Support Charitable Foundation "Sphere" (Saint Petersburg)  March 1, 2016 Centre for Civic Education and Human Rights (Perm)  March 3, 2016 The International Development Fund for Indigenous Peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East of the Russian Federation "Batani" (Moscow)  March 11, 2016 Center for Social and Labor Rights (Moscow)  March 21, 2016 Arkhar (Gorno-Altaysk)  April 5, 2016 Publishing House "Valentin Manuylov"  April 15, 2016 Tengri School of Soul ecology (Altay) - May 17, 2016 Hanse Buero / Information Bureau of Schleswig-Holstein in Kaliningrad (Kaliningrad) - May 24, 2016 Krasnoyarsk Regional Public Organization Agency of public initiatives (Krasnoyarsk) - May 27, 2016 Saratov Regional Public Organization "Socium" (Engels) - May 30, 2016 Perm regional non-governmental organization "Perm Civil Chamber" (Perm) - June 9, 2016 Regional non-governmental organization Integration center "Migration and Law" (Moscow) - June 16, 2016 Non-Profit Partnership "ESVERO" (Moscow) - June 22, 2016 Andrey Rylkov Foundation for Health and Social Justice (Moscow) - June 29, 2016 Altai regional sport and patriotic youth public organization "Arctica" (Biysk) - July 6, 2016 Autonomous non-governmental organization "Free Word" (Pskov) - July 13, 2016 The Institute of Economic Analysis (Moscow) - July 22, 2016 Penza regional youth civic organization for prevention of negative phenomena among youth "Panacea" (Kuznetsk) - August 15, 2016

And the four NGOs which registered voluntarily:

Non-commercial Partnership "Supporting Competition in the CIS Countries"  June 27, 2013 "The Union of Young Political Scientists", KarachayCherkess Republican Youth Social Organization  December 15, 2014 Regional Social Movement "Novgorod Women's Parliament" (Veliky Novgorod)  March 6, 2015 Center of Independent Researchers of the Altai Republic  June 10, 2015

II. Administrative Court Cases  at least 58 NGOs

Groups that a court has found responsible for failing to register as a "foreign agent" may be fined up to 500,000 rubles (over US$16,000), and their leaders personally  up to 300,000 rubles (approximately $10,000). They are:

Association of NGOs in Defense of Voters' Rights "Golos" (Moscow)  NGO lost the suit Kostroma Center for Support of Public Initiatives (Kostroma)  NGO lost the suit Anti-Discrimination Center "Memorial" (St. Petersburg)  NGO won two administrative cases, but later lost a similar civil suit to the prosecutor's office and chose to shut down Coming Out (St. Petersburg)  NGO won the administrative case but later lost a similar civil suit to the prosecutor's office Side by Side LGBT Film Festival (St. Petersburg)  NGO won the suit Regional Public Association in Defense of Democratic Rights and Freedoms "Golos" (Moscow) - NGO lost the suit Center for Civic Analysis and Independent Research / GRANI (Perm)  NGO won the suit Perm Civic Chamber (Perm)  NGO won the suit Perm Regional Human Rights Center (Perm)  NGO won the suit Women of Don (Rostov region)  NGO lost the suit Ecozachita!  Zhensovet (Kaliningrad)  NGO lost the suit Association "Partnership for Development" (Saratov)  NGO lost the suit News Agency "MEMO.RU" (Moscow)  NGO lost the suit Regional Press Institute (St. Petersburg)  NGO lost the suit Moscow School of Civic Education  NGO lost the suit All-Russian movement "For Human Rights"  NGO lost the suit Regional Public Organization "Man and the Law" (Republic of Mari El)  NGO lost the suit Human Rights Center (Kaliningrad)  NGO won the suit Krasnodar Regional Social Organization of University Alumni  the proceedings was discontinued Regional social organization "Public Commission for Academic Sakharov's Heritage Preservation"  NGO lost the suit Autonomous non-profit human rights organization "Youth Center for Consulting and Training" (Volgograd)  NGO lost the suit Rakurs, Arkhangelsk regional non-governmental LGBT organization  NGO lost the suit Center for social, psychological and legal help to victims of discrimination and homophobia "Maximum" (Murmansk)  NGO lost the suit Educational Center "Memorial" (Sverdlov region)  NGO lost the suit, court of appeal decreased the amount of fine Interregional public fund for civil society development "Golos-Povolzhye" (Samara)  NGO lost the suit Citizens' Watch (St. Petersburg)  NGO lost the suit The noncommercial partnership "Press Development Institute - Siberia"  NGO won the suit Regional Fund "Center for Defense of Mass Media Rights"  NGO lost the suit Regional Social Organization for Contribution to Harmonization of Interethnic Relations "Azerbaijan"  NGO lost the suit Regional Charitable Social Foundation "For nature" (Chelyabinsk)  NGO lost the suit Regional Ecological Social Movement "For nature" (Chelyabinsk)  NGO won the suit Eco-logika (Rostov)  NGO lost the suit Regional Social Environmental Organization "Bellona-Murmansk"  NGO lost the suit Foundation "Migration XXI Century"  NGO lost the suit Interregional charity organization "Siberian Environmental Center" (Novosibirsk)  NGO lost the suit, court of appeal decreased the amount of fine The non-profit organization "Liberal Mission" Scientific Foundation of Theoretical and Applied Research  NGO lost the suit Center for Development of Non-Commerical Organizations  NGO lost the suit The non-profit Dynasty Foundation  NGO lost the suit Foundation 19/29 - Foundation for Support of Investigative Journalism  NGO lost the suit Association "Legal Basis" (Yekaterinburg)  NGO lost the suit Ecological Center "Dront" (Nizhny Novgorod)  NGO lost the suit Regional Organization for Population and Development  NGO lost the suit Center for Independent Sociological Studies (St. Petersburg)  NGO lost the suit Human Rights Center "Memorial"  NGO lost the suit Transparency International Russia  NGO lost the suit Interregional Non-Governmental Organization "Committee Against Torture"  NGO lost the suit Geblerov Ecological Societ (Barnaul)  NGO won the suit Civic Action Foundation (Perm)  NGO lost the suit Interregional Social Ecological Foundation "ISAR-Siberia" (Novosibirsk)  NGO lost the suit Sakhalin Environment Watch (Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk)  NGO lost the suit and is appealing the ruling Club of Accountants and Auditors of Non-Commercial Organizations  NGO lost the suit Women's League (Kaliningrad)  NGO won the suit Russian Research Center for Human Rights  NGO lost the suit Interregional Public Foundation for Civil Society Development "GOLOS-Ural" (Chelyabinsk region)  NGO lost the suit Human Rights Institute  NGO lost the suit Interregional Human Rights Association "Agora"  NGO lost the suit Glasnost Defense Foundation  suit pending Baikal Environmental Wave (Irkutsk)  suit pending

III. The leaders of at least 8 NGOs faced administrative charges personally:

Anti-Discrimination Center "Memorial" (St. Petersburg)  NGO won the suit but the organization chose two shut down when it lost a "foreign agent" civil suit to the prosecutor's office Side by Side LGBT Film Festival (St. Petersburg)  NGO won the suit Coming Out (St. Petersburg)  NGO won the suit Association "Partnership for Development"  NGO lost the suit Kostroma Center for Support of Public Initiatives (Kostroma)  NGO lost the suit Association of NGOs in Defense of Voters' Rights "Golos" (Moscow)  NGO won the suit Autonomous non-profit human rights organization "Youth Center for Consulting and Training" (Volgograd)  NGO lost the suit Baikal Environmental Wave (Irkutsk)  suit pending

IV. Leader of at least 1 NGO faces criminal charges personally:
Iraq: Cleric's Call Against Anti-LGBT Violence

Publisher Human Rights Watch Publication Date 18 August 2016 Cite as Human Rights Watch, Iraq: Cleric's Call Against Anti-LGBT Violence, 18 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57b875054.html [accessed 29 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

State and non-state actors in Iraq should heed the prominent Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's July 2016 statement banning violence against those who do not conform to gender norms.

Since early 2009, Human Rights Watch has documented kidnappings, executions, and torture by militia groups, including al-Sadr's Mahdi Army, of gay men and men perceived to be gay. The killings have continued unabated.

"Finally, the head of one of the groups whose members have carried out serious abuses against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in Iraq is condemning these heinous attacks," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director. "We hope this will change behavior in successors to the Mahdi Army and other ranks, and spur the government to hold accountable those who commit these crimes."

A Human Rights Watch report found that in early 2009, Iraqi militia members began a wide-reaching campaign of extrajudicial executions, kidnappings, and torture of men suspected of homosexual conduct, or of not conforming to masculine gender norms, and that Iraq authorities did nothing to stop the killings. The killings began in the Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City, a Mahdi Army stronghold, and were then replicated by members of militia groups in many cities across Iraq. Mahdi Army spokesmen promoted fear about the "third sex" and the "feminization" of Iraqi men, as well as suggesting that militia action was the remedy.

In 2012, militia members opened a second wave of attacks on people categorized as part of the "emo" subculture, styles that critics associated with heavy metal music, and rap. In early February 2012, signs and fliers appeared in the Baghdad neighborhoods of Sadr City, Hayy al-Habibiyya, and Hayy al-'Amil that threatened people by name with "the wrath of god" unless they cut their hair short, concealed their tattoos, maintained "complete manhood," and stopped wearing so-called "satanic clothing." Similar posters appeared in other neighborhoods, also listing names.

In the following weeks, Human Rights Watch received reports of several dozen youths killed as part of the campaign. While it was unclear who was behind the campaign, at the time al-Sadr called the targets of the campaign "crazy fools" and a "lesion on the Muslim community" in an online statement, but also maintained that they should be dealt with "within the law."

In a 2015 report, the Iraqi group Iraqueer and the US-based organization OutRight Action International (formerly the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission) documented the kidnapping and murders of gay men by members of Iraqi militia groups, including the Brigades of Wrath (Saraya al-Ghadhab) and League of the Righteous (Asa'ib Ahl al-Haqq) between 2009 and 2015. The groups condemned the Iraqi government for "stand[ing] by and allow[ing] murderous hate violence to occur, fully aware of what is happening."

The government responded by establishing an LGBT committee in late 2012 to address abuses against the LGBT community. However, LGBT activists in Baghdad have told Human Rights Watch that this committee has taken few tangible steps to protect LGBT people. In addition, a member of the committee said, two of the original nine members vanished in 2015 in what he believed was related to their role on the committee. The committee has had no news of them since. Other members have left the committee without explanation, he said, leaving only four remaining.

With the rise of the extremist group Islamic State, also known as ISIS, gay men, transgender women, and gender non-conforming people are at even greater risk. The group has executed a number of people accused of sodomy or perceived to be gay.

While Iraq's Penal Code does not directly criminalize same-sex intimacy, article 394 criminalizes extra-marital sexual relations. That provision effectively criminalizes all same-sex relations, since the law does not provide for same-sex marriage.

Al-Sadr's July 7 2016, statement expresses his view that same-sex relationships and cross-dressing are not acceptable, but that gender non-conforming people  whom al-Sadr claims are suffering from "psychological problems"  nevertheless deserve the right to live. "[You] must disassociate from them [but] not attack them, as it increases their aversion and you must guide them using acceptable and rational means," the statement read.

Despite the lack of full tolerance in al-Sadr's statement, his call to end violence against LGBT people is an important step, Human Rights Watch said. He should ensure that those in the ranks of the militia under his command, the Peace Brigades (Saraya al-Salam), obey the order and should hold accountable commanders who do not.

Iraq's government should take its own measures to ensure that attacks on LGBT people are punished, and the LGBT committee should actively monitor and report on human rights abuses against LGBT people and advise the government on concrete steps to protect LGBT people from violence and discrimination. Iraq's legislature should quickly decriminalize extra-marital sexual relations.

"While al-Sadr is still a long way from fully embracing human rights for LGBT people, his statement shows that he understands the importance of stopping abuses against them," Stork said. "The statement represents an important change in the right direction, and should be followed by concrete actions to protect LGBT people from violence."

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Thailand: Deadly Bomb Attacks in South

Publisher Human Rights Watch Publication Date 12 August 2016 Cite as Human Rights Watch, Thailand: Deadly Bomb Attacks in South, 12 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57b875914.html [accessed 29 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

A string of bomb and arson attacks in Thailand's southern provinces on August 11-12, 2016, killed at least 4 civilians and wounded 35 others, Human Rights Watch said today. Within 24 hours, there were at least 11 explosions in five provinces in Thailand's southern region. No individuals or groups have claimed responsibility for the attacks.

"Whatever the grievances of those responsible, there is no acceptable justification or excuse for these deliberate attacks on civilians," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

The first explosion took place at about 3 p.m. on August 11, at Center Point Market in Trang province's Muang district, killing one person and wounding six. Later that evening, two bombs went off in the tourist area in Prachuab Kirikhan province's Hua Hin district. One person was killed and 21 were injured. On the morning of August 12, one person was killed and two were wounded in two explosions in Surat Thani province's Muang district. Shortly after that, in Phuket province's Patong Beach area, two explosions caused one injury. Hua Hin district was then struck again with two more bombs, killing one person and wounding three.

In addition, unidentified individuals carried out arson attacks at markets and shopping malls in Trang, Krabi, Phang Nga, Surat Thani, and Nakhon Srithammarat provinces. Incendiary improvised explosive devices were used in some cases.

Every effort should be made to identify those responsible for the attacks and bring them to justice, Human Rights Watch said. In the face of these attacks, during Thailand's celebration of the Queen's birthday, it is important for the Thai government to demonstrate a strong commitment to human rights and the rule of law. Thai authorities should take all necessary steps to conduct a serious, impartial, and transparent investigation to bring those responsible to justice, while ensuring that due process rights are respected.

"Upholding due process and the fair trial rights of those responsible will be key not only to delivering justice for the victims, but also to demonstrating Thailand's commitment to the rule of law in the face of heinous crimes," Adams said.

Timeline of bomb attacks

August 11

At 3 p.m., a bomb went off at Center Point Market in Trang province's Muang district, killing one and injuring at least six others.

At 10:15 p.m., a bomb hit Prachuab Kirikhan province's Hua Hin district in front of the Johnny's 56 Bar. Around 11 p.m., a second explosion took place in front of Raintree Spa. The bombs killed one person and injured 21 others, including 10 foreign tourists.

August 12

At 7:45 a.m., there was an explosion in a park on Phuket province's Patong Beach, wounding one. Another bomb went off around 8 a.m.at a nearby police box, but no one was injured.

At 8 a.m., two bombs went off near Surat Thani Police Station and Surat Thani Marine Police Station, where a ceremony for the Queen's birthday was held. One person was killed and three were injured.

At 9 a.m., two bombs exploded at a clock tower in Prachuab Kirikhan province's Hua Hin district, killing one person and injuring three.

At 9 a.m., there were two explosions at Bang Niang Market in Phang Nga province's Takua Pa district. No one was injured.

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Oman: Newspaper Shuttered, Editor Held

Publisher Human Rights Watch Publication Date 13 August 2016 Cite as Human Rights Watch, Oman: Newspaper Shuttered, Editor Held, 13 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57b876004.html [accessed 29 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Omani authorities ordered the immediate closure of the Azamn newspaper and arrested its deputy editor on August 9, 2016, Human Rights Watch said today. Yousef al-Haj, the Azamn deputy editor, is the third Azamn journalist arrested since July 28, over the publication of articles accusing senior judicial officials of corruption.

Following the publication of an article in Azamn alleging that the chairman of the Omani Supreme Court had interfered in a verdict, Omani authorities arrested Ibrahim al-Ma'mari, the editor-in-chief, on July 28, and Zaher al-Abri, who oversees the newspaper's local coverage, on August 3.

"Hauling journalists off to prison for alleging authorities' potential abuse of power completely undermines Oman's claims to respect free expression," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "Omani authorities should rescind the government closure of Azamnnewspaper, and either release the three Azamn journalists or promptly bring recognizable criminal charges against them, and guarantee them a fair trial."

On August 9, Azamn published an interview with Ali bin Salem al-No'mani, the vice president of the Omani Supreme Court. Al-No'mani supported the allegations in the earlier article concerning the undermining of the judiciary's independence.

Al-No'mani was also quoted as saying that he regretted the crackdown on Omani journalists, including al-Ma'mari, saying "He [al-Ma'mari] spoke honestly and sincerely in his publication, and now as an administrator in the judiciary I do not know his whereabouts."

Hours after the publication of this interview, the Information Ministry announced the immediate closure of Azamn. Oman's Internal Security Service arrested al-Haj at his home the same day. He is currently believed to be held at a military hospital after allegedly suffering a stroke during his arrest, a source told Human Rights Watch on August 10. On August 6, al-Haj had posted on Facebook that he possessed official documents implicating Supreme Court Chairman Ishaq al-Busaidi in violations of Oman's laws and asking for protection.

The state-run Oman News Agency published a statement from Omani authorities about the Azamnreport, saying: "The report not only ignored the basics of freedom of expression, but it also degraded it by utilizing it in such a manner that harms one of the pillars of the state." It said that the judiciary "should be respected rather than targeted with deliberate accusations meant to shake confidence, as was intended by the [Azamn] newspaper in its recent series of articles and interviews." The statement added that the government had taken legal measures to protect the judiciary, "but without excess or exaggeration."

These restrictions appear to violate international standards of freedom of expression, including the right to criticize government officials. Shutting down an entire newspaper after it criticizes the authorities appears as a grossly disproportionate measure, Human Rights Watch said.

Journalists and government critics in Oman have frequently faced harassment and detention in previous crackdowns. In 2011, a court issued a verdict ordering Azamn to shut down its activities for a month, and sentenced al-Ma'mari and al-Haj to five-month suspended jail sentences for insulting the justice minister and other officials.

"Closing a paper is only permitted in grave circumstances and certainly is not justified to shield public officials from criticism," Stork said.

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Egypt: Compensate Victims of Mass Killings

Publisher Human Rights Watch Publication Date 14 August 2016 Cite as Human Rights Watch, Egypt: Compensate Victims of Mass Killings, 14 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57b877d14.html [accessed 29 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Egypt's parliament should pass a transitional justice law establishing a new, impartial investigation into the mass killings of protesters in 2013, that will lead to accountability and fair compensation for victims' families. The constitution requires parliament to pass such a law during its first session, which will probably end in October.

On August 14, 2013, Egyptian security forces killed at least 817 people, and probably more than 1,000, who were in Cairo's Rab'a al-Adawiya Square protesting the military's removal of former President Mohamed Morsy  one of the worst mass killings in modern history. The dispersal at Rab'a and several other mass killings of protesters in 2013 probably amounted to crimes against humanity, but in the three years since, the Egyptian authorities have held no one accountable, and the United Nations has taken little action.

"If President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's government hopes to have any credibility with the thousands of Egyptians who have suffered over the past three years, it should ensure a serious accounting for these grave crimes," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "The mass killings of August 14, 2013, remain a dark stain on Egypt's record that no amount of spin from the government or its allies will ever wash away."

Egypt's recently elected House of Representatives, the first legislature since the dissolution of the former People's Assembly in 2012, opened its inaugural session in January 2016. Article 241 of the constitution requires the parliament, before the end of this session, to issue "a transitional justice law that ensures revealing the truth, accountability, proposing frameworks for national reconciliation, and compensating victims, in accordance with international standards."

Egyptian lawmakers should take up their constitutionally mandated duty and responsibility as elected representatives and pass a law that opens the door for victims of the mass killings of 2013 to receive justice.

Different drafts of the transitional justice law have been circulating among representatives in recent months amid rumors that some might specifically include provisions for reconciliation with the Muslim Brotherhood, Morsy's former organization, thousands of whose members have been arrested or killed since his removal. Many representatives objected to any mention of the Brotherhood in the bill.

Mostafa Bakry, a member of parliament harshly opposed to the Brotherhood, told the Huffington Post Arabic in early July that "we as representatives will not accept in any way reconciliation with this group, and even if the Germans reconcile with the Nazis, we will not accept reconciliation with the Brotherhood." Though Transitional Justice Minister Magdi al-Agati was expected to propose a draft to parliament at the time, he declined to do so, explaining in a statement that a number of representatives had objected to it.

Sources within parliament's National Security Committee said that representatives received instructions from "sovereign entities"  a commonly used euphemism for intelligence agencies  not to discuss the issue of reconciliation at that time, the Huffington Post Arabic reported.

Between Morsy's ouster on July 3, 2013, and August 16, 2013, Human Rights Watch documented six instances in which security forces unlawfully killed protesters, leaving at least 1,185 people dead, including those on August 14. In the past, government officials have expressed willingness to compensate the injured and the families of those who died.

In December 2014, the secretary general of the National Council for Care of Martyrs Families and the Injured  established after the 2011 uprising  said he had proposed adding the victims of the mass killings to the council's responsibilities. In August 2015, a member of the government fact-finding committee that justified the police use of force during the mass killings said he nevertheless supported compensation for the victims, and a judicial inquiry.

Some of the discussion has revolved around the Islamic concept of compensation called diya, which can be paid by a party responsible for a crime, such as murder, in place of other penalties.

Saad al-Katatny, a former speaker of parliament and member of the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party currently appealing a death sentence, said during a court hearing in February 2015 that a representative of the government had approached him in prison and proposed the payment of diya for the mass killings to resolve the political impasse with the Brotherhood. Al-Katatny said he responded that he did not have the "jurisdiction" to accept such an offer and "rejected the coup" in any case. Yasser Borhamy, a founder of one of Egypt's largest salafist political parties, which supports the government, has also proposed a solution involving diya.

Compensation for the mass killings of 2013, though far from a complete solution, is an essential part of an effective remedy for a gross human rights violation under international law.

The right of victims to an effective remedy before an independent and impartial authority is enshrined in multiple treaties to which Egypt is a party, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. It requires fair and adequate compensation, an investigation that determines the facts, and prosecution of those responsible. International courts have found that impunity for crimes like the mass killings of 2013 only increases the suffering of victims and their families.

The Egyptian government fact-finding committee that looked into the killings and the events that precipitated and followed them released an executive summary of its findings on November 26, 2014, but blamed protesters for starting the violence, said the police response was mostly justified, and did not recommend any charges. Human Rights Watch and other groups said the government should make the report public, but it has not.

The Prosecutor General's Office has not announced any investigations. Instead, prosecutors are pursuing a mass trial against more than 400 people arrested at the Rab'a al-Adawiya protest, whom they accuse of blocking roads and harming national unity. Thousands of others accused of membership in or sympathy for the Brotherhood face trial, including journalists, former members of parliament, and others arrested at protests.

Despite the Egyptian authorities' failure to seriously investigate the mass killings, neither the United Nations Human Rights Council nor the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights have established international commissions of inquiry, even though they remain one of the last resorts for victims. Human Rights Watch continues to call on both organizations to establish such commissions.

"The international community has abandoned any pretense that justice for the victims of August 2013 will stand in the way of business as usual," Whitson said. "If Egypt's lawmakers want to represent all Egyptians, they should prove it by seeking basic accountability for the crimes committed by Egyptian security forces."

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Israel/Palestine: Palestinian Rights Defenders Threatened

Publisher Human Rights Watch Publication Date 14 August 2016 Cite as Human Rights Watch, Israel/Palestine: Palestinian Rights Defenders Threatened, 14 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57b87bc14.html [accessed 29 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

New anonymous death threats have been made against staff members of a Palestinian human rights organization advocating an investigation by the International Criminal Court into alleged war crimes in Palestine.

The Gaza-based Al-Mezan issued a statement on August 11, 2016, that a staff member working in Europe reported receiving three anonymous email threats. The last email, sent on August 10, whose contents were shared with Human Rights Watch, was accompanied by photographs of the exterior of his home and read in part, "you deserve to see your loved ones suffer and die. But maybe you would be hurt before them."

Since last year, unknown people have sent threats to staff members of Al-Mezan and the Ramallah-based Al Haq and spread false information to their donors, including in forged communications purporting to come from staff members, officials, and auditors. For security reasons, Human Rights Watch is not disclosing the location of the Al-Mezan employee.

"The threats against Al-Mezan and Al Haq staff members are reprehensible," said Sari Bashi, Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch. "These groups are making important contributions to justice and accountability, including at the International Criminal Court."

This latest incident follows a series of threats made against Al Haq, especially a staff member based in the Netherlands who is advocating accountability before the ICC for alleged war crimes committed in Palestine. Al Haq stated in March that the threats followed a pattern similar to those against Al-Mezan.

Unknown people wrote and telephoned donors to Al Haq, alleging financial irregularities and threatening to harm the staff member and Al Haq's executive director, who is based in the occupied West Bank. Earlier this year, Human Rights Watch conveyed its concern to the Dutch authorities about the safety of the Al-Haq staff member and all human rights defenders advocating accountability through the ICC.

Both Al Haq and Al-Mezan said that the threats and the contacts with donors increased as they intensified their advocacy before the ICC and, in the case of Al Haq, initiatives to require labeling products from Israeli settlements in the West Bank to distinguish them from products from Israel.

Police in at least three European countries are investigating, the groups said.

In June, Human Rights Watch urged the ICC prosecutor to open a formal investigation into serious international crimes committed in Palestine by Israelis and Palestinians since June 2014.

"It is crucial that the work of human rights activists speaking out for justice can go forward unhindered in Europe and beyond," Bashi said.

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Hong Kong: Student Protest Leaders Sentenced

Publisher Human Rights Watch Publication Date 15 August 2016 Cite as Human Rights Watch, Hong Kong: Student Protest Leaders Sentenced, 15 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57b87dd64.html [accessed 29 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

On August 15, 2016, a Hong Kong court sentenced three student leaders in violation of their rights to peaceful expression and assembly, Human Rights Watch said today. Alex Chow was given a three weeks sentence with a one year suspension while Joshua Wong and Nathan Law were given community service orders of 80 hours and 120 hours, respectively. Chow and Wong were convicted of "unlawful assembly," while Law was convicted of "incitement," offenses under Hong Kong's Public Order Ordinance. The charges stem from their leadership of a peaceful sit-in that triggered the 79-day pro-democracy Umbrella Movement in 2014.

The Hong Kong government should quash the convictions of the students and revise the Public Order Ordinance to bring it in line with international human rights standards.

"In sentencing these students, Hong Kong authorities' behavior increasingly resembles that of their counterparts in Beijing," said Sophie Richardson, China director. "Leading peaceful protests is no crime, and the charges against the three should be dropped."

The sit-in occurred on September 26, 2014, in Civic Square, a space outside Hong Kong government headquarters. The area had previously been open to the public for protests, but the government sealed it off in 2014 for unspecified "security reasons." Authorities erected a three-meter-high fence around the site and restricted gatherings of members of the public to Sundays or public holidays only, and solely with government permission. The Hong Kong Federation of Students, headed by Chow and Law at the time, had applied twice to use Civic Square between September 23 and October 3, 2014, but was rejected by the government due to unspecified "security reasons." On September 27, 2014, the authorities arrested 61 protesters, including Wong, Chow, and Law.

On July 21, 2016, the court convicted the three student leaders, finding that the protesters, who had forced their entry into the area by "climbing over the fence and pushing the gate" before sitting down peacefully, had "conducted themselves in a disorderly and intimidating manner." The court found that such conduct was "likely to cause any person reasonably to fear that the persons so assembled would commit a breach of the peace, or would by such conduct provoke other persons to commit a breach of the peace."

Hong Kong has a longstanding tradition of tolerating peaceful demonstrations, but recent reports suggest an increasing number of arrests and prosecutions against protesters, some under the Public Order Ordinance. Beyond the unjust punishment faced by Wong, Chow, and Law, the prosecutions send a broader message to Hong Kong society about participation in peaceful public protest.

"If students are going to get prosecuted for 'unlawful assembly,' what other behavior is now off limits, and will people think twice before exercising their rights to peaceful expression?" Richardson said.

Hong Kong's Public Order Ordinance has been criticized by the United Nations Human Rights Committee for possibly "facilitat[ing] excessive restrictions" to basic rights. The law, which requires that processions involving more than 30 people and assemblies with more than 50 must apply for and receive a "letter of no objection" from the government in advance, is incompatible with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which applies to Hong Kong. In 1995 the British colonial government revised the ordinance to bring it into compliance with such standards; people hosting demonstrations would only have to notify the police, not obtain permission. But this proposal and other positive revisions were repealed by the central Chinese government in the preparations for Hong Kong's handover to Chinese sovereignty in 1997. The restrictive revisions of 1997 were adopted despite strong opposition in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong people are entitled to choose their top leaders through universal suffrage, according to the Basic Law  its functional constitution  and the ICCPR. However, the Chinese and Hong Kong governments have backtracked on this promise through a series of decisions since 1997. In August 2014, China's national legislature imposed a stringent screening mechanism that effectively bars candidates the central government dislikes from nomination for chief executive. That decision triggered the Umbrella Movement in 2014. In July 2016, the Hong Kong government placed greater restrictions on people's electoral rights by requiring candidates running for its Legislative Council to declare their recognition of Hong Kong as an "inalienable part" of China. It then disqualified six candidates for their pro-independence stance.

"Hong Kong's future depends on authorities devoting their energies to upholding  not reducing  civil and political rights," Richardson said. "These prosecutions and sentences should unnerve anyone who cares about the fate of basic rights in Hong Kong."

Copyright notice:  Copyright, Human Rights Watch
South Sudan: Killings, Rapes, Looting in Juba

Publisher Human Rights Watch Publication Date 15 August 2016 Cite as Human Rights Watch, South Sudan: Killings, Rapes, Looting in Juba, 15 August 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57b87ee54.html [accessed 29 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Soldiers killed and raped civilians and extensively looted civilian property, including humanitarian goods, during and after clashes between government and opposition forces in South Sudan's capital, Juba, in July, 2016, Human Rights Watch said today. In many cases, government forces appeared to target non-Dinka civilians.

As a result of indiscriminate attacks, including shooting and shelling, shells landed in camps for displaced people inside United Nations bases, and in other densely populated areas in the city, killing and wounding civilians. Human Rights Watch researchers visiting Juba in July after the clashes documented multiple crimes, most committed by government soldiers from the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA).

"A year after South Sudan's leaders signed a peace deal, civilians are dying, women are being raped, and millions of people are afraid to go home," said Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "On August 12, the UN decided to send more peacekeepers to Juba but put off a long-overdue arms embargo. The continued supply of arms only helps fuel the abuses on a larger scale."

The UN and member countries should also impose targeted sanctions, including asset freezes and travel bans, on those responsible for serious human rights abuses, Human Rights Watch said. The African Union Commission and donors should proceed without delay with preparations for a hybrid court to investigate and try the most serious crimes committed since the start of South Sudan's new war in December 2013  including during the recent fighting.

Under a peace agreement signed one year ago, on August 15, 2015, the two sides agreed to form a national unity government, integrate their forces, and establish the hybrid court, among other steps. Under the agreement, the African Union Commission was to set up the court, with South Sudanese and other African judges and staff. Key steps to create the court are to be completed by October 2016, but concrete progress has yet to occur.

On July 8, 2016 fighting started between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir, a Dinka, and those of his first vice-president, Riek Machar, a Nuer, during a cabinet meeting at the presidential compound. The violent gun battle was preceded by weeks of heightened tensions between the forces in the capital surrounding lingering delays in implementing the peace agreement.

Over a four-day period, the two sides battled in several locations around Juba. Human Rights Watch researchers in Juba heard accounts of soldiers firing indiscriminately, hitting densely populated areas or displaced people's camps inside UN bases. At least a dozen civilians who had sought safety in the UN camps died and scores were wounded.

Researchers also documented targeted killings, rapes and gang rapes, beatings, looting, and harassment, often along ethnic lines, in several areas of Juba. The Thongpiny, Munuki, Mangaten, Gudele, and Jebel neighborhoods were particularly affected. Due to security restrictions to some affected areas, researchers could not establish the full scale of abuse. Soldiers, operating under the formal command of General Paul Malong and President Kiir committed most of the crimes.

Human Rights Watch also received reports of abuses committed by the SPLA-in-Opposition (IO), Machar's forces, but could not independently verify them.

In the fighting at least 73 civilians were killed according to the UN, and 36,000 people sought refuge at UN and aid group compounds during or directly after the fighting. A July 11 ceasefire halted the fighting in Juba but the government's army, SPLA, and the armed opposition, IO, continued to fight around Juba and elsewhere in South Sudan.

In some cases, government forces directly targeted civilians on the basis of their ethnicity. A 35-year-old man said that two SPLA pick-ups full of soldiers surrounded the Bedale hotel in the Atlabara neighborhood where he hid with 27 other Nuer men shortly before the ceasefire on July 11:

The soldiers knocked at the door and asked whether any Nuer were staying at the hotel. "We urged the guard not to open. They asked, 'Why are you hiding the Nuer!' and then they started to shoot with their heavy machine guns through the doors and wall. That's how my friend Mading Chan was killed."

On the same day, a large number of soldiers belonging to contingents of government forces overran a compound that housed a number of international organizations' staff. During their rampage, the soldiers executed a Nuer journalist, raped and gang raped several women, beat and assaulted dozens of staff, and ransacked and looted the entire compound.

Soldiers continued to attack civilians and commit other crimes after the July 11 ceasefire. Human Rights Watch documented repeated incidents in which government soldiers stopped women who ventured out of protection of civilians (POC) camps inside UN bases to get food, confiscating their goods, and raping them. In several cases, researchers heard that soldiers made statements about the victims' ethnicity or perceived allegiance to the IO. The UN reported more than 200 cases of sexual violence by opposition and government forces during and after the recent fighting in Juba.

A 27-year-old woman returning to her POC site on July 18 with food from town said five soldiers stopped her: "They said: 'you are carrying bullets to Riek Machar,' and then they took me to a compound but I resisted. They beat me in the head, and in the chest. As I was in pain, they raped me. I was two months pregnant, but I lost that baby after what happened."

Peacekeepers guarding the UN base did not do enough to protect women from rape in surrounding areas. In one example reported by media, on July 17 soldiers dragged a woman away. Peacekeepers saw what was happening but did not take action. Increased patrolling or stationary patrols in key areas could have prevented some rapes. On July 18, an aid worker managed to rescue a woman who had just been raped.

The SPLA restricted the movement of UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), leading peacekeepers to stay in their bases during the fighting. On July 12, the mission urged government security forces to lift the restrictions, but it took several days before the peacekeepers began any movement or patrols. UNMISS promised to investigate its response to sexual violence, and should also investigate why it was so unprepared and ineffectual in protecting civilians when fighting broke out, fix the problems, and make the results of such investigation public, Human Rights Watch said.

During and after the fighting, as people tried to flee, government forces restricted movement of civilians by road and air, increasing tension and fear. Security forces also beat up an opposition minister in Juba on July 12, and on July 16 national security officers (NSS) detained the editor of Juba Monitor, Alfred Taban, after he published editorials criticizing both sides, and calling on Kiir and Machar to step down. He was released on grounds of ill heath on July 29 and is awaiting trial.

On August 12, the UN Security Council authorized a new Regional Protection Force as a part of UNMISS. These 4,000 new troops are mandated to protect the airport and other key installations and "engage any actor that is preparing attacks or engages in attacks against United Nations protection of civilians sites, other United Nations premises, United Nations personnel, international and national humanitarian actors, or civilians." Better and improved protection of civilians should remain the primary task of the peacekeeping mission as a whole, Human Rights Watch said.

"South Sudanese leaders have time and again failed to end abuses against civilians, been unwilling to rein in abusive forces or ensure justice for crimes by those under their command," Bekele said. "There is no more excuse for delay: top leaders need to be sanctioned and an arms embargo imposed. The UN has to be more effective in protecting civilians and the AU should move ahead with the hybrid court."

For additional information and accounts from eyewitnesses and victims, please see below.

Human Rights Watch researchers visited Juba between July 14 and 27 and interviewed more than 85 victims and witnesses of the recent violence, as well as aid and government officials. Researchers met with the South Sudan Human Rights Commission, the president's spokesperson, and SPLA officials. Because of ongoing insecurity, researchers were unable to reach some of the neighborhoods most affected by the fighting but were able to interview residents who had fled the areas.

Tenuous Peace and Failed Security Arrangements

South Sudan's current civil war began in December 2013 amid rumors that Vice President Machar was attempting a coup. Fighting and abuses quickly spread along ethnic lines.

Despite the August 2015 peace deal, fighting and abuses continued, including in previously peaceful parts of the country. The parties disagreed over a number of key issues, such as Kiir's unilateral creation, in December 2015, of 28 new states and the government's refusal to allocate cantonment sites for opposition fighters in parts of the country outside the greater Upper Nile region. The government submitted a number of reservations on several points of the agreement.

However, diplomats and the UN supported the deal. Machar returned to Juba on April 26, welcomed by hundreds of SPLA-in-Opposition (IO) fighters who had been ferried there on UN planes and by the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (JMEC), the international body in charge of monitoring the peace deal.

Both sides flouted the agreement from the start. Under the transitional security arrangements, the IO and government would respectively be allowed 1,470 and 3,420 soldiers in Juba, and would have to move all other forces 25 kilometers out of Juba. Yet as of early July, about 10,000 to 12,000 SPLA soldiers were estimated to be in Juba, many hiding in residential areas dressed as civilians, credible sources told Human Rights Watch. The opposition may also have received reinforcements from various sympathizers and fighters in and around Juba.

In addition, the parties agreed to position the IO bases close to civilian areas, including UNMISS headquarters and its protection of civilians (POC) sites. Locating a military base there clearly put the civilians at risk.

On July 2, government forces killed a senior opposition military intelligence officer, and on July 7, five SPLA soldiers were killed in a skirmish at a checkpoint. On the afternoon of July 8, a large-scale firefight between Kiir and Machar's bodyguards in the presidential complex J-1 led to further clashes near the IO bases and the airport, which continued despite a lull on July 9, until a ceasefire on the evening of July 11.

On July 23, Kiir dismissed Machar and replaced him with another Nuer politician, Taban Deng Gai, despite objections from Machar and his allies. Fighting has continued in areas outside Juba and the fate of the peace deal is unclear.

Abuses against Civilians by Government Forces

Targeting of Non-Dinka

Many of the people Human Rights Watch interviewed said that government soldiers in various neighborhoods of Juba arbitrarily arrested, beat, and killed civilians and destroyed and looted property. Some civilian Nuer men said that uniformed Dinka security forces from either the army, police, or national security stopped them as they fled areas surrounding the presidential compound after the gun battle the evening of July 8, and demanded their identification cards, or spoke to them in Dinka to determine if they understood the language. Then the men tried to steal the Nuer men's money and phones, sometimes attempting to kill them.

"When the incident happened at J-1, I was near Juba University with colleagues of mine," said a man in his 30s. "I tried to run, but soldiers stopped me on the street and asked something in Dinka language. I was unable to answer. They said 'Are you Nuer?' in Arabic. I said yes and then they started to shoot me, I had seven bullets in my body. The soldiers left me for dead but I survived."

Others were luckier. A journalist said: "When we heard the gunshots on July 8, I was at my office near the national security headquarters. As I tried to flee with colleagues, I was stopped by national security officers who asked me for my ID. I think they knew I was a Nuer. I was arguing with them when the car of a general pulled over and told them to leave me alone."

On July 10, tanks and a large group of soldiers attacked and shelled the undefended house of the Shilluk king  a traditional leader who is not officially affiliated with either side  in the Munuki neighborhood.

"The tank shot three times towards our house, where we hosted about 100 Shilluk civilians, but missed," a relative of the king said. "Then they used their heavy machine guns and started to spray bullets on the house. One of the rooms caught on fire. From inside the compound, I could hear them shout: 'We need to destroy this house!'"

SPLA soldiers also targeted the house of Joseph Monytuel, the Bul Nuer governor of Bentiu  another non-Dinka government ally living in Munuki  where hundreds of Nuer civilians from the area had sought refuge. The governor's bodyguards fended off the attackers a relative who fled to a UN base said.

In other areas known to be populated by non-Dinka such as Thongpiny and Mangaten, government forces on foot and in vehicles also attacked civilians, arrested men, and looted homes. Fighting and fear of abuses led at least 2,500 civilians to flee into a nearby UN base between July 8 and 12.

On the morning of July 10, in Thongpiny, soldiers killed a policeman and rounded up other men who looked or spoke Nuer. A 25-year-old Nuer woman who witnessed the events said: "They were deployed throughout my street. Some wore SPLA uniforms; others wore the fatigues of the Wildlife Guards. They killed a policeman in front of my eyes and I saw them arresting people who looked Nuer. They were putting them in the back of their pick-ups. When we saw this, we decided to flee."

Another young displaced Nuer woman said that four Dinka soldiers forced their way into her family house in Thongpiny on July 10 and looted their belongings: "They put a gun to my head and asked: 'Is your husband home?' My husband was hiding under the bed but I said no. They said, 'Whatever you have you give us, or we will kill you.'"

Some members of the security forces helped rescue civilians endangered by government troops. Witnesses, including staff at a nongovernmental group's compound that was attacked, said national security officers rescued them from areas deemed unsafe, or from direct SPLA aggression. In one instance, national security officers hid about 40 Nuer in the office of Thomas Duoth, a senior Nuer officer commanding the NSS' external security bureau.

Government forces also restricted the movement of non-Dinka men. As nongovernmental organizations and expatriates evacuated Juba following the ceasefire, authorities stopped non-Dinka men from leaving the country. On July 13, a Nuer worker for an organization had to pay a US$100 bribe to a security official to be allowed to enter the airport and was then refused permission to board the evacuation plane his organization had chartered.

"As I stood in the line for the customs, a national security officer pulled me aside and took my passport away," he said. "He led me to the NSS' airport office and there they took my name off the plane's manifest. They would not explain why."

Sexual Violence and Rape

Human Rights Watch found a clear pattern of rape against civilian women and girls by government soldiers during and after the fighting. Some government soldiers repeatedly gang raped or raped women and girls in areas surrounding the main UN base at Jebel, where the victims had taken shelter, during and after the fighting. In many of the cases, victims told Human Rights Watch that their attackers made statements suggested they were targeting the women for rape because of their ethnicity or presumed allegiance to Machar.

On August 4, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) reported that UNMISS had received reports of "widespread sexual violence, including rape and gang rape by soldiers in uniform and men in plain clothes," and noted more than 200 alleged cases since July 8 at various locations in Juba, including near the UN House. The Office of the High Commissioner noted that both SLPA and IO soldiers raped women and girls.

Human Rights Watch also found evidence that government soldiers stationed in an area known as "Checkpoint" along the road to Yei raped dozens of women sheltering at a protection of civilians camp at the UN base at Jebel who ventured out of the camp in search of food  in some cases raping them just a few hundred meters away from the UN peacekeepers' base.

"I was walking with a group of 10 women when soldiers in green uniforms and red berets stopped us," a 20-year-old woman said. "They took phones and money from some, and then took four women away to a store and raped them."

In other cases, soldiers transported women to compounds they occupied and raped them there. Two survivors in their twenties said that a group of several dozen soldiers stopped them in the checkpoint area on July 21, and beat, abducted, and raped them, along with a third woman. One said:

"They cut our clothes with knives. They beat us using rifle butts. They were talking about Riek Machar, they said things in Dinka language. Then they took us by car to another compound. They raped us there, in front of everybody. I'm sorry to say this, but this is what happened. They even raped her [the other survivor], who is pregnant,"

One 24-year-old woman said that government soldiers raped her on July 18 when she left the camp for town to look for food: "When I reached Checkpoint on my way back, there was a large group of soldiers who stopped me. Half of them wanted to rape me, the others wanted to kill me. Four of them raped me. Then they took my things and told me to go."

Health authorities and aid groups should ensure that post-rape care for victims meets at least minimum standards, including post-exposure prophylactics to help prevent HIV infection, emergency contraception, and access to psychosocial services or other mental health care services.

Gang rapes in the Yei Road Compound

On July 11, fighting moved toward Jebel, where SPLA soldiers fought to capture the IO base near UN House. That afternoon, a large number of government forces attacked the Yei Road compound, which housed about 50 employees of several international organizations.

Witnesses said the soldiers arrived around 3 p.m., divided into groups, and immediately began breaking into structures, looting supplies, and entering residential areas and an apartment building, where they killed a prominent journalist, raped or gang raped several international and national staff of organizations, and destroyed, and extensively looted property.

They killed the journalist, 32-year-old John Gatluak, in front of the apartments, presumably because of his Nuer ethnicity, visible from his scarification. Witnesses said that the soldiers shot him in front of his colleagues, at close range. His body was seen lying face up, hands above his head, as if in surrender.

The soldiers also raped or gang raped several foreign women. "He told me I had to have sex with him or else I would have to have sex with all the other soldiers  so I didn't have a choice," said one survivor of multiple rapes. Another woman said: "He beat me and ordered me to take off my pants," then raped her in front of other people.

Some witnesses said soldiers cheered as they took turns raping a woman or two women in a room. Soldiers often threatened the women with death if they did not comply. In one case of attempted rape, a soldier beat the woman with the butt of his gun, then another shot a bullet next to her head.

During the first day of the attack, which lasted until about 7 p.m., soldiers also beat many of the compound residents, sometimes demanding to know their nationalities or affiliations, broke into apartments, destroyed property and looted goods including satellite dishes, televisions, money, clothes, food, computers, and alcohol.

Many residents were not rescued for several hours, despite repeated calls to various organizations and security forces. During and after the rescues, the soldiers continued to ransack and loot the compound leaving nothing intact. Gatluak's body was not retrieved for several days.

Other Looting

Starting after the ceasefire, large groups of government soldiers stationed near UN House, later joined by Dinka civilians looted the entire contents of the World Food Program (WFP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warehouses located in the vicinity, witnesses said. At the WFP warehouse alone, they stole 4,500 metric tons of food  enough to feed 220,000 people  as well as generators, air-conditioning, and other equipment.

Soldiers also looted the markets at Jebel and "Checkpoint" in the hours following the ceasefire.

Indiscriminate Attacks in Densely Populated Areas

During the four-day fight, both forces used a variety of weapons, including mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and, in the case of government troops, helicopter gunships acquired from Ukraine equipped with unguided rockets, and battle tanks. Ukrainian contractors also maintain the helicopters in Juba. Both forces used artillery in densely populated areas and in close proximity to poorly fortified UN bases and civilian protection sites.

International humanitarian law prohibits the use of indiscriminate force in densely populated civilian areas as the risk of harm to civilians outweighs any anticipated military advantage gained from the attack.

Human Rights Watch researchers found evidence that fighters fired mortars and artillery at or over POC sites. The use of these weapons in such circumstances is at least reckless and probably indiscriminate. Witnesses and humanitarian sources told Human Rights Watch that at least five shells hit the POC site 1 at the main UN base in Jebel on July 11.

One shell hit and damaged a medical clinic run by the international non-governmental medical organization International Medical Corps (IMC) at the site. Another killed two Chinese peacekeepers and prompted the retreat of all UN police and soldiers from the outer fences of the site, causing residents to panic and flee. Shells also fell into the adjacent and larger POC site 3, where about 30,000 mostly Nuer displaced civilians were taking shelter.

At least a dozen civilians who had sought safety in the protection of civilians sites at the main UN base in Jebel died from the injuries caused by shooting at and shelling inside the camps. Many dozens more were wounded.

On July 10, a stray bullet killed a 10-year-old boy in site 3. "He was hiding inside the ditch with other people, and the bullet came," his aunt said. "He was shot inside the camp, "A 3-year-old boy was also hit by a stray bullet well inside the site. "He was hiding under the bed when the bullet hit him," his mother said. "He's now in the hospital."

Soldiers also fought around another UN base at Thongpiny, near Juba international airport. At least one shell also hit an impromptu POC site inside the UN base at Thongpiny on July 11. Although the UN had closed the site in December 2014, people started seeking refuge from the fighting there on July 8 and by July 11 about 2,500 were inside the base, mostly displaced Nuer and Shilluk."

A 22-year-old displaced woman said she witnessed a shell explode in the Thongpiny UN base: "I saw so many people wounded, bleeding, they were taken to the hospital. I saw one woman injured in the back. Another person was hit on the head, one on the leg."

Ten civilians, including six children, were also wounded well inside the displaced persons' site at the UN base at Thongpiny by bullets shot on the morning of July 11 from a nearby building, under construction, that had been occupied by soldiers and changed hands over the course of the fighting. Human Rights Watch received reports that the building was under control of government forces at the time of the shootings.

While Human Rights Watch was unable to establish with certainty whether the soldiers shot at civilians intentionally, some civilians said government forces aimed at them, with no clear military target nearby. A 28-year-old woman who witnessed the incidents said the shooters could see them: "The soldiers were on the roof of the building 300 meters away and they could see us. They were shooting at us. There were no other soldiers for them to shoot at, just us."

Government forces also used helicopter gunships armed with unguided rockets against opposition positions, and tanks in some densely populated neighborhoods such as Gudele and Jebel, near the IO bases, and in Thongpiny, Munuki, and Mangaten near the airport and known to host sizable Nuer and Shilluk populations. The use of tanks by government forces in densely populated civilian areas significantly endangered civilian lives and structures.

Although it's not the only factor, the ability to purchase arms and ammunition as well as the maintenance of military equipment by other countries since the conflict began are enabling both sides to continue to commit abuses in South Sudan, Human Rights Watch said. An arms embargo should help reduce these ongoing and unlawful attacks on civilians.

UN Response

At the onset of the fighting, the army ordered UNMISS staff and peacekeepers to stay inside their bases. The mission stated that its peacekeepers were seriously hampered in protecting civilians inside and outside its bases as a result. Nevertheless, UNMISS responses to the fighting were often inadequate or delayed.

At the Thongpiny base, UNMISS peacekeepers took more than six hours to open their doors to civilians who had fled the violence on July 10. "We were many people hiding in the sewage canals outside to the base because they would not open the doors," said a 25-year-old woman resident of Thongpiny. "I was dirty but I was so afraid of the sound of the guns."

The peacekeepers did not venture out of the bases to protect civilians under imminent threat even after the ceasefire. On July 17 peacekeepers guarding a POC site did not intervene when SPLA soldiers meters away abducted a woman. Although rapes took place in their line of sight, they did not increase patrols for several days.

On July 11, UNMISS did not respond to direct calls for protection by aid workers at the Yei Road compound, a kilometer from their base, where Gatluak was killed and several women were raped or gang raped. Witnesses said the UN's rapid response team abandoned their rescue mission after learning NSS would rescue the residents.

While the South Sudanese government has accepted the idea of a Regional Protection Force, as outlined in an August 5 communique of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development group working on South Sudan, known as IGAD Plus, it is imperative for the mission to address existing concerns regarding the efficiency of its current troops. The UN Security Council authorized a Regional Protection Force on August 12, but increased numbers are unlikely to make the mission more effective on its own, without improvements in other areas.

Under the Status of Forces Agreement between UNMISS and the government, peacekeeping forces have a right to patrol and move throughout the country, as well as to use lethal force to protect civilians, regardless of whether they have prior SPLA or government approval. UNMISS has promised to investigate its response to sexual and gender-based violence during the recent crisis, but the UN needs to investigate and effectively identify the factors that are incapacitating their response to threats against civilians, limiting their operational effectiveness, and causing a crisis of faith in the mission.

The UN mission should also increase its public reporting of abuses including attacks on the UN and international agencies. The lack of public reporting on attacks against UNMISS bases and personnel may have contributed to more violations of the status of forces agreement and decreased the mission's capacity to act on its mandate.

Hold Abusers Accountable

Those responsible for the abuses documented, including commanders, should be held to account, either through hybrid, international, or national prosecutions. More immediately, and with the objective of compelling leaders to bring abuses to an end, individual UN sanctions such as travel bans and asset freezes should be imposed on top civilian and military leaders.

The SPLA's chain of command appears to be heavily divided along ethnic lines, with ethnic Dinka commanders in charge of most decisions. Nonetheless, the coordinated manner in which the SPLA was able to deploy helicopters and tanks indicates an efficient command structure, and the success of the ceasefire declared by chief of staff Paul Malong on July 11 also indicates that he is substantially in control and command of the numerous troops active on the ground.

Malong, as well as Kiir and Machar, who formally are the commanders-in-chief of their respective forces, should be among those investigated for their role in these abuses. Military and civilian leaders both bear responsibility to ensure that operations are conducted in a manner that limits risks to civilians. When military and civilian leaders decide to use poorly trained and undisciplined troops with a poor human rights record, they may bear a responsibility for abuses.

Government commanders may be responsible for knowingly deploying abusive soldiers. Human Rights Watch researchers found that some of the government soldiers deployed at "Checkpoint" and involved in rapes were from SPLA Division 4, which has been singled out by Human Rights Watch and UN reports for committing grave human rights abuses, including rapes, during a 2015 offensive in Unity state.

South Sudan's government has publicly announced that it would investigate the recent events and, on July 29, the council of ministers announced a court martial to try suspected offenders. But the government has a dismal track record for ensuring justice for human rights abuses or fair, public processes, or effective mechanisms for civilians to file complaints. Researchers were told that commanders would be expected to report soldiers who had committed crimes. Twenty-four soldiers have been charged with random shooting and looting, a UN source reported. None were accused of rape or killing.

South Sudanese authorities should also cooperate with the African Union to create the hybrid court envisioned in the 2015 peace agreement, to investigate and try the most serious crimes since the start of the conflict.

Finally, the UN should impose more targeted sanctions on individuals. Members of the UN Security Council have in the past been urged to sanction Malong, Kiir, and Machar. The two top leaders have yet to be added to the list of those proposed for sanctioning. Malong and Johnson Olony  an IO commander  were proposed by the United States in September 2015 but Russia, Angola and China objected.

Copyright notice:  Copyright, Human Rights Watch
Mayor Costin provides council district update & talks about other city projects

A town hall was held at Martinsville City Hall Thursday evening where residents were encouraged to attend and discuss their concerns or questions with Martinsville Mayor Kenny Costin.
SATURDAY

Coffee competition

A 10th birthday celebration 'Coffee Kumite' competition will begin at 10 a.m. at Monks Coffee Shop, 233 Cypress St. Participants will compete in events to test their brewing skills. For information, go to monkscoffeeshop.com.

Movie at the library

A showing of a recent PG-rated fantasy adventure movie will begin at 3 p.m. at the Abilene Public Library, 202 Cedar St. Popcorn will be provided. Admission is free.

Festival and glow run

A family day featuring vendors, live music, painting and more will begin at 7 p.m. at Nelson Park. A 5K glow run will begin at 9:30 p.m. Proceeds will go to the Abilene Dream Center. For information, or to register, go to www.abilenedreamcenter.com.

'Love, Loss and What I Wore'

A production of 'Love, Loss and What I Wore' will begin at 7:30 p.m. at Amy Graves Ryan Fine Arts Center at McMurry University. Proceeds will go to the Presbyterian Medical Care Mission. Seating is limited. For information, go to medicalcaremission.org.

'After Zoey'

A production of the musical 'After Zoey' will be presented at 7:30 p.m. in Fulks Theatre at Abilene Christian University. Tickets are $15.

'King O' the Moon'

A production of 'King O' the Moon' will begin at 7:30 p.m. at Abilene Community Theatre, 809 Barrow St. Tickets are $15 for adults and $12 for students, seniors and military.

Square dance

TYE  The Wagon Wheel Squares will sponsor a square dance at 7:30 p.m. at the Wagon Wheel.

Other ...

Overeaters Anonymous, 10 a.m., Shades of Hope, 402A Mulberry St., Buffalo Gap. 800-588-4673.

Big Country Chapter American Association of Medical Transcriptionists meeting, 10 a.m., Arbec Room, first floor, Texas State Technical College, East Highway 80, Abilene. For medical transcriptionists or anyone interested in becoming one. 325-698-8898.

Abilene Society of Model Railroaders, 10 a.m. to noon, 2043 N. Second St.

SUNDAY

Trade Days of West Texas

Trade Days of West Texas will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 2501 E. Highway 80. Crafts, antiques, food trucks and more will be available.

MONDAY

Sewing circle

DESDEMONA  A sewing and craft circle will be open from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Desdemona Activity Center. Participants are invited to bring a lunch. Admission is free.

'Music at Main'

Violinist Amanda Mylcraine will perform Celtic music at 'Music at Main' at 4 p.m. at the Abilene Public Library, 202 Cedar St. Musicians are encouraged to call 325-676-6026 to schedule appearances.

Other ...

Overeaters Anonymous, noon, Hinds Square Building, 100 Chestnut St., Room 112.

Schizophrenia Support Group, 1-2 p.m., Mental Health Association of Abilene, 333 Orange St. 325-673-2300.

Blood drive, 1-6 p.m., Fisher County Chronicle, Rotan.

Alzheimer's Association Caregiver Support Group, 3:30-4:30 p.m., Texas AgriLife Extension Office, 101 S. Ave. D, Haskell.

Free swim class for people with multiple sclerosis, 5:30 p.m., YMCA, 3250 State St.

Anorexics Bulimics Anonymous, 6 p.m., Shades of Hope, 402A Mulberry St., Buffalo Gap. 800-588-4673.

Central Texas Gem & Mineral Society of Abilene, 7 p.m., 7607 Highway 277 South. 325-692-0063.

Abilene Toastmaster's Club 1071, 7 p.m., Conference Center, Texas State Technical College, 650 E. Highway 80. 325-692-7325 or abilene.toastmastersclubs.org.

Al-Anon, 7 p.m., First United Methodist Church, 1501 N. Broadway, Ballinger. 817-689-2810 or 325-977-1007.

Mid-City Al-Anon, 7 p.m., First Christian Church. 325-670-4304.

Memory Men (4-part a cappella singing), 7 p.m., Calvary Baptist Church, 1165 Minter Lane. Park on east side, enter through kitchen. 325-676-SING.

Abilene Community Band rehearsal, 7:30 p.m., Bynum Band Hall, McMurry University. 325-232-7383.

South Pioneer Al-Anon Group, 8 p.m., 3157 Russell Ave.

Alcoholics Anonymous/Narcotics Anonymous, 8 p.m., Avoca United Methodist Church. 325-773-2611.

Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse Group. 325-676-1400.

TUESDAY

Business workshop

Texas Tech Small Business Development Center Abilene will conduct a workshop, 'How to Start a Business, ' from 6-8 p.m. in the Texas Tech Training Center, 749 Gateway St., Suite 301. To make a reservation, call 325-670-0300.

Square dance workshop

TYE  The Key City Squares will conduct a square dancing workshop at 6:30 p.m. at the Wagon Wheel.

Other ...

Mission on the Move Soup Kitchen, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Southwest Drive Community United Methodist Church, 3025 Southwest Dr.

Abilene Southwest Rotary Club, noon, Beehive Restaurant, 442 Cedar St.

High Noon Al-Anon, noon, Southern Hills Church of Christ, 3666 Buffalo Gap Road (south end; follow the yellow signs).

Blood drive, 1-6 p.m., Brookshires, Cisco.

Stroke/Aphasia Recovery Program support group, 1:30-2:30 p.m. West Texas Rehabilitation Center boardroom, 4601 Hartford St. 325-793-3535.

Alzheimer's Association support group, 4 p.m., 301 S. Pioneer Drive. Libby, 325-672-2907.

Dystonia Support Group, 5:15-6:15 p.m., Not Without Us, 3301 N. First St. Suite 117.

Take Off Pounds Sensibly (TOPS), 5:30 p.m., Brook Hollow Christian Church, 2310 S. Willis St. 325-232-7444.

Legacies Al-Anon Family Group, 5:30-6:30 p.m., Open Door Building, 3157 Russell Ave. 325-280-7584.

Family (of Mental Health Consumers) Support Group, 6-7 p.m., Mental Health Association in Abilene, 333 Orange St. 325-673-2300.

Stroke Club, 6-7 p.m., West Texas Rehabilitation Center boardroom, 4601 Hartford St. 325-793-5475.

MHAA Bipolar/Depression Peer Support Group, 6-8 p.m., Ministry of Counseling & Enrichment, 1502 N. First St. 325-673-2300.

Free certified nurturing parent class (pregnancy to toddler), 6-8 p.m., Mission Church, North Third and Mockingbird streets. 325-672-9398.

Abilene Star Chorus, 6:15 p.m., Wisteria Place Chapel, 3202 S. Willis St. 325-829-1470.

Overeaters Anonymous, 6:30-7:30 p.m., Exodus Metropolitan Community Church, 1933 S. 27th St.

Al-Anon Parents Group, 7 p.m., Hillcrest Church of Christ, 650 E. Ambler Ave. Use Church Street entrance.

Al-Anon, 7 p.m., Doug Meinzer Activity Center, Knox City. 940-658-3926.

Abilene Society of Model Railroaders, 7-8:30 p.m., 2043 N. Second St.

Unity Group of Alcoholics Anonymous, 8 p.m., Episcopal Church of the Heavenly Rest, 602 Meander St.

WEDNESDAY

Dog Days at the Mall

Dog Days will continue from 5-8 p.m. at the Mall of Abilene. Participants are encouraged to bring their dogs. Service dogs and their trainers will be honored.

Square dance workshop

TYE  The Wagon Wheel Squares will conduct a square dancing workshop at 6:30 p.m. at the Wagon Wheel.

Other ...

Overeaters Anonymous, 8 a.m., Hinds Square Building, Room 112, 100 Chestnut St.

Abilene Cactus Lions Club, 11:45 a.m., Cotton Patch Cafe, 3302 S. Clack St.

Abilene Wednesday Rotary Club, noon, Abilene Country Club, 4039 S. Treadaway. $12 for lunch. Jo Ann Wilson, 325-677-6815.

Kiwanis Club of Abilene, noon, Abilene Country Club, 4039 S. Treadaway Blvd.

Clearly Speaking Toastmaster Club, noon, Westgate Church of Christ, 402 S. Pioneer Drive. 325-795-5570.

Blood drive, noon to 6 p.m., Sweetwater Lions Club, 1501 Lamar St., Sweetwater.

Blood drive, noon to 6 p.m., First Financial Bank, Sweetwater.

The Alzheimer's Association Brownwood Support Group, 2-3 p.m., Redstone Park Retirement & Assisted Living, 2410 Songbird Circle, Brownwood. 325-643-9056.

Free swim class for people with multiple sclerosis, 5:30 p.m., YMCA, 3250 State St.

Veterans Peer Support Group, 6 p.m., 765 Orange St. 325-670-4818.

Mid-week Al-Anon Family Group, 6-7 p.m., Open Door Building, 3157 Russell Ave. 325-698-4995.

Advanced Square Dancing, 6:30-8:30 p.m., Wagon Wheel.

Al-Anon, 7 p.m., First United Methodist Church, 1501 N. Broadway, Ballinger. 817-689-2810 or 325-977-1007.

DivorceCare support group, 7 p.m., Hillcrest Church of Christ, 650 E. Ambler Ave. 325-691-4200.

THURSDAY

Square dance workshop

TYE  A-Team will conduct a square dancing workshop 6:30-8:30 p.m. at the Wagon Wheel.

'King O' the Moon'

A production of 'King O' the Moon' will begin at 7:30 p.m. at Abilene Community Theatre, 809 Barrow St. Tickets are $15 for adults and $12 for students, seniors and military.

Other ...

Chronic Pain and Depression Group, 11 a.m. to noon, Mental Health Association of Abilene, 333 Orange St., 325-673-2300.

Abilene Founder Lions Club, 11:30 a.m., Al's Mesquite Grill, 4801 Buffalo Gap Road.

Kiwanis Club of Greater Abilene, noon, Beehive Restaurant, 442 Cedar St. 325-695-0092.

Mental Illness Open Support Group, 1-2 p.m., Mental Health Association of Abilene, 333 Orange St. 325-673-2300.

Blood drive, 1-6 p.m., First Baptist Church, Cross Plains.

Abilene 42 Club, 6 p.m., Rose Park Senior Center.

Teen Recovery Group, 6-7 p.m., Mission Abilene, 3001 N. Third St.

Free certified nurturing parent class (all ages), 6-8 p.m., Mission Church, North Third and Mockingbird streets. 325-672-9398.

Take Off Pounds Sensibly, 6:30 p.m. Brook Hollow Christian Church. Weigh-in begins at 5:30 p.m. 325-665-5052.

Free swim class for people with multiple sclerosis, 6:30 p.m., YMCA, 3250 State St.

Gambler's Anonymous, 6:30 p.m., Unity Spiritual Living Center, 2842 Barrow St. 325-338-2575.

Round Dancing, 7 p.m., Wagon Wheel. 325-829-1517.

South Pioneer Al-Anon Group, 8 p.m., 3157 Russell Ave.

Unity Group of Alcoholics Anonymous, 8 p.m., Episcopal Church of the Heavenly Rest, 602 Meander St.

FRIDAY

Mental health symposium

Mental Health of America of Abilene will conduct its second annual mental health symposium from 8:45 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. at the Texas Tech University Health Science Center, 1674 Pine St. Continuing education units will be available. To register, go to AbileneMHA.org or call 325-673-2300.

Musical

COTTONWOOD  The Cottonwood Country Musical will begin at 5:30 p.m. at the Cottonwood Community Center. A supper will be served from 5-7 p.m.

'After Zoey'

A production of the musical 'After Zoey' will be presented at 7:30 p.m. in Fulks Theatre at Abilene Christian University. Tickets are $15.

'King O' the Moon'

A production of 'King O' the Moon' will begin at 7:30 p.m. at Abilene Community Theatre, 809 Barrow St. Tickets are $15 for adults and $12 for students, seniors and military.

Dance

OPLIN  A dance featuring Muddy Creek will be 7:30-10:30 p.m. at the Oplin Community Center. Admission is $5. Information: www.grandoleoplin.com.

Other ...

Blood drive, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Texas Oncology, 1957 Antilley Road.

Abilene Chinese Corner, 5:30-6:30 p.m., Abilene Christian University library. lld09a@acu.edu.

Mid-City Al-Anon, 7 p.m., First Christian Church. 325-670-4304.
Several of my favorite contemporary Texas women writers have new novels on the shelves this month. Or, in one case, an older novel revisited.

Leila Meacham, who became a best-selling author with 'Roses' and most recently 'Titans' and other 600-page Texas epics, wrote three shorter romance novels back in the 1980s that are being reissued in new editions in the next few months.

The first of them, 'Ryan's Hand' (Grand Central Publishing, $20 hardcover), is set on a West Texas ranch, where a young female Boston librarian has taken up residence against her better judgment as a promise to a dying friend.

She and the single, gruff, domineering ranch owner do not hit it off at all  in fact, they can't seem to stand each other. So you can probably see where this story is headed.

Meacham, as the 2016 A.C. Greene Award winner, will be featured at the West Texas Book Festival in Abilene on Sept. 24.

Linda Castillo continues her popular thriller series set in the Amish country with 'Among the Wicked' (Minotaur Books, $26.99 hardcover).

Castillo's newest novel branches out a bit from the regular Ohio setting, however, with Chief of Police Kate Burkholder going undercover in an isolated and secretive Amish community in rural upstate New York.

Castillo fans will find that her newest offering may well be the best yet. If you haven't read any of her earlier mysteries, go ahead and plunge right in. Once you've zipped through one of her novels, you'll probably want to go back and read the others.

The fourth book in Amarillo novelist Jodi Thomas's Ransom Canyon series is due out on Aug. 30. 'Sunrise Crossing' is the third title published this year, following 'Rustler's Moon' back in January and 'Lone Heart Pass' in April.

Thomas's stories, while technically in the romance genre, make good reading for men as well as women. And although they are part of a series, each title can be read as a stand-alone. A few familiar characters come and go throughout the series.

Abilene's Karen Witemeyer says she writes historical romances 'to give the world more happily ever afters,' and she's making quite a name for herself with more than 300,000 copies sold and several awards framed.

Her latest is 'No Other Will Do' (Bethany House, $14.99 paperback), set in 1882 in a women's colony in Texas where women in need are offered a fresh start. But when an assailant threatens to drive them out, Emma Chandler sends out a plea for help to a man she knows. She once saved his life; now he has a chance to return the favor.

Fans of Dixie Cash will be excited to know that the fun-loving two-sister writing team is back with an intriguing new title, 'You Can Have My Heart But Don't Touch My Dog,' set in a gourmet pet food bakery in Midland (available in paperback and e-book).

The tenth book in Diane Kelly's delightful Death and Taxes series featuring female Dallas IRS agent Tara Holloway is 'Death, Taxes and a Satin Garter' (St. Martin's, $7.99 paperback).

Kelly also has a second mystery series going, Paw Enforcement, starring a Fort Worth police officer and her K-9 partner. Kelly's stories are always entertaining.

Glenn Dromgoole is the editor of a new collection of West Texas Stories. Contact him at g.dromgoole@suddenlink.net.
WINGATE

Wingate Baptist Church will host a revival Sunday through Wednesday. Services will begin at 7 p.m. each evening.

Dr. D.L. Lowrie, of Lubbock, will preach and Gerre and Jo Joiner will lead the music. On Alice Lowrie will speak at a ladies luncheon in Fellowship Hall, on the topic 'Joy for the Journey' at noon Tuesday.

The Rev. Price Mathieson is pastor of Wingate Baptist Church and may be reached at 325-698-2831 for further information.

EASTLAND

First Baptist Church of Eastland will have a Teacher Commissioning Service at 10:45 a.m. Sunday. A luncheon will follow in the gym.

A Back to School Bash has been scheduled from 5 to 8 p.m. Wednesday with inflatables, games, food and more. The whole family is invited.

CHRISTMAS BAZAAR BOOTH RENTAL

The J.O.Y. Women's Ministry of Potosi Baptist Church is having a Christmas Bazaar from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Oct. 1. Crafters, bakers, and direct-sell businesses are all welcome to participate. Table rental is $15. The deadline for table reservation is Sept. 17. For more information contact Potosi Baptist Church at 325-529-3227.

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.
An Abilene youth who is a student at Texas Christian University is enjoying the legacy of family members who attended another university that no longer exists.

Graham Watson is a sophomore at TCU, majoring in religion and business, with the intent to become a minister.

TCU is affiliated with the Disciples of Christ denomination. Many of Watson's relatives, including great-grandparents and grandparents, attended Phillips University in Enid, Oklahoma, also affiliated with the Disciples of Christ.

Although Phillips ceased to function as a university in 1998, its Phillips University Legacy Foundation continues to support students enrolled at universities with ties to the Disciples of Christ.

This month, the foundation announced that Watson, a member of First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Abilene, was awarded continuance of a scholarship and enrollment in the Leadership Development Program.

A news release said the continuance was based on 'academic excellence and Christian leadership in his church, vocation, and community.'

In addition to a scholarship, Watson will attend a four-day leadership development conference, expenses paid, in November at the Heifer International Ranch in Perryville, Arkansas. He will interact with 25 other Legacy Scholars from across the nation at the conference.

Watson's pastor in Abilene, Don Wilson, has written numerous letters of recommendation for him over the past several years for positions in regional church organizations and to be named an Eagle Scout.

Wilson noted in his letters that Watson is dependable, outgoing, welcoming of others, talented, thoughtful and intelligent.

'Graham exudes a humble confidence that makes him a natural leader among his peers,' Wilson wrote in a letter of recommendation for a leadership position on the Regional Youth Ministry Council. 'His faith in Christ is genuine and deep.'

Watson's father, Wayne Watson, said in an email that his son's dual majors  religion and business  will come in handy if his son becomes a minister as planned.

'Churches have commonalities with businesses, including employees, payroll, budget, accounting, overhead, expenses, revenue,' he wrote, 'so, having some background in business would be a plus for a minister.'
After 500 years of division and 50 years of conversation, Catholics and Lutherans are making history again.

And two local women are rejoicing. Dee Halbert is a member of Holy Family Catholic Church. Patricia Dodini is a member of Grace Lutheran Church, which is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).

In February, the two women presented a program at the monthly meeting of the Abilene Association of Congregations on the ongoing process of finding common ground between Catholics and Lutherans. Their division, known as the Protestant Reformation, was ignited 500 years ago by Martin Luther, a German priest who hoped to reform the Catholic Church, not start a new church with his name on it.

Halbert and Dodini were asked earlier this year to work up a program for the association to enlighten others on the progress being made toward reconciling differences. The two women only knew each other through the association but agreed to get together to work on a program.

'We really enjoyed working on it together,' Halbert said. 'Both of us learned a lot.'

Their mutual respect and curiosity about one another's religion made the arrangement work. And that is the ultimate goal of the process to bring unity to the churches.

Halbert noted that Pope Francis has championed the cause of unity and will participate in a joint Lutheran-Catholic worship service in Sweden in October.

The latest step in the process came last week in New Orleans when the ELCA, in a churchwide meeting, adopted the 'Declaration on the Way,' an ecumenical document containing 32 'Statements of Agreement' between the churches. The document previously had been affirmed by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishop's Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs.

Dodini and several other women from area Lutheran churches were in New Orleans attending a concurrent meeting called Grace Gathering when the adoption of the declaration was announced. It was approved by a vote of 931 to 9.

'We were ecstatic about it,' Dodini said. 'We said, 'yea!' and celebrated.'

The joint worship service in Sweden will kick off a year of reflection and conversation on the Protestant Reformation.

The movement began on Oct. 31, 1517, when Luther nailed his 95 theses on the door of a church in Wittenberg, outlining disagreements with the Catholic church.

The split that resulted has lasted 500 years. Leaders of both churches, and lay members, are hopeful that the ongoing conversations will result in unity between the churches.

'We're one in Christ, regardless of what we call each other,' Dodini said. 'This just allows us to step closer to that.'
Incidents reported Saturday by the Abilene Police Department:

Public intoxication, 2300 block of Barrow Street, Friday

Police arrested a 55-year-old man after responding with the Abilene Fire Department to a fire call. Upon arrival, they discovered the man, who appeared intoxicated, and removed him from the scene.

Public intoxication and evading arrest, 4200 block of South Clack Street, Saturday

Police arrested a 29-year-old man after observing him stumbling in the roadway. Upon contact, the man attempted to run away from the police, who briefly pursued him on foot and took him into custody.

Injury to a child, 1300 block of Sewell Street, Friday

Police arrested a 25-year-old man after responding to a disturbance call at his residence. During an altercation, the man allegedly threw a TV, hitting his 4-year-old son in the head.

Public intoxication, 1500 block of North Danville Drive, Friday

Police arrested a 56-year-old man after finding him sitting on the shoulder of Winters Freeway holding a beer. The man told police he was trying to walk to New Mexico, and appearing intoxicated, was taken into custody.

Theft, 3700 block of Ridgemont Drive, Friday

Police arrested a 34-year-old woman for attempting to steal merchandise from a local department store.

Criminal trespass, 1500 block of Chestnut Street, Wednesday

Police arrested a 39-year-old man after responding to a call of the man entering a vacant residence that had been boarded up by the city.

Possession of Dangerous Drugs, 100 block of North Pioneer Drive, Thursday

Police arrested a 53-year-old woman after responding to a disturbance call at her residence. Upon arrival, police discovered that she had outstanding warrants and also was in possession of prescription medication that was not hers.

Possession of a firearm, manufacture and delivery of controlled substance, and possession of marijuana, 2800 block of Pine Street, Thursday

Police arrested a 43-year-old man after serving a search warrant at his residence. Upon arrival, police discovered a quantity of methamphetamine, firearms and ammunition, and a quantity of marijuana. They also discovered the man had an outstanding warrant for his arrest.

Possession of marijuana, 2000 block of Butternut Street, Thursday

Police arrested a 19-year-old man after a routine traffic stop where the man allegedly failed to yield the right of way. Upon contact with the man, he appeared nervous to police and admitted to being in possession of a quantity of marijuana.

Assault, 2400 block of Buffalo Gap Road, Friday

Police arrested a 63-year-old man after responding to a disturbance call at his residence. Upon arrival, a female victim told police that the man had assaulted her, hit her and choked her.

Driving while intoxicated, area of South Clack Street and Village Drive, Friday

Police arrested a 42-year-old man after a routine traffic stop. Upon contact with the man, police suspected him of being intoxicated. They asked him to perform a field sobriety test, which he failed, and subsequently took him into custody.
Ahead of the start of classes at Abilene's public schools Monday, the Texas Education Agency has provided guidance on how school attendance will be recorded for the 2016-17 school year.

In a Friday letter addressed to administrators at all Texas public and charter schools, Leo Lopez, associate commissioner for school finance and chief school finance officer for the TEA, provided information about how the state's minimum of 75,600 minutes  formerly 180 days  of instruction time will be counted toward school finance and reporting.

For the next school year, TEA officials said, students who attend at least 240 minutes (four hours) in a day will count for a full day in reporting terms, while those who attend at least 120 minutes (two hours) will count for a half-day.

When attendance is reported to the state, the time will reflect the adjusted amount, not the actual time spent in school, Lopez said. This is not a change from previous attendance reporting processes, according to the letter.

The state distributes much of its funding each year based on average attendance per day, and under House Bill 2610  which went into effect before the 2015-16 school year  districts must report attendance in terms of minutes of instruction provided rather than days.

Abilene ISD Superintendent David Young, who is preparing to present a deficit budget to the district's school board on Aug. 29, said the financial component of attendance is just part of why it's important for students to be in school.

'Student attendance is still a major component of the school funding formula,' Young said. 'Proactively addressing attendance to maximize student achievement will be a focus area for the AISD (in the coming) school year and beyond. Greater attendance equates to more instructional time for individual students, which in turn has many positive academic effects.'

The Abilene Independent School District has submitted a calendar to TEA providing 76,010 minutes of instruction time, according to district officials.
Personnel from the Abilene Police Department and Taylor County Sheriff's Office began extra patrols Friday to crack down on drunken drivers and other traffic violators through the Labor Day holiday.

The APD is participating in the Texas Department of Transportation's Impaired Driver Mobilization campaign.

Over the past five years, 19 people in Abilene have lost their lives in alcohol-related crashes, according to a news release from the department.

Officers will work overtime through Sept. 5 dedicated solely to the detection and apprehension of DWI offenders. This effort is funded by a grant in partnership with TxDOT.

'Drunk driving is not a victimless crime. Lives are at stake,' said Police Chief Stan Standridge. 'It is a myth to believe DWI is defined as way too drunk. Instead, intoxication is defined as not having the normal use of mental or physical faculties, or having an alcohol concentration of 0.08 or more. We want everyone to have safe holidays, and that includes intentional efforts to avoid drunk driving.'

Also, Sheriff's Office deputies are working overtime under the Selective Traffic Enforcement Program to monitor the county's rural roadways.

The additional patrols are looking for speed violations, DWI offenders, and other safety-related violations.

'Drivers exceeding the posted speed limits continue to be a major problem in the rural areas of the county,' said TCSO Lt. John Cummins in a news release. 'Pairing excessive speed with distractions in the vehicle often lead to crashes, and sadly, the loss of a human life. The purpose of STEP is to address motorist safety issues, and to attempt to gain compliance from the driving public. It's all about safety and saving lives.'

Taylor County was awarded a $14,230 grant for the current fiscal year for the program.
Today in history: On Aug. 20, 1940, Leon Trotsky, the exiled Russian revolutionary, is wounded by a man wielding an ice ax near his residence outside Mexico City. He dies the next day. The assassin in Ramon Mercader, likely an agent for Joseph Stalin. Trotsky helped organize the South Russian Workers' Union and was arrested and sent to Siberia in 1900. He escaped and later advocated a democratic approach to socialism. He was exiled to Siberia again but escaped and teamed with Lenin in 1917.
Senior North Korean diplomat Thae Yong Ho, a minister at the North Korean Embassy in London, defected to South Korea this week, becoming one of the highest-ranking government officials ever to defect from the country. Changsop Pyon of RFA's Korean Service asked North Korea experts Andrei Lankov of Kukmin University in Seoul about the impact of the rare defection.



RFA: What is the significance of Thae Yong Ho's defection to South Korea?



Lankov: I estimate there are about seven or eight cases of North Korean diplomats defecting to South Korea this year alone. Still, Minister Thae's defection is highly unusual. Why? Tae and his wife are from the families of the so-called "Paekdu bloodline," the anti-Japanese guerrilla group led by North Korean founder Kim Il Sung that resisted Tokyo's colonial rule over Korea. In other words, the Thae family is one of the most powerful 100-odd families of Paekdu bloodline in North Korea today. Of course, there were defections by some very high-profile North Korean figures in the past, but not many. Tae's defection really stands out for this reason.



RFA: What possible impact could Thae's defection have on other North Korean elites abroad?



Lankov: The recent trend of increasing defections by North Korean traders and diplomats shows clearly that they are in restless and agitated mood. The basic reason for their defection is the continuing executions since Kim Jong Un took office. During Kim Il Sung and Kim Jung Il days those from good families and privileged elites were not executed like today. Compared with Kim Il Sung and Kim Jung Il, Kim Jong Un ordered many more executions, and those subject to punishment are highly likely to be executed rather than sent to labor camps. Accordingly, those elites abroad who think they are in political trouble are likely to defect, knowing they can be executed when summoned back home.



RFA: Will North Korean elites continue defecting despite Kim Jong Un's rule of terror?



Lankov: I think they will. Kim Jong Un has no intent to stop his politics of terror targeted at the privileged elites. As Kim has been continuing to rule by execution, those privileged elites and diplomats who dread Kim's draconian rule will continue to defect, I think. The Kim regime can stop them from defecting to certain extent, but not completely.



RFA: What will the effect be of North Korea's reported order summoning families of diplomats back home?



Lankov: If it's true that Pyongyang issued such an order, it will have some effect on curbing defections. Their families are like hostages. Even though their families are not sent to labor camps, they will certainly go through many difficulties and discrimination in North Korean society. Despite that, the summons order won't completely stop them from defecting. Why? Basically the fate of a diplomat's family will be the same whether the diplomat is summoned and then executed as a political prisoner, or whether the diplomat defects, defying Pyongyang's summon order. Again, if Pyongyang really issued such a summon order, it will probably curb diplomats defections to some extent, but not completely.



Reported and translated by Changsop Pyon for RFA's Korean Service.
During the last two years, authorities in Tajikistan have been carrying out a crackdown on political opponents. More of a crackdown than usual, that is to say, because the Tajik government has a long record of harassing the country's political opposition.

But the recent campaign against the opposition features a large number of arrests. Already hundreds of people have been detained and dozens, so far, imprisoned.

Some people in Tajikistan worry they might be next, and have fled the country. It has happened before, during the 1992-1997 civil war in Tajikistan. But for those fleeing now, the safe havens of 20 years ago are no longer safe, and they are having to travel further, to Europe.

To look at who these people are, where they are going, and what is driving them there, RFE/RL assembled a Majlis, or discussion panel, to talk about these recent developments.

Moderating the talk was RFE/RL Media Relations Manager Muhammad Tahir.Our friend Edward Lemon, a PhD candidate at the University of Exeter who specializes in Tajikistan joined us. Also taking part from Berlin was researcher and journalist Yan Matusevich, who is the author of a recent article in The Diplomat on the topic of Tajikistan's asylum seekers. As usual, I had a couple of things to say also.

Emigre Numbers Surge

The biggest opposition group -- the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT) -- lost the last two seats it had in parliament in the March 2015 elections. It was a signal that the party's fortunes were about to take a drastic turn for the worse.

During the six-month period that followed, state media launched a relentless campaign to blacken the image of the IRPT. The party lost is registration, was ordered to cease all activities, and, by the end of September, was declared an extremist group while its leaders were rounded up and put on trial.

Matusevich said that, since the IRPT lost its last seats in parliament, "we've seen a surge in the number of Tajik asylum seekers making their way to Poland via Belarus." Their numbers are not large, yet, but as Matusevich noted, "Tajik asylum seekers went from being nonexistent in Poland to over 500 in 2015 and already in the first half of this year they've gone over 616 asylum seekers."

More would be in Poland now except for the fact that Polish border guards have been turning them away at the frontier with Belarus.

The reason they're showing up at the Belarusian-Polish border, Matusevich explained, is because "Poland just happens to be the closest EU border that they can make it to, transiting through Russia and Belarus, without a visa."

Kremlin Cooperation

In the past, including during the civil war days, most people fleeing Tajikistan for political reasons went to Russia, but this is now changing. "Russia is no longer safe for Tajik opposition members," Lemon said, noting that his research shows "a real increase since 2014 in the targeting of opposition activists" on Russian territory.

No matter what the ties have been between the Kremlin and Central Asian governments, one aspect of these relationships that has remained solid has been the cooperation between Russian and Central Asian security services. Central Asians wanted on charges back home have sometimes disappeared from the streets of Russian cities only to reappear in jail cells back home.

Turkey has been another possible destination for those fleeing Tajikistan in the past. But Lemon noted that this country has also no longer been considered safe ever since Umarali Quvatov, the leader of another Tajik opposition organization called Group 24, was assassinated in Istanbul in March 2015.

Matusevich said this latest crackdown is so broad that some of the citizens of Tajikistan now trying to get into Poland have, at best, tenuous ties to political activity.

"There was one case of someone who was trying to seek asylum in Poland who was a security guard for the Islamic Renaissance Party, who was completely apolitical," Matusevich recalled. "As soon as the party was shut down he felt he could, potentially, end up in prison."

More Likely To Follow



More of Tajikistan's citizens are likely to surface in Belarus, hoping to make it further west.

Lemon said that, in Tajikistan currently, those with ties to opposition groups are subject to "threats to family, surveillance, monitoring, and that really leads them to have a real sense of insecurity."

Lemon added that the crackdown in Tajikistan is unlikely to abate anytime soon. "I think the legitimization of an authoritarian government is always going to be based on the construction of an enemy," he said. "So they're [the Tajik authorities] always going to need some kind of an enemy; otherwise [President Emomali] Rahmon's regime will struggle to hold some kind of legitimacy."

Matusevich said there are probably some 3,000 Tajik citizens who have been denied entry into Poland with some trying up to "40 times, 50 times, up to a point where the passport fills up with rejection stamps and they can no longer give it another attempt."

But Matusevich credited those from Tajikistan for "really following the procedure despite facing all the difficulties at the border."

"We haven't seen many Tajiks try to cross the Belarusian-Polish border irregularly or just somehow circumvent the border crossing," Matusevich said. "Many times they call ahead, [to] NGOs in Poland to make sure they're doing this in the right way but then finding difficulties on the ground in actually making it through."

It is a very unfortunate situation. Europe is already facing its biggest refugee crisis since World War Two as people flee conflict in the Middle East. The thought of a new group of refugees coming from the east would not sit well with many people in Europe.

On the other side of the coin, the list of perceived enemies of the state is growing in Tajikistan and that will force ever more people there to want to leave the country and try to find a secure place to live. They have limited options as to where they can flee.

The Majlis discussed these issues in greater detail and delved into other topics concerning governance and tolerance in Tajikistan, the situation in Belarus for those who make it that far, and other matters related to the asylum seekers from Tajikistan.

An audio recording of the Majlis can be heard here:

Listen to or download the Majlis podcast above or subscribe to Majlis on iTunes.
Afghan forces have retaken a district in the northeastern Kunduz Province that had been seized earlier by Taliban forces.

Kunduz Province Governor Asadullah Omarkhil told RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan from the city of Kunduz on the evening of August 20 that the strategic district had "been completely retaken [by Afghan security forces]" and that the Afghan flag was now flying again over the main district building.

"There are both local Taliban fighters as well as foreign [fighters] such as Chechens and Uzbeks [fighting against Afghan forces]," Omarkhil said. "Their leadership is mainly in the hands of members of Pakistan's [Inter-Services Intelligence agency]."

The fall and recapture of Khanabad district -- some 30 kilometers east of Kunduz city --on August 20 occurred over a period of several hours.

In the early morning of August 20, Taliban forces forced Afghan troops to retreat to the provincial capital, Kunduz, which was briefly overrun by insurgents last year.

"The Taliban attacked the district from different positions and we resisted for hours but we received no support -- the district fell to the Taliban," said Hayatullah Amiri, Khanabad's chief official.

The Khanabad district's governor, Hayatullah Amiri, told the AFP news agency that calls to the provincial governor for reinforcements were ignored.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the Taliban took military vehicles and weapons when it seized the district. It is unclear if Afghan forces recovered that hardware when they recaptured Khanabad.

Kunduz is one of the most volatile provinces in Afghanistan's northern region.

The insurgents were also threatening areas near the provincial capital, Kunduz, on August 20.

According to police officials, militants staged attacks in Kunduzs Alibad district, but Afghan security forces were stil in control there.

Mohammad Yusouf Ayubi, the head of the Kunduz provincial council, said that hundreds of civilians have escaped the fighting, warning that "if the central government does not pay attention to Kunduz, the Taliban will overrun Kunduz city as they did last year."

Khanabad resident Abdul Satar told AFP that people have left their homes and their shops, adding that the roads to neighboring provinces were closed.

Afghan officials said some reinforcements were being sent to the region.

Major General Zmarai Paikan, the commander of Afghanistan's Civil Order Police, said that "various forces, such as units from the Afghan Defense Ministry, commandos, and rapid reaction forces have arrived in Kunduz."

"God willing, we will also be able to rely on airborne support from NATO's Resolute Support Mission [forces], whose command has assured us to provide assistance to our forces in the defense of Kunduz."

A resident of Kunduz named Jan said things looked grim.

"The situation in Kunduz is really critical. All the district roads are blocked and people are getting killed, but the government does not care about the situation here."

Just five days earlier, the Taliban captured a district in neighboring Baghlan Province, taking government forces' ammunition and vehicles.

Heavy fighting is also underway in the southern Helmand and eastern Nangarhar provinces.

Afghan security forces are fighting the Taliban in at least 15 out of its 34 provinces, according to the Defense Ministry.

The Talibans capture of Kunduzs provincial capital in September 2015 was their biggest victory in 14 years, marking the first time since 2001 that the militant group had captured a major city in Afghanistan.

Afghan forces backed by U.S. aircraft and NATO soldiers drove out the militants after two weeks.

With reporting by AP, dpa, and Reuters


Azerbaijan authorities said they arrested four men with ties to Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, who Turkey has blamed for masterminding last month's attempted coup.

The four unindentified suspects were charged with "abuse of power" while working for a mobile phone company for having passed on private information about subscribers and their call history, Azeri prosecutors said on August 19.

During a search of the home of one of the accused, investigators discovered "banned religious literature, disks, and brochures containing speeches by Fethullah Gulen," they said.

A close ally of Ankara, Baku earlier this week opened a criminal investigation into supporters of Gulen, who Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan believes tried to remove him from power on July 15.

The cleric, living in self-imposed exile in the United States, vehemently denies it.

Azerbaijan last month shut down a private television channel over plans to broadcast an interview with Gulen to avoid provoking Turkey.

Gulen's Hizmet movement has started schools around the world, including in ex-Soviet Kazakhstan, funded by the cleric's followers.

Separately, Bloomberg reported that the U.S. Justice Department has sent representatives to Turkey to investigate claims made in connection with Turkey's request to extradite Gulen.

Based on reporting by AFP and TASS
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for an attack on a traffic police post outside Moscow in which both of the attackers were killed.

The militant group made the claim on August 19 via the Amaq news agency, which it regularly uses to issue statements.

"Two fighters of the Islamic State assaulted Russian policemen in the Balashikha area, east of Moscow," the Amaq statement said.

Russia's Investigative Committee said two Chechens identified as Usman Murdalov, 21, and Sulim Israilov, 18, were armed with a firearm and two axes and attacked a traffic police post outside Moscow on August 17.

One of them was shot dead while attacking the post while the other was killed when he tried to put up armed resistance, investigators said.

Two police were injured in the attack, one seriously.

Russia has been bombing IS and other militants in Syria in an aerial campaign in support of President Bashar al-Assad.

Based on reporting by Reuters and Newsru.com


Russia's dominance of synchronized swimming remained intact after it captured the Olympic team gold medal on August 19, preserving a 16-year winning streak.

Russia has won every Olympic gold medal in the sport since 2000, so the victory was hardly in doubt. A near-perfect score in the free routine meant none of the other competitors had much chance of matching the Russians' total.

Russia performed its routine to dramatic string music, wearing costumes depicting angel wings. The idea was to seem "like a prayer," said Natalia Ishchenko, who along with Svetlana Romashina became a five-time Olympic gold medalist, matching former Russian great Anastasia Davydova's record as the most decorated synchronized swimmer of all time.

"We joked before the competition that there are five Olympic rings and we need five Olympic medals," Ishchenko said.

Few other countries have come even close to contending with Russia for gold. It's hard to match Russia's combination of top training facilities, state funding, and choreography experience drawn from the Russian ballet tradition.

The final scores weren't even close. Russia won with 196.1439 points, with China taking silver at 192.9841 and Japan securing bronze with 189.2056.

Based on reporting by AP, Reuters, and dpa


The Russian Defense Ministry has denied any responsibility for an attack in the Syrian city of Aleppo that wounded a 5-year-old boy whose rescue was widely viewed on social media.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman General Igor Konashenkov said in a statement on August 19 that Russian warplanes "never work on targets in civilian areas."

The boy, who was identified as Omran Daqnish, was not seriously injured.

Konashenkov added that the place where Daqnish was wounded was near two areas that Russia had recently opened for civilians to flee the city.

Different monitoring groups in Syria have made numerous reports of Syrian government and Russian aircraft conducting bombing raids in urban areas controlled by Islamist groups and Syrian opposition fighters that have killed and wounded hundreds of civilians.

Ibrahim al-Hajj, a spokesman for the volunteer Syrian emergency group White Helmets, said that Daqnish is similar to numerous victims of Syria's five-year-long civil war.

"I can tell the world there are dozens of Omrans in Aleppo each day," he said.

At least 250,000 people are estimated to have been killed and millions of others have been displaced by the fighting in Syria.

Based on reporting by dpa, TASS, and AP
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has reassured his Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko that Ankara will continue to recognize the Crimean Peninsula, which was illegally annexed by Russia, as Ukrainian territory.



The Ukrainian presidential press service said on August 20 that Erdogan told Poroshenko via telephone that Turkey has not changed its "unwavering position regarding its support of Ukraine's independence and territorial integrity in the country's internationally recognized borders."



Erdogan added that Ankara would not recognize "Crimea's occupation" and would continue to support "the Crimean Tatars in every possible way."



The Poroshenko-Erdogan conversation comes less than two weeks after an Erdogan visit to Russia restored Ankara's relations with the Kremlin that had reached a low point following last year's shooting down of a Russian warplane by Turkish fighter jets.



The two leaders also discussed bilateral energy-sector cooperation and the recent terrorist bomb attacks in eastern Turkey.

Based on reporting by TASS and Interfax
Russian President Vladimir Putin says the world faces the most dangerous decade since World War II and predicted that the historical period of the West's "undivided dominance over world affairs" is coming to an end.

Speaking on October 27 at a conference of international policy experts in Moscow, Putin said the decade ahead is "probably the most dangerous, unpredictable and, at the same time, important...since the end of World War II."

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.

Putin laid the blame for the situation at the feet of Western countries, which he said have cast aside the norms of international affairs in order to maintain dominance and hold down countries they see as "second-class civilizations."

The Russian leader also said he had no regrets about sending troops into Ukraine and sought to explain the conflict as part of the efforts by Western countries to secure their global domination.

Putin claimed in his speech to the Valdai Discussion Club, a think tank, that the West had helped incite the conflict and also seeks to stoke a crisis over Taiwan in an attempt to enforce global dominance.

Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine on February 24, triggering the biggest military conflict in Europe since World War II and driving relations with Western countries that back Ukraine and its drive to be part of the European Union and NATO to their lowest depths since the Cold War.

Putin cast the conflict in Ukraine as a battle between the West and Russia for the fate of the second-largest Eastern Slav country. It is partly a "civil war," he said, as Russians and Ukrainians are one people. Kyiv has flatly rejected both of those ideas.

The goal of what Russia refers to as a "special military operation" is to take the eastern Donbas region, Putin said, adding that in his view the region would "not have survived" on its own had Russia not intervened militarily in Ukraine.

WATCH: A local official told Russian conscripts "You are not cannon fodder" in a video published online recently. The men responded by angrily shouting that, actually, that's exactly what they are.

But the war has gone far beyond the Donbas region, with Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure, residential buildings, and other nonmilitary structures, killing tens of thousands of Ukrainians across the country.

Putin used the speech largely to rail against the West, saying it has nothing to offer to the world "except its own domination," and the goal of globalization "is neocolonialism to dominate the world." He said Russia is only trying to defend its right to exist in the face these Western efforts.

Putin also asserted that more and more nations refuse to follow Washington's demands and Russia will never accept the West's attempts to dominate the world.

Citing gay pride parades and the acceptance of transgender people in Western countries, Putin also defended "traditional values" and said "nobody can dictate to our people how to develop and what society we should build."

He also said Russia has never considered the West an enemy and has many things in common with it but will continue to oppose the diktat of Western neoliberal elites.

U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Putin's speech presented no new ideas.

"We don't believe that Mr. Putin's strategic goals have changed here. He doesn't want Ukraine to exist as a sovereign, independent nation state," Kirby said.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said Putin's speech can be described as "for Freud," referring to psychoanalysis founder Sigmund Freud.



"The person who invaded a foreign country, annexed its land, and committed genocide accuses others of violating international law and the sovereignty of other countries? One truth: The person who started a wind will get a storm. The storm is coming," he said on Twitter.

Answering questions from journalists after his speech, Putin reiterated the Kremlin's assertion that Ukraine plans to use a so-called dirty bomb on its own territory. The claim has been dismissed as false by Ukraine and its allies, who say Russia may have raised the matter because it plans to use such a bomb in Ukraine as a pretext for escalation.

"It was me who ordered [Defense Minister Sergei] Shoigu to inform by phone all his colleagues about it," Putin said, adding that Russia does not need to use dirty bombs in Ukraine.

Putin also said he supported plans by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to visit Ukraine's nuclear power plants for inspections.

"It must be done as soon and as openly as possible because we know that Kyiv authorities are now working to cover up such [dirty-bomb attack] preparations," Putin said, without giving any exact information proving the claim.

Ukraine invited IAEA inspectors to visit its nuclear facilities after the Kremlin made its unsubstantiated claim about the preparation of a dirty bomb -- which would use the explosion of a conventional warhead to spread radioactive material or chemicals over a wide area.

Ukraine said it would welcome inspections because it had "nothing to hide."

According to Putin, Russia has never talked about the use of nuclear weapons in the war with Ukraine despite his own promise to defend Russian territory with any means at our disposal" and saying his words were "not a bluff."

"We see no need for [using nuclear weapons in Ukraine]," Putin told reporters. "There is no sense for that, neither political, nor military."
Good news should be easy to discern in wartime. War, we assume, makes it easy to separate the good guys from the bad; to separate the oppressor from the oppressed; to separate right from wrong.

Sometimes, though, these questions become muddled, and no more so than in the surreally unstable and violent world of the Middle East. Recently, the rebel forces opposing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad made great gains in breaking the regime's siege of the strategically vital city of Aleppo.

The problem remains, however, that the unquestionable success that the rebels have made in Aleppo is, to a large extent, partly down to the efforts of Jabhat Fatah al-Sham (formerly the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Nusra Front -- essentially Al-Qaeda in Syria). The ostensible good guys, the Syrian rebels, who are battling an enemy that has barrel-bombed and butchered them ever since they started out as a peaceful movement merely asking for greater civil rights during the Arab Spring five years ago, are now in debt to jihadists.

The debt is a significant one -- and one that is not lost on Syria's population. As Thomas Pierret, senior lecturer at the University of Edinburgh and an expert on Syria observes over e-mail: "If they [the rebels] manage to keep open the southern access to Aleppo, which was made possible (among other factors) by Fatah al-Sham's [vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices] VBIEDs. If the regime retakes the southern access to Aleppo, things might be different, but Fatah al-Sham would still remain one of the regime's most efficient opponents, which will inevitably reflect positively on its popularity."

Ruthless Bombing

Despite this risk, the breaking of the siege of Aleppo was supposed to bring relief to the citizens who were trapped in the city. That has yet to happen. International aid groups say that it is too dangerous to enter the city without a real cease-fire. While Russia and Assad have nominally accepted those conditions, the Syrian and Russian air forces are ruthlessly bombing the civilian populace in the city, and across much of Syria. The death toll continues to skyrocket.

On August 18, the image of a 5-year-old boy, Omran Daqneesh, became front-page news. Omran had just been saved by a group called the White Helmets, also known as the Syrian Civil Defense Forces, a collection of local Syrians who have been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to help save civilians from the growing pile of rubble and corpses that their country is increasingly becoming. Pictures and video of his tiny face, matted with dried blood and dust, as he and his siblings were loaded into an ambulance and rushed to the hospital, went global. The world was horrified.

But Omran was lucky: he and his family survived, and he has since been released from the hospital. Meanwhile, more than 80 people were killed across the country that night, nearly two dozen of whom were children.

There have even been reports that the United States may join with Russia -- which unequivocally backs Assad -- in a joint military effort to stop the rebels' progress in Aleppo. Such a scenario remains unlikely, but it is a testament to how precarious the situation is in Syria -- and how utterly confused it is.

So why has a major responsibility in the war against butchery been handed to butchers?

The answer is depressingly simple: No one country is willing to risk getting involved in a major war in the Middle East to stand up to the Syrian and Russian governments. For five years, Assad has been allowed to kill with impunity -- literally in the vicinity of U.S. jets that looked on helpless to act. Washington is in an admittedly tricky situation. A war-weary American public elected Barack Obama in 2008 partly on his promise to end the U.S. military's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The people were sick of dead Americans, Afghans, and Iraqis. The last thing Obama wanted to do was to get sucked into another Middle East nightmare. And there is a valid logic to that line of thought.

Root Cause Of Insurgency

Obama's decision not to intervene in Syria -- to avoid having to once more expend American life and resources at a time when the country is still recovering from the 2008 financial crisis -- is considered by many to be the right move. But not all agree with that assessment. As Pierret once again observes, "critics of Obama generally reproach him for backtracking on his 'red line' with regard to the use of chemical weapons in 2013, but perhaps an even bigger mistake was the decision to intervene alongside the Syrian Air Force in September 2014 while not moving a finger to curtail daily attacks against civilians." Syrians saw more bombs drop from the air, this time from the United States as well as Assad; and yet more civilians, not merely members of the Islamic State (IS) extremist group, were killed in this process.

"At the time there was no Russian air force around, and it would have been very easy for the overwhelmingly superior USAF [United States Air Force] to make it clear to the decaying Syrian Air Force that it wasn't allowed to bomb the USAF's zone of operations, i.e. the northern half of Syria. This has of course contributed to the perception by many Syrians that the United States is in fact complicit with Assadhence to anti-Western radicalization," he says.

But this fact does not in any way detract from the root cause of the rebel insurgency, which is Assad's barbarity, which began during the first days of the uprising when the regime arrested, killed, and tortured the then-peaceful protesters. And the more it increased its barbarity, the more radicalized the insurgents became. The more the world ignored their plight, the more they were forced to turn to anyone who would help them.

This month, while Russia bombed Aleppo's hospitals -- and then boasted about it on state media -- the victorious rebel groups, let by jihadists, brought fruit to its starving population. Brutal they may be; jihadist they most certainly are; but they know how to do public relations -- especially in a field where due to the timorousness of the onlooking world they have little competition.

Nonetheless, the jihadists don't have it all their own way. Again Pierret is on point: "The level of distrust towards jihadists among the rest of the opposition (including non-jihadi Islamist insurgents) is frequently understated (if known about at all) in the West," he writes. And he is right. Assad and his acolytes deny that such a thing as a "moderate" opposition exists but the rebels continue to form a kaleidoscopic mix of elements -- from the secular to the extreme. This past week, as U.S.-backed rebels liberated Manbij from IS, videos showed residents celebrating: men cut their beards, while women burned their niqabs and smoked cigarettes, as they celebrated their freedom from their oppressive theological overlords.

"It has long been assumed by many Western observers and decision-makers," Pierret concludes, "that there are no good guys in Syria, or at least that the good guys are irrelevant. Yet, this assumption is proven wrong by the fact that we still see them dying every day after five years of conflict. The problem is, good guys are dying fast, and in such apocalyptic circumstances, [and] are increasingly replaced by radicalized people."

And herein lies the ultimate dilemma of the status quo in Syria. The more the rebels succeed, the more the democrats among them face ultimate defeat. Those fighting Assad are fighting to defeat visceral barbarism; to defeat a tyrant with absolutely no regard for the democratic process; to defeat a man who is responsible for slaughter on a massive scale. And in that endeavor our natural reactions should be to wish them every success.

The inescapable problem is who and what exactly are the Western countries supporting? If Assad goes -- and we must hope that he does -- what comes next? The answer to that question will define the Middle East for generations to come.

David Patrikarakos is a contributing editor at the Daily Beast and the author of Nuclear Iran: The Birth Of An Atomic State. He is working on a book on social media and war. The views expressed in this piece are the author's own
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden urged both Russia and Ukraine to show restraint one day after Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko warned he could not rule out "a full-scale Russian invasion."

The White House said Biden spoke with Poroshenko by phone on August 19 and "relayed that the United States had sent a message to Russia that the world is watching and underscored the need to de-escalate the situation."

Biden "also urged Ukraine to show restraint," the White House said, while both leaders expressed concern over a recent surge in fighting with pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.

Biden's talk with Poroshenko came as the Pentagon downplayed recent hype about a buildup of Russian forces in and around Ukraine's Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014 and where it has been holding troop exercises.

"I think we are seeing movements associated with the upcoming exercise. We are not seeing this massive buildup of forces that has been suggested," Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said.

"We don't see this unicorn a lot of people are chasing, this idea that there's some massive short-term build up or movement about to happen."

Based on reporting by Reuters and AFP


Ancient links between Hungarians and nomads from Central Asia were celebrated at the biannual "Kurultai" or "Meeting of the Tribes" in Bugac, Hungary, on August 12-14. The event, first held in 2008, features yurts, colorful costumes, music, and horsemanship.
An employee of the Nordstrom store at Short Pump Town Center has been arrested and charged with felony embezzlement.

Henrico County police said Wednesday that Richard S. Reynolds IV, 56, is charged with a single count of embezzlement over a three-month span ending in February.

Reynolds, the son of philanthropist Richard S. "Major" Reynolds III, who is the grandson of the founder of the Reynolds Metals Co., was arrested Tuesday and has been released on $1,500 bond, court records say.

Henrico police said the case has been under investigation since February, when officers took a report of an employee allegedly taking funds from the Nordstrom in the 11800 block of West Broad Street.

It was not clear how much money allegedly was taken, and a Nordstrom spokesperson was unable Wednesday evening to immediately say how long Reynolds had been employed by the department store. An arrest warrant merely states the amount exceeds $200, the threshold level for a felony embezzlement charge.

Reynolds declined comment Wednesday afternoon when reached at his apartment in the 7000 block of Hunt Club Lane in Henrico. His lawyer, Theodore Bruns, also declined comment.

A preliminary hearing is set for December.
The Virginia Attorney Generals Office is opposing a DNA-based exoneration bid by a man sentenced to 153 years in prison for a sexual assault in Norfolk more than two decades ago.

Nathaniel E. Epps, 66, and Percel F. Warren, who died in 2012, were convicted of the vicious Feb. 20, 1996, attack.

The Innocence Project submitted new DNA test results in June to the Virginia Supreme Court in a petition for a writ of actual innocence. The group asserts that the results prove that Epps did not commit the crime.

However, in a 58-page motion to dismiss filed Friday, the Attorney Generals Office argues: Epps has not met his statutory burden to show that no rational juror would convict beyond a reasonable doubt when his new evidence is considered in light of the record.

Epps himself concedes that this (DNA) exclusion is not an outright exclusion. Indeed, Epps asserts only that the test results are highly probative of his innocence, the motion says.

The Attorney Generals Office said that it was not challenging the validity of the testing but that the record does not support Epps contention that the only possible source of the trace male DNA identified by testing came from the perpetrators.

To the contrary, this argument is speculative, the motion to dismiss says.

Michael Kelly, a spokesman for Attorney General Mark R. Herring, said the legal standard for obtaining a writ is extraordinarily high. In this case, the new evidence is far from conclusive proof of innocence and does not clear the very high bar required to overturn the unanimous guilty verdict that was reached by the trial jury and consistently upheld through numerous appeals.

The decision is ultimately in the hands of the Supreme Court of Virginia, which will have the opportunity to weigh the evidence from both sides in determining how best to proceed, Kelly said.

Olga Akselrod, with the Innocence Project, said late Friday that she had not had a chance to carefully review the motion to dismiss.

However, she said it appears the state is concerned with the possibility that the sperm that was tested may have gotten on the victims jeans from a source such as laundering rather than being from the assailants or a prior boyfriend.

The likeliest explanation for the sperm is that its from the two males that raped her just before she put the jeans on, Akselrod said. Under the states logic, police would not be able to rely on the DNA testing of sperm found on clothing because it could have come from the laundry, she said.

Akselrod said Epps has 20 days to respond and could request an evidentiary hearing.

Epps and Warren were brothers-in-law. They had alibi evidence and maintained they were innocent. Warren was sentenced to 160 years and died in prison of cancer at age 56.

According to the transcript from Epps 1996 trial, the victim, then 40, was taking a shower around 9 or 9:30 p.m. when she heard her 2-year-old daughter start crying in another room.

A man entered the bathroom, and the victim was taken into a bedroom at gunpoint, sexually assaulted and beaten. Her childs life also was threatened.

When police arrived, the two assailants fled out a bedroom window. She initially told police the two were in their 20s. Epps was 46 and Warren was 39 at the time.

The woman later said she was wrong and identified Epps and Warren in photos and in court as the assailants. Another witness testified he saw Epps and Warren flee the crime scene and later heard them talking about the attack.

Epps innocence petition said the evidence available for testing  sperm from two males found on the victims jeans  was limited and required a type of DNA technology that is not as discriminating as some others.

But the Innocence Project said the results prove that at least one of the two men could not have been a contributor to the sperm.

The Innocence Project said the states case was predicated on Epps and Warren committing the crime together, and the victim said she had not had intercourse in almost a year.

The assailants are thus the only two possible sperm sources on the crotch of (the victims) pants. DNA results excluding at least one of the defendants as the source of the sperm proves that they are both actually innocent, Epps petition contends.

Akslerod said in June that the testing, involving DNA from two males, cannot be explained by combinations of DNA from Epps and Warren, or from either defendant and John Moore, the victims ex-boyfriend who is the father of her child  it can be explained only by the presence of DNA from sperm from an unknown male.

The Attorney Generals Offices motion to dismiss says that no sperm was found on swabs taken from the victims thigh or genitals.

Epps posits that any male DNA in the crotch of (the victims) jeans could only have been deposited by the perpetrators. Epps, however, simultaneously hypothesizes that this same intimate area of the clothing may have been touched by a male who handled the jeans, to explain the possible presence of a third male, the attorney general writes.

Epps cannot have the argument both ways, argues the motion.

The motion to dismiss says that beyond that, Epps petition rests on several assertions and assumptions that do not withstand scrutiny.

Among other things, the state argues: It defies logic and common human experience to suppose that although none of the intimate samples collected from (the victim) contained any sperm, all of the few sperm from the perpetrators nevertheless drained into (the) crotch of the jeans.

Epps also contends that trace amounts of male DNA could not have withstood laundering prior to the rapes, but research and reported cases have shown sperm can yield DNA results even after multiple washings, the state argues.

Caution is warranted here because the record is silent regarding when  or how  the jeans had been laundered. The paucity of sperm on the jeans and the absence of sperm in any of the other intimate samples appear consistent with the published research concerning the persistence of sperm after laundering.

Sperm also can be transferred from one article of clothing to another during washing, the attorney general said.

The states case against Epps did not rest on forensic evidence. The evidence Epps presented does not undercut the evidence the commonwealth presented at trial, the attorney general argues.
ROANOKE  A Vinton man charged with animal cruelty after his pet German shepherd was found dead has been found not guilty by reason of insanity.

Gary Edward Thompson, 46, killed his beloved dog after his doctors altered his regular medications, Roanoke County Commonwealths Attorney Randy Leach said.

The military veteran pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity in Roanoke County Circuit Court this week. Prosecutors did not challenge his plea.

Thompson was seeking medical help at the Salem Veterans Affairs Medical Center for underlying mental health problems. But the erratic behavior that led him to kill his dog was the result of changes in his medication, according to the evaluation by a clinical psychologist, Leach said.

Thompsons competency evaluation is sealed in court filings, and Leach would not elaborate on Thompsons mental health problems. Defense attorney David Bowers declined to comment.

Officers arrested Thompson on April 25 when they came upon the dogs body during a well-being check at Thompsons home.
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Across Richmond, the Class of 2020 is arriving.

Virginia Commonwealth Universitys largest freshman class in its history began moving into residence halls Friday evening and will continue today.

Watch out for travel restrictions and street closures through 8 p.m. around campus, but also next week during Welcome Week activities.

The Ram Spirit Walk will begin at 5 p.m. Tuesday as the freshman class, accompanied by The Peppas, will march from convocation at the Siegel Center across Broad Street and down Harrison Street, Park Avenue and Linden Court to a block party on Floyd Avenue.

VCU expects a first-year class of 4,200 students, up from about 4,090 for last fall. Total enrollment is estimated at 31,500 students.

About 88 percent of VCUs freshman class is from Virginia  more than 1,600 are from Northern Virginia and 900 from the Richmond metro area. About 35 percent are first-generation college students, and about half the freshman class are minority students.

VCU also will enroll about 2,000 transfer students, including 1,600 students from the Virginia Community College System.

At the University of Richmond, more than 800 first-year students moved in on Wednesday, with help unloading their belongings from President Ronald Crutcher and his wife, Betty.

About 28 percent of URs new class are students of color from the U.S., and 10 percent are international students from 34 countries, including Bangladesh, Brazil and Rwanda.

The university expects a full-time undergraduate enrollment of 2,872.

Virginia Union University students already are back at school. Classes began Aug. 11, with total enrollment expected to be 1,800 for the fall semester.

Athletes began returning to Randolph-Macon College this week, but other students will arrive next month. The college in Ashland expects 400 freshmen to move in on Sept. 1, when President Robert Lindgren plans to personally shake hands with each new arrival.

With about 40 transfer students, total enrollment is expected to exceed 1,400. In keeping with tradition, classes begin on Labor Day, Sept. 5.

***

Here are the traffic restrictions and closures planned for streets around VCU from 5 a.m through 8 p.m. today:

Franklin Street: The street will be closed to through traffic between Harrison and Belvidere streets; traffic arriving for move-in will be reduced to one travel lane between Harrison and Belvidere streets.

Grace Street: Travel lanes will remain open; however, drivers may experience some congestion between Ryland and Belvidere streets.

Harrison Street: The street will be closed to through traffic between Broad and Marshall streets.

Cherry Street: The street will be closed to through traffic between Floyd Avenue and Cary Street.

Floyd Avenue: The street will be closed to through traffic between Cherry and Harrison streets.

Linden Street: The street will be closed to through traffic between Park and Floyd avenues.

Madison Street: The street will be closed to through traffic between Main and Cary streets.

Cary Street: Travel lanes will remain open, but drivers may experience some congestion between Cherry and Jefferson streets.

Marshall Street: Travel lanes will remain open, but drivers may experience some congestion between Bowe and Hancock streets.

Laurel Street: The street will be closed between West Grace and West Cary streets.

Parishioners of the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart will be allowed to park in designated spots on Cathedral Street and in the West Main Street Parking Deck.
Kandise Lucas fought her way back into Chesterfield County Public Schools after several arrests for trespassing.

The Henrico County resident last December had filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Educations Office for Civil Rights, alleging that the division had retaliated against her because of her advocacy for disabled students by banning her from school property.

On Tuesday, Lucas was notified that the division had signed a voluntary resolution agreement, essentially lifting the ban that had been in place since 2011.

In a phone interview Friday, Lucas called the agreement a huge win not just for herself, but for anyone seeking to advocate in Chesterfield County Public Schools without having to fear retaliation.

This is a victory because it validates our initial complaint that retaliating against advocates is a civil rights violation, Lucas said.

The school division released a statement saying that it sincerely appreciates the efforts of the Office of Civil Rights to bring about this resolution and that it intends to fully comply with the stipulations set forth within.

Lucas said she was arrested four times between April and November 2015, the first time at Meadowbrook High School where she was attending an Individualized Educational Plan for a parent and her son with special needs.

The last arrest occurred on Nov. 12, 2015, when two police officers showed up at her Henrico home with a warrant for trespassing on the property of Falling Creek Middle School in Chesterfield that morning. Lucas, who was not at home at the time but turned herself in later in the day, denied the charges and said the schools surveillance video provided no evidence to support the charges.

Lucas was acquitted in the first three cases. Scheduled to appear in court for her fourth arrest next week, Lucas said she believes that charge will be thrown out in light of the divisions no-fault agreement with the federal government.

As a part of the resolution, the division agreed to revise its visitor policy, provide training during the upcoming school year (including the obligation not to retaliate against advocates and parents), develop a new policy, revise an existing policy or develop guidelines to address expectations for electronic communication.

The division also agreed to remove restrictions on email communications from Lucas.

The Office of Civil Rights stated that it will continue to monitor the divisions implementation of the agreement, until the division is in compliance with the statutes and regulations at issue in the case.
GREENVILLE, N.C.  Police say a North Carolina man accused of killing his two young daughters, their sister and their mother likely beat the victims to death with a hammer.

Dibon Toone was arrested late Tuesday in South Richmond. He waived his right to an extradition hearing Thursday in Richmond General District Court. That gives North Carolina authorities 10 days to pick up Toone.

He is charged with murder in the death of Garlette Howard, 32. Greenville police say they expect Toone will be charged with additional counts of murder in the deaths of the three children, ages 6, 7 and 11. The victims were found dead Tuesday night inside their home.

Police say autopsies show the four victims died of traumatic head injury by assault and they believe Toone used a hammer.
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Virginia Department of Health offices say a cluster of hepatitis A cases may be associated with smoothies from Tropical Smoothie Cafe locations in Virginia.

Testing linked the illnesses to a strain of hepatitis A found in frozen strawberries from Egypt that caused past outbreaks, according to a statewide news release from the Health Department. Tropical Smoothie Cafe immediately withdrew all strawberries sourced from Egypt and found an alternate supply, according to the department.

Anyone who consumed a smoothie with frozen strawberries within the past 50 days is encouraged to watch for symptoms of hepatitis A, including jaundice, which appears as a yellowing of the skin or the eyes. If illness occurs, seek medical care and take steps to protect others from the infection.

Anyone who consumed a smoothie from a Tropical Smoothie Cafe in Virginia containing frozen strawberries on Aug. 5-8 may still benefit from a vaccine or immune globulin to prevent the disease. Anyone who has had hepatitis A or has been vaccinated is already immune, health officials said.

Hepatitis A is an inflammation of the liver caused by a virus. In addition to jaundice, symptoms include fever, fatigue, loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, dark urine and light-colored stools. Symptoms develop 15 to 50 days after exposure, which occurs through direct contact with another person who has the infection or by consuming contaminated food or drink.

Frequent hand washing with soap and warm water after using the bathroom or changing a diaper or before preparing food can help prevent the spread of hepatitis A.

It is important for people who have symptoms of hepatitis A to stay home from work, especially if they work in food service.

Other restaurants may also have received the frozen strawberries from Egypt.

The state Health Department is working with the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to identify additional locations where the product may have been distributed, the statement said.
Some residential developers focus on volume. They buy large tracts of land and build as many houses as they can in a short period of time. E. Bryson Bryce Powell, who started developing communities in Greater Richmond more than 40 years ago, takes a different approach. Rather than focusing on speed or the number of houses, he focuses on details.

Bryce has never been in a big hurry to churn out subdivisions, said John W. Montague Jr., a retired builder who constructed homes in several of Powells communities. Hes more concerned with the final look.

Powell, whose developments include Woodland Pond in Chesterfield County, Randolph Square in Goochland County and Walnut Hill in Hanover County, isnt completely removed from large developments, though. More than half a century ago, his fathers furniture manufacturing business, David M. Lea & Co., acquired a large parcel of land next to the Swift Creek Reservoir in Chesterfield, initially to harvest pine timber. Then the elder Powell came up with a new idea for the parcel.

In the 1960s, my father saw the potential for a large planned community around the reservoir, but he didnt have the expertise as a developer, Powell said.

In 1973, the elder Powell sold the land to the Sea Pines Co., which developed the Brandermill and Woodlake communities there. With approximately 3,700 single-family houses, town houses and condominiums, Brandermill is Chesterfields largest residential community. Sea Pines later became East West Communities, and its currently developing Hallsley in Midlothian.

Powell has another family tie to Chesterfields largest development. His wife, Franny Powell, worked on the Brandermill project, and she has been part of the East West Communities team for more than 40 years.

Still, Powell has focused his own business, Midlothian Enterprises Inc., on developing smaller communities, for both aesthetic and financial reasons.Large projects with numerous amenities can require long-term operational investments, Powell said. And smaller developments have shorter sales cycles, which help to avoid the harmful financial impacts of recessions. Moving slowly on smaller projects also allows Powell to focus on architectural and landscaping details. Bryce has to approve the planned architecture in his developments, and hes concerned about the siting of each house, Montague said. And its paid dividends.

Granted, that minute attention to detail can make the design process more complicated.

Bryce and his team are perfectionists and arent afraid to say no if a building plan being submitted to them does not meet their high standards, said Richard Bower, a senior vice president with Joyner Fine Properties and a homeowner in one of Powells developments. I have heard some of his former buyers say that although it was a tough process, they appreciated it after it was over because they liked the end result.

After working briefly for his familys landholding business, Powell formed Midlothian Enterprises in 1975, and he remains its president today. His earliest projects  including Smoketree, Evergreen, Hunters Ridge and Woodland Pond  were in southern Chesterfield and Powhatan counties.

Woodland Pond is noteworthy for its more than 250 acres of open space, including 110 acres left undeveloped along the communitys entrance. An expansive, permanently undeveloped entrance would become a Powell trademark in later developments.

Powells first project north of the James River was the Mooreland Commons condominiums near the intersection of North Mooreland and Derbyshire roads in Henrico County. With construction beginning in 1980, the empty-nester community was the first to offer downsizing options in the area, and its 100 units sold quickly.

With his next development project, Randolph Square, Powell began designing communities that share a few common features, despite their wide-ranging architectural styles.

Certainly, in the last half of my career, protection of open space, respect for natural features of the property  i.e., topography and vegetation  and large lots have been a common feature, Powell said. Also, Ive tried to provide open space along the main entrance to my projects to create a unique sense of entry/arrival to each neighborhood.

In Randolph Square, for example, Powell left 40 acres of woodland untouched along its entrance and entry road as a buffer. And for Goochlands The Meadows at Joe Brooke Farm, he designed an entrance that features stone columns and a white fence with rolling meadows beyond them.

It couldnt be more perfect for a rural residential community with nearby equestrian estates, Bower said. The entrance at Randolph Square, on the other hand, is quite regal and Georgian in appearance. The winding, wooded entry road leads to a beautiful community square and roundabout that is stunning. It is very much in keeping with its south of River Road location.

Over the course of more than 40 years, Powell has developed more than 2,600 lots in 16 communities. Currently, he is completing the Woodland Pond and Walnut Hill developments.

Resales remain strong in Bryces neighborhoods not only because of their design and the maintenance of the common areas but also because some offer special amenities, like Dover Lake at The Meadows, said Pam Diemer, a real estate agent with Long & Foster and a Meadows resident. Also, Bryce has partnered with some of the finest homebuilders in the area, and they have adhered to classical architectural standards to create beautiful homes that will always be popular.

Diemer helped Powell with sales and marketing of new homes and lots in Goochlands Running Cedar Place development. The community features 5-acre homesites with European and American cottage-style homes.

Bryce has made a positive and lasting contribution to Richmond with his developments, enhancing the lives of many families, she said.

Powell credits his business partner of 30 years, James Schnell, with providing critical oversight and management of the architectural process and approvals.

Without Jamess keen eye for detail and his passion for stringent architectural standards, our communities would not look nearly as good, Powell said.

Powell also has formed partnerships with prominent Richmond families to develop residential communities, such as with the Reynolds family at Randolph Square and the Reed family at The Meadows.

And with Walnut Hill, Midlothian Enterprises formed a partnership with the Virginia Museum Real Estate Foundation in 2001 to convert a 458-acre farm formerly owned by Harwood and Louise Cochrane into a luxury-home community with lot sizes ranging from 10 to 60 acres.

The foundation facilitates real estate gifts that exclusively benefit the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and proceeds of the land sales at Walnut Hill were earmarked to increase an American art purchase endowment as well as an endowment for the position of Cochrane Curator of American Art. VMFA received $4.9 million from the sale of the lots and the original Cochrane house.

Every developer in Richmond would have loved to have had any of these opportunities, Bower said. The families chose Bryce because they trusted him and knew he had the vision and skills they needed to be successful.

Powell also has worked with many of the same builders and real estate agents for decades. In the course of more than 30 years, for example, two-thirds of the houses that John Montagues company built were in Powells developments, and Montague built two homes for Powells personal use, too. (Montague retired in 2004, and his sons, Warren and Kevin, run the family company today.)

Montague worked as a partner on the Mooreland Commons project, and he recalled receiving a letter from Powell while construction was underway.

In the letter, Bryce said he felt uncomfortable owning half the partnership, given the work my wife, Sue, and I were doing for it, Montague said. So he changed the percentage and gave me and Sue majority ownership. Thats the kind of guy Bryce is.

Jeremy Harring, president of Harring Construction, has worked with Powell on two developments  Woodland Pond and Running Cedar Place  and he likewise attributes the developers success to something more complicated than the mechanics of designing and building a subdivision.

Bryce is a good developer with an eye for detail, and thats important, Harring said. But to me, whats most important is his character. If Bryce says hes going to take care of something, he will. And hell do the right thing even if it costs him money. He ultimately values honesty and integrity over making a dollar. I know he cares as much about my success as his own, and I feel privileged to work alongside of him.

Powells subdivisions

Cedar Run

Country Town

Evergreen

Federal Hill Farm

Hunters Ridge

Mooreland Commons

Plantation Trace

Randolph Square

Rocky Run

Running Cedar Place

Smoketree

Smoketree South

The Meadows at

Joe Brooke Farm

Walnut Hill

Wickham Glen

Woodland Pond

_______________
A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind.
CHARLOTTESVILLE  The city of Charlottesville has filed to dismiss a federal freedom of speech lawsuit thats challenging city council meeting rules that officials adopted earlier this year in an attempt to prevent disruptive behavior and improve time management during its meetings.

After being removed by authorities at a June 20 council meeting, Albemarle County resident Joe Draego sued the city last month alleging that his First Amendment rights were violated.

Officials voted to remove him from the meeting after he referred to Muslims as monstrous maniacs, a characterization that councilors believed was a defamatory attack.

Draego has appeared at a few recent council meetings to warn the city about the geopolitical refugee crisis in the Middle East and Europe, maintaining that Americans should be guarded against Islamist radicals and other Muslims who might create chaos within the United States.

Draegos attorney, Jeff Fogel, has argued that the council rule that prohibits defamatory attacks on individuals or groups is unconstitutional because it is not content neutral. Additionally, Fogel says, the federal definition of defamation does not encompass attacks on groups.

According to the citys filing, however, the rule is content neutral and the council has the right to limit perceived defamatory attacks because its meant to serve the legitimate public interest in a limited form of decorum and order 

The filing goes on to say that Draegos comments were deemed defamatory because of the manner of delivery, vile and vulgar personal attacks on all persons of Muslim faith 

The council meeting procedures prohibit, among other things, profanity and vulgar language or gestures, as well as intimidating or disruptive behavior.

According to the motion to dismiss, the council voted to remove Draego after he repeatedly used verbally abusive and disruptive behavior, including vulgar language in his earlier appearance before City Council that evening 

Because Draego intended to be disruptive and went as far as broadly accusing Muslims of being inspired to commit horrible crimes as part of their religious faith, the motion says, the councils decision to remove him was a reasonable exercise of judgment.

Both Draego and Fogel have said those specific comments were overstated, and that Draego meant to characterize only a narrow group within the Muslim faith.

The citys motion also claims the lawsuit is invalid because it was filed against the city, rather than the city council.

The Virginia Supreme Court has made it abundantly clear  that the city of Charlottesville and the City Council of Charlottesville are not interchangeable entities, the filing says.

In a news release addressing the motion to dismiss the case, Fogel alleged the city is seeking to avoid consideration of the merits of Mr. Draegos complaint.

Fogel argued that Draego engaged in no behavior, but rather pure speech that is protected by the First Amendment. Fogel added there was no disruption or delay of the meeting due to that speech.

At the same time as the city seeks dismissal, it acknowledges that even under its theory of the case, the government still must not discriminate against speech on the basis of viewpoint,  Fogel said. That is precisely what happened here; Mr. Draego was ordered to stop speaking, not because he disrupted the meeting, but because the council did not like his point of view.

According to the release, Draegos legal team soon will be filing a formal response to the citys motion. The team also will seek an application for a preliminary injunction against the citys meeting rules on group defamation.
A digital legacy of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War has become a book in the new Civil War Echoes: Voices from Virginia, 1860-1891, edited by historian James Robertson.

It will be released Sept. 14 at the Library of Virginia with author talks and book signings.

The Library of Virginia visited every county in the state between 2010 and 2015 to digitize family documents in a Virginia sesquicentennial legacy project.

More than 32,000 family letters, reminiscences, diaries, journals, maps, photographs, drawings and other documents created during the war or reflecting on the wartime experience were scanned for the project.

Retired Virginia Tech professor Robertson selected excerpts from the digitized collection, spanning the experience of Civil War soldiers from battle to camp to religion to desertion.

Included in the collection is a letter

owned by Elizabeth Staples of Richmond that was written to her great-great-grandfather, Union soldier Capt. John Chinn, and the small chest in which he kept his correspondence during the war.

The document was digitized as part of a Library of Virginia collection.

Another digitized letter, dated Jan. 3, 1864, was written by Confederate soldier George McSwain . Convicted of desertion, he told his wife and children that I expect to part this life on next Saturday by the sentence of a General courtmartial, to be tied down to a stake on that day, the 9th of this month, and be shot to death with musketry.

But little thought I had of this when I volunteered in the service of my country, to protect my home and family, that my life would be taken by my own people simply for absenting myself from my post with the view of protecting my little helpless children and affectionate wife, who is as near and dear to me as my own life. Hanna, I was in very good heart all the time and didnt think they would shoot me until yesterday morning my sentence came, McSwain wrote.

Robertson will speak Sept. 14 about the selections he chose to include and why the Legacy Project collection is important.

In recognition of his work, the collection was renamed the James I. Robertson Jr. Civil War Sesquicentennial Legacy Collection.

He has written or edited more than 20 books on the American Civil War.

The complete collection may be accessed online at http://www.virginiamemory.com/collections/cw150.
By SA Commercial Prop News

Deputy Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene was responding to scepticism over whether governments targeted budget deficit of 4.6% in 2012/13 is achievable.



South Africas targeted budget deficit is achievable, says Deputy Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene.

The Deputy Minister was responding to scepticism over whether governments targeted budget deficit of 4.6% in 2012/13 is achievable.

The end of the financial year revealed a preliminary deficit of only 4.5% for 2011/12. This was below the 4.8% we had anticipated in the Budget, largely a result of higher-than-anticipated customs receipts. This happy outcome should serve to allay the doubts of those who think the target for 2012/13 is not achievable, he said at a breakfast meeting on Thursday.

While it is important to note the deficit outcome for a particular year, the country should be concerned with the overall direction of public finances.

We are confident that we are on a sustainable fiscal path, said Nene.

Anchoring the countrys fiscal sustainability is a moderate real growth in public spending of 2.6% per annum over the next three years, which is far below any reasonable estimate of GDP growth going forward.

South Africa is also committed to restoring a primary surplus while it also intends to fully cover its operational expenditure with its own revenue.

Since the recession of 2008/09, government has been borrowing to finance spending on recurrent costs such as compensation of employees, and goods and services. From 2014/15, new borrowing will finance investment rather than consumption. This will require a shift in the composition of spending towards investment, he explained.

It is against these anchors of fiscal policy rather than the deficit outcome for a particular year that we should judge the sustainability of the fiscus, said Nene.

The decision by rating agencies to place South Africa on a negative watch was not directly related to the countrys fiscal policy.

They are concerned with social and political factors, and the impact these might have on fiscal policy in the long term. It is worth noting that South Africa is not unique in this regard, said Nene.

In 2011 Moodys Investor service downgraded the stability rating of South African banks from "stable" to "negative".

A generous interpretation might be that their brazen views on South African politics reflects a concern that threats to social cohesion are graver than in the OECD [Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development] countries, explained the deputy minister.

He also expressed concern at the need to generate employment and growth, while adding that the size of the countrys tax and transfer system was already large and its effect on alleviating poverty and reducing inequality was acknowledged.

Later in the year, National Treasury will publish a long-term fiscal report that considers the costs of current policies over the long-term against the backdrop of economic as well as demographic trends.

Treasury is also working on policy proposals concerning the financing of the National Health Insurance (NHI) and reforms to social security systems.

Our fiscal house is in order. The most pressing challenge is our ability to spend efficiently the revenue we collect, Nene said.
The headlines are riveting. And so are the stories below the headlines. Published in the Samoa Observer over two days last week, they read:

*Director of Prosecutions arrested and charged. 17 August 2016

*Police boss charged. 17 August 2016

*Director of National Prosecution Office suspended. 19 August 2016.

*Commissioner of Police suspended. 19 August 2016.

*Cabinet suspends top govt. officials. 19 August 2016.

*P.M. downplays legal scrap between Police and N.P.O. 19 August 2016.

Now assuming that you have not read the stories under these headlines, but you are keen to know what this is all about, Ill be brief.

On the arrest of the Director of Prosecutions, this is apparently what happened. She was on her way to work in the morning, when she was stopped by police officers outside her office.

The officers were in uniform, some of them were members of the Tactical Operation Squad (T.O.S.), and right there they executed the arrest warrant.

Subsequently, the director, Mauga Precious Chang, was arrested and charged.

Later, Police Commissioner, Fuiavailiili Lincoln Keil, confirmed that Mauga had been charged.

He said in a statement published in the Samoa Observer on 17 August 2016: Police can confirm that they have charged the Director of the National Prosecution Office, Mauga Precious Chang with negligent driving causing injury and dangerous driving.

He also said: The decision to charge is the result of a police investigation where the file was then reviewed by an independent prosecutor.

Police informed the Director in May shortly after the incident involving three damaged vehicles, that an investigation had commenced and charges were possible.

However the matter was then referred for an independent review of the evidence, which is now complete.

The statement from the Police did not give a date for her Court appearance. That story appeared in the Samoa Observer on 17 August 2016.

In the newspapers same edition, a story titled Police boss charged was published.

It said the Police Commissioner, Fuiavailiili, had been charged in connection with the allegedly wrongful arrest last year of a member of the public, Suitupe Misa, at the Fugalei Market.

Asked for a comment, the Chief Executive Officer of the Ministry of Justice and Courts Administration, Papalii John Taimalelagi, said those charges were filed by the National Prosecution Office, on 12 August 2016.

He also confirmed that the Police Commissioner was due to appear in the Supreme Court on 29 August 2016, to answer to the charges.

He declined to comment further.

And then that scathing report by Ombudsman, Maiava Iulai Toma, showed up. First surfaced earlier this year, it attacked the Police Force and Commissioner Fuiavailiili Lincoln Keil in particular, as irresponsible, unlawful and cruel.

It was in connection with the way theyd conducted their investigation into that unfortunate incident at the Fugalei Market, in August last year.

The report said the defendant, Suitupe Misa, was arrested at gunpoint by a contingent of armed plain clothed officers, in front of a shocked and distressed Fugalei marketplace.

It transpired that Mr. Misa had committed no crime and the arrest was carried out based on insubstantial and second-hand evidence.

The Ombudsmans report also said: The Commissioner of Police failed to meet basic investigation principles and placed undue consideration on second hand evidence, leading directly to the wrongful and unlawful arrest of Suitupe.

The Commissioners decision to arm and allow the use of firearms by his officers contravened the Use of Force policy, was irresponsible, and could negatively impact the overall safety and security within Samoa.

Now thats something to think seriously about I guess.

Still, does the Office of the Ombudsmans have the constitutional mandate that empowers it to publicly condemn a defendant, who is being accused of an alleged crime even before he has been found guilty by a court of law, of having committed that crime?

It would be interesting to know.

And then there is Prime Minister, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, who as we all know, is clearly the man of the moment and indeed, this time it looks as if he is so quite anxious to take that sloppy leap in the fray, he just cannot wait.

On 19 August 2016, the story titled P.M. downplays legal scrap between Police and N.P.O., was published in the Samoa Observer.

In it, Tuilaepa is shown to be acting as if he has truly mellowed down in the role of a caring parent, having shed all those nasty symptoms that had turned him into the imposing tyrant, everyone has been talking fearfully about.

And then commenting on the decision by Cabinet to suspend Police Commissioner, Fuiavailili, and N.P.O. Director, Mauga Precious Chang, he apparently shocked many when made them look like great kids who, in his opinion, this country definitely could do without.

Bear in mind though that as Prime Minister, he would have a lot to do with that decision by Cabinet, if you really want to know.

Still, this is how his little chat with the Samoa Observer went.

Have you seen these two? Tuilaepa said. They are so youthful, they are very good looking and they are both very new to their jobs.

Oh yeah!

He went on: The Commissioner is new to the role and even this lady has just started. If you look at her, you would think she is only twelve years old, but they are both very intelligent.

Oh yeah!

Which was when Tuilaepa dropped the Atomic Bomb.

He said: Mind you, they are my children. They are just having a little scrap.

He took a breather and then continuing, he said: Now you are a parent. There is a stage when a baby who is breast-fed suddenly gets the fever.

Oh, yeah!

Thats right, he said. Thats when they finally start to grow their teeth, and the gums will start to show.

Oh, yeah!

Yes, he said. Its teething problems, you see. You suddenly develop a fever so both these guys are a bit feverish at the moment.

Oh, yeah!

Now remember this, he said. They are both responsible for the handling of charges so they are just testing their skills on each other, so that when it is time for major matters, they would be used to it.

Oh yeah!

Thats right, he said. When the matters are resolved, they will return to work with their batteries fully recharged.

Oh yeah! How full are they allowed to charge those batteries Mister Prime Minister?

He ignored the question and looked as if he was about to scream: You idiot! You fool.

But then he calmed down and said: Thats right. So they will also keep their vehicles to get around. Its good in a way so that this can give them a break because their workload is so heavy.

Oh yeah!

But dont worry, Tuilaepa warns. This is not a big thing.

Hes obviously right.

Still, having listened to him raving on and on as he did, it is just impossible not to marvel that the man whos become this countrys political genius having remained in Parliament non-stop for the last twenty seven years, fithteen of which as Prime Minister, as well as lording all that time over a government with which he can now do anything he wanted any time he wanted, and then on top of it all hes just shown he is also a genius when it comes to making babies, so what more can anyone say?

You tell me.

Have a peaceful Sunday Samoa, God bless.
Samoa Stationery and Books (S.S.A.B.) is spreading its wings to New Zealand.

But the Auckland branch of the fast growing business will be called the Sei Oriana Gift Shop when it opens in Mangere, South Auckland.

The week, Owner and Managing Director of S.S.A.B, Fiti Leung Wai, is leading a team from the company in Auckland to prepare for their official launch  once all the documentations are in place.

Its an exciting time for the company, which now boasts branches in three countries  including American Samoa.

Mrs. Leung Wai said the opening of the business is dedicated a woman she described as one of her mothers, the late Epenese Saifoloi Malepeai. She added that Sei Oriana will also honour all the businesses which will have products sold at the store.

Epenesa had a big heart and was always willing to help whoever sought her help, Mrs. Leung Wai told the Sunday Samoan.

I believe our branch in NZ is reflective of Epenesas heart as it will basically be helping our people here in Samoa to sell their products overseas. It will simply be our Samoan peoples shop in NZ.

For Mrs. Leung Wai, she said she wanted to open a branch in New Zealand because she sees a lot of potential there.

I say a lot of potential because a lot of the Pacific Islanders live there especially Samoans who will be the main targeted market.

Not only that but many of my suppliers as well are also based here so it will make a lot of business sense to have a branch here.

Besides, she believes that having an S.S.A.B branch in New Zealand will benefit both Samoans in New Zealand and in Samoa.

We sent a container from Samoa to New Zealand comprising mostly of Samoan made products like, handicrafts, puletasi, elei shirts, fala, salu lima, printed elei material, tuiga, etc, and all these Samoan products were sourced here from our own people, she said.

Quite a number of our people have started their own businesses but there is a limited market here in Samoa and my hope is for our branch here to be an outlet for mostly Samoan made products.

I am sure our people here in New Zealand as well as the Pacific Island community will support our branch here as all the Samoan products on offer there are made in Samoa.

I will also be selling Pacific books, mostly Samoan books on subjects pertaining to Faalupega, Lauga, Aganuu, including all of Lani Wendt Youngs books, etc and part of the shop here will be a display area for products that we sell in Samoa such as Samsung TVs, washing machines, refrigerators and Sleep well beds.

My hope is that our people here will pay for such items (in NZ) whilst their relatives in Samoa will collect them from our branches in Samoa and this will be convenient since the products are already in Samoa and S.S.A.B provides the after sale support and maintenance.

The opening in Auckland is only part of a dream to take S.S.A.B to the region and the world.

Mrs. Leung Wai however admitted she was only fully committed to the idea of opening in New Zealand last year after she met up with New Zealand Prime Minister, Toosavili John Key. Before I met with the NZ Prime Minister, our Trade Commissioner to NZ, Tofaeono Iupati organised a round table meeting between the Pacific business community and me, she said.

I discovered at that meeting that there was so much potential in NZ that our Pacific people from the islands have yet to utilise and I also found out then that our Samoan Government had space available for rent at its new premises next to the Mangere Town Centre.

After committing the project to God, I felt that the time was right to set up a branch in NZ. I knew as well that I cant compete with the other stationery and electronics stores in NZ so the focus of this new branch had to be different from what I sell in my other branches and you also have to know your market and explore ways to target and increase that market.

Asked how much the project cost, Mrs. Leung Wai said: The project has been costly, especially when the banks I approached for financial assistance did not believe in the project.

The National Provident Fund believed in the project so I approached them and they were able to provide some of the funding thanks to the C.E.O of the National Provident Fund Faumuina Esther Lameko - Poutoa and the (former) Manager Petra Chan Tung for believing in S.S.A.B New Zealand but we are also waiting for B.S.P to provide us with some additional funding.

She added that with every success there are also challenges that come with it.

This project has been very challenging, especially in terms of finances and getting the fit out completed on time, she said. However, our God is a big God and so I have committed this project to him for his blessings and to open doors to ensure its success.

Speaking about the name of the shop Sei Oriana Gift Shop Mrs. Leung Wai said it just came to her naturally.

It must be a name God wanted the shop to be called, she said. [And] besides Sei Oriana is a beautiful name and it refers to the beautiful flowers of the Oriana Plant.

Since the shop will be selling mostly gift items, including many different types of artificial flowers or seis, I felt it fitting that I call the shop Sei Oriana Gift Shop.

The branch will be run by Mrs. Leung Wais husband, Aumua Ming Leung Wais cousins, Leitu Puleitu-Ligaliga as the Managing Director and Lydwina Tasipale as Assistant Manager.

Lastly she acknowledges the support of everyone especially her family.

It would be remiss of me to not to mention those who have supportive and instrumental in establishing S.S.A.B Auckland.

First and foremost is our Heavenly Father who gives wisdom, faith and courage. My three mothers for their ceaseless prayers for me, namely Nino Fuimaono Lafaele, Kuini Leung Wai and my late mother Epenesa Saifoloi, my dearest brother Tagaloa Fritz Vito and his wife Serah Vito for their prayers.

In addition to the above is my strong S.S.A.B Family and team especially my Deputy C.E.O I want to sincerely thank my team here in Samoa especially Gase Pelenato (my right hand and Deputy CEO), Jody Toleafoa (Manager Stock and Procurement), Marlene Mulipola (Manager of Stationery and Office Supplies), Dora Malele (Manager of Sales) Bronwyn Hunt Keil (Manager Education); Manu Ken Saifoloi (Manager of Logistics), Gloria Takazawa (Executive Assistant) Lyman Ah Chong (Senior Graphics Designer), Aoge Moto ( my PA); Fereti Fereti (Copier Technician) LA Ilalio (Senior Delivery Officer)Nancy Vito Alefosio (Manager Operations), Sia Namulaulu (Assistant Manager Cashiers) and Mei Willy.

Our accounts team  Logo Iakopo, Ana Stowers, Christy Falemai; my nieces Memoree,Poima and Matlie Fakaua Vito.

I would also like to thank our Managing Director in NZ, Leitu Ligaliga and our Assistant MD, Lydwina Tasipale who have helped in setting up our branch in NZ.

The Samoan Consul, Faletoi Reupena for being so helpful and accommodating, Samoas Trade Commissioner to New Zealand, Tofaeono Fuatai for suggesting ways to promote trade which resulted in the idea to open this shop.

And lastly, I sincerely thank my husband, Tuatagaloa Aumua Ming Leung Wai for his endless support for me.
The National Health Services (N.H.S) is being sued for more than $350,000 by a family alleging negligence in the performance of service, which led to the loss of a life.

According to a statement of claim obtained by the Sunday Samoan, the lawsuit is being brought by Fetunai Saunia, the husband of the alleged victim, the late Moira Avea Lamese, who is a former employee of N.H.S.

Filed by lawyer, Sarona Ponifasio, with the Supreme Court on 28 June 2016, the claim is seeking:

(a) General damages for loss of dependency: $282,360.00

(b) Special damages for medical and funeral expenses: $28,345.00

(c) Estate claim: $50,000.00

(d) Costs of and incidental to this action; and

(e) Such further or other relief as the Court thinks fit.

The claim states that the deceased, who was pregnant at the time of her death, had a history as an asthmatic patient.

The deceased has had multiple admissions at the National Hospital since about 2011 due to asthmatic attacks, the claim reads. That on or about 14 February 2011, she was admitted for pneumonia. The deceased was continuously prescribed antibiotics and steroids.

On 1 April 2015, Moira had a prenatal check up. (a) The Deceased had an ultrasound for obstetric and upper abdomen. The x-ray results for her upper abdominal showed, amongst other matters, that her kidneys were enlarged, and all other parts appeared normal. The obstetric results showed, amongst other matters, the existence of a single live foetus and that there were no obvious fetal abnormality seen;

(b) The Deceaseds prenatal record noted, amongst other matters, that the Deceased: (i) was a primigravida; (ii) has an asthmatic medical history; and (iii) has a diabetic family history.

(c) The Deceaseds prenatal record also noted her expected delivery date to be 5 August 2015, which is consistent with her x-ray results.

On or about 4 April 2015 at about 6.40am, the Deceased attended the National Hospital at the Outpatient, and was noted to have had an acute exacerbation of asthma. She was prescribed at least 3 ventolin nebulisers and steroids.

On or about 7 April 2015 at about 1800 hours, the Deceased again attended the National Hospital at the Outpatient, and was noted to have had cough, respiratory and chest wheeze, amongst other matters. She was prescribed half-hourly ventolin nebuliser and steroids. She was noticed to have been settled by about 8.40pm.

On or about 13 April 2015, the Deceased travelled to New Zealand.

On 29 April 2015 at about 0351hours, the Deceased was admitted at the Wellington Hospital for asthma exacerbation. The Deceased was treated with nebulisers and steroids with step down to inhaler until she was discharged with medication at about 1334 hours. The Deceased was noted to be 5 months pregnant with her first child, and that the baby was moving well with no concerns.

On or about 2 May 2015, the Deceased returned to Samoa. On or about 10 May 2015 at about 2000 hours, the Deceased again attended the National Hospital at the Outpatient, and she was prescribed continuous ventolin nebuliser and oxygen, and steroids. She was noticed to have been settled by about 2355 hours.

On or about 12 May 2015, the Deceased had another ultrasound for obstetric. The x- ray results showed, amongst other matters, the existence of a single live foetus presented cephalically, and that there were no obvious fetal abnormality seen. The results also noted the expected delivery date to be 8 August 2015.

On or about 3 June 2015, the Deceased was admitted to the National Hospital for gestational induced diabetes and obesity. The Deceaseds blood sugar level (BSL) was monitored and was given ongoing insulin injections.

Particulars (a) On 3 June 2015, the Deceaseds BSL were noted to be stable and she was required to continue her insulin and to take aspirin.

(b) On 5 June 2015 at about 0900 hours, the Deceased had uncontrolled BSL and asthmatic attacks. Her insulin and ventolin nebulisers treatment continued.

(c) On 7 June 2015 at about 0900 hours, the Deceaseds BSL was still uncontrolled, and she had ongoing cough. Her insulin was increased to 20 units and she continued to have ventolin nebulisers.

(d) On 11 June 2015 in the morning, the deceaseds BSL continued to be monitored and was recommended to continue her treatment with insulin injection. (e) On 13 June 2015, the Deceaseds BSL were uncontrolled and she was given high insulin doses. Her ventolin nebulisers and inhaler also continued.

(f) On 14 June 2015, the Deceased improved but it was recommended that her treatment continued.

On 15 June 2015, the claim says that the deceased was examined and it was noted that her BSL were stable. She was discharged with all her medication.

On 18 June 2015, the Deceased again attended the National Hospital at the Outpatient due to ongoing coughing and asthmatic attack. She was recommended for antenatal care on 26 June 2015.

On 20 June 2015, while at her home at Gagaifo, Lefaga in the afternoon, the Deceased experienced multiple coughing and tightness around her chest. The Deceased administered her inhaler and insulin injection. The Deceased eventually requested to be taken to the hospital and she was then rushed to the Leulumoega District Hospital being the closer hospital to her village.

When the Deceased reached the Leulumoega District Hospital, she was pronounced dead.

The plaintiff is also claiming loss of dependency, special damages including medical and funeral expenses as well as estates claim.

The matter is scheduled to be called in the Supreme Court this week.
The Secretariat for the Pacific Immigration Directors Conference (P.I.D.C.) has officially begun operating in Apia to serve its Member Administrations made up of 19 Countries and Territories in the region.

Newly appointed Head of Secretariat, Maumalo Ioane Alama advised that the Secretariat staff had officially commenced operating out of Apia on 8 August 2016.

As a regional organisation that has worked since 1996 to support Members in strengthening national immigration policies and enhancing national and regional border protection processes, the Secretariat is excited to begin working from its new base of operations in Samoa, said Maumalo.

We plan to complete work on our new premises at the D.B.S. Building in the next few months and will then look to formally launch our Organisations activities in Samoa. In the meantime, we would like to acknowledge the support provided by the Government of Samoa in providing temporary office space to accommodate the Secretariat and its activities.

Damien Jacklick, current Chair for the P.I.D.C. and Head of Immigration for the Republic of the Marshall Islands advised that P.I.D.C. Members are eager to see the establishment of the new Secretariat in Apia and look to moving forward as an organisation to develop activities and programmes that support Members given the ever increasing numbers of people travelling internationally within the region. Agafili Shem Leo, C.E.O. of the Ministry of the Prime Minister and Cabinet advised that the Government of Samoa has been happy to support the PIDC in establishing its operations in Apia.

The ongoing relocation aligns perfectly with the organisations theme for a New Beginning and Growth, which was recently launched in the Republic of Marshall Islands where PIDC met last month for its 2016 Annual Conference.

Agafili noted that at the conference, key issues discussed included the effective management of borders, the collection and sharing of data/information, technical assistance and capacity building activities and the role of labour mobility in economic growth.

Vaosa Epa, former Chair of the P.I.D.C. and Samoa Public Service Commission member also welcomed the establishment of the P.I.D.C. presence in Apia acknowledging the hard work already undertaken to facilitate the Secretariats relocation since the signing of the Headquarters Agreement between P.I.D.C. and the Government of Samoa in June 2016.
Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi is steadfast. He says the government will not change its mind about relocating the residents of Sogi.

In fact, he told the Sunday Samoan the Samoa Land Corporation (S.L.C.) has been directed by Cabinet to deal with the last remaining residents in the area.

Although the Prime Minister would not be drawn into the specifics of how S.L.C. is likely to deal with residents  especially the ones objecting to the decision, Prime Minister Tuilaepa assured that the governments decision is final.

The matter concerning the Sogi residents is now with the Samoa Land Corporation, he said.

The governments decision to remove the residents (from Sogi) still stands.

Prime Minister Tuilaepa did not elaborate.

But the General Manager of S.L.C, Ulugia Petelo Kavesi, reaffirmed the governments decision saying nothing has changed and they are working to relocate the residents in a peaceful manner.

Many residents have accepted the offer to relocate to Falelauniu but only a few families at Sogi are still rejecting the offer, Ulugia told the Sunday Samoan.

There are people (residents) who have their own opinions on the matter but the government has already made their decision and that is they must relocated.

Asked about the possibility of forcefully evicting them, Ulugia said no.

For now, the government is not in a position to force them off the land, he said. Were still giving them the chance to leave peacefully, even though the deadline given to them to relocate has passed.

Ulugia defended the governments decision to ask the residents to move, saying there is more than enough land at Falelauniu for them to develop and purchase for themselves.

Were still giving them time to move to Falelauniiu, he said about the remaining families. Theres no deadline given to them at this stage.

I want to reiterate that the governments decision to relocate them is in order for them to have a better life. Thats what the government is looking at for the residents.

And as for rumours about developments the government is planning at the area, Ulugia denied them.

I have no knowledge on that issue so I have no comment to make.

Last week, two residents of Sogi reiterated their rejection of the governments decision to relocate them from the only homes they have known their entire lives.

Sixty-nine-year-old Aiga Tokuma and Faalii Tokuma say they feel like they have been betrayed by the government given the stories they have heard since they were told to relocate.

I just think that the governments plan to relocate us to another area to further their developments is really sad, Aiga Tokuma says.

Aiga is the daughter of the late Tokuma Torurae, who is originally from the Solomon Islands.

Weve seen many foreign businessmen visiting this area almost everyday, she said. This is new. Back in the days, we hardly see any of them on our land but it seems like theyre here to see where theyre going to build.

They came one day and told me that they want to look around. I knew from that time that theyre planning to build something here.

Aiga said all the talk about sea level rise and coastal erosion as reasons for their eviction is not true.

Why not evacuate all the villages of Samoa then who are on the coastal areas? she said. Whatever theyve been saying, its a lot of lies. Theyve been telling us to relocate to Falelauniu because of climate issues, tsunami, cyclones and many more and yet the government wants to relocate us to further their developments.

This is not love, these are all lies. This land is where our forefathers sweated over the years to give us a future.

Now the government wants us to relocate us with a lousy $3,000? Were not leaving.

Aiga Tokuma said that this is the second time they have been threatened with eviction from the government.

The first time was during the time of the late Tofilau Eti Alesana, while my mother was still alive, she said. I remember the government officials were all here on that morning with machines to dismantle and clear this area.

It was a saddest scene ever but were very lucky when our eldest brother, the late Leiataua told them to dig a hole to dump us all in.

At that time, the government told us to go to Fagalii.

In previous interviews, Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi insisted that the people of Sogi will be better off somewhere lese.

But Aiga Tokuma does not agree.

This is our home, she said. Our forefathers leveled this swamp for us to stay on during the German Colonial times. Today, were like prisoners on our own land.
A new study has revealed that between the years 1990 and 2010, there were about 361,000 children in the United States were brought to the emergency department for injuries they suffered while on riding in a stroller or carrier.

CNN reported that every hour, about two children aging 5 years old or younger are treated in the emergency rooms for strollers or car carrier-related injuries. According to the study published in the journal Academic Pediatrics, children often suffered head injuries which totaled to almost 62 percent of the total incidents and face injuries which totaled to 25 percent.

Kristin Roberts, author of the study and a research associate in the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio explained that there are more than 17,000 injuries every year which equals to about 50 children every day or at least two injuries every hour. "We expect strollers and carriers to be safe and provide a secure way to transport children."

Roberts told Reuters Health that she use strollers and carriers to transport her children for their daily activities however, she wanted to note what injuries are happening involving them. For the study, the researchers used information on stroller- or carrier- related injuries among children aging 5 years old or young recorded in the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System between the years 1990 and 2010. Roberts also explained that the injuries were serious enough to require medical attention and trips to the emergency department.

Researchers found that most of the affected children that had to make a trip to the ER fell from either a stroller or carrier or when a stroller overturns. Moreover, the head and the face were always the parts of the body most commonly affected during the fall. According to Tech Times, a number of the cases resulted in soft tissue injuries such as bruises and bumps, but there were traumatic brain injuries (TBI) or concussions.

During the course of the study, researchers noticed that the number of TBI/concussion cases related to strollers doubled from 19 percent in 1990 to 42 percent in 2010 while carrier-related injuries tripled, skyrocketing from 18 percent in 1990 to a whopping 53 percent in 2010. Roberts also said: "While these products are used safely by families every day, when injuries do occur they can be quite serious." She also stressed the importance to know that there is a possibility that TBI and concussion could bring about long term effects on the cognitive development of the child.

Meanwhile, it was also reported that most children who suffered these accidents were usually just sent home after their injuries were treated. However, around 7 percent of those who have undergone carrier-related accidents needed to be admitted in the hospital compared to about 2 percent of those in stroller accidents.

Roberts also recommended that parents take a few extra precautions to make sure their children are safe in strollers and carriers. These include simple steps like making sure the child is safely buckled into the device and secure while in use. Parents should also be aware that anything may tip or topple the device over like putting a heavy object or placing it on an uneven surface. "If parents can take a few extra steps to avoid injuries and falls, then parents can hopefully use these product more safely and reduce the likelihood that their children will be injured," said Roberts.
FLORENCE, S.C. -- The good news for business and leisure travelers is that American Airlines has confirmed another 12 months at the Florence Regional Airport.

The fact that American Airlines is the sole carrier, though, is something a group of business, political, airport and economic development leaders are trying to change.

Florence Regional Airport executive director Connie Anderson told Pee Dee Regional Airport Authority members Thursday at their monthly meeting that a recent trip to Texas to meet with airline officials yielded news that another year of the airports sole carrier has been made official. In October, however, there will be four flights a day instead of the five currently available.

The underlying reason for her trip, when she met with Lyle Hogg, CEO of Piedmont  a subsidiary of American Airlines  was to find out the root cause of reliability problems. At Thursdays meeting, authority member Pete Gioldasis noted that of 133 flights in June, 10 were canceled. In July, of 134 flights, 11 were canceled, and the 8 percent cancellation rate for both months is about double the historical average.

Id rather have four reliable flights than five that are going to get cancellations, Anderson told the authority.

What she heard from Hogg was the Dash-8 aircraft used to fly between Florence and Charlotte by American or its subsidiaries are an aging fleet with inherent mechanical problems. There is also a pilot shortage, she said. Piedmont is replacing the Dash-8s with 50-seat jets, she said, and out of a fleet of about 50 Dash-8s, eight have been replaced in what is a multi-year process.

Two options

Authority members stress that while theyd like to see American perform better in terms of delays and cancellations and theyre happy American is here, but theyd like Delta to come back.

Our objective is not to drive away American, obviously  its to complement their service, Gioldasis said after the meeting. The ideal situation is that we have two options.

He and others see a lot of upside.

Theres a lot of volume here thats not going through this airport, he said, which is positive for American and should get Delta to notice untapped potential.

Robby Hill points to a study by consulting firm Mead & Hunt that shows Florence Regional Airport is capturing about 30 percent of the market in the region.

That was encouraging, said Hill, a Florence City Council member.

The recent formation of a committee of which he is chairman includes people from the Greater Florence Chamber of Commerce, the Pee Dee Regional Airport Authority, city and county councils and Florence County Economic Development Partnership. It came about for a simple reason, Hill said.

Were all working toward the same goal to improve the airport in any way possible, he said, with the goal of bringing Delta back. All of these organizations have come together to give the economic development community something better to market and to give business travelers reassurances that everyone is working hard to improve services available.

Mark Williams would like to see a vast improvement in services. He and his wife, Debbie, went to the airport authoritys Thursday meeting to vent their frustration about American Airlines. Flying back from Pennsylvania with his father, Skip Williams, who is in ill health, was an ordeal. Last Tuesday they were scheduled to be back in Florence by 6:20 p.m., he said, but got back at 10:15 p.m. after a three and a half hour bus trip.

Its a tragedy that we cant have an airline that flies into Florence that you cant leave from Florence and come back, he told the authority.

Hes heard rumors of the authority trying to get Delta back, he said, and wondered if other suitors are being sought, such as a smaller or regional airline.

I guess my question: What are yall doing? he asked.

Authority Chairman Glen Greene told Williams that his comments and concerns were appreciated and that work is being done on the issues he raised.

Hopefully youll be hearing more about that very soon, Greene added.

The next phase

Root analysis and forecasting is the next step, Gioldasis told authority members. The members voted to approve further work with consulting firm Mead & Hunt to show Delta it would make business sense to return to Florence.

Hill points out that when Delta left Florence about six years ago, it also left Hilton Head Island and six or seven other airports all at once, and hasn't returned to any of the former markets.

Florence, Darlington, Marion and Dillon  all these communities have grown so much in the six years since they left, he said. We should be able to make a strong case that were committed to growing the airport with regular business and leisure travelers we know exist in our area. It just takes a lot of work to convince them.

Hill, who is acting as liaison between all the entities involved, sees a 12-month window of hard work that hinges on landing a Small Community Air Service program grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation. Hed like to apply for it at the beginning of next year and have it locked down by next summer.

Gioldasis told fellow authority members the grant is used as a revenue guarantee for Delta and still requires a 10 to 15 percent match. The fact that Florence has never applied for the grant makes a better case for securing it, Hill said Friday, noting that he gave an update to the chambers board on Thursday.

Every time we move the ball forward, Hill said. Were all spreading the word  part of the message were trying to spread is that theres definitely good news on the horizon and the commitment to work and make the airport a better place.
COWARD, S.C. - Deputies with the Florence County Sheriff's Office have arrested a man after an extensive manhunt in two counties.

According to Lt. Kathleen Streett with the Florence County Sheriff's Office, Patrick Joseph Cassidy, 25, of 209 W. Deer Road in Timmonsville, was apprehended Saturday morning shortly after midnight. Cassidy was wanted by the Horry County Police Department on three counts of attempted murder stemming from a shooting near Conway on Thursday.

Cassidy was also wanted by Florence County on a charge of grand larceny from an unrelated incident.

The investigation led deputies to the Coward area of Florence County on Friday morning. Cassidy was attempting to leave the area when the manhunt began, operated by Florence deputies with assistance from the sheriff's office helicopter as well as tracking dogs.

Additional tracking assistance came from the U.S. Marshals Service, SLED, the S.C. Department of Natural Resources, the Clarendon County Sheriff's Office and other agencies.

Cassidy was taken to the Florence County Detention Center. He has been charged with grand larceny, driving with a suspended license, and failure to stop for a blue light. Additional charges are expected, according to the sheriff's office.
FLORENCE, S.C.  At the Helping Florence Flourish Pastors Breakfast on Wednesday morning, church leaders and community members gathered to discuss race relations in Florence and how they can be improved moving forward.

This isnt the first time Florence church leaders have had these types of discussions. Savannah Grove Baptist Church has played host for multiple large public forums in the past: one in June 2015 after the Charleston Nine shooting and one this past July following the shootings in Louisiana, Minnesota and Texas.

Savannah Grove Pastor Ralph Canty said approximately 600 people attended the meeting in July, including law enforcement officials from nearly every local agency who answered a wide variety of questions from the public. In a time of national turmoil between African-Americans and law enforcement, Canty said, having the forum was a step in the right direction.

I thought it was an extremely healthy event for the community, Canty said. Those who were angry and frustrated had the opportunity to vent. Those who were in positions of leadership were provided an opportunity to give a clear representation of where our community stands in terms of better relationships between the people and law enforcement.

Looking ahead, Canty said, he is anxious about what is next to come. Since the last public forums came on the tails of violent shootings, Canty suggests that we not wait for trouble to rise in order to have discussions related to race.

We should not wait on another violent episode as a community, Canty said. I think we need to continue to dialogue and to continue it at many levels.

The large public forums were the first step toward a constructive dialogue about race relations in the Florence community, but Canty suggested a different strategy when it comes to public meetings.

Should we have huge public forums? Yes, from time to time, Canty said. I am more convinced that if we are going to make any progress, were going to have to have smaller groups.

The Pastors Breakfast on Wednesday was one example of that small-scale strategy. Frances Swink, a Helping Florence Flourish team member who helped organize the breakfast, said meetings such as this are a way for people of different backgrounds to come together and ask the hard questions.

We talk about really tough issues, Swink said. Weve realized the biggest issue is more relationship-focused. We need to sit down and to have tough and honest conversations with each other and build up those relationships and that trust.

Along with Canty, Swink believes having these dialogues and hosting events that bring different communities together will only benefit Florence and its residents in the long run.

Lets further this conversation, Canty said. The more that conversation is faith-based and gospel-centered, the more it is going to move this community.

I pray that we will work together on this and that as Florence flourishes that all of the people of Florence from all sections of the community will flourish.
The seeds of a new revolution are in the ground. If they get enough water in the November election, theres no telling what will happen.

Pundits, who often only seem to talk to each other and read pointy-headed reports and memos written by peers, appear totally confounded about whats going on in the electorate as tanking GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump continues to foment disarray and discontent. Just when the talking heads think theyve got Trump figured out, he does something new that bewitches them more  to the delight of his followers.

With presidential election politics so volatile, perhaps its time to stop looking at the daily horserace and consider what might happen actually after Nov. 8. History might provide a guide.

The closest parallel to todays odd election is way back in 1848 when the two leading parties  the Whigs and the Democrats  wanted a Mexican War hero, Gen. Zachary Taylor, to be their candidate. Taylor, a Southerner who bragged he had never voted and was mostly apolitical, went with the Whigs, who were being torn apart by internecine struggles over slavery and whether it should be allowed in new states and territories.

Former state Superintendent of Education Jim Rex, who has started a moderate, alternate party in South Carolina called the American Party, sees some modern similarities with the 1848 election, describing Taylor as sort of Trumpy.

This pompous, self-absorbed, do-nothing with no experience was the beginning of the end of the Whig Party, Rex observed. Taylor, who died less than two years into his term, did little to quell the growing national questions over slavery, which eventually pulled the Whigs apart.

In February 1854, a number of Conscious Whigs, Free-Soilers, and Anti-Slavery Democrats met in Ripon, Wisconsin ... to recommend the organization of a new political party pledged to oppose the further extension of slavery, historian Paul F. Boller Jr. wrote. Five months later, a new party called the Republican Party emerged, just in time for the 1856 election.

More than 100 years later in 1964, Republicans faced a defining moment in the campaign of conservative Barry Goldwater, as the party embraced disaffected Southern Democrats like Strom Thurmond over civil rights, observed conservative strategist Avik Roy, who believes the GOP might be headed toward the fate of the Whigs.

Conservative intellectuals, and conservative politicians, have been in kind of a bubble, Roy said in a Vox.com article last month. Weve had this view that the voters were with us on conservatism  philosophical, economic conservatism. In reality, the gravitational center of the Republican Party is white nationalism.

The GOP, Roy argued, needs to deal with race, an echo of post-mortems after its 2008 and 2012 losses by candidates to Barack Obama. Instead this year, the party has turned to a divider, not a healer.

Trump is a creation of the Republican Party, Rex said. He is their Frankenstein, and the monster got up off the table after all of these years.

So whats ahead? If Trump, who appears way behind in Electoral College votes, pulls off a win, Republicans probably will circle the wagons of harmony some but continue to be plagued by disarray between country club stalwarts and Trump-supporting, anti-immigrant voters who expect the red meat of change never envisioned by Obama. Moderates across party lines could get sick of the disarray and, despite institutional hurdles, form a moderate third party.

If Clinton wins? A likely scenario is more disarray in Washington as the gridlock that crippled Obamas agenda will continue. The Republican brand will be severely hurt, and factionalism will ensue, but anti-Democratic forces could unite over key issues to thwart Clintons initiatives.

Meanwhile, third parties such as the Libertarians and Greens will try to take advantage to attract more followers as a viable alternative.

Rex believes politics in America has reached a tipping point.

Things can change more dramatically and quickly in American politics than most people think, he observed.

More and more, it looks as if the election of 2016 will spawn some kind of change, but it will be change defined by disarray. It seems likely that the candidate who wins will be a one-term president as the country tries to make sense of whatever happens.

Andy Brack is editor and publisher of Statehouse Report. Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com.
When a minibus carrying tourists was recently attacked in Afghanistan, the incident prompted headlines and questions. What was a tour bus doing in the middle of a war zone? Who visits Afghanistan on vacation?

As Laura Ling explains in today's Seeker Daily report, tourism in war zones is actually more common than you might think. For some travelers, the appeal of visiting a historical landmark outweighs the risks. For others, the conflict itself is the destination.

Consider the nation of Iraq. Millions of tourists have visited the country in recent years, despite ongoing conflicts and official travel warnings. Tourists are attracted by the country's ancient historical sites, including the ruins of Babylon and the Great Mosque of Samarra (which truly is a wonder to behold.)

It's estimated that more than 800,000 international tourists visited the Iraq in 2013 alone, although tourism numbers have dropped radically since ISIS took over large swaths of territory in 2014.

RELATED: Will We Ever Be Able to Vacation In Space?

The African nation of Nigeria is also a curiously popular tourist destination, with nearly 1.5 million visitors each year according to the World Tourism Organization. This despite the fact that Boko Haram, the jihadist terrorist group, continues to menace the nation. By some measures, Boko Haram is the single most dangerous terrorist group on the world, responsible for more than 10,000 civilian deaths since 2015.

Believe it or not, some tourists even continue to visit the war-torn nation of Syria -- probably the single most dangerous place on the planet right now. While the country is home to six UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the tourism draw these days is of a weirder variety sometimes called dark tourism. Adventure seekers and adrenaline junkies gather at Syria's borders with Turkey and Israel to observe battles from afar. One Russian tour company even offers tours of the front lines.

For more on unlikely tourist spots, check out our previous Seeker Daily report on official travel warnings issued by the U.S. State Department.

-- Glenn McDonald

Learn More:

NPR: What Attracts Tourists to Afghanistan?

Daily Beast: War Tourists Flock to Syria's Front Lines

The Atlantic: The Rise of Dark Tourism
Photo: A helicopter drops water while battling the Blue Cut fire burning near Cajon Blvd in San Bernardino, Calif. on Aug. 18. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni Shrouded by smoke from a fire in California's parched San Bernardino Mountains, schools in the Victor Valley closed their doors last week. The Pilot Fire was contained on Monday -- shortly before the Blue Cut Fire broke out, billowing soot and ash over the valley afresh, forcing further closures.

"This is a pretty unprecedented situation," said Violette Roberts, a Mojave Desert Air Quality Management District official whose job involves warning residents in the area about air pollution. On Monday, "the sky had turned dark," she said. "It looked like it was sunset most of the day."

As the district warned valley residents to "limit time spent outdoors" and to seek medical care for respiratory ailments, school and health clinic closures and canceled sporting events were reminders that health impacts from wildfires carry further than the flames.

RELATED: More Than 82,000 Flee Massive California Wildfire

In the West, where populations living near forests and scrublands are growing, global warming is projected to fuel worsening wildfires, mostly by drying out the land. Research published this week showed how those forces will combine to cause wildfire pollution to threaten tens of millions more people during the years ahead than are currently at risk.

"When you have a wildfire, like a really bad wildfire, you can see that the air quality is reduced," said Brooke Anderson, a Colorado State University epidemiologist who worked on the new study, published in the journal Climatic Change. "These ambient air pollutants can reach a lot of people."

Researchers like Anderson have taken to using the term "smoke wave" to describe the type of multiday impacts from wildfire pollution that were experienced this month in the Victor Valley. The valley contains hundreds of thousands of residents as well as the thoroughfare linking Las Vegas with Los Angeles.

Anderson and scientists from Yale and Harvard calculated that 82 million residents of the West will experience smoke waves that are two days or longer during a six-year period beginning in the late 2040s. That's a 44 percent increase from a six-year period last decade.

"We discovered that, indeed, fires will become worse in the future, and that the number of people exposed to what we call smoke waves increases by about 35 million," said Loretta Mickley, an atmospheric chemist at Harvard who helped lead the study.

RELATED: How Wildfires Affect Your Health



The researchers combined population projections with the outputs of models designed to predict fire risks as greenhouse gas pollution continues to build up in the atmosphere. They also used a model to project the spread of plumes of air pollution from the flames.

On a per-county average, the group estimated that the number of smoke waves experienced in the West will increase to about 1.5 each year by the 2050s, up from about one today. The smoke waves are also projected to become more intense -- with air pollution during the worst smoke waves expected to worsen more than 400 percent.

Not all counties will be equally affected. Some may experience fewer smoke waves as the climate changes, though most were projected to experience worsening conditions. Communities located in or near forests face the worst impacts.

"Arizona does get much bigger fires in the future, but because it's so grassy there, there's not a lot of fuel for those big fires," Mickley said. "These fires can threaten homes, but you don't get the same massive smoke events."

RELATED: Indonesia Wildfire Smoke Equaled a Volcano Eruption



The research was lauded by other scientists for its sophisticated and novel approach.

"It's as good if not better than anyone else is doing," said Christine Wiedinmyer, a National Center for Atmospheric Research scientist who was not involved with the study. "They've come up with a nice way of predicting fires -- both now and into the future."

Wiedinmyer said the findings point to a need to better manage Western forests with more prescribed burns, which simulate natural conditions and clear forest floors of potential fuel. "Of course, you're going to get emissions there," she said, but risks of smoke waves from wildfires "might be reduced."

The research focused on fine sky-darkening particles called PM2.5 pollution. Such pollution is one of the world's main killers, posing risks in particular to children, the elderly and the sick. It's released by fossil fuel-burning power plants, internal combustion engines and wood burning.

"This type of approach provides a much more expansive and complete view of the potential consequences for humans as we change our climate," said Kevin Anchukaitis, a climatologist and geographer at the University of Arizona who wasn't involved with the study. "It shows the complicated yet robust link between climate change and human health."

The scientists didn't focus on other kinds of air pollution created by wildfires, such as chemicals that combine in the atmosphere to form ozone pollution.

"The direct effects on human health would be much greater for PM2.5 than for the ozone," said Lesley Ott, a scientist at NASA who wasn't involved with the study. "This is probably the most direct threat to human health."

More From Climate Central:

This article originally appeared on Climate CentralClimate Central, all rights reserved.
Locutus said: Ismail Berdiyev declares FGM for all women would be 'a good thing'. Click to expand...

And the [Devil] said, "[God] assuredly, I will take [for deceiving] a large number of Your servants [whom I should deceive in order to fulfill my swearing

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; whoever takes Satan for a master

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instead of God

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, he certainly suffers a manifest loss.

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[Iblies] said: "Then [I swear] by Your 'might and glory'! I shall surely seduce [the Children of Adam], altogether."

"Save such of Your servants among them as You select to be devoted."

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the castration of the cattle and the cock

an operation is done for the female hermaphrodite to become a man, and for the male hermaphrodite to become a woman

the shaving of beards and mustaches

the epilation of the eyebrows of the woman

cutting the braid off

the rice and wheat, so that they changed their advantages by removing their covers

purifying the rice by the sieve during its cooking

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Such thing is disgusting, and is not commanded in the Quran; moreover, this cleric or scholar is not our prophet; our prophet is Mohammed, and such act is an innovation or invention in God's religion.It is rejected in fact in the Glorious Quran, and is part of altering the creation of God which is enjoined by Satan, similar to other acts like shaving the beard and the mustache., where God told about Satan's vowing:.......................................................................118And I will not break my oath; as is it indicated by His saying  be glorified  in the Quran 38: 82-83, which means:119Away from the truth, by the suggestion.119About every forbidden thing, and I will make them fair-seeming in their eyes; in order that they will sin with it.119The Arab in the pre-Islam period used to cut the ear of the ewe to mark it as dedicated to their idols, and they would then leave it alone to its way.119Which is. While the (changing of Gods creation) concerning people: what they do nowadays, when: and this is the changing of God's creation.Also included in it is, andto become delicate, and, which is not allowed.In addition, among the things that Satan ordered people to change are: God created vitamin B in the cover of the rice which is the bran, so Satan ordered them to remove the bran from the rice to become more tasty; and God made many starchy substances with a precious food advantage, but Satan ordered them to remove it by, and by this way the rice advantages of the vitaminous and starchy substances have been removed.Moreover, he ordered themso that the bread will be more tasty, while they don't know what nutritious advantages it includes for the body.119By following his suggestions, and obeying his orders.119i.e. instead of God's orders.119In both the World and the Next Life: In the World he will have shame, and he will have the fire chastisement in the Next Life.The interpretation of these two ayat is by Mohammed-Ali Hassan Al-Hilly.
As mayor of Oakland in the 2000s, Jerry Brown supported redevelopment. Then he returned to the governors office in 2011 and inherited a $25 billion budget shortfall. Feeling the squeeze, Brown saw an opportunity to make $1.7 billion by eliminating redevelopment agencies and shifted. He liked redevelopment as mayor, he explained to the League of California Cities, but also: I didnt quite understand it. It seemed kind of magical. It was the money that you could spend on stuff that they wouldnt otherwise let you spend.

In Sacramento, fiscal restraint can only last so long. The urge to spend on stuff is back. Last year, the Legislature passed a measure with bipartisan support to restore redevelopment. The governor signed the bill, which took effect this year. Already the Legislature is working to expand rules to allow local officials to green-light pet projects more likely to enrich powerful interests than benefit the communities the policy is supposed to serve.

Small businesses, beware. In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that economic development constituted public use in its infamous Kelo decision, which allowed governments to seize private property for private development. (The state or local government derives its power to take private property for public use in return for just compensation from the right of eminent domain.) The Kelo ruling emboldened cities like Oakland to seize private property at bargain prices to accommodate tony private development. The targeted property didnt even have to be blighted  the traditional rationale for urban renewal projects. It just had to be in the way.

In her blistering dissent of Kelo, Justice Sandra Day OConnor warned, The specter of condemnation hangs over all property. Nothing is to prevent the state from replacing any Motel 6 with a Ritz-Carlton, any home with a shopping mall, or any farm with a factory. Oakland proved OConnor right by seizing two properties  Revelli Tires and Autohouse  to make way for private development. There is a greater good here, Brown told me at the time, even as he admitted the businesses were not blighted.

Ravelli Tires and Autohouse had a form of blight  their owners didnt have the political clout to fight back. They were like the tire and brake repair shop owned by the parents of Pacific Legal Foundation attorney Larry Salzman. Two decades ago, the City of La Mesa (San Diego County) took his parents shop to make way for a Costco. The just compensation offered to them by the city was laughably inadequate, Salzman wrote in the San Diego Union-Tribune, and years of litigation drove them into bankruptcy. Thats your greater good.

AB2492 seeks to expand redevelopment in the worst way. A legislative analysis explains that the bills purpose is to address unanswered questions about the data sources that can be used to determine blight. In effect, AB2492 would allow officials to find that an area is blighted if, for example, the median income there is less than 80 percent of the median income either statewide, countywide or citywide. Take your pick.

The or part, says Marko Mlikotin of the California Alliance to Protect Private Property Rights, would allow local officials to cherry-pick the data, and let affluent communities parade as needy.

If the bill makes it to the governors desk as expected, will Brown sign it? When redevelopment shuttered in 2011, I liked to think that Brown realized that redevelopment represented a corrupt bargain, even though he never said as much. Now I suspect Mlikotin is right when he posits Browns move on redevelopment really was about money, not some new found religion in private property rights.

Follow the money, Salzman wrote in an email. There was little money to be made by people who would abuse eminent domain during the economic (downturn) that followed Kelo and the financial crisis, but in the past few years there is again economic incentive for government and politically favored developers to collude to grab land they cant get in a free market. Its the worst kind of cronyism.

The older guy who built up his tire shop and the immigrant who started a car repair business dont stand a chance.

Debra J. Saunders is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dsaunders@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @DebraJSaunders

Kelo was here

The Fifth Amendment states, Nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation. Thats known as the Takings Clause. In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a 5-4 ruling written by Justice John Paul Stevens in the Kelo vs. New London, Conn., case that interpreted the phrase public use to include private economic development. As a result, the New London Development Corp. was able to seize the waterfront home of Susette Kelo to accommodate a project meant to serve the employees of Pfizer Corp.

After developers took the land under Kelos little pink cottage, the redevelopment project fell through. The cottage was moved, however, and now serves as a monument to all those who fight eminent domain abuses. As the Institute of Justice, which represented Kelo pro bono, wrote, Although Kelo and her neighbors endured a tragic loss of their neighborhood, they can take comfort in the fact that they have left a legacy of real change and inspiration for millions of other property owners throughout the nation.
One by one they hobbled out of their cages, wincing in the harsh sunlight that glimmered over a marsh by the Oakland estuary.

The five snowy egrets and three black-crowned night herons flapped their wings, glided over a small bog and landed in the muddy wetland. Rescued from a dangerous life on the streets of Sacramento and Sonoma, they are now free to roam the Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Shoreline.

Their release Friday morning helped commemorate a successful three-way partnership between the Oakland Zoo, the International Bird Rescue and the Golden Gate Audubon Society, whose staff and volunteers saved 21 young herons from injury or death this year in the similarly tough environment of downtown Oakland. Those birds were healed and liberated earlier this summer; the Sonoma and Sacramento birds were among the last to go as nesting season wraps up.

I call it an urban intervention, said Cindy Margulis, head of the Golden Gate Audubon Society. She said the birds often nestle in the ficus trees in Oaklands Chinatown district, where they can fall on concrete or get hit by cars. When birds fall in the wild, they usually land on a soft tree canopy or patch of grass, and can easily climb back to their nests, Margulis said.

But in a busy downtown area, what would normally just be an embarrassing tumble becomes a potential death sentence.

With development picking up in Oakland and more buildings brushing against the birds natural shoreline habitat, many of them are migrating downtown and finding the kind of trees they like, said Ilana DeBare, the societys spokeswoman. The wild birds gravitate to Chinatown because it abuts Lake Merritt and the waterfront, where they hunt for fish.

During the spring and early summer, volunteers counted more than 140 nests downtown, mostly along 14th Street and in a cluster of trees at 12th and Harrison streets.

Some of those birds survive and return to the wild, but many face grave harm: concussions from falls on the street, broken wings, malnutrition because they cant get back up to their nests to eat. Two years ago, tree trimmers lopped off dozens of tree branches near the Oakland Civic Center Post Office, sending nestlings careening to the ground with bruises and fractures.

Last year, Golden Gate Audubon dispatched a team of volunteer docents to educate people about the birds. This year, they teamed up with veterinary experts from the zoo and International Bird Rescue to do triage. When the docents saw birds on the ground, they called the zoo to perform emergency rescues. Zoo staff then shipped the injured fowl off to the bird rescue facility in Fairfield for rehabilitation.

Some need wing wraps, said JD Bergeron, who heads the Bird Rescue. Others just need to be raised and fattened up.

Each of the eight birds that flew out Friday had an identification band to track its success over time. Most likely they will stay in the Bay Area, Bergeron said; wildlife experts have found the birds nesting on the shoreline seven years after their release.

Yet there is a still a danger that the rescued birds will gravitate to downtown Oakland and roost in the ficus trees that line its sidewalks.

One of the things Golden Gate Audubon has been working on with the city is to trim those trees after nesting season, so that the birds no longer want to stay there, Bergeron said. Its a concern that we all share  the city doesnt want dead birds on its sidewalks either.

Long term, the best solution is to create more sites where the birds can nest away from traffic, DeBare said. Until that happens, she said, Golden Gate Audubon will continue its rescue effort.

Rachel Swan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rswan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rachelswan
Shutterstock

Police in Milpitas issued a warning Friday about a fake-kidnapping scam that is extorting money from victims across California.

On Friday, a Milpitas woman answered her cell phone and heard a hysterical female screaming something similar to, Mom please help me! Someone grabbed me, and I am in a van, according to police. The woman believed her daughter was on the phone.
PHELAN, San Bernardino County  More people returned to their homes Friday as firefighters made significant progress against a huge wildfire burning in Southern Californias San Bernardino National Forest. But the welcome news was tempered by the announcement that at least 96 homes and 213 outbuildings were destroyed.

Johanna Santore was among those left homeless. She was running an errand Tuesday when the fire charged through her neighborhood. She tried to rush home to rescue the familys four dogs, six cats and hamster but was blocked by closed roads.

Frantic for answers, she posted messages about her pets on Facebook. A group of animal rescue volunteers saw her pleas and offered to check on the animals. They found the house in smoldering ruins  with no signs of the pets.

Im actually feeling numb, said Santore, who fled with her husband and granddaughter to an evacuation center. Its like a nightmare.

Thousands of residents chased from their mountain and desert homes were slowly beginning to take stock of their losses as the preliminary damage assessment was released for the blaze that erupted Tuesday in drought-parched canyons 60 miles east of Los Angeles.

Firefighters initially struggled to get the towering flames under control but later made progress in corralling the fire that has scorched about 37,020 acres and was 40 percent contained. Plans were under way to demobilize some of the nearly 1,600 firefighters.

Fire spokesman Brad Pitassi said crews were in defensive posture until Thursday night when they reached a turning point, aided by a buildup of ground forces and an air attack with retardant and water drops.

That number could have been much higher, he said of the destroyed homes and buildings, noting that at one point the fire had grown by 30,000 acres in 24 hours.

Katie and Johnathon Havens piled their 1-year-old son and Chihuahua into their RV as flames neared. The Havenses thought they had lost everything when a map of the fire was released. They later discovered their house was intact after they were able to access a camera they had placed inside the home.

Its very comforting to know the house is still there, Katie Havens said. The community is never going to be the same.
Legislative leaders haven't yet set a course for how they'll respond to Sen. Bill Kintner's cybersex scandal.

A much-anticipated meeting of the Legislature's Executive Board ended Aug. 19 without formal action against the outspoken conservative from Papillion.

Kintner has admitted he used his state-owned laptop to exchange live video of himself masturbating with a stranger while attending a conference in Boston last year.

Instead of acting Friday, the 10-member Executive Board will meet again at 10:30 a.m. on Aug. 29 to consider options ranging from revoking Kintner's computer access, Capitol office and parking space to impeaching or expelling him from the Legislature.

"We can't carry this circus on," said Sen. Bob Krist of Omaha, the board chairman, saying it's important for lawmakers to respond quickly.

Kintner didn't immediately react and didn't attend Friday's meeting, but he did appear at an unrelated hearing later in the day.

He has refused to resign  despite calls that he do so from Gov. Pete Ricketts, Speaker of the Legislature Galen Hadley and others  saying he apologized to his wife, God and his colleagues and that remaining in office will best allow him to continue serving God.

"I'm still one of the leading advocates for limited government, for lower taxes, for public safety in our state," he has said.

Nebraska lawmakers have never booted one of their own from office. On Friday, Hadley said his research found only 17 lawmakers have been impeached in all of U.S. history.

"This is uncharted water," Krist said after the Friday morning hearing.

Lawmakers are therefore establishing procedure as they go.

A vote to eject Kintner from office this year could require a special session before senators convene as scheduled in January.

Another option floated Friday was be to make the issue a substantial debate during a regular interim meeting of the legislative council. Those gatherings were made possible by a 1937 law and have typically served as social functions, but Krist said lawmakers could use one to take formal action.

In the meantime, the Executive Board's next hearing will give Kintner a chance to defend himself, with an attorney present if he chooses, Krist said. Members of the public will be allowed to testify as well.

Friday's hearing mostly consisted of a timeline, compiled by legislative staff, of how Kintner's cybersex encounter bubbled up from an initial report last summer to a public scandal in recent weeks.

Cass County Democratic Chairwoman Marsha Babcock of Elmwood testified after submitting signatures from 800 of Kintner's constituents calling on him to resign. The environmental group Bold Nebraska submitted a similar list of its own with 2,042 names.

And several Executive Board members made it clear during the hearing that they want Kintner to step down. Sens. Dan Hughes of Venango and Dan Watermeier of Syracuse both said they've personally asked him to resign.

"Bill Kintner has decided to carry this on himself," Krist said after the hearing.

Kintner's district includes all of Cass County and parts of Otoe and Sarpy counties. If he remains in office, he would be eligible for re-election in 2018.

Investigators with the Nebraska State Patrol and Ricketts learned Kintner had apparently misused his state-owned laptop more than a year ago. But the case first became public late last month, about a week before Kintner was fined $1,000 by the Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission on Aug. 5.

Kintner contacted the patrol himself last August because immediately after the cybersex, the woman, who was from another country, threatened to release video of him masturbating if he didn't send her money via wire transfer.

The patrol launched investigations into the alleged extortion and into Kintner's misuse of his computer.

The extortion probe went cold, and after consulting with Attorney General Doug Peterson's office, the patrol turned over the other piece to the Accountability and Disclosure Commission.

While state law allows people who misuse public property to face criminal charges, Peterson's office has determined Kintner was not subject to criminal penalty here because the incident happened outside the state.

Hadley and Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers both questioned that conclusion Friday, and Chambers called for an "objective" review of the criminal case.

Chambers was the first to call for Kintner's impeachment and has threatened to hijack the legislative session if the Papillion senator remains in office.

"To me, it remains mind-boggling how any man whose wife has been diagnosed with cancer can be so selfish, small-minded, and lacking in ordinary, common decency as to drag his wife through a public meatgrinder of a pornographic scandal," Chambers wrote in a memo to colleagues last week.

Kintner's wife, Lauren, is Ricketts' chief policy adviser, a position she also held under the previous two governors. She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer days after her husband's return from Boston.

"My wife has shown absolutely incredible grace and forgiveness, more so than any man deserves," Kintner has said. "I am just fortunate that we have a good, strong marriage, and my faith is stronger than ever."

Krist questioned Kintner's character, both with his handling of the cybersex issue and his history of incendiary statements.

Krist also referred to Kinter's comments about God and faith, saying, "Whatever phone number he's using to talk to God, I want it."
A bizarre story recounted by Fox News Thursday reports that at least one Turkish media outlet called Aksam is telling the public that convicted felon and inmate Scott Peterson has "been assigned by the CIA to carry out assassinations in Turkey."

As Fox states, the anti-American sentiment in Turkey is growing stronger, with the government-owned Aksam newspaper publicly accusing the CIA (and Peterson as well as a few other individuals) of being involved with the coup that attempted to usurp the country's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last month.

Aksam's front page depicts an aerial photo of Quentin State Prison, with Peterson in an orange jumpsuit in the foreground. In 2004, Peterson was found guilty in the 2002 murder of his wife, Laci Peterson, in Modesto. A year later, he was sentenced to death by lethal injection, though today he is still on death row.

Although the newspaper (or as some are calling it, tabloid) is not the only one to assert that private Americans and the American government are responsible for the deadly coup  the editor-in-chief of a conservative outlet called Yeni Safak also makes the claim  it appears to be the only one suggesting that Peterson was involved.

Aksam also accuses Henri Barkey, a Lehigh University professor (and expert on Turkey) of holding a "top secret meeting" on Buyukada, an island near Istanbul, with around 16 other people  including Peterson.

"According to intelligence sources," the article acquired by Fox reads, "Fethullah Gulen sympathizer Henri Barkey was going to get immediately involved, support the coup plotters, and run a biased broadcast on the coup."

Barkey, for his part, confirms that a meeting was indeed held, but says that it was planned six months previously, and that its purpose was to discuss the state of Iran. Telling Fox News that "[Turkish media outlets] "just make things up," Barkey says Aksam's report is "ridiculous."

"There's a conspiracy culture in Turkey that has taken over," he says. "I was taken aback, but you are dealing with journalists who are not journalists. They are hacks."

Such an outlandish claim that Peterson was in attendance, however, stems from what seems to be a weird case of mistaken identity. Another meeting attendee, director of Global Political Trends Center in Turkey Mensur Akgun, tried to correct Aksam and clarify that the "Scott Peterson" in attendance at the meeting was not death row inmate Scott Peterson, but a journalist with the same name who writes for The Christian Science Monitor.

Peterson, for the record, is still very much incarcerated.

It should also be noted that the press in Turkey is largely not free. Turkish journalists who voice criticism of the Erdogan presidency are frequently at risk of losing their jobs (or worse). The National Union of Journalists, a large European trade union for journalists, are making efforts to improve the situation, in part by scheduling a meeting with the Turkish ambassador in London to discuss the media policies and "individual cases" of the more than 75 journalists who have been detained since the coup attempt in July.

Alyssa Pereira is a staff writer for SFGATE. Follow her here on Twitter.
FOREST CITY -- The Winnebago County Conservation Board will host its annual monarch tagging program on Friday evening, Sept. 2, at the Thorpe Park shelter house.

A short program about the monarch butterfly will be given at 6 p.m. with tagging from 6:30 to 7:30.

Thorpe Park is five miles west of Forest City on I/345th Street.

Some monarch butterflies travel over 2,000 miles to reach their wintering grounds in the mountains of central Mexico.

Monarchs have a unique problem in that they depend upon two very different habitats for their survival  the open fields and prairies of North America for reproduction, and the mountainous forests of Mexico for wintering. So, scientists are also studying monarchs to better understand how they adapt to changes in these two distinct habitats. With Monarch populations plummeting in recent years, this research is more important now than ever before.

The Winnebago County Conservation Board helps with this research by tagging monarch butterflies each year. If these tagged butterflies are found again, they give scientists excellent information.

People are welcome to come to the talk, the tagging or both. After the tagging demonstration, there will be a limited number of monarchs available for people who would like to tag a butterfly themselves, but people are also welcome to bring their own monarchs to tag. Nets will be available for people who would like to catch monarchs at the park to tag.

In case of inclement weather, the program will be postponed.

For more information contact Winnebago County Naturalist Lisa Ralls at 641-565-3390 or at lralls@winnebagoccb.com.
NAIROBI, Kenya  Secretary of State John Kerry will be in Africa on Monday for talks in Kenya and Nigeria on countering terrorism before visiting Saudi Arabia to discuss the conflict in Yemen.

Kerry first meets with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta on regional issues including the upheaval in neighboring South Sudan and security in Somalia, where homegrown, al Qaeda-linked extremist group al-Shabab continues to launch deadly attacks in the capital.

On his last visit to the region in May 2015, Kerry became the first secretary of state to set foot in Somalia two decades after dead U.S. soldiers were dragged through the streets of its capital, Mogadishu. It was a symbolic visit to show support for the Horn of Africa nations fledgling government.

Somalia faces key parliamentary elections next month and a presidential election in October. The country has been trying to rebuild after establishing its first functioning central government since 1991.

Kerry on Tuesday and Wednesday then visits the cities of Sokoto and Abuja in Nigeria, Africas most populous nation of about 160 million people and one of its largest economies.

He will meet with President Muhammadu Buhari on the oil-rich countrys worsening economy and its efforts to fight corruption. Kerry also will meet with leaders from the countrys largely Muslim north, where extremist group Boko Haram was formed several years ago and continues to carry out attacks.

Boko Haram appears to be snarled in a power struggle after a new leader was announced by the Islamic State group earlier this month and the longtime leader protested.

In a statement, Human Rights Watch asked Kerry to again urge Kenyas president not to close the worlds largest refugee camp, Dadaab, without stability in neighboring Somalia. Kenyatta has said Kenya will close Dadaab camp this year after a quarter-century, putting more than 300,000 Somali refugees in limbo.

The rights group also urged Kerry to press Kenya for more reforms to police forces that have been accused of widespread abuses, and to press Nigeria to make meaningful reforms to a military that also has been accused of massive rights violations, including killings.

Kerry then heads to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday and Thursday for discussions on the conflict in neighboring Yemen. The talks will include Saudi leaders, counterparts from Britain and in the regional Gulf Cooperation Council and the U.N. special envoy for Yemen.
FOREST CITY  Changes in state and federal funding will change the way many Mosaic clients live and work, said Brent Aberg, the executive director of Mosaic in Forest City.

Mosaic provides vocational and residential services to clients with intellectual disabilities. It operates vocational training facilities, group residential living, a re-sale store and other services in Forest City.

Mosaic is based in Omaha, Nebraska, but has sites in several states and cities including in Forest City.

We will discontinue our pre-vocational services, Aberg said at a recent Rotary Club meeting.

Mosaic will close the KrysMart re-sale store on U.S. Highway 69 Sept. 1.

Were moving away from segregated work sites, Aberg said. Were looking for opportunities in the community.

Aberg said Mosaic had a roughly 50 percent cut in funding which makes continuing the operation of KrysMart and other pre-vocational services difficult.

Mosaic is working with local employers to find opportunities for clients, Aberg said.

Community based jobs and volunteering opportunities are roles that we all have and provide definition to who we are, Tasha Ludwig, habilitative coordinator for Mosaic in North Iowa, said in a news release.

Aberg said separate work sites and separate living situations can make people feel as if they are not a full part of a community.

We will continue to need your help and support as we transition the store and pre-vocational services, Ludwig said.

The communitys help is also needed for host home services, where the client lives in the home of the person providing them services.

Mosiac has been providing the host home service for about 20 years in other communities, Aberg said. The host home provider is paid for the provided support services, Aberg said.

As of earlier this month, Aberg said Mosaic had four people in transition to host homes. The goal is for clients to join the host home and share in the providers life.
MASON CITY  The trial of a Hampton man accused of killing his girlfriend is scheduled to begin Monday.

Ronald Rand, 51, is charged with felony first-degree murder.

He is accused of fatally shooting Michelle Key, 51, with a shotgun on Dec. 13, 2015, after an argument in his home on First Street Northeast in Hampton.

Documents shed light on Hampton death HAMPTON  A Waterloo woman killed in Hampton last week was shot to death with a shotgun afte

His attorney, Susan Flander, and state prosecutors discussed a series of ground rules with District Court Judge DeDra Schroeder at a pre-trial conference on Friday at the Cerro Gordo County Law Enforcement Center courtroom in Mason City.

At the hearing, Schroeder ruled on a series of motions regarding what could and could not be shown to the jurors during the trial in Osage.

She will allow Flander to show portions of transcript of Rand talking with police and his daughter after the incident, but barred much of Keys mental health history and allegations of past drug or alcohol use from the trial.

The judge also denied a request by Keys father, brother and mother to restrict media coverage of their testimony.

Jury selection will begin Monday morning at the Mitchell County Courthouse in Osage. The trial was moved there from Hampton due to press coverage.

Rand will remain in jail in Mason City, where he has been held since shortly after his arrest.
DES MOINES  Selling Southbridge Mall remains a key hurdle to advancement of Mason Citys reinvestment district project, a city official told the states economic development board Friday.

The city seeks from the state $10 million in financial assistance for the project, which includes plans for a hotel, music pavilion, ice arena and parking ramp.

The state board has given preliminary approval for incentives to the project, but is waiting for progress before giving final authorization for the incentives.

Mason City set to approve next step toward hotel construction MASON CITY  The City Council on Tuesday will consider setting a public hearing on conveyanc

The project is planned for the space currently occupied by the former J.C. Penney building in Southbridge Mall. The mall must be sold before the state incentives can be awarded and the project can proceed.

Mason City administrator Brent Trout told the Iowa Economic Development Authority board at its regular meeting Friday in Des Moines that multiple buyers have expressed interest in the mall, although no timetable for its sale has been set.(tncms-asset)4476475c-431c-11e6-a3a6-00163ec2aa77(/tncms-asset)

Obviously we continue to look forward to the ownership of the mall changing. Thats the biggest thing were waiting on, Trout told board members. My hope is well have something pretty soon.

Officials involved with the project previously asked the board to give the proposal a contingent approval, saying they think it would help expedite the mall sale.(tncms-asset)06597e3c-34b5-11e6-9bc5-00163ec2aa77(/tncms-asset)

The board thus far has not shown an inclination to meet that request, but Trout said that is not an insurmountable hurdle.

Theyve already given their preliminary approval, and theyve always followed through on that as long as we meet our requirements, Trout said. Theyve already committed, so were happy with the board having done that.

Trout said once the mall sale is completed, the rest of the project will move quickly.(tncms-asset)f84a329e-1927-11e6-b6c9-00163ec2aa77(/tncms-asset)

Once we have a signed lease with them regarding the area where the arena will go, theyll be able to move forward as a private corporation to hire a design firm to design the arena, Trout said. Our understanding is its a four- to five-month process and then anywhere from 11 to 12 months for construction. 

So if you really look at it conservatively, its 18 months from design to construction completion, he said.

Southbridge Mall went into foreclosure in May 2012 and was placed into receivership with the Chicago office of Jones Lang LaSalle.

In December 2012, CIII Corp. bought the mall at a sheriffs sale for $8.8 million and retained Jones Lang LaSalle to manage it. The Iowa Economic Development Authority board has said the mall must be owned by a new private entity before state financial assistance will be available for the downtown redevelopment project.
NEW DELHI: The government is unlikely to grant permission to Amnesty International, slapped with charge of sedition for hosting an event where anti-India slogans were allegedly raised, for opening a hub in India to look after its operations in South Asia.



The authorities have also decided to ask Amnesty India to get itself registered under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) after a preliminary inquiry found the organisation had "bypassed" laws while accepting foreign funds in the last 16 years.



The Amnesty International had in 2014 and 2015 issued statements to the media making it clear that it would not register under the FCRA, which it described as "much-abused".



"The act was, and is, a much-abused law, and NGOs have experienced the unfairness of it both in the bureaucratic sense of inordinate delays and in the more overt sense of it being used too often to curb the freedom of expression of NGOs, especially those that work on the issues that hold up the mirror and demand accountability from the powers that be," it had said.



The Amnesty has registered a non-profit organisation in the name of Amnesty International South Asia Foundation on May 8, 2015.



Soon after, it sought the government's permission to open a hub to look after its activities in South Asia, excluding India, and wanted to bring in foreign funds to the tune of Rs 18,61,92,688 under the prior permission category for its operations.



"The application (for setting up the hub) is under examination and in all likelihood we are going to deny the permission as we have found that the NGO has been getting foreign funds without registering under FCRA, thus bypassing laws," a senior Home Ministry official said.



During preliminary inquiry, the official said, the Home Ministry found that the NGO received Great Britain Pound (GBP) 3,52,057 (Rs 3,09,35,248) and Rs 2,23,99,226 in four separate instalments since 2000 without having registered under the FCRA.



"All NGOs whose expenses are Rs 10 lakh or more in three preceding years have to register under the FCRA. But the Amnesty has not applied for FCRA registration yet. We are going to tell them to register under the FCRA first," the official said.



At the Bengaluru event organised by the Amnesty on Saturday, anti-India slogans were allegedly raised during a discussion on Kashmir, prompting the authorities to book the NGO under various IPC sections including sedition.



Amnesty, on its part, has rejected as "without substance" the allegations made by ABVP, the students wing of RSS, which had also filed a police complaint in connection with the event and submitted a CD of the proceedings, and claimed that none of its employees shouted any anti-India slogans at any point.

(REOPENS DEL53)



On December 19, 2000, the Amnesty India was granted permission for the first time to bring GBP 1,30,629 and again on November 14, 2003, GBP 2,21,428 under prior permission category.



The Home Ministry granted permission again to Amnesty to receive Rs 54,40,000 on July 14, 2009 and it received foreign funds of Rs 1,69,59,226 on March 28, 2012.



However, Amnesty India's applications on March 29, 2010 to allow it to receive Rs 32,72,000 and for Rs 1,69,59,226 on November 2, 2012 had been rejected by the Home Ministry. Two other such applications for receiving of Rs 2,65,76,204 and Rs 80,00,000 were also rejected by the Ministry on November 9, 2012 and March 19, 2013 respectively.



"We have denied the three applications as we have found that Amnesty India's expenditure in preceding three years were more than Rs 10 lakh and the NGO has not registered under the FCRA, besides (there are) some other issues," the official said.

(Reopens DES38)



When contacted for its reaction, Amnesty International India said "We have not received any notice. When we do, we shall respond adequately".

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"Happy Bhag Jayegi"; Director: Mudassar Aziz; Cast: Diana Penty, Momal Shaikh, Abhay Deol, Ali Fazal, Jimmy Shergill Rating: ***1/2

Writer-Director Mudassar Aziz's "Happy Bhag Jayegi" is a loosely inspired, Indian version of the Julia Roberts starrer, Hollywood film, "Runaway Bride".

But unlike in the English film, the Punjabi bride Harpreet Kaur aka Happy (Diana Penty), in this romantic comedy, elopes to marry the person she loves.

After being spotted romancing with her college sweetheart Gurpreet Singh aka Guddu (Ali Fazal), Happy is forced by her father, essayed by Kanwaljit Singh, to marry the local politician Daman Singh Bagga (Jimmy Shergill).

But on her wedding day, the feisty Happy leaves Bagga stranded at the mandap, by jumping on to a truck, which is supposed to take her to Guddu.

But instead of landing her, at her destination, Happy gets transported to the residence of a reluctant politician Bilal Ahmed (Abhay Deol) in Lahore, Pakistan.

What follows is a series of manipulative and contrived negotiations along with situational scuffles that propel this tale forward.

But what makes the film intriguing apart from Happy's impulsive instinct to run away, is the fulfillment of her journey in a country that is at cross-purpose with India. This cross-border drama adds to the excitement.

It is also the stimulating and realistic performances that makes this film a treat to watch. Diana Penty as the lively, determined and bubbly girl, who would do anything for love, is the surprise package. She is simply natural and impressive as she lives her character to the tee.

Ali Fazal as Happy's unsure love Guddu and the Pakistani actress Momal Shaikh, who plays Bilal Ahmed's love interest, are both notably striking.

Abhay Deol slips into the role of an unenthusiastic son of an ambitious politician with ease. And his presence does not raise the bar of the film.

After a long time, Jimmy Shergill delivers a performance of some substance. As Bagga, he is rugged and stimulating.

Mudassar Aziz's writing is fascinating. His dialogues are packed with punch as he plays with words, in Hindi and Urdu. Also, the gags are taut, fresh and brilliantly inter-laid in the plot.

The graph of the narrative has its crests and trough but never is there a moment of equilibrium. Also his climax, though a riot, does not have the zing of a mad-caper.

Nevertheless, the film has a strong message which is emphasised in the song with the lyrics, "Sau qwaab hai, ek zindagi.' It significantly, encapsulates the premise of the film, "Follow your heart."

With moderate production values, the film is technically well-crafted. The visuals, back-ground score and music are of fine calibre and mesh well in the final flow.

Overall, "Happy Bhag Jayegi" is a feel-good, light-hearted drama that does not need to be taken seriously.

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Janine Materna, Republican candidate for the 62nd Assembly District on the South Shore, pictured here during a recent press conference, will host an education forum Tuesday in her campaign headquarters. (Staten Island Advance/Anthony DePrimo)

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. --A public forum to discuss the borough's education concerns regarding the Common Core standards is scheduled for Tuesday in the campaign headquarters of South Shore civic leader Janine Materna.

Materna, Republican candidate for the 62nd Assembly district on the South Shore, is hosting the session, to start at at 3:00 p.m., at 59 Seguine Ave., Prince's Bay.

The forum will focus specifically on addressing concerns in the education field, such as the controversy over the Common Core and high-stakes testing.

"The implementation of the Common Core Standards in New York has long been a point of contention for teachers, politicians, parents and school administrators," Materna said in a statement.

"Although changes have been made to the implementation of Common Core and more recently, to state tests, there is little consistent data that the Common Core has led to increased student achievement."

The session is open to the public. Parents, teachers and community members are invited to share their perspectives and experiences.

Materna is running against incumbent Assemblyman Ronald Castorina Jr., who won an unopposed special election in April to fill the remainder of Joe Borelli's term, who left for a City Council seat.

They are running in a Sept. 13 Republican primary. There is no Democrat running.
TCNYimage[1]

Two Staten Island non-profits are among the eight organizations across New York City selected to receive a Take Care New York 2020 (TCNY 2020) grant from the city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and the Fund for Public Health.

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. --Two Staten Island non-profits are among the eight organizations across New York City selected to receive a Take Care New York 2020 (TCNY 2020) grant from the city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and the Fund for Public Health in New York, the Health Department announced Friday.

The grants, to the Staten Island Partnership for Community Wellness (SIPCW), as well as Project Hospitality, will help the agencies identify health concerns and improve health services to communities on the North Shore.

Specifically, SIPCW will develop neighborhood health action plans and engage community stakeholders in the health planning process in the Stapleton and Clifton communities, while Project Hospitality will assist the Port Richmond community.

TCNY2020 is the the de Blasio administration's plan for giving every New Yorkers a chance to live a healthy life, with the goal of improving the community's health.

"We are thrilled to have the opportunity to convene community members in Stapleton and Clifton, and to assist in empowering Staten Islanders to address their most urgent health issues," said SIPCW executive director Adrienne Abbate. "This grant will provide needed resources to build on this work with community partners."

Borough President James Oddo said he was pleased with the grants.

"Borough Hall has been committed to improving the health of Staten Islanders who want to live healthier lives since I took office," Oddo said."These grants are an essential step to educating the community and activating additional programs to help people live healthier lives."

SIPCW and Project Hospitality participated in a competitive request for proposal process in June. Eight community-based organizations were awarded grants of $50,000 to develop health action plans for a different New York City neighborhood with a high burden of poor health outcomes.

"Staten Island has some of the highest rates of smoking, chronic diseases and mortality in the city. With no public hospital in the borough, the need for preventive health initiatives is especially acute," noted City Councilwoman Debi Rose (D-North Shore). "This grant will enable these groups to build on the good work they do in our borough and further improve the health of the Staten Island community."

Bobby Digi, founder and director of Island Voice, said his organization would partner with SIPCW to identify and prioritize health issues in Stapleton and Clifton, and come up with a plan to provide services.

"These grants are an opportunity to empower neighborhoods to take ownership of health issues and drive solutions collectively," Digi said.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Dimondale, Mich.. Friday, in which he appealed for the black vote (Associated Press Photo/Gerald Herbert)

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Looks like he's gone and done it again.

On the heels of his campaign staff shakeup, Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump is in the crosshairs again with his appeal to black and minority voters drawing controversy.

Trump, addressing a mostly-white audience at a campaign rally in a suburb of Lansing, Michigan, Friday, said Democrats are taking black voters for granted.

"Look at how much African-American communities are suffering from Democratic control. To those I say the following: What do you have to lose by trying something new like Trump? What do you have to lose?" Trump shouted at a crowd of his supporters.

"You live in your poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs, 58 percent of your youth is unemployed, what the hell do you have to lose?"

Trump later accused his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton of wanting to give American jobs to refugees rather than unemployed African-Americans, who he said have "become refugees in their own country."

He also promised that were he to run for re-election at the end of his first term, he would win 95-percent of the black vote.

Clinton, responding to Trump's appeal, fired back Friday evening, tweeting, "This is so ignorant it's staggering."

This is so ignorant its staggering. https://t.co/t2fZl9sqKs  Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) August 19, 2016

Trump's comments set off an immediate reaction, with some saying the remarks were insulting to black voters.

"It's hard to imagine a much worse pitch Donald Trump could have made for the black vote," said Washington Post columnist Philip Bump.

Its hard to imagine a much worse pitch Donald Trump could have made for the black vote https://t.co/5AJzKFf4MP  The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) August 20, 2016

Watch and listen to Trump's remarks from this Associated Press YouTube video, and decide for yourself. Were his remarks insulting to black voters? Use the Comment section below and tell us what you think.
CLARION  The Wright County Board of Supervisors will vote on the development agreement with Prestage Foods of Iowa Monday.

Passing the development agreement is only another step in the process for the potential Prestage Foods plant, Supervisor Stan Watne said in an email.

Remaining state permits must be issued before the $240 million pork processing plant is finalized, Watne said.

Economic Development Director Bryce Davis said hes confident the development agreement will be passed by the three-person board.

The supervisors will also vote on an urban renewal plan, which would allow the county to finance development of the area where Prestage wants to locate  near Highway 17 and 320th Street, about 5 miles south of Eagle Grove.

The renewal area will allow the county to support construction of wastewater treatment facilities, resurface and improve roads near the plant and support development of the plant, according to county officials.

The supervisors meeting begins at 9 a.m. in the Wright County Courthouse.

The first two meetings in July saw more positive feedback from the public toward Prestage. Since then, meeting attendance has gone down and those against the plant have outnumbered those for it.

I am still listening to all citizens and taking their opinions into consideration regarding this issue. Their opinions are more important than mine, Watne said.

In previous meetings, several citizens have expressed concern over Prestage wages.

Prestage says annual salaries will begin at $37,000 plus benefits, with the average worker earning more than $47,000. The supervisors and Davis say theyve answered those questions during the meetings.

Prestage is coming to an area that doesnt have the labor to support it, so they have to be a wage-maker, Davis said. They have to be better than the industry to attract workers.

If passed, Prestage would employ more than 900 full-time workers in the first stage, with another 850 or more jobs expected to be added in a second phase.

The company must meet those employment numbers through Dec. 30, 2030, to be eligible for tax incentives that include 10 years of annual property tax rebates up to $8 million.

When it comes to economic development within Wright County, one issue can be retaining businesses.

Our biggest issue we face is succession planning, Davis said. Succession planning involves a transition plan when a business owner is done operating a business. Rather than sell the business or have family take over, these businesses often close.

Prestage, in my opinion, is going to be an economic engine, Davis said.

Davis said the county reached out to Prestage on May 4, the day after the Mason City Council turned the plant down in a tie vote. In July, Prestage announced it wanted to locate in Wright County.

Both Mason City and Wright County have been criticized for the supposed quickness of the deal.

Theres no sense to go to the public unless the company picks you as a site, Davis said.

Since the announcement, Davis said he has seen more economic activity stemming from it.

He is working on several other projects that will come to the county if the plant is built.

Private developers are looking to establish residential development, Davis said. We have some hotel discussions, warehouses, truck stops, truck washes and other retail opportunities. We have 10 businesses in the queue.

The county hopes to provide more single-family and townhomes to help accommodate increased population.

If Prestage does not end up in Wright County, Davis said, he would be disappointed but he doesnt foresee an economic winter.
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"I got nowhere else to go," said Thomas Lee, 56, who ekes out a living as a drywall hanger  a skill that will come in handy. His sodden furniture is piled curbside and the drywall in his rented house is puckering, but Thomas still plans to stay there, sleeping on an air mattress.
The Liberals have promised to employ 52 new nurses if they win government, with 20 coming on board from July 2017 and the rest over the following two years.

Liberal Leader Jeremy Hanson has also promised an extra $250,000 a year for security at Canberra and Calvary hospitals, and new tougher penalties for assaults on frontline staff - not only nurses and medical staff, but ambulance workers, fire fighters and police offices.

A nurse treating a patient at Calvary Hospital's emergency department last year. Credit:Jay Cronan

Mr Hanson has put health front and centre in his bid for election in October, also promising a new $395 million building at the Canberra Hospital, including a new operating suite, medical imaging suite, intensive care unit, emergency department and outpatient floor.

Mr Hanson said the Canberra Hospital was in crisis, not only in an old and dilapidated building but with increasing demand and staff shortages.
Check it out: Located at the Pine Island end of the Pine Island to Kambah Pool walking track in Tuggeranong, as described by Hume this almost 800-metre long dry stone wall runs up the small hill away from the river and turns at right angles towards the Tuggeranong Town Centre, ending just before Anketell Street and Athlon Drive. Purpose: Built between 1867 and 1875 as a boundary between Andrew Cunningham's 'Tuggranong' (historic spelling) and Fred Campbell's 'Yarralumla' properties. "It was reputedly built by Chinese labourers, after the gold rush at Lambing Flat and beyond, and no doubt helped by locals too, to keep out straying cattle and other stock intermingling between pastoralists' properties," explains historian Rebecca Lamb. According to Lamb, after rabbits swarmed into the region in the early 1900s, "wire mesh was incorporated at the base of the wall to try to limit their opportunities for breeding sites." There is also a "ditch and bank" extension that is marked by a row of poplar trees adjacent to the Tuggeranong Town centre swimming pool that used to extend all the way to the old. 2. Majura Mystery Stone wall hidden on the slopes of Mount Majura. Credit:Tim the Yowie Man

Check it out: Hidden on Mt Majura's northern slopes is a 300-metre dry stone post and rail fence. Purpose: According to Jack Palmer, of Watson, "the wall was built in the mid  late 1800s "to separate block 117, Parish of Canberra, and block 200, Parish of Pialligo." "The wall is well-known to some orienteers and although the posts have survived fires, the wall is gradually becoming smothered with land slip," reveals Palmer. Whatever the wall's true origins it seems perplexing that given its proximity to the city and location in one of our territory's premier nature parks that there isn't any interpretation signage to explain to users of the park its significance. 3. Bush Barricade

Phill Sledge, of Kaleen, at Namadgi National Park's mystery wall. Credit:Tim the Yowie Man Check it out: Hidden among the heavily forested hills above Glendale Crossing in Namadgi National Park this 30-metre long chest-high wall is carefully constructed from stones and links a number of boulders to form a formidable fort. Purpose: Although Val Jeffery, Tharwa's unofficial mayor and newly-crowned Member of the ACT Legislative Assembly believes "it was part of a boundary fence to keep sheep in a paddock at Gudgenby Station", there are several more fanciful theories bandied around by some long-time locals, including that it was an elaborate bushranger's hideout. If it was a boundary fence, why was only 30 metres of it made from stone, and why so meticulously constructed? It's a mystery this column has investigated before, but has so far come up empty handed. MAILBAG

Dragon's Lair Tim McGrath with a grassland earless dragon on the Monaro. Credit:Tim the Yowie Man Regular readers may recall the akubra-clad McGrath, who goes by the moniker of 'The Dragon Hunter', as the dedicated ecologist who featured in this column back in 2012. While searching for the Grassland earless dragon (Tympanocryptis pinguicolla), one of Australia's most endangered lizards, McGrath carefully turned and placed back into position just over 68,000 rocks (yes he kept count!) on the monaro. A grassland earless dragon. Credit:Tim the Yowie Man

"Despite the heritage value of the stone walls, the collection of rocks for any purpose is now an illegal practice as it can have detrimental impacts on a diversity of reptiles," points out McGrath. According to McGrath, the volcanic basalt rocks on the monaro provide important refuges for a number of threatened reptiles "including the grassland earless dragon, the striped legless lizard, the little whip snake and the pink tailed worm lizard." "These reptiles are all now threatened as a result of habitat loss and modification such as practices like the removal of rocks," laments McGrath, adding "the presence of these reptiles are positive signs for graziers of good land management." Meanwhile, still on curious reptiles, John Powell recently discovered this "one-headed, two-bodied" Cunningham's skink (Egernia cunninghami) in his garage on his property near Yass. Freaky! One-headed, two-bodied Cunningham's skink found in a Yass garage. Credit:John Powell

"It was alive!" exclaims Powell, adding "the skinks [which are often confused with blue-tongued lizards] breed in my garage with warmth from underneath the freezer." SIMULACRA CORNER Can you ''see'' the face? Credit:Charles Hoy When I first opened an email from Anne Miller, of Deakin, containing this simulacra photo taken near the Dead Horse Gap Trail near Thredbo, I was underwhelmed. Miller claimed the photo featured the profile of a man's head. However, no matter how hard I looked (even squinting my eyes and standing on my head) I just couldn't see it. Fortuitously just as I was about to despatch it to my 'deleted items', I received a knock at the door. On returning to my office I glanced at the image from afar, and there 'he' was in all his. Glory. Can you see it? If you can't, stand back a few metres from the photo and it will suddenly (and hopefully!) become clear. The head is looking skywards, nose in the middle, forehead at top far left of rocky range and chin at far right.

Incredibly, Miller explains that she didn't notice the 'elder asleep in bogong country', as she has since coined her find, until she was "looking through some photos printed after a walk in the mountains last summer". What a ripper. WHERE IN CANBERRA? Where in Canberra this week. Credit:Margaret Kalms Clue: Think twice before drinking any water held in this 'dam'. Degree of difficulty: Hard.

Last week: Congratulations to Cate Huntington, of Curtin, who was first to correctly identify last week's photo, sent in by G. Boys, of Ainslie, as the Garangula Art Gallery located on Eulie Road, between Jugiong and Harden. "It is an amazing space and there are fabulous pieces of art all over the property," reports Boys, who especially "loves the cows at the gallery entrance." Where in the Region this week. Credit:G. Boys The triumphant Huntington beat a predicted paucity of other correct readers (well, it was rated as "very hard") to the coveted prize. These included Neil Reid, of Jugiong, who would be disappointed that he didn't capitalise quickly enough on his local knowledge. Meanwhile a number of eagle-eyed readers, including Thomas Schulze, of Kambah, and Greg Shaw, of Wagga, recognised the close resemblance of the cow sculptures at the entrance of Garangula Gallery to a cow sculpture by John Kelly stuck in a tree at Docklands in Melbourne. "I've finally found the cows' missing brother!" exclaimed Schulze, who even sent a photo of the Melbourne bovine. "The cow's distinctive shape references William Dobell, who served as a 'camouflage' labourer, producing Papier-mache cows to disguise airfields and fool Japanese pilots during World War II," adds Shaw. ''Cow up a Tree'' at Docklands. Credit:Thomas Schulze
A 42-year-old Conder man charged with repeatedly assaulting his partner across a five-month period has been refused bail.

Court documents said the man on one occasion bit the woman on the nose for several seconds, and on a later date head-butted her.

The man allegedly threatened twice to kill the woman on Tuesday after she responded to his allegations of using technology to have affairs with other men by saying, "this is dumb", the court documents said.

"Don't you ever f---ing call me dumb. I will kill you if you ever call me dumb," the man allegedly responded.

The defendant was arrested on Friday night after allegedly assaulting the woman in a spa on Thursday.
The number of tickets police handed out to ACT motorists dropped by more than a third in the second quarter of 2016 compared to the previous year, according to the latest statistics.

Only 1564 traffic infringement notices were issued between April and June this year, well below the 2353 handed out during the same period last year.

Fewer traffic infringement notices have been issued in Canberra so far this year compared to last year.

The figures, released this week by ACT Policing, are part of a downward trend of road rule violations during the late autumn, early winter period since 2012.

The number of crashes causing injury remains relatively static, however, with 153 recorded from April to June this year, compared to 158 during the same period in 2012, 150 in 2013, 173 in 2014, and 152 last year.
Yeah, nah, yeah  Should I stay or should I go? Sure it's nice to have a weekly allowance and your washing done, but independence would be fun.

Back in the 13th century William Wallace, hero in the movie Braveheart, trailblazed his way through Scotland's Wars of Independence.

No one ever really leaves Geelong, just ask Patrick Dangerfield. Illustration: Jim Pavlidis

Eight centuries later the Scots were at it again, this time voting  with the Poms' blessing  on whether to stay in the UK or not. Which would have upset many Western Australians who in 1933 voted to leave the Australian Federation only to have the referendum overturned by Britain.

Geelong has never felt the need to assert its uniqueness because, as everyone knows, it is just that  unique.
mikemcgarry wrote:

B is quite wrong because the passage makes very clear --- when a stream is polluted, straying happens, which means dilution happens. The passage describes clearly the straying that resulted from the Mount St. Helen's eruption, and then around line (70) says that the effect of pollution probably would be about the same as what they saw at Mount St. Helen's. When the stream is polluted, the salmon can't use it to spawn, so they stray.





mikemcgarry wrote:



(E) is a typically GMAT RC distractor, and you fell for the bait. It is a statement that's true in general, but not relevant to the argument. Suppose we said that there was no such thing as a "pristine" perfect place for salmon --- suppose even the environments with zero pollution had natural challenges. Well, then, the salmon in those environments, over the centuries, would adapt to those particular conditions and be quite fit, and then if others stray into their unique stream and interbreed with them, it will reduce the fitness of that population.



Mike,Thanks for your kind reply. I am not clear, and I am still confused about both the answer choices.For the first one, as you have stated above, I think that both of us are on the same page : when the stream gets polluted, the polluted stream's salmon population cannot spawn, and hence they have to find other stream to spawn, leading to straying. Isn't this same as saying "preserving without dilution" i.e. the polluted stream's population can be preserved when there is low-level of straying? Now to extend this idea - why do I think that we can preserve the polluted stream's population? It's because in lines 35-40 it's stated that their genes can be preserved. I am still not able to see why B) is incorrect.I see dear Douvik's point in that "dilution" is not explicitly stated while discussing 'low levels of straying.' I am not sure whether these are grounds to eliminate B. The passage does talk about high-levels of straying, and has explicitly stated that low-levels of straying is better than high-level straying because of the dilution issue. Can't we infer that the dilution doesn't happen in the case of low-level straying. I am not sure about this. It seems logical to me and within the boundaries of the passage.For the second one, this is a great 'assumption' question. Let's dissect this further. Conclusion: "Disturbances cause by humans lower the overall fitness of subsequent generation in 'mixed' streams." Premise, as you stated, the salmon in those pristine areas had adaptions particular suited to those areas, which made them quite fit, and along come a bunch of salmon from the polluted stream next door, and they genetically dilute the salmon of that pristine stream, making them less adapted to that unique niche, and hence less fit. I agree 100%. That was my understanding as well. However, I am still not able to see the correctness of C).No let's negate C - Salmonids in none of the streams benefit from particular local adaptations. In my opinion, this has no effect on the conclusion. The conclusion is about comparing the overall fitness levels between "pristine" population (i.e. native population) and "mixed" population (i.e. native + newly strayed ones). Who cares whether 1% of population benefits from the adaptation or 90% of the native population benefits from the adaptation. We are concerned about the causal link between human activity and the lowering of the overall fitness. It could be possible that the native population is only 1% fit, and the straying would decrease this further down to 0.05%. Do I care about the level of fitness of the native population? No. I am only concerned about the "lowering" of fitness. I am still not clear.Now let's negate E- (I must admit that while solving this question, I was unsatisfied with all the answer choices and had no option than to choose E) from C and E (50% chance) ) -- I agree that we don't care whether the pristine streams are affected by natural disaster or not. We are only concerned about the link between "human activity" and the lowering of overall Darwinian fitness.Can you please help me? I am really confused.ThanksVoodoo Child
China may be slowing, but a commodities rebound is under way and the world's biggest miner knows where the next growth story is building - emerging economies in South-east Asia.

Combined gross domestic product in the ASEAN-5 nations - Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam - will rise about a third to $US3 trillion ($3.9 trillion) in the five years to 2020, fuelling commodities-intensive infrastructure projects. Momentum like this across Asia will help maintain and increase commodity demand, BHP Billiton's chief executive Andrew Mackenzie said this week.

"People have been so used to believing that commodities was a China story, and that with China decelerating where's the growth going to come from?" Nathan Lim, Sydney-based head of research for Morgan Stanley's wealth management division, said by phone. "That incremental demand is coming from the emerging markets, and that's the part people don't have their head around."
Trump inexpicably even drew a mysterious equivalence between himself and the Brexit referendum with this cryptic tweet: As an outsider once seen in Washington as a joke, Trump's election is not now unthinkable - a little like Brexit, which was dismissed as impossible by chunks of the political elite even on the eve of the vote. The votes have some similarities. Here are the key economic risks. Protectionism

Core to Trump's campaign is a scheme to set the US apart from the world, closing borders and protecting local industries. As a pitch to blue-collar workers it seems successful - those who worked in manufacturing and have seen their pay packets squeezed or their jobs lost have a clear grievance with cheap imports. Globalisation has also been an enormous force for good in the global economy, however, with the rise of emerging markets massively boosting growth. Even workers who feel they have lost out from world trade have benefited through cheaper goods and greater choice, whether it be on the supermarket shelf, the technology in their homes or travel choices. Extra barriers to trade with China in a bid to make US-manufactured goods more competitive would harm other Americans directly, driving up costs and cutting choice and quality. Shutting down trade growth would dent growth in the US and the rest of the world - it is a major risk of a Trump Presidency.

In contrast, Brexit's impact is more nuanced. The outcome of trade talks with the EU are far from certain, though there are clear risks. Britain will lose out if exports are subject to EU tariffs, while EU customers will suffer if they pay the tax. The market for services is more significant for the UK, as the City of London needs EU customers, and they need the City. But there is another side to the coin - the rest of the world. Outside the EU, Britain may create its own trade deals. Again these are uncertain and will take time to negotiate. The long-term potential is for a powerful boost to trade with countries including China, India and the US, and the Government seems keen to embark on those discussions as quickly as possible. There is clear room for gains from Brexit, if negotiations go well - Trump's policies, by contrast, appear more negative for the world. Immigration

Trump's most famous policy is to build a giant wall across the US-Mexico border. His idea to ban Muslims from entering the US is also an eye-catcher. Economically speaking, migration is a big positive. Extra resources mean more growth, and allowing workers to move to the best-paying jobs means more value is created, benefiting workers, employers and customers. Large-scale migration is not always popular in the host communities, however, turning a boon in the economics textbooks into a real-life political battleground. The risks posed by Brexit and Trump are similar. More than 2 million EU workers are employed in Britain currently even as unemployment has tumbled to below 5 per cent. While a crackdown on non-EU migration means the number of workers from the rest of the world has held relatively flat in recent years, strong growth in the UK economy has sucked in workers from across the EU. Cutting off that supply would choke off growth, harming the UK just as much as Trump's would harm the US. Russia

Security concerns loom large. Trump has questioned whether or not America's Nato allies have "fulfilled their obligations to us". If not, he hints, the US may not come to their aid. At a time when Russia is rampant in Ukraine and active in Syria, this is not reassuring to countries in the Baltics, and clearly economies can only thrive in peaceful conditions. Leaving the EU poses fewer risks.The EU has few centralised defence arrangements. Britain will remain in Nato and, as a former home Secretary, Theresa May is keen to keep joint operations to fight crime and terror. Nuclear war Fears of nuclear war largely faded with the end of the Cold War so it almost feels like a joke, or perhaps the scare-mongering of the most partisan Clinton fan, to mention the ultimate weapons of mass destruction.

Yet it is it is Donald Trump who reportedly asked for reasons he should not use them, since the US has a large stock. The idea is unimaginable with any other candidate, as the deterrent has remained untouched for decades. Even if he was elected, the use of nukes seems wildly implausible, but the fact that the idea can be discussed shows his extraordinary unpredictability and so illustrates the outright fear his election could create. Brexit was a surprise to markets and is likely to dent the economy. Yet in the long term there are a range of ways it could end up enhancing economic growth, assuming level politicians in London and Brussels play straight with each other. President Trump would be far more of a wild card, and his stated goals are so damaging to foreign economies - and ultimately his own - that clearly the biggest geopolitical risk of the year is yet to come. If he really did win power and enact some of those policies, the importance of "the economy, stupid" would reassert itself brutally quickly.
When two young ISIS devotees murdered an elderly priest in a French church in July, they made a video of the killing. The footage has never been viewed  except presumably by the French security service  because police succeeded in killing the offenders before they had a chance to do anything with it.

The fact that this particular act of horror will likely forever remain unbroadcast is not because of the swift and lethal intervention of the cops, however. It is because the church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, near Rouen, was evidently free of CCTV, and the four terrified hostages forced to watch the outrage were given no opportunity to record it on their smartphones.

Illustration: Michael Leunig

This last was, frankly (and, I know, distastefully), a mark of the inexperience of the killers. Because in the current context, politically motivated acts of violence, regardless of the ideology that claims them, are inextricably tied to the assumption of witness footage and the widespread sharing thereof.

And that's why you're scared.
Colourful solution The Rio swimming organisers are lucky they didn't have Kate Carnell on hand to advise them on the water turning green or the pool would have been treated with copper sulphate until it turned blue again. George Beaton, Greenway The crisis of all crises Yves Daccord, the director-general of the International Committee of the Red Cross, complained that "the big discussions have been about the financial crisis and about the security crisis. And that's not enough" ("Aid agencies at tipping point", August 14, p21).

He could be referring to the aftermath of the dropping of the Iron and the Bamboo Curtains, to the global financial war, to pan-Islamism or neo-Marxism. He could mean the human wave of "immigration" into the developed world. He could be talking about climate change. Unsurprisingly, all these factors are intricately linked. Just suppose, though, that the scientists are correct, that global warming is occurring, that the tipping point has passed, that even if all anthropogenic factors ceased immediately, it would still take millennia for the warming to cease and atmospheric carbon dioxide to return to pre-industrial levels. Suppose the very existence of humanity is in serious jeopardy and millions upon millions will die. Who wants to discuss that? Gary J.Wilson, Macgregor The real parasites In this new, big, frightening world where "disruption" appears to reign supreme, it is not just big banks which are untouchable ("Why big banks are untouchable", Sunday CT, August 14, p23). The public commons has been appropriated, and wholly occupied, by wraith-like ephemera, purportedly worth squillions of dollars, serving up material and intangibles in catering to created appetites for wants demanding instant gratification. While ordinary mortals  as consumers  have some notion of their existence by way of receipt of their "beneficence", to taxation authorities, the world over, they are slippery, elusive and invisible! Australia's banks operate at the pleasure of the community, which, theoretically, has authority to deny social licence to transact business to those (corporate entities) regarded as not fit and proper legal persons. Banks have fouled their own nests with blatantly corrupt behaviour towards investors.

That Australian taxpayers' generosity, by acting as their guarantors of last resort, might have contributed to record profits goes unacknowledged, and unrewarded. Similarly, global corporations which operate out of post office boxes in Panama, Delaware, Cayman Islands or Bahamas, circumvent the social contract, taking all that taxpayers provide but ignoring the archaic (now) noblesse oblige. They are parasites, with total disregard for their host communities' survival. Albert M.White, Queanbeyan Why 18C still matters Tony Abbott was reported (Sydney Morning Herald, August 12) as re-opening Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act. He must have forgotten saying in 2014 when he finally decided to leave Section 18C alone: "In the end, leadership is about preserving national unity on the essentials and that is why I have taken this decision."

Does national unity no longer matter to him? He might also consider the dog whistling US presidential race and the worries of remote control stochastic terrorism here too. A blog at stochasticterrorism.blogspot.com.au explains this in more detail in the US context, with the same concerns relevant here. It describes the whipping up of lone wolves by those given media platforms to promote hatred and fear but who can wring their hands after a tragedy and deny that it had anything to do withthem. Despite Senator Leyonhjelm's claim that none of us are responsible for the feelings of others, Hitler for one once manipulated the feelings of millions over race. This is still not an ideal world of only peaceful, tolerant and well adjusted people and Section 18C may put some brake on inciting, as the blogger writes, "random actors to carry out violent or terrorist acts that are statistically predictable but individually unpredictable". It is easy to object to violent extremism but where is the responsibility for the effects on overly receptive others of bigoted free speech from public platforms of power and influence? Various Parliamentarians would be more usefully employed addressing community issues such as unemployment, structural disadvantage, social alienation and untreated mental illness.
Hanoi refused to allow any ceremonies to take place at Long Tan this week for one very simple reason: stories are powerful. The issue here isn't really about the "truth" of what actually occurred during the tropical afternoon heat and sudden downpour in a rubber plantation 50 years ago. That's just noise; the starting point for the myth-makers.The real reason commemorations were banned has everything to do with the present: nothing to do with the past.

I first worked with one of those soldiers from D company back in the early 1980s. He wore the small blue unit citation above his right breast pocket, but even that little token of recognition had nothing to do with our own honours system: it was given to the soldiers by a US president. We never spoke about his terrible battle back then; the scars of war were still too raw. Australia remained utterly divided by the conflict. And soldiers didn't wear jungle greens in public: not long before, they'd risked being abused.

Today those memories are brushed away. We focus on the human tragedy and cost of war; the individual experience tearing away at the human being facing sudden death or terrible wounds. This allows us to brush over questions about the righteousness of the cause in which we sent young soldiers to fight. That's not the case, however, in Vietnam, where the narrative of the conflict is very different. There, the story is very much of a desperate fight for national liberation and the accepted interpretation is that the foreign mercenaries were sent to impose a repressive, corrupt regime.

It's still too soon to permit any memorials that might challenge that interpretation by privileging the experience of the individual soldier, from either side, but particularly from opponents of the current government, and particularly at a time when traditional Vietnamese communism is under threat as emerging currents of capitalism are posing new challenges to the social order.
God knows how we tough it out but somehow we keep weathering the bad news. First came revelations from scientists that those wheat-grass shots you scoff at the corner health shop have very little nutritional value  you'd be better off getting down on all fours and munching your way across the front lawn.

But worse was to come. Tropfest, that darling of inner-city hipsters who produce short, out-of-focus films about people who travel to work on skateboards, announced it was moving to Parramatta, that largely uncharted territory somewhere west of that nice little cafe in Ashfield. One budding Newtown film director choked on his wheat-grass martini and declared it the middle of nowhere.

Taking radical steps to project children keeps getting put in the too-hard basket. Credit:iStock

So little wonder most of us managed to move on quickly after hearing that a NSW parliamentary inquiry had been told people wanting to report child abuse are sometimes forced to wait on the phone for up to an hour  with an unknown number of them simply hanging up in frustration.

But then, don't we always move on when it comes to the children of the damned?
When Denise Gilbert joined anti-coal seam gas opponents at the "meeting place" near Gloucester's art gallery last February to celebrate AGL's sudden withdrawal from the industry, she found herself feeling surprisingly flat.

Ms Gilbert's group, Groundswell Gloucester, had seen off the energy giant and its plan to pock-mark the bucolic valley on the mid-north coast of NSW with hundreds of CSG wells connected to a lattice of pipelines.

Instead, "I was devoid of emotion," the resident of the satellite estate of Forbesdale said this week. "You just feel you're fighting, fighting, fighting  and we're all just a bit worn out."

Ms Gilbert also feared it wouldn't be long before a dormant proposal to mine for coal near the town would surface.
The Australian Greens are using the shocking abuse at the Don Dale youth detention centre as a fundraising tool.

In a letter sent to supporters across the country in recent days, Greens senator Rachel Siewert seeks to use the Don Dale revelations to leverage money for the party's ailing Northern Territory election campaign.

"Many Australians were shocked at the images that came out of Don Dale youth detention centre, showing a child strapped to a mechanical chair with a bag over his head. However  perhaps more tragically still  while that image was shocking in its brutality, it was hardly surprising," she says in the emails.

Liberal and Labor governments have made deliberate decisions over the last 20 years to increase the number of children in detention, she says.
Banks and utility companies that are charging people for paper statements and bills they used to get for free are in Labor's sights as the practice is branded a "rort" that particularly hurts the elderly and disadvantaged. Opposition consumer affairs spokesman Sam Dastyari says companies such as the Commonwealth Bank and utility providers such as Energy Australia and AGL need to be brought into line. Senator Sam Dastyari Credit:Alex Ellinghausen He wants the Turnbull government to include the "alarming" trend in its ongoing review of consumer law. "The whole process is a rort," he told Fairfax Media.

"Let's not pussyfoot around this. This is a new charge placed on older Australians and people who are less computer literate. This is just another example of the digital divide where those on the wrong side are treated shabbily.



"Getting statements should be a right, not a privilege. The power should be in the hands of the consumer."



Senator Dastyari has written to Treasurer Scott Morrison and Financial Services Minister Kelly O'Dwyer urging them to look at the issue. He says while telecommunications companies are regulated, for everyone else it's a free-for-all. CBA is introducing a $2.50 fee for each extra statement in addition to the standard two free statements it mails to customers each year, despite record profits of more than $9.45 billion. Energy Australia and AGL have also announced charges for their quarterly bills in recent months. Energy Australia will charge $1.69 for each quarterly paper bill and AGL will charge $1.75. "It's beyond me, considering the fees that are already charged, how the Commonwealth Bank thinks it is appropriate to charge $2.50 for a statement," Senator Dastyari said. "They do it because they can."



National Seniors chief advocate Sarah Saunders also wants the issue included in the consumer review. She says more than 20 per cent of over 65s in Australia don't use or have access to the internet.
The detention centre on Manus Island has cost Australian taxpayers about $2 billion since it was reopened four years ago  more than $1 million for each of the 2000 people who have been imprisoned there.

As the Turnbull government scrambles to find a place to send the 854 refugees and asylum seekers that remain in the notoriously harsh facility after it was declared illegal by Papua New Guinea's Supreme Court, a new analysis reveals just how much it has cost the federal budget to build and run the centre.

Parliamentary Library analysts have trawled through years of Senate estimates hearing transcripts to piece together a total cost for Manus Island. Credit:Jason South

While official figures relating to the cost of offshore detention are opaque, analysts in the Parliamentary Library have trawled years of Senate estimates hearing transcripts to piece together a total cost for Manus.

They show the centre has cost Australians at least $420 million to build and maintain, and $1.25 billion to run since the Gillard government reopened it in late 2012  giving a total of more than $1.6 billion.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's latest plan for the GST would create a new nightmare of complexity and controversy.

At least that was the advice offered up by Treasury when it was headed by Martin Parkinson  the man who now runs Mr Turnbull's own department.

Malcolm Turnbull and Colin Barnett on Barrow Island on Monday for a tour of the LNG project. Credit:Ray Strange

Mr Turnbull threw ailing West Australian Premier Colin Barnett a lifeline last week by pledging to introduce a GST "floor"  a threshold to ensure no state receives less than a certain share of revenue from the tax.

The commitment was short on detail but was welcomed by Mr Barnett, who is down in the polls and argues his state is being shortchanged.
The Turnbull government will push back the date of the proposed same-sex marriage plebiscite until February 2017, breaking a flagship pledge.

The Prime Minister had said he wanted the vote to be held this year.

However a spokesperson for Mr Turnbull told Fairfax Media that Special Minister of State, Scott Ryan, received advice last week from the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) advising the government to push the vote back.

"The government has always said that a decision on same-sex marriage will be made by a vote of all Australians in a national plebiscite to be held as soon as practicable," the spokesperson said.
The Bachelor's wardrobe department is becoming what fashion magazines should aim to be: inclusive, affordable and fun.

The breakout star of this season is not only Keira "Budget Bingle" Maguire, it's the clothes. The clothes from various Australian high-end and high-street labels showcased on a range of body types.

Every season 24 women, varying from sizes 6 to 12, wear more than 350 dresses on what is becoming one of our most popular TV programs. An experience that is not only a heterosexual blood sport, but also a relatable fashion parade.

This season, Richie Strahan is supposed to be the centre of attention. However the textured two-piece Amy Taylor ensembles worn by Olena and Alex last week had more stage presence than the conventionally handsome rope technician. It's a view held by many viewers (and internet recappers) who are now clamouring for pieces seen on the screen every week.
"By that stage my addiction was a disaster. I went from maybe having a day or two being not being able to use a substance to doing things to myself and to other people that I can't ever take back. I was very violent," she said. For Maree it was to become repeating behaviour. "For years we had always welcomed Jenna back home, no matter what she had done (or not done). We paid the price for her actions, tears after blow-ups, paying her fines, feeding her, clothing her and protecting her from the consequences of her actions wasn't changing her behaviour. She was coming home less and less frequently and then only using our home as a place to regather her strength, resources and commitment to dive back into the underworld of drugs. "It seemed inevitable that she would come to grief sooner rather than later and all my attempts to stop that happening had failed. Begging and pleading, crying and promising, doctors, counsellors, friends. She would go missing for days at a time. If David (my husband) didn't know where Jenna was, he trawled the streets until he found some evidence that she was alive and brought her home and put her back together, When Jenna stole from us, abused us or trashed our house he would tell her we loved her and one day things would be good again," Maree says. It finally came to a head. Maree was taking anti-depressants just to get through the day. "Jenna could reduce me to tears with one of her outrages and leave me feeling worthless. David and I were in counselling. Jenna's addiction and her behaviour at home was driving us apart. At yet another counselling session I made it clear that I couldn't go on like this. I felt as though I couldn't make anyone happy  not even myself. I admitted my failure as a parent and as a wife. I felt I had been a better mother to my stepchildren than I had been to my biological child and blamed my genetics for bearing a child with these problems. I was in abject misery about walking away from both my daughter and my husband but I just couldn't conceive any other option," she says. I remember hating the daylight. I never wanted to go out in it. I loved the night. You could hide in the night. Jenna

So together Maree and David decided to cut the safety net. "We had decided that the only option was to ban her from the house. It was a hugely painful decision. The fears and dark horrors swirled around us. The 'what ifs' seemed to have devils horns. She stormed off and we went into that place where a phone call from a private number was terrifying. A police car in the street made me feel violently ill," she says. A bit earlier she had been confronted by her brother on the suburban lawn at Christmas. "We know what you are  you are a junkie." It wasn't judgmental, just matter of fact and a signal that she wasn't fooling anyone any more. She had crossed the lines  moving on from stealing from her parents and siblings, to injecting and prostitution. Being thrown out of home sent her onto the streets, sleeping rough, back to an abusive, toxic relationship, swapping sex for somewhere to sleep, for drugs. Some can describe the time of their first injection, the veins bulging, inserting the needle, blood rushing before slowly pushing in the plunger and the overwhelming hit. Not Jenna. "I don't remember the timing of when I first injected. It happened with an acquaintance. I remember I was quite desperate at the time so it just kind of happened. It wasn't some huge event or anything. I just needed my fix and that is how I got it," she says. But severe addiction and life on the streets took its toll. Her weight crashed to about 40 kilos. "I tried to overdose myself and when I woke up I was devastated that I couldn't even kill myself. I felt worthless. I remember hating the daylight. I never wanted to go out in it. I loved the night. You could hide in the night. There were less people around and I felt much safer. There was a 24-hour Kmart near where I was living, it was the only shop I would go to. For a long time in the end, all I ate was tinned corn. It was the only thing I could stomach. I lived on canned corn and Coca-Cola," she says. Eventually she contacted her parents. "I begged them to come home for a meal and once I got in that door I said to my parents, 'You can't kick me out,' and they said, 'Yeah, we can, we'll just call the police.' At that stage I said, 'I'll do whatever, I'll do whatever,' and mum said, 'You need to go to rehab,' and I said 'OK.' So mum started dialling numbers and putting the phone up to my ear because she said, 'I don't want you to ever turn around and say I made you do this.'

"By the time I got to detox I couldn't read a line in a book. If friends hadn't fallen away, I had done my best to push them. I didn't want anyone around who might call me on my behaviour and I didn't want to bring anyone down with me either. It took 45 days in a 30-day program. "Rehab was everything that you see in the movies, the sweating, wetting the bed, that all happened for me. There were days when I thought death would have been a kind option for me. Then my brother, the one who had called me out, visited with his newborn son. 'Look what you are missing out on.' It was a trigger, a motivator to deal with the demons. I call my little nephew my recovery baby," she says. She stuck rehab out. After that there were constant Narcotics Anonymous meetings and a growing understanding of residual mental health issues that come from frying your brain for a decade. Then there were four or five "refresher sessions"  some pre-emptive moves before she reached crisis point, spun out of control again. There is a constant battle with depression and feelings of immense guilt. "I still have a couple of friends left from pre-drugs but not many at all. I damaged most things I came into contact with, especially people," she says. Now she is five years clean and working in the mental health, drug and alcohol field. It's exhausting, fighting to get better every day, dealing with mental health issues every day. It can be hard resisting the call of the Sirens. Family helps. They gathered around Jenna and helped her on her way back. And it's been one step at a time; better health, a job, friends and a new relationship. Now she is working to make up for the lost decade.
After a Sydney personal trainer was declared bankrupt, he decided to roll the dice and live a double life.

Lee Clark, 43, who worked at Fitness First Bondi Platinum gym, was running a sophisticated criminal side business out of his Randwick apartment and a Paddington garage.

Lee Clark was a mid-level drug dealer while working as a personal trainer at Fitness First.

A day before his arrest Clark was recorded saying: "I could end up in a prison cell, you know? It's not like, it's not all peaches and cream, but you know?"

Clark was not only selling cocaine, ecstasy and steroids to clients himself but also employed five other people to run drugs for him.
Australia's oldest public buildings will come under the spotlight in a multi-million dollar Baird government plan to transform Macquarie Street into a tourist-friendly cultural and heritage precinct, The Sun-Herald has learnt.

Despite boasting Governor Macquarie's Rum Hospital, Australia's first library and the UNESCO-listed convict site of Hyde Park Barracks, Macquarie Street is better known today for its doctors and politicians.

The Hyde Park Barracks on Macquarie Street, with buildings to be demolished at rear. Credit:Peter Rae

But a push by Sydney Living Museums (formerly the Historic Houses Trust) to boost the profile of the Museum of Sydney, and to better tell the story of colonial Sydney has prompted a rethink.

Public comment will be sought next month on a Macquarie Street precinct plan. It will canvas proposals to unlock access to the historic buildings and monuments stretching from the Mitchell Library to Queens Square, and encourage visitors to explore laneway links to the Domain.
A teenage boy was chased to a unit block in Sydney's south west and stabbed in the stomach in the stairwell, police believe.

Inspector Dan Richardson said it was believed the 16-year-old was involved in a fight near Guildford train station on Saturday night.

The boy, who had been with a friend, was then chased to a nearby unit block on Guildford Road and stabbed, before his attackers fled the scene.

Emergency services were called to the unit block just before 7.50pm.

The teen was found with a stab wound to his stomach and a cut to his head.
Sydney: A 16-year-old boy was stabbed in the stomach during a brawl at a unit block in Sydney's west on Saturday night.

Emergency services were called to the block of flats in Guildford just before 7.50pm, where the boy had sustained a head injury and the stab wound.

He was taken to Westmead Hospital in a stable condition, where he was due to undergo surgery.

Police say initial inquiries suggest the teenager was wounded following an altercation with a group of males who fled the scene.

In a separate incident, a man was taken to hospital in a serious condition after a shooting in St Johns Park, also in Sydney's west.
Terri Irwin (left) and Chandler Powell jump on Stanley, a 10-foot freshwater crocodile being tagged as part of research into crocodile behaviour in the Wenlock River Credit:Nathanael Cooper Permission was granted and the couple began a love affair that has taken them all over the world. With Bindi's conservation work and television appearances, and Chandler's wake boarding competitions, the couple have had to squeeze in opportunities to see each other wherever they have free time or wherever they happen to be in the same place at the same time; or at least nearby. Chandler Powell participating in his first "croc jump" Credit:Instagram "Sometimes Chandler will stay on somewhere after a competition until I get there or fly somewhere nearby so we can be together before he leaves to go to a competition," Bindi explained.

But this year, they have blocked out a chunk of time to be together that happens to coincide with the annual Crocodile Research Trip to the Steve Irwin Wildlife reserve. Bindi Irwin and Chandler Powell The couple arrived slightly later than the rest of the family, taking a week out to visit the Zoo's other conservation properties in Queensland ahead of a short break to Tasmania. They then drove Steve Irwin's ute from the Zoo in Beerwah all the way to the reserve north of Weipa. There was no time to rest upon their arrival, the next morning they were both required for the all-important croc catching duties where Chandler was able to fulfil a life-long dream. Bindi Irwin and Chandler Powell

"I actually used to watch the Steve Irwin documentaries when I was younger; I had my khaki outfits, stuffed crocs and plastic sharks," he said. Bindi interrupts; apparently the interest in croc catching goes a bit deeper. Chandler Powell secures the tail of the crocodile while Bindi Irwin helps measure the animal and Terri Irwin secures the head. Credit:Nathanael Cooper "He downplays it, his family have photos of Chandler on the walls in full khaki jumping on a stuffed croc, wearing a snorkel in his khaki," she said. "We all laugh, but it is interesting that he is here now."

On their second day on the reserve the team of croc catchers who travel up from the zoo had a win. The 18th of 19 traps set along the Wenlock River had secured a crocodile  Stanley, a nearly 10 foot freshwater crocodile they had first caught three years ago. After the team had pulled the trap to shore and secured the crocodile, Chandler was chosen to participate in the "jump team", the group of people who leap on the crocodile's back to keep it secure while scientist Dr Ross Dwyer checked the tracking tag along with the crocodile's health. "Honestly, on the way to the traps my heart was beating so fast, I was more afraid of doing it wrong, not hurt the croc, not hurt anyone else," he said. "But as soon as we walked up next to the croc ready to jump it, everything slowed down, it was really calm." Watching on Bindi, who was recording vital information Dr Dwyer was calling out, couldn't have been more proud that her partner in crime was fitting in so well.

"It has been crazy to see him in khaki; this is his first official uniform. It was a really big moment for me," she said. "It's a wonderful thing. It's great he is able to learn so early on." It is good timing for Bindi to have a settled private life. Her mother Terri and brother Robert will leave the country shortly after the Croc Research Trip ends in September to visit their conservation projects around the world. Bindi will stay behind at the Zoo to help run it.

At just 18 years old Bindi is wise beyond her years and is both excited and daunted by the challenge she is about to face. But she said her mother had instilled in her both the belief that she can achieve anything and the understanding it is OK to ask for help. "Mum says if you believe in yourself you can take on the world," she said. "But she has also helped me understand that I have people I love around me and to know you can count on people, you don't have to be an independent human being. You can ask for help." It isn't the only person-shaping Terri has done with Bindi.

She is one of the most eternally positive and cheerful people you could meet and that is in the face of enormous tragedy in her own life, with the death of her father in 2008, to an endless stream of online bullies doing their best to bring her down. Bindi refuses to let it. "The easy thing to do is to let it get you down and get frustrated and mad," she said. "To say 'I'm not going to let this bother me', that's hard, but that's what I choose to do. "And I do it not just for myself, but the people around me, I hope if I can choose to be strong and not let it bring me down, maybe other people will do the same.

"There's some terrible things that people can say and hopefully if they see me rising above it they will think 'its not bringing her down maybe we can be strong too'." Bindi and Chandler will remain on the reserve until September, when they will both return to the Zoo. While Bindi busies herself making sure everything is running smoothly there, Chandler will be continuing to hone his wakeboarding skills at a nearby wake park. Bindi will also embark on her next major project  her first book. It won't be a biography but more of a series of life lessons she has learned in her short but interesting journey on this planet.
In the age before mass communication, standing atop a soapbox in public places was one way the citizenry was able to make a point to an audience.

In the post-digital age, women at the cutting edge of technology are going back to 19th century methodology to talk science and challenge gender stereotypes.

Doctor Megan Saunders spoke about how rising sea levels will change coastal conditions. Credit:Robert Shakespeare

Soapbox Science co-organiser Alienor Chauvenet said it was all about demystifying science and, importantly, bringing it to the people.

And Dr Chauvenet said she had no trouble finding volunteers to spend their Saturday afternoons on a King George Square soapbox, even with the threatening grey skies.
The city health department is warning pregnant women not to travel to parts of Miami Beach, following federal officials' confirmation that mosquitos in the area are transmitting the Zika virus to humans. The Wynwood section of Miami is also included in the travel warning. "The Health Department strongly advises women in New York City who are pregnant or trying to get pregnant, and their male or female sexual partner, to avoid visiting these two areas of Miami-Dade County, Florida," Commissioner Mary T. Bassett said in a statement.

Health officials say 36 people have been infected by the Zika virus in Wynwood and Miami Beach since July. Though officials don't think the disease will spread as drastically as it did in Latin America and in the Caribbean, thanks to air-conditioning and the proliferation of window screens, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has still added the affected parts of Miami-Dade County to the list of countries to which pregnant women should avoid traveling.

The affected sections of Miami Beach include the very tourist-heavy South Beach, and a number of tourists, including at least one from New York, contracted the virus there. CDC officials expect more cases to pop up soon. "It is possible that other neighborhoods in Miami-Dade County have active Zika transmission that is not yet apparent," CDC director Thomas Frieden told reporters yesterday.

Hence the NYC Health Commissioner's warningnearly 500 New Yorkers have been diagnosed with Zika since January, and the city wants to make sure pregnant women are not exposed to the virus. "We ask any pregnant New Yorker and their partner who have recently traveled to one of these two areas recently to contact their healthcare provider to determine if they should be tested," Bassett said in a statement.
About 15 years ago, Nikki Valentini had her first child, moved from Northcote to central Victoria, began growing her own food, studied permaculture and "community development", and set about "living meaningfully".

Before long she shifted to Castlemaine where she baked, fermented and foraged for weeds.

Nikki Valentini picks fruit at Hallstead Farm, near Castlemaine. Credit:Penny Stephens

And then this green-thumbed daughter of Italian restaurateurs joined forces with a group of like-minded residents to discuss how they might create a community together that felt "connected and sustainable".

Their Growing Abundance project was borne in 2010 and from the outset it centred upon food. The first idea was to harvest produce from the countless fruit trees that went untouched in backyards and commercial orchards across this one-time gold-mining town. Volunteers began picking everything from apricots to apples and splitting the produce three-ways  between themselves, the fruit-tree owners and local community groups. Come winter, the volunteers returned to prune and check for pests and diseases.
A police car was rammed by a Mustang, which was one of seven cars stolen from a Ford dealership in Melbourne's south east on Saturday.

A gang broke into a car yard in Overton Road, Frankston, just after 3.30am and used a crowbar to jemmy a key safe.

Seven cars were stolen, including a Mustang, three Territory SUVs, two G6E sedans and a Ranger.

About 12.20pm on Saturday, a member of the public called police to report a Mustang driving erratically in Narre Warren South.

The caller followed the car and kept police updated with its location.
Police are ramping up their search for a missing elderly man with dementia, with fears he may be stranded in bushland or near rural roads in north-east Victoria.

Matyas Babos, 79, went missing from his home in Francis Street, Yea, between 10am and 4pm on August 15 and has not been seen since.

Matyas Babos, 79, has not been seen since Monday August 15. Credit:Victoria Police

SES volunteers are encouraging locals to check their backyards and sheds in case Mr Babos has sought shelter from the rain.

About 24 SES volunteers from units across the north-east have been searching for the past five days, an SES spokeswoman said.
A refurbished Mosman Park mansion, which was destroyed in a fire in January, is finally being demolished.

Firefighters investigating the blaze at the Wellington Street property blamed spontaneous combustion. They said a bundle of rags suddenly burst into flames which eventually spread and destroyed the house.

A Mosman Park mansion destroyed in a fire in January is now being demolished.

There was no power on at the home when the fire started.

The two-storey house close to the Swan River was being renovated at the time of the fire and was only a fortnight away from being handed back to its owners.
The lawyer for a Byron Bay woman named a suspect over the death of a Balinese police officer said his client had vehemently denied she had taken drugs on the night of the alleged murder.

Erwin Siregar also revealed that Sara Connor had a bite mark on her inner left thigh but it was not yet known who had bitten her.

Ms Connor faces three alternative charges - second degree murder, manslaughter committed by more than one person and/or assault leading to death.

They carry maximum penalties of 15, 12 and seven year jail terms respectively.
John Momis, president of the autonomous government of Bougainville, during a speech in Canberra. Credit:Darren Boyd / ANU College of Asia & the Pacific Rio Tinto has refused. Correspondence obtained by Fairfax shows the dual London-Melbourne listed giant insisting it has no responsibility for environmental or other consequences from the mine. "We believe that [the company] was fully compliant will all regulatory requirements and applicable standards at the time," Rio Tinto executive Joanne Farrell wrote to Dr Momis on August 6. The rebellion The mine has not operated for more than a quarter of a century after locals  angry about environmental destruction, poor wages and distribution of profits  broke into the site, seized explosives and sparked a separatist rebellion that would last almost a decade. PNG police and military carried out severe reprisals. Rio Tinto has never been back.

Before that, Panguna mine had accounted for about 45 per cent of exports from PNG and generated more than $1 billion in national tax revenue and dividend payments. But locals complained only a trickle of cash ever made it to Bougainville, while millions of tonnes of acid-laced mine tailings killed the Jaba and Kawerong rivers. The rivers had been a source of water and food for thousands, but large sections now resemble a moonscape, forcing people to leave their homes. Abandoned heavy mechanised trucks are still rusting on the deep tracks that loop around the edges of the pit. Local landowners, some armed, have designated the surrounding area a "no go zone". The abandoned Panguna copper mine in Bougainville  once a rich source of profits  sparked a costly environmental and social crisis. Credit:Friedrich Stark / Alamy Stock Photo A peace deal in 2001 saw Bougainville win autonomy within PNG, but any talk of reopening the mine remains hugely controversial.

Dr Momis wants the mine to start again. It is the best, perhaps one of the only, sources of revenue for his government, he believes. With a final decision on Bougainville's independence approaching in a referendum expected in 2019, the future economy of the island nation is a pressing issue. "Rio was able to pay back its debt in loans within three years, I think. After that it was all profit," Dr Momis told Fairfax Media. "The people of Bougainville got a pittance out of it, even though they were the owners of the resources." Dr Momis said he was disappointed people in Australia do not show more concern about the problems. "PNG was Australia's only colony, and the Bougainville mine bankrolled PNG's independence," he said.

Rio withdraws Rio Tinto's announcement on June 30 it had freely surrendered its 53.8 per cent controlling share of Bougainville Copper Limited came after years of variously flirting with reopening or quitting the mine. To get out, the company created a trust to split the shares between the governing authority on Bougainville and the PNG national government in Port Moresby  provided they were taken up within two months. "By distributing our shares in this way, we aimed to provide landowners, those closest to the mine, and all the people of Bougainville a greater say in the future of Panguna," a spokesman for Rio Tinto said. "It also provides a platform for the [autonomous government] and PNG government to work together on future options for the resource."

The decision to divide control immediately raised fears of complicating the already fragile peace process. Momis' government said it would accept the shares  but insisted Port Moresby should surrender its offer. On Wednesday, PNG Prime Minister Peter O'Neill declared all the shares offered to Port Moresby would instead be handed over directly to the landowners, rather than the autonomous government. Dr Momis accused Mr O'Neill of deliberate interference in Bougainville's affairs and warned, ominously, "the future of peace is now truly under threat". In August, 2014, Bougainville paved the way for reopening the mine, with a new mining law that led some to hope the trucks might once again rumble into the pit at Panguna. But that too would be controversial. Some locals, supported by activists overseas, including a group known as Jubilee Australia, have accused Dr Momis of consistently downplaying opposition to mining. A family panning gold in the polluted Jaba river flowing from Panguna copper mine. Credit:Friedrich Stark / Alamy Stock Photo Jubilee believes farming and horticulture offer Bougainville a sustainable future.

But Dr Momis insists the mine is supported. "My well considered view is the majority would want the mine to be opened so the mine legacy issues can be addressed, as well as to generate revenue." Is it even economic? Panguna was once considered the jewel in the crown for Rio Tinto, and the company is expected to hand over valuable technical survey data about the estimated 3 million tonnes of copper reserves remaining in the mine. But other close observers doubt there is any way the mine could re-establish operations.

"This really puts the nail in the coffin  there is no way the mine is going to reopen in the next decade," said Thiago Oppermann, a Pacific specialist at the Australian National University. For Rio Tinto's part, it based the decision to withdraw on the results of an almost two-year strategic review. The company's Ms Farrell wrote to the Bougainville government that low global commodity prices meant they could not to take any part in future mining at Panguna. "This does not mean we don't see a future for the mine which is a significant resource but we are not in the position to participate," Ms Farrell wrote. And Rio Tinto insists the way to address environmental concerns is to get the mine running again, with local safety and stability assured, and investor friendly laws.
The world's highest and longest glass bridge has opened to visitors in central China.

The 430-metre long, 6-metre wide glass-bottomed walkway hangs 300 metres above a canyon in the Tianmenshan National Forest Park in Hunan province, central China.

Visitors walk across a glass-floor suspension bridge in Zhangjiajie in southern China's Hunan Province. Credit:AP

By June 2017, visitors will also be able to hang from the overpass on three massive swings or bungee jump off the side, Zhangjiajie Canyon Tourism Management Company vice general manager Joe Chen told the design blog Inhabitat.

Composed of 99 panes of three-layer transparent glass, the bridge has set 10 world records for design and construction, the management committee told the state-run China Daily.
As it turns out, they have a voice. His name is J.D. Vance and his new book is Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoire of a Family and a Culture in Crisis  which one review describes as "a civilised reference guide for an uncivilised election". J.D. Vance, author of Hillbilly Elegy, mourns lost senses of purpose and community. Much like the lone survivor in a massacre, spared only so that he might tell the world of the ferocity of the attack, Vance beat the odds  and so has come down from the hill country with a message for America. Helped by his grandmother, he got himself through school; into the US Marines; next to Ohio State University and then, something of a precedent, through Yale Law School. Age 31, he hangs out in Silicon Valley these days. A biotech executive, he writes: "I may be white, but I do not identify with the WASPs of the north-east. Instead I identify with the millions of working-class white Americans of Scots-Irish descent who have no college degree. Then US president Ronald Reagan in the White House in 1985. Credit:AP

"To these folks, poverty is the family tradition  their ancestors were day labourers in the Southern slave economy, sharecroppers after that, coal miners after that, and machinists and millworkers during more recent times. Americans call them hillbillies, rednecks or white trash. I call them neighbours, friends and family." Complex and human, Vance's elegy serves at times as a rebuff to Trump's wrecking-ball attacks on Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama as the embodiment of all that is wrong with Washington. Vance keeps economic hardship in the mix as a cause of his peoples' grief. But he argues that a much bigger issue is "hillbilly" culture, which "increasingly encourages social decay, instead of counteracting it". Pat Buchanan wins the New Hampshire primary in 1996. Credit:AP Vance is articulate and empathetic in this unvarnished account of a hardscrabble life in Appalachia  he is tender about values held dearly, like loyalty, love of country; he's unapologetic about physical and verbal abuse; and about alcohol and drug abuse. As well, he mourns lost senses of purpose, community and even spiritual identity. Spruiking the book on National Public Radio, Vance says of life in Ohio: "People used to rely on automotive jobs, steel mill jobs, coal jobs  and those things, for the most part simply don't exist. [Last year] in the county where I grew up, deaths from drug overdoses outnumbered deaths from natural causes  which is kind of extraordinary."

Supporters of Donald Trump during a campaign town hall in Daytona Beach. Credit:AP Vance's mother was a cot-case  violent, addicted to drugs, too many husbands and too many boyfriends. His grandmother was a saviour  as a child, she shot a man who stole the family cow; and as an adult, she'd douse her drunken husband with petrol and set him alight. But she also made the boy do his homework. Alluding to the family confrontation by which he came to live with the grandmother who was known also as mamaw, Vance writes: "[She] told me that if mom had a problem with the arrangement, she could talk to the barrel of mamaw's gun. This was hillbilly justice, and it didn't fail me." Samuel Francis, a conservative academic, foretold the rise of a Trump-like character. In Middletown, where he grew up in Ohio, a fifth of kids don't finish high school and only a few of the few who get to set foot in college, graduate. He writes of Middletown: "[It's] a town where 30 per cent of the young men work fewer than 20 hours a week and  not a single person [is] aware of his own laziness."

Vance writes of a neighbour "who was a lifetime welfare recipient, but in between asking my grandmother to borrow her car, or offering to trade food stamps for cash at a premium, she'd blather on about the importance of industriousness. 'So many people abuse the system, it's impossible for the hard-working people to get the help they need,' she'd say." But in complaining of laziness, Vance addresses a sense of despair and what he calls "learned helplessness"  a term used by psychologists to describe how, after systematic pain, a victim surrenders control in a belief there is no way to avoid further pain. And so the group cling to the likes of Trump who says they will have jobs and a good life and he'll have their backs  it helps too that the New York realtor and reality TV star repeatedly smacks down big corporations and big government as the roots of evil in today's US. Despite, or because of the 1980s success by Ronald Reagan in luring them away from their long-held support for the Democratic Party, Vance reserves strong criticism for the conservative political movement. He writes of a fatalism in "hillbilly" culture, saying that from a young age they are taught that the cards are stacked against them, it's best to keep expectations low and they can't expect to overcome the bigger forces that shape their lives. This is how Vance rips into conservatives: "They foment the kind of detachment that has sapped the ambition of so many of my peers. The message of the right is increasingly, 'it's not your fault that you're a loser; it's the government's fault'.

"Trump is telling many [in these parts of the country] that society and government is to blame for all their problems. A more helpful and hopeful message would encourage the white working class to take responsibility for their conduct and work ethic, and to act as good role models for their families, churches, and communities, rather than becoming enraged by divisive political debates." Sadly, Trump wasn't looking for this underclass so that he might help them, so much as identifying a block of votes that could be manipulated in an ideological war that has simmered in American conservative political circles for decades  and in which Trump's success in the primaries revealed the extent to which the party has to remake itself to survive. Even before Trump came on the scene, a small Republican movement, dubbed the "Reformicons", was demanding a policy and philosophy overhaul to acknowledge that middle and lower income earners were dudded by so much of what was enshrined as GOP orthodoxy, especially on taxes, trade and immigration. That the 16 other contenders for the GOP nomination clung to those policies even as Trump was winning by shredding them, was a revelation. Trump at that stage was funding his own campaign, which meant he could do as he liked; the rest of the field was beholden to rich donors who demanded policies that served the billionaire class, not the working class. The general election is becoming a referendum on Trump  and that's an arena in which he struggles. But the primaries were a referendum on the GOP establishment's stewardship of the party and its policies  and that the establishment lost is read by Columbia University historian Timothy Shenk as proof of the resumption of a guerrilla war against the party's "managerial elite".

And if Trump is the victors' standard-bearer, their bible is a weighty, 700-page tome published in June 2016. Titled Leviathan and Its Enemies, Shenk describes it as "digressive, repetitive and in desperate need of an editor"  but he also describes it as one of the most impressive books to come out of the US right in a generation  "and the most frightening". Its author was the late Samuel Francis, an academic, sometimes congressional aid and writer for right-wing publications, who was driven by a belief that society was controlled by managers and experts who were a threat to traditional American values  "morality and religion, family, nation, local community, and at times, racial integrity and identity". These he argued were sacred principles of a new "post-bourgeois proletariat" drawn from America's working class and the lower ranks of the middle class who were driven, according to the coded language of Francis' book, by "immutable elements of human nature [that] necessitate attachment to the concrete and historical roots of moral values and meaning". If his meaning was unclear, he was perfectly clear in a speech he gave while working on the book, declaring: "What we whites must do, is reassert our identity and solidarity, and we must do so in explicitly racial terms through the articulation of a racial consciousness as whites." In the early 1990s, Francis teamed up with CNN host Pat Buchanan who mounted a failed challenge to President George H. W. Bush for the GOP nomination in 1992. Francis urged Buchanan to make another run for the nomination in 1996  as a champion of protectionism, foreign policy isolationism and anti-immigrant. Sound familiar?

Despite Buchannan's very limited success  he won the New Hampshire primary and nothing else  Francis was convinced that his so-called post-bourgeois proletariat understood increasing US diversity to be a measure of the dwindling power of white Americans. When Buchanan did bomb out, Francis explained it away, arguing that Buchanan had been too deferential to the party bosses. "Don't use the word 'conservative'," he told Buchanan. "It doesn't mean anything any more." Buchanan faded and so did Francis, who spent a lot of time denying that he was a white supremacist  even as he campaigned against interracial sex, warned of what he called "incipient race war", and drafted a nationalist manifesto which argued: "The American people and government should remain European in their composition and character." Fast-forward to the 2016 primaries. Trump declares: "I'm a conservative, but at this point, who cares?" At the same time, he makes a series of provocative speeches, which were read as deliberate stirrings of anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim sentiment; and he rolls out anti-immigrant and isolationist policies. Earlier this year, right-wing radio-talk heavyweight Rush Limbaugh joined the dots while reading some of Francis' articles on-air. "What's interesting is how right-on it is in foretelling Trump."
Byron Bay woman Sara Connor has been named a suspect in the alleged murder of a Balinese police officer, according to one of the lawyers she has appointed to represent her.

"She is a suspect. I have been appointed as her lawyer along with Robert Khuana," Erwin Siregar told Fairfax Media. "The suspect interrogation is happening right now."

Mr Siregar also represented drug smuggler Schapelle Corby while Mr Khuana represented Bali nine member Scott Rush.

Denpasar police chief Hadi Purnomo confirmed Ms Connor and David Taylor had been determined suspects.



They face possible charges of second degree murder and/or manslaughter and/or assault causing death.



These three crimes carry maximum sentences of 15, 12 and seven year prison terms respectively.
PHILIPSBURG:--- Leader of the United St. Maarten (US) party MP Frans Richardson is firm in his partys belief that St. Maarten finally needs to get serious about tax reform and signaled USPs preference to shift from a direct to an indirect tax model. When citizens anywhere in the world complain about taxes it is usually not about the legal obligation or their use to provide services. Most complaints are about fairness. Too many people feel that they unfairly carry the brunt of the tax burden. And that is no joke, he said.

He said creating an equitable tax system is a delicate balancing act with citizens rightly seeking reforms that will allow them to better care for their families and retirement. Businesses, he added, also want fair taxes so they can be profitable, grow, and provide a return to investors and government officials must balance these objectives with having enough money to provide essential services to citizens.

Nonetheless, tax reform that tries to be fair to all can be the greatest advantage to economic development because everyone feels like they are contributing and receiving their fair share. The US Party believes that the burden of taxation should be fairly distributed within our society. Our current tax system in crippling our economy and stagnating the growth of our citizens. One of the partys primary initiatives when elected to parliament is to immediately bring about reform to our tax system. Tax reform which will not only benefit the business sector but also empower our citizens by increasing their spending power, Richardson said.

The USP proposes a reform in the tax system and tax administration, shifting from direct to indirect taxes. Citizens will no longer pay direct taxes and will not suffer the burden and uncertainty of filing tax returns. This reform will give the people of St. Maarten much needed tax relief and more spending power, particularly those in the lower income brackets. Tax reform as proposed by the USP will create a win-win-win scenario for the citizens, businesses, and the government by creating the much-needed stimulus, more economic activities, more jobs, and increased prosperity for St. Maarten as a society in general, he said.

Indirect taxation of citizens will make St. Maarten a fair, transparent destination which is highly desirable for foreign investments. The most important element of the tax reform is the change from Turnover Tax (ToT) to a Sales Tax together with a reduction of the wage, and profit tax rates (decrease of 5-to-15 percent). This will give the taxpayers considerably more money to spend leading to more and direct spending.

The change will also spread the total tax burden more fairly and evenly over residents and visitors alike, making St. Maarten competitive with our neighbors in the region. As a result, more people will contribute to governments coffers, which would result in higher revenues. Tax reform creates across-the-board benefits to all segments of society.

USP Candidate and former Minister Maria Buncamper-Molanus also recently addressed the issue of tax reform. She said any, any government serious about dealing with this issue, needs at least a full 4-year term in office.

Secondly lets not reinvent the wheel, instead, lets take a look at what previous governments have already done and look globally at countries with of similar size and economy. Take our business culture into consideration and the compliance factor, but let us please not feel obligated to burden our taxpayers by trying to meet a 30% Tax Revenue of GDP because this is comparable to neighboring islands, she said.

Our Tax reform must be simple to calculate, simple to collect and simple to control. St. Maarten taxpayers should be left with the ability to get more for their money than they are getting now. St. Maarten Taxpayers should be encouraged to work harder and not be punished with progressively higher tax rates that are as high as 47.5% because they are ambitious and want to work harder to earn more money, she added.

Buncamper Molanus said that entrepreneurs/business owners should not be penalized with a Profit Tax of 34.5% while profit Tax in neighboring islands is zero. She said St. Maarteners should be encouraged to be self-employed, be their own bosses by government providing an attractive investment climate to do business in.

The more money that comes in and circulates and remains in our economy, the stronger our economy will grow. The result is that government with a proper tax system in place which spreads the burden to all who participate in our economy whether living here or visiting here, can generate the required income to provide the services for the people of St. Maarten, she concluded.
SIMPSON BAY:--- Police and ambulance personnel rushed to the Princess Juliana International Airport (PJIAE) and cordoned the entire area as a bus belonging to a car rental ran over a young child. SMN News learnt that the bus belongs to AVIS car rental. It is also understood that the victim is a young boy between the ages of 2 to 3 years old. Police Spokesman Ricardo Henson confirmed that an AVIS shuttle bus ran over a young boy between the ages 2 to 3 years old who died on the spot. Henson said the child is a resident/born on St. Maarten and he is of Haitian decent while police are busy investigating the circumstances of the accident. Henson said the accident took place in the vicinity of the departure hall and not arrival. So far no details on the identity of the victim have not yet been released. However, SMN News learnt that the family has been residing on St. Maarten for a long period of time.

The police spokesman said the accident occurred in the area where the taxis park up, he said the police doctor pronounced the young child dead around 10am on Saturday morning. An angry businessman at the Airport said that several of them spoke to the chief security of PJIAE on several occasions telling him that the double parking in front of the airport will get people killed and that the taxi dispatchers and airport security should do something about the double parking. The businessmen said that their complaints went on deaf ears, and today the life of a young child was snapped out because of the carelessness from the Airport security and dispatchers that allow taxis and other vehicles to double park in front of the airport terminal. At 10am the body was removed from the spot where the accident took place while a team from the forensic department and traffic department of KPSM is still on the scene gathering evidence and speaking to eye witnesses. So far the prosecutor and detectives on the scene have not decided whether or not they will arrest the parent of the young lad for negligence that led to the death of a toddler and the driver of the AVIS shuttle bus for reckless driving. Police Spokesman Ricardo Henson said police have two persons in custody assisting them with the investigations. Henson said so far no one has been arrested. SMN News learnt the two persons in custody are the driver of the Shuttle and the father of the victim.

SMN News further learned that workers at the Princess Juliana International Airport began screaming when the fatal accident occurred and most of them are unable to perform their duties even after police left the scene.

In an invited comment from Gromyko Wilson, a taxi dispatcher who worked at the PJIAE for five years said he was threatened by the head of the Economic Affairs Lucien Wilson because he had an argument with the President and Board of the Airport Taxi Association because taxi drivers are speeding and double parking in front of the Airport terminal. Wilson said for the five years he worked as a dispatcher at PJIAE he had to stand on the zebra crossing every Saturday with his flute to slow down the car rentals shuttle that are speeding heavily as they come to the airport to pick up passengers and take them to the various rental headquarters. He said the same thing goes for taxi drivers, they double park infont of the terminal building which is not allowed but none of the drivers wants to follow the rules thus he had an argument with the President of the Airport Taxi Association and due that argument his boss threatened him with a warning letter then moved him to Philipsburg.

Wilson said that over the years he worked at PJAIE he spoke to the head of security Jerry Sprot, Larry Donker and former Managing Director Regina Labega, pleading with them to do something in order to secure the lives of the passengers using the airport. Wilson said none of the persons he spoke to about the danger did anything to prevent what happened on Saturday morning. He said even advised them to place cones in order to bring about control but not one of them did anything. Wilson further stated that he is sure that the death of the toddler on Saturday morning was due to speeding and lack of proper control by the dispatcher on duty.  "I can tell you on Saturdays its a madhouse at the airport with the rental shuttles because they have to travel back and forth to pick up passengers that have reservations with the various car rentals. Because these shuttles have to make several trips so they speed even while on the airport property. When I was there I used to stand on the zebra crossing with my flute to slow them down. While I was there no one lost their life but since I was moved to Philipsburg a young innocent child life was snatched away.

Wilson said an innocent child lost his life on Saturday, but something worst will take place at the Port of St. Maarten because there are a number of gypsies operating outside of the Port and the police and control unit are not doing anything about these matters that threatens the countrys economy and its visitors. One of the gypsy drivers already threatened a tourist, the next tiime it will be worst if authorities dont act now.

The Princess Juliana International Airport (PJIAE) is disheartened to learn of the unfortunate incident that resulted in the death of a child. This took place on Saturday in the frontal area of the airport in the early morning hours.

PJIAE has the safety and security of all its passengers, visitors, and employees as its top priority and is assisting the local authorities, which are leading the investigation.

Our heartfelt condolences go out to the family and friends of the deceased.

PJIAE Press Release

Young child died in traffic accident

The Police Traffic Department is presently investigating a fatal traffic accident that involves an almost three-year-old boy child which took place on Saturday, August 20th, 2016 at approximately 09.30 a.m, in front of the main building of the Princess Juliana International Airport. At the time of the accident the child was crossing the street and was struck fatally by an AVIS shuttle bus. The accident scene which attracted the attention of many persons was immediately closed off for the Traffic Department to question potential witnesses and for the Forensic Department to collect evidence. Dr. Mercuur arrived on the scene shortly after and pronounced the death of the victim. Parents of the victim and the drivers of the vehicle are all being questioned in connection with investigation. No arrests have been made thus far in the investigation.

KPSM Press Release
The website's tagline is "Life is short. Have an Affair." The website was hacked in July, 2015

The website's tagline is "Life is short. Have an Affair." The website was hacked in July, 2015

This morning the Hews Media Group broke a story about prominent California legislators and their staff who use the Ashley Madison adultery website, some of them doing so on government time.

Ashley Madison is a website that enables married individuals to find partners wishing to have extramarital affairs. The website's tagline is "Life is short. Have an Affair."

The website was hacked in July, 2015 by a group calling itself "The Impact Team." The hackers tried to force Ashley Madison to shut its operations by threatening to release the names of its clients and their personally identifying information. When Ashley Madison balked at ceasing business, the hackers released the information of all of the website's 37 million users.

37 million users. Think about that.

Unfortunately, the release of email addresses was unusable to journalists who were unable to link the addresses, which could be false, with actual people. However, Hews Media Group hired a programmer to sort through the financial information that had also been released. They were able to match credit card numbers with computer IP addresses and home addresses.

Hews Media claims that several prominent officials used the affair-promoting website, including one who ran for LA County Supervisor and another who is now angling for a statewide agency seat.

The website's tagline is "Life is short. Have an Affair." The website was hacked in July, 2015

One name Hews Media did release was that of Trent Hager, Chief of Staff to California State Senator Cathleen Galgiani (D-Stockton) and now Adam Gray (D-Merced). Hager is married to Janelle Beland, who works for Governor Jerry Brown. Hager earns a yearly salary of $141,408.

According to the Hews Media research, Hager used the adultery website on eleven occasions between September 2013 and May 2014. He made five credit card charges on the site during working hours. In 2014, Hager paid the site's $19 fee to have his information erased (money they should undoubtedly refund him).

Hager told Hews Media on August 11, "Here's what I know. My credit card has been hacked 3 times in the last 4 years. The Legislative work hours are 35 hours per week. All employees are entitled to a lunch hour and breaks."

Apparently, we are to make of that information what we will to exonerate him.
Pregnant women are urge to avoid travel to Miami beach and Florida say the federal health administration

Federal health authorities said Friday that pregnant women and their partners consider postponing travel to all of Miami-Dade County after Florida identified a second zone of local Zika transmission, a large area of Miami Beach that includes the popular tourist magnet of South Beach.

This is an enormously important development. It is common for US authorities to urge people not to travel abroad to places where Zika is prevalent. But for them to tell Americans to avoid Miami, a US city of 3 million, is without president in modern times.

Travelers coming back from the Olympic Games in Rio and other vacation spots where the Zika virus is spreading are urged to take precautions upon return to help prevent the spread of the virus in California. While the virus is primarily transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes, it can also pass from one person to another during sex.

"Summer travelers who spent time in Brazil or any other region with Zika-infected mosquitoes can protect themselves, their families and community members by taking a few simple steps," said California Department of Public Health Director and State Health Officer Dr. Karen Smith. "Continue using insect repellent to prevent spreading the virus to mosquitoes in your community upon your return and refrain from unprotected sex so you don't pass the virus to your partner."

Men and women should use condoms for at least eight weeks after travel, and men who have tested positive for Zika should use condoms for six months to prevent transmission to their partners. Travelers returning from an affected region should also continue using insect repellent for three weeks to prevent the virus from spreading to mosquitoes, which might then infect others.

"Pregnant women and couples planning to have children need to be especially cautious because Zika can cause significant harm to a developing fetus," said Dr. Smith. "Pregnant women who have traveled to an area with Zika should inform their doctor upon return, and couples returning from an affected area should speak with a doctor before getting pregnant."

Zika virus infection during pregnancy can cause severe birth defects, including microcephaly. Two infants with Zika-related microcephaly have been born in California this year to women who had Zika virus infections during pregnancy after spending time in an area where the virus is circulating in mosquitoes.

Pregnant women should not travel to that particular zone where the Zika virus is active, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, and "pregnant women and their sexual partners who are concerned about potential Zika virus exposure may also consider postponing nonessential travel to all parts of Miami-Dade County."

Gov. Rick Scott said there were five cases of Zika transmitted by mosquitoes in Miami Beach. The three men and two women include two Florida residents and three people who had traveled to Miami - one from New York, one from Texas and one from Taiwan.

This

While mosquitoes that can carry the virus have been found in 12 California counties, there is no evidence these mosquitoes are transmitting Zika in the state at this time. A team of experts across several disciplines at CDPH is working closely with local public health departments, vector control agencies and the medical community to ensure that California is responding aggressively and appropriately to the emerging threat of Zika virus.

As of August 19, CDPH has confirmed 170 travel-associated Zika virus infections in 26 counties. A total of 24 infections have been confirmed in pregnant women.

For more information about Zika, visit the CDPH Zika website, which includes the following resources:

Zika and Travel

Zika and Pregnancy

Zika and Sex

Mosquito Bite Prevention

http://www.cdph.ca.gov

hhs.gov - u.s. department of health and human services

Zika Virus Update

The Numbers:

Zika Case Count: As of August 17, there were more than 10,200 confirmed cases of Zika virus in U.S. States and Territories.

2,260 confirmed cases of Zika in U.S. States and Washington DC.

8,035 confirmed cases of Zika in U.S. Territories.

Pregnant women with evidence of Zika virus: As of August 11, there were more than 1,200 pregnant women with evidence of Zika virus.

529 pregnant women in U.S. States and Washington, DC.

691 pregnant women in U.S. Territories.

For a state-by-state table of Zika cases in the U.S. visit: http://www.cdc.gov/zika/geo/united-states.html

Theme for the week of August 22, 2016: Moms-To-Be: Protect Your Pregnancy from Zika! The Best Way to Protect Your Baby is to Protect Yourself

The Zika theme for the week of August 22 is Moms-To-Be: Protect Your Pregnancy from Zika! The Best Way to Protect Your Baby is to Protect Yourself. Zika virus infection during pregnancy can cause microcephaly and other severe fetal brain defects. Zika also has been linked with other problems in infants, including eye defects, hearing loss, and impaired growth. Because Zika infection is a cause of microcephaly, pregnant women should strictly follow steps to prevent mosquito bites and to protect against sexual transmission.

Notable Zika News:

HHS declares a public health emergency in Puerto Rico in response to Zika outbreak: Last Friday, at the request of Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell declared a public health emergency for Puerto Rico, signaling that the current spread of Zika virus poses a significant threat to public health in the Commonwealth relating to pregnant women and children born to pregnant women with Zika. To read the news release, please click here. If you have questions regarding this announcement, please contact: [email protected]

FDA issues an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for emergency use of a Zika detection test .: On Wednesday, the FDA issued an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for emergency use of InBios International, Inc.'s ("InBios"), ZIKV Detect IgM Capture ELISA for the presumptive detection of Zika virus IgM antibodies in human sera collected from individuals meeting the CDC Zika virus clinical criteria, and/or CDC Zika virus epidemiological criteria, by laboratories in the United States that are certified under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 (CLIA), 42 U.S.C.  263a, to perform high complexity tests. To read the EUA, please click here. If you have questions regarding this announcement, please contact: [email protected]

CDC updates interim guidance for the evaluation and management of infants with possible congenital Zika virus infection: Today, CDC updated its interim guidance for U.S. health care providers caring for infants born to mothers with possible Zika virus infection during pregnancy. Among the updates include Laboratory testing is recommended for infants born to mothers with laboratory evidence of Zika virus infection during pregnancy and infants who have abnormal clinical or neuroimaging findings suggestive of congenital Zika syndrome and a maternal epidemiologic link suggesting possible transmission, regardless of maternal Zika virus test results. To read the updated guidance, please click here. If you have questions regarding this guidance, please contact: [email protected]

Additional area of active Zika transmission identified in Miami Beach: Also today, working with Florida health officials on investigating cases of locally transmitted Zika virus, CDC announced that an additional area of active Zika transmission has been confirmed in a section of Miami Beach, in addition to the area of active Zika transmission near Wynwood. As a result, CDC has updated its travel guidance recommending pregnant should avoid travel to the designated area of Miami Beach, in addition to the designated area of Wynwood, both located in Miami-Dade County. The Florida Department of Health has also identified at least four other instances of apparently mosquito-borne Zika in Miami-Dade County, and has reported an increase in travel-related cases. CDC recommends that pregnant women and their sexual partners who are concerned about potential Zika virus exposure may also consider postponing nonessential travel to all parts of Miami Dade County. To read CDC's statement, please click here. If you have questions regarding the statement please contact: [email protected]

Learn More About Zika Virus

Pregnant women are well advised to avoid travel to the zika virus zone, including Miami

Note: All HHS press releases, fact sheets and other news materials are available at https://www.hhs.gov/news. Like HHS on Facebook , follow HHS on Twitter @HHSgov , and sign up for HHS Email Updates. If you have a media request, please email [email protected]

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Transformer blows up with flash of light

Transformer explosion at Lincoln &Idaho put one block of residential buildings into a power outage for about an hour and a half tonight. A balloon is visible in this photo on the line

An electrical transformer exploded near the corner of Idaho and Lincoln at 6:56 pm Friday. It was in the alley between 9th Street and Lincoln Blvd, between Idaho and Washington.

Transformer explosion at Lincoln &Idaho put one block of residential buildings into a power outage for about an hour and a half tonight.

Residents heard an explosion and saw a flash of light. Santa Monica fire units responded in force, as they customarily do. The power was out on the block. Edison respondents shortly there after with crews of lineman

It was possible a balloon visible on the line caused the pop and smoke, said one firefighter. At least one firefighter thought so.

"We can arrive earlier than Southern California Edison with our lights and sirens. So we come first to secure the area, make sure there's no fire, and wait for SCE" one firefighter explained to us.

A coupe of hours later, power was restored to the area.
Corey Lequieu will serve 2.5 years in prison on Federal Conspiracy charges

Corey Lequieu on guard duty with an assault rifle at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge outside of Burns, according to federal prosecutors.

Corey Lequieu has become the first defendant sentenced for the armed takeover the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in January.

U.S. District Judge Anna J. Brown sentenced Lequieu to 2  years in prison followed by 3 years of supervised release in the federal conspiracy case. He must also pay restitution, in an amount to be determined later.

Lequieu, 46, was the first of the 26 defendants to plead guilty. He admitted to impeding federal employees through intimidation, threats, or force.

A conspiracy charge carries a maximum sentence of six years, but federal prosecutors recommended that Lequieu serve less time as part of a plea agreement. Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig Gabriel said the government took under considered the fact that Lequieu was the first in the case to take responsibility for his illegal actions.

Gabriel dismissed Lequieu's remaining count of possessing a firearm in a federal facility. Lequieu, of Fallon, Nevada, had ties to the 2014 Cliven Bundy standoff near Bunkerville, Nevada. The government also agreed not to file felon in possession of a firearm charges against Lequieu in either state.

Lequieu's defense attorney, Ramon Pagan, told the court that his client was grateful that they reached an agreement without Lequieu agreeing to testify against other defendants in the case.

The government had asked that Lequieu's sentencing be pushed back until December, when other defendants in the case will be scheduled for sentencing, so that the victims could make just one trip to Portland to speak about the fear they felt and continue to feel because of the occupation. The workers, employees of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and U.S. Bureau of Land Management, couldn't make Lequieu's hearing on Tuesday.

Brown decided to move ahead because Lequieu wished to do so. The judge noted that Pagan will no longer be available to represent Lequieu in December because he was recently appointed as a Circuit Court Judge in Washington County.

Ten other defendants charged in the case have also pleaded guilty.

Gabriel told the court that Lequieu was among a group of protesters, including Jon Ritzheimer and Ryan Bundy, who were first to arrive at the refuge and enter the buildings with weapons on Jan. 2. He jad traveled to Harney County from Nevada in December in preparation for the occupation.

Lequieu was clearly seen holding an assault rifle in a video calling for militia members to support the occupation, Gabriel said. He also worked as security for the occupiers and was armed with an assault rifle in that capacity, the government has said.

Lequieu has claimed ties to the Nevada and 3 percent militia groups and prosecutors have said that he has made violent threats against the Bureau of Land Management and the FBI.

While the government has characterized Lequieu as one of the planners of the takeover, Pagan has said his client didn't play a leadership role.

Multnomah County Sheriff Booking mugshot of Corey Lequieu

Lequieu left the refuge on January 26 after the FBI and state police arrested Ammon Bundy and other leaders during a stop outside the refuge. He was arrested in Nevada on February 11 and returned to Oregon.

In April, U.S. District Judge Robert E. Jones declined to release Lequieu from custody pending trial. "You're just too dangerous to let out at this time,'' Jones said at the time.

Pagan told the court that before the takeover, his client hadn't recently engaged in criminal behavior and his life was moving in a better direction.

Lequieu then asked if the judge could recommend that he serve his time at the federal prison in Sheridan, which is the closest to his Nevada home, making the trip easier for his family and supporters.

Brown agreed to make the recommendation, but ultimately, she said, the Federal Bureau of Prisons will decide where he goes.
Dangerous acid detected in Half Moon Bay and Monterey Bay

Until the advisory is lifted, Rock Crabs caught in the designated areas may cause severe illness.

The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) is warning consumers not to eat rock crabs caught in Half Moon Bay and bivalve shellfish or rock crabs caught in Monterey Bay, due to the detection of dangerous levels of domoic acid, a naturally occurring toxin.

The warning is effective for crabs and bivalve shellfish caught in state waters south of Latitude 37 11 N. (near Pigeon Point) and north of Latitude 36 35 N (near Cypress Point in Monterey County).

Symptoms of domoic acid poisoning can occur within 30 minutes to 24 hours after eating toxic seafood. In mild cases, symptoms may include vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal cramps, headache and dizziness. These symptoms disappear within several days. In severe cases, the victim may experience trouble breathing, confusion, disorientation, cardiovascular instability, seizures, excessive bronchial secretions, permanent loss of short term memory (a condition known as Amnesic Shellfish Poisoning), coma or death. There have been no reported illnesses associated with this event.

This advisory covers consumption of recreationally or commercially caught rock crab or recreationally caught mussels, clams, and the internal organs (viscera) of scallops caught in the specified area. Dangerous levels of domoic acid have been detected in some of these species and are also likely to be present in the other species mentioned above. Domoic acid accumulation in seafood is a natural occurrence that is related to a 'bloom' of a particular single-celled plant. The conditions that support the growth of this plant are impossible to predict.

Analysis of rock crabs recently caught in Half Moon Bay found domoic acid levels in the viscera at more than ten times the action level, which is set at 30 ppm. While portions of Half Moon Bay, north of Pigeon Point, remain under a fishery closure, the spike in these levels in conjunction with an increase of the levels of domoic acid found in rock crabs and bivalves to the south in Monterey Bay, raise concern for crabs and bivalves taken from this entire geographic region.

Bivalve shellfish have a two-part, hinged, shell.

This warning does not apply to commercially sold clams, mussels, scallops or oysters from approved sources. State law permits only state-certified commercial shellfish harvesters or dealers to sell these products. Shellfish sold by certified harvesters and dealers are subject to frequent mandatory testing to monitor for toxins.

CDPH will continue to coordinate its efforts with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the fishing community to collect rock crab samples from the central and northern California coast until the domoic acid levels have dissipated.

To receive updated information about shellfish poisoning and quarantines, call CDPH's toll-free Shellfish Information Line at (800) 553-4133. For additional information, visit CDPH's Natural Marine Toxins: PSP and Domoic Acid Web page and CDPH's Domoic Acid health information Web page.

http://www.cdph.ca.gov
Legislation signed this summer eliminated religious or personal exemptions

A contentious law that passed this summer eliminated both personal and religious exemptions from vaccinations in California schools, and 145 Sacramento children missed all or part of their first day of the school year on Tuesday because of it.

Many of the children returned later on after their parents provided proper paperwork. Two clinics were open and available on school properties for parents wishing to vaccinate that day. The district says it is working to reach the other unvaccinated children on their rosters to see if the families need help.

Only children with a physician approved medical exemption can now attend either public or private schools in California without required immunization.

Sacramento is one of the first California districts to start classes this year, but the same scene is likely to play out in districts across the state over the next few weeks as families and schools scramble to adjust to the strict new legislation.

The law, introduced as a bill by Democratic Senators Richard Pan, a Sacramento pediatrician, and Benjamin Allen of Santa Monica, made California only the third state in the nation to deny exemption based on religious beliefs.

32 states now deny exemption based on personal moral beliefs.

Concern came from the exceedingly low rates of vaccination in some communities, and after an outbreak of measles among Disneyland visors that resulted in130 infections. Pertussis (whooping cough) has also made a comeback in recent years.

Some schools had less than 50% of their students fully vaccinated, a situation which prevents the so-called "herd effect" that protects those individuals who cannot receive the shots for medical reasons such as illness or allergy.

Anti-vaccination groups protested the passage of the law, saying it should be a parent's right to choose preventative medicine for their own child. Many of them believe that increased vaccinations make children more likely to have developmental disorders, particularly autism. Scientific research has found no such link.

In the end, public health benefits overruled the opinions of protesting parents.

The courts have made it very clear that no one has the right to spread disease within their community.

The right of the state to take action in the name of public health came to the colonies along with British Common Law, and was implemented in a powerful way almost as soon as the Constitution was ratified when the cities of Philadelphia and New York were cordoned off to prevent the spread of raging yellow fever epidemics. The sitting government was left isolated in Philadelphia, new Constitution in hand.

Every original state and each that was added afterward has acknowledged the power to pass and enforce laws for the health of the community, particularly those meant to prevent the spread of disease.

Exercise of that power has become somewhat lax over the last few decades, but outbreaks of disease remind us that the government we elect has the obligation to pass common-sense laws to maintain the health of our citizens.

The California legislature and governor have done their jobs, and the school children of Sacramento and all the other communities will be healthier for it.

-----------------------------------------------------

Immunizations required to attend either public or private schools in California:

Immunizations required to enter Kindergarten:

 Polio

 Diphtheria, Tetanus, and Pertussis (DTaP)

 Measles, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR)

 Hepatitis B

 Varicella (Chickenpox)

Immunization required for 7th grade:

Immunizations keep children healthy.

 Tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis booster (Tdap)

 Measles, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR)

Immunizations required to enter Child Care (depends on age when enrolling):

 Polio

 Diphtheria, Tetanus, and Pertussis (DTaP)

 Haemophilus influenzae type b

 Measles, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR)

 Hepatitis B

 Varicella (Chickenpox)
It's a National Problem; 1 in 10 Cal State Students are Homeless

Kennesaw State decided to do something to help their homeless students.

As college campuses across the country begin fall enrollment, the increasing problem of homeless students is causing a flurry of concern. One university in Georgia decided to do something about it.

With the help of a donation of $25,000 from the Kennesaw-based Beacon Foundation Charitable Trust, Kennesaw state has dedicated an apartment on campus for temporary housing of homeless students. The students are allowed to stay up to 14 days, and the university's Campus Awareness, Resource, & Empowerment center will help them to find permanent, affordable, housing.

Marcy Stidum, director of the center, has said that she is already aware of five to seven students who will be taking advantage of the opportunity.

The apartment is mixed in anonymously with existing student residences.

Kennesaw State, about 20 miles from Atlanta, has an enrollment of about 32, 000 students. The campus has received national recognition for its work with homeless students. It has two food pantries on campus, and offers an assistance program for foster care students transitioning to college.

The number of American college and university students who lack permanent shelter or suffer from food instability is unknown, but administrators across the nation have seen a sharp increase over the last decade. Many students from poorer backgrounds struggle mightily just to get into college, only to find that the cost of housing near or on campus is just beyond their means.

In the not-to-distant past, it was possible for a student to work a part-time minimum wage job and, with the help of a manageable loan, be able to afford both school and housing, but the soaring cost of higher education is making it increasingly difficult for many young people to survive, even after they get accepted.

Since the 1980s, the cost of higher education in the US has risen at twice the rate of medical care, and three times the rate of shelter or food.

Cal State, the largest public university system in the nation, began to brainstorm solutions just this summer when a study was release showing that a shocking 1 in 10 Cal State students are homeless.

That's more than 40,000 students spread across 23 campuses.

The study, which began in the Spring of 2015, found that between 8% and 12% of Cal State students were living in cars, couch surfing, or altogether on the streets. 21% to 24% are food insecure.

Researchers found that some professors actually kept food in their offices to offer to those students who seemed to frequently arrive in class dazed and hungry.

It is difficult to make homework a priority if you struggle daily to find food or shelter.

11 of the Cal State campuses have already taken steps to offer some form of assistance, most frequently in the form of a support center or a food pantry. The pantries might offer other necessities, too, such as toothpaste or deodorant.

Some of the schools have come up with their own inventive ways to offer assistance.

The cost of higher education has risen so rapidly that many students can no longer afford food or housing.

Fresno, for example, has a phone app available that notifies students if there is food left over and available for pick up after a catered university event.

Cal State Long Beach offers emergency grants and hotel vouchers, as well as meal assistance and counseling.

None of the school in California have gone so far as to offer an on-campus emergency housing solution like Kennesaw State.

When corporate taxes go down, funding for public higher education generally goes down as well, and tuition goes up.

For now, at least, it looks as if university and college campuses across the country are going to have to adapt to the needs of those many students who are trying to learn by day, but don't have a bed to sleep in by night.
Claim: The Hobby Lobby chain is closing all its stores in protest over a federal contraceptives mandate.

Rating: About this rating False

In a 12 September 2012 USA Today op-ed piece, David Green, the CEO and founder of the Hobby Lobby chain of arts-and-crafts stores, expressing his family's opposition on religious grounds to a new government health mandate that required employers to provide insurance coverage to their employees for contraceptives:

When my family and I started our company 40 years ago, we were working out of a garage on a $600 bank loan, assembling miniature picture frames. Our first retail store wasn't much bigger than most people's living rooms, but we had faith that we would succeed if we lived and worked according to God's word. From there, Hobby Lobby has become one of the nation's largest arts and crafts retailers, with more than 500 locations in 41 states. Our children grew up into fine business leaders, and today we run Hobby Lobby together, as a family. We're Christians, and we run our business on Christian principles. I've always said that the first two goals of our business are 1) to run our business in harmony with God's laws, and 2) to focus on people more than money. And that's what we've tried to do. We close early so our employees can see their families at night. We keep our stores closed on Sundays, one of the week's biggest shopping days, so that our workers and their families can enjoy a day of rest. We believe that it is by God's grace that Hobby Lobby has endured, and he has blessed us and our employees. We've not only added jobs in a weak economy, we've also raised wages for the past four years in a row. Our full-time employees start at 80% above minimum wage. But now, our government threatens to change all of that. A new government health care mandate says that our family business must provide what I believe are abortion-causing drugs as part of our health insurance. Being Christians, we don't pay for drugs that might cause abortions. Which means that we don't cover emergency contraception, the morning-after pill or the week-after pill. We believe doing so might end a life after the moment of conception, something that is contrary to our most important beliefs. It goes against the biblical principles on which we have run this company since day one. If we refuse to comply, we could face $1.3 million per day in government fines. [Rest of article here.]

Hobby Lobby filed a federal lawsuit challenging that mandate because it included such contraceptives as the morning-after pill and IUDs, which the plaintiffs considered to be forms of abortion:

The lawsuit by the Oklahoma City-based chain claims the government mandate is forcing the company's owners "to violate their deeply held religious beliefs under threat of heavy fines, penalties and lawsuits." Failure to provide the drugs in the company's health insurance plan could lead to fines of up to $1.3 million a day, the company said. "By being required to make a choice between sacrificing our faith or paying millions of dollars in fines, we essentially must choose which poison pill to swallow," David Green, Hobby Lobby CEO and founder, said in a statement. "We simply cannot abandon our religious beliefs to comply with this mandate." The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Oklahoma City, alleges the Health and Human Services (HHS) mandate is unconstitutional and requests an injunction to prohibit it from being enforced. Hobby Lobby is self-insured and will be required to comply with the mandate by Jan. 1 [2013], the start of its health insurance plan year. Hobby Lobby is the largest and only non-Catholic-owned business to file a lawsuit against the Health and Human Services mandate that forces all companies, regardless of religious conviction, to provide coverage of drugs the lawsuit alleges are abortion-inducing, including the morning-after pill and week-after pill. "The Green family's religious beliefs forbid them from participating in, providing access to, paying for, training others to engage in, or otherwise supporting abortion-causing drugs and devices," the lawsuit states. The lawsuit says the family also has "a sincere religious objection" to providing coverage for certain kinds of intrauterine devices and alleges they can cause the death of an embryo by preventing it from implanting in the wall of a woman's uterus. The morning-after pill works by preventing ovulation or fertilization. In medical terms, pregnancy begins when a fertilized egg attaches itself to the wall of the uterus. If taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex, it can reduce a woman's chances of pregnancy by as much as 89 percent. But critics of the contraceptive say it is the equivalent of an abortion pill because it can prevent a fertilized egg from attaching to the uterus.

The text of that piece was widely referenced online under misleading headlines such as "Hobby Lobby May Close All 500+ Stores in 41 States," based on the notion that David Green would shutter the entire chain rather than comply with the federal mandate, even though he neither announced nor threatened such a course of action (although he did vaguely suggest that the company might not be able to afford the potential financial penalties for refusing to comply with the mandate).

The lawsuit finally played its way out in court in June 2014, when the Supreme Court ruled that closely held, for-profit companies (such as Hobby Lobby) could claim a religious exemption to the Affordable Care Act requirement that they provide health insurance coverage for contraceptives:

The Supreme Court ruled that requiring family-owned corporations to pay for insurance coverage for contraception under the Affordable Care Act violated a federal law protecting religious freedom. The 5-to-4 decision, which applied to two companies owned by Christian families, opened the door to challenges from other corporations to many laws that may be said to violate their religious liberty. Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., writing for the court's five more conservative justices, said a federal religious-freedom law applied to for-profit corporations controlled by religious families. He added that the requirement that the companies provide contraception coverage imposed a substantial burden on the companies' religious liberty. He said the government could provide the coverage in other ways.

Similar Hobby Lobby closure rumors circulated in mid-2017, after the chain was fined $3 million by

Federal prosecutors over claims that the company had bought artifacts smuggled from Iraq that were deliberately mislabelled.
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What you need to know about Powerball and the $825 million jackpot
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Detroits teacher sick-out case has received a verdict, and the teachers won. On Friday, Judge Cynthia Diane Stephens rendered her decision on the lawsuit filed by the Detroit Public Schools against two teachers  Steve Conn and Nicole Conaway.

The district claimed that Conn and Conaway had pushed other instructors to take part in sick-outs that closed almost 100 schools earlier this year. The lawsuit was filed by the Detroit Public Schools, now called the Detroit Public Schools Community District, in January 2016 against 28 defendants, most of whom were teachers.

Stephens had quickly dismissed the suits against almost all of the accused, and many were withdrawn by the district, leaving only Conn and Conaway to face the music. The lawsuit claimed that the teachers caused more than 88 of the 100 schools to close after a majority of teachers stayed home and called in sick.

The teachers told school officials and local media that they were protesting to draw awareness to poor building conditions, low wages, and other issues making it hard for them to educate their students properly. However, lawyers for the Detroit Public Schools Community District stated that the teachers actions were unlawful in the following statement:

The sick-outs were illegal strikes under the Michigan Public Employment Relations Act (PERA). Conn and Conaway of encouraging the sick-outs and sought an injunction against them. Both have been outspoken critics of state-appointed emergency management of the district.

In her ruling, Stephens said the district did not prove that Conn and Conaway violated PERA, and shared:

Here, the vast majority of the speech attributable to defendants concerns complaints to the state government to rectify educational, financial and structural problems in the Detroit Public School District, and not issues concerning the rights, privileges or conditions of their employment.

She added:

Any injunction based on defendants exercise of their free speech right to petition their government would run afoul of First Amendment protections. The districts argument that the defendants were precluded from even saying they approved of work stoppages goes far beyond the scope of PERA and such an interpretation is offensive to fundamental rights of free speech.

The state of Michigan will pay the districts legal costs, which came up to a whopping $320,000. The city was happy to announce a set of changes that took place this summer:

Detroit Public Schools is now officially called the Detroit Public Schools Community District, a new, debt-free district created July 1 as part of sweeping legislation aimed at reforming public education in the city. 

The public is split on the ruling.
Praia (Cape Verde), August 20, 2016 (SPS) The Special Envoy of the President of the Republic, Mhamed Khadad, was received Friday by the President of the Republic of Cape Verde, George Pedro Mauricio dos Santos, who handed him a message from President of the Republic, SG of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali, in which he reiterated the will of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic to consolidate the ties of friendship and cooperation between the two countries.

During the audience, Mr. Dos Santos reiterated the position of his country that comes from the African Union position for the search for a peaceful solution of the question of Western Sahara based on respect for the right of the Sahrawi people self-determination, hailing relations between the two countries, Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic and Cape Verde.

For his part, Mr. Khadad made a press statement in which he highlighted the existing relations between the two countries dating back several years, "despite the distance that separates the two countries, we share firm principles in defending the values of freedom, democracy and the rights of peoples of Africa to independence and freedom."

Mr. M'hamed Khadad reiterated the will of the Sahrawi Republic to strengthen and further develop the relations between the two countries for the benefit of both peoples and the African people.

The envoy of the President of the Republic welcomed the experience of the Republic of Cape Verde in the democratic transfer of power and social peace. (SPS)

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Harare (Zimbabwe), August 20, 2016 (SPS) President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, on Friday reiterated the firm support of his country to Sahrawi people's right to freedom and independence, after receiving Special envoy of the President of the Republic, Hamdi Khalil Mayara, Minister of State for Africa, who handed him a message from President of the Republic, Secretary General of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali.

The meeting focused on the latest developments of the question of Western Sahara in the light of current international efforts for the decolonization of Western Sahara, the obstacles of Morocco. The two sides discussed bilateral relations between the two brotherly countries and ways of further developing them.

On this occasion, President Robert Mugabe reiterated the position of the Republic of Zimbabwe to support the just struggle of the Sahrawi people for the liberation of the occupied parts of the territory of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic by the Kingdom of Morocco.

He also expressed his rejection of all attempts of Morocco and its allies to destabilize the African Union in violation of the principles on which it was founded and that the union is the fruit of the struggles and sufferings of the African peoples.

Zimbabwean President also expressed the willingness of his country to develop relations with the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. (SPS)

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STAMFORD  Theres an old case that sticks out in Sgt. Joseph Kennedys mind.

He was called to Stamford Hospital to question the parents of a baby boy with broken bones. The boy had previously been hospitalized with fractures, and when the childs mother had again offered no explanation for his injuries, police and the state Department of Children and Families were called to investigate.

The history of visits to the hospital raised a red flag, Kennedy said.

Weeks of information gathering led to solving a mystery that was medical rather than criminal: The baby had osteogenesis imperfecta  a rare, but treatable, genetic defect that prevented his bones from strengthening.

Its not a conclusion that Kennedy  who as supervisor of the Stamford Police Departments youth bureau for the last decade has examined hundreds of child-abuse cases  came to on his own.

Investigations into suspected abuse, and in the worst case, killing, of children in Connecticut, where there have been 118 infant deaths over the last five years, rely heavily on assistance from specialized groups of pediatricians and other child experts.

As the lead investigator into the death last month of 2-month-old Bella Redondo, which was caused by a head trauma, Kennedy consulted with a unit of doctors and pathologists at Yale-New Haven Childrens Hospital called the Detection, Assessment, Referral and Treatment (DART) team. They helped him understand how the baby girls injuries occurred, allowing him to gather enough evidence to obtain an arrest warrant for Nydia Carrillo-Maldonado, the Stamford daycare provider who was charged with manslaughter in the babys July 12 death.

The arrest affidavit for Carrillo-Maldonado will be unsealed Tuesday and shed light on some of the conclusions police reached in singling out the East Side resident, who, through her lawyer, maintained her innocence after she was charged Aug. 8.

Stamford States Attorney Richard Colangelo, who has successfully prosecuted more than a dozen head trauma cases, said medical testimony is imperative to explain a child or infants injuries.

Child-abuse pediatricians are able to look at the symptoms and injuries and ... help guide us to determine whether the injuries were inflicted or accidental, Colangelo said. The [medical] literature tells us the type of injuries you are finding dont happen from a two-foot or five-foot fall. Kids fall all the time and you dont find them suffering from brain hemorrhages, skull fractures or broken bones.

Faith Vos Winkel, Connecticuts assistant child advocate, said its hard to underestimate the fragility of children under 12 months.

Unlike any other age group, infants by far have the greatest risk of dying from injuries that were either intentional or unintentional, said Vos Winkel, who convenes the states Child Fatality Review Panel and is her offices principal investigator on any in-depth child fatality investigation. No other one year of life through age 17, do you have what you have with infants.

Few homicides

As part of a report she is preparing, Vos Winkel examined the 367 deaths of children age 17 and under that occurred in the state between 2011 and 2015 and determined that 118  nearly a third  were babies of one year or less. Still, there are few infant homicides in Connecticut: two in 2015 and three the year before, she said.

With DART team doctors  and in the northern part of the state, the Suspected Child Abuse and Neglect (SCAN) team at the Connecticut Childrens Medical Center in Hartford  child advocates and police can peel back the onion to see if this injury happened the way the parent or other care giver described, Vos Winkel said.

In the baby Redondo case in Stamford, police obtained the DART teams analysis of whatever injuries are being questioned and used their conclusions in their reports and arrest affidavits.

Kennedy said if the DART team has been called by DCF to consult on a case, police officers may slow down their investigation in deference to their medical colleagues.

We like the specialization of the DART teams experience. We use them like crazy, Kennedy said.

Accidents happen

But the teams conclusions may not only help convict people of child abuse, they can also exonerate them, he said.

We get a lot of cases explained to us by the DART team as simply an accident, Kennedy said.

Dr. Phillip Brewer, who was the emergency department director at Yale-New Haven Hospital until 2007, said clues about injuries sustained prior to those that prompt a criminal investigation are routinely uncovered by DART team members, who will also research whether a childs growth is normal for his or her age  the absence of which may show a pattern of abuse.

Brewer, who is now medical director for student health at Quinnipiac University and has served as an expert witness in more than 30 court cases, said the autopsy would have determined whether the injuries sustained by Bella Redondo included bleeding and swelling of the brain.

A key piece in the Stamford investigation was the approximate time frame the child was injured, police said. However, Brewer cautioned the evidence may not always accurately indicate when the injuries occurred.

The forensics isnt nearly as well defined as one would like it to be and some would like you to believe, Brewer said. To say a bruise is one hour or five hours old has to be taken with a grain of salt.

Staff writer Nelson Oliveira contributed reporting

jnickerson@scni.com;
A t last, London is open for 24-hour business. Until now, despite our best shot, wed failed to match livelier cities such as New York and Berlin, those with a round-the-clock culture and a transport system to match. Now, with the opening of the Night Tube, we are quickly catching up with their lifestyle. Finally, London really is your Oyster.

And thanks to Vodafone Unlimited Fibre Home Broadband, you could have 259* extra cash, which is one really good night out or a series of far better-paced nights out.

So what will you do with the possible extra 259? You could save it for a rainy day (boring), or live like youre in the movies and buy a round for everyone in the pub (generous yes, but how long before you regret it?)

There is a third way. Why not start with a membership to the Picturehouse Central, where for 75 youll get free tickets, save on food and drinks and wont have to pay booking fees? Once youve had your fill at the flicks, stroll over to Yauatcha in Soho for its delicious 40 signature dim sum menu.

If youre feeling cultured, check out the Georgia OKeeffe exhibition at Tate Modern, which is open until 10pm on Friday and Saturday evenings. An annual membership costs 70 and provides free and unlimited entry to all exhibitions across all four Tate galleries in the country. Or go to Iris Dreaming, part of the Grimeborn modern-opera festival at the Arcola Theatre in Dalston: top-tier tickets are around 15. All that highbrow activity is sure to work up a thirst  two Dolly Rum Punches at Hoi Polloi in Shoreditch will set you back 19, and if youre feeling peckish later hop over to Agile Rabbit in Brixton for a five-cheese pizza for 12.

With a little bit of spare cash still in your pocket, why not get your Saturday off to a high-octane start, or if youve been up all night, prolong the party? Morning Gloryville run early morning rave classes from 19, book tickets in advance and head to their Notting Hill outpost on the Central Line bright and early. That leaves 8 left over so swing by Portobello Juice Cafe on your way for a Fit Shake and an energy ball to help keep you going.

The best way to enjoy London is with your spirits high, your eyes wide open and your Oyster card in your wallet.

* Save up to 259 v Sky: 18 months price comparison based on Vodafones Unlimited Fibre 76: 18 month min. term, 28 per month, compared to Skys Fibre Max (up to 76mbps): 12 month min. term, 25pm for 18 months, plus 17.40pm line rental. Price comparisons exclude new line installation costs and activation fees. Prices correct at 17.08.16. For our most recent price comparisons, further details and terms see vodafone.co.uk/broadband.

Vodafone broadband with no line rental

Catch up with all your favourite TV programmes with the new Vodafone Unlimited Fibre Home Broadband. Whats more, theres no more line rental charges on Vodafone's broadband  but they still include a phone line. Broadband is designed to match the way you live your life. It lets you prioritise Wi-Fi speeds to one device when you need it and follows your device, beaming the signal as you move around your home.

Unlimited Fibre 38 from 22 per month for existing customers and 25 per month for new customers. 18-month agreement. Subject to credit check, acceptance & availability in your area. Vodafone Broadband app & compatible Android/iOS device required to use full functionality. No line rental charges on new and upgrading fibre broadband only. 18 a month line rental applies to Unlimited Standard 17 Broadband. Payment by direct debit required. Connection charges may apply: New line provision 60 and/or fibre activation 49. Router delivery charge 6.99. Other upfront set-up costs may apply. Existing customer discount will be removed if youre no longer a Vodafone mobile customer. Full terms at vodafone.co.uk/broadband.
A contemporary art show opens this weekend in London with exhibits exclusively for dogs.

The exhibit inlcudes a simulated frisbee bouncing around a park and an oversized dog bowl filled to the brim with over 1,000 play balls made to look like dog food.

Artist, Dominic Wilcox, said: While its certainly one of the more interesting challenges Ive faced in my career, it feels great to have created such a truly unique collection of interactive artworks for a completely new audience.

Im looking forward to seeing how many tail wags I get in approval

Art show just for dogs opens in London / Free to use

One of the artists interactive exhibits is an open car window simulator where a giant fan wafts a dogs favorite scents through the air as a trio of dogs pop their heads through the windows of a pop art style car.

The exhibition has been commisioned by the insurance company MORE TH>N as part of the PlayMore campaign, which encourages owners to spend more time playing with their pet.

In addition to creating interactive installations for dogs, Dominic Wilcox has also curated original paintings and multimedia exhibits for dogs to admire by collaborating with a collective of five other British artists.

The exhibition opens to the public on Friday 19th and Saturday 20th August on Tanner Street.
P olice have charged three men with the murder of a 19-year-old aspiring musician stabbed to death on a street in south London.

Andre Aderemi was found with knife injuries in Heather Way, Selsdon, at around 7.40pm on Tuesday.

He died in hospital despite the desperate efforts of paramedics and an air ambulance crew.

Three 19-year-old men, Jamall Longergan, Fabio Cela and Rodney Mukasa have been charged with his murder.

The trio appeared at Camberwell Magistrates Court on Saturday, police said.

On Wednesday, a memorial was held for the ex-pupil John Ruskin College who was making his name in south Londons grime scene.

Friends paid tribute to the teenager on social media.

Suzie Voce wrote: "I'm so sorry this happened. No one deserves this. My thoughts are with his family. RIP Andre.

"I always liked him through primary and secondary. I can't believe this happened. It's so so sad."

Amy Macartney added: "I can't stop thinking about this. Today it's really hit home that life is way too short.

"I can't imagine what Andre's family must be going through my heart goes out to them."

Mr Aderemi is the eighth teenage victim of knife crime in the capital this year.
P olice have arrested a man after they saw through his bizarrely realistic disguise as an elderly man.

Officers ordered Shaun Miller out from a house after they tracked him down to the property in South Yarmouth, Massachusetts.

He had been on the run since April when he was charged with trafficking heroin, the US Department of Justice said.

A spokesman said: "Officers ordered Miller out of the residence and Miller, disguised as an elderly man, walked outside.

"Upon further investigation, officers determined that the 'elderly man' was in fact Miller, and at that point, officers pulled off Millers realistic disguise and placed him under arrest."

Two loaded weapons and nearly $30,000 (23,000) were later found inside the property. Miller now faces prosecution.
T wo men wanted over the murder of a young British tourist in Ayia Napa have reportedly been arrested in northern Cyprus.

George Low, 22, from Dartford, Kent, was fatally stabbed in the popular tourist resort while friend Ben Barker, also, 22, suffered four knife wounds to his back.

Cypriot police issued a warrant for two suspects, Mehmet Akpinar, 22, and Ahmed Salih, 43, who were remanded by a court in Nicosia for three days on Saturday, according to reports.

The Cyprus Mail reported the men were brought before court for illegally crossing into a military area.

Knife attack: Friends paid tribute to George Low after the stabbing / Facebook

The warrants were executed after a 48-year-old woman, whose boyfriend is the 22-year-old man, said the men perpetrated the attack.

She told a court in Famagusta a row had broken out between the men and the Britons over urinating in public.

The reported arrests were welcomed by Mr Lows family who said they are waiting for his body to be flown back to the UK to prepare for his funeral.

His mother Helen told the Cyprus Mail: We have not heard anything official from CID, but we are aware of the reports and are overjoyed.

We just want justice for George and Ben, who has been left traumatised by all this. We want justice for them both and will now have to wait.
A n Egyptian man has appeared in court charged with murder after the body of a Chelsea carer was found in Hyde Park.

Hani Khalaf, 21, of no fixed address, is accused of murdering Jairo Medina, 62, who was found in the park earlier this month.

Mr Medina, a professional carer from Chelsea, was the victim of an assault, but a post-mortem examination did not ascertain a cause of death.

Officers were called to the park at around 5.50am on August 12 after a member of the public discovered a man with injuries close to Speakers' Corner.

He was dead when officers arrived.

Khalaf was unshaven and wore a grey prison-issue tracksuit when he appeared at Wimbledon Magistrates' Court today.

He spoke through an interpreter to confirm his name and date of birth.

Khalaf was remanded in custody to appear at the Old Bailey on Tuesday.
A n investigation has been launched after a young man was hurt in an apparent shooting in east London.

Armed police and paramedics were called to New Road in Whitechapel at around 6.30pm to reports of a gunshot fired but found no trace of any victim.

Officers were later called to an east London hospital after a man, thought to be in his early 20s, attended having suffered a gunshot wound.

Police said he is in a stable condition.

Scotland Yard said an inquiry was under way to establish whether the incidents are linked and said the Mets gang unit have been informed.

No arrests have been made.
A man has been left with life-changing injuries after being hit by a car in front of shocked south London revellers.

The 24-year-old was knocked down shortly before 2.50am this morning at a busy junction in Brixton.

Police arrived at the road and cordoned off a large section, closing it to traffic for several hours.

Photos from the scene showed a stationary car in the middle of Brixton Road, near the junction with Acre Lane.

The crash happened close to McDonald's and Brixton Underground station, which had earlier been a focal point for the Night Tube launch.

A bystander told the Standard the area had been busy with people at the time of the accident, but police had tried to usher crowds away.

One shocked witness tweeted: "Praying that the guy I saw get licked down in Brixton survives."

A spokesman for the Met Police said: "Officers and the London Ambulance Service attended and found a 24-year-old man with injuries.

"He was taken to a south London hospital where he remains with life-changing injuries."

The driver of the car stopped at the scene but has not been arrested.

Police enquiries are continuing.
A huge fire has broken out at a hotel in east London.

Fire crews were called to the Park Hotel in Cranbrook Road, Ilford at around 5.45pm after receiving more than a dozen 999 calls.

Pictures from the scene show brightly coloured flames rising from the hotel roof while smoke billows across the skies.

A London Fire Brigade spokesman said it was not know if anyone has been injured and that the roof was completely ablaze.

The cause of the blaze also remains unknown.

Blaze: The fire broke out in Cranbrook Road at around 5.45pm / Indians in London gp

He added 20 firefighters from five different crews have been sent to the scene. The road has been closed with police also in attendance to control traffic in the area.

Witnesses told the Standard around 50 people, including some hotel guests, were stood outside the burning building with some said to be "distress".

City worker Suman Banerjee, 38, who lives nearby, said he was crossing Cranbrook Road when he noticed what he thought was smoke coming from a top floor window.

He told the Standard: "There were a couple of fire engines there but all I could see was smoke and then maybe 15 minutes later it had spread and there were flames.

Billowing smoke: Witnesses told the smoke had become "unbearable" as they watched flames rip through the hotel roof / @Bazza7676

"Police soon came and cordoned off the area and from where I was it was difficult to stand as the smoke had become overbearing.

"It was quite shocking to see the flames rise from the roof like that, there were about 50 people standing outside and some were distressed because of what was in the hotel.

"I was standing next to a couple of guests who were on their phones speaking to their relatives."

The Park Hotel is described as an established family-run business which has stood open for more than 25 years opposite Valentine's Park.

On its website, it is marketed as an "ideal" location for London tourists with accessible bus routes to Dagenham, Chigwell and Barking.

The hotel was unavailable for comment when contacted by the Standard.
T he Government's Help to Buy Isas has been branded a "scandal" after experts warned up to 500,000 first time buyers could be left with an unexpected hole in their finances.

When former chancellor George Osborne launched the scheme last year, he said it would provide "direct government support to anyone saving for the deposit on their first home."

However the Daily Telegraph reported warnings from financial experts that more than 500,000 unsuspecting savers cannot use a 25 per cent Government "bonus" towards the deposit.

The Treasury said it had always been clear that the bonus was only payable on completion of the house purchase and was designed solely to reduce the size of a buyer's mortgage by boosting the amount of equity they could put in.

However Andrew Boast of SAM Conveyancing told the paper that the condition undermined the declared purpose of the scheme.

He said: "It is a scandal. The Government launched this scheme declaredly to help people save the large exchange deposit required to buy a home.

"But what unsuspecting first-time buyers are now horrified to discover is that under the scheme rules they cannot use the bonus as part of this deposit."

Danny Cox, head of financial planning at Hargreaves Lansdown, told the Telegraph: "It's ridiculous that hundreds of thousands of Help to Buy Isa savers risk finding a last-minute hole in their finances.

"Isa providers should be making it absolutely clear that bonus payments will not be available at exchange."

A Treasury spokesman insisted the scheme was proving "hugely popular" helping more than half a million buyers save towards their first home and with thousands of bonuses having been paid out already.

"It has always been the case that money saved in a Help to Buy Isa is for an exchange deposit, with the bonus of up to 3,000 per Isa from the Government going towards the total funds available for the property transaction," the spokesman said.

"The Government has published clear guidance and the industry is fully aware that the bonus is only paid on completion."

Under the scheme, intended to help people get onto the housing ladder for the first time, buyers can save up to 200 a month, plus an initial deposit.

When it is put towards the purchase of a house the Government adds a 25 per cent bonus up to 3,000.
F amilies of the 11 men killed in the Shoreham air crash have lit candles at a church service in their memory, one year after the tragedy.

The names of those who died when a vintage Hawker Hunter jet crashed on to the A27 in West Sussex during the Shoreham Air Show last August 22 were read out at this morning's service.

Prayers were said for victims and their families, marking a day described as one that "started like any other day, but will now always be remembered by so many as a day like no other".

Some of the relatives and friends of the 11 men who died attended the service, including Giovanna Chirico, 32, whose fiance Mark Trussler, 54, was killed as he went to see the Vulcan flight.

Other relatives included Leslye Polito, whose 23-year-old son Daniele died. She said: "The last year I couldn't put into words. It's been a roller coaster. It's a living nightmare. It's all surreal."

Caroline Schilt, whose son Jacob, 23, died, said of the service: "It was amazing to organise something like this and to come together.

"It's lovely for the families to share in this awful thing in a strange sort of way."

The service, organised by Shoreham Churches Together, was held at the ancient, Grade-I listed St Mary de Haura Church in Shoreham-by-Sea, led by the Rev Canon Ann Waizeneker.

In an address by the Rev Terry Stratford, associate priest of St Mary de Haura, he said the community still shared "a sense of loss and bewilderment".

Service: Eleven altar candles lit by victims' families (Tom Pugh/PA Wire ) / Tom Pugh/PA Wire

Families touched by the disaster felt continuing pain at still not knowing the full story behind how their loved ones were killed, he said.

He said: "As much as we might wish otherwise, there seems to be no option but to wait. There can be no real moving on until all that can be humanly known about the air crash is revealed and resolved."

He spoke of the poignancy of the first anniversary of the crash, and praised the response of 999 crews called out to deal with the immediate aftermath.

He added: "Even if we were not present at Shoreham Airport, I am sure we can all recall how and when we heard or realised the enormity of what had happened.

"Now, one year on, the whole community of Shoreham has an opportunity to come together in this ancient church, this sacred place, and reflect for a while on those 11 lives so suddenly and violently taken away.

A mobile phone image showing spectators at the Shoreham Air Show / Paul Jarrett/EPA

"The suffering and shock of unexpected loss, as the bonds of love and family life were traumatically ruptured. Also in this service we think again of the commitment and expertise of those members of the different emergency services who were involved in this fatal disaster."

The service was held two days before the first anniversary of the crash, which happened when the 1950s' plane failed to pull out of a loop-the-loop manoeuvre during the air show.

On Monday, flowers will be laid and a minute's silence held on the wooden Shoreham Tollbridge, which became a focal point for the community in the crash's aftermath, at 1.22pm - the exact time of the disaster.

It emerged last month that the pilot, Andrew Hill, 52, is being investigated over possible manslaughter by gross negligence. He has been questioned voluntarily under caution by police.

Sussex Police last month applied to the High Court to see "protected records" held by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB).

Police want access to copies of reports relating to human factors, engineering, tests and speed calculations as well as film footage of the flight, records of interviews with Mr Hill and a risk assessment report.

Two compensation claims have so far been settled with the owners of the plane, according to Stewarts Law, the firm representing some of the victims' families.

The disaster prompted the Civil Aviation Authority to ground all Hawker Hunter aircraft and ban vintage jets from performing aerobatics over land.

The AAIB published a preliminary report in March which revealed that the organisers of the air show did not know Mr Hill's intended routine.

It was not possible for officials to identify potential hazards before the event without being aware of where the pilot would fly, the special bulletin stated.

A full report into the crash is expected to be released by the AAIB later this year. This year's Shoreham Air Show was cancelled out of respect for victims and their families.
A London-based diplomat who defected from North Korea to Seoul has been branded "human scum" by the regime.

Thae Yong Ho, deputy ambassador to North Korea's embassy in Ealing, defected to South Korea with his family, it was announced this week.

He is the highest-level diplomat to defect from Kim Jong-Un's regime, according to its neighbour.

But in North Korea's official response through its news agency, the state accused Mr Thae of a series of "crimes" and claimed he had been ordered to return home to face investigation.

Instead, it said, Britain tainted its image as a law-abiding country by "handing over the fugitives without passports to the South Korean puppets and neglecting its duty to protect diplomats living in its own country."

It said: "This one clearly deserves legal punishment for crimes he has committed.

"But he proved that he is human scum that has no basic loyalty as a human and no conscience and morality by running away to survive and abandoning the homeland and parents and siblings that raised and stood by him."

Earlier this week, it was reported Mr Thae had concerns about living in London, including paying for the congestion charge.

North and South Korea are technically still at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.
A white supremacist stabbed an interracial couple outside a restaurant in Washington after he saw them kissing, police said.

Daniel Rowe, 32, allegedly pulled out a knife and attacked a black man and white woman during an unprovoked attack on Tuesday.

Both victims received minor injuries after the man was stabbed in the abdomen while the woman also received a knife wound.

Olympia police spokeswoman Laura Wohl said the injured 47-year-old man was able to chase the man and tackle him to the ground before police arrived to arrest him.

Police said the man confessed to the stabbing and claimed he was a white supremacist.

He had a number of racist tattoos, reported to be Skinhead and White Power and made derogatory statements about the Black Lives Matter movement, police said.

It has been reported Rowe approached the couple after he saw them kissing.

Rowe has been charged with with two counts of first degree assault and one count of malicious harassment, CNN reported.

The broadcaster said the 32-year-old had been booked into the Thurston County Jail and is being held on bail.
The Montana Historical Society is celebrating a milestone in Montana historic preservation. The Federal and State Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credit program, administered by MHS State Historic Preservation Office, has incentivized $70 million in private investment toward preserving important historic properties across the state.

Tax credits for income-producing National Register properties have had a major impact on saving Montana heritage, Historic Architecture Specialist Pete Brown said.

Through the program, historic property investment, he said. Only projects where rehab costs exceed the buildings purchase price qualify for the program.

The first historic properties were approved for the tax incentive program in Montana in 1990.

Projects typically involve buildings with good bones, aesthetic and historic qualities, but with significant challenges towards their continued use, Brown said. Without the incentives, Brown said the buildings were likely to continue to deteriorate creating blight in their neighborhoods.

The program has been meaningful to civically-minded idealists who see historic architecture as adding to ones quality-of-life, but its also appealing to your no-nonsense pragmatist who wants a building that is attractive to tenants, and a positive return on investment, Brown said.

Although the average Montana historic rehabilitation tax credit project is just under $1 million, some larger projects have included the $6.6 million Arvon Block in Great Falls; the $2.4 million Billings Babcock Theater renovation; and the recent $2.3 million rehabilitation of the Helena YWCA.

The Arvon Block was built in 1890 by rancher Robert Vaughn as a Great Falls boarding house, stable and warehouse. It is now the 33-room Arvon Hotel and Celtic Cowboy Pub.

In describing the project, co-owner Peter Jennings noted that widespread roof leaks made the building unfit for occupation. The wood framing had rot and mold to the point of structural failure. Before we bought it, most others looking at the building had visions of a cleared lot. I think our project is meaningful for reasons beyond the buildings historical or architectural values. Forty people earn their living in this building. It attracts hundreds of visitors to downtown Great Falls each week. It contributes to the local tax base more than it probably ever has. None of this would have happened without the tax credit program.

In Billings, the rehabilitated Babcock Theater is a collaborative effort between the city and local developers. For 50 years prior to its 2012 revival, the Babcock suffered as economic activity moved to the suburbs.

Co-developer, Kim Olsen says, The theaters redevelopment had long been a priority for the city, but the recession and reduced local tax increment finance (TIF) funds, coupled with the buildings size and the sheer scale of necessary preservation work made redevelopment infeasible. Banks were supportive of the community benefit, but understandably hesitant to offer funding. Tax credits, though, filled a crucial funding gap and ultimately made the project attractive. Today the 760-seat Babcock Theater is striking as a downtown anchor with commercial spaces, and apartments. In 2017, evelopers will gift the theater to the city.

Where many tax credit projects create market rate housing, offices, and hospitality functions, the Helena YWCAs tax credit rehab extends an important social safety net. The nonprofit organization has no tax burden, but it was able to attract outside investors who put capital into the project relative to the tax credit amount they could earn through the substantial rehabilitation of the building.

Helena YWCAs Executive Director, Kellie Goodwin McBride says, We were serving about 25 women and their children in a 100-year-old building with not many updates and significant deferred maintenance. None of the life-safety, ADA, and aesthetic improvements would have been possible without the tax credits that attracted our investors. They put hundreds of thousands into the project that would have otherwise not been obtainable. Its amazing what a stable, safe, and up-to-date building adds to the services we offer.

It is very fitting that this milestone has been reached in Montana in 2016, which is the 50th anniversary of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, said State Historic Preservation Officer Mark Baumler. The Act created the National Register of Historic Places as those properties worthy of preservation, while the tax credit program helps to make preservation happen.
As the political races barrel toward the November election, I have heard it said by people of all political persuasions, This election is about the soul of America.

Being a person of faith and part of a tradition particularly concerned with saving souls, it seems I should take this statement seriously. In the Christian tradition, the soul is a gift from God that drives all life. Many see the soul as the one part of themselves that lasts beyond this mortal life. When we take soul and combine it with our national identity, we explore how we live out our God-given life together. As a Christian committed to living the teachings of Christ, I am learning that to walk a Christian path, I must practice listening to and loving my neighbor, just as I work to listen to and love God.

In the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 12, there is a story of Jesus being confronted by a man who demands that Jesus order the mans brother to divide his inheritance with him. Jesus quickly points out that no one has appointed him a judge and says, Watch out! Guard yourself against all kinds of greed. After all, ones life isnt determined by ones possessions, even when someone is very wealthy.

This passage is traditionally used to make sure people give enough money to the church. As a mentor of mine once said, The problem with churches isnt that there is no money to do things, it is that people are sitting on their money. However, during this heated political season I propose that this passage also applies to political ideologies. Then I imagine my mentor saying, The problem with America isnt that there are no good ideas to help make our country better, it is that people are sitting on their ideas to make themselves look taller.

There is a Pew Research Center study comparing political views from 1994 and 2014. Twenty-two years ago, Democratic and Republican officials were more similar in their voting. In 1994, 16 percent of Democrats and 17 percent of Republicans viewed their opponents unfavorably. Those numbers more than doubled 20 years later to 38 and 43 percent, respectively. More concerning is that the research added a new category in 2014 to reveal that 27 percent of Democrats and 36 percent of Republicans now view their opponents as a threat to the national well-being.

Finally, the report qualitatively demonstrates that people on the right and left rarely change their viewpoints or talk to people whose views differ from their own. So far, this study mirrors my experience of this political season.

The final statistic from this poll is maybe the most concerning. Lets recall the movie Guess Whos Coming to Dinner. This 1967 movie portrays a familys struggle when a young white woman brings home her black fiance. All of this was in a time when people struggled with interracial couples. During that same time, people also struggled deeply when their children married someone from a different religion. The Pew study shows that people are now more concerned about family marrying someone of a different political persuasion than of a different religion. This paints a stark picture of the polarizing direction of our culture.

As people of faith, I feel we are uniquely called to address this trend. It may be time for us to stop sitting on our ideas and start talking to one another. Progressives and conservatives are both guilty of this behavior. Progressives and conservatives both think their ideas are more based in fact or more right than the people on the other side. We tend to not share our ideas with those with whom we disagree. We often dont share out of fear that the consequence of sharing our viewpoints will cause conflict, harm, or that our understanding might be proven wrong.

Sharing our ideas may cause one of these consequences, but not sharing them has led us down a road of deep division. This election very well may be about the soul of our country, which strengthens the call to let go of comforts associated with being right. My invitation, particularly for people of faith, is that we take time during this election season to sit with someone we ideologically disagree with and genuinely listen.

Jesus calls us to this work in learning to love our neighbor as God loves us. Our very soul may rest in the courageous act of standing up, walking over, and listening to our neighbor. A significant portion of Jesus ministry didn't start with telling people how to live, but instead with listening to where their hearts were hurting.

Tyler Amundson is a pastor at St. Paul's United Methodist Church and serves the Helena-area United Methodist congregations. His primary area of ministry is working to reach young adults and to assist the congregations in serving their community. He is a native of Helena.
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An untrue rumor that litter boxes are being placed in schools for students who dress up in furry costumes and identify as cats has made its way to two North Carolina school districts  despite the claim being easily debunked. After hearing chatter about litter boxes inside schools, an employee at North Lincoln High School in Lincolnton decided to put the rumor to rest. There is nobody ...
Friday, 19 August 2016 23:41:48 (GMT+3) |

Several communities in the Sierra Negra region in Mexico are opposing a hydroelectric project that will be built in the limits of Zoquitlan, Coyomeapan and Tlacotepec, and supply electricity to the mines of Mexican ferroalloys producer Minera Autlan.





Local communities complain that the project will contaminate natural resources, harming local rivers, trees and animals.





Martin Barrios, president of the Human Rights Commission for the Tehuacan Valley, said the project will dry local rivers within a 7-kilometer distance, harming plants, aquatic and wild life. He also argued the project should also affect some 160,000 habitants of local communities.





Barrios said Semarnat, the countrys secretariat of the environment and natural resources, gave a conditional permission for the project in 2012 based on the nations electric industry law, by which local populations should be consulted. Barrios said local communities werent consulted so far over the past four years.





A Mexican media report said the project is valued at MXN 500 million ($27.3 million).


Friday, 19 August 2016 00:06:13 (GMT+3) | San Diego

Thirty-nine states added construction jobs between July 2015 and July 2016 while construction employment only increased in 23 states and the District of Columbia between June and July, according to analysis of Labor Department data released today by the Associated General Contractors of America. Association officials said construction employment likely declined in many states as firms have growing difficulty locating qualified workers to hire.





Depending on market segment and geography, many firms report they are having a hard time finding enough workers to keep pace with demand, said Stephen E. Sandherr, chief executive officer for the association. While there is slack in key segments like infrastructure and parts of the country that are struggling economically, many of these declines likely have more to do with firms not being able to find workers than not being able to find work.





California added the most construction jobs (29,100 jobs, 4.0 percent) between July 2015 and July 2016. Kansas lost the highest number of construction jobs (-4,400 jobs, -7.3 percent) for the year.





Texas added the most construction jobs between June and July (7,800 jobs, 1.1 percent), while Ohio shed more construction jobs than any other state (-3,600 jobs, -1.7 percent).





Association officials said construction firms that work on infrastructure projects or in parts of the country where the economy is not growing are still struggling to find work to keep their teams busy. They added however that firms working in fields like private commercial development in states where the economy remains robust continue to worry about having finding qualified workers. They added that the association will release new workforce shortage data later this month that provides more information about current labor market conditions.




Friday, 19 August 2016 23:37:13 (GMT+3) |

Mexican steelmaker Altos Hornos de Mexico (AHMSA) received the approval of a US court under the chapter 15 of the US Bankruptcy Code in the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.





Judge Kevin Gross approved the companys request, a move which is expected to protect the companys creditors in the US.





The judges ruling is the first step for the company to have its filing recognized as a foreign main proceeding under US bankruptcy law. The foreign main is a proceeding pending in a country where the debtor's center of main interests are located.





A media report said the court recognition of the foreign main status would give AHMSA the same automatic protections from creditors for its US assets as in domestic bankruptcy cases, although final stages of the restructuring would continue to take place in Mexico .





According to the companys counsel, AHMSA needed the protection to eliminate risk associated with creditors actions that could potentially affect a recently approved restructuring plan and settlement by a Mexican court.





The risk isnt hypothetical, Marc Abrams, another counsel for the Mexican steelmaker added.


Friday, 19 August 2016 00:01:09 (GMT+3) | San Diego

Baker Hughes has reported that for the week ending August 19, the US rotary rig count increased by 10 to 491 following a 17-rig increase the week before. The number of rigs drilling for gas remained steady at 83, while the number of rigs drilling for oil increased by 10 to 406. The overall rig count is still down by 394 rigs, year-on-year.Meanwhile, the Canadian rig count decreased by five in the week ending August 19 to 121 following a four-rig increase the week before. The Canadian rig count is still down by 87 from the same week a year ago.
Friday, 19 August 2016 23:29:22 (GMT+3) | Sao Paulo

A source from a slab producer in Brazil told SteelOrbis that his last acquisition of niobium ferroalloys was closed at BRL 65,000mt ($20,100/mt), CFR, full taxes conditions for the product in small ingots, the same price in BRL since May, although increased in $ terms due to exchange rate variations.





The source mentioned that a higher price is expected for negotiations in September.





In July, CBMM, the worlds largest producer, exported 6,200 mt of niobium ferroalloys at $20,127/mt, while the Brazilian arm of Anglo American exported 1,000 mt of the product at $20,266/mt, both FOB conditions.





1 USD = BRL 3.21 (August 19)








Friday, 19 August 2016 23:34:10 (GMT+3) | San Diego

August 16 data from the US Department of Commerce, Enforcement and Compliance shows that for the month of July, the US imported 107,443 mt (license data) of line pipe , with the two most significant offshore sources being Korea, at 39,604 mt and Japan, at 23,846 mt.





In July 2015, data shows that the US imported 204,969 mt (census data) of line pipe , with the two most significant offshore sources recorded as being Korea, at 45,105 mt and Greece, at 43,400 mt.





Current US import line pipe offer prices from Korean steelmakers for API X-42 ERW line pipe are unchanged since our last report a week ago and are still being heard at $26.50-$27.50 cwt. ($584-$606/mt or $530-$550/nt), DDP loaded truck in US Gulf coast ports.




When UnitedHealth Group decided this year to quit selling individual insurance plans on the government-run exchanges, many health policy experts said not to worry. They insisted the move by the nations biggest health insurer didnt spell doom for the online exchanges that were created as part of President Barack Obamas landmark health care overhaul.

But last week, another insurance giant, Aetna, said it was dramatically reducing its 2017 presence on the exchanges, including in Missouri.

Aetna does business as Coventry in Missouri. The changes dont affect its other insurance products, such as group health insurance sold to employers or Medicare Advantage plans.

The shake-up has significant consequences when it comes to competition across the country and particularly in Missouri, raising new questions about the strength of the exchanges  also called marketplaces  and needed fixes the industry wants to see to make them more profitable.

A St. Louis Post-Dispatch analysis found that with Aetna and UnitedHealths departures, 96 of Missouris 114 counties will have only one insurance carrier to choose from when shopping on HealthCare.gov for 2017 coverage. Eighteen counties and the city of St. Louis are expected to have two carriers offering plans on HealthCare.gov.

Some of the 96 counties left with one carrier are Audrain, Boone, Butler, Callaway, Cape Girardeau, Cole, Crawford, and Perry.

Eighteen counties and the city of St. Louis are expected to have two carriers offering plans on HealthCare.gov.

And no county in Missouri will offer consumers the option of choosing from among three or more carriers.

Its never good to only have one option, said Sidney Watson, health law professor at St. Louis Universitys School of Law. The idea of the marketplace was to have competition so people had choice.

That affects what hospitals and providers consumers can access. Less competition among insurers also can lead to higher health care prices.

It also hits lower-income individuals and families hard. To qualify for a subsidized plan, Missouri consumers must shop on HealthCare.gov.

This means that individual and families that depend on subsidies and cost-sharing reductions will be very limited in their carrier choices, said Emily Bremer, a Clayton-based broker.

Some have speculated that the move was retaliation against the federal government after antitrust regulators blocked Aetnas potentially lucrative merger with Humana.

Critics point to a letter Aetnas chief executive sent to federal officials as proof. The letter was written on July 5 and first reported this week by the Huffington Post, which obtained the letter through a Freedom of Information Act request. In it, Aetnas CEO said that if the merger did not go through, the company would likely have to scale back its participation in the exchanges.

Aetna will still sell plans off the exchange in Missouri and Illinois, which Watson said is one way to cherry pick individuals who are more likely to be healthier and more affluent.

Some have criticized states that allow insurers to sell off the exchange without also selling on-exchange plans. In Vermont and the District of Columbia, consumers must purchase individual health plans through the exchange.

Health policy experts still believe the marketplaces are viable but they are concerned about the effect of the departures, particularly in Missouri counties that now have one carrier.

They say Aetnas move illustrates a weakness of the federal governments position. It needs the insurance carriers to play ball in this relatively new market to fulfill its promises about access to coverage for American consumers. So the government must address the concerns of the carriers, many of whom have experienced losses on exchanges due to older and sicker patients.

Aetnas move highlights the leverage the industry has over the Obama administration.

Any time you design a public benefit program and use private companies as your delivery system sometimes youre at their mercy, said Sabrina Corlette, research professor and lawyer at Center on Health Insurance Reforms at Georgetown Universitys Health Policy Institute.

One of the problems is the weak mandate, said analyst Steven Halper, a New York analyst covering Aetna for FBR Capital Markets.

Healthy individuals are not buying insurance and will simply pay the penalty on their tax return, Halper said. So the people who buy insurance consume a lot of resources and costs.

Other fixes that should be addressed include reimbursing plans that lost money, a program the government has backed away from; lowering the threshold of insurance, so there are fewer benefits but lower prices; and toughening the individual mandate, the analyst said.

Halper did say its clear that Aetnas move to pull back from the exchanges was a negotiating tactic.

The government appears to be paying attention.

Just days after Aetnas announcement, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said it would look into abuses by health care providers to steer high-cost patients into exchange plans when they may otherwise be eligible for government-sponsored programs that reimburse providers at lower rates.

But what can be done if insurers dont return to the exchange?

Health policy experts such as Watson and Blumberg advocate for a public option to help preserve competition in the marketplaces so when a big insurer leaves, consumers arent so affected.

The public option would be akin to Medicare, the health insurance program for the elderly.

But given Republicans opposition toward the 2010 health law and calls to repeal it, a public option may be unrealistic.
A Connecticut-based investment fund claims that First Banks is being run as a Dierberg family heirloom while board members are burying their collective heads in the sand over a dangerous and gaping capital hole.

Investment funds run by Hildene Capital Management are suing the Clayton-based bank, demanding that it raise more capital so it can resume paying preferred stock dividends.

The bank hasnt paid dividends for years, and Hildene says preferred shareholders are owed $87.8 million, including $17.7 owed to Hildene.

First Banks is the holding company for First Bank, the seventh-largest bank in metro St. Louis by market share.

Hildenes most serious allegation is that First Bank lacks enough capital.

First Banks is not in compliance with federal regulatory capital requirements and has no credible plan to come into compliance, the suit says, claiming that the lack of capital places the company at risk.

Capital is a cushion of owners money in the bank, available to absorb losses and prevent a bank from failing. Federal bank regulators have complex ways of measuring capital, and comparing it against the riskiness of the banks loans and other investments.

The latest report on the holding company available from federal regulators shows its capital ratios much weaker than its peers as of March. One measure, its leverage ratio, would appear to meet federal adequacy guidelines, but it appears to fall below the guide on a more complex capital measure.

In its last filing with securities regulators, for September of last year, First Banks said that it did not meet the common equity Tier 1 capital requirement, and so wasnt rated as adequately capitalized.

First Banks was profitable in the first quarter, earning $7.6 million, and has turned a profit for at least the past three years. First Banks officials didnt respond to a request for comment on Friday.

First Banks fell into deep trouble during the 2008 banking crisis. The family of Jim Dierberg, which controls the bank, pumped more than $100 million into the bank to save it. The bank also took advantage of the federal bank bailout, selling $295 million in preferred stock to the U.S. Treasury.

The Treasury later sold that stock to investors, including Hildene. The U.S. government only recovered $108 million through the sale of the preferred shares.

Hildene, which specializes in distressed debt, wants the bank to raise capital to the point that it could pay dividends again. One way to do that would be to sell common stock to the public, weakening the familys ownership.

Hildene blamed the Dierbergs stubborn refusal to give up control of First Banks for the situation. The firm complained that the federal bailout was meant to provide financial stability during a global financial crisis, not to preserve a family heirloom.

The suit was filed in state court in New York.
Amy Schumer landed between $8 million and $10 million for her new collection of essays, The Girl With the Lower Back Tattoo, released on Tuesday. Any pricey book deal comes with high expectations  and the comedian-turned-actress revealed all, from her dysfunctional childhood to some deeply personal, traumatic experiences.

On the lighter side, she also answered some questions that you may have wondered (or read about) as she has rocketed from an unknown stand-up comic to movie star in only a few short years. Here are just a few:

Is she anything like the sex comic persona she portrays onstage? Not at all. Im so sorry to disappoint anyone who thinks I walk around at all times with a margarita in one hand and a (sex toy) in the other, Schumer writes at the beginning of the book. Maybe the misunderstanding comes from the fact that onstage, I group together all my wildest, worst sexual memories  which is a grand total of about five experiences over the course of thirty-five years.

In fact, shes actually an introvert. As she writes, someone hearing that would likely not believe it: Youre not shy, youre a loud, boozy animal! But Schumer goes on to explain that introverts simply need a lot of alone time to recharge from hanging out with other people. As a result, she finds parties challenging. Usually I will find a corner to hide in and immediately begin haunting it like the girl from The Ring, hoping no one will want to come talk to me, she writes.

Did she really leave a $1,000 tip for a Hamilton bartender? Schumer describes many of the perks of being newly famous, from private jets to being able to text Chris Rock and ask him to direct your HBO stand-up special. Plus, theres the money: She writes that she gave most of her Inside Amy Schumer Season 4 salary to her staff, and donated her Thank You For Your Service paycheck to military families.

And yes, she really did tip $1,000 on a $77 bill at the bar when she saw Hamilton  and was surprised when the news went viral.

Is there anything she wont say on her show? Schumer doesnt really have any boundaries about what shell share. But it turns out she once cut a segment from Inside Amy Schumer that involved an awful professional matchmaker who told Schumer (among other things) that she was still single because she told so many sex jokes, and set her up on a horrible blind date.

It was the most disturbing Amy Goes Deep scene Ive ever taped. Keep in mind Ive talked to a climate change denier, a pickup artist and a diagnosed sociopath. But this woman left the darkest cloud over me. It still makes me feel angry and demoralized, Schumer writes. Hearing a dating expert inform me why Im not attractive to men, and then having to put myself out there to meet a man she selected who might actually be interested in me, was very scary.

What was up with that Mens Health editors note? If you ever read Schumers 2012 essay in Mens Health, you might notice that theres a lengthy editors note about why they swapped a graphic treatment for a photo of Schumer herself, and noted the comedian was upset we didnt use a photo of her. Schumer devotes a whole chapter to the incident, talking about what it was like when she saw the magazine used three pictures of young models next to her essay. I could just hear them saying, Schumers a very fun girl. Bright, with a face for podcasting. She prints an awkward email exchange with a defensive editor (who says they dont use photos of any celebrity authors) and ends the chapter with a challenge to magazines to rethink how those decisions come across to women.
(This is a RBR  fed-speak for "reprint by request"  of a story that first ran on Aug. 16, 2010)

Nash was always, to my recollection, the "red-headed stepchild" of the American automobile industry through much of its post-war history. A stylish car with unique features and a track record for dependability, the Nash rolled in the shadow of "the Big Three" automakers, GM, Ford and Chrysler ... formidable competitors with much deeper pockets when it came to advertising budgets.

When it came to styling, the 1953 Nash Ambassador Country Club, (flagship of the "Airflyte" models), shown here dressed in formal Black with Spanish Red roof, was a carryover from the companys Golden Anniversary 1952 line. The unique and somewhat unconventional styling was the work of famed Italian automotive designer Giovanni Battista Farina. Better known as "Pinin Farina," his automotive designs have been commissioned by a widely diversified group of automakers worldwide, including Italian marques such as Alfa Romeo, Fiat Maserati and Ferrari ... and American cars by General Motors, from Chevrolet to Cadillac, and Ford. Nash proclaimed the 1953 "Airflyte" models Pinin Farinas latest styling triumph."

When it came to styling, there was one element which Farina couldnt take credit. The beautiful pinup girl stretched out on a chrome rocket-like form, was designed by none other than George Petty (1894-1975), the famed American pinup artist whose lovely ladies graced the pages of Esquire and True magazines. His work was copied by military artists and used as "nose art" for war planes.

As one might expect, a famed designer sometimes puts style ahead of practicality. Case in point is the low-cut front wheel opening of the 53 Nash Ambassador. Sleek in appearance, it was less than practical when manoeuvring the larger Nash as the edge of the fender opening limited the turning radius as you might imagine. Ever been in one of those situations where you had to make a quick decision whether or not to make a fast U-turn in front of oncoming traffic? Havent we all? Nash owners had to exercise caution in such situations as a "GO" decision would often result in a panic-stricken, backup scenario to avoid curbing the big Nash. And who wanted to scuff up those gorgeous Goodyear wide white sidewalls?!?

Ambassador was always top-of-the-line for Nash Motors and the 53 models rode a 121.25 wheelbase and a full 209.25 overall body length, a full 14 inches longer than Chevrolets top-of-the-line Bel Air.

When it came to traveling convenience, Nash was king ... known for its fully-reclining front seats, which folded flat to form a reasonably comfortable bed for mom, dad and maybe a kid or two. Nash proclaimed the 53 Ambassador as "The 'Travelingest Car' Ever Built! Nash marketers went on to say it was ideal for anyone who travels including hunters and fishermen.

The Ambassador Country Club two-door hardtop had a factory base price of $2,829, which earned it the distinction of being the priciest model for the year. Options such as power steering and Weather Eye Conditioned Air System, bumped it just over the $3,000 mark. That translates to roughly $25,000 in 2010 dollars. Total calendar year production for full-size Nash automobiles was 93,504 of which 6,438 were Ambassador Country Club two-door hardtops. If you have a burning desire to run out and buy one before the summer cruise season at Chuck-A-Burger ends, expect to pay around $20,000-plus for a trophy-producing example ... thats IF you can find one!

Upcoming events

Join The FIN MAN & Co. THIS Sunday, Aug. 28, when well be cruisin at JJs Restaurant, in OFallon (Missouri, that is). This is always a fun cruise and the food at JJs is out of sight!" You wont be sorry you made the trip. I cant believe its been more than a year since Lou and I (and Roy) were there. My burger, cooked to order, was nothing short of a miracle! And Lou was quite pleased with his two pork chops, which he downed with abandon. And Roy ... well, he never goes hungry. JJs is everything you could want in a family restaurant, serving steaks, burgers, pasta and more in a casual atmosphere. For more information on the cruise, call 636-978-1737, ask for the boss, Mike Spies, and please be sure you let him know The FIN MAN told you about it right here in the Old Car Column!

Stay tuned right here for the date and location of the next Breakfast With the FIN MAN.

Thanks for reading the Old Car Column and Keep on Cruisin!

Bruce Kunz, a.k.a. "The FIN MAN," is a member of the Society of Automobile Historians. If you love old cars and care about kids, help by visiting www.thefinman.com/Take_a_Kid_to_a_Car_Show.html and visit www.thefinman.com.


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It may look like a bike, but its been more of a lightning rod in recent weeks in a St. Louis business district.

But after a monthlong absence, the uniquely designed and decorated tall bike is back at its old perch, a public bike rack at Macklind and Murdoch avenues.

I think it shows how supportive and loving this community is, owner Adam Guess said. It was awesome how this brought people together.

Guess, executive chef at downtown restaurant Death in the Afternoon, found the bike abandoned five years ago in the Central West End. The bike is of the lamplighter style, modeled after those used in the 1890s by men who had to manually light gas street lamps. The saddle is about 5 feet off the ground.

After moving to Southampton last year, Guess rode it several times but didnt use it much after February, because the wheels were locking up.

The last two times Id ridden it, Id been thrown off. So I locked it up, Guess said, conceding that the tires went flat and the Irish-flag paint job began to fade as it sat at a bike rack.

Id come out every day and think, I need to do something with that, he said. But he didnt, and the cycles condition deteriorated.

Guess praised fellow Southampton resident Donna Agah for being the point person in resolving the matter.

Agah rolled out the following timeline for the teapot tempest the two-wheeler created:

On June 30, a Southampton resident posted a message on Nextdoor, a social media app that allows residents of specific neighborhoods to chat. Posts are seen only by residents of the specific neighborhoods. The post read: Rusted bike remains eyesore.

And then there were more than 150 replies, which is a whole lot, Agah said.

The debate went back and forth, pro-bike and anti-bike, for a week. Apparently, a complaint also was filed with the citys Citizen Service Bureau.

On July 6, a resident posted a photo of two men using a grinder to cut through the chain that secured the bike to the rack. Behind them was a city street department truck.

So Agah went to work to find out under what authority the city removed the bike.

It just struck me as a little high-handed, Agah said. I found out they used the abandoned vehicle laws, which didnt seem very applicable.

So on July 7, Agah called city street commissioner Kent Flake.

Mr. Flake and everyone at (the street department) was very nice, Agah said. Mr. Flake said he saw my point and would have the bike back to me in 24 hours.

But it wasnt more than a few hours later that they were delivering it to my garage, she said.

Flake could not be reached for comment about this story.

Once the bike was returned to the neighborhood, it sat in Agahs garage until she could get in touch with Guess. He took the bike back, smoothed out the rust spots, touched up the paint, and fixed the tires and wheels.

Then on July 24, Guess invited people to come out and watch the bikes triumphant return ride down Macklind.

I had 30 people tell me theyre glad the bike is back, that they missed it, Guess said.

In fact, during the month the bike was out of view, someone secured two decorative tires to the bike rack in apparent homage to the missing bicycle. Later, someone attached a stuffed animal.

Agah said the incident meant different things to different people.

The bikes detractors saw it as an eyesore that did no favors to the rising small-business district along Macklind.

Fans of the bike looked upon it as a piece of public folk art that had become a symbol of sorts for the community.

And still others questioned why a city facing major social problems would focus on a lone quirky bike.

But Agah, reflecting her past career as an AT&T project manager, took a more practical view.

Personally, she said, I was more concerned with the city just taking someones private property.
WASHINGTON  Of course, there will be soul food. But thats not the soul of the foodways exhibition at the upcoming National Museum of African American History and Culture.

We wanted to break up the idea that theres one type of food, and that African-Americans all eat that type of food, said curator Joanne Hyppolite. African-Americans have been involved in perfecting a number of American cuisines. Because literally, they were always in everyones kitchen. Its way more diverse than soul food.

One area of focus? Oysters.

Catching, shucking and selling oysters was a way for African-Americans to make a living. Its an industry theyve been involved in from sea to table, Hyppolite said. Curators collected artifacts that were used by African-American oystermen and vendors, including an oyster basket, culling hammer and shucking bucket, as well as menus from Thomas Downings Oyster House, a famous New York restaurant that attracted prominent white patrons.

Many of the artifacts were purchased at an area antiques store.

Street vendors, from the early 20th century to Baltimores present-day Arabbers, are another area of concentration. The museum has amassed a series of old postcards depicting African-American fruit sellers, and an audiovisual component in the exhibition will include field recordings of their unique cries, which have been preserved by the Library of Congress.

That doesnt mean soul food will be absent from the exhibition. One item on display of particular significance is a pot from the longtime Washington soul food restaurant Florida Avenue Grill.

They would be extremely proud, said Lacey C. Wilson Jr., whose parents founded the Florida Avenue Grill in 1944.

The younger Wilson, now 80, took over the restaurant from 1970 to 2005, when he sold it to Imar Hutchins. He said the fact that the museum acquired a collard greens pot was especially meaningful: It was a staple there for 60 years.

Collards also speak to the evolution of soul food, Hyppolite said. After all, now they have a vegan version.

The foodways exhibition is part of the Cultural Expressions Gallery, which will also include artifacts relating to fashion, crafts, dance and language.

Within the foodways portion of the exhibition, there will be three areas of focus, divided regionally: The North will encompass the oyster industry; the agricultural South will focus on collard greens; and the Creole South will examine the cuisine of New Orleans and diaspora Caribbean populations, with an emphasis on red beans and rice.

Those three topic areas align with the stations in the museums restaurant, North Star Cafe, named for the beacon in the sky that escaped slaves followed to freedom. But in the cafe, there will be one more area of focus: The West. That means there will be barbecue in the restaurant, but not in the museum  a decision that may raise the hackles of some barbecue traditionalists.

We had it slated, and then we just ran out of space, Hyppolite said.

Throughout all of the topic areas, the museum will tell the stories of famous African-Americans such as Hercules, George Washingtons enslaved cook, and New Orleans chef Leah Chase, whose jacket and cookbook will be on exhibit. Curators are also beginning to amass a collection of early cookbooks and other culinary literature, such as The Negro Motorist Green-Book, which functioned as an early Michelin guide for African-American travelers, telling them which restaurants and hotels were safe to visit during segregation.

There are food-related objects elsewhere in the museum, too. An exhibition on segregation includes stools from the Greensboro, N.C., sit-in, which will be displayed in a re-creation of the lunch counter where the demonstration took place. Also in that exhibition are displays of the stereotypical images of African-Americans  such as the mammy caricature  that were often depicted on food packaging and advertisements, as well as throughout pop culture.

In some instances they were (depicted) to endorse the quality of the food, said guest curator Spencer Crew. In others, they used stereotypical imagery to get people to chuckle.

The museums collection of food artifacts is small: Only 74 items out of the 37,000 total. But it is growing: Now that the opening exhibitions are finalized, Hyppolite says curators can move on to what they call Day 2 collecting, or sourcing a broader selection of objects for future exhibitions. Hyppolites goal is to acquire an object or cooking implement from every famous African-American chef, whether its a handwritten recipe, a pot, a hat or a menu.

Still, there are difficulties in collecting culinary artifacts for a museum.

Food smells, and food things attract pests. So we have to think very strategically when were collecting cooking implements, Hyppolite said. We dont want pests in our collection because then they go to other parts of the collection and damage those areas.

That was something they had to consider when acquiring the Florida Avenue Grill pot. It had to be cleaned, but not too much.

That used pot has a lot of life, said Michele Gates Moresi, curator of collections. The grime and the grease is part of the story.
Something stinks in Bridgeton, but the source isnt always obvious. Neighbors of the Bridgeton Landfill have complained of a foul stench since an underground fire started there in 2010. The Fred Weber asphalt plant in neighboring Maryland Heights also can give off a distinctive odor.

More recently, the Champ Landfill in the village of Champ has taken blame for the smells. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency cited the landfill between Bridgeton and Maryland Heights last week for its lack of odor control.

The Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District stopped taking raw sludge to the Champ Landfill in May, when the EPAs inspections turned up odor violations at the landfill.

When we pay to take product to a landfill, we count on (them) to manage it properly, said Lance LeComb, a spokesman for the sewer district. Im not going to say ours is an odorless business, but others shouldnt try to foist their problems on us because theyre trying to save money.

The sewer district issued two violations earlier this year against Champ Landfill for its runoff that introduced dangerous levels of hydrogen sulfide gases in the sewer system, LeComb said.

Champ Landfill recently came under new ownership with the consolidation of Progressive Waste Solutions and Waste Connections. The new owners have given the sewer district plans to correct the problems with the runoff, and agreed to pay about $1.6 million for gas extraction wells and other improvements to control odors in an agreement with the EPA. The waste company did not respond to requests for an interview.

Residents say the problems at Champ should not detract from their concerns about the Bridgeton Landfill, which connects to the West Lake Landfill that contains radioactive waste and is overseen by the EPA as a Superfund toxic site. The nonprofit group Just Moms has pushed for a buyout within a one-mile radius of the landfills.

Kathy Bell, who lives in the Spanish Village neighborhood between the Champ and Bridgeton landfills, said she can tell the difference by smell.

All of us that have smelled it know what a distinct odor that the Bridgeton Landfill has and theres no mistaking it for any other odor, Bell said. Theres no denying that Champ has a problem with odors as well, and it just adds to the bad quality of air in this area.

A complaint log for Bridgeton odors thats been kept since 2011 by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources has more than 1,600 entries. Bell has logged more complaints than any other resident, about 170 times since 2010. She said she only logs odors from the Bridgeton Landfill, which she describes as a burnt chemical smell.

In 2013, Bell and dozens of other residents stayed in hotels for a few weeks when work on the Bridgeton Landfill stirred up odors. Republic Services, the landfills owner, paid for the hotel stays. The next year Republic paid out $6.8 million in a class action settlement for 947 Bridgeton residents over the foul odors. The company says it has spent more than $180 million on odor reduction efforts.

It has always been a little frustrating to be tagged for odors upwind from the landfill. Champ is only one of several other (odor) sources in the area, Republic spokesman Richard Callow said.

The odor complaint log is shared with the owners of the Champ and Bridgeton landfills and Attorney General Chris Koster, who sued Republic Services in 2013 for environmental violations related to the Bridgeton Landfill. The court date in the case has been pushed back to 2017.

Meanwhile, people living near the landfills say they are frustrated by the ongoing odors and worried about what theyre breathing. The most recent state and federal data shows that radioactive particles and other toxins in the air surrounding the Bridgeton Landfill are below levels for health concern and consistent with urban areas.

A recent report from the St. Louis County Public Health Department found slightly higher rates of asthma and chronic lung disease in the two-mile radius around the Bridgeton Landfill, but not enough to blame the site for respiratory problems. The report did show that nearby residents experience higher rates of shortness of breath, insomnia, headaches, nausea, fatigue and stress over the air quality.

As a parent I dont really care where the odor is coming from, said Dawn Chapman of Maryland Heights, a founder of Just Moms. All of this is happening in a relatively small area in a community with schools, with churches. Its a stink-for-all.
UPDATED at 10:30 p.m. with the hit-and-run victim's name and other details

FERGUSON  Police are looking for five people who were in a stolen SUV in a hit-and-run crash that killed one man Friday afternoon.

Michael T. Ellis, 27, of St. Ann was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash shortly before 5 p.m.

Ellis was northbound on Harvey Avenue and was entering an intersection when the Nissan Pathfinder SUV, speeding east on Carson Road, failed to yield and struck the driver's side of his car, according to a Missouri Highway Patrol crash report.

Ellis's vehicle continued until it hit an empty car parked in a nearby driveway, according to the report. The SUV rolled over and came to a stop on its right side.

Four men and one woman were in the SUV, city spokesman Jeff Small said. All five abandoned the vehicle and ran off on foot.

Ferguson police discovered the SUV was reported stolen out of St. Louis county after arriving at the scene, Small said. He said police are investigating the incident as a "vehicular homicide" and interviewing witnesses who saw the crash.

The Missouri Highway Patrol assisted in the investigation.
BOSTON  In an experiment backed by the federal government, Northeastern University and General Electric are offering a new manufacturing degree program to be taught primarily at the companys work sites. Students will take online courses through the university, undergo training at a GE plant and earn a bachelors degree within three years.

The biggest twist: For the first time, students who enroll in that kind of partnership will be eligible for federal financial aid.

Under U.S. law, financial aid is prohibited for programs in which at least half of the instruction comes from ineligible entities outside the school, such as GE. But in a pilot project meant to help low-income students, the U.S. Education Department is opening financial aid to eight programs jointly offered by schools and companies.

While America has some of the best colleges and universities in the world, as a system were still catching up to the needs of todays new normal college student, Education Undersecretary Ted Mitchell told reporters on Tuesday, adding that the typical U.S. college student is no longer an 18-year-old, but a working adult.

In its first year, the project will offer up to $5 million in federal aid for students in eight programs chosen by the Education Department. The experiments goal is to prepare students for the growing number of jobs that require some level of higher education, but on terms that are flexible enough for working adults.

The experiment is being called EQUIP, short for Educational Quality through Innovation Partnerships.

Among the programs chosen by the department, most are new partnerships between colleges and education companies, including four academies for computer coding.

The University of Texas at Austin, for example, is pairing with the coding boot camp MakerSquare to offer a 13-week certificate in web development.

Thomas Edison State College in New Jersey is working with the website Study.com to offer online bachelors degrees in business administration and liberal studies, to be completed at a students own pace through video courses.

At Northeastern, the new degree aims to combat what school officials say is a shortage of workers with advanced manufacturing skills. The program will launch next spring, starting with up to 50 General Electric employees as the first students. By fall 2017, the university hopes to expand the degree program to students across the U.S.

In order to bring manufacturing back to the United States, we need to focus on the advanced aspects that require skills, that require expertise, Northeastern President Joseph Aoun said.

The program will cost $10,000 a year without financial aid. Students with some college experience can complete it within a year and a half, school officials said.

Each of the partnerships will be assigned an independent organization to monitor their work and evaluate student incomes. The monitors include consulting firms and education advocacy groups. Ultimately, the Education Department will decide whether each partnerships pilot was a success.

Its not enough to measure only access or simple enrollment, Mitchell said, we need to have a laser-like focus on outcomes.
The crowd that packed Shawn Jacobs basement stood enchanted in the light of brightly glowing neon beer signs, ready to buy.

A trove of more than a dozen vintage neon signs owned by Jacobs, the founder of Ciceros, a Delmar Loop nightclub, sold at auction Saturday.

Jacobs was 73 when he died June 10. The estate sale at his house in Chesterfield attracted about 125 registered bidders and a large number of looky-loos. The buyers were a mixture of memorabilia collectors, resellers, bar owners and longtime patrons of Ciceros.

Auctioneers from TNT Auction & Estate Services worked the crowd. A neon Oly on Tap sign sold quickly for $225. A Busch guitar sign from 1989 sold for $155. A Market Street Beer sign sold for $200. A large Miller Lite Super Bowl Rams 2000 World Champions sign fetched $350.

Most of the signs sold within a couple of minutes, but a vintage Budweiser sign in the shape of a guitar led to spirited bidding. Several gotta-have-it guys held up their bidding cards as auctioneers exhorted them to go higher.

The bidding came down to three, then two men. After one finally shook his head, the Bud guitar went to Gary Rockwell for $575.

It was a little bit more than I wanted to spend, Rockwell said later. But the signs excellent condition and collectibility made it worth the price, he added.

Youre not going to find that many of them, he said.

Rockwell, 65, said the sign will go in the very large man cave he and his wife, De, began building in the basement of their St. Charles home the day after the Rams won the 2000 Super Bowl.

The Rockwells also bought a Killians Irish Red bar mirror, a plastic rhinoceros head and a Michelob Classic Light sign with some of the neon on the fritz. Rockwell said he knows a guy who can fix it.

Beer taps for popular as well as obscure brews also sold well. The 40 taps, most sold in groups of six, brought in more than $1,300.

Jacobs opened Ciceros in 1977 in what is now the Blueberry Hill Piano Room. Together, Blueberry Hill and Ciceros helped establish the Loop in the St. Louis music scene.

In 1997, Jacobs looked to expand Ciceros and found the current location at Delmar Boulevard and Kingsland Avenue. But it was in the original basement bar in the mid-1980s that Ciceros began booking music and showcasing alternative rock bands.

A Ciceros Basement Bar cap from St. Patricks Day 1984 sold Saturday for $2.50.

The estate sale included furniture and household goods as well as items from Ciceros. No item was too small  or unusual. Two ashtrays from Caesars Palace sold for $10, and someone paid $12.50 for a stuffed and mounted piranha.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott confirmed Friday that the Zika virus was being spread locally by mosquitoes in Miami Beach, a development that marks an expansion of the outbreak in South Florida and immediately prompted a new travel advisory by federal officials.

We believe we have a new area where local transmissions are occurring in Miami Beach, Scott said at a noon press conference.

The transmission zone covers about 1.5 square miles between 8th and 28th streets, and between the beach and the intracoastal waterway  a stretch that encompasses the densely packed South Beach tourist district.

It also encompasses the Miami Beach Convention Center, which is set to host the Asia America Trade Show for vendors around the world starting Sunday.

Health officials said at least five people had been infected with Zika there, including two who live in Miami Beach. One person from Texas, one from New York and another from Taiwan each have returned home but were infected while traveling in Miami Beach.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention quickly issued a second travel advisory Friday afternoon, saying pregnant women should also avoid the designated area of Miami Beach. The agency said that pregnant women who live in the area or have to travel there should take extra precautions to guard against mosquito bites, including wearing repellent. It gave the same direction for these womens sexual partners.

In a call with reporters Friday, CDC director Tom Frieden said the Miami Beach area presented a difficult situation for health officials trying to halt the Zika outbreak. It has a constant stream of visitors, many of them international, who could carry the virus elsewhere should they get infected. The low-flying planes that have been spraying specialized insecticide over Wynwood cannot do so over Miami Beach because of the presence of high-rise buildings and the often windy conditions. And South Beach is a beach, after all, notorious for skimpy bikinis and a general lack of clothing.

The amount of exposed skin also makes it harder to prevent infections there, Frieden said. We think this will be a challenging area.

Scott said Miami-Dade County already had begun an intensified mosquito control campaign in Miami Beach. And he sought to reassure state residents  and especially the tourism industry  that his administration was doing everything possible to combat the spread of the virus. He said the state also would be requesting more resources from the CDC, including additional Zika testing kits.

But while Frieden praised the work of Florida officials and said intense spraying and other mosquito control efforts had killed many mosquitoes in the Wynwood area, he noted that the Aedes aegypti mosquito primarily responsible for spreading Zika is resilient.

Its a tough mosquito to kill, he said. This is truly the cockroach of mosquitoes.

On Thursday, Scotts office adamantly disputed reports that mosquitoes were transmitting Zika in Miami Beach, despite multiple health officials telling reporters that indeed was the case. In his press conference Friday, the governor faced questions about whether he had tried to obscure evidence of an expanding outbreak, in part to protect the states massive tourism industry.

He said that state health investigators had only finished their inquiry into the new cases Friday morning and that he had rushed to Miami to deliver the news and meet with local leaders.
MISSOULA -- As the first refugee family in decades was arriving in Montana, GOP gubernatorial candidate Greg Gianforte mailed out fliers using a photo suggestive of a terrorist and urged a halt to refugee resettlement here.

One of two fliers the campaign said were sent statewide pictured Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock under an armed man with head draped in a scarf and claimed "Bullock supports bringing Syrian refugees into Montana.''

On the flip side, under a smiling photo of Gianforte, he says: My heart breaks for those families torn apart by Radical Islamic Terrorists abroad and I feel we have a moral obligation to help. However, that obligation does NOT include settling unvetted refugees in our communities and homes here in Montana. As Governor, Ill stand up to dangerous refugee programs.

Mary Poole, who founded the community organization aiding with resettlement in Missoula, Soft Landing, said the reality for refugees is very different than the picture painted by the stock photo of an armed man on Gianfortes flier.

Id be surprised if that photo was even a Syrian person at all, let alone a Syrian refugee, she said. Its just really misinformation and its disheartening that people seeking a position of power would promote that misinformation and play off of such a persecuted population.

In reality, she said most refugees arrive to their resettlement city carrying one little blue plastic bag like a grocery bag with a few papers and all their worldly possessions.

Campaign spokesman Aaron Flint said it is sheer coincidence that thousands of the fliers hit mailboxes the same week a refugee family of six from the Democratic Republic of the Congo arrived in Missoula.

The revival of resettlement office there has fueled protests and debate.

In the flier, Gianforte promises to ban refugees from countries with terrorism ties, stop any resettlement until vetting is fixed and to prevent attacks "like we've seen around the world.''

But governors have no authority to control immigration. Decisions about who can enter the U.S. are made by federal officials.

The flier is Gianfortes latest shot at Bullock over an issue that first became political currency last fall when President Barack Obama proposed resettling 10,000 Syrian refugees in the U.S.

The mailers wording matches rhetoric from conservative stump speeches nationwide, including from Donald Trump, who has called to block the resettlement of Muslims out of fear they could be Islamist terrorists.

A November letter signed by 30 governors, all but one of whom were Republicans, called for federal leaders to halt resettlement until the countrys vetting process could be strengthened.

Gianforte has criticized Bullock for not joining them.

Bill Swersey, who helps resettle refugees in several states coast-to-coast, said the Montana debate is playing out in campaigns across the country.

The history of resettlement is that Democrats and Republicans have supported it almost without question. Unfortunately, a lot of the discussion is divided along party lines this year, said Swersey, a spokesman for HIAS, a Jewish nonprofit that is one of the countrys nine resettlement agencies.

We dont want to resettle people in places where theyre not welcome, but the fact of the matter is communities all across the United States are welcoming refugees despite what their governors are saying.

Between Oct. 1 and July 31, nearly 60,000 refugees from 75 countries were admitted into the United States, according to federal records. By comparison, millions of foreign nationals enter the country each year as tourists, students, workers or immigrants with much less security scrutiny.

Out of the nearly 750,000 refugees settled in the United States since 9/11, only three people have faced terrorism charges, according to an analysis by the Migration Policy Institute last fall.

Its very difficult to get into the United States as a refugee,'' said Molly Short Carr, the new head of Missoula's refugee resettlement office. "Its a complex process thats in the hands of the Department of State and the Department of Homeland Security. Refugees are the most vetted immigrant groups. The average processing time is about three years.

"Weve admitted hundreds of thousands of refugees since the 1980s in the U.S. going back to the Hmong and Vietnamese," she said. "These are the people feeling the violence, not perpetrating the violence. These are the groups who are victims of ISIS.

Poole said photos like the one on the Gianforte flier matter.

She noted that the 2015 photo of 3-year-old Alan Kurdi, washed up dead on a Turkish beach, helped sparked the push to bring resettlement back to Missoula, which had taken in Hmong and Russian refugees decades earlier.

As the first Congolese family arrived in Missoula on Thursday, a video and photo of a 5-year-old Syrian boy, covered in dust and blood after surviving a bomb blast, circulated on social media.

Those are photos of refugees, she said. Families that are suffering. Families that have had relatives killed and are fleeing for their lives.

The Congolese family resettled in Missoula had lived in a region where hundreds of Christians have been murdered by a rebel group identified by the United Nations as an Islamist terrorist organization with ties to Al Shabaab.

Speaking only through their spokesmen, neither Bullock nor Gianforte had a message for the newly arrived family.

Bullock has repeatedly taken a hands-off approach to the states debate about bringing refugees to Montana, noting that governors have very little authority to influence the federal resettlement process. He used the issue as an opportunity to cast Gianforte as someone who stretches the truth for political gain.

As governor and as a father, the safety and security of Montana families, especially our kids, is always priority number one for Steve Bullock, Montana Democrats spokesman Jason Pitt wrote. It remains ever important to maintain a thorough vetting process to ensure Montanas safety and security while honoring our responsibility to keep all families and kids safe. The fact that Greg Gianforte is misleading voters with fearsuggesting that any governor has the power to ban refugees  is dishonest and concerning."

Gianforte, meanwhile, has attacked Bullocks stance as weak and putting Montanans at risk. The fliers and statements reflect ther campaign's assertions that Bullock has repeatedly failed to stand up to federal overreach.

While this is predominately a federal issue, the governor could be an effective voice to stop Obama's Syrian Refugee Program  he is the former chairman of the Democratic Governors Association after all, Flint wrote. Seems he's more interested in protecting Obama than in protecting Montana.

Flint said Gianforte was unavailable to comment about his newest fliers, citing campaign responsibilities in Colstrip.

The spokesman could not say how Gianforte would fulfill his promise to stop resettlement in Montana, nor which countrys refugees the Republican would ban given that many, not just Syrians, are fleeing terrorism in their own nations.

This is not about refugees, Flint said. This is about ISIS, a terrorist organization which is dedicated to killing Americans.

Missoulian reporter Kim Briggeman contributed to this report.
Concord, NC (PRWEB) August 20, 2016

ACN, Inc., the world's largest direct seller of telecommunications, energy and other essential services for home and business, and the 26th largest direct selling company overall, continues to make history with the launch of its 25th country, Japan.

Headquartered in North America, ACN has primarily been a services-based company, with individuals creating home-based businesses offering services such as phone, wireless, internet and gas and electricity. However, ACN introduced an innovative strategy that combines the services industry with the health and wellness industries in many of its international markets. ACN Japan will initially focus on offering its BenevitaTM product line a premium lifestyle brand that provides wellness, nutrition and weight management products. Additionally, the company seeks to offer a variety of services to customers in the future, including wireless, energy and internet.

ACN opened its Japan headquarters in the Minato neighborhood of Tokyo in mid July providing a meeting space, a call center, corporate offices and a product storefront allowing ACN to provide service and support locally to current and future Independent Business Owners and customers.

ACN began its expansion into Asia in 2010 with the launch of South Korea and brings more than two decades of success in the direct selling industry to Japan under the leadership of VP of Sales Danny Bae. As an ACN IBO for many years, and the driving force behind ACN's Asian expansion, Bae has hands-on experience to help develop leaders in Japan, as he has successfully done in Korea.

"As the fifth largest direct selling market worldwide, Japan was incredibly appealing to us," said ACN President and Co-Founder Greg Provenzano. "But it was the people that sealed the deal when selecting Japan to continue our Asian expansion."

About ACN Inc.

Founded in 1993, ACN is the world's largest direct seller of telecommunications, energy, and other essential services for residential and business customers. ACN provides the services people need and use every day including Phone Service, Wireless, Energy, Merchant Services, Television, Home Security and Automation and High Speed Internet. ACN operates in 25 countries with offices located throughout North America, Europe, Asia, Latin America and the Pacific. For information on ACN's home-based business opportunity, visit http://www.acninc.com.

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2016/08/prweb13626323.htm
CHAGRIN FALLS, Ohio (PRWEB) August 20, 2016

The Chagrin Documentary Film Festival will screen 76 films during its seventh annual event October 5-9 at venues in and around Chagrin Falls. The selected documentaries represent the work of filmmakers from 24 countries and focus on a wide range of thought-provoking topics.

Tickets go on sale September 1 at http://www.chagrinfilmfest.org.

Multiple festival winners have been nominated for Academy Awards, while the festival itself has been named one of Movie Maker Magazine's Top 50 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee for the fourth year in a row. The magazine credits festival staff with drawing in local interest groups to related documentaries.

Film buffs will be able to choose documentaries from eight categories this year. They include:

Emerging Filmmaker:

"This category reflects our commitment to giving a voice to the first time filmmaker," said Festival Director Mary Ann Ponce, who founded the festival in 2010 to honor her son, David. "It has always been our mission to empower talented filmmakers and to share their stories with our enthusiastic and engaged audience."

The films include: Chasing the Win - Directed by Chris Ghelfi and Laura Sheehy (USA); Following Seas - Directed by Tyler Kelley and Araby Williams (French Polynesia, USA); I Approve This Message - Directed by Jesse Strauss (USA); Kilimanjaro Warriors: A Monumental Goal for Recovery - Directed by Bevan B. Bell (USA); South Bureau Homicide - Directed by Mark Earl Burman and Mike Cooley (USA) This is Honduras - Directed by Taylor A. Purdee, Executive Producer, Brandon Jackson (Honduras, USA).

Environmental Films:

Films which highlight an environmental or ecological theme include: Atlantic - Directed by Risteard O'Domhnaill (Canada, Ireland, Norway); Baobabs Between Land and Sea - Directed by Cyrille Cornu (France, Madagascar); A Last Stand for Lelu - Directed by Tamo Campos and Farhan Umedaly (Canada); Our Local Epic - Directed by William Taggart (USA); Sustainable - Directed by Matt Wechsler (USA).

Feature Documentaries:

These films include documentaries on any subject which are longer than 40 minutes in length.

This category includes: Heroes on Deck: World War II on Lake Michigan - Directed by John Davies (USA); One Size Fits All - Directed by Samuel Garcia Sanchez (USA); The Slippers - Directed by Morgan White (USA); What Would Beethoven Do? - Directed by Jonathan Keijser (USA); Women Outward Bound - Directed by Maxine Davis (USA).

Human Spirit:

This category celebrates stories of those who are met with seemingly insurmountable challenges, and yet overcome. They are meant to inspire all of us. These films include: Accidental Courtesy: Daryl Davis, Race & America (USA), - Directed by Matthew Ornstein (USA); Breakfast at Ina's - Directed by Mercedes Kane (USA); The C Word - Directed Meghan O'Hara (USA); Gold Balls - Directed by Kate Keckler Dandel (USA); The Hollywood Shorties - Directed by Ryan Steven Green (USA); Popcorn Sutton: A Hell of a Life - Directed by Neal Hutcheson (USA).

The International Documentary:

This category includes films which are either filmed outside of the US or highlight an important international issue. Accepted films include: Atlan - Directed by Moein Karrimoodini (Iran); Blood Lions - Directed by Nick Chevallier and Bruce Young (South Africa); Condemned to Live - Directed by Noemi Veronika Szakonyi and Mate Artur Vincze (Hungary); Craving Cuba, A Documentary Film - Directed by Zuzeln Martin Lynch and Rick Lynch (Cuba, USA); Kandahar Journals - Directed by Devin Gallagher and Louie Palu (Afghanistan, USA); Return to Zanskar - Directed by Daniel Bull and Bryan Liptzin (India); Sands of Silence: Waves of Courage - Directed by Chelo Alvarez-Stehle (USA).

Social Awareness Documentaries:

These films cast a light on current and compelling issues meant to raise public awareness. These films include: Fred and Emile - Directed by Christian de Rezendes (USA); My Hiccups are Gone - Directed by John Schaffer (USA); Off the Rails - Directed by Adam Irving (USA); Romeo is Bleeding - Directed by Jason Zeldes (USA); Shelter in the City - Directed by Terence Donnellan (USA); Unslut: A Documentary Film - Directed by Emily Lindin (USA, Canada); Wrestling Alligators - Directed by Andrew Brendan Shea (USA).

Local Interest:

The stories which focus on our own backyard, Ohio, will engage local history buffs or just those film goers who are proud of their home state. These films include: All It Takes - Directed by Drew Dickler and Jake Hochendoner (USA); The Blur - The Dwight Anderson Story - Directed by Branson Wright (USA); Draw Hard - Directed by Jon Nix (USA); Good Luck Soup - Directed by Matthew Hashiguchi (USA); A Good Ship and Crew Well-Seasoned: The Fitzgerald and Her Legacy - Directed by Phil Marisey (USA); Hang on Sloopy: The Movie - Directed by Brian Grady and Dave Whinham (USA); The History of Chase Brass - Directed by Joseph Jurecki and Travis Pollert (USA); Nancy Corrigan - Sky Blazer - Directed by Gillian Marsh (Ireland, USA); The Swingos Celebrity Inn - Directed by Andrew Marquard (USA).

Student Films:

Ponce said this category is especially close to her heart, since it is made up of aspiring filmmakers searching for an audience. They are directed by high school, college and post -graduate students and include: Kansuksa - Directed by Bryce Cyrier (Laos, USA); Pizza Man, Roaming - Directed by Ryan Chester (USA); The Valley of Salt - Directed by Christophe Magdy Saber (Egypt).

Special Presentations:

"We have invited these films to screen at the festival because of the important issues our society is facing or for the noteworthy impact they can have by bringing these stories to Northeast Ohio," said Ponce.

Special presentation films include: Presenting Princess Shaw - Directed by Ido Haar (USA); Uncle Gloria - Directed by Robyn Symon (USA); Under the Gun - Directed by Stephanie Soechtig (USA); Underfire: The Untold Story of Pfc. Tony Vaccaro - Directed by Max Lewkowicz (USA).

Short Documentaries:

This category includes films on any subject matter with a length of less than 40 minutes. These films include: Bunee: The Boy from Constanta - Directed by Bunee Tomlinson (USA); Empowerment is the Key - Directed by Hollie Brubaker (USA); The History of Intimacy - Directed by Sangsun Choi (USA); Home at Dawn - Directed by Guille Isa and Billy Silva (Peru); Joshua Tree: Threatened Wonderland - Directed by Bill Wisneski (USA); The Ken Burns Effect - Directed by Tia Shuyler (USA); Last Day of Freedom - Directed by Dee Hibert-Jones and Nomi Talisman (USA); The Learning Alliance - Directed by Muhammad Umar Saeed (Pakistan); The Legion of New North - Directed by Justin Liberman (USA); Message in a Bottle - Directed by Daniel Schmidt (USA); Mumbai Mornings - Directed by Veena Rao (India); The Nike Chariot Earring - Directed by Karen Audette (USA); The Ocularist - Directed by Chelsie Corso and David Foster (USA);Of Duckpins and Destinies - Directed by Andy Kelemen and Mike Rubino (USA); The Rain Will Follow - Directed by Eugene Richards (USA); Shipping Home - Directed by Sam Smartt and Chris Zaluski (USA); The Spirit of Cincinnatus Growing with Cincinnati - Directed by Lauren Pray (USA); Starring Austin Pendleton - Directed by Gene Gallerano and David H. Holmes (USA); Thailand's Seafood Slaves - Directed by Environmental Justice Foundation (Thailand); Through the Thick - Directed by Nino Leitner (South Africa); Through the Wall - Directed by Tim Nackashi (USA, Mexico); Wasfia - Directed by Sean Kusanagi (Nepal); Where Are We Going? - Homeless in Sacramento - Directed by Marta Quinn and Madeline Rackerby (USA).

About the Chagrin Documentary Film Festival

The Chagrin Documentary Film Festival is presented by Fevered Dreams Productions, a non-profit, 501(c)3 organization dedicated to empowering filmmakers to tell their stories.

Cash awards totaling $15,000 will be presented to the winning film's directors, including $5,000 to the overall David Ponce Best of the Fest winner . The top Emerging Filmmaker will claim $2,500 in prize money. All other category winners will each take home $1,000.

The Chagrin Documentary Film Festival is made possible by grants from Cuyahoga Arts and Culture and the Ohio Arts Council and generous support from:

Presenting Sponsor: Medical Mutual of Ohio; Platinum Sponsors: Cohen and Company; Gold Sponsors: Chagrin Valley Chamber of Commerce, the Chagrin Valley Times/Currents, Sequoia Financial; Silver Sponsors: Hotcards Inc., Rock The House, University Hospitals Geauga Medical Center; Spotlight Sponsors: The Adcom Group, Automated Packaging Systems, Jewish Federation of Cleveland - Israel Arts Connection, Cleveland Magazine, Neverbounce, South Franklin Circle; Supporting Sponsors: Black Box Venues, Chagrin Falls Popcorn Shop, Cleveland Clinic, Digital Alchemy, Gamekeeper's Taverne, Greater Cleveland Film Commission, Hamlet Village Retirement Community, Hilton Homewood Suites, Hotel Indigo, Huntington Bank, Junction Auto Family,Lowes Greenhouse, Florist & Gift Shop, Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage, Peppertree Capital, Rotary of the Chagrin Valley, Transition Studios, Wells Fargo Advisors; Community and Film Partners: Avalon Castings, Chagrin Falls Township Hall, The Chagrin Falls Historical Society, Chagrin Valley Jaycees, Chagrin Valley Little Theater, Cleveland International Film Festival, The Federated Church, Global Cleveland, Great Lakes Brewing Co., The Inn at Walden, Keep It Local Project, LLC, The Robert Halliday Co., True Vision Marketing, United Methodist Church of Chagrin Falls.

To become a Festival sponsor, volunteer, or learn more about the Film Festival's schedule and activities, visit http://www.chagrinfilmfest.org.

For more information, contact: Chagrin Documentary Film Festival at 440-247-1591 or at chagrindocfest(at)gmail(dot)com.

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2016/08/prweb13622336.htm
NEW YORK, NY -- (Marketwired) -- 08/20/16 -- Jacob Frydman, real estate expert, commercial developer, and humanitarian is once again determined to donate his time, attention, and resources in support of the Brem Foundation during breast cancer awareness month. Frydman has been committed to this worthy cause and continuously assists in championing the Foundation's diligence to empowering women in becoming proactive in this fight year round.

The Brem Foundation is dedicated to the early detection and treatment of breast cancer as it is the most commonly diagnosed type of cancer among women - second only to skin cancer. Misinformation and late detection are the two elements allowing this ailment to remain so deadly. One of the most popular misconceptions surrounding this illness is that only those with a family history are in danger of developing breast cancer and while the risk for women who have a first degree relative (mother, sister, or daughter) with it doubles, statistics show that 85% occurrences are in women with no family history at all. An estimated 246,660 new cases are expected to be diagnosed in 2016 alone, making it imperative that awareness be brought to this issue. The Brem Foundation, along with its partners and donors, are working to eradicate the lack of knowledge surrounding the matter by educating women on risk factors, screening options, and even providing diagnostics for those without health insurance. A staggering 95 percent of women survive when diagnosed early; while the survival rate plummets to 20 percent when the illness goes undetected until the latter stages. Their message is clear and simple-a breast cancer diagnosis is not a death sentence nor does it have to equate to a diminished quality of life. In fact, thousands of survivors are living testaments that breast cancer -- when caught early -- can be conquered.

Jacob Frydman is one of the many advocates supporting the Foundation's important and life changing work. Through his donations, time, resources, and concerted efforts pushing their campaign forward, the Brem Foundation is able to provide community outreach programs and free screenings for underserved communities in the Washington, DC, Maryland, and Virginia (DMV) metropolitan areas. The foundation's mobile mammography program is one of the primary ways in depth diagnostic screenings are provided to neighborhoods where residents have little access to health care services. The idea is to provide a complete view of breast cancer and treatment, through initial screenings, exposure to valuable information concerning risk factors, yearly mammograms, self-examinations and a myriad of viable options if the diagnosis is not positive-in short they are extending hope and a life line where none existed. Frydman understands and underscores the vision of the Brem Foundation and through their partnership, and his generous donations of time and much needed funding; he is determined to help defeat this curable disease.

Throughout his 30 year career, Jacob Frydman has taken on causes such as breast cancer awareness that expose his, compassionate nature and commitment to philanthropic endeavors. As a well-respected and successful real estate tycoon, he has participated in over $2 billion worth of investment and commercial development transactions. He shares his experience and in-depth knowledge of value added investments and the art of configuring, financing and brokering complex real estate agreements on Fox News, CNBC and Bloomberg TV and by also serving as an expert panelist at industry seminars and lecturing at universities across the nation. He earned a degree in finance from Boston University and a Juris Doctor from Case Wesern Reserve University School of Law. To learn more about the Brem Foundation, visit: http://www.bremfoundation.org/

Jacob Frydman - Blog - JacobFrydmanNews.com: http://JacobFrydmanNews.com

Jacob Frydman (@jacobfrydman) - Twitter: https://twitter.com/jacobfrydman

Jacob Frydman - Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/jacob-frydman

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An inflatable boat from the Spanish vessel Astral operated by the NGO Proactiva collects migrants off the Libyan coast in the Mediterranean Sea August 18, 2016. REUTERS/Giorgos Moutafis

ROME (Reuters) - Three Syrian children drowned along with three adults when a wooden boat trying to carry war refugees to Europe capsized off the coast of Libya, a humanitarian rescue group said on Friday.

The bodies of two girls, aged eight months and five years, were pulled out of the sea about 22 nautical miles from Libya on Thursday after the small vessel packed with 27 Syrians flipped over and sank, the Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) humanitarian group said.

The bodies of two women and one man were also recovered, but a five-year-old boy who was on the boat when it sank was not found, MOAS reported. MOAS operates two rescue boats in the Mediterranean Sea between Italy and Libya.

A fishing boat and a ship operated by humanitarian group Proactiva Open Arms collected the 21 survivors, who are now being taken to aboard the Responder, a MOAS boat.

The media spotlight refocused on the plight of civilians in Syria's conflict this week following a wrenching video of a dust-covered, disoriented five-year-old boy, Omran Daqneesh, pulled from the rubble after a bombing raid in Aleppo.

More than 500 migrants were rescued from overcrowded and unsafe boats in seas between Libya and Italy on Thursday. They included 146 people plucked from a semi-deflated rubber vessel, Italy's coastguard said.

Last year, Syrian refugees bound for Europe tended to take a short boat ride to Greek islands from Turkey. Those routes have been largely shut down this year, forcing some to make the longer and more dangerous voyage from North Africa toward Italy.

Thousands of children have been killed in the Syrian civil war, now in its fifth year, and more than 3,000 migrants have died in the Mediterranean so far this year, the International Organization for Migration estimates.

About a quarter of all boat migrants in 2016 - some 100,000 have arrived in Italy - are children, the U.N. refugee agency says.

(Reporting by Steve Scherer; editing by Larry King)
MISSOULA -- Missoulas latest wave of refugees has begun. A family of six Congolese arrived in town Thursday from East Africa, and the first five-person family mentor team trained by Soft Landing Missoula swung into action to ease the shock.

Theyre so in culture shock. Theyre exhausted. I know it took me a good month before I was adapting to the time here, said Molly Short Carr, director of Missoulas International Rescue Committee (IRC) office.

Carr arrived in Missoula six weeks ago from a two-year stint working at a refugee support center in Nairobi, Kenya.

As announced earlier this month, the family is made up of a mother, father and four children, three of whom have spent their whole lives in a refugee camp in Tanzania. Because of privacy issues, Carr cant release the names of the new arrivals. Details on the parents plight and flight out of their native Democratic Republic of the Congo arent available.

Youre going to see them in the community and know theyre here, but at the same time we need to remember they are individuals and may not want this information shared, Carr said.

The new family is in temporary housing and at the beginning of a 90-day cultural orientation period.

We assist them and facilitate the process to apply for social services, Social Security cards, registration for the children to attend school and registration for (English as a Second Language) classes for the parents, said Carr.

The three oldest children of the family are of school age.

They are the first of what the IRC hopes will be 25 refugees landing in Missoula by the end of the federal fiscal year on Sept. 30. Missoula can expect to see 100-125 refugees in the first year. All are products of a vetting process through the United Nations, Department of State and Department of Homeland Security that the IRC says began, on average, almost three years ago.

A family mentor team will be trained for each family that arrives in Missoula. Carr said she and the volunteers have been showing the first arrivals how to use an oven, sink and refrigerator. Theyve known no other means of cooking except over an open flame.

If theyre living in a refugee camp theyre not going to have running water, let alone hot and cold water, she said. Theyve never refrigerated milk or eggs or mayonnaise, which are prepared for warm storage there.

Cleaning and maintaining a closed house with walls to keep mice and other rodents out is a new experience as well.

While the majority of Congolese refugees are Christian, I havent asked this family their specific faith affiliation, Carr said.

They speak Swahili, the primary language in eastern and southeastern Africa. Carr is acting as the primary interpreter through their common knowledge of French.

Soft Landing Missoula, spurred by the Syrian refugee crisis, formed a year ago and successfully petitioned the International Rescue Committee, one of nine federally funded resettlement agencies working in the U.S., to open an office in Missoula.

The IRC was here in the late 1970s and early 1980s to help Hmong refugees from Laos start new lives. It gave way to the Lao Family Community, which morphed into the Refugee Assistance Center that helped bring a smaller wave of Russians to town starting in the late 1980s.
1970s cry of export or perish becoming more real today By Sunimalee Dias View(s): View(s):

Sri Lanka will soon have access to a three billion market of consumers through its resumption of trade ties. Central Bank Governor Dr Indrajit Coomaraswamy said last week. Addressing the Presidential Exports Awards for 2015 and 2014 in Colombo in the presence of President Maithripala Sirisena, the governor said Sri Lanka is aiming at linking ties to boost trade with India, China, Singapore, Pakistan, the EU and the US by next year. Dr. Coomaraswamy explained that Sri Lanka is in the process of negotiating a Comprehensive Partnership Agreement with China and bilateral agreement with Singapore and an Economic Cooperative Trade Agreement with India, a trade agreement with Pakistan, agreement for GSP + concessions with the European Union and a trade and investment framework with the US. In this respect, the country would be having access to a market of about three billion people next year, he said.

He also praised Indias decision to pass the General Services Trade that is expected to create a single market access for countries like Sri Lanka.

The governor highlighted that a lot is riding on the fiscal consolidation programme in Sri Lanka that plans to cut significantly trim the countrys fiscal deficit. Expressing concern over the slow growth of Sri Lankan exports, he noted the slogan export or perish was first heard in 1970 but that today the overall export performance in the country was not what it should have been. He blamed the countrys conflict of over 30 years and the macro economic framework as constraints to the development of the exports sector. Export Development Board (EDB) Chairperson Indira Malwatte said that currently the focus was on a vertical shift in the existing portfolio to a high tech and innovative products.

She noted that Sri Lanka needs to increasingly connect with the global value chains to boost exports in the country. International Trade and Development Minister Malik Samarawickrama said the government is pursuing its goals of boosting trade ties bilaterally with an open mind. The minister said that the Economic Trade Cooperation Agreement with India was done with the aim of increasing the number of goods and reducing the negative list. The governments focus is to move towards a private sector led export development strategy, he said. Brandix Apparel won the coveted Sri Lankan Exporter of the Year award for both 2014 and 2015.
Burgeoning debt trap exacerbated by Dragon-debt trap By Dr. Palitha Ekanayake  Economist and Procurement Consultant Colombo Port City will see foreign debt doubling to $115 bln from $57 bln in 2016 View(s): View(s):

President Maithripala Sirisena, during an awards ceremony at the Sri Jayawardhanapura University on August 8 invited all educated and knowledgeable citizens come forward and contribute solutions to nationally significant problems without allowing politicians to do everything.

It is commendable that the president has noticed the silence of the educated class in this country, and taking on the offer, this article reflects on the economic issues faced by the country. Its very clear that Sri Lanka is currently in the debt-trap and the Finance Minister is working hard to resolve the liquidity-puzzle. The Colombo Port City Project (CPCP) is another ambitious and large-scale Dragon development project started by the Rajapaksa Government, without assessing its feasibility, socio-economic effects, overall costs and benefits, capacity of the government and even possible damage to the country and costs of losing regional security and peace.

CPCP which began in September 2014 was a hot issue on political platforms at the last Presidential and Parliamentary election in 2015. The present government discontinued the CPCP due to various criticisms, adverse comments, unresolved environmental issues, possible misappropriations, procurement issues and due to various types of opposition in March 2015. Now the project is restarting under a brand new agreement signed on August 12, unfortunately without allowing public discussion and also presenting it to Parliament. One can only assume that the government has looked after the interests of Sri Lanka, cost and benefits, and territorial security and internal sovereignty issues. Even then, it is doubtful whether its economically possible to implement a project which is nearly 100 times bigger than the Hambantota Port when considering the present financial condition of the government; the existing debt trap together with existing socio-economic,-financial and political problems of the Sri Lankan economy.

According to rough estimates, the CPCP completion cost is around US$ 30 to 40 billion including an 8-year cost escalations. Total cost includes land filling-reclaiming around US$3 to 5 billion which is said to be free for Sri Lanka. In addition, as Chinese authorities once stated, the cost of structures is $13 billion or more for developing the Chinese land. The estimated cost for developing Sri Lanka-owned land development would be US$15 to 20 billion, for which Sri Lanka has to find funds. Being the second largest economy in the world, China is able to provide better facilities and structures than Sri Lanka can afford, and thus would be able to attract the foreign investor to the Chinese side. It is impossible for Sri Lanka, even to provide basic facilities: such as roads, water, electricity, telecommunication, gas, waste disposal, etc because the basic infrastructure alone costs at least $8 to 10 billion without structures. Sri Lanka has to borrow from the open market at high cost. Is that possible? In addition, how would Sri Lanka bear the cost of maintenance and real estate management cost, at a time when Sri Lanka is on the door-step of a public debt  driven economic crisis and an already caught-up by debt-trap situation?

State of SLs current economy

The size of the Sri Lankan economy is around $85 billion in 2015 in terms of GDP while the volume of public debt has reached $82 billion, close to almost 100 per cent of GDP. Out of the total debt, foreign debt burden is around $60 billion including state institutions and going to absorb almost all the export earnings for annual debt repayments or same as the total government revenue in 2015. During the last regime, borrowings from the open capital markets were at exorbitant rates of interest with shorter repayment periods resulted in debt-trap situation.

Although the opposition criticizes the government for heavy foreign borrowing in 2015 and even in 2016, it is understood that the government is repaying short term debts taken by the previous government-utilised lavishly for White-Elephant type projects. The present government has to find resources; borrow high-cost debts for repaying previous debts. Debt repaying liability with the current borrowing is expected to double or triple in 2017. It is worthwhile to examine whether the government has the capacity to bear further huge debt liability in the near future.

TABLE

Ultimately all the macro-economic indicators deteriorated significantly, with a huge fiscal deficit and external debt burden, trade deficit, Balance of Payments deficit, deteriorating external reserves, exchange rate depreciation and almost facing incoming recessionary situation as summarised in the table. Some of the serious adverse economic concerns and the capacity of the economy are as follows:

Huge fiscal deficit: Anticipated fiscal deficit is almost 100 per cent than the revenue in 2016 and there is no hope that the revenue could be increased even in 2016 due to objection for VAT increase. Government fiscal deficit is forecasted to be further increase in 2017 and 2018 including the losses in state ventures.

Debt-driven foreign borrowing: It appears that the country is almost caught in a serious debt trap which may develop into an economic crisis in the near future. Presently, total debt ratio equals GDP and a further increase is expected under the ongoing circumstances.

Adverse trade deficit: Poor export production irrespective of import bill reduction and increasing fish export to Europe in 2015 and in 2016. There are no signals to show an improvement of agricultural exports which are estimated to fall by 7.5 per cent in 2016. A similar drop in the industrial export sector and the services sector is also forecast. In the meantime, the import bill is seen rising due to a possible price hike in fuel and exchange rate depreciation in 2017.

Incoming BoP crisis: The trade deficit-driven BoP crisis situation may arise in 2016 irrespective of inflow of foreign-employee-remittances and income from services. Additionally maturing debt repayments may worsen BoP gap in 2016 and 2017.

Adverse international conditions in 2016 and 2017: International socio-economic conditions will affect the small trade dependent market economy in Sri Lanka. Developing political disturbances and financial difficulties in Middle-East, Russian block of countries may affect export revenue and workers remittances.

Completely neglected economic sectors: Political authorities are largely devoting their time to the power-struggle and dont understand the ongoing Dragon-scale economic problems. They have almost neglected their ministerial portfolio-responsibilities. In the meantime ministerial-level senior managerial level officials and designated advisors are playing to the tune of the political authorities, safeguarding their personal perks. Opposition political groups are criticising everything and not willing to accept that they are partners (or even the cause) of the present economic situation in the country and should unite to save the country.

Neglected fiscal consolidation and populist policies: It appears that the most needed fiscal consolidation hasnt happened to mitigate the enhancing fiscal consolidation.

Reclaiming land by strong economies experience

Evidence shows that the countries that reclaimed lands had their own investment funds, carefully evaluated assessments and proven cost-benefit evaluations. Many such projects are with benefits and outcomes to their economy. However, there are failures of ghost-cities. Some of the win-win cases are: Singapore Changi Airport and Marine Bay site; Jerome Island for petroleum refinery business; Santos Island Leisure Park; Japan Tokyo Bay; China: new city of Shanghai; Hong Kong Airport and Disneyland; Netherlands: Maasviakte Rotterdam Port and Denmark: Amager Starind Copenhagen beach reclamation project.

Sri Lanka however has no investment funds, financial capacity, economic feasibility and proven benefits and outcomes or any of those justifications for a new International Financial City on reclaimed land in the Indian Ocean. A similar International financial City could be built anywhere in the country at least cost and higher benefits than CPCP.

New Colombo Port City agreement

China has claimed $175 million as damages which is similar to what a commercial bank does to its defaulters. It is partly threatening an empty-pocketed Sri Lankan government without any legal justification. At the end, the damage claim has been converted into a portion of reclaimed land ownership. We are reminded of the proverb that there is no free lunch or no deliberate help to Sri Lanka; it is purely a business deal. Ultimately Sri Lanka has got caught by a deadly-trap. CPCP is a dead-rope given by the last regime, swallowed barely by the authorities in spite of many other unresolved economic problems. It is pity that the government has been pushed to a situation where it cannot say no to the CPCP. It is a sort of a Dragon-Trap in addition to the existing debt-trap.

Some of the changes in the new CPCP agreement, we learn, are:

Reclaimed land will be allocated to China on 99 year lease basis;

A new trilateral agreement will be signed between the Ministry of Megapolis and Western Development, UDA and the project company;

Agreed to follow strict environmental restrictions;

Reclaimed land will be managed by a newly proposed Financial City Corporation (FCC);

Utilities and transport facilities: The project company will evaluate a long-term solution to ease the governments responsibility of undertaking provisions for road infrastructure and utility services for the site. Most probably the cost will be on a partnership basis;

Management and maintenance of the reclaimed area by a Estate Management Company in partnership with the government;

Limits impose on developing state land has been modified

Changes to status: Government will be allowed to build a financial city;

Changes to reclaiming extent: 269 hectares instead of 233 hectares in 2014. China will own 110 hectares while government will own 159 hectares.

Estimated reclamation cost and ownership cost:

It is the general perception that there is no cost to Sri Lanka as the project is entirely carried out by China. This is far from the truth. According to new estimates for 269 hectares, the price escalation of reclamation will cost around $3 to 5 billion with a 6-to-8 year construction period. The cost of Chinese ownership may be around $1.226 billion and $1.773 billion cost to the government. Under current prices, bare land cost of a hectare is $11.2 million (Rs. 1,672 million). Present land cost of Colombo prime land may be around Rs. 40 to 60 million. According to information, China will invest $13 to 15 billion to develop their land while it may cost around $18 to 20 billion or roughly Rs.3,200 billion to the state to develop its own land. Even for basic facilities the government has to spend $8 billion or Rs.1,280 billion and without such basic facilities, there is no commercial value. Another issue is that if the Chinese side offers better facilities than Sri Lanka can afford, foreign investors will be enticed by the Chinese offers.

Besides China can accommodate its own investors while Sri Lanka has to look for international investors. Moreover, Sri Lanka has to borrow internationally at a higher cost, as per rough estimates an extra $10 billion for three years for the project operation in addition to $7 to 10 billion to serve the current foreign debts. Then the estimated foreign debt of $57 billion at the end of 2016 may increase to around $70 billion, $90 billion and $115 billion during 2017 to 2019 in spite of no return from many of the projects including CPCP. It is not at all realistic to expect the small Sri Lankan economy to tackle this huge debt. Under the present economic state of conditions, this would be a daylightdream, a disastrous move pushing the country to the fire from the firingpan.

Possible additional country-compensations claims

It is said that the project company will allocate Rs. 500 million or almost $3 million for fishermens income support. This amount will not be sufficient at all and the government would have to look after the other compensation claims estimated to be Rs. 15 to 20 billion for granite, clay, gravel sand sites affected crowed, road transport, pollution and for other affected people. In the meantime, opposition parties may aggravate the situation with public protests which in time could develop into demands for a regime change or other disasters.

Employment and income generation potential

The CPCP construction work which will take 5 to 8 years will be carried out by over 2,000 direct local and foreign employees and at least 10,000 indirect employees. The cost of local project procurement supplies is around $900 million during the construction period. According to the estimates, once it is completed, the project expects to generate around 100,000 jobs for locals but many of these high-tech and knowledge-based work are likely to be filled by foreigners in the absence of proper TVET education plans.

Suggestions to avert crisis

According to the summarised facts and evidence detailed above the government has to choose a proper economically, socially, politically, legally and internationally feasible and viable alternative with the least cost and damage to the country. Besides, Sri Lanka has no capacity to commit for such a Dragon-scale investment project according to the economic conditions noted above. Although the MoU has been signed on 12th August, some of the suggested alternatives are:

1) Discontinue the CPCP and pay the compensation claim to China if it is included in the original agreement. Do not take the highlighted risks which will pave the way to an economically, socially and politically disastrous situation.

2) Postpone CPCP to a further period until burning economic problems are resolved.

3) If the government chooses to continue the CPCP project, then it must be ready to face the possible consequences both internally and externally.

Finally, politicians who have entered into short term political and social contracts with the people (through elections) have no right to pass the Dud debt obligations to the countrys future sons and daughters.

(The writer is a freelance

economic consultant.

He could be reached at

palithaeka@yahoo.com)
Gemfields UK begins gem trading in Sri Lanka By Bandula Sirimanna View(s): View(s):

After more than two years of vigorous groundwork and clearing all legal barriers while dispelling local concerns of engaging in gem mining, UK-based Gemfields Plc, one of the worlds largest coloured gem producers, is now ready to begin gem trading in Sri Lanka, officials of the company announced. Gemfields and East West Gem Investments (EWGI) established a gemstone trading company called Ratnapura Lanka Gemstones (Pvt) Ltd, a company approved by the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka (BOI Sri Lanka) in 2014. The company recently called for Expressions of Interest (EOI) from local mining companies with a view to setting up an organized supply chain in the renowned Sri Lankan gemstone industry.

While supporting the local industry through its technical capabilities, proprietary grading systems and marketing methodologies, Sri Lankan gems will be offered to international buyers via Gemfields proven auction platforms, once the supply chain is established, they disclosed.

This joint venture will add value to Sri Lankan gemstone production, growing the sector and contributing to economic development. Following the call for EOI from local mining companies and traders, appointments will be made after the completion of a due diligence appraisal with respect to generally accepted sustainability and operating criteria.

Any gems that are purchased (from the local vendors) will then be processed, sorted, graded and offered to potential buyers via Gemfields proven auction platform, Mohan Natarajan, Head of Business Development at Gemfields, told the Business Times in an e-mail communique sent while he was travelling to a remote part of Africa. The Business Times highlighted this gem trading venture in its November 30, 2014 edition following an interview with Mr. Natarajan, several hours before his departure to London after a brief visit to Sri Lanka. In his latest email communique, he revealed that Gemfields is already supplying emeralds, rubies and amethysts to the market in this manner, each of which has seen a quantum escalation in demand and achievable prices over the past few years and thereby ensuring that maximum benefits are returned to the relevant producing nations.

We have also been keen to add sapphires to this list for some time now and are confident of the value we will provide to local gem sellers, he added. The primary focus of the trading company Ratnapura Lanka Gemstones (Pvt) Ltd is, and has always been, the sourcing of sapphires from various sources within the local market, where they would be processed, sorted, graded, parcelled and offered to potential buyers via Gemfields highly acclaimed auction platforms, he explained. The UK company has acquired a 75 per cent stake in three EWGI subsidiaries, holding 16 exploration licences covering diverse minerals, for US$400 000. Our current focus in Sri Lanka is on trading operation and understanding the geology through exploration. We have received a trading licence and are in the process of setting up operation very soon.

We are also forming a team to start the research process on the Sri Lankan sapphire industry and also start the first leg of the exploration, Olivia Young, Marketing Executive of GemFields told Business Times in a separate e-mail communique. Ian Harebottle, CEO Gemfields commented; We are pleased to start this next phase of activity in the Sri Lankan gemstone industry. World famous for the quality of gemstones, we are optimistic we will be able to bring our proven-expertise to this already-established market for the benefit of local mining communities and the Sri Lankan gemstone industry.

Expressing their concerns, on the entry of the large UK company, several local gem traders had earlier warned that the present traditional environmental friendly system of gem mining and trading in Ratnapura and the gem business of Sri Lankans will be greatly affected by the invasion of this company with exploration and gemstone experience achieved in Zambia and Mozambique. But dispelling fears of local gem traders and miners, Mr. Natarajan noted that the company will not enter into gem mining in Ratnapura without carrying out a proper exploration procedure. It will adhere to the countrys laws, rules and regulations and there was no intention to carry out mining at present.
Globally-acclaimed Meiya & Alvin Toy Collection returns home to delight children in Sri Lanka View(s):

DSL Lanka (Pvt) Ltd, a globally reputed Sri Lankan toy manufacturing company, will soon launch its internationally acclaimed range of toys to the local market. The range consists of a natural line of baby toys combining rubber and fabric, originally based on two charming characters from the accompanying storybook, A Day at the Park with Meiya & Alvin creates by DSL founders. Within a year since its launch in the international market, the book has been translated into seven languages, namely, English, French, German, Italian, Dutch, Spanish and Catalan, and is available in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and across 11 European countries.

The Meiya & Alvin Collection is a first ever-infant toy collection designed to promote infant development combining natural, quality materials and commitment to the environment. It has already been awarded the prestigious Dr. Toy Award for the Best Green Toy for the entire range. Now infants and children in Sri Lanka will also have access to this world-famous range of toys, which consists of an attractive box with a story book, the company said in a media release. The personality behind this successful venture, CEO of DSL Lanka, Mano Sheriff, noted: The Meiya & Alvin Collection was envisioned as a world of innocence where children can just be who they are  a world where the air and water are clean, and the purity of childhood remains uncompromised.

I am proud of the fact that DSL Lanka innovated the first-ever eco-friendly toy to combine rubber and soft textiles, blending the two favourite textures babies love. The rubber soothes them in their teething years and the soft toy gives them a feeling of warmth and security. My sole objective behind each toy is to ensure a pure and safe product that keeps the Sri Lankan heritage alive, which has in turn raised awareness about Sri Lankan culture and heritage abroad. The Meiya & Alvin Collection is populated by lovable Sri Lankan animals such as Meiya the mouse; Alvin, the elephant (derived from Aliya, or elephant in Sinhala); Wallace the Bear (derived from Walaha or bear in Sinhala); Hava, the Rabbit; Gemba, the Frog; and Tara, the Duck.

By creating a unique Sri Lankan identity, this collection of toys is a must-have for every child in Sri Lanka in the style of traditional toys of yesteryears which appealed across generations. The company conceived of the Meiya and Alvin collection after its first successful branded range, the Bonikka collection, yet another award-winning collection by DSL Lanka, became the rage across the world. Bonikka was inspired by a doll that Mano Sheriff herself owned that was passed down generations of daughters in her family since 1895 as a symbol of love and security.
New twist in Agalawatte Plantations drama By Duruthu Edirimuni Chandrasekera View(s): View(s):

Agalawatte Plantations PLCs sale that has drawn fire has seen a new twist to the drama with two ministries raising vital questions over not being consulted in the transaction and the non-payment of EPF dues of workers. Last week (August 11), the Ministry of Plantation Industries sent a letter to Agalawatte Plantations clarifying how the transaction, now contested in court, went through without the golden shareholders nod. The golden share in plantation companies is held by the government and has wide powers. The issue of non-payment of dues came in a May 16 letter by the Treasury to the plantation company querying Agalawattes liability of Rs. 413 million in EPF, around Rs. 90 million in gratuity dues to its employees and lease rental of around Rs. 170 million to the Ministry of Finance through the Plantation Management Monitoring Division (PMMD) of the Ministry of Plantation Industries.

That letter also said while these dues are yet to be paid, the company has transferred funds to other firms in the group. We wanted to know why dues were not paid when it seems the company had enough money to transfer to other firms, a Ministry of Finance official told the Business Times. He added that on top of all this drama, the owners changed hands and they had to write to Agalawatte again. The drama began when Mackwoods Plantations Ltd on July 14 sold its majority stake in Agalawatte Plantations to the Browns Group-controlled LOLC company for Rs. 304 million.

With the Mackwoods group in the midst of a power struggle with its chairman Chris Nonis pitted against individuals including his sister and former co-chairman Nirmali Samaratunga, the latter complained to the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that the transaction was not proper in law. The deal was then suspended by the SEC amidst protests from the Mackwoods Group with a further development being the Appeal Court on August 10 issuing notice on the SEC and CSE based on a writ application made by Browns Power Holdings Ltd challenging the delay in approving the transaction.
Of professionals and politicians View(s):

In the 1990s, when the country was on fire with two conflicts on the ground  the JVP revolt in the south battled by government troops and militancy in the north-east region with Indian peace-keeping troops in the vanguard  there was no real space for intellectual discourse.

This was more so during the crackdown on JVP militants in which many innocent youngsters were said to have not only been killed but slaughtered. After President Ranasinghe Premadasas untimely death at the hands of the LTTE, Prime Minister D.B. Wijetunga took over as president until elections were called in 1995 which maverick Chandrika Kumaratunga won.

One of the main planks of Kumaratungas election campaign was to bring professionals into politics. Sensing a new era of freedom and freer political space, many professionals  at the time mainly university academics  openly took out advertisements signalling their support to the opposition candidate (Kumaratunga). Separately professionals like accountant Rajan Asirwatham were involved in hectic canvasing reaching out to the likes of legal luminaries like Lakshman Kadirgamar and G.L. Peiris, and many journalists, among others. A lot of water has flown under the bridge since then but one mustnt forget that it was the 1990s that triggered the first serious attempt to bring professionals and intellectuals into the political mainstream and start a discourse on developing the nation.

Today the second wave of that process is taking place. While the late 1980s to early 1990s was a challenging period for professionals and intellectuals who were reluctant to raise their voice, the past 10 years (barring 2015/16) have been very traumatic for those who risked raising their voices in dissent, some would argue worse than the earlier mentioned period. Be that as it may the fact of the matter is that professionals and intellectuals no longer need be afraid of being labelled (then) as JVP activists or sympathisers, or in 2009-2014 as economic terrorists among many demeaning labels. Today medical doctors, architects, engineers, lawyers and other allied professions speak out fearlessly again any legislation, proposal or decision that runs counter to the promises of the Maithripala-Ranil administration.

There is no fear of white vans, intimidation or harassment from some hidden government force. Talk is not dangerous anymore; it carries some value as the government, on many an occasion, is reversing decisions in the face of opposition on various issues. On the other hand, changing course so fast on complex budget proposals is also not good and reflects badly on confidence and sustainability of the regime, and calls for more disciplined management. The freedom of expression without fear by professionals and intellectuals should also be non-partisan, unbiased and politically neutral. Unfortunately that is not the case as seen on both occasions (then and now).

The 1990s discourse was a watershed as professionals and intellectuals entered public life as consultants, advisors or diplomats to government  after campaigning for freedom and democracy  which in many ways hindered their ability to operate as independent persons. Many were trapped in this dilemma while others willingly took this route to enjoy the perks and trappings of office, losing credibility on the way. Today professionals, many of whom campaigned openly or behind the scenes to win power for the Maithripala-Ranil combine, are similarly ensconced in state positions with just a few expressing independent views on a range of troubled issues like the proposed Indo-Lanka trade and services agreement, the Colombo Port City, or the slow pace of investigations against the Rajapaksa regime and their cronies on alleged corruption.

Some have learnt the hard way that maintaining an independent posture is of no benefit while holding office like Prof. Jayadeva Uyangoda and Dr. Nirmal Ranjith Devasiri who were unceremoniously eased out of the Council of the National Institute of Education (NIE). Another official  frank with his views is Asoka Abeygunawardana, Chairman  Strategic Enterprise Management Agency and an electrical engineer by profession, though how long he continues in his official position until the government gets tired of tolerating his public opposition on some issues is a matter of time. Sri Lanka needs all the expertise it can get and the services of the best brains in the country towards becoming an economic powerhouse  somewhere in between Singapore and Dubai.

Yet the partnership between independent thinkers and the government is going through some testing times particularly since the same problems  corrupt deals, inefficient public service, backtracking on decisions, etc that the former regime was infamous for  are evident today. Learned academic Sarath Wijesuriya, in the forefront of the national movement for change which was headed by the late Maduluwawe Sobitha Thero, has in recent times expressed his disappointment at many developments. Prof. Wijesuriya was among the few who declined a government post to remain neutral, a similar stance taken by the JVP when it supported the government in January to August 2015 but refused any positions.

But one needs to give the devil its due. A judiciary freed from the fetters of presidential control or perks, is responding to the wishes of the majority  delivering judgments that are fair and just. The 18-month old government has not resorted to any form of intimidation which, if there is, wont be tolerated in an environment where civil society has transformed into a strong force, as powerful as the government. Professionals are coming together on many issues. A new umbrella organization called the United Professionals Movement (UPM) has been formed to ensure their voice is heard. Debates and counter-points on many issues are heating up the political arena, frustrating the government as many of its efforts seems blocked one way or the other. Engineers are flexing their muscles, professionals are organizing open rallies  unheard of earlier -, doctors are taking to the streets and architects are speaking out.

These are signs of a healthy democracy becoming embedded rapidly in society and tough, one would assume, to overturn even if the country returns to the dark days of an era when an outspoken Sri Lankan was called a JVP terrorist or picked off the streets in a white van. The challenge for professionals and intellectuals is to set aside political affiliations when dabbling in national issues. So far that hasnt happened with chinks in the armour of some professionals, prompting organisations like the UPM to defend its role as a movement purely working for the interests of the country. Freedom is easy to lose but hard to get. Professional groups need to keep pushing on issues that are detrimental to the country but not rock the boat if vested political interests get in the way. Striking that balance is the key to the countrys future.
Professionals walk out but keep options open on ETCA discussions By Sunimalee Dias View(s): View(s):

The newly-formed joint professionals body, the United Professionals Movement (UPM) which last month walked out of discussions with the Government on the controversial Economic and Technology Cooperation Agreement (ETCA), is nevertheless keeping its options open. UPM President Palitha Abeywardena told the Business Times they would continue to engage the government in discussions to ensure Sri Lankan professionals are unaffected by the proposed agreement with India. Another dispute is emerging: The government says ETCA would be concluded by end 2016 while the UPM argues that at least 4 to 6 months is needed to put in place a legal process that would protect local professionals.

On July 25, the UPM  a broad coalition of associations under the Organisation of Professionals Association (OPA)  staged a walk-out during discussions with the government disappointed that authorities were not serious about the concerns expressed by them, despite UPM proposal that was submitted on the best way forward. Other institutions which are part of the process however didnt walk out of the meeting which was presided over by Minister of Development Strategies and Development Trade Malik Samarawickrema. Mr. Abeywardena explained that the government was not serious in their deliberations with the UPM on the issues regarding the import of professionals through investments in the country.

There was no immediate comment from the authorities over the UPM concern while an Indian delegation led by Bhupinder Singh Bhalla, Joint Secretary at the Commerce Ministry concluded two days of preliminary talks in Colombo this week. As a mark of protest, the UPM didnt participate at the next meeting on July 27 meeting where it was decided to call for the submission of proposals by the respective professional bodies and other stakeholders. On the same day, Development Strategies and International Trade Ministry Secretary Chandanie Wijayawardhana  in an email request  wrote to some of the key institutions and the OPA to submit their proposals within two weeks (from July 27).

Mr. Abeywardena, raising concerns over the deadline, said the authorities are more active in fast-tracking the agreement when it should first establish a legal framework in which foreign professionals could function in the country, The government has given an assurance that independent professionals are not part of the ETCA negotiations The Business Times learns that the first draft of the national policy framework on trade will be ready by end August. In a letter of protest addressed to Ms. Wijayawardhana on Tuesday (August 16), the UPM referred to the call for proposals as the governments failure in understanding the gravity of framing a national policy and the strategic approach adopted in entering into an international agreement.
Unclaimed money orders add over Rs. 5 mln to state revenue By Bandula Sirimanna View(s): View(s):

Sri Lankas Department of Posts will henceforth be invalidating unclaimed Postal Service Money Orders (MOs) issued three years ago  in 2013, a top official of the Department said. A newspaper advertisement was recently placed by the department announcing this move. The total amount accumulated during this period is in the region of Rs. 5.8 million, he revealed. The department holds a significant amount of unclaimed money in MOs and the accumulated money is credited to the Treasury after two years from the last day of the month of its issue, Postmaster General D.L.P Rohana Abeyaratne told the Business Times. Each year an average of more than Rs. 5 million worth of MOs is not cashed by recipients mostly for unknown reasons, he disclosed.

Some of the known reasons for non claims of MOs are that it is being produced in a court of law, retained in rent control board on legal grounds, payee of the MO is overseas or in a bad state of health, disabled or deceased, he said adding that several other payees named in the MOs were not coming to post offices to cash it due to miscommunication and unknown reasons. An MO is valid for six months from the last day of the month of its issue. But under exceptional circumstances, the payment of a lapsed MO is considered for refunding up to two years from the last day of the month of its issue. According to the regulation made under Section 45 of the Post Office Ordinance, an MO cannot be refunded after a 2 -year period lapses.

However the department is considering the appeals being made by the people who have not cashed it. Mr. Abeyaratne said that the accumulated money of all such MOs is credited to the Treasury as state revenue. In the latest case, the department has decided to grant a 3-month grace period with effect from August 5 to make refunds only in respect of MOs issued during the 12 months of 2013. He said that the department has issued the relevant Gazette notification and published newspaper advertisements every year to create awareness on the procedure enabling the payees to appeal for their refunds for non claimed money orders if there are any valid reasons for no claims.

The incidents of no claims were minimal in electronic MOs as it is a sustainable and new user friendly facility which enables users to utilise the new, fast money transfer system, he said adding that this facility is available in 654 General Post Offices in urban areas. There are 3,410 sub-post offices, one in each village and the MO facility has been the traditional mode of transferring money through the rural postal network countrywide, he revealed. The transactions are being done manually, leading to a large number of errors, as there is much paperwork involved, he added. He noted that almost all the post offices in the country will be networked and equipped with modern computer facilities Internet, fax, and wireless access in order to provide a better service to the people.
PM stops bid to ban Muslim veil View(s):

Believe it or not! The National Security Council (NSC) recently considered a proposal by a top Defence Ministry official to impose a ban on Muslim women in Sri Lanka wearing the burqa or niqab. The burqa is the full body dress, usually black, with a mesh cover over the eyes. This is worn by some more traditionally minded Muslim women. The niqab is similar with only an opening over the eye area.

The MoD officials proposal, a well informed source said, was based on the recommendations by a controversial top sleuth running one of the countrys intelligence agencies of a service arm. The person has been serving in that top position under the previous Government, too.

The top sleuth had made the recommendation in the belief that radicalisation in the Muslim community has gone beyond control  a point he has been articulating at different security meetings. The MoD officials proposal to the NSC came thereafter.

Though there is an element of truth  that Islamic radicalisation has its presence in Sri Lanka, just as much as elsewhere in the world  it is far from going out of control. Many believe that a vast majority of Sri Lankan Muslims have assimilated well with local mores and lived in harmony with others. Well placed intelligence sources said, however, that the radicalisation process was confined mostly to the Colombo District and parts of the Eastern Province. According to these sources the move for an immediate ban is not only alarmist but also a measure that would discredit the Government in the eyes of the Muslims and enrage Muslim countries in West Asia.

It was Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe who frowned on the proposal and pointed out that it would be highly damaging to the Government. He was of the view that Muslims supported the United National Front (UNF) alliance both at the presidential and parliamentary elections last year. The proposal was thereafter dropped.

The MoD officials proposal at the NSC came soon after the Army, Navy and the Air Force commanders made presentations on the current security situation. There are no records at different security forces headquarters or with the police that women wearing burqa or niqab have been involved or been identified engaging in terrorism related acts in Sri Lanka. The only exception had been a man wearing a burqa attempting to rob a bank. He was found out and the mans true identity was never made public.

Among the countries that have banned women wearing full body covering is Switzerland where a fine of 10,000 euros is imposed on violators. France, the first country to ban Niqab in 2004 with school students in state run schools later in 2011 extended it with a public ban countrywide.

The Netherlands has imposed a partial ban where women cannot have their faces covered in schools, hospitals and on public transport. It does not outlaw the veil in public but has laid down essential areas where persons have to be seen due to security reasons. In Chad, in parts of Diffa, where the radicalised Boko Haram is in control, the full cover garb is banned for fear of attacks. Germany is at present considering a limited ban.

Even in the United States and Britain, which are facing serious threats from the ISIS, there has so far been no ban on women wearing the burqa or the niqab.

Saroja Wijeratne envoy to Germany

Saroja Wijeratne, Consul General in Mumbai, has been named as Sri Lankas Ambassador to Germany.

Her name has already been proposed to the German Government and the agremont (concurrence) is being awaited.

Ambassador Karunatilleke Amunugama, whose term has already ended, has been told to continue in office until Ms. Wijeratne arrives in Berlin.

Probe on officials being blocked

Civil society groups have sought a meeting with President Maithripala Sirisena.

This time it is to ascertain why the alleged corruption cases of a group of officials have not been investigated.

They are accusing a politician of stalling these investigations and want President Sirisena to look into the matter.

Pan Asia adds court order

Nalaka Wijayawardana, Deputy General Manager-Marketing & Card Products of Pan Asia Bank, has responded to our last weeks report headlined CSNs Rs.157.5 million transferred two days before seizure.

He says . we wish to provide the following clarifications;

The above article states that the Pan Asia Bank transferred the mentioned amount on 11th August two days before the government announced the seizure of those funds.

While as a reputed bank upholding the highest ethical standards, we are not in a position to divulge, confirm or deny customer account details, in the actual sequence of events Pan Asia Bank released the stated amount of funds only after receiving a court order on 10th August 2016.

Note by Jamis Banda: His clarifications (sic) is indeed confirmation of our report. It further establishes the truth that the money was transferred two days ahead of a purported decision by the Cabinet of Ministers  a position which was announced by the official Government spokesperson.

As for the reference to a Court order, there was no mention in our report. The bank is now adding the fact that it is consequent to a Court order. Naturally, no bank would voluntarily remit such amounts belonging to its customers to the Central Bank without a legal basis.

Mr. Wijayawardena adds that as  a reputed bank upholding the highest ethical standards, we are not in a position to divulge, confirm or deny customer account details

For those who need more proof, here is a facsimile of the official document containing the remittance information: As is clear, the remittance has been made at 4.43 p.m. on August 8, 2016. As for the name and address of the Ordering Customer, we will not name them yet.

Three inspectors to probe work at diplomatic missions

Three former Sri Lanka envoys have been appointed as inspectors in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

They are Daneeshan Casiechetty, Geetha de Silva and G. Wijesiri.

The move by Foreign Affairs Minister Mangala Samaraweera is for these officers to conduct investigations on different issues in Sri Lanka diplomatic missions overseas.

A Foreign Ministry official said that complaints of mismanagement, malpractices or other irregularities in Sri Lanka diplomatic missions would be referred for a probe by one of the three. They, one or more, will be required to travel to those missions to conduct inquiries.

Minister seeks double allowance for MPs mobile phones

Mass Media and Parliamentary Reforms Minister Gayantha Karunatilleke has recommended to the Cabinet of Ministers that the mobile telephone allowance for MPs be increased to Rs. 50,000 a month.

In addition, he has recommended that the office Secretary General of Parliament should pay the land line telephone bills of MPs.

The proposals are contained in a memorandum submitted to the ministers by Mr. Karunatilleke.

In his observations, Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake has noted that the average cost of allowances of a mobile phone and a fixed telephone of an MP was about Rs. 16,000 a month. He has pointed out that an MP is entitled to a maximum of Rs. 20,000 a month for both land and mobile phones, according to a circular by the Presidential Secretary.
Sirisena cracks the whip; bites the bullet, risks splitting Party View(s):

Rajapaksa faction reacts by deciding to form new political movement; SLFP to split for local, provincial polls and referendum next year

PM to outline alternative revenue generating system, but VAT issue still a crisis; Ranawaka proposes more direct taxes for the rich non-payers

By Our Political Editor

After the religious rituals ended on Nikini Poya day (on Wednesday August 17), President Maithripala Sirisena, who was at his Paget Road residence found time to read the days newspapers.

His attention was drawn to a report of a news conference the Joint Opposition leaders had given on the Office for Missing Persons law. They were voicing their protests over the Government rushing through the Bill in Parliament without hearing their views or the amendments they wanted to move. Sirisena telephoned one of the participants, Kandy District parliamentarian Keheliya Rambukwella. A onetime Media Minister, Rambukwella is a strong supporter of the Mahinda Rajapaksa faction of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP).

I spoke at the news conference about the dangerous consequences from the Office for Missing Persons. I said we strongly believe it is in conflict with the Constitution, Rambukwella told the Sunday Times. The next day President Sirisena telephoned me, he said. He told me that he had read my remarks in the newspapers. The President wanted to have an independent opinion about the new Act. I told him that I would consult other members of the Joint Opposition and formulate one. Thereafter, he had proposed to discuss the matter with different groups including those from the Joint Opposition. Rambukwella said they had hoped to send their views by tomorrow and nominate a representative for discussions with Sirisena thereafter.

Rajapaksa loyalists move into action

However, before that task was carried out, Rambukwella was a casualty on that very Poya Day at the hands of Sirisena. He was among 16 Sri Lanka Freedom Party electoral organisers and 24 District Organisers who have been removed from their posts. Yet, they still remain members of the party. That came as a major diversion and spurned pro-Rajapaksa loyalists to react. They were no more in a mood for a temporary rapprochement to discuss the Office for Missing Persons Act which now awaits certification by Speaker Karu Jayasuriya to become law. Jayasuriya has rejected moves to ask him to desist from signing the bill into law. There was a more important issue to tackle for the pro-Mahinda Rajapaksa faction.

With the stroke of a signature, SLFP General Secretary Duminda Dissanayake, a relative new comer to politics, appears to have hammered the first splitting axe blow that signals the division of the SLFP. He sent out the letters removing the electoral and district organisers after reaching consensus with party leader Sirisena and colleagues. Among the many casualties were former ministers who were organisers  Gamini Lokuge (Colombo District), Rohitha Abeygunawardena (Kalutara District), C.B. Ratnayake (Nuwara Eliya District), Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena (Matara District) and Pavithra Wanniarachchi (Ratnapura District).

Dissanayake told the Sunday Times; the disciplinary committee of the party would have to decide whether those who have been removed from party organiser posts should remain as members. Removed from the posts of party organisers are those who have criticised the party. Persons who had been given responsibility have failed to perform. Therefore we have given the responsibility to new persons.

The decision not to take disciplinary action against some former ministers who were supporting Rajapaksa sparked speculation that they saved their positions only because they continued a dialogue with a faction supporting Sirisena. To the contrary, it appears that only one person from each district has been picked for disciplinary action and the exercise is intended to be a warning to others. That is not the end of the matter, a Sirisena loyalist said.

The Mahinda Rajapaksa faction has already gone into overdrive. His loyalists including professionals met at their office at Nelum Pokuna Road in Battaramulla on Wednesday night. It was chaired by Basil Rajapaksa. Another meeting at the Mirihana residence of Mahinda Rajapaksa followed the next day, Thursday. Rajapaksa named a committee to study the expulsion and report back immediately. Members of the committee were Basil Rajapaksa, Dullas Allahapperuma, Pavithra Wanniarachchi, Rohitha Abeygunawardena, G.L. Peiris and Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena.

They reported back to Rajapaksa the same day. Their major recommendation was to immediately form a new political movement. Significantly, it was not a new political party, at least for the time being. That appears to have taken the sting off President Sirisenas strongly-worded warning at the national unity governments first anniversary rally in Matara on Friday. He vowed he would reveal more secrets of pro-Rajapaksa rebels if they went ahead and formed a new party. In a statement, from the Presidential Secretariat, Sirisena declared that he would not let those who are crowned with fraud, corruption, waste and robbery to rule this country again. Those remarks appeared to underscore the fact that Sirisena was quite concerned about the emergence of a new political party, one that would formally divide the SLFP. He fired this new salvo in the hope that they would desist from moves towards forming a political party.

Political issues next year

The move to form a political movement was agreed upon after speakers claimed there were a lot of political issues next year. One was the local council elections in January next year. These would be followed by elections to Provincial Councils, the terms of which would end at different times. Once a new Constitution is formulated, there would be a referendum. All these could be faced with the formation of a new political front to seek the support of the public.

One of the Joint Opposition frontliners, Matara District MP Dullas Allahapperuma, in keeping with a decision reached, resigned his position as the Districts SLFP organiser on Friday. The others who still hold office as district or electoral organisers are to follow suit one by one. The next is expected to be Kalutara District SLFP organiser Kumara Welgama, the former Transport Minister and Rajapaksa backer. The idea appears to be to provoke the SLFP leadership into sacking them from the party and thus oust them from their parliament seats. In the event of such sackings, one of them said they would go to courts, which they believed would uphold their right to remain. They said they were holding on to this belief because in similar situations, other MPs had found justice in the courts. Such sacking, another said, would give them the opportunity of staking a claim collectively for the office of the Leader of the Opposition currently held by Tamil National Alliance (TNA) leader Rajavarothayam Sampanthan. In the light of upcoming local authority polls, some said Sirisena was trying to rid the party of pro-Rajapaksa groups  a measure that would arguably give him full control of the party, even if it be a fractured one.

Earlier, Rajapaksa said in a statement that popular organisers of the SLFP are being removed and replaced with less popular politicians in order to weaken the SLFP and to give advantages to the UNP. He charged that the responsibility for splitting the SLFP by removing its most popular electoral organisers will finally have to be borne by the President who is the leader of the party. Those dismissed and other Rajapaksa loyalists will boycott the SLFP annual sessions in Kurunegala on September 4 and 5. Yet, the ongoing arrangements for the events show there is likely to be a large turnout. Rajapaksa is now planning to visit Italy where there are a considerable number of Sri Lankans. He made trips earlier to Thailand and South Korea.

Joint Opposition leader Dinesh Gunawardena told the Sunday Times; We are planning a series of seminars at the grassroots level to educate the people on the removal of organisers. Government leaders are panicking. That is why they are threatening us, he said.

A crisis of the past

The current imbroglio in the SLFP has shades of a similar situation that arose when the late Sirimavo Bandaranaike was stripped of her civic rights in October 1980. A faction led by her number two Maithripala Senanayeke urged that she give up the leadership. Senanayeke and 13 senior members including Anura Bandaranaike, P.B.G. Kalugalle, and Stanley Tillekeratne were suspended. A purported Central Committee meeting they held was dubbed the takaran CC or meaning one held under a tin roof. The party headquarters at Darley Road in Colombo Central became a bone of contention and the late Anura Bandaranaike went to Court. They were commonly referred to as the SLFP (M) group. The Senanayake-Bandaranaike group then had the tacit support of then United National Party (UNP) Government led by President J.R. Jayewardene. The 1982 Presidential election were held with the SLFP split and Jayewardene romped home the easy winner. The two factions patched up their differences in 1983. However, a section of the pro-Sirimavo Bandaranaike group left the party to form the Sri Lanka Mahajana Pakshaya (SLMP).

In 1991, Ms Bandaranaike, in a bid to consolidate more power in the SLFP, changed the composition of the Central Committee. She named new faces that included S.B. Dissanayake, Mangala Samaraweera, Nimal Siripala de Silva Late Alavi Mowlana and Wishwa Warnapala. Thereafter, she enrolled Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga into the SLFP fold  a move that drew some criticism. One of those who publicly opposed the move was Tilak Karunaratne. He was sacked. Anura Bandaranaike who criticised the suspension in an interview to a newspaper was indefinitely suspended without reason or inquiry. That paved the way for him to join the UNP in December 1993.

Even if Sirisenas diplomacy to reach out to Rambukwella did not materialise, the Poya day telephone call underscored another significant aspect  that he entertains doubts about the Office for Missing Persons Bill passed rather controversially in Parliament. Hence, he was making attempts to inform himself of any flaws. That is after the Government side has passed it in Parliament on August 11, ten days ago. In fact a blunder by those in the Joint Opposition was to lead to a situation that was seized by the Government. At first, Joint Opposition leader Dinesh Gunawardena had sought a debate in Parliament lasting one and half days with voting to take place on August 12.

There was a tussle with the Opposition arguing that the debate should continue till late Friday night. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was to explain that he had the LAWASIA conference and related events to attend.

That saw Speaker Jayasuriya urging Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera to begin his speech. A group of Joint Opposition MPs rushed into the Well of the House and there was a commotion. In view of the commotion, Samaraweera made his speech short. He was followed by two other MPs. The Speaker directed the Opposition MPs to return to their seats but the confusion continued.

UPFA MP Wimal Weerawansa rushed to his seat and made several requests that the Speaker take a vote by name. He was not audible. The Second Reading met with the same fate. In the same manner, the Committee Stage of the Bill was concluded at record speed with several amendments to the Bill being moved by House Leader Lakshman Kiriella and JVP MP Bimal Ratnayaka on behalf of his party. Weerawansa told the Sunday Times; It is our position that the Bill was not properly passed. There were 17 amendments from the Government and three from the JVP. Not all were examined.

Thereafter, the Speaker announced that the Bill has been read a third time and passed. The House was then adjourned till the following day. What was to have been a nearly 13 hour of debate eventually ended in an hour.

Both Foreign Minister Samaraweera and Joint Opposition representatives held separate news conferences soon after Parliament adjourned. The Joint Opposition claimed that the Bill was illegally enacted, that it had not been passed following the correct parliamentary procedure in passing bills. However, Samaraweera asserted that the Bill had been approved by the majority in the House and would become law soon. Speaker Jayasuriya is to give his assent next week.

Revenue proposals

The crisis within the SLFP places the United National Party, particularly Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, in a strong position. After his return from China on Wednesday night, one of the priority tasks for him will be to formulate a revenue generating system because of the Value Added Tax bill that sought to impose a 15 percent tax has been put on hold. The SLFP is formulating its own revenue proposals and the task has fallen on Minister Susil Premajayantha. Thereafter, formal talks between the UNP and the SLFP are to follow on the best approach to VAT. The subjet was intensely discussed at Tuesdays ministerial meeting.

In this backdrop, Megapolis and Western Development Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka, who is the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) representative in the Cabinet of Ministers has placed his own proposals. It has come in the form of a Cabinet Memorandum, a copy of which has been seen by the Sunday Times.

Ranawaka notes that a breach of trust has been generated with regard to state finance policy in the market due to constant revisions in budget proposals and tax proposals of the Government. It affects the economic stability of the Government too. He said that society is getting to understand that the Government lacks a sufficient knowledge on the preliminary legal procedures such a revision of Acts and implementation of regulations due to the decision given with regard to VAT by the Supreme Court.

As a result, he added, the decision to expand the VAT network based on wholesale and retail trading, even the minor businessman running a self-employment is scared and organised protests against the Government. The Minister adds, Although VAT increases had to be made to settle commercial loans taken haphazardly by the Rajapaksa regime, those responsible for the crisis appearing as messiahs of the citizens launch Pada Yaathraa since no sufficient legal and social precautions have been taken on direct financial corruption and misuse of power misuse of power to unstable the state finance, unsustainable investment etc.

Ranawaka has cautioned that tax income from the Government is fast decreasing compared to the Gross National Product from 14.6 per cent in 2006 to 10.1 per cent in 2014. He has also noted that income tax revenue is also gradually decreasing compared to the Gross National Product from 2.7 per cent in 2006 to 1.9 per cent in 2014.

Here are highlights of Ranawakas proposals:

Since the existing Government is a national Government, discussions should be started to create a consolidated national policy for the 04 years between 2017-2020 on income, tax policy, expenditure and investments of the Government. With a view to realise that goal, an extended round of discussions has to be conducted with all the sectors and stake holders with the leadership of both the President and the Prime Minister.

I do herewith request to publicise the intellectual committee report prepared few years back pertaining to the possible actions to be taken on VAT recovery and avoiding VAT frauds.

At this, income tax, capital tax etc, should be formally revised to achieve at least 5% goal of gross national product in order to increase the direct tax amounts. The private health services, private educational services, legal services and other services that have informal financial circulation should be converted to a formal commercial process.

Percentage of indirect taxes should be increased up to 10% in gross national production by identifying bearable limitations, identifying the goods and services that should be discouraged, and formally identifying the sectors that should be developed. An excise tax policy should be followed for liquor, cigarettes, fuel that is not influencing public transport etc,. (Percentage of our tax income from excise tax is 25%). The informal commercial process should be formalised by reaching the threshold of Rs. 100 million (from proposed Rs. 12 million) a year including others in the VAT network and goods and services marketing income excluding only essential goods and services from the items more than 500 in number by keeping the VAT limit at 15%. Limiting the occasions of invoicing, increasing and deducting prices unreasonably in export and imports, import and custom tax charges should be formalized. (At present, tax on imports is 9% while tax on customs is 19% from the total tax. An amount of US$ 17,302 million has been lost to the country due to changing import-export invoice value during the past 10 years).

A tax policy should be introduced highlighting the innovations, green technology, and small and medium scale enterprises.

Sirisena at the UN

It is not only formulating a new revenue generating formula that is President Sirisenas priority. He also has a full agenda on the foreign policy front. He will leave for New York to attend the 71st sessions of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). Among those accompanying him are two Ministers  Gayantha Karunatilleke (UNP) and Faiszer Musthapha (SLFP). Others in the official entourage include Deputy Minister Ajith Perera, Nalaka Colonne and Wijepala Hettiaratchchi. Earlier plans for Sirisena to lead a delegation for the 17th Non-Aligned Summit in Caracas, Venezuela have been shelved. Instead, Sri Lanka is likely to be represented by Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe. From Caracas, Samarasinghe will fly to New York to join the Sri Lanka delegation at the UN. Sri Lankas Ambassador in Cuba who is accredited to Venezuela will also travel to Caracas. A Foreign Ministry source said even Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is not taking part in the Non-Aligned event this year.

President Sirisena is listed to speak at the UNGA on the second day of the sessions. Earlier, there were plans for Sirisena to fly to China for a peace conference in Beijing and later to New York. However, the event, a Foreign Ministry source said yesterday, clashed with the date allotted for his speech. Sirisena will now leave for New York on September 19 and return to Colombo on September 24.

The upcoming UNGA sessions are being described as a landmark event. It will be the last assembly sessions Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will attend. Ban is due to visit Sri Lanka on September 1 on a farewell call and will leave on September 3. Diplomatic sources say he will discuss with Government leaders, among other matters, the UN Human Rights Council (Geneva) resolution on alleged war crimes, a resolution jointly sponsored by the United States and Sri Lanka. The focus, these sources said, would be on the enforcement of provisions in the resolution, particularly regarding the probe into alleged war crimes.

This will also be the last UNGA session US President Barrack Obama will attend. Sirisena has also been invited to take part in the 19th Clinton Global Initiative (CGI). This annual event is the initiative of one time US President Bill Clinton. His wife Hillary, who is the front runner in this years US presidential election, is also expected to participate.

The Governments calendar in the coming weeks highlights priorities in a number of areas, most importantly, the economy. With the UNF Governments second budget fast approaching, its fiscal strategies would have to be worked out.

That makes the issue of the increased VAT the focal point. On the political front, a political movement now planned by Rajapaksa loyalists would target the same issue as they try to win the confidence of the people, especially the SLFP supporters in the country. Issues related to the alleged war crimes inquiry, said to begin next year, will add to the weight the Government is saddled with.
The ends cannot justify the means in nation-building View(s):

A revealing comment was made to me by an infuriated social justice activist last week in relation to disturbing trends that have surfaced in public debate. As he said caustically; when we raise criticism of government policy in discussion, the immediate response within some civil society groups is that of unmitigated fury. We are asked immediately; do you want the Rajapaksas to come back?

Rejecting unacceptable choices

The question that he posed thereafter was as follows; choosing between keeping quiet in face of what may be disastrously wrong and wanting the former regime to come back should surely not be the stark alternatives before us? And as my conversationalist remonstrated; why should compromised groups which clearly have an agenda in riding along on the yahapalanaya bandwagon as it were, be allowed to drive these debates?

Here, the discussion concerned the earlier maligned Port City, now renamed in the optimistic eyes of its proponents as the Colombo International Financial City. Despite the official trumpeting that all concerns have been dealt with, the quality and content of the environmental protection process commissioned thereto remains contested.

That said, such broad concerns are not confined to the Port City issue alone. Indeed, it would be somewhat amusing if it was not so reminiscent of the past that even more than government parliamentarians, yahapalanaya cheerleaders lead the hysterically angry charge when legitimate queries are raised in regard to aspects of the Governments economic policy, constitutional reforms or the transitional justice package now being unveiled.

Recalling familiar trends

There is a trace of unsettling familiarity in this. Not long ago, propagandists acting under the long arm of the Rajapaksa regime gleefully affixed labels of traitors to critics, including this columnist among others. But what must be understood is that intolerance to opposing points of view can be manifested not only through such obvious sledgehammer tactics. So for the benefit of those wet behind the ears at the time, let us look back even a little earlier in time for illustrative lessons in that regard.

During the United National Front (UNF) government for example one and a half decades ago, proponents of the short-lived ceasefire between the Government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) looked aghast at even the slightest criticism of the LTTE. This was despite the LTTEs crushing of dissent within the Tamil polity ranging from targeting the intellectual creme de la creme to brutal local crimes exercised in reprisal against defiant Tamil civilians.

Percipient civil society voices in Colombo outraged by these happenings were marginalized by their one time colleagues, some later losing their lives to the LTTE in the process. Not surprisingly as a result, those who critiqued both the Sinhala State and the LTTE with the same even-handedness were miserably few.

Need for internal and external critique

And there is a larger point here. The abject failure to encourage substantial critiques and to respond to the same by the government in power was a primary reason why the UNF regime collapsed at the time. As we may recall unhappily, its flag bearers retreated in disorder while the Rajapaksa Presidency took over control of the reins of State, leading to a most degenerate period in this countrys recent history.

These same warnings apply even more forcibly now. The ends certainly do not justify the means. Thus, the complicity of the Bar Association in the dangerous precedent of declaring of a Chief Justice as if he had never been by executive fiat was disgraceful. Commendations for having stood up against Rajapaksa ravages may be in due order only if the Bar acquits itself of the allegation of merely encouraging political regime change without any genuine desire to actually see governance structures improved in Sri Lanka. We may remember this salutary warning even in midst of effusive self-congratulations that have become the norm.

And it is unfortunate that missteps are evident even in regard to sensitive aspects of the transitional justice package. For example, why is the Office of Missing Persons (OMP) Bill being identified by government ministers as something promised to Geneva? The issue of the missing is of crucial import to all Sri Lankans, across all ethnicities. The Bill should therefore have been substantively taken to the South on that basis rather than by framing it as an external demand.

A redundant public consultation

Proper public consultations should have first been carried out before the draft legislation was brought before the national legislative assembly. But what we saw was an interim report on the OMP Bill by a task force on reconciliation being rendered redundant in a context where the Bill has already been enacted.

Further, the exclusion of the Right to Information Act, No 12 of 2016 to information received by the OMP in confidence remains problematic. This question was discussed in these column spaces last week. In the minimum, the terms in confidence and/or confidentiality should have been specifically explained and interpreted in the Bill. Its absence thereof leads to potential legal issues that do not bode well for the health of the legislation.

Indeed, if it was thought that the existing protection relating to personal information which would cause unwarranted invasion of the privacy of the individual contained in Section 5(1)(a) of the RTI Act did not sufficiently cater to cases coming before the OMP, radically imaginative legislative options may have been considered, drawing best lessons on comparative similar laws around the laws.

Eschewing counter-productive exclusivity

As of now, we have hesitantly stepped back from the abyss which once yawned perilously before us. But as clearly illustrated in opinion polls which indicate public dissatisfaction with the status quo while acknowledging certain positive aspects, the transition is at its most fragile. Ironically, the best ally of the Government is the chaotic chauvinism of the Rajapaksa led Joint Opposition from which many pull away in disgust.

But in this tug and pull of opposing forces, where almost every legal step taken by the coalition Government from the VAT Bill to a range of other proposed laws is challenged, robust public questioning compelling a more accountable process is precisely what is needed.

And those simply too naive to realize this fundamental truth may perhaps be advised to look at the lessons that Sri Lankas turbulent history teaches us on how counter-productive a blinkered and exclusivist approach could be to nation-building.
The OMP Act: The first step on the Long hard road to reconciliation View(s):

If those ultra chauvinists who thump the Sinhala only drum, do so out of a genuine concern that a separate state of Tamil Eelam will sooner or later be established on Lankan soil if measures are not taken now to prevent its inevitability, they should be amongst the first to hail the establishment of the Office of Missing Persons as a powerful tool in any Sinhala dominated governments arsenal to thwart future calls for a utopian Tamil Eelam.

First they must understand why there is a need for reconciliation, why there is a need to swallow false pride and compromise. For without it, reality dictates that intransigent Lanka will soon be standing on the brink of being torn asunder.

They should realise that jingoism cannot prevent it, will only precipitate it.

They should realise that an appeal to the power of numbers and thereby, on the strength of it, to espouse that the majority Sinhala race are entitled to special rights, notably the one to trample upon the rights of the minorities, will only fuel calls for Eelam and hasten its creation.

They should realise that to brazenly advocate that every rape, every gangbang, every murder and even mass slaughter, if it had happened and had it been done in the cause, in pursuit of maintaining presumed Sinhala supremacy, was justified: and, furthermore, to hold, sans blush, that such vile deeds, if it had indeed taken place, elevated the perpetrators to the station of national heroes who warrant the nations shield of immunity, who must be placed beyond the reach, beyond the jurisdiction of international law, and made exempt from all prosecution and shrouded from all probes: such advocacy will, alas, serve only to present to the worlds gaze, the incontrovertible proof that Lankas majority race has taken leave of its senses and can no longer be trusted to be the fiduciary guardian of her minority races; and that the Tamil demand for Eelam is more than justified.

For contrary to what such misguided and politically misled shadowy tribes may hold through blinkered eyes, such prejudiced babble no longer command sway in a world where the concepts of human rights and sovereignty of nations have undergone enlightened change.

Already the international community which had long berated Lanka for allegedly discriminating the minorities and had pressed successive Lankan governments to mend its ways or else be prepared to face the prospect of a separate state being carved out of the island mass, have this week praised the passing of the Office of the Missing Persons (OMP) Bill as a step in the right direction to bring about reconciliation and forge a durable peace in the land. Even the London-based Tamil Diaspora, the Global Tamil Forum has been forced to hail it is an important step in the journey to reconciliation.

What the nationalists die-hards must realise is such action by the government not only silences the Jayalalithaas and Wigneswarans of the world  the self-appointed godmothers and godfathers of Eelam  who, along with the international Tamil Diaspora, repeatedly call for a separate state for the Tamils in Lanka as the only way to escape from the planned genocide that await them at the hands of a racist Lankan government; such action not only gives one less grave reason for foreign nations to meddle in Lankas affairs but also writes upon the smudged palimpsest of a nations recent violent past, a new and enlightened dedication to render justice to all those who breathe her air.

But the OMP is only the first step. And the phobia of Eelam is not the only concern. What is at stake is a hard wearing peace within a united and sovereign Lanka, a peace that bestows dignity and comes attended with honour.Much blood  one common human blood which knows no racial divisions  has flowed for the last thirty years to stain the land indelibly. No amount of pseudo tears shed can cleanse its grievous blot on the landscape.

The Tamils have attributed the rise of terrorism and the emergence of Prabhakaran and his Tiger cadres to the perceived failure of Sinhala governments to grant redress to their justified grievances.

The Sinhala majority has, on the other hand, held that the Tamils, after enjoying British patronage till independence, were only complaining the loss of their privileged status as the pampered stooges of a colonial power; and perceived that if, in the course of satisfying the liberated Sinhala masses demand after independence for their long denied rights and privileges as the majority race to be restored, the Tamils had perforce been left with a smaller piece of the national cake they should make do with it; and accept it as their destined lot given their minority status.

The abject failure of both claimants, both dictated to by their own perceptions and both motivated by self-interest, to compromise led to the thirty-year-long terrorist war, the untold horrors of which need not be recounted herein, for it is still fresh in the memory of those who survived the gruesome ordeal.

All that need be said is that with the fall of the Tiger leader by the banks of the Nandikadal lagoon in May 2009 simultaneously followed by the successful annihilation of his fighting force, there emerged throughout the land a consensus among all reasonable men that the country could not afford to live through another harrowing war. Even the jubilant Sinhalese, apart from the political leadership who gloated over the victory ad nauseam seeking sole kudos for their own mean political gain, had to contain their celebrations upon discovering the price of peace which would henceforth have to be met if they wished to savour its fruit.

The realisation dawned, even as the dove flew free, that, if the May 18 triumph was not to be a pyrrhic victory, if it were not to see a disfigured, warring phoenix rise from the ashes, the scattered embers speckled in the heart, still smouldering in the cinders, had to be doused permanently with the spring waters of understanding to foster mutual trust and concord.

A peace gained in our time with so much sacrifice, peace that endures for our progeny to enjoy had to be built on the touchstone of harmony; with unity amongst races, its guarantor. But first the hard and cobbled road to reconciliation had to be traversed; the horrors each milestone held had to be first met; the ghouls that rose from the flanking shadows, the demons that haunted the long and winding foot path to the past, had to be encountered bravely sans fear. The truth had to be met face to face, eye to eye if catharsis, to purge the nation and cleanse its soul from the sins of chauvinism and fanaticism, was to be effected.

Intransigence had been easy but it had led to war. Reconciliation would prove more difficult but it may sustain the peace so bitterly gained. The establishment of the Office of Missing Persons is one of the many bridges that will have to be erected over tumultuous rivers of memory and then crossed on this stoic road to reconciliation if we are to come to terms with the nations bloody past.

But the OMP is not restricted to missing Tamils alone. It applies to all, irrespective of race. Even as it applies to the missing Tiger intelligence chief Pottu Amman, it applies to missing Sinhala journalist Prageeth Ekneligoda. It applies to the thousands of Tamils who went missing during the war years, even as it does to every Sinhala soldier who disappeared, went missing in action, and is still not accounted for.

Their families now have the opportunity to discover the fate that befell them. If they are confirmed dead, then to end the long night of anguish and to make up their minds and remold their lives. If they are not, then to burst forth with sunlit hopes to find them through the OMP.

For the main function of the OMPs Commission is to search and trace missing persons regardless of whether they are Tamils, Sinhala, Muslims, Malays or Burghers and irrespective of the geographical areas they went missing or originated from. The commission also has the mandate to not only inquire into persons who have gone missing in the past but also to probe any future disappearance.

The OMP Act will be signed into law by the Speaker this coming week. It is unfortunate that this important piece of legislation, covered in controversy from the time it was mooted, made it to the statute books in record Usain Bolt time, since it denied the Government the opportunity to explain to the pubic the true import of its content and purpose it sought to achieve.

Yet, while the opposition, namely, the TNA and the JVP, in a rare departure from discharging its traditional duty to oppose, extended its support to the OMP, the shadowy grouping within the SLFP going by the misnomer joint opposition, raised a hue and cry of opposition to the Bill which vested the citizen the right to have past and future disappearances of fellow citizens probed, on the basis that the OMP act would lead to the persecution of Lankas war heroes.

How war heroes can be adversely affected by the OMP is indeed strange? Whilst the joint opposition may have perverted the true meaning of the word hero and regard the corrupt and perverse as their heroes, the rest of the country stand by the Oxford Dictionary definition of a hero as one who is admired for his courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities: a war hero.

But who is better qualified to speak on war heroes than the General who commanded them during the last five years of the terrorist war and led them to victory on the 18th of May 2009?

War hero Sarath Fonseka who was jailed under the Mahinda Rajapaksa regime in 2011 and decorated by President Sirisena in 2015 as Field Marshal in recognition of the indispensable role he played in leading his troops from the front and securing a resounding victory over the Tigers, explained the ludicrousness of the joint oppositions claim that the OMP would lead to the persecution of Lankas war heroes.

He told the media on Tuesday: I do not think that any rana viruwo, war hero, will be against the OMP. If people of this country think that war heroes are in some way responsible for the disappearance of certain individuals, or if they believe that war heroes must thus be shielded and protected then what those people are doing is indirectly insulting war heroes They must first understand that. War heroes conducted themselves according to the law. They did not break the law. They acted legally to destroy terrorism in the country.

It is not out of love that these people are talking about the war heroes now, the Field Marshal said. They may have forgotten how they treated the war heroes then. How we were locked up in jail. How senior officers who had dedicated themselves to winning the war were thrown out of the army, without even giving them their pensions. When the previous regime acted like that, none of those people who talk today about war heroes were saddened. Instead they were eating kiri bath. Today they are shedding crocodile tears.

Any act to probe the past transports the joint opposition to a state of paranoia. In their eyes, the collected tumulus of sin and misdeeds heaped upon the previous regimes grave must not be disturbed, lest it awakens the ghosts of times past to spook the present and terrify the future. And, as Field Marshal Fonseka said on Tuesday, they raise the issue of the war hero only to take cover behind his impenetrable shield.

What should be borne in mind is that the OMP will not only be engaged in an academic exercise confined to excavating fossils from the past and unraveling its mysterious origins. The OMP enshrines the right to all Lankans to demand that any disappearance in the future of their loved ones be investigated and the missing persons whereabouts be searched and traced and redress granted to the victim and families if the unthinkable had occurred.

Rather than MEP leader and JO member Dinesh Gunawardena vowing to repeal the Act when they, the JO, comes to power, he should instead be swearing to preserve the OMP so that future generations of Lankans will not disappear from the face of this earth without their families having a legal right to demand of the OMP to investigate the fate of their loved ones.

It behooves this government and all future governments to implement the Act and ensure it works effectively for the peoples benefit. Not for anxious families to come to the doorstep of the Office of Missing People only to find, as the very name suggests, the office bare and no one there.

Pickpocket first, legalise later policy gets Supreme Court rap

Past governments, and even the present one, have been following a flagrant procedure of taxing first and legalizing later, in the manner swashbuckling cowboys in the wild west of yore used to shoot first and apologize later. It had succeeded only because the Supreme Court had never been petitioned before to rule whether such a practice violates the law which states that taxation can be imposed only after a tax bill has first received Parliaments approval. Under this ruling not only the present VAT increase but the legal validity of amendments to Income Tax, Corporate Tax, Economic Service Charge (ESC) and Betting and Gaming levy as well as the Surtax on Tobacco, Liquor and Casinos remain suspect for though the Bills were presented to Parliament during the last three months, they are still to receive official parliamentary approval to grant the government the legal right to pick your pocket. The Supreme Courts observation in its August 8th judgment, that in accordance with Article 148 of the Constitution, the tax or levy shall not be imposed without Parliament approval, has thrown a spanner into the tax administration machinery and placed the government in a quandary. It has now to count the cost of yielding to expediency, to having followed a legally objectionable practice of the former regime, merely because it was convenient and expedient to do so. Merely because the UNP government hadnt objected to its practice whist in the opposition ranks and had allowed the Rajapaksa government to do as they would, without seeking a legal ruling then on the propriety of the Lankan public being deftly relieved of their incomes by an artful dodge that lacked legitimacy until and unless Parliament approved it retrospectively and gave it the required legal base, the Government had assumed that no one, least of all a member of the previous government, would now rise to rock the boat but would acquiesce in this deviation from procedure which they themselves had practised, without petitioning the supreme court for a ruling. Once the first sluice gate had been opened by previous governments and the then opposition did not deem it fit to move the Supreme Court against this breach, the practised had continued unabated with the present government picking up the baton from where the Rajapaksa regime had left it. The Finance Ministers statement in Parliament that it had been the practice followed in the past with none objecting, cannot hold water for the repeated practice of following faulty procedure cannot remedy the defect and render the practice legal merely because no one had protested. Isnt it paramount that Parliament members must be the first to observe to the letter, all the laws that Parliament makes? On the same basis, there were many instances during the Rajapaksa era where tender procedures were not followed. Does it give a right to the present government, especially one wedded to the Yahapalana doctrine, to ignore legal requirements and do away with tender procedure altogether now on the basis that it had been the usual practice that had existed in the past and no one had gone to court over it? Is one justified to hold that a certain practice which is at deviance with constitutionally laid down procedure assumes the status of custom and gains legal status if practised over a period of time? The Supreme Court has no right to intervene in Parliamentary matters unless petitioned to do so by one who has locus standi; and can only look askance and even helpless if Governments impose taxes by midnight fiat flouting the legal procedure if no petitioner has canvassed the legality of such a procedure before the bar of court. Reacting to the Supreme Court ruling that the VAT bill was null and void since certain legal norms had not been adhered to, the Government initially considered whether to defy the court ruling and instead ask the Speaker of the House to give a ruling on the matter. Since then wiser counsel seems to have prevailed and the Finance Minister has announced that the Government would present an amended VAT bill in Parliament soon. A constitutional crisis with Parliament and the Supreme Court at logger heads has thus been averted. For after all, as any self-respecting damsel would tell a suitor wooing her hand in marriage in a brash manner, If you want to marry me darling, come the proper way, so has the Supreme Court only told the Government  if you want to tax the people, go the legal way.
Where oh where is that code of conduct? View(s):

It was meant to be a happy and festive occasion. It was the mid-April Sinhala and Tamil New Year this year. It could not have been entirely happy for some households which probably had to dig deep into their pockets and even savings to provide the traditional feast and new clothes for their families, so intrinsic to the annual celebrations.

Shortly before parliament recessed for that extended holiday and the peoples representatives went their separate ways to feast and feast on others, though none of them seemed particularly undernourished, the Hon Speaker, the guardian of the House, gave each of them a New Year gift as they set out on their journeys some for narcissistic glorification back in their very rotten boroughs.

The gift was a copy of the newly-drafted Code of Conduct which our worthy representatives were to read and digest along with the kavun, kokis and kiributh. They were given two weeks to comment on this code intended to inject some morality and civilized conduct inside and outside their Diyawanna Oya abode and hope they tread the path of righteousness.

Since that April day when our elected and selected representatives dispersed in the hope they would peruse and ponder the code which would hopefully raise public faith in the behaviour and usefulness of their MPs, nothing has been heard about it, at least not in this neck of the woods.

No doubt little or nothing has been heard in the paradise isle either. From all that one can gather from the deafening silence the code appears to have gone into a period of extended hibernation. Whether this is temporary with the prospect of a Lazarus-like resurrection sometime or other or a state of permanence that would require the performance of the last rites only time will tell.

And time is not a commodity that the people of this Miracle of Asia have in abundance. They are quite accustomed to the numerous promises made by successive governments claiming to represent them, to fulfill their pledges. They cannot unlike Godot be permanently on the waiting list. They are getting increasingly tired of prevarication and procrastination.

But if the subsequent events soon after that saw clashes and fisticuffs in the Well of the legislature sending a couple or more of our honourable MPs to seek running repairs to their mien if not their anatomy, it tended to buttress the widely-held public view that no code of conduct is going to alter the demeanour of some whether they had read the code or not.

Since the code suffered that initial bruising at the hands of pugilistic parliamentarians there have been other instances which seem to suggest that the time spent on trying to change for the better the countrys political culture starting from the very place where laws are made and where the public expects sanctity is most likely to be an exercise in futility.

The chaos caused by remonstrating Joint Opposition MPs a few days back during the discussion of the OMP Bill leaving much of what actually transpired in some doubt is a case in point. If today the Sri Lankan public, like the British playwright John Osborne, look back in anger at being let down once more by political deception and hypocrisy there is no surprise in it at all.

A member shall not assault, harass or intimidate another person, article 5.7 of the code states with magisterial portentousness.

Even if the code existed it is more likely to be observed in the breach by some unaccustomed to such moral protein and persuasion.

That is the question which will continue to haunt a concerned public who have witnessed the intimidation and harassment and even assault of ordinary people and of public officials performing their legitimate duties.

Talking of intimidation and harassment, just recently many members of COPE chastised a newly nominated participant from the UNP, Sujeeva Senasinghe, for his attempts to intimidate Central Bank officials summoned to an inquiry into the alleged Central Bank bond scam. It was alleged that Senasinghes abrasive approach was to frighten the officials and possibly thwart a quick resolution of the COPE inquiry.

What is worrying is that if the conduct of MPs within parliament continues to deteriorate as much as it has over the last 19 months when a new President and one year later a new National Unity Government for Good Governance headed by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe took office, would a Code of Conduct change our political culture for the better?

It is not as though the MPs were unaware that such a code was in the offing. This was a pledge made by the leaders of the present government at election time. But are the leaders themselves ready to chastise their recalcitrant members or do they look the other way, if they do not actually promote their political progress.

The other day a youth made a complaint to the police that he had been assaulted by the State Minister of Skills Development Range Bandara which Mr.Bandara denied making a counter complaint and eventually reaching an amicable settlement. This of course is not the first time his name has cropped up over a fracas.

Readers would recall almost two years ago the Mayor of Hambantota Eraj Fernando was seen brandishing a pistol in a confrontation with some MPs, members of the UNP who went on a fact-finding mission to Mattala airport and the Hambantota port. Fernando claimed it was only a toy pistol and it was to frighten the MPs (boys will be boys I suppose).

But the irony of all this did not emerge till last week. Fernando claimed that he only intended to frighten the parliamentarians of the UNP which is today the largest party in the Unity Government. At the time the UNP protested outside the Hambantota police station demanding Fernandos arrest. Last week the pistol (toy) wielding Eraj Fernando was appointed an organizer of the SLFP which is the second biggest party in the same coalition.

If such unsavoury elements are being promoted to party positions with the prospect of their ending up as MPs and this is being done by leaders of this country it surely is no surprise the public is fast losing faith not only in their elected representatives but political leaders for not keeping to their vows to radically change political behaviour.

One problem however is that this code applies to members of parliament alone. It lets off the hook other elected representatives such as provincial and municipal councillors and members of the pradeshiya sabhas who are hardly paragons of political virtue.

Sri Lankans know only too well that some of those elected representatives have been involved in corruption, intimidation, harassment and even in some instances killings.

Politicians from those lower levels have been nominated by political parties to contest parliamentary elections and have been elected to parliament. Some bring with them behavioural traditions and culture that have become ingrained in them.

Whether a code of conduct that is alien to many and is seen as an unnecessary shackle that imposes limitations on their actions and activities would succeed in restoring the dignity of parliament and its members will be seen in the days ahead.

One thing is certain. The clauses in the code that require MPs to declare their financial interests and those of their close family members in a register of interests and matters related to declaring their interest on issues before parliament, would very well run into some stormy weather when parliament comes to discuss  if at all  the code, particularly as such information would become public.

The code says that members shall fulfill conscientiously the requirements of the House in respect of the registration of interests in the Register of MPs Financial Interests. Each shall disclose to Parliament all relevant interests that a reasonable person might think could give rise to the perception of influencing behaviour between the members duties and responsibilities and his/her personal interests. These shall be disclosed immediately following election and continuously updated.

MPs are expected to provide sufficient information of their assets and business interests. Who decides what is sufficient? They are also expected to provide information about close family members. Pray who are close family members and at what point do they stop being close, given that we live in a society where an extended family goes as far as Ozymandias that King of Kings could see?

Why cannot ones ill-gotten wealth be held in the name of an extended family member thus avoiding violating the code? Surely Sri Lanka has been practising such deviationary tactics long before Mossack Fonseca entered the scene. After all, MPs are expected to divulge only sufficient information regarding their business relationships and financial interests.

If corruption, fraud and other financial crimes are to be eliminated surely these provisions should be more strictly defined and rigorous sanctions imposed rather than a tap on the knuckles by fellow MPs. It is not enough to permit public access to these declarations if MPs become the arbiters of the complaints and complainants are in danger of ending up in the courts on charges of false complaints.

More stringent rules and regulations should apply to declarations of assets by state officials as well. In recent years names of officials have surfaced ever so often as holders of politicians money bags or depositors of fraudulently acquired wealth. The annual declarations lie in various ministries gathering dust and are hardly glanced at by anybody in authority.

Since corruption and fraud by state officials prevail not only at the top of the scale but lower down too there must be a system by which the public have access to them if false declarations are suspected and the public is armed with evidence.

Cleansing the country of fraud and corruption by law makers and state officials was a major issue at the last elections and several ministers and MPs connected with the Rajapaksa government are under investigation or have been hauled up before the courts.

If such a clean-up is seriously contemplated then the reformers might take a cue from Hong Kongs Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) which has not hesitated to investigate and where necessary prosecute their own officers as well as high-ranking government officials.

Singapores anti-corruption mechanisms could serve as a useful example of how independent bodies function, untrammelled by politicians trying to save their own skins or those of friends and relatives.
The harmonious balancing of power View(s):

The LAWASIA conference concluded this week in Colombo, its jubilee celebrations marked with a Colombo declaration signed by the Asia Pacific Region Chief Justices calling for a further commitment to the Separation of Powers between the Executive (Government), the Legislature (Parliament) and the Judiciary (Courts).

Coming as it did in Colombo in the backdrop of a missive from the Executive reminding the Judiciary that the Legislature was supreme and not to be trifled with by court orders that defeat its efforts (the VAT bill being found to be illegal), the Chief Justices could not have been unaware of the timing and the relevance their call had in a Sri Lankan context.

Separation of Powers is a concept that has travelled many miles across continents and over several centuries since Baron de Montesquieu when King Louis XIV had the temerity to declare; I am the state. That is now ancient history. In more recent times, the Commonwealth of which Sri Lanka is a member-state has ingrained this objective in its own Latimer House Principles aimed at ensuring the harmonious balancing of power and that democratic states do not drift towards authoritarianism breeding tin-pot dictators in the process.

Often mandates from the people at democratic elections tend to change the mindset of those elected. They tend to believe, and genuinely so, that such mandates empower them with a God-given right to do as they please. In pursuing that mirage, they find the Separation of Powers hindering their path. And they get annoyed.

Like all laws, and all forms of government, the spirit of the tri-partite Separation of Powers is what it is all about. In Sri Lanka, politicians particularly after the introduction of the Executive Presidency could not resist the temptation to take control of all the arms of governance, including the Courts.

Some Chief Justices concurred in the process of politicising the Judiciary. They were aided and abetted by upwardly-mobile lesser judicial officers. Others resisted and faced the consequences. Towards the last few years, the wheels of the Judiciary began to fall off and it was one mad scramble for power and position by rubber-stamping Government fiats.

It was in this backdrop that the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission could not have put it better than to say that it was a period when the Rule of Men replaced the Rule of Law. The Commission asked that it be reversed.

Separation of Powers can gridlock nations as it is happening right now in the United States of America. The poison of politics has crept into its body politic to such an extent the laws are not passed and Supreme Court judges not appointed. But such nations have strong institutions that insulate the country from impending disaster. The nation does not revolve around politicians alone and therefore shut down.

With the process set in motion to revise the 1978 Constitution and all the amendments that followed, one can only hope that the framers of the new Constitution will not tinker with the fundamental principles of Separation of Powers, as the Chief Justices have called for.

In Sri Lanka, there is a huge responsibility for all three branches of governance, no more and no less a responsibility rests on the Judiciary itself to restore the credibility of the Independence of the judiciary and the Rule of Law.

Recent judgments from the minor courts to the apex court, some against the incumbent Government are a healthy sign, however an irritant it may be to the political leadership of the country. In the VAT case, it was the Governments shabbiness that lost it the case. So too was the case with the Divineguma Bill under the previous Government which saw that Government, drunk with power shamefully try and establish a rubber-stamping puppet Bench. The world community has come to question the Kept Judiciary of Sri Lanka. It is good to see a move in a welcome new direction.

Modern History: Rebuilding broken bridges

Two senior Indian personalities, one an editor and the other a diplomat, have just released their respective tomes on their countrys recent Sri Lankan adventures.

Neena Gopals book to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi (see extracts in ST2 cover) and Dr. Haldip Singh Puri, one-time Indias ambassador to the UN (see review on page 16), both well versed in Sri Lankan affairs come to somewhat similar conclusions; and these are much the same conclusions modern-day India has come to terms with; that Indias policy of hegemony in general and its intervention in Sri Lanka in the 1970s to the 1990s in particular, brought not just abject misery to its neighbours, but to itself.

Ms. Gopal refers to Indias external spy agency, RAWs manipulation of the LTTE, eventually to be bitten by it. Dr. Puri writes of the broader issue of the UN Security Council and interventions that have triggered hell on earth in West Asia and Northern Africa, but it also devotes a chapter to Indias pussy-footing in Sri Lankas internal affairs  which resulted in the death of their one-time PM and over a thousand of their soldiers at the hands of the LTTE. These are lessons to be learnt for any big nation with super-power ambitions and to control if not the world, their patches.

The bitter after-taste of Indias then disastrous Parathasarathian game-plan remains up to this date among many Sri Lankans. The Indian bogey lingers even with a new generation of young people and that is why it is so difficult for any Government in Colombo to enter into any agreement with New Delhi.

There is natural suspicion and Indian diplomats who followed in the J.N. Dixit era, try as they might to change this mind-set have found it an uphill task to convince the public that they mean good for the countrys closest southern neighbour.

India blew all the natural goodwill that existed for millennia among a majority of Sri Lankans for contemporary history cannot be so easily erased from the public psyche. The state of Tamil Nadu and its politics are doing no favours for New Delhi as it repairs broken bridges.

Not that relationships cannot change and wounds healed. World War IIs sworn enemies are today the best of friends in win-win partnerships. This is the uphill task the Sri Lankan Government also faces today in trying to convince the people that theres nothing sinister in the proposed trade agreements with India.
Ben-Hur A cinema based on bestselling literature View(s):

Ben-Hur, the fifth film made based on 19th century bestselling novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ by Lew Wallace is now being screened in Colombo and other theatres around the country. Ben-Hur, the fifth film made based on 19th century bestselling novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ by Lew Wallace is now being screened in Colombo and other theatres around the country.

Inspired by the 1880 novel, two silent films in 1907 and in 1925 were made. The third Ben-Hur film, 1959 blockbuster, starring Charlton Heston, made history with a record 11 Academy Awards and the 2003 animated film were made prior to the newest film by Kazakh director Timur Bekmambetov.

Starring Jack Huston, Morgan Freeman, Toby Kebbell, Nazanin Boniadi, Haluk Bilginer and Rodrigo Santoro, the film depicts the epic story of Judah Ben-Hur (Jack Huston), a prince falsely accused of treason by his adopted brother, an officer in the Roman army. After years at sea, Judah returns to his homeland to seek revenge, but finds redemption.The film is now being screened at Savoy Wellawatte, Excel, Liberty Lite, Vista Lite, Cine City, Sky Lites Malabe and few other outstation theatres.
Nallur Festival with Jetwing Jaffna View(s):

The city of Jaffna, while home to centuries worth of history and heritage, is also youthful in its stride into the future. A casual walk through the quiet inroads has treading the paths of the kingdom of King Sankili, complete with palace ruins and royal bathing pools. Kovils painted in colours that span the spectrum of the rainbow can be found at every turn and the faithful gather at these sacred places for worship throughout the day. The city of Jaffna, while home to centuries worth of history and heritage, is also youthful in its stride into the future. A casual walk through the quiet inroads has treading the paths of the kingdom of King Sankili, complete with palace ruins and royal bathing pools. Kovils painted in colours that span the spectrum of the rainbow can be found at every turn and the faithful gather at these sacred places for worship throughout the day.

Undoubtedly the most iconic of all these is the Nallur Kandaswamy kovil, a few kilometres from the centre of the Jaffna town. Its regal gold tower gleaming in the Northern sun yet its majestic interior providing respite  spiritual and physical  to followers of Hinduism who travel across the country to make their puja here. Throughout the month of August, the kovil marks the annual Nallur festival, a month-long celebration of faith, tradition and community. Ceremonies and observances happen during this period and the highlight is the Ther festival that sees the whole town come alive and come together to participate in these ancient rituals.

A collaboration of Jetwing Hotels and MBBL, Jetwing Jaffna is perfectly positioned to allow guests to meaningfully witness the festival and all the other wonders the region has to offer. The only luxurious 55 room city hotel in the peninsula, Jetwing Jaffna with their charismatic associates promises to bestow its guests with royal comforts in par with the citys rich culture. The restaurant boasts of serving the best local food, and the rooftop bar accounts for the perfect whine down therapy with the panoramic view of the city and breathtaking sunset.

The prevailing climate allows for largely unrestricted travel across the peninsula. Take an excursion away from the bustling town to the picturesque island of Karainagar and watch the sun set over Casuarina beach. Visit the northernmost shore of Sri Lanka and, aside from the uninterrupted ocean view, take in the historical sites that dot the coastline.

Travel around the Jaffna is incomplete without indulging in the best of the regions cuisine  heady scents and rich flavours that leave you satiated yet wanting more. Jaffna crab curry, known and loved the world over, is a dish full of spicy depth, drawing on the best seafood and aromatics that the region has to offer. A walk through the streets of the town introduce to some of the best street fare around  piping hot vadais being fired in a small cart, decadent thosais filled with potato or drizzled with ghee plus sugary treats to finish the meal.
Researchers spot bizarre googly-eyed stubby squid 900 feet down on the sea floor off California View(s):

It looks uncannily like something youd expect to see on Sesame Street  and not on the seabed 900 metres down, the Daily Mail reported.

The amazing video of the googly-eyed squid has gone viral after it was spotted off the coast of California by a research vessel.

The stubby squid was spotted by the the E/V Nautilus, which uses a remotely operated underwater vehicle to explore the ocean floor, the Daily Mail reported.

As the drone sub approaches the cephalopod, the team can be heard trying to determine at first whether it is an octopus or cuttlefish.

As the see it, even the scientists are amazed.

They look like googly eyes  It looks so fake! one woman exclaims in the video.

Its like some little kid dropped their toy.

Two others in the video comment that the eyes look as though they were painted on.

The team then dissolves into laughter while watching the animal, while one admits its freaking me out! and the other says maybe its a cuddlefish!

The team later determined the cephalopod was a Stubby squid  also known as Rossia pacifica  which is closely related to cuttlefish, according to a description of the video posted by the team that captured the footage. This species spends life on the seafloor, activating a sticky mucus jacket and burrowing into the sediment to camouflage, leaving their eyes poking out to spot prey like shrimp and small fish, the description on the E/V Nautilus YouTube page read. It was spotted in Trask Knoll, a NW-SE elongated hill located south of Santa Rosa island, in the outer California borderland. It is about 20 km-long and ~400 m-high. Little is known about this feature, except that it appears to be bounded to the west by a fault, the Trask Knoll fault.

Earlier studies indicate that Miocene sedimentary rocks cover most of Trask Knoll, but at the center is a metamorphic rock of unknown age.

It is not the first strange creature spotted by the sub.

Last months a mysterious purple orb sucked off the sea bed during a live-streamed Nautilus exploration has stumped scientists, and naturally the internet too. Inquisitive viewers of the YouTube video have made multiple guesses as to its origins, ranging from an alien egg to a brand new species of Pokemon.

In fact it is more likely the bright orb, found by the Channel Islands of California, is a type of marine mollusc.
Australian govt. never recognised Tamil Eelam as a separate country: HC Hutchesson View(s):

Australian High Commissioner (HC) Bruce Hutchesson has responded to the Sunday Times following last weeks page 1 lead story Australia lists Tamil Eelam in census, stating that, what happened was that internal guidelines of the census enumerators accidentally got into the official website. Not that the countrys national census recognised Tamil Eelam as a separate country.

Explaining what happened, the HC says the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) provides internal guidance- instructions given on how to sort responses by members of the public to the question on country of birth- and, in this specific instance, staff were instructed that any respondents who choose to write Tamil Eelam as their country of birth, must be recorded as having been born in Sri Lanka. This guidance in no way grants validation to any such public responses- in fact, to the contrary, he says.

We regret this internal guidance was placed on the ABS website, the HC states.

HC Hutchesson adds that the Australian Government therefore did not list Tamil Eelam as an option for those responding to the national Census question on country of birth and that, his government has never recognised Tamil Eelam as a separate country. He says he has briefed senior Sri Lankan Government officials last week on the matter.

The Sunday Times reported last week that, the ABS website had included the words Tamil Eelam in theit website during an ongoing national census, which invited a barrage of telephone calls to the Sri Lankan High Commission in Canberra. HC S. Skandakumar had lodged a protest with the ABS and the Dept of Foreign Affairs, after which the reference to Tamil Eelam was removed from the website. The Dept of Foreign Affairs however, hadnt given the Sri Lanka High Commission an explanation of internal guidance being placed on the ABS website last week.

An inquiry is pending as to how the ABS website was hacked into on Augsut 9, the same day the reference to Tamil Eelam was removed from the site. HC Hutchesson, however, says to suggest the guidance was the product of a pro-LTTE stunt is fanciful.
Digital forensic lab, new gadgets to fight crime View(s):

By Damith Wickremasekara

Facial recognition technology to track down criminals will be among new facilities available at the governments first digital forensic lab due to start functioning within the next three months, a senior official said. The lab now under construction with funding from South Korea will have its own facilities to carry out DNA tests, forensic identity of firearms, telephone tapping and analysis of CCTV footage and sounds, Law and Order Ministry Secretary Jagath Wijeweera said.

Handpicked Criminal Investigations Department (CID) detectives, now under training, will work in the new unit. Under this Seoul-funded project, Government Analysts Department facilities also are being upgraded simultaneously.

The facial recognition technology will be used to analyse CCTV footage and track down persons wanted for criminal activities.

The lab would have the facility for speedy investigations of cyber crime including the ability to trace or track the device used in the crime within 24 hours, Mr Wijeweera explained.

At present, such investigations are handled by different agencies including private institutes and various universities. This has led to delays investigations and legal action. Delays in conducting investigations provide opportunity for the offender to further victimise the victim, particularly in cases of cyber crime, the secretary said.

The lab would also have facilities to track down illegal financial transactions instead of depending on other agencies.

Deputy Inspector General Priyantha Jayakody, who is in charge of the Criminal Records Division, said that the facility would expedite investigations as currently some parts of the investigations were being carried out by outside agencies.

We have to be on the waiting list on some universities to carry out part of the investigations now. There are delays in getting the reports leading to difficulties in controlling criminal activities, he said. The move would also help to protect the privacy of the victims, particularly in cyber crime cases.

At present, at least 15 cases of cyber crime are reported daily to the CID. The South Korean government is providing US$ 3.2 million for the project through the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA).
Indias 69th Independence Day celebration in Colombo View(s):

The High Commission of India and the Indian expatriate community in Sri Lanka celebrated Indias 69th Independence last weekend at India House in Colombo.

High Commissioner Y.K. Sinha unfurled the National Flag and inspected a Guard of Honour presented by the BSF contingent. He also read out excerpts from the Address to the Nation on the eve of the Independence Day by the President of India, Pranab Mukherjee.
Malik hires another US firm to lobby for Lanka View(s):

Foreign Ministry unaware; non-existent peace process part of the deal, Sajin under investigation for hiring lobby firms

By Our Diplomatic Correspondent

Development Strategies and International Trade Minister Malik Samarawickrema has engaged a United States lobbying firm to educate officials on a non-existent peace process, increase economic ties and market access.

The firm, Sandler, Travis and Rosenberg (ST&R), has filed a registration statement, as required by US law, with the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) for this new deal. Its records are publicly available in the US and through its website. It has named its client as the Ministry of Development Strategies and International Trade. It has not said who in the Ministry concluded the deal.

The decision to retain this US firm comes in the wake of the National Unity Government having slammed the former UPFA Government for retaining ten different lobbying firms in the US. Former Monitoring MP Sajin Vaas Gunawardene has been implicated in the exercise.

Funds for those lobbying firms were remitted through the Central Bank without any recourse to the Cabinet of Ministers. These questionable deals are now the subject of investigations by the Special Presidential Commission of Inquiry.

The firm ST&R hired by Minister Samarawickrama had previously been hired to fight an anti-dumping case in the US on hard tyres. It is related to a Foreign Direct Investment in Sri Lanka through the Board of Investment involving a Belgium firm. The case has already been heard in the US and is to continue in a few months time. The result of this case will be crucial to Sri Lanka. An official in Colombo familiar with the workings of US lobbying firms said yesterday that ST& R is a Customs law firm and was not well geared to undertake the new tasks Sri Lanka expects in the US.

Another important aspect is the discovery by the Sunday Times that the Foreign Ministry is unaware of Minister Samarawickremas arrangement. An official there said, We were not informed of an agreement with ST&Rs. We have not been told. At least as a matter of courtesy, we should have been informed.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Matters (CCEM) is reported to have given the nod for hiring ST&R. However, fuller details of the profile of the lobbying firm or its standing vis-a-vis others in terms of value for money have not been correctly assessed. The ST&R has also been tasked to work towards expanding the caucus on Sri Lanka, monitoring policy and writing briefs  all responsibilities which is cast on the Sri Lanka Embassy in Washington DC.

A monthly fee of US$ 30,000 is to be made to the firm. This will continue until January next year.
SriLankan pilots threaten to strike View(s):

Relations between the Pilots Guild of Sri Lanka and SriLankan Airlines management have worsened after the national carriers Head of Human Resources (HHR) instructed the pilots union not to write directly to the companys chairman, board of directors or chief executive officer.

SriLankan Airlines Human Resources Head Pradeepa Kekulawala instructed the Guild to instead route its correspondence on any matters through the head of the relevant division, adhering to the established channels of communication.

The Guild fired back on Friday, saying it was its prerogative as a registered trade union to address any communication to whomever we deem fit, internal or external. Flexing its muscles further, the Guild wrote to Mr. Kekulawala, warning that, should you or anyone else attempt to interfere in our union activities, we will not hesitate to exercise, in full, our rights.

Since the change of management at SriLankan Airlines following elections last year, the Pilots Guild has flagged multiple issues regarding the running of the national carrier. It complains, however, that the concerns have not been addressed by the management.

This is the first time the Guild has threatened trade union action. It has also written to Labour Commissioner M.D.C Amaratunga, stating, This treatment by the employer is unprecedented, and severely prejudices the rights of the Guild and our members.

Mr. Kekulawala has maintained that the channels of communication with employees or employee representatives are the prerogative of the company as long as the purpose of communication is achieved.

The Guild and the management also recently clashed after the latter unexpectedly restricted the use of the BIAs Serendib (Business Class) Lounge for staff, including pilots, and their families. However, the management had retained the privilege of using the lounge for the Chairman, Board of Directors, the CEO and their families.
Tight security for Scotsman in Malaka Silva assault case View(s):

Tight security is expected as the Scotsman at the centre of an assault case against former Minister Mervyn Silvas son Malaka Silva, arrives at the Colombo Magistrates Court on Thursday (25), when the case is to be taken up.

James Casserly (44) will be in court regarding the alleged assault on a foreign couple by Malaka Silva at a nightclub two years ago.

A senior officer at the Kollupitiya police said they will provide security to the Scotsman during the case.

The incident had occurred at a Colombo nightclub on the night of October 31, 2014, when Malaka Silva had allegedly groped 24-year-old Belinda Mackenzie on the dance floor. When she had tried to resist his advances, Mr. Silva is alleged to have struck her, prompting her partner Mr Casserly to intervene. He had allegedly punched Malaka in the face during the scuffle, knocking him to the ground, whereupon several of Mr. Silvas bodyguards had allegedly proceeded to assault Mr Casserly.

Police complaints were subsequently lodged by both parties claiming they had been assaulted.

Mr. Casserly, who had been living in Sri Lanka at the time, while employed as an engineer, was quoted in the British press as saying that, the subsequent attention he received after the incident resulted in him losing his dream job, as his employers were disturbed by the publicity. He alleged that he received threats to drop the case against Malaka.

Mr. Casserly further alleged that the injuries he received during the assault had left him with impaired vision.
John Capper: A life in old Ceylon By Richard Boyle View(s): View(s):

John Capper (1814-1898) is one of those 19th-century British colonists who contributed something worthwhile to the island  in his case mainly to the development of journalism in English, particularly editorship, and early newspaper and periodical production. In addition he was an author of factual and historical publications of value, not only of Ceylon, but India and Australia too. And as far as fiction is concerned he could have influenced Charles Dickens to create two characters from Ceylon in his final but unfinished novel.

Capper began his journalistic career by helping edit The Mining and Steam Navigation Gazette before he sailed to Ceylon in 1837. He was employed at Acland & Boyd, a leading agency house primarily involved in the coffee industry, though he was manager of the firms cinnamon properties. In 1839 he became a more permanent member of the firm by marrying co-founder Aclands daughter, Anna Amelia. By 1846 he was a junior partner in charge of the entire export business.

He was also a pioneer coffee planter, a career he encapsulated in writing, the publication of which will be explained later. DM Forrest states in One Hundred Years of Ceylon Tea 1867-1967 (1967): The great leit motif of the coffee planting era was what John Capper calls the merry chime of axes felling the glorious forests.

Capper claims it was a pretty and novel sight to experience the felling. His lack of environmental sensitivity is understandable; nevertheless the description disturbs ecologically-attuned citizens. He explains how dozens of trees were axed almost to the point of felling, then all being ready, the manager sounded the conch sharply, two score voices raised a shout, forty axes gleamed high in the air, then sank into as many trees, which groaned heavily, waved their huge branches to and fro like drowning giants, then toppled and fell with a stunning crash on the trees below. These, having been cut previously, offered no resistance, but followed the example of their upper neighbours and fell booming on those beneath.

In the mid-19th century, journalistic activity in literary and scholarly subjects rapidly advanced. Capper initiated and edited The Ceylon Magazine, a periodical for Orientalists and antiquarians, from 1840 to 42. Though short-lived, it demonstrated the need for such a forum, satisfied in 1845 when Capper and 33 others formed the Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, successor to the Colombo Literary Society. Appointed treasurer and librarian, Capper was in excellent company.

One of three vice-patrons was James Emerson Tennent, who neglected his colonial duties to write one of the best-known accounts of the island, Ceylon (1859). And the secretary was William Knighton, author of the lesser-known Forest Life in Ceylon (1854), described by DCRA Goonetilleke in Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English (2004) as the only creative work of value in the 19th century.

The coffee crash of 1847 resulted in Acland & Boyd suspending business: Forrest (1967) informs readers that it launched Capper on a series of careers in which the management of companies in Colombo and Calcutta alternated with journalism in Colombo and London.

In fact he returned to London in 1848 for a decade, and began by contributing articles on Ceylon life to the early volumes of Charles Dickens popular monthly Household Words, published between 1850 and 1859. Only the name of Dickens, the editor, appeared; articles were unsigned. Capper must have known Dickens for a few years, and been questioned regarding faraway Ceylon and its colonists. Thus it is possible he unwittingly influenced the author in the decision to make Neville and Helena Landless, British twins born in Ceylon, principal characters in his last and alas unfinished novel, the experimental Mystery of Edwin Drood (1870). Helena was a formidable female character for Victorian times: Each time she dressed as a boy, and showed the daring of a man. (See my Ceylon Connection with Dickens Unfinished Tale, the Sunday Times, October 11 and 18, 1998.) There is a more popular theory, however. Dickens knew the Victorian actor William Charles Macready  indeed he was an intimate friend of the family  and Macreadys son from his first wife, also called William, served in the Ceylon Civil Service as an assistant government agent and a district judge. He was a linguist and published in 1865 a translation of Sri Rahulas poem Sela Lihini Sandese: the Selas Message, with Notes and a Glossary, for the use of Students. He died in Puttalam in 1871 aged 39. There have been countless efforts to provide an ending to the novel  in every conceivable form, including audience-interactive theatre  from soon after Dickens death to the present day, listed (albeit now incomplete) in my 1998 article. The Mystery of Edwin Drood,like so many of Dickens novels, was published in monthly parts, in this instance 12. Only six had been written  and even the sixth was unfinished  at Dickens death.

He left no indication of how he intended to proceed with the story. There has been a recent attempt to not only provide a solution to the mystery, but also base a character on a Ceylon civil servant, Frederick Lacy Dick, a district magistrate who was murdered in 1847 by a petty criminal. Details can be found in J Penry Lewis List of Inscriptions on Tombstones and Monuments in Ceylon (1913). The Cinnamon Peelers Daughter (2012), a short story by Truda Thurai  who has connections with Sri Lanka and wrote the Bandaranaike-era novel The Devil Dancers (2011)  was published to commemorate Dickens birth two centuries earlier. Thurais local research and knowledge makes for convincing reading.

Cappers first book, surprisingly not about Ceylon, was The Emigrants Guide to Australia; containing the fullest particulars relating to the recently discovered gold fields, the government regulations for gold seeking, &c (Liverpool, 1852). It was popular: ten editions were published between 1852 and 1857. But according to modern analysts Capper refers too briefly to the condition of the Aborigines and the Aboriginal/white relationship.

His next book, again not about Ceylon, was The Three Presidencies of India: A History of the Rise and Progress of the British Indian Possessions (London, 1853), which enjoyed some success  24 editions were published up to 2013. The review in The Spectator, October 15, 1853, believed that Capper had executed a task, which has been done too often to admit of much novelty, with skill and spirit. He has collected and abridged the matter of our best Indian historians with judgment.

There swiftly followed two further successful guides to emigrating Down Under. First, Australia: As a Field for Capital, Skill, and Labour: with useful information for immigrants of all classes (London, 1854), then Our Gold Colonies: a manual of the progress of gold-digging, cattle-rearing, corn-growing, sheep-breeding, and mining in the three chief provinces of Australia (Liverpool, 1854). Five editions of the latter appeared in the year of publication.

Cappers first book regarding Ceylon was Pictures from the East (London, 1854), three editions of which were published between 1854 and 1900. It was described as truth in pictures, of Ceylon, drawn on the spot and extremely well-executed. This truth in pictures was conveyed by striking vignettes by JLK van Dort, Ceylons pre-eminent illustrator.

Geschichte des britischen Indien, von seinen fruhesten Urkunden bis zur Gegenwart: Beschreibung seiner Natur, Regierung, Religion, Sitten (Hamburg, 1858), History of British India, from its earliest records to the present: description of its nature, government, religion, customs, co-authored by Capper and JS Lowe, is something of an enigma. As is In den Handen der Bohras (Berlin, 1918), In the hands of the Bohra,by Ernst Ahrnd and co-authored by Capper, although it must have been about the Bohra community.

During his period in England, Capper sub-edited The Globe newspaper, founded in 1803 by a coal-mining entrepreneur, which supported radical politics and was closely associated with prominent social reformer Jeremy Bentham. But by the time Capper was involved mid-century the publication had become more mainstream. JLK van Dort provided illustrations of the islands notable events.

Capper returned to Ceylon in 1858 with an enhanced knowledge of writing, editing and publishing. His first act was to buy The Ceylon Times, which had been launched in 1846 mainly to promote the mercantile interests of British colonists. Subsequently Capper became an archetypal proprietor and editor.

He was an establishment figure too, an unofficial member of Ceylons Legislative Council. However on November 15, 1864, he and five other unofficial members  two British and three Ceylonese  resigned in protest at the parsimonious policy of the Government over the disbursement of revenues.

The events of 1864 seem in retrospect to have an air of melodrama about them, KM de Siva states in The History of Ceylon, Vol. 3 (1973). Indeed the attention they have attracted stems largely from the fact these were years devoid of any political incident. But these gestures were calculated to stir public imagination and to embarrass the local government.

Capper and his cohorts formed the Ceylon League in 1865, the result of which was reported in Arnold Wrights Twentieth Century Impressions of Ceylon (1907):The different races of the island  Sinhalese, Dutch, Burgher and Tamil  whom mutual distrust had hitherto kept apart, combined as Sinhalese in their political campaign against the Government . . . The Leagues agitation continued for the best part of Sir Hercules Robinsons government and rendered him unpopular with the educated classes of Sinhalese.

The Duke of Edinburgh in Ceylon: A book of elephant and elk sport (London, 1871), seven editions of which were published up to 2011, is one of Cappers best-known books regarding Sri Lanka. When it was announced that Queen Victorias second son, Prince Alfred, the Duke of Edinburgh, was to pay a ceremonial visit to Ceylon in 1870, the mood was one of glorious expectation among the servile bourgeoisie who had benefitted from imperialism.

In an age before electronic media, and when photography was still in its infancy, reliance was placed on written accounts, supported by sketches and paintings, to communicate to the British the loyal sentiments of the people of the colonies. Capper was commissioned to document in detail the Duke of Edinburghs five-week visit, an account partly illustrated by JLK van Dort. (See my A Right Royal Tour, The Sunday Times, 13, 20 and 27 September 1998).

Cappers next publication, A Full Account of the Buddhist Controversy, held at Pantura, August, 1873 (Colombo, 1873), published at The Ceylon Times office, was much more relevant. The title alludes to the Panadura Debate, though the use of the phrase Buddhist controversy is contentious. Reports such as this inspired Henry Steele Olcott to come to Ceylon in 1880 to assist in the Buddhist revival.

In 1874 Capper sold The Ceylon Times and left for England. One consequence was Old Ceylon: sketches of Ceylon life in the olden time (London, 1877), eleven editions of which appeared in two years. This is another better-known Capper publication, one that rectified the anonymity of his work in Household Words.

Many of the following Sketches were published in the early volumes of Dickens Household Words more than a quarter of a century ago, Capper explains. Some are now given for the first time, but nearly all refer to a period between 30 and 40 years ago. The book contains five black-and-white engravings by WJ Watson from drawings by van Dort.

Forrest (1967) remarks that Capper had a sharp eye, though his observations too often reach us through a misty Dickensian filter, and later refers to him as that master of Dickensian English. Although his writings were largely concerned with recreating a romantic past, they provide the modern-day reader an excellent historical insight.

Capper was also involved in tea promotion. Forrest (1967) reports how the Ceylon Tea Fund went about its pioneering job. It was an age of exhibitions, such as the phenomenal Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations, held in London in 1851. Ceylon was there, of course, with the immortal John Capper in charge [he was living in London and writing for Dickens, who visited the exhibition] of what he called a sorry show of the islands industries.

At the Melbourne International Exhibition of 1880, and at Calcutta three years later, Ceylon Tea was forcefully promoted, Forrest (1967) continues. Exercising strict impartiality, the planners invited Mr Ferguson of the Ceylon Observer and Mr Capper of the Times of Ceylon to represent them at Melbourne and Calcutta respectively. However Forrest (1967) confesses: While this was a compliment to a journalistic profession, I am afraid it did not entirely bring out the higher natures of these two excellent men.

Cappers visit to Calcutta in 1883  for which he compiled the Handbook to the Ceylon Court, Calcutta International Exhibition (Colombo, 1883)  was a year after he returned to Ceylon to resuscitate the liquidated Ceylon Times, assisted by his son Frank, a planter from Haputale. Renamed The Times of Ceylon, it became an evening daily in 1883 instead of a twice-weekly and consequently the leading English paper read by plantation owners and European residents. Another son, Herbert, also helped run the newspaper.

In his free time Capper edited the short-lived satirical magazine Muniandi. It was illustrated in daring fashion by JLK van Dort:consider such captions as The Wolfendahl Coquettes and A Wily Old Kandyan Debauchee, Swearing Eternal Love Through His Beetled Lips Overnight, To A Sweet, Innocent And Confiding Girl Of Sixteen, And Kicking Her Out At Daylight, Before She Had Even Time To Get Her Early Coffee and Hoppers!

John Capper left Ceylon for the final time in 1884, leaving the management of The Times of Ceylon in the hands of his sons, and died in London in 1898.
Placing trust in inner salvation Public Trustee for 18 years Ubayasekera Mapa talks to Chandani Kirinde of his new journey in life as Bhante (Ven.) Vayama Kami View(s): View(s):

From donning the black cloak as a lawyer in his younger years to the saffron robes of a Buddhist monk hes clad in today, Bhante (Venerable) Vayama Kamis search for salvation has taken him on a long and unusual path.

Till a couple of months ago, Bhante Kami (73) was Ubayasekera Mapa or U.Mapa as he was better known, a retired public official who served a record 18 years as the Public Trustee. In addition, he held high positions as Sri Lankas Ambassador to Myanmar, Magistrate in Colombo and Kandy, the Financial Ombudsman while also practising law in his younger years.

All the time, while enjoying the trappings of high government office, Mr. Mapa searched for answers from the teachings of Lord Buddha on finding the path to the end to the eternal cycle of births and deaths that human beings are trapped in.

My parents were devoted Buddhists but they did not influence me to become a monk. I cannot remember when exactly I developed such an interest in Buddhism but I remember getting my hands on a book called Buddhist Teachings by Venerable Narada Thera. After reading that I was keen to learn more on the subject and hence began reading more and more Buddhist literature, recalled Mr.Mapa who was ordained as Bhante Vayama Kami at the Panditaraman Buddhist Centre in Myanmar two months ago.

The youngest in a family of seven, he was born in Dedigama in the Kegalle District and having passed out as a lawyer began practising at the Kegalle Courts. It was the sudden onset of a serious health condition that made his career take a different path making him opt for a job in the government service.

I began practising law in 1969 and about three years later I fell ill and one of my kidneys had to be removed. At that point I decided it was best to join the government service as I could get a fixed salary. So I began my career in the public service as the President of the Labour Tribunal and later went on to hold many other positions, Bhante Kami said.

It was while he was at the Labour Tribunal that he came across the writings of Ven. Narada. While the readings aroused his curiosity on the subject, he soon realized what he was reading were in fact someone elses interpretations of the teachings of the Buddha. Thereon I gradually began to collect copies of the Tripitaka (Buddhist scriptures) and began to read the Buddhas teachings but at that point I was not convinced I should become a monk, he said.

He was particularly engrossed in verses 277,278 and 279 in the Tripitaka which speak on the impermanence and the unsatisfactory nature of life and how to develop wisdom. There is a difference between knowledge and wisdom; some of the great thinkers of our time and of the past have knowledge but they lack something which is wisdom, the septuagenarian monk said.

He had another bout of bad health a few years ago when he had to undergo surgery to remove his gallbladder. Two operations and 18 pints of blood transfusion later, he spent ten days in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of a private hospital convinced that his life was about to end. I had a deep realisation of dukkha or suffering during those few days, he recalled.

Bhante Kami is convinced that his karma played a role in his decision to become a Buddhist monk. Certain amount of karma has moulded my character. I was toying with the idea for many years but I cannot give one single reason why I decided to become a monk. I believe I have done it for my salvation and also to set an example to others, he said.

The final decision to get ordained came soon after the Sinhala New Year in April this year. With the support of his wife and two daughters, U.Mapa heeded the call and entered monkhood.

I have freedom of mind which is only possible by becoming a monk, he said with a smile of contentment.

Living a life of seclusion away from worldly pleasures and commitments, Bhante Kami is immersed in meditation, being one with nature and gaining a deeper insight into the path of salvation the Buddha taught. Its a path he will tread till the end of his days.
Revlon beauty off to LA for Miss Universe By Minushi Perera View(s): View(s):

Jayanthi De Silva was crowned Revlon Miss Universe Sri Lanka 2016 by the Miss Universe Sri Lanka 2015, Marianne Page at the glittering finale of the pageant on August 16 at the Hilton Colombo. Ayesha Fernando was adjudged 1st runner up and Malsha Hewage was 2nd runner up.

The evening began with the 14 finalists introducing themselves to the audience. Mini titles were awarded to the contestants in between the main events and performances. The contestants took the ramp in swimwear, faced an interview and lastly appeared in evening dress.

The new Revlon Miss Universe Sri Lanka, Jayanthi De Silva will be going to Las Vegas later this year to compete in the Miss Universe competition 2016.
The RAW Truth in Sri Lanka View(s):

In 1991, she was the last Indian journalist to interview Rajiv Gandhi and a few metres away from him when a female LTTE suicide bomber blew herself up and killed the former Indian Prime Minister. Twenty-five years later, Neena Gopal, the then young journalist, returns to the picture to tell a bigger story in her new book The Assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, unearthing, among other matters, the role Indias intelligence arm, the Research and Analysis Wing, played in Sri Lankas ethnic conflict that dragged on for three decades. The Sunday Times today carries extracts from the book.

The RAW Truth: The order to kill

Rajiv Gandhi avarunde mandalai addipodalam. Dump pannidungo.

Blow Rajiv Gandhis head off. Eliminate him. Maranai vechidungo.

Kill him.

Of the hundreds of intercepts between the thirty-eight- odd Tamil insurgent camps in the Nilgiris in India and their cohorts in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, almost every single one centred on arms shipments and gunrunning between Vedaranyam and Point Pedro, barely 18 kilometres from coast to coast. But no intercept would be as chilling as the kill order that came through in short bursts of VHS communication on a frequency that the LTTE favoured, that April day in 1990.

When it was intercepted, it set off alarm bells among Tamil insurgents ranged against the Tigers, their numbers already worn thin by the LTTEs targeting of their cadres and top leadership. The intercept, in Old Tamil interspersed with English used by the Jaffna Tamilsand largely incomprehensible to Indian Tamilsonly added to the confusion that hung over the all too brief radio message.

Dump. That particular term came into use when the LTTE began to ruthlessly eliminate Tamil civilians who resisted their fiat and dumped them in pits across Jaffna. It was another way of saying kill.But the difference this time was that the order was not to eliminate one of their own. The target was the former Indian prime minister, the leader of another country.

When PLOTE leader Siddharthan Dharmalingam first heard it, he was so alarmed, he immediately tipped off the IPKFs counter-intelligence head in Sri Lanka, Col Hariharan.

A native Tamil speaker with an inside track into the Lankan Tamil narrative, Col Hariharan was greatly helped in his task, he says, by having an aunt who was married to a Jaffna native. It was Col Hariharan, the head of Counter Intelligence (COIN), and one of a handful of Indian operatives with his ear to the ground and an understanding of the Tigers mindset, who recognized its true import.

But it didnt fly. Whether it wasnt specific enough or clear enough to warrant immediate action, or was simply not taken seriously by the intelligence mandarins to whom the information was passed on, is not known. Either way, Indias intelligence agents were clearly unequal to the task of reading the threat for what it wasa death sentence passed by the LTTE, an insurgent group nurtured by India, on Indias former premier.

Even when Rajiv Gandhi was the Prime Minister, the R&AW had drawn attention to the likelihood of a threat to his security from the Sri Lankan Tamil extremist organizations.

It repeated this warning after he became the Leader of the Opposition, says B. Raman, head of RAW during 198894, in his eye-popping memoir, The Kaoboys of R&AW.1 These warnings did not receive the attention they deserved because they were based on assessments and not on specific intelligence, he writes.

Except, this particular intercept was as specific as it could get.

Prabhakarans handler when the LTTE leader was in India, Chandran, is pushing eighty-five, but remembers the intercept as clearly as though it were yesterday. He recounts how everyone misread the signalsnot just his men, but also agents from the IB who were tasked with monitoring the threat posed by Lankan Tamils residing in India, who had to trawl through hundreds of messages that went back and forth.

Chandran, additional secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat and in charge of RAW in Sri Lanka, was sidelined once the Rajiv Gandhi government fell, and his years of cultivating the Tamil militants came to nought.

By that time, the government had changed. Nobody wanted to hear what we had to say anyway. And I had been shunted out, he said.

The IB and RAW didnt agree on much. If we had read the signals right, if we understood what was going on in Prabhakarans mind, who knows, we could have prevented this. It was our fault, we made a huge error of judgement. We misread Prabhakaran. We never believed he would turn against us in this manner. We should have seen it coming. We didnt. We failed Rajiv Gandhi, we failed to save his life, he said, emotional and close to tears as he spoke to me from his office in New Delhi.

Twenty-five years later, neither Siddharthan nor Col Hariharan remembers more than this particular part of the intercept. But both say that if it had been taken on board, and acted on with the seriousness that such a tipoff deserved, history would have taken a different course.

It was brought to the notice of Siddharthan (now a Tamil National Alliance MP in the newly elected Sri Lankan Parliament) by an alert Jaffna Tamil in his employ who monitored radio communications between Tamils on the Indian mainland and Jaffna. The PLOTE leader, in turn, alerted Col Hariharan who served in Sri Lanka from 3 August 1987 to JuneJuly 1990 and was reaching the end of his tenure.

At the time, the LTTE was the predominant force in the RAW-run training camps in India. Col Hariharan who also had a small army of Jaffna Tamils keeping an eye on the LTTE for him, says he too was taken aback when he was given the cassette to listen to and, from what his codebreakers told him, was alarmed enough to warn Indias IB that a plot was afoot to eliminate Rajiv Gandhi.

This was a full year before the suicide bomb blast claimed the former prime ministers life.

It was the first time we heard any mention of Prabhakaran taking vengeance against Rajiv Gandhi, Siddharthan said, quickly correcting himself after having first used the word revenge.

But the warningalbeit tenuous and imprecise instead of being investigated, was laughed out of court; it was simply set aside and forgotten.

It wasnt the only warning that wasnt fully investigated. In his book, Raman talks of another alert, this time from German intelligence, about the repeated visits of a Sri Lankan Tamil explosives expert and an LTTE sympathizer to Madras. But it was not sufficiently probed by the IB. Instead, it ignored the warning on the grounds that the Lankan Tamil wasnt an explosives expert, and remained curiously blind to the question of what the man was doing in Madras in the first place.

In 1990, LTTE had the upper hand. PLOTEs founder Maheswaran had co-founded the LTTE with Prabhakaran in 1976. But by 1982, the two had fallen out and almost killed each other in a public shoot-out in Madras. Maheswaran went on to found PLOTE but was murdered in broad daylight on a Colombo street in 1989.

PLOTE made every effort to stay one step ahead of the main person of interest at the timetheir main enemy, Baby Subramaniam, the LTTE commander operating out of Tamil Nadu. Subramaniam was the LTTEs point person to eliminate all challenges to Prabhakaran.

Subramaniam was the darling of the Tamil Nadu politicians and knew exactly how to keep RAW and everyone happy while doing exactly what Prabhakaran wanted him to do, Siddharthan tells me. The intercept may have been to Subramaniam from someone speaking on Prabhakarans behalf. Together with other LTTE leaders, like the intelligence chief Pottu Amman and the deputy head of the womens wing, Akila, Subramaniam was closely involved with the planning and execution of the plot to kill Rajiv Gandhi.

Even though the Indian Army was making tracks for home, Prabhakaran was relentlessly whipping up anger against the IPKF, blaming them for excesses against civilians.

This single burst of chatter should have alerted the then V.P Singh government and, subsequently, the Chandrashekhar government to restore the Z security that Rajiv Gandhi used to have before he lost the prime ministership. Opposition leader or not, he was on the hit list of the Khalistanis and the Sikhs, and warranted more than the negligible cover he had been provided.
A 20-acre utopia smack dab in the middle of Hillmomba, where Hillbilly Mom posts her cold-hearted opinions, petty grievances, and self-proclaimed wisdom in spite of being a technology simpleton.
Auditions will be taking place this weekend for 16th Ave Theatres upcoming production of One Man, Two Guvnors.

Written by English playwright Richard Bean, the One Man, Two Guvnors is based on the play The Servant of Two Masters whichwas written by Italian playwright Carlo Goldoni back in 1746.

The show follows the permanently ravenous Francis Henshall who finds himself working for both a gangster and a criminal in hiding, both of which are linked in a web of schemes, extortions and romantic associations.

To prevent being discovered, Francis must do everything he can to keep his two guvnors apart.

Director Sarah Oemcke says they require a cast of 11 actors  eight men and three women  for the rib-tickling comedy which will take to the stage from November 23 to December 10.

This is a bloody funny show and it is going to be hilarious to put together.

While talent is the primary consideration when casting, a high level of commitment is essential and our final choices for all roles will be made with this firmly in mind.

Sarah says aside from Francis who has a cockney accent, all the other characters have an Estuary English accent unless stated in the description.

One Man, Two Guvnors will also feature a skiffle band wholl play at the start and end of the show, and in between scenes.

We would like some of the cast to be able to join the band for some songs. Musical and/or singing abilities would be a benefit, but not a necessity.

Rehearsals for the show start at the end of August and will take place at 16th Ave theatre on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday nights at 7pm.

Auditions for the character of Francis will take place on Saturday, August 20, from 1-3pm, while auditions for all other characters will take place on Sunday, August 31, from 1-3pm.

People audition for Francis are also being asked to available for a possible callback on the Sunday.

These auditions are open to anyone and everyone, and scripts and audition pieces will be available to all those registered. All the best for your auditions! says Sarah.

To register for an audition time email your name, age, character/s auditioning for, and any dates that you may not be available during rehearsal period to the director the director Sarah Oemcke at: sarahoemcke@gmail.com

For a full list of characters, a link on how to perform an Estuary English accent or to download download an audition pack visit 16th Ave Theatres website at: 16avetheatre.co.nz/shows/auditions
Whanagamata surfer Ella Williams has won her maiden World Surf League Qualifying Series event after claiming the Womens Medoc Ocean Lacanau Pro in France overnight.

The 21-year-olds win comes on the back of a ninth placing at the World Surfing Games in Costa Rica less than a week ago and should elevate her seven places to 22nd on the Qualifying Series rankings.

Williams and French surfer Justine Dupont engaged in a tight back-and-forth battle in the fading swell, mainly scoring medium scores in the first half of the final until Dupont took the first good score of the final, a 6.0 out of a possible ten for the lead.

The Kiwi answered with a very similar ride, on a slightly weaker wave for a 5.43 to stay in the race.

Williams kept surfing the first waves of each set, reaching the line-up first to keep priority and her choice of wave for most of the final. This led Williams to catch the wave of the final, a great right-hander where she completed multiple backhand turns for an excellent 8.17 and the win.

Im so happy, all year I havent had a win so its a really nice feeling to get back again, says an ecstatic Williams.

The higher tide in our last heat sort of stopped delivering waves but we made the most of it. I was lucky to be in a priority position when that right came through, but I tried to time them and be ready, that definitely paid off.

The former 2013 World Junior Champion will now be moving on to Spain and will take it heat-by-heat again but adds: itd be great to get another good result there for sure.

Williams skips the next event in France heading directly to Spain to focus on the next big QS6000 event which commences on August 30.

She will be joined by New Zealands top ranked female surfer Paige Hareb who currently sits in 18th place on the Qualifying Series.
FULTON, N.Y. -- An Oswego County man and woman were arrested after their 2-year-old left their apartment and walked down the street about 300 yards, Fulton police said.

Ricky L. Dingman Jr., 21, and Samantha J. Dingman, 20, were each charged with endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor.

Both reside at 219 N. Sixth St., Apartment 3, and were arrested on Sunday.

Police said that sometime between 10:30-11:10 a.m. on July 22 Ricky Dingman and Samantha Dingman did not adequately supervise their 2-year-old child.

The infant left their apartment and crossed the street, police said. The toddler then walked about 300 yards down the street while wearing nothing except a T-shirt. Police said the child was alone for about 30 minutes until concerned citizens and police officers found Ricky Dingman and Samantha Dingman.

Police did not say what Ricky Dingman and Samantha Dingman were doing when their child walked away, but said neither parent made an attempt to locate the child.
cuomopromo.jpg

New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo greets the crowd at the New York State Fairgrounds Wednesday afternoon, May 25, 2016.

(Michael Greenlar | mgreenlar@syracuse.com)

ALBANY, N.Y. -- New York state is raising the penalty for assaulting process servers, utility workers or cleaners at bus, subway and train stations.

New laws signed Friday by Gov. Andrew Cuomo elevate such attacks causing injury to felonies with prison terms up to seven years.

Those workers perform jobs vital to New York institutions and have increasingly become targets of aggression, Cuomo said in a news release.

Previous state laws have extended similar protections to emergency medical personnel, nurses, other transit agency workers, sanitation workers and school crossing guards.

The law to protect people who serve legal papers also makes it a crime to unleash or fail to control an animal to prevent that service or retaliate for it.

In the news release, state Sen. William Larkin, R-New Windsor, said he applauded Cuomo for signing the legislation.

"I sponsored this legislation after hearing from a utility worker in my district who was violently attacked while simply doing his job. His story is unfortunately not unique," Larkin said.
By Melissa E. Holsman of TCPalm

MARTIN COUNTY  No one knows yet whether Austin Harrouff was suffering from a mental illness during a brutal Monday night attack he is accused of that left a Martin County couple dead. But his Stuart lawyer, who has said Harrouff was displaying "unusual behavior" before the killings, might turn to a defense of insanity if the Florida State University student is indicted on a charge of murder.

Being found not guilty of a crime by reason of insanity is a legal determination that must be made by a judge or a jury during a trial, according to state law.

Harrouff, 19, is accused of fatally stabbing John Stevens III, 59, and Michelle Mishcon, 53, at their home on Southeast Kokomo Lane in what authorities called a random and vicious attack. Deputies reported they had to use extreme force to subdue Harrouff, who was found on top of Stevens biting his face.

Harrouff also is accused of stabbing Jeffrey Fisher, a neighbor who tried to help the couple when he heard Mishcon screaming inside the couple's garage, where she died from stab wounds and blunt trauma, according to investigators.

MENTAL ILLNESS?

Jeff Shearer, executive director of the nonprofit children's counseling center Tykes & Teens in Palm City, said in his experience and based on what authorities have said, it's possible Harrouff suffers from a mental illness. He noted police reports show that on the night of the couple's deaths, Harrouff's mother reported him missing and told authorities she had noticed her son acting strange and making odd remarks.

"The onset of major mental illness occurs in late adolescence or early adulthood, which this guy fits right into that paradigm," he said.

A psychosis generally comes on one of two ways, Shearer said: either slow and steady at age 13 or 14, or suddenly in older teens with few or no prior symptoms.

"If he (Harrouff) was mentally ill, if we're dealing with a mental illness of bipolar or schizophrenia  I would lean more toward bipolar, if I were to guess  this is the classic age that would occur," Shearer said. "There's some evidence here based on his (YouTube) videos that it's just been in the last couple of months that this has been an issue."

Harrouff's lawyer, Robert Watson, declined to speculate whether his client has a mental illness, but he acknowledged the possibility.

"He is at an age that certain mental health issues will sometimes come to light. I'll leave that to the experts to discuss," Watson said last week. "You can do the research, and at this age, often mental health issues may pop up that weren't there earlier in life."

Shearer noted Harrouff is a "high-functioning and very socially acceptable" person and a member of a fraternity.

"He clearly has got all these assets, an intact family, and yet such extraordinarily disturbing behavior," he said.

Harrouff didn't fit the profile of other high-profile murderers who seemed to have mental health issues, such as Omar Mateen, of Fort Pierce, who in June killed 49 people inside an Orlando nightclub.

"What Omar Mateen did kind of fits into the paradigm of what we see with our mass shooters," Shearer said. "Whereas with this kid (Harrouff), it's very odd, which is why it makes it more believable to me that we're dealing with a mental illness or some kind of psychosis. Whether it's a brain tumor or other things, because we do know a brain tumor can cause psychosis."

Harrouff remains in a West Palm Beach hospital, and detectives have said as soon as he's medically cleared, he'll be arrested on murder and other charges.

UNKNOWN MOTIVE

Retired University of Florida legal skills professor Bob Dekle, who spent a career as a state prosecutor and is known for convicting serial killer Ted Bundy, said homicides with an excessive amount of violence or mutilation of a victim tend to fall into three categories:

Homicides committed by serial killers "who derive some sort of perverted pleasure from inflicting the trauma";

Homicides by close associates "who have a real or perceived grievance against the victims";

Homicides by people with a mental illness.

"The commonest sort seem to be those of the second type," Dekle noted, "and the least common sort seem to be those of the third type."

Dekle said a priority now for prosecutors is "putting together as tight a case as possible."

"It seems obvious that there's going to be some sort of mental health defense mounted," Dekle wrote in an email. "So they're paying particular attention to any testimonial or physical evidence which may shed light on what sort of defense may be presented, whether it may be valid, and how to counteract it."

Chief Assistant State Attorney Tom Bakkedahl said if Harrouff's lawyers plan to use an insanity defense, they must alert the state no more than 15 days after he's arraigned on murder charges, which can't happen until after an indictment is issued by a grand jury.

Bakkedahl said being acquitted by reason of insanity is a legal concept, not a medical diagnosis.

A defendant, he said, must have a mental infirmity or defect and as a result of the condition, either did not know or appreciate the consequences of their actions, or couldn't distinguish between right and wrong.

If mental health experts for the defense and state agreed Harrouff was legally insane, it would be up to a judge to commit him to the custody of the Department of Children and Families, which would be charged with placing him in a mental health facility.

Shearer, meanwhile, speculated Harrouff's parents are likely questioning themselves  were there behavior signs they missed, could they have done anything to prevent what happened?

"This looks like a pretty intact family, pretty supportive," he said. "And I suspect that they did probably start to see some unusual behaviors here in the last month or so but at what point do you do something?"
MARTIN COUNTY  A 19-year-old accused of fatally stabbing a Martin County couple on Aug. 15 might be released from the hospital in a few days, according to Trisha Kukuvka, public affairs coordinator for the Martin County Sheriff's Office.

Doctors at St. Mary's Medical Center in West Palm Beach told authorities Austin Harrouff could be released from the hospital early next week, Kukuvka said in an emailed statement.

Authorities have said previously that when Harrouff is released, he will be arrested on first-degree murder and other charges.

Harrouff is accused of killing John Stevens III, 59, and Michelle Mishcon, 53, at the couple's home on Southeast Kokomo Lane near Tequesta.

He was taken to the hospital after the attack, where he remained in critical condition Saturday.

On Saturday, the Sheriff's Office also released other details from the Monday night attack.

While being arrested, Harrouff told deputies, 'Test me, you won't find any drugs.'

In addition to biting Stevens' face, Harrouff also bit Stevens in the abdomen, Kukuvka said.

Detectives are still unable to get a statement from Harrouff because he is sedated, Kukuvka said.
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By Editorial Board

BAD POLITICAL THEATER: Vero Beach City Council's meeting Tuesday on whether it should sell its Indian River Shores electric business to Florida Power & Light Co. was fruitless.

Candidates for various offices looking to score political points offered their input, as did many regulars. In the end, the council, in a 3-2 vote, declined FPL's $30 million offer  after rejecting its own Utilities Commission's unanimous recommendation to approve the sale.

Some council members seemed to blow off commission member Robert Auwaerter's analysis  which deemed FPL's offer more than fair  simply because he represents Indian River Shores. But Auwaerter is no novice. In 2014, he retired as principal and head of the $750 billion Vanguard Fixed Income Group.

Instead, the council majority accepted its paid consultant's ultraconservative assumptions and made a counteroffer to FPL, seeking $47 million. Pamela Rauch, FPL vice president of external affairs and economic development, said the $30 million FPL offer stands until Aug. 25.

If the majority of the council's intent is to sell the entire system, a valid argument, it should have rejected FPL's offer outright  not countered with one FPL said it would not accept.

Editor's note: Bob Brunjes, president and publisher of Treasure Coast Newspapers and a member of the Editorial Board, is married to an FPL executive. He recuses himself from editorial discussions involving FPL.
An anonymous hacking group which goes by the name of Shadow Brokers claims to have acquired software tools that belong to hackers linked to the National Security Agency of the United States.

The previously unknown group said that it broke into the cyberespionage organization known as the Equation Group and has now put the hacking tools that it acquired up for auction.

In addition to selling the hacking tools to whoever would end up as the highest bidder, the Shadow Brokers said that if it will be paid 1 million bitcoins, which currently carries a value of about $568 million, the cyberweapons will be publicly released.

To back up its claims, the Shadow Brokers uploaded what looks like attack code that focuses on the security systems of routers that direct computer traffic online. According to security experts, the code looks legitimate, affecting routers manufactured by three United States companies and two Chinese companies. Specifically, the companies involved are Cisco Systems, Fortinet, Juniper Networks, Shaanxi Networkcloud Information Technology and Beijing Topsec Network Security Technology.

As to the statement of Shadow Brokers that it actually has acquired such tools from the NSA-linked hackers, that is up for debate. Security experts are saying that either the group was able to carry out a one-of-a-kind security breach or that the group has put in place an elaborate hoax.

Last year, researchers from Kaspersky Lab described the Equation Group as one of the most advanced hacking groups in the world. The compressed data that accompanied the post by the Shadow Brokers had a size of just over 256 MB and is said to contain hacking tools that are dated as early as 2010 belonging to the Equation Group.

The posted data, which is composed mostly of poorly coded python scripts and batch scripts, has not yet been proven to actually have come from the Equation Group. However, there was little doubt that the data did indeed come from an advanced group of hackers.

"These files are not fully fake for sure," said CrySys security researcher Bencsath Boldizsar, who is widely credited for the discovery of the Flame espionage malware platform, which is linked to the Equation Group.

In the email to Ars Technica, Boldizsar added that the files are likely part of the toolset of the NSA as important attack-related files, with the first guess being that they are indeed somehow linked to the Equation Group.

Boldizsar's findings have been echoed by other security researchers, including Comae Technologies FZE founder Matt Suiche and International Computer Science Institute's Nicholas Weaver.

A researcher from the Citizen Lab of the University of Toronto, Claudio Guarnieri, said that it would seem that the NSA launched an attack and then someone managed to trace the origin of the attack and launched a counter-hack.

Guarnieri cautions that it is still too early to tell if the code and other data uploaded by the Shadow Brokers can definitely be linked to the Equation Group or to the NSA. However, he added that the code coincides with some of the exploits that was part of the catalogue leaked by infamous NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden back in 2013.

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NASA could be in for another scientific milestone as it prepares to send its first ever space mission to collect valuable samples from a nearby asteroid.

The American space agency revealed that preparations are well on their way to send its Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft to asteroid Bennu this coming September.

The primary goal of the mission is to gather enough asteroid samples and bring them back to the Earth for analysis.

Geoff Yoder, NASA's acting associate administrator for its Science Mission Directorate (SMD), explained that the upcoming mission exemplifies the United States' quest to explore the Solar System in order to get a better understanding of the universe.

He said that NASA provides the best opportunity for scientific discovery and that the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft embodies the agency's goal to "innovate, explore, discover and inspire".

Collecting Asteroid Samples

According to NASA, the 4,650-pound OSIRIS-REx will blast off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Sept. 8 on board an Atlas V 411 rocket. It is expected to reach asteroid Bennu in 2018.

Once there, the OSIRIS-Rex will use its scientific instruments to carefully survey the asteroid to get a good read of its characteristics and to identify the best sample sites. The spacecraft will then use its robotic arm to collect as many as 70 ounces of material samples from Bennu's surface, which will be brought back to Earth in 2023.

Dante Lauretta, principal investigator of the OSIRIS-Rex project, pointed out that the spacecraft's launch will be the start of a seven-year mission to collect samples from Bennu. He said they were able to build an amazing vehicle and that they are very much capable of examining the asteroid.

OSIRIS-REx's Instruments

Lauretta and his colleagues have equipped the OSIRIS-Rex spacecraft with five different scientific instruments, which will allow them to fully analyze various characteristics of asteroid Bennu.

The first of its instruments is the OSIRIS-REx Camera Suite (OCAMS), a three-camera system developed by researchers at the University of Arizona, Tucson. This will allow the OSIRIS-REx team to observe the asteroid through global and sample site imaging.

The next is the OSIRIS-REx Laser Altimeter (OLA) scanning system provided by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). This instrument will be used to determine the distance between OSIRIS-REx and asteroid Bennu's surface. It will also be used to survey the asteroid's shape.

Scientists at the Arizona State University (ASU) in Tempe also contributed the OSIRIS-REx Thermal Emission Spectrometer (OTES), which will provide temperature readings and identify what types of minerals are found on the asteroid.

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center team added the OSIRIS-REx Visible and Infrared Spectrometer (OVIRS) to the spacecraft, which is specially designed to identify the various organic materials and minerals on Bennu through the use of visible and infrared light.

The OSIRIS-REx team will also use the Regolith X-ray Imaging Spectrometer (REXIS) to monitor the X-ray spectrum in order to pinpoint what types of chemical elements are available on the asteroid.

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The melting of sea ice in the Arctic had decreased enough in midsummer that researchers did not expect to see a new minimum sea ice record.

However, statistics gathered by NASA's Goddard Spaceflight Center indicate that the melting of sea ice is alreadly "wildly" changing the region.

Sea Ice Level

In May, the level of Arctic sea ice saw its record all-time low, reaching about 4.63 million square miles, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC).

Now, sea ice data collected by NASA suggest that the region is not showing signs of significant recovery. Instead, the sea ice minimum in 2016 is leaning toward the "new normal."

Goddard sea ice scientist Walt Meier says the level of Arctic sea continues to decline over the long term.

Ten years ago, this year's sea ice minimum would have set a new record low by a fair amount. Today, however, scientists are used to seeing low levels of sea ice.

"It's the new normal," says Meier.

Tom Wagner, NASA's cryosphere research program manager, says that as 2016 becomes one of the hottest years on record, sea ice levels in the Arctic appear to be among the lowest.

"It doesn't look like the ice is healing or growing back," says Wagner.

In fact, Wagner says the Arctic sea ice has lost more than two-thirds of what it had in the 1980s, indicating that the melting is a long-term trend. What's more, the region may lose more sea ice in the future.

Why It Matters

Monitoring the health of the Arctic sea ice matters because it is considered as a the general indicator of what is happening to the total climate system on Earth.

Wagner says what is happening in the Arctic is not something that will impact humanity in the far off future because the planet is not changing; it is changed. Indeed, the loss of sea ice is already changing the polar region.

In the end, we all have to deal with the change that has happened in the Arctic, says Wagner.

The melting of glaciers in Greenland, Canada and Alaska has raised sea levels to the point that New York and Miami experience flooding, he adds.

Measuring Ice Thickness

As climate scientists keep an eye out on the Arctic, NASA is preparing a new method to measure sea ice thickness: by tracking from orbit.

Cryosphere lab chief Thorsten Markus says scientists have a good handle on the sea ice area change. However, they have little information on how thick the ice change is, he says.

Markus and the team will use the ICESat-2 or the Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite-2 to get a more complete understanding of the thickness. This satellite will be launched by 2018.

Watch the video below.

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Did the hands of animals evolve from the fin rays of fish?

It has long been accepted that descendants of fish transformed into creatures that can walk on land, including amphibians and reptiles. With this transformation, scientists say massive changes in the creatures' physiology also occurred.

In a new study, biologists from the University of Chicago have proposed that as these ancient fish evolved, their long and elegant fin rays were replaced by the fingers and toes that most modern mammals possess today.

In fact, the report suggests that the same cells that comprise fin rays in fish is actually crucial in the formation of fingers and toes of four-legged creatures.

Changing Current Perceptions

For three years, University of Chicago researchers performed countless experiments using new gene-editing techniques as well as sensitive fate mapping to determine the link.

The team was able to track and label the developing cells in fish, and describe how the small bones at the end of the fins are linked to hands, which are features far more suitable for land-dwellers.

Neil Shubin, senior author of the study, says that scientists have believed that fin rays were completely different from toes and fingers, especially because one type of bone is formed out of cartilage and the other is formed in simple connective tissue.

Now, Shubin and his team's recent findings may change this entire notion, causing experts to re-think what they know about fingers and toes.

Examining The Genes Of The Zebrafish

Shubin and his colleagues examined the zebrafish to find out how fins are linked to fingers and wrists. Postdoc scholar Tetsuya Nakamura used CRISPR-Cas9 to delete important genes in zebrafish that are associated with limb-building and selectively bred zebrafish that underwent gene deletions.

At the same time, former graduate student Andrew Gehrke adjusted cell-labeling techniques to determine where and when specific embryonic cells migrated as the zebrafish grew and matured.

In the end, researchers discovered that the cells that mark the fingers and wrists of mice and people were exclusively in these fin rays. They focused on the Hox genes, which control the physiology of a growing embryo along the shoulder-to-fingertip and head-to-tail axis. Many of these Hox genes were found to be crucial for the development of limbs.

To confirm their study, Shubin and his team used CT scan to view the minute structures within the fin of the adult zebrafish. The scans show that the fish that lacks certain genes did not develop fin rays, but the number of small bones made of cartilage fin increased.

Researchers suspect that the zebrafish with deleted genes caused cells to stop traveling from the base of the fin to their typical position close to the tip.

This inability to move meant that fewer cells were present to create fin rays, leaving more cells at the fin base to create cartilage elements.

"When I first saw these results you could have knocked me over with a feather," says Shubin.

The findings of the study are featured in the journal Nature.

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A new study has found that parents are fine with the highly controversial HPV, or human papilloma virus, vaccine so long as the process came with an opt out option. The finding is a revelation that highlights the PR issues surrounding the beneficial vaccine.

The HPV vaccine is unique because it's the only one invented explicitly for the purpose of preventing cancer. It has full backing from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which recommends the vaccine for boys and girls aged 11 and 12. Furthermore, it boasts one of the strongest safety records of any vaccine and is highly effective in preventing the infection that causes nearly all cervical cancer, 91 percent of anal cancer, 72 percent of the throat and neck cancers and a majority of vaginal, vulvar and penile cancers.

Yet, despite these impressive stats, a study published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention has found that parents would only really be willing to have their children receive the vaccination if they could choose to opt out of it.

Specifically, 21 percent of respondents thought laws requiring the vaccine for school were a "good idea," yet that number rose significantly to 57 percent when questioned about how receptive they would be to the vaccinations should there be an "opt-out" provision attached.

"We were expecting a higher number of parents supporting vaccine requirements," said study author Wiliam Calo of the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina. "Twenty-one percent is a lot lower than we expected."

The parents' response is rather amusing too, because while adding an opt out option would make parents more receptive to the laws mandating the vaccination, it would also weaken them. However, those concerns are a ways off, because as things stand, Rhode Island, Virginia, and the District of Columbia are the only locations in the U.S. that require students to receive the HPV vaccine.

Considering that HPV infects approximately 80 million people, about 14 million per year, one would think that parents would be more receptive towards the vaccination. And the reason why they aren't is simple: they simply don't know enough about its benefits that would warrant their support.

Of those interviewed, only 40 percent believed the vaccine prevented cervical cancer, about 23 percent falsely believed the vaccine might cause long-term health problems, 33 percent felt they lacked enough information to decide whether to vaccinate their children, and another 33 percent thought drug companies were pushing it to increase profits.

Out of all those factors, the continued belief that the vaccinations would lead to long-term health problems is the most damaging. A simple Google search will yield an assortment of stories about how the vaccine has led to various health complications and even death.

As is the typical internet fashion, these stories were greatly overstated, according to the CDC, between June 2006 and September 2015 there were 117 deaths reported out of the 80 million doses of HPV vaccine given. What's more, the CDC also said that upon further review, none of those deaths could be directly linked to the vaccine.

"I'm not surprised," said Dr. Georges Benjamin, the executive director of the American Public Health Association. "There has been a terrible job of promoting it. The funds have not been there to promote the vaccine as part of a comprehensive vaccination program."

So without the funds, what can be done to promote the vaccine? Simple word of mouth. Physicians and other health care providers will need to better educate parents about HPV vaccination.

Photo: Partha S. Sahana | Flickr

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Best Buy is offering the Microsoft Surface Pro 4 and a Type Cover at a discount of $280.

The online retailer has started a 50-hour sale that lasts from Thursday, Aug. 18 at 10 p.m. CT to Saturday, Aug, 20 at 11:59 p.m CT. The latest sale is offering a number of products, including the Surface Pro 4, at discounted prices.

"When you buy this Surface Pro 4 along with a Type Cover below, you can save $280 total. The Type Cover features well-spaced, backlit keys so you can type comfortably. It doubles as a protective shield for the screen. Choose from five colors. Plus, get free shipping," says Best Buy.

The retailer is offering the base model of the Surface Pro 4 that has 128 GB on-board storage and 4 GB of RAM, and is running on Intel Core m3 processor. As part of the bundle, customers have to pick a Type Cover that comes in five different colors: teal, black, blue, bright blue and red.

The original price of the tablet is $899.99 and the Type Cover, $129.99. When combined they have a total value of $1029.98. Luckily as part of the 50-hour sale, customers will get $280 off, bringing down the cost of the bundle to $749.98. The discount will appear only once the two products are added to the cart.

Best Buy notes that the offer is not available in-store and cannot be combined with the College Student Deals, which offer up to $150 off on select Surface Pro tablets.

The deal should be very attractive to customers looking to buy a new Microsoft tablet as the base model of the Surface Pro 4 is available from the company's own website for $749, excluding the Type Cover.

Microsoft launched and released the Surface Pro 4 in October 2015 as the fourth-gen two-in-one detachable tablet in the company's Surface Pro line.

Best Buy's discount could be taken as an indication that Microsoft is planning to unveil the next-gen Surface Pro 5 soon and wants to get rid of its Surface Pro 4 stock.

However, previous rumors suggest that the Surface Pro 5's launch has been delayed because Intel will launch the Kaby Lake processor  expected to power the next Surface Pro tablets  toward the end of this year. Since Microsoft released the first-gen Surface Pro tablet in February 2013, the company may opt for a February release for the Surface Pro 5 as well.

The Surface Pro 4 remains one of the most powerful detachable tablets currently available in the market, so the latest deal from Best Buy is worth a shot for those who want to purchase a new tablet.

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Wouldn't things be a lot simpler if we did not have to recollect complicated alphanumeric passwords and could simply unlock our device's screen by merely keying in a few random numbers instead?

Google hears you! That's right, the company is working on an experimental feature that allows you to unlock your device's screen by simply inputting a PIN code like you do with your debit or credit card. This PIN must simply be keyed in to the Chrome OS, negating the need for one to type complex passwords.

This is no rumor and the news comes straight from the horse's mouth: a Google employee who shared the exciting information in a Google+ post.

On Friday, Aug. 19, Francois Beaufort, who is with Google France, revealed that the experimental feature is being tested as part of the latest developer update for Chrome OS.

Beaufort also shared the process on how users could deploy the functionality into their system. For those wondering how to go about unlocking their device's screen with a PIN on Chrome OS, here's a step-by-step guide to help you out.

Step 1: Enable the following flag: chrome://flags/#quick-unlock-pin

Step 2: Next, restart Chrome.

Step 3: Once started, navigate to the settings page for Chrome Material Design. This is required so that you can set up the PIN for the Lock Screen.

Step 4: Navigate to the new "Screen Lock" section. Set up the numeric PIN you have chosen for the Lock Screen.

Step 5: Make a mental note of your PIN and then press Search button + L simultaneously to lock the screen.

Step 6: Key in the PIN, and watch yourself unlock the Chrome OS with a code rather than a password!

The experimental functionality is bound to find favor with users of touch devices as it is quite handy. Moreover, inputting a PIN instead of an alphanumeric password is a lot simpler. This is possibly far more secure than deploying an Android phone for the Smart Lock option as Engadget points out.

The move is being lauded by Chrome OS fans, but as a user rightly pointed out the PIN functionality could be more expansive.

"This is a good move in the right direction. However I think that this pin lock feature should be expanded to also include passwords. So the password is not linked to the Google account but a separate password just for the device," commented the user.

Since the feature is still being tested, perhaps Google will enhance it further before the final version is pushed out. Users can also look forward to Quick Unlock settings landing on the regular settings page for Chrome in the near future as revealed by Beaufort.

Those keen on more can check the source code out at this link.

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On Friday, former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva took advantage of the last debate between candidates before Sunday's presidential elections to accuse the current president,... | Read More
John Morgan: Policing here should look to Europe as example
Fisherman on Truc Bach Lake sail near a MobiFone sign in Hanoi in a file photo. Photo credit: Jeff Holt/Bloomberg

Singapore Telecommunications, better known as Singtel, has expressed interest in becoming a strategic partner with Vietnam's telecom giant MobiFone as the state-owned firm is opening up to private investors.

SingTels Vice President for Business Development Oliver Foo met with Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Pham Hong Hai in Hanoi on Friday to discuss the investment intent, according to the ministrys website.

Earlier, Australia's biggest telecom company Telstra, Swedish mobile network operator Comviq and Norwegian operator Telenor had reportedly met with the ministry, looking to buy into MobiFone.

In the meantime, the Vietnamese company's share sale plan remains unclear.

In its April report, UK-based intangible asset valuation consultancy Brand Finance estimated MobiFone's brand value at US$539 million, up 76 percent from last year.

Together with state-owned VinaPhone and military-run Viettel, MobiFone controls a majority of Vietnam's telecom market, which boasted more than 120.3 million mobile subscribers at the end of last year.

In related news, Singtel is buying 21 percent of Thai telecoms firm Intouch Holdings for $1.19 billion and 7.39 percent of India's Bharti Telecom for $659 million as Southeast Asia's largest telecoms firm raises its bet on emerging markets to spur growth, the Nikkei Asian Review reported on Thursday.

The stakes are being bought from Singapore state investor Temasek, which owns more than half of Singtel, according to the report.
People waiting for a bus in front of an advertising billboard of Mobifone in Hanoi. Photo: Reuters

State-controlled MobiFone, one of Vietnam's top telecommunication companies, will sell its stakes in two partly-private banks to raise at least VND447 billion (US$19.79 million) next month, local media reported on Wednesday.

A total of 33.4 million shares, equivalent to a stake of 6.12 percent in SeABank, will be auctioned on April 25, starting at VND9,600 per share, news website VnExpress said.

That same day MobiFone will also sell 14.28 million shares in TPBank through another auction, starting at VND8,900 per share. The sale will reduce the company's stake to 2.19 percent from 4.76 percent at the moment, according to the news report.

MobiFone's plans for reducing its investment in the financial sector are in line with the government's order for state-owned enterprises to divest from non-core businesses. The order is part of the government's ongoing efforts to restructure the state sector.

Last year the telecom giant also reportedly sold off its stakes in multimedia company Smart Media and technology firm Neo.

However, early this year MobiFone announced that it had acquired a stake of 95 percent in Audio Visual Global JSC, or AVG, a private pay TV provider. Details about the deal have never been revealed.

Severing ties with state-run VNPT in 2014 and now operating under the Ministry of Information and Communications, MobiFone posted a profit of over VND7.39 trillion ($327.44 million) last year, the industry's second biggest after military-run Viettel.

Its revenue grew 8.29 percent year on year to around VND36.9 trillion ($1.62 billion), according to the company's figures.

The government has been talking about plans to sell part of its stake in MobiFone since 2005. Early reports indicated that it would possibly sell a maximum stake of 20 percent to foreign investors.

Over the years that plan's details, including time frame, have been constantly changed.

At the end of last year, the Ministry of Information and Communications reportedly kick-started the privatization plan. It promised to submit the share sale plan to the government for approval soon, saying that the sale will possibly raise around VND20 trillion ($885.57 million), according to local media.

In its October report, the UK-owned intangible asset valuation consultant Brand Finance ranked MobiFone the fourth biggest brand in Vietnam with a value of $306 million.
Nha Trang leaders on Friday said they support a plan to release mosquitoes infected with a strain of bacteria in the resort beach town next year to control dengue and Zika.

The plan was introduced by a Health Ministry working group at a meeting with local leaders, following a successful pilot project carried out in Nha Trang between 2013 and 2015.

Health officials said the infected mosquitoes would be released in four wards of Nha Trang.

The method takes advantage of the naturally occurring strain of bacteria known as Wolbachia, which live in insect cells and are found in 60 percent of common insects.

Infecting mosquitoes with Wolbachia significantly reduced their ability to transmit dengue and the Zika virus, studies have shown.

A woman breeds mosquitoes that carry Wolbachia bacteria on Tri Nguyen Island. Photo credit: National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology.

The bacteria has been released in several countries including Australia, Brazil, and Indonesia as part of strategies to control dengue.

In the pilot project in Vietnam, it helped almost eradicate dengue cases in Tri Nguyen, an island 2 km off Nha Trang coast.

In the meeting Friday, Nguyen Dac Tai, vice chairman of Nha Trang's People's Committee, said local leaders support the plan.

However, he insisted that it be carried out discreetly.

Vietnam has so far reported three Zika patients, including one in Nha Trang.
Seven people have been detained in connection with a massive illegal smuggling in a central Vietnam, police said.

Four of them were arrested and the other three gave themselves up to the authorities, the police of Quang Nam Province said, refusing to disclose their identities citing the ongoing investigation.

The investigation was launched in July after logs of Fujian cypress, a rare wood named in Vietnam's list of threatened species, were found hidden in Nam Giang, a district bordering Laos.

The police soon found out more Fujian cypress logs hidden near and on the premises of the border guard station and the customs office of Nam Giang.

Four border guard officers and a customs official have been suspended pending the investigation.

The police said up to 60 Fujian cypress trees had been felled in Nam Giang forest. The "extremely serious" illegal logging might have been "covered up by state officials and agencies," Dinh Van Thu, chairman of the People's Council of Quang Nam, said last month.

The case also caught the attention of the prime minister, who this week directed authorities of Quang Nam to report to him about the investigation by Aug. 25.

Vietnam lost a total of 694 hectares of forest to illegal logging in the first seven months of 2016, official statistics showed.
The FBI and U.S. Justice Department are investigating possible U.S. ties to alleged corruption involving the former president of Ukraine, including the work of firms headed by political operatives Paul Manafort and Tony Podesta, CNN reported on Friday, citing multiple U.S. law enforcement officials.

The broad-based investigation was looking into whether U.S. companies and the financial system were used to enable corruption by the party of former pro-Russian Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, CNN said.

A person who answered a telephone number for Manafort said Manafort was not available for comment. The person, who said he was an associate of Manafort and who gave his name only as David, referred queries to a lawyer in Washington, who did not immediately respond to a phone call and an email.

In response to a report in the New York Times on Monday, Manafort denied any impropriety in a statement. "I have never received a single 'off-the-books cash payment' as falsely 'reported' by The New York Times, nor have I ever done work for the governments of Ukraine or Russia," he said.

The New York Times reported that he had received cash payments worth more than $12 million over five years that were itemized on secret ledgers belonging to Yanukovich's Party of Regions.

Manafort, who resigned as chairman of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's campaign on Friday, had not been the focus of the probe, CNN said, citing the officials.

The probe was looking at the work of other firms linked to the former Ukrainian government, including the Podesta Group, a lobbying and public relations company headed by Tony Podesta, whose brother John Podesta is chairman of the campaign to elect Democratic Party presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

Manafort's attorney Richard Hibey did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The FBI declined to comment, CNN reported.

The Podesta Group has hired an independent legal firm to investigate whether it had been misled by the Centre for a Modern Ukraine, a not-for-profit group linked to the ousted Ukrainian government, a spokeswoman for the group said in a statement.

The Justice Department, asked to comment on the report, said it remained "committed to helping recover stolen assets on behalf of the people of Ukraine."

Investigators in Ukraine have said Yanukovych and his party engaged in widespread corruption. He fled to Russia following a popular uprising in 2014.
A still image, taken from video footage and released by Russia's Defence Ministry on August 19, 2016, shows a rocket being launched from a Russian corvette in the Mediterranean Sea at Jabhat Fateh al-Sham militant targets in Syria, according to the ministry. Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation/Handout via Reuters

Russian warships in the Mediterranean Sea fired cruise missiles at targets near Aleppo on Friday, a further sign of Moscow's broadening military effort in Syria days after it began to fly bombing missions from an airbase in Iran.

Russian air power had helped Syrian President Bashar al-Assad make steady advances against rebels seeking to oust him since Moscow's intervention a year ago, but a recent insurgent advance in Aleppo has checked that momentum.

In northeastern Syria, warplanes from a U.S.-led coalition flew patrols on Thursday to protect local ground forces they back against Syrian government airstrikes that are targeting the Kurdish city of Hasaka, the Pentagon said.

"The Syrian regime would be well advised not to interfere with coalition forces or our partners," Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said.

Russia's three cruise missile launches were its first against targets in Syria from the Mediterranean, with previous ones made from its Caspian Sea fleet. On Tuesday Russian bombers began flying missions in Syria from Hamedan air base in Iran.

Russia's Defense Ministry said the strikes targeted the Islamist militant group Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, known as the Nusra Front until it broke formal ties with al Qaeda last month before playing a big role in the sudden rebel advances in Aleppo.

The upsurge in fighting and airstrikes in and around the city, split between government-held west and rebel-held eastern sectors, has prompted growing international concern, galvanized by pictures on Thursday of a dazed, bloodied child.

The plight of civilians in Aleppo has been aggravated in besieged areas by dire shortages of basic goods, leading the World Food Programme to warn of a "nightmarish" situation.

In Daraya, a suburb of Damascus, rebels and a war monitor said the Syrian army's helicopters had dropped incendiary barrel bombs early on Friday, putting the opposition-held town's only hospital out of action.

On Thursday Russia, Assad's most powerful military ally, said it supported a proposal for a weekly 48-hour pause in fighting in Aleppo to allow aid to reach the besieged areas and that it was ready to start the first one next week.

On Friday, the main umbrella group for the Syrian opposition also cautiously welcomed the idea provided the U.N. monitored the truce and enforced compliance. During a previous humanitarian pause this year, both sides complained the other had broken the truce as fighting escalated again.

D ozens killed in Hasaka

On Friday Syrian Kurdish authorities evacuated thousands of civilians from Kurdish areas of Hasaka following government air strikes, a spokesman for the Kurdish YPG militia, an integral part of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), said.

A civilian removes the rubble in front of a damaged shop after an airstrike in the rebel held al-Saleheen neighborhood of Aleppo, Syria August 18, 2016.

The SDF is at the heart of Washington's military campaign against Islamic State group and last week seized the town of Manbij from the militant organization, part of a growing swathe of northern Syria it controls.

The U.S.-led coalition aircraft arrived at Hasaka as two Syrian SU-24s, which had carried out the strikes, were leaving. "This is very unusual, we have not seen the regime take this kind of action against YPG before," the Pentagon's Davis said.

Hasaka is divided into zones of Kurdish and Syrian government control and fighting between them has killed dozens of civilians in the past 48 hours, YPG spokesman Redur Xelil said.

The YPG and the government have mostly avoided confrontation during the multi-sided war that has turned Syria into a patchwork of areas held by the state and an array of armed factions.

The Syrian army said on Friday that this week's fighting was caused by Kurdish security forces attempting to take over Hasaka, prompting it to return fire on armed groups.

Assad, backed by Russia and Iran, has focused mostly on fighting Sunni Arab rebels who have been battling to oust him in western Syria with support from countries including Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the United States.

The YPG, or People's Protection Units, has meanwhile prioritized carving out and safeguarding predominantly Kurdish regions of northern Syria. The group has ties to Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels in Turkey.

While the YPG controls most of the northeast, the Syrian government has maintained footholds in the cities of Hasaka and Qamishli at the border with Turkey.

The SDF seizure of Manbij from Islamic State last week raised the prospect of possible advances towards al-Bab, near Aleppo.

Families of Islamic State fighters in al-Bab and another nearby town, Jarablus, were evacuated to the militant group's stronghold of Raqqa, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based war monitoring group, said.

Aleppo truce

Rebel groups, including Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, stormed a Syrian army complex in southwest Aleppo two weeks ago, breaking a siege on opposition-held parts of Aleppo and prompting fierce counter-attacks.

A still image, taken from video footage and released by Russia's Defence Ministry on August 19, 2016, shows a rocket being launched from a Russian corvette in the Mediterranean Sea at Jabhat Fateh al-Sham militant targets in Syria, according to the ministry. Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation/Handout via Reuters.

A senior rebel commander said there was a "positive atmosphere" surrounding talk of a ceasefire. "But so far there are no details."

Syrian warplanes had carried out 46 sorties in the last 24 hours, including strikes in Aleppo that destroyed a tank, a vehicle loaded with ammunition and three mortar emplacements, and killed dozens of rebel fighters, a military source said.

Continuing clashes between rebels and the Syrian army and allied militias were fiercest in the southwest of city, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based monitor of the five-year-old civil war, said on Friday.

It added that air strikes and shelling in and around Aleppo had killed 422 civilians, including 142 children, this month.

"We need a 48-hour pause, we need it now," WFP spokeswoman Bettina Luescher told a briefing in Geneva on Friday. While the rebel advance this month opened a narrow corridor into opposition-held areas of Aleppo, access remains very limited and dangerous, meaning aid supplies are scarce.

"It's crucially important that we go in there because people are absolutely desperate," Luescher added. "From both sides, these sieges have to stop - it's inhumane, awful, disgusting, nightmarish. Not necessarily U.N. words, but that's what it is."
Syrian rebels and the main opposition group cautiously welcome an idea proposed earlier by Russia for a weekly 24-hour pause in fighting to allow aid to reach besieged civilians in Aleppo, provided the United Nations can monitor and enforce such a truce.
Paul Manafort, senior advisor to Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump, exits following a meeting of Donald Trump's national finance team at the Four Seasons Hotel in New York City, U.S., June 9, 2016.

Donald Trump's U.S. presidential campaign sealed a major staff reshuffle with the resignation on Friday of its campaign chairman, and the Republican nominee tried to end weeks of upheaval to focus on beating Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

The departure of Paul Manafort came as Trump tried this week to reset his unorthodox bid for the White House after falling behind Clinton in opinion polls for the Nov. 8 election.

Trump said in a statement he had accepted Manafort's resignation and praised his "great work," but did not offer an explanation for the departure.

Trump aides say the staff changes usher in a greater focus on policy and a more serious tone.

The former reality TV host has stuck to that mission, swapping his free-wheeling rally speeches for prepared remarks that stick to a singular theme. He has concentrated on immigration, trade deals and law and order.

Speaking in Dimondale, Michigan, on Friday with the use of a teleprompter, Trump stayed clear of much of the hyperbole that has been a hallmark of his campaign.

He attacked Clinton for her position on trade agreements, telling the Michigan crowd that the Democrat would send auto jobs to Mexico.

Nonetheless, he appeared to stray at times from his prepared remarks, as when he said that black voters, who overwhelmingly tell pollsters they prefer Democratic candidates, should vote for him.

"You're living in poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs, 58 percent of your youth are unemployed," Trump said. "What the hell do you have to lose?"

Trump, who has never held elected office, did not refer to his staffing changes, but in an interview earlier on Friday his son Eric Trump said unflattering headlines about Manafort had taken a toll.

"I think my father didn't want to be, you know, distracted by, you know, whatever things that, you know, Paul was dealing with," he told the Fox News Channel's "Sunday Morning Futures", while also praising Manafort's work for the campaign.

Questions have arisen about Manafort's previous work for the political party of the Kremlin-backed former Ukrainian leader, Viktor Yanukovich.

Federal investigators from the U.S. Department of Justice are examining American ties to corruption in Ukraine, CNN reported on Friday. The investigation is looking at the work of Manafort's firm and another lobbying firm, the Podesta Group, headed by Tony Podesta, whose brother, John Podesta, is chairman of Clinton's presidential campaign.

Clinton poll lead

Clinton leads Trump by 8 percentage points among likely voters, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released on Friday. The Aug. 14-18 online poll showed that Clinton was supported by 42 percent of Americans who are expected to vote, compared with 34 percent for Trump. Some 23 percent would not side with either candidate.

On Wednesday, Trump overhauled his campaign team, hiring the head of conservative website Breitbart News, Stephen Bannon, as chief executive of the campaign in a move that bolstered his combative image. Trump also promoted adviser Kellyanne Conway, a data-driven political analyst, to campaign manager.

In a previous shake-up, Manafort, who first joined the team in March, took over the running of the campaign from Corey Lewandowski, who was fired as campaign manager in June.

The Clinton campaign has pointed to Manafort's Ukraine work and favorable comments that Trump has made about Russian President Vladimir Putin to sow questions in voters' minds about whether the Russian government has an unseen hand in the U.S. election. Russian officials have rejected that accusation.

"You can get rid of Manafort, but that doesn't end the odd bromance Trump has with Putin," Robby Mook, Clinton's campaign manager, said in a statement.

'Too many cooks'



John Feehery, a Republican strategist, said it would have been unsustainable for Manafort to stay on after Wednesday's hires. "Too many cooks in the kitchen," he said.

Trump's hiring of Bannon was seen as a sign he would not hold back in his aggressive, unorthodox campaign manner. Still, Trump offered rare words of regret on Thursday for any time he had caused "personal pain" with his take-no-prisoners style.

On Friday, he also began airing his first television advertisement since becoming the Republican candidate, buying airtime in the crucial states of Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Florida, where Clinton has already spent of millions in television advertising.

The 30-second ad focuses on immigration, saying Clinton would allow "terrorists and dangerous criminals" into the country, a charge her campaign dismisses.

Karlyn Bowman, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute conservative think tank, said Trump still had some time to turn around his campaign, noting the news of the shakeup came as many Americans were enjoying summer vacations.

The final stretch of the protracted campaign traditionally starts after Labor Day, which falls on Sept. 5 this year.

"I'm not sure the public pays a lot of attention to inside campaign stories," she said. "But that said, Trump has clearly been having significant problems in the polls and he needed to do something differently and perhaps this is the beginning of the attempt."

Clinton won some relief on Friday from a controversy over her use of a private email system when she was secretary of state. A U.S. federal judge ruled that Clinton did not need to give sworn testimony in a lawsuit about the email issue.
U.S. army soldiers are seen marching in the St. Patrick's Day Parade in New York, March 16, 2013.

The United States Armys finances are so jumbled it had to make trillions of dollars of improper accounting adjustments to create an illusion that its books are balanced.

The Defense Departments Inspector General, in a June report, said the Army made $2.8 trillion in wrongful adjustments to accounting entries in one quarter alone in 2015, and $6.5 trillion for the year. Yet the Army lacked receipts and invoices to support those numbers or simply made them up.

As a result, the Armys financial statements for 2015 were materially misstated, the report concluded. The forced adjustments rendered the statements useless because DoD and Army managers could not rely on the data in their accounting systems when making management and resource decisions.

Disclosure of the Armys manipulation of numbers is the latest example of the severe accounting problems plaguing the Defense Department for decades.

The report affirms a 2013 Reuters series revealing how the Defense Department falsified accounting on a large scale as it scrambled to close its books. As a result, there has been no way to know how the Defense Department  far and away the biggest chunk of Congress annual budget  spends the publics money.

The new report focused on the Armys General Fund, the bigger of its two main accounts, with assets of $282.6 billion in 2015. The Army lost or didnt keep required data, and much of the data it had was inaccurate, the IG said.

Where is the money going? Nobody knows, said Franklin Spinney, a retired military analyst for the Pentagon and critic of Defense Department planning.

The significance of the accounting problem goes beyond mere concern for balancing books, Spinney said. Both presidential candidates have called for increasing defense spending amid current global tension.

An accurate accounting could reveal deeper problems in how the Defense Department spends its money. Its 2016 budget is $573 billion, more than half of the annual budget appropriated by Congress.

The Army accounts errors will likely carry consequences for the entire Defense Department.

Congress set a September 30, 2017 deadline for the department to be prepared to undergo an audit. The Army accounting problems raise doubts about whether it can meet the deadline  a black mark for Defense, as every other federal agency undergoes an audit annually.

For years, the Inspector General  the Defense Departments official auditor  has inserted a disclaimer on all military annual reports. The accounting is so unreliable that the basic financial statements may have undetected misstatements that are both material and pervasive.

In an e-mailed statement, a spokesman said the Army remains committed to asserting audit readiness by the deadline and is taking steps to root out the problems.

The spokesman downplayed the significance of the improper changes, which he said net out to $62.4 billion. Though there is a high number of adjustments, we believe the financial statement information is more accurate than implied in this report, he said.

"THE GRAND PLUG"

Jack Armstrong, a former Defense Inspector General official in charge of auditing the Army General Fund, said the same type of unjustified changes to Army financial statements already were being made when he retired in 2010.

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The Army issues two types of reports  a budget report and a financial one. The budget one was completed first. Armstrong said he believes fudged numbers were inserted into the financial report to make the numbers match.

They dont know what the heck the balances should be, Armstrong said.

Some employees of the Defense Finance and Accounting Services (DFAS), which handles a wide range of Defense Department accounting services, referred sardonically to preparation of the Armys year-end statements as the grand plug, Armstrong said. Plug is accounting jargon for inserting made-up numbers.

At first glance adjustments totaling trillions may seem impossible. The amounts dwarf the Defense Departments entire budget. Making changes to one account also require making changes to multiple levels of sub-accounts, however. That created a domino effect where, essentially, falsifications kept falling down the line. In many instances this daisy-chain was repeated multiple times for the same accounting item.

The IG report also blamed DFAS, saying it too made unjustified changes to numbers. For example, two DFAS computer systems showed different values of supplies for missiles and ammunition, the report noted  but rather than solving the disparity, DFAS personnel inserted a false correction to make the numbers match.

DFAS also could not make accurate year-end Army financial statements because more than 16,000 financial data files had vanished from its computer system. Faulty computer programming and employees inability to detect the flaw were at fault, the IG said.

DFAS is studying the report and has no comment at this time, a spokesman said.
The historic Louisiana flood of 2016 touched thousands of lives in often devastating ways. S
Clean-up assistance hotline

To ask for help in cleaning out your home, call 1 (800) 451-1954. Your name will be put on a list, which many relief organizations are using to direct their efforts.
After two feet of water flooded their school last weekend, the faculty of Democracy Prep Baton Rouge school took to the streets.

Theyve spent much of the week delivering supplies, pressing items like diapers, water and clothing, to the 50-plus families out of its 280 students who were chased out of their homes by flood waters

The supplies were donated to the one-year-old charter school by Bethany Christian Church as part of that churchs flood relief outreach. Its just one of a myriad of charitable endeavors that have emerged since the flood began focusing strictly on schools, schoolchildren and their families.

On Friday afternoon, they pulled up to Bible World Christian Center on Lobdell Boulevard.

The Pickett family evacuated here Saturday morning after their home off north Sherwood Forest Boulevard in Windsor Place subdivision flooded. About 30 members of their extended family also showed up at the center, where they attend church, after they too flooded.

They gratefully accepted the relief package from the teachers at Democracy Prep on behalf of their 12-year-old son who is just starting seventh-grade.

Sitting in here all day aint doing him no good, said father Calvin Pickett Sr. about his son, Calvin Pickett Jr. He was getting depressed. It would good for him to go back to school.

The younger Pickett will be returning to school Monday at a temporary location, the Baranco Clark YMCA at 1735 Thomas H. Delpit Drive.

We want kids in schools, said Principal Michelle Gieg. Thats the priority.

Its not an ideal arrangement. They will have school from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m, just four hours a day.

The charter schools home for the past year, Prescott Middle School, now flooded, is likely unusable for months perhaps the entire 2016-17 school year, Gieg said. Instead, Gieg is looking for a location besides the YMCA that will allow for a full day of school.

Once they arrive at school, Democracy Prep is planning to give families a second package that includes items such as sheets, pillows and kitchen utensils.

These are designed for families who lost everything to give them some non-consumable items to start a new home, Gieg said.

Schools throughout the Baton Rouge area are seeking help from wherever they can get it.

Several have set up fundraising accounts with websites such as GoFundMe.com or have set up registriest full of items them needed, everything from batteries to tooth brushes. Outside groups have also set up fundraising drives, ranging from charter-school sponsor News Schools For Baton to the teacher union, the Louisiana Federation of Teachers.

The larger school districts are also seeking money directly from East Baton Rouge Parish public schools, the second largest in the state, which is routing all its charitable donations through its nonprofit Foundation for East Baton Rouge School System.

Keila Stovall, executive director of the foundation, said shes been getting some initial donations and plans to seek more. The purchasing has already begun in advance of Wednesday, when parish public school plan to return to work.

We wanted to make sure there was base level of supplies in those classrooms so we can hit the ground running on day 1, Stovall said.

Stovall said the array of new fundraising efforts, some directed at just schools, some at anyone, can be bewildering.

Its kind of getting overwhelming the number of people (seeking money), said Stovall. Everybodys needs have increased and that goes for all the nonprofits in the community.

One of the most burning immediate needs, she said, is for new school uniforms. For that, the school system is turning to St. Vincent de Paul.

St. Vincent de Paul had just finished giving out school uniforms, which it does every year, when the flooding hit. Now it is starting over.

Its not a particularly good time for you for this to have happened because school just started, said Michael Acaldo, president and CEO of St. Vincent de Paul. If this had happened three or four weeks ago we would be in great shape.

St. Vincent serves an 11-parish area. He said he expects to hear from other school districts in the area soon, especially hard-hit Ascension and Livingston parishes, and it will be challenge raising enough money to replace all the uniforms that were lost in the flooding.

He said the magnitude of the need is enormous. He recalls after Hurricane Katrina raising money to buy uniforms for more than 20,000 kids and said this latest weather will be similarly dramatic.

We know the needs are going to be great, and were going to do the best we can, he said.
In the fourth day after East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff Sid Gautreaux imposed a controversial curfew, people were still being arrested for being outside during forbidden times, and a Metro Council member announced his intention to sue the lawman for hurting business owners.

A grocery executive, however, praised local law enforcement, saying the curfew has not stopped them from delivering fresh food. Quite the opposite -- authorities have been helpful trying to get essentials into hard-hit communities.

+2 Reports of looting prompt EBR Parish curfew and a little political bickering Reports of looting cropping up in flooded areas after people evacuated for drier land prompt

On Tuesday, the Sheriff's Office began enforcing a 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew. Overnight Thursday and into Friday morning, at least eight people were arrested for violating curfew, and one person was arrested for looting, according to jail records. The Sheriff's Office did not respond to multiple requests for information on the arrests.

Friday, the curfew start time was pushed back to midnight.

"The thousands of people that have lost homes and businesses are my No. 1 concern. We will do what needs to be done to secure their property by strictly enforcing those out after midnight without a legitimate reason," Gautreaux wrote in a statement.

"I think it is imperative that those of us that were blessed to have been spared of major destruction maintain perspective that thousands of our neighbors have lost everything."

But business owners have complained that the sheriff is adding to their misery. With LSU students returning to campus, folks in the bar and restaurant industry have been particularly critical.

"People have a civil right to have your business functioning," said attorney Jarrett Ambeau, who filed suit on behalf of Uncle Earl's bar owner Brian Ott, asking the U.S. District Court to prevent the curfew from being enacted before the weekend.

By the end of the business day, he had not heard back and said Ott had decided not to proceed with the suit. John Delgado, who serves on Metro Council, is running for mayor and owns several bars, said he would sustain the fight and enroll as a substitute plaintiff.

While restaurateurs have railed against the curfew, people who sell food at grocery stores have not been affected, said Associated Grocers CEO Emile Breaux.

His company distributes food to many local stores including LeBlanc's, Carter's and Hi-Nabor.

"It's really been kind of a nonissue for us," he said.

Many of the stores closed before curfew hours already, and truck drivers have been given special credentials from the state so they can restock the shelves around the clock.

There was even talk of working with state and local forces to form a special convoy to bring food to areas of Livingston Parish stranded by floodwaters, though it ultimately was not necessary.

"Law enforcement has done an outstanding job working with us," Breaux said.

"We're an important part of the food supply channel," and the government is keen to get private businesses back up and running, he continued.

Wal-Mart has had to cut hours to remain compliant with the sheriff's order.

"We've adjusted store hours, and our truck drivers have successfully worked around curfews to get deliveries to our stores," spokeswoman Leslee Wright wrote in an email to The Advocate.

"We look forward to serving shoppers with regular store hours as soon as the curfew is lifted."
I see in the news that some folks are giving President Obama a hard time because he waited until now to come to Louisiana to review the flood
Sammy Parrino was alone for about an hour in his house as the flood waters pooled around his feet.

Parrino, 63, is paralyzed, and unable to walk because of an injury to his neck last year.

It was dark and his children had left to bring his grandchildren to safety. They came back by boat to retrieve him.

Thousands in shelters face an uncertain future with flooded homes and nowhere to go After riding a boat away from his home in Glen Oaks after dark on Saturday, Williams Cokes a

"I was by myself and the water was approaching. It was an eerie feeling," he said. "Was I scared? Yes indeed. I started praying like any normal person," Parrino said.

Parrino is one of many people who ended up at the Medical Special Needs Shelter housed at LSU's Field House. It's one of the many shelters that has opened its doors over the past week to serve people displaced by what's being called the Great Flood of 2016. But this shelter offers care for people with chronic conditions.

+3 Baton Rouge a mixture of continued evacuations, cleaning out after days of flooding East Baton Rouge Parish remained a patchwork of dark water and dry spots across its 472 squa

On top of losing their homes, and in several cases their families' homes too, these people are medically fragile, wheelchair bound and requiring continued medical attention and equipment.

The shelter was opened on Sunday night by the Louisiana Department of Health and many student volunteers, including the LSU volleyball team, helped set up cots the first night. It was eventually turned over to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

To date, the shelter has received about 230 patients. It still had 63 in its care as of Friday afternoon, said Dr. Rebekah Gee, LDH Secretary.

At the medical shelter, familiar stories of escaping flood waters in the middle of the night were compounded by medical conditions that prevented people from being able walk, let alone swim.

Adrienne Hobgood, 38, who lives in the Millerville area, saw both her home and her mother's home flooded. Hobgood has cerebral palsy and she had to be lifted out of her home on a mattress and onto a boat as she clung to her pets.

"It's not something I'd want to do again," she joked from a bed in the medical needs shelter.

Many of these patients, who live at home with the help of a home health service, are reliant on medical equipment.

"For a lot of people, power outages were a big issue," said Dr. Kathleen Cassel, who was deployed to the medical shelter from her home in California. "They use oxygen concentrator machines or types of machines that help them breathe at night."

Dr. Nicole Lurie, assistant secretary for preparedness and response at the U.S Department of Health and Human Services, said she was in Baton Rouge during Hurricane Isaac to help set up another shelter.

"During that time it was chaotic," she said. "With each disaster you can see how much better the state and community is prepared. Things look to be going very smoothly."

She said roughly 200 people from HHS had come to Baton Rouge for medical support, including out-of-state doctors, nurses, medical technicians, psychologists and public health experts.

Many of them are staying at McVoy Hall, a dormitory at LSU that was closed this semester for planned renovation. Once the flood waters struck, LSU opened the hall to house relief workers.

Gary Koller, a nurse practitioner from Alaska working at the shelter, said he was heartened by the stories of rescue by locals.

"We're hearing stories about how their community saved them, how they got them to safety," he said. "Many of these people can't walk, and that's why they're alive today, because of their community."
They came in bateaux, canoes, crawfish skiffs and dual-engine fishing craft, launching off the sides of roads, where highways dipped into several feet of murky water. Many set off from their own driveways to float out with neighbors.

Dubbed by some as a "Cajun Navy," the citizen-sailors braved nasty water and nastier currents and became a symbol of the Great Flood of 2016.

As soon as the waters of the Amite, Comite and Tickfaw rivers started rising, a massive citizen flotilla from down the street and across the state set to work pulling folks by the hundreds -- along with sacks of possessions and frightened pets -- from once-dry homes now surrounded by growing lakes.

With river levels rising several feet above historic all-time highs, local authorities soon found their resources stretched beyond their limits and themselves overwhelmed by calls for rescue. But along back roads and highways hundreds of boat-towing pickups streamed toward high water.

Initially, authorities in Livingston Parish didn't want private citizens headed into the water, worried amateur rescuers might end up in trouble themselves, said Layton Ricks, the parish president. But as the calls from stranded residents continued to mount -- at one point, Livingston officials said they were about 150 calls behind -- parish officials relented.

"Then it was like, do you have vests? Do you have insurance? Are you truly capable of doing this?" Ricks said. "And as it turned out, we couldn't have done it without those guys. They were a tremendous asset for our people."

With thousands of avid anglers, hunters and professional guides scattered across the state, Louisiana boasts a deep reserve of experienced boaters to draw on in its all-too-frequent crises. And the flat-bottomed boats most navigate through shallow marshes, swamps and oxbow lakes on weekend trips are perfectly suited for motoring over flooded city streets and grass-filled ditches.

"Hunting and fishing is embedded in the culture down here," said Jared Serigne, a 32-year-old St. Bernard Parish resident who said he and a cousin didn't hesitate before hooking up their boat and driving to Baton Rouge on Saturday. "If you look at the time that die-hard hunters and fishermen are putting on the water  every time you're training. Seems like every other time you go on a hunting or fishing trip, something goes wrong and you have to adapt. I think that's the stuff we took with us."

When Chris Macaluso started hearing about massive flooding from friends in Central and Denham Springs on Saturday morning, he hitched up the fishing boat in his Baton Rouge driveway and set off to meet a group of hunting and fishing buddies (including Serigne) from all over the southern part of the state: Chalmette, Thibodaux, Houma, LaPlace.

They launched around North Sherwood Forest Park, motoring through once-sleepy neighborhoods and collecting residents by the boatload.

"Some of them were just really scared people," said Macaluso. "At one point, we took an elderly woman in a wheelchair out. We just picked her wheelchair up, put it in the boat and told her family we'd be back for them. By the time we got back to their house about an hour later, the water went from about two inches to knee-deep. That's how fast it was rising."

Macaluso said he planned to head back out into the same area on Sunday morning but found water already rising into his street near Episcopal High School. After ferrying neighbors out of the area, he left his boat tied to the front porch with the keys still in it in case firefighters working the area needed to take it.

"We don't have enough assets to cover that large of an area," said Sgt. Don Coppola with the Baton Rouge Police Department, which had officers in all of the agency's boats and large trucks working on rescues over the weekend. Despite that manpower, the department struggled to keep up with the scope of the unfolding disaster, he said.

"For something that was this large and widespread and involved in so many people, we greatly appreciated these people who stepped up by putting their lives in danger," Coppola said. "Without them, we feel there's no way we could have rescued as many people as we did with the resources that we have."

When rising water from the Amite River swamped the roads in and out of Nichole Witholder's Denham Springs neighborhood on Friday, she didn't worry too much: Her home remained on high ground. But when water -- rising about three inches an hour -- filled her street and then starting coming in under her door, she put life jackets on her 9- and 11-year-old children and waded out into the water, where a steady hum of fishing boats manned by Denham Springs volunteers were already ferrying neighbors away.

Three men on a bass boat -- whom Witholder called "heroes" -- grabbed the family, including their dogs and cats, and drove them out over the tops of completely submerged cars.

"I don't know their names," Witholder wrote in an email. "Regular men, going out of their way, using their own time and resources to help us get all dogs, cats, and children safely in a boat in the pouring rain. We were not able to bring the carry on with our clothes or the bag of food and water I had packed. There was no time. Too many people needed help. Everyone in our neighborhood needed help."

At crowded shelters throughout the capital region, many people told stories of bundling into boats to leave their sinking houses. Most said average citizens piloted them to safety.

In Central, state Rep. Barry Ivey recalled seeing his doctor -- who doesn't live in the area -- rescuing people in boats well after dark. Ivey estimated that volunteers outnumbered authorities by about 20 to 1.

"It's tremendous what John Q. Public did to help their fellow neighbors and strangers," said Ivey, a Central Republican.

In different areas, the informal rescue effort took on varying degrees of organization. In Baton Rouge, a "Cajun Navy" Facebook group used mobile apps to handle the surge of rescue requests and to dispatch boaters to different address.

Out in Denham Springs, one of the centers of the disaster where an estimated 90 percent of buildings took on water, the rush to escape was far more chaotic and desperate.

Residents commandeered fishing boats from driveways or handed off canoes to total strangers. Families floated possessions out in kiddie pools and pulled along relatives atop wooden pallets or air mattresses as sheriff's deputies and National Guard soldiers motored past. One man inside an aluminum flat-bottom boat used a shovel as a paddle and headed into the water on Lockhart Road to check on an aunt.

"If you see a boat that floats or a motor that runs, acquire it and get these people out of here," said Anthony Hall, a Denham Springs resident who made dozens of rescue missions into town with borrowed boats during the floodwater's rapid rise.

Several volunteers from towns around New Orleans said they hitched up their boat trailers out of a sense of duty, given the risks other volunteers took to rescue people from rooftops and flooded homes during other hurricanes.

"We went through it in Katrina and Isaac," said Graylin Shultheis Jr., a 30-year-old fireman and bowfishing guide from Belle Chasse who spent the weekend running rescue missions in Tangipahoa and Ascension parishes. "You've got to try to repay the favor when someone else is in need."

By Tuesday, the Ascension Parish Sheriffs Office had developed an organized volunteer system based out of the Cabela's parking lot in Gonzales. At the mega store where hunting and fishing equipment is sold, flat boats in trailers and high water vehicles waited in the parking lot to continue the search in the southern end of Ascension.

Volunteers waited under tents as they signed up, got their directions from sheriffs deputies and sometimes a deputy escort.

Scott Hammon, 34, and Austin Noble, 31, both of Galvez in northern Ascension, said they were volunteering between shifts at a plant in the parishs chemical corridor. Once the pair realized the water would not reach their homes off Norwood Road, they came out to help.

On Wednesday, an Ascension Parish sheriff's deputy -- Staff Sgt. Blaine Melancon -- rode in the boat with Hammon and Noble, using a radio to direct them to families in need of rescuing.

Were going to make one more run, Noble said Wednesday afternoon, before heading back to work at the plant.

Advocate staff writers Heidi Kinchen, David J. Mitchell, Terry L. Jones and Maya Lau contributed to this report.
They're distinctive, expensive and gangstas need not apply.

The popularity of self-chosen number plates has risen by more than 40 per cent in the past decade, but the Road Transport Authority has revealed some of the requests rejected.

Raiders Group chairman John McIntyre with the special number plates which are fitted on his company car. Credit:Matthew Raggatt

ONBAIL, UP4MDR, JESUS and DRUNK were some of those that were knocked back because the authority decided they would cause offence to a reasonable person.

But the Access Canberra spokeswoman said the number of rejections was small.
Eric Ben-Artzi is a brave man.

The former Deutsche Bank risk officer was one of three whistleblowers who reported improper accounting at the German bank to US sharemarket regulators in 2010 and 2011.

Deutsche Bank's shareholders were held accountable, rather than its managers. Credit:Getty Images

In 2015, the Securities and Exchange Commission imposed a $US55 million ($71.8 million) fine against the bank over the issue.

Ben-Artzi is due 15 per cent of this sum, or $US16.5 million. In an opinion piece in The Financial Times on Thursday, he revealed that he had rejected the payout.
A former employee says Morgan Stanley knows exactly who should buy its worst-performing funds: the bank's own workers.

That's the claim behind a lawsuit filed Friday accusing Morgan Stanley and its board of mismanaging the firm's 401(k) retirement plan - the US equivalent to a superannuation fund - and costing 60,000 employees hundreds of millions of dollars. According to the complaint, which seeks to cover other workers, the company picked inappropriate and high-priced investments so that the bank would profit at the expense of its staffers.

Morgan Stanley's headquarters in New York. The bank allegedly put lemons in its own employees' retirement plans. Credit:Bloomberg

The lawsuit in Manhattan highlights a friction that exists at financial-services firms that put employees into their own product. The suit cited several Morgan Stanley mutual funds included in the pension fund that fared worse than offerings from rivals. For instance, a small-cap growth fund underperformed 99 per cent of similar funds in 2014 and 94 per cent in 2015, according to the suit.

'Staggering losses'
According to some, David Leyonhjelm's appeal to the Human Rights Commission for being attributed with a "certitude" common to angry white males, is a shrewd defence of free speech, against those, such as your correspondent here, who are hell-bent on stifling it.

As analyses go, this has the superficial attractions of symmetry and simplicity, but its contradictions are obvious.

Illustration: Michael Leunig.

After all, the self-described libertarian's method of protecting free speech is to invite the law to shut it down whereas the putative enemy of free speech, in his estimation, should be adjudged "guilty" under the law, for having exercised it too freely.

Taken at its most constructive, the indignant rush to legal remedy by the morally mercurial senator is merely opportunistic  a chance to "expose" the excessive power of section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act. A law that, if we are to believe its fevered critics, daily presses on our most basic freedoms and thus limits the horizons of our democratic discourse.
One of two girls accused of trying to kill a 12-year-old classmate to please horror character Slender Man two years ago pleaded not guilty Friday by reason of mental disease or defect.

Morgan Geyser, 14, entered her plea to one count of attempted first-degree intentional homicide during a status conference in Waukesha County Circuit Court. Judge Michael Bohren appointed two doctors to examine her.

Her attorney, Tony Cotton, said in a telephone interview after the conference ended that he felt the facts of the case fit a mental illness plea. Experts have testified already that Geyser suffers from schizophrenia and oppositional defiant disorder and maintains relationships with imaginary characters.

Bohren said he will look to schedule a trial in March or as soon as prosecutors and Cotton are ready. If Geyser is convicted, the mental illness plea necessitates another trial to determine her mental state at the time of the crime, Cotton said. If shes found mentally deficient, she would be ordered confined to a mental hospital. If shes deemed mentally fit, she would serve up to 40 years in prison and 20 years on extended supervision.

The other girl in the case, Anissa Weier, 14, also faces one count of attempted first-degree intentional homicide. Weier pleaded not guilty last year. Bohren on Thursday said he would look to schedule her trial for March as well.

Assistant District Attorney Ted Szczupakiewicz, who is leading the prosecution of both girls, didnt immediately return a voicemail message Friday.

Anyone 10 or older charged with attempted first-degree intentional homicide is automatically considered an adult under state law. The girls attorneys had been seeking to move their cases into juvenile court, where they could be incarcerated for three years and then supervised under age 18. A state appeals court, however, ruled last month that both girls cases should remain in adult court, saying the crime was planned and violent.

That leaves the state Supreme Court as the girls last hope of being moved into juvenile court, but Cotton said Friday he wont ask the high court to take Geysers case because it doesnt present a novel question of law.

The other girls attorney, Maura McMahon, didnt immediately respond to a voicemail asking if she planned to appeal to the Supreme Court.

According to court documents, the girls invited their classmate, Payton Leutner, to a birthday sleepover in May 2014. All three girls were 12 years old at the time.

The next day they lured Leutner into some woods at a Waukesha park, stabbed her repeatedly and then fled. Leutner suffered 19 stab wounds, including one that doctors said narrowly missed a major artery near her heart. Leutner crawled to a road where a bicyclist found her.

Police captured Geyser and the other girl on Waukeshas outskirts later that day. They told investigators they had hoped killing Leutner would gain them favor with Slender Man, a demon-like character featured in online horror stories.

They said they were planning to walk 300 miles to the Nicolet National Forest, where they hoped to live as Slender Mans servants in his mansion.

Leutner recovered from her wounds and returned to school that fall.

State Journal staff contributed to this report.
Plenty of people, upset by Australia's callous treatment of asylum seekers, have warned history will judge the country poorly for dispatching fellow human beings to languish for years in island camps. But that judgment should not be presumed to some distant future: it is here and now that Australia's reputation is being sullied by the cruel insistence on offshore detention. It is past time the government closed the centres on Nauru and Manus Island.

The misery inflicted by Australia's policy is compounding daily. Reports continue to mount about abuse, self-harm and pyschological distress among the people being detained. On Nauru earlier this year, a man and then a woman set themselves on fire. Officials can quibble the camp gates are now open, but it is abundantly clear the asylum seekers are not free. These islands are bereft of opportunity for those trapped there without the option to leave, and it is a mark of the inhumanity of Australia's system that the very identity of people is systematically masked by bureaucratic babble, under the label "transferees".

International condemnation is growing; politicians in New Zealand last week openly wondered whether Australia has lost its moral compass, while the United Nations has raised persistent concerns. It would be mindless parochialism to simply dismiss such complaints as unwelcome foreign interference. These are warnings that match those of human rights organisations within Australia and a host of community leaders.

Yet the Turnbull government has once again reacted to legitimate worry with stubborn indifference. Immigration Minister Peter Dutton, who shamefully implied in May that people who self-immolated had done so at the behest of refugee advocates, last week attacked the media for reporting abuses in the camps. Mr Dutton's bluster and unfounded warnings about the threat from refugees only betrays the weakness of government's justification for persisting with what has transformed from a system of offshore processing into one of indefinite detention.
After a decade with the brand, Jennifer Hawkins has signed on for another two years as the face of Myer.

The former Miss Universe, who has been with Myer since January 2007, will continue on as the face of the department store until the end of 2018.

ennifer Hawkins attends the Mercedes-Benz Presents Maticevski show at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Resort 17 Collections at The Cutaway, Barangaroo Reserve on May 15, 2016 in Sydney, Australia. Credit:Getty

In a statement released on Saturday, Hawkins, 32, said she was "thrilled" to continue in the role.

"I am so grateful for the opportunity Myer has given me over the last ten years and I am excited about the next two years," she said.
Bali police detain Australian woman Sara Connor over the death of a policeman. Ms Connor, a mother-of-two from NSW's Far North Coast, and Mr Taylor were brought to Denpasar police station on Friday afternoon with staff from the Australian consulate in Bali. It came after images of Ms Connor's driver's licence and visa were printed on wanted posters and plastered across hotels and police stations through the popular holiday island. Kubu Kauh Beach Inn, where British man David Taylor may have been staying. Credit:Amilia Rosa Police had initially said they wanted to question Ms Connor and another man, Tomas Schon, in relation to the murder of the police officer on Kuta Beach.

It later emerged police had the wrong name and Mr Schon told Fairfax Media he was in Europe and "had never been to Bali in his life". Bali police have 24 hours to decide whether or not to name Mr Taylor as a suspect. Mr Schon said he had known Ms Connor from when he lived in Australia for three years and the photos of him the police had mistakenly used on the wanted posters had been taken from Facebook. "I have never been to Bali, never in my life. I am now going to talk to a lawyer," he said. Ms Connor arrives at Denpasar police station.

David Taylor was then revealed as the man Bali police were after. Ms Connor's arrest has shocked friends and relatives back home in Byron Bay. Sara Connor arrested in Bali after police officer was found 'bashed to death with a beer bottle' on Kuta Beach. "Sara is the least violent person I have ever met," one close friend said on Saturday. "She is like a puppy dog."

Briton David Taylor was arrested in Bali on Friday with Ms Connor. Ms Connor works as a housekeeper at the Nomads Arts Factory Lodge and also creates handmade pasta for her company, Byron Bay Fresh Pasta. She separated from her husband a couple of years ago but the pair used to live in London and Berlin before moving to Byron Bay. Mr Taylor also goes by the name DJ Nutzo and according to social media lived in Byron Bay, played various gigs around town and worked at a local brewery. Bali police chief Sugeng Priyanto said on Friday that Ms Connor had claimed she was drunk and couldn't remember much.

"She did say she lost her bag during the incident," he said. He said Mr Taylor refused to answer any questions and was waiting for his lawyer. Mr Taylor had told police that wounds on his hands had been sustained some time ago. Alerts were issued at the airport and all seaports to prevent the pair from leaving the resort island. However, after leaving their homestay in Kutam Mr Taylor and Ms Connor went to a place in Jimbaran Bay where they contacted the Australian consulate in Bali. On Friday the family of dead police officer, Wayan Sudarsa, held a Balinese traditional ritual known as Ngulapin, which helps victims and their families become calmer.

The ceremony, which takes place at the scene of the death, calls the spirit back. Police say a smashed Bintang beer bottle and a broken body board, found near the victim's body, may have been used as weapons to kill the police officer - Wayan Sudarsa. He had been attacked by more than one person and had 42 wounds to his body, the head of Sanglah Forensics and Morgue, Dr Dudut Restiadi, said. Finger marks on his arm suggested he had been held down during the attack. Mr Sudarsa's walkie-talkie was lying in the sand, just inches from his ear, while a police cap was nearby. He had been on duty at the time of his death.

Police identified Ms Connor as someone they were keen to talk to after her handbag, with her driver's licence and credit card, was found near the officer's bloodied body on the beach outside the Pullman Hotel in Kuta. Mr Sudana said police had spoken to several witnesses including security officers, traditional guards, known as pecalang and ojek (motorcycle taxi) drivers. "One of the ojek drivers saw [a foreign man] at the scene - he was seen covered in sand," he said. Police went to Kubu Kauh Beach Inn in Kuta, where the man had been staying, and found blood in his room and on the scooter he had rented. "One of the maids at Kubu Kauh Beach Inn also noticed blood on a towel," Mr Sudana said.
As a Byron Bay mother-of-two faces interrogation in Indonesia following the bashing death of police officer, her family and community back home are rallying around her.

Sara Connor left the seaside town on the NSW north coast for a short holiday in Bali this month.

She met up with David Taylor, a British-born DJ who lived at Byron Bay until recently and played various gigs at dance parties and on local radio.

Somehow the pair have been wrapped up in a murder investigation involving a Bali police officer on the holiday island's popular Kuta beach.
A speeding car crossed onto the wrong side of the road before hitting a tree on Friday night, after the driver allegedly tried to evade police on the Gold Coast.

About 8.45pm police saw a car travelling at speed heading south on Tallebudgera Connection Road.

Police stopped pursuing a car at Tallebudgera on Friday night after it continued to travel at excessive speed.

Police said the officers did not pursue the car but did activate lights and sirens, before pulling over when the car drove away at excessive speed.

Further along Tallebudgera Connection Road, the car allegedly crossed onto the wrong side of the road and collided with another car travelling north, before eventually leaving the road and hitting a tree.
A Frankston man who was tied up and abducted on Saturday evening after he walked into his home to find a man holding a knife is recovering from the ordeal in hospital.

Police have been told the 54-year-old victim found an unknown man with a knife inside his Grimwade Crescent home at 5.30pm.

The man made threats towards the victim and then bound his arms, a police spokeswoman said.

Investigators believe the offender then forced the victim into the passenger seat of his own car and drove away from the property.
She was only able to be officially identified by a distinctive tattoo, and due to the state of the body a cause of death could not be determined. While Ms O'Brien Maw's family say the sentence has brought justice, they don't believe they will ever really have closure or know why their mum was killed in such a cruel way. Ms Bogdan Maw described the outcome as "a bittersweet victory". "He still gets to live," Caitlin said. "He still gets to breathe. He still gets to eat and have visitation rights. All of that stuff, Mum doesn't have.

"It's justice, but it's not," she said. "Life goes on, but for us there is always going to be this hurt and this pain." "You just don't get to tell her you love her anymore," Amy said. "It's just heartbreaking." Present in court in Fiji for most of Senikaucava's trial in recent months, the family has been angered at the lack of remorse shown by the killer.

"He showed no remorse. He never shed one tear, nothing. He never looked like he gave a s***. He sat on the stand and said she was his best friend," Amy said. "In court, Lloyd would often look at me and my brother and smirk at us and things like that. It was just a bit eerie and he just gets under your skin. "When I heard 'guilty' read out, he turned around to walk out and I just gave him the biggest grin. That was as good as we could do." Amy met Ms O'Brien Maw's killer about four years ago on a trip to Fiji with her mother. "From what I remember of him, he was just a bit weird. He was very quiet and would stare. It made you feel uncomfortable," she said.

Ms O'Brien Maw had been betrayed by a man she considered a friend. They had been at a nightclub with a group of friends before getting in a taxi and being dropped near a shortcut to the village that Ms O'Brien Maw called home. What happened next is unknown. After a family trip to Fiji in 2010, Ms O'Brien Maw fell in love twice - with the country itself and her eventual new partner, Joe. She had raised four children - Caitlin, Amy, Rhys and Claire - as a single parent in Shepparton but found peace and a renewed sense of belonging in her adopted new home.

"People weren't judgmental. She could be who she wanted to be. It was laid back," Caitlin said. "She had another family over there. She had the love of her life and the love of her country." The legacy of Ms O'Brien Maw lives on in Fiji, and the family plans to visit the country next year after Claire turns 18. Caitlin said her mother was incredibly proud of her grandson, six-year-old Crezbrook Briggs, and Caitlin's soon-to-be-born second child - a girl - will have Tracey as her middle name. Ms O'Brien Maw's daughters say not only has the murder and the aftermath been devastating for the family, it has also left Joe heartbroken.

Ms Bogdan Maw described her sister as the life of the party and said it was impossible to come to terms with the fact she would never see her again. "The hardest thing too is watching other family members grieving as well. You see them crying and you can't do anything because the only thing you want is her," she said. Ms O'Brien Maw's daughters said their mother's best characteristics were kindness and strength, a trait they said had helped the family to get through the ordeal. "She was an amazing mum, she really was. She was proud of all of us, even our smallest achievements," Amy said. "You could never find anyone else like her. She was one of a kind," Caitlin said.
The parents of a Perth boy with aggressive brain cancer are set for another legal fight with doctors from Princess Margaret Hospital.

The medical team will take Angela Kiszko and Colin Strachan to court again on Thursday in a bid to step up chemotherapy and introduce radiation treatment for six-year-old Oshin, while his parents want only palliative care for their son.

Oshin Kiszko's mother Angela says she wants him to have peace, love and fun times while he is still physically able to. Credit:Elle Borgward

The court in March ruled that Oshin must undergo chemotherapy to maximise the chances of extending his life, but in May ruled against forcing radiation therapy given its devastating side effects on a young brain.

His parents believe the severely damaging side effects are not worth the slim chance of extended life.
Berlin: Europe's battle over public attire for Muslim women moved on Friday from the outcry over banning "burkinis" in France to a strong call from Chancellor Angela Merkel's governing conservative bloc for a ban in Germany on face veils in schools and universities and while driving.

The German proposal, announced by Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere, was clearly driven by mounting public anxiety over integrating the refugees, who are mostly from Muslim countries, particularly after a series of terrorist assaults and a gun rampage last month.

The German plan arrives on the heels of a heated debate in France over the burkini - a full-body swimsuit with a head covering - since a handful of cities joined the mayor of the French Riviera town of Cannes in banning the garment from city beaches. Prime Minister Manuel Valls of France supported the move, calling the swimsuit a sign of the enslavement of women.

Proposals now being floated in Germany around restricting the burqa make it clear that France is not the only European country grappling with whether some Islamic coverings amount to a barrier to the full participation of women in Western society.
Should Wisconsin legalize marijuana and regulate it, like alcohol?

Should Dane County borrow $120 million to build a new jail?

Should the U.S. ban the use of plastic shopping bags in stores?

If you want to have your say on issues  including those three  theres a way for Dane County residents to do it now, through Polco, a Madison startup company. All it takes is a smartphone or a computer.

Fresh off its win of the Peoples Choice award at Tuesday nights Wisconsin Innovation Awards, Polcos website has gone live in the Madison area, tabulating votes and collecting public comments on issues via its online and mobile voting platform.

Polco has forged an agreement with the Dane County Clerks office and is exploring opportunities for a pilot project with the city of Madison, said Polco CEO and co-founder Nick Mastronardi.

Any resident can sound off on a variety of issues through ballots on Polcos website or, in some cases, on Dane Countys website, through the Legistar system.

We pick out a series of issues that we think people might be interested in, County Clerk Scott McDonell said. Its a good entryway ... to find out more about whats going on in county government.

To take a position on an issue, a resident has to set up an account and the persons identity can be verified through voter registration files. Each person can vote once on an issue and can only comment on the side corresponding to the vote. In other words, if you vote yes, you can only post your opinion in favor of the issue; you cant cross over and respond to someone who voted no, Mastronardi said.

That mitigates so much of the mudslinging, the trolling, the vitriol, he said.

The goal, Mastronardi said, is: Broader, more informed participation in government policies. We want to simplify the process, he said, adding, and I think theres a great business opportunity there, as well.

Mastronardi, 35, started Polco in May 2015. A veteran of the U.S. Air Force and member of the Air Force Reserve with a PhD in economics from the University of Texas-Austin, he taught at the Air Force academy in Colorado and worked at Amazon before he came up with the concept and took part in the Seed Sumo business accelerator in Bryan/College Station, Texas.

A several-month stint in 2011 working at the White House as a senior economist for the Council of Economic Advisers helped spur Mastronardis interest in providing a broader forum for public opinion.

These are complex issues. We need more people to weigh in on them, he said.

In Madison, Bunker Labs, 510 Charmany Drive, brought Mastronardi into the co-working space/incubator aimed at veterans and helped him get into the Madworks accelerator, also in University Research Park.

Since then, Polco has won numerous competitions:

The information technology prize in the Wisconsin Governors Business Plan contest.

The $5,000 runner-up prize in Notre Dames McCloskey Business Plan Competition, and a chance to pitch to the IrishAngels investing group.

The Peoples Choice award at the Wisconsin Innovation Awards.

The company also has graduated from Madworks; landed a $100,000 loan from Whitewaters Community Development Association; and is putting together its first seed round of financing.

Polco will face another contest Tuesday, as a finalist at the Greater Madison Chamber of Commerces Pressure Chamber, as part of the Chambers neXXpo business expo and the Forward Fest entrepreneurial festival.

McDonell said he hopes the $500 the county is paying for Polcos services will raise awareness for county issues and increase participation.

We just want to see how it works, whether the public reacts positively to it, and to help a local, small-business startup, McDonell said.

He said the issues up for voting on Polco are from the countys legislative agenda and are aimed at creating conversation.

County government tends to be invisible. If we can try to remedy that, that would be great, said McDonell.

Madworks prizes

In addition to Polcos popular vote, the Madworks accelerators graduation Monday came with a pitch contest of its own.

Emonix won the $5,000 economic impact award for a system that improves the efficiency of water softeners, reducing salt use and cutting costs.

WeightUp Solutions won a $2,500 award for its system to monitor the motion of weightlifters.
For the first time since flight MH17 was shot down, Buk missile launchers may have returned to Eastern Ukraine.

The deployment of the Buk launchers in the Donbass, reported by Ukrainian intelligence agencies on Monday and by independent defence analysts, is part of a bigger display of military muscle by Russia.

Observers say it is an attempt to rewrite the terms of the current shaky truce in the region to the former superpower's advantage, and pressure the West to end sanctions that have severely damaged the Russian economy.

Open war is unlikely, analysts say, but they predict an increase in 'provocations' along the ceasefire line in strife-torn eastern Ukraine, and along the border between Ukraine and its lost province of Crimea, unless Russian president Vladimir Putin gets what he wants.
Charlotte, North Carolina: An 18-year-old college student who was ejected from Thursday's Donald Trump rally says he went from avid backer to disillusioned opponent after Trump's security accused him of being a known protester.

Jake Anantha, who registered as a Republican and cast his first primary vote for Trump, was wearing a Trump shirt when police removed him from the Charlotte Convention Center before the rally began. He and his father, Ramesh Anantha, say they believe he was profiled because of his dark skin.

Supporters bow their heads in prayer before Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump delivers a campaign speech in Charlotte, North Carolina. Credit:AP

"It's unbelievably ironic," said Ramesh Anantha, whose parents emigrated from India. He says his son, as a young person of colour appearing at a rally where the Republican presidential nominee touted his support for people of colour, "should have been looked at as a perfect Trump supporter. He should have been somebody they're putting up on stage."
MILWAUKEE  A black man whose death at the hands of police spurred two nights of violence in Milwaukee was shot once in the chest and once in the arm, the Milwaukee County medical examiner said Friday.

Sylville K. Smith, 23, died Saturday after what police said was a brief foot chase when he fled a traffic stop. A few hours after Smith's death, a protest on the city's largely black north side erupted into violence.

Police say body-camera video from the officer who shot Smith shows he was holding a handgun and had turned toward the officer, who is also black. Mayor Tom Barrett said just hours after the shooting that Smith had been hit twice, in the chest and arm.

Aside from confirming that account, a brief release from the medical examiner said little. It said an autopsy report and investigative reports would not be released since Smith's death is under investigation by the state.

The unrest in Milwaukee largely subsided Monday, leaving several businesses burned and assorted other damage that federal officials said could amount to several million dollars.

The Wisconsin Department of Justice's Division of Criminal Investigation is investigating the shooting, as required by state law for any fatal shootings involving police. The agency has declined to release the body-camera video or any other details while its investigation continues. State investigators on Thursday set up a tip line to gather information from the public.
Princess Marie wears Princess Dagmars Floral Tiara (Photo: JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP/Getty Images)

Since she officially became an HRH in 2008, Princess Marie of Denmark has worn precisely two tiaras. While she debuted the silver and amethyst Flora Danica Tiara in 2014, todays tiara, a diamond floral piece that has been in the family for several generations, is still the workhorse of her collection. From her wedding to the annual Danish New Years Courts to family celebrations, its been all floral all the time for Princess Marie.

The tiaras first wearer was also a Danish princess: Princess Dagmar of Denmark, the daughter of King Frederik VIII. Dagmars siblings included King Christian X of Denmark, King Haakon VII of Norway, and Princess Ingeborg of Sweden  so you know she needed a tiara for all sorts of royal events. Where and how Dagmar received her tiara is unclear. We also dont know who made it, although it seems quite possible that the tiara is a twentieth-century piece. But we do know that Dagmar wore it into her old age  she was photographed in the piece at a wedding shortly before her death.

Even though Dagmar and her husband had five children, she bequeathed her tiara to her nephew, King Frederik IX, who passed it along to his daughter, Queen Margrethe II. Maybe Dagmar knew there would be more use for a tiara in the main line of the royal family? Dagmars husband was a commoner, so all of their children were born commoners, too.

Princess Marie wears the tiara on her wedding day (Photo: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)

Queen Margrethe wore the tiara for years before handing it over to her new daughter-in-law. Marie wore the tiara for the first time at her wedding, and shes worn it at almost every single tiara event shes attended since.

Princess Marie wears the tiara (Photo: Schiller Graphics/Getty Images)

I think its telling that the court announced that Marie does not personally own the tiara; its just a permanent loan from the queen. Seems like perhaps Margrethe may have learned her lesson about tiaras and daughters-in-law after the Alexandrine Diamond Drop was divorced right out of the royal family? Whatever the case, the permanent-loan solution is a good one for a royal family that doesnt have a family jewel foundation. (Psst, Margrethe: start a jewel foundation!)

Note: This is an updated version of an earlier post, with new text/images.
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Russ Feingolds campaign sought to capitalize this week on an attempted infiltration by a suspected conservative operative.

In a fundraising email sent out Friday, the campaign accused Republicans of sending a spy to infiltrate their campaign headquarters and called it the dirtiest tactic in their playbook  though they offered no evidence that the operative was working on behalf of Republicans.

This person came into our campaign headquarters using a fake name, a fake story and even a fake Facebook page to try and cover their tracks, campaign volunteer coordinator Sarah Lindstrom wrote in the fundraising email. It clearly shows what you and I already know: Republicans like Senator (Ron) Johnson are scared. Theyre desperate. And theyll do anything to keep him in Washington for another six years.

Feingold spokesman Michael Tyler acknowledged the campaign doesnt know if the woman who applied Tuesday to work for the campaign under the name Allison Moss was put up to it by Republicans. The woman became cagey and left abruptly when confronted by campaign officials, according to an audio recording provided by the campaign.

Tyler provided evidence, including photographs, that the woman was actually Allison Maass, a registered Republican from New York who was caught trying to infiltrate the Hillary Clinton campaign last year using a false name.

Maass online LinkedIn page says she works for Campus Reform, a conservative group funded by the Leadership Institute, which also trained conservative activist James OKeefe, who is known for undercover hidden camera stings on liberal groups and, in Wisconsin, on former Republican Senate President Mike Ellis.

Campus Reform editor Sterling Beard said in an interview his group had nothing to do with the Feingold campaign operation and that Maass hasnt worked for his group since spring 2015. He said her online profile was removed from the groups website this week in the wake of news reports about the Feingold incident because of incorrect reports that she still worked for the group. He offered no comment on Maass alleged conduct.

Johnsons campaign said it had no affiliation with Maass, and it responded with its own fundraising email criticizing Feingolds campaign for suggesting to the Huffington Post that it knew the woman didnt belong there because she was blonde haired and drove a pickup truck. Rest assured, all you pickup-driving blondes out there will always be welcome on our team, Johnsons campaign said.

OTC called the phone number that Maass provided to the Feingold campaign but a message was not returned.

The Feingold campaign doesnt plan to file a complaint with the state ethics board or law enforcement, Tyler said.

Doyle speaks out

Former Gov. Jim Doyle has criticized his successors handling of allegations of abuse at the states troubled youth prison.

Doyle, a two-term Democrat, has rarely made public comments about Gov. Scott Walker, who took office in 2011.

But in an appearance this week on WKOWs Capital City Sunday Doyle said more attention from the Walker administration should have been paid to the 2011 consolidation of youth facilities at the Lincoln Hills School for Boys and Copper Lake School for Girls juvenile detention in Irma, and because problems have surfaced since state and federal authorities began investigating the prison 19 months ago.

I think everybody would know it would be a major undertaking. You would have to staff it up, said Doyle. You need to really get that thing going in the right direction and when you dont, now youve got a mess.

Weisensel a pioneer

who predated Anderson

Fifty years before Jimmy Anderson, there was Russel Weisensel.

Anderson, a Fitchburg Democrat, is likely to become the next state representative from Assembly District 47 after he won a Democratic primary earlier this month. If he wins the general election, he would be the first Wisconsin lawmaker in recent years to serve in a wheelchair.

But Weisensel did so after he was elected to the state Assembly in 1966, representing eastern Dane County. Having lost the use of his legs in a farming accident, Weisensel, R-Sun Prairie, served two terms and became a champion for people with disabilities.

The first time Weisensel entered the state Capitol as an elected official, he had to be carried up the steps because there was no wheelchair ramp. A temporary wooden ramp later was built.

I want it understood that I was not looking for sympathy votes, Weisensel told the Wisconsin State Journal shortly after being elected in November 1966. Theres a job to be done. I know I can do it and I offered my services.

Weisensel also drew notice for publicly saying he and his family would live, for a time, on a budget equal to the reduced welfare allowances for which he voted.
Contact: A hundred years before iconic figures like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs permeated our lives, 60 years before Marshall McLuhan proclaimed media to be the extensions of man, an Irish-Italian inventor laid the foundation of the communication explosion of the 21st century. Guglielmo Marconi was arguably the first truly global figure in modern communication. Not only was he the first to communicate globally, he was the first to think globally about communication. Marconi may not have been the greatest inventor of his time, but more than anyone else, he brought about a fundamental shift in the way we communicate.

Todays globally networked media and communication system has its origins in the 19th century, when, for the first time, messages were sent electronically across great distances. The telegraph, the telephone, and radio were the obvious precursors of the Internet, iPods, and mobile phones. What made the link from then to now was the development of wireless communication. Marconi was the first to develop and perfect a practical system for wireless, using the recently-discovered air waves that make up the electromagnetic spectrum.

Between 1896, when he applied for his first patent in England at the age of 22, and his death in Italy in 1937, Marconi was at the center of every major innovation in electronic communication. He was also a skilled and sophisticated organizer, an entrepreneurial innovator, who mastered the use of corporate strategy, media relations, government lobbying, international diplomacy, patents, and litigation. Marconi was really interested in only one thing: the extension of mobile, personal, long-distance communication to the ends of the earth (and beyond, if we can believe some reports). Some like to refer to him as a genius, but if there was any genius to Marconi it was this vision.

In 1901 he succeeded in signalling across the Atlantic, from the west coast of England to Newfoundland, despite the claims of science that it could not be done. In 1924 he convinced the British government to girdle the world with a chain of wireless stations using the latest technology that he had devised, shortwave radio. In 1931 he created the worlds first international broadcasting service for his friend, the pope, who didnt trust Marconis other benefactor, Mussolini, to leave the Vatican free to spread unfiltered messages to the faithful. There are some who say Marconi lost his edge when commercial broadcasting came along; he didnt see that radio could or should be used to frivolous ends. In one of his last public speeches, a radio broadcast to the United States in March 1937, he deplored that broadcasting had become a one-way means of communication and foresaw it moving in another direction, toward communication as a means of exchange. That was prophetic genius.

Marconis career was devoted to making wireless communication happen cheaply, efficiently, smoothly, and with an elegance that would appear to be intuitive and uncomplicated to the useruser-friendly, if you will. There is a direct connection from Marconi to todays social media, search engines, and program streaming that can best be summed up by an admittedly provocative exclamation: the 20th century did not exist. In a sense, Marconis vision leapfrogged from his time to our own.

Marconi invented the idea of global communicationor, more prosaically, globally networked, mobile, wireless communication. Initially, this was wireless Morse code telegraphy, an improvement on the telegraph, the principal communication technology of his day. Marconi was the first to develop a practical method for wireless telegraphy using radio waves. He borrowed technical details from many sources, but what set him apart was a self-confident, unflinching vision of the paradigm-shifting power of communication technology, on the one hand, and, on the other, of the steps that needed to be taken to consolidate his own position as a player in that field. Tracing Marconis lifeline leads us into the story of modern communication itself. There were other important figures, but Marconi towered over them all in reach, power, and influence, as well as in the grip he had on the popular imagination of his time. Marconi was quite simply the central figure in the emergence of a modern understanding of communication.

In his lifetime, Marconi foresaw the development of television and the fax machine, GPS, radar, and the portable hand-held telephone. Two months before he died, newspapers were reporting that he was working on a death ray, and that he had killed a rat with an intricate device at a distance of three feet. It seems to have been something like a taser: I dropped the experiment after that, he said. If you have to crawl up to within three feet of something to kill it with elaborate, costly and ungainly apparatus needing the most sensitive adjustment its cheaper to use a gun. By then, anything Marconi said or did was newsworthy, and had been for more than 40 years. Stock prices rose or sank according to his pronouncements. If Marconi said he thought it might rain, there was likely to be a run on umbrellas.

Marconis biography is also a story about choices and the motivations behind them. At one level, Marconi could be fiercely autonomous and independent of the constraints and designs of his own social class. He mastered the exercise of power by association, the art of staying above the fray. On another scale, he was a perpetual outsiderthe insiders favourite outsider, one might say. Wherever he went, he was never of  the group; he was always the other, considered foreign in Britain, British in Italy, and not American in the United States. At the same time, he also suffered tremendously from a need for acceptance that drove, and sometimes tarnished, every one of his relationships.

Marconi placed an indelible stamp on the way we live. Marconi not only networked the world, he was himself the consummate networker. Marconi is important because he was the first person to imagine a practical application for the wireless spectrum, and to develop it successfully into a global communication systemin both terms of the word; that is, worldwide and all-encompassing. He was able to do this because of a combination of factorsmost important, timing and opportunitybut the single-mindedness and determination with which he carried out his self-imposed mission was fundamentally character-based; millions of Marconis contemporaries had the same class, gender, race, and colonial privilege as he, but only a handful did anything with it. Marconi needed to achieve the goal that was set in his mind as an adolescent; by the time he reached adulthood, he understood, intuitively, that in order to have an impact he had to both develop an independent economic base and align himself with political power. Disciplined, uncritical loyalty to political power became his compass for the choices he had to make.

At the same time, Marconi was uncompromisingly independent intellectually. Shortly after Marconis death, the nuclear physicist Enrico Fermisoon to be the developer of the Manhattan Projectwrote that Marconi proved that theory and experimentation were complementary features of progress. Experience can rarely, unless guided by a theoretical concept, arrive at results of any great significance on the other hand, an excessive trust in theoretical conviction would have prevented Marconi from persisting in experiments which were destined to bring about a revolution in the technique of radiocommunications. In other words, Marconi had the advantage of not being burdened by preconceived assumptions.

As Fermi noted, Marconi was not deterred by conventional wisdom. Nor was he deterred by institutional obstacles. In June 1943, the US Supreme Court ruled on a patent infringement suit taken by the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America against the United States government in 1916. The company claimed that the government had infringed a 1904 Marconi patent for radio tuning. When the Marconi company sold its U.S. assets, including its patents, to the new Radio Corporation of America in 1919, it reserved this unresolved claim for its own prosecution. It was Marconis last commercial interest in the United States. The suit claimed that the U.S. government was using Marconis patent without paying royalties. The government argued that the patent was not original and hence invalid. (There is some irony that while the case was still pending, the U.S. Congress voted to erect a monument to Marconi in Washington, recognizing him as the inventor of wireless telegraphy.)

The 1943 Supreme Court ruling, written by Chief Justice Harlan F. Stone stated, Marconis reputation as the man who first achieved successful radio transmission rests on his original patent which is not here in question. That reputation, however well-deserved, does not entitle him to a patent for every later improvement which he claims in the radio field. While that ended the Marconi companys claim against the United States government, it brought a scathing dissent from Justice Felix Frankfurter, the most eloquent voice on the court: The inescapable fact is that Marconi in his basic patent hit upon something that had eluded the best brains of the time working on the problem of wireless communication To find in 1943 that what Marconi did really did not promote the progress of science because it had been anticipated is more than a mirage of hindsight. Wireless is so unconscious a part of us that it is almost impossible to imagine ourselves back into the time when Marconi gave to the world what for us is part of the order of our universe nobody except Marconi did in fact draw the right inferences that were embodied into a workable boon for mankind. Frankfurter got the main point: Regardless of the validity of a particular patent in hindsight, it was Marconi who changed the world. In 1943 the United States was at war with Italy, and the U.S. government was in no mood to pay a settlement to a British company over a 40-year-old dispute involving the inventions of a dead Italian scientist (as Marconi was called in a lower court ruling). It highlighted the continuing political resonance as well as the mystique associated with Marconi.

The most controversial aspect of Marconis lifeand the reason why there has been no satisfying biography of Marconi until nowwas his uncritical embrace of Benito Mussolini. Marconi was one of the earliest card-carrying members of Mussolinis Fascist Party, which he saw as a vehicle for establishing an equal place for Italy among the victorious colonial powers after World War One. At first this was not problematic for him. But as the regressive nature of Mussolinis regime became clear, and as Italy moved closer to Nazi Germany in the mid-30s, he began to suffer a crisis of conscience, even wondering publicly at one point whether his work had really improved the world or made it a more dangerous place. However, after a lifetime of moving within the circles of power, he was unable to break with authority, and served Mussolini faithfully (as president of Italys national research council and royal academy, as well as a member of the Fascist Grand Council) until the day he diedconvenientlyin 1937, shortly before he would have had to take a stand in the conflict that engulfed a world that he had, in part, created.

Reprinted from Marconi: The Man Who Networked the World by Marc Raboy with permission from Oxford University Press. Copyright  2016 by Marc Raboy.

Marc Raboy is professor and Beaverbrook Chair in Ethics, Media and Communications in the Department of Art History and Communication Studies at McGill University. He is the author or editor of numerous books, and he has been a visiting scholar at Stockholm University, the University of Oxford, New York University, and the London School of Economics and Political Science. He lives in Montreal.
Earlier this week, the U.S. Navy officially commemorated the new USNS Harvey Milk, a 677-foot fleet oiler and first navy ship to be named after a member of the LGBTQ community.

It was the latest of many milestones for Milk, who was assassinated a year after he became the first openly gay person elected to political office in California, having won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977.

Milks most famous speechesyou gotta give em hope and about the power and importance of coming outremain stirring and inspirational today.

Milk was honored in a ship naming ceremony Tuesday on Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay by the likes of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, who echoed the late LGBT rights advocate when he remarked that a more diverse force is a stronger force.

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, members of Milks family, and ship sponsor Paula Neiraa transgender woman who was discharged because of her sexual orientation, and has since become the first Navy veteran to have her gender corrected on her DD-214 (discharge papers)were among those in attendance at Tuesdays ceremony.

The occasion was a long time coming for gay rights activists in San Francisco and the Harvey Milk Foundation, which began campaigning for a ship to be named after Milk before President Obama repealed the militarys dont ask, dont tell policy in 2011, allowing gays, lesbians, and bisexuals to serve openly.

In 2012, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed a resolution urging Secretary Mabus to name a ship in honor of Milk, who served in the Navy from 1951 to 1955.

It is important to note that the Navy is not only celebrating someone who was openly gay but also now celebrating someone whom they themselves once did anything but celebrate: a person who they forced to resign simply because of who he was, Stuart Milk, Harveys nephew and leader of the Harvey Milk Foundation, told The Daily Beast.

I think that sends an important message that these institutions and laws are infallible and that we have to continue to progress forward.

Stuart, who was 17 when his uncle was assassinated, noted that Harvey was neither honorably discharged nor dishonorably discharged but other than honorably discharged, meaning he was able to resign in a way that suggested there was an unofficial dont ask, dont tell policy in the military back thenor at least for some service members.

They gave him an opportunity to just leave, but it was really another reinforcer of the fact that he was less than, but not quite a criminal, Stuart said.

Milk was stationed in San Diego as a diving instructor for some time, then left in 1955 with a lieutenant junior ranking.

There is a misconception that Harvey was anti-military, when in fact he came from an Eastern European Jewish family and was very impacted by the Holocaust and believed firmly in having a strong military, Stuart said. He was anti-imperialism and anti-militarism.

Milks parents both served in the U.S. military during World War II. His mother, a yeomanette, campaigned for women to be able to join the Navy during World War I.

The USNS Harvey Milk is one of six, next-generation ships that are being named after for civil and human rights leaders, including Robert F. Kennedy and Sojourner Truth.

In May and June, Mabus was met with pushback from conservative lawmakers who tried to prevent the Navy from naming ships after people who werent presidents or hadnt served in the military.

Rep. Duncan Hunter, a California Republican and House Armed Services Committee member, previously challenged Mabuss naming a destroyer after former Sen. Carl Levin, the democratic chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

In a letter to Hunter, Mabuss public affairs officer wrote that the secretary is mindful of the established ship naming policy While the ship naming conventions provide a guideline for names, there have been a number of deviations from those conventions throughout the history of the U.S. Navy.

During Tuesdays ceremony, Mabus noted that each class of ship in the Navy has a naming convention, or theme. Submarines are mostly named for states, combat ships for cities, destroyers for naval heroes and members of congress and former secretaries of the Navy, he said. During his seven years as Navy secretary, Mabus has named eight ships after medal-of-honor recipients.

Its important to remember and honor naval heroessailors and marines who have sacrificed so much for America, he said. But its also important to recognize and honor those who have fought in a different way and sacrificed those who have fought for the ideals that we cherish as a nation: justice, equality, and freedom.

Under his leadership, the Navy has now created a new naming convention (in January, Mabus named the first ship in this new class of command replenishment vessels after John Lewis, the Georgian politician and civil rights activist).

My uncle always told me that it poisoned the soul to have to lie about or hide who you were, Stuart said, recalling how his uncle gave him a book in 1972, Seven Arrows, about Native Americans when Stuart was 12 and not yet out of the closet.

He told me that my authenticity and the fact that I felt different from everyone else was important, and he wrote in the front, All of your differences are the medicine that the world needs, even when the world doesnt recognize that. I think the USNS Harvey Milk can telegraph that message to the world.

His uncle reinforced the importance of talking about things that people might not like talking about because theyre too complex, whether its Kuwait or India, where the Supreme Court has gone backwards and re-criminalized being LGBT, Stuart added.

Weve been told that the USNS Harvey Milk will not serve in one particular fleet, like the Pacific or Atlantic fleet, but that these ships will actually travel the world, said Stuart. Its important to recognize that the ship named after Harvey will enter both civilian ports and military ports where its still illegal to be LGBT.

We live in a global society. If any of us are not free, none of us are free, Stuart said.

In the last year, the Harvey Milk Foundation has worked with local nongovernmental organizations around the world to raise awareness around LGBTQ rights, from Hungary to Lithuania.

With the news that a Navy ship would be named in Milks honor, Lithuania has become more receptive to the Foundations campaign to establish an LGBT center in the country.

Weve been working on the ground for half a decade trying to move the Baltic nations forward, Stuart said. The reason I think the ship is so important is because the military is very important to the Baltic nations, and the ship sends a message to a socially conservative government that maybe they should look at honoring Harvey as very famous Lithuanian-American.

Militaries around the world tend to be very similar in terms of structures and commands. Most activist groups would say the military is an odd entree into doing civil society and civil inclusion work, but weve seen it be effective for womennot everywhere, but in many countries.

Military culture has allowed cultures that dont otherwise accept womens equality to realize, Wait a second, women are capable of commanding. Were hoping that they will come to that same realization with the LGBTQ community.

Stuart said he saw his uncle transition through many roles. He was a teacher before he was a politician, and I think the USNS Harvey Milk is a testament to the average, every day person who followed why my uncle took those bullets, whether its the kid on the playground who stands up for his buddy who is different, or the person in a corporate boardroom who hears a sexist joke or a homophobic joke or a xenophobic joke and stands up for them.

The Foundation received an email from a man stationed in Kuwait, Stuart said, who expressed hope thatwhen the USNS Harvey Milk comes to porthe might finally be able to serve openly.

I dont think there could be anything more meaningful to my uncle than that.

Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Harvey Milk's parents fled Europe during World War II.
In the summer of 1942, Jan Karski, a 28-year-old courier for the Polish underground, was instructed to undertake an extremely dangerous mission: a trip across Nazi-occupied Europe to London, where, with the help of the Polish government-in-exile there, he was to brief top Allied officials about what was happening in his native land. He was then to continue his journey to Washington, where once again he was supposed to meet with the highest officials.

Before his departure, Karski gathered messages from the leaders of various underground organizations that he would convey to the West, including from two leaders of the Jewish resistance who had managed to slip out of the Warsaw ghetto to meet him in a half-ruined house on the outskirts of the city.

Karski was well-suited for his mission. Growing up in the manufacturing city of Lodz, he was a devout Catholic who adhered to his mothers teachings about respecting those of other faiths, particularly the citys large Jewish population. Before the war, he had spent time in Germany, Switzerland, and England, all part of his preparation for an anticipated diplomatic career. He also did his military service and was called up again on the eve of the war. When the occupation started, he quickly joined the rapidly growing underground.

As Karski recalled both in his powerful book The Story of A Secret State, published in the United States in 1944, and in an interview with me in 1998 when he could reveal some additional details, the Jewish leaders he met before his departure to London came straight to the point. Hitler has decided to murder all the Jews in Europe, one of them told him. The other leader started to cry. We cannot hope that the Poles will help us. Poles can save individuals but they cannot stop the destruction of the Jews. Approach as many people as possiblethe English, the Americans, whoever. Tell them that we are dying.

The other message: The Allies need to scatter leaflets across Germany holding the entire population responsible for this mass murder, telling them they would face wholesale reprisals. They should also publicly execute Germans, any they can get hold of anywhere in the world.

Karski replied that such retribution was impossible to imagine, and the demand would horrify everyone. One of the leaders conceded: We do not dream of it being fulfilled, but nevertheless we demand it, since this would demonstrate how helpless we are, how desperate our plight is, how little we stand to gain from an Allied victory as things are now.

Finally, they told Karski that he should convey their demand that Jewish leaders in the West should go to government offices and start hunger strikes there, not relenting until they have obtained guarantees that a way has been decided upon to save the Jews. They should refuse all food and water, dying a slow death while the world is looking on This may shake the conscience of the world.

Karski understood that these Jewish leaders were all too aware of the complete hopelessness of their situation, which is why they had cast all practical considerations aside. For them, for the suffering Polish Jews, this was the end of the world.

Since no one on the outside could possibly imagine the targeting of an entire people for systematic destruction, the Jewish leaders offered to show Karski as much as possible of what was happening to their people, hoping that his first-hand testimony would lend credence to their appeals. Karski never hesitated, despite the obvious risks this would entail before he even started his journey.

Reaching the Warsaw ghetto by a secret passage through a building adjoining the ghetto wall, Karski saw a new world utterly unlike anything I could have ever imagined. There were the naked dead bodies of old men lying in the streets and a woman walking with her baby at her breast which was no breast, he recalled. From the window of an apartment, he witnessed a member of the Hitler Youth looking for a target with the casual, gay absorption of a boy at a carnival. The street suddenly looked deserted but the boy spotted something beyond Karskis vision. He raised his gun and fired then the terrible cry of a man in agony as the boy shouted with joy.

Go back, run away, a woman in the apartment instructed Karski. Dont torture yourself any more. But Karski returned to the ghetto two days later for a second visit to memorize more vividly my visual impressions. He was too shaken during his first visit to feel that he could rely on what he saw then.

Even more dangerous was Karskis visit, dressed in the uniform of a bribed Ukrainian militiaman, to the Izbica transit camp for Jews destined for the gas chambers in Belzec. The Jewish underground had arranged for someone with a pass for the camp to escort him in, and the guard on duty asked no questions. Karski recounted what happened next:

The Germans were shooting into the air and pushing people onto a train. There was shouting, chaos, confusion. The cattle cars were filling up with Jews. A soldier tore a child from a mothers arms and threw the child, just like a sack, over the heads of the people into the wagon. It was horrible. I must have had a sudden nervous breakdown, and I dont know what I did then. I only know that my guide was shouting Follow me! and he was angry. He got me out.

For his journey to London that started on a train to Berlin, the heart of the enemy, Karski was equipped with the papers of a French laborer allowed to return to his homeland for a vacation. He was also carrying a roll of microfilm with numerous reports from the underground about both the military situation and the mass murders of Jews, appealing for Western help. Karski, who possessed a photographic memory, had plenty of other information to convey as well.

Although Karski spoke French, his accent could give him away. To prevent that, he had a dentist provide him with an injection that made his jaw swell. Karski had already lost several teeth when he was captured and tortured by the Gestapo while returning from a previous mission. Fearing he could not withstand the ordeal much longer, he had tried to commit suicide by slashing his wrists. That action probably saved his life because he ended up in a Polish hospital. The doctors and nurses tipped off the underground that mounted a daring rescue, bribing one of his guards so that they could get him to safety. All of which made it easier for Karski to travel with a handkerchief on his mouth, saying next to nothing as he convincingly feigned extreme pain. He also carried a cyanide pill since he was determined not to be captured alive again.

After taking a long, circuitous route, Karski arrived in London in November 1942. As planned, the Polish government-in-exile arranged meetings with Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden and other senior officials. They clearly were impressed by the courage and determination of the young courier, but that did not mean they were receptive to his message. When Karski met with Lord Selbourne, who was in charge of covert operations to help anti-Nazi movements, the official told him he wanted to tell him a story.

During the first world war, rumors spread all over Europe that German soldiers in Belgium liked to catch Belgian babies and crush their skulls against the wall, Lord Selbourne said. We knew the rumors werent true, but we didnt do anything to stop them. They were good for the morale of our people. You are doing a great service. Try to reach newspaper editors, public opinion.

For Karski the message was clearand devastating in its implications. He didnt believe me. Those people didnt believe me. They thought I was exaggerating out of hatred of the Germans. That this was just propaganda.

Arriving in Washington in June 1943, he encountered similar attitudes. Accompanied by Polish Ambassador Jan Ciechanowski, he met with Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter. His host immediately asked him if he knew that he was Jewish and then inquired about the fate of Polish Jews. Karski responded in detail, describing his trips into the Warsaw ghetto and what he saw in the transit camp.

Frankfurter asked him a few questions about technical matters such as the height of the wall separating the ghetto from the rest of the city. After Karski finished, Frankfurter paced back and forth before sitting down again. Mr. Karski, a man like me talking to a man like you must be totally frank. So I must say Im unable to believe what you told me.

A startled Ciechanowski intervened. Felix, you dont mean it, he said. You cannot tell him hes lying. The authority of my government is behind him.

Frankfurter replied: I didnt say this young man is lying. I said I am unable to believe what he told me.

On June 28, Karski was invited to the White House to brief President Roosevelt. In describing the Polish situation, the courier emphasized a key point. Mr. President, a distinction has to be made. The Germans persecute my people; they deny us education, send us to concentration camps, they want to make us a nation of slaves. With the Jews, it is different. They want to exterminate them.

Roosevelt offered no comment. He asked questions, questions, but not a single question about the Jews, Karski recalled. The presidents final message: You will tell the leaders that we will win this war! You will tell them that the guilty ones will be punished. Justice and freedom shall prevail. You will tell your nation that they have a friend in this house.

After making so many visits to top officials in both capitals, Karskis cover was blown and he remained in the United States. He wrote his Story of A Secret State, which was a huge critical and commercial successbut then this extraordinary account was largely forgotten. He became a highly respected professor of East European and international affairs at Georgetown University, although for many years he did not mention his personal story to his students.

But his story was gradually rediscovered and, as he began discussing it again, he always downplayed the danger of his actions. Speaking of the underground resistance, he wrote: For the most part, our work was probably less thrilling, less of an adventure, than the work of a carpenter, and wholly devoid of sensational exploits. That was only the false note in his descriptions of his experiences, born of an instinctive discomfort of portrayals of him as the hero he truly was.

When I visited Karski in his apartment in Chevy Chase, Maryland, two years before his death in 2000, he was surrounded by the many awards he had collected from Israel, the United States and Poland. But he was not boastful in any way. In fact, his entire demeanor suggested that he felt that in one critical respect his mission had ended in failure. He had been clearly hurt by the refusal of British and American leaders to believe him all those years agoand that fact still stung at the end of his life. Despite all the tributes that followed, he never claimed success.
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Long before there was Donald Trump, there was Phineas Taylor Barnum, whose name has become synonymous with clap and trap, buncombe and blather. And long before The Donald had written a best-seller of a book devoted to the art of the deal, P.T. Barnum had written a better-selling one titled The Art of Money-Getting, Or Golden Rules for Making Money, in which he set down rules for business and making a fortune.

And long before The Donald entered politics, P. T. Barnum had written that a man who takes no interest in politics is unfit to live in a land where the government rests in the hands of the people. The parallels here are dramatic, but so are the differences between these two very American characters. You might as well compare a fictional hustler like Elmer Gantry to a real-life evangelist like Billy Sunday.

With his populist streak, it was natural that P.T. Barnum would begin his political career as a Jacksonian Democrat, but along came Bleeding Kansas, the struggle between slaveholders and Free Soilers which turned that developing state into a battleground. By the presidential election of 1860, Barnum had become a Republican and joined the Wide Awakes, a paramilitary order dedicated to the election of a presidential candidate from Illinois named Abraham Lincoln.

At the end of The War, Barnum would run for the state legislature in Connecticut and win. He would serve there four years, mixing showmanship and reform. As a legislator he emphasized the voting rights of freed slaves, defended womens rights and argued for abolishing the death penalty. When the Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery was proposed, he supported it fervently, explaining: A human soul ... is not to be trifled with. It may tenant the body of a Chinaman, a Turk, an Arab or a Hottentot  it is still an immortal spirit.

In 1875 Barnum ran for mayor of Bridgeport on a reform platform and won. During his one-year term, he cracked down on the prostitution that had been rampant in the city, cleaned up the jail, put prisoners to work, and supported the latest thing in making the streets safer: gaslights. But unlike The Donald of this age, P.T. Barnum stressed that Politeness and civility are the best capital ever invested in business.

The genealogy of words and phrases can be as embarrassing as it is enlightening. Calling a politician a modern-day Barnum is supposed to be an insult, the equivalent of labeling him a fraud. Yet there were many admirable aspects of his character. For one, he never advertised himself as anything but a showman. (I am a showman by profession, he once wrote.) If his shows were a fraud, his audiences enjoyed them and even colluded with him in fooling themselves. He never pretended his productions were statesmanship. If he speculated in real estate, he didnt call his reverses successes. If only our contemporary pols were as forthright about their motives and ambitions.

When he went bankrupt, Barnum didnt hide that fact any more than a president named Harry Truman denied his financial difficulties as a younger man. If his shows werent serious, P.T. Barnum certainly was. He was a born promoter and was candid enough to explain why: Without promotion, something terrible happens. Nothing.

No less a character than Trump, having been accused of being a modern-day Barnum, was obliged to admit his admiration for that notorious hustler. We need P.T. Barnum a little bit, he said when questioned about his similarity to that great showman, because we have to build up the image of our country. Barnum may have been accused of being less than serious, a joke and a fraud, but compared to todays supposedly serious candidates for president of the United States, Barnum was a serious man indeed. And a candid one.

For more details about the real P.T. Barnum rather than the stereotype, the interested reader might turn to the textbook written by Thomas V. DiBacco, professor emeritus at American University in Washington, D.C. Or just glance at his recent article on the op-ed page of the Wall Street Journal headlined When a Ringmaster Leapt into the Political Circus. It wouldnt be the first time.
Iowa high school football playoffs: All the state quarterfinal games

The winners of this week's Round-of-16 games advanced to next week's state quarterfinal round of the playoffs.
In response to Wednesday's editorial "Cop camera provides clarity to controversy," it is quite apparent Gov. Scott Walker is using this tragedy as an opportunity to "pose for holy pictures" again (just like when he took credit for the strength of the state pension system and student ACT scores).

The governor was more involved with chasing Donald Trump around the state on Tuesday while Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and Milwaukee Chief Edward Flynn were doing the heavy lifting after a police shooting in Milwaukee. And Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke was being his usual self -- making inflammatory remarks about the community. This is par for them.

They know conservative talk radio will air their rhetoric, which does no more than fan the fires of negativity, while using it for political gain.

Mayor Barrett, Chief Flynn and other community leaders should be commended for their handling of this tragedy to this point.

-- Randy O'Connell, Omro
For Keira Knightley, love, actually, is all around her. In the form of a baby! Insiders have confirmed to The New 
The Pot Father saw vampires. He saw demons.

Geometric shapes flew like Top Gun fighter jets at his head and  whooosh!  banked and accelerated past his ears.

His heart was pounding and his hands were shaking and his throat was sandpaper dry. But as he lay there, an hour after the cops came and filed the police report that would soon make him an accidental Internet sensation, he tried to ignore the demons and Top Gun trapezoids.

He forced his mind back to the late 1970s, when Jimmy Carter was president and he was young and doing ... things that 70s kids did. He remembered this feeling, remembered it like you remember how to ride a bike even if you havent climbed on one in 29 years.

Then Pot Dad knew. He knew he wasnt having a heart attack, or a stroke. He knew he wasnt going completely insane.

He knew, really knew, just one thing.

Wowie, he said. I am really, really high.

Mike is his name, northwest Omaha is his home, and until, oh, 5:30 p.m. or so on Tuesday, he was a completely anonymous husband and dad who works in the transportation industry.

By Wednesday afternoon his Omaha police report and our resulting World-Herald story had zoomed around the Internet, fighter jet style, seemingly making its way to every dad and every stoner and every stoner dad who happened to surf past BuzzFeed or Jezebel or Reddit.

Which is pretty weird, because on Tuesday night, The Pot Father wanted to do the following two things.

He wanted to eat some leftover pepperoni-and-sausage pizza. And he wanted to watch the CBS sitcom Mom, starring Allison Janney and Anna Farris as a crazy mother-daughter duo.

But then he went out to his car, to grab some groceries that his elderly father had left in the back seat, and thats when he found the brownies.

They were wrapped in plastic and hanging over the edge of the grocery bag.

Hey! The Pot Father thought. Dessert!

He did not scarf said brownies in the car, as some national online stories suggested.

Hes a civilized man, so he took the grocery bag and the brownies inside, heated up his pizza and considered the baked goodies to come.

Maybe my stepmom made them, he thought.

He ate the pizza, unwrapped the brownies and bit into one. It tasted caramelly. It tasted gooey.

It tasted fabulous, man, The Pot Father says. I should have known they werent my stepmoms brownies. Because no one likes my stepmoms brownies.

So he ate himself a bunch of brownies, maybe two or three or four, and that, of course, is when things got super weird and then Internet famous.

Everything was fine for maybe a half hour, when he tried to chase the dog. He got dizzy. And then, suddenly, very paranoid.

He went outside to smoke a cigarette. He worried he was having a stroke. He smoked another cigarette. Thats when it hit him ... those brownies. What was in those brownies? Who made those brownies???

I started putting two and two together, he said. But it didnt add up to four yet.

He went inside, having forgotten all about the hit CBS sitcom Mom. His wife repeatedly called their two children, who are 19 and 20. Finally she got one on the phone, and started an interrogation, and of course, the child, being a member of the animal kingdom born with survival instincts, did not want to answer.

Mike remembers yelling something like: I dont care! Just tell me how high Im going to get!

Except he was cursing. A lot. He couldnt stop cursing. The Pot Father suddenly had a mouth like a sailor.

Then they dialed 911, reported an accidental overdose. The cops and paramedics showed up, and after they took his vitals and pronounced him fully healthy, they stood around and grinned at him with goofy grins. Thats at least what The Pot Father remembers. He was still pretty paranoid.

Heres the irony, he says. I had just put on a tie-dyed T-shirt ... I opened the door, just wasted, in my tie-dyed Sturgis T-shirt. And the cops were, like, Uh huh, yeah. 

He kept getting higher and higher, and more worried and more worried  at one point the paramedic tapped him on the knee and said, Calm down, buddy. You are going to be OK.

But The Pot Father was not so sure, so it was then that he tried to go upstairs to his bedroom, where later (as he got even higher) he would see the demons and the flying circles and squares.

Except that as he walked across the living room somehow his walk turned into a crawl. And then somehow his crawl turned into a military crawl like he learned at Marine Corps basic training back in 1981. (Michael was displaying odd behavior, the police report reads. Crawling around on the floor ...)

And then somehow he was sprawled on the stairs, and the family cat, Kipper, was standing at the top of the stairs staring down at him, unblinking. Maybe a tad judgey.

For the record, The Pot Father claims he was actually attempting to tell the paramedics helping him off the stairs that the cat is sometimes a bitch. As in, dont touch her tail, guys, that cat will claw-shank you. But it maybe came out kind of weird, owing to the fact that he had just accidentally ingested an enormous amount of pot brownies. Maybe, just maybe, it came out sounding like he was calling their cat a bitch  as the police report so eloquently states.

Which he wasnt, The Pot Father swears. Although: She can be a b..., he tells me Thursday night.

The pot-fueled visions of demons and vampires and flying shapes are long gone, as is the paranoia and the inability to properly walk across his living room.

The Pot Father, aka Pot Dad, aka Mike, thinks this story is pretty funny now. He thinks his resulting Internet fame is pretty funny, too. But he would like you to know that there are two parts that are not funny.

He quit alcohol and drugs 29 years ago, after they wrecked his life. He has the sobriety pins to prove it. He is very worried that other people in the program will consider this a relapse. And he is a bit worried that it could actually result in a real relapse, which is in part why he was going to a meeting after he talked to me Thursday night.

He is also worried about his adult daughter, the one who had the pot brownies and threw them into the back seat.

Im so sorry, she texted him yesterday.

The Pot Father could tell that she felt terrible. He just wants her to be healthy and successful and happy. Its OK with him if she eats a few pot brownies along the way.

Im not mad, he texted back. Theres nothing to be sorry for.

It was an accident, he texted her. Everything is fine.

And then The Pot Father signed the text, like fathers of all geometric shapes and sizes will do.

I love you, he wrote. Dad.
After it was announced at last weeks Public Safety Committee meeting, both Colin Welsh and Nick ODell were hired by the Edwardsville Fire Department to join the team at the new SIUE fire station. Although the station isnt complete yet, the two new firemen started work at the downtown Edwardsville station Monday, Aug. 15.

After accepting the job opportunity, Welsh said he primarily looks forward to serving the community and his peers.

Its our duty to serve our community and at the same time be a part of something bigger than myself. At the same time, work a great job and do something thats a little selfless, Welsh said.

ODell said he knew he wanted to be a firefighter after taking an EMT class, and believes joining the EFD was the right call.

I was taking nursing pre-reqs, took EMT just to get a summer job or job during college. During my time at the fire department I began to love the culture and love what the fire department is all about  helping the community and everything. I moved on to this area from Joliet, Ive seen the Edwardsville Fire Department and with their EMS system, I just wanted to be a part of it, ODell said.

Following recent employment, the firemen will still have to undergo extensive training, which will begin on Sept. 6 when they depart for the fire academy. The academy can range from six to 10 weeks. Soon after, theyll have to take a medic class, which will begin in January or February of next year.

ODell and Welsh said they both have past skills and knowledge they hope to contribute to the EFD and to their success.

(I hope to bring) my commitment to continue my knowledge and education towards the fire service and giving it all we have, ODell said.

I have a background from the National Guard. Its similar to this - its like a family-type environment. Anything to help the public and help the city, Welsh said.

Prior to this position, Welsh said he was an SIUE alum and graduated with a major in exercise physiology and later worked in the National Guard as a medic. ODell said he also has similar experience in the field and is coming from a previous fire department job in Bethalto.

Prior to this, I was with the Bethalto Fire Department for six years, and also with the United States Steel and Olin Brass Fire Departments for the industrial side of firefighting. So, I hope to bring that skill set to here, ODell said.

The SIUE fire station is expected to be finished near the end of October or the beginning of November. However, no official date has yet been determined.

Welsh said going forward, he is grateful for the opportunity and is eager to see what happens.

Im glad to be a part of the fire department as well as the community. Im originally from Dallas. Ive spent most of my time in Edwardsville and its the closest thing to home, Welsh said.
The Watershed Nature Center has new leadership.

The Nature Preserve Foundation recently hired Sarah Palermo as its new executive director.

Palermo brings extensive non-profit experience with an emphasis on fundraising.

Dr. Sharon Locke, Nature Preserves Foundation board chair, said the board is pleased with the new hire.

Sarah will bring leadership and creativity to the Watershed Nature Center programs and a deep sense of commitment to our community and civic partners, Locke said. She has served nonprofits in fundraising and leadership levels and has a breadth of perspective and experience."

Palermo brings more than 15 years of fundraising, administration, communication and organizational expertise in the non-profit sector.

She said she is anxious to step into her new position.

Im looking forward to meeting and working with our key funders and stakeholders to complete the park improvement project and create a master plan for the Watershed, she said.

This organization is a leading example in our region of how a community can create and support a native habitat within city limits, preserve green space in the face of suburban sprawl and provide a place for all its residents to enjoy.

Prior to the Watershed, Palermo served as development director for McKendree University. She left the university in 2010 to raise her two children. During that time she stayed active volunteering in the Columbus School library, serving as a Girl Scout Leader and worked with the Lebanon Chamber of Commerce on fundraising events.

Our family has been participants in some of the Watershed activities over the years and Im thrilled to further its mission of education, conservation and recreation, she said.

Palermo has also served as volunteer coordinator for the Stern Grove Festival Association, ran the annual fund for the San Francisco Art Institute and was assistant director of corporate and foundation relations for the San Francisco Opera. She also served as the director of the Northern California office for Human Rights Watch.

Palermo moved to the area in 2006 to live closer to her husbands family in St. Louis.

The Watershed Nature Center was founded in 1991 when John and Kay Kendall proposed turning an abandoned sewage lagoon into a nature center. The city of Edwardsville endorsed the plan and the Nature Preserve Foundation was formed to manage the land.

From the beginning, the community as a whole was instrumental in the creation of the Watershed.

Local 520 of the Operating Engineers used the site as their training ground and excavated two lakes and wetland areas at no costs. Families, local businesses and community groups supported the transformation with donations of time and money.

A grant from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources was obtained for recreation of the wetland habitats and construction of the visitors center.

District 7 partnered with the Watershed to hold environmental education programs for area schools.

The Watershed is located 1591 Tower Ave. To learn more about the Watershed and programs visit www.watershednaturecenter.com.
An Edwardsville man faces up to 20 years in federal prison on each of two counts of mail fraud, and up to 10 years on each of two counts of money laundering.

Adam Bernaix, 35, whose address is listed as Sequoia Drive in Edwardsville, will be sentenced on Oct. 25 by U.S. District Judge Henry Autrey.

Bernaix pleaded guilty late last month in the Eastern District of Missouri.

Prosecutors say he received about $350,000 through Trident Management Solutions, a dummy company he created solely to bill companies doing business with his employer.

According to a news release from the U.S. Attorneys Office, Bernaix submitted invoices for services rendered to companies doing business with the employer, Albert Arno, an HVAC contractor in St. Louis. Bernaix was listed as a project manager for Albert Arno. According to the news release, Bernaix marked up the invoices of Tridents clients so that his employer provided the extra money needed for Tridents clients to pay their Trident bills.

At one point, Bernaix hired his father-in-law to do occasional jobs. But even after Tridents sole employee left the company and Trident did absolutely nothing for its clients, Bernaix still sent Trident clients bills and marked up the clients Albert Arno bills sufficiently to keep the money flowing to Trident, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office.

Bernaix has no criminal record in Madison County other than traffic citations.

According to court records, he earned more than $90,000 a year working at Vogel Sheet Metal and Heating Company, in Fenton, Mo.

In addition to the jail time, prosecutors are seeking to require Bernaix to reimburse each of the victims, pursuant to the Mandatory Victims Restitution Act.

The case was investigated by the FBI, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and IRS Criminal Investigation.
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Linkedin Raynov Gultom (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, August 20, 2016

Recently, the Attorney Generals Office (AGO) held another round of executions and, similar to last years executions, all those executed were drug offenders.

Hours after the executions, Attorney General M. Prasetyo reiterated that other countries should respect the sovereignty of Indonesian law, denying any appeals from countries concerned about the imposition of the death penalty in Indonesia.

The fact that the death penalty exists in our law is not in question, but this does not necessarily mean that the death penalty has always been implemented flawlessly.

In fact, given that the criminal justice system is human-made, it is inherently prone to human error.

In the days leading up to the execution, serious unfair trials and miscarriages of justice experienced by those to be executed were raised by lawyers, family members and human rights groups.

And now we have something more: an unlawful execution.

Outcries over the latest executions came from rights watchdogs, which identified two main errors.

First, at least two out of four of the executed  Seck Osmane and Humphrey Ejike  had pending clemency decisions.

According to the Article 13 of the Clemency Law, an execution of a prisoner who has filed a clemency petition cannot be carried out before the President has issued a presidential decree on the clemency decision.

Article 7 paragraph (2) of the same law previously regulated that one could lodge a clemency petition one year after ones court decision was declared final and binding.





[...] it potentially kills an innocent person. How many innocent lives must we end until we stop this senseless killing?



However, only last June the Constitutional Court declared that such a limitation was not in accordance with the 1945 Constitution and therefore revoked the article.

At that stage, neither of the two prisoners had filed clemency petitions until a few days before the executions. It seems obvious that legally speaking, both Seck and Humphrey still had a right to clemency and could not be executed before the President had made a decision over their petitions.

Second, the AGO violated the law on execution procedures, which regulates that executions cannot be carried out until 72 hours after a prosecutor notifies the condemned prisoners. All 14 death-row prisoners received their notification on July 26 around 3 p.m.

This meant that the executions could only be conducted, at the earliest, on the afternoon of July 29. In reality, the executions took place in the early hours of that day.

Given these two violations, it seems clear this latest round of executions was unlawful.

International communities have taken up these violations and condemned them. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Raad Al Hussein, for example, called on Indonesia to put a moratorium in place, defining Indonesia as the most prolific executioner in Southeast Asia. Is this the international image that Indonesia wants to project?

European and Australian governments have also raised concerns over allegations of unfair trials, despite no European or Australian nationals being listed for execution.

This demonstrates that their appeal to Indonesia to halt the execution is not a matter of defending their own nationals, but rather a matter of universal principle.

A distinguished Islamic philosopher from Oxford University, Professor Tariq Ramadan, has also sent an open letter to President Joko Jokowi Widodo. He enlightened the President on how sharia sees the death penalty. He argues that rahmah [compassion] is an absolute necessity, an essential principle, an imperative duty, even if there is no doubt and all the conditions are gathered.

Despite the serious flaws and international criticisms, the AGO appeared adamant about its position on executions. Prasetyo has repeatedly said that other countries must respect the sovereignty of Indonesias law.

Talking about such sovereignty, the attorney general himself has violated Indonesian law with those infringements. How can we expect foreign countries to respect our sovereignty of law if the law enforcers themselves blatantly disregard it?

That seems to be a paradoxical position and a hypocritical standing. This legal calamity can go on no longer. President Jokowi must stop any further executions.

Thorough evaluation of death penalty cases by an independent team established by the President is imperative.In the meantime, while the team is reviewing all death penalty cases, Indonesia must implement a moratorium with a view to abolishing the death penalty for all crimes.

This third round of executions has shown us that even where an execution is legal, it does not mean that it is not intrinsically problematic.

Further, it potentially kills an innocent person. How many innocent lives must we end until we stop this senseless killing?

__________________________________________

The writer is a legal fellow at Reprieve UK, based in Jakarta. Reprieve UK advocates for worldwide abolition of the death penalty
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Linkedin Masajeng Rahmiasri (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, August 20, 2016

Indonesias classic novels have their own charm, offering insight into local culture and traditions and the historical background prior to and immediately after the country gained independence.

Here are some examples of must-read Indonesian classic novels that have been translated into English and other languages.

Shackles (1940)

Author : Armijn Pane

"Shackles", a novel by Armijn Pane.(Book Depository/-)

Originally titled Belenggu and translated into many languages including English and German, this book follows married couple Tini and Sukartono (Tono) whose relationship becomes dull as Tini feels abandoned by her busy husband and Tono becomes unable to understand his wife's behavior. Amid the situation, Tono meets Rohayah, an old friend who becomes her seducer.

And The War Is Over (1977)

Author : Ismail Marahimin

Set in Indonesia following the Japanese invasion, this book was awarded the Pegasus Prize for Literature in 1984. (Book Depository/-)

Set in Indonesia following the Japanese invasion, this book was awarded the Pegasus Prize for Literature in 1984. Originally titled Dan Perang Pun Usai, the story revolves around tension between local residents and Japanese authorities in the Sumatra village of Teratakbuluh following news that Japan has surrendered. In the situation, Lieutenant Ose, who never wanted to take part in the war, struggles with his own conscience and the pressure of the wars ending. Aside from English, the work has also been translated into Japanese.

(Read also: 12 Indonesian books you should add to your reading list)

Never the Twain (1928)

Author : Abdoel Moeis

"Never the Twain", a novel by Abdoel Moeis.(Book Depository/-)

Highlighting romance and criticism, Salah Asuhan follows Hanafi, an Indonesian who starts to change after experiencing higher educatio and who falls for his Eurasian friend, Corrie. Corrie rejects Hanafi, feeling they are too different. Although Hanafi ends up marrying Rapiah, he is not content, becoming abusive and later pursuing Corrie again.

Child of All Nations (1981)

Author : Pramoedya Ananta Toer

Originally published under the title Anak Semua Bangsa, this second installment of Buru Quartet focuses on the life of Minke, the main character in The Earth of Mankind, following the death of his wife, Annelies. (Book Depository/-)

Originally published under the title Anak Semua Bangsa, this second installment of the Buru Quartet focuses on the life of Minke, the main character in The Earth of Mankind, following the death of his wife, Annelies. One day, Minke's friend, Jean Marais, asks him to start writing in Malay so that local residents can also read his works, but he refuses. However, through a series of events, Minkes point of view starts to change.

(Read also: Six great biographies you should read)

Telegram (1973)

Author : Putu Wijaya

This work tells the story of a Balinese journalist who live in Jakarta and thinks that a telegram is a bad omen. (Book Depository/-)

This fiction tells the story of a Balinese journalist who live in Jakarta and thinks that a telegram is a bad omen. One day, he receives a telegram from home. He predicts the content without reading itthat his mother has passed away. Trying to avoid his responsibility as the oldest son, he decides not to open the telegram. However, he has to explain the matter to his adopted child. Aside from this problem, the journalist also needs to address the issue within himselfhis inability to tell what is real and what is not. (kes)

(Read also: Popular fantasy fiction series made into movies)

We hope you love our recommendations. For your information, thejakartapost.com may collect a small share of sales from the links on this page.
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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, August 19 2016

The Kebayoran Baru Police in South Jakarta have nabbed a man accused of stabbing five people during Independence Day celebrations in the area on Wednesday.

One of the victims, Safar Abdul Jabar, died after he was stabbed in the torso and struck on the head with a paving stone, causing him to suffer concussion, said Kebayoran Baru Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Ary Purwanto.

The incident started when the suspect, identified as 33-year-old Iwan Rahmat, attempted to steal a cell phone belonging to a man named Rohmat, wartakotalive.com reported.

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Linkedin Haeril Halim and Andi Hajramurni (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta/Makassar  Fri, August 19 2016

The government announced on Thursday that a second Indonesian held hostage in the Philippines had managed to escape the clutches of the Abu Sayyaf group.

The hostage, identified as Ismail, 22, has been picked up by representatives from the Indonesian Embassy in Manila and the Indonesian Consulate General.

We have an Independence Day present after two hostages managed to escape from their captors, Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Minister Wiranto said.

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Linkedin Ati Nurbaiti (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, August 20 2016

The latest Cabinet reshuffle thrust into the spotlight a minister who at least previously had double citizenship, with the attention saving retired general Wiranto from activists protests over his appointment as chief security minister.

When the occasion comes, the former military commander will likely take up the microphone and sing  and win over many who remember and appreciate his skills. He was one of the singing generals long before previous president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono picked up his guitar.

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Linkedin Fadli (The Jakarta Post) Batam  Sat, August 20, 2016

Indonesian authorities are still detaining a Singaporean boat captain even though a court has acquited him on charges of illegally fishing in this country's waters.

Captain Shoo Chiau Huat, 50, of the MV Selin, has not been released from custody because he is now in detention for alleged immigration violations.

Shoos lawyer, Herman Black, told The Jakarta Post on Friday that his client has filed a pretrial lawsuit against the Tanjungpinang immigration office.

We see this as ne bis in idem, or double jeopardy. We ask the Tanjungpinang District Court to quickly hold a trial for this case, Herman said.

Herman said his client should have been released by Wednesday at the latest. He claimed his client was still detained because of political pressure, including from Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti, who deemed the Tanjungpinang Fisheries Court's decision to acquit insensitive to the illegal fishing eradication effort.

If they want to charge my client under the immigration law, they should have charged the 13 tourists from Singapore and Malaysia who were on board the boat as well, he said.

He said his client had become exhausted with the prolonged process.

The head of the information section at the Tanjungpinang immigration office, Said Noviansyah, said his office was investigating Shoo because he allegedly entered Indonesian territory without permission.

Were ready to face him in the pretrial, he said.

The Indonesian Navy intercepted the MV Selin, a 78 GT boat, on April 16 in Bintan. Shoo said it was a boat for anglers and carried 13 tourists from Malaysia and Singapore. The tourists had been all deported back to their home countries.
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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Indonesia  Sat, August 20 2016

Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi met with Omani Foreign Minister Yusuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah on Thursday to discuss bilateral cooperation. Retno expressed her appreciation for Omans active involvement in bilateral economic ties.

It was agreed in July, during the visit of Omans Chamber of Commerce to Indonesia, that Oman will invest in the industrial and trade sectors. Indonesia will also export meat, furniture and coffee to the country, the ministrys press release stated. Retno also urged Oman to promote peace in the Middle East and the world.

She also invited the country to actively contribute to the Indian Ocean Rim Association talks, scheduled to take place on Oct. 27 in Bali.

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Linkedin Nurul Fitri Ramadhani (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, August 20 2016

The governments plan to consider allowing dual citizenship has been warmly received by members of the Indonesian diaspora, who see it as an opportunity to make it easier for them to contribute to the country.

However, some legal experts have warned the government not to be too hasty in implementing the idea as it may also inadvertently deliver adverse effects to the nation.

Paul Amron, a Yogyakarta-born business consultant with an extensive 26-year career in the US, welcomes the plan. I believe its the dream of every Indonesian abroad, he said after learning about the plan to allow dual citizenship.

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Linkedin Wibawanto Nugroho (The Jakarta Post) Washington, DC  Sat, August 20 2016

As an Indonesian citizen having benefited from an overseas education, I was proud to see that an established technocrat and businessman like Arcandra Tahar was still willing to return to his nation of origin with the declared intention of building his original motherland. However, his return has evoked controversy due to his citizenship status. Having learned from this experience, we now need to view this issue critically and positively from a number of points of view.

From the strategic point of view, it is indeed beneficial in the long run for a nation to call back its best minds from overseas. The calling back of the nations diaspora  if managed properly would benefit and enrich the nation in political, intelligence, economic and socio-cultural aspects in the long-run.

Indonesia is a democratic nation, and the long-term success of a democratic nation is significantly determined by the compliance of its society and its national political leadership with law enforcement. Law enforcement and an enlightened society are the coexisting determining factors in generating a quality democracy in the long-run.

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Linkedin Hans Nicholas Jong and Nurul Fitra Ramadhani (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, August 20 2016

The hashtag #NikahMuda (#MarriedYoung) recently went viral after Muhammad Alvin Faiz, the 17-year-old son of popular Islamic preacher Arifin Ilham, married a 20-year-old named Larissa Chou earlier this month.



Alvin, who has a strong social media presence with more than 324,000 Instagram followers, uploaded photos of his Islamic wedding to his account.



Because girls dont need romantic words or cheesy flirting. They just need certainty #NikahMuda, he said in the caption of a photo where he signed his marriage certificate, which amassed 64,650 likes.



The hashtag comes amid an intensifying campaign promoting early marriage by conservative Muslims on social media in recent months. An online movement calling itself Indonesia Tanpa Pacaran (Indonesia Without Dating) has been spreading pictures asking young Muslims to skip dating and get married instead.



The trend has raised concerns that many young Indonesians will fail to see the risks of early marriage, which remains one of the most daunting youth and reproductive health problems in the country, as pregnant girls run a variety of health risks including potentially lethal pregnancy-related complications.



The UNs Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) places Indonesia 37th on a list tallying global child marriage rates, the second-highest in Southeast Asia behind Cambodia.



A report published in November last year by international childrens rights organization Plan International revealed that Indonesia continued to have a high rate of child marriage as a result of long-standing community support for such practices.



National Population and Family Planning Board (BKKBN) head Surya Chandra Surapaty said the campaign jeopardized the governments plan to control population and create a prosperous society.



We are recommending a minimum marriage age of 21-years-old because thats when someone is mature, both sexually and mentally. But before that, they are still considered kids, and thus need enough nutrition and education, he told The Jakarta Post on Friday.



Alvin is younger than the marriageable age set by the existing Marriage Law, which was challenged by childrens and womens activists at the Constitutional Court last year in their attempt to raise the marriageable age for girls from 16 to 18. The court, however, rejected their petition, dealing a blow to efforts to protect children.



Alvins father wrote on his Facebook page that he allowed his son to marry despite his young age to prevent him from committing adultery.



Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI) commissioner Maria Ulfa Anshor criticized Arifin, saying that even in Islam, early marriage was not recommended.



People often simplify the concept of being ready [to get married] as baligh, or ready physically, meaning that boys who experience wet dreams or girls who have started their periods are considered mature. But the concept of akil, which means capable of thinking maturely and taking decisions, is often forgotten.



Therefore, Islam requires someone to be ready not only physically, but also psychologically, economically and socially, she said.



The hadith [the Prophets saying] on that is very clear.



Maria lambasted Alvins parents for allowing him to get married at such a young age. The law on child protection says that children are those under 18 and it also says that parents are obligated to protect their children from child marriage.



Gerindra Party lawmaker Rahayu Saraswati lamented the fact that the campaign for early marriage was carried out by a well-known public figure, whose actions can be easily followed by tens of thousands of people.



If they do it in the name of tradition, then they should not expose it on social media, so that the younger generation is not indoctrinated to do the same, she said.

_______________________________

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Linkedin Tama Salim (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, August 20, 2016

I feel like I might weep, said a teary-eyed Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi as she looked around the high-ceilinged study of one of Indonesias founding fathers, Achmad Soebardjo.

In a quiet nook of an old colonial-era house on a buzzing street in the heart of Central Jakarta, the minister counted her blessings as she stood up from the very same chair that Achmad, Indonesias first foreign minister, sat in to set the foundations of Indonesias foreign policy for years to come.

It was there, the first office of the fledgling Foreign Ministry in the garage of Achmads home on Jl. Cikini 8082, that he set out to gain acknowledgement from other countries on Indonesias proclamation of independence.

This is where Indonesian diplomacy took its first step, where the first Indonesian foreign minister started his work for Indonesia  a new journey as a sovereign country, Retno said during the ministrys 71st anniversary celebrations on Friday.

Achmad was credited with assembling Indonesias first batch of diplomats, six people who would come to inspire generations of young diplomats to serve their country.

Among the first few were Herawati Diah, R. Soedjono, Suyono Hadiasmoro and TM Hadi Thayeb. The latter compiled the ministrys history in his book in Indonesian, titled The Period of Service to the Republic of Indonesia, Particularly the Department of Foreign Affairs.

Thayeb recorded two particular activities with which minister Achmad occupied himself in the countrys early days.

First, he was expected to maintain communications with the leaders of the military and the civilian government of Japan in accordance with international law until the Allied Forces arrived.

Second, he was to convene meetings with the first Cabinet and ensure the success of the Repatriation of Allied Prisoners of War and Internees operation.

Bapak Achmad Soebardjos contributions serve as a great inspiration, [...] teaching us how important it was to lay solid foundations for this republic, Retno said.

Achmad was among those who chartered the path of foreign policy from the independence proclamation until the present day, which has now shifted its focus to the better protection of Indonesians abroad and President Joko Jokowi Widodos economic diplomacy.

Achmads eldest daughter, Pujiwati Soebardjo Effendi, revealed how the ministrys first staff members, foreign diplomats, as well as local and international journalists used to frequent the familys Cikini residence during the early days of independence.

My family and I witnessed firsthand how our father quickly [...] transformed this house into the first office of the Foreign Ministry, which is why there were youths guarding the place with bamboo runcing, she said, referring to sharpened bamboo sticks, a common weapon during Indonesias freedom struggle.

It was in this very house that the struggles of Indonesian diplomacy started.

If these walls can reveal to you the journey of Indonesian diplomacy and how its history was closely intertwined with independence, then it is our hope that our fathers struggles and those of other national figures were not in vain,

she said.

Achmad held the role for four months after he was assigned to the post by then president Sukarno. He served another brief stint as foreign minister in 1951. He was also ambassador to Switzerland in 1957.

The ministrys anniversary was attended by diplomats spanning the generations, including former foreign minister Marty Natalegawa, Deputy Foreign Minister AM Fachir and members of the Ambassadors Forum.
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Linkedin Tama Salim and Andi Hajramurni (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta/Makassar  Sat, August 20 2016

The government is preparing for the repatriation of two Indonesian sailors who recently escaped from the clutches of a Philippines-based militant group while also continuing in its efforts to rescue the remaining nine hostages.

The two sailors, identified as Mohammad Sofyan and Ismail, have been safely recovered and will continue to rest under the protection of the Indonesian Embassy in the Philippines until the state is prepared to bring them home from Zamboanga, Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi announced on Friday.

This morning [Friday] I spoke with the Indonesian ambassador to the Philippines [Johny Lumintang], who has been in Zamboanga since yesterday to be with the escaped hostages. They are in a good condition, Retno said on the sidelines of the ministrys 71st anniversary celebrations in Central Jakarta.

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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, August 20 2016

Former energy and mineral resources minister Arcandra Tahar could have his Indonesian citizenship reinstated within a week as the Law and Human Rights Ministry has begun the necessary steps.

Efforts to reinstate the former ministers citizenship are being carried out as the government sees Arcandra as someone with vast capabilities that could prove beneficial for the country, the ministrys director general for public law administration, Freddy Harris, said on Thursday.

Arcandra holds patent rights, therefore he could provide useful input for the country, Freddy said as quoted by tribunnews.com.

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Linkedin Anton Hermansyah (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, August 20, 2016

Paraguay has decided to open an office for its first diplomatic mission in Southeast Asia, choosing Indonesia over Malaysia or Singapore based on economic potential.

Paraguay's Ambassador to Southeast Asia Cesar Esteban Grillon said he chose Jakarta even after the Malaysian government proposed opening a diplomatic representative office in Paraguay in exchange for a Paraguayan diplomatic mission in Kuala Lumpur.

"Indonesia is the strongest economy in Southeast Asia and Jakarta has lower operational costs compared to other options. Indonesia needs soybean for tempeh and tofu; we are the fourth biggest producer of soybean," he told The Jakarta Post on Thursday in Jakarta.

Grillon was previously a consul general in Miami. In 2000 he was assigned to survey potential countries in Southeast Asia for a diplomatic mission. Then, in October 2010, he began his duty as the first ambassador from his country to serve in Southeast Asia.

He added that Paraguays products had strong potential to enter the Indonesian market as one of its major industries was cattle, with three times more cows than humans in the country. (ags)
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Linkedin Safrin La Batu (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, August 20 2016

The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggles (PDI-P) grassroots members in Jakarta have voiced strong opposition to Governor Basuki Ahok Tjahaja Purnama becoming the partys candidate in the upcoming gubernatorial election.

However, analysts said the opposition would subside if the party officially endorsed the incumbent.

A number of PDI-P members visited the partys headquarters on Jl. Diponegoro in Central Jakarta on Friday, voicing their opposition to the governor and offering their own candidates for next years election.

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Linkedin Andi Hajramurni (The Jakarta Post) Makassar  Sat, August 20 2016

Parepare Police in South Sulawesi foiled an attempt to smuggle 6 kilograms of shabu-shabu (crystal methamphetimine) into their region earlier this week and arrested three people in connection with the incident.

The smuggling was the third such attempt intercepted by police so far this month, bringing the total amount of crystal meth confiscated to 16 kg.

South Sulawesi Police spokesperson Sr. Comr. Frans Barung Mangera said the crystal meth was transported from Bontang, East Kalimantan, on board a motorboat that was afterward moored at the Nusantara Seaport in Parepare on Wednesday.

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Linkedin Bassem Mrou (Associated Press) Beirut  Sat, August 20, 2016

Scores of residents of the northeastern Syrian city of Hassakeh took advantage Friday of a lull in fighting between Kurdish forces and Syrian government troops to flee to safer areas nearby, after fighting intensified the previous day with government warplanes bombing Kurdish-controlled positions in the city for the first time, Kurdish officials and activists said.

Also Friday, the Russian military said two of its ships launched cruise missiles at militant targets in Syria from the eastern Mediterranean Sea. The development came after Russia this week began using Iranian territory to launch airstrikes in Syria, with Moscow's bombers flying out of the Islamic Republic for three straight days to hit targets in the war-ravaged country.

The missiles add an extra dimension to the aerial campaign Russia has conducted since September in support of President Bashar Assad's military.

Russia's Defense Ministry said that the Serpukhov and the Zeleny Dol corvettes launched three long-range Kalibr cruise missiles on Friday at the al-Qaida-linked militant group of Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, formerly known as the Nusra Front. The ministry said that the missiles destroyed a command facility and a militant camp near Daret Azzeh along with a mine-making facility and a weapons facility in the province of Aleppo.

Russian warships have in the past launched cruise missiles at targets in Syria from both the Caspian Sea and the Mediterranean, a show of the navy's long-range precision strike capability. Cruise missiles launched from Russian navy ships in the Caspian in October and November struck targets in Syria while in December, a Russian submarine also launched cruise missiles at Syrian militants.

In Hassakeh, after dozens of townspeople fled, clashes broke out anew later on Friday, a Kurdish official said.

Nasser Haj Mansour of the predominantly Kurdish Syria Democratic Forces said Syrian government warplanes and helicopters launched more attacks on areas controlled by Kurdish fighters on Friday.

Later in the evening, the Syrian army said the main Kurdish militia had surrounded Hassakeh and bombarded it with artillery and tanks, killing a number of soldiers and civilians and forcing troops to retaliate.

"The army command is determined to repel all these attacks," said an army statement, carried by the state news agency SANA.

The fighting between the Kurdish troops and government forces could potentially open a new front in the Syrian civil war, now in its sixth year.

The area around Hassakeh had witnessed battles between the two sides in the past but this week's violence has been among the worst since Kurdish fighters took control of wide, predominantly Kurdish areas in northern Syria in 2012.

The main Kurdish force in Syria known as the People's Protection Units, or YPG, has been the main U.S.-backed force in Syria and the most effective force in fighting the Islamic State group.

Last week, the Syria Democratic Forces, a coalition led by the YPG, captured the former IS stronghold of Manbij in northern Syria under the cover airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an activist group that tracks the conflict, said the fighting first began Wednesday. So far, 16 people, including six women and children, have been killed on the Kurdish side. Five pro-government gunmen of the National Defense Force were killed as well, the Observatory said.

The Observatory said that Syrian warplanes struck areas under control of Kurdish fighters in Hassakeh, adding that there was no immediate word on casualties.

Mansour told The Associated Press on Friday that the YPG fighters captured several areas, including the wheat silos and the economics college, and that the Kurdish troops were advancing in the central neighborhoods of Ghweiran and Nashwa.

"We are fighting mercenaries," he said, referring to pro-government gunmen fighting alongside Assad's forces.

Recently, Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif travelled to Turkey for talks with Turkish officials while Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu visited Tehran on Thursday. Both countries pledged greater cooperation on resolving the Syria crisis, despite the fact they support opposing sides in the war - Iran is a staunch Assad ally while Ankara backs Syria's rebels and Asad's rivals.

However, Turkey and Iran have large Kurdish communities and both appear to be concerned about Syria's Kurds gaining more areas under their control on the border with Turkey. Ankara also considers the YPG a terrorist organization because of its links to Turkey's outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK.

Jwan Mohammed, a former Kurdish official, said there was intense fighting overnight. A relative calm on Friday morning prompted scores to flee, mostly to nearby towns of Qamishli and Amouda. Speaking from Qamishli, he said that there were calls through mosques loudspeakers for the evacuation of civilians stuck in the areas of fighting.

The Observatory also reported residents were fleeing the city before clashes picked up again in the afternoon.

YPG spokesman Redur Khalil denounced Thursday's government air raids on Hassakeh as an act of "suicide," adding that Assad's forces would be held accountable for these "brutal, blatant attacks against our people."

The United Nations reported a breakthrough, saying the Syrian Arab Red Crescent evacuated up to 39 people for medical treatment from two Syrian towns under siege. The office of the U.N. Syria envoy, Staffan de Mistura, said several children were among those evacuated Friday from the towns of Foua and Madaya.

Rebel-held Madaya near Damascus is besieged by government forces and their allies while government-held Foua in the north is besieged by rebels. De Mistura called the evacuations, which are not common from besieged areas in Syria, a "positive step."

He regretted that aid convoys have been blocked to a number of places, including Madaya and Foua, for over 110 days amid increased fighting. (ags)
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Linkedin Ina Parlina and Tama Salim (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, August 20 2016

Just days before the working visit of Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to Indonesia, Indonesian Military (TNI) chief Gen. Gatot Nurmantyo announced that he had asked the government to protest the maltreatment of a retired Indonesian general at Changi Airport.

TNIs Strategic Intelligence had also filed a complaint with Singapores Defense Attache to Indonesia, said Gatot, adding that such an embarrasing experience could happen to any Indonesian, including himself.

The general strongly criticized Singapore for putting Lt. Gen. (ret) Suryo Prabowo on its immigration blacklist and for interrogating him when he was about to continue his flight to Jakarta from Fiji.

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Linkedin (Associated Press) UN  Sat, August 20, 2016

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says in a message on World Humanitarian Day that a record 130 million people depend on assistance to survive, a staggering number that would comprise the tenth most populous nation on earth.

At an event in the U.N. General Assembly on Friday night to mark the day "Arab Idol" winner Mohammed Assaf, Actress Natalie Dormer of "Game of Thrones" fame, "The Voice" winner Alisan Porter and former "Hamilton" star Leslie Odom Jr. joined hundreds of diplomats and guests to support stepped up global efforts to alleviate global suffering.

The General Assembly established World Humanitarian Day in 2008 to honor humanitarian aid workers who have been killed or injured in the course of their work. August 19 was chosen because it is the anniversary of 2003 bombing of U.N. headquarters in Baghdad which killed 22 staff members including top U.N. envoy to Iraq Sergio Vieira de Mello.

U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson said it is a day to remember sacrifices and courageous actions, to celebrate "our common humanity," and to pay tribute to the thousands of humanitarian workers around the world "who risk their lives to deliver life-saving aid to people in need on the front lines of crisis and utter despair."

Last year, Eliason said, 109 aid workers were killed, 110 were wounded and 68 were kidnapped, most in Afghanistan, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

U.N. humanitarian chief Stephen O'Brien said "in crises around the world, from Syria to South Sudan, people are forced to make impossible choices  risking violence for food or risking drowning in search of a safe haven  choices that most of us can barely imagine."

He urged people around the world "to show solidarity, use their voice and demand that world leaders take action." (ags)
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Linkedin Justin juozapavicius (Associated Press) Oklahoma  Sat, August 20, 2016

When an Oklahoma man befriended his Lebanese neighbors, his husband lashed out at the family, hurling epithets and at one point allegedly running over the mother with a car.

The conflict went on for years until Aug. 12, when, authorities say, Stanley Majors shot and killed Khalid Jabara, whom his husband had come to think of as a kind of apprentice.

"He killed my best friend," Stephen Schmauss lamented.

The case received a brief mention in the presidential campaign from Hillary Clinton, who said her "heart breaks" for Jabara's loved ones. She shared a Facebook post Thursday from the family and urged the country to unite "to ensure that no other family loses a beloved son or daughter because of prejudice and bigotry."

Schmauss told The Associated Press that he took the 37-year-old Jabara under his wing after the family arrived in the south Tulsa neighborhood. Schmauss said he trained Khalid to use power tools and to take apart computer circuitry when he came over on some afternoons.

His husband was never so welcoming. He repeatedly referred to the Jabara family as "filthy Lebanese," ''dirty Arabs" and "Moo-slems." They are actually Christian.

Majors, 61, "was never what you would call a friendly neighbor," said Khalid's brother, Rami Jabara. Majors was verbally abusive and sent the family abusive letters and email.

Lebanese immigrants have long been a visible part of the Oklahoma population, with many making their living as merchants, restaurateurs and grocers.

Khalid Jabara's mother, Haifa, said Majors' venom was not reserved solely for her family. He would insult the lawn crews she hired, some of whom were black or Hispanic. She recalled him using the N-word to taunt them as they mowed.

"He's the racist," Haifa Jabara pointed to Majors' house, the grief in her voice still evident.

Schmauss tried to explain away Majors' comments: His husband, he said, is "textbook bipolar" and a diabetic who refuses to take any medication.

"Anything that was said was done under the bipolar situation," Schmauss said.

The abuse between the neighbors escalated to the point where Haifa Jabara obtained a protective order in 2013 that required Majors to stay 300 yards away and prohibited him from possessing any firearms until 2018. Majors  who had a 2009 felony conviction from California for threatening a crime with intent to terrorize  seemed undeterred.

"It's just a piece of paper to some people. A judge said you can't do these things," said Tulsa Police spokesman Leland Ashley. There's a segment of the population that won't adhere to the order "unless they're behind bars."

Despite the court order, Majors was accused of plowing his car into Haifa Jabara last September. She suffered a broken shoulder, among other injuries. After Majors struck her, he kept driving. Officers who stopped him later reported that he was intoxicated.

While awaiting trial on assault and battery charges, a judge freed Majors from jail on $60,000 bond, overruling strong objections by Tulsa County prosecutors, who called him "a substantial risk to the public" and pleaded with the court to set a higher bond of $300,000.

Schmauss, 76, has been married to Majors for barely two years. He said his husband started Aug. 12 on a violent note, smacking him in the eye and pounding his wrist. Schmauss fled to a local motel for the rest of the day.

Before Schmauss fled, he watched as Majors emptied at least five rounds from a handgun inside the couple's home, sending bullets in every direction. One hit the bed, another struck the carpet. A third shattered a cellphone. Then Majors reportedly tucked the weapon in the back of his shirt.

Hours later, Khalid Jabara was found mortally wounded on his front doorstep. Police are still investigating the motive.

"Every concern and fear in this family seems to have manifested itself," Tulsa County District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler said. "The system seems to have failed Khalid and his family, and we can and should be doing more."

Majors is now being held without bond in the county jail on a first-degree murder complaint. No formal charges have been filed. Calls to his attorney were not returned.

On Friday, a group of friends and neighbors built a surprise memorial display in the Jabara family's front yard, with dozens of flowers, ferns and a Lebanese cedar tree, all circled around a statue of St. Francis of Asssisi.

"I want them to think of this as a place where Khalid lived, not the place where Khalid died," said longtime family friend Rania Nasreddine.

Schmauss, shifting his weight between a cane and metal walker in his foyer, said he viewed Khalid as a sort of woodworking apprentice. But his husband, who often went by the nickname Vern, could never accept the friendship.

"Vern told me this time and time again," Schmauss said. "Vern told me that I am not to have any friends, and he repeated it over and over. I guess he was the only one who could have friends."

So why marry that kind of man?

"Because he wanted to," Schmauss said. "If I wasn't going to, he was going to kick me out of the house." (ags)
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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post)  Sat, August 20 2016

Being a security guard can be very dangerous. Oftentimes security guards are the first people to respond to any given situation on any given day.

They deal with criminals and other issues all the time.

But they dont get the respect that they deserve. People scorn and belittle security guards, but forget that they will turn to them as soon as they are in trouble. It is security guards who arrive at the scene of an incident before others.

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Linkedin Arif Gunawan Sulistiyono (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, August 20, 2016

Singapores Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) has denied reports that retired Indonesian Army general Suryo Prabowo was detained during his transit at Singapore Changi Airport on Aug. 17.

The authority offered no apology and insisted that the 30-minute questioning at 5:35 am with Indonesias former chief of general staff was part of the screening procedures for border security. And after completing the interview, he was allowed to board his flight.

As part of the immigration clearance process, travelers to Singapore may be subjected to additional interview and or screening. These procedures are conducted at all of Singapores checkpoints, the authority said in a statement released via its website on Saturday.

The statement was issued after Indonesian media reports that Suryo was denied entry to Singapore because he was "blacklisted" after he complained on social media about being detained and questioned by the officers.

As quoted by Antara news agency, the Indonesian Military (TNI) Chief General Gatot Nurmantyo called for the Foreign Ministry to lodge a note of protest with the Singaporean authorities for the "hostility" shown to the retired general.

"The TNI has coordinated [with other relevant agencies]. Likewise, the chief of BAIS [the military strategic intelligence agency] has lodged a note of protest with the [Singapore] defense attache in Indonesia," Nurmantyo stated. (ags)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, August 20, 2016

Wings Air, a subsidiary of the country's largest private carrier, the Lion Group, has officially launched a new route from North Sumatra to Aceh following the reopening of the latters newly renovated Rembele Airport in Bener Meriah regency by President Joko Jokowi Widodo in March.

Using an ATR 72-600 aircraft that can accommodate 72 passengers, the carrier undertook a maiden flight on Friday from Kualanamu International Airport in Deli Serdang regency in North Sumatra at 8 a.m. local time and arrived at Rembele Airport at 9 a.m. The fare for the route is about Rp 400,000 (US$30) one way.

(Read also: Rembele Airport expansion to increase local mobility, says Jokowi)

Many tourists visit Takengon, the capital of Aceh Tengah regency, which is home to the picturesque Lake Laut Tawar, said Lion Air Group president director Edward Sirait. Hopefully this new access can improve the economy and increase tourism in Takengon, said Edward as reported by kompas.com.

A daily flight is scheduled to depart from Rembele at 9:20 a.m. and arrive in Kualanamu at 10:20 a.m. (tif/kes)
(front page)

Glad to hear SWP will be on ballot in Utah

SALT LAKE CITY  Alyson Kennedy and Osborne Hart, the SWP candidates for president and vice president, are better than anything out there. I am glad to hear these workers will be on the ballot in Utah, said Brian Klinger in a message to the Socialist Workers Party campaign. Klinger said he learned that there is a workers alternative in the 2016 elections when campaign supporters knocked on his door in Ogden in July.

In a victory for working people in Utah, state officials Aug. 11 certified that the Socialist Workers Party slate of Kennedy and Hart met the requirement of 1,000 signatures of registered voters to get on the ballot.

Over six weeks campaigners for the SWP spoke to thousands of workers, farmers and ranchers on their doorsteps across the state, from the coalfields to cattle ranching communities. They discussed why, in face of the irresolvable economic and social crisis of capitalism worldwide, the Socialist Workers Party is the party workers need, the class opposite of the capitalist contenders. This effort was redoubled after the state said 1,700 signatures of workers who wanted the party on the ballot wasnt sufficient, and another 300 signed petitions.

In the course of this campaigning, 220 people bought copies of Are They Rich Because Theyre Smart? Class, Privilege and Learning Under Capitalism by SWP National Secretary Jack Barnes, and 200 subscribed to the Militant.

SWP campaigners also joined actions against police brutality, including an Aug. 9 rally protesting the Salt Lake City prosecutors decision not to indict two cops for shooting 17-year-old Abdullahi Mohamed. Instead they charged Mohamed with robbery and drug possession.

Campaigning Aug. 10, Kennedy and Sergio Zambrana met Melissa Fralley, 25, a Navy veteran who is disabled and unemployed. When Kennedy told Fralley the Socialist Workers Party opposes U.S. wars, calls for bringing all troops home and opposes scapegoating of Muslim people, she agreed.

The U.S. military budget is larger than the next seven countries combined, Fralley said. I feel that the wars create more enemies abroad and also create anti-Muslim sentiment.

At the same time, theres an assault against workers in this country and high unemployment, Kennedy said.

Yes, and when your unemployment benefits run out, youre not even officially unemployed any more! Fralley said.

The SWP calls for a massive government-funded public works program to put millions to work at union scale wages, Kennedy told her.

Besides Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, five other capitalist candidates are on the Utah ballot, including Libertarian Gary Johnson, who is polling 16 percent in the state, and the recently announced Republican candidate Evan McMullin, a former CIA operative. Both have their national headquarters in Salt Lake City.

The Socialist Workers Party campaign has received substantial coverage in the states major newspapers, TV and radio stations. Kennedy was interviewed on KSL radio Aug. 10, and the Deseret News ran an article the same day titled, Socialist Workers Party Presidential Candidate Wants to Start Revolution. Both are Mormon church affiliates.

Both KSL host Doug Wright and the Deseret News highlighted the fact that Kennedy is a former coal miner who was a leader of the 2003-2004 strike and union-organizing drive at the Co-Op Mine in Huntington, one of Utahs most important recent labor battles.

Mary Martin contributed to this article.

Campaigning for working-class voice in Tennessee
(front page)

Russian govt ratchets up conflict with Kiev in Crimea

Russian officials accused the Ukrainian government Aug. 10 of organizing armed incursions into Crimea  the Black Sea peninsula militarily occupied and annexed by Moscow in 2014 in a brazen violation of Ukraines sovereignty. Moscows Federal Security Service said one of its agents and a Russian soldier were killed fending off saboteurs in two separate incidents, and claims to have detained several members of Ukraines special forces.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called these allegations preposterous. Relatives of truck driver Yevhen Panov, one of those arrested by Russian authorities, said he had been kidnapped and was not a member of the Ukrainian armed forces. These events take place amid a growing Russian military buildup in Crimea. At the same time, fighting between Kievs forces and Russian-backed separatists who have seized sections of Ukraines eastern Donbass region has increased to a level not seen in nearly a year.

Kiev put its troops near Crimea on combat alert, at the same time appealing for support to the rulers of Germany, France and the U.S., as well as imperialist-led bodies such as the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

The escalation of the conflict in Ukraine comes as Washington is seeking an agreement with Moscow for military collaboration in Syria. To achieve this, the U.S. rulers are willing to grant Moscow a measure of latitude to protect its interests in what Russias capitalist rulers consider their near abroad.

While giving lip service to Ukrainian sovereignty and maintaining economic sanctions against Russia and Crimea that hit hard on workers lives and working conditions, Washington has pressed the Ukrainian government to reach an accommodation with Moscow. At a press briefing Aug. 11, State Department spokesperson Elizabeth Trudeau stressed that while Crimea is part of Ukraine and is recognized as such by the international community, Washington is calling for both Moscow and Kiev to reduce the tensions, reduce the rhetoric and get back to talks.

Citing the alleged sabotage in Crimea, Russian President Vladimir Putin said it would be pointless to proceed with talks involving officials from France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine that were planned for September alongside the G20 summit meeting in China. The Russian business newspaper Vedomosti speculated that Putin is looking to either tear up or alter the conditions of the Minsk agreement  the crumbling cease-fire in the separatist war in eastern Ukraine that was brokered by the German and French governments last year.

Working people in Russia face a deepening economic crisis. The Russian economy has been in recession for the last year and a half, and real wages fell by 9.5 percent last year. There have been workers protests against lack of pay and cuts in social services. Military moves and efforts to whip up nationalist patriotic sentiment, many commentators say, can help shore up Putins United Russia Party leading into next months parliamentary elections.

Moscows seizure and annexation of Crimea, which was already home to a major Russian naval base, took place in the wake of the mass protests known as the Maidan that forced out the pro-Moscow government of Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014.

Over the following months, the Russian government sent weapons and fighters to back separatists who set up the self-proclaimed Peoples Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk in the industrial region along Ukraines eastern border with Russia. Nearly 10,000 combatants and civilians have been killed on both sides in this war.

While Moscows intervention is a threat to workers in Ukraine today, the biggest dangers they face are from the countrys capitalist rulers. The government headed by Poroshenko, a billionaire factory owner, has used the conflict as a justification for clamping down on political space for working people. A recent report issued by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, titled You Dont Exist, documents arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, and torture in eastern Ukraine by both sides.

One case described in the report is the detention of Kostyantyn Beskorovaynyi, a member of the Communist Party of Ukraine who was a dentist and an elected member of the town council in Kostyantynivka. He described being held incommunicado under brutal conditions for 15 months, while authorities denied he was in their custody. The report describes similar abusive detentions committed by separatist forces in Donetsk and Luhansk against those accused of supporting Ukrainian sovereignty.

Poroshenko has tried to smear workers who protest deteriorating conditions and unpaid wages as a fifth column backing Moscow. This hasnt stopped workers from looking for ways to fight. Members of the Independent Trade Union of Miners struck the Krasnoarmiiskvuhillia Stahanova mine, located in the government-controlled area of the Donetsk region, on Aug. 11. They are demanding three months back wages.





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(front page)

NY protests condemn assassination of Muslims

OZONE PARK, N.Y.  Immediate protests took place here after the Aug. 13 shooting deaths of Maulama Akonjee, a Muslim imam, and his friend Thara Uddin. The killings are widely viewed as a cold-blooded assassination directed against Muslims.

Security camera footage shows a gunman approached the two Bangladeshi-born men from behind after they left midday prayer services at the Al-Furqan Jame Masjid mosque, then shot them in the back of their heads. Police reported $1,000 in cash Akonjee was carrying was not touched by the assailant.

As word spread of the killings, a crowd gathered at the site.

Members of the congregation came together outside the mosque the next day, along with neighborhood residents and others from across the metropolitan area to express outrage at the killings and show solidarity with the Bangladeshi community.

Socialist Workers Party New York organizer Norton Sandler talked with people there and distributed a statement  Stop Attacks on Muslims and Mosques!  issued by Jacob Perasso, SWP candidate for U.S. Senate from New York.

This was not a robbery, Nazim Uddin told the Militant. Its been worse lately with more harassment and threats. People come through the neighborhood and shout from their cars at the older people wearing traditional clothes. They call them towel heads or Taliban. Sometimes people spit on them.

They shot Imam Akonjee and Thara Uddin like they were animals, said Millat Uddin, who regularly attends the mosque and is active in the Ozone Park community. We have a community here with all kinds of people living together  different races, different nationalities. They are trying to mess up the peace in this community.

More than 1,000 people turned out for the Aug. 15 funeral of the two men.

Some in the crowd carried signs that read Muslim Lives Matter and We Want Justice.

Jewel Chowdhury, a leader of the Jalalabad Association, a Bangladeshi community group, spoke for the families. He criticized the New York City police department for giving mixed messages and creating confusion in the community  referring to claims by some cops that there is no reason to believe the two were killed because they are Muslims, that it could be because of an alleged Muslim-Latino dispute.

The crime of the two men was that they were immigrants, minorities, and indeed Muslims, Chowdhury, told the crowd.

Police filed murder charges Aug. 15 against 35-year-old Oscar Morel in connection with the killing.

This is the latest and most deadly attack on Muslims in New York. Taxi driver Nur Nabi was stabbed as he left his mosque in the Parkchester area of the Bronx in August 2013. Last December Sarker Haque was beaten in his store in Astoria, Queens, by a man saying he would kill Muslims.

In January two young men screaming ISIS! ISIS! beat Mujibur Rahman, a Bangladeshi-born man, as he walked his niece home from school in the Parkchester area. Mohammed Atique Ashraf, wearing a white prayer cap as he walked to a Parkchester mosque, was attacked June 18. At a protest against the attack on Ashraf, community activist Mohammed Mujumder told News12 The Bronx that there had been six similar incidents since December.

Seth Galinsky contributed to this article





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(especial)

Cuban Revolution, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic ties are highlight of intl meeting

Santo Domingo conference urges actions to say: No to US embargo

and sanctions, return Guantanamo to Cuba

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic  We need to explain the truth about the Cuban Revolution and combat the lies, Fernando Gonzalez told delegates here at the closing session of an Americas-wide conference in solidarity with the Cuban Revolution.

Despite efforts by Washington and its allies to undermine the revolution, the Cuban leadership is not on a course toward capitalism, Gonzalez said. To confront the challenges today, what we are doing in Cuba is aimed at more socialism.

Gonzalez, vice president of the Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP), is known internationally as one of the five Cubans who spent up to 16 years in U.S. prisons on frame-up charges because of their actions in defense of the Cuban Revolution.

Participants in the Eighth Continental Conference in Solidarity with Cuba projected actions to demand that the U.S. government end its economic war against Cuba, return Guantanamo Bay to Cuban sovereignty and cease its political subversion programs against that country.

The July 28-30 gathering, held at the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD), was marked by the history of more than 150 years of intertwined revolutionary struggles in the former Spanish colonies of the Caribbean  Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.

Delegates from across Americas

Some 370 people from 25 countries took part. The largest delegations were the 150 participants from the Dominican Republic and more than 100 from Puerto Rico; nearly 40 were present from Colombia. Delegates also came from other Central and South American countries, as well as Haiti and the English- and Dutch-speaking Caribbean. Also participating were 11 from the United States and three from Canada.

The conference was sponsored by the Dominican Campaign in Solidarity with Cuba, the Puerto Rican Committee in Solidarity with Cuba, and ICAP. With presentations, workshops, photo exhibits, book launches, music and dance performances, and visits to historical sites, in addition to meals and transportation for delegates, it was a well-organized event. Members of the Dominican Campaign in Solidarity with Cuba, which has chapters in all 31 provinces, said they promoted and raised money for the event for an entire year. The university, a co-sponsor, provided generous resources for the conference.

UASD rector Ivan Grullon welcomed delegates at the opening session, saying it was an honor for the university to host an international conference in solidarity with Cuba, a nation that has fully earned, more than any, the title of free, independent and sovereign.

Grullon added a personal note. As a youth he had joined the 1965 popular uprising that resisted the U.S. military invasion of his country. When he left Santo Domingo for France after the defeat of the mass upsurge, on the same plane were many revolutionaries wounded in combat. And which country welcomed and treated the wounded? he asked. Cuba!

The rector introduced guest of honor Delio Gomez Ochoa, who commanded one of the Rebel Army fronts in Cubas revolutionary war. On June 14, 1959, less than six months after the revolutionary victory in Cuba, Gomez Ochoa and 21 other Cubans joined 150 Dominican revolutionaries on a guerrilla expedition, launched from Cuba, to overthrow dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo. He was captured soon after they landed and jailed in Santo Domingo until after Trujillos assassination in 1961.

Speaking with Grullon at the opening event were Carlos de la Nuez, Cubas ambassador to the Dominican Republic; ICAP President Kenia Serrano; and Fernando Gonzalez. The three took part in all the conference activities.

Ivan Rodriguez, coordinator of the conference organizing committee, also spoke. He is well-known here as a veteran of the June 14 Movement, which helped lead the popular struggle against the Trujillo tyranny and then the resistance to Washingtons 1965 invasion.

In acknowledging those present at the inaugural event, Serrano welcomed the nearly 100 Dominican-Haitian cane-cutters, members of the Union of Sugarcane Workers (UTC), who filled the balcony and part of the main floor. They stood up cheering loudly to applause from the audience, as Serrano reiterated our solidarity with the Haitian people.

Cuban Ambassador de la Nuez spoke on The U.S. Economic Blockade and Its Consequences. He noted that despite Washingtons re-establishment of diplomatic relations with Cuba after half a century of failed efforts to destroy the revolution, the U.S. blockade remains intact today. De la Nuez outlined how the Cuban leadership is confronting the economic and political challenges facing the revolution today.

Example of Cuban Revolution

A keynote speaker was Frei Betto, a liberation theology priest from Brazil and long-time defender of the Cuban Revolution. He spoke about Cubas example in the world through its selfless solidarity and support to anti-imperialist struggles everywhere.

Betto told a story of when, as a young man in the early 1970s, he was jailed by the military dictatorship in Brazil for his political activities. The prison authorities were so afraid of the Cuban Revolutions popular appeal, he said, that they barred him and others from receiving any books or materials related to Cuba. One such title, he said to much laughter, was a book on Cubism!

The Cuban Revolutions record of solidarity is an example for us, especially today at this time of crisis for the popular democratic governments in Latin America, Betto said, referring to those in Brazil, Venezuela and elsewhere.

One of the biggest mistakes we have made, he said, is to guarantee people better living conditions in terms of material goods without carrying out political work with people to develop consciousness, to forge citizens who are actors in politics.

Betto added, There is no better way to defend the Cuban Revolution than to work with peasants, workers and youth  to prepare people to fight to change our own countries.

The situation in Venezuela today was discussed at a panel featuring Ali Uzcategui, that countrys ambassador in the Dominican Republic, and Julio Chavez, a deputy in the Venezuelan parliament. They described the efforts by Venezuelas pro-imperialist opposition and Washington to undermine the government of President Nicolas Maduro and roll back social gains won by working people.

At a session on the anti-colonial struggle in Puerto Rico, Eduardo Villanueva, president of the Human Rights Committee in Puerto Rico, highlighted the 150-year-long record of struggle against Spanish and U.S. colonial rule. He took up the campaign to free Oscar Lopez Rivera, a leader of the independence fight who has served 35 years of a 70-year sentence in U.S. prisons on trumped-up charges of seditious conspiracy. Oscar has become a symbol of the fight for Puerto Ricos freedom, Villanueva said.

Miriam Montes Mock spoke about efforts to free her cousin, Ana Belen Montes, arrested in 2001 while working at the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency. Having pleaded guilty of conspiracy to commit espionage for Cubas Directorate of Intelligence, she was sentenced to 25 years in a maximum-security prison, Montes Mock said. She had acted to protect Cuba from the hostile policies of the United States. Montes Mock focused on the harshly restrictive prison conditions faced by Ana Montes, and thanked conference participants for their solidarity.

At another session, Fernando Gonzalez noted that he had shared five of his 15-plus years in prison with my brother Oscar and underscored the importance of the increasingly broad international support that has been won in the battle to free him.

A new book, The Cuban Counterrevolution in Puerto Rico and the Case of Carlos Muniz Varela (translation of the Spanish title), was launched at a panel with its three authors: Jesus Arboleya, Raul Alzaga and Ricardo Fraga. Muniz Varela was a founding leader of the Antonio Maceo Brigade, an organization of young Cubans in the United States and Puerto Rico who opposed Washingtons policy toward Cuba. He was assassinated in San Juan in 1979 but no one has ever been prosecuted for the crime, despite evidence that Cuban-American counterrevolutionaries and cops were involved. Alzaga and Fraga, also founders of the Maceo Brigade, have spent years exposing the facts in their comrades murder.

The book documents how the killing of Muniz Varela was part of the bloody record of U.S.-backed right-wing Cuban-American groups in Puerto Rico that have targeted the independence movement and defenders of the Cuban Revolution.

Delegates also held workshops and prepared action proposals around four topics: the fight against the U.S. embargo, U.S. colonialism and political prisoners, women and Latin American integration, and youth in face of the crisis.

Intertwined revolutionary struggles

The gathering was stamped by the shared history of revolutionary struggles in the Spanish-speaking Caribbean. International delegates visited the city of Bani, birthplace of Maximo Gomez, who commanded the Cuban liberation army in the 1895-98 independence war against Spain. They were taken to the site of the home where Gomez grew up, as well as to the Maximo Gomez Polytechnic Institute, which was built with Cuban-donated resources and opened in 2000.

Delegates attended an event at a monument to two leading 19th century independence fighters, Jose Marti of Cuba and Eugenio Maria de Hostos of Puerto Rico. Both advocated an Antillean Federation of Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.

One of the highlights of the conference was a 65-panel exhibit of photos of the April 1965 mass upsurge in Santo Domingo. It gave a vivid picture of the popular mobilizations that began in 1963 when top military officers overthrew President Juan Bosch, elected after the 30-year Trujillo dictatorship came to an end. As workers and farmers took to the streets demanding the restoration of the president, a group of military officers, known as the Constitutionalists, removed the pro-imperialist junta. U.S. President Lyndon Johnson then sent in 42,000 Marines to prevent what he called a second Cuba. The resistance to the U.S. occupation was led by Constitutionalist officer Francisco Caamano.

As conference organizer Ivan Rodriguez noted during a visit to a monument to Caamano, For five months the Dominican people resisted the armed forces of the worlds most powerful nation. Several conference organizers, like Rodriguez, were veterans of the 1965 upsurge, including Vicenta Velez, a fellow combatant and widow of Caamano.

Also on display was a photo exhibit marking the 100th anniversary of the first U.S. military occupation of the Dominican Republic, 1916-24, which coincided with the U.S. occupation of neighboring Haiti.

One of the Puerto Rican delegates was Carlos Padilla, who was jailed together with Nationalist Party leader Pedro Albizu Campos after a 1950 pro-independence revolt on the island. When the Cuban revolutionary government took power in 1959, Padilla was asked by his friend and comrade Ernesto Che Guevara to help launch the Cuban news agency Prensa Latina.

Class struggles unfolding today

Throughout the three days, participants exchanged views and experiences not only about defense of the Cuban Revolution but about class struggles unfolding in the world today.

Some of the participants are activists in the fight against deportations of Haitian workers and the denial of citizenship rights to many Dominicans of Haitian ancestry, a struggle that continues to mark politics in this country. Among them was journalist Maribel Nunez, who made available informational literature by groups such as Dominicanos por Derecho (Dominicans by Right).

Conference organizers had expected nearly 40 delegates from Haiti. The two who did attend reported that one factor limiting participation from their country is that Dominican authorities are charging Haitians $230 for an entry visa, compared to $10 for visitors from the United States and other countries.

A sizable part of the Puerto Rican delegation were members of the youth groups of the Hostos National Independence Movement (MINH), Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP) and other organizations. They described their experiences in protests in response to the political and economic crisis gripping the U.S. colony.

Lenna Ramirez, a University of Puerto Rico student active in the Hostos Youth, said they find increased receptivity among workers and youth to the struggle against U.S. colonial rule and to discussing the pro-independence perspective.

Among the Dominican delegates were farmers from Azua and Monte Plata involved in Articulacion Nacional Campesina (National Peasant Network) and CONAMUCA (National Confederation of Peasant Women), which are fighting for access to land, water and credit, and against discrimination.

Conference delegates from different groups brought literature tables and sold books, posters, T-shirts, and CDs on a range of subjects. Books brought by members of the Socialist Workers Party in the United States flew off the table on subjects ranging from the fight for womens rights to Maurice Bishop and the Grenada Revolution, the Cuban Revolution, Malcolm X, the 1930s Teamsters struggles and U.S. politics today.

The conference adopted a Final Declaration urging actions internationally to demand that the U.S. government lift its trade and travel sanctions against Cuba and return Guantanamo Bay to Cuba. It called for eliminating U.S. laws and policies that encourage Cubans to migrate to the United States outside legal channels and that seek to lure Cuban doctors to desert volunteer medical missions abroad.

The declaration expressed solidarity with Venezuela, with the fight to release Oscar Lopez and other political prisoners in the U.S. and around the world, and with the fight for the withdrawal of foreign troops of the so-called United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti.

The next continental conference will be held in 2018 in Nicaragua. European and African regional conferences in solidarity with Cuba are scheduled for later this year.





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SWP candidate Hart meets Calif. farmers, farmworkers

FRESNO, Calif.Ive learned a lot from farmers and farmworkers here about the challenges they face, Osborne Hart, Socialist Workers Party candidate for vice president, told the

Hart visited the 40-acre farm of Will Scott, president of the African American Farmers of California, Aug. 15.

The small farmer is being hit hardest by the years-long drought in California, Scott told Hart as they walked through the dusty field where Scott will soon plant okra and black-eyed peas. Wealthy farmers can afford to drill deeper for water, he said. The small farmer cant.

Hundreds of Laotian-born Hmong farmers are among those struggling to stay on the land. Most of them farm rented land using shallower wells. They have been the first driven out of their livelihood as wells dry up.

Far from helping the small farmer, Scott said, state regulations often make things worse. Laws limiting plowing to certain times in the name of holding down the dust are burdensome on a small farm, he said. Another onerous regulation forces farmers to pay for testing water for impurities and for cleaning up the water if the tests require it. Everything is put on you, he said, even if you didnt cause the problem.

Hart pointed to the example of Cuba, where workers and farmers made a revolution. Farmers organizations help decide government policy there, Hart said. Farmers can get loans they need, and they cant lose their land. It brings home the need for workers and farmers to organize a revolutionary party to take power away from the capitalists here.

Describing what Black farmers face despite winning a long-fought lawsuit, Scott said, They give you enough credit to hang yourself.

Campaigning door to door Aug. 14 Hart and supporters met Alicia Martinez, a farmworker for 17 years, who told Hart she and her co-workers hope to get a union at their workplace to improve conditions and pay.

Her neighbor, Pablo, described difficulties getting the company to pay for medical care when he was injured working in the fields.

We need to fight for full medical coverage for all workers, Hart said, and extend solidarity to all those fighting for a union and a contract.

At a local diner Hart met with Roger Centeno and Johnny Ramirez, both active in the fight against cop brutality. Police killed Centenos unarmed brother Freddy last year. A Sept. 3 vigil will mark the one-year anniversary of his death and press the fight to hold the cops accountable.
Fla. workers discuss reality in US, Cuba

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.  When Socialist Workers Party presidential candidate Alyson Kennedy campaigned in South Florida, construction worker David Castro invited her and Cindy Jaquith, SWP candidate for U.S. Senate, to visit him Aug. 6 at the trailer park where he lives. When they arrived Castro was grilling at the parks annual barbecue.

When members of the SWP knocked on Castros door last spring he subscribed to the Militant and later renewed the subscription, bought a copy of Are They Rich Because Theyre Smart? Class, Privilege and Learning by SWP National Secretary Jack Barnes, and convinced a neighbor to subscribe.

Castros neighbor Carlos Delgado, a Ft. Lauderdale airport food-service worker, told Kennedy he was having a tough time getting by on $8.35 an hour. He arrived with his wife and children from Cuba 10 months ago.

Kennedy, who once worked a similar job at the Chicago airport, agreed workers need higher pay and unions.

We have a union, Delgado said, but the officials dont do anything to improve conditions. In Cuba, unions help the workers.

I visited Cuba for the May Day celebrations as part of a delegation of mothers and relatives of youth killed by the police in the U.S., Kennedy told him. Delgado nodded his head, saying, In Cuba there is little violence of any kind, and the police there dont kill people.

Kennedy asked Castro about his take on the elections. Its like were on a plane, but in different seats, he replied. The rich sit in the first-class seats, the curtain is closed, they turn their backs on us and never look at the conditions we are going through. No one is dealing with our problems.
(Socialist Workers Party campaign statement)

Join Mine Workers protest Sept. 8!

The Socialist Workers Party urges workers to get on buses or join caravans heading for Washington, D.C., for the Sept. 8 United Mine Workers of America rally to fight coal bosses continuing efforts to eliminate health care and pension benefits for thousands of retired coal miners and their families.

UMWA members have tirelessly fought attempts by the owners of coal mines to inflict devastating blows on medical care miners won in massive struggles  for themselves and their communities.

It took big labor battles to win the health and welfare fund, paid for by royalties on coal production, to cover pensions and medical care, including the strike of 400,000 union coal miners in April 1946.

With the world contraction of capitalist production and trade and the steep fall in the price of coal, money flowing into the health and retirement fund has slowed and many coal bosses are using bankruptcy laws  which prioritize creditors and give short shrift to workers  to tear up union contracts and end pension and health care obligations to miners.

I joined thousands of active and retired miners and their supporters in a series of UMWA-organized marches in 2013 to protest attacks on retired miners benefits by Peabody Energy and its spinoff, Patriot Coal. The ruthless capitalist owners of Peabody placed all their UMWA-organized mines in Patriot, then used bankruptcy laws to attack workers gains.

The Sept. 8 action will speak not only for tens of thousands of coal miners but for millions of workers whose pensions have been threatened or reduced and millions more whose Social Security benefits fall far short of providing enough to live on.

The action will underline the importance of organizing labor unions and using their power, including in the fight for lifetime health care for all.

Actions like this increase the confidence of the working class. They strengthen our ability to build a movement capable of taking power out of the hands of the capitalists, establishing a workers and farmers government and joining the worldwide struggle for socialism.
(Socialist Workers Party campaign statement)

Stop the attacks on Muslims, mosques!

The Socialist Workers Party condemns the cold-blooded assassination of Imam Maulama Akonjee and his friend Thara Uddin as they left a mosque in Ozone Park, Queens, Aug. 13. We call on workers, farmers and defenders of democratic rights to condemn this vicious attack. We call for the arrest and prosecution of whoever is responsible.

This attack and others on Muslims and mosques are the inevitable consequence of the climate created by the U.S. capitalist rulers and their government. They promote anti-Muslim hysteria to serve their war aims and to justify spying on mosques and Muslims by the FBI, New York City cops and other government agencies. The fact is that most victims of Islamist terrorism are Muslims. We oppose police spying. History has shown it is aimed above all at the working class and our unions.

Washington talks about peace while escalating endless wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria. The Pentagon  with President Barack Obamas personal supervision  uses drones to assassinate anyone it decides to, acting as judge, jury and executioner and killing hundreds of civilians along the way. And this doesnt include those killed in other U.S. airstrikes and bombings. Both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump and their parties endorse this.

While Obama has criticized Trump for his demagogic remarks slandering Muslims, his administration has put thousands of Muslims on the no-fly list and denied many of them visas to enter the United States because of their faith.

As the worldwide capitalist economic crisis deepens with no end in sight, there will be more attacks on democratic and political rights and on workers and our unions at home, as the U.S. propertied rulers accelerate trade wars and shooting wars abroad.

To defend its interests, the working class must vigorously oppose the U.S. war drive and attacks on democratic rights. An injury to one is an injury to all.
It may not be the safest watering hole in the Galaxy, but it definitely is the liveliest. Now Hollywood is getting its very own Mos Eisley Cantina: a Star Wars-themed pop-up called the Scum and Villainy Cantina.

Although its normally found on the planet Tatooine, luckily for us the Cantina has been relocated somewhere a bit closer to home (and actually on this planet).

website Reservations are said to be coming soon on their, and the pop-up itself will debut this winter. Fingers crossed, but you never know  bounty hunters are notoriously untrustworthy.

What you can rely on is an entirely immersive Star Wars-themed experience that promises to be so much more than just a bar. Every reservation will give you two drinks, a souvenir pint glass, a Scum and Villainy challenge coin and who knows what else. Costumes are encouraged, which will no doubt make the experience as inter-galactic as Los Angeles can get.

Finally this storm trooper will have somewhere appropriate to go (Niall Carson/PA)

So what is a challenge coin? Its just another way that S&V are making their pop-up such an intriguing new opening. There will no doubt be a myriad of ways to trade the coin when youre in the bar, but you can also save it and return during open seating (11pm to 2am) and get in for free.

Immersive pop-ups are all the rage right now  just think of the huge success Secret Cinema has enjoyed in London.

Last year it put on its own Star Wars-themed event, giving fans a chance to fight storm troopers, haggle with Jawas in the desert, and yes, enjoy a few cocktails before watching the movie. This comes hot off the heels of the reboot Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Disney/Lucasfilm Ltd/PA)

For Star Wars fans, the Scum and Villainy Cantina is the ideal place to wile away your time before the next movie Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is released in December this year.
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16 officials accused of hiding assets

BANGKOK: The National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) has accused 16 local authority officials of deliberately not disclosing some of their assets and liabilities in declarations to the anti-graft agency.

corruptioncrimeculturepolicemilitary

By Bangkok Post

Saturday 20 August 2016, 01:13PM

The National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) has accused 16 local authority officials of deliberately not disclosing some of their assets and liabilities in declarations to the anti-graft agency. Photo: PR Dept

All holders of political positions must declare their assets and liabilities to the NACC when they take and leave office, as well as one year after leaving their position, for the commission to scrutinise any unusual increase.

Commissioners say that in the past month, 16 individuals have refused to divulge their assets list. The list includes three local officials from Chon Buri; two each from Kanchanaburi, Patthalung, and Sakon Nakhon; and one each from Chainat and Ranong. Others occupied offices in Nakhon Sawan, Pichit, Petchabun, Kalasin, and Nakhon Ratchasima.

Their names and cases have now been forwarded to the Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Political Office-Holders, the NACC said yesterday.

Judges will determine whether the officials tried to conceal an unusual accumulation of assets during their time in office. If found guilty, they will be dismissed and banned for five years from holding any new post. They will also face a jail term up to six months and/or a fine up to 10,000 baht.

Meanwhile, commissioners also ruled on 20 corruption cases, in 19 provinces in total, including one case involving an executive of the state-owned Krungthai Bank.

According to the NACC, Sommanat, or Thanapop Chutima, claimed to be a dealer in the sale of a land plot and kept the commission fee for himself. Mr Sommanat has been fired by Krungthai's board.

Two employees of the Excise Department were also accused of letting a tobacco retailer, selling imported products without an appropriate licence, off the hook, in return for kickbacks.

They are accused of breaching the Criminal Code.

The NACC also ruled on cases involving local officials in Nakhon Sawan, Lop Buri, Samut Sakhon, Pichit, Sukhothai, Chiang Rai, Chiang Mai, Phayao, Nakhon Ratchasima, Bueng Kan, Maha Sarakham, Roi Et, Loei, Sakon Nakhon, Nong Khai, Ubon Ratchathani, Phang Nga and Songkhla provinces.

Read original story here.
Cambodia to offer three-year visas from next month

PHNOM PENH: The Cambodian government will soon allow foreigners to stay for up to three years on a single visa, in a bid to meet a goal of seven million overseas travellers annually by 2020, reports the Khmer Times.

Saturday 20 August 2016, 03:02PM

The Cambodian government aims to attract seven million overseas travellers annually by 2020. Photo: Manfred Werner

The three-year multiple-entry visa, a new government strategy to encourage foreigners to come to the Kingdom, will allow foreigners to stay in the country for up to three years, Minister of Tourism Thong Khon said on Wednesday (Aug 17), the report said. (See story here.)

The multiple-entry visa application will be available from September 1 to foreigners from all countries, Mr Khon said, noting that the visas would be available at different prices according to the length of stay, although pricing details of the new visas were unavailable.

The new entry visa will allow tourists and businesspeople to enter and exit Cambodia many times during the visas validity period, Mr Khon said.

They can apply for a visa in Cambodia and can travel in and out many times according to the visa they apply for. Tourists and investors can apply for a two-year stay or three-year stay with multiple entries.

Cambodia hopes to welcome at least 7.5 million foreign tourists by 2020, according to a recently announced goal. Of the targeted number, two million are Chinese and 300,000 Japanese, according to Cambodia Tourism Marketing Strategy 2016-2020.

Ho Vandy, secretary-general of Cambodias National Tourism Alliance, said the move to extend visas was part of a strategy to develop the countrys tourism sector.

It is a strategy to make the target [of seven million tourists] come true after the private sector and government work together, Mr Vandy said.

It would really help to encourage both tourists and investors, and foreigners who provide training and work in social development to come to Cambodia, he added.

For Cambodias tourism visa, people from Asean countries are currently granted a stay of 14 days to a month and tourists from other regions  the European Union and the US for example  are allowed one month. Businesspeople can currently renew their visa for a month, three months, six months or up to a year, the Khmer Times noted.
Officials demolish illegal resorts

PHETCHABUN: Authorities began demolishing illegal resorts, over the protests of owners, on Phu Thap Boek mountain on Friday morning (Aug 19), after operators of only two of the 19 premises complied with an order to remove them.

tourismconstructioncrimelandpolicemilitary

By Bangkok Post

Saturday 20 August 2016, 09:26AM

Officials remove the electricity meters at Rongtiem resort, the first premises demolished on Friday. Photo: Bangkok Post / Soonthorn Kongwarakom

A total of 650 forestry officials, local officials, volunteers and police moved in to demolish the remaining illegal resorts built on the popular mountain in Tambon Wang Ban and Tambon Ban Noen in Lom Sak.

Eviction notices were posted at 19 resorts on July 8, ordering they be removed within 30 days as they illegally occupied land owned by the Royal Forestry Department.

When the deadline expired on Aug 7 only two resorts had been dismantled and removed. New notices were posted asking owners of the other resorts to demolish their buildings by Aug 19. None complied. The number of resorts targeted for demolition was later reduced to 16.

The land on the mountain was reserved for the resettlement of Hmong hilltribe people, who later leased it to outsiders who built resorts for tourists.

Phetchabun Governor Bundit Theeveethivarak said the teams had been instructed to take a soft approach in carrying out the demolitions, which would be video-recorded. Police were deployed to ensure peace and order, he added.

The team first targeted Rongtiem Resort on Friday morning. The owner, Kunpas Pattanachatrungruj, objected and tried to stop them.

He alleged there was double-standard in play over the demolition of his premises.

Mr Kunpas argued he was given only one months notice by authorities to move out. This was insufficient to remove all the furniture and other equipment elsewhere and dismantle the premises. Worse still, it was the rainy season, which added to the difficulty of removing the buildings, he asserted.

Senior officials present stressed they were required to do their duty as ordered, to demolish illegal resorts.

They started by cutting off the electricity, removing and seizing the electricity meters and making a list of all belongings and assets on the premises. All tasks were video-taped.

Lists were completed before the items were loaded on trucks, which took them for storage at a garage in a military camp in Lom Sak district.

Hmong people and operators of other resorts in the area watched the operation, undeterred by rain and strong winds. Some took photos and video-recorded the operation.

Cholathit Surasawadi, director general of the RFD, said officials had followed proper procedures.

All illegal resorts will be dealt with the same way. There is no double-standard. Rongtiem Resort is the first to be demolished because it was the first facing legal action, and the case has already been concluded in court, the RFD chief said.

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, as the National Council for Peace and Order chairman, earlier invoked Section 44 to order the removal of all illegal buildings on the mountain.

Phu Thap Boek has become a top drawcard for tourists due to its weather and scenery. Resorts have mushroomed in the area.

Read original story here.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general/1065913/demolition-of-illegal-resorts-underway-on-phu-thap-boek
Papuan tribe preserves ancient rite of mummification

INDONESIA: Cradling the centuries-old remains of his mummified ancestor, tribe leader Eli Mabel lays bare an ancient tradition that has all but vanished among the Dani people in the Papuan central highlands.

culturedeath

By AFP

Saturday 20 August 2016, 10:00AM

Tribe chief Eli Mabel (centre) holds mummified remains of his ancestor, Agat Mamete Mabel, in the village of Wogi, in Wamena, the long-isolated home of the Dani tribe high in the Papuan central highlands. Photo: Adek Berry/AFP

The tiny, blackened, shrunken figure he carries was Agat Mamete Mabel, the chieftain that ruled over this remote village in Indonesian Papua some 250 years ago.

Honoured upon death with a custom reserved only for important elders and local heroes among the Dani people  he was embalmed and preserved with smoke and animal oil.

Nine generations on and his descendent Eli Mabel is the current chieftain in Wogi village  an isolated hamlet outside Wamena that can be reached only by hiking and canoe.

He said the exact age of Agat Mamete Mabel was not known, but said this ancestor was the last of the village to receive such a funeral. Once common among his forebears, the ritual method of smoke embalming was no longer practised, he explained.

Christian missionaries and Muslim preachers encouraged the tribespeople to bury the corpses, and the tradition has faded as the centuries drifted by.

But Mabel is determined to retain the ancient rites and rituals for future generations.

We must protect our culture, including the ceremonies for the mummy, the way we treat it, and maintain and fire for it, the Dani tribesman said.

The mummy, decorated with pig tusks slung around the torso, a feathered headpiece, and traditional penis gourd rests in a hut known as a honai.

This wide domed, thatch-roofed hut is tended year round by a select few villagers who keep a fire burning to ensure the corpse remains dry and preserved.

The duty of caring for the mummy often falls to Mabel, he said. He spends many nights sleeping alone in the honai, ensuring no harm befalls his ancestor.

Eventually, the duty of caring for the mummy will be passed to others, he said. Mabel hopes his own children will bear some responsibility for keeping their customs alive, but worries they are far away.

I have told them they must take care of the mummy at some point in their lives, Mabel said of his four children, some living in far-off provinces in Indonesias more populated centres.

The ancient Dani tribes in Indonesias half of the island of New Guinea were cut off from the outside world until well into the 20th century. Their homeland in the Baliem Valley was isolated by steep, rugged valleys and dense highland forest.

Today, the region remains one of the poorest in Indonesia. Many tribes rely on tourism, their unique customs, traditional dress and rituals attracting visitors to their remote villages.
Phuket hotel occupancy holding steady despite bomb attacks

PHUKET: The dive in tourist bookings following the bomb attacks throughout Southern Thailand last week has been short-lived with occupancy at hotels across the island holding steady, the President of Phuket Tourist Association (PTA) said yesterday (Aug 19).

tourismChineseRussianviolencepolice

By Suthicha Sirirat

Saturday 20 August 2016, 10:48AM

Phuket Vice Governor Chokdee Amornwat was tasked with keeping envoys up to date with information relevant to tourists safety. Photo: Suthicha Sirirat

Consuls and honorary consuls from 15 countries who attended the meeting voiced their concerns about the lack of information regarding the safety of tourists. Photo: Suthicha Sirirat

PTA President Sathirapong Na Takuathoong said that occupancy was holding steady at around 70-80 per cent for hotels across the island. Photo: Suthicha Sirirat

PTA President Sathirapong Na Takuathoong delivered the news to a meeting of high-ranking police with 15 envoys in Phuket to discuss the steps taken to bolster security in the Andaman tourism stronghold. (See story here.)

The bombings in Patong and other provinces has had a small effect on tourism. We have seen some cancellations, but after a week since the incident, business has bounced back to normal. There are no more immediate cancellations and the tourists are back, he said.

Overall, tourism is good, Mr Sathirapong said.

It is still the tourism low season, but room bookings are holding at about 70-80 per cent. The number one tourist segment is still the Chinese, and Russians are second, which is good news. The Russians are coming back, he added.

However, Mr Sathirapong called on authorities to step up their efforts to prevent further such attacks.

We must find a way to prevent such incidents from happening and to rebuild the trust among tourists, he said.

Tourism business operators, hotel operators, restaurant owners and others will assist officials to provide security for tourists. We will train our staff to be vigilant and to monitor our areas, and to report anything suspicious, Mr Sathirapong explained.

Royal Thai Police Deputy Commander Gen Wuthi Liptapallop, who headed the meeting the yesterday, noted, We are concerned about the safety of tourists, so we held this meeting today with all involved. We want all consuls and honorary consuls in Phuket to trust local officials that they are doing their best to provide maximum security to all.

According to reports from the Tourism Authority of Thailand, the bombings have had no effect on Phuket tourism at all and tour operators have confirmed that the number of tourists (coming to Thailand) has not decreased since the attacks, Gen Wuthi added.

However, the one thing that needs to improve is communication and providing updated information to all. I have called on Phuket Vice Governor Chokdee Amornwat to take of this issue, he added.
Phuket Vegetarian Festival coming up in October

PHUKET: The dates for the annual Phuket Vegetarian Festival have been announced, with the world-renowned event this year to be held on October 1-9.

Saturday 20 August 2016, 04:26PM

Phuket Vice Governor Prajiad Aksornthammakul announced the dates for the 2016 Vegetarian Festival at a meeting at Provincial Hall on Thursday (Aug 18), and vowed that security will be a top priority.

V/Gov Prajiad explained The Phuket Provincial Office together with the Phuket Shrines Association and relevant government departments will organise the festival this year and we have set the dates for the festival from October1-9.

This festival is one of Phukets oldest festivals. The festival aims to preserve cultural heritage and pass on traditions down to the next generation, he said.

We set up 11 committees headed by the Phuket Governor to organise the festival. The committees will oversee areas such as security, traffic, public health, medical units, fire-cracker control and more to keep things running smoothly during the festival.

Security will be our top priority and all officials involved in this event have been advised, V/Gov Prajiad said.

We will increase security measures, especially on October 2, when we will held a prayer ceremony to honour HM King Bhumibol Adulyadej at Saphan Hin, he concluded.

The annual Phuket Vegetarian Festival is held over nine days usually in October. The event celebrates the beliefs of the Chinese community in Phuket that abstinence from meat, alcohol, sex and stimulants during the ninth lunar month of the Chinese calendar honours the gods and will deliver devotees good health and an elevated state of spirituality.

Among the best-known aspects of the festival are the various  and sometimes gruesome  ceremonies held to invoke the gods include fire-walking, body piercing and other acts of self-mutilation by Mah Song devotees, who are possessed as mediums of the gods for the duration of the festival.
Police hunt Surat Thani bomb suspects from CCTV footage as sole suspect walks free

BANGKOK: Authorities have released CCTV images of two men suspected of bombing at least at one place in Surat Thani during the attacks that shook seven southern provinces last week.

violencecrimepolicemilitary

By Bangkok Post

Saturday 20 August 2016, 06:34PM

The face of a second man suspected in the Surat Thani bombing is completely obscured in these images released by authorities. Photo: Bangkok Post

A man suspected in a bomb attack in Surat Thani is shown in CCTV footage released by police on Saturday (Aug 20). Photo: Bangkok Post

Police in the southern province put the pictures out to the public after successfully recovering them from a hard disk that had been damaged by a blast at the Taweesin Plastic retail shop. Two security cameras had recorded two men inside the shop in Muang district before the bomb went off around 5am on Aug 12.

One of them is about 165cm tall and the other man is 170cm tall. Both were wearing hats and health masks at the time so their faces are almost completely obscured.

Police are trying to find out whether they were the same people who placed two more bombs in front of the Muang District police station and the Marine Police station three hours later, although they suspected two more people in connection with the fatal attacks in the province.

Surat Thani Police Chief Pol Maj Gen Apichart Boonsrirote said on Saturday (Aug 20) that two teams of investigators were checking the routes taken by the suspects.

An initial investigation indicated that four suspects had travelled to Surat Thani from Hat Yai by an interprovincial public van on Aug 10. They all returned that night after placing the bombs with timers for explosions to be detonated later by mobile phones, he said.

One person was killed and three injured in the blasts in Surat Thani. The bomb at Taweesin caused damage of around B30 million.

Authorities have yet to capture a single suspect since the series of blasts and arson attacks in Hua Hin and six other southern provinces on Aug 11 and 12.

One man was arrested in Nakhon Sri Thammarat on Aug 13 but he was released on Thursday (Aug 18) with no charges. He immediately left for his native province of Chiang Mai.

The investigation into the incidents that killed four people and injured 37 has been chaotic and confusing so far, with military, police and government officials making contradictory statements daily about who is being sought, where and for what.

On Friday (Aug 19) the military handed over to police 15 people who had been reported earlier as possible suspects, only to admit that they had been rounded up in connection with a completely unrelated anti-government activity.

Read original story here.
Por Tor Hungry Ghost Festival underway in Phuket

PHUKET: Scores of people turned out yesterday (Aug 19) for the first of two parades to be held in Phuket Town as part of the Por Tor Hungry Ghost Festival, which began quietly last Saturday.

Chineseculturetourism

By Suthicha Sirirat

Saturday 20 August 2016, 06:06PM

Scores of people joined the Por Tor Hungry Ghost festival parade yesterday. Another parade will be held in Phuket Town on Sunday (Aug 21). Photo: Suthicha Sirirat

Scores of people joined the Por Tor Hungry Ghost festival parade yesterday. Another parade will be held in Phuket Town on Sunday (Aug 21). Photo: Suthicha Sirirat

Scores of people joined the Por Tor Hungry Ghost festival parade yesterday. Another parade will be held in Phuket Town on Sunday (Aug 21). Photo: Suthicha Sirirat

Devotees carry a sacred vessel containing the Chinese god Por Tor, the king of hell, during the parade yesterday. Photo: Suthicha Sirirat

Devotees yesterday conducted a ceremony at Queen Sirikit Park to invite the Chinese god Por Tor Gong into a sacred vessel which was then carried to the fresh market on Ranong Rd, in the heart of Phuket Town.

Joining the parade were people dressed in local Thai-Chinese garments and children carrying their gifts they had created themselves to offer to the gods for appeasement as part of the festival.

The Por Tor Festival helps to preserve the beautiful cultural traditions of Thai -Chinese local residents and pass on the practice to their younger generations. Event organizers aim to educate tourists both Thais and foreigners about our culture and beliefs and to boost tourism for Phuket Town, said Phuket City Mayor Somjai Suwansupana.

The festival, which is also celebrated as the Hungry Ghost festival elsewhere throughout Asia, upholds the age-old practice of Chinese people making merit for their ancestors, as a tradition of gratitude.

The festival commences every year from the waxing moon of the seventh month of the Chinese lunar calendar. This year the festival began on August 15 and is will conclude on August 31.

It is believed that at this time each year the gates of hell open and ancestral ghosts escape, with the chance to visit their descendants and enjoy a feast.

In Phuket, festival activities are centred around Bang Neow Shrine in Phuket Town, which is dedicated to the god Por Tor, the king of hell. Por Tor is one god not to be trifled with  above the entrance to Seng Tek Bel Shrine, also known as Por Tor Kong Shrine, located next to Baan Bang Neow School , are panels depicting some gruesome punishments handed out by Por Tor to those souls judged to be worthy of such suffering.

Also, those expecting a visit from a hungry ancestor respectfully set up tables full of food, and especially Ang Ku turtle-shaped cakes, in their homes in the hopes of appeasing the gods.

A big parade is also scheduled for this Sunday, from Queen Sirikit Park to Bang Niew Shrine, starting at 5:30pm. Motorists should avoid the area during the hour of the parade, cautioned Mayor Somjai.

The parade on Sunday will traverse as follows:

Start at Queen Sirikit Park on Thalang Rd

Turn left onto Thepkrasattri Rd and continue into Phuket Rd

Pass Surin Circle and turn right onto Kra Rd

Turn left onto Takua Thung Rd and conclude at Seng Tek Bel Shrine (Por Tor Kong Shrine), next to Bann Bang Neow School

Activities celebrating the Por Tor festival in Phuket are being held as follows:
Urjit R Patel has been appointed as the new Reserve Bank of India governor. The appointments committee of cabinet has approved the recommendation. Patel is currently the deputy governor of RBI and looks after the monetary policy, economic policy research and other duties.

Patel, born on October 28, 1963, received his doctorate in economics from Yale University in 1990) and M Phil from Oxford (1986). He was first appointed as Deputy Governor for three years in January 2013 and was given an extension this January. Prior to his appointment as the Deputy Governor at RBI in 2013, Patel was advisor (Energy and Infrastructure) with Boston Consulting Group, while he has also worked with Reliance Industries in the past. He has worked with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) between 1990 and 1995 covering the US, India, Bahamas and Myanmar desks. He will be the eighth Deputy Governor to be made Governor at RBI.

Patel's appointment will come into effect from September 4 when the incumbent governor Raghuram Rajan's term ends. Speculations about Rajan's successor were doing the rounds for the past few weeks. Apart from Patel, former Deputy Governor Subir Gokarn, Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian, NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Arvind Panagariya, former RBI Deputy Governor Rakesh Mohan, SBI Chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya and Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das were in contention for the post.

Rajan's term ends on September 4, after he surprised everyone with a letter to RBI staff announcing his decision to return to academics and not be available for a second term.

(With agency inputs)
Authorities on Saturday continued curfew and shutdown for the 43rd consecutive day paralysing life across Kashmir.

Police said curfew will remain in force in Anantnag town and parts of Srinagar city while restrictions will continue in other parts of the valley.

The state government has advised its employees to resume duties failing which they would not be given salaries for the month of August.

Employees have described the directive as "dictatorial and unjustified" given the prevailing law and order situation.

For the sixth consecutive on Friday, no prayers were allowed at the Jamia Mosque in Nowhatta area of old city Srinagar.

Senior separatist leaders, Syed Ali Geelani and Mirwaiz Umer Farooq defied detention when they came out of house arrest and tried to march towards Aaripanthan village in Badgam district.

Geelani and Mirwaiz were arrested and lodged at local police stations for some time before they were again placed under house arrest in Srinagar city.
The Indian Negotiating Team (INT) discussing the over  7.2 billion deal with France for procuring 36 Rafale combat jets has submitted its report to the defence ministry's acquisition wing.

"The INT headed by Air Marshal R.K.S. Bhadauria has submitted its report to the defence ministry's acquisition wing which will go through the commercial aspects of the deal and submit its report to the government," highly placed ministry sources told THE WEEK.

The sources said the government-to-government deal will now be carefully examined by the finance ministry and finance wing of the defence ministry, before it is sent to the cabinet committee on security headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the chief architect of the deal planned in April 2015.

The INT and the French director general of acquisition had been in talks for almost a year till April 1 this year. The Indian side, mainly guided by the deputy head of the team Rajeeve Verma, Joint Secretary and Acquisition Manager (Air), succeeded in getting a discount of almost  1 billion (Rs 7,000 crore).

The guiding principle of the government, while negotiating the deal, was that India should get the aircraft at lower prices than what the French side was offering to the UPA dispensation.

The Prime Minister is also believed to have told the Indian negotiators that they should aim to get 25 per cent through hard bargaining, which would mean that every fourth aircraft would be almost free for the country.

India had scrapped the tender for procuring 26 Rafale combat aircraft after the UPA government laid down procedures which would have resulted in the deal being delayed for another ten years without any outcome.

The UPA government had arrived at the lowest bidder by adopting the life-cycle cost of operating the aircraft and Rafale had proven to be cheaper than the Eurofighter jets offered by a four-government consortium.

India has plans of acquiring more aircraft through a Make in India programme, in which it is inviting global manufacturers to join hands with Indian partners to produce 2,200 plus planes in India.
As curfew continues in the Kashmir Valley bringing normal life to a stand still, a delegation of opposition parties from the state met President Pranab Mukherjee in Delhi on Saturday afternoon and presented a memorandum demanding initiation of a political dialogue and immediate steps to bring an end to the use of excessive force against civilians.

"The failure of the central government to acknowledge that the issue of Kashmir is largely of a political nature has worsened the already volatile situation. The central government's refusal to deal with the situation through a political approach is disappointing and can have serious long term implications on the peace and stability of the state," said the memorandum.

Senior CPI(M) leader Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami, who is part of the delegation, told THE WEEK that they had apprised the president of the situation in the Valley and expressed their deep grief over the mindless use of force by the central and state governments against the civilians. The situation in the Valley remained volatile after the death of scores of civilians in clashes with security forces.

Tarigami said the response of the central government as well as the state government had not only been inadequate but also irresponsible. He said the delegation had asked president Mukherjee to prevail upon the central government to initiate a political dialogue to resolve the situation as well as put an immediate stop to the use of arms like pellet guns against the protesters.

"We request your Excellency to impress upon the central government to initiate a credible and meaningful process of political dialogue without any further delay. We also request you to influence the central and state governments to stop the use of lethal force against civilians in the Valley," said the memorandum.

The delegation from Kashmir comprises leaders from the National Conference, Congress, CPI(M) and Democratic Party Front among others. The delegation is led by former chief minster Omar Abdullah who has already demanded a judicial inquiry into the killings of civilians, and has accused both the NDA government at the Centre and the BJP-PDP led state government of failing to control the situation.

The delegation, however, has not stressed for any inquiry in its memorandum. The delegation is expected to meet leaders of all political parties in the capital as well as former judges of the Supreme Court seeking their support to resolve the problem.

CPI national secretary D. Raja, who had participated in the all party meet called by Prime minister Narendra Modi earlier this week, said the BJP government was not clear on how to resolve the problem and was not keen to spell out the political initiatives.

"The situation is very grim and the agitation has spread to the countryside where children in the age group 10-15 years are agitating on the streets," Raja told THE WEEK. On the Opposition parties' demand to send an all party delegation to Kashmir, Raja said the government had told them that the groundwork had to be done before such a visit.

"The government is trying to control the situation by force, using the central paramilitary forces, and that is why the curfew continues," he said adding that the need was to initiate a political process at the earliest and initiate a dialogue with all sections of people and all the stakeholders to restore peace and normalcy in the Valley.
e-Health: Create your own health archive in the Cloud

Now, you can create your own health archive of all medical recordsin the cloud. Medical tourism and healthcare player Bonanza Healthcare has launched Digital Health Records (DHR), a platform that promises to transform the way health care is delivered and compensated.

Information is available to patients, health professionals and hospitals whenever and wherever it is needed. The health management service enables safely storing, viewing and sharing your health related records and information online. Users can enter their health profile with the 1 GB of free cloud storage to manage the reports which are then easily shareable with health care providers, either through email, SMS or other mobile and digitally communicable mediums. It keeps a regular track of all your health related aspects. You can share reports online with your doctor, take a second opinion or reduce the need for follow up appointments. 'Bonanza Health' runs on a trial version for 2 months, and once this is over, users need to pay Rs 500 for their health card to get registered and provide access to the application.

Digital Health Record is available through the mobile application Bonanza Health, in Google Play and Apple App Store.

e-Money: Your own finance manager



'Know how much you spend and what you spend on using Money Views automatic, SMS based money manager. Create budgets, get bill reminders, pay bills on the go and view all your bank account balances and credit card outstanding on one screen' That is what the app Money View, promises: a fun and easy to do personal finance management.

The app has recently added a new feature: e Split Group. It enables users to easily keep track of all expenses that they are sharing with friends. The feature lets users tag their friends on a particular spend, so the user knows exactly how much their friends owe them. With friends and colleagues eating and partying out together, this feature will make splitting bills and keeping track of finances easy. The app incorporates the users phonebook contacts; so when one tags ones friends, it is against their numbers. Once tagged, the app will send an SMS to friends about how much they owe, and for what. The Money View android app (available on Google Play) is a simple way to stay in control of your money.

Neighbourhood tutor + digital content = exam success



Mumbai- based Genext Students, offers what it calls India's first hybrid tutoring platform, combining real tutors with digital content: Tutor Connect. Its offering spans the curricula of four educational boardsCBSE, ICSE, Rajasthan Board and Uttar Pradesh Board

Tutor Connect helps parents and students locate the best tutors in their vicinity and assists them to connect via a technology platform. The team aggregates, verifies and brands individual home tutors, lending added credibility. Its digital content includes study material in English as well as vernacular languages like Hindi, assessments and intensive analytics tools.

The young co-founders Ali Asgar Kagzi and Asad Daud realised that one way of increasing the efficacy of digital content was to ensure that it also brought along resourceful guidance from teachers. The company was listed among the top 40 edu-tech startups in the entire Asia Pacific region by Startup Daily in 2015. Find the Genext Students app on Android.
It was an educational evening with potentially life-saving ramifications for more than a dozen Rabbonim from the Passaic area who attended a conference arranged by Agudath Israel of New Jersey. The event introduced local Rabbonim to the many services provided by Chayim Aruchim, a division of Agudath Israel of America. The gathering was held at the Yeshiva Ktana of Passaic Girls school and followed similar gatherings for Rabbonim in Lakewood and Edison area.

The purpose of this meeting was to inform Rabbonim of the nuances, questions and difficulties that arise in end of life situations, explained Rabbi Shmuel Lefkowitz, vice president of Community Services for Agudath Israel of America.

When a Rav is approached for a medical psak, he needs to have a comprehensive grasp of all the issues so that he can pasken accurately, added Rabbi Avi Schnall, New Jersey director of Agudath Israel of America.

Opening remarks were delivered by Mr. Duvy Gross of Passaic who shared his own experiences as the owner of Regency Nursing and Rehabilitation Centers which has several New Jersey locations. Mr. Gross shared the many pressures he faces from insurance companies who encourage him to prioritize cost over life saving measures.

That same sentiment was echoed by Dr. Chaim Gejerman, a well known radiation oncologist affiliated with Hackensack University Medical Center, who stressed the importance of culturally sensitive medical services. Dr. Gejerman lamented the lack of emphasis on the value of life exhibited by some medical professionals, as well as the financial pressures from insurers that influence health care decisions.

Rabbi Gedaliah Weinberger, chairman emeritus of the board of Trustees of Agudath Israel of America, shared several of Chayim Aruchims success stories, instances where their intervention literally saved the lives of those who had been written off by the medical community. In one case, the family of a very sick individual consulted with a posek who was grappling with giving them the go ahead to discontinue life support based on the information he was provided. One family member reached out to one of Chayim Aruchims poskim who understood immediately that the information had been presented incorrectly. The Chayim Aruchim Rov further clarified the situation, contacted the primary posek and the correct psak was issued. Rabbi Weinberger explained that it is only because Chayim Aruchims Rabbonim are so well educated in the medical field that they know how to ask the relevant questions, a skill that has literally saved lives.

Rabbi Eliezer Gewirtzman, a member of Machon Chayim Aruchim the organizations rabbinic advisory board, presented the halachic issues in end of life situations, advising participants of particular questions that should be asked, particularly in cases that involve feeding tubes and dementia as well as other factors that can play a crucial role when paskening shaylos of this nature.

Finally, Rabbi Schnall discussed the importance of completing a halachic medical directive, particularly in light of the recent initiative in New Jersey to legalize assisted suicide. The proposed law, which has already passed the New Jersey Assembly, would give patients who are told they have six months or less to live the right to self administer life-ending drugs and would create additional pressures to discontinue treatment of those who are deemed to be in the final days of life.

Feedback from the conference was extremely positive, noted Rabbi Schnall, with several contacting the Agudah office to thank them for hosting the event.

Many Rabbonim are unfamiliar with the realities of end of life situations, explained Rabbi Schnall. The feedback we got was tremendous with several Rabbonim telling us that they have been approached with questions in the past about situations of this nature and that there were many issues here that they were simply not aware of.

(YWN Desk  NYC)
A majority of countries on a U.N.-mandated panel on Friday called on the U.N. General Assembly to consider launching multilateral negotiations on nuclear disarmament, voting in a process that has been boycotted by the worlds nuclear-armed powers.

Thai ambassador Thani Thongthakdi, who chaired the Open-Ended Working Group on Nuclear Disarmament, hailed a strong signal but said many countries would have preferred consensus among voting members on an agreement that will have little impact unless nuclear powers are also on board.

The panel voted 68 to 22, with 13 abstentions, on Friday on a broad-ranging text that among other things recommends that the General Assembly take up efforts toward launching multilateral negotiations on nuclear disarmament at its next meeting.

Nuclear-armed powers including Russia, China and the United States have rejected the process. Japan, which is sensitive about nuclear issues after experiencing two atomic bomb strikes in World War II, abstained from the vote.

Toshio Sano, Japans ambassador to the U.N.s Conference on Disarmament, praised many positive elements to the text, such as calling for education about nuclear disarmament, but said envoys didnt devote enough time toward trying to reach consensus.

We are deeply concerned that the adoption by voting will further divide the international disarmament community and undermine the momentum of nuclear disarmament for the international community as a whole, he told the body after the vote.

Alyn Ware, who coordinates the advocacy group Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament, said the working group was split in two camps: A hard- line faction favoring a treaty that calls for the abolition for nuclear weapons right now, and another preferring incremental measures.

Ware called the vote a good thing, but said the countries that support a treaty will now face a tough task of convincing nuclear-armed nations to join the process.

If you just have a treaty adopted by non-nuclear states, the nuclear weapons states and allies could ignore it, he said, calling for pressure on nuclear-armed powers to adopt no first use policies, move toward banning use, cut their arsenals and give up the idea that you have security by threatening to blow up others.

In the United States, the Obama administration has been considering instituting a no first use policy before Obama leaves office, but has faced criticism in Congress and beyond and isnt expected to move quickly to institute it.

(AP)
The White House says President Barack Obama will travel to Louisiana on Tuesday to survey damage caused by historic flooding that killed at least 13 people and sent thousands to shelters.

Obama has come under heavy criticism from some in Louisiana for continuing his New England vacation while parts of the state suffered after another major natural disaster.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and running mate Mike Pence visited flood victims on Friday.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton called Louisianas governor on Friday to discuss the situation and said the relief effort cant afford any distractions.

The White House announced Obamas trip Friday after he was briefed by Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, who visited Louisiana on Thursday.

(AP)
Alastair Brown is a man on a mission. Appointed as chief executive of Lombard Risk Management in December 2015, he is determined to make the business a market leader in the provision of software to banks and insurers. If he succeeds, Lombard shares should rise considerably from their current 7.75p.

Midas tipped the shares in June 2011 at 7p. The stock rose to more than 15p by March 2015 before the company issued a profit warning, chief executive and founder John Wisbey resigned and the board was restructured.

Under Brown's stewardship, Lombard has been streamlined, focused and placed in a strong position to deliver substantial growth.

Costly: Work outsourced to Shanghai is returning to Britain

The firm spent many years developing a range of technology products for the financial services industry.

But as a relatively small business, it spread itself too thin. Now Brown is focusing on two products  one of which, Colline, helps banks and insurers to trade financial derivatives, while the other, AgileReporter helps them to file the right documentation for regulators globally.

On the derivatives front, regulation has been severely tightened up since the financial crisis, so firms can only trade them if they can prove that their balance sheets are strong.

Calculations are complex and change all the time, so they need expert software to support them. Many use their own technology, but this is often slower and far less efficient than Colline.

To date, 70 firms use Colline, ranging from small fund managers to international banks, but over the next few years the number of customers should rise substantially.

All financial firms have to have software in place to manage derivatives trading and Colline is considered the best in the market.

There is also real potential for AgileReporter. Filing the correct documentation to regulators is mandatory for banks and insurers and again, Agile is faster and more cost-effective than old, in-house systems.

Lombard already has 250 customers for Agile, but recently signed an agreement with Oracle under which the US software giant will offer Agile as part of a package of products that it sells to financial firms globally.

This should boost Lombard's revenues significantly, particularly as Oracle has 500 bank customers already, which will now be offered Agile.

Lombard raised 8million on the stock market in June, partly to fund investment in Agile and Colline, but also to help set up a software development centre in Birmingham.

The company's technology work had largely been outsourced to Shanghai. Brown is bringing most of it back to the UK because there are lots of good people here; Birmingham is closer to customers than Shanghai; and Chinese offices are no longer a cheap option.

Sales are expected to jump by 35 per cent to 32million in the year to March 31, 2017, though the company is not expected to make a profit. In the year to March 2018, however, brokers forecast sales of 40million with profits of 1.8million, rising rapidly in subsequent years.
Marks & Spencer's performance is expected to hit the doldrums this year and may not recover until 2020 at the earliest, according to worrying new forecasts.

Figures which have been collected from a host of banks and stockbrokers, say profits could fall 12 per cent to just over 600million in the financial year to March 2017.

Analysts expect them to stay at that level for at least another two years despite M&S paying former chief executive Marc Bolland more than 17million during his six-year tenure to turn the performance round.

In the doldrums: Marks & Spencer could see profits fall by 12% in the year to March 2017

Retail experts said the situation is disappointing after Bolland spent 2.3billion re-engineering the firm's supply chain and online business.

New boss Steve Rowe, who has previously been widely credited with reinvigorating the retailer's food business, has taken personal control of the clothing business in an effort to stop sales shrinking.

'I think Bolland took M&S backwards on many fronts and spent a lot of money in the process,' said retail expert Richard Hyman. 'Rowe is a significant upgrade, but there are no silver bullets to restore M&S's fortunes.

Former M&S boss Marc Bolland was paid more than 17m during his six-year tenure to turn the performance round

'There are lots of things that need to be done and it's going to take a lot of time. One key imperative for Rowe is to be crystal clear with the City about the size of the task and how long it will take.

'You can't change the fortunes of a company this size quickly. It would be difficult anyway, but in the current market the difficulties have multiplied.'

But he added that, with grim times expected for the high street, 'if M&S stands still over that time, it could still outperform many high street rivals'.

Jonathan Pritchard, an analyst at stockbroker Peel Hunt, said few expect Rowe to return M&S to its 'halcyon days' in the 1990s when the firm had a 'love affair' with the British public.

He said: 'These forecasts are based on the view that like-for-like declines in clothing will persist.'

But he added: 'Expectations are so low that if he can tighten things up, generate some like-for-like growth in the medium term and generally become a better retailer, then that will outstrip current expectations in the City.

'Some might argue that is within his reach.'
American steakhouse chain Black & Blue Restaurants has revealed a sizzling set of results  as turnover in the 12 months to October 31 last year doubled from 6.9million to 13.7million, and pre-tax profits soared almost fivefold, from 135,000 to 654,000.

Directors at the chain, which operates restaurants in Central London, said that they were 'satisfied' with the company's performance and results, saying the group was 'performing well in the current market'.

The company was founded by friends Alan Bacon and Nick Hill, who met each other in the Bahamas in 1970 and decided to start a restaurant chain.

Popular: Black & Blue operates in Central London

They went on to found the Tootsies burger chain which they sold to a private equity company for 9.5million.

Meanwhile, Salford-based brewery and pub operator Hydes has reported a 24 per cent increase in turnover to 27.7million for the year to April 3, 2016.
The retreat of banks from Britain's high streets is in full flight. Branches across the country are being axed at a rate never witnessed before as the big banking organisations seek to ruthlessly cut costs and push more people online.

In many instances, the closures are leaving villages and towns without a bank, forcing both residents and retailers to travel further afield to do their banking.

Communities that a year ago had a choice of banks have now become banking wastelands with only the local post office and the odd cash machine  banking tumbleweed  providing locals with access to cash and basic services.

Deserted: Communities that a year ago had a choice of banks have now become banking wastelands

Although some towns and villages  such as Colyton in Devon  are furiously fighting the imminent closure of their last branch, fearing it will have an adverse impact on the rest of the community, the banks are playing hardball and refusing to budge.

The Mail on Sunday has long campaigned for banks to share high street premises in communities which would otherwise be bankless.

While charities and business groups such as Age UK, the Federation of Small Businesses and Which? support such an idea, the big banks have resisted and now appear to have crushed the concept.

The Campaign for Community Banking Services, led for the past two decades by ex-NatWest banker Derek French, has quietly been dismantled  leaving the banks to steamroller through branch closures in their droves.

Last week, French confirmed the campaign's website was being taken down 'so as not to give any encouragement to communities which think they can save their branch once its closure has been announced'.

He added: 'Community banks would have been right for everyone  communities and the banks. But the battle has been lost and we must now brace ourselves for a bout of branch closures that in terms of scale and adverse impact has never been witnessed before in this country. High streets are going to take an almighty pounding.'

French is right to be gloomy. The Mail on Sunday has exclusively obtained details of the branches that two of the country's biggest banking groups, HSBC and part state-owned Lloyds, have put on notice of closure by early December. The closure lists make for frightening reading.

Last week, HSBC shut seven branches, bringing its total closures this year to 145. It has also informed customers at a further 61 outlets that their branch is being axed. Five of these 61 will close as early as this Friday.

HSBC has been the most eager among the big banks to decimate its high street network. In the past three years, it has steadily ramped up its closure programme  from 47 in 2013, 95 in 2014 to 109 last year.

This year's total  equivalent to nearly four closures per week  is already double last year's total and further closure announcements by the year end cannot be ruled out.

The bank says the closures are in response to a 40 per cent reduction in usage of its branches over the past five years  with 93 per cent of contact with the bank now made via the telephone, internet or smartphone. Some 97 per cent of cash withdrawals, it says, are via a cash machine.

Lloyds has also provided The Mail on Sunday with a list of 60 branches that will be culled by November. Closures affect all its high street brands  Bank of Scotland, Halifax and Lloyds.

And 200 branches will go next year, bringing total closures between 2014 and 2017 to 400. The closures, it says, are in response to changing 'customer behaviour'.

Royal Bank of Scotland, which embraces the NatWest brand, has shut 51 branches this year. It says there are no branches currently on notice of closure but it is busy reshaping its branch network.

The bank is creating 600 'main' branches out of a network of 1,300 where customers will be able to access the full range of services.

The rest of its branches will be 'local' outlets, offering basic services such as cash banking and with opening hours tailored 'to the needs of the local community'.

Barclays has cut 24 branches this year. Its Bexley branch in South London shuts early next month. It declined to reveal if other branches were on notice of impending closure.

Last week, we spoke with the residents of three communities where the plug is being pulled on their last branch in town.

Battle: Lloyds closure plan has caused an uproar in historic Colyton, Devon

COLYTON, DEVON

The town of Colyton in Devon prides itself on its rebellious past. In the late 17th Century, 105 of its residents backed a quest by the Duke of Monmouth to overthrow King James II.

The Monmouth rebellion failed spectacularly but it is still spoken about in the town to this day with residents labelling Colyton the 'most rebellious town in Devon'.

It is not surprising therefore that Lloyds' decision to close the only bank in town on October 12 has caused an uproar among the 3,000 residents, various local business groups and councillors.

Jacqueline McCullogh, chairwoman of the 'Promote Colyton' group, believes Lloyds should be ashamed of itself.

She says: 'We have had a bank in Colyton for some 200 years. It's part of the town's fabric as is the local pharmacy, the two convenience stores, the library and the health centre.

'By deserting us, it has put its pursuit of profits before the proud people of this great community of ours who strive every day to make Colyton great.'

She adds: 'I am sick to death of hearing about online banking and how the young are eagerly embracing it.

'But what about a more financially inclusive society where the banks not only look after the internet-comfortable but those who like or need to use a high street branch  the elderly, local retailers and charity workers who fundraise tirelessly. Colyton needs and deserves a bank, plain and simple.'

Liz Berry, parish clerk, says the bank's closure will particularly hit the elderly who will have to travel to Axminster or Seaton, seven and three miles away, if they want to use a Lloyds branch in the future.

'Public transport around here is virtually non-existent,' she says. 'So it is going to take some effort for many of our elderly residents to use these alternative Lloyds branches.

'My fear is that once these people go to Axminster or Seaton for their banking, they will do their shopping there as well. That in turn will threaten the viability of many of the shops in Colyton.'

Local retailers are not only worried about a possible downturn in business once Lloyds shuts up shop.

They are also concerned about how they will bank their takings. Cathy Richards, who runs the local newsagent's with her husband, says the bank's closure will cause them a 'real headache'.

She says: 'We run a cash-only business and rely on Lloyds to bank our takings. Given I don't drive and my husband is busy in the shop from dawn to dusk, how are we supposed to pay in our takings?

'Most of our customers are elderly. What are they going to do once the bank goes? At the moment, we have a vibrant town centre but I am afraid it will take a turn for the worse once Lloyds disappears.'

LLOYDS' RESPONSE: We invited Lloyds to comment on its decision to close its Colyton branch. It said the branch had only 46 regular weekly customers and nine in ten personal customers used other branches such as at Seaton.

It also said these customers could use the town's post office to do basic banking. Berry disputes Lloyds' statistics, as do local residents and businesses who complain about constant queues in the branch.

BLAENAU FFESTINIOG

Robert Jones's plea to The Mail on Sunday, made last week, was heartfelt: 'If there is anything you can do to help an area in dire need of a bank, we would be very grateful.'

A retired secondary school teacher, Robert has spent the last 46 years living in Blaenau Ffestiniog, Gwynedd, a town famous for its roofing slate and the narrow gauge Ffestiniog Railway that used to transport the slate to the harbour of Porthmadog where it was shipped to all four corners of the world.

Steam-rollered: Robert Jones faces a 24-mile drive after HSBC announced the closure of its Blaenau Ffestiniog branch

As long as he can remember, Robert, 73, has banked with HSBC  or Midland Bank as it was previously known. But now he doesn't know what to do, given the bank has decided its Blaenau Ffestiniog branch must close next month.

He is faced with three choices, none of which he likes  to use the local post office to do his banking; drive to HSBC's branch in Porthmadog (a round trip of 24 miles); or bank online.

Robert, recently widowed, says: 'What annoys me about HSBC's decision is that it comes just a year after NatWest pulled out of the town. To lose two banks is awful. To be left with no bank is inexplicable.

'Blaenau Ffestiniog has its economic challenges but if a community of 5,000 people does not warrant a high street bank, it does not bode well for hundreds of other towns.'

Like many people, Robert is not keen to use online banking. 'I am loath to use a banking system where I cannot see the person I am dealing with. I also do not want to leave myself open to internet fraud.'

HSBC'S RESPONSE: The bank, not deflected by an 800-strong petition against the closure, says it is doing all it can to help customers consider 'alternative ways of banking' with it.

HSBC also says customers will be able to use the local post office to bank. It boasts it has kept councillors and local MP Liz Saville Roberts fully in the picture.

BOURNE END, BUCKS

Like Blaenau Ffestiniog, Bourne End had two banks a year ago  NatWest and Lloyds. First NatWest closed and now Lloyds is shutting. In early October, the town will be bankless.

Martin Sharpe, a retired banker, lives in Bourne End and says Lloyds's decision is illogical. 'The branch is one of the busiest in this part of Buckinghamshire. I just don't understand the economics behind the closure.'

Dianne Lake, a retired personal assistant, agrees. Although she lives in Marlow, she does most of her banking in Bourne End because it is easier to park and the staff are so helpful.

She says: 'Lloyds has given no thought whatsoever to the local community. I call it dire customer service.'
Just as in family life, there are myriad ways for students to cut costs: from discounts to cooking, council tax to carrying cash.

Freshers are notorious for burning through their student loans long before the end of the first term, having little experience of budgeting and with so much temptation to spend.

So, to help you have a little more than just fresh air to survive on as you wait for the next loan installment here are a few top class tips for students heading off to university this autumn

Digs: Students spend around 59-a-month at supermarkets, and 54 on eating out and takeaways.

NUS Extra cards

Although you will automatically get student discounts in some places with just your university ID card, it is well worth investing in an NUS Extra card too.

You can sign up online on the NUS Website and it will cost you as little as 12 for a year, but you will need to upload a photograph ( It will let you use a webcam picture as long as it is good enough quality, however).

The card opens the gates to over 150 offers and discounts in places such as Amazon, ASOS, Spotify, superdrug, Dominoes and you could even save on cinema tickets - Odeon cinemas offer 25% off.

Discounts are typically around five or 10 per cent.



It might also be worth checking out the UNiDays website which also offers online access to student discounts that will get you money off in a wide range of shops - particularly good for high-street fashion.

Other discounts, vouchers etc.

Students get bombarded with offers, particularly during 'freshers week' - a seven-day (or more) welcoming party for new arrivals at the start of the academic year. You should take full advantage!

It's only when you stop being a student that you realise how good some of these are. There are some great sites out there to help cut costs.

One of the best is Student Beans - a little hub of discounts and deals specifically aimed at students. But try not to spend on anything you don't need. This can be a real temptation with vouchers.

It is also a good idea to check out The Student Room which hosts student forums where people often share money-saving tips.

You might also find some attractive discounts using a discount voucher website such as VoucherCodes or My Voucher Codes.

DON'T FORGET CASHBACK Although many people remain skeptical about how cashback websites work there are no hidden traps. You simply sign up with your email address and search their websites to find deals on your chosen products or from your favourite retailers. You can find cashback on anything from clothes, household bills, mobile phones to insurance and it won't affect your student discount either. Then all you need to do is click through to the retailers website and they will track your purchase to earn you cashback. Topcashback and Quidco offer the best deals and often have attractive rates.

Council tax & TV licence

Students get exemption from council tax when living in halls, or if everyone in a privately rented house is a student. If living with non-students, although the council tax bill may be reduced, they do have to pay.

The local council will provide more information.

Don't be tempted to chance it without a license, even if you only watch the odd programme on your TV here and there as it will cost you up to 1,000 if you get caught.

Legally you must have a TV Licence costing 145.50 a year to watch normal TV or a live broadcast online. From September you will also need one to watch some online 145.50

If you are not going to be in your student digs over the summer months you can get a part refund - for details check the TV licensing website.

Health costs

Students can get help with health costs such as free prescriptions, dental treatment and eye tests  Check the NHS website for more details. In Wales, prescriptions are free for everyone and dental check-ups are free if you are under 25.

16-25 railcard

This is an absolute must for every student. It gives you a third off rail travel across the UK and can save hundreds of pounds over the course of a degree.

The 16-24 railcard costs 70 for three years, making it a real money-saver.

If you have taken out a student account with Santander, don't forget you get one for free for four years.

Cooking

Stock up on a few basic recipes from your parents  you will save money when you shop if you know the ingredients you need to buy rather than wandering round and putting anything and everything into your trolley.

Students spend around 59-a-month at supermarkets and 54 on eating out and takeaways according to research - so Although it is hard to resist a good takeaway after a night out to soak up the alcohol, try not to order in too often.

A per month limit on takeaways and restaurant visits is a good idea, too (see budgeting).

Another great tip is to cook in groups. Rustling up a big meal is less work all-round and saves cash. Plus you get a bit of variety by eating other people's specialities.

Making meals in bulk and then freezing them also helps last-minute pizza takeaway temptation when the fridge is empty. Another tip: write a shopping list before doing the house/flat grocery shopping, and eat before going  this limits the chance of costly impulse purchases and keeps outgoings to a minimum.

Nights Out: Only taking cash out will avoid much of the temptation to become over generous with good looking strangers when your drunk

Nights out

Students are always going to party  and there's nothing wrong with that. The key is to realise how much it costs and budget for it.

Top tips: a) only spend cash, and b) don't take too much out. When the beer goggles kick in, it's easy to keep spending. Only taking a set amount of cash means you can't buy a 60 bottle of champagne for that attractive group of strangers.

Hangovers feel even worse if there's a gaping hole in the bank balance to go with them.

Feeling the pinch? Write a list

If you are feeling the pinch, a simple and helpful exercise is to write down every expense over the course of a week.

It will help identify exactly where your money is going and where it's possible to cut back or opt for cheaper alternatives.

There are even some helpful budgeting apps and online tools you can use that will break down your spending for you in to categories.Try OnTrees which is recommended by NUS.

Books

Textbooks are expensive. Wherever possible, use books from the library to save money.

If a book's in high demand, order it in advance or photocopy the necessary pages - it will generally work out cheaper than buying it.

Make sure you keep any eye on notice boards for second hand book sales and hit up your course mates to see if you can borrow or photocopy coursebooks they have bought.

Amazon isusually the first port of call for discounts. But, try discount online retailers like Abe Books as well, and even second hand shops.

There are also some price comparison sites that are worth having a look at - Best Book Price is probably your top bet - it pinpoints the best deals across the web.

Don't return books late. If it happens, pay the fine immediately - unpaid fines add up. Oh, and re-sell old books to students in the year below  a great little source of income.

It is worth seeing if you can flog them online too - Amazon is of course a good bet, as is gumtree and you could also try Fatbrain , Biblio and SellStudentStuff.

Consider leaving your car at home

If you are lucky enough to have a car you may want to think about leaving it at home.

While petrol prices have been driven lower over recent months thanks to falling wholesale costs, most students studying in cities won't need a car.

Leave the car at home unless you absolutely need it. Otherwise you will end up constantly giving lifts to friends and flatmates, and that adds up.

But, if you do need to take a car, it is worth downloading the WhatGas Petrol Prices app which will point you in the right direction for the cheapest fuel in your surrounding area.

Consider using a bicycle, bus or walking instead  it will also save you on gym membership costs!

If you need a lift home, it is worth checking our Bla Bla Car where you can search for people traveling the same way as you who are willing to give you a lift for a small charge - this can be much cheaper than taking the train.
Donald Trump\s campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, resigned Friday under fire over pro-Kremlin ties and after being sidelined in a reshuffle as the Republican nominee battles to reverse sinking poll numbers.

The departure of the smooth-talking seasoned strategist, who has advised Republican presidential candidates going back to Gerald Ford, follows weeks of Trump missteps that have flung his White House campaign into crisis.

"This morning, Paul Manafort offered, and I accepted, his resignation from the campaign," Trump said in a statement, thanking him for "his great work" and proclaiming him a "true professional."

Manafort\s exit coincides what supporters call a new era in the Trump campaign following the appointment Wednesday of a right-wing news executive as CEO and the promotion of a respected pollster to campaign manager.

On Thursday, Trump shocked many by expressing "regret" for the first time for past mistakes and on Friday the campaign began airing its first television ads in a desperate attempt to chip into Democratic rival Hillary Clinton\s yawning lead in both national and crucial swing-state polls.

"The early signs are that, you know, Donald Trump 3.0 is going to work a lot better than it has in the past," former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele said on MSNBC television.

But the Clinton campaign pounced on Manafort\s resignation in an attempt to fan accusations of nefarious pro-Kremlin influence on the Trump campaign after the outgoing chairman was named in a Ukrainian corruption probe.

"You can get rid of Manafort, but that doesn\t end the odd bromance Trump has with (Russian leader Vladimir) Putin," said campaign manager Robby Mook.

"Trump still has to answer serious questions hovering over his campaign given his propensity to parrot Putin\s talking points."

Manafort, who formerly advised Ukrainian ex-president Viktor Yanukovych and lobbied for foreign dictators, was initially hired in March to avert a then-feared contested Republican convention  a situation that did not ultimately arise.

It was his first return to top-level Republican politics in 20 years  having been reportedly passed over in 2008 by John McCain, who was allegedly alarmed by his unsavory lobbying clientele.

But it seems it was an appointment that both Trump and Manafort came to regret.

Manafort sought to turn the brash-talking 70-year-old New York billionaire, who has never previously held elected office, into a figure more palatable to the general electorate as well as build up a traditional campaign structure.

Trump "was not a candidate that could be corralled," Steele told MSNBC.

"Trying to find that sweet spot where Donald could be Donald, but you can also put together the formal structures and the professional aspects of the campaign was a lot tougher for one person to do," he said.

A series of controversies, including a protracted row with the Muslim American parents of a soldier killed in Iraq, saw Trump tank disastrously in the polls.

Clinton now leads 47.2 percent to Trump\s 41.2 percent, according to an average of national polls from Real Clear Politics, and is ahead in virtually every swing state.

But as the US press published story after story of staff tearing their hair out with their boss\s seeming inability to stay on message, Trump batted aside suggestions that he should change tack.

On Wednesday, Trump appeared to sideline Manafort in appointing a Breitbart News executive, Steve Bannon, as campaign CEO and promoting veteran pollster Kellyanne Conway to campaign manager.

But even without the reshuffle, Manafort\s ties to the pro-Kremlin Yanukovych became a distraction as Trump spoke admiringly of Putin and even sensationally suggested that Moscow should hack into Clinton\s emails.

The head of Ukraine\s newly formed National Anti-Corruption Bureau, Artem Sytnyk, said this week that more than $12 million was earmarked for payment to Manafort from 2007 to 2012, although it was not clear if he received the money.

Manafort denied any wrongdoing, saying he had "never received a single \off-the books cash payment,\" or worked for the governments of Ukraine or Russia.

Steele said Manafort\s departure "makes perfect sense."

What remains unclear, however, is whether the Trump campaign can get its wheels permanently back on track.

On Friday, the ticket released its first television ads, saying Clinton\s America was one of disorder and illegal immigration.

Trump also made a second direct pitch to African American voters this week, saying they had been betrayed by the Democrats in a speech well received by his audience at his Thursday rally in North Carolina.

SOURCE. AFP
Ambridge music museum to close & go up for sale; items to be relocated
While many businesses measure success by their bottom lines only, Balance Studio's strength comes from building up their students.

'So now I'm hearing success stories,' said Valerie Smith, who co-owns the yoga studio located in Parker Square at 2907 Bob with her brother, George Berre. 'It's cool because I felt like I wanted to prepare a place for that to happen  not that I can heal or change a person. I don't know what they need, but I wanted to provide a place for them to come and experience healing and transformation and for my teachers to kind of guide them through that.'

Cathy Barrett of Wichita Falls started taking classes in October 2015 at Balance in hopes that it would increase her bone mass since yoga is a weight bearing exercise. She had been diagnosed with osteoporosis in her mid-50s. In 2014, her doctor had told her if her numbers on her bone density scans did not improve or at least stabilize, a more aggressive treatment would be needed.

'You don't want to hear that when you're in your mid-50s, and you have a whole plan ahead of you,' she said.

Barrett said she took her medication and practiced yoga three to four days a week.

'I got amazing results two weeks ago when I went back to the doctor. She said, 'The first thing I have to tell you is whatever you're doing, you have to keep it up because here's the scores,'' Barrett said.

She said was thrilled when the doctor told her that her numbers significantly increased.

Smith said they have a variety of teachers and nine different types of classes seven days a week from 5:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. for a total of 35 classes, which average 10 to 15 students in each. She also said the studio offers different levels of classes from beginner to intermediate to advanced.

'All our staff is very big on making it almost like a spa, healing center-type feel,' Smith said. 'We try to be here to listen. When people walk in the door, we want it to smell good, we want everything to be clean, and give them a good experience.'

Barrett likes the quiet, peaceful atmosphere of Balance and the personal feeling when people walk in a as well as how they are greeted.

'That's a big part of it,' Smith said. 'Carson Killingsworth (manager at Balance) knows everybody's name. People have told me that a lot  that they appreciate her (Killingsworth) greeting them by name,' Smith said.

Frances Sims had been practicing yoga for few years before she began taking classes at Balance in August 2015, when it first opened.

'I try to fit a yoga class in when traveling,' she said. 'I've gone to studios in Chicago, Philadelphia and the Dallas area. Balance, by far, has provided an environment and classes that meet and exceed other large city studios.'

Sims said that through healthy eating, and four to five classes of yoga per week, she is in the best shape she's been in over 20 years.

Smith said all of their instructors are trained. She said two are trained in Forrest yoga. One of the teachers trained in Costa Rica, and she's traveling to Bali next for more extensive training. Another instructor, Stevi Arredondo, is a physical therapist, and her Move class is designed to restore people's bodies after surgeries, illness, or lack of exercise.

Smith said people can try classes from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 20, during their anniversary celebration. They will have four 'sample classes' that last 20 to 30 minutes with a raffle for prizes in each class. She said everyone who attends all four classes will have his or her name entered into a drawing for a free one-year membership to Balance.

'What I really like about this studio is it just feels fresh and peaceful,' Sims said. 'The location is convenient and just the number of classes and levels of classes that Val provides here. You can always make it to one of the classes. You make it your own. You're not competing with anyone else. You're competing with yourself. You're just trying to improve.'
The Clydesdale horses are in town for the Ranch Roundup this weekend. I learned from reading that these magnificent creatures can get up to 18 hands tall.

Sorry, that tells me nothing. What is a hand when it comes to measuring horses?

Well, it turns out a hand by any other name is a  hand. Using a person's hand to measure goes back to Egyptian times. But, my hands compared to say, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's hands, would be tiny. So how can you effectively measure a horse? It seems this was a problem for a long time until the Brits got tired of it and in 1541 went out and measured King Henry VIII's hand on a statue. So now, a hand for standard measurement is four inches. Henry was supposed to be a big dude, but even my hand is wider measured from outstretched thumb-tip to outstretched pinkie. Apparently small hands were not the political liability then that they became in more recent times.

So, an 18-hand Clydesdale would be six-feet tall from ground to withers (the top of the back).

Speaking of feet, I know there are people who have feet that are a foot. But my foot is only about three-quarters of that, so by whose feet do we determine a foot?

This time we have to go back to the ancient Romans. Emperor Claudius Drusus's foot became the standard measurement. Claude's foot was actually more than 13 inches, so over the years the value of a foot changed and even now is not consistent all over the world. It you told a Swede a foot was 12 inches, you'd be wrong. His is 11.688976 inches. Therefore you would have put your foot in your mouth.

How about the yard? That's three feet, right? Well not exactly. This time we have to go back to King Henry I of England. Back in the 1100s, Brits were feeling they were being cheated on measurement in the market, so the yard was standardized as the length of King Henry's arm. From this we can deduce that Henry I resembled a large orangutan.

Like the foot, the yard has undergone changes over the years. In 1959, everybody finally agreed that three of Emporer Claudius Drusus' feet would be worth one of King Henry I's arms.

When it comes to the inch, we have to go back to seventh century England where the inch was the depth of a knife wound whereby the victim could claim a schilling in restitution from his attacker. That would certainly be profitable, but it seems to me it would get to a point of diminishing returns.

We humans like to measure everything to the point of absurdity. For example, in World War II a British scientist instituted a measure of resistance called the Pouter. It was named after a high-ranking naval officer who opposed everything the scientists wanted to do.

NASA uses the Garn to measure motion sickness. It's named after a U.S. senator who insisted on riding in the space shuttle  then passed out when he did. One Garn equals one episode of unconsciousness.

Thought I'd throw that in for good measure.
From as early as he can remember, Jacob Hawk had a burning desire to preach the gospel. He delivered his first sermon when he was 9 years old and his dreams became reality as an adult. Today, he is the new preaching minister for Faith Village Church of Christ.

'I was attracted to Faith Village for many reasons, but in addition to being a strong, large, biblical body of believers, the people's genuine love for one another won over our hearts,' Hawk said. 'Faith Village is led and served by great leaders.'

Hawk holds bachelor's and master's degrees in Bible from Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas. He speaks at seminars and lectureships around the United States. He is the author of four books, including 'Image of the Invisible God.' 'The Hawk's Nest: 90 Lessons for Faith and Family,' 'When Mountains Won't Move: How to Survive a Struggling Faith' and 'Blinded by Darkness.' He has also co-authored two books on preaching, 'Fit for the Pulpit' and 'Preach Better,' and has written for the 'Gospel Advocate.'

'My third book, 'When Mountains Won't Move: How to Survive a Struggling Faith,' is based on Jesus' statement in Matthew 17:20, that if we have faith as small as a mustard seed, we can tell the mountains to move and they will,' Hawk said. 'But the book questions what happens when our faith is smaller than a mustard seed, and how we deal with doubt and a failing faith. 'When Mountains Won't Move' was the most important book for me to write as a preacher. People need to know that it's OK to ask hard questions and have doubts, as long as we come back to God and believe in him with everything, achieving that 'mountain moving' faith. The book outlines ways to do that.'

Hawk has faith in his congregation that he describes as welcoming, generous, transparent, and mission-minded.

'We value the blessing of friendship and we sincerely enjoy living life together as we strive to serve God, follow Jesus, and walk with the Holy Spirit through every facet of life,' he said.

In the coming months and years, the church's mission will center on 'being about the Father's business,' as described in Luke 2:49.

'Every program, ministry and dollar of our church family will be devoted to seeking and saving the lost,' Hawk said. 'If it doesn't lead people closer to God or his word, we don't want to pursue it. We want to passionately reach out to our city to show that Faith Village cares for our community. We want to be a place where families come home.'

Hawk and his wife, Natalie, have two sons, Hayden and Hudson. The couple are expecting their third child early next year. For more information about Faith Village Church of Christ, call 692-0032.

Riding for Haiti

This will be the sixth year Ronna and Brad Prickett have ridden in the Hotter'N Hell Hundred. Ronna did skip one HHH though, the year after she shattered her elbow during a crash in the ride the previous year.

She's all healed now, thankfully, and the couple is riding 25 miles Aug. 27 as part of Race for Grace, a team that raises money for International Child Care, a healthcare organization working in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The Pricketts are members of Floral Heights United Methodist Church, but the riding team is multidenominational. The 'Grace' in the Race for Grace name is Grace Children's Hospital in Port au Prince, a leading medical facility dedicated to the treatment of children suffering from tuberculosis. Founded in 1967 by ICC, Grace Hospital treats tens of thousands of children stricken with TB, HIV and other diseases in the poorer areas of Port au Prince. The hospital provides prenatal and postnatal services and has one of the best eye surgical clinics in the Caribbean.

Ronna got involved with International Child Care when she heard about its mission in Haiti. It was 2010 and a devastating, magnitude 7.0 earthquake had struck the island, killing more than 160,000 and displacing close to 1.5 million people. She made her first visit, one year to the day after the disaster.

'I never imagined the devastation that I would see when I arrived,' Ronna said. 'Thousands of tent cities, no running water and no food. We toured these tent cities and after that, I was hooked.'

Grace Children's Hospital was destroyed in the earthquake, but Haitians and international aid workers were determined to build it back and make it even better than before.

'Our team of nurses went into these terrible living conditions and vaccinated the children,' Ronna said. 'HIV and TB are huge concerns.'

Fast forward to 2016. Now, Grace is rebuilt as a two-story hospital with inpatient beds, exam rooms and an eye clinic. The hospital takes care of about 400 patients daily and most beds are full.

'There has been a doctors strike in Port au Prince over the last few months, so Grace Children's Hospital is the only free hospital left that is taking patients, and all of the doctors are committed to work in spite of the strike,' Ronna said.

Last year Race for Grace had 80 riders. This year, the goal is 100 riders and $100,000 raised. For more information, log onto internationalchildcare.org.
One word rose to the top during the graduation ceremony of the 69th Wichita Falls Police Academy  family.

Eighteen recruits began the journey to becoming officers in February and 16 reached the end on Friday.

'When we first joined in, we were all pretty timid and didn't come together,' said Cindy Casillas, one of two women to complete the academy this year. 'It took us a while, but we've all come together as a family now.'

This year's class was larger than normal  most WFPD academies tend to have between eight and 12 recruits  and used their size as a strength.

'We learned from each other. We fed off each other and motivated each other,' Robert Reyes said. 'I feel like it was a very good academy and I'm glad we had as many people as we did.'

For honor graduate Caleb Hopkins, who completed the academy with an average of just over 97 points, he credited his fellow recruits and training staff for pushing him to perform his best. The class average was 92.5 points and all of them passed Texas Commission on Law Enforcement exams on the first attempt.

'It's a blessing and an honor to me. I couldn't have done it without these 15 other individuals and the training staff,' Hopkins said. 'They pushed everybody to be their best. It was a lot of long nights studying, for sure.'

After 26 weeks of training, physical work and plenty of tests, the 16 recruits are now heading to field training, where they'll be with an experienced officer for several months.

'It's a whole lot of tests, a whole lot of physical stuff,' Hopkins said. 'You definitely have to come together as a family. You come in as strangers and leave as one family.'

The new officers said they were ready to apply everything they've been learning over the past six months to make a difference in the Wichita Falls community.

'Some people might view police as just arresting bad people, but really you're helping people on their worst day,' Hopkins said. 'You're just trying to help everybody.'
Burkburnett police officers committed a series of errors on March 10, from the time they responded to a disturbance call that evening to the time they found 22-year-old Marcus Johnson dead, hanging in a jail cell.

The mistakes were revealed in an internal investigation report obtained by the Times Record News through an open records request. Documents show a police department in a state of confusion, compounded by a lack of leadership and non-adherence to rules regarding the treatment of prisoners.

The investigation found that a Burkburnett police sergeant left the officers on duty in a state of confusion, which probably extended Johnsons stay in the holding facility. Another officer was found to have denied Johnson the opportunity to take his antipsychotic medication, despite being told by Johnson that he suffered from several mental disorders and had tried to commit suicide just three weeks earlier.

After being left alone and unmonitored in a jail cell for two hours, an officer found Johnson had hanged himself to death using the drawstring of his pants.

One officer, Daniel Elbaum, was suspended for one day in connection with the incident. Another officer, Matt McDonald, was reprimanded, and a supervisor, Sgt. Zac Leonard, received a letter of counseling. No other disciplinary action was taken by the department.

Burkburnett police were called to the scene of a disturbance in the 200 block of South Avenue B about 6 p.m. March 10, records show. An anonymous female caller told a dispatcher that people were knocking on the door of her home, saying something about money, and that they might be armed.

Police were dispatched to the address. Leonard arrived first, followed by officers McDonald and Elbaum. Officer Roy Mullens showed up last. They found three people in a car nearby, among them Johnson.

After searching the vehicle and questioning its occupants, police found Johnson to allegedly be in possession of a fake ID and Social Security card. No weapons or other illegal items were discovered in the car. Johnson was handcuffed and taken by police to the Burkburnett city jail, which serves as a holding facility while prisoners await transfer to the larger Wichita County Jail.

But an investigative report shows a fractured response by police to the disturbance  no officer had a clearly defined role, and at least two procedural guidelines were broken at the scene by a supervisor. As part of the investigation, a Burkburnett police lieutenant interviewed the officers present at the time Johnson was arrested.

One recurring theme of the questioning was the community effort aspect of Johnsons arrest. McDonald handcuffed the man while Leonard told Johnson what offense he was being charged with. A third officer, Elbaum, was tasked with taking Johnson to the jail.

McDonald later told the investigator its not uncommon for Burkburnett police officers to arrest people in such a way. In her notes, the investigator wrote that Leonard, who was in charge of the scene, showed a lack of due diligence as an effective supervisor during the arrest and later.

Leonard also allowed a woman who was potentially a suspect to remain on her cellphone nearly the entire time police were at the scene, which showed a lack of good law enforcement judgment. Leonard failed to search the woman for weapons, despite the initial complainant telling a dispatcher she believed the people knocking on her door were armed, documents indicate.

The officers later gave differing accounts of why they were called to the address. One said there was a disturbance over stolen money; others said there was a dispute regarding baby or maternity clothes. After Johnsons death, a witness told police someone in the car was seeking narcotics.

The fragmented approach to Johnsons arrest continued when the man was brought to the city jail. Elbaum, who was in his patrol car and out of earshot when Leonard decided to arrest Johnson, ultimately was the officer charged with booking Johnson into the jail and writing a probable cause affidavit to justify the arrest.

The problem: Elbaum didnt know exactly why Johnson was being charged, or what offense he was being charged with.

Shortly after returning to the jail, Leonard left work for the day  he wanted to take some time off. McDonald later left too, as he was taking someone on a ride-along in his patrol car. That left Elbaum in charge of handling Johnson, though Officer Elbaum was never informed of what Johnson was being charged with until after Sgt. Leonard left for the evening. Officer Elbaum did not know he was responsible for completing the paperwork on Johnson until after Sgt. Leonard left ... the investigator wrote.

Elbaum began booking Johnson into the jail about 6:20 p.m. Johnson told Elbaum he had attempted suicide three times before, most recently three weeks ago. He had just been released from the North Texas State Hospital on March 1, a little more than a week before.

Johnson told Elbaum he had once tried to kill himself by cutting his arm. Elbaum asked if Johnson was depressed, then told Johnson he had previously worked in the medical field and had knowledge of mental illnesses.

Elbaum asked Johnson if he was feeling suicidal, to which Johnson said no.

An autopsy report notes that Johnson suffered from bipolar disorder, though the mans mother told police he was manic-depressive. A test conducted at the time of autopsy showed traces of methamphetamine and amphetamine in Johnsons blood.

Elbaum allowed Johnson to call his mother, and during the phone conversation, Johnson began to cry.

At one point, Officer Elbaum advised Johnson to calm down. Johnson told Officer Elbaum that his mom said Johnson was mental and that he needed medicine ... she said I need to go to the state hospital or something, because he did not have his medicine, the report reads.

At 7:14 p.m., Johnson began to cry in his cell.

Johnson asked what are you going to do with me, Officer McDonald responded, were going to take you to jail,  the report reads. Johnson asked why and Officer McDonald responded, youve already been told ... do you have any other questions? Officer McDonald then left the holding area, shut the metal door to the hallway by the male cells, then he shut the door to the main hallway just outside the book-in area.

At 7:37 p.m., Elbaum returned a call from Johnsons mother, who advised that her son needed his medicine and that she had to administer it to him because of his IQ being low. (She) stated that he just got out of the state hospital and that he is in and out of the hospital.

Elbaum told her she may be able to give her son his medication once he was taken to the Wichita County Jail, to which the woman told Officer Elbaum she knew Johnson had a right to take his medication.

Still, for unknown reasons, Elbaum refused to allow her to bring Johnson the medication. The lieutenant who conducted the internal investigation noted there is no city policy preventing prisoners from taking medication that is prescribed to them.

A review of the jails surveillance video shows the last audible sounds from the holding area came at 8:43 p.m. But McDonald closed the door to the holding area more than an hour before, which would have muffled any sound.'

At 9:21 p.m., two hours since any officer had seen Johnson alive, McDonald went to check on the prisoner, finding that Johnson had hanged himself from the bars of his jail cell using the drawstring of his pants.

McDonald called for help, and Elbaum and a constable who happened to be at the jail performed CPR on Johnson while waiting for an ambulance to arrive.

It was too late. Johnson was dead.

'Why weren't you watching him?'

Both Elbaum and McDonald were found to have violated city policy by not checking on Johnson at least every half-hour, the internal investigation found. The policy states inmates who are suspected of being suicidal or having mental issues should be monitored even more closely.

In an interview with an investigator, Leonard said he understood the policy but didnt find the half-hour checks to be especially useful.

Sgt. Leonard didnt think there was any way of stopping (a suicide) because they could hang themselves in one minute, then hang there 29 more minutes, the investigator wrote.

In his internal affairs interview, McDonald appeared to have a more lax interpretation of the policy, saying he thought inmates should be checked on every 30 minutes unless the work load permits. McDonald said if he had suspected Johnson was suicidal, he would have gotten him straight out of here, presumably to a mental health official.

He then told the investigator he felt he had done nothing wrong and that he went above and beyond McDonald stated that he didnt feel like he violated any policy.

Of the officers interviewed, Mullens had the most flexible interpretation of the prisoner monitoring policy: The 30-minute check? Yes, when time allows, he said.

Elbaum initially was hesitant to speak to an investigator about the incident, asking if he should have an attorney present for the interview. He eventually agreed to participate with the investigation.

Elbaum described Johnsons arrest and booking, noting that he asked Johnson what medication he takes. Elbaum recorded on Johnsons book-in sheet that the man suffered from depression, anger problems and bipolar disorder.

After booking Johnson, Elbaum reportedly began to write a probable cause affidavit for the arrest. Leonard had told Elbaum to charge Johnson with third-degree felony forgery for allegedly carrying fake IDs, which was problematic, because when Elbaum looked up the criminal statute for forgery, it didnt appear to reflect what Johnson was suspected of having done.

Officer Elbaum stated he called Sgt. Leonard and told him he needed help because he didnt think the elements of the crime were there, the report reads.

Elbaum was still trying to figure out how to charge Johnson when he returned a call from the mans mother, telling her she couldnt bring Johnson his medication. Shed have to wait until he was transferred to the county jail, Elbaum said.

When asked by an investigator how long he was alone at the jail, Elbaum said it was probably for 15 to 30 minutes. Evidently, Officer Elbaum had a brief loss of time, the investigator wrote, because he actually was alone at the jail for one-and-a-half hours.

It appears he did not check on Johnson once during that entire time.

Other than working on reports, Officer Elbaum has no reasoning as to why he did not conduct an observation of the prisoner as often as necessary, the investigator wrote.

In the interview, Elbaum made reference to an interdepartmental memorandum issued by the city on Jan. 26 advising officers to monitor prisoners at least every 30 minutes. He suggested to the investigator that officers check on prisoners more frequently, but added that in an incident like this, five minutes was enough time for someone to accomplish this.

The report does not indicate that any of the officers who were interviewed expressed any remorse about Johnsons death.

At 10:42 p.m., Johnsons mother called the jail again, asking when her son would be transferred to the county jail. He really needed the medication, she said, adding that she wanted to drive from her home in Wichita Falls to Burkburnett to deliver the medication.

She did not know at the time that her son had already been found hanging in his jail cell.

A dispatcher transferred the call to a police lieutenant, who told Johnsons mother that they needed to speak in person.

(She) suspected that something was wrong with Johnson and began to ask if he was okay and if he was alive. She began to scream into the phone... a report reads.

Burkburnett police traveled to the womans home to tell her, her husband and Johnsons sister that Marcus Johnson was dead.

Everyone became upset, the report says, and (Johnsons mother) fell to the ground and stated that she could not breath.

The family told police to leave, but not before demanding the answer to a question: Why werent you watching him?

RELATED: Read documents from the investigation of Marcus Johnson's suicide below.
Jim Mills, Wichita Falls

Hillary scandals 2.5. There are way too many to list, but I have condensed several . 1. Boeing Aerospace, 2009. Boeing secured a multi-billion dollar contract with Russia and 'donated' $900,000 to the Clinton foundation after Hilllary intercedes on their behalf. 2. Uranium One, a huge Canadian company controlled by Russia makes a deal brokered by Secretary Clinton and then makes 'donation' to the Clinton foundation; in return, Russia sells the Uranium to Iran. 3. Norway Gate. The government of Norway 'donated' $10-25 million to the Clinton foundation, and the State Department sends $177.9 million to Norway to build a new embassy. 4. Chevron Gate. Hillary intervened for Chevron after the government of Ecuador filed a multi-billion dollar lawsuit alleging environmental damages done by Chevron. The enforcement of the judgement against Chevron is blocked by a New York judge appointed by  you guessed it  Clinton. Is there a pattern here?

This is the same woman who stole furnishings from the Whitehouse, lied about lying.

A President Hillary will appoint Muslim judges in our country to allow sharia law in our nation. How could anyone think this woman is qualified to lead our country? Think and pray before you vote.
Shaken by the fact that he's losing, Donald Trump has fled into the parallel universe of the extreme right  and apparently plans to stay there for the remainder of the campaign. Let's see if the rest of the Republican Party is dumb enough to follow him.

Trump has reportedly been feeling 'boxed in' and 'controlled' by the few people around him who actually know something about politics. Advice from these professionals to tone it down must be responsible for his slide in the polls, he seems to believe. So he has hired as chief executive of his campaign a man named Stephen Bannon, who will not only let Trump be Trump, but encourage him to be even Trumpier.

Bannon runs Breitbart News, a website that creates its own ultranationalist far-right reality  one that often bears little resemblance to the world as it really is. As I write, the site is claiming that Hillary Clinton has some serious undisclosed health problem (her doctor says she is just fine), that one of Clinton's aides has 'very clear ties' to radical Islam (which is totally untrue) and that Clinton herself has 'clear ties' to Russian President Vladimir Putin (when in fact it is Trump who often reveals his man-crush on the Russian leader).

The site's late founder, Andrew Breitbart, once 'described Bannon, with sincere admiration, as the Leni Riefenstahl of the tea party movement,' according to a Bloomberg News profile. Riefenstahl was the brilliant filmmaker who became one of Hitler's most effective propagandists. I think the comparison is wrong; Bannon is not nearly as talented.

He is a practiced provocateur, however, with a gift for reinforcing the worldview of far-right true believers. Bannon gives readers the impression that the nation is in grave and imminent peril, that Muslims are conspiring to impose Shariah law throughout the land, that Mexican immigrants are running rampant in a wild crime spree, that only Trump can save us  and that polls showing him far behind Clinton are somehow skewed, incompetent or irrelevant.

None of this is true, not a word. It's all a paranoid fantasy, designed to exploit anxieties about demographic and economic change. And Trump has decided that his best chance of winning is to peddle this garbage, some of which he may actually believe.

So if anyone was wondering if this election cycle could get any worse for the GOP, it just did.

The fact is that there hasn't been a single national poll since July 24 showing Trump in the lead, according to the tally kept by RealClearPolitics. Clinton has also pulled ahead in all the battleground states and has become competitive in traditional Republican strongholds such as Georgia and Arizona.

It now appears to be a good bet that Republicans will lose control of the Senate. It is far too early to predict a 'wave' election that might threaten the GOP's big majority in the House, but Democrats are allowing themselves to dream. For Republicans, the two most likely outcomes of the election are bad and worse.

Trump's decision to throw in with the likes of Bannon can only increase the probability of a GOP debacle. Does it have to be spelled out for you in neon lights, Republicans? Trump could not care less about the party, and he would happily destroy it to feed his own ego.

Bannon, likewise, appears to view the Party of Lincoln as merely a vehicle for his own ambition, which is to nurture and grow a nationalist-right movement. His website is as critical of the Republican establishment as it is of the Democrats. He has no interest in making Trump more palatable to the general electorate. Like all would-be revolutionaries, he first wants to heighten the contradictions within the system he ultimately seeks to destroy.

It was perhaps foolish of me to hope that very many Republican elected officials would reject Trump on principle. But now, perhaps, more will do so for reasons of self-preservation.

Trump has made his decision. In a town hall meeting this week moderated by Sean Hannity of Fox News, Trump ignored opportunities to embrace traditional American values and instead reinforced a message of nationalism, xenophobia and fear. He offered himself as the only solution, promising, like any tinhorn strongman, that 'I have as big a heart as anybody.'

But there is no room in that heart for the GOP. Trump won't save you, Republicans. You had better save yourselves.

Eugene Robinson's email address is eugenerobinson@washpost.com. He writes for The Washington Post Writers Group.
Donald Trump on Monday gave a foreign policy speech in which he promised to curtail immigration from terrorism-breeding countries and to subject potential immigrants to 'extreme vetting,' including an 'ideological test' aimed at weeding out un-American attitudes.

'In addition to screening out all members or sympathizers of terrorist groups, we must also screen out any who have hostile attitudes toward our country or its principles? or who believe that Sharia law should supplant American law,' the GOP presidential nominee said.

What to make of Trump's proposal? Will it make America safer, or will it simply ban individuals with unpopular views?

JOEL MATHIS

Religious liberty for me but not for thee.

That's the essence of Trump's proposed ideological test for immigrants arriving in the United States.

Everybody wants to filter out terrorists and their sympathizers. There's so little debate on that point that you can easily argue the Obama administration is already subjecting many immigrants to the kind of 'extreme vetting' Trump says would be a hallmark of his tenure.

After that, though, it gets tricky: We're going to exclude Muslims who believe their religious beliefs sometimes outweigh American law? Here's the problem with that: American Christians already routinely make the claim that their religious beliefs trump the requirements of federal law. And they call these exemptions 'religious liberty.'

The hypocrisy is abundant. A few years back, Muslim taxi drivers in Minnesota  citing their religious faith  refused to carry passengers who were carrying alcohol or accompanied by dogs. Conservatives raised the alarm that 'creeping Sharia' would deny non-Muslim Americans their right to use taxis unimpeded.

Those same conservatives, however, regularly defend Catholic pharmacists who seek exemptions from dispensing birth control pills and big corporations whose leaders say their religious beliefs prevent them from providing the full range of health insurance otherwise required by law.

For American conservatives, Christians are allowed to claim fealty to a higher power than U.S. law. and Muslims aren't. Trump's ideological test would enshrine this double-standard in American law.

Trump's new 'ideological test,' it's clear, is nothing more than old-fashioned religious discrimination.

BEN BOYCHUK

Who said anything about a religious test?

Yes, liberals are suspicious that Trump's talk of an ideological screen for immigrants is really nothing more than fig leaf for his original idea he blurted months ago to ban Muslims from entering the United States altogether. Some critics said a religious test for newcomers would be un-American, to say nothing of unconstitutional.

On that last point, they are dangerously mistaken. True, the Constitution forbids religious tests for holding public office; but the immigration and naturalization statutes allow the president to consider religion among other factors when carrying out the law.

The question here really has little to do with religious liberty. Instead, the issue revolves around a basic principle of sovereignty: We get to say who enters. We get to say who stays.

If you take the American founding principles seriously, then an ideological test for newcomers isn't a repugnant idea at all.

The first generation of U.S. leaders spilled plenty of ink trying to figure out what an immigration policy should look like. They worried that foreigners who did not share a disposition toward liberty and equality under the law could overwhelm the country. Cultural assimilation was essential.

George Washington made the point beautifully in his 1790 letter to the Hebrew congregation at Newport, Rhode Island, home to one of the first thriving Jewish communities in the new republic.

Washington wanted to assure the Jews that they were as free and equal as any other citizens would be, even though they were a minority.

'For happily,' Washington wrote, 'the Government of the United States gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.'

Notice the caveat: As long as you behave like good citizens and support the country, you are welcome to live as you please.

Trump's idea of extreme vetting may or may not work in the long run. But it shouldn't be dismissed out of hand.

Joel Mathis an award-winning writer in Kansas. Ben Boychuk is managing editor of American Greatness. Reach them at joelmmathis@gmail.com, bboychuk3@att.net, or www.facebook.com/benandjoel.
Milwaukee

Their daughter was sick and they needed family around to help care for her, so JoAnne and Maanaan Sabir took an unexpected detour.

They had spent years blowing past mileposts: earning advanced degrees and six-figure incomes, buying a 2,500-square-foot Victorian with hardwood floors. Yet here they were, both 37, moving to a corner of town pocked by empty lots, cramming into an apartment above JoAnne Sabir's mother, in the very duplex that Sabir's grandparents had bought six decades earlier.

Their new dwelling was in a neighborhood where more than one in three families live in poverty; gunshots were too often a part of the nighttime soundtrack. They planned to leave once their daughter, Ameera, was healthy.

But then, reminding them of why they feel at home in communities like this one, their new neighbors started frequently checking on Ameera and their son, Taj. Maanaan Sabir's car stalled in the middle of the street one night, and it was the young men too often stereotyped as suspicious who helped him push it home.

"It felt like that's where we should be," JoAnne Sabir said.

Now, two years later, Ameera, 14, is healthy. And the Sabirs have not left. They have, in fact, only strengthened their resolve to stay after a fatal police shooting last weekend led to fiery unrest that was also fueled by frustrations over race and segregation. Rooted where they are, the Sabirs point to a broad yet little explored fact of American segregation: Affluent black families, freed from the restrictions of low income, often end up living in poor and segregated communities anyway.

It is a national phenomenon challenging the popular assumption that segregation is more about class than about race, that when black families earn more money, some ideal of post-racial integration will inevitably be reached.

In fact, a New York Times analysis of 2014 census figures shows that income alone cannot explain, nor would it likely end, the segregation that has defined U.S. cities and suburbs for generations.

The choices that black families make today are inevitably constrained by a legacy of racism that prevented their ancestors from buying quality housing and then passing down wealth that might have allowed today's generation to move into more stable communities. And even when black households try to cross color boundaries, they are not always met with open arms: Studies have shown that white people prefer to live in communities where there are fewer black people, regardless of their income. The result: Nationally, black and white families of similar incomes still live in separate worlds.

Black families at higher income levels, making $100,000 or more, are more likely to live in poorer neighborhoods than even white households making less than $25,000. This is particularly true in areas with a long history of residential segregation, like metropolitan Milwaukee.

The burning cars and buildings, the people throwing rocks and bottles at police officers in riot gear  it was all happening last Saturday as Maanaan and JoAnne Sabir were settling in for the night just a few miles down the road.

The 23-year-old man who had been shot by a black officer had ignored orders to drop a gun as he fled on foot after being pulled over in his car, police said.

As his wife flicked through accounts of the raucous uprising on social media, Sabir could not help but think that the public response was years in the making. It was Milwaukee's  America's  history and maintenance of racist policies, through housing discrimination, divestment of black communities, and policing, all coming to a head. "You're asking us to do the impossible, which is to tolerate a systemic demoralization of our own livelihood," Maanaan Sabir said.

Black families in Milwaukee have been confronting hostility for decades. Zeddie Quitman Hyler directly challenged housing segregation in 1955 when he began laying the foundation for a house on land in the white western suburb of Wauwatosa.

A postal worker and World War II veteran from rural Mississippi, Hyler was the first black man to try to build there, and his efforts were not appreciated. He returned to his construction site one day to find the frame damaged. He fixed it, but when he came back again, it had burned.

So he enlisted several friends to camp out with him at the construction site one evening, rifles in hand, ready to turn away intruders. The vandals never returned, and Hyler finished building his house, which he lived in for nearly half a century until his death in 2004.

The census tract where JoAnne Sabir's grandparents settled was entirely white in 1950 except for the two people that the census listed as black and the six listed as "other." By 1960, however, 2,344 black people called the area home, accounting for 65 percent of its population.

Within a few years, Milwaukee's economy would start tanking. Tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs in the city were eliminated. Property values fell, while housing policies made it nearly impossible for black families to obtain loans and move to the suburbs, where many jobs were being relocated.

As recently as 2006, a city government report found that affluent, nonwhite Milwaukeeans were 2.7 times likelier to be denied home loans than white people with similar incomes.

Few people around here are surprised, then, that only 11.1 percent of African-Americans in the region live in the suburbs, the lowest rate of black suburbanization among the 50 largest metropolitan areas in the country, according to a soon-to-be released study by Marc V. Levine, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Milwaukee itself, which is nearly two-thirds nonwhite, has never elected a black mayor.

JoAnne and Maanaan Sabir bet on their neighborhood by opening the Juice Kitchen in October, often rising before 6 a.m. because they want to be a beacon of black success and help prevent drugs, alcohol and poverty from consuming the community.

Tuesday morning, after a weekend of destructive protests, JoAnne Sabir posted a message on the cafe's Facebook page, encouraging a collective black uplift. "Strategically available to love and nurture," she wrote.

A few hours later, she herded her children into her SUV and slowly rolled past the remnants of the two nights of clashes between protesters and police. Past the BP gas station, melted into an ashy heap. "It's horrible," Taj said. Past the people barbecuing on a grassy knoll. "That's the young man's brother over there that was killed," JoAnne Sabir said. Past a boarded-up bank. "They broke in this bank and then set it on fire," she said.

"My initial thought," JoAnne Sabir told her children, "was that on this evening, all these young people were so powerful." But imagine, she added, if they could channel that anger in a positive direction, "if we took that power and that energy and put it toward our greater good."
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Baton Rouge, La.

Offering consolation, expressing regret, cutting ties with a controversial aide. Donald Trump's campaign turnaround plan on Friday featured the unorthodox candidate acting much like a conventional politician struggling to revive a presidential bid on the ropes.

Trump headed to flood-damaged Louisiana to express solidarity with residents cleaning up after devastating flooding that left at least 13 people dead. The trip made for a pointed contrast to President Barack Obama and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, who both have yet to go, although Obama announced late Friday that he, too, would visit next week.

The typically brash and spotlight-seeking billionaire offered notably restrained remarks as he surveyed the wreckage.

"Nobody understands how bad it is," Trump told reporters, after briefly helping unload a truck of supplies while cameras captured the moment. "It's really incredible, so I'm just here to help."

Yet the trip did little to obscure the turmoil in Trump's campaign, punctuated when Trump announced he'd accepted campaign chairman Paul Manafort's offer to resign.

Manafort's departure followed a string of revelations about his work for a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine. The damaging news included an Associated Press report Thursday describing a covert Washington lobbying operation run by Manafort's firm. Manafort and his deputy, Rick Gates, never disclosed their work as foreign agents as required under federal law.

Trump, in a statement, praised Manafort's work on the campaign and called him a "true professional." But his son, Eric Trump, made clear the campaign the controversy was behind the resignation. His father didn't want to be "distracted by whatever things Paul was dealing with," the younger Trump told Fox News.

Campaign spokesman Jason Miller said Gates would remain part of the campaign with a new role as liaison to the Republican National Committee, which has had a turbulent relationship with its nominee this year.

Clinton's campaign called the resignation an admission of the Trump campaign's "disturbing" connections with allies of Russian President Vladimir Putin in Russia and Ukraine. But the Clinton camp also found itself on the defensive for the first time in weeks. Trump's visit to Louisiana put pressure on Clinton. Even as she kicked off a fundraising blitz, Clinton emailed supporters asking them to donate to the relief effort and noted she spoke with Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat whose spokesman blasted Trump's visit as "a photo op."
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Albany

Dr. Julie Pilitsis recalls how physicians often come up with ideas and innovations to improve patient care, but aren't sure where to turn next.

"In medical school we learn a lot about being doctors," she said last week. "We don't learn a lot about business."

But times are changing.

Albany Medical College, where Pilitsis chairs the Department of Neuroscience & Experimental Therapeutics, is leading a multidisciplinary effort  the Biomedical Acceleration and Commercialization Center  that seeks to turn ideas into products that will improve patient care.

In the process, it could also benefit the Capital Region's economy, creating jobs and growing new companies, as well as developing already existing technologies to serve new uses.

The partners in this effort are a who's who of Capital Region businesses and institutions, including Siena College, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Albany Law School, General Electric and IBM.

At the center of this effort is the BACC Academy, which launches Sept. 9. It will train entrepreneurs, physicians, engineers, researchers and students in the skills they'll need to move innovations between lab bench, the bedside and business.

Courses will be taught by professors, researchers, attorneys, accountants and CEOs. Up to $25,000 in cash and services will be available to participants after graduation.

"We came up with a three-track curriculum, and we'll have 15 to 20 participants in the first year," said Amy Johnson, a former Apple engineer who is the BACC's director. Classes will focus on business skills, leadership and management, and biomedical issues including managing intellectual property, regulations and reimbursement.

For James Barba, Albany Medical Center's CEO, and Dr. Vincent Verdile, the medical college dean, the bio accelerator is a way to improve patient care while building the Capital Region's biotech sector.

Already, five companies are at the Albany Med campus, working on spinal devices, "smart" radio frequency identification tags to improve patient care, and software products used to connect patients, family and clinical teams and to train medical workers.

Once, such startups might have been expected to move to where the venture capital is. The Capital Region is full of examples of firms that launched here and then chased the money to Boston, New York City or Silicon Valley.

But Michael Hickey, a former MapInfo executive who later headed the Albany-based Center for Economic Growth, said that's changing.

Hickey, now vice president and chief of staff at Siena College, pointed to Apprenda, a software company in Troy, that has managed to attract tens of millions of dollars in venture funding without moving.

Capital is more mobile, Hickey said.

Barba, meanwhile, is no stranger to economic development, said Kevin Leyden, a former IBM executive who is senior vice president of business development and strategic partnerships at Albany Medical Center. Barba serves as a co-chair of the Capital Region Economic Development Council and oversees an institution with more than 9,000 employees.

Verdile said the bio accelerator has drawn the interest of a number of companies "that have sought us out to explore partnerships, to use our facilities and services, and to work with our physicians, clinicians, researchers and, when appropriate, our patients."

The BACC is housed in a single-story, 8,000-square-foot building tucked behind the medical college off New Scotland Avenue.

Its proximity to the college gives companies quick access to medical staff and to the college's "wet labs," equipped with special ventilating equipment and specialized plumbing.

One of the companies on-site is ReVivo Medical, which developed a device to improve spinal fusion while eliminating redundant steps in surgery.

Typical of a multidisciplinary approach, it was founded by a physician, a biomedical engineer and a mechanical engineer.

Dr. Darryl J. DiRisio, a surgeon and professor in the Division of Neurosurgery at Albany Medical College, joined with Eric H. Ledet, a professor of biomedical engineering at Rensselaer, and Glenn P. Sanders, a visiting professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Union College, to found ReVivo in 2011.

Another resident company, KemSense, has applied sensor technology, originally developed by General Electric researchers to detect explosives and hazardous chemicals, to notify care staff whether a patient's bedding needs to be changed because of wetness, for example.

The sensors also reduced the risk of infections when they were used to detect the presence of bacteria in milk supplies, said Dr. James Desemone, an associate professor of medicine at Albany Medical College and principal investigator on the KemSense product.

"We're certainly working very closely with GE," Leyden said. "They have technologies they've invented, but they don't meet the $100 million bar" for further commercialization by the industrial giant.

Somml Health is developing software that provides real-time updates on what is happening to a patient in the hospital to that patient's family and other members of the medical team, permitting shared decision-making as well as improved continuity of care.

The software also provides the framework for a value-based payment system, where payments are based on medical results instead of on the volume of services provided.

The Albany Medical College effort will continue to seek new collaborations, both in the Capital Region and beyond, as it focuses on information technology, instrumentation and medical devices.

"Medical problems are so complex," Desemone said, "we can only solve them by working in teams."

eanderson@timesunion.com  518-454-5323
THE ISSUE:

His presidential race in turmoil, Donald Trump claims elections and polls are rigged.

THE STAKES:

He flirts with throwing our democratic system into chaos.

More Information To comment: tuletters@timesunion.com or at http://blog.timesunion.com/opinion See More Collapse

To hear Donald Trump tell it, the U.S. election system is rigged. He seems as sure of this as he was that President Barack Obama wasn't born in America, and that Mr. Trump alone saw Muslims in New Jersey celebrating the attack on the World Trade Center.

His logic, such as it is, goes something like this: There's anecdotal evidence of voter fraud, thus it's a serious problem. It's also the only way he could lose states like Pennsylvania in November if he's leading in the polls there. If he isn't leading in the polls, well, the polls are rigged, too.

This would all be laughable if Mr. Trump were just some call-in crank to a late night radio show for conspiracy theorists. But he's a major party candidate for the presidency. To toss around these kinds of bombshells is dangerous, potentially even more so than his musing about "Second Amendment people" doing "something" about his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton.

The claim of widespread voter fraud in America didn't start with Mr. Trump. It's been a talking point in some Republican circles for years. The real fraud here is that it's a ruse to justify voter identification laws that make voting more onerous for poor people, who tend to vote Democratic.

That's not some opinion we just dreamed up. In 2012, the leader of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, Republican Mike Turzai, came out and admitted that voter identification would allow Mitt Romney, the GOP presidential nominee that year, to "win the state of Pennsylvania, done."

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Courts also recently found voter suppression to be behind some voter ID laws. In Wisconsin, a judge struck down parts of an ID law, ruling that "a preoccupation with mostly phantom election fraud leads to real incidents of disenfranchisement." In North Carolina, a federal appeals court panel found the state's voter ID requirements and other rules "target African-Americans with almost surgical precision" and "impose cures for problems that did not exist."

Yet Mr. Trump continues to throw gasoline on the fire. His latest idea is to have loyalists go into high minority election districts to look out for fraud.

While poll watching is a legitimate part of the election process, there are rules to it, procedures that are followed so that voters aren't intimidated. Mr. Trump's inciting of his mostly white supporters to descend on minority polling places on Election Day could well set the stage for a dangerous confrontation. One aide's predictions of "a bloodbath" could turn out to be self-fulfilling.

It falls, then, on election officials and law enforcement in Pennsylvania, New York and every other state to take Mr. Trump's race-baiting tactics seriously. They must make plans to keep his representatives at the polls  whether official or self-appointed  in line.

And Mr. Trump  who this past week said he regrets some of the things he's said in the race  should reconsider this whole "rigged election" story line. If anyone is rigging this election against him, it's Mr. Trump, who seems determined to take our democracy down with him.
The United States denounced the failed Turkish coup as a threat against democracy while Turkey is demanding the extradition of the supposed mastermind of the coup, Pennsylvania-based preacher Fethullah Gulen.

This is forcing the United States to tread a fine line between defending democracy and speaking out against corrupt and abusive governments. Part of being faithful to our obligation to spread democracy, even in supposed democracies, involves advocating for basic human rights  the most basic of which is freedom of speech, without which a true democracy cannot exist.
Titusville Area Hospital has reached a collaborative agreement with Oil Valley Physical Therapy that will end the hospitals outpatient physic
[August 19, 2016] Powis Announces PopUp Viewer

BERKELEY, Calif., Aug. 19, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Powis Parker, Inc., creator of virtual reality (VR) viewers based on Google Cardboard technology, announced the availability of its PopUp Viewer? -- a compact, high-quality viewer aggressively priced for bringing VR experiences to marketing campaigns, large events, trade shows/conferences, sporting events, concerts, and other applications. To use, people simply place their smartphone into the PopUp Viewer to engage with VR content; accessible via smartphone apps, websites, YouTube, and more. "Google Cardboard has fundamentally changed the VR market," says Powis founder Kevin Parker. "Now, for a fraction of the cost of typical head-mounted devices (HMDs), companies can deliver compelling VR experiences to all kinds of audiences." "VR is a democratizing technology," said Mahmoud Mattan, Director of Business Development for Powis. "It gives people the opportunity to experience moments that were previously reserved for the wealthy, daring o famous; like watching the Super Bowl from the first row of the 50 yard line or traveling to the Eiffel Tower. We created our VR viewers to enable organizations and marketing agencies to bring these experiences to everyone."



Customizable

PopUp Viewers can be custom 'skinned' with any type of branding, graphics or messaging to support an event or activity. Leveraging Powis' 30 years of experience in high-quality paper lamination and fabrication, PopUp Viewers are produced in its 50,000 square foot factory in Berkeley, California -- enabling the company to rapidly customize viewers to the specific needs of brands and events across the world. Once the PopUp Viewer's design is determined, Powis can rapidly fabricate whatever number of units customers need. Availability and Pricing

The PopUp ViewR virtual reality viewer is available immediately at www.powisvr.com. Single viewers are priced at $14.99 MSRP and under $10/viewer for large customized orders.

Product Features

Powis' PopUp Viewer works with any Android and iOS smartphone (4 - 6.5 inches). In its compressed form (which facilitates easy mailing and/or end-user distribution), it measures 8.2" (wide) x 1.3" (deep) x 3.25" (tall). Expanded for use, it measures 8" (wide) x 2.9" (deep) x 9.65" (tall). About Powis Parker

Powis Parker, Inc. is a leading provider of high performance binding and quality paper-laminated solutions. Inspired by the centuries-old craft of bookbinding, founder/inventor Kevin Parker created Powis in 1983 to manufacture and market a revolutionary system that brings professional print finishing capabilities to the office environment. Today, leveraging its expertise in high-speed printing and case making, Powis has developed a broad range of high-quality consumer and office products with an exceptional look-and-feel rarely found elsewhere. Stunning off-the-shelf versions of Powis VR viewers are currently sold at PowisVR.com. For more information, visit PowisVR.com or call 510-529-2404 Note:

Google Cardboard is the trademark of Alphabet, Inc. (formerly called Google, Inc.)

ViewR and PopUp ViewR are the service marks of Powis Parker, Inc. Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160229/338758 To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/powis-announces-popup-viewer-300316066.html SOURCE Powis Parker, Inc.

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[August 19, 2016] VirtualArmor Announces Option Grant

/NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES/ VANCOUVER, Aug. 19, 2016 /CNW/ - VirtualArmor International Inc. ("VirtualArmor") (CSE:VAI) is pleased to announce it has granted an aggregate of 200,000 incentive stock options to two employees of the Company. The options will vest pursuant to the stock option agreements between VirtualArmor and each employee and may be exercised at an exercise price of CAD$0.44 per common share, for a period of 5 years from the date of issuance or earlier in accordance with VirtualArmor's incentive stock option plan. About VirtualArmor VirtualArmor is a cybersecurity company that delivers solutions to help enterprises build, monitor, maintain and secure their networks from cloud to core. As a managed security services provider, VirtualArmor's services run 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, 365 days per year through its primary security operations center ("SOC") located in Middlesbrough, U.K. and a secondary SOC located in Salt Lake City, Utah. Each member of VirtualArmor's team supports the threemain facets of its business: managed services, professional services, and hardware sales, by handling the design, configuration and installation of advanced network and cloud architecture solutions. VirtualArmor uses best-in-breed partnerships to provide solutions for customers that are affordable, highly reliable, scalable, and backed by thorough knowledge of the related technologies, products, and platforms. VirtualArmor has secured partnerships with established technology businesses specializing in network appliances, software, and systems and provides its services to the mid- to large- enterprise and service provider markets. VirtualArmor customers include a 13-location data center provider, a Fortune 100 oil and gas company, multiple service providers with presences throughout the United States, and household name enterprise organizations located primarily in the western United States. Further information about the Company is available under its profile on the SEDAR website, www.sedar.com, on the CSE website, www.thecse.com, and on its website, http://www.virtualarmor.com/.



Forward-Looking Information: This press release may include forward-looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation. The forward-looking information is based on certain key expectations and assumptions made by the management of VirtualArmor. Although VirtualArmor believes that the expectations and assumptions on which such forward-looking information is based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking information as VirtualArmor cannot provide any assurance that it will prove to be correct. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this press release and VirtualArmor disclaims any intent or obligation to update publicly any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise, other than as required by applicable securities laws.

SOURCE Virtual Armor

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[August 19, 2016] CPU Magazine's CPULAN 2016 Event To Draw Hundreds Of PC Gaming Enthusiasts To Lincoln Sept. 23-24

LINCOLN, Neb., Aug. 19, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Sandhills Publishing's Computer Power User magazine will host hundreds of PC video gaming and computing enthusiasts at its first ever CPULAN 2016 event Sept. 23 and 24 at the Lancaster County Event Center in Lincoln, Neb. Attendees from across the country will bring their own computers to CPULAN 2016 to connect to the same LAN (local area network) and partake in 26 hours of nonstop multiplayer video gaming and tournament play featuring dozens of the most popular current video games for the PC platform. Registration is $25 per seat and can be completed at https://lanfest.intel.com/events/cpulan2016/main. Capacity is set at 500 participants, and all registration proceeds will go to the Food Bank of Lincoln. Doors will open at 7 p.m. Sept. 23 and close at 9 p.m. Sept. 24. Food and beverages will be available onsite throughout the event. "Weexpect CPULAN 2016 to be a 26-hour celebration of everything that makes CPU great: PCs and PC hardware, games, friends, and fun," says Computer Power User editor Chris Trumble.



Leading companies from the computer hardware, software, and video game industries are serving as official sponsors of CPULAN 2016, which will include thousands of dollars in prizes raffled to attendees. Live demonstrations are also scheduled, including a presentation on liquid-cooling computer systems that Swiftech and PrimoChill are sponsoring and world-class computer system modders Richard "DarthBeavis" Surroz and Travis "V2-V3" Jank will present. Launched in 2001, Computer Power User is a monthly internationally distributed print and online publication that targets technically advanced computing users, system builders, video game enthusiasts, and others with in-depth hardware and software reviews, industry news and trends, and other technology-related content.

CONTACT:

https://lanfest.intel.com/events/cpulan2016

https://www.computerpoweruser.com/home

Chris Trumble: (402) 458-4524

Ron Kobler: (402) 458-4587 About Sandhills Publishing

Sandhills Publishing is an information processing company headquartered in Lincoln, Nebraska. Our products and services are aimed at gathering, processing, and distributing information in the form of trade publications, websites, and online services that connect buyers and sellers across the trucking, agriculture, construction, heavy equipment, aviation, and technology industries. Our integrated, industry-specific approach to hosted technologies and services offers solutions that help businesses large and small operate efficiently and grow securely, cost-effectively, and successfully. Sandhills Publishingwe are the cloud. Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160819/399741

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150316/182003LOGO To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cpu-magazines-cpulan-2016-event-to-draw-hundreds-of-pc-gaming-enthusiasts-to-lincoln-sept-23-24-300316078.html SOURCE Sandhills Publishing

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JD England reflects on time as Mayor of Mitchell before stepping down

JD England reflects on his time on the Mitchell police force, his first term election by just four votes and his accomplishments in office.
CHECK THE TOP 5 ONGOING DEBATE IN KANSAS CITY WHICH DEFINE OUR LOCAL DISCOURSE!!!

Will Kansas City Ever Get Honest Toy Train Streetcar Ridership Numbers???

Can The KCPD Chief Silence His Critics???

Will KCMO End The Homicide Surge???

How Can We Support Women Seeking Elected Office Without Encouraging Divisive Identity Politics???

When Will They Tear Down Verruckt???

Quick switcheroo tonight, we know the power players all too well, so tonight let's take a look at the top points of contention that continue to confront Kansas City.To wit . . .We'll try not to take sides but simply guide our blog community to a greater understanding of ongoing problems. Take a look:Will another $200 million at stake, this could be the most expensive question Kansas City confronts. So farwhich we hope includes an INDEPENDENT ANALYSIS of ridership numbers beyond Twitter cheerleading. Like it or not, Kansas City's penchant for exaggeration is cute but with so much cash on the line these stats start to become exceedingly important.The Chief might not have as much support as he did a couple of years ago when crime was at an all-time low . . . But there are undoubtedly a lot of people who think he's doing a good job along with so many critics who mostly object to the recent media statements of the top cop. Blog posts and tweets haven't effectively answered these folks . . . Many of whom are former supporters . . . One of the greatest tasks the Chief now confronts is to directly answer criticism in action or word.On a related note . . .. . . A great many Kansas City residents are wondering if the current uptick in violence will ever stop. There aren't any easy answers but the chorus of community concern is growing louder with every gunshot fired.Women were once denied the right to vote in the U.S. and they represent the better half of the population so a bit of "sensitivity" to the plight of female politicos isn't such a bad thing. However,and that has been harshly rejected by voters and local Democrats. Clearly, there's a need for balance and compromise despite the fact that so many politicos are incapable of as much.Decapitation confirmed leaves no doubt that this monstrosity must come down after a comprehensive investigation. Anything less would be risking another tragedy and believing the word of a corporation that assured safety to begin with and right up to the point of one of the most horrific water park atrocities in recent local history.As always, this list has been compiled according to scientific TKC polling and market research data and it's a weekly comprehensive guide to local powerful people.
Moody's Investors Service has affirmed Egypt's long-term issuer and senior unsecured bond ratings at B3 and it said the outlook remains stable for the country.



The rating affirmation is based on Moody's view that the B3 rating appropriately captures Egypt's credit risk profile, which faces a number of deep structural challenges reflected in very weak government finances, a fragile external payments position, and continued security risks. The factors combine to weigh on the investment climate and on the economic performance of the country, it said.



The stable rating outlook reflects Moody's view that despite the somewhat slower-than-expected

implementation of fiscal and economic reforms over the past 12-18 months, upward and downward pressures on the rating are balanced. Importantly, the rating agency views the staff-level agreement with the IMF which was announced on August 11 as credit-supportive, because it will alleviate some of Egypt's external liquidity pressures and also promote the reform agenda.



Moody's has also affirmed the provisional (P) B3 MTN programme rating. Egypt's country ceilings stay unchanged at B2/Not Prime (NP) for the foreign-currency bond ceiling, Caa1/NP for the foreigncurrency deposit ceiling, and Ba2/NP for the local-currency country risk ceilings.



The decision to affirm Egypt's B3 rating reflects Moody's view that it appropriately captures the country's ongoing credit challenges in a number of key areas, mainly the very weak level of government finances, a vulnerable external liquidity position and the presence of elevated security risks, all of which are contributing to a poor business climate and constrain Egypt's growth potential.



Public finances are characterised by sizeable fiscal deficits of more than 12 per cent of GDP, high general government debt levels close to 100 per cent of GDP, and weak debt affordability ratios which will all continue to exceed the median for B3-rated peers.



While reform momentum has slowed somewhat since April last year, the government has recently introduced another round of electricity price hikes, which together with the civil service law will help to keep current spending in check. The expected introduction of value-added tax and measures to improve tax compliance will help increase government revenues and support a gradual reduction in the government's large fiscal deficit to 10 per cenet of GDP by fiscal year 2019, according to Moody's estimates.



Moody's notes that Egypt's low levels of foreign-currency denominated and externally-held government debt mitigate fiscal risks. The Egyptian banking system's demonstrated ability to provide funding even in times of stress alleviates the immediate risks of a fiscal crisis.



Egypt's external liquidity position remains vulnerable in Moody's view. The rating agency forecasts that the current account deficit will widen to more than 5 per cent of GDP in fiscal year 2016, driven by a persistently high trade deficit, the negative impact on tourism from recent security incidents, and weaker Suez Canal revenues.



Also, due to the economic slowdown in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) economies and the divergence between official and parallel exchange rates, private remittances have come under pressure lately. In addition, external support from GCC government in the form of public transfers has slowed.



Despite a recovery in financial account inflows since early 2015, FDI inflows are below the levels seen in the second half of the 2000s. Uncertainty over the Central Bank of Egypt's exchange rate policy and restrictions on access to hard currency have had a dampening effect on both direct investment and portfolio inflows from abroad. Although foreign exchange reserves have stabilised somewhat they have done so at a low level, covering less than three months of imports of goods and services, and external debt repayments in July have sent net international reserves to only $15.5 billion.



Moody's notes that government effectiveness has improved, risks to policy making have diminished, and the overall political situation appears to be broadly stable.
Ten Emirati students have returned to the UAE from the South Korea where they gained hands-on experience and nuclear industry insight through the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (Enec) summer internship programme.



The programme was organised in partnership with Kepco International Nuclear Graduate School (Kings).



The students from Khalifa University of Science, Technology and Research (Kustar) and Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) have been studying on the Kings campus in Ulsan this summer.



The internship programme sought to nurture students academic knowledge while simultaneously providing them with experience in the form of on-the-job training. The programme aligns with the Abu Dhabi Plan and Economic Vision 2030, which aims to develop Emiratis in STEM subjects through direct educational and training programmes, and scholarships.



The programme participants visited and worked at some of Koreas leading science research centres and industrial parks, as well as the countrys most advanced nuclear energy plants. The students also enjoyed learning about the rich Korean culture with a tour of Seoul.



The internship was organised by Enec and Nawah, the operating subsidiary for the UAE peaceful nuclear energy programme, together with the Korea Electric Power Corporation (Kepco), Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power, Korea Plant Service & Engineering, Korea Nuclear Fuel, Kepco Engineering & Construction and the South Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MoTIE).



Through our internship programmes, Enec is proud to be able to offer great opportunities for talented students to get out of the classroom and put theory into practice. Students were introduced to specialized, technical concepts and had a chance to enhance their skills and knowledge. Initiatives, such as this program in Korea, put students on the path to becoming key players in the UAEs future nuclear energy sector, said Mohamed Al Hammadi, chief executive officer of Enec, who attended the graduation ceremony in Seoul.



The construction of the Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant commenced in 2012 and is progressing steadily, Unit 1 is now more than 90 percent complete and overall construction of Units 1 to 4 is now more than 68 percent complete.



All four units will deliver safe, clean, reliable and efficient nuclear energy to the UAE grid. -TradeArabia News Service
US Federal health officials on Friday warned pregnant women not to travel to trendy Miami Beach after Florida confirmed that the mosquito-borne Zika virus was active in the popular tourist destination.



The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also suggested that pregnant women who are especially worried about exposure to Zika - which has been shown to cause the severe birth defect known as microcephaly - might consider avoiding all of Miami-Dade County.



The new warnings represent a challenge to Florida's multibillion dollar tourism industry, with Miami Beach accounting for nearly half of visitor stays in the city, and heighten concerns over Zika's spread in the continental United States.



In a press conference, Florida Governor Rick Scott said state health officials had identified five cases of Zika believed to be contracted in Miami Beach.



"This means we believe we have a new area where local transmissions are occurring in Miami Beach," he said, noting that the state had already stepped up pesticide spraying efforts in this area.



The new transmissions come as Miami-Dade continues to battle Zika in the Wynwood arts neighborhood of Miami, the site of the first locally transmitted cases of Zika in the continental United States. For a graphic of Florida's Zika outbreak, click here: (http://tmsnrt.rs/2b3VUp3)



In Miami Beach, the state believes Zika transmission is confined to a 1.5-square-mile area located between 8th and 28th streets in the popular South Beach neighborhood. For a graphic of map, click here, (http://tinyurl.com/hdl6mxs)



Miami Beach resident Steve Ehrlich, 30, said news of the five cases transmitted somewhere in the blocks around his home was not surprising, but that did not make it any less concerning.



"You knew it was going to intermingle all over the place," he said.



And though Ehrlich said and he and his wife Caroline did not have any immediate plans to have more children, any thought of doing so has been indefinitely shelved.



Current CDC guidelines recommend men wait six months after being infected with Zika before trying to have children to avoid passing the virus to a pregnant partner through semen. The recommendations are based on observations that the virus can live in semen as long as 93 days after an infection, but a recent report in the journal Eurosurveillence described two cases in which the virus lingered in semen six months after a person was infected.



"The CDC is giving recommendations for how long to wait before you get pregnant, but it seems like no one has a clear grasp on just how long it stays in your system," Ehrlich said. "That's scary for us because we eventually want to have more kids."



Travel expert Henry Harteveldt, founder of travel consultancy Atmosphere Research Group, said the Zika outbreak in South Florida could jeopardize travel in the area.



"Even if 1 percent or 2 percent of potential travelers decide not to go to Florida, whether its for leisure or for business, there could be a multi-million dollar hit to the local economy, he said.



In a conference call with reporters on Friday, CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden said there have been at least four other independent instances of mosquito-borne Zika transmission in Miami-Dade county. These were individual cases and did not represent local transmission.



Frieden said it is difficult to determine if cases are locally acquired and whether cases are related. As a result, there may be a time lag in reporting the spread of disease locally.



Given that, Frieden said there could be transmissions that have not been identified throughout Miami, which is why the CDC has advised pregnant women and their sexual partners who are worried about potential exposure to consider avoiding travel to Miami entirely.



Of the five new cases in Miami Beach, one person is a resident of New York, one person is a resident of Texas and one person is a resident of Taiwan.



"All three of these people traveled to Miami," Scott said.



Frieden said battling Zika-carrying mosquitoes in this neighborhood will be especially challenging because the area's high rise buildings will prevent pilots from flying low enough to drop pesticides in aerial spraying campaigns.



"The inability to use aerial spraying there means we'll be limited to using ground-based techniques like backpack spraying," he said.



Frieden said aerial spraying continues to be successful in the Wynwood neighborhood, where experts have seen "substantial but not complete knockdowns of mosquito populations.



Scott said Florida has requested more support from the CDC.



LAWMAKERS URGE MORE FUNDING



Reporters pressed Scott on the timeliness of the announcement, which was first reported in the Miami Herald on Thursday and was confirmed by many other news outlets on Thursday, including Reuters.



"We recognize the desire for information quickly, but it is important that we conduct our interviews and investigations pursuant to epidemiological standards," Scott said.



Reporters charged Scott with underplaying Zika transmission and delaying confirmation to minimize the effect on tourism in the state.



Scott said the state was taking every measure to ensure the information they provided to the public was accurate.



In a press conference later on Friday, however, Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine expressed frustration with Scott and the state's health department for keeping him and other elected officials in the dark about the island-city's five locally transmitted Zika cases.



Levine said mayors across Miami received the information at the same time as media.



"It's backwards," Levine said.



U.S. Senator Harry Reid, a Democrat, said the transmission of Zika in Miami Beach "is the most alarming development yet in the rapidly growing threat of Zika in the United States."



Both Reid and Florida Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican, renewed calls for lawmakers in the House and Senate to return to Washington to authorize funding to help public health officials fight the spread of Zika.



President Barack Obama in February requested $1.9 billion to fight Zika but Congressional efforts to approve part of the funding deadlocked before lawmakers adjourned for the summer.



Earlier on Friday, U.S. health officials published a study estimating that as many as 270 babies in Puerto Rico may be born with the severe birth defect known as microcephaly caused by Zika infections in their mothers during pregnancy.



A public health emergency was declared in the U.S. territory on Aug. 12 after more than 10,000 laboratory-confirmed cases were recorded, including more than a thousand pregnant women.



The condition, in which infants are born with abnormally small heads and underdeveloped brains, is estimated to cost $10 million over the lifetime of one child.



The connection between Zika and microcephaly first came to light last fall in Brazil, which has now confirmed more than 1,800 cases of microcephaly that it considers to be related to Zika infection in the mothers.  Reuters
Leading industry professionals and experts from around the world will attend the 8th Flexible Packaging conference, later this year, in Dubai, UAE.



The event, organised by specialist plastics industry consultancy AMI, will take place on December 6 and 7, at the Shangri-La Hotel.



The conference will provide a unique networking opportunity and a highly effective forum to meet and discuss the latest developments, opportunities and challenges in the dynamic flexible packaging industry, said a statement.



New for 2016, the conference is being expanded to include Africa alongside the Middle East. Africa is an exciting emerging region for flexible packaging, with infrastructure development, a burgeoning middle-class, and urbanisation propelling demand for a wide range of consumer packaged goods. Investment by local and international packaging groups is also driving the flexible packaging industry forward in Africa, it said.



Flexible packaging is a constantly evolving market, and worldwide, the way in which consumers view and interact with packaged products is changing. With a growing focus on convenience, value and sustainability, traditional packs continue to be substituted for innovative and flexible options designed to meet these consumer needs, it added.



There is increasing recognition of the role packaging plays in the protection and preservation of goods, together with greater focus on environmental considerations and product life cycle. As such, the packaging value chain has become increasing complex and flexible materials are in the spotlight like never before, said a statement.



The diverse programme opens with an overview of the global flexible packaging market by AMI Consulting and presentations from the Obeikan Investment Group and the APO-African Packaging Organisation will give delegates valuable insights into how end user demands are shaping new product development. To further explore this topic, Oktay Aral, packaging director (flexibles, foils and polymers) from pladis innovation office, will give the brand owners perspective on how to understand the packaging needs of the consumer.



The programme also examines emerging trends in nanotechnology and printed electronics with speakers from renowned research and educational institutions Polytechnique Montreal and Munich University of Applied Science. Delegates will also learn about novel developments to enhance film properties and performance from companies including Exxonmobil, Borouge, Dow and many more.



The latest trends in converting will be discussed by Super Film, Kroenert and Yparex and the conference will close with a session on enhanced manufacturing including papers from Windmoller & Holscher, NDC Technologies & Piovan Group.



The Flexible Packaging Middle East & Africa conference is sponsored by Exxonmobil and supported by the Film & Sheet digital publication, it added.  TradeArabia News Service
As due to warmer winters and economic slowdown, Export to USA and EUROPE declined, so Woollen exporters of India shifting focus towards countries like Kazakhstan, Germany, China and Australia.

The main reason for the decline of woollen exports is constant global warming which results in reducing the severity of winter. As per Sushil Kaura, who is the chairman of Wool & Woollens Export Promotion Council under textiles ministry, is that the decline is 17 percent from April to June 2016. It is really very sad news for woollen exporters.

According to year wise comparison, export declined from Rs 3,112 crore to Rs 3,012 crore in 2015-2016 to US and Europe, however, in terms of dollar, it is declined 9% from $510 million at $462 million.

Again minister Sushil Kaura said, change in climate is the biggest reason for the decrease in woollen export. To overcome from this situation, council holding trade fair at Melbourne in Australia, Almaty in Kazakhstan, Munich in Germany and in China. There is another reason for the decrease is the 30-35 per cent rise in the price of imported wool, which has heated up competition from Thailand, Turkey and Bangladesh for exporters.

Now it is mandatory to interfere and provide support to woollen exporters such as the abolition of import duty on raw wool, consideration of special package to boost exports and textile machinery and spare parts, increase in duty drawback rates, the speedy release of a drawback, as per the minister Sushil Kaura.
As you might guess, the ocean's murky depths hides plenty of surprises, from eerie jellyfish to deadly predator seahorses.

Of course, you can also find some adorable curiosities too, as scientists from the E/V Nautilus, a high-tech 204-foot-long research vessel diving off the coast of California did when they chanced upon this wacky-looking creature with enormous, "googly eyes" resting upon the sea floor, 900 meters (2,950 feet) deep:

In the video, the team discuss lightheartedly about this bright purple creature, saying that the disproportionately large eyes make it seem unreal: It looks so fake. Like some little kid dropped their toy.

But in fact, it is a Rossia pacifica, or in common parlance, a so-called stubby squid that is lying in wait for prey:

The stubby squid (Rossia pacifica) looks like a cross between an octopus and squid, but is more closely related to cuttlefish. This species spends life on the seafloor, activating a sticky mucus jacket and burrowing into the sediment to camouflage, leaving their eyes poking out to spot prey like shrimp and small fish. Rossia pacifica is found in the Northern Pacific from Japan to Southern California, most commonly seen up to 300m deep, but specimens have been collected at 1000m depth.



The stubby squid isn't a large species by any means; in fact, it's pretty small, growing to a maximum of only 2 inches by 4.3 inches, and living on average up to two years before mating, laying their eggs in batches that attach to the bottom of rocks or onto seaweed, and then dying. A pretty poetic end for such a cartoonish-looking specimen, if you ask us.

The E/V Nautilus research team continues its eye-opening exploration of the oceans, finding mysterious purple blobs and more with state-of-the-art technology; visit Nautilus Live to see what else they're discovering out there.

[Via: Gizmodo]
Hundreds of mud houses in Bundelkhand have collapsed in just one day.

By Indo-Asian News Service: Eleven people were killed due to massive floods across Uttar Pradesh, an official said on Saturday.

Hundreds of mud houses in Bundelkhand have collapsed in one day, which killed five persons in Kalvanganj area of Banda district and Mahoma.

An official informed that it has been raining heavily in the region in the past two days.

DAMAGE

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Heavy rains caused a house to collapse in Kanpur rural on Friday, killing four persons, including two children.



Uttar Pradesh: River Ganga crosses danger level mark, water has entered residential areas in Allahabad. pic.twitter.com/tiyqVQdJ4Q ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) August 20, 2016

A district administration official said that a financial assistance of Rs 4 lakh each has been sanctioned to the next of kin of the deceased.



A 12-year-old girl died in Allahabad after her house caved in due to rains and a roof collapse killed one person in Sitapur.

Owing to heavy accumulation of rain water in Sonbhadra, five gates of the Rihand dam had to be opened late Friday to "ease out the pressure".

Officials said heavy rains in the adjoining areas the water in the reservoir to increase by 20 ft in the past 24-hours. The water which has been released has flooded many areas in Chopan and is likely to flood areas in Bihar as well.



Uttar Pradesh: River Ganga crosses danger level mark, water has entered residential areas in Allahabad. pic.twitter.com/cgUNJ0fClT ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) August 20, 2016

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has asked district officials to ensure that the rescue and relief measures with regards to floods were in place.

He has also ordered installation of 2,500 hand pumps in flood-hit 21 districts to ensure easy availability of potable water, a government spokesman added.

MANIKARNIKA GHAT FLOODED

The famous Manikarnika Ghat in Varanasi has been flooded, leading to an abrupt closure of cremations.

The rising water of the Ganga has submerged the Harishchandra Ghat as well, leading to chaos as people from across the state and elsewhere bring the dead to these ghats for cremation.

Manikarnika Ghat is one of the oldest ghats in Varanasi and it is said that burning of the funeral pyres has never stopped here. The pyres are now being burnt in the narrow lanes near the ghats.

The electric crematorium at the Harishchandra Ghat was closed by the district administration on Friday as water entered its premises.



SITUATION GRIM IN VARANASI

The flood situation in many localities of Varanasi continues to be grim and the district administration has opened five relief camps in Saraiyan, Dhelwaria and Nagwan as well as 36 flood posts.

District Magistrate Vijay Karan Anand led a team of officials on Saturday morning to survey the flood situation in many parts if the district.



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ALSO READ:

Will Chennai sustain another flood? Has the city prepared itself?

Nitish Kumar conducts aerial survey of flood-affected districts in Bihar

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: New Delhi, Aug 19 (PTI) Five persons have been arrested for alleged involvement in car theft cases in the national capital by Delhi police which claimed to have recovered 20 luxury cars stolen by the accused.

Police claimed following the arrests of the accused, over 30 cases of motor-vehicle theft have been solved.

The accused have been identified as Sanjay Singh, Mobin Ahmed, Salim, Mannan and Kasim.

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"The members of the gang would procure documents of luxury cars that had been involved in accidents from Sotiganj Car Scrap market. Then, they would buy the same car from the insurance company at cheap rates.

"After getting the details of the vehicle, the gang members would steal a similar model and modify the engine and chassis number as per the documents of the vehicle they bought from the insurance company. The modified vehicle would then be sold to buyers at market rates, said DCP (South) Ishwar Singh today," a police official said.

According to police, Mannan was a history sheeter and was arrested by the Crime Branch in 2008 in connection with a robbery in Dhaula Kuan and was released a year back. PTI SLB UK KUN

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Tribune News Service

Amritsar, August 19

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will be among the BJPs top brass leaders, expected to visit Amritsar to take part in the Tiranga Yatra on August 21.

This was confirmed by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) district president Rajesh Honey, who presided over a party meeting to discuss preparations for the event.

He said, Arun Jaitley, along with BJPs Punjab president Vijay Sampla will lead the Tiranga Yatra procession that will commence from Hall Gate and move towards Jallianwala Bagh. He will pay tributes to martyrs before addressing the gathering at 5 pm. During the meeting party activists were assigned duties to look after arrangements during the programme, he added.
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 20

The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the UT police has arrested a Ludhiana-based MBBS doctor for allegedly duping a Sector 22 woman resident of Rs 19 lakh on the promise of providing admission to her daughter at Rama Medical College and Hospital, Kanpur. The co-accused, Rajesh Kumar Pandey (42), a native of Uttar Pradesh, is on the run. The EOW today presented Dr NC Mathur in a local court, which granted a three-day remand to the police.

According to EOW in-charge Amrao Singh, Anita Mehta, the complainant, alleged that she was looking for admission in a medical college for her daughter. In 2004, Dr NC Mathur, who was known to her husband, advocate Bimal Chand Bitta, told them that he had a tie-up with an agency and would get her admitted to the medical college in Kanpur.

He sought Rs 26 lakh as capitation fee for it. The family paid Rs 19 lakh to him. But when they went to the medical college, the authorities there told them that no fee had been submitted to them. They then approached the doctor. He said he would refund the money.

The doctor refunded Rs 7 lakh, but after the demise of Bitta in 2004, he did not pay the remaining amount. Anita then got an FIR lodged against him on August 16.

The accused, meanwhile, filed for anticipatory bail in a local court and then in Punjab and Haryana High Court, but his applications were rejected by both courts.

Following this, the economic offence wing nabbed him.

Now, we are raiding different places to arrest Pandey. We conducted raids in Delhi yesterday to arrest him but he had fled from there. He will soon be arrested and his role in the case will be ascertained, added inspector Amrao.
Rajinder Nagarkoti

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 20

While the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation has started taking action against the illegally installed Reliance Jio mobile towers in the city, a major scam has begun to surface in the installation of these towers.

Documents of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation indicate how the company committed violations and installed towers on the civic bodys land without obtaining the requisite no objection certification (NOC) from the MC.

As per the documents of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation, the company had installed four towers on the MC land, despite the fact that the MC had rejected the NOC for these four sites, including those of Sectors 23, 32, 19 and Mani Majra.

If this was not enough, the company also installed five towers in the areas, for which no application or document for obtaining NOC had reached before the Municipal Corporation. These sites were in Sectors 51, Ram Darbar, Sectors 15 and 49. Sources said these towers were installed in the last one year.

A senior MC official said they had completed their survey of Reliance Jio mobile towers installed on the MC land. A detailed report in this regard will be submitted to the MC Commissioner for further action, he said.

Meanwhile, in continuation of their drive against the illegally installed mobile towers, the MC engineering wing today impounded a genset of the Reliance Jio tower installed in Sector 4.

So far, the MC has disconnected power supply to 15 illegally installed Reliance Jio mobile towers and also impounded seven gensets of these towers. The gensets have been kept in the MC store and the community centres in different sectors.
Sunit Dhawan

Tribune News Service

Rohtak, August 20

Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia has announced cash reward of Rs 2 crore for Rio Olympic badminton silver medallist PV Sindhu and Rs 1 crore for bronze medallist Sakshi Malik.

Sisodia said this while talking to reporters at Sakshis house here today, where he had come to congratulate her parents. He said he had recommended promotion of Sakshis father Sukhbir Singh, who works as a conductor with the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC).

The Deputy CM maintained that the Delhi Government had been making all-out efforts to prepare sportspersons for the 2020 Olympics. He said they had sought support of Sakshi and her parents in this regard.

In response to a query, Sisodia sought an inquiry into the Narsingh Yadav episode by some independent agency.
Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 19

For the first time, Haryana today admitted that evidence suggesting rape had surfaced during police investigations in the Murthal case. Less than six months after the state claimed garments strewn in the fields of Murthal were that of tribals, it took a U-turn to say these could be of rape victims.

Five accused arrested in connection with the case were being subjected to DNA mapping, the Punjab and Haryana High Court was told. The state, again for the first time, quoted witnesses as saying that women were molested and dragged out of vehicles during the reservation stir  a statement the amicus curiae (friend of the court) Anupam Gupta interpreted as suggestive of rape.

Gupta said witnesses had all along claimed before the media that women were dragged out of the vehicles into the fields and raped. The admission on rape before the Bench of Justices SS Saron and Lisa Gill came with a proviso. Appearing for the state, Additional Solicitor-General of India Tushar Mehta said the incident could have taken place prior to the agitation.

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At the onset, he told the Bench that garments with traces of semen were sent for forensic examination to determine when the crime had been committed but they were told that semens age could not be ascertained.

Mehta said the blood samples of five persons arrested in connection with the Murthal case had been sent for DNA tests to determine if these matched with the semen found on the garments at the crime site. The challan was presented specifically mentioning that DNA mapping results were awaited.

Those travelling on the highway during the stir, when contacted on the basis of mobile data, had said women were molested near Sukhdev Dhaba, but none had referred to rape, the court was told. The CCTV footage of the entry and exit points to Sukhdev dhaba was not available.

Mehta claimed the story on an NRI victim's rape, that went viral on the social media, was a figment of imagination. The investigators had zeroed in on the person who had created the story on the basis of reports appearing in The Tribune. The laptop used for drafting the mail too was shown to the police.

Referring to the audio conversation with an alleged victims mother, Mehta said the former web portal journalist, who had recorded it on his cellphone, was not cooperating, despite repeated requests by the SIT incharge.

The scribe did not furnish the phone number of the cab driver, who reportedly took them to the victims mother, and claimed that his phone had been reformatted, Mehta said.

Taking a note of these assertions, the Bench made it clear that the SIT must carry out a fair investigation as per the law and appreciated the marked improvement in the investigations.

The Bench granted Mehta time for addressing the court on the issue of supplying probe documents to the amicus. This was done after Gupta placed before the court a three-Judge Bench Supreme Court judgment on providing the amicus documents, including case diaries and statements recorded by the police, under Section 161 of the CrPC.

The Bench also asked the state to specify in an affidavit the action taken, or proposed to be taken, on the Prakash Singh panels report on the role of government officials during the quota stir.
Former defence minister A K Antony blames the bickering within Congress for the ultimate downfall of the party in Kerala.

By India Today Web Desk: Senior Congress leader A K Antony traced the failure of his party to retain power in Kerala to the bickering in the party which ultimately led to loss of power in the state.

In his address to the party's elected representatives, Antony stressed on the bringing the party members who have quit back to the party. In order to do so, he said, that the bickering within the Congress party needs to stop.

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"We failed to retain power because of the never ending bickering in the party," said Antony.

"TIME FOR A GENERATION CHANGE IN CONGRESS"



Antony also emphasized on the need to bring fresh blood in the party by introducing young people. "More opportunities should be given to youth and women in the party and it's time for a generation change," Antony said.

CONGRESS'S UNEXPECTED DOWNFALL?



The party led by former chief minister Oomen Chandy was extremely confident of winning the 2016 May assembly polls but faced an embarrassing loss with Congress securing only 47 seats out of 140 in Kerala Assembly. Another setback for the party came this month when its third biggest ally, Kerala Congress (Mani) quit, taking away six legislators from the party.

Also read: AK Antony set to contest Lok Sabha polls from Thiruvananthapuram?







--- ENDS ---
Sumedha Sharma

Tribune News Service

Mewat, August 20

The staff and students of Shaheed Hasan Khan Medical College, Nuh, and police clashed on the campus in the wee hours today. More than 25 persons were injured. Of them, four doctors were said to be critically injured.

About 50 doctors resigned. The hospital staff went on strike. A PCR van was torched in the clash.

The police blamed the hospital staff of holding them hostage, while students and staff accused the police of misbehaving with them in an inebriated state.

One of the medical students claimed that policemen in an inebriated condition entered the emergency ward around 2 am today. When a guard objected, the policemen thrashed him. A senior doctor, Shiv Dutta, called the police. When the SHO reached the spot, he did not control his colleagues and, instead, misbehaved with doctors. When they resisted, he called more force and attacked them.

Superintendent of Police (SP) Kuldeep Singh, however, blamed the guard for triggering the clash. The guard entered into a verbal spat with the police. He called his friends and members of the hospital staff, and held three policemen hostage. When the Nuh SHO went to resolve the matter, he was held hostage as well. Later, medical students joined the staff in harassing the police.

The PCR van was torched, forcing the police to resort to mild lathicharge to control the situation, the SP said.

Students, however, claimed that the police set the PCR van on fire to save their skin. We have videographic proof of it, one of them said.

They said the police should not have entered the premises without the college directors permission.

The Health Department deployed six doctors to ensure emergency services remained unaffected by the strike.

The college director could not be contacted, while Director (Medical Education) Dr DK Bahera was sent from Chandigarh to take stock of the situation. The doctors ended the strike after Nuh SHO Sanjay Yadav was suspended. The administration assured action against erring cops and compensation for injured students.
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 20

Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has directed the Deputy Commissioners (DCs) and Superintendents of Police (SPs) to work as a team, have closer coordination and keep other district officers in the loop to ensure better implementation of various development projects and faster redressal of peoples grievances.

Presiding over a conference of the DCs and SPs here today, the Chief Minister said though the progress of all departments was quite satisfactory yet there was a need to pace up work on the development projects in the state.

Referring to complaints against some newly elected panches and sarpanches regarding submission of fake educational qualification certificates, the CM directed the DCs to verify the documents of such representatives and dispose of the complaints at the earliest. It is learnt that about 72 such complaints are lying pending.

Taking cognisance of the complaints concerning deduction of high premium by some banks under the Pradhan Mandtri Fasal Bima Yojana, Khattar directed the DCs to constitute a team to randomly visit at least 10 bank branches in their respective districts to check if they were deducting premium as per prescribed norms or not.

The Chief Minister directed DGP KP Singh to set up a separate cell for investigation and registration of complaints. Operation Sanjay has been launched under which 1.5 lakh CCTV cameras would be installed at various locations by December 31, said the DGP.

The CM said that Haryana would be made kerosene-free state by March 31 next year and eight districts would be made kerosene-free before November 1. While reviewing the Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao programme, the Chief Minister directed the DCs to appeal to the people, especially on auspicious occasions, to donate funds for the Kanya Kosh set up by the state government for welfare of the girl child.
Our Correspondent

Chamba, August 20

Like previous years, the helicopter service will be provided from Bharmour to Gauri Kund for the pilgrims visiting the Manimahesh shrine.

Briefing about the arrangements to mediapersons here today, the Deputy Commissioner Sudesh Mokhta said the pilgrims could avail the facility of helicopters from Bharmour to Gauri Kund. The fare from Bharmour to Gauri Kund was Rs 2,010 for each passenger, he added.

The DC said heli-service operators had been providing the services to devotees who could not tread the 14-km steep climb. The flights will continue between 7 am and 6 pm, the DC said.

Mokhta said the pilgrimage itinerary had been divided into 12 sectors for managing and monitoring the arrangements made for the well-being of the pilgrims.

He said medical check-up camps, control rooms, rescue teams, toilets and other arrangements were also being made, besides deployment of the police and Home Guards personnel, for the safety, security and regulating the traffic. The pilgrimage will officially start from August 25 and conclude on September 9. Superintendent of Police Dr Virender Tomar was also present.
Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 20

The BJP has come down heavily on the Congress and Omar Abdullah, who led a delegation of the opposition parties of Kashmir which met President Pranab Mukherjee today to apprise him of the situation in the Valley, resulting out of the failure of the Central and state governments of which the BJP is a part.

Terming the latest Oppositions criticism a further boost to Pakistan and separatists nefarious conspiracy against India, BJP leaders maintained that the very people and parties who were responsible for the current unrest in the Valley were now trying to make some more political gains for the sake of petty vote-bank politics.

Ideally, at such times we should all be speaking in one voice, putting aside our personal interests and petty vote-bank politics. But here are these political parties which are responsible for bringing the situation to this level in all these years and are trying to escalate it further.

We appeal, particularly to the Congress, to not do politics on the sensitive issue. The government is trying to bring back peace and normalcy to the state through good governance and development initiatives. It should be allowed to do so, said BJP national secretary Shrikant Sharma.

On views expressed by National Conference leader Omar Abdullah, who was today at the forefront of the delegation that met the President, Sharma refused to comment.

He (Omar) has been rejected by the people of Jammu and Kashmir. He is seen mostly on Twitter than on the ground, he said, making light of Omars attempts to assume centre stage.

According to Omar, the failure of the Central government to acknowledge that the issue in Kashmir is largely of a political nature has worsened the already volatile situation.

The BJP leader said it was strange that the Congress leaders, who refused to attend meetings called by Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on the issue, had come all the way to Delhi to speak to the President on it.

Please do not indulge in politics on a situation for which you are directly responsible. You (Congress leaders) do not meet the Home Minister (Rajnath Singh) when he goes to Srinagar for deliberations with political parties on the situation there. You stay away from the all-party meeting called by Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti. Now, you have come all the way to meet the President. Why are you adopting these double standards? the BJP leader questioned.
Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 20

The saffron party has come down heavily on the Congress and Omar Abdullah, the leader of the delegation of Opposition parties of Kashmir which on Saturday met President Pranab Mukherjee to apprise him of the situation in the Valley resulting out of failure of Centre and state government of which the BJP is a part.

Terming the latest criticism by the Opposition a further boost to Pakistan and separatists nefarious conspiracy against India, BJP leaders maintained that the very people and parties who were responsible for the current unrest in the Valley were now trying to make some more political gains for the sake of petty vote bank politics.

Ideally, at such times we should all be speaking in one voice, putting aside our personal interests and petty vote bank politics. But here are these political parties, who are responsible for bringing the situation to this level in all these years trying to escalate it further, BJP national secretary Shrikant Sharma said.

We appeal, particularly to the Congress, not to do politics on the sensitive issue. The government is trying to bring back peace and normalcy to the state through good governance and development initiatives. It should be allowed to do so.

Interestingly, on views expressed by National Conference leader Omar Abdullah, who was today at the forefront of the delegation that met the President, Sharma refused to comment.

He (Omar) has been rejected by the people of Jammu and Kashmir. He is seen mostly on the twitter than the ground, he said, making light of Omars attempts to assume centre-stage.

According to Omar, the "failure of the Central government to acknowledge that the issue in Kashmir is largely of a political nature has worsened the already volatile situation". He added that he had requested the President to impress upon the government to initiate a credible and meaningful process of political dialogue without any further delay involving all stakeholders to address the political issue in the state.

According to the BJP leader, it was strange that the Congress leaders, who refused to attend meetings called by Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on the issue, decided to come all the way to Delhi to speak to the President on it.

Please do not indulge in politics on a situation for which you are directly responsible. You (Congress leaders) do not meet the Home Minister (Rajnath Singh) when he goes to Srinagar for deliberations with political parties on the situation there. You stay away from the all-party meeting called by Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti. Now you have come all the way to meet the President. Why are you adopting these double standards, the BJP leader questioned.

Notably, during his stay in the Valley, Rajnath Singh had met delegations, including a government team led by the Chief Minister and an opposition National Conference (NC) team headed by Omar. However, the Congress stayed away from the deliberations.

As per the BJP leader, the current situation in the Kashmir Valley was a result of personal interests of those, namely separatists, who had their children studying in best of circumstances in India and abroad but did not want the poor youth from the valley to progress.

It is an old problem. Since the time of the Partition Pakistan has been continuously trying to disturb the peace and harmony in the Valley with local help. We appeal to all political parties to not indulge in politics but cooperate with the government to establish peace and harmony in the State. The people of the Valley also want normalcy to return, he added.
New Delhi, August 20

A delegation of the Opposition, led by former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, will meet President Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday afternoon to apprise him of the prevailing situation in the Kashmir Valley.

The decision came at a meeting attended by members of the National Conference, Congress, Communist Party, Democratic Party Front, Awami Ittehad Party and Peoples Democratic Front participated here on Wednesday.

The members decided to seek a suitable time from President Mukherjee so that they can apprise him of the prevailing situation in the Valley.

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When you say Kashmir is an integral part of India, you are talking about the land, not people. Make people yours too. A small problem with Gujarat and the Prime minister spoke to the people there in Gujarati; why our problem is not important enough, Omar asked.

We want the Centre to take emergent steps to check excessive use of force. There is a need for a judicial probe into the Kashmir situation, said Omar, alleging that both the Central and state governments totally failed to stop the killings of civilians in the Valley.

Omar said Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had been blaming Pakistan for the unrest. Yes, they are playing a negative role, but it is the security forces who are killing youth and other people of the Valley, he said.

He said Jammu and Kashmir is a political issue and should be solved politically.

But unfortunately, the Centre has been saying Kashmir is integral part of India; they are not talking about the Valley people, they are only taking about the land of Kashmir, he added.

Omar said they would try to meet leaders of all political parties in Delhi and also former judges of the Supreme Court urging them to help resolve the problem.

Holding Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti responsible for the unrest, the Leader of Opposition said, She has played worst form of politics by holding everybody from Nehru to Modi (responsible for the Kashmir situation). Unlike Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which actively lobbied for dismissal of my government, I neither sought the dismissal of Mehboobajis government nor had asked for her resignation. This is not a battle for chairs; this is about safeguarding the future generation of Jammu and Kashmir.

As many as 65 persons have been killed and thousands of civilians and security personnel reported injured in protest-related violence following the encounter of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani on July 8.

Speaking at an all-party meeting on the Kashmir issue in New Delhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held Pakistan responsible for the unrest in the Valley and appealed the youth to shun violence.

He also asked the security forces to maintain a greater degree of restrain while dealing with protesters.

Speaking in both Houses of Parliament, Rajnath Singh too held Pakistan responsible for the Kashmir unrest, while expressing Indias resolve to deal sternly with terrorists.

The Home Minister also asked security forces to exercise restraint as much as possible.  ANI
Tribune News Service

Jammu, August 20

Owners of oil tankers went on an indefinite strike today and stopped the supply of petroleum products to all depots across the state to protest against the recurring attacks on oil tankers and their drivers in Kashmir Valley.

Owners said the supply to security forces had also been suspended and all tankers will remain off roads till the state government provided them with adequate security amidst the widespread unrest in the Valley that had become life threatening for drivers and tanker owners.

We have stopped the supply of petroleum products to the depots across the state and it will remain suspended till the state government provides us adequate security. Our drivers were mercilessly beaten and two of them suffered fractures in arms while around 35 vehicles have been damaged by unruly mob. We cannot ply our vehicles in the prevailing situation as it has become life threatening for drivers and cleaners, Anan Sharma, president of J&K Oil Tankers Association, said.

We have stopped the loading of tankers from the main depots located in Jammu from where all the supply goes to other parts of the state. Even the supply to security forces has been suspended to send the government a strong message that security of drivers should be ensured at the earliest, Sharma said.

They had taken up the matter with the Divisional Commissioner, Jammu, and Inspector General of Police (IGP), Jammu, to apprise them of the ground situation, he said.

There are around 1,800 petrol tankers in Jammu and Kashmir to supply petroleum products to all three regions of the state. On a daily basis, nearly 300 tankers of Indian Oil, Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum supply petroleum products to the Kashmir valley and Ladakh regions.

Earlier, oil tankers had suspended supply to Kashmir valley and Ladakh regions on July 13, after complaints of attacks on the trucks and tanker drivers by youths who had allegedly brandished guns openly.

So far, about 270 oil tankers have been damaged by the protesters during the ongoing violence in the Valley following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in an encounter with security forces on July 8.

Yesterday, Minister for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs, Chowdhary Zulfkar Ali had warned that if any company stopped fuel supply or delayed transportation of fuel, stern action would be taken against the company/individual concerned.
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 20

Twenty Opposition leaders from Jammu and Kashmir today met President Pranab Mukherjee and stressed on the need to begin a dialogue with all stakeholders and that the issue had to be addressed politically, not just administratively.

The delegation, which included leaders from the Congress, CPM, JK Democratic Party Nationalist and JK Peoples Democratic Front, was led by National Conference working president Omar Abdullah who regretted that a statement seeking talks with all stakeholders had come from the Army instead of the political leadership.

Speaking to reporters after meeting with the President and submitting a memorandum signed by the Opposition leaders, Omar said the situation was showing signs of spreading to erstwhile Doda district in Jammu and the Kargil part of Ladakh.

We also request you to influence the Central and state government to stop the use of lethal force against civilians in the Valley, said the memorandum, adding that hundreds had been blinded and maimed for life and over 60 killed since the unrest began in July.

The continued delay to engage with the people of the state through a comprehensive and sustained political initiative will further deepen the sense of alienation in the Valley and cast a shadow of uncertainty on its future generation, the memorandum said while emphasising that the Central governments refusal to address the situation politically could have serious long-term implications on peace and stability in the state.

Accusing the Centre and state government of attempting to crush the agitation with administrative measures, like stopping sale of petrol and other essential commodities, Abdullah said initiatives to normalise the situation that should have been taken by the government were being taken by the Opposition.An effort is being made to crush the ongoing agitation by heaping more misery on the people, said the NC leader, adding that further restrictions were being placed on the people who were by now on the 43rd day of curfew. Abdullah said the situation was becoming worse as more and more people were being driven out onto the streets.

He said the unrest is also in the rural areas of the state this time. Specifically asked about state minister Sajjad Lone, he said, Let him go home, spend a day or two freely in Handwara and Kupwara. Then I will agree that what he is saying is correct. Slamming Lones claim about it being 5 per cent of the population, he added, today he says it is only 5 per cent and that too manipulated by Facebook. What Facebook? We do not have Internet. We do not have access to our cell phones most of the time.

Blaming Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti for administrative anarchy, he said they had not sought her dismissal or imposition of the Governors rule.

Omar said Pakistan had been playing its role in worsening the Kashmir unrest for the past 25 years and also attempted to add fuel to the current fire and was successful to some extent.
Tribune News Service

Mumbai, August 20



The Maharashtra Government has transferred a senior bureaucrat who refused to allow a junior colleague to go home early last week even though the latter's son was about to kill himself.

The youth killed himself soon after speaking to his father.

According to state government sources, Additional Chief Secretary Bhagwan Sahai, who in charge of the state's agriculture department, refused to let his junior colleague, Rajendra Ghadge, go home early even though the latters 23-year-old son called to say he was going to commit suicide.



State government officials said Sahai forced Ghadge to put in a whole day's work. By the time he was on the way home, Gadge got a message saying his son, who was suffering from depression, had committed suicide.



Sources said Sahai was further enraged when Ghadge went on leave to conduct his son's last rites. When colleagues informed him that Ghadge was on leave for his son's funeral, he remonstrated with them for not insisting on a leave application.

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After the incident, employees of the Agriculture Department complained about what they called Sahai's high-handedness since taking over last May and even threatened to go on strike.

Maharashtra Agriculture Minister Pandurang Phundkar ordered an investigation into Sahai's conduct.

On Friday, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced Sahai's transfer from the department.
Yash Goyal

Jaipur, August 20

Women parliamentarians of BRICS nations today expressed concern over Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), terrorism, gender equality, funds under New Development Bank (NDB), poverty, social responsibility and more women participation in politics and power.

After inauguration of the first day of the BRICS Forum meet, attended by 42 parliamentarians, including 14 from BRICS nations of Brazil, Russia, Indian, China and South Africa, was devoted to two plenary sessions  Perspectives on Implementation of SDGs and achieving SDGs and role of women parliamentarians in involving citizens.

TR Modise, Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces and head of South Africa delegation, said: The 2030 agenda for sustainable development includes the objective of gender equality and womens empowerment. Women are still not adequately represented in important centres of power.

Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said India was committed to working with international community to craft an ambitious, comprehensive and equitable development agenda with poverty eradication at its core.
By PTI: Srinagar, Aug 18 (PTI) An ambulance driver was shot at and injured allegedly by security forces in Safakadal area of downtown Srinagar while he was ferrying a patient from Ganderbal district to SMHS hospital.

The driver Ghulam Ahmad Sofi was shot with a pellet gun at Safakadal crossing, a police official said. He was on his way to SMHS hospital with a patient from Kangan area of Ganderbal district, the official said.

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He said Sofi, even after being shot in the arm, drove the ambulance to the hospital where he was also later admitted for treatment. PTI MIJ AKK

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Tribune News Service

Lucknow/New Delhi, Aug 19

A 20-member CBI team led by DIG Sharad Aggarwal today arrived in Bulandshahr to probe the gangrape of a woman and her teenaged daughter.

The team visited three spots related to the crime and collected samples such as empty liquor bottles, plastic glasses and discarded undergarments. Yes, we have taken up the case following an order of the Allahabad High Court, said Devpreet Singh, CBI spokesperson.

The CBI has registered a case under Sections 395 (punishment for dacoity), 397 (robbery), 376D (unlawful sexual contact), 342 (punishment for wrongful confinement) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 4 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, the spokesperson said. Sources in the police said the team had taken over the investigation into the case No. 838 of 2016 registered at the Kotwali Dehat police station, Bulandshahr, on the allegations of abduction, dacoity, and rape of a woman and her daughter by five to six assailants in the fields in Dostpur village, Bulandshahr, on the intervening night of July 29 and 30.

On August 12, the Allahabad High Court had ordered a CBI probe into the Bulandshahr gangrape as it was not satisfied with the investigation by the state police. The court had passed the order after examining the status report filed by the government.
New Delhi, August 19

Days after former Coal Secretary HC Gupta, accused in several coal scam cases, said he was ready to face trial from inside the jail and withdraw his lawyers owing to financial difficulties, the ex-bureaucrat today took a partial U-turn and told a special court he will not have a counsel only in one case.

Gupta, currently out on bail, said this after Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar, who today framed various charges, including cheating and criminal conspiracy against him and others in a separate coal scam case involving Vikash Metals and Power Ltd (VMPL), asked him if he intended to move a plea to withdraw lawyers and personal bond and face trial from inside the jail.

Are you (Gupta) moving any application (for withdrawing counsel and personal bond) in this case as well? the court asked.

Responding to the courts query, Gupta said that his plea in this regard was confined only to the case involving Madhya Pradesh-based Kamal Sponge Steel and Power Ltd (KSSPL) and others and he was firm on his stand to not engage an advocate in this case due to financial difficulties.

I will continue with my counsel in this (VMPLs) case at this stage, Gupta said.

In a surprising move, Gupta had on August 16 told the court that he intended to face trial from inside the jail and withdraw his personal bond to secure bail due to financial difficulties even as he had expressed anguish before the court saying the government should recognise its honest officers and protect them instead of prosecuting them.

He also continued his refusal to accept the courts offer to avail an advocate from New Delhi Legal Aid Services Authority or an amicus curiae appointed by the court. Todays development took place while the court framed charges against Gupta, two public servants, private firm VMPL and its two officials in a case pertaining to the alleged irregularities in allocation of a coal block in West Begal.

During the hearing, Gupta told the court that in an RTI reply received from the Ministry of Coal, he has been cleared from all the allegations levelled against him in the coal scam cases. The court asked him to furnish the document before it.

In May, the court had dismissed Gupta's plea seeking joint trial in several cases against him related to the matter, saying all the matters were at different stages.

On August 8, the Supreme Court also rejected his plea for joint trial. Eight different charge sheets have been filed against him and the proceedings are going on separately.

While ordering framing of charges in the VMPL case, the court had said "prima facie" offences of criminal conspiracy, cheating and criminal breach of trust by public servants under the IPC and various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act are made out against the accused. PTI

Court frames charges

During a hearing on Friday, court framed various charges, including cheating and criminal conspiracy, against Gupta, ex-joint secretary in Ministry of Coal (MoC) K S Kropha, the then Director (CA-I) in MoC, KC Samaria, VMPL, its Managing Director Vikash Patni and its Authorised Signatory Anand Mallick in the coal blocks allocation scam case
Mukesh Ranjan

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 19

The government today indicated that it was working on the Memorandum of Procedure (MoP), which will guide appointment of judges in higher judiciary, in accordance with the Supreme Court judgment on National Judicial Appointment Commission (NJAC) in which it had stressed on bringing transparency and accountability in the process.

Highly placed sources in the Ministry of Law and Justice claimed that the MoP was based on the judicial directions given by a Supreme Court Bench, which quashed the NJAC.

As the Executive and the Judiciary seek to iron out differences on key clauses of the guiding document, the sources pointed the December, 2015 apex court order on ways to improve the collegium system had said the process of appointing judges should be transparent, with accountability and should have a wider zone of consideration of candidates to be appointed to the Bench.

Detailing the stand of the government, the sources said the Centre wanted that names of candidates should come from all Supreme Court and High Court judges. They explained that all judges of a particular High Court should be at liberty to suggest names to the HC collegium, which will eventually take a call on whom to recommend for appointment and the same should apply for the Supreme Court. The Madhya Pradesh High Court is following the same principle, they added.

The government had on August 3, sent a revised draft of the MoP to the collegium, reiterating certain clauses on which the judiciary had objections.

Sources, while contending that the government intended to broad base selection of judges, said, the re-drafted MoP suggests that the Chief Ministers, Attorney General and Advocate Generals should also be allowed to suggest names of candidates to the collegiums.

While agreeing to the demand of the SC collegium that seniority-cum-merit and not merit-cum-seniority should be the criteria for selection, the government has said geographic reasons  for example, too many judges from a particular High Court, inclusion of SCs, STs and women, outstanding performance of a judge and poor performance of a Chief Justice could used as grounds to overlook seniority. The reasons can be recorded in writing.

On the issue of fixing the age bar, the government intended to leave it to the judiciary, but sources said, it had been made clear that once fixed it should not be flexible. This, the sources said, would check favouritism.

Even as the CJI rejected the clause on having evaluation and appraisal committees at the Supreme Court and High Court level, the government has once again reiterated for the same.
From our correspondent

Jaipur, August 20

Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan on Saturday said India is committed to working with international community to craft an ambitious, comprehensive and equitable development agenda with poverty eradication at its core.

The goal should be to secure inclusive development for all people and to share responsibilities equitably, the Speaker said while inaugurating the BRICS Women Parliamentarians Forum meet here.

As women parliamentarians, we have special responsibilities as well as advantages in providing leadership to women and grassroots organisations which are engaged in addressing issues like climate change, she said.

Today, much of Indias development agenda is mirrored in the sustainable development goals (SDGs). BRICS has chosen the path of removing poverty by empowering the poor, she said.

Mahajan called upon the five member countries to strengthen the cooperative mechanism and to improve new institutional means for meeting the needs of the member countries. Multilateral cooperation like the New Development Bank (NDB) established by BRICS could be instrumental in filling the massive gap in investment in infrastructure and sustainable development resources in emerging and developing economies, and also in giving them a greater voice in the development finance architecture, she said.

She said the BRICS countries together comprised 43 per cent of the world population, contributing 37 per cent of the world GDP.

Cautioning that the climate change posed grave risks, Mahajan said, We should look for changes in our lifestyles that would make us less dependent on energy and more sustainable in consumption.

Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces and head of South Africa delegation TR Modise said, The 2030 Agenda for sustainable development includes the individual objective of gender equality and womens empowerment at its centre.

Women are still not adequately represented in politics, economy and other important centres of power--security, financial, energy and markets, Modise said.

BRICS nations are concerned about conflict and spoke about joint initiatives on peace and security matters--how do we avoid conflict? How do we resolve it and how do we deal with terrorism? Modise said.

The social matters concerning women, when left unattended, become the reason we (as women of the world) stay poorer and more unequal, she said in her speech.

A total of 42 women parliamentarians, including 14 MPs from five nations--Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS)--are participating in the two-day deliberations on the theme Women Parliamentarians, the Enablers for Achieving Sustainable Development Goals.
New Delhi, August 20

Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai dismissed reports that India was engaged in a proxy war in Afghanistan on Saturday and appreciated Indias constructive role, even as he criticised Pakistan for "encouraging" radicalism and not containing terror groups operating from its soil.

In an interactive session in Delhi on Regional Power Play and Rise of Radicalism in Afghanistan, Karzai  who was Afghanistans president between 2001 and 2014  called terrorism as the single biggest challenge facing the region.

Asked about criticism from some quarters that India and Pakistan were engaged in a proxy war in his country, Karzai retorted by saying: "India is not engaging in any proxy war in Afghanistan...Training thousands of Afghans is not a proxy war, it is empowerment".

India has supplied four Mi25 helicopters to Afghanistan and has provided training to Afghan security forces.

Welcoming Modi's comments on Balochistan, Karzai said: "The issue of Balochisthan is something we understand and therefore we appreciate the remarks of Prime Minister Modi".

In his Independence Day speech on Monday, Modi had talked about the situation in PoK, Gilgit and Balochistan and said people from there have thanked him for raising their issues.

Karzai attacked Pakistan for encouraging spread of radicalism. "Unfortunately, in our region there was use of radicalism to a purpose," he said.

About spread of dreaded terror outfit Islamic State, he said Islamic State was a "sinister" tool, adding tomorrow it will be against the ones using it. He said Afghanistan and all its neighbouring countries must work together to combat IS.

"Today I can use it, tomorrow I can discard it. That's a very dangerous strategy," he said, while asking Pakistan to deal with terror groups firmly.

He said religion and aspirations to be a democratic country have nothing to do with one another.

In an apparent reference to Pakistan, he rejected promotion of religion as an "instrument of foreign policy". He also sounded critical of the US for its role in the region.

Karzai appealed to Pakistan to join hands with Afghanistan in addressing various problems "without use of radicalism".

Karzai is currently on a visit to India.  PTI
Ghaziabad, August 19

A member of Union Minister Mahesh Sharmas security team allegedly assaulted guards of a housing society here for delay in opening the gate with the incident caught on CCTV cameras.

The guards were assaulted last evening after they intercepted the ministers cavalcade and asked which flat they (ministers team) wanted to visit, some of residents of Aashiyana Society said.

When the guards stopped the car, the occupants of the vehicle got into an argument with them and used abusive language and slapped them.

Sharma was visiting his sister at the society for Raksha Bandhan celebrations when the incident took place. It was caught on CCTV cameras installed at the gate. Indirapuram Police Station SHO Gorkah Nath Yadav said no complaint had been received from the residents or office-bearers of the society.

Sharma alleged that people were trying to make a political issue of it and malign his image even after he had apologised and suspended his staff. He claimed that the scuffle between the guards had begun in his absence after he had gone inside. ...without knowing who was at fault, I unconditionally apologised to the guards, the RWA president and suspended my staff. I also permitted the police to act against him. What else can be done...There are people trying to make political issue out of it. They are using it to malign my image, he said.  PTI
Lucknow, August 20

In a significant judgement, the Allahabad High Court has turned down a petition pleading for compulsory religious education for students from Class I to graduation.

A Division Bench of Justice Amreshwar Pratap Sahi and Justice Vijay Laxmi set aside a PIL filed by Hindu Front for Justice asking the court to give directives to central and state governments for compulsory religious education pertaining to all religions to every student from Class I to graduation.

While underlining the importance of moral and religious education, the court dismissed the PIL pleading for the courts directives to the government making such religious education compulsory.

The petition had asked the court to derecognise such educational institutions which do not make adequate arrangements to impart religious education.

Arguing the case, counsel for the petitioner, Harishankar Jain, pleaded that due to lack of religious education even 66 years after Independence, the social aberration among the youth was multiplying.

Dismissing the PIL, the court in its order observed that discipline, courage, dedication and patriotism were the qualities that make an ideal citizen, which should be the duty of educational institutions to instil.
Ahmedabad, August 20

Four years after three Dalit youths were killed in police firing in Surendranagar district, the BJP government in Gujarat has decided to set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the incident, a move that came in the wake of outrage over Una Dalit flogging incident.

Chief Minister Vijay Rupani took the decision to constitute the three-member SIT to investigate the incident after receiving several representations from Dalit leaders, including those from his party, an official release said today.

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"Chief Minister Vijay Rupani took the decision following representations from Dalit leaders, including cabinet minister Atmaram Parmar, former minister Ramanlal Vora, and Rajya Sabha MP Shambhuprasad Tundiya," Minister of State for Home Pradipsinh Jadeja said in a press release.

The government would also form a special designated court and appoint a special public prosecutor to expedite the case and announced an additional Rs 2 lakh compensation to the nearest kin of the victims, over and above what was decided earlier.

The opposition Congress reacted cautiously to the decision, saying it could turn out to be an "eyewash to mislead the people" and demanded that the government table the report of an earlier CID probe into the incident.

On the intervening night of September 22-23, 2012, three Dalit youths --Pankaj Sumra, Prakash Parmar and Mehul Rathod -- were killed when police opened fire to disperse a violent mob to control a clash between Dalits and OBC Bharwad community members at Thangadh town in Surendranagar district.

The government had ordered a probe into the incident and a report was submitted to it by the then principal secretary of social justice and empowerment department, Sanjay Prasad. The report has not yet been made public.

The issue of Thangadh Police firing came in focus in the wake of recent Una town Dalit flogging incident with opposition leaders and Dalit rights activists raking it up to target the BJP.

At a rally held by Una Dalit Atyachar Padkar Samiti, which organised a march from Ahmedabad to Una, Dalit leaders have demanded justice to victims of Thangadh firing.

Family members of victims of Thangadh had also gone on hunger strike in Gandhinagar, demanding a judicial probe into the incident.

Rajkot city police commissioner Anupam Singh Gehlot, Surat city DCP Zone-2, Parikshita Rathod, and Porbandar Superintendent of Police Tarun Kumar Duggal will be members of the SIT.

The State CID investigation in the case remained inconclusive after the state probe agency filed a C-summary report. No chargesheet has been filed yet into the incident.

Thangadh, located around 65 km from Rajkot, is famous for the annual Tarnetar fair, held 8 km from town near the temple of Trinetwshar Shiva temple.

Reacting to the government's announcement, the Congress said it appeared to be a move to mislead people and shield the real culprits in the face of the agitation against atrocities on Dalits getting intensified.

"It has been a way with the BJP government that whenever agitation grows, it constitutes a committee to investigate an atrocity or a corruption case, mainly with the intention to mislead people and shield the real culprit.

Such SITs only serve as an eyewash," Gujarat Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi said.

"Good that the government has constituted an SIT to investigate Thangadh killings, but we would again demand from the government that the report of a previous investigation conducted by the state CID crime be placed on the table of the state assembly for discussion," he said.

Atrocities on Dalits have come in sharp focus after seven persons from the community from Mota Samadhiyala village of Una tehsil of Gir Somnath district were brutally assaulted by some self-styled cow vigilantes for skinning a dead cow on July 11.

The incident sparked wide-spread protests after videos of the beating went public.

Several political leaders like Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and BSP supremo Mayawati had visited the victims in the hospital and their family members.



Dalit boy beaten up in Gujarat, two accused arrested

Meanwhile, a 15-year-old Dalit boy was allegedly beaten up late on Thursday evening by two men in Bhavda village of Daskroi taluka in Ahmedabad district ostensibly because his father refused to dispose cattle carcasses in the village, police said on Saturday.

Two persons have been arrested.

Complainant Dinesh Parmar told the police that his son Harsh, a class 10 student, was sitting with a friend in their colony Vankarvas when the two accused -- Sahil Thakore and Sarvarkhan Pathan -- from the same village went there.

They started abusing Harsh for his father had refused to remove the carcasses in response to a call by Dalit organisations protesting the July 11 flogging of four youths in Una in Saurashtra. Agencies
Pasighat (Arunachal Pradesh), August 19

Union Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju said on Friday that the Chinese army had transgressed Arunachal Pradesh's border twice last month, although they could be called "incursions".

"We cannot term it as incursion, but transgression, as the Chinese army just crossed the perceived area along the Line of Actual Control," he told reporters after inaugurating the Pasighat Advance Landing Ground (ALG) in the northeastern state.

Rijiju said one incident was reported from Kibithu area in remote Anjaw district on July 22 and another at Thangsa in Tawang district later in the same month. Both acts were put down as transgressions, he said.

The ALG will allow fighter aircraft like Su 30 MKI to land and take off in a major fillip to India's military capabilities along its border with China.

The Centre had already started strengthening infrastructure to match China, Rijiju said, adding that the ALG at Pasighat was a major step in the direction.

"We are not challenging or competing with any other country by strengthening our border infrastructure. We will have to build robust infrastructure to strengthen our defence and whatever we have done is because India is an emerging power with capability.

"So IAF should have operational bases in all the bordering states," he said, noting that the Centre attaches priority to development of border infrastructure.

Asked about the proposed ALG at Tawang, the minister said an area had been identified between Tawang and Lumla at an altitude of 11,000 feet and a rugged terrain at that height was very challenging.

"We will have to see whether the site is feasible or otherwise we will have to look for an alternate place," he said.

To a question about some leaders of insurgent outfits from the northeast taking shelter in Myanmar, Rijiju said that India has requested Myanmar to take action against the insurgent groups taking shelter in that country.

"There are reports of some leaders of insurgent outfits from the northeast taking shelter in Myanmar and we are in constant talks with the government of that country requesting it to take action against them," the minister said.  PTI
Gagandeep Singh

Tribune News Service

Malsian (Jalandhar), August 20

In another accident involving a bus of a company owned the Badal family, four persons were killed and 13 critically injured when an Orbit bus collided with another private bus on Nakodar-Shahkot road at Billi Chuharmi village in the district on Saturday.

A bus (PB-03-AJ-7532) of Orbit Aviation Pvt Ltd going from Jalandhar to Muktsar was reportedly overtaking a truck when it hit a bus of GSK Transport (PB-08-CX-9531) that was on way from Moga to Pathankot.

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The front portion and the driver side of both the buses were badly damaged.

Three persons, including Jasvir Kaur of Kotkapura, Pala Singh of Dharamkot and Vinod Kumar, a resident of Jalandhar, died on the spot, while one passenger died in a hospital later. Gurbhej Singh of Raunt village in Shahkot, who was admitted in a critical condition at Shahkot hospital succumbed to his injuries in the evening.

This is the second accident in three days involving a bus owned by Badals. On Thursday, a Dabwali bus had crushed a father-son duo at Mullanpur in Ludhiana.

The locals, politicians, police and administration rushed to the spot and began the rescue operation. The passengers were taken to Civil Hospitals at Nakodar, Shahkot and Jalandhar.

While the driver of GSK bus, Binder, suffered fractures and has been admitted to a private hospital in the city, the Orbit bus driver reportedly fled the spot.

Kulwinder Singh, owner of GSK Transport, claimed, Binder was not at fault. It was the driver of the other bus who was driving rashly and tried to overtake another vehicle which resulted in the mishap.

Congress spokesperson and a leader from Shahkot, Dr Navjot Dahiya, who was among the first to reach the spot, said, It was shocking to see policemen driving the Orbit bus to safety towards Malsian police post rather than taking rescue operation on priority. They were perhaps busy doing the service for their political masters by trying to avoid any backlash of the public on it as it had happened during an accident involving another Badal-owned near Ludhiana.

SSP (Rural) Harmohan Singh said, The accident might have occurred because of a slippery road as it was raining heavily since morning. We are looking into the cause of accident.
Criticising BJP and ABVP for holding protests, State Home Minister Parameshwara said now that an FIR had been registered, ABVP were holding protests on the streets.

By Press Trust of India: Amnesty International India has never involved itself in any kind of anti-national activities, state Home Minister G Parameshwara said today, even as it faced sedition charges over an event held by it here in which anti-India and anti-Army slogans were allegedly raised.

"Amnesty International is not new to Bengaluru; this organisation has been functioning here for a long time. I don't know nor I have heard in the past about it (Amnesty) or anyone from it involving in any anti-national activities," he said.

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"They (Amnesty) had organised a programme about Army's excesses in Kashmir. They had called a few families (from Kashmir) to console them and give them some sort of mental support, in which certain incidents took place about which an FIR has been registered," he added.

Amnesty International had organised the event last Saturday as part of a campaign to seek justice for "victims of human rights violations" in Jammu and Kashmir, which took an ugly turn with heated exchanges and alleged raising of pro-Kashmir 'Independence' and anti-Army slogans.

ABVP activists had submitted a CD containing video recording of the event after filing a complaint with police, who have registered an FIR against Amnesty International, including on sedition charge.

IPC sections 142 (being member of an unlawful assembly), 143 (whoever is a member of an unlawful assembly), 147 (rioting), 124A (sedition), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony) have been invoked against Amnesty.

Criticising BJP and ABVP for holding protests, Parameshwara said now that an FIR had been registered, ABVP were holding protests on the streets.

"What is your culture? What are you trying to do? What kind of society are you trying to build?"

"They (protesters) are students, they are not aware of anything, those who had gone for classes are being brought forcefully (to protest), this is BJP's culture," he added.

ABVP activists have been staging protests, demanding the arrest of those who allegedly raised anti-India and anti-Army slogans at the event organised by Amnesty International India.

During one such protest in front of Amnesty International India office here yesterday, police resorted to a mild lathi charge during which a few students were injured.

ABVP today intensified its agitation by launching a day-night protest here.

Several state BJP leaders and party's women's wing also staged a protest here condemning police action against ABVP activists and demanding arrest of those involved in alleged anti-Army sloganeering.

--- ENDS ---
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, August 20

Lance Havildar Davinder Singh (38) of 17 Sikh, who got injured in a fierce gunfight in the Machhil sector of Jammu and Kashmir on August 8, succumbed to his injuries yesterday.

The Non-Commissioned Officer had received three gunshot wounds and was under treatment at the Armys Referral and Research Hospital, New Delhi.

Davinder Singhs last rites were performed with full military and state honours here today. Major General Deepak Dhanda, Chief of Staff, Vajra Corps, KK Yadav, Deputy Commissioner, Jalandhar, other senior military, civil dignitaries and leaders from various political parties paid tributes to the martyr.

He was part of the operation launched near the Line of Control following information about presence of militants in the area in which three Border Security Force (BSF) personnel and one militant were killed and two Army personnel were injured. Davinder is survived by his wife Satwinder Kaur and 13-year-old son Jobanpreet. He was a native of Gurdaspur.
Tribune News Service

Longowal (Sangrur), August 20

Paying tributes to Sant Harchand Singh Longowal on his 31st death anniversary, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today announced that the SGPC would set up a girls degree college here soon.

The CM also announced a grant of Rs 1 crore for the construction of a new building of the girls school here. He promised that the town would have a new bus stand soon.

Badal, Deputy CM Sukhbir Badal, Rajya Sabha MP Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa and Finance Minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa were among those who paid floral tributes to Longowal.

The CM said the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had betrayed Longowal by not implementing the Rajiv-Longowal Accord. He also held the Congress responsible for the Sants assassination.

Lashing out at the Aam Aadmi Party and the Congress, Badal asked the people to differentiate between pro-Punjab and anti-Punjab parties.

Badal betrayed Sant, alleges Amarinder

Chandigarh: PPCC chief Capt Amarinder Singh on Saturday accused CM Parkash Singh Badal of shedding crocodile tears over the martyrdom of Sant Harchand Singh Longowal. He alleged that Badal betrayed Longowal by backing out of the Rajiv-Longowal Accord, leading to the Sant's assassination. He dared Badal to deny that he did not reject the accord. "Otherwise, apologise to the Punjabis for betraying the Sant and being responsible for his martyrdom," he told the CM. TNS
Pushpa Girimaji

Last fortnight, when I checked my bank account, I was shocked to find a debit of Rs 20,000, as ATM withdrawal. This was a new account for which I had not got the ATM card at all. However, the bank is refusing to refund the money and is insisting that it had sent the card and the pin separately to me and that I have withdrawn the amount. How do I prove the correct position?

First of all, lodge a complaint with the police about the illegal withdrawal of money from your account. Next, write a formal letter to the bank, pointing to the illegal and unauthorised debit and clarifying that you have not received the ATM card or the PIN and so the question of using that card does not arise and the bank must therefore refund the Rs 20,000 debited from your account. You should also ask the bank to investigate into this illegal withdrawal and let you know how it happened and what action would be taken to prevent recurrence.

The bank should also give you details of the ATM transaction and the copy of the CCTV footage of the ATM at that time. That will show who has used the ATM and reveal the identity of the imposter.

The bank may have sent the card to you, but it has to prove that you have received it by showing your signature or the signature of someone authorised by you to receive it, on the courier receipt. And it has to prove that you have withdrawn the money from the ATM  the bank does not have any proof on either of these points. This is obviously a case of fraud/ negligence by the courier company for which the bank has to take responsibility, as far as you are concerned.

If the bank is not willing to do that and refund your money with interest, I will suggest that you lodge a complaint with the banking ombudsman.

Is there any decided case of the banking ombudsman in this regard?

I recall a case almost identical to yours, wherein in similar circumstances, Rs 25,000 was withdrawn from the account of the consumer using an ATM card and pin sent to him.

In response to his complaint to the Ombudsman, the bank submitted proof of delivery which showed that the card was delivered to a person by name Narendra and the PIN, to Sumita. Both the receipts bore the rubber stamp of the company where the complainant worked. The subsequent use of the card at the ATM proved that the card had been used using the PIN and if there is any misuse, the bank cannot be held accountable as it had delivered them both to the complainant, the bank argued.

The Ombudsman disagreed and pointed out that while mailing the card and the pin, the bank had to ensure that it was delivered either to the customer personally or to someone authorised by him to receive it. In this case, the bank had delivered them to persons not authorised by the customer and therefore it had to take responsibility for the misuse of the card.

The Ombudsman, therefore, directed the bank to pay Rs 25,000 to the complainant, along with interest that would accrue to a savings bank account. The bank was also asked to pay Rs 1,000 towards the expenses incurred by the consumer in following up the case with the bank and later the Ombudsman. The bank was free to pursue legal remedy to recover the amount from the courier, the Ombudsman said.

In fact the Ombudsman in this case has set clear guidelines to the banks on the delivery of such cards and pins. The bank has to ensure that the cards are not delivered to unauthorised persons, but to the consumer himself or herself, the Ombudsman has said. In case for some reason, this is not possible, then it has to be delivered to someone duly authorised by the consumer and not to anyone else. And while doing so, the identity of the duly authorised person has to be checked before delivery, the Ombudsman said (The Banking Ombudsman Scheme, Annual report 2007-2008. Reserve Bank of India).You can find this case on the website of the Reserve Bank.
Tanushree Podder

In 1974, at the foot of Lishan Mountain, located in Xian in China,a few farmers digging a well stumbled upon a stunning array of terracotta soldiers, horses and chariots. The chance discovery by the farmers catapulted Xian to the top of the list of Unesco World Heritage Sites and the world was gifted one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of the 20th century.

The French President Jacques Chirac called it the 8th wonder of the world. The terracotta sculptures portray the armies of Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China, who is credited with uniting the warring states of his country.

More than 2,000 years ago, Emperor Qin had ordered that an army of terracotta statues be made, so these could be buried with him as the Chinese believe that statues can come alive in the afterlife. His desire to continue ruling after death is given as one of the reasons for the creation of this huge subterranean army of thousands of terracotta warriors.

These life-size warriors, cavalry men, horses, archers, senior officers and generals were positioned in the ancient army order. Amazingly, no two statues matched each other in clothing, facial and hair details. The mausoleum of Emperor Qin Shi Huang is the largest preserved site in China. Its layout echoes the plan of the capital, Xianyang, with the imperial palace enclosed by the walls of the city, which, in turn, are ringed by more walls.

The statues are preserved in three vaults. There is also an exhibition hall of the bronze chariots found underground. Together, these form a priceless collection that represents the cultural and military details of that era.

Pit 1 was opened to the public in 1979. It has nine corridors. With its impressive terracotta figures of soldiers and horses, it is the largest one. In the front stand, three rows of soldiers, armed with long spears, cross and longbows and arrows, daggers or bronze sword. Surprisingly, these weapons are resistant to rust and corrosion. The pit is believed to contain about 7,000 warriors although only 2,000 are currently displayed. Excavations still continue.

Pit 2 and 3 were unearthed in 1976. In Vault two, soldiers stand according to the armys order of march that existed during the time of Emperor Qin. In the first batch there are rows of archers in kneeling and standing position, the second part has chariots while the third consists of soldiers from infantry, cavalry and also chariots positioned in rectangular manner. At the end stand weapon-brandishing troopers. The hairstyles of soldiers, archers, generals and officials are sculpted in great details. Each of the ranks had a different hairstyle.

Pit 3 is the smallest one of the three vaults with only 72 terracotta figures of warriors and horses. With its array of officials, it represents the command post. Strangely, many of the statues are headless.

Close to the third vault is the exhibition hall with two impressive bronze carriages. These were discovered near the tomb of Emperor Qin in December 1980. Driven by four horses, the carriages are a fine example of the workmanship that existed in Chin, 2000 years ago. Ornamented with several pieces of gold and silver, they are the largest pieces of primeval bronze -ware ever discovered. These together with some of the original weaponry and the statue of a mid-ranking officer are the tour de force of pit 3.

According to Unesco, the site is of prime importance because of hyper realistic sculptures where no detail has been neglected, right from the uniforms of the warriors, their arms, to even the horses' halters.
Lalit Mohan

If New Orleans did not have the French Quarter, it would be just another southern American city. It would still have its jazz bars, its lip-smacking sea food, its Mardi Gras carnival, its plantations and the swamps close by. It is this 11-by-seven grid of streets, Vieux Carre in French, and the habitation within the rectangle that make it something special.

The city was founded in 1718 by French settlers in America and was so named after the Duke of Orleans. Forty years later, it was transferred to Spain. The Spaniards made houses with wrought-iron balconies and courtyards and these exist to this day. But in 1800, they returned it to Napoleon Bonaparte, who, in turn, sold it to the United States for $15 million in 1803.

Each ruler added his own flavour to the cultural mix of New Orleans. And, if this was not enough, ethnic groups like the Cajuns (descendents of French-speaking people from Canadas maritime provinces) and Creoles (mixed race of European settlers, Africans and Latinos) too made it their home in large numbers, adding more spice to the ethnic mix of this city.

The French Quarter was the core around which the town grew over the years. This area still has low-rise town houses in the old Spanish style, but the Bourbon Street that cuts across is the most happening road in New Orleans. It sleeps during the day, but at night, with dozens of neon signs aglow, it springs to life in a raucous, rhythmic, hedonistic swirl of soul-gripping music.

Because, this is the street of the jazz bars, night clubs and restaurants that New Orleans is famous for. Every kind of jazz can be heard here  Dixie, Swing, Blues and Brass Bands. The bars are dimly lit with psychedelic neon lights, and musicians play while people dance with gay abandon. And Bourbon Street has its street players as well. If not groups of performers, you can even listen to a kid playing drums on an inverted plastic bucket, with another one the right side up to collect whatever the passers-by toss in.

At the south-eastern end of the French Quarter lie Jackson Square and the equestrian statue of Joan of Arc, the Maid of Orleans. Next, the French Market sprawls under four long sheds where farmers sell their produce. This is one place where one can hear, apart from English, a cacophony of French, Spanish, German, Portuguese and some very unfamiliar dialects. A signboard across the road calls itself Jazz Funeral with the sub-text Where people are dying to come in.

Because the city is such an ethnic potpourri, racial identities can get blurred. Standing in the queue at one restaurant counter, a local guy asked my wife, Are you from Europe? No, she replied. Not even from Italy? No. From Israel? No. Then, hesitatingly, Are you from Pakistan? No, she answered, I am from India.

Oh, thank God, he sighed.

Beyond the French Market flows the mighty Mississippi river. The road on the embankment is known as Moonwalk, after Moon Landrieu, a former mayor.

Parallel to Bourbon is Royal Street, which is known for its art galleries. Apart from old etchings and lithographs, as well as new art, one can find limited edition copies of masterpieces by the likes of Picasso, Dali and Tolouse-Lautrec here. One of them even sells original works by Picassos fourth wife, Francoise Gilot, the only one who left him (the others he ditched).

FACT FILE

What to eat: New Orleans has some great sea food, including lobsters, crawfish, shrimp and succulent oysters. Cajun food, Creole cuisine and beignets (square croissants of French origin) are its other specialties. One of the best-known eating places here is Antoines, the oldest restaurant in town. It was set up in 1840. Presidents and a Pope have dined here. It boasts of 25,000 bottles of wine in its cellar, which is actually a long corridor above the ground because the down below the sub-soil moisture is too high.

Other attractions: A must on any visit to New Orleans is the National Museum of World War II, which showcases the conflict from the beginning to the end, in all its theatres, and the men and weapons that made history. Other attractions include visits to an alligator farm, an old plantation, a haunted house and an airboat ride over a swamp in the Mississippi backwaters.
Harish Khare

Last Friday night the entire nation was glued to television screens, applauding and goading PV Sindhu to discover within her that extra bit of gumption in her quest for the Olympic gold against a superior player from Spain. Cheering an individual sportsperson offers a catharsis of a kind different from when we are shouting ourselves hoarse in support of our national team; national prestige and honour invariably get worked up into a victory or loss in the team sport.

But in a singles event, a sportsperson pits himself/herself in a contest of will, skill and stamina. Character, temperament and training come into play. There was a certain nobility in which Sindhu sought to regroup her wits, determination and technique. But her opponent of the evening played better badminton. And, that is all that matters. Surely, there can be no shame in losing, as long as the battle is fought hard and honourably.

The frenzy that our television channels had managed to whip up since Friday morning was frightening. It was an instructive lesson on how to generate mass hysteria. In the end, we ended up putting far too much pressure on a 21-year-old woman. It was as if each one of us wanted her to help rescue us from the current national mood of despondency and morass.

As it is our wont, we will be heaping Sindhu and Sakshi Malik with accolades and awards. And no one would grudge that indulgence. Yet, we will need to see to it that these two young sportspersons  and, many others like them  are not made to feel content and sated with their Rio achievements.

That a country of more than one billion should be going bananas over winning just one silver and one bronze, perhaps, suggests our desperate need for national heroes. Every society needs a hero whom it can worship, adore and genuinely respect. A hero is a hero because he/she embodies qualities and achievements which most people want to achieve but find those accomplishments beyond their reach. Our agony and ecstasy at the very meagre medal haul at the Rio Olympics underline our current subconscious disappointment with the bogus heroes, whose sleight of hand we now are able to see clearly. All our collective ebullience and energy is being channeled to petty pursuits. A nation that feels enormously satisfied at badmouthing Pakistan evening after evening must learn to be satisfied with just two medals.

The 'chief' of the Indian Army is perhaps the most respected and most revered institution, inviting respect and consideration from one and all  and, much more than a prime minister or a governor or a chief justice. The Chief of the Indian Army symbolises the honour and dignity of the 'fauj'  not just to the officers and jawans but also to the citizens.

How does this respect remain intact when reports appear from time to time of bad blood among the generals at the highest level?

The current Army Chief, Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag, has broken open the cupboard and skeletons are tumbling out. General Suhag is reported to have alleged that he was victimised by the then Chief of Army Staff (Gen VK Singh). General Suhag accuses his former boss of instigating false, baseless and imaginary allegations of lapses against him.

Gen VK Singh is no stranger to controversy. He waged  and, naturally lost  what many good soldiers thought was not a very honourable war against the government on the issue of his date of birth. To the horror of old-fashioned soldiers, he took the matter to the Supreme Court and was rejected and chastised. More than a slap for him, the apex courts rebuff was a loss of face for the entire Army.

Though there are well-established inhouse mechanisms for resolving disputes among officers in the matters of service condition, promotion and punishment, a spat at the highest level of the Army command does not enhance anyone's prestige or honour.

As it is, the good men and women who make up the ranks of our glorious armed forces have a difficult time remaining uncontaminated by the all-round moral decay and political chicanery. But, when the generals are seen as engaging in personal spats, the whole institution suffers.

May I recommend a delightfully funny book on a phenomenon we are all familiar with and occasionally indulge in: queue-jumping?

V Raghunathans The Good Indians Guide to Queue-jumping is a witty essay on how we Indians love to jump the queue.

In a country of one billion and more people, there simply is no escape from forming lines, waiting patiently in line for your turn to be served. Otherwise there would be extreme disorder, anarchy and violence at places like railway stations, bus stands, hospitals, canteens etc.

But Raghunathan argues that all of us resent queuing up. He recalls Amitabh Bachchans famous line from Kaalia film: Ham jahan khade ho jaate hain, line wahin se shuru hoti hai. That just sums up our cultural trait. The powerful do not want to stand in the line, and the not-so-powerful try to get away  if they can  from breaking the line.

Raghunathan manages to command attention and interest as he steers the reader through the fine print of the psychology, physiology and sociology of queues, and then offers some meditation on the ethics of queue-jumping.

Yes, such is our social norm  not only jumping queues but also doing it by hook or crook, or even with outright and in-your-face lies. In a society where queue-jumping is the rule rather than the exception, any iterative game-theoretic plays will suggest that you would be a chump not to jump queues yourself. As a society, we have resolved not to set examples for others. Does this mean we are patient with such brazen queue-jumpers? My take is no; we are fatalistic. We have far too many other, and way more important, battles to fight just for survival. So why bother about this little battle about a lousy queue-jumper?

Yes, why indeed? I believe that forming queues and staying in the line is an indication of a societys respect for norms and rules. A lawful society encourages  and rewards those who subscribe to the discipline of queue-forming.

Speaking for myself, I am happy to wait in line, most of the time. The only line I find very distasteful to observe is the queue for food at receptions/dinners/lunches. Sometimes I prefer to wait for the line to disappear, and, other times, I jump the queue.

But I am inclined to endorse fully Raghunathans sober conclusion that it all adds up to our societys disregard for fairness and concern for others.

It is a book each one of us should read. It would force us to recall embarrassing moments as also help us understand the curative power of forming and waiting in a queue for our turn.

The other day a friend of mine from America sent me this gem, with a caveat that those of the younger generation may not, of course, know half of the following:

1981 & 2005: Two Interesting Years

Interesting Year 1981

Prince Charles got married.

Liverpool crowned soccer Champions of Europe.

Australia lost the Ashes.

The Pope died.

Interesting Year 2005

Prince Charles got married.

Liverpool crowned soccer Champions of Europe.

Australia lost the Ashes.

The Pope died.

The moral of the story: The next time Prince Charles gets married, someone should warn the Pope.

That calls for a cup of piping hot coffee.

Join me.
Harvinder Khetal

August 19 is World Photography Day. It is the day of the celebration of 177 years of photography, announced Facebook that morning. It set me unrolling the reel of memories  memories firmly locked in family albums and adorning family home walls. As I focussed on the sepia-tinted photos of my grandparents  looking so unbelievably young, as I had always seen them as adorably elderly  smiling from behind that glass held together by that antique wooden frame, I marvelled at the advances made in the field of picture-making.

The technique, dependent on light, seems to have technologically made strides at the speed of light. Positively, there are no more cumbersome cameras and reels of films, or dark rooms to park negatives and positives. No more just black-and-whites. Its a colourful world out there. In fact, monochromatic images are specially taken/made today to lend an air of exotic romance.

I remembered my first camera, a small no-frills thing called hot shot, a kind of precursor to the modern gadget. It was the mid-eighties and we (my twin sister and I) were all set for our ICSE Class exam. It was the good old days when scoring 90% marks and above was a big achievement. Unlike these days when you find students with even 99% score a dime a dozen. So, Dad had promised us a hot shot as an incentive. We felt cool carrying our camera and clicking our way into college, capturing candid cameos encapsulating our cares and concerns. We would rush to the shop to get the Kodak and Canon films developed and anticipate with trepidation the results of our attempts at shooting.

But, look around today: everybody is flashing a smartphone/ipad and merrily clicking away. With high-quality cameras that have auto-focussing, lighting and other settings, not much intelligence is required to click the button for a picture. We all have become photographers. That makes the job of professional photographers that much more tough. Always pitted against the ordinary, they have to excel to stand out. And, did you know that even animals are giving them competition these days? Yes, its true! Not only has a monkey taken a series of selfies, but its case is also being fought in the court for its copyright to their ownership!

This is what happened: In 2011, a crested macaque monkey, called Naruto, took its selfies with the camera purposefully left there by a British photographer, David Slater, in a jungle in Indonesia. Slater published those pictures as monkey selfies.

That is when PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) came into the picture. It argued in a US court that Naruto should be the author and owner of the pictures as it took them. But the court ruled in Slaters favour, saying that being non-human, a monkey could not own the copyright to a selfie photograph it took. Some days back, PETA appealed the decision, insisting that in every practical (and definitional) sense, he (Naruto) is the author of the works. It stated: Had the monkey selfies been made by a human using Slater's unattended camera, that human would undisputedly be declared the author and copyright owner of the photographs.

Nothing in the Copyright Act limits its application to human authors protection under the Copyright Act does not depend on the humanity of the author, but on the originality of the work itself.

Well, well! It is not easy to have a black-and-white view of the lawsuit. To see things in black and white is to have a simple view of what is good and bad or right and wrong. The usage is based on the association of black with evil and white with virtue, dating back around 2,000 years.

However, while the judges ponder over the proceedings, I can give it in black and white that there is no gray area when it comes to the market being full of cameras that are smarter and fun to operate. They help you edit, morph, crop, photoshop, make cartoons, brighten images, add elements, adjust light and what-have-you it wont be long when we common people would be taking a shot at 3-Dimensional figurines using photogrammetry with 3D scanners and 3 D printers, something that is currently prohibitively expensive. 3D selfies are photo-realistic 3D printed replicas of you in lifelike colours printed in sandstone. They make the perfect memento to capture any special moment.

Till then, shoot what you lovewith the camera, please. Because as one wise one said: Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst. And, its worth it because photography is the only language that can be understood anywhere in the world.

 hkhetal@gmail.com
Parbina Rashid

Manipur's 'Iron Lady' Irom Sharmila cringed and cried as she tasted honey, the first thing she tasted in 16 long years. She finally got freedom from her nasal tube.

But others around her seemed numb. Even her mother Irom Shakhi refused to cook a special meal for her youngest daughter. Irom Shakhi had promised to feed Sharmila her favourite dish with her own hands the day the Armed Forces Special Power Act (AFSPA) was lifted from Manipur.

Barring a few Congress and BJP supporters, most Manipuris felt let down by Sharmila's decision, including her family. Many women activist groups that had once backed her saw her act as betrayal. In fact, a few militant outfits issued threats. The general feeling is now the movement against the AFSPA would get weakened.

But then as a free citizen, she is at liberty to embark on a fast or end it. She is free to contest an election or get married. If they really think the movement would weaken with Sharmila now embarking a new path, some of them can take over the tradition which she started 16 years ago, or simply launch some similar mode of non-violent protest like Sharmila's.

True, AFSPA is still there in parts of Manipur, but Irom Sharmila has achieved what she had set out to do - raise the nation's consciousness against this draconian law. Irom Sharmila feels dejected. She has a reason for that. When she adopted a democratic and non-violent way of protest, she was taken into judicial custody, forced fed by the authority through a nasal pipe and confined into a cabin at Imphal hospital. And now that she has demonstrated her faith in the Constitution and the democratic traditions, she is getting threats from those who made her a goddess all these years. Sharmila does not want to be a goddess. All she wants is a normal life. After all, a pedestal is as unnatural an extension to a human form as the nasal tube!

RSS brand of sanskaar

The Kokrajhar district of Assam has been in the news. Not for the right reasons though. First, at least 14 people lost their lives when suspected Bodo militants attacked a busy bazaar in Kokrajhar recently. This was the first major insurgency-related strike in the state after the BJP took over the reins at Dispur.

A Bodo-dominated area, Kokrajhar has been witnessing ethnic conflicts for a long time now. The other incident which was as shocking as the terror attack was when Neha Dixit did a series of exposes called BetiUthao in the Outlook magazine. How RSS-affiliated organisations are trafficking tribal girls from this area and sending them to Punjab and Gujarat in order to instill what they feel is Hindu sanskaar.

Outfits affiliated to the RSS have picked up girls as young as four without going through legalities. The parents of the girls, who are dirt poor, have not spoken to their children for more than a year.

I too had this opportunity to sample a piece of RSS brand of gyan when I visited the head office of Rashtra Sevika Samiti in Guwahati. Do you know who is the father of journalism? came the unexpected question from one of the savikas. No, I could not recall. Seeing my blank expression, the kind savika offered helpfully -Narad! Narad Muni? The celestial saint, who travelled with a musical instrument, and of course, to give the savika credit, news! But the nature of the news he carried was more of the manipulative kind which more often than not created trouble among his celestial recipients.

It's been months since the wisdom was thrust on me, but I still have trouble visualizing myself as a successor of Narad.

Thirteen going on thirty

When I met Alisha Chandranath at her residence in Guwahati, I had to make a conscious effort to keep my focus on her innocent face. Not because I was distracted by the tasteful decor of the living room which her mother had created, but to make sure that I was talking to a teenager, and not a sophisticated, worldly-wise woman.

I was impressed with Alisha for her maturity even before I read her book Thirteen or Thirty, an anthology of poems.

The slim volume, published by Sampark, has 57 poems, divided into three categories - Reflection, Intuition and Perception - which captures many moods, many thoughts of this now 14-year-old. Her words are well crafted, her thoughts are well controlled and her expression is a curious blend of aggressiveness and vulnerability.

She challenges her readers with the confidence of a 13-year-old - Define my words/Define my world/And define my wayWay to go Alisha!

 parbina@tribunemail.com
This north Bangladesh village has an innovative solution to the problem of drought - the marriage union of two frogs.

By Sahidul Hasan Khokon: A marriage ceremony was held between two frogs in the northern Bangladesh district of Dinajpur to save the locals from the curse of drought. The marriage ceremony was held with grandeur at Betura West Para village, following all the customs of a Hindu marriage. The invited guests brought cash and other gifts for the frog 'couple'.

The organizer Mahesh Chandra Roy said they were merely following tradition; their forefathers also organised such ceremonies when faced with long periods of drought. Mahesh traced this custom to the Ramayana, saying that the gods would be pleased by the marriage of the frogs and bring rain upon them.

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On Saturday, a group of villagers represented the bridegroom's side side and another group represented the bride's side in the ceremony. After the haldi ceremony, the two frogs were decorated with oil and sindoor and then kept on the marriage cot.

After the blessings, a paddy plant was planted. 82-year-old Tenia Burman said it was a one-of-a-kind protest to the Rain God against the curse of drought.

--- ENDS ---
Sushil Manav in Chandigarh

A government should not only talk, but walk itself well. The Jat agitation early this year saw the Manohar Lal Khattar-led BJP government merely drawling on about the horrendous events unfolding on the streets of Haryana. In the middle of the year, the CM has clutched at the administrative straw to shed his naivete, in order to be seen to be believed, both by bureaucrats and politicians within and outside the BJP. Young professionals, 21 of them, have been brought in to help him govern. And how: As Chief Minister's Good Governance Associates (CMGGAs), they would oversee government's functioning at district headquarters. The 21 descended on July 18 after a brief training. It is an experiment, government says, in a rebuttal of criticism of it being seen by many as a parallel system emerging from the BJP's lack of faith in bureaucrats.

This is not the first time that a government has sought to rope in young professionals from outside. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, when he was the Gujarat Chief Minister, had appointed 'CM Fellows' with an almost similar mandate, though they were not sent to the district headquarters. More recently, Chandrababu Naidu appointed 'CM Fellows' for the Vision Monitoring Unit of the Andhra Pradesh Government.

The state government signed an MoU with Ashoka University located in Rajiv Gandhi Education City, Sonepat, for the programme. The monthly salary of Rs 50,000 plus vehicles to the CMGGAs are not coming from the state exchequer. Their pay and perks come from the knowledge partner as part of its corporate social responsibility.

A month on, there are expected reactions from the government as well as the Opposition. The reality may not come out anytime soon until the next elections. Yet something akin to shadow governance is in evidence. But that's again largely minus the people's response, which might not be in consonance with the air of expectation in the CM's office.

First, what the government thinks: Even in this small period, they have been able to make their impact felt, says Khattar's Additional Principal Secretary Rakesh Gupta who looks after the project. The associates have been studying the functioning of the Power Department, particularly the aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) aspect. The CMGGAs will be a bridge between the government and the department. As they report the state of affairs of the department, they will also give their own opinion, says Gupta.

The associates are also observing the functioning of anganwadis, schools and health centres in relation to the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao scheme to ascertain loopholes. In fact, some of them have already identified a few gaps in health centres, says Gupta.

The young Deputy Commissioner of Sirsa, Sharandeep Kaur Brar, is very happy with assistance rendered by her district CMGGA Vrashali Khandelwal. She says it would definitely help her bring about a qualitative improvement in governance.

Being an engineering graduate, she is quick on the uptake and makes valuable suggestions and solutions. With her efforts, fewer grievances are pending in the CM Window. While the core departments get the attention of the administration regularly, Vrashali has been focusing on peripheral departments such as the Veterinary and Animal Husbandry and Horticulture, says Brar.

Another district-level officer, who doesn't want to be identified, says the mere presence of CMGGAs was enough to send out a message to officials that someone was watching them.

Meanwhile, the emerging governance concept has some senior bureaucrats worried. It is a general impression that the associates have been sent to keep a watch on the DCs and SPs. They will merely breathe down their neck, says a senior IAS officer.

Former CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda is highly critical, alleging that people with an RSS background have been made to sit in the districts. He fears the move will demoralize the administration as the associates will interfere in its day-to-day working. This decision clearly proves that the government has lost faith in its officers and a parallel system is being developed. It is an insult to the 2.5 crore people of Haryana, he says.

The jury is still out, in the meantime, here are field reports from four districts:

Sarkari jasoos?

Hisar: An engineering pass-out from YMCA University of Science and Technology (Faridabad), GGA Manisha Bhatotia (25) has been in Hisar for about one-and-a-half months. Her eagerness landed her in trouble on August 10: she accompanied a team of the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) and the police to check power theft in Niyana village. The villagers assaulted the team and Manisha was caught in the free-for-all. The officials had a tough time rescuing her.

She has been visiting several institutes and offices. Often, she summons officials for information and is promptly obliged. But we are helpless when she doesn't inform us in advance about her visit, said an official.

Another official said, In bureaucratic parlance, these GGAs are known as 'sarkari jasoos' (government informers). Officials are wary of their presence and get alerted on finding her around, he said.

When Deputy Commissioner Nikhil Gajraj went to Gangwa village to supervise a government school recently, she followed him to have firsthand experience. Manisha doesn't want anything published in newspaper about her job. It's too early to say anything. I am trying to learn, she said.

 Deepender Deswal

Quietly, she enters

Kurukshetra: Sanyukta Sharma is 22 years old and an Electronics and Communication graduate from Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar. She joined as a research associate at Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, in the domain of public policy. As government's associate, she works without publicizing her work. Sources said she is scheduled to work in close association with the Deputy Commissioner to oversee implementation of the flagship programmes such as Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao, Chief Minister Window and other social and administrative initiatives.

We are aware that CMGGA is working as eyes and ears of the Chief Minister and is authorized to visit any office. She mainly visits rural areas, but no one knows her daily schedule. There has no introductory meetings, says a district official. I have time-bound assignments. I have nothing to comment, she said. Sources said neither has the CMGGA asked any query nor given her feedback. Officials fear being watched by the CM office directly through the CMGGAs. Going by government's commitment of improving governance, such checks should not be feared, said another district functionary.  Vishal Joshi

Work in progress

Bhiwani: After a few misimpressions about his presence in top government interactions, things seem to be settling down for associate Gaurav Dhankar. Sources said initially the Deputy Commissioner was unclear if the CMGGA was to supervise the flagship programmes' or intervene in daily affairs of the administration.

A graduate in social work with specialization in rural development, Tata Institute of Social Science Young India Fellowship, Ashoka University, Gaurav (25) comes from a small Rajasthan village.

The DC has asked the city magistrate to help him in completing his assignments. Both do their task in sync, says a senior government official. The associate is here to observe, examine and report directly to the Chief Minister's office. Since they joined a month ago, it would be premature to say anything about them, said Deputy Commissioner Pankaj.

Another official said during one such meeting with CMGGA, there were long discussions on old complaints, but there was no definite conclusion. Except frequent meetings, from last one month, nothing has changed, he said.

Dhankar declined a request for a meeting citing his busy schedule.

RTI activist Capt Pawan Anchal says there has been no visible impact of the CMGGA as government officials remain as apathetic as ever towards public issues. - Sat Singh

Doctors drive

Jhajjar: As a homeopathic doctor, Dr Anita Phalswal has worked with Women and Child Development Department under National Rural Health Mission. Her latest assignment of being a government associate is turning out to be helpful for district officers in receiving public feedback and suggestions about speedy execution of government schemes.

Narhari Singh Bangar, Additional Deputy Commissioner (DC), says government officers seem to be more accountable after the CMGGA concept.

Being a third eye of the state government and the administration, the associate also keeps a tab on behaviour of every officer, said Bangar. Dr Rakesh, Deputy Civil Surgeon, describes the CMGGA as a helping hand for those officers who really want to do something worthwhile.

For residents, things haven't changed yet. Says a local resident: People continue making rounds of government offices even for their genuine work. Citizen Charter has become merely eyewash as not a single work is done as per the deadline.

Associate Anita says she is focusing on finding out a better solution in a given situation where the district administration is in direct touch with the common man. We work as per work modules designed by the programme team.  Ravinder Saini
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, August 20

Former MLA from Ghansali Bhim Lal Arya today began an indefinite sit-in outside the residence of Chief Minister Harish Rawat in support of his demand for the Other Backward Class (OBC) status for his constituency.

The Chief Minister has failed to fulfil the promise made to me and people of my constituency. I had put everything at stake and lent support to him when many of his party leaders had left him, he said.

Arya, who sat on the ground alone without supporters, presented a picture of a hurt party worker who had suddenly been abandoned. He said, If the Chief Minister cannot make the announcement just now, he should instead declare the constitunecy as an OBC seat, he added. While the demand for the OBC status for Ghansali has pitted him against the Chief Minister, he is also angry at the manner in which the state Congress leadership did not allow him entry into the party.

I was the one who saved the sinking ship of Harish Rawat from drowning. They should have rewarded me. Now, I am demanding that I be given the party membership in the presence of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, said Arya.

It is believed that Arya was asked to tender resignation from the Industrial Development and Infrastructure Corporation after the BJP raised questions about his appointment to the post that could only be occupied by an elected MLA.
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, August 20

The police resorted to a lathi-charge to disperse agitating guest teachers here today while they were marching towards the Secretariat. The state government had recently terminated the services of guest teachers serving in schools in Dehradun.

The protesters gathered at the Parade Ground here and started marching towards the Secretariat. However, a heavy police force deployed there stopped them at Kanak Chowk. The guest teachers jostled with policemen and tried to cross the barricades. This led to skirmishes, forcing the police to resort to a lathi-charge. The protesters later staged a dharna near Kanak Chowk.

Uttarakhand Guest Teachers Association (Madhyamik) state president Vivek Yadav accused the state government of ignoring their demand for reinstatement of their jobs. He said the guest teachers despite having served for nearly seven months had been rendered jobless. Chief Minister Harish Rawat had promised them regular jobs but now seemed least interested in fulfilling the promise. The use of force against peacefully protesting guest teachers was deplorable, he added.

A protester, Savitri Devi, said most of the guest teachers were serving in schools in remote areas of the state. The discontinuation of their services were affecting studies in these schools.

Surendra Kumar, Savitri Devi, Uma Devi, Urmila and Mahendra Singh took part in the protest.
Kabul, August 20

Taliban militants on Saturday seized control of Khan Abad district in Afghanistan's Kunduz province as sporadic clashes continued around the district centre, officials said.

"Dozens of armed militants overran the district bazaar early Saturday morning. They also stormed the district centre and seized government office buildings after security forces made a tactical retreat to outer sides of the district after dawn," Xinhua news agency quoted a security source as saying.

The district is located around 25 km east of the provincial capital of Kunduz. The main highway connecting Kunduz to the neighbouring Takhar province passes through the district.

"The provincial security officials were meeting to prepare for a counterattack. The security forces will soon kick the militants out from Khan Abad," another official said.

Zabiullah Mujahi, a purported Taliban spokesman, said the militants also seized weapons and vehicles after capturing security checkpoints following Saturday's clashes. He said the Taliban also overran several troop security posts in the neighbouring Ali Abad district.

The Kunduz province and neighbouring Baghlan and Takhar provinces have been the scene of heavy clashes over the past couple of months as Taliban tried to challenge government forces in the once relatively peaceful region.

Kunduz city has been facing a severe power cuts since Thursday when several electricity towers were destroyed during the clashes.

The destroyed power pylons had been transmitting imported electricity from the neighbouring country of Tajikistan, according to officials. The militants seized Dahna-e-Ghori district of Baghlan after a coordinated offensive earlier this month.

In Kabul, an army soldier was killed and another officer wounded after a roadside bomb struck an army vehicle in the city earlier on Saturday. The Taliban-led insurgency has been rampant since early April when the militant group launched its annual rebel offensive in different places of the country, which had claimed hundreds of lives including militants, security personnel and civilians.  IANS
Simran Sodhi

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 20

India and Nepal today tried to repair the damage done to the bilateral relationship in the recent past over Indias unhappiness with the Nepalese Constitution and with Nepal edging closer to China.

Bimalendra Nidhi, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Home Affairs of Nepal, today called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. During the meeting, it is learnt, Nidhi briefed the PM about the developments in Nepal where a new government has just taken charge. Modi extended an invitation to Nepals new Prime Minister Prachanda to visit India.

Sources said Nidhis visit to India was also about laying the ground for Prachandas visit soon. The Maoist chief was elected to the top post, for the second time, earlier this month. During his earlier stint, Prachanda had rubbed India the wrong way by giving priority to China over India and also when he visited Beijing ahead of India in 2008.

While Nidhi has been sent to India by Prachanda, he has also sent a special envoy to China so that the balance between India and China can be maintained. A visit by President Pranab Mukherjee to Nepal is also being worked out in the near future as well as a visit by Nepalese President Bidya Devi Bhandari to India.

India-Nepal relations have seen a lot of bitterness since the last year with Nepal even publicly blaming India for the blockade on the India-Nepal border and for pushing the state into a humanitarian crisis. India, in its turn, was quite public with its unhappiness over the new Constitution that did not represent Madhesis.
Seoul, August 20

North Korea said on Saturday that a senior North Korean diplomat who recently defected to South Korea is a criminal and "human scum," in its first official response to the defection.

The official Korean Central News Agency also accused Seoul of using the defection of Thae Yong Ho, formerly a minister at the North Korean Embassy in London, for propaganda aimed at insulting the North Korean leadership.

It also denounced the British government for ignoring international protocol by rejecting what it said were demands to have Thae extradited back to the North and instead handing him over to the South.

KCNA said North Korea had ordered Thae to return to the North in June to be investigated for a series of crimes, including embezzling government funds, leaking confidential secrets and sexually assaulting a minor.

It said that Thae "should have received legal punishment for the crimes he committed, but he discarded the fatherland that raised him and even his own parents and brothers by fleeing, thinking nothing but just saving himself, showing himself to be human scum who lacks even an elementary level of loyalty and even tiny bits of conscience and morality that are required for human beings."

In announcing the defection, Seoul's Unification Ministry said Wednesday that Thae was the second-highest North Korean official at the embassy and the most senior North Korean diplomat ever to defect to South Korea. In 1997, the North Korean ambassador to Egypt fled but resettled in the United States.

The ministry said that Thae decided to defect because of his disgust with the government of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, his yearning for South Korean democracy and worries about the future of his children.

The Unification Ministry didn't immediately respond to a request for comment about North Korea's claims on Saturday.

More than 29,000 North Koreans have defected to South Korea since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, according to the South Korean government.

Many defectors have said they wanted to leave North Korea's harsh political system and poverty. Pyongyang often accuses the South of deceiving or paying its citizens to defect, or claims that they have simply been kidnapped.

In April, 13 North Koreans working at a North Korean-operated restaurant in China defected to South Korea.

It was the largest group defection since Kim took power in late 2011.

Later in April, South Korea also revealed that a colonel in North Korea's military spy agency had defected to the South last year.

Most South Korean analysts say it's premature to take the defections of Thae and other senior officials as indicators that the unity of North Korea's ruling elite is starting to crack because there are no significant signs that Kim's grip on power is weakening.  AP
Hasakeh (Syria), August 20

Syrian government warplanes took to the skies again on Saturday over the flashpoint northeastern city of Hasakeh, despite a US warning against new strikes that might endanger its military advisers.

In another escalation of the five-year war, regime planes this week bombarded positions held by US-backed Kurdish forces in the city fighting the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said the raids showed Damascus was starting to see the Kurdish attempt to consolidate territory in northern Syria as "a threat". He pledged to play a "more active" in the next months in putting an end to the conflict.

Ankara sees Syrian Kurdish militia as an offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) that has waged a bloody campaign against the Turkish state since 1984.

The unprecedented strikes prompted the US-led coalition to scramble aircraft to protect its special operations forces helping the Kurdish fighters.

It was apparently the first time the coalition scrambled jets in response to regime action, and possibly the closest call yet in terms of Syrian forces wounding American or coalition advisers.

Regime warplanes were in the air above Hasakeh throughout the night and into the morning on Saturday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group.

It was unclear whether the aircraft had carried out bombing runs.

Fighting erupted between pro-government militia and the US-backed Kurdish forces on Wednesday and continued into Saturday morning, leaving a total of 41 people dead including 25 civilians, the Observatory said.

A delegation of Russian officials from the coastal Hmeimim military airport arrived in Qamishli to the north to hold talks between the two sides, a senior Syrian government source told AFP.

A journalist in Hasakeh said on Saturday afternoon that the clashes had abated. Around two-thirds of the city is controlled by Kurdish forces, while the rest is held by pro-government militia.

The regime and Kurdish forces share a common enemy in the Islamic State, but there have been tensions between them in Hasakeh.

The vitriol between the two sides escalated on Saturday, as the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) pledged to "protect areas from the terrorism of the regime".  AFP
Washington, August 20

Donald Trumps US presidential campaign sealed a major staff reshuffle with the resignation on Friday of its campaign chairman, and the Republican nominee tried to end weeks of upheaval to focus on beating Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

The departure of Paul Manafort came as Trump tried this week to reset his unorthodox bid for the White House after falling behind Clinton in opinion polls.

Trump said in a statement he had accepted Manafort's resignation and praised his great work, but did not offer an explanation for the departure. Trump aides say the staff changes usher in a greater focus on policy and a more serious tone.

The former reality TV host has stuck to that mission, swapping his free-wheeling rally speeches for prepared remarks that stick to a singular theme. He has concentrated on immigration, trade deals and law and order.

Speaking in Dimondale, Michigan, on Friday with the use of a teleprompter, Trump stayed clear of much of the hyperbole that has been a hallmark of his campaign.

He attacked Clinton for her position on trade agreements, telling the Michigan crowd that the Democrat would send auto jobs to Mexico.

Nonetheless, he appeared to stray at times from his prepared remarks, as when he said that black voters, who overwhelmingly tell pollsters they prefer Democratic candidates, should vote for him.

You're living in poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs, 58 per cent of your youth are unemployed," Trump said. "What the hell do you have to lose?" Trump, who has never held elected office, did not refer to his staffing changes, but in an interview earlier on Friday his son Eric Trump said unflattering headlines about Manafort had taken a toll.

I think my father didn't want to be, you know, distracted by, you know, whatever things that, you know, Paul was dealing with, he told the Fox News Channel's while also praising Manafort's work for the campaign.

Trump makes direct appeal to African-American voters

Donald Trump has made a direct appeal to African-American voters, saying "What do you have to lose?" Speaking on Friday night in Dimondale, Michigan, a predominantly white suburb, Trump lamented the collapse of American manufacturing and criticised free trade deals as he laced into rival Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party, saying they were taking black voters for granted, CNN reported.

He promised to "produce" for African-Americans where Democrats had failed. "If you keep voting for the same people, you will keep getting exactly the same result," BBC quoted Trump as saying.

Trump also predicted he would receive 95% of the African-American vote if he went to on to run for a second term in 2020.

President Barack Obama, historically the most popular president among African-Americans in US history, received 93 per cent of the black vote in 2012, the BBC said. Trump has suffered from dismal support among African-Americans.  Agencies

Manaforts Ukrainian link behind resignation?

n Questions have arisen about Paul Manafort's previous work for the political party of the Kremlin-backed former Ukrainian leader, Viktor Yanukovich. Federal investigators are examining American ties to corruption in Ukraine

n The investigation is looking at the work of Manafort's firm and another lobbying firm, the Podesta Group, headed by Tony Podesta, whose brother is chairman of Clinton's campaign

n The New York Times reported that Manafort had received cash payments worth more than $12 million over five years that were itemised on secret ledgers belonging to Yanukovich's Party of Regions

Clinton consolidates her position in 3 swing states

n Continuing her momentum post conventions, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton has consolidated her position in three key swing states, which gives her enough electoral college votes to be the next president of the US, a major US media outlet has said

n Clinton, 68, has strengthened her position in three swing States of New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Virginia having a total of 37 electoral college votes, according to CNN

n That adds 37 more electoral votes to Clinton's total and puts her at 273 electoral votes -- just ahead of the needed 270 electoral votes to win the White House," said David Chalian, CNN political director

n If Trump was to win all the remaining battleground states on the map, he'd still be shy of the 270 votes needed to win the White House which means he is going to have to pick off at least one of the states currently leaning in Clinton's direction in addition to running the table in those battlegrounds

Hillary cries foul over pro-Kremlin link

n Targeting Trump over the resignation of Paul Manafort, rival Clinton Campaign has claimed that the move was a "clear admission of the connection" between Donald Trump and the "pro-Kremlin elements" in Russia and Ukraine

n Manafort's resignation is a clear admission that the disturbing connections between Donald Trump's team and pro-Kremlin elements in Russia and Ukraine are untenable, Robby Mook, campaign manager of Clinton Campaign, said

n It's also time for Donald Trump to come clean on his own business dealings with Russian interests, given recent news reports about his web of deep financial connections to business groups with Kremlin ties, he said
By PTI: New Delhi, Aug 19 (PTI) Bangladesh has sought from India details about Zakir Naiks operations even as it said several prominent ulemas wanted action against the Islamic televangelist much before deadly the Gulshan attack last month.

Bangladeshi Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu, who is here on a six-day visit, said his country has cracked down on Naiks Peace TV by banning its broadcast and indicated that it is waiting for Indias action against the controversial preacher.

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Inu said his country doesnt have any evidence of links between home grown terrorists in Bangladesh with extremists outfits in India but at the same time slammed Pakistan for "harbouring terrorism".

He said Bangladesh has witnessed over 43 attacks on thinkers, bloggers and people from Sufi faith and it has been found that in almost 90 per cent cases, the attackers had links with banned Jamaat-e-Islami which he alleged was a "corroborator" with Pakistani forces during the 1971 Liberation war.

"From Bangladeshs side Zakir Naiks case has been settled. We have stopped the broadcast of Peace TV. In last one year, ulemas came up with written complaints against Naik. We are examining it. We think his teachings, in certain cases are not in compliance with the Quran or Hadith. So, that is creating confusion.

"In certain cases it is instigating. So, we have taken our position. We have asked the Indian side to take their position and give us necessary information," Inu told reporters.

In the backdrop of reports that ISIS was gaining ground in Bangladesh, he asserted that terror networks in his country is home grown.

Bangladesh had banned Naiks Peace TV following the terror attack on the Holey Artisan Bakery in Gulshan Thana locality on July 1 in which 29 people were killed.

About his meeting with Information and Broadcasting Minister Venkaiah Naidu, Inu said both sides have agreed to broadcast their respective national TV channels in each others country.

The Minister said terrorism is Bangladesh is very different from terror networks in Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Middle East as his country has a "secular" approach, but insisted that the evil has its legacy in the 1971 liberation war.

"There is no so-called radicalisation in my country. So, terrorism has a top-down approach in our country. It is not like Pakistan. In my country, a few people are involved in terrorist activities.

"Having said that terrorism in Bangladesh has a legacy and that legacy is the 1971 liberation war. Here Jamaat-e-Islami, a party using Islam, was a corroborator with Pakistani aggressive force," he said adding terrorism in Bangladeshi has its roots in Jamat-i-Islami and Pakistans ISI. PTI PR MPB ZMN

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By PTI: Kolkata, Aug 19 (PTI) Advocating TMC demands, senior Congress leader Manas Bhuniya today urged Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly Abdul Mannan to support the state government on the issue of Centres "step motherly attitude" towards the state.

"I have written a letter to Leader of Opposition Abdul Mannan highlighting a few points. Firstly, the BJP government led by Narendra Modi is trying to wipe out the projects that were started by the UPA government. It has stopped funding to various projects from MGNREGA to other developmental schemes. It is changing the names of the project that were named after late prime ministers from the Congress," said Bhuniya.

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"This is part of BJPs agenda towards Congress Mukt Bharat. We all should protest against it," he added.

Bhuniya said Congress should also unitedly fight with the TMC against the "step motherly attitude" of the BJP government at the Centre.

"The BJP government at the Centre has stopped funding for various social and development schemes. The TMC government in our state has also been complaining against it," said Bhuniya.

"We might have differences with the state government, but for the states interest we should unitedly fight against the BJP and the RSS. The BJP and RSS are greater threats for both the nation and the state, we need to fight against it unitedly," he added.

Bhuniya shares a cold relationship with the state Congress leadership over the issue of PAC chairmanship. PTI PNT DKB CHT

--- ENDS ---
Tulsa middle school students who had at least one year of Head Start  meaning they were in poor families at the time  made academic gains holding for nearly a decade.

Progress made as 4-year-olds has the most lasting impact for girls, white and Hispanic children, English Language Learners and those who are enrolled in the free-lunch program.

Thats from the latest report in a long-term evaluation project by Georgetown University researchers, who began following the Tulsa children in 2001. The Tulsa Head Start program is administered by the Community Action Project.

Each of the effects we have documented is rather modest in isolation, but together they suggest that CAP Head Start, under the conditions that it operates in Tulsa, can provide young children with a strong boost into their subsequent stages of schooling, the report states.

The challenge for public officials is how to replicate this success.

With Oklahoma facing so many dire education problems, including being last in the nation for teacher pay and eliminating school courses, this is a bright spot. Tulsa can still lead the way in innovative programs.

Exceptionally strong: Tulsas Head Start story is something of a marvel, going from nearly losing the program to being internationally featured as a model.

From 1992 to 1996, federal officials placed Tulsa Head Start as at risk for financial and administrative mismanagement by the Tulsa Community Action Agency. It was in such shambles that the city took over the program in 1997, and the agency dissolved.

CAP emerged in August that year with Steven Dow as the executive director. He had led the nonprofit Project Get Together and recognized the need for a community action project. The city awarded Head Start to CAP, and the rebuilding began.

Head Start programs vary across the nation with the federal government setting minimum standards. Under Dows leadership, the Tulsa program set a much higher bar  one that equals or excels those in secondary schools.

This included the requirement of a bachelors degree in education and early childhood certification. Curriculum is evidence-based. Arrangements were made with districts to house within neighborhood schools, helping with transitions into elementary schools.

It leveraged other funding sources for parental services to health care, job training and education. Parents are shown how to be involved as advocates in their childs education.

These factors created an exceptionally strong program for Tulsa children, says William Gormley, director of the Center for Research on Children in the United States based at Georgetown, who has been part of the research team since the beginning.

They (CAP) were ahead of the curve in recruiting well-educated teachers and paying them a good wage. They were ahead of the curve in devoting themselves to continuous improvement, Gormley said. They never rest on past laurels. They are always trying to do a better job.

They were also ahead of the curve in strategic planning and in making decisions based on good evidence and good data.

This last point is crucial. It demonstrates a purposeful approach.

The overall Georgetown research has shown the achievement gap between low-income children and other students narrows after a quality early education experience. Tulsa added three Educare Centers, and other private and school-based programs adopted some practices.

President Barack Obama mentioned Tulsas programs in the 2013 State of the Union address, and Georgetown research has been presented to groups around the world.

Math gains: In this report, the Head Start students show higher math scores, but their reading scores are not significantly different from other students. This seems odd because schools place so much emphasis on reading.

But childrens verbal skills depend on a host of factors, such as parents, peers and neighbors, while math skills depend much more exclusively on schools, Gormley said. Environmental factors, both positive and negative, can either inflate or deflate reading skills. That is less true for math.

Reading and math skills are both really important. The persistence of Head Start math effects over time is cause for celebration. The disappearance of reading effects over time is cause for concern.

The math gains were biggest for white and Hispanic students and those on the free-lunch program. Those with limited English benefited most over time in the reading skills.

Head Start students were 31 percent less likely to be held back a year by eighth grade and 34 percent less likely to have chronic absenteeism.

Girls, Hispanic students and English Language Learners showed the most long-term gains in those areas.

Areas of concern: Not all children are retaining the advancements.

Blacks and boys benefit from the CAP Head Start program in the short run, but as of middle school we do not detect lasting gains for these two groups, Gormley said. That is very worrisome. How do we reach these groups and keep them engaged in learning at school?

This doesnt mean the early education programs should be tossed. It means the community needs to examine what happens to these students as they age.

If anything, the data more closely point where those students may be losing ground.

One solution may be in mentoring or after-school programs, Gormley says.

Extracurricular activities can be another great strategy, because kids improve their soft skills when they participate in after-school activities and clubs, Gormley said. Schools also need to recruit more male teachers and more African-American teachers.

Right path: Every so often, elected leaders go on the attack to cut early childhood funding. But reports such as this demonstrate how a well-run program is worthy of investment.

Intervening in poverty takes more than just one program. But, backed by data, Tulsa forged a right road in early education.

All of this has paid off for students and for taxpayers, Gormley said. Eight years after leaving CAP Head Start, its alumni are still distinguishable from comparable students who did not attend.

In a nutshell, they do better in school. The effects are not dramatic. Life intervenes and takes its toll. Students get distracted, diverted and damaged by bad experiences. But students who attended CAP Head Start are better off than they otherwise would be.

The CAP Head Start program is a terrific resource for the Tulsa community.
Khalid Jabaras death has left his accused killers husband angry and grieving.

Stephen Schmauss, who lives next door to the Jabara family, says he and the slain man were best friends. Schmauss husband, Stanley Vernon Majors, is accused of killing the 37-year-old Jabara a week ago.

Majors, 61, is being held without bond in Jabaras slaying.

Less than two hours before he was fatally shot, Jabara told a 911 dispatcher that Schmauss had told him Majors assaulted him and fired a weapon in the house that Schmauss and Majors shared. Schmauss and Majors, according to court records, were married in December 2014.

In an interview on his doorstep Friday, Schmauss told the Tulsa World he is experiencing a mix of sadness, anger and guilt over last Fridays chain of events.

I am more pissed off than anybody because Khalid was my best friend  my only friend, Schmauss said.

Schmauss, 76, said Jabara rented a room in his home when Majors was away and he estimated it was at least a few years between 2012 and 2015.

He paid me rent from his Social Security check, but I would turn around and give it right back. I didnt need the money, Schmauss said.

He said he and Jabara helped one another manage their medical issues.

He drove me to my operation; he drove me for my prostate biopsy, Schmauss said. I always reminded him of doctors appointments so he wouldnt be late.

He said Jabara passed many hours of every day sleeping because he was depressed and that when he wasnt sleeping, he would be in his room watching television programs on his computer.

Majors criminal history includes a felony conviction in California for making threats with the intent to terrorize, according to Tulsa County court records. Majors was extradited to California in 2013, according to a report from the Los Angeles Times.

Schmauss didnt say why Majors was gone during those years, but he said that when he returned, he immediately kicked Jabara out of the home.

He always talked about them being Muslim and Arabs, and in the last couple of weeks he got online and looked up Lebanese Christians because I told him theyre not Muslim, Schmauss said, referring to Majors.

The night of the shooting, Schmauss said he left his home to go to the motel where he often stayed when Majors was being physically abusive.

On his way out, Jabara stopped him to make sure he was OK, Schmauss said.

I told him I would call him when I got to the motel, but the phone wasnt working, Schmauss said. I got moved to another room, but by that time, it was about midnight. I called Khalid. I left a couple of messages.
Ten months after announcing the construction of six bond-financed projects, the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority will consider a measure to increase toll rates.

An item on the boards Tuesday meeting agenda calls for it to consider establishing a time schedule for adoption of new toll rates.

OTA spokesman Jack Damrill declined to release any figures related to the proposed toll hike until the board considers the issue on Tuesday.

The board will take up a resolution to establish some type of time schedule for a toll increase, Damrill said. I cant say much more about it right now because they are still looking into things on it.

While the board will likely vote Tuesday on a toll increase, it may not take effect until next year, Damrill said.

At this point were not really willing to release what the increases are going to be because it could change between now and Tuesday, Damrill said.

Currently, a trip from Tulsa to Oklahoma City on the Turner Turnpike, the biggest revenue generator for the authority, costs $4 for a two-axle vehicle and $3.90 for two-axle vehicles with a Pikepass.

We dont raise tolls too often, Damrill said. This will only be the ninth toll increase weve had in the history of the Turnpike Authority.

The Oklahoma Turnpike Authority last increased toll rates in August 2009, he said. The rate increase was 16 percent at that time.

In October, Oklahoma Secretary of Transportation Gary Ridley said another 16 percent rate increase may be necessary to finance the construction of $892 million in proposed improvements to the state turnpike system.

Damrill said the 16 percent estimate by Ridley was a fairly accurate statement of what the proposed toll increase could be.

Its not going to be 16 percent, but it will probably be in the neighborhood, Damrill said.

The bond-financed projects include work on the Gilcrease Expressway, the Muskogee Turnpike, the Turner Turnpike, the H.E. Bailey Turnpike, the Kilpatrick Turnpike and a new Oklahoma City-area turnpike.

At the October announcement, the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority said its portion of the Gilcrease Expressway project would connect West 21st Street North to Edison Street and provide connections to U.S. 412. The project involves 2.5 miles of roadway at a cost of $28 million and involves a toll bridge across the Arkansas River.

Another Tulsa-area project calls for adding additional lanes to the Turner Turnpike between Bristow and Tulsa at a cost of $300 million.

The Muskogee Turnpike project involves reconstruction from the Creek Turnpike interchange to Oklahoma 51 near Coweta. It will cost $42 million and involve 9.5 miles, according to the OTA.

The H.E. Bailey Turnpike project involves 7.5 miles and will cost $32 million. It will provide wider lanes, enhanced safety features and upgraded toll plaza technology between Bridge Creek and North Meridian Avenue near Newcastle.

The Kilpatrick Turnpike expansion project in Oklahoma City will cost $190 million and involve 7 miles. It will connect southwest Oklahoma City to the urban core and offer another route to Will Rogers World Airport. It will occur between Interstate 40 and Airport Road.

A new turnpike in Oklahoma County will connect Interstate 40 with the Turner Turnpike. It will cost $300 million and involve 21 miles.

The projects will be paid for with bonds to be retired by toll revenues. The projects will not involve state-appropriated funds, officials said.

The authority is scheduled to meet at 10:30 a.m. at the Neal A. McCaleb Transportation Building, 3500 Martin Luther King Ave., in Oklahoma City.

In a related matter, an Oklahoma City man on Friday filed a lawsuit with the state Supreme Court, asking it to assume original jurisdiction and declare as unconstitutional a law that provides for the construction of multiple turnpike projects with one bond issue.

Jerry Fent, an attorney who filed the lawsuit, has filed other lawsuits against state officials that accuse them of violating a state Constitutional prohibition against so-called log rolling, or passing bills that cover more than one subject.

The Turnpike Authority is operated by a seven-member board of directors comprised of the governor and six members appointed by the governor and confirmed by the state Senate.

The six citizen members are: Albert C. (Kell) Kelly Jr., chairman; David A. Burrage, vice chairman; G. Carl Gibson, secretary/treasurer; Kenneth Adams; Gene Love; and Dana Weber. Each member represents one of the six districts within the turnpike system.
Two Republicans headed into Tuesdays primary runoff for Senate District 25 have differing views on education.

Lisa Kramer, 48, of Bixby, faces Joe Newhouse, 38, of Broken Arrow. Kramer and Newhouse were the top vote-getters in the June 28 primary election that had four candidates.

The winner will face Democrat Robert Founds, 42, of Bixby in the Nov. 8 general election. He runs a food service distribution company based in Tulsa.

The post is being vacated by Sen. Mike Mazzei, R-Tulsa, who is term limited. Lawmakers are limited to 12 years. Mazzei has not issued an endorsement in the runoff.

Kramer, a member of the Bixby Board of Education, is a certified public accountant with U.S. Beef Corp. She is married with two children.

Kramer said she is generally opposed to vouchers, also called education savings accounts. The issue failed to secure approval in the past legislative session amid heavy lobbying on both sides.

I believe public money should be spent by the public, and vouchers basically give public money to private citizens, she said. Vouchers only help some kids, and I think we need to educate all kids.

Newhouse has a different view: I do support vouchers.

Newhouse said he supports a variety of school-choice options. He said he wants to empower parents to make the best choices for their children.

Newhouse, a real-estate business owner, is married with four children. He is a combat veteran of the Iraq war and is in the U.S. Navy reserves.

Newhouse said he supports school district administration consolidation, adding that the state has too many districts.

Kramer said she supports local control, adding that school consolidation should be considered.

A proposed 1-cent sales tax increase to fund education, including a $5,000 teacher pay raise, is expected to appear on the general election ballot in the form of State Question 779.

Kramer said she believes teachers deserve a raise, but will vote against the tax increase. She said she is concerned about the impact it will have on retailers and that it will make the state have the highest sales tax in the nation.

Kramer said she was disappointed lawmakers didnt fund education appropriately in the last session.

Newhouse is opposed to the measure for a number of reasons. It will result in the state having the highest sales tax in the nation, he said. It will push some consumers to online shopping, some of whom will not pay sales tax on their purchases, he said.

In addition, it would hurt seniors and those on a fixed income, along with struggling families, Newhouse said.

Newhouse is a graduate of Broken Arrow High School. He has a bachelors degree in international economics from Georgetown University and a masters in organizational leadership and development from Chapman University. He worked part-time for three years as an aide to 1st District Congressman Jim Bridenstine.

Newhouse has been endorsed by the Oklahoma Conservative Political Action Committee. The Oklahoma Federation for Children PAC, which supports school choice, also supported him. He said he has also been endorsed by Bridenstine.

Kramer has been endorsed by the state chamber, the Oklahoma Bizpac and OEA Fund for Children and Public Education. She is also supported by Oklahoma Parents and Educators for Public Education. State Auditor and Inspector Gary Jones, a former Oklahoma Republican Party chairman, has also endorsed her.

Kramer graduated from high school in Arkansas and holds a bachelors degree in accounting from the University of Tulsa.

Registration in the district shows 31,818 Republicans, 12,336 Democrats, 6,075 independents and 20 Libertarians.
OKLAHOMA CITY  Craft brewers and others on Friday packed an ABLE Commission meeting, asking the agency to revisit its interpretation of a new state law to allow them to sell strong beer on premises.

Keith Burt, Alcoholic Beverage Laws Enforcement Commission director, said the agency has interpreted the recently passed Senate Bill 424 to mean breweries can sell strong beer only for consumption off premises.

But brewers, a lawmaker and others said the legislative intent was to allow breweries to sell strong beer for consumption on and off the brewery premises.

Burt said the agency has asked for guidance from Attorney General Scott Pruitts office.

In anticipation of the request for an official opinion, the Attorney Generals Office has expedited our review process and is currently researching the issue, a spokesman for Pruitts office said in a statement. We intend to respond with a formal opinion next week, prior to the law taking effect.

Brewers told commissioners that they had invested a lot of money in their facilities in anticipation of being able to sell strong beer by the glass when the law takes effect Aug. 26. An interpretation to the contrary would hurt small-business owners, they said.

The House author of the measure, Rep. Cory Williams, D-Stillwater, told commissioners that people had made important financial decisions based on an understanding that consumption would be on premises.

He said that although the language of the measure may not be perfect, getting an alcohol bill through the Capitol was a tough task.

He urged the commission to come to a speedy resolution.

Im frustrated because at the end of July we had conversation and it was interpreted the way we thought it would be for the on-premises consumption, Williams said after the meeting. A week from implementation, a lot of brewers had done significant financial outlays and/or have planned parties to celebrate the passage and implementation.

Zach Prichard, president of Krebs Brewing, said that after the measures passage, his company intended to open in Oklahoma City. While the language in the measure is not perfect, its intent was known, he said.

Eric Marshall, founder of Tulsa-based Marshall Brewing Co., also spoke.

I thought it was a great showing of not only local breweries and planning, but concerned citizens to voice their opinion on an informal ruling that takes a very restrictive stance towards the implementation of Senate Bill 424, Marshall said after the meeting. I think that is ultimately a good thing when citizens are concerned and hope that the commission and the AG office listen to the voice of the people.

ABLE Commission Chairman H. Trey Kouri III said he took three pages of notes.

Your comments will not go unheard, he said.

Burt said the ABLE Commission just recently became aware that brewers wanted to be able to sell strong beer for consumption at their facilities. He said legislative intent is important.

I hope it goes their way, he said.
Veteran actor Amala Akkineni returns to screen with her comeback Malayalam film C/O Saira Banu, which stars actor Manju Warrier in the lead.

By India Today Web Desk: Veteran actor Amala Akkineni, who was last seen on screen in Hindi film Hamari Adhuri Kahani, will be donning a lawyer role in the upcoming Malayalam film C/O Saira Banu, which marks her comeback film after two decades.

Amala's last Malayalam outing was the 1991 Mohanlal-starrer Ulladakkam.



ALSO READ: Pinneyum movie review- Adoor Gopalakrishnan returns, but only in parts



ALSO READ: Baahubali 2- Prabhas's first look to be unveiled on his birthday

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Speaking about her role, a source close to the unit said, "Amala plays a lawyer called Annie John Tharavadi, and will be sharing screen space with Manju Warrier, who will play the protagonist Saira Banu."

To be helmed by debutant Antony Sony, the director was quoted by the IB Times as saying In a film which has Manju warrier playing the title character Saira Banu, Amala is doing the role of Advocate Ani John Tharavady.??

Antony Sony shot to fame after directing the short film Moonnamidam. Tipped to be an emotional family drama, the film is slated to go on floors in September.



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The CEO of Ramps Logistics says he is "really really disappointed" with the Guyana Revenue A
The situation in ATO area remains tense but controlled. Russian-backed militants launched 49 attacks on positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Donbas over the past day.

This is reported by ATO Headquarters press center.

The enemy violated the ceasefire 27 times in the Donetsk sector, having launched eight heavy artillery shells on the villages of Krasniy Pakhar and Zaitseve.

In the Mariupol sector, the occupiers violated the ceasefire 17 times. They fired 120mm and 80mm mortars, grenade launchers and heavy machine guns on Ukrainian fortified positions in the town of Maryinka and the villages of Vodiane and Shyrokyne.

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Yes, the pre-orders for the book have already begun. But wait, have you seen the teaser yet?

Chetan Bhagat and the cover for his new book, One Indian Girl. Pictures courtesy: Instagram/chetanbhagat

By India Today Web Desk: So, now we live in a world where books have teasers. And the one popular Indian author Chetan Bhagat has teased us with seems to be getting a good response.

As you must have figured by now, Chetan Bhagat's new book--One Indian Girl--has a woman protagonist--a first for Mr Bhagat. While it's being released on October 1 this year, Mr Bhagat has been nice enough to show us what we're to expect from the book.

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A teaser on YouTube lets us in on the following: "Hi, I'm Radhika Mehta and I'm getting married this week. I work in a top investment bank. Thank you for reading my crazy story.

However, let me warn you. You may not like me too much. One, I make a lot of money. Two, I have an opinion on everything. Three, I have had sex before. Now if I were a guy, you'd be cool with all this. Since I am a girl, these things don't really make me too likeable, do they?"

With the cover already released, the book is available for pre-orders on Amazon.

So, while you wait with bated breath, here's a little something to keep you going:

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One Ukrainian serviceman was killed, four soldiers were wounded in ATO area in eastern Ukraine over the past day.

Spokesman for the Presidential Administration on the ATO Oleksandr Motuzianyk said this at a briefing in Kyiv, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

One Ukrainian serviceman was killed, four soldiers were wounded as a result of armed hostilities in ATO area in eastern Ukraine over the past day, he said.

ish
Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the United Nations Volodymyr Yelchenko during a meeting with Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations discussed a visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to annexed Crimea.

This has been reported by the mission's press service on Twitter.

The diplomat called the Russian leader's visit to the peninsula illegal. He also focused on strengthening the concentration of Russian troops along the border.

As a reminder, the Foreign Ministry of Ukraine voiced its protest as the stay of President Putin on the Ukrainian territory was not agreed with the Ukrainian side.

ish
President Petro Poroshenko had a telephone conversation with Vice President of the United States Joseph Biden.

The press service of the Head of State reported.

The Head of Ukrainian State informed the US Vice President about the tense security situation on the administrative border with the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and in Donbas, where the militants continue shelling, in particular, using the prohibited heavy weaponry, as well as about the large-scale military exercises in close vicinity of the Russian-Ukrainian border.

The conversation participants stressed the importance of political and diplomatic efforts to de-occupy the Crimea. The US Vice President emphasized the consistent US non-recognition policy on the Crimean occupation.

Petro Poroshenko and Joseph Biden underscored the importance to continue their efforts, including in the Normandy format, to achieve fulfillment by Russia of the Minsk agreements, specifically, in the security domain.

The parties also discussed the importance for Ukraine of getting the IMF tranche in the near future and provision of the US credit guarantees.

ish
By PTI: New Delhi, Aug 20 (PTI) Coal India workers will go on a nation-wide strike on September 2 to mark their protest against further divestment and strategic sale in the sector.

"We have received a communication of notice... for strike on September 2. Efforts are being made for conciliation process," Coal India said in a regulatory filing today.

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"In case they resort to strike, it will affect product and dispatch of coal."

In September last year, a majority of about 4 lakh coal workers across the country had gone on strike called by trade unions, which hit the production level in a big way.

The strike call was given by major trade unions like INTUC, AITUC and CITU to pitch for their demands that included opposition to any further stake sale in Coal India.

Nearly 5 lakh bank union workers and officers are set to join the strike called by trade unions on September 2 to protest against what they call "anti-people policies of the Modi government and labour reforms". PTI SVK ARD

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A 15-year-old Dalit boy was allegedly beaten up by two persons after his father refused to dispose cattle carcasses in Bhavda village of Ahmedabad.

By India Today Web Desk: Over a month after four Dalits were thrashed in public view in Gujarat's Una town, yet another shocking incident of Dalit atrocity has come to light in the state.

A 15-year-old boy was allegedly beaten up by two men in Bhavda village of Daskroi taluka in Ahmedabad district after his father refused to dispose cattle carcasses in the village.

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The boy's father Dinesh Parmar filed a complaint with the Kanbha police following the incident. The police arrested two persons identified as Sahil Thakore and Sarvarkhan Pathan in connection with the incident.

"A case has been registered under the Prevention of Atrocities Act and other provisions of the Indian Penal Code," said an official from the Kanbha police station.

The victim, Harsh Parmar, a standard 10 student was sitting with a friend in their locality known as Vankavas when the two accused also from the same village approached him.



BOY ABUSED AND ATTACKED

Dinesh told the police that the duo started abusing his son after he refused to remove the carcasses in response to a call by Dalit organization protesting against the flogging of four youths in Una, Saurashtra.

Dalits in many villages in Gujarat have stopped cleaning up cattle carcasses after the Una incident as part of a pledge to do so.

"Removing carcasses was our traditional work but after the Una incident, I took a pledge to give it up. I now depend solely on the daily wages I earn for a living," said Dinesh Parmar.

The police said that the two accused persons had an argument with Harsh and his friend, following which they thrashed him. "It was a minor scuffle, however, we took Harsh to the hospital for a first-aid check," said a police official.

VICTIM TRAUMATISED



The incident left Harsh traumatised and he was sent to his aunt's house in Vastral area in Ahmedabad.

"My son was traumatised by the incident and he was not ready to stay in the village. So I had to send him to my sister's place," said Dinesh Parmar.

Also read:

India Today Expose: Why Dalit persecution is rampant in Gandhi's Gujarat



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Elon Musk has definitely positioned himself at the top of different industries. The South African-born Canadian-American business magnate is the founder of SpaceX as well as co-founded Tesla Motors and SolarCity. He also founded X.com which later merged with PayPal of Confinity.

As of June this year, he has an estimated net worth of $12.7 billion. This makes him the 83rd wealthiest person in the world. He is deemed as a real-life "Iron Man."

Inc. shared eight career lessons from Elon Musk. These lessons were taken from question-and-answer site Quora, where one user asked the question, "What can we learn from Elon Musk?" Blogger James Altucher listened to every interview with the SpaceX founder and compiled his most inspirational quotes.

1. "Focus on the impact of your dreams, not the odds."

While a lot of our dreams may seem impossible, no one could possibly beat Musk with his hope of colonizing Mars. Do you want to build a business? Learn to take risks.

2. "No one does amazing things for the money."

In all his companies, Musk never started from the perspective of how he could make a lot of money off it. "Going from PayPal, I thought: 'Well, what are some of the other problems that are likely to most affect the future of humanity?'" he said.

3. "Reason from first principles."

Another important factor in Musk's success is his mindset. Altucher described it as boiling things down to their fundamental truths and reason up from there. Look at the world with a new perspective through objective data as well as clear-headed observation.

4. "Persistence pays."

Like every successful person out there, Musk did not reach his goals overnight. He shared a bit of conventional wisdom when he said, "Persistence is very important. You should not give up unless you are forced to give up."

5. "In hiring, talent beats numbers."

A lot of business owners think that throwing in a lot of brains on a difficult problem will solve it. Elon Musk revealed that many people make this mistake, without knowing that the right talent can actually save your company's time, effort and resources.

6. "Talent can't compensate for a lousy personality."

Nonetheless, talent cannot ever make up for not being a team-player. Musk admitted that he made the mistake of "weighing too much on someone's talent and not someone's personality."

7. "Constantly question yourself."

Musk revealed that he always strives to improve himself. "Constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself," he advised.

8. "Finding the right questions is most of the battle."

The SpaceX founder revealed that his favorite book as a teenager was "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." He learned that the tough part is actually figuring out what questions you need to ask. However, once that's done, the rest becomes easy.
Optimistic Android fans have not ceased hoping that the purported Nexus 7 2016 tablet will make an appearance soon. The anticipation stems from a slew of reports doing rounds online, hinting that Android 7.0 Nougat will start rolling out August 22 and most likely with it, the two Stock Android smartphones made by Google in collaboration with HTC.

Google usually takes the wraps off the next Nexus and new Android version simultaneously. If the company follows its release pattern, such an event might be in the offing as early as next week.

The much-lauded sequel to Android Marshmallow is likely to commence its worldwide deployment with Android device users slated to get a first-hand experience of the latest Google mobile OS, 9To5Google reported.

Its no secret that Nexus devices - specifically the LG Nexus 5X and Huawei Nexus 6P on Canadian telco Telus - will be the first to feast upon the much-awaited Android Nougat OS.

A software update schedule for Canadian carrier Telus, hints Monday, August 22 as the exact date when the Nexus 5X and 6P will receive Android Nougat. The scheduling seems to make sense considering the final Developer Preview of Android Nougat was already unveiled in late July.

The Android Nougat release will be preceded by Google's security update routine, which came about in the first week of the month, paving the way for the latest Android operating system's glorious arrival.

Although the report did not divulge any sort of details for the Nexus phones, Android watchers believe that the devices will unbox soon, possibly in the next few days right after the Nougat jump of both the Nexus 5X and 6P.

Another report suggests that the sequel to the Nexus 2015 will scrap the Nexus branding. They are likely to be dubbed as Google phones; sporting a G logo imprinted on the back plate of the device.

Android 7.0 Noughat is expected to boast an array of awe-inspiring features and refinements, each one further enhancing the overall Android experience. In addition to some expected changes such as bundled notifications, the upcoming OS will reportedly boast a slew of less visible changes including a new multitasking shortcut, GreenBot reported.

Daydreams Becomes Screen Savers

While Google repurposed Daydream as the brand for its VR platform, the company needed a new name for the previous Daydream features. The new name is Screen Saver, which seems to make more sense as compared to Daydream in its previous incarnation. Android screen savers will continue working in the same fashion they have until now.

Quicker Multi-Tasking

With this feature, users can simply double-tap the recent apps button to switch between two most recently used apps.

Using Two Apps Simultaneously

Google's latest operating system is said to support multi-window feature for all Android devices running Android 7.0. This would be similar to using apps in a split-screen mode on Samsung devices.

Access Two Chrome Tabs

Aside from introducing multi-window to Android, users will now be able to access Chrome in multi-window mode.

Drag, Drop Text And Images In Multi-Window Mode

While using two apps simultaneously, you can drag-and-drop text between the two windows. The same goes for sharing images between two apps.

In addition to the aforementioned features, Android 7.0 Nougat is said to boast a slew of power-packed elements.
DCP of North-east district, Delhi in a press release, revealed the name of a minor rape victim. He is now facing political flak.

Delhi Police has not yet issued an official apology for naming the 12-year-old rape victim, but the DCP requested media persons not to quote victim's identity through his WhatsApp group.

By Mail Today: A Delhi Police officer made a blunder by revealing the identity of a minor rape victim while boasting about the good work of cops in a press release issued to over 1,000 journalists across the country, stoking a political controversy with all parties calling for strict action.

The North-east district DCP, Dr Ajit Kumar Singla, had revealed identity of the 12-year-old girl, her complete address and the name of her family members through an official press release sent on Wednesday. Now, Delhi Police, which was prompt to file an FIR against Delhi Commission of Women (DCW) chairperson Swati Maliwal for revealing identity of a rape victim in July, is facing pressure to take the same prompt action against its own officer.



DELHI POLICE HAS NO ANSWERS

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All political parties including AAP, BJP and Congress have said that the matter is serious and need to be probed immediately. When contacted, no Delhi Police official, including Ajit Kumar Singla, was ready to comment on the controversy. So far, Delhi Police has not issued an official apology. But Singla requested media persons not to quote victim's identity through his Whatsapp group.

DCW chief Maliwal, however, said it will review the case and send a letter seeking action against the official.

"I never released the name of the girl and fought for justice but a case was filed against me. Here, DCP has categorically stated the name and address of the girl and no FIR is registered so far. This shows that this is being done to intimidate DCW and we are not afraid of such FIRs. We will be taking action on it," Swati said.

WHAT HAPPENED

The press release was issued on August 18, with the heading 'human trafficking gang busted by the police of north east district.' In the third line, DCP Ajit Singla mentioned the name of victim's mother along with the address. While giving details about investigation, Singla also mentioned the name of the victim's sister along with name of the locality where she lived.

Reacting strongly, AAP spokesperson Deepak Bajpai called it an example of utter insensitivity of Delhi Police. "It is a cognizable offence and if they were so prompt in registering a case against Swati Maliwal, what action will they take against the erring officials?" Deepak asked.

Also Read

Case against Maliwal for revealing rape victims name

Watch: Uttar Pradesh top cop reveals Bulandshahr rape victim's name



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CAMARILLO

Veterans expo to include job fair

An expo and job fair for military veterans is planned later this month in Camarillo.

The MilVet Expo is a free annual event to introduce active military, veterans and their families to emergency services, benefits, Department of Veterans Affairs programs, counseling, legal help and family-friendly fun available in Ventura County. It will be open to all branches of the military and veterans and will highlight programs, opportunities, agencies and employers who assist the military and veteran community, organizers said.

The event will be from 9:45 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Camarillo Community Center, 1605 Burnley St.

Visit http://www.vcmilc.org/milvet-expo.html for more information.

Business legal risks to be discussed

The Camarillo Chamber of Commerce this week will host a lunch-and-learn session on legal risks for businesses.

The session will be presented by Mary Fritsch-Derrick and Nancy Chaconas, small-business and identity-theft risk management specialists, according to the chamber.

The event will be from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday at the chamber office, 2400 E. Ventura Blvd.

Attendance will be free for chamber members or $10 for others.

Visit http://bit.ly/2bk80WV to register.

Workshop to focus on flipping homes

California Flipping Network will present a free two-hour workshop for investors and real estate agents on how to get started finding, fixing and flipping houses.

The featured speaker will be Lloyd Segal, author of "Flipping Houses."

The event will be from 6-8:00 p.m. Aug. 31 at the Camarillo Library, 4101 Las Posas Road.

The workshop is complimentary, but reservations are required. Visit www.flippingworkshops.com, or call 323-365-1004 to register.

OXNARD

Mixer scheduled for end of month

The Peyman & Rahnama law firm will celebrate its fifth Legally Referred Mixer on Aug. 31.

The free event will be from 5:30-7 p.m. at 555 South A St. in Oxnard.

There will be food, drinks prizes and more.

Email francine@huenemechamber.com for more information

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.
STAR FILE PHOTO New rules from the Mandalay Shores Community Association that take effect Saturday place restrictions on short-term rentals. But the rules face legal challenges.

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By Wendy Leung of the Ventura County Star

New rules approved by an Oxnard Shores homeowners association regulating vacation rentals go into effect Saturday, but they face legal challenges.

A couple who rents out property on Reef Way is suing the Mandalay Shores Community Association for passing regulations that require short-term rentals to have a minimum stay of 30 days. Under the rules, property owners who rent out their property to vacationers for fewer than 30 days could be subject to a fine of up to $5,000 for repeated violations.

According to court documents, Robert and Demetra Greenfield have signed contracts with people who are renting their property for fewer than 30 days. The Greenfields filed a motion with the Ventura County Superior Court asking a judge to temporarily halt the enforcement of the HOA regulations.

On Thursday, a judge declined to grant the order, setting the next court date to September.

Deirdre Frank, president of the HOA board, said the judge continued the issue to Sept. 19, citing the need for more time to research the issue.

Frank, who is also a planning commissioner for the city, said short-term rentals are a zoning issue. The beachside neighborhood, generally located southwest of Harbor Boulevard and Fifth Street, is zoned residential but many residents say the vacation rentals operate much like a commercial business.

The HOA has been forced to take action because of nuisance issues that short-term rentals create, Frank said.

When asked how the HOA will enforce the regulations, Frank said the board has not finalized those details.

The situation has divided the community, pitting neighbors annoyed with noisy partygoers against neighbors who think the HOA is overstepping.

The Greenfields believe the HOA doesn't have the right to enact vacation rental regulations and fine violators. According to court records, they believe the association needs a permit from the California Coastal Commission to establish such regulations.

An attorney representing the Greenfields could not be reached for comment and the Greenfields declined to comment for this article.

The coastal commission, which regulates land use in coastal areas like the ones in Oxnard, has historically opposed local government bans on vacation rentals. The commission considers these living arrangements as alternatives to hotels that can offer the public, especially larger families and groups, access to the coast.

Noaki Schwartz, spokeswoman for the coastal commission, said the California Coastal Act considers regulations or bans on short-term rentals as development that therefore require a permit.

In correspondences to municipalities that want to prohibit short-term rentals, the commission recommends local leaders to work on a plan that include middle ground measures such as establishing a transient occupancy tax, limiting a concentration of vacation rentals in an area and other measures.

According to Schwartz, the commission has not intervened in any HOA rules.

Oxnard has no ordinance regulating short-term rentals, but it's working on one. Earlier this week, the city led a workshop to solicit public input. Later in the year, city staff will have proposals for the Planning Commission and City Council to consider.
The constable, posted at sector 5 police chowki in Bawana, spotted the snatchers and chased them following which they fired at him, police said.

The incident occurred hours after Delhi Police Commissioner Alok Kumar, during a crime review meeting, instructed senior officials to curb street crimes in the national capital. Photo: PTI

By Press Trust of India: A Delhi police constable was shot dead by miscreants while he was chasing them after they snatched a bag from a woman in Shahabad area on Friday night.

"Anand was chasing three unidentified miscreants who had snatched the bag from a woman in Sector 5 industrial area around 9.30 pm, when he was shot at," said DCP (Outer) Vikramjeet Singh.

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SHOT IN THE CHEST

The constable, who was posted at sector 5 police chowki in Bawana, spotted the snatchers near Samosa Chowk in the area and chased them following which they fired at him, police said.

Anand sustained bullet injury on the chest. He was rushed to a nearby hospital where doctors declared him dead, they said.

The incident occurred hours after Delhi Police Commissioner Alok Kumar, during a crime review meeting, instructed senior officials to curb street crimes in the national capital.

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SHARE CONTRIBUTED PHOTO BY JARED DEVER, OCVCD

By Tom Kisken of the Ventura County Star

A Ventura County resident was diagnosed with the Zika virus after traveling to Latin America, public health officials said Friday.

Dr. Robert Levin, Ventura County public health officer, said the virus is linked to the travel and was not spread by mosquitoes in Ventura County.

Neither of the small day-biting species of mosquitoes that carry the disease have been found in the county, though they have been identified in neighboring regions.

Citing patient privacy, Levin offered little information about the Zika case except to say the person is a woman and is not pregnant.

"She was never hospitalized," said Levin, adding that the woman showed symptoms. "I believe she's recovered."

State officials have reported 170 other Zika cases in California. All are related to travel with one case spread through sexual contact. The case reported Friday is the first in Ventura County.

Zika has spread in countries across Central and South America. The virus can cause birth defects, including abnormally small heads and brains in a condition called microcephaly.

California officials said two infants in the state have been diagnosed with microcephaly linked to Zika.

The illness is spread primarily through Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes that acquire the virus by biting infected people. The aegypti is also known as the yellow fever mosquito and albopictus is called the Asian tiger mosquito.

Zika can also be spread through vaginal, anal and oral sex.

Neither of the transmitter species of mosquitoes have been found in the county but they have been identified in 12 California counties, including Kern and Los Angeles.

Levin said the lack of transmitter mosquitoes in the county greatly reduces the risk of the virus spreading. He said the woman has been counseled about other precautions to reduce chance of transmission.

Though there have been no reports of Zika being spread by mosquitoes in Ventura County or California, local transmission has been reported in Florida.

The Zika report comes at a time of heightened concern about another mosquito-carried disease. Ventura County Environmental Health officials have reported 20 dead birds have tested positive for West Nile virus this year with 12 from Simi Valley.

The county tally is the highest total for this time of year since at least 2013, said vector ecologist Cary Svoboda.

Three of the 20 bird reports were confirmed Friday with two of the birds coming from Simi Valley and one from Thousand Oaks.

Across California, state officials have confirmed 46 people diagnosed with West Nile this year. None are from Ventura County. Two people have died, in Yolo and Sacramento counties.

Svoboda said factors playing into the rise in the bird count include the heat and amount of breeding sites in places like Simi Valley.

"The reaction I would prefer is that it creates awareness rather than panic and people protect themselves against mosquito bites and eliminate breeding sources like any standing water," Svoboda said.

Ventura County Environmental Health officials offer the following advice to avoid mosquito bites.

Eliminate standing water including water in buckets, barrels, old tires, childrens toys, ornamental ponds, and neglected swimming pools.

Make sure exterior doors and windows have tightfitting screens.

Limit outdoor activity when mosquitoes are most active, especially at dawn and dusk.

Wear long pants and long-sleeved shirts.

Apply insect repellent containing DEET, picaradin or oil of lemon eucalyptus.

The county operates a mosquito complaint hotline at 658-4310.

For more information on Zika, go to http://www.cdc.gov/zika/.

For information on West Nile, go to http://www.westnile.ca.gov/.

About Tom Kisken Tom Kisken is a health care and general assignment reporter.

Avoid bites
ANTHONY PLASCENCIA/THE STAR Brooks Institute student Kamilo Bustamante takes a final look through his photos as he prepares to move out of his Ventura apartment on Thursday.

SHARE ANTHONY PLASCENCIA/THE STAR Brooks Institute student Kamilo Bustamante packs his belongings as he prepares to move out of his Ventura apartment Thursday. Bustamante is moving to New York for an internship that was put at risk because he's required to be enrolled in school. ANTHONY PLASCENCIA/THE STAR Brooks Institute student Kamilo Bustamante packs away photos from a recent show as he prepares to move out of his Ventura apartment on Thursday. To avoid losing an internship, Bustamante has enrolled at Ventura College. ANTHONY PLASCENCIA/THE STAR Brooks Institute student Kamilo Bustamante packs away photos from a recent show as he prepares to move out of his Ventura apartment Thursday. Related Coverage What led to Brooks Institute in Ventura closing so abruptly?

By Jean Moore of the Ventura County Star

With Brooks abruptly canceling fall classes and planning to close in October, students are scrambling to figure out how they can finish their degrees, whether they can break yearlong apartment leases, and how they'll pay their student loans.

The decision to close left students in the lurch, said David Malmborg, 18, who was set to leave his Washington home Saturday to start at Brooks.

"It's already so late in the summer," Malmborg said. "It will be hard to get into other schools. ... It's really tough. I wish they would have given students more notice."

The company that owns Brooks, gphomestay, told students on Aug. 12 that it was closing Oct. 31. The company also canceled fall classes that were scheduled to start Sept. 6.

Company officials formed a transition team to help students, but shortly after the closure was announced, the team appeared to be struggling to get key information themselves, said Natalie Guzy, 28, a graduate student who was one class short of earning her master's degree and has about $50,000 in loans.

"They weren't organized," Guzy said. "They didn't have a list of the students and the programs they were in. ... They're not providing a lot of information."

By midweek, the team had organized a small college fair where students could meet with representatives of schools where they could potentially transfer, including Art Center College of Design and Santa Barbara City College.

By the end of the week, the company was finalizing agreements with almost 20 schools, and talking with another dozen, said attorney Aaron Lacey, a spokesman for Brooks.

Faculty also have stepped in to advise the transition team and help students find another school, said Kamilo Bustamante, 21, who had one semester left to graduate.

"Teachers have the best knowledge and connections," Bustamante said. "When this happened, they could have thrown up their arms, but they're helping us, even though they've been left in this position."

Here are some of the students whose lives have been disrupted by Brooks closing:



CONTRIBUTED PHOTO/Nate Cooper Kamilo Bustamante

Kamilo Bustamante

Age: 21

Studying: Professional photography.

Why he chose Brooks: "I turned down other schools because of the technical education Brooks offers," Bustamante said. "And the faculty are extremely well connected."

Impact of Brooks closing: Bustamante had lined up an internship with prominent photographer Annie Leibovitz in New York for this fall. When Brooks announced its closure, that internship was at risk because he had to be enrolled in school to participate. Bustamante has since enrolled at Ventura College.

"I had to do everything in my power to save this internship," he said. "This is the biggest opportunity I've had in my life."

What's next: Bustamante leaves for New York in September. He still wants to finish his degree, possibly at a school in New Zealand, after he finishes the internship this winter.

"I need to turn this internship into a full-time job," he said. "But the thing is, I want my degree. I'm still going to explore the possibility and finish it out."



CONTRIBUTED PHOTO/Sarah McCloskey at Sarah Smile Photography Natalie Guzy

Natalie Guzy

Age: 28

Studying: Scientific and technological imaging.

Why she chose Brooks: "The classes they were offering were unique," Guzy said. "They had a prestigious name. They were known as one of the best photography schools in the country. I looked at the website and saw underwater photography, the travel programs, camping trips. ... Then I came into Santa Barbara. Who wouldn't want to live in Santa Barbara?"

Impact of Brooks closing: Because Guzy's program is so specialized, it will be difficult to find another school where she can complete her master's degree. She still needs one class and one internship. "They put a lot of students at a disadvantage," she said.

Guzy also noted the impact on faculty: "Teachers are losing their jobs," she said. "Some have kids going off to college."

What's next: "I really just want to get my master's," she said. "We can get our money back, but I can't get back the time I spent and the dedication I put in."



CONTRIBUTED PHOTO David Malmborg

David Malmborg

Age: 18

Studying: Visual journalism

Why he chose Brooks: Malmborg was impressed by a pamphlet he got on Brooks at a college fair when he was in high school. His photography teacher also recommended Brooks, he said.

"I felt like it had every type of photography you could imagine," he said. "Everything I wanted to learn, I could learn there."

Impact of Brooks closing: Malmborg was set to move to Ventura from Washington on Saturday. He got the news of the closure in a voice mail as he was getting his tires changed to make the trip. Just the week before, he had received an email telling him he was getting a $10,000 scholarship.

"My jaw just dropped," Malmborg said. "It was pretty shocking. It was hard to believe. I listened to the message a second time."

What's next: Malmborg isn't sure he'll find another school in time for the fall semester and may have to wait until spring to start.

"It's definitely a challenge," he said. "I really wanted to go to Brooks."

Malmborg will probably stay in Washington for now. He had already given notice at his two jobs when he learned Brooks was closing, so he'll have to look for another job.



CONTRIBUTED PHOTO/Sarah Merrill Mikaela Roselli

Mikaela Roselli

Age: 21

Studying: Professional photography.

Why she chose Brooks: Roselli wanted a bachelor of fine arts degree, and Brooks was one of the only schools that would take her transfer credits.

"All the equipment I could rent, the sound stages, the location of the school  everything I wanted as a young girl, Brooks was it," she said.

Impact of Brooks closing: Roselli was a year away from earning her degree. She says it would cost at least $3,000 to break the lease on her small apartment in Ventura.

What's next: She's going to keep working in Ventura for now. As for finding another college, she's not optimistic: "I'll be 22 next year, and I thought I would be done with school. Now I have to start from scratch."
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Chef Amy Tyrrell, who is teaching cooking classes at the Todd Road Jail, speaks at the graduating ceremony honoring inmates, from left, Alberto Lepe, Conrad Moraga and Kevin Reese.

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By Anne Kallas, Special to The Star

Inmates at Ventura County's Todd Road Jail are hoping to turn their lives around through cooking.

Three inmates have graduated from a new culinary arts program run in partnership with Ventura Adult and Continuing Education, earning both food handling and food preparation certificates along the way.

Five more are in a second round of classes.

The first-ever graduation ceremony earlier this month featured lemon poppy seed cake, zucchini bread and chocolate-dipped strawberries prepared by the three inmates.

According to Ventura County Sheriff Geoff Dean, vocational programs like this are the best way to help inmates move away permanently from incarceration.

"Education and employment are the key factors in reducing recidivism," said Dean, who attended the ceremony. "We want to make sure they don't come back  that they can walk out and get a job."

To be eligible for classes that involve sharp utensils, inmates had to be considered low-risk and able to handle the rigors of a class where their work could be criticized.

"Five months ago, we decided to see what happens in a program that involved knives and hot water," chef Amy Tyrrell, who teaches the classes, said during the graduation ceremony. "But this has been an opportunity for these three to rise to the occasion. They not only learned how to hold a knife, they learned to braise and roast and the correct way to make an egg."

Kevin Reese, 39, Alberto Lepe, 49, and Conrad Moraga, 39, made up the first graduating class.

Reese, who is up for release in 2018, said having a skill will change his life.

"I've never actually learned a skill before," said Reese, whose most recent arrest was for auto theft. "I've been doing time for awhile, and I never had an opportunity like this."

Moraga, who is up for release next year, said he enjoyed learning to cook in a commercial kitchen.

"I want to get my manager's certificate so I can prepare for the street," he said, adding that he is a repeat offender because of "bad choices and addiction issues."

"This is my sixth prison term, but this time I was able to complete a class," he said. "I need to make a change in myself to be successful."

Lepe, who is also up for release next year, said he was incarcerated because of a 20-year-old crime that occurred when he was dealing and using drugs. He said he would like to either go to Mexico and establish a halfway house for people with addiction issues, or open a restaurant with a focus on organic food.

"As long as I've been here I've seen people with drug issues," said Lepe, who worked in construction before being jailed. "The people here have goals. But it's real sad to see kids 20 years old with addiction problems."

Cecil Argue, senior manager of inmate services for the Ventura County Sheriff's Department, said that because only inmates who could work in a minimum security environment were considered, "At first, we didn't have enough to fill the class."

"Those who demonstrated an interest had to show a certain level of compliance with jail rules," he said. "We were able to reclassify five people."

The three who ended up completing the first five-month program were required to work six hours a days, not only in the kitchen, but also in the classroom, in addition to completing their regularly assigned tasks.

"Most of our inmates coming in are medium- to low-high security risks," Argue said. "They have a really high chance to recidivate."

But the three graduates, he said, "have learned how to work a complex program more collaboratively. They are learning to take constructive feedback."

Five more students began the program in July.

"We have designed the program in a manner that opens the program up to new students approximately every four months," Tyrrell said. "Interest in the program remains strong within the inmate population, so we are looking forward to their involvement as spots become available."

Pat Doler, the culinary arts coordinator for VACE, said the program allows her and Tyrrell to hone their teaching skills in a large commercial kitchen. VACE is in the process of trying to build a full commercial kitchen at its Valentine Road facility.

"They all want to learn," Doler said of the incarcerated students. "They are very eager to learn and to learn the right way."

For information on VACE programs offered in Ventura, call 289-7925 or go online to http://www.adultedventura.edu/.
TROY HARVEY/SPECIAL TO THE STAR Brooks Institute has canceled its fall classes and will close Oct. 31.

By Jean Moore of the Ventura County Star

For years, Brooks Institute in Ventura enjoyed a reputation as one of the premier photography and visual arts schools in the country.

So why is Brooks closing in October, leaving students without a school, faculty without jobs, and Ventura without a planned downtown campus?

The for-profit school's decline appears to have started back in 1999. That's when the Brooks family, who founded the school in 1945, sold it to Career Education Corp., which owned a chain of for-profits nationwide.

Over the next decade, Brooks, like other for-profit schools, faced allegations that it misrepresented itself to students, promising them higher salaries and better jobs than they actually got after graduating.

Enrollment also started to decline. In 2005, enrollment was 2,563. When the closure was announced, Brooks had only 250 students, the size of a small elementary school.

The issue wasn't with faculty or classes, which remained strong, students and alumni say.

Instead, it was management, which became more about making money, said Donna Granata, a professional photographer in Ventura who graduated in 1993, when the school was still privately owned.

"The faculty and quality of education never waned," said Granata, who is also founder and executive director of Focus on the Masters, which documents the lives of living artists. "But everything else was a mess. The management was all about churning out the highest number of students. Changing the business model to a for-profit changed the dynamic of the institution."

Despite those problems, students remained attracted to Brooks.

Natalie Guzy came to Brooks from her home just outside Philadelphia four years ago, drawn by the school's national reputation for photography and the visual arts.

Yes, she had heard about some problems with the school's owners, but she wasn't terribly concerned, she said.

"Brooks had a name," said Guzy, 28, who was one class short of earning her master's degree in scientific and technological imaging. "I wanted to stand out. That's why I went."

Some Brooks alumni have thrived. Robert Legato earned Academy Awards for visual effects in "Titanic" and "Hugo." Javier Manzano earned a Pulitzer in 2013 for feature photography.

But other students have complained about going into substantial debt with no good job to show for it.

"I've seen this coming since 2000," one person wrote on a Facebook page for Brooks alumni. "So many promises, so many student loans."

The problems started in about 2005. That's when Brooks faced the allegations about misrepresenting itself to potential students and using high-pressure recruitment tactics.

Then in 2008, as enrollment declined, Brooks laid off 17 faculty and staff members. That same year, it put its Montecito campus up for sale.

The problems continued in 2010, when Career Education Corp. closed 23 of its campuses nationwide, saying overall enrollment had dropped 22 percent over the past year. The company also laid off about 900 workers. But Brooks remained open.

Finally, in 2015, another company took over, gphomestay, and hired a new president, Edward Clift, who was ousted just days before the closure was announced.

Clift tried to revive the school, planning an ambitious move to downtown Ventura, aimed at attracting more students.

When the closure was announced, workers had already done at least $1.5 million in renovations that the company has not yet paid for, said Jim DeArkland, who was leasing three buildings to Brooks.

The company also owes rent, including $70,000 to the city of Ventura and $13,000 to DeArkland.

But the downtown plan didn't work, officials said in their letter to students announcing the closing. The letter primarily blamed the closure on the economy and federal regulations.

Attorney Aaron Lacey, a spokesman for Brooks, said that gphomestay had hoped to attract more international students, an expensive effort that was less successful than the company had anticipated. International students don't receive federal financial aid and aren't subject to gainful employment rules that took effect in 2015.

"I'm heartbroken," Granata said. "I feel for all involved, not only the faculty and students, but the community, as well. "This is affecting a lot of people, and the consequences of this will be felt for years to come."

Reporter Arlene Martinez contributed to this story.
STAR FILE PHOTO Highway 101 passes by farmland near Conejo Creek, property included in a SOAR renewal measure for Camarillo.

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By Kathleen Wilson of the Ventura County Star

A state appeals court has denied Calleguas Land Co.'s request for an emergency order to remove the Camarillo SOAR renewal measure from the November ballot.

Three justices in the 2nd District Court of Appeal rejected the company's request Friday afternoon, clearing the way for residents to vote on the land-preservation initiative.

The Save Open-space & Agricultural Resources, or SOAR, measure would renew until 2050 a law that places a growth boundary around the city. It also would require a public vote before agricultural land at the base of the Conejo Grade could be converted into nonagricultural use.

Calleguas, which sued to get the measure off the ballot, owns most of that land. The company had plans to develop 895 acres of agricultural land at the base of the grade, but the project was rejected by the Camarillo City Council in the face of stiff community opposition.

Chuck Cohen, an attorney for the company, called the decision disappointing but not a surprise.

"We just thought we needed to exhaust our remedies," he said Friday.

Cohen said time was too short to appeal to the California Supreme Court.

The justices gave no reason for their decision. County elections officials had asked for a final court decision by Friday to meet ballot-printing deadlines.

Retiree Tad Dougherty, one of the circulators of a voter petition to put the measure on the ballot, welcomed the appeals court's decision.

"After all the ups and downs, we're glad to be on the ballot, " he said. "We're glad the citizens of Camarillo are going to be able to vote on this issue."

Dougherty and other proponents twice collected about 6,000 signatures to qualify the measure. The first petition was disqualified over an incorrect date, so they had to mount a second drive.

Then Calleguas and Camarillo resident Wayne Davey sued the city in July, alleging multiple errors and failures to meet state law in the process of qualifying the initiative for ballot.

After a two-day hearing, county Superior Court Judge Vincent O'Neill ruled Wednesday that the measure could proceed.

O'Neill found no procedural errors that were serious enough to merit removal of the measure. He did suggest there could be litigation after the election over a substantive issue: whether hundreds of acres had been incorrectly described as being within the city.

Calleguas also claimed the proponents failed to give required notice to the public and did not include the full text of the initiative in the petition that voters signed and that the measure lacked required language.
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Senate Bill 907, which had won unanimous approval of the state Senate, died in just a few seconds last week, and that angers Peggy Spatz.

She and her husband, George, took out a $150,000 second mortgage on their modest suburban Sacramento home 11 years ago, only to see home values and their retirement investments crash in the Great Recession.

They, like millions of other Californians with underwater homes, eventually negotiated a settlement with their lender to write down the loan, only to learn the canceled debt was "a taxable event."

Congress declared loan write-downs, short sales and other forms of mortgage relief would be free of federal income taxes. The California Legislature and then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger followed suit for several years, extending relief through 2013.

But when Jerry Brown returned to the governorship, facing an immense budget deficit, he refused to continue the tax exemption and last year vetoed a bill that would have added two years to the window. It created, a Senate staff analysis said, "a fine mess."

Brown said the state budget "has remained precariously balanced (and) I cannot support providing additional credits that will make balancing the state's budget even more difficult."

SB 907, carried by Sen. Cathleen Galgiani, D-Manteca, would have extended the tax break through 2016. She represents a region hardest hit by the housing meltdown and during one hearing cited her own underwater mortgage.

"Many years later, it still isn't worth what I paid for it," said Galgiani, adding many Californians are in the same situation and "for us to hit them a second time is unconscionable."

The Spatzes hoped that with the Senate's passage and a heavyweight list of supporters, including Attorney General Kamala Harris and real estate and banking lobbies, it would get to Brown's desk. In anticipation, they wrote a letter to Brown citing their experience and concluding, "This letter is written by two people, but there are hundreds of thousands of us. Please don't turn your back on us."

SB 907 never made it to Brown. Although it also won unanimous support in the Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee, it was placed on the Assembly Appropriation Committee's "suspense file" because of its cost  an estimated $95 million in lost revenue during its first year and $57 million in the next two years.

Last week, the appropriations chairwoman, Lorena Gonzalez, announced the fate of dozens of Senate bills, spending just a few seconds on each. SB 907, she said, would not be sent to the Assembly floor.

As is the custom, no reason for its demise was offered. But it probably had something to do with its heavy cost, more than 10 percent of the total for bills on the suspense file, and the strong likelihood that Brown would have vetoed it, as he had done in 2015.

"The thing that breaks my heart is that people aren't marching in the street," Peggy Spatz said after learning of Gonzalez's decree. "I'm a bitter person at this point."

Dan Walters writes for the Sacramento Bee. Email him at dwalters@sacbee.com.
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Seated in his Chicago office, wearing neither a necktie nor a frown, Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner is remarkably relaxed for someone at the epicenter of a crisis now in its second year and with no end in sight. But then, stress is pointless when the situation is hopeless. Besides, if you can ignore the fact that self-government is failing in the nation's fifth-most populous state, you can see real artistry in the self-dealing by the Democrats who, with veto-proof majorities in the state Legislature, have reduced this state they control to insolvency.

Illinois' government, says Rauner, "is run for the benefit of its employees." Increasingly, it is run for their benefit when they retire. Pension promises, although unfunded by at least $113 billion, are one reason some government departments are not digitized at all.

What is misleadingly called the state's Constitution requires balanced budgets, of which there have been none for 25 years. This year, revenues are projected to be $32.5 billion, with spending of $38 billion. Illinois Democrats are, however, selective constitutionalists: They will die in the last ditch defending the constitution's provision that says no government pension can be "diminished or impaired."

The government is so thoroughly unionized (22 unions represent almost all government employees) that "I can't," Rauner says, "turn on a light switch without permission." He exaggerates somewhat, but the process of trying to fire someone is a career, not an option.

At last count, $7.6 billion was owed to state vendors. But the law requires that the state's legislators get paid under any circumstances. This removes perhaps the most important potential pressure for compromise. If schools did not open this month, parents with pitchforks would march on Springfield, so a quasi-budget was cobbled together to keep government semi-funded for six months.

Under Rauner's Democratic predecessor, the Legislature passed a "temporary" tax increase, serenely expecting that when it expired, they would enjoy the truth of Ronald Reagan's axiom that there is nothing as immortal as a temporary government program. They did not count on the first Republican governor in 12 years.

Rauner let the tax lapse. To their demand for more tax increases, he sweetly says: Let's talk. About pension and tort reforms. And about exempting local governments from paying on construction projects the "prevailing wage"  which Rauner says is "whatever unions tell them they want it to be" and raises costs 30 to 40 percent.

Rauner favors term limits for state legislators. Democrats have job security, thanks in large part to the financial support of grateful public- and private-sector unions. Illinois voters overwhelmingly want term limits, which Democratic politicians oppose because, they say, such limits restrict voters' ability to get what they want.

Illinois is a leading indicator of increasing national childishness  an unwillingness to will the means for the ends that it wills. Nationally, state and local governments' pensions have somewhere between $1 trillion and $4 trillion in unfunded liabilities, depending on, among other things, assumptions about pension fund investments. The Wall Street Journal reports that in 2001, the 20-year median return was 12.3 percent and every percentage-point decline in returns increases liabilities by 12 percent. Last year, the largest fund, the California Public Employees' Retirement System, which assumes 7.5 percent returns, instead gained 0.6 percent.

Nationally, neither party is eager to talk about the rickety structure of the entitlement state, although the Democratic platform promises to make matters worse. Although scheduled Social Security benefits vastly exceed the value of worker and employer contributions, the platform opposes even raising the retirement age. This, even though benefits are available at 62, three years younger than when the system was created in 1935, when life expectancy at 65 was 12.5 more years. Today, it is 19.3 more years for men and 21.6 for women. If in 1935 Congress had indexed the age of Social Security eligibility to life expectancy, the age today would be 72.

The federal government can continue to print money. There are bankruptcy procedures for cities but not for states. So high-tax Illinois will continue bleeding the population and businesses, but with one contented cohort  the Democratic political class, for whom the system is working quite well.

George Will's email address is georgewill@washpost.com. He writes for The Washington Post Writers Group.
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More than 50 years ago, my father came to California from Mexico in search of a better life, which he eventually found in farming. He moved up from the fields to become a tractor driver, warehouse worker and then supervisor. Finally, after two decades of working for others, he was able to start a small family flower farm, which today has grown to include 60 full-time employees in the Santa Paula region.

Like many Latino immigrants, my father earned his piece of the American dream through hard work, entrepreneurialism and sacrifice  and by having the guts to seize an opportunity not found in Mexico.

But the state Legislature is now threatening this ability to move up through farming by considering a change to overtime rules for farm and ranch employees. California is already one of only a few states that mandate premium pay for farm employees after 10 hours of work in a day. AB 1066 would change that to require premium pay after eight hours a day or 40 hours a week.

Supporters claim it is simply a matter of "basic fairness." But for anyone who understands farming, AB 1066 would actually hurt the people it's meant to help. Our farm and countless others would have no choice but to cut employees' hours and incomes.

Now, my employees know that during peak seasons, they can count on at least 10 hours of work each day. But if overtime kicks in after eight hours, I would likely modify operations to go to eight-hour shifts. So my employees would lose at least two hours of work a day.

Why would I reduce employees' hours rather than pay the overtime? After all, if there's enough work to justify 10-hour days, why would that change? The answer is that the change in overtime rules would be happening at the same time as other changes that affect farming operations.

We already know that basic wages will rise steadily in coming years. The Legislature passed a law this year to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour within six years. Farm employees on average earn more than minimum wage already, but the law will generally push all wages upward. California farmers also pay higher-than-average costs for fuel, electricity and land, and to comply with a wide variety of regulations intended to benefit the environment, food safety and employee health.

Unlike most industries, farmers cannot offset costs by raising prices and passing them along to consumers. We are also competing against Colombia, Ecuador and Mexico, which have a huge advantage due to minimal labor standards and regulatory costs. The only way California flower farmers can survive is to contain costs. Under AB 1066, people who now have steady employment on my farm might have to find second jobs to make up for the lost income. Or they'll just have to settle for making less money during peak seasons.

In my father's 50-plus years of farming, he has seen major improvements in worker protections. Unfortunately, AB 1066 makes workers more vulnerable because it deprives them of the opportunity to maximize their incomes and build a ladder to the American dream.

Tony Ortiz is operations manager for the Santa Paula-based Joseph & Sons Inc. flower farm.


The Blue and Gold crews of USS Nevada (SSBN 733) celebrated the ships 30th anniversary with a ceremony at Naval Base Kitsap - Bangor, Aug. 12, 2016.

With this milestone, Nevada became the fourth active Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine (SSBN), and the third based in Bangor, to go beyond its originally planned 30-year service life.

The age of the ship really makes our Sailors more important than ever, said Cmdr. Gene Severtson, commanding officer of Nevada Gold. The hard work of Nevadas Sailors for the last 30 years has kept the ship in great material condition that lets us keep going out on patrol for months at a time.

Current Ohio-class SSBNs are reaching the end of their life cycle. When Nevada was commissioned on August 16, 1986, it had an anticipated service life of 30 years. However, the Ohio-class submarines lifetime has been extended from 30 to 42 years.

USS Henry M. Jackson (SSBN 730) was the first of the Ohio-classes to reach this service milestone in 2014, with USS Alabama (SSBN 731) following in 2015.

Quite frankly, this could have been a decommissioning ceremony, said Rear Adm. John Tammen, commander of Submarine Group 9 who also served aboard Nevada early in his career. Fortunately for the Navy and the country, our crews and maintenance teams have taken great care of the SSBN force over the years and today is a celebration of the next 12 years to come.

The Navys top priority is to ensure that the most survivable leg of our Nations strategic nuclear triad remains fully resourced and ready through the existing SSBN force and continued development of the Ohio INSERT ment Program.

We understand how important it is to keep accomplishing the strategic deterrent mission with this ship. The next generation of SSBNs are still in development and will not be in service until 2031, said Severtson. Now more than ever, it is imperative we keep this national treasure up and operating for the next 12 years.

The celebration was sponsored by the Reno Navy League who has been an ardent supporter of the ship since its commissioning. Over the last 30 years, they have come to every change of command and sponsored us on namesake visits, said Severtson. Were thankful that they continue to provide us with a great connection to the state of Nevada.


Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Nevada Properties donated 44,000 bottles of water to the Las Vegas Rescue Mission during its fourth annual water drive to benefit the charity. Las Vegas Rescue Mission gives the water to its homeless clients during Las Vegas hottest summer months.

This annual water drive is one of several in which all of our 1,100 real estate professionals and 60 staff members in Southern Nevada participate, said Diane Ray, the events organizer. Water is something most of us are lucky to have in abundance. But for our homeless population it can mean the difference between life and death when the summer heat is at its peak.

Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Nevada Properties worked with partners Red Carpet Movers and Office Depot for this years water drive. Red Carpet Movers picked up water donations from the real estate firms Southern Nevada branch offices and delivered them to the Las Vegas Rescue Mission. Office Depot provided special pricing on water and made deliveries to the Mission.

The companys Sahara office received this years distinction of donating the most bottles of any branch with 22,000 bottles donated. It is an average donation of 81 bottles per real estate sales executive and really shows our executives and teams work together to benefit the community, said Ray.
In a first Andhra Pradesh today launched DNA profiling for criminals. The system will profile live samples within less than two hours.

By Ashish Pandey: As part of its proactive policing, the Andhra Pradesh government on Saturday launched the DNA Index System for the first time in India.

This system uses the latest DNA technology tool developed by IntegenX, Inc., USA known as RapidHIT DNA System.

It allows generation of DNA profiles from live samples such as buccal swabs, blood stains, saliva etc., within less than two hours as the currently available technologies take at least two days or more.

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DNA profiling plays a crucial role not only in solving crimes but also has a potential to link a series of crimes by placing the suspects at the scene of crime by linking the suspects with the crime scene while also helping to prove their innocence.

EFFORTS TO MAKE ANDHRA PRADESH CRIME-FREE

While launching the program, Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu said his aim is to make Andhra Pradesh a crime free state in India through the usage of latest technology in forensic labs. He also ordered for the introduction of this system immediately.

The AP Police has launched the project on pilot badia to test the efficacy of the DIS, to generate DNA profiles of a batch of convicts and suspects involved in various crimes.

Deputy Chief Minister N. C. Rajappa, Director General of Police (in charge) N Sambasiva Rao, Forensic advisor to government P C Gandhi, IntegenX CEO Anand Gupta, former official of Florida Police Department Roy Swiger and other officials were present on the occasion held at Vijayawada.

Also read:

Shadnagar encounter: Telangana counter intelligence sleuths gun down dreaded gangster



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For the fifth consecutive year, McMullans Irish Pub is raising funds to research and conquer childhood cancer through a gala head-shaving party to benefit The St. Baldricks Foundation starting at 2 p.m. on Saturday, March 5, 2011.

McMullans Irish Pub at Tropicana and Cameron, Boulder Station and Nine Fine Irishmen at New York-New York Hotel & Casino will host hundreds of Las Vegas Valley residents, who over the past four years have gathered at McMullans and helped raise more than $1 million for the campaign to find a cure for the killer of more children than any other childhood disease.

McMullans Irish Pub has served as the headquarters for the event for the past four years. Owner Brian McMullan is delighted to welcome Nine Fine Irishmen and Boulder Station to the mix.

We dont have a huge formal dinner or silent auction as our fundraiser, McMullan said. Rather we are having hundreds of people throughout Southern Nevada show up and sponsor their neighbors, friends and even strangers willing to have their heads shaved to bond with children who have lost their hair to cancer.

This years event is going to be bigger and better than before. Kicking off at 2 p.m. at McMullans and wrapping up around 3 a.m. Sunday morning, we will have scores of celebrities, bands, special performers and regular folks taking part in our efforts, stated McMullan.

An estimated 300 volunteers are set to have their heads shaved this year. Masters of ceremonies helping facilitate the events activities include TV personality and celebrity journalist Robin Leach, TV newsmen Nate Tannenbaum, weathermen Kevin Janison of KSNV and Darren Miller of KLAS, TV news personalities Gerard Ramalho of KSNV and Elizabeth Watts of KVVU among others. Extensive radio remotes will originate on local CBS-owned FM and AM stations and the event will be streamed to computers around the world.

We are hoping to add to the more than $100 million the Foundation has raised and awarded as grants to physicians and researchers across the globe, said McMullan.

Special recognition will also go to Dr. Jonathan Bernstein, Las Vegas pediatric oncologist from the Childrens Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders, who received three St. Baldricks grants. Dr. Bernstein will also be one of the volunteers to have his head shaved.

Based in Monrovia CA, The St. Baldricks Foundation was founded less than a decade ago by 17 people who wanted to do more than just sit around on St. Patricks Day drinking Irish beer. Suggesting children cancer research as a fundraising recipient, the participants were each tasked with a goal of raising $1,000. After raising more than 10 times that amount, the annual event mushroomed and is now held in pubs, firehouses, restaurants, meeting halls, high school gyms and other venues in 18 countries and 48 U.S. states, where more than 72,000 shaved heads attest to the volunteers fundraising efforts all over the world.
Some of the 15 detainees accused of setting up an illegal political party to overthrow the regime are put on display at the Crime Suppression Division in Bangkok on August 19, 2016 AFP/Lillian Suwanrumpha

The junta said Thursday the detainees had been held during their investigation into the bombing spree, which hit tourist towns in the south, killing four and wounding dozens, including Europeans.

But on Friday police said the group - many of whom are elderly - had in fact set up an illegal political party to overthrow the regime.

The bombs attacks were highly unusual in a country where foreigners and tourist towns are rarely caught up in the country's frequent bouts of political violence.

Investigators have been under pressure to make quick arrests.

The group appeared at a Bangkok police station on Friday escorted by soldiers - the first time they have been seen in public - to hear the charges against them.

Two are women and many of the men are in their 60s and 70s.

Thai media have run multiple reports quoting anonymous investigators as saying the group helped coordinate the recent attacks.

But Major General Chayaphol Chatchaidej, a senior official at the Office of Police Strategy who was at the police station to receive the suspects, told reporters they were not involved.

"There is no evidence linking them to the bomb attacks in the seven southern provinces based on our investigation, although some of them are involved with lese majeste (royal defamation) and arms trafficking," he said.

Instead he described them as a splinter faction of the anti-junta Red Shirt movement loyal to ousted Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who was toppled by the military in 2006.

He said the network called itself the Revolutionary Front of Democracy party - a previously unheard of group.

A police statement handed to reporters listing the suspects' names and ages said the group aimed to "accumulate arms... and overthrow the government" but made no reference to last week's bomb attacks.

The statement said they currently face one charge of breaching the junta's ban on political gatherings and another of belonging to an unlawful secret society.

That means no arrests or charges have yet been announced for people directly responsible for the blasts.

Thai police and military have a history of rivalry but since the 2014 coup the military have spearheaded national security investigations.

Previous bomb probes - including an attack on a Bangkok shrine last year that killed 20 - have been marred by confusion and conflicting statements.

Police and the military have ruled out international terrorism for last week's attacks, saying the perpetrators were "local saboteurs".

A number of analysts say the most likely culprits are ethnic Muslim militants who have fought a lengthy but local insurgency in Thailand's three southernmost provinces.

The attacks bore many hallmarks of the southern insurgents - who never claim their operations - including coordinated multiple strikes and the type of devices used.

But the junta leadership has been adamant that the deep south conflict has not spread north. Instead their focus has centred on domestic political groups who are opposed to their rule.

The Red Shirts have denied any involvement and accused the junta of using the bombs as an excuse to further crack down on opponents.
Japans Vanilla Air has offered 50% discount on both one-way and return tickets for Ho Chi Minh City-Taipei flight from September 15, 2016 to March 25, 2017. The price includes tax and fees.

Passengers also enjoy cheap flights offered by Air Asia at a starting price of US$10 for one-way ticket on Ho Chi Minh City-Johor Bahru/Bangkok route, US$35-45 for one-way ticket on Hanoi/Danang-Kuala Lumpur routes, US$145-196 for one-way ticket on Ho Chi Minh City-Sydney, Hanoi-Auckland and Danang-Melbourne routes.

The price excludes tax, fees and other surcharges. The discount is valid till April 6, 2017.

Emirates Airlines offers a discount on air tickets from US$153 on Hanoi-Yangon route until August 31. The discount is valid till March 31, 2017.

The national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines has launched its annual Golden Autumn 2016 programme for both domestic and international routes.

Accordingly, passengers can enjoy cheap air tickets at a starting price of VND299,000 for a one-way ticket on a number of domestic routes like Ho Chi Minh City-Nha Trang, Danang-Buon Me Thuot/Da Lat/Nha Trang/Pleiku/Haiphong and VND399,000 for a one-way ticket on Ho Chi Minh City-Quy Nhon/Phu Quoc/Danang/Hue/Da Lat/ Pleiku/Buon Me Thuot, Hanoi-Danang/Chu Lai routes.

The discount is valid till March 31, 2017.
More than 60,600 units were imported in the first seven months of this year, marking a year-on-year increase of nearly six per cent.  Photo baotintuc.com.vn

However, the total value of the imported units fell by 16 per cent to reach US$208.2 million in July.

The imbalance between the volume and the value proved that most of imported vehicles were small and inexpensive sedans.

In the first seven months of this year, more than 60,600 units were imported, marking a year-on-year increase of nearly six per cent. Meanwhile, the total value was more than $1.4 billion, a fall of 17.3 per cent.

Thailand exported the maximum vehicles to Viet Nam, with 3,700 units in July, a 44 per cent increase year-on-year, followed by South Korea, India, China and Japan.

The number of automobiles imported from China continuously fell from more than 2,000 units in April to less 1,000 in July. In the first seven months of this year, the export of Chinese automobiles to Viet Nam fell from 18,000 units to 8,000 units year-on-year.

The import of automobiles from Thailand continuously increased during the seven months, with 18,837 units being shipped to Viet Nam, worth more than $343 million.

Last month also saw the resumption of import of Indian automobiles, with 1,877 units being sent to Viet Nam.

In June, the import of Indian vehicles had fallen from more than 3,500 units to 137 units, marking an unwonted reduction because the businesses had waited for the Law on Special Consumption Tax that came into effect on July 1, reducing the tax from 45 per cent to 40 per cent for under 1,500cc vehicles with small engine displacement.

Most of the vehicles imported from India are sedans with a low engine displacement.

In the near future, the import of small sedans is expected to increase because of the reduction of the special consumption tax as of July 1.

Circular 20 on automobile imports

In a movement related to Circular 20 on automobile imports, which was due to expire on July 1 this year, the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) has asked the Prime Minister not to approve a proposal on discharging regulations on automobile guarantees and maintenance services in the 2014 Investment Law.There was disagreement between auto businesses when the MoIT put the circular's contents into a draft decree.

Instead of the circular's regulation requiring importers of CBUs with less than nine seats to show proof that they are authorised dealers of foreign automakers, the ministry is planning to ask for automobile guarantee and maintenance services from the brand's official suppliers.

If the proposal is approved, car users will have to get a guarantee and maintenance certificate from official suppliers or authorised businesses.

Vehicles without guarantee and maintenance certificates issued by official suppliers or authorised businesses would not be allowed to be used in Viet Nam, the MoIT proposal said.

MoIT wanted to co-ordinate with the transport ministry and relevant ministries and sectors to quickly issue regulations that have impacts similar to Circular 20 applying on all road vehicles, ensuring that all have guarantee and maintenance certificates or repair being done as per international regulations and meeting the safety standards of Viet Nam.

The ministry said it would rely on regulations of competition to supervise the import and distribution of automobiles in Viet Nam to ensure a fair and competitive environment for businesses, especially small and medium ones.

Following five years of implementation, Circular 20 on automobile imports -- issued in 2011 by the industry and trade ministry requiring importers of CBUs with less than nine seats to show proof that they are authorised dealers of foreign automakers and give certificates of qualified guarantee and maintenance services granted by the transport ministry -- was alleged to have created exclusive rights for several businesses, limited the automobile joint ventures' capacity for localisation and eliminated many small auto enterprises from the auto import sector.
Dehydrated seahorses are often trafficked for use in traditional medicine and as aphrodisiacs, as well as to sell to tourists as souvenirs AFP

The "dead and dehydrated" seahorses - a protected species - were found on July 28 and August 8 hidden in airmail packages sent from the west African country of Guinea destined for Vietnam, it said.

Paris customs official Olivier Gourdon told AFP that seahorses, protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), are confiscated "pretty often".

He said they are generally trafficked from African countries to Vietnam as well as China and Japan.

In addition to their use in traditional medicine and as aphrodisiacs, seahorses are sold to tourists as souvenirs, Gourdon said.

He did not put a value on the find but some 19,000 seahorses seized in February 2015, en route from Madagascar to Hong Kong, had an estimated value of 200,000 euros ($225,000).
Accordingly, PVFCCo, UBE Industries Ltd. (UBE), and Sojitz Corporation (Sojitz) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to study opportunities to construct a plant with a designed capacity between 1,500 and 2,000 tonnes per day in the southern region.

The consortium will carry out the pre-feasibility study within six months after signing the MOU. The project is part of PVFCCos long-term strategy to become Vietnams leading fertiliser and chemical producer.

PVFCCo currently operates Phu My fertiliser plant with a NH3 manufacturing workshop inside. It has increased the capacity of the workshop from 450,000 tonnes to 540,000 tonnes of ammonia per year.

PVFCCo expects that its experience in operating the workshop will prove a big advantage when investing and building a similar NH3 plant with Japanese partners.

Being Japans leading chemical and caprolactam producer and ammonia distributor, UBE currently has manufacturing plants in Japan, Spain, and Thailand. Once the Vietnamese plant comes into operation, UBE will act as both the investor and the distributor.

Sojitz, a Japanese diversified company covering production and trade of chemicals, has been on the Vietnamese market for a long time. It has been co-operating with Vietnams oil and gas group PetroVietnam in studying projects on gas processing, including using gas from Ca Voi Xanh (Blue Whale) oilfield to produce methanol and derivatives.

In Vietnam, apart form being an important input material for fertiliser manufacturing, ammonia is used to fuel industrial factories, including chemical and rubber factories.

The demand for ammonia in Vietnam is expected to be 581,000 tonnes per year by 2018, and increase to 681,000 tonnes per year by 2023. Vietnam currently imports 100,000 tonnes a year.
"Considering ALS's local network and diverse business capabilities, we decided that Vietnam is the optimal partner for Samsung SDS. Through this agreement we will continue to expand our business in Southeast Asia," said Kim Hyung-tae, executive vice president of Samsung SDS's Smart Logistics Business Unit.

According to Hyung-tae, there are numerous reasons for choosing Vietnam to establish a joint venture. The first is the rapid growth of the local logistics market, reaching between 15 and 20 per cent annual growth. The second is that a large number of foreign investors are relocating their manufacturing facilities to Vietnam thanks to the recent change of international trade environment brought about by the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement as well as the ASEAN Economic Community.

In addition, mobile phones and components became Vietnam's largest export item since 2013, which also influenced Samsung SDS to make this strategic decision, he said.

Samsung SDS is currently handling about 40 per cent of the operations at Noi Bai international airport in Hanoi, the largest airport in northern Vietnam, while ALS is the leading air freight terminal operator in the country, responsible for almost all operations. ALS is also the first and only company in Vietnam providing off-airport cargo terminal system, a model that has contributed a great deal to ALS success in Vietnam. Thus, Samsung SDS said it will seek new customers in Vietnam by providing integrated logistics services and expanding local sales channels on the back of ALS' existing customer base.

Samsung SDS plans to provide an integrated logistics service, including global and inland transportation, warehousing services, and customs brokerage, while utilising ALSs customer network along with attracting potential customers by strengthening its external sales force through this partnership.

Alongside the co-operation with ALS, Samsung SDS is negotiating partnership opportunities in China and will continue its efforts to provide advanced logistics services to customers outside Samsung group.

Samsung SDS provides its global logistics services through an integrated logistics solution labelled CelloSCLISTM which covers the whole range of logistics business, from supply chain management to logistics execution. Additionally, Samsung SDS launched a logistics platform called Cello Square in August 2015.

The joint venture will strengthen Samsungs presence in Vietnam. The Korean giant currently has three major manufacturing complexes in the country, including Samsung Vina Electronics in Ho Chi Minh City and the $2.5-billion Samsung Vietnam Electronics complex in the northern province of Bac Ninh, which became operational in 2009. The remaining one is the $5-billion Samsung Vietnam Electronics Thai Nguyen complex, which went on stream in March 2014.

Besides, in March, Samsung SDI Vietnam Co., Ltd. (SDIV) was licensed to add $117.6 million to its existing mobile phone battery production factory in Que Vo Industrial Park in Bac Ninh.

In addition, on March 30, the Hanoi Peoples Committee granted the investment certificate for Samsung Electronics Vietnams $300 million research and development (R&D) centre to be built in Hanois Hoang Mai district.
The Singapore-based communication group Singtel has expressed interest in buying shares of mobile network operator MobiFone when the Vietnamese firm is equitised. - Photo genk.vn

The Vietnamese operator has performed efficiently and owns a high ratio of market share, Vice President, Business Development and Centre of Excellence Programme Office at Singtel Oliver Foo, said at a meeting on August 19 between the Singapore-based firm and the Ministry of Information and Communications.

The two mobile network operators have co-operated in some projects before, Oliver said, and added that Viet Nam is a market that has developed significantly with high population and potential.

Singtel always looks for opportunities in the Asian and Southeast Asian markets as the company feels a similarity in the geography and culture will help improve its business, he said.

Pham Hong Hai, deputy minister of information and communications, highly appreciated Singtel's interest to buy stake in MobiFone.

However, it will take a long time before MobiFone completes its equitisation due to the firm's large business scale, which needs to be fully evaluated, he said.

The government completed evaluating MobiFone at the end of June 2015, thus, the company must sell its first shares at the end of this year. However, if the prime minister rejected the year-end selling plan, MobiFone needs to be re-evaluated and it will take the firm another six months to complete the re-evaluation.

"Singtel needs to work with MobiFone on the equitisation plan. After MobiFone completes the plan and selects the strategic partners, MIC will submit the plan to the government for consideration," Hai said.

Singtel started out as a state-owned enterprise and was equitised in 1993. The Singaporean communication firm is present in 23 markets, including Thailand, Indonesia, Australia and India.

Beside Singtel, other foreign companies have also expressed their interest in buying shares of MobiFone such as the Australian Telstra, the Swedish Comviq and the Norwegian Telenor.
US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and Indiana Governor Mike Pence toured Louisiana to help the flood hit state.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, right, help to unload supplies for flood victims during a tour of the flood damaged area in Gonzales

By Reuters: US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump toured flood-battered Louisiana on Friday, shrugging off the Democratic state governor's plea for politicians not to stop in areas affected by deadly rains.

President Barack Obama said he was also eager for a firsthand look at the damage done by floods that damaged more than 40,000 homes and killed at least 13 people, announcing plans to visit Baton Rouge on Tuesday.

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Obama's travel requires a massive retinue of Secret Service agents and assistance from local and state law enforcement officials, so the White House usually waits to visit disaster zones to avoid tying up police and emergency resources needed elsewhere.

On Friday, Trump's motorcade drove past piles of possessions and building materials that had been ripped out of flooded homes en route to Greenwell Springs Baptist Church in a hard-hit portion of East Baton Rouge Parish.

"You're going to be fine," Trump told several dozen supporters gathered outside, many asking for autographs and selfies.

The deluge that dumped more than 2-1/2 feet (0.76 metre) on parts of Louisiana has been described as the worst US disaster since Superstorm Sandy in 2012.

Trump told reporters he came to help out, joined by vice presidential running mate, Indiana Governor Mike Pence, in a visit to a state that is typically a Republican stronghold in presidential elections.

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards' office, however, had said Trump did not call to discuss plans.

"We welcome him to (Louisiana), but not for a photo op," the governor's office said in a statement, urging Trump to volunteer or make "a sizable donation."

Trump told reporters he believed Obama should have cut short a vacation on Martha's Vineyard in New England to visit the area of flood devastation.

LOUISIANANS AWAIT OBAMA

Some Louisianans and others, using the hashtag #wheresobama and #laflood on Twitter, had urged Obama to visit, and Baton Rouge's newspaper, The Advocate, voiced a similar view in an editorial published on Wednesday. (http://bit.ly/2bDpiiP)

Obama's vacation is due to end on Sunday. The White House said the president's advisers had determined, in consultation with state officials, that Tuesday was an appropriate time to visit.

"The president is mindful of the impact that his travel has on first responders and wants to ensure that his presence does not interfere with ongoing recovery efforts," the White House said in a statement.



OBAMA TO VISIT BATON ROUGE

Obama planned to visit Baton Rouge, the state's capital city, which saw wide flooding. The White House said he would talk to local officials about what more the federal government can do to assist in the recovery.

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The president has declared much of the state a federal disaster, freeing up emergency resources.

He has been receiving updates from US Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Craig Fugate, who both have visited Louisiana.

In 2005, then-President George W Bush, a Republican, drew criticism for flying over extensively damaged New Orleans, Louisiana, and then giving a speech in the still-flooded city following Hurricane Katrina.

WHAT HAPPENED

Some 86,500 people have already filed for federal aid following the historic levels of rainfall. The state expected 4,000 would still need refuge in shelters on Friday night. Entire neighborhoods must now contend with flood-hit homes.

"We're talking about an awful lot of people, which is why we are trying to turn on the assistance as soon as possible," Edwards said at a news conference on Friday afternoon, offering details on temporary housing.

He spoke earlier in the day with Trump's Democratic rival in the November 8 election, Hillary Clinton, she said on social media.

"My heart breaks for Louisiana, and right now, the relief effort can't afford any distractions," she said on Facebook, directing people to support organizations providing assistance.

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Yet Kellie Michelli, who lost her home in the flood and was also at the church to pick up food with her family, beamed as she showed off an autograph on a Trump hat from an earlier rally in Baton Rouge.

"He took time out of his busy schedule to come here," Michelli said. "I don't care if he gives a nickel, he showed he cared by coming here."

Also Read

Obama declares Louisiana floods disaster, 5 killed so far



--- ENDS ---
Its time for a change: Cara Castronuova on Her Race for District 22 in the NYS Assembly

On Oct. 25, Cara Castronuova, who is vying to unseat longtime Democrat incumbent Michaelle Solages as representative for District 22 in the New York State Assembly, sat down with Vision Times to discuss why voters should vote for her, and not her opponent, in the upcoming election on Nov. 8.
On this edition of the program, J. Peter Pham, Director of the Africa Center at the Atlantic Council and Jennifer Cooke, Director of the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies analyze the reasons behind the continued bloodshed in South Sudan with host Carol Castiel and whether a recent UN Security Council decision to increase the number of peacekeeping troops in the war-torn nation, will make a difference.
Migrant construction workers, abandoned in their thousands by Saudi employers in filthy desert camps during the kingdom's economic slump, say they will not accept a government offer of free flights home unless they receive months of unpaid wages.

The plight of the workers, stranded for months in crowded dormitories at labor camps with little money and limited access to food, water or medical care, has alarmed their home countries and drawn unwelcome attention to the conditions of some of the 10 million foreign workers on whom the Saudi economy depends.

The government says it is trying to resolve the situation by giving the workers - who normally need their employers' permission to leave the country - the right to go home and free transport back. It is also granting them special permission to stay while they look for other jobs.

But workers say they fear that if they leave they will end up with nothing at all.

"We will wait here - one year, two years. We will wait for our money. Then we will go back," said Sardar Naseer, 35, a Pakistani welder at the Qadisiya Labor Camp, which houses around 2,000 workers from construction conglomerate Saudi Oger.

Naseer says he is owed 22,000 riyals ($5,900) after receiving no wages for eight months. Workers at the camp, about 20 km (13 miles) from the center of Riyadh, said they had stopped work about four months ago and none had been paid since January.

Oger, the family firm of billionaire former Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, did not respond to requests for comment for this story. The Hariri family did not immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment.

In July, Oger stopped providing food, electricity, maintenance and medical services at several of its camps including Qadisiyah, prompting the Saudi Labor Ministry to take over provision of basic services there, men at the camp said.

They sleep six to eight to a tiny room, with stray cats and cockroaches lingering on torn bedsheets. They sit on the floor to eat food rations provided by the Labor Ministry or their embassies.

There is no regular supply of clean drinking water - a filter on a public water fountain meant to be changed daily has not been serviced in a year - so they are forced to buy bottled water with their own money.

Saudi Oger, which employs some 30,000 workers, has built mega-projects including Riyadh's palatial 500-room Ritz Carlton hotel and all-female Princess Noura Bint Abdulrahman University.

It is one of Saudi Arabia's two most prominent construction companies, along with the Saudi Binladin Group. Both have faced financial difficulties as the world's biggest oil exporter has suffered from the fall in the price of crude.

Construction projects have been halted or slowed and revenue has fallen. As the salary delays have worsened, frustrated workers have in some cases staged rare public protests.

Countries including India, Pakistan and the Philippines have sent senior officials to Riyadh to press authorities to assist their workers. Indian officials said this month that more than 6,200 former Indian employees of Oger were stranded in Saudi camps after being laid off and owed wages.

"Good Image"

Two weeks ago, after Indian authorities raised their concerns, King Salman set aside 100 million riyals of government money to help the stranded workers, mostly from Pakistan, India, the Philippines and Bangladesh.

Saudi Labor Minister Mufrej al-Haqbani told Reuters on Wednesday that several distressed local firms, including Saudi Binladin Group, had now started paying overdue wages. Binladin executives promised him that payments would be completed by September, he said.

Oger is the only company still broadly withholding payments, and the Labor Ministry will press foreigners' wage claims through the kingdom's labor dispute system, Haqbani said, without specifying when claims might be resolved.

"Saudi Oger - now we'll take it to the courts. Now we are responsible for that. We've hired lawyers," he said. "As the ministry, we will go through the labor dispute courts to go after Saudi Oger and to collect the claims."

He also said the troubles at Oger were not a sign of problems with Saudi Arabia's overall employment of foreign workers, most of whom were choosing to remain in the country.

"This is a small segment...of the labor market. We have more than 10 million expats working happily here in the country. When a company like Saudi Oger fails to comply with the rules, this will never destroy the good image of our labor market."

Philippines Secretary of Labor Silvestre Bello, who visited Riyadh for talks with Haqbani this week, said that with the assistance of Saudi authorities, about 1,000 Filipino workers could be sent home by mid-September.

At the camp, Mohammed Niaz, 42, said his two daughters back in Pakistan had stopped attending school because he could no longer send money home for fees.

"I'm wasting my time. I want to go to Pakistan," he said.

But he added that he refused to leave Saudi Arabia without the 13,000 riyals which Oger owed him. "My family has no money. My daughters are out of school. How can I go to Pakistan?"
Afghan forces have retaken a key northern district hours after it fell to the Taliban, officials announced late on Saturday.

Spokespeople for the defense and interior ministries told a joint news conference in Kabul that fierce fighting for the control of Khan Abad left at least 75 insurgents dead, including four Taliban commanders.

They also confirmed that six Afghan security personnel were killed while another 16 were wounded.

National security forces are currently engaged in cleanup operations in Khan Abad to eliminate Taliban insurgents from remaining pockets there.

Defense Ministry spokesman Dawlat Waziri ruled out the possibility of the fall of the provincial capital of Kunduz, saying enough forces are deployed in the city to defend it. He added his ministry has also readied reinforcements in Kabul for deployment in Kunduz if needed.

The Taliban seized control of Khan Abad in an overnight offensive that it claimed killed and wounded dozens of Afghan forces. The insurgent group also released a video showing more than a dozen soldiers in Taliban captivity after it captured the district.

Authorities have also confirmed heavy clashes were taking place between government forces and the insurgents in the Aliabad district in Kunduz.

The brief collapse of the strategically important Khan Abad district had raised fears the Taliban were on the verge of assaulting and capturing the provincial capital that was briefly overrun by the Islamist insurgency during last years fighting.

Kunduzs fall to the Taliban in September of 2015 had dealt a blow to authorities and Afghanistans international backers because this was the first major urban center the insurgents captured after NATO withdrew its combat forces from the country.



Kunduz is currently the most vulnerable province in the Afghan North. Since the provincial capital fell last year, Kunduz has seen more Taliban attacks on district centers than any other province in the country," according to the Kabul-based independent Afghanistan Analysts Network.

Taliban attacks elsewhere

Meanwhile, a local police commander, Munir Himat, told VOA that hundreds of Taliban insurgents staged a pre-dawn assault on Hesarak in eastern Nangarhar province, which borders Pakistan.

But he asserted that security forces with the support of airstrikes pushed them back, inflicting heavy casualties on the enemy and fighting was still taking place in parts of the district.



The insurgents last week captured a key district in the neighboring Baghlan province to expand their influence in the area in a bid to threaten Afghanistans crucial ring road, which circles the country. Observers say the Taliban appears to be trying to cut off the road to restrict Kabuls access to the northern provinces.

But Waziri Saturday rejected those concerns, saying fresh troops have been deployed to several northern and northeastern districts over the past week and the government faced no difficulties in sending reinforcements to troubled spots.

Meanwhile, U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff General David Golden revealed this past week that B-52 strategic bombers have carried out airstrikes against targets in Afghanistan for the first time in a decade, underscoring the intensity in the fighting.



According to a statement, U.S. warplanes have flown more than 800 sorties and conducted more than 140 strikes in the country since U.S. President Barack Obama ordered in June that air power be used more proactively in Afghanistan.



Critics say that recent security gains by Afghan forces across the country have been overshadowed by the Talibans recent battlefield victories.

The insurgent group has overrun several districts in Afghanistan's largest province of Helmand and fighting there has most recently been taking place near the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah.



The Taliban's steady advances in the poppy-growing province, which borders Pakistan, have come despite increased in American airstrikes in the area.
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called Friday for a resolution in the conflict with pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.

A White House statement said Biden and Poroshenko spoke by telephone and "expressed deep concern over the recent surge in fighting in eastern Ukraine, where cease-fire violations by combined Russian-separatist forces are at their highest levels since 2015, often using heavy weapons."

The White House said Biden "relayed that the United States had sent a message to Russia that the world is watching and underscored the need to de-escalate the situation." It said the vice president also urged Ukraine to "show restraint."



Biden and Poroshenko also "reiterated the need for a political and diplomatic resolution of the conflict through full implementation of the Minsk agreement by all parties."

Ukrainian officials said Thursday pro-Russian separatists "launched more than 500 mortar and over 300 artillery shells" at Ukrainian positions in eastern Ukraine, killing at least three Ukrainian soldiers and wounding six more.



Poroshenko warned Thursday his country has not ruled out martial law or a new wave of military mobilization if the fighting continues.

Russia recently accused Ukrainian military and intelligence forces of plotting attacks in the annexed region of Crimea.



Ukraine officials have denied the accusations, saying the Kremlin was likely to use it as a pretext for a major escalation of the more than two-year-old conflict in eastern Ukraine.
Donald Trump's campaign chairman Paul Manafort resigned on Friday. The US Presidential confirmed the news but did not offer any explanation.

Trump said in a statement he had accepted Manafort's resignation and praised his "great work," but did not offer an explanation for the departure. (pic: Reuters)

By Reuters: Donald Trump's US presidential campaign sealed a major staff reshuffle with the resignation on Friday of its campaign chairman, and the Republican nominee tried to end weeks of upheaval to focus on beating Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

The departure of Paul Manafort came as Trump tried this week to reset his unorthodox bid for the White House after falling behind Clinton in opinion polls for the November 8 election.

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NO EXPLANATION FOR MANAFORT'S RESIGNATION

Trump said in a statement he had accepted Manafort's resignation and praised his "great work," but did not offer an explanation for the departure.

His aides say the staff changes usher in a greater focus on policy and a more serious tone.

The former reality TV host has stuck to that mission, swapping his free-wheeling rally speeches for prepared remarks that stick to a singular theme. He has concentrated on immigration, trade deals and law and order.

TRUMP ATTACKS CLINTON IN MICHIGAN

Speaking in Dimondale, Michigan, on Friday with the use of a teleprompter, Trump stayed clear of much of the hyperbole that has been a hallmark of his campaign.

He attacked Clinton for her position on trade agreements, telling the Michigan crowd that the Democrat would send auto jobs to Mexico.

Nonetheless, he appeared to stray at times from his prepared remarks, as when he said that black voters, who overwhelmingly tell pollsters they prefer Democratic candidates, should vote for him.

"You're living in poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs, 58 percent of your youth are unemployed," Trump said. "What the hell do you have to lose?"



TRUMP'S SON SPEAKS UP

Trump, who has never held elected office, did not refer to his staffing changes, but in an interview earlier on Friday his son Eric Trump said unflattering headlines about Manafort had taken a toll.

"I think my father didn't want to be, you know, distracted by, you know, whatever things that, you know, Paul was dealing with," he told the Fox News Channel's "Sunday Morning Futures", while also praising Manafort's work for the campaign.

Questions have arisen about Manafort's previous work for the political party of the Kremlin-backed former Ukrainian leader, Viktor Yanukovich.

Federal investigators from theUS Department of Justice are examining American ties to corruption in Ukraine, CNN reported on Friday. The investigation is looking at the work of Manafort's firm and another lobbying firm, the Podesta Group, headed by Tony Podesta, whose brother, John Podesta, is chairman of Clinton's presidential campaign.



CLINTON POLL LEAD

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Clinton leads Trump by 8 percentage points among likely voters, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released on Friday. The Aug. 14-18 online poll showed that Clinton was supported by 42 percent of Americans who are expected to vote, compared with 34 percent for Trump. Some 23 percent would not side with either candidate.

On Wednesday, Trump overhauled his campaign team, hiring the head of conservative website Breitbart News, Stephen Bannon, as chief executive of the campaign in a move that bolstered his combative image. Trump also promoted adviser Kellyanne Conway, a data-driven political analyst, to campaign manager.

In a previous shake-up, Manafort, who first joined the team in March, took over the running of the campaign from Corey Lewandowski, who was fired as campaign manager in June.

The Clinton campaign has pointed to Manafort's Ukraine work and favorable comments that Trump has made about Russian President Vladimir Putin to sow questions in voters' minds about whether the Russian government has an unseen hand in theUS election. Russian officials have rejected that accusation.

"You can get rid of Manafort, but that doesn't end the odd bromance Trump has with Putin," Robby Mook, Clinton's campaign manager, said in a statement.

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TOO MANY COOKS

John Feehery, a Republican strategist, said it would have been unsustainable for Manafort to stay on after Wednesday's hires. "Too many cooks in the kitchen," he said.

Trump's hiring of Bannon was seen as a sign he would not hold back in his aggressive, unorthodox campaign manner. Still, Trump offered rare words of regret on Thursday for any time he had caused "personal pain" with his take-no-prisoners style.

On Friday, he also began airing his first television advertisement since becoming the Republican candidate, buying airtime in the crucial states of Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Florida, where Clinton has already spent of millions in television advertising.

The 30-second ad focuses on immigration, saying Clinton would allow "terrorists and dangerous criminals" into the country, a charge her campaign dismisses.

Karlyn Bowman, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute conservative think tank, said Trump still had some time to turn around his campaign, noting the news of the shakeup came as many Americans were enjoying summer vacations.

The final stretch of the protracted campaign traditionally starts after Labor Day, which falls on Sept. 5 this year.

"I'm not sure the public pays a lot of attention to inside campaign stories," she said. "But that said, Trump has clearly been having significant problems in the polls and he needed to do something differently and perhaps this is the beginning of the attempt."

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Clinton won some relief on Friday from a controversy over her use of a private email system when she was secretary of state. AUS federal judge ruled that Clinton did not need to give sworn testimony in a lawsuit about the email issue.

Also Read

Melania Trump's convention speech plagiarised from Michelle Obama's 2008 address?



--- ENDS ---
A federal judge in California has ordered attorneys representing two U.S. seafood companies to appear in court for a scheduling conference following a lawsuit filed on behalf of seven Cambodians who contend they were duped into a period of servitude in overseas fisheries that supply the firms.

The alleged victims  five men and two women  filed the complaint against the U.S.-registered companies, Rubicon Resources and Wales & Co. Universe, and Thai firms Phatthana Seafood Co. and S.S. Frozen Food Co. on June 15. In the complaint, the plaintiffs say they were tricked into working for the companies and were victims of forced labor, involuntary servitude and peonage between 2010 and 2012.

U.S.-based Wal-Mart is named among the buyers of Phatthanas shrimp exports, according to the complaint.

U.S. District Judge John F. Walter ordered the attorneys to appear in court September 19 to present arguments and evidence. Attorneys for the plaintiffs will also present damage claims and explain their case for U.S. jurisdiction, which the defense claims is lacking.

If counsel fail to file the required joint report or fail to appear at the scheduling conference, and such failure is not otherwise satisfactorily explained to the court, the cause shall stand dismissed for failure to prosecute, if such a failure occurs on the part of the plaintiff, the court order said. Default judgment shall be entered if such failure occurs on the part of the defendant.

According to court documents, the defense team on August 3 said the court holds no jurisdiction because the alleged conduct occurred outside the United States. Plaintiffs' representatives countered that the court holds jurisdiction under both the Torture Victim Protection Act and the Alien Tort Statute, both of which can allow foreigners to seek redress for human rights violations for conduct occurring outside the United States.

A call to a defense attorney was not immediately returned.

The defense previously won a one-month extension from the original July 15 deadline to submit arguments and evidence, saying their clients were based in rural areas of Thailand that lacked internet access.

Such a delay is like buying time to prepare something, [which] is not good [for us], because this case happened a long time ago, Keo Ratha, one of the plaintiffs, told VOA's Khmer service.

Moeun Tola, executive director of the Center for Alliance of Labor and Human Rights, also said a quick conclusion of the case was desired.

I dont support this delay, because the victims have been waiting since 2012 and its now 2016, he said. They have been waiting for four years.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is in Nairobi, Kenya, for talks with East African foreign ministers on ways to stop neighboring South Sudan from sliding back into civil war.

Kerry met Monday with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta before he planned to join the other ministers for talks on how to make sure peace is maintained in the world's newest country.

"The people of South Sudan have suffered for far too long," a senior State Department official told reporters. "The continued instability there has led to almost a million refugees and a humanitarian crisis that is far beyond the abilities of even the international community to respond to."

South Sudan has been troubled almost since the day it gained independence from Sudan in 2011. Civil war, violence and territorial disputes with Sudan have made it difficult for the oil-rich country to thrive.

Kerry and the African foreign ministers also plan to discuss the situation in Somalia, which is looking toward upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections to help bring stability.

Later this week, he will stop in Nigeria, where Boko Haram terrorists have killed more than 20,000 people since 2009 - and Saudi Arabia, which is leading an Arab coalition against Houthi rebels in Yemen.

The Saudi-led airstrikes have obliterated neighborhoods in the rebel-held capital of Sana'a and killed numerous civilians.
Taxi drivers in New York City, a largely immigrant community, are no longer required to know English.

A bill approved by the City Council in April, which went into effect Friday, allows taxi license tests to be administered in foreign languages.

New York City's taxi industry has been dominated by foreign-born drivers for decades - only 4 percent of current New York cab drivers were born in the U.S., according to the Taxi and Limousine Commission.

Some New York residents are concerned that the new law would make communication between the driver and the customer even more difficult, unsure how they would instruct a driver which route to take or inquire about precisely where they are headed.

But increased use of GPS and navigation apps has been found to decrease the amount of necessary communication between drivers and their riders.

Sponsors of the bill in the City Council argued that the law will allow for more immigrants in need of work to sustain themselves, and many New Yorkers feel that as long as their driver can get them to their destination safely, conversation is not needed.
North Korea has ordered the return of their diplomat who defected to South Korea this week, calling him a criminal and "human scum" on state media Saturday.

Thae Yong Ho, North Korea's deputy ambassador to Britain, had embezzled huge sums of money, raped a minor, and spied for South Korea, Pyongyang's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in the first public response to the defection.

Pyongyang also criticized Britain for allowing Thae to defect, claiming it had informed Britain of his record and had asked for his extradition.

Thae told South Korean officials he defected out of disgust with the government of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, a desire for South Korean democracy and because of concern over his children's future.

It is believed Thae was stationed for 10 years at North Korea's embassy in London, where he was responsible for managing the image of North Korea, which has been criticized for its nuclear weapons program and its human rights record. Thae is believed to be the second most senior North Korean diplomat to defect to South Korea.

The most senior North Korean government official to defect to the South was Hwang Jang-yop, a top ruling Worker's Party official who sought asylum in 1997.

Defections from North Korea have been in the headlines lately, primarily due to the April defection of a group of waitresses and their manager who were employed at a North Korean restaurant in China.
Two years after Islamic State militants attacked the Yazidi religious minority in northern Iraq and took thousands of women and girls as sex slaves, many victims are now returning home pregnant or, in some cases, with newborn babies, Iraqi sources tell VOA.

Those victims are faced with contradicting cultural and legal challenges: While the former type of challenge is compelling them to undergo abortions or abandon babies, the latter is criminalizing their actions, those sources say.

According to a Human Rights Watch report, nearly 1,500 Yazidi women and girls enslaved by IS have escaped. However, around 2,000 women remain in captivity.

Nemam Ghafouri, the chairwoman of Joint Help for Kurdistan, a Swedish-Kurdish organization that supports displaced Yazidis, told VOA that "the return of Yazidi female victims can be divided into three phases. In the first phase, we received raped women; in the second phase, we received pregnant women; and in the third phase, now, they are coming home with infants.

Alarming numbers

According to Ghafouri, the issue of pregnant Yazidi returnees became noticeable to her organization in November 2014, four months after the massive IS attack on Yazidi areas. Since then, more and more victims have returned home, with some of them eight months pregnant and others nine months," she said.

Abortion has been used in all cases I have encountered, she said.

No data are available on how many victims have returned home pregnant or with infants because they, and the officials, hardly talk about the issue publicly to avoid a backlash from a rather conservative Iraqi society.

VOA reached out to several women who sought abortions or gave birth, but no one agreed to talk.

Nofel Hamadi Akub, the governor of IS-controlled Nineveh province, said there were approximately 3,000 newborn children with "unknown parentage" in IS-controlled Sunni areas as a result of "sexual jihad." The number included children born to Iraqi or foreign Sunni women who married IS fighters.

The most complicated problem facing Baghdad after the liberation of Nineveh will be the issue of children with unknown parentage, Akub said.

Social stigmatization

A small religious minority concentrated mostly in northern Iraq, Yazidis are an insular group, keeping mostly to themselves despite the often bloody realignments the borders and political structures around them have gone through.

Marrying someone from another religion is an unpardonable sin in the Yazidi religion. Similarly, having sex, even under duress, is considered to taint the bodies and souls of the community members.

Consequently, when the IS militants took captive thousands of Yazidi women and girls as sex slaves and forced them into religious conversion, the female victims found themselves being stigmatized by their communities upon their return.

Nevertheless, in September 2014, the spiritual leader of the Yazidis, Khurto Hajji Ismail, widely known as "Baba Sheikh," called on the community to welcome back the abducted women because they had been "subjected to a matter outside their control."

That statement has since helped the victims rejoin their community, but newborn infants and pregnancy are not tolerated.

The victims are our daughters and sisters, but it is unacceptable in our religion to allow the birth of any children if both parents are not Yazidis, Baba Sheikh told VOA in a phone interview.

It is also tribally unacceptable and a source of shame, he said. If such children are born, wouldnt people ask who their fathers are? Are they Afghans? Are they Europeans?

Therefore, abortion is perceived as a solution. However, that raises two other problems: Abortion is illegal in Iraq, and not all women want to undergo the procedure.

Abortion

The ban on abortions in Iraq covers the Kurdistan region as well and applies even in the case of rape. Iraqi law gives an exception only if the birth would jeopardize a womans life.

But Vian Dakhil, a Yazidi lawmaker in the Iraqi Council of Representatives, said there is an "unwritten" agreement among Iraqi authorities to allow the procedure to be practiced for the Yazidi rape victims.

Its an illegal act, according to the Iraqi law, but weve come to an understanding with the authority, Dakhil told VOA. The doctors refused to cooperate in the beginning. But we have taken the responsibility upon us because the women were forcefully put into the situation.

To avoid legal consequences and public shame, the victims turn to backstreet abortion clinics, a source inside the Kurdistan Regional Governments Ministry of Health who asked not to be identified told VOA.

Newborn babies

To Rezan Dler, a female lawmaker in the Iraqi Council of Representatives who has been working closely with the abducted Yazidis, cases of women who have been raped and want to keep their babies are not uncommon.

A Yazidi woman who was pregnant for eight months when she escaped IS, she wanted to keep her baby, but her husband insisted on divorcing her if she refused to have an abortion. The couple finally separated. The woman is now living in a refugee camp with her 5-month-old child, Dler told VOA, describing the circumstances of the Yazidi woman without disclosing her name.

In other cases, the Yazidi women have given their newborn children to infertile Kurdish couples, Dler said.

Some women are so resolute on keeping their children that theyve indicated they would rather stay under IS slavery if returning home meant losing their babies, Dler told VOA.

Legal issues

This is one of the most challenging problems that will face the Iraqi law in the future, said Xamosh Omar, a court judge and a legal consultant for the Iraqi Kurdistan parliament.

According to the Iraqi law, these children will be treated as if theyre born of adultery and, consequently, their mothers will not have the right to raise them, Omar told VOA.

Another legal challenge is religion. Iraqi law, as guided by the Islamic Sharia code, rules that children will hold the religion of their fathers, Omar said. Does that mean these children will be considered Muslims while they are raised by their Yazidi mothers? There is no legal answer to this.

Dler is trying to push the Iraqi parliament to find a legal way. But she said chances of passage are very low.

I am a woman and I understand what raped Yazidi women must go through. But for the Iraqi parliament, this is a shameful topic to be addressed. I doubt they will allow this issue to be even brought into the parliament for discussion, let alone finding a legal answer," she said.
A major Taliban attack has displaced hundreds of families in a northeastern Afghan province, local residents said.

Taliban militants launched a coordinated attack this week on the Baghlan-e-Markazi (Central Baghlan) district of Baghlan province.

Taliban were less than a kilometer away from the center of the city, Mohammad Khan, a Baghlan resident who was preparing to take his family to a safer place, told VOA on Thursday. They have captured parts of the Old City.

Taliban fighters had closed the highway between Baghlan and neighboring Kunduz province. Kunduz, which briefly fell to the Taliban last year, also has been under Taliban attack for the past few weeks.

A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said through his Twitter account on Friday that Taliban fighters were providing fierce resistance to Afghan forces in the district.

Baghlan Governor Abdul Sattar Barez claimed that the Taliban attack was repelled after army reinforcements arrived in the district. He told VOA that heavy casualties had been inflicted on the militants.

Sixty-nine militants, including their commanders, have been killed in the army operations that took place in Baghlan-e-Markazi and Old Baghlan, Barez told VOA. Right now, the Baghlan-Kunduz and Mazar-Kabul highways are open, said Barez, a claim denied by the Taliban spokesman. The Mazar-Kabul highway passes through Baghlan.

Local residents told VOA that heavy clashes were still going on in different vicinities of Baghlan city.

Over a hundred army tanks have arrived in Baghlan and army personnel have taken positions in many parts of the city, but heavy clashes still continue, Haji Malik, a local resident whose family has fled to the capital, Kabul, told VOA in a phone interview on Friday.

Hundreds of families have been displaced. Many fled to Kabul, Mazar-e-Sharif and Pul-e-Khumri," Malik said. Those who could not afford to leave the district, they moved to safer places within the district.

Lives disrupted

The weeklong clashes have disrupted peoples lives in Baghlan. Everything is closed  markets, shops, offices, everything, Malik said. Schools have been closed since Monday.

The Taliban has been active in Baghlan province. It overran the Dahna-e-Ghori district after staging a coordinated offensive last week. Its fighters reportedly seized weapons, including a long-range mortar cannon, as well as more than a dozen tanks from retreating Afghan forces, although authorities called the Afghan forces' move a tactical retreat.

Taliban in Dahna-e-Ghori gave a tank and a pickup truck to fellow fighters in the Baghlan-e-Markazi district, said Malik, adding that the militants in Baghlan and Kunduz coordinate and provide helping hands as needed.

Local residents in the provincial capital, Pul-e-Khumri, have criticized provincial government and security authorities for not providing adequate attention to the security situation in districts.

No one has a strong commitment to fully carry out their responsibilities, and thats why the militants are increasingly becoming stronger, a local resident told VOA on Friday.

Many residents in Pul-e-Khumri who spoke to VOA said they feared that the militants might attack the provincial capital, which is just a few kilometers from Dahna-e-Ghori.
Somali General Mohamad Ali Samantar, a former prime minister, vice president and one of the country's most visible ex-generals, died Friday in the eastern U.S. state of Virginia. He was 85.

General Mohamed Ali Sharman, a retired senior Somali military commander and Samantar colleague, told VOA Somali that Samantar had been sick for months and died at a hospital. Sharman had once described the late general as one of the principal architects of the once-powerful Somali National Army.

Samantar had lived in the United States since the collapse in the early 1990s of the government of the late dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, whose ouster after decades in power sent the country spiraling deeper into civil war.

In 2004, Samantar was the target of a lawsuit filed by Somali immigrants now living in the United States who accused the general of human rights abuses in the early 1980s during Siad Barre's rule. Samantar was ordered by a U.S. court in 2012 to pay more than $20 million to the plaintiffs, who cited torture and other abuses carried out by officials operating under the general's command.

U.S. courts had earlier ruled that Samantar could not claim immunity from prosecution as an official of a foreign government.

The U.S. Supreme Court last year declined to review the ruling that ordered Samantar to pay damages to the plaintiffs.
Spanish police have started using drones to help patrol some of the country's most popular beaches at a time when tourist arrivals are reaching record highs.

Police in Benidorm, on Spain's eastern coast, rolled out the technology in July this year, using the in-built camera on the light unmanned aircraft to detect swimmers in trouble or boats that may need help.

They said the drone - first used in Benidorm though other resorts are now launching the aerial surveillance tool - had let them quickly verify situations flagged up by the public.

"We have two purposes for the drone: preventative surveillance, where we fly it four times a day, and on-the-spot surveillance where if there's a problem we will fly it to check it out," says Carlos Lopez, the police chief in charge of the forces working on Benidorm's beach.

With Europe on security alert after a spate of Islamist attacks over the past 18 months, Lopez said drones could also be used in security and surveillance efforts to prevent such violence, but were not specifically introduced for that purpose.

The number of foreign tourists arriving in Spain rose nearly 12 percent in the first six months of the year over the same period in 2015 as militant violence in other Mediterranean venues like the Middle East and Turkey knocked bookings there.

Drones have already been used by authorities elsewhere too as a means of ensuring bather safety, including in areas known for shark attacks in the United States.

Most situations that would prompt drone use in Spain have so far turned out to be false alarms.

After a lifejacket was seen floating in the sea, police sent out the drone to ascertain whether it was a sign of trouble.

"It had just come from some swimmers in a nearby cove," said Lopez.

Benidorm's five kilometers (three miles) of sandy beach are particularly popular with foreign tourists, including Britons.

Spain has reinforced security in areas frequented by visitors this summer, with just over 42,600 police officers posted to areas of high tourism, a 14 percent increase on 2015.

In Benidorm, four trained police officers operate the drone.

The aircraft surveillance has its limits, however - it can fly for only about 20 minutes at a time, after which it needs to be recharged for up to an hour.
Gunfire erupted in several neighborhoods in Guinea's capital, Conakry, on Tuesday as hundreds of opposition supporters clashed with security forces for a second day of protests over the timing of elections, witnesses said.

The government said about 10 people had been injured, including one with bullet wounds. At least six people were hit by bullets on Monday. The government denied security forces shot at people protesting and called for an investigation.

Government spokesman Damantang Albert Camara said one person died on Tuesday after falling into a ravine during violence. Medical sources and rights group Amnesty International said a man had been killed during Monday's clashes.

Opposition parties have called the protests to try to pressure the government to hold a local election ahead of a presidential vote, as laid out in a 2013 agreement between Guinea's rival political factions.

The government does not recognize the clause on the order of voting and has set the presidential election for Oct. 11, with the local election due early next year.

Analysts say that holding the local election ahead of the presidential vote would give President Alpha Conde's rivals a more influence in the organization of the vote. The government denies that delaying the local election will have an impact on free and fair elections.

Rich in bauxite and iron ore, Guinea has seen its mining potential hamstrung by years of political instability.

Witnesses and a security source said youths burning tires and manning barricades clashed with security forces, paralyzing main roads running through poorer neighborhoods.

Medical sources said the man who died on Monday was hit by a projectile but it was not clear what the projectile had been. Amnesty International said the 30-year-old man had died after being shot in the chest.

The Guinean authorities must not bring back the old demons of violence. All those responsible for the excessive use of force must be clearly identified and brought to trial, the group said.

Protests in Guinea regularly turn violent and the government has ordered soldiers to remain in barracks, while the police and gendarmes on the streets have been instructed not to use lethal force.

Residents in opposition strongholds such as Bambeto, Hamdallaye and Cosa have reported shooting but it was not clear who was responsible.

It hasn't let up since yesterday, resident Adiatou Bah said. This morning I heard gunfire and I stayed at home.

The government called for talks to ease tensions. Dozens of people were killed in election-related violence during the 2010 presidential vote and the legislative election in 2013.

However, opposition leader Cellou Dalein Diallo on Tuesday ruled out any talks unless the government scrapped the existing election timetable.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says a child suicide bomber carried out Saturday's attack on a wedding party in southeast Turkey, killing at least 51 people and wounding scores of others, many of them critically.

Erdogan, speaking Sunday, said initial evidence shows the bomber was between 12 and 14 years old. He said Islamic State extremists appear to have executed the attack in the city of Gaziantep near the Turkish border with Syria.

In an earlier written statement, Erdogan said there is "no difference" between Islamic State, the militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, the PKK, and followers of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom he blames for a coup attempt last month.

"Our country and our nation have again only one message to those who attack us - you will not succeed!" he said.

The White House condemned the Gaziantep attack, saying the "perpetrators of this barbaric act cynically and cowardly targeted a wedding." The statement Sunday added that Vice President Joe Biden will visit Ankara Wednesday to reaffirm the U.S. commitment to work together with Turkey against "scourge of terrorism."

Blast scene sparks outrage, sorrow

All through Saturday night, ambulances rushed the wounded to hospitals across Gaziantep, a major city with a large Kurdish population.

Witnesses said the blast -- the deadliest terror attack on Turkish soil this year -- occurred in a packed street of people dancing and celebrating a marriage.

Speaking Sunday while surveying the wreckage, local resident Ibrahim Ozdemir said people are in shock.

WATCH: Turkey Cites Terrorism in Fatal Blast at Wedding

Our friends and neighbors were there. We are so sad and in pain. The attack is an atrocity." He said, "We want to end these massacres. We are in pain, especially the women and children.

The Turkish city is located just north of the Syrian border and about 90 kilometers from the Syrian city of Manbij. A U.S. backed coalition of Syrian fighters and Kurds earlier this month drove IS fighters from that city after a two-month siege, pushing them into the countryside northward toward the Turkish border.

Bombing hits hours after Kurdish militants hint at peace deal with Ankara

Shortly after Saturday's bombing, the pro-Kurdish political party HDP condemned the attack, while noting it came just hours after a Kurdish militant organization battling the Ankara government for autonomy announced new plans to try to end the decades-long conflict.

The so-called Group of Communities in Kurdistan, the KCK, which includes the outlawed PKK, said it is ready to resume peace talks with Ankara, but said the government should take the first step. A KCK statement also said those overtures are supported by "friendly" countries and non-government organizations both inside and outside Turkey.

The statement also said the Gaziantep attack "targets those determined and consistent in peace...and those struggling for democracy, equality and freedom."

The PKK launched an armed rebellion in 1984, seeking an autonomous homeland in a vast area of the southeast bordered by Syria, Iraq and Iran. Nearly 50,000 people have been killed in the fighting.

Last year, the armed wing of the PKK scrapped a three-year cease-fire with Ankara, after Turkish warplanes struck the group's military training bases in northern Iraq while PKK fighters battled Islamic State militants. Ankara also bombed several other PKK bases.
By PTI: Hyderabad, Aug 20 (PTI) Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) today said a draft notification on formation of new districts will be issued on August 22.

KCR, who chaired a state Cabinet meeting at the Secretariat here, told reporters that the draft notification will be issued on August 22 on the proposed new districts and suggestions from public will also be taken, who can submit them at the offices of district collectorate.

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The Chief Minister, who had this afternoon convened an all-party meeting on district reorganisation, said all parties welcomed decision on forming new districts and some parties gave suggestions.

"We will provide comprehensive information on the proposed new districts and mandals (in the draft notification)," Rao said adding if required, another all-party meeting will be held before a final notification is issued on formation of new districts.

He reminded that his party the Telangana Rashtra Samithi had promised creation of new districts in its (election) manifesto.

"New districts will come into existence from Dasara. If required changes will be made in the draft notification based on the objections and suggestions of the public," Rao added.

The next session of state Legislature will begin from first week of September, he said.

Telangana government is maintaining cordial relations with its neighbouring states and will very soon sign agreements with Maharashtra on water sharing, said the Chief Minister. PTI VVK NRB IKA JMF

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Turkey will take a more active role in Syria in the next six months to prevent further divisions along ethnic lines, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim announced Saturday.

"We say the bloodshed needs to stop. Babies, children, innocent people should not die," he told reporters in Istanbul. "That's why Turkey will be more active in trying to stop the danger getting worse in the next six months."

Yildirim went on to say that Syria's president Bashar al-Assad had no role in Syria's future, but that talks with him would be necessary during a transitional period as "he is one of the actors today no matter whether we like it or not".

"We may sit and talk (with Assad) for the transition. A transition may be facilitated. But we believe that there should be no PKK, Daesh, or Assad in Syria's future," he said, referring to Kurdish rebel groups and using the Arabic term for Islamic State.

Yildirim expressed concern about the ethnic divides created by the five-year war in Syria, where Kurdish groups have carved out their own regions and occasionally engage in fighting with Syria's Arab majority. On Thursday, Syria's Air Force for the first time began bombing Kurdish fighters in Hasaka, a city in the northeast where Kurds and Syrian government forces had been loosely working together to drive out Islamic State militants. The airstrikes marked the most violent confrontation between the Syrian government and Kurdish forces since the civil war began in 2011.

Turkey is battling militants of the Kurdish Worker's Party (PKK) and is concerned about the growing power of Kurds across the border, opposing any moves toward autonomy or independence.

Still, Yildirim said that Turkey is not pessimistic about Syria, and that he remains confident that Iran, Gulf Arab states, Russia, and the U.S. can work together to find a solution.

Yildirim denied rumors that Turkey would allow Russia to use their military base Incirlik, which is currently being used by the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State.

Yildirim also reiterated that Ankara wants Washington to speed up proceedings against Muslim cleric Fetullah Gulen, currently living in the U.S., whom it accuses of being behind the coup which left over 200 dead.

Vice President Joe Biden is expected to travel to Turkey on Wednesday, marking the first visit by a Western leader to Ankara since the failed coup July 15th.

A delegation of U.S. Justice and State Department officials will be traveling to Ankara to discuss the extradition request, a Justice Department official told Reuters, but refused to give a date.

But Yildirim said that the vice president's visit would not open up discussion of compromise on the issue.

"Improving our relations with the United States depends on the extradition of Gulen, and on that issue there is no room for negotiation," Yildirim told CNN Turk after the visit was announced last week.
A woman in the western U.S. state of California has been sentenced to 50 months in prison for "conspiring to export and cause the export of fighter jet engines, an unmanned aerial vehicle - commonly known as a drone - and related technical data to... China."

A U.S. Justice Department statement says 45-year-old Wenxia Man, also known as Wency Man of San Diego was convicted of the crime on June 9.

Prosecutors say evidence shows that between March of 2011 and June of 2013, Man conspired with a contact in China named Zhang Xinsheng to send equipment that included engines used in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the F-22 Raptor fighter jet, the F-16 fighter jet, and the MQ-9 Reaper/Predator B Unmanned Aerial Vehicle.

Man described Zhang as a "technology spy" who worked on behalf of the Chinese military to copy items obtained from other countries, and stated that he was particularly interested in stealth technology, according to the statement.



In May, the U.S. defense department released a report on military and security developments involving China that said Beijing is using extensive cyber and human espionage to acquire foreign military technology.
A prominent Washington lobbying firm has hired investigators to determine whether it was improperly working with pro-Russian Ukrainian politicians who also employed Paul Manafort, the former chairman of Republican Donald Trump's presidential campaign.

The Podesta Group said Friday that it had hired a law firm to examine its relationship with a not-for-profit European organization that also hired Manafort and was linked to the ousted Ukrainian regime. It said lawyers would look into whether it had been "misled" by the group, called the European Centre for a Modern Ukraine.

We will take whatever measures are necessary to address this situation," the Podesta Group said, including possible legal action against the group.

The Podesta Group said the European Centre for a Modern Ukraine pledged in writing that none of its activities were controlled or financed by a foreign government or political party. The Podesta Group lobbied lawmakers in Washington for positions favored by the pro-Russian group.

Controversy surrounding Manafort's ties to pro-Russian Ukrainian politicians coincided with his resignation Friday as Trump's campaign manager.

Manafort has been the subject of extensive news coverage over his work for former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich that allegedly involved overseeing millions of dollars in secret payments. Manafort denied that he received any off-the-books cash payments.

CNN reported Friday that FBI and Justice Department prosecutors were investigating whether U.S. companies were used to aid alleged corruption by the party of Yanukovich.

Law enforcement officials told CNN the investigation included the work of Manafort's firm, although they said he was not the focus of the probe. The officials said the investigation was also examining the work of the Podesta Group.

The Podesta Group is run by Tony Podesta, brother of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta.
The United States, so far in fiscal 2016, has allowed into the country slightly more refugees that self-identify as Muslim than as Christian, according to an analysis of State Department data by the Pew Research Center.

Of the more than 63,000 refugees who have entered the U.S. since the fiscal year began Oct. 1, 2015, nearly 29,000, or 46 percent, say they are Muslim and more than 27,500, or 44 percent, identify as Christian.

More than half of the refugees entering the U.S. by mid-August were from four countries: Myanmar, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Syria and Iraq. The largest number of refugees from a single country, 10,464, was from Myanmar.

Ethnic minorities

Ethnic minorities in Myanmar, including both Christians and Muslims, face severe persecution in their Buddhist-majority country, which until this April had been under five decades of tightfisted military rule.

De facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a pro-democracy icon who spent two decades under house arrest, has been criticized for failing to adequately address violence against the ethnic Rohingya Muslim minority.

But less than 25 percent, or 2,554, of that country's refugees to the U.S. are Muslim, the Pew analysis found.

The second-largest number of refugees from one country, 10,417, came from the DRC, a majority-Christian country that has suffered from decades of ethnic violence and dozens of armed groups that prey on the local population and exploit mineral reserves.

Just in the past year, hundreds of civilians have died in intercommunal violence and a series of massacres by armed groups in DRC's North Kivu province, which borders Rwanda and Uganda.

Next on the list are 8,569 refugees from Syria and 7,479 from Iraq. These refugees are mostly Muslim, according to the data.

Civil war has raged in Syria for more than five years, with the United Nations estimating more than 400,000 deaths and 13.5 million people in need of aid. Iraq has struggled with ongoing violence from the war and with the rise of the militant group Islamic State.

Most of any year

The 28,957 Muslim refugees admitted to the U.S. so far this fiscal year is the most of any year since the State Department's Refugee Processing Center data on self-reported religious affiliations became publicly available in 2002.

The Pew Research analysis found that, overall, a larger number of Christian refugees than Muslim have entered the U.S. since 2002. During the past 15 years, nearly 390,000 refugees, or 46 percent, have self-identified as Christian, while 269,395, or 32 percent, have self-identified as Muslim.

The Obama administration set a cap of 85,000 refugees last October for the fiscal year, and by mid-August it was about 75 percent of the way toward reaching that goal.

Refugees make up about 10 percent of the roughly 1 million immigrants granted lawful permanent residency in the U.S. each year.
By PTI: Mumbai, Aug 20 (PTI) Former prime minister Narasimha Rao was not a "big liberaliser" and he initiated reforms out of "compulsion" due to failure of Nehruvian economics which held India back while its Southeast Asian neighbours marched ahead, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said today.

Jaitley said that Rao, under whom economic reforms were initiated in 1991, was forced to come out of the Nehruvian mindset to help avoid a sovereign credit default and added that the Congress leader was "not a great reformer" or a "big liberaliser".

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Citing an an incident mentioned in a book on Rao (Half Lion: How PV Narasimha Rao transformed India), Jaitely said, "When Rao was the law minister of Andhra, his first decision was that all private colleges should be abolished and only government should run the colleges."

"But when he became the prime minister, he found that there was no foreign reserves left in its kitty, and that the country was heading towards bankruptcy. So, the reforms were brought in due to that compulsion, due to failure of that system," told a gathering of the BJP workers here.

Contesting the assertion that Rao was the force behind the liberalisation drive, he said, "it was not that former prime minister Narasimha Rao was a big liberaliser."

Jaitley blamed the now much maligned Hindu rate of growth to the Nehruvian economics.

"While in the 1950s and the 60s we had limited resources, the 70s and 80s were wasted decades, which contained our growth rates at 1-2 per cent per annum," he said.

"When Japan, Korea and Taiwan were on the path of economic success, were impacted by the Nehruvian thought as there was a thinking that there were some work that only the government can do," Jaitley said

As an example, he cited the growth of the telecom sector after the entry of private sector. "From 1947 to 1995, the government thought that giving telephone connection was something which it should only do it. In the first 50 years, less than one per cent of the Indians had telephones.

"But when private sector entered the telecom sector, the number of telephone connections increased to over 80 per cent in just 20 years," Jaitley said, adding "we came out of the Nehruvian mindset only out of compulsion". (MORE) PTI HV BEN NM RT

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A McLennan County jury agreed Friday to slash the tax appraisal of the Sandy Creek coal-fired power plant by more than half, a significant loss for the McLennan County Appraisal District and some local taxing entities.

A jury in the courtroom of 170th District Judge Jim Meyer decided the plant was worth only $408 million in 2014 and $431 million in 2015, close to what Sandy Creek Power Associates sought.

The appraisal district had argued for a value of $900 million in 2014 and $1.17 billion in 2015, while the Appraisal Review Boards value for 2015 was $850 million.

Chief appraiser Drew Hahn said he was taken aback by the verdict and would have to consult with the MCAD board and attorneys about whether to appeal it. Hahn said the reduction would have a significant impact on Riesel Independent School District, McLennan Community College and McLennan County, though he hasnt yet quantified that effect.

In a five-day trial, attorneys for Sandy Creek argued that the advent of cheap natural gas, combined with subsidized renewable energy, have destroyed the business model of coal-fired power plants.

Youve heard a lot about this coal plant being new, with a lot of pollution control equipment, but its still going to be a coal plant. Its never going to be a gas plant, a wind turbine or a solar plant, Sandy Creeks attorney Bill Sullivan said in closing arguments Friday. Clean energy and natural gas are the future. This is never going to be.

$1.2 billion

The power company completed the plant in 2013 at a cost initially reported at $1.2 billion, though MCAD officials say the cost was more than $2 billion.

But Sullivan told the jury that the construction cost of the plant didnt determine its actual value, which should reflect what a willing buyer would pay a willing seller for the last coal plant in Texas.

He asked the jury for a value of $380 million for 2014 and $395 million for 2015.

Sullivan said the plants economics are dismal. He said the wholesale price of electricity was $35 per megawatt-hour at the beginning of 2014 and $30 at the beginning of 2015, while the production cost was $60 per megawatt-hour.

Sullivan said gas and electricity prices were sky-high when planning for the Sandy Creek plant started in 2005, and coal looked like it would stay on top as a generation fuel.

But since 2008, the gas boom enabled by hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling has pushed gas prices down from more than $60 per megawatt-hour to less than $20 this year. Sullivan said theres no reason to believe those prices will regain earlier heights.

If you had known then what you know now, theres no dispute that this plant would never have been built, he said.

Kirk Swinney, attorney for McLennan County Appraisal District, called those comments a Chicken Little argument.

He acknowledged that the slump in power markets has had an effect on Sandy Creek. But, Swinney said, the appraisal should reflect the long-term value of the plant, which is strong.

Energy is going to come back, he said. The population of Texas is growing. Some older plants are retiring, and you cant universally depend on wind and solar.

Randy Riggs, an appraisal board member and the countys tax assessor-collector, listened to most of the testimony this week and said he was surprised at the outcome.

Im definitely surprised, Riggs said. I had the expectation that the process would give us a fair value that would give us some funding for students and teachers. I dont think we reached that result.

Under state law, Sandy Creeks owners have paid taxes only on the undisputed portion of their appraisal for the last two years.

Still, local officials say the verdict will have a significant impact on local government finance, especially with Riesel ISD. The school district in 2010 passed a $25 million bond election with a projection that the coal plant would cover 80 percent of the yearly $1.8 million bond payment.

Riesel ISD Superintendent Brian Garner said he hasnt yet analyzed the impact of the verdict, but he knows it will be a hard pill to swallow.

Riesel ISD is disheartened and disappointed at the verdict today that cut the appraised value of the Sandy Creek plant by more than half, Garner said in an email to the Tribune-Herald. It will unfortunately place a burden on our taxpayers that, in my opinion, is not fair.

McLennan Community College President Johnette McKown said her staff has anticipated the budget impact of a major tax appraisal cut for Sandy Creek.

Im disappointed

Im disappointed as you might imagine, McKown said. But we planned for this possibly happening and we set money aside.

She said the school expects to lose $325,000 in its operational budget and $140,000 in its annual debt service because of the appraisal cut. Thats money that otherwise would upgrade technology and boost student success initiatives, McKown said.

County Judge Scott Felton said the county granted a tax abatement to Sandy Creek, so he wasnt expecting much tax revenue from the plant anyway.

Felton said he expected low gas prices to take a toll on the plants value, but he was surprised by how much the jury slashed the value.

Felton wasnt on the commissioners court when it passed the tax abatement, but he said no one could have expected the direction the power market would take.

Naturally, you would wish you hadnt given the abatement if you knew that the value could be reduced that drastically, he said.

Felton said the city and county have recently adopted clawback provisions to require companies that receive public incentives to repay them if they challenge their property tax values.
Baylor University has unveiled its new facility for the department of communication sciences and disorders, which offers speech and language pathology clinics and other services to the Waco community.

Fifty-four graduate students, about 250 undergraduates and clients from the city will make the move from Neill Morris Hall to the renovated Cashion Academic Center, in a space that formerly housed business classes. The upgraded facility, opening Sept. 6, stems from a $10 million anonymous gift from Baylor alumni about a year ago and the freeing up of space when much of the business school moved into the new $100 million Paul L. Foster Campus for Business and Innovation.

Were more than excited, said Michaela Ritter, interim chairwoman of the communication sciences and disorders department. The building itself brings a new beginning for the department. When you look at the generosity of the donors and what Baylor University is doing, when I think about it, we have a beautiful place where well be able to bring patients.

The department offers five programs for community use: a speech, language and hearing clinic; a neurorehabilitation clinic; a language and articulation preschool class; an audiology clinic; and a language and literacy clinic.

It also hosts Camp Success, a weeklong language and literacy intervention program offered in the summer for children with language-based reading impairments.

Local therapists and physicians refer new clients to the department. The students treat about 150 clients each week, who receive about two hours of treatment per week.

Many free services

The department offers its services for a fee, but many services are free, Ritter said. Officials also work with many clients on payment issues, she said.

Were a training institution, said Deborah Rainer, a senior lecturer and director of the Speech, Language and Hearing Clinic. Were not here for all the profit like some places are. The university has been very good to us on that front.

About 300 clients are on a waiting list for the clinics, Ritter said.

Graduate students, who conduct extensive live clinical training, work directly with clients, who range in age from infants to the elderly, Ritter said. The graduate students are monitored by licensed and certified professionals who also teach at Baylor. Undergraduate students must also complete 25 hours of observation.

The new facilitys first floor includes space for treatment, therapy, labs and offices with pods, which allow faculty easy access to their clients.

Other labs, rooms and audiology equipment are on the second floor. Audiologists provide hearing tests and hearing aids, and professor Carrie Drew works with Waco Independent School District.

Drew regularly visits students at Waco schools and trains teachers to identify potential hearing problems, said Ben Saage, coordinator of Wacos Regional Day School Program for the Deaf, which is operated by the Texas Education Agency.

Im not sure what wed do without her, Saage said of Drew.

Ritter said she expects the number of graduate students to increase by 15 percent each of the next five years, which would lead to more clients. At that rate, she hopes a doctoral program will start.

We minister to every individual that comes into this place, Ritter said. If a child with a speech problem cant say their sounds correctly, the family goes through some grieving. Everybody wants, me included, a perfect child, so we do a lot of listening and counseling as a part of that as well. If a patient has had a stroke, children are coming in and theyre grieving because something is different with their parent . . . Were thankful because at Baylor University were able to share our faith and be a light in this world.
By PTI: New Delhi, Aug 20 (PTI) Keeping its promise to provide succour to refugees from neighbouring countries, the NDA government has approved additional facilities for members of minority communities living in India on long-term visa that include opening bank account and power to purchase properties.

The Home Ministry in a statement today said that the central government has extended certain facilities in last two years to persons from minority community of Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

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Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians staying on Long Term Visa (LTV) in India are allowed to submit affidavit in place of renunciation certificate, granted LTV for five years instead of two years and facilities for education and employment.

In order to provide them fair opportunities for a more comfortable living and hassle-free movement and pursuit of economic activities within the territory of India, government has decided to extend additional facilities to this class of LTV holders.

The additional facilities include permission to open bank account, permission for purchase of property for self occupation and suitable accommodation for carrying out self?employment, permission to take self-employment, issuance of driving licence, PAN card and Aadhar number.

Allowing free movement within the State/UT where they are staying, transfer of LTV papers from one state to other, reduction of penalty amount to Rs 100, Rs 200 and Rs 500 instead of existing amount of USD 30, USD 130, USD 230 on non?extension of short-term Visa/LTV.

The refugees are also allowed to apply for LTV from the place of present residence when the applicants have changed place without permission.

Ever since the Narendra Modi government came to power, several concessions have been offered to the persecuted Hindus and Sikhs of the neighbouring countries.

Besides, the Home Ministry also organised special camps at district level in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana and NCT of Delhi for granting LTV and citizenships.

Children of refugees on LTV are allowed to take admission in schools/ colleges/ universities/ technical and professional institutions under foreigner quota without permission from the state government/UT administration.

State governments/ UT administration are empowered to grant permission to such people to engage themselves in employment of purely private nature.

Modi had, during the Lok Sabha poll campaigning in 2014, made a distinction between Hindu and Muslim refugees from Bangladesh arguing that the former should be accommodated.

"We have a responsibility towards Hindus who are harassed and suffer in other countries. India is the only place for them. We will have to accommodate them here," he had said. PTI ACB IKA ZMN IKA

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A Parkview Christian Academy & Child Care teacher was arrested Friday on an injury to a child charge after the teacher reportedly hit a 2-year-old child with the handle of a dust pan, Waco police Sgt. W. Patrick Swanton said.

Whitney Danne Richter, 25, was arrested after a mother of the child filed a police report on July 21 when the child care center notified the mother that her 2-year-old child had been spanked by a teacher. Swanton said when the child got home, the mother saw injuries to the childs butt and called police.

Injuries consisted of some redness, long red marks that appeared to be fresh on the buttocks of the child, Swanton said. What we had discovered was that the suspect was the teacher of the little 2-year-old and the 2-year-old had pooped in her pants and the teacher took her into a room and spanked the child with a dust pan handle, causing the injuries.

Swanton said the school immediately notified the mother.

According to the arrest affidavit, Richter reportedly told investigators that she believed the child fell onto some rocks while going down a slide at the school. Authorities reported the injuries were not consistent with the defendants explanation.

Richter was arrested and remained in McLennan County Jail on Friday afternoon on a $3,000 surety bond. Attempts to reach out to Parkview Christian Academy & Child Care were not immediately returned.

The employment status of Richter was not immediately known Friday afternoon.
By Maha Siddiqui: Days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi raised the issue of human rights violation in Balochistan, he has got support from former Afghan president Hamid Karzai. On his current visit to New Delhi, Karzai said, "We highly appreciate the fact that PM Modi has raised the issue of Balochistan. He addressed it by showing concern for the people of Balochistan to be violence free."



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It has been two years since Karzai vacated the office of Afghan president after completing two tenures, but having guided Afghanistan through its most turbulent times, when it faced terror threats from outfits having support bases in Pakistan, his voice holds credibility.

The former Afghan president rejected Pakistan's allegation that India was encouraging dissent in Balochistan emphasizing that Islamabad itself indulged in fomenting troubles on neighbours' soil. "When Pakistan accuses others of interference first they should stop doing the same. They have interfered in Afghanistan. We have been at the receiving end of it," said Karzai.

'DON'T ALLOW PAK TO INTERFERE'

On the question of cross-border terrorism in India and support to Kashmiri separatists, Karzai came up with an advice to the Kashmiri leaders. He advised them not to fall prey to Pakistani propaganda and to learn from the experience Afghanistan.

Karzai said, "My brotherly advice to people of Kashmir is that let no other country, no one else interfere in your matters. I wish the best for Kashmiris, hence I tell them this. Learn from what happened in Afghanistan, after the bitter experience we have gone through. Don't allow (Pakistan's) interference. "

TERRORISM: STATE POLICY OF PAKISTAN

Karzai underscored the role of Pakistan Army in supporting fundamentalists and extremists in the entire region. In response to a question on threat of terrorism in the sub-continent, he said, "Yes, Pakistan Army is involved in excesses, in encouraging extremism in the region. I have been constantly talking about that have been raising the issue of how extremism is used by institutions in Pakistan as an instrument of state policy."

Watch the video here:



ALSO READ:

US expresses concern over rights violations in Balochistan

PM's Balochistan remark not a shift in policy: MEA



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By PTI: Allahabad, Aug 19 (PTI) Heavy rainfall has claimed two lives in the district where more than 100 villages in trans-Ganga and trans-Yamuna regions as well as low-lying localities of Allahabad city have been inundated with rivers hovering around the danger mark, a senior official said today.

"The district has been witnessing heavy rainfall since August 15 and so far one death each has been reported from Meja and Bara tehsils of trans-Yamuna region. More than 100 cattle have also perished in the two tehsils," Additional District Magistrate (Revenue and Finance) Ram Sahayak Yadav said.

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"The situation is particularly grim in Bara where two villages are marooned due to sudden rise in the water levels of Satpura Lapri and Tons, both tributaries of the Yamuna. Eight boats and one company of Provincial Armed Constabulary has been deployed at these two villages for rescue work.

"Water level of the Ganges crossed the danger mark of 84.73 meters at Phaphamau while at Chhatnag it was at 84.07 metres but rising at a rapid rate of nearly one centimetre per hour.

"Similar was the situation of Yamuna at Naini. The district administration has set up a total of 28 relief camps - five of these in the city and the remaining in the rural areas. Nearly 5,000 people are staying at these camps where they are being provided with food and medicines," Yadav said.

"A total of 41 boats have been pressed into service across the district for flood relief. A 35-member-strong team of NDRF is also camping here while another team is likely to reach early tomorrow. In addition, the district administration is also in touch with the army," he added.

Meanwhile, the University of Allahabad has deferred the examinations for BA, BSc and BCom, which were to commence tomorrow, "until further orders".

University authorities said the decision has been taken in view of the fact that "a large number of students live in the low-lying localities situated alongside the Ganges which have been adversely affected by the floods". PTI NAC KUN

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It is marketed as being "smarter than human doctors" and the "world's most accurate health diagnosis service".

It is a medical app on your smartphone that invites you to put in a list of symptoms to find the most likely explanation. According to the company that created Ada, the app includes 10,000 symptoms and diseases and was developed by 100 doctors, making it more knowledgeable than any human brain.

Doctors are worried about diagnosis apps. Credit:Benjamin Torode

But for all its promises, leading Australian GPs are urging consumers to be wary of it and other apps that make similar claims. Both the Australian Medical Association and Royal Australian College of GPs said they were concerned about the accuracy of the Ada system, and its potential to either falsely reassure people about their health or alarm them unnecessarily.

Despite a booming market for health apps, including ones that aim to diagnose, research suggests they may not be as reliable as they appear.
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.
By PTI: Imphal, Aug 20 (PTI) Najma Heptulla will be sworn in as the Governor of Manipur tomorrow at Raj Bhavan here, officials said today.

She will be administered the oath of office by Acting Chief Justice of the High Court of Manipur R R Prasad at 11.30 AM tomorrow.

Heptulla arrived here this afternoon at Imphal International Airport where she was received by state Chief Secretary O Nabakishore, Director General of Police L M Khaute and other officials.

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Heptulla, 76, had last month resigned as Minority Affairs Minister from the Union Cabinet.

The resignation had come as Prime Minister Narendra Modi is believed to have set an unwritten writ of 75-year age bar for ministers.

Meghalaya Governor V Shanmuganathan is currently holding the additional charge as Manipur Governor. PTI COR NN MNG

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By PTI: From Shirish B Pradhan

Kathmandu, Aug 20 (PTI) India has pledged financial assistance worth Nepali Rs 39.97 million for the construction of a new building and a hostel facility at a Sanskrit school in eastern Nepal.

A tripartite agreement between the Indian Embassy, the Local Development Officer, Ilam District, and Principal of Shree Saptmai Gurukul Sanskrit Vidhyashram Secondary School was signed in this regard on Wednesday.

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The project is being implemented through the Indian governments grant assistance under the small development programme scheme as part of India-Nepal Economic Cooperation Programme, the Indian Embassy said in a statement.

Shree Saptamai Gurukul Sanskrit Vidhyashram, established in 2009 as a primary school, was subsequently upgraded as a secondary-level school in 2014.

The school has been providing quality education and is the only school in Ilam where Sanskrit, Vedic rituals, English language are part of the curriculum.

The school has residential facilities as well and many young students coming from other different parts of the country stay in the school building which is in a dilapidated condition.

The new school and hostel building would provide much- needed classrooms and safe residential area for the students thus creating an improved environment for learning. PTI SBP ASK ASK

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In a sprawling farmhouse in Chhatarpur, New Delhi, Sanjay Garg, 35, pulls out a few pieces-a brocade silk pleated lehenga, a red silk sari with pomegranate motifs and a purple sari of archival value to explain what he is trying to do for handloom. "I want to revive the need and demand for saris. I am trying to make culture more relevant by mixing textures, making the blouse interesting, playing around with motifs," he says.

Garg is not alone. The new story of India's fashion is not design, it is textiles. And a new group of designers is changing the handloom story with design interventions that have transformed how urban India looks at handloom. Last year's Make in India event by the Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI) featured 16 designers who worked with Banarasi textiles to create contemporary and traditional clothing. FDCI chairman Sunil Sethi says this was just the start.

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Designers who work with handloom are making it aspirational. Handloom can't survive on charity, they say. It is the business of fashion that is freeing handloom of its curse of "janata clothing". This new approach is starting to make its mark. Many designers have made their careers synergising fashion with handloom with a focus on its timelessness.

"The weaving community is diminishing. Machine-woven handloom has a price advantage, but we can score with uniqueness of character," says Neeru Kumar of Tulsi, who first began fashion's affair with handloom in the '80s when she started work with the Handicrafts and Handlooms Export Corporation of India, which gave her six looms in Delhi. "If the textile is strong, fashion happens easily," she says.

Sanjay Garg - Works with: Mashru, Chanderi, Brocade, Silk, Jamdaani. Photo: Rajwant Rawat

In the global arena, Suket Dhir won the 2016 International Woolmark Prize, which recognises emerging designers across the world. Rahul Mishra won it in 2014. Both banked on handloom to envisage their collections. With their success, Indian fashion is finally finding its global foothold. "Made in India," says David Abraham of Abraham & Thakore, "could be as potent as Made in Italy." The potential is enormous. Thirty-five-year-old Hemang Agrawal is a case in point-he runs a 40-year-old family textile business in Banaras and works with leading designers in the country. His turnover has grown more than 300 per cent in the past four years.

Many others have bought into this argument of late. Though the number of people engaged in weaving and allied activities has gone down from 6.6 million in 1995-96 to 4.3 million in 2009-10 according to the Handlooms Census, the Comprehensive Handloom Cluster Development Scheme was introduced in 2008-09 for the development of mega handloom clusters. Last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the India Handloom brand on National Handloom Day to endorse the product. A national workshop called Design Sutra was also organised in Bhubaneswar, where 15 National Institutes of Fashion Technology (NIFTs), private institutes and 25 weavers' service centres decided to integrate NIFT course work with handloom and handicraft clusters.

"Today, designers are making themselves relevant by being associated with textiles,'' says Garg. "We are not reviving textiles. Textiles are reviving designers!"

A NEW BEGINNING

Fashion began this textile intervention with David Abraham and Rakesh Thakore, who started using the double ikat weave in 1992. Two decades later, it is becoming clear that the only way India can make a mark in the international fashion arena is via handloom, which can't be replicated elsewhere, says Rina Singh of Eka.

This shift benefits both designers and the sector. For example, Garg, a revivalist and an interventionist, has worked with Mashru from Gujarat and Banaras, Chanderi from Madhya Pradesh and brocade from Banaras, and jamdani in West Bengal.

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His new collection is romance tinged with nostalgia. It is poised to sell in Singapore, Colombo, Dubai and Hong Kong. Garg says his turnover has increased a "thousand times" since he launched his label, Raw Mango. The list of stores selling his label is growing internationally, he says.

Rina Singh - Works with: Linen, Silk, Block print, Khadi. Photo: Chandradeep Kumar

Others, too, have built their careers on handloom. Each has their own sensibility like Rina Singh, who believes in simple silhouettes, Samant Chauhan whose love for Bhagalpuri silk makes him an unapologetic proponent of the textile or Aneeth Arora of Pero, quietly popular in 60 stores across 20 countries, with handloom as her base and as many as 18 crafts in one garment.

The energy in the industry is infectious. Barely 20 days into her new portfolio, Union textiles minister Smriti Irani launched a Twitter campaign #iwearhandloom just before National Handloom Day on August 7. It went viral, with handloom enthusiasts tagging five others with each tweet. FDCI's Sethi called his group of designers to post their pictures in handloom garments before they all left for Varanasi to celebrate the renewed hope for handloom with Irani. "I wear handloom and urge the citizens of the country too to lend their support for using handloom products to benefit lakhs of weavers," Irani said in Banaras. She told designers she couldn't afford their prices but asked them to help elevate the handloom revival in the country with their intervention.

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A special budgetary allocation of Rs 6,000 crore was made in June for textile development intended to create 10 million jobs in the next five years, and to attract investments of $11 billion. An e-mail from FDCI has also asked designers to express interest in working in 28 government clusters for training craftsmen all over India. Announcements from designers followed. Anita Dongre will work with weavers from Odisha and veteran Ritu Kumar launched a textile revival collection. Lakme Fashion Week this August will feature Garg, who will unveil his collection in Mashru and silk with traditional motifs.

DESIGNERS LEAD CHARGE

They join several high-profile designers who are now increasingly at the forefront of making handloom fashionable. Rajesh Pratap Singh, 47, who has been working with weaves for about 20 years and is one of the strongest designers out of India, has his own loom set up in Neemrana.

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He has worked with Sambhalpuri from Odisha, double Ikat from Andhra and Pashmina from Kashmir. "My work involves creating new things. I do research and development. But I am not running an NGO and I don't believe in tags,'' he says. At the FDCI's Make in India event at the Amazon Fashion Week last year, he showcased a small part of his collection that uses Kinkhab from Banaras. He says handloom needs to be elevated from a design perspective to make it sell globally.

Samant Chauhan - Works with: Bhagalpuri silk. Photo: Vikram Sharma

In fact, designers continue to battle the perception that handloom is a poor person's fabric of choice.

When Samant Chauhan's mother attended his graduation project in 2004 at NIFT, Delhi, and saw the collection he made with Bhagalpuri silk, she asked him why he had worked with such coarse silk. The Bihar designer was awarded for his collection, and when he showcased his collection in Singapore in 2005, many say it became one of the biggest turning points in handloom fashion in the new millennium.

In 2006, he earned FDCI membership. That was just the start of a journey fraught with many challenges but at his newly launched store in Shahpur Jat, Chauhan says he owes it all to textiles from his state that were dismissed as too coarse for couture. He says his turnover has increased some 10 times in the past couple of years. He sells in New York and London at Anthropologie and Ashi & Co., respectively.

Chauhan was invited to the London Fashion Week to present his collection in 2008, and by 2012 he had launched his label Rajputana. "You can't sell on sympathy or pride. The product has to be competitive. People don't buy the sob story," he says. His latest is handloom denim, a project with the Denim Club of India. "My ambition is to open a factory in Bhagalpur where I can process from yarn to a finished piece of clothing," he says.

Gaurav Jai Gupta, 34, displays similar enthusiasm. "You could even weave your skin on handloom," he says, as he flips through a portfolio of his work dating back to 2002. The swatches include weaves he did for his graduation project at the Chelsea College of Art & Design, London: audio tapes he wove as a piece of fabric, copper wires peeled out of electric wires woven into a swatch.

He emerged on the scene in 2010 along with others like Aneeth Arora of Pero and Chinar Farooqui and Rahul Mishra. "You don't do handloom to save it. You do it for your love of it," he says. Until 2009-10, the fashion scene was ruled by Manish Malhotra, Gaurav Gupta and Varun Sardana. But the handloom fashion minority had already started to challenge the status quo. "Everyone wanted to be Alexander McQueen then," he says.

Rahul Mishra - Works with: Chanderi, Silk, Brocade. Photo: Rajwant Rawat

The past few years have been testing, he says, but he has grown. His designs made of blends of wool, silk, cotton stainless steel, metal and zari sell in Hong Kong, US, UK, Singapore, Japan and Australia.

Rina Singh, 40, works mostly with handloom, and knows that the legacy of textiles is where Indian fashion's strength lies. You can't compete with the embroidery of Jean Paul Gaultier, she says. "At my recent Woolmark presentation, I used merino wool and did jamdani on it in Fulia. I used jacquard and a little embroidery," she says. "Such things can't be replicated. That's our strength. This is also my legacy."

Eka sells in the US, UK, Australia, France, Italy, Spain, Middle East, Korea and Japan. The designer works with cotton, khadi, linen and silk and says her turnover has increased by 200 per cent over the last few years.

THE EVANGELISTS

David Abraham, 61, is the big daddy of Indian textiles. Both he and Thakore studied at NID and learned to weave in college. Abraham recalls the beautiful handloom saris, like the red, black and white ikat a teacher wore those days, and how it stood out.

"It was an important part of the philosophy. You were engaged with crafts in your environment," he says. "It was an incredible palate for a designer. As designers, we weren't interested in just the cuts, we wanted to develop the fabric," he says.

Their first collection featured double ikat from Andhra Pradesh 20 years ago, and Conran Shop in London took their collection to the international stage with 30 pieces.

"Back then, there was no domestic fashion scene and London and other markets worked for us as we had to come up with a unique proposition and we were doing things that nobody else could. From Mangalgiri to ikat to fulia and other weaves, everything could be done only in India and it gave us our design statement," he says. Today, A&T sell in many countries, including London, New York, Tokyo, Singapore, Rome and Kuwait.

David Abraham - Works with: Ikat, Silk.

It's an experience younger designers are replicating. It was his tryst with small dreams of weavers that made Rahul Mishra, 37, understand the joy of weaving, and which established him as a relevant designer. It was in Kerala in 2006 and Mishra, who now shows at the Paris Fashion Week, had gone to work on a project for NID where he was then studying. He met Padma Shri awardee Master P. Gopinath, who set up 1,000 looms in a small village in Kerala; the textiles fascinated him as it was like a database of cultural anthropology.

Born in a small village in UP called Malhousie, Mishra knows how to appreciate the rural way of life. "When I entered NID, I had to take up apparel design because I didn't qualify for anything else," he says. "Now, I am working with an enormous team-700-800 people already. I am now aiming at the Northeast to explore textiles there," he says.

The designer also initiated a project called Ghar Wapasi for the craftsmen and has so far settled around 200 artisans back in their village, Bondpur in West Bengal, from the slums in Dharavi. They do a mix of Aari and Kantha and Zardoz. ''They are earning at least 25 per cent more and living close to their families in their villages," he says.

He says his is the only Indian label to have a presence across the globe, selling at Colette & Le Bon Marche in Paris, Harvey Nichols and Feathers in London, Caanry in Texas, Saks Fifth Avenue in New York (and very soon from Bergdorf Goodman), Le Masion Simons in Canada besides Copenhagen, Tokyo, Dubai, Riyadh and Jeddah. "We have grown 125 per cent from when we started showcasing in Paris. This year, we expect to grow more than 50 per cent," he says.

But without the knowledge and expertise of Hemang Agrawal, fashion's handloom darlings would have been lost. He is the one who works with the big names and helps them with their design interventions in Banaras. Many years ago, his father bought a saffron-coloured silk wrap skirt, made for the queen of the Holkar dynasty, from the weaver who made only two pieces. Woven in Banaras, the skirt was at least 150 years old, and had the bel motif running in diagonal lines across the fabric. He was 12 then.

Years later, he studied fashion design at NIFT, and returned to Banaras to work with his father in the four-decade-old textiles business in the old alleys of Maidagin in Banaras. The 150-year-old house is now their workspace with textiles including kinkhab, shikarga, mashru, silk and tanchui housed in it. Agrawal, who launched his own label in 2015, showcased his collection along with Shrafuddin Ansari, the master weaver who he credits his weaving to. "The vocabulary of Banaras was created years ago. We learn from these antique textiles," he says.

Gaurav Jai Gupta - Works with: Stainless Steel, Copper, Silk and Cotton. Photo: Rajwant Rawat

For some time now, he has been working on new-age textiles like weaving with pure silver, the cost of which can go up to Rs 80,000 per metre. They export to the US, Southeast Asia, Japan and Europe. Their other brand, Holyweaves, is the largest e-commerce site for handloom saris, Agrawal says.

These success stories have given Indian designers a new confidence. The next step is to develop textiles such as stainless steel, paper, silver and gold, which is being explored and developed as various designers lead India's charge in world fashion.

Follow the writer on Twitter @chinkis

--- ENDS ---
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By West Kentucky Star Staff

Aug. 20, 2016 | PADUCAH, KY

By West Kentucky Star Staff Aug. 20, 2016 | 10:52 AM | PADUCAH, KY

A motorcycle crash in McCracken County Friday night seriously injured a Paducah man.



The McCracken County Sheriff's Department says the crash happened just before 8:30 pm Friday, along the 8000 block of Woodville Road. Deputies say 28-year-old Jeffery Cook of Paducah told them that his motorcycle headlights went out as he approached the Canadian Northern Railroad overpass.



Deputies said their investigation showed that the right side of Cooks motorcycle struck a steel support beam of the bridge. The collision threw Cook from the motorcycle, and both Cook and the motorcycle slid about 128 feet. Cook suffered a very serious leg injury and was airlifted to a hospital in Saint Louis.



A driver who located the collision scene told deputies that it was very dark and he had slowed his vehicle due to coming in contact with the accident debris field. The driver stated that he heard Cook yelling for help before he observed him in the road due to the darkness of the area. Deputies say Cook was wearing a helmet at the time of the accident.




On August 11, the Kerala police arrested two people who were recruiting a 21-year-old girl for an unusual task. She was to go and fight as a foot soldier for the Islamic State in Yemen. Thirty-eight-year-old Sheena Farzana and 28-year-old Naser, volunteers of Sathyasarani, a Muslim charitable trust run by the radical outfit Popular Front of India (PFI), were arrested on charges of abduction of the 21-year-old (name withheld) from Cherpulassery town in Palakkad district.

Police say the girl, a Hindu, was 'influenced' into converting to Islam while working at a private firm in Perinthalmanna, Malappuram district. Officials say P. Noufal (now in Yemen) of Perinthalmanna was her initial handler before Naser, a member of Sathyasarani's Da'wa squad (wandering proselytisers), took over. "Noufal led her to believe that heaven was possible only if she lived like a true Muslim and fought for Islam," says A.R. Ajithkumar, IGP, Thrissur range.

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Nimisha, one of the 21 people who have reportedly joined ISIS in Afghanistan. Photo: Manu R Mavelil

The state police has alerted Interpol regarding Noufal's role in ISIS recruitments in the state. But records of a spate of such cases over the past few weeks has created ripples across Kerala. It began with the sensational disappearance of 21 people in July this year. Members of five families (all of whom knew each other), they left from north Kerala and boarded flights to Iran and have apparently crossed over to ISIS-controlled territory in Afghanistan. Among them was Nimisha, 23, a Hindu girl from Thiruvananthapuram, studying to be a dentist. She had embraced Islam, changed her name to Fatima, and married Bexton, a Catholic, who had converted in 2015. Her mother, K. Bindu, has had no news since they left home on May 28. "I don't know where my daughter has gone. I just want her back home okay," Bindu told india today.

Stories like these have given Kerala's urban 'love jehad' legend-supposedly 'entrapped' conversions to Islam-a new and dangerous spin. Certainly, it has forced the police into action. The 'ISIS 21' were charged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), usually reserved for terrorist organisations, on August 4. The state intelligence branch has also prepared a report on the conversions. The report, accessed by india today, reveals that between 2011 and 2015, 5,975 people in the state converted to Islam; 1,410 did so last year alone. An overwhelming number, 76 per cent, of the new converts are women below 35, like Nimisha. In January-February this year, 224 Hindus and 60 Christians converted to Islam at a rate of roughly three new converts a day.

Most such cases were not investigated in the past because there were no complaints after the courts dismissed the missing person plaints filed by the parents. The 21-year-old from the latest case was traced to the Sathyasarani trust premises in Cherani village, Malappuram district. When summoned before the high court on July 15, she talked of her desire to convert to Islam. The court sent her to a hostel instead. On her second appearance (August 5), she said she wanted to go back to her parents.

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Only a minuscule number of converts thus far have had 'links' with the IS. But security agencies are alarmed by the possibility that some of them could become potential sleeper terror cells. Intelligence officials also believe that the actual figures of conversions may be much higher than reported. Authorities say that neo-Salafism, which promotes a revanchist Islam, has struck root in the state. A group calling themselves the 'Dammaj Salafis' live in a cloistered community in Nilambur in Malappuram. Much like the Amish in the United States, they shun modern technology and hark back to the primitive life in Prophet Mohammad's time in seventh century CE. Five of the missing 'ISIS 21' were followers of this movement, and had even taken religious courses at a Sri Lankan Salafist centre.

A worrying factor is that a majority of the neo-converts belong to affluent families and hold professional degrees or are students in professional colleges. During investigations into the 'ISIS 21', the police say they uncovered a conversion network, operating through front organisations like the Niche of Truth, Peace Education Foundation and Zakir Naik's Islamic Research Foundation (IRF). Incidentally, Muslims comprise about 27 per cent of the state's 33.3 million population and proselytisation is not new. But police say these new organisations have taken it to far more sophisticated levels. Tech-savvy recruiters work in professional colleges targeting women from other religions. A string of such recent cases like those of Nimisha, Merin Jacob and Aparna Vijayan, "reveal a pattern of 'campus recruitments', targeting educated Christian and Hindu women", says a senior police official.

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The Sathyasarani Trust came on the police radar only recently, when 21-year-old Aparna Vijayan, daughter of a widowed defence official from Thiruvananthapuram, vanished from her hostel in Kochi. She converted to Islam, taking on the name Shahana, and married Siyad, an autorickshaw driver. A complaint by her mother, Mini Vijayan, on March 30 led to a habeas corpus petition. Aparna then appeared in court, accompanied by Sumayya, who works with Sathyasarani. She told the court she had converted of her own volition.

Islamic scholar T. Abdul Rehman Baqavi, director of the Sathyasarani Trust, scoffs at any illegal connections. "We are functioning legally and we are open to verification by any government agency," he told india today. "Even if we evangelise, what's wrong with it? Our Constitution guarantees freedom of speech and the practice of our faith."

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The institution has a 500-volunteer-strong Da'wa squad to do its work in Kerala. The trust's website says it supports new converts emotionally and socially. According to Baqavi, they only convert people who approach them voluntarily with proper documents. The police, however, are not convinced. "Conversions are engineered by a group, which is part of a global network. We suspect the group is working with a hidden agenda-evangelising non-Muslims and radicalising them," an official says. Baqavi denies the charges and clarifies that his organisation is against the IS and terror activities. "We have been here for the last 18 years," he says. "But now a section of the media and Hindu fundamentalist forces are attacking us, saying there's large-scale conversion to Islam."

The police say most missing cases investigations end up at these religious centres. "When we raid the centres, they produce the girl before the court and make a public statement that she wilfully converted. If there is no crime, the police has no role," a senior police official points out. The majority of the converted women then practically disappear, according to the police, behind the veil of a burqa. Their families are unable to trace them and they are given up for dead. The women also wipe out any traces of their old identity-they change names, destroy passports and old signatures. All of which makes it that much more difficult for security agencies to track them down later.

IRF member Arshid Qureshi being produced in a Kochi court. Photo: AS Satheesh

On July 28, the Kerala police arrested Arshid Qureshi, guest relationship officer at Zakir Naik's IRF, and another person, Rizwan, from Mumbai. They were arrested on the basis of an FIR lodged in Kochi by Merin Jacob's brother Ebin Jacob, after she went missing with her husband Yahya (part of the 'ISIS 21'). Jacob alleges that Merin was forcibly converted by Qureshi and Bestin Vincent alias Yahya. The remand report states that the duo converted Merin in September 2014 and recruited her for IS. Rizwan, 53, the third accused, allegedly facilitated the conversion and marriage.

Kochi range IGP S. Sreejith says investigations found that Arshid has engineered around 800 conversions in Mumbai, and also conducted 113 marriages in the past three years. The Kerala police is now investigating the IRF's role in recent conversions in the state. Officials say they are also tracking the fund sources of around 10 organisations (including Niche of Truth, Sathyasarani, Peace Education Trust, Salafi centres in Kochi and Kozhikode) in the same cases.

Another link popped up after police from north Kerala's Kasargod district arrested Yasmin, 29, from Bihar's Sitamarhi district, when she tried to fly to Kabul to join the others gone missing from the state. Yasmin was working at three centres of the Peace International School till last December and had close links with Abdul Rashid of Trikaripur village (in Kasargod), who is missing with his family and helped the 'ISIS 21' fly abroad.

M.M. Akbar, a popular Islamic orator and managing trustee of the Peace International schools, is baffled by his staff's involvement with the IS. "I've taken a consistent stand against radicalisation of Islam. Abdul Rashid was a master trainer of teachers in our organisation, but we had no idea about his IS links," Akbar told india today. But the police and National Investigation Agency are leaving nothing to chance: Akbar's organisations and funding sources are also now under the scanner.

State Planning Board member and ex-Kerala University vice-chancellor Dr B. Iqbal blames it on the 'Saudi Arabiasation' of Islam in Kerala. "Kerala society always had a rich progressive tradition of living in communal harmony. But that shield is eroding fast. We have to reorient our youth against a fragmented minority sect that is destabilising our communal harmony. Our campuses must be vigilant, democratic students' organisations can play a role here," he says.

The Kerala conversions controversy has been going on for some time now. In the 2009 Shahan Sha case, then Kerala High Court Justice K.T. Sankaran had even directed the state to consider appropriate legislation to make 'forced conversions' an offence. In his verdict, the judge had pointed out, "It is clear that this is being done with the blessings of some outfits...this should be of great concern to the people at large and to the government." DGP Jacob Punnoose had then submitted a report in the HC denying that 'love jehad' existed on campuses in Kerala. Clearly, warnings were ignored.

--- ENDS ---
No oil will be supplied to Kashmir valley until the government provides them security cover amidst rising tension in town.

Valley unrest is becoming dangerous for oil supply tankers, several drivers alleged assault by protestors. Photo: PTI

By Ashwini Kumar: An indefinite strike has been called by the All Jammu and Kashmir Drivers and Conductors Union in Jammu to stop all oil supply to the Valley from today.

No oil will be supplied to Kashmir valley until the government provides them security cover amidst rising tension that has become life threatening for drivers and

tanker owners alike.

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Kharudin Wani, President, All Jammu and Kashmir Drivers and Conductors Union announced the strike today.

Amana Sharma, President, All Jammu and Kashmir Petrol Tankers Owners Association said that oil tankers are main target of protesters in Kashmir valley from Brijbehara to Awantipura and about 55 tankers were damaged in this area within two days.

TANKERS STOPPED, DRIVERS BEATEN

He said on Friday night, 14 tankers and 10 trucks were damaged in Awantipura area of Kashmir valley, the tankers' tyres were punctured and drivers were beaten with rods.

He said, "We are not going to supply diesel, petrol and kerosine oil to Kashmir valley from Monday unless the government provides protection."

Surinder Singh, Secretary, All Jammu and Kashmir Drivers and Conductors Union has alleged that some of their drivers and conductors were mercilessly beaten during day time in south Kashmir. Some of them were admired with severe injuries in Srinagar hospital.

WE ARE NOT GOING TO GET KILLED: DRIVERS

Amana Sharma added, "We are not going to be killed or injured in Kashmir valley, oil supply will be stopped from Monday and only Ladhak and Jammu oil supply will continue .

It may be recalled that around 1,800 petrol tankers are in Jammu and Kashmir to supply oil to all three regions of the state and daily Indian Oil, Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum supply around 300 tankers to Kashmir valley and Ladhak regions only.

Main depot of all three companies is in Jammu Railway Station area and all the supply goes from Jammu.



ALSO READ

Jammu and Kashmir: 28 oil tankers damaged, oil companies approach state government



--- ENDS ---
How Safe Are GMOs?

Note

How To Identify GMO Products  GMO Labeling

Conventionally grown fruits and vegetables (grown with fertilizers, pesticides, fungicidess, antibiotics, hormones), are labeled with a four digits code . For instance, a banana is labeled with the code: 4011.

fruits and vegetables (grown with fertilizers, pesticides, fungicidess, antibiotics, hormones), are labeled with a . For instance, a banana is labeled with the code: 4011. Organic fruits and vegetables (produced without synthetic chemicals), are labeled with a five digits code, starting with the number 9 . An organic banana would be: 94011

fruits and vegetables (produced without synthetic chemicals), are labeled with a . An organic banana would be: 94011 Genetically modified (GMO) fruits and vegetables are labeled with a five digits code, starting with the number 8. A genetically modified banana would be: 84011

Note

This Video Perfectly Explains The Safety Of GMO Products:

Experts around the world agree that we should eat plenty of raw fruits and vegetables. However, the market is flooded with GMO (Genetically Modified Organism) fruits and vegetables, despite the fact that many different studies have shown that GMO products can seriously affect our overall health!Doreally know what you eat? Unfortunately, most people can not identify the GMO tomatoes or other GMO products, so in this article we are going to show you how to distinguish between them.There are two very different views when it comes to the health and safety of genetically modified food  industry leaders and scientists who support GMOs, and those who believe that GMOs are harmful. Genetically modified foods have been linked to toxic and allergic reactions, sick, sterile and dead livestock, and damage to virtually every organ studied in lab animals.: Most developed nations do not consider GMOs to be safe. In fact, in more than 60 countries around the world , including Australia, Mexico Peru , Japan and all of the countries in the European Union , there are significant restrictions or outright bans on the production and sale of GMOs.By reading the PLU code, or price lookup number printed on the sticker, you can tell if a product was conventionally grown, organically grown, or genetically modified.: These tips are very important, as currentlyin the United States have been genetically modified. In many European countries, including Austria, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary , Luxembourg and Italy , the production and sale of GMO products is banned.If you found this article helpful, don't forget to share it with your friends and family.
While the delegation did not comment on what the President's response was to their plea but most of them said Pranab Mukherjee gave them a patient hearing.

By Jugal R Purohit: While the delegation consisting of opposition leaders from Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), led by former chief minister Omar Abdullah, apprised President Pranab Mukherjee about the ground realities concerning the widespread protests in the state, they kept a keen eye on the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) where, unknown to most, they had sent in a request for appointment.

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Nothing was heard from the PMO but the delegation will wait for the next 48 hours.

Speaking to India Today, four-time Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Kulgam, Mohammed Yousuf Tarigami said, "We have approached the PMO. We will try to provide to PM Modi with more details on ground realities". He added that this was in the hope that PM Modi will have 'some response'.

Tarigami, a Communist leader, said that they would also meet other senior leaders including those from the Congress and the Left parties.

The security set up meanwhile was still fire-fighting, unsure of the next move.

"We can only hope things cool down. There is no way you can talk development till the volatility ends," said a senior officer.

While Tarigami and the delegation were severely critical of the Centre and the state, they praised the statement issued by the Chief of the Northern Command of the Indian Army, Lieutenant General DS Hooda.

While interacting with journalists yesterday, Hooda had reportedly stated that there was a need to 'introspect'.

"We all have to sit down and put our heads together to see if we can end this. It is not for me to say who should do what but yes, everyone needs to discuss the issue," he said.

To this, Abdullah, who was leading the delegation which briefed President Mukherjee, said, "Words of the northern army commander are appropriate however I'd rather have them coming from his political bosses. The Centre's view is to crush the uprising and create a humanitarian crisis."

While the delegation did not comment on what the President's response was to their plea but most of them said Mukherjee gave them a patient hearing.

Abdullah while claiming the state government was failing at its task said the delegation did not seek the imposition of President's rule. He added that the crisis was spreading even to upper reaches of Jammu.

"When J&K is in pain, it should be the concern of the entire country. Previous protests in 2008, 2010 and 2013 are nothing compared to what is happening today. Present situation is widespread, unprecedented and includes those areas which have hitherto remained calm," claimed Tarigami.

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"Despite pouring in so many members from the security agencies, the youth is ready to take on bullets means there is a grave issue which needs to be addressed and that is where we do not understand why the centre and state government have been unable to take initiatives," he said.

Kashmir has been on the boil ever since Hizbul Mujahideen militant commander Burhan Wani was gunned down by security forces. Over 60 people have lost their lives and thousands, including those from the security forces stand injured.

--- ENDS ---
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 20/08/2016 (2261 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Investigative reporters are journalisms prime lie detectors  but they get answers not only by asking questions, but also by intimidating and confronting.

And they never stop coming, like a Rottweiler that can type.

There were 400 of these media attack dogs all over the globe involved in this springs explosive, jarring expose of some of the richest people in the world blatantly employing offshore shelters to hoard purloined billions and/or to cheat on their taxes  and, until now, to hide smugly behind their lawyers and their hypocrisy with a smile.

Alexei Druzhinin/ The Associated Press files Russian President Vladimir Putin is one of many world leaders whose name appears in the leaked Panama papers.

The Panama Papers is about how this battalion of media detectives worked in secret to uncover the truth about all these ugly people. To them fell the task of turning over human rocks in 80 countries and exposing these squirming, hypocritical scoundrels to the light of censure.

The drama of how all this greed came to light began with information leaked anonymously to author Bastian Obermayer. He and co-author Frederik Obermaier are award-winning investigative journalists with Germanys largest daily, Suddeutsche Zeitung. They enlisted the help of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists around the world to find the truth.

Investigative reporters easily burn out; some of their colleagues envy their status and privileges, but are wise enough not to join them. Theyll spend enormous amounts of numbing time working on scandals and screw-ups that never see print, and make the job even more difficult by increasing their anxiety to produce. They hate BS as much as their editors hate what they cost.

They spend much of their time talking to people who dont want to talk to them, while the people who do want to talk to them often lie. Theres always the fear of getting it wrong and spending their life in court, or on the unemployment lines. And theyre always annoying the filthy rich and powerful, especially the self-righteous among them with something to hide.

The work takes persistence more than IQ, coupled with an ability to adjudicate and lay out complex information with minimum risk. The result, when done well, is a symphony of facts, producing a melody the public will absorb, the altruistic will address and the courts will uphold. When it all comes together it is, for these reporters, a bigger rush than morphine. And thats so true of The Panama Papers, both a dramatic and a vexatious read.

The expose was a year-long journalistic collaboration that began with the leak of 11.5 million documents from a Panamanian law firm that specializes in setting up anonymous offshore shell companies. The source wanted to expose the crimes committed by the firms shadowy clients identified in the leak, which, given its size, was more like a tsunami.

It all started with the modern equivalent of the brown envelope slipped under the door: a computer-generated goldmine of secret financial information about how and where some of the worlds powerful politicians, dictators, moneymen and crooks hide their stolen money and/or cheat on their taxes. The trail led to no less than Russian President Vladimir Putin, former British prime minister David Camerons father, the president of Iceland (he resigned over it), the prime minister of Pakistan, president of Ukraine, big banks, art dealers, celebrities, drug lords, fraudsters, arms dealers and the Mafia. It unveiled worldwide and contemptuous moneyed elites who disdain the rule of law for their self-serving rules of entitlement and will continue to do so as long as they and their lawyers are allowed.

The G20, an organization made up of the governments and central bank governors of 20 of the worlds top economies  including Canadas  and which promotes international financial stability, has promised to tackle the offshore abuses, but it remains to be seen if it can. And the papers have led to other investigations, both criminal and regulatory.

Leona Helmsley, the New York real-estate tycoon convicted of tax evasion, is infamous for saying to an employee: Only the little people pay taxes.

Maybe the Panama papers and the vile financial chicanery they have unveiled will help change that. Maybe.

Barry Craig was awarded a fellowship in law at Queens University as a weary investigative reporter.
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 20/08/2016 (2261 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Ask anyone on the street whether they want to eat safe food, and undoubtedly the answer would be yes. Experiencing a food-borne illness is not only unpleasant, it can be deadly.

But technologies such as irradiation that can make food safer have historically been a tough sell. A public backlash caused Health Canada to nix its plan in 2002 to allow ground fresh and frozen beef to be irradiated. People simply didnt like the idea.

Treating food products with ionizing radiation can reduce the presence of mould, E coli, salmonella, campylobacter and parasites without reducing nutrition or food quality. International authorities such as the United Nations and the World Health Organization agree it is safe.

RYAN REMIORZ / CANADIAN PRESS FILES

Although the technology has been approved for use in Canada since 2002 on potatoes, onions, wheat, flour, whole wheat flour, whole and ground spices and dehydrated seasoning preparations, it is currently mostly just used on spices  if at all.

This summer, Health Canada is asking Canadians for their thoughts once again after the beef industry petitioned for the option of using the food-safety technology.

Independent inquiries into the 2008 listeriosis contamination of processed meats sold by Maple Leaf, and the 2012 E. coli crisis affecting XL Beef, recommended Canada fast-track new technologies that contribute to food safety.

The public comment period ends Sept. 1, and the federal department isnt commenting on how much interest has been shown.

The 2002 proposal drew 1,700 comments, most of them opposed because of misconceptions about irradiated food products and skepticism surrounding the science and safety of irradiation, background documents posted to Health Canadas website say.

This time around, a survey of consumer perceptions in 2014 suggests public sentiments range from comfortably oblivious to vaguely supportive.

Although the vast majority of respondents (72 per cent) had not heard of food irradiation, overall perceptions of food irradiation were slightly more positive (30 per cent) than negative (21 per cent) when respondents were informed that irradiation is a food-safety measure that reduces levels of bacteria that cause food poisoning and food spoilage.

As well, survey respondents were adamant (83 per cent) irradiated food should be labelled. Thats considered a positive shift in public opinion.

However, the National Farmers Union is opposed. It argues allowing irradiation will lead to further consolidation in the beef-processing sector, which would allow processors to pay farmers less and charge consumers more.

Canadas beef-packing industry is dominated by two foreign-owned multinational corporations that slaughter over 90 per cent of federally inspected beef in Canada: JBS and Cargill.  irradiation equipment is costly, thus we can assume that these two companies would be in the best position to benefit from the proposed regulatory change.

The union also says irradiation is simply a mop-up operation to compensate for unsanitary conditions, inadequate procedures and poor inspection systems. And while it kills the bacteria-causing toxins, it says it wont treat toxins already created.

The unions position has some merit. The industry looks to technology to fix problems that need not exist. For example, the toxin E. coli O157 is virtually non-existent in grass-fed beef. It forms in the highly acidic rumens of grain-fed cattle that arrive at slaughter plants with feedlot manure on their hides. If there was no E. coli in the manure, or the manure never crossed paths with the meat during processing, there would be no need for irradiation.

However, suggesting irradiation should be shunned because it wont eliminate all the risk is somewhat akin to saying dont bother washing your hands because you wont get all the germs.

The reality is, most of us eat beef that has been raised this way. Irradiation is a technology, similar to pasteurization of milk, that can save lives.

It wont mean other food-safety processes can be abandoned or consumers dont need to know how to cook.

It simply means there is one more tool in the food-safety box.

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 20/08/2016 (2261 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The arrival of a new combatant is cranking up the heat in the already-competitive convenience-food market.

Chefs Plate, a Toronto-based company that bills itself as Canadas leading meal-kit-delivery service, is now offering its services in Manitobas two largest cities  Winnipeg and Brandon.

Its arrival earlier this summer came just a few months after M&M Meat Shops, best known for its wide variety of frozen meats and other dinner options, changed its name to M&M Food Market and added more than 100 new products to its shelves. The new additions range from appetizers and fresh fruits and vegetables to cakes and pies. The companys goal is to grab a larger share of the convenience-food market here and elsewhere in Canada.

WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Lori Vassart (right) holds Bruschetta Pasta and Hollow Mushroom Stuffed Burgers meals while Crystal Anderson shows off Nacho Packs in front of their Supper Central store in Kenaston Common.

Chefs Plate is also in the midst of an aggressive cross-country expansion, which saw it also expand into Alberta and British Columbia markets in June. Company co-founder Jamie Shea said in an interview the goal is be offering its service from coast to coast by the end of the year from meal-assembly plants in Toronto and in the Vancouver area.

The companys expansion is part of a global trend that has seen more than 100 meal-kit companies spring up in the U.S. market in just a few short years, according to a recent New York Times article. Another Associated Press article quotes food-industry analyst Technomic Inc. as saying the U.S. meal-kit market could grow to as much as $6 billion over the next four years, as celebrity cooks such as Martha Stewart and Jamie Oliver join forces with burgeoning U.S. meal-kit companies like Marley Spoon and HelloFresh.

For the uninitiated, meal kits are a kind of bridge between the ready-to-serve meals that a growing number of grocery stores and other convenience-food retailers are now offering, and a traditional, made-from-scratch, home-cooked dinner. The kits include all of the ingredients, packaged in exact proportions, needed to make a gourmet-quality meal. There are even step-by-step instructions on how to prepare and cook the meal.

Chefs Plate, for example, offers two-person meal kits and four-person family kits. The meals cost $9.75 to $10.95 each, so a two-person kit costs twice those amounts, and a family kit costs four times those amounts.

The kits are designed to appeal to harried consumers who hunger for a nutritious, healthy meal, but dont feel like eating in a restaurant or ordering in a restaurant meal, and dont have the time go grocery shopping and then spend an hour or more in the kitchen preparing and cooking a meal.

While Chefs Plate is new to the Manitoba market, the meal-kit concept is not. Supper Central, a meal-kit/meal-assembly service co-founded by local entrepreneurs Lori Vassart and Crystal Anderson, has been in business here for more than seven years. In that time, theyve seen their companys sales grow to an average of 450 meals per week, Vassart said in an interview.

Vassart didnt sound the least bit worried about the arrival of Chefs Plate in Manitoba, or about the liklihood that other meal-kit companies may soon follow. As far as shes concerned, the more the merrier, because it raises public awareness of the concept.

We have a whole big city here, with a lot of people who could benefit from a service like this. So I think raising the awareness of businesses like this is only beneficial.

Shea said Chefs Plates customers typically include young professionals, families with one or two working parents, empty-nest couples and seniors. Its a similar story for Supper Central. One of its longtime customers is Winnipegger Shirley Dyck, who works full time and doesnt always have the time or energy to whip up a meal from scratch for herself or for guests.

Ive been going to them for at least six years. Its just the convenience, Dyck explained during a recent interview.

She said she orders online from Supper Centrals monthly menu and tells them what day and time shell be picking it up, even though the company also has a delivery service. Dyck said she orders an average of three or four half-meal packages per month, at a cost of $15 to $17 each. She said she gets three single servings out of each package. What she doesnt use right away, she freezes.

Thats about $5 a meal. You cant go get a burger and fries for that much, and the food is always absolutely delicious.

Shea and Kelley Main, head of the marketing department at the University of Manitobas Asper School of Business, see grocery stores, not restaurants, as the primary competition for meal-kit services.

WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Prepared meals in the freezer at the Supper Central in the Kenaston Common. Murray McNeill Story June 28 2016

The restaurant has the social aspect of going out, Main explained. This has the aspect of eating at home. So to me, that is different (from going to a restaurant).

Prof. Sylvain Charlebois, a food-policy expert with Dalhousie University, agreed grocery stores could be adversely affected if meal kits gain in popularity here the way they have in the United States and Europe.

But Im more concerned about the restaurants who are delivering meals and the takeout people serving pizzas and burgers, he added. They may be undermined by a more healthy offering.

Because everything is pre-portioned, Main said meal kits may also appeal to consumers who are worried not only about what theyre eating, but how much theyre eating.

They (the meal-kit companies) are telling you what the right proportion is, she noted.

Charlebois said the concept may also appeal to millennials, who value their time but want to eat well, as well as working parents who not only see it as an easier way of provide a nutritious meal for their family, but also an opportunity to spend more time in the kitchen with their children. An added bonus is the children are also learning how to prepare and cook a meal at the same time.

Dwayne Marling, Restaurant Canadas vice-president for Manitoba and Saskatchewan, said meal-kit companies have been in Canada for a few years now, and so far the restaurant industry seems to holding its own.

Certainly there is the potential for some displacement but where the disruption will be I dont think has entirely shaken out yet, he said. But it is really illustrative of how the lines continue to blur between restaurants, delis, grocery stores and meal-delivery services.

murray.mcneill@freepress.mb.ca
By India Today Web Desk: After being served processed ham at a Yokohama immigration centre, a 48-year-old Pakistani man has been on a hunger strike for two weeks. This is a huge goof-up for the immigration centre as the man, being a Muslim, was prohibited by his religion to have pork.

Detained for undisclosed reasons, the man was served pork on August 3, and has been consuming only water and nutritional supplements since then.

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Immigration officials said his health is not in any danger, the Japan Today reported.



SECOND SUCH INCIDENT IN A YEAR

These gaffes are being increasingly common, with this being the second such incident this year. A similar incident took place in August 2015. The Yokohama area immigration mistakenly served another Muslim man a salad with bacon pieces. They later apologised for the administrative mistake??.

To reduce the number of such instances, a human rights group to protect the interests and rights of foreigners spoke with the immigration department this week. They were asked to take appropriate measures to make sure such an episode does not recur in future.

The immigration office has the responsibility to provide meals keeping the religious customs in mind, and we request that this doesn't happen again,?? said a representative of the group.

In response the immigration department said, We regret that this has happened and we are swiftly investigating the cause.??

(With inputs from IANS)

--- ENDS ---
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 20/08/2016 (2261 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Editors note: To mark the end of this years Sunshine Fund campaign, we have a thank-you letter from Liz Kovach, executive director of the Manitoba Camping Association. As you will see in her note, the effect of this program can be measured in the smiles of the 650 children who got a chance to go to camp this summer. Once again, the Free Press would like to thank its readers for their generosity and support of the Sunshine Fund.

As the sounds of childrens laughter and singing by the fireside slowly begin to lessen as summer camp comes to an end for another year, the friendships, life skills and memories created at summer camp will live on and shape them for the rest of their lives.

With the generous support of our readers, the Sunshine Fund was able to send more than 650 deserving kids to camp this year, and we cannot thank you enough for the gift you have given to so many children.

Camp is more than just fun. Here are some quotes from parents of campers who benefited from the program:

Over the last few years, I have seen so much growth in both my girls. I have seen an increase in their self-esteem, independence, as well as making new friendships and reuniting with old ones. I cant thank the Sunshine Fund enough for all you do.

I am very much looking forward to the weeklong canoe trip, as well as seeing some old friends again. Camp is very special thing for me, and I would not be able to go if it wasnt for the Sunshine Fund.

Camp is a gift that I desire my children to experience as it furthers their social skills, independence, and helps discover new hobbies and passions. They get to experience the great outdoors, build friendships and make memories that will last a lifetime. And for that, I thank you.

Dear Sunshine Fund, I think I should get to go to camp because I think all kids should get to, and without your company I wouldnt be able to go. When kids go to camp they learn and have fun, and I want to be one of those kids. So would you please help me go to camp! J

As the 2016 camp season comes to a close, the staff and volunteers at the Manitoba Camping Association are beginning their work to reach the goal of 1,000 kids to camp next summer.

The year 2017 will represent the charitys 80th anniversary of supporting summer camp and providing children in Manitoba with the opportunity to experience camp, and on behalf of all the children and families who been recipients of your gifts, thank you.
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 19/08/2016 (2262 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

As of June, more than 500 million people worldwide are using Instagram. More than three million of them use it every day, sharing beautifully composed snapshots of their #bestlife and then riding high on the dopamine jolt offered by each and every "like." Its not hard to understand the appeal of the free mobile photo-sharing app. Its addictive by design.

In the six years since Instagram debuted, its become much more than a vehicle for filtered selfies and sumptuous brunch photos. For most users, its a place for connection, inspiration, instant gratification and, of course, validation.

But for many social-media savvy young Winnipeg entrepreneurs, Instagram has become an invaluable marketing tool. In fact, its their only marketing tool. For them, those "likes" are a big part of their livelihoods.

Put another way: Likes directly translate to sales, says Tom Jansen, 25, co-owner of Coal and Canary Candle Company.

Instagram, I believe, is the reason why Coal and Canary is as big as it is and why we were able to quit our full-time jobs, adds co-owner Amanda Buhse, 31.

A little backstory on Coal and Canary: it started in 2014 as a hobby/creative outlet for Jansen, who had a passion for candle-making, and Buhse, who has a design background. But it wasnt to be a hobby for long; Jansen and Buhse are go-big-or-go-home types, so they drafted a business plan and, with some research and some hustle, got Coal and Canary Candles into the swag bags at both the Grammys and Oscars in 2015.

WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Danika Bock uses Instagram to promote her business Tiny Feast.

Now, their candles are in 150 retail locations across the country, and 80 per cent of their current wholesale clients found them via Instagram. They have a team now, too, and a brand-new workshop on Sanford Street.

Their candles are high-quality, small-batch and hand-poured  the artisanal trifecta, if you will  but they are charming, too. Fun is a big part of the Coal and Canary brand, right down to its cheeky candle names; Big Hair & Fresh Air and Great Complexion & No Reception are two of their woodsy scents. Jansen and Buhse know exactly who the Coal and Canary girl is, and she is on Instagram.

A photo posted by Coal and Canary Candle Company (@coalandcanary) on Aug 15, 2016 at 3:04pm PDT

Coal and Canary (@coalandcanary) has 15,700 followers on Instagram. Its feed is a mix of expertly styled product shots and behind-the-scenes shenanigans.

We can post photos of our team pouring candles on a Monday and talk about how were feeling and what were doing, Buhse says. Its all that personal human touch and interaction people crave nowadays, and it makes them feel like they are part of our brand.

From Day 1, thats been our mandate. We want to be best friends with every single Coal and Canary customer, and we want them to feel like theyre best friends with us.

Make no mistake: this takes hours of work. In the world of Instagram, its all about curation, curation, curation. Every business owner I spoke to for this story talked about deleting off-brand photos or retaking photos that dont quite fit within the aesthetic of their feed. Filters are passe; its all about crisp shots taken with professional cameras and then uploaded to Instagram. The product styling is at a level usually reserved for glossy magazines. Business owners take webinars to bolster their social-media literacy. They are staying up on photography and styling trends while figuring out how to stay fresh and relevant.

This is what it takes to run a successful business in 2016.

(Instagram) became a full-time job in and of itself. We have a social media co-ordinator that runs our social media for us, Jansen says.

Its a science nowadays, Buhse adds.

Jansen notes when someone buys a Coal and Canary candle, theyre not just buying a candle. Theyre buying into a certain kind of lifestyle.

It kind of became this thing, as soon as you buy a Coal and Canary Candle, you take a photo of it and put it on Instagram, he says.

JENNA RAE CAKES

Theres a lot to be said for the power of a pretty picture. On a Thursday morning, bright and early, Jenna Rae Cakes posted a detailed photo of a gold-sequinned wedding cake on Instagram. Within an hour, it had more than 700 likes. By the end of the day, it will have thousands.

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Tom Jansen and Amanda Buhse are co-founders of the now-ubiquitous Coal & Canary Candle Co., a local business who has leveraged Instagram in a big way. They just opened a new office/production house on Sanford Street to meet demand.

The Academy Road bakery is co-owned by identical twin sisters Jenna and Ashley Illchuk, 27. Jenna is a self-taught cake designer, and Ashley is a graphic designer/photo stylist. If youve attended a wedding in town in the last several years, chances are youve seen  and tasted  Jenna Rae Cakes work.

When Jenna decided to open a storefront in 2014 after years of overnighting in community kitchens, she imagined it would just be her stocking the cooler with a few treats to pay rent, and then working on cakes in the back  a one-woman show, her sister says.

We realized within a week that wasnt the case.

A photo posted by Jenna Rae + Ashley Nicole (@jennaraecakes) on Aug 18, 2016 at 7:50am PDT

While their stylized custom cakes are certainly still a focus, demand has grown for their everyday bakery treats  driven, in large part, by Instagram. Its not uncommon to see lineups winding out the door, people in pursuit of the bakerys now-famous macarons  with ever-inventive flavours, such as mojito and fuzzy peach.

Ashely figures she spends two to three hours a day taking and styling photos. She schedules four posts a day, down from the eight to 12 she used to do, prioritizing quality over quantity.

Its a lot of work, she acknowledges. Its easy to fall into a rut. Like, sometimes Ill look back and think, OK, Ive posted the same kind of cupcake photo fives times this month  I need to switch it up. You have to keep researching and staying on top of whats happening.

Jenna Rae Cakes (@jennaraecakes) has 152,000 followers. And while many of those followers are locals who regularly patronize the physical bakery, others simply take pleasure in a photo of a pretty treat well-styled, effusively commenting with strings of heart-eyed or crying face emojis. As Ashley says, Just because you cant necessarily get your hands on it doesnt mean you dont want have it (in your feed) as an eye-candy pick-me-up every day.

MAD ABOUT STYLE

Just down the street from the bakery is another brick-and-mortar shop thats been able to sustain itself thanks to social media. When Nicola Loewen opened her womens clothing boutique Mad About Style in March 2010, she was just 21.

It was a huge risk, she says, but its been the most amazing six years. In fact, the location has grown, expanding into the former Romolo Fracassi Clothier space next door.

Loewen is a student of fashion and retails trendy pieces for young professional women. She acknowledged many of her clients couldnt always make it into the shop during boutique hours, so she allowed them to request holds on items on Facebook. It was a big hit.

A photo posted by Mad About Style (@madaboutstyle) on Aug 13, 2016 at 11:01am PDT

It was an amazing way to get product out there  we could be in your face if you wanted us to be, she says.

As Facebook fell out of fashion, Mad About Style (@madaboutstyle) began focusing on Instagram. The boutique has 10,000 followers, and their clients engage a lot  asking about sizes and availability. She says more than 50 per cent of holds turn into purchases, either of that item or something else theyve found in the store.

Were on it all day long, she says of Instagram. Were responding to hold requests, suggestions of sizing, or going back to a wait list. Its a team effort. As well, shes on the Gram looking for inspiration for her own photo styling. My phone is in my face for a good portion of my day.

Mad About Styles clients also help Loewen gauge interest in certain trends. We love to post something weve found that were just dying for, and we hope its something the clients will die for as well, she says. If a dress gets 500 likes, well update the quantities. We want to stock clothes that you want to have in your closet.

TINY FEAST

When married couple Danika Bock and Drex Serduletz opened their stationery/gift store Tiny Feast in the Exchange District in 2013, they were social-media novices. They had just spent a few months living in Berlin with decidedly un-smartphones, so Instagram was fairly new to them. I felt like an old lady, says Bock, who is 27.

They used the app to tease the stores opening, photographing the paper-covered windows and the address plate on the curb.

Looking back, it seems like we were generating buzz, but honestly we were just figuring out what we were doing," she says.

Sammy, their adorable rescue dog, makes frequent appearances on the Tiny Feast feed. He also has his own Instagram account.

WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Jenna Rae Cakes, a hot local bakery run by twin sisters Jenna,right, and Ashley Illchuk.

Tiny Feast retails modern paper goods and, as such, is an incredibly visual shop. Bocks background is in graphic design, so Instagram appeals to her. I remember reaching 300 followers, that was a huge milestone, she says. Now, Tiny Feast (@tinyfeast) has 23,500 followers.

I was interested in how that would translate to real life, she says. I definitely noticed people would come in, Instagram things and then leave, she says with a laugh. They wouldnt buy anything, which made me think, Am I wasting my time? Happily, thats changed. Sometimes well have a product for a month, but then Ill Instagram it and itll sell out.

Bock loves seeing Tiny Feast products photographed in the wild. Thats very exciting for me, she says. Were sincerely interested in these products, so if someone has posted a photo saying, Im getting organized or this notebook inspired me to do my homework, thats actually just want we want. Its nice to see being shared through the lens of Instagram.

Sharing  of photos but also of experiences  is precisely what makes Instagram such a powerful tool, says Fang Wan, a marketing professor at the Asper School of Business at the University of Manitoba. Its really not about selling, its about sharing, she says. Its not even advertising anymore. Its about business becoming part of the social ecosystem.

Wan says Instagram, despite all of its careful curation, lends itself well to credibility and authenticity because it allows business owners to have a two-way dialogue with real people.

A photo posted by Tiny Feast (@tinyfeast) on Jun 24, 2016 at 8:20am PDT

Not only are businesses sharing (their posts), the customers endorse you online by following or sharing photos of them consuming the product or service. Its like old-style testimonials, but even more powerful because its so credible. Traditional advertising is really one way. Its a message controlled by the company, and they use all these different control mechanisms to deliver that message. But when youre talking about sharing and when you can have followers, people can make comments, they can post their own things. You turn it into a community.

Still, its not a perfect tool  and it is just that, a tool. Earlier this year, Instagram changed its feed so users were no longer seeing posts chronologically. Ashley Illchuk of Jenna Rae Cakes has noticed likes have dropped as a result, and shes not the only one; the Internet has raged about this as well. Posts are getting missed, she says.

But in a community of 500 million users, theres also intense pressure to stand out  especially since that same level of meticulous curation can also be found in personal user accounts thanks to the advent of the personal brand.

I think you can blow up on Instagram, but thats only one side, Wan says.

I think you can build a glamorous social-media interface and have great stuff going on, but you also build up very high expectations. The explosive attention, a lot of novelty  its a double-edged sword. It helps you temporarily, but sustaining and maintaining the level of quality, the level of novelty, the level of innovation, your products and services to keep drawing the crowd, while also meeting the expectation that is set  I think thats a challenge.

jen.zoratti@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @JenZoratti

WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Danika Bock lines up a frame for her Tiny Feast Instagram account.
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 20/08/2016 (2261 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipegs population is expected to top one million in 25 years mainly because of immigration, and an event in the city next week aims to line up hundreds of newcomers with jobs.

The Immigrant Centre is hosting its annual job fair Wednesday, with more than 30 employers looking for workers.

Milad Hanna is going with the hope hell get hired.

PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Engineer Milad Hanna came to Canada in 2012 and recently had his credentials recognized. On Thursday, he wrote a test at Canada Revenue Agencys office in Transcona. Hes looking for any kind of work.

I know three languages and have experience in exporting, said Hanna, who came to Canada in 2012 with an engineering degree from Egypt and small business experience exporting Egyptian handicrafts. When he arrived in Winnipeg, he had to upgrade his English skills before he could take classes to have his engineering credentials recognized. Its taken Hanna, who is 57 and single, more than three years of classes to do that, and now hes struggling to find work.

This is one of my lifes dreams  to become an engineer, he said before taking a three-hour Canada Revenue Agency test Thursday to see if he could get hired at the Winnipeg Taxation Centre. For now, hed be happy just getting a job. I am still searching.

Hes not alone.

Last year, 1,700 newcomers took part in the Immigrant Centre job fair, said Amie Membreno, manager of employment services at the centre.

Newcomers such as Hanna are the main drivers of the citys population growth, the 2016 City of Winnipeg population, housing and economic forecast says.

Winnipegs average annual population growth over the next 25 years will increase by 8,200 people per year, it said, with the metropolitan census area exceeding one million people by 2034-35 and is projected to surpass 1,055,000 by 2040.

The report says population growth will be driven mainly by international immigration. Statistics Canada 2016 labour force numbers show the unemployment rate is slightly higher for landed immigrants (6.9 per cent) than it is for the total population (5.8 per cent). After 10 years in Canada, however, the jobless rate for immigrants (5.6 per cent) is nearly the same as it is for those born in Canada (5.4 per cent).

Membreno said its difficult to nail down an unemployment rate for newcomers to Winnipeg. It varies greatly depending on their proficiency of English, education and the way in which they came to Canada. For instance, government-assisted refugees receive support from the government during their first year in Canada so they can focus on resettling and overcoming any trauma they experienced before arriving, she said.

Other newcomers are privately sponsored by family members who support them while they take English classes until they feel they are ready to look for work, she said.

Unemployment is a very difficult problem to overcome, especially for newcomers to Canada with no Canadian work experience and poor English language skills, Membreno said. The centre focuses on helping newcomers with lower levels of English  specifically those with Canadian Language Benchmark levels of four and lower.

Sixty per cent of their clients find employment within three months, Membreno said.

The majority who dont find work struggled finding child care or with other settlement issues or decided to focus on English classes, she said.

Language requirements vary depending on the job.

For newspaper carriers delivering the Free Press in the early morning while subscribers sleep, for example, its not a big requirement, said Rick Swiergosz with the audience development department. The Free Press is participating in the job fair and looking for adults with vehicles to deliver papers for around three hours a day, six days a week. It pays an average $750 a month with the sort of work schedule that would accommodate someone who attends English classes during the day or evening.

Bison Transport is also taking part in the job fair and looking for office employees fluent in English, corporate recruiter Tara Gousseau said.

All our staff need to be able to communicate verbally and in written form in English, she said. They seek candidates with experience in a business environment or schooling in business, she said.

In terms of people skills, we gravitate toward those who have a strong desire to provide excellent customer service to our clients.

Gousseau said Bison Transport took part in the job fair last year, and it was worth it.

We had a lot of candidates stop by our booth to discuss the opportunities at Bison Transport, and we were able to make a lot of new connections with some great people.

Hanna, meanwhile, is hoping to connect with an employer.

Life is not easy in Canada, he said. His job search has been tough, but living in Canada is worth the struggle, he said. Theres no discrimination. There is freedom.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 20/08/2016 (2261 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Joan Jack is an Ojibwa activist from Berens River First Nations who does not want the missing and murdered indigenous women inquiry to restrict itself to an examination of the cases of missing women. She forcefully advocates a broad inquiry into the massive problem of violence against aboriginal women on reserves. In her words, Theres just a level of violence in our communities that is a crisis, and no one seems to care.

Will the aboriginal leaders get behind her and make this happen?

The signs are not good. When I raised this issue last year in the Winnipeg Free Press (Aboriginal women bloodied every day, Aug. 25, 2015) the reaction of the male-dominated aboriginal leadership was as predictable as it was disheartening. The explanation provided was that male violence in aboriginal communities is not really the fault of the men. They did it because of discrimination, colonialism, foster homes, residential schools and other historical injustices.

JOHN WOODS / THE CANADIAN PRESS Bernice Catcheway, whose daughter Jennifer has been missing since 2008, weeps after receiving a blanket during a healing blanket ceremony at the second national round table on missing and murdered indigenous women and girls in Winnipeg Feb. 25, 2016.

The response consisted of the same excuses that are heard daily in courts and elsewhere  abusive men refusing to take responsibility for their own behaviour, and claiming victim status. And, for the most part, abusers are getting away with it, at a terrible cost to the quality of the lives of aboriginal women and children.

Let there be no mistake: the historical injustices are real, but to allow men to use them as excuses for brutalizing women is hypocrisy writ large. Worse, it gives abusers a virtual free pass to continue to act violently.

And, yes, discrimination is real. Many of todays aboriginal leaders grew up with the humiliation of being told their culture was inferior. The treatment of aboriginal women was even worse. The dynamics of the S-word in relation to aboriginal women is very similar to that of the N-word south of the border. Aboriginal women felt the double-whammy of white contempt and the wrath of their own men.

Now, only a very small minority of people think in those racist terms. Today, many of our best and brightest writers, artists, senators  the list is long, and growing longer  are aboriginal men and women who refuse to be victims any longer. But the problem of violence stubbornly hangs on.

Just how big is the problem?

Police statistics say 90 per cent of slain and abused aboriginal women are victimized by their partners. But even that doesnt tell the whole story, because the 90 per cent is based only on reported cases. In most cases, it is not reported, and the victim is silent. The figure is probably more like 99 per cent.

To put things into context, the inquiry will deal with an average of about 50 women per year from 1980 to the present who go missing. Hundreds of times that figure do not go missing, but are forced to try to live with the violence. In too many cases, they get no help from their communities.

The problem is simply enormous and it is crippling aboriginal communities.

What are the consequences? How many of the missing women were driven from their community because they could not find safety there? How many more women stay, but in a trap of abuse? How many of their children end up in Manitobas overloaded child-welfare system, then into jails and hopelessness  condemned to relive their violent fathers destructive lives?

The inquiry will not change this grim reality one bit if it takes the easy route and simply goes after the police and other institutions. Only if aboriginal women press the commissioners to thoroughly examine all aspects of violence against rural and urban aboriginal women is there a hope that this plague can be brought under control.

Aboriginal women have a decision to make. If they are content to have the inquiry use its mandate to focus exclusively on police conduct and the conduct of other institutions, the end result will be yet more ineffective government programs, and yet more paperwork for the police. The violence will still be there. If aboriginal women want something real to come from this inquiry, they will convince the commissioners to listen to Joan Jack  and take dead aim at the violence.

Brian Giesbrecht was a provincial court judge from 1976 until 2007. He is now retired.
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 20/08/2016 (2261 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipegs population is expected to grow by 8,200 people annually, with a population of more than 922,000 expected by 2040. Thats about 200,000 more people to get stuck in a rush hour traffic jam in the next 25 years or so, unless city hall gets serious about dealing with road construction.

Certainly, theres political will and an unprecedented amount of money dedicated to fixing roads. Yet Winnipeg operates its road repair as if its a 9-to-5, Monday-to-Friday job, with barriers up but no workers in sight after the workday is over. Its hard to take in the middle of the afternoon rush hour, where the average commute time doubles as traffic backs up in all directions.

Approaching road construction like an office job might work OK if we lived in sunnier climes, where a lack of snow means roadwork can continue all year long. But in a city where snow isnt cleared until the end of April (or even May, in rotten years) and quickly returns at the end of October (or, sigh, September), its ludicrous.

Road construction on Lagimodiere Blvd.

Theres been little discussion about taking a cue from other cities and having work crews working on projects earlier in the day and later at night  particularly given that in the peak of summer, the sun stays up until late in the evening  to minimize the number of road closures on any given day of the week.

It doesnt have to mean it will cost more to build the roads. After all, the amount of money available for road construction is finite. It also doesnt necessarily mean higher labour costs. Instead of one crew working an eight-hour day, extend the work hours, hire two crews to do the work and cut the construction time in half. Then overtime isnt a factor, and considering industry experts said earlier this year they are starved for work, this is one way to keep skilled employees in the province.

Its disappointing the city doesnt seem to consider the cost to businesses and productivity when road construction is protracted. Longer wait times stuck in traffic snarls means more idling time, which is expensive in terms of fuel costs. It also costs in terms of labour for those who need to move through the city in the course of a day. Fewer auto parts get delivered when road construction closes major arteries all at the same time. Productivity comes to a standstill.

But its more than that. A slower pace in getting roads repaired costs businesses whose sidewalks or street access are under construction for months at a time. The constant construction along Portage Avenue, for example, has business owners like Lynn Bishop at the Sound Exchange worried: Theyre killing us. How do they think were going to pay our bills?

Companies do expand their hours of operation when theyre attempting to make a project deadline or take advantage of bonuses for on-time completion. Extending road construction hours should be a normal part of doing business in Winnipeg.

Right now, the traffic jams are horrendous. In 25 years, at nearly a million people, theyll be a nightmare.
Tom Gaukel knew he was picking up a quilt. He just didnt know hed get to keep it.

The Baraboo American Legion member was dispatched to Ho-Chunk Gaming in Madison on Sunday, ostensibly to fetch a quilt. When he and wife Ann arrived, they quickly realized their mission had been cloaked in deception.

They were invited to sit on a stage, where they got a front-row view of an Operation Badger Base event celebrating Wisconsin veterans military service. Gaukel was awarded the blanket from the Quilt of Valor organization and a certificate. He was one of about a dozen vets honored.

I was kind of dumbfounded, really, he said. Gaukel thought to himself, Oh my gosh, this isnt just picking up a blanket.

We didnt expect it, his wife said.

A native of the Sauk Prairie area, Gaukel joined the U.S. Army after high school in 1952. He trained in artillery and became a jumper with the 82nd Airborne Division in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He was deployed to Japan during the Korean War, and spent two years there. Gaukel jokingly takes credit for a cease-fire being signed upon his arrival.

Gaukel made 33 jumps in training exercises before leaving the Army in 1955. From there he married Ann and started college. He went on to become a special education teacher and school administrator, retiring in 1999. Thats when he got involved with the American Legion in Baraboo, where he lives, and the VFW in his native Sauk Prairie. He also joined the Badger State chapter of the 82nd Airborne Division.

I thought, What the heck, Im retired, he said.

He served as that chapters chairman for six years. Closer to home, he has written articles for local posts newsletters and has handled media relations.

Gaukel was the only Korean War vet honored during Sundays event, as most fought during the Vietnam War. I dont need more reminders that Im old, he said with a smile.

The Quilt of Valor organization was founded in 2003 by a mother whose son had been deployed to Iraq. Its mission is to comfort soldiers touched by war. More than 140,000 quilts have been awarded nationwide.

Operation Badger Base is a traveling memorial to Vietnam veterans. The three-day event last weekend included the quilt presentation, displays honoring casualties of war and performances by Ho-Chunk musicians and dancers.

Gaukel said he was surprised by all the attention. He said he feels I didnt really do anything. But he appreciated the gesture of thanks. This is kind of neat, he said.
By India Today Web Desk: The Blade Runner sequel is pretty much the most anticipated film in the near future. The sequel being directed by Denis Villeneuve and co-written by Ridley Scott has a new star on board, Jared Leto. The Joker from Suicide Squad is joining an already star-studded cast including names like Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford, Robin Wright and Barkhad Abdi.

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According to sources, the Dallas Buyers Club actor is being offered this role by Warner Bros as an apology for the debacle of Suicide Squad. The role is being kept under wraps, however, it will be interesting to see if he plays the antagonist in the film.

ALSO READ: Barkhad Abdi joins the cast of Denis Villeneuve's Blade Runner sequel

Everything around the Blade Runner is being kept under tightly under wraps, Gosling even joking the studio will detonate a brain charge, if he talks about the film in any way publicly.

The sequel is being co-written by original writer Hampton Fancher and director of the original 1991 cult, Ridley Scott. The film will be based on the Phillip K Dick's novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? The film will see Villeneuve reunite with stalwart Roger Deakins' who worked with him previously in Prisoners, Sicario.

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Information is taken from the records of the Portage Police Department and does not represent a comprehensive list of police activity. Each individual named in this report is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

Between 7:58 a.m. Wednesday and 5:06 a.m. Friday police responded to 72 calls.

Wal-Mart: Police on Wednesday at 4:26 p.m. responded to a reported theft where a 17-year-old Pardeeville male was accused of taking $950 from registers over several weeks. The teen was issued a city ordinance citation for theft.

Rusch Elementary: Police on Wednesday at 8:09 p.m. responded to a reported found vape pen which tested positive for THC and was later claimed by Jolene Zabler, 22, of Portage who was cited for possession of drug paraphernalia.

Huron Street and East Wisconsin Street: Police on Wednesday at 11:31 p.m. stopped Paul A. Dorn, 24, of Madison, who was cited for operating a vehicle after revocation of a license and driving without an ignition interlock device.

Washington Street: Police on Thursday at 12:14 a.m. stopped Jared Sowatski, 34, of Portage who was arrested and cited for operating a motor vehicle while drugged with passengers under the age of 16, as well as felony possession of marijuana as a second offense.

East Howard Street: Police on Thursday at 9:07 p.m. responded to a noise complaint where a reportedly drunk man loudly explained to the responding officer that he had been cheering for the Packers. The man agreed to cheer inside the house.

Silver Lake Drive and County Highway CX: Police on Thursday at 11:14 p.m. stopped a vehicle for driving with a defective headlight whereupon Raymond Tobias, 25, of Portage, was cited for operating a vehicle after suspension of a license as a fourth offense.

East Cook Street: Police on Friday at 2:34 a.m. stopped Jacob A McQueary, 30, of Saint Charles, Illinois, was stopped for driving left of the center line. McQueary was arrested and cited for operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated as a first offense.
A Fall River man has been identified as the victim in a fatal crash that happened Thursday morning in Columbia County.

According to the Columbia County Sheriffs Office, Douglass Lee, 54, died after a crash at the intersection of Highways 60 and C in the Town of Hampden at 9:54 a.m.

A press release from the sheriffs office said that Lee was driving a Chevy Express G2500 Van and did not stop for a stop sign striking a semi pulling an empty flatbed. Lee was wearing a seat belt at the time of the crash.

A Columbia County Deputy was on scene within four minutes of the call. Rescue personnel from Rio EMS were also dispatched to the scene.

The crash remains under investigation by the Columbia County Sheriffs Office and the Wisconsin State Patrol. The Wisconsin State Patrol Accident Reconstruction Team mapped the scene.

Highway 60 was shut down for approximately four hours. The Columbia County Highway Department assisted with the traffic detour.

The Columbia County Sheriffs Office was assisted by Rio Fire, Rio EMS, Wisconsin State Patrol, Columbia County Medical Examiners Office, and Blystones Towing.
Its no secret Donald Trumps supporters wish he would spend more time in his public appearances focused on issues and less on the offhand remarks that have gotten him into trouble.

Newt Gingrich, the Trump vice presidential finalist who goes in and out of favor at Trump Tower, has long counseled a tighter, more disciplined focus on issues. In an interview Aug. 12, as the Obama-is-the-founder-of-ISIS controversy spilled into another day, Gingrich seemed to reach a new level of frustration, suggesting that Trump and the news media have created a baloney machine that distracts the public from important issues.

Trump should spend more time talking about America and less time talking about Trump, Gingrich told me after an appearance on Fox News.

Its not helpful, and its not helpful to have quips that distract from the main issues, Gingrich continued. If Trump is not talking about the economy, and hes not talking about safety, and hes not talking about reforming Washington, hes losing ground.

Indeed, Trump is losing ground. He is running 6.3 points  a substantial margin  behind Hillary Clinton in the RealClearPolitics average of national polls. Even more concerning are new polls of states Trump must win if he is to become president. Even as Gingrich spoke, NBC and the Wall Street Journal were releasing surveys showing Trump trailing Hillary Clinton by 5 points in Florida, 9 points in North Carolina, 13 points in Virginia and by 14 points in Colorado.

Add those to polls showing Trump in trouble in Ohio and falling behind in Pennsylvania  two absolutely critical states for Trump  and the polls are sending Trump a very loud message that what he is doing now is not working.

And yet Trump has said several times that he sees no need to change his style to compete in the general election.

Gingrich sees an increasingly urgent situation. The fact is, you only have a limited amount of communications time, and you should be focusing that time on the issues that matter to the American people, he said. If talking about yourself drowns out everything else youre talking about  because you know as a conservative the news media is never going to give you a break  you have to make sure you dont give them a break. And every time he gives them something to talk about that allows them to avoid his issues, theyre going to take it.

Gingrich pointed to the House Republican report that the U.S. Central Command altered its intelligence to suggest the American campaign against the Islamic State is making more progress than is actually the case. That ought to be a major national scandal, Gingrich said.

But it gets totally submerged in all of this baloney, Gingrich concluded. And Trump contributes to the baloney. He and the news media have a sort of baloney machine going between them.

Nevertheless, Trump has repeatedly refused to change his approach. On Aug. 9, he told Fox Businesss Maria Bartiromo that, I think that you know my temperament has gotten me here ... I certainly dont think its appropriate to start changing all of a sudden when youve been winning. On Aug. 11, Trump told CNBC, At the end, its either going to work, or Im going to, you know, Im going to have a very, very nice long vacation.
The proposed route of the Great Sauk Trail has expanded to include the defunct rail bridge over the Wisconsin River in Sauk City.

At a Wisconsin River Rail Transit Commission ad hoc committee meeting in Prairie du Sac on Aug. 17, Wisconsin & Southern Railroad director of government relations Ken Lucht said the company would extend the conversion of rail line to trail at milepost 7.3, just north of Fuchs Trucking Company on Highway 78.

That would include the bridge in the conversion, Lucht said. So instead of being entirely in Sauk County, it would include northern Dane County for about a half mile on the other side of the river.

Prior to the announcement, the trails first segment was to start on the Sauk City side of the rail bridge and wind 5.2 miles on the existing unused rail bed through Sauk City and Prairie du Sac to the southern boundary of the Sauk Prairie Recreation Area in the town of Merrimac.

The rail bridge on Water Street has been in disrepair since 2002.

State Sen. Jon Erpenbach and state Rep. Dave Considine both encouraged the committee to consider extending the trail into Dane County. Sauk County Board Chair Mary Krueger hailed the arrangement.

This is momentous, he said. Not being able to get across the river doesnt get the economic impact this trail is supposed to have. They moved the mile post for the conversion and thats huge.

Krueger leads the Great Sauk Trail Commission and has served on the rail transit commission as an alternate for Carol Held, who has been too ill to attend.

Wisconsin & Southerns rail line lease agreement with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation is in effect until 2047.

The extension of the trail conversion would have to be part of an amended lease agreement with the DOT. After that, the DOT and Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources must file a statement of willingness to take over the unused rail line with the U.S. Surface Transportation Board giving the authority of the trail to the DNR.

Once completed, a rails-to-trails agreement between the DOT and the DNR can be established, leaving the DNR as the sponsor of the trail, which will then contract with Sauk County for maintenance and management.

A Friends of the Great Sauk Trail group is working to raise funds that can be added to start-up contributions of the villages of Prairie du Sac and Sauk City, which each pledged $207,500 each for the project. Sauk County also agreed to contribute $207,500, with the town of Prairie du Sac chipping in another $10,000.

In September, the trail group was awarded $400,000 from the DNRs Knowles-Nelson Stewardship fund.

The Association of Wisconsin Snowmobile Clubs has supported the extension of the trail over the bridge into Dane County.

Sam Landes, executive director of the snowmobile group, said he was encouraged by Luchts announcement, but said there still is a lot of paperwork to get through before a trail is a reality.

A very great first step happened, Landes said. But its only a first step. The Great Sauk Trail will have an even stronger impact.

Landes said it was too soon to estimate potential costs to repair the bridge and widen it for a recreational path.

Sauk Prairie Area Chamber of Commerce executive director Tywana German said bike trail studies in similar communities show that a one-day user of a trail could generate about $100 in additional business per day. She said the research shows a potential annual impact of between $2 million and $5 million.
Actor Tamannaah, who is currently busy promoting her upcoming Hindi film Ranveer Ching Returns, rubbishes rumours regarding her Malayalam film Kammarasambhavam.

By India Today Web Desk: Actor Tamannaah, who is currently busy promoting her upcoming Hindi film Ranveer Ching Returns, rubbishes rumours regarding her Malayalam film Kammarasambhavam.

Earlier to this, reports suggested that the actor has been roped in to play the lead role in the upcoming Malayalam film, which co-stars actors Mollywood actor Dileep and actor Siddharth.



ALSO READ: Pinneyum movie review- Adoor Gopalakrishnan returns, but only in parts



ALSO READ: Kammarasambhavam- Tamannaah to make her Malayalam debut

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A furious Tamannaah took it to Twitter and cleared the air about her Malayalam debut film. She wrote, "When I sign a new film , I will tweet abt it ."



When I sign a new film , I will tweet abt it . Tamannaah Bhatia (@tamannaahspeaks) August 20, 2016

In her next post, Tamannaah bashed the media organisation for not verifying the authencity of the news. She wrote, "This news has been doin the rounds , and it's absolutely false. Check your facts before putting up stuff."



This news has been doin the rounds , and it's absolutely false. Check your facts before putting up stuff https://t.co/Sqni0XDzIp Tamannaah Bhatia (@tamannaahspeaks) August 20, 2016

Tamannaah will be next seen in SS Rajamouli's epic fantasy film Baahubali: The Conclusion. She also awaits the release of her Hindi film Ranveer Ching Returns, which stars Ranveer Singh in the lead role.

Kammarasambhavam, which is loosely based on the life of a popular communist character from Kerala, went on the floors on Thursday.

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By PTI: New Delhi, Aug 20 (PTI) India is not engaged in any proxy war in Afghanistan and has been sincerely carrying out reconstruction work there, former Afghan President Hamid Karzai said today even as he slammed Pakistan for "encouraging" radicalism and not containing terror groups operating from its soil.

Karzai also appreciated Prime Minister Narendra Modi for raising the issue of Balochisthan in his Independence Day address, saying Afghanistan understands the problems being faced by the people of Pakistans southern province.

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In an interactive session on Regional Power Play and Rise of Radicalism in Afghanistan, he identified terrorism as the single biggest challenge facing the region and called for a united fight to defeat it.

Karzai, who was president of Afghanistan from 2001-2014, said China has been a good neighbour to Afghanistan and its military and security assistance to his country was very recent. At the same time, he said that Afghanistans ties with China is not as deep as it is with India.

"But the overall relationship between China and Afghanistan is of course very good," he added.

Asked about criticism in some quarters that India and Pakistan were engaged in a proxy war in his country, Karzai retorted by saying, "India is not engaging in any proxy war in Afghanistan...Training thousands of Afghans is not a proxy war, it is empowerment."

India has supplied four Mi25 helicopters to Afghanistan besides providing training to Afghan security forces.

Welcoming Modis comments on Balochistan, Karzai said, "The issue of Balochisthan is something we understand and therefore we appreciate the remarks of Prime Minister Modi."

In his Independence Day speech on Monday, Modi had talked about the situation in PoK, Gilgit and Balochistan and said people from there have thanked him for raising their issues.

Karzai attacked Pakistan for encouraging spread of radicalism. "Unfortunately, in our region there was use of radicalism to a purpose," he said.

About spread of dreaded terror outfit Islamic State, he said IS is a "sinister" tool, adding tomorrow it will be against the ones using it. He said Afghanistan and all its neighbouring countries must work together to combat IS.

"Today I can use it, tomorrow I can discard it. Thats a very dangerous strategy," he said, while asking Pakistan to deal with terror groups firmly.

He said religion and aspirations to be a democratic country have nothing to do with one another.

In an apparent reference to Pakistan, he rejected promotion of religion as an "instrument of foreign policy". He also sounded critical of the US for its role in the region.

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Karzai appealed to Pakistan to join hands with Afghanistan in addressing various problems "without use of radicalism." PTI SBR MPB RT

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For the sixth consecutive Friday, no prayers were allowed at the Jamia Mosque in Nowhatta area of old city Srinagar.

By Shuja-ul-Haq : Curfew and shutdown continued on Saturday for the 43rd consecutive day, as there is no sign yet of normalcy being restored in Kashmir.

CURFEW TO REMAIN

Close to 21 incidents of stone pelting and violence occurred across the valley on Friday. For the sixth consecutive Friday, no prayers were allowed at the Jamia Mosque in Nowhatta area of old city Srinagar.

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Senior separatist leaders, Syed Ali Geelani and Mirwaiz Umer Farooq tried to defy the detention when they came out of house arrest. Both Geelani and Mirwaiz were apprehended and were again placed under house arrest. Authorities have said that the curfew will remain in force in Anantnag town and parts of Srinagar city.

The state government has advised its employees to resume duties failing which they would not be given salaries for the month of August. The separatists have issued a protest calendar till 25th August and have asked the people to follow the protest programs.

66 civilians have died in last 43 days in clashes with security forces and thousands have been injured.

ALSO READ:

Pakistan ignores India's condition, invites Jaishankar to discuss Kashmir

Government employees in Jammu and Kashmir asked to join duties with immediate effect



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The account of the last moments of terrorist suspect Aaron Drivers life given by the taxi driver caught up in the joint police-military antiterrorism operation strongly suggests that the 24-year-old was summarily executed.

Driver died August 10 in what authorities described as an emergency intervention led by the RCMPs elite counterterrorism force to thwart an imminent attack. They claimed to be acting on a tip the FBI had passed on earlier the same day concerning an online video in which a masked Driver vowed Canadians would pay with their blood for Ottawas involvement in the wars in the Middle East and pledged allegiance to ISIS.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) provided scant details on its operation in Strathroy, Ontario, including how Driver died; whether it was at his own hands from setting off a crude explosive device he had made or whether he had been killed by police bullets. More than a week later, the RCMP has continued to shroud its actions on August 10 and Drivers death in secrecy.

Speaking to the London Free Press, taxi driver Terry Duffield has provided his recollection of the final moments of Aaron Drivers lifean account that indicates an incapacitated Driver was killed by police As Im laying on the ground, said Duffield, I hear an officer say, loud, Hes still twitching. Then I hear pop, pop, pop, pop, like four or five shots, and then it was complete silence.

Duffields account is supported by an autopsy on Driver, whose conclusions were made public by his estranged father earlier this week. It confirmed that he died from one of two gunshot wounds that hit vital organs, rather than as a result of the explosion caused by his homemade device.

Duffield has accused the RCMP of recklessly endangering his life. In his Free Press interview he noted that the police did not warn either the taxi company or himself that a police operation targeting Driver was underway, after the terror suspect phoned for a cab. Nor did they try to stop or warn Duffield while he was on his way to Drivers house, although hundreds of security personnel had taken up positions in Strathroy; or try to communicate with him during the approximately five minutes he waited outside Drivers residence. Only when the 24-year-old got into the cab and Duffield began backing out of the driveway did heavily armed officers emerge.

A surrounded Driver then apparently exploded his incendiary device. The blast left him wounded and Duffield, who had ducked for cover, with minor injuries.

Although the taxi driver was visibly injured, the police, according to Duffields account, did not arrange for him to have medical care or otherwise assist him. The son of the taxi company owner subsequently picked him up and drove him home.

The mounting evidence that the police acted as judge, jury and executioner in Strathroy should give workers and youth pause. All the more so, given that the media and politicians have done nothing but shower the RCMP with praise.

Even if the authorities version of events is taken at face value, it still raises troubling questions: Why did they not seek to apprehend Driver before he entered the taxi, and, more fundamentally, why, when he was incapacitated, did the highly trained antiterrorism officers decide to fire multiple times at him?

The indifference to these questions within the political and media establishment reveals their contempt for basic democratic rights and slavish support for the use of the most violent methods, up to and including state-sanctioned killings, at home and abroad.

Boosting the ruling elites phony war on terror narrative

This is further illustrated by the combined efforts of the media and political establishment to use the claim that an attack causing mass casualties was only narrowly averted to stoke the phony war on terror narrative. This is part of the ruling elites desperate efforts to provide the vast expansion of Canadian militarism abroad and sweeping attacks on democratic rights at home with a veneer of legitimacy.

Earlier this year, the Liberals unveiled a major expansion of Canadas participation in the US-led war in Syria and Iraq, which is a regime-change operation against the Russian- and Iranian-supported Bashar al-Assad government in Damascus dressed up as a fight against terrorism. Justin Trudeaus government is also expected to soon announce a deployment of up to 1,000 troops and warplanes to Africa. Although the precise location of these forces is yet to be announced, politicians are already justifying the deployment as necessary to stop the spread of jihadi terrorism in West Africa. In truth, the coming Canadian Armed Forces intervention is aimed at securing Canadian imperialisms significant and growing economic and geopolitical interests in Africa, including multibillion-dollar mining investments spread across several unstable countries.

The Liberals use of an alleged terrorist threat to stampede an overwhelmingly hostile population behind a dramatic expansion of Canadian imperialist violence makes clear how the Canadian ruling elites traditional preferred party of government has picked up seamlessly from where its Conservative predecessor left off. While Trudeau has replaced Stephen Harpers bellicose rhetoric about Canada being a warrior nation with progressive posturing about Canadas support for refugees and UN peacekeeping, the end result is the same: a deepening of Canadas involvement in imperialist wars around the globe.

This was underscored in Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus response to the Strathroy events. Speaking in Nova Scotia Tuesday, Trudeau fuelled the war-on-terror narrative by stating that the main challenge is balancing civil liberties against the security measures required to meet the terrorist threat.

Driver was clearly a troubled individual. He had voiced support for the brutal terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels and declared allegiance to ISIS. But the claim that a serious attack was only narrowly averted is increasingly being undermined. The Globe and Mail acknowledged in an article Thursday that the device Driver had manufactured was so crude as to pose no threat to anyones life. Drivers estranged father, a former Canadian Armed Forces officer commented, It would not have killed a number of people.

According to Drivers father, the coroner informed him that, had it not been for the police gunshots, Driver would have been left with nonpermanent injuries.

The claim that the authorities knew nothing of Drivers activities until the FBI informed them of the appearance of his online video on the morning of the RCMP operation is also highly suspect. Driver was placed under a peace bond as a terrorist suspect last February after having been illegally detained for eight days in June 2015 and questioned about his support for ISIS. Only eleven people in Canada have ever been subject to peace bonds for alleged terrorist activity, and at the time of Drivers death, only one other of these bonds remained active. Even more inexplicably, a neighbour reported hearing explosions in Drivers backyard July 31, but the authorities did not deem it necessary to investigate.

The public is thus being asked to believe that the Canadian intelligence apparatus, with the vast array of surveillance and spying powers at its disposal that were partially revealed thanks to the whistleblowing of Edward Snowden, were incapable of keeping track of Drivers activities and communications, even though his use of cell phones and the internet was heavily regulated.

It cannot be excluded that the authorities knowingly permitted Driver to proceed with his planned attack to a point where a major police-military deployment could be justified. That this is not mere speculation was illustrated by a recent ruling by a British Columbia judge that the RCMP had encouraged, even pressured, a couple to prepare and carry out a terrorist attack on the provinces legislature on Canada Day in 2013. (See: Canadian police manufactured terror plot to ensnare couple)

None of this has stopped the professional apologists for militarist violence and state surveillance in the bourgeois press from coming forward to defend the authorities. Globe columnist Margaret Wente entitled a comment Im very glad the Mounties got their man in Strathroy. The RCMP, she enthused, deserve a lot of credit for getting this one right. After dismissing concerns raised by members of the public about the authorities behaviour and Drivers ability to take his plan to such an advanced stage allegedly without detection, she concluded, Like it or not, sometimes the only solution is the violent one.

The purpose of such comments is to inure the population to the use of lethal force by a militarized police force that acts with total disregard to basic democratic rights and legal principles.

The Canadian state already has unprecedented powers at its disposal to compel individuals to testify against terrorist suspects, detain individuals without charge, actively disrupt vaguely defined threats to national security and conduct mass surveillance of the entire population. These powers were significantly augmented with the passage last year of Bill C-51, which was authored by the then governing Conservatives and supported by the Liberal opposition.

Police officials are seizing upon last weeks events in Strathroy to demand even stricter controls on online communication and further attacks on the right to privacy. The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police passed a resolution this week calling for a new law compelling individuals to hand over electronic passwords at the order of a judge. RCMP Deputy Commissioner Joe Oliver pointed to the lack of such a provision in Canadian law, before claiming without any evidence that large numbers of criminals are using encrypted communications to avoid being traced by the authorities.

David Christopher of OpenMedia, which works to keep the Internet free from state surveillance, warned of the implications of adopting such a law, noting that it would violate Canadians constitutional rights. In the case of a laptop computer, handing over a password would, said Christopher, be like providing the key to your whole personal life.
By India Today Web Desk: Former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir Omar Abdullah today met President Pranab Mukherjee along with a team of opposition leaders from the Valley.

The former chief minister urged the President to find an amicable solution to the ongoing unrest in Kashmir. He requested the President to find a solution politically and not administratively.



"It is a political problem and not an administrative problem. Need a humanitarian approach. Solution must be found politically not an administratively," said Abdullah.

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Abdullah added that there was a political anarchy in Kashmir.

MODI GOVT SHOULD DOUSE THE ONGOING FIRE



Abdullah said that the Modi government was free to do what it wanted but it should put in efforts to douse the ongoing fire. Abdullah along with the leaders from Congress also met leaders from the BJP-led Central government.

"Modi government believes in crushing all forms of opposition and this ham handed approach is creating a problem," Abdullah told India Today.



Speaking about the meeting, Abdullah stated that he and his allies hope to bring a positive outcome. He also said that despite the PDP-BJP alliance messing up things, they did not seek a Governor rule in the Valley.

He added that although Pakistan was involved in stoking trouble, the protests following Hizbul commander Burhan Wani's killing was spontaneous. Abdullah said that Pakistan also added fuel to the ongoing turmoil.

"For the last 25 years Pakistan has been instrumental in worsening the situation in Kashmir. We are solely responsible for the unrest following the killing of Wani. However, Pakistan has been, at opportune moments, fueling violence in the Valley," added Abdullah.



INDIA-PAK RELATIONS ARE NOSE-DIVING

Abdullah added that If India-Pakistan relations improved, Kashmir would have benefited but today they are nose-diving.

He criticised the fact that the Northern Army Commander initiated a dialogue of reconciliation while the government remained silent. He questioned why the political parties had to pitch in.

"The issues that are to be raised by political parties are unfortunately being raised by Army leadership. What Northern Army Commander said should have been said by the government," lamented Abdullah.



Abdullah, in a scathing attack, said that it was the first time that steps to be taken by the government are actually being taken by the opposition.



Also read:

Pakistan not architect of Kashmir crisis, India unwilling to own Kashmiris: Omar Abdullah



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The right-wing cabal seeking to remove Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn have now centred their attack on his refusal to support Britain going to war against Russia as part of the NATO alliance.

On Thursday, Corbyn took part in the latest Labour leadership debate in Birmingham with challenger Owen Smith. The leadership contest was prompted after 172 Labour MPs supported a vote of no confidence in Corbyn. This followed a walkout by more than 60 MPs from his shadow cabinet.

Asked by the moderator, Carl Dinnen of ITV News, How would you act on a violation by [Russian President] Vladimir Putin of a fellow NATO state, Corbyn replied, You would want to avoid that happening in the first place. You would build up a good dialogue with Russia  We would try to introduce a de-militarisation of the borders between Russia, the Ukraine and all the other countries on the border between Russia and Eastern Europe. What we cannot allow is a series of calamitous build-ups of troops on both sides which can only lead to great danger in the future.

Answering the same question Smith said, We would have to come to the aid of a fellow member of NATOthat is the nature of the NATO accord. That would be the job of Britain in the event of a fellow NATO member being invaded, obviously.

In committing to war against Russia, Smith saidwithout any reference to the massive and ongoing NATO military buildup on Russias bordersthat the supposed expansionism and militaristic aggression by Putin in recent years had to be opposed. To do that, he added, we need to be at the heart of the European Union. The European Union is the greatest bulwark against Russian aggression.

Dinnen repeatedly pressed Corbyn on the issue. Smith had said that he would authorise war against Russia, he stated. Would you do that? When Corbyn replied that he would want to avoid us getting involved militarily by building up diplomatic relations, Dinnen interjected, Everyone would want to avoid it, but would you get involved if you had to?

To this Corbyn responded, to loud applause, I dont wish to go to warwhat I want to do is achieve a world that we dont need to go to war, where theres no need for it.

Corbyns comments occasioned a slew of denunciatory articles and commentary, declaring that he could not be trusted with the reins of power if he were not ready for a war against Russiaa conflict with a nuclear-armed power that threatens the destruction of the planet.

The Daily Mirror wrote, Article Five of NATOs founding treaty makes clear that all member states must rush to the defence of any fellow ally which comes under attack. Guardian columnist Simon Jenkins declared, Jeremy Corbyns dismissal of NATO is a step too far, adding that shunning our most important international military alliance is just reckless.

The New Statesmans George Eaton wrote, It was under the Attlee government in 1949 that the UK co-founded NATO and became one of its senior members. Every Labour leader since has supported the military alliance. But in last nights hustings, Jeremy Corbyn refused to commit to upholding Article 5: the principle of collective defence ... It is for reasons such as these that 172 Labour MPs voted no confidence in their leader last month and 65 resigned from his frontbench.

To confirm this appraisal, Blairite Labour MP Wes Streeting said Corbyns comments meant he was unfit to hold the office of prime minister.

Lord West, the former First Sea Lord and an ex-Labour minister, told PoliticsHome that Corbyn should not lead the nation. He made a derogatory reference to growing antiwar sentiment, declaring, Hes stating platitudes because it gets the unthinking masses to vote for him.

The political offensive against Corbyn is directed primarily against the leftward shift in the working class that led to his election as Labour leader last September, based upon his pledge to implement anti-austerity and anti-militarist policies.

From the outset, Corbyn came under attack as someone who could not be trusted with national security. Within days of his election, an anonymous general threatened a mutiny should a Labour government under Corbyn come to power. He told the Sunday Times, The general staff would not allow a prime minister to jeopardise the security of this country and I think people would use whatever means possible, fair or foul to prevent that 

The head of the armed forces, General Sir Richard Houghton, later went on the BBC declaring that Corbyn could not be prime minister because he had stated publicly that he would refuse to authorise a nuclear strike.

Corbyns repeated retreats in the face of these attacks, including his allowing a free vote on whether to conduct bombing raids on Syria, has placated the bloodlust of his opponents.

Last month, in the debate on renewing the Trident nuclear submarine missile programme, 140 Labour MPs voted in favour, defying their partys leader in support of newly installed Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May.

During the debate, May was asked by one MP, 'is she personally prepared to authorise a nuclear strike that could kill 100,000 innocent men, women and children? May replied Yes and, in a pointed reference to Corbyn, accused opponents of the UKs Trident missile system of being the first to defend the countrys enemies.

The United States has a direct hand in the ongoing destabilisation of Corbyns leadership.

On February 13, the Independent on Sunday ran an interview with the former head of NATO, Lord Robertson, who responded to Corbyns anti-Trident posture by saying, Theres a great deal of nervousness around and its perfectly understandable. Its coming from the Americans, but other countries too. ... Were not talking about a purely domestic deterrent.

Labour MP Madeleine Moon, a member of the House of Commons defence select committee, added, I was in Washington for a NATO conference ... They are watching what we are doing and are very fearful.

The period when the US was watching what we are doing has ended. The escalating efforts to remove Corbyn following the June 23 referendum vote on Britain leaving the European Union have the full backing of Washington, which enjoys close ties with the leading Blairite figures in the ongoing coup.

Amid rising tensions with Russia over Ukraine and Syria and a military buildup of NATO forces on its borders, the ever more strident attacks on Corbyn as a de facto traitor for opposing war and the use of nuclear weapons against Russia must act as a stark warning. Despite official declarations of an intent to normalise relations with Putin, Britains ruling elite, following the lead of the United States, is actively contemplating what was supposedly unthinkablea renewed war in Europe. The attack on Corbyn is only an indication of the preparations being made to combat rising antiwar sentiment among workers and young people.
Dont BlinkRobert Frank, is a very personal and generally engaging examination of the life and career of the acclaimed photographer and filmmaker. The new documentary, by longtime Frank film editor and collaborator Laura Israel, was made with the active participation of the artist himself, now 91 years old and still active. It was recently screened for several weeks at the Film Forum in New York City.

Dont Blink, despite flaws that are perhaps the result of too close a relationship with its enigmatic subject, nevertheless manages to stitch together a rough biographical composite of Robert Franks artistic and at times tragic personal life. It combines a fast-paced edit of his photographs, interviews, footage from his numerous experimental short films, an account of his involvement with the Beats, captions and news clippings, all of which is backed by an energetic soundtrack that features The Kills, Patti Smith, Yo La Tengo, Tom Waits, Lou Reed, The Rolling Stones and more. A highlight of the film is its discussion of The Americans, Franks 1958 book of photographs that is widely considered the most important book of its kind published in the 20th century.

Robert Frank emigrated to the United States from Zurich, Switzerland in 1947 at the age of 22, and adopted New York City as his home. His father, Hermann Frank, was a German-born Jew who settled in Zurich with his wife Rosa in the early 1920s. In the period leading up to the Second World War he became officially stateless after losing his right to German citizenship under the Nuremberg Race Laws. The family escaped the brunt of the horrors of the Holocaust in the safety of neutral Switzerland, but the young Robert Frank was certainly affected by the barbarity of the war and German fascism.

He arrived on the shores of the United States as a trained photographer and found in New York City a metropolis bursting with life and social ills, with millions of people hustling to make a living and struggling to make ends meet.

Later that same year Frank met renowned art director Alexey Brodovitch of Harpers Bazaar and began photographing fashion and still life for the magazine. Over the next several years he would meet and befriend Walker Evans, a legendary photographer of the Depression. He found additional work at the New York Times. He traveled and produced photographs from Peru, London and Wales. By 1955, with the assistance of Walker Evans, Frank applied for and received a Guggenheim Fellowship grant, enabling him to begin his travels around the United States for work on what would become The Americans.

During a nine-month period in 1955 and 1956, Frank drove across 30 states, traveling some 10,000 miles and shooting 767 rolls of filmover 27,000 framesto produce in the end the selection of just 83 essential photographs in his celebrated book. The photographer explains that it was necessary to look for faces, not landscapes, an indication of his concern with social questions. Its a sad comment on America, what a sad country it is, and the kind of hopeless feelings it has, unjust, Frank explained in an interview in Paris more than five decades later, in 2009.

The Americans changed the nature of photography, what it could say and how it could say it, according to critic Sean OHagen, writing in the Guardian in 2014. The book captured a version of American society in 1956-57 that collided headlong with what had become the official American narrative of prosperity in the Golden Age of American capitalism in the years of the postwar boom. Robert Franks photographs were a remarkable departure not only from the photo-journalistic salves of comfortable American life depicted in the pages of Life Magazine at the time, but also from the more formal social documentary images of his friend and mentor Walker Evans. Los Angeles artist Ed Ruscha described seeing The Americans for the first time as a young art student. I was aware of Walker Evanss work. But I felt like those were still lifes. Roberts work was life in motion.

Up to this point, photojournalism relied heavily on captions to explain to the viewer a detailed version of what he or she was looking at, but now the photograph stood on its own, on its own blank page, left to evoke a feeling. This became something of a mixed blessing in the subsequent development of art and photography, but in Franks work at the time it became a powerful tool. The subjects of The Americans were auto factory workers in Detroit, transvestites on the streets of New York, segregated passengers on a trolley car in New Orleans, Southern blacks attending funerals, and wistful cowboys. There were political rallies and Fourth of July celebrations with American flags appearing often and forlornly. There were Americans busy at lifeeating in diners, sleeping in parks, driving their cars down empty expanses of highway, riding in elevators and streetcars, and hanging out in rough bars.

Though the United States after the Second World War witnessed a general rise in living standards and a partial improvement in conditions of life for a broad segment of the countrys working classparticularly in contrast to the extreme social distress of the Great Depression, still raw in the consciousness of the American population as a wholethere were also untold numbers who had benefited hardly if at all, and to whom Frank was clearly drawn. In his photographs of ordinary Americans throughout the country, there was conspicuously something a little off, something disquieting. There was an outsiders view of a social malaise and deep alienation that defined much of the period.

To look at poor people and how they try to survive. What a lonely time it can be in Americawhat a tough country it is. And for the first time I saw how black people were treated. But it didnt make me hate America, it made me understand, Frank said about The Americans in 2005.

By the early 1960s the book began gathering praise and acclaim, after initial excoriating reviews and charges that it was anti-American. One critic described the photographer as a joyless man who hates the country of his adoption. Another characterized the photographs as meaningless blur, grain, muddy exposures, drunken horizons and general sloppiness. Curiously, according to Frank it was the growing momentum and success of The Americans, not the early attacks it had faced, that caused him to put down the Leica and change course. Once respectability and success become a part of it, then it was time to look for a new mistress, he stated back in 1969. Much of Franks work over the ensuing decades was in the field of short experimental films.

There was perhaps more involved than the search for new challenges. Frank had shown a side of America that was overlooked by polite society, but he wasnt at all sure that anything could be done about this status quo, and wasnt sure what he had to add to the subject. His work was increasingly characterized by a general lack of direction and coherency, something he shared with the writers of the Beat Generation, particularly Alan Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, who became close friends and collaborators of Frank throughout the 1960s and afterwards. As Frank himself states at one point during the documentary about his Beat friends, They didnt know where they were going but they were moving forward, or in whatever direction they chose.

The Beats lashed out against conformity, against what they saw as social stultification in the years during and after the McCarthyite witch-hunts of the 1950s, but their radicalism remained on the surface and took a pessimistic path. They saw The Americans as having managed to capture the spontaneity and movement of a work of poetry or prose. Kerouac, who volunteered to write the introduction to the book, said, Robert Frank  with that little camera  sucked a sad poem right out of America onto film.

Pull My Daisy, the first and best-known of Franks films, was completed in 1959, just one year after the publication of The Americans. It stars poets Allen Ginsberg, Peter Orlovsky and Gregory Corso and is inspired by an incident in the life of Beat icon Neal Cassidy and his painter wife.

A notorious film project of Franks came about when The Rolling Stones commissioned him to travel with them and shoot a documentary of their Exile on Main Street tour of 1972. After the films completion, the band decided that the content was too lewd and incriminating to be shown to American audiences. To Franks disappointment, a court order was obtained essentially banning its distribution. It could only be shown a couple of times a year in an archival setting and only if Robert Frank was himself in attendance. The film, titled Cocksucker Blues, is still under court order to this day.

Frank is a famously difficult personality. The film captures a good deal of this, particularly evident in his standoffishness and impatience in interview footage from several decades ago, where the artist loudly complains about what he considers often repeated stupid questions. But one of the films strengths is also the manner in which he is humanized as a complex artist, with a deep and generous sensitivity to his surroundings, notably for the people, fellow artists, friends and family whom Frank approaches with kindness, respect and a disarming sense of humor.

He married fellow artist Mary Lockspeiser, the mother of his two children, in the early 1950s. This marriage ended in 1969 and he remarried in 1971, to sculptor June Leaf. As the film shows, Leafs influence on Franks life and work was of immense importance. At Franks urging they traveled to the small mining and fishing town of Mabou, Nova Scotia and bought a small house overlooking the ocean. He began making photographs again in earnest in the early 1970s, while continuing his film and video projects, which more and more took on the feel of home movies and personal confessionals.

Frank endured enormous personal losses. His daughter Andrea was killed in a plane crash over Guatemala in 1974, and around the same time his son Pablo was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Much of Franks focus in his work at this time took a personal turn as he dealt with his grief. From the start of his relationship with June Leaf the couple were almost never apart, and they seemed to complement one another as partners and artists working on their own projects.

In the short film Life Dances On, in 1980, Frank focuses on the now alarming deterioration of his son Pablo as he slips deeper into mental illness. Home Movies, from 1985, shows Pablo now living in an institution as things get progressively worse. Pablo ended up taking his own life in 1994 at the age of 44, and Frank would later describe his own guilt in not being able to care for him: A person like that depends on the love of his parents, and that he didnt get quite enough of.

Franks photography from the late 1970s onward developed in an experimental direction very different from that of his early work. From his remote home in Canada he began photographing personal objects and seascapes, utilizing Polaroid film (particularly black and white Polaroid positive/negative film that would produce a black and white negative), and began scratching and writing words into the films emulsion. Sick of Goodbyes was scratched into a Polaroid negative of a view of the sea from his window, as an ode to his daughter Andrea.

Dont BlinkRobert Frank provides a rare glimpse into the life of the very private photographer and filmmaker. Franks best-known work, The Americans, is the most interesting and insightful part of the new documentary. The film is worth seeing for that chapter alone.
In a major and highly provocative strategic shift, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken to denouncing Pakistan for human rights abuses in Balochistan.

This is a calculated move, aimed at inflaming relations with Indias historic rival and under conditions where tensions between South Asias nuclear-armed states are already near the boiling point.

Islamabad has repeatedly accused Indian intelligence of providing logistical support to the longstanding ethno-national secessionist insurgency in Balochistan. Pakistans impoverished south-western province is resource-rich. But its geo-strategic importance has greatly increased, because its newly-built Arabian Sea port, Gwadar, has emerged as the linchpin of the China Pakistan Economic Corridora rail, road and pipeline network that will link western China with the Middle East and Africa.

Modi signaled the change in Indian strategy at an August 12 all-parties conference on the unrest in Jammu and Kashmir, Indias only Muslim-majority state. Modi denounced Pakistan, which has occupied northern and western sections of the former British Indian Empire princely-state of Kashmir since 1947-48 and lays claim to all of Indian-held Jammu and Kashmir, for fomenting terrorism in the Kashmir Valley. He then declared: Pakistan forgets that it bombs its own citizens using fighter planes. The time has come when Pakistan shall have to answer to the world for the atrocities committed by it against people in Balochistan and PoK (Pakistan occupied Kashmir).

Throwing further fuel on the fire, Modi called on the Indian Ministry of External Affairs to approach the people of PoK residing in different parts of world and collect information about the miserable conditions in PoK and bring them to the knowledge of the world community.

Modi repeated this line of attack in his August 15 Independence Day address to the nation, making clear thereby that his remarks three days before were not off the cuff, but rather the launching of a strategic offensive. He boasted of having received thanks from the people of Baluchistan, PoK, and Gilgit-Baltistan (the northern-most part of Pakistan-held Kashmir, which Islamabad administers separately from PoK) for having spoken out against Pakistani abuses. People settled far across, who I have not seen, have not met, continued Modi, show goodwill  towards me  acknowledge the Prime Minister of India, they honour him, so it is an honour of my 125 crore (1.25 billion) countrymen.

Modis claims of support from Pakistani-held Kashmir and Baluchistan prompted a swift, angry retort from Sajjat Aziz, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharifs chief foreign policy advisor. He said, Prime Minister Modis reference to Balochistan, which is an integral part of Pakistan, only proves Pakistans contention that India, through its main intelligence agency RAW, has been fomenting terrorism in Balochistan.

It is not uncommon for Indian officials, including prime ministers, to speak about Pakistan-held Kashmir, which New Delhi claims is rightfully Indian territory. References to Pakistani atrocities in Baluchistan, however, are virtually without precedent and were immediately recognized on both sides of the border as representing a major escalation of tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad.

Prime ministers, said an editorial in the Chennai-based daily Hindu, have often used the Independence Day speech to answer threats and provocations from Pakistan.  Even so, Modis reference to Balochistan marks a first, and deliberate, shift in Indias consistent policy of refraining from commenting on the internal affairs of another country.

Indias military-intelligence establishment was quick to endorse Modis sally against Pakistan. RAW Chief Vikram Sood sent out a tweet welcoming Modis anti-Pakistan statements as a qualitative shift in our policy if we sustain this approach. An unnamed intelligence officer told the Times of India Modis overt intervention in Pakistani affairs marks a shift from being on the back foot to coming out and claiming whats legally right. Hinting at the activities of Indian intelligence agencies inside Pakistan, he added, Our agencies have been following the injustices in these regions, yet diplomatically weve acted with restraint.

Modis ostensible Indian political opponents have supported the new hardline. The Congress Party quickly disassociated itself from a statement of former Foreign Minister Salman Kurshid expressing concern. The Congress, declared party spokesman Randeep Surjewala, feels the violations in Balochistan, the way democracy and democratic dissent is being stifled, India should raise it in bilateral and international fora.

Modis claim to speak on behalf of the Balochis, and the implied threat India could support the dismemberment of Pakistan, is in the first instance a response to the growing crisis his government faces in Jammu and Kashmir. The state has been convulsed by mass protests for the past six weeksever since Indian troops killed Burhan Muzaffar Wani, the 22-year-old commander of the Hizbul Mujahideen (HM), a pro-Pakistani, Kashmiri separatist and Islamist group.

Indias government, led by Modis Hindu supremacist Bharatiya Janata Party, insists the unrest in Jammu and Kashmir is solely a product of Pakistani subversion. But the continuation of mass protests in the face of brutal repression by Indian military and para-military forces that has left more than 60 people dead attests to a deep sense of alienation among Kashmirs Muslims.

Pakistan, for its part, has sought to exploit the protests to whip up animosity against India and advance the reactionary strategic rivalry it has pursued against India since the two states were created in 1947 through the bloody communal partition of the subcontinent. Sharif dedicated his August 14 Pakistan independence speech to the freedom of Kashmir.

While there is an element of tit-for-tat in New Delhi choosing to counter Pakistani propaganda about Indias human rights violations in Kashmir with denunciations of Pakistani atrocities in Balochistan, the intensification of the Indo-Pakistani strategic rivalry is above all rooted in the USs anti-China Pivot to Asia.

The US drive to harness India to its military-strategic offensive against China has overturned the tenuous balance of power in South Asia. Emboldened by the USs elevation of India to the status of global strategic partner, its offers of advanced military equipment and co-development of weapons systems, and its support for New Delhis ambitions to become an Indian Ocean power and expand economic and strategic ties with East Asia, the Modi government has pushed aggressively against Pakistan. This has included instructing military commanders to take a more belligerent stance in exchanges of cross-border firing and vowing not to pursue peace talks until Islamabad demonstrably bows to its demands for the suppression of anti-Indian Kashmiri separatists and Islamist groups in Pakistan.

Facing the common threat of an ever-more explicit Indo-US military-strategic alliance, Pakistan and China have significantly enhanced their own ties over the past two years. The China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which is being backed by $46 billion in Chinese investment, is a key element in this. A huge boost to the beleaguered Pakistani economy, the CPEC also has major strategic implications for China as it would allow Beijing to partially offset the US plans to impose an economic blockade on China by seizing Indian Ocean and South China Sea chokepoints in the event of a war or war-crisis.

The Modi government has vociferously condemned the CPEC on the grounds that it would pass through Indian territory, that is Gilgit and other parts of Pakistan-held Kashmir. Its real concerns are the shot-in-the arm the CPEC constitutes for the economy of its arch-rival Pakistan and its role in underpinning strategic ties between Islamabad and Beijing.

It is no coincidence that the areas where New Delhi has chosen to highlight Pakistani human rights abuses, Gilgit, PoK and, above all, Balochistan, are all slated to play an important role in the CPEC.

There are real grievances in Balochistan rooted in the abuse and neglect to which the population has been subjected by the Pakistan state. During the past decade, the military has mounted a brutal counter-insurgency war against the Balochi separatists, involving carpet-bombing, illegal detentions, and summary executions.

The Balochi nationalists offer no way forward, however. They represent sections of the local bourgeois elite who hope to carve out a separate state so they can make their own deals with imperialism at the expense of the workers and toilers. Their selfish class aims find expression in their violent attacks on of Pashtun workers and other non-Balochis resident in Balochistan.

The Balochi nationalists have long hoped to secure the patronage of the Indian bourgeoisie and above all US imperialism. Writing in the Indian Express this week the head of the Washington-based Balochistan Institute, Malik Siraj Akbar, warmly welcomed Modis recognition of the Balochi nation. Making clear the Balcohi nationalists readiness to enlist in Washingtons strategic offensive against China drive, Akbar declared, Given Balochistans geostrategic location and increasing Chinese involvement there, the Baloch will have no option but to search for allies in the region to protect their land and resources.

There are some Indian press commentators who have voiced concern at the incendiary implications of Modis playing of the Balochistan card. They argue it could redound against India by weakening international support for its claim to Jammu and Kashmir, lending legitimacy to ethno-nationalist secessionist movements inside India, and further complicating New Delhis already explosive relationship with Pakistan. But these arguments are being drowned out by the chorus of voices from the military-intelligence establishment and corporate media that are cheering Modi on in this reckless gambita gambit that could quickly spiral out of control and plunge the region into a war with incalculable consequences.
In a move starkly pointing to the risk of all-out war between the major powers in the Middle East, the US military said yesterday that it had scrambled fighter jets Thursday against government bombers inside Syria to protect US Special Forces operating with Kurdish "rebel" militias.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assads regime sent two Su-24 bombers to bomb Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG) forces advancing on government-held positions in the city of Hasakah. The bombers nearly hit US Special Forces troops that are deployed illegally in Syria, embedded in the YPG. US officials tried to contact Syrian government and Russian forces operating in the region, and Russian officials replied that their bombers were not involved.

The US fighter planes arrived after the Syrian bombers had left the area, and no US soldiers were injured. Washington then stepped up its air patrols in the region. Yesterday, Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis warned of military action against any threat to US forces.

Washington, he said, would take whatever action is necessary to protect US Special Forces in Syria. We will ensure their safety," he continued, "and the Syrian regime would be well advised not to do things that place them at risk We view instances that place the coalition at risk with utmost seriousness and we do have the inherent right of self defense.

Davis also criticized the Assad government for suddenly attacking the YPG, which until recently served as its de facto ally against CIA-backed Islamist militias. This is very unusual, we have not seen the regime take this type of action against YPG before, he said.

Davis barely veiled threat that the Pentagon could attack Syrian government forces to protect its troops, which are operating in Syria in violation of the countrys sovereignty and without even the fig leaf of a UN mandate, points to the basic war aims of Washington and its European allies. Claims that their intervention is aimed at fighting Islamist terror groups, which evolved out of militias they supported against the Assad regime, are a political fraud. The imperialist powers goal was and remains regime-change.

As the CIA arms the Al Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front in Aleppo against Assads forces, the Pentagon is supporting the offensive of the YPG, which recently renamed itself the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) after absorbing a few smaller, ethnic-Arab militias.

Washingtons reckless threats to use force against Syrian government forces risk escalating the conflict into a catastrophic global war of the United States and its European allies against the major powers intervening in Syria to defend the regime: Iran, Russia and now China.

Tehran, Moscow and Beijing have all presented their operations in Syria as missions to fight Islamist terror groups alongside Washington. After Russia intervened in Syria militarily last year, Moscow and Washington developed channels of communications to prevent simultaneous US and Russian air strikes in Syria from accidentally leading to a military clash between the worlds two leading nuclear powers.

The facade of international unity built around agreements to bomb the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militia was, however, superficial and false. Washington and powerful forces in the European Union still aimed for regime-change, and deeply rooted conflicts persisted between the major powers. Moscow and Beijing fear the drive for hegemony in the Middle East mounted by Washington after the dissolution of the USSR in 1991especially the regime-change policy applied in the illegal 2003 US invasion of Iraq, the 2011 NATO war in Libya, and then the Western-sponsored civil war in Syria.

As Washington stoked conflict with Russia after toppling a pro-Russian regime in Ukraine in 2014, and with China over the South China Sea and North Korea, Moscow and Beijing concluded that they could not allow yet another violent, US-led regime-change, this time in Syria. US threats have not succeeded in whipping Russia and China into line. Instead, Russia and China are escalating their involvement in Syria.

The near-confrontation between US and Syrian jets points to the danger that this situation will trigger a military clasheither with an accidental collision between US, Russian or allied forces in Syria or a deliberate attack intended as a signal to the opposing sidewhich could escalate into all-out war.

The Syrian government launched more air strikes against YPG forces near Hasakah yesterday. Fighting had broken out earlier this week between Kurdish forces and the pro-regime National Defense Forces (NDF) militia in Hasakah, and the Syrian army issued a statement declaring it had responded appropriately to Kurdish attempts to conquer the city.

Hasakah residents are reporting that both the US-backed YPG and pro-government forces are using heavy weaponry in the city.

This is the first time the regime used warplanes to strike in Hasakah. The bombing is very strong. This is the first time the relationship between the two sides reaches this level, Hasakah resident Lina al-Najjari told the Wall Street Journal. We live in an area that is surrounded by the fighting. We have prepared our suitcases to leave once we get the chance. But we cannot leave our house at the moment. We cannot step outside.

The Kremlin also launched large-scale air strikes on Islamist targets across Syria, in the north near Aleppo and in the northeast around Deir-ez-Zor. The strikes were mounted from warships in the Black Sea and by strategic bombers flying out of bases in Iran and Syria.

Meanwhile, Chinese officials continued to voice support for the Assad regime after Beijing took the unprecedented step earlier this week of sending a high-level military delegation to Damascus. Admiral Guan Youfei, the director of the Chinese militarys Office for International Military Cooperation, agreed with Syrian Defense Minister Fahad Jassim al-Freij to step up Chinese personnel training and aid for the Syrian army.

The Chinese armys English-language China Military Online web site declared, There are already Chinese military advisors in Syria, focusing on personnel training in weapons, since the Syrian government forces are buyers of Chinese weapons, including sniper rifles, rocket launchers and machine guns. Moreover, it asserted that, while many Syrian-Chinese arms deals were suspended due to the war, now there could be engagement again over these contracts.

Citing Middle East Studies Professor Zhao Weiming of Shanghai International Studies University, the site also suggested that Beijings new Syria policy was retaliation for the US pivot to Asia, which seeks to isolate China. Since the US has been interfering militarily in China's backyard in the South China Sea, this could be push-back from the Chinese military into an area, the Middle East, that is usually considered a US sphere of military influence, it reported.

A major factor in the sudden public intervention of China into the Syrian conflict, Chinese analysts explained, is last month's failed US-backed coup in Turkey. In developing a closer relationship with Syria, one has to take into account the changes at hand in Syria and the region, including the fast recovering relations between Turkey and Russia, said Wang Lian of the School of International Studies at Peking University.

The Assad regime's bombing of the YPG points to some of the geo-strategic concerns that underlay Washington's decision to give at least tacit backing to the coup attempt.

Washingtons search for reliable proxies in Syria, and, in particular, the Pentagons choice of the Kurdish YPG as a suitable candidate, ultimately united a wide coalition of countries against it. Turkish officials were deeply concerned that YPG victories in Syria would stoke Kurdish separatist sentiment within Turkey itself. The Syrian regime, backed by Russia and China, was preparing an attack on the YPG to keep it from gaining too much influence and setting up a US-backed regime in northern Syria.

The failure of the coup in Turkey and the subsequent purge of pro-US Turkish officers suspected of sympathy for the coup only shifted Ankara closer to the Russian and Syrian regimes.

The main danger that arises is that, in order to salvage its intervention in Syria, the US government and its allies will mount an even more reckless military escalation.
A report by the Australian Broadcasting Corporations 7.30 program last Monday indicated that authorities knew of black lung cases among coal miners in Queensland before last years official rediscovery of the disease.

Coal workers pneumoconiosis, also termed black lung, results from the accumulation of dust particles in the lung, leading to scarring and inflammation. The incurable condition can cause chronic bronchitis, lung failure, scleroderma and heart problems. In severe cases, the disease ends in an excruciatingly painful death.

7.30 stated that Queensland Workers Compensation data, obtained by the program under freedom of information legislation, showed four compensation claims for the disease between 2007 and 2012. One claim was reportedly approved, while another is pending.

According to the program, a Queensland Health audit of public records showed four possible and seven probable instances of black lung between 1995 and 2015.

Safe Work Australia, the statutory authority responsible for health and safety across the country, had also identified two compensation claims for the disease in New South Wales and one in Western Australia. It was not clear whether the claims were from workers who had been employed in the state, or they had moved from Queensland.

The revelations point to a cover-up by successive Labor and Liberal-National Queensland state governments, regulatory authorities and mining companies. For three decades, they claimed the disease had been eradicated in the state.

While 7.30 did not raise the issue, the workers compensation cases also underscore the absurdity of the claims by the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), which covers mine workers, to have been unaware of the existence of the disease. The union is often involved in compensation cases brought by current and former workers.

In the past, the CFMEU has boasted of its intimate involvement with health and safety practices in the mining sector. In 2014, for instance, Andrew Vickers, general secretary of CFMEUs Mining and Energy Division, stated: The CFMEU has been instrumental in ensuring some of, if not the worlds, best health and safety laws in the coal industry. Indeed, at a time that pneumoconiosisalso known as black lung diseaseis again on the rise, Australia has not had a reported case since the early 1970s.

There are growing indications that the number of miners affected by the disease is rising.

On August 11, the Queensland government confirmed three more cases, bringing the official total to 18. The CFMEU, however, claims to know of at least 30 workers who have contracted the disease. On August 12, the union reported that a former worker had died of a condition associated with black lung.

One of the confirmed cases is Stephen Mellor, 39, who has worked in five mines since 2003. He was diagnosed while taking time off work earlier in the year to care for his father. Mellor is now unable to work and has received no compensation. Subsequent chest x-rays found that he was affected by the disease for the bulk of his mining career, without it being identified in his employers medical examinations.

Mellor told the Daily Mercury on Thursday: I was devastated, I was really dumbfounded. I didnt know what to do. I knew there and then that my career was over... Ive got no savings left. Ive pretty much used up everything I have.

The health crisis is the direct result of inadequate safety standards and monitoring. Coal dust standards vary from state to state. In Queensland, where individual companies are allowed to monitor the dust, the allowable level of dust exposure for a single shift is 3 milligrams (mg) per cubic metre of air, well above what are regarded as safe levels in Britain and the US.

State and federal government inquiries into black lung earlier this year revealed that the standards are frequently violated. Testimony to the federal Senate inquiry indicated that eight of ten coal mines in Queensland operated above the 3 milligram limit between 2012 and 2015, with one registering 6.5 milligrams. Federal and state government authorities took no action against the companies involved.

A review of black lung cases at Monash University in July found a a major system failure at virtually all levels of the Coal Mine Workers Health Scheme, which operates under legislation passed by the Queensland state Labor government in 1999 and 2001.

Written in the dry language of an academic paper, the report was nevertheless a damning indictment of a system designed to cover-up, not treat and expose, health problems. One of its summary findings was that it is clear that the focus of the respiratory component of the scheme is on fitness for work rather than the detection and management of early CMDLD (black lung). It said the scheme was not being used to monitor trends in the respiratory health of miners.

The study found that the bulk of spirometry tests, which measure lung functioning, are conducted by unqualified staff. Almost half the tests reviewed were conducted so poorly they provided no indication of lung functioning. Only one of the 30 tests showed abnormalities that were identified correctly.

When lung functioning issues were recognised, they were generally ascribed to cigarette smoke, without further investigation. Two thirds of spirometry machines had not been calibrated this year. Professor Malcolm Sim, who headed the review, said he was not surprised by the emergence of the disease.

A 2012 report by the American Centre for Disease Control, warning of the possible re-emergence of black lung cases in Queensland, was not acted upon by successive state governments. The report said longwall mining, with its generally higher dust exposures, began in Queensland in the mid-1980s Given the latency of CWP (black lung), new cases among the cohort of miners who worked on these longwalls may begin to be discovered through an effective surveillance program.

The existence of black lung, which is often viewed as a condition typical of 19th century conditions, is a graphic expression of the subordination of workers health and safety to the profit drive of the major companies.

Yesterday, Queenslands current 18-month-old Labor government pushed through parliament a vote for a parliamentary review into the disease outbreak. The move followed calls by some Labor MPs, backed by the CFMEU, for a royal commission, which would provide a more elaborate whitewash. Labor is seeking to cover-up its responsibility for the health crisis. It was earlier in office from 1998 to 2012, overseeing the Coal Mine Workers Health Scheme. Likewise, the CFMEU is anxious to prevent any probing of its intimate familiarity with the substandard conditions forced upon miners.

The unions real role, in collaborating with the major mining companies, has been underscored by its enforcement of sweeping sackings following the collapse of the mining boom and the slump of global commodity prices. Over 2,000 mining jobs were destroyed in the first two months of the year. Since then, thousands more have been laid-off. A National Australia Bank report in June forecast another 50,000 retrenchments by the end of the year.
Donald Trumps campaign chairman Paul Manafort resigned Thursday, amid mounting signs that the Republican presidential candidate is refocusing his political efforts to combine the campaign for the November 8 election with preparations for launching a fascistic political movement in the post-election period.

Manafort was pushed aside Wednesday when Trump named Stephen Bannon, head of the ultra-right Breitbart News, as campaign CEO, while elevating one of his advisers, pollster Kellyanne Conway, to the position of campaign manager.

Spokesmen for the Trump campaign initially claimed that Manafort was not being displaced, but in barely 24 hours he had submitted his resignation and Trump had accepted it. The shake-up puts the Trump campaign under its third leadership in three months.

Manafort, a longtime Republican Party operative going back to the 1970s, joined the campaign to assist its delegate-selection effort after Trumps initial primary victories. He became campaign chairman in May, shunting aside campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, who was fired a month later.

The ouster of Manafort came after several days of media attacks over his work on the political campaigns of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. The New York Times published the first report August 14, citing an alleged black ledger of under-the-table cash payments by Yanukovych, the pro-Russian president who was ousted in 2014 by a US-sponsored ultra-right coup.

Manafort had worked as an adviser to Yanukovych and his Party of Regions during his successful 2010 election campaign and then later during his administration in Kiev. He maintained contracts with well-heeled Ukrainian clients, including several billionaire oligarchs, until he joined the campaign of the American billionaire Trump.

The drumbeat escalated with an Associated Press report that Manafort had hired two prominent Washington lobbying groups, one Democratic and one Republican, to give the Yanukovych government a more positive image in official circles in the United States. The funds were routed through a London foundation, set up by a Ukrainian billionaire, to evade US requirements that lobbyists for a foreign government register as agents of that government.

The Democratic lobbyists hired by Manafort on behalf of Yanukovych were from the Podesta Group, a firm set up with the participation of John Podesta, who is currently the chairman of Hillary Clintons campaign, and still run by his brother Tony Podesta. But the US media has paid little attention to this connection, instead using the issue exclusively to pummel the Trump campaign chairman.

The Clinton campaign has used the Manafort resignation to intensify the Democratic Party attack on Trump from the right, portraying him as a virtual agent of Russian President Vladimir Putin. This is part of the Democratic Partys efforts to maintain the support of the military-intelligence apparatus and dominant sections of the ruling class on the basis that Clinton will be a more reliable Commander in Chief to lead the country into war.

Clintons campaign manager Robbie Mook declared in a press statement released Friday, Paul Manaforts resignation is a clear admission that the disturbing connections between Donald Trumps team and pro-Kremlin elements in Russia and Ukraine are untenable. Mook continued, Its also time for Donald Trump to come clean on his own business dealings with Russian interests, given recent news reports about his web of deep financial connections to business groups with Kremlin ties.

While Trump released a brief written statement praising Manafort, his son Eric Trump gave an interview to Fox News in which he admitted, My father didnt want to be, you know, distracted by whatever Paul was dealing with.

While the claims of shady dealings in Ukraine provided a pretext for removing Manafort, there is little doubt that he was on his way out anyway. Trump had repeatedly rebuffed Manaforts urgings to run a conventional election campaign, refusing to spend money on either television advertising or campaign organization in the so-called battleground states, the dozen or so states that have been competitive between the Democrats and Republicans over the past half dozen presidential elections.

The selection of Stephen Bannon as campaign CEO, and, in effect, Manaforts boss, was a declaration of war against such an approach. Bannon, a wealthy former Wall Street operative for Goldman Sachs, took control of Breitbart News after the death of its founder in 2012, and built it into a political center for ultra-right elements of the Republican Party.

He is publicly identified with the alt-right, those who espouse white nationalism and other fascistic views, opposing the Republican congressional leadership as too soft on immigration and foreign trade. Bannon invited Nigel Farage, leader of the far-right anti-immigrant United Kingdom Independence Party, for a visit to Washington where he introduced him to prominent Republicans.

Bannon has heavily promoted the Trump campaign and effectively forced out a Breitbart reporter, Michelle Fields, who was assaulted by Trump campaign manager Lewandowski earlier this year.

The same day Trump named Bannon to head his campaign, there were reports that he had been meeting as well with Roger Ailes, the former head of Fox News who was forced out last month over charges of sexual harassment against numerous former and current employees of the network. There have been published suggestions that Trump, Bannon and Ailes are preparing to launch a new right-wing movement, perhaps centered on a cable television network, after Trumps expected defeat in the November 8 election.

The first political product of the new regime was the Trump campaigns first general election television commercial, a vitriolic attack on immigrants, aimed not at convincing any voters who might be on the fence, but rather at whipping up hatred and racism among Trumps most fanatical supporters.

Meanwhile, a further connection between the Trump campaign and fascistic circles has come to light, with a report by McClatchy News Service on anti-Semitic comments by Joseph Schmitz, a former Pentagon official, who is one of Trumps five-man team of foreign policy advisers.

Three former Pentagon officials have filed complaints charging they were harassed and even fired from their jobs at the instigation of Schmitz because of their Jewish heritage during the period he was inspector general of the Pentagon from 2002 to 2005. According to one of the complaints, Schmitz allegedly lectured [the complainant] on the details of concentration camps and how the ovens were too small to kill 6 million Jews.

Schmitz, who left the Pentagon to become general counsel of the parent company of the mercenary supplier Blackwater, is the son of the late Republican Congressman John Schmitz, a notorious anti-Communist aligned with the John Birch Society.
Seventy-six years ago today, the assassin Ramon Mercader plunged an ice axe into the head of Leon Trotsky at his home in Coyoacan, Mexico City. Gravely wounded, Trotsky valiantly fought back against his killer. He died of his injuries the following day.

The aim of the assassins paymaster, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, was to silence the voice of his principal foe and so deprive the Russian and international working class of its greatest revolutionary leader.

Stalin failed. Today, the dictators name and that of his followers are reviled. He was, as Trotsky warned, The grave digger of the revolution, whereas Trotsky is forever associated with the incorruptible struggle against Stalinism and for international socialism.

Trotsky remains not only a towering historical personality, but also a figure of acute contemporary political relevance for workers the world over. This finds confirmation in the way that his name has been invoked repeatedly in the deepening crisis of the British Labour Party.

The right wing of the Labour Party, beginning on August 9 with an article in the Guardian by its deputy leader Tom Watson, is bitterly denouncing Trotskyist entryists and portraying all supporters of Labours current leader, Jeremy Corbyn, as unwitting dupes of these shadowy forces.

In the Corbyn camp, the response has been to express outrage and incredulity that such an accusation has been madewith Corbyn reassuring the Observer, At no stage in anyones most vivid imagination are there 300,000 sectarian extremists at large in the country who have suddenly descended on the Labour Party [emphasis added].

None of this has prevented Britains major newspapers from being inundated with articles on Trotsky, seeking to denigrate him and warn against any association with his ideas. Repeated references have been made to Trotskys ghost haunting the Labour Party and portraying the political struggle within it as one between reform and revolution.

Whatever the factional intentions of the Labour right, the emergence of Trotskys name to the centre stage has enormous objective significance. Indeed, whenever capitalism is gripped by crisis and an eruption of social and political conflict involving the working class, Trotskys presence is always felt.

Why is this?

Despite the declarations of his supposed irrelevance, the ruling elite and its media are acutely aware of the threat posed by Trotsky and Trotskyism under conditions of bitter social divisions, the political turmoil produced by the Brexit referendum and, above all, the threatened breakup of the Labour Party, which has policed the struggles of the working class for more than a century.

Millions of workers and young people are looking for a means of fighting back against austerity and militarism. Corbyns pretence of being such an alternative, while opposing any break with the Labour Party, cannot last. The question of building a new and genuinely socialist party will inevitably arise.

The situation in Britain only expresses that which is developing the world over. The working class is moving to the left, but it has yet to build the socialist leadership it requires.

Next year is the 100th anniversary of the October 1917 revolution in Russia. Alongside Lenin, Trotskys name is synonymous with that epochal event, which established the first workers state in the world. Today, world capitalism is once again in the grip of an escalating economic, political and social crisis that raises anew the question of whether humanity will be dragged into an era of dictatorship, barbarism and war, or whether the working class will succeed in establishing world socialism, ending class exploitation and national divisions.

Trotsky led the political fight against the degeneration of the Soviet Union under Stalin. His struggle and that of the Left Opposition, which culminated in the founding of the Fourth International in 1938, refutes the central claim of anti-communist propagandists that Lenin led to Stalin, and that socialism produced bureaucratic tyranny.

Trotsky is the author of the Theory of Permanent Revolution and of such epoch-defining phrases as The death agony of capitalism. He is the personal embodiment of the perspective of world socialist revolution. And as far as Britains ruling class and its counterparts internationally are concerned, this makes Trotsky the most toxic and dangerous figure in history.

Even after the passage of decades, Trotskys writings have immediate relevance. Not only did he pay close attention to the class struggle in Britain, he offered the most trenchant and scathing appraisal of the Labour Party and its role as a defender of capitalist rule. His classic work Where is Britain Going? was published in 1925, just one year before the Labour Party and the Trades Union Congress betrayed the General Strike. His writings on the Fabian left and its impotence, cant and hypocrisy provide a salutary warning against placing any trust in Corbyn and his backers in the union bureaucracy:

They are the main prop of British imperialism and of the European, if not the world bourgeoisie. Workers must at all costs be shown these self-satisfied pedants, drivelling eclectics, sentimental careerists and liveried footmen of the bourgeoisie in their true colours. To show them up for what they are means to discredit them beyond repair. To discredit them means rendering a supreme service to historical progress.

In the next period, the burning issue that must be clarified among advanced workers and youth internationally is that of Trotsky and his political legacy. The International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI), the world Trotskyist movement that is represented in Britain by the Socialist Equality Party, has dedicated itself to refuting what we have termed the post-Stalinist school of historical falsification regarding Trotsky and his life and work.

In the first decade of this century, and on the eve of the 2008 financial crash, British historians Ian Thatcher, Geoffrey Swain and Robert Service all published biographies of Trotsky. World Socialist Web Site Chairman David North conducted systematic work to expose the lies and falsifications they contained. In his book, published in 2010 under the title In Defense of Leon Trotsky, North described their tendentious works as pre-emptive biographies seeking to completely discredit Trotsky as a historical figure in anticipation of renewed revolutionary struggles.

In his introduction, North made the following observation of the motivations for all present efforts to denigrate Trotsky:

Leon Trotsky was, above all else, the great tribune and theoretician of world socialist revolution. The passions evoked by his name testify to the enduring significance of Trotskys ideas. Arguments about Trotsky are never simply about what happened in the past. They are just as much about what is happening in the world today, and what is likely to happen in the future.

Since these words were written, much additional ink and paper has been wasted on seeking to diminish and slander Trotsky. Yet despite these slanders and those that will follow, it has never been possible to erase his enduring presence. This is because Trotskyism is not only a spectre, but a political movement. The organization that he founded, the Fourth International, is the conscious expression of deep objective tendencies that are once again bringing the working class all over the world into revolutionary struggle against the capitalist system.
Campaigners for the Partei fur Soziale Gleichheit (Socialist Equality Party of Germany, PSG) visited the Crellemarkt outdoor market in Berlin, where there are hundreds of Turkish and Arab market stands, and spoke with customers and vendors about the PSG election statement Vote against war! Vote PSG! in both German and Turkish. The discussions focused on the attempted coup in Turkey on July 15.

Both the American and the German governments were counting on the success of the putschists on July 15 and have hypocritically criticized the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ever since, above all because of its overtures to Russia.

The PSG and the World Socialist Web Site have unequivocally condemned the attempted coup. At the same time, we have warned of the danger posed by Erdogans newly created national unity, which amounts to the strengthening of a right-wing dictatorship. The most recent events in Turkey are an expression of the growing danger of war faced by workers all over the world.

The discussions at the Crellemarkt market focused on these questions. A month after the coup attempt, these events and the dangers bound up with them are still on peoples minds. Gunes, a young Trotskyist from Istanbul who is participating in the PSGs Berlin election campaign and assists with Turkish translations, quickly became involved in a number of lively discussions at the market.

One Turkish woman who runs a poultry stand opposed the July 15 putsch. That was really a dangerous putsch, she said. Luckily it was defeated, because we have experienced putsches in Turkey many times. She added that a strong national unity has been created in Turkey at the moment. To the objection that one cannot place ones trust in Erdogan, she answered: Thats right, but thats another question.

When told that the working class has historically been forced to shed its own blood every time that national unity has been established, while the corporations profit from it, she answered: Of course thats true. The workers have to pay for everything. Whether its in the US or in Germany or in Turkey, it is always the workers who have to take the rap for everything. In answer to the argument that it was therefore necessary to unite the working class worldwide, she said: Insallah [one hopes], that would be really good. But it is quite difficult to achieve.

is also worried about the attempted putsch in Turkey and the wars in Syria and Iraq. She said she is quite worried that they will escalate into a new great war and agrees that the cause is the deep, worldwide crisis of capitalism.

Aises family belongs to the Turkish minority in Bulgaria and arrived in Germany three years ago. My husband has finally found construction work here in Berlin, she said. Our boy is in third grade, and I want to learn German really well now so that I can work. She already speaks Russian and French.

When Gunes told her that the PSGs campaign in Berlin is part of a worldwide struggle for the international unity of the working class against war, Aise enthusiastically wished him good luck and said, Your campaign is very important.

A young Syrian read through the election statement and then began to tell his own story in a mixture of German, English, Arabic and Turkish. He had already studied law in Aleppo for a year when the war began. He then fled to Turkey with his entire family when the war broke out. In Afyon, he slaved away at a white marble processing plant in order to support his family.

Then, last summer, he managed to flee to Germany. Now I am struggling to get the necessary papers so that I can study once again, said the young Syrian. The war in Aleppo, that was really a horrible experience for all of us. And this war is still continuing, he added. My entire family is still in Turkeywhat is to become of them? he asked.

He enthusiastically supported the PSG campaign against war and promised to study the World Socialist Web Site.

Hakan, an aspiring industrial engineer in Berlin, earned his bachelors degree a short time ago and now works at the Crellemarkt. When he saw the PSG leaflet, Hakan said that he had already noticed the posters with the slogan No more war! in different places in Berlin. Hakan condemned the coup in Turkey. That is clear for every democratically minded person, he said.

He said that it was very important for Turkey to fight the coup, but it unfortunately did not succeed in producing democratic conditions. The democratic rights of many people in Turkey are still under attack after the putsch, said Hakan. The situation is very dangerous, the government continues to wage war and attack the Kurdish areas. He emphasized that he thought it was quite possible that the war in Syria could lead to a new great war.

Haken listened as Gunes explained the perspective of the World Socialist Web Site and the International Youth and Students for Social Equality. He said that he would like to take a closer look at them online.
President Vladimir Putin held a meeting with Russias Security Council in Crimea Friday amid a new round of Russian military exercises there and continuing tensions with the US-backed regime in neighboring Ukraine.

Putins trip to the Black Sea peninsula was the fifth since it was reunified with Russia in the wake of the February 2014 US- and German-backed and fascist-spearheaded coup that overthrew Ukraines elected government. It came amid rising tensions following Moscows charge that an armed sabotage squad organized by Ukrainian military intelligence attempted to enter Crimea to carry out attacks on critical infrastructure. Two Russian servicemen were reported killed in clashes with the saboteurs.

In his speech to the council, the Russian president declared, It looks like our partners in Kiev have made a decision to aggravate tensions. At the same time, however, he sounded a conciliatory note, declaring that, despite Ukraines buildup of its military near the Russian border and Kievs refusal to accept the appointment of a Russian ambassador, Moscow did not intend to roll back our ties with the former Soviet republic.

As a gesture of opening toward Ukraine, Putin has named former education and science minister Dmtry Livanov to the position of special envoy for trade and economic, science and technical relations with Ukraine.

A day before Putins visit, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said that he was prepared to impose martial law and a military draft in the country in response to the tensions over Crimea and increased fighting in the the Donbass, in eastern Ukraine, where the Ukrainian military and right-wing militias confront militias supporting two pro-Russian separatist republics.

Warning of a possible full-scale Russian invasion, he said in a speech delivered in Ukraines western Liviv region, We dont rule out the possibility of introducing martial law and declaring mobilization if the situation in the east and in Crimea escalates. Earlier, Poroshenko had ordered Ukrainian military units placed on the highest combat alert.

The Ukrainian presidents speech followed clashes in the east in which three Ukrainian soldiers were killed and six wounded in the Donbass. Fighting there has escalated to the highest level in a year, with the Ukrainian military shelling civilian homes as well as separatist militias, which have also stepped up their attacks. Shelling by government forces Wednesday cut the electricity supply to hundreds of homes and a coal mine in Donetsk.

Nearly 10,000 people have been killed in the fighting over the past two years, with tens of thousands more wounded. The economy of the Donbass has been left in ruins.

In his speech in Crimea, Putin charged that the Ukrainian government had opted for a policy of stirring up tensions because they are reluctant, or unable, to implement the Minsk Accords, and are unable to explain to their own people the considerable mistakes in social and economic policies.

The Minsk Accords refers to an agreement reached between Russia and Ukraine based on proposals drafted by Germany and France for a negotiated end to the fighting in the Donbass following a series of military reversals for Ukrainian forces in early 2015.

In addition to a ceasefire to be monitored by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the agreement called for the convening of local elections and the passage by the Ukrainian parliament of legislation granting the eastern region a measure of autonomy. The Poroshenko government has not acted on the political requirements posed by the agreement. To do so would provoke the semi-fascist, anti-Russian elements that dominate Ukrainian politics and likely bring about his downfall.

The Poroshenko government has ample reason to provoke tensions with Russia, both as a means of distracting the attention of the population from the countrys continuing economic crisis and unending corruption scandals, and as a means of securing increased support from Washington and NATO.

Since the Western-backed coup of 2014, some five million Ukrainians have lost their jobs, while living standards have been cut roughly in half. While the economy has been kept from complete collapse by foreign aid, a $17.5 billion IMF bailout has been stalled because of the inability of the government to meet its conditions.

More decisive than Poroshenkos calculations on his regimes survival is the drive by US imperialism against Russia, within which Ukraine serves as a useful pawn. The US and NATO have already implemented plans for deploying four battalionssome 4,000 troopson Russias doorstep in Poland and the Baltic republics. In addition, the US-led alliance has formed a 40,000-strong rapid reaction force for military confrontation with Moscow.

Under conditions in which Washington is warily watching Moscows moves in the Middle East, particularly its closer military alliance with Iran in Syria and its rapprochement with Turkey, the provocation in Crimea serves as a means of stepping up military pressure on Russias own borders.

The Russian government, representing the interests of the billionaire oligarchs who enriched themselves through the appropriation of state property following the 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union, has no coherent policy for countering this growing military pressure, alternating between attempts at accommodation with Washington, on the one hand, and the flexing of military power and appeals to Russian nationalism, on the other.

As Putin spoke in Crimea, Russian naval and land forces there carried out maneuvers designed to rehearse the rapid deployment of troops, tanks and other equipment to Crimea in the event of war. The exercises included the participation of 2,500 troops, 350 armored vehicles, naval vessels and other military units.
Kashmiri rapper MC Kash shared on Facebook a bitter encounter he had with the Bangalore police questioning their decision to shut down his show.

By India Today Web Desk: Popular Kashmiri rapper and emcee, Roshan Elahi, who goes by the stage name MC Kash, wrote a detailed post on Facebook about his encounter with the Bangalore police during his show.

He writes that the police threatened to jail him if "they or the Pandits present in the crowd found my [MC Kash's] lyrics 'anti-national'".

Upon taking the stage, he writes, the police stopped his performance after he "asked the Bangalore crowd to mourn alongside Kashmiris and to observe a moment's silence for what is currently happening in Kashmir".

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He goes on to narrate how the police threatened to jail him and how the Kashmiris from the crowd "formed a circle around" him amid all chaos:

Here is his original post:

'I came to Bangalore as a Hip Hop artist from Kashmir'

"I came to Bangalore as a Hip Hop artist from Kashmir with a lot to say and tell. However, I expected what every Kashmiri expects when he/she travels to India and to be honest, the Indian State did not disappoint. My performance was scheduled for 8 PM and even though the event was running a bit late I was categorically stopped from entering the auditorium by the Bangalore Police whose three-starred officers surrounded me and threatened me with jail if they or the Pandits present in the crowd found my lyrics 'anti-national'. They grilled me for over twenty minutes and only allowed me to go inside when the time for the event was nearly up. Even then, they stood beside the stage and looked as if they were ready to pounce on me. But the Heart of a Rebel."

'I felt weak'

"I felt weak. The threats and the intimidation played heavily on my mind. But then I heard the overwhelming cheers coming from the Kashmiris present in the crowd. They gave me strength to stand as I have stood for years: never compromising with the truth. Because the Heart of a Rebel.

As soon as I held the mic, the MC in me became one with my people. The first words I spoke 'Rest in Peace, Inayat. I do this for you.' Because the Heart of a Rebel never forgets. I asked the Bangalore crowd to mourn alongside Kashmiris and to observe a moment's silence for what is currently happening in Kashmir. And then, Heart of a Rebel."

'Police then ordered the sound guys to cut off the mic'

"The Indian Police then ordered the sound guys to cut off the mic and the music as soon as the beat to my second song had begun. I felt the anger, not because it was humiliating, but because this is how India treats genuine Kashmiri voices. It doesn't matter whether you are a young artist hoping to narrate stories or a victim of Indian oppression hoping to find receptive ears of solidarity in India. YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED. If the fascists don't stop you, the police will. And the good people, who can at least feel a degree of empathy, will vehemently sit scared and quiet. And that is bullshit. Where is the indignation? I went off stage, angry. The first Indian I encountered on the way, two ladies sitting together, I looked at them and screamed, 'This is bullshit!'

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After that, the place went in flames. Azadi reverberated in the air. I saw one of the three-starred officers waving his finger at me, charging towards me in anger and screaming, 'You did this. You're going to jail now.' And then another officer joined and grabbed me by my shoulder. That is exactly when Kashmiris formed a circle around me. We hugged and shook hands and smiled. We felt the power in being united and together. I have experienced the same in the protest marches I have been a part of in Srinagar. And this felt like home."

'Police wants to analyze the lyrics to the song that I performed'

"Last I heard, the Indian State along with its fascist groups is incessantly threatening Kashmiris in Bangalore. It wants Kashmiris to feel scared, wherever they are. The Police also wants to analyze the lyrics to the song that I performed. So:

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'Heart of a rebel is beating right inside me,

Now how will you confine me, when you can't define me?

Heart of a rebel! heart of a rebel!'"





Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely of the said Facebook account holder.

--- ENDS ---
ATLANTA (AP) - Federal attorneys say local courts that jail poor defendants because they can't afford to pay bail are unlawfully discriminating against the poor.

The U.S. Justice Department brief was filed Thursday with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in the lawsuit of a north Georgia man. Fifty-four-year-old Maurice Walker spent six days in the Calhoun jail because he couldn't afford $160 bail following his arrest on a misdemeanor charge.

Federal lawyers argue that such policies "unlawfully discriminate" against poor defendants by using preset bail amounts that don't take into account the accused person's ability to pay.

The department said it's the first time it has weighed in with a legal opinion in federal court on bail systems used by state and local courts.

In their own legal filings, attorneys for Calhoun have defended the city's bail practices.
CALHOUN COUNTY, FL (WTXL) - The Calhoun-Liberty Task Force said they have shut down a meth trafficking organization that was distributing pounds of crystal meth into Calhoun, Liberty and Jackson Counties.

The organization was being run by Altha resident, John Stephen Fleck. They said that Fleck was distributing out of a home on Evans Street in Altha. The task force also said that the investigation led to the arrest of Fleck's supply source and multiple partners in crime.

Illegal narcotics, along with assets made from the illegal sales, have been seized. According to the task force, several warrants have been issued with more to come.

A total of 14 people were charged in connection with the organization.

The task force was assisted by the Jackson County Drug Task Force, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and the DEA.

Warrants were issued for the following individuals:

Amanda McClendon, 37, of Marianna, FL: sell of controlled substance (methamphetamines)

Gregory Hartzell, 44, Blountstown, FL: conspiracy to purchase methamphetamine and unlawful use of two-way communication device.

Jodi Johnson, 39, Altha, FL: conspiracy to purchase meth and unlawful use of two-way communication device.

John M. West, 41, Altha, FL: conspiracy to purchase methamphetamine and unlawful use of two-way communication device.

Traci M. Huff, 41, Altha, FL: conspiracy to purchase methamphetamine and unlawful use of two-way communication device.

Lynn M. Kearce, 21, Blounstown, FL: conspiracy to purchase methamphetamine and unlawful use of two-way communication device.

William H. Booth, 39, Hosford, FL: conspiracy to purchase methamphetamine and unlawful use of two-way communication device.

Patty J. Duncan, 38, Grand Ridge, FL: conspiracy to purchase methamphetamine and unlawful use of two-way communication device.

Michael A. Barnes, 38, Cottondale, FL: conspiracy to purchase methamphetamine and unlawful use of two-way communication device.

Delia S. Coxwell, 24, Bristol, FL: conspiracy to purchase methamphetamine and unlawful use of two-way communication device.

Shasta M. Crews, 40, Tallahassee, FL: conspiracy to purchase methamphetamine and unlawful use of two-way communication device.
QUINCY, FL (WTXL) - A Gadsden County correctional officer was charged with felony sexual battery after being accused of having sex with an inmate according to the Florida Department of Corrections (FDC).

According to a probable cause document, the inmate said that in May, Travis Hinson forced her to have sex with him in the bathroom. Hinson was arrested Thursday after an investigation by the Office of Inspector General.

He is being held at the Gadsden County jail.

*An earlier version of this story misidentified the victim as being underage.
The gruesome incident took place on Friday night around 9 pm when 65-year-old Sheeluamma was attacked by dozens of stray dogs barely 10 km from the state secretariat here.

By Revathi Rajeevan: A 65-year-old woman from Thiruvananthapuram died allegedly after being attacked by a pack of stray dogs. The victim, Shiluamma, was attacked by a pack of dogs at Pulluvila beach, about 20km from the Thiruvananthapuram secretariat.



The gruesome incident took place on Friday night around 9 pm when Shiluamma was attacked by dozens of stray dogs.

THE INCIDENT

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According to the daughter-in-law of the victim, Shiluamma, whose home lacks a toilet, went to the seafront to use a toilet there and did not return for quite some time.

Fearing an accident, her son went to look for her. He witnessed her being torn up by the hungry canines. He had to dive into the sea to save himself from the dogs.

Speaking to the media, her daughter-in-law said: "By the time the dogs went away, her body had very few parts left and she died on the way to the hospital."

Her family and residents of the area were angry as they waited outside the state-run hospital to collect her body. They have blamed city authorities for inaction against the stray menace.

Shiluamma's neighbor, 52-year-old Daisy was also injured in the attack by stray dogs and was admitted at Thiruvananthapuram Medical College late on Friday night where she received anti-rabies injection and underwent surgeries. Daisy said she had gone out to use the toilet when stray dogs attacked her.

Daisy's daughter Pathrosi said: "We were shocked to see both her hands bitten at several places by these dogs. Her condition was very serious when we brought her to the hospital."

"What sort of law do we have in our country. We are not going to take this again and we know what to do. We waited all this while to see if the authorities would do anything, but they say to us that cases would be registered against us if we try to eliminate dogs," said angry residents waiting in front of the home of the deceased.

"We have lost all our patience as the authorities are hanging on to some obscure law which says dogs cannot be eliminated. Are we inferior to these dogs," asked a group of angry residents in Pulluvilla.

The area near the airport is the worst affected by the stray menace in this coastal village, the residents said.

ATTACK ON MANEKA GANDHI

Residents of the coastal village, where at least two old women were attacked and one killed by stray dogs, have lashed out at Union Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi for her sympathy towards strays.



Kochuouseph Chittilapally, a leading businessman in Kerala who has been protesting against the stray dog menace, attacked Maneka Gandhi and even said that he wished she would be bitten once to realise the danger that people in the area are facing.

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Chittilapally said: "I know Gandhi will not be bitten by a dog because she moves around with high security. A probe should be launched into how much kickbacks are being received by people in the sale of anti-rabies vaccine. The state ministers are also silent and it has come to a stage that only if a dog bites a minister's wife would there be action. It seems none is interested."



-With inputs from IANS



--- ENDS ---
Mumbai Police have arrested a kidney racketeer, who has been on the run for the last 23 years barring a brief period of arrest in 2003.

By Vidya : Acting on a tip-off, the Mumbai Police have nabbed an absconding kidney racketeer. Shiva Sawant, 45-year-old accused had been on the run for 23 years. He was known by various aliases like Shivanand Damodar Kamat and S Kumar.

Shiva is accused of scouring for recipients and forging papers to establish a relationship between donors and recipients for approvals in a kidney racket that was busted way back in the 1990s. Shiva hails from Sindhudurg in Maharashtra.

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KIDNEY RACKET OF 1990s

Shiva ran a kidney racket in Maharashtra, where his role was to look for drug addicts and drunkards on the streets preferably in the suburban Mumbai. He used to convince such addicts to donate one of their kidneys for money. When, the racket was busted, Shiva was charged with 20 cases of illegal kidney transplant.

Even though the kidney racket was busted, Shiva escaped. He was once arrested in 2003 from a hotel in Malad. But, he managed to secure bail immediately after the arrest. Soon after getting relief from the court, Shiva fled to unknown location. Police suspected that his activities, however, continued.

THE TIP-OFF

After a wait for more than thirteen years of his first arrest, Mumbai Police got a tip off about his presence at the Marine Lines railway station this week. Police officials from the Azad Maidan police station formed a team and nabbed him from there.

Shiva had suffered a knee injury some years back and was at Marine Lines to visit Bombay Hospital. He had taken treatment earlier and this time around he was on one of his regular visits to the hospital, when he was recognised and arrested.

A senior officer at the Azad Maidan police station said, "He was shuffling from Belgaum to Kolhapur and to many other places. He worked with an orchestra and also had his own food stalls at these places. Before coming to Mumbai he was in Pune."

A formal identification process by the crime branch officers will be held later.



ALSO READ:

Yet another Uber driver molests a female passenger. This time, in Mumbai

Now dubbed a threat, Zakir Naik was once provided security by Mumbai Police



--- ENDS ---
Dutch settlers formed the First Reformed Church of Yakima in 1901 and finished erecting the building in 1903 (shown above). Now called the East Valley Reformed Church, members are celebrating their 115th anniversary Aug. 27 with a free car show and ice cream social for the community. (Photo courtesy of East Valley Reformed Church)
Danielle Wilson grabs donated water bottles at Yakima's homeless encampment near the corner of South Third and East Walnut streets in Yakima, Wash., Thursday, Aug. 18, 2016. Yakima Neighborhood Health Services is asking for donations of coolers and bags of ice to guard against heat-related health risks at Yakima's homeless encampment. (SOFIA JARAMILLO/Yakima Herald-Republic)
Visitors at the zoo watch the monkeys antics during the exhibits opening weekend. Monkeys, In the direct sunlight for the first time since entering captivity, jumped at sight of their own shadows. (Seattle Times archives, 1940)
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Turkey's parliament has ratified a reconciliation deal reached with Israel, ending a six-year rift and paving the way for the restoration of full diplomatic ties.

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Parliament voted to approve the pact early on Saturday before it closed for a summer recess.

Relations between Israel and what was once its principle Muslim ally crumbled after Israeli marines stormed what purported to be an aid ship , the Mavi Marmara, in May 2010 to enforce a naval blockade of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip and killed 10 Turkish activists on board.

Turkish President Erdogan (Photo: AP)

Turkey expelled Israel's ambassador and froze military cooperation after a 2011 UN report into the Israeli raid largely exonerated the Jewish state. Israel and NATO member Turkey, which both border Syria, reduced intelligence sharing and cancelled joint military exercises.

Under the terms of the reconciliation agreement, Israel will pay a "lump sum" of $20 million in compensation to the victims within 25 days.

Individual Israeli nationals also would not be held criminally or financially liable for the incident.

Footage from Mavi Marmara incident (Credit: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)

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The mending in relations with Israel raises the prospect of eventual cooperation to exploit natural gas reserves worth hundreds of billions of dollars under the eastern Mediterranean, Israeli officials have said. Israel and Turkey will re-establish full diplomatic and normalized relations, including the exchange of ambassadors

The Israeli cabinet has already approved the deal in June.
NEW YORK  Flying across the Pacific on an Air Force jet bound for Beijing, first lady Hillary Clinton huddled deep into the night with a few aides and advisers, honing her speech for the UN Fourth World Conference on Women.

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It was 1995, and it had been a bruising first few years in the White House: Troopergate, Travelgate, Whitewater. Not to mention the failure of her own high-profile effortsunprecedented for a first ladyto reform the nation's health care system.

In the end, Clinton decided to make the trip, hoping to "push the envelope as far as I can on behalf of women and girls."

"All eyes were now on Beijing, and I knew that all eyes would be on me, too," she writes in her memoir, "Living History."

Excerpt from speech

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But as she rose to the podium, and even after she had stepped down to thunderous applause, Clinton had no idea the impact the moment would have, she says. More than two decades later, that 21-minute speechwith its declaration that "Human rights are women's rights, and women's rights are human rights"remains one of her signature moments in public life.

It also stands out as a moment Clinton began to truly forge an identity as a public figure on the world stage apart from her husband.

"It gave her a platform that was instantly recognizable, one that she could utilize in a very efficacious way to make a difference," says Melanne Verveer, Clinton's chief of staff at the time.

"It played a major role in who she would become. It really was one of those evolutionary, transformative moments."

And it almost didn't happen. A few months earlier, Chinese-American dissident Harry Wu had been arrested upon entering China and charged with espionage, throwing the participation of the U.S. delegation and Clinton, its honorary chair, into limbo. He was finally released less than a month before the conference; Clinton writes that there was "never a quid pro quo."

Hillary Clinton in Beijing in 1995 (Photo: AP)

She and her aides flew from Hawaii, where President Bill Clinton was speaking on the anniversary of V-J Day at Pearl Harbor. Working on the draft while others slept, the group was keenly aware that "one wrong word in this speech might lead to a diplomatic brouhaha," Clinton writes.

Hours later, she took the microphone in the large hall. She began by telling the delegates that when women are healthy, educated and free from violence, with a chance to work and learn, their families flourish, too. About halfway through, she declared: "It's time to break the silence. It's time for us to say here, for the world to hear, that it is no longer acceptable to discuss women's rights as separate from human rights."

With emphasis on the word "human" each time, she listed abuses against womenand called them human rights violations (she did not mention China by name). Then came her most famous line: "If there is one message that echoes forth from this conference, let it be that human rights are women's rights, and women's rights are human rights, once and for all."

Once the words had been translated for all to digest, the reaction was thunderous. "People have tears running down their cheeks, they're stomping their feet," Verveer recalls. In her memoir, Clinton writes that despite the reaction, she still had no idea "that my 21-minute speech would become a manifesto for women all over the world."

It's difficult to understand in 2016 just how new Clinton's message felt, says Kathy Spillar, executive director of the Feminist Majority Foundation.

"We look back 21 years later, and we go, 'duh'but it was groundbreaking at the time," she says. "It was hugethe first lady of the United States saying this, just outright. Many women were coming from countries where discrimination against women disguised as cultural practice was widely happening. Even the UN as a whole hadn't embraced this agenda. ... It was just an extraordinary moment in the centuries-long struggle for women's full human rights around the world."

But does the moment resonate for younger generations? Clinton's presidential campaign has struggledespecially during the primary season against Vermont Sen. Bernie Sandersto capture the enthusiasm of young voters.

"For millennials and the 18-30 group, it does seem like ancient history," says Debbie Walsh of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. "But I think that when that speech is played and those words are heard, they're still meaningful. The global issues are not solved, and I think they do resonate with young women. So teaching young women in particular about Beijingand what a departure it was from most first ladies to do something like thatis an important message for the Clinton campaign."

Writer Andi Zeisler was in her early 20s at the time, and she remembers news of the Beijing speech coming in stark contrast to more negative coverage of Hillary Clinton, especially when her husband was running for president.

"Hillary had become a focal point in so many ways, almost all of which were negativethe fact that she didn't give up her career ... this whole phenomenon of Hillary Clinton as a first lady considered too big for her britches or uppity or unforgivably ambitious," says Zeisler.

And so the Beijing speech amounted to "seeing her find a place where her voice was welcomed and where she kind of fit," says Zeisler, 43, author of "We Were Feminists Once" and co-founder and editorial director of the nonprofit Bitch Media. "I always think of the Beijing speech in the context of the word 'empowerment' because it was one of the first places on a global level where empowerment as an agendaand as something that we should be striving forwas brought up.

"It was such an obvious thing: Women's rights are human rights. It seemed self-evident. But that was a real bombshell for a lot of people," she says.
Blaming the prime minister for the turmoil in Kashmir, Mamata termed Modi's diplomacy as a "disaster".

By Indrajit Kundu: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today slammed the Modi government over a whole host of issues. Alleging that the Centre was trying to bulldoze the opinion of the state, Mamata said, "In the name of cooperative federalism, opinion of States are being bulldozed. This is dictatorship. This is against spirit of Constitution. Centre is not taking States on board."

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"We have never faced such discrimination before. Is the Centre following Presidential form of government? Where is federalism?" she asked.

Blaming Modi for the turmoil in Kashmir, Mamata termed Modi's diplomacy as a "disaster".

"Pakistan issue has become worse because of Centre's failure," she said.

Alleging interference in the functioning of state governments, Mamata said, "Centre is behaving unilaterally. Does the Centre want to control how States spend their Budget money? They want to monitor the activities of State Treasury."

"I have never seen a more arrogant Central Government. Do they want to do away with State governments?" she asked.

Mamata said the Central projects were being named after Prime Minister even though the States are being made to bear a major part of the project cost.

"If States pay most of the funds, why should the schemes be named after leaders of the ruling party in Centre?" she questioned.

Mamata said she would write to the President to register her protest. She also appealed to other state governments to raise their voice against the Centre's discrimination.

"We will approach the President of India about the Centre's undue interference in the business of States. Federal structure is being bulldozed by the unilateral, arbitrary action of Centre. Is the Centre trying to replace federal structure with Presidential system of governance?"

Mamata said, time had come to limit the role of the Centre in the overall governance of the country. "I believe apart from Finance, Rail, Defence and External Affairs, Centre should not have any other subject in its jurisdiction," she said, adding that only strong state could make a nation strong.

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ISLAMABAD - Pakistan's army says its jets and ground forces have destroyed six militant hideouts in a northwestern tribal region, killing nine "terrorists" in the latest operation near the Afghan border.

The military says its warplanes also destroyed an ammunition dump used by militants in the Khyber tribal region.

It provided no further details about Saturday's strikes and the information could not be independently confirmed as journalists are barred from entering tribal areas.
The Rabin Medical Center is investigated who leaked information on the medical condition of MK Oren Hazan (Likud) when he was hospitalized a fortnight ago.

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The affair began when the MK's spokesman announced to the press on August 6 that the MK had visited the Petah Tikva hospital for an operation on his lower abdomen because of internal bleeding.

Later that night, Channel 10 reported that the information given by Hazan's staff regarding his medical condition was incorrect. The MK's office rejected the accusation and threatened to sue.

Oren Hazan (Photo: Alex Kolomoisky)

Beilinson Hospital, part of the Rabin Medical Center, announced on Thursday night, "The hospital takes care of data security and safeguarding the rights of the patient, so there is continuous and tight monitoring of the matter of guarding medical information. In general, access to medical records is limited to treating personnel alone."

They concluded that any case that appears to violate this procedure would be treated seriously, investigated and may result in disciplinary action.
An Israeli citizen was killed this weekend in an ATV accident in Panama.

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The 53-year-old woman had travelled to the country with her husband and their young daughter. The purpose of their trip was to rejoin the family's son, who was on a long vacation travelling through Central America.

Archive photo of an ATV (Photo: Shutterstock)

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem has confirmed the woman's death. She was killed when her ATV flipped.

The Israeli consul in Panama is dealing with the formalities necessary to return the deceased woman's body to Israel.
ISTANBUL- Turkey will take a more active role in addressing the conflict in Syria in the next six months to prevent the war-torn country being divided along ethnic lines, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Saturday.

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Yildirim also told a group of reporters in Istanbul that while Syrian President Bashar al-Assad could have a role in the interim leadership, he must play no part in its future.

Syria's more than five-year conflict has taken on an ethnic dimension, with Kurdish groups carving out their own regions, and periodically battling groups from Syria's Arab majority whose priority is to overthrow Assad.

Turkey fears the strengthening of Kurdish militant groups in Syria will further embolden its own Kurdish insurgency, which flared anew following the collapse of a ceasefire between militants and the state last year.

Turkush soldiers (Photo: Reuters)

"Turkey we will be more active in the Syria issue in the coming six months as a regional player. This means to not allow Syria to be divided on any ethnic base, for Turkey this is crucial," Yildirim said.

On Friday Syrian Kurdish authorities evacuated thousands of civilians from Kurdish areas of Hasaka following Syrian government air strikes, the Kurdish YPG militia said.

The fighting this week in Hasaka, which is divided into zones of Kurdish and Syrian government control, marks the most violent confrontation between the Kurdish YPG militia and Damascus in the civil war.

It came a week after Turkey and Russia, Assad's strongest military backer, repaired ties following Turkey's downing of a Russian jet late last year.

The YPG and Syrian government forces had mostly left each other to their own devices in the conflict, during which Kurdish groups have exploited the collapse of state control to establish autonomy across much of the country's north.

The Kurdish YPG militia is an integral part of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which are at the heart of Washington's military campaign against Islamic State group and last week seized the northern town of Manbij from the militants.

Despite the intensified military involvement of world powers, including the former Cold War foes, Yildirim said he was optimistic that Iran, Gulf Arab states, Russia and the United States, could work jointly to find a solution.
Some significant structures relating to an important era in local history is fading away as the town of Gedera is modernizing. The home where Nili (a Jewish spy ring that fought for the British and against the Ottoman Empire in Palestine during World War 1) leader Avshalom Feinberg grew up, at 24 Ha-Biluyim St., has been demolished.

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Not far from there the convalescent home where famous poet Rachel Bluwstein (known commonly in Israel as Rachel the poetess) will soon be converted into a hotel. Local residents are expressing frustration at the authorities for their lack of action in preserving the historic structures.

Gedera was founded by people from the Bilu group (a Jewish Zionist group whose aim was to settle the land of Israel) in 1884. The street where Feinberg was born and grew up for a time was named after the founders of the town.

Avshalom Fienberg (Photo: Kedem Auctions)

"This is one of the most historically important streets in the country," said a Ha-Biluyim St. resident. "The guiding principle is money, and no one cares about the immense historical significance that this place holds for the state of Israel and (for) future generations."

Tal Ben Nun, Manager of the central district at the Society for Preservation of Israel Heritage Sites, explained that the municipal construction plan for the site says the street-facing buildings on Ha-Biluyim St. shall be preserved in their original forms, but that the internal houses (such as the Feinberg home) need not be preserved. "When they made the plan, they didn't investigate the historical significance of each plot, and now its too late," she said.

Danny Shem-Tov, the developer behind the 24 Habiluyim St. project, responded by saying, "I didn't know it was Avshalom Feinberg's home. I'm no less Zionist than anyone else. I may have been misled, I though the front was his home. It's the state's tole to tell me in advance. Everything was done legally and in accordance with all necessary permits."

Head of the Gedera Municipal Authority Yoel Gamliel responded by saying, "This is an old municipal construction plan (MCP) that we cannot alter legally and so our hands are tied. We have recently invested over NIS 3 million in order to preserve and upgrade Habiluyim St."
BEIRUT- Fighting between the Syrian army and Kurdish forces intensified late on Friday and into Saturday, creating the risk of yet another front opening in the multi-sided civil war.

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The two sides have mostly avoided confrontation during the five-year conflict, with the government focusing its efforts against Sunni Arab rebels in the west, and the Kurds mainly fighting Islamic State in northern Syria.

In an indication of their reluctance to escalate further, pro-government media said on Saturday they had held preliminary peace talks.

After the fighting broke out this week, government warplanes bombed Kurdish-held areas of Hasaka, one of two cities in the largely Kurdish-held northeast where the government has maintained enclaves.

Kurdish forces fighting ISIS (Photo: EPA)

Fighting there could complicate the battle against ISIS because of the Kurds' pivotal role in the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces' (SDF) fight against the group.

On Friday, warplanes from the US-led coalition flew what the Pentagon called protective patrols around Hasaka to prevent Syrian jets from targeting US special forces, who are operating on the ground with the SDF, the first sorties of their kind in the war.

Ground fighting intensified late on Friday when Kurdish YPG fighters battled Syrian forces, whose air force flew sorties over the city, Kurds and monitors said.

Bashar Assad visits soldiers

"The clashes continue in areas inside the city today. There were military operations," a Kurdish official said.

Many inhabitants of Kurdish areas fled on Friday and at least 41 people have been killed, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitoring group, said.

"There are efforts to cool things between the army and the Asayish (YPG-affiliated forces), and a first meeting was held aimed at a ceasefire," Sham FM, a pro-government radio station, reported.

COMPLICATING FACTOR

As well as complicating the war against ISIS, fighting in Hasaka could create problems for the government's campaign in the city of Aleppo, where Kurdish forces have been accused of coordinating with the Syrian army against rebels backed by Turkey.

The YPG, or People's Protection Units, have close ties with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Turkey, against which Ankara has waged a three-decade counter insurgency. Turkey fears the Kurds' drive against ISIS is partly aimed at carving out a Kurdish region along its own southern border.

On Saturday, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Turkey would take a more active role in Syria in coming months to stop it being torn along ethnic lines - an apparent reference to the YPG gains in northern areas.

A US airforce F-15 takes off (Photo: AFP)

Local fighters backed by the SDF, of which the YPG militia form an integral part, said on Saturday they would not advance further north - towards the Turkish border - having secured the city of Manbij, 250 km (155 miles) west of Hasaka, from ISIS, an announcement that may have been aimed at assuaging Turkish fears.

Syria's army has blamed the YPG for the Hasaka fighting and described it as a branch of the PKK, a characterisation the group rejected on Saturday.

In Aleppo, fighting continued near the mouth of a corridor that rebels opened this month into besieged areas they control.

Jakob Kern, the Syria director of the United Nations' World Food Programme, said opposition-held areas had been inaccessible for weeks and food was running perilously short.

"In the east of Aleppo, the food will last a maximum of two weeks, probably until the end of August," Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger quoted him as saying on Saturday.

Russia, the main military backer of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, said on Thursday it was willing to support weekly 48-hour ceasefires to allow aid to reach besieged areas.
Raffaello Villani, a high-ranking official at the Islamic University in Lecce, Italy, recently wrote on his Facebook page, "There needs to be a final solution for Zionists."

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The post went on to say that "the real Jews are the victims are Zionism."

The post was found via the Israeli Embassy in Israel's monitoring. Although the post was deleted a few hours later, the Israeli Embassy took a screen shot of that post, as well as another post attacking Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.

The Islamic University in Lecce, Italy

The embassy also sent the picture to the Italian Senate's vice chairperson of the Israeli-Italian inter-parliamentary cooperation foundation. The Senator then submitted a query on the subject, in which the Italian interior and education ministers were asked to state their intentions regarding the anti-Semitic post.

The Islamic University's establishment created turmoil in Italy, even among some Muslims. The university's founder, Giampiero Paladini, said in an interview with Newsweek last year, Instead of studying the Bible, we will study the Koran Instead of a church, we will have a mosque, and we will study subjects that are influenced by Sharia (Islamic law). He added that the school will bridge the philosophical divide between the Western and Islamic worlds
KHARTOUM- Sudan says that Egyptian authorities have arrested 70 Sudanese nationals while they were attempting to enter Israel, detaining them in a Cairo prison.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Ghareeb Allah Khidi said Saturday in a report on the SUNA news agency that the Sudanese embassy is maintaining contact with Egyptian security authorities to follow up on the status and treatment of the detainees.

Egyptian authorities several months ago reportedly shot dead at least 10 Sudanese nationals who were trying to cross the Egyptian border into Israel. African migrants frequently attempt to cross the Sinai peninsula and reach Israel, where they often surrender to Israeli authorities.
Only a few hours after the Turkish Parliament formally approved the reconciliation agreement with Israel, high ranking Turkish officials have said that business will soon be back to usual, and that Deputy Turkish Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek is willing to come visit the Jewish state.

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"The reconciliation agreement with Israel is good for Turkey and for the entire region," Simsek wrote in a message. "I expect to visit Israel during my next round of international visits."

Israel already signed the agreement, while Turkey only officially signed the agreement on Saturday. As part of the agreement, Israel will pay the families of those who were killed aboard the Mavi Marmara $20 million within the next 25 days. Meanwhile, Turkey will cancel all lawsuits against the IDF soldiers and officers who were involved in the incident. .

Mehmet Sismak, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister

The agreement will completely normalize relations between the two countries, including an exchange of ambassadors. It is believed that this exchange will happen soon, and it is expected that Turkey will announce an ambassador to Israel by next week. It's not clear whether or not Israel will decide on an ambassador to send by next week as well.

While it's believed that the reconciliation agreement won't solve all of the problems between the two countries, and that relations will remain cool, the agreement is seen as an important step in improving Israel's strategic position in the Middle East and in the fight against terror.

Relations took a sharp turn downward during Israel's three-week war against Hamas in Gaza in 2008 and 2009, when Erdogan criticized Israel over the high Palestinian death toll.

The animosity peaked on May 31, 2010, when Israeli commandos stormed a ship called the Mavi Marmara while stopping the international flotilla.

Nine Turks, including a dual American citizen, were killed and dozens of activists were wounded, one of whom died several years later. On the Israeli side, seven soldiers were wounded by activists who attacked them with clubs, knives and pipes.

Following the incident, Turkey withdrew its ambassador to Israel and scaled back military and economic ties. Relations were never broken completely.
This week, a monumental, almost historical event took place: the IDF Chief Military Rabbi Rafi Peretz and the IDF Chief Education Officer Avner Paz-Tzuk put out a joint Tisha BAv letter. An unbelievable sight, as such unity hasnt been seen in years. It is doubtful that the soldiers receiving the letter are aware of the enormity of the occasion, or even that they had read it at all. But in regard to those higher up in the IDF, the joint letter holds a great deal of significance, as one small step in a larger effort to halt the ruthless attack the Chardalim (Zionist Haredim) have been waging through the Judea and Samaria Council, as they try to turn the IDF Rabbinate into their stronghold in an effort to influence IDF values.

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It took the army time to wake up and realize that the motive for this attack was not just ideological, but the product of a changing of the guards in the Judea and Samaria Council, as the Bezalel Smotriches replace the Zeev Zambish Hevers. These changes signal a change in essence and style: for years, the Judea and Samaria Council raked in political and financial achievements by throwing their weight around and paralyzing the political system whenever the idea of evacuating settlements came up. Smotrichs generation, however, has come to the conclusion that to ward off the threat of eviction, they should intimidate the army. They never miss an opportunity to berate the IDF, aggravate it, and begin disputes between army leaders and the political echelon that interacts with them.

Betzalel Smotrich (Photo: Yoav Dadikovich)

They go to absurd lengths to achieve their mission. After the IDF Chief-of-Staff Gadi Eisenkott announced his plan to open up the middle officer ranksnamely regiment and brigade commandersto younger soldiers, Chardalim took to social media to protest the move, saying it was a way for the army to skip over them and look instead to the younger secular soldiers who enlist at 18. They same happened when the IDF issued a ban on its soldiers growing out their beards and for supporting the LGBT community. Their protests intentionally twist these events, in an effort to keep the army in a constant state of self defense. They are acting like a disenfranchised Cossack, who keeps on inflating the myth that the IDF is held together by religious Zionists. Were the major player here, they are saying, so dont mess with us. Were the one who are going to set the tone here.

The army, for its part, has had its fair share of mistakes: when an officer at the IDF Officers Training base Bahad 1 announced to his cadets that they will be taking on some work in the community, and allowed them to choose from several options that included a gay youth center, the Preparatory Rabbinate immediately received a phone call from one of the cadets and proceeded to cry out in protest. When senior commanders bring in controversial figures to speak in front of their units, their soldiers turn to the media to complain: they made us listen to an Arab, they made us listen to a settler, they sent new female recruits to take part in the traditional Jewish dough offering ceremony. These are all local initiatives that were made with the best intentions, much like the case of the officers at the Intelligence Training base Bahad 15, who decided to introduce their soldiers to the children of refugees and did not forsee how in doing so they would be stepping into a political ambush. Its no coincidence that Deputy Minister of Defense Eli Ben-Dahan, himself a Chardali, was involved in the matter.

And so, the army finds itself on the defensive. During a visit of the IDF Chief-of-staff to Bahad 1, he told the instructors there: I finished my officers course without a single lecture on the tears in Israeli society. If you have a free hour, use it to train. Eisenkott repeated the sentiment in conferences for the armys top officers, saying: The current attack on the IDF necessitates that we close in our ranks. His statement is problematic, as it could be taken to mean that the army should curl up into itself, avoid any social initiatives or voicing ones own opinion. Which would mean, of course, that the Smotriches had won.
An unnamed man from Amritsar lived to tell the tale of eating 40 knives. His reason? Well, he just 'felt like it'.

By India Today Web Desk: So, this happened in Amritsar, Punjab. An unidentified man sort of took to swallowing knives, and just couldn't shake off the habit.

After eating them for over two months, a team of five doctors removed a whole set of knives from his system recently. During the 5-hour long surgery, doctors pulled out not one, not two, but 40 knives.

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Speaking to ANI, one of the surgeons, Dr Jitendra Malhotra, said, "This was very unnerving, [I have] not witnessed something like this in my career as a doctor."

The good news is, the man survived eating and stomaching 40 knives, and also made it through the surgery. Now, we hope he doesn't go on such a 'binge' again.



Shocking story from Amritsar! Man eats 40 knives, lives to tell tale; said to the doctor "I felt like eating them" pic.twitter.com/TaLrk6oHQj ANI (@ANI_news) August 20, 2016

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The trial of Sgt. Elor Azaria, who is accused of shooting an unarmed Palestinian terrorist who had already been neutralized, is due to reconvene next week. The Defense will be given a substantial boost as it plans on calling to the stand 25 witnesses. Two of them will be junior officers from the Kfir Brigade who were in Hebron on the day of the incident.

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The two officers were Initially slated to testify for the prosecution, but the prosecution decided to forgo their testimonies. Azarias team of defense lawyers, which includes Eyal Beser Glick and Ilan Katz, will try to retrieve information from their testimonies that would back Azarias version of the events. Regarding his trial, Azaria has been quoted as saying that The heads of the IDF and the minister of defense (referring to former minister Moshe Bogey Yaalon) threw me to the dogs.

L to R: Dan Biton, Uzi Dayan, Shmuel Zakai

Ret. Maj. Gen. Uzi Dayan will be another witness for the Defense. Dayan served as deputy IDF chief-of-staff and head of the Israeli Central Command in the late 90s, but retired when the Second Intifada broke out.

The two officers called upon by the Defense will be the only current members of the IDF who will be testifying in Azarias favor. They will be joined by former Gaza Division Head and ret. Brig. Gen. Shmuel Zakai, who was discharged from the army 12 years ago after then Chief-of-Staff Yaalon accused him of leaking military information to the political echelon.

Ret. Maj. Gen. Dan Biton will also testify for Azaria. After serving as the Head of the Technology and Logistics Directorate, Biton left two years ago in response to not being promoted further. He had recently came public with his support of Azaria in Ynets Hebrew edition.

Those close to Azaria, who is currently held under open arrest at a military base in the center of Israel, worry that the IDF will try to pressure the two officers due to testify in his defense as the dates of their testimonies approach.
A senior Kurdish military official searched for the words when speaking of the Manbij, a northern city in the Aleppo Governate, which was recently released from ISIS control after months of battle. First and foremost, he spoke of the Manbij women. We wept when the women were freed, he said. Right now the situation is good. People are returning to their routines, their villages and homes. ISIS has been run out and every day we release additional villages from their control.

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The big question asked after the Manbijs release was whether the Syrian Democratic Forcesthe military organization made up mainly of Kurdish rebels that managed to free the city due to US backingwould allow the locals citizens in Manbij to regain control of their city, or annex it as part of the growing Kurdish entity forming in northern Syria, a development that Turkey has been monitoring with growing dissatisfaction. The same official, who despite being Kurdish is part of local resistance and not SDF, said that Currently, things are run by a civil council. Our mission is to protect the city from ISIS. All this talk of annexation by the Kurds is nothing but propaganda. He added that We just want to run Manbij in a democratic fashion. The people of Manbij are the ones who will decide how to run things and what will become of it. The SDF have given us the city and are assisting us in South Manbij. This is how they are supposed to act in every city they manage to release.

A Manbij resident walking through the city (Photo: Reuters)

In the meantime, the SDFs focus has seemed to witch from Manbij to the city of Al-Hasakah, where in an unprecedented move, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has begun to airstrike the Kurdish stronghold. The official linked Assads move to ties between Syria, Turkey and Iran: The regime wants to court Turkey by hurting Kurds to show it factors into the greater equation. Following the SDFs success, the Syrian regime wants to show its relevancy by showing Turkey it can assist it, but it wont work, since it lacks the publics support.

A Manbij woman smoking after the city's release (Photo: Reuters)

Everyone has a plan in regard to Syria, he continued. The Turks, the Russians, the Iranians and the Saudis, but theyre all going to fail. We want everyone to live under a democracy, without extremism or a totalitarian regime. This isnt about establishing a Kurdish entity, but about creating a democratic Syria where the Kurdish people could receive its rights.

Syrian Democratic Forces walk through Manbij following its release (Photo: Reuters)

He also refuted claims that the Kurds are pushing other ethnicities aside. We dont have ethnic friction here. There are those who wish to ignite a war between the Shiites and Sunis resulting in separate Muslim emirates, but they dont speak for the Syrian people.

An abandoned ISIS war room (Photo: Reuters)

The photos that caught the worlds attention following the freeing of Manbij were those depicting the citys women burning their veils and smoking cigarettes in defiance of ISIS prohibitions. For three years, people living in Manbij suffered from ISISs terrorism, and the women were the ones who suffered most. ISIS denied them their dignity. It wasnt just an operation to free Manbij, it was an operation to free the Manbij woman. We wept when we saw the women freed.

Freed Manbij residents (Photo: Reuters)

As the citys residents celebrated their freedom, many of their neighbors remained captive: on Friday, as the last remaining ISIS militants fled the city, some of the local civilians were rounded up and forced to march alongside ISISs forces, acting as human shields from SDF fire. The long trail of ISIS vehicles flanked by their family members and additional kidnapped locals continued until they reached the next ISIS enclavethe Syrian city of Jarabulus, where the captives continue to remain under ISIS control.
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By PTI: New Delhi, Aug 19 (PTI) India today made a case for modifying the methodology for calculating the Global Innovation Index (GII) so that it reflects the conditions existing in developing nations.

The issue, among others, was discussed during a meeting between Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) Director General Francis Gurry here.

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"It was discussed that the methodology of calculating GII also needs to be studied and changed, as appropriate. The parameters should be reflective of the needs and conditions existing in developing nations," the ministry said in a statement.

According to the GII 2016 report, Indias rank improved to 66 from 81 last year, a jump of 15 places.

GII 2016: Winning with Global Innovation was the result of a collaboration between Cornell University, INSEAD and the WIPO as co-publishers, and their knowledge partners.

Sitharaman also told Gurry that WIPO should have an external office in India, which will be in the best interest of both the organisation and the global IP regime.

India has already submitted a formal proposal in this regard, and is ready to offer free-of-cost premises for opening the office.

To spur an innovative ecosystem across the country, it was proposed that states be ranked on a similar basis. India has requested WIPO to undertake this study, the statement said, adding that WIPO DG has agreed to examine this request.

WIPO and the Indian Patent Office are co-operating in training of various IP examiners and other stakeholders, it added.

To this end, an international training course is being organised in RGNIIPM jointly with WIPO Academy in September.

India has also requested WIPO to consider opening a regional training academy in Nagpur.

Both parties also agreed to organise a conference in May, 2017.

The Commerce Minister also announced setting up of a taskforce on innovation, which would suggest new ideas on best way forward in inculcating an innovative temperament in the country. PTI RR ABM

--- ENDS ---
Arizona News

Phoenix, Arizona - Attorney General Mark Brnovich announced a former Phoenix Rescue Mission employee will go to prison for 3.5 years for stealing social security benefits from the homeless. A judge sentenced Sergio Solorzano after he pled guilty to an Attempted Fraud Scheme, Theft, and Taking the Identity of Another. The Court also ordered Solorzano to pay all three victims $61,286.47 in restitution.

The Arizona Attorney Generals Office indicted Solorzano after an investigation determined Solorzano stole more than $61,000 in social security benefits from three different homeless men that lived at the Phoenix Rescue Mission ("PRM") from January 2013 to October 2015. PRM is a non-profit organization that offers services for homeless men and women. Solorzano was an employee at PRM since 2002. Solorzano had access to all personal identifying information of residents living at PRM and collected the mail at PRM. Solorzano would intercept the mail and steal the social security money sent to the victims. Solorzano will serve two probation terms upon his release from prison.



Special Agent Madison McDonald with the Attorney Generals Office Special Investigation Section was the lead investigator on this case.



Assistant Attorney General Shawn Steinberg prosecuted this case.
Latest News

Phoenix, Arizona - A 16-state coalition led by Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich recently filed an Amicus Brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in the Grace v. District of Columbia Second Amendment legal fight. Matthew Grace is a member of Pink Pistols, an organization dedicated to the legal, safe, and responsible use of firearms for self-defense within the LGBT community. Arizona is joined in the Amicus Brief by Attorneys General from Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

The question before the Court of Appeals is whether the District's policy of refusing to issue public-carry licenses to law-abiding citizens, unless the District believes the citizen has a "good reason to fear injury" infringes the Second Amendment.

Attorney General Brnovichs filing highlights why this misguided policy is unconstitutional and cites social science evidence that the Districts regulation does not improve public safety by keeping firearms out of the hands of law-abiding citizens.



The District of Columbia is restricting constitutional rights on a narrow and arbitrary basis, said Attorney General Mark Brnovich. We stand with all law-abiding citizens and their right to defend themselves.



Since enacting the controversial law in September 2014, the nations capital has issued less than 100 licenses. In 2008, the Supreme Court ruled against the District of Columbia in the Heller case finding a near total ban on handguns was unconstitutional.



Arizona Solicitor General John Lopez and Assistant Solicitor General Keith Miller with the Attorney General's Federalism Unit are handling the state's involvement with this case.
Latest News

Washington, DC - NASA is preparing to launch its first mission to return a sample of an asteroid to Earth. The mission will help scientists investigate how planets formed and how life began, as well as improve our understanding of asteroids that could impact Earth.

The Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft will travel to the near-Earth asteroid Bennu and bring a sample back to Earth for intensive study. Launch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. EDT Thursday, September 8 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

This mission exemplifies our nations quest to boldly go and study our solar system and beyond to better understand the universe and our place in it, said Geoff Yoder, acting associate administrator for the agencys Science Mission Directorate in Washington. NASA science is the greatest engine of scientific discovery on the planet and OSIRIS-REx embodies our directorates goal to innovate, explore, discover, and inspire.

The 4,650-pound (2,110-kilogram) fully-fueled spacecraft will launch aboard an Atlas V 411 rocket during a 34-day launch period that begins Sept. 8, and reach its asteroid target in 2018. After a careful survey of Bennu to characterize the asteroid and locate the most promising sample sites, OSIRIS-REx will collect between 2 and 70 ounces (about 60 to 2,000 grams) of surface material with its robotic arm and return the sample to Earth via a detachable capsule in 2023.

"The launch of OSIRIS-REx is the beginning a seven-year journey to return pristine samples from asteroid Bennu," said OSIRIS-REx Principal Investigator Dante Lauretta of the University of Arizona, Tucson. "The team has built an amazing spacecraft, and we are well-equipped to investigate Bennu and return with our scientific treasure."

OSIRIS-REx has five instruments to explore Bennu:

OSIRIS-REx Camera Suite (OCAMS)  A system consisting of three cameras provided by the University of Arizona, Tucson, will observe Bennu and provide global imaging, sample site imaging, and will witness the sampling event.

OSIRIS-REx Laser Altimeter (OLA)  A scanning LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) contributed by the Canadian Space Agency will be used to measure the distance between the spacecraft and Bennu's surface, and will map the shape of the asteroid.

OSIRIS-REx Thermal Emission Spectrometer (OTES)  An instrument provided by Arizona State University in Tempe that will investigate mineral abundances and provide temperature information with observations in the thermal infrared spectrum.

OSIRIS-REx Visible and Infrared Spectrometer (OVIRS)  An instrument provided by NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland and designed to measure visible and infrared light from Bennu to identify mineral and organic material.

Regolith X-ray Imaging Spectrometer (REXIS)  A student experiment provided by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University in Cambridge, which will observe the X-ray spectrum to identify chemical elements on Bennus surface and their abundances.

Additionally, the spacecraft has two systems that will enable the sample collection and return:

Touch-And-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM)  An articulated robotic arm with a sampler head, provided by Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver, to collect a sample of Bennu's surface.

OSIRIS-REx Sample Return Capsule (SRC)  A capsule with a heat shield and parachutes in which the spacecraft will return the asteroid sample to Earth, provided by Lockheed Martin.

"Our upcoming launch is the culmination of a tremendous amount of effort from an extremely dedicated team of scientists, engineers, technicians, finance and support personnel," said OSIRIS-REx Project Manager Mike Donnelly at Goddard. "I'm incredibly proud of this team and look forward to launching the mission's journey to Bennu and back."

Goddard provides overall mission management, systems engineering, and safety and mission assurance for OSIRIS-REx. Lockheed Martin Space Systems built the spacecraft. Dante Lauretta of the University of Arizona, Tucson, is the principal investigator. OSIRIS-REx is the third mission in NASA's New Frontiers Program. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages New Frontiers for the agency's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

For images, video, and more information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/osiris-rex

and

http://www.asteroidmission.org
Aiming to attract tourists from different parts of the world, the UP government has decided to make a Mughal-e-Azam theme park for tourists visiting Etawah.

By India Today Web Desk: Yes, it's true. A park themed on the legendary Bollywood film Mughal-e-Azam will soon be developed for tourists near the Etawah lion safari in Uttar Pradesh, a government spokesman said on Friday.

This follows directives of Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav to the Tourism Department to take necessary steps for this project.

Aiming to attract travellers from all parts, the theme park will not only be based on the film, but also highlight its acclaimed film director-producer K. Asif.

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Also read: Marayoor: A destination in Kerala where you can see a centuries-old secret



The spokesman said that the main motive behind this project is to increase the footfall of tourists in the region, travelling from other parts of the country and the world. Besides, he said, the theme park will also play an important role in informing people about the great filmmaker who hailed from Etawah, and the timeless classic film he had made.

(With inputs from IANS)



--- ENDS ---
Article published on the 2009-04-08

Moldova has expelled the Romanian ambassador, accusing its neighbour of being behind protests by anti-communist youths who stormed parlaiment, to be thrown out by police in Wednesday. Online networking applications played a pivotal role in co-ordinating the protests by people angry over Sundays election result.

Young activists stormed the parliament building and smashed windows and furniture in a protest against the Communist Partys victory in Sunday's election.

Around 15,000 people turned out in demonstrations over the last two days, many believed to be young people mobilised by campaigns via the internet and mobile phone.

Authorities managed to clear the building, arrested around 12 protesters and cleared the square of people, early on Wednesday morning.

But demonstrators have vowed to continue the protests. They had responded to call to demonstrate by an umbrella groups called "I am an Anti-Communist".

Around 100 people, both police and protesters, were injured in the clashes, which started on Monday following the result of the election.

The Communist Party of Moldova, led by President Vladimir Voronin, won around 50 per cent of the vote in the parliamentary elections.

Voronin has ordered the Romanian ambassador to Moldova to leave the country within 24 hours, after accusing Romania of helping to instigate the unrest.

He warned that security services would use force to prevent a repeat of the violence.

I dont think it is necessary to look for the invisible hand of Romania in this turmoil in Moldova," says French analyst Jacques Rupnik. "For this young generation of disenfranchised, disgruntled people who see no future in their country to see neighbouring Romania joining the EU, brings the idea that if we join Romania then our problems will be solved.

Analysis: Jacques Rupnik, Professor at The Paris Institute of Political studies

You have the pull of Romania on one hand, the pull of Russia on the other and in between you have a very weak government of one of the poorest countries in Europe," says Rupnik.

"There was a hope that the European Union could be some sort of honest broker, but what we see now is that when there is a crisis of this magnitude ... that is a crisis that comes from within, so it is very difficult for a body like the EU to have any effective influence on it.
By PTI: BJP

New Delhi, Aug 19 (PTI) In a counter-attack after Congress accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of insulting freedom fighters, BJP today said the Congress of today does not represent the Congress of freedom movement, claiming that Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Patel would have never thought it would become a "family concern".

Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad also took a dig at Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi after he tweeted a Sanskrit shloka to target Modi, saying he will have to first find out who tweeted on Gandhis behalf and also his knowledge of history before he responds to comments.

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Citing participation of RSS founder K B Hedgewar in the struggle against the British rule, he also highlighted the "role" of RSS and BJP in liberation struggle for Goa and Hyderabad besides in movement against the Emergency to underscore the "sacrifices" made by them.

After senior Congress leader Anand Sharma quoted Sardar Patel to target RSS, Prasad accused the party of quoting him "selectively" and insulting him "institutionally" as he noted that Patel was given Bharat Ratna in 1991 by the then Chandra Shekhar government, almost four decades after he died.

"Does the Congress party of today represent even one per cent of the essence of the Congress party of the freedom movement? Nehru and Patel would have never thought that it would become a family concern," he told a press conference.

Prasad insisted that Modi in his speech at a BJP even did not undermine the role of the Congress in the freedom movement and recalled that he had praised Nehru in his August 15 speech.

RSS was banned twice and Jana Sangh, the forerunner of BJP, in Emergency, he said, adding that no reason was found to ban RSS leading to repeal of the ban.

Earlier, BJP national secretary Shrikant Sharma said, "British used to repress Indians. Congress has been repressing rivals. It imposed the Emergency and threw all rivals behind bars. Repressing rivals has been part of its policy,"

He also referred to the death of Jana Sangh founder Shyama Prasad Mukherjee in a Jammu jail during his protests against the stand of Congress on Kashmir issue.

"We are giving due respect to all freedom fighters. Lakhs of people made sacrifices. Indias struggle for freedom started in 1857. The past governments glorified a few people. Bhagat Singh was mentioned as a terrorist and Chandrashekhar Azads sacrifice was hardly acknowledged. We are making amends and glorifying everybody," he said. PTI KR ZMN

--- ENDS ---
Ahmedabad: Four years after three Dalit youths were killed in police firing in Surendranagar district, the BJP Government in Gujarat has decided to set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the incident, a move that came in the wake of outrage over Una dalit flogging incident.

Chief Minister Vijay Rupani took the decision to constitute the three-member SIT to investigate the incident after receiving several representations from Dalit leaders, including those from his party, an official release said today.

"Chief Minister Vijay Rupani took the decision following representations from Dalit leaders including cabinet minister Atmaram Parmar, former minister Ramanlal Vora, and Rajya Sabha MP Shambhuprasad Tundiya," Minister of State for Home Pradipsinh Jadeja said in a press release.

The Government would also form a special designated court and appoint a special public prosecutor to expedite the case and announced an additional Rs 2 lakh compensation to the nearest kin of the victims, over and above what was decided earlier.

The opposition Congress reacted cautiously to the decision, saying it could turn out to be an "eyewash to mislead the people" and demanded that the Goverment table the report of an earlier CID probe into the incident.

On the intervening night of September 22-23, 2012, three Dalit youths--Pankaj Sumra, Prakash Parmar and Mehul Rathod--were killed when police opened fire to disperse a violent mob to control a clash between Dalits and OBC Bharwad community members at Thangadh town in Surendranagar district.

The government had ordered a probe into the incident and a report was submitted to it by the then principal secretary of social justice and empowerment department, Sanjay Prasad. The report has not yet been made public.

The issue of Thangadh Police firing came in focus in the wake of recent Una town Dalit flogging incident with opposition leaders and Dalit rights activists raking it up to target the BJP.

At a rally held by Una Dalit Atyachar Padkar Samiti, which organised a march from Ahmedabad to Una, Dalit leaders have demanded justice to victims of Thangadh firing.

Family members of victims of Thangadh had also gone on hunger strike in Gandhinagar, demanding a judicial probe into the incident.

Rajkot city police commissioner Anupam Singh Gehlot, Surat city DCP Zone-2, Parikshita Rathod, and Porbandar Superintendent of Police Tarun Kumar Duggal will be members of the SIT.

The State CID investigation in the case remained inconclusive after the state probe agency filed a C-summary report. No chargesheet has been filed yet into the incident.

Thangadh, located around 65 km from Rajkot,is famous for the annual Tarnetar fair, held eight km from town near the temple of Trinetwshar Shiva temple.

Reacting to the Government's announcement, Congress said it appeared to be a move by the Government to mislead people and shield the real culprits in the face of the agitation against atrocities on Dalits getting intensified.

"It has been a way with the BJP government that whenever agitation grows, it constitutes a committee to investigate an atrocity or a corruption case, mainly with the intention to mislead people and shield the real culprit. Such SITs only serve as an eyewash," Gujarat Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi said.

"Good that the government has constituted an SIT to investigate Thangadh killings, but we would again demand from the government that the report of a previous investigation conducted by the state CID crime be placed on the table of the state assembly for discussion," he said.

Atrocities on Dalits have come in sharp focus after seven persons from the community from Mota Samadhiyala village of Una tehsil of Gir Somnath district were brutally assaulted by some self-styled cow vigilantes for skinning a dead cow on July 11.

The incident sparked wide-spread protests after videos of the beating went public.

Several political leaders like Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and BSP supremo Mayawati had visited the victims in the hospital and their family members.
Washington: A little-known foreign policy adviser of Donald Trump had praised Russian President Vladimir Putin during a meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi had with US experts and think tanks here in June, according to a media report.

Such a meeting between Modi and top American foreign policy experts and think tanks representing both the Clinton and Trump Campaigns was held at the Blair House when the Prime Minister visited Washington DC in June.

According to The Washington Post, which reported about this of-the-record meeting earlier this month, such a remark by a US foreign policy expert in a meeting with a foreign leader stunned those present at the Blair House.

"In early June, a little-known adviser to Donald Trump stunned a gathering of high-powered Washington foreign policy experts meeting with the visiting prime minister of India, going off topic with effusive praise for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Trump," the daily said.

"The adviser, Carter Page, hailed Putin as stronger and more reliable than President (Barack) Obama, according to three people who were present at the closed-door meeting at Blair House -- and then touted the positive effect a Trump presidency would have on US-Russia relations," it said.

A month later, Page dumbfounded foreign policy experts again by giving another speech harshly critical of US policy -- this time in Moscow, the daily said.

The Clinton Campaign yesterday used 'The Post' story to allege that members of the Trump campaign have connections with the Putin regime in Russia.

"Carter Page, Trump's pro-Putin foreign policy adviser, built his career on deals with Russia's state owned gas company, Gazprom, and travelled to Moscow just last month," the Clinton Campaign alleged in a lengthy statement issued after the Trump Campaign chairman Paul Manafort resigned amid reports of his alleged links with pro-Russia elements in Ukraine.
Washington: A US federal judge has ordered Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton to answer written questions from a watchdog group about her use of a private email server when she served as secretary of state.

Such an order was passed by the US District Judge Emmet G Sullivan as part of a lawsuit filed against Clinton by Judicial Watch, which had sought permission to question the former secretary of state under oath and in person.

This was, however, denied by the court.

Judge Sullivan said the court is persuaded that Secretary Clinton's testimony is necessary to enable her to explain on the record the purpose for the creation and operation of the clintonemail.Com system for State Department business.

"We are pleased that this federal court ordered Hillary Clinton to provide written answers under oath to some key questions about her email scandal," said Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton.

"We will move quickly to get these answers. The decision is a reminder that Clinton is not above the law," he said.

The court also asked the state department to release all remaining documents responsive to Judicial Watch's Freedom of Information Act request by September 30.

Judicial Watch may serve interrogatories on Clinton by October 14. Clinton's responses need to be within thirty days, the order said.

"Judicial Watch will get Clinton under oath regarding the set-up of her outlaw server ? something no other person, organisation or agency has been ableto do, to date. We believe it is a victory for law and order to get Hillary Clinton under oath answering questions about the server setup and why she did it," said Judicial Watch director of investigations Chris Farrell.

The Clinton Campaign said the former secretary of state would answer the questions.

"Judicial Watch is a right-wing organization that has been attacking the Clintons since the 1990s," said Brian Fallon, the spokesman of the Clinton Campaign.

"This is just another lawsuit intended to try to hurt Hillary Clinton's campaign, and so we are glad that the judge has accepted our offer to answer these questions in writing rather than grant Judicial Watch's request," he said.
Washington: A federal judge has ruled that Democrat Hillary Clinton must respond in writing in a lawsuit over her use of a private e-mail server while she was secretary of state.

In a two-page ruling issued on Friday, Judge Emmet Sullivan declined to order Clinton to testify in person in a case brought by the conservative group Judicial Watch.

The Democratic presidential candidate has 30 days to respond to Judicial Watch`s questions over her use of an unauthorized server while she was the top US diplomat, the ruling reads.

In early July, US Attorney General Loretta Lynch said no charges would be brought against Clinton for using the private email server.

FBI Director James Comey however said that while there was no clear evidence that Clinton and her aides intended to violate secrecy laws, "there is information that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly-classified information."

Clinton has apologised for exclusively using the 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.

The Judicial Watch lawsuit threatens to keep the e-mail controversy alive for the weeks leading up to the November 8 presidential election.
Vijayawada: With an aim to tightening the noose around criminals, Andhra Pradesh Police today launched DNA Index System (DIS), the first-of-its-kind initiative that allows generation of DNA profiles from live samples like saliva and blood stains.

The system uses the latest DNA technology tool called RapidHIT developed by IntegenX of USA.

The DIS allows generation of DNA profiles using buccal swabs, blood stains, saliva and other live samples in less than two hours.

Generation of a DNA profile takes two or more days with the technologies so far available.

The AP Police launched a pilot, to test the efficacy of the DIS, to generate DNA profiles of a batch of convicts and suspects involved in various crimes, a release from the Chief Minister's Office said.

"DNA profiling plays a crucial role in solving crimes and also has the potential to link a series of crimes by placing the suspects by linking them with the crime scene. It could also help the suspects prove their innocence," the release added.

"Our aim is to make AP a crime-free state and the DIS is a proactive policing measure using the latest technology in forensic labs," Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu said on the occasion.

Deputy Chief Minister N China Rajappa, Director General of Police (in charge) N Sambasiva Rao, Forensic advisor to government P C Gandhi, IntegenX CEO Anand Gupta, former official of Florida Police Department Roy Swiger and other officials were present on the occasion.
Islamabad: Pakistan has closed its border with Afghanistan indefinitely after a group of Afghan demonstrators attacked the Friendship Gate at Chaman and set the Pakistani flag on fire.

The incident that took place on Thursday evening has resulted in suspension in the movement of trucks involved in trade shipments between the two countries and carrying supplies for Nato forces in Afghanistan, Dawn online reported on Saturday.

Sources said on Friday that a large number of Afghan nationals, celebrating the 97th anniversary of their country`s independence day, gathered near the Friendship Gate after marching through the streets of the Spin Boldak town across the border.

They carried placards and banners inscribed with anti-Pakistan slogans.

Shouting slogans against Pakistan, the Afghan demonstrators started pelting the Friendship Gate with stones, smashing windowpanes of the building.

Exercising restraint, the personnel of Frontier Corps avoided taking any action against the Afghan protesters who swarmed the gate after seeing Pakistanis who had staged a protest against Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his remarks about Balochistan the same day and were dispersing.

The Afghan demonstrators snatched the national flag from a Pakistani protester who stood close to the Friendship Gate and set it on fire.

The Afghan demonstrators also tried to force their entry through the gate which had already been closed because of the Afghans` rally.

"The border with Afghanistan will remain closed for an indefinite period," security officials deployed at the Friendship Gate said on Friday, adding "We will not open the gate until orders to do so are received from the high command."

Every day between 10,000 and 15,000 Pakistani and Afghan traders cross into Chaman and Vesh Mandi in connection with their business in the border towns.

According to the sources, security has been heightened at the border after the incident.
PM Modi congratulated Bimalendra Nidhi on assuming office as the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Home Affairs of Nepal.

By Smita Sharma: Bimalendra Nidhi, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Home Affairs of Nepal called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi today.

PM Modi congratulated Bimalendra Nidhi on assuming office as the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Home Affairs of Nepal.

He also conveyed his greetings and best wishes to the new Government of Nepal, led by Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda'.

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Mr. Bimalendra Nidhi briefed the Prime Minister about developments in Nepal.

Stating that the relations between India and Nepal were not merely between the two Governments, but between the people of both countries, the Prime Minister reiterated that India is committed to strengthening these traditional bonds of friendship and kinship with the people of Nepal.

The Prime Minister said that India is fully committed to support the Government and the people of Nepal in the post-earthquake reconstruction efforts.

The Prime Minister also conveyed an invitation to the Prime Minister of Nepal to visit India at his earliest convenience.

--- ENDS ---
Islamabad: Pakistan has closed one of its main border point with Afghanistan after a group of Afghans staged a protest and tried to attack the crossing in the troubled Balochistan province.

A large number of people had gathered near Friendship Gate at Chaman in Balochistan to celebrate Afghanistan's national day yesterday.

During the event, some Afghans attacked the gate and burnt a Pakistani flag in the evening, prompting authorities to deploy additional security troops and shut down the gate for indefinite period, an official said.

Another official said the Afghans belonging to border town of Spin Boldak protested in favor of India after Pakistan protested against the remarks made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi regarding Balochistan.

They also chanted slogans against Pakistan, threw rocks at the gate.

The closure resulted in long queues of trucks and lorries on both sides of the border. The traders suffered on both sides as fresh supplies of essential items have been badly interrupted.

Pakistan had closed Torkham border crossing in the north- west region in June after deadly clashes with Afghan forces. It was later reopened after talks between high officials of the two countries.
Patna: More than 550 litres of country liquor, which was buried under the earth, was recovered during a search operation launched in Khajurwani ward of Gopalganj town where 16 persons died in a suspected hooch incident early this week.

Search operation in which JCB machines are being used to dig the earth for hidden plastic containers of "mahua" (country liquor) is continuing today, District Magistrate Rahul Kumar told PTI.

Meanwhile, Lalbabu Passi, said to be the main accused in the suspected hooch tragedy has been arrested by Deoria in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh, Officer

In-charge of town police station Santosh Kumar said.

Passi had fled to Deoria after the incident.

The Gopalganj DM said he has sought proposal from the Excise department for imposition of "collective fine" on residents of Khajurwani ward where as media reports suggest liquor trade continues despite total prohibition.

The DM said there are 56 households in the Khajurwani and the Excise department has been directed to survey households involved in preparation of country liquor so that a collective fine could be imposed on them as per provisions of new Liquor law, 2016 of Bihar.

Principal Secretary Excise K K Pathak who paid a visit to Gopalganj in the wake of the incident has said that if hooch is confirmed, the property of the culprits would be attached as part of stringent provisions of the new Liquor law.

The Gopalganj DM discounted soaring figures presented by media in Wednesday's tragedy and said officially the death toll stood at 16.

Meanwhile, Madhepura MP and chief of Janadhikar Party Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav slammed Nitish Kumar government over Gopalganj tragedy before leaving for the place to meet the families of the victims.

Talking to reporters in Patna, Pappu Yadav described the new Excise law as a "black law" and said within two weeks he would file a writ in the Supreme Court against it.
Raipur: A railway line in Chhattisgarh's insurgency-hit Dantewada district was damaged by the Naxals following which two engines and 14 wagons of a goods train derailed, police said on Saturday.

However, no casualties were reported, they said.

"The Naxals damaged railway line near Pujapara Dhurli village following which two engines and 14 wagons of a goods train which was on its way to Kirandul from Visakhapatnam derailed," police officials told PTI.

Police have rushed to the spot to take stock of the situation, the officials said.

Railway officials have started repairing the railway line and investigations are underway, they added.
New Delhi: Opposing the Delhi government's decision to hike minimum wages, representatives of traders, hoteliers, transporters and industry associations have suggested to Labour Minister Gopal Rai that the order should be applicable only to government employees and not the private sector.

In a meeting with 100 odd representatives, it was also conveyed to the government that decision to hike wages will hamper their business and this will result in the industry moving out.

"We have suggested that the decision to hike minimum wages should be extended to government employees. Keep the private sector out of it. The decision will lead to industry moving out of Delhi.

"We also told him by hiking the wages, the industry would also move out to neighbouring states where the labour is much cheaper than Delhi," AAP's Trade Wing Convenor Brijesh Goyal said.

Apart from strike and protest, Goyal added that the traders are also contemplating a legal course against the government's decision.

"We have explained our stand to the Minister and he said the concern will be raised in the Cabinet. We will also meet Delhi Chief Minister next week and raise this issue," Goyal said.

Defending his government's decision to hike minimum wages in Delhi, Kejriwal had said money in the hands of the poor and middle class, and not "Ambani and Adani", will benefit the country's economy.
New Delhi: The Delhi government on Saturday announced Rs one crore compensation to the family of a 49-year-old Delhi Police constable who was shot dead by three unidentified miscreants on Friday night.

Anand Singh, the constable, was shot dead in outer Delhi`s Shahbad Dairy area at around 9.18 p.m. while trying to catch miscreants fleeing after snatching a bag from a woman.

"Delhi government will give Rs one crore compensation to the family of police constable martyr Anand, who lost his life on duty on Friday night," a government official said.

Delhi`s Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia also paid tributes to the constable.

"I salute Delhi police constable Anand who lost his life while discharging his duty towards women security," Sisodia tweeted.

According to a senior police officer, the incident took place at Samosa Chowk area of Shahbad Dairy in outer Delhi.

"A PCR call was made at 9.20 p.m. about a quarrel in the area, but the constable was found critically injured with the bullet injury there," the senior police officer told IANS.

Singh, a resident of Sonipat in Haryana, had joined Delhi Police in 1988 and was presently posted in Shahbad Dairy area of the city. He is survived by his wife, mother, 22-year old son and a 19-year old daughter.

Police has registered a case and started investigations.
New Delhi: A court here on Saturday reserved its order on the quantum of sentence for three persons held guilty of kidnapping and killing IT executive Jigisha Ghosh in March 2009.

Additional Sessions Judge Sandeep Yadav set August 22 for determining the punishment to be given to convicts Ravi Kapoor, Amit Shukla and Baljit Singh Malik.

Public Prosecutor Rajiv Mohan requested the court to award maximum punishment, i.e. death penalty, to the convicts as they have shown no remorse for killing the executive.

The convicts are also facing trial for killing India Today Group journalist Soumya Vishwanathan and a taxi driver, the prosecution apprised the court.

However, the defence counsel pleaded for leniency, contending that the convicts are young.

The court on July 14 convicted the three men under Section 302 (murder), Section 201 (destruction of evidence), Section 364 (kidnapping or abducting in order to murder), Section 394 (voluntarily causing hurt in committing robbery), Section 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), Section 471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record), Section 482 (punishment for using a false property mark) with Section 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.

Jigisha, 28, who was working with Hewitt Associate Pvt Ltd as an operations manager, was kidnapped and killed on March 18, 2009 after her office cab dropped her near her home in Vasant Vihar area in south Delhi around 4 a.m.

Her body was found on March 20, 2009 near Surajkund in Haryana.

The police later arrested Kapoor, Shukla and Malik in the case.
Panaji: The results of 2017 Goa Assembly elections will lay the foundation of party's victory in the 2019 general elections, BJP president Amit Shah said on Saturday.

"2017 is very important for the party. There are elections in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur and Goa. Through these elections we want to bring transformation in the country ... We should be in power from panchayat to Parliament," Shah said.

He was addressing a gathering of booth-level BJP workers near Panaji, kicking off the party's campaign for Assembly.

"Results of Goa Assembly elections will lay foundation for party's victory in 2019 Lok Sabha elections under the leadership of Narendra Modi," he said.

"If we win all the states in 2017, then no one can stop BJP's victory in 2019 elections," he said.

Shah expressed confidence that BJP on its own will win 27 seats (out of total 40) in Goa Assembly elections.

"Congress has lost in all the states in the recent past. Now they are eyeing Goa ... How will they win in Goa after losing in all the states," the BJP president said, alleging that corruption to the tune of "Rs 12 lakh crore" took place during the Congress regime.

Responding to former union minister Kamal Nath's criticism of the Prime Minister Modi's foreign visits, Shah referred to Modi's predecessor Manmohan Singh as "Maunibaba".

"Even Maunibaba used to visit the foreign countries, but no one knew about them, not even the countries he was visiting. But when Modi travels abroad, thousands of people wait to receive him. The reception is not for Modi alone, it is for the BJP and citizens of this country," Shah said.

"When Modi addressed the UN in Hindi, the country was proud of it," he said.
Ahmedabad: Four years after three Dalit youths were killed in a firing incident at Thangadh in Surendranagar district of Gujarat, the state government has decided to form a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate the case.

Chief Minister Vijay Rupani decided to form the SIT after receiving several representations from Dalit leaders requesting the same, a government release said today.

"Chief Minister Vijay Rupani took the decision following representations from Dalit leaders including cabinet minister Atmaram Parmar, former minister Ramanlal Vora, and Rajya Sabha MP Shambhuprasad Tundiya," the release said quoting Minister of State for Home Pradipsinh Jadeja.

The government has also decided to form a special designated court and appoint a special public prosecutor to expedite the case, it said.

It also announced an additional Rs 2 lakh compensation to the nearest kin of each of the victims over and above what was decided earlier.

The issue of Thangadh Police firing came in focus after the Una town Dalit flogging incident.

In a rally held by Una Dalit Atyachar Padkar Samiti, which organised a march from Ahmedabad to Una, Dalits leaders have demanded for justice to victims of Thangadh firing.

Family members of victims of Thangadh were also sitting on hunger strike in Gandhinagar, demanding judicial probe in the incident.

Rajkot city police commissioner Anupam Singh Gehlot, Surat city DCP Zone -2, Parikshita Rathod, and Porbandar Superintendent of Police Tarun Kumar Duggal will be members of the SIT, the release said.

On the intervening night of September 22-23, 2012, three Dalit youths--Pankaj Sumra, Prakash Parmar and Mehul Rathod--were killed when police opened fire to disperse a violent mob to control a clash between Dalits and OBC Bharwad community members at Thangadh town in Surendranagar district.

The government had earlier ordered a probe into the incident and a report was submitted to it by the then principal secretary of social justice and empowerment department, Sanjay Prasad. The report has not yet been made public.
New Delhi: A special court today dismissed the bail plea of an LIC agent, arrested in a money laundering case involving Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and others, saying there were "more than sufficient" material to show his involvement in the offence.

"The material collected during investigation till date is more than sufficient to reach the conclusion of active involvement of applicant (Anand Chauhan) in the offence of money laundering," Special Judge Vinod Kumar said.

The judge said, "I am of the opinion that it cannot be said that the material against the applicant (Chauhan) is not substantial enough or that he is only at the periphery of the offence. Accordingly, in view of the stringent provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), I am not inclined to grant bail to the applicant."

Chauhan was arrested from Chandigarh on July 9 under the provisions of PMLA as he was allegedly not cooperating with investigating agency Enforcement Directorate (ED).

In its order, the court also asked the probe agency to follow the practices adopted by other probe agencies like CBI like maintaining of case diaries, arrival-departure registers which could be of immence benefit for the agency.

The ED had opposed the bail plea, saying there were ample evidences against Chauhan and there was serious apprehension that he could tamper with evidence if released on bail.

"The persons against whom the case was filed are still holding very high posts. He should not be granted bail as it will hamper the further course of investigation," the agency had told the court.

Chauhan had sought bail on the ground that the case against him was documentary in nature and there was no need to keep him in custody. He had further said that he had joined and cooperated in the probe.

While arguing for bail, his counsel had submitted that he was not the "fountainhead" for generating the money. "Neither the money was his (Chauhan), nor he was the beneficiary. He was arrested on July 9 while no other accused has been arrested in the case yet. Isn't it a dubious way of the probe agency," the counsel had asked.
New Delhi: Former Afghanistan president Hamid Karzai on Saturday appreciated Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call for "freedom" for Balochistan.

Karzai India is not engaged in any proxy war in Afghanistan and has been sincerely carrying out reconstruction work there. He slammed Pakistan for "encouraging" radicalism and not containing terror groups operating from its soil.

Earlier, several Baloch leaders praised and thanked PM Modi for highlighting the Balochistan issue internationally.

Karzai's statement is certain to raise eyebrows in Pakistan.

PM Modi in his Independence Day speech openly came out in support of "freedom" for Balochistan and "Pakistan-occupied Kashmir" and said India will never tolerate terrorism.

"The world is watching. People of Balochistan, Gilgit, Pakistan-occupied Kashmir have thanked me a lot in the past few days. I am grateful to them," Modi said, referring to his comments last week on excesses in Pakistan's largest province and in the part of Kashmir it holds.

Notably, the PoK region recently has been witnessing huge protests. Locals in the region have been agitating on the streets to protest against the rigged July 21 election and Pakistan occupation in the region.

Last year reports had emerged that residents of PoK were openly advocating to be a part of India. They were said to be impressed with PM Narendra Modi's style of governance.
The 52-year-old economist, consultant and banker was serving as the RBI Deputy Governor and will now succeed Raghuram Rajan.

By India Today Web Desk: Amid much speculation and anticipation, Urjit Patel was today appointed as the new Reserve Bank of India Governor, sources in the Finance Ministry said.

The 52-year-old economist, consultant and banker was serving as the RBI Deputy Governor and will now succeed Raghuram Rajan. Patel is likely to assume office on September 5, a day after Raghuram Rajan's three-year term comes to an end.

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Patel, who holds a doctorate in Economics from Yale, is credited to be one of the main architects of re-engineering the RBI's monetary police structure. He was a close confidante of outgoing RBI governor Raghuram Rajan.

WHO IS URJIT PATEL?

Patel has been a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution since 2009. He was on deputation from the IMF to the Reserve Bank of India in 1996-1997. While on deputation he provided advice on development of the debt market, banking sector reforms, pension fund reforms, real exchange rate targeting and evolution of the foreign exchange market.

Between 1998 and 2001, Patel served as a consultant in the Department of Economic Affairs at the Ministry of Finance. He was also the president of Reliance Industries Limited and was also the member of the management committee of IDFC between 1997 and 2006. Patel also worked as a member of the Integrated Energy Policy Committee between 2004-2006 and Member of Board for Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation Limited.



PATEL WORKED WITH CENTRAL AND STATE LEVEL COMMITTEES

In the early 2000s, Patel worked with several central and state high-level committees like Task Force on Direct Taxes, Finance Ministry, Advisory Committee, Competition Commission of India, Secretariat for the Prime Minister's task force on infrastructure, group of ministers on Telecom Matters, Committee on Civil Aviation Reforms, Ministry of Power's Expert Group on State Electricity Boards and High Level Expert Group for Reviewing the Civil and Defence Services pension system.

Several technical publications, papers and comments in the areas of Indian macroeconomics, public finance, infrastructure, financial intermediation, international trade and the economics of climate change has been attributed to Patel.

Watch the video here:

Also read:

RBI Governor Patel is a man of clear opinion who can bring change, says Deputy Governor Mundra

It will be idiotic to attack Urjit Patel: Swamy on new RBI Governor's appointment

--- ENDS ---
Lucknow: Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday lashed out at Pakistan and accused it of involvement in nefarious activities against India.

Addressing a gathering in Shahjahanpur, around 175 km from the state capital Lucknow, the minister said it was unfortunate that Pakistan was stoking violence in Kashmir.

Singh, who flagged off the 'Tiranga Yatra' of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Shahjahanpur, said Pakistan will never succeed in its evil designs against India.

Referring to violence in the Kashmir Valley, the minister said the Narendra Modi government wanted the youth there to have pens and laptops in their hands rather than stones.

He also praised the initiatives of the National Democratic Alliance government in trying to solve the country's problems and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi's initiative of 'Swachh Bharat' was a path-breaking effort which was finding acceptance across the nation.

Earlier, he visited the Shaheed Udayan park and paid floral tributes at the statues of freedom fighters Thakur Roshan Singh, Ashfaqullah Khan and Pandit Ram Prasad Bismil.

He said these great freedom fighters were an inspiration for the coming generations.

Later, he addressed a public rally at Khirnibagh Ramlila grounds and apprised the people of the aim of the 'Tiranga Yatra'.

Singh said the Centre's schemes like the Pradhan Mantri Crop Insurance Scheme, Swachh Bharat and skill development mission were aimed at the all-round development of the country.

Rajnath Singh later flew to Lucknow where he was given a rousing reception by party workers and leaders.
Chandigarh: A high security alert has been reportedly sounded in the border districts of Gurdaspur and Pathankot after the security agencies intercepted calls made by militants from Pakistan regarding movement of their associates.

TOI reported that a call from Pakistan was intercepted by the security agencies suggesting movement of some suspects.

Pathankot and Gurdaspur cities are under tight vigil with with the security forces conducting massive checking operation, the report said citing the police.

On the intervening night of January 1-2, terrorists had sneaked from across the border and attacked the Pathankot air base.

Also on July 27 last year, Dinanagar in Gurdaspur was targeted.

"Security agencies intercepted a call from Pakistan on Friday evening in which callers were heard saying about movement of suspects in a truck to Pathankot or Dinanangar in (Gurdaspur)," TOI quoted the police as saying.

After receiving the input, a large team of Punjab police, comprising 400 personnel, including Special Weapons and Tactics Team (SWAT) and BSF personnel, conducted massive search operations late last night.

"We are not taking any chances. Security has been tightened in the border areas of Gurdaspur, Pathankot and Batala," a police officer reportedly said.

The report said that all vehicles going towards and coming from Jammu and Kashmir as well as Himachal Pradesh are being checked thoroughly.

Special check post were also put up at the entry points and other areas in Pathankot and Gurdaspur.

Also tight vigil is being kept near Indo-Pak borders areas, police said.

The Pathankot attack early this year had claimed the lives of seven security personnel.
New Delhi: The monogrammed suit worn by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his meeting with American President Barack Obama last year, which created huge controversy, entered Guinness Book of World Records as 'the most expensive suit sold'.

The suit was sold at an auction for Rs. 43,131,311. It was bought by Laljibhai Tulsibai Patel, a resident of Surat, in Gujarat, on February 20, 2015.

The proceeds from this auction have gone to the Namami Gange Fund, a project to clean the Ganga River.

The pin stripped suit garnered considerable controversy and media attention for having the name 'Narendra Modi' stitched on it.

Many critics then accused the Prime Minister of being 'self-obsessed' and 'narcissist' and his monogrammed suit as 'gimmick'.

Congress party vice-president Rahul Gandhi then said the suit was 'Make in UK' and another Congress leader Jairam Ramesh called him 'melodramatic'.

Media reports claimed that the price of the suit that Prime Minister Modi wore during his interaction with President Obama at Hyderabad House on January 26, 2015 was Rs. 10 lakhs.

The suit was gifted to Prime Minister Modi by an ardent fan, said others.
New Delhi: Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday reacted sharply to Jammu and Kashmir former chief minister and National Conference president Omar Abdullah's remark over the ongoing crisis going on in the Valley. '

"We don't only love the land of Kashmir, but the people too (Hume kewal Kashmir ki zameen se mohabbat nahi hai, hume kashmir ke logon se bhi mohabbat hai)," Home Minister Rajnath Singh.

"We want to see pens and computers in the hands of Kashmiri youth and not stones and firearms," said Rajnath, who reached Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh today to participate in Tiranaga Yatra to mark 70th Independence Day.

Today afternoon, a 20-member delegation led by Omar Abdullah met President Pranab Mukherjee to apprise him of continued difficulties being faced by the people because of continued curfew in the valley.

Omar and other Opposition parties were worried about youths getting killed and injured in security forces firing, alleging the state and the central governments mishandled the situation.

"When you say that the Kashmir is an integral part of India, you are talking the land, not of people. Make people yours too. A small problem with Gujarat and the Prime Minister spoke to the people there in the Gujarati; why our problem is not important enough," Omar said on Friday.

"We want the Centre to take emergent steps to check excessive use of force. There is a need for a judicial probe into the Kashmir situation," said Omar, alleging that both the Central and state governments totally failed to stop the killings of civilian in the Valley.

Omar said Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had been blaming Pakistan for the unrest. "Yes, they are playing a negative role, but it is the security forces who are killing youth and other people in the Valley," he said.

He said Jammu and Kashmir is a political issue and should be solved politically.
New Delhi: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj's big-hearted gesture of help has come for lot of appreciation both within and outside the country.

Despite her tight schedule, she finds time to congratulate Olympics medal winners, console injured Olympians and even sort out people's passport issues.

How is she able to accommodate so many requests of so many people even as she fulfils her external affairs ministerial duties, wondered a media report.

Swaraj was back to sorting out people's passport issues in her signature style - a dash of swagger, a pinch of humour and large dollops of humanity, TOI wrote.

She received a lot of praise after she promptly extended help to a Singapore-based NRI Arif Rashid Zargar who has been reportedly waiting for a while now for his infant son to get a passport.

He apparently can't see his little boy, Ali, in person until he gets his documentation done.

So he tweeted his predicament to the external affairs minister.

According to TOI he wrote, Pls help out with my baby's passport or he will grow thinking whatsapp n skype is his father.

And Sushma in her trademark reportedly style wrote back, saying Ohh ! That will be too much, pl give me the details.
Srinagar: Authorities on Saturday continued curfew and shutdown for the 43rd consecutive day paralysing life across Kashmir.



Police said curfew will remain in force in Anantnag town and parts of Srinagar city while restrictions will continue in other parts of the Valley.



The state government has advised its employees to resume duties failing which they would not be given salaries for the month of August.



Employees have described the directive as "dictatorial and unjustified" given the prevailing law and order situation.



For the sixth consecutive on Friday, no prayers were allowed at the Jamia Mosque in Nowhatta area of old city Srinagar.



Senior separatist leaders, Syed Ali Geelani and Mirwaiz Umer Farooq defied detention when they came out of house arrest and tried to march towards Aaripanthan village in Budgam district to pay homage to four civilians killed in CRPF firing.



Geelani and Mirwaiz were arrested and lodged at local police stations for some time before they were again placed under house arrest in Srinagar city.
New Delhi: A 20-member delegation from Jammu and Kashmir led by former chief minister Omar Abdullah on Saturday met President Pranab Mukherjee to apprise him of the prevailing situation in the Kashmir Valley.

The decision came at a meeting attended by members of the National Conference, Congress, Communist Party, Democratic Party Front, Awami Ittehad Party and People's Democratic Front participated here on Wednesday.

The members decided to meet President Mukherjee to apprise him that the situation in the Valley is turning for the worse due to the non-stop killing of the people.

"When you say that the Kashmir is an integral part of India, you are talking the land, not of people. Make people yours too. A small problem with Gujarat and the Prime Minister spoke to the people there in the Gujarati; why our problem is not important enough," Omar asked.

"We want the Centre to take emergent steps to check excessive use of force. There is a need for a judicial probe into the Kashmir situation," said Omar, alleging that both the Central and state governments totally failed to stop the killings of civilian in the Valley.

Omar said Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had been blaming Pakistan for the unrest. "Yes, they are playing a negative role, but it is the security forces who are killing youth and other people in the Valley," he said.

He said Jammu and Kashmir is a political issue and should be solved politically.

"But unfortunately, the Centre has been saying Kashmir is an integral part of India, they are not talking about the Valley people, they are only talking about the land of Kashmir," he added.

Earlier, Omar said they would try to meet leaders of all political parties in Delhi and also former judges of the Supreme Court urging them to help resolve the problem.
New Delhi: As the unrest in Kashmir entered the 43rd day, leaders of opposition parties from Jammu and Kashmir led by Omar Abdullah on Saturday knocked at the doors of President Pranab Mukherjee, requesting him to urge the Centre in finding a solution "politically".

With no signs of peace returning to the Valley, Omar, working president of National Conference and former chief minister, hit out at the Modi government for its "failure" to acknowledge that the issue in Kashmir is largely of a political nature.

The opposition delegation while seeking the President's intervention also submitted a memorandum and apprised him of the "worsening" situation in the state.

Omar said the delegation also requested the President to use his "influence" on the state as well as the Centre "to stop the use of lethal force against civilians in the Valley".

"The failure of the central government to acknowledge that the issue in Kashmir is largely of a political nature has worsened the already volatile situation," Omar told reporters after an hour-long meeting with the President.

"We have requested the President to impress upon the central government to initiate a credible and meaningful process of political dialogue without any further delay involving all stakeholders to address the political issue in the state," the NC leader said.

The 46-year-old former Chief Minister, who had held a meeting of all opposition parties in Srinagar earlier this week, said the situation cannot be handled administratively or by creating a humanitarian crisis.

"You see, we are having curfew for last 43 days. Now sale of petrol has been stopped which means it will also affect movement of ambulances. With stringent curfew measures being enforced, more and more people are being driven out onto the streets and the problem is getting worse," Omar said, adding having further restrictions placed on them only increases their misery.

The delegation, which also comprised CPI-M MLA M Y Tarigami, Congress MLAs led by its PCC Chief G A Mir and independent MLA Hakeem Yaseen, has also sought time from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss the situation.

It would also be meeting leaders of other political parties including Vice President of Congress Rahul Gandhi and CPI-M General Secretary Sitaram Yechury.

Omar said the continued refusal of the Centre to deal with the situation through a political approach "is disappointing and can have serious long term implications on peace and stability in the state".

"I wonder when would they wake up as the situation is grave," he said, alleging that the state and central governments were trying to "crush the agitation by using administrative measures".

Blaming Mehbooba Mufti-headed PDP-BJP government for having failed on all fronts to normalise the situation, Omar said the Chief Minister was directly responsible for the deteriorating situation.

The former Chief Minister, who was also accompanied by senior leaders of NC including provincial Presidents of his party Nasir Wani and Davinder Rana, Ali Mohammed Sagar and A R Rather, said, "The fire that has been raging in Kashmir Valley has already started spreading across Peer Panjal and Chenab Valley in Jammu region and Kargil area."
Kashmir: Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah and Bharatiya Janata Party national general secretary Ram Madhav on Saturday were entangled in a twitter war over Kashmir unrest.

While taking a swipe at the previous National Conference-Congress coalition, Madhav said, Talk of political solution is only to score political points. They did nothing to help State bring normalcy. In stead helped spread unrest.

The BJP leader hit out at the political personalities who were absent during hosting of the national flag in all the districts of J&K.

He also hit our at Omar for calling for political solution to the Kashmir problem.

In a series of tweets the ex-J&K CM took on the ruling BJP saying: We have offered you solutions both while in power & out of it but you are deaf to what you don't like hearing!

While replying to Madhav, Omar tweeted: Why don't you name us instead of just these snide, sly tweets? I challenge you to prove that any of us spread unrest.

Why don't you name us instead of just these snide, sly tweets? I challenge you to prove that any of us spread unrest https://t.co/yqAF3y2hro  Omar Abdullah (@abdullah_omar) August 20, 2016

You have your IB, MI, RAW, CID. Stop tweeting about us spreading unrest & go use your evidence to file sedition case https://t.co/hl5kFbNGCZ  Omar Abdullah (@abdullah_omar) August 20, 2016

We have offered you solutions both while in power & out of it but you are deaf to what you don't like hearing! https://t.co/Npv0C2l1gC  Omar Abdullah (@abdullah_omar) August 20, 2016

What is it about us meeting the Hon President that has both @BJP4India & @jkpdp lashing out at us? Is meeting President anti-national?  Omar Abdullah (@abdullah_omar) August 20, 2016

They talk of political solution bt nvr clarify what it is 2 d rants of Azadi. In power they nvr offered it when stones were pelted at them  Ram Madhav (@rammadhavbjp) August 20, 2016

Talk of political solution is only to score political points. They did nothing to help State bring normalcy. In stead helped spread unrest  Ram Madhav (@rammadhavbjp) August 20, 2016

When govt hosted I-Day in all districts n Ministers went 2 hoist tricolour most of d worthies were simply absent. That's political solution.  Ram Madhav (@rammadhavbjp) August 20, 2016

As the unrest in Kashmir entered the 43rd day, leaders of opposition parties from Jammu and Kashmir led by Omar Abdullah today knocked at the doors of President Pranab Mukherjee, requesting him to urge the Centre in finding a solution "politically".
Thiruvananthapuram: In a gruesome incident, a 65-year-old woman was attacked and partly eaten up by 50 stray dogs on Friday night barely 10 km from the state secretariat here.

Victim, Sheeluamma died at the Medical College hospital here. Angry relatives and residents of the area have blamed the city authority for her death.

"We have lost all our patience as the authorities are hanging on to some obscure law which says dogs cannot be eliminated. Are we inferior to these dogs," asked a group of angry residents in Pulluvilla.

The incident took place around 9 p.m. in the coastal village Pulluvilla about 30 minutes from the state capital when Sheeluamma went to the seafront to use a toilet there.

Her son witnessed her being torn up by the hungry canines when he came searching for her. He had to dive into the sea to save himself from the dogs.

An hour later after Sheeluamma`s death, another 50-year-old, Daisy was attacked by a group of dogs in a nearby locality on the seafront.
By PTI: Bhubaneswar, Aug 20 (PTI) The Odisha government today urged the Wild Life Trust of India (WLTI) to prepare a comprehensive Wildlife Management Plan for the state which boasts off different kinds of animals, birds and marine creatures.

"The Wild Life Trust of India has been requested to prepare the comprehensive plan within 15 months. They would hold wide ranging discussions with various stake holders at different levels," Secretary of Forest and Environment department S C Mohapatra said.

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He said the technical experts and field level executives will be consulted before finalising the plan.

Inputs would also be collected from local sources, Mohapatra said, adding that each department would nominate one nodal officer to give necessary data and input to WLTI for modalising the plan.

Mohapatra said the state government was hopeful of getting the Comprehensive WL Management Plan ready within 10 months.

Chief Secretary A P Padhi, who presided over the meeting with officials of the WLTI, suggested that the comprehensive plan should be prepared by fostering a balance between forest and wild life conservation on one side and mining and development activities on the other.

Padhi also called for adopting appropriate technological solutions and innovative approach to resolve differences between wild life conservation and development interventions.

The meeting discussed about preparation of micro-level plans for 51 wild life and territorial divisions of Odisha.

The issues pertaining to diversity and conservation of mammalian, tigers, avian species, herpetofaunal species, fish, plants, aquatic life, marine resources, sacred groves and others were discussed in the meeting.

The topics like peoples participation in conservation, awareness about nature, wildlife health, human and animal conflict management, eco-system restoration, habitat management and others also figured in the talks.

"Odisha now pioneers in working out the Comprehensive Wild Life Management Plan in the entire nation," M K Ranjitsinh, Emiritus Wild Life Trust of India (WLTI), said.

Dr Binod Chandra Choudhury, Advisor, WLTI cited the activities in which Odisha pioneered.

The state has the distinction of establishing tiger reserve, riverine sanctuary, RAMSAR site at Chilika and Marine Species Conservation of Olive Ridley turtles. PTI AAM SUS MNG PD

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Bhopal: As at least 15 people have lost their lives due to heavy rains and rescue operations are on to help those who are trapped in floods, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Saturday announced a compensation of Rs 4 lakh each next of kin to the deceased.

Briefing the media, Chaohan said due to excess rain, flood-like-situation has been experienced in parts of Madhya Pradesh, however, Reva, Satna and Panna are three severely-affected districts.He added that all safety measures have been undertaken and the administration is on their toes to provide aide to civilians.

Until now, 4,215 people have been rescued from Satna district and 1,550 people from Rewa, said Chauhan."In these three districts, we have deployed teams of the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and army, along with two helicopters, to deal with the situation," he added.

The chief minister said as many as 12 SDRF teams have been deployed in the entire region and the rescue operations are on."Excessive rain has severely affected 35 villages of Rewa, five villages of Satna, and almost 21 villages of Panna," Chaohan said.

Stating that almost 3,500 people are living in 38 relief camps in Rewa, Chauhan added, "We are providing proper food, medicines and other basis requirements at relief camps."In house collapse incidents, seven people died in Sagar, two died in Katni and six died in Chattrapur, said the chief minister, adding that "Rs 4 lakh compensation will be given to next of kin to the deceased."Meanwhile, 18 have been injured in Madhya Pradesh`s Shajapur district after a bus fell into a river, however, all passengers have been rescued and medical aid is being provided to them.

The Chief Minister added that he has also postponed his `Tiranga Yatra` programme, and would visit places that are badly affected by floods.
Bhopal: At least seven people were buried alive and several others were left injured after a house collapsed in Madhya Pradesh's Sagar district on Saturday, a report said.

As per the report, the tragic incident happened at Rahatgarh area after the flood waters entered several houses leaving a trail of destruction in the area.

While seven people were killed in the incident, three others received serious injuries and were rushed to the hospital.

The incident occured in the early hours when the house of one Mehtab Shilpkar (59) at Ward No.7 of Rahatgarh area collapsed amid heavy rains, District Additional Superintendent of Police, Vivek Agrawal said.

The victims were fast asleep when the house collapsed.

The three injured-- Mehtab, his son Lakhan (26) and one Mahendra (20)--have been admitted to the district hospital, the ASP added.

The deceased have been identified as Manorani (55), wife of Mehtab, their sons Vikas (18), Nitin (14) and daughter Sanjana (11), besides one Kallu (30) his wife Maya (25) and their daughter Tamanna (18 months).

Further investigations are underway, Agrawal said.

Several districts in Madhya Pradesh are reeling under flood as incessant rain has wreaked havoc, crippling normal life, and obstructing road transportation. In the past few weeks, heavy rains and the flood-like situation has gone up in Madhya Pradesh.

Over 80 villages have been submerged and around 25,000 persons affected in Rewa and Satna districts, according to News report.

In Bhopal, the district administration had ordered the closure of schools while normal life in Rewa ceased due to incessant rains.
Lucknow: Amid reports of differences between them, Shivpal Yadav, brother of SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, on Friday met his nephew and Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav at his official residence here to send out a message that all is well in the family.

The 90-minute meeting is being seen as an attempt at reconciliation between Shivpal, a Cabinet Minister, and Akhilesh after intervention of the latters father Mulayam.

Later talking to media-persons at his residence, Shivpal denied any differences within the family. Where is it?I cant see. The family had met yesterday and is with each other today also. We (Akhilesh and Shivpal) were busy yesterday. So we sat together today, he said when asked to comment on reports of differences. Shivpal had skipped a meeting of the state cabinet on Wednesday, adding fuel to speculation about his unhappiness, which was music to the ears of the opposition in view of the upcoming Assembly elections.

He is Chief Minister and I am a minister, we have joint responsibility in the government, he said. At the same time, Shivpal said he was pained when action was not taken against land grabbers and accepted that some party office bearers were involved in such illegal acts. Its my opinion that such persons should be sacked from the party, he said.

Recently, even Mulayam had given a tongue lashing to SP lawmakers asking them to refrain from land grabbing and making easy money and instead concentrate on development work if they wanted to retain power in the state. Exuding confidence that SP would form government again, and this time with a thumping majority, Shivpal said, In 2017 we will get majority again and it will be bigger than 2012. SP had won 224 of the 403 UP Assembly seats last time and stormed to power.

At the meeting with Akhilesh, Shivpal is understood to have narrated his concerns related to governance in the state which is busy preparing for the elections barely few months away.

Hailing the works done by Akhlesh government, Shivpal said, Besides distributioin of laptops and scholarships, other welfare schemes were launched in the state for benefit of people. Asked about Mulayams statement that some persons were conspiring against him, Shivpal said, if it is so, Netaji (Mulayam) will deal with it.

He said no discussion took place with Akhilesh on organisational matters. On the controversial question of merger of Quami Ekta Dal(QED) of underworld don Mukhtar Ansari with Samajwadi Party, he said, The final decision in this regard will be taken by Netaji.

The differences within the party had come to the fore after Shivpal, who is also incharge of SP state unit, held a press conference in June to announce merger of QED with SP.

Akhilesh, however, did not approve of the idea and at his behest the merger was cancelled by SPs Parliamentary Board three days later, leaving Shivpal red faced. Shivpal then displayed his unhappiness at the birthday party of another brother Ram Gopal Yadav.

He arrived late at the venue of the party, so much that the birthday cake had already been cut in the presence of Mulayam, Akhilesh and other key leaders.

Also, instead of going to the dais, Shivpal sat among the invitees at the birthday party. Later, on prodding by leaders, he went to the dais but chose to occupy a chair in the back row and even avoided going up to Ramgopal to wish him on his birthday.

Later, Shivpal was also conspicuous by his absence at the swearing-in ceremony of ministers at Raj Bhawan when Balram Yadav was reinducted.

Akhilesh had sacked Balram from his ministry for facilitating QED-SP amalgamation that took place hurriedly when the Chief Minister was away from the state capital. But, three days later the SP parliamentary board  the partys highest policy making body  while calling off the merger also decided to reinduct Balram, showing that top functionaries in the party were not on the same page.

Fishing in troubled waters, BSP supremo Mayawati on Wednesday urged the Election Commission to hold Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh by February, alleging that the infighting within the Mulayam Singh Yadav clan will have an adverse effect on the functioning of the SP government. She alleged that while BJP and Samajwadi Party want to delay the assembly polls, the Commission should start working on the schedule and announce the dates in January-February in larger public interest.

The former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister said ideally the BJP-led government should have prepared for imposition of Presidents Rule in the state long back due to the prevailing situation there.
New Delhi: CBI has taken into its custody three accused in the case of rape of a woman and her minor girl in Bulandshahr last month.

CBI sources refused to disclose the identity of the accused who were taken into custody by it but said they would be produced in the fast-track court-2 of Bulandshahr on August 23.

Uttar Pradesh Police had arrested six persons, including the prime suspect, in connection with the rape of the woman and her 13-year-old daughter while they were travelling from Noida to Shahjahanpur on the intervening night of July 29-30.

The case was transferred to CBI on the instructions of the Allahabad High Court. The agency had registered a case yesterday and sent a team of forensic experts and DIG-ranked officer to the crime scene.

UP Police, which received flak from the Allahabad High Court, had claimed to have solved the blind case within nine days of the incident with arrest of Salim Bawariya, the head of a gang from Rajasthan.

On the basis of his interrogation, two other gang members -- Zubair and Sajid -- were arrested by the Special Task Force of UP Police. Later, three more accused -- Naresh (25), Bablu (22) and Rais (28) -- were arrested.
Lucknow: Several districts in Uttar Pradesh are reeling under flood as incessant rain has wreaked havoc, crippling normal life, and obstructing road transportation.

River Mandakini has flooded dozens of villages of Chitrakoot district where the flood has also washed away roads at several places between Allahabad and Chitrakoot for the last four days.

the people has compelled to use boats in the Chitrakoot town street which remained filled with flood water.

In view of serious flood conditions in the district, District magistrate Chitrakoot Monika Rani has ordered the closure of all schools for today.

the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams are continuously engaged in the relief and rescue work.

On the other hand, the flood threat is also looming large in Allahabad, Mirzapur, Varanasi, ghazi purr, Ballia and other districts due to continuous rise of river Ganga which has swelled to the dangerous levels at many places.

Incessant rain in these areas has also added to the woes of the people. The administration has started evacuating the villagers in view of the imminent flood threat.
Lucknow: Eleven people were killed due to massive floods across Uttar Pradesh, an official said on Saturday.

Hundreds of mud houses in Bundelkhand have collapsed in one day, which killed five persons in Kalvanganj area of Banda district and Mahoma.

An official informed that it has been raining heavily in the region in the past two days.

Heavy rains caused a house to collapse in Kanpur rural on Friday, killing four persons, including two children.

A district administration official told media that a financial assistance of Rs 4 lakh each has been sanctioned to the next of kin of the deceased.

Owing to heavy accumulation of rain water in Sonbhadra, five gates of the Rihand dam had to be opened late Friday to "ease out the pressure".

Officials said heavy rains in the adjoining areas the water in the reservoir to increase by 20 ft in the past 24-hours. The water which has been released has flooded many areas in Chopan and is likely to flood areas in Bihar as well.

In Allahabad, the river Ganga crossed the danger level mark following which flood water entered residential areas on Saturday, ANI report said.

Heavy rainfall claimed two lives in Allahabad where more than 100 villages in trans-Ganga and trans-Yamuna regions, as well as low-lying localities of Allahabad city, have been inundated with rivers hovering around the danger mark, a senior official said on Friday.

A 12-year-old girl died in Allahabad after her house caved in due to rains and a roof collapse one person in Sitapur.

The district has been witnessing heavy rainfall since August 15 and so far one death each has been reported from Meja and Bara tehsils of trans-Yamuna region. More than 100 cattle have also perished in the two tehsils," Additional District Magistrate (Revenue and Finance) Ram Sahayak Yadav said.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has asked district officials to ensure that the rescue and relief measures with regards to floods were in place.

He has also ordered the installation of 2,500 hand pumps in flood-hit 21 districts to ensure easy availability of potable water, a government spokesman added.
Baghdad: Around 70,000 civilians are trapped by the Islamic State (IS) in a city near Mosul, said an Iraqi official on Saturday.

Al Qayyara, around 70 kilometres south of Mosul, was captured by the IS in June 2014, Efe news reported.

The official said the jihadist group was now "stopping civilians from fleeing in order to use them as human shields" during an expected manoeuvre by Iraqi troops to liberate the city.

The Iraqi army, supported by some 700 tribal combatants, was prepared to attack the IS bastion, and had already liberated most surrounding areas, said the official.

In order to delay the offensive, the IS burned oil wells and the smoke hid the area from aerial operations.

The toxic fumes from the fires killed 30 civilians in Al Qayyara, said the official.

Mosul and its surrounding areas have been in the hands of the IS since 2014, when it declared a caliphate in the Iraqi and Syrian territories it had conquered.
Ankara: Several people were feared to have been killed on Saturday in a late night militant attack on wedding party in the city of Gaziantep in southeastern Turkey, officials and reports said.

Gaziantep governor Ali Yerlikaya said the explosion in the city centre was due to a "terror attack", state-run news agency Anadolu reported.

Turkish MP Mehmet Erdogan told CNN-Turk broadcaster that people had lost their lives in the blast.

"There are people who lost their lives and we have initial information suggesting it was a bomb attack. We don`t know numbers of injured," said Erdogan, a ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) lawmaker for Gaziantep.

It was not clear who was responsible for the explosion. Erdogan said there was a high possibility it was a suicide attack.

The lawmaker added that it was the type of attack that could have been launched by the Islamic State (IS) group or the Kurdistan Workers` Party (PKK).

The Dogan news agency said the explosion, which went off at 1940 GMT, had caused injuries and fatalities.

A Turkish official confirmed an explosion in Gaziantep but would not say how many casualties there were.

"The explosion took place during a wedding. According to initially available information, the ceremony was being held outdoors," the official said."The aim of terror is to scare the people but we will not allow this," said Deputy Prime Mehmet Simsek, who also represents Gaziantep in the Turkish parliament.

"It is barbaric to attack a wedding," he told Turkish television.

Just north of the Syrian border, Gaziantep has become a major hub for Syrians fleeing the civil war in their country`s civil war.

But as well as refugees and opposition activists, there have long been fears it was home to a significant jihadist presence.

Turkey has already been hit by a bloody year of militant attacks in its two biggest cities that have left dozens dead.

Kurdish militants have twice struck in Ankara in deadly attacks, while IS suicide bombers have twice killed tourists in the centre of Istanbul.

Meanwhile the country is still reeling from a failed July 15 coup blamed on the US-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen that has been followed by a relentless purge of his supporters from all state institutions.

Twelve people were killed on Thursday in a spate of bombings against Turkish security forces blamed on the PKK who appear to have ramped up their campaign of attacks in the aftermath of the failed coup.

The blast in Gaziantep came on the day Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim vowed Ankara would play a "more active" role in the next six months in efforts to solve the five-year Syrian civil war.

In a sign that Turkey`s position was becoming gradually more aligned with Russia and Iran, he added that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad could remain temporarily during a transition period.

"He is one of the actors today no matter whether we like it or not," said Yildirim.

Iran and Russia are the main allies of Assad whereas Turkey has always insisted his exit was a precondition for the end of the conflict.
Pyongyang: North Korea on Saturday said Deputy Ambassador to Britain Thae Yong Ho defected to South Korea to escape punishment.

Thae was accused of embezzling state funds, selling state secrets and raping a minor, Efe news reported.

North Korea had recalled Thae in June to put him under investigation and on July 12 Central Procuratorate decided to start a probe, a report said.

North Korea also slammed South Korea`s coverage of the incident and blamed Seoul for using the case to tarnish Pyongyang`s image and step up anti-North Korea campaigns.

The incident was exacerbated by the fact that Britain ignored North Korea`s request to send Thae back, but instead handed him over to South Korea.

Seoul`s Unification Ministry said on Wednesday that North Korea`s deputy ambassador to Britain has defected to South Korea with his family.

If it was true, Thae would become the highest ranking North Korean diplomat who has fled to Seoul.
Beirut: Syrian government warplanes were again in the air over the mainly Kurdish-held city of Hasakeh early Saturday despite a US warning against any new strikes that might endanger its military advisers, a monitor said.

It was not immediately clear whether the aircraft, which were in the skies throughout the night, had carried out any bombing runs as there were heavy artillery exchanges on the ground, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Deadly clashes erupted between pro-government militia and the US-backed Kurdish forces on Wednesday. The following day, the regime launched its first ever air strikes against the Kurds.

The unprecedented strikes against six Kurdish positions in the northeastern city prompted the US-led coalition to scramble aircraft to protect US special operations forces advisers deployed with the Kurdish forces.

It was the first time the coalition had confirmed deploying warplanes against the Syrian air force.

Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis warned that "the Syrian regime would be well-advised not to do things that place them (coalition forces) at risk."

The Observatory said there was no let-up in the fighting on the ground which has left 39 people dead since Wednesday, 23 of them civilians, including nine children.

"There were heavy clashes, artillery fire and rocket attacks throughout the night and ongoing in the morning," Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

Around two-thirds of Hasakeh is controlled by Kurdish forces, but the rest is in the hands of pro-government militia.

The regime and Kurdish forces share a common enemy in the Islamic State jihadist group, which controls most of the Euphrates valley to the south, but there have been tensions between them in Hasakeh that have sometimes led to clashes.

The Pentagon said no coalition casualties were reported in Thursday`s strikes by two Syrian SU-24s, and US special operations advisers had been moved to a safe location.

He said coalition aircraft were now carrying out additional combat patrols in the region.

The Kurdish People`s Protection Units (YPG) are a key US ally in the fight against IS.

Washington regards them as the most effective fighting force on the ground against the jihadists in Syria and has provided them with air cover and military advisers.
Ali, older brother of five-year-old Omran Daqneesh -- the Syrian boy whose bloodied, dazed image, after he was pulled out from the rubble left by an airstrike in Aleppo, became the symbol of suffering in Syria -- died from wounds he suffered in the same airstrike.

By Reuters: Ali Daqneesh, older brother of Omran Daqneesh, the Syrian boy whose image, dazed and bloodied after an airstrike, shocked people around the world, died in Aleppo from wounds he sustained in the same incident, a war monitor, a local council official and a witness said.

Confirming Ali's death, Besher Hawi, spokesman for the local council of Aleppo, said, "He was martyred while in hospital as a result of the same bombardment that their house was subjected to."



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WHAT HAPPENED TO ALI?

Omran, Ali, and three others were pulled out from the rubble after their home in Syria's Aleppo was bombed on Wednesday. Ali had an internal bleeding and organ damages, doctors told the witness.

Ali's younger brother, Omran Daqneesh, was pictured, by journalist and photographer Mahmoud Raslam, in the back of an ambulance after being pulled from the rubble, with an expression of incomprehension on his dust and blood-caked face.

"Ali, ten years old, died of wounds he sustained in his stomach at an Aleppo hospital," Mahmoud Raslan, journalist and photographer who shot Omran's photo told Daily Sabah.



NEW FACE OF SYRIAN WAR

The video and pictures were widely circulated online and covered in the media, refocusing public opinion on Syria's five-year-old civil war and the plight of civilians, particularly in Aleppo.

Russian and Syrian warplanes have intensified their airstrikes on the rebel-held east of the city since insurgents made an advance last month, breaking an effective siege.

Fighting and airstrikes in and around Aleppo have killed 448 civilians so far this month, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Rebels, supported by the United States, Turkey and Gulf Arab nations, have been fighting since 2011 to oust President Bashar al-Assad, who is supported by Russia and Iran. Russia began air strikes last September.

On Thursday Russia said it supported the idea of weekly 48-hour ceasefires to allow humanitarian aid to enter besieged parts of Aleppo, a plan the rebels also cautiously welcomed.

On Friday, the World Food Programme described the situation in besieged areas as "nightmarish" amid growing international concern over the humanitarian cost of the war in Syria.



HERE'S THE VIDEO OF OMRAN'S FAMILY BEING RESCUED









SAC National Board Member Kenan Rahmani shared the tragic photo of Ali from his Facebook and Twitter accounts:



Also Read

CNN anchor in tears as she reads report on Syrian boy found in rubble



After Aylan Kurdi, photo of this wounded Syrian child captures horror of airstrikes





--- ENDS ---
Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that Moscow has no intention of cutting relations with Kiev.

"Despite the reluctance of current Kiev authorities to have full diplomatic relations at the ambassadorial level, we will create opportunities to develop contacts and support them," Putin said at a Russian Security Council briefing in Crimea.

Russia has been mulling additional security measures following clashes on the peninsula that killed two Russian servicemen.

Russia's Federal Security Service has accused Ukrainian authorities of masterminding an attempt to send a group of saboteurs to Crimea, which it thwarted last week. Kiev denied the accusations.

"It appears, our partners in Kiev have decided to aggravate the situation, and it is clear why," Putin said.

The Russian leader said the reason behind the incident was Kiev's intention of avoiding implementing the Minsk agreements aimed at reaching a political settlement of the crisis in the country and to divert the attention of the Ukrainian people from social and economic problems.

"I hope this will not be the final choice of our partners and common sense will prevail," he added.

Earlier in the day, Putin appointed former Education Minister Dmitry Livanov as his special representative for the development of commercial, economic and scientific relations with Ukraine.

Russia currently has no ambassador in Kiev after Putin relieved Mikhail Zurabov of his duties in July.
New Delhi: Continuing its fight against the extremist forces, Twitter has suspended 235,000 accounts that promoted terrorism.

Twitter officially announced that 235,000 accounts have been suspended for violating its policies related to promotion of terrorism in the six months since February 2016.

Earlier this year, we announced we had suspended more than 125,000 accounts since mid-2015 for violating our longtime prohibition on violent threats and the promotion of terrorism and shared the steps we are taking as a company to combat this content. Since that announcement, the world has witnessed a further wave of deadly, abhorrent terror attacks across the globe. We strongly condemn these acts and remain committed to eliminating the promotion of violence or terrorism on our platform, Twitter said in a statement.

While our work is not done, today we are announcing that we have suspended an additional 235,000 accounts for violating our policies related to promotion of terrorism in the six months since our February 2016 post. This brings our overall number of suspensions to 360,000 since the middle of 2015. As noted by numerous third parties, our efforts continue to drive meaningful results, including a significant shift in this type of activity off of Twitter.
Riyadh: The US military has slashed the number of intelligence advisers directly supporting the Saudi-led coalition`s air war in Yemen, the US Navy said on Saturday.

The reassignment of personnel, around June, occurred because "there was not the same sort of requests coming in for assistance" from the Saudis, Fifth Fleet spokesman Lieutenant Ian McConnaughey told AFP from Bahrain.
District of Columbia: US Vice President Joe Biden and Ukraine`s President Petro Poroshenko in a phonecall urged a speedy resolution to the conflict with pro-Russian separatists amid a spike in tensions with Moscow, the White House said late Friday.

Biden and Poroshenko "expressed concern over the recent surge in fighting in eastern Ukraine, where ceasefire violations by combined Russian-separatist forces are at their highest levels since 2015, often using heavy weapons", the White House statement read.

Kiev and the West accuse Russia of supporting the separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine and deploying troops across the border -- claims Moscow denies.

Biden and Poroshenko "reiterated the need for a political and diplomatic resolution of the conflict through full implementation of the Minsk agreements by all parties," the statement added.

The Minsk accord, signed in February 2015 with French and German mediation and in the presence of President Vladimir Putin, calls for a ceasefire along with a range of political, economic and social measures to end the conflict.

Biden told Poroshenko that US officials "had sent a message to Russia that the world is watching and underscored the need to deescalate the situation."

He also urged Ukraine to show restraint.

Poroshenko on Thursday said he could not rule out a "full-scale" Russian invasion as violence raged in the east, amid accusations that Russia is building up its military force in the region.

The Pentagon on Friday said that the extra Russian troops along the border were associated with a regular military exercise.

Poroshenko`s claim came after Russian President Vladimir Putin lashed out last week at Kiev over an incident on the frontier between Crimea, which Moscow annexed in March 2014, and Ukraine, accusing it of "practicing terror".

Two Russian officers were killed in the incident, in which Ukraine denied any involvement.

Putin on Friday visited Crimea to boost security measures there. It was his fifth visit to the Black Sea peninsula since annexing it from Ukraine.

Separately, Biden and Poroshenko discussed conditions set by the International Monetary Fund for disbursing the next tranche of much-needed financial assistance, the White House said.

They also "agreed on the importance of recent Ukrainian efforts to continue critical anti-corruption reforms", the statement said.
Matt Bissonnette, who wrote "No Easy Day" pay the government more than $6.6 million for violating non-disclosure agreements and publishing without getting the document cleared by the Defense Department.

By AP: The former Navy SEAL who wrote a book about his role in the raid that killed Osama bin Laden will pay the government more than $6.6 million for violating non-disclosure agreements and publishing without getting the document cleared by the Defense Department, according to federal court documents.

Matt Bissonnette, who wrote "No Easy Day" under the pseudonym Mark Owen, will give the US government all profits and royalties from the book or movie rights. The proceeds already total more than $6.6 million. He will have four years to pay the bulk of that.

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The payments were outlined in settlement documents filed in US District Court in Virginia.

According to the settlement, Bissonnette also has 30 days to pay $100,000 from the proceeds of presentations he gave using slides that were not approved by the department.

The book triggered a Justice Department probe, including claims it contained classified material. Bissonnette had signed non-disclosure agreements during his service as a SEAL, and he took part in a number of highly secret operations including the bin Laden raid.

Under the agreement, Bissonnette said he would acknowledge he made a mistake by failing to submit the book for pre-publication review. And in exchange for the payments, the US government has dismissed other liability claims.

Justice Department spokeswoman Nicole Navas said the agreement doesn't discredit Bissonnette's military service, but reinforces that service members comply with the non-disclosure documents they sign.

Bissonnette has written a follow-up - also under the name Owen - detailing his journey as a member of SEAL Team Six. That book, "No Hero: the Evolution of a Navy SEAL," did go through the proper channels and a few sections were redacted.

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The incident, which took place on August 18 evening, led to suspension of movement of trucks involved in trade shipments between the two countries, and in carrying supplies for NATO forces in Afghanistan.

By Indo-Asian News Service: Pakistan has closed its border with Afghanistan indefinitely after a group of Afghan demonstrators attacked the Bab-e-Dosti gate at Chaman and set the Pakistani flag on fire.

The incident that took place on Thursday evening has resulted in suspension in the movement of trucks involved in trade shipments between the two countries and carrying supplies for NATO forces in Afghanistan, Dawn online reported on Saturday.

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According to sources, a large number of Afghan nationals, celebrating the 97th anniversary of their country's independence, gathered near the Friendship Gate after marching through the streets of Spin Boldak town across the border.

They carried placards and banners inscribed with anti-Pakistan slogans.



TENSION AT PAKISTAN-AFGHANISTAN BORDER

Shouting slogans against Pakistan, the Afghan demonstrators started pelting stones at the gate.

Exercising restraint, the personnel of Frontier Corps avoided taking any action against the protesters who swarmed the gate after seeing Pakistanis who staged a protest against Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his remarks about Balochistan.

The Afghan demonstrators snatched the national flag from a Pakistani protester who stood close to the gate and set it on fire.

They also tried to force their entry through the gate which had already been closed because of the Afghans' rally.

BORDER CLOSED INDEFINITELY

"The border with Afghanistan will remain closed for an indefinite period," security officials said on Friday, adding: "We will not open the gate until orders to do so are received from the high command."

Every day between 10,000 and 15,000 Pakistani and Afghan traders cross into Chaman in Balochistan and Vesh Mandi in Kandhar province of Afghanistan.

"Not a single trader crossed the border from either side because of the closure of the Friendship Gate," Niamatullah, a resident of Chaman, said.

According to the sources, security has been heightened at the border after the incident.

CLASHES ERUPT OVER CONSTRUCTION OF GATE AT TORKHAM BORDER

The latest incident in Chaman comes after tension intensified between the two countries following the construction of a gate at the Torkham border.

Clashes had erupted among the Afghan and Pakistani forces after Kabul condemned the move by Islamabad to construct the gate, calling it a unilateral act and against a bilateral agreement on border related issues.

Firing between the Afghan and Pakistani forces left a Pakistan major dead and injured several others from both the sides. Construction of the gate was completed in August.

Also Read:

Karzai backs Modi on Balochistan, advises Kashmiri leaders to keep Pakistan away



--- ENDS ---

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YEREVAN, AUGUST 19, ARMENPRESS. Deputy Chief of Police Major-General Vardan Eghiazaryan received on August 18 the delegation led by OSCE Head of Yerevan Office Ambassador Argo Avakov.

The Press and Public Relations Department of the Police told ARMENPRESS the meeting focused on the implementation process of the joint projects between the OSCE Office and the Police of Armenia of 2016, the documented positive results, and new proposals were presented directed at expanding further cooperation.

Deputy Chief Eghiazaryan also briefed the July events of Yerevan.

Ambassador Argo Avakov noted that he followed the events around the police station and praised the professionalism of the Armenian Police, underscoring that in general the actions of the police were conducted within the law.

The Ambassador also extended condolences to the families of the killed police officers.

Highlighting the high level interaction, Argo Avakov expressed confidence that the OSCE Yerevan Office will continue assisting the police, and the cooperation will strengthen even more and will develop.

Other issues of mutual interest were also discussed during the meeting.
YEREVAN, AUGUST 20, ARMENPRESS. A criminal case has been filed in the Investigative Department of Lori province over illegal tree felling in Vanadzor city, press service of the Armenian Investigative Committee informed Armenpress.

On August 17 a call has been received that 6 coniferous trees were cut at T. Mets Street of Vanadzor city causing considerable damage to the natural world.

A criminal case has been filed under the Article 296 point 1 of the Criminal Code of Armenia.

Investigation is underway to clarify the details of the case.

The Police forces take necessary measures to clarify the persons identity who committed the crime.
YEREVAN, AUGUST 20, ARMENPRESS. President of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic Bako Sahakyan sent a congratulatory letter to Catholicos of all Armenians Garegin II on the occasion of his 65th birthday, press service of the NKR Presidential administration informed "Armenpress".

The NKR Presidents letter reads:

"Your Holiness,

I cordially congratulate You on Your 65th birtday.

During all these years You selflessly served to the Motherland and native people. Today You continue to bring Your inestimable contribution to the patriotic mission of strengthening the Armenian Apostolic Church, developing the state-church relations, deepening the inter-church cooperation and cementing the Armenia-Nagorno Karabakh-Diaspora trinity.

I am confident that by the almighty God's will You will continue to carry out devotedly Your noble mission for the sake of our people's welfare and realization of national goals.

Your Holiness,

Once again accept my warmest congratulations and wishes on the occasion of Your memorable birthday. Longevity, peace, robust health and all the best to You!"
YEREVAN, AUGUST 20, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan sent a congratulatory letter to Peoples Artist of the Republic of Armenia, General Director and Art Director of State Russian Drama Theater after K. Stanislavski Aleksandr Grigoryan on the occasion of his 80th birthday.

The Armenian President wished him good health, happiness and new achievements in his future activities, press service of the Presidential administration informed Armenpress.

You are one of the notable figures in our theatrical art, who, annealing his honest behavior of director for decades, enjoyed the audiences special love and sympathy. Many works of contemporary and classical playwrights performed in Stanislavski Russian Theater of Yerevan are the unique expressions of your creative manuscript.

Your rich and meaningful life serves as an instructive example for the representatives of new generation entering theater.

Your have had a great contribution to the development of the Armenian-Russian cultural cooperation and the strengthening of the friendship. You are loved and appreciated also beyond the borders of the Motherland, the Presidents letter reads.
YEREVAN, AUGUST 20, ARMENPRESS. Parliament Speaker of Armenia Galust Sahakyan has sent a congratulatory letter to General Director and Art Director of State Russian Drama Theater after K. Stanislavski Aleksandr Grigoryan on the occasion of his 80th birthday, press service of the Parliament informed Armenpress.

Thanks to your inexhaustible energy, unique sense of directing and great organizational skills the Stanislavski Russian Theater of Yerevan, to which you are serving loyally for many years, its repertoire and unique performances enjoy the societys deepest respect.

You are appreciated not only as a director and a skilled organizer, but also as a teacher who transmits his experience and knowledge to young actors helping them to reveal their potential, Galust Sahakyans letter reads.

The Parliament Speaker wished him good health, new achievements and all the best.
YEREVAN, AUGUST 20, ARMENPRESS. The Parliament of Turkey has ratified the agreement on normalizing relations with Israel, Associated Press reported.

The Parliamentarians approved the agreement which has been signed on July. After the agreement comes into force, Israel will have to pay Turkey 20 million USD in compensation within 25 days.

Relations between Israel and Turkey crumbled after Israeli marines stormed an activist ship in May 2010 to enforce a naval blockade of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip and killed 10 Turks on board. The diplomatic relations between the two states were suspended due to this incident.
YEREVAN, AUGUST 20, ARMENPRESS. Speaker of the Council of Representatives of Iraq Saleem al-Jubouri arrived in Iran on an official visit, RIA Novosti reports.

Earlier his press service reported al-Jubouri will arrive in Iran to discuss with the Iranian leadership the issue of emancipating Mosul city from terrorists.

Saleem al-Jubouri also plans to visit Turkey to discuss the same issue.

Starting from 2014 Mosul city of Iraq is under the control of the Islamic State terrorist group.

The Iraqi soldiers and the Kurdish troops with the support of the US-led coalition air forces carry out military operations across the city and are preparing for final and decisive attack.
YEREVAN, AUGUST 20, ARMENPRESS. The Pentagon warned the Syrian government on August 19 not to strike U.S. and coalition personnel in Syria, a day after the regime carried out airstrikes in an area near American special operations forces, prompting the U.S. to scramble jets to protect them, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The U.S. jets arrived just as the two Syrian government Su-24 bombers were departing, according to Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis, who said none of the U.S. forces on the ground were harmed.

The Syrian government bombers had been striking Kurdish positions near the city of Hasakah, where the U.S. has been backing Kurdish forces in the fight against Islamic State.

Thursdays close call prompted the U.S.-led coalition to begin patrolling the airspace over Hasakah, and led to another incident Friday, in which two Syrian Su-24 bombers attempted to fly through the area but were met by coalition fighter jets, a U.S. defense official said. According to the official, the Syrian bombers departed without further incident. The official said the U.S. is closely monitoring airspace over areas with American forces.

Capt. Davis said Thursdays event marked one of the closest calls he knew of between U.S. coalition forces in Syria and the military of President Bashar al-Assad since the Syrian conflict began in 2011. According to U.S. officials, the American forces were moved to a safer position after the attack, but werent pulled entirely from the theater.

We view instances that place coalition personnel at risk with the utmost seriousness, and we do have the inherent right of self-defense, Capt. Davis said. He said the Syrian military would be well-advised not to interfere with U.S. forces or their coalition partners fighting Islamic State in the country.

The encounter highlights a longstanding risk of U.S. involvement in Syria: the prospect that a direct attack on U.S. forces by the Syrian government or its Russian allies could dramatically raise the stakes in the conflict for Washington and test the resolve of a White House with limited appetite for military intervention.

A direct clash between U.S. forces and Syrias military would have led to unpredictable consequences, given Mr. Assads alliance with Iran and Russia. The U.S. is pinning its hopes for reducing violence on talks about a political agreement with Russia, Syria and international powers.
YEREVAN, AUGUST 20, ARMENPRESS. It is already 5 days the Georgian, US and Turkish services are searching for two servicemen of the Georgian armys special operations forces who went missing when they were diving during scheduled exercises off the coast of Gonio in Adjara region.

The Ministry of Interior Affairs, the Defense Ministry, the US special services and the Turkish divers are carrying out search operations for 5 days.

The Defense Ministry of Georgia reported the Turkish Minehunter vessel, which is equipped with modern devices and has 41 crew members, has joined the search operations.
He admitted of being tormented and pushed to take this extreme step, as his stepmother ill-treated him that induced hatred for women.

By India Today Web Desk:

In a shocking incident, a 22-year-old Pakistani man went on a misogynistic killing spree, stabbing 17 women, killing one from January this year until this month.



Mohammad Ali, confessed to the police in the garrison city of Rawalpindi that his murders were fueled by hatred for his cruel stepmother and, so he was taking 'revenge' by blindly targeting women of any age on the streets.

WHY, WHERE



Murder weapon was a knife, he told the police.



He admitted of being tormented and pushed to take this extreme step, as his stepmother ill-treated him that induced hatred for women.



A police official said, he would wait on the streets and attack whenever the opportunity arose. His last victim was a hospital nurse, who died this week.

All the attacks took place in the streets of Rawalpindi, adjacent to Pakistan's capital Islamabad.

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YEREVAN, AUGUST 20, ARMENPRESS. Defense Minister of Iran Hossein Dehghan said Irans decision to allow the Russian Air Space Force to use the airdrome of the Shahid Nojeh air base in Hamedan is a part of cooperation in fighting the Islamic State terrorist group at request from the Syrian government, TASS reported.

"It is a military decision made in the framework of cooperation in fighting IS and other terrorist, which is organized at request from the Syrian government," he said.

The Minister said Iran currently has no plan to supply more air base to Russia, but if necessary, the issue will be discussed.

A Tupolev Tu-22M3 long-range bomber carries out air strikes against ISIS and Al-Nusra Front targets in the Aleppo, Dayr al-Zawr and Idlib Governorates. This is the first time Russia's Aerospace Forces carry out air strikes against terrorist targets in Syria operating from Iran's Hamedan Air Base.




GYUMRI, AUGUST 20, ARMENPRESS. On August 20 Russian spiritual culture days in Armenia ceremony has been kicked off in Gyumri through the ceremony dedicated to the memory of military officials fallen in the Russian-Turkish wars during the 19th century, reports "Armenpress".

A commemoration ceremony was held by spiritual representatives of Armenia and Russia.

The representatives of regional, as well as local authorities, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Russia to Armenia Ivan Volynkin and other officials attended the ceremony.

During his speech Ivan Volynkin highlighted the oldest friendship of Armenian and Russian people stating that this memorial is a vivid evidence of that relationship.

6 years ago on August 20, this memorial was reopened with the participation of the Armenian and Russian Presidents. This event further intensified the centuries-old Armenian-Russian friendship. The reopening of the memorial was yet another proof that our people remember with glory their sons who fell for freedom. Today again we are here in order to keep alive their memory, the Russian Ambassador said.

In 2009 a monument dedicated to the memory of the Russian officers was built in Gyumri which was put into operation in 2010.

Armenuhi Mkhoyan
Fitch said revenues from tourism arrivals were down 41 percent year-on-year for the first half of 2016, a sector which accounts for 13 percent of external receipts

The ratings agency Fitch cut its outlook for Turkey's sovereign debt rating to "negative", saying last month's coup attempt underscored risks to political stability in the country.

The agency affirmed the country's rating at BBB-, a notch above junk grade.

Fitch said political uncertainty follow the failed coup will impact economic performance and could hurt economic policy.

"The authorities are responding to the coup attempt with a purge of the followers of those it blames, with around 70,000 public sector workers suspended so far," the agency said in a statement.

"The implications for checks and balances, which in Fitch's opinion have eroded in recent years, are unclear, as is the potential for further disruption from those behind the coup attempt."

Elements within the Turkish military on July 15 attempted the ouster of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan but were quickly repulsed by loyalists.

The poor rating will help elevate the prices Turkey pays to borrow on debt markets.

Fitch said revenues from tourism arrivals were down 41 percent year-on-year for the first half of 2016, a sector which accounts for 13 percent of external receipts.

"Growth is forecast to dip due to lower investment," the statement said, "although a strong start to the year means that, at a Fitch-forecast 3.4 percent of GDP in 2016, it will be above the peer median."
A Lyft driver navigates to her passenger on February 3, 2016 in San Francisco, California

The on-demand ride company Lyft recently made moves to sell itself but the effort got little traction, the New York Times reported on Friday.

The San Francisco-based startup in recent months held talks and approached an array of companies, including technology giants Amazon, Apple, and Google as well as US rival Uber and Chinese ally Didi Chuxing, the Times said in a story based on a dozen anonymous sources who knew of the private discussions.

The most serious talks were reported to have taken place with US auto maker General Motors, which invested $500 million in Lyft early this year as part of a vision to have self-driving cars at the ride-sharing service, but they did not result in a written offer.

No buyer was found, according to the Times.

"There is no shortage of conflicting rumors in our industry and we are not commenting on them," Lyft said in an email response to an AFP inquiry.

Part of the trouble luring a buyer was price. Lyft was valued at $5.5 billion in a January funding round that included GM and the selling price would be expected to be more than that amount, according to the Times.

Lyft's inability to find a buyer illustrates the challenge of operating in the competitive market built on enabling people to summon rides from freelancing motorists using smartphones, handling the business side of transactions in the internet cloud.

Uber threw in the towel in China earlier this month after a costly battle, selling is subsidiary there to Chinese ride-sharing giant Didi Chuxing.

In exchange for Uber China assets, Uber and its Chinese partners received a 20 percent stake in the new Didi Chuxing entity.

News of an effort to sell Lyft could risk destabilizing its alliances made in Asia to better compete there.
By Nia Williams (Reuters) - Canada's British Columbia unveiled a new climate action plan on Friday that kept its carbon tax frozen at C$30 per tonne, a move environmental groups warned would undermine the province's target of cutting 2050 emissions by 80 percent from 2007 levels. Premier Christy Clark said British Columbia is the only province in Canada to currently have a carbon tax, which has been unchanged since 2012, and raising it further would undermine jobs and drive capital into other jurisdictions. "What happens in situations like that is polluters just move right across the border and pollute where it's cheap, and we want to make sure we fight pollution across Canada and across the world," Clark told a news conference. "We will consider raising the carbon tax once other provinces catch up." Clark said British Columbia will reduce net annual greenhouse gas emissions by up to 25 million tonnes below current forecasts by 2050 through steps including making electric vehicles more affordable and reducing emissions in natural gas production. The province's legislated emissions target for 2050 is 13 megatonnes. Josha McNab, B.C. director at the Pembina Institute, said under the plan carbon emissions would not start to drop significantly for almost 15 years, and fell short of the level of ambition needed to reach the 2050 target. "The key missing ingredient continues to be a strengthened carbon tax and the province-wide incentive it would provide to invest in clean energy and energy efficiency," McNab said. Canada committed to reducing 2030 carbon emissions by 30 percent at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris last year. The provinces of Alberta, Ontario and Quebec are projected to see emissions fall by 26, 22 and 23 percent, respectively, by 2030 based on actions they have taken or committed to. Alberta, home to Canada's oil sands and the country's biggest polluter, plans to introduce an economy-wide carbon tax in 2017, while Ontario will soon join Quebec in having a carbon cap-and-trade regime. Merran Smith, executive director of Clean Energy Canada, said Clark was too focused on attracting investment in proposed liquefied natural gas export terminals on the Pacific coast. "Her vision is not a vision of a clean energy future, it's a vision of an LNG future," Smith said. Smith was a member of the province's Climate Leadership Team, which last year put forward a number of proposals to tackle emissions, including raising the carbon tax. (Additional reporting by Alastair Sharp in Toronto; Editing by Chris Reese)
TORONTO (Reuters) - Dick Assman, a Canadian man with an unusual name who rose to fame in 1995 after being featured on the U.S. television program "Late Show with David Letterman," died on Monday, according to an online funeral home obituary. He was 82. Richard "Dick" Arthur Assman, who worked as a manager, mechanic and attendant at gas stations in Regina, Saskatchewan, died peacefully, according to the obituary. Letterman had said on his show that Assman came to his attention due to a newspaper ad that read he had moved from one gas station to another. "I don't think I've ever met a guy named 'Assman,'" Letterman said on the episode in which the man was first featured. "Is 'Assman' a Canadian name?" Assman, who appeared to be a good sport about the matter, had a small recurring role on the show, speaking on the phone with Letterman, then eventually appearing in person. His involvement with the show sparked off an "Assmania" craze, with his name emblazoned on T-shirts, pens and bumper stickers, and he also received a marriage proposal, according to the Canadian Press, which interviewed Assman in 2015. The German name is properly pronounced "OSS-man," according to the Canadian Press. A publicist for Letterman, who retired last year, declined to comment, saying the former host is away. (Reporting by Ethan Lou in Toronto; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)
By Jonathan Stempel (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co on Friday said it will receive $645 million in a settlement of litigation with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp and Deutsche Bank AG arising from its purchase of Washington Mutual Inc's banking operations during the financial crisis in 2008. According to a regulatory filing, JPMorgan will collect the cash payment from the estate of Washington Mutual Bank, for which the FDIC acts as receiver. In exchange, JP Morgan, the largest U.S. bank by assets said it will drop its more than $1 billion in claims related to the Washington Mutual (WaMu) purchase. JPMorgan also said Deutsche Bank, the trustee overseeing 99 trusts holding residential mortgage securities backed by soured WaMu home loans, will have a claim against the estate. JPMorgan had filed lawsuits seeking to force the FDIC to indemnify it on claims relating to the WaMu purchase, in which it also assumed some of the thrift's liabilities. Deutsche Bank had filed a $10 billion lawsuit against the FDIC and JPMorgan over losses stemming from alleged defects in WaMu's mortgage underwriting. JPMorgan said the settlement requires court approval, and would end four WaMu-related lawsuits involving the bank and the FDIC, and pending in the federal court in Washington, D.C. The bank and the FDIC have long fought over who is liable to investors for claims arising from Seattle-based WaMu's collapse. WaMu had been nation's largest savings and loan before the FDIC seized it on Sept. 25, 2008 and sold its banking operations to New York-based JPMorgan for about $1.9 billion. The parent holding company of WaMu filed for bankruptcy protection. FDIC spokesman David Barr and Deutsche Bank spokeswoman Oksana Poltavets declined to comment. The FDIC's full name is the . (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
By Nia Williams CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - Pipeline company TransCanada Corp is offering tolls as low as 82 Canadian cents per gigajoule on its natural gas mainline from western Canada if enough producers sign up to long-term contracts, a company executive said on Friday. Stephen Clark, TransCanada's senior vice president for Canadian natural gas pipelines, said cheaper tolls are crucial if companies in areas like the Montney and Duvernay shale plays are to compete with U.S. gas producers in eastern markets. The new toll would be a 42 percent cut from the current shipping price of roughly C$1.41 a gigajoule to go from Alberta and British Columbia to markets in Ontario, and depends on customers signing up to 10-year contracts to ship at least two petajoules of natural gas in total on the line. Clark said the boom in U.S. shale, in particular the Marcellus play in Appalachia, meant more natural gas was flooding into the southern Ontario market and displacing traditional western Canadian supply. While the remote Montney and Duvernay gas plays can compete with U.S. shale on cost of production, their greater distance from market increases delivery costs and the price of western Canadian gas in Ontario. "If that market starts to acquire gas from other basins, they will essentially forgo western Canadian supply," Clark said. "Part of the reason we are doing this is we see a supply overhang in western Canada if we don't retain those markets." TransCanada has been in talks with producers for the last three or four months and is hoping to launch an open season to formally gauge interest in the new tolling system in September. However, Clark said the company would need to see sufficient interest from shippers in long-term contracts to go ahead with the open season. "We would like to get into multi-hundreds of millions of commitments, and if we could get north of a billion cubic feet or a petajoule of commitment, that would certainly give us sufficient indication that we should go forward," he said. Some producers are reluctant to commit because they are unused to 10-year contracts, Clark added, while others are unfamiliar with selling in the Ontario market. TransCanada's current settlement in place with the Mainline shipper group expires in 2020. (Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
By Zachary Fagenson and Julie Steenhuysen MIAMI/CHICAGO (Reuters) - Federal health officials on Friday warned pregnant women not to travel to trendy Miami Beach after Florida confirmed that the mosquito-borne Zika virus was active in the popular tourist destination. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also suggested that pregnant women who are especially worried about exposure to Zika - which has been shown to cause the severe birth defect known as microcephaly - might consider avoiding all of Miami-Dade County. The new warnings represent a challenge to Florida's multibillion dollar tourism industry, with Miami Beach accounting for nearly half of visitor stays in the Greater Miami area. They also heighten concerns over Zika's spread in the continental United States. In a press conference, Florida Governor Rick Scott said state health officials had identified five cases of Zika believed to be contracted in Miami Beach. "This means we believe we have a new area where local transmissions are occurring in Miami Beach," he said, noting that the state had already stepped up pesticide spraying efforts in this area. The new transmissions come as Miami-Dade continues to battle Zika in the Wynwood arts neighborhood of Miami, the site of the first locally transmitted cases of Zika in the continental United States. For a graphic of Florida's Zika outbreak, click here: (http://tmsnrt.rs/2b3VUp3) In Miami Beach, the state believes Zika transmission is confined to a 1.5-square-mile area located between 8th and 28th streets in the popular South Beach neighborhood. For a graphic of map, click here, (http://tinyurl.com/hdl6mxs) Miami Beach resident Steve Ehrlich, 30, said news of the five cases transmitted somewhere in the blocks around his home was not surprising, but that did not make it any less concerning. "You knew it was going to intermingle all over the place," he said. And though Ehrlich said and he and his wife Caroline did not have any immediate plans to have more children, any thought of doing so has been indefinitely shelved. Current CDC guidelines recommend men wait six months after being infected with Zika before trying to have children to avoid passing the virus to a pregnant partner through semen. The recommendations are based on observations that the virus can live in semen as long as 93 days after an infection, but a recent report in the journal Eurosurveillence described two cases in which the virus lingered in semen six months after a person was infected. "The CDC is giving recommendations for how long to wait before you get pregnant, but it seems like no one has a clear grasp on just how long it stays in your system," Ehrlich said. "That's scary for us because we eventually want to have more kids." Travel expert Henry Harteveldt, founder of travel consultancy Atmosphere Research Group, said the Zika outbreak in South Florida could jeopardize travel in the area. "Even if 1 percent or 2 percent of potential travelers decide not to go to Florida, whether its for leisure or for business, there could be a multi-million dollar hit to the local economy, he said. In a conference call with reporters on Friday, CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden said there have been at least four other independent instances of mosquito-borne Zika transmission in Miami-Dade county. These were individual cases and did not represent local transmission. Frieden said it is difficult to determine if cases are locally acquired and whether cases are related. As a result, there may be a time lag in reporting the spread of disease locally. Given that, Frieden said there could be transmissions that have not been identified throughout Miami, which is why the CDC has advised pregnant women and their sexual partners who are worried about potential exposure to consider avoiding travel to Miami entirely. Of the five new cases in Miami Beach, one person is a resident of New York, one person is a resident of Texas and one person is a resident of Taiwan. "All three of these people traveled to Miami," Scott said. Frieden said battling Zika-carrying mosquitoes in this neighborhood will be especially challenging because the area's high rise buildings will prevent pilots from flying low enough to drop pesticides in aerial spraying campaigns. "The inability to use aerial spraying there means we'll be limited to using ground-based techniques like backpack spraying," he said. Frieden said aerial spraying continues to be successful in the Wynwood neighborhood, where experts have seen "substantial but not complete knockdowns of mosquito populations. Scott said Florida has requested more support from the CDC. LAWMAKERS URGE MORE FUNDING Reporters pressed Scott on the timeliness of the announcement, which was first reported in the Miami Herald on Thursday and was confirmed by many other news outlets on Thursday, including Reuters. "We recognize the desire for information quickly, but it is important that we conduct our interviews and investigations pursuant to epidemiological standards," Scott said. Reporters charged Scott with underplaying Zika transmission and delaying confirmation to minimize the effect on tourism in the state. Scott said the state was taking every measure to ensure the information they provided to the public was accurate. In a press conference later on Friday, however, Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine expressed frustration with Scott and the state's health department for keeping him and other elected officials in the dark about the island-city's five locally transmitted Zika cases. Levine said mayors across Miami received the information at the same time as media. "It's backwards," Levine said. Levine said he and tourism promotion officials have also sought to get ahead of a panic that could cut into hotel reservations. "Between our efforts and the county's spraying efforts the last thing I'd ever want to be is a mosquito on Miami Beach," Levine said. U.S. Senator Harry Reid, a Democrat, said the transmission of Zika in Miami Beach "is the most alarming development yet in the rapidly growing threat of Zika in the United States." Both Reid and Florida Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican, renewed calls for lawmakers in the House and Senate to return to Washington to authorize funding to help public health officials fight the spread of Zika. President Barack Obama in February requested $1.9 billion to fight Zika but Congressional efforts to approve part of the funding deadlocked before lawmakers adjourned for the summer. Earlier on Friday, U.S. health officials published a study estimating that as many as 270 babies in Puerto Rico may be born with the severe birth defect known as microcephaly caused by Zika infections in their mothers during pregnancy. A public health emergency was declared in the U.S. territory on Aug. 12 after more than 10,000 laboratory-confirmed cases were recorded, including more than a thousand pregnant women. The condition, in which infants are born with abnormally small heads and underdeveloped brains, is estimated to cost $10 million over the lifetime of one child. The connection between Zika and microcephaly first came to light last fall in Brazil, which has now confirmed more than 1,800 cases of microcephaly that it considers to be related to Zika infection in the mothers. (Reporting by Michele Gershberg, Julie Steenhuysen and Zachary Fagenson; writing by Julie Steenhuysen; editing by Bernard Orr)
By PTI: Karachi, Aug 20 (PTI) A possible outbreak of the Congo fever in Pakistans Sindh province has triggered fear among residents and health officials ahead of next months Eid festival after five people died due to the virus in a month.

The most recent death happened on Friday when a cattle trader from Bahawalpur died of the Crimean Congo Haemorrhagic Fever (CCHF), commonly known as the Congo fever, in Karachi.

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The CCHF is a tick-borne viral disease.

Allah Ditta, 22, had come to Karachi to sell animals for sacrifice during the Eid ul Azha festival next month. His was the fifth death in Karachi due to the virus in the past month.

Ditta was admitted to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre on Wednesday and died on Friday while he was being treated. He had high fever for seven days with gum and nose bleeding, and bruises on his hands for two days.

Following Dittas death, Karachi administration has issued notices to the Deputy Commissioner, Malir town, and the supervisor of the animal market on Karachis outskirts to get all animals screened for deadly ticks that carry the virus.

A Sindh government spokesman said all animals in the market will be screened before being cleared for trading.

The animal market is considered the biggest in Asia with hundreds of thousands of sacrificial animals brought from all over Pakistan by traders and dealers ahead of Eid-ul Azha.

Dr Zafar Mehdi, of the government facility for prevention of naegleria and CCHF, said Dittas was the third death due to the virus in the past three weeks.

A week before that, a 65-year-old man from Afghanistan died while a doctor from Bahawalpur has also died. The doctor contracted CCHF while treating a patient in Bahawalpur.

The provincial health ministry has asked authorities to cordon off the market area where Ditta had put his livestock.

Authorities have begun setting up isolation wards at all government and private hospitals following Dittas death.

The CCHF, endemic in Africa, Balkans, the Middle East and Asia, and is commonly known as Congo fever. PTI CORR ABH

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The Ishaqzaade actor had previously wished her friend on Twitter, where she asked him to 'eat less, become thin.'

By India Today Web Desk: Parineeti Chopra ruffled a few feathers on social media, when she openly wished one of her close friends on Twitter in a public message, which concluded with 'eat less, get thin'. In an age where trolls are the norm and people can outrage over literally anything, the Twitteratti chose Parineeti Chopra's birthday message.



WATCH: Parineeti body shames friend, Twitter calls out her hypocrisy

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Having not been far from in perfect shape until recently, many of them hoped she would be more sensitive towards those plagued with weight problems. However, others called her a hypocrite as she was asking someone to lose weight, when in fact until recently she had defended her not-ideal figure saying it was her body, her will.

Parineeti's friend has the perfect response to all the hate the Kill Dill actor has got in the last two days;

"I'd tried to stay silent after this so-called body shaming made its way into the news, but I feel I have to speak out now. And what I'd like to say is, I'm irked on a lot of fronts. First, the fact that someone used a personal video to attack an individual disgusts me. Second, I feel it abhorrent that people would choose to accuse Parineeti of body shaming when she herself has been so vocal about the issue (which is real and important). She has worked incredibly hard to achieve a certain level of fitness, and she of all people knows what it's like to be teased about her weight. She would never do that to me. Third, I find it hard to believe that people think friendship should be policed. I mean, if people hold such rigid views about what friendship should and shouldn't look like... well, you should hear some of the jokes Parineeti and I share! You'd probably want to jail us both! I feel guilty for drawing my best friend into a hurtful conversation! Such a strong negative response inhibits the openness of people on social media and deters sensibility and normalcy from existing. I'm big on self-deprecation which allows my close friends to banter while maintaining appropriate respect and understanding. Therefore, the baseless hatred I've seen, directed at something that was just a joke, is quite hurtful. It also makes me feel guilty not for my body, but for drawing Parineeti into a hurtful conversation.

So to all those who are still not happy: since this video generated a lot of hype and some people definitely want more, I will now reveal all the dirty, rude things my best friend has done or said to me in the past, and I am adding appropriate hashtags for your convenience:

1) She once called me dinosaur #DinosaurShaming

2) She snatched my last piece of chocolate #FoodShaming

3) Once she said I looked constipated #PottyShaming

4) She once said I'm toxic #BritneyBlaming

5) We went for 9-pin balling #UnnecessaryGaming

6) She visited a zoo with me #LionTaming

7) She told me lame jokes #ConstantLaming

8) She repeated what I just said #Saming

9) We both sucked at archery #UselessAiming



10) We sent each other video messages #FriendlyMemeing



And while you go ahead and share the above, maybe you'll also find it in your heart to remember the positive side of her now-controversial video message to me that, at a time when technology and instant fame can cut us off from our friends, Parineeti made a special effort to wish me on my birthday. She got Alia Bhatt to wish me too and totally made my day. She showed me what good friendship is all about, and didn't let her stardom colour the way we conduct our friendship, lame jokes and all. I hope by now, the point is clear. Life should not always be taken so seriously, and sometimes it is appropriate and necessary to see things as they are, not what we would like them to be."





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Rising water level in Ganga has led to a flood-like situation in several parts of Bihar. Residents in parts of Patna have been forced to evacuate.

Stranded residents of one of the apartments near the Ganga basin in Patna.

By Rohit Kumar Singh: Flood threats looms large over Patna as Ganga continues to swell and flood water entered many parts of the city on Saturday. An alert has been sounded by the state administration as the river was flowing above the danger mark.

The Central Water Commission has also issued an alert that Ganga would witness rise in water level in the next five days. On Saturday, flood water entered the LCT Ghat in Mainpura and submerged many apartments which were built in the low lying areas in the state capital.

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Ganga Apartment, one of the few apartments located on the Ganga basin witnessed unprecedented situation when the residents woke up on Saturday morning to find that their apartment was submerged under knee deep water as flood water entered the area.

RESIDENTS FORCED TO FLEE

Flood water entered the ground floor of the apartment forcing the residents to leave their homes to safer places. Vehicles parked at the apartment were also half submerged under the flood water.

"We are facing extreme problem as our house which is on the ground floor was inundated. We are left with no option but to go to relatives place with whatever basic things we can carry," said Sunita, resident of the apartment.

The residents of the apartment were also angry over no effort being made by the state govt or the local administration to pump out the water from the apartment.

"We are getting no help from the local administration to clear the water which has entered the apartment. So we are compelled to leave the house and go to some other place," said another resident of the apartment.

Cars inundated in a residential area of Patna following the floods.

Many districts along the Ganga basin in Bihar are witnessing flood-like situation because of continuous rise in water levels. In many districts the flood water has entered villages especially in the riverine area. In Patna's Gandhi Ghat area, the level of Ganga touched 50.28 meters on Saturday evening.

The water level in Ganga was rising by almost 5 cms every hour in the state capital. The highest level which Ganga achieved in recent times was in 1994 when it touched 50.27 meters.

Situation in Maner and Danapur, on the outskirts of Patna was also alarming with NDRF teams deployed to rescue people who are stranded in the riverine areas because of floods. Several villages in 12 panchayats in Maner and Danapur are under water.

EMERGENCY MEET HELD

State chief secretary on Saturday held an emergency meeting over the rising Ganga. The government informed that apart from Patna and Vaishali districts, Bhojpur, Begusarai, Munger and Bhagalpur have also been badly affected by flood.

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At the meeting, it was decided to evacuate people living in riverine areas and carry relief and rescue work on war footing. Ganga, Sone, Punpun, Ghagra, Gandak, all river are flowing above the danger level.

Also read:

More than 33 lakh people affected in Bihar floods, toll reaches 95





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By PTI: Dhaka, Aug 20 (PTI) A citizens group in Bangladesh today held a day-long protest here demanding that the government cancel the proposed 1,320 megawatt Indo-Bangla joint venture power plant near the Sundarbans, the worlds largest mangrove forest.

The National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports asked the Bangladesh government not proceed with the Rampal power plant project as it will cause severe harm to the Sundarbans.

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It announced to hold several rallies in Dhaka and divisonal and district headquarters throughout September, October and November in support of their demand.

The protesters plan to submit an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi after holding a protest march infront of the Indian High Commission in Dhaka, the Daily Star online reported.

Its member Anu Muhammad announced to hold "Cholo, Cholo Dhaka Cholo" protest march soon to press home their demand.

It will hold a grand rally in Dhaka on November 26.

Earlier in the day, the committee started the sit-in programme demanding cancellation of all projects - including the power plant - that will cause harm to the Sundarbans.

Eminent personalities of the country attended the protest.

"Among the 16 crore people in this country, not even 1600 people are in favour of the Rampal power plant. The government ought to cancel this project," columnist Syed Abul Maksud told the gathering. PTI ABH

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Writer Shobhaa De described shuttler P.V. Sindhu as "24 carat gold" and called her a "hero" after she clinched a Silver medal at the Olympics this year.

PV Sindhu celebrating with her medal and Indian flag (Reuters Photo)

By Indo-Asian News Service, India Today Web Desk: Author Shobhaa De, who has been drawing flak for her unwarranted comments on the Indian contingent at the Rio Olympics, described shuttler P.V. Sindhu as "24 carat gold" and called her a "hero" after she clinched a silver medal at the event.

De went out and about to praise Sindhu, who bagged the Silver medal in the women's singles badminton competition of the Rio Olympics on Friday.

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"Bravo Sindhu. You are a hero," De wrote in one tweet, and followed it up by writing: "24 carat gold!!!! We love you."

In a tweet on Saturday, she shared a news article featuring the success story of Sindhu, Dipa Karmakar and Sakshi Malik. (Also read: 'It took a woman athlete to slap Shobhaa De'. Twitter cheers Sakshi Malik after Bronze medal)



"Rio ki Teen Deviyaan... respect," De captioned the link, and later suggested casting Deepika Padukone in a potential biopic on Sindhu.

"P.V. Sindhu biopic. Who better than Deepika Padukone???"

After her selfie tweet on India's delegates to Rio, De wrote on Thursday: "P.V. SINDHU Silver Princess?"

Soon, she tried to salvage the situation by two new tweets. "Silver minted by Sindhu. Chandi ke baad Sona!!!" and the other "Go for gold, girl!!!"

She was criticised for belittling Sindhu's achievement and betraying a defeatist mentality about Sindhu's chances against Marin in the final.

Before this, De had slammed Indian athletes for their medal no-show at the Rio Olympics. (Also read: India Today Exclusive: I've done it, says PV Sindhu after Rio Silver)



"Goal of Team India at the Olympics: Rio jao (Go to Rio). Selfies lo (Take selfies). Khaali haat wapas aao (Return empty-handed). What a waste of money and opportunity. Only hope? Dependable Abhinav Bindra. Aim for gold, champion!"

She was widely trolled for her comment.



Bravo Sindhu. You are a hero! pic.twitter.com/tHFi392Hj4 Shobhaa De (@DeShobhaa) August 19, 2016

P.V. Sindhu: 24 carat gold!!!! We love you. Shobhaa De (@DeShobhaa) August 19, 2016

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By PTI: Bhubaneswar, Aug 20 (PTI) Side-stepping the question on the fate of proposed rail wagon projects in Ganjam and Kalahandi districts, Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha today claimed the sector in the state gained during the BJP-led NDA government unlike the "neglect in past".

The country is witnessing a high level production of rail wagons compared to requirement and the focus, therefore, is on decongestion in Odisha sector, Sinha told reporters here.

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He was responding to queries about the fate of the proposed wagon factory at Sitalpalli in Ganjam district and wagon repair unit at Narla in Kalahandi.

"There is surplus production of wagons in both public and private manufacturing sector," he said without giving a direct reply whether the proposed wagon factory would be set up at Sitalpalli, though a token Rs 1,000 was provided for it in the Railway Budget.

However, regarding the proposed wagon repair and overhauling unit at Narla, Sinha said necessary steps are being taken in this regard as part of plans to launch a number of projets for rapid development of railway in the state.

The matter has been discussed with the Odisha government, he said.

Claiming that Odisha had been "neglected" in the past, mainly in railway sector, Sinha said earlier an average Rs 1,000 crore to Rs 1,200 crore had been allocated in the rail budget.

However, the state is now getting benefitted substantially after the BJP-led NDA came to power at the Centre with around 30 per cent jump in its share in the Railway Budget, he claimed.

While Rs 3,712 crore was allocated for Odisha in the budget for 2015-16, the amount was further raised to Rs 4,682 crore in 2016-17 Rail Budget, the minister said. MORE PTI SKN SUS ASV SNP

--- ENDS ---
Happy Friday!

This week we saw Donald Trump call Hillary Clinton a "bigot" and Clinton suggest Trump is a racist. And the election isn't for 70 more days!

Good times.

Once I finish this chat, I am off to a Verizon store to get a new cell phone. Because my old cell phone got dropped in a sink this morning and then died.

Double good times!

Let's make the music with our mouths.
IS Tells France Game Over in 10th Issue of French Magazine, Identifies French Imam for Death
The Standard Chartered bank branch in Holland Village that was involved in the bank robbery. (Photo: Reuters)





The Attorney-Generals Office (AGO) in Bangkok has rejected a request by Singapore to have a suspect in Julys Holland Village bank robbery extradited back to the Republic.

We denied it because we are not in the position to consider it, said Amnat Chotchai, director-general of the international affairs department at the Bangkok AGO, according to a Straits Times report. No further reasons were given.



The suspect, 27-year-old Canadian David James Roach, has been accused of robbing a Standard Chartered Bank branch in Holland Village on 7 July. He allegedly committed the crime by handing a bank teller a note saying that he had a weapon.

On the same day, Roach flew to Bangkok from Singapore but was detained by Thai authorities at a backpackers hostel three days later. His right to stay in the country was then revoked and he has been held in an immigration detention centre there since then.

Currently, Singapore has no extradition treaty with Thailand nor does it have one with Canada, to which Roach will be deported as an immigration offender if he cannot be extradited, the report said.

Thailands immigration police chief Nathathorn Prousoontorn said, The Canadian government wants us to deport him back to Canada. Immigration (police) cant detain him for a long time. It has been a month. We have to make a decision.

The Bangkok AGO is now working on a request by Singapore police to examine the items found on Roach when he was detained in Thailand. Bangkok police said he was found with 700,000 baht (S$27,000) in cash along with a notebook containing detailed plans for his escape and the same message found on the note used in the robbery.


By PTI: From Chandan Prakash Singh

Shahjahanpur (UP), Aug 20 (PTI) Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh today lashed out at Pakistan for the ongoing unrest in Kashmir, saying it was continuously trying to derail peace in the Valley.

"Today, I dont feel hesitant in saying that Pakistan is continuously trying to create unrest in Kashmir. It wants to destroy it and derail peace in the Valley," he said here while addressing a Tiranga rally.

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"Recently, I went to Pakistan and you all know our neighbouring countrys misdeeds. I dont want to repeat what happened over there but would like to say that I did not let Indias pride go down there. I said one countrys terrorist cannot be the hero of another," he said.

"I want to tell the people of Kashmir that we not only love the land of Kashmir but also its people. I would like to appeal to the Kashmiris that we do not want to see stones, bricks and firearms in their hands but pen, computers and jobs. We want to see you employed," Singh said.

He said that a violent protest cannot be a solution to a particular issue. There should be peace at first then issues can be resolved through talks.

"Some people are trying to create hatred among Hindus, Muslims, Christians and Parsis by following the divide and rule trick adopted by British rulers but they have been failed miserably. No one can divide the people of India," Singh said.

He said if people want to make India a great nation, then all residents regardless of their community, race or religion will have to contribute and go ahead together.

"British rulers tried to divide communities on religious lines but their malicious attempts were thwarted by the friendship of freedom fighters Ashfaqullah Khan and Ramprasad Bismil," he said.

"Indias Muslims know that India is the only country in the world where Islams all 72 sects are found. No other nation, not even Muslim countries have all the 72 sects of Islam. Christianitys all sects are found only in India," he said.

According to Singh, whenever China or Pakistan tried to show aggression at the borders in the past, "our people stood united and challenged them".

Singh paid floral tributes to freedom fighters Khan, Bismil and Thakur Roshan Singh and visited their memorial in the citys Ramprasad Bismil park in the presence of Shahjahanpur MP Krishna Raj and local BJP leaders along with hundreds of people.

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He laid wreaths at the statues of the three freedom fighters who belonged to Shahjahanpur and laid their lives in Indias freedom struggle.

Singh lauded the contribution of the three and met the family of Khan. He greeted people of Shahjahanpur and said he is delighted to visit the city where these freedom fighters were born. PTI CPS ZMN

--- ENDS ---
Stunt rider Hiroyuki Ogawa is fearless on top of a motorcycle, but one thing in Singapore makes him fearful

SINGAPORE  Japanese stunt rider Hiroyuki Ogawa has crashed countless times, and his body is covered in scars from his many spills during practice, but one thing about Singapore makes him more afraid than performing his daredevil routine: the Transformers 3D ride at Universal Studios.

Its awesome, he says, his voice rising as he recalls his trip to Sentosa on Thursday. I thought that attraction was more scary than stunt riding!

Oga, as the stunt ace likes to be called, is in town to perform at this weekends Singapore Bike Show 2016.

Organisers of the two-day event at Singapore Expo expect around 6,000 visitors. Admission is free, and live shows like Ogas stunt performances (which take place at 3pm and 6pm on Saturday and 3pm and 5pm on Sunday) are meant to complement a large showcase of motorcycles, bicycles and e-bikes.

Mah Pte Ltd, the motorcycle group that invited Oga here, is displaying 35 bikes from its stable of brands, which includes Triumph, Moto Guzzui, Indian and Victory, among others.

Oga will be performing his staple of wheelies, stoppies, doughnuts and other tricks on a Triumph Street Triple, but that has given him a steep hill to climb.

The Triumph (pictured above) is a different animal altogether from his regular stunt machine, a Kawasaki ZX-6R, he says.

The ZX-6R is four-cylinder and 636cc, but the Triumph is 675cc and three-cylinder, so this difference is a very big problem for stunt riding. The feeling is completely different, he says. The Triumphs power is too much for a ZX-6R rider.

To make things even more challenging for Oga, he has also been tasked with performing a stunt routine on an Adiva AD3, a three-wheel scooter. To add a twist to that, he will be using it for a tandem show with his girlfriend, Junko.

Local stunt riders Speedzone will also put in performances at the Singapore Bike Show. Their routine had originally included a tandem performance too, with biker babe Vaune Phan.

Story continues

But a crash during practice put an end to that plan.

It was supposed to be a surprise appearance, says Vaune. Her routine with Speedzone would have been the first two-rider stunt show with a female rider in Singapore.

Instead, Vaune will be at the Singapore Bike Show  with her foot in a cast, courtesy of a fracture from her crash during practice  to appear at two sharing sessions about her solo ride to Everest Base Camp last year.

Ill be talking about the most common topics and questions that people normally ask me, says Vaune.

As for her fracture, she shrugs it off. It happens, she says. Its quite common for stunt riders to fall.

Thats something readily confirmed by Oga, who himself once had a nasty break in his ankle that put him in hospital for two months. He merrily shows off the surgical scar from that crash, along with other scars on his arms.

Stunt riding is very dangerous, and it always has risks. During practice, I always crash. Maybe I crash 20 times in a day, he laughs.

Thats why the most important thing for a stunt rider to have is mental resilience, he explains. When youre learning difficult tricks or new tricks, its impossible without crashing. Thats why we need a very strong mind, he says.

Would-be stunt riders in Singapore, take note. Lots of practice and the mental strength to get back on after you fall off are what you need if youre to become a successful motorcycle stunt rider. But its ok if the rides at Universal Studios scare you.



READ MORE

Dont know what an Indian motorcycle is? Heres one

For the latest motoring news and Singapore car reviews, there is only CarBuyer.com.sg
Luckily there is a light at the end of the tunnel, in the form of the Woodstock Cafe  Christianias long serving watering hole and one of my top five favourite drinking establishments worldwide, where you can sit and have a beer whilst watching a hash-skewed cast of surreal characters pass through, looking like modern day pirates. Now the rain has kicked in I can give my limbs a rest and concentrate on bullying the internal sections of my anatomy, which I take full advantage of. Its probably a good thing that by the time Wonderland was free of fashion shoots I was in no state to skate, because my back was still screaming at me  as it was, I sat back and watched Jordan Thackeray and Amandus absolutely slay the bowl alongside various locals.

By this time its too late to hunt around for the official party, but thats alright  Christiania during a skate event always feels like the right place to be, it was going off both inside and out and I got to witness Jarvis, once again screaming drunk, try to mosher drop off the balcony into a puddle repeatedly. Jarvis ability to maintain a constant intake of alcohol was nothing if not impressive, if you could ignore the fact that each session seemed to end in him being carried home, passing out on the floor or soiling himself. I guess if Fred Gall is cheering then youre either doing something very right or very wrong. The drizzle does little to dampen the party, which continues into the early hours
The Yahoo Small Business Directory is no more. Its now part of Aabaco Small Business.

Aabaco  whatever that means  is a company owned (for now) by Yahoo and attempts to reach the Yahoo Small Business Directory now direct users to the Aabaco site.

Before Google was a household name, many people found their way around the Web by way of the Yahoo Directory. The Directory was not a search engine, rather an organized list of websites selected by Yahoo.

Websites were sorted by topics such as education, shopping, and resources. You could click the topic you were interested in and see a list of websites under that topic which Yahoo had curated.

But some found the system convoluted and confusing. Whats more, directories began to get a bad rap as spammy link sellers. That wasnt a good reputation for Yahoo.

The decision to retire the Yahoo Directory was announced with little fanfare by the company. Yahoo simply gave a short paragraph at the end of an already short 2014 progress report explaining its decision by stating, Yahoo was started nearly 20 years ago as a directory of websites that helped users explore the Internet. While we are still committed to connecting users with the information theyre passionate about, our business has evolved and at the end of 2014 (December 31), we will retire the Yahoo Directory.

So its not really much of an explanation. But perhaps Yahoo did not feel the need to spell out the reason behind its actions with directories so little in use these days.

Yahoo has been making a number of changes in recent years, a transformation that is coming to pass under the leadership of ex-Googler Marissa Mayer. As for the Yahoo Directory, it is no more. Instead of transitioning the service into a new form, it seems the company has killed it completely in favor of a new service all together.

The question is now, what exactly is Aabaco Small Business?

In short, Aabaco Small Business is a service that offers small business owners custom websites, hosting, domains, eCommerce help, and business email plans. So, instead of helping you find businesses on the Web, Aabaco helps you get your small business on it.

For now, Aabaco Small Business is a Yahoo business, but this will not always be the case. Though no specific date was given, Aabaco explained on its website that they will be spun off from Yahoo to become a part of Aabaco Holdings. You can go to the companys Questions and Answers page to learn more.
Though few outside the community may understand this, entrepreneurship is not just about profit and risk. Its also about endless curiosity and the willingness to try something new. The true entrepreneur wont be able to resist exploring the lessons below. But while your curiosity might draw you in, what youll come away with is something more. Because these seemingly unrelated lessons from our small business community will also make you a better entrepreneur in the end.

Unlock the Secrets of the New Google Goals

Google recently released a new tool designed to help people set and achieve their personal and professional goals. And as Mike Gingerich points out in this post, you can actually use the tool to help create some work-life balance.

Determine Whether Humor is Best for Your Brand

Humor can be a useful business tool in certain situations  but not all. If youre going to use humor in your marketing plan or any other part of your business, check out the tips in this Media Shower post by Tricia Edgar.

Discover These Must-Haves for Your eCommerce Website

Not all eCommerce sites get the best results. Those that dont do well could be missing some essential elements like the ones included in this Lidyr Creative post by Nikki Purvy. BizSugar members also share thoughts on the post here.

Capture the Magic of Instagram Stories

Instagram recently released a new feature thats similar to Snapchat. Instagram Stories can be a potentially valuable tool for businesses. But first, you need to know how to use it. Daniel Charlton of the Excel Visibility blog explains in this post.

Uncover Unique Ways of Sending Your Message

There are plenty of different ways to get messages across to consumers. You can show them visually through things like infographics. You can use storytelling methods. And there are plenty of other methods you can use, like the ones listed in this Causeview post by Doron Barbalat. Though the post is written for non-profits, there are some important takeaways that can apply to many different business types.

Embrace Martech and Help Your Team Do the Same

Marketing technology can certainly be a benefit to businesses in many different ways. But some still struggle with embracing that technology. If youre unsure how to embrace martech in your business, check out the tips in this Marketing Land post by Mary Wallace.

Master the Art of Facebook Marketing

Facebook can be another great tool for businesses to reach online consumers. But its not always easy. To get the best results possible with Facebook marketing, you should take these tips from Rieva Lesonsky on the CorpNet blog into account.

Explore the Concepts of Customer Delight

No matter what actual tools you use, your overall goal should be to delight your customers in some way. There are some basic concepts that you can use to create a sense of customer delight, as Ed Leake shares in this FATbit post. You can also see discussion surrounding the post over on BizSugar.

Unravel the Secrets of Superhero Bloggers

Different businesses use blogging in different ways. But if you want to be successful in sharing your content and reaching your audience, you need at least a few of these blogging secrets that can turn you into a superstar blogger, according to Theodore Nwangene on Mostly Blogging.

Learn How Supercomputers Are Shaping the Future

The technology and tools that businesses use are constantly changing. So keeping up with those changes can be extremely beneficial. In this post on the Who Is Hosting This blog, KerriLynn Engel shares some thoughts and an infographic about how supercomputers are shaping the future of humanity.

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

Knowledge Photo via Shutterstock



Get the latest headlines from Small Business Trends. Follow us on Google News.
Mobile

Austin ISD Launches Bus Tracking App

The WheresTheBus app lets parents know exactly where their children are when they ride the school bus home.

Source: AISD.

Starting this school year, parents of students in the Austin Independent School District (AISD) will be able to track their children when they ride the bus home.

AISD is deploying the WheresTheBus app to track more than 500 buses that carry close to 23,000 students on 390 bus routes each day. The app uses GPS data to estimate arrival times, allowing parents to plan accordingly. Additionally, the app lightens the workload for bus dispatchers who often field phone calls from parents when buses are behind schedule.

For safety reasons, the app only allows users that have a Parent Cloud account from the AISD Department of Information Systems & Technology.

WheresTheBus is available for iPhone and Android now, but is not live until Monday when AISD schools start. More information about the WheresTheBus app is available on the AISD site.
joseph stiglitz

Getty/Win McNamee

Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel Prize-winning economist and former adviser to US President Bill Clinton, says the consensus surrounding neoliberal economic thought has come to an end.

Speaking with Business Insider after the launch of his latest book, "The Euro: How A Common Currency Threatens the Future of Europe"  which argues that the fundamental flaws with the euro and the broader European economy are causing huge problems for the continent and risk leading to its downfall  Stiglitz argued that neoliberalism, the dominant school of economic thinking in the West for the past 30 years or so, is on its last legs.

Since the late 1980s and the so-called Washington Consensus, neoliberalism  essentially the idea that free trade, open markets, privatisation, deregulation, and reductions in government spending designed to increase the role of the private sector are the best ways to boost growth  has dominated the thinking of the world's biggest economies and international organisations like the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

The policies of Ronald Reagan and Clinton in the US and Margaret Thatcher in the UK are often held up as the gold standard of neoliberalism at work, while in recent years in Britain George Osborne and David Cameron's economic policies continued the neoliberal tradition.

Ronal Reagan and Margaret Thatcher

Getty/Win McNameeSince the 2008 financial crisis, however, there has been a groundswell of opinion in both economic and political circles to suggest that the neoliberal consensus may not be the right way forward for the world. In the past few years, with growth low and inequality rampant, that groundswell has gained traction.

Stiglitz, who won a Nobel Memorial Prize in economics in 2001 for his work on information asymmetry, has been one of neoliberalism's biggest critics in recent years, and he says the "neoliberal euphoria" that has gripped the world since the 1980s is now gone.

Story continues

Asked by Business Insider whether he thought the economic consensus surrounding neoliberalism was coming to an end, Stiglitz argued: "I can talk about this from the point of view of academia or even in policy circles. In academia, I think it has pretty well become rejected.

"The young students are not interested in establishing that neoliberalism works  they're trying to understand where markets fail and what to do about it, with an understanding that the failures are pervasive. That's true of both micro and macroeconomics. I wouldn't say it's everywhere, but I'd say that it's dominant.

"In policymaking circles I think it's the same thing. Of course, there are people, say on the right in the United States who don't recognise this. But even many of the people on the right would say markets don't work very well, but their problem is governments are unable to correct it."

Stiglitz went on to argue that one of the central tenets of the neoliberal ideology  the idea that markets function best when left alone and that an unregulated market is the best way to increase economic growth  has now been pretty much disproved.

"We've gone from a neoliberal euphoria that 'markets work well almost all the time' and all we need to do is keep governments on course, to 'markets don't work' and the debate is now about how we get governments to function in ways that can alleviate this," he said.

In other words, Stiglitz says: "Neoliberalism is dead in both developing and developed countries."

Stiglitz is not alone in his belief that neoliberalism has its problems, though his argument that the consensus is "dead" is somewhat more forthright than those of many others. In a blog post in May, three economists from the IMF  long one of the greatest champions of the neoliberal consensus  questioned the efficacy of some aspects of it, particularly when it comes to the creation of inequality.

Stiglitz and Lagarde

Getty/Win McNamee

"The increase in inequality engendered by financial openness and austerity might itself undercut growth, the very thing that the neoliberal agenda is intent on boosting," Jonathan Ostry, Prakash Loungani, and Davide Furceri argued. "There is now strong evidence that inequality can significantly lower both the level and the durability of growth."

"There are a lot of people thinking the same thing at this point, that basically some aspects of the neoliberal agenda probably need a rethink," Ostry told the Financial Times on the day the blog was published, adding: "The crisis said: 'The way we've been thinking can't be right.'"

The decline of neoliberalism

The decline of neoliberalism is also evident in the UK, where austerity has reigned since the accession of the Conservative Party to government in 2010. Prime Minister David Cameron and Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne presided over a period of record fiscal-deficit reduction created through a six-year programme of austerity.

But since Cameron resigned following the UK's vote to leave the European Union, fiscal stimulus in the UK has started to gain traction once again as a viable means of stimulating growth. It is widely expected that Philip Hammond, the new chancellor under newly installed Prime Minister Theresa May, will announce some form of fiscal easing at the Autumn Statement  which will come at some point before the end of the year (last year's was in late November). As Business Insider's Oscar Williams-Grut argued in mid-July, "Britain's age of austerity could be over."

Across the Atlantic, both US presidential nominees, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, both favouring expanded government borrowing to fund infrastructure projects. As Randall W. Forsyth argued in Barron's magazine last week:

"We are all Keynesians now, President Richard Nixon famously declared after his New Economic Plan was unveiled in 1971. The notion seems to be echoing now, with the two major parties' presidential candidates calling for increased government spending, notably for infrastructure projects."

Neoliberalism may not be completely dead, as Stiglitz argues, but it is certainly being challenged from many angles.

NOW WATCH: The secret to selling your house for more money

See Also:

SEE ALSO: IMF: The last generation of economic policies may have been a complete failure
YEREVAN, AUGUST 19, ARMENPRESS. The Court of Appeal has examined the motions of changing the decision of arrest of several gunmen who seized the Police station in Yerevan on July 17, reports Armenpress.

The Court rejected the two motions proposed by the public defender on releasing Smbat Barseghyan on bail and canceling the decision of arrest. In an interview with journalists, Barseghyans attorney Ruzanna Sirekanyan said Barseghyan didnt want to attend the session and she doesnt know the reason. She also said she is going to appeal the Courts decision.

The appeal proceedings on changing Artur Sargsyans preventive measure, who brought food to the gunmen, has been postponed. His lawyer Tigran Yegoryan said technical issues are the reason for it. Artur Sargsyan didnt attend the session. The session on Sargsyans case will be held on August 23.

The Court has also rejected the motion of changing gunman Tatul Tamrazyans arrest. His attorney Monika Margaryan said the body conducting the proceedings finds that Tatul Tamrazyan will impede the investigation.

The Court of Appeal rejected the motion of changing gunman Pavel Manukyans arrest. His lawyer Harutyun Baghdasaryan said he has not received a text for explanation yet, but he supposes that the explanation is the same which is being done in all such cases, such as he can avoid, hide and do another act.

The Court also examined the appeal of cancelling gunman Hovhannes Vardanyans arrest. His attorney Anush Mkhitaryan said the Appeals decision on H. Vardanyans case will be published in the upcoming Monday.
The minister urged all communities to contribute towards peace-building in the region.

By India Today Web Desk: Amid ongoing unrest in Kashmir, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh today hit out at Pakistan and accused it of trying to derail peace and stability in the region.

Addressing a rally in Tiranga in Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh, Rajnath said that it was necessary to first maintain peace in the region and solve the issues thereafter.

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"Today, I don't hesitate to say that Pakistan is continuously trying to create unrest in Kashmir. It wants to destroy it and derail peace in the Valley," Rajnath said.

"Recently, I went to Pakistan and you all know our neighbouring country's misdeeds. I don't want to repeat what happened over there but would like to say that I did not let India's pride go down there. I said one country's terrorist cannot be the hero of another," he added.

Expressing regret over the protests in the Valley, in which at least 66 people were killed, Rajnath appealed to the youth to maintain peace in the region. The minister said that protests cannot be a solution to the ongoing crisis in the Valley.

"I want to tell the people of Kashmir that we not only love the land of Kashmir but also its people. I would like to appeal to the Kashmiris that we do not want to see stones, bricks and firearms in their hands but pen, computers and jobs. We want to see you employed," Singh said.

The minister urged all communities to contribute towards peace-building in the region.

"British rulers tried to divide communities on religious lines but their malicious attempts were thwarted by the friendship of freedom fighters Ashfaqullah Khan and Ramprasad Bismil," he said.

"Hindusthan ek tha, Hindusthan ek hai aur Hindusthan ek rahega (India was united, India is united and will continue to remain united)," he added.

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: Panaji, Aug 20 (PTI) The results of 2017 Goa Assembly elections will lay the foundation of partys victory in the 2019 general elections, BJP president Amit Shah said today.

"2017 is very important for the party. There are elections in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur and Goa. Through these elections we want to bring transformation in the country ... We should be in power from panchayat to Parliament," Shah said.

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He was addressing a gathering of booth-level BJP workers near Panaji, kicking off the partys campaign for Assembly.

"Results of Goa Assembly elections will lay foundation for partys victory in 2019 Lok Sabha elections under the leadership of Narendra Modi," he said.

"If we win all the states in 2017, then no one can stop BJPs victory in 2019 elections," he said.

Shah expressed confidence that BJP on its own will win 27 seats (out of total 40) in Goa Assembly elections.

"Congress has lost in all the states in the recent past. Now they are eyeing Goa ... how will they win in Goa after losing in all the states," the BJP president said, alleging that corruption to the tune of "Rs 12 lakh crore" took place during the Congress regime.

Responding to former union minister Kamal Naths criticism of the Prime Minister Modis foreign visits, Shah referred to Modis predecessor Manmohan Singh as "Maunibaba".

"Even Maunibaba used to visit the foreign countries, but no one knew about them, not even the countries he was visiting. But when Modi travels abroad, thousands of people wait to receive him. The reception is not for Modi alone, it is for the BJP and citizens of this country," Shah said.

"When Modi addressed the UN in Hindi, the country was proud of it," he said. PTI RPS KRK IKA JMF

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Now, Pakistani spy with a Hindu name arrested in Rajasthan; confesses smuggling RDX into India.

Jaisalmer : A Pakistani spy with a Hindu name was on Friday arrested in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan and he has confessed that he played an instrumental role in smuggling around 35 kg of RDX into India.

The spy named Nand Lal Meghwal alias Nandal Maharaj was nabbed based on intelligence inputs from the RAW. A cellular phone has also been also recovered from him.

The accused who identified himself as Nandu is a Pakistani national and entered the country on visa, U R Sahoo, ADG Intelligence said.

He was found in suspicious circumstances in Jaisalmer yesterday and was interrogated. He is now being taken to Jaipur. He will be placed under arrest later, he said.

We are probing his local connections in the border areas and those who helped him reach there, he added.

According to reports, this is the time that Pakistan has sent a set Hindu spy on visa and passport.

Primary investigation reveals that the accused remained in constant touch from Pakistan with anti-social elements and smugglers living in border areas of Rajasthan and also smuggled them various articles, ADG Intelligence, Sahoo said.

In lieu of smuggling items on cheap rates, he used to collect information about defence and intelligence agencies and their activities and would pass it on to his handlers of ISI, the ADG said.

The accused used WhastApp, Facebook and Skype for communicating with his sources in the border areas, he added.

Home Minister Gulabchand Kataria said the accused has come to India on visa several times.

Additional SP CID (Intelligence) Rajiv Dutta said the accused had visa for Jodhpur only but he came to visit Jaislamer in violation of the visa norms.

Meghwal alias Maharaj had been staying in Jaisalmer since the last six months. He operated a textile showroom in Pakistan and has sound financial background.

In this unique spying and sabotaging mode, the Pakistan sent a set Hindu named person whose original identity is yet to be authenticated by further investigations. But, it is evident that Pakistani intelligence agency ISI is now penetrating its net through Hindu identity to take more advantageous position in the Hindu dominated are of operation. ISI is directly providing such spies with fake passports and arranging visa. Side by side Pakistan tries also to give a bad name of Hindus setting them as terrorist category.

Source : Hindu Existence
Raj Thackeray slammed the Supreme Court's decision saying that Dahi Handi can't be played on a table and court should not interfere in Hindu festivals.

Raj Thackeray slammed the Supreme Court's decision saying that Dahi Handi can't be played on a table. Photo: PTI

By Mustafa Shaikh: Matching to the tune of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena Chief Raj Thackeray, Shiv Sena in its daily said the courts should not interfere in the festivals. Government has the ability to think of safety measures during Hindu festivals and courts should stay put of such issues.

DON'T INTERFERE IN FESTIVALS: SAAMNA

Saamna editorial said that interference with the functioning of government and people's emotions will make all the estates of democracy fall apart. "Hindu festivals will happen. Any restriction on Hindu festivals will be brought down by the people and Shiv Sena will administer it," read the editorial.

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SC VS SHIV SENA

The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the Bombay High Court's decision banning youth below the age of 18 to participate in Dahi Handi ritual and restricting the height of the human pyramid to 20 feet.

Raj Thackeray slammed the Supreme Court's decision saying that Dahi Handi can't be played on a table and court should not interfere in Hindu festivals.





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- Nigerians numbering 110,469 have been shortlisted for the nationwide recruitment of the Nigerian Police Force (NPF)

- The aptitude tests for the applicants will commence on Monday, August 22

- It will be held in all the states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja

The Police Service Commission (PSC) has announced that 110,469 applicants have been shortlisted in the recently embarked nationwide police recruitment.

The PSC Chairman, Chief Mike Okiro, who addressed journalists yesterday, August 19 in Abuja, said all the categories of applicants shortlisted for recruitment into the police would write the examination at designated schools in their states.

Chief Mike Okiro

READ ALSO: Trouble looms in Nigeria Police Force over lopsided postings

He gave the breakdown of the applicants as:

Cadet Assistant Superintendent of Police  22,454  made up of 10,290 for general duties and 12,164 specialists;

Cadet Inspectors  24,456  made up of 11,639 for general duties and 12, 817 for specialists and

Constables  63,559  comprising 40,492 for general duties and 23,067 for specialists.

He informed the journalists that state governors had been asked to place advertisements on radio and television to inform their citizens about the examination and the venue.

According to him, 115 applicants were arrested for breaches ranging from document forgery to impersonation and others.

Those found wanting have since been handed over to the police for investigation and prosecution.

He also said some candidates were screened out of the exercise for being over-age, falsifying or forging documents, tattoo marks, and having physical deformities, among other issues.

Okiro also debunked rumours that he was under pressure to favour some candidates, adding that the PSC adhered strictly to laid down requirements.

The commission adhered strictly to the requirements in terms of qualifications and physical features. Many applicants who failed to meet these requirements were dropped.

The screening exercise will start on Monday with the aptitude test for Cadet ASPs for both general duty and specialists. On Tuesday, it will be the turn of Cadet Inspectors, also for both general duty and specialists. The Constables from both cadres will take their turn on Wednesday, he said.

READ ALSO: Names of 7 new police Deputy Inspectors-General announced!

He also said results of the paper tests would be out within a few days, assuring that no one would see the questions until the exams day.

He warned state coordinators against compromising the exercise, warning that they would be held responsible for any breach of the rules.

Last month, the PSC approved the promotion of 18 new Assistant Inspectors General of Police (AIGs) and 37 new Commissioners of Police (CPs).

The new promotions were annouced a week after the acting Inspector General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris promised that the police would soon review cases of its personnel eyeing elevation to new ranks.

The IGP made the statement while speaking to journalists on Friday, July 8 at the Government House, Minna, after paying a courtesy visit on Governor Abubakar Bello of Niger state.

Source: Legit.ng
 Barrister Aisha Wakil, the Nigerian lawyer and negotiator for the Boko Haram group recently invited by the Nigerian Army for questioning is reportedly Igbo

- The woman activist, who was born into an Igbo Christian family converted to Islam during her time at the University of Maiduguri where she studied law

- She is reportedly referred to as 'Mummy' by Boko Haram members

A report by Vanguard states that Barrister Aisha Wakil, the Nigerian lawyer and negotiator for the Boko Haram group recently invited by the Nigerian Army for questioning is of the Igbo stock.

Barrister Aisha Wakil

Wakil was reportedly born into an Igbo Christian family, but converted to Islam during her time at the University of Maiduguri where she studied law.

The report stated that Wakil's closest revelation about her linkage to being Igbo was when she was quoted to have disclosed in an interview with a national newspaper her peace-making efforts.

According to her, she started the dialogue process since 2009, even before the major crisis erupted because she knew their slain spiritual leader, Muhammad Yusuf.

READ ALSO: Wanted Over Boko Haram: Military out for mischief  Aisha Wakil, Salkida

Her words: His father-in-law, late Alhaji Baba Fugu Mohammed, was my spiritual father in Islam, and I used to visit his home.

In fact, Mohammed Yusuf almost married my younger sister Amina, but Almighty Allah did not make it possible. So that was how I got closer to the duo.

It went even to the extent that I was cooking food and taking it to the house of late Alhaji Fugu, to the pupils of the Quranic school, (almajari).

And because I am from the southern part of the country, I normally prepared southern dishes, which Yusuf had always come to eat. In fact, he liked my egusi soup very much, and we became very close when his father-in-law told him that I was the one who cooked the food.

So anytime we met, he expressed delight and prayed that Almighty Allah would reward me, for he was eating from my pot and that was how I established a strong relationship with him.

Wakil who is always totally veiled is married to another lawyer, Wakil Gana who is presently a judge with the Borno state High Court.

The couple were named by the Boko Haram sect to negotiate on their behalf during the administration of Dr Goodluck Jonathan. Aisha's name also featured prominently on the list of government negotiators at the time.

Those in the know say, she had almost always carried out her conduct and liaisons with Boko Haram with the knowledge of the authorities. In fact, she is said to be a staff of the National Human Rights Commission.

She is famed for calling the Boko Haram insurgents at one point as her children.

READ ALSO: Boko Haram: Nigerian military grants bail to Bolori, others

She was quoted as saying: said: Then they were not Boko Haram and Jamaatu ah-lil Sunnah members. It is surprising how these children turned out to be what they are now. I keep on saying there is certainly no smoke without fire.

Something must have triggered those innocent-looking children to grow up behaving the way they are behaving now.

You needed to see them growing up. Sometimes when I start talking about them, I shed tears. Those children prayed, and still pray a lot. I have a mosque in the house, and they would always go in and pray.

During the height of the insurgency, Aisha was able to mobilise some Borno women to come out to protest against the attacks by the Islamist group.

At that time she was quoted to have referred to the Boko Haram insurgents as her children.

My sons, I have been begging you since in silence to come out and state your grievances and stop destroying your homeland. Please come out and state your grievances and stop these killings.

READ ALSO: Boko Haram: Group accuse journalist Ahmad Salkida, others of seeking cheap popularity

Recall that Mrs Wakil turned herself in to the Defence Headquarters after being declared wanted by the Nigerian army. Several media sources assumed the woman was in trouble for aiding the terrorist group.

However, army sources claim the woman along with two other wanted (Ahmad Salkida, a journalist known for his access to the Boko Haram leadership, and Ahmed Bolori, Maiduguri-based negotiator) were invited to discuss new strategies in war against Boko Haram.

Mrs Wakil was reportedly treated with respect by the Nigerian security operatives while she was in their facility.

Source: Legit.ng
Actor Suriya's upcoming actioner Singam 3, the third part of the Singam series will have television star Thakur Anoop Singh locking horns with Suriya.

By India Today Web Desk: Actor Suirya, who is still basking in the success of his latest film 24, is rigorously shooting for his upcoming Tamil actioner Singam 3, the third part of the Singam series.

While the shooting of the film is progressing at a rapid pace in Chennai, where the unit is reportedly nearing the last leg of shooting, it has been confirmed that Indian model and television star Thakur Anoop Singh, has been roped in to play the menacing villain in Singam 3, which is popularly known as S3 among fans.

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ALSO READ: Pinneyum movie review- Adoor Gopalakrishnan returns, but only in parts

ALSO READ: Baahubali 2- Prabhas's first look to be unveiled on his birthday

Notably, Thakur played the iconic character Dhritarashtra in the 2013 hit television series Mahabharat. Apart from an actor, Thakur is an athlete, pilot and a model. According to reports, Thakur has started shooting for Singam 3 in Chennai.

Excited about the project, Thakur shared the news on Twitter.



Signed and sealed - #singham3 Time to raise the bar,

With tremendous horsepower !! pic.twitter.com/salxRIrzzw Thakur Anoop Singh (@theindianthakur) August 20, 2016

With the champion bodybuilder on board, one can't help but expect high octane action from Suriya and Thakur Anoop Singh.

Directed by Hari, the film co-stars Shruti Haasan and Anushka Shetty in lead roles. This will be Suriya's second association with Shruti Haasan after the super hit sci-fi film Ezham Arivu.



It has been revealed that actor Shruti Haasan will be playing a journalist in the film while Suriya will be reprising IPS Duraisingam in the sequel.

Singam 3 has music by Harris Jayaraj and slated for a Diwali release this year.



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August 19, 2016 Morgan Warthin , (307) 344-2015



Due to an ongoing and unprecedented fish kill, Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Parks (FWP) has implemented a full closure of all water-based recreation on the Yellowstone River and its tributaries north of Yellowstone National Parks northern boundary at Gardiner, Montana. The closure is intended to help limit the spread of a fish-killing parasite. Read the news releas e from Montana, Fish, Wildlife & parks.

At this time, the NPS is not considering expanding the river closure inside Yellowstone National Park. Crews are actively assessing the Yellowstone River and its tributaries inside the parks northern boundary and have not discovered any dead fish.





Yellowstone National Park asks for cooperation from anglers to prevent spread of the parasite into the park. All waters within Yellowstone National Park remain open to fishing, however, to help prevent the introduction of this fish parasite and other aquatic invasive species, its imperative that all visiting anglers and boaters completely clean and disinfect their gear (waders, boots, float tubes, boats) before traveling to the park.

In addition, once anglers are done fishing at a site within Yellowstone National Park, they must remove all mud, sediment, vegetation and other debris from waders and boots before leaving that site and traveling to additional fishing locations within the park. All watercraft entering the park must be inspected by NPS staff prior to being launched. Fishing bait is not allowed in the park, and its illegal to transport live fish or move fish or other animals among park waters.





Invasive, nonnative species are the biggest threat to Yellowstones native fish communities. Angler and boater cooperation with this advisory will protect the park fisheries and aquatic ecosystems. Read more about preventing the introduction of aquatic invasive species





Soda Butte Project - This week and next, park staff will complete a project to remove non-native brook trout from 28 miles of streams northeast of and within Yellowstone National Park to enhance the viability of native Yellowstone cutthroat trout. This project is approximately 43 river miles from the FWP closure area and will not affect or be affected by the closure.





This is the second year of the Soda Butte Creek project. It is a cooperative effort involving FWP, Wyoming Game and Fish Department, Custer Gallatin National Forest, Shoshone National Forest, and Yellowstone National Park. It involves treating streams and tributaries in the Soda Butte Creek drainage, from its headwaters in the Beartooth Mountains downstream to Icebox Canyon, approximately 10 miles from its confluence with the Lamar River in northeastern Yellowstone National Park.





This week biologists and technicians used electrofishing equipment to collect as many native Yellowstone cutthroat trout as possible from the drainage and temporarily moved them to nearby tributaries. Starting Monday, August 22 , biologists will treat all streams in the drainage with rotenone, a piscicide intended to remove all remaining fish. Biologists are targeting non-native brook trout. When treatment is complete  anticipated by August 26  biologists will return the rescued Yellowstone cutthroat trout to the drainage.





The need for this project comes from a commitment by state and federal agencies to ensure a long-term, self-sustaining population while maintaining genetic diversity and integrity and protecting the ecological, recreational and economic values associated with Yellowstone cutthroat trout.




The NRL said today it was disappointed by the remarks and inaccuracies published in the Gold Coast Bulletin on Saturday 20 August 2016, questioning the commitment of the NRL and QRLs mental healths support programs on the Gold Coast.

The NRL provided background information to the Gold Coast Bulletin ahead of the article being published, confirming that the NRL and QRL had provided and funded assistance and counselling to clubs hit by tragedies.

The NRL also confirmed to the Gold Coast Bulletin that, as publically announced in May this year, the NRL will join with the Queensland Government to reach more than 200 junior rugby league clubs throughout Queensland over the next three years.

Outreach and programs will help clubs and members to provide mental health training and ongoing assistance and awareness amongst local communities.

The NRL and QRL will continue to support any club throughout Queensland which requires assistance.

The codes and mental health programs are further backed by the support, expertise and personnel of mental health and wellbeing partners  Lifeline, the Black Dog Institute, Kids Helpline and headspace  to help those in the community who are at risk and in need.
That utterly vile website that was sharing sexually explicit images of over 2000 Australian high school girls  some of them underage  might have finally been shut down, but the ramifications are still coming in strong.

Firstly, theres a Change.org petition calling on Malcolm Turnbull to bring in better legislation to deal with these websites (both in shutting them down and punishing those responsible) thats already hit 30,000 signatures in two days. (It should be noted that although the Australian Federal Police confirmed today that the site had indeed been shut down, they elaborated only so-far as to say authorities had done so. It is believed the site was shut down by administrators.)



And secondly, theres this sub-par response to the website from one of the schools affected.

Kimbraya College, a co-ed progressive school in Victoria, apparently hauled all its Year 7 and 10 female students into an assembly to tell them to dress more conservatively and not take nude photos or else they might just end up online.

Catherine Manning, a mother of one of the students, accused the school of slut-shaming and victim-blaming the students instead of laying the blame at those responsible for this vile website.

She posted on Facebook that shed received a furious text from her daughter about a meeting it.

Instead of laying blame directly where it falls  with the perpetrators  it seems her school decided the best line of defence was to haul the girls into a meeting and not just police their appearance, but thoroughly insult and denigrate them, she wrote. Nice job, revolution school. At the assembly my daughter and her friends said they were told they had to check the length of their skirts, and that anything that doesnt touch their knees or below by Monday morning would be deemed inappropriate. They were informed that this was to protect their integrity. They were also told not to post photos of themselves online, and to refuse any request from a boyfriend for a sexy selfie, as their boyfriends will only be around for a couple of days; maximum a year; but definitely not in ten years time. They were told the boys are distracted by their legs, and that boys dont respect girls who wear short skirts.



Manning writes that afterwards, some of the girls got together to document their outrage to the meeting, only to be shut down by a teacher.

As a parent, I am MORTIFIED that my daughter was subjected to such appalling messaging at the hands of those entrusted to care for her.



The school has yet to make a comment, although they did send out an email on Wednesday that they believed no current students were involved.

Meanwhile, if you want to add your name to the Change.org petition, you can do so here. You can also read Mannings full post below:

Photo: Kambyra / Facebook.
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Two Dozen Current and Incoming Students Benefit from University's Largesse

By: Saint Monica University

Contact

JJ Asongu

***@smuedu.org JJ Asongu

End

-- Saint Monica University (SMU): The American International University today announced that it has offered about two dozen Work-Study Scholarships to current and incoming students of the institution. These scholarships allow its beneficiaries to have tuition-free education for the academic year in exchange for which they offer specific services to the University."The Work-Study Scholarship was designed to assist students who are unable to pay their tuition to earn a prestigious SMU education," said Professor Januarius Jingwa (JJ) Asongu, President and Chief Executive Officer of SMU. "I am pleased to offer over two dozen students the unique opportunity to study at SMU. As a socially responsible institution, we also offer hundreds of students other types of scholarships."SMU has many scholarships including the following:1) Chancellor's Scholarship = Tuition-free (500,000-750,000 Frs)2) Presidential Scholarship = 200,000 Frs3) Provost's Scholarship = 150,000 Frs4) Registrar's Scholarship = 100,000 Frs5) Dean's Scholarship = 50,000 Frs6) Early Bird Scholarship (The first 200 students to enroll in the Kumba Campus) = 100,000 Frs.Applications for the academic performance-based scholarships ranging from 50,000 to 200,000 Frs (XAF) will be open to all admitted students from October 1-15, 2016. Interested students will need to submit a typed application to the Office of Student Affairs, which will work in collaboration with the Office of the Registrar, to identify qualified students. In order to qualify, new students need between 5-25 points at the General Certificate of Education (GCE) at the Advanced Level; while existing students need 3.20-4.00 GPA. Those who qualify will be notified and given their scholarships on Saturday, October 29, 2016, during the President's Opening Convocation or Matriculation exercise.Saint Monica University (SMU) is a leading private university in Cameroon. It is an American-style non-ecclesiastical Catholic institution, offering career-focused programs that are at the intersection of the liberal arts, science and technology. It is dedicated to providing educational opportunities for the intellectual, social, entrepreneurial and professional development of a diverse student population. SMU is focused on the student experience and helping our students achieve their educational and career goals, and contributing to a more sustainable society. We offer various certificates and diplomas as well as bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees through the School of Arts, Education, & Humanities (SAEH); School of Business & Public Policy (SBPP); School of Health & Human Services (SHHS); and School of Science, Engineering & Technology (SSET). SMU is accredited in the United Kingdom by the Accreditation Service for International Schools, Colleges, and Universities (ASIC) with Accreditation No: AS22357/0614 and is listed on the UK Register of Learning Providers (UKRLP) with the UK Provider Reference Number (UKPRN): 10048183. SMU is also fully accredited in Cameroon by the National Commission on Private Higher Education at the Ministry of Higher Education (MINESUP) with the Ordinance of Creation No: E14/0028/MINESUP/SG/DDES and the Ministerial Letter No: 15-09643/L/MINESUP/SG/DDES/ESUP/SDA/MM authorizing SMU to offer over 60 undergraduate and graduate diploma and degree programs. SMU is a member of many international academic organizations including the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC), Global Universities In Distance Education (GUIDE), and the Talloires Network. For more information about SMU, visit our website: http://www.smuedu.org or write to us at admissions@smuedu.org.
Bharat Book Bureau provides the report, on "Global ICT Spends in Telecommunications Sector". The report is a comprehensive outlook built using extensive market research covering the spends across ICT market.

By: Bharat Book Bureau

Media Contact

Sandhya Nair

***@bharatbook.com

+91 22 27810772 / 27810773 Sandhya Nair+91 22 27810772 / 27810773

End

-- Bharatbook.com announces a report on "Global ICT Spends in Telecommunications Sector". This Report Understand the opportunities for ICT market in the Telecommunications sector and how it is set to change in future.Global ICT Spends in Telecommunications Sector - Future Perspective to 2019; report is a comprehensive outlook built using extensive market research covering the spends across ICT market. The statistics within the report provides a top-level overview and detailed insights into the operating environment of the Technology and Energy sector at individual country level.It has considered buying behavior / ICT spends across hardware, software, services, communications and staff. It acts as an essential tool for companies active across the ICT market and for new players considering entering the market; ensuring right business decision making.Countries covered within the report include: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States"Global ICT Spends in Telecommunications Sector - Future Perspective to 2019" provides the readers with potential spends value on ICT within Global Telecommunications sector during the period 2016 through to 2019In particular, it provides information of potential spends by individual countries for the following categories at segment level: BPO Services Cloud Services Enterprise Communications Services IT Hardware IT Services SoftwareGlobal ICT Spends in Telecommunications Sector - Future Perspective to 2019; is an exhaustive research report outlaying future perspectives of ICT project spends globally. The report provides year on year spends value within the Energy markets across 30+ countries; split across BPO Services, Cloud Services, Enterprise Communications Services, IT Hardware, IT Services, and Software categories and further at segment levels for the period 2016 to 2019. Understand the opportunities for ICT market in the Telecommunications sector and how it is set to change in future. Make effective business decisions by recognizing the opportunities within each of the core areas of ICT sector Realign your sales initiatives by understanding the current strategic objectives of the Global ICT Sector. Enhance your market segmentation with detailed breakdown of opportunities within selected technology categories.About Bharat Book Bureau:Bharat Book Bureau is the leading market research information provider for market research reports, company profiles, industry analysis, country reports, business reports, newsletters and online databases Bharat Book Bureau provides over a million reports from more than 400 publishers around the globe. We cover sectors starting from Aeronautics to Zoology.In case the reports don't match your requirement then we can do a specialized Custom Research for you. Our multifarious capabilities, cross-sector expertise and detailed knowledge of various markets, put us in a unique position to take up Custom Research demands of yourself.OR+91 22 27810772 / 27810773poonam@bharatbook.comwww.bharatbook.com
By PTI: Guwahati, Aug 20 (PTI) Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal today questioned 25 cement companies about the reasons for a reported price hike and asked them to cut the rates immediately.

"The rise in price of cement has an impact on the common man. The state government is committed to bringing in much desired stability in the price of all commodities," Sonowal said in a meeting with cement manufacturers here.

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Cement companies reportedly hiked the prices by Rs 40-50 per bag in Assam recently.

According to an official statement, he said the rise in prices of cement has affected the market and asked the companies to take steps to put a tab on price rise.

"If the price of cement is inordinately high in Assam in comparison to other states, there has to have a repercussion in our state. In a such a situation, the government cannot play the role of a mute spectator but will act to impress upon the companies to stabilise their price," Sonowal said.

The Chief Minister asked the cement companies to find out the reasons attributing to price hike of the construction material.

The company officials present at the meeting assured Sonowal that they would do the needful for curbing the price rise.

They also apprised the chief minister of the reasons for widening cement price difference between Assam and other states. PTI TR NN ABK PD

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Unicorn is the latest novel by Richard Gradner being released on 01 September at La Perla in Cape Town, South Africa.

By: Richard Gradner Author

Contact

Richard Gradner

***@fundimarketing.co.za Richard Gradner

End

-- Local independent author, Richard Gradner, is launching his latest speculative fiction novel, Unicorn, at La Perla Bar in Sea Point, Cape Town at 6pm on the 1st September 2016. Limited edition, signed copies of the novel will be available to purchase. 10% of sales will go to The Earthchild Project, a non-profit organisation that teaches school kids in the townships of Cape Town Yoga and holistic living, through hikes and enviro education. To stand a chance of winning one of ten, signed, advanced copies of Unicorn, visit Richard's website before the end of August to enter: http://www.richardgradner.comSet over 6,000 years ago, in the Indus River Valley, in what is today India and Pakistan, Unicorn tells the story of a young boy, Halim and his sister Taja, who set out on an adventure to find a cure for their mother who has fallen victim to a mysterious, debilitating disease. Filled with mystery, wonder and the wisdom of an ancient time, Unicorn is a fast-paced, historical adventure story that takes the reader on a journey into a magical world with interesting characters and mythical creatures.Richard is also the author of Return to Lemuria (2014), a story about the descendants of an advanced civilization who wish to take over the world.Richard is currently a Director at Mustard, a creative and digital agency. Before this, he owned an events company and was also the first Red Bull Marketing Director in South Africa. He's an energetic, magnetic Scorpio and ex-Chinese Martial Arts teacher. Richard lives life to the full, maintaining a healthy mind and body through the daily practice of Yoga.Unicorn will be available to be purchased via local online bookstore http://www.Printondemand.co.za as well as via http://www.Amazon.com (Paperback and Kindle) and http://www.draft2digital.com (ePub).
Jointly owned by AirAsia, Tata Sons, and Arun Bhatia, AirAsia India is one of the newest airline service in the country. Marking Tatas return to aviation after 60 years, it is also the first ever foreign airline to setup a subsidiary in India.

AirAsia has applied a special livery on one of their planes. This livery is nothing but a poster of upcoming Rajnikanth-starrer movie named Kabali.

AirAsia is the official airline partner of Kabali, which is expected to be released on 22nd July 2016 as per latest reports. AirAsia India unveiled its all new rebranded aircraft, with a livery dedicated to the most awaited movie of the yearKabali, AirAsia said in a statement.

This plane, an Airbus A320, will be flying to destinations like Bengaluru, New Delhi, Goa, Pune, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Guwahati, Imphal, Vizag and Kochi over the next few days.

Bearing the image of Rajinikanth from the movie Kabali, parts of the aircraft have been painted and stickered with the livery, AirAsia said.

Rajnikanth Kabali plane

During the filming of the movie, AirAsia India planes were used in some of the scenes. Though promoting movies using planes is not a big deal abroad, this is the first time in the history of India that an airplane has dedicated a plane to promote a movie.

Amar Abrol, chief executive officer, AirAsia India, said, This special plane, powered by Thalaivar quite literally, is dedicated to Rajini fans across the globe! This is AirAsias way of paying a tribute to the one and only superstar in the country.

Kabali Trailer

Photos
Jeremy Clarksons office has contacted Dilip Chhabria seeking permission to use the DC2 e-Amby concepts images

After running into some financial hurdles in the last few years, DC Design recently made a comeback with a new name, DC2. Headed by automotive designer Dilip Chhabria, DC Design has been the most widely known car design firm from India. Alongside a new nameplate, the company has introduced a range of fresh designs and concepts on its social media handles. We have talked about a few of them as well.

To date, Mr Chhabrias automotive design studio was chiefly popular for the DC Avanti; the first made-in-India production sportscar (check out its rare Roadster model). DC Design could not witness the success it expected with the Avanti project but the title of being a true Indian sportscar will always remain with the car. Meanwhile, the company revealed an interesting project for the DC2 era. Dubbed as e-Amby, it is an all-electric recreation of the iconic Hindustan Ambassador.

It did not take much time for the then-unnamed DC2 e-Amby EV concept to become a hot topic of discussion across Indian automotive forums. Its popularity was not confined to our borders but has caught the attention of many across the world, including one of the most sought-after figures in the field of automotive journalism, Jeremy Clarkson.

Apparently, Mr Clarksons office has contacted Mr Chhabria seeking permission to use the images of the DC2 e-Amby project for his show, The Grand Tour. Aired on Amazon Prime Video, the show is hosted by the iconic trio from the original UK Top Gear series: Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond. Dilip Chhabria was also asked whether the concept could be brought down to a shoot location. Of course, this is possible only after the whole COVID-19 situation settles down.

The DC2 e-Amby project initially remained just an interesting render. However, DC2 has now revealed that four e-Amby prototypes have been made in Switzerland and one of them was supposed to reach India this month. This plan was changed due to the global COVID-19 crisis.

At the moment, minimal details are known about the EVs powertrain. Various reports state that it will have dual-motor setup (one on each axle; essentially making it an AWD) that promises a 0-100km/h sprint time of just four seconds. The inspiration for the project came from presidential limousines. Dilip Chhabria wishes to create a homegrown luxury sedan taking aesthetic traits from the Ambassador. Adding to the overall sense of occasion, the e-Amby will sport gullwing doors and in Mr Chhabrias words, a Rolls-Royce exterior, Bentley interior and Tesla drivetrain.

In view of the investment going into the project, DC2 plans to limit its annual production to 5,000 units. As for pricing, the company targets half the cost of a Mercedes-Benz E-Class or roughly Rs 35 lakh. If everything goes according to plan, we might be able to see the first production-spec DC2 e-Amby towards the end of 2021. This time, the team is extra careful not to repeat the mistakes made during the Avanti project.

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A well-known family of natural compounds, called "terpenoids," have a curious evolutionary origin. In particular, one question relevant to future drug discovery has puzzled scientists: exactly how does Nature make these molecules?

A study from scientists on the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) has now filled in a missing piece of the evolutionary puzzle, determining a previously unknown structure of a family of proteins that are key to making these compounds.

Terpenoids, mostly produced by plants, are a family of molecules that encompass some of the most well-known and successful drugs derived from natural sources, for example the cancer treatment Taxol. In total, there are more than 65,000 known terpenoids.

Natural compounds, such as terpenoids, are typically made by numerous enzymes that stitch the parts together, like building a model from Lego. In the new study, the team focused on enzymes known as terpene synthases, which are found in both plants and bacteria.

The study, led by TSRI Professor Ben Shen, was recently published online ahead of print by the Journal of the American Chemical Society. In addition to the advance in the structural biology of this class of proteins, the new findings could also affect drug discovery, making engineering of these proteins, and thus the compounds they make, easier in the future.

Using x-ray crystallography -- freezing the atomic structure of a protein, then bombarding it with x-rays to create a snapshot of it -- Shen and his colleagues developed a detailed structural model that provides a far better understanding of bacterial diterpene synthases and how this class of enzymes work in a natural setting.

"What we found out is that the bacterial version is structurally very similar to the plant version and may support the idea of a gene fusion event that created the bifunctional plant enzymes," said TSRI Research Associate Jeffrey Rudolf, a co-first author of the paper with TSRI Research Associate Liao-Bin Dong. "We were also able to map which parts of the enzyme are important, giving us an idea of how to engineer the protein for structural diversity."

Dong added, "This new information not only allows us to engineer structural diversity into both bacterial and plant terpenoids, it also helps us identify new diterpenoids of bacterial origin, which are rare and could lead to exciting new natural compounds with interesting biological activities."
Tattoos are becoming ever more popular. In the EU, the number of people with tattoos has increased from 5% in 2003 to 12% in 2016 (60 million people in the EU-28), with at least half of them having more than one tattoo. A new JRC report explores the safety and regulation of the inks used for tattoos and permanent makeup.

Particularly popular among young people, 30% of 16-34 year olds in the EU have tattoos. In the US, 40% of the same age population have at least one tattoo. Tattoos are created by injecting coloured inks into the skin and are intended to be permanent, thus resulting in long term exposure to the chemicals injected and, possibly, to their degradation products.

There is currently no specific EU legislation on tattoos or permanent makeup products ((semi)permanent tattoos used to resemble make-up). They fall, like any other consumer products, under Directive 2001/95/EC on General Product Safety (GPSD) requiring that only safe products may be placed on the market.

While most tattoo inks on the EU market are imported from the US, permanent makeup inks are generally manufactured in Europe. They all contain a combination of several ingredients and more than 100 different colorants and 100 additives are currently in use. The pigments used are not specifically produced for tattoo and permanent makeup applications, and generally contain impurities. Over 80% of the colorants in use are organic chemicals and more than 60% of them are a certain type of pigments, known as azo-pigments, some of which can release carcinogenic aromatic amines. This can be the result of a degradation process in the skin, particularly under solar/ultra violet radiation exposure or laser irradiation.

There is no systematic data gathering for adverse effects on human health, so the actual prevalence of tattoo complications (mainly of dermatological nature) is not well known. Most complaints are transient and inherent to the wound healing process. However, bacterial infections may happen in up to 5% of people with tattoos, especially when the tattooing was carried out in unhygienic settings. Adverse health effects linked to the application but also increasingly to the removal of tattoos are reported. The risk of (skin) cancer from tattoo procedures has been neither proved nor excluded.

Measures that could contribute to enhancing the safety of tattoos would be Good Manufacturing Practices for manufacturing tattoo/permanent makeup inks, guidelines for their risk assessment, as well as harmonised analytical methods and information campaigns on risks for both tattooists and potential clients.

The JRC study, carried out on behalf of the Commission's Directorate-General Justice and Consumers, aims to provide the scientific evidence needed to decide if EU measures are necessary to ensure the safety of inks and processes used in tattoos and (semi)permanent makeup.

The findings of this JRC report, as well as two previous reports, on trends in tattoo practices and on legislative framework and analytical methods, will be used by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) to prepare a possible restriction proposal in the framework of the REACH regulation following a request from the European Commission. REACH refers to 'Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals' and is a EU Regulation, adopted to improve the protection of human health and the environment from the risks that can be posed by chemicals, while enhancing the competitiveness of the EU chemicals industry.

See more information at: https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/publication/eur-scientific-and-technical-research-reports/safety-tattoos-and-permanent-make-final-report
This year's melt season in the Arctic Ocean and surrounding seas started with a bang, with a record low maximum extent in March and relatively rapid ice loss through May. The melt slowed down in June, however, making it highly unlikely that this year's summertime sea ice minimum extent will set a new record.

"Even when it's likely that we won't have a record low, the sea ice is not showing any kind of recovery. It's still in a continued decline over the long term," said Walt Meier, a sea ice scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "It's just not going to be as extreme as other years because the weather conditions in the Arctic were not as extreme as in other years."

"A decade ago, this year's sea ice extent would have set a new record low and by a fair amount. Now, we're kind of used to these low levels of sea ice -- it's the new normal."

This year's sea ice cover of the Barents and Kara seas north of Russia opened up early, in April, exposing the surface ocean waters to the energy from the sun weeks ahead of schedule. By May 31, the extent of the Arctic sea ice cover was comparable to end-of-June average levels. But the Arctic weather changed in June and slowed the sea ice loss. A persistent area of low atmospheric pressure, accompanied by cloudiness, winds that dispersed ice and lower-than-average temperatures, didn't favor melt.

The rate of ice loss picked up again during the first two weeks of August, and is now greater than average for this time of the year. A strong cyclone is moving through the Arctic, similar to one that occurred in early August 2012. Four years ago, the storm caused an accelerated loss of ice during a period when the decline in sea ice is normally slowing because the sun is setting in the Arctic. However, the current storm doesn't appear to be as strong as the 2012 cyclone and ice conditions are less vulnerable than four years ago, Meier said.

"This year is a great case study in showing how important the weather conditions are during the summer, especially in June and July, when you have 24 hours of sunlight and the sun is high in the sky in the Arctic," Meier said. "If you get the right atmospheric conditions during those two months, they can really accelerate the ice loss. If you don't, they can slow down any melting momentum you had. So our predictive ability in May of the September minimum is limited, because the sea ice cover is so sensitive to the early-to-mid-summer atmospheric conditions, and you can't foresee summer weather."

As scientists are keeping an eye on the Arctic sea ice cover, NASA is also preparing for a new method to measure the thickness of sea ice -- a difficult but key characteristic to track from orbit.

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"We have a good handle on the sea ice area change," said Thorsten Markus, Goddard's cryosphere lab chief. "We have very limited knowledge how thick it is."

Research vessels or submarines can measure ice thickness directly, and some airborne instruments have taken readings that can be used to calculate thickness. But satellites haven't been able to provide a complete look at sea ice thickness in particular during melting conditions, Markus said. The radar instruments that penetrate the snow during winter to measure thickness don't work once you add in the salty water of the melting sea ice, since the salinity interferes with the radar.

The Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2, or ICESat-2, will use lasers to try to get more complete answers of sea ice thickness. The satellite, slated to launch by 2018, will use a laser altimeter to measure the heights of Earth's surface.

In the Arctic, it will measure the elevation of the ice floes, compared to the water level. However, only about one-tenth of sea ice is above the water surface; the other nine-tenths lie below.

To estimate the entire thickness of the ice floe, researchers will need to go beyond the above-water height measurements, and perform calculations to account for factors like the snow on top of the ice and the densities of the frozen layers. Scientists are eager to see the measurements turned into data on sea ice thickness, Markus said.

"If we want to estimate mass changes of sea ice, or increased melting, we need the sea ice thickness," he said. "It's critically important to understanding the changes in the Arctic."
G proteins are molecular switches on the insides of cell membranes. They convey important signals to the inner workings of the cells. The associated receptors are targeted by all kinds of medications. Scientists at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) are now shedding light on precisely how the individual amino acids of the G protein move during the switching process. The discovered mechanism signposts new approaches to the design of new active agents.

The human body is like a huge team project. Millions of cells, structured into tissue and organs, assume various tasks and support, coordinate between and regulate each other. For this collaboration to function the cells must exchange information readily. Specific proteins regulate this communication. As "messengers" they transmit the signals they receive from the outside world to the inner workings of the cells.

A messenger and its receptor in the cross-hairs of the pharmaceutical industry

So-called G proteins form an important class of these messenger proteins. They function as tiny molecular switches: When a signaling substance attaches to a G protein coupled receptor, the so-called alpha subunit of the G protein is "switched" on. It separates from the receptor and the other subunits and activates further proteins.

This is the first stage of a signaling cascade that culminates in the desired reaction. In a whole series of diseases, the regulation of this signal cascade is faulty, which explains why over 30 percent of all manufactured medications act on G protein coupled receptors. These include beta blockers, medications against high blood pressure and psychotropic drugs. Agents that act directly on G proteins are also conceivable.

More than just a snapshot -- How exactly are the switches triggered?

Now a group of scientists led by Franz Hagn, Professor of Structural Membrane Biochemistry in the Department of Chemistry at TU Munich, has determined what precisely happens when the "switch" is flipped in an alpha subunit.

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Using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, they resolved step by step how the individual amino acids move in the alpha subunit upon activation. "This insight may help manufacturers of medications create active agents precisely geared to the individual steps, something that has been difficult hitherto," says Franz Hagn.

G proteins investigated in natural state for first time

In their work, Hagn's researchers were, for the first time, able to observe the movements of G protein alpha subunits in their natural environment, i.e. bound to a cell membrane. This is very difficult since membrane proteins are not soluble. But, it is a prerequisite for solution NMR spectroscopic investigations.

The scientists overcame this hurdle to investigating the G proteins by developing small membrane patches in which lipid binding proteins shielded the water-repelling edges. They then placed the G protein coupled receptors into theses phospholipid nanodiscs and examined the interactions with the soluble G protein.

The researchers determined that the receptor-bound form of the alpha subunit is very open when in the "off" position. When the activating guanosine triphosphate (GTP) binds to the protein, it snaps shut and the switch is activated. Now, the individual parts of the subunit rest together tightly. The complex is rigid and practically unalterable, which is essential for the activation of further signal proteins.

Prerequisites for future active agent development

The development of a medication that acts directly on the G protein is still a long way off. Nonetheless, the new insight indicates that the open form of the protein is more readily accessible by active agents than the rigid, closed form.

In follow-on research, the scientists headed by Hagn hope to also investigate the influence of G protein coupled receptors on the structure of the G protein, as well as the role of other G protein subunits in the switching process. Essential for this work will be the state-of-the-art technical facilities of the Bavarian NMR Center, which will be extended by a further high-field spectrometer on the Garching campus of TU Munich in the next two years.
Neuroscientists have published in Neuron the details of a revolutionary new way of mapping the brain at the resolution of individual neurons, which they have successfully demonstrated in the mouse brain.

The new method, called MAPseq (Multiplexed Analysis of Projections by Sequencing), makes it possible in a single experiment to trace the long-range projections of large numbers of individual neurons from a specific region or regions to wherever they lead in the brain -- in experiments that are many times less expensive, labor-intensive and time-consuming than current mapping technologies allow.

Although a number of important brain-mapping projects are now under way, all of these efforts to obtain "connectomes," or wiring maps, rely upon microscopes and related optical equipment to trace the myriad thread-like projections that link neurons to other neurons, near and far. For the first time ever, MAPseq "converts the task of brain mapping into one of RNA sequencing," says its inventor, Anthony Zador, M.D., Ph.D., professor at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.

"The RNA sequences, or 'barcodes,' that we deliver to individual neurons are unmistakably unique," Zador explains, "and this enables us to determine if individual neurons, as opposed to entire regions, are tailored to specific targets."

MAPseq differs from so-called "bulk tracing" methods now in common use, in which a marker -- typically a fluorescent protein -- is expressed by neurons and carried along their axons. Such markers are good at determining all of the regions where neurons in the source region project to, but they cannot tell scientists that any two neurons in the source region project to the same region, to different regions, or to some of the same regions, and some different ones. That inability to resolve a neuron's axonal destinations, cell by cell in a given region, is what motivated Zador to come up with a new technique.

One way of explaining the advantage of MAPseq over bulk tracing methods is to imagine being at an international airport, with the intention of getting on a flight to, say, Germany. "If you go to the international terminal, you see a long line of ticket counters," Zador explains. "If you want to go to Germany, it's not enough to take any airline at the international terminal. If you stand in line at the counter for Air Chile, you're probably not going to be able to buy a ticket for Germany."

"Those many airlines whose counters are adjacent serve many destinations, some of which overlap, some of which are unique. You can print out a map showing all of the foreign countries that all of the airlines serve from your airport, but that doesn't tell you anything at all about individual airlines and where they go. This is the difference between current labeling methods and MAPseq. The 'individual airlines' in my example are adjacent neurons in a part of the brain whose 'routes' we want to trace."

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Zador and his team, including Justus Kebschull, a graduate student in his lab who is first author on the Neuron paper introducing the new method, have spent several years working out a technology that enables them to assign unique barcode-like identifiers to large numbers of individual neurons via a single injection in any brain region of interest. Each injection consists of a deactivated virus that has been engineered to contain massive pools of individually unique RNA molecules, each of whose sequence -- consisting of 30 "letters," or nucleotides -- is taken up by single neurons. Thirty letters yields many, many times more barcode sequences (1018) than there are neurons in either the mouse or human brain, so this method is especially well suited to the massive complexity problem that brain mapping presents.

An injection into a "source" region of the brain contains a viral library encoding a diverse collection of barcode sequences, which are hitched to an engineered protein that is designed to carry the barcode along axonal pathways. The barcode RNA is expressed at high levels and transported into the terminals of axons in the source region where the injection is made. In each neuron, it travels to the point where the axon forms a synapse with a projection from another neuron. Tests show that the technology works -- the barcodes travel reliably and evenly throughout the brain, along the "trunklines" that are the axons, and out to the "branch points" where synapses form.

About two days after one or more injections are made in a region of interest, the brain is dissected and RNA is collected and sequenced. RNA barcodes in the "source" area are now matched with the same barcodes collected in distant parts of the brain.

"Sequencing the RNA is a highly efficient, automated process, which makes MAPseq such a potentially radical tool," Kebschull says. "In addition to the speed and economy of RNA sequencing, it has the great advantage of making it possible for researchers to distinguish between individual neurons within the same region that project to different parts of the brain."

To demonstrate MAPseq's capabilities, Zador's team injected a part of the mouse brain called the locus coeruleus (LC), located in the brain stem. It is the cortex's sole source of noradrenaline, a hormone that signals surprise. Zador's team used MAPseq to address an old question: does the "surprise" signal get broadcast everywhere in the cortex, or only to particular places, where, perhaps, it is most needed or relevant?

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In their demonstration experiment, only RNA that ended up in the cortex or olfactory bulb was sequenced, along with that of the source region in the LC where the barcodes were originally injected. The team divided the cortex into 22 slices, each about 300 microns thick, and dissected the slices. The results were exciting to the team.

"We found that neurons in the LC have a variety of idiosyncratic projection patterns," Zador says. "Some neurons project almost exclusively to a single preferred target in the cortex or olfactory bulb. Other neurons project more broadly, although weakly."

These results, he adds, "are consistent with, and reconcile, previous seemingly contradictory results about LC projections." The surprise signal can reach most parts of the brain, but there are very specific parts of the brain where the signal is especially focused.

The team showed that results could be obtained in experiments based on one injection in the LC, and also two injections, on opposite sides. Already in progress are experiments in which the entire cortex is being "tiled" with injections. It is hoped this will yield the first connectome of the entire cortex at single-neuron resolution.

"Once we automate the process of using many injections, we think this kind of experiment can be completed by a single person in just a week or two, and at a cost of only a few thousand dollars," Zador says. "We are very keen on being able to do these kind of studies in a single animal, which will eliminate the past problem of injecting multiple animals to trace multiple neurons, a method that requires one to make a single map based on many brains, each of which is somewhat different."

Zador's next goal with MAPseq is to map the brains of animals that model various neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric illnesses, to see how gene mutations strongly associated with causality alter the structure of brain circuits, and thus, presumably, brain function.
FULL STORY

There are as many motives as there are undergraduates taking introductory science courses, but if you look closely at groups of freshmen science students such as those from underrepresented minority (URM) backgrounds, you can see striking motivational differences across and within these groups. That's a major finding in a new survey of 249 freshmen by psychology researchers in California. The researchers found that those who entered undergraduate science studies with a strong belief that science could help members of their communities were more likely to identify as being scientists over time. But this held true only for URM first-generation college students, that is, URM freshmen who were first in their families to enroll at the college level. Students from all groups were highly motivated by traditional science values, such as curiosity and passion for discovery. But this "prosocial" outlook, say the researchers, was also a prime motivator for URM first-generation students' desire to pursue science careers. Yet looking across all URM science students, combining first-generation students with those from families with college or higher educational backgrounds, the researchers found a greater connection between broader prosocial goals and their reasons for pursuing a science degree or career. Seeing opportunities to fulfill these prosocial goals can be more important for URM students in science fields than for students who are traditionally well-represented.

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These are among the findings of a new study of URM student motivation just published in the journal CBE-Life Sciences Education (LSE), by psychology researchers Matthew C. Jackson, Gino Galvez, and Isidro Landa, plus organic chemist Paul Buonora at California State University, Long Beach, and psychologist Dustin B. Thomas at San Diego State University. These findings, say the authors, demonstrate that all students, even within a definable subgroup, can have differing motives and career ideals. Taking these "intersectional identities" into account, the researchers say, undergraduate science educators should pay attention to culturally connected career motives within URM communities to "make science matter" to them. Published by the American Society for Cell Biology, LSE is an open-access journal fostering excellence in life science education through peer-reviewed education research and evidence-based teaching. The special issue on broadening participation was edited by Kenneth Gibbs, Program Analyst at the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, National Institutes of Health, in Bethesda, MD, and Pat Marsteller, Department of Biology at Emory University in Atlanta, GA. All the research papers published in this issue, say the editors, are aimed at promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in "a vibrant scientific enterprise that continues to harness the contributions of those from traditionally well-represented backgrounds while fostering full participation and engagement of those from other backgrounds (e.g., women, racial and ethnic minorities, people with disabilities, sexual and gender minorities, first-generation students, those from low-income backgrounds, etc.)."

make a difference: sponsored opportunity

Story Source: Materials provided by American Society for Cell Biology. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference: Matthew C. Jackson, Gino Galvez, Isidro Landa, Paul Buonora, and Dustin B. Thoman. Science That Matters: The Importance of a Cultural Connection in Underrepresented Students Science Pursuit. CBE-Life Sciences Education, August 2016 DOI: 10.1187/cbe.16-01-0067
On Thanksgiving Day in 2013, solar scientists, astronomers, and amateur skywatchers alike pointed their instruments at the Sun and waited.

Comet ISON, a bright ball of frozen matter from the earliest days of the universe, was inbound from the Oort Cloud at the edge of the solar system and expected to pierce the Sun's corona on Nov. 28. Scientists were expecting quite a show.

But instead of a brilliant cosmic display, there was  nothing.

"The first thing we did was make sure that we had definitely seen nothing," said Paul Bryans, a solar scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), who was looking for the comet using NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory. "We did image processing just to make sure nothing was there, and it wasn't. But that's not necessarily a boring result. That can tell us something."

And it has. Bryans and colleague Dean Pesnell, of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, recently published a study that sheds light on the mystery of Comet ISON.

"We think that the most likely thing that happened is that Comet ISON broke up before it got really close to the Sun," said Bryans, a researcher at NCAR's High Altitude Observatory.

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Solar scientists, like Bryans, are interested in comets like ISON because they can act as probes into the mysterious solar corona. How they behave on their journey past the Sun can offer insight into the corona's composition and the behavior of the Sun's magnetic field.

Watching and Waiting

Sun-grazing comets are not that unusual, but they're usually too small to live through the encounter. Larger comets, like Comet Lovejoy, which sailed through the Sun's corona in December 2011, can survive brushes with the Sun. But they burn off a large part of their masses in the process, sometimes leaving a dazzling trail of extreme ultraviolet emissions in their wake.

Comet ISON, first spotted more than a year before it reached the Sun, was thought to be large enough to survive the trip. The comet was very bright, a sign that it might also be quite large.

When NASA observatories failed to see a showy trail from Comet ISON -- or any trail at all -- scientists were left wondering what happened. In a study published in 2014, researchers hypothesized that Comet ISON did not emit the extreme ultraviolet radiation like Comet Lovejoy because ISON passed further away from the Sun.

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In the new study, published in The Astrophysical Journal, Bryans and Pesnell challenge those conclusions. Using data collected by the Solar Dynamics Observatory, the researchers compared ISON to Lovejoy, systematically evaluating how the conditions might have differed for the two comets -- including the density of the solar atmosphere, the Sun's magnetic field, and the size of the comets -- as well as how those differences might have affected the comets' emissions of extreme ultraviolet radiation.

"Using Lovejoy as a benchmark, we took each factor in turn," Bryans said. "The fact that ISON was further away from the Sun than Lovejoy would have made a difference, but it was not a large enough difference to explain why we saw nothing from ISON."

Instead, the study finds that ISON's fizzle is best explained by the comet's size. They estimate that IOSN's radius was at least a factor of four smaller than Lovejoy's.

'Dust and Rubble'

If Bryans and Pesnell are correct, it means that estimates of Comet ISON's size before it reached the Sun were too large. Comet size is correlated to brightness, but other factors can affect brightness as well.

In ISON's case, scientists believe the comet was making its first trip around the Sun, which means that it was still packed with highly volatile matter that had not yet burned off. This matter could make the comet appear brighter for its size than a comet that had already traveled once past the Sun.

"On a comet's first passage past the sun, it has all this cold, icy stuff on the outside of it that burns off easily and looks really bright," Bryans said.

But even if the comet was bright because of its size, the scientists believe it's likely that the comet broke into pieces before entering the Sun's corona.

"It's possible by the time it made its closest approach to the Sun, it was just a pile of dust and rubble," Bryans said.
By PTI: Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 19 (PTI) In a serious case of medical negligence, a towel clip was inadvertently left inside the abdomen of a 45-year-old woman, who underwent a uterus surgery in a taluk hospital at nearby Nedumangad.

The lapse came to light after the surgery yesterday morning when it was found that one of the towel clips was missing. The woman was subjected to an x-ray examination immediately and the clip was found inside her stomach. The woman, Laila Beevi, from nearby Tholikkode, was subjected to an emergency surgery in the night at the government medical college hospital for removal of the clip, hospital sources said.

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The condition of the patient is stable now, they said.

Meanwhile, state Health Minister K K Shylaja today ordered the Health Director to conduct an enquiry into the incident and take strict action against the erring medical staff at the taluk hospital. PTI LGK UD APR SRY

--- ENDS ---
You just received the promotion you have worked so hard for, but you overhear a co-worker say that you got it because the boss only gives the easy projects to you while the hard ones are dumped on everyone else. Some of your envious co-workers come to congratulate you with the aim of being seen with you for reputational benefits, but some others may be less kind in their response.

While these overt signs of envy can often be received badly, University of Cincinnati Lindner College of Business research indicates that how that envy is perceived and attributed by the envied person makes all the difference in how it is handled.

"Envy is common in the workplace and generally occurs when a co-worker receives valuable accolades such as promotions, awards, benefits, high-profile assignments, expense accounts and even better office chairs," says Harshad Puranik, third-year UC doctoral student in the College of Business. "Any situation which leads individuals to make social comparisons that highlight differences in how they are treated can potentially lead to envy."

In their theoretical paper titled, "They Want What I've Got: The Role of Self-Esteem and Attribution in Determining Responses to Coworker Envy," presented at the 76th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management in August in Anaheim, California, Puranik, along with his mentors, Heather Vough and Joel Koopman, both assistant professors of business at UC, and fellow collaborator Daniel Gamache from University of Georgia theorize about how envied employees are likely to respond to the behaviors of their envious coworkers.

"While the research to date focuses primarily on the person who is envious, we, in contrast, suggest that envy occurs in an interpersonal context and it is also important to understand how the recipient responds to being envied," says Vough. "Our theory paper primarily focuses on when and why envied employees are likely to realize that they are being envied."

"What we learn from using self-regulation theory is that self-esteem is important," says Puranik. "The trait self-esteem of the envied employee is an important component that will determine whether they are able to recognize the behaviors of their co-workers as being caused by envy or not and this will subsequently determine their behavioral response."

Is it envy or am I great?

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According to Vough, in hostile or social undermining conditions, people with higher self-esteem are more likely to ask, 'Why would this person do these things to me, I'm great.' In their search for answers, they may determine that envy is the cause of the negative treatment. Individuals with low self-esteem, in contrast, may accept hostile behaviors because that is how they expect to be treated by others.

On the flipside, when individuals receive positive treatment, such as compliments and opportunities for future collaborations, those with low self-esteem may become suspicious and wonder why someone is treating them in an unexpected way. When individuals with high self-esteem receive positive treatment, however, that behavior is self-confirming and does not require further elaboration.

Not stopping there, the researchers take their theory one step further and track how the envied person picks up on the envy and responds.

"What I find interesting is how we can have this negative behavior toward a person, but whether they attribute it to envy or not makes a difference in their response," says Vough. "Normally, when we see negative behaviors by an envious person, we expect a negative response back toward them, but if the envy attribution is made, it flips that and elicits a more positive response by the envied employee.

"Alternately, we expect people to respond positively toward positive behaviors aimed at them."

In their study model, the researchers predict, perhaps counterintuitively, that when individuals believe others are acting positively toward them due to envy, they will actually try to retreat from the relationship because they fear they are being used by the other person.

Puranik says the level of trait self-esteem of the envied person is the important component that will determine whether they are able to recognize these behaviors from envy and that will subsequently determine how they respond.

The researchers hope to inspire further studies looking at ways to enhance workplace relationships that foster more productive teamwork.
Watching a co-worker get the extra respect and attention from a supervisor that you feel you deserve can leave you feeling envious. The more that envy increases the more you can become what researchers refer to as "ego depleted" -- a general lack of the personal resources you need to focus on and complete daily tasks.

In a recent University of Cincinnati Lindner College of Business study, Joel Koopman, UC assistant professor of management, looked at envy in the workplace. Koopman's research found a strong link between an employee's feelings of envy after they perceive a supervisor has treated them worse relative to their co-workers and the length of time by which they process this information.

Koopman refers to this phenomenon as a person's level of "epistemic motivation" (EM) -- the desire to process information thoroughly and grasp the meaning behind a particular situation. Some people are low in epistemic motivation and tend to generalize events into categories that can be easily explained and ignored, but those same people are not as skillful at solving novel problems in a creative environment.

On the contrary, Koopman says people high in such motivation are more sensitive to nuance and devote more time to processing new information as it comes in. In the case of envy, that skill can come at a cost.

"Research has shown that most creative working environments -- ones that require a strong ability to negotiate and attend to detail -- value employees who have a high level of epistemic motivation," says Koopman. "But that same ability to process new information for creative output also tends to show its dark side when envy comes into play."

He found that negative feelings were carried home with the envious, went to bed with them, woke up with them and stuck with them into the following day, ultimately wasting valuable time and productivity.

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Koopman presented a paper on this topic at the 76th annual meeting of the Academy of Management (AOM) in August in Anaheim, California. His paper, titled, "My Coworkers are Treated Fairer than Me! The Depleting Effects of Justice Social Comparison Perceptions and Envy," looked at what happens when an employee feels they are treated worse than their co-workers and how they process those feelings of envy.

"In a whirling spiral, the more energy they expend on processing the injustice, the less their resources are, and they become less likely to help others in the office," Koopman adds. "This cycle can build to the point that tremendous time and energy is wasted on simply processing negative emotions, leaving critical work projects to flounder until resolutions are achieved."

Green-Eyed Monsters Devour Precious Time

Reviewing prior research on behaviors in the workplace, Koopman found that supervisors treat employees differently primarily because of who they like and feel are the most trustworthy. This becomes a problem when employees are aware of this differential treatment, which then drives the envy.

Koopman shows that while employees are concerned with their treatment by an authority, they are equally concerned with that treatment relative to others in their workgroup. But regarding the consequences for those employees when they notice this differential treatment, Koopman says that's what they really don't know yet.

To capture a snapshot of "unfair justice social comparisons" from the vantage point of the employee, Koopman tested a group of participants with two surveys per day for 15 workdays, each day asking the participants how fairly they had been treated by their supervisor relative to their co-workers.

The survey measured for the possible experience of envy immediately, and then how that envy persisted into the next day. Koopman's study showed that during such a response, the length of that envy response affected the employee's willingness to help co-workers with their tasks and were less likely to listen to personal problems.

"This is significant because the workers who are valuable for problem-solving, skilled negotiating and finding timely solutions are also the ones who ruminate longer over processing the social injustice and envy they feel," says Koopman. "This resulted in a higher degree of ego depletion and negatively affected their overall productivity.

"Future research looking at solving the risk and benefits of workplace coping mechanisms can be key for maintaining a happy balance at work."
Bay of Plentys tourism industry could benefit from Government funding that boosts regional tourism businesses and infrastructure, says MPs Simon Bridges and Todd Muller.

The Tauranga and Bay of Plenty MPs are encouraging local tourism providers to apply for Government funding which is aimed at boosting tourism in New Zealand.

A total of $4 million from the Tourism Growth Partnership fund has been set aside for regional tourism projects, while the Governments annual $3m Regional Mid-sized Tourism Facilities Grant Fund is also now open for applications.

Simon says tourism in Tauranga and the wider Bay of Plenty is booming, and last year there were more than 207,000 international guest nights in the Western Bay and 3.1 million in the Bay of Plenty, with more than $744 million spent by visitors.

People are coming from across New Zealand and around the world to experience some of the amazing attractions and experiences we have on offer, says Simon.

These visitors boost the local economy, help create local jobs and provide endless opportunities for our great hospitality businesses.

But Simon adds its vital the region ensures growing visitor numbers are managed sustainably and that our region has the capacity to continue reaping the benefits of tourism.

This funding is an important part of supporting this, he says.

The Regional Mid-sized Tourism Facilities Grant Fund helps manage the growing demand from tourists by providing communities with new or enhanced smaller infrastructure such as carparks and restrooms.

The TGP is a joint-funding partnership between the Government and the private sector to increase the value of existing tourism projects or to get new projects underway.

Todd says tourism providers in the Bay of Plenty were doing a great job but there is always opportunities to improve.

Together, these programmes help regional tourist centres maximise their tourism potential, so I urge communities and tourist operators throughout Tauranga and the Bay of Plenty to find out more information.

Its great to see the Government continuing to support tourism in New Zealand. Since 2008, we have invested an unprecedented $700 million in tourism and tourism promotion.

This is helping fuel rapid growth in the sector. A record 3.34 million visitors came to New Zealand in the year ending July 2016, and spent an all-time high of $10.3 billion, says Todd.

Visit the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employments website for more information about applying for the Regional Mid-sized Tourism Facilities Grant Fund or the Tourism Growth Partnership.



Tauranga MP Simon Bridges and Bay of Plenty MP Todd Muller. File Photo.
The loyalty of a faithful dog is rarely tested beyond the daily companionship they so sweetly offer to the people who love them. But the recent heroism of one courageous pup proves yet again their love runs far deeper still. He literally laid down his life to save a little girl who mattered more to him than anything else.

Dodo Shows Faith = Restored Couple Meets A Beach Dog In Mexico Who Changes Their Life

It all began earlier this week, when a fire broke out in the Baltimore, Maryland, home shared by Erika Poremski, her 8-month-old daughter Viviana and their dog, Polo. Erika had just stepped out to her car moments before the blaze began. She then raced back inside to rescue Vivian on the 2nd floor, but was held at bay by the fast-moving flames. "I just heard her crying and i couldn't get to her," Poremski, who suffered burns in the process, told WBAL. "I tried really hard, everyone in the neighborhood tried. They were kicking the doors in and kicking the windows out. I couldn't (get her out). Nobody could." Fortunately, the trapped child still had a protector - Polo.

Baltimore City Fire Department

First responders from the Baltimore City Fire Department were quick to arrive, after which they learned of Vivian and rushed in to save her. That's when they found her, injured but alive. Alongside her was Polo. He had laid on top of her to shield her from the flames with his own body. "She only had burns on her side because of it," Poremski told the news station. "He stayed with her the whole time in the bedroom and wouldn't even come downstairs to get out the door."

Via WBAL

Sadly, in the end, Polo could not be saved. Thanks to his incredible commitment to protecting Vivian, however, her life was spared. Indeed, he died a hero - joining the hallowed ranks of other pets who've saved human lives.

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CARMEL VALLEY, CALIF.-It figures that Nissan would be playing country music before the press conference describing their new Titan pickup truck.

Pickups are as Amurrican as, well, country music.

And it is one market segment where the Japanese brands havent made anywhere near the inroads they have in virtually every other segment.

The 2017 Titan half-ton, as it is unofficially known internally, is in effect the second half of Nissans second shot in this game.

The original Titan in 2003 pretty much went unnoticed.

Following a stillborn joint venture with Chrysler, the second attempt, the Titan XD, launched earlier this year. It is a heavy-duty unit, featuring a V8 diesel engine from the well-regarded Cummins company.

Now comes the half-ton, a multi-purpose truck aimed at commercial, recreational and tow-oriented costumers.

Andrew Harkness, manager of truck marketing for Nissan Canada, figures the two models now cover about 85 per cent of the Canadian pickup market.

The half-ton is quite different from the XD. The bigger trucks chassis is based on a large Nissan commercial van, while the half-tons is a development of the original Titan.

While the two dont share much sheet metal, they do have a similar look, with what Harkness refers to as a bad-ass front end.

The half-ton launches this month as a crew-cab, starting at $44,650. Now, pricing trucks is a full-time job, one I dont really have much experience with. But a quick peek at the Internet suggests that against similarly equipped competition, thats in the ballpark.

A single-cab model follows a bit later, and a King Cab arrives in 2017.

Box lengths of 5 , 6  and 8 feet are available, depending on cab configuration and trim level.

Two engines will be offered. Initially, you get an up-rated version of the corporate 5.6-litre V8, now with 390 horsepower, 20 more than before, and a higher, broader torque curve, peaking at 394 pound-feet at 4,000 r.p.m.

Next year, a V6 will join the engine program.

But the biggest contributor to the new trucks better performance and markedly better fuel consumption is probably the seven-speed automatic transmission, versus the previous five-speed.

Both rear- and four-wheel drive will be offered.

Quietness was a focal point, which brings hydraulic chassis mounts at the rear of the cab to isolate riders from vibration and road noise  up to 10 db, which is a lot!  plus laminated glass on the front-side windows, and improved insulation for the engine and body apertures.

Harkness also referred to confident handling, which brings hydraulic power steering for better road feel, and Bilstein dampers front and rear on the upper trim levels.

Towing capacity is a big deal for truckers. Maybe like top speed for Porsche owners, they might never use it all, but its nice to know its there.

Harkness claims class-leading base truck towing capacity of over 9,000 pounds (4,082.3 kilograms). Most domestic pick-me-ups can get there, but you have to option them out.

The box has a lot of the clever features introduced on the XD, including LED lamps under the bed rail instead of up on the back of the cab, where the light is often obscured by the load.

A variety of bed channels and tie-downs is available, and the lift-assist and damping functions for the tailgate are standard.

The removable, lockable and waterproof Titan box answers the age-old truckers question  where do you put dirty stuff so its safe and wont mess up the interior?

Said interior, incidentally, is very well-finished in Titan. The so-called zero gravity front seats offer excellent comfort and support, and theres plenty of room in the back seat of the crew cabs that were on test at this preview.

Virtually all the connectivity functionality most people could want and/or need is standard or available.

Unique to Nissan in this class is the clever Around View monitor, a set of cameras which gives you a birds-eye view of your surroundings. Especially useful when trying to hitch up a trailer.

A 100 km spin on two-lane blacktop in the brush-fire-ravaged Carmel Valley area and a short but pretty tough off-road course could hardly be sufficient to evaluate every aspect of Titans performance. No 9,000-pound boats to tow and launch!

Still, safe to say that the truck rides and handles very well for a big truck, performance is excellent, the transmission shifts unobtrusively, it is impressively quiet, and if its four-wheel drive, off-road capability cant get you where you want to go, you shouldnt be wanting to go there.

But Harkness and his team know that it isnt enough to build a competitive truck. It might not even be enough to build a better truck.

Truck buyers are the most brand-loyal in the business, and to even get on their radar screens, you have to offer something totally beyond what the competition offers.

Nissan thinks they have just that  the best truck warranty in Canada: five-year, 160,000 km bumper-to-bumper coverage.

Particularly for the commercial vehicle owner who really cant afford big repairs to his vehicles, this might just be the factor that gets them to take a look.

Im guessing that once he or she does, theyll like what they see.

PRINT FACT BOX:

Nissan Titan Crew Cab: Four doors, five/six passengers, full-size pickup truck, rear/four wheel drive.

PRICE: S  $44,650;SV  $48,150; PRO-4X  $57,100; SL  $62,050; Platinum Reserve  $65,800.

ENGINE: 5.6-litre V8, double overhead camshafts, four valves per cylinder, variable valve timing, direct injection.

POWER/TORQUE: horsepower / lb-ft: 390 @ 5,800 / 394 @ 4,000.

FUEL CONSUMPTION: Transport Canada City/Highway, l/100 km: n/a.

COMPETITION: Chevrolet Silverado, Ford F-Series, GMC Sierra, Ram, Toyota Tundra.

WHATS BEST: Well-featured, nice riding/handling balance, quiet interior; best warranty (5 years / 160,000 km bumper-to-bumper) in the class.

WHATS WORST: Only one engine option at the moment (more coming soon).

WHATS INTERESTING: Can it prove itself against very tough competition?

***

TABLET FACT BOX:

Nissan Titan Crew Cab: Four doors, five/six passengers, full-size pickup truck, rear/four wheel drive

Price: base  $44.650; fully equipped  $65,800

Engine: 5.6 litre V8, double overhead camshafts, four valves per cylinder, variable valve timing, direct injection.

Power/torque: horsepower / lb.-ft: 390 @ 5,800 / 394 @ 4,000.

TRANSMISSION: 7-speed automatic

Transport Canada Fuel Consumption City / Highway (L/100 km): n/a.

Whats hot: Handsome inside and out; well-featured; smooth, quiet ride; good handling; best warranty in the class.

Whats not: Only one engine option and body configuration at launch (more coming soon).

Score: 8 / 10

Weblink: http://www.nissan.ca/en/future-and-concept-vehicles/2017-titan/

Competitors (two): Ford F-Series; Chevrolet Silverado/GMC Sierra

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Wednesday was a good day for Dave Epp.

The tomato farmer was at the Highbury Canco growers field day, the harvest kickoff for the tomato season. Its an old Heinz tradition and one that Highbury has now taken up, hosting a barbecue for the 20-some southwestern Ontario growers who will start delivering their tomatoes to the processing plant on Monday. There was lots of discussion about new tomato varieties being tested, viscosity, flavour, field yield, that sort of thing. Its a nice tradition, Epp says.

The capper was the late afternoon news that Ontario Agriculture Minister Jeff Leal is calling a halt, pending thorough discussion and analysis, to a plan to amend a key regulation of the Farm Products Marketing Act. Epp has been up in arms about the proposed change, which would remove the negotiating authority of the Ontario Processing Vegetable Growers in favour of a free market system.

Epp feared that local farmers could get squashed if the change went through with the balance of power shifting to large processors. He cautioned that Ontario could end up like Australia, where the number of tomato farmers collapsed to a handful after a similar change. Collective bargaining has since been returned to Aussie tomato farmers.

What really galled Epp was the lack of transparency around the whole affair and questioned what amount of research the Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission had undertaken to support its regulatory change, which was filed in June. The comment period closed a week ago.

Commission chair Geri Kamenz has maintained a stony silence. What analysis went into the policy proposal? Not a word.

Well thats about to change. In a dressing-down directive to the commission, Leal notes that concerns have been raised about an apparent lack of both adequate and sufficient information and consultation with interested parties.. . . Without a more open and transparent dialogue on this proposal, it is not clear to me how it may serve the broad policy objectives of the Government of Ontario.

This is about engagement for a very important sector of Ontarios agriculture and agri-food industry, Leal said in an interview, later adding that there are 52,000 family farms in the province. So this really is a partnership between producers, processors and ultimately the consumers of Ontario who appreciate high quality food on their table each and every day.

Partnership isnt the first word that comes to mind when considering the commissions agenda. Leal has ordered the commission to produce a thorough economic analysis of the proposal and has stipulated that information be posted on the provincial regulatory registry for a minimum 60 days and that such information be sufficiently detailed so that any policy and economic objectives are clearly articulated. We want to make sure that going forward we have robust engagement and consultation with interested parties and stakeholders, he says.

This is all good. At least therell be some due process, Epp says, expressing relief that something isnt going to get jammed through here.

Heres an important statistic: The agri-food sector accounts for one in every nine jobs in the province. And Leal reminds that Premier Kathleen Wynne set an audacious goal of creating 120,000 new jobs in the sector by the year 2020. It was in support of the premiers agri-food challenge that the commission pursued modernizing how prices between growers and processors are established or negotiated by replacing the marketing board with an advisory committee.

True, it is the commissions job to develop policy related to regulated marketing in Ontario. But it is also the commissions mandate to uphold the public trust as it exercises its duties and as Leals directive makes clear this process has been neither collaborative nor consultative.

Nor well timed. This is prime time in terms of agricultural activity in the province of Ontario, Leal says.

Few know that better than Dave Epp.

Or Sam Diab, president and CEO at Highbury Canco. As a processor, Diab wont weigh in on the current dispute except to say that its important to look at things all the time and make sure they are progressive.

Theres change and then theres thoughtful change. Dave Epp hopes that the new open environment will mean that we all come out of this stronger. Diab emphasizes that Highburys relationship with its growers is extremely strong, theyre partners of ours. . . Its paramount for us from a social, personal and community perspective that that relationship stays strong.

In the meantime, its tomato season, starting now. Everybody is getting geared up here for five or six weeks of long hours and hard days, Diab says of the harvest.

Dave Epp is hoping for dry weather, not too hot. Weve got a lot of fruit ready to go, he says.

jenwells@thestar.ca

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At dinner the other night, I tossed out a question to the table. What, I asked, is your biggest financial concern?

I expected a range of answers, from the weak economy to Brexit to the value of the loonie. But none of those were top of mind with my friends. The number one concern at the table was: how should I manage my money? Not how should I invest it but how should I look after it?

I just dont have any time, one young professional said. I get monthly reports and I set them aside to look at but then I never get around to it and before I know it another one has arrived.

Everyone at the table nodded. To a greater or lesser degree, they all had the same problem. Were all deluged by paper  whatever happened to the paperless society?  and we dont have time to digest it all, even when our financial futures are involved.

The folks at the table werent millionaires. But they all had various government-sponsored savings plans: RRSPs, Tax-Free Savings Accounts, Registered Education Savings Plans, etc. They had invested a lot of hard-earned money in them and they wanted the plans to do well. They were frustrated at not being able to devote time to achieve that.

Whats the solution to this situation? Here are three suggestions.

Make the time. Life is a series of priorities. Every day when we wake up, there are a number of things that need to be done. It may be getting the kids to school, calling the plumber, attending an exercise class, going shopping, whatever. We prioritize the days activities and get started.

If youre truly concerned about your money, it needs to go to the top of your daily priority list at least twice a year and preferably once every three months. Thats not a major time commitment when you consider whats at stake.

Block out at least two hours on the designated days to go over all your financial statements. Review your family budget and check your bank account. See if your RRSP is performing to the standard you expect. If its not, take action. Sell some securities and replace them with others you think will do better.

If you have to skip a couple of hours of TV to fit it in, do it. Whats more important?

Use a robo-advisor. Sorry, you may be thinking. I just cant fit it in and anyway when I look at all those numbers my brain freezes. I cant figure out if my RRSP is doing well or poorly and if its not going well I wouldnt know how to fix it.

Well, maybe you need a robo-advisor. These are on-line advisory services that invest your money in exchange-traded funds (ETFs) based on your goals and risk tolerance level. The company monitors the account on an ongoing basis and rebalances the portfolio when indicated. Robo-advisors are very new so we have little performance history. But many people are attracted by their low cost, minimal investment requirements, and ease of monitoring.

There are about a dozen firms in Canada that offer this service, with more coming on stream all the time. Most of these companies arent well known but at least one major financial institution, Bank of Montreal, has entered the field with its BMO SmartFolio service. You can open an account with a minimum of $5,000. Fees vary based on the amount invested: a $50,000 account would cost you $350 a year (0.7 per cent). All you need to do is decide how much to invest and track your progress online through any device BMO says on its website.

Use a professional manager. If you have a significant amount of money and want more personalized attention, hire a professional money manager to look after your account. He/she will make all the investment decisions on your behalf, moving the money around according to market conditions. You should receive a monthly financial statement plus periodic reports outlining what actions the manager is taking and explaining her/his investment approach.

This is a more expensive approach than using a robo-advisor. The fee will be based on the amount of money you have to invest but will probably be in the range of one to two per cent annually. The trade-off is more attention to your account details and exposure to a much broader range of securities than ETFs. Providing you find the right manager, this is the best approach for people with a reasonable amount of cash and little time or knowledge to look after it.

Gordon Pape is editor and publisher of the Internet Wealth Builder and Income Investor newsletters. His website is www.BuildingWealth.ca

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Bolivias administrative capital La Paz is a gloriously gritty metropolis. Here are six fantastic ways to get under the skin of this fascinating city.

1. Sign up for a Red Cap walking tour

Red Cap Walking Tours (www.redcapwalkingtours.com ) are guided excursions led by passionate locals. Prices start from just $4 (Canadian), and in addition to the tour, which takes in the citys main attractions, there are pub crawls and food-themed excursions. The original walking tour is the most popular choice  youll learn about the citys history, visit its food markets and find out about La Pazs oldest buildings.

2. Visit the Witches Market

In Bolivia, its believed that burying a llama fetus under the foundations of your home brings good luck, and the Witches Market is where locals go to stock up. Youll also find a huge selection of weird and wonderful potions and talismans, ranging from powders designed to increase fertility to prosperity-boosting herbal concoctions.

3. Check into Bolivias first Design Hotel

In 2016, La Paz gets its first Design Hotel-branded hotel. The five-star Hotel Atix (atixhotel.com) will open in the southern part of the city in September, and its also where youll find Gustu (gustubo.restaurantgustu.com), the restaurant opened by Claus Meyer, the man behind Copenhagens world-renowned Noma restaurant. Food is delicious and imaginative with a Bolivian twist, and theres a fantastic tasting menu that can be paired with Bolivian wines.

4. Take the cable car to El Alto

In 2014, the worlds longest urban cable car opened in La Paz, connecting the city centre with El Alto, a satellite mountaintop town high above the city. Austrian firm Doppelmayr, a name youre more likely to come across in Europes top ski resorts, built the lift. Once youve soared up to El Alto, head to its enormous market  its one of South Americas largest and theres nothing you cant buy here.

5. Wander around a cemetery

In Bolivia, bodies are buried or placed in a crypt. Within 10 years, the remains are then transferred to a cemetery and placed in individual spaces. La Pazs maze-like cemetery is enormous, and although its in an area best avoided at night, its definitely worth a visit. The remains are placed behind glass-fronted spaces that contain trinkets and mementoes left by loved ones. Youll see battered action figures and packets of sweets left by bereaved parents, while other units contain faded photographs or miniature bottles of the deceaseds favourite drink.

6. Chill out in the citys squares

La Paz has some beautiful plazas. In the beautiful, pigeon-filled Plaza Murillo (where a bag of bird feed costs just a few cents) youll find the citys most important government buildings, including the Presidential Palace and the National Congress of Bolivia. Make sure you check out the congress buildings enormous timepiece. The hands on the so-called Clock of the South move backwards. Its meant to symbolize La Pazs geographical location, mirroring the natural motion of the shadow on a sundial, which moves anti-clockwise in the southern hemisphere.

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According to Taliban group, atleast three clerics were killed in the past few days in different parts of Khyber Pakthukhwa province.

By Indo-Asian News Service: The Taliban militant group has condemned the killings of Afghan nationals in Pakistan.

Taliban claims that the slain individuals were religious clerics, Khaama press reported on Saturday.

TALIBAN CLAIMS THEY WERE REFUGEES

According to Taliban group, atleast three clerics were killed in the past few days in different parts of Khyber Pakthukhwa province.

They were identified as Mawalvi Hazrat Sahib, Mohammad Hanafi and Qari Syed Murad.

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Mujahid revealed they were refugees and called on Pakistani authorities to ensure the safety of clerics in the country and called the murders cowardly. No group has so far claimed responsibility for the killings.

PAKISTAN NOT TAKING ACTION AGAINST AFGHAN MILITANTS

This was not the first time that individual with specific links to the Taliban group have been killed in Pakistan.

This comes as Afghan officials said the Taliban group leadership as well as the notorious Haqqani terrorist network leaderships were based in Peshawar and Quetta cities.

The Afghan officials have long been criticising Pakistan for not acting against the leadership councils of the Afghan militants on its soil which they use to plan and coordinate attacks in Afghanistan.



Also Read: Taliban captures strategic district of Khanabad in north Afghan amid heavy fighting

--- ENDS ---
HAVANA, CUBA  Welcome! You are our daughter now! said Israel Sainz in the cosy living room of the second-floor apartment he shares with Maruchi Sainz in Old Havana.

Travellers looking for a fun, unique  and very Cuban  accommodation experience will find it in Havanas casa particulars.

Cubas brand of B&B came about in the late 1990s, when the Castro government began easing restrictions on private businesses. One concession was allowing Cubans to make an income renting out rooms in their homes to tourists. Now registered casa particulars are all over the country, wherever a blue upside-down anchor symbol is nailed near the door.

For around 30 Cuban Convertible Peso (CUC) or about $39 (Canadian) a night, tourists can land a private room, with breakfast usually costing an additional 5 CUC ($6.45) and served by the hosts whenever their guests want to get up.

At the Sainzs apartment, breakfast consisted of an ample serving of eggs, bread, fresh guava and pineapple, and amazing coffee.

If cost wasnt reason enough, the added bonus for travellers staying at a casa particular is the opportunity to interact with locals who can help them navigate the intricacies of everything they want to do while in Havana.

Israel provided detailed directions to every destination, estimated how much cab fares would cost, and recommended great places to eat. And like true surrogate parents, he and Maruchi even insisted on doing this writers laundry.

Of course, like everything in Havana, quality can run the gamut.

This is literally someones home, so levels of hospitality and atmosphere can vary. There are multiple casa particulars that have online information for booking in advance, such as casahabana.net.

If one is full, the owner will usually refer to a nearby alternative. Every casa particular has cards available with the name of the owner, the address and phone number.

As such, travellers pass cards around, and like anything, the best things come on recommendation. Some Cubans dont speak fluent English, though, so emailing and calling can be tricky, but its worth the effort.

Grace Lisa Scotts trip to Cuba was partially supported by G Adventures, which didnt review or approve this story.

When You Go

Israel and Maruchi Sainz, 56 Morro, Apt. 206, Old Havana, (+53) 5 829 7089

casahabana.net

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VANCOUVERThe aunt of a Syrian toddler who was shown in a haunting photo lying lifeless on a beach says the photograph this week of a bloody boy pulled from a collapsed building in Aleppo is heartbreaking, but she fears these kinds of images thwart peace efforts by adding fuel to the fire of a years-long conflict.

Tima Kurdi of Coquitlam, B.C., said Wednesdays image of a stunned and weary-looking child, coated in dust and blood and perched on an orange seat in the back of an ambulance in civil war-ravaged Aleppo, is being used in the West to garner further support for the rebels battling Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Selective reporting will prolong the bloodshed and displacement, and instead of supporting either side world leaders need to focus on organizing peace talks that prioritize ending the conflict as soon as possible, she said.

This image is the wrong message. The message should be: in the West we should talk to end the war in Syria, Kurdi said in an interview Thursday.

You cant continue like this. Youre going to see more refugees. Youre going to see more bloodshed, she added. Its been six years. Enough is enough.

Nearly a year ago, the body of Kurdis nephew Alan Kurdi was photographed face down on a Turkish beach after the boat he and his family had hired to bring them to Europe after fleeing Syria capsized on the Mediterranean Ocean.

The only member of the family to survive was the father, who lost his wife and both of his sons in the capsizing.

Kurdi said she believes the image of her two-year-old nephew is different than the photograph of the boy in Aleppo, who was identified by a local doctor as five-year-old Omran Daqneesh.

He was the wake-up call to the four or five years of silence, Kurdi said about Alans death raising the profile of the war in Syria, her voice breaking.

He was the message to wake up the people around the world. And he did, for a few months. And then everybody went back to business.

Kurdi said she doesnt support one side or the other in the Syrian conflict, but shes frustrated by what she calls the Western medias one-sided coverage of the war. The slanted reporting downplays the impact on civilians of American attacks and bolsters the Syrian rebels at the expense of peace, she said

In the West we are supporting regime change. Its a ridiculous policy, said Kurdi. We did support regime change in Iraq. Look what happened.

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MONTREALOttawa needs a more humane approach to effectively deal with terrorism cases, including court-ordered therapy for at-risk individuals and counselling  not just criminal charges  for those coming back from Syria and Iraq, according to a new report.

The recommendations are contained in an in-depth account of how a group of young Muslims from Quebec were, according to police allegations, radicalized by charismatic preachers, peer pressure and polarizing political debates, and attempted to flee the country in 2015 for the ranks of Daesh, the terror group also known as the Islamic State.

Eleven of the people who are the focus of the report  six females and five males  attended the same school, Montreals College de Maisonneuve. Four of them were among 10 stopped at the Montreal airport just before boarding a flight for Turkey, which borders Syria, police have alleged. Two others are facing criminal terrorism charges in Quebec.

But five students who disappeared in January 2015 made it to Syria and Iraq and some of them now regret their decision and want to return home, said Benjamin Ducol, head of research for the Centre for the Prevention of Radicalization Leading to Violence, which prepared the report.

That leaves us with some issues in terms of how we are going to bring them back. Do they pose a security threat? Im sure some of them have been really traumatized by what they have seen and what they have done there, he said.

The report, which was commissioned by College de Maisonneuve, is based on interviews with family, friends and acquaintances of the students, as well as officials at the school.

The report estimates that up to 250 Canadians have travelled to Syria and Iraq, including up to 30 from Quebec.

Some may want to return because of remorse or family pressures, disillusionment with life in a war zone, fear of injury and death, or due to more nefarious plans to conduct attacks in Canada, the report says.

But they may waver out of fears they will be arrested or killed by the groups they try to desert, or the likelihood of arrest upon their return to Canada, the report said. Others may be worried about being labelled a national security threat or having to pay back the financial debts incurred to fund their initial voyage, it read.

There must be legal consequences, the report said, but it is folly to prosecute young radicals without also trying to reason with them and offer rehabilitation.

The conviction of radicalized individuals cannot be societys end goal, it says. Our system of justice has long recognized the importance of working towards the social reintegration of offenders.

The recommendations resonate following the death of Aaron Driver, a 24-year-old Daesh sympathizer who was killed by police last week in Strathroy, Ont. The RCMP has said he had hatched a plan to carry out a terrorist attack on Canadian soil.

Driver was under a court-ordered peace bond that restricted his movements, communications and associations as a result of his prolific activity on social media promoting Daesh.

Government prosecutors had initially asked the court to force Driver to undergo religious counselling as a condition of the peace bond, but this was criticized by Drivers lawyer and others as a violation of his religious freedom and later abandoned.

In the wake of Drivers death, federal Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale has said he is considering making counselling a standard and mandatory condition of terror-related peace bonds.

The report into the Quebec cases of radicalization recommends the federal government do so as a way to protect both the radicalized individual and the Canadian public.

That needs to be part of the legal contract because radicalization that turns into actionthat happens in the head, said Herman Okomba-Deparice, the executive director of the Montreal-based centre, which offers counseling and support to individuals who have adopted an extremist outlook.

The general conditions that led to the radicalization of the young Quebecers  social exclusion at home and the promise of identity, purpose and adventure abroad  could apply to almost anyone who has been drawn in by radical Islamic propaganda, but some of the details are unique to the province of Quebec and to the east-end Montreal school that struggled to deal with the wave of attention last winter and spring, the report said.

The backdrop in Quebec was years of divisive debate over the reasonable accommodation of religious minorities and the Charter of Values, a proposal by the Parti Quebecois government of the day to ban the wearing of religious symbols by employees in the public sector, it read.

In the cases that were reviewed in the report, charismatic religious leaders, friends and acquaintancesagents of radicalization  used these debates to support their claims that Muslims were being persecuted. This planted the subtle seeds of what would eventually become a radical mindset in youth who were in search of an identity and at an impressionable age, it read.

In the school, this translated into the appropriation by some students of a non-demoninational prayer space known as The Source and reports of ideological preaching . . . dogmatic discourse and toxic discussions tinged with radicalism, the report says.

Some students that the report describes as more militant were influenced by people outside of the school community who encouraged their sense of religious victimization. Those students in turn began imposing their religious views on others, the report says.

As tensions at the school increased, the 11 students at the heart of the study began to distance themselves from others who had different views. They eventually dropped out of their classes in the middle of the term, despite being otherwise model students, the report says.

At the height of their radicalization, just before fleeing or trying to leave Canada, the report says they were motivated by the promise of living a pure Islamic life in Syria as well as the possibility of helping fellow Muslims living through war and oppression in that part of the world.

The report concludes that dealing with such cases will involve teachers, community leaders, religious officials, family members and friends acknowledging and responding to one underlying fact: That a young person undergoing radicalization is a young person in danger.

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Summer ends for the Liberals this weekend. On Sunday and Monday the cabinet meets in Sudbury for a two-day retreat. Thursday and Friday the full Liberal caucus will be in Saguenay, north of Quebec City, for two days of meetings to prepare for the autumn sitting of Parliament. Four days after that, Justin Trudeau leaves for eight days in China, a trip his office views as a high priority.

Sources say the prime minister will generally wear a shirt for this next portion of the years activities.

Trudeau has decided his cabinet will meet for two-day retreats every four months. The first was in St. Andrews, N.B., soon after he appointed his ministers. During their second retreat in Kananaskis, Alta., in April, ministers heard from Michael Wernick, the Clerk of the Privy Council, the highest-ranking civil servant. He reminded them they were one-eighth of the way to the next election. It is always handy in politics, and never automatic, to get out of the daily grind and look down the road.

Wernick added that by the end of summer, a lot more rubber would be hitting the road. The government had launched 70 consultations on just about every issue. By the autumn  now only weeks away  many would have run their course, and decisions would come due. The context for those decisions is stubbornly slow economic growth and fundamental uncertainty in the United States and the European Union.

But their two-day meeting will not be a venue for collective decisions from this cabinet. These retreats never are. Previous prime ministers have tended to use cabinet retreats to plow through large numbers of decisions over formal proposals from individual ministers or from cabinet committees, expressed in written Memoranda to cabinet, or MCs. We have actually really tried  I say tried, because sometimes we do have decisions we need to get done  but weve really tried to not make these MC-based meetings, a Trudeau adviser told me.

Instead they are mostly designed as professional-development sessions for 30 ministers who were, in most cases, not even members of Parliament before last Octobers election. At the first retreat in St. Andrews they spent two days learning the basics of program delivery under the tutelage of Sir Michael Barber, the British consultant whose books on deliverology have been highly influential in the Trudeau PMO. Whiteboards along the walls. Brainstorming sessions. The group breaking down into groups of six, then reporting back to the full group. Like something out of a Dilbert cartoon.

Sir Michael was back at Kananaskis. Deliverology has its advocates and detractors in this government, but he is said to be skilled at running a meeting. There were other new features at this second retreat. Several chiefs of staff  senior political staffers hired to run a ministers office  introduced themselves to the whole cabinet, so the minister of, say, defence would know how the guy running the finance ministers office got there. Then several deputy ministers took questions from the collected chiefs of staff, in a separate room where the staffers had their own professional-development program.

In the evening, there were parallel fireside chats with visitors  Alberta premier Rachel Notley in one room, author and consultant Dan Gardner in another  speaking informally to any ministers who wanted to attend.

This sort of thing doesnt happen in the normal course of things in Ottawa. A newly appointed minister is briefed, extensively, by departmental officials on her departments subject matter  the files and controversies that come with being minister of infrastructure or transport or whatever  but in previous governments they were usually left on their own when it came to running an office or handling a hard week. Or even to something as simple as making a phone call to a colleagues department.

These regular professional-development getaways are a feature of this Snapchat cabinet, whose members  mostly young and immersed up to here in the arcana of social media  arrived in Ottawa from nowhere last October and have had to learn the capitals odd ways together, all at once. Trudeau, his chief of staff, Katie Telford, and his principal secretary, Gerald Butts, decided early that they would not be left to learn for themselves. Its really to promote team and collaboration, the adviser who spoke to me said of the odd schedules.

I offer no warranty for this as a method of governing. Whiteboards and fireside chats dont make the economy grow faster. But they may improve cohesion, help weaker ministers learn and grow, allow stronger ones to share their secrets. Like much of what this government does, it is at least novel.

Paul Wells is a national affairs writer

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BATTLEFORD, SASK.  A judge has granted bail to a Saskatchewan farmer charged with the shooting death of an aboriginal man on his property.

The decision, which was released as the court was closing Friday in Battleford, said Gerald Stanley is to be freed on $10,000 bail.

Court of Queens Bench Justice Neil Gabrielson imposed several conditions, including that the 54-year-old Stanley remain within a six-kilometre radius of his farm and wear an electronic monitoring bracelet. He must also stay away from the Red Pheasant First Nation and have no contact with the family of the man who was killed.

Stanley is charged with second-degree murder in the death of 22-year-old Colten Boushie of the Red Pheasant reserve.

Stanley pleaded not guilty to the charge during a court appearance on Thursday. A bail hearing was held later in the day but a publication ban was placed on the details.

Boushie was killed Aug. 9 after the vehicle he was in drove onto the farm in the rural municipality of Glenside, west of Saskatoon.

Boushies cousin has said they were heading home to the reserve after an afternoon of swimming, when they got a flat tire and were looking for help.

Racial tensions flared after the killing.

First Nations leaders said an initial RCMP release about the shooting was biased, because it stated that people in the car were taken into custody as part of a theft investigation. They were released without charges.

Some comments on social media sites have also been anti-First Nation, while others have supported vigilante justice against the suspect. Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall took to Facebook last weekend to condemn the comments and called on people to rise above intolerance.

Several people railed online again after the bail decision Friday.

Adam Gaudry, an assistant professor of native studies and political science at the University of Alberta, wrote on Twitter that theres not much that inspires indigenous confidence in the justice system

I fear this is only the beginning of a justice system that will give Gerald Stanley the benefit of the doubt and put the victim on trial, he said.

Gerald Stanley gets bail because the courts treat white folks as rational and redeemable.

Hundreds of supporters for Boushie attended court Thursday. Some yelled at Stanley as he was led away by RCMP.

Sheldon Wuttunee, a spokesman for the Boushie family, called for calm. He said its important to demand justice, but in a peaceful manner.

Stanleys family also released a statement through his lawyer Thursday, saying there has been rampant speculation and misinformation about the shooting. They said they hope people will reserve judgment until the facts of the case are known.

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On his 18th birthday, Mohammad Hasan Chaudhary backed his parents minivan out of the driveway without permission and disappeared.

Hed nabbed the keys in front of his mother, whom he rarely disobeyed, and revved up on a frigid Wednesday in January  laughing as he did it  while his father futilely gripped the door handle.

Police found him cruising through Pickering five hours later. They took him to hospital. One month later, Hasan was diagnosed with schizophrenia.

He had a very strange look in his eye that day, recalled his father Afzal Chaudhary, a retired truck driver.

His voices would take him anywhere. He would do anything, said his mother Noreen.

Hasans act of apparent teenage rebellion would prove portentous. Two and a half years later, on Aug. 12, he stole a propeller plane, flew it more than 100 kilometres and crash-landed on Peterboroughs main drag.

He was declared dead at the scene.

He had no formal flight training and had never been in a cockpit, his parents said. Hasans violent, solitary final seconds belied a life as a gentle and really sweet boy who grew up in a tight-knit Markham family of 10.

The second-oldest among Afzal and Noreens eight children, Hasan was a precocious student, excelling at math, science and technology, his father said.

His penchant for tinkering bordered on obsession. Every toy I gave him, after a few days he opened it, looked at the hardware, Afzal said. Then he tried to fix it again.

His first love was remote-controlled cars. He was into the big ones, the ones that go 10, 20 miles per hour, said his brother Hussain, 17, who slept across from him on a couch in the living room during the summer months  all eight siblings are under 22 and lived at home this season.

Hasan was never satisfied with the packaged product; he souped them up, crossed the wiring, installed headlights. Later he moved on to BMX bicycles, mixing and matching parts and building one in the garage for his younger brother.

With BMXing, he wasnt scared, he would just do it, Hussain recalled. He would get cuts and bruises perfecting tricks at the skate park until his hands blistered.

Hasan graduated to motorized dirt bikes in his mid-teens, fixing old carburetors and clutches late into the night.

This one time, hed just fixed a bike and I had some money because I was working at Golden China, so we rode to McDonalds, said his sister Sarah, entering Grade 11. It was 2 a.m. and we just rode down McCowan. It was really nice . . . I was holding onto the back. I thought I was going to die, she added, laughing.

Hasans calm curiosity was broken occasionally by bouts of fear or anger, his family said. He took his medications inconsistently. When he didnt, he would threaten to tear down this whole place, Noreen said.

When he had his episodes he would be aggressive, because he was scared, said his sister Zanib, completing a biochemistry degree at Dalhousie University. He would always apologize for anything he did during those episodes, even though he didnt have to.

The exact circumstances surrounding Hasans fatal early-morning crash in Don Pecks Piper Tomahawk on Peterboroughs Lansdowne Ave. on Aug. 12 remain unclear. The RCMP and York and Peterborough police said this week they are continuing to investigate the incident.

Though it has become public, none of those police forces has released Hasans name, even now. Neither suicide nor a national security aspect is considered a factor at this point, said York police and RCMP spokesperson Sgt. Penny Hermann, respectively.

Markham Airport owner Allan Rubin said this was the first time a plane has been stolen from the facility since it opened more than 50 years ago.

Nowadays, you can pretty well pick an aircraft and fly it, through the programs that they have on the Internet, Rubin said, but landing an aircrafts the hardest part.

Fences surrounds only a portion of the airport, and its camera system doesnt show very much, Rubin said. Ropes are the only thing securing most of the aircraft.

He said he fears a copycat scenario, as do Hasans parents.

What if somebody really wanted to do something? Imagine then. Toronto is right there, Noreen said. He was sick. He didnt know.

He was too young, his father said.

Twenty years, seven months and four days.

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau got an enthusiastic welcome at a Filipino cultural festival in Toronto.

Trudeau paid a visit to the Taste of Manila celebration in the citys north end Saturday.

After being greeted by chants of Justin, Justin, the prime minister took to the events main stage to speak about the value of multiculturalism.

He said differences are a source of strength that makes communities stronger.

Trudeau then made his way through the crowd, shaking hands and taking selfies as people pushed and squeezed through other onlookers to get up close to the prime minister.

Trudeau also donned an apron and cap to take his turn at a grill preparing Filipino delicacies.

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Everything in the Aleppo ambulance was orange, the walls, the chairs, but a little grey figure was hastily carried in an aid workers arms to be placed gently but briskly in an adult-size plastic chair and left alone. His right arm had been wrapped around his rescuers back, the way childrens small hands always cling to the shoulder blades of adults. Its how you stay attached to the person in charge of your safety.

Adults are adults; children are children. Adults protect children. Thats the way it is, and thats why what follows should bring a wave of help and protection from Canadians.

Omran Daqneesh, five years old but small for his age, looked old and grey. His skin was as thick with grey dust as were adult 9/11 survivors trudging through the streets of New York so long ago, when the U.S. began planning its revenge. Omrans hair was grey, as were his face, his baby-fat legs and arms, his shorts and his T-shirt featuring CatDog from the American Nickelodeon cartoons.

Every single thing about Omran looked unnatural, from the dirt to the way he sat still and silent as children never do. But the worst thing was the look in his eye. The other eye was covered in bloody jam. Amid the noise and shouting around him, Omran was quietly in shock. His head was tilted downward but he looked up, stunned and confused but strangely reproachful. His mouth was puffy with distress.

He brushed his hand against his face, looked at his hand and saw thick clotted blood. He would never have seen such a quantity of his own blood before. Children are taught always to keep their hands clean so, obediently, he tried to brush his bloodied hand on the seat of the chair.

Ive seen so many children rescued out of the rubble, but this child, with his innocence, he had no clue what was going on, the Aleppo journalist Mustafa al-Sarout told the Guardian. Ive photographed a lot of airstrikes in Aleppo, but there was so much there in his face, the blood and dust mixed, at that age. (Photojournalist Mahmoud Raslan also wrote of his coverage for the Telegraph.)

The surgeon who treated him said Omran was frightened and shocked. He had been sitting safely in his home, perhaps asleep. And the house was brought down on top of him. When we were treating him, he was not screaming or crying, just in shock.

Elsewhere in the Guardian, Zaher Sahloul, a physician from Chicago, described what working in Aleppo is like. He recalls Abdullah, 12, injured by shrapnel from a barrel bomb. He asked me, screaming in pain but still somehow polite, to stop trying to insert a tube into his chest without anesthetic. I kiss your hand uncle, please stop, he begged. But we had no painkillers and he would die if I did not drain the blood pooling around his lungs so I carried on.

Sahloul, who risks his own life daily, says the emergency has been going on for five years. He asks people in the West to send money to doctors and aid groups who deliver medical supplies, medicine and ambulances, and train local doctors and nurses.

As for Omran, he didnt cry as he was treated, but asked for his parents. Only then, once Omran saw them did he start to cry, reported Sophie McNeill of ABC News. Omrans parents and siblings are alive.

I know readers wish to know what they can do to help. Among many organizations, here are two: the Syrian American Medical Society, which sends volunteer doctors, and The White Helmets, as the first-responders of Syria Civil Defence are known.

As well, I do wish Omran and his family could be brought to Canada, where we know they would be welcomed, especially by the many Syrians already here. This may seem absurd, when so many are suffering in the catastrophe that is Syria and surrounding nations, to yearn to help one child, but it is human nature to feel extremely protective in cases that are not abstract.

If you watched the video, you saw Omrans face. Hes too young to understand us. But what would he think of us if he knew we could have helped him and his family, and did not? They dont talk to children about adults like that. Wed rather they didnt know.

John McCallum is the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship. A compassionate and sensible man, he may be the politician to contact to ask that the Daqneesh family be welcomed here. When the next bomb falls, they may not be so lucky. Although they were not lucky at all.

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By PTI: From Jaishree Balasubhramanian

Bangkok, Aug 20 (PTI) Thailand, a favourite destination for tourists from around the world, has doubled its visa-on- arrival fees for citizens of 18 countries, including India.

The Thai visa fees will go up from Baht 1,000 (Rs 2000) to Baht 2,000 (Rs 4000) with effect from September 27 for visitors having up to 15-day stay.

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Visa-on-arrival is available at many points of entry and is good for a single use.

The Foreign Ministry said in its announcement yesterday that the decision to hike the charge for this class of visa was based on what Thai embassies and consulates-general are collecting, to make the fee more comparable.

The 18 countries are Bulgaria, Bhutan, China, Cyprus, Ethiopia, India, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Maldives, Malta, Mauritius, Romania, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Taiwan.

Thailand is one of the favorite destination of Indians for its beaches, food and shopping. PTI JB AMS ZH AMS

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Police were both skilled and lucky when they narrowly stopped Aaron Driver from inflicting major damage last week in the name of a radical jihadist ideology. We can applaud their quick work in derailing Drivers violent plan, but we should not be relying on luck to stop such threats.

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale was right this week when he acknowledged that the peace bond imposed on Driver was not enough to deter him. Despite a court order requiring him to stay away from jihadist propaganda on the Internet, not touch any weapons, and check in regularly with police, the young man came close to setting off an explosion in a crowded public space before he was killed by police.

Goodale now says the government may toughen peace bond conditions to require radical sympathizers like Driver to take part in compulsory counseling aimed at deradicalization. That would be part of its coming overhaul of Bill C-51, the Harper governments badly flawed anti-terrorism law.

And Goodale says Canada must up our game in combating violent extremism by spending $35 million to set up a centre designed specifically to counter that threat. That was a Liberal campaign promise last year, but it has taken the near-miss by Driver to get the government to move from words to action.

Clearly, the government is right to build up Canadas capacity to understand and counter the threat from violent extremists. If anything, its extraordinary that 15 years after the 9/11 attacks, Ottawa is only now getting around to establishing a coherent, coordinated strategy on this front.

Such a strategy must combine firm law enforcement with a well-considered plan to deal with the broader context in which violent extremists, in particular those inspired by radical Islamist ideology, have emerged to launch attacks such as the one on Parliament Hill in October, 2014.

Its easy to dismiss such initiatives, as if a cozy chat over tea with a sympathetic counsellor could deter a convinced extremist.

The fact is that not doing it would be worse. The evidence shows that tough enforcement must be complemented by other approaches. Simply cracking down on terrorist movements  whether they be jihadis or earlier groups inspired by other ideologies  hardly ever works. Weve seen in many countries that when you arrest one, you create three other extremists, says Daniel Koehler, a German expert on deradicalization. It helps to spread the idea and proves to the movement that they are right.

There is plenty of experience around the world on such deradicalization programs, and the government should draw on the best examples to design a plan best suited for Canada.

Montreal already has a well-regarded program, which includes a 24-hour hotline for family members or friends to call if they fear someone has fallen under the sway of radical extremism. And Canadian imams are setting up clinics in the Toronto area that will enlist the support of religious leaders and families to identify individuals at risk of extremism.

All such programs put those inspired by terrorist thinking in touch with counsellors and other mental health experts. If they do nothing else, that alone is a big step forward.

The young men who carried out the most notorious jihadist attacks in Canada  the Parliament Hill shooting and the killing of a soldier in Quebec the same day  were essentially lost souls who latched onto violent Islamist ideology through the Internet. Far from reflecting a radicalization of Islam in Canada, they could be more accurately described as part of what the French call the Islamicization of radicalism.

In other words, they are troubled people who find meaning in a violent religious cause but in previous decades might have turned to extreme politics of the left or right. Connecting them with counsellors skilled both in politics and mental health issues can only be helpful.

The experts caution that each case is different and there is no one-size-fits-all solution. But the government is right to be finally crafting a balanced approach to extremism that includes outreach as well as smart policing.

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Give Justin Trudeau and the Liberals high marks for creative fundraising. On the prime ministers Facebook page he has reached out to Canadians living abroad, inviting them to donate to his party and support Canadas most open and progressive movement.

But give them a failing grade for consistency. Even as the Liberals woo expatriates for money, they have failed to deliver on promises to restore voting rights to Canadians who have been out of the country for more than five years.

More than a million Canadians living abroad were denied the right to vote in the last federal election. Rules prohibiting those who have been away for more than five years were adopted back in 1993, but they were only enforced by the Harper government starting in 2011.

The rule needlessly excludes Canadians from remaining engaged with their countrys politics and is patently unfair. In the 21st century its easier than ever for people living abroad to keep up with events here, and many have a long-term commitment to the country even if they have been away for years.

Excluding expats is also out of step with the practice of many other advanced democracies, such as Britain, the United States and most European countries, whose citizens retain voting rights regardless of where they choose to live.

A group of expats has been pressing their case for voting in the courts, and the Liberals have at the very least given strong indications that they favour a change. During last years election campaign, the then-president of the federal party told the Canadian Expat Association that we believe all Canadians should have a right to vote, no matter where they live, and we are committed to ensuring that this is the case.

And last December, Trudeau himself gave expats hope when he was asked by a woman in London, England, whether he would reinstate my right to vote. He reportedly smiled and answered: Well work on that.

The government has taken no concrete steps on the issue, however, and the appeal for donations has not surprisingly annoyed some expats. Asking for my donation after removing my right to vote is just offensive, a Canadian living in Houston commented on the Facebook page. You have some gall asking for expats money when youve done nothing to restore our vote, wrote another.

The Trudeau government should make sure all Canadians have the opportunity to vote in the next election. It would be good for democracy  and probably good for Liberal fundraising as well.

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The misuse and overuse of solitary confinement is a daily shame in Canadas prison system. Now from Alberta comes yet more evidence that the system, and the way it is administered, is badly flawed.

A judge has freed three inmates at the maximum-security Edmonton Institution from segregation cells, ruling that the decision to send them there was not reasonable. She found the prison did not give adequate reasons for its decision and failed to take account of the inmates mental health problems and the fact that two of them are aboriginal.

Its more proof that solitary confinement  or segregation, as the countrys prison service calls it  is often meted out on flimsy grounds that dont stand up to close examination.

And it adds more pressure for a thorough overhaul of the laws and regulations governing the use of solitary confinement in both federal and provincial jails. Ottawa and Queens Park are in the midst of reviews of the practice, but both have been dragging their feet. They should move more quickly.

The evidence against the harm inflicted by overuse of solitary confinement has been mounting over the past few months.

In Ontario, for example, inmates can be confined for up to 23 hours a day for indefinite periods. The provinces Human Rights Commission condemned the practice earlier this year, noting that segregation is used disproportionately against racial minorities, women and those with mental illnesses.

Ontarios ombudsman, Paul Dube, added his voice to the chorus against long-term solitary confinement in May. He reported that it is regularly used in Ontarios jails to separate out and effectively punish the most difficult and vulnerable inmates.

Dube proposed sensible changes, including limiting the use of solitary confinement to 15 days at a time, with no inmate held in isolation for more than 60 days a year. The federal prison watchdog, Howard Sapers, has made similar criticisms, and he suggests a 30-day limit for prisoners in segregation. Both agree it should be used only as a last resort.

There has been progress. Sapers reported in March there has been a significant reduction in the use of solitary  from an average of 800 a day in federal prisons to just 500.

Governments agree that change is needed  in principle. But its taking them a long time to act.

In Ontario, then-correctional services minister Yasir Naqvi announced a review of the provinces policies on segregation for inmates back in March, 2015. Its still underway.

And in Ottawa, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last November directed his justice minister, Jody Wilson-Raybould, to implement recommendations stemming from the death of Ashley Smith that would ban long-term solitary confinement for federal inmates. In his mandate letter to her, Trudeau added that solitary should not be used to control inmates with mental illnesses.

There has been no action yet on that front, and both governments should move quickly without waiting for even more evidence that solitary confinement as implemented in Canada is harmful and often arbitrary.

They should bring in strict limitations on its use  taking into account the time inmates can be held in isolation and any factors that might aggravate their condition, such as mental illness. Segregation should indeed be a measure of last resort, and public pressure will continue to mount until those in charge stop pondering and take action.

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All things considered, I would far prefer to let Rob Ford to rest in peace rather than write one more word about that infamous crack cocaine video released in a public courtroom last week, some four months after the former Toronto mayors death.

But, throughout the past week, we have heard from a handful of readers in emails  and more vociferously via social media  about the discrepancies between Fords exact words as they appear in the official transcript that accompanies the now-released video and what the Star first reported that Ford appeared to say in May 2013 when it broke its bombshell story about two Star reporters having seen a video of the mayor smoking crack cocaine.

Essentially these discrepancies come down to a couple of questions related to what was has long been characterized as Fords homophobic and racist comments: Did the clearly incoherent Ford use the words fat d**k in referring to Justin Trudeau  as the accompanying video transcript released by the court states, or, did Ford call Trudeau a fag as reporters Kevin Donovan and Robyn Doolittle initially reported they believed they heard the mayor say when they viewed the 70-second iPhone video while sitting in a car in a dark parking lot unable to take any notes whatsoever.

As well, the court transcript, presumably prepared by Toronto police as evidence for court, records Ford as saying F*** (inaudible) the minorities, dude. In the Stars original report, Donovan and Doolittle report that they heard Ford refer to f***ing minorities.

In looking into these concerns and calls for the Star to correct the record, I am at a loss to determine definitively what Ford actually said, both because of his incoherence and the quality of the video. But, given the discrepancies in what the now-public transcript tells us and what the Star first reported, I see need for clarification and further explanation from the reporters, who, I believe, did their best to discern Fords mumble-jumble of words under extremely challenging and somewhat dangerous circumstances.

Donovan and Doolittle were also careful in their initial stories to make clear they were reporting what they believed Ford appeared to say when they viewed the video. But we well know that subsequent reports of what Ford allegedly said in that video came to take on a life of their own with some less-careful reports in the Star and other media stating as outright fact that Ford had called Trudeau a fag and referred to f***ing minorities in the crack cocaine video.

Thats not exactly what the court transcript tells us. But, watch the video and see for yourself what you think is clear fact here. I am not convinced even that the official transcript has nailed it. And, at this point, even the two reporters do not agree on what they see before them now that they, like all of us, can watch the video many times over.

Donovan told me he has watched the video several times since its release and he still believes Ford said what he first heard  and reported  he said.

I hear him say fag or faggot. I see people have suggested he says hes a fat d**k. That makes no sense, said Donovan who recalls the sound on the video he and Doolittle watched as being clearer than what we can hear now.

As to the minorities comment, he definitely says f**king...then something...and then minorities. I cant hear the words in between.

For her part, Doolittle, who now reports for the Globe and Mail, addressed these discrepancies on social media last week, stating, Watching it now, I dont think you can hear Rob Ford call Justin Trudeau a fag.

If you watch the video, at one point, Ford seemed to call Trudeau a fat d**k. Ford pronounced the f quite clearly and the rest is mumbled. That is where I heard fag.

I also dont think the former mayor said f***king minorities. Instead he said, F**k. Just driving the minorities, Doolittle wrote.

Donovan told me, and Doolittle confirmed this in her social media post, that the broker who was trying to sell the video to the Star for a six-figure payout had told them in advance that the video showed Ford calling Trudeau a fag. As well, Gawker, the New York website that broke the story about the video, after also having seen it, reported that Ford had called Trudeau a faggot, albeit, mistakenly referring to Pierre Trudeau, not Justin.

While I do believe what the now-deceased former mayor said matters to the historical and public record of his troubled tenure  and to the journalistic record of covering this wild story  I do not see any clear answers here regarding Fords exact words. What we do see for certain is the then-mayor of Toronto, obviously incoherent, smoking a crack pipe.

Clearly, there is nothing ambiguous about that.

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What would happen to the arts if this country turned to authoritarian leadership? If fundamental freedoms were challenged, if a strong leader gathered up the full weight of the regulatory state and started using it to systematically punish his enemies and reward his friends, if the country was precipitated into ever more severe constitutional crises, if the only political labels that mattered were whether you were with the Leader or the Resistance  where would the arts stand?

Arts leaders say they are nervous in general about the candidacy of Donald Trump, who has deployed authoritarian language more consistently than any major political figure in memory, but they are not particularly worried about this countrys robust tradition of free expression. Yet they also acknowledge that the arts have changed considerably since the last time the sector was tested by political crisis  the culture war debates of the late 1980s during the Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush presidencies. And some of those changes could make the arts a flash point for the larger cultural forces unleashed by Trumps rhetoric.

Much of the most exciting work in the arts today is by groups that connect creativity to such issues as immigration, homelessness, cultural diversity and other social justice causes, and that could make them a target. The arts have also enjoyed a long detente with political leaders in recent years, but it is a fragile one. The National Endowment for the Arts has seen its budget go up and down over the past eight years, but it hasnt been formally reauthorized by Congress since 1993. A president who forced that issue could radically restructure the agency.

And then there is the pure unpredictability of Trump, who hasnt evinced much interest in the arts during this campaign but could easily empower latent but powerful anti-arts energies at every level of American society.

Trump, for example, has expressed admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin, and its easy to imagine him following Putins example, by winking at vigilantism and local acts of seemingly random oppression. With violent crowds (from both the left and the right) buffeting the U.S. electoral process, the country may be entering a new era of do-it-yourself cultural policing and censorship.

Using past experience with cultural repression, what Trump has already said, and plausible extrapolations based on the history and political science of authoritarianism, what follows is a sketch of how the arts might accommodate to a new political reality, how they would deal with something that has never happened before and yet has happened all too often.



A painting of Donald Trump hangs in the library bar of his Palm Beach estate Mar-a-Lago. (Rosalind Helderman/The Washington Post)

In New York, a few weeks after the Jan. 20 inauguration, there appeared a crudely made sculpture of the new president sitting on a toilet, using the Constitution as tissue paper. It sat in a gallery in Chelsea, mostly ignored by collectors and critics, but amusing passersby. Months after it had been taken down, the president mentioned it in impromptu remarks to a church group visiting Washington.

Its disgraceful, he said. And they take your tax dollars to make this filth. He mocked the artist as lazy and a loser.

This was his first substantial comment on the arts. Fact checkers pointed out neither the artist nor the gallery had received public funds, but before the furor died down, someone spray-painted racist graffiti on the window of a gallery across the street. The vandals got the neighborhood right, but the address wrong. This amused many in the art world, but it worried others.

Although the president moved on to other things, his comments encouraged Congress to launch hearings on public funding for the arts. This happened faster than the in-house congressional liaisons at the Smithsonian Institution and the National Gallery of Art had expected, and for the first time anyone could remember, it looked as if Congress might cut or eliminate support to both institutions.

Unfortunately, it was during these hearings that a long-planned exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery celebrating the work of a prominent Mexican American labor activist was scheduled to open. When the idea for the exhibition was broached years earlier, it had unanimous support from museum leaders. But now, without saying so explicitly, Smithsonian officials in the Castle suggested delaying the opening. Curators stood their ground, and the show went on as planned.

No one would have paid much attention but for the arrest of a man who threw paint on one of the photos a few days later. Cable news networks picked up the story, and it turned out that the man was closely connected to the Anti-Sanctuary movement, which had attracted a large following in the first months of the new administration. Anti-Sanctuary advocates took issue with local ordinances that encouraged or required cities not to cooperate with federal immigration officials. They were particularly angry now, given what seemed to be backpedaling from the administration on some of the more hard-line anti-immigrant promises made during the campaign.

The arts suddenly had the presidents attention again. Reporters asked whether he condemned the attack on the exhibition. He sidestepped the question but chided the Smithsonian for not devoting more attention to Great Americans. The labor activist had, in fact, been born in Yuma, Ariz., but that didnt stop demonstrators from gathering daily. After further attempts to vandalize the exhibition, the Smithsonian closed it in the interests of public safety. The Smithsonian was sharply criticized for its decision, but it had been effectively neutered by the episode.

Leaders of other cultural institutions watched nervously. Few of them were dependent on federal support, but something strange was happening in corporate philanthropy. After the Federal Trade Commission intervened to prevent a major, multibillion-dollar corporate merger  rumor had it that the president personally disliked one of the chief executives  a chill had fallen over the sector. Business leaders who had previously delegated corporate giving strategies to trusted subordinates were now taking a much more personal interest in every decision.

A new sense of caution was felt even in the most traditionally cautious parts of the arts world. A group of four opera companies that had planned a production of Beethovens Fidelio quietly dropped plans to stage it as a reference to the 2003 Abu Ghraib scandal, with prisoners in orange jumpsuits and guards in American military uniforms. No one said anything about it being potentially controversial. Rather, opera leaders merely said the production had to please a wide audience in several different cities, and should therefore be more traditional.

After a grueling day of conference sessions at the 2017 Americans for the Arts convention, a group of executives compared notes, and all noticed something curious. Every one of them could cite at least one member of their board who had come out as an enthusiastic supporter of the president. The head of an important regional dance company described it this way: I dont think she had ever spoken in a meeting before, and then, out of nowhere, she asked why we were devoting funds to Black History Month. She gave a long speech about how all lives matter and even African Americans dont want their history ghettoized.  The idea gained traction, and the company canceled plans for outreach events for February 2018.

When Americans for the Arts gathered a year later, the mood had changed from worry to panic. A major arts presenter in the Midwest had been forced to cancel touring appearances by a Russian chorus, a Chinese folk ballet and the Orchestre National de France, after failing to secure visas in time. At Lincoln Center, in New York, a performance of a new concerto for oud  an Arab lute  was scuttled when the Arab American soloist was detained for several days by immigration authorities. He was released but too late to go forward with the performance. The head of the New York Philharmonic wrote a strong op-ed piece for the New York Times denouncing the outrage, but that only attracted protests outside of David Geffen Hall. Some longtime subscribers urged that he be fired for politicizing music.

By the summer of 2018, the hottest on record, it seemed no part of the cultural sector hadnt been politicized. The top box-office draw was Death Wish VII: Border Wars, a reboot of the old Charles Bronson vigilante film series, which came out just as mass deportations in Arizona and Texas were beginning. In that climate, few arts leaders felt it was wise for a small artist-run collective in Philadelphia to offer safe houses to people fearing deportation. Members of the group were injured after an attack on the small gallery space they had renovated on a depressed block of west Philly. Cellphone video of the artists denouncing the attack, still dressed in bloody clothes, went viral, but reactions to it were as polarized as the country. The president later mocked some of the artists on the video, mimicking their speech patterns in a way that suggested they were being hypersensitive: We dont feel safe, oh we dont feel safe, he said. More ominously, he added: The arts are full of these people.

By now, the arts world had divided into two large camps  the preservationists, who argued that the only thing that mattered was to preserve existing arts institutions until after the next election, and the purists (who didnt much like the label), who argued that the new authoritarianism was essentially a cultural, not a political, problem and that arts leaders had a duty to resist. But it was difficult to know whom to resist, and how. A theater in Texas was shut down indefinitely by the fire marshal after a comedian mocked the president at an open-mic night. One city had dusted off old obscenity laws to block a LGBT film festival. A Latin music festival with a valid street permit was shut down by police, who cited a noise control ordinance from 1935. A school board in Kansas required trigger warnings before a production of Arthur Millers The Crucible, which led school administrators to cancel the show. Many of these seemingly isolated events were challenged in court, but the courts were overloaded with litigation.

One of the most closely watched cases was a libel suit against the countrys largest publisher of theatrical plays, which distributed a popular satire titled MacTrump, which clearly mocked administration officials. This was a radical opening of libel laws to target works of fiction, yet the company was hit with a $140 million judgment, which it was appealing.

The satire was popular on college campuses, the last redoubt of the purists. But top university leaders were increasingly terrified of losing federal funds for research and tuition support. In January 2019, officials at the University of California at Davis demanded that the theater department delay a production of MacTrump until the court case was decided. The students refused and went ahead with the show. University police entered the theater and used pepper spray on the audience and the actors, all of which was caught on camera. A drama professor decried the new Gestapo tactics outside the theater.

The president must have seen the interview, because he addressed it the next morning on his daily call into a popular morning talk show. He denied censorship of any kind, but spoke of the power of the people to criticize what they didnt like. One of the shows hosts asked him whether he agreed with a prominent critic that the arts were dead in America.

The arts dead in America? the leader repeated, incredulously. Just at look at the art market. Its booming. Never been better.

He was right. A large Rothko had recently sold for more than $150 million to an art collector friend of the presidents who also was the head of the National Endowment for the Arts. To the surprise of many, the agency had survived the congressional hearings and was thriving with its new patriotic initiative: Make Art Great Again.
Anadolu Agency quoted Gaziantep Governor Ali Yerlikaya as saying the explosion in the Sahinbey district was a "terror attack".

People react after an explosion in Gaziantep, southeastern Turkey, early Sunday, Aug. 21, 2016. Gaziantep Province Gov. Ali Yerlikaya said the deadly blast, during a wedding near the border with Syria, was a terror attack.

By AP: At least 50 people were killed on Saturday when a suspected suicide bomber detonated his explosives among people dancing on the street at a wedding party in the southern Turkish city of Gaziantep, the local governor's office said.

ISIS BEHIND ATTACK?



President Tayyip Erdogan said it was likely that Islamic State militants had carried out the late-night attack, the deadliest bombing this year in Turkey, which faces threats from militants at home and across the border with neighbouring Syria.

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The local governor's office said in a statement 50 people were killed in the bombing, and more wounded were still being treated in hospitals around the province.

"The celebrations were coming to an end and there was a big explosion among people dancing," said 25-year-old Veli Can. "There was blood and body parts everywhere."

Blood stains and burns marked the walls of the narrow lane where the wedding party was attacked while women in white and checkered scarves cried sitting crosslegged and waiting outside the morgue for word on missing relatives.

At least 12 people were buried on Sunday, but other funerals would have to wait because many of the victims were blown to pieces and DNA forensics tests would be needed to identify them, security sources said.

TURKEY: AN EASY TARGET?



The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party, or HDP, said in a statement that the wedding was for one of its members, and women and children had been among those killed.

Mahmut Togrul, an HDP lawmaker from Gaziantep, around 40 km (25 miles) north of the border with Syria, told Reuters it was a Kurdish wedding. Islamic State has been blamed for suicide bombings on Kurdish gatherings in the past as militants try to stir ethnic tensions.

"It was carried out like an atrocity," witness Ibrahim Ozdemir said. "We want to end these massacres. We are in pain, especially the women and children."

Turkey is still tense after an attempted coup on July 15 which Ankara blames on U.S.-based preacher Fethullah Gulen. He has denied the charge.

Three suspected Islamic State suicide bombers killed 44 people at Istanbul's main airport in June, then the deadliest in a string of attacks in Turkey this year.

In October last year, suicide bombers killed at least 95 people when they attacked a rally of pro-Kurdish and labour activists outside Ankara's main train station.

Violence flared up again this week in the largely Kurdish southeast, with bomb attacks leaving 10 people dead in separate attacks, mostly police and soldiers, in an escalation that officials blamed on the PKK, Kurdish separatists militants.



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A vineyard worker cuts zinfandel grapes from a vine at Tres Sabores Winery, a certified organic winery in St. Helena, Calif. A recent study found that organic wines taste better  to wine critics, at least. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Do organic wines taste better than conventional wines? Conventional wisdom would say no. We may shop at Whole Foods Market or MOMs Organic Market, and we may pull over in traffic at the sight of a farmer with a load of tomatoes on a parked flatbed truck, but apparently we raise a skeptical eyebrow at the word organic on a wine label. Organic wine is still stuck with the hippie wine image of grapes trodden with unsanitary feet and juice that goes funky in the bottle.

[5 wines to try this week]

Maybe its time to rethink that image. A new study out of UCLA published in the Journal of Wine Economics concludes that organic wines do taste better, as measured in the scores of leading wine critics. The authors  Magali Delmas, Olivier Gergaud and Jinghui Lim  analyzed the reviews and scores of more than 74,000 California wines from the 1998 to 2009 vintages in three magazines: Wine Advocate, Wine Spectator and Wine Enthusiast. They found that eco-certified wines scored significantly higher than other wines and that reviews used more positive words about them.

[The three shades of green winemaking]

Heres why this finding could be important: All three publications rate wines blind, meaning the reviewers dont know what wines they are tasting. The researchers used all sorts of statistical wizardry to control for vintage variation and other factors, so the difference in scores should be attributable just to environmental certification. And the results counter what can best be called a counterintuitive conventional wisdom: that organic in wine means lower quality. As the authors noted, many of the certified wines did not mention the certification on the label because the producers fear a consumer backlash. They may be missing a potentially important marketing point.

[When wine is green with confusion]

The problem is in definition, and here we can blame the U.S. government for some of the confusion. Under U.S. Agriculture Department regulations issued a decade ago, an organic wine is made not only without synthetic herbicides and pesticides in the vineyard but also without sulfites added in the winery. (The limit is 10 parts per million natural sulfites.) Sulfur is an important preservative that keeps wine from spoiling in the bottle, so this restriction accounts for much of organic wines poor reputation. As a compromise, the USDA allows wines to be labeled as made from organically grown grapes. That means the vineyard practices are certified organic, but it allows the winemaker to add sulfites to protect the wine. The study included both types of organic wine certification, as well as the Demeter organizations biodynamic certification, another type of organic farming that emphasizes the ecosystem of the vineyard.

The study did not single out wines labeled sustainable or with other sorts of eco-labeling that do not involve formal certification. Many wineries follow sustainable, organic or biodynamic practices but dont seek certification, which can be expensive. And if the weather turns bad during the growing season, vintners like to have the flexibility to save their crop with conventional methods. Therefore, the authors note, their findings may actually understate the effect of eco-friendly farming on wine quality.

Maybe wineries should be touting their organic certification. At MOMs Organic Markets, we have customers who seek out wines made without sulfites, and the only way to get that is with the organic seal on the label, says Crystal Lyle, the wine buyer for seven MOMs outlets in Maryland, the District and Northern Virginia. MOMs does carry wines labeled sustainable, but Lyle said most are made with certified organic grapes. Lyle prefers it that way.

If they arent willing to put it on the label, then I dont want the wine on our shelves, she told me. I would prefer they have a certification on the label so our customers know what they are buying.

Personally, Ive found eco-certification is not a guarantee of high quality. But wines made from organic grapes or with biodynamic viticulture  or even those labeled sustainable, with or without certification  often taste more lively, even more compelling, than other wines. Other factors may influence that perception. Wineries certified organic or biodynamic tend to be small, family producers that may take other steps to increase quality, such as maintaining low yields or other labor-intensive farming practices.

And maybe thats just another reason to seek these wines out.
Giant panda cub Bei Bei is attracted by visitors at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., during celebrations for his first birthday.

Aug. 20, 2016 Giant panda cub Bei Bei is attracted by visitors at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., during celebrations for his first birthday. Linda Davidson/The Washington Post

Its a day of celebration at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., for the birthday of giant-panda cub Bei Bei.

Its a day of celebration at the National Zoo in the District for the birthday of giant panda cub Bei Bei.

Its a day of celebration at the National Zoo in the District for the birthday of giant panda cub Bei Bei.

Photos of panda cub Bei Bei as he celebrates his first birthday

Photos of panda cub Bei Bei as he celebrates his first birthday

Bei Bei did it again.

The National Zoos giant panda cub, who slept through his media debut in December and then snoozed through his public debut in January, demonstrated again on Saturday that he might benefit from an alarm clock.

When the time came for the 70-pound cubs first birthday bash, he was a no-show  sprawled out on the cool concrete floor of his indoor pen while thousands baked in the heat outside for a chance to wish him well.

Oh, no, said Heiko Ramsey, who had planned a trip from Florida around the panda party, jokingly referring to Bei Bei as his other baby he came to see in the District  not just his son attending George Washington University.

After a while, however, Bei Beis mother, Mei Xiang, decided to devour her sons frozen birthday cake, a 100-pound block of flavored ice packed with chunks of apples and sweet potatoes.

Only a handful of American and Chinese VIPs got to see Bei Bei frolic early Saturday, tasting his new favorite treat, honey, during the official celebration of his Aug. 22, 2015, birth.

And in the wacky political year of 2016, it also might have been the worlds first panda birthday party with geopolitical implications.

In an election year in which both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have forecast tougher times ahead for U.S.-China relations, the early morning event for Bei Bei took on an especially bilateral feel.

[Giant panda cub climbs a tree and gets a little help from mama]

Standing in the zoos panda pen, Chinese Ambassador Cui Tiankai addressed more than 50 TV cameras from news outlets around the world. He called Bei Beis birth and healthy first year fruit of collaboration between China and the United States and a strong symbol of our friendship.

As if on cue, Mei Xiang soon sauntered up and began licking a bamboo stick holding a banner that read Luck and Friendship. The invited crowd of Chinese officials and zoo executives gushed as the elder pandas move initiated a Chinese tradition of choosing a life symbol for the panda cub.

Leslie Wilkes nearly cried. The zoo volunteer said she saw truth behind the Chinese ambassadors statement and hoped the message of cooperation wouldnt be overlooked in the current political climate.

Mei Xiang chooses a symbol of luck and friendship. Bei Beis birthday celebration included a Chinese zhuazhou, a traditional ceremony, where several symbolic objects foretell something about a babys future by which is chosen. (Linda Davidson/The Washington Post)

I dont think people know how much we work together with the breeding center in China and how much collaboration there is behind the scenes to make this a success, Wilkes said. Its really exciting.

Dennis Kelly, director of the National Zoo, added a heaping dose of that sentiment later to a crush of reporters. He compared the United States and China to family, noting how Bei Bei seemed to need the support of his mother Saturday to feel comfortable joining in the ceremony.

Just after 8 a.m., it wasnt clear that even the first wave of guests would get to see Bei Bei. After cautiously stepping into his outdoor area, the cub turned around and tried to climb a metal door, as if to return to where his mother was inside.

Bei Bei then waddled over to a pine tree and hid in the underbrush. After about 10 minutes, zookeepers let out Mei Xiang, who quickly followed her nose to where trainers had slathered honey onto three bamboo stems holding up banners with Chinese symbols.

First the 18-year-old mama bear approached the one with a Chinese knot, symbolizing friendship. It soon tumbled and the mother and cub licked the honey. The mama bear soon sent the other two, emblazoned with symbols for fertility and health, crashing to the ground and Bei Bei feasted on the honey.

At a news conference after the ceremony, Kelly was asked about the upcoming renegotiation with China in 2020 to keep pandas at the zoo. Kelly sought to tie it all together.

I think Bei Bei told us one thing: Family is very important, he said. Americans, Chinese realize family is important and friendships are important, and its our friendship that will cause us to be successful for future generations.

The first few hundred in line then got to see Bei Bei awake. But soon, the cub returned indoors and thousands who had waited to see him saw only the sleeping cubs backside through a glass observation window.

Sai Tam said she wasnt disappointed. She and her adult daughter awoke at 5 a.m. in New York. They drove a relative who uses a wheelchair and who had followed the cubs development online to get a glimpse in person.

By the time the three made it to the front of the line, near noon, Bei Bei was long asleep.

It is really meaningful to be here for the birthday, we feel like we know them. We watch them on the webcam  eat, sleep, eat Tam said.

Edith Morris also said it was worth it. She had driven her four children, ages 3 to 10, from Columbia, Md. It was Bei Beis birth a year ago that prompted the family to become members of the zoo to get early access to the babys public events.

Morris said she makes the effort for the kids to celebrate the pandas milestones at the zoo, knowing the animals time in the District is ultimately short. Were so sad about Bao Bao, said her 10-year-old daughter, speaking of the first cub that grew up in the lens of a webcam. Bao Bao is expected to be returned to China next year when she turns 4.

The public celebration was supposed to culminate Saturday afternoon with the elaborate cake-eating display. Bao Bao awoke from a nap and had a cake with a big 3 on top. Her birthday is Tuesday.

But zookeepers couldnt wake Bei Bei  despite even a practice run with the cub a day before.

We did a dress rehearsal today and he did quite well, Nicole MacCorkle, one of the zoos giant-panda keepers, said Friday. I cant imagine hell be a complete no-show.

But on Saturday, that was the case. Volunteers yelled, Bei Beis sleeping . . . keep moving, as they tried to explain it was the wrong panda eating the cake.

Heiko Ramsey and his family didnt budge for an hour, each wearing furry panda hats despite the afternoon sun.

After a while, Ramsey acknowledged that he probably wouldnt see the cub: Even if he doesnt come back out, it was pretty cool to be here.
Beverly Smith, whose son, Alonzo Fiero Smith, died last fall after a confrontation with special police in Southeast Washington. (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post)

Beverly Smith strives to stay busy.

If shes not at a rally against police brutality, shes traveling through neighborhoods in Southeast Washington, preaching against violence by officers.

One week, she joined mothers on the lawn of the National Rifle Association to protest gun violence, and the next, she led discussions on race relations at the Anacostia Library.

Theres something to do every week, she said, fiddling with pamphlets on her coffee table that she planned to distribute throughout the community.

For Smith, 52, this work is not something she always wants to do, but she has to do it. Its a form of therapy and a way to escape the haunting thoughts of her sons death after a November confrontation with security guards.

Beverly Smith holds a photograph of her son, Alonzo Smith, 27, a teaching assistant whose death the D.C. medical examiners office ruled a homicide. (Mel Evans/AP)

As the nation debates police shootings and use-of-force tactics in cases of unarmed black men, Smith, of Southeast, has waited to see whether shell receive what she considers justice for her son.

D.C. police found Alonzo Smith unconscious and handcuffed in the custody of two guards known as special police in the early morning hours of Nov. 1, a Sunday, in the Marbury Plaza Apartments in Southeast. Special police are armed and have arrest powers, and they typically work for private companies, being licensed by the city to protect places including schools, libraries and apartment complexes.

[Death of man found unconscious in handcuffs ruled a homicide]

The November incident began when residents of Marbury Plaza called 911 to report a man racing through the halls, shouting and banging on doors, authorities said. Smith thinks that man was her son.

What happened next remains unclear, but D.C. police officers responded about 4 a.m. to the encounter between Smith and security guards.

The city officers found Alonzo Smith between stair landings: shirtless, facedown and handcuffed. Two guards were over him, one near his head, the other with a knee in Smiths back. Smith was not breathing.

The D.C. officers started CPR, and Smith was taken to a hospital. But efforts to save his life failed. He was 27.

Beverly Smith, whose son Alonzo Fiero Smith died last fall after a confrontation with special police. (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post)

Beverly Smith said she did not learn of her sons death until the next evening, when detectives knocked on her door. She had been sending messages to her son on Facebook throughout the weekend without getting a reply.

Before they said anything, I asked them what happened to my son, she said. I already knew.

Was he shot?

No, Ms. Smith.

Was he stabbed?

No, Ms. Smith.

They told her that her son had been in an altercation with special police officers and had died.

I just blanked out, she said. I just kept repeating, I remember saying, This is a dream, this is a dream. It was just awful.

Alonzo Smiths death was ruled a homicide by the medical examiners office  meaning the death occurred at the hands of another. Authorities, who must determine whether the guards committed any crime, said the investigation continues. The guards have not been publicly identified.

The autopsy report  which Beverly Smith shared with The Washington Post in December  showed that Alonzo Smith suffered cardiac arrest complicated by acute cocaine toxicity while being restrained.

Smith had trauma to his head, torso and extremities, according to the report. His torso had also been compressed, which the autopsy report called a contributing factor in his death.

The scene as D.C. officers arrived was captured on police body-camera footage that was the first such video released by Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D). But the video does not show the initial altercation between Alonzo Smith and the guards.

In the months since her sons death, Beverly Smith said she has learned little from law enforcement about the investigation and wants firm answers. Authorities would not comment, citing the ongoing probe.

It builds up more anger toward MPD . . . and everyone else involved, she said, referring to the Metropolitan Police Department. Now I consider them as my enemy.

Overcoming a troubled past

Beverly Smith now lives alone in the Anacostia apartment she once shared with her son.

Signs demanding accountability for his death are piled on chairs in her living room. Justice for Zo, and Stop the Coverup, a few read, each with photos of Alonzo Smith with a smile, one of the features his mother loved most.

He was very handsome, and he knew it, she said, cracking a grin.

She raised Alonzo and another child, Shelita Smith, as a single parent. Times were rough, she said, but there were happy moments as well.

From an early age, she said, her son had an affinity for work. He wanted to be the man of the house.

You would never find him without a job, and if you do, it would be for about a week, she said.

Alonzo Smith worked as a teachers assistant at Accotink Academy Learning Center, a private school in Virginia for special-needs students and those with troubled pasts. He had a knack for calming students when they were acting out.

He was excellent, excellent with the kids, said Joseph Morris Jr., a behavioral counselor at the school. They loved him.

Alonzo Smith was able to see eye-to-eye with the youngsters, many of whom were ordered by a court to attend the school. Beverly Smith said several students saw him as a father figure, someone to whom they could relate. He, too, had had challenges.

As an adolescent, he dealt with problems his mother declined to discuss but described as typical teenage issues. Relatives told The Post in December that Alonzo Smith spent a stint in a juvenile jail as a teenager. As an adult, he had two domestic violence charges in the District and Maryland for incidents with an ex-girlfriend and an uncle.

His mother does not deny her sons problems  many of them she said were self-inflicted  but she said he should not be defined by them.

Beverly Smith said it was a surprise to her that her son used drugs. But she said her opinion that he was unjustifiably killed is not swayed by the cocaine found in his system after his death. When she first saw his body, she said, she was shaken by the swelling, scrapes and cuts.

The drugs in his system did not give him all these contusions and scrapes and bruises on his back as though he had been dragged, she said.

Alonzo Smith, who left behind a 7-year-old son, had been working to improve his life for the sake of his son, his mother said. He had studied social work at Morgan State University in Baltimore. And although he did not finish school, he was preparing to re-enroll, she said.

He wanted to leave a legacy, Smith said. Through a lot of mistakes he made in his youth, it was so important to him that he turned his life around and that he become a role model, which he did.

Throughout his life, Alonzo Smith found a passion in poetry and even published a book, titled Lost Soul, containing poems he wrote as a teenager and young adult, detailing his time jailed as a juvenile.

I wrote this book for those who dont understand me, for others who are misunderstood, and to express what I have felt through the toughest times a teenager can imagine, he said in the books description.

Smith said her son was planning to publish a second book of poems. If she recovers his other poetry, she said, she might publish it for him.

Turning pain into power

It has been especially difficult, Smith said, coping with the reality that her son died after an interaction with police. For her, it makes no difference that they were special police and not D.C. officers.

There were times just after her sons death when she could not eat or sleep, and she struggled to find the strength to bathe and change clothes.

Youre just depleted, she said. Thats how bad it gets.

She does not want to go through her sons belongings, which are in a back room of her apartment. She only recently brought herself to throw out his toothbrush.

At times, she does things to remember him. She will smell his shirts to get a trace of his scent, or imagine his voice  the way he called her Ma. If she sees someone on the street who looks like him, shell pause.

Beverly Smith said its hard to find support from family or friends because they dont always understand her pain. Instead, she leans on support from other women who have lost children to police or gun violence. They connect with her particular grief.

We always call this a club that no one wants to join, she said. In her view, its a different feeling losing a loved one to law enforcement as opposed to another cause.

Its different. Its absolutely different, she said. From a car wreck, its an accident. Through an illness, that happens. Even in gun violence, I would say its different. . . . These are public figures who have taken the oath to protect and serve.

From the moment she was informed of her sons death, she was compelled to become an activist, Smith said.

Whenever Im given an opportunity to speak about my sons story, I take that opportunity, she said. Its my duty to do so.

In the early days, she came across an online petition calling for the United Nations to look into Alonzo Smiths case. Feeling appreciated, she reached out to the petitions organizer, Netfa Freeman, to thank him. Smith, Freeman and a few other local activists used the momentum around her sons story to form the organization Pan-African Community Action (PACA).

Shes an incredibly strong woman, which is not very atypical of a lot of the mothers who weve been able to meet who are going through the same situation, Freeman said.

Smith said her life is now devoted to keeping Alonzos story at the forefront of peoples minds. Through PACA, Smith is involved in weekly speaking engagements and occasional rallies.

If Im not going to speak, be his voice, then who is? she said.

In June, the D.C. mayor released a set of proposals for tougher hiring and training for special police officers.

Smith said she doesnt think answers will come soon concerning the investigation into the actions of the guards.

It could very well go into next year, she said. There is no time frame.

No matter how long it takes, she said, shell push for justice. Its a pledge she said she made to the officers who told her about her sons death.

They didnt know who Alonzo Smiths mother was. They truly did not, she said. I was not going to sit back and be quiet. No. Its never been in my DNA to be quiet on an issue that Im very passionate about. And then its my own child? Oh, no.
Maryland Del. Richard Impallaria, right, was charged with driving while impaired Thursday in Ocean City. (Matt Houston/AP)

Del. Rick Impallaria (R-Baltimore County) was arrested Thursday in Ocean City and charged with driving while impaired, according to court documents.

Records from the District Court of Worcester County show that police stopped Impallaria, a proponent of stricter drunken-driving laws, about 8:15 p.m. Thursday.

In Maryland, driving while impaired is a secondary charge for operating a vehicle with a blood-alcohol level between 0.04 percent and 0.08 percent. Driving under the influence is a more serious offense that applies when the blood-alcohol level is 0.08 percent or higher.

Impallaria attended a reception thrown by GOP senators at the Ropewalk Tavern on Thursday, according to a Baltimore Sun article about the event.

Earlier this year, Impallaria was a co-sponsor of unsuccessful legislation to make drunk drivers liable for paying punitive damages in lawsuits if they hurt or injured someone.

In 2008, Impallaria raised concerns that authorizing speed cameras would make it harder for police to catch drunk drivers.

In many cases, were going to be helping the wrong person, Impallaria said during the legislative floor debate. Were going to be helping the drunk because hes only going to get the fine for speeding.

Other Maryland lawmakers have been charged for drunken driving. In 2013, Del. Don Dwyer (R-Anne Arundel) was sentenced to 60 days in jail for driving a car while impaired and operating a boat while intoxicated. In 2008, then-House Majority Leader Kumar P. Barve (D-Montgomery) plead guilty to a DUI but avoided jail time.
Donald D.A. Henderson, an American epidemiologist who led the international war on smallpox that resulted in its eradication in 1980, the only such vanquishment in history of a human disease and an achievement that was credited with saving tens of millions of lives, died Aug. 19 at a hospice facility in Towson, Md. He was 87.

The cause was complications from a broken hip, said his daughter, Leigh Henderson.

A self-described disease detective, Dr. Henderson spent the defining years of his career as an official of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization. Later, he served as dean of Johns Hopkins Universitys school of public health and as a science and bioterrorism adviser in three presidential administrations.

But it was in the fight on smallpox  perhaps the most lethal disease in history and one that killed an estimated 300 million people in the 20th century alone  that he became known around the world. Lent from the CDC to the WHO for a decade in the 1960s and 1970s, he commanded a small cadre of public-health officials and an army of field workers in an endeavor that amounted to a medical moonshot.

I think it can be fairly said that the smallpox eradication was the single greatest achievement in the history of medicine, Richard Preston, the best-selling author of volumes including The Hot Zone, about the Ebola virus, and The Demon in the Freezer, about smallpox, said in an interview. He described Dr. Henderson as a Sherman tank of a human being  he simply rolled over bureaucrats who got in his way.

D.A. Henderson in 1974. (CDC)

For millennia, at least since the time of the Egyptian pharaohs, smallpox had ravaged its way around the world. Caused by the variola virus, it was an exceptionally painful and gruesome disease. Victims suffered from fever and other flulike symptoms before developing a rash of the pustules that gave the disease its nickname: the speckled monster. It killed a third of its victims and left survivors disfigured, sometimes blind.

Smallpox has been called one of the most loathsome diseases, Dr. Henderson told The Washington Post in 1979. I know that no matter how many visits I made to smallpox wards filled with seriously ill and dying patients, I always came away shaken.

Populations had long sought to protect themselves from smallpox through crude methods of inoculation, the process by which a patient is intentionally exposed to a disease to provoke a mild reaction and thereby obtains immunity from a more serious infection.

In the 18th century, an English physician, Edward Jenner, discovered that exposure to the less dangerous cowpox virus produced immunity to smallpox. He is regarded as the father of the smallpox vaccine, which was perfected over the years and severely curtailed the spread of the disease in areas where the vaccine was distributed. Because of large-scale immunizations, the United States was free of smallpox by 1949.

But the disease continued to bedevil countries around the world, particularly in South America, South Asia and Africa. In the late 1950s, the Soviet Union began to apply pressure on the WHO, which is an agency of the United Nations, to mount a campaign to wipe out smallpox.

Many WHO officials were hesitant to embark on such an ambitious operation, fearing that a defeat would erode the organizations credibility. Previous efforts to eliminate other diseases, such as yellow fever and malaria, had failed spectacularly, according to Jason Schwartz, a historian of medicine at the Yale School of Public Health.

[The world is closer than ever to eradicating Guinea worm]

D.A. Henderson in 2011. (Michael Temchine/The Washington Post)

When it was agreed that the WHO would take on the smallpox initiative, the organization turned to the United States, which, under Dr. Hendersons leadership, had already launched a smallpox-eradication program in Africa. In an oral history with the online Global Health Chronicles, Dr. Henderson recalled that the WHO director general, the Brazilian malariologist Marcelino Candau, called the U.S. surgeon general with a demand.

I want an American to run the program, Candau said, because when it goes down, when it fails, I want it to be seen that there is an American there and the U.S. is really responsible for this dreadful thing that you have launched the World Health Organization into, and the person I want is Henderson.

Pressed by the surgeon general, and apprehensive about his chances of success, Dr. Henderson arrived in Geneva in 1966. For the next 11 years, he shuttled between Geneva and far-flung smallpox hot spots  obtaining funding, coordinating with nations including the Soviet Union amid Cold War tensions, and inspiring heroics from the tens of thousands of field workers who ventured into countries racked by deprivation, natural disaster, political instability and war.

The campaign, which cost an estimated total of $300 million, employed a strategy called ring vaccination that was credited to the American epidemiologist William Foege. Rather than attempting to vaccinate everyone  a technique determined to be superfluous  the WHO located smallpox patients, isolated them, vaccinated everyone who had contact with the victims, and then vaccinated everyone who had contact with those people.

The smallpox campaign benefited from an effective vaccine, ingeniously reconstituted in a freeze-dried form that could withstand the high temperatures of tropical environments. It was administered by a sharp, two-pronged rod that was easy for nonprofessionals to use. The nature of smallpox also offered advantages: With its telltale sores, it was easy to identify in patients, and it had no animal vector, or means of transmission.

Much credit for its success went to Dr. Henderson personally.

He gives a sense of certainty on things, Foege said in an interview, and people like to follow a leader that is quite certain about what they are doing.

When Dr. Henderson feared that the Soviet Union was delivering substandard vaccines for the effort, he traveled to Moscow, over the prohibition of his bosses, to confront authorities there, the New York Times reported. When the health minister under Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie proved insufficiently helpful, Dr. Henderson entered the country and cozied up to the emperors personal physician.

Dr. Henderson shared credit for his accomplishments with the many WHO collaborators who performed vaccinations in the field.

The obstacles were unbelievable, Dr. Henderson told the Times in 2011, recalling the efforts of Ciro de Quadros, a Brazilian epidemiologist who later helped lead an assault on polio. The emperor assassinated, two revolutionary groups fighting, nine of his own teams kidnapped, even a helicopter captured and held for ransom. He kept the teams in the field  and that helicopter pilot went out and vaccinated all the rebels.

Recalling their work together, Foege said that Dr. Henderson displayed profound concern for the field workers who risked their safety to carry out their work.

I dont know how many stories Ive heard of the mothers of people who had gone to India calling him directly, Foege said. For some of them, it was their first time overseas. You can see why their parents might have been nervous if they didnt hear from their child after a couple of weeks. Some of these mothers would call D.A. Henderson in Geneva and ask him to find out if their child was okay. And he would.

To ensure total eradication, field workers offered rewards for reports of smallpox cases. When offers of cash went unanswered, Dr. Henderson told The Post, we knew we had done it, but we couldnt believe it.

Ali Maow Maalin, a Somali who died in 2013, contracted the disease in 1977 and was identified as the worlds last patient with naturally occurring smallpox. Three years later, the World Health Assembly certified that smallpox had been eradicated.

Donald Ainslie Henderson was born in Lakewood, Ohio, outside of Cleveland, on Sept. 7, 1928. His mother was a nurse, and his father was an engineer.

He had not yet turned 20 when, in 1947, New York City suffered a smallpox outbreak. The episode, which resulted in the vaccination of millions, spurred Dr. Hendersons interest in the disease and how it might be stopped.

He received a bachelors degree in chemistry from Ohios Oberlin College in 1950 and a medical degree in 1954 from the University of Rochester in New York. The next year, he joined the CDC, then called the Communicable Disease Center, where he was mentored by Alexander Langmuir, the founder of the CDCs Epidemic Intelligence Service, a sort of epidemiological special forces.

I decided I was never going to be a practicing doc, Dr. Henderson once told an interviewer, according to the reference guide Current Biography. It was just too dull, really.

He received a master of public health degree from Johns Hopkins University in 1960. At the CDC, he became chief of the virus surveillance section before leading the African and then global smallpox eradication campaigns.

Dr. Henderson was the author of Smallpox: The Death of a Disease (2009). His honors included the National Medal of Science in 1986 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nations highest civilian honor, in 2002.

Survivors include his wife of 64 years, the former Nana Bragg of Towson; three children, Leigh Henderson of Baltimore, David Henderson of Brooklyn and Douglas Henderson of Berlin.

When Dr. Henderson left the WHO in 1977, he quipped that as the chief expert on a disease that had been wiped out, he was left there high and dry with no marketable skills, with no option but to become a dean.

He joined Johns Hopkins, where he remained until 1990, later returning to found a center for civilian biodefense studies. Dr. Henderson served in the administrations of George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and subsequent anthrax mailings, he served under President George W. Bush as director of the Office of Public Health Preparedness, a new unit to combat bioterrorism.

At the time, some U.S. intelligence analysts feared that Iraq or North Korea might possess strains of the smallpox virus and be capable of using them as biological weapons. Fears subsided after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, where no smallpox was found, but some experts still perceive a threat from North Korea.

The only officially sanctioned stores of the smallpox virus are held at heavily secured facilities at the CDC in Atlanta and at a Russian facility in Siberia. Some researchers contend that the samples should be preserved for use in the development of future vaccines or treatments.

Dr. Henderson strenuously argued that the samples should be destroyed because, in his view, any amount of smallpox was too dangerous to tolerate. A side effect of the eradication program  and one of the horrendous ironies of history, said Hot Zone author Preston  is that since no one in generations has been exposed to the virus, most of the worlds population would be vulnerable to it in the event of an outbreak.

I feel very  what should we say?  dispirited, Dr. Henderson told the Times in 2002. Here we are, regressing to defend against something we thought was permanently defeated. We shouldnt have to be doing this.
D.C. police said they have made a second arrest in connection with a fatal shooting that occurred in July.

Authorities said Jerrell Powell, 21, of Southeast Washington was charged with murder in the death of Antoine Danell McCullough, 30, of Southeast.

McCullough was found with several gunshot wounds July 2 in the 3500 block of 18th Street SE, police said.

[D.C. police arrest man in fatal shooting in Southeast Washington]
The man fatally shot by a sheriffs deputy at Inova Fairfax Hospital Monday night was identified Friday by county police as Jovany Martinez, 29, of no fixed address.

In a statement giving new details about the incident, police said Martinez approached an officer Monday afternoon on Little River Turnpike in Annandale who became concerned that he was suffering an emergency because of the heat, experiencing mental health problems, or both.

Martinez was taken to the hospital for evaluation, where the officer was told he was not in mental distress, and he was discharged, according to the police.

But, outside, he appeared to be in mental crisis, struck a security guard with a sign post and swung it at the deputy, who retreated. Ignoring the deputys orders to drop the post, he continued to charge at the deputy with it and was shot, police said.
The Uber cab driver was arrested yesterday for molesting an Italian national who was on her way to Versova from Bandra.

By Mustafa Shaikh: Accused for molesting an expat, Shehbaz Shehkhani was produced in Bandra court today after which he has been remanded in police custody till August 22. Santacruz police has demanded a police custody for further investigations.

"We have recovered the Swift Desire car in which the incident took place. We are inquiring if the accused has any previous cases against him. This is why he has asked for police custody of Shehbaz," said senior inspector of Santacruz police station, Shantanu Pawar.

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HERE'S WHAT HAPPENED



According to the police complaint, the incident took placed on Thursday night when a lady with Italian nationality called for a Uber cab from Pali Hill Bandra to Versova. She was picked up from the location, but midway Shekhani who was driving the car stopped the vehicle in a secluded lane and came to the backseat. He allegedly molested the woman on the pretext of cleaning the windshield of the car.

After the woman objected and raised her voice, Shehkhani got scared of being caught. He left the woman there and ran away to his house in south Mumbai. The woman who works as a doctor contacted her friends and went to Khar police station to file a complaint. A case of IPC section 354 (outraging women modesty) was registered and transferred to Santacruz police station, given the jurisdiction of the incident.

The police arrested Shekhani from his house yesterday in Mandvi area of Mumbai.

Also read: Uber driver arrested for molesting foreigner



--- ENDS ---
The man who unwittingly shot and injured a 7-year-old girl in southeast Washington this spring has pled guilty, authorities announced on Saturday.

Michael Wiggins, 27, pled guilty to a count of aggravated assault while armed and another count of possessing a firearm during a crime of violence. He faces seven years in prison under a plea agreement.

Wiggins admitted he was feuding with his cousin in southeast Washington around 9:30 p.m. on April 8 and fired four shots at his cousins car as he drove off, according to a statement from the office of the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia.

One of the bullets struck a 7-year-old girl standing on a nearby sidewalk on the 2900 block of Knox Place. The girl and her parents were returning home from eating pizza at Chuck E. Cheeses.

She was airlifted to Childrens National Medical Center with a gunshot wound to the chest, and is expected to make a full recovery.

Police arrested Wiggins three days later.

The shooting, just a few hundred feet away from a police station, left residents of the community rattled after a spate of gun violence.

Wiggins is set to appear in D.C. Superior Court for sentencing on Sept. 15, where a judge will decide whether to accept the plea agreement.
MARYLAND

Employee at storein Clinton fatally shot

A convenience-store employee was fatally shot Saturday during an apparent robbery attempt in Clinton, police in Prince Georges County said.

Officers were called to the 9700 block of Brandywine Road in Clinton for a report of a shooting about 4:50 a.m., police said. When officers arrived, they found Taiwo Oduwole, 31, inside a convenience store with gunshot wounds, police said.

Oduwole died at a hospital.

Police released photos of the shooter, showing a man wearing a distinct backpack with his entire body covered in clothing.

Detectives are looking for the same person in connection with a robbery of a hotel in Clinton not long after the shooting.

A $25,000 reward is available for information leading to an arrest and indictment. Authorities are asking those with information to call 866-411-TIPS.

 Lynh Bui

THE DISTRICT

Man pleads guiltyin shooting of girl, 7

The man who unwittingly shot and injured a 7-year-old girl in Southeast Washington this spring has pleaded guilty, authorities said Saturday.

Michael Wiggins, 27, pleaded guilty to a count of aggravated assault while armed and another count of possessing a firearm during a crime of violence. He faces seven years in prison under a plea agreement.

Wiggins admitted he was feuding with his cousin about 9:30 p.m. on April 8 and fired four shots at his cousins car as he drove off, according to a statement from the office of the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia.

One of the bullets struck a 7-year-old girl on a sidewalk in the 2900 block of Knox Place. The girl and her parents were returning home from a restaurant.

She was hit in the chest but is expected to make a full recovery.

The shooting, near a police station, rattled area residents.

 Fenit Nirappil

Off-duty reghter shot in Southeast

An off-duty D.C. firefighter was shot and wounded Saturday afternoon while driving his personal car in Southeast Washington, fire officials said.

He was in stable condition at a hospital, a fire department spokesman said.

The shooting occurred about 4:30 p.m. in the 3300 block of Southern Avenue. No motive in the attack could be learned immediately. Police said they were looking for someone on a motorcycle.

 Martin Weil
Ebony Price, a single mother of two children who is a long-term D.C. welfare recipient, with her 9-month-old baby, Lauryn Lindsay, in Washington. (Linda Davidson/The Washington Post)

Ebony Price got an ominous letter from the D.C. government last winter, the same warning that the city has sent to thousands of other entrenched welfare recipients.

It came from the Department of Human Services, which manages the welfare program called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF. Price, already beset by daily worries as a jobless parent struggling with often-empty pockets, felt her anxiety deepen as she read the notice.

They told me that due to me being on TANF for more than 60 months, I would be reduced, she said, referring to the public assistance she receives. Since 2011, her monthly benefit had been gradually gutted, from $366 to $120, she said. And the letter was telling me they were going to reduce me to none, zero, nothing. No income.

Price, 27, who lives with her boyfriend and two young daughters in a rent-subsidized apartment in Anacostia, is one of about 5,700 adults (with roughly 12,000 dependent children) who have been on the citys TANF rolls for longer than five years, accounting for almost 40 percent of the Districts 15,000 welfare cases.

Now, for Price and many other longtime recipients, a deadline clock is ticking: After two decades of delays, the city next year may finally end benefits for those who have run out their eligibility.

Price volunteers at Bread for the City in exchange for benefits. (Linda Davidson/The Washington Post)

I feel like no one knows what its like until youre in this situation, Price said recently, sitting at an office computer at Bread for the City, a nonprofit social-services center where she works as a volunteer. You are blessed to be financially stable. You are blessed not to have to go through the things other people go through. You shouldnt look down your nose at someone whos less fortunate than you are.

Monday is the 20th anniversary of President Bill Clintons signing of landmark welfare-reform legislation, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, that heralded a huge shift in the nations approach to helping poor families.

Gone was a federal entitlement, dating to the Great Depression, called Aid to Families with Dependent Children, which had virtually guaranteed that eligible recipients could get monthly checks for unlimited periods, with few strings. Welfare queens was a familiar pejorative then. On Aug. 22, 1996, a new system was born, with states and the District receiving yearly federal grants to finance TANF programs.

The catch: With some exceptions, the federal money cannot be given to those, such as Price, who have been on the rolls for 60 months. First and foremost, Clinton declared at the time, TANF should be about moving people from welfare to work.

Every state has generally shaped its TANF program to that federal vision, establishing cutoffs and criteria for extensions and requiring recipients to undergo job training or enroll in school to continue getting benefits before the cutoff.

For years, though, the District eschewed sweeping reforms. Entrenched welfare clients in the nations capital who become ineligible to benefit from the federal grants receive city money instead, totaling about $10 million annually in recent budgets.

But in this rapidly gentrifying metropolis, political tolerance for the underclass, and even public compassion, appears to have waned, advocates for the poor contend.

[D.C. program allows the poor to build their own residences.]

Big changes in the Districts TANF program  including the planned elimination of benefits in October 2017 for an undetermined number of longtime recipients  began brewing in late 2010, spurred at least partly by an increasing welfare caseload for the city in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. Officials still must decide on criteria for hardship extensions, an issue that the D.C. Council is expected to take up this fall.

If you talk with practitioners who work with these families, what we know is, theyre really living on the edge, said D.C. Council member Brianne K. Nadeau (D-Ward 1), the lead sponsor of a bill that would set broad criteria for welfare extensions. Under her plan, a vast majority of the 5,700 or so families that have been TANF recipients for longer than 60 months might continue to get benefits, mostly at the citys expense.

No one familiar with the situation thinks the District will cut off welfare recipients wholesale, allowing no extensions. What remains to be seen is how loose or strict the criteria ultimately will be and how much the extensions will cost D.C. taxpayers.

Vincent C. Gray, who was D.C. Council chairman and mayor-elect in late 2010, played a key role in getting a budget measure passed that started the process of eventually removing longtime TANF recipients from the rolls. After losing his bid for a second term as mayor, Gray won this years Democratic primary for the Ward 7 council seat, meaning he is virtually assured of prevailing in the election in November and returning to the council in January.

Gray, who was in New York last week, did not respond to phone messages asking for his position on Nadeaus extensions bill.

The issue of welfare reform rarely came up in the 2014 mayoral race, despite much discussion about the widening economic gap between the haves and have-nots in a city swirling with demographic changes and becoming generally wealthier. On the few occasions when she spoke about welfare during her winning campaign, Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) focused on the need to create more job opportunities for the poor.

A Bowser spokesman did not reply to messages last week seeking comment on the topic.

[A researcher worries about the impact of welfare reform on white men]

Price is the typical District welfare client: an unmarried woman in her 20s with two dependent children. According to the nonprofit D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute, recipients who have not hit the five-year mark (about 9,300 families, by the citys count) are receiving an average of $441 a month from the federal grants. And longtime recipients ineligible for federal money were getting similar sums from the municipal coffer until a few years ago.

However, since 2011, when the countdown began toward the scheduled termination of benefits for those who are past the five-year limit, their allotments have been gradually cut to an average of $158 monthly, the Department of Human Services said.

Besides $120 in TANF money, direct-deposited to her Electronic Benefits Transfer card at the start of each month, Price said, she gets $511 a month in food stamps and accepts charity from Bread for the City and other organizations.

She said her live-in boyfriend, who is the father of her 9-month-old daughter, has a part-time, low-wage job loading and unloading trucks at a Dollar Tree store. Thanks to a rent subsidy, Price said, they pay $188 a month for a two-bedroom apartment.

Like my daughters about to go back to school, she said, meaning her older child, who starts the fourth grade this week. I cant get shoes, and diapers, and pay my rent, and keep the household up, and transportation.

Sitting at Bread for the City one morning last week, only midway through the month, she gestured to her purse and the EBT card in her wallet. Right now my balance is zero dollars, she said, grinning ruefully, and zero cents.

Thats what $120 means to her.

Echoing numerous advocates for the poor, Nadeau said that many longtime recipients face steep barriers to employment, including unaffordable child care, poor job skills, literacy troubles, health woes and issues related to domestic violence. Cutting them from the welfare rolls, she said, would exacerbate other budget-draining problems.

When we played with the numbers, Nadeau said, what we had was, if even 10 percent of the families removed from TANF fall into homelessness, then getting them back into housing would cost as much money as funding all these extensions.

Judith Sandalow, director of the Childrens Law Center in the District, agreed.

Were quite certain that the city would spend more on homeless services, foster care and the criminal justice system, she said. And we know that children in homeless families dont learn as well, so wed see more costs for special education.

[In last D.C. mayoral campaign, welfare recipients barely cast a shadow]

Price, who grew up with five sisters in a low-income family in the District, was 7 years old when Clinton signed the historic welfare-reform act. By the time she graduated in 2008 from a charter high school tailored for students at risk of dropping out, she was the mother of a toddler named Daeon, now 10, whose father she lost track of long ago.

Soon after finishing school, Price said, she went on welfare. Although she has held an array of jobs over the years, and became a certified emergency medical technician through an adult-education program, she said, her inability to afford consistent child care for Daeon stymied her quest for long-term employment.

I was a secretary for someone, she said. I was a person that puts in payroll. I have had cashier work. Cleaning jobs. I have done a lot. But it always had to end.

Then, late last year, she gave birth to another daughter, Lauryn. To anyone suggesting that it was unwise of her to have a second child, given her straits, Price ventures no rationale, only a blunt retort: You shouldnt speak upon that situation. Who are you to say whats right for me and whats not right for me?

At the moment, little Lauryn was elsewhere at Bread for the City, on the lap of a staff member who was busy typing. The crowded, clamorous facility offers a community of free babysitters for Price, who volunteers as a mediator, a problem-solver, ironing out confusion that often arises between the staff and an endless flow of needy people. The daily work fulfills Prices job-preparation requirement for TANF benefits.

For years, there was little political will in the city to cut off longtime recipients such as she.

From 1996, when federal welfare reform passed, until the mid-2000s, the Districts TANF rolls steadily shrank in a healthy economy, from 25,000 cases to slightly more than 10,000. But as the caseload increased in the recession after the 2008 crash, Gray, as a council member and mayor, stunned advocates for the poor by pushing for time limits.

His human services director, David A. Berns, hired in 2011, had helped implement welfare reforms in three states. Thats why he brought me in, recalled Berns, now retired in Michigan. He said one of his main accomplishments, in preparing for the eventual imposition of a 60-month restriction, was contracting for a variety of programs aimed at shepherding people from TANF to paying jobs.

Laura Zeilinger, who took charge of the Department of Human Services last year under Bowser, said she has greatly expanded the capacities of those job programs. Protracted wait times for enrollment, which had been a year in some cases, have been virtually eliminated, she said. As for whether the cutoffs will take place on schedule in October 2017, Zeilinger said, it depends on the enactment of fair criteria for extensions of benefits.

The loss of cash income can have a very significant and potentially harmful impact on children, she said. We fully understand that.

So does Ebony Price.

She said she hopes her volunteer experience at Bread for the City will lead to gainful employment. She hopes to earn money someday by working with the homeless, victims of domestic abuse and others in crisis. And she hopes to find affordable child care.

I hope for great things, she said. I hope, I hope.

Correction: A previous version of this article misstated the number of welfare dependents in D.C. This version has been corrected.
Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe speaks to reporters before the start of the first day of the Democratic National Convention in July. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

A majority of Virginia voters approve of Terry McAuliffes performance as governor, but that positive rating is weaker and more partisan than what nearly all of his predecessors enjoyed over the past two decades, a new Washington Post poll finds.

Fifty-three percent of registered voters approve of the Democrat, and 33 percent disapprove.

With 17 months left in office, McAuliffe enters the home stretch of his four-year term with big goals in health care, economic development and felon-rights restoration still uncertain or unmet.

Yet his most high-profile aim  delivering his critical swing state for close friend and political ally Hillary Clinton in the presidential election  appears to be on track, with The Posts poll finding that the former secretary of state has a wide lead over Republican Donald Trump in the commonwealth.

[Trumps unpopularity fuels wide lead for Clinton in new Virginia poll]





People arent really paying attention to Richmond, given the two-ring circus that is the presidential campaign, said Steve Farnsworth, a professor of political science at the University of Mary Washington.

Voters opinions of McAuliffe, a former Democratic National Committee chairman, fall more sharply along partisan lines than usually is the case for Virginia governors, the poll finds. Yet their views on some of his policy moves are more nuanced.

For instance, Virginians are upbeat about the economy, but few say it has improved much since McAuliffe entered office, even though he has made economic development a priority. And by a wide margin, voters support the governors now-thwarted effort to restore voting rights to more than 200,000 felons. But they are about evenly split on whether he was motivated by altruism or politics.

McAuliffe came to the Virginia governors mansion after a career as a prolific and sometimes controversial fundraiser for Clinton and her husband, former president Bill Clinton.

He won the governorship  his first elective office  in a tight 2013 race against an equally polarizing figure, then-Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II, a darling of religious and tea party conservatives.

Partisan warfare continued after the election. Republicans in control of Virginias House and Senate have blocked most of the governors legislative priorities, including expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. So McAuliffe sometimes has turned to executive orders to get around the legislature and has focused on economic development, something he can largely pursue without General Assembly input.

Restoration of felon rights

In April, McAuliffe issued an executive order to restore voting rights to more than 200,000 felons who had completed their sentences and were no longer under supervised release. He said he wanted to move the state away from a policy he characterized as a last vestige of Jim Crow laws because it disproportionately affected black citizens. Republicans, accusing him of trying to bulk up Democratic voter rolls ahead of the presidential election, said he had exceeded his authority by awarding clemency en masse instead of on the usual case-by-case basis.





GOP legislative leaders filed a lawsuit and won in the Virginia Supreme Court, which invalidated McAuliffes order in July.

McAuliffe has had better luck in the court of public opinion, with 61 percent of Virginia adults saying they support his executive order and 37 percent strongly so. Thirty-four percent oppose it, with 21 percent doing so strongly. Support is highest among Democrats (82 percent), African Americans (87 percent), younger adults (73 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds). Six in 10 Republicans oppose McAuliffes effort to restore felons voting rights, while 61 percent of independents say they support it.

But Virginians are closely divided on McAuliffes motivations for the move; 45 percent say he did it because he thinks it is the right thing to do, while 42 percent say he did it because it would help Democrats win elections. More than 7 in 10 Republicans say McAuliffes action was an effort to boost his partys chances, while more than 7 in 10 Democrats say the opposite.

The economy

For the most part, Virginians feel good about their economy, giving it higher marks than they did in a poll conducted three years ago, before McAuliffe took office. More than 7 in 10 rate the states economy as excellent or good, up from just over 6 in 10 who said the same in 2013.

Even though their outlook on the economy has grown sunnier, Virginians do not seem to connect that to the governor. Fewer than 25 percent say the economy got better under McAuliffe; 59 percent say it has remained stable, and 12 percent say it has worsened.

The good feelings are more intense as you get closer to the District, with 86 percent in the inner and outer D.C. suburbs giving the economy high marks. That compares with 65 percent in the rest of the state  and a low of 57 percent in the Southwest, where rural towns and counties continue to struggle with high unemployment.

About twice as many African Americans as whites say the economy has improved during McAuliffes term, 38 percent compared with 19 percent.

In fact, Virginias economy has continued to strengthen from the dark days of the Great Recession, although not uniformly across the state. Virginias unemployment rate for July was 3.7 percent, significantly lower than the U.S. rate of 4.9 percent and down more than half a percentage point from the same month a year ago, according to data released Friday by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Virginias economy tends to be stronger than that of other states, in part because of its huge amount of government contracting business. When the federal government tightens its purse strings, as it has in recent years, Virginia feels the pinch.

There is not a lot of evidence that the states economy has diversified under McAuliffe, said Vinod Agarwal, an economist at Old Dominion University in Norfolk. But thats not necessarily a knock on the governor.

Whether any governor or politician comes in and wants to diversify, all they can really do is motivate peoples thinking, Agarwal said. One of the problems in Virginia, he said, is that cities and counties operate under a patchwork of laws that limit their ability to cooperate and leave them with competing motivations.

He gave McAuliffe credit for attacking that issue by working to promote regionalism around the state.

The rosy overall economic numbers mask some weaknesses in Virginia. Although unemployment is low, workforce participation is down as more people drop out of the job market. And many of the jobs that have been created are part time or lower paying, Agarwal said.

Whats more, the recovery has been uneven. Hampton Roads, with its dependence on the military and government contracting, still is struggling to make up ground lost to federal budget cuts. The region is about 10,000 jobs short of its employment levels of 2007, before the recession and financial crisis, Agarwal said.

As for McAuliffes overall grade for economic performance, though, Agarwal thinks its too soon. It takes a much longer time than we think for things to get done, he said. I think for a report card, we have to wait another four or five years.

Popularity and polarization

McAuliffes 53-33 approval-disapproval rating lags behind what voters thought of Republican Robert F. McDonnell (58-27), Democrat Tim Kaine (66-25) and Republican James Gilmore (70-20) in Post polls conducted in year three of each governorship. The Post did not poll at a comparable point in the terms of Democrat Mark R. Warner or Republican George Allen but did so in the fourth and final year of each. In those surveys, Warners approval rating was 76-22, and Allens was 67-26.

Among registered voters, approval of McAuliffe is markedly higher among Democrats (77 percent) and independents (53 percent) than among Republicans (27 percent). The 50-point gap in approval between Democrats and Republicans is larger than the partisan gap for McDonnell (41 points) and Kaine (24 points) in their third years, and Warner (18 points) and Allen (39 points) in the fourth year of each of those governors.

Only Obama has ratings that are more polarized along partisan lines than McAuliffes, with 92 percent of Virginia Democrats approving of the president and just 14 percent of Republicans, a 78-point gap.

Among independents, McAuliffes approval is 53 percent, below what McDonnell (63 percent) and Kaine (66 percent) drew in their third years in office, and what Warner (77 percent) rated in his fourth.

McAuliffes approval rating varies along racial, educational and regional lines. He receives higher approval among nonwhite voters (68 percent) than whites (46 percent). African Americans are especially likely to approve of him, at 76 percent.

A greater proportion of more-highly educated Virginians approve of the governor. Sixty-two percent of college graduates approve, compared with 50 percent of those with some college education and 47 percent of those with a high school degree or less.

McAuliffe enjoys 65 percent approval in both the heavily blue Washington suburbs and in Hampton Roads. That support falls to about half in the Northern Virginia exurbs and Richmond area and to 38 percent in the deeply red, rural Southwest.

Guns

McAuliffe ran for governor bragging about his F rating from the National Rifle Association, taking an unusually strong stance for gun control in a state with rural hunting traditions. Early this year, he shocked gun-control allies by striking a compromise with gun rights Republicans and the NRA.

The deal greatly expands the rights of holders of permits for concealed-handgun carry in exchange for tighter restrictions on gun ownership by domestic abusers and voluntary background checks at gun shows. McAuliffe has said that the overall deal was a good compromise that advanced the cause of gun control, an issue that remains popular with Virginia voters if not the states GOP-controlled legislature.

[Five things that (kind of) explain McAuliffes gun deal with Republicans]

The Post poll finds 57 percent of Virginians favor stricter gun control laws, with 40 percent opposed, a slightly wider margin than in 2012, when voters favored stricter laws by 53-44, but similar to the level of support in 2007 (58-38).

Nearly half of Virginians live in households with guns, and 56 percent of them oppose stricter gun laws. Just 41 percent of those in gun-owning households support stricter laws, support that rises to 74 percent among those in non-gun households.

The Washington Post poll was conducted Aug. 11-14 among a random sample of 1,002 Virginia adults interviewed on cellular and landline phones. The margin of sampling error for overall results and among the sample of 888 registered voters is plus or minus four percentage points.

Scott Clement contributed to this report.
Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) on April 22 at the Capitol in Richmond, holding the order he signed to restore voting rights to felons. (Mark Gormus/AP)

Gov. Terry McAuliffe will announce Monday that he has restored voting rights to 13,000 felons on a case-by-case basis after Republicans and state Supreme Court justices last month stopped his more sweeping clemency effort.

McAuliffes planned action, confirmed by two people with knowledge of it, comes about a month after the Supreme Court of Virginia invalidated an executive order the Democratic governor issued in April. With that order, McAuliffe restored voting rights to more than 200,000 felons who had completed their sentences.

McAuliffe said his original order would move Virginia away from a harsh lifetime disenfranchisement policy that hits African Americans particularly hard.

Republicans, incensed that it covered violent and nonviolent offenders alike, said the move was really a bid to add Democrat-friendly voters to the rolls ahead of Novembers presidential elections, when the governors close friend and political ally, Hillary Clinton, will be on the ballot.

Republicans also found the McAuliffe administration had mistakenly restored rights to 132 sex offenders still in custody and to several convicted murderers on probation in other states.

Contending that the governor had overstepped his authority by restoring rights en masse rather than case by case, GOP legislative leaders took him to court and won. Since 13,000 of the 200,000 felons had already registered to vote, the court ordered the state to once again put their names on its list of banned voters.

Immediately after that ruling, McAuliffe vowed to use an autopen to individually sign orders restoring rights. He promised to do the first 13,000 within a week and all 200,000 within two.

By the end of this week, I will have restored the rights of all 13,000, McAuliffe declared last month.

[McAuliffe promises to dodge court ruling against sweeping clemency order]

Since then, the McAuliffe administration has acknowledged unspecified holdups but declined to provide a new timetable for restoring rights. The first hint came Friday, with the release of McAuliffes official schedule.

At noon Monday, it said, he will appear at the Civil Rights Memorial on Capitol Square to make major restoration of rights announcement.

A McAuliffe spokeswoman, Christina Nuckols, declined to provide more information.

McAuliffe will announce that he has restored voting rights to the 13,000 felons, making them free to register once again, according to the two people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose his plans. McAuliffe also will lay out his plans for restoring rights to the remainder of the 200,000.

A substantial majority of Virginians approve of McAuliffes original effort to restore felon rights, although they are closely split on his motivations, according to a new Washington Post poll.

[Virginians on McAuliffe, the economy and felon voting]

Sixty-one percent of Virginia adults say they support his order and 37 percent strongly so. Thirty-four percent oppose it, with 21 percent doing so strongly. Support is highest among Democrats (82 percent), African Americans (87 percent), younger adults (73 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds). Six in 10 Republicans oppose McAuliffes effort to restore felons voting rights, while 61 percent of independents say they support it.

But Virginians are narrowly divided on McAuliffes motivations; 45 percent say he did it because he thinks it is the right thing to do, while 42 percent say he did it because it would help Democrats win elections. More than 7 in 10 Republicans say McAuliffes action was an effort to boost his partys chances, while more than 7 in 10 Democrats say the opposite.

[Gov. Terry McAuliffe is less popular, more polarizing than recent Va. governors]

McAuliffes planned move on Monday will be welcomed by such felons as Herb Williams of Prince William County, who signed up to vote after McAuliffes original order  only to be later removed from the rolls.

I just feel like part of me was stolen, said Williams, 62, a minister who said he straightened his life out after being convicted of drug and robbery charges in the 1990s. People who have redeemed themselves  they should not continue to be marked people.

Claire Guthrie Gastanaga, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, said she would cheer another restoration plan  particularly one that restores rights before October, the registration deadline for voting in November.

We think its the right thing to do, and were hopeful it will get done in time for people to be able to register before the deadline, she said.

Del. Robert B. Bell (R-Albemarle), a 2017 candidate for state attorney general who has led the charge against McAuliffes order, said he would watch any new restoration efforts closely because of the problems with the original order.

Given that his first order was unconstitutional and included a noncitizen sex offender in Peru, we will certainly want to review whatever he does on Monday very carefully, Bell said.
When Barack Obama was on his rise to the White House, it was often said that he was one of the luckiest politicians in the country. The same could now be said about Hillary Clinton.

This was a week in which any number of developments could have put Clinton on the defensive. Instead, days of turmoil inside Donald Trumps campaign made the Republican nominee the big story  and the coverage of his campaign was anything but flattering.

[Trumps apology sounds like a non-apology]

Trumps advisers think that on balance the week was positive, the best of the month. They now hope they can begin to shift the focus to Clinton and, if theyre successful, the polls that show her leading will narrow. That assumes two things: that Trump wont create more controversy in the days and weeks ahead; and that voters will ultimately see her vulnerabilities as more disqualifying than the many liabilities that Trump has revealed during the campaign.

Clintons assets are well-known but so, too, are her vulnerabilities. The polls have showed that many voters see her as a politician who plays by a different set of rules or is prepared to bend the rules in her favor. She has been criticized as overly defensive when challenged, slow to acknowledge errors and legalistic in explaining herself. She prefers to shield herself from more questioning from the reporters who regularly cover her campaign, having not held a full-fledged news conference for more than 260 days.

FBI Director James Comey testified on July 7 at a U.S. House of Representatives hearing on presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's decision to use a personal email server while serving as Secretary of State. (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post)

Clintons friends say that her penchant for defensiveness and secrecy is the product of a quarter-century of attacks from her critics, what she long ago called a vast right-wing conspiracy. By now, it is baked in. Even some of the people who have the highest admiration for her intelligence, her work ethic and her commitment to finding good policies to address major problems see this as a genuine liability that could hamper her if she becomes president.

Her allies say that as president, Clinton would be committed to finding some common ground with Republicans. But what happens if Republican attacks continue? A recent story in The Washington Post, based on the files of Diane Blair, one of Clintons closest friends from Arkansas, described the then-first lady as constantly frustrated during her husbands administration that, when under attack, others in the White House were not sufficiently strong in going after the critics.

The story said that it was Clinton who was urging hardball in those situations. Month after month, Clinton was in despair, her friend [Blair] wrote, that nobody in the White House was tough and mean enough,  according to the article.

[A Hillary confidantes letters reveal a window into her friends life]

Clintons image deteriorated during her nomination contest with Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. She emerged as one of the two least-liked presidential candidates in the modern history of presidential politics. It is her good fortune that the least liked is Trump. However much she is distrusted, Trump is distrusted more. Although a majority of voters do not believe she is honest, when asked which of the two major party nominees is more honest, she rates ahead of her Republican opponent.

Her recent characterization of FBI Director James B. Comeys comments about her use of a private email server as secretary of state earned negative ratings from media fact checkers. Only after it was apparent that her version of what Comey had said was no longer defensible did she pull back, saying she had short-circuited her explanation during an interview with Chris Wallace of Fox News, which she said led to a misunderstanding of what she meant.

The email issue isnt going away. The FBI director said his agencys review found no grounds for prosecution. But he was sharply critical of her for being extremely careless with classified information. The FBI has sent to Capitol Hill the records of her interview with the agency. Clinton campaign officials now worry that her opponents will leak selected portions of those findings.

The Fix's Chris Cillizza explains why Donald Trump demoted campaign chief Paul Manafort and added two new top advisers  Breitbart News chief Stephen Bannon and pollster Kellyanne Conway. (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post)

Meanwhile, as part of an ongoing public records lawsuit, a federal judge ruled Friday that Clinton must answer under oath written questions from the conservative organization Judicial Watch about the use of the email server. The Clinton campaign sees the lawsuit as right-wing harassment, but the judges decision means the email controversy will continue, no doubt through the end of the campaign.

More than questions about emails have swirled around Clinton throughout the campaign. The same holds for the role of the Clinton Foundation, which became a source of a controversy again after Judicial Watch released emails that it had received through its lawsuit.

[More than half of Clinton Foundations major donors would be barred under new rule]

The emails revealed a request from a foundation official and longtime adviser to Bill Clinton seeking a State Department meeting on behalf of Gilbert Chagoury, a wealthy Nigerian businessman of Lebanese descent, who had given a substantial amount of money to the foundation. Clinton officials note that nothing ever came of the request. Trump and Republicans nonetheless have called it a sign of a pay to play operation.

The foundation is seen as a source of good works, but it has long been a magnet for such criticism, characterized by critics as a conduit for wealthy individuals and foreign and U.S. entities seeking to curry favor with a past and, more important, a possible future president. Clinton campaign officials have said Clinton never took any action as secretary of state on behalf of foundation donors.

Late last week, officials at the Clinton Foundation announced that if she becomes president, the foundation would no longer accept contributions from foreign governments or corporations. The decision, which would be a major blow to the foundations finances, is designed to prevent questions about conflicts of interest if she is in the White House. But the announcement raised obvious questions: Why now and not when she was secretary of state, and why not immediately?

The explanation offered for the new, more restrictive policy if Clinton becomes president is that it would not be possible to have the same kind of review and appeals process that existed when she was at the State Department, which included possible White House involvement, because there is no executive-branch entity above the White House. Clinton officials argue that the past and newly proposed safeguards go beyond anything required by law. That has not satisfied critics.

Trumps week of problems also overshadowed two other developments affecting the Obama administration. One was the acknowledgment of a direct connection between the release of American hostages from Iran last winter and the payment of $400 million to the Iranian government. Administration officials said the payment was held back until the hostages were clearly being released and said that although the money was used as leverage, it was not a ransom payment.

Then there was the announcement by Aetna that it would pull out of the Affordable Care Act exchanges in 11 of the 15 states where it has been operating. Aetna joined other insurance companies that had previously scaled back their participation in the new health-care system. The decision represented another blow to the signature domestic policy initiative of the Obama presidency, which Clinton has championed.

If Trump were a more disciplined candidate, its likely these other issues would have been much more the focus of the past week. Clinton should send her rival a note of thanks.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article incorrectly said Hillary Clinton appeared on Fox News when she said she short-circuited.


Children collect drinking water from a pond on Nov. 4, 2010. The Carter Center provides water filters in an effort to eradicate Guinea worm disease in the remote village of Lengjak in southern Sudan. (Maggie Fick/AP)

A year ago, when former president Jimmy Carter told the world that he had been diagnosed with cancer, he announced a dying wish: He wanted the last Guinea worm to die before he did. Carter was referring to a parasite that plagued 3.5 million people across 21 African countries as recently as 1986.

Today, Carters cancer is in remission, and Guinea worm infections have never been more rare. Last year, there were 22 cases in four countries. This year, so far, there have been only seven human cases. If the global eradication program, led by the Carter Center, succeeds, Guinea worm will be only the second human disease in history to be eradicated, after smallpox.

[D.A. Henderson, the disease detective who eradicated smallpox, dies at 87]

But the final stage of an eradication program can be the most difficult. The biggest obstacle is that Guinea worm is infecting not just people, but also dogs. Ending the disease in both humans and dogs may be necessary before Carter, now 91, can see his wish fulfilled.

Guinea worm infections are rarely fatal, but they are devastating. The parasites are transmitted to people who drink water infested with water fleas that have eaten Guinea worm larvae. The larvae burrow through the persons intestine and into the layer of tissue beneath the skin, where male and female worms mate.

The male Guinea worm dies, but the female worm incubates in a persons body for a year, where it grows three to five feet long. It forms a horribly painful and itchy blister until it erupts through the flesh of the legs, arms or even chest. To alleviate the pain and itching, an infected person seeks out water  where the worm releases her larvae to start the whole cycle over again.

People suffering from Guinea worm are exhausted and in agony. It can take weeks to slowly extract the worm. Among the Yoruba people in southwest Nigeria, there is an expression: The guinea worm has knocked him down. In southeastern Nigeria, a local word for Guinea worm also means silent magistrate, because of the parasites power to remove students from schools and prevent farmers from planting their crops.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention started an initiative to combat guinea worm in 1980. In 1986, the Carter Center began leading the program along with the CDC, and the World Health Assembly formally targeted Guinea worm for global eradication.



Children in Denchira, a Ghanaian village infected with Guinea worm disease, welcome President Jimmy Carter and the Carter Center in 1989. (The Carter Center)

There is no vaccine for Guinea worm, because the parasite induces no immune response. Someone who caught Guinea worm from contaminated water one year could get infected again the next year. And one worm doesnt stop a simultaneous infection, or three, or 10, said Don Hopkins, who led the CDCs Guinea worm effort and then joined the Carter Center to become director of health programs. Hed heard of a man infected with 84 worms at one time.

The program combines surveillance in remote and often war-torn areas with seemingly simple measures like water filtration, water treatment, rewards for notifying health workers of infection, and education programs. The results are stunning: There were fewer than 10,000 cases in 2007, 542 in 2012. And the cases kept dropping until they reached seven reported this year.

But the parasite is more elusive than experts first realized.

During a news conference on the cancer that has spread to his brain, former president Jimmy Carter says that he'd like to see the Carter Center's work to eradicate the parasitic Guinea worm completed. (Associated Press)

In 2010, Chad reported a human case of Guinea worm, even though the country had been free of reported human infections for 10 years. Members of the Guinea worm eradication programs were very concerned.

We knew from past experience, if we missed any cases in a year, the potential is that a single case could walk into a village and contaminate a pond and give rise to 80 or more cases the next year, Hopkins said. That was the fear.

But the numbers didnt take off. Since 2010, the number of people infected per year has ranged from nine to 14. And instead of clustering around a single village, the cases were scattered over 150 miles. In 2011, when all 11 of the reported cases for that year were in separate villages, it became clear to Mark Eberhard, a parasitologist and researcher at the CDC, that something very unusual was taking place.

Each year it was different people in different villages, in villages that didnt have Guinea worm the year before, Eberhard said. Honestly, we couldnt really explain it.

Two years after the mysterious human infection, dogs were found with Guinea worm in Chad. Canine infections had been reported in the past, but never in large numbers. Now dog infections are rising in Chad, with more than 600 this year. Eberhard thinks dogs are somehow spreading Guinea worm to people.



A health worker removes a Guinea worm from the foot of a villager in Saveluga, Ghana, on Feb. 6, 2007. Another Guinea worm is wrapped around a moist cotton bandage to keep it from drying out. (Louise Gubb/The Carter Center)

The exact method of transmission is unclear. When dogs lap water, water fleas skitter away, so its unlikely dogs are ingesting larvae-infested water fleas directly.

Eberhard suspects theres a biological middleman. Dog infections, like the human cases, cluster around the Chari River. Eberhard guessed that fish were eating guinea worm larvae and dogs were eating the fish. People eating undercooked fish could similarly ingest worms. But in the lab, Eberhard hasnt been able to transmit the worms through fish.

During a trip to Chad this summer, Eberhard collected samples of various animals a dog might eat and will test infected dogs for traces of those animals. If the dogs with Guinea worm were eating the same food, it could provide clues to how the worms are spreading.



Women carry water home from the Dikunani dam in Savelugu, Ghana, on Mar. 10, 2007. A 20-year fight to eradicate Guinea worm disease is in the last and most difficult stages. (Olivier Asselin/AP)

The studies are part of an extensive effort to make sense of the dog infections.

Dog behaviorists at the University of Exeter will attach collars with GPS units to dogs to see where they go and will test dog whiskers to find out what theyve eaten.

The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute is sequencing the DNA of Guinea worms. One goal is to reconstruct the pedigree, the family tree, of all the worms, said the institutes James Cotton. This would let us show that, for example, a worm extracted from a dog in one year is the mother of a worm from a human case in the next year.

Eberhard and his colleagues are testing whether drugs like Heart Guard and Advantage Plus, used for other canine parasites, could treat Guinea worm. If so, such treatment might be the key to killing every last worm.

Without the dog infections, Carters wish to outlive Guinea worms might well have been achievable.

David Molyneux of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and a member of the eradication commission, said with eradication programs, make sure you are ready for surprises. Im not suggesting for a minute that this hasnt been a fantastically successful public health program. It certainly has. And its a model, but it shows you how difficult actual eradication is.

Hopkins turns 75 this year. He said that in 1980, when he started the program, he had no idea that it would be going for this long. He has a preserved Guinea worm named Henrietta in a jar on his bookshelf. I keep it there as a reminder of what were up against, and how awful this disease is, he said.

Joel Breman, another longtime member of the eradication effort, was in West Africa working on smallpox eradication in the 1970s when he first encountered Guinea worm. He knew he was entering an afflicted village when he saw that fraying roofs hadnt been re-thatched, water hadnt been fetched, and people were lying around listlessly.

Its rare that someone would die, said Breman, the current vice chair of the commission to certify Guinea worm eradication, and an emeritus scientist at the National Institutes of Health. But I saw some villages decimated by Guinea worm, and I was really stunned.

Breman, who will be 80 this year, said hes learned to never pair the completion of an eradication program and an end date in the same sentence.

Were getting really, really close, Breman said. And thats exciting. But with eradication programs, its perfection were seeking. Down to the last inch, whatever time it takes.
After a week-long wait, the sarod maestro has finally been granted a visa to UK; says he's grateful to External Affairs Minister Sushma Sawaraj.

By Indo-Asian News Service: Sarod maestro Ustad Amjad Ali Khan has been granted a UK visa, ending his week-long ordeal after the British government denied him the travel document for a concert in September.

A much relieved Khan Sahib, as he is affectionately known, said, "Yes, the visa for my UK concert has been granted to me, finally. I am grateful to Mr Keith Vaz (British MP) and Shrimati Sushma Sawaraj (External Affairs Minister) for their initiative."

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Amjad Ali Khan says he was summoned to the visa office of the UK High Commission here on Friday afternoon.

"I was called to be at the visa office for the third time. I've now been granted a visa for the UK from August 19 to September 19. Though I had asked for a visa till November I am just relieved the ordeal is over. I am so glad to have got my passport back. Now I can again travel the world with my sarod. My concert at the Royal Festival Hall South Bank on September 18 is now on."

Ustad Amjad Ali Khan will leave here on Saturday for a tenure of residency at the Indiana University Bloomington. During the tenure, he will take a break to perform in France and the UK.





--- ENDS ---


A resident wades through floodwater at Tiger Manor Apartments near Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. (Brianna Paciorka/The Advocate via AP)

James Tulliers home took on five feet of water in the flood that devastated a wide swath of southern Louisiana last week. He figures it is a total loss.

That should be devastating. But Tullier doesnt care. He is worried about something far more important: the welfare of his son Nick, who has been fighting for his life since July 17, when he and five other law enforcement officers were ambushed by a racially motivated shooter intent on attacking police. Three of the officers were killed.

James and his wife, Mary, have hardly left the hospital where Nick is in intensive care, unconscious but able  James is sure  to sense the presence of his family members. They have been by his side 24 hours a day since he was shot just over a month ago.

[Louisiana flooding is countrys worst natural disaster since Hurricane Sandy, Red Cross says]

The house is just not a priority, Tullier said. Nicks a priority.

Perhaps no other family so embodies both the wounds and the strength of this Southern capital city, where the summer of 2016 has felt like one long siege.



In fewer than six weeks, this city has faced grievous man-made and natural disasters, from the police killing of Alton Sterling that provoked protests and mass arrests by a heavily militarized police force, to the shooting of Nick Tullier and his fellow law enforcement officers, to the epic flooding that now has left tens of thousands displaced.



Cameron Sterling is consoled after the funeral of his father, Alton Sterling, on July 15. (Jonathan Bachman/Reuters)

Demonstrators gather at the Louisiana Capitol to protest the shooting of Alton Sterling. (Mark Wallheiser/Getty Images)

The city and a vast swath of south Louisiana are facing a huge cleanup and a housing crisis. Families are grappling with moldy drywall, the intricacies of applying for federal disaster aid, and the trauma of loss and sudden homelessness.

But alongside the devastation here, there have been astonishing displays of generosity and selflessness, and a swelling pride in the way communities have rallied to take care of each other.

Hundreds and perhaps thousands of volunteers launched boats to rescue those trapped in their homes. First responders who have lost their own homes have continued working long shifts. And in the many subdivisions where people are doing the hard, hot, smelly work of pulling sodden debris out of their homes, strangers have shown up bearing bottles of cold water, snacks and clean T-shirts.

[This man bought 108 pounds of brisket to cook for the displaced Baton Rouge victims]

Among many people, there is a hope that when Baton Rouge residents look back at this unnamed storm years from now, theyll see that it didnt just upend lives, but also began a much-needed healing.

Id like to think theres almost a silver lining, said Steven Gremillion, the chief medical officer at Our Lady of the Lake, the Baton Rouge hospital that is caring for Tullier. That somehow this event, this flood, is what it took for us to come together.

The Ash family has been through hurricanes Katrina and Isaac. Family members are once again trying to rebuild their lives after another natural disaster destroyed their home. (Paavo Hanninen,Zac Manuel/The Washington Post)

The hospital, the sole trauma center in the region, has played a central role in responding to this summers tragedies. Five of the six officers shot on July 17 were brought here for treatment. Hospital administrators declared a Code Yellow, the term for a mass-casualty emergency.

Less than one month later, as floodwaters began to rise, they declared a Code Gray weather emergency. To make sure that patients were cared for, more than 700 employees were asked to stay indefinitely; they ended up staying 96 hours, many of them receiving word during that time that their own homes were going under.

Its a privilege and an honor to serve the community in the capacity that we have, said Scott Wester, the hospitals chief executive. But doctors and nurses are exhausted. Were ready for a normal pace of life.

Stephen Hosea, a physician, made a harrowing drive on Aug. 13 from his home in the city through rising water to one of the hospitals outlying branches in Livingston Parish, one of the regions hardest-hit areas. The clinic sat on a dry island within a sea of muddy floodwater, and Hosea stayed for three days, treating the patients who were being delivered by the National Guard in high-water trucks.

Many were elderly and frail. Two were babies born at home to parents trapped by floodwater; one infant was 18 hours old by the time the family could get to the hospital, its umbilical cord clipped with a potato-chip clip.

It was a beautiful baby, Hosea said. He treated those patients even as his own home was drowning under 40 inches of water, and his wife was calling to ask what they were going to do. I dont know, Hosea said. Were insured. We are going to be fine. A lot of people in Livingston Parish, it was extremely tragic. They were devastated.

[They survived Hurricane Katrina and rebuilt in Baton Rouge. Now theyve lost everything again.]



People sort through water-damaged products outside Jasmines Beauty Supply. While flooding receded in parts of southern Louisiana, other areas saw rising waters. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images)

The water has been an equal -opportunity destroyer, taking the homes of black and white residents, the poor and affluent, police officers and protesters. All kinds of people need help, and all kinds of people are offering it.

Terrie Sterling, a nurse who serves as chief operating officer at Our Lady of the Lake, said she thinks that opens a door for the healing of racial divisions in Baton Rouge.

During the flood, she saw something in the emergency waiting room that gave her hope: a small and diverse group of people who had come for refuge and shelter, trading information and sharing cellphone chargers, and building, in the middle of so much chaos, a little instantaneous community.

In a very small way, six individuals had come together to help each other because they had nowhere to go, said Sterling, who is African American. I know that that can happen in a greater way, we just have to help it happen.

Some people say its God teaching us a lesson to forgive and forget, said Jewels Simpson, who is white, and whose home was flooded.

Not everyone thinks that the water is enough to wipe away deep and long-standing racial divisions.

Everyones together because now they have no choice but to be in one place because of the devastation, said Nefertiti Bennett, a community activist who goes by Queen and who took part in the protests after the killing of Alton Sterling, a black man who was selling CDs outside a convenience store before he was fatally shot by police. The Justice Department has opened a civil rights investigation into Sterlings shooting.

Bennett was standing outside the convenience store on Thursday, beside bags of clothes she had brought to donate to those affected by the flood.

The event will die down. Once everything gets settled down, itll be the same, she said.

Even amid this shared devastation, there are signs of old fractures. Those with enough money took refuge in hotels and those with a network of support stayed with family or friends, while others still have no other place to sleep except on cots in temporary shelters. Some families have large crews of volunteers helping clear out their homes; others have nobody. And amid reports of looting, many people said they were worried about belongings being stolen from their flooded homes, a sign of how rumors grow along lines that reveal existing fears.

But the hope that the flood will spur healing is widespread, shared by the mother of Alton Sterlings son and the chief of police.



A protester yells at police in front of the Baton Rouge Police Department headquarters after police arrived in riot gear to clear protesters from the street on July 9. Several protesters were arrested. (Max Becherer/AP)

We have to come together, said Quinyetta McMillon, the mother of Sterlings teenage son, Cameron.

McMillon said her house stayed dry, but her brother and his two young children were rescued from their home by boat. Her mother lost her home to chest-deep water; Cameron, who was staying with his grandmother for the summer, lost nearly all his belongings. Right now, its time everyone needs to pray, McMillon said.

Carl Dabadie Jr., chief of the Baton Rouge Police Department, said that his officers were already struggling with the effects of this long summer  and then more than 100 of them, out of 650 total, lost their homes in the flood.

Emotionally its been devastating, physically its exhausting, and I just dont know how much more we can take, he said.

But he said that he has seen hope in the ruined neighborhoods, where curbs are lined with mountains of water-damaged refrigerators, mattresses, televisions and childrens toys. You see white people helping black people and black people helping white people, and its amazing, he said.

[Nobody hired me: La. man delivers water to flood-damaged community]

Even out in the subdivisions ravaged by water, people grappling with unfathomable loss are hoping that the flood does some good. The city needs to heal up, said Inez Bowie, taking tearful stock of her home, where mold was already beginning to grow on the jackets hanging in a closet. I hope that this is an eye-opener for everyone, said Bowie, who used to buy DVDs from Sterling. Its not just black people, its not just white people. Everyone has lost.

Back at Our Lady of the Lake, its hard for James Tullier to comment on whether the flood will heal Baton Rouge. He is not thinking about that. Hes thinking about what it is going to take to heal his son.

Nick Tullier, 41, has served as a deputy with the East Baton Rouge Sheriffs Office for 18 years, his father said. He worked in law enforcement because he wanted to serve others.



Tonja Garafola, widow of East Baton Rouge Sheriffs Deputy Brad Garafola, mourns with her children during his funeral on July 23 at the Istrouma Baptist Church in Baton Rouge. Multiple police officers were killed and wounded in a shooting near a gas station in Baton Rouge. (Hilary Scheinuk/Pool photo by Baton Rouge Advocate via AP)

The night before he was shot, he was driving to his home in the suburbs when he saw a woman by the side of the road. He stopped to help: She had a flat tire but no spare, and so he put his own spare on her car and then escorted her home.

James Tullier said after his son was shot, he was desperate to find the woman his son had helped. He met her at a funeral for Montrell Jackson, one of the officers who was killed in the same attack that injured Nick Tullier: She was the aunt of Jacksons wife.

[Slain Baton Rouge officer Montrell Jackson: A unifier in a divided city]

Tullier was shot in the head and in the stomach. When he arrived at the hospital, doctors told his family that he probably wouldnt make it 24 hours. Then they said he wouldnt make it 48 hours. Then they said at five days, he would start to deteriorate. Then he came off the breathing machine.

Now it has been 34 days, as of Saturday, and he is still alive, still fighting.

Inside Nicks room, his mother and fiancee stood on either side of his bed, holding his hands. Under a sheet was tucked a bag of dozens of medallions, sent by police departments from across the country.

Were convinced hes here for a reason, said James Tullier, who posts daily updates about his sons condition on Facebook. He doesnt want people to forget about Nick. He doesnt want them to stop praying.

He said that he has been working on a plan for Nicks rehabilitation and recovery once hes well enough to leave Our Lady of the Lake. Though the Tulliers home was ruined in the flood, they had moved their motor home to higher ground, and so they will be ready to go wherever Nick goes, wherever the best care is.

When you think youve got it bad, somebodys always got it worse, James Tullier said. Look how bad we got it. But Nicks alive.



Jerry Bowie, left, and Jimmy Conerly talk at Bowies home in Baton Rouge on Thursday. Days before, Conerly had evacuated Bowie by boat as floodwaters surged through the region. (Shawn Fink/For the Washington Post)

Sarah Netter in Slidell, La., contributed to this report.
James A. Baker III was U.S. secretary of state from 1988 to 1992.

Throughout my life, I have been an avid hunter, fisherman and outdoorsman. I hunt quail, wild turkey, dove and other birds. Ive been on safari in Africa a number of times to hunt Cape buffalo and other plains game. I hunt elk in the Rocky Mountains every year. In my native Texas, I fish the Gulf Coasts bays for redfish and trout, and I fish Wyomings cool streams for freshwater trout.

Like most sportsmen, I am also a conservationist. From the days of Teddy Roosevelt, American hunters  and, indeed, the Republican Party that Roosevelt represented  have held a deep reverence for nature and the wildlife found there. Roosevelt had a hand in the creation of 23 national parks. A half-century later, President Richard M. Nixon signed into law the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

So it was with great satisfaction that I carried that mission forward as secretary of state under President George H.W. Bush. Responding to the rampant poaching of elephants, we joined representatives of the diplomatic and conservation communities in 1989 in Lausanne, Switzerland, to call for a total ban on ivory trade through the 1975 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). We were particularly proud that the United States paved the way for this historic agreement though a unilateral ban on ivory imports.

Yet while the ivory trade ban at first enabled some elephant populations to recover, the past decade has seen a resurgence in poaching that has sadly reversed that trend.

Elephant poachers today are meeting a growing demand by consumers in Asia and other places where ivory is a symbol of status and wealth. As the ivory market has become more lucrative, more nefarious players have entered the trade, posing a threat not only to elephants themselves but also to the stability and security of communities where they live.

In contrast to the situation decades ago, when many participants in the sordid ivory trade were driven largely by practical motivations such as feeding their families, poaching today is driven by organized crime syndicates, and the global wildlife trade has taken its place alongside trafficking in weapons, drugs and human beings. Local militias such as the Sudanese Janjaweed and Joseph Konys Lords Resistance Army, equipped with modern weaponry, have joined the illegal wildlife trade to finance their terrorist activities.

The result has been devastating to elephants and the courageous wildlife rangers who protect them  to say nothing of the communities through which these militias rampage, sowing fear and instability. Today, up to 35,000 elephants are killed annually in Africa. The Wildlife Conservation Society has reported that fully 65 percent of all African forest elephants were lost between 2002 and 2013, and numerous wildlife guards are killed each year.

The killing and the trafficking in ivory must end. As secretary of state, I urged the U.S. Defense Department to provide surplus Army helicopters to Kenya to help Richard Leakeys fight against elephant poachers. While prohibitive maintenance costs made that idea unfeasible at the time, we should revisit this idea today by passing the Eliminate, Neutralize and Disrupt (END) Wildlife Trafficking Act.

The legislation, led by Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), would bolster wildlife trafficking law enforcement and increase support for wildlife rangers, including the transfer of military equipment for ranger use. Importantly, the law could enable the prosecution of wildlife crime through laws targeting racketeering, which carry stiffer penalties.

Meanwhile, as global conservation leaders convene in Johannesburg this September and October for the next CITES meeting, any call for legal ivory sales should be opposed. One-off sales of African countries stores of confiscated ivory in the past two decades  which were permitted under the assumption that they would drive down the price of ivory  instead appear to have had the opposite effect. Poached ivory looks nearly identical to legal ivory, enabling vast amounts of illicit material to be laundered and sold openly  further driving trafficking and the poaching of elephants. It is time to end all ivory sales worldwide.

Teddy Roosevelt long ago cautioned us not to leave our wild places more diminished than we found them. If we extend that idea to an increasingly interconnected world, we must acknowledge a collective responsibility for the survival of elephants as a species.

Since the dawn of human civilization, these magnificent, awe-inspiring creatures have been with us. Let us not be the ones who let them disappear forever on our watch.
Vive Griffith is a writer, educator, and director of Foundation Communities Free Minds program in Austin.

As the academic year opens at colleges across the country, one important group of students will be underrepresented in classrooms: returning adults. The missing students may have both the abilities and the motivation to pursue degrees. But many are shut out of higher education because of debt owed to schools they attended years, even decades, earlier.

This debt is as pernicious as the student loan debt thats the focus of our national conversation, but its largely unknown. It is disproportionately held by low-income, first-generation college students, who are already less likely to complete school; only 11 percent of these students earn a bachelors degree within six years, according to a 2008 Pell Institute study. These students leave school  and then the schools, with government encouragement, stand in the way when they try to go back.

To explain, Ill tell you about Natalie Ross. A star student from San Antonio, Natalie received scholarships and aid to allow her to attend Randolph-Macon Womans College (now Randolph College) in Lynchburg, Va., in 2001. Like many first-generation students, she saw college as a path to a different life. Once there, however, she struggled to fit in among her wealthier and better-prepared classmates. She received her first-ever grade of a C. When a beloved grandfather died during her second year, she withdrew from classes and took a Greyhound back to Texas. She always assumed she would return to college.

Fifteen years later, she cant. Not at Randolph or anywhere else.

Natalie faces the same academic roadblock that impedes countless returning students. Having quit college before graduating, she owes money to the school for Pell Grant funds that had to be returned to the federal government; housing; and other fees that kicked in when she left. These arent student loans she knowingly took out. Yet until that money  more than $3,000  is paid in full, the school wont release her transcript, which is required for registration at most colleges. So, until she has hers, she cant enroll elsewhere.

Natalies $3,000 debt may not be much to someone of means, and it doesnt seem like much at Randolph College, where the current cost of tuition and fees totals $49,350 a year. But to a single mom who works three part-time jobs and travels around town on buses and her bicycle, it seems impossible to repay.

I meet individuals like Natalie all the time in Free Minds, the education program I have directed in Austin since 2007. An affiliate of the Clemente Course in the Humanities, which President Obama recognized with the 2014 National Humanities Medal, our program offers low-income adults a second chance at education through free college humanities classes.

Our students receive six hours credit at Austin Community College for completing a nine-month course. Over and over, I am forced to turn away qualified applicants whom I cant enroll because their transcripts are being withheld. Many of them will never go back to college.

The U.S. Education Department is part of the problem, by encouraging colleges to withhold academic transcripts of students with defaulted loans. This sets a precedent for colleges to use transcripts as a means of pressuring students to repay any debt, including fees accrued after withdrawing. While in some cases the practice may work, in many cases it creates a real and often insurmountable barrier to the classroom.

We cannot afford to prevent smart and serious students from earning degrees that could change their  and their families  trajectories. With a bachelors degree, Natalie would probably make about $400 a week more than she does now. Shed be more likely to pay off her debt to Randolph College, as well as purchase a house, contribute to her local tax base and prepare her daughter for her own college career.

We need to create fair and manageable policies that enable individuals to meet their financial obligations while completing their educations. Policy on debt to previous colleges should mirror federal financial aid policy, which allows those with defaulted student loans to rehabilitate those loans by making nine on-time monthly payments in an affordable amount. The loan is not yet paid off, but once it is rehabilitated, it is out of default and the individual is allowed to enroll in classes. Instituting a similar policy for debt to colleges would ensure the colleges receive payment while clearing a pathway for college completion.

We should also place a statute of limitations on withholding transcripts. I met a woman who was prevented from enrolling because she owed $200 toward a semester of college she took more than 25 years ago. We offer fresh start programs to those with subpar grades, recognizing that academic records from when we were teenagers may not reflect the students well be a decade later. Why not do the same for missing transcripts?

Its good news that we are finally discussing the best ways for people to finance their educations without being crushed under debt. But that isnt enough. We must also figure out how to keep the doors of college open to all, including promising adults who deserve a second chance.
HOPE SPRINGS eternal. On that basis, the Obama administration continues to urge congressional approval of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) as soon as practicable, which would mean after the election and before the end of President Obamas term. We hope Congress agrees, but candor and realism require us to acknowledge that the prospect is increasingly remote. The far likelier outcome is that the 12-nation , tariff-slashing pact will languish indefinitely. Over the course of a turbulent political year, the American political center has shifted, not only against the TPP but also against trade-expanding multilateral agreements generally.

Therefore, it is not too early to challenge critics of the existing free-trade paradigm: What is your alternative? To be sure, that is an easy question for America Firsters, such as Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who believe, simplistically, that global economics is a zero-sum business and that the task is to snatch back, through various protectionist measures, the jobs China, Mexico and other trading partners stole. For Mr. Trumps opponent, Democrat Hillary Clinton, the issue is, or should be, more difficult. After all, she formerly accepted the rationale for the TPP until changing her position under pressure from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). And that rationale was rooted not only in a perception of the U.S. national economic interest but also in an assessment of the U.S. national security interest.

The latter point is important, but, in a political debate understandably focused on the domestic economic impact of trade, too often overlooked. Since the early years after World War II, when the United States helped launch the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, expanding global commerce has played a strong supporting role in U.S. strategy. Ever-freer trade, and the ever thickening web of rules-based relationships that it creates, was thought of, correctly, as a soft power complement to American military and political clout. Though mutually advantageous economically, the TPP was most important strategically, as an instrument of the Obama administration pivot to Asia, in that it would firm up ties among the United States, Japan and  eventually  a bloc of smaller nations, all of which shared the goal of peacefully curbing Chinese plans to dominate the region according to its authoritarian, mercantilist norms.

If the TPP is out, some other institution will have to serve this function. Admittedly, its a predicament that advocates of trade expansion with China, President Bill Clinton foremost among them, did not foresee. To the contrary, the consensus at the time of Chinas joining the World Trade Organization on Mr. Clintons watch was that access to Western markets would induce the Beijing regime to moderate its ambitions and behavior and move toward an open, rules-based economy. Lesson learned. And all the more reason to maintain a robust U.S. commitment to a vital region of the world, where threats to democracy and prosperity include not only Chinese provocations but also North Korean bellicosity and the errant leadership of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. The TPP was to be the anchor, symbolic and substantive, of a reinvigorated U.S. presence. The next president cannot simply leave a strategic vacuum in its place.
Jerry Falwell Jr. is president of Liberty University.

In the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections, American voters were forced to choose between a liberal Democrat and weak establishment Republicans. Democrats won both times. In the 2010 and 2014 midterms, tired of the leftist agenda, voters sent an unmistakable message to Washington: Republicans took control of the Senate and filled more seats in the House than at any time since 1929. Still, nothing changed.

In 2016, we have a clear choice.

This moment is historic because Donald Trump is not another establishment Republican.

Jerry Falwell Jr., president of conservative Liberty University, urged voters to support presidential candidate Donald Trump during a speech at the Republican National Convention July 21. (The Washington Post)

We have lived through nearly eight years of weak leadership from a president who did not sign the charter to create the Islamic State but whose policies had the intended or unintended effect (we will be debating that for decades) of breathing life into the lungs of the terrorist group. President Obama and Hillary Clinton most definitely signaled to Islamic State leaders that they had no intention of seriously challenging them, or even of calling radical Islamic terrorism by its name. Instead, Obama and Clinton pulled our troops out of Iraq, drew and then quickly erased a red line in Syria and tried to convince us that unverifiable pinpoint drone strikes (after leaflet warnings) would win the war against the Islamic State.

All of this was enabled by a feckless establishment Republican Congress.

The policies of Obama and Clinton have made the world unstable and unsafe and created a world stage eerily similar to that of the late 1930s. We could be on the precipice of international conflict like nothing we have seen since World War II. Obama and Clinton are the Neville Chamberlains of our time. The deal to make $150 billion available to Iran, the leading state sponsor of terrorism in the world and a nation committed to the destruction of Israel, clearing the way for Iran to become a nuclear power, reminds me of Chamberlains deal with Hitler in 1938, when the British prime minister declared peace for our time.

Domestically, Obama and Clinton have pushed to $19 trillion the debt that our children and grandchildren will somehow have to find a way to repay. Even our noble law enforcement has been demonized by the Obama administration, and anarchy is erupting in our cities.

Thank God we now have the opportunity to elect a strong leader, one who is not afraid to call the enemy by its name and to take the battle to that enemy if necessary.

We need fresh and bold leadership. Continuing the policies of Obama and Clinton internationally and domestically would be the definition of insanity: repeating the same mistakes over and over and expecting a different result.

I chose to personally support Donald Trump for president early on and referred to him as Americas blue-collar billionaire at the Republican National Convention because of his love for ordinary Americans and his kindness, generosity and bold leadership qualities. My family has grown to love all of the Trumps because they are wonderful people willing to sacrifice much for their country. The public perception of Trump that has been created by the media is simply false.

We are at a crossroads where our first priority must be saving our nation. We need a leader with qualities that resemble those of Winston Churchill, and I believe that leader is Donald Trump. As Churchill did, Trump possesses the resolve to put his country first and to never give up in a world that is increasingly hostile to our values.

Despite our differences, Americans from all walks of life must unite behind Trump and Indiana Gov. Mike Pence or suffer dire consequences. If Clinton appoints the next few Supreme Court justices, not only will the Second Amendment right to bear arms be effectively lost, but also activist judges will rewrite our Constitution in ways that would make it unrecognizable to our founders.

And this country will have as its president a person who jeopardized our national security by negligently sending and receiving classified emails on a private server and then repeatedly making inaccurate statements about it, all while her familys foundation accepted millions of dollars in donations from foreign countries. Will time reveal the quid pro quo?

Our nations future truly hangs in the balance. Republicans such as Sen. Susan Collins (Maine) need to stop whining about Trumps temperament and start focusing on Clintons corruption. (As far as I am concerned, the credibility of anyone who ignores Clintons temperament while attacking Trumps is suspect anyhow.) It is naive or deceptive for conservatives to claim that a write-in vote or a third-party vote will not benefit Clinton.

A vote for Donald Trump and Mike Pence is a vote for more freedom and less government, a vote for national security and responsible immigration policy, a vote to finally fight radical Islamic terrorism. It is a vote to rebuild Americas respect overseas and a vote for strict-constructionist and pro-life Supreme Court justices. Remember when Iran held American hostages for 444 days, only to release them the day Ronald Reagan took office? Expect those kinds of results under Donald Trumps leadership.
THE DIRECTOR of the FBI, James B. Comey, did the right thing in announcing the results of the bureaus investigation of Hillary Clintons email in early July. Realizing that the case was hyper-sensitive in the middle of a presidential campaign, Mr. Comey spoke up when ordinarily he would have simply forwarded his recommendation to prosecutors. He said the investigation determined that she was extremely careless in using a home-brew server while secretary of state, but that Ms. Clintons actions did not warrant prosecution. It was important for the apolitical FBI director to say one way or the other whether there was criminal behavior so voters could make up their own minds.

But now Mr. Comey has taken a misstep. The FBI has provided to Congress portions of the investigative files from the year-long probe. Although it is not known precisely which portions, some of the materials include interviews conducted by the FBI. On Capitol Hill, the FBI has deposited the material in a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility, or SCIF, a room with restricted access.

According to the Associated Press, the documents were transmitted to Congress with written warnings not to leak them. These materials are nonpublic and contain classified and other sensitive material, FBI Acting Assistant Director Jason Herring wrote. For that reason, these materials may not be further disseminated or disclosed, in part or in full, without obtaining the FBIs concurrence. Access to the documents is restricted to members of the judiciary, intelligence and government affairs committees.

Republicans in Congress are unlikely to heed the warnings. Are these members of the GOP, who have enthusiastically exploited the Benghazi and email stories for partisan advantage, whose convention delegates chanted lock her up, really going to read the FBI files and stay mum? The temptation here for mischief  partial leaks  is enormous.

It is extremely rare for the FBI to turn over to Congress internal case files from a criminal investigation that did not lead to a prosecution. In some cases in the past  counterintelligence probes, for example  the FBI has orally briefed Congress or, in the case of nominations, brought the raw interview notes to senators to read but not keep.

In this case, it seems a bad precedent to put the Clinton investigative materials before Congress. Will lawmakers demand more such sensitive documents in the future? If informants know their cooperation with the FBI might eventually be shared with members of Congress, will it have a chilling effect?

At this point, the best course of action, and the most transparent, would be to put the documents through a suitable declassification process and then release them for all to see. But it shouldnt have come to that.
During a speech on national security in Youngstown, Ohio, Aug. 15, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton "lacks the mental and physical stamina to take on" Islamic State militants. Trump frequently suggests Clinton isn't strong enough to be president. (Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post)

During a speech on national security in Youngstown, Ohio, Aug. 15, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton "lacks the mental and physical stamina to take on" Islamic State militants. Trump frequently suggests Clinton isn't strong enough to be president. (Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post)

Donald Trump  he who likes to fly home at night in the comfort of his own plane to sleep in the comfort of his own bed  is at it again on the question of Hillary Clintons stamina, or alleged lack thereof.

To defeat crime and radical Islamic terrorism in our country, to win trade in our country, you need tremendous physical and mental strength and stamina, he said in Wisconsin. Hillary Clinton doesnt have that strength and stamina.

And a day earlier, in case you missed it, Importantly, she also lacks the mental and physical stamina to take on ISIS, and all the many adversaries we face.

Its obvious whats going on here. The strength-stamina combo is a gender-age twofer, a double whack at Clinton for the price of one. Strength, what men have and women lack; stamina, with its intimations of go-all-night virility. Clinton, in this depiction, is both a weak girl and a dried-up old crone.

No matter that Trump is a year and four months older  and, for that matter, endures a far less rigorous schedule. In Trump World, what counts is the attack, not the truth.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as she testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in Washington on Jan. 23, 2013. (Saul Loeb/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images)

Trump began hitting Clinton on strength and stamina during the primaries, in a fascinating detour from his usual precision-bombing of opponents. Ordinarily, Trump homes in on an opponents actual deficit and proceeds to magnify it: low-energy Jeb, Liddle Marco or, more pertinent at present, Crooked Hillary.

But sometimes, under attack, Trump shifts to that trusty playground tactic  I know you are but what am I?  a move intended to jujitsu the conversation away from his own perceived vulnerabilities. Thus, Trump has trotted out unstable Hillary Clinton, a totally unhinged person and like an unbalanced person. Im rubber, youre glue. Whatever you say bounces off me and sticks to you.

Increasingly, though, the rap on Clinton combines gender, age and health in a smarmy package of unsupported insinuation. Shes a mess, a total mess, Trump told radio host Hugh Hewitt. Shell do an event, shell make a short speech off a teleprompter, and then she goes home and goes to sleep.

When Trump uses the teleprompter, it is a supposed token of maturity and professionalism; when Clinton does, she is failing  indeed, possibly brain-damaged. She took a short-circuit in the brain, Trump said in New Hampshire this month, seizing on Clintons explanation of how she flubbed an answer on her emails. Honestly, I dont think shes all there.

Trump is subtle only by comparison with his unhinged allies  and employees. Say-anything, know-nothing spokeswoman Katrina Pierson was on the job Thursday on MSNBC.

Whats new are the other reports of the observations of Hillary Clintons behavior and mannerisms . . . as well as her dysphasia, the fact that shes fallen, she has had a concussion, Pierson told Kristen Welker.

It is extremely important to note that Hillary Clinton has taken a lot of time off the campaign trail, Pierson added. It is something that needs to be addressed.

1 of 60 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  What Donald Trump is doing on the campaign trail View Photos The GOP presidential nominee is out on the trail ahead of the general election in November. Caption The GOP presidential nominee is pressing his case ahead of Election Day. Nov. 7, 2016 Donald Trump speaks during a campaign event at SNHU Arena in Manchester, N.H. Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post Wait 1 second to continue.

What needs to be addressed, actually, is Piersons own behavior and mannerisms, including her time-traveling assertions that President Obama and Clinton were responsible for the 2004 death of Army Capt. Humayun Khan (It was under Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton that changed the rules of engagement that probably cost his life) and alleging that Obama launched the 2001 war in Afghanistan (Barack Obama went into Afghanistan, creating another problem).

On the topic of Clintons health, Pierson is backstopped by a cabal of conservative websites and commentators who have peddled out-of-context photos and video snippets to paint Clinton as a weakened, stumbling victim of brain damage.

Fox Newss Sean Hannity has been in the repulsive lead, citing video of Clintons shaking her head in pretend surprise at being accosted by reporters to suggest neurological injury. It almost seems seizure-esque to me . . . violent, out-of-control movements on her part, Hannity said.

Presidential candidates fitness for office, including their medical fitness, matters enormously, especially when Trump would be the oldest president ever elected, Clinton second only to Ronald Reagan. Both could reasonably be called on to disclose more health information; the Trumpian claim by the candidates physician, that he would be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency, is particularly risible.

But the Trump & Co. attack on Clintons health, with its undertones of ageism and sexism, has no basis in reality, and no place in a presidential campaign. It would be tempting to say this is beneath even Trump, except that it isnt.

Read more from Ruth Marcuss archive, follow her on Twitter or subscribe to her updates on Facebook.
THAT OLD saw about death and taxes does not apply to not-for-profit institutions such as colleges and universities, which may not be immortal but are exempt from (most) taxes, state, local and federal. The rationale for this long-standing policy is a wise one: namely, that these institutions seek to serve broad public needs, not provide a return on shareholder investment.

Yet, in modern times, that argument runs into the blunt fact that some institutions of higher education have morphed into economically impactful entities employing thousands of people, occupying hundreds of acres and investing endowments that sometimes surpass $1 billion  as do the endowments of two schools in the District, George Washington University and Georgetown University.

And so the question arises: Shouldnt these behemoths have to help the surrounding jurisdiction pay its bills, too? In the District, large patches of which are covered not only by universities, churches and private K-12 schools but also by tax-exempt federal buildings, land accounting for 45 percent of the total value of real estate is exempt from property tax, according to the D.C. government. If higher educations $10 billion worth of real estate were subject to property tax, the city would reap $111 million per year, enabling that much tax relief for individuals and private-sector firms, according to an article this month by The Posts Danielle Douglas-Gabriel.

Not surprisingly, the Consortium of Universities of the Washington Metropolitan Area has always opposed proposals to subject member institutions to local property taxes  and its opposition has always been successful. The consortium argues, correctly, that the schools are major sources of economic activity for the city, and that they provide security, shuttle buses and housing for their students  thus saving the District the cost of providing such services itself. Higher education also opposes payment in lieu of taxation (PILOT) programs, a voluntary alternative by which Boston, among other jurisdictions, has negotiated regular annual payments from the many schools within its borders. Boston is not comparable, the consortium argues, because it is more reliant on property taxes than the District, which can charge income and excise taxes, and because Boston spends a greater percentage of its budget on classically local functions such as police and fire protection.

Actually, the comparison with Boston cuts the other way: The District levies taxes beyond the property tax because its unique political status requires it to assume spending obligations  Medicaid, for example  that other cities can leave to their respective states. As for the stimulus universities provide for the local economy, and the services they provide students, both are fair points  but its equally true that the universities ability to attract students in the first place depends in some measure on the citys infrastructure and amenities, paid for by local households and businesses.

A meaningful contribution by the Districts best-endowed private universities, through a PILOT program, could improve overall fiscal equity in the city. Town-gown relations might benefit, too.
By PTI: New Delhi, Aug 20 (PTI) The Centre has asked the real estate and construction industry to make use of construction cess to skill labour force for optimum realisation of labour.

According to Labour Secretary Shankar Aggarwal, funds ranging between Rs 25,000 crore to Rs 26,000 crore collected from various builders by way of cess have been lying idle for the past two decades or so, which could be utilised for the skilling purpose.

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The cess is collected by state governments and utilised by welfare boards set up by states.

Addressing the second day of the 13th National Convention of NAREDCO here, Aggarwal emphasised that skilling cannot be the governments responsibility alone.

He urged the developers to come forward and start skilling the labour they engage so that quality dwelling units are built.

The secretary admitted that it has become virtually impossible to acquire land and even take approvals for faster execution of housing projects, given the fact the land acquisition legislation is facing various issues.

Therefore, the solution should be worked out through dialogue between farmers and those who intend to acquire their land although conversion of agriculture land for commercial purpose is another headache that the builder has to endure, Aggarwal noted.

"Skilling should be the responsibility of the private sector also whereas the job of providing certification to endorse skills should be performed by the government... based on which those who acquire skill are made employable in any industry, including real estate and construction," he added. PTI KKS ARD

--- ENDS ---
THE STORY of the spurned lover seeking revenge may make for a good movie  but in the real world, there is nothing entertaining about it. Too often, people put explicit images of former partners online to hurt and harass them, sometimes along with information that can lead to stalking and threats. Because not every state has a law barring the practice, many perpetrators go unpunished. A bill in the House of Representatives could help deter the behavior.

Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) has introduced legislation that would patch the holes in the federal system governing nonconsensual pornography, also known as revenge porn. The District and 34 states have laws criminalizing the publication of explicit images and videos without the subjects consent. But because they vary in strength and because the Internet operates across state lines, a uniform federal rule would be helpful. Ms. Speiers bill would provide one, and similar legislation could soon appear in the Senate.

Speech advocates say the bill is too broad and could sweep pornography that should be permissible into the category of the illegal. They also worry about a chilling effect on those who wish to post or re-post content that is clearly allowed, from snapshots of family and friends on topless beaches to photos in adult magazines. A narrower law cracking down only on originators of offending content and requiring an intent to harm the subject, they say, would be a better solution.

But bill supporters say the legislation is already narrow enough. Ms. Speier seeks to punish two types of players: those who knowingly post nonconsensual pornographic content and downstream distributors who knowingly solicit or share that content, often to make money. Limiting the scope to initial posters would let distributors act with impunity. Tightening the standard from the bills already-stringent reckless disregard rule would make it hard for victims to make a case in court.

As it is, the law takes care to shelter speech and privacy at the same time. It includes an exception for material gathered in a public setting without an expectation of privacy and for material that serves a public interest, which could include artistic, historical or news value. Theres always a danger of overzealous prosecution, but the laws practical purpose would not be to block images of bathing babies or breastfeeding mothers: It would be to protect women or men who would otherwise be subject to exploitation and harassment.

Any law that restricts free expression deserves scrutiny. As Ms. Speiers bill moves forward, lawmakers will have the chance to debate whether it strikes the right balance. What is not up for debate, though, is the need for a national rule.
DONALD TRUMP, you may have heard, reshuffled his staff and began sending signals that he would be more presidential. That was not a few days ago  it was four months ago.

As the candidate closed in on the Republican nomination, Mr. Trumps new national campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, assured Republican National Committee members that the billionaire had been playing a part and would soon adopt a more balanced persona.

The promised pivot did not happen, of course. Now Mr. Manafort is gone after another personnel shake-up, and Mr. Trump and his new staff are again signaling a pivot.

Sometimes, in the heat of debate and speaking on a multitude of issues, you dont choose the right words or you say the wrong thing, Mr. Trump said Thursday. I have done that, and . . . I do regret it, particularly where it may have caused personal pain.

Its unlikely Mr. Trump can suppress his instinct to bully and disparage over the remaining 81 days of the presidential campaign. Its certain he would not do so over four years of a presidential term. His record to date leaves no doubt about his character  confirmed even Thursday, when he immediately undercut his supposed apology by adding, Sometimes I can be too honest.

Too honest about what?

Was it too honest to insist that thousands of Muslims in New Jersey celebrated the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, even after fact-checkers debunked the claim? That President Obama may not have been born in the United States? That the Obama administration wants to accept 200,000 under-vetted Syrian refugees? That Mr. Obama founded ISIS and Hillary Clinton was the co-founder?

Was it too honest to mock the physical disability of a reporter and then deny having done so?

Is it too honest for Mr. Trump to claim that he cant release his tax returns when, in fact, he simply does not want to?

And which wrong statements does Mr. Trump regret? That a federal judge cannot oversee a fraud case against Mr. Trump because of that judges Mexican heritage? That Carly Fiorina would lose because she is not physically attractive, or that Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly may have asked him a hard question because she was menstruating? Does he regret his depictions of other women, recalled by Ms. Kelly, as  fat pigs, dogs, slobs and disgusting animals. . . . You once told a contestant on Celebrity Apprentice it would be a pretty picture to see her on her knees?

Was it a wrong thing to say that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.)  who endured more than five years of torture in Vietnam, refusing early release in solidarity with fellow prisoners  is not a war hero because he was captured?

Was it wrong to insult a fallen war heros parents, Ghazala and Khizr Khan? To suggest that they and every other foreign-born Muslim should never have been allowed into the country because of their faith? To disseminate an anti-Semitic graphic, with a Star of David over a pile of cash, and then deny it was anti-Semitic?

Is it honest to claim that climate change is a hoax?

Was it a wrong thing to argue that the United States should torture suspected terrorists and kill their innocent children?

Is it honest to claim to be the law-and-order candidate when you have wished to see protesters punched and carried out on a stretcher? When you suggest the election is being rigged and that Second Amendment people may rise up if you lose?

Is it honest to defend a campaign staffer who manhandled a reporter and then called that reporter delusional? To call Mexican migrants rapists? To glorify yourself as a great philanthropist while taking credit for other peoples donations?

Is it honest to spread bizarre conspiracy theories  that Sen. Ted Cruzs father was involved in assassinating John F. Kennedy, that Ms. Clinton killed Vince Foster, that vaccines cause autism, that Antonin Scalia was murdered?

No pivot could undo the damage of this campaign or erase the bigotry and lies that have fueled it.
The Notorious RGB isnt backing down from her negative comments about Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, and now hes calling for her resignation from the Supreme Court. Heres a quick rundown of what the two have said. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

The Notorious RGB isnt backing down from her negative comments about Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, and now hes calling for her resignation from the Supreme Court. Heres a quick rundown of what the two have said. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

For those envisioning a line of moving vans at the Supreme Court and a new president immediately reordering life at the marble palace, this small splash of cold water:

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 83, has already hired the four clerks who will assist her through June 2018.

Above the Law, the legal website that follows the anointing of Supreme Court clerks pretty much the way Variety chronicles casting the latest Steven Spielberg film, reports that several justices, including Ginsburg, have finished the hiring process for the term that begins in October 2017.

[Will Hillary Clinton stick with Merrick Garland if she wins?]

That doesnt mean that nothing will change between now and then, or that the next president wont have a dramatic impact on the high court.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, is introduced during the keynote address for the State Bar of New Mexico's Annual Meeting held in Pojoaque, N.M., Friday, Aug. 19, 2016. (Craig Fritz/AP)

But as refreshing as it is to see the Supreme Court at the center of the presidential campaign, it is worth remembering that a presidents chance to nominate a justice is one of the least predictable events in American politics.

Generally, it is God who decides whether presidents get Supreme Court appointments, says longtime Supreme Court practitioner Walter Dellinger.

It is natural to look at Ginsburg; Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, 80; and Justice Stephen G. Breyer, 78, and conclude that whoever moves into the Oval Office next January has the chance to leave a lasting legacy. The partisan battle to fill the late Justice Antonin Scalias seat rages still, and President Obamas choice of Merrick Garland awaits his fate.

The outcome will tilt the court to the left, or it could leave conservatives in control.

Republican Donald Trump has made that clear, as hes trying to use the power to appoint justices as a way to try to bring reluctant conservatives in line.

[ Donald Trump releases list of 11 potential Supreme Court nominees]

If you really like Donald Trump, thats great, but if you dont, you have to vote for me anyway. You know why? Supreme Court judges, he said at a July 28 rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Sorry, sorry, sorry  you have no choice.

But those with lifetime appointments do have a choice, and there are plenty of reasons to think that neither Ginsburg  the courts oldest member, and so the one most often in the will-she-go spotlight  nor anyone else is preparing to step down soon.

Ginsburg made it perfectly clear this summer what she thinks of Trump. If she cant imagine what this place would be . . . cant imagine what the country would be with Trump as president, as she told the New York Times, there is little reason to think she would be willing to let Trump choose her replacement.

[Ginsburg expresses regret for remarks critical of Trump]

And if Hillary Clinton is elected? Ginsburg would be in a position of power unlike any she has experienced in her more than two decades on the court.

She would be the senior justice among the five appointed by Democratic presidents, with a liberal majority that hasnt existed on the Supreme Court for more than 40 years.

That is important for a reason. When conservative Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. is in the majority, he either writes the opinion of the court or decides who will. But if not, the prerogative falls to the senior justice on the prevailing side.

If the majority in a case is composed of only the five liberals, that would mean Ginsburg would either write the opinion or decide who gets the job.

As she pointed out in a public appearance this summer, thats an opportunity that never before has been available to her. It would seem to be one she would not lightly give up by retiring.

Ginsburg and her fellow liberals have been successful in recent terms by sticking together on the issues they consider important and then drawing the needed fifth vote from one of the conservatives. It is almost always Kennedy.

[Supreme Court term was a letdown for conservatives]

But that means that Kennedy, who joined the court five years before Ginsburg, is in the position of having the decision reflect his views.

Ginsburg has acknowledged that the liberals sometimes would have done things differently had they not needed Kennedys vote. For instance, she would have found the constitutional right for gay couples to marry anchored in a different part of the Constitution than Kennedy did, one that would have been more expansive in protecting gay rights in other cases.

But the liberals signed onto Kennedys 2015 opinion in Obergefell v. Hodges without raising competing theories. In this case, it was more powerful to have the same, single opinion, Ginsburg explained later. She added that it takes discipline to say, Im not the queen, and if the majority is close enough to what I think . . . then I dont have to have it exactly as I would have written it.

This past term, Kennedy voted with the liberals to strike down Texas abortion-clinic restrictions as intrusive on a womans constitutional right to the procedure.

As the senior justice in the majority, Kennedy bypassed Ginsburg, the justice most identified with abortion rights, and assigned the opinion to Breyer. This time, Ginsburg wrote a separate concurrence, with a blunt message that future abortion restrictions by the states would have a hard time at the court.

Breyers opinion was comprehensive, painstaking  and long, Ginsburg told Duke University students this month. She wrote hers so that the public and the press could get it all in a nutshell, she said.

Some have interpreted that Ginsburgs criticism of Trump  which broke all modern norms for a justice and which Ginsburg later said was ill-advised  was a sign that she has decided to leave the court soon if Clinton is elected.

But Ginsburg has given no indication of that, and she maintained a busy summer schedule of traveling to Europe and speaking across the country. No one is looking for Kennedy to leave, and Breyer has reason to hang on, as well: He would become the senior justice on the liberal side if he outlasts Ginsburgs tenure.

Perhaps their role model will be Justice John Paul Stevens, who retired from the court in 2010, when he was 90. Stevens still gives speeches and is at work on another book. As a retired justice, he is allowed to hire one clerk.

He, too, has already made his choice for the term that begins in October 2017.
Critics say corporate and foreign donations made to her familys foundation present potential conflicts of interest for Hillary Clinton as she seeks the Oval Office. (Andrew Burton/Getty Images)

More than half of the Clinton Foundations major donors would be prevented from contributing to the charity under the self-imposed ban on corporate and foreign donors the foundation said this week it would adopt if Hillary Clinton won the White House, according to a new Washington Post analysis of foundation donations.

The findings underscore the extent to which the Clintons sprawling global charity has come to rely on financial support from industries and overseas interests, a point that has drawn criticism from Republicans and some liberals who have said the donations represent conflicts of interest for a potential president.

The analysis, which examined donor lists posted on the foundations website, found that 53 percent of the donors who have given $1 million or more to the charity are corporations or foreign citizens, groups or governments. The list includes the governments of Saudi Arabia and Australia, the British bank Barclays, and major U.S. companies such as Coca-Cola and ExxonMobil.

[The inside story of how the Clintons built a $2 billion global empire]

The foundations announcement drew skepticism Friday from the right and the left as critics wondered why the Clintons have never before cut off corporate and overseas money to their charity  and why they would wait until after the election to do so.

The restrictions would be more stringent than those put in place while Clinton was secretary of state, when the foundation was merely required to seek State Department approval to accept new donations from foreign governments  permitting the charity to accept millions of dollars from governments and wealthy interests all over the world. They would also be stricter than the policy adopted when Clinton launched her campaign that placed some limits on foreign government funding but allowed corporate and individual donations.

Nina Turner, a former Ohio state senator who was a leading surrogate for Clintons rival in the Democratic primary race, Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.), said the restrictions were a good step but should be imposed immediately.

In my opinion, and in the opinion of lots of Americans, this should have been done long ago, she said.

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus tweeted Friday that the Clintons continued acceptance of those dollars during the presidential campaign is a massive, ongoing conflict of interest.

Others questioned why Clinton had now decided that the foundation should rule out donations that she apparently thought were acceptable during her tenure as the countrys top diplomat. Is it ok to accept foreign and corporate money when Secretary of State but not when POTUS??? Donald Trump Jr., son of the Republican nominee, tweeted Thursday night.

Clinton Foundation spokesman Craig Minassian said that the limits would be imposed to avoid perception issues while ensuring the people who depend on our programs continue to be served.

Minassian did not directly answer questions about why the restrictions would be tighter than they were when Clinton was at State. As for why they would not be imposed until after the election, he said that the foundation did not want to presume the outcome and that taking action before then would needlessly hurt people who are being helped by our charitable work around the world.

Brian Fallon, a spokesman for Clintons campaign, said the constraints on the foundation while Clinton was secretary of state already went beyond legal requirements but the foundation submitted to even more rigorous standards when Clinton declared her candidacy and is pledging to go even further if she wins.

At each step, the standard set by the foundation has been unprecedented, even if it may never satisfy some critics, he said.

The announcement of the new restrictions appeared to be a response to an ongoing political headache for Hillary Clinton, who has faced months of damaging criticism of her State Department tenure amid controversies over her use of a private email server and allegations that foundation donors received special access.

Citing the release of emails showing top Clinton aides responding to requests for meetings with donors, Donald Trump has accused Clinton of creating a pay to play climate in her agency  a charge she has denied.

Nearly half of likely voters, 47 percent, said they were bothered a lot by the foundations acceptance of money from foreign countries while Clinton was secretary of state, according to a Bloomberg News poll in June. Thats similar to the 45 percent of voters who were bothered by Trumps refusal to release his tax returns.

The new policy was devised by Bill Clinton and daughter Chelsea Clinton, and approved at a foundation board meeting Thursday, according to a foundation official.

As part of the changes, Bill Clinton agreed that he would step down from the board of the organization if his wife was elected and would do no more fundraising for the group. Chelsea Clinton would remain on the board for a transition period. However, her name, as well as Hillary Clintons, would be dropped from the charitys title, which would revert to the Clinton Foundation from its current formal name, the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation.

The new donation restrictions would not apply to the Boston-based Clinton Health Access Initiative, which began as part of the foundation but is now a separate organization. In a statement, the initiative said its board will meet soon to discuss its policies.

Founded by Bill Clinton in 1997, the foundation has grown into a $2 billion enterprise that funds health-care, education and environmental initiatives around the world. It has also drawn scrutiny, with critics charging that the charity offered an opportunity for corporations and foreign interests to curry favor with a secretary of state seen as a likely future occupant of the Oval Office.

If Clinton wins, imposing the new restrictions could prove awkward in some cases. For instance, a ban on foreign donations could get in the way of the foundations long reliance on Frank Giustra, a Canadian mining magnate who has committed more than $100 million and sits on the board of directors. In addition to direct donations to the foundation, Giustra runs a Canadian-based branch of the charity known as the Clinton-Giustra Enterprise Partnership.

If Clinton won in November, Giustra would spin the organization into an independent entity to continue this important work, and maintain CGEPs life-changing partnerships around the world, he said in a statement Friday. A foundation official said the Canadian group would no longer use the Clinton name.

[The Clintons, a luxury jet and their $100 million donor from Canada]

The announcement of the new rules is unlikely to defuse the foundation as a potent campaign issue.

Critics seized on the fact that the restrictions would go into effect only in November, if Clinton was elected, meaning donors could race to give money before the deadline  but in time to curry favor with a Democratic nominee who is leading in the polls.

The left-leaning columnist Jonathan Chait wrote on the website of New York magazine Friday that the new policy is an inadequate response to the conflicts of interest inherent in the Clinton Foundation and demonstrates that Clinton has not fully grasped the severity of her reputational problem.

Even with the restrictions, he noted, wealthy individuals would have the opportunity to use foundation donations as chits. Ultimately, there is no way around this problem without closing down the Clinton Foundation altogether, he wrote.

The foundation is not required by law to disclose its donors, but it has published those names since Clinton was nominated to be secretary of state by President Obama. The disclosure was required under an ethics agreement she negotiated with the Obama administration, as was the requirement that new foreign government donations be submitted to the State Department for vetting. If questions arose, the agreement allowed for the White House to weigh in.

Those rules allowed the foundation to accept millions of dollars while Clinton was in office from seven foreign governments that had already been giving, including nations with which the United States has had complicated relations, such as Qatar and Oman. Foundation officials also later acknowledged that it had accepted a $500,000 donation from Algeria without receiving permission from the State Department, as required by the agreement.

[Foreign governments gave millions to foundation while Clinton was at State Dept.]

The policy was questioned during Clintons confirmation hearing by then-Sen. Richard L. Lugar (R-Ind.), who called on the foundation to bar all foreign donations, not just those from governments. The Clinton Foundation exists as a temptation for any foreign entity or government that believes it could curry favor through a donation, he said then.

In an interview Friday, Lugar said the new proposal demonstrated that the Clintons had learned lessons from her time as secretary and were now taking the correct steps to ensure no perception of a conflict.

Lugar, who lost a Republican primary in 2012 and has not endorsed Trump or Clinton, said the Clintons should not shutter the foundation. I believe, as do many others, that it has done a great deal of good in helping people throughout the world, he said.

Scott Clement contributed to this report.
White nationalist writer Jared Taylor, in his home in Oakton, Va., says that Donald Trump should concentrate on his natural constituency, which is white people. (Pete Marovich/For The Washington Post)

Jared Taylor hits play, and the first Donald Trump ad of the general election unfolds across his breakfast table. Syrian refugees streaming across a border. Hordes of immigrants, crowded onto trains.

Donald Trumps America is secure, rumbles a narrator. Terrorists and dangerous criminals kept out. The border, secure; our families, safe.

Taylor, one of Americas foremost racialists, is impressed and relieved. Thats a powerful appeal, he said. If he can just stick to that, he is in very good shape.

From his Fairfax County home, Taylor has edited the white nationalist magazine American Renaissance and organized racialist conferences under the AmRen banner. He said that Trump should concentrate on his natural constituency, which is white people, suggesting that winning 65 percent of the white vote would overwhelm any Democratic gains with minorities.

When Trump made Breitbart News CEO Steve Bannon his campaigns chief executive last week, Taylor found reasons to celebrate. It was the latest sign for white nationalists, once dismissed as fringe, that their worldview was gaining popularity and that the old Republican Party was coming to an end.

Here's what you need to know about the Breitbart News chairman who just became Donald Trump's new campaign CEO. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

The rise of the alt-right  named for the Alternative Right website that the identitarian nationalist Richard Spencer set up in 2010 and adopted by those opposed to multiculturalism and mass immigration  has come to define how many of its adherents see Trump. Theres less talk now about a pivot, or a moment when Trump will adopt the ideas of people that he conquered. His strategy now resembles the alt-right dream of maximizing the white vote  even as polling shows his standing with white voters falls short of Mitt Romneys in 2012.

Trumps newest speeches, read from a teleprompter, hit all of their favorite notes. I dont think Trump had mentioned sanctuary cities previously, Spencer said in an interview. Theres reason to believe that Bannon is returning him to his powerful, populist message  indeed, honing it. [Former campaign chairman Paul] Manafort was turning Trump into a standard Republican, with the [Mike] Pence [vice-presidential] choice, the economic policy, talk of how Hillary is the real racist, if not quite in those words. Bannon is making me hope again, making Trump Trump again.

Although there is no data gauging the size of the alt-right, its adherents point to Trumps primary victories as proof that their ideas have been winning. They are so active on social media, from Twitter to Reddit, that critics are beginning to feel overwhelmed.

Breitbart, not founded as part of their movement, became a welcoming place for it. The site found millions of new readers clicking on stories about black crime and the threat of Syrian refugees. At Breitbart, undocumented immigrants are illegals, Black Lives Matter activists venerate cop-

killer heroes, and Gold Star father Khizr Khan is a busy promoter of sharia law. Michael Brown, the man whose death kicked off the protests in Ferguson, Mo., was unfairly mythologized by the media.

Kurt Bardella, who handled Breitbarts public relations until the spring, said that Bannons staff meetings were roiled by discussions of Islam and mass immigration.

It was stuff like these people dont belong here, theyre overrunning our country,  he said. That kind of white nationalist sentiment.

Trump, who has frequently linked or retweeted white nationalists and decried them only under pressure, gave frequent interviews to Breitbart. Already supportive of the Trump campaign, people like Taylor see Bannons move and the change in Trumps tone as validation.

The Fix's Chris Cillizza explains why Donald Trump demoted campaign chief Paul Manafort and added two new top advisers  Breitbart News chief Stephen Bannon and pollster Kellyanne Conway. (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post)

Imagine a media that was more Breitbart than New York Times, Taylor said. Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown have been even more important than Trump, in one respect. They are the people who make whites realize that what the media have been telling them about race relations is simply wrong.

Hillary Clintons campaign has treated all of this as a gift. Hours after Bannons hire was official, Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook held a conference call denouncing Breitbart  a taster for a series of email pitches and finger-wagging statements to come.

Breitbart News was dismissive. They say that we are anti-

Semitic, though our company was founded by Jews, is largely staffed by Jews, and has an entire section dedicated to reporting on and defending the Jewish state of Israel, site Chief Financial Officer Larry Solov and editor in chief Alex Marlow said in a statement. They call us racist, even though her husbands law enforcement policies led to mass incarceration of blacks.

That reaction, however, didnt reflect Breitbarts coverage of crime or of the alt-right. Last month, Breitbart reporter Katie McHugh referred to the criminal justice overhauls favored by some Republicans as prison break legislation thats un-compassionate to crime victims.

Bannon, who directed conservative documentaries before he took over the site, kept Breitbart and its companion Sirius XM series entertaining. Sam Nunberg, a former Trump staffer, recalled that Breitbart interviewed Trump even when much of the media considered him a celebrity joke candidate.

The problem in the conservative movement is its boring, Bannon said in a May 19 exchange with the sites technology editor and rising star Milo Yiannopoulos. [If] youre boring me, youre losing my attention.

The alt-right was decidedly not boring. Its arguments about what a winning, identity-based politics might look like were embraced by readers. Its writers embraced the torrent of jokes and memes from the alt-right, which portrayed Trump as a sort of trickster god and establishment Republicans as low-energy cucks  the derogatory name referencing cuckolding and given to anyone seen to be selling out to liberals.

Had they been serious about defending humanism, liberalism and universalism, the rise of the alternative right might have been arrested, Yiannopoulos wrote in a sympathetic March profile of the alt-right. All they had to do was argue for common humanity in the face of black and feminist identity politics, for free speech in the face of the regressive Lefts censorship sprees, and for universal values in the face of left-wing moral relativism.

Yiannopoulos was banned from Twitter recently after leading a short harassment campaign against Saturday Night Live star Leslie Jones.

Breitbarts coverage, and the alt-right in general, advance a theory that a left-behind wing of conservatives have screamed about for decades. In the 1980s, figures such as Pat Buchanan and the late Sam Francis warned that the left was transforming the country without much resistance from the Republican establishment. In an essay, Francis argued that Middle American Radicals hardly understood their potential influence.

MARs form a class  not simply a middle class and not simply an economic category  that is in revolt against the dominant patterns and structures of American society, Francis wrote. Liberalism and cosmopolitanism were able, through their immense appeal to an intelligentsia, to portray localism and decentralized institutions as a mask for bigotry and selfishness.

But Francis and other paleoconservatives lost a battle inside the Republican Party to people who thought it could grow its appeal to nonwhite voters. In an interview with The Washington Post this month, Speaker of the House Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) used the term alt-right crowd to refer to the people that Jack Kemp, his mentor and former congressman from New York, had helped to purge. Ryan called the group out of the mainstream and, in other interviews ahead of his primary, which he won by 66 percentage points, he did not argue with radio hosts when they linked the alt-right to racist elements.

The National Reviews Ramesh Ponnuru, whose project to reform the mainstream conservative movement was waylaid by the Trump victory, said, The alt-right just isnt much of a movement, something that separates it from Goldwaterite conservatism after the 1964 election.

Bannon isnt willing to own his own sites comment section, which is mainstream alt-right, Ponnuru said. I have grave concerns about the future of conservatism and the Republican Party, but the alt-right sweeping all before it isnt one of them.

In the meantime, the alt-right theory of politics is going through its first presidential campaign. Trumps latest pivot has streamlined his arguments, not moderated them; it has promoted the people who agree with the alt-right, not a bid for the center.

Im honestly delighted that Trump is putting a team together that has such reasonable views on immigration, said Jason Richwine, a policy analyst who left the Heritage Foundation after a backlash to his study of race and IQ and who has appeared on Breitbarts XM show. This was almost impossible to imagine even just a year ago. Whatever you might think of his campaign in general, its clear that Trump has opened up space to talk about immigration in a way we havent been able to before.

At this years American Renaissance conference, Trumps success was a popular and unifying subject. Peter Brimelow, the founder of VDare.com  named for Virginia Dare, the first white person born in America  used his speech to mock the failure of the Republican establishment and ask whether white voters were ready to become the dominant political bloc.

What the GOP needs to do is Southernize the white vote, Brimelow said. You need to have everybody in the country voting the way that Southern whites vote.

Trumps new message  the combination of immigration restriction and the appeal to black voters  was no contradiction. Last year, in a November interview with Bannon, Trump regretted the loss of a worker who took his skills back to his native India.

Weve got to be able to keep great people in the country, Trump said. We have to be careful of that, Steve. I think you agree with that, Steve?

Bannon did not. A country is more than an economy, he retorted. We are a civic society.

In his speeches this week, Trump has twinned his pitch to black voters with his warning about unchecked immigration. Hillary Clinton would rather provide a job to a refugee from overseas than to give that job to unemployed African American youth, he has said. That pitch, said Buchanan, could help Trump with the white voters who worry that by voting for him, they are endorsing racism.

White folks are not monolithic, Buchanan said. You want middle America and moderates to know that you care about these folks, too. Theyre the first ones who suffer when the shopping centers burn down.

At Trumps rally in Charlotte, one of the first of the Bannon era, the message was sinking in. Frances Johnson, 68, said that the polls were not reflecting Trumps real level of support and that she sometimes emailed the campaign with ideas on how to change that. The pitch to black voters, she said, was smart.

I really dont think that African Americans want to be stuck where they are, Johnson said. Theyre basically glorified slaves  they get free this, free that, free this, free that, and they cant get a good job and depend on the government. What else do you call it?

Ken Baswell, 55, was worried that Trump had not put enough TV ads on the air. If he did, he said, he would be trying to inject some truth into a media landscape that lacked it.

I just want something other than what theyre pushing in mainstream America, he said. I want to know the real stuff going on behind the scenes, because Im not stupid. Im not a sheep.

Robert Costa, Jenna Johnson and Frances Sellers contributed to this report.
The GOP presidential nominee is out on the trail ahead of the general election in November.

The GOP presidential nominee is out on the trail ahead of the general election in November.

What Donald Trump is doing on the campaign trail

What Donald Trump is doing on the campaign trail

Donald Trump is still figuring out the art of the non-apology apology.

After more than a year of refusing to budge as he moved from one firestorm to the next, the Republican nominee surprised everyone Thursday night by declaring that he lives with some regret.

But while he expressed remorse for the first time since getting into the presidential race 14 months ago, he steered clear of the S-word: sorry.

Parsing the speech, which was read from a teleprompter, veteran campaign strategists and historians noted that Trump sounded much more like a conventional politician than he has all year. In their view, hes following a path of rhetorical evasion that has been well trod by candidates in both parties.

Linguists and relationship experts, meanwhile, said Trumps comments were ineffective and that his words cannot accurately be described as an apology. In fact, the GOP nominee did not specify exactly who or what he was talking about. The targets over the course of his campaign are plentiful, including the parents of Capt. Humayun Khan, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Megyn Kelly, New York Times reporter Serge Kovaleski, Mexicans and Muslims.

At a rally in Charlotte, N.C., Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said on Thursday that sometimes he hasn't chosen the right words to say and said that he regretted causing "personal pain." (The Washington Post)

[Trump expressed regret over causing personal pain]

Yet with his poll numbers sinking with 81 days left to go, Trump has finally decided to participate in a familiar ritual of penitence: asking the voters for grace after a headline-grabbing misdeed (or, in Trumps case, many). Its the same kind of public plea for forgiveness that U.S. Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte also issued on Friday over revelations that he fabricated a story about being robbed in Rio (he didnt actually use the word sorry either). But there are many celebrities (actor Mel Gibson after his drunken tirade against the Jews) and politicians (then-South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R) after hiking the Appalachian Trail) who have been through it before.

Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton has also had to make some public mea culpas in her political lifetime  most recently, saying she was sorry for her use of a private email server as secretary of state.

[Clinton says shes sorry for using private email server]

Sometimes the public plea for forgiveness works; sometimes it doesnt.

The biggest problem for Trump, experts said, was the vague nature of his actual words.

Sometimes in the heat of debate, and speaking on a multitude of issues, you dont choose the right words or you say the wrong thing. I have done that, Trump said. And believe it or not, I regret it. I do regret it, particularly where it may have caused personal pain.

Asked if hell apologize to the Khan family, newly installed campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said he may.

I certainly hope they heard him, Conway said on ABCs Good Morning America. I hope that everybody who has criticized him at some point, for being insensitive or for mocking someone, at least shows some recognition and some forgiveness.

New York University historian Tim Naftali, who previously directed the Richard Nixon presidential library, heard Nixonian echoes as he watched the tape of Trumps speech in Charlotte on Thursday night. Two men who Trump talks to  Roger Ailes and Roger Stone  worked for the former president.

After Watergate, Nixon never apologized for breaking the law, even in his famous interview with David Frost. He instead said that he was sorry for causing the American people pain and suffering.

An apology involves contrition. Neither Trump, so far, nor Nixon showed real contrition, Naftali said. Nixon, at least, believed apologies were a sign of weakness, which exposed him to more attacks from his real and perceived enemies.

Trumps insults have come fast and furious during the campaign, but he has never before apologized. I dont have regrets, he said in March when asked about the charged rhetoric at his rallies.

After Khans father said Trump does not understand what sacrifice means during the Democratic National Convention, the GOP nominee spent a week attacking him. Even following heavy criticism of his attacks on a Gold Star family, Trump told WJLA: I dont regret anything.

Susan Wise Bauer, who wrote the The Art of the Public Grovel, called Trumps language about regret pretty pathetic.

 Regret is about the weaseliest non-apology, non-confession word you can pick, said Bauer, who teaches American literature at the College of William and Mary. You could regret the fact its raining outside and have nothing to do with it.

Perhaps thats exactly why so many public figures use the word so often, in lieu of more direct words like apologize or sorry.

Last month, under fire for disparaging Trump as a member of the Supreme Court, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said: On reflection, my recent remarks ... were ill-advised and I regret making them.

In 2008, after Joseph R. Biden Jr. called Barack Obama, at that point his opponent for the Democratic nomination, the first sort of mainstream African American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy, the Delaware senator released a statement saying: I deeply regret any offense my remark ... might have caused anyone.

For others, Trumps non-apology recalled then-Oregon Sen. Bob Packwoods mealy-mouthed response to sexual harassment accusations. Im apologizing for the conduct that it was alleged that I did, and I say I am sorry, Packwood said in 1992.

Trumps not really able to name what he did wrong, said Edwin Battistella, author of Sorry About That: The Language of Public Apology and a linguistics professor at Southern Oregon University. If you think about what a good apology is, you really want to name what you did wrong and apologize specifically for that  not just say Im sorry for whatever. 

Naftali says Trump is testing the waters to see if unspecified regrets is enough.

Thats a classic way for an unrepentant person to try to get us to move on, Naftali said. What was unusual and new about what Trump did was that he actually took responsibility for the power of his words.

Lauren Bloom, who wrote Art of the Apology: How, When, and Why to Give and Accept Apologies, said sincerity is a fundamental apology requirement. Im sure he sincerely regrets creating controversy that hurt his poll numbers, but thats not being sorry, she said.

Bloom argued that, if Trump was sincere, he would telephone some of the people he lashed into, including McCain (who he blasted for being captured in Vietnam) or Carly Fiorina (whose face he mocked).

But Republican strategists lack confidence that Trump has the self-discipline to stick with this approach.

The speech was him trying yet again to send the same message  were going to pivot  which weve seen for well over a year now is meaningless, said Doug Heye, a former Republican National Committee communications director.

Besides her email server, Clinton has offered many non-apology apologies of her own. She defended her support for the Iraq War in 2008 before saying it was a mistake in 2014.

Bill Clinton is much more accomplished in the art of the non-apology apology. In April, he lectured Black Lives Matter protesters about his crime bill, angering some African Americans.

I almost want to apologize, he said the next morning.

But he did not. He just kept talking.
Hillary Clintons increasingly confident campaign has begun crafting a detailed agenda for her possible presidency, with plans to focus on measures aimed at creating jobs, boosting infrastructure spending and enacting immigration reform if current polling holds and she is easily elected to the White House in November.

In recent weeks, as her leads over GOP nominee Donald Trump have expanded, Clinton has started ramping up for a presidency defined by marquee legislation she has promised to seek immediately. The pace and scale of the planning reflect growing expectations among Democrats that she will win and take office in January alongside a new Democratic majority in the Senate.

While careful not to sound as if she is measuring the draperies quite yet, Clinton now describes what she calls improved odds for passage of an overhaul of immigration laws  the first legislative priority she outlined in detail last year  and what could be a bipartisan effort to rebuild the nations roads, bridges, airports, rail system and ports.

She also could be immediately confronted with a choice about a Supreme Court vacancy that could set the tone for her relationship with Congress, and she plans to immediately champion new measures on campaign-finance reform and ending legal immunity for gun manufacturers.

Her campaigns to-do list includes assembling a Cabinet that has women in roughly equal numbers to men and that otherwise reflects American diversity, and lobbying has intensified for those and scores of other jobs that Clinton would fill in her administration.

These 10 states are in play in the 2016 election. Here is where they're polling as of August and how much weight they'll have in November. (Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post)

Some Clinton boosters remain concerned that, with an election focused so heavily on Trumps deficiencies, she could enter the White House without a clear mandate. But Clintons team is hopeful that a trouncing of her Republican opponent in November could soften the ground for a robust set of proposals that could be implemented both with and without congressional action.

Theres nothing like winning to change minds, Clinton said this month.

How she builds relationships on Capitol Hill, especially with Republicans, will be one key measure of success in the first year or so, Democrats said. A second crucial element will be how effectively she organizes a White House staff to keep the focus on her policy priorities and minimize the controversies that long have dogged Clinton and her husband.

[The Take: A turbulent week for Trump overshadows Clintons vulnerabilities]

The most significant unknown  and one that would determine to a great extent her ability to govern successfully  is how poisonous the political climate might be after a defeat of Trump, who has already begun complaining that the election system is rigged against him.

Her greatest challenge will be the environment in which she comes to office, said a former Obama administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to offer a candid view. I dont think any president has come to office underwater on their favorable image. This would be uncharted waters coming to office as an unpopular person. You dont have a wellspring of goodwill to draw on, even in the first 100 days.

Clinton named a five-member transition planning team last week  headed by former interior secretary Ken Salazar and including other familiar names in Democratic circles  that would eventually oversee the selection of Cabinet secretaries and thousands of lower-level officials. She also moved some top policy advisers over from her campaign to her transition team, a move that reinforced the notion that she is getting ready to govern.

The Fix's Chris Cillizza explains why Donald Trump demoted campaign chief Paul Manafort and added two new top advisers  Breitbart News chief Stephen Bannon and pollster Kellyanne Conway. (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post)

Trump, who also has a transition team at work, trails by double digits in some national polls. No candidate in more than 60 years has come back to win after being so far behind at this point in the general-election campaign. Trump also is losing in surveys taken in battleground states where he is staking his campaign. Among those states is Virginia, where he has a 14-point deficit, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll published in the past week.

Clinton has lately been telling Democratic audiences about her growing support among Republicans and touting what she says is a record of successfully working across the aisle to get things done. Her campaign regularly trumpets Republican endorsements and GOP disavowals of Trump.

It was a subject she treated gingerly during the toughest months of her primary contest against Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.), who challenged her from the left. Still, some liberal voters who backed Sanders in the primaries eye Clintons legislative priorities with a mixture of suspicion and high expectations.

[More than half of Clinton foundations major donors would be barred under new rule]

If Clinton wins, she will be under great pressure from the left to move on a whole host of issues. The pressure is going to be enormous, more so than on President Obama, said Jim Manley, a Democratic consultant who was a senior aide to Sen. Harry M. Reid (Nev.) when Reid was Senate majority leader.

Manley said he is highly skeptical that Clinton will be able to get some of her more liberal proposals  such as raising taxes on millionaires  through Congress, even under the rosiest of election scenarios for Democrats. That tax is key to paying for the massive jobs-and-infrastructure package at the heart of Clintons promise to help rebuild the American middle class.

Manley is also less bullish about immigration reform  Clintons other signature issue  which has repeatedly failed in Congress. And he cautions that if Clinton seeks to implement her immigration agenda through executive action, as Obama has sought to do, she could immediately sour relations with Republicans in Congress.

Clinton has predicted that Democrats will retake the Senate and narrow the Republican majority in the House, a result that would potentially ease but not guarantee passage of some Democratic initiatives.

Democrats are unlikely to retake enough seats to amass a filibuster-proof 60 seats in the Senate, meaning Clinton would need Republican votes for nearly any important achievement.

[As she gains in the polls, Clinton seeks Latino support in unusual places]

Clinton has pledged to tackle an overhaul of what she calls a broken immigration system within her first 100 days in office and also has promised that the fix would include a means for illegal immigrants to gain U.S. citizenship.

Im hoping that the outcome of the election, which I am working hard to ensure [is] a victory, will send a clear message to our Republican friends that its time for them to quit standing in the way of immigration reform, she said at a gathering this month of Hispanic and black journalists in Washington.

She also has promised to seek a multibillion-dollar package of infrastructure investments combined with various jobs incentives in the same time frame. Also on the 100-day list is introduction of a constitutional amendment that would seek to reinstate campaign finance rules swept away by the Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. And Clinton has said she would seek legislation to end legal immunity for gun manufacturers right away  in what would be another immediate test of overcoming Republican resistance on the Hill.

She has put out fairly detailed proposals, so in that sense, she has been very direct with the voters about what she could accomplish, campaign press secretary Brian Fallon said. If she wins, she will be able to point to the fact that she campaigned on a very specific set of policies in order to seek to hit the ground running and enacting as much of that platform as possible.

But no one is drafting legislation now, Fallon said. Theres a part of the process that can only come after she wins.

Among other pledges, Clinton has said she would expand affordable housing, repair schools, rehabilitate failing water systems and connect every household to high-speed Internet by 2020.

She pledges to guarantee equal pay for women and improve affordable child care.

And a big, expensive one: make college tuition free for most families and debt-free for all while refinancing current student loan debt.

If Democrats do retake the Senate, longtime Clinton ally Sen. Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.) is expected to become majority leader. He shares Clintons impulse to seek common ground with Republicans, said a Democratic aide familiar with their past discussions.

[To the Clinton campaign, the most powerful weapon against Trump is Trump]

Already, for example, there has been talk on Capitol Hill about whether Clinton should pair her infrastructure plan with an initiative more palatable to Republicans, such as corporate tax breaks.

Clinton chose Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia as her running mate partly for his record of bipartisan cooperation and good relations across the Democratic spectrum. As vice president, Kaine would be tasked with pushing many parts of Clintons ambitious list.

Clinton has borrowed some of her economic policy agenda from the liberal Roosevelt Institute in New York, where president and chief executive Felicia Wong said the group has worked for six months to compile a list of multiple hundreds of people to recommend for administration positions.

Theres no way to execute on that kind of ambitious policy agenda without excellent leadership, Wong said, adding that she hopes that by pushing jobs and infrastructure first and getting bipartisan legislative victories, Clinton will be in a stronger position to push other parts of her agenda in Congress.

Similar lists of recommendations are coming in from other quarters, but Fallon declined to discuss any personnel plans.

Of roughly 4,000 political jobs to fill, more than 1,000 require Senate confirmation. Internal vetting, security clearances and ethics checks can take months.

Former Utah governor Mike Leavitt, who served in Republican President George W. Bushs Cabinet and oversaw transition planning for Mitt Romneys unsuccessful 2012 presidential campaign, said it is not too early to begin identifying candidates for roughly 300 jobs that are deemed critical, many of which require Senate confirmation.

The first task is you have to put a team on the field, Leavitt said, and the task of getting a senior person into the job goes far beyond just choosing them.
When she tied the knot at the age of 18, Rupali Nagapure had no regrets about settling down so early in life. Her husband Sandeep was a farmer, who grew soyabean and tur (pigeon pea) on the two acres of farmland he owned at Dongargaon in Maharashtra's Akola district. They had their own house, and after the birth of their son, Shivam, five years ago, Rupali and Sandeep thought they had everything they could ever want. They were not rich, but they led a comfortable life. Events took a bleak turn four years ago. First, a weak monsoon destroyed their crop. Sandeep took a loan of Rs 35,000 to get through the year. The next year's monsoon was no better, leading to another crop failure. Frustrated-and now in debt-Sandeep decided to end his life. Rupali was distraught, but took solace in the fact that she still had the farm. However, worse was to come. Her in-laws told her that they wanted her out of the house, saying they were unwilling to carry her "burden", she says, her eyes filling with tears. "They wanted Shivam, not me. They said they would raise him, look after him. But how will I live without him?"

A shattered Rupali returned to her mother's house in Rustamabad, some 60 km from her in-laws' place. She now works as a farm labourer, earning Rs 100 a day to support Shivam. She is one of about 1,200 women who are the ultimate victims of 'farmer suicide'. Women in Rupali's position find themselves swiftly abandoned by relatives after their husbands' deaths. And while political parties are quick to extend sympathy when a suicide of this kind makes the news, no one seems interested in the fate of the widows.

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Rupali Nagapure's in-laws said they would help her only if she handed over her son, Shivam. Photo: Mandar Deodhar

According to data tabled in the Rajya Sabha in July 2016, 3,228 farmers committed suicide in Maharashtra in 2015. That translates to almost nine farmers killing themselves every single day for an entire year. Worse, this was the highest-ever recorded number of suicides by farmers in the country. With 5.7 million farmers, Vidarbha and Marathwada account for 83 per cent of all farmer suicides in the state. In the first six months of 2016, around 600 more farmers killed themselves. Four districts in Vidarbha-Amravati, Akola, Yavatmal and Wardha-have earned the unflattering distinction of being 'death beds' for farmers.

Vanmala Ugle, 40, a resident of Borgaon in Akola, has learned to live in darkness. She does not have much of a choice: the Rs 1,000 she earns in wages every week at the local mill is only enough for her weekly expenses of Rs 900 on groceries and other essentials. An electricity connection would cost Rs 3,000-money that she does not have. What she has instead is a large stock of candles. Two years ago, when her husband Dnyandeo was still alive, her situation was not so grim. They lived in a joint-family home with Dnyandeo's brother, Sukhdeo, and his family. The two families cultivated soyabean on five acres of farmland, sharing the profits from the sale of the crop. Then, two years ago, tragedy struck. Unable to repay a loan of Rs 50,000 he had taken from moneylenders, Dnyandeo committed suicide. Soon after, Sukhdeo snapped ties with Vanmala and her family, saying he could not afford their expenses. "He put a partition in the house, (and) disconnected the electricity supply on my side as punishment for my asking for a share of the farm yield," says Vanmala. It has now been two years since she last visited the farm; she is entitled to 1.5 acres but cannot legally claim ownership because the property documents remain with Sukhdeo.

Manda Bondve, an official with the M.S. Swaminathan Foundation,a Chennai-based NGO working for sustainable agriculture and rural development, says that red tape stands in the way. In rural Maharashtra, land ownership is often based on an official document known as the '7/12 property extract'. "Their names can't be added to the 7/12 property extract unless they hold 2.5 acres of land," says Bondve. "That is why widows always remain nominees in their in-laws' properties, never owners. They have no other option but to work as labourers."

Vanmala's elder daughter Gayatri, 18, was forced to drop out of college, while her younger daughter Vaishnavi, 11, is currently a student in the sixth standard. Her son Prashant, 17, studies in Mangrulpir, around 100 km away, and works as a tailor in his spare time. "We run the house with the little money he is able to send," she says.

There is precious little government help for people like her, apart from the Sanjay Gandhi Niradhar Yojana (SGNY). Under this scheme, vulnerable people-such as widows and the elderly-get a pension of Rs 900 a month. However, Vanmala herself doesn't have any faith in the powers that be. Not worldly ones anyway. An ardent devotee of the 19th-century Shegaon saint Gajanan Maharaj, Vanmala has instead chosen to repose her trust in the divine. "God will help me," she says.

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Durga Ramgade has had to take loans from multiple microfinance firms to repay her original loan. Photo: Mandar Deodhar

Twenty-six-year-old Durga Ramgade, a widow from Yarad village in Yavatmal district, earns Rs 100 a day as a farm labourer. A mother of two, she took a loan of Rs 10,000 from a microfinance company to run her house. "I have to repay Rs 630 every week. If I fail, the company charges heavy interest," she says. Durga does not manage to find work every day, and often ends her week unable to make payments. To repay the old loan, she often finds it necessary to take out a new one. "What option do I have?" she asks.

Vasant Korde of Sampada Trust, an NGO working for the empowerment of rural women, says there are at least 17 microfinance companies operating in Yavatmal alone. "Big private banks like HDFC and ICICI, smaller ones like RBL and companies like L&T are also in this business. The women are getting stuck in the loan cycle. The loans [are] not really helping them get over their problems," he says. Suvarna Damle, executive director of Nagpur-based NGO Prakruti says that providing monetary help to widows is not a solution. "(They) should have a sustainable income. If they are educated in reducing expenditure and increasing income through small entrepreneurship they will be less dependent on loans."

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Sonali Saywan, 40, a widow from Saval in Amravati, saw her life spiral downward after her husband Gajanan committed suicide four years ago, at the age of 41. Soon after, her father-in-law asked her to leave their home as he wanted to give both the house and the three acres of farmland that came with it to his other son, Sanjay. Now earning Rs 100 a day as a farm labourer, Sonali lives with her 13-year-old son, Vishal, and 10-year-old daughter, Rohini, in a rented house. "The neighbours are a bigger help than the in-laws, " she says, alleging that her in-laws had her name removed from the family's ration card, blocking her access to subsidised food and fuel. "I could not produce the required documents at the revenue department office to add my name in the ration card," she says. "The government officials ask us to pay tax first to get any document."

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For now, her children are studying at the local zila parishad school; but from next year, her son will have to travel to Dhamangaon, about 10 km away, since the school he currently attends only goes up to the eighth standard. "That will add to my expenditure. I am not sure whether I will be able to bear it," she says.

Rupali, the young widow mentioned at the beginning of this story, is also finding it difficult to educate her child. She pays an annual fee of Rs 3,600 for Shivam's schooling. "He is a quick learner," she says, watching him inscribe the letters 'b a b y' neatly in his homework book. "If I get ownership of the farmland," she says, "I will either do the farming myself or sell it to raise money for Shivam's education." One acre of farmland is worth around Rs 25 lakh. But, first, the law has to be on her side.

Follow the writer on Twitter @kirantare

--- ENDS ---
Afghan security forces prepare to leave for a combat operation after Taliban militants took over Khanabad distrct of Kunduz, in Charkhab, Afghanistan on Aug. 20. (Najim Rahim/European Pressphoto Agency)

Taliban guerrillas seized a district controlled by the Afghan government in northern Kunduz province on Saturday, cutting off access to two key highways leading to the provincial capital that the militants overran for a short period last year, officials said.

The capture of the Khan Abad district, about a half-hour drive from the provincial capital, Kunduz city, comes after days of clashes in which the insurgents took territory both in Kunduz and adjacent Baghlan province.

The latest Taliban gains in the north, far from its traditional power base, come amid a growing dispute between Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah over who will lead the national unity government.

The clashes have also damaged power lines that supply electricity from neighboring Tajikistan to Kunduz and several other parts of the country, including Kabul, causing service interruptions, residents said.

The Taliban began the attack at 4 a.m. and by 9 oclock captured Khan Abad district as well as a strategic high ground there, Kamal Safi, a lawmaker from Kunduz, said by phone.

Mohammad Yousuf Ayoubi, head of the provincial capital, said hundreds of people have been forced to abandon their homes in Khan Abad and elsewhere in Kunduz because of the recent wave of fighting.

[Taliban pushes toward strategic provincial capital in Afghanistan]

A spokesman for the Taliban, Zabiullah Mujahid, said the militants seized weapons and vehicles from fleeing government troops after capturing Khan Abad.

There were no immediate reports on casualties.

Safi said government forces stationed in Khan Abad before its fall requested food, water and other supplies from the government, and its failure to respond may have contributed to the districts capture.

As the Taliban consolidated its gains in Khan Abad, a separate group of the insurgents clashed with government troops in Ali Abad, a district that connects Kunduz with Baghlan, and also in Dashte Archi, lying on a vital road leading to Tajikistan, officials and residents reported.

Safi said the advances helped the Taliban tighten the net on Kunduz city, which it overran last September in its first major military gain since late 2001 when it fell from power.

The Taliban were pushed out of the city after days of heavy U.S. airstrikes that also targeted a Doctors Without Borders hospital where dozens of patients and staff were killed.

The Taliban advances in the north are the first major victories for the militants since the reported allegiance of a key breakaway faction to its new leader, Haibatullah Akhundzada, who replaced Akhtar Mohammad Mansour.

Mansour was killed in U.S. drone strike in Pakistan in May.

Read more:

Afghan ID cards were meant to stop voter fraud but instead stoked ethnic division

Young people dont see a future in Afghanistan, so theyre leaving

These are the elite Taliban forces fighting for a province once held by U.S. troops

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world
Afghan King Habibullah Kalakani, known by the disparaging nickname Bachai-Saqao, or water-carriers son, during the 1929 civil war in Afghanistan. (Alamy Stock Photo)

In the prevailing view of Afghan history, King Habibullah Kalakani was an illiterate highway robber who toppled a reformist monarch in 1929 and spent nine despotic months on the throne, brutally uprooting all traces of modernization, before he was captured by the royal army and hanged in Kabul.

But in Afghanistan, a country with a bloody tradition of tribal warfare, fierce resistance to foreign conquerors, and warlords who reinvent themselves as statesmen, even long-dead bandit kings have fan clubs.

The case made by Kalakanis supporters, mostly activists from his ethnic Tajik minority, is that he was a pious Muslim and social Robin Hood whose horror of rapid modernization  epitomized by photos of the previous kings wife wearing Western clothes on a trip to Europe  was shared by many Afghans at the time.

For 87 years, Kalakanis remains have lain in an unmarked spot below the majestic hilltop mausoleum of the countrys ethnic Pashtun dynasty, including King Nader Shah, who ordered him executed. Now, a group of Tajik leaders and scholars are demanding that he be dug up and moved to a more respectful setting in the capital.

The campaign did not spring up on a nostalgic whim. It is in part an effort to counter the reburial of Mohammed Daoud Khan, the president who was assassinated during a communist takeover in 1978. Khans body was discovered in a mass grave in 2008, and the following year, on orders of then-President Hamid Karzai, he was reburied and given a state funeral.

[Afghan political crisis intensifies as two-year anniversary nears]

It is also part of an ethnic struggle bedeviling the current national unity government, in which power is shared by President Ashraf Ghani, an ethnic Pashtun, and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, who ran against Ghani for president in 2014 with strong support from ethnic Tajik political groups.

Daoud Kalakani, a member of parliament, heads a group that has asked the government to allow Habibullah Kalakanis final resting place to be upgraded like Daoud Khans. He said the long-dead king, known by the disparaging nickname Bacha-i-Saqao, or water-carriers son, should receive the same degree of respect as Daoud Khan. The group has threatened to stage mass protests if there is no official response within two weeks.

Another supporter, university scholar Omar Ahmad Parwani, said settling the matter would help bring national reconciliation and resolve a historical grudge. He complained that Ghani had given the title of national martyr to an ethnic Hazara militia leader who died two decades ago but was not willing to honor a Tajik [emir] who belonged to all of Afghanistan.

The cause is also being championed by some former Tajik militia commanders, especially in the Shomali Plain north of Kabul where Kalakani was born. In an email, supporters said they had been snubbed when they took their petition to Ghanis office but were more sympathetically received by Abdullah.

Dr. Abdullah said this was high on his list, said Tahir Qadiry, a spokesman for Attah Mohammed Noor, a powerful Tajik governor whose Jamiat-i-Islami party has been putting pressure on Abdullah to bring its demands to Ghani, including the Kalakani reburial.

On Wednesday, Abdullah met with Ghani to discuss a number of issues that caused a public rupture between them this month. On Thursday, Kalakanis portrait suddenly appeared on a wall in the Defense Ministry, where Ghani presided over a ceremony for Afghanistans independence day, marking a 1919 treaty with Britain. Visitors said it was hung next to a portrait of Daoud Khan.

Kalakanis supporters exulted over this sign of his official rehabilitation, but the issue has added a new source of ethnic vitriol to Afghan social media. Some Tajik websites call Kalakani a hero and juxtapose his images with those of Ahmed Shah Massoud, the iconic Tajik anti-Taliban commander who was assassinated in 2001. Some posts on these sites mock Pashtuns with vulgar slurs.

But posts by some Pashtuns and others denounce Kalakani as a brute. He was a misogynist and a backward criminal, one critic tweeted, noting that he had shut down all girls schools during his brief reign. Others called him a stain on our recent history and compared him to the late Taliban leader Mohammad Omar.

[The bomb that killed 80 Hazaras in Kabul also upended their nonviolent reform effort]

On Friday, on the hilltop crowned by the royal tombs of Nader Shah and his son, King Mohammed Zahir Shah, a guard described Zahir Shahs reign from 1933 to 1973 as a time of peace and stability, and he dismissed the movement to memorialize Kalakani as a ploy by Tajik leaders to advance their own interests. There is no difference between Kalakani and Mohammad Omar, he said.

Read more:

Afghan ID cards were meant to stop voter fraud but instead stoked ethnic division

American University in Kabul reopens after kidnappings, but campuses feel chill

Taliban pushes toward strategic provincial capital in Afghanistan

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world
The Socialist Equality Party (SEP) and the International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) in Sri Lanka held a successful meeting at the Public Library Auditorium in Colombo on August 9. It followed extensive campaigns at workplaces, universities and working-class areas.

The event, entitled Defend living conditions and democratic rights. Fight for a workers and peasants government! was attended by a broad range of workers, fishermen, white collar employees, housewives, students and youth.

Chairing the meeting, SEP political committee member Vilani Peiris briefly reviewed recent strike action over wages and conditions by health, postal, graphite mining and university non-academic workers. She also referred to demonstrations by poor peasants against government attacks on living standards.

Peiris said these struggles were not isolated events but an expression of increasingly militant action by workers internationallyin India, China, the US, UK and France. In every country, the trade union bureaucracies were doing their best to isolate workers and impose the cuts to jobs, wages and living standards demanded by the ruling classes.

SEP political committee member Pani Wijesiriwardane explained the international and national background to the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe governments attacks on Sri Lankan workers. He reviewed the lessons of the recent non-academic workers strike and explained that its betrayal by the trade unions was another example of how these organisations had been transformed into political tools of the employers and governments.

IYSSE convener Kapila Fernando reviewed the situation facing students and youth. Students, he said, had fought successive government attacks on free education but the Inter University Students Federation isolated students from workers and promoted illusions that the government could be pressured into withdrawing its cost-cutting measures. All talk that the government will improve and facilitate free education is utterly false, he said.

Fernando emphasised that the government feared a unified movement of Tamil and Sinhala students and was intensifying its provocations to keep the students divided along ethnic lines. He referred to police operations at Jaffna University and the deploying of military units to attack student demonstrations in other parts of Sri Lanka.

SEP general secretary Wije Dias, the final speaker, reminded the audience that it was just one year and seven months since Maithripala Sirisena became president and almost a year since United National Party leader Ranil Wickremesinghe was elected prime minister. No Sri Lankan government had drawn so much opposition from working people and the youth in such a short time, he said.

Our meetings titleDefend democratic and social rights!is the slogan being raised in every corner of the country today in the protest marches, pickets and strikes by workers, rural poor, housewives, students and youth of all communities. The second sloganFight for a workers and peasants governmentrefers to the objective political perspective required by all those fighting to win their demands, Dias explained.

The speaker said an official directive ordering non-academic workers from all 15 Sri Lankan universities to end their strike was a desperate attempt to force the workers to abandon their longstanding struggle for decent wages and working conditions.

In opposition to the SEPs warnings that the non-academic workers needed to adopt a political perspective and turn to other sections of the working class and the poor, the unions claimed they could pressure the government to solve the problem, Dias said. They also claimed that they would go to Geneva and lodge a complaint with the UN Human Rights Council to bring pressure on the government. This demagogy was to hoodwink workers while the union prepared the sellout of the strike.

The unions appeals to the UN and major powers, including the US, to support workers demands echoed the political methods used to oust former President Mahinda Rajapakse, Dias said.

The union bureaucracies, along with the pseudo-left parties and ex-radical groups, were at the forefront of the US-initiated regime-change operation to remove the Rajapakse in January 2015 over his political relations with China.

These organisations do not represent the aspirations of the working class but the upper-middle-class layers that aspire to cultivate closer relations with the imperialist powers. Their task is to prepare the psychology of the masses to support imperialist policies. This is under the conditions where the US is stepping up its military preparations against China as part of its geo-political strategy to maintain global domination.

Dias said the advanced nature of US war planning was indicated in a recent report to the Pentagon by the RAND organisation. Advising the Pentagon and the White House on a long and intense war with China, RAND insisted that three tasks be fulfilled beforehand: planning, a system of civilian control and the ability to communicate with China.

These tasks, the speaker warned, meant that the US must pacify and control the popular opposition that is bound to emerge across the Asian region and to establish regimes that endorse Washingtons geo-strategic aims.

Dias said that as mass hostility mounted against Sirisensa-Wickremesinghe government, the unions and the pseudo-lefts were intensifying their defence of this regime, which they helped to put in power. This was indicated, he said, by their bogus claim that although the government does not fulfill all the demands of the people it can be eventually brought to the correct path if continue to exert enough pressure.

This stands in complete contradiction to the whole experience of the class struggle for more than 100 years. The capitalist economy on a world scale is in a systemic crisis and, in direct proportion to the depths to which it sinks, the ruling elites in every country are turning ferociously against democratic and social rights of the masses. Either imperialist war or socialist revolutioneither barbarism or socialismare the alternatives posed before the world working class by the developing global situation.

Appealing to all those in attendance to join the SEP, Dias said the International Committee of the Fourth International was the only organisation with an international socialist perspective to guide the working people and youth to prevent imperialist war.
The Madrid Council, controlled by Ahora Madrid, a pseudo-left front supported by Podemos, has made significant concessions to the right wing over the decision to change the names of streets left over from the Franco dictatorship.

The ability to rename streets was supposed to be made easier by the Law of Historical Memory, passed in 2007 by the Socialist Party (PSOE) government of Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero after years of campaigning by families of the dictatorships victims. In addition to speeding up the removal of Franco-era statues, memorials and street names it was the first time that the crimes of the fascists were condemned and state support (of a limited character) provided for the exhumation of mass graves.

However, little was done and in most cities, towns and villages in Spain streets named after fascist generals, bureaucrats and battle victories abound.

The aim of the law was to divert the striving for truth about fascism in the population into safe channels for the Spanish ruling class. It continued the pact of forgive and forget enshrined during the transition from Francoism to bourgeois democracy and its central claim that all sides in the Civil War were guilty of carrying out crimes.

To continue the pretence that Ahora Madrid and the Podemos-backed mayor of Madrid, Manuela Carmena, offered a left alternative to the main bourgeois parties, the Historical Commission it created announced in July that it was proposing to change the names of 27 streets in the capitalout of the several hundred submitted for consideration.

That the commission continues to peddle the same post-Franco forgive and forget line was made clear by two of its leading members, Francisca Sauquillo and historian Alvarez Junco, in a letter to El Pais titled A Pedagogic Measure. They insisted that we have to reject, of course, all spirit of vengeancea plea repeatedly made by the defenders of the Amnesty Law of 1977 that prevented any reckoning with the crimes of fascism.

Sauquillo and Junco insist that the Civil War was not the result of the intensification of the class struggle in the 1930s, which culminated in the Spanish bourgeoisie carrying out a coup and waging a civil war against the working class. Instead, they write, war was the result of political passions that led people to barbarism through their mutual extermination.

Sauquillo and Junco make clear that the commissions task is not to condemn Francoism and its supporters. They declared: This is not about establishing a canonical version of the past that lays out the merits and responsibilities of everyone in the very complex internal conflicts and debts arising from such actions. We will also not get into the swampy debates about individual persons nor make judgements about the guilt and merit of different social groups in the present.

This is expressed in the criteria for the new names being proposed for the 27 streetsconsensus and people we can all feel proud of. As a result, the replacements combine left historical figures associated with defending the bourgeois order and fascist sympathisers.

Among them are Marcelino Camacho, a member of the Stalinist Spanish Communist Party (PCE) and General Secretary of the CCOO trade union during the Transition to democracy; Julian Besteiro, a leader of the right wing of the Socialist Party (PSOE) in the 1930s; and Melchor Rodriguez, leader of the anarcho-syndicalist CNT and one of the staunchest defenders of the Popular Front in Spain in the 1930s.

The Popular Front, formed in 1936, signalled an official end to the objective of proletarian revolution on behalf of the Stalinist Communist parties and was instead a policy of class collaboration with liberal, republican and social democratic parties in defence of ones own nation-state on the basis of a two-stage theory of, first, the unified struggle for bourgeois democracy and only then, at a later date, for socialism.

The fascistic figures now to be honoured include Mercedes Formica, a member of the fascist Falange party. Formica deserves recognition, according to the commission, because she denounced the suffering of married women victims of gender violence under Francoism. Another right-winger is Carlos Morla Lynch, the Chilean ambassador in Madrid during the civil war and an open Franco sympathizer. He used his diplomatic position to provide protection and grant asylum to right-wing elements and fascists.

The capitulation of Podemos is also shown over the proposal to change the name of the street named after General~Millan Astray, who, in the words of the liberal historian Paul Preston, was the person who exerted the most influence in the ideological and moral training of Francisco Franco. Sanctified in life as the glorious cripple, his contribution to the violent ideology of the Spanish far right was unique, thanks to the creation of the Foreign Legion. In it he who institutionalized and evangelized the brutal and brutalizing values which Franco fought for and won in the Spanish Civil War ( Las Tres Espanas del 36, Barcelona: Plaza & Janes, 1998).

The name change provoked a furious response from the legion, which remains an elite unit in the Spanish Army. The Brotherhood of the Spanish Legion, which has around 100,000 members, delivered a nine-page letter to the commission full of historical falsifications and an outright glorification of Astray, and threatened to mobilise its members in protests.

The main right-wing bourgeois press, including La Razon, ABC and El Mundo, joined the attack on the commission for having opened up the wounds of the pastuncritically quoting the letter from the Brotherhood while ignoring Astrays fascist sympathies.

Ahora Madrid reacted to these threats by sending Sauquillo to meet with representatives of the Brotherhood. Reports suggest there was an atmosphere of maximum cordiality and that the commission might draw back from changing the name of the street.

The continued prostration, compromises and capitulations of the Stalinists, the PSOE and the pseudo-left have strengthened the offensive undertaken by the right to rehabilitate Franco and his regime and prepare the ideological climate for the capitalist class to once again use the same bloody methods to defend its order.

In March this year, Stanley Payne, the right-wing historian, was invited to give a lecture at the Spanish Centre for National Defence Studies, where he legitimised Francos coup and 40-year dictatorship.

The Popular Party (PP) government has given a diploma of honour to representatives of the Brotherhood of Combatants of the Blue Division, which fought alongside the Nazi army on the Eastern Front during World War II, and the Ministry of Defence has helped repatriate the remains of these soldiers from Russian soil. Hundreds of thousands of euros have been given to fund the Spanish Biographical Dictionary, a collection written by prominent revisionist historians that whitewashes the Franco dictatorship.

At the same time, the PP has ignored United Nations recommendations to continue with Civil War grave exhumations and has cut funding for it.

The role of Podemos is to stifle popular opposition to militarism and fascism. Its Madrid affiliate has made noises about the commission for including people such as Junco, who infamously opposed the annulment of sentences handed down during trials under Francoism. But this is a tactical manoeuvre, aimed at distancing itself from the right-wing commission, remaining in Ahora Madridwith its perks and privilegesand promoting Carmena as a mayor of change.

Should a Podemos government or coalition ever come to pass, it would do no more for the victims of Francoism than previous PSOE or PP governments. To repeal the Amnesty Law of 1977, and bring to justice the fascists still living in wealth and splendour, and open up the military, church and police records to public scrutiny, would be to challenge the whole post-Franco consensus established by the Stalinists, the trade unions, the social democrats and the Francoites themselves in the aftermath of Francos death in 1975.

Podemos role is not to challenge these accords but to channel mass discontent towards the formation of a new capitalist government in which it participates as a left cover. Its track record is composed of defending NATO, putting forward a former chief of staff as one of its top election candidates, publicly committing itself to austerity and parroting patriotism to the point that the right-wing online daily El Confidencial could boast that Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias has returned patriotism to the people of the left.
Photographs by Katie McCurdy.

When we heard that more and more women  women in the 60+ age group, to be specific  were experimenting with brightly colored hair, we were all about it. After all, as the iconic Baddie Winkle would likely argue, having the time of your life and doing whatever damn thing you want has no age limit. To show our support for this awesome movement, we scouted three bold women and teamed up with Wes Sharpton and Roxie Darling at Hairstory to give them the rainbow hair of their dreams.



Related: The Best Way To Get Rid Of Acne

Related: Heres Your Dream Sephora Starter-Kit



But these were more than just typical makeovers: These women took the dated rulebooks about what is and isnt appropriate and threw them out the window. It was inspiring as hell and we all walked out of the salon feeling like we could take on the world.

Related: The Craziest Beauty Routines Of The Rich & Famous



Ahead, click through to meet the risk-takers, see the magical transformations, and, hopefully, be persuaded to pick up the phone and make that salon appointment. The message is simple: Whether youre 20 or 70, no look is off-limits.





The Before

A librarian and social worker for most of her life, 63-year-old Carol Kushner describes herself as very conservative. So, how did she end up in a salon chair, about to dye her hair a color totally out of her comfort zone? Because her son thought it would be cool. She was hesitant, sure, but with the encouragement of her family, she was willing to take on the beauty dare.

In the past, Kushner had only played with highlights and a lighter shade of brown, so she decided to ease her way in with one of the more subdued shades on the rainbow spectrum: violet. I thought purple would be the most accepted, she said. Im a social worker and Im in peoples homes, so I thought any bright color would be weird.





The Color Breakdown

Purple was also a great choice for Kushner, since she was starting from a dark base. The saturation of the colors isnt that far off from being a brunette, Darling explained. They absorb the same amount of light and its really good with her skin tone.

Story continues

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The plan of attack? Hand-painted highlights that would grow out nicely with her natural texture.



The After

When Kushner first arrived on makeover day, she was a bundle of jitters. "Oh my god, are you kidding me?! Of course Im nervous! she exclaimed.



But once she realized she was in expert hands and could picture the final result, she got on board. About seven hours later, it was time for the reveal. I really, really like it, she said, smiling ear-to-ear. To see the color, you really have to be in the sun or a fluorescent light, so its really perfect.



After a week with the new hue, she says the reactions have been universally positive, save for one naysayer. I have this one friend whos like, Oh I cant believe you did that, Id never do that, Carol says. Shes an idiot. So, I think I have to drop her [Laughs]."

Related: What Going Paleo Did To My Body



Though she admits shell probably let the violet grow out, shes not against playing with color in the future. "I do think as you get older, you get stuck in a rut. Doing something like this really energizes you, she says. I left Hairstory feeling like a million bucks and Im still feeling that way. It made me want to put on a dress and high heels every day, instead of going back to my white shirt and black pants. I really did feel like it was a great lift.



Marco De Vincenzo Metallic Stripe Blazer, $1,795, available at Intermix.



The Before

61-year-old Gerry Visco is impossible to miss. Shes the director of academic administration and finance for the classics department at Columbia University and credits three gin and tonics a day as her best-kept beauty secret. She name-drops Patti Smith, Lou Reed, and Andy Warhol in casual conversation like theyre members of her family and her stories of New York in the 70s and '80s will have you wondering whether youre truly living or merely existing. (The New York Times doesnt profile just anyone, after all.)



Unsurprisingly, Viscos no stranger to daring hair. Shes quick to remind us that she was one of the first people in New York City to have fuchsia hair back in the day. They did an article about crazy-colored hair in the Soho Weekly News in the late '70s and the minute I saw it, I [knew] I had to have that color! she says. It was so unusual back then  people would scream at me on the streets. People found that color very upsetting, for some reason.



These days, people are much more accepting (even in the professors lounge at Columbia), so she decided to go back to her pink hair days  with a twist.



The Color Breakdown

Inspired by the colorful dress Visco arrived in for her consultation, Roxie went with a magenta-sunset color scheme. Her goal: to loosely channel the energy of a blooming flower.



I wanted the colors to run, because I didnt want it to look too contrived, she said. I wanted it so that you couldnt see where each color started and ended.



The After

The final result was mesmerizing. Purple at the roots veers into a light pink at the ends, with a sprinkle of neon in the middle and red at the top. Its a psychedelic, rainbow-sherbet mix that fits Viscos wonderfully eccentric personality.

Fast-forward a couple of days later. Although her hair is already beginning to fade a bit due to her daily swim habit, she says that everyone loves her new look. I got around 200 likes on Instagram, which is a lot, she says.

Its no surprise that when it comes to women dyeing their hair bold colors, Viscos motto is, Age aint nothin but a number.

I feel like if a person is able to pull it off, they should do it, she says. I think, sometimes, with older women, theyre afraid to be cool.

She lists the ladies of Advanced Style and Baddie Winkle as her inspiration, saying, There are some women who truly do enjoy dressing up [in fun styles]. They dont think that just because theyre a little older, they cant look good.

Lela Rose dress.

The Before

Marie Jose, 57, was as cool, calm, and collected as it gets when she arrived for both her consultation and the big day. A couple of months prior, she had cut off the dreadlocks shed been growing for seven years and she was ready for yet another change. This was the first time shed dabbled in a hair color that wasnt in the blonde-brown family, but she was game.

Im not sure what its going to look like, but Im all for it, she said. As a high school teacher, she was looking forward to becoming the cool teacher around the halls.

She went with blue, a color that holds deep meaning to her. My birthstone is sapphire and I love the nuances of the shade, she said. I even have a painting that I made years ago titled The Blues, which depicts the different levels of blue that we go through  from the lightest to the most intense.





The Color Breakdown

The shade of blue Darling settled on was vivid and multi-layered  the result of toning Joses hair with silver, lavender, and blue.



As a final touch, Wes trimmed Joses hair into a more tapered shape to help accentuate her cheekbones. For the final snap, he blew out her curls for a look that served up Nefertiti-meets-Grace-Jones gorgeousness.



The After

Jose explains that when she arrived home after having her hair dyed, her daughter and grandchildren were waiting with metallic blue balloons and a box of doughnuts ready to celebrate. Its been a nonstop party ever since.

I am having a ball with my blue hair  I love it! Everyone loves it! she says. People on the train, my students, my peersIm receiving compliments at every turn.

In fact, she says theres a woman in her 60s at her job who is also thinking about dyeing her hair. Do we have a movement on our hands? She sure hopes so.

I think that many more women should experiment with their hair, because it breaks the taboo that, at a certain age, you [shouldnt] do certain things, she says. Whatever the desire or change one wants, they should go for it. We have one life and we should make every day and every breath count  with a smile.

Jose says she is a woman forever changed. My new hair allows me to continue boldly as I usually do without reservation and restrictions, she says. I believe in doing things out-of-the-box and that was an out-of-the-box moment for me. It was a chic and memorable experience that I will cherish forever. It made my summer brighter.

Jennifer Zeuner earrings.

Peter Pilotto Embroidered Organza Dress, $3,180, available at Intermix.

By: Taylor Bryant
From Esquire

Tony Perkins, who has made a career railing against LGBT people-including saying that God sends natural disasters to punish them-just had his house destroyed by a natural disaster.

Perkins is president of the Family Research Council, which the Southern Poverty Law Center classifies as an anti-gay extremist hate group. Tony Perkins also lives in Louisiana, where there's been massive flooding this week that has killed 13 people and destroyed thousands of homes-including Tony Perkins'.

"This is a flood, I would have to say, of near biblical proportions," Perkins said, adding that he's now living off "God's provisions."

Here, via SPLC, are some other quotes from Tony Perkins.

"While activists like to claim that pedophilia is a completely distinct orientation from homosexuality, evidence shows a disproportionate overlap between the two.  It is a homosexual problem."

"The videos are titled 'It Gets Better.' They are aimed at persuading kids that although they'll face struggles and perhaps bullying for 'coming out' as homosexual (or transgendered or some other perversion), life will get better.  It's disgusting. And it's part of a concerted effort to persuade kids that homosexuality is okay and actually to recruit them into that lifestyle."

"Those who understand the homosexual community-the activists-they're very aggressive, they're-everything they accuse us of they are in triplicate. They're intolerant, they're hateful, vile, they're spiteful. .... To me, that is the height of hatred, to be silent when we know there are individuals that are engaged in activity, behavior, and an agenda that will destroy them and our nation."

And, in a 2015 interview, he agreed with extremist Messianic Jewish pastor Jonathan Cahn that Hurricane Joaquin was a "sign of God's wrath" over the legalization of gay marriage and abortion, saying: "God is trying to send us a message."

Story continues

Was God trying to "send" Tony Perkins a message this week? Or was He trying to "send" Ted Cruz a message, who appointed Perkins to his failed presidential campaign's "advisory council for religious liberty?"

Or was He trying to "send" the Republican National Committee a message? After all, they allowed Perkins to play a decisive role in crafting the Republican Party platform last month, including a fun little provision that advocated for sending LGBT people to gay conversion therapy-a thoroughly debunked and possibly destructive method of "treatment."

Or is Perkins just a normal person, like LGBT people, who now has to overcome adversity?

[H/T: The Independent]

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A dentist in Tulsa, Oklahoma has been allegedly caught on camera abusing his girlfriends 19-month-old son, resulting in injuries that led to the boys death, according to a report.



Prosecutors presented the video as evidence on Wednesday, as they alleged that Bert Franklin, 35, dropped Lincoln Lewis on his head and then kicked him in the footage, KFOR, a local NBC, affiliate reports.



Although prosecutors believe the video is incriminating, Franklins lawyer Scott Adams reportedly disagrees.



Theres really nothing on the video that surprised me, he told the station. I mean it is what it is. And again, Dr. Franklin has told us there was a dog in there and any actions he had was towards the dog and I believe him.







The clip obtained by KFOR does not show exactly what happened as the camera is in the kitchen and the July incident occurred in the living room, but a prosecutor reportedly said that despite the angle of the camera, she believes that Franklin dropped Lincoln on his head and started kicking him. In the same footage, Franklin then allegedly carries the toddler back into the kitchen.



According to KFOR, Lincoln sustained a skull fracture and brain bleed consistent with abuse. He was taken from the home to Mercy Hospital, before reportedly being flown to Tulsa Hospital where he died.



Lincolns mother Roxanne Randall was home at the time of the alleged incident, but reportedly stated she was upstairs when she heard a loud thud. When she ran down to see what the sound was, Franklin told her he was throwing a ball to the dog and that the baby was asleep, KFOR reports.



Around 2 a.m. the next morning Lincolns mother reportedly noticed something was wrong when she went to wake him for his bottle, but his eyes were already open and he was struggling to breath.



According to the news station, prosecutors are considering the fact that Randall had been spending time with Lincolns father as motive for the alleged crime.



Franklin was reportedly denied bail as the judge called him a danger to the community.



It is not yet clear how Franklin has plead.

Story continues

Related:

For more news videos, visit Yahoo View.
8 meal prep ideas for people who have never meal-prepped in their lives

8 meal prep ideas for people who have never meal-prepped in their lives

oats

Cooking your own homecooked meal is a fun process, but it can sound like a daunting task if youre a newbie in the kitchen. Fret not, though, because there are so many tidbits out there that will make cooking a total breeze, regardless of how little you know about that weird room in your house called the kitchen. While takeout may sound like the best option on a weeknight, think again. Its important that you keep your nutrition up when youre busy, because it can have a direct effect on all aspects of your life.

Lucky for you, its not rocket science. All it takes is a small amount of planning ahead and a love for food to get into the habit of making your own meals at home. Oh, and a hungry tummy, but Im sure youve already got that covered. Brace yourself for some seriously good food.

Here are eight meal prep ideas for people who have never meal-prepped in their lives.

1. Plan out your meals for the next week.

cooking plan

Planning ahead isnt the most fun thing to do, but the payoff is pretty huge. Visit your favorite food blogs and pick out several recipes to make for the next week. To make things easier, choose recipes that have some of the same ingredients so you can get more out of your shopping cart. Also, remember, no matter how delicious that complicated French dish looks, dont kid yourself into thinking that youll spend three hours on a Monday night making all the special sauces and reductions. Stick to simple, clean dishes, and you cant go wrong.

2. Do all your grocery shopping bulk on Sunday afternoon.

shopping

Theres nothing more stressful than feeling like you have to pick up groceries on the way home from work when youre tired and cranky. Set aside some time on your Sunday to take a quick trip to the store (better yet, a local farmers market!) and bring a detailed list with you. Once youve got all the groceries in your kitchen, youll actually want to use all the beautiful produce to make those yummy dishes.

Story continues

3. Chop everything up and place in Tupperware.

chop smitten kitchen

This is the oldest trick in the meal-prep book. When you have the time on a weekend or a slow weeknight, get everything out you plan to use over the next few days, chop it all up, and store them in containers so you can whip them out use them when the time comes. Kitchen organization at its very best.

4. Blend up smoothies for the week and store them in the freezer.

If youre one of those people who just cant your shit together in the morning (um, me), this prep idea will save your life. Make a huge bulk of smoothies on a weekend when you have the extra time and store them in jars in the freezer (glass or plastic, although plastic might be better to avoid breakage). The night before, set it out to thaw, and just like that youve got brekkie on the go. Use this recipe from A Simple Pantry for a Banana Peach Green Smoothie.

5. Pre-wash and scrub your veggies so theyre ready to use whenever.

potatoes

Okay, back to that moment when you come home from the grocery store and you unload everything into the pantry and the fridge. Well, take an extra few minutes to wash and scrub your veggies before you store them. That way, theyre all ready to go in a blink of an eye when youre in a rush and youre super hungry. Definitely do this with potatoes, because you could quickly make Pepperoni Stuffed Potatoes on a busy night, courtesy of Budget Bytes.

6. Roast a chicken so it can last through the whole week.

roast chicken

Sounds like a lot of work, but a roast chicken is actually very little hands-on time, even though it takes a little bit longer in the oven. Use these tips from Foodie Crush to make yourself the perfect roast chicken, then use the leftovers throughout the week to make easy peasy meals or pack effortless lunches to take to work. You could potentially get away with having a homecooked meal for three or four nights in a row from that leftover chicken  without even cooking. Think shredded chicken enchiladas, chicken corn casserole, or a simple chicken noodle soup.

7. Assemble pretty much anything in a jar the day before

oats

Mason jars are the best thing ever for lazy people and kitchen newbs (no shame in being either, so own it!). You can make pretty much anything in a jar a day or two before, and itll be waiting for you patiently in the fridge. Take these Cherry Berry and Banana Overnight Oats, for instance, from Foodie Crush. All you do is dump all the ingredients in a jar, screw the lid shut, stick it in the fridge, and take it out the next morning for a killer breakfast. No need to waste time making scrambled eggs.

8. Choose to make one-pot wonders

one pot

Imagine a world where you could throw things into a pot or pan, wait a few minutes for it to cook, and then eat it right away. Welcome to your new kitchen, my friend. There are so many one-pot recipes out there these days that are so easy itll make your head spin. Look at Smitten Kitchens Mushroom Marsala Pasta Bake. Um, be prepared to drool, all from a minimal amount of effort.

The post 8 meal prep ideas for people who have never meal-prepped in their lives appeared first on HelloGiggles.
Can-Am Renews NASCAR Sponsorship

The Can-Am brand will be present on the NASCAR circuit for the next two years through its collaboration with the GoFAS No.32 NASCAR Sprint Cup series racing team, in association with the Kappa and Cyclops Gear brands.

The agreement provides BRP's Can-Am brand with the opportunity to sponsor 36 races, 13 as primary sponsor.

"BRP's successful experience to date on the NASCAR circuit in 2016 has been an important asset in our North American growth plan for the Can-Am brand," said Anne Belec, SVP Global Brand, Communications and PAC at BRP. "It has helped the brand gain greater visibility through NASCAR's millions of North American spectators annually, and get closer to our consumers and their riding communities."

The sponsorship includes four title races  the Can-Am Duel at Daytona and the Can-Am 500 in Phoenix for the NASCAR Sprint Cup series in the United States, and the Can-Am 200 in Toronto and Les 50 tours Can-Am in Trois-Rivieres on the NASCAR Pinty's circuit in Canada.

Can-Am parent company BRPs portfolio includes Ski-Doo and Lynx snowmobiles, Sea-Doo watercraft, Can-Am all-terrain and side-by-side vehicles, Can-Am Spyder roadsters, Evinrude and Rotax marine propulsion systems as well as Rotax engines for karts, motorcycles and recreational aircraft.
Hollywood actor Ben Affleck will direct and star in Witness For The Prosecution, which is an adaptation of Agatha Christie's short story.

By India Today Web Desk: Actor Ben Affleck, who was last seen in a cameo role in Suicide Squad, is all set to direct and star in Witness For The Prosecution, which is an adaptation of Agatha Christie's short story about a lawyer defending an accused murderer.

According to reports, Affleck will also be co-producing the film alongside Matt Damon, Jennifer Todd and the Agatha Christie estate.



ALSO READ: 'Joker' Jared Leto joins Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford in Blade Runner sequel



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Damon and Affleck shot to fame with their 1997 film Good Will Hunting and while they are keen to write another script together, the Jason Bourne actor shared that their busy lives get in the way.

Speaking about Ben Affleck, Matt Damon said, "I would love to write another script with Ben; I love Ben, I love his work, he's been my buddy for 35 years. The big issue is time for us. We have a company together so we work on a lot of projects together, but to try to carve out the time is really tough."

"I mean we both have a whole mess of kids now, and these other day jobs.He's directing all the time and I'm off working with these other directors. The thing about Good Will Hunting is that we were unemployed and we weren't writing the script on a deadline either. Nobody was expecting it, so we were just these two idiots in our basement writing this thing, and now we have all of these pressures of the lives grown-ups have," he added.

However, it's unclear if Damon will play a role in Witness For The Prosecution.

--- ENDS ---
ChannelAdvisor Amazon

This story was delivered to BI Intelligence "E-Commerce Briefing" subscribers. To learn more and subscribe, please click here.

Amazon is set to open its 13th fulfillment center in the UK at Tilbury, Essex (England), according to Internet Retailer.

The new fulfillment center will utilize Amazon Robotics technology, which has been shown to decrease the amount of time it takes to process orders. In addition, the technology will reduce the amount of space needed to warehouse goods. The fulfillment center is scheduled to open in 2017 and will employ roughly 1,500 people, bringing the total number of Amazon UK employees to 15,500.

The new fulfillment center will allow Amazon to expand its product selection through its Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) service. Third-party sellers on Amazon can elect to fulfill their orders through FBA, which means that Amazon will store their products in one of several Amazon fulfillment centers and will then pick, pack, ship, and provide customer service for the respective products once an order is placed. Through the implementation of Amazon Robotics, the new fulfillment center will be able to store 50% more items per square foot.

Opening a new fulfillment center could pave the way for more third-party sellers to participate on its online marketplace. With its latest fulfillment center, Amazon has the potential to store additional products for not only existing third-party merchants, but also for new entrants.

However, the recent rise of Amazon third-party sellers has led to a price war among sellers, forcing them to lower prices in order to maintain sales. Amazons third-party merchants may look to smaller online marketplaces, such as Etsy, to stay competitive. This could have negative repercussions, though, given the immense number of online shoppers who currently use Amazon.

The parcel delivery industry  a segment of the shipping sector that deals with the transportation of packages to consumers  is booming thanks to e-commerce growth, and players outside the industry want a piece of the pie.

Story continues

Evan Bakker, research analyst for BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has compiled a detailed report on the future of shipping that looks at efforts by Amazon, Alibaba, and Walmart to handle more of their own shipping and concludes that big retailers are well positioned to disrupt the parcel industry.

Here are some of the key points from the report:

Transportation and logistics could be the next billion dollar opportunity for e-commerce companies. The global shipping market, including ocean, air, and truck freight, is a $2.1 trillion market, according to World Bank, Boeing, and Golden Valley Co.

There is much at stake for legacy shipping companies, which have seen a boom in parcel delivery as e-commerce spending has risen. Twenty different partners currently share the duties of shipping Amazon's 600 million packages a year, with FedEx, USPS, and UPS moving the most.

Amazon, Alibaba, and Walmart have so far focused on building out their last-mile delivery and logistics services but are increasingly going after the middle- and first-mile of the shipping chain.

Amazon has already made major moves across each stage of the shipping journey. It launched same-day delivery service, which it handles through its own fleet of carriers, cutting out any third-party shippers. The company also recently began establishing shipping routes between China and North America.

Walmart's interest in expanding its transportation and logistics operations is almost purely related to cost-savings. It's begun leasing shipping containers to transport manufactured goods from China and is making greater use of lockers and in-store pickup options to cut down on delivery costs.

Alibaba has begun leasing containers on ships, similar to Amazon's Dragon Boat initiative. This means that Alibaba Logistics can now facilitate first-mile shipping for third-party merchants on its marketplace.

In full, the report:

Sizes the market for the shipping industry.

Explains how the industry operates in broad terms.

Suggests why major e-commerce retailers should disrupt the space.

Outlines the shipping initiatives of Amazon, Walmart, and Alibaba.

Concludes how these moves might impact traditional carriers.

Interested in getting the full report? Here are two ways to access it:

Subscribe to an All-Access pass to BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report and over 100 other expertly researched reports. As an added bonus, you'll also gain access to all future reports and daily newsletters to ensure you stay ahead of the curve and benefit personally and professionally.  START A MEMBERSHIP Purchase & download the full report from our research store.  BUY THE REPORT

The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, youve given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of the future of shipping.





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Bahir Dar (Ethiopia) (AFP) - The demonstrations were crushed but anger remains in Bahir Dar, capital of Ethiopia's northern Amhara region, where a fortnight ago security forces killed at least 30 protesters, according to a human rights group.

"I would say at least 50 people!" said Getachew, a protester who saw bodies arrive at the city hospital on August 7.

Dressed in black, Getachew is mourning his younger brother Abebe, 28, who he says was shot twice - once in the back of the head and once in his side - as Ethiopian security broke up the protests with gunfire and teargas.

"The 'Agazi' were on the rooftops. They started to shoot in the crowd. The police was launching tear gas," Getachew said, referring to Ethiopia's feared special forces with their distinctive red berets who were deployed to help crush the protests in Bahir Dar.

As he spoke Getachew scrolled through photographs of victims - including his brother -- on his mobile phone.

Like many of the protesters, Abebe was wrapped in an old green, yellow and red Ethiopian flag, but without the central star imposed on the flag by the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) when it took power in 1991. The wearing of the old flag is a patriotic rebuke of EPRDF rule.

Getachew was one of the few willing to speak following the protests in Bahir Dar, and even he would not give his full name.

- Fear and mistrust -

This small, pretty town on the edge of Lake Tana and close to the source of the Blue Nile is still in shock after the killings. The tourist hotels are deserted, the tour guides idle and the fear of government reprisals is palpable.

"If I start talking in a cafe, the Kebele [local government officials] will know it. We cannot trust our neighbours or our friends," said one tour guide who did not want to be identified.

Since the demonstrations, arrests have multiplied, said Getachew. "Five friends of Abebe were arrested after they went to his funeral. We don't know where they are," he said.

Story continues

In the village of Dangla, just south of Bahir Dar, resident Andualem said there had been security sweeps and stark warnings.

"They go door to door to give extreme warning not to go out to demonstrate otherwise you will be killed," said Andualem. "They say: Keep your children and your life."

Mobile internet and social networks have been blocked to prevent the predominantly young activists from the decentralised protest movement from organising further demonstrations.

Many of the young protesters are angry at a government that has been in charge for almost their whole lives and that is seen to favour the minority Tigrean community who occupy key positions in government, the security services and public companies.

"There is a tangible development. You can't deny the roads, the buildings, the power supply but the VIPs are all from Tigray. Tigreans dominate economically and socially. All the industries are in Tigray," said Ashenafi, a young Amhara protester.

- Ethnic federalism failing -

The government's decision to join the northern province of Welkait to the Tigray region was the immediate trigger for the Amhara protests, but they have occurred at the same time as others in the Oromo region where regular, sometimes deadly, demonstrations have happened since November over land rights.

Together, Oromo and Amhara people make up over 60 percent of the population.

The demonstrations are a challenge to the EPRDF's model of "ethnic federalism" intended to give representation and a degree of self-determination to the multitude of ethnic groups in Ethiopia.

"Ethnic federalism is not working because it is not implemented equally," said Molla Wasie of the opposition Agaw Democratic Party. "Things are getting more and more tense. The government and the opposition should come together and find a solution."

The Bahir Dar demonstrators are still angry. Following the protests, the authorities gave a low figure of just seven dead, while human rights group Amnesty International said 30 had been killed. Locals say the number was higher still.

"They did not apologise for the people killed. They do not feel guilty. All they say is that if somebody comes out, they will take action," said Ashenafi. "I do not see any sign that they will change."
Coatzacoalcos (Mexico) (AFP) - Armed attackers kidnapped and killed eight people in the Mexican town Alto Lucero in Veracruz state, officials said Saturday.

The bodies of the victims, seven men and one woman, were found after their abduction on Friday, according to prosecutors, who said the suspects were still on the loose.

A police source who asked not to be identified said armed gunmen raided several homes in the town, stealing "electrical appliances and other items of value" before the kidnappings.

Police said they located and have secured 12 vehicles which they believe were used during the robbery and killing spree.

Oil-rich Veracruz, one of Mexico's most violent states, has been hit by years of unrest blamed on turf wars between the Jalisco New Generation drug cartel and their rivals, Los Zetas.

Both gangs seek to monopolize drug trafficking routes to the United States, and often kidnap and extort locals as well as immigrants from Central America.

Since the government launched a militarized war on drug trafficking in December 2006, a surge in violence has claimed the lives of more than 166,000 people with more than 27,000 reported disappearances, according to official figures.
IRVINE, CA / ACCESSWIRE / August 20, 2016 / Khang & Khang LLP (the "Firm") announces that a class action lawsuit was filed against Inovalon Holdings, Inc. ("Inovalon" or the "Company") (INOV). Investors who purchased or otherwise acquired shares on or about the February 12, 2015 initial public offering (IPO) date, are encouraged to contact the Firm prior to the August 23, 2016, lead plaintiff motion deadline.



If you purchased Inovalon shares on or about the IPO date, please contact Joon M. Khang, Esquire, of Khang & Khang, 18101 Von Karman Avenue, 3rd Floor, Irvine, CA 92612, by telephone: (949) 419-3834, or by e-mail at joon@khanglaw.com.



There has been no class certification in this case yet. Until certification occurs, you are not represented by an attorney. You may choose to take no action and remain a passive class member.



According to the complaint, Inovalons Registration Statement issued in connection with the IPO failed to disclose material facts and contained misleading and/or false statements. The Company did not disclose that it receives significant revenues from sales in New York City and New York State, both of which were pushing to collect more taxes from out-of-state businesses like Inovalon. The corporate tax rate increases were implemented on January 1, 2015. This increase significantly raised Inovalons effective tax rate, and lowered the Companys 2015 earning potential. When this news was announced, the Companys common stock value dropped significantly, causing investors harm.



If you would like to learn more about this lawsuit, or if you have any questions regarding this notice or your rights, please contact Joon M. Khang, a prominent litigator for almost two decades, by telephone: (949) 419-3834, or by e-mail at joon@khanglaw.com.



This press release may constitute Attorney Advertising in certain jurisdictions.





Contacts

Joon M. Khang, Esq.

Telephone: 949-419-3834

Facsimile: 949-225-4474

joon@khanglaw.com





Source: Khang & Khang LLP
- Reigning world champion Sebastien Ogier took control of the Rally of Germany on Saturday with the fastest time on the notoriously tricky Panzerplatte, a military training facility. Despite later admitting he chose the wrong tyres for the tricky 40km-long stage through the Baumholder military camp, VW Polo-R driver Ogier finished 13 seconds ahead of overnight leader Andres Mikkelsen. The final stage of the morning was temporarily halted when Frenchman Stephane Lefebvre crashed after 12 of the 40 kilometres. His Citroen DS 3 co-pilot Gabin Moreau suffered a leg injury and both men were airlifted to a nearby hospital. Organisers said their injuries were not life threatening.

AFP
"I haven't been in the movies the last five years because I was giving the audience a break," the legendary and enigmatic Eddie Murphy tells me as we sit down at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills to record an episode of The Hollywood Reporter's Awards Chatter podcast. "After a while, the audience needs a break," he continues, "and you need a break, too. You start taking each other for granted. I'm like, 'I know what you all like!' And the audience is like, 'Oh, yeah, I know what he's gonna do!' So you're taking each other for granted, and the next thing you know you're starring in [the 2002 flop The Adventures of] Pluto Nash."

The 55-year-old, who rarely grants interviews and never had done a podcast before, agreed to sit down with me for a wide-ranging interview because he's returning to the big screen on Sept. 16 in a project unlike any he's done before: an indie drama called Mr. Church, based on a true story, in which Murphy shines as the title character, a black man who helps to raise a white child after her mother is diagnosed with cancer, but who forbids her from learning anything about his own life. The film, which was directed by Bruce Beresford (Driving Miss Daisy) and had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in April, already has earned Murphy some of the best reviews of his career.

(Click above to listen to this episode now or click here to access all of our episodes via iTunes. Past guests include Meryl Streep, Steven Spielberg, Lady Gaga, Will Smith, Jennifer Lopez, Louis C.K., Kristen Stewart, Harvey Weinstein, Amy Schumer, J.J. Abrams, Kate Winslet, Samuel L. Jackson, Jane Fonda and Michael Moore.)

Murphy was born in Brooklyn. Despite the fact that during his childhood his biological father was murdered by a lover and he and his brother Charlie briefly were in foster care, he always displayed a terrific sense of humor and an interest in comedy (he loved Richard Pryor). He recalls getting his first laughs while imitating other kids on the bus; getting onstage for the first time as the emcee of talent shows at a local youth center; and then getting paid to be funny at clubs starting shortly thereafter. ("A dollar a minute," he recalls with a laugh.) He graduated from high school in 1979, and by 1980 he was a member of the cast of NBC's Saturday Night Live.

At the time, SNL was barely staying on the air - Lorne Michaels had departed and viewers had rapidly lost interest - but Murphy's talent, everyone agrees, saved it, and he feels it helped him, too. "It was like going to school for what I wound up doing, like Harvard for comic actors. You learned everything there," he says. "It either breaks you or prepares you for anything in show business." As his popularity grew, he began to receive offers to do movies, too, a few of which he took on during breaks from the show, and which quickly confirmed him as the most bankable movie star of the '80s: 1982's 48 Hours, 1983's Trading Places and 1984's Beverly Hills Cop.

Murphy believes that what set him apart from those who came before him and made him such a fan favorite was the fact that he was "the first black actor to take charge in a white world onscreen." He sees his impact as something like James Dean's: "It was like, 'Wow, they'll come see movies about teenagers?!' And with me it was like, 'Wow, they'll come see a young black dude in movies?'" He adds, "Then, after me, it's not just one anymore. It changed perceptions." Murphy feels it also helped that in those early films he played "a streety guy, working-class, blue-collar  the everyman" because "those characters are relatable, they're not Superman."

As a young superstar, Murphy faced plenty of temptation, but he stayed on the straight-and-narrow. "I don't drink - I don't have like this moral thing about it, I just don't do it - and I didn't get high," he notes. At SNL, many of his castmates did, and some later paid a terrible price for it. He recalls a night out with Robin Williams, John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd when "Belushi and Robin Williams offered me some blow and I didn't take it, and Belushi called me a 'tightass.' Then, years later, I was like, 'Wow, that's a trip.'" Imagining what might have happened if he'd accepted the drugs, he says, "The Eddie Murphy story would have been totally different," adding, "There are a bunch of things like that that I look back on and be like, 'Wow.' And that just reaffirms my faith. I know that God is real. There's been a bunch of times when I could have wound up crashing and burning."

Murphy soon became as associated with standup as anything - his specials Delirious (1983) and Raw (1987) were huge hits - but in his late 20s he walked away from it. "I stopped doing standup because it stopped being fun," he explains. "And the reason it stopped being fun was it was harder to write - and this was before the internet - it was harder to write new stuff. It had gotten so crazy." Jokes and bits that he would go to a club to test out almost immediately became public fodder, before he could even finish developing them. "It was like, 'Maybe I'll take a little break from standup.' And then the break just got longer," he says. "And then the whole Def Jam thing started with those comedians [a host of other young black comics] and the whole comedy scene just turned into this big other thing. For years I've been procrastinating about it, going, 'I'll do standup again.' And all of a sudden I'm this far away from it."

The good news: Murphy says he's seriously thinking about returning to standup in the near future. "Honestly, now I really am curious about doing it again because it's been so long, and so much has changed and I'm such a different person," he reveals. "I'm curious as to what it would be like if I got onstage. But, if I do that, whoever comes to see it has to sit through a bunch of my shitty songs," he says with a laugh, referencing the music that he now spends much of his time making. "You'd have to hear my shitty songs between the jokes."

As the years passed, Murphy starred in a few more hit films, such as Beverly Hills Cop 2 (1987) and Coming to America (1988), but finally was exposed as human when a few others performed poorly at the box office. Since the late '80s, he's had a very hit-or-miss track record, in terms of commercial success. Murphy, however, sees little distinction between his hits and his flops. "I kind of see it from a different perspective than the way you guys [journalists] may see it," he confesses. "In my view, I've never had a flop movie or a movie that didn't work. If I did the movie, and they paid me lots and lots of money to do it, it's a f - ing smash!" He continues, with a cackle, "Any movie that I was in that they paid me a lot of money for was a f - ing smash. And, to be perfectly honest, we celebrate Pluto Nash at my house. We don't have Christmas Day, we have Pluto Nash Day. And we don't have Halloween, we have Vampire in Brooklyn Day."

Murphy gave perhaps his greatest performance in 1996's The Nutty Professor, in which, under heavy prosthetics, he created seven different characters so convincingly that some didn't realize they were all played by the same actor. Many felt he deserved a best actor Oscar for his work; he didn't even get a nomination - not that it bothers him. "It may not have gotten the critical brouhaha stuff, but people really responded to that movie," he says. "Actor-actors that you guys really like, when I talk to them, they go into Nutty Professor."

By the turn of the century, Murphy, who once made films that no theater would have allowed kids to see, was the father of a host of kids of his own and began making films that they, too, could enjoy - films like Dr. Dolittle (1998), Mulan (1998), Shrek (2001) and Daddy Day Care (2003). "I didn't make a conscious effort to do anything like that," he insists. "But once you start having kids, you like to be able to take your kids to see some of your stuff." He also acknowledges, "As you get older, you get different, and I'm a mushier, softer person as I get older."

Some had begun to dismiss Murphy as a has-been when he shut up all the naysayers with a mesmerizing performance in the 2006 musical Dreamgirls, for which he won Golden Globe, SAG and Critics' Choice awards. He widely was regarded as a slam-dunk for the best supporting actor Oscar, but when the envelope was opened on the big night it contained the name of Alan Arkin for Little Miss Sunshine. Rumors started that Murphy stormed out of the ceremony in disgust, but he has emphatically stated that he felt Arkin was a worthy winner and that he was just uncomfortable being comforted by others as if something tragic had happened to him. "In my office I have a bunch of stuff like that," he says. "I've won a bunch of stuff like that." (He cites the Mark Twain Award as an example.) "It's not like every time I was up for something I got 'snubbed.'"

That is not to say Murphy wouldn't like an Oscar. "I have a table all ready where it would look great," he says, turning to his girlfriend, who confirms this with a nod. He then breaks into a side-splitting routine: "I'll wait because I'm pretty healthy, I'm gonna be around for a while and if I don't get it then eventually, when I'm 90 - what's the one they give you just because you've been in the business so long? [An honorary Oscar.] Eventually they're gonna have to give me that shit - I already did 35 years in movies, eventually y'all gonna have to give me something. And if y'all wait til I'm 85, 90, I'm gonna come out a 90-year-old dude, in a sky-blue tuxedo - there's a reason why it's sky blue - and I'm gonna walk out and when they give me the award and they hand it to me, I'm just gonna stand there and urinate on myself in front of the world - the whole world - and just stand there. And then they're gonna have to play that music and then they'll have to usher me off. That's gonna be my moment. Don't make me wait!"

During Murphy's presentation of the best picture Oscar in 1988, he chided the Academy for not honoring more people of color. But today he says he does not believe racism is the reason why he and others haven't yet been recognized by the organization, or why no people of color received acting nominations over the past two years. "They choose from the movies that get made," he says. "They don't have a hand in what gets made, you know? They can't control it if nothing came in that black folks was in, or just two or three things that black folks was in was Oscar-worthy. So it's not them. The studios gotta start making more stuff where black folks get quality stuff. But I can't trip about that because I've been making movies for 35 years and I've played everything from an old lady to a donkey, so I can't be on here talking about, 'They don't give us enough roles' and diversity. It's like, 'Mothaf - a, I've seen you as a donkey and an old lady, so I don't want to hear shit!' But, for the other actors, they need to make better stuff, more stuff, more diverse stuff."

Mr. Church will offer Murphy his best shot at winning the Academy's attention since The Nutty Professor - but he says there was nothing calculated about taking it on. "I was literally not even thinking about movies at all, other than writing," he volunteers. "I wrote a bunch of stuff, but I wasn't reading anything. I was in the backyard, just enjoying the yard. And this popped up out of nowhere and I had a really strong emotional response to it." He continues, "I never did anything like this. It was something I could do where there was no pressure at all because there was no expectation because this isn't a funny thing. The engine of this thing isn't my sense of humor or what I do or my performance."

Murphy says he didn't find dramatic acting very different from comedic acting - "It's all trying to connect to whatever the scene is or whatever the emotion in the scene is, it's all acting, is what I'm trying to say without being pretentious" - but something else was different altogether. "This dude [Mr. Church] was an introvert," he states. "I don't usually play introverts." As it turns out, though, he felt perfectly comfortable inside the character's skin. "I'm closer to that than I am to Buddy Love [his Nutty Professor character], as a person. I'm never like Buddy Love unless I'm joking around or playing," he says.

So what is Murphy like these days? He's a homebody, and why shouldn't he be, with a large mansion, a beautiful girlfriend and no great pressures. So that he can fully enjoy these things, he also actively avoids reading about the business or himself. As he puts it, "I used to be the hippest of them all. I used to know everything about everything. I used to read about everything that was going on and I knew everybody's name and anybody in pop culture. Anything that was written about me I would read. And for the last maybe 20 years - I haven't read a newspaper in 20 years, or read a corporate magazine, I don't read corporate magazines or stuff, I don't read stuff about me. I really don't read stuff about me. Like, if there's an article about me, someone has to read through it before they even give it to me. I don't want to see anything that has anything negative. I don't want to read any of that shit. So I don't know what y'all think. I don't have a computer, I don't have email, I don't have any of that shit." Murphy adds with growing laughter, "I don't need to be on social media interacting with the fans, tweeting that I just ate strawberries. Nothing has made me go, 'Oh, yeah, get me on, too, I want to be on there with y'all! I just had strawberries too!' 'I'm going to the store now!' 'Look at this picture of this baby!'" In short, he says, "I don't feel any pressure to live up to any whatever - expectation - anyone may have."

Read more: 'Mr. Church': Tribeca Review
NextShark

Jahrah, who only has a first name as customary in Indonesia, went out to collect rubber on Sunday morning in the forest in Jambi Province on Sumatra Island, Indonesia. The search parties only found success a day later, on Monday, when they discovered a 22-foot-long (6.7-meters-long) python with a bulging stomach resting in the woods. Her family then reported her missing to the local authorities, and a search has been carried out since then, Anto, the local villages chief, said.
Iciar Bollains The Olive Tree, Pedro Almodovars Julieta and Paula Ortizs The Bride have made Spains short-list for its Oscar submission. The countrys final Academy Award candidate will be announced on Sept. 7.

The short-list pits three titles by auteurs from three Spanish filmmaking generations, each offering, in different measure, an offshore appeal beyond their arthouse-to-crossover Spanish market base.

The Olive Tree (pictured) marks the seventh film by actress-turned-director Iciar Bollain, whose feature helming debut, comedy Hi, Are You Alone?, dates from 1996.

Produced by Madrid-based Morena Films and Germanys Match Factory Productions, and sold internationally by eOnes Seville Intl., The Olive Tree is written by Ken Loachs regular scribe Paul Laverty, who was inspired by a newspaper article he read.

Indirectly addressing the social, economic and emotional effects of Spains still-recent boom-to-bust crisis, the film follows a family in a village in Eastern Spain, where the father and uncle decide to sell its more-than-1,000 year old olive tree to a property developer down on the coast, despite the opposition of the grandfather and the daughter (Anna Castillo). When the grandfather ails, his granddaughter sets out on a madcap adventure to retrieve the tree, now in Germany.

Released May by eOne, The Olive Tree scored 1.6 million ($1.8 million) B.O. in Spain, creditable judged by modern-day grosses for upscale cinema in Spain.

Starring Adriana Ugarte, Emma Suarez and Dario Grandinetti, Pedro Almodovars drama Julieta adapts a trio of short stories by Pulitzer-winning Canadian author Alice Munro, marks helmers return to the female-centric storytelling, this time focusing on a mothers emotional life story, driven by a constant of loss.

Julieta represents the twentieth film by Almodovar, Spains most Oscar-laurelled director in history, winning two statues  best foreign-language film in 1999 for All About My Mother and original screenplay for Talk To Her in 2002, and being nominated for three more: Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, for foreign-language, in 1988; Talk to Her, for directing, and Volver, for Penelope Cruz, as best actress.

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The most recent Almodovar title selected by the Spanish Academy as Spains foreign-language Oscar candidate was Volver in 2006.

Handled in Spain by Warner Bros, Julieta opened in April, cuming $2.4 million, low by Almodovars standards. Sony Pictures Classics has set a Dec. 21 release in the U.S. for the film.

Acquired for the U.S. market by Todo Cine Latino, the speciality label of Paul Hudsons Outsider Pictures, Paula Ortizs sophomore film, The Bride is a free adaptation of Federico Garcia Lorcas classic stage play Blood Wedding, written by the poet, whose homosexuality was not even accepted by friends such as Luis Bunuel, as he battled to present what he could regard as a tenable position on the inevitability of desire. It is produced by Barcelonas Get in the Picture Productions with Germanys Cine Chromatix.

With Inma Cuesta, Asier Etxeandia and Alex Garcia as main cast, The Bride transposes to the white desert of Turkeys Cappadocia the story of a woman promised to one man but who elopes with a former lover the same day of her wedding. The jilted grooms mother  a symbol of Spains tyrant conservative classes demand for social propriety and merciless revenge  argues that only murder will restore lost honour.

Betta Pictures launched The Bride in Spanish theaters in December, snagging $1.13 million B.O., a creditable trawl for a movie by a little-known filmmaker.

The members of Spains Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will vote for their Oscar candidate from Aug. 23 through Sept. 6. This year, the timetable has been brought forward nearly a month, compared to previous editions, aimed to facilitate the promotion of the film selected in the Oscars campaign.

John Hopewell contributed to this article

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The CAA-UTA battle behind closed doors in arbitration could lead to an all-out war in open court.

Earlier this month, the court denied a bid to file certain briefs under seal in the agent-poaching fight between CAA and UTA - and they show that CAA nearly beat one of UTA's key claims when the arbitrator issued a tentative ruling in CAA's favor.

The arbitration deals with the exit of three CAA agents who were bound by employment contracts when they quit to work for UTA: Jason Heyman, Martin Lesak and Nick Nuciforo. The lawsuit deals with two who were not under contract themselves, Gregory Cavic and Gregory McKnight, but are being accused of helping the other three breach their contracts.

CAA attorney Anthony Oncidi argues that UTA's legal strategy is motivated by a "thinly disguised attempt to dispense with [JAMS Arbitrator Richard Chernick] who has offended them by issuing an adverse tentative ruling," according to court documents.

Oncidi claims Chernick was ready to toss UTA's defenses related to the seven-year-rule, which limits an employer's ability to keep an employee under contract for more than seven consecutive years without an opportunity to consider competitive employment offers. The rule has been at the crux of UTA's defense regarding Heyman, Lesak and Nuciforo, who each began working for CAA in 2005.

A footnote in CAA's motion to stay the lawsuit pending the outcome of arbitration indicates the agency's argument against the seven-year rule centered on the notion that "[t]here is nothing in Section 2855 that renders the last contract in a series of contracts unenforceable just because there were prior term contracts." (That argument failed when ICM tried to use it in a 2007 arbitration with longtime agent Ed Limato. However, since arbitration doesn't create case law, that decision won't have any direct bearing on this one.)

Read more: UTA Asks Court for Green Light to Poach More CAA Agents

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"CAA readily concedes that the Proposed Ruling is not binding on this Court (or even on Arbitrator Chernick at this point)," writes Oncidi in a brief. He argues it was sufficient, however, to spook UTA into throwing up roadblocks in an effort to have the court rule on the issue and preempt Chernick's final ruling.

Given the highly confidential nature of the arbitration, further details of the proceedings are unclear, but the documents indicate discovery is in progress and there are currently no arbitration hearings scheduled.

UTA's perspective starkly differs. Attorney Bryan Freedman argues an LLC agreement the employees signed when TPG bought its majority stake in CAA is the governing document and CAA is refusing to honor its requirement that arbitration be handled by a retired judge.

"CAA refused and still refuses to arbitrate the issues under these agreements," states a motion to compel arbitration for Cavic and McKnight and consolidate it with that of the other three agents. Because Chernick is not a retired judge, consolidation could essentially reset arbitration to square one before another arbitrator.

A June 2015 email from Oncidi to Freedman that is attached as an exhibit to court documents shows Oncidi offered to arbitrate the dispute with a retired judge per the LLC agreement, even though CAA believes the employment agreements are the governing documents. Oncidi claims UTA's counsel never responded to that stipulation, which was proposed along with nine others, and didn't object to JAMS' selection of Chernick as the arbitrator.

Read more: CAA vs. UTA, Corporate Raiding and the Ghost of Ed Limato (Analysis)

Adding fuel to the fire, there's also a heated dispute between the parties regarding whether Chernick ordered them to keep certain arbitration details out of the public court case to preserve confidentiality.

Freedman argues the tentative ruling CAA is touting is irrelevant and Oncidi is breaking confidentiality by referencing it.

"Nowhere do the agreements provide CAA with any authority to reveal the content of ongoing arbitration proceedings to the trial court or to any other entity or individual," he writes in a reply brief. "[The tentative ruling] was never adopted by the Arbitrator, and in fact, on July 11, 2016 ... the Arbitrator granted Respondent's request to withdraw their motion for summary disposition related to the tentative ruling." So the motion that prompted the tentative ruling no longer exists.

The transcript of a July hearing, which largely happened behind closed doors in Judge Nancy Newman's chambers because of The Hollywood Reporter's presence in the courtroom, hints that UTA's next move in the legal fight could very well be a breach of confidentiality lawsuit against CAA.

"We have no problem with the procedural statements that were made, but we are not in any way acquiescent to that opposition being filed in the present form that it's in because we feel that it violates the confidentiality obligations that CAA themselves drafted," said Freedman. "And we will file a lawsuit as a result of it if that's filed in open court."
Only ten of the arrested have been identified. They include, Amin Ahanin, Mohammad Alyasi, Fatemeh Amini, Edmund Khachaturian, Mohammad Malek Khatai, Mohsen Khoobyari, Arash Qodsi, Hamed Sepidkar, Samaneh Shahbazi-Far and Maryam Zonubi. These eleventh person has not yet been identified, nor has any information regarding the status of the detainees been released.

On Christmas Day, last year, the regime arrested a number of Iranian Christians at an in-house church in the city of Shiraz, southern Iran. While they had gathered together to celebrate Christmas, plain-clothes agents of the Iranian regimes Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) raided their in-house church. The church was ransacked, and personal items were confiscated, according to reports. Eye witnesses also said that the agents behaved offensively towards the detainees.

Prior to the Iranian Resistances annual Free Iran rally last month in Paris, nearly 80 church leaders from the United Kingdom and United States signed a declaration expressing their deep concern over the suppression of Christians in Iran. They further urged Western governments to condition relations with Iran to include improvement of the human rights situation, such as the treatment of Christians in Iran.

The Bishops, including John Pritchard, former Bishop of Oxford; the Bishop of Stepney, Adrian Newman; the Bishop of Selby, John Thomson; and Rachel Treweek, the Bishop of Gloucester who is the Church of Englands first diocesan bishop, and priests reiterated that the suppression of Christians in Iran has increased during Hassan Rouhanis tenure, according to the NCRI.

They added, Irans ruling theocracy is rightly a source of grave concern for human rights organizations and institutions with a particular interest in the protection of the rights of Christians.  Reports by the UN Secretary General, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, and the U.S. State Department all indicate that the repression of Christians has not only continued but intensified during the presidency of Hassan Rouhani.

The Christian leaders reiterated, In such circumstances, we call on all Western countries to consider the deplorable situation of human rights in Iran, particularly the painful situation of Christians and the intensification of their oppression, in navigating their relations with Iran. We call upon them to precondition improvement of those relations on the cessation of oppression of Christians and on a halt in executions.
By Alex Dobuzinskis LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Firefighters had a Southern California wildfire mostly surrounded on Saturday, after making significant progress in cooler temperatures overnight on a blaze that has destroyed 105 homes and forced widespread evacuations, officials said. The Blue Cut fire, named after a narrow gorge where it ignited about 75 miles (120 km) northeast of Los Angeles on Tuesday in an area called the Cajon Pass, has burned more than 37,000 acres (15,000 hectares) of drought-parched brush, said fire information officer Mike Lopez. At its height, the blaze, which authorities called uncannily fierce, had forced authorities to order more than 80,000 residents to evacuate their homes. They also ordered the temporary closure of a segment of Interstate 15, which connects Las Vegas to the Los Angeles area, where it traverses the Cajon Pass. But with the fire 68 percent contained, many residents were allowed to return home on Saturday, Lopez said. Overnight, as the wind prevented the blaze from any dramatic growth, firefighters built strong containment lines near Wrightwood which allowed residents of that ski resort town to repopulate the area on Saturday, he said. Residents of 7,000 other homes in the Cajon Pass area were still potentially in the fire's path and remained under evacuation orders, he said. "We feel confident we can keep continuing this aggressive attack," Lopez said in a telephone interview. Nearly 2,700 firefighters and crew were battling the wildfire, their efforts amplified by more than two dozen water-dropping airplanes and helicopters, according to tracking website InciWeb.gov. Despite around-the-clock toil by firefighters, the blaze has destroyed 105 homes and 213 outbuildings, Lopez said. The Blue Cut fire is one of nearly 30 major blazes that have burned some 530 square miles in eight Western states this week, as prolonged drought and unusually hot weather has intensified wildfire season, the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho said. (Additional reporting by Letitia Stein; Editing by Grant McCool)
The world's highest and longest glass-bottomed bridge opened in China's spectacular Zhangjiajie mountains -- the inspiration for American blockbuster Avatar.

Some 430 metres (1,400 feet) long and suspended 300 metres above the earth, the bridge spans the canyon between two mountain cliffs in Zhangjiajie park in China's central Hunan province.

Six metres wide and made of some 99 panels of clear glass, the bridge can carry up to 800 people at the same time, an official in Zhangjiajie -- a popular tourist destination -- told the Xinhua news agency.

Tourists can walk across the bridge, designed by Israeli architect Haim Dotan, and the more adventurous will be able to bungee jump or ride a zip line.

"I wanted to feel awe-inspired by this bridge. But I'm not afraid -- it seems safe!" Wang Min, who was visiting the new structure with her husband and children, told AFP Saturday.

Following an alarming glass bridge cracking incident at the Yuntai mountain in northern Henan in 2015, authorities in Zhangjiajie were eager to demonstrate the safety of the structure.

They organised a string of media events, including one where people were encouraged to try and smash the bridge's glass panels with a sledge hammer, and another where they drove a car across it.

"It's crowded today and a bit of a mess. But to be suspended 300 metres in the air, it's a unique experience," said Lin Chenglu, who had come to see the bridge with his colleagues.

Only 8,000 people each day will be allowed to cross the bridge, Xinhua said, and tourists will have to book their tickets a day in advance, at a cost of 138 yuan ($20).

Cameras and selfie sticks are banned, and people wearing stilettos will not be allowed to walk on the bridge, Xinhua said.

Local authorities have said that one of the summits in Zhangjiajie Park inspired the floating mountain which appears in the American blockbuster Avatar.

A Hollywood photographer visited the area in 2008, taking images which were used for the film, according to media reports.
SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China's healthcare system is overly reliant on large, over-burdened hospitals, which will struggle to cope with a spike in diseases linked to the fast-ageing population, the World Health Organization said on Saturday. Even for minor ailments, Chinese patients often shun family doctors or general practitioners in favor of big city general hospitals, a trend that creates often snarling queues and fierce competition for treatment. "As China's health challenges ... continue to mount, with an aging population, so too will the demands on the country's health system, along with the costs," WHO China representative Bernhard Schwartlander said in a commentary, pointing to rising rates of cancer and cardiovascular disease. "It is simply not sustainable to meet these challenges in a health system that relies on hospitals." China has been trying to overhaul its healthcare system, including promoting local, grassroots medical facilities and pledging to raise the number - and quality - of local GPs. However, low doctor salaries and a lack of trust by patients in local health centers has slowed progress. The WHO pointed to long queues, difficult booking systems and tight consultation slots that often last just a few minutes. "(It is) a symptom of the enormous patient load and pressure which doctors in China face every day," it said. "But this is not how things should be in a well-functioning health system." (Reporting by Adam Jourdan; Editing by Nick Macfie)
Washington (AFP) - A federal judge has ruled that Democrat Hillary Clinton must respond in writing in a lawsuit over her use of a private e-mail server while she was secretary of state.

In a two-page ruling issued on Friday, Judge Emmet Sullivan declined to order Clinton to testify in person in a case brought by the conservative group Judicial Watch.

The Democratic presidential candidate has 30 days to respond to Judicial Watch's questions over her use of an unauthorized server while she was the top US diplomat, the ruling reads.

In early July, US Attorney General Loretta Lynch said no charges would be brought against Clinton for using the private email server.

FBI Director James Comey however said that while there was no clear evidence that Clinton and her aides intended to violate secrecy laws, "there is information that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly-classified information."

Clinton has apologized for exclusively using the 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.

The Judicial Watch lawsuit threatens to keep the e-mail controversy alive for the weeks leading up to the November 8 presidential election.
By Eric M. Johnson ELLIOTT STATE FOREST, Ore., Aug 20 (Reuters) - Every time Dean Finnerty sees the locked neon-yellow gate and "No Trespassing" sign deep in Oregon's Elliott State Forest, he bristles at the growing movement to transfer federally owned land to U.S. states.

The 52-year-old conservationist and lifelong political conservative worries that cash-strapped states that acquire such land will ultimately be forced to sell to private companies only to extract oil, gas and timber.

He is one of many conservative outdoors enthusiasts to join liberal environmentalists in opposing such transfers.

They stand against business interests and conservative states' rights advocates who argue that handing the land to states will unleash its economic potential.

Finnerty likes to hunt bear and elk on public land in Oregon with his five sons. But their outings were curtailed two years ago when the state, which had acquired the land from the federal government, in turn sold some of it to logging companies.

"When the federal government owned these lands they were better equipped to keep and maintain them," said Finnerty, who keeps a handgun in his truck in case he encounters a mountain lion. "The idea that we could lose these federal public lands is not acceptable." Finnerty and his fellow sportsmen, many of them conservatives who instinctively oppose big government, are petitioning lawmakers, writing opinion columns and staging protests at state capitols. They fear losing access to prime hunting and fishing lands if states take control.

They have won backing from dozens of trade groups and companies, including fishing rod makers Orvis Corp and Sage and gun manufacturer Remington.

'ABSURD ... ABSENTEE OWNERSHIP' Their protest is at odds not just with anti-federalists such as the armed militiamen who seized control of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon earlier this year, but also many in the Republican Party mainstream.

Republicans last month officially embraced federal-to-state land transfers for the first time in their party platform, saying it is "absurd" that so much land is under Washington's "absentee ownership." The ideological standoff marks a new front in the "Sagebrush Rebellion," the decades-old fight over land-use in the U.S. West.

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At stake is control of roughly 640 million acres of federally owned land, more than one-fourth of the U.S. land mass, most of which falls across a dozen Western states, according to the Congressional Research Service. https://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42346.pdf For a graphic of federal land ownership across the United States, click here: http://tmsnrt.rs/2b8CKe1 Supporters say transfers could be lucrative. Oil and gas reserves on federal lands could generate $12.2 billion annually over the next decade, supporting more than 87,000 jobs, a 2013 University of Wyoming study estimated. http://goo.gl/7Mm8KY More than 30 bills pushing for federal land transfers were introduced in Western states in 2015, according to the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, which opposes transfers. More than a dozen have been filed this year, said the Center for Western Priorities, another opponent.

Wyoming, Idaho, Arizona and Nevada have passed bills to study the issue.

Utah went further in 2012, demanding millions of acres of federal land and authorizing a lawsuit if that did not occur by 2014. Utah has not sued yet.

MONEY AND MANPOWER John Ruple, a University of Utah professor of public land law, said the state has no legal case and the U.S. Congress controls such transfers.

Karla Jones of the American Legislative Exchange Council, a group of conservative lawmakers and business leaders who have ushered virtually identical land-transfer legislation through several state legislatures, hopes a new Congress after November's election will support the push.

"The federal government does the exact same thing the states do. It leases land to the extractive industries," she said. "The big difference is the U.S. generally loses money." But those fighting for the status quo, including Finnerty, say states lack the money and staffing to enforce the law across massive tracts of rugged, remote terrain.

There has been no wholesale transfer of federal tracts in decades, though small transfers are common.

Oregon received the Elliott State Forest from the U.S. government in a 1930 land transfer, hoping to fund schools through timber sales and investments. But it sold thousands of acres to logging companies in 2014 after revenues plunged.

Next year, Oregon hopes to fetch more than $220 million for the remaining 82,500 acres.

"This is a coordinated, multiyear campaign to take away our federal public lands, which are an American birthright," said Whit Fosburgh, president of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership.

(Reporting by Eric M. Johnson in the Elliott State Forest, Oregon; Editing by Ben Klayman and Jonathan Oatis)
Riyadh (AFP) - Rockets fired by Yemeni rebels into a Saudi border city on Saturday killed a Saudi civilian and wounded six others including a Pakistani man, the Saudi civil defence agency said.

Quoted by Al-Ekhbariya state television, the agency the five other wounded in the city of Najran were all Yemeni citizens.

Video footage posted on social networks showed two blazing buildings in the city centre.

Cross-border attacks into Saudi Arabia have increased since a Saudi-led Arab coalition this month stepped up air strikes on insurgent targets inside Yemen in an attempt to shore up the beleaguered government.

Saturday's attack was the third this week.

On Friday, five foreign residents of Najran were wounded in a rocket strike just west of the city.

Seven civilians were killed on Tuesday when the city centre was shelled, with three victims said to be expats.

Tuesday's toll was the highest reported number of civilian casualties in Saudi Arabia for a single day since the Arab coalition intervened in Yemen in March last year against the Iran-backed Huthi rebels.

More than 100 civilians and soldiers have been killed in southern Saudi Arabia by retaliatory rocket strikes or skirmishes since the coalition began operations in support of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi's government.

Meanwhile, the rebel-controlled Saba news agency reported a wave of coalition raids inside Yemen on Saturday, including one that killed three civilians near the Huthi-held capital Sanaa.

Despite the reported attacks, Saba said that "thousands" of people demonstrated in Sanaa in support of the rebels and their allies, forces loyal to ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
The prisons entrance is on the northwest corner of the yard, and a door on a southeast angle inside the yard lies opposite a short stairway leading to the basement, where torture beds and equipment lie in wait.

The cells have high ceilings and very small windows that open into a dimly lit corridor. It becomes absolutely dark when the light is turned off. These cells, and the prison as a whole, are frightful. Voices, particularly from coming from the basement, cant be heard outside of the prison. This prison is used exclusively by the IRGC . No other agency has control over it, much like the IRGC Prison 66 which is located in the basement of Qasr-e Firouzeh (Kolahdouz) Camp.

The other prison, referred to as the Zoois located underground, in Alborz Province, northwest of Tehran.. It is made up of three sections: cells, microbiology lab and the chemistry lab. Prisoners are said to be interrogated and detained in this place, and finally tested in different ways. As far as can be told, no prisoner comes out of this place, and there are special furnaces located on the premises.

Two townships are being built near the Zoo, in an area southwest of Karaj near Mehrshahr and leading to Mahdasht. However, none of the owners of the townships have been allowed to dig any wells in this area and any form of excavation is totally prohibited in this region.
(Reuters) - World number eight Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic has pulled out of the U.S. Open after suffering an appendicitis, he said on Saturday. "I am very disappointed to announce I will not be able to compete at the U.S. Open this year," the 30-year-old wrote on Twitter. "I was just diagnosed with Appendicitis in Cincinnati so I will be flying back to Europe for additional checks and treatment," he added. "I will need to take some time off to recover fully but I know I will get back as strong as ever." Berdych, who lost in this year's Wimbledon semi-finals to eventual champion Andy Murray, pulled out of the Rio Olympic Games due to fears over the Zika virus. The U.S. Open starts on Aug. 29. (Reporting by Ed Osmond; Editing by Ken Ferris)
Rio de Janeiro (AFP) - Denmark's 22-year-old Viktor Axelsen wants to strike badminton gold at Tokyo 2020 after stunning double Olympic champion Lin Dan to grab men's singles bronze at Rio on Saturday.

Axelsen lost the first game 15-21 but bounced back to take the second 21-10 and the deciding game 21-17 before bursting into tears as the reality of his achievement sunk in.

"When you've worked so hard for something for a long time then of course it's the best feeling in the world," the big Dane told reporters.

Chinese superstar Lin, 32, and Malaysian world number one Lee Chong Wei, 33, are likely to have retired before the next Games.

Fourth-ranked Axelsen is also five years younger than current number two Chen Long, meaning the Dane could be favourite for gold by the time Tokyo rolls around.

"Let's see if they retire or not. How long they're going will play," he said when asked if he could see the Asian dominance of men's singles move towards Denmark.

"I'm just trying my best to get to my highest level and if that means I'm one of the best players in the world then of course I'm very very happy.

"Of course (I want gold) but right now Tokyo 2020 is a long way ahead so right now I just want to enjoy the moment and there are a lot more tournaments to come."
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Daniel Radcliffe and Daniel Ragussis

Daniel Radcliffe will make you give terrorism and white supremacy another thought. Really.

The actor everyone (still) knows as Harry Potter gives a surprisingly nuanced performance while playing a young FBI agent who goes undercover as a white supremacist in his new film "Imperium," in theaters Friday  sporting an American accent and a shaved head.

Just when you think the white supremacists, who often literally tower over Radcliffe, are about to discover his plan, Radcliffe's Nate steers them the other way or talks his way out of a boiling situation.

Director Daniel Ragussis says he spent three years on the project, from research to conception, while filming only took 25 days. Ragussis cowrote the film with Michael German, a former FBI agent on whom the story is based.

Business Insider sat down with Radcliffe and Ragussis before a TimesTalks to discuss the problem with the label terrorism, what it takes to be a good undercover agent, and trying to talk to white supremacists.

I grew up with an awareness that terrorists come from everywhere.

Meryl Gottlieb: I saw the movie, and its pretty intense.

Daniel Radcliffe: Yes, absolutely. I know "enjoy" is not quite the right word but I hope you got something out of it.

Gottlieb: I did, but Im curious what drew you to the role since it is so heavy?

Radcliffe: Ive read a lot of scripts where they set the character up as being smart and thats how he solves problems and then in the last third of the movie they just give up on that and give him a gun and it becomes all action and you think, "Oh just go and bloody stick to it," and this film actually stuck to that the whole way through. And then once Id spoken to Dan Ragussis about the world and to Mike German, it became even more fascinating and felt like something that was really worth talking about and portraying.

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When I first read it, it was around the time that Dylann Roof happened and there was a real reticence on the part of FBI officialdom to refer to that as terrorism... My dads from northern Ireland, he grew up during the troubles, I grew up with an awareness that terrorists come from everywhere and have all sorts of motivations and so it seemed like that was a very relevant thing, but I dont think either of us envisaged that white supremacy might take this sort of bizarre jag towards the mainstream or rather that the mainstream might jag toward that by the time it came out.

Gottlieb: How do you think this movie affected the way you see terrorism then?

Daniel Ragussis: The main thing that I learned in terms of working with Mike is that it seems to be, at least in the way that its applied, a very subjective definition and one thats often unfortunately politically motivated, and I say unfortunately because there probably should be a lot more consistency in terms of how we look at those things. Whether we call something terrorism or not has a great impact as to the way the law enforcement community approaches it, the way that the media approaches it, public policy approaches it and so unfortunately the choice of words becomes an incredibly important thing in terms of how our society deals with and views the issue.

Radcliffe: [Homicides] are not all politically motivated but it instills terror and in that sense it is. Any kind of murder with any sort of political or religious ideology could be defined as terrorism but as you [points to Ragussis] say, that has so much sway over how people deal with stuff and actually it might be much more useful to just start referring to all gun crimes as a form of terrorism

It might be much more useful to just start referring to all gun crimes as a form of terrorism.

, because at this point it does always almost feel like a political statement of some kind.

Ragussis: It can cut both ways because on the one hand, certain crimes probably are not getting a certain kind of attention  like the Dylann Roof example  because theyre not labeled as terrorism. Certain crimes that are labeled as terrorism are getting such undue attention and attention that really affects the political discourse in such a way as to do all sorts of things: create laws that invade our civil liberties, which is a topic that [gestures to Radcliffe]...

Radcliffe: Im in a play about that, yeah ["Privacy" at The Public Theater].

Ragussis: Yeah exactly, so it has this massive outsize impact upon our government, our laws, the nature of our society, so it's a tricky thing because its sort of a very selective attention that can work both towards good or bad for the society.

Daniel Radcliffe Imperium

Gottlieb: To me, going undercover seems like acting.

Radcliffe: I made the same assumption... but actually what you do, you have to be able to maintain all the time, so its much easier to just be yourself  be a version of yourself that also happens to hold these views. Mike just went in and was very much him. I think he gained almost a reputation or nickname of being called something like the "Hippie Nazi" because he was so chill and would never engage with people. That was his whole thing.

Ragussis: You want to have good relationships and be friends with everyone. You dont want to be alienating one particular person or group both for your own safety and also for the purposes of the investigation. You dont know which of those eight guys is actually going to be the guy that you want to foster a relationship with and follow deeper into and all the rest of it. So you actually have to use charm, social skills  you have to be the guy that everybody likes.

Radcliffe: And he said he was just incredibly helpful.

Ragussis: Yeah like he would do the dishes.

Radcliffe: Also I would like to say, Mike was doing this at a very different time than weve set the movie in, so Mike was doing it with like a big Casio cassette player strapped to his ankle the whole time and he had to go and flip the tape every 90 minutes.

Gottlieb: Thats a lot more pressure than the wristwatch [which Nate wears to secrety record his meetings with the white supremacists].

Radcliffe: Im wondering if the advent of the internet and social media has made it almost impossible for an undercover to go undercover more than once because Mike did multiple things for like 12-15 years.

Ragussis: Right because its spread so rapidly.

Gottlieb: Youd be outed on forums and other online resources.

Ragussis: Exactly, and then you also have to appear at the trial, so once youre outed in that way, I dont know how you repeat. That is a good question.

Radcliffe: Yeah, we should ask him [laughs].

Daniel Radcliffe Toni Collette

Gottlieb: If you are playing a version of yourself who has these values, with something so extreme as white supremacy, how do you incorporate that into yourself?

Radcliffe: I dont. As an actor, I dont believe that I have to try and live this the whole time at all... Also, I think its fair to say, Mike is much smarter than the average person at this, so Mikes ability and Nates, my characters, ability to read and digest all of this  the world of information and all of that stuff  and to parrot it. Most of these guys, as long as youre agreeing with them, no ones going to question how much you believe in it.

Ragussis: Theres also a reason that these ideologies are appealing to people. Theres a certain sense of simplicity and consistency about them and once you accept a few basic premises, then youre able to construct a worldview thats very coherent and consistent... These are ideologies that were appealing to masses of people back in Nazi Germany all the time.

Radcliffe: I think my biggest takeaway from this film is that as much as we want to demonize these people and in a way demonize their views, we should try and find a way of getting them into this conversation

As much as we want to demonize these people and in a way demonize their views, we should try and find a way of getting them into this conversation.

unfortunately, as awful as that sounds, because the more you ostracize them and aggressively dismiss them, the more it just plays into their worldview that everything is a conspiracy against them... I think we have to try and believe that there are some people out there that in the right circumstances could have their minds change and recount this terrifying belief system.

Ragussis: And as with anything else, I dont really know how you confront it or deal with it unless theres some level of understanding of what it is that youre dealing with. The problem with terms like monster is they dont give you any understanding. They dont give you any access as to the mechanism thats going on there and why the people are behaving the way they are. I think if youre going to try to dismantle that or change it, you have to understand whats going on and whats happening

Radcliffe: Absolutely, you have to engage with it.

Daniel Radcliffe Imperium

Gottlieb: The idea of leader-less resistance, that plays into that. Its not just one uniform group.

Radcliffe: Leader-less resistance should be called out for what it is, which is a mechanism for the higher-ups of these organizations to not get their hands dirty. Thats why this exists. Its not like a lone-wolf phenomenon. They encourage this lone-wolf phenomenon because it means that people enacting their worldview without them ever having to actually commit a crime  people like Tracy Letts character in the film.

Ragussis: Its very convenient for the ideological leadership. Theyre basically able to sit there and write pamphlets and make speeches and do all sorts of other things

Gottlieb: Host radio shows

Ragussis: Exactly. And get a great deal of affirmation and approbation and even money and all the rest of it without actually committing crimes or putting themselves at risk or anything else. In some ways its a very cynical viewpoint from the leadership.

Radcliffe: Weird to think of these guys as being cynical [laughs].

Ragussis: [laughing] Theyre not all true idealists.

Radcliffe: But that is a point that the film makes as well. This world is a mix of true believers and opportunists who are capitalizing on other peoples fears.

For more from Radcliffe and Ragussis, watch the full TimesTalks:

NOW WATCH: The directors of 'Catfish' and 'Nerve' reveal how to make it in Hollywood without going to film school





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(DIMONDALE, Michigan)  Republican Donald Trump again made a direct appeal to black voters Friday night, urging them to abandon the Democratic Party and give him a chance.

Speaking at a rally in Dimondale, Michigan, an overwhelmingly white suburb outside of Lansing, the GOP nominee argued that Democrats, including his rival Hillary Clinton, have taken advantage of African-American voters and taken their votes for granted.

Tonight, Im asking for the vote of every single African-American citizen in this country who wants to see a better future, Trump told the crowd.

What do you have to lose by trying something new, like Trump? he asked them. Youre living in your poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs, 58 percent of your youth is unemployed  what the hell do you have to lose?

He also made a bold prediction: At the end of four years, I guarantee you that I will get over 95 percent of the African-American vote. I promise you.

Most polls show Trump trailing Clinton significantly among black voters. President Barack Obama won roughly 93 percent of black voters in his re-election campaign in 2012.

But Trump once again accused Clinton of bigotry, claiming she sees African-Americans only as votes, not as human beings worthy of a better future,

And he painted a dismal role of life for African-Americans in the workforce, declaring that, in cities like Detroit, they have become refugees in their own country.

On Twitter, the Clinton campaign responded, This is so ignorant its staggering.

The Clinton campaigns Marlon Marshall added in a statement: Donald Trump asks what the African-American community has to lose by voting for him. The answer is everything from a man who questions the citizenship of the first African-American President, courts white supremacists, and has been sued for housing discrimination against communities of color.

Marshall said, Trump painting the entire community as living in poverty with no jobs continues to show he is completely out of touch with the African-American community.
Donald Trump quickly caught fire over a pitch he made to black voters on Friday.

During a wide-ranging, 45-minute speech at a rally in Dimondale, Mich., the Republican presidential nominee "guaranteed" that, if elected, he would win 95 percent of the African-American vote at the end of four years in office.

"No group in America has been more harmed by Hillary Clinton's policies than African-Americans," he began. "Tonight, I'm asking for the vote of every single African-American citizen in this country who wants to see a better future."

He then spoke directly to black communities.

"Look how much African-American communities are suffering under Democratic control," he said. "To those I say the following: What do you have to lose by trying something new, like Trump? You're living in poverty. Your schools are no good. You have no jobs. Fifty-eight percent of your youth is unemployed. What the hell do you have to lose?"

He continued, "I will produce for the African-Americans. And the Democrats will not produce. All they've done is taken advantage of your vote. If you keep voting for the same people, you will keep getting exactly the same result."

Read more: Nude Donald Trump Statues Unveiled in 5 Major U.S. Cities

The "95 percent" remark was an ad-libbed moment during an otherwise scripted speech that Trump delivered via teleprompters, Politico reported.

Polls show Trump trailing Clinton among black voters, and Friday saw Trump acting under new campaign leadership after a series of shake-ups.

Also on Friday, Trump toured flood-damaged Louisiana, despite the state governor's asking he not visit for a "photo op."

The GOP nominee announced that he'd accepted campaign chairman Paul Manafort's resignation earlier in the day, amid revelations of Manafort's alleged involvement with a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine.

Manafort previously had taken over for Corey Lewandowski, now a CNN contributor. Trump appointed Kellyanne Conway as his new campaign manager and Breitbart News chairman Stephen Bannon as CEO of his campaign.

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Hillary Clinton was quick to respond to Trump's comments in Michigan, saying, "This is so ignorant it's staggering."

This is so ignorant it's staggering. https://t.co/t2fZl9sqKs

- Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) August 19, 2016

Many on social media also reacted to his words.

What a gross generalization. Why does @realDonaldTrump assume all blacks are unemployed and in poverty? https://t.co/aqeTzW1DR9

- Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) August 19, 2016

Trump does know that most black people aren't in poverty... Right?

- (((Harry Enten))) (@ForecasterEnten) August 19, 2016

Read more: Trump's New Campaign Guru Stephen Bannon: 'Seinfeld' Insider, Polarizing Figure
Donald Trump

Donald Trump is now angling for African-American voters, less than three months before the November election.

At a rally on Friday in Dimondale, Michigan, the Republican presidential candidate offered himself as the alternative to his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, as he tried to appeal to black voters  a demographic with which he has not performed well.

The real-estate mogul's pitch described black communities as having "suffered under Democratic control."

"To those I say the following: what do you have to lose by trying something new like Trump. What do you have to lose?" Trump asked.

The New York businessman continued his plea by painting a bleak picture of the African-American experience at large.

"Youre living in poverty. Your schools are no good. Fifty-eight percent of your youth is unemployed. What the hell do you have to lose?

Observers on Twitter interpreted Trump's remarks as callous and out of touch.

Dear Donald Trump, news flash - not all African Americans live in slums, don't have jobs and go to bad schools. #cluelesstrump  Bob Smith (@Bob2DEnd) August 20, 2016

Yeah that's how you get African Americans to vote for you Donald Trump......  Chris Denson (@CD3__) August 20, 2016

If what Donald Trump said about African Americans, doesn't motivate you to go out and vote AGAINST him, I don't know what will.  Jade (@LE_BONES) August 20, 2016

The GOP nominee has found little success courting nonwhite voters during a campaign that began with him labeling some immigrants from Mexico as "rapists" and drug runners.

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Trump found himself in hot water again in February for being slow to denounce the support of former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke  an incident that, among others, may still be fresh in the minds of African-Americans.

Recent polls pegged Trump's support from black voters in some key battleground states as low as 0%. Despite this, Trump appeared confident his message would resonate.

"In four years, I guarantee you, I will get more than 95% of the African American vote."

You can watch Trump's appeal below:

Donald Trump's pitch to black voters: "What the hell do you have to lose?" https://t.co/JBVJBFeFzq pic.twitter.com/T7WQsYAOGz  CNN (@CNN) August 19, 2016

NOW WATCH: Trump attacks Clinton on immigration in his first general election TV ad





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Ellen Pages upcoming movies sound incredible

Ellen Pages upcoming movies sound incredible

Theres a whole lot to love about Ellen Page. The talented actress broke into our hearts with her breakout role as Hayley, the tough, vengeance seeking tween in Hard Candy, and has done nothing but impress us since.

Thats why were super excited to hear all about these amazing upcoming Ellen Page movies that come out 2016-2017.

This first one is a remake of the 1990 sci-fi horror Flatliners.

The original was about a group of medical students who explore experiments with death and near-death experiences with terrifying consequences. Although were not sure what character Page will portray, we know that her incredible co-stars are Nina Dobrev, Charlotte McKinney and Kiefer Sutherland. This reboot is slated to come out August 18th, 2017, so we unfortunately have to wait until next summer, though you can watch the original trailer on repeat here in the meantime.

Page will also be playing the lead in the movie Lioness.

The movie (which is set to come to theaters in 2017) is based on the true story of a marine stationed in Afghanistan who was the leader of the first female engagement team who had to work with Afghani women to spy on their husbands in the Taliban. Anyone who has seen Hard Candy or Inception knows how well Page can walk the line between sweet and scary, so the prospect of her playing a marine in a tense combat situation will likely make for an incredibly thrilling movie.

paige

In between these intense thrillers, Page is also going to play a character in the animated film Robodog.

Luckily for us, this movie is currently set to come out sometime this year so we hopefully dont have to wait to long to see it. Page will be voicing an animated character for the first time alongside her hilarious Super co-star, Rainn Wilson. We dont know a ton of details about this movie, but the name alone and the fact Page and Wilson will be working together again makes us rest assured this will be a totally delightful flick.

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And lastly, were incredibly excited for Pages role in the zombie thriller The Third Wave.

The storyline follows a world where the cure for zombies has been found, but people who were infected have to deal with discrimination from the non-infected. We love zombie films, especially when they take on a smart, psychological stance, and we cant wait to see what amazing layer Page will bring to her role in this film.

And there you have it! Almost two full years of awesome, Ellen Page films to look forward to! Were definitely getting our popcorn ready!

juno 1

The post Ellen Pages upcoming movies sound incredible appeared first on HelloGiggles.
Categories Celebrity Style

Just two months after giving birth, Emily Blunt stunned on the red carpet last night for her first public appearance since welcoming her second daughter, Violet. Joining husband John Krasinski for the premiere of his latest film The Hollars, the actress was the epitome of polish in a sleek white dress by David Koma and silver Tory Burch heels. While were taken aback by Emilys insane post-baby physique, her dress proves equally jaw-dropping, as geometric cutouts lend edge to a classic, mid-length silhouette. Emilys achingly chic dress isnt available to the masses, but we scouted a similarly fresh frock by Ann Taylor at just $149. Seriously. Here, shop the gorgeous stylea flattering look for every age and body shape.

Photo: Getty Images

Get The Look

Cutout Flounce Dress, $149
New York City hosts its fair share of glitzy celebrity-filled events, and Thursday night was no exception. If you walked through the Lower East Side in Manhattan around 7 p.m., you may have seen the commotion caused as A-listers walked the carpet.

Passers-by did a double take. A group of teenagers screeched and snapped photos on their phones.

Who was causing all this commotion? The guest wasn't quite Beyonc?-level  but almost. With more than 2 million Instagram followers Marnie, a 14-year-old Shih Tzu, is a bonafide social media celebrity. "She's the Beyonc? of dogs," a teenage girl told her skeptical friend (I think its just a lookalike, he insisted).

Along with other dog celebrities, including Toast (more than 350,000 Instagram followers) and Menswear Dog (more than 275,000 followers), Marnie was in the city for a formal banquet hosted by mattress startup Casper, to celebrate the launch of its line of dog beds. The mattresses, which cost $125 for a dog that weighs less than 30 pounds and $225 for dogs up to 90 pounds, are available now.

After walking the carpet, the canine guests  or "dogfluencers"  were treated to a three-course meal (a bone appetizer, steak and sweet potatoes, followed by an dog-friendly take on an ice-cream sundae). Bow-tied waiters served each course with coordinated flourish, while a live string quartet played classical music.

For more on the event, watch the video above.

See original article on Fortune.com

More from Fortune.com
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The FBI and U.S. Justice Department are investigating possible U.S. ties to alleged corruption involving the former president of Ukraine, including the work of firms headed by political operatives Paul Manafort and Tony Podesta, CNN reported on Friday, citing multiple U.S. law enforcement officials. The broad-based investigation was looking into whether U.S. companies and the financial system were used to enable corruption by the party of former pro-Russian Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, CNN said. A person who answered a telephone number for Manafort said Manafort was not available for comment. The person, who said he was an associate of Manafort and who gave his name only as David, referred queries to a lawyer in Washington, who did not immediately respond to a phone call and an email. In response to a report in the New York Times on Monday, Manafort denied any impropriety in a statement. "I have never received a single 'off-the-books cash payment' as falsely 'reported' by The New York Times, nor have I ever done work for the governments of Ukraine or Russia," he said. The New York Times reported that he had received cash payments worth more than $12 million over five years that were itemized on secret ledgers belonging to Yanukovich's Party of Regions. Manafort, who resigned as chairman of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's campaign on Friday, had not been the focus of the probe, CNN said, citing the officials. The probe was looking at the work of other firms linked to the former Ukrainian government, including the Podesta Group, a lobbying and public relations company headed by Tony Podesta, whose brother John Podesta is chairman of the campaign to elect Democratic Party presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. Manafort's attorney Richard Hibey did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The FBI declined to comment, CNN reported. The Podesta Group has hired an independent legal firm to investigate whether it had been misled by the Centre for a Modern Ukraine, a not-for-profit group linked to the ousted Ukrainian government, a spokeswoman for the group said in a statement. The Justice Department, asked to comment on the report, said it remained "committed to helping recover stolen assets on behalf of the people of Ukraine." Investigators in Ukraine have said Yanukovych and his party engaged in widespread corruption. He fled to Russia following a popular uprising in 2014. (Additional reporting by John Walcott and Mark Hosenball; Reporting by Eric Walsh; Editing by James Dalgleish and Nick Macfie)
A dauntless sheriff and a roving bladesman defend a city under siege in Call of Heroes, a solid, muscular action period film with an apt if overstated political allegory. Hong Kong action blockbuster director Benny Chan (The White Storm) gamely riffs on Westerns and samurai films, while Sammo Hungs sinewy action choreography is a glorious throwback to the rustic vigor of Shaw Brothers films of the 80s.Overseas buyers from multiple territories have responded favorably to Call, but its China opening hasnt quite taken off. If anything, the lukewarm response confirms that mainland audiences either prefer contemporary subjects or like their period films larded with fantasy and visual effects. The film can be viewed as a 3D conversion in China.

The setting is Chinas Warlord Era (1916-1928), when military strongmen commanding armies of thugs ran rampant in the north. Early on, warlord Cao Ying seizes Stone City, prompting residents to flee as his private militia rapes and pillages. School teacher Bai Ling (Zhang Shuying) escapes to the neighboring city of Pucheng with her orphaned pupils, seeking refuge at a noodle shop run by her cousin Tieniu (Philip Keung). En route, they are rescued from bandits by scruffy drifter Ma Feng (Eddie Peng). Reminiscent of Rio Bravo, the governing Republican forces have quit Pucheng for an expedition, leaving sheriff Yang Kenan (Sean Lau Ching-wan, The Mad Detective) and his small but loyal brigade to protect the civilians.

Trouble soon comes a-knockin when a mysterious man (Louis Koo) patronizes Tienius noodle shop in the dead of night. Casually drawing blood, he reveals himself as General Caos son Shaolin. Yang decrees that Shaolin will be executed the day after, but Caos colonel Zhang Yi (Jacky Wu Jing) arrives, giving them one day to free his young master or else his army will decimate the city. Shaolin, who loves to kill for sport, relishes the chance to taunt Yang. His pet phrase, My father is Cao Ying, clearly refers to an incident in China that went viral, when the son of a provincial party leader showed no remorse after running over two girls, responding, My dad is Li Gang, arrest me if you dare.

In a plot development that recalls High Noon, citizens betray their cowardice and self-preservation instincts, even as Yang stakes his own familys safety to defend their lives. In a disheartening conversation with his follower Liao (Liu Kai-chi), Yang argues that even if we kneel before the enemy, they may not spare us. To which the weak-kneed man replies, Lets just kneel first and see what happens. While the film delivers a cutting satire of how the masses fear, or else ingratiate themselves to, authoritarian power, it lets Yang spend too much time pontificating on the ideal of justice and righteous law enforcement, when his actions already embody his values.

Though the crisis supposedly unfolds over one day, the amount of plot turns appears to have evolved over a longer period, with action scenes alternating evenly with drama. Standout set pieces include a skillfully-constructed and expertly-lit group fight on a drawbridge where Yang wards off a firebrand-wielding gang, and a mano-a-mano between Ma and Zhang, while perched on stacks of giant wine jars. The largely effects-free balancing act is a graceful throwback to the hardcore, authentic martial arts of Lau Kar-leungs masterpieces. While Hungs finest action choreography dazzles with dangerous moves and inventive props, here he turns his attention more to designing weaponry that mirrors the characters physique and personality, such as a gold pistol for the show-off Shaolin, a whip for domineering Yang, long spear for assertive Zhang, and twin blades for brawny Ma.

Casting brings together actors who boast martial-arts training (Wu), acting chops (Lau), star voltage (Koo), or pin-up looks (Peng), but this catch-all approach results in varying degrees of screen chemistry and performance standards. As a principled yet humane guardian of the people, Laus restrained performance balances sternness with humility. He has warm rapport with his wife (Yuan Quan, of Breakup Buddies), whose impressive fighting helps offset the male-oriented action. The history between Ma and Zhang, who once served the same master, is not explored enough to give their conflicted loyalties the intended emotional impact. Consciously styled as a ronin figure, Peng oozes boyish cheekiness when he should be displaying maverick bravado.

Production values are visibly high, as seen in Ben Laus authentic-looking set of the walled city and the ancient architecture inside, all built from the ground up in a empty lot in Shaoxing province. Wong Kin-wais score rips off Ennio Morricones classics to the point where homage becomes more like derivation. Scenes such as Ma rolling into town on horseback, in a poncho, or of Yang and his gang riding into the sunset a la The Magnificent Seven are also more cheesy than camp.

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As a movie genre, food porn came of age in the 1980s, when art-house curios like Babettes Feast and Tampopo left audiences salivating into their popcorn buckets. To this foodie, however, the taste-sensation aspect of those movies tended to be superior to the stories they told. If you asked me whether Id prefer to watch a mouth-watering documentary about the succulence of Japanese noodle soup or a wild fairy tale about a samurai/cowboy searching for the ultimate noodle-soup recipe (Tampopo was that movie, and it had its fans, though I wasnt among them), the answer is: The documentary, please!

A great many of us were made for the Food Channel era, in which the spectacle of chefs and recipes and kitchen-confidential trade secrets became a theater all its own. That, in fact, is why the food-porn genre ultimately evolved into documentary  impassioned portraits of culinary mania like The Search for General Tso (an entire film devoted to one dish!), or City of Gold, in which the inspiring Los Angeles food critic Jonathan Gold makes you want to eat at every hole-in-the-strip-mall spice palace he discovers, or Jiro Dreams of Sushi, an indelible portrait of one small sushi bar tucked inside a Tokyo subway station that may just serve the finest raw fish on the planet.

In that light, I was primed to see Kampai! For the Love of Sake, a movie that promises to do for the rice-wine elixir of Japan what Jiro did for sushi. Its not as if a movie about alcohol cant get your pleasure centers popping too  director Jonathan Nossiter certainly did it with Mondovino, his 2004 wine documentary. But Kampai!, Im disappointed to report, fumbles on all the basics.

Its a randomly tossed salad of a movie, with a few winning sketches of people whove devoted their lives to the art and hedonistic delight of sake. After 90 minutes, though, you may leave with as many fundamental questions about sake as you had going in. Do the Japanese drink it hot as well as cold, or is the whole hot-sake thing, as is often said, just a Westernized gimmick? The movie doesnt give you a clue. Is the sake industry in Japan now expanding or foundering? At different points in the film, each answer is suggested. What about the history of sake  when it was invented, how it evolved, the place it occupies in Japan? Early on, we learn that its been around for centuriesand thats all we learn. Kampai! tells you little about the history of sake, but whats worse, it evokes almost nothing of the mystery of sake.

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There are a thousand sake breweries in Japan, many of which we would probably call micro-breweries, and the film visits a handful of them to fill in how premier sake gets made. Its an arduous process, in which naturally grown rice is put through several stages of cleaning and distilling and then sprinkled with koji yeast, which begins the fermentation process, of which there are many levels. (Its hard to tell anything from this movie, but to my untrained eye, making sake looked more complicated than making Western wine.) The most compelling character in the film is Philip Harper, a Britisher who grew up in the village of Cornwall and attended Oxford, then moved to Japan, where he became a master sake brewer. He describes his rigorous apprenticeship (10 years of rice-washing and fermentation-tending that began at 6:00 a.m. and ended in the middle of the evening), and though he remains an ebullient Brit, his values and personality are steeped in Japanese rituals of courtly reverence.

The other featured character is John Gauntner, a self-described sake evangelist, who started off as a radio-frequency circuit designer out of Cleveland and fashioned himself into something like the Robert Parker of Japan. That these two Westerners became formidable forces within an indigenous sake culture is certainly impressive, but the fact that the film focuses so intently on them is a little strange. They are not, by any means, interlopers, but the Japanese still own this industry (in every way), and Mirai Konishi, the writer, director, and editor of Kampai!, seems almost skittish about going deep into the locally grown nuances of sake passion.

The movie shows us a budding sake bar and brewery in, of all places, North Carolina, suggesting that the adoration for this beverage  clear, fruity, shimmering, intoxicating  is expanding out into the world. But is it? No documentary should give you the feeling that you would learn more by spending five minutes with a Wikipedia page than you would by watching the movie. Kampai! is scattered and rudderless, though the films biggest letdown is that it barely whets your whistle for a taste of sake. It might have been made for the love, but by the end the movie has squandered it.
Set to make its debut at the 2016 Monaco Yacht Show on September 28, the grand 229-foot Galactica Super Nova is the largest ship built to date by the Dutch shipyard Heesen Yachts. Launched in March, delivered in May, the yacht has a top speed of 30 knots and its elegant exterior profile was created by Espen Oino. A master suite, VIP cabin, and four double cabins sit among its four decks.

The Monaco Yacht Show will offer attendees the first opportunity to tour Galactica Super Novas interior, designed by acclaimed Dutch firm Sinot Yacht Design. Sabrina Monte-Carlo adds its style stamp to the finishings, with objets dart, tableware, indoor and outdoor furnishings, linens, and lighting. The clean and neutral tones result from a blend of leather, steel, and wood with textiles in a soothing palette and onyx accents. The firm chose deck furniture by Paola Lenti, Mosaique au 24 place settings by Hermes, contemporary tableware by Puiforcat, porcelain by Haviland, and crystal barware by Baccarat as some of the final touches that give Galactica Super Nova its air of sophistication. (heesenyachts.com)

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It may take weeks before most residents of Baton Rouge, La. and the surrounding area can return to their homes and businesses following recent catastrophic flooding. The heavy rains have resulted in the deaths of at least 13 people, required the rescue of 30,000 people, and damaged an estimated 40,000 homes.

Those who bought federally-backed flood insurance through the National Flood Insurance Program are at an advantage. Last week, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which runs the program, directed the insurance companies that service its flood policies to begin providing individual policyholders in Louisiana with up to $5,000 in advance payments toward fixing home damage and another $5,000 toward replacement of home contents.

Policyholders can get those funds even before they submit documents showing what they lost. They also can get up to 50 percent of their claim paid out after an adjuster's inspection but before a proof of loss document is signed, says Rafael Lemaitre, a FEMA spokesman. "The idea is to get money into the hands of survivors more quickly," he says.

According to FEMA, a minority of flood victimsabout 42 percent of residents in areas deemed high-riskhave active policies for flood insurance. Traditional homeowners and renters policies do not cover damage from flooding. Victims without flood coverage, either from the federal government or private insurers, will have to rely on their own savingsand on federal, state, and charitable fundingto recover and rebuild.

FEMA says it already has paid Louisiana flood victims $3.7 million in federal disaster assistance unrelated to its flood insurance program. Whether you have flood coverage or not, there are common steps victims can take now to ensure they get the most financial help later.

Make a Claim Now

Apply online for federal disaster assistance. You could be eligible for a federal grant of up to $33,000, to be used toward temporary housing, emergency home repairs, and other urgent measures. Both homeowners and renters are eligible. FEMA recommends you apply now, even if your parish has not yet been federally declared for individual assistance. You'll need to provide the Social Security number from at least one member of your household, and have an estimate of your family's gross household income at the time of the disaster.

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If you left cars, boats, and other insured vehicles in the affected area, contact your auto insurer to begin a claim. Unlike homeowners insurance, the "comprehensive" portion of your auto insurance does cover flood damage.

Contact the insurance agent or company that sold you your homeowners, renters, or mobile-home coverage to make a claim. While homeowners insurance doesn't cover flooding from rising water, it does cover water damage from, say, a leaking roof. Considering the driving rains that inundated the region, some homes may qualify for homeowners insurance payments toward such damage.

If you are covered by flood insurance, in addition to applying for federal disaster assistance, contact the person or company that sold you your flood insurance policy. Your first contact, called a first notice of loss, starts the claims ball rolling, including your eligibility for the FEMA advance payments.

Those advance payments are up to $5,000 for your building's contents, and up to $5,000 for the building itself. To qualify, you'll have to have at least that much flood coverage. You'll later need to prove you had losses that high.

Keep in mind when you apply for the $33,000 in federal disaster assistance that these funds are for losses that aren't covered by your flood insurance policy.

Tally Your Losses

Keep track of expenditures related to temporary lodging and other expenses related to living away from your home. You'll need proof of that spending when applying for the federal disaster assistance.

If you have heard through the news or from neighbors that the first floor of your home suffered damage, begin creating an inventory of the contents. Write down the major items you can remember first and don't sweat the small stuff initially; adjusters have a system for estimating the value of, say, the items typically stored under a kitchen sink.



While flood coverage does cover major mechanical systems in the basement like the electrical wiring, water heater and furnace, it doesn't insure most personal items stored in a basement; check FloodSmart.gov for details.

Keep Records

Once you're able to get to the property, photograph everything, including objects you have to discard, structural damage, and marks on walls showing how high the flooding reached. You can then go back again to find electronicand perhaps paperrecords of major purchases. Hold on to all your records to give to your auto insurance adjusterand possibly your homeowners adjuster, if it turns out you're eligible to make a claim.

You'll need these records for your taxes, as well. Depending on their severity, you may be able to deduct a portion of losses not reimbursed by insurance on your federal tax return. (The IRS, by the way, already has announced that certain tax deadlines, including the October 17 deadline to file tax-return extensions, have themselves been extended to January 2017 for residents in the federally-declared disaster areas.)

Check FEMA's disasterassistance.gov page regularly for updates. On the "Find Assistance" page, you can enter your information and see what assistance is available. FEMA says it already has provided $3.7 million in such assistance.

If you have flood insurance, provide your tally of losses to the adjuster assigned to you. If possible, get the adjuster's cell phone number or email address so you can both document the losses electronically and keep track of any correspondence. You can add to your claim later if more damage is discovered, says Keith Brown, CEO of Aon National Flood Services, the nation's largest processor of flood insurance claims.





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Consumer Reports has no relationship with any advertisers on this website. Copyright  2006-2016 Consumers Union of U.S.
Donald Trump

Fewer than three months before the November election, GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump has appeared to shift his focus this week, giving several speeches that included direct appeals to black voters.

During a campaign rally in Dimondale, Michigan, on Friday in which the real-estate mogul urged African-Americans to vote for him, Trump asked rhetorically, "What the hell do you have to lose?"

But critics noted that Trump chose to address black voters there in Dimondale  and at another rally in West Bend, Wisconsin, earlier in the week  in communities that are overwhelmingly white.

According to the US Census Bureau, the city of West Bend is roughly 95% white. In Eaton County, Michigan where Dimondale is, the population is 88% white.

When questioned about the disparity in a CNN interview, former US congressman and Trump senior adviser Jack Kingston suggested Trump should have had "a backdrop with a burning car" instead.

The billionaire's latest outreach, in which he prefaced his plea for minority votes by reciting inaccurate statistics on unemployment, has been criticized as callous.

The Trump campaign has generally avoided reaching out to black citizens directly. The New York businessman's campaign received three invitations to address the National Urban League, according to The New York Times. The campaign ignored the first two and declined the third.

Invitations from the National Association of Black Journalists and the NAACP were also declined.

Watch the video of Jack Kingston's "burning car" remark below:

NOW WATCH: Penn Jillette reveals what it was like to work with Donald Trump on 'Celebrity Apprentice'





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John Stamos received a ton of birthday love!

The Fuller House star may be mourning the loss of his four-legged friend, but the 53-year-old actor still celebrated his day of birth by sharing a throwback picture of himself as a young kid, thanking friends and fans for the birthday messages.

"The older I get- the better I was," Stamos wrote. "Thank you all for the birthday wishes. I'm a very grateful and blessed man."

MORE: John Stamos and Taylor Lautner 'Scrub Up' in New 'Scream Queens' Promo

There was a lot of birthday cheer to go around as the actor's Full House family took a moment Friday to celebrate Stamos!

"Happy birthday Uncle J," wrote Candace Cameron Bure. "Love you."

Bob Saget shared a photo with his longtime friend, writing, "A very happy birthday to my brilliant brother @JohnStamos - Here's to many more happy years in bed together. Oh, btw, it's Bob."

MORE: John Stamos Shares Heartbreaking Tribute After Beloved Dog Dies

"Happy Birthday Uncle J @johnstamos !! Love you!!" wrote Jodie Sweetin.

Stamos' TV wife, Lori Loughlin, used his old catchphrase, writing, "Have Mercy!! 53 never looked so good! Happy Birthday @johnstamos Love you tons!"

"Happy Birthday, hair boy! Still lookin' gooood! @johnstamos," wrote Andrea Barber.

Dave Coulier also piled on the birthday love, writing, "Happy bday to my brother @johnstamos - love you! #cutitout."

WATCH: John Stamos Makes First Public Appearance With Girlfriend Caitlin McHugh

Fuller House actress Soni Bringas shared, "Happy birthday @johnstamos I love working with you!! You are incredibly talented and such a cool guy to have on set! Hope you have an amazing birthday!!"

And co-star Elias Harger wrote, "Happy birthday, John! You and my brother share a birthday!"

Happy birthday, John Stamos!

EXCLUSIVE: John Stamos Jokes About Being 'Eye Candy' on 'Scream Queens' Season 2

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Meanwhile, the actor is gearing up to join a new TV family this season on Fox's Scream Queens.

The cast talked to ET at San Diego Comic-Con last month, where the actor confessed the cast made him feel "like a piece of meat day one!"

Watch the video below for more.

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Snatch a look at five bright, vibrant trailers for adventures coming out of video games expo Gamescom: from the bouncy, action-oriented "Yooka-Laylee" and anime-influenced "Shiness" to the sibling journeys of "Silence" and "Blackwood Crossing" via an unashamedly retro-style "Thimbleweed Park" from the designers of classic point & click "Monkey Island."

Yooka-Laylee

Revisiting the classic 3D platformers of days gone by -- in particular, the "Banjo Kazooie" series that its senior studio staff became well known for. Due early 2017 on PS4, XBO, WiiU, Mac, Linux and Windows PC.

https://youtu.be/oqmF8IgxtJ0

Shiness: The Lightning Kingdom

Plunge into the adventure of Chabo, searching for the Land of Life in spite of a war raging across his beautiful planet. The product of a successful and ambitious 2014 crowdfunding campaign, the team behind "Shiness" even went to the trouble of developing a new language for their characters to speak. Out at the end of 2016 on PS4, XBO and PC.

https://youtu.be/BUBDP5Y8YPA

Thimbleweed Park

Introducing one of several main characters, Delores, heir to a pillow factory, its fortune, and the town's general weirdness. A return to the adventure game format that established designers Rod Gilbert and Gary Winnick with the late 80s, early 90s "Maniac Mansion" and "Monkey Island" games. Out early 2017 on iOS, Android, XBO, and computers.

https://vimeo.com/179190952

Silence

Emerging from an underground bunker, Noah sets off across the world of Silence to find his missing sister Renie. Annual German expo Gamescom is home ground for adventure game specialist Daedalic, whose latest project is as sumptuously realized as anything that has come before, if this trailer is any proof. Due late 2016 on PS4, XBO, WinPC, Mac and Linux.

https://youtu.be/CHk4tjZjavM

Blackwood Crossing

Orphan girl Scarlett wakes up on a very unusual train ride with her younger brother Finn -- though they're close, something happened in the past, and Finn blames Scarlett for abandoning him. And then there's this weird rabbit-man who keeps turning up. Out early 2017 on PS4, XBO and PC.

https://youtu.be/P-eoecrF7qU
DailyFX.com -

Talking Points:

DailyFX SSI shows 62% traders long the GBP/USD pair, down from 73% on August 12th

GBP/JPY SSI set a 4-year high (76%), EUR/GBP positioning dropped to a 12-month low (17%)

Event risk for the Pound is set to be light with UK GDP will be released on Friday the 26th

Having trouble trading the British Pound? This may be why.

Major British Pound crosses offered strong positioning readings into the end of the week with the DailyFX Speculative Sentiment Index (SSI) showing a majority of retail traders long the Sterling. The SSI indicator is currently shows 62 percent of traders long GBP/USD, lower than last weeks 7-month high. Speculative positioning for GBP/JPY hit a four-year high with 76 percent of traders long the pair. EUR/GBP is currently showing a mere 17 percent of traders long the lowest level since August of 2015. It is important to note that the Speculative Sentiment index is frequently a contrarian indicator as retail traders inexperience and emotions accumulate.

All three Pound pairs are near extreme price levels as EUR/GBP hit a three-year high on Tuesday, and GBP/JPY traded close to its three year low throughout the week. GBP/USD is close to more extreme levels namely, the three decade lows that the pair hit following the UK referendum (Brexit) vote.

Below is a summary of next weeks event risk for the British Pound. Data is set to be light, until Friday when GDP will be released.

GBP/USD, GBP/JPY, EUR/GBP Positioning Reaching Extreme Levels

GBP/USD, GBP/JPY, EUR/GBP Positioning Reaching Extreme Levels

GBP/USD, GBP/JPY, EUR/GBP Positioning Reaching Extreme Levels

GBP/USD, GBP/JPY, EUR/GBP Positioning Reaching Extreme Levels

(Charts made with Marketscope 2.0)



original source

DailyFX provides forex news and technical analysis on the trends that influence the global currency markets.

Learn forex trading with a free practice account and trading charts from FXCM.
Rio de Janeiro (AFP) - Olympic champion Vladimer Khinchegashvili tipped his beaten foe for stardom after denying Japan's Rei Higuchi an unlikely wrestling gold medal on Friday.

Georgian Khinchegashvili won the men's freestyle under-57kg division in Rio but said he expects 20-year-old Higuchi to take over his mantle one day.

"He's a very strong guy, I'm sure in the future he will win may other titles," said Khinchegashvili, who is also world champion.

"I have a lot of respect for him. It wasn't a surprise to face him in the final because he beat such high level opponents."

Although Georgia is more known for producing talented judoka than wrestlers, Khinchegashvili said he was following a family tradition as his father, who died when he was young, was also a champion wrestler.

He lost to Dzhamal Otarsultanov in the London 2012 final but made up for it this time.

"This was the main goal for me and finally I've achieved it," said Khinchegashvili.

"Before I was world champion, European champion. At the last Olympics I got silver, so now I can say this has been fantastic for me -- I'm very happy."

Higuchi said he will now target Games glory in his homeland in four years' time.

"I will improve my attacking so I can do my best in the Tokyo Olympics (Games)," he vowed.

"I did my best but the Georgian athlete was better at guarding and I have less power than him."

In the bronze medal matches, Haji Aliyev of Azerbaijan pinned Vladimir Dubov of Bulgaria, while former world champion Hassan Rahimi dominated Yowlys Bonne of Cuba.

The day's other category saw something of a surprise as reigning champion and three-time world champion Jordan Burroughs of the United States was stunned in the quarter-finals by Russia's Aniuar Geduev.

The Russian looked on the brink of winning under-74kg gold as he led Iran's Hassan Yazdani 6-0 in the final.

But Yazdani turned things around and snatched victory in the final seconds against the heavily-bandaged Geduev, who was bleeding profusely from his eyebrow throughout the contest.

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Geduev kept needing to take a break to have his head re-bandaged, disrupting the flow of the fight.

"What concerned me the most was the breaks the he kept getting. I as worried he was resting and coming back fresher," said Yazdani, who is known as the 'Cat of Juybar', a region in Iran where wrestling is very popular.

They finished 6-6 at the end of the bout but Yazdani triumphed due to being the last to score.

In a tight bout, Jarayil Hasanov of Azerbaijan beat Uzbekistan's Bekzod Abdurakhmonov 8-7 for bronze.

European champion Soner Demeritas won a battle of the bushy beards to snare the other bronze medal, beating Galymzhan Usserbayev of Kazakhstan 6-0.
BERLIN (Reuters) - The leader of the populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has spoken out in favor of people arming themselves with guns and self-defense devices following a series of violent attacks last month. The anti-immigrant AfD has won growing popular support in Germany due in part to Europe's migrant crisis, which has seen more than 1 million refugees arrive over the past year, and it now has seats in eight of Germany's 16 state assemblies. After two Islamist attacks and a shooting rampage by a mentally unstable teenager last month, Germans are on edge and the AfD is expected to make a strong showing in votes next month in Berlin and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. "Many people are increasingly feeling unsafe. Every law-abiding citizen should be in a position to defend themselves, their family and their friends," Frauke Petry told the Funke Media Group in an interview published on Saturday. "We all know how long it takes until the police can get to the scene, especially in sparsely populated places," she said. Known for her fiery speeches to AfD supporters, Petry sparked an uproar earlier this year when she called for German police to be allowed to use firearms against illegal migrants. Petry rejected calls to toughen up gun laws, saying this would affect respectable citizens and not those who acquire weapons in the so-called "dark net", which is only accessible via special browsers. Instead, she criticized "ruinous cuts" on police and said the state at lost its monopoly on the use of force in places. Germany has some of the most stringent rules around gun control in Europe. Firearm owners must obtain a weapons licence for which applicants must generally be at least 18 years old and show they have they have a reason for needing a weapon. Nonetheless, sexual assaults on women in Cologne at New Year and three fatal attacks have added to the feeling of vulnerability and prompted Germans to stock up on scare devices. The number of Germans applying for so-called "small firearms license", which are required to carry around blank guns and pepper spray, jumped 49 percent in the first half of 2016 to 402,301, according to federal statistics. However, permits for firearms fell to 1.894 million as of the end of June compared to 1.898 million a year earlier. (Reporting by Caroline Copley; Editing by Dominic Evans)
otto

Riding in a self-driving vehicle requires you to suspend your belief that man is better than machine.

You have to trust that the steering wheel moving below your hovering hands is turning in the right direction and the right amount.

You have to hope that the acceleration you feel will stop when you reach the right speed and not careen out of control.

You have to believe that this truck, a mashup of metal and gears and circuit boards, is a better driver than you, for you have given control of your life to a machine and are blindly trusting that it actually sees the road better than you.

It's a leap of faith, and one that I only realized how miraculous it was after I saw how the self-driving truck I was riding in knew the difference between an open lane and the open sky.

Flipping the switch

I'd never been in a self-driving vehicle until I rode in the back of an Otto truck on Friday.

Uber had just revealed that it bought the company for an estimated $680 million for its technology that takes existing, newer trucks and retrofits them with a combination of sensors and radar.

Otto's goal is to make a truck drive itself in a way that's so safe and reliable that a long-haul trucker could take a nap in the back. Its promo videos show a truck with an empty seat in the front, the steering wheel eerily turning by itself.

Otto's product lead Eric Berdinis says the goal is for a trucker to be able to go to sleep in El Paso and be able to wake up in Dallas  about nine hours later.

But it's still the early days for self-driving technology. An ardent Tesla fan died after a truck turned in front of his car, and neither he nor the Tesla saw it. So Otto, which hasn't had any accidents, knows something will go wrong at some point.

otto skich

So far, Otto's testing still requires that a trained and licensed manager, like Senior Program Manager Matt Grigsby, to sit behind the wheel, hands hovering just in case something happens. Systems Testing Engineer Brian Gagliardi sat next to him as a copilot, reading the screen on a laptop to make sure the truck sees what he sees and doesn't make a mistake.

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The dream as Berdinis describes it is that one day the dual-trucker system most companies use is replaced by one trucker and a computer. Instead of splitting shifts for sleep, the partner would be the computer and the trucker would handle things like exits and driving in cities.

Leaving Otto's headquarters in the SOMA neighborhood of San Francisco, Grigsby, the human driver, took the wheel until we got on to Interstate 280. Then he pushed the "engage button," a bell chimed a few times, and his hands floated away from the wheel.

A sky vs. a lane

The computer taking over felt just like when you engage cruise control. There's a bit of whoosh as the speed changes and the truck corrects itself to the center of the lane, and then everything evens out.

It's not a dramatic switch until you notice the small things, like Grigsby's hands in his lap for a few seconds or his feet flat on the floor even when the truck is accelerating. For the most part, it felt normal  relaxing, even.

While looking at the road, I started to notice just how bad the human drivers around us are compared to the even keel the truck is keeping.

You see cars drifting in-and-out of the center of their lanes, even if they're staying inside the lines. Some cars fly by, while other cars are going slower than we are. Otto sets its software at the match the speed for trucks on that stretch of highway. In this case, it's going 55 mph.

As the interstate became a bridge and my view shifts to rooftops and blue sky on the left of the cab, I started to realize just how much of a miracle it is for the truck to not be flying off the edge.

otto bridges.JPG

Its combination of sensors and cameras have to not only detect that it's on a bridge, but also know not to direct the truck toward that empty expanse of sky. The empty area to the left of the truck doesn't mean an empty lane, but actually something much more fatal than that.

In Pittsburgh, where Uber (now Otto's parent company) is testing its self-driving cars, a Bloomberg reporter documented how the self-driving system chimed to get the safety driver to take the wheel for a few seconds as they crossed a bridge in a test ride.

"Bridges, unlike normal streets, offer few environmental cuesthere are no buildings, for instancemaking it hard for the car to figure out exactly where it is," Max Chafkin wrote. Uber's car flipped back to autonomous a few seconds later.

With that in mind, I thought I'd be terrified when I looked at the rooftops rushing by as we wound our way into San Francisco, but really I was in awe.

This is a technology where an error could cost lives, yet I thought my odds of going off the bridge were probably about the same as if I was behind the wheel myself. Or even less. From our steady perch in the self-driving truck, it was the human drivers that looked out of place and chaotic  not the truck that was miraculously driving itself.

NOW WATCH: These self-driving trucks may be the key to Ubers future





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Credit: Courtesy

For all the talk about having a "glow," being pregnant isn't always all it's cracked up to be. Exhibit A: morning sickness (or afternoon sickness, or evening sickness, or all-day-every-day sickness ...).

Of course, there are easy things you can do to alleviate nausea due to pregnancy, like staying away from fatty foods and drinking ginger tea, but you can also try these three simple exercises yoga instructor and soon-to-be mother of three Hilaria Baldwin put together for InStyle's new Yoga for 2 video series, all meant to help expectant mothers combat common pregnancy ailments. In fact, these exercises, demonstrated in the video above, are so simple, all you need is a yoga mat and a pillow to do them.

"One of the most common problems when we're nauseous is we stop breathing and we have too much tension," says the 32-year-old, who is expecting her third child this fall with husband Alec Baldwin. And so these moves are designed to help you relax, de-stress, and regain your balance. Through it all, Baldwin reminds you that the nausea is "temporary and it will pass, I promise." (Us too.)

RELATED: See All of Hilaria's Yoga for 2 Videos Here

Ready to get your namaste on, mama? Watch the video above, and for more from Baldwin's Yoga for 2 series, visit instyle.com/hilaria, and follow her on Instagram for additional exercises and tips.
Hillary Clinton shared a cute throwback wedding pic on Friday, in honor of Bill Clinton's 70th birthday.

The 68-year-old presidential hopeful posted the snapshot from their 1975 nuptials, which she captioned, "Happy birthday Bill!"

NEWS: Bill and Hillary Clinton Share Emotional Reactions to Daughter Chelsea's DNC Introduction

The former president also received an Elmo birthday balloon from his granddaughter Charlotte, who turns 2 in September.

Charlotte hasn't quite mastered the concept of gift giving, her mother Chelsea Clinton, revealed in a tweet on Friday.

"Here's the balloon Charlotte got for Poppop," Chelsea wrote. "She hasn't learned yet presents are for the person getting the gift...!"

Here's the balloon Charlotte got for Poppop. She hasn't learned yet presents are for the person getting the gift...! pic.twitter.com/VDR9h8Asm6  Chelsea Clinton (@ChelseaClinton) August 19, 2016

MORE: Bill Clinton Delivers Emotional Eulogy for Muhammad Ali: 'He Wrote His Own Life Story'

While the Clintons are best known for their political service, one member of the family is making a name for himself in the modeling world. Tyler Clinton, is the 22-year-old son of Bill's half-brother Roger Clinton Jr., and his modeling shots recently went viral. ET caught up with the photographer behind the popular pics, last month.

"Working with Tyler was amazing," Adina Doria told ET during a phone interview. "He was incredibly professional, very well-mannered and a truly genuine person. He was friendly to everyone on set and arrived early to location." Find out more about the Clintons' hot nephew in the video below.

Related Articles


Credit: Mario Tama/Getty

Don't think Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton is too busy to celebrate major family milestones.

Today, the 68-year-old former First Lady took to Instagram to share a retro photograph of herself and former President Bill Clinton and wish him a joyous 70th year. "Happy birthday, Bill!" she simply wrote.

Happy birthday, Bill! A photo posted by Hillary Clinton (@hillaryclinton) on Aug 19, 2016 at 7:28am PDT

In the shot, which appears to be from their 1975 wedding, the couple stares deep into each others eyes as Hillary holds onto her bouquet and Bill grasps a champagne glass. The sweet messages didn't end there. She also took to Twitter to wish him a cheerful day, posting the same shot and writing, "45 years later, I couldn't be happier to have you by my side. Happy birthday, Bill!"

RELATED: These Vintage Pics of Hillary and Bill Clinton Will Give You So. Many. Feels.

Here's hoping that this busy couple enjoys Bill's big day to the fullest!
Industrial metals are the building blocks of any economy. At present, even though global concerns have added an element of uncertainty to the outlook, there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic about the space for the long term.

Here we discuss some of the key reasons and what investors in the industrial metals sector can look forward to in the coming months and years:

Strong Demand in Automotive & Aerospace

On the demand side, aluminum consumption is expected to improve on a global basis, spurred on by the automotive and packaging industries  the key end markets. The automobile market is becoming increasingly aluminum-intensive, given the metal's recyclability and light-weight properties. Automakers consumed a record amount of aluminum last year as plummeting prices and technological breakthroughs made it a viable alternative to steel.

The global push to improve fuel efficiency in vehicles is expected to more than double the demand for aluminum in the auto industry by 2025. In line with this, Alcoa has completed an expansion at its Tennessee facility dedicated to supplying aluminum sheet to automakers like Ford Motor Co. (F), General Motors Company (GM) and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (FCAU).

The airline industry is also expected to boost demand for the metal. In Jan 2016, Alcoa (AA) clinched a long-term agreement from The Boeing Company (BA) to supply multi-material aerospace parts, marking its fourth multi-year contract with the aerospace giant in a series of recentdeals.

Moreover, in December last year, Boeing had awarded Alcoa two multi-year supply contracts worth more than $2.5 billion. The agreements built on Alcoa's 2014 aluminum sheet and plate deal with Boeing, with its worth being more than $1 billion. Alcoa also has big aerospace deals with Airbus and Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT), both inked in Oct 2015. Recently, Alcoa landed a multi-year supply contract with Brazil-based leading commercial jets maker Embraer (ERJ) worth around $470 million. The deal makes Alcoa the sole supplier for proprietary wing skins and fuselage sheet to Embraer.

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To capitalize on the lucrative aerospace market, Alcoa acquired RTI International, which broadened its titanium offerings and added advanced technologies and materials to its portfolio. Moreover, the buyout of UK-based leading jet engine components maker Firth Rixson has placed Alcoa to grab more opportunities in the growing aerospace market through a broad spectrum of high-growth, value-added jet engine components.

In addition, the acquisition of Tital, the Germany-based leading provider of titanium and aluminum structural castings, has strengthened Alcoas position to leverage growth in the commercial aerospace sector and, therefore, capture rising demand for advanced jet engine components made of titanium.

Improvement in Construction

The housing and construction sector is the largest consumer of steel today and, consequently, of iron ore. Building construction (pipes and wires) is also the largest market for copper. An uptrend has been noticed in real estate activity, like new home initiatives and construction spends, in the U.S. over the past few quarters. Long-stalled construction projects are being renewed. Requirement for emerging projects, such as education facilities and government buildings, is also creating demand in the sector.

In the long term, as the urban population increases worldwide, so will the need for steel increase in tandem with the need to build skyscrapers and public transport infrastructure. Emerging economies will also continue to be major demand drivers to support increasing urbanization and industrialization. Naturally, a rebound in construction bodes well for the iron ore and copper industries.

Pickup in Economic Activity to Drive Copper Demand

Copper is a major industrial metal playing a particularly important role in emerging countries. Given its varied applications, the trends in the copper market are often considered useful indicators of the state of the global economy.

Developments in the world economy are strongly correlated with movements in copper prices. Given that China accounts for the largest share of global copper consumption as well as its having a large share in the total production of pure copper, its no surprise that there is a strong correlation of the metal with Chinas ups and downs in economy. .

In the long run, expectations of a rising middle class in Asia, particularly in India and China, who will spend more on consumer goods such as air conditioners and refrigerators in the years to come, will spur demand for copper. Chinese demand for the metal will likely grow to comprise 46% of the worldwide copper consumption by 2018.

Rectifying the Aluminum Demand-Supply Imbalance

After aluminum prices bore the brunt of chronic surplus, the global aluminum industry underwent substantial changes to correct the supply-demand picture. This will eventually lead to firm prices. RUSAL is contemplating further aluminum production cuts totaling approximately 200,000 tons per annum. This came after a reduction of 316,000 tons in 2013, 256,000 tons in 2014 and 38,000 tons in the last quarter of 2015.

Likewise, Alcoa has undertaken a number of restructuring measures (including closure of smelters) over the past few years, apart from aggressively pursuing cost-cutting actions. In the first quarter, the new Alcoa closed 269,000 metric tons of smelting capacity at its Warrick smelter in Indiana, and in the second quarter, it completed the curtailment at its Point Comfort, TX facility.

As a result of these activities, the new Alcoa remains on track to meet or even exceed its 2016 goals of moving to the 38th percentile on the global aluminum cost curve and the 21st percentile on the global alumina cost curve.

For 2016, Alcoa projects a global aluminum deficit of approximately 775000 metric tons as 5% global demand growth outweighs the 2.5% improvement in global supply of the metal. RUSAL estimates a global aluminum market deficit of 1.2 million ton this year compared to a surplus of 0.6 million tons in 2015.

India to Be a Growth Driver

As per the World Steel Association, Indias prospects look bright due to low oil prices, the reform momentum and favorable policies to improve infrastructure and manufacturing output. The sub-continent expects steel demand to increase 5.4% in 2016 as well as in 2017, reaching a peak of 88.3 Mt in 2017.

Also, IMF projects Indias GDP growth to rise to 7.5% this year, above last years already robust growth rate of 7.3%. Given that India's consumption of metals has almost doubled over the past 20 years, it will be a major consumer in the years to come.

Bottom Line

As you can see, there is no reason for not being optimistic about the industrial metals industry over the long haul. But what about investing in the space right now?

Check out our latest Industrial Metals Outlook here for more on the current state of affairs in this market from an earnings perspective, and how the trend is shaping up for this sector going forward.

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Top 5 Vendors in the Smart Parking Market in Western Europe from 2016 to 2020: Technavio

Technavio has announced the top five leading vendors in their recent smart parking market in Western Europe report until 2020. This research report also lists 32 other prominent vendors that are expected to impact the market during the forecast period.

Increased adoption of smart parking sensors

Smart parking aids in reducing traffic congestions in highly populated areas. Smart parking systems use sensors that are deployed in the center of a parking area. The data gathered from these sensors helps get information regarding the number of standby vehicles and the number of vehicles in the queue to acquire parking space. The data also helps analyze and process traffic flow and notify passengers with relevant alerts. Moreover, smart parking has the tools to improve workforce management and generate revenue by enabling real-time monitoring and control of the available parking space. A two-way M2M communication takes place between smart parking sensors and connected cars. This communication helps reduce parking-related issues.

Competitive vendor landscape

According to the report, the smart parking market in Western Europe is highly fragmented and comprises of various stakeholders such as smart parking solution providers, telecommunications operators, automotive OEMs, and IT and business service providers. In Western Europe, there are many mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) and mobile virtual network enablers (MVNEs) that provide wireless M2M connectivity services and solutions.

"The smart parking market is evolving and consists of few market players. The market is moderately competitive, but it is expected to witness increasing competition in the forecast period. Vendors are focusing on mergers and acquisitions to strengthen their foothold in the market; they are forming strategic partnerships to enter different geographies and extend their footprint," says Rajesh Kumar Panda, a lead M2M and connected devices research analyst from Technavio.

In addition, the market is witnessing the entry of many cloud-based software vendors that are competing with traditional vendors in the market. However, the smart parking industry is experiencing a growing trend toward consolidation and outsourcing of parking operations and services.

Request sample report: http://goo.gl/xlFv8C

Top five smart parking market vendors in Western Europe

IPS Group

The IPS Group and is headquartered in California, US. The group is into engineering and manufacturing and focuses on wireless telecommunications, payment processing systems, Software as a Service (SaaS (News - Alert)) management software, and parking technologies.

The group offers products to customers worldwide, especially in the US. It also receives annual certification by the PCI (News - Alert) Security Council for Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS) and the Payment Application Data Security Standard (PA-DSS).

The IPS Group employs 70 people and has offices in the US and Europe. It has sales offices in Canada and other locations across North America. The group delivers IoT and ITS solutions for transportation and parking operations, globally.

Libelium Comunicaciones Distribuidas

Libelium Comunicaciones Distribuidas was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in Zaragoza, Spain. The company designs and develops wireless sensor network devices for system integrators and engineering and consultancy companies to provide smart city solutions to end-users. It delivers low power consumption devices for smart city solutions and an extensive range of M2M and sensors projects worldwide.

The company offers products in the categories Waspmote, Plug & Sense!, Meshlium, and Cooking Hacks. In addition, it provides face-to-face workshops, custom training courses, custom hardware, and solutions to deploy IoT, M2M, and smart city projects.

Parkeon

Parkeon is in the urban mobility industry and supplies a unique range of parking management solutions and public transport ticketing solutions. The company has offices in France and the UK.

The company has subsidiaries in the UK, Italy, Spain, Australia, Germany, Belgium, the US, and the Netherlands. It provides services to more than 4,000 clients, globally. It has installed approximately 200,000 parking meters in more than 60 countries.

Streetline (Kapsch TrafficCom)

Streetline was established in 2005 and is headquartered in California, US. The company has smart parking deployment centers across the US, Canada, and Europe. It delivers smart data and advanced analytics to resolve parking issues for customers, globally.

Streetline provides real-time and historical parking applications for technology adopters through a portal called ParkSight. It also enables ParkEdge, a platform that allows parking providers to add off-street parking information on both Parker and ParkerMap.

TransCore

TransCore was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Tennessee, US. It is a leading company in the transportation industry that provides innovative, technical solutions and engineering services used in different applications.

Some of the prominent vendors are:







3M Aeris Communications Cisco Systems (News - Alert) Deutsche Telekom Gemalto HCL IBM (News - Alert) Jasper Technologies MSR-Traffic Nedap Mobility Solutions

Source (News - Alert): Technavio

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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].

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Ramallah (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - Israeli authorities have extended by three months the detention without trial of a Palestinian journalist who had been due for release on Monday, a Palestinian NGO said on Saturday.

The Ramallah-based Palestinian Prisoners Club said it had been informed by Omar Nazzal's lawyers that the senior journalists' union official would not now be released at the end of his current term, on August 22.

"Israel is intensifying its policy of administrative detention and increasing the extensions of administrative detention," prisoners club spokeswoman Amani Sarahneh told AFP.

"In particular it made this choice in the case of Omar."

His wife Marlene Rabadi posted on Facebook: "We were informed today that Omar's administrative detention has been extended by three months."

Israeli officials could not immediately be reached for comment on Saturday, the Jewish sabbath.

Nazzal was arrested on April 23 at the border between the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Jordan, from where he had been due to fly to a European Federation of Journalists gathering in Bosnia.

A military court ordered at the time that he be placed for four months in administrative detention, an Israeli measure allowing suspects to be interned for indefinite periods without charge.

Israel accuses him of "participation in a terrorist organisation".

Its Shin Bet security service said in April that Nazzal, 54, served in a top position at Falestine al-Youm television in Ramallah, which Israel forcibly closed on accusations of incitement to violence.

Nazzal had left the broadcaster several months before his arrest, which Palestinians say is an Israeli attack on the freedom of the Palestinian press.

Israel says Nazzal was detained for "his involvement in terror group activities", not "because of his activity as a journalist".

He has been on hunger strike since August 4 in protest against his detention, and international organisations have called for his release.

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The United Nations on Saturday expressed deep concern about "the deteriorating health" of another administrative detainee, Bilal Kayed, who has been on hunger strike for 67 days.

"This is an egregious case, in which Mr Kayed was placed on administrative detention on the day of his scheduled release after completing a 14.5-year prison sentence," Robert Piper, UN Coordinator for Humanitarian Aid and Development Activities in the occupied Palestinian territories, said in a statement.

It added that the number of administrative detainees is currently at an eight-year high.

"I reiterate the United Nations long-standing position that all administrative detainees - Palestinian or Israeli -- should be charged or released without delay," Piper wrote.

The Palestinian journalists' union says that another 19 Palestinian journalists and students of journalism are in Israeli prisons, one of them for more than 20 years.


Credit: David M. Benett/Getty

Jessica Chastain isn't ready to end her European getaway just yet! After a whirlwind Italian vacation where she enjoyed bellinis with mom in Florence, saw a moonlit Colosseum, and struck a pose in a red maxidress in front of Rome's Capitoline Museums, the 39-year-old actress is jet setting on to Greece to continue her summer adventures.

The Martian star took to Instagram to share two photos of her Grecian holiday, and we're already getting major wanderlust.

The first picture, captioned, "My mind is blown. Such beauty," shows the Acropolis in all its glory--shot from a high vantage point.

My mind is blown. Such beauty  A photo posted by Jessica Chastain (@jessicachastain) on Aug 18, 2016 at 2:44pm PDT

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The redheaded beauty then took to the social media platform to share a photo with Mom while posing in front of Poseidon's Temple and it's too cute. In the shot, Chastain is dressed for the heat in a white sundress and a straw hat while her mother throws an arm out toward their scenic surroundings.

Hanging with Poseidon & my mama #greece A photo posted by Jessica Chastain (@jessicachastain) on Aug 19, 2016 at 5:00am PDT

RELATED: You Have to See Jessica Chastain's Chic, Shorter Haircut

We can't wait to see more from this mother-daughter getaway! See snaps from their earlier adventures in Italy below.

Twinsies & bellinis @motorcyclegramma A photo posted by Jessica Chastain (@jessicachastain) on Aug 13, 2016 at 2:20pm PDT

When in Rome A video posted by Jessica Chastain (@jessicachastain) on Aug 15, 2016 at 4:24pm PDT
John McGuinness vs. Gordon Shedden: Car vs. Motorcycle

'Wanna switch rides?'

What happens when you pit 23-time Isle of Man TT winner John McGuinness against double Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Champion Gordon Shedden head to head on each others race-winning machinery?

Dunlop and Honda jointly hosted the unique event recently at Scotlands Knockhill Racing Circuit, which saw Gordon swap his Halfords Yuasa Racing Honda Civic Type R for Johns Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP for 30 laps of the track. While the two vehicles are very different  the number of wheels aside  the similarities are the manufacturer brand and tire manufacturer  Honda and Dunlop.

Dunlop and Honda pit Isle of Man TT legend against double British Touring Car Champion

The sportsmen are different, too, but both are at the peak of their sport; capable of using the tires to their maximum to achieve the best lap times. Whether thats in a 27-lap race, over 21 miles against 31 other cars on a smooth race track, or a single 37.73-mile lap of the daunting Isle of Man TT Mountain course, held on closed public roads.

Swapping machines is no mean feat  to get competitive lap times, they both needed to learn the car and bike respectively in just a handful of laps. During that time, they also had to adjust to the very different tires that were the only thing between their vehicle and the tarmac.

While Dunlop or Honda will not be releasing official lap times from the event on Monday, both boys were said to be incredibly close to each others lap times.

Dunlop and Honda pit Isle of Man TT legend against double British Touring Car Champion

It was brilliant, I didnt want to get out of the car, to be honest, said McGuiness. The first session all happened really fast but then I settled down into a groove. The whole mindset changes when you swap from what you know to something new, and I was a bit nervous, but were all racers and just want to go fast.

Its hard to see the apex, youre strapped in tight, and its quite warm in there. Youre breathing in engine fumes and there are lots of rattles and bangs, its such a different world but I was shocked by how nice and precise it was. Dunlop put on some soft, sticky, amazing grippy tires on the Honda Civic Type R and they gave me so much confidence to go fast.
A last-second victory can be a bit of an overused cliche in sports, but the first gold medal in Olympic history for Cote dIvoire came with a well-placed kick at the last possible moment.

Cheick Sallah Cisse was trailing by one point in the mens 80-kilogram taekwondo final when the referee separated him from Great Britains Lutalo Muhammad. With exactly one second left on the clock, there was time for just one more desperate move: a spinning heel kick to Muhammads head that somehow landed in time, earning him three points and an 8-6 victory.

Cisse ran out of the ring in celebration, while Muhammad collapsed to the mat in tears.

Cheick Sallah Cisse landed a head kick with one second remaining to win gold. (AP)

Earlier in the day, Ruth Marie Christelle Gbagbi earned a bronze medal in taekwondo for Cote dIvoire, the first medal for the country since 1984. In the Los Angeles Olympics 32 years ago, Gabriel Tiacoh earned a silver medal in the 400 meters, the first medal in the countrys history and the only one since.

But Cisses improbable, come-from-behind victory makes him the first ever Ivorian athlete to bring home gold.

Muhammad earned bronze in the 2012 London Olympics and is a two-time World Grand Prix gold medal winner.
This report is part of a project on voting rights in America produced by the Carnegie-Knight News21 program.

Correction, Aug. 29, 2016: An Aug. 20 News21 photo caption for a story about voters facing a maze of new requirements in November incorrectly spelled the first name of Oskar Mosco.

CINCINNATI  With the presidential election less than three months away, millions of Americans will be navigating new requirements for voting  if they can vote at all  as state leaders implement dozens of new restrictions that could make it more difficult to cast a ballot.

Since the last presidential election in 2012, politicians in 20 states passed 37 different new voting requirements that they said were needed to prevent voter fraud, a News21 analysis found. More than a third of those changes require voters to show specified government-issued photo IDs at the polls or reduce the number of acceptable IDs required by pre-existing laws.

We have two world views: the people that think voter fraud is rampant and the people who want to push the narrative that its hard to vote. The bottom line is neither is true, said Republican Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted, who has been sued several times over his states removal of some voters from the registration rolls, elimination of same-day registration and curbs to early voting. I believe that both political parties are trying to push a narrative that suits their agenda.

Adding to the uncertainty for millions of voters, not all the changes may be in place for the November election because some were limited or overturned by court decisions still subject to appeal.

The new voting requirements, enacted in states mostly in the South and Midwest, were nine times more likely to have been passed by Republican legislatures than those controlled by Democrats, and almost five times more likely to have been signed by a GOP governor, the News21 analysis found.

In addition to requiring voter ID, they reduced the number of days voters can cast ballots in person before election day, placed new restrictions on voter registration drives, eliminated opportunities to register and vote on the same day, or moved up deadlines to register and still vote on election day. Republican-controlled Texas and Wisconsin passed the strictest voter ID laws, while North Carolina and Ohio are among those that eliminated same-day registration and reduced early voting days.

Story continues

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These laws can be explained by partisanship and by race, said Wendy Weiser, director of the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, a legal civil rights advocacy group. Its hard to reconcile these actual laws with the stated purpose. The more reasonable and likely explanation is political self-interest. Voting laws are a way to restrict voters you think are more likely to vote for the other side.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, an early 2016 Republican presidential candidate, told News21 that such criticisms are unfair. Its a discriminatory statement to say that in todays society, people regardless of race or status arent able to get photo ID, particularly when the state provides it for free, he said. Days earlier, a federal court ruled that, for the November election, Wisconsin must offer those without photo ID the option of signing an affidavit swearing to their identity, a decision that was later overturned by a federal appeals court.

Those were part of a flurry of court rulings in late July and early August that struck down, weakened or altered new voting requirements in Wisconsin, Texas, North Carolina and North Dakota because, the courts concluded, the laws would disenfranchise people of color. In some cases, judges ruled that the laws discriminatory effect was intentional.

By contrast, some Democrat-controlled states, mostly in the West and New England, have passed laws that gave voters the option to register every time they walk into a motor vehicles office or at the polls on Election Day, made it easier to vote early or have converted their elections to entirely vote-by-mail.

Republican state leaders and conservative advocates of voter ID and other new requirements have insisted that they are necessary to prevent voter fraud and protect the integrity of elections. But a 2012 News21 50-state analysis of cases since 2000 found that the rate of voter fraud is infinitesimal compared with the total number of voters nationwide and that in-person voter impersonation on election day  the type of fraud voter that photo ID is designed to prevent  is virtually nonexistent. A 2016 update, in which News21 revisited five sample states that enacted new voting requirements to reduce fraud, again found few convictions for voter fraud and none for voter impersonation.

The ongoing political and legal wars over voting rights date to the mid-2000s, when the first new state voting requirements were enacted. Their number greatly increased after the 2010 off-year election, in which Republicans more than doubled the number of states they controlled  from nine to 20  with majorities in state legislatures and the governor's party, according to a News21 analysis of data from the National Conference of State Legislatures. Democrats, by comparison, lost control of five states, going from 16 to 11. Party control remained divided in the other states.

A 2014 study by the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that laws requiring specific kinds of voter ID in Kansas and Tennessee depressed voter turnout in those states in 2012, with African-Americans and young voters disproportionately affected. Ten state-specific and nationwide studies within the GAO report found that African-Americans and Latinos were always less likely to have the required voter ID than whites, and Native Americans and Asian-Americans were frequently at a similar disadvantage.

The National Commission on Voting Rights, a civil rights advocacy group, similarly contended in a 2014 report that minority populations were more likely to be disenfranchised by voter ID requirements and reductions in early voting and same-day registration, new restrictions for voter registration drives and limits on the restoration of voting rights for felons who have served their sentences.

Richard Hasen, an expert in voting law trends and a professor of political science and law at the University of California, Irvine, told News21 he believes the nation is now at a turning point because of the recent court decisions overturning new voting requirements in some states.

In the past, courts seemed to be divided on partisan and ideological lines on how to approach these cases, but in 2012 and now in 2016 we see the courts becoming skeptical of what appears to me to be Republican overreaches in making it harder to register and to vote, he said. The court decisions could deter more states from instituting similar laws, Hasen added, because it signals they are not going to have an easy path.

However, a June 2016 report by a collection of civil rights advocacy groups, including the ACLU and the NAACP, cited problems with minority and low-income voter access in the presidential primaries of several states that had implemented new voting requirements. These warning signs, the groups said, indicated that the new laws could still affect the outcome of Novembers presidential election.

In Ohio, for example, recent changes to voter ID requirements, same-day registration and early voting could affect a tight election, according to Melissa Miller, a political science professor at Bowling Green State University. The question becomes what kinds of changes to voter laws make it easier versus harder for those who dont tend to vote, Miller said. I think the effects tend to be marginal, but occasionally youll get an election like 2000 where a particular swing state  in that year it happened to be Florida, it could be Ohio in 2016  where the result may be very, very close.

Some states put new voting requirements in place only after the 2013 U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Shelby County v. Holder case negated the provision in the 1965 Voting Rights Act that required them to clear such changes in advance with the U.S. Justice Department. For example, Texas enacted one of the strictest photo ID laws in the country in 2011, only to have its implementation blocked by the federal government. But on the same day in 2013 on which the Shelby County decision was handed down, state officials announced that the ID law would finally be enforced. While it has since been ruled to be discriminatory four times by federal courts, it was kept in place while the state appealed those decisions.

We think its perfectly reasonable when you need to show a photo to pick up your kids from school, sometimes to pick up your pet from the kennel, that its OK to show a photo to prove that you are the person who is voting, Republican Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a co-author of the voter ID law, told News21.

The plaintiffs in the Texas court case argued that the law amounts to a modern poll tax because many voters without photo ID are low-income people who, without drivers licenses, faced trips of 90 minutes or more via public transportation to government offices to pay for and obtain the required forms of ID.

It wasnt until July 2016 that another appellate ruling kicked the case back to a lower court to determine ways to make it easier for Texans without ID to vote, after the court found that more than 600,000 lacked the required ID. Then, for the November election, the plaintiffs and the state reached an agreement to allow people without ID to have their votes count if they sign a sworn statement.

On Aug. 1, a federal judge blocked a strict photo ID law in North Dakota from being enforced for the November election. The judge concluded that the states 2013 law, which only allowed four types of acceptable government-issued ID, would cause undue burdens for Native Americans, especially when voter fraud in North Dakota has been virtually non-existent.

After the Shelby County decision, North Carolinas Republican-majority Legislature passed legislation that eliminated same-day registration, required a photo ID to vote and reduced the number of early voting days, eliminating one of the two Sundays for it. Early voting has been popular among African-Americans in the South, including the souls to the polls tradition of going to the polls together after church services on the Sundays leading up to Election Day.

The North Carolina law was struck down in July, when the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that its provisions target African Americans with almost surgical precision, noting that they are disproportionately Democratic. Eliminating one of the Sundays for early voting comes as close to a smoking gun as we are likely to see in modern times, the appellate court said.

North Carolina state Sen. Ron Rabin, who helped pass the law, told News21 that it still allowed 10 days of early voting and that same-day registration caused voter confusion. Let people be responsible for themselves once in awhile and what their duties are as a citizen, Rabin said, as opposed to keep trying to spoon-feed them everything, or give them everything.

The Shelby County decision also undermined the Justice Department program that had monitored elections in states and localities previously covered under the Voting Rights Act. Now, Justice can only send observers to where they are ordered by a federal court. Otherwise they must get local permission to enter polling places. There are just seven counties or cities in five states that will fall under court-ordered observation for the November election, according to a Justice spokesman, compared with the 11 states where observers formerly had authority under the Voting Rights Act because of a history of discrimination.

Steven H. Wright, a federal observer coordinator for the Department of Justice from 2007 until 2012, said this will leave a gaping hole in the governments ability to investigate and sue over unjust election practices. If you call a polling place and you ask, Are you complying with federal law? they're going to say, Yes, because no one is going to admit they're violating federal law. The only way (to make sure) is to have people in the polls, he said. If you're concerned about voter fraud the only way you can verify that happens is through federal observers. And likewise, if youre concerned about people being turned away, the observers are going to see that.

Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Texas, announced in May that he, along with other Democrats, were forming the Congressional Voting Rights Caucus to kick-start support for a Democrat-proposed bill to revitalize the Voting Rights Act. So far, no Republicans have joined the caucus.

You look at some of the things that happened after the 1960s and after the Civil Rights Movement and after the Voting Rights Act, weve made lots of gains, lots of strides, but theres definitely been, sadly, some things Republicans have done to scale back that momentum, Veasey told News21. Theres a lot of work we still have to do.

Courtney Columbus, Mike Lakusiak and Sean Holstege contributed to this report.

Related: Methodology

This story is part of Accountability. The latest investigations about waste, fraud, corruption, abuse and mismanagement. Click here to read more stories in this topic.

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Copyright 2016 The Center for Public Integrity. This story was published by The Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative news organization in Washington, D.C.
We can all learn from Sofia Vergaras biggest beauty regret

We can all learn from Sofia Vergaras biggest beauty regret

Sofia Vergara is a real womens woman. Shes successful, gorgeous, and family-focused. She makes everything look easy. Suiting up in a corseted couture gown one night, then strutting through the airport, holding hands with her hunky husband Joe Manganiello early the next morning  Vergara seems utterly flawless.

#thebritsarecoming #setlife A photo posted by Sofia Vergara (@sofiavergara) on Jul 21, 2016 at 7:36pm PDT

But of course, she has flaws. The 44-year-old, Colombian-born actress wouldnt be a womens woman if she didnt acknowledge the things that hit her with little bolts of rage each time she looked in the mirror.

Okay, perhaps rage is an overstated reaction to a lifetime lived with asymmetrical eyebrows, but still, Vergaras got her own gripes. And what bothers her when she looks in the mirror  or the camera?

Lisa #thefemalebrain #moviesetLA A photo posted by Sofia Vergara (@sofiavergara) on Jul 26, 2016 at 6:16pm PDT

Her chest! Its not a size issue, though, its an SPF issue.

In my 20s, I started to use sunblock on my face. I wish I had put it on my chest too, the Modern Family actress revealed in an interview with PeopleStyleWatch.

I do it now, she added. I think its too late, but what can I do?

Vergara is right about one thing: The American Academy of Dermatology recommends that people use sunscreen on all skin that will be not be covered by clothing  and that includes your cleavage if youre wearing a low-cut top.

simpsons

The good news for Vergara is that her late arrival to all-over sunscreen application has been no impediment on her reputation as a beauty expert. In fact, this week, the actress is launching her latest perfume, So Very Sofia. The perfume, which Vergara made in partnership with Avon, includes the essence of Flor de Mayo orchid, which recalls Vergaras native Colombia.

I wanted to incorporate something that would make me want to wear it, she added in her interview. It smells really good. Not like an old lady flower scent.

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The wait is over! Our So Very Sofia by @sofiavergara fragrance is now available for sale! Visit Avon.com/SofiaVergara or contact your Avon Representative to order NOW. A photo posted by avoninsider (@avoninsider) on Aug 9, 2016 at 12:37pm PDT

Even if Vergara released an old lady flower scent, Id bet it would still smell like the scent of a woman who (seemingly) has it all. Vergara said the key to balancing her hectic schedule is surrounding herself with trustworthy people.

Its very difficult for women to be entrepreneurs, even more difficult than men because we have to deal with more, she told the magazine. We are more involved with our houses. We are more involved with our children. And then if were working, we need to be there, so we have a lot more to handle than men.

You have to surround yourself with people who help and support you, she added. Its impossible to do everythingand do it rightif you are doing it by yourself.

The post We can all learn from Sofia Vergaras biggest beauty regret appeared first on HelloGiggles.
A Lesson of the Ben-Hur Debacle: Movie Stars Still Matter

Up until recently, when a movie turned out to be a major bomb  not just a financial failure but a symbol of waste, a legend, a stink bomb  there was usually a movie stars name imprinted on it. The star became part of the movies infamy, and he also took on some of the blame. Just think of a folly like Ishtar (1987), in which the combined star wallop of Dustin Hoffman and Warren Beatty couldnt add up to a hill of beans in the desert, or Battlefield Earth (2000), which proved that John Travolta in the middle of the Travoltassance couldnt sell a sci-fi epic that was really an obsequious vanity project. Heavens Gate, the movie that brought down a movie studio, was the exception that proved the rule: No one really thought of it as a Kris Kristofferson film, but thats because there was a much bigger star in his midst, and that star was the director  Michael Cimino, the last auteur superhero of the New Hollywood. It was his name that adorned the legend.

These days, though, notorious movie bombs tend to arrive with an impersonal, disaster-by-committee feeling. For every picture like The Lone Ranger, which had Johnny Depps name all over it (though its worth pointing out that the films nominal star, Armie Hammer, wasnt a star), there are one or two more like the $150 million fiasco Mars Needs Moms (2011), a motion-capture fantasy that no one remembers for its actors, or John Carter, the sci-fi trainwreck that starred Taylor Kitsch, a pleasant but recessive actor  he has his fans, but hes about as far from a movie star as you can get  who had the sorry distinction of also starring in 2012s other infamous debacle, Battleship. The disaster of a movie like John Carter isnt hung around Taylor Kitschs neck, and it probably shouldnt be, but in one sense he was connected to it: The way he played the title space traveler (anonymously), he was like a stand-in for the movie star who, theoretically, could have sold the movie.

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Ditto for Jack Huston in the new Ben-Hur. Now that the film is an official debacle, we shouldnt blame it on him; the movie is boring and inept on too many other levels. But perhaps the responsibility does lie, to a degree, with the filmmakers and executives who decided that they simply didnt need a movie star. The ones who figured that Huston, with his handsome but slightly wimpy blue-eyed smiley okay-ness, was enough.

Its that decision that makes Ben-Hur, like John Carter before it, a disaster that is so emblematic of its era. It reflects a strain of thinking in contemporary Hollywood that says, We dont need movie stars. But why would anyone who wants to sell a big movie say that they dont need a star? It all comes down to the logic of spectacle, to the notion that action and special effects and concept can carry the day. It comes down to the way that executives now invest themselves  literally  with an almost religious belief in the power of the package.

Now that weve seen what a mediocrity Ben-Hur is, a lot of people are wondering how it could have gotten made in the first place. But the context for it is everywhere around you, in every blah extravaganza like The Legend of Hercules or Wrath of the Titans or Warcraft. These movies will sometimes feature a name actor (addled producer: Get me Sam Worthington!), as well as venerable middle-aged supporting icons who show up for the paycheck (Get me Liam Neeson!), but essentially they are post-movie-star movies: spectacle for the global masses, ground out by the yard with showy and expensive digital anonymity.

Ben-Hur, by comparison, may look like an episode of Masterpiece Theatre, but lets not kid ourselves about why this movie was made (or why they hired as a director the go-go visual stylist Timur Bekmambetov, who couldnt stage a good Masterpiece Theatre scene if he tried  and in this movie, he tries). Sure, the faith-based demo was a factor, but the real draw was the chariot race, the ten-minute sequence that was the hair-raising action cornerstone of the 1959 version (and, before that, the silent 1925 version). The race was going to be the hook, the lure, the money shot. Remember the famous quote from Dino Di Laurentiis about his 1976 remake of King Kong? That movie was a proto entry in the packaging-is-everything era, and what Dino said about it was, When my monkey die, everybody gonna cry. The chariot race in Ben-Hur is this years monkey. Except that no one cared, because its the all-action era, when the eyeballs of moviegoers around the world are assaulted with kinetic amazements every week, so no one thinks twice about a bunch of dudes in horse-drawn vehicles trying to get all fast and furious the way Charlton Heston once did.

What they might have cared about, however, is an actor who could summon the contempo equivalent of Hestons sinew and heart and wrath. Ridley Scotts Gladiator is a superlatively well-made movie, but if you took Russell Crowe out of it, you wouldnt have the movie. His feral, eyebrow-knitted ferocity infuses every frame. Ben-Hur needed an actor like that. But in our era, stardom, more and more, has been cut out of the equation, and thats partly because its been devalued by a culture of 24/7 pinup-gazing. Anyone whos got the face and the body is potentially a star, and there are so many of these smoldering would-be demigods out there  hunks with a modicum of talent  that the people who make movies are forgetting how to tell the difference. He pops on camera. He can act (at least, without embarrassing himself). He looks hot in Zegna on the red carpet. Hes a star!

But thats not what a movie star is. A movie star  Russell Crowe, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts  has a quality of soul. He or she has character, and the rare ability to project it. Hollywood is still mining true stars (Ryan Gosling is one), but when it comes to the movies that genuinely make the money, more and more of the energy is consumed with putting together packages that transcend stardom. The new interwoven superhero movies, in which every film seems to be a sequel to every other film, are connect-the-dots matrixes that, to an increasing degree, are bigger than anyone in them. How many different actors can play Batman (there have been four since Michael Keaton) before we forget who Batman is? Thats the thing about movie stardom: Its not just something out there, beyond us. Its our mirror  it shows us who we are. It does no one any favors (not the audience, not the industry) when a movie like Ben-Hur bombs, but in this case there may be a valuable lesson (beyond the obvious one of dont make lousy movies). The lesson is that movie stars still matter. Because without them, were just staring up at movies that are big glittering empty shells.

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The reality of fantasy is the playfully paradoxical focus of Mister Universo, the third feature from filmmakers Rainer Frimmel and Tizza Covi to gently scrutinize the lives of circus performers beyond the big top. Revisiting one of the young subjects of their 2009 breakthrough La Pivellina  the now-grown but still-naive lion tamer Tairo Caroli  the Austrian-Italian duos airy docu-narrative approach once more yields wry, humane rewards, particularly once Tairo embarks on his own sort of modestly mythic quest. Honored with a special jury citation following its Locarno premiere, this grit-and-glitter charmer will draw a few been-there-done-that shrugs from critics and specialists acquainted with Frimmel and Cozis oeuvre. But it should cast more of a spell on the uninitiated further along the festival circuit  including an upcoming Toronto berth  and is likely to build on the marginal U.S. distribution accorded the helmers previous features.

La Pivellina and 2012s The Shine of Day both played as pre-emptive elegies for a circus culture disappearing before the cameras own sympathetic gaze; Mister Universo follows suit, with some of the most direct carnival-is-over symbolism imaginable. Tairo may be young  previously caught aged 13 in La Pivellina, hes now a stocky, bolshy 20-year-old  but hes charged with an ageing, dwindling pride of big cats. One tiger has recently died, with no replacement forthcoming; should Frimmel and Cozi elect to catch up with Tairo in 2023, 7 Up-style, it seems unlikely hell still be taming lions for a living. The films very title, meanwhile, alludes to the diminished standing of a particular breed of showman. Mister Universo seemingly describes the worlds most indomitable man; here, the moniker belongs to 87-year-old strongman, Arthur Robin, who cheerfully admits to being a shadow of his former self. (All things being relative, of course: The first person of color to win the eponymous bodybuilding title in 1957, the French-Guadeloupan Robin still cuts a fine figure today.)

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The narrative path that connects this prematurely obsolete young buck and this weakened alpha male eventually leads an otherwise verite-oriented film into whimsical modern-fable territory  though not before a leisurely, observational first half documenting the daily trials of, and tensions within, the traveling company to which Tairo belongs. While circus crews are often portrayed in fiction as happy, ragtag families of freewheeling misfits, the group dynamic here is more fractious and banal. Tairo has a platonic ally in Wendy Weber, a sweet-and-salty young gymnast whose jaw-dropping performance skills get a late-film showcase, but otherwise, his petulant machismo rubs his colleagues the wrong way.

Frimmel and Covi find dry comedy in the everyday sniping and acts of petty payback between the crew, though when Tairos prized bent-iron amulet  a boyhood souvenir from Mister Universo himself  is stolen by one of his enemies, hes sent into a tailspin. Superstitiously believing his mojo to have been lost with the talisman, he sets about securing another one from the man who gifted it to him in the first place. What ensues is a droll, detour-ridden road movie, as Tairo sets off in search of Robin  pinpointing his whereabouts in the Italian circus community through a series of chatty encounters with family and fellow showfolk. Its an adventure unapologetically low on incident and urgency: The pleasures here are to be found in the social, cultural and shifting generational peculiarities of this lively sector of working-class Italy, captured with minimal self-awareness by Frimmels unobtrusively intimate camera. (As usual, the helmers divide shooting and editing duties between them; Covis cutting preserves an appropriate sense of shagginess to Tairos wanderings, while keeping matters to an unassuming 90 minutes.)

There is perhaps more contrivance at work here than in Frimmel and Cozis previous films, though thats partly what makes Mister Universo quietly beguiling. What amounts, at a most literal level, to a fairytale premise  a search to recover a missing amulet with supposedly magical powers  stands in witty contrast to the drab contemporary environment it plays out in: an Italy of trailer parks, gray freeways and seemingly perma-damp weather. For all their interest in circus people, the filmmakers spend very little time in the circus  the few glimpses we get make for fire-bright dream flashes in the films otherwise muted 35mm lensing, far removed from the real lives of the characters. They linger longer, instead, on a passing demonstration of natural illusionism: a sloping road outside Rome where, to the fascination of locals, water appears to flow uphill. The true marvels in Mister Universo reveal themselves far outside the ring.

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MATTOON -- CIL-Con is bringing together fans of paranomal, horror, anime, gaming and other related genres this weekend at the Cross County Mall.

D20 Stitchery owner Mariana Toledo, who is one of many vendors at CIL-Con, said she attended several anime conventions over the years before trying out gaming conventions and being pleasantly surprised by how much she has in common with the fans there.

"You meet people and you learn about common interests. It's fantastic," said Toledo, whose business is based in Champaign-Urbana. "It brings a lot of people together and gets them to socialize within the community."

Toledo said she loves seeing her customers' reactions when they find that one of her crafts can meet their gaming needs or carries the design of their favorite characters. Her work includes sewing dice bags with multiple interior pockets and repurposing game cards into hair clips, notebook covers, ornaments, and more.

"I try to find items that I can make that can make people smile," Toledo said. In addition, she puts her sewing skills to work repairing cosplay outfits that fans create to wear to conventions and other special events.

Haunted Road Media publisher and CEO Mike Ricksecker said he enjoys meeting with people at conventions about local ghost stories and their experiences with the paranomal. He said these stories often give him ideas for his research as an author and a "ghostorian."

Ricksecker, of Cleveland, Ohio, said he has been interested in history and in writing since he was a child. Ricksecker said he applies these interests to researching the true origins of local ghost stories and the histories of haunted places, such as the Stone Lion Inn in Guthrie, Okla.

In addition to being a vendor, Ricksecker was one of the many guest speakers at CIL-Con. His presentation was titled "History and the Paranomal: A Working Relationship." Ricksecker said also has posted videos about haunted sites ranging from the East Coast to Oklahoma and Texas at youtube.com/hauntedroadmedia.

Comic book author and self-publisher Todd Black of St. Joseph is also among the vendors at CIL-Con, where he has a table full of his works.

Black said he started by writing the ongoing series, "Guardians," about two super powered men who watch over a city but have origins that are unknown even to them. He has since created a miniseries, "Home," about a mysterious blue-haired young woman who finds she manipulate a type of computer code that can make changes in the real world.

Although Black sells digital and hard copies of his comic books online via http://guardians-comic.com, the author said one of his best means of marketing is to talk with potential readers at conventions.

"It's a personal experience and that's what I really like about it," Black said.

CIL-Con is scheduled to continue today and Sunday at the Cross County Mall. More information is available at CIL-Con visit www.cil-con.
The Justice Department and the FBI are conducting a wide-ranging investigation into allegations of corrupt dealings by the government of former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, including the hiring of Washington lobbyists for the regime by former Donald Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, a senior law enforcement official confirmed to Yahoo News.

The investigation, which was first reported by CNN, began two years ago after Yanukovych fled Kiev to Moscow and was replaced by the current government of Petro Poroshenko, the official said. But the inquiry has expanded in recent weeks in the wake of the discovery of documents showing $12.7 million in payments to Manafort by Yanukovychs Party of Regions political party. Investigators are also looking into reports that Manafort recruited two top Washington lobbying firms to advocate on behalf of a Belgian nonprofit that investigators now believe may have served as a front for Yanukovychs party. Neither of the firms, the Mercury Group and the Podesta Group, registered with the U.S. Justice Department as foreign agents  a requirement if they represented a foreign government or political party.

The disclosure of the Justice Department investigation came on the same day that Manafort stepped down as Trumps campaign chairman  news that sent new shockwaves through Republican circles. Manafort, who served for years as a campaign consultant to Yanukovych, declined requests for comment. But a close associate of his who asked not to be identified explained his resignation this way: Manafort is not going to take orders or relinquish power to people like Kellyanne Conway, the new Trump campaign manager, and Steve Bannon, the newly named CEO of the campaign. The Manafort associate also blamed the rapidly unfolding Ukraine allegations on oppo research being spread by Corey Lewandowski, Trumps former campaign manager and a bitter foe of Manafort

Ken Gross, a lawyer at Skadden Arps, which represents the Mercury Group, one of the lobbying firms recruited by Manafort, told Yahoo News that his firm has been engaged to look into the matter of whether Mercury was required to register as a foreign agent with the Justice Department when, at Manaforts request, it agreed to represent the Brussels-based European Centre for a Modern Ukraine in 2012. Lobbying reports reviewed by Yahoo News show that the firms sought to burnish Yanokovychs reputation and lobbied against congressional resolutions condemning the regimes treatment of political opponents and opposing Russian aggression in Ukraine.

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Another firm, the Podesta Group, headed by Tony Podesta, brother of Hillary Clintons campaign chairman, John Podesta, was also recruited by a Manafort deputy and lobbied for the European Centre. In a lengthy statement Friday, the Podesta Group said it had retained another Washington law firm, Caplin & Drysdale,to determine if we were misled by the Centre for a Modern Ukraine or any other individuals with regard to the Centres potential ties to foreign governments or political parties.

The statement added: When the Centre became a client, it certified in writing that none of the activities of the Centre are directly or indirectly supervised, directed, controlled, financed or subsidized in whole or in part by a government of a foreign country or a foreign political party. We relied on that certification and advice from counsel in registering and reporting under the Lobbying Disclosure Act rather than the Foreign Agents Registration Act. We will take whatever measures are necessary to address this situation based on Caplin & Drysdales review, including possible legal action against the Centre.

Sevgil Musaieva, editor of Ukrainskaye Pravda, a newspaper that has conducted multiple investigations into corruption under the Yanukovych regime, told Yahoo News that she first met with a team of FBI agents at the U.S. Embassy in Kiev two years ago. At the time, the new government headed by Poroshenko had asked the FBI for assistance in tracking down millions of dollars that it believed had been stolen by Yanukovych and his associates before they fled Kiev. The FBI came to Kiev and started an investigation, she said. They asked her detailed questions about what she knew about allegations of corrupt dealings by the Yanukovych regime.

But sources familiar with the probe say it expanded after a Ukrainian anticorruption bureau discovered a black book said to show off-the-books cash payments from the party to Manafort totaling $12.7 million between 2007 and 2012. Entries show that some of the payments were signed by a former member of the Ukrainian Parliament who was also a board member of the European Centre. Documents also purportedly show payments to the executive director of the center, according to a source familiar with the probe, reinforcing suspicions that the group was fronting for Yanukovychs political party.
This may explain why theres no cure for period cramps

This may explain why theres no cure for period cramps

Its 2016  weve completed the Human Genome Project, created a vaccine for HPV, and have even done full face transplants. But still, scientists have yet to come up with a cure for period cramps, or PMS.

9 out of 10 women suffer from pre-menstrual conditions (thats 3.1 billion people worldwide, we did the math). Thus, it seems like the global medical community would be more concerned with making breakthroughs on this issue, since it affects billions of people, twelve times a year, for most of their lives.

amy poehler

Unfortunately, theres a reason for the lack of research.

There are five times as many studies on erectile dysfunction (ED) as there are on PMS. Only 19% of men experience symptoms of ED, while again, there are billions of women suffering from PMS.

This research disparity goes even deeper. Research grants are rarely rewarded for premenstrual issues. The reason? Some research reviewers literally dont even believe that PMS exists. Kathleen Lustyk, a psychologist from the University of Washington, told ResearchGate that several of her grants about PMS were rejected, because reviewers said that PMS is merely a product of our society or culture that has painted a natural process in a negative light. AKA:

I suspect that this is a fancy way of saying its really just in a womans head, Lustyk clarified.

But PMS is no joke. Over 40% of women with PMS do not respond to any treatment at all, and 5-8% of women suffer a more serious form of it, Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD). PMDD symptoms can be so difficult to cope with that 15% of women diagnosed with the disorder attempt suicide.

Gender bias in science could also play a part in the lack of studies done on womens health. According to a 2013 study conducted by Yale researchers, professors at six major research institutions were significantly more willing to offer a male scientist a job than a woman with equal credentials.

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If they did hire a woman, her salary, on average would be nearly $4,000 lower than the mans.

And on a local level, if it feels like the medical community has turned its back on womens issues in the US, youre not far off. Pills that treat ED, such as Viagra, are often covered by insurance, while many types of birth control pills (which help women regulate and control PMS symptoms) are not covered at all.

But, there is hope.

The International Society for Premenstrual Disorders, a group of researchers and medical professionals working on womens health, recommended that women use period tracker apps, so that one day, medical researchers could gather your data to conduct studies.

Until then, Ill be over here with my heating pad and pictures of baby animals, waiting for the scientific community to catch up.

The post This may explain why theres no cure for period cramps appeared first on HelloGiggles.
Baghdad (AFP) - A technician with an Iraqi satellite channel was killed on Saturday and a journalist wounded as they covered operations against the Islamic State group in western Iraq, their employer said.

Both worked for Al Ahad TV, a channel affiliated with Asaib Ahl al-Haq, one of the most powerful Shiite militias in Iraq's Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary umbrella.

The pair were hit by mortar fire in Jazirat al-Khaldiyeh in the western province of Anbar.

"Our TV team came under mortar fire in Jazirat al-Khaldiyeh as they were covering the battle," Raida al-Ogaily, head of public relations at Al-Ahad, told AFP.

"Broadcast technician Ali Ghani was killed and the correspondent, Hussein al-Fares, was wounded," she said.

The area where the incident occurred lies between provincial capital Ramadi and Fallujah, both of which have been retaken from the jihadists by security forces.

Pockets of IS fighters remain in the area, however, and Jazirat al-Khaldiyeh commands access to desert routes the jihadist group has been using to move across the country.

A journalist with Al-Ghadeer, the channel run by the Badr organisation whose armed group is another key component of the Hashed al-Shaabi forces fighting alongside government forces, was killed south of the city of Mosul last month.

A reporter with Kurdistan TV was killed on August 14 when mortar fire struck the peshmerga convoy he was travelling in during an operation east of Mosul.

A day earlier, a reporter working for a news agency that supports the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), was murdered after being kidnapped in Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, according to press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders.
Mexican thesp Demian Bichir, Oscar-nommed for his lauded perf in 2011 drama A Better Life, is staging the world premiere of his directorial debut Un Cuento de Circo & A Love Song (aka Refugio) at Mexicos prominent film showcase, the Morelia Intl Film Fest.

Produced by AG Studios Itaca Films, Un Cuento de Circo turns on a young man called Refugio who was born in a circus and journeys from Mexico to New Orleans in search for his lost love. Its cast is led by Bichir, his co-star in FXs The Bridge Diane Kruger, and Jason Patric and Eva Longoria.

Meanwhile, Sebastian Cordero, Ecuadors most renowned helmer (Europa), has chosen Morelia for the Mexican debut of his latest pic, Sin Muertos No Hay Carnaval, a co-production between his shingle, Carnaval Cine, with producing partner Arturo Yepes, Mexicos Salamandra Prods. and Germanys Atkis Film Prod. Bowing in Ecuador on Sept. 2, the thriller is set against the real conflict in Guayaquils Monte Sinai shantytown between squatter families, who claim they bought their land legally, and the authorities.

Both much-anticipated pics, while not in competition, lead a showcase of strong titles in Morelias feature film, docs, and shorts categories. Clear evidence of the production boom in Mexico is some 800 submissions to Morelia this year. Submissions are up by 10% every year, said festival director Daniela Michel.

Morelias official features competition includes Amat Escalantes social family drama pic, The Untamed , which adds an element of the supernatural to the themes of his reality-based pics (Heli, Los Bastardos). Its good for a filmmaker to reinvent himself, said Michel.

Also eagerly anticipated is Claudia Sainte-Luces The Empty Box whose debut feature The Amazing Catfish wowed critics and auds alike in 2013. Also somewhat based on a personal experience, The Empty Box centers on an ailing father who, in the process of losing his memory, forms a stronger bond with his daughter.

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Among the 15 pics in competition are Todo lo demas, the feature debut of docu filmmaker Natalia Almada, acclaimed for her stirring docu about a sprawling graveyard favored by Mexicos slain drug lords, El Velador (The Night Watchman).

Daniel Castro Zimbron (Tau) delivers his second pic Las Tinieblas (The Darkness) to vie for the big prize. The fantasy psychological allegory-thriller, which participated in the Guadalajara Ibero-American co-prod meeting and Cannes Cinefondation workshop in 2014, pivots on a father and his three children living in a forest cabin menaced by a monster.

Also emblematic of the expanding genre auteur tradition in Mexico is Emiliano Rocha Minters huis clos expose of human instinct Tenemos la carne, sanctioned no less by Alfonso Cuaron, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and Carlos Reygadas, a co-producer. Set in a post-apocalyptic Mexico, the pic tracks a pair of siblings who while wandering in search for food and shelter, meet a man who offers to help them survive, but at a dangerous price.

Standout docs in competition include Tatiana Huezos Tempestad, a recent Best Documentary winner at the 20th Lima Film Festival and first presented at the festivals works-in-progress section, Impulso Morelia, last year, which traces a woman whose pained and disembodied voice leads the audience on her journey home after being released from a notorious prison.

Another 2015 Impulso Morelia participant, Lucia Gajas Batallas Intimas, also vies for the best documentary prize. Also notable is the debut feature docu of Guatemalan Izabel Acevedo, El Buen Cristiano (The Good Christian), produced by top Mexican film school CCC, which turns on the genocide trial of General Jose Efrain Rios who led a military attack that annihilated an entire community in Guatemala.

Shorts, which Morelia has always championed, includes Verde by Alonso Ruizpalacios who won the best first feature film at the 2014 Berlinale with his offbeat black and white dramedy, Gueros.

More female directors have submitted documentaries and shorts this year, noted Michel, adding that out of 51 fiction and docu shorts in competition, around 15 are by women. Its always been our mandate to give equal attention to features, documentaries and shorts, she added. The festival also includes a section devoted to entries from the region of Michoacan, of which Morelia is the capital.

For the first time, Impulso Morelia has also accepted projects in script form.

The 14th Morelia Intl Film Festival runs from October 21-30.

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Film Review: 'Lowriders'

Cannes: Morelia's Critics' Week Shorts Rep Broad Gamut of Mexican Cinema

Canana, Telefonica Team On Diego Luna's 'Black Minutes'
NASA and the Naval Research Lab have set a world record for the highest number of rocket engines used on a single flight: a total of 44 engines, which flew on a sounding rocket last year.

On Sept. 16, 2015, a Black Brant rocket carried an experiment to study "dusty plasmas": an electrically charged mixture of gas and bits of dust that can occur naturally in the mesosphere (the region of the atmosphere about 30 to 50 miles, or 50 to 80 kilometers, above the surface).

Thirty-seven rocket engines were used to create an exhaust cloud for the experiment. Three engines were used to launch the rocket, and the remaining four were used as spin motors to control its position.

The experiment, called the Charged Aerosol Release Experiment II (CARE II), was led by Paul Bernhardt of the Naval Research Lab in Washington, D.C. NASA Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia oversaw the development of the experiment hardware.

"Being recognized by Guinness World Records for this achievement is icing on the cake for the entire team. To successfully carry out this mission required great planning from everyone involved," said Phil Eberspeaker, NASA's office chief for the sounding rocket program, in a statement.

The mission lasted about 10 minutes and flew as high as the ionosphere, about 186 miles above Earth. Scientists were able to create the dusty plasma by injecting aluminum oxide dust particles (among other compounds) into the ionosphere, where the dust was charged and created plasma particles moving at hypersonic velocities.

Instruments on the rocket detected disturbances in the ionosphere and relayed the information back to scientific radars on the ground.

NASA isn't expected to break the record again soon, but Chuck Brodell, vehicle manager of the sounding rocket program, left a small window of hope open. "You never know what's down the pike," he said in the same statement.

Follow Elizabeth Howell @howellspace, or Space.com @Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

Story continues

Editor's Recommendations

Copyright 2016 SPACE.com, a Purch company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Vacancy code VA/2016/B3617/10741

Position title ASP.NET Developer

Department/office BIIP, Buz Innov & Improv Prgm

Duty station Bangkok, Thailand

Contract type Local ICA Support

Contract level LICA-7

Duration 1 year

Application period 18-Aug-2016 to 19-Sep-2016

Please apply directly through:

https://gprs.unops.org/Pages/ViewVacancy/VADetails.aspx?id=10741

Background Information  UNOPS

UNOPS supports the successful implementation of its partners peacebuilding, humanitarian and development projects around the world. Our mission is to serve people in need by expanding the ability of the United Nations, governments and other partners to manage projects, infrastructure and procurement in a sustainable and efficient manner.

Working in some of the worlds most challenging environments, our vision is to advance sustainable implementation practices, always satisfying or surpassing our partners expectations.

With over 7,000 personnel spread across 80 countries, UNOPS offers its partners the logistical, technical and management knowledge they need, wherever they need it.

A flexible structure and global reach means that we can quickly respond to our partners' needs, while offering the benefits of economies of scale.





Background Information  BIIP

The Business Innovation and Improvement Programme (BIIP) is working on helping UNOPS personnel in the delivery of UNOPS mission: to serve people in need. Our aim is to transform the systems landscape within UNOPS into a smart, more agile and well-integrated set of processes and systems.

In January 2016 we launched our new ERP, oneUNOPS which serves as a platform to carry out activities related to our different business processes Finance, Human Resources & Payroll, Procurement and Project Management. As we are constantly improving and expanding this platform, we are currently looking for ASP.NET Developers to be part of our team.

The ASP.NET Developer will be based in Bangkok, Thailand in order to better support UNOPS Global Shared Service Centre (GSSC) which is located there. The ASP.NET Developer will be supervised by BIIP in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The initial time in Copenhagen will be between 1 and 3 months for training and familiarization of the systems.

Functional Responsibilities

The ASP.NET developer will work as a key member of the platform development team under BIIPs supervision. S/he will support a wide array of development activities related to UNOPS implementation of Unit4 Business World. A solid understanding of IT including database management, web development and SQL will be required to undertake the following functional responsibilities:

Assist in the full development cycle of customised applications within Agresso ERP, using ASP.NET (C#), Javascript, and SQL Server. This includes analysis, design and implementation

Analyse, design, coordinate and develop system specifications and translate them into solutions

Assist in the implementation of new modules

Develop new solutions and functionalities within Unit4 Business World, maximizing usability for end users.

Design and development of reports within the system

Test existing and new functionality when upgrades / patches are applied

Assist system and acceptance testers in troubleshooting anomalies, understanding impacts and identifying solutions to bugs or gaps in functionality

Assist in the development of training materials and other guidance

Adequately document all work activities, including design specifications and test plans

Create new and extend existing operational documentation

Competencies

Client Orientation: Ability to identify and analyse client needs and find appropriate solutions



Professionalism: Shows pride in work and in achievements; Shows persistence when faced with difficult problems or challenges; remains calm in stressful situations. Ability to identify issues, conduct basic analysis and participate in the resolution of issues/problems using sound judgement.

Communications: Excellent communication skills, including the ability to convey complex technical issues in a clear, concise manner, increasing the users capacity. Ability to communicate with users of various levels of technical literacy, various nationalities and various cultural backgrounds

Teamwork: Demonstrated interpersonal skills; ability to work collaboratively with colleagues to achieve organizational goals; Solicits input by genuinely valuing others' ideas and expertise; is willing to learn from others; Places team agenda before personal agenda; supports and acts in accordance with final group decision, even when such decisions may not entirely reflect own position; Shares credit for team accomplishments and accepts joint responsibility for team shortcomings.

Knowledge Management and Learning: Shares knowledge and experience and contributes to practice areas; Promotes learning environment in the office; actively works towards continuing personal learning and development in one or more practice areas and applies newly acquired skills.
From Popular Mechanics

NASA is completing preparations for the first U.S.-led mission to retrieve a sample of an asteroid and return it to Earth. The space administration hopes the mission will provide further clues about how planets form and how life originated, as well as how it could end by studying the type of asteroid that could potentially impact the Earth.

The Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx), described by NASA as a "robotic cartographer," will travel to the near-Earth asteroid Bennu for its sample-return mission. Bennu should make prove a relatively easy target for a lander because it "has a smoother surface than most spacecraft-visited asteroids," according to 3D mapping of the asteroid conducted in 2013. There are only five carbon-rich, near-Earth asteroids big enough for a stable landing, and Bennu is one of them. The asteroid was named by a third-grader in North Carolina, the winner of a "Name That Asteroid!" contest in 2013.

Photo credit: NASA

"The launch of OSIRIS-REx is the beginning a seven-year journey to return pristine samples from asteroid Bennu," said OSIRIS-REx Principal Investigator Dante Lauretta of the University of Arizona, Tucson, in a press release. "The team has built an amazing spacecraft, and we are well-equipped to investigate Bennu and return with our scientific treasure."

Michael Puzio, the then-nine-year-old who submitted the name, chose "Bennu" after seeing OSIRIS-REx's Touch-and-Go Sample Mechanism, an articulated robotic arm robotic arm built by Lockheed Martin. The instrument, which will use nitrogen gas to push 60 to 2,000 grams of surface material from Bennu into a sample chamber, reminded Puzio of an Egyptian god of the same name.

Using LIDAR mapping, OSIRIS-REx will scout out the most promising place on the asteroid to take mineral samples and then perform a touch-and-go maneuver to quickly snatch up some surface material. But sample collection isn't the only objective of the mission. The spacecraft will also use spectral analysis of visible and infrared light to determine the overall composition of Bennu, and measure orbital deviations caused by non-gravitational forces.

Story continues

Weighing in at 4,650 pounds, OSIRIS-REx is scheduled to launch on an Atlas V rocket out of Cape Canaveral on September 8, with a 34-day launch window, and reach Bennu by 2018. The detachable sample capsule will return to Earth in 2023, at which point a 19 year-old Puzio will be able to learn what the asteroid he named has to teach us about the solar system.

Source: NASA

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Managua (AFP) - Nicaragua kicked off its presidential election campaign season on Saturday amid opposition calls for a boycott, as the hugely favored President Daniel Ortega seeks a third consecutive term.

A former Sandinista guerilla rebel who has led the Central American nation with an authoritarian hand, the leftist Ortega is running against a fragmented opposition weakened by a court ruling that changed the leadership of a key party and booted many of its deputies from parliament.

Calling on Nicaraguans to boycott the November 6 election  in which the 70-year-old Ortega named his wife as his running mate  the opposition dismissed the vote as a "farce" aimed at allowing the president to start a family dynasty.

Ortega has 79 percent of support among the electorate and Murillo 73 percent, a survey by the M&R polling agency taken between July 27 and August 1 showed.

"Who will win these elections goes without saying," said Yasser Matus, a worker at Managua's vast outdoor market Mercado Oriental. "There is no more to say, the Sandinista Front will continue to govern."

Managua's streets feature giant pictures of Ortega and his wife, Rosario Murillo.

More than 80 percent of Nicaraguans are afraid to express political opinions in public, M&R found in January.

The opposition has called for the Organization of American States, the European Union and the US Carter Center to monitor the vote.

Ortega has vowed not to allow international monitors to observe the election, calling them "shameless observers."

Opposition and civil society groups have scheduled protests to demand free and fair elections.
Nick Diaz continues to keep things interesting on his Snapchat. At the start of the week the elder Diaz brother documented USADA officials trying to drug test him following a long night of drinking. Following that bottle throwing incident at the UFC 202 press conference, he featured a teenage girl he claims was hit by McGregor during the melee. And now hes sharing footage as he was refused entry to the UFC 202 weigh ins.

This isnt exactly unexpected. Shortly after the brawl, the MGM announced that all members of the Diaz and McGregor teams that werent cornermen were banned from the event. That included Nick Diaz because hes not allowed to corner his brother in Nevada until he pays the state $70,000 over a failed drug test. Now it looks like Nick is persona non grata at the weigh-ins as well.

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sleep in internet cafe

People pay as little as $7 a night to cozy up in a cybercafe in Manhattan's Chinatown.

A lack of affordable housing and a surge in homelessness in New York City has turned the relics of the dot-com boom into a makeshift refuge for the exhausted at night, as noted on The New York Times' blog on Friday.

During the day, the few remaining 24-hour internet cafes still serve their traditional customers, mainly young Chinese gamers. But at night, a different group takes over.

People bring in shopping bags of clothes, pillows, and blankets, and settle into their spots, Some of them, according to The Times' Niko Koppel, have lived there for weeks, months, even years.

Its like prison, Harry Jumonji told The Times, describing the disturbing environment of Freedom Zone on Eldridge Street, where he had been staying with his girlfriend for months. You got to be high to sleep.

I feel so dizzy, Im so tired, Tony Liu, who has been living there for four years after losing his job as a restaurant worker, told the Times. I have no hope.

New York City is not the only place where outsize rent prices and difficult circumstances have pushed people to the fringes of society.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, a handful of tech workers have taken drastic measures to avoid the region's housing prices. A report this month from real-estate blog, Zumper showed that the median price for a two-bedroom apartment in the city hovered around $4,790, topping New York City and Boston, among others.

On the West Coast, some enterprising city dwellers have found housing alternatives on sailboats and moving trucks.

NOW WATCH: Millions of people are obsessed with this app that turns you into a work of art





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(Please note: Strong language in the headline and penultimate paragraph) SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean state media on Saturday accused a diplomat who defected from Britain to South Korea of fleeing to escape punishment for a variety of crimes, including child rape, for which Pyongyang had sought to extradite him. A commentary by the KCNA news agency did not identify the diplomat by name, but on Wednesday South Korea announced that Thae Yong Ho, who was deputy ambassador at North Korea's embassy in London, had arrived in South Korea with his family. Thae is the highest-level diplomat to defect from isolated North Korea to the rival, democratic South, according to the South Korean government. "The fugitive was ordered in June to be summoned for embezzling a lot of state funds, selling state secrets and committing child rape," KCNA said. North Korea had told London about what it said were his crimes and requested that he be handed over, KCNA said. Instead, it said, Britain tainted its image as a law-abiding country by "handing over the fugitives without passports to the South Korean puppets and neglecting its duty to protect diplomats living in its own country." A spokesman for Britain's foreign office did not have immediate comment. Thae and his family are under South Korean government protection and not available for comment. "This one clearly deserves legal punishment for crimes he has committed but he proved that he is human scum that has no basic loyalty as a human and no conscience and morality by running away to survive and abandoning the homeland and parents and siblings that raised and stood by him," KCNA said. North and South Korea are technically still at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty. (Reporting by Ju-min Park and Tony Munroe; Additional reporting by William Schomberg in London; Editing by Nick Macfie)
By Pritha Sarkar RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 20 (Reuters) - A display full of grace and elegance allowed Margarita Mamun to capture the individual all-around gold on Saturday and stretch Russia's dominance in rhythmic gymnastics into a fifth straight Olympics. A total score of 76.483 carried Mamun to the top of the podium after three-time world champion Yana Kudryavtseva surrendered her title hopes when her twirling act with the clubs went horribly wrong in its dying seconds. Throwing the club high into the air, she rolled over on the floor ready to catch it as she went to strike her final pose, only to have the apparatus land beyond her reach. That error knocked a distraught Kudryavtseva, who was leading at the halfway point of the competition, off the top and she settled for silver with a total of 75.608. Ukraine's Ganna Rizatdinova edged out South Korea's Son Yeon-jae for the bronze. Saturday's result meant former Soviet states have won every individual Olympic medal, 18 in total, in the event since 1996. Despite owning a haul of seven world titles, the 20-year-old Mamun had long lived in the shadow of her younger rival as she had arrived in Rio never having won a world all-around title. At the halfway point of the competition it appeared as if that trend would continue as Kudryavtseva, dubbed the "Angel with iron wings", fluttered above the rest of the field thanks to exquisite displays with the hoop and ball. Chants of "Rus-si-a, Rus-si-a" echoed around the arena as she leapt around the mat rolling the ball across her body before arching her leg back into a fast-paced Biellmann spin holding the ball aloft. But all her hard work came crashing down following one dropped catch with the club. Having earned top marks of 19.225 (hoop) and 19.250 (ball), she bit her quivering lower lip as she walked off the floor following her mishap in the third rotation. She slumped over and stared at the floor as she waited for her score with the clubs to come up and her misery was complete when 17.833 allowed Mamun to overtake her. Although the 18-year-old was back in the arena 40 minutes later to draw another top mark of 19.250 with the ribbon, it was not enough to topple Mamun. A day after Mamun sent a club flying out of bounds during qualifying, she got the crowd clapping along to the beats of "We Will Rock You" as she performed a rousing routine with the same apparatus. The gymnast known as "The Bengal Tiger", because her father hails from Bangladesh, knew that the gold would be hers if she avoided any glaring errors and so it proved to be. (Reporting by Pritha Sarkar; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli)
People are freaking out about a huge price jump in this life-saving medicine

People are freaking out about a huge price jump in this life-saving medicine

School supplies are expensive enough, but now they just increased  at least for those needing to buy EpiPens. ICYMI, the pens are used to treat emergency, life-threatening allergic reactions, aka anaphylaxis, by pushing the EpiPen into ones thigh, which releases a dose of epinephrine. Triggers can include anything from food and insect bites to medications and latex.

And the price for an EpiPen will now run around $500  wait: it increased 400 (!) percent since 2008, according to the New York Daily News.

Whaaaaaat?!

Mylan is the pharmaceutical manufacturer of the EpiPen, and consumers are NOT happy about the price hike.

.@MylanNews EpiPens went from $100 in 2008 to $500+ today, even though the epinephrine in them only costs 52 cents: https://t.co/EQq1nTngpM  Jason Silverstein (@Jason_Reads) August 18, 2016

The EpiPen went from costing around $50 out of pocket, annually (per pen) to $500+. For no reason.  Roqayah Chamseddine (@roqchams) August 18, 2016

Doctors are not happy either.

As a physician I don't understand and I can't explain why EPI-PEN is so expensive or why insurance only covers a small amount. WHY? #epipen  David Feig MD MPH (@hamlet423) August 19, 2016

I see it firsthand that a lot people call me and tell me they cant afford the medicine, Dr. Douglas McMahon, an allergist in Maplewood, Minnesota, told New York Daily News. This is the only life-saving medicine they can use for this and it puts a lot of restraint on them. People will have to make lifestyle changes if they cant afford this.

And it goes without saying that parents are not pleased

Thanks Mylan for trying to gauge me for my daughters #Epipen - cause hey, why not profit from kids with with severe allergies. #shameonyou  Bryce Johnson (@BryceOJohnson) August 11, 2016

Of course, many parents have EpiPens on hand in case their children suddenly need it. The Pens require a prescription and expire within a year. Plus, EpiPens website suggests having two EpiPens on hand at all times, which means consumers will have to fork out even more money.

Story continues

This EpiPen $ hike is so base. I've been in hospital 15+ times for anaphylaxis and that's after using an EpiPen. Don't put $ b4     Megan (@meg_orp) August 19, 2016

As a result of patients asking for a cheaper alternative, Dr. McMahon has been trying to make his own version of the Pen and it would retail for around $50. But it still needs to get FDA-approved.

Meanwhile, what does the EpiPen manufacturer say?

EpiPen prices have changed over time to better reflect important product features and the value the product provides, and weve made a significant investment to support the device over the past years, Mylan said in a statement, according to NBC News.

Bernie Sanders, whos a member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, is also NOT into the price increase.

The drug industrys greed knows no bounds, he said in a statement to NBC News. Theres no reason an EpiPen, which costs Mylan just a few dollars to make, should cost families more than $600. The only explanation for Mylan raising the price by six times since 2009 is that the company values profits more than the lives of millions of Americans.

There's no reason an EpiPen, which costs Mylan just a few dollars to make, should cost families more than $600. https://t.co/rVWUlMxD0Q  Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) August 18, 2016

Basically, NO ONE is happy about the ~insane~ jump in price.

Some are looking at it comically:

i should just eat a peanut once a year to get the money's worth from my epi-pen  Tiana (@tiaannaaaaa) August 19, 2016

But, of course, none of us are actually laughing. Though it may be all we can do while we save up for the Pens, of course.

I have patients who are afraid to walk outside or go to restaurants because of this, Dr. McMahon said. Nothing justifies this price increase.

The post People are freaking out about a huge price jump in this life-saving medicine appeared first on HelloGiggles.
THE PERFORMER | Joseph Sikora

THE SHOW | Power

THE EPISODE | Help Me (August 14)

THE PERFORMANCE | For three seasons, Tommy Egans turn-on-a-dime violent nature has afforded security, status and fat stacks to the people hes worked for. But in Sundays Power, Sikora skillfully showed us the dark(er) side of Tommys demeanor: what happens when his all-encompassing aggression takes over at home.

During Tommy and Hollys argument at their apartment, Sikora took his character from incredulous (that Holly would go so far as to order a hit on Ghost) to angry (that shed done so behind his back) to blackout rage (after she taunted that he was nothing without Ghosts support). Thanks to the combined talents of Sikora and co-star Lucy Walters, Tommy and Hollys all-out fight was rough, nasty, tough to watch  and, sadly, completely in keeping with their flawed characters histories. Sikora threw his entire body into the performance, shaking with betrayal and literally drooling as he focused on nothing except getting Tommys girlfriend to stop talking.

How heartbreaking it was, then, when Sikoras manner changed completely once Tommy came back to himself and realized what had happened. As Tommy pulled Hollys dead body close and begged her to wake up, Sikoras voice held notes of pleading, panic and the dawning realization that something very, very bad had taken place. And as the dialogue faded from the scene, we were left with Sikora telegraphing his broken characters body language, conveying a depth of loss that Tommy was only beginning to understand.

Mr. Robot

HONORABLE MENTION

| If Mr. Robot is a psychological thriller, Portia Doubleday has been starring in the thriller half, as Angela did the dirty work in executing fsocietys FBI hack. This week, Doubleday surfaced her alter egos newly discovered strengths, first as she deflected an introductory inquisition from FBI Agent DiPerro. Sure, she had Darlene in her ear, but it was Angela  wheels fast-spinning behind those big, blue eyes  who mustered the resolve to not just explain away her trespassing, but inform the fed when the questioning had reached its end. Doubleday shined equally bright during Angelas power play with Price, as the E Corp up-and-comer casually reported on her success in negotiating a settlement with the Washington Township plaintiffs, and then traded that unsolicited bacon-saver toward the next step in her own evil, secret agenda  to one day make E Corp truly pay.

Story continues

Zoo

HONORABLE MENTION | This Tuesday was Truthday on Zoo, and two of the bombshells got dropped by Nonso Anozies big-hearted Abraham. You think you know me. But Im not the man you think you know, the contrite Kenyan informed Jamie, unloading one of the secrets hed been shouldering: that, at the bequest of Robert Oz, it was he who years ago injected Jacksons mother with the triple-helix DNA. In retrospect, he realizes, Because of me, she turned into a monster. It is because of me that she is dead! When Abe later confessed to Jackson his role in Elizabeths tragic mutation, Anozie made clear the pain of one best friend betraying the other. Especially when he could barely vocalize his reason for executing Roberts misguided mission: He gave me $200. It was no small miracle Abe could drop the other shoe  Jacksons dad is alive!

Which performances knocked your socks off this week? Hit the comments!

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MANILA (Reuters) - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has agreed a new ceasefire with Maoist-led guerrillas, who declared a truce several hours before, ahead of fresh peace talks in Norway next week, a senior administration official said on Saturday. The ceasefire will come into effect from Sunday morning. Duterte lifted the unilateral truce with the communist New People's Army late last month as rebels did not respond to a deadline to reciprocate the government's truce. "The enabling environment brought about by this 'silencing of guns' will hopefully go a long way in bringing about an expeditious and early resolution to our differences and aspirations that have long divided us as a people," Jesus Dureza, presidential peace adviser, said in a statement. The peace talks, brokered by Norway, will resume on Aug. 22, four years after getting bogged down due to rebels' demand for the release of 500 political prisoners. Last week, 17 captured communist guerrilla leaders in the Philippines were freed so they could attend peace talks next week in Norway. Duterte, who came to power seven weeks ago, is seeking to negotiate an end to two long-running insurgencies by Muslims and communists. Talks brokered by Norway between the government and the Maoist-led rebels' National Democratic Front stalled in 2012 over the government's refusal to free communist leaders who had been in jail for decades. In 1987, the founder of the communist party, Jose Maria Sison, went to the Netherlands months after being freed from nine years of detention, but never returned. He sought asylum in Utrecht and has lived there for nearly 30 years. (Reporting by Karen Lema, editing by David Evans)
- By insider





Chairman and CEO of Pjt Partners Inc (PJT) Paul J Taubman bought 15,000 shares of PJT on 08/19/2016 at an average price of $24.62 a share. The total cost of this purchase was $369,300.

PJT Partners Inc is an independent financial advisory firm. The Company provides strategic advisory, restructuring and reorganization, and funds advisory services to corporations, financial sponsors, institutional investors and governments. Pjt Partners Inc has a market cap of $443.420 million; its shares were traded at around $24.68 with a P/E ratio of 12.91 and P/S ratio of 0.94. The dividend yield of Pjt Partners Inc stocks is 0.40%.





CEO Recent Trades:

Chairman and CEO Paul J Taubman bought 15,000 shares of PJT stock on 08/19/2016 at the average price of $24.62. The price of the stock has increased by 0.24% since.

Chairman and CEO Paul J Taubman bought 15,000 shares of PJT stock on 08/04/2016 at the average price of $24.21. The price of the stock has increased by 1.94% since.

Directors and Officers Recent Trades:

Managing Partner Ji-yeun Lee bought 10,000 shares of PJT stock on 08/09/2016 at the average price of $24.66. The price of the stock has increased by 0.08% since.

Director Dennis S Hersch bought 2,000 shares of PJT stock on 08/04/2016 at the average price of $24.16. The price of the stock has increased by 2.15% since.

For the complete insider trading history of PJT, click here

.This article first appeared on GuruFocus.






The Pope is as obsessed with pizza as we are, and its adorable

The Pope is as obsessed with pizza as we are, and its adorable

Pope Francis can have whatever type of food he wants, whenever he wants it. He likely has an entire kitchen staff dedicated to cooking the most gourmet food there ever was. Because hes the Pope, and Popes get to have cool arrangements like that.

But the most gourmet food there ever was is not what the Pope wants. The Pope wants pizza, and he wants it all the time.

His pizza obsession makes total sense  he lives in Italy, after all. And if anyone knows how to do pizza, its the Italians.

In 2015, Pope Francis told Argentinian newspaper La Voz Del Pueblo about what he misses about not being the Pope.

To go outside that much I long for, the tranquility of walking though the streets, or to go to a pizzeria to eat a good pizza, he said (but in Spanish).

We feel you, Pope. The struggle is real (we imagine).

But who needs to walk the streets for pizza when you can ride in a convoy and have it delivered directly to your hands?

Most recently, Pope Francis has been hosting pizza parties for homeless people.

Hes obviously been dubbed the Cool Pope for a reason.

According to Vatican Insider, the Pope pays for weekly trips for the homeless population to visit the beach and then go out for pizza. Archbishop Konrad Krajewski, the papal almoner, has been organizing and leading the trips all summer long.

Krajewski explained the purpose behind the mini excursions:

We continue, with the Swiss Guards and the gendarmes, to bring food in the evening to the Roman stations, but in the afternoon, using our van, I accompany groups of 10-11 homeless to go for a swim, he said.

Adding, We always conclude the trip in a pizzeria, as do many people who are on vacation at this time. We certainly are not saving the world with some of these initiatives, we are not solving the problems of the homeless in Rome, but at least we are restoring to them a little dignity.

Pizza for everyone!!!!!

The post The Pope is as obsessed with pizza as we are, and its adorable appeared first on HelloGiggles.
Pregnancy deaths have soared in this US state, and researchers might know exactly why

Pregnancy deaths have soared in this US state, and researchers might know exactly why

Its been a wildly frustrating year for organizations like Planned Parenthood, which have been subject to ongoing controversy and legislative strife. However one state has been among the hardest hit  Texas.

Maternal deaths nearly doubled in the Lone Star State between 2010 and 2012, and it turns out that may not be a coincidence. NPR reported that 2011 was the year that Texass Republic-led state legislature pulled two thirds of its funding from maternal wellness clinics and contraceptive centers like Parent Parenthood.

A study published by Obstetrics and Gynecology showed that maternal mortality rose slowly between 2006 and 2010 and then increased dramatically  from 18.6 deaths per 100,000 live births to 33 by 2011.

Dr. Moss Hampton, district chairman for the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, told NPR in January that while the Legislatures primary target was quelling abortions, it had major wide scale implications on maternal and pregnancy health.

So you had programs that would help patients pay for physician visits, obstetrical care, gynecological care, Pap smears, Hampton said. When all of that funding was removed and cut, a large number of women didnt have the means to pay for access to those services.

Texass legislative efforts led to the closure of 82 clinics across the state, many of which had never performed an abortion, Slate noted. This led many mothers to lose access to both prenatal care during pregnancy and contraceptives, compromising the health and wellness of thousands of young women.

According to researchers from the Population Center at the University of Texas, Austin, the lack of contraceptive services caused the state birth rate to rise 27 percent during this time.

Unfortunately the challenges to maternal health is not Texasspecific  The United States is one of eight countries where the maternal mortality rate is rising, which CNN reports may be in tandem with rising obesity rates, the increase of cesarean sections and lack of affordable health care to pregnant woman.

The national maternal mortality rate in the U.S. was 7.2 deaths per 100,00 live births in 1987, and rose to 17.8 deaths by 2011. Pretty shocking. Its time for us to band together to keep our future mothers healthy

The post Pregnancy deaths have soared in this US state, and researchers might know exactly why appeared first on HelloGiggles.
Hasakeh (Syria) (AFP) - Syrian government warplanes took to the skies again Saturday over the flashpoint northeastern city of Hasakeh, despite a US warning against new strikes that might endanger its military advisers.

In another escalation of the five-year war, regime planes this week bombarded positions held by US-backed Kurdish forces in the city fighting the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said the raids showed Damascus was starting to see the Kurdish attempt to consolidate territory in northern Syria as "a threat".

He pledged to play a "more active" in the next months in putting an end to the conflict.

Ankara sees Syrian Kurdish militia as an offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) that has waged a bloody campaign against the Turkish state since 1984.

The unprecedented strikes prompted the US-led coalition to scramble aircraft to protect its special operations forces helping the Kurdish fighters.

It was apparently the first time the coalition scrambled jets in response to regime action, and possibly the closest call yet in terms of Syrian forces wounding American or coalition advisers.

Regime warplanes were in the air above Hasakeh throughout the night and into Saturday morning, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group.

It was unclear whether the aircraft had carried out bombing runs.

- 'Right of self-defence' -

Fighting erupted between pro-government militia and the US-backed Kurdish forces on Wednesday and continued into Saturday morning, leaving a total of 41 people dead including 25 civilians, the Observatory said.

A delegation of Russian officials from the coastal Hmeimim military airport arrived in Qamishli to the north to hold talks between the two sides, a senior Syrian government source told AFP.

A journalist in Hasakeh said on Saturday afternoon that the clashes had abated.

Around two-thirds of the city is controlled by Kurdish forces, while the rest is held by pro-government militia.

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The regime and Kurdish forces share a common enemy in IS, but there have been tensions between them in Hasakeh.

The vitriol between the two sides escalated Saturday, as the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) pledged to "protect areas from the terrorism of the regime."

And in an apparent concession to Ankara, a Syrian military statement and Hasakeh's governor began referring to Kurdish security forces for the first time as the PKK, which has taken up arms against the Turkish government seeking an independent state for Kurds.

Thursday's government raids were the first time the regime bombarded Kurdish positions from the air.

Washington's decision to scramble its fighter jets "was done as a measure to protect coalition forces," Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said.

"We will ensure their safety and the Syrian regime would be well-advised not to do things that place them at risk," he said, stressing that the US has the "inherent right of self-defence."

- Air strikes 'a message' -

The coalition is conducting additional air patrols in the area after US advisers were moved to a safe location without suffering any casualties, Davis said.

The Observatory said thousands of inhabitants had begun to flee the city, where bread was running out and electricity has been cut.

A government source in Hasakeh told AFP that the air strikes were "a message to the Kurds that they should stop this sort of demand," after Kurds called for the dissolution of a pro-regime militia.

Washington regards the YPG as the most effective force against IS in Syria and has provided them with air support as well as the military advisers.

US special operations forces were based around six kilometres (nearly four miles) north of Hasakeh and reinforcements arrived Friday "from inside and outside Syria, accompanied by military helicopters", Abdel Rahman said.

Separately, two Russian ships in the Mediterranean launched long-range cruise missiles for the first time since December against jihadist targets in Syria on Friday, the Russian defence ministry said.

The targets were linked to the former Al-Nusra Front, now Fateh al-Sham Front, it said.

More than 290,000 people have been killed since the conflict erupted in March 2011.

A surge in violence in Syria's second city Aleppo has left 333 people dead since July 31, the Observatory said Saturday.

The toll includes 165 killed in opposition fire on the city's government-controlled west, and another 168 in air strikes and bombardment on the rebel-held east.

In central Homs province, 20 civilians including five children died overnight in suspected regime air raids and artillery fire on a cluster of towns and villages, the Observatory said.
KIGALI (Reuters) - Rwandan national police said they killed three suspected Islamist militants and arrested three others in the western district of Rusizi on Friday. A police statement said the three who were killed had turned violent in resisting arrest during a raid that followed a tip-off from the public. Police found the suspects had barricaded themselves inside a house for two weeks. "Initial findings indicate they were in a radicalisation campaign aimed at recruiting jihadists," the statement said. It did not give further details such as the name of the suspected militant group, where it was based, or whether any attacks might have been planned in the small, central African country. On Thursday, national police said they had been investigating "individuals suspected of being radicalized and linked to foreign terrorist organisations" since last year. Several had appeared in court but no further details were given. Another suspected militant was killed late on Wednesday in a raid in the capital Kigali, police said. Two of those arrested in Rusizi were in police custody and a third was hospitalised for injuries sustained in the raid. In January, Rwanda police said they had killed a Muslim imam as he tried to escape custody while under investigation for encouraging young Rwandans to join Islamic State militants, who are active in the Middle East and North Africa. Subsequently, 23 men and women were arrested on suspicion of links to the preacher. Last week, a high court in Kigali granted police more time to keep them in investigative detention. About 2.5 percent of Rwanda's 11 million people are Muslim, with the rest mostly Christian. (Reporting by Clement Uwiringiyamana; writing by Duncan Miriri; editing by Mark Heinrich)
Ryan Lochte is setting the record straight.

Two days after it was revealed that the U.S. Olympic swimmer lied to officials about an alleged robbery that took place Sunday in Rio, Lochte will sit down with Today's Matt Lauer for his first interview since he was indicted for misleading local authorities.

Portions of the interview will air on Saturday's edition of NBC Nightly News, during NBC's primetime Olympics coverage and on Monday's installment of Today.

Today executive producer Don Nash broke news of the interview Saturday morning on Twitter.

@MLauer just wrapped up an interview with @RyanLochte. More on @NBCNightlyNews tonight, @NBCOlympics in prime time and on @TODAYshow Monday

- Don Nash (@Studio1ADon) August 20, 2016

.@MLauer just interviewed @RyanLochte. Tune in to @NBCNightlyNews & @NBCOlympics tonight, and @todayshow Monday. pic.twitter.com/tmgDZEVP6f

- TODAY (@TODAYshow) August 20, 2016

Lochte famously gave his first interview following the alleged robbery to one of Lauer's colleagues, new Today addition Billy Bush, early Sunday, just hours after he and three other swimmers claimed they were robbed at gunpoint. Lochte also spoke to Lauer on the phone later in the week.

Despite the swimmers' claims, officials had trouble confirming their accounts. Lochte was indicted on Thursday, at the same time that two of the other swimmers involved were detained in Brazil. It then was revealed that the four were not robbed, but instead vandalized a gas-station bathroom and got into a confrontation with a security guard that ended with them paying an undisclosed sum for the damage they caused. Video has since surfaced of the gas-station incident.

The fourth swimmer involved made a deal with a Brazilian judge to make a $10,800 payment and was allowed to leave the country later Friday, according to his lawyer.

Lochte, who already had left Brazil by the time he was indicted, since has hired public-relations expert Matthew Hiltzik. The swimmer also apologized for his "behavior" and for "not being more careful and candid" in how he characterized what happened in a lengthy statement posted on his Instagram account on Friday.

See a clip of the interview below.
NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / August 19, 2016 / Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against CytRx Corporation ("CytRx" or the "Company") (CYTR) and certain of its officers. The class action, filed in United States District Court Central District of California, and docketed under 16-cv-05666, is on behalf of a class consisting of all persons or entities who purchased or otherwise acquired CytRx securities between November 18, 2014 and July 11, 2016, inclusive (the "Class Period"). This class action seeks to recover damages against Defendants for alleged violations of the federal securities laws under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the "Exchange Act").

If you are a shareholder who purchased CytRx securities during the Class Period, you have until September 23, 2016 to ask the Court to appoint you as Lead Plaintiff for the class. A copy of the Complaint can be obtained at www.pomerantzlaw.com. To discuss this action, contact Robert S. Willoughby at rswilloughby@pomlaw.com or 888.476.6529 (or 888.4-POMLAW), toll free, ext. 9980. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and number of shares purchased.

[Click here to join this class action]

CytRx is a biopharmaceutical research and development company specializing in oncology. One of the Company's primary trial drugs is aldoxorubicin.

The Complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the Company's business, operational and compliance policies. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose: (1) that the clinical hold placed on the Phase 3 trial of aldoxorubicin for soft tissue sarcomas ("STS") would prevent sufficient follow-up for patients involved in the study; (2) that, as a result, nearly half of all patients would be censored (excluded) from the progression free survival evaluation; (3) that, in response, CytRx would likely conduct a second analysis; (4) that, as such, the results of the trial could be materially affected and/or approval of aldoxorubicin for STS could be delayed; and (5) that, as a result of the foregoing, Defendants' statements about CytRx's business, operations, and prospects, were false and misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis.

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On July 11, 2016, CytRx issued a press release announcing the results of the Company's Phase 3 clinical trial of aldoxorubicin compared to investigator's choice therapy in patients with relapsed or refractory STS. Therein, the Company disclosed that, "the study did not show a significant difference between aldoxorubicin and investigator's choice therapy for [progression free survival] . . . ." Moreover, CytRx disclosed that a partial clinical hold in November 2014 led to insufficient follow-up for nearly two-thirds of patients who entered the Phase 3 study after the hold was resolved and enrollment resumed. As a result, nearly half of all patients were censored (excluded) from the progression free survival evaluation. Finally, CytRx announced that it "expects to conduct a second analysis, which will include longer patient follow-up and allow for greater maturation of all endpoints."

On this news, CytRx's stock price fell $1.50 per share, or 59.7%, to close at $1.01 per share on July 12, 2016, on unusually heavy trading volume. The Company's stock price continued to decline over the next two trading days, falling 10%, to close at $0.90 per share on July 14, 2016.

The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Florida, and Los Angeles, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com.

SOURCE: Pomerantz LLP
For asthma sufferer Mohan Lal, regular visits to the Indian capital's hospitals were a nightmare of waiting in endless queues in sweltering corridors that swarm with mosquitoes.

But a spotless and air-conditioned clinic boasting innovative diagnostic technology and sharply-dressed doctors has just opened in Lal's neighbourhood, bringing healthcare into the 21st century.

For Lal, who needs regular treatment for his asthma, the sparkling free clinic and 100 others developed by the New Delhi government in mostly low-income neighbourhoods are a revelation.

Like most of the city's millions of poor, he was used to the traditional state-run hospitals, often stretched to breaking point, where patients face long delays for even minor treatment and are forced to share beds.

"The hospital is far from my house, I had to walk quite a bit and then I had to wait in long queues for hours in smelly, sweaty hallways," he said, grimacing at the memory.

The Delhi government allocated an initial $790 million in this year's budget for the clinics, after promising at the 2015 elections to improve healthcare and ease the burden on its ageing hospitals.

The crowning glory of Lal's neighbourhood clinic is a newly invented device that conducts 50 common medical tests from a single blood sample, including sugar levels and cholesterol.

In a city where diabetes, dengue, hepatitis, typhoid and other illnesses are common, the small, rectangular device provides swift diagnosis -- thereby allowing for early treatment.

Results of most of the tests are known within two minutes and are uploaded onto an IT cloud for access by patients and their doctors on their smart phones and the clinic's tablets.

"II (information technology) does make a pretty significant difference," said Indian biomedical engineer Kanav Kahol, who developed the device that he hopes will soon be installed in all of the other new clinics.

It was originally aimed at easing India's overburdened public health system, whose basic medical services are provided free of charge. But Kahol said other countries have also expressed interest in the machine, which costs about $1,000 to buy.

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"We were very surprised by the fact that what we had developed for India, people all over the world were actually looking for," the 37-year-old said of the device called the swasthya (health) slate.

"Even in places like England and the US, we've seen a demand for technology like this."

- 'Can't afford treatment' -

At the clinic in western Delhi, a doctor admonishes Lal after examining his test results, which have been uploaded to his digital medical records kept at the centre.

"Your blood report is not good. You must cut down on smoking and drinking," the doctor said, as the 62-year-old grinned sheepishly.

Lal then goes for his regular treatment -- inhaling steam through a nebuliser to decongest his lungs -- before moving to the clinic's pharmacy to collect free asthma medication.

India spent just 1.4 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) on healthcare in 2014, according to the World Bank, lower than neighbouring war-torn Afghanistan on 2.9 percent.

As a result, Indians avoid the state-run system if they can, with many flocking to private clinics and hospitals. But a consultation with a private GP can cost 1,000 rupees ($15), a huge sum for millions living on less than $2 a day.

More than 60 percent of the population's out of pocket expenses goes on medicines and healthcare, the government estimates.

"I have four daughters and one or the other always keeps falling sick. I simply can't afford private treatment," said Kamta Devi, who does laundry for a living, as she waited her turn at another of the clinics in south Delhi.

"Here I don't even need to spend any money on commuting as it is so near my house," said the 50-year-old, who lives in a nearby slum.

Although doctors working at the clinics say they are making a difference, they also concede to a range of teething problems, including dealing with Delhi's patchy infrastructure.

"Sometimes the internet is slow or there is no electricity. Some patients insist on handwritten prescriptions as they are not used to computers and tablets," said doctor Alka Choudhary.

"Also at the moment the clinics are not digitally linked with the big hospitals so the medical records of a patient cannot be retrieved if he is admitted there in a case of emergency.

"It's still early days. It is not a perfect system but at least we have made a positive start."
Signs you shouldnt ignore when youre being harassed at work

Signs you shouldnt ignore when youre being harassed at work

Workplace harassment is trending right now, more than ever. More women are speaking out against the abuse they suffered at the hand(s) of Roger Ailes. Donald Trumps advice to women harassed in the workplace (he thinks you should quit your job, BTW) sparked a huge discussion on how we should handle harassment in the workplace. But thats good that were talking about it. For too long, the subject has made people squeamish. Its been said that speaking up may put your job at risk. Abusers may even retaliate. Despite all of this, its especially important to acknowledge workplace abuse because no one is immune to it. No, not even Ivanka Trump, despite her familys statements to the contrary.

Eric Trump on handling workplace sexual harassment: "Ivanka is a strong, powerful woman. She wouldnt allow herself to be subjected to it"  John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) August 2, 2016

Unfortunately, abuse doesnt always wear the telltale signs of verbal assault or ass-grabbing. It comes in a variety of forms, the warning signs of which could even be confused with a difficult boss or tactless coworker. But here are 6 warning signs you need to acknowledge in the workplace.

Youre being intimidated.

On a regular basis, you find your boss or your bosss boss making thinly veiled or overt threats to your status with the company. Have you ever been told that if you make a certain decision, itll affect how youre viewed by management or that the last person who had your job didnt last more than six months? That kind of pressure and intimidation is a form of harassment, creating a work environment no one would want to continue in.

Your personal life is put on blast.

Youre the type who keeps your head down and stays out of the bullshit. But suddenly, you find yourself the butt of jokes. Your colleagues must have spent the previous night studying your social media accounts because theyve been taunting you endlessly about your penchant for frozen beverages. Or your stellar performance as work is suddenly overshadowed by your tan and the day you took off work for a doctors appointment. You even brought in a note! But no, your head must still be at the beach, eh? What you do off the clock should never be subject to workplace gossip.

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Remember that mistake you once made? Yeah, your boss does too  and wont let you forget it.

People make mistakes. Its human and totally normal. Yet, the one time you forgot to send a spreadsheet before the 10 A.M. meeting is the constant subject of your performance reviews and clouds the 50 other awesome things youve done that month. Constant reminding of human error makes employees feel like they arent trusted or that their work is all colored by it. But if it really was one mistake, one that has been rectified and never repeated, it may warrant a conversation with HR to discuss how you can all move on.

People at work are excluding you from activities like lunch, or happy hour.

Suddenly, you notice that your team of four is taking meetings, lunches, or drinks without you. Youre left to figure it out when you walk past the conference room and see the rest of them laughing or covertly discussing a report you were never privy too. Being kept in the dark on departmental matters is strange, childish behavior. Its also a form of harassment.

You use all your mental health days in the first month of the year.

Have you ever woken to the sound of your alarm only to find your hands shaking uncontrollably? Have you ever rushed to the bathroom before taking the elevator up because you were going to be physically ill at the thought of entering your office? The physical signs that manifest when your job comes to mind are serious. When your job begins to make you ill and you spend more time looking for an escape than actually working, you may need to review the signs of workplace harassment and reevaluate.

The post Signs you shouldnt ignore when youre being harassed at work appeared first on HelloGiggles.
Beni (DR Congo) (AFP) - Six suspected members of a Ugandan rebel group went before a Congolese military court on Saturday accused of taking part in the killing last weekend of 51 people, the latest in a string of massacres in the restive east of the country.

The gruesome slaying in the town of Beni touched off mass street protests against the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo for failing to protect the population from the armed rebel groups that plague the region. Clashes erupted at Wednesday's protest march leaving three people including a policeman dead.

The men accused in the slaughter are "one Ugandan, one Tanzanian and four Congolese," said colonel Jean-Paulin Esosa, who presides over the operational military court of North Kivu province.

Appearing at the public hearing in blue and yellow prison shirts, they were charged with "participation in an insurrectional movement, crimes against humanity for murder and terrorism," Esosa said.

The accused admitted at the hearing to having been "at the service of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF)", a partly Islamist armed group of Ugandan origin, an AFP correspondent reported.

Hundreds of Beni residents had gathered to attend the hearing. One survivor of the brutal attack, Eve Kahambu, told AFP she wanted to see the "murderers" receive "the severest punishment".

But the head of the Beni civil society, Gilbert Kambale, said: "We're sceptical... it's not the masterminds (of the attacks) who are before the court."

The ADF has been present in DR Congo for more than two decades and is accused of a litany of human rights abuses and being involved with criminal networks funded by kidnappings, smuggling and logging.

The mass killing last weekend was only the latest of the attacks in the region around Beni that have claimed more than 700 lives since 2014.

The government has blamed them on the ADF, but a report published in March by the Congo Research Group at New York University, which probed these massacres, claimed that soldiers from the regular army had also participated in the killings.

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In the attack last Saturday night "at least 50 civilians" were hacked to death, according to the UN mission to DRC (MONUSCO). Local civil society groups put the death toll at 51.

The violence added to the existing tension in the DRC, where fears are mounting that President Joseph Kabila plans to hold on to power after his second mandate expires in December.

In Beni on Wednesday, an effigy of Kabila was burned in the town's main market, as were flags of his ruling People's Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD).

The deadly protests came a day after Prime Minister Augustin Matata was booed by hundreds outside Beni's town hall, after he visited the massacre site.

"What did he come for? We don't need humanitarian aid, but peace," said Germain Katembo, a survivor of the massacre who lost three members of his family.
Space elevator concept

Once upon a time, entrepreneurs were counting down to a date in 2018 when the first space elevator would open for business. NASA was setting aside millions of dollars to promote the technologies required for building that elevator. And space elevator fans were looking forward to a breakthrough that would drive the cost of space travel down to mere hundreds of dollars.

Today, the countdown is on indefinite hold. The NASA money is gone. And the dream of building the space elevator has been eclipsed by billionaire Elon Musks dream of putting colonists on Mars by the mid-2020s.

Nevertheless, the fans are still keeping the faith, and theyre backing up that faith with research studies. About 35 of them gathered today at Seattles Museum of Flight to kick off the 2016 Space Elevator Conference, presented by the International Space Elevator Consortium.

Some attendees came from as far away as Norway and Japan.

The goal is not an unreal goal, Hugh Cook, a space systems engineer from the Los Angeles area, told GeekWire during one of the breaks. I think about the audacity of the transcontinental railroad. It was a crazy idea, but eventually the fire was lit, and it happened.

The analogy is apt: Like the transcontinental railroad, the concept behind the space elevator goes back to the 19th century, to Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovskys musings in 1895.

Space elevator diagram

The basic idea is that if you put a counterweight far enough from Earth, you could theoretically attach one end of a super-strong tether to the weight, and the other end to an anchor point on the planet. Then you could send people or payloads up and down that tether, as if they were riding a vertical railway to the sky.

Over the course of a century, engineers refined the concept and figured out that Earths counterweight would have to be placed about 62,000 miles (100,000 kilometers) above the planets surface. To handle the tension, the tether would have to be many times stronger than the strongest material available today.

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Lots of details remain to be filled in, including exactly how the system would be built. But if it could be built, and if there were beam-powered rail cars capable of trundling up and down the tether, the cost of access to orbit would plummet. It would mark the beginning of a new space age.

To support technological development, NASA allocated prize money for a couple of challenges more than a decade ago. In 2009, Seattle-based LaserMotive won $900,000 of NASAs money in a Power Beaming Challenge. As much as $2 million was set aside for a Strong Tether Challenge, but no one won a prize.

More recently, researchers have come up with reasons not to try building a space elevator. In June, Chinese researchers reported that a single defect in a tether made of super-strong carbon nanotubes could cause the tether to fail. Other studies have questioned how a space elevator would cope with bad weather, or space debris, or terrorists.

A lot of people you know will tell you, forget about it, said Bryan Laubscher, the founder of a carbon nanotube startup called Odysseus Technologies and director of the International Space Elevator Consortium.

But heres what Pete Swan, the consortiums president, will tell you: Lets gain some funding to do some really hard engineering work.

If Swan came across a billionaire who wanted to provide the funding, he would recommend spending $1 million to $5 million per year over the course of three to five years. That would pay dividends for the whole project, Swan said.

Swan acknowledged that the technology isnt yet ready to be put to the test, except in computer simulations. Studies suggest that it will take about 15 years for researchers to come up with suitably strong, sufficiently defect-free material for the tethers. It could be made of carbon nanotubes, diamond nanothreads or boron nitride nanotubes.

Thats the only thing that were really waiting on, Swan said.

Backers of the space elevator concept have done detailed studies on how much it would cost to build a space elevator once all the technological pieces are in place.

Swan said one concept would require about $15 billion, the second one would cost between $5 billion and $8 billion, and the ones after that could be built for $4 billion each. Another, more ambitious concept carries a price tag of $100 billion.

The consortiums advisers and allies are working on further studies. For example, one recently published report delves into the logistics for a space elevators Earth Port.

An artist's conception shows the STARS-C mother and daughter satellite connected by a tether in orbit, (Credit: Kagawa University)

Meanwhile, Japans Kagawa University has been conducting a series of satellite experiments known as Project STARS (Space Tethered Autonomous Robotic Satellite). Two test satellites were launched in 2009 and 2014, and the third spacecraft  STARS-C  is due to be deployed from the International Space Station as early as this year.

Will the space elevator be built in 2035? Or will the timetable reflect a somewhat less precise prediction made 35 years ago by science-fiction master Arthur C. Clarke? The space elevator will be built about 50 years after everyone stops laughing, he wrote.

I think people have stopped laughing, Swan told GeekWire. Just look at the crowd here.  The clock is running.

The Space Elevator Conference will present the sixth annual Family Science Fest at the Museum of Flight from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. The event is included in the cost of museum admission, and features presentations on Space Elevator 101 and Space Elevator 201. Theres also a youth robotics competition called RoboClimb, plus exhibits sponsored by science organizations and clubs.

For a deeper dive into the space elevator phenomenon, check out Sky Line, a feature-length documentary thats available on DVD as well as streaming services such as VHX, Netflix and Amazon Video.

More from GeekWire:
Docking adapter installed on International Space Station

The International Space Station now has a door that will let crews float in from the commercial space taxis that SpaceX and Boeing are building, thanks to a nearly six-hour spacewalk.

NASA spacewalkers Jeff Williams and Kate Rubins installed the Boeing-built door, known as an International Docking Adapter or IDA, with an assist from the stations robotic arm. This was the fourth spacewalk for Williams, and the first for Rubins.

The 5-foot-wide IDA was hooked up to one of the ports on the stations Harmony module  a port that was originally designed for use by the now-retired space shuttle fleet. Analogous to an electrical-plug adapter, the IDA fits over the port to provide a standard interface for SpaceXs Crew Dragon capsule, Boeings CST-100 Starlifter, and potentially other spacecraft including Russias Soyuz capsule.

The spacewalkers encountered only one slight problem with a pesky cable connector. They also set up two laser reflectors that will help guide visiting crews during future dockings.

It is amazing that now weve opened up a new chapter in the story of the International Space Station, putting the front door on this for future commercial vehicles, Williams said.

If the schedule proceeds according to plan, the first commercial space taxis will hook up next year  at first for uncrewed tests, and then for crew exchanges.

The first of two IDAs was due to be sent to the station last year, but it was destroyed along with the rest of the cargo shipment due to the failure of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket during ascent. This docking adapter was delivered by a SpaceX Dragon cargo craft in July.

Another IDA is under construction and should be ready for installation by 2018.

The spacewalkers had planned to perform some extra get-ahead tasks during six and a half hours outside the station  but Williams experienced a minor problem with his helmet communication system, forcing an end to todays spacewalk at the five-hour, 58-minute mark.

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The same astronauts are due to take on another outing on Sept. 1.

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Within hours of the U.S. Department of Justices announcement on Thursday that it would phase out its use of privately operated federal prisons, the stocks of two of the largest private corrections companies plummeted by 40 percent. While the publicly traded companies, The GEO Group and Corrections Corporation of America, took a hit, the multibillion-dollar industry remains largely intactin no small part because of the numerous contracts it maintains with the Department of Homeland Security. Despite countless complaints and known abuses, for the tens of thousands of immigrants housed in privately run detention centers or subject to electronic monitoring facilitated by these companies, the scourge of privatization is far from over.

These private companies are so embedded in the detention and deportation of immigrants in this country, said Silky Shah, codirector of Detention Watch Network, an immigration advocacy coalition. Ending that relationship would require an overhaul of the system.

The directive from Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates to the Bureau of Prisons to either cease its contracts with the companies or substantially reduce the number of privately operated beds will affect 13 of the 122 federal prisons, or 22,660 prisoners. Yates memo cited a lack of safety, security, and cost savings in the BOPs privately operated prisons. The GEO Group and the Corrections Corporation of Americas stock prices dropped lower than they had over the last three years following the memos release, in spite of numerous investigations, lawsuits, and other reports of violence and filthy conditions at privately run facilities.

Eleven of the 13 federal prisons affected exclusively house noncitizens, more than half of whom are incarcerated for illegally entering or reentering the country and who will ultimately be deported. The vast majority of private prisons are operated at the state level.

For immigrants detained by the Department of Homeland Securitys Immigration and Customs Enforcement, however, the Justice Departments directive holds no binding weight. Today, 62 percent of beds in the roughly 250 detention centers overseen by DHS are operated by for-profit corporations. These facilities, which house nearly 25,000 immigrants awaiting deportation or whose cases are pending, have repeatedly come under fire from advocates for cultivating unsafe and abusive environments.

Story continues

Immigration and Customs Enforcement Press Secretary Jennifer Elzea would not comment on the Justice Departments announcement, but she told TakePart by email that ICE remains committed to providing a safe and humane environment for all those in its custody.

In spite of taking a hit in the market, The GEO Group and the Corrections Corporation of America have defended the safety of their facilities.

The [inspector generals] findings simply dont match up to the numerous independent studies that show our facilities to be equal or better with regard to safety and quality, or the excellent feedback we get from our partners at all levels of government, CCA Public Affairs Director Jonathan Burns said in an emailed statement.

A press release from GEO expressed disappointment at the announcement and echoed CCAs sentiment as it affirmed the companys commitment to working with government partners to ensure safe and secure operations at all of our facilities.

Burns also emphasized that CCA continues to work with the government, providing innovative opportunities weve been exploring in recent years in a proactive effort to meet their evolving needs, adding that the Bureau of Prisons only accounts for 7 percent of the companys business.

Meeting those evolving needs has in part led to the expansion of servicessuch as electronic monitoring and family case management for asylum seekersoffered to the government by private corrections companies.

Electronic monitoring is not an alternative; its just a different form of detention, said Shah. Theyve expanded the system, and DHS now just has a bigger scope of custody. These tools really incentivize and perpetuate detention.

Relying on companies like GEO to manage electronic monitoring and case management of immigrants is problematic, Shah argues, because of the perverse incentives the industry has to ensure profits for itself and to fill detention beds.

Rather than contracting with private companies to track and manage immigrants whose cases are pending or who are awaiting deportation, Bethany Carson, an immigration policy researcher and organizer for Grassroots Leadership, suggests alternatives such as community-operated housing. Casa Marianella, one such shelter in Austin, Texas, works with asylum seekers and recently arrived immigrants, housing them and providing services for those who dont have friends or family to stay with.

This alternative is not on the taxpayer dollar and is much less invasive for immigrants who come here seeking a better life, said Carson.

In spite of the small number of facilities affected, Carson and Shah stand by Yates memo as a sign of progress for immigrants and advocates whove been pushing back against these corporations for decades.

If different agencies start cutting contracts, its going to be increasingly harder for these companies to be viable, said Carson. This is huge for immigrants incarcerated in the BOPs system.

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Ladarius Green (AP)

All right, now the Ladarius Green story is strange.

When reports came out earlier this month that the Pittsburgh Steelers tight end was experiencing headaches that wouldnt go away, and that might force his retirement, it seemed like another tough concussion story. Green hadnt practiced in camp, the team said it was for an ankle injury, but Greens agent said his clients ankle was fine.

Nope, Green said. The reports that his ankle was fine and the headaches were keeping him off the field werent accurate, he insisted.

According to Mark Kaboly of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Green said he is not experiencing headaches, his ankle isnt fine, and he has no idea where the retirement stories came from. And now, feel free to be confused.

I am (wondering) who said this, Green said about retirement. I dont think I talked about retiring anytime soon. Im 26. Dont think [I am] retiring anytime soon.

When asked about playing this season, Green said, Why wouldnt I be confident about that?

Theres still no timetable for Greens return though. He does have a concussion history, but he downplayed it on Saturday. In March Green said that the San Diego Chargers misdiagnosed his concussions, and they were actually sinus issues, via Kaboly.

I dont think I had bad concussions last year. I had some, Green told Kaboly on Saturday.

Green also said he had no idea why his agent said his ankle was OK. He said it wasnt 100 percent yet.

It is still not there, Green said. Its getting better.

Who knows what to make of this story now. All we know for sure is that the Steelers big free-agent addition this offseason, the player who was to replace retired Heath Miller, hasnt been practicing or playing in any preseason games.

Until he does get back on the field, the story might continue to be an unusual one.

More Steelers news from Yahoo

      

Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!


Durban (South Africa) (AFP) - After eight months of frustration, South African fast bowler Dale Steyn left the field at Kingsmead on Saturday with "a smile on his face", according to bowling coach Charl Langeveldt.

Unfortunately for Steyn and his fellow bowlers, they walked off at lunchtime and didn't return after reducing New Zealand to 15 for two on the second day of the first Test.

Rain prevented any more play and meant South Africa could not take further advantage of favourable bowling conditions as they sought to defend a first innings total of 263.

Steyn, playing in his first Test match since December, bowled a mesmerising spell of two for three in six overs, dismissing both New Zealand opening batsmen.

At 33, questions had been asked Steyn's ability to come back with anything like the impact that made him the long-time number one-ranked Test bowler.

He has dropped to number three after playing in only two out of South Africa's previous eight Tests, failing to complete either because of groin and shoulder injuries.

But on a greenish pitch under a heavily overcast sky, it was though a rewind button had been switched as Steyn bowled with immaculate control, backed up by Vernon Philander, also coming back from injury.

Langeveldt said he was delighted to have the pair back, bringing their skill and experience to a South African team that has slumped from number one to number seven in the Test team rankings.

- Steyn bowling "within himself" -

If there was a question that Steyn left unanswered in his brief spell, it was whether he could still bowl at speeds well in excess of 140kmh, but Langeveldt shrugged that off.

"Dale likes to bowl within himself with the new ball," said Langeveldt. "He prefers to have control up front. You will see that he bowls faster in his second and third spells."

Steyn had Tom Latham caught at first slip by Hashim Amla for four off the second ball of his fourth over.

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He followed up in his next over with a full in-swinger which trapped Martin Guptill leg before wicket for seven.

Latham added only one run after being dropped off Philander.

Guptill survived an appeal for leg before wicket off Steyn's fourth ball of the innings when he was on two.

Umpire Richard Illingworth turned down the appeal and South Africa decided not to seek a review. Replays showed the ball was clipping leg stump in the 'umpire's call' area so a review would have failed.

Three overs later Latham edged Philander low to second slip where Dean Elgar spilled a relatively straightforward chance.

Although Steyn had the better figures, Philander also looked close to his best form after missing South Africa's most recent seven Test matches because of an ankle injury. In the last over before lunch he twice beat Ross Taylor with balls that swung sharply away from the bat.

Earlier, it took New Zealand ten overs to take South Africa's remaining two wickets after rain delayed the start by 50 minutes.

Tim Southee struck with the eighth ball of the day when he bowled Steyn before South Africa had added to their overnight total of 236 for eight.

Kagiso Rabada and Dane Piedt added 27 runs for the last wicket despite New Zealand taking the second new ball, which enabled Southee and Trent Boult to gain extravagant movement in the overcast conditions.

Rabada, who was dropped by Southee at third slip off Boult when he had 16, battled his way to an unbeaten 32 before Piedt was last man out, caught behind off Boult for nine.

Boult finished with figures of three for 52.
Ahmedabad (India) (AFP) - A suit worn by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi that gathered worldwide fame for having his name embroidered all over it has entered the Guinness World Records after selling for a record sum.

Modi attracted mockery on social media for the tailored, pin-striped suit, which he wore during a meeting with US President Barack Obama on a visit to India in January 2015.

When images of the prime minister were enlarged, it became clear that the subtle gold stripes were made up of the words "Narendra Damodardas Modi" woven in tiny letters.

Bought by diamond tycoon Laljibhai Patel in Gujarat last year for 43,131,311 rupees ($642,426), the personalised suit has now entered the record books as the most expensive ever sold at auction.

"The most expensive suit (clothing) sold at auction is Rs. (Rupees) 43,131,311... and was bought by Laljibhai Tulsibai Patel (India), in Surat, Gujarat, India, on 20 February 2015," said a statement on the Guinness World Record website.

The website said the proceeds from the auction were donated to the Namami Gange Fund, a project to clean up the heavily polluted Ganges River, which is considered sacred by Hindus.
TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen said on Saturday that unofficial communication channels with China remain in place despite Beijing in June suspending contacts because the island's new leader would not endorse the concept of a "One China" principle. The Chinese government blamed the self-ruled island earlier this week for the breakdown of communications. China, which regards Taiwan as a renegade province, has been unsettled by Tsai, who took office in May, as she has been reluctant to disavow calls for formal independence. "While the official mechanism of communication has not been restored, unofficial communication channels with the mainland remain available," she told reporters, without elaborating. "We hope both sides maintain stability, so there wont be any misunderstanding or misjudgment on either side," she said. Tsai, who heads the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party, reiterated she wanted to maintain the status quo in cross-strait relations, but said "there is no magic medicine to resolve the existing strains. China has insisted Tsai must recognize the "1992 consensus" reached between China's Communists and Taiwan's then-ruling Nationalists - the political basis for the one China principal - although each have their own interpretation of what that means. After the defeated Nationalist forces fled to Taiwan following a civil war with the Communists in 1949, China has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control. (Reporting by Faith Hung; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)
As a child, I wasnt taught the importance of an education, let alone how to use an adjective. I lived in the projects, and it smelled of despair. The only way out was by playing professional ball or hustling.

We never talked about school as the ticket to a future. School, for me, wasnt about classwork. I was given 25 cents and a free lunch ticket five times a week. My mama signed on the dotted line to make sure I got the lunch as I needed it. I was in classrooms, but I wasnt there to learn how to write or read or even speak. Being unable to verbally formulate what it was I was feeling inside kept me angry. I was in a classroom full of  for the most part  mentally challenged students. But I wasnt better than them. Teachers handed out worksheets I couldnt comprehend. When it came time for me to read, I wanted to hide; I was ready to vomit almost all the time. I cried constantly  not literally; my tears fell inside me. I was 13 years old, but I already hated being who I was.

I had an English teacher, Mr. Creech, who was part of my nightmare. He knew. He knew I was assigned to only two regular classes a day and that the one class I attended the majority of the day was full of mentally challenged students. He knew I couldnt read. And he found it necessary to expose my secret. He would turn to me: Anthony, hed say, why dont you read the next paragraph? I didnt even know what a paragraph was. I would try to read what was in front of me. Valiantly. But the mere sound of my voice incited instantaneous laughter.

It was a lack of craving for an education.

For years I dwelled inside the walls of my inadequacies, attempting to dismantle them brick by brick. Knowing my own failure, though, made me reluctant to fix it; I hated the thought of reading because I knew I couldnt do it. It was a cycle I couldnt break out of. How did this happen? It was the school and the teachers who didnt encourage me, but it was also my parents who never told me to focus on my education, and it was me for giving up.

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I was 41 years old when I flew back to Texas to visit friends and family. On my way from the airport, my best friend suggested we have a drink at a nearby bar. As my friend and I sat at the bar, I saw someone across the smoke-filled room. It was Mr. Creech, leaning over to buy himself a drink. I rushed over and reached into my pocket to pay for him. Do I know you? he asked. Yes, sir, you do know me, I answered. My name is Anthony Hamilton, and I was in your fourth-period class. The look on his face told me that he remembered the boy hed once shamed. Im so glad I had a chance to see you, I said. And Mr. Creech, I have great news to share. I told him. I had learned to read. But that wasnt all. I had become a published author and a motivational speaker. I told him I wanted him to do me a favor. He asked what it was. The next time you get another Anthony Hamilton in your classroom, please teach him how to read.

The experts say that what once disabled me has a name: dyslexia. I can tell you it was something else as well. It was a lack of craving for an education. Thats far from my life today. My belly now hungers for the verbs and the adjectives, the synonyms and the paragraphs. I write to be the author of my life and for Faith in another sort of Author of my life. If it were not for my Father in Heaven, I would possess no expression. And I write to give back. I write because of the boy in the community college classroom here in Hayward, California, who read my book, for the teacher who put my book on the syllabus and for the people who have read me and tell me, humbling me, that they found some kind of meaning in what I have put down in words.

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The following is a rundown of family activities for the week of Aug. 19-25.

Friday

Friday morning storytime -- 11 a.m., Barnes & Noble Booksellers, SouthPointe Pavilions. Free.

Friday Nights Live Concert Series -- 6:30-8:30 p.m., SouthPointe Pavilions, Center Courtyard. Music by The Innocence. Kids Zone area for ages younger than 10 (parent supervision required). Free admission. Donations encouraged to benefit CenterPointe. Final concert of season.

Saturday

Bilingual English-Spanish story time -- 10-11 a.m., Indigo Bridge Books, 701 P St.

Tractors, Trucks, Trains & Planes event -- hosted by Lincoln Children's Museum, 10 a.m.-1 p.m., Lincoln Airport, west side of airport grounds, via NW 48th Street. Bring old car seats to be recycled, MilkWorks provides tent for nursing mothers (also, changing tables), Nebraska State Patrol doing child fingerprinting, mini train rides and over 30 giant machines on display. Tickets: $5/Museum members, $7.50/non-members. LincolnChildrensMuseum.org.

Buzz About Bees -- 11 a.m.-3 p.m., Arbor Day Farm Tree Adventure, Nebraska City. Activities and demonstration bee hive with bee experts. Free with regular Tree Adventure admission.

Special storytime -- "Mira Forecasts the Future" and "The Bot That Scott Built," 11 a.m., Barnes & Noble Booksellers, 5150 O St. and SouthPointe Pavilions locations.

Centennial Film Festival -- "E.T.," 2 p.m. Saturday-Sunday, Homestead National Monument of America, Beatrice. Free.

Catch 'Em All (Pokemon Go Event) -- 3-5 p.m., Pioneers Park Nature Center, 3201 S. Coddington Ave. Guided hike to all of the Pokestops and gyms to find all the Pokemon, there will be access to areas currently closed due to construction. Plan on walking 2.5 miles for two hours. $3/person. For entire family, no preregistration required.

Sunday

Blessing of the backpacks -- 9 a.m., Trinity United Methodist Church, 7130 Kentwell Lane.

Kids Dream Summer Film Series -- "Rio 2" (PG), 10 a.m. Sunday-Monday and Wednesday, Edgewood and Lincoln Grand Cinemas. $3/person, popcorn and fountain drinks/$2.75.

Dog Splash -- 6:30-8:30 p.m., Star City Shores, 4357 S. 33rd Ct. $10/per dog, includes two adults and one child (8 years or older). Dogs can swim, humans may only wade in water up to their knees. When dogs not in water, they must be on leashes.

Monday



Library story times -- For babies, 10 a.m., Gere; 10:35 a.m., Eiseley; for toddlers, 10:30 a.m., Anderson.

Library Family Story time -- 4-5 p.m. Williams Branch: 6:30-7:30 p.m. South Branch.

Evening children's story time -- 6:30-7 p.m., Indigo Bridge Books, 701 P St. Free.

Tuesday

Morning children's story time -- 10-11 a.m., Indigo Bridge Books, 701 P St. Free.

Library story times -- Toddler: 10:30 a.m., Bethany; 10 and 10:35 a.m., 6:30 p.m., Gere. Preschool: 10:30 a.m., Anderson, Gere, Walt; 7 p.m., Eiseley.

Wednesday

Library story times -- For babies, 10 a.m., Gere; for toddlers, 10:30 a.m., Walt; 10:35 a.m., Eiseley, Gere; for preschoolers, 10:30 a.m., Anderson, Eiseley, South and Walt; 2 p.m., South.

Wild Wednesday -- 5-8 p.m., Lincoln Children's Zoo. Every Wednesday, through August, special animal demonstrations. Regular admission.

Thursday

Nebraska State Fair -- opening day Thursday through Sept. 5, Grand Island. For times and schedule of events visit statefair.org.

Library story times -- For babies, 10:30 a.m., Walt; 6:30 p.m., Gere; for toddlers, 10 a.m., Gere; 10:35 a.m., Eiseley, Gere, South; for preschoolers, 10:30 a.m., Bennett Martin, Bethany, Eiseley, Gere.

Shows and exhibits

Planetarium astronomy shows -- "Dream to Fly," 11 a.m. Tuesday-Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday. "Solar Superstorm," noon Tuesday-Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday. "Big Red Sky Tour," 2 p.m. Saturday. Shows run through Aug. 28. Children must be 4 or older. University of Nebraska State Museum of Natural History, Mueller Planetarium, Morrill Hall, south of 14th and Vine streets. 402-472-2641.

Hyde Observatory shows -- 8-11 p.m. Saturdays, Hyde Observatory, Holmes Lake. Free. Reservations available for Monday-Thursday nights. 402-441-7094.

Coming up

Star City Chalk Walk -- 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Aug. 27, downtown Lincoln, 14th and O streets area. Chalk and music provided. Free, open to public.

The Ghosts of Lincoln Bus Tours ticket launch -- 7 a.m. line forms, 10 a.m. doors open Aug. 29, A Novel Idea Bookstore, 118 N. 14th St.

Register

Sunset & S'mores -- 7-10 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays, through Sept. 10, Arbor Day Farm Tree Adventure, Nebraska City. Explore the grounds, 7 p.m.; Discovery Ride, 8 p.m., bonfire and s'mores follow the ride. Reservations required: 402-873-8717.
(Photo: Getty Images)

I love me some sauna. And when I go in, I go hard. I stay in as long as I can tolerate, and happily spend hours doing a saunasteam roomcold shower circuit. This ritual doesnt happen nearly enough for my liking, though.



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Here in the U.S., saunas are considered a special treata luxury. In many other parts of the world, however, saunas are an integral part of life (theres basically a sauna for every household in Finland!). Unfortunately for me and my fellow sauna-obsessed Americans, stateside sauna use is reserved for spa days.

Now, if the Higher Dose team has its way, all that will change. And they dont just want us all sauna more often, they want us all to experience the (heat) wave of the future. Higher Doses mission is to bring the benefits of infrared therapy to health, fitness andyoga, and I think theyre onto something. Cool-girl yoga spots around New York City are installing Higher Doses infrared technology in their studios for the ultimate hot yoga classes, and wellness meccas like the The Herban Alchemist and Gravity East Village are installing infrared saunas on site for clients useeven well-respected wellness companies are installing them in their offices. Just ask Sakara Life, who are elated with their decision to take the in-office infrared plunge.

Intrigued? So was I. I was fortunate enough to experience both an Infrared Hot Yoga class at Y7 Studio and an infrared sauna session at Gravity East Village. Read on to discover what infrared technology is and why the entire wellness community is feeling the burn.

WHAT IS INFRARED?

Higher Doses patented infrared technology combines full spectrum infrared with clay and carbon/ceramic heaters. Each element in this system boasts its own specific benefits, and they all combine to create a wellness wonder product. Higher Dose uses full spectrum (near, mid and far) infrared, as each type is beneficial in its own way. Near infrared waves penetrate the epidermis, making them optimal for skin rejuvenation, wound healing and overall skin health. Mid infrared wavelengths are beneficial for increasing circulationmimicking the benefits of a passive workout. Regular use of mid range infrared saunas has even been shown to significantly stimulate blood flow, even after the sauna session is completed. (This means youll still be reaping the benefits of your sauna sesh when you get home and binge watch Peaky Blinders.)

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As the name suggests, far infrared waves have the longest frequency, allowing them to penetrate deep into human tissue. Unlike traditional heat, infrared heat directly warms your body to the core, even though infrared saunas are set at a lower temperature that traditional saunas. In a traditional sauna, you sit in a hot (180-220 degrees) room, and get super-sweaty. In an infrared sauna, the heat (about 150 degrees) heats your body directly, with only 20% of the heat warming the air. Your body absorbs this infrared heat and reacts to it by raising your core temperature. This results in a deep, detoxifying sweat from the cellular level of the skin, where many toxins and heavy metals hide out and accumulate.

Then theres the clayyay! From Amazonian to Australian White, clay in its many forms is a long time skincare superstar. If youre like me, you have a favorite clay mask (or three) you slather on when your pores need decongesting. As part of an infrared sauna system, however, clay does so much more than unclog pores. The clay cleanses and purifies the sauna air, protecting against germs and environmental stressors. It gets to work internally, too: The clay increases the flow of oxygen to the brain, grounds and balances the nervous system, speeds up the oxidation of serotonin, helps the body more efficiently absorb and use oxygen (by emitting negative ions), strengthens the immune system andclay it aint soimproves metabolism. Holla!

The last component is a carbon/ceramic combo heater. Combined, this duo produces long wave infrared waves with a high infrared output. This heat penetrates deeper into your body and is more readily absorbed.

Id be remiss not to mention the gorgeous, fragrant cedar of which the sauna is made. Saunas have long been constructed from cedar, and for good reason: cedar contains aromatic oils known for their healing, cleansing and naturally antibacterial properties, which aid in detoxification during your sauna sesh.

WHY IS INFRARED SO GOOD?

Simply put, Infrared makes you look and feel your best. Far infrared heat provides all the healthy benefits of natural sunlight without any of its dangerous side effects. As infrared heat raises your core body temperature, it stimulates your lymphatic and immune systems. Your bodys response is to sweat profusely. This aint just any sweat: sweat induced from infrared heat is comprised of 20% toxins, whereas sweat induced from traditional heating systems is comprised of only 3% toxinsmaking infrared 7x more detoxifying than traditional heat. How? The far infrared heat causes the water in our bodies to vibrate, releasing more toxins than regular heat does. This is why far infrared is optimal for detoxification, weight loss and blood pressure reduction.

Even though this all sounds intense, the infrared panels are actually less aggressive than a traditional heating system. While conventional heat is an unnatural process, infrared heat mimics the sun. Think hot, smoggy Miami heat vs. a fresh, sunny day, says Higher Dose Co-Founder, Lauren Berlingeri. (Ill take the latter, thanks!)

UP IN THE SAUNA

As stated above, I love saunas, so I was thrilled to try the infrared sauna at Gravity East Village (where Id been before for colonics). Gravity East Village is a low-key wellness center run by the knowledgeable and passionate Donna Perrone. Your sauna session is solo, which is great because you can get nekkid (the only way to sauna, IMHO). They give you a towel to sit on and another softer chamois-type cloth to wipe your face with. YOU WILL BE USING THIS CLOTH.

GEVs unit is equipped with different colored lights for light therapy as well as speakers so you can listen to spa music, if youre so inclined. The recommend session length is 30 minutes, butalpha female that I amI went for 40. I can see why they recommend 30, though. For those last 10 minutes, I had to put down my magazine and just be in my sauna experience. I was sweating so profusely that, logistically, holding and/or looking at a magazine no longer worked. I was soaked! But you know what? I loved every sweaty second of it. It was intense yet relaxing, and after, I felt invigorated, rather than so relaxed Im almost sleepyhow I usually feel post-sauna.

AFTER THE SAUNA

Once I toweled off, my skin didnt have the gross, sticky feeling it usually does after a major schvitz session. This was great, since theres no shower at GEV. There is a bathroom next to the sauna where you can freshen up, however. (Speaking of bathroomsTMI alert: When I peed right after my sauna sesh, it was super dark and pungent. Coincidence? I think not. Later, toxins!)

I came prepared with Mio Skincare and Ursa Major Wipes. Next time Ill also bring a bottle of Vine Minus Ion Care Water. I brought a hydrating mist with me, which was great, but the extra antibacterial boost provided by Vine would have been clutch after all that sweating. I was pleasantly surprised when I looked in the mirror after my session. Instead of my skin looking super red and flushed, it looked healthy and glowy. Since any makeup I had on melted off within about 10 minutes in the sauna, I thought for sure Id need to reapply before I faced the worldbut I didnt. I combed my eyebrows, put on lip balm and walked out the door.

Its important to rehydrate after the sauna (and really, to walk into the sauna hydrated as well). They recommend coconut water, but I prefer green juice (also recommended). Luckily there is a Juice Press just a few blocks away from GEV, so I downed a Mother Earth, and got on the train home feeling healthy AF.





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[Image: Catherine Leask]



Whether youre an avid bookworm or just pick up a paperback on occasion, now is the perfect time for reading. Youre either still going on summer holidays and reading by the beach, or fully ready to get out the Autumn candles and layers and cosy in with a book and a hot drink.

Theres something about fashion books that I just love - both the images and the text. People in fashion do aesthetics best of course, so its no wonder they make books to ogle at endlessly. Without even opening the book, just having them sitting on my shelf, knowing the goodness inside, makes me happy.

Whether you want a career in fashion or just love it, these are the fashion books you need in your life.

The Designers of Instagram

[Image: Catherine Leask]

This books is gorgeous, and great for those who dont like reading lots of text, or any at all. Theres something about seeing Instagrams on paper that is just lush.

The book, by the Council of Fashion Designers of America, highlights how amazing it is that we now have more of an insight to fashion than ever before, especially via Instagram. Seeing designers inspiration, and collections, as and when they see them, to seeing the finished product on catwalks and magazine covers.

I love to just have a flick through this every now and then for some inspiration, to find new people to follow, or when theres no new posts to refresh. Also its the shape of the Instagram square which I really like.

The Teen Vogue Handbook

[Image: Catherine Leask]

This was a book recommended to me by the online certification programme I do by Parsons and Teen Vogue. As well as being packed with gorgeous images, it gives really good advice and tips on how to get into many areas of fashion such as photography, modelling, etc.

What Makes Great Fashion

[Image: Amazon]

The fashion world can be hard to understand at first as its all interpretation. Ever not really understand crazy catwalk or statement pieces? This book by expert Marnie Fogg talks through why 80 of fashions most famous statement pieces get they credit that they do and what impact they had, as well as giving a pretty good knowledge of fashion history too!

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British Fashion Designers

[Image: Catherine Leask]

If you want to work in fashion, or just enjoy fashion, I think its super useful to have basic knowledge of designers, and this book is great for it! Also, how pretty is this cover?

Women In This Town

[Image: Catherine Leask]

Being super into street style and street photography I knew I would love this book just from peeking inside. Packed with images of different womens street style from London, LA, Tokyo and Paris and I think it would be interesting to see how the styles differed per country, if at all!

So if you take inspiration from street style, like photography, amazing locations or people watching, it definitely should be on your wish list. Its the perfect size to carry around to, and take on the go.

Vogue Covers - On Fashions Front Page

[Image: Amazon]

Another visual book to stare at in fascination is the Vogue Covers - on Fashions Front Page book. Definitely a coffee table essential.

The Fashion Book/Dictionary

[Image: Amazon]

This little book is the perfect pocket size to throw in your handbag on the go. It has some really good information and history on the fashion industry and is a handy reference guide.

IT

[Image: Instagram/enchantayed_1989 and Catherine Leask]

Not only does this book look super pretty on your bookcase but gives a funny insight to IT girl Alexa Chungs life, with tips along the way. Filled with cute illustrations this book is stunning outside and in.

What is your favourite fashion book?

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ROME (Reuters) - Three Syrian children drowned along with three adults when a wooden boat trying to carry war refugees to Europe capsized off the coast of Libya, a humanitarian rescue group said on Friday. The bodies of two girls, aged eight months and five years, were pulled out of the sea about 22 nautical miles from Libya on Thursday after the small vessel packed with 27 Syrians flipped over and sank, the Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) humanitarian group said. The bodies of two women and one man were also recovered, but a five-year-old boy who was on the boat when it sank was not found, MOAS reported. MOAS operates two rescue boats in the Mediterranean Sea between Italy and Libya. A fishing boat and a ship operated by humanitarian group Proactiva Open Arms collected the 21 survivors, who are now being taken to aboard the Responder, a MOAS boat. The media spotlight refocused on the plight of civilians in Syria's conflict this week following a wrenching video of a dust-covered, disoriented five-year-old boy, Omran Daqneesh, pulled from the rubble after a bombing raid in Aleppo. More than 500 migrants were rescued from overcrowded and unsafe boats in seas between Libya and Italy on Thursday. They included 146 people plucked from a semi-deflated rubber vessel, Italy's coastguard said. Last year, Syrian refugees bound for Europe tended to take a short boat ride to Greek islands from Turkey. Those routes have been largely shut down this year, forcing some to make the longer and more dangerous voyage from North Africa toward Italy. Thousands of children have been killed in the Syrian civil war, now in its fifth year, and more than 3,000 migrants have died in the Mediterranean so far this year, the International Organization for Migration estimates. About a quarter of all boat migrants in 2016 - some 100,000 have arrived in Italy - are children, the U.N. refugee agency says. (Reporting by Steve Scherer; editing by Larry King)


Credit: Chris Raphael/Take Down Films Limited 2014

Almost 19 years ago, I Know What You Did Last Summer captivated audiences with its all-star teen cast, terrifyingly mysterious plot, and basic all-around '90s goodness. Now, the director of the cult classic, Jim Gillespie, is back with another film in the same dramatic vein. His latest movie, Billionaire Ransom (titled Take Down outside of North and South America), hits select theaters and VOD today, Aug. 19, following a group of troubled rich kids who are held hostage at their remote rehab school in Scotland. Gossip Girl star Ed Westwick portrays the leader of the kidnappers, while Shadowhunters star Dominic Sherwood and American Gothic's Elliot Knight play two of the students in danger.

InStyle recently caught up with Knight, and he told us that the flick is seriously goosebump-inducing. "It is very much a teen thriller like I Know What You Did Last Summer," he said. "But it's also a coming-of-age story, in a way, as the characters learn to fend for themselves." And while it may be hard to want to root for the brattier characters at the beginning of the film, they just might grow on you as they work to reform their ways.



Credit: Chris Raphael/Take Down Films Limited 2014

RELATED: 6 Reasons You Need to Binge Watch the Netflix Series Stranger Things

"Imagine a camp for bad kids--only this is a special, luxurious, exclusive camp for the bad kids of people with money," said Knight. "It's is all about rehabilitating yourself from within--your personality, your behavior, how you fit into society, and how you appreciate the value of yourself--so it's pretty well-intentioned. But it's this group of misfit kids who have been spoiled, and now it's time for them to figure things out for themselves."

To do that, the students become completely disconnected from their everyday lives. "The campus is located on an isolated island where there are no phones or internet, and there's no communication with the outside world," said Knight. "But someone who knows that these kids are on the island decides that it's the perfect setup to kidnap them and pull the world's biggest ransom. And the kidnappers can demand as much money as they want for each kid, because the parents are all so rich."

Story continues



Credit: Chris Raphael/Take Down Films Limited 2014

From there, the teens spring into fight-or-flight mode. "Our characters are basically trying to survive the invasion of this island that we've been dumped on," said Knight, adding that the cast bonded while shooting in the U.K. in 2014. "It was a lot of fun to film," he said. "Dom and I met on the set and became really good friends, and we see each other all the time now."

RELATED: American Gothic Star Elliot Knight Reveals What to Expect from Tonight's Series Premiere

In fact, it's one of Sherwood's scenes that Knight expects some viewers will enjoy most. "I'd say the biggest thing you guys can look forward to seeing is probably Dom chopping wood with his shirt off," said Knight. "People will love that, of course--but there are also a lot of really cool action sequences that are fun to watch. It's almost like an indie Hunger Games, in a sense, and the idea of that is pretty exciting."



Credit: Chris Raphael/Take Down Films Limited 2014

Billionaire Ransom hits select theaters, VOD, and iTunes today, Aug. 19.
Tom Holland visiting a childrens hospital dressed as Spider-Man is making our hearts explode

Tom Holland visiting a childrens hospital dressed as Spider-Man is making our hearts explode

We take a break from your regularly scheduled celebrity coverage to bring you one of the sweetest moments ever. Tom Holland, the British actor and dancer who first became famous for the roles of Billy and Michael in the Billy Elliot musical, recently made a visit to a childrens hospital to bring joy to the patients there.

On Thursday, Tom shared a photo on Instagram of himself at Egleston Childrens Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, where hes been working on his upcoming film, Spider-Man: Homecoming (which is slated for release next July). Tom showed up at the hospital dressed like the title character, which were sure the kids couldnt get enough of.

Warning: The following photo is extremely heartwarming.

Meeting you all today was such a wonderful experience and you're all such little inspirations. We're proud of you and we love and we hope to be back soon  and thank you for having us Egleston Children's hospital. A photo posted by  (@tomholland2013) on Aug 18, 2016 at 3:20pm PDT

The 20-year-olds caption (which included a red heart emoji because of course it did) was as heart-meltingly cute as the picture itself.

He wrote, Meeting you all today was such a wonderful experience and youre all such little inspirations. Were proud of you and we love and we hope to be back soon.

From the looks of this photo, Toms not only great with kids but he looks so cute in that Spidey suit.

ICYMI, Tom totally annihilated his Spidey debut in the flick Captain America: Civil War and made us super excited to see him as this character in a full film. And seeing what a great guy he is offscreen is only making us more stoked to see him take down bad guys onscreen.

Is your heart exploding yet? Were certainly caught in his web!

The post Tom Holland visiting a childrens hospital dressed as Spider-Man is making our hearts explode appeared first on HelloGiggles.
Come and see where superstar Rajinikanth shot his iconic movie, "Kabali", in Malaysia!



The movie proved to be a huge hit and it has indirectly promoted the Malaysian locations in India and to his legions of fans across the world.



Therefore, Tourism Malaysia is working together with AirTravel Enterprises India Limited (ATE) to introduce the Malaysia Kabali-package deal as one of their latest promotional strategy to draw more Indian tourists to Malaysia!



"Tourism Malaysia and ATE want Indian travellers to come and experience personally the prominent places the down-to-earth star chose for his movie shooting, instead of just watching the places on the screen," said Tourism Malaysia's South India/Sri Lanka Director, Noor Azman Samsudin to Bernama.



"Therefore, the package was specially designed and launched for Rajni's fans to go and visit the places of "Kabali's" shooting and gain rare opportunity like how Rajinikanth felt about Malaysia's uniqueness," he added.



The cost of the four-days-three-nights tour package starts at INR 24,900 Rupees (RM1,500) per person (excluding airfare) which will include visits to Malaysia's iconic location and popular tourist attractions related to the film like the Petronas Twin Towers, Batu Caves, KLCC, Grand Salon Lobby Lounge of Palace of Golden Horses, Selangor Royal Club, Malacca and Carey Island.



With this offer, Tourism Malaysia aims to bring one million tourists from the Indian sub-continent to Malaysia this year.
Since graduating from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2008, Ryan Olsen has been set on making his filmmaking dreams a reality.

And his ideas are coming to life. Hes shooting his first short film, Say Goodbye, Grace: A Detective Story, this month in Lincoln and Omaha -- using Nebraska skills and talent. The film follows Grace, a hard-boiled detective in a seedy city, through a brutal story of deceit, loss and retribution.

But early this month, three students who claimed they were making a video for a high school project caused a scare outside of Pinnacle Bank Arena when they showed up outside dressed in Kevlar vests and black clothes, loading weapons into a bag.

None of the weapons was real, no one was harmed and the students were not working on a project for any of Lincoln's public schools, but the incident was enough to send ripples through the local film community.

It gave the community a black eye, Olsen said. "It will heal, but we have to deal with that. Ive been asked recently if thats my production, but I am in no way affiliated with them.

"I want to be incredibly supportive of aspiring filmmakers. I want to encourage them to come to Lincoln, Omaha, Kearney -- Nebraska -- but there are proper steps to take.

In a Facebook post, Olsen said the minor-league stunt put him in the position of having to convince Lincoln police not to revoke his permit and ruin a shoot he'd been planning for 10 months.

Any production company that wants to film in a public space must have proof of insurance and a permit from the city, according to the Nebraska Film Association. In Lincoln, go to lincoln.ne.gov and search for "film permit."

After applying for a permit, filmmakers must work with the Lincoln Police Department to determine if and how many officers are needed to monitor a set and if intersections need to be closed.

Theres a reason people dont do permits and its solely based off of money, Olsen said. Its expensive, if you were to close down an intersection for 12 hours and hire four to six police, youre paying the city for that, paying for a permit, road signs, blockades and barricades -- plus liability insurance.

Olsen said the process can run $3,000 to $6,000, depending on time of day and how busy a given intersection is. Fortunately for him, a fundraising campaign on Kickstarter brought in $9,180 from 124 donors within 30 days -- putting a dent in the short film's $20,000 budget.

He calls his film a neon noir detective story with sensitive subject matter. And because he uses fake weapons, SWAT members and violence, he knew he'd need a permit.

Dorothy Booraem, whose film "Wake the Witch" appears on Netflix and Amazon Prime, also deals with dark subject matter, and she steers clear of public spaces to save money and avoid the permit and insurance process. Booraem shoots in neighborhoods and on the land of people she knows.

Her advice: Talk to the community and warn people in advance -- even if it means going door to door.

Its very important to put people first, Booraem said. And obviously with Nebraska ... talking to people gives them a face on the production. The movies we make are edgy and dark, but that doesnt mean that the people are.

Her form of insurance when shooting in someone's home is a handshake. If someone gets hurt or something gets broken, Booraem promises to pay for the damage.

Nebraska Film Officer Laurie Richards said the Nebraska Film Office and Nebraska Film Association are always willing to offer guidance and assistance to aspiring movie makers.

When you do contact the State Film Office, we provide you a registration form to fill out and return to us. This is our road map to learn what it is you hope to accomplish in Nebraska.

"This is not mandatory," Richards said. "But it is to your advantage to work with us so you dont do anything foolish or put yourself or anyone at risk with your actions.

Olsens advice is simple.

Be safe. Be smart. And make movies.
Tunis (AFP) - Premier-designate Youssef Chahed unveiled his unity government Saturday, pledging to work to try to resolve deep social and economic crises that plague Tunisia five years after the Arab Spring revolt.

If his cabinet is confirmed by parliament, Chahed, 40, would become the youngest Tunisian prime minister since the North African country won independence from France in 1956.

"The promises have been kept," Chahed told a news conference late Saturday.

He said he will head a 27-member cabinet which will also include 14 ministers of state, eight women "in important" positions and "14 young" ministers.

"We have tried to follow a method which would guarantee... the efficiency of the government's work," Chahed said.

"We have formed it according to the priorities which I outlined on August 3," he added of the day he was nominated to form a cabinet.

His appointment by President Beji Caid Essebsi came as Tunisia struggles with a stagnant economy and the threat posed by jihadists, as well as pressing social issues.

Chahed was given the task to form a new government days after lawmakers passed a vote of no confidence in the government of premier Habib Essid after just 18 months in office.

"Today we are entering a new stage that requires effort, sacrifice, audacity, courage, selflessness and unorthodox solutions," Chahed told reporters on August 3.

If the cabinet wins the backing of parliament, Chahed will also be Tunisia's seventh prime minister since a youth-led revolt in 2011 toppled longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

Chahed earlier Saturday submitted his proposed line-up to the president.

Seven ministers from the outgoing cabinet -- defence, interior, foreign affairs, transport, tourism, education and equipment -- will keep their portfolios in the new administration.

Newcomers will include a woman, Lamia Zribi, as finance minister and a judge, Ghazi Jeribi, as justice minister.

Story continues

Chahed also chose a woman, Samira Merai, to head the health ministry.

Chahed is a member of the Nidaa Tounes party, which was founded by Essebsi.

Essid's cabinet, which included Nidaa Tounes, the moderate Islamist movement Ennahda and two other groups, was strongly criticised for failing to tackle a jihadist insurgency and Tunisia's economic crisis.

In June, Essebsi said he would support the formation of a new unity government.

Many Tunisians welcomed the nomination of a comparatively young premier -- especially compared with other leaders since 2011.

Essebsi is 89 years old, and Essid is 67.

If his cabinet receives parliamentary approval, Chahed's main task will be to remedy the economic and social crises that still grip Tunisia five years after the revolution.

He has also pledged to combat terrorism and corruption.
* New cabinet faces economic reform challenge

* Three militant attacks hit economic growth

* Cabinet includes ministers close to unions (Adds details from announcement, background)

By Tarek Amara

TUNIS, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Tunisian Prime Minister-designate Youssef Chahed named his new government on Saturday, appointing a former investment official as finance minister and keeping the previous foreign and defence ministers in their posts.

Chahed, named premier after his predecessor was dismissed by lawmakers in a no-confidence vote last month, had been in talks with the main secularist, leftist and Islamist parties over cabinet posts. His cabinet line-up must now go to parliament for a vote of approval.

A senior member of the secularist Nidaa Tounes and ally of President Beji Caid Essebsi, Chahed promised a cabinet capable of delivering economic reforms that evaded past prime ministers, but critics say he may not have the political capital to succeed.

"Our country is in a very delicate phase and we do not have the right to deceive the Tunisian people. I call on all Tunisians and the parties to support this government," Chahed told reporters at Carthage presidential palace.

Tunisia's transition since a 2011 uprising overthrew autocrat Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali has been hailed as a model for the Arab world. But the North African state has struggled with Islamist militant violence and slow progress on economic reforms needed to create growth and jobs.

The new cabinet is inclusive, with members of Nidaa Tounes, Islamist party Ennahda, and smaller parties as well opposition figures, independents and ministers close to the powerful UGTT labour union, in a likely attempt to win backing for reforms.

Marouane El Abassi, a World Bank representative for Libya and economist educated in France, had been touted as new finance minister. But Chahed named Lamia Zribi, a former official for investment and development and a state bank director.

Keeping their posts in the cabinet were Interior Minister Hedi Majdou, Defense Minister Farhat Horchani and Foreign Affairs Minister Khemais Jhinaoui, a move seen to keep continuity in the delicate fight against Islamist militants.

Story continues

TOUGH START

Chahed also nominated Mohamed Trabelsi as minister of social affairs and Abid Briki, a former union official, as minister of public functions. Both men have close ties to the UGTT, which in the past has resisted austerity measures.

During his nearly two years in office, previous premier Habib Essid failed to overcome political infighting and carry out reforms including public spending cuts and improvements to laws to attract foreign investment.

Chahed's cabinet faces a tough start. Three major attacks by Islamist militants last year badly hit tourism bookings, forcing job cuts in an industry that accounts for 8 percent of the economy. Unemployment is already at 15 percent, with the rate far higher among the young.

Months of protests by jobless youths have also disrupted production and exports of the state-run phosphate industry, another major revenue earner.

He must also manage testy relations with the UGTT, other unions and the social unrest that blocked past attempts to push through financial sacrifices and austerity reforms. Tunisia is under pressure from its international lenders to implement measures to cut the public deficit and state spending.

(Writing by Patrick Markey; Editing by Helen Popper)
Istanbul (AFP) - Turkey wants to repair its ties with Egypt, after relations soured over the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Saturday.

Relations between Ankara and Cairo took a nosedive after the Egyptian military deposed Morsi on July 30, 2013.

Morsi, a Muslim Brotherhood leader, had been a close ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party-led (AKP) government.

Erdogan repeatedly condemned the ouster as a "coup d'etat" against Morsi, and in a show of solidarity at rallies he has often flashed the four-finger "Rabaa" hand salute -- seen as a symbol of the Muslim Brotherhood.

"We think we need to develop economic and cultural ties with Egypt as countries that use the two sides of the Mediterranean," Yildirim told reporters at a briefing in Istanbul.

However he sounded a note of caution that high-level relations would not be repaired overnight.

"We think we need to start from somewhere," he said.

It is not the first time Yildirim has expressed hope for improved relations with Egypt.

In June, he said he did not want to see "permanent enmity" with countries such as Egypt and Syria.

Regional powerhouse Saudi Arabia, one of the main backers of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, is keen to see the two countries reconcile as it grows increasingly close to Turkey.

After the July 15 failed putsch in Turkey by a rogue military faction aiming to oust Erdogan from power, Egypt's presidency remained mum.

However, the foreign ministry released a statement on consular efforts to help Egyptians in Turkey.

Turkey appears to be taking steps to return to its former "zero problems with neighbours" foreign policy after rapprochements with Russia and Israel in June this year.
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey's parliament approved a reconciliation agreement signed with Israel in June which has brought to an end a six-year rift between the two regional powers, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Saturday. Relations between the two countries crumbled after Israeli marines stormed a Turkish ship in May 2010 to enforce a naval blockade of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, killing 10 Turks on board. Israel, which had already offered its apologies for the raid, agreed under the deal to pay out $20 million to the bereaved and wounded in return for Turkey dropping outstanding legal claims. Both countries are to appoint ambassadors under an agreement which is partly driven by the prospect of lucrative Mediterranean gas deals. The accord, signed on June 28, was a rare rapprochement in the divided Middle East, also driven by mutual fears over growing security risks. Two weeks afterwards more than 240 people were killed in an attempted coup in Turkey. Under the deal, the naval blockade of Gaza, which Ankara had wanted lifted, remains in force, although humanitarian aid can continue to be transferred to Gaza via Israeli ports. Israel says the Gaza blockade is needed to curb arms smuggling by Hamas, an Islamist group that last fought a war with Israel in 2014. Hamas, which won Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006, is designated as a terrorist organization by the United States and European Unions. (Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk and Dasha Afanasieva, Writing by Daren Butler; editing by Dominic Evans)
Ankara (AFP) - The Turkish parliament has approved a deal to normalise ties with Israel after a delay caused by last month's attempted coup, state-run media reported Saturday.

Lawmakers ratified late Friday the agreement to restore relations between the two former close regional allies after a six-year rift, before parliament was due to go into summer recess.

Under the deal, Israel will pay Turkey $20 million (17.7 million euros) in compensation for a botched Israeli commando raid on a Gaza-bound Turkish aid ship in 2010 that left 10 Turks dead, state-run Anadolu news agency said.

Israel will hand Turkey a "lump sum" within 25 working days of the agreement coming into force, the agency said, which families of the victims will receive in due course.

Under the terms of the deal, both sides agreed individual Israeli citizens or those acting on behalf of the Israeli government would not be held liable -- either criminally or financially -- for the raid, Anadolu said.

Israeli cabinet ministers approved the deal with Turkey in late June but Ankara did not send it to parliament because of time pressure following the July 15 attempted putsch by a rogue military faction.

Israel was quick to give its support to the Turkish government in the aftermath of the coup bid, condemning it while repeating its faith in the reconciliation process between the two countries.

Now the deal has been approved, the two countries are expected to begin the process of exchanging ambassadors to fully restore diplomatic ties.

In a statement, the Israeli government welcomed the Turkish parliament's approval of the deal and said it looked forward "to the next steps of its implementation, including the return of our respective ambassadors."

- Policy of reconciliation -

The agreement also involves an easing of the naval blockade on the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip allowing Turkey to deliver humanitarian aid to Palestinians there via Israel's Ashdod port.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has previously spoken about the economic advantages of improved relations, discussing the possibility of a pipeline to Turkey to export Israeli gas.

The rapprochement between the two countries came after secret talks held in December 2014 with two more rounds in February 2015 in Geneva and April this year in London.

Turkey appears to be willing to return to its previous "zero problems with neighbours" foreign policy after the country also normalised relations with Russia. Relations were damaged after Turkey shot down a Russian jet in November last year.

Earlier this month, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made his first trip abroad since the coup bid, meeting his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin for the first time since 2015.
By Nate Raymond (Reuters) - A U.S. Navy sailor was sentenced on Friday to one year in prison for illegally taking photos inside restricted areas of a nuclear submarine and then trying to impede an investigation into the matter, prosecutors said on Friday. Kristian Saucier, 29, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Stefan Underhill in Bridgeport, Connecticut, after pleading guilty in May to one criminal count of unauthorised possession and retention of national defence information. Prosecutors said Saucier on three occasions took cellphone photos of classified spaces, instruments and equipment of the U.S.S. Alexandria, while he was stationed on the submarine in Groton, Connecticut, as a machinist's mate. Authorities launched an investigation in March 2012 when Saucier's phone was found at a waste transfer station in Hampton, Connecticut. Prosecutors said that after an initial interview with investigators, Saucier returned home and destroyed a laptop computer, camera and memory card. Saucier, a resident of Arlington, Vermont, was subsequently arrested in May 2015. In court papers, prosecutors sought a prison term of 5-1/4 years, saying his conduct was "egregious and put at risk the national security of our nation." His lawyer, Derrick Hogan, in court papers requested a term of probation. They said he never tried to transmit any of the photographs and took them out of a desire to someday show his family what he did while he was in the Navy. Hogan did not respond to a request for comment. Saucier, who is currently enlisted in the Navy as a petty officer first class assigned to the Naval Support Activity Base in Saratoga Springs, New York, is awaiting an administrative separation board proceeding, prosecutors said. (Reporting by Nate Raymond in New York; Editing by Sandra Maler)
The Great Plains Conference of the United Methodist Church is collecting donations to help those in Louisiana hit by devastating flooding.

Officials are putting together flood-bucket kits that help victims start to repair the damage once the water recedes. Each 5-gallon bucket has a resealable lid and includes the following.

* One 50-ounce bottle or two 25-ounce bottles of liquid laundry detergent.

* A 12- to 16-ounce bottle of liquid cleaner that can be mixed with water (no spray cleaners).

* A 16- to 28-ounce bottle of dish soap.

* One can of aerosol or pump air freshener.

* A 6- to 14-ounce aerosol or spray pump of insect repellent.

* One scrub brush with a plastic or wooden handle.

* Eighteen cleaning wipes (no terry-cloth towels).

* Seven non-cellulose sponges.

* Five scouring pads (nothing with soap built in).

* Fifty clothespins.

* One 100-foot or two 50-foot cotton or plastic clotheslines.

* A 24-roll of heavy-duty trash bags, 33 to 45 gallons of capacity.

* Five dust masks.

* Two pairs of dishwashing gloves (durable enough for multiple uses).

* One pair of work gloves with either a leather palm or all leather.

Details about how to pack the bucket for easy transport can be found on the United Methodist Committee on Relief website at www.umcor.org.

Assembled buckets can be delivered to the Great Plains United Methodist Church Conference office, 3333 Landmark Circle, by Sept. 9.

The conferences disaster relief team will deliver the buckets to Louisiana.

Financial donations are also encouraged.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon on Friday described its advisory support to Saudi Arabia's coalition campaign in Yemen as modest and "not a blank check," after a Reuters report disclosed it had withdrawn its military personnel from an advisory cell in the kingdom. "Even as we assist the Saudis regarding their territorial integrity, it does not mean that we will refrain from expressing our concern about the war in Yemen and how it has been waged," spokesman Adam Stump said. "In our discussions with the Saudi-led coalition, we have pressed the need to minimize civilian casualties." (Reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by Sandra Maler)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Justice and State Department officials will fly to Ankara to discuss government accusations against Fethullah Gulen, the exiled cleric Turkey accuses of masterminding a failed military coup, according to a Justice Department official. President Tayyip Erdogan has demanded the United States extradite Gulen, who lives in Pennsylvania, over the July putsch in which more than 200 people, including civilians, were killed. Turkish officials have suggested refusal to repatriate Gulen for trial would seriously strain ties between the two NATO allies. Gulen, described by Erdogan as a terrorist, denies any involvement in the coup attempt, which has led to large-scale purges of the military, civil service, judiciary and academia. "U.S officials, including representatives of the Departments of Justice and State, have offered to consult with the Turkish government," the Justice Department official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "We can confirm that a delegation (with) representatives of the Department of Justice and State will visit Turkey," the official added, but declined to give any date for the visit. On Friday, Bloomberg news reported that the U.S. Justice Department would dispatch a team to Turkey in the coming days to pursue the allegations. (Reporting by Julia Edwards; editing by Ralph Boulton)
By Phil Stewart WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military has withdrawn from Saudi Arabia its personnel who were coordinating with the Saudi-led air campaign in Yemen, and sharply reduced the number of staff elsewhere who were assisting in that planning, U.S. officials told Reuters. Fewer than five U.S. service people are now assigned full-time to the "Joint Combined Planning Cell," which was established last year to coordinate U.S. support, including air-to-air refueling of coalition jets and limited intelligence-sharing, Lieutenant Ian McConnaughey, a U.S. Navy spokesman in Bahrain, told Reuters. That is down from a peak of about 45 staff members who were dedicated to the effort full-time in Riyadh and elsewhere, he said. The June staff withdrawal, which U.S. officials say followed a lull in air strikes in Yemen earlier this year, reduces Washington's day-to-day involvement in advising a campaign that has come under increasing scrutiny for causing civilian casualties. A Pentagon statement issued after Reuters disclosed the withdrawal acknowledged that the JCPC, as originally conceived, had been "largely shelved" and that ongoing support was limited, despite renewed fighting this summer. "The cooperation that we've extended to Saudi Arabia since the conflict escalated again is modest and it is not a blank check," Pentagon spokesman Adam Stump said in a statement. U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the reduced staffing was not due to the growing international outcry over civilian casualties in the 16-month civil war that has killed more than 6,500 people in Yemen, about half of them civilians. But the Pentagon, in some of its strongest language yet, also acknowledged concerns about the conflict, which has brought Yemen close to famine and cost more than $14 billion in damage to infrastructure and economic losses. "Even as we assist the Saudis regarding their territorial integrity, it does not mean that we will refrain from expressing our concern about the war in Yemen and how it has been waged," Stump said. "In our discussions with the Saudi-led coalition, we have pressed the need to minimize civilian casualties." A spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, Brigadier General Ahmed al-Asseri, declined to confirm details about the positioning of U.S. military personnel, but played down such moves. "The relationship between the kingdom and the U.S. is a strategic one. If true, this move reflects something at a tactical level," Asseri told Reuters. "The U.S. may move its assets, but that doesn't have any impact on the bilateral relationship between the countries." HOSPITAL STRIKE Since the campaign began, the U.S. military has conducted an average of two refueling sorties every day and provided limited intelligence support to the coalition. That assistance continues, officials said. Still, the Pentagon has long distanced itself from the Saudi-led coalition's decisions on targeting. "At no point did U.S. military personnel provide direct or implicit approval of target selection or prosecution," Stump said. The JCPC had also largely wrapped up an earlier effort to advise the Saudi-led coalition on steps to prevent civilian casualties, the Pentagon said. An annual U.N. report on children and armed conflict said the Saudi-led coalition was responsible for 60 percent of child deaths and injuries in Yemen last year. Saudi Arabia has said the report is based on inaccurate information. On Tuesday, a coalition air strike hit a hospital operated by medical aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres in Yemen, killing 19 people and prompting the group to evacuate staff from six hospitals. MSF cited a "loss of confidence in the Saudi-led coalition to prevent fatal attacks." U.S. Representative Ted Lieu, a Democrat from California and a colonel in the Air Force Reserve, said he believed such strikes could help galvanize votes for limiting arms transfers to Saudi Arabia. "When its repeated air strikes that have now killed children, doctors, newlyweds, patients, at some point you just have to say: Either Saudi Arabia is not listening to the United States or they just don't care," Lieu said. (Additional reporting by Yara Bayoumy in Washington, Katie Paul in Riyadh and Michelle Nichols in New York; Editing by John Walcott, Alistair Bell and Bernard Orr)
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mosquito spraying zika

After months of watching Zika infect thousands of people throughout Brazil and then much of Latin America, the virus is now being spread by mosquitoes on the US mainland.

So far, local transmission of Zika has been limited to part of the Wynwood neighborhood in Miami and a 1.5 square mile swath of Miami Beach. And while there will certainly be more cases in the continental US, there's at least one reason to believe that Zika won't become endemic here the way it has elsewhere: We've actually been through this before.

While Zika is new to North Americans, viruses spread by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are not. In fact, dengue virus  which usually causes mild symptoms like headaches and joint pain but can also (rarely) lead to internal bleeding, difficulty breathing, and death  has popped up on the US mainland for hundreds of years.

Since it spreads just like Zika does (not only via the A. aegypti mosquito but by A. albopictus too a possibility for Zika as well), it's instructive to look at how the more established virus has spread on the US mainland versus other countries, particularly in Latin America.

The good news, as Dr. Marc Siegel also noted in Slate, is that this history should actually help quell panic on the US mainland (while we focus our efforts on countries where the risk is greater). "We've fought the battle against [Zika's] host, the Aedes aegypti mosquito, before. Many times, in fact," Siegel wrote. "We've always come out on top."

mosquito Aedes aegypti zika

Story continues

A model for the spread of Zika?

Dengue, "the most common and fastest-spreading mosquito-borne virus in the world," infected 3.2 million people around the world last year, including many throughout the Americas.

While dengue is most severe in developing countries, its history on the US mainland is long, as researchers detailed in a paper in the journal Public Health Reports.

The first report of a "dengue-like outbreak" here was in Philadelphia, four years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, dengue outbreaks with thousands of cases were reported in southern states every few years. But after World War II, efforts to eradicate yellow fever, which is also spread by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, changed that.

Between 1945 and the 1980s, there were only sporadic dengue outbreaks in the US, generally near the Mexican border. Then, as now, the vast majority of cases diagnosed in the US were imported from other countries, not acquired here, suggesting that dengue has not set up permanent shop in our mosquito population.

Today, however, dengue is on the rise around the world.

dengue map

In 2009, the CDC announced that a doctor had discovered a case of locally acquired dengue in Key West, Florida. It was the state's first locally acquired case since 1934. Ultimately, 65 cases of dengue were discovered nearby, and the CDC estimated that the infection rate in the Key West area was 5%  no small thing. But that outbreak was contained.

In the past 20 years, there have also been dengue outbreaks in Hawaii and Texas. Last year's dengue outbreak on the Big Island in Hawaii, in which there were 264 confirmed cases, was the largest in the US in decades. Yet that was also contained within months. By April, the Hawaii Department of Public Health said that no one on the island was infectious.

So far, in 2016, 302 cases of dengue have been reported in North America, compared to 1.7 million throughout the rest of the Americas. The virus has not become widespread on the US mainland the way it is in Puerto Rico and in many countries in Central America, South America, and the Caribbean.

That's in large part because our highly developed public health system has learned, over many decades, exactly how to contain the fearsome little beasts that spread these viruses: by ridding communities of standing water (where mosquitoes like to breed) and spraying insecticides widely. People who live in the US are also lucky to be in a country where both window screens and air conditioning are very common, helping to keep mosquitoes away.

We can't be certain, but given that dengue and Zika are spread in the same way, we can expect that Zika's impact on the US mainland will be similar to dengue's. That means we will most likely see pockets of locally-acquired Zika cases in the Gulf states and occasional outbreaks, but not the same kind of widespread epidemic that's happening in places like Brazil.

Mosquitoes are among humanity's greatest foes, leaving a trail of death and destruction in their wake. That problem is far from solved. But most Americans should worry more about mosquito-borne illnesses around the world, not here at home, where we're prepared to win this battle  as we have before.

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Riyadh (AFP) - The US military has slashed the number of intelligence advisers directly supporting the Saudi-led coalition's air war in Yemen, the US Navy said Saturday, following concerns over civilian casualties.

The reassignment of personnel, around June, came because "there was not the same sort of requests coming in for assistance", Fifth Fleet spokesman Lieutenant Ian McConnaughey told AFP from its base in Bahrain.

Saudi Arabia has faced repeated criticism from rights groups over civilian casualties in its 17-month campaign against rebels in Yemen.

US officials have regularly urged their major Middle East ally to avoid harming non-combatants.

But McConnaughey said the US reassignment of personnel does not affect their ability to support the Saudis and is more efficient.

"That's the main reason behind it, and it's based on the amount of requests that we receive from the Saudis."

He said the United States now has "a limited number, less than five, that are working directly on the advisory cell that we have here" in Bahrain.

That number is down from about 45, in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, at its peak.

"If the need arises," the team directly assigned to coalition cooperation could be increased, he said.

The joint cell was established around the start of coalition operations in March last year, McConnaughey said.

- 'Repeated violations' -

The Arab coalition began air raids and later sent in ground forces to support the internationally recognised government of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi after Shiite Huthi rebels and their allies overran much of Yemen.

Saudi Arabia says the rebels are backed by its Shiite regional rival Iran.

The coalition has told AFP it uses highly accurate laser- and GPS-guided weapons -- many supplied by the US -- and verifies targets many times to avoid civilian casualties.

Yet allegations of strikes on civilian facilities have continued.

Human Rights Watch said Friday that US Secretary of State John Kerry should raise concerns with Riyadh about "repeated violations of the laws of war by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen that have killed many civilians".

Story continues

Paris-based Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has accused the coalition of "indiscriminate bombings" and said it had lost confidence in the alliance's ability to prevent fatal attacks on its premises.

A US Defence Department spokesman said Saturday Washington's support for the coalition was not a "blank check".

"The cooperation that we've extended to Saudi Arabia since the conflict escalated again is modest and it is not a blank check," Adam Stump said.

"At no point did US military personnel provide direct or implicit approval of target selection."

The coalition stepped up air strikes this month after UN-mediated peace talks between the rebels and the internationally backed government were suspended.

The rebels have retaliated with cross-border attacks.

Rockets fired into the southern Saudi city of Najran on Saturday killed a civilian, the kingdom's civil defence agency said.

- Huge demonstration -

Seven civilians were killed in shelling in the same city last Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the rebel-controlled Saba news agency reported three civilians killed in a coalition raid on Saturday near the Huthi-held capital Sanaa.

It also said there was a huge demonstration in Sanaa in support of the rebels and their allies, forces loyal to ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

It called the demonstration "the most imposing in the history of Yemen" and said millions of people attended, a figure difficult to verify independently.

Protesters chanted slogans in favour of a new council appointed by the rebels and their allies to run the country.

Salah al-Sammad, head of the council, called on the international community to "respect the will of the Yemeni people".

MSF decided to withdraw staff from six hospitals in Yemen after 19 people died in an air raid last Monday on a hospital it supported in the rebel-held northern province of Hajja.

That was the fourth and deadliest attack yet on an MSF facility during the war, the charity said.

US State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau expressed deep concern after reports of the hospital strike.

A coalition team is conducting "independent" probes into the strike and an air raid two days earlier on a Koranic school that MSF said killed 10 children.

McConnaughey said US cooperation with Saudi Arabia mostly involves "imagery that allows them to better assess the situation on the ground, and then advice and assistance".

The Fifth Fleet spokesman said intelligence is still being provided to the Saudis who are the ultimate decision-makers.

"The final decision on targets is up to them," he said.
Washington (AFP) - US Vice President Joe Biden and Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko in a phonecall urged a speedy resolution to the conflict with pro-Russian separatists amid a spike in tensions with Moscow, the White House said.

Biden and Poroshenko "expressed concern over the recent surge in fighting in eastern Ukraine, where ceasefire violations by combined Russian-separatist forces are at their highest levels since 2015, often using heavy weapons", the White House statement read.

Kiev and the West accuse Russia of supporting the separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine and deploying troops across the border -- claims Moscow denies.

Biden and Poroshenko "reiterated the need for a political and diplomatic resolution of the conflict through full implementation of the Minsk agreements by all parties," the statement added.

The Minsk accord, signed in February 2015 with French and German mediation and in the presence of President Vladimir Putin, calls for a ceasefire along with a range of political, economic and social measures to end the conflict.

Biden told Poroshenko that US officials "had sent a message to Russia that the world is watching and underscored the need to deescalate the situation."

He also urged Ukraine to show restraint.

Poroshenko on Thursday said he could not rule out a "full-scale" Russian invasion as violence raged in the east, amid accusations that Russia is building up its military force in the region.

The Pentagon on Friday said that the extra Russian troops along the border were associated with a regular military exercise.

Poroshenko's claim came after Russian President Vladimir Putin lashed out last week at Kiev over an incident on the frontier between Crimea, which Moscow annexed in March 2014, and Ukraine, accusing it of "practicing terror".

Two Russian officers were killed in the incident, in which Ukraine denied any involvement.

Putin on Friday visited Crimea to boost security measures there. It was his fifth visit to the Black Sea peninsula since annexing it from Ukraine.

Separately, Biden and Poroshenko discussed conditions set by the International Monetary Fund for disbursing the next tranche of much-needed financial assistance, the White House said.

They also "agreed on the importance of recent Ukrainian efforts to continue critical anti-corruption reforms", the statement said.
When the bulldozers are done in a couple of weeks, nothing will remain of the five houses near 48th and Holdrege, or the corner gas station, the hardware store and the once-beloved Tastee Inn and Out.

But the restaurants stylish sign -- with nearly 400 light bulbs and enough neon to require its own electrical meter -- might make a comeback.

The developers planning to fill the block with a five-story apartment building have removed the sign, stashed it in storage and will likely restore it.

Theyre working on ways to incorporate it in the buildings design, said Don Linscott, president of Greenleaf Properties, which is helping develop Square at 48th Street for Schafer Richardson Inc. of Minneapolis.

After Tastee Inn closed more than two years ago, former owner Steve Murphy shopped the sign around and found potential buyers in Atlanta, New Mexico and here in Lincoln.

But in the end, the sign sold with the property.

Murphy lives in Arizona now, and he had heard the sign might be resurrected in the new buildings atrium. But Linscott said those details havent yet been decided.

This week, crews were removing any lead paint and asbestos from the blocks eight buildings. Demolition workers will move in after that, and the area should be scraped clean in the next two weeks or so, Linscott said.

Developers are planning 20,000 square feet of retail space on the first floor, and 98 apartments on the second through fifth floors.
Caracas (AFP) - Venezuela's Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez on Saturday condemned what she called "bold threats" from her Paraguayan counterpart after he announced a "total freezing of relations."

Paraguayan Foreign Minister Eladio Loizaga announced on Friday that he would not return to Caracas indefinitely over what he called "rants" by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

"Venezuela will not allow itself to be threatened or succumb to the fear from those who choose to serve the empire rather than the people," Rodriguez tweeted in response. "(Loizaga's) bold threats... insult our heritage of independence and freedom."

Earlier this month, Maduro said Venezuela was being "persecuted" by "a corrupt Paraguayan oligarch and drug trafficker," referring to Paraguayan President Horacio Cartes.

Venezuela  in political and economic crisis, facing severe shortages of basic goods  has come under fire from its Latin American neighbors for allegedly failing to comply with the region's Democratic Charter, a binding document.

Earlier this week, Brazil accused Maduro of imposing an "authoritarian" regime on his country.

A group of 15 countries from the Organization of American States on Thursday called on Venezuela to act "without delay" to clear the way for an election over whether to recall Maduro from office as a way out of its mounting crisis.
Donald Trumps brash statements this presidential season has turned heads with every rally stop he makes across the country, but a recent speech has presumably rubbed a whole demographic of voters the wrong way.

While conducting an appearance at a rally in Dimondale, Mich., the GOP nominee laid out the absurd reasons why African American voters should cast their ballot for him in November.

What do you have to lose by trying something new, like Trump? he questioned. Youre living in poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs, 58 percent of your youth is unemployed, what the hell do you have to lose?

He previously stated that Democratic presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton, panders to and talks to communities of color and sees them only as votes, and said that hell produce the inner cities and I will produce for the African Americans.

Clinton didnt waste any time when she was notified of Trumps offensive remarks, and tweeted, This is so ignorant its staggering.

This is so ignorant its staggering. https://t.co/t2fZl9sqKs  Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) August 19, 2016

Earlier this year, Trump nominated former Celebrity Apprentice member Omarosa Manigault as Director of African-American Outreach, which was also met with dismay from the masses.

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One of the biggest criticisms that former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh received throughout his tenure, was his reluctance to take a stand and speak on issues that the country was facing. Narendra Modi, on the other hand, stormed into power, largely on the basis of his oratory skills and views, which came as a much needed change. But, over the recent past, PM Modi has also been criticised for not being vocal enough on a lot of problems that are plaguing the country. And, it has been after much protests from the opposition parties and the general public, that Modi has broken his silence on various issues. We take look at what Modi has said on some of the controversies and crimes that have taken place over the recent past:

On the Dadri lynching: One of the sharpest criticisms that PM Narendra Modi received was on his long silence over the lynching of Mohammed Iqlakh for suspected beef consumption, and the tension that flared post that, in 2015. He finally broke his silence, and, at an election rally in Nawada, Bihar, Modi said, Hindus should decide whether to fight Muslims or poverty. Muslims have to decide whether to fight Hindus or poverty. Both need to fight poverty together. The country has to stay united. Unity, communal harmony and brotherhood will take the nation forward. His remarks, though, were met with further criticism, with former J&K Chief Minister tweeting that there was no outright condemnation of the lynching.

On controversial statements by politicians: A number of politicians such as Sakshi Maharaj, Yogi Adityanath and Sangeet Som from the BJP, Samajwadi Partys Azam Khan, AIMM leader Asaduddin Owaisi, and many others, have been regularly making controversial statements which have caused public uproar. With increasing pressure to denounce them, at the Nawada rally, Modi urged people to not pay heed to such statements. Some politicians are making irresponsible statements for political interests Such statements should end Do not pay attention to such statements, even if Modi himself makes any such statement," he said.

On the Kashmir unrest: It was after Jammu and Kashmir chief minister, Mehbooba Mufti Sayeed appealed for PM Modis intervention that he addressed the Kashmir unrest. At a public meeting in Madhya Pradesh, he said, Insaniyat(Humanity), Kashmiriyat (Kashmiri values) and Jamooriyat(democracy) are the way forward. Freedom experienced by every Indian is also for every Kashmiri. Peace, unity and social harmony are the way forward. However, he was criticised for taking a long time to address the Kashmir unrest. Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad commented at the Rajya Sabha about how PM Modi tweets about events that happen across the world, and in countries in Africa, but does not address the issue at home. He also criticised Modi for choosing to speak about such an important issue while in Madhya Pradesh, rather than in the Parliament.

On the attacks on Dalit: With the growing incidents of attacks on Dalits across the country, PM Modi came down heavily while addressing a party meeting in Hyderabad. He said, "If you want to attack, attack me, not dalits. If you want to shoot, shoot me. Modi had chosen Hyderabad to address the issue, as the suicide of Dalit research scholar, Rohit Vemula, at the University of Hyderabad, had caused widespread unrest and protests across the country.

On gau rakshaks: PM Modi was scathing on his remark about vigilantes who have been attacking people in the name of protecting cows. At the Townhall event to mark two years of MyGov initiative, Modi had condemned the handful of opportunistic people who in the name of cow protection are poisoning social harmony, terming them anti-social. He had mentioned that such people constituted 80 percent of gau rakshaks in the country. While the RSS initially appeared to endorse his remarks, asking people to expose cow vigilantes, it later backtracked and said that Modi should have avoided using a definite number. VHP leader Pravin Togadia demanded that PM Modi retract his statement about 80 percent gau rakshaks being anti social elements.

On Raghuram Rajan and Subramaniam Swamy: Disapproving of the slew of attacks that RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan was subjected too, especially by BJP Rajya Sabha MP, Subramanian Swamy, who wrote a letter to the PM where he said that Swamy was mentally not fully India, PM Modi had stated that the attacks on Rajan were unjust, and that he was as patriotic as any of us. He also rapped Swamy, in an interview, stating that, Such things are inappropriate the nation wont benefit from such publicity stunts anyone who believes he is bigger than the system is wrong.

On Pakistan: PM Modi was lauded for his decision to highlight the human rights situation in PoK, Gilgit and Balochistan province over which Pakistan has laid claim. This aggressive stance was a marked shift in foreign policy and showed a much more aggressive stand by the Government on Pakistans intervention in the Indian affairs. In his Independence Day speech at the Red Fort, Modi had said, "I want to place two pictures before the world .. and I say to the world, there are those who believe in humanity and others who glorify terrorists, please weigh these two scenes, he said."When innocent people are killed in violent acts of terrorism (in India), there are celebrations (in Pakistan). What kind of a government that is inspired by terrorism (is this), this is what the world needs to see and evaluate.
The wintry white wilderness of Antarctica stretches as far as the eye can seea seemingly unending expanse of icebergs and glaciers. Yet emperor penguins are not the only ones to set up camp in the vast outback. After completing a grueling ski trip several years ago, Patrick Woodhead was inspired to create Antarcticas first luxury camp: White Desert. The aptly named luxury camp, which Woodhead formed along with his wife, Robyn, is the only one of its kind on the continent and recently underwent a refurbishment in honor of its 10th anniversary.

The domed fiberglass sleeping pods, which provide guests with sumptuous, heated accommodations, have been outfitted with en suite bathrooms. The camps newly renovated dining room includes a round oak table encircled by fur chairs. And a bespoke lounge with a library and bar has been added to the property.

During their stay, adventurers can partake in such escapades as rappelling into glacial crevasses, rock climbing, and exploring mazes of blue-ice grottos. The Emperors and South Pole adventure, offered four times a year during the months of November and December, allows a group of 12 to embark on an 8-day excursion. Highlights include seeing newly hatched emperor penguins, exploring the South Pole, and visiting the United States Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station.

To further mark its 10th anniversary, White Desert partnered with Bremont watches to create an exclusive South Pole timepiece. Available only to those who visit its namesake point, the timepiece will be equipped with a 90-degree dial, a map of Antarctica, and an engraving of the date on which its respective owner visited the southern end of the worlds axis. (white-desert.com)

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The world's largest aircraft, the Airlander, took its maiden flight at Cardington airfield north of London on Wednesday.

Airlander is part blimp, part helicopter and part airplane. The aircraft was originally conceived for use by the U.S. military, but British aviation firm Hybrid Air Vehicles took on the project after the U.S. scrapped it in 2013.

Now, Airlanderpotentially a low-carbon option for flight, despite the many challenges and limitations of blimp flightis closer to real-world use.

Wednesday's flight was just the beginning of testing of the Airlander: The test program will continue for months.

According to Hybrid Air Vehicles, Airlander can travel up to 90 miles per hour, reach heights of 16,000 feet (commercial jets frequently travel around 35,000 feet), and stay in the sky for two weeks. (A cruise in the sky, anyone?)

Medal winning performance? First flight of world's largest aircraft today created by British company #teamgb pic.twitter.com/dkJWULPU12

 Hybrid Air Vehicles (@AirVehicles) August 17, 2016

Videos from the test flight reveal the humming of Airlander as it oh-so-gently maneuvers overhead. The aircraftfilled will heliumis more floating marshmallow man than speed racer.

De Airlander, het grootste vliegtuig ter wereld, heeft een eerste testvlucht gemaakt boven Engeland #airlander #vliegtuig #plane #aviation

A video posted by AD.nl (@ad_nl) on Aug 18, 2016 at 3:19am PDT

The #airlander has just taken it's first flight.... Lives right at the top of my road

A video posted by Hannah Bavington (@mrsbavington_sw) on Aug 17, 2016 at 12:17pm PDT

It was privilege to fly the Airlander for the first time and it flew wonderfully, Chief Test Pilot Dave Burns, one of two to test the aircraft, said in a statement. It flew like a dream.

Cardington is a fitting home base for Airlander: The airfield is where Britain built airships around World War I, according to Fox News.

The world's largest aircraft has taken its maiden voyage. It's nicknamed The Flying Bum! Would you fly in it??? #Airlander #HeartBreakfast

Story continues

A photo posted by Heart London (@heartlondon) on Aug 17, 2016 at 9:52pm PDT

So the flying bum finally flies! #airlander #bumsaway Photo  Hybrid Air Vehicles #ukaviation

A photo posted by Jonny (@steerwithmyrear) on Aug 17, 2016 at 2:07pm PDT
El Chapo Guzman fake escape story prison photo

A little over three months after arriving at a prison near the US border, Sinaloa cartel kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman is to be sent back to Altiplano prison in central Mexico, where he pulled off a brazen escape in July 2015.

A federal judge in Mexico's Chihuahua state ruled on August 17 that prison officials had transferred Guzman in May without authorization.

The decision came in response to injunction 384/2016, filed by Guzman's legal team. Guzman was jailed at Altiplano after he was recaptured in January this year.

Guzman was suddenly transferred in the early hours of May 7 from Altiplano to Cefereso No. 9, a prison just outside Ciudad Juarez, which is across the border from El Paso. The move was allegedly made because a power outage at Altiplano stoked fears that the drug lord was plotting another escape.

But the short notice of the transfer and the distance of Cefereso No. 9 from Guzman's legal team prompted protests, with Guzman himself saying he wanted to go back to Altiplano. "He asked us that we would file an injunction to return him to Altiplano," said Jose Refugio Rodriguez, one of Guzman's lawyers.

According to Rodriguez, granting the injunction declares null the transfer orders, "and, as a consequence of that, he will return to Altiplano."

El Chapo Guzman lawyer trial plead case

"If they insist on the attitude of wanting a change of prison, they should present a request before a judge," said Refugio Rodriguez, who argued that federal penitentiary authorities did not have have the authority or the autonomy to move defendants freely.

While Guzman's legal team was confident the transfer would be soon, the Mexican government could delay the move for weeks or months.

Federal authorities can still request a review of the judge's decision by another tribunal, which could delay a ruling that would finalize the matter for at least two months.

Story continues

"They still haven't told us the date [of the move], for reasons of security, but already there is movement in Ciudad Juarez, it can be at any moment," Rodriguez said.

According to El Universal, since August 15, airplanes and helicopters belonging to the federal government have appeared at Ciudad Juarez's international airport, and the roads connecting the airport to Cefereso No. 9 have been patrolled by personnel from the Mexican army and federal police.

The facility was already guarded by hundreds of agents deployed after Guzman's transfer there.

Cefereso No. 9 Mexico prison el chapo guzman Ciudad Juarez

The transfer order comes at an inopportune moment for the Mexican government. While the increased security presence around Cefereso No. 9 may be related to an impending transfer, it's also reportedly tied to the recent kidnapping of one of Guzman's sons in Puerto Vallarta by the Jalisco New Generation cartel (CJNG).

The kidnapping has raised concern that Guzman's Sinaloa cartel and the CJNG  Mexico's most powerful cartels  are in conflict. If the cartels are warring, then Guzman's transfer would no doubt present a target for the CJNG, which has in the past downed an army helicopter and ambushed federal police.

In a separate event earlier this week, Leonor Garcia, the former security director at Altiplano prison, who was arrested with many others in the wake of Guzman's July 2015 escape, was released on orders of a Mexican court.

Investigations after the breakout found security protocols weren't followed, and the Mexican attorney general's office has said it would consider whether to refile charges against Garcia.

NOW WATCH: 1 YEAR LATER: Heres what may come next for 'El Chapo' Guzman





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AJ STYLES PIC

This Sunday, WWE returns to Barclays Center in Brooklyn for Summerslam, one of the company's biggest pay-per-view events of the year.



One of the show's most anticipated matches will be the company's most popular superstar John Cena taking on AJ Styles, the 39 year-old industry veteran who signed with WWE in January.



Last year at Summerslam, Cena's match was interrupted by former "Daily Show" host Jon Stewart, who shocked the crowd when he assaulted Cena with a folding chair, allowing Seth Rollins to win the match.



WWE already announced that Stewart will be a part of the show on Sunday, which suggests that he could potentially play a part in another match. I got a chance to talk to AJ Styles on the phone ahead of his match with Cena on at Summerslam, and I asked if he knew of any plans Stewart might have to interfere with Cena for the second year in a row.



"I don't know the guy," Styles said of Stewart. "And hopefully he doesn't stick his nose where it doesn't belong, because I've got business to take care of."



We'll have to wait and see if Stewart's role in the show will impact Cena, who got even with Stewart after Summerslam on the next night's episode of "Monday Night Raw" when he hit the comedian with his "Attitude Adjustment" finishing move.



Along his upcoming match at Summerslam, I spoke to Styles about many other topics, including the differences between Japanese and American wrestling fans, how he deals with the real pain suffered from in-ring combat, and what WWE chairman Vince McMahon is like in real life.



Listen to my entire interview with AJ Styles here:





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YAS! We are this much closer to cheaper tampons across the country!

YAS! We are this much closer to cheaper tampons across the country!

Mere weeks ago, we excitedly told you that New York had officially signed the bill eliminating their states tampon tax into law  and it looks like one more state may be throwing out the economically unjust tax, too.

Yesterday, the California senate passed a bill that will get rid of any taxes on menstrual hygiene products.

#AB1561 made it through the Senate floor today! The bill will come back to the Assembly one more time before it goes to the Governor's desk! We are one step closer to axing the #tampontax in #California. A video posted by Assemblymember Garcia (@asmgarcia) on Aug 18, 2016 at 3:07pm PDT

In June, the Assembly bill passed unanimously. Now that it has made it through the senate, the bill returns to the Assembly once more, before it heads to the office of Governor Jerry Brown  who then decides whether or not to sign the bill into law.

Assemblywomen Cristina Garcia and Ling Ling Chang first brought the legislation to the Assembly, and argue against the fact that products such as Rogaine, ChapStick, and sometimes even Viagra are not taxed  while tampons and pads are taxed. Apparently, in the eyes of most states, menstrual hygiene products are luxury items  not medical necessities.

Im sure then folks wont mind if we start free-bleeding at work and school, right?

After New York eliminated their tampon tax, the number of states still imposing the tax dropped down to 39. Hopefully, California will drop the number to 38.

Story continues

Additionally, as reported by the Huffington Post

At this rate, we may finally have a nation free of tampon taxes sooner rather than later.

The post YAS! We are this much closer to cheaper tampons across the country! appeared first on HelloGiggles.
LUSAKA (Reuters) - Zambia's main opposition leader filed a court petition on Friday challenging President Edgar Lungu's re-election at the helm of Africa's second-largest copper producer, saying the vote was rigged. The southern African nation's economy is buckling under weakened commodity prices, mine closures, rising unemployment, power shortages and soaring food prices that Lungu's rival, Hakainde Hichilema, blames on the current administration. "We have filed the petition. We are asking for the nullification of the election," Gilbert Phiri, a lawyer for Hichilema's United Party for National Development (UPND), told reporters. Lungu and the electoral commission, an independent state agency set up by the constitution, who are among the respondents named in the petition, have rejected Hichilema's accusation that fraud discredited the Aug. 11 vote. Lungu's inauguration has been postponed because a rule introduced in January says the winner of a presidential vote cannot be sworn in if the vote is contested in a court, which will have two weeks to decide on such a petition. In the petition, Hichilema, an economist and businessman and an old rival of Lungu, says that the president did not win the election legally as he failed to score more than the number of votes required to be declared the winner. To win, a presidential candidate must garner 50 percent of the valid votes cast plus at least one additional vote. "The first respondent did not receive more than 50 percent of the total votes cast. The voter register was not credible and its non-availability before the elections compromised the transparency of the electoral process," the petition says. In the petition, Hichilema demanded a recount, verification and scrutiny of the votes cast at the general election to ascertain the real winner. He also says in the petition that the number of ballots cast in favour of Lungu was inflated by fake, pre-marked ballots, and asked that the court nullify Lungu's victory. Lungu won 50.35 percent of the vote against 47.63 percent for Hichilema, according to the electoral commission. (Reporting by Chris Mfula; writing by James Macharia; editing by Mark Heinrich)
Overwatch has been a surprise hit for Blizzard, a game company much better known for World of Warcraft, not a team shooter. But while Overwatch has been out for months now, Mac owners have been left out of the fun.

But as it turns out, it's not that hard to play Overwatch on OS X. All you need is a little time and some clever software.

DON'T MISS: Here's every single leaked photo of the iPhone 7

Parallels is a virtual machine software that lets you run Windows apps on OS X. It's been around as a tool for programmers and engineers who need a specific bit of software forever, but with the latest release of Parallels 12, it's becoming more consumer-friendly than ever. Parallels worked with Blizzard to make sure that Overwatch will work just fine in Parallels 12, which means that anyone with a capable enough Mac should now be able to play.

The key difference between Parallels and Apple's Boot Camp system is convenience. To use Boot Camp, you have to reboot your Mac and start it up with Windows. Parallels just lets you run Windows apps side-by-side in the OS X environment, without having to restart anything.

You can use Parallels on pretty much any Macbook. The minimum requirements are a Core 2 Duo processor and 2GB of RAM, so any laptop made in the last five years should at least meet that. Installation is pretty simple, although you will need a Windows product key. Once you've installed Parallels, you can just install Overwatch (and the client application Battle.net) as you would any other Windows program. Overwatch can then be started from the Windows Application Folder, something that Parallels creates within the OS X dock.

Of course, to run Overwatch, you're going to need much more than just the minimum Parallels requirements. It's a graphically and processor-intensive game, so you're best off with a computer with a discrete graphics card. That limits you to the bigger Macbook Pros, the 27-inch iMacs, or of course, a Mac Pro. (Insert joke about just selling your computer and building a Windows desktop here.)

Story continues

If you're still running into framerate issues, you can try turning down the screen resolution, as trying to drive a Retina display on a graphically intensive game is never easy.

As long as the list of caveats above hasn't put you off, Parallels 12 is available for existing Parallels 10 or 11 customers as a $50 upgrade. For first-time users, Parallels 12 will be available on August 23rd for $80. No one said gaming was cheap.

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The Nebraska Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from a woman convicted of helping her brother with one of four killings he committed in Omaha.

Erica Jenkins was sentenced to life in prison last year for first-degree murder in the shooting death of Curtis Bradford. Her brother, Nikko Jenkins, was convicted of first-degree murder for killing Bradford and three other people over a 10-day period in August 2013, within weeks of leaving prison. Authorities said the siblings shot Bradford after luring him out on the pretense of committing a robbery.

In her appeal, Erica Jenkins had said, among other things, that the trial judge admitted improper evidence. She also said there wasn't enough evidence to support her conviction.

The high court disagreed in a ruling issued Friday.
Thomas Perkins Kennard is well known for many things, including writing his political partys first platform calling for womens right to vote and abolishing the death penalty. He also wrote the senate bill which created the Capital Commission, was the first Secretary of State for Nebraska, has been called the father of the city of Lincoln and built what is generally accepted as being the oldest extant house in the city.

Kennard also was interested in various businesses and real estate, with one of his favorite enterprises being Western Glass & Paint Co.

While working primarily as an attorney and real estate developer, Kennard formed Kennard & Riggs Drug Store with his son-in-law James E. Riggs at 117 N. 11th St. with a side in paints and oils. Although himself not a pharmacist, he was elected president of the State Board of Pharmacy. In 1889 the drug store partnership was dissolved, and, with his son Alva, he built the extant Kennard Building at 446 S. 10th St. The same year, while Riggs opened a new drug store in his own name at 1146 O St., Kennard established Standard Paint & Glass in the 300 block of South 12th Street. Within a year the retail store's name changed to Western Glass & Paint and switched from retail to wholesale sales.

The following year Thomas and Alva built a two-story brick building on South 12th between L and M streets as a combination business site and apartment block which would later become the headquarters of William Jennings Bryans Commoner newspaper.

In 1891 Western Glass & Paint incorporated with a $50,000 capitalization with Riggs as vice president, a title he maintained only briefly, ending when he divorced Kennards daughter. The first year of incorporation the company announced they were agents for the locally manufactured Lincoln Paint & Color Co. and reported sales of an astounding $150,000. Their ads stated their offices and warehouse occupied two floors of the 46-by-90-foot building, employed seven clerks plus traveling salesmen and imported glass from France, Germany and England.

Within a short time, Western Glass & Paint outgrew its building and built a new structure to the north, which later became the Lincoln Star, then Back-to-the-Bible and today is an office building. By 1894 Western Glass & Paint had opened branches in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho Territory and claimed themselves to be the largest exclusive glass and paint jobbing house west of Chicago."

In 1911, George Holden, Kennards daughters second husband, assumed the presidency and within a few years opened a retail store at 12th and M while the wholesale offices occupied the portion of the building south at 317 S. 12th St.

Lincoln Paint & Colors two-story building at Eighth and M caught fire in June 1919, perhaps a cautionary tale for Western Glass & Paint. As burning paint oils floated on the surface of the water used by the fire department, flames were carried to nearby buildings making the conflagration a challenge to firefighters.

Early in 1920 Kennards health began to fail and on June 24 he died at his home. The day before his death a druggist across the street from the 12th and M paint store saw smoke and phoned the fire department. The fire caused $250,000 in damage virtually destroying the building and forcing the firm to relocate to Eighth and R Streets. Due to his frail condition Kennard was told of the fire. Both were literally lost at the same time.

The firm continued and flourished under son-in-law George Holden and in 1923 occupied most of the extant building at Eighth and R, had opened a retail store at 1507 O St., operated in eight states, had nine road salesmen and 30 employees and advertised as the official source for Kawneer glass store fronts.

For three years Francis John Plym (later changed to Flynn) practiced architecture in Lincoln and anecdotally conceived the now ubiquitous Kawneer store front design. Before a factory was established at Niles, Michigan, the first prototype production was in Kansas City in a small building near the Kaw River, hence the name Kawneer.

In March 1928 the grand opening of the new Western Glass & Paint Co., featuring the KFOR Orchestra, showed off its five-floor, 50-by-145-foot masonry building at 1329 N St., which, with the addition of 750 designs of wallpaper and a full floor mirror inventory, was said to be the largest paint store west of Chicago. The vast enterprise even brought Dorothy Phillips of the Abbot Art Co. of Chicago to Lincoln to offer an art modeling department with free classes in tapestries, Italian clay, velvet painting and plaques.

Dwight Evans, the first of several successive presidents, reorganized Western Glass & Paint in 1929 which continued in business until the name was changed to Devoe & Raynolds Paint Company in 1940 and later quietly disappeared. 211 S. 11th Street became the full block Golds parking lot and is now home to Latitude Apartments.
CALEDONIA  The Rev. Yeprem Kelegian will celebrate his last mass as the priest at St. Mesrob Armenian Church, 4605 Erie St., on Sunday, Aug. 21. The liturgy hell give that morning will be the usual Sunday worship service, Kelegian said, explaining that a larger celebration was held last November, when he gave his last mass as a full-time priest at the church, before moving to part-time duty.

What will be unusual will be the weeks that follow when Kelegians role in the parish will become that of a lay person, after having served as its pastor for 23 years. Ministry, after all, is what Kelegian has devoted himself to for more than 40 years, having served both larger and smaller parishes in Illinois, Massachusetts and Connecticut before coming to Racine.

Looking back on his decision to become a priest, Kelegian said he thinks the mentors he had as a youth, many of whom were members of the faith community, had a strong influence on him.

I went to seminary out of curiosity and it was while studying there that I came to realize this is it  what could be better than this?  he said.

And his passion for his work seems equally strong today.

I always tell my seminary students that it is a joy and privilege to be a priest, he said. We get to work with people who want to do the right things.

Community work

During his time at St. Mesrob, Kelegian has not only bettered the parish community, but the greater Racine community, says his parishioners.

With his leadership the parish has been involved in a number of community outreach ministries including helping at Downtowns Hospitality Center, working with the Northside Food Pantry and with Habitat for Humanity Racine  as well as international outreach efforts, raising funds to build homes in Armenia.

Such social justice work and looking out for other people is the Christian thing to do, Kelegian said.

These are all things of Jesus Christ, he said. We are just carrying out our Christian faith, and I am very proud that my parish has responded so well. It is very gratifying and even overwhelming.

Emily Janikian, a parishioner and parish council member, said Kelegians work has left an indelible mark on the people of St. Mesrob that will continue for years to come.

Father Yeprem is one of a kind, Janikian said.

One aspect of his ministry that seems to stand out in her mind, as well as Kelegians, is his devotion to working with the parish youth.

Mentoring youth  from infancy all the way through college  has always been one his strong points as a minister, Kelegian said.

That and spending time with the very elderly, taking that journey with people at the end of life, he said. Its always about service.

Janikian who was involved with the parishs youth group for 11 years  said she not only appreciates the way Kelegian encouraged the youth to explore their faith through Bible studies and to volunteer, but how he always took the time to listen to what they had to say.

Something she said she feels best showcases the priests devotion to God and the parish youth, were his campus visits.

Not many priests have the time, energy or dedication to spend hours driving all around Wisconsin and beyond, to visit the young adults who have left home to go away to college, she said. Father Yeprem made a point to visit as many of the college students from our parish as he could, and bring a bit of home and church to our busy college lives.

That simple, act, Janikian said, demonstrates how he truly cared about his parishioners and how he made each and every one of us feel at home in the church.

A lovely parish

When asked what has kept him here in Racine all these years, Kelegian said it is his passion for the people.

We have a lovely parish, he said. We have the faith in Jesus Christ, the dedication, and a very loving community.

He also expressed great affection for the city of Racine and all it offers. He and his wife, Judy, have a condo overlooking the lake, and Kelegian said he plans to continue his involvement in community organizations such as the Racine Interfaith Coalition and Habitat for Humanity, as well as teaching at seminary.

Why would I go anywhere else? he said. I always love the place Im in.
CALEDONIA  Amidst all of the recent news surrounding police-community relations, there are growing signs of support for law enforcement from throughout the country.

And Caledonia Police Department officers, like other cops in the area, have seen a spike in members of the community going out of their way to thank officers for their service. The acts vary from food deliveries to letters of support.

Caledonia Police Officer Matt Vannucci is one of the officers who now sees these acts regularly.

I have been approached many times within the last two months, more than I have in my 14 years in law enforcement, by citizens thanking me for my service and offering prayers of safety, he said.

Vannucci knew the recent string of support was a sign. So he decided to hop onto a national trend with a local twist.

A sign

A common way that citizens have shown support for law enforcement has been with yard signs.

When numerous requests came across the departments desks  and in person to officers out on the beat  asking for a way to show support, Vannucci decided to act.

Citizens wanted to show their support for Caledonia Police and law enforcement across the country, Vannucci said. The support comes in lieu of recent criticism and physical attacks on law enforcement across the country.

Vannucci had a vision, so he reached out to Sign Shop of Racine with a design for a sign that said We Back Law Enforcement with the word support highlighted in blue. The signs have a badge logo along with a blue ribbon within the badge.

These signs, along with their design, were specifically designed for the Caledonia Police Department and can only be purchased at the department, Vannucci said.

The order was soon delivered and within a week, the first 50 signs were sold.

Not only were the signs garnering interest from Caledonia residents, Vannucci said people from nearby Milwaukee County have also inquired about purchasing signs. He even had one person who purchased five signs and took them to Arizona.

Proceeds from the signs will go toward the Caledonia K-9 Unit fundrasing effort and the Caledonia Community Policing Fund.

Signs are sold for $10 and can be purchased between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday in the departments lobby, 6900 Nicholson Rd.
CALEDONIA  A South Milwaukee man was arrested Thursday and is facing his fifth operating a vehicle while intoxicated charge.

Joshua P. Maier, 37, of the 200 block of North Chicago Avenue, was pulled over Thursday at the intersection of Douglas Avenue (Highway 32) and Holy Cross Road. He was pulled over due to having an expired license plate on his vehicle, according to the criminal complaint.

The officer smelled an odor of intoxicants coming from the vehicle and also noticed Maiers eyes were allegedly bloodshot, the complaint said.

Maier performed field sobriety tests and reportedly exhibited evidence of intoxication during the tests. He also blew a .151 on a Breathalyzer test, according to the complaint.

Maier was transported to Wheaton Franciscan-All Saints hospital to have blood drawn, the complaint said.

Maier faces a felony charge for operating a vehicle while intoxicated for his fifth offense. He is scheduled for a preliminary hearing at 9 a.m. Aug. 25 at the Racine County Law Enforcement Center.

He was being held as of Friday at the County Jail, online records showed.
UNION GROVE  Village officials on Monday will scrutinize four housing developments being proposed for the villages downtown.

Members of the Village Board, Plan Commission and Community Development Authority will meet in a joint session at 6 p.m. Monday to review plans for developments on four acres of downtown land where the landmark grain mill and Village Hall once stood.

The meeting is scheduled to take place at the Union Grove Municipal Center, 925 15th Ave., Union Grove.

The proposals consist of two assisted living facilities, a market rate apartment complex, and a subsidized housing project.

West Bend-based LM Consulting wants to build a multiphase senior housing complex on the site, nestled between Mill and Main streets near the former Canadian Pacific railroad tracks that formerly ran through the downtown.

Construction would start next spring and be completed by next November, according to LMs proposal.

Our team plans to develop a senior housing campus on the site to provide a continuum of care to the elderly population, LMs proposal said. If and when an individual needs more or less care, he/she can easily move to one of the other facilities to receive that care.

The first phase would include a three-story, 30,000-square-foot building with about 30 units. The second phase would be a 30,000-square-foot, 40-bed community based residential facility  a place where five or more unrelated people live together in a community setting, the proposal said.

There is a need for senior housing in the Union Grove area due to the high percentage of persons aged 65 and over in the surrounding area, LMs proposal said.

Other players

Sussex-based Sawall Development wants to develop 78 apartments spread over five buildings, with a 10-space garage and a commercial area.

Also putting forward proposals for the land are the Gerrard Companies and the Union Grove-based Oak Ridge Care Center. No specific information about their proposals was immediately available.

La Crosse-based Gerrard has been involved in real estate and housing development in the upper Midwest for nearly 60 years, according the firms website.

The company has developed and currently manages apartment communities in seven states, including Illinois, Minnesota and Iowa, the website said. The company also has experience developing affordable housing, the website said.

Gerrard Corporation has a history of going above and beyond what is required for a standard development, which has contributed to the long-term success of these properties, along with consistently high occupancy levels and tenant satisfaction, the website said.

Oak Ridge Care Center has operated a skilled-long term, rehabilitation care facility at 1400 8th Avenue in Union Grove since 1974, and Timber Oaks, an assisted living facility at 1390 8th Avenue, since 1991.

Mondays joint meeting will be only to review proposals and ask questions, officials said. No final decisions will be made at the session, they said.

The village is close to acquiring all the downtown land where the grain mill and the old Village Hall once stood, where the developers want to build.

Earlier this summer, Union Grove made an offer to buy four parcels totaling 2.69 acres near Main and Mill streets from Landmark Cooperative Inc., which owned the demolished mill.

The parcels are part of seven lots the village wants to acquire. The village already owns two of the seven parcels and will own another after Racine County forecloses on the land, said Tina Chitwood, community development manager at the Racine County Economic Development Corp., who is working with the village on the project.
Afghan Taliban capture key district of Khanabad in Kunduz

Taliban militants have captured a key district in Afghanistan's northern province of Kunduz, officials say.
CGT collection from land transactions jumps

The governments Capital Gains Tax (CGT) collection from land transactions jumped 68 percent in the last fiscal year.
CIAA orders probe

Nearly two dozen employees of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (Caan) have been promoted several levels at a time in a glaring example of misuse of authority, leading the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) to direct the Tourism Ministry to investigate the elevations following a complaint filed with the anti-graft body.
Commuting on a library

Kathmandus public vehicles can be exasperating, to say the least. Could a few books change it?
Contextualising development

In July this year, I was part of a 15-member delegation from the Nepali Congress (NC) on a visit to the Peoples Republic of China on invitation of the Chinese Communist Party (CPC). On our flight to Chengdu, playing hide and seek with the clouds and snow-clad mountains, we flew over the vast arid plateau of the Tibetan Autonomous Regionthe roof the world. At the time, we had marvelled over the remote and desolate landscape, but unbeknownst to us, the landscapes we were flying over, and Chinas endeavour to transform it, would feature again, and prominently, on our week-long visit.
Dead man wakes to die again

In an unusual occurrence, a dead man at Deupar in Sainamaina Municipality-9 in Rupandehi district has come back to life, only to be declared dead later.
DPM Mahara returns home from China trip

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara landed in Kathmandu on Saturday after completing his official visit to China.
Dr KC joins demonstration in front of PM's residence

Dr Govinda KC, who has been fighting against the anomalies and aberrations in the medical education and health sector, joined a demonstration held in front of the Prime Minister's official residence in Baluwatar today.
Firm registrations surge, thanks to online system

The number of company registrations has grown significantly over the last two years following the introduction of the online registration system.
High Courts to replace Appellate Courts soon

If everything goes as planned, the existing 16 Appellate Courts will be transformed into seven High Courts within a month in a crucial step towards implementation of the constitution promulgated a year ago.
Khil Raj Regmi honoured with Asia's Dignitary Man of the Year

Former Chairperson of Council of Ministers Khil Raj Regmi has been honoured with the 'Asia's Dignitary Man of the Year' title by the US-based organizaiton, We Care for Humanity (WCH).
Maoist Centre stalls slated convention

Citing the need for the party to focus more on government than on organisational issues, the ruling CPN (Maoist Centre) has stalled its scheduled national convention.
Nidhi meets Indian leaders

Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) Bimalendra Nidhi on Friday held talks with Indias Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj in New Delhi.
Stakeholders agree to improve passenger safety

The district administration of Kavre has started discussions with transport operators and local political parties to increase traffic safety and better passenger transport service in light of Mondays bus crash that killed 27 people.
The long way home

Fluctuating oil prices and the political instability in the Gulf has stakeholders debating the long-term feasibility of a remittance-driven economy
With-in and with-out

Change is not an intuitive process but a continuous one where you have to learn to adapt and adjust to the small space that has been given to you
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
ANGOLA  Trine University has enjoyed a year of record enrollment, financial strength, faculty and students success and facility expansion, with more of the same expected this coming year, President Earl D. Brooks II told faculty and staff Wednesday.

In State of the University remarks welcoming the campus community back during its annual kick-off conference and celebration in the T. Furth Center for Performing Arts, Brooks credited Trine employees  noting that they set a record in annual employee giving with 99 percent participation  for the part they play in the universitys ongoing success.

We are in a relentless chase of perfection  even though we never reach it or catch it  we will achieve excellence, Brooks said. As you walk our campus over the next few days, please take a moment to thank and congratulate each other. You are the people behind the scenes who make this institution what it is today  you are the reason for our success.

The university also recognized employees for their years of service and welcomed new employees.

Michael Blaz, professor of psychology, was honored for 40 years of service to the university.

Jean Deller, assistant vice president for program development and assessment, and Sue Radtke, administrative assistant for the Wade Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, were recognized for 30 years of service.

Debra Van Rie, faculty athletic representative for the department of mathematics and informatics, was recognized for 25 years of service.

Three employees were recognized for 20 years of service: Terry Dirrim, administrative assistant in Best Hall of Science; Donald Jones, professor of communication; and Lucretia Shank, assistant registrar.

Honors for 15 years of service were given to Kim Bennett, assistant vice president for enrollment management; and Raymond Stuckey, executive director for university advancement.

The following employees were recognized for 10 years of service: Kyle Aldrich, associate director of financial aid; Susan Anspaugh, lecturer in the Ketner School of Business; Brett Batson, associate professor in the Wade Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering; Tammy Bowen, director of residence life; Haseeb Kazi, associate professor of mathematics; Matt Land, assistant vice president of athletics; Darryl Webber, associate professor and chair of the Wade Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering; and Christina Zumbrun, associate professor of mathematics.

These employees were recognized for five years of service: Kodi Buell, director of online learning; Robyn Coatney, staff accountant, accounts payable; Michael Eckerle, campus safety officer; Jesse Engle, maintenance technician; Robyn Hinman, office manager, Campus Operations; Jeremy Howard, assistant coordinator, Student Success Initiative; Kyle Lindsay, assistant mens basketball coach; Brooks Miller, basketball coach; Gretchen Miller, assistant to the president/chief of staff; Kiwon Park, assistant professor of mechanical engineering; Jean Ruppert-Boling, assistant vice president for enrollment, College of Graduate and Professional Studies; Renee Shipe, assistant registrar; Leslie Sidwell, programmer analyst, Information Technology; Nancy Steigmeyer, senior director, graduate studies; and Maurice Waugh, assistant football coach.

The university welcomed these new employees, hired within the last year: Sarah Algaradi, international admission counselor; Jacob Bagley, senior admission counselor; Brock Baker, maintenance technician; Michelle Blank, information services librarian; Justin Bock, assistant professor, graduate school; Angela Booth, director of housing; Gregory Brooks, director, Master of Science in Engineering Management; Twana Burney, graduate advisor, Fort Wayne Education Center; Thomas Cantrell, counselor; Corinne Conant, housekeeper; Dan Dobbs, assistant professor of mathematics; Mark Dollinger, campus director, South Bend Education Center; Samuel Drerup, assistant professor of science; Madeline Dugan, head womens lacrosse coach; Calvin Faulkner, maintenance technician; Travis Foster, associate director of admission; Heather Gaff, financial aid counselor; Jeanette Goddard, assistant professor of humanities; Alexander Goplin, assistant director of admissions; Brittney Harvey, assistant softball coach; Chauncy Henze, housekeeping; Hannah Hewes, enrollment specialist, Fort Wayne Education Center; Thomas Hofman, head womens NCAA Division III ice hockey coach; David Jarzyna, vice president, university marketing and communications; David Kamer, Help Desk specialist; Mahesh Khadka, assistant professor, software engineering; Health Kim, assistant vice president, Peoria, Arizona campus; Emily Kleinschmidt, assistant director of accountability; Christian Klink, grounds; Gregory Knauer, enrollment specialist, Angola Education Center; Jonathon Knowlton, grounds; Erin Kolar, head mens and womens tennis coach; Kevin Kraner, enrollment specialist, Fort Wayne Education Center; Benjamin Kroll, housekeeper; Dawn LaBarbera, professor of physician assistant studies; Brett Lancaster, painter; Amanda Leininger, staff accountant; Zheng Liu, international admission counselor; Rebekah Magers, instructional design and Moodle administrator; Leslie Martinez, enrollment specialist, Columbus Education Center; Dan Mayer, head mens hockey coach, ACHA Division II; Jeff McGowan, assistant professor, Ketner School of Business; Colin Meadowcroft, digital multimedia specialist; Audrey Oliver, enrollment specialist, South Bend Education Center; Ashley Overton, assistant professor of education; Catherine Porter, admission counselor; Justine Rennecker, housekeeper; Patrick Ridout, information services librarian; Mark Roselli, associate professor, Putra International College; David Schmucker, maintenance technician; Calvin Skinner, area coordinator, student services; Kelsey Smart, enrollment specialist, Peoria, Arizona campus; Sheldon Smith, building mechanic; Elizabeth Sparks, admission assistant, Peoria, Arizona campus; Lauren Tait, enrollment specialist, Indianapolis Education Center; Irene Taylor, housekeeper; James Tew, director of communications; Sheri Thomson, administrative assistant, Reiners Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering and Department of Design Engineering Technology; Alex Todd, head mens NCAA Division III ice hockey coach; Alison Todd, assistant professor of education; Susana Torres, director of enrollment, Peoria, Arizona campus; Kayla Warren, controller; Jason Watson, employment specialist; Tommy White, assistant professor, Design Engineering Technology; Linda Wilde, area coordinator, student services; Donna Wyse, instructor, criminal justice; Godfred Yamoah, assistant professor of mathematics; and Sarah Zimmer, lecturer, humanities.
2 arrested

ANGOLA  The following people were arrested Thursday by law enforcement officers working in Steuben County and lodged in the Steuben County Jail.

 Zachary T. Albright, 28, of Hudson, arrested on a misdemeanor fugitive warrant.

 Brett M. Gerling, 26, of the 600 block of East Edgar Avenue, Findlay, Ohio, arrested on a warrant alleging felony failure to return to lawful detention and misdemeanor possession of marijuana.

3 hurt in crash

ANGOLA  Three people were injured in a Thursday afternoon crash on S.R. 327.

Deputies from the Steuben County Sheriffs Office responded to S.R. 327 at C.R. 35 N in reference to a two-vehicle personal injury accident. Through the course of the investigation it was determined that a car driven by Jose Suarez Garfias of Angola was going north when a vehicle driven by Ahmed Saleh-Muzayid Ahmed of Coldwater, Michigan failed to yield the right of way as it was traveling westbound through the intersection, said a sheriffs office report.

Three people were transported to Cameron Memorial Community Hospital in Angola for what appeared to be minor injuries, said the report. Alcohol was not believed to be a factor in the accident.

Assisting at the scene was Orland Fire Rescue, Orland Police Department and Steuben County EMS.
Kendallville, IN (46755)

Today

Abundant sunshine. High 63F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Partly cloudy this evening, then becoming cloudy after midnight. Low around 40F. Winds light and variable.
Wayne King Werner, 63, of La Crosse passed away Monday morning, Aug. 15, 2016, at Mayo with his family at his side.

Wayne was born Aug. 16, 1952, to Gilbert and June Werner of Watertown, Wis. Wayne, his parents, and his three sisters, moved to Onalaska, in the mid sixties, where Wayne attended high school and graduated in 1971. Wayne was married for nine years to Joni West and they had one daughter, Ali.

Wayne was a man of many talents and trades. In his twenties, Wayne drove semi. Then, he worked for his fathers business, Werner Siding & Windows. In 1987, Wayne started a local small business he coined The Closet Organizers, where he designed and installed custom closet storage systems. Within his 20 years of managing his own business, he took pride in being a member of the La Crosse Area Builders Association. Wayne enjoyed the outdoors, fishing, hunting, camping, boating, or just hanging at the park. Wayne also loved watching the Packers play, shooting pool, and going to concerts. He had a great sense of humor that was full of jovial sarcasm and a loving heart.

Wayne will be deeply missed by his only daughter, Alexandria ( Christopher) Behringer; his grandchildren, Lydia and Silas Behringer; his sister, Sandra Werner, all of La Crosse; his sister, Linda Herzog of Daytona Beach, Fla.; the Fortner family; along with many other good friends and family.

Special thank you to Waynes recent caregivers, Barb and Jodi of Engelhart Healthcare, Chandra and Anna of Couleecap, Diane of Care Wis., and his roommate Chris.

Waynes guardian angels in heaven, his parents; and grandparents; older sister, Bonnie; Stan, Lois, Karla and Shad (West), David and Jeffrey (Fortner), Pete and Jeani Favre, and Jane.

A celebration of his life will be held from 2 to 8 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 27, at Pettibone Parks Lagoon shelter, in La Crosse.

The Blaschke & Schneider Funeral Homes are assisting the family with arrangements.

Online condolences may be made at www.blaschkeschneider.com
MILWAUKEE (AP)  Wisconsin voters may be able to start casting ballots for Novembers general election as early as next month if an appeals court doesnt act before then on a federal judges ruling that struck down a host of Wisconsin election laws.

Municipal clerks must set early voting dates. By law, ballots have to be in the hands of clerks by Sept. 21, according to the Wisconsin Elections Commission.

The Madison city clerks office said early voting will begin Sept. 26, and Milwaukee Election Commission executive director Neil Albrecht said he expects Milwaukee will follow a similar timeline.

The law had been whittled down, so were working out the final details, but it will include multiple voting sites and weekend hours, Albrecht said.

Local elections officials will have a chance to set up voting stations at college campuses and other locations, rather than requiring people to come to the clerks offices to cast early ballots.

Among the election laws struck down Judge James Peterson in July are certain limits on absentee and early voting, which the judge found unfairly benefited Republicans. Before the judges ruling, early voting was scheduled to begin Oct. 24.

Republican Gov. Scott Walker has twice signed laws limiting early voting in recent years. Walker said he was not focused on the early voting limits, but is more concerned with making sure the courts uphold the states voter ID law.
KASSON, Minn. (MCT)  Helen Leqve sat primly at the small table, her instructional materials in front of her, as she prepared to tell 10 friends and neighbors how she helped win World War II.

The Kasson woman is eager to give that talk again and again because she believes so few know what she, and thousands of women, did to help defeat the Axis Powers. She was one of the women who replaced men, gone to combat roles, to build thousands of airplanes. They became known, thanks to a famed Norman Rockwell poster, as Rosie the Riveter.

Shes proud of that nickname and her work. Yes, I am, I really am, she said. I want people to know what we did during the war.

Leqve, 94, said she always has had that pride, but she didnt always have the drive to talk about it because she didnt think others were interested. Then her great-grandson, Tyler Collett, 13, of Northfield, asked. Hes a history buff, and one thing led to another until last year when she spoke before the Lions Club in Northfield. That led to talks in Owatonna and Mantorville, and finally, to her friends in the Westfield Court area.

Now, she wants to speak out even more. I would talk to anybody, she said.

One of the neighbors there was Mary Gillard, who moved into the unit next to Leqve. Her friend mentioned being a Rosie the Riveter but didnt say all that much, she said. That is why a lot of the neighbors here didnt know, she said. She learned more and thinks her neighbor did a good job.

Leqve said her riveting career began because, when she was in high school in Aitkin, she wanted to be a nurse. When World War II broke out, she realized it would take four more years of training to be a nurse, but if she worked in a defense plant, she could help the war effort immediately.

She took a Greyhound bus to California to work in Lockheeds Burbank Defense Plant. Its a huge, huge plant, she said. She was told she was going to be a riveter.

To drive the rivets, she would get one in dry ice so it would shrink small enough to go through a hole in the metal that would be part of a B-17s wing. A woman, called a bucker, stood on the other side holding a heavy piece of metal against it so when Leqve drove it in, the other side would mushroom and as it warmed, would swell. Because she and the bucker were small, they were called upon to slide into the tightest parts of the wing.

She stayed with an aunt and uncle and needed a ration book to get certain food items. She still has one of the books. The younger people have no idea what they are, she said.

Her dad later came out and worked in the same plant, as a crane operator. He would, at times, be directly above his daughter and drop down candy or gum, Leqve said.

She later was injured and sent home, then brought to a huge plant in Utah where she did other chores on tail turret machine guns. Oddly, she never saw a complete airplane and didnt realize what her work was doing.

When the war ended, she and her husband, Merlin Leqve, moved back to Minnesota and eventually to Kasson. She kept a scrapbook that is now part of the history museum in Colorado.

Thats where Helen Leqves story ended. Afterwards, she served cake and coffee. One friend was impressed: Helen, she said, youve had a very interesting life.
While at first glance these workmans coveralls may seem plain and unremarkable, sometimes the unassuming pieces of clothing have the most interesting stories to tell. This is certainly the case for the owner, Kermit Brekke, a rural Wisconsin farm boy turned World War II soldier and Bronze Star recipient.

Brekke was born in 1919 in Trempealeau County. His parents were of Norwegian ancestry, and he grew up on a farm near Blair. In 1942, when he was 23, Brekke enlisted in the Army and was sent to Oregon for training at Camp White and Camp Adair.

During his training there, Brekkes sweetheart, Evelyn Stutlien, visited him. On April 25, 1943, they were married near the Army training base where he was stationed. Unfortunately their honeymoon was quite brief, as Brekke was sent to North Africa shortly after. While deployed overseas, he and Evelyn remained in constant correspondence.

Brekke started in North Africa but was quickly moved to Italy when the Battle of Anzio began. He was a member of the Headquarters Company, 3rd Battalion, 363rd Combat Regiment, 91st Infantry Division. Throughout the Italian Campaign, the 91st Infantry Division marched north and drove German troops out of Italy.

While Brekke started out as a rifleman, he soon became a radio operator and repairman. Although he usually carried only a handgun, he often was at the front and many times was pushed ahead of the infantry during the chaos of battle. While he was shot at, nearly bombed to death and almost captured or killed by Germans on several occasions, he eventually returned home safely to his wife when he was discharged in 1945.

Brekke lived out his life as a farmer in Blair. He was active in Knudtson-Mattison American Legion Post 231 and a member of the the Sons of Norway and First Lutheran Church.

Brekke lived to be 86. While he had many titles throughout his life  soldier, farmer, husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather  he will be remembered most by the title of hero.

Italy is sometimes referred to as the Forgotten Front. The La Crosse County Historical Societys Brekke Collection ensures his contribution to the war will be remembered.
Starting this month, all UW-Madison graduate students and new students in the universitys professional schools will take part in mandatory sexual assault and harassment education programs.

Before the end of the year, faculty and staff members across the University of Wisconsin System could be required to receive similar sexual misconduct training as well.

The new initiatives are among the responses to a 2015 survey that found more than one in five women graduate and professional students who experienced sexual harassment at UW-Madison said the perpetrator was a professor.

Graduate students were also less likely than their undergraduate counterparts to know about campus resources to address sexual misconduct, according to the survey.

Students who were harassed reported hearing inappropriate remarks about their bodies or sexual behavior, along with insulting or offensive jokes and stories  in some cases, from professors who hold tremendous sway over their futures.

Faculty members often direct students research, sit on the committees that evaluate their dissertations and, in academic communities that tend to be small and tightly knit, have important connections throughout students fields that can make or break their careers.

When youre a graduate student it is really easy to have  a God complex idea about your adviser, said Caroline VanSickle, a former UW-Madison postdoctoral fellow who is now a visiting assistant professor at Bryn Mawr College. It can lead to these problems when a professor takes advantage of it.

UW-Madison officials say the survey shows that sexual harassment, which has led to scandals involving top faculty members at other universities, is a problem on their campus as well.

They also note the percentage of graduate students who reported that faculty were responsible for their harassment  22.2 percent  matched the figure for students nationwide, 22.4 percent.

Another 10.7 percent of victims at UW-Madison said some other university employee harassed them, compared to 9.9 percent of graduate students nationally.

Less than 7 percent of UW undergraduates reported experiencing harassment from faculty or employees.

While officials said the university takes steps to shield harassment victims from retaliation when they come forward, they acknowledged the same factors that have discouraged graduate students from reporting harassment elsewhere exist at UW.

It makes it really difficult to think about what it means to report or disclose or call it out, said Carmen Juniper Neimeko, who manages violence prevention and victim advocacy for University Health Services, because, My funding is riding on it, my dissertation is riding on it, my committee is riding on it, my lab space is riding on it.

The kind of emotional damage that does is really significant, and interrupts the students right to their own educational activity.

The 2015 survey from the Association of American Universities attracted significant attention for its finding that more than one-quarter of undergraduate women at UW-Madison reported experiencing some form of sexual assault.

Students in graduate and professional schools are less likely than undergraduates to experience sexual assault  12.1 percent of graduate students reported they did. Rates of sexual harassment were slightly lower for graduate students as well, with 53.1 percent saying they have been harassed, compared to 65.7 percent of undergrads.

Undergrads get training

But while incoming undergraduates have for years taken mandatory online sexual misconduct training programs before they come to campus, there has been no such requirement for graduate students.

In addition to the finding that graduate students were less knowledgeable about UWs policies and procedures for reporting sexual assault, the survey also showed graduate students had less faith in that process. A lower percentage, compared to undergraduates, said they had confidence UW would investigate a report of sexual assault or harassment fairly or punish the offender.

The new training program for graduate and professional students, which will start at the end of August, looks to address those issues, officials say.

Juniper Neimeko said the interactive online program will give students clear definitions for what constitutes sexual assault and harassment, tell them about the campus offices where they can report misconduct and try to demystify UWs process for handling complaints.

Theres the sense that campuses operate their discipline policies behind closed doors, Juniper Neimeko said. So the training will walk students through the process, including what happens in a disciplinary hearing and what sanctions can result for offenders.

Students will also learn tips for intervening as bystanders if they see inappropriate behavior, as well as how to respond if another student comes to them to report a sexual assault, Juniper Neimeko said.

The program will be mandatory for all current and incoming students in the graduate school, and will be required for incoming professional students.

Faculty may be trained

Fellow students were by far the most common group identified as the perpetrators of sexual harassment and assault against graduate students.

Still, for many on campus the harassment victims who say they were targeted by professors shows a need for prevention efforts aimed at faculty.

We need to provide a better environment, said Bret Payseur, a genetics professor who sat on the task force that examined the sexual misconduct survey.

Payseur supports mandatory sexual misconduct training for faculty and staff.

Another task force started by the UW System is considering a similar recommendation. The group hasnt issued a report yet, but its draft includes a call for all UW employees to receive sexual misconduct training, System spokeswoman Stephanie Marquis said.

The task force is expected to present its report this fall to the Board of Regents, and if its approved the new training could start this year, Marquis said.

University Health Services executive director Sarah Van Orman said UW-Madison professors have been receptive to the campus efforts to address sexual misconduct, knowing that the negative actions of a few reflect poorly on all of them.

They know this isnt good for education, it isnt good for research, it isnt good for what were doing, Van Orman said.

Advocates question university commitment

Its unclear how often graduate students at UW-Madison report sexual harassment committed by faculty members. University spokeswoman Meredith McGlone said UW-Madison doesnt classify sexual misconduct reports by the employment status of the alleged offender or complainant.

But, echoing the lack of faith many students expressed in universities investigations of sexual misconduct, some advocates say they are concerned that the power faculty wield on campus isnt only noticed by graduate students.

Jessica Kirkpatrick, a former UC-Berkeley graduate student who has written about witnessing sexual harassment while in that universitys astronomy program, noted that campus administrators also have a stake in top professors, who might bring prestige and large sums of grant funding to their institutions.

The professor she saw harassing a student, Geoffrey Marcy, resigned last fall after an investigation found he harassed several women in the department for years.

Students and others complained that university officials responded with weak sanctions when women came forward to report the harassment.

Hes literally worth millions to the university and students are worth very little in comparison, Kirkpatrick said.

Asked about that concern, McGlone noted that David Blom, who coordinates the campus compliance with the federal anti-discrimination law Title IX, works independently of any academic department, school, college or unit.

His primary incentive is to ensure that a prompt, thorough and impartial investigation takes place and, where applicable, appropriate disciplinary action is taken, regardless of the status of the parties involved, McGlone said.
UW-Madison officials say they have been ramping up their efforts to prevent sexual misconduct on campus with new programs, training and staff members in the year since a survey found more than 25 percent of undergraduate women have experienced sexual assault.

Starting this fall, as a supplement to the mandatory online education students have received for years, each incoming undergraduate will be required to attend at least one in-person workshop on topics such as dating violence, consent and how to support sexual assault victims. For the first time, graduate and professional students will take part in mandatory training on sexual assault and harassment as well.

All UW-Madison student athletes, and fraternity and sorority members, will be required to attend another training on how to intervene as bystanders to prevent sexual assault.

Its about empowering people to step in, make a difference, change the culture (and) interrupt activities, said Sarah Van Orman, the executive director of University Health Services.

The university has also hired three new employees to work as victim advocates, growing that staff from four to seven.

And UW-Madison is joining a national research consortium that plans to survey students annually to continue measuring how many are victims of sexual assault and harassment.

Van Orman described the effort as a yearly mini version of the Association of American Universities survey on sexual misconduct at 27 institutions that made headlines in Madison and across the country when it was released last September.

The goal of the new research, Van Orman said, is to keep collecting data on the frequency of sexual assault on campus  something she noted many were skeptical of prior to the national survey  and to gauge how effective the universitys efforts are in addressing it.
Recently, the Purple Heart, our nations oldest military decoration, has been in the news as part of the presidential campaign. The strong feelings evoked by the incident demonstrate the importance of the Purple Heart in our remembrance of our veterans and Americas military history. Purple Heart Day was celebrated on August 7, which gives us a good opportunity to learn more about this important award.

The candidate in question was quoted as saying he always wanted a Purple Heart. In reality, few combat troops really want a Purple Heart, because the only way to get one is to be killed or wounded in battle as a result of combat operations. Our hope for every deployed military man and woman is that they return to us safe and sound. The decoration does, however, serve to honor those who are willing to risk life and limb to defend our liberty, and to remind the rest of us of the sacrifices that have been required to establish the United States as a nation and to keep that nation free.

The decoration that was to evolve into todays Purple Heart was instituted by General George Washington, commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, in 1782. Originally known as the Badge of Merit, the decoration, distinguished with a purple ribbon, was only conferred by General Washington personally. After the Revolutionary War the Badge of Merit fell into disuse. It was revived again in 1931 by General Douglas MacArthur. The new design featured a purple ribbon and a gold, heart-shaped pendant with a bust of George Washington, the same design it bears today. The new Purple Heart was established by presidential executive order on the 200th anniversary of Washingtons birth.

Unlike other military awards, one doesnt receive the Purple Heart by being recommended by a senior officer. Instead, one automatically becomes eligible if one is wounded or killed in combat. Many different kinds of wounds qualify for the Purple Heart, but they must have been received as a result of enemy action and have been treated and recorded by a medical officer.

Traditionally, the Purple Heart has often been awarded immediately on the battlefield or in a nearby hospital. This made proper record keeping a problem. As a result, there is no official tally of the number of American service personnel who have received the decoration, although one estimate holds that nearly two million Purple Hearts were awarded up to 2010. The Military Order of the Purple Heart, Department of Wisconsin, a service organization for Purple Heart veterans and their families, currently has a thousand members, and estimates there may be around 2,000 living Wisconsin veterans who have been decorated with the Purple Heart.

The Military Order of the Purple Heart is a national chapter that provides a chance for decorated veterans to socialize, promote patriotism, and work together to provide service to all military veterans. If you were awarded the Purple Heart and wish to join a local MOPH chapter, go to the national website, purpleheart.org, to learn how to join. When your credentials have been verified, youll be directed to your nearest local chapter. There is also an Associate Membership available for spouses, children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Purple Heart recipients.

The Purple Heart is more than just another piece of military memorabilia. It is the emblem of the ultimate sacrifice that some warriors made, and that all warriors were willing to make, on behalf of our security and freedom. The gratitude we owe to our military veterans is worthy of the greatest possible respect. In this season when we exercise our right as citizens to engage in self-government, we should remember what we owe to those who fought and died to preserve that right.

Democrat Julie Lassa, Stevens Point, represents the 24th state Senate District.
Ron Kinds victory over challenger Myron Buchholz in Tuesdays 3rd Congressional District Democratic primary was also a victory for those who support fairly constructed international trade agreements. In the 2016 election season, many politicians have been either cowed into silence on the topic or have expressed opposition to any prospect of expanding international trade. Not Ron Kind.

Kind has strongly supported expansion of trade agreements since entering Congress in 1997. In his stance this year, Kind is displaying what political scientists call trustee representation. He is bucking the common campaign consensus that trade deals are the major reason for stagnant wages and job losses. On Tuesday, voters placed their trust in his long-held principle that well-constructed international trade deals are vital to the continued prosperity of his constituents.

Consistency on this issue has required engaging a bipartisan approach to trade legislation. As a member of the New Democrat Coalition, Kind joined House Republicans to provide President Barack Obama fast-track negotiation authority for the Trans Pacific Partnership  the proposed multinational trade pact that includes 12 Pacific Rim countries: the United States, Japan, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, Brunei, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Mexico, Chile and Peru.

Fast-track authority allowed the executive branch to negotiate the pact, and now provides Congress the opportunity to consent or reject by simple majority votes in both the House and Senate. The pact intends to deepen member states economic ties by significantly reducing tariffs, which in turn should foster trade and boost economic growth.

Buchholz campaigned on Bernie Sanders position that trade deals are part of a rigged economic system benefiting corporations to the detriment of workers. In Wisconsins presidential primary last spring, Sanders defeated Hilary Clinton 56 percent to 43 percent. Buchholz garnered only 20 percent of the vote against Kind. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, voters are sending politicians mixed messages.

But we must clearly recognize trade is only one factor to fuel our economic growth and prosperity.

A higher minimum wage would especially increase living standards for working Americans at the lowest rungs of our pay scale. Returning unions to a respected and healthy place in our society would provide workers collective strength in bargaining for higher wages. A more equitable tax system would provide greater justice for middle income wage earners, as well as firmer economic growth for future generations.

These are policy improvements we should implement here at home, with or without the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

But international trade brings people together across national borders through commercial activity. We thus avoid remaining divided behind overly protected borders, leading us to fear others with whom we interact too little. Trade provides the venue to build a working peace system in our too often contentious and hostile world.

This is no easy task in the face of threats from todays terrorism. But our becoming isolationist and giving up hope for global peace and prosperity is one of terrorists aspiration.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership specifically provides the United States a venue to engage in setting the trade rules in a region predicted to experience the greatest economic growth in the immediate future. It also furnishes us with trade allies as China expresses its growing strength and influence.

In the presidential contest, Republican nominee Donald Trump not only rejects the partnership, but he promises to abrogate trade arrangements already in place. He also threatens tariff retaliation against trade partners he would deem non-compliant.

The Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, opposes the Trans-Pacific Partnership in its current form, but she advocates improvements to benefit American workers and the environment. President Obama has reminded us the pact already requires less developed countries to abide by international labor laws, such as introducing a minimum wage. It also contains a chapter on environmental protection.

After World War II, we Americans chose to build international multilateral institutions to encourage global commerce that proved a great benefit to our prosperity. Unfortunately, for too many Americans that prosperity seems threatened, or has even dissipated. However, we can address such problems here at home while also benefiting from international trade.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership provides evidence that our elected officials and trade negotiators are learning lessons from past trade agreement deficiencies. It also creates a system within which we may peacefully and prosperously engage with prospective partners in the Pacific Rim. It is advisable we agree to the deal.

Keith Knutson is a professor in the history department at Viterbo University.
WASHINGTON  Donald Trumps newest campaign ad begins with a warning: In Hillary Clintons America, the system stays rigged against Americans.

The commercial, which aired Friday as part of his $5 million swing state ad buy, harkens back to a claim Trump has been hammering for weeks  that the general election is rigged against him. The questionable claim looks to mobilize Republicans, with the all-important start of early voting in some states just weeks away.

The presidential nominee has voiced strong support for North Carolinas stringent voter ID law  struck down as discriminatory, but to be appealed  saying without it, voters will cast ballots 15 times for Democrat Hillary Clinton. He also launched a new effort on his website last week seeking volunteers to root out fraud at the polls.

Some things to know about voting fraud:

What are voter ID laws?

That ID law Trump referred to had involved a broader package of restrictions  among them, reducing early in-person voting, which is popular among blacks in particular. At the same time, it exempted tough photo ID requirements for early mail-in voters, who were more likely to be white and Republican.

In all, 17 states were set to have restrictions for the first time in a presidential election, pending final appeals, such as voter ID or cuts to voter registration or early in-person voting. Among them: the battlegrounds of North Carolina, Virginia, Ohio, Wisconsin and Georgia. Florida and Iowa had restrictions in place since 2012.

The potential impact is significant: Barack Obamas strength among early voters in 2012 helped him capture Florida and Iowa despite losing the election-day vote in those states, according to voting data compiled by The AP. He narrowly lost North Carolina by 92,000 votes; in 2008, Obama had won all three states plus Colorado, thanks to early voters.

Is voter fraud a problem?

Not the type that Trump is referring to.

While fraud can occur, the number of cases is small and the type that voter IDs are designed to prevent  voter impersonation at the ballot box  is virtually non-existent.

News21, a reporting project affiliated with Arizona State University, in 2012 found 2,068 cases of election fraud nationwide since 2000. Of those, just 10 involved voter impersonation  or one out of every 15 million prospective voters. More common was absentee mail-in ballot fraud, with 491 cases. None affected the outcome of an election.

Lorraine Minnite, a political science professor at Rutgers University-Camden, says voter impersonation fraud is rare because its difficult to do on a large-enough scale to tip an election.

Its so irrational to even try just for one or two more votes, said Minnite, author of The Myth of Voter Fraud.

In court cases that temporarily invalidated some of the ID laws, including those of North Carolina, Wisconsin and North Dakota, election officials could barely cite a case in which a person was charged with in-person voting fraud.

But Trump continued his warnings, calling last week for election observers on his official website to stop Crooked Hillary from rigging this election. Volunteers who sign up are directed to a donation page.

A new Pew Research Center report released Friday found that 38 percent of registered voters who support Trump are very confident their vote will be accurately counted. This view stands in contrast to the 2004 and 2008 elections, when substantial majorities of voters who backed Republicans George W. Bush and John McCain expressed confidence in the count of their votes.

The survey found that 67 percent of Clinton supporters have a high degree of confidence that their vote will be counted accurately.

What to expect with early voting

North Carolina is the first to kick off early voting on Sept. 9, when its residents may request and submit mail-in absentee ballots through election day for any reason. It will be followed by Georgia, Wisconsin, Virginia and Iowa.

A total of 37 states also offer in-person early voting, typically in mid- to late October.

Over the years, mail-in early voters usually have been older, better educated and more likely white, while in-person early voters were often young people and black Americans, according to University of Florida professor Michael McDonald, an expert in election statistics.

As a result, early voting will likely be concentrated heavily among registered Republicans initially before turning in the Democrats favor in late October to early November. Those initial numbers will offer clues as to the depth of Trumps support among his biggest partisans, who vote right away, McDonald said. Meanwhile, in North Carolina, a potential wild card is its voter ID law. An appeals court recently invalidated restrictions that cut in person early voting from 17 to 10 days, but the governor has vowed to appeal, creating uncertainty about the extent of early voting this fall.

Voter mobilization is a key part of Clintons strategy to winning North Carolina, as it was for Obama.

Will rulings invalidating voter ID increase the Democratic vote?

Not necessarily. More likely, it will prevent a net loss of would-be Democratic voters  the black Americans, young people and the poor, whom recent rulings said would be less able to vote if newly passed state voter ID laws remained.

Based on rulings as they stand now, voters in North Carolina and North Dakota are ultimately unlikely to face new ID requirements, while those in Wisconsin and Texas will in some form.

A number of factors can influence voter turnout, beyond ID laws, such as voter excitement for a candidate, as was seen in 2008 and 2012, when voters rushed to the polls to help elect the first-ever black president, said Richard Hasen, a law professor at the University of California at Irvine.
GENOA  Florente Fats Edward Jambois, 89, of Genoa passed away Friday morning, Aug. 12, 2016, at Gundersen Health System in La Crosse.

He was born March 13, 1927, in Genoa, to Dominic and Elizabeth (Groeschel) Jambois. He joined the U.S. Army in the spring of 1945. He was a squad leader in the mortar section and was stationed in Italy. While in Italy, he attended non-commissioned officers candidate school. After his return to Genoa, he did commercial fishing and then worked in a plant in Rockford, Ill. From 1962 until his retirement, he worked for the Corps of Engineers. At the time of his retirement he was head operator at Lock and Dam No. 8.

On May 28, 1955, he married Patricia Hastings at the West Prairie Lutheran Church. The family enjoyed camping trips, fishing, and hunting. He was an avid card player and enjoyed canasta, pinochle, and euchre. In his younger years he played softball with several local teams and enjoyed the many potluck dinners they shared. He had been a member of Genoa-De Soto American Legion Post No. 246 for 70 years. He served as commander of the post and was a loyal and faithful member of the Legion Military Honor Guard. He also was a member of the Viroqua Eagles Club Aerie No. 2707.

Florente is survived by his wife, Patricia of Genoa; two daughters, Brenda (Douglas) Burke of Eau Claire, Wis., Sally (Richard) Phillips of Genoa; three sons, Brad Duke (Heide) Jambois of La Crescent, Minn., Scott Jambois of Genoa, Bart (Nancy) Jambois of Hokah, Minn.; one brother, Duane Jambois of Genoa; 17 grandchildren; five great-grandchildren; other relatives and many friends.

He was preceded in death by his parents; an infant sister; and three brothers, George, Bill and Harris Jambois.

Funeral services were held Wednesday, Aug. 17, at the Thorson Funeral Home in Viroqua. Military rites were conducted at the Riverside Cemetery at rural Genoa, by the Genoa-De Soto American Legion Post No. 246. Online condolences may be sent to info@thorsonfuneralhome.com.
Catholic High School for Boys/Facebook(LITTLE ROCK, Ark.) -- A high school in Little Rock, Arkansas, is teaching more than just history and math.



At the start of this school year, Catholic High School for Boys posted a sign in its doorway reminding parents of one of the schools most important policies.



If you are dropping off your sons forgotten lunch, books, homework, equipment, etc., please TURN AROUND and exit the building, the sign reads. Your son will learn to problem-solve in your absence.



The school also posted a photo of the sign to Facebook, and captioned it, Welcome to Catholic High. We teach reading, writing, arithmetic, and problem-solving."



According to the high schools principal, Steve Straessle, the school's policy has been in place for decades.



Many teenage boys are prone to hitting the default switch when problems arise, Straessle explained to ABC News. The default switch is calling mom or dad to come fix it. And were asking that the default switch be removed from a situation like this, so that a boy has to think through how he will solve it.



Straessle calls mishaps such as forgetting a homework assignment at home or having to borrow lunch money from a friend as soft failures, and notes their importance in molding boys into accountable young men.



We as parents rob our kids of the experiences that they need to build on in order to become good, functioning members of society when we step in to fix soft failures, he explained.



All were asking is that kids think a little deeper than calling mom or dad."

Copyright  2016, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
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15 (5) Aug 14 (3) Aug 13 (5) Aug 12 (10) Aug 11 (5) Aug 10 (4) Aug 09 (5) Aug 08 (3) Aug 07 (4) Aug 06 (6) Aug 05 (5) Aug 04 (5) Aug 03 (3) Aug 02 (5) Aug 01 (7) Jul 31 (5) Jul 30 (4) Jul 29 (4) Jul 28 (3) Jul 27 (3) Jul 26 (5) Jul 25 (4) Jul 24 (5) Jul 23 (5) Jul 22 (7) Jul 21 (5) Jul 20 (4) Jul 19 (5) Jul 18 (6) Jul 17 (5) Jul 16 (5) Jul 15 (6) Jul 14 (4) Jul 13 (3) Jul 12 (2) Jul 11 (2) Jul 10 (2) Jul 09 (2) Jul 08 (2) Jul 07 (3) Jul 06 (2) Jul 05 (2) Jul 04 (4) Jul 03 (3) Jul 02 (2) Jul 01 (8) Jun 30 (6) Jun 29 (4) Jun 28 (6) Jun 27 (6) Jun 26 (6) Jun 25 (6) Jun 24 (6) Jun 23 (4) Jun 22 (4) Jun 21 (5) Jun 20 (4) Jun 19 (5) Jun 18 (8) Jun 17 (6) Jun 16 (5) Jun 15 (5) Jun 14 (5) Jun 13 (4) Jun 12 (4) Jun 11 (6) Jun 10 (4) Jun 09 (3) Jun 08 (5) Jun 07 (4) Jun 06 (3) Jun 05 (3) Jun 04 (3) Jun 03 (3) Jun 02 (3) Jun 01 (4) May 31 (2) May 30 (2) May 29 (2) May 28 (2) May 27 (4) May 26 (4) May 25 (3) May 24 (2) May 23 (2) May 22 (3) May 21 (5) May 20 (4) May 19 (2) May 18 (3) May 17 (3) May 16 (3) May 15 (4) May 14 (5) May 13 (3) May 12 (4) May 11 (3) May 10 (4) May 09 (4) May 08 (4) May 07 (3) May 06 (2) May 05 (3) May 04 (4) May 03 (2) May 02 (3) May 01 (3) Apr 30 (3) Apr 29 (4) Apr 28 (2) Apr 27 (3) Apr 26 (4) Apr 25 (2) Apr 24 (3) Apr 23 (2) Apr 22 (2) Apr 21 (4) Apr 20 (4) Apr 19 (5) Apr 18 (7) Apr 17 (6) Apr 16 (10) Apr 15 (5) Apr 14 (3) Apr 13 (4) Apr 12 (5) Apr 11 (4) Apr 10 (4) Apr 09 (7) Apr 08 (4) Apr 07 (7) Apr 06 (4) Apr 05 (7) Apr 04 (5) Apr 03 (4) Apr 02 (5) Apr 01 (5) Mar 31 (5) Mar 30 (5) Mar 29 (7) Mar 28 (6) Mar 27 (5) Mar 26 (5) Mar 25 (6) Mar 24 (5) Mar 23 (5) Mar 22 (5) Mar 21 (4) Mar 20 (3) Mar 19 (6) Mar 18 (6) Mar 17 (2) Mar 16 (4) Mar 15 (5) Mar 14 (4) Mar 13 (5) Mar 12 (5) Mar 11 (4) Mar 10 (4) Mar 09 (2) Mar 08 (5) Mar 07 (4) Mar 06 (3) Mar 05 (4) Mar 04 (6) Mar 03 (4) Mar 02 (4) Mar 01 (5) Feb 28 (6) Feb 27 (4) Feb 26 (4) Feb 25 (6) Feb 24 (2) Feb 23 (3) Feb 22 (4) Feb 21 (6) Feb 20 (2) Feb 19 (6) Feb 18 (4) Feb 17 (2) Feb 16 (3) Feb 15 (6) Feb 14 (6) Feb 13 (6) Feb 12 (9) Feb 11 (5) Feb 10 (3) Feb 09 (4) Feb 08 (4) Feb 07 (7) Feb 06 (3) Feb 05 (4) Feb 04 (5) Feb 03 (4) Feb 02 (3) Feb 01 (3) Jan 31 (4) Jan 30 (4) Jan 29 (3) Jan 28 (2) Jan 27 (2) Jan 26 (3) Jan 25 (4) Jan 24 (4) Jan 23 (2) Jan 22 (2) Jan 21 (5) Jan 20 (4) Jan 19 (5) Jan 18 (4) Jan 17 (4) Jan 16 (3) Jan 15 (4) Jan 14 (3) Jan 13 (3) Jan 12 (3) Jan 11 (2) Jan 10 (8) Jan 09 (6) Jan 08 (2) Jan 07 (2) Jan 06 (3) Jan 05 (2) Jan 04 (2) Jan 03 (2) Jan 02 (2) Jan 01 (2) Dec 31 (2) Dec 30 (3) Dec 29 (3) Dec 28 (3) Dec 27 (2) Dec 26 (2) Dec 25 (2) Dec 24 (2) Dec 23 (2) Dec 22 (2) Dec 21 (2) Dec 20 (3) Dec 19 (2) Dec 18 (3) Dec 17 (2) Dec 16 (2) Dec 15 (3) Dec 14 (2) Dec 13 (3) Dec 12 (3) Dec 11 (3) Dec 10 (5) Dec 09 (3) Dec 08 (3) Dec 07 (2) Dec 06 (3) Dec 05 (3) Dec 04 (5) Dec 03 (4) Dec 02 (3) Dec 01 (3) Nov 30 (4) Nov 29 (4) Nov 28 (2) Nov 27 (2) Nov 26 (2) Nov 25 (3) Nov 24 (2) Nov 23 (2) Nov 22 (2) Nov 21 (2) Nov 20 (3) Nov 19 (3) Nov 18 (2) Nov 17 (2) Nov 16 (5) Nov 15 (5) Nov 14 (4) Nov 13 (2) Nov 12 (2) Nov 11 (2) Nov 10 (2) Nov 09 (2) Nov 08 (2) Nov 07 (3) Nov 06 (6) Nov 05 (4) Nov 04 (5) Nov 03 (5) Nov 02 (3) Nov 01 (5) Oct 31 (7) Oct 30 (5) Oct 29 (4) Oct 28 (3) Oct 27 (2) Oct 26 (4) Oct 25 (4) Oct 24 (4) Oct 23 (4) Oct 22 (3) Oct 21 (2) Oct 20 (3) Oct 19 (2) Oct 18 (2) Oct 17 (3) Oct 16 (5) Oct 15 (4) Oct 14 (2) Oct 13 (2) Oct 12 (4) Oct 11 (5) Oct 10 (4) Oct 09 (3) Oct 08 (3) Oct 07 (3) Oct 06 (2) Oct 05 (5) Oct 04 (5) Oct 03 (4) Oct 02 (4) Oct 01 (5) Sep 30 (2) Sep 29 (2) Sep 28 (3) Sep 27 (6) Sep 26 (2) Sep 25 (3) Sep 24 (3) Sep 23 (2) Sep 22 (2) Sep 21 (2) Sep 20 (2) Sep 19 (3) Sep 18 (3) Sep 17 (3) Sep 16 (2) Sep 15 (4) Sep 14 (3) Sep 13 (5) Sep 12 (4) Sep 11 (6) Sep 10 (2) Sep 09 (5) Sep 08 (5) Sep 07 (5) Sep 06 (4) Sep 05 (4) Sep 04 (3) Sep 03 (2) Sep 02 (3) Sep 01 (3) Aug 31 (2) Aug 30 (2) Aug 29 (3) Aug 28 (6) Aug 27 (3) Aug 26 (2) Aug 25 (2) Aug 24 (3) Aug 23 (2) Aug 22 (3) Aug 21 (5) Aug 20 (4) Aug 19 (3) Aug 18 (2) Aug 17 (5) Aug 16 (3) Aug 15 (4) Aug 14 (5) Aug 13 (2) Aug 12 (2) Aug 11 (2) Aug 10 (2) Aug 09 (2) Aug 08 (5) Aug 07 (5) Aug 06 (6) Aug 05 (2) Aug 04 (5) Aug 03 (2) Aug 02 (3) Aug 01 (2) Jul 31 (4) Jul 30 (2) Jul 29 (2) Jul 28 (2) Jul 27 (2) Jul 26 (3) Jul 25 (4) Jul 24 (2) Jul 23 (3) Jul 22 (2) Jul 21 (3) Jul 20 (4) Jul 19 (2) Jul 18 (3) Jul 17 (4) Jul 16 (5) Jul 15 (2) Jul 14 (3) Jul 13 (2) Jul 12 (3) Jul 11 (2) Jul 10 (2) Jul 09 (2) Jul 08 (2) Jul 07 (2) Jul 06 (2) Jul 05 (2) Jul 04 (2) Jul 03 (2) Jul 02 (2) Jul 01 (3) Jun 30 (3) Jun 29 (7) Jun 28 (3) Jun 27 (2) Jun 26 (3) Jun 25 (1) Jun 24 (2) Jun 23 (3) Jun 22 (5) Jun 21 (3) Jun 20 (2) Jun 19 (2) Jun 18 (2) Jun 17 (2) Jun 16 (2) Jun 15 (2) Jun 14 (2) Jun 13 (3) Jun 12 (3) Jun 11 (3) Jun 10 (2) Jun 09 (4) Jun 08 (2) Jun 07 (4) Jun 06 (5) Jun 05 (3) Jun 04 (3) Jun 03 (2) Jun 02 (2) Jun 01 (4) May 31 (2) May 30 (3) May 29 (3) May 28 (3) May 27 (2) May 26 (2) May 25 (2) May 24 (2) May 23 (2) May 22 (3) May 21 (3) May 20 (2) May 19 (2) May 18 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(3) Dec 16 (3) Dec 15 (3) Dec 14 (3) Dec 13 (3) Dec 12 (3) Dec 11 (3) Dec 10 (3) Dec 09 (3) Dec 08 (3) Dec 07 (3) Dec 06 (3) Dec 05 (3) Dec 04 (3) Dec 03 (4) Dec 02 (3) Dec 01 (3) Nov 30 (3) Nov 29 (3) Nov 28 (3) Nov 27 (3) Nov 26 (3) Nov 25 (3) Nov 24 (3) Nov 23 (3) Nov 22 (3) Nov 21 (3) Nov 20 (3) Nov 19 (3) Nov 18 (3) Nov 17 (3) Nov 16 (2) Nov 15 (3) Nov 14 (3) Nov 13 (3) Nov 12 (4) Nov 11 (3) Nov 10 (4) Nov 09 (4) Nov 08 (4) Nov 07 (3) Nov 06 (3) Nov 05 (5) Nov 04 (4) Nov 03 (3) Nov 02 (4) Nov 01 (4) Oct 31 (4) Oct 30 (3) Oct 29 (3) Oct 28 (2) Oct 27 (4) Oct 26 (4) Oct 25 (4) Oct 24 (3) Oct 23 (3) Oct 22 (3) Oct 21 (4) Oct 20 (4) Oct 19 (3) Oct 18 (4) Oct 17 (4) Oct 16 (3) Oct 15 (3) Oct 14 (3) Oct 13 (3) Oct 12 (3) Oct 11 (3) Oct 10 (4) Oct 09 (3) Oct 08 (3) Oct 07 (4) Oct 06 (3) Oct 05 (4) Oct 04 (3) Oct 03 (4) Oct 02 (5) Oct 01 (3) Sep 30 (4) Sep 29 (3) Sep 28 (3) Sep 27 (4) Sep 26 (3) Sep 25 (3) Sep 24 (3) Sep 23 (3) Sep 22 (3) Sep 21 (3) Sep 20 (3) Sep 19 (4) Sep 18 (3) Sep 17 (3) Sep 16 (4) Sep 15 (3) Sep 14 (3) Sep 13 (3) Sep 12 (4) Sep 11 (4) Sep 10 (4) Sep 09 (4) Sep 08 (4) Sep 07 (3) Sep 06 (3) Sep 05 (3) Sep 04 (3) Sep 03 (3) Sep 02 (4) Sep 01 (3) Aug 31 (3) Aug 30 (4) Aug 29 (3) Aug 28 (3) Aug 27 (3) Aug 26 (3) Aug 25 (4) Aug 24 (4) Aug 23 (5) Aug 22 (3) Aug 21 (3) Aug 20 (3) Aug 19 (3) Aug 18 (3) Aug 17 (3) Aug 16 (3) Aug 15 (3) Aug 14 (3) Aug 13 (3) Aug 12 (3) Aug 11 (4) Aug 10 (5) Aug 09 (3) Aug 08 (3) Aug 07 (4) Aug 06 (5) Aug 05 (4) Aug 04 (3) Aug 03 (3) Aug 02 (3) Aug 01 (3) Jul 31 (3) Jul 30 (4) Jul 29 (3) Jul 28 (5) Jul 27 (3) Jul 26 (3) Jul 25 (3) Jul 24 (3) Jul 23 (4) Jul 22 (3) Jul 21 (4) Jul 20 (3) Jul 19 (3) Jul 18 (4) Jul 17 (4) Jul 16 (4) Jul 15 (3) Jul 14 (3) Jul 13 (4) Jul 12 (5) Jul 11 (4) Jul 10 (4) Jul 09 (3) Jul 08 (3) Jul 07 (3) Jul 06 (5) Jul 05 (3) Jul 04 (3) Jul 03 (4) Jul 02 (3) Jul 01 (6) Jun 30 (4) Jun 29 (4) Jun 28 (3) Jun 27 (4) Jun 26 (4) Jun 25 (5) Jun 24 (4) Jun 23 (3) Jun 22 (5) Jun 21 (5) Jun 20 (4) Jun 19 (4) Jun 18 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Our story today is called, "A Horseman in the Sky." It was written by Ambrose Bierce.

Carter Druse was born in Virginia. He loved his parents, his home and the south. But he loved his country, too. And in the autumn of eighteen sixty-one, when the United States was divided by a terrible civil war, Carter Druse, a southerner, decided to join the Union Army of the north.

He told his father about his decision one morning at breakfast.

The older man looked at his only son for a moment, too shocked to speak. Then he said, "As of this moment you are a traitor to the south. Please don't tell your mother about your decision. She is sick, and we both know she has only a few weeks to live."

Carter's father paused, again looking deep into his son's eyes. "Carter," he said, "No matter what happens -- be sure you always do what you think is your duty."

Both Carter Druse and his father left the table that morning with broken hearts. And Carter soon left his home, and everyone he loved to wear the blue uniform of the Union soldier.

One sunny afternoon, a few weeks later, Carter Druse lay with his face in the dirt by the side of a road. He was on his stomach, his arms still holding his gun. Carter would not receive a medal for his actions. In fact, if his commanding officer were to see him, he would order Carter shot immediately.

For Carter was not dead or wounded. He was sleeping while on duty. Fortunately, no one could see him. He was hidden by some bushes, growing by the side of the road.

The road Carter Druse had been sent to guard was only a few miles from his father's house.

It began in a forest, down in the valley, and climbed up the side of a huge rock. Anyone standing on the top of this high rock would be able to see down into the valley. And that person would feel very dizzy, looking down. If he dropped a stone from the edge of this cliff, it would fall for six hundred meters before disappearing into the forest in the valley below.

Giant cliffs, like the one Carter lay on, surrounded the valley.

Hidden in the valley's forest were five union regiments -- thousands of Carter's fellow soldiers. They had marched for thirty-six hours. Now they were resting. But at midnight they would climb that road up the rocky cliff.

Their plan was to attack by surprise an army of southerners, camped on the other side of the cliff. But if their enemy learned about the Union Army hiding in the forest, the soldiers would find themselves in a trap with no escape. That was why Carter Druse had been sent to guard the road.

It was his duty to be sure that no enemy soldier, dressed in gray, spied on the valley, where the union army was hiding.

But Carter Druse had fallen asleep. Suddenly, as if a messenger of fate came to touch him on the shoulder, the young man opened his eyes. As he lifted his head, he saw a man on horseback standing on the huge rocky cliff that looked down into the valley.

The rider and his horse stood so still that they seemed made of stone. The man's gray uniform blended with the blue sky and the white clouds behind him. He held a gun in his right hand, and the horse's reins in the other.

Carter could not see the man's face, because the rider was looking down into the valley. But the man and his horse seemed to be of heroic, almost gigantic size, standing there motionless against the sky. Carter discovered he was very much afraid, even though he knew the enemy soldier could not see him hiding in the bushes.

Suddenly the horse moved, pulling back its head from the edge of the cliff. Carter was completely awake now. He raised his gun, pushing its barrel through the bushes. And he aimed for the horseman's heart. A small squeeze of the trigger, and Carter Druse would have done his duty.

At that instant, the horseman turned his head and looked in Carter's direction. He seemed to look at Carter's face, into his eyes, and deep into his brave, generous heart.

Carter's face became very white. His entire body began shaking. His mind began to race, and in his fantasy, the horse and rider became black figures, rising and falling in slow circles against a fiery red sky.

Carter did not pull the trigger. Instead, he let go of his gun and slowly dropped his face until it rested again in the dirt.

Brave and strong as he was, Carter almost fainted from the shock of what he had seen.

Is it so terrible to kill an enemy who might kill you and your friends? Carter knew that this man must be shot from ambush -- without warning. This man must die without a moment to prepare his soul; without even the chance to say a silent prayer.

Slowly, a hope began to form in Carter Druse's mind. Perhaps the southern soldier had not seen the northern troops.

Perhaps he was only admiring the view. Perhaps he would now turn and ride carelessly away.

Then Carter looked down into the valley so far below. He saw a line of men in blue uniforms and their horses, slowly leaving the protection of the forest. A foolish Union officer had permitted his soldiers to bring their horses to drink at a small stream near the forest. And there they were -- in plain sight!

Carter Druse looked back to the man and horse standing there against the sky. Again he took aim. But this time he pointed his gun at the horse. Words rang in his head -- the last words his father ever spoke to him: "No matter what happens, be sure you always do what you think is your duty."

Carter Druse was calm as he pulled the trigger of his gun.

At that moment, a Union officer happened to look up from his hiding place near the edge of the forest. His eyes climbed to the top of the cliff that looked over the valley. Just looking at the top of the gigantic rock, so far above him, made the soldier feel dizzy.

And then the officer saw something that filled his heart with horror. A man on a horse was riding down into the valley through the air!

The rider sat straight in his saddle. His hair streamed back, waving in the wind. His left hand held his horse's reins while his right hand was hidden in the cloud of the horse's mane. The horse looked as if it were galloping across the earth. Its body was proud and noble.

As the frightened Union officer watched this horseman in the sky, he almost believed he was witnessing a messenger from heaven. A messenger who had come to announce the end of the world. The officer's legs grew weak, and he fell. At almost the same instant, he heard a crashing sound in the trees. The sound died without an echo. And all was silent.

The officer got to his feet, still shaking. He went back to his camp. But he didn't tell anyone what he had seen. He knew no one would ever believe him.

Soon after firing his gun, Carter Druse was joined by a Union sergeant. Carter did not turn his head as the sergeant kneeled beside him.

"Did you fire?" The sergeant whispered.

"Yes."

"At what?"

"A horse. It was on that rock. It's not there now. It went over the cliff." Carter's face was white. But he showed no other sign of emotion. The sergeant did not understand.

"See here, Druse," he said, after a moment's silence. "Why are you making this into a mystery. I order you to report. Was there anyone on the horse?"

"Yes."

"Who? "

"My father."

"A Horseman in the Sky" was written by Ambrose Bierce, and adapted by Dona de Sanctis.

Download activities to help you understand this story here.

Now it's your turn to use the words in this story. How difficult is it for you to think or act when you are afraid? Should you always do what a boss, supervisor or authority tells you to do? Let us know in the comments section or on our Facebook page.

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Quiz - A Horseman in the Sky by Ambrose Beirce Start the Quiz to find out Start Quiz

For Teachers

The lesson plan below has activities related to this story.

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Words in This Story

gigantic - adj. extremely large

trigger - n. a lever on a gun that you pull to fire the gun

fantasy  n. something that is produced by the imagination : an idea about doing something that is far removed from normal reality

ambush - n. an act of hiding, waiting for others to appear, and then suddenly attacking them : a surprise attack

dizzy - adj. feeling that you are turning around in circles and are going to fall even though you are standing still

reins  n. a strap that is fastened to a device (called a bridle) placed on the head of an animal (such as a horse) and that is used to guide and control the animal  usually plural

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VOA Learning English talked with two students in the Nurse Aide training program at Carlos Rosario International Public Charter School.

Hasnaa Marmoucha is from Casablanca, Morocco. She moved to the U.S. with her husband eight years ago. She was surprised to see poor people on the street in the U.S.

"When I was in my country, we used to watch movies  American movies. When I came here, I didnt accept [that] I will see homeless here."

Marmoucha found it hard to communicate with people in America because had not studied English in Morocco.

"I was feeling, like, shy, when I was on the street. If someone asked me a question, how am I going to answer? But then, I met a friend, and she taught me about Carlos Rosario, that it's free school, and they teach English from basic to high level. And then, I register in Carlos Rosario, and I start by level 1, and it was so nice."

Josephine Majo is from Yaounde, Cameroon. She came to the U.S. in November of 2014. She was shy when she first came to the U.S.

She was frustrated because everyone talked fast.

"I discovered everybody moved faster, speak very fast, and I felt a little bit frustrated. And then when I started coming to school, I learned how to express myself. And then I learned a little about American culture."

Majo said she is learning along with her daughters.

"Im here with my husband, we have two kids, actually, two girls, 10 and 5. My first daughter - she is in fifth grade - and she just got the principals award, and I am so happy"

"I help her with her homework, mathematics, and English, so I can learn the new words, and she learns also the new words from me, with my new class, nursing. So we help each other..."

From her teenage years, Majo dreamed of being a nurse.

"I learned nursing - that was my dream when I was little - a teenager. I think here in the U.S. I have a good opportunity to realize my dream. I like to help, I like to share what I know with people. So I think in that field I will be comfortable - with the way I like to behave - I will feel comfortable in this field."

Hasna Marmoucha also feels that nursing will be a good match for her personality.

"I said, Ok, I love to help people, and when you do something for people, and they say thank you, you feel so happy. Why I don't do this job? I can be with a lot of people, meet people every day, help them And then, Carlos Rosario, it's offered free! And then I started, and I started to be loving it, day by day. When we read the book, when we heard stories from our teacher, when we still like, there is a lot of things that are interesting in the job. And we're gonna be close with people. More, than sometimes, like with older people in nursing home. You're gonna be their family! You know, they will love you! And, love them. You're gonna love them too. (laughs) I feel happy when I help someone."

Both Marmoucha and Majo have a large number of new words to learn. Marmoucha is glad that an ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher is in her program.

"In this job, there is a lot of medical terminology. And it's hard to understand it, and it's hard to pronounce it, too. But thanks God, we have two teachers, in this program. We have one for English: she helps us in pronunciation, and another one for CNA (Certified Nursing Assistant) class. Yeah, we are learning. Every day, we learn a lot of words, terminology, medical terminology, that's nice."

In the spring semester, the Nurse Aide students do internships at a local hospital.

Dr. Jill Robbins wrote this story for Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor.

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Words in This Story

shy  adj. feeling nervous and uncomfortable about meeting and talking to people

frustrate  v. to cause (someone) to feel angry, discouraged, or upset because of not being able to do something

opportunity  n. an amount of time or a situation in which something can be done

comfortable  adj. feeling relaxed and happy: not worried or troubled

match  n. two people or things that are suited to each other

personality n. the set of emotional qualities, ways of behaving, etc., that makes a person different from other people

terminology  n. the special words or phrases that are used in a particular field

internship  n. a sometimes unpaid temporary job held by a student or recent graduate in order to get experience

Are you learning a new job skill? What is the skill and why are you studying it? Write to us in the Comments Section.

Read More About Working as a Nursing Assistant

How much do Nurse Assistants earn?

What does the future look like for this career?

How do you become a Nurse Assistant in the United States?

References

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2016-17 Edition, Nursing Assistants and Orderlies,

on the Internet at http://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/nursing-assistants.htm
Russia is defending its use of an Iranian air base to launch airstrikes against targets in Syria.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced that Russian fighter jets are using the Hamedan air base with Irans approval. He said the aircraft are supporting what he called counter-terrorism operations in Syria.

Russias defense ministry said it started using the base this week to attack Islamic State (IS) positions in northern and eastern Syria. The defense ministry said the attacks also targeted Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, the militant group formerly known as the al-Nusra Front.

The United States is leading an international coalition against IS forces in Iraq and Syria. The coalition cleared the way for the Russian airplanes to pass over Iraq on their way from Iran to Syria.

Coalition spokesman Chris Garver confirmed the flights.

They informed us they were coming through, and we insured safety of flight as those bombers passed through the area and toward their target.

Russia has been carrying out airstrikes in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assads government for nearly a year. But until this week, all the flights started in Syria or Russia.

US reaction

In Washington, State Department spokesman Mark Toner called Russias use of the Iranian air base unfortunate, but not surprising or unexpected. He noted that while Russia has said it is bombing IS and other militants, the attacks predominantly target moderate Syrian opposition forces.

Toner also said Russias operation could violate a U.N. resolution banning the supply, sale and transfer of combat aircraft to Iran.

Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov denied this.

In this case. were discussing. There has been no supply, sale or transfer of fighter jets to Iran, he told reporters.

Russia and Iran are both longtime supporters of Syrian President Assad. Rebel groups have been fighting forces supporting Assad during the countrys 5-year-old civil war.

State Department spokesman Toner said the United States is committed to pursuing a credible, nationwide cessation of hostilities, as well as a political process to help achieve peace in Syria.

Using the base in Iran puts Russian fighter jets much closer to their targets. Flying from the Hamedan air base, instead of a Russian base in the north Caucasus, cuts the distance from about 2,000 kilometers to about 700 kilometers.

Viktor Ozerov is a Russian senator. He said the shorter flying distance will increase the accuracy of Russian airstrikes in Syria. He said it will also reduce the risk of being hit by ground-to-air missiles that may be launched by rebel groups in Syria.

In Iran, the head of the country's National Security Council was reported as saying that Iran and Russia cooperate on fighting terrorism in Syria. He said the two countries are sharing facilities in support of that goal.

The speaker of Irans parliament, Ali Larijani, noted that Iran has not given Russia approval to operate a permanent base in its territory. But some military experts say Russias decision to use the Iranian air base could mean that the move will make it permanent.

Christopher Harmer is with the Institute for the Study of War. This looks like Russia is acknowledging the limitations of operating from Syrian bases and is digging in for a long-term campaign based out of Iran, he said.

Russia power shift?

Jonathan Adelman, from the University of Denver, said Russias latest move represents a clear change for the Russian government.

First, its showing that the real power in the Middle East today is Russia. Secondly, that they are aligned, at the same moment, with both sides. They are supporting Syria. They are, of course, working together with the Iranians...

Omar Lamrani is with the U.S.-based global intelligence community Stratfor. He said he also believes Russias movement of military equipment and personnel into Iran signals a change in Irans position in the Middle East.

That says a lot to the Saudis, Lamrain said. That says a lot to the Gulf Cooperation Council. Theyre going to be asking such questions as, If we do come into conflict with Iran, does that also mean we are coming into conflict with Russia?

Im Bryan Lynn.

Bryan Lynn wrote this story for VOA Learning English. Additional material came from VOA correspondent Jeff Seldin, the Associated Press and Reuters. George Grow was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.

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Words in This Story

unfortunate  adj. unlucky

predominantly  adv. mainly, mostly

credible  adj. able to be trusted of believed

cessation n. the end of something happening, especially violence

accuracy  n. how exact or correct something is
LEXINGTON,Neb. - During its meeting Monday, Aug. 15, Dawson County Commissioners heard an update on the information technology services offered to the county.

Mark Gengenbach, a representative with CSTG, the service provider for information technology and camera technology for Dawson County, gave an informal talk. No action was taken after his talk by commissioners.

Currently about 500 devices, phones and other equipment is used and connected for county employees, with some equipment redundancies, he said.

Gengenbach acknowledged that there have been issues and complications with newer equipment that has been installed in the last year that runs with software on the Guardian System.

Dawson County Sheriff Gary Reiber noted that his department has had on-going complications with work started by and not finished by an employee with CSTG.

"In the first part of June, when we installed (a security system) we had problems. I kept a log and documented routers not working properly," Reiber said.

On July 21, Reiber said he was told by a CSTG worker that the security system would need to go down for maintenance for two hours, meaning the dispatch would also be disconnected. "That's unacceptable," he said.

Reiber said routers not working and issues not getting solved in a timely fashion has become the norm during the past two months.

"I don't get anything done untill I call Mark. Having it take two months to solve a problem is unacceptable," Reiber said.

Also, wiring work started by a worker two months ago is still not finished, with wires sticking out of a wall in his department, he said.

Sometimes Reiber said he would not know when a service worker would visit his department and what work would be done until the employee showed up the day of, he said.

"We want to be treated decently on every occasion for what the county is paying. We're being taken advantage. At some point it would be nice to know what is happening in my office. I am dissatisfied with the service completely," Reiber said.

A report by Pam Holbrook, zoning administrator for Dawson County, was tabled or postponed until a future meeting.

Commissioners went into executive session to consider a lease renewal for Applied Industrial Technologies for the CED Building, located at 200 W. 7th Street in Lexington.

A letter from Ron Klein requesting a service that could not be provided by the Dawson County Commissioners was not acted on.
COZAD,Neb. - As part of the Cozad Chamber of Commerce Farmer and Businessman Appreciation BBQ, the importance of the agriculture scholarship was celebrated.

Supporters and winners of the agriculture scholarship spoke about Cozad's support for the future generation of agriculture.

Organized by the Cozad Chamber's Agriculture Committee, the scholarship is funded by generous donations from local businesses, community donors with help from the Cozad Community Foundation. The scholarship has been awarded the past five years, with the first agriculture scholarship awarded in 2007.

"Six years ago, the agriculture committee (of the Cozad chamber) decided we wanted our youth to come back to Cozad. We wanted to make a wholehearted effort to show young people we want them to come back. The scholarship covers Cozad,Lexington, Overton and Eustis-Farnam," said Judy Eggleston, a member of the Agriculture committee and former volunteer with the Cozad Foundation.

Eggleston was involved and instrumental in expanding the amount of the scholarship, which now totals $4,200 by having the Agriculture Scholarship partner with AFA, which stands for Agriculture Future of America.

Half of the scholarship amount comes from fundraising from the Cozad Agriculture Committee and the other half comes from the AFA, with $1,000 of the scholarship going to fund the cost of the AFA Leaders Conference.

Eggleston said she was proud that the number of local donors to the scholarship doubled to 14 last year. The committee's goal for this year is to double the amount of supporters to about 30 donors and businesses.

Samantha Schneider, the 2012 Agriculture/AFA Scholarship Recipient spoke at the event. She graduated from UNL with a Bachelor's in Agriculture Communications and Journalism this May. She is currently employed at Darr Feedlot.

"Growing up in this community has been the highlight of my life. I've been working with Darr Feedlot, where I got my first internship," Schneider said. She is a 2012 Cozad High School graduate.

Life "is truly about the connections you make and the people you know that get you where you need to be," Schneider said.

Collin Thompson, the 2015 Agriculture/AFA Scholarship Recipient, also spoke at the event. He is an agriculture business major at UNL.

"AFA (conference) was a fantastic experience. It was a four-day conference in November. It was a great time to get to know big agriculture companies," Thompson said.

Thompson said he met representatives with agriculture companies and kept in touch with them after the conference as a way to network.

"It's not what you know but who you know that makes a person successful. If it wasn't for this community's generosity I would not have had the opportunity to go," he said.

Also,Cozad High School has started an FFA program by partnering with Ansley.

Cozad Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Sandy Bappe said at the banquet that another goal of agriculture supporters and Cozad Community Schools is to hire an agriculture teacher for the FFA program.

"We want to bring in an FFA instructor, we were very close this year but unfortunately budget cuts this year did not allow it. Joel Applegate (superintendent of Cozad Community Schools) is working hard to save money," Bappe said.

Bappe said was she was happy to see a large number of students and young in attendance at this year's Farmer and Businessman BBQ.

"They will be the future leaders that will carry the baton into the next generation of agriculture producers and businessmen and women. Our Cozad Chamber Ag Committee is very proud of our scholarship program and the young adults that have been our scholarship recipients," Bappe said.

Bappe continued, "The combination of these students' dedication to agriculture, knowledge in technology and love of our area will make them amazing leaders in the ag industry and government. We are excited to watch them grow into the strong leaders I know they will become."
COZAD,Neb. - The 37th Annual Cozad Chamber of Commerce Farmer and Businessman Appreciation BBQ was held on the evening of Tuesday, Aug. 16 at the Cozad Elks Club.

Winners of the Farm Family of the Year and Agriculture Service of the Year Awards are awarded by the Cozad Chamber of Commerce on behalf of its agriculture committee, which selects the winners.

The awards ceremony was moderated by Sandy Bappe, executive director of the Cozad Chamber of Commerce and John Schroeder with Darr Feedlot. The brisket meal was prepared by Pete Wardyn and a crew from Nebraska Ag and Irrigation.

The 2016 Farm Family of the Year needed no introduction among residents and business people of Cozad, as the family's patriarch Al Svajgr was one of the original owners of Darr Feedlot and is a director of First Bank and Trust Co. in Cozad.

The Al and Joann Svajgr Family were honored as the 2016 Farm Family of the Year. A slideshow presentation by Don and Barb Batie was shown chronicling the biography of Al and his agriculture and business background.

"A lifelong love of livestock and dedication to improving the beef industry are the hallmarks of our 2016 Farm Family honorees. Through his upbringing on a southeast Nebraska farm to extensive animal science and nutrition training and three degree programs, our honoree laid the groundwork for his passion in livestock production," read the beginning of the speech to honor Svajgr, as read by Bappe.

Svajgr was born in Milligan, began his education at District 22 near Diller and graduated from Diller High School. He grew up working on his parents' Jefferson County farm and was fond of working with animals there. He showed cattle and hogs in 4-H and participated in FFA at Diller High School.

After graduating from Diller Rural High School in 1960, Svajgr received an associates degree from Fairbury Junior College in 1962. He went on to attend the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where he was active in Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity and graduated in 1964 with a Bachelor of Science degree in animal science.

While attending UNL he met his wife, Judy Smith from Cozad, and they were married in 1966. They had one son, Jeff.

Svajgr then obtained his masters degree in animal science and nutrition from UNL, where he worked at the Swine Research Center. The Svajgrs moved to Kentucky in 1968 so Al could begin work on his doctorate in animal science and nutrition at the University of Kentucky.

With his doctorate in hand, Svajgr accepted a position with Continental Grain in Chicago, where he worked as a research specialist and assistant director of research. After six years in Chicago, the Svajgrs moved to Cozad.

In 1977, Svajgr joined his father-in-law Juhl Smith and his growing family cattle feeding and ranching operation.

"Soon cattle became the only product sold from the operation, which consisted of irrigated corn and alfalfa, pasture and silage, all of which were consumed by the cattle. Five hundred pound calves were purchased, back-grounded, summered on grass and finished for market in December, January and February. Not only was irrigated farmland added to the operation, but pasture ground in both Dawson and Custer Counties, as well as feeding facilities northeast of Cozad, notes Al, according to the biographical speech.

In the late 1970s Svajgr started a company called Agrow, Inc., that is still actively involved in farming, ranching, backgrounding and the cattle feeding business. The company grows feed for roughly 8,000 cattle fed through the operation each year.

In 1982 Al was one of the original owners of Darr Feedlot, northeast of Darr. The original purchase was a bankrupt facility with about 3,500 head capacity. Through the past 34 years it has been expanded to the present 45,000-head capacity, notes Svajgr.

Juhls business sense had him involved in a variety of operations in Cozad beyond the livestock and farm. He was co-owner of Cozad Elevator Co. during the 1960s and a minority owner of First National Bank of Cozad. In 1968 he became co-owner of First Bank and Trust of Cozad.

Svajgr lost his wife, Judy, in March of 1997 to cancer. Within a year he became acquainted with JoAnn Braun of Lexington, who had lost her husband to cancer in 1996.

Al and JoAnn were married in July of 1998 and are active in many community, church and civic activities.

Svajgr has been very active in local, state and national organizations. He was a member of the Dawson County T-Bone Club and later president of the Dawson County Cattlemen in 1982.

He served as president of the Nebraska Livestock Feeders Association in 1987 and witnessed their merger with the Nebraska Stock Growers Association and the Nebraska Feedlot Council to form todays Nebraska Cattlemens organization.

Schroeder noted prior to a previous Svajgr honor, Al is very passionate about the beef industry and is involved from the ground up and still enjoys the down and dirty part.

Svajgr is a director of First Bank and Trust Co. in Cozad, and chairman of Midwest Banco Corp., a multi-bank holding company with branches in Cozad, Clay Center, Imperial, Eustis,Cambridge,Colorado Springs and Loveland,Colo.

He continues his interest in education, serving as a guest lecturer for the animal science livestock systems classes at UNL and to graduate students.

After six years on the operating committee and board of the Cattlemens Beef Board (CBB) he was voted in as chairman in 2005 and voiced his passion for the importance of research in the cattle industry.

Looking back over my last 40 years of feeding cattle in Dawson County, I contrast that today we are marketing choice cattle at 15 to 20 months of age weighing 1,500 pounds compared to then selling three-year-olds that did well to weigh 1,300 pounds at slaughter. Today we are producing more pounds of edible beef with 25 percent fewer cattle in the herd and doing it much more efficiently, said Svajgr.

As I look to future generations leading the beef industry, continued research and new advances in science will surely be the main drivers making sure that quality delicious beef on the plate remains a protein of choice around the world. As we now produce our beef for the global market, we must stay ahead of other world competitors. New advances in genetic markers plus advanced products promoting faster and more efficient gains with improved animal health will all be critical keeping we cattle feeders here in the United States as leaders in the world's beef market," Svajgr said.

Agriculture Service Award

Tim Thramer, the 2016 Agriculture Service Award winner, was raised on a farm near Ewing. Thramer knew he wanted to pursue a career in agriculture.

During his high school years, he worked with an area agronomist scouting fields, sealing his decision to seek a degree in Agronomy. Following high school, he went on to continue his education at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in 1986.

After graduation he accepted a job as an agronomist with Mark Spaur at High Plains Agronomics in Gothenburg. For the next 5 years he developed a close relationship with his clients who were impressed by his attention to detail.

With strong encouragement from loyal clients from Cozad to Gothenburg, he took the leap and started his own business, Thramer Agronomics, Inc., in 1992.

Bill Vasey, one of Thramers many clients, said that words could not express how highly he thought of Tim and the service he provided for area crop producers.

Thramer provided field scouting for several years before taking a job with Dupont Pioneer as their account manager, selling seed, and building a business warehouse in Cozad.

Roger Walgren joked that he shot himself in his foot when he recommended Tim as a Sales Representative for Pioneer seed sales and lost him as an agronomist.

However, clients never stopped asking him agronomy questions and Tim never stopped going to their fields to look at their crop issues firsthand. The knowledge he had from scouting client fields was applied as he made his seed recommendations.

A highlight of every year was harvest time for Tim. He couldnt wait to get in fields with his weigh wagon to compare hybrids.

Account Managers Charlie Shoemaker and Patrick Horwart fell that Tim exemplified all four of Pioneers Long Look Mission Statement Points which are as follows:

1. We strive to produce the best products on the market

2. We deal honestly and fairly with our employees, customers, seed growers, sales force, business associates and shareholders.

3. We advertise and sell our products vigorously, but without misrepresentation.

4. We give helpful management suggestions to our customers to assist them in making the greatest possible profit from our products.

While Tim seemed to live for agronomy, his family came first and foremost. He married Cindy Yocom in 1993 and was blessed with 3 girls, Molly, Hannah and Abby.

Cindy Thramer, the widow of Tim, said the community of Cozad has been amazingly supportive through Tim's sickness and death. Tim died on Oct. 10, 2015 at the age of 51.

"This award shows how much he was appreciated and admired. He loved kids and being involved with youth. He had a great sense of humor," Cindy said.
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Bollywood actor Jimmy Sheirgill, who stars in the film Happy Bhag Jayegi plays the groom whose bride ditches him on his wedding day. Jimmy almost always loses out on getting the girl at the end of almost every film he has starred in, and Times of India even interviewed him about this. "Yes, girls run away from me. What can I do about it?" he told the interviewer.

While the 'why doesnt Jimmy Sheirgill ever get the girl' memes sure are funny, here are a few films where he did end up getting the girl.

Yahaan (2005)

Minissha Lamba plays a Kashmiri woman torn between her army officer lover Aman (Jimmy Shergill) and her brother Shakeel, who is a suspected terrorist. Trouble ensues when Aman's superiors come to know of his involvement with the sister of a terrorist and implicate him as an accomplice.

Though the film might or might not have a happy ending, Minissha Lamba doesn't leave Jimmy Sheirgill for another man.

Haasil (2003)

A movie about college politics has Anirudh (Jimmy Shergill) fall in love with Niharika (Hrishitaa Bhatt) . Unfortunately, Anirudh gets caught up between two rival political gangs in college headed by Gaurishankar Pandey (Ashutosh Rana) and Ranvijay Singh(Irrfan Khan).

Fortunately the relationship survives the student politics. People mostly miss out on Jimmy Shergill in this film because of the stellar performances by Ashutosh Rana and Irrfan Khan.

Mohabbatein

Sheirgill wins the girl and how?! Sheirgill as Karan does not give up till the end, despite knowing that Kiran played by Preeti Jhangiani, is already married. Overcoming the hurdles and complications and with none other than King Khan's support, he finally gets the girl. He is indeed the cute chocolate boy, who wins over the love of his life. Yes, there is a lot of waiting, but he does it.

So sometimes there's a happy ending for Jimmy Sheirgill too!
Marvel's Doctor Strange is all set to release on 4 November 2016 starring Benedict Cumberbatch in the lead role of Stephen Strange. A horrific car accident leaves brilliant surgeon Dr Stephen Strange with a permanent disability as his hands won't function anymore.

Strange, who is as cocksure and mouthy as Ironman in the comics, travels to Tibet to find a cure, where he crosses paths with The Ancient One (Tilda Swinton) who changes his life forever.

Here are some new images from the movie showcasing Benedict Cumberbatch at his best:



The Ancient One (Tilda Swinton) teaches Doctor Strange(Benedict Cumberbatch) some magic.



This looks like it's a picture from the Matrix, but it's not.

No, it's not a still from Nolan's Inception. It's an alternate dimension that Stephen Strange has just been introduced to.

Bardon Mordo is the classic good guy gone bad. He has an agenda against The Ancient One which makes him Doctor Strange's biggest enemy.

Kaecilius, is on Baron Mordo's side and an enemy to Doctor Strange and The Ancient One.

All photos courtesy Film Frame ..2016 Marvel.
Kolkata: The Godrej Group is focusing on the inorganic growth route and feels it is a good time to go for more acquisitions, Chairman Adi Godrej said.

"We are putting lot of emphasis on inorganic growth route. We acquired few businesses last year in agro and consumer segments. Our growth through inorganic route will be good over the next few years," said Godrej.

"Inorganic growth would be made mainly through acquisitions. Globally things are not doing well; you can acquire businesses at lower cost than normal," he told reporters here.

The group was looking to acquire businesses mainly in the developing world -- Asia, Africa and South America -- and at acquisition in the consumer product segment, mainly in personal and household products, he said.

The group, however, has not set aside funds for acquisitions. "We are looking at right opportunities, synergies, advantages and strategies. If we need more money and we can raise funds," he said.

Godrej said businesses have been growing but growth was lower in the last couple of years due to bad monsoon.

The group has in place '10/10' growth strategy, which means grow 10 times of present size in 10 years' time, he said.

"Due to slow growth in the last couple of years, we have fallen back a little. We hope to make up on that."

The company is looking at a 26 percent compound annual growth rate.

"We don't think we can have such a growth in organic way only; some of it will have to be inorganic. A rough estimate suggests about 15 percent growth would come from organic way and 10 percent by inorganic route," he said.

A little pick-up in the overall consumer growth has been noticed from this quarter, "but we need to see whether it will continue and how it will continue," Godrej said.

"I expect the consumer demand will continue in future if GST (Goods and Services Tax) is rolled out in April at a sensible rate."

Under GST regime, Indian economy would do well and growth could touch a double-digit figure, he said.

The Mumbai-headquartered Godrej Group is into real estate, consumer products, industrial engineering, appliances, furniture, security and agricultural products. It claims to have about 750 million people users of its products in India and about 1.1 billion people globally.
Jammu: BJP on Saturday termed the meeting of the Opposition parties of Jammu and Kashmir with the president over the Kashmir unrest as "political drama" and attacked them for not extending cooperation to the PDP-BJP alliance in restoring peace and normalcy.

"The Opposition parties in Jammu and Kashmir are not extending cooperation to the PDP-BJP alliance government efforts in restoration of peace and normalcy in the state, which is witnessing unrest for over a month now," BJP Spokesperson Balbir Ram Rattan told reporters.

"Opposition parties' meeting with the President is a political drama," he said.

"Instead of coming forth and extending any fruitful cooperation, the Opposition parties are playing to gallery," he said.

Rattan, claimed the leaders of Congress, NC and CPI were only in a rat race to stay in the news and would rather play a negative role and incite the people by their statements instead of helping the government to control the situation.

He said there had been number of occasions after trouble erupted in the Valley when All-Party meetings were called at different levels.

"In one of the meetings called by Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, NC stayed away and in the other meeting called by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, it was the Congress which boycotted it," Rattan said.

He said, "one fails to understand why these leaders held separate meeting and decided to meet President to submit Memorandum. It is merely a political drama."
New Delhi: A Delhi police constable was shot dead by miscreants while he was chasing them after they had snatched a bag from a woman in Shahabad area on Friday night.

"Anand was chasing three unidentified miscreants who had snatched the bag from a woman in Sector 5 industrial area around 9.30 pm, when he was shot at," said DCP (Outer) Vikramjeet Singh.

The constable, who was posted at sector five police chowki in Bawana, spotted the snatchers near Samosa Chowk in the area and chased them following which they fired at him, police said.

Anand sustained bullet injury on the chest. He was rushed to a nearby hospital where doctors declared him dead, they said.

The incident occurred hours after Delhi Police Commissioner Alok Kumar, during a crime review meeting, instructed senior officials to curb street crimes in the national capital.
Imphal: Najma Heptulla will be sworn in as the Governor of Manipur tomorrow at Raj Bhavan here, officials said on Saturday.

She will be administered the oath of office by Acting Chief Justice of the High Court of Manipur R R Prasad at 11.30 am on Sunday.

Heptulla arrived here this afternoon at Imphal International Airport where she was received by state Chief Secretary O Nabakishore, Director General of Police L M Khaute and other officials.

Heptulla, 76, had last month resigned as Minority Affairs Minister from the Union Cabinet.

The resignation had come as Prime Minister Narendra Modi is believed to have set an unwritten writ of '75-year age bar' for ministers.

Meghalaya Governor V Shanmuganathan is currently holding the additional charge as Manipur's governor.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday reaffirmed India's time-tested ties with Moscow when Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin called on him.

"Prime Minister Modi described Russia as a time-tested and reliable friend and reaffirmed the shared commitment with President (Vladimir) Putin to expand, strengthen and deepen bilateral engagement across all domains," a statement issued by the Prime Minister's Office said.

"He recalled his recent meeting with President Putin in Tashkent in June and via video-link for dedication of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant Unit 1 at the beginning of this month," it stated.

On his part, Rozogin conveyed Putin's greetings to Modi and briefed him on the progress in ongoing projects between India and Russia.

Modi said that India was eagerly awaiting Putin's visit to India later this year.

Earlier Vikas Swarup, official spokesperson of Ministry of External Affairs had tweeted-
Noida: Amity University fact finding committee has given clean chit to the authorities and some faculty members in the death of a law student whose family has accused them of abetting his suicide.

In its interim report submitted today, the panel observed that the college and faculty were following the rules and regulations of the Guru Gobind Singh IP University. It will submit the final detailed report once investigations are over.

Meanwhile, the accused professors whose suspension was being demanded by student's union and family members of the law student, have submitted their resignations.

Amity spokesperson Savita Mehta said on Saturday, "The seven-member committee which was to submit report on Saturday has sought some more time...and in view of the sentiments of students the two professors have submitted their resignation."

Sushant Rohilla (20), a fourth year student of BA-LLB course in Amity Law School, had last week allegedly committed suicide at his residence in south Delhi's Sarojini Nagar area.

Demanding a probe into the incident, his family members and friends, had staged a protest outside the college here on Tuesday, and alleged foul play by the authorities.

The student, son of a joint secretary-level official in the Rajya Sabha Secretariat, was barred from appearing in the sixth semester exams in May due to "shortage of attendance".

According to his family, Sushant and 19 other students, who were not permitted to take the exams, were promised that they will be allowed to take the exams and promoted to the next semester.

In the interim report, the committee said since the director and senior faculty have been asked to go on leave, it could not meet them due to paucity of time, Mehta said.

The committee found that the college authority had been liberal by extending all possible support to enable him appear the exam. Rohilla's attendance was only 29 percent, it said.

Even by giving additional attendance for activities like moot court competitions, the level of attendance was as low as 43 per cent. His case could not be considered consequent to BCI and GGS IP University Regulations, it said.

The college had informed his parents many a times through e-mails. The student and his father were intimated by ALSD on 11 July about detainment due to attendance shortage and about the opportunity for readmission in fourth semester, the committee said.

It said the faculty was following rules laid down by GGS IPU and Bar Council in regards to attendance and also did its best to give extra attendance for extra-curricular activities.

The college also fulfilled its duties in continuously informing the student and the father about the shortage of attendance and its consequences leading to detainment.
Kolkata: Tearing into the Centre over the recent rationalisation of Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSSs), West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday dubbed the Narendra Modi government "dictatorial" and wondered if there was a presidential form of government in India.

Mamata called the recommendations made by the "BJP-dominated" sub-group of chief ministers on the CSS rationalisation as "unilateral" and an "attack on federalism", and said the situation under the Modi government was worse than that during Emergency.

"The Centre has sent a letter declaring that the recommendations have been implemented. Citing cooperative federalism, they are actually bulldozing the states and democracy. This is nothing but dictatorship."

"I want to know if they are running a presidential form of government in the country," a fuming Banerjee told media persons while waving a letter by the National Institution for Transforming India (Niti) Aayog.

The Union Cabinet earlier this month accepted the major recommendations of the sub-group on CSS rationalisation, including limiting the total number of schemes to 30 and changing the sharing pattern between the Centre and the states.

She called the Modi government "the most arrogant" and said the Centre's Kashmir policy and diplomacy were "disasters".

"This is the most arrogant government I have ever seen. This is the reason behind Jammu and Kashmir issue turning into a disaster. Their diplomacy is a disaster. Pakistan issue has become worse because of the Centre's failure.

"In the name of external affairs, you have only foreign trips."

"Modi went for a surprise visit to Pakistan on their prime minister's birthday. But only bad things happened after that," said Banerjee while referring to the January terror attack in Punjab's Pathankot city that came days after Modi's dramatic visit to Lahore in December 2015.

Continuing her attacks, she questioned why the schemes be named after leaders of the ruling party at the Centre when the states have to pay "most of the funds".

The Chief Minister said that except for finance, railways, defence and external affairs, there was no need for any other central ministry.

Banerjee said the motive behind the move was to deprive states where the BJP was not in power and expressed strong reservation over the "union government's bid to monitor the state treasury".

"They have formed a public financial management system whose purpose is to the track the expenditure made by the states. Why do they want to monitor the state treasury? From media to education, the Centre is trying to control everything. They are trying to take control of an elected government," she said.

Banerjee, who is the Trinamool Congress supremo, said President Pranab Mukherjee's intervention would be sought against the Centre's arbitrary action.

"Modi is running a dictatorship; the country's people have lost their independence under him. This is a dangerous red signal to stop democracy. The situation is worse than Emergency.

"We will seek the President's intervention against the Centre's continuous attacks on democracy and federalism. If the Centre does not correct its course, we will be forced to hit the streets," added Banerjee.
New Delhi: Outspoken BJP leader Subramanian Swamy on Saturday came out in support of VK Singh, amid the ongoing row over the Army chief's affidavit against him, saying the Minister was continuously being targeted by "certain corrupt forces" and there was a "paid slander campaign" against him.

Swamy said that the government should take steps to protect Singh since as a Minister he cannot defend himself in a "slugfest with the present Chief of Army Staff" Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag.

He claimed the corrupt forces are unhappy with Singh as he as the Army chief had prevented illegal kickbacks in weapons purchase and exposed certain officials to vigilance inquries.

Singh is now the Minister of State for External Affairs.

Citing examples, he said that the culprits in Adarsh Housing Society and the Sukhna Land scam were exposed during Singh's tenure as Army chief.

"The DV (Discipline and Vigilance) Ban on appointment of certain Generals was issued after due process. No COAS (Chief of Army Staff) can issue a DV Ban on a whim," the Rajya Sabha MP said in a statement. Suhag had this week in an affidavit in Supreme Court accused Singh of victimising him when he was the Army chief.

In 2012, Suhag was placed under a discipline and vigilance (DV) ban by Singh, for his alleged "failure of command and control" after a Court of Inquiry was ordered into an operation carried out in Jorhat, Assam, on the night of 20-21 December, 2011 by the 3 Corps Intelligence and Surveillance Unit.

Suhag, who was the then General Officer Commanding of the unit, said the imposition of DV ban on him and issuance of a show cause notice by the then COAS "was illegal and premeditated".

Swamy said that DV Ban is a matter which is examined by not just the Vigilance Branch but also by MoD at the highest levels.

Only after these three bodies recommend DV ban, can the process be initiated, he said.

"The most recent attempt to slander Gen Singh for the vigilance inquiry was so ordered against Lt Gen D S Suhag in May 2012 and not by Gen V K Singh as part of the alleged personal animosity between them," he said.

Swamy said the government should take steps to protect Singh from this "paid slander campaign" since being a Minister, he cannot defend himself in a slugfest with the present Army chief.
Washington: Aiming to make a dent in the support base of his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has urged the African-American community, which had steadfastly backed the former in primaries, to join his campaign for a "better future".

"Tonight, I am asking for the vote of every African-American citizen in this country who wants a better future," Trump on Friday said at an election rally in Michigan during which he alleged that Clinton has done "nothing for them".

"No group in America has been more harmed by Hillary Clinton's policies than African-Americans. If Hillary Clinton's goal was to inflict pain on the African-American community, she couldn't have done a better job," Trump said.

Latest polls suggest that Clinton has support of over 90 percent of African-Americans, while Trump has little or negligible support in the large community where unemployment rate is very high and so is poverty.

"Look at how much African-American communities are suffering from democratic control. To those I say the follow, what do you have to lose by trying something new like Trump? What do you have to lose?" he asked amidst huge applause from the audience.

"Look, what do you have to lose? You live in your poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs, 58 percent of your youth is unemployed, what the hell do you have to lose? And at the end of four years, I guarantee you, that I will get over 95 percent of the African-American vote, I promise you; because I will produce for the African-Americans," Trump said.

The Clinton campaign was quick to criticise Trump over his alleged past history against the community.

"Donald Trump asks what the African-American community has to lose by voting for him. The answer is everything from a man who questions the citizenship of the first African-American President, courts white supremacists, and has been sued for housing discrimination against communities of colour," said Hillary for America Director of State Campaigns and Political Engagement Marlon Marshall.

"Trump painting the entire community as living in poverty with no jobs continues to show he is completely out of touch with the African American community," Marshall said.

In his speech, Trump alleged that the Democrats have just taken advantage of their votes. "And once the election's over, they go back to their palaces in Washington and, you know what, they do nothing for you, just remember it," he said.

"So you have nothing to lose, one thing we know for sure is that if you keep voting for the same people, you will keep getting the same, exactly, the same result. My administration will go to work for you as no one has ever done before  we will work. We will bring back jobs. We will work," he insisted.

"By contrast, the one thing every item in Hillary Clinton's agenda has in common is that it takes jobs and opportunities away from African-American workers. It takes jobs away from all workers, because your companies are leaving Michigan, your companies are leaving every single state in our union. They are going to Mexico; they're going everywhere but here," Trump noted.

"Hillary Clinton supports open borders, which means many things, but it means people pour in and take your jobs, whether you like it or don't like it, they take your jobs. Her fierce opposition to school choice; you need choice. You have to get your children into good schools. You do that through competition. You need choice," he said.

Trump said America must reject the bigotry of Hillary Clinton, who sees communities of colour only as votes, not as human beings worthy of a better future.

"Hillary Clinton would rather provide a job to a refugee from overseas, than to give that job to unemployed African-American youth in cities like Detroit, who have become refugees in their own country," he said.

"It's time to get our country back to work and that includes an all-out effort to help young African-Americans get the good paying jobs that they deserve," Trump said.
Washington: A little-known foreign policy adviser of Donald Trump had praised Russian President Vladimir Putin during a meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi had with US experts and think tanks in June, according to a media report.

Such a meeting between Modi and top American foreign policy experts and think tanks representing both the Clinton and Trump Campaigns was held at the Blair House when the Prime Minister visited Washington DC in June.

According to The Washington Post, which reported about this of-the-record meeting earlier this month, such a remark by a US foreign policy expert in a meeting with a foreign leader stunned those present at the Blair House.

"In early June, a little-known adviser to Donald Trump stunned a gathering of high-powered Washington foreign policy experts meeting with the visiting prime minister of India, going off topic with effusive praise for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Trump," the daily said.

"The adviser, Carter Page, hailed Putin as stronger and more reliable than President (Barack) Obama, according to three people who were present at the closed-door meeting at Blair House -- and then touted the positive effect a Trump presidency would have on US-Russia relations," it said.

A month later, Page dumbfounded foreign policy experts again by giving another speech harshly critical of US policy  this time in Moscow, the daily said.

The Clinton Campaign yesterday used 'The Post' story to allege that members of the Trump campaign have connections with the Putin regime in Russia.

"Carter Page, Trump's pro-Putin foreign policy adviser, built his career on deals with Russia's state owned gas company, Gazprom, and travelled to Moscow just last month," the Clinton Campaign alleged in a lengthy statement issued after the Trump Campaign chairman Paul Manafort resigned amid reports of his alleged links with pro-Russia elements in Ukraine.
Washington: Previously unpublished documents released by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden confirm that some of the spy agency's top-secret code has been leaked or hacked, The Intercept reported on Saturday.

The online news site's editors include journalists that worked with Snowden to publicise his notorious 2013 NSA leak revealing the extent of government snooping on private data.

The Intercept said Snowden had given the site a classified draft NSA manual on how to implant malware  malicious code that is used to monitor or control someone else's computer.

Whether code published online by a mysterious group called "Shadow Hackers" is genuine has been the source of much debate in recent days.

The NSA has steadfastly declined to comment on whether it has been the victim of a security breach.

Over the weekend, the Shadow Hackers posted two sets of files, one that is freely accessible and another that remains encrypted.

They said they would release this additional information subject to raising one million Bitcoins  digital currency, in this case worth about $575 million  through an online auction.

According to The Intercept, the draft NSA manual contains instructions to NSA operators telling them to use a specific string of characters associated with the SECONDDATE malware program.

The exact same characters appear throughout parts of the Shadow Brokers leak, The Intercept said.

According to The New York Times, much of the code was created to peer through the computer firewalls of foreign powers like China, Iran and Russia.

Such access would enable the NSA to plant malware in rivals' systems and monitor  or even attack  their networks.

Whoever obtained the code would have had to break into NSA servers that store the files, The New York Times said.
Dhaka: A new Bangladeshi militant outfit, aligned to the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen (JMB), has prepared a list of local Hindus and secularists, and finalised plans to kill a Hindu doctor, police said.

The Ansar Rajshahi outfit has finalised plans to kill Nirendranath Sarker. The members communicate with each other through a secured messaging application, police said.

The outfit has prepared a list of local Hindus and secularists who they plan to target.

Absconding JMB leader Shariful Islam Khalid, a Rajshahi University student who was involved in the murder of his teacher Rezaul Karim in April this year, is one of the organisers of the Ansar Rajshahi, the Dhaka Tribune reported.

They came to know about the outfit after questioning two cousins of Shariful  Aminul Islam Rumi and Enamul Huq Sabuj.

The duo were arrested on Monday night and produced before a Rajshahi court the following day with a five-day remand prayer for each. The hearing may take place next week, according to court sources.

During interrogation, Rumi disclosed the names of three of his associates in Ansar Rajshahi.

Since last year, the JMB members have killed at least seven Hindu priests across the country while threatened several dozen Hindus and Christians with death. The outfit also launched attacks on three Christians in the northern districts. Two of them were killed.

Known as a stronghold of outlawed JMB, Baghmara saw a deadly bomb attack on a local Ahmadiyya mosque on 26 December last year that killed the JMB suicide attacker and injured 10 devotees.

In 2004, JMB second-in-command Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai established a reign of terror in the area by killing and torturing scores of people.

The authorities on 29 July announced Tk 1 lakh bounty for Shariful and another JMB militant  Nazrul Islam alias Bike Hassan who was wanted in 11 cases filed over the recent targeted killings including Prof Rezaul murder. Nazrul was killed in an alleged gunfight with the DB police in Rajshahi on 1 August.

Rajshahi Police Superintendent Moazzem Hossain on Tuesday said that they had found a secured messaging app on their phones.

"We have got 58-page printed document of their conversations," Hossain said.

Through the app, Rumi recently asked a member of his group whether he would launch the attack on the Hindu doctor as he had refused to convert to Islam. He, however, sought an associate since the location of the target was close to a police station.

In another communication, Sabuj told someone that he wanted to carry the operational cost of killing the targeted Hindu doctor.
In less than 80 days, the United States will hold general elections. While the focus is obviously on the combative and controversial Presidential race, for the Indian-American community a bit of history could be in the making in the city of Seattle and its suburbs.

That is where Washington States 7th Congressional district is located and on the night of 8 November, as votes have been counted, it could propel the first-ever Indian-American woman into the House of Representatives: Pramila Jayapal of the Democratic Party, who is currently a state senator in Washington. (Fellow Democrat Kamala Harris, the favourite to win a US Senate seat from California, has a Chennai-born mother but is widely identified as African-American).

Three Indian-American men have so far been elected to the House  the late Dilip Singh Saund from California, Bobby Jindal from Louisiana who went on to become that states Governor, and Ami Bera, who is up for re-election from his California seat.

Meanwhile, 51-year-old Jayapal is well placed to make her breakthrough. In a telephone interview, Chennai-born Jayapal, whose family is originally from Kerala, said, It is important we have more Indian-Americans and very important that we have a woman (in the House). We are equally qualified and its a battle not only for Indian Americans but, in general, women are not represented at the levels they should be. Then you add race or ethnicity on to that and it gets even worse in terms of representation. I think its very significant. Ive seen it and Ive heard it: Indian-American women who say to me, If I see you doing this, I can do this too.

As the primary for the seat was held earlier this month, Jayapal captured 42 percent of the vote to lead the nine-candidate field. In fact, she polled double the votes of the runner-up, who she will encounter again in November. Looks very good, she said of her prospects. Anything can happen in a general election but we are very very well positioned and we are going to get right back to work so we run the same kind of phenomenal campaign for the general.

If elected, Jayapal will replace incumbent Jim McDermott, a former co-chair of the House India Caucus and considered one of its founders. Jayapal says she will maintain that tradition of her district: I hope to not just join it but to be a leader. Jayapal visits India every year as her parents live in Bangalore.

Jayapal, though, is careful when it comes to discussing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government in New Delhi. As she says, I will say, I was concerned and I do want to watch very carefully for myself that the (Indian) government is not in any way trying to suppress religious opportunity and religious freedom for any group and I think there are times when I would have liked to see the Prime Minister taking a stronger stance.

Jayapal actually attended Modis speech to the US Congress this summer as the guest of US Senator Patty Murray. I went to hear what he had to say and I thought he did a good job, she says, of that experience. But, questions linger in her mind: In his speech in Congress, which I attended, he said many of the right things, but its a question of when something happens, can we count on the government to really protect religious minorities and I think were going to have to continue to push and make sure thats the case. At the same time, we have to do that here in the United States as well.

Those concerns are hardly surprising as Jayapal has a background in social justice activism. She arrived in America aged 16, got her undergraduate degree in English Literature, and after a couple of years working on Wall Street, went to Chicagos Northwestern University for an MBA. But it was 9/11 that proved her political awakening: When 9/11 happened, I ended up starting this non-profit organisation and taking on the Bush Administration over illegal deportations and civil liberty abuses. That was sort of the entry point into the political world and after doing that for 15 years and trying to make policy changes happen on the outside, I decided it was time for me to actually go on the inside. In her first run for elected office, she won her state senate seat last year.

Seattle, of course, is also a place where Indian-Americans have found much success, especially in the technology sector. In its suburb of Redmond, Satya Nadella leads Microsoft. It could deliver another first for the community this November in sending Jayapal to the US Congress.
Beirut: Syrian government warplanes were again in the air over the mainly Kurdish-held city of Hasakeh early on Saturday despite a US warning against any new strikes that might endanger its military advisers, a monitor said.

It was not immediately clear whether the aircraft, which were in the skies throughout the night, had carried out any bombing runs as there were heavy artillery exchanges on the ground, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Deadly clashes erupted between pro-government militia and the US-backed Kurdish forces on Wednesday. The following day, the regime launched its first ever air strikes against the Kurds.

The unprecedented strikes against six Kurdish positions in the northeastern city prompted the US-led coalition to scramble aircraft to protect US special operations forces advisers deployed with the Kurdish forces.

It was the first time the coalition had confirmed deploying warplanes against the Syrian air force.

Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis warned that "the Syrian regime would be well-advised not to do things that place them (coalition forces) at risk."

The Observatory said there was no let-up in the fighting on the ground which has left 39 people dead since Wednesday, 23 of them civilians, including nine children.

"There were heavy clashes, artillery fire and rocket attacks throughout the night and ongoing in the morning," Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

Around two-thirds of Hasakeh is controlled by Kurdish forces, but the rest is in the hands of pro-government militia.

The regime and Kurdish forces share a common enemy in the Islamic State jihadist group, which controls most of the Euphrates valley to the south, but there have been tensions between them in Hasakeh that have sometimes led to clashes.

The Pentagon said no coalition casualties were reported in yesterday's strikes by two Syrian SU-24s, and US special operations advisers had been moved to a safe location.

He said coalition aircraft were now carrying out additional combat patrols in the region.

The Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) are a key US ally in the fight against Islamic State (IS).

Washington regards them as the most effective fighting force on the ground against the jihadists in Syria and has provided them with air cover and military advisers.
Riyadh: The US military has slashed the number of intelligence advisers directly supporting the Saudi-led coalition's air war in Yemen, the US Navy said on Saturday.

The reassignment of personnel, around June, occurred because "there was not the same sort of requests coming in for assistance" from the Saudis, Fifth Fleet spokesman Lieutenant Ian McConnaughey told AFP from Bahrain.

Saudi Arabia has faced repeated criticism from rights groups over civilian casualties in its 17-month-long campaign against rebels in Yemen.

US officials have regularly urged their major Middle East ally to avoid harming non-combatants in Yemen.

But McConnaughey said the US reassignment of personnel does not affect their ability to support the Saudis and is a more efficient allocation of resources.

"That's the main reason behind it, and it's based on the amount of requests that we receive from the Saudis."

He said the United States now has "a limited number, less than five, that are working directly on the advisory cell that

we have here."

That number is down from about 45, in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, at its peak. The joint cell was established around the start of coalition operations in March in 2015, McConnaughey said.

The Arab coalition began air raids and later sent in ground forces to support the internationally recognised government of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi after Huthi rebels and their allies overran much of Yemen.

Saudi Arabia says the rebels are backed by its Shiite regional rival Iran.

The coalition has told AFP that it uses highly accurate laser and GPS-guided weapons  many of them supplied by the US  and that it verifies targets many times in order to avoid civilian casualties.

Yet allegations of strikes on civilian facilities have continued. Paris-based Doctors Without Borders (MSF) on Thursday accused the coalition of "indiscriminate bombings" and said it had lost confidence in the alliance's ability to prevent fatal attacks on its facilities.

MSF decided to withdraw staff from six hospitals after 19 people died in an air strike Monday on an MSF-supported hospital in Yemen's rebel-held northern province of Hajja.

That was the fourth and deadliest attack yet on an MSF facility during the war, the charity said.

US State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau expressed deep concern after reports of the hospital strike
Macau Governmental Guidelines for 2016 specifically set the protection of the rights and interests of resident workers as a priority. This priority is outlined as to be accomplished by the strict implementation of a mechanism to replace non-resident workers with resident workers. Thus, if in previous years the cut of blue cards was just word on the street and hearsay, there is now no doubt that this is a promise that the Government will be keeping. Macaus employers have been enduring, more than ever, the hardships of running their businesses with the limitations that such a replacement of non-resident workers implies.

Its no secret that Macau with its steady and consistent unemployment rate of less than 2% for the past few years, is a full employment market. Hiring has become the worst nightmare of Macaus employers and retaining workers is a losing battle, with the turnover rate of employees going through the roof. This means that small companies, who already serve as launching platforms for recent graduates, have no chance to compete with the big employers. The fact is that as the year continues, the shock of seeing the renewal of their blue cards denied (now) by the Macau Labour Affairs Bureau seems to have subsided and big employers are coping with their loss at the expense of small employers.

The limited offer that the market provides is literally being sacked by the big quotaless employers, who are poaching local skilled workers from small and medium companies, that cannot compete with the high salaries and conditions offered to their resigning employees. In addition, employers are complaining that the bar has become so high that even hiring inexperienced workers is difficult and costly, as local workers have fast become aware of their scarcity and are taking advantage of the shortage of manpower. The only option available to cope with this shortage  receiving authorization to hire non-resident workers  has become an almost impossible mission in the tiny bubble that Macaus employment market has created. Obstacles such as the virtual ratio of local to non-residents, the silent obligation to promote local workers, the alleged existence of locals looking for (apparently) all kinds of positions offered to the local market, alongside many other (already) standardized arguments used by the authorities as grounds to deny the quota requests, are becoming increasingly harder to surpass. Moreover, if this is difficult for local companies, who strived to gain their place in the market and are playing at home, its even more difficult for foreign companies. Many of these are actually part of multinational groups who are trying to set their foot in the territory and invest locally but are faced with the limitations that a market without workers offers as well as the added hindrances that the protectionism of such a labor force poses.

It is well known that protectionist policies tend to lead to several negative effects, which can include a lack of competiveness, a reduction of productivity, inefficiencies, stagnation. Ultimately and on a more personal level, the benefits that workers draw from protectionism are muffled by the marasmus that such politics tend to create. In other words, workers who are put in such a bubble and do not have to compete or depend on their skills wont be able to grow as much professionally as workers who are exposed to competitive environments. As for employers, protectionism can lead to a shift of power where the employer no longer holds the control and is at the mercy of workers who can easily move on to another employer without any sense of loyalty or any other duties traditionally imbibed in the work relationship.

So an urgent question to be posed: is Macaus Government increased protectionism towards local workers really paying off or is it, in the long run just depriving local workers of growing professionally while in the process, killing the business of small and medium companies? Isolda Brasil, Associate, MdME
The Education and Youth Affairs Bureau (DSEJ) has estimated that there will be a shortage of mainstreaming places in local secondary schools for students with special educational needs (SENs), especially next year.

However, the head of the Centre of Psycho-Pedagogical Support and Special Education, Chow Pui Leng, reiterated that there is sufficient communication with schools. She also believes that more schools will be willing to provide additional places for SENs after sufficient preparations have been undertaken.

[For] the issue regarding [mainstreaming] places in schools [for SENs], we can frankly tell you that there is a short supply, especially for the junior and senior secondary [SENs]. Fortunately, although there is a shortage, no student is queuing for places, she said.

Ms Chow made the comment during a press conference yesterday after the Macau governments Education Committee.

The head of the centre added that only two students in the early stage of child education are still searching for school places.

Mainstreaming is an educational practice that introduces SENs into regular classes. This practice is based on the belief that by allowing SENs to learn alongside regular students, the former will be able to achieve a higher academic performance, and acquire better social skills. DSEJ believes that it is optimal to have a maximum of three SENs in a mainstreaming classroom of 25 students.

Currently, there are more than 1,300 SENs in Macau for the 2013/2014 school year, with around 600 in mainstreaming classes, constituting around 1.89 percent of the total student population. DSEJ has observed a growth of about 100 SENs in each school year.

Ms Chow suggested that given increased social awareness and the fact that more parents are paying attention to SENs, DSEJ foresees a lack of school places for junior and senior secondary students in future.

Nevertheless, the head of the centre said that school principals were demonstrating great concern for more places for SENs in mainstreaming classes.

Macau has more than 100 schools. It takes every school to admit a few of [the SENs], maybe one or two of them, then all the SENs [who are eligible can be admitted into mainstreaming classes], she said.

Ms Chou reiterated that as long as schools have the confidence and enough human resources, all SENs who can be placed in mainstreaming classes should be able to find places in regular schools.

Among all the local schools, the nine public schools are bearing a heavier burden in terms of admitting SENs. There are also 28 private schools that provide mainstreaming places for SENs. Ms Chow said that many principals told them that the decision to provide mainstreaming places for SENs cannot be made only by the school administration or teachers, but that the whole school, including other students and parents, must understand the process.

DSEJ has been doing school-

based promotion on mainstreaming in recent years. Ms Chow said that schools would only be confident to admit SENs once they are well-prepared.

We have heard positive responses during the recent meetings with the heads of schools. Many schools are willing to launch the relevant promotion in their schools first and gather enough staff members before offering mainstreaming places to SENs, she said.

In terms of the amount of teachers specialised in SENs, Ms Chou believes that there is no shortage of this type of teaching staff. DSEJ will also continue to foster more SEN specialised teachers through measures such as providing scholarships.

The Bureaus statistics showed that there are 109 teaching staff in the 2013/2014 school year in Macau who specialize in special needs education.
STANLEY  When I searched for hikes in the Sawtooth Wilderness for a recent camping trip, my eyes were quickly drawn to postcard spots like Sawtooth Lake and Alice Lake. Then reality set in: I wasnt likely to get there with an 8-year-old and a 70-year-old for hiking partners.

The solution: We took the shuttle boat across Redfish Lake, a scenic ride to the edge of the wilderness created in 1972. We entered without a destination in mind because those were all too far for our group. Instead, we set out to explore as much as we could. And it was still well worth the trip.

The trail is fairly mellow and in great shape aside from the fallen trees that need to be jumped, ducked or dodged. It features stunning views of the Sawtooth Mountains on both sides as you walk into a canyon, with Redfish Lake Creek adding some photo-worthy cascading water along the way.

One of the highlights for us was a series of massive boulders (bigger than SUVs) that were strewn through the forest in one section of the trail. The most notable rock smashed into two large trees  breaking them at their trunks  with the nose of the rock sticking out toward the trail. It looked like a crashed spaceship.

The trail is popular  even on a weekday  and we found an interesting mix of users. We saw children of all ages (including an infant being carried). Large families. A dad and daughter on a backpacking trip. Three guys packing paddleboards in for a week of fishing. And lots of dogs (leashes are required from July 1 through Labor Day).

Back at the dock, on the way out, a dip in the lake became a popular way to pass the time waiting for the boat  and cool off from the hike.

Stats: We hiked in 2.6 miles on the trail toward Alpine Lake (its about twice that far to the lake). The round trip covered 5.2 miles and about 650 feet of elevation gain.

Getting there: Redfish Lake Lodge is 7 miles south of Stanley, off of Idaho 75. The shuttle boat costs $16 for adults round trip, $4 each way for kids 6 and younger and $3 for dogs. Its a 10-minute ride. Boats leave the marina on demand (two or more passengers) and pick up guests at the trailhead on a set schedule.
TWIN FALLS  Officers with the Transportation Security Administration found two firearms in the carry-on luggage of two passengers at two airports in Idaho Thursday morning during routine screening at the security checkpoint.

TSA officers discovered the first firearm around 6 a.m. at Magic Valley Regional Airport in Twin Falls. A woman flying to Salt Lake City had a .380 caliber Sig Sauer P238 pistol loaded with seven rounds of ammunition in her carry-on bag. Four hours later, TSA officers at Boise Airport found a .40 caliber Sig Sauer gun loaded with 10 rounds of ammunition in the carry-on bag of a man flying to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

Authorities don't believe the two incidents are related.

In each instance, when the TSA officer saw the firearm image on the x-ray screen, TSA notified local law enforcement, which responded to the security checkpoint. In the Twin Falls incident, the passenger was not cited. The Boise Police Department cited the passenger at the Boise airport on the state charge of firearm at checkpoint.

This is the first firearm TSA has discovered this year in carry-on luggage at the Twin Falls airport. It is the ninth firearm discovered at BOI. Nationwide in 2016, TSA has found more than 2,000 guns in carry-on bags at airport security checkpoints.

In 2015, TSA across the country detected 2,653 firearms in passenger carry-on bags. In 2015, TSA officers in Boise found 15 firearms in carry-on bags at the security checkpoint. No firearms were discovered at TWF in 2015.

"These incidents serve as reminders that individuals are responsible for what that they bring to the security checkpoint," a TSA statement said. "TSA advises passengers to look through their bags thoroughly before coming to the airport to make sure there are no illegal or prohibited items."

People who bring firearms to the checkpoint can be charged with a crime and fined up to $7,500.
Cassia County

Felony sentencings

Elisa Solares; felony possession of controlled substance, guilty, $535.50 costs, $100 restitution, 30 months probation, two years determinate time, two years indeterminate time, 26 days credited, penitentiary suspended; misdemeanor false information provided on own identity or anothers to an investigating law enforcement officer, dismissed on motion of prosecutor.

Ramon Flores Jr.; two counts felony burglary, dismissed on motion of prosecutor; felony burglary, dismissed on motion of prosecutor; felony burglary, guilty, $245.50 costs, two years six months determinate time, four years indeterminate time, retained jurisdiction, penitentiary suspended; two counts felony burglary, dismissed on motion of prosecutor; two counts felony burglary, dismissed on motion of prosecutor; felony grand theft, dismissed on motion of prosecutor; felony attempted burglary, guilty, $245.50 court costs, two years six months determinate time, two years six months indeterminate time, retained jurisdiction, penitentiary suspended; felony robbery, dismissed by court; felony grand theft, dismissed by court.

Felony dismissal

Rafael Tyronne Mendoza; felony possession of controlled substance, dismissed on motion of prosecutor.

Driving under the influence sentencings

Ernesto Cortes-Bobadilla; misdemeanor driving under the influence, guilty, $300 fine, $202.50 costs, 90 days drivers license suspended, 12 months probation, 90 days jail, 88 days suspended, two days community service in lieu of jail time.

Steven Larry Cole; misdemeanor driving under the influence amended misdemeanor driving under the influence (second offense), guilty, $500 fine, $202.50 costs, 365 days drivers license suspended, 24 months probation, 365 days jail, 335 days suspended, two days credited, work release, report to jail 8/22/16 at noon to serve 28 days, five days community service.
TWIN FALLS  Tonja Bowcut, director of the dental assistant program at the College of Southern Idaho, has been selected by Career & Technical Educators of Idaho as post-secondary teacher of the year.

Bowcut, who has taught dental assisting for 19 years, built the CSI program from scratch. She created the curriculum, equipped a lab and recruited students.

She will go on to compete in the regional Association for Career and Technical Education competition. Regional winners can then compete at the national level.
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JEROME  Jerome parents will pay more for their childs school lunches this year.

The Jerome school board voted Thursday to increase prices for the upcoming school year, which begins Monday.

The school district is required under federal legislation to increase prices gradually until it reaches the federal reimbursement rate.

Lunch prices will increase 10 cents  up to $1.95 for elementary schoolers, and $2.20 for middle and high schoolers.
TWIN FALLS  Merari Ramirez was literally jumping up and down in late July after getting her roommate assignment for the College of Southern Idaho.

The 19-year-old was anxious to meet her future roommate, 18-year-old Annika Schank.

I got so excited, she said.

The incoming college freshmen emailed and sent text messages back and forth for weeks. Finally, they met in person Friday  move-in day at the Eagle Hall dormitory at CSIs Twin Falls campus.

Ramirez and Schank  along with several other students and their parents  waited outside Eagle Hall for the front doors to open at 10 a.m. They were ready to move in and get settled before fall semester classes begin Monday.

Eagle Hall is full, with about 250 students. And theres a fairly even split between freshmen and returning students.

CSI also manages the Northview Apartments and Eagle View Apartments.

Manager Wanda Luna wasnt available to comment Friday, but her voice message said there wasnt availability at either complex for fall semester.

Because both Ramirez and Schank hail from outside the Magic Valley, they decided to live on campus.

For me, it was a recommendation by many of the college recruiters, said Ramirez, a Challis native.

She plans to take general education classes and isnt sure what she wants to major in yet, but is interested in agriculture.

On Friday, Ramirez was excited to be on campus. But the anxiety was starting to kick in. Im most of all very nervous, she said.

She knows the campus already, though. She came to CSI as a high schooler for FFA state conferences.

Schank, whos from Meridian, said it will be great to live on campus. Youre close to everything you need.

And shes thankful she knows at least one person already  her roommate.

She plans to study agribusiness and agriculture. Shes nervous about the rigorous academics in college and knows shell have a lot of homework. But she wants to make sure to have some fun, too.

Leaving home for college is an opportunity to test her wings, she added, and see what its like living on her own.

Even though Schank will be only two hours from her parents, I cant just drive to get a hug whenever I want, she said.

Her parents had mixed emotions about sending her off to college. Its a sad day, said Annikas father, Aric Schank.

But he said CSI is a good college, and Twin Falls is a safe city. And he likes that his daughter will live on campus.

Its a little safer being in the dorm, he said.

Merari asked her father, Roberto Ramirez, what he was feeling. She translated from Spanish into English: He said hes sad too, she said, because shes his first child to leave for college.

The parking lot near Eagle Hall started filling up Friday morning as more students and their family members arrived. They rolled in suitcases full of clothing and carried boxes with items for their dorm room.

Schanks family brought two carloads full of belongings.

Resident assistant Justine Correia checked Ramirez and Schank in. Then, she took them on a tour around Eagle Hall, making frequent stops to point out areas such as the lounge with a pool table, television and gray leather sofas

In the lobby area, she said: These are the vending machines. Use at your own risk. Sometimes, she told the women, the machines take money but dont dispense anything.

The next stop: Mailboxes. Ramirez and Schank tried out their mailbox keys and discovered they already had fliers waiting for them.

Correia took them to a computer lab upstairs, where they can work on class assignments and print papers. Schank turned to her father and said: I have 500 free pages to print. Sweet.

Throughout the dorm, resident assistants gave newcomers the same reminder: bring your room key wherever you go.

Hallways leading to dorm rooms were decorated with colorful streamers. Names were written on decorative sailboat-themed name tags taped to the doors.

Ramirez and Schank unlocked their door and looked inside at the mattresses, desks and wardrobes.

After a pause in the conversation, Annika said, Do we want to start moving in, I guess?
TWIN FALLS  The city narrowed its search for a new fire chief to three finalists Aug. 4, but just two weeks later the neither of the two south-central Idaho candidates are being considered, effectively handing the job to a Nevada firefighter.

Tim Soule, a deputy fire chief at East Fork Fire Protection District in Douglas County, Nev., is the last finalist standing for the open chief position created by the recent retirement of Ron Clark, a 40-year veteran of the Twin Falls Fire Department who served as chief the last 18 years.

And while the job is not Soules yet  city spokesman Joshua Palmer said the process will continue on with Soule just as it would have if the other candidates were still in the running  it seems more than likely Soule will get the position.

Sun Valley Assistant Fire Chief Charles Butterfield dropped out of consideration after accepting a job at another department, while the city ended the interview process with Jason Keller, chief of Rock Creek Rural Fire Protection District in eastern Twin Falls County, over concerns about legal proceedings against him.

Keller, a former Twin Falls firefighter who has been chief at Rock Creek since 2011, is facing allegations that he violated Idahos Whistleblower Act.

Former training Capt. Brent Blamires claimed in a civil lawsuit that he was fired for blowing the whistle on Kellers driving a fire district vehicle while under the influence, which led to Kellers week-long suspension last August, the suit says.

Over the course of the past several days, allegations against Mr. Keller became too much of a concern for us to continue to consider him a candidate, Palmer said Friday.

So with Butterfield and Keller out of consideration, that leaves Soule, whos been a deputy fire chief for five years and before that worked as a firefighter in Montana and Ohio.

Im excited for the opportunity, Soule said in a phone interview Friday. I would love to be part of a tremendous community like Twin Falls.

Soule had not heard the news Friday about the other two finalists dropping out, but said he expects and hopes the city puts him through just as rigorous of a process as if there were other finalists. Palmer said the city plans to do just that and wont simply hand the position to Soule.

Were trying to find the best qualified candidate, Palmer said. The last thing we want is someone who may not be the best fit. Our city leadership will continue the process for as long as it takes to find the best fit. We dont want to make the wrong hire. We try to hire the best, and if its anything less than expected, well extend the process.

But Soule appears to be the type of community-minded leader the city desires.

He began his professional career as a clinical social worker in Ohio after earning a masters degree from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, he said. Part of his job took him to the Montana wilderness to work with chemically-dependent youth.

Back in Ohio, he longed for more outdoor work and wanted to be more involved in the community, so he became a volunteer firefighter.

I fell in love with the fire service, Soule said, so much so that he decided to change professions; after a year of training, he was hired full time at a department in the Cleveland suburbs.

From there he joined the fire department in Kalispell, Mont., where he spent 11 years, and in 2011 he took a deputy fire chief job at East Fork Fire Protection District in Nevada.

I love the fire service, Soule said. The fellowship and brotherhood has been tremendous.

At his department in Nevada, Soule oversees the training and safety division, and he recently completed the National Fire Academys Executive Fire Officer Program in Maryland. But despite Soule seeing a move to chief as a logical next step for me, he said hes still just one of the guys whose least favorite place is behind a desk.

Im still an active paramedic, I still run calls, Soule said. I like washing trucks and eating with the guys.

If Soule is hired, hell come to Twin Falls with his wife, Bobbie, their two dogs and a cat. His two children and three grandchildren live in Kalispell.

The next step for the city will be to bring Soule here to meet with community members and stakeholders, including the fire department staff, Palmer said. After those meetings, the city staff will decide if Soule is the right fit.

Soule confirmed that next week hell come to Twin Falls to have those interviews and said hes excited to get to know the community.

I was extremely impressed by Twin Falls Vision 2035, and by the leadership philosophy of the city, Soule said.

Palmer said theres no timetable to make a decision.

We want to make sure we have a good fit rather than have a deadline.
Cheer

Congratulations to Dr. Jon Myers, who this week summited Borah Peak, Idahos highest mountain at 12,667 feet.

A doctor at St. Lukes Magic Valley Medical Center, Myers climbed the mountain to help raise money for a Balance Master, a piece of rehabilitation equipment. The same device was instrumental in helping Myers recover after a car accident nearly killed him in his early 20s.

That accident motivated Myers, who still has a physical impairment, to become a doctor, and his journey from that day in an upside-down car to the moment he reached the peak this week has been chronicled in the Times-News.

He hopes the same device will help his patients recover just as it did for him.

Myers has done the hard work and crossed the finish line. He met his goal to raise $125,000 for the machine.

Congratulations are also in order for all who donated to his campaign. Not only did you help Myers, you helped countless others who will now face a less daunting recovery thanks to the new machine.

Jeer

Councilman Greg Lanting should know better.

This week, the former mayor apologized publicly  and repeatedly  to the family of the alleged victim in the Fawnbrook incident, where two boys have been charged with sexually assaulting a 5-year-old girl.

Lanting made inaccurate statements about the girls father on social media.

The incident has become a lightning rod in the debate over refugee resettlement and the local governments role in the investigation. As weve said repeatedly, speculation and outright lies about what really happened have clouded the debate.

Lantings remarks on social media only poured more gas on the fire  and it renewed sentiment that the City Council is out of touch or, worse, attempting to downplay or cover up what happened to the girl.

There is no cover up, of course, but try telling that now to people who still havent been convinced by prosecutors, police and other authorities handling the case. Lanting hurt the credibility of those who, so far, have been on the side of truth.

Still, we must give the councilman credit for his apology. It was sincere, and he followed up personally with the family after apologizing publicly at this weeks City Council meeting.

We can only hope now that his apology has been accepted, the councilman has learned his lesson, and the community can move on.

Cheer

Mini-Cassia law enforcement agencies deserve a giant thanks for the way they handled a dangerous standoff earlier this week in Heyburn.

An armed man barricaded himself inside a home Wednesday evening as the Mini-Cassia Drug Task Force and federal marshals attempted to serve a warrant. Police heard two gunshots, and they backed off and surrounded the home.

Police showed incredible restraint as Jeremiah Schmidt, the 29-year-old inside, appeared several times on the homes front porch brandishing a rifle and pistol. A single trigger squeeze could have ended the standoff  and Schmidts life  at any moment.

Instead, police demonstrated serious mettle and patience. It took nearly 20 hours, but Schmidt finally surrendered. Hes alive to face justice, and not a single shot was fired from a police gun.
iStock/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- Meet President Obamas closest neighbor.



Just across the street from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue sits a modest white tent at the edge of Lafayette Square that supporters have taken to calling 1601 Pennsylvania Avenue. Just outside the tent sits Philipos Melaku-Bello, a peace activist who, along with a group of volunteers, keeps vigil at the tent 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.



And it has been going on this way for 35 years.



Melaku-Bello is continuing what is widely recognized as the longest continuous protest in U.S. history, just feet away from the nations highest office. For over three decades, the encampment has served as an anti-war protest against the use of nuclear weapons.



The vigil is for world peace, against nuclear and atomic weapons, against human rights violations, Melaku-Bello told ABC News.



Sitting beneath a large umbrella, Melaku-Bello is flanked by harrowing photos of children affected by nuclear radiation, and a bright yellow sign that reads Live By The Bomb, Die By The Bomb.



Melaku-Bello is the primary caretaker of the "peace camp" first established by activist William Thomas, who began the vigil in August 1981 to promote peace and love in the face of nuclear proliferation. Thomas, who died in 2009, was joined in the effort by a group of supporters and, prominently, a woman by the name of Concepcion Picciotto, who became the primary caretaker of the encampment until she died in January. Melaku-Bello has taken primary responsibility for the vigil since Picciotto's death.



Come rain or shine, blizzard or hurricane conditions, Melaku-Bello and a team of volunteers keep constant watch over the encampment.



What do we do? We survive, Melaku-Bello said of how he and his team endure sometimes harsh weather conditions. Were protesting so that nobody else will have to die by the hands of any countrys military.



One of the tent volunteers must be present around the clock, or the Secret Service has the authority to remove the encampment. There has been at least one incident where a volunteer left the tent unattended overnight in 2013, resulting in the camp's temporary destruction before it was again allowed to be resurrected. And every four years, the structure is temporarily moved back a ways for the presidential inauguration parade.



As for his interactions with the neighborhood commander-in-chief, Melaku-Bello wouldn't disclose which, if any, presidents have actually made the short walk across Pennsylvania Avenue to acknowledge the activists' presence. But he does have a favorite former neighbor: The one that has been most receptive is Bill Clinton, Melaku-Bello said of the 42nd president.



Of his current neighbor, he said, theres another 70 percent of what Barack Obama does that I love, though adding that he is not pleased with the presidents increase in military funding for nuclear weapons.



As for the Obamas Nobel Peace Prize, I should have gotten it! Concepcion should have gotten it, he joked.



The vigils message has also been heard in Congress. Each year since 1994, Rep. Eleanor Norton, D-D.C., has introduced a version of the Nuclear Disarmament and Economic Conversion Act (HR 1976), advocating for the dismantlement of nuclear weapons around the world.



Melaku-Bello hopes the vigil will continue to inspire the next generation and motivate action against nuclear warfare.



Talk to your congressman. Talk to your senator, he said. Tell them to sign HR 1976 for the United Nations to eliminate nuclear weapons from the face of the Earth.



Copyright  2016, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
An Egyptian police conscript was killed Friday and five others were injured by improvised explosive device (IED) in Al-Arish, in North Sinai, reports say.

The conscript, 22, was killed after the explosive went off in the western part of Arish.

Egyptian security forces have been fighting insurgency from Islamists since 2013; year incumbent President al-Sisi toppled Islamist President Mohamed Morsi.

Two other army conscripts were killed early Thursday by snipers while on duty at a checkpoint near Al-Arish in North Sinai, al Ahram reports.

Confrontations between militants from the Islamic State (IS) group and security forces have caused death of hundreds of militants, state figures say. More than 500 state forces have also been killed since 2013.

Egyptian authorities early this month announced the eradication of Abu Doaa al-Ansari, Chief of IS in the Sinai, in an army-led operation. State-run media al Ahram Thursday claimed the militants confirmed the death of their leader.

Abu Doaa al-Ansari has been reportedly replaced by Sheikh Abdullah.
The former rebel leader and former South-Sudanese First Vice President, Riek Machar, has left South Soudan to the Democratic Republic of Congo, a statement from his office said on Thursday.

According to Farhan Haq, a United Nations spokesman, Machar was helped during his evacuation by the UN Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO) before he was handed over to the Congolese government.

MONUSCO was informed yesterday (Wednesday) of Machars presence in the DRC and the Congolese authorities requested MONUSCO to facilitate his evacuation and transfer. He was handed over to the authorities of the DRC, Farhan Haq said.

The operation took place near South-Sudans border with Machars consent, the Spokesman said.

We provided the medical help he needed, he said without giving further details.

Machar who is Chairman and commander-in-chief of the SPLM/SPLMA quitted the country following a botched attempt to assassinate him and abrogate the Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (ARCISS), a statement of Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement (SPLM) said on Wednesday.

In July, clashes between Machar forces and those of President Salva Kiir claimed over 300 lives and prompted fighters loyal to the former rebel leader to flee the city. The fighting has resulted in a humanitarian crisis with people abandoning the city for fear of a return to war.

As of August 17, an estimated 37,200 are at United Nations protection of civilians (PoC) sites across South Sudan due to the renewed violence that created insecurity and hunger in the country.

President Kiir relieved Machar of his post as vice president and appointed the Mines minister, Taban Deng Gai as first vice president in the interim government.
Amnesty International and human rights groups in Ghana called for the arrest of the founder and leader of the International Gods Way Church, Bishop Daniel Obinim, for publicly flogging two members of his congregation in the West African nation.

The well-known Ghanaian pastor is trending on social media after a video showed him whipping a pregnant young woman and a man during church service for engaging in premarital sex.

Bishop Daniel Obinim, who is not new to controversies, was captured live on the churchs satellite television channel with a belt in one hand and a microphone in the other questioning while whipping the young shirtless man and the fleeing woman.

Amnesty International and other Rights groups say the Bishop violated the rights of the two congregants.

We think that Bishop Obinim is going beyond his jurisdiction at this time. This is a criminal offence [and] he should be arrested by the Police, Director of Amnesty International Ghana, Lawrence Amesu, said.

The Ministry of Gender, Children, and Social Protection has since lodged a formal complaint to the Accra Regional office of the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service for immediate action.

Meanwhile, the Church has justified the public flogging, insisting that Bishop punished the two members to serve as a deterrent to other fornicating congregants.

In a similar video last year, the Bishop stepped on the belly of a pregnant woman in an apparent bid to rid the pregnancy of evil spirits.
"Westralia shall be free" they sang on the streets and in the town halls in 1933 as the people of WA prepared for a referendum that had been on the simmer since Federation in 1901.





A 2014 study byshows that in 50 different colonies/territories since 1860, 88% of the time they chose independence as their option. Very very few chose to become integrated into their colonizer, it was almost natural to seek their own fortune and destiny, even if it might lead to a time of difficulty. The study looked at places such as Samoa, East Timor, Mongolia, Iceland and Iraq. Given the way in which independence is often imagined in places such as Guam that remain colonies today, it is intrigued to see how normal seeking independence was in the past, but how today it feels so fearful.Most people would argue that the resistance that people in Guam feel today is tied to the island being too political immature or the island being too small or too far away from the centers of power. All of these points make some sense, but not enough to really build up the type of fear that people experience when discussing the notion of Guam becoming independent. As the United Nations has long argued, so-called "political immaturity" is never an excuse for a place remaining colonized. There is always work to be done and things to improve, but that excuse was used for centuries by every shade of colonizer and while it may feel so terrifyingly real, it truly isn't. The other two points are tied to preconceived notions that independent countries are huge and massive like the United States and if you aren't as large or imposing as they are, then you should just shut up and be grateful that someone wants your island for military bases and is willing to give you food stamps and student loans in the process. But if we look at the world today, there are many countries that are small just like Guam is, some of them are poor, some of them are rich. There is no set calculus by which the size of a colony indicates how intrinsically prosperous it will be. Independence just means that hopefully, the people and the newly established nation will be able to leverage whatever geographic or resource advantages they have into something that best benefits themselves, rather than being siphoned off and improving the bottom line of a faraway ruler. This is of course the tragic trap of neocolonialism. Is that many former colonizer discovered that they could still extract the resources from faraway lands that they desired, even without colonizing them. All they would need to do is enslave them in crippling debt or support tough and terrible leaders who could ensure that industries and natural resources remain open to support foreign interests.As mentioned, these points feel powerful, but only take us so far in terms of understanding things. The resistance to independence isn't logical, isn't rational. It is tied to feelings and fears that if the colonizer is crossed, all that which he has provided will disappear. It is tied to feelings that the very future and whether it is livable or prosperous has more to do with your loyalty and devotion to the colonizer and his rule, than your ability as a people and the level of sovereignty you have over your lands and resources.For me, and this is something that I wrote an entire masters thesis over, at the University of Guam, the great feelings of resistance have to do with the simple, yet massive feeling that those questions are over with and there is no more room left in the world or the future for them to be addressed. In this mindset decolonization is done. History, as Francis Fukuyama famously argued is over and done with. As a result those who missed that train, those who still languish in the waiting room of History, are truly left behind politically. Those who were not caught up in the bloody or heady revolutions of the past, esta mantaisuete. They are not subjects, but just irritants. Therefore, when we who remain colonized, continue to pray for self-determination, think about what might be possible for ourselves, we feel the weight of that global consensus, which is sometimes referred to as the capitalist liberal-democratic deadlock, and we shrink away, never imagining that we might be capable of breaking it or more importantly, that we would be worthy of breaking it. If you imagine the maps of the world, people feel like the maps are all finished, there is nothing left to explore, nothing left to change. To seek decolonization and independence today, especially for those in small islands or small territories, seems akin to defying the maps that everyone has framed on their walls or currently use to hunt Pokemon. How could, we ever think of ourselves worthy or capable of redrawing the lines of the world?It is here, where it is important to remind ourselves that movements for self-determination and independence persist, even if they are not recognized formally by the United Nations or by the countries that claim them as their own. There are hundreds of millions of others in the world, mainly indigenous people, who see themselves as not quite fitting in with the global arrangements. As they wait behind the Fourth World Wall, seeking restitution, redress, decolonization after so many of the nation-states of today were built upon their displacement and destruction. In every corner of the globe we find these movements, even within the United State itself in places such as Hawai'i, Alaska and Texas, although each movements has its own character, history and politics. A case in point is the one discussed below, that of Westralia or Western Australia, which is a place that voted for its independence in 1933 and included instudy. As you'll read below, their efforts came to little in the previous century, although there remains rumblings up until today.*********************Secession is still on our mindThe West AustralianApril 7, 2013Exactly 80 years ago come Monday, the issue came to the boil at the ballot box.Australia and the world watched and waited, the word "secession" on everyone's lips, as WA voters pondered the question on the compulsory voting card: "Are you in favour of the State of Western Australia withdrawing from the Federal Commonwealth?"Two-thirds of West Australians marked the box that said "yes", and the vote in favour of breaking away from the rest of the nation passed resoundingly.Eight decades on, WA remains a State of Australia but, according to some, the undercurrent of discontent has never fully disappeared.The chairman of the WA Parliament's history advisory committee, Professor David Black, said WA was from the outset a reluctant participant in federalism.At the turn of the century, having only recently been granted self- governance, many in WA were wary of handing over power to a Federal government.Professor Black said the belated referendum on whether West Australians would join the Commonwealth - held in 1900 after all the other States had decided to sign up - only passed because a high number of people from the Eastern States, working and living in places such as the Goldfields, tipped the balance with their votes.But by 1902, the matter of secession was being discussed in the WA Parliament, and in 1906 a resolution for a referendum on secession was passed but never acted on.World War I suppressed the breakaway movement for a time, and while it was back on the agenda in the 1920s, it took the economic strife of the early 1930s to bring it to the fore. "It probably wouldn't have got any further than that if it wasn't for the Great Depression," Professor Black said.In the 1930s, the main agitators for secession, the Dominion League, enjoyed a groundswell of support from struggling West Australians whose economic woes were exacerbated by Federal tariffs that benefited Eastern States businesses to the detriment of WA.The advent of continental free trade, which left WA's primary industries unprotected, was another strong motivator.In 1930, Liberal premier James Mitchell declared his support for the secession movement, and the stage was set for the 1933 vote.Locked away in the State Records Office of WA, correspondence to and from Sir Mitchell paints a picture of support for WA to strike out on its own.Senior archivist Gerard Foley said the volume of records relating to secession had not been "examined in detail for some time".Notes of support from regional towns inquiring what they could do to aid the movement are sandwiched between letters from the Perth Chamber of Commerce, which wanted the premier to form a working committee to investigate "the State's capacity to pay its way if it separated from the Federation".While the people of WA voted for secession in 1933, in a strange contradiction on the same day, they also voted out Sir Mitchell's pro-secession government.Professor Black said this was proof that people in WA were not really serious about seceding, but were merely lashing out in protest at both the Federal and State governments which had failed to improve the dire economic situation.The issue of the 1933 secession referendum was put to bed in 1935, when a British Parliament joint select committee told a WA delegation it would not amend the Commonwealth Constitution without Canberra's consent.Professor Black conceded secession had continued to rear its head, "whenever Western Australia thinks it's being pushed around".Unlike in the 30s, when WA was struggling, modern flare-ups for independence have largely been based on the reasoning that the economic boom State gives much to the rest of Australia and receives too little in return.Secessionist rumblings in the 1970s, backed by mining magnate Lang Hancock, were in this vein.The Barnett Government's stoush with Canberra over the share of GST distributions has revived secessionist comments.Liberal MP Norman Moore, one of the most outspoken supporters of secession in recent times, said he was concerned about the centralisation of power in the Eastern States and decisions being made there that were not in the best interests of WA."I personally want to get us back into a Federation which gives the States meaningful authority, and lets the States get on with doing the job they can do better than anybody else," he said.But Mr Moore believed that was "never going to be achieved"."The only ultimate solution is secession if we want to be serious about managing our own affairs," he said.Wally Morris, 70, is the former secretary of the now defunct Western Australia Secession Association.Formed in 1993, the association had about 3000 members and supporters at its peak but wound up in 2011 after attempts to gain a foothold in political office were unsuccessful.Mr Morris said the 1933 referendum "still stands"."It still remains in force, it hasn't been resolved; it needs to be taken to a conclusion," he said.Premier Colin Barnett disagrees."It's been a topic everyone likes to talk about but at the end of the day, we are Australians first and proud Western Australians second," he said.
There is a long list of people whom I wish I had the chance to interview and ask some basic questions, the overwhelming majority of which are Chamorros or from Guam. This long,is divided into two parts. First, those whom passed away long before I was born, and those whose lives overlapped with mine, but I never had the chance to sit down and interview.High on my list wasMonsignor)Oscar Lujan Calvo, who was close cousins with my grandfather.as most Chamorros referred to him was the third ever Chamorro Catholic priest. He went to seminary in the Philippines alongsideandJose Ada Manibusan was ordained in Manila during the war, but died before he could return to Guam. He returned to Guam and war ordained just a few months before World War II hit the island. He,Duenas and Reverend Joaquin Sablan were the only religious leaders on the island during World War II, meeting the spiritual needs of more than 22,000 desperate and fearful Chamorros. After the war he spearheded the efforts to develop peaceful relations with Japan, working with Japanese groups to create the Guam Peace Memorial Park in Yigo.He was recognized by the Guam Council on the Arts and Humanities Agency (Guam CAHA) as a Master of Chamorro Culture in terms of the large collection of historical documents, photos and artifacts that he had amassed throughout this life. Although I came across his name during the first years of my research as an undergraduate and graduate student at UOG, and he was always on the edges of conversations for my Lujan side, I never reached out to him while he was alive with the intent of interviewing him and hearing his incredible story. I tried several times to visit his collection after he died, through his sister and his assistant, but was never able to get access. I wonder sometimes what became of it.Below is the statement from the floor of the House of Representatives in 1999 from then Congressman Robert Underwood, commemorating the life and deeds ofScott.****************************Congressman Robert Underwood dedication to Pale' ScotStatement before the US House of RepresentativesNovember 22, 1999Mr. Speaker, as you know, December 7, 1941, and the Attack on Pearl Harbor mark our nation's entry into World War II. For the people of Guam, the war began on December 8th, the Roman Catholic Feast of the Immaculate Conception, the patron saint of the United States.This year, on December 8th, we in Guam will again celebrate the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. We will recall the Japanese Invasion of Guam and we will give thanks for our deliverance and for the peace that has reigned on our island since the end of World War II. This year our celebrations will also include an historic first: the Archdiocese of Agana will dedicate its new museum and name it in honor of a native son, the Very Reverend Monsignor Oscar Lujan Calvo, the third Chamorro to be ordained as a Roman Catholic priest and the only one to date to reach his 58th anniversary in the priesthood.It is a fitting tribute to a man who has spent a lifetime serving the Church and contributing not only to the moral and spiritual welfare of the faithful in Guam but also to the knowledge about who we are as a people. indeed, the museum which will bear his name will also house many of the historic documents, books, publications, photographs, and artifacts that he has carefully collected and lovingly preserved over many, many years. Known more commonly as Pale' `Oscat, and more affectionately as ``Pale' Scot,'' Monsignor Oscar Lujan Calvo is himself an historic figure not only in the history of the Roman Catholic Church in Guam but also in the history of Guam itself.Born in Hagatna on August 2, 1915, Monsignor Calvo first attended school in Guam and, at age thirteen, entered the San Jose Preparatory Seminary in the Philippines. He returned home thirteen years later and was ordained on April 5, 1941, joining Father Jose Palomo and Father Jesus Duenas, the only other Chamorros in the Catholic priesthood. He celebrated his first Mass on Easter Sunday, April 13, 1941. Eight months later, on December 8, Japanese Imperial Forces attacked Guam.In an interview several years ago, Monsignor Calvo related many of his experiences during the Japanese Occupation of Guam, including conducting secret Masses in direct defiance of occupation regulations forbidding him and Guam's two other men of the cloth, Father Jesus Baza Duenas and Baptist minister, the Reverend Joaquin Sablan, from practicing their faiths. In that interview, Monsignor Calvo spoke about his concern for the many valuable church records and artifacts at the Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral in Hagatna. When the occupying forces began to use the cathedral for their own purposes, Monsignor Calvo secretly removed the church valuables to a safer location away from the capital city. After the war, he went to retrieve them, only to discover that the secret hiding place and all it contained had been destroyed in intense American bombardment of Guam. Lost forever were the records of births, deaths and marriages dating back to the 1700s. Perhaps it was the sorrow over this immense loss that inspired Pale' `Scot to become such an avid collector of artifacts and written materials about Guam and its people.Whatever the reason may be, Monsignor Calvo bore no animosity toward the Americans who fought valiantly to recapture Guam, destroying much in the process, nor toward the Japanese who precipitated the destruction. In fact, the good monsignor worked hard after the war to heal the wounds. Despite criticisms from U.S. veterans groups, he played a major role in the establishment of the Guam Peace Memorial Park, funded entirely by private Japanese donations and dedicated in tribute to Japanese and Chamorro war dead. In recognition of his efforts to promote peace, friendship and goodwill, the Japanese Government conferred upon him its distinguished Order of the Rising Sun with gold and silver rays. He was the first American to receive this prestigious award.Monsignor Calvo also has been an Honorary Papal Chamberlain since 1947. He is a knight in the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes, and of Malta, with the title of Magistral Chaplain in 1977. In 1991 he was enrolled in the Guma Honra, the Guam Hall of Fame, for his remarkable social, spiritual and civic contributions to the people of Guam.With the dedication of the Monsignor Oscar Lujan Calvo Museum on December 8, 1999, future generations of students of Guam history will owe a debt of gratitude to Pale' and his diligent efforts to preserve, protect, and promote Chamorro culture and history and to share his collection. I join the people of Guam in celebrating the opening of the new museum. I look forward to visiting it and to viewing Pale' `Scot's collections, much of which will be publicly displayed for the first time. And to Pale', I want to say: ``Si Yu'os ma'ase, Pale', nu todo i che'cho'-mu put i estudion i fina 'posta-ta, i setbisiu-mu para i tano'-ta yan i dedikasion-mu para i Gima' Yu'os.We are inspired by your works, grateful for your advocacy and deeply appreciative of your service to our island.
JERUSALEM  Clutching smuggled Torah scrolls, dozens of feminist activists approached the Western Wall, wrapping themselves in colorful prayer shawls and chanting passages from the Jewish Bible.

Their display of piety was met by ultra-religious hecklers who denounced them as heretics and prostitutes. You cant change the Torah! one shouted. Get out of here! Another ripped up a prayer book used by the feminist group Women of the Wall.

Last months prayer confrontation was part of a long-running struggle over worship at Judaisms most important pilgrimage site that pits Israels Orthodox religious establishment, which wants to uphold a traditionalist ban on women leading prayer services, against the Women of the Wall and liberal Jewish denominations that want the site opened up to egalitarian and pluralist prayer.

Its my right to decide how I pray in my country, said Tammy Gottlieb, 32, a Women of the Wall board member, as she rode in a van full of activists to the holy site in Jerusalems Old City.

In recent months, tensions over womens prayer have been escalating, and a compromise aimed at ending the dispute has stalled. Under the deal approved by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus Cabinet in January, Women of the Wall and liberal Jewish denominations would be given a new prayer space at a nearby spot along the Western Wall. However, the government hasnt started implementing the compromise and ultra-Orthodox parties oppose it.

Its like if a Muslim came to the Al Aqsa Mosque and wanted to enter without taking their shoes off. Would they let him? asked Haim Rabinowitz, an aide to Rabbi Yisrael Eichler, a legislator from the ultra-religious United Torah Judaism party, referring to the Islamic holy site above the Western Wall. There are rules, and theres religious law. In Judaism, theres no such thing as renewal or reform. There are no compromises.

That is not the position taken by the Reform and Conservative wings of Judaism, which are much stronger in the United States than in Israel. As a result, the turf battle at the Western Wall is undermining the longstanding alliance between Israels government and wide swaths of North American Jewry.

***

The dispute over womens prayer at the Western Wall, known in Hebrew as the Kotel, has roiled relations between Netanyahu  who relies on ultra-Orthodox religious parties to stabilize his coalition  and religiously liberal Diaspora Jews who complain that Israels conservative government is impeding religious freedom at Judaisms most revered prayer site.

In North America, theres a whole generation of women who have been ordained as rabbis, said Steven Wernick, chief executive of the organization representing Conservative congregations, as the womens singing echoed throughout the plaza. They come here and theres no place in the Jewish homeland for us to worship at our holiest site according to the customs that weve developed.

The Jewish Agency, a nonprofit group promoting Jewish immigration to Israel, which helped broker the Western Wall compromise after three years of negotiations, warned in a statement that failure to provide a space for pluralist prayer at the wall would have far-reaching implications for Israel-Diaspora ties.

Tensions over religion and state in Israel stretch back to the countrys founding, when Israels secular founders promised to defer to Orthodox Jewish leaders on public Jewish ritual, marriage and Sabbath observance in order to secure their support for the new state.

The dispute over the Western Wall is one of several tinderboxes for Israels Orthodox establishment and the more liberal denominations. The Israeli parliament passed legislation to ban non-Orthodox from performing conversion ceremonies in state-run ritual bathhouses.

The wall, with its giant stone blocks, is the last remnant of the Jewish Temple complex built two millennia ago and has attracted Jewish pilgrims for centuries. After Israel conquered East Jerusalem in 1967, it cleared out a sprawling plaza that was partitioned off for gender-segregated worship, and the government handed over management of the site to Israels ultra-Orthodox religious authorities, who run the plaza as if it were a synagogue.

The female activists, who have been holding services at the wall on a monthly basis since 1988, have pursued several court petitions challenging ultra-Orthodox control of the site.

In their gatherings, women lead prayers, wrap themselves with black phylacteries and chant passages from the Torah scrolls  roles reserved for men under strict readings of Jewish religious law. They are often met by rowdy crowds of ultra-religious students and teams of police who have tried to block or shout down the prayer service.

Women of the Wall is simply reminding us that the wall doesnt belong to any one segment of the Jewish people, said Yossi Klein Halevi, an American Israeli author and a fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. This is a battle for Zionism: Is the state going to be an expression of Zionism, with its ideology of Jewish peoplehood, or is it going to be run under ultra-Orthodox blackmail, and allow a minority of world Jewry to exclude a majority.

***

In June, the executive director of Women of the Wall, Lesley Sachs, was detained by police for hours for bringing a Torah scroll into the Western Wall plaza.

That was an escalation, said Shira Pruce, a spokeswoman for the organization. People are up in arms: They cant believe that in Israel of all places, a woman is being arrested for holding a Torah. If the interim plan is arresting women at the Kotel, this issue is going to get much hotter.

One day last month, Women of the Wall activists were checked by security guards to see if they were trying to sneak banned ritual objects into the womens section of the plaza.

Wearing stickers reading equal and love thy neighbor as thyself, the women held a bat mitzvah ceremony for 13-year-old Milwaukee native Frannie Turner using a smuggled Torah scroll and a ritual canopy.

The service passed relatively quietly, with no direct confrontations between the women and ultra-Orthodox demonstrators, and no one detained by police.

The chance to join Women of the Wall and protest against archaic thinking is an honor, wrote Claire Turner, Frannies mother, in an email after the ceremony. It was joyous, supportive, and also very spiritual.

But Shulamit Tsolani, a 59-year-old nursery school teacher from Jerusalem, surveyed the prayer service in disgust.

When we used to come here, we felt the holiness of the place. They are ruining it, she said. A woman is not allowed to carry a Torah scroll. They dont believe what we believe in.
Missoulas latest wave of refugees has begun. A family of six Congolese arrived in town Thursday from East Africa, and the first five-person family mentor team trained by Soft Landing Missoula swung into action to ease the shock.

Theyre so in culture shock. Theyre exhausted. I know it took me a good month before I was adapting to the time here, said Molly Short Carr, director of Missoulas International Rescue Committee (IRC) office.

Carr arrived in Missoula six weeks ago from a two-year stint working at a refugee support center in Nairobi, Kenya.

As announced earlier this month, the family is made up of a mother, father and four children, three of whom have spent their whole lives in a refugee camp in Tanzania. Because of privacy issues, Carr cant release the names of the new arrivals. Details on the parents plight and flight out of their native Democratic Republic of the Congo arent available.

Youre going to see them in the community and know theyre here, but at the same time we need to remember they are individuals and may not want this information shared, Carr said.

The new family is in temporary housing and at the beginning of a 90-day cultural orientation period.

We assist them and facilitate the process to apply for social services, Social Security cards, registration for the children to attend school and registration for (English as a Second Language) classes for the parents, said Carr.

The three oldest children of the family are of school age.

They are the first of what the IRC hopes will be 25 refugees landing in Missoula by the end of the federal fiscal year on Sept. 30. Missoula can expect to see 100-125 refugees in the first year. All are products of a vetting process through the United Nations, Department of State and Department of Homeland Security that the IRC says began, on average, almost three years ago.

A family mentor team will be trained for each family that arrives in Missoula. Carr said she and the volunteers have been showing the first arrivals how to use an oven, sink and refrigerator. Theyve known no other means of cooking except over an open flame.

If theyre living in a refugee camp theyre not going to have running water, let alone hot and cold water, she said. Theyve never refrigerated milk or eggs or mayonnaise, which are prepared for warm storage there.

Cleaning and maintaining a closed house with walls to keep mice and other rodents out is a new experience as well.

While the majority of Congolese refugees are Christian, I havent asked this family their specific faith affiliation, Carr said.

They speak Swahili, the primary language in eastern and southeastern Africa. Carr is acting as the primary interpreter through their common knowledge of French.

Soft Landing Missoula, spurred by the Syrian refugee crisis, formed a year ago and successfully petitioned the International Rescue Committee, one of nine federally funded resettlement agencies working in the U.S., to open an office in Missoula.

The IRC was here in the late 1970s and early 1980s to help Hmong refugees from Laos start new lives. It gave way to the Lao Family Community, which morphed into the Refugee Assistance Center that helped bring a smaller wave of Russians to town starting in the late 1980s.
As the first refugee family in decades was arriving in Montana, GOP gubernatorial candidate Greg Gianforte mailed out fliers using a photo suggestive of a terrorist and urged a halt to refugee resettlement here.

One of two fliers the campaign said were sent statewide pictured Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock under an armed man with head draped in a scarf and claimed "Bullock supports bringing Syrian refugees into Montana.''

On the flip side, under a smiling photo of Gianforte, he says: My heart breaks for those families torn apart by Radical Islamic Terrorists abroad and I feel we have a moral obligation to help. However, that obligation does NOT include settling unvetted refugees in our communities and homes here in Montana. As Governor, Ill stand up to dangerous refugee programs.

Mary Poole, who founded the community organization aiding with resettlement in Missoula, Soft Landing, said the reality for refugees is very different than the picture painted by the stock photo on of an armed man on Gianfortes flier.

Id be surprised if that photo was even a Syrian person at all, let alone a Syrian refugee, she said. Its just really misinformation and its disheartening that people seeking a position of power would promote that misinformation and play off of such a persecuted population.

In reality, she said most refugees arrive to their resettlement city carrying one little blue plastic bag like a grocery bag with a few papers and all their worldly possessions.

Campaign spokesman Aaron Flint said it is sheer coincidence that thousands of the fliers hit mailboxes the same week a refugee family of six from the Democratic Republic of the Congo arrived in Missoula.

The revival of resettlement office there has fueled protests and debate.

In the flier, Gianforte promises to ban refugees from countries with terrorism ties, stop any resettlement until vetting is fixed and to prevent attacks "like we've seen around the world.''

But governors have no authority to control immigration. Decisions about who can enter the U.S. are made by federal officials.

The flier is Gianfortes latest shot at Bullock over an issue that first became political currency last fall when President Barack Obama proposed resettling 10,000 Syrian refugees in the U.S.

The mailers wording matches rhetoric from conservative stump speeches nationwide, including from Donald Trump, who has called to block the resettlement of Muslims out of fear they could be Islamist terrorists.

A November letter signed by 30 governors, all but one of whom were Republicans, called for federal leaders to halt resettlement until the countrys vetting process could be strengthened.

Gianforte has criticized Bullock for not joining them.

Bill Swersey, who helps resettle refugees in several states coast-to-coast, said the Montana debate is playing out in campaigns across the country.

The history of resettlement is that Democrats and Republicans have supported it almost without question. Unfortunately, a lot of the discussion is divided along party lines this year, said Swersey, a spokesman for HIAS, a Jewish nonprofit that is one of the countrys nine resettlement agencies.

We dont want to resettle people in places where theyre not welcome, but the fact of the matter is communities all across the United States are welcoming refugees despite what their governors are saying.

Between Oct. 1 and July 31, nearly 60,000 refugees from 75 countries were admitted into the United States, according to federal records. By comparison, millions of foreign nationals enter the country each year as tourists, students, workers or immigrants with much less security scrutiny.

Out of the nearly 750,000 refugees settled in the United States since 9/11, only three people have faced terrorism charges, according to an analysis by the Migration Policy Institute last fall.

Its very difficult to get into the United States as a refugee,'' said Molly Short Carr, the new head of Missoula's refugee resettlement office. "Its a complex process thats in the hands of the Department of State and the Department of Homeland Security. Refugees are the most vetted immigrant groups. The average processing time is about three years.

"Weve admitted hundreds of thousands of refugees since the 1980s in the U.S. going back to the Hmong and Vietnamese," she said. "These are the people feeling the violence, not perpetrating the violence. These are the groups who are victims of ISIS.

Poole said photos like the one on the Gianforte flier matter.

She noted that the 2015 photo of 3-year-old Alan Kurdi, washed up dead on a Turkish beach, helped sparked the push to bring resettlement back to Missoula, which had taken in Hmong and Russian refugees decades earlier.

As the first Congolese family arrived in Missoula on Thursday, a video and photo of a 5-year-old Syrian boy, covered in dust and blood after surviving a bomb blast, circulated on social media.

Those are photos of refugees, she said. Families that are suffering. Families that have had relatives killed and are fleeing for their lives.

The Congolese family resettled in Missoula had lived in a region where hundreds of Christians have been murdered by a rebel group identified by the United Nations as an Islamist terrorist organization with ties to Al Shabaab.

Speaking only through their spokesmen, neither Bullock nor Gianforte had a message for the newly arrived family.

Bullock has repeatedly taken a hands-off approach to the states debate about bringing refugees to Montana, noting that governors have very little authority to influence the federal resettlement process. He used the issue as an opportunity to cast Gianforte as someone who stretches the truth for political gain.

As governor and as a father, the safety and security of Montana families, especially our kids, is always priority number one for Steve Bullock, Montana Democrats spokesman Jason Pitt wrote. It remains ever important to maintain a thorough vetting process to ensure Montanas safety and security while honoring our responsibility to keep all families and kids safe. The fact that Greg Gianforte is misleading voters with fear  suggesting that any governor has the power to ban refugees  is dishonest and concerning."

Gianforte, meanwhile, has attacked Bullocks stance as weak and putting Montanans at risk. The fliers and statements reflect ther campaign's assertions that Bullock has repeatedly failed to stand up to federal overreach.

While this is predominately a federal issue, the governor could be an effective voice to stop Obama's Syrian Refugee Program  he is the former chairman of the Democratic Governors Association after all, Flint wrote. Seems he's more interested in protecting Obama than in protecting Montana.

Flint said Gianforte was unavailable to comment about his newest fliers, citing campaign responsibilities in Colstrip.

The spokesman could not say how Gianforte would fulfill his promise to stop resettlement in Montana, nor which countrys refugees the Republican would ban given that many, not just Syrians, are fleeing terrorism in their own nations.

This is not about refugees, Flint said. This is about ISIS, a terrorist organization which is dedicated to killing Americans.

***

Missoulian reporter Kim Briggeman contributed to this report.
Christine Fogerty brought joy into every room, even on Saturday, when the community gathered to honor her life.

Lee Ann Womack's "I Hope You Dance" was one of the songs that played over a photo slideshow before Fogerty's memorial service Saturday at Missoula Alliance Church. Fogerty, 58, was killed in a car crash while visiting family Aug. 12 in Bozeman.

It was one of Fogerty's favorite songs, and she had urged her daughters to pay attention to its lyrics:

"Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance,

And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance,

I hope you dance..."

"I feel like we should have had a dance," Atonement Lutheran Church Pastor Daniel Disch said to start the service following Womack's song, Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" and others.

Fogerty was always the first person on the dance floor, her daughters, Sundee and Sloan Fogerty, wrote in a letter read by Fogerty's niece, Britney Sangston:

" even when your moves embarrassed us, when we told you to sit down and you danced even more," Sangston read, causing a wave of laughter over the somber crowd.

***

Disch described Fogerty as a hummingbird.

"I could never really keep up," he said.

Fogerty had been Big Sky High School's librarian since 2000. Before that, she was a reading and special education teacher for grades K-12. Outside school, she was involved with Habitat for Humanity of Missoula, Family Promise of Missoula and her church, Atonement Lutheran.

"She was good at building houses," Disch said.

Not only physical houses.

"One was built one book at a time, built with passion and literacy as the glue and compassion and care for student success as the foundation," he said. "Another house you may have found her in was built on faith, a porch of service and healing, the threshold of forgiveness, furnished with donated food and handmade quilts located in the neighborhood of the kingdom of God.

"And then there was and remains perhaps the proudest home of all, filled one story and one good night kiss and one phone call at a time. The floor, a mother's love  with room for dancing. And the roof removed so her daughters could take flight."

Saturday was difficult for Disch, who was close with Fogerty as one of his congregants. "Peace be with you" was said often over the past week, and again on Saturday.

"We say it especially when we may not feel peaceful, or can't imagine being at peace, or perhaps don't know what to say," Disch said.

"Here's the thing. I'm not at peace today. I'm not."

Fogerty's death was "painful," he said, the "death of a vibrant and life-giving woman."

But, he reminded everyone, "death does not have the last word."

***

The list of words to describe Fogerty is long.

"Daughter, sister, mother, friend, teacher, mentor, kind, caring, thoughtful, generous, smart, witty, dependable," her friend Joyce Cook wrote in a letter read aloud by Sangston.

"These words, adjectives, are just a drop in the bucket of the dictionary of Christine," Cook wrote.

"The world is a better place because she was here, and even this tragedy cannot take that away from us."

Fogerty grew up in Big Timber, and her family said the outpouring of support from her hometown all the way to Missoula has been overwhelming and appreciated.

"You always told us to surround ourselves with good people," her daughters wrote. "It's becoming obvious how much you did that for yourself."

The challenge now, Cook wrote, is to honor Fogerty's memory "by being the best human I can be."

"She has left us way too soon, certainly, but she has left us richer," she wrote. "Chris has a toolbox with her, and she has shown us all how to use it. Pick up a tool and share her memory, every chance you get. I'm blowing a kiss ... I'm confident she will catch it and know that we are with her in spirit and love her so much."

There was hardly a dry eye in the church as Sangston read from Sundee and Sloan's letter, at times getting choked up herself.

"You've always told us things happen for a reason and God has a plan," they wrote. "I've always challenged you and questioned you on that. I'm not going to lie, I'm questioning you more than ever right now.

"You might not be perfect, but you're our kind of perfect."
UPDATE: The Missoula Police Department reported the children were found by officers around 5:45 p.m. They are safe and being returned to their home, Det. Sgt. Jim Klawitter said.

__________

A missing persons report has been issued in Missoula for 11-year-old twins Danika and Daniel SleepingBear.

According to the advisory, the children were last seen around 2:45 p.m. walking near the 6300 block of Helena Drive, and are believed to have a border collie with them.

The children are reportedly unfamiliar with the area and have a history of behavioral problems.

The twins are Native American. Daniel is 4 feet, 4 inches tall and is wearing blue plaid shorts, a T-shirt and glasses. Danika is 4 feet, 8 inches tall with dark-brown hair reaching to the middle of her back. She is wearing a gray and blue T-shirt, capris and glasses.

Anyone with information about the children's whereabouts is asked to call the Missoula Police Department at 552-6300.
BILLINGS  In an unprecedented move, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks is closing 183 miles of the Yellowstone River from Gardiner to Laurel to all water-based recreation  fishing, wading, floating, tubing, boating.

No similar closure based on a disease outbreak has ever occurred in Montana, even when whirling disease was causing fish die-offs across the state in the 1990s.

"This significant action on the part of the department is in response to the ongoing and unprecedented fish kill on the Yellowstone," FWP said in an email. "This action is necessary to protect the fishery and the economy it sustains. The closure will also help limit the spread of the parasite to adjacent rivers through boats, tubes, waders and other human contact and minimize further mortality in all fish species."

The closure also affects all tributaries from Yellowstone National Parks northern boundary at Gardiner to the Highway 212 bridge in Laurel.

Rafting and fly-fishing businesses were scrambling to respond to the closure. Angling trips start as early as 7 a.m., so boats were being pulled off the river.

"It's huge," said John Bailey of Dan Bailey Fly Shop in Livingston, noting that the closure isn't limited to the Yellowstone River. "The spring creeks and Boulder are closed. The Stillwater is closed. So you're talking about a major deal here. It affects a lot of people.

"The real question is when we will open," he added. "I don't think we'll open in September."

FWP information officer Andrea Jones said, "There is no timeline on something like this. We have to wait for the environmental conditions to improve and for the fish kills to stop."

***

News of the closure spread quickly across the nation. Pat Damico, a Pennsylvania dentist, has plans to fish Slough Creek in Yellowstone National Park with 14 other people next week and was worried that the closure might spread there. So far that hasn't happened. But Yellowstone spokeswoman Charissa Reid said park scientists were looking at the issue and more information would be released later.

As Damico sought more information, though, he said he was getting conflicting reports from agency officials.

"We're sort of sitting on pins and needles because this is the big deal of the year," he said.

In the past week FWP has documented more than 2,000 dead mountain whitefish on some stretches of the Yellowstone River. Based on those figures, FWP estimates the total impact to mountain whitefish in the Yellowstone to be in the tens of thousands. FWP has also received reports of the kill beginning to affect some rainbow and Yellowstone cutthroat trout.

Fishing guide Dan Gigone with the Sweetwater Fly Shop in Livingston said one of his guides reported seeing hundreds of dead trout Thursday. He called the closure catastrophic but said he would not fight the move.

"We have trips on the books through September," Gigone said. "It's definitely a big part of the Livingston and area economy. But we need to protect the resources as best we can for future years."

Test results from samples sent to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Fish Health Center in Bozeman show the catalyst for the fish kill to be Proliferative Kidney Disease  one of the most serious diseases to impact whitefish and trout. The disease, caused by a microscopic parasite, is known to occur in Canada, the U.S. and Europe.

It has been documented previously in only two isolated locations in Montana over the past 20 years. Recent outbreaks have occurred in Washington, Oregon and Idaho. In trout, research has shown the disease to have the potential to cause 20 to 100 percent mortality. The parasite does not pose a risk to humans or animals that consume the dead fish.

A similar outbreak of the parasite in Idaho in 2012 was mainly limited to whitefish.

"We did not institute any closures," said Dan Garren, Idaho Department of Fish and Game regional fisheries manager. "We never did document it in trout."

Every year since that first documented outbreak, Garren said dead whitefish have been found in the heat of the summer and the disease has been confirmed in the dead fish that were analyzed.

"So it's out there," he said. "It's one of those pathogens that are in the system and it's probably not going anywhere.

"Frankly, we don't know if it's native or not."

***

The effect of the disease on Yellowstones fish populations is exacerbated by other stressors like near record low flows, consistent high temperatures and the disturbance caused by recreational activities.

FWP Director Jeff Hagener said the decision to close the river was made by the Fish and Wildlife Commission in consultation with the director and governor after weighing "the totality of the circumstances and risk to the fishery.

We recognize that this decision will have a significant impact on many people. However, we must act to protect this public resource for present and future generations, Hagener said in a press release.

Fishing and floating outfitters have been supportive of the closure, Jones said.

"A threat to the health of Montana's fish populations is a threat to Montana's entire outdoor economy and the tens of thousands of jobs it sustains," said Gov. Steve Bullock, noting that Montana's outdoor recreation economy is responsible for more than 64,000 Montana jobs and nearly $6 billion in yearly economic activity. "We must be guided by science. Our state cannot afford this infectious disease to spread to other streams and rivers, and it's my responsibility to do everything we can to stop this threat in its tracks and protect Montana jobs and livelihoods."

Bailey said there were few customers in his downtown Livingston store on Friday, and the Labor Day weekend, at the end of the month, is traditionally one of the busiest times of the year.

"It's very unprecedented," he said. "I'm not against this, but we don't know when it will end."

Bailey noted that stream flows won't increase until next spring.

In addition to the closure on the Yellowstone, FWP is asking for the publics assistance in preventing the spread of the parasite by properly cleaning boats, waders and trailers before moving between bodies of water. FWP has set up two Aquatic Invasive Species decontamination stations along Interstate 90 near the affected area in an effort to help reduce the chance of this parasite moving to other rivers.

Those who violate the river closures will at first be educated. Persistent violations would lead to a citation being issued.

***
HAMILTON  A Ravalli County jury on Friday convicted a Hamilton man whod been accused of sexually assaulting two girls.

After listening to four days of testimony, it took the 10-man, two-woman jury two hours to find Randall Walker guilty in the case that involved four charges.

Walker was initially accused of assaulting an 11-year-old girl on Valentines Day in 2015 after a day care worker notified the sheriffs office when the girl told her about the incident.

During the investigation, allegations arose that Walker had previously assaulted another girl over a four-year period until she was 12.

That woman, now 27, told the investigator that she never told anyone about the abuse when she was a child because she wasnt sure who to tell, and that she thought what she was doing was wrong, and worried that people would think she was a bad person, according to an affidavit filed in the case.

Both the younger girl, now 13, and 27-year-old testified at the trial.

These young ladies were extremely courageous, said Ravalli County Attorney Bill Fulbright.

Fulbright said the 27-year-olds testimony was the first time that she had told her story in public.

Walker will be sentenced Oct. 26.

On the charge related to the 11-year-old, Fulbright said Walker will be sentenced under the guidelines set by Jessicas Law, which requires a mandatory prison term of 25 years without the possibility of parole.

Montanas Jessicas Law is modeled after a Florida law that passed following a 9-year-old girls kidnapping, rape and murder in 2005. It requires the 25-year minimum prison term for adults convicted of various sex crimes against children under 13.

On the other three charges, Walker faces up to 100 years or life on each charge.
These days, a lot of people want to know where their food comes from.

And many like the idea of eating food that was produced near their own homes.

In the Bitterroot, a growing number of farmers are looking to tap into that growing demand, but many find it challenging to get out and market their products to the restaurants, grocery stores and other institutions that would like to provide their customers with local goods.

On the flip side of that, the local chefs, produce managers and school cooks dont have the time either to journey out into the countryside to see what local farmers have to offer.

Amy Hutton is hoping to change all of that.

Hutton is the new produce market research and sales coordinator stationed at the Western Ag Research Center outside of Corvallis.

Her position is being funded by a two-year U.S. Department of Agriculture Specialty Crop Block Grant written by local farmers and others interested in developing a pathway where producers and wholesalers can meet.

Laura Garber of Hamiltons Homestead Organics was on the team that wrote the grant.

We think its really important to have someone helping farmers connect with each other, Garber said. We all need to look past the guise of competition. We all should be on the same team. Lets call it Team Farm.

Part of Huttons job will be to build a bridge between Bitterroot Valley farmers.

Shell collect everyones ideas, Garber said.

Beyond that, Garber said farmers need to find a way to make inroads in getting their locally raised products into local grocery stores and restaurants.

Those places shouldnt have to reach out and talk to 10 different farmers to find what they need, she said. Hopefully, they will be more willing to use local products if we can simplify the process.

Thats where Hutton comes in.

Right now shes busy developing a website where eventually chefs, produce managers and school cooks will be able to log on, see what local farmers have for sale at that moment, and hit a button to place an order.

They will be able to decide on quantity and prices and then click on it, Hutton said. They will make the purchase just like they would on Amazon.

Farmers will bring produce sold on the website to a central location, where it will be sorted and delivered to the larger buyers. Small quantities will be picked up at the site.

Were launching the website in mid-September, Hutton said. We plan to start small with just a couple of buyers and producers so we can get the kinks worked out.

Other cooperatives are doing similar things both in Montana and throughout the country.

They have been very successful, Hutton said. We are pretty much looking to connect Bitterroot farmers with Bitterroot buyers.

The focus will be to provide fresh produce and other agricultural products to people who buy those products wholesale.

What theyve told me is that they would love to support local farmers and feature fresh foods in the businesses, but the logistics of doing that is really tricky, she said. Its hard for them to reach out to individual farmers. This new program will help people take the leap into buying local, which is what so many people want to do.

In September, Hutton is leading a couple of farm tours for wholesalers who would like to meet local farmers and learn more about whats available.

The first tour will happen Sept. 8 at 2 p.m. People on the tour will visit the Mill Crick Farm, Missoula VG Co. and Bitterroot Greens. On Sept. 13 at 11:30 a.m., a second tour will stop at Sweet Root Farm, Homestead Organics and West Naturals.

People interested in attending the tours need to RSVP Hutton at amy.hutton1@montana.edu or by calling (303) 250-6207.

There is more information about the program at http://agresearch.montana.edu/warc/loyal-to-local-bitterroot.html.

Garber said the tours will provide a chance for people to learn about local agriculture.

These tours are key to a better understanding on what small agriculture really looks like in the Bitterroot Valley, she said.
The Muscatine County Zoning Commission will conduct a public hearing on Friday, September 2, 2016, starting at 9 a.m. in the Board of Supervisors Office, Muscatine County Administration Building, 414 E. 3rd St., Muscatine, Iowa to discuss the following:

Zoning Agenda Item #01. Kirk and Kim K. Latta, Record Owners, request approval to rezone their property from the present A-1 Agricultural District to the proposed R-1 Residential District. This property is located in Moscow Township, in the SE of Sec. 10-T78N-R2W, West of N. Isett Avenue, containing approximately 75 acres and is currently zoned A-1 Agricultural District.

Zoning Agenda Item #02. Dyrk S. and Rachel L. Huffman, Record Owners, request approval of the preliminary and final plat of the proposed one (1) lot agricultural subdivision, Pheasant Crossing, Lot 1, containing approximately 5.76 acres. This property is located in Seventy-Six Township, 1685 231st Street, North of 235th Street, in the NE of Sec. 6-T76N-R3W, containing approximately 68 acres, and is zoned A-1 Agricultural District.

Any interested party may attend said hearing to express their views or correspond with us in time for the hearing.

MUSCATINE COUNTY

ZONING COMMISSION

By Eric S. Furnas, Planning &

Zoning Administrator

Muscatine County Building ~

Zoning ~ Environmental Office

3610 Park Avenue West

Muscatine  IA  52761

Telephone 5632630482 FAX 5632884338
The Muscatine County Board of Adjustment will conduct a public hearing on Friday, September 2, 2016, starting at 9:30 a.m. in the Board of Supervisors Office, Muscatine County Administration Building, 414 E. 3rd St., Muscatine, Iowa, to discuss the following:

Case #16-09-01. An application has been filed by Kenneth J. or Providence Shoultz, Record Owners and David Roy Rickey Jr., Proposed Buyer. This property is located in Fruitland Township, 2620 Stewart Road, West of Stewart Road in Sec. 28-T76N-R2W NW, containing approximately 10.14 acres and is zoned R-1 Residential District. This request, if approved, would allow the Zoning Administrator to issue a Variance in order to allow the existing detached structure to remain in the front yard after a one family dwelling will be built behind it.
You are notified that there is now on file in the office of the Clerk of Court for Muscatine County, a petition to terminate parental rights in case number JVJV006076 which asks that your parental rights be terminated as it relates to your child born on the 19th day of April, 2014, in the State of Iowa. For further details contact the clerk's office. The petitioner's attorney is Joan M. Black, Assistant Muscatine County Attorney, Muscatine County Attorney's Office, 420 East Third Street, Muscatine, IA 52761, 563-263-0382.

You are notified that there will be a hearing on the petition to terminate parental rights before the Iowa Juvenile Court for Muscatine County, at the Courthouse in Muscatine, IA on the 22nd day of September, 2016, at 9:30 o'clock a.m.

You are further notified that unless on or before this time and date of hearing, you appear, or, you serve, and within a reasonable time thereafter file, a written special appearance, motion or answer, in the above-named Court at the Courthouse in Muscatine, IA, judgment by default will be rendered finding your parental rights to be terminated as demanded in the Petition.

You are further notified that you are entitled to be represented by an attorney. If you are unable to employ counsel, you may apply to have counsel appointed by filling out an affidavit of your financial situation. You should do this immediately.

Jeff Tollenaer

Clerk of the Juvenile Court

Muscatine County Courthouse

Muscatine, Iowa 52761

Dates of Publication:

August 20, 2016

August 27, 2016

September 3, 2016
DES MOINES, IOWA  Iowas sunflower fields will be busy places over the next few weeks as doves begin to gather for migration and rows of sunflowers get mowed in preparation for the opening of dove hunting season.

Iowas dove hunting season begins Sept. 1. A list of wildlife areas that have one or more managed dove plots on them is available online at www.iowadnr.gov/doves.

Todd Bogenschutz, upland wildlife research biologist for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, said hunters should scout those areas ahead of time to learn how many doves are using the area and their flight patterns, and check if the area requires non toxic shot.

Dove hunting has a social aspect to it and usually has a lot of action which makes it a great opportunity to include kids or novice hunters with the group, Bogenschutz said. When hunters are finished for the day, we would like to see them leave the area better than they found it by picking up all their shells and any other trash they find. We want to set a good example of taking care of our natural areas.

The set up is pretty simple  bring a bucket, lots of shells, set up where doves are feeding or flying through and sit still. Doves will be active early and late in the day.

Hilltops, wide open areas, areas with small grains like winter wheat, millet, oats, milo, or the pasture ground around watering ponds, silage fields or weedy areas are attractive to doves too, Bogenschutz said. And try to blend in to the background.

Shooting hours are one half hour before sunrise to sunset. The daily bag limit is 15 doves with a possession limit of 45. Hunters are required to have registered with the harvest information program (HIP) before hunting migratory game birds.

An estimated 11,400 hunters harvested 117,000 doves in 2015.
MUSCATINE, Iowa Little monsters dance and fun for all is found at "Monster in the Closet" rehearsals.

Muscatine students, from ages 5-16, will soon appear in "Monster in the Closet."

The play was chosen as the Pearl City Players' youth show, which they present every summer. Students from Kindergarten through 12th Grade are invited to participate.

On Wednesday, several cast members said learning how to project was one of the most difficult parts of the rehearsal process.

"To be really loud when you're speaking," said Hayden Evans, 11, was the most difficult lesson for her to learn.

The experience, she said, has made her more interested in theater, and she hopes to perform more in the future.

McKayla Jordanross, 13, said "Monster in the Closet" will be the first play she has been in, but she has always been interested in performance.

"It'll help me be louder, and working on getting into the character," she said.

Alexis Petkunas, 13, and Samantha Diehl, 12, said they also had to work on projection. Petkunas said her character, Tara, is a "tomboy."

"And it really helps to have a connection with your character," she said.

Mandy Moody said her sons, 10-year-old Nathaniel Honts and 13-year-old Kaden Honts, have been learning responsibility through the process.

"I think it's awesome, it's a great opportunity for kids. I hope that it sparks an interest or a passion for the future," she said.

Nathaniel Honts said he was excited when he learned what role he would be in the play.

"The cool thing about my name is my real name is Nathaniel and I play Nathan in the play," he said.

Projection was also a large focus for 11-year-old Cor Jom Palmer.

He said he learned to "be really really loud, and not to be like a whispering mouse."

Jaydon Stuart, 11, said he has enjoyed every part of the rehearsals.

"I learned how to memorize my lines easier too," he said.

Recent Muscatine High School Graduate Donovan Peniston is directing the show, and will be attending Muscatine Community College in the fall.

He said the opportunity to perform is important for children in the community.

"They get prepared for other plays and other theater programs when they go into middle school or high school, it just gives them a taste of what they can do now," he said.

Peniston, who hopes to pursue musical performance or another performance career, said directing the children's play has given him valuable experience, and taught him patience.

"I'm feeling very excited about this show, I feel like it's going well."
Important stuff you won't get from the liberal media! We do the surfing so you can be informed AND have a life!
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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 []
It is looking increasingly likely that computer hackers have in fact successfully attacked what had been the pinnacle of cybersecurity  the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA).

A few days ago, reports began emerging of claims by a hacking group called the Shadow Brokers that it had breached the network of, and accessed critical digital content from, computers used by the Equation Group.

This attracted more than the usual amount of attention because the Equation Group is widely believed to be a spying element of the NSA.

It is possible  perhaps even likely  that Shadow Brokers is a group of hackers linked to the Russian government.

Shadow Brokers posted online some examples of the data it said it had stolen, including scripts and instructions for breaking through firewall protection.

Cybersecurity analysts poring over that information are confident that the material is in fact from Equation Group.

This news raises a bigger question: What are the consequences if the Equation Group  and by extension the NSA  were actually hacked?

What has been breached?

The NSA holds a massive amount of data, including information on U.S. citizens and foreign nationals phone calls, social connections, emails, web-browsing sessions, online searches and other communications. How much data? NSAs Utah data center alone is reported to have a storage capacity of 5 zetabytes  1 trillion gigabytes.

However, judging from what has been made public of what has been stolen by Shadow Brokers, this massive data trove has not been breached.

But the NSAs other key digital asset is a collection of very sophisticated, often custom-designed, hacking, analysis and surveillance software.

The agency uses these tools to break into computer networks at home and abroad to spy on specific targets and the public at large.

The Shadow Brokers have claimed to have copies of this software and information on security vulnerabilities the NSA uses in its attacks, including instructions for breaking into computer networks.

If true, these would be of very high strategic value to someone seeking to defend against cyberattacks, or wanting to conduct their own.

What is the Equation Group?

The Equation Group has been closely watched since its existence was first revealed in an early 2015 report by security researchers at Kaspersky Lab, a Russian-based computer security company.

Cyberattacks using the Equation Groups signature methods have been carried out since 2001, using extremely specific customized techniques.

In addition to engineering the attacks to ensure a very low risk of detection, they maintain a close watch on their targets to ensure their surveillance does in fact go undetected.

And the number of targets they choose is very small  tens of thousands of computers as opposed to the hundreds of thousands or even tens of millions of machines hacked in other major attacks.

Equation Groups targets included government and diplomatic institutions, companies in diverse sectors as well as individuals in more than 30 countries.

Kaspersky Lab reports that China and Russia are among the countries most infected by the Equation Groups hacking tools.

Among the alleged targets were the Russian natural gas company Gazprom and the airline Aeroflot. Likewise, Chinas major mobile companies and universities were allegedly victimized by the NSA.

Who hacks whom?

Cyberweapons and their capabilities are becoming an increasing part of international relations, forming part of foreign policy decisions and even sparking what has been called a cyber arms race.

The Shadow Brokers attack may be a part of this global interplay. The U.S. government is considering economic sanctions against Russia, in response to the alleged cyberattack on the Democratic National Committee computers by two Russian intelligence agencies.

Those same attackers are believed to have been behind the 2015 cyberattacks on the White House, the State Department and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

If the material Shadow Brokers have stolen can link cyberattacks on Gazprom, Aeroflot and other Russian targets with the NSA, Russia can argue to the international community that the U.S. is not an innocent victim, as it claims to be. That could weaken support for its sanctions proposal.

Russia and China, among other adversaries, have used similar evidence in this way in the past.

Edward Snowdens revelation of the U.S. PRISM surveillance program, monitoring vast amounts of internet traffic, became an important turning point in China-U.S. cyberrelations.

Commenting on the NSAs alleged hacking of Chinas major mobile companies and universities, an editorial in Chinas state-run Xinhua News Agency noted: These, along with previous allegations, are clearly troubling signs. They demonstrate that the United States, which has long been trying to play innocent as a victim of cyberattacks, has turned out to be the biggest villain in our age.

In general, allegations and counterallegations have been persistent themes in Chinese-American interactions about cybercrimes and cybersecurity.

Chinas approach shifted toward more offensive strategies following Snowdens revelation of the PRISM surveillance program.

It is likely that this hack of cyberweapons may provide China and other U.S. adversaries with even more solid evidence to prove American involvement in cyberattacks against foreign targets.

Cyberattack tools now more widely available

There are other dangers too. Hackers now have access to extremely sophisticated tools and information to launch cyberattacks against military, political and economic targets worldwide. The NSA hack thus may lead to further insecurity of cyberspace.

The attack is also further proof of the cybersecurity industrys axiom about the highly asymmetric probabilities of successful attack and successful defense: Attackers need to succeed only once; defenders have to be perfect every time.

As sophisticated as NSAs highly secure network is, the agency cannot ever fully protect itself from cyberattackers. Either these attackers have already gotten in, or some other group will be the first to do so in the future.

Actors with fewer financial and technical resources can compromise high-value targets. What will come of this attack remains to be seen, but the potential for profound and wide-ranging, even global, effects is clear.

Nir Kshetri, Professor of Management, University of North Carolina  Greensboro

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

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CALISTOGA  At 1,000 pounds Tiny wasnt so tiny, but she will be missed in a big way.

Tiny was more than just a Jersey cow roaming the pastures at Mountain Home Ranch. To owners John and Suzanne Fouts, Tiny was a member of their family, one of their beloved pets.

Its been really hard, said Suzanne Fouts of the loss of Tiny. The pain of losing her runs very deep. Weve lost a lot of animals. This is harder.

A regular guest of Mountain Home Ranch standing nearby said, Its heartbreaking. We all loved her.

When John and Suzanne noticed Tiny hadnt come home for dinner the night of Monday, Aug. 1, they started looking for her on their 340-acre ranch that sits at the end of Mountain Ranch Road off Petrified Forest Road.

She had gone off on her own, something very out of character, Suzanne Fouts said, and they found her down a steep ravine about 100 yards below from where she had fallen.

Herd animals will wander away from their herd when its their time to go, Fouts said. And she believes that is what Tiny was doing.

With over a dozen firefighters and animal rescue people helping us throughout the night, we were able to get her to a safe place, but she was just too weak, so we did the hardest thing that all good parents do, and put her out of her suffering. Tiny was loved by so many people and it seemed fitting to have so many people around her, fighting for her life, Fouts said.

At 18, Tiny was considered quite old, and the couple had her since she was just a calf.

Thats like being 108 for you and me. She was a very, very elderly lady, said Julie Atwood, founder of Halter Project. She just decided she was going to end her life in one big adventure  it was her big swan song.

Halter Project provides information, resources and training for horse and livestock emergencies and is based at Atwoods Atwood Ranch in Glen Ellen.

Firefighters were able to get Tiny to a makeshift ledge about two-thirds of the way back up the hill. They had essentially cut a pad into the side of the hill and made a retaining wall of sorts and got Tiny to that location, Atwood said.

John Fouts was able to get down to Tiny and kept her comfortable with food and water.

John sat with her about three hours, Suzanne Fouts said. It was clear she was in pain.

Her pain was not caused by broken bones or internal injuries, Atwood said, but by being down for too long.

Lactic acid starts building up in their limbs and paralyzes them, she said. Tinys advanced age worked against her as well.

Tiny was loved by not only the Fouts, but also the guests they hosted at their bed-and-breakfast. Fouts said they received cards, flowers and gifts from people when news of Tinys death spread. But that wasnt really unusual.

Tiny would get fan mail, Fouts said.

One guest said her daughter received a stuffed cow toy for her seventh birthday and promptly named it Tiny. Another guest sent a note addressed to Suzanne and John and Tiny and Tippy and Tyche, et al. Thank you! Wish we could have stayed longer. Look forward to returning soon.

And another said their children cry when we leave. Can you please send us a picture card of Tiny when you can?

Tiny came to the Fouts family more than 18 years ago as a small calf who was still being bottle fed. A dear friends son, who is the Fouts godson, received Tiny as a gift at Easter. Tiny  who was abandoned in a pasture  is believed to have had a twin that didnt make it.

Fouts laughed when the friend told her about the gift and said, You live in a condo in Rohnert Park; where are you going to keep it?

That was why the friend was calling, she said.

Tiny won the hearts of all who came to the ranch, Fouts said.

The bed-and-breakfast is also used as a retreat center and is visited by many painting groups. Over the years, several painters have used Tiny as a model, with one artist winning a Best of Show award at the Sacramento State Fair for her painting of Tiny.

The ranch used to be used as a polling place during elections, Fouts said, and Tiny would come greet the neighbors as they came to place their votes. She was always so curious and loved people.

Tiny loved all animals that came to live with her, too, Fouts said. The Foutses, who take a cue from the story of Noahs Ark, keep their critters in at least pairs. Tiny had a companion cow, Tippy, a much larger bull now, who was accepted almost immediately by Tiny.

The first night that Tippy arrived about seven years ago the cows were put in separate stables. Tippy was still being bottle fed at the time and Tyche, one of the Foutses dogs, spent a lot of time licking and fluffing Tippy. The next day, they brought Tippy to the gate that separated the two cows.

Tiny reached through and started licking him, so we put them together. She, from that point on, took over all his grooming needs, Fouts said.

The close relationship between the two cows continued; they were inseparable.

They took turns standing over one another, licking each other. She did that with all the new animals we brought home, the sheep, the goats, she was just a very loving soul, she said.

Tinys rescue was a team effort, Atwood said, with Mountain Volunteer Fire Department arriving on the scene first. They used their rope skills to secure Tiny and the scene, but were unable to retrieve Tiny from her dangerous spot. Atwood, who, because of her contacts and training is often one of the first in the region called for large animal rescues, received a call around midnight.

Firefighters from Glen Ellen Fire Department and Kenwood Volunteer Fire Department, who have skills and training in large animal rescue as well as possess the rescue equipment necessary for an animal the size of Tiny, were able to move her. While the fire departments jointly own the equipment, it is stored at Atwood Ranch, where the Halter Project operates.

Atwood will be flying to Washington, D.C., next month to accept a national individual and community preparedness award from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for the work that the Halter Project does, she said.

It is because our project literally started in our backyard and now it has spread. It has now grown from just a neighborhood training project to a Bay Area Northern California project, she said.

Atwood said two Calistoga firefighters participated in a February training with Halter, and was so impressed with them and their enthusiasm and is hoping the rest of the department gets trained.

She encourages anyone interested in helping more firefighters to be able to help in large animal technical rescues to donate to the local firefighters association funds, such as Calistoga Firefighters Association so that they can purchase the equipment needed during emergencies.

Donations to CFA can be made to P.O. Box 786, Calistoga, 94515.
ST. HELENA  An environmental advocate who filed a claim against the city of St. Helena in May has now sued the city for allegedly failing to bypass enough water into Bell Creek.

According to a lawsuit filed Aug. 10 in Napa County Superior Court by Water Audit California, the city has violated state regulatory limits on the diversion of water into Bell Canyon Reservoir, one of the citys primary water sources, and failed to install state-mandated equipment to monitor water flows at Bell Canyon dam.

Water Audit California is a public benefit corporation affiliated with Grant Reynolds, a San Diego man who made similar allegations against the city of Calistoga, which spent years fighting Reynolds in court at great expense.

The suit against the city of St. Helena is signed by Reynolds, who describes himself as a director of Water Audit. The plaintiff is represented by attorney William McKinnon, who worked with Reynolds on some of the Calistoga litigation.

The St. Helena City Council discussed the suit in closed session a week ago. The City is evaluating the lawsuit and will respond in due course, said Mayor Alan Galbraith.

The suit claims that the citys failure to bypass enough water into the creek contributed to the decline of steelhead, which havent been spotted in the creek downstream of Bell Canyon Dam since before 1990.

The suit seeks a judgment forcing the city to stop diverting water between April 16 and Nov. 14, post online the dams daily operational data, install flow monitoring equipment by Nov. 1, meet certain interim bypass requirements pending the results of a study determining the amount of water that must be bypassed to support fish, and pay a court-appointed water master to monitor dam operations for five years.

The suit does not request monetary damages, but it does seek reimbursement for the plaintiffs legal expenses.

In addition to violating the citys regulatory permit, the operation of the dam also violates the public trust doctrine, which requires sufficient bypass to support fish, the suit alleges.

In June, Reynolds told the Star hes a fly fisherman with a passion for fish. He said Water Audit was formed to ensure that dams throughout California are operated legally.

What we want to do is protect the environment, and one of the ways to do that is to make people, including municipal corporations, obey the law as it pertains to the environment, Reynolds said at the time.

The legal filing does not specify a court date.
Its obvious after seeing the mountain of comments recently sent in that the proposed new General Plan for St. Helena has issues.

The General Plan is very important for all of us because it is the document that determines how St. Helena will change in the next 30 years. Most of us regular citizens dont really know what is in the proposed General Plan because for the last year, the city staff has been changing it without doing it at public meetings or on TV.

Im sure they mean well and think their changes are good ones, but they dont live in St. Helena, and we are the ones who will have to live with what they put into our General Plan and whatever it does to our hometown.

We've recently seen errors by employees that have cost us serious financial problems, but they don't have to share in the impact with us because they live and work someplace else now.

I really appreciate the residents that did their homework and are asking these serious questions about a 30-year future plan for our community. Now its time for our elected officials to make sure those questions are answered thoroughly for all our sakes.

Jessica Elmhurst

St. Helena

Editors Note: On Aug. 3, the St. Helena Planning Commission held a study session on the April 2016 General Plan to discuss changes to the document. It was the sixth study session to review the citys General Plan. The others were held April 19, May 17, June 7, June 21 and July 19. At the Aug. 3 meeting, Planning Director Noah Housh said it is his goal to complete the General Plan and its Environmental Impact Report in time for a Sept. 20 review for the Planning Commission.
EU-Armenia Joint Committee on Research and Innovation first meeting to be held in November

Provincial governor of Armenias Gegharkunik: EU monitoring mission already started

US accuses Russia of disinformation regarding Washington intentions towards Armenia, Azerbaijan

Mexico fully legalizes gay marriage

Newspaper: Azerbaijan not inclined to sign anything with Armenia in Russias Sochi

Armenia ruling party convening closed convention

Italian prime minister demands that she be addressed as prime minister in masculine form

Pentagon to send Ukraine new aid package worth $275 million

Europe will ban sale of one type of car

European Commission head announces new aid and investments for Serbia

Biden calls Putin's rhetoric on nuclear weapons 'dangerous'

Lukashenko on Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict: What are you fighting for in these mountains, where not even goats walk?

Swedish authorities offer to create united northern army

Lukashenko: Conflict issue between Armenia and Azerbaijan must be resolved now - with Ilham Aliyev

Lukashenko about situation on Armenian-Azerbaijani border: Where are we racing horses, where are we rushing to?

Pashinyan: Armenia-Diaspora relations undergo profound substantive changes

Lukashenko to Pashinyan: Sit down with Aliyev and make a decision, if you don't make it today, it will be worse

Bulgarian interim government urges to speed up transition to euro zone

President of Karabakh: It is necessary to unite all national potential and efforts

IMF: China's sharp and uncharacteristic economic slowdown will stall growth in Asia by the end of 2023

Iran: Riots in country were planned by the intelligence services of the USA, England, Israel and the KSA

Steinmeier: Ukraine war caused 'epochal break' in Germany's relations with Russia

Gas prices in Europe remain high in coming years

Ararat Mirzoyan and Toivo Klaar stress importance of hosting EU civilian mission in Armenia

Armenia's ambassador-at-large: Daily false propaganda can't cover up Azerbaijani war crimes

Taiwan MFA outraged by Putin's speech on his status and Pelosi's visit

Armenia gives no response to peace treaty proposals, Bayramov says

Netanyahu expects return to power after 5th Israeli election in 4 years

Armenian gravestone found in Trabzon, Turkey neighborhood

Pashinyan: CSTO Secretary General's report mainly reflects existing realities

Azerbaijan talks possible deliveries of its gas to international Turkish hub

CSTO leaders to meet in late November: Situation on Armenian-Azerbaijani border will be discussed

Dollar, euro continue falling in Armenia

Pelosi's house attacked, her husband injured

Russias Putin to have private talks with Armenias Pashinyan, Azerbaijans Aliyev

Mher Grigoryan: CIS needs a new scientific and technical agreement

Pentagon strategy doesn't rule out use of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear threats

French National Assembly plans to pass resolution proposing certain sanctions against Azerbaijan

Mher Grigoryan: There are no other corridors in the trilateral statement other than Lachin's

Konstantin Zatulin: Russia should have made maximum efforts so that there would be no war in Karabakh

The Hill: The American people deserve to know how the war in Ukraine will end

Sochi to host trilateral talks of Russian, Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders on October 31

Poland receives first Turkish drones

Hungarian government may extend price limits on fuel and some basic foodstuffs

Armenias Simonyan attends meeting of heads of EEU countries parliaments

Polish general appointed as head of EU mission to train Ukrainian troops

Russia MP: Karabakh status decision is in fact its Armenians safety guarantee

Zatulin: West seeks to push Russia out of negotiation process at any cost

Legislature head proposes to organize, under CIS auspices, return of Armenians detained in Azerbaijan

Iran prevents bomb explosion in Shiraz crowded street

Iraqi parliament expresses vote of confidence in new cabinet

France lawmakers visit Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan

Putin: Moscow is doing everything possible to normalize relations between Yerevan and Baku

Annual shopping festival kicks off in Dubai on December 15

Lazarevsky Club: Minute of silence held in memory of fallen Russian and Armenian soldiers

Bayramov and US Assistant Secretary of State discuss Yerevan-Baku relations

Expansion of cooperation with Interpol is important, Armenia PM says

Armenia defense minister briefs Austria envoy on situation due to recent Azerbaijan military aggression (PHOTOS)

Australia can't rule out energy price caps

Armenia parliament speaker: Use, threat of force undermine processes aimed at establishing peace

Garo Paylan is in Yerevan

Barack Obama tries to help Democrats win midterm elections

Azerbaijan president, Russia first deputy PM discuss North-South transport corridor project

PM Pashinyan receives France-Armenia friendship group delegation from French parliament

Taiwan urges China to start talking

Armen Grigoryan and Toivo Klaar discuss Armenian-Azerbaijani negotiation process

Matviyenko: Russia will continue mediation for signing Armenia-Azerbaijan peace treaty

Politico: Scholz and Macron threaten U.S. trade retaliation

CIS premiers sign several agreements at Kazakhstan meeting

Konstantin Zatulin: Nagorno-Karabakh peoples right to self-determination must be respected

Armenia legislature head: Policy of threats, coercion is unacceptable to us

U.S. must strengthen its defense against growing threats from both China, Russia

Karabakh ex-President: Necessary to rule out mistakes, miscalculations which will have irreversible consequences

EU reaches agreement to ban new cars with internal combustion engine by 2035

Benny Gantz: Future of Israel and Turkey is promising

EU Special Representative for South Caucasus arrives in Armenia

Lazarevsky Club meeting underway in Yerevan, Moscow

Yellen sees no sign of recession in U.S. economy in near future

Cannes palm trees promenade named after Charles Aznavour

Pashinyan: Armenia agrees to work on basis of main principles proposed by Russia

CIS prime ministers meeting kicks off in Kazakhstan

Newspaper: Karabakh people to make appeal to Armenia authorities

Viking swords embedded in mound 1,200 years ago discovered in Sweden

Residents of Moldova asked not to go out into street in dark

Bloomberg reports fuel shortages in some parts of Europe

British schoolboy writes book that became bestseller

Lebanon, Israel sign deal on maritime border demarcation

Spanish prime minister twice mistakes Kenya for Senegal during his speech

Peskov: CSTO meeting to be held before Armenia-Azerbaijan-Russia summit

Putin says he is ready to negotiate with Ukraine

Putin compares Indian Prime Minister Modi to icebreaker

Putin warns Seoul about risk of ruining relations with Russia by supplying weapons to Ukraine

Interpol Secretary General visits Armenia

Putin: Russia will not abandon the historical legacy of the USSR and the Russian Tsarist Empire

Putin sees no point in nuclear strike on Ukraine

Olaf Scholz says solution can be found to curb speculative spikes in gas prices

Putin calls Russians and Ukrainians one people who find themselves in different states

Putin: We proposed Armenia give 5 districts

Putin: Washington version provides for recognition of Azerbaijan's sovereignty over whole Karabakh

Putin calls Erdogan consistent and reliable partner, although not easy one
21:33

The Indian government, with the help of internet service providers, and presumably under directives of court, has banned thousands of websites and URLs in the last five odd years.





But until now if you somehow visited these "blocked URLs" all was fine.





However, now if you try to visit such URLs and view the information, you may get three-year jail sentence as well as invite a fine of Rs 3 lakh.





This is just for viewing a torrent file, or downloading a file from a host that may have been banned in India, or even for viewing an image on a file host like Imagebam.





You don't have to download a torrent file, and then the actual videos or other files, which might have copyright.





Just accessing information under a blocked URL will land you in jail and leave your bank account poorer by Rs 3 lakh.





Read more HERE




The requested page is currently unavailable on this server.

Back to [RTHK News Homepage]
Barrett boarded a Pakistan International Airlines flight to New York from Lahore airport on Saturday, a spokesperson for the national carrier said.

He was arrested on August 6 this year by law enforcement personnel at a guest house in Islamabad.

Barrett came to Pakistan despite being deported to the US and blacklisted from the country in 2011, Dawn online reported.

After being imprisoned on August 13 under the Foreigners Act, Barrett was released from Adiala prison in Islamabad on Friday night and transported to Lahore for deportation, sources said.

He said that he came back to Pakistan to explore the possibility of permanently moving here.

He was arrested in 2011 while taking photographs of sensitive installations in Islamabad, but was asked to leave the country after being cleared of all charges against him by the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

During his earlier stay in the country he married a Pakistani woman. The couple has two children.

--IANS py/vm

( 195 Words)

2016-08-20-13:42:00 (IANS)
The group claimed that the slain individuals were religious clerics, Khaama Press reported on Saturday.

According to Taliban group spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid, at least three clerics were killed in the past few days in different parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

They were identified as Mawlavi Hazrat Sahib, Mohammad Hanafi and Qari Syed Murad.

Calling the killing of the individuals as "cowardly", Mujahid said they were refugees and called on Pakistani authorities to ensure the safety of clerics in the country.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the killings.

This was not the first time that individuals with specific links to the Taliban group have been killed in Pakistan.

This comes as Afghan officials said the Taliban group leadership as well as the notorious Haqqani terrorist network leaderships were based in Peshawar and Quetta cities.

The Afghan officials have long been criticising Pakistan for not acting against the leadership councils of the Afghan militants on its soil which they use to plan and coordinate attacks in Afghanistan.

--IANS py/bg

( 197 Words)

2016-08-20-18:36:00 (IANS)
It's a 17-storey building on one of Hong Kong's busiest streets that brings together under one roof the business of commerce and hospitality as also citizens from all the habitable continents of the world. Welcome to the world of Chungking Mansions. Located at Nathan Road, the ever-busy Tsim Sha Tsui shopping district on Kowloon Island, the Chungking Mansions building is right in the middle of high-end and mid-range shopping areas. But that is where the comparison ends. The building, completed in 1961, is no great shakes either from the outside or inside but occupies a prominent place in the centre of Kowloon's commercially busy Golden Mile. Big time addresses on and around the street include the majestic and historic high-end Peninsula Hotel, the I-Square Mall and Sheraton Hotel. As one approaches its entrance, one can straightaway feel the difference. Scores of young men, mostly Indians and Pakistanis, armed with leaflets of budget hotels and guesthouses and of eating joints virtually hit you with offers for rooms and food the moment you give the slightest inkling that you are an outsider or a tourist. Inside the building is a world of trade, food, accommodation vying with each other to attract clients amidst a near chaotic and stinky atmosphere, glitzy LED lights breaking the otherwise virtually dark interiors bereft of any natural lighting and even more sales guys and shop owners trying to woo customers. At the very entrance of the building, there are several Forex (foreign exchange) shops which easily offer the best exchange rates in Hong Kong for most currencies in the world. For most part of the day, the very entrance of the building is swarming with people from various nationalities that are sending or receiving money or simply getting it changed. "It is always a busy day here. Since the best rates are offered here, many people come here to change currency or transfer money," Karam, an executive at a leading Forex company who hails from Punjab's Jalandhar city, told IANS. At any given point of time, one can easily spot Indians, Pakistanis, Chinese, Nepalese, Filipinos, Koreans, Sri Lankans, Bangladeshis, budget travellers from Europe and the United States, people from the African continent, Australians and many other nationalities under the same roof. It is believed that people from nearly 130 nationalities visit the building annually; 50-60 nationalities can be found in the building on any given day. A lot of trading -- from electronic goods and mobiles to textiles to toys -- happens here. Chungking Mansions is quite famous for the cheapest accommodation anywhere in Hong Kong. There are scores of low-budget hotels and guest houses on various floors. From the relatively clean ones to the smelly, cramped and window-less -- rooms are available to suit the budget of all kinds of travellers. Indian and Pakistani curry restaurants are the hot favourites inside this building even though food from other countries and cultures, including the Middle east and Africa, is also available. "At many shops, one can easily see samosas, jalebis, pakodas, biryanis, vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes, packaged Indian snacks, several local brands from India and much more. It is quite a delight to see all these things being sold openly in a foreign land. Over here, one can hardly miss the atmosphere of a normal India or Pakistani city," tourist Harish Goyal said. "A lot of people who are staying in hotels in other parts of Hong Kong come here for Indian food. Also, the prices are very competitive here," Balli Singh, who owns two restaurants on the building's first floor, told IANS. Besides the main commercial centre, Chungking Mansions also houses two malls -- the Cke Shopping Mall and Wood House. In his book, "Ghetto at the Center of the World", Gordon Mathews, an anthropologist at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), gives a colourful and factual depiction of Chungking Mansions and what all -- legal and illegal -- goes on inside. The Hong Kong Police keep a close watch on activities inside the building to curb illegal activities like drugs' unauthorized trading, flesh trade and illegal money. The building, which has been featured in films and by National Geographic, was named the "Best Example of Globalization in Action" by a leading international magazine some years back. (Jaideep Sarin can be contacted at jaideep.s@ians.in) --IANS js/vm/ky/vm/ky/tb ( 731 Words) 2016-08-20-11:12:01 (IANS)
North Eastern Electric Power Corporation Limited (NEEPCO), a state run 'Mini Ratna' under the Ministry of Power claimed that it facing a loss of Rs 40 lakh daily since August 2013 as ONGC (Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd) has failed to supply the committed gas to its 101 Megawatt power project at Monarchak in Tripura set up at a cost of more than Rs 1000 crores. Samar Ranjan Biswas, Head of the Monarchak project said, "Even after completion of the project of 100 MW size, and in all respect the project was completed in August 2013 unfortunately ONGC could not give us gas and it has remained unutilized. We had generated power only for few months and that too during non-operational of one unit of Palatana plant (power plant of ONGC) they could have given us the gas. After that it was again suspended and till now it is under suspension." According to officials initially in the year 2001, NEEPCO had a plan to set up a gas based 500 MW combined cycle power plant and with the approval and allocation of 2 MMSCUMD (Million Metric Standard Cubic Meter Per Day) of Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MOP and NG). But in 2003 the gas allocation for the project was reduced to half and accordingly NEEPCO established all infrastructure for a 280 MW power plant. Meantime, ONGC during the end of 2005 had come with proposed for setting up its first power plant of 750 MW at Palatana in South Tripura and on view of which the MOP conveyed to NEEPCO to abandon its 280 MW Monarchak project. However, under the pursuance of the government of Tripura and NEEPCO by the end of 2007 again MOP&NG had asked ONGC to provide gas but this time only 0.5 MMSCUMD (i.e, one fourth what was committed) and according again the DPR for the project was changed to 101 MW and got approval from the CEA (Central Electricity Authority of India). In July 2010 the Project Investment Board (PIB) approved the project followed by the approval for setting up of the project by Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), then headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in February 2011. In this delay the sanctioned project cost of Rs 623.44 crores after the revise had almost doubled and gone up to Rs 1007.57 crores. In spite of all these hurdles including the transportation of the over dimensional cargo (ODC) of the turbines and its parts in record 36 months and by the mid of 2013, NEEPCO completed the work of the gas turbine followed by the steam turbine and intimated about its readiness to the MOP&NG. Finally it became a 101 MW project and of which 63 MW would be generated by gas turbine while 38 MW by steam turbines. Accordingly ONGC on intermittent basis and as per availability first supplied gas in February 2015 though it failed to supply full contracted quantity and expressing its inability assured to supply by March 2016. Later only for a short period of two months (from 24 December 2015 to 28 February 2016) ONGC continuously supplied 0.5 MMS gas and during which both the gas and steam turbine operated, but now again ONGC has intimated that only by December 2016 it will be able to supply gas to the Monarchak project. The non supply of gas is a big loss for the NEEPCO and now official say that they are not sure about the fate of the project as ONGC has been giving date after date for supplying gas and without which the entire investment will be of no use. "We do not know what will happen to the plant, it is definitely a loss, a loss to the corporation and the nation. However, we have taken up the matter with the government of India and they have taken it with ONGC and others. Now we have got a commitment form the Ministry of Petroleum that gas will be resumed by December 2016 and in that case I think that we will be on stream with effect from January 2017. Daily loss is around Rs 40 to 45 lakhs and so yearly we shall have a loss of Rs 100 crore. Investment is Rs 1000 crore and we have a loan from Stat Bank of Singapore," informed the Head of the Monarchak project. Along with this there are additional losses as the turbines and machineries which have already been used shall also gradually get rusted without use beside the staff and engineers those engaged with the project getting demoralized. N Bhuiya, a senior manager, said, "See we are losing around 40 lakhs a month and not only losing money but now we people - the engineers who are posted here are becoming ideal and that is also loss of your manpower and resource. So that way we are losing, revenue wise we are losing and see this is an internal combustion gas turbine and when already firing has taken place inside the gas turbine and definitely if it is a continuously process it is good. When we stop for eight to nine months again the whole process we have to start because from cleaning the gas pipeline, cleaning the steam turbine, pipelines whole activity again we have to do. So this is a loss in whole all the way, in terms of revenue, manpower and man resource." The ambitious combined cycle electric power project of NEEPCO at Monarchak is all ready but ONGC has again expressed inability to supply gas till the end of this year. Now only time will say if NEEPCO shall be able to start its more than Rs 1000 crores project or shall have to bear the loss, a loss to the entire nation especially when India is starving for power and without which the wheel of development cannot run. (ANI)
Police arrested 113 robbers, belonged to nine states while they were moving suspiciously during Krishna Pushkaram at various places in the city. Police Commissioner Goutham Sawang said that 113 robbers who were wandering at various bathing ghats were taken into custody. The arrested robbers belonged to 20 different gangs and were committing crimes at crowed places at the ongoing Krishna Pushkaram. The arrested criminals belonged to UP, Orissa, MP, West Bengal, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Some of the arrested criminals were experts in snatching chains from women and some of them sprinkle chemicals and rob the victims, Mr Sawang said.UNI DP CS 2000 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0275-894946.Xml
Mr. Sirisena will arrive Tirumala tonight.

A communique from the state government said, the President is expected to reach the hill shrine at 2000 hours . After an overnight stay, he and his entourage will take part in the Suprabhata Seva.

In view of Mr.Sirisena's visit, the Chittoor district police is making foolproof security arrangements in the temple town.UNI KNR CS 0930

-- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0275-895398.Xml
President Pranab Mukherjee today led the nation in paying tributes to former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on his birth anniversary.. The President, along with Vice President Hamid Ansari, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, paid floral tributes to the former Prime Minister at Vir Bhumi this morning.Several Congress leaders, including DPCC chief Ajay Maken also paid their tributes.In a tweet on this occasion, Rahul said,'' Remembering Rajivji today. His vision, his values & his deep commitment to the people remain our inspiration.''UNI AR ADG 0950 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0431-895400.Xml
Police identified the deceased as Siluvamma. She sustained serious injuries and died on the way to hospital.

The mishap occurred at around 2100 hrs when she went to the sea front to use a toilet.

Her son Selvaraj, who came to the rescue of his mother, was also attacked by dogs numbering around 50. He escaped by jumping into the sea.

Within an hour, another woman, 52-year-old Daisy was attacked by a group of stray dogs in a nearby locality. She was rushed to the Medical College Hospital for treatment.

Hospital sources said her condition was stable. She sustained deep injuries on her hands and legs.

Local people alleged that there was no effort from the part of the authorities to contain stray dog menace in the region.UNI CR CS 1249

-- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0324-895592.Xml
The incident took place around 2100 hrs last night at Samosa chowk area of Shahabad Dairy in outer Delhi. The victim, identified as Anand, was chasing three unidentified miscreants in Industrial Area, sector-5 area when he was shot at, the sources said.

Anand was found critically injured following which he was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he was declared brought dead.

Police have registered a case under various sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC) and further investigation is on to nab the accused. UNI SM SV ADG 1330

-- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0271-895634.Xml
Expressing dismay over the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) warning that more fatalities could take place in restive Jammu and Kashmir if the use of pellet guns are banned, the Congress Party on Saturday said in a democracy a more humane approach is the need of the hour. Objecting to the CRPF counsel's statement before the Jammu and Kashmir High Court, Congress spokesperson Tom Vadakkan told ANI that this seemed to be is a "threat to the high court" as also a "denial of the democratic right" to people to protest in the state. Vadakkan said it was not right on the part of CRPF counsel to say, "If you don't permit pellets, we'll fire bullets." "What kind of democracy we are living in? Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India and we are dealing with civilians," he added. Vadakkan said the nations's paramilitary forces must be restrained. "Who decides on who will use pellets or bullets? Is it the civilian authorities or CRPF commandos, open fire with bullets? Shocking!" he added. Responding to former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah's likely meeting with President Pranab Mukherjee today, Vadakkan said, "We all across the country: the ruling party, the PDP, the opposition must join hands for the healing touch, because this is the time we have to show the human side. We are dealing with civilian society, and not all of them are terrorists. They are Indian citizens. Let us deal with them appropriately." "The healing touch is what is required and the Central government must heal," he added. The counsel for the paramilitary force submitted an affidavit to the high court in response to a PIL filed before the same court, seeking a ban on the use of pellet guns as a means for crowd control in the valley, which has been rocked by violent protests since the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in an encounter with security forces on July 8. The CRPF said pellet guns were introduced in 2010 and were an accepted weapon of riot control. It said that following standard operating procedures while dealing with a dynamic law and order problem is difficult in case of moving, bending and running target. The CRPF said that during the recent unrest in Kashmir, it fired around 3,500 pellet cartridges.(ANI)
"Prime Minister Modi described Russia as a time-tested and reliable friend and reaffirmed the shared commitment with President (Vladimir) Putin to expand, strengthen and deepen bilateral engagement across all domains," a statement issued by the Prime Minister's Office said.

"He recalled his recent meeting with President Putin in Tashkent in June and via video-link for dedication of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant Unit 1 at the beginning of this month," it stated.

On his part, Rozogin conveyed Putin's greetings to Modi and briefed him on the progress in ongoing projects between India and Russia.

Modi said that India was eagerly awaiting Putin's visit to India later this year.

--IANS ab/ksk/vm

( 144 Words)

2016-08-20-15:02:00 (IANS)
Gangster-turned-politician Arun Gawli has moved the high court here seeking parole citing his 'wive's critical illness' that requires surgery, sources said here today.According to sources, Gawli had applied for a month-long parole to be present during his wive's surgery and recovery. But Nagpur divisional commissioner rejected his application on August 5 saying that the Dagdi Chawl-based gangster's return to Mumbai might threaten law and order situation in the area. Gawli then challenged this decision in high court through his counsel . To this, the Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court yesterday issued notices to the concerned authorities and were told to file replies by September 7. The case was listed before a division bench of Justice Bhushan Dharmadhikari and Justice Atul Chandurkar.Gawli was earlier on parole in April and moved another application in just over three months.Gawli is lodged in Nagpur Central Jail. He was convicted for the murder of Shiv Sena MLA Kamalakar Jamsandekar and awarded life imprisonment by a sessions court in Mumbai on August 3, 2012 along with 11 others. UNI PK ADG 1405 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0431-895675.Xml
A private helicopter had to make an emergency landing due to a technical snag in the Niwari area of Ghaziabad, police sources said. According to police sources, the incident took place when four people were travelling in the chopper from Delhi to Agra. The chopper had to make an emergency landing in the farm of Niwari area which led to chaos among the farmers working in the field. The sources said the chopper made an emergency landing due to a technical slag. No one was reported to be injured in the incident. Passers by immediately rushed to the helicopter to see if anyone was injured. Further investigation is on. UNI SM SW AE 1658 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0271-895924.Xml
Peoples Welfare Front (PWF) volunteers today held a demonstration in front of the main gate of Pondicherry Central University on the students council magazine issue. It may be noted that the ABVP volunteers and BJP had burnt the magazine released by the students council claiming that it contains anti-national views,which created problems in the university. However, finally the university permitted the distribution of the banned magazine. The PWF intervened and held talks with the Vice-Chancellor by reiterating that the freedom of speech and expression should not be suppressed. The PWF which had already announced that they would organize an agitation to press for unity among the students, gathered in front of the main gate and held a demonstration where they raised slogans not to ban the magazine, freedom of expression be protected in the university and severe action be initiated against those who instigate hatred among the students. CPI state secretary R Viswanathan led the demonstration.UNI PAB CS 1617 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0275-895884.Xml
The Prime Minister's remarks came during his meeting with Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Dmitry Rogozin, who called on him at his RCR residence.

Mr Rogozin conveyed to Mr Modi Russian President Vladimir Putin's greetings and briefed him on the progress in ongoing projects between India and Russia.

"Prime Minister described Russia as a time-tested and reliable friend and reaffirmed the shared commitment with President Putin to expand, strengthen and deepen bilateral engagement across all domains,'' an official statement here said.

He recalled his recent meeting with Mr Putin in Tashkent in June and via video-link for dedication of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant-1 at the beginning of this month.

The Prime Minister said India is eagerly awaiting Mr Putin's visit to India.UNI NAZ SW AE 1703

-- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0105-895952.Xml